The [329] _Egyptians_ originally lived on the fruits of the earth, and fared hardly, and abstained from animals, and therefore abominated Shepherds: _Menes_ taught them to adorn their beds and tables with rich furniture and carpets, and brought in amongst them a sumptuous, delicious and voluptuous way of life: and about a hundred years after his death, _Gnephacthus_ one of his successors cursed him for it, and to reduce the luxury of _Egypt_, caused the curse to be entered in the Temple of _Jupiter_ at _Thebes_; and by this curse the honour of _Menes_ was diminished among the _Egyptians_. The Kings of _Egypt_ who expelled the Shepherds and Succeeded them, Reigned I think first at _Coptos_, and then at _Thebes_, and then at _Memphis_. At _Coptos_ I place _Misphragmuthosis_ and _Amosis_ or _Thomosis_ who expelled the Shepherds, and abolished their custom of sacrificing men, and extended the _Coptic_ language, and the name of Αια Κοπτου, _Aegyptus_, to the conquest. Then _Thebes_ became the Royal City of _Ammon_, and from him was called _No-Ammon,_ and his conquest on the west of _Egypt_ was called _Ammonia._ After him, in the same city of _Thebes_, Reigned _Osiris_, _Orus_, _Menes_ or _Amenophis_, and _Ramesses_: but _Memphis_ and her miracles were not yet celebrated in _Greece_; for _Homer_ celebrates _Thebes_ as in its glory in his days, and makes no mention of _Memphis_. After _Menes_ had built _Memphis, Mœris_ the successor of _Ramesses_ adorned it, and made it the seat of the Kingdom, and this was almost two Generations after the _Trojan_ war. _Cinyras_, the _Vulcan_ who married _Venus_, and under the Kings of _Egypt_ Reigned over _Cyprus_ and part of _Phœnicia_, and made armour for those Kings, lived 'till the times of the _Trojan_ war: and upon his death _Menes_ or _Memnon_ might Deify him, and found the famous Temple of _Vulcan_ in that city for his worship, but not live to finish it. In a plain [330] not far from _Memphis_ are many small Pyramids, said to be built by _Venephes_ or _Enephes_; and I suspect that _Venephes_ and _Enephes_ have been corruptly written for _Menephes_ or _Amenophis_, the letters _AM_ being almost worn out in some old manuscript: for after the example of these Pyramids, the following Kings, _Mœris_ and his successors, built others much larger. The plain in which they were built was the burying-place of that city, as appears by the Mummies there found; and therefore the Pyramids were the sepulchral monuments of the Kings and Princes of that city: and by these and such like works the city grew famous soon after the days of _Homer_; who therefore flourished in the Reign of _Ramesses_.