Some Observations In Egypt.

and it could have been by constant attention alone that tbe areas ancl dromoi of the temples could bave been kept free from the accumulation of sand . Monsieur Mariette had seen a dozen sphinxes at Alexandria , aud many at Cairo , brought from this part , and felt convinced that in this locality must exist the burial-place of Apis , or Serapeion , alluded to by ancient authors . He was engaged in his

researches four years through the sand , in many parts eighty feet deep , and discovered the dromos or sacred avenue leading from the Serapeion of the Grecian times to that of tbe old Egyptian dynasties . Thc memories connected with the god Apis were very peculiar . He was a white bull marked witb black spots : great care was used in the selection of the individual animal , that be might fulfil all the conditions

required by traditional usage . He was kept in his sanctuary with scrupulous devotion , and not allowed to bave food of too nourishing a quality , lest he should become too fat . He ivas occasionally , but rarely , brought out and exhibited to the worshippers . He was not allowed to live beyond twenty-five years : arrived at that period , he was slainand bis successor selected . They usualldied at an

, y earlier age . One is recorded whose death occurred ivhen he ivas seventeen years , six months , and five days old . It is said that £ 20 , 000 were expended for funeral rites , which were of the most sumptuous character . The Serapeion which I visited had its connection with tho Temple of Apis , and is situate on the slope of the hill , about two miles to the north of the Great Pyramidaud the

, descent to the present entrance is to the depth of some thirty feet or so below the general surface of the sand . We first passed along a narrow gallery about forty - eight paces long , then turned to the left some twenty-five paces , whieh led into the main gallery , four paces wide , and perhaps fifteen or eighteen feet high . The whole excavation is

in the natural rock , which consists of a soft , pliable grey stone , like indurated clay , with seams of striated or fibrous alabaster , from f-inch to one inch deep , and about twelve or fifteen inches apart . The roofing of this gallery is semi-circular in form , but the sides UJD to tho springing of the circle are laid with soft Thorah stone , in courses fourteen inches high and eighteen thick . Turning to the right clown this

wide gallery , sepulchral chambers present themselves on each side . Nothing can be more imposing . In the dark gloom of the excavations , lighted only by the glimmering flare of a wax candle or two , or by a few pieces of burning resinous wood , producing a doubtful gleam , these mortuary chapels , on a lower level than the gallery , and into which the eye intently gazed to catch sight of whatever might be within ,

presented a gigantic sarcophagus in tbe centre , eleven feet high , twelve feet nine inches long by seven feet eight wide . Such , at least , was the size of the one 1 measured , although Monsieur Mariette record others from fifteen to , eighteen feet long , and thirteen feet high . These enormous proportions have a very impressive effect . They are of porphyry , grey and rose granite , and basalt . The body of the one I drew ivas seven feet eight inches high , hollowed out to receive the mummy and case , the sides and ends being left from

one foot two inches to one foot five inches thick . The lid was three feet one inch high , splayed off at the top with a level upper surface , four feet ten and-a-half inches wide . Each sarcophagus , without the lid , must bave weighed thirty tons . Let us consider for a moment the labour employed to disengage such a , mass from the quarry , to transport it several hundreds of miles from the upper country , to carry it from the Nile

up to the level on the side of the hill , and then to convey it along the galleries ancl to raise and lower it into its permanent position . One of the sarcophagi in the rough still remains near thc main entrance , as though in course of preparation for the mummy of the Creatitrotjod . The floor of these lateral chambers was three feet nine inches lower than that of the main gallery , and the bottom of the sunk threfeet

sarcophagus was some e six inches below that . The chambers varied in size , and ivere lined with courses of Thorah stone up to the sprm n . no- of the vaulted ceiling like the main gallery . One sepulchral chapel I measured was twenty-five feet six inches from front to rear , by sixteen feet wide in the clear between the masonry : _ others measured betiveen the rock twentyfive feet eight inches by twelve feet , thus varying in size , - There are only three which have hieroglyphics . ' Those of

j the one I particularly examined were not deeply chased , ! but rather thinly incised , almost in more lines , as it were , ¦ on the outside surface , and very few characters . Formyself , I did not find any hieroglyphics on th e other sarcophagi that I examined . I saw twenty-five of these chambers , beyond which the galleries are encumbered by debris ; but there are further continuations examined by

