from the Ancient Books of the Hindus, 



397 



between' the canals of the Delta, near the fea and the lake Manzale, for the 

 Prophet N ah um(a) defcribes it as a tovmjituated among rivers, with water's 

 round about it, and the fea for its rampart; fo that it could not be either 

 of the towns, named alfo Diofpolis, in Upper Egypt; and the Hindu author 

 fays exprefsly, that it lay to- the north of Himadri. 



Having before declared my opinion, that the Noph of the three greater 

 Prophets was. derived from Nabhas, or the fky, and was properly called 

 Nabha-ifwara-fT ban, or Nabha-fl'hdn, I have little to add here: Hose a 

 once calls it Mophfb), and the Chaldean paraphraft, Maphes ; while Rabbi 

 Kimchi afferts,, that Moph and Noph were one and the fame town : the 

 Seventy always render it Memphis, which the Copts and Arabs pronounce 

 Menuf or Men/; and, though I am well aware, that fome travellers and 

 men of learning deny the modern Men/ to be on the fite'of Memphis, yet, 

 in the former feclion, I have given my reafons for difTenting from them, 

 and obferved, that Memphis occupied a vail extent of ground along' the Nile, 

 confiding in fact of feveral towns or divisions, which had become conti- 

 guous by the acceffion of new buildings. May not the words Noph and 

 Men/ have been taken from Nahha and Mdnava, iince Nabho'mdnava, as a 

 title of Is war a, w r ould fignify the celejiial mans! The Egyptian priefts 

 had nearly the fame ftory, which we find in the Purdns ; for they related, 

 that the ocean formerly reached to the fpot, where Memphis was built by- 

 king. Mines, Minas, or Mi neva s, who forced the fea back by altering 

 the courfe of the Nile, which* depofitingits mud iVimmenfe quantities, 

 gradually formed the Delta. 



Diospolis, diftinguifhed by the epithet great, was a name of Thehf v 



(*)'Ch. 3. v. 8. {b) Ch. 9. v. 6. 



