whole mirrored in the river and backed by the mountains or shore. What a picture did the isle of Phile present of old! what grandeur in its ruin and desolation now! Turn round, and look on that desertthe desert of Libya: observe, it is an ocean of sand, and desolate rock-hills, boundless, colorless, soundless, animated by no beast, no plant, no trace of human presence, not even by graves. Between the river and the desert is a desecrated necropolis, the burial-place of ancient Memphis, where all the resources of art were lavished to preserve inviolate the dead, whose ashes have long since mingled with the sands, or been tossed to the winds, as if in derision of the care bestowed on perishing dust, or in reproof of the idolatrous worship there paid of old to the corpses of dead men and women. Yes, those are the mummy-pits; those are the tombs whence have been taken the mummies of our collections. From this our lofty position what a landscape spreads out around us! and, with the view, what a flood of reminiscences! Over those hills and from the desert beyond, came that wanderer in search of food whom I pictured to you just now; and these pyramids he beheld, for in his time they had stood many centuries. In the plain below, on which those huge structures cast their shadow, is the representative of that Memphis where lived the monarchs on one of whose graves we stand. In that same city dwelt Joseph, ruling the country under one of the wisest and mightiest Pharaohs of the new empire. Further on to the left of the Mokattam mountains, where you see the fertile plain border the eastern arm of the Nile, on the other side of Heliopolis, the city of On, whence Joseph took his wife—a city | still distinguishable by its solitary obelisk -begins the fruitful country of Goshen, a district specially suited to a pastoral people like Jacob and his sons. From that part, Moses led the Israelites forth to the Syrian wilderness, raising a horde of fugitive slaves into a great nation, and making that nation God's " peculiar people." Almost can we from this height recognize that ancient fig-tree on the way to Heliopolis, near Mataríeh, beneath the shade of which, according to the legends of the land, Mary rested with the Holy Child. 66 How many thousands of pilgrims from all nations have sought these wonders of VOL. VI.-23 the world before our days, and stood where we stand, on the apex of the pyramid of Cheops, where we see beneath us the remarkable grave-field whence the Mosesrod of science summons forth the shadows of the mighty dead! The inner walls of those mausoleums still bear, fresh and distinct, after the lapse of centuries, the whole of Egyptian life in paintings, executed when that life was passing before the painter's eye. The old life of Egypt may indeed be said to live everlastingly in its sepulchres. Not merely in the sepulchral caverns below, however, but also on temples and tombs in all parts of the land, are these instructive paintings found. At Thebes they are very numerous. Out of Thebes the most interesting are those of the funeral grottos of Sivah, Kab, and Beni-Hassan. The Beni-Hassan pictures are perhaps the most remarkable for full and circumstantial details of private every-day life. As you leave the glare of daylight, and pass the threshold of the tomb, the vail of three thousand years seems suddenly lifted up. Yon enter the houses and fields of the ancient inhabitants, and witness their labors and their diversions. Among the subjects are agricultural scenes-plowing, sowing, reaping, and housing the produce in granaries-all going on under your own eyes; boat-making, pottery-manufacture, basket-manufacture, military and gymnastic exercises, hunting, wrestling, dancing, tumbling; musical entertainments, with performers of both sexes; the trial of a delinquent, and the bastinado; collections of birds of splendid plumage; vases and furniture. In these scenes, one is continually struck with the close resemblance of ancient customs, instruments, and utensils to those that are now in use. A yoke of oxen plowing, with the rustic behind, might be taken for a modern scene in the neighboring fields of Beni Hassan. And just as the monkish architects of the middle ages gave expression to the ridiculous and grotesque conceits of their brains in carved bosses, with which they adorned the exterior of their churches, or in the carved seats with which they furnished the stalls of the choir, so the Egyptian painters indulged their creative art in freaks of imagination and strokes of satire which recall some of the most effective drawings of the Parisian or London Charivari. But we have occupied our elevated spot P с P C20.P C P RELATIVE DIMENSIONS OF THE COLOSSEUM AND