AND LOWER EGYPT. 363 



the images of inconstancy ; and towards the west, 

 the barren covering of sterility has fixed its ever- 

 lasting abode in the deserts of Libya. 



Nearly at the foot of the tower, and upon the 

 very brink of the Nile, is a mosque consecrated to 

 a holy Mussulman. He is called Abou-Mandour, 

 which signifies father of light. If he is the father 

 of light, he is likewise the terror of sands, for, 

 without him, they would Ions: a<ro have over- 

 spread the city of Rossetta, and reunited it to their 

 gloomy domain. The belief of Mahometans does 

 not stop in so fine a road. Abou-Mandour is the 

 enemy of every species of sterility, and the women 

 who arc visited with it come to imnlore his assist- 



r 



ance, and to perform a nine days devotion under 

 the scheick of the mosque: it is very rare, say they, 

 that their wishes are not granted. The devotion 

 to a protector so very powerful is general. Not 

 a boat passes before this place consecrated to him, 

 without the mariners and the passengers making 

 an offering to the scheick, in order that they may 

 engage the saint to be favourable to them. 



Plate VIII". presents a view of this mosque. 

 Before it is the Nile, which, a little higher, after 

 you ascend it in a southward direction, forms a 

 considerable elbow towards the east-quarter-cast, 

 and afterwards it takes the direction of the south. 

 On the other side are the smiling plains of the 



3 Delta, 



