and such remains of antiquity as are found in its neighbourhood, leaving our attendants to prepare dinner. It was soon manifest we had got among a race of people exceedingly different, in temper and character, from the Fellahs on the Nile; for, instead of exhibiting that naïve simplicity and curious wonder, always evident in the countenance of the latter, the Fayoomis displayed in their behaviour an impudent familiarity, bordering on positive insolence; wished to snatch our arms out of our hands, in order to satisfy their curiosity in their own way; followed us about in crowds, insisting, whether we would or not, on constituting themselves our guides; to which we at length put a stop, by informing them that, whether they guided or left us to ourselves, was a matter of perfect indifference, for that, in either case, we had determined not to give them a single parā. However, two or three men still stuck close to our skirts, but conducted themselves very civilly; and we promised to employ them, should we need any guides on the

morrow.

DXLVIII. At Tameia the principal objects of curiosity are the remains of the extensive reservoir and water-works, by means of which all the fields in the vicinity were formerly irrigated. Pococke, in whose time this reservoir was still perfect, seems to have inferred, from the information of the natives, that it was quite a recent work, constructed in consequence of the gradual filling up of the canal; which originally, he supposed, conveyed from the Nile suffi

cient water for the purposes of agriculture. But in this he appears to be mistaken; for, since the beds of the canals, everywhere, perhaps, in the Fayoom, are higher than the level of the river, still more of the lake, reservoirs, or sluices, must always have been necessary, to prevent the watercourses from becoming absolutely dry. To those who may imagine that the canals were formerly of much greater depth, it will be sufficient to observe that, in the neighbourhood of Tameia, at least, the supposition is impossible, since the water, which is nowhere half-leg deep, now runs like a natural rivulet, among pebbles and fragments of stone over the living rock. On either shore of this tiny stream the alluvial deposit, left by the inundation, which did not rise a foot above the level of the water, was in many places cultivated, and covered with a good crop of corn. The banks on both sides are high, and lined at intervals with masonry; while massive ruins and substructions, whose use it seemed difficult to divine, are scattered about in various directions. A dam, or wall, of immense height and thickness, well supported externally by a number of enormous buttresses, was formerly thrown across the valley; for, from its great breadth and depth it deserves the name; but this has been partly overthrown and swept away by some resistless flood, leaving a gap, towards the centre, of about forty yards across. Other water-works, of inferior dimensions and importance, exist close to this, on the western bank of the canal; and, apparently, are still available in irrigation. The canals by which this part of the Fayoom is fer

tilised, do not, as Pococke imagined, communicate directly with the Nile; being minor branches of the Bahr Youssouff, running off from the main stream in the neighbourhood of Hawara, and Senofer, passing some by Saylek, Sirsin, and Maátli, and others by Masloob, el Massera, and Zirbi. Extensive tracts of land, formerly cultivated to the east of these canals, are now neglected, and gradually, through lack of moisture, crumbling into sand, and mingling with the desert, which at present seems to be every where gaining ground.

DXLIX. About the bed of the canal were numerous water-fowl, such as wild ducks, curlews, snipes, and siksaks, skimming to and fro, and uttering their plaintive screams; but as it seemed probable we should have other use for our arms, we did not fire at them. The stream, diminutive but rapid, ran in limpid purity through a channel sometimes rocky, sometimes lined with a mossy grass, rippling, murmuring, or breaking in tiny cascades over abrupt descents in its bed. We pursued its course for two or three miles, in the hope of discovering some genuine remnant of antiquity, or that remarkable opening, whether natural or artificial, by which lake Moris is said to have flowed, during six months of the year, into the Nile. In the latter expectation we were disappointed; nothing resembling such a channel appeared; and observing that sunset was drawing near, after which, in the present insurrectionary state of the province, it might not be quite prudent

to be found far from the villages, we desisted from further search. Before we quitted the channel of the canel, a wild beast, which Monro conceived to be a hyæna, appeared in one of the breaks on the opposite bank; but, whatever it was, it very quietly, on our approach, made its escape into the desert. On attaining an elevated point of the undulating plain, west of the stream, I caught the first glimpse of Lake Moris, magnificently stretching away from east to west, crimsoned all over by the setting sun, and glittering like a sea of molten amethyst. To obtain a more extensive view of this glorious prospect, we climbed to the top of a ruined Sheikh's tomb, such as are found picturesquely scattered over all the desert parts of Egypt, -and from thence beheld what, if it be really, as antiquity believed, artificial, must incontestably be regarded as the greatest, most poetical, and sublime of all the works of the Egyptian kings. My thoughts, by a very intelligible transition, were immediately hurried away to the shores of lake Leman, which accidental circumstances caused me to esteem the most sacred spot on earth and this ideal association, causing my heart to leap, and my blood to run more rapidly through my veins, communicated, imperceptibly perhaps, to the scene before me, a beauty, a grandeur, an enchaining interest, which, in the estimation of many other travellers, it may not appear to possess: and to the same source may possibly be traced much of the melancholy pleasure I afterwards experienced in wandering along its wild and solitary shores. But,

independently of any consideration connected with my personal feelings, this noble lake must always be regarded with a kind of enthusiasm. Those vast basins scooped out by the hand of nature on the surface of our globe, however immense they may be, excite in us no wonder, since we know that to the Power which created them all things are possible; but when we behold something similar effected by the genius and labour of man, producing a remarkable and permanent feature in the external configuration of the world, it seems lawful to experience something like exultation, while we reflect that, however feeble and transitory we may be, it is still within our competency, when seconded by the cooperation of others, to construct for the admiration and benefit of future ages monuments little less durable, perhaps, than the world itself.

DL. Near the saint's tomb, the ruins of which afforded us so fine a view of the lake, we observed, in a field formerly cultivated, fragments of two red granite columns *, most exquisitely polished, and, if the word be admissible, scolloped instead of fluted. Some great public edifice, palace or temple, must therefore have formerly existed near this spot, of which further traces might probably be discovered by

* Excepting at Alexandria, granite columns are of rare occurrence in Egypt; but Belzoni was wrong in supposing that, in this province, they occur nowhere, excepting at Medinet, and near the pyramids of the Fayoom. Though the sanctuary at Karnak is, perhaps, an exception, it may, in general, be said that the structures in which they are found are of comparatively modern date.