Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/150

130 thic taste, something like metopes, triglyphs, and guttæ, disposed rudely, and without order, but there are no characters or figures. The face of this pyramid looks due south; has been placed with great exactness, and preserves its perpendicular position till this day. As this obelisk has been otherwise described as to its ornaments, I have given a geometrical elevation of it servilely copied, without shading or perspective, that all kind of readers may understand it.

passing the convent of Abba Pantaleon, called in Abyssinia, Mantilles, and the small obelisk situated on a rock above, we proceed south by a road cut in a mountain of red marble, having on the left a parapet-wall about five feet high, solid, and of the same materials. At equal distances there are hewn in this wall solid pedestals, upon the tops of which we see the marks where stood the Colossal statues of Syrius the Latrator Anubis, or Dog Star. One hundred and thirty-three of these pedestals, with the marks of the statues I just mentioned, are still in their places; but only two figures of the dog remained when I was there, much mutilated, but of a taste easily distinguished to be Egyptian. These are composed of granite, but some of them appear to have been of metal. Axum, being the capital of Siris, or Sirè, from this we easily see what connection this capital of the province had with the dog-star, and consequently the absurdity of supposing that the river derived its name from a Hebrew word, signifying black.