tribute?" Champollion conveys a forcible impression in a few words:-"The imagination which, in Europe, rises far above our porticos, sinks abashed at the foot of the one hundred and forty columns of the hypostyle hall of Karnak."

Beyond this hall is a small court, which is entered through the usual propyla, and which contains two beautiful obelisks, one standing, and the other lying on the ground broken; other propyla follow, and lead to a second pair of obelisks of large dimensions, they being 92 feet in height, and 8 feet square at the base. We have now reached the entrance to the chambers which were appropriated for the sanctuary, and the abode of the priests; the chief of these apartments is 20 feet long, 16 wide, and 13 high. Its walls are covered with painted sculptures: and the roof, which is formed of three blocks of granite, is painted with clusters of gilt stars on a blue ground. Beyond this are other porticos and galleries, which have been continued to another gateway, at the distance of 2000 feet from that at the western extremity of the temple.

From our slight sketch of this temple, the largest, perhaps, as Hamilton says, and certainly one of the most ancient in the world, it will be seen that it must have been a most extraordinary edifice; and besides those parts which we have described, there are many others which excite their full share of wonder in the traveller. Two of the porticos within it appear to have consisted of pillars, in the form of human figures, in the character of Hermes, that is, the lower part of the body hidden and unshapen, with the arms folded, and in the hand the insignia of divinity, perhaps, it has been suggested, the real origin of the Grecian Caryatides. Exclusive of these columnar statues, which have been thirty-eight in number, and the least of them thirty feet high, there are fragments, more or less mutilated, of more than twenty other statues in granite, basalt, &c., of which seventeen are colossal, and have been placed in front of the several entrances; they are from 25 to 30 feet in height, and executed in the best Egyptian style.

The great antiquity of this temple at Karnak is undoubted, and, according to Mr. Wilkinson, surpasses that of every other building in Thebes by at least a hundred years. The name of Osirtesen the First, who is supposed to have ascended the throne in 1740 B. C., and who was, therefore, reigning at Thebes when Joseph visited Lower Egypt, in the manner recorded in the Bible, is found written upon its walls; and the principal monarchs who reigned at Thebes, or over the whole of Egypt after him, until the seat of government was removed to Memphis, were, in all probability, the authors of successive additions. The great

hypostyle hall was built by Osirei the First, the father of Rameses the Great; he ascended the throne, according to Mr. Wilkinson, in 1380 B.C., according to others 150 years earlier.

SCULPTURES AT KARNAK.

On the outside of the walls of the great hall are seen certain sculptures, cut in the same sort of relief as those at Luxor, and representing the same kind of subjects. On the north-east wall are shown events connected with the campaigns of Osirei the First,-the attacking of a fort, the success of the Egyptians, and the triumphant return of their monarch. "The drawing in the figures is remarkably spirited," says Mr. Wilkinson, "and cannot but be admired by the greatest sceptic; nor are the principal groups of any one of these subjects the productions of inferior artists, but of men whose talents would do credit to a later epoch than the fourteenth century before our era." There are also upon this wall the campaigns of some monarch whose name is not to be seen.

On the south-west wall are represented the conquests of Rameses the Second,-the Great, as he is styled,-who is generally identified with the famous Sesostris of the Greeks; but, besides them, it offers other sculptures, which to us must be peculiarly interesting, from the wonderful illustration which they afford of a passage in the Sacred Scriptures; we allude to that passage in the Book of Kings which relates to the expedition of the Egyptian king, Shishak, against Judea, in the year 970 B. C., and his capture of Jerusalem, as noticed in p. 42 of our former Supplement on Thebes. On the south-west wall this monarch, under the name of Sheshonk, as we read the hieroglyphics, is represented dragging along the chiefs of more than thirty vanquished nations; the name of each is written, according to the hieroglyphical system, in an elliptical ring, called a cartouche, which is surmounted by a half-figure of a captive with the hands bound. Among these names Champollion says, writing from Thebes, "I have found that of Joudahamalek, the kingdom of the Jews, or of Juda;-what a commentary on the fourteenth chapter of the First Book of Kings!" The coincidence is indeed gratifying; yet there is something more to be observed, which is equally remarkable, and which our readers will understand by comparing the cartouche and figure in a copy of his engraving given in page 144 of our Third Volume, with the following note by ChampollionFigeac, the elder brother of the writer just quoted, and the "The kingdom of editor of his letters after his death. Judah," he says "is here personified, and, doubtless, with

that fidelity of physiognomy which we remark in all the ancient works of art of the Egyptians, which relate to any foreign people whom they represented on their monuments; we have then in this representation, the physiognomy of the Jewish people in the tenth century before the Christian era, according to the Egyptians; perhaps Rehoboam himself may have furnished the original."

