ever, he couldn't have been buried; besides, we've decided that he's an allegory, and you can't bury an allegory even on the banks of the Nile, though you might build a temple to one."

"But the idea that it's a temple to Osiris is given up," said the Sketcher; "that was Pliny's first misnomer, but it's admitted now to be the temple of Sethi."

"Precisely; but now you come to the bottom of the fiction. First comes Pliny, who imagines a temple to Osiris; next follows Plutarch, who finding a lot of graves, thinks it only natural that the temple should have been built near the tomb, and so imagines the tomb of Osiris; then come later Egyptologists, proving that it's a temple to Sethi; and yet they can't relinquish the tomb-theory, and so we are told that this was the Holy Sepulchre of the Egyptians-a myth created on an exploded myth."

"But surely you might leave us a few myths, at least in Egypt," said the Sketcher. "If we sacrifice William Tell and Joan of Arc, is not that a sufficient burnt-offering to the Moloch of modern research ?-leave us Isis and Osiris and the gods of Olympus."

"There is no fear of our losing myths," said the Scribbler; "the tendency is to create quite as much as to abolish them. All I say is, let us keep them in their place. Leave the myth of Osiris, pretty as it is, but don't mix it up with historical fact. I don't mean to say that Egyptologists maintain Osiris to have been buried at Abydos, but they can't resist the temptation of making out that it was regarded as his tomb, and so create the new myth of the Holy Sepulchre of the Egyptians,' for which there is not as yet a shadow of foundation."

"Does it much matter after all?" said the Pasha languidly.

O VINU

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EGYPTOLOGISTS AND MYTHS.

'Perhaps not in this case; but look at the confusion that was made by the unfortunate romancing of the earliest French Egyptologists over the zodiac found at Denderah. Desaix discovers it; he at least-good soldier, but no scientist was not to blame. Bought for a fabulous price by Louis XVIII., the Voltaireans saw in its alleged antiquity a triumph over the authority of Scripture. If the zodiac dated some 15,000 years back, then the monuments of Denderah must also be ancient. Thereupon Jollois and Devilliers find 'qu'ils sont les plus parfaits sous le rapport de l'exécution et qu'ils ont été construits à l'époque la plus florissante de l'Egypte;' while the orthodox opposition, who are anxious to prove it modern, declare that they are detestable."

"And who was right?"

"As to the date, the latter, for it proved to be of the time of the Cæsars; as to the value of the monuments, you can judge for yourself to-morrow."

"And to-morrow evening Karnac by moonlight!" sighed the Sketcher, as they turned in.

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CHAPTER XIII.

Denderah-Temples not places of worship, but ceremonial-A religious ceremony— Royal road to study of Arabic-A river pedlar-Capitulations again—Pro and con-Egyptian of twelfth century-Saladin-Origin of Capitulations-CoptosKoos-Unexpected visit-Dignity going begging-An unwilling Sheik el Beled— Results of cultivation in Egypt-Alleged over-taxation of Fellaheen-Secret of poverty of Egyptian landowners-An instance-Ignorance as to own financial position-Karnac in sight.

D

ENDERAH is Tentyra Tei an Athor, the abode of Athor or Aphrodite, according to etymology; but according to Pliny and Strabo, the abode of a people whose crocodilephobia gave pain to the pious crocodilephilians of Ombos. The feuds between these cities partook, according to Juvenal, of all the cruelties of most religious wars, terminating with a cannibal feast to the advantage of the conquerors.

The temple was begun by Ptolemy Auletes. Our Lord was probably living when this temple was completed, so that it has been finished barely 1900 years, and in Egypt hardly merits rank as an antiquity. Nor can it pretend to compare architecturally with the buildings which it imitates; its value rather lies in the fact that it is an imitation, however defective, yet in a comparatively perfect state of preservation, of a style which we can otherwise only study in a state of complete ruin. Its columns are barbaric, but the portico, taken as a whole, is grand, and enables us to realise what we have lost. It is what a

Q

photograph is to a painting; what a painting is to its original. As we pass from court to court, we gather a general idea of the Egyptian temple and the uses to which it was put. Its purpose must not be confounded with that of our modern churches; it was not a place where the faithful or devout met to unite in prayer; neither did it resemble our old colleges, nor the later Roman temples. We find neither dwellings for priests, nor halls for initiation, for divination, or for oracular utterance. So far as we can judge, the worship of the gods in Egypt in their temples was reserved to the cultivated few, and none but the king and the priests were permitted to enter. The temple was the dwelling-place of the god, the sacred resting-place of his images, a place for the consecration of king and of priests to his service.

From the hieroglyphs which cover the walls we learn much of the religious rites of later days, imitated doubtless, like the temples themselves, from those of an earlier age. There is the large portal, through which, clothed in his long robe, with sandalled feet and leaning on his staff, the king alone could pass; but before even he could do so, and so penetrate into the temple itself, it was necessary that the gods should recognise him as king of Upper and Lower Egypt. Thoth and Horus must anoint him with the emblems of power; Ouate and Suan must crown him with the double crown; Mout of Thebes and Toum of Heliopolis must conduct him into the sacred presence of the goddess Hathor herself. Here within, sombre and silent, are the priests assembled, passing in solemn procession, ascending the terraces and descending them again, in order to encompass the encircling wall, according to prescribed rites, with the four boats holding, carefully concealed, the sacred emblem. Here is the court containing the offerings and the limbs of the victims of the sacrifice. The king consecrates the offerings, and, followed by thirteen priests, carrying on high poles the emblems of the divinities, ascends the northern staircase, stops on the terrace of the twelve columns, and descends by the southern stairBelow the temple, again, are the secret hiding-place of the treasures of the gods, statues in gold, silver, and lapis lazuli, only brought out on the rare occasions of the most solemn ceremonies.

case.

The principal divinity of the temple is Hathor-Aphrodite or Venus; goddess of beauty; pupil of the sun's eye; goddess of the lovely face; the beautiful goddess; the goddess of love. Such are her titles, but she is more than all these. She is the divine mother, giving life, fecundity, and abundance to mortals, animal and vegetable. She is the emblem of youthfulness, of expansion, of resurrection, of truth. She is the type of that universal harmony necessary to the well-being and life of the world.

And in the temple of Hathor is the picture of one who, if not a follower of the goddess in the highest attributes of her character, must ever be thought of in connection with the queen of beauty. Thence, from the walls, smile on us Cleopatra, vainqueur des vainqueurs du monde, mistress of all contemporary masters of the world. "In a word, all Cleopatra, fierce, voluptuous, passionate, tender, wicked."1

When the Nabob, the Sketcher, and the Scribbler got on board, they found the Pasha, who had tired of Denderah, extended at full length on the deck, swathed in a dressing-gown of delicate hues suitable to his complexion, apparently idle; but by his side were Crichton and Sara, the former engaged in receiving, and the latter in giving, an Arabic lesson, which the Pasha was attentively following. We have said that he was a linguist, and he claimed the merit of having discovered a royal and pasha-like road to knowledge. "It has

always," he said, "been my conviction that the only way to study any subject is to teach it; this is theoretically equally true in languages, but practically I am met with the initial difficulty that you cannot dispense with a preliminary knowledge of a few words; and, moreover, I find that when I try to teach. Crichton, he gets so far ahead of my feeble intelligence, that it resolves itself into the ordinary form of a lesson to me, which I deem fatal. But I have solved the difficulty; I make Sara teach Crichton; I try and imagine I am teaching him myself, and at all events, by listening to both teacher and teachee, I get the advantage of both." So saying, he majestically dismissed both his secretaries, and signified his intention of proceeding.

1 Hawthorn.