Berber origin, but the fighting characteristics of this race seem to have disappeared. They suffer greatly from ophthalmia and intermittent fever, and I gathered from the gentleman in charge of the dispensary at Khârgah that he had plenty of patients to Occupy his time. The bulk of the inhabitants are very poor, but there are a few very rich men in Khârgah, who own nearly all the trees in the north of the Oasis. The chief occupation is agriculture, and wheat, dhura (millet), rice, and fruit of various kinds (in these days cotton also) are grown with great success. Dates have always been the chief article of commerce, and these are undoubtedly among the very best in the world. Formerly the dates were sold once a year to the merchants of Ar-Rîf (i.e., Asyût), who paid a portion of the price in clothes, ornaments, spices, arms, beads, mirrors, perfumes, metal vessels, nails, tools, etc., and the rest in hard cash, wherewith the taxes were paid to the Government. Each palm above a certain age pays a tax of 15 millièmes (3 d.) a year, and each 250 cubic metres of water are taxed 1 millième a year. Trades and manufactures there are none, and the people have been content to take what Nature has given them, and neither to seek nor expect anything else. Formerly they only received news of the outside world once a year, in the autumn, when the Dâr Fûr caravan from Asyût passed through Khârgah on its way south, by the famous Arba'în, or Forty Days" Road, which is about 1,000 miles long. Men usually wear only one loose woollen garment and a white cotton cap; the women also wear only one garment, but the wives and daughters of the well-to-do wear many ornaments. Many of the children resemble Italian children, and some are pretty. The women make baskets of various shapes and sizes with consummate skill, and the traveller will find their palm-leaf fans and "fly-flappers" very useful. It is interesting to note that far less coffee is drunk than formerly, and that tea is rapidly taking its place.

Population. The Omdah Shêkh Mustafa Hanâdî informed me that the population of Khârgah was in 1917 5,400, of Bûlâk 1,091, of Bârîs 1,316, and of Gannâḥ 373 souls; total 8,160 souls. The number of Christians in the whole district was 20. In 1837 the total population of the Oasis was 4,300 (Hoskins, p. 89). Religion. The inhabitants are Muslims, and, except a Coptic clerk, there was not a Christian in the Oasis in April, 1909. Although they are followers of the Prophet, a great many characteristics of the Christianity of earlier times have been preserved in their manners and customs. Thus they

baptize their children on the second day after birth, and they bury their dead in a very simple manner. The marriage ceremony is simple also. The man says to the woman "I have taken thee" in the presence of a witness, and the marriage is legal in every respect. Their chief festival of the year is celebrated at Easter, and for weeks before the natives save their eggs and colour them purple with a solution of permanganate of potash. The laws, are the laws of their ancestors, and the precedents always quoted are the acts of the "grandfather

of my father." The fanaticism usually attributed to the Muḥammadan is not found in the Oasis.

Description of Khârgah Oasis.-The Oasis is divided into two parts by a waste of sand which lies across the middle of it. The village of Khârgah lies about a mile and a half from the terminus of the railway. On the northern outskirt are several Kubbas (pronounced Gubbas) or shêkhs' tombs, among them being the tombs of Atmân, Mukullah, Yûsuf, Arîf, Husên, Hammâd, Radwân, etc. Passing over several broad spaces where the cattle usually tread out the corn, the village is entered. The houses are of crude brick, and vary greatly in size. The tops of the walls are decorated with palm leaves,

which are renewed at the great festival of the year. The streets are tortuous, and when those which are covered over are reached, they become very narrow; many are cut through the

living rock. It is impossible to see at all in some of them, and a guide is absolutely necessary. They are cool in the hottest weather, and were formerly used as hiding places by the natives 'when attacked by desert Arabs. Much grain is stored in the houses, and the cattle can be hidden there. The chief shop is a curious place. Further on is a square, with a post office on one side, a small barracks on another, and the Government office of the Muâwin, or Governor, on the third. A few minutes brings the visitor to the mosque, the principal walls and minaret of which are built of stone. A few of the stones have Christian symbols upon them, and must have come from some Coptic building; on one stone I saw Egyptian hieroglyphics. Portions of the building must be several hundreds of years old. Close by is a house of entertainment, where tea and eggs, fried on an earthenware platter, can be obtained. There is nothing else to be seen in the village, but the gardens

and groves of palms form a lovely setting for this quaint oldworld place. Most of the openings in the ground from which

water rises are artificial, and such pipes as exist, except those recently placed there by Europeans, are of wood. The water is sometimes salt, sometimes it smells of sulphur, and sometimes it is sweet. The fields are usually triangular in shape. Excursions.-About ten miles south of Khârgah is

Gannâḥ, near which stand the ruins of a Ptolemaïc temple, which was dedicated to the triad ÅmenRā, Mut and Khensu by Euergetes. Here are two famous wells from which water has been flowing for many hundreds of years. The temple is commonly known as Kasr Gaïtah, or Kasr al-Guâtah. Six miles from Bûlâk is Kaşr azZayân, where stands a temple built by Antoninus Pius (A.D. 142). It was dedicated to Amen, the god of the city of Hebt, in Egyptian, and to the other gods who were worshipped with him there, as stated in the Greek inscription found in the temple.* The ancient name of the place is Tchonemyris, i.e., the town of Khnemu-Ra. The temple was surrounded by a brick wall 230 feet long, 84 feet broad, and 3 feet thick; and the temple itself measured 44 feet in length and 25 feet in width, and is oriented to the south. In the reliefs Antoninus Pius is seen making offerings to Khnemu, Osiris, Isis, and Horus.

In the southern half of the Oasis are the following villages : Dakakin, a very pretty oasis village; Bârîs, the chief village in the south part of the Oasis; and Maks, the last village in the south, which is divided into two parts, North Maks and South Maks. About half-way between Bârîs and Maks is Dûsh alKala'a, where are found the ruins of the famous temple of Dûsh, or Kysis, to give the place the classical form of the Egyptian name

*The temple and vestibule were repaired and renewed under Avidius Heliodorus, governor of Egypt, Septimius Macro being Commander-in-chief, and Plinius Capito general of the forces.