438 On Egypt and the Nile 



fives, but almoft wholly deftroyed the king's army, as the fon oFJamadagni 

 nearly extirpated the military clafs ; but the fragments of Manetho, although 

 they contain curious matter, are not free from the fufpicion of errours and 

 tranfpoiitions. The feat of Tamo'vatsa, called Tamo'vatfa-Jl'hdn, feems 

 to be the town of Thmuis, now Tmaie, in the diflricl of Thmuites : in later 

 times it appears to have communicated its name to the Phatmetick branch, 

 and thence to Tamiathis, the prefent Damiata. We before afcertained the 

 fituationofCri}#/ztf-gz>7; and* as to the three faipendous edifices, called moun- 

 tains from their fize and form, there can be little or no doubt, that they were 

 the three great Pyramids near Mifra-j? ban, or Memphis ; which, according 

 to the Pur anas and to Pliny, were built from a motive of orientation, but, 

 according to Aristotle, were monuments of 'tyranny : Rucmavatsa was 

 no tyrant to his own people, whom he cherified, fays the Mahdcalpa, as if 

 they had been his own children j but he might have compelled- the native 

 Egyptians to work, for the fake of keeping them employed and fubduing their 

 fpirit. It is no wonder, that authors differ as to tn« founders of thofe vafl 

 buildings; for the people of Egypt, fays Herodotus, held their memory 

 in fuch deteftation, that they would not even pronounce their names : they 

 told him, however, that they were built by a herdfman, whom he calls 

 Philitius, and who was a leader of the Palis or Bhils mentioned in our firft 

 fe&ion. The pyramids might have Been called mountains of gold, fiver, and 

 precious jlones, in the hyperbolical ftyle of the Eafl ; but I rather fuppofe, 

 that the fir ft was faid to be of gold, becaufe it was coated with yellow mar- 

 ble; the fecond of Jifoer, becaufe it had a coating of white marble ; and the 

 third of jewels, became it excelled the others in magnificence, being coated 

 with a beautiful fpotted marble of a fine grain, and fufceptible of an exquifite 

 polifh {a). The Brdbmens never underftood, that any pyramid in Mifra- 



(<?) Savary Vol, 1. p. 246. 



