year to the ſources of the Nile, without ever accompanying us herſelf; for my father, from jealouſy, kept her in cloſe confinement till his death: and, as ſhe could no longer renovate her youth and beauty in the fairy bath, ſhe loſt her bloom, faded away, and grew old. She now paſſes her widowhood in melancholy ſolitude—for when youth and beauty are once flown, life has little enjoyment left for our ſex. We lived under the care of our mother, far from the court of my uncle, who ſucceeded my father in the government of the Cyclades; nor did ſhe ever part from us, except for the ſhort time of our annual viſit to the fairy ſprings. My elder ſiſters once ventured on a flight towards the north; the levity of youth made them diſregard the warning of their mother: they ſuppoſed that they ſhould be leſs oppreſſed by a ſultry climate in theſe regions than in the deſerts bordering on Egypt. We met with no misfortune in this ex-‘pedition;