It is unnecessary for our purpose that we should describe any of the smaller ruins, which are to be found on the eastern bank of the Nile, and we accordingly proceed to those which exist on the opposite side of the river

RUINS AT MEDEENET HABOU.

BEFORE the invasion of Egypt by the Arabs, MedeenetHabou was a place of considerable extent and population, its inhabitants being Christians. On the approach of the Mohammedan invaders they fled, and ever since it has ceased to hold a place among the villages of Thebes; but it still boasts the possession of some splendid remains of antiquity, or, to use the expression of Champollion, of an astonishing collection of edifices. These distinct, though connected, buildings, "to which," says Mr. Hamilton, "we may arbitrarily assign the names of the chapel, the palace, and the temple," seem to have been contained within one outward enclosure, or brick wall. The French writer enumerates a propyleum of Antoninus, Hadrian, and of the Ptolemics; an edifice of Nectanebo, another of the Ethiopian Tharaca, a little palace of Touthmos, is the third, and, finally, the enormous and gigantic palace of Rhamses-Meiamoum, (or Rameses the Third,) covered with

historical bas-reliefs.

It is quite unnecessary for us to describe particularly the propyla, the courts, the pillars, the caryatid columns, and the colossal statues which are here to be seen; every thing is on the same scale of grandeur as on the eastern bank. The sculptures are of a similar nature to those at Luxor and Karnak; on the outer face of one wall there is a representation of a lion-hunt. There is also a very curious representation of a sea-fight, in which four Egyptian vessels contend against five belonging to an enemy; the dresses of the respective combatants, their weapons, and the shape of their vessels, are carefully distinguished. The tall figure of the monarch is seen as usual, and he appears to be rather defending his own territories than invading those of others. “The sovereign,' says Hamilton," alighted from his car, and attended by his sons, has already laid low ten of the invaders who had effected a landing, tramples on their necks, and is assisting with arrows shot from his bow the active exertions of his own fleet. The Egyptians are seen equally successful on the sea as on shore; their boats are crowded with prisoners, who have exchanged their round shields, spears, and daggers for hand-cuffs. The usual punishments and offerings to the gods occupy the two following compartments." Some writers complain that much mischief has been done to these sculptures, and to the ruins generally, within the last twenty or thirty years; and that, consequently, they have been unable to recognise distinctly the particular parts of the battle and hunting scenes, which Hamilton has described with so much minuteness. "But for the real beauty and magnificence of the whole, I should have felt some disappointment," says a female traveller, "from finding that, owing to the recent dilapidations, I could seldom, after a minute inspection with his book in my hand, make out anything like a connected story."

THE MEMNONIUM, OR PALACE OF OSYMANDYAS. THE name Memnonium is used by Strabo to designate some part of ancient Thebes lying on the western side of the river; some modern travellers have applied it to a mass of ruins at a little distance to the north of Medeenet-Habou, which are by others identified with the palace and tomb of Osymandyas, described by the Greek writer Diodorus. The dimensions of the building are about 530 feet in length, and 200 in width: it is chiefly remarkable for the magnificent colossal statues which have been discovered within it. The "Memnon's head," which forms so valuable an object in the collection of Egyptian antiquities contained in the British Museum, formerly belonged to one of these statues; it is generally supposed that the French during their celebrated expedition separated the bust from the rest of the figure by the aid of gunpowder, with the view of rendering ats transport more easy. They were compelled, however,

from some cause or other, to leave it behind, and it was brought away by Belzoni.

