TIMAI. 
42:9 
owner of the village. The Schech Foud Abou Koura of Metel 
Hamour, accompanied us with about twenty horsemen. We halted 
at the first village till our camels past us. They reached another 
unaccompanied, when the inhabitants thought it a good oppor- 
tunity to plunder, and sallied forth. We just then came in sight, 
when our Schech and his people set off full gallop, and obliged the 
rascals to take refuge in the village, all of which have walls to pror 
tect them from the wandering Arabs. Their corn was all piled on the 
outside, in the open air. We reached Timai about six. The village 
Schech paid his compliments, and they permitted us to pitch our 
tents close to the mosque, and the tomb of Schech Abdallah, from 
whom this place takes its name. We sat down, fourteen, to a cold 
dinner, spread on the ground ; the Schech el Arab declined dining 
with us, but sent for a bottle of wine. All the Mussulmauns took their 
share of this prohibited liquor. The villages are built on sandy hil- 
locks, though the plain is composed of the mud of the Nile. The 
strata of those hillocks which were open for pits were regular and 
horizontal ; I conceive therefore that they are natural. 
May 9. — Timai is the Thmuis of Ptolemy, and w^as situated in 
the Mendesian Nome, where, according to Herodotus, the god Pan 
was worshipped, and out of respect to him goats, particularly males, 
were held in great veneration, and one was more honoured than all 
the rest, and his death lamented by the whole Nome. Timai has 
been described by no traveller, and was visited for a short period 
only, by General Vernier, to collect the tribute from the Schechs 
in the vicinity. We arose early in the morning, and visited the 
ruins nearest to us, which are called Medinet Timai, or the Capital. 
We found a place where the soil had been a little thrown up, and 