M . Mariette , and I doubt not others are still concealed from view , but probably containing other like stupendous sarcophagi . M . Mariette discovered those subterranean deposits of the dead in 1851 , and found forty chambers . One of these sepulchral chapels remained intact , just as it hacl been closed in the reign of Barneses IL , some 3700 years since , and

containing still the statuettes , vases , and trinkets usually deposited with the bodies , but of which thc other chambershad been despoiled . Many votive tablets exist , some inscribed witb the names of Darius and of Cambyses , tbe latter of whom profanely wounded one of the sacred heifers , which , however , an inscription proves to have survived some years after that event . I found a rudely-carved figure of a eoiichant lion in stone on one of tbe sarcophagi , 4 feet S inches long , and 1 foot 10 inches high , as shown on the drawinc .

ON rELLAlI ARAB AUCKIIECTURB II * EGYI' 1 \ It will be remembered that , when Champollion and the other investigators of the hieroglyphic inscription on the famous Bosetta stone had their inquiries so materially aided by the Greek translation of the edict on that trilingual slab , they had still to find the elements of a language embodied in the hieroglyphic and demotic character , so as to afford a clue to the hidden meaning . With much

ingenuityrefer-, ence was made to the tongue of the people who had constantly inhabited the country , and among whom tradition might still have retained the like language . Success attended this reference to the Coptic , which was found to contain the hey of the ancient Egyptian language . As I . was travelling in Lower Egypt , I was struck with the fact that almost all the villages are built on artificial mounds ,

rising from 20 feet to even 100 feet and more above the general fiat and level of the natural soil . These mounds abound in the neighbourhood of Alexandria and Cairo , and in the valley of the Nile , and , in fact , throughout the region of Lower Egypt ; consisting of accumulations of tbe Nile mud , mixed up with large quantities of fragments of pottery . If for any reason portions are cut through or removed , all

sorts of antiquities—as , for instance , bronzes , terra-cottas , scarabei , and even tombs with mummies , —are occasionally found , as also sarcophagi . At length I found them to bo the sites of ancient towns and villages ofthe remotest periods of known history—the accumulations of a succession of generations , which had hacl their frail tenements built one over the otherthus raising the mass still hiher . They

, g were thus more and more above the influence of the annual risings of the Nile waters , and protected from ravages that wero caused thereby ; and the more healthy , as they were higher above the occasional miasma arising from the vegetable decomposition , the natural result of the stagnation of the waters , until the Nile retired within the limits of its natural bed .

Having to go to Eas-el-Wadi , m thc valley of Goshen , I saw the grand and extensive mound of Bubastis , of high note in ancient times , and situate near Zagasik : it rose from the plain like the mounds of Nineveh , Nimrud , and other Assyrian cities , described by Layard , ancl with which these Egyptian mounds have a remarkable analogy . I was detained for some hours on two occasions at Benha El Assal ,

on the Damietta branch ofthe Nile , close to the mound of tbe ancient Atbribis , where a friend of mine has found a great variety of antiquities . I was struck with thc rude form of the mud-built huts and houses of the Fellah , or people of the country . The walls consisted of sun-dried bricks , of a dusky broivn colour ; the faces inclined backwards , like thc ancient Egyptian temples : flat terraces formed thc roofson

, which the Arabs stoiv thoir fuel , and perform many of their domestic operations . Thc apertures for light or air are of " rare occurrence , and small ; seldom appear on the outside , and are more generally next the court to ensure privacy and shade . While I was detained at trie railway station of Benha , I made a point of thoroughly examining its ad-