was

Per-māt'et, from which came the Coptic

Рemge, ПЄЛxe, and the corrupt Arabic form Behnesa. The Oxyrhynchus fish was esteemed so sacred that the people of the city were afraid to eat any fish which had been caught with a hook, lest the hook should have injured one of the sacred fish; the Oxyrhynchus fish was thought to have been produced from the blood of the wounded Osiris (Aelian, De Nat. Animalium, x. 46). The Oasis of Bahriyeh (Oasis Parva), which is called by Abu Salih "the Oasis of Behnesa," is usually visited by the desert road which runs there from the city. The Arabic writer Al-Makrîzî says that there were once 360 churches in Behnesa, but that the only one remaining in his time was that dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In recent years the excavations which have been carried on by Mr. Grenfell at Oxyrhynchus have resulted in the discovery of numerous papyri of a late period.

A little above Abu Girgeh, on the west bank of the Nile, is the town of El-Kais, which marks the site of the ancient Cynopolis or "Dog-city"; it was the seat of a Coptic bishop, and is called Kais, R&IC, in Coptic.

Thirteen miles from Abu Girgeh, also on the west bank of the Nile, is the town of Kulûṣna, 134 miles from Cairo, and a few miles south, lying inland, is Samallûț.

Farther south, on the east bank of the Nile, is Gebel etTêr, or the "Bird mountain," so called because tradition says that all the birds of Egypt assemble here once a year, and that they leave behind them when departing one solitary bird, that remains there until they return the following year to relieve him of his watch, and to set another in his place. As there are mountains called Gebel et-Têr in all parts of Arabic-speaking countries, because of the number of birds. which frequent them, the story is only one which springs from the fertile Arab imagination. Gebel et-Têr rises

above the river to a height of six or seven hundred feet, and upon its summit stands a Coptic convent dedicated to Mary the Virgin, Dêr al-'Adhrâ, but more commonly called Dér al-Bakarah, or the "Convent of the Pulley," because the ascent to the convent is generally made by a rope and pulley. Leaving the river and entering a fissure in the rocks, the traveller finds himself at the bottom of a natural shaft about 120 feet long. When Robert Curzon visited this convent, he had to climb up much in the same way as boys used to climb up inside chimneys. The convent stands about 400 feet from the top of the shaft, and is built of small square stones of Roman workmanship; the necessary repairs have, however, been made with mud or sundried brick. The outer walls of the enclosure form a square which measures about 200 feet each way; they are 20 feet high, and are perfectly unadorned. Tradition says that it was founded by the Empress Helena,* and there is in this case no reason to doubt it. The church "is partly subterranean, being built in the recesses of an ancient stone quarry; the other parts of it are of stone plastered over. The roof is flat and is formed of horizontal beams of palm trees, upon which a terrace of reeds and earth is laid. The height of the interior is about 25 feet. On entering the door we had to descend a flight of narrow steps, which led into a side aisle about ten feet wide, which is divided from the nave by octagon columns of great thickness supporting the walls of a sort of clerestory. The columns were surmounted by heavy square plinths almost in the Egyptian style. I consider this church to be interesting from its being half a catacomb, or cave, and one of the earliest Christian buildings which has preserved its originality. .. it will be seen that it is constructed on the principle of a Latin basilica, as the buildings of the Empress Helena usually were." (Curzon, Monasteries of the Levant, p. 109.) Died about A.D. 328, aged 80. (Sozomen, Eccles. Hist., II.,

2.)

In Curzon's time the convent possessed fifteen Coptic books with Arabic translations, and eight Arabic MSS. As the monks were, and are, cxtremely poor, they used to descend the rock and swim out to any passing boat to beg for charity; the Patriarch has forbidden this practice, but it is not entirely discontinued.

Abu Salih identifies Gebel al-Kaff, ie., the "Mountain of the Palm of the Hand," with Gebel et-Têr, and records an interesting tradition concerning our Lord. According to this writer there is at this place the mark of the palm of His hand (hence the name) on the rock in the mountain out of which the church is hewn. The mountain is said to have bowed down in worship before Him, and He grasped the mountain as it worshipped, and set it back in its place, and the mark of His palm remains impressed upon it until this day. In the impression of the hand there is a small hole, large enough to admit a stibium needle, and if the needle be inserted and drawn out, it brings with it a black powder, the mark of which cannot be effaced.

