﻿SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, 59 



are several settlements of minor importance, and a number of places 

 that are occupied only for a time each year, during the growing or 

 gathering of crops. 



The total number of the present inhabitants of the Great Oasis, 

 including some Bedouins, is somewhat less that 10,000. Their 



Fig. 1. — Sketch map of Egypt, showing the position of the oases. (After 

 Ball.) 



ethnic origin and the time of their immigration into the Oasis are 

 both uncertain. The earliest record thus far discovered relating 

 directly to the Oasis dates from the Xllth Dynasty, or a little less 