GREAT PYRAMID. long enough. The shadows of evening are gathering around. Egypt is always singular and interesting, but under an autumnal sunset it is beautiful. The sun sinks behind a grove of palms, in a golden sky, upon which their most delicate featherings are distinctly described. A rich amber light glows over the landscape, and makes the meanest and most uncouth objects look beautiful. But come, let us descend; for the twilight is very brief; soon the feeblest star will have lighted its lamp, and the black vault of heaven seem thickly studded with brilliants. The three great pyramids of Gizeh are the chief of an assemblage of sepulchral works, once the cemetery of the rich and noble Memphis. The far-famed group are based on a ledge of rock, seventy or eighty feet high, rising out of a swell in an arid waste, just where it sinks into the cultivated lands, and between five and six miles from the Nile. On leaving Gizeh, on the river bank, opposite old Cairo, the pyramids rise before you, glittering white against the blue sky; but the flatness of the plain, and the purity of the atmosphere, deceive the eye as to their distance, and consequently their size. You appear almost at their base while several miles really intervene. As you advance, they unfold their gigantic dimensions; but you must have been some time on the spot, your eye must have repeatedly traveled along the Great Pyramid, 740 feet of base, and up its steep towering angles, before you can fully understand On those skies, and those celestial phe- its immensity, and the untold amount of nomena, Abraham looked, and, while he labor involved in its erection. Thoulooked, adored their Maker. By the deep-sands of enormous stones, cut in the quarcolored waters of that swelling and fructi-ry of the Mokattam hills, all accurately fying stream were his eyes saluted, and there he learned that God's goodness was not confined to either the country of his birth or the country of his adoption. The Egypt of to-day is pretty much the Egypt of two thousand or four thousand years ago. In regard to great national objects, therefore, we need incur no risk when asked whether or not they fell under the patriarch's eye. That necropolis, for instance, was tenanted in his days, and was doubtless surveyed by him. The same may be said of the Pyramids. Temples, too, of the hugest proportions then burdened the soil, though the style of the architecture in general was more simple and massive than it afterward became. The tomb of that monarch himself must now receive some attention. That tomb is the Great Pyramid. What an idea of the grandeur of these old Pharaohs does such a sepulchre suggest! What a labor to raise so ponderous a structure! What a despotism which could command the requisite amount of toil! And what a religious power which could prompt obedience and sustain the consequent efforts! squared and adjusted, are here elevated hundreds of feet from the ground; and each was hoisted step by step up the sides, till it reached its bed. To raise a single block to the higher part of the building would be an arduous task, probably defying all the mechanics of modern Egypt. The dimensions of the Great Pyramid, built by Cheops, (the Chufu of the monuments,) are these: Original base........ Original inclined height......... 764 feet. 746 66 611 450 66 66 The original perpendicular height, therefore, supposing the pyramid to have been carried up nearly to a point, was about 480 feet, or 43 feet more than St. Peter's, and 110 more than St. Paul's. The area covered was above thirteen acres. But these figures give only a vague idea of this gigantic mass, for the description of which our language has no adequate epithets. Let us, then, compare it with the Roman Colosseum, built by Vespasian and Titus. That splendid amphitheatre held 100,000 spectators. On its dedication, 5,000 wild beasts were killed in gladiatorial combats within its walls. Now, this well-named colossal building would stand within the Great Pyramid, (the most northerly of the three, and nearest to the river,) leaving spaces the most ample, as appears in the cut on the preceding page. So far did the mausoleum of an Egyptian prince, whose era is all but lost in the thick shades of primeval night, surpass the proudest monument of imperial Rome, erected by the very emperors that destroyed Jerusalem, the city of the descendants of "faithful Abraham." According to Pliny, 336,000 men were employed in the erection of that stupendous tomb, during twenty years. Herodotus states, that an inscription in the interior gave 12,600 talents as the expense of providing the workmen with onions and other vegetable food. The sum, probably some $1,500,000, gives no exact idea of