PELUSIUM, an ancient city and port of Egypt, now represented
by two large mounds close to the coast and the edge of
the desert, 20 m. E. of Port Said. It lay in the marshes at the
mouth of the most easterly (Pelusiac) branch of the Nile, which
has long since been silted up, and was the key of the land towards
Syria and a strong fortress, which, from the Persian invasion at
least, played a great part in all wars between Egypt and the East. Its name has not been found on Egyptian monuments, but it may be the Sin of the Bible and of Assur-bani-pal's inscription. Pelusium ("the muddy") is the Faramā of the Arabs, Peremoun in Coptic; the name īna which clings to the locality seems etymologically connected with the Arabic word for clay or mud. The site, crowned with extensive ruins of burnt brick of the Byzantine or Arab period, has not yielded any important remains. (F. LL. G.)