Identifier: upnilehomeagainh00fair (find matches)
Title: Up the Nile, and home again. A handbook for travellers and a travel-book for the library.
Year: 1862 (1860s)
Authors: Fairholt, F. W. (Frederick William), 1814-1866
Subjects:
Publisher: London, Chapman and Hall
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ttached to it, thus given byWilkinson :— All the birds of the country arereported to assemble annually at this mountain, andafter having selected one of their number to remainthere till the following year, they fly into Africa, andonly return to release their comrade and substituteanother in his place. The lateral ledges of thesandstone rock, upon which the birds rest in the sun,safe from all molestation, have led to the choice bythem of these cliffs as perching-places; and longlines, numbering many thousands, may often be seenhere, and probably originated the legend, which maybe traced far back, for the writer above-quoted adds, The story is probably another version of that men-tioned by JElian, who speaks of two hawks beingdeputed by the rest of the winged community to goto certain desert islands near Libya, for no verydefinite purpose. On the very summit of this rock, is the Copticconvent of Sitteh, or Sittina, dedicated to theVirgin, and inhabited by a small community of i Pl.Y.
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T.W. Tairliolt.cLel.et Sc. . Ytrieeiit.Brooks,Imp CONVENT OF SiTTINA. BOULAK TO MINI EH. 123 monks, whose long black gowns,, with wide hangingsleeves, and tall round caps, give them somewhat theaspect of stage necromancers. They subsist on theproduce of small portions of land, and are exempt fromtaxation. The convent and church are confined withindreary walls, from which steps lead downwards tonatural platforms on the rock, as exhibited in our view,Plate V. From this platform fissures descend to thewater, where they open into small caverns. By thismeans the monks come down to the river, and leav-ing their clothes behind them, dash into the stream,clamorously begging of all boats passing. As theyhave abundant leisure, they dont throw any chanceaway, but post themselves along the entire face ofthe rock at various intervals, and on the flat shoreopposite. Two of them swam out to meet our boaton its approach, loudly proclaiming themselvesChristians all the way they came. When helped onboa

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