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The mountains of Abuffode are high and steep rocks, that ftretch along the Nile. No other mountains give fo evident a proof, according to our Author, of the general deluge; for, from the top, downwards, may be feen the impreffions made by the falling of the waters: which at moft can prove no other, than that there has been rain in this country. The echoes formed by fome of thefe rocks are very diftinct. Near the river are seen a great many grottos, or caverns, where holy Anchorites formerly dwelt, but which are now the habitations of fome Arabian pirates.

The city of Monfalunt, is a kind of capital, and the refidence of a Bishop of the Copts. On the other fide the Nile, and oppofite to this city, is a convent of Copts, absolutely inacceffible fo that when any one goes in, or out, he is drawn up, or let down, in a basket, by means of a pulley; from which circumftance it is called the Couvent de la Poulie.

Siuut is another city, that has the appearance of a capital, and is likewife the feat of a Coptic Bifhop: the caravan for Sennar fets out from hence. The caverns called Sababinath, hewn in the mountain* Thebet el Kofferi, are worthy notice. The traveller, purfuing the way of the mountain, muft afcend for two hours, before he arrives at the first entrance; which conducts him into a fpacious room, fupported by four hexagonal pillars, cut out of the rock. The roof is adorned with. painting, which is ftill very diftinct; and the gold made ufe of, ftill glitters all around. The floor is at prefent covered with fand and ftones; and the paffages into the other apartments are choaked with ruins. On the out-fide may be seen an apartment over the firft large chamber, already defcribed; its dimenfions are lefs; it is without pillars, and painted like the other. On each fide of this fecond chamber is a tomb, hewn in the rock; the one open, the other fhut; and both almoft buried in the fand. This upper chamber communicates with other apartments; but the paffages are filled with rubbish.

There had formerly been a Califh at Siuut, called El Maafrata: it reached to Senabo, but is now destroyed. Aɛ Gau-fherkie, which fucceeds Diofpolis the Lefs, is an an tient temple, about, fixty feet in length, and forty deep. It feems as if covered with one entire ftone, fupported by columns; and the roof is fo well preferved, that the hieroglyphics, with which it is charged, continue very diftinct. There is nothing else remarkable about this temple; for which the

* This word fhould be Gabel, or Jebel, which fignifies

mountain.

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Arabs

Arabs have fo little reverence, as to make a ftable of it for their cattle; fo that it is entirely covered with duft and dung, This our Author reports upon the authority of another perfon, he not having feen it himself. Near this place is another Califh, which has also been neglected. Shech-Haridi is a place rendered famous by the tomb of a Turkifh Saint, which is placed on the top of the mountain, in form like a cupola. The Arabs report, that he died in the fame place where he was buried; if he may be faid to have died, who, according to them, is, by the mercy of God, changed into a ferpent never to die, but to confer health, and favour, to fuch as implore his aid, and facrifice to him. If a man of quality is fick, the ferpent is polite enough to fuffer himfelf to be carried to him; whilft the poor man is obliged to folicit the favour of a vifit, under a vow to recompenee him for his trouble. And after all, he will not ftir, unless a fpotlefs virgin be fent for him; for if the is not pure, the ferpent is inexorable. When the young ambafladrefs arrives, fhe intreats this finake to vifit the fick perfon: he, who cannot refufe the fair fex any favours they may ask, begins to move himself, and at laft jumps upon her neck, and is carried, with loud huzzas, to the person who defires his affiftance; with whom his ftay is for fome hours, that his priefts may be well entertained: and then he retires, followed by the priests and people, to the tomb, which is his ufual refidence.

Our Author accounts for the whole affair from the artifice of the priests, who may teach a tame * fnake to do all that is reported of this ferpent. They pretend, indeed, that if he was to be cut into pieces, the parts would unite again; but the experiment is teo impious, ever to have been made; and was actually refused, when the Emir Achmiin ordered it. As to his returning home again, even when he has been carried across the Nile, our Author very reafonably fuppofes, that the prieft pouches him.

Mr. Norden greatly regrets the not being permitted to land at Dendera, which he takes to be the remains of the antient Tentyra, mentioned by Strabo, Pliny, and others. It is faid there is a temple ftill remaining in that place. The fituation is exceedingly pleasant; and for two leagues along the Nile, are

Herodotus mentions harmless fnakes, that were honoured with fepulchres by the antient Egyptians. Formerly the fick went to the Temple of Afculapius, whofe entrance into his Temple was announced by the hiffing of a great ferpent. See the Plutus of Arif tophanes; but now the ged vifits his patients.

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abundance of fruit-trees, which, about the middle of December, had leaves and flowers, as in Spring. At Giene, or Kiene, as it is written by our Author, who too often makes ftrange work of Arabic words, he enquired after the old canal, that conveyed merchandise too and from the Red Sea but could get no ins formation about it, nor discover any remains of it, in or out of the city.

