There is a reason for thinking that such was the case. The story of Krôphi and Môphi, in spite of the suspicions of Herodotos, is remarkably correct; even the name of Krôphi has not undergone a greater amount of transformation than it might have done if Herodotos had written it down himself from the scribe’s mouth. It is the Egyptian Qerti or Qoriti, “the two holes” out of which Egyptian mythology supposed Hâpi, the Nile-god, to emerge at the period of the inundation. The Qerti were at the foot of the granite peaks of Senem, the island of Bigeh, and of the opposite cliff on the southern side of the First Cataract. We can almost fix the exact spot where one of these Qerti was believed to have been. On the western bank of Philæ, immediately facing Bigeh, is a portal built in the reign of Hadrian, on the inner north wall of which is a picture of it. We see the granite blocks of Bigeh piled one upon the other up to the summit of the island where Mut the divine mother, and Horus the saviour, sit and keep watch over the waters of the southern Nile. Below is the cavern, encircled by a guardian serpent, within which the Nile-god is crouched, pouring from a vase in either hand the waters of the river. Though in certain points Herodotos has misunderstood his informant, on the whole the story of Krôphi and Môphi is a fairly accurate page from the volume of Egyptian mythology. Even the jingling Môphi may be derived from the Egyptian _moniti_ or “mountains” between which the river ran, though Lauth may be right in holding that Krôphi is Qer-Hâpi, “the hollow of the Nile,” and Môphi Mu-Hâpi, “the waters of the Nile.” But in one point the Greek historian has made a serious mistake. It was not between Assuan and Elephantinê that the sources of the Nile were placed, but between Bigeh and the mainland, on the other side of the Cataract. Between Assuan and Elephantinê there are no “mountains,” only the channel of the river. In saying therefore that Krôphi and Môphi were mountains and that they rose between Syênê and Elephantinê, Herodotos proves beyond all possibility of doubt that he had never been at the spot. Had he actually visited Assuan the words of the sacred scribe would have been reported more correctly.