nic. Among the Nubian amusements, a high rank is assigned to rope-dancers and story-tellers.

Of the former,' says Sir F., I saw a strolling company at Dehr, and of the latter there is one at every village: he is the oracle of the conversazione, and goes about like a circulating library. Frequently, when we moored for the evening, one of these entertainers used to come on board to amuse the crew. The most popular subject is, a history of the adventures and miracles of Mohammed. It is by no means uncommon to see a crowd collected round one of these historians in the open spaces in Cairo and other towns, like round a balladsinger in London. Whenever the sailors were called upon to use their oars, the reiss was obliged to give out a song, which he did, line by line, and the crew joined in chorus con amore. All animals are inspired by music, and even these discordant attempts have their effect, though they are sad variations from the evening song on board a Sicilian sparonaro. They sometimes sing to the air of “ Marlbrook," and “ Life let us cherish," (these airs are the legacy of the French,) which, though they seldom fail, are not so undeniable an appeal to my generosity as “God save the King.” Surely, the man imprisoned as it were in a strange land, like the unfortunate Richard, must either have no music in his soul, or no becksheesh in his pocket, who could listen unmoved to an air that reminds him of his childhood and of home.' pp. 168, 9.

The antiquities of Egypt have been more frequently described, and we shall not attempt to enumerate them. Every day is bringing to light fresh treasures. The number of regal tombs at Thebes is stated to be forty, of which twenty-four still remain' to reward the lucky adventurer.' • The whole

of ancient Thebes,' says our rattling Baronet, “is the private property of the English and French consuls. '

• A line of demarcation is drawn through every temple, and these buildings, that have hitherto withstood the attacks of barbarians, will not resist the speculation of civilised cupidity, virtuosi and antiquarians' (antiquaries). p. 139.

We have nothing to say in praise of the sordid, money-getting spirit in which the business of antiquity-hunting has been carried on by certain individuals ; but, if the removal of these works of ancient art be sacrilege, Sir Frederick must come in for his share of reprobation, in proof of which we cite his adventure at Sheekh Eredy, between Siout and Girgen.

« The path leading up the neighbouring mountain is long, steep, and broiling. About half way towards the summit is a large quarry or grotto. A few steps onward, the path turns down into the heart of the mountain: it presents a romantic crater, in the hollow of which is the cell of Saint Eredy. Saint Eredy is held in great veneration by the Arabs, and, in consequence of repeated pilgrimages, the rugged

rocks have been worn into a tolerable path; but the length and difficulty of it are still sufficient to try the Mussulman's faith ......I climbed to the very summit of the mountain ; the Rockham, large vulture, Aying round in every direction, and the surface covered with chrystal. Here is at once the scene of Sinbad's valley of diamonds, and the rock-bird. I am as pleased as if I was reading the Arabian Night's Entertainments, and, like a child too, load myself with chrys-, tal till my handkerchief and pockets burst. The Rockham is encouraged in every village to carry off dead animals—the Arabian tales were written by a Greek. I entered at the top of the ravine which conducts to the burial place of Saint Eredy. There are several perpendicular breaks in it, of from ten to eighty feet : a torrent would perhaps render it nearly comparable to Terni. To the South of the most eastern of these falls, but considerably more elevated, is a low natural cave or grotto, at the entrance of which stand three large pillars of chrystal. One of them is detached—I hastened to my boat, and procured eight men with poles, mats, and all the ropes that Mr. Grey's boat and my own could furnish. These eight stupid fellahs, notwithstanding my signs, and prayers, and curses, roll the pillar towards the ravine, and are unable to stop it. It leaped the first cataract: it was intended that it should break, but it took fairly a somerset, and was no more hurt than - was when he fell only on his head. The paltry Arabs cry out hay-lay.essah, God help us, but, wanting more assistance, they invoke Saint Eredy by name, but be wo’n't come when they call him. They roll it onward to the second precipice ; it touches various crags in its descent; rays sparkling particles flew in every direction, and, glittering in the sun, appeared like a shower of diamonds,-a miniature avalanche of bril liants. The body fell upon the edge of a rock; it shivered, and I left it in despair. The Arabs were now contented; there was no treasure concealed in it. Two of them followed me, bearing one fragment, and four of them labouring under another. The lesser fragment made its escape out of their hands, and, taking the short path of the mountain, arrived at the bottom piecemeal. The larger one is safe on board.' pp. 107--110.

