THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 47 



We were furprifed to fee the alacrity with which two 

 young Moors beilirred themfelves in the boat, they fupplied 

 the place of mailers, companions, pilots, and feamen to us.. 



Our Rais had not appeared, and I did not augur much 

 good, from the alacrity of thefe Moors, fo willing to proceed 

 without him. 



However, as it was conformable to our own willies, we 

 encouraged and cajoled them all we could. We advanced 

 a few miles to two convents of Cophts, called Deircteen*. 



Here we flopped to pafs the night, having had a fine 

 view of the Pyramids of Geeza andSaccara, and being then 

 in fight of a prodigious number of others built of white 

 clay, and ftretching far into the defert to the fouth-weft. 



Two of thefe feemed full as large as thofe that are call- 

 ed the Pyramids of Geeza. One of them was of a very ex- 

 traordinary form, it feemed as if it had been intended at 

 firft to be a very large one, but that the builder's heart or. 

 means had failed him,, and that he had brought it to a very 

 mif-fhapen difproportioned head at laft 



We were not a little difpleafed to findy that, in the firft 

 promife of punctuality our Rais had made, he had difap- - 

 pointed us by abfenting himfelf from the boat. The fear 

 of a complaint, if we remained near the town, was the rea- 

 fon why his fervants had hurried us away ; but being now 



out* 



*This has been thought to mean the Convent of Figs, but it only fignifies the TwoConvents 



