stood was occupied at a very early period. He says, "Long before the foundation, even of the Egyptian Babylon, an establishment had taken place upon the spot. The situation of the citadel of Cairo, corresponds with the locality of a city almost as old as Memphis. The district in which it stands was the land of Goshen, or Rameses of Scripture, assigned by Joseph unto his father and his brethren, that they might be near to the seat of the Egyptian kings. Their first settlement was in the same territory, at ON, the BETHSHEMESH of the prophet Jeremiah, both of which names are rendered, in the Septuagint, HELIOPOLIS; but in their departure, according to Josephus, they passed by the ruins of a city called Letopolis, upon the side of which Cambyses afterwards erected the Egyptian Baby lon. Among all the sights which this extraordinary country presents to the eyes of a European traveller, there is nothing more novel than the view of objects beheld from the citadel. A very considerable district, whether the spectator regard the east or the south, is distinguished by one uniform buff color. Towards the north, this color is opposed by the most vivid green that imagination can conceive; covering all the Delta. Upon the west are seen the pyramids, reflecting the sun's beams, and as white as snow. In order that the reader may comprehend the exact situation of all that is seen from hence, this chapter may conclude by a detail of the relative position of the different objects, as they were observed by a mariners compass. This mode of description was frequently used by the celebrated Wheler, in the account he published of his travels in Greece; and it will be occasionally adopted in the remaining chapters of this section. VIEW FROM THE CITADEL OF CAIRO. East.-A very unusual and striking specta cle; all the landscapes being of a buff, or or bright stone color; and the numerous buildings in view having the hue of the plains on which they stand. In the distance is an arid desert, without a single mark of vegetation. Nearer to the eye appear immense heaps of sand, the obelisk of Heliopolis, and the stately mosques, minarets, and sepulchres, belonging to a cemetry of the caliphs in a suburb of Cairo, called Beladeensan; a place crowded with buildings of a singular form. South-east.-Hills and broken mounds, disposed in vast masses, with very great grandeur. South. A grand scene of desolation; the same buff color prevailing over every object. In the fore-ground are the lofty quarries of Mount Mokatam, with ruined castles, mouldering domes, and the remains of other edifices, above, below, and stretching beneath the heights, far into the plain. More distant, appear the mountains of Upper Egypt, flanking the eastern bank of the Nile, and a wide, misty view of the Said. South-west and West.-Immediately be neath the eye is seen the aqeduct, supported by arches, and extending two miles in length, from the Nile to the citadel; together with mosques, minarets, and immense heaps of sand. But the grand object viewed in this direction, is the Nile itself. At this time, having attained its greatest elevation, extending over a wide surface, and flowing with a great rapidity, it appeared covered with barges belonging to the army, and the various vessels of the country, spreading their enormous sails on every part of it. The ruins of Old Cairo, the Island and groves of Rhouda, enrich this fine prospect. Beyond the river ap pears the town of Djiza, amidst the most beautiful groves of sycamore, fig and palm trees; still more remote, the pyramids of Djiza and Saccara; and, beyond these, the great Lybian Desert, extending to the utmost verge of the visible horizon; a vast ocean of sand. North-west, and North.-The green plains of the Delta occupy all the distant perspective in this direction, like so many islands, covered with groves and gardens, and adorned with white edifices; among these the djerms, canjas, and other beautiful boats of the Nile, are seen sailing. North-east. The whole city of Cairo, extending from the north towards the north-east, and surrounded, in the latter direction, by heaps of sand. Immediately beneath the spectator, is seen a grand and gloomy structure, called The Mosque of Sultan Hassan, standing close to one of two lakes, which appear among the crowded buildings of the city. Such is the surprising and highly diversified view from the citadel of Grand Cairo. It will not be too much to affirm of this extraordinary prospect, that a scene more powerfully affecting the mind, by the singularity of its association, is not elsewhere contained within any scope of human observation; a profusion of nature, amidst her most awful privation; a disciplined army, encamped amidst lawless banditti; British pavilions, and Bedouin tents: luxurious gardens, and barren deserts; the pyramid and the mosque ; the obelisk and the minaret; the