78 TOPOGRAPHY OF THEBES. [Chap. I.

that of Memphis, and intended for the same pur-
pose. And it is not impossible that the tombs on
its southern shores may have been of those offenders
who were doomed to be excluded from a participa-
tion in the funeral honors which the pious enjoyed
in the consecrated mansions of the dead on the
north side of this Acherusian lake.* Were it
necessary to bring forward other arguments, in
support of this conjecture, I should not fail to men-
tion that the mounds on the desert side, where the
excavation had reached the rock, are covered in
several instances with fragments of limestone,
which being from the lowest part of the basin,
appear, in consequence, on their uppermost or
outer surface; nor should I omit noticing several
other arguments,f with which, however, it is unne-

deenet HSboo. Were this name written Medtjenet Aboo, without
the aspirate, it would signify " city of his father," and be per-
fectly grammatical Arabic. The objection, therefore, is not in this,
but in the word Haboo itself. I am at a loss to know whence the
Arabs have derived this traditional name. Some have forcibly
converted it into Medeeneh Thaboo, to accord with the name of
Thebes. We might convert Apa into Aboo and consider it the
Papa of Antoninus; but Papa should be Pampanis. The dis-
tances, however, in the Itinerary are very inaccurate; e. g. Coptos,
according to its measurement, falls about the site of Qeneh.

* Diodor. lib. i. s. 96. The processions of boats, so often re-
presented in the tombs of Thebes, accompanying the deceased,
took place, I imagine, on this lake. The corpse was then removed
from the boat, and being placed on a sledge, was drawn with great
solemnity to the tomb destined to receive it.

f The large round stones at the eastern extremity of this lake
are recorded by modern tradition to have been rolled from the sur-