fia Contributions to Physical Geography. 



was accompanied with so many fabulous recitals, that I was led 

 to suppose it an invention of the merchants. When I obtain- 

 ed farther information at Wody el Nachel, it not only confirm- 

 ed these first accounts, but added to them new prodigies, 

 Under the mountain there existed a Greek convent ; and the 

 subterranean noise was that of the Nakous, that is, the call to 

 prayers. (Nakous is a sort of long narrow rule, suspended 

 in a horizontal position, which the priest strikes in time with 

 a hammer, and the sound of which is heard at a distance* 

 There are only a few places in the East where the Chris* 

 tians are permitted to have clocks.) It was also stated, that 

 a Greek, who had been dead for some time, had seen the 

 mountain open, and had descended into the subterranean 

 convent, where he found fine gardens, and delicious water ; 

 and in order to give proof of his descent, he had brought to 

 the upper world some fragments of consecrated bread which 

 he had received. 



" Accompanied by a Greek Christian, and some Bedouins, I 

 set off on the 17th June at five o'clock in the morning. 

 After a quarter of an hour'^s walking, we reached the foot of 

 a majestic rock of hard sandstone. The mountain was quite 

 bare, and entirely composed of it. I found inscribed upon it 

 several Greek and Arabic names, and also some Koptic cha-» 

 racters, which showed that this place had been visited for cen- 

 turies. At noon we reached the part of these mountains called 

 Nakous. There, at the foot of the ridge, we beheld an iso- 

 lated peaked rock. Upon two sides this mountain presented 

 two surfaces, so inclined, that the white and slightly adhering 

 sand which covers it scarcely supports itself, and slides down 

 with the smallest motion, or when the burning rays of the 

 sun completes the destruction of its feeble cohesion. These 

 two sandy declivities are about 150 feet high. They unite 

 behind the insulated rock, and forming an acute angle, they 

 are covered, like the adjacent surfaces, with steep rocks, which 

 are mostly composed of a white and friable freestone. 



" The first sound was heard at an hour and a quarter after 

 noon. We climbed with great difficulty as far. as the sandy 

 declivity, a height of seventy or eighty feet, and we stopped 