Close to the spot where the Memnon's head was found, lie the fragments of another statue, which has been called the largest in Egypt. It was placed in a sitting posture, and measures 62 or 63 feet round the shoulders, 6 feet 10 inches over the foot. The length of the nail of the second toe is about 1 foot, and the length of the toe to the insertion of the nail is 1 foot 11 inches. This enormous statue, formed of red granite, has been broken off at the waist, and the upper part is now laid prostrate on the back: the face is entirely obliterated, and next to the wonder excited at the boldness of the sculptor who made it, as Mr. Hamilton remarks, and the extraordinary powers of those who crected it, the labour and exertions that must have been used for its destruction, are most astonishing.

We fear that the remarks which we quoted in our former Supplement on Thebes (page 46), from the pages of Abdallatif must here meet with an application. The mutilation of this statue must have been a work of extreme didiculty; and a suflicient incitement to the task could only have been supplied by the motives developed by the Arabian physician. Hamilton says that it could only have been brought about with the help of military engines, and must then have been the work of a length of time; in its fall it has carried along with it the whole of the wall of the teraple, which stood within its reach. "It was not without great difficulty and danger that we could climb on its shoulder and neck and in going from thence upon its chest, I was assisted by my Arab servant, who walked by my side in the hieroglyphical characters engraven on its arm.

We have remarked that this edifice called the Meinonium, is by many travellers identified with that described by Diodorus, under the name of the monument of Osymandyas; his description is the only detailed account which we have in the ancient writers, of any great Egyptian building. There is no one now at Thebes to which it may be applied in all its parts, or with which it so far agrees as to leave no doubt concerning the edifice to which it was intended to apply by its author; and Mr. Hamilton expresses his decided opinion that Diodorus, in penning this description of the tomb of Osymandyas, either listened with too easy credulity to the fanciful relations of the Greek. travellers, to whom he refers, or that astonished with the immensity of the monuments, he must have read and heard of as contained within the walls of the capital of Egypt, and equally unwilling to enter into a minute detail of them all, as to omit all mention of them whatever, he set himself down to compose an imaginary building, to which he could give a popular name. In this he might collect in some kind of order all the most remarkable features of Theban monuments, statues, columns, obelisks, sculptures, &c., to form one entire whole that might astonish his reader without tiring him by prolixity or repetition, and which at the same time gave him a just notion of the magnificent and splendid works which had immortalized the monarchs of the Thebaid. It is evident that there is no one monument at Thebes which answers in all its parts to the description of Diodorus; yet it is urged that there is scarcely any one circumstance that he mentions that may not be referred to one or other of the temples of Luxor, Karnak, Goornoo, Medeenet-Habou, or the tombs of the kings among the mountains. Others think that Diodorus used his best endeavours to describe a real place; and the chief agreements with that now called the Memnonium, are in the position of the building, and its colossal statues, which are supposed to outweigh the exaggerations of dimension, these being set down as faults of memory or observation. On the colossal statue mentioned by Diodorus, as the largest in Egypt, was placed, as he tells us, this inscription ; "I am Osymandyas, king of kings: if you wish to know how great I am, and where I lie, surpass my works!" He speaks also of certain sculptures representing battlescenes*; and of the famous sacred library which was inscribed with the words, "Place of cure for the soul!” Yet from his conclusion we learn that he has been describing what the tomb of Osymandyas was, "which not only in the expense of the structure, but also in the skill of the workmanship, must have surpassed by far all other buildings."

Who this king Osymandyas was we do not know; it has been conjectured that the name is but a title of Sesostris or Rameses the Great, whose name appears frequently on the Memnonium, so called, and from whom it was called * See Saturday Magazine, Vol. II., p. 250.

Remeseion. Two of the descendants of Rameses are also mentioned in the sculptures.

GOORNOO AND ITS CAVERN TOMBS.

THERE formerly existed a village of this name on the western bank of the Nile; but it was abandoned a long time ago, when its inhabitants preferred the more secure abode of the tombs which are excavated in the neighbouring chain of Lybian mountains. These are the places in which the dead bodies of the inhabitants of ancient Thebes were deposited many ages ago; and notwithstanding the havoc which, during many years, has been made among them, the stores of mummies which they contain would almost appear to be inexhaustible; indeed, as a modern writer expresses it, it would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that the mountains are merely roofs over the masses of mummies within them. The coffins, which are made of sycamore wood, serve as fuel to the Arabs of the whole neighbourhood. At first," says Mrs. Lushington, "I did not relish the idea of my dinner being dressed with this resurrection wood, particularly as two or three of the coffin lids, which as I said before were in the shape of human figures, were usually to be seen standing upright against the tree under which the cook was performing his operations, staring with their large eyes as if in astonishment at the new world upon which they had opened."

