escape--Appearance of the Evil Spirit--Observations on Ghost
Stories--The Legend of the Old Woman of Berkeley considered.

On a rocky hill, perforated on all sides by the violated sepulchres of
the ancient Egyptians, in the great Necropolis of Thebes, not far from
the ruins of the palace and temple of Medinet Habou, stand the crumbling
walls of an old Coptic monastery, which I was told had been inhabited,
almost within the memory of man, by a small community of Christian
monks. I was living at this period in a tomb, which was excavated in the
side of the precipice, above Sheick Abd el Gournoo. It had been rendered
habitable by some slight alterations, and a little garden was made on
the terrace in front of it, whence the view was very remarkable. The
whole of the vast ruins of Thebes were stretched out below it; whilst,
beyond the mighty Nile, the huge piles of Luxor and Carnac loomed dark
and mysterious in the distance, which was bounded by the arid chain of
the Arabian mountains, the outline of their wild tops showing clear and
hard against the cloudless sky. This habitation was known by the name of
"Mr. Hay's tomb." The memory of this gentleman is held in the highest
honour and reverence by the villagers of the surrounding districts, who
look back to the time of his residence among them as the only
satisfactory period of their miserable existence.

One of the numerous admirers of Mr. Hay, among the poorer inhabitants of
the neighbourhood, was a Coptic carpenter, a man of no small natural
genius and talent, who in any other country would have risen above the
sphere of his comrades if any opportunity of distinguishing himself had
offered. He could read and write Coptic and Arabic; he had some
knowledge of astronomy, and some said of magic also; and he was a very
tolerable carpenter, although the only tools which he was able to
procure were of the roughest sort. In all these accomplishments he was
entirely self-taught; while his poverty was such that his costume
consisted of nothing but a short shirt, or tunic, made of a homespun
fabric of goat's hair, or wool, and a common felt skull-cap, with some
rags twisted round it for a turban. With higher acquirements than the
governor of the district, the poor Copt was hardly able to obtain bread
to eat; and indeed it was only from the circumstance of his being a
Christian that he and the other males of his family were not swept away
in the conscription which has depopul