3 2 4 



On Egypt an d the N' i le 



the foundation of temples and for places of pilgrimage j but it ofLeti hap- 

 pened, that feveral places of worfcip wera in different periods erected at a 

 fmall diflance from each other j.and, as the number of inhabitants increafed 

 round each temple, an immenfe town wss at length formed out of many 

 detached parts $ though we are never told in the Purdnas, whether thofe con- 

 fecrated edifices were contiguous or far afunder. This happened to Mem- 

 phis, as we mall prefently mow j anditfeems to have been the cafe with 

 Punyavati and with Merha or Mrlra : thofe words are. written Met'ka . 

 and Mridd $ but there is fomething fo peculiar in the true found of the iVfl- 

 gari letters &, t*ha, Ua, tt'Mi that they are generally pronounced, efpe- 

 dally when they are placed between two vowels, like a, palatial ra°, the 

 vowel r/has likewife a great peculiarity, and, as we before obferved on the 

 word Kijhn for Cnjkna^ is frequently changed ; now the whole tfroglodyrica 

 was named 'Midoi or Mir hoe % and he who, mall attentively confider the 

 paffage in Pliny, where the towns of Midoe and Afal are mentioned, will 

 perceive 9 that they can be no other than Me roe and JEfar. This inter- 

 change of Ma and ra fo exactly refembles the Sanfcrit., that the name of 

 Meroe feems more probably derived from Mri'da, than from Metfia, or a .. 

 College'- of priefts; efpecially as the Pallis were almoft exclusively attached to 

 the worfhip of MrIra, or Maha'deVa : a place in Pegu, called Mrira from 

 the fame deity, has in Ptolemy the name of Mareura, and is now pre* 

 nounced Mero- by the native s* 



According t© the Purdns, the refidenee of king Ft (who formerly ruled 



over Egypt and Ethiopia) was on the banks of the Call river, and had the- 

 name of Mrira % 01 ' Mrira- ft "hdn t becau-fe its principal temple was dedicated 

 to Mrira and his confort Mrira ni v , or Pa'rvati' : now, when we 

 read in Stepbanus of Byzmtmm $ that the fort of Merufmm near Syracufe 