Two or three miles from the convent are some ancient quarries having rock bas-reliefs representing Rameses III. making an offering to the crocodile god Sebek before Åmen-Rā.

Minyeh, 156 miles from Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile, is the capital of the province of the same name; its Arabic name is derived from the Coptic Mone, one,

which in turn represents the Egyptian

www

Ment in its old

the "Nurse of Khufu." There is a large sugar factory here, in which about 2,000 men are employed. A few miles south, on the eastern side of the river, is the village of Zâwiyet al-Mêtîn, near which are the remains of some tombs of the VIth dynasty. They appear to be the tombs

of the nobles of the city of Hebenu, the capital of the XVIth nome of Upper Egypt.

Beni-Hasân, 171 miles from Cairo, on the east bank of the Nile, is remarkable for the large collection of fine historical tombs which are situated at a short distance from the site of the villages known by this name. The villages of the "Children of Hasân" were destroyed by order of Muhammad 'Ali, on account of the thievish propensities of their inhabitants. The Speos Artemidos is the first rock excavation visited here. The king who first caused this cavern to be hewn out was Thothmes III.; about 250 years later Seti I. added his name to several of the half obliterated cartouches of Queen Hatshepset, but it seems never to have been finished. The cavern was dedicated to the lion-headed goddess Sekhet, who was called Artemis by the Greeks; hence the name cavern of Artemis." The Arabs call the cavern the "Stable of 'Antar," a famous Muḥammadan hero. The portico had originally two rows of columns, four in each; the cavern is about 21 feet square, and the niche in the wall at the end was probably intended to hold a statue of Sekhet.

The famous Tombs of Beni-Hasân are hewn out of the living rock, and are situated high up in the mountain; they are about thirty-nine in number, and all open on a terrace, somewhat similar to the terrace outside the tombs at Aswân. Each tomb preserves the chief characteristics of the mastabas of Sakkâra, that is to say, it consists of a hall for offerings and a shaft leading down to a corridor, which ends in the chamber containing the sarcophagus and the mummy. The tombs were hewn out of a thick layer of fine, white limestone, and the walls were partly smoothed, and then covered with a thin layer of plaster, upon which the scenes in the lives of the wealthy men who ordered them to be made might be painted. Lower down the hill

are

some scores of mummy pits, with small chambers attached, wherein, probably, the poorer class of people who lived near were buried. Of the 39 tombs at Beni-Ḥasân only twelve contain inscriptions, but it is clear from these that the men who made the necropolis there were well-born, independent, and almost feudal proprietors of the land in the neighbourhood, who filled various high offices in the city of Menat-Khufu, which was situated not far off, and that they flourished during the XIth and XIIth dynasties. Of the twelve inscribed tombs, eight are of governors of the nome Meḥ, two are of princes of Menat-Khufu, one is of the son of a prince, and one is of a royal scribe. The 39 tombs were divided by Lepsius into two groups, northern and southern; in the former are 13 and in the latter 26 tombs. Six of the inscribed tombs belong to the reigns of Amenemḥāt I., Usertsen I., and Usertsen II., and the other six were probably made during the rule of the kings of the XIth dynasty.

No. 2. Tomb of Ameni

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or Amenemḥāt

Ameni was the governor of the XVIth nome of Upper Egypt, called Meḥ by the Egyptians and Antinoë by the Greeks, and he flourished in the reign of Usertsen I. He was by birth the hereditary prince of the district, and he held the rank of "ḥā" or "duke," and the office of priest to various gods and goddesses; he seems to have combined in his own person the offices of almost every high state official in the nome. Architecturally his tomb is of great interest, and it is instructive to find examples of the use of octagonal and polyhedral pillars in the same tomb; the shrine is at the east end of the hall, and two shafts, which lead to mummy chambers below, are on one side of it. The inscription shows that Åmeni was buried in the 43rd year of the reign of Usertsen I., on the 15th day of the second month of the inundation, i.e.,