A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

SHEIKH HARIDI. 339
that this rugged excavation may have been one
of the earliest attempts of the Egyptians to pro-
duce that peculiar description of religious
sanctuary which they afterwards brought to so
marvellous a degree of perfection, and that in the
rough plan of the cavern of Sheikh Haridi may
have originated the idea from which sprung the
magnificent creation of Ibsamboul? A little be-
yond this excavation there is a vast separation in
the mountain, which looks as if it had been cleft
in twain by some convulsion of nature ; and in
the narrow valley formed by it is the tomb of a
holy man. Sheikh Haridi, whose name has been
bestowed upon the whole rocky district. This
tomb is supposed to possess miraculous powers of
sanctity, and is an object of great veneration to
the Arab population; but the histories related to
us of the wonderful results obtained by a visit to
the sainted spot, and the assurance that the
Sheikh occasionally revisits it in the form of a ser-
pent, did not tempt us to descend the rocky path
leading to it, which is both difficult and danger-
ous ; and we contented ourselves with looking
down from the mountain upon the little cupola
that covers the Sheikh's remains.
This morning (the 7th) we arrived at E'Siout,
now the capital of Upper Egypt, and the seat of
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