I was very well pleased to see here, for the first time, two shepherd dogs lapping up the water from the stream, then lying down in it with great seeming leisure and satisfaction. It refuted the old fable, that the dogs living on the banks of the Nile run as they drink, for fear of the crocodile. All around the villages of Gawa Garbieh, and the plantations belonging to them, Meshta and Raany, with theirs also joining them (that is, all the west side of the river) are cultivated and sown from the very foot of the mountains to the water’s edge, the grain being thrown upon the mud as soon as ever the water has left it. The wheat was at this time about four inches in length. We passed three villages, Shaftour, Commawhaia, and Zinedi; we anchored off Shaftour, and within sight of Taahta. Taahta is a large village, and in it are several mosques. On the east is a mountain called Jibbel Heredy, from a Turkish saint, who was turned into a snake, has lived several hundred years, and is to live for ever. As Christians, Moors, and Turks, all faithfully believe in this, the consequence is, that abundance of nonsense is daily writ and told concerning it. Mr Norden discusses it at large, and afterwards gravely tells us, he does not believe it; in which I certainly must heartily join him, and recommend to my readers to do the same, without reading any thing about it. On the 22d, at night, we arrived at Achmim. I landed my quadrant and instruments, with a view of observing an eclipse of the moon; but, immediately after her rising, clouds and mist so effectually covered the whole heavens, that it was not even possible to catch a star of any size passing the meridian. Achmim is a very considerable place. It belonged once to an Arab prince of that name, who possessed it by a grant from the Grand Signior, for a certain revenue to be paid yearly. That family is now extinct; and another Arab prince, Hamam Shekh of Furshout, now rents it for his life-time, from the Grand Signior, with all the country (except Girgé), from Siout to Luxor. The inhabitants of Achmim are of a very yellow, unhealthy appearance, probably owing to the bad air, occasioned by a very dirty calish that passes through the town. There are, likewise, a great many trees, bushes, and gardens, about the stagnated water, all which increase the bad quality of the air. There is here what is called a Hospice, or Convent of religious Franciscans, for the entertainment of the converts, or persecuted Christians in Nubia, _when they can find them_. This institution I speak of at large in the sequel. One of the last princes of the house of Medicis, all patrons of learning, proposed to furnish them with a compleat observatory, with the most perfect and expensive instruments; but they refused them, from a scruple least it would give umbrage to the natives. The fear that it should expose their own ignorance and idleness, I must think, entered a little into the consideration.