volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Christian Tombs in the Great Oasis. 379
and it contains about 200 tombs, which are built of crude
brick and are arranged in regular order, like houses in
a street. The largest are 20 feet long and 15 feet
wide. Many have domes and pillared doorways, and
inside most of them have arches with recesses. The
domes and walls are decorated with painted figures of
Christian saints and scenes illustrating events described
in the Old Testament, and in many tombs we see the
Egyptian symbol of " life," ^, which the early
Christians identified with the Cross. These tombs prove
that in the early centuries of our era a large and wealthy
Christian community lived in Hibis (Egyptian Heb),
the capital of the Oasis. Everywhere the inhabitants
of Khargah treated us with courtesy and civility, and
they seemed to be of a gentle disposition. They are
smaller than the Egyptians and lighter in colour. They
have oval faces and large soft eyes. They move languidly,
the result probably of climatic conditions, and they suffer
much from ophthalmia and from malarial fever of a
severe kind. Of this last scourge both Hajji and myself
had a sharp experience. During the first two days of
our visit to the Oasis we enjoyed the freshness of a strong
north wind, but on the third day the wind blew from
the south, and brought with it dense clouds of sand
and a host of particularly vicious mosquitoes, which
attacked us with great vigour. We had no nets with
us, and so we suffered severely from their bites, and
literally had to flee from the Oasis. Our faces resembled
currant puddings, and our feet were so swollen
that we could not put our shoes on. Hajji returned to
Luxor and was ill for weeks, and I went on to Cairo and
was unable to leave the house of my kind friend, General
Sir John Grenfell Maxwell, for at least ten days. But
I did not regret my visit to the Oasis, and I remember
its wonderful scenery and the beauty of its gardens,
and the splendour of its sunsets and sunrises, and the
kindness of its people, with pleasure and gratitude.^
^ I gave a tolerably fuU account of Khargah and its remains in
The Nile, Notes for Travellers, 12th edition, 1912, pp. 550-580. For
descriptions of the Oasis by the older travellers see W. G. Browne,