TIE TEMPLE of ISIS, NEAR ASSUAN the COLOSSI of MEMNON Vol
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Vol_ LI WASHINGTON, D. C., NOVEMBER 3, 1903 No 44 fact of the sound is established by many unim- Bahri, built by Queen Makare. The queen's peachable witnesses, and is variously described. brother, Thothmis II, who succeeded her, con- Septimius Severus repaired the statue, and it has ceived the gallant design of erasing all mention, since remained silent. The sound is now thought of his sister from the inscriptions of the temple, to•have been produced by the sudden heat of the and supplying his own name in their place. He rising sun expanding the stone, and Dairy Products in the Tree Tops causing numerous minute particles to IN the English dairy shops you may buy eggs, be cracked off. butter, milk, and bread. Well, in Jamaica, one Near the colossi are the ruins of the may gather a variety of all of these from the tree Ramesseum, a large temple built by tops. Rameses II. Some of the inscriptions The egg is a fruit called the ackie. It grows recording his victories over the Hit- on a large tree. A reddish, husk-like pod breaks tites are very interesting. The large open, and inside is a creamy yellow pulp which fallen colossus in the first court is a looks and tastes much like scrambled eggs. striking example of the. sculptural and Butter is supplied by the avacado, or alligator artistic skill of the ancient Egyptians. pear. Its meat is a yellowish pulp which spreads Passing the large temple of Seti I like butter, and tastes very like it, too. at Kurna, we proceed along the wind- THE KIOSK AND TEMPLE OF PHILAE The milk, of course, comes from the cocoanut, ing valley road that leads through the always at hand in the tropics. The meat of the desert hills to the tombs of the kings. It appears succeeded so well that the original inscriptions nut is grated, and water is pressed through it, that the Theban monarchs preferred excavating were never entirely restored. This splendid tem- taking out the oily milk. It is so rich even after tombs for themselves in the rock of the Biban el ple is built up against a massive cliff, which, the process that it must be diluted still further Mulak to erecting immense pyramids as did the towering hundreds of feet above, completely with water. Cream rises on the milk if left stand- kings of Lower Egypt. The long, broad passages, dwarfs the comparatively insignificant ruins. So ing. sometimes leading for hundreds of feet down into always do the works of God stand out in compari- The breadfruit-tree offers a much-used substi- the solid rock, terminate in large subterranean son with human productions. tute for bread. When boiled and baked, it The ascent of the mountain west of Thebes is a fairly eatable starchrfood. The culti- is impracticable for women, and not without vated taste relishes it, but to the uninitiated danger for men ; but it affords a splendid it is a poor substitute for the baker's loaf. view, including all the temples and tombs of But it is a fact that one may shake down Thebes, Luxor, and Karnak, the broad, dairy products — of a sort — from the tree fertile plain which extends from Armant to tops in Jamaica. It is a remarkably interest- Kons, with the Arabian desert in the back- ing little island. W. A. SPICER. ground; while on a clear day, and with the aid of a good glass, even the pylons of Edfu, , sixty miles away, may be discerned. De- A Trip Through Egypt — VI scending from this mountain, we may visit , Thebes the • small but elegant Ptolemaic temple of. HAVING been told that we have seen the Der el Medina, in one of the • chapels of . best of all at Karnak, we do• not expect much which is the celebrated judgment scene, rep- of the ruins across the river, and are agree- resenting Osiris, god of the " Underworld," , ably surprised to find so, many things that sitting in judgment, surrounded by Horus, are novel and interesting. Crossing the Nile THE BARRAGE, ASSUAN the dog-headed Anubis, and all the genii at Luxor, we find first the Colossi of Mem- and demons of Hades in full array. While non, two large sandstone statues. The northern chambers, often magnificently decorated. These Ptolemy Philopater is offering incense to Osiris one is celebrated for its long-lost vocal powers. tombs are now lighted by electricity, which makes and Isis, Horus is weighing his heart in the pres-, It is related that after the mythological Grecian them easy of access. , The tomb of Seti I is per- ence of goddesses of truth, as the ibis-headed hero, Memnon, was killed at Troy, he appeared haps the most interesting. The inscriptions on