THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 121 



fhew. The bafes of both of them are bare, and uncovered, 

 to the bottom of the plinth, or lowefl member of their pe- 

 deital ; fo that there is not the eighth of an inch of the 

 loweft part of them covered with mud, though they ftand 

 in the middle of a plain, and have flood there certainly a- 

 bwe 3000 years ; fince which time, if the fanciful rife of 

 the land of Egypt by the Nile had been true, the earth fhould 

 have been raifed fo as fully to conceal half of them both. 



These ftatues are covered with infcriptions of Greek and 

 Latin ; the import of which feems to be, that there were 

 certain travellers, or particular people, who heard Memnon's 

 ftatue utter the found it was faid to do, upon being ftruck 

 with the rays of the fun. 



It may be very reafonably expected, that I mould here 

 fay fomething of the building and fall of the firft Thebes ; 

 but as this would carry me to very early ages, and inter- 

 rupt for a long time my voyage upon the Nile ; as this is, be- 

 fides, connected with the hiilory of feveral nations which I 

 am about to defcribe, and more proper for the work of an 

 hiftorian, than the curfory defcriptions of a traveller, I fhall 

 defer faying any thing upon the fubject, till I come to treat 

 of it in the firft of theie characters, and more elpecially till 

 I fhall fpeak of the origin of the Jljcpherds, and the calami- 

 ties brought upon Egypt by that powerful nation, a people 

 often mentioned by different writers, but whofe hiuory 

 hitherto has been but imperfectly known. 



Nothing remains of the ancient Thebes but four pro- 

 digious temples, all of them in appearance more ancient, 

 but neither fo entire, nor fo magnificent, as thofe of Dendera. 

 Vol, I, G^ The 