the labor, because the value of money, as measured in food, was then very unlike what it is now. Colonel Vyse estimates the existing masonry of the Great Pyramid at 6,316,000 tons. An ancient caliph is said to have determined to demolish the Pyramids. Learning, however, that the whole of one year's tribute from Egypt would not defray the cost, he wisely gave it up. The Great Pyramid, like all others, had its entrance on the north. On that front is the present entrance found. That entrance is an opening about three feet and a half wide, rather more than four feet high, fifty feet above the base, and somewhat to the east of the center. This is the mouth of a long low tunnel, of the same contracted dimensions, descending at a steep slope into the heart of the pyramid. The passage of entrance continues downward in a straight line from the mouth for about 320 feet, and leads to a large subterraneous chamber under the apex of the pyramid, and far beneath its base. At a point about sixty feet from the entrance, this channel meets an ascending passage, which runs inwardly toward the center of the building. The passage breaks off at an angle; and of the two passages thus formed, one runs horizontally to an apartment about 17 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 20 feet high, called the Queen's Chamber; it stands nearly under the apex. The other passage leads upward to the King's Chamber, 34 feet long, 17 wide, and 19 high, being a little southward and eastward of the vertical line. In this chamber modern research found a sarcophagus, which, being empty and without a lid, gave proofs of having been rifled; the exterior length of this stone coffin is seven feet six inches, and its breadth three feet three inches. Immediately over the King's Chamber are five open spaces, thought to have been left vacant in order to lessen the pressure upon the King's Chamber, and prevent its flat roof from being crushed. When these chambers were forced, several quarry marks and a few rough hieroglyphics still remained on the walls. The latter were the first traces of writing discovered within the Pyramids. Though probably nothing more than the chance scribbling of Cheops' masons, they are the most interesting fruits of Colonel Vyse's labors in exploring these sacred structures. Among them appeared the name of Shufu, who is admitted to be the Suphis or Cheops, to whom Manetho and Herodotus ascribe the erection. The second pyramid, built by Chepren, (Chaphra of the monuments,) stands about two hundred yards south-west of that of Cheops. Having retained the upper part of its casing, and lost little from its apex, it rises nearly to the same height as the greater one, which has suffered much from abrasion and depredation. The internal arrangement of the two edifices is similar. It contains a sarcophagus, which is sunk in the floor. When discovered, the lid was half removed; amidst dust and rubbish within were found relics of the bones of a bull; and it was concluded that they were the remains of some bovine deity honored with sepulture in this vast mausoleum. It is well known that immense sums were lavished by the ancient Egyptians on the funerals of the sacred animals. The third pyramid was built by the monarch called by Herodotus Mycerincos, whose name appears on the monuments as Menkera. The name was found by Vyse in a large apartment within the structure. In this pyramid the coffin of the builder himself seems to have been found. The sarcophagus is of basalt. The lid was broken; the mummy had been removed. but among the rubbish of the chamber a portion of a wooden case appeared;-that case bore the name of Menkera. The sarcophagus, which weighed nearly three tons, was with difficulty got out and sent to England, but the vessel in which it was embarked was lost off Carthagena in 1838. So much for the Pyramids. We shall return to the subject in our next. Nor dark and many-folded clouds foretell From the earth's loosen'd mold The softly warbled song Comes from the pleasant woods, and color'd wings Glance quick in the bright sun, that moves along The forest openings. When the bright sunset fills Inverted in the tide Stand the gray rocks, and trembling shadows And the fair trees look over, side by side, Sweet April-many a thought Is wedded unto thee as hearts are wed, [For the National Magazine.] MORNING-A SONNET. FAR oe'r the eastern mountain's snow-crown'd Appears a misty vail of somber gray, The silver woods with light, the green slope And hide, in western forests, from the light. throws Its shadows in the hollows of the hills, And wide the upland glows. And, when the eve is born, In the blue lake the sky, o'er-reaching far, Before the morning star the sunbeams dance, |