THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 395 



jiame for the Ark when Noah was ordered to build it — 

 Thouihalt " make thee an Ark (Theba) of gopher- wood*." 



The figure of the temples in Thebes do not feem to be 

 far removed from the idea given us of the Ark. The third 

 conjecture is, that being the firft city built and fupported 

 on pillars, and, on different and feparate pieces of ftone, it 

 got its name from the architects firft expreffion of appro- 

 bation or furprife, Tabu, that it flood infulated and alone, 

 and this feems to me to be the moll conformable both to 

 the Hebrew and Ethiopic. 



The fhepherds, for the moft part, friends and allies of the 

 Egyptians, or Cufhite, at times were enemies to them. We 

 need not, at this time of day, feek the caufe ; there are many 

 very apparent, from oppofite manners, and, above all, the 

 difference in the dietetique regimen. The Egyptians wor- 

 th ipped the cow, the Shepherds killed and ate her. The 

 Shepherds were Sabeans, worfhipping the hod of heaven — 

 the fun, moon, and liars. Immediately upon the building 

 of Thebes and the perfection of fculpture, idolatry and the 

 grofTeft material ifm greatly corrupted the more pure and 

 ipeculativc religion of the Sabeans. Soon after the build- 

 ing of Thebes, we fee that Rachel, Abraham's wife, had 

 idols f ; we need feek no other probable caufe of the devas- 

 tation that followed, than difference of religion. 



Thebes was deftroyed by Salatis, who overturned the 

 firft Dynafty of Cufhite, or Egyptian kings, begun by Me- 

 nes, in what is called the fecond age of the world, and 



3D2 founded 



* Gen. ti. 14. f Gen. xxxv. 4. 