scribe, Thoth, records the verdict. at Thebes in the form of this colossus, and when its walls form a complete and graphic exposition Before leaving Thebes, we should visit the large his mother Eos presented herself at sunrise, she of the old Egyptian religion,— especially that temple of Medinet Habu. On the high walls was greeted with a plaintive musical note. The part which relates to the future state, or " underworld." The vaulted roof is decorated with an astronomical and astrological charts, containing all the signs of the zodiac. The tomb of Rameses III also presents inscrip- tions of great variety and excellent execution, and is peculiar for its ten-sided chambers. In the princi- pal chamber of the elegant and recently discovered tomb of Ameno- phis II, the sarcophagus still con- tains the mummy of the dead mon- arch, giving the splendid sepulcher a realistic air that is almost ghastly. Tourists usually return from the tombs of the kings over the moun- tain road which descends in full view of the large temple of Der el TIE TEMPLE OF ISIS, NEAR ASSUAN THE COLOSSI OF MEMNON 2 THE YOUTH "S INSTRUCTOR NOVEMBER 3, 1903 around this temple are related in glowing terms, tuations. The barrage also provides for the irri- do this or that." We each have all the time and illustrated by means of immense figures in re- gation of large, fertile districts hitherto useless there is, and if we economize the time we do lief, the exploits and victories of Rameses III over because of a lack of water. It is simply an im- have, we shall be able to accomplish a vast amount the Libyans. In another place is a very interesting mense dam, the largest in the world, being about of work. If the odds and ends of time are care- calendar of all the Egyptian festivals. The pylons a mile and a half long, and eighty feet high. fully gathered up each day, they will be sufficient and courts of this temple are fairly intact, but The top is twenty feet wide, and is traversed in a little while to master some useful science, the sanctuary and its chambers are hopelessly in along its entire length by a narrow iron track, and transform many an ignoramus into a brilliant ruins, yet some of the reliefs still retain traces of over which the visitor is pushed in little four- scholar. Elihu Burritt, while earning his living the brilliant coloring for which they were once wheeled trucks, miscalled " trolleys," operated by as a blacksmith, is said to have mastered eighteen so noted. natives. The lower part of the dam is pierced by ancient and modern languages, and twenty-two After completing the rounds at Thebes, we find twenty-eight huge gates, opened and shut by dialects. One writer says of him that he could ourselves thoroughly fatigued, so we spend hydraulic power, which control the flow of the be silent in forty languages. Mr. Burritt de- several days in resting and digesting what we river. The imprisoned water, dashing from these clared that he owed his success to " employing have seen before starting on for Assuan. gates in a roaring smother of foam and spray, those valuable fragments of time called ' odd Assuan forms a magnificent spectacle. The barrage was moments.' " The journey from Luxor to Assuan is very begun about five years ago, the duke of Con- The prodigious acquisitions of men, and the trying. The railroad is a narrow-gage line, and naught laying the corner-stone. He was also intellectual attainments of the world's ripest the accommodations, •even in the first class, are present when the gates were first opened last scholars, are simply the harvest gathered from poor. In many places above Luxor the Nile winter. About ten thousand men were employed, toil, and contending with many difficulties. H Valley is so narrow as barely to give the railway and thirteen million dollars expended in its con- we but step behind the scene; and view the lives of a foothold between the river and the desert rocks. struction. men of brilliant genius — poets, orators, histo- Leaving Luxor, we pass through the desert for a Traversing the ancient road on our way back rians, statesmen, etc., we shall find them engaged few miles, and then come in sight of the smoke- to Assuan, we stop to notice a large prostrate in the hardest kind of toil. Matthew Hall, while stacks of the extensive sugar works at Arment, obelisk of the finest Syene granite, entirely cut a student of law, studied sixteen hours a day. on the west bank of the river. The slender Gibbon began work each day at six. Hume minarets of Esneh, and the pylons of the wrote thirteen hours a day while preparing temple of Edfu are soon passed, both being his history of England.