MANSOURA. 
433 
for one has all the appearance of having been the residence of the 
priests and chief only, and the other of the common people. The 
Arabs have made many researches among the ruins of both, and 
have, at different times, found some valuable articles, which they 
sold for an insignificant price at Mansoura, whence they made their 
way to Damietta and Cairo, where the Europeans were always will- 
ing to purchase them. In the vicinity of the present Timai, a 
deserted village at some distance from the ruins, a pit was by acci- 
dent broken into, in which were two hundred figures of Isis, from 
four to nine inches long, of a baked earth, coloured blue, and var- 
nished a little on the outside, with hieroglyphics on the lower part. 
One alone was a foot long, which I purchased for about a shilling. 
On our way back we made a bend to the south, to visit a village, 
near which are the remains of an ancient temple and town. The 
large blocks of granite that lie prostrate on the ground are uni- 
formly broken. I cannot but suspect that the conquerors of this 
country found treasure "concealed in some of the stones of the 
ancient edifices, and that the expectation of finding more, led to the 
laborious destruction of these massive temples, which seem to have 
been constructed to bid defiance to time itself I observed a few 
blocks of a very singular shape, having the external form of a bell, 
but no cavity within, and being five or six feet in diameter at the 
base. They could not have formed a part of any building, nor can 
I conceive any use to which they could be put. I think Timai is 
ten miles from Mansoura, in a due east direction. 
The Schech would make no charge for his men ; I therefore gave 
him a double-barrelled gun for himself, and one thousand paras for 
his relation, who was next in command. 
VOL. nr. 3 k 
* 