Unfortunately, this has again been broken in its way to England, and the largest fragment is now only four feet in circumference, and rather more than one hundred weight.

At Assouan (Syene) Captains Irby and Mangles visited the ancient granite quarries. "They found in one part, an immense granite basin, 17 feet long by 7 wide and 3 deep, hewn out in the rough, and narrower at the bottom thap at the top: for what purpose it was intended, it is hard to conjecture; not, we should imagine, 'for a bath,' with the Nile so near at hand.

• Here, they add, ' we had an opportunity of noticing the manner in which the ancients used to cut the prodigious masses which one meets with throughout Egypt. It appears that, when they wanted to detach a mass, they cut niches in a right line throughout the piece

of

a

they intended removing : these niches were about two feet apart, five or six inches long, and about three deep by two and a half broad. As soon as they were finished, the block was separated by some violent blow or concussion. We met in all directions, specimens of the progress of their work : some masses were but half detached, others wholly separated; here we saw an obelisk in the rough, and there a column. The whole was an interesting scene. The ancient road, regularly paved with granite, is still plainly to be seen, though the gand covers a great part. In the vacancies between the hills are causeways, some of considerable length, to connect the elevated parts one with the other, and thus keep a communication open with the several quarries; all these roads leading to two principal ones, which conduct to Assouan. pp. 119, 20.

An interesting question suggests itself, Who were the original workers of these stupendous quarries? A column found here by Mr. Belzoni, bears an inscription to this effect; that, in the reigns of the Emperors Severus and Caracalla, nine quarries were discovered in this mountain, and a vast number of statues and columns taken out of them by Aquila prefect of Egypt. It excites considerable scepticism as to the existence of a high degree of native art among the Egyptians, that, in so many instances, we can trace their monuments to foreign conquerors. The strongest proof of antiquity in any of these works, is the unscientific rudeness betrayed in them. For instance, when we find their architects introducing the figure of the arch, but ignorant of the principle of its construction, we have data of an unequivocal kind for assigning to works in which such proofs of ignorance occur, a remote origin.

At Arabat Matfooner, about six miles inland, an excavation has been lately made in search of a temple described by Hamilton, which has been covered with sand within the last twenty years.

• You will hardly imagine,' says Sir F. H., that they are looking for a building, over part of the roof of which I paced fifty-four long steps, on stones that have never yet been displaced, though there are signs of destruction at either end. This roof alone occupies nearly as much space as the neighbouring village. Some small chambers in which the colour of the painting is so well preserved, that doubts im. mediately arise as to the length of time that it has been done the best works even of the Venetian school betray their age, but the colours here, which we are told were in existence two thousand years before the time of Titian, are at this moment as fresh as if they had not been laid on an hour—arched chambers thirty-three feet in length, the ceiling, and probably the sides, covered with hieroglyphics as carefully as we should paper a room, nearly choke full of sand—the

stones of which this fabric is built, measure in some cases above twenty-two feet in length; the span of the arch is cut in a single stone;

a portico is still visible, part of the roof has tried to fall in, but is prevented by the sand-here also are chambers innumerablémeach individual part is of exquisite workmanship, but badly put togethergreat labour and irregularity. Perhaps the object most remarkable at this place is a chamber (or set of chambers) in which the Egyptians have attempted to build an arch-it affords at once a proof of their intention and their inability. The span of the arch is cut in two stones, each of which bears an equal segment of the circle : these placed together would naturally have fallen-they are upheld by a pillar placed at the point of contact. It has been doubted whether the Egyptians were acquainted with the principle of the arch; that they were not at the time of building this, is evident ; and it may be presumed that they never were so, because they did not dislike arches, but have frequently cut them where sufficient space has been afforded by the live rock, and, because that in every artificial roof they have been obliged to put a prop to support each stone, and hence the number of pillars in the temples. If those who raised the Pyramids, and built Thebes, and elevated the obelisks of Lougsor, had been acquainted with the principle of the arch, they would have thrown bridges across the Nile, and have erected to Isis and Osiris, domes more magnificent than those of St. Peter's and St. Paul's.'