sublimest monuments of human industry, amidst mouldering relics of Saracenic power." Let us, at this stage of our reflections, stop a moment to form in our minds some ideas of the actual state of things in ancient Egypt; and first of the nature of their religious system, and the influence which it exerted upon their social and intellectual condition. Here we see a just and happy exhibition, very common in those times, when the now ruinous edifices were in a state of perfection, and devoted to their uses for which they were erected. Our countrymen Dr. Jones, in his valuable and interesting volume of Travels in Egypt and Syria, published a few years since, gives us the following original, and spirited sketch of what must have been familiar to many a successive generation of The following just and animated description of such a scene we copy from Dr. Jones's book, p. 41. "There was something pleasing in being made to get our first impressions of this ancient région by moonlight. We were now amid the scenes of the earliest grandeur of Egypt. On one side of us, and but a few miles distant, had once stood the great city of Heliopolis; and on the other Memphis. Dim land of shadows and mystery, the pall of death hath been laid upon thee; but instead of concealing, it only makes thy features more solemn and more awful. What a scene of life and bustle was once upon this now silent plain. Ha! this is Memphis! And see how it stretches across, and covers all the plain. Towering aloft, is many a grave but magnificent temple; there stretches the deep shadowed and interminable colonade; here frowns the massive tower for defence; and there lies concealed the luxurious bower of the gay. Dwellings of the simple and the astute, the noble and the lowly serf stretch around, far as the eye can reach, and countless multitudes flock along thy streets; while here, closer to us, in the city of mummies, lie an equally countless number in the searments of the grave. City of many centuries and of stafely grandeur, we yield thee the reverence-but what noise is that? The buzz of the multitude has suddenly changed, and now comes the sound of wailing on the ear; and mark, how it increases in intensity, and spreads; and now all the land is filled with woe. The cause I have it now-their god Apis is dead. A white bull, fed solemn ly and reverently in their temples, and to which all the land bowed down in worship, has suddenly expired, and the houses are all filled with alarm and woe. And here comes a long procession, sweeping onward from one of the gates; these, too, are mourners, and they seem touched with even deeper grief. They are carrying a dozen singed cats to the place for solemn embalming, previous to interment, with sacred rites. These animals had been their peculiar household gods, and were kept in a sacred edifice, well fed and carefully tended; but the building took fire, on which the alarmed worshippers rushed into the flames, regardless of themselves, and desirous only of extricating their gods. But the bewildered animals in their fright escaped back to the fire, and numbers were burnt to death; and the procession is now carrying their bodies to be embalmed. And there is another procession passing onward along the streets; they carry in solemn state a dog, their god, now dead, and which they are transporting to the place for sacred washing, preparatory to its removal in state to the city of Busiris for interment. Here, from out the water gate, comes another crowd in the habiliments of woe, and with sounds of grief. They are transporting, perhaps, a great benefactor to their city, some one whose bounties have flowed largely upon the poor, for such the mourners seem to be? No! these are two companies, one carrying a dead shrew-mouse, and the other a dead hawk, to the place of sacred burial. But see, here comes a couple of hogs, hooted at and be wildered; and mark the alarm of the mourners as the animals become entangled among their ranks; and see how they rush to the river, and with their clothes on, plunge in to cleanse their souls from the pollution caused by the swinish contact.* Ancient Memphis! our spell has been too potent, and wrought too effectually for the. safety of our enthusiasm; and so we bid thee good night. Thou art well where thou artlaid low in the dust and almost forgotten." *That this is not an overdrawn picture of Egyptian superstitions see the proofs in Herodotus, Euterpe. Vegetable Beauties of South Africa. From "Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa, delineated from Life in their Native Haunts during a hunting Expedition from the Cape Colony as far as the Tropic of Capricorn, in 1836 and 1837, with Sketches of the Field Sports, by Major Sir William Cornwallis Harris, drawn on stone by Frank Howard. London: Pelham Richardson. 