We have already given our readers a sufficient account of these ancient repositories of the dead; we shall content ourselves now with a few further remarks.

The miserable beings who have fixed their dwellings in these cavern tombs, are as little civilized as could be expected; our female traveller describes them as having a wild and resolute appearance. Every man was at this time (1828) armed with a spear, to resist, it was said, the compulsory levies of the Pacha, who found it vain to attack them in their fastnesses. I, who was so delighted with the beauty and peace of our new abode, felt quite disturbed to discover that the very spot where we encamped had four years before witnessed the massacre of many hundreds of Arabs, then in resistance against this recruiting system, and who were blown from guns, or shot, wi.le endeavouring to make their escape by swimming across the river. The poor people, however, behaved with civility to us, and I felt no apprehension at going among them with a single companion, or even alone. To be sure we were obliged to take especial care of our property, for which purpose the chief of Luxor assisted us by furnishing half-a-dozen men to watch by night round the encampment. Nevertheless, once after I had gone to sleep, I was awakened by the extinguishing of the light, and felt my little camp-bed raised up by a man creeping underneath; he fled on my crying out, and escaped the pursuit, as he had the vigilance of our six protectors."

The feelings occasioned by the sight of the numerous fragments of mummies which are to be found scattered in every direction in the neighbourhood of these tombs, must be to one of a reflective cast of mind peculiarly affecting. The Rev. Mr. Jowett, after speaking of his ascent to the top of the Lybian mountains, "which command a magnificent view of the winding of the Nile, and the plain of the hundred-gated Thebes," says, "as we were descending the other side of the mountain, we came suddenly on a part where thirty or forty mummies lay scattered in the sand, the trunk of the body filled with pitch, and the limbs swathed in exceedingly long clothes. The forty days spent in embalming these mortal bodies, (Genesis L. 3,) thus give us a sight of some of our fellow-creatures who inhabited these plains more than three thousand years ago. How solemn the reflection that their disembodied spirits have been so long waiting to be united again to their reanimated body! and that this very body which, notwithstanding its artificial preservation, we sce to be a body of humiliation, will on its great change become incorruptible and immortal. How awful, too, to think that while we gaze upon their remains as a curiosity, their souls are expecting that great day when they shall receive according to the things done in the body!"

THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS.

THE "Tombs of the Kings," as their name implies, are the sepulchres in which are deposited the earthly remains of the ancient Egyptian monarchs who reigned at Thebes; they are called by some Babor, or Biban el Molook, a * See Saturday Magazine, Vol. II., p. 252.

traditional appellation, signifying the Gate or Gates of the Kings, which is by others applied to the narrow gorge at the entrance of the valley in which they are situated. This valley, as Champollion remarks, "is the veritable abode of death; not a blade of grass or a living being is to be found there, with the exception of jackals and hyænas, who, at a hundred paces from our residence' devoured last night the ass which had served to carry my servant Barabba Mohammed, whilst his keeper was agreeably passing the night of the Ramazan in our kitchen, which is established in a royal tomb entirely ruined."

It would be unnecessary, were it possible, to give a detailed account of these tombs, or of the sculptures which they contain, and of which our interpretation is very limited, because they often refer to Egyptian mysteries of which we have but a scanty knowledge. The tomb, which of all others stands pre-eminently conspicuous, as well for the beauty of its sculptures as the state of its preservation, is undoubtedly that discovered and opened by Belzoni. It has been deprived within a few years of one of its chief ornaments. "I have not forgotten," says Champollion, in his twenty-second letter, "the Egyptian Museum of the Louvre in my explorations; I have gathered monuments of all sizes, and the smallest will not be found the least interesting. Of the larger class, I have selected out of thousands three or four mummies remarkable for peculiar decorations, or having Greek inscriptions; and next, the most beautiful coloured bas-relief in the royal tomb of Menephtha the First (Ousirei), at Biban-el-Mokouk; it is a capital specimen, of itself worth a whole collection: it has caused me much anxiety, and will certainly occasion me a dispute with the English at Alexandria, who claim to be the lawful proprietors of the tomb of Ousirei, discovered by Belzoni at the expense of Mr. Salt. In spite, however, of this fine pretension, one of the two things shall happen; either my bas-relief shall reach Toulon, or it shall go to the bottom of the sea or the bottom of the Nile, rather than fall into the hands of others; my mind is made up on that point!" No dispute, however, took place, and the bas-relief is now in the museum for which it was destined.

