| Show IN EGYPT from stout we steamed up the nile on board the 8 8 cleopatra and were soon in the heart of upper egypt and later at which is not far distant from the border of nubia the following description will start at and conclude at stout between which points I 1 now am amid some of the grandest remains of that ponderous and hold bold architecture which has baa justly made the ancient egyptians renowned in all ages even in this day of steam mechanism and powerful appliances the foremost engineers architects and capitalists of the civilized world would be puzzled or non if called upon to breet edifices like those erected thousands of years ago in the land of the Pha pharaohs Phara mobs imagine agi ne blocks of granite or porphyry from sixty to more mor long elong by eight or nine square a block of granite seventy eight feet in every direction or a statue also of granite of which I 1 can give only the following dimensions twenty six feet broad between the shoulders shoulder fifty four feet around the ch chest eat avy tf teen feet from the shoulder to the t e e elbow this is the image of osy candias memnon or sesostris A description of consists in the delineation of an insignificant dirty arab village full of flies and bad odors in the midst of which with sweeping me majesty jesty tower two pyramidal pro phyla whose floors are far below the actual level of the soils soil and whose truncated summits overlook the adjacent minaret miu aret village and miserable huts perched upon the Deigh neighboring boring broad mound of ruins which still conceal monuments ments of past only crop out a little here and there at present the pro prop bylon which forms the portico of the chief temple is declared to be one of the most imposing il g m monuments extant of egyptian architecture each of the sides is feet in length and in height many of the figures sculptured upon it in bas relief tire are 30 feet high executed in a lively and spirited style inno in no part of egypt are more gigantic sculptures found upon a building than on the walls of the greater temple of where are whole professions processions process ions of deities personages pageants and rows of touches cartouches car or retain the original lustre of green red and yellow pigments placed upon them like enamel thousands f years ago the architecture an is vast and bold the execution precise and jut neat at in the extreme but no where is 18 anything seen which could induce the thought that the egyptians of old knew anything of the principle of the arch or keystone key stone had they known how to build an arch years ago would have witnessed mammoth bridges spanning the nile in contemplating the ornamentation of this and similar edifices we gaze with strange curiosity upon t those hose partial and contrasted pictures of real life which we call hieroglyphics and which are intended to explain the whys ghys and wherefores that come to the mind while scrutinizing a host of priests paying divine honors or offerings to the or beetle which is upon an altar or the mystical signification cation of the repulsive genius of evil who often presides here in the vast columbus the grottoes of further down the nile are extremely interesting tn in the paintings with which the walls are covered are ex illustrations of the habits pursuits and modes of living of the ancient egyptians in this respect they surpass anything yot yet found along the nile as most monuments of the sort and those of thebes even are confined to the higher ceremonies of the religion and hopes of the next life before explaining the nature of these paintings I 1 will remark something which applies to all egyptian pictorial art anciently the principles of perspective were unknown by the subjects of the ehno ph pharaohs Phara hs aad as a consequence one who views these paintings otherwise elegantly executed must not expect x let to find any thing like modern ha tings almost true to nature like i ike photographs but has to accustom his or her eyes to conventionalized pictures objects or poses for instance as tables formerly in egypt had only one central leg such a table is uniformly represented in these paintings as the following capital letter I 1 f r the vertical stroke representing the leg and the horizontal the out of the table board and rim if for example the artist wished to picture a table full of food and bowls of fruit etc an enormous Ts T is made and aboab this as if in the air are seen a leg of mutton dressed ducks geese gee loaves of bread etc and to figure bowls they would place small half moons crescents or some things like a small capital Us U meaning a pot in which fruits or liquids are made to a appear after the eye has accustomed itself to this species of pictorial interpretation we see am a whole array army of illustrations of egyptian rustic life here a man and wife richly dressed preside at a feast fat of many succulent things vivi vividly tily reu rendered dered on the floor near them a big monkey regales himself from a basket of of beautiful blank grapes A slave in leopards leopard a hide presents various dishes to the guests who are seated in rows farther along are musicians a woman plays a harp not unlike that of our day and dancing women like the al mebs of the present orient cong contort tort themselves strangely lu in another scene the master goes out to vinit his fields and laborers here we are shown how bow grain and corn are hoed plowed sowed bowed rolled reaped gathered winnowed win baked turned out as bread and biscuits and embarked on nile boats which singular enough have square sails whereas not a single one is now to be seen on the nile like it this alone t would prove that ancle anciently n tl I 1 the egyptians understood navigation da better than their modern representatives farther along we see a farmyard full of water buff buffaloe buffalos alos cows sheep goats asses oto etc next comes the vintage and the manner of treading the the grapes and ancl the process of wine making fishermen are next observed catching fish with nets and salting baiting the same water fowl appear also and further birther along is a thanksgiving feast with offerings to certain doubtful gods the men are ace painted red and the women yellow probably because the artists did not know how to use the paints cor ralf amy or had not those abich could bili ked sometimes one