AN OLD INHABITANT.
[Chapter XIII.]
SIOOT, THE ANCIENT LYCOPOLIS.—SCENES ON THE RIVER.
From Beni-sooef the steamer proceeded to Sioot, or Asyoot, a city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and one of the most important places of Upper Egypt. It is about two miles back from the river, from which water is brought by a canal, and the roadway passes along a high embankment lined with shade-trees. Just at the entrance of the city there is a picturesque gate-way, which reminded our friends of some of the gates of Cairo. The city is on the site of the ancient Lycopolis, and has borne its present name for more than two thousand years. Nevertheless it is called a modern town by most of the writers on Egyptian history, and is not allowed any claim to antiquity.
A SCENE NEAR SIOOT.
"At the landing-place of Sioot," said the boys in their journal, "we found better donkeys than at Beni-sooef, and were able to ride with some degree of comfort. We went first to some tombs which are cut in the side of the mountain overlooking the valley, and were the burial-places of the ancient Lycopolis. There are a good many of them, and they were formerly well filled with mummies, but at present the mummies are gone, and the tombs contain nothing worth carrying away. According to the historical accounts the inhabitants of Lycopolis worshipped the wolf as a divinity, and when the tombs were plundered a good many mummies of wolves were found in them.