this country, made from wheat fteeped two days in water, dried afterwards in the fun, and then boiled to the thickness of a jelly: thus prepared it is called Elneda, dew, and is melting, fweet, and very nutritive. If this kind of conferve, dried in an oven, would keep at fea, it might be of great use in long voyages.

South of Menchia, on an eminence, ruins of entablatures, cornices, and fhafts of columns are feen. Here there is a quay, befide the river, and a projecting mole preferves the veffels from the winds and waves. These ruins, and ancient works, recal to mind the great Ptolemais which Strabo compares to Memphis for extent and population (z). Ptolemy names it Ptolemais of Hermes, becaufe Mercury the fymbolical deity was worshipped there (a).

Now, while the wind is driving us fouthward, let us look before us to the rocks which rife on the eastern coaft, and we fhall perceive the small convent Der Hadid, fituated in the midst of the defert, furrounded by fterile clifts, and caverns which the zeal

(x) Strabo, lib. 17.(a) Ptolemy, lib. 4.

of the primitive chriftians peopled with pious anchorets. Can there be a more frightful wilderness near fo enchanting a country? On one fide nothing can be feen but barren fands and parched mountains, from which the reverberated heat of the fun is fuffocating. Turn to the other, and we there admire the copious treasures of abundance. The Dourra, with reedy leaf and fwelling ears, fhoots up its vigorous ftalk; the waving corn is ready for the fickle; vaft fields of fugar-canes and flax flourish befide each other; the rednefs of the date-tree betokens ripeness; the palm of the Thebais fpreads its fan leaves, and the garden melon grows pendant over the river banks. Such is the aspect of these plains now, and it is the beginning of December.

We are drawing near to the port of Girga, the capital of Upper Egypt. This city is a league in circumference, contains feveral mofques, bafars, and fquares, but no mar◄ ble buildings; well cultivated gardens furround it; a Bey is the governor, whofe foldiers commit innumerable oppreffions. The Copts are not allowed to have a church here, but are obliged to perform their religious

duties in a convent built on the other fide of the Nile. Girga affords no veftiges of ancient "edifices, but appears to be a modern built town, for it is not mentioned by Abulfeda.

After an hour's walk eastward, we come to the ruins of Abydus, where Ifinandes built a magnificent temple, in honour of Ofiris, the only one in Egypt into which musicians and fingers were denied entrance. Reduced to a village, under the reign of Auguftus, this town at present contains only heaps of ruins, without inhabitants, but to the west of these ruins we ftill find the above-mentioned temple built by Ifmandes (b).

The entrance is under a portico, fixty feet high, fupported by two rows of large columns. In this maffy marble building, and the hieroglyphics with which it abounds, we discover the work of the ancient Egyptians. Beyond is a temple, three hundred feet in length, and one hundred and forty five wide. At the entrance is an immenfe

(b) Strabo, lib. 17. calls him Ifinandes, and Memnon, and fays this is the fame monarch who built the Labyrinth.

B 3

hall

hall containing eight-and-twenty columns, fixty feet high, and nineteen in circumference at the bafe; they ftand each twelve feet afunder. The enormous ftones of the cieling are fo perfectly joined, and inferted one in the other, as to appear, to the eye, one fole marble flab, one hundred and twenty-fix feet in length, and fixty-fix in breadth. The walls are loaded with innumerable hieroglyphics, among which are a multitude of animals, birds, and human figures wearing pointed caps (c), with a piece of pendant ftuff behind, and cloathed in open robes which do not defcend below the waift. The rudeness of the sculpture bespeaks antiquity, and art in its infancy. The forms, attitudes, and proportions are all bad. Among thefe various groups, we perceive women fuckling their children, and men prefenting offerings to them. The traveller, likewife, recognizes among the designs engraved on the marble, the divinities of India. M. Chevalier, Governor of Chandernagore, who lived thirty years in the Eaft, where he rendered very effential fervice to his country, examined this antient monument very carefully, on (c) Thefe caps are fill worn by the Egyptian prictts on feftivals.

his return from Bengal, and remarked the gods Jaggrenat, Gonez, and Vichnou, fuch as they are represented in the temples of Indoftan. Have the Egyptians received these deities from the Indians, or the Indians from the Egyptians? Were that queftion answered, it might decide the antiquity of the two people.

At the farther end of the firft hall is the great door, which leads to an apartment forty-fix feet long and twenty-two wide. Six fquare pillars fupport the cieling, and four doors, at the corners, lead to four other chambers, to which, however, the heaps of rubbish forbid all entrance. The laft hall, fixty-four feet long, and twenty-four wide, contains ftair-cafes leading to the fubterranean parts of this grand edifice. The Arabs, fearching for hidden treasure, have heaped earth and ruins on each other. In those parts into which it was poffible to penetrate, we find fculptures and hieroglyphics fimilar to thofe above ground. The natives affert the apartments are the fame, and that the depth of the columns below the earth equals their height. It might be dangerous to defcend too far into thefe vaults; the air is infected,