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his mother, is here seen in his accustomed attitude, with his finger pointing to his lips; and near it a group representing the consecration of a king, in which one of the Pharaohs, with a close helmet on his head, and dressed in the scanty mean costume which they affected, is depicted standing between two priests, who are pouring from slender elegant vases streams of yoni-lingams, crossing each other above the head, and falling to the ground on either side of the king's body. Close to this group, a man is offering incense in an Egyptian censer to Aroeris Hierax ; and elsewhere we find Isis standing upright, with a star over her head.

CCLXIV. In the chamber leading into the adytum, we found a small monolithic granite shrine, now broken; in height about seven feet; in breadth two and a half; and the niche it contained may once have been occupied by an image of the god of the temple. On the base of the shrine two females are represented in a crouching attitude, binding what some have supposed to be a lotus, round the pillar of a table. The face of the monolith is adorned with pilasters, having rich fanciful capitals, and supporting a cornice on which the winged globe appears in the centre. A narrow band of hieroglyphics, much defaced, runs round the niche, within the pilasters. From the temple of Parembolé, which is but a small, mean structure, we returned to the boats, and continued our voyage; and in the afternoon visited the ruins of Kardassi, deserving but little notice. Between

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RUINS OF TAPHIS.

this place and Tafa there occurs a splendid reach of the river, scarcely inferior to any below Es-Souan; where the broad stream, fringed on either side with verdure, and flowing between lofty mountains, appears to have regained all his majesty. Moored at Tafa.

Thursday, Jan. 17. Kalabshi.

CCLXV. Early in the morning we visited the ruins of Taphis, which are extensive; immense walls and heaps of stone covering the ground in all directions. In the midst of this confused mass of fragments of shafts, cornices, entablatures, &c., are the remains of two small temples, of which the more southern contains but two erect columns; the other, a square building, is in a state of high preservation, and has four elegant columns supporting the roof. The foliage, as usual, is varied in each capital. This edifice having now been transformed into a sheepcote, we found the interior occupied by a ewe, which, for antiquity, might have been taken for the wife of the Theban Jupiter, who, at the request of Hercules, concealed his dignity in the form of a ram. Excepting the perfect state in which it is found, - the very cornice on the exterior being almost entire, — there is nothing remarkable in this small building, which was rather a chapel than a temple. The Noubahs, a people ignorant of Arabic, and exceedingly rude and uncivilised, had formerly erected their huts upon the roof; but, the times being less disturbed, they had now abandoned those aërial dwellings, and

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descended to terra firma. Both here and at Kardassi, they seemed disposed to behave insolently, and, through the ministry of our Nubian pilot, who was doctus utriusque linguæ, informed the Arabs, that they cared not a rush for the Pasha. The vast walls and substructions of Tafa, which in some places are of Cyclopean character, would appear never to have been completed; but were evidently all intended for public buildings, nothing resembling the remains of private dwellings being any where observable. Yet the noble and opulent Egyptians dwelt in spacious houses of stone, with magnificent entrances, propylæa, and extensive gardens, which, though laid out, like those of France, in a quaint unimaginative style, seem to have been carefully cultivated, and planted with noble trees.

CCLXVI. A little to the south of Taphis we approach what are called the "Gates of Kalabshi." The mountains on both sides, fluctuating in their course, bend inward, and impend in vast cliffs over the Nile, which is here greatly narrowed, and, in the time of the inundation, roughened with slight rapids.* Finding, on our return from the ruins, that there was no wind, while the rocks prevented all attempts at tracking, we strolled forth into the fields, which, however small, are exceedingly well cultivated. Se

* Belzoni, however, who passed through these "gates" during high Nile, was informed by the natives that the navigation was dangerous only when the waters were low. But they were now low, and there existed neither danger nor rapids.

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VIEW OF THE WESTERN DESERT.

parating from my companions, who remained near the village, I wandered away among the rocks, and began to climb one of the loftiest and most pointed summits of the Libyan mountains. The ascent was exceedingly difficult, and not without danger, being obstructed at every ten paces by enormous blocks of granite and rosso antico, resting upon a bed of loose stones, which a touch would have put in motion, and sent thundering down into the river below. Among these tottering masses, therefore, I made my way with the greatest caution, as in many places they impended over my head; and, on looking down, could perceive far below, fragments of similar rocks, which, accidentally put in motion, possibly by the wind, had been dashed to splinters in their fall. Here and there small pieces of calcareous spar and rose-coloured granite sparkled in the sun, that poured down his fiery rays into the rocky hollows, whence they were reflected with renewed violence. Being encumbered with the heavy cloak worn on all occasions in these countries, it was some time before I succeeded in reaching the summit, which it is probable no European ever before ascended; but, when there, enjoyed, what I had long desired, a boundless prospect over the western desert, which, though sombre and monotonous, was singularly grand. The mountains, lofty near the river, gradually, as they recede from it, decrease in height, until, far in the distance, they seem to dwindle into mere undulations, scarcely roughening the surface of the waste. Their innumerable pinnacles, black, rugged, bare, and partly

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involved in shadow, impart to the landscape an air of gloomy sublimity, the constant concomitant of great desolation and barrenness, which awaken an idea of death. But, perhaps, it is to the immensity of the wilderness, of which they form the outskirts, that they in a great measure owe the effect they produce on the imagination.

CCLXVII. Every where I could observe traces of the fury of the tropical rains, which deluge all these mountains in summer, and hurl down the wild dangerous ravines rocks of prodigious magnitude. Towards the east, the prospect is nearly the same, except that the dusky rocks rise, like so many isles, amid boundless expanses of fine yellow sand, drifted by the action of the wind into small beautiful waves, like those upon the sea-shore. Through this scene of utter sterility, the eye pursues with pleasure the course of the Nile, from the point where, far to the south, it emerges, as if springing out of the earth, from between two rocky ridges, to the equally distant point, on the way to Egypt, where it is again hidden from the view by similar hills, while its noble stream is edged throughout with two narrow borders of bright green, over which the hamlets and palm-groves of the Noubahs are thinly scattered. From one of these lofty pinnacles, towering far above every thing around, I sought to obtain a glimpse of the temples of Kalabshi; but either they were masked by some other object, or their colour, resembling that of the sands in which they are situated, prevented my distinguish