THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 529 



muft be the fruit of idle imagination, and ill-founded con- 

 jectures of their own. 



In the reign of Lalibala, near about the 1200, there was 

 a great perfecution in Egypt againfl the Chriftians, after 

 the Saracen conqueft, and efpecially againil the mafons, 

 builders, and hewers of ftone, who were looked upon by 

 the Arabs as the greateft of abominations ; this prince open- 

 ed an afylum in his dominions to all fugitives of that kind, 

 of whom he collected a prodigious number. Having be- 

 fore him as fpecimens the ancient works of the Troglo- 

 dytes, he directed a number of churches to be hewn out of 

 the folid rock in his native country of Lafta, where they 

 remain untouched to this day, and where they will proba- 

 bly continue till the lateft pofterity. Large columns with- 

 in are formed out of the folid rock, and every fpecies of or- 

 nament preferved, that would have been executed in build- 

 ings of feparate and detached flones, above ground. 



This prince undertook to realize the favourite preten- 

 lions of the Abyflinians, to the power of turning the Nile 

 out of its courfe, fo that it mould no longer be the caufe of 

 the fertility of Egypt, now in poffemon of the enemies of 

 his religion. We may imagine, if it was in the power of 

 man to accomplifh this undertaking, it could have fallen in- 

 to no better hands than thofe to whom Lalibala gave the ex- 

 ecution of it ; people driven from their native country by 

 thofe Saracens who now were reaping the benefits of the 

 river, in the places of thofe they had forced to feek habi- 

 tations far from the benefit and pleafure afforded by its 

 ilream. 



Vol. I. 3 X Thjs 



