but ten stades from them, so the vestiges of this famous instrument * could not be found here. Indeed, being omitted in the latest edition of Norden, it would seem that traveller himself was not perfectly well assured of its existence.

We were well received by the governor of Luxor, who was also a believer in judicial astrology. Having made him a small present, he furnished us with provisions, and, among several other articles, some brown sugar; and as we had seen limes and lemons in great perfection at Thebes, we were resolved to refresh ourselves with some punch, in remembrance of Old England. But, after what had happened the night before, none of our people chose to run the risk of meeting the Troglodytes. We therefore procured a servant of the governor of the town, to mount upon his goatskin filled with wind, and float down the stream from Luxor to El Gournie, to bring us a supply of these, which he soon after did.

He informed us, that the people in the caves had, early in the morning, made a descent upon the townsmen, with a view to plunder our boat; that several of them had been wounded the night before, and they threatened to pursue us to Syene. The servant did all 'he could to frighten them, by saying that his master's intention was to pass over with troops, and exterminate them, as Osman Bey of Girgé had before done, and we were to assist him with our fire-arms.-After this we heard no more of them.

A similar instrument, erected by Eratosthenes at Alexandria, cut of copper, was used by Hipparchus and Ptolemy.---Alm. lib. 1. cap. 11. 3. cap. 2. Vide the Remarks on Mr Greave's Pyramidographia, p. 134.

Luxor, and Carnac, which is a mile and a quarter below it, are by far the largest and most magnificent scenes of ruins in Egypt, much more extensive and stupendous than those of Thebes and Dendera put together.

There are two obelisks here of great beauty, and in good preservation; they are less than those at Rome, but not at all mutilated. The pavement, which is made to receive the shadow, is to this day so horizontal, that it might still be used in observation. The top of the obelisk is semicircular, an experiment, I suppose, made at the instance of the observer, by varying the shape of the point of the obelisk to get rid of the pen

umbra.

At Carnac we saw the remains of two vast rows of sphinxes, one on the right-hand, the other on the left, (their heads were mostly broken) and, a little lower, a number of termini as it should seem. They were composed of basaltes, with a dog or lion's head, of Egyptian sculpture; they stood in lines likewise, as if to conduct or serve as an avenue to some principal building.

They had been covered with earth, till very lately a Venetian physician and antiquary bought one of them at a very considerable price, as he said, for the king of Sardinia. This has caused several others to be uncovered, though no purchaser hath yet offered.

Upon the outside of the walls at Carnac and Luxor there seems to be an historical engraving instead of hieroglyphics; this we had not met with before. It is a representation of men, horses, chariots, and battles; some of the attitudes are freely and well drawn ;

Signior Donati.

they are rudely scratched upon the surface of the stone, as some of the hieroglyphics at Thebes are. The weapons the men make use of are short javelins, such as are common at this day among the inhabitants of Egypt, only they have feathered wings like arrows. There is also distinguished among the rest, the figure of a man on horseback, with a lion fighting furiously by him, and Diodorus * says, Osimandyas was so represented at Thebes. This whole composition merits great attention.

I have said, that Luxor is Diospolis, and should think, that that place, and Carnac together, made the Jovis Civitas Magna of Ptolemy, though there is 9' difference of the latitude by my observation compared with his. But as mine was made on the south of Luxor, if his was made on the north of Carnac, the difference will be greatly diminished.

The 17th we took leave of our friendly Shekh of Luxor, and sailed with a very fair wind, and in great spirits. The liberality of the Shekh of Luxor had extended as far even as to my Rais, whom he engaged to land me here upon my return.-I had procured him considerable ease in some complaints he had; and he saw our departure with as much regret as in other places they commonly did our arrival.

On the eastern shore are Hambdé, Maschergarona, Tot, Senimi, and Gibeg. Mr Norden seems to have very much confused the places in this neighbourhood, as he puts Erment opposite to Carnac, and Thebes farther south than Erment, and on the east side of the Nile, whilst he places Luxor farther south than Erment. But Erment is fourteen miles farther south than Thebes, and Luxor about a quarter of a mile (as

* Diod. Sic. Bib. lib. 1. p. 45. § c.

I have already said) farther south on the East side of the river, whereas Thebes is on the west.

He has fixed a village (which he calls Demegeit *) in the situation where Thebes stands, and he calls it Crocodilopolis, from what authority I know not; but the whole geography is here exceedingly confused, and out of its proper position.

In the evening we came to an anchor on the eastern shore, nearly opposite to Esné. Some of our people had landed to shoot, trusting to a turn of the river that is here, which would enable them to keep up with us; but they did not arrive till the sun was setting, loaded with hares, pigeons, gootos, all very bad game. I had, on my part, staid on board, and had shot two geese, as bad eating as the others, but very beautiful in their plumage.

We passed over to Esné next morning. It is the ancient Latopolis, and has very great remains, particularly a large temple, which, though the whole of it is of the remotest antiquity, seems to have been built at different times, or rather out of the ruins of different ancient buildings. The hieroglyphics upon this are very ill executed, and are not painted. The town is the residence of an Arab Shekh, and the inhabitants are a very greedy, bad sort of people; but as I was dressed like an Arab, they did not molest, because they did not know me.

The 18th, we left Esné, and passed the town of Edfu, where there are likewise considerable remains of Egyptian architecture. It is the Apollinis Civitas

Magna.

The wind failing, we were obliged to stop in a very poor, desolate and dangerous part of the Nile, called Jibbel el Silselly, where a boom, or chain, was drawn

* Vide Norden's map of the Nile,

across the river, to hinder, as is supposed, the Nubian boats from committing piratical practices in Egypt lower down the stream. The stones on both sides, to which the chain was fixed, are very visible; but I imagine that it was for fiscal rather than for warlike purposes; for, Syene being garrisoned, there is no pos sibility of boats passing from Nubia by that city into Egypt. There is indeed another purpose for which it might be designed; to prevent war upon the Nile be tween any two states.

We know from Juvenal *, who lived some time at Syene, that there was a tribe in that neighbourhood called Ombi, who had violent contentions with the people of Dendera about the crocodile; it is remarkable these two parties were Anthropophagi as late as Juvenal's time, yet no historian speaks of this extraordinary fact, which cannot be called in question, as he was an eye-witness and resided at Syene.

Now these two nations, who were at war, had above a hundred miles of neutral territory between them, and therefore they could never meet except on the Nile. But either one or the other possessing this chain, could hinder their adversaries from coming nearer them. As the chain is in the Hermonthic nome, as well as the capital of the Ombi, I suppose this chain to be the barrier of the latter people, to hinder those of Dendera from coming up the river to eat them.

About noon we passed Coom Ombo, a round building like a castle, where is supposed to have been the metropolis of Ombi, the people last spoken of. We then arrived at Daroo †, a miserable mansion, uncon

* Juven. Sat. 15. ver. 76.

+ Idris Welled Hamran, our guide through the great desert, dwelt in this village.