Arsinoe, which stood at the northern extremity of the Red Sea, near the modern town of Sooez, was founded by the second Ptolemy, and so named after his sister. Though vessels anchored there rode secure from the violence of the sea, its exposed situation, and the dangers they encountered in working up the narrow extremity of the gulf, rendered its position † less eligible for the Indian trade than either Myos Hormos or Berenice; and had it not been for the convenience of establishing a communication with the Nile by a canal, and the shortness of the journey across the desert in that part, it is probable it would not have been chosen for a sea-port.

The small towns of Nechesia and the Leucos Portus were probably of Roman date, though the natural harbours they possess may have been used at a much earlier period. Their positions are still marked by the ruins on the shore, in latitude 24° 54′ and 25° 37', where I discovered them in 1826, while making a survey of this part of the coast from Sooez to Berenice. The former stands in, and perhaps gave the name to, the Wadee Nukkaree;

"Arsinoen. . . . conditam sororis nomine in sinu charandra, à Ptolemæo Philadelpho." Plin. vi. 29.

It probably succeeded to some more ancient town. It is not certain that Clysma stood there; but Qolzim appears to have occupied the site of Arsinoe and part of the modern Sooez. Vide my Egypt and Thebes, p. 540. note †. Herodotus (ii. 158.) says the canal entered the Red Sea near to Patumos; we may therefore conclude that town stood on the same spot as Arsinoe. We again trace in Patumos the name Pi-thom. It was common to many towns. Thomu, Thmui, and others are evidently derived, like Thummim, from Thmei, the goddess of Truth or Justice. In Egyptian pi is "the," and pa belonging to."

the latter is called E'Shoona, or "the Magazine*," and, from being built of very white limestone, was readily indicated by the Arabs when I inquired of them the site of the White Harbour.

Many other ports, the "Portus multi" of Pliny †, occur along the coast, particularly between Berenice and Kossayr; but though they all have landmarks to guide boats in approaching their rocky entrances, none of them have any remains of a town, or the vestiges of habitations.

The principal objects introduced in early times into Egypt, from Arabia and India, were spices and various oriental productions ‡, required either for the service of religion, or the purposes of luxury; and a number of precious stones, lapis lazzuli, and other things brought from those countries, are frequently discovered in the tombs of Thebes, bearing the names of Pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty. The mines of their own desert did, indeed, supply the emeralds they used; and these were worked as early, at least, as the reign of Amunoph III., or 1425 B. C., but many other stones must have come from India; and some plants, as the Nymphæa Nelumbo, could only have been introduced from that country. §

Though we cannot ascertain the extent or exact

* This word is taken from the Arabic Mukhzen, of similar import. + Plin. vi. 29.

Chinese bottles, with inscriptions in that language, are found in ancient tombs at Thebes, but of what date I am uncertain.

§ It was evidently not indigenous to Egypt, from the care that was necessary in planting it, and is now totally unknown in the valley of the Nile. Before they introduced it, would they not have seen the plant? and who was likely to bring the roots but some of their own people?

quality of the various imports, of goods re-exported from Egypt, or the proportion which these last bore to the internal consumption, it is reasonable to conclude that every article of luxury was a source of revenue to the government; and that both native and foreign productions coming under this denomination, whether exported or sold in Egypt, tended to enrich the state, to which they belonged, or paid a duty.

That the riches of the country were immense is proved by the appearance of the furniture and domestic utensils, and by the great quantity of jewels of gold, silver, precious stones, and other objects of luxury in use among them in the earliest times; their treasures became proverbial throughout the neighbouring states *, and a love of pomp and splendour continued to be the ruling passion of the Egyptians till the latest period of their existence as an independent state, which is fully demonstrated by the history of the celebrated Cleopatra.

Another source of wealth was derived from the gold mines in the desert of the upper country. Their position, still known to the Arabs, is about S. E. from Baháyreh, a village opposite the town of Edfoot, or Apollinopolis Magna, and at a distance of nearly ten days' journey from that place, in the

"Greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." Ep. Hebr. xi. 26. "The pomp of Egypt." Ezek. xxxii. 12. Conf. also the jewels of silver and gold which the Jews borrowed of the Egyptians. Exod.

xii. 35.

They have lately been visited by Monsieur Linant and Mr. Bonomi, who have found the account of the Arabs to agree very well with their position.

Edfoo is in latitude 24° 58′.

mountains of the Bisharéëh. The Arab authors, Edrisi, Ebn-Saïd, and Aboolfidda, place them at Gebel Ollágee, a mountain situated in the land of Begá; and this last word at once points out the Bisháree desert, being still used by the tribe as their own name. The gold lies in veins of quartz*, in the rocks bordering an inhospitable valley and its adjacent ravines; but the small quantity they are capable of producing by immense labour, added to the difficulty of procuring water, and other local impediments, would probably render the re-opening of them at the present day an unprofitable speculation; and indeed in the time of Aboolfidda + they only just covered their expenses, and have never been worked since they were abandoned by the Arab caliphs. According to Agatharcides' account, the toil of extracting the gold was immense: it was separated from the pounded stone by frequent washings, and this process appears to be represented in the paintings of tombs executed during the reign of Osirtasen, and other ancient Pharaohs. We have no positive notice of their first discovery, but it is reasonable to suppose they were worked at the earliest periods of the Egyptian monarchy; and the total of their annual produce is stated by Hecatæus to have been re

* Mohammed Ali had an idea of re-opening them, but I believe the project has been abandoned. Wherever the ancients met with veins of quartz in the desert, I observe they invariably broke up portions of it, doubtless to try if it contained gold.

+ Or Omad-e'-deen-Aboolfeda, Ismail-ben-Nasser. He was king of Hamah in Syria, and lived about the year 730 of the Hegira, A.D. 1334.

Diodorus, i. 49., on his authority.

corded in a temple founded by a monarch of the 18th Dynasty. He also notices an immense sum annually produced from the silver mines of Egypt, which amounted to 3,200 myriads of minæ. * Besides these were valuable mines of copper, lead, iron, and emeralds, all of which still exist in the deserts of the Red Sea; and the sulphur, which abounds in the same districts, was not neglected by the ancient Egyptians.

The riches, then, of the country were principally derived from taxes, foreign tribute, monopolies, commerce, mines, and above all from the productions of a fruitful soil. The wants of the poorer classes were easily satisfied; the abundance of grain, herbs, and esculent plants, afforded an ample supply to the inhabitants of the valley of the Nile, at a trifling expense, and with little labour; and so much corn was produced in this fertile country, that after sufficing for the consumption of a very extensive population, it offered a great surplus for the foreign markett; and the quantity on hand enabling the peasant to sell it at a low rate necessarily afforded considerable profit to the government, being exported to other countries, or sold to the traders who visited Egypt for commercial purposes.

Though the lower classes of the people appear to have been contented with their condition, there is no evidence of their having participated in

* Vide suprà, p. 113.

An idea may be formed of the quantity produced in Egypt from the account of the famine of Joseph, when they were enabled to lay up from the superabundance of seven plenteous years enough corn to suffice for seven years of dearth. Gen. xli. 47.