DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
181 
ture of the prophet fulfilled in its most essential 
circumstances. The station of Ibrim, termed Ef- 
rim by Maillet, lies above Deir. Sicard terms it 
the capital of Nubia on the south-east. * At some 
distance beyond Ibrim is the second or great cata- 
ract, denominated Mahaslas, and Genadil. The 
course of the Nile in this tract has been so little 
explored, that it is impossible to assign the modern 
stations which correspond to the places mentioned 
by the ancient geographers. Pselchis and Meta- 
kompso are placed by Ptolemy %5' to the south of 
Philae, a distance which corresponds, in some de- 
gree, to the Tachompso of Herodotus. The Sta- 
disis of Pliny, founded near a cataract of the Nile 
beyond Pselchis, and destroyed by Petronius the 
Roman praefect of Egypt, seems to have been situ- 
ated in the vicinity of the second cataract. 
From the topography of the valley of the Nile, 
" that land, whereof the air is pleasant, the waters 
" sweet, and the valleys green, which is adorned 
" with a river of paradise, on which the eye of the 
" Almighty watches night and day," we turn to 
describe the eastern desert of the Thebaid, a dis- 
trict whose horrid aspect nurses misanthropy in the 
breasts of the wretched, and invites them to pine 
in its savage solitudes. In this vast expanse of 
naked rocks and burning sand, we search in vain 
* Sicard Relation ap. Lettres Edifiantes, Vol. II. p. 186. 
