26 November 1855: Sheet #2

Transcription

Weekly Chats I. The Woman

'A tout seigneur tout honneur' and so it is only right that from you begins the lovable, better half of the human race – So pay attention, sweet readers, because this time my words are directed at you ladies! 'Woman!' Who has ever been able to define this creature? Who has ever been able to physiologize her (please excuse the primitive word)? Who has ever been able to answer the thousands of questions about her little heart?... – No one. A woman is the philosophical stone of science; she is harder to find than it is to square a circle...One will accomplish flight by hot air ballon, but a woman will never be painted, in her true moral sense. And why? – Oh, is she a superior creation that us poor blind men cannot understand...or one of those things that is so common that thinking about it exhausts your mind, and then you are left with nothing– I hurry to tell you, sweet readers, that I support the first hypothesis more than the second. And yet you see, I have wanted to study you all, I have wanted to see if anyone has understood this difficult 'mystery', and oh, it pains me to tell you that my observations were tossed away, my scrutinizing lens fogged up. The more I wrapped myself in the hidden recesses of your souls, the more convinced I was that I had entered a labyrinth I could not get out of. And is this mystery that surrounds you a virtue or a flaw? Ask a lover who has been betrayed and abandoned – he will tell you it is a flaw, a horrible flaw. – Ask a young man whose sweetheart has just squeezed his hand in love, or has just said, 'I love you,' and he will tell you that this mystery is a divine thing, that it is sacrosanct veil that conceals woman's divinity like the translucent veil hides the angelic beauty of Mohammed's 'Houri.' Go pick whoever is right among the two: the scornful skeptic or the impassioned flatterer! – I would put you at my feet, sweet readers, and you

Reflections on the Cultivation of Vineyards in Egypt

Since its distant history, Egypt has had Vineyards in its condition of cultivation. The grapevine is a plant that originated in the well-suited Arabia; Osiris imposed it onto the populations of conquered countries in Asia and Africa, around the base of the Nile valley. In the joyous Arabia, vines are still today abundantly cultivated, and its dried fruit (raisin) is commercially traded in the Arabic Gulf City to make alcoholic spirits. Vineyards are also found in areas in the City of Mecca, on the slopes of hills that run along the pleasant valleys of Taifa and Medina, as well as in others in Heggias. But vines, and its varieties, are still cultivated in Arabia of Assiri where, to this day, the stumps are saved. The stumps have survived through various generations, and the outside of their trunks look like the human body. Grapevines were introduced in Egypt thousands of years ago, but Vineyards and the preparation of fermented liquor go back to the era of the Ptolemaic rule, particularly near the end of it, where Vineyard orchards were introduced to the fertile valley of Morea (Moniaut), northeast of the populated area in ancient Alexandria. Alongside that coastal section that is at sea level and extends towards Rossetto even beyond the other side of Lake Bourlos on that elevated clearing which tilts towards the sea, and among the many dattoglieri (type of tree) a large quantity of grape stumps are still cultivated. These are known as Alessandrina, a highly-valued type of Vine used even to make Wine. In the Oasis of the Libyan Desert, the remaining riverbanks from the ancient Greco-Roman domination are reminiscent of the ancient industry and the introduction of the sarmentous Vine to the fields there. After its diffusion to Greece and its islands, the grapevine was introduced by the Fenicj since they were the first to take trips to the Mediterranean coasts, Sicily, outside of Italy, Provence, Spain, etc. And with the fall of the Arab Caliphs, Egypt also lost its ancient plantations of Grapevines that were in the countrysides where the ruins of the ancient Heliopolis still exist, as they also do in the southwest of the ancient "Fostad." From ancient times to today, the Vineyards of Faioum have been preserved, so recently, the Faioum supplied new branches for the many orchards scattered across the countrysides of middle and lower Egypt. But a serious mistake (which was not made by farmers in ancient times) was that of those who chose to put modern-day Vineyards in the soil that forms the boundary of the Desert which connects and follows the flooded Nilotic territory; in ancient times, Vineyards benefited from permeabile soil that, without being flooded, received continuous infiltration from the Nile. Now, the majority of new Vineyards occupy shallow, clay-like, and compact soil that sustains a continuous humidity, since this soil does not have anything in its composition that is truly in the nature of the Vineyard. So, the Grape that a Vineyard produces, although very sugary, is saturated with the abundant aqueous juice of albuminous mucilage which spoils the quality of Wine. In my opinion, Egypt has a very suitable soil and climate for farming Grapevines; however, it lacks the skill of knowing how to cultivate them in order to utilize its fruit to produce Wine. Grapevines that are latitudinally below Cairo, the Suez Isthmus, Terrana, Bourlos, Alexandria, etc., could prosper and produce good fruit like that which is grown in the climate of Madera, Alicante, Spain, Provence, etc. To best prosper, Grapevines must be treated like tall arborous plants, as is done in Italian towns, because in Egypt they also need the movement of the fresh air and they must be kept as far as possible from the humidity of the soil and from parasitic insects. In these last few years, Vineyards have been introduced in the gardens of upper Egypt, that is, in the countrysides that form the perimeter of Siene, Esne, Ermentis, Cofto Thebes, and Chenne. The bunches become very matured but the grapes undergo a change: their volume diminishes by more than half and they become large in size, like currants. By cutting the young shoots, the quantity of grapes can be increased two or three times over in the same year, which was easy for me to notice when I was in Edfu' in 1851 and 1852. Even in the province of Senaar where not many vines have been transported from Egypt, it has been widely reproduced with great success. Let's make a vow that Egypt recovers its ancient vineyards on the boundary of the Desert, where tall-stemmed trees will support their own sarmentous trunk. I will repeat what I have said about the Grapevine, and its many varieties, about the olive tree. The olive tree was also maltreated because until now, it had been planted in the low fields of the Nilotic soil that, although well-developed, has never produced anything but a fat, fleshy grape full of mucilaginous parenchyma, without being at all oily. Although it has a nice shape, a fruit like this is not even good to be put in salt water to make 'Salaison' because it rots easily. But the trees that were planted in elevated soil far from flooded waters have produced fruit that is smaller, less solid, and less juicy, but that is plumper than Oil. Taking advantage of the different desert areas that surround Alexandria and Aboudkir, as well as around the base of the Suez Isthmus, on the sides of the Delta, the Salakie desert, Belbeiz, the Tomelat Valley, of Canche, of Berke-El-haggi, of Mataria, of Basetin, there are many small regions where the olive tree is at an advantage to prosper. While it is instead appropriate to uproot it from every field and plot of land formed from the alluvial soil of the Nile. The sandy, ocherous marls, and the modern marly sandstone of the pliocene (the terrain of the upper part of the land) produce an alluvial mixture that makes up the borders of the Desert, which adjoins the black alluvium of the Nile. And it is precisely this quality of the soil that is suitable for the cultivation of grapevines, of olives, and of many other Trees to form a forest. A, Figari.