the beasts have been in general described, but that the undescribed
birds were surprisingly numerous; and, in fact, new species are
still frequently coming under my notice. We have sparrows and
water-wagtails, one species of crow, ducks, geese, and common fowls;
pigeons, teal, ortolans, plovers, snipes like those in Europe; but
others, entirely unlike European birds, would fill a volume.
Insects are very numerous. I have seen about twelve sorts of
grylli, or grasshoppers and crickets. Ants are the most omnivorous
of all insects; we have eight or ten sorts very numerous. The
termes, or white ants, destroy everything on which they fasten; they
will eat through an oak chest in a day or two and devour all its
contents. Butterflies are not so numerous as in England, but I
think all different. Common flies and mosquitoes (or gnats) are
abundant, and the latter so tormenting as to make one conclude that
if the flies in Egypt were mosquitoes, the plague must be almost
insupportable. Here are beetles of many species; scorpions of two
sorts, the sting of the smallest not mortal; land crabs in
abundance, and an amazing number of other kinds of insects. Fish is
very plentiful, and the principal animal food of the inhabitants. I
find fewer varieties of vegetables than I could have conceived in so
large a country. Edible vegetables are scarce, and fruit far from
plentiful. You will perhaps wonder at our eating many things here
which no one eats in England: as arum, three or four sorts, and
poppy leaves (Papaver somniferum). We also cut up mallows by the
bushes for our food (Job xxx. 4). Amaranths, of three sorts, we
also eat, besides capsicums, pumpkins, gourds, calabashes, and the
egg-plant fruit; yet we have no hardships in these respects. Rice
is the staple article of food...

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