232 MAGNIFICENT SUNSET. number of men are constantly engaged spinning wool, and sometimes cotton, in a very simple manner. A square piece of wood, about half an inch in diameter, and eight inches in length, is inserted at one end into the centre of a small, flat board, about two inches and a half long, by one inch and a half broad, which is furnished, on its upper side, with a small iron hook. The end of the yarn, drawn through this hook, is passed round the edge of the board, and fastened to the square spindle; which the spinner turns with his left hand, while he forms the thread and holds the wool with his right. It is thus that the greater part of their coarse garments are spun. CLX. Poets and travellers speak with enthusiasm of the sunsets of Italy, Switzerland, and Greece. I have seen the sun go down in each of those countries, but never with half the splendour which on this day accompanied his disappearance; and could I succeed in reflecting upon the reader's imagination half the grandeur of this gorgeous show, he would, unquestionably, concur with me in thinking that, but for its evanescent nature, it was far more worth a voyage to Egypt even than the Pyramids. No sooner had the sun's disk disappeared behind the Libyan desert, than the whole western sky along the edge of the horizon assumed a colour which, for want of a better term, I shall call golden: but it was a mingling of orange, saffron, straw-colour, dashed with red. A little higher, these bold tints melted into a singular kind of green, MAGNIFICENT SUNSET. 233 like that of a spring leaf prematurely faded; and over this extended an arch of palish light, like that of an aurora borealis, conducting the eye to a flush of deep violet colour, which formed the ground-work of the sky, on to the very skirts of darkness. Through all these semicircles of different hues, superimposed upon each other, there ascended, as from a furnace, vast pyramidal irradiations of crimson light, most distinctly divided from each other, and terminating in a point; and the contrast between these blood-red flashes, and the various strata of colours which they traversed, was so extraordinary, that I am persuaded no combination of light and shade ever produced a more wonderful or glorious effect. Sunday, Dec. 23. Near Semelúd. The CLXI. On leaving our moorings at Mattaï, we hoisted sail, and crossed the river to Nesle Sheikh Hassan; and the morning being beautiful, we quitted the boats earlier than usual to enjoy the scene. white sand of the desert, now glittering in the bright sunshine, close approached almost up to the edge of the Nile, which was bordered by vast ledges of conchylaceous rock, resembling that found by Xenophon in Mesopotamia. * Capacious cisterns had been excavated (I know not for what purpose) in these rocks, close to the river; but, as the city of Cynopolis * The walls of Agrigentum, in Sicily, or at least what now remains of them, are constructed with similar stone. 234 SITE OF CYNOPOLIS. stood somewhere in this neighbourhood, I conjecture they may formerly have been used by its inhabitants as filtering basins.* As we were in search of the "City of the Dog," of which Anubis, I presume, was the patron god, an enormous block of stone, standing alone on the plain, attracted our attention, and towards this we proceeded across the desert, whose sands are thickly sprinkled with small shells, similar to those which enter into the composition of the rock. Proceeding some distance, we discovered, on the north, what appeared to be the ruins of a castle, standing on the brow of an eminence; towards which we turned aside; and on the way observed in the sand innumerable prints of the feet of some small animal, probably the jackal, so numerous in these deserts, and whose nightly howlings remind me of Circe's monsters, sera sub nocte rudentum. It was the jackal, by the way, and not the dog, that was the symbol of Anubis, who is represented on all the monuments of Egypt with the head of the former. CLXII. After a walk of about two miles, we reached the object of our curiosity, which we found to be the ruins of a spacious brick building, of Arab construction, divided into several chambers, all now unroofed, and open to the desert blast, a large portion That is, the Nile water may have been allowed to deposit its impurities in these basins before it was drunk. In Egypt, they use the water which remains in the filtering jar; in Syria, that which passes through it. AN EGYPTIAN CHAPEL. 235 of the walls having been thrown down; but there appeared to be no data for determining its antiquity. From thence we proceeded to the Rocky Mountains, -which, when viewed from the river, formed the background of this desolate scene, crossing in our way what in the rainy season were evidently the beds of torrents, the course of the waters being abundantly visible. One of these channels was fifty-one yards in breadth; another seventy; and a third, further to the south, upwards of a hundred. In these torrent beds we observed several small prickly plants, bearing a diminutive, delicate purple flower, with five petals, which, in the absence of all other vegetation, seemed to possess peculiar beauty. CLXIII. On reaching the vast masses of rock, above mentioned, we found that they had been hewn into the form of temples, chapels, tanks; some much dilapidated, others in a state of excellent preservation. One small chapel excited our admiration : the doorway, which was of moderate size, stood under a kind of projection, like the deep eaves of a Swiss cottage, probably designed to afford shade to the worshippers, who, like the Hindoo votaries of Bhairava, may have performed their devotions in the porch of the fane. The chapel had been cut with great care in the solid rock, and was about sixteen feet long, by twelve broad, with an arched roof, in which an aperture had been made, by some modern troglodyte, to admit light from above. The Egyptians "loved 236 AN EGYPTIAN CHAPEL. darkness better than light." Opposite the door, towards the east, is an altar, slightly projecting from the rock; and on the right hand, a broad border of Acanthus leaves, elegantly sculptured, adorns the lower part of the wall. The remainder, I imagine, has been obliterated. On the southern side of the apartment are various representations of the Baris, or Sacred Boat; but these have been purposely defaced. Similar figures on the north have suffered less; and the Kteis-Phallus, erroneously denominated the "Key of the Nile," occupies its constant position in these sculptures. Among other figures, there is one of a boat, representing the removal of stones from a quarry on the Nile.* It is shaped thus: CLXIV. From these rock temples we proceeded towards the immense block of stone which had first attracted our curiosity to the spot. The distance was considerable, and, in walking along, we found a woman at work among the sands, whose employment * Near this chapel we found, in a niche in the rock, an altar, surmounted by an illegible Greek inscription, above which was an image of the sun. |