1844." "At every step we take, what thousands and tens of thousands of gay flowers rear their lovely heads around us! Of a surety the enthusiasm of the botanist has not painted the wonders of these regions in colors more brilliant than they deserve; for Africa is the mother of the most magnificent exotics that grace the green-houses of Europe. Turn where we will, some new plant discovers itself to the admiring gaze, and every barren rock being decorated with some large and showy blossom, it can be no exaggeration to compare the country to a botanical garden, left in a state of nature. "The regal Protea, for whose beauties we have from childhood entertained an almost instinctive respect, here blossoms spontaneously on every side, the buzzing host of bees, beetles, and other parasites by which its choice sweets are surrounded, being often joined by the tiny humming-bird, herself scarcely larger than a butterfly, who perches on the edge of a broad flower, and darts her tubular tongue into the chalice. "But the bulbulous plants must be considered to form the most characteristic class: and in no region of the globe are they to be found so numerous, so varied, or so beauti ful. To the brilliant and sweet-smelling Ixia, and to the superb species of the iris, here is no end; the morell, the corn-flag, the amaryllis, the hamanthus, and pancratium, being countless as the sands upon the sea-shore. After the autumnal rains their gaudy flowers, mixed with those of the brilliant orchidæ, impart life and beauty, for a brief season, to the most sandy wastes, and covering alike the meadows and the foot of the mountains, are succeeded by the gnaphalium, the xeranthemum, and a whole train of everlastings, which display their red, blue, or silky white flowers among a host of scented geraniums, flourishing like so many weeds. "Even in the midst of stony deserts arise a variety of aloes and other fleshy plants-the stapelia, or carrion-flower, with square, succulous, leafless stems, and flowers resembling star-fish, forming a numerous and highly excentric genus, in odor so nearly allied to putrescent animal matter, that insects are frequently induced to deposit their larvæ thereon. The brilliant mesan bryanthemum, or fig marigold, comprising another genus almost peculiar to South Africa, extends to nearly three hundred species-and while they possess a magazine of juices, which enables them to bear without shrinking a long privation of moisture, their roots are admirably calculated to fix the loose shifting sand which form the superfices of so large a portion of the soil. But amid this gay and motley assemblage, the heaths, whether in number or in beauty, stand confessedly unrivalled. Nature has extended that elegant shrub to almost every soil and situation-the marsh, the river brink, the richest loam, and the barest mural cliff, being alike 'Empurpled with the heather's dye.' "Upwards of three hundred and fifty distinct species exist, nor is the form of their flowers less diversified than are their varied hues. Cup-shaped, globular, and bell-shaped, some exhibit the figure of a cone, others that of a cylinder; some are contracted at the base, others in the middle, and still more are bulged out like the mouth of a trumpet. Whilst many are smooth and glossy, some are covered with down, and others, again, are encrusted with mucilage. Red, in every variety and depth of shade, from blush to the brightest crimson, is their prevailing complexion; but green, yellow and purple are scarcely less abundant, and blue is almost the only color whose absence is remarked." "In emerald tufts, flowers purple, pink, and white, "On the morning of the 9th of October, when the wagons had started on their way to the Meritsane river, our next stage, I turned off the road in pursuit of a group of brindled gnoos, and presently came upon another which was joined by a third still larger; then by a vast herd of zebras, and again by more gnoos, with sassaybes and hartebeests pouring down from every quarter, until the landscape literally presented the appearance of a moving mass of game. Their incredible numbers so impeded their progress, that I had no difficulty in closing in with them, dismounting as opportunity offered, firing both barrels of my rifle into the retreating phalanx, and leaving the ground strewed with the slain. Still unsatisfied, I could not resist the temptation of mixing with the fugitives, loading and firing, until my jaded horse suddenly exhibited symptoms of distress, and shortly afterwards was unable to move. At this moment I discovered that I had dropped my pocket compass, and being unwilling to lose so valuable an ally, I turned loose my steed to graze, and retraced my steps several miles without success: the prints of my horse's hoofs being at length lost in those of the countless herds which had crossed the plain. Completely absorbed in the chase, I had retained but an imperfect idea of my locality, but