186 
DESCRIPTIONS OP EGYPT. 
which has been commonly dependent on Egypt, 
is situated in N. L. 19° ^0', and seems to corres- 
pond to the Soter Limen of Diodorus. The har- 
bour of Suakem is safe and capacious. The name 
is probably the sanie with the Suche of Pliny, 
placed on this coast, and seems to be derived 
from the Sukim or Troglodytes, its ancient inhabi- 
tants. Perhaps all these terms are connected with 
Suah^ a characteristic name of the shepherd tribes. 
The Ptolemais Epitheras, or Ptolemais in the 
country of wild beasts, was the last station on this 
coast founded for the protection of the elephant 
hunters of Egypt. It appears to have been si- 
tuated on a promontory, which projects into a 
bay of the Nubian forest, about N. L. 17"" 6^ 
These extreme stations on the African coast are 
rather to be regarded as frontier posts, than as 
forming any part of the proper territory of Egypt. 
They have in every age been occupied by a race 
distinct from the inhabitants of the valley of the 
Nile, in features, in language, in customs, and in 
manners ; but they have been subject to Egypt 
whenever the government of that country pos- 
sessed either energy or stability. 
The fervid imagination of the Orientals, always 
fond of conferring life and motion on inanimate 
objects, compares Egypt to their fabulous bird, the 
great Rokh, the valley of the river representing its 
body, and the deserts of the east and west its ex- 
