It often happens that another operation accompanies that of excision, which is not, like the latter, practised in Egypt, viz. producing an artificial impediment to the vagina, with a view to prevent coition. This happens most frequently in the case of slaves, whose value would be diminished by impregnation, or even by the necessary result of coition, though unaccompanied by conception. But it is also adopted towards girls who are free; the impulse being too strong to be counteracted by any less firm impediment. This operation, like the former, is performed at all ages from eight to sixteen, but commonly from eleven to twelve; nor are they who undergo it always virgins. In some the parts are more easily formed to cohere than in others. There are cases in which the barrier becomes so firm, that the embrace cannot be received but by the previous application of a sharp instrument[54]. Among some tribes of blacks, there exists a practice of piercing the skin in certain forms by way of ornament.—Each of the punctures leaves an indelible scar, as distinctive as colour, which is not used. This practice, which is of the same description as that of some of the South-sea islands, is used on the face, breast, loins, &c. The blacks who are castrated for the use of Kahira or Constantinople, undergo that operation in the Upper Egypt, before their arrival at the former; some families, there resident, having the hereditary exercise of this antient practice. The numbers which undergo it are not very considerable, and it is fatal only to a very small proportion of them. Those slaves which are emasculated for the exclusive use of the Fûrian monarch suffer within his palace. CHAP. XXII. FINAL DEPARTURE FROM KAHIRA, AND JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. _Voyage down the Nile to Damiatt — Vegetation — Papyrus — Commerce — Cruelty of the Mamlûk government — Voyage to Yaffé — Description of Yaffé — Rama — Jerusalem — Mendicants — Tombs of the kings — Bethlehem — Agriculture — Naplosa — Samaria — Mount Tabor._ Having engaged a _canjia_, or small boat, to sail down the Nile from Kahira to Damiatt, I departed on Friday the 2d of December 1796. No occurrences worthy of particular commemoration happened during this little voyage, but we passed several towns of considerable note, among which may be mentioned Mansûra, remarkable for the defeat of St. Louis; a circumstance preserved in the name which denotes, _The place of victory_. Its condition is flourishing, owing to its being a station on the road between Kahira and Damiatt; and it was then governed by a Cashef deputed by Ibrahim Bey. The mosques amount to seven, which is the only circumstance I can offer relative to its population, my stay there having been only for a few hours.