"Est et aliud Hammonis nemus: in medio habet fontem (Solis aquam vocant): sub lucis ortum tepida manat, medio die, cujus vehementissimus est calor, frigida eadem fluit, inclinato in vesperam calescit, media nocte fervida exaestuat, quoque nox propius vergit ad lucem, multum ex nocturno calore decrescit, donec sub ipsum diei ortum assueto tepore languescat.... _Hunc, cum responsum petitur, navigio aurato gestant sacerdotes, multis argenteis pateris ab utroque navigii latere pendentibus: sequuntur matronae virginesque, patrio more inconditum quoddam carmen canentes, quo propitiari Jovem credunt, ut certum edat oraculum._"[550]--Q. Curtius Rufus, _De Gestis Alex._, iv. 31 (ed. Zumpt). The sentence italicised and translated makes it clear that Wordsworth was dealing in this instance with the text of Quintus Curtius, as he dealt with that of Herodotus, for example, in _The Excursion_, when he described the Tower eight times planted on the top of tower, That Belus, nightly to his splendid couch Descending, there might rest. (Book iv. ll. 685-687.) For discussions on the oases and Temple of Jupiter Ammon, see _Travels in Africa, Egypt_, etc., by W. G. Browne (1792 to 1798), _The Journal of Frederick Horneman's Travels from Cairo to Mourzouk_ (1797-8), _Narrative of Operations and Discoveries in Egypt_, etc., by G. Balzoni, and note M in Pratt's _Quintus Curtius_, vol. i.--ED.] [Footnote IV: "Old Cham, the solar Deity," was the same as "the Ammonian Jove." The statue of the god in the Temple was ram-headed and horned, hence the Egyptian veneration for the ram.--ED.] [Footnote IW: Compare _Paradise Lost_, book xi. ll. 745-747.--ED.] [Footnote IX: "This refers to the triumphal processions along the Via Sacra, in which the fortunate general was decorated with all the insignia of Jupiter. (See Livy, book x. c. 7.) The captive princes, who were conducted in the procession, were put to death in the prison at the ascent of the Capitoline, before the triumphal offerings were made to the gods." (W. A. Heard.)] [Footnote IY: "This refers to the Ludi Circenses (Livy, book i. 9), when the gods were conducted to the circus in a magnificent procession, their images carried on a kind of frame, or placed in sacred chariots called 'tensae,' which are alluded to in the next line." (W. A. Heard.)] [Footnote IZ: "Ludi Cerealia (Livy, book xxx. 39; Ovid, _Fasti_, iv. 391)-- Circus erit pompa celeber numeroque deorum, Primaque ventosis palma petetur equis. Hinc Cereris ludi." (W. A. Heard.) ] [Footnote JA: "The salii, or priests of Mars, on his festival, marched through the streets, stamping in a kind of dance and striking the sacred shields (ancilia.) A saltu nomina dicta. Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 387." (W. A. Heard.) ]