MUSICAL MOUNTAIN OF EL-NAKOUS. 241 



tended to have brought from the subterranean 

 convent. The inhabitants of Tor likewise declare 

 that the camels are not only frightened, but 

 rendered furious, when they hear these subter- 

 raneous sounds. 



M. Seetzen, the first European traveller who 

 visited this extraordinary mountain, set out from 

 Wodyel Nackel on the 17th of June, at five 

 o'clock in the morning. He was accompanied 

 by a Greek Christian and some Bedouin Arabs, 

 and after a quarter of an hour's walk they reached 

 the foot of a majestic rock of hard sand-stone. 

 The mountain itself was quite bare and entirely 

 composed of it. He found inscribed upon the 

 rock several Greek and Arab names, and also 

 some Koptic characters, which proved that it had 

 been resorted to for centuries. About noon the 

 party reached the foot of the mountains called 

 Nakous, where at the foot of a ridge they beheld 

 an insulated peaked rock. This mountain pre- 

 sented upon two of its sides two sandy declivities 

 about 150 feet high, and so inclined that the 

 white and slightly adhering sand which rests 

 upon its surface is scarcely able to support itself ; 

 and when the scorching heat of the sun destroys 

 its feeble cohesion, or when it is agitated by the 

 smallest motions, it slides down the two de- 

 clivities. These declivities unite behind the in- 

 sulated rock, forming an acute angle, and like 

 the adjacent surfaces, they are covered with 

 steep rocks which consist chiefly of a white and 

 friable free-stone. 



The first sound which greeted the ears of the 

 travellers took place at an hour and a quarter 

 after noon. They had climbed with great diffi- 