ane feels almost n il lied at a the trouble in which the adust r tit jiust have found faund himself when wishing wl ang to arlot the colors s thus a w domn has a yellow skin green eyebrows ano and hair and red eyes a as the artist had no black brown or white nor in some instances even eve blue paint to die dispose ose of with the exception of a a slave vol who is plainly represented asa as a negro neg ro in the remaining figures and persons there is nothing in the slightest degree ot 0 n negro e to nature feature there are at alei taij tb it many other characters beau ti fu feuy illustrated but the one which hat has be been eu described in parts part above I 1 most interesting from an ar the c point ot dt view in n other spacious bam balls there if wand wandered emd upon vast heaps hap of ono auoe but now disturbed 81 anda broken bones of numerous sacred crocodiles jackals jackala jac kals ibi ibbe civet cats shrews shrew 4 etc long since and abandoned to hords of nolay noisy etling bats whose ere excrements elements ments ex ha haft a smell like india rubber and whose wase wings while flying tty ing about in these silent chambers invariably extinguish the travelers lighted candle candid to T describe Esne hand and vermontis Her montis would when compared with other n noted places ac along the nile ile user use r leeby lengthen ng en this article I 1 will t on to thebes karu karlak aad an A whose ruins cover twenty seven square miles I 1 am however unable adequately to pic ic ture their splendor the follow following n paragraph from the works of derron friend if and companion of napoleon n bonaparte is sufficiently sufficient oy Jy vivid at A 9 ol cloel in making a sharp turn around a projecting point we discovered cov xea au all at once the site of ancient thet thebes e s in n its whole extent this cele berated city which homer has baa charac with the t ingle tingle expression or of the gated a boasting POP poetical leal 0 phrase which has been re EF with oo 00 much confidence for so centuries thia illustrious city gabed in a few ra pages apa dicta dictated tp by egy egyptian 0 pries priests a have since been copied coob by eve every historian celebrated b by t the e number of its kiis hose wisdom raised them to the rank of gods by laws that have been revered without being promulgated by science involved in pompous enigmatical inscriptions I 1 the trot first monuments ot 0 ancient learning hare still spared by the handi oft off timp imp tax th abandoned sano sanctuary tury sarp w with I 1 th barbarism and agan restored s thred to the desert frond from ah re it k had been drawn forth enveloped in the bof veil of mystery and the obscurity of ages whereby even its own colossal monuments are magni neato fied ito the imagination still impressed the mind with such gigantic phantoms phAntom chak the whole army sud suddenly donly and with i one accord rd stood in amazement agthe sight ga to 0 of its scattered ruins and hands bands with delight deli ghi as i if the d and object of their glo glorious riou af tolls tolli ind and the complete conquest 0 of wrt egypt were accomplished and cecur secured ad by caking a sk ing IV possession 0 on 0 of f the splendid remains of this ancient metropolis grayel Tr Tray ayel els in upper and lower vol 1 I p apy 3 but lest any reader of the NEWS sup suppose pose that the gre greatest adest beauty of Louei Kar karnak nair medi ne labout and fornoo fornoo the four vil la laes as which now embrace the si site te of thebes lies especially in the description which a lively frenchman makes of it I 1 will add the sober words of an english woman mrs C lushington Lushi while I 1 was leisurely traveling alow along thinking only of conr arrival at luxor lexor louisor sor one of our party who haa preceded us called to me from a rising ground to turn to the left and having gone a few yards off the t gad I 1 behold beheld unexpectedly the temple ou of karnak it was long after aften I 1 reached ened my tent before 4 recovered from the bewilderment into which the view of these stupendous ruins had thrown me inq no one who has not seen them can understand the awe and admiration they excite even in unscientific behold beholders when I 1 com jye the descriptions of danou and mamilton I 1 find them essentially correct yet without giving me any adequate idea of the glorious reality th fall aall in describing what wham has never be and I 1 think never can be doid dod se r N no 0 words can impart a pern e ep 0 tit of a profusion of pillars standing prostrate inclined against each oter other broken and whole whole stones of gigantic size propped up by pi pillars liars ind and pillars again resting upon stones which appear ready to crush the gazer under their sudden fall yet on a second view he is convinced that nothing but tin an earthquake could move them all these pillars covered ered with sculpture perhaps three thousand year old though fresh as if finia finished lied but yesterday not of grotesque and hideous objects such as we are accustomed accustom Ad associate with ideas of egyptian mythology but many of the figures of gods warriors warrior sand and horses much larger than life yet exhibiting surpassing beauty and grace or Den doudera De udera dora is farther down the river it is generally admitted that its monuments are not so ancient as those of other parta of 1 egypt pt to this however vast and telf ifft exceptions have been taken to a reader who has not seen an egyptian temple it might be easiest to state that it is 18 similar to any other yet some erudite travelers have discovered in abb carved figures a close resemblance to those seen I 1 in n india and it is in at this very temple of Ten lemyra tyra that the U in british service protracted prot rated themselves before the egyptian adoring them in t their accustomed way thinking that wha was before them was their own gods in fact they were indignant that the natives should have thus neblo neglected their sacred shrine this circumstance cl tends to strengthen the idea that ja in many things as well as I 1 in u theology there is a strong so affinity anity between the ine ancient egyptians fians and the modern Hin Hiu doos farther along are ape other things hardly worth describing alongside of an account of the former the weather is extremely hot here now C U L THEBES longson Long sor egypt march 2 1890 |
