AND LOWER EGYPT. 27I 



had blown with unabated fury, raised the waves 

 mountain high, and far beyond any thing that I 

 should have expected to have seen on a river. It 

 entirely prevented the navigation ofthe boats which 

 followed the course of the Nile. With consider- 

 able difficulty we arrived at Menshie, a town whose 

 markets are always well supplied, because the 

 vessels which steer for the north of Egypt, generally 

 Jay in a stock of provisions there. The pigeon- 

 houses are more beautiful here than in any other 

 place. A large and populous city, PtoUmais Her- 

 mil, was formerly situated on tliis spot. A few 

 scattered ruins, and a bank of stone to restrain tlie 

 waters of the river, are the only relics of the an- 

 cient splendour of Menshie, 



The K'iascliefoi\\.\\% place wished me to visit him 

 in my medical capacity, and inquired if I was 

 furnished with letters from Mourat Bey ; on my re- 

 plying in the affirmative, he told me that I had but 

 an indifferent recommendation, as Mourat was on 

 the point of being dispossessed of his usurped au- 

 thority. This Kiaschef\v?iS, on the point of form- 

 ing a junction with Hassan Bey, who was inimical 

 to Mourat, and whose party was becoming every 

 day more powerful in the Said. But the most un- 

 pleasant circumstance to me, was the declaration of 

 his intention to take mc with him, for the purpose, 

 as he said, of curing the wounds which Hassan liad 



received 



