160 DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
country, who imagine that "every cave has its 
" treasure/ 5 thus vindicated the researches of that 
author from the aspersions of his countrymen : 
" You know not that the ancestors of the Franks 
" occupied this country, and that it is from re- 
" spect to the monuments of their ancestors that 
" they visit these ruins, as objects which remind 
" them of their ancient grandeur." * This opinion, 
though characteristic of barbarian manners, is cre- 
ditable to the Arab, if the force of popular preju- 
dices be considered, especially as the Egyptians of 
this period dreaded the total subversion of the 
Mahometan power, and the establishment of the 
empire of The Yellow King, or Russian Czar. 
Opposite to Dendera, on the eastern bank of the 
Nile, lies Kene or Giene, the ancient Ccene or 
Ccenopolis, situated on an eminence. Since the 
decline of Coptos or Keft, the Sanscrit Gupta, its 
ruins lie about four leagues above Kene, on the 
same bank of the river. The ruins of this city, 
which occupy an eminence of two miles in circum- 
ference, are marked only by a few fragments of 
granite and mutilated sarcophagi, sunk in the ele- 
vated soil. In the reign of the Ptolemies, this 
city was the mart of Indian commerce ; it was 
watered by a canal of the Nile, and inhabited by 
Egyptians and Arabs. By this route, the produce 
* Sonnini's Travels, p. -5,90, 4to. 
