THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 7 r 



the raft with them to Cairo, they untie, fell them at the mar- 

 ket, and carry the produce home in money, or in neceffaries 

 upon their hack. A very poor (Economical trade, hut fuf- 

 ficent, as they faid, from the carriage of crude materials, the 

 moulding, making, and fending them to market, to Cairo 

 and to different places in the Delta, to afford occupation to 

 two thoufand men ; this is nearly four times the number 

 of people employed in the largeit iron foundery in Eng- 

 land. But the reader will not underftand, that I warrant 

 this fact from any authority but what I have given him. 



About two o'clock, in the afternoon, we came to the point 

 of an iiland ; there were feveral villages with date trees on 

 both fides of us ; the ground is overflowed by the Nile, and 

 cultivated. The current is very flrong here. We paffed a 

 village called Regnagie, and another named Zaragara, on 

 the eaft fide of the Nile. We then came to Caphar el Hay.- 

 at, or the Toll of the Tailor; a village with great plantations 

 of dates, and the largeft we had yet feen. 



We paffed the night on the S. W... point, of the ifland be- 

 tween Caphar el Hayat, and Gizier Azali, the. wind failing 

 as about four o'clock, This place is the beginning of. the 

 Ker?.cleotic nome, and its fituation a fullicient evidence that 

 Metrahenny was Memphis ; its name is Halouan, 



This ifland is now divided into a number, of fmall ones, 

 by calilhes being cut through and through it, and, under 

 different Arabic names, they ftill reach very far up the ilream. 

 f landed .to fee. if there werexemains of the olive tree which 



Strabo 