66

Nearly two thousand years ago, these tombs were an object of wonder and curiosity, and used to attract visiters from different parts of the earth as they now do. It was the practice even then for many of those who beheld them to leave some memorial of their visit behind, in the shape of an inscription commemorating the date at which they saw and wondered," to use the expression which is commonly found among them. Some of these inscriptions are curious: one of them is to the following effect: "I, the Dadouchos (literally Torch-bearer), of the most sacred Eleusinian mysteries, Nisagoras of Athens, having seen these syringes (as the tombs were commonly called,) a very long time after the divine Plato of Athens, have wondered and given thanks to the God and to the most pious King Constantine, who has procured me this favour." The tomb in which this is written seems to have been generally admired above all others, though, as Mr. Wilkinson tells us, one morose old gentleman of the name of Epiphanius declares that "he saw nothing to admire but the stone," meaning the alabaster sarcophagus, near which he wrote his laconic and ill-natured remarks. There are many other inscriptions; some afford internal evidence of their dates, and among them are four relating to the years 103, 122, 147, and 189 of our era.

A great many of the painted sculptures which are found in these tombs, relate to the idolatrous worship of the ancient Egyptians, and the rites and ceremonies which they practised in connexion with it. But besides these there are others which afford us a vast quantity of interesting information upon the subjects of their domestic usages and every-day life. In one chamber are depicted the operations of preparing and dressing meat, boiling the cauldron, making bread, lighting the fire, fetching water, &c. Another presents scenes in a garden, where a boy is beaten for stealing fruit; a canal and pleasure boats; fruit and flowers; the mechanical processes of various arts, such as sculpture, painting, the mixing of colours, &c. In the Harper's Tomb, (so called from there being among the bas-reliefs figures of a man playing upon an instrument resembling a harp,) which was first visited by Bruce, there are some curious illustrations of the furniture which was in use among the Egyptians; tables, chairs, and sideboards,

We have given a full account of his operations in this discovery, Vol. II., p. 254.

patterns of embossed silk and chintz, drapery with folds and fringe are there to be seen, precisely such, we are told, as were used in our own country some years ago when Egyptian furniture was in fashion.

The "Tombs of the Kings" bring many allusions of Scripture to the mind, as is remarked by Mr. Jowett, as in the passages of Mark v. 2, 3, 5, and particularly of Isaiah xxii. 16. What hast thou here, and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth an habitation for himself in a rock?

Another passage of the same prophet might be applied to the pride which the tenants of these magnificent abodes took in resting as magnificently in death as they had done in life; he tells us (xiv. 18), All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

The mystical sculptures upon the walls of the chambers within these sepulchres, cannot be better described than in the words of Ezekiel, (viii. 8-10): Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold, a door; and he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in and saw; and, behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.

"The Israelites," remarks Mr. Jowett," were but copyists; the master sketches are to be seen in all the ancient temples and tombs of Egypt."

THE SITTING COLOSSI.

By this name are commonly known the two seated statues represented in our engraving below; among the natives they have obtained the familiar appellations of Shamy and Tamy. They are by some supposed to have originally stood before the entrance of an enormous temple which has since disappeared, but of which some traces are thought to have been discovered by the research of modern travellers. They stand in the western plain of Thebes, about half-way between the desert and the river; the traveller who lands on that side and proceeds straight towards the tomb of Osymandyas, or the Memnonium, will pass them on his route. Their height is 47 feet, or 55 with the pedestal, above the plain on which they stand, or rather in which they are buried, to the depth of nearly seven feet; thus their complete height is 60 feet.

