Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

220 CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES OF EGYPT.

that this monastery belongs to the province of Al-Ushmunain. Christ
visited this place and stayed here.
Fol. 76 b In the monastery there is a church, in the middle of which there is
a well of running water. Over this well prayers are said during the
rise of the Nile every year; and then the water in the well rises. In
the well there are marks contrived, which show the number of cubits
reached by the rise of the Nile; and when the water of the well rises
and stands still at a certain mark, it is known thereby what height
the rise of the Nile will reach.
Island of Al-Ushmunain1. Al-Ushmun was the name of one of
the sons of Kift, the son of Mizraim. The town was built by Pharaoh,
and after it had fallen into ruin it was re-built by Nebuchadnezzar2,
king of Babylon. It is said that there was on the highest point of
this town a cock, and beneath it a row of dromedaries. When
a stranger approached the town the cock crowed, and the dromedaries
came out to destroy that stranger. But when our Lord Christ, to
whom be glory! came to this town, the cock crowed and the dromedaries went out, according to their custom; and when they saw the
Lord Christ and the Lady, and Joseph the carpenter, they worshipped
Al-Ushmfnain. There must have been a confusion on the part of some writers
between Ishnin and Al-Ushmfinain. Ishnln was formerly in the province of
Al-Bahnasa, but is now, under the name of AshnTn an-Nasara, or 'Ashnin of the
Christians,' included in the district of Bani Mlazar, in the province of Minyah.
In I885 it had a population of I,260. See Yakfit, Geogr. Wort. i. p. rAo; Rec.
de l'Egyple, ii. p. 22.
1 Also called Ashmfinain, Eshmfinain, or Oshmfinain. Al-Ushmfinain is the
Coptic yJi..oTr. It still exists in the district of Raudah, in the province of
Usyft, and had 2,312 inhabitants in I885. See Am6lineau, Geogr. p. 167 ff.;
Al-Idrisi [p. 47] (ed. Rome); Yakfit, Geogr. Worl. i. p. rAr. The term 'island'
is given to the district in which Al-Ushmunain stands, because it is surrounded
by water: by the Nile on the east, the Bahr Yufsuf or Al-Manhi on the west and
south, and a connecting canal on the north.
2 On fol. 23b and 8oa we are told that it was Belshazzar who restored
Al-Ushmfinain, after it had been pillaged by Nebuchadnezzar.