ISIS AND THOTH.

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from the harmony of the proportions. The chin has been slightly injured: but the expression of the mouth, which remains quite entire, is soft and smiling, like that of youth in a placid dream; and this appearance is increased by the character of the eye, long and sleepy, with half-closed lids. Viewed directly in front, the face appears handsome; but the profile is spoiled by the too great thickness of the lips, bespeaking in the model the prevalence of African blood. On the left is the torso of another statue. All these fragments are very finely polished.

CCCCLXXII. In front of the cella are two rows of columns; the external row square, with colossal statues attached to them, as already mentioned; the others round, with a capital formed of the budding lotus. Among the sculptures on the façade of the cella are Isis and Thoth, inscribing hieroglyphics on the fruit of a tree of unknown species, perhaps the Persea of the ancients; certainly not the doum palm, as conjectured by Dr. Richardson. Three doorways, with as many flights of steps, lead into the grand hall, or hypostyle, along the centre of which runs a double row of lofty columns, with bellformed capitals, as at Karnak. The ornaments of this capital consist of lotuses, of which some reach the top, and others half way, alternately; the latter surmounted by a group of hieroglyphics. On either side of this avenue of massive pillars are numerous ranges of columns, smaller in dimensions, and inferior

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PHYSIC FOR THE SOUL.

in height; their capitals, agreeably to Egyptian ideas of beauty, being also in a totally different style. The sculptures on the shafts were never finished. Light was admitted into the apartment by windows in the roof, as in the great Hall of Columns at Karnak. From the hypostyle, a highly ornamented doorway leads into what has been termed the "Library," over the entrance to which, according to Diodorus, this sentence, no doubt in hieroglyphics, was inscribed,—

Physic for the soul."- Near this fine ruin are seen a number of parallel brick arches, evidently of a quite modern date, which have been ludicrously supposed to have formed the dwellings of the inferior Traglodyte, whose princes may have resided in the royal tombs of the Biban el Melook!

CCCCLXXIII. Next after the Memnonium, I visited the ruins of Medinet Habou; which, with the exception of some few unimportant additions, unworthy the slightest attention, should, I think, be regarded as the most ancient architectural remains in Egypt. They have all the rude grandeur of an edifice erected in barbarous times. The style of ornament, the massive proportions of the columns, the gigantic statues, and the intaglios, cut deep in the

* "Qui primus regum illustrem habuit (quod memoria servet) is fuit Osymanduas, Ægypti, qui, inter alia operum præclara, sacram bibliothecam struxit, et in ejus fronte præscripsit, yuxûç lurpeîov: animi medica officina. Ita Diodorus, et quamquam ille inter veteres regum fuerit, non tamen dubito exemplum, si non ipsam rem, mansisse, et in Ægypto bibliothecas semper aliquas exinde exstitisse : idque in templis præcipuè, et sacerdotum curâ." — Justi Lipsi de Bibliothecis Syntagma. Opera, t. iii. p. 1123.

MEDINET HABOU.

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face of the wall, and representing with awkward vigour the circumstances of savage warfare, all combine in these antique ruins to awaken the idea of a rock-temple, rather than of a pile of masonry. Had this building been suffered to retain its original form, it might probably have exhibited something like symmetry; but the ages succeeding its erection, preferring the piecing out of an ancient structure to the raising of a new one, added in one part a propylon, in another a suite of chambers, in a third a court, until, by their heterogeneous increments, they had succeeded in utterly confounding the primitive design. Nor is this all. For, while spoiling some portions by their improvements, they appear, with characteristic inconsistency, to have ruined others; as we find in the more modern walls stones on which are the remains of sculpture and hieroglyphics reversed.

CCCCLXXIV. In front of the temple, which faces nearly south, is a vast square enclosure, surrounded by a massive wall, containing three entrances. The propylon is masked by a screen of masonry, through which you enter into a narrow court by a broad gateway, adorned with bas reliefs and hieroglyphics, and with a lofty pillar on either side. The shafts of the columns are plain, and have an unfinished appearance; but the capitals, the foliage of which consists of the doum and lotus leaf intermingled, have been gorgeously painted. Here, as in many other religious edifices already described, the ancient gateway, of small dimensions, has been

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AMMON GENERATOR.

built up in a large propylon of more modern date. Among the sculptures on the gateway, the most prominent figure is that of Mendes Orthophallus, or Priapus; and wherever this figure-supposed by contemporary antiquarians to be that of Ammon Generator -occurs, it is represented with but one arm, which is lifted up, with the hand placed in the angle of the mystic van. Behind him, upon a small altar, are two cones, like cypress trees, and a lotus springing up between them. On the cornice of the doorway is the winged globe, splendidly painted, and flanked with serpents, one of which is stone-colour, the other black. The same ornament is repeated on the ceiling; and numerous worshippers presenting offerings to Aroëris adorn the sides of the entrance.

CCCCLXXV. We next pass into a court of moderate dimensions, which seems to have been surrounded on three sides by a colonnade. Attached to this court, on the left, is a small ruin, probably a kind of porter's lodge. On the low wall, extending round the colonnade like a screen, is the usual representation of a human sacrifice. The pillars consist of eight small shafts, clustered together, like Gothic columns. To this court succeeds a second propylon, sinaller than the first, but ornamented in the customary style with the figures of gods and mortals. The sculptures on the frieze of the doorway consist of vultures and sphynxes. We now enter a more spacious court, likewise adorned with a peristyle, at the northern extremity of which are the remains of

what appears to have been the original edifice, having in front a portico with square columns. Within this is another gateway, with a small polygonal column on either side, painted in colours now blackened by time. Next succeeds a long passage, the walls of which are covered with figures of Priapus, fruit, flowers, and bulls or oxen bound ready for sacrifice. Beyond this small chapel are several dark chambers, which, from the offensive odour prevailing in them, must be the dens of wolves or jackals.

CCCCLXXVI. This range of buildings here terminating, we approach an immense structure, to which all the smaller edifices above described may be considered merely as an avenue. In dimensions the propylon may perhaps equal that of Apollinopolis Magna; but it is inferior in execution, and more encumbered with rubbish. The sculptures are in a peculiar style. Being cut extremely deep in the face of the wall, hieroglyphics and all, they break too sensibly the continuity of the surface, giving it the appearance of a rock honey-combed by the action of a saline atmosphere through a long succession of ages. This experiment in the manner of sculpturing the peculiar kind of bas reliefs which the Egyptians, affected, does not seem to have succeeded, as we nowhere else find an example of it. Advancing into the temple, we enter a spacious court, adorned on either hand with a colonnade of rude, irregular grandeur, where the same barbarous attempt at producing effect by incongruous variety, upon which we have