8S T H E B E S. 
tlie walls, at the outside of the town, we 
observed a massive Soros of one entire block of 
marble, serving as a cistern beneath a fountain. 
It is close to the public road. Upon this Soros 
there appeared a very curious bas-relief, repre- 
senting, in rude and most antient sculpture, the 
figure of a Phoenix, perched upon the pinnacle of 
an obelisk'. In the position of ?i Soros so near 
to one of the antient fountains of the city, there is 
certainly nothing remarkable, because it is a 
custom common to all Turkey; but such is the 
habitual indolence of the Turks, that although 
they make this use of the sepulchres of the 
nations which formerly surrounded the jEgean, 
and more eastern parts of the Mediterranean, yet 
they will not bestow much labour upon the 
removal of immense monolithal Soroi: the foun- 
tain must be near to the spot where the tomb is 
situate, or they will be contented to carry on 
tlieir ablutions without placing any such cistern 
(l) A valuable observation is made by Paitsanlus, to prove tbal the 
culoijy under Cadtnus was not Egyptian, hut Phanician. He say', 
that a statue of Minerva shewn in Thebes, as bein^ dedicated by 
Cadmus, was not called Sais, according' to her ^^gyptiun ap|icllalion, 
but that it bore her PItauicum name of Siga. T«;; oZv )io^i'C,euiriv ik ynv 
u^ixi^^ai Kc'^h/jLov rriv Hfi/iatSa, Aiyu^Tiov, xai oh <i>oivi»a o'vra, 'iffrit Uavrict 
tS Xoyiu Tii; Ai'»i»£,' rcc-jrzs '^'o 'ovo/j.a., on 'S.iya, xara, yXu^ua.'/ tv ^citiKu* 
KaktiTui, xai ou '2,-j.ii Kaza. r/iv AlyuTTiaiv ^unr,*. fiilinan. Bccot, C. 12. 
j>. 734. cd. Kuhnii. 
