Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

IKHMIMN AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.

243

There is also the monastery of Saint Pachomius at Barjantis, in the
district of Taha.
There is the monastery of Abu Halbanah2, to the east of Ikhmim,
near which there is a spring of water which runs from the mountain
into a reservoir there.
The monastery of Saint Paul, the superior of the monastery in
Upper Egypt.
The monastery of Saint Pachomius, the superior of the monastery
of Ikhmim.
~ The Book of the Monasteries by Ash-Shabushti relates that there
is in the district of Ikhmim a large monastery to which visitors come
from all parts; and it is near the mountain called 7abal al-Kahf3. At
a certain place on this mountain there is a fissure; and on the day
when that monastery keeps its festival, all the birds of the species Fol. 86 b
called Abl KIr4 come to this place; and it is a great wonder to see
the multitude of the birds, and to hear their cries, and to behold their
assembling around that fissure. Then, one after the other, without
ceasing, they insert their heads into the fissure, and place their beaks
in the cavity of the mountain, and utter a cry and come away; and this
they do until the head of one of them is caught in the fissure, and
of Suhaj, in the province of Jirja, with a population in 1885 of 369 inhabitants.
See Yakfit, Geogr. Wort. ii. p. I; Amelineau, Ge'ogr. p. 138 f.
This famous abbot of Tabennesi or Tabenna is commemorated by the
Copts on Bashans 2=April 27, but by the Roman church on May 14. He
seems to have died in A.D. 348 or 349 at an advanced age, after establishing
a set of rules for the monastic life. See Acta SS. at May 14; Amelineau, Hist.
de S. Pakhdme et de ses communautes.
2 It is apparently this convent which Pococke describes (vol. i. p. 78) as
lying 'to the east of Akhmim' and 'being one of the most dismal retirements he
ever saw.' Pococke mentions the spring and the well called 'Bir Elaham.' In
Pococke's name for this monastery 'Dermadoud' (Dair Madfid?) there is no
correspondence with that given by Abu Salih, which is, of course, a name of
dedication, not of locality. (A. J. B.)
s Al-Makrlzi says that this is part of the Jabal at-Tair.
4 See above, fol. 19 b.
i 2