returning to my horse, I led him in what I believed to be a north-easterly direction, knowing, from a sketch of the country which had been given me by our excellent friend, Mr. Moffatt, and which together with drawing materials I carried about me, that that course would eventually bring me to the Meristane. After dragging my weary horse nearly the whole of the day, under a burning sun, my flagging spirits were at length revived by the appearance of several villages. Under other circumstances I shoud have avoided intercourse with their inhospitable inmates, but dying with thirst, I eagerly entered each in succession, and to my inexpressible astonishment found them deserted-the same evidence existing of their having been recently inhabited. I shot a hartebeest, in the hope that the smell of meat would as usual bring some stragglers to the spot, but no: the keen-sighted vultures, that were my only attendants, descended in multitudes, but no woolly-headed negro appeared to dispute the prey. In many of the trees I observed large thatched houses resembling hay-stacks, and under the impression that these had been erected in so singular a position by the natives, as a measure of security against the lions, whose recent tracks I distinguished in every direction, I ascended more than one, in the hope of at least finding some vessel containing water; alas! they proved to be the habitations of large communities of social grosbeaks, those winged republicans, of whose architecture and magnificent edifices I had till now entertained a very inadequate conception. Faint and bewildered, prospects began to brighten as the shadows of evening lengthened; large troops of ostriches running in one direction plainly indicating that I was approaching water-and immediately afterwards I struck into a path impressed with the foot-marks of women and children, soon arriving at a nearly dry river, which, running east and west, I at once concluded to be that of which I was in search. "Those only who have suffered as I did during this day from prolonged thirst, can form a competent idea of the delight, and, I may say, energy, afforded me by the first draught of the putrid waters of the Meritsane. They equally invigorated my exhausted steed, which I mounted immediately, and cantered up the bank of the river, in order, if possible, to reach the wagons before dark. The banks are precipitous, the channels deep, broken, and rocky, clusters of reeds and long grass indicating those spots which retain the water during the hot months. It was with no small difficulty, after crossing the river, that I forced my way through the broad belt of tangled bushes which margined the edge. The moon less night was fast closing round, and my weary horse again began to droop. The lions, commencing their nightly prowl, were roaring in all directions, and no friendly fire or beacon presenting itself to my view, the only alternative was to bivouac where I was, and to renew my search in the morning. Kindling a fire, I formed a thick bush into a pretty secure hut, by cutting away the middle, and closing the entrance with thorns; and having knee-haltered my horse, to prevent his straying, I proceeded to dine upon a guinea-fowl that I had killed, comforting myself with another draught of aqua pura. The monarchs of the forest roared incessantly, and so alarmed my horse that I was obliged repeatedly to fire my rifle to give him confidence. It was piercingly cold, and all my fuel being expended, I suffered as much from the chill as I had during the day from the scorching heat. About three o'clock, completely overcome by fatigue, I could keep my eyes open no longer, and, commending myself to the protecting care of Providence, fell into a profound sleep. On opening my eyes, my first thought was of my horse. I started from my heathy bed, in the hope of finding him where I had last seen him, but his place was empty. I roamed everywhere in search of him, and ascended trees which offered a good look out; but he was nowhere to be seen. It was more than probable he had been eaten by lions, and I had almost given up the search in despair, when I at length found his foot mark, and traced him to a deep hollow near the river, where he was quietly grazing. The night's rest, if so it could be called, had restored him to strength, and I pursued my journey along the bank of the river, which I now crossed opposite to the site of some former scene of strife, marked by numerous human bones, bleached by exposure. A little further on I disturbed a large lion, which walked slowly off, occasionally stopping and looking over his shoulder, as he deliberately ascended the opposite bank. the course of half an hour I reached the end of the dense jungle, and immediately discovered the wagon-road; but, as I could detect no recent traces of it, I turned to the southward, and, after riding seven or