: 340 • OnEgypt and the Nile 



elation of the Ethiopians, 1 who generally fubftituted the letter T for P, which> 

 they could not articulate : from the data in Ptolemy, it could not have beea 

 above fix miles to the weft-' of Thebes, and was, therefore, in. that large iiland 

 formed by an arm of the Nik, which branches out at Ermerdh, and rejoins 

 the main body of the river at the Memnonium. According to the old Egyp- 

 tians, ; the lea had left all Upper Egypt from the Gatara&s as < far as Memphis % 

 and the diftance between thofe 'two places is nearly that' mentioned in the Pu- 

 rdnas, or about a hundred yojans : the God of the Ocean> it feems, had at- 

 tempted to regain the land, which he had been forced to relinquilh; but 

 MahaVe 'va, (with a new title derived from Nabhas, or the JJ:y, and 

 Is w aba or lord) effectually flopped his encroachments; and this was the 

 origin of Nabhah-Jl'han, or Memphis, which was the moil: diftinguimed 

 among the many eonfiderable places in Mifra, and which- appears to have 

 confifted of feveral detached parts; as 1 . "Ugra-fi'kan, fo called from Ugra, 

 the Uchoreus of the Greeks - y 1. Nabhah, the Noph of Scripture y 3. a part 

 named Mifra; 4. Mohana-ft ban* which may, perhaps, be the prefent Mo* 

 bannan; and 5. Laya-Ji'han, or Laya-vatl, vulgarly pronounced Laydti* the 

 fuburb of Lete, or Letopelis. 



Ro'DANA-/to, or the place of Weeping, is the ifland in the lake ot 

 Mdri/ha, or Maris, concerning which we have the following Indian ftory in 



the Vifwafara-pracdfa. 



Pet'i'-s'uca, who had a power of feparating his foul from his body, vo- 

 luntarily afcended toward heaven j and his wife Ma'ri'sha', fuppofmg him 

 finally departed, retired to a wildernefs, where fhe fat on a hillock, fhedding 

 tears fo abundantly, that they formed a lake round it ; which was afterwards 

 mmz&A&ru-ttrfha, or the holy place of tears : its waters were black, or very 



