TERRANEII— SAÏS— FUAir. 425 



lying in a lagoon wliose winding waters discharge themselves into Lake Burlos ; 

 Tantah, a city of merchants ; Mahallet-el-Kebir, or the "Great City," which formerly 

 enjoyed a monopoly of the Egyptian silk industry, and whose scattered quarters are 

 surrounded by cotton plantations. 



Of all the towns of the delta, TantaJi, capital of the province of Garbich, 

 occupies the most central position. It stands exactly midway between Cairo and 

 Alexandria, as well as between the Rosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile. 

 Here converge and intersect each other canals, roads, and highways. To these causes, 

 combined with the great reputation enjoyed by the mosque of Seid-el-Hadawi, the 

 greatest saint of the Egyptian Mussulman calendar, is to be attributed the excep- 

 tional importance enjoyed by the annual fairs held at Tantah. In the eyes of the 

 pilgrims the pool which receives the sweepings of the mosque possesses healing 

 properties rivalling those of the Damietta column itself. In population, also, 

 Tantah competes with Damietta for the third place amongst the cities of Egypt. 

 Here is also the famous El- Ahmadi School, which, next to that of El-Azhar at Cairo, 

 holds the first rank amongst, all the Arab schools in the country. In the year 1877 

 it numbered as many as 4,885 scholars. 



• Terraneh, Sais, Fuah. 



On the Rosetta branch, which is skirted for half its course by a line of railway, 

 itself flanked by the first swellings of the Libyan range, the only important town 

 is that from which this channel takes its name. Terraneh, perhaps the ancient 

 Terenuthis, is the chief depot for the natron collected in the saline lake of the Wady- 

 Natrun, near the convent of Saint Macorius. Teirieh, which lies farther down, at 

 the outlet of the narrow belt of cultivated lands here stretching between the hills 

 and the left bank of the Nile, has also succeeded to an ancient city whose ruins are 

 visible on the neighbouring Tell-el-Odameh, or " Bone Mound." 



Kofr-cl-Za'iat, where the railway between Cairo and Alexandria crosses the river 

 on a long bridge of twelve arches, has no old Egyptian remains in its immediate 

 neighbourhood. But about twelve miles farther down, on the same east side of the 

 Rosetta branch, are situated the extensive ruins of Sa, the Sais of the Greeks, and 

 now called Sa'-el-Hagar by the fellahîn. Sa, which was the capital of Egypt at 

 the time of the Persian invasion under Cambyses, is perhaps one of those places 

 which ought to be held in the greatest veneration by all mankind ; for, according 

 to the legend, from this city set out the colonists who founded Athens, bringing 

 with them the image of the goddess Neith, who became the Athena of the Greeks 

 and the Minerva of the Romans. From Sa also came the legendary Danaidae, who 

 first brought under cultivation the thankless soil of Argos, so different from their 

 native plains enriched by the inundations of the Nile. 



Of the old sanctuaries of Sais little remains except heaps of refuse, and its 

 tombs now yield to the treasure-seeker but few objects of interest. But its 

 enclosure still excites surprise at its enormous proijortious. It is no less than 



