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.] E'SIOOT, OR LYCOPOLIS. 389

authority for E'Sioot also; but had he been ac-
quainted with the Coptic name Sioout, he would
not have adopted that mode of writing it. Indeed,
Without referring to Coptic, his own language
should have pointed out this simple fact, that the
initial e is merely the Arabic article; which is fully
proved by the names of individuals, natives of this
town ; Abraham of Sioot, for instance, being Ibra-
him e'Siootee, and not Ibrahim el Osiootee, which
the reading Osioot would require.

Little now remains of the ancient Lycopolis but
extensive mounds, a few stone substructions, and
the grottoes behind the town, which last are of
great antiquity. The ceiling of the large catacomb,
absurdly called Stabl Antar, was ornamented with
very elegant devices, now scarcely traceable; and in
the smaller grottoes and excavated recesses of the
rock, the remains of wolf* mummies are frequently
met with.

On the north-west side of the mountain are some
limestone quarries, and a few other uninteresting
catacombs.

Pliny supposes that these hills formed the
boundary of the Theba'id, since he says " in Libyco
Lycon, ubi montes finiunt Theba'idem,"f though in

* M. Sonnhri is mistaken in supposing that the wolf is not a
native of Egypt, since next to the jackal it is the most common of
all the wild beasts of prey, both in Lower and Upper Egypt. The
coins of the Lycopolite nome bear a wolf on their reverse. Vide
Diod. i. 88, on the origin of the worship of the wolf.

t Lib. v. c. 9.