802

OVERTAKE OUR COMPANIONS.

CHAPTER XIII.

MAGNIFICENT LANDSCAPE-SITE OF CHENOBOSCION -DENDERA — FIRST VIEW OF THE TEMPLE WORSHIP OF VENUS SEVERAL NAMES OF THE GODDESS VARIOUS HYPOTHESES CONCERNING HER NATURE BEAUTY OF THE ARCHITECTURE DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE THE PRONAOS-THE COLUMNS-CAPITALS -MYTHOLOGICAL PAINTINGS THE SEKOS DIVIDED INTO NUMEROUS APARTMENTS-SYMBOLICAL SCULPTURES-EXTERIOR DECORATIONS -HUMAN SACRIFICES- CHAPEL OF ISIS TYPHONIUM- GHENEH-SHELLS OF THE RED SEA- RECRUITING FOR THE ARMY-BAZAR PILGRIMS-BARDAKS-VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR SAIL FOR THEBES.

THE

Friday, Jan. 4. Gheneh. CCXVI. OUR Arabs being exceedingly anxious to overtake their companions, set out this morning long before day, and, after proceeding several miles, found them still moored on the island, not so far south as we had advanced on the opposite side the evening before. The wind continued fair during the whole day; a fortunate circumstance, as in this part of the valley there is nothing to detain the traveller. However, being in want of bread, we landed in search of it near Sakhel Abu Zabat, but found none, either in that village or any other in the neighbourhood. The doum palm here begins to be thickly intermingled with the date tree, and many noble old sycamores are

MAGNIFICENT LANDSCAPE.

303

found near the villages on the banks of the river. Soon after passing Haou (the Diospolis Parva, or "Lesser Thebes," of the ancients), an abrupt bend in the river presented to our view one of the most magnificent landscapes in Egypt. The eye accustomed to the savage beauties of nature can never be weary of looking on such scenes. But the imagination, seeking, perhaps in vain, in the descriptions of the traveller, those distinguishing features that constitute the characteristics of a landscape, rendering it essentially different from all others, may possibly grow tired of the verbal pictures of them; since language knows not how to represent in colours sufficiently bold and glowing the sublime forms which nature, in such regions, frequently delights to assume.

CCXXVII. The mountains of the Arabian chain, having made a wide circuit to the east, are seen, a little above the ruins of Chenoboscion, running across the plain towards the Nile, almost in a right line; and having approached within about three miles of its channel, they suddenly rise greatly in elevation, and, towering perpendicularly to a vast height, again sweep round towards the east, presenting to the eye one of the most stupendous chains of rocky precipices in the world. The extreme point of this mountain promontory, the foot of which is nearly washed by the Nile, wears from afar the appearance of a lofty Gothic castle, of prodigious magnitude and grandeur, with huge projecting bastions, and regular battlements, adorned all round, notwithstanding its

304

ENORMOUS CROCODILES.

vastness, with magnificent tracery; and the resemblance, from a distance, was so striking, that we were for a moment in doubt. At the foot of this colossal structure, more sublime than was ever raised by man, there runs a narrow belt of cultivated land, covered with rich grass, corn, and woods of doum, date, and mimosa trees, up to the very site of Chœnoboscion. The wind blew with extreme violence as we passed these mountains, and my kandjia, which was going at an extraordinary rate, narrowly escaped being overturned. In the course of the day we saw several crocodiles, -as many, I imagine, as fifteen at a time; and among these there were some which could not have measured less than twenty-five or thirty feet in length. The balls fired at them appeared to rebound from their "scaly rinds" harmless as hailstones; nor did such as were hit seem to quicken their pace in the least when jumping into the river with the rest. Though the heat of the sun was greatly tempered by the wind, it still appeared to have more power than with us in July; yet, though bathed in perspiration, we did not find walking unpleasant, even in the hottest part of the day. Being eager to reach Déndera, and the wind continuing to blow almost without intermission, we sailed all night, and, a little before sunrise, moored on the eastern bank, opposite the temple.

Saturday, Jan. 5. Déndera.

CCXVIII. Though I had not retired to rest until four o'clock in the morning, we were again stirring

SITE OF TENTYRIS.

305

at an early hour, being impatient to visit the ruins. The greater part of the plain east of the temple is covered with a sort of sedge, -here used in making fine mats, which, having been recently burned, was now springing up beautifully, rivalling in appearance the green corn, with patches of which the plain was interspersed. The modern village of Déndera, at a short distance to the right, is embosomed in a thick grove of doum palms, and many of these trees are scattered singly over the plain. Having proceeded about two miles from the banks of the Nile towards the west, we began to enter upon the mounds, partly overgrown with sedge, which mark the site and conceal the substructions of Tentyris. A little farther the sedge disappears, and we find ourselves among those confused irregular heaps of bricks, sun-dried and burnt, calcareous stone, broken pottery, and fine dust, which invariably point out to the traveller the site of an Egyptian city. The path leading across the plain towards the ruins and it leads to nothing else greatly resembles that which, in remote parts of England, conducts you from some small hamlet to the distant church-small and narrow, but well beaten by the feet of taste and learning. Here and there among the rubbish you observe numerous excavations, made by the Arabs in the vain search after treasure, or by trading antiquarians, who regret to find whole temples not portable.

CCXIX. At length a turn in the path brought us suddenly in sight of the most beautiful temple in

306 FIRST VIEW OF THE TEMPLE of Dendera.

Egypt, erected, as it well deserved to be, in honour

of the Goddess of Love.

covered that the noble

From the first glance I dispropylon, which a few years

ago excited the admiration of Hamilton, had recently been visited by the hand of the spoiler; but although much of the front has been thrown down, and the stones either broken or carried away, enough still remains to justify the praises which a refined taste has bestowed upon it. I could not pause, however, to examine minutely this inconsiderable fragment. Hastening forward across the dromos, I eagerly drew near the façade of Venus's temple; and if I had felt any toil or difficulty during the whole of my journey, the pleasure of that moment more than repaid it all. But much of the delight which, in common with many other travellers, I experienced at the first sight of the great temple of Tentyris, might be traced, both in them and me, to causes extremely foreign to the beauties of architecture; though we are apt, upon the spot, in the hurry and confusion of our feelings, to attribute all our satisfaction to the irresistible effect of beauty and harmonious propositions on the mind. The fables of the mythology, delightful because studied when every thing is so, have consecrated in the memory of all educated men the imaginary being who was here adored of old; and few are so steeled by their passage through the world, as not occasionally to experience, when the scenes which feasted their boyish fancies, with all the bright associations that cling to them, are again instantaneously spread before the mind, some touches of enthusiasm, warm and vivid in