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Ismendes, or Osymandyas, whose palace still stands in the neighbourhood. The procession consists of several figures, male and female, gods and mortals, who move in the train of the principal personage towards the throne of Osiris, placed at the extremity of the chamber. On entering, the first figures which present themselves to the eye, upon the right hand wall, are those of two females, bearing in one hand a kind of graduated staff, in the other the Kteis-Phallus, which they extend towards the god. In front of these is a male figure, with the serpent, the emblem of sovereignty, on his brow, leading forward the foremost of the two females; while the hawk-headed god, Aroëris, holds him by the hand, and at the same time presents him with the mystic symbol of Eternal Life. The complexion of Memnon and Aroëris is red; that of the goddesses, yellow both utterly unnatural. The incipient divinity having been furnished with the sign of immortality, another god, of blue complexion, with a long narrow beard (the present Egyptians have very scanty beards) presents him with the flagellum, crosier, and bird-headed staff. This group is preceded by a goddess, bearing in her hand what appears to be a kind of musical instrument. The first compartment here terminates, and a narrow band of hieroglyphics, descending from the ceiling to the floor, divides it from the next; in which there are but three figures; - Isis and Osiris on their thrones, and Memnon, or whoever this personage may be, presenting himself

before them with a kind of censer in his hand. Osiris, through the sculptor's ignorance of perspective, seems to sit considerably in advance of the superior divinity, and bears his usual lofty mitre: his garments are blue. Isis is represented with the head of a lioness or panther, surmounted by the globe, with a serpent, the emblem of eternity, twisted round its surface: her garments are red. The goddess is here contemplated in her destructive character, of which the red garments and the panther's head are emblematic, on the same principle that Bhavani, when worshipped as Kali, is invested with new symbols and attributes. These three figures are again repeated on the northern wall. On the left, or western wall, are nine other figures, probably belonging to the history of the same event, but whose employment it seems difficult to conjecture. They are thus distributed:-1. A red hawk-headed god. 2. A bearded figure, green and blue. 3. A red figure. 4. Green and blue. 5. Isis; on her head the globe surrounded by a serpent. 6. Osiris. 7. A red male figure, with the Lingam issuing from his mouth, and entering a kind of sheath, which floats in the air to receive it; emblematic, perhaps, of the influence of the sun upon the air in spring. 8. Thoth ibiocephalust, with a kind of caul, like the bag of the pelican, extending from the head behind: colour red. 9. A yellow

* The world, in the mythology of the Hindoos, is said to rest upon the thousand-headed serpent Ananta, a personification of eternity. That is, with the head of an ibis.

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goddess, with blue mitre, bearing a graduated staff. Hieroglyphical inscriptions extend above the heads of the figures, along the upper part of the wall, in which the history of the whole transaction, whatever it was, lies, perhaps, concealed.

CCIX. From this chapel we proceeded to the ruins of the palace of Memnon. The sands of the desert, accumulated by the winds of many thousand years, have entered its magnificent halls and chambers, and gradually risen so high, that, in some places, they even conceal a portion of the capitals of the columns. This building, of a parallelogrammatic form, three hundred and fifty feet in length by one hundred and fifty in breadth, is constructed, roof and all, of enormous blocks of stone, more resembling such as are beheld in Cyclopean structures than even those of the pyramids. Having walked about for some time upon the roof, now not greatly elevated above the surrounding sands, we descended through a passage on the western side into the great hall, or audience chamber, of Memnon. The roof of this apartment seems to be supported-for the sand and darkness preclude all possibility of speaking with certaintyby thirty-two pillars, disposed in four rows, and surmounted by plain square capitals, or plinths, differing in form from those found in other parts of Egypt. The diameter of the shaft is about four feet, and the intercolumniations two diameters and a half. The length, therefore, of the apartment must be about one hundred and thirty feet; its breadth

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about sixty-five. The roof is flat, and formed, like that of the temples, of immense slabs of stone, extending from one row of pillars to the other. Around this great hall are numerous smaller chambers, all now entirely choked up, excepting at the southern extremity, where we entered through a break in the outer wall into an apartment of spacious dimensions.

CCX. It is not a little strange that what appears to be the principal front of this magnificent palace should be toward the west, where all prospect is cut off by the lofty mountains of the Libyan range, at the foot of which it is situated. Along the whole of this façade there appears to have run a kind of skreen or colonnade, not connected above by a roof with the body of the building; and a still more remarkable feature in this portion of the structure is, that opening into the colonnade there is a series of spacious and lofty arched chambers, into which, perhaps, during the great heats of summer, the inhabitants of the palace retired for coolness. Strabo, observing their construction from the pavement below, was led to suppose that the entire span of these arches was cut in one single stone; and Sir Frederic Henniker, who enjoyed the advantage of examining them as nearly as he pleased, repeats the assertion of Strabo. But the fact is not exactly so: for the stones upon which the arched block rests on either side enter into the bend of the simicircle, and form a part of the span. In the roof of these remarkable chambers we

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observed two small and nearly square apertures, descending obliquely as far as we could see; but what their use may have been, or where they terminate, we could not discover.

CCXI. Such are the observations suggested by an examination of the ruin as it at present appears; but it is probable that, were the sand and rubbish cleared away, we should find the principal entrance, with a portico, or the remains of one, on the eastern side, with windows, opening, perhaps, from the great hall upon the rich plain of Abydos; and discover many other particulars respecting the interior details, at which we can only guess at present. To the architect it is an object of much greater curiosity than the temples or palaces of Thebes, which, however vast, were never constructed upon one original design, but gradually enlarged and beautified as one prince after another added a portico or a propylon to the labours of his predecessors; whereas the Memnonium at Abydos, in all probability the most ancient edifice, sacred or profane, in all Egypt, was evidently erected at a heat by one architect, who knew how to conceive a noble design, and had the means at his disposal of effecting it in a noble manner.

CCXII. From the palace we proceeded to the tombs,' across the mounds of sand which have overwhelmed the ruins of the city. Here we found abundant proofs that the people who constructed these sepulchral chambers understood the principle of the