Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

Chap. VI.] THE FIRST DOM TREES. 387,

and thereby increase the probability of this con-
jecture. At Dahroot are the mounds of an ancient
town, and some fragments of stone, but no ruins..
Its Coptic name is Terot.

Under the mountain, on the east bank, appear,
for the first time, the dom trees, or Theban palms,*
whose dry fibrous fruit exactly resembles in flavor
our gingerbread, and contains a nut similar to the
cocoa, which, before it becomes ripe and hard, is
a horny substance, and is eaten by the natives of
Ethiopia.

At El Kharaib, or Khary'ib, a ruined town, pro-
bably Hieracon, about the centre of Gebel Aboo-.
faydee, are the remains of crude brick walls; and in
a ravine behind it are several small grottoes con-
taining the mummies of dogs and cats.f

On the west bank inland is Cosseeh, the ancient
Cusse, in Coptic, K6s-ko; and under the mountain
opposite Manfaloot, and a short distance to the
north of El Maabdeh, is an old convent, called
Dayr el Bukkara, and some grottoes, in one of
which is the representation of a corpse placed upon
a bier, and attended by Isis, Nephthys, and Anubis,
with a Greek inscription.

* Palma, or Cucifera Thebai'ca, &c.

f Herodotus says the dogs were buried in the village to which
they belonged; and that cats were embalmed and taken to Bu-
bastis. But they are found buried at Thebes, and many other
places, as well as the ibis, hawks, and other animals; from which
it is evident they were also " buried in the place where they died."
Vide lib. ii. 67.

2 c 2