ALEXANDRIA. 335 
not mention, even now, the name of the indi- chaf. 
vidual to whom it was addressed. " It relates < /— ' 
then," said they, " to the particular object of 
our present visit ; and we will put it in your 
power to get possession of it." They then 
related the unjustifiable measures used for its 
removal by the French, upon whom they be- 
stowed every degrading epithet which their 
indignation could suggest; telling us, also, the 
veneration in which the Moslems had always 
held it, and the tradition familiar to all of them 
respecting its origin. Indeed, this tradition had 
been so long established, that it is marvellous it 
had been so little noticed among the Academies 
of Europe"^. Leo Afrtcanus, long subsequent 
to the conquest o^ Alexandria by the Saracens, 
had recorded the tradition'; and Freinshemms, 
in his Supplement to Livy, had admitted the 
authority of Leo *. That it should particularly 
excite the attention of Frenchmen, is easily ex- 
plained. Their own countryman, Rollin, had 
(2) Many were mi=led by the words of Juvenal : 
" Cum tamen a figulis munitatn iiitraverit urbem 
" Sarcopkago contentU3 erit." 
supposing the allusion to be iatended rather for Babylon, than for 
.4kxcmdria, where Juvenal had himself visited the Tomb. 
(3) Alexandria Tieicn^t. torn. IJ. lib. 8. p. 67T. Ehev. 1632. 
(4) Lib. 133. torn. v. p. 637. edit. Crsvier. 
