I will further add on this subject, that on inquiry after _Edrisi’s Santrich_, no one knew it even by name; but I was told that at a distance of seven days journey from _Siwah_, six from _Faiume_, and two or three[9] from _Biljoradec_, there exists a country, similar to that of Siwah, its inhabitants less in number, and speaking the same language. That region I should take to be the _Minor Oasis_ of the ancients. I speak of this place from mere report, and could gain no more accurate, or further account; perhaps it lies among the mountains which traverse the great Desert near _Ummesogeir_, extending towards the south. I come now to the subject of the _various catacombs_, to be found in the territory of Siwah, and which I was enabled more fully to examine, as lying in more sequestered spots, and where I was less liable to observation. If I well understood my companion, an inhabitant of Siwah, there are four principal places, where catacombs are found. The first, _Belled-el-Kaffer_; the second, _Belled-el-Rumi_; both these terms, denote one and the same thing, namely, “place or town of infidels;” the third is, _El-Mota_, or place of burial; the fourth, _Belled-el-Chamis_, or _Gamis_. My inquiries were in particular directed to _El-Mota_, situated at the distance of about one mile north-east from Siwah. It is a rocky hill, with a number of catacombs on the declivity, but the most remarkable, are on the summit. There is a separate entrance to each, and the descent inwards is gentle and gradual. The passage from the aperture, leads to a door-way, from which the space of the room is enlarged, and on each side, are smaller excavations for containing the mummies. The stones rising from the threshold are cut in a form that shews a door to have been formerly hung, and to have closed the entrance. The catacombs are of different extent, and each is wrought with great labour and neatness of work, and especially the uppermost, which contains no traces of any mummy. In others are found various remains. I long, but in vain, searched for an entire head: I found fragments, and especially of the _occiput_ in abundance, but none with any investiture remaining; and even in the _occiputs_ most entire I could not discover any stain or mark of their once having been filled with _resin_. The cloth still adhered to some _ribs_, but so decayed, that nothing could be further distinguished, than that the stuff in which the mummy had been wrapt, was of the coarsest kind. The ground in all these catacombs has been dug and explored in search of treasure, and I was told, by my guide, that in every one of these sepulchres gold has been, and is yet sometimes, found.