379 
„leichzeitige Epiiraem Syrus sagt in eiiiem Gedichte, das er liber die 
Christenverfolgungen unter Julian schrieb, ‘ Und er (Julian) kam nach 
Harran, der Heidenstadt die reich an Gotzenbildern ist, wo der ruchlose 
Opfer darbrachte.’ Sozomenus sagt nur, dass er nach Harran kam und 
daselbst im Tempel des Jupiter Opfer gebracht und Geliibde gethan habe. 
Socrates spricht gar nicht von diesem Besuche, urn so ausfiihrlicher aber 
Theodoret. Nach diesem soil Julian in Harran in einem heidnischen 
Tempel gewisse Mysterien verrichtet und nach Beendigung derselben die 
Thiiren dieses Tempels geschlossen, zugesiegelt und Wachen mit dem Befehl 
aufgestellt haben, dass Niemand in diesen Tempel eingelassen werde. bis er 
von seinem Feldzuge zuriickkehren werde. Als aber die Nachricht vom 
Tode dieses Kaisers anlangte, sei man in diesen Tempel eingedrungen und 
man habe ein an den Haaren hiingendes Weib mit ausgebreiteten Armen 
gefunden, dessen Leib aufgeschlitzt und aus dessen Leber divinirt worden 
ivar. fovro f.n/v fiigt Theodoret hinzu, ow tv Kappaie etpiopdQii rd fivoot; ” 
The Chairman.— I am sure I may convey the thanks of the meeting to 
Mi. Howard for his interesting paper. Before the discussion begins, I 
would state that so little do the generality of people know about Egypt, that 
at the meeting at Sion College, on the 21st November, 1867, Professor 
Huxley gravely asserted that the Pyramids were built on the mud deposits 
of the Nile. Much has been said by Professor Huxley and others in regard to 
the slow rate of the deposit of the mud of the Nile (a rate which cannot always 
be counted upon as uniform), and they have endeavoured to draw therefrom an 
argument against Scripture chronology. Mr. Howard has told us that one 
of the Assyrian kings turned the course of the Nile in order to get a site for 
the great city of Memphis, and that would alter the whole conditions of that 
place. The Nile is subject to great and sudden changes, with enormous 
deposits in a short space of time ; I myself was once in a vessel which 
pounded in the river, and in three or four hours became embedded as 
it were in a dock. Arguments, therefore, based on a slow rate of deposit 
at once fall to the ground ; and we must also consider that the Nile is a 
river rising beyond its banks at certain times, and spreading over a great 
area of country, from which it brings back large quantities of matter for 
deposit. Such things show that it is impossible to find a measure of the 
great antiquity of Egypt in the rate of the deposits of the mud in the river 
Nile. 
Rev. Prebendary Currey, D.D.-Before I had the pleasure of hearing 
the able paper which Mr. Howard has just read, I had the advantage of 
reading it for myself, which I did with a great deal of interest and attention. 
* Yol. ii. p. 377. 
