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DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT, 
ture of the prophet fulfilled in its most essential 
circumstances. The station of Ibrim, termed 
Efrim 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 cataract, denominated Mahaslas, and Ge- 
nadil. The course of the Nile in this tract has 
been so little explored, that it is impossible to as- 
sign the modern stations which correspond to the 
places mentioned by the ancient geographers. 
Pselchis and Metakompso are placed by Ptolemy 
25' to the south of Philse, a distance which cor- 
responds, in some degree, to the Tachompso of 
Herodotus, The Stadisis of Pliny, founded near 
a cataract of the Nile beyond Pselchis, and des- 
troyed by Petronius the Roman praefect of Egypt, 
seems to have been situated 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 
Sicard Relation ap. Lettres Edifiantes, Vol. IL p» 
