RUINS OP SAIS. 291 
from the river'. The French had so often 
stripped and terrified the inhabitants of other 
parts of the Delta, that, although Sdis had 
hitherto escaped their visitation, the mere com- 
ing of strangers filled the Arabs with distrust 
and alarm. However, the sight of a few newly- 
coined paras presently subdued their apprehen- 
sions, and we were surrounded by men, women, 
and children, bringing, as at Saccara, a number 
of curious antiquities. Among these were va- 
rious fragments of antient sculpture, formed of 
dark grey Granite, oi Horhlende Porphyry-, and 
of the sort of Trap which JV ink e Imam r and 
others" have called green hasaltes. This last 
substance has been described as one of the 
hardiest materials of antient art : it is certainly 
one of the most durable, for the works executed 
(1) See the Vignette to this Chapter. 
(2) This substaiice'is the Nh-' e bianco of the Italian lapidaries {See 
Ferber's Trav. in Italy, p. 217- Lond. 177fi.) It consists of white 
opaque crystals of Feldspar, which owe their colour to decomposition, 
imbedded in black Hornblende. The word Porphyry may now be 
used to denote any compound mineral containing crystals of Feldspar. 
Thus we have. Hornblende Porphyry, Pitchstone Porphyry, Serpentine 
Porphyry, &c. &c. 
' (3) Oiuvres de TVinkelmann, torn. I. p. 1(38. Puiis, An 2 de la 
R^publique. 
(4) " Basalles Oiientalis viridis." {Ferber,ubi supra, p. 233.) "Ex- 
tremely hard, homogeneous, and compact, without any crystalliza- 
tions." 
u a 
