companion to superintend the policeman's work of watering and feeding the horses; for the silent pool amidst the reeds kept me, as it were, enchanted by its side. How still it was in the gathering dusk, how far removed from the world of work! Surely Pan was "within hearing": Pan, whom the people of the nearest villages and towns had all worshipped in bygone days. If one kept quite still, moved not a muscle, perhaps he would suddenly appear, seated amongst the reeds over yonder, pipes in hand. The birds which had lately twittered and chirped in the valley were now silent, and one might have supposed them listening to music which the mortal ear could not distinguish. Perhaps of a sudden one's ears would be opened, one's eyes would see, and the god who, more than all other gods of his day, still holds the imagination, would be made manifest beside this desert pool. But the darkness increased and Pan did not come; and soon the preparations for the night could wait no longer. When at last I arose from the cool and silent place, it was with the conviction firmly set in my mind that this pool and valley were not only sacred to the Copts, but had been holy ground, a sacred place of the god of Panopolis, or ever the Christian faith had been heard of.

It is not unusual in Egypt to find that the worship of a Coptic or Mussulman saint has been substituted for that of

an ancient Egyptian god. At the head of the Nubian highroad at Aswan the shrine of the ancient gods has been made the site of a medieval shêkh's tomb; and those who now go there to make their prayers before and after a journey are but carrying on a custom as old as history. Amongst the ruins of Thebes there is a hill up which barren women and as yet childless brides climb at dead of night to lay their supplications before the shêkh whose tomb is there erected. They do not know that their ancestors climbed the same hill in the days of the Pharaohs to offer the same petitions to Meritseger, the serpent goddess who had dwelt thereon since the beginning of things. And so in this valley I feel sure that the Coptic hermit who resided here was of no great consequence as judged upon his own merits, as indeed the fact that he is now forgotton indicates, but that the inhabitants of Akhmim, accustomed in the pagan days of Panopolis to regard this place as holy ground, came gradually to ascribe to him the origin of its sanctity, and to forget that in reality its sacredness dated from those days when Pan admired himself in the reedy pool and danced upon the rounded rocks. Sic transit gloria divini !

The modern name of the place, Bîr el Ain, is the Arabic for "The Well of the Wellspring,"-a somewhat uncomfortable-sounding title, I am told, to native ears; and I am inclined to think that ain is

to wax. Moreover, there were things moving about the valley: silent footfalls and deep breathings. And one of the horses became restive. However, sleep at last claimed us, and we did not wake again until the first light of dawn was apparent in the sky.

Speedily we arose and washed in the cool water of the spring, thereafter making a breakfast from the remains of the evening's meal, washed down with water. At five o'clock we set off to walk a further distance of three or four miles up the valley, to a place where my companion, upon his last visit, had found another hollow full of clear water which passed into a passage between the overhanging cliffs and thence opened out into a cavernous pool. He had dived in and had swum into this further pool, where the daylight penetrated in subdued power through an opening in the rocks above; and we now were desirous of repeating the performance. A rough path, probably made by the people of the desert who watered their flocks in this valley, led us, with some interruptions, up the narrowing wady, as yet untouched by the sun's rays. Now we clambered up the hillside, now down into the riverbed; now we jumped from boulder to boulder, and now trudged through soft shingle. At length we came to a place where the valley forked, and here a dark cleft in the rocks on our left front marked the spot where the pool should

have been. But, alas! the water had dried up, and even the mud at the bottom, stamped by the hoofs of gazelle, was hard and firm. Along the narrow passage where my friend had swum in deep water we walked dry-shod, and so entered the cavern hollowed out by the downward rush of long-forgotten torrents. Nevertheless the place was not without its attractions, and its romantic situation amidst pinnacles of rock and gigantic boulders made it well worth seeing.

Returning to the valley outside, we became the object of the hostility of two grey hawks, who made a spirited attack upon us, swooping down to within a few feet of our heads and screeching at us in a truly brave manner. Their nest must have been close at hand, but we had not time to make a search for it. Walking back to the Bîr el Ain with the sun now blazing upon us, we reached once more the shadow of the palms and the cool sight of the water, somewhat before eight o'clock.

I should mention, perhaps, that I found in the pool a curious creature, swimming near the bottom. It was shaped almost precisely like a scorpion, having the long tail and the claws of that objectionable creature; but it was of a dark olive-green colour, and appeared to be both helpless and harmless. I have no idea what it is called technically, nor how it comes to be found in isolated desert-pools.

Lying down at the edge of

the pool with my back against a comfortably sloping stone, and a water-bottle by my side, half an hour of profound comfort slipped by. The cool breeze of early morning rustled amongst the reeds and swayed the branches of the palms; dragon-flies hovered over the quiet water; finches uttered their strange note from the tamarisk near by; and overhead the hawks circled and oried above the majestic cliffs. It was enchanting here to lie, remote from the worries of work, and to let the mind wander in a kind of inconsequent contemplation of things in general. But soon it was time to be moving out into the sun once more, and we had to

bid adieu to this holy place of Pan, where life was cool and shadowed, and where there was water for the thirsty and the soothing sound of the wind in the reeds for the weary. The blazing ride down the valley and along the embanked road to Akhmim was accomplished at a tolerable pace, but from Akhmim to the riverbank we went at full gallop, arriving in a cloud of dust just in time to catch the steam ferry; and half an hour later the resthouse at Sohag was echoing with the impatient shouts for drinks, baths, shaving - water, luncheon, and all the rest of the urgent and unordered requirements of two very hot, very dirty, and very hungry mortals.