I  Of  Asstman,  in  the  way  of  useful  information,  it  is
ptffident  to  say  that  it  is  a  town  of  4,0t)0  inhabitants,  580
piles  south  of  Cairo,  730  south  of  the  Mediterranean.  It
mk  to  be  supposed  that  the  town  lay  directly  under  the
Ppitor.  In  the  ancient  days  Assouan  wjus  a  quarry,  and
pre  were  found  the  stones  which  became  olxilLsks,  temples
bd  tombs.  As-souan's  history  is  associated  more  with
Arabian  than  Egyptian  history.  When  Islam  was  march-
be  to  conquer  the  world,  the  Saracens  made  a  town  here
U  an  outpost.  When  this  glory  departed,  Assouan  be-
bn,  like  most  frontier  towns  in  the  wild  days  of  men,
BL>i>ccne  of  constant  strifes  and  schisms  between  the
Bosnsuud  Egyptians.  There  is  a  place  called  the  Place
ritartyrs,  Moslem  martyrs,  and  a  mosque  800  years  old


300


GRANT'S    TOUR


and  many  Turkish  inscriptions: — "I  bear  witnea
there  ia  no  God  but  God  ;  that  He  has  no  rival,  and  th
Mohammed  ig  the  prophet  of  God."  We  did  not  visit
the^c  places,  and  were,  I  am  afraid,  more  interested  in
knowing  that  it  Avas  at  Assouan  that  Juvenal  lived  iu  ban-
ishment. There  was  no  hoase  pointed  out  as  Juvena
house,  and  no  tree  as  Juvenal's  tree.  All  of  which  shoM
two  things — lamentable  lack  of  enterprise  on  the  part<
Assouan,  and  that  the  priests  took  no  interest  iu  Juven
character  or  deeds.
