travels

104 TRAVELS IN EGYPT, NUBIA,At Hellaal, the ancient Elethias, numerous tombs in theMokattam, included in a space of more than two miles, partof which is in a large amphitheatre, formed by the hills retiringto the east from a narrow chasm, showed the existenceof an immense city, of which there are no remains, except afew columns, one small building, and an entrenchment ofunburnt bricks, whose base is forty feet, and called forth thespeculations of Denon and other travellers.The tombs containpaintings, supposed to represent the profession of thedeceased; and, amongst the articles of husbandry, in one ofthem is the.sickle, now unknown to the modern inhabitantsof Upper Egypt, who pull the corn up by the roots.It was in the mountains above Hellaal, that I saw theNems, an animal larger than the fox, resembling a wolf orjackall, which Hassalquist calls the Ichneumon.Not farfrom this, I was surprised by the appearance of a large reptileOf the lizard kind, about eight or nine feet long, of a richgreen colour, creeping amongst some sount bushes near theshores of the Nile.It answered the description of the animalWhich some old traveller, whose name I cannot exactly recollect,found in the Syrian desert; and stamps as the realdragon whom St. George was said to have encountered.Theboatmen gave a name to it, which I neglected to write down,and it escaped my memory to ask it again.of the Guaina kind.It appears to beΚΥΠΡΙΑΚΗ ΒΙΒΛΙΟΘΗΚΗ