120 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



We left Furfhout the 7th of January 1769, early in the 

 morning. We had not hired our boat farther than Fur- 

 fhout ; but the good terms which fubfifted between me and 

 the faint, my Rais, made an accommodation very eafy to 

 carry us farther. He now agreed for L. 4 to carry us to 

 Syene and down again ; but, if he behaved well, he expect- 

 ed a trifling premium. " And, if you behave ill, Haflan, 

 '*' faid I, what do you think you deferve?" — "To be hanged, 

 " faid he, I deferve, and defire no better." 



Our wind at nrft was but fcant. The Rais faid, that he 

 thought his boat did not go as it ufed to do, and that it was 

 growing into a tree. The wind, however, frefhened up to- 

 wards noon, and eafed him of his fears. We palled a large 

 town called How, on the weft fide of the Nile. About four 

 o'clock in the afternoon we arrived at El Gourni, a fmall 

 village, a quarter of a mile diftant from the Nile. It has in 

 it a temple of old Egyptian architecture. I think that this, 

 and the two adjoining heaps of ruins, which are at the fame 

 diftance from the Nile, probably might have been part of 

 the ancient Thebes. 



Shaamy and Taamy are two colofTal flames in a fitting 

 pofture covered with hieroglyphics. The fouthmoft is of 

 one flone, and perfectly entire. The northmoft is a good 

 deal more mutilated. It was probably broken by Camby fes; 

 and they have fmce endeavoured to repair it. The other 

 lias a very remarkable head-drefs, which can be compared 

 to nothing but a tye-wig, fuch as worn in the prefent day. 

 Thefe two, fituated in a very fertile fpot belonging to The- 

 bes, were apparently the Nilometers of that town, as the 

 marks which the water has left upon the bafes fufheiently 



2 fliew. 



