THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 115 



tainment. Indeed there is very little ufe for this inftitu- 

 tion in Upper Egypt, as long as rich Arabs are there, much 

 more charitable and humane to flranger Chriflians than 

 the Monks. 



Furshout is in a large and cultivated plain. It is nine 

 miles over to the foot of the mountains, all fown with 

 wheat. There are, likewife, plantions of fugar canes. The 

 town, as they faid, contains above 10,000 people, but I have 

 no doubt this computation is rather exaggerated. 



We waited upon the Shekh Hamam ; who was a big, 

 tall, handfome man ; I apprehend not far from fixty. He 

 was drelTed in a large fox-fkin peliffe over the reft of his 

 cloaths, and had a yellow India ihawl wrapt about his head, 

 like a turban. He received me with great politenefs and 

 condefenfion, made me fit down by him, and afked me more 

 about Cairo than about Europe. 



The Rais had told him our adventure with the faint, at 

 which he laughed very heartily, faying, I was a wife man. 

 and a man of conduct. To me he only faid, " they are 

 bad people at Dendera ;" to which I anfwered, " there were 

 very few places in the world in which there were not fome 

 bad." He replied, " Your obfervation is true, but there they 

 are all bad ; reft yourfelves however here, it is a quiet place ; 

 though there are ftill fome even in this place not quite fo 

 good as they ought to be." 



The Shekh was a man of immenfe riches, and, little by 

 little, had united in his own perfon, all the feparate diftricts 



P 2 of 



