462 STORMING OF THE CAPITAL. diers who, having just cast their spears at the assailants, seem as if they had no more left. Others, who have received their death-wound, are falling back among their comrades. There are two lines of fortification, the one above the other. Just as all is lost, a woman, perhaps the Queen of Nubia, appears above upon the battlements, holding up a naked child with long streaming hair, as if to invoke the compassion of the conqueror; and near her a man, probably her husband, lifts towards heaven his supplicating hands in despair. But nothing can arrest their fate. The Egyptians burst into the castle, and we behold its gallant defenders hurled down headlong over the walls. CCCXLIV. Victory having crowned his arms, the hero is next discovered returning in triumph to his country. He moves along in his chariot, holding the reins, together with his bow, in the left hand, while in the right he bears a quiver and a crooked faulchion. Two crossed quivers adorn the side of his triumphal car. Diodorus Siculus, in describing the achievements of Memnon-Osymandyas, relates, that this hero was accompanied during his wars by a tame lion*, which, * Similar practices, prevailing of old among other barbarous nations, are described with graphic energy by Lucretius: "Inde boves lucas turrito corpore tetros WILD BEASTS EMPLOYED IN WAR. 463 running beside his horses terrified his foe. The circumstance, whether fabulous or not, is characteristic of a barbarian, combating among rude enemies, and enables us, by a very probable conjecture, to attribute to that prince the victories here commemorated; since we observe a lion of great size running beside the horses of the conqueror. We next find him in his own capital, in a humble attitude, on foot, leading a long procession of captives, of whom a great number are negroes, into the presence of Isis, Osiris-Ammon, and Horus. Here, we may presume, in gratitude for their supposed protection and favour, he vows to sacrifice a certain number of human victims on their altars; and anon he is discovered with sceptre and bow in hand, performing his vow before a statue of Osiris, grasping eleven captives by the hair, and brandishing the weapon over their heads with which he is about to shed their blood. Such are the principal bas-reliefs which adorn this great hall. My description, long may seem, has touched but the principal circumstances of the war; for, should I descend to minute particulars, and aim at a full account, the compass of a volume would be required. as it Tentarunt etiam tauros in mænere belli, Lucretius, lib. v. p. 172, 173.- Edit. Baskerville. 464 MITRES OF THE GODS. CCCXLV. The sides of the square pillars exhibit the sweet modest face of Isis, with the moon and horns upon her head. her head. Into a particular description of the fourteen chambers, of which this vast hypogeum consists, it is unnecessary to enter, as they, perhaps, contain no figures or groups not met with elsewhere. A niche in the adytum contains the figures of four gods; the first, beginning on the right hand, is hawk-headed, probably Aroëris; the second, having no beard, may, perhaps, be meant for Isis; the third seems to be Osiris; and the fourth Phthah ; who being, like the Grecian Vulcan, remarkable for a rude and unpromising exterior, though containing within the soul that gave birth to the arts, seems to have been often mistaken for Typhon. On the mitres worn by these divinities very curious observations have been made. The second figure, we are told, "has a casque somewhat resembling that of Minerva." But I have nowhere seen Athena with a helmet bearing the slightest likeness to this mitre, which, with little or no variation, is found on the head of Osiris-Serapis, as judge of Amenti, in the sculptures of Thebes. Again, "the third is bearded, and has a tall head-dress, resembling the tutulus." Now, according to Varro, the tutulus was "the top of the hair, wound with a purple lace on the crown of the head, used only by the high priest's wife, to distinguish her from other women." The word was likewise employed, says the same author, to signify "the peak, or tuft, of a priest's cap." But the headdress here worn by Osiris is merely the lofty mitre with two parallel compartments, commonly found on the head of Chemmis or Priapus, which in form somewhat resembles the Tables of the Law, represented in the hands of Moses in our old Bible engravings. The fourth statue has at present no head, which has fallen off, and is placed upon the altar in the centre of the adytum, ready for the next antiquarian spoliator who shall pass this way. In all the interior chambers the heat is intense, and accompanied, moreover, by a heavy nauseous smell, like that of a charnelhouse. From the entrance to the extremity of the adytum, the whole length of the temple, is about one hundred and fifty feet. CCCXLVI. From Aboosambal we crossed to the eastern shore, the wind blowing very high, and the Nile running and breaking in great waves like the sea, to examine the formation of the conical hills scattered in various directions over the plain. A little to the north of the point where we disembarked, are the ruined town and castle of Kalat Addé, standing on an eminence inferior in elevation to that of Ibrim, but not commanded by any neighbouring height. Both the fortifications and houses seem to be still in good preservation, and to require but little to render them habitable. Behind the castle, in a low valley towards the east, are a great number of pointed clay-built tombs, the necropolis of Kalat Addé; and about a mile to the south, immediately on the bank of the river, rises a small conical hill, in the smooth face of which, towards the 466 TORRENT OF LAVA. Nile, we found two small Egyptian chapels, or niches, the larger containing a statue, now broken. On the wall of this chapel, close to where the statue had stood, is a finely-formed female figure, sitting on the ground with her feet towards the spectator, like Baillie's Eve at the Fountain; with several other bas-reliefs, and numerous hieroglyphics, but all much defaced, apparently by time. Descending from this chapel, and turning the foot of the rocky hill, we pursued the camel-track leading over the stony desert towards the south, where the mountains on the left present the most extraordinary appearance, in some places towering aloft in pyramidal masses, pointed or flattened above, in others assuming the form of ridges, terminating abruptly at both ends in perpendicular precipices; their colour, alternate patches of red and black, like a heap of recent ashes. The surface of the desert, which here extends to the water's edge, is broken up by numerous torrent beds, which have torn themselves away to the Nile through rugged strata of pebbles, sand, and rocks. CCCXLVII. Continuing our route towards the south, we reached in about an hour the bed of a torrent of lava *, about half a mile in breadth, which * Considerably farther north, on the opposite bank of the river, the marks of a similar phenomenon has been observed by Dr. Edward Hogg of Naples, who has kindly furnished me with the following account of it, extracted from his journal :-" Friday, Dec. 14. 1832. Landed on the west bank, about three hours below Wady Sebooa, where a narrow strip of dhourra cultivation intervenes between the rocks and the Nile. Among the large masses of sandstone, which are here arranged like a Cyclopean wall, it appeared as if a stream of melted matter had issued |