Giefiret-Metera, he tells us, is a village of about three quarters of a league in length; it is the antient island of Tabenna, where St. Pachôme built his first monaftery; the ruins of which are still to be feen, over against the village of Menefhia. with whom

In pursuing his voyage in thefe parts, our Author gives us to understand, that he met with many crocodiles, of differ ent fizes, from fifteen, to fifty feet longa fondosas and cob

Arriving at Lukoreen, Mr. Norden meets with fo many remains of columns, and portico's, and edifices, that he had no doubt they were the ruins of antient Thebes. Of thefe there are feveral views, very curious, and entertaining! It is to be lamented, that our Author did not copy more of the hieroglyphics, with which almost every stone is covered; but it feems he had neither time nor convenience for ite thisbrat leaft is his excufe. He landed oppofite to Carnac, on the weftern fide of the Nile, about 135 French leagues higher up than Cairo. The first objects he noticed, were two Coloffal figures, facing the Nile, and about a league from it; the one re presenting a man, the other a woman. They are fifty Danish feet high, (meafured by their fhadow) and from the foot to the knee, fifteen feet, which is the due proportions They fit upon two cubic ftones, measuring fifteen feet by fifteens; the back part higher than the front, by one and an halfid The pedestals are each five feet high, thirty fix and an half long, and nineteen and an half broad. The distance between the two ftatues is twenty-one paces. They are conftructed of several blocks of fandy ftone, of a greyish hue, probably taken from where the caverns are to be feen, in the neighbouring mountains. Their breafts and legs are covered with Greek and Roman infcriptions, wrote in the time of the Romans, and long after thefe ftatues were erected. The backs and fides of the chairs in which they fit, are alfo covered with hieroglyphics, nearly the fame on one as on the other, with fome finall difference in the particular form of the characters; dans la forme particuliere des characteres. The ftone of which the feats are made, differs in nothing from that of the ftatues, only it seems more dark and durable. There are two Ifiac figures

in the fore-corners of each chair, which ferve as ornaments: and are of a fairer and finer ftone than the reft; and may therefore be supposed to have been added after the ftatues and their chairs were finished. All the injury they have fuf fered, is from the hands of time only. About two hundred paces from thefe Coloffal figures, are feen the ruins of several ftatues, thrown down; and to the east, still more ruins, an tient and modern,galliv “se

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While Mr. Norden was taking draughts of these figures, fifty Arabs, under the command of a Shech, came up to him" and his companions who being furnished with firearms, foon made them retreat.

The Greek and Latin infcriptions exhibit the names and quality of those who heard the voice of Memnon. Mr. Nor den has one which is not in Pocock; it begins with Tetronius, which is manifeftly an error, either of the inscription, or Mr. Norden's copy it fhould be Petronius. There were many illuftrious Perfons of that name, and one of them was Præfect of Egypt. In the third line of the Greek inscription is P inftead of K, the word is KAI; and the last letter of the fame infcription must be N But Mr. Norden did not understand Greek. There is some mistake in the laft word but one, there being no fuch name as Aian.

Our Author now advances towards the ruins on the north, not far from the Coloffal figures; and obferves, that it is not to be doubted, that they are the remains of the palace of Memnon. From the portico of a temple, of which he has given the defign, we cannot but form a very great idea of the Egyp tiam architecture. We muft refer our Readers to Mr. Norden's engravings, for a view of thefe ruins, of which we should give but a very imperfect idea by words. There is a break in the building, which, our Author fays, is too large to have been covered; and here he places the famous ftatue of Memnon, where it might receive the rays of the fun. Here may be feen the fragment of a Coloffal statue, thrown down, and half buried. It was originally feated, in a manner not unlike the Coloffal ftatues defcribed above. The upper part is wanting, and the marks of violence appear on what remains: the whole had been of one entire piece of black granite. The pe destal is in a great measure entire; and the hieroglyphics on it are, knives, femi-circles, &c. Knives fhould, we think, indicate facrifices. Our Author leaves it to others to determine,' whether these are not remains of the vocal statue of Memnon. He ftruck it with a key, but it gave no found tho' the feelebrito bna „štol, avara pulchral

pulchral urn, in the first pyramid, when ftruck in that manner, founded like a bell..

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As our Author has made no remarks upon the vocal power. of this ftatue, that we may not also be as filent as the ftatue now is, and, doubtless, ever was, we must obferve, that Har pocrates himself could not be more a friend to taciturnity than was this vocal ftatue. The infcriptions declare, that fome waited days, and months, without hearing any thing; and what they at laft perceived, was a voice, but no words! Lu cian laughs when he fays, it once uttered feven words. Stras bo, indeed, heard a found; but at the fame time he declares, that he could not difcern whether it came. from the bafe, or the Coloffus, or from one of the company, The last may have been the cafe; and, confequently, this voice of the ftatue, as foolish and ridiculous a fuperftition, as ever prevailed in the world.

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There is another Coloffal ftatue, of one entire piece of black granite; but of a lefs fize than the former. Alfo the head of a Coloffus, coiffed in the Egyptian manner; it is of black granite, is two feet high, and is finished with great art and induftry. There is a fimplicity in it, fays our Author, (who certainly had fome knowlege of drawing, or defign) that charms; and fhews it to have been the work of a great master.

In paffing from this place, along the mountains, our Author entered feveral grottos, or caverns, till he arrived at MedinetHabu, which had been erected on part of the ruins of Thebes, now in ruins itself, on the weft of the Nile, and about three quarters of a league from it. Mr. Norden prefents his readers with the view of an antient grand portal, of extraordinary beauty, which the Arabs had made the gate of the city, facing the Nile: all here is covered with hieroglyphics; but amongft. other ruins which lay in the paffage through the portal, Roman ornaments, the heads of Bacchus and Diana, with leaves of the vine, and the oak, are difcovered. After a furvey of thefe ruins, and the paffing through feveral large villages, without meeting any perfon, they return to their boat, which carries them to Efnay, the refidence of an Arab Shech, and. taken for the Old Latopolis. In the middle of this city, is an antient temple, having, three fides thut, and in the front, twenty-four pillars well preferved. It is covered with hiero glyphics; thofe on the outside feem to be very antient, executed in hafte, and by men of great practice in the art; those on the infide are done with more care, and by another hand a on the pillars are hieroglyphics of a lefs fize, and very close, The capitals of the pillars are all of a different form, tho' of

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