The following are some particulars of their dimensions: across the shoulders 18 feet 3 inches,-from the top of the

shoulder to the elbow, 16 feet 6 inches,-from the top of the head to the shoulder, 10 feet 6 inches,-from the elbow to the finger's end, 17 feet 9 inches,-from the knee to the plant of the foot, 19 feet 8 inches,-and the length of the little finger 4 feet 5 inches. They are both statues of Amunoph the Third, who ascended the throne 1430 years B. C., and were erected by him; this is the monarch who is generally identified with the Memnon of the Greek writers. The head in the British Museum, which is erroneously called the "Young Memnon," is in fact part of a statue of Rameses the Great. There is, however, in the Museum, a black statue, in a sitting posture, almost nine feet high, which is a miniature copy of these figures.

Two thousand years ago, these statues, like the Tombs of the Kings, were an object of great interest to strangers visiting Thebes. The geographer, Strabo, who flourished in the reign of the Emperor Augustus, has left us the following description of them as they existed when he visited Egypt. "On the opposite (or western) side of the Nile," he says, "is the Memnonium, where there are two monolith colossi near one another; one of the statues is entire, but the upper part of the other has fallen from its chair, owing to an earthquake, as they say. It is believed that once every day a sound, as of a moderate blow, pro ceeds from that part of the statue which remains on the seat and the pedestal. I happened to be on the spot with Elius Gallus, and many of his friends and soldiers about the first hour, when I heard the sound; but whether it came from the base or from the colossus, or was made by some one of those around the base, I cannot affirm. For the cause not being visible, one is inclined to believe anything rather than that the sound was emitted from the stone. Above the Memnonium are the tombs of the kings cut in the rock, forty in number, very wonderful in their construction, and well worth examining."

The statue here mentioned by Strabo as emitting sounds, was very celebrated during the dominion of the Romans in Egypt. Its legs are covered with inscriptions recording the visits of many persons, and their testimony to the fact of the sound being emitted. A piece of stone has been discerned in its lap, which on being struck, gives out a sound like that of brass; and it is commonly supposed that the priests made use of this to impose on their visiters. In 1830, Mr. Wilkinson placed an Arab at the foot of the statue, and himself mounting into its lap, proceeded to strike the stone in question; the Arab at once called out, "You are striking brass."

GENERAL

RUSSIAN PEASANTRY.

It is a remark as true as it is trite, that, to appreciate aright the blessings that cluster round our homes, we must leave them. Much may be gathered from the reports of others, yet the conviction is less deeply impressed than when the result of personal experience. None but he who has felt them, can tell the fond yearnings of heart with which the resident in a foreign country recalls the scenes of his native land. He may engage in the bustling pursuits of commerce; he may abandon himself to the allurements of an intellectual profession; he may mingle in the society of the learned or the gay; yet still will the remembrance of the home, the quiet, perhaps humble home, of his childhood, often fill his eye with no unmanly tears, and make his heart overflow with a pure feeling which not all

The dreary intercourse of daily life

can deaden or repress. His career may be brilliant, but they who would have hailed his success are far away, estranged, perhaps, by protracted absence, or gathered to their fathers.

The friends that throng around him may be kind and true, but they are not like the friends of his own country, and of earlier years. Friendship like our VOL. VIII.

Who

own oak, will but ill bear transplanting,-it loves its strikes deepest root, and most widely extends its welown soil, and grows best round our homes there it come shade; there its outstretched arms yield a sure refuge when storms are abroad; but he that would seek their shelter must not widely range. would not wish they should droop over his last place of sleep? How different is it from the unstable exotics, too often cherished for it, that rear their feeble stems, and expand their showy flowers amidst the artificial scenes of after-life; things for sunshine and calm, bought at too dear a price, and withered by a breath.

But

At home, hedged in by household comforts and. girt by a friendly circle, the affections of an individual may find ample scope, nor feel a wish to roam. torn from thence, and settled in a foreign country, they take a wider range. Every object connected with the land of his nativity shares his fond regard. Is it England? with what honest pride he views her stately pre-eminence among the nations; her glorious institutions,-her dignified rank in arts and sciences, -the mighty names that adorn her literature, to which every nation, by translations, has paid, and is daily paying, its homage. With what delight he dwells on the matchless beauties of her rich and 236