pp. 110-12. Of the three distinct descriptions of monuments found in this most interesting country,-the excavations, the pyramids, and the temples, the first, which bear the closest affinity to the Hindoo temples, are identified with polytheism, serpent-worship, priestcraft, and hieroglyphics. 'We apprehend that they are of extremely various dates : the best voucher for their antiquity is Ezek. viii. 8. The pyramids are, in all probability, the memorials of a foreign dynasty; they appear disconnected with idol worship, or with the priestcraft of the Egyptian literati, and are probably older than at least the more elaborate excavations. For it seems scarcely credible, that the cost and trouble of rearing these brick mountains for royal sepulchres, should have been incurred after the fashion had been set of the more commodious and elegant mode of turning a mountain into a necropolis. To these a date has been with plausibility assigned, extending from 1050 to 800 B.C. The temples we may safely refer to a more modern era. Many of them bear the date of the Greek sovereigns; and others have been repaired, if not constructed by the Romans. With regard to these granite quarries, we should suspect that foreign artists were the first who worked them; not the aboriginal Egyptians. • I confess,' says Captain Mangles, ' I was much perplexed to

think how the Egyptians could have cut, hollowed, and po• lished such immense blocks of stone without the use of iron, ' a metal they are said to have been ignorant of; the niches,

therefore, which I mentioned above, must have been cut, if ! not with iron, with brass.' But this explanation rests on mere conjecture: it is more reasonable to suppose that a nation ignorant of iron, could not have supplied the artificers. 'We examined,' it is added, the construction of numerous 'mummy cases, and boxes containing the sacred emblems of the Egyptians; they were invariably fastened with wooden 'pegs, no nail of any description being visible.'

In their researches throughout the hundred-gated city, Captains Irby aud Mangles looked in vain for the remains of either walls or gates. They suggest it as by no means improbable, that it was the numerous porticos, pylons, &c. of the Theban temples, that gave to her the boasted reputation of a hundred gates,' rather than any outlets to the city that ever existed. A characteristic specimen of the accuracy of the French savans, is mentioned in connexion with the circular astronomical table found on the cieling of the Temple of Isis at Tentyra, a monument of the same kind as the 'Isiac table ' at Turin.'

It was in the cieling of the other half of this chamber, that Mr. Ruppell discovered a complete lunar system, which had totally escaped Denon and all the French savans. Mr. R. took an exact copy of this interesting tablet, clearly making it to contain twelve moons and a bit of another, which no doubt was meant for the odd five days, as the twelve make three hundred and sixty. As this throws an additional light on the Egyptian mode of calculating the year, it is a matter of no small interest, and reflects the more credit on Mr. Ruppell, as so many travellers have examined this chamber, and this circumstance never occurred to them. In the great French work, they have put down fourteen or fifteen moons, never having taken the trouble to count them.' p. 152.

We must take leave of Egypt, and, for the present, of Sir Frederick Henniker, who bids adieu to the least romantic but most useful of rivers,' as he terms the Nile, seemingly in a fit of ennui and satiety. There is,' he says, scarcely one spot ' on its banks that would attract the attention of an artist, nor an object of antiquity comparable to the Parthenon and Coli' sæum,'-notwithstanding that he was lost in admiration at Dendera, confessing that very few buildings afford as much delight as its temple, and still more enraptured at Ebsambal. The disparaging and indeed unsuitable comparison did not then occur to him. But now, Egypt is a bore, and the plague is beginning to shew itself at Cairo, which naturally enough increases our Baronet's eagerness to make his escape. He accepts the offer of a passage to Tor in his way to Mount Sinai. Very op