130 CONFUSED MASSES OF RUIN. budding ones. An architrave, moulding, and cornice, in the usual ornamental style, ran along the top of the next row of columns on either side, supporting a number of plain square pillars, which, rising to the height of the double row in the middle, sustained the loftiest part of the roof. The interspace between these square pillars formed, on either side, a line of large windows, from which the rays of light streaming obliquely, illuminated the lateral extremities of the hall. If the capital of the larger and loftier columns represents the calyx of the full-blown lotus, which seems to be a probable supposition, that of the smaller ones may be taken for the same flower in the half-expanded bud, with its apex truncated, and surmounted by a plinth; and if so, we must acknowledge that, in this arrangement, so strictly conformable to the order of nature, the Egyptians exhibited an unusual degree of good taste. CCCCXCVII. In whatever direction we proceed from this hypostyle, our progress is impeded by enormous masses of ruin. Columns overthrown and shattered, architrave falling against architrave, friezes, entablatures, capitals, covered with painted imagery, and blocks of stone of enormous magnitude, are piled up around on all sides. It were fruitless, amid a chaos of this kind, to attempt, in our description, any thing like order or connection: the very nature of the scene forbids it. From bas-reliefs, sharp and fresh, as if recently executed, the eye suddenly passes to a shapeless mound of stones and earth, a shattered AMMON OR PAN. 131 wall, or overthrown obelisk. But whose temple was this? Solemn antiquarians, who pore over the mythological fables of antiquity until they seem to believe them, and trick out the most fantastic dreams with a pompous apparatus of erudition, will probably maintain that it was sacred to Ammon Generator. But was not this divinity one of the Fetish gods of ancient Africa, similar in functions and character with the Pan*, or the Priapus of the Greeks? Among the innumerable figures sculptured on the walls and columns of this vast fane, that of Mendes or Chemmis, whom, from the analogy of his attributes, the Greeks confounded with their Pan, is by far the most prominent, and the most frequently repeated, We observe him everywhere, both within and without, with his hand beneath the mystic van, his lofty mitre, his altar, his lotus, and his symbolical cypress conest behind him. Beside this altar stands a naked goddess, with the pschent and lituus mitre ; the counterpart, probably, of the Paphian Queen, who shared with Mendes the worship of the dissolute Thebans. In front a devotee approaches the god, with a basket of flowers. War-scenes, and sacred processions in boats, are sculptured on the exterior walls; but they differ neither in character nor execution from those already described. * In fact, Plutarch confounds Ammon with Pan (De Isid. et Osirid.) ; and, accordingly, Pan is sometimes represented with the head of a ram. Payne Knight, pp. 65, 66. Three cones, not unlike those of Chemmis, are found on the coins of Cyprus; and in a picture discovered at Herculaneum, representing the worship of the Paphian Venus, is an altar of similar form. - Pitture Antiche d'Ercolano, t. iii. pl. 52. Brot. not. ad Tacit. Hist. ii. 3. 132 DEPARTURE FROM THEBES. Monday, Feb. 18. Ghench. CCCCXCVIII. Having spent the whole night in conversation at Mr. Hay's, in the tombs of Gournou, we this morning, about four o'clock, bade adieu to Thebes, and recommenced our voyage down the Nile. Our party had been numerous, and I question whether the ancient inhabitants, when they brought in the figures of their deceased ancestors to enliven the festive scene, ever passed an evening more agreeably; the scene was eminently curious. Eight Englishmen, two Greeks, and a Frenchman, seated at the same table, in an Egyptian tomb, discussing a thousand modern topics, and drinking the wines of Madeira and France, where mummies had lain in darkness and silence for three thousand years. When the time for departing arrived, we quitted our hospitable hosts with regret, and, lighted by the lanterns of the Arabs, threaded our way down the mountain, between vast mounds of ruins, deep excavations, and innumerable mummy-pits. Our guides, however, were well versed in the localities, and our asses surefooted. The sound of voices, and the light streaming from the lanterns, roused the wild dogs, which came forth in troops from their hiding-places in the tombs, and followed us far towards the plains with loud incessant barkings, which were multiplied by the echoes. These, as we moved rapidly along, were soon left far behind; and, passing by the temple of Northern Dair, we reached our kandjias on the river. It was a night of inimitable beauty: the stars seemed ARRIVAL AT GHENEH. 133 to glow with a supernatural splendour, and their clustered images, brightly reflected from the glossy surface of the Nile, converted its tranquil waters into a mimic sky. On all sides the features of the landscape were replete with grandeur; the steep wild rocks above the Memnonium and Medinet Habou, the ruins of prodigious temples beheld dimly, between scattered woods, across the plain, together with the dusky outline of the Arabian mountains lowering far towards the east, all thickly peopled with rocollections of the past, and involuntarily presenting to the imagination pictures of the secular and religious magnificence once exhibited on that silent spot, combined to render this farewell view of Thebes peculiarly impressive. Shortly the sun began to gild the peaks of the mountains, which, as he rose, exhibited in succession all the varying and splendid tints of the morning, as on the day of my first arrival from Déndera. On reaching Gheneh, in the afternoon, we dined at the house of our vice-consul with a party of Indian officers, on their way to England, who had crossed the desert from Kossier for the purpose of visiting the ruins on the Nile. Tuesday, Feb. 19. Aulad Amér. CCCCXCIX. In company with Lieutenants Welsted and Carlis, who had accompanied us from Thebes, we again visited the temple of Déndera, where we were joined by the party from India. Our conversation, which, at Thebes, had turned 134 OCCUPATION OF ABYSSINIA. chiefly upon antiquities, now diverged to the present state of the neighbouring countries, which hereafter, perhaps, may be of importance to England; as the accurate survey of the Red Sea, from the Straits of Babelmandel to Suez, now nearly completed by the ships of the East India Company, will probably lead to a great extension of our commerce: in which case, considering the character of the natives, forts will be necessary on various points; and if these forts do not gradually swell into towns, and form the germs of colonies, we shall certainly be wanting in our duty. Abyssinia, on which Mohammed Ali has long had designs, might be far more usefully occupied by England. Its importance, as an emporium, in conducting an extensive traffic with the interior of Africa, would be considerable, and the force necessary for taking possession of it comparatively small, since the natives, in general, ardently desire to be emancipated from their present tyrants, under whom they can never hope to taste either freedom or tranquillity. From the missionaries, with one of whom, just returned from Tigré, I conversed at Cairo, much useful information might be obtained. According to his account, the most complete anarchy prevails throughout the country. Of religion, law, and every other element of civilisation and national happiness, they are utterly destitute; and society itself, if it can truly be said to exist at all, is rapidly approaching its dissolution. The character of Bruce, whose name the bare mention of Abyssinia must suggest to every educated person, may now be thought scarcely to |