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intention to place them on a level with the fictile landscapes above alluded to, are in reality deserving of very little praise.

CCLXXVIII. On the left-hand wall, close to the entrance, are depicted two or three trees, which, by amplification, may be denominated a grove. Though less unlike nature than is usual in Egyptian sculpture, their fruit more nearly resembles a large gourd than any thing that ever grew on a tree; and the naked figures beneath them are not unlike the worsted specimens of humanity which young ladies delight to work upon their samplers. Proceeding inward, we next encounter two war-chariots, in full career, bearing several combatants into the battle. Farther on are negroes, carrying something which has been denominated elephants' teeth, and driving before them buffaloes, giraffes, and other animals, into the presence of a god, who seems to be Osiris, seated on a throne, and holding towards them the Kteis-Phallus and the Thyrsus of Bacchus. The fable,—for it seems to be nothing more than a representation of the fabulous expeditions of Osiris,—is continued on the right-hand, or northern wall, where we again find the god upon his throne, with various captives on their knees before him. Among these suppliant figures, is one about to be sacrificed, who with uplifted hands implores the unpitying god for mercy; while a priest, barbarously grasping the victim by the hair, flourishes, like an executioner, the weapon with which

GROUP OF BRIAREUS.

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he is ready to decapitate him. From this we pass on to the victor in his rapid car, to another human sacrifice, and the confusion and slaughter of a battle-field. It is difficult to comprehend what travellers mean by the " group of Briareus," which occurs, they say, both here and elsewhere among the sculptures of the Egyptians. Those old barbarians, in the spirit of Caligula, seem to have wished that all their enemies. had but one neck, which they might sever at a blow; and this ferocious sentiment they have embodied on the walls of their temples, where we find a cluster of human beings, to the number, sometimes, of thirty, held together by the hair, ready to be immolated by their sanguinary conquerors. Briareus, the giant of classical mythology, had fifty heads and one hundred hands. But the polymorphous groups beheld on the temples of Egypt, far from being of gigantic proportions, are usually represented infinitely more diminutive than their destroyers, who were ignorant that by this childish ebullition of vanity they in reality disparaged their own prowess; for where is the merit of the strong subduing the weak?

CCLXXIX. The façade of the chapel is neat. Three doorways, the central one higher than the others, lead into the first apartment, and are each surmounted by an arch cut in the rock. The whole of the front is covered with sculpture and hieroglyphics. In the back wall of the principal chamber, which is thirty-five feet in length by fourteen in

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BREADTH OF THE VALLEY.

breadth, are two niches, one on either side, containing three figures in alto rilievo-Isis, Osiris, and Ammon. Two massive fluted columns, adorned with four bands of hieroglyphics, running perpendicularly from the plinth to the base, support a large cross beam, on which the roof appears to rest. The ceiling is covered with winged globes, figures of geese, and other sacred animals, with the Kteis-Phallus, &c., all once painted in brilliant colours, now faded. In the adytum we find Osiris on his throne, represented of an azure hue, with a priest burning incense, and pouring out a libation, before him. The niche also is occupied by a single figure, now mutilated, probably that of Osiris, the popular divinity.

CCLXXX. From this chapel, called by the natives Dar-el-Waly*, we returned to the river, and continued our voyage. The narrow belt of cultivation continues on both sides; but the scantiness of fertile land, which could never, in this part of the valley, have been much more extensive than at present, tends, I imagine, to prove that the numerous temples found in Nubia could at no period have been needed by the inhabitants. They were, therefore, constructed, on the conquest of the country, by the Egyptians, whose priests, like the Brahmins in the Dekkan, sought to conciliate or subdue the minds of the natives by the voluptuous allurements or terrors of

* According to Burckhardt, for, from the Nubians with whom we conversed, nothing could be learned respecting it.

POPULATION OF NUBIA.

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their religion. Another idea is suggested by an examination of the Nubian portion of the valley of the Nile. Egypt, we know, was subdued, and governed, during many years, by a Nubian chief. The whole population of this kingdom, from Es-Souan to Mahass, an extent of five hundred miles,-has, with apparent fairness, been estimated at one hundred thousand souls suppose that in antiquity they amounted to double or treble this number; and then reflect upon the military power of a kingdom which could be conquered and held in subjection by such a handful of men, and finally owe its deliverance only to the artifices of the priesthood. Much of the prejudice which still possesses us respecting the political and military greatness of the ancient Egyptians, might, perhaps, be removed by an attentive examination of their history, an enquiry foreign, however, to the nature of the present work, merely professing to recount what I saw, with the reflections thereby suggested. Returning from the consideration of antiquity, which, perhaps, occupies too much the attention of travellers, we every day saw fresh proofs of the industrious character of the present inhabitants. The perseverance they exhibit in watering their fields, when prevented by poverty from erecting a sakia, is exemplary. The height of the bank above the level of the Nile-in some places not less than thirty-five feet rendering it impossible to raise water, in the ordinary way, by the lever and basket, they construct in the sloping bank five small reservoirs, placed the one above the other, into which the water

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NUBIAN INDUSTRY.

is successively raised by an equal number of rude hydraulic machines. Each of these levers is worked by a man, and the water, when it has reached the summit, is distributed over the land by small canals of the neatest construction. On the field west of the river, we here observed a greater number than usual of trees, among which the Egyptian sycamore, the doum and date palms, were the most numerous. The moles thrown out into the river for the purpose of gaining soil, are injurious to navigation; for, being often on both sides, they too greatly narrow the channel, creating dangerous currents and eddies. On the west bank we saw, in the afternoon, a fine white eagle perched upon a rock. The hamlets are here very numerous, standing, as in Egypt, in small palm groves, and single date trees are scattered over the fields. A sheïkh's tomb, of a shining white appearance, crested the summit of a neighbouring eminence. The channel of the river is diversified by several islands.