Letters of an African Traveller, 367 



name of Ilias and my own, upon the highest top of the cataracts 

 of Nubia. 



That river which fertilizes so many kingdoms and makes them 

 blessed, is here divided into millions of various streams which, 

 gushing out from amongst the stones, and folding into heaps of 

 flowers, form to the eye a spectacle not elsewhere known in nature. 



Having met with, under the torrid zone, the points of the 

 antient Phthuris, Assciga, Yicroseia, Corthes, Pselchas, Thutzis, 

 Talmis, Taphis, and Thitzi, and having returned to Syene, I 

 soon directed my steps towards Ombos Sacra, to Crocodille, to 

 Stilithia, Enubis, to Koptos, the friend of the maritime Bere- 

 nice, and which experienced all the rigour of Dioclesian, to 

 Diospolis the Little, Abydos the Great, which preserves consi- 

 derable remains of the temple of Osirides, to Panopolis, Antino- 

 polis, Emopolis Magna, Tanis Superiore, and to Oririneus in 

 Siut, where I met with the count Forbin, French traveller. 



Spending some time in Radamore, where is the distillery of 

 rum and a sugar bakery, under the direction of the hospitable 

 Mr. Brine, I went down to the pyramids of Saccara, and by the 

 plain of Memphis to those of Ghizeh, where I found Mr. Belzoni 

 anxious to penetrate into the second of those heaps, thought to 

 be of Cephrenus ; knowing his intelligence, I endeavoured only 

 to animate him still more to the undertaking, and after 

 bivouacking some days, we traversed a place inaccessible for 

 many generations ; and, I know not how to express my feelings 

 at wandering amongst those shades. 



A very long inclined gallery entirely of fine and massy gra- 

 nite ; a passage at the end so narrow that a man bending hori- 

 zontally can hardly enter : then a horizontal gallery which looks 

 into the hall where is the tomb worn away ; a perpendicular 

 gallery somewhat inclined with a room on the left side of the 

 passage ; various collections of saline productions figured 

 upon the walls ; various inscriptions ; and, finally, crosses de- 

 signed upon these same walls : this is what we saw. 



Emerging from this delirium to the light, I wished to ascend 

 the highest pyramid, and arrived at the top, I appeared to 

 touch the stars : I remained there the whole night, which was 



