In some of the towns, girls, 14 years old, were seen going to the river for water, in a state of complete nudity; and males of all ages were seen mixed together in groupes, in the same state, without any sense of shame. They anoint their bodies with olive oil, which prevents the sun from blistering the skin. There are no stools or chairs for sitting upon in Egypt; their common way of sitting is upon the hams of their legs, in which posture they will remain for hours, apparently as much at their ease as a European upon a chair; they eat their meals in a reclining posture, but make no use of knives, forks or spoons; when they sup they literally "dip their hand in the dish,"[17] and feed themselves with their fingers in place of spoons. The above customs were practised in the time of Christ, and still exists through the east. There are numbers of mosques, or Mahomedan churches, in the towns. They have, in general, a particular kind of spires, called minarets, some of which are very lofty: they are in shape at the top like an onion, but have no weathercocks, nor clocks, nor bells; of which latter, the Mahomedan religion prohibits the use. The minarets have all one or more balustrades round them, into which a man ascends at the end of every watch, and walks round, calling the people to prayers with as loud a voice as he possibly can. In Egypt it is commonly a blind man who performs this office. The uninterrupted sunshine at Cairo, afforded the French the means of partly supplying the want of clocks and bells, by ascertaining exactly when it was twelve o'clock. They mounted one of the guns in the citadel upon a peculiar construction, and put some fine brass work at the breech, in which was a burning glass just over the touch hole; by which the rays of the sun, the instant he reached the meridian, kindled the powder and fired the gun. This is a proof that clouds and rain are seldom seen at Cairo; otherwise the firing of the gun could not have been depended on. When the French left the citadel, the Turks got possession of it; and some of them broke and stole the brass work of this gun, supposing the polished metal to be gold. The heat of the country was very oppressive; and the army that went to Cairo suffered much from it during their march. The perspiration came through their clothes, and wetted their buff belts opposite the back, just as if they had been soaked in water.