eight miles in the direction of Sicklajole, had the unspeakable satisfaction of perceiving the wagons, drawn under a large tree in the midup dle of the plain." In DISINTERMENT OF NINEVEH. Eugene Flander, an artist, has been sent out by the French Government, for the purpose of making drawings of the excavations Botta has diswhich are actually going on. covered two doors uniformly adorned with bas reliefs; on one side is represented a colossal bull, with a human head and wings. These doors are fifteen feet in height, and they open into a hall 120 feet long. The only wall which is yet cleared from rubbish-that on the south side-is covered with a series of bas reliefs, representing battles, explained by inscriptions. The hill on which this building stands, is surrounded by a stone wall with bastions. Botta is actively exploring these ruins; he has fifty laborers at work, and it is hoped that, in the space of ten months, he will lay open the whole. He has ascertained that there is, on the direct road from Nineveh to Khorsabad, a chain of hills covered with brick and marble, bearing inscriptions. He infers that these hills were formerly the bases of palaces, and that Khorsabad was a fortress situated at one end of the city. The quadrangular space, which is surrounded by the wall, and which contains the hill of Jonas, has hitherto been supposed to include the whole extent of the city of Nineveh. But Botta considers it more probable that this space was only the great court of the palace, whilst the city extended far as the hill of Khorsabad, a distance of five caravan stages. The conjecture accords with the possibility of the prophet Jonas having wandered for three days about the city, which would be incomprehensible, if the limited space of the quadrangle on the Tigris be supposed to have been the whole extent of the city.-Paris paper. ANCIENT NINEVEH.-The information received respecting the researches which are now being made on the spot of Ancient Nineveh, (Korsabad, near Mosul in Palestine,) by order of the French Government, under the direction of M. Botta, continues to be very interesting. A hundred and sixty workmen are now employed in making discoveries. there; and besides the walls, which are literally covered with sculpture and inscriptions, several specimens of antiquity have been brought to light, the use and the character of which have to this moment been entirely unknown. For example, under the large bricks which form the floor of the place, large stones have been found, hollowed underneath and ornamented on the outside by figures in enamel, representing men and animals; nothing on the surface of the soil indicates the existence of these stones, or their destination. In another place were discovered long ranges of earthen vases, of remarkable dimensions, placed on a brick floor and filled with human bones. These vases exactly resemble those found in Babylon, at Ahwaz, and other localities of the south of Persia. The palace about which these researches have been made, was probably entirely pillaged before it was destroyedfor no jewels, or utensils of metal, not even those small rings, so common in that neighborhood, have been discovered. Some animals in bronze have been drawn out-particularly a lion, of a fine style of execution, and a part of a wheel belonging to a chariot of war. But the most extraordinary circumstances connected with these discoveries is the pieces of alabaster with which the walls are covered, and which are filled with sculpture and inscriptions; they have also on the reverse other inscriptions, and it appears that the latter are not in the Assyrian, but the Babylonian language. As it is not reasonable to suppose that the architects would have been so foolish as to cause inscriptions to be engraved which could not be read unless the walls were demolished, it must be presumed that these pieces of alabaster have been twice made use of-that is, they first belonged to a Babylonian palace-and then the Assyrians, having carried them away to be used in new buildings, caused other inscriptions to be engraved on them. As yet the sculpture found on the reverse of these blocks has not been explained, the museums of Europe containing nothing from the chisel of Babylonian artists. Some of these latter bas reliefs are remarkable. The most interesting respects the siege of a city situated on an island; the sea is covered with vessels, the poops of which terminate in the head of a horse; the soldiers on board these vessels are employed in carrying trunks of trees to build a dyke. In the water appear numerous marine animals, fish, crabs, and winged sea horses. The rich ornament and quantity of the sculpture with which this palace is embellished is truly extraordinary, and it is difficult to understand how such a magnificent construction could have been so swallowed up.-Paris Journal des Debats. |