signs from a Bowery store. The stories will hardly bear repetition, for they are the same that we saw at Denderah, at Abydos, all through Egypt. They tell of battles and the glory of the King, Rameses, who is supposed to be the Sesostris of the Greeks. We have him leading his men to attack a fortified place. Again we see him leading foot soldiers and putting an enemy to the sword. We have him leading his captives as an offering to the gods-and offer

EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTION-STORMING A CITY.

ing not only prisoners, but booty of great value. The groups of prisoners are rudely done, but you see the type of race clearly outlined. We know the Hebrew by the unmistakable cast of features-as marked as the face of Lord Beaconsfield. We trace the Phoenician, the Estruscan, as well as the negro types from Ethiopia, and thus learn of the warlike achievements of this thirty century monarch, whose fame is carved all over Egypt, and about whose name there is an interesting debate. Again and again these war themes are repeated, one king after another

reciting his conquests and his virtues, wars and treaties of peace. It seemed in the building of these temples that the intention was to make the walls monumental records of the achievements of various reigns. Thus, five centuries are covered by the reigns of Sethi and Sheshouk, and yet each king tells his own story side by side. When the walls were covered or a king wished to be especially gracious to the priests, or, as is more probable, desired to employ his soldiers, he would build a new wing or addition to the temple already existing, striving, if possible, to make his own addition more magnificent than those of his predeces

sors.

EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTION-THE BESIEGED CITY.

In this way came the Great Hall of Karnak, and in every temple we have visited this has been noticed. As a consequence these stupendous, inconceivable ruins were not the work of one prince and one generation, but of many princes and many generations. And, as there was always something to add and always a new ambition coming into play, we find these temples, tombs, pyramids, obelisks, all piled one upon the other, all inspired by the one sentiment and all telling the same story. It was because that Thebes was the centre of a rich and fertile province, sheltered from an enemy by a river and the

mountains, that she was allowed to grow from century to century in uninterrupted splendor. What that spendor must have been we cannot imagine. Here are the records and here are the ruins. If the record reads like a tale of enchantment, these ruins look like the work of gods. The world does not show, except where we have evidences of nature, a ruin as vast as that of Karnak. Imagine a city covering two banks of the Hudson, running as far as from the Battery to Yonkers, and back five, six or seven miles, all densely built, and you have an idea of the extent of Thebes. But this will only give you an idea of size. The buildings were not Broadways and Fifth avenues, but temples and colossal monuments and tombs, the greatness of which and the skill and patience necessary to build them excited our wonder to-day-yes, to-day, rich- as we are with the achievements and possibilities of the nineteenth century. Thebes, in its day, must have been a wonder of the world, even of the ancient world, which knew Nineveh and Babylon. To-day all that remains are a few villages of mud huts, a few houses in Stone flying consular flags, a plain here and there strewed with ruins, and under the sands ruins even more stupendous than those we now see, which have not yet become manifest.

We were told that we should see Karnak by moonlight, that the effect would be worth the journey, and there would be the chance of shooting a hyena. But the moon was not in season, and the only two of the party who cared about hyenas, Mr. Grant and Mr. Wilner, were saving themselves for the crocodiles, who were said to be in great force up the river waiting to be shot. What a comment upon the vanity of human wishes to see the sanctuary of Sesostris gravely pointed out to sportsmen as the lair of the wild beast! But Egypt is full of these suggestions. I I should like to have seen Karnak by moonlight, but as this was not to be, we made the most of our morning visit.

CHAPTER XVI.

A VISIT TO KENEH-EGYPTIAN

INDUSTRY-LIFE AMONG
ASCENDING THE RIVER

THE EGYPTIAN FREEMEN
TO THE FIRST CATARACT AND THE NUBIAN FRONTIER
-ASSOUAN THE PHILOSOPHY OF PRESENTS
INTERESTING INCIDENT-A MAN WHO RIDES-SCENES
IN ANCIENT
RETURNING - A VISIT ΤΟ

BONDAGE

AN

MEMPHIS THE SACRED BULLS-THEIR TOMBS-BACK
TO CAIRO-EN ROUTE FOR THE HOLY LAND.

Continuing their journey up the Nile, one of the party writes, on the 31st of January, as follows:

It was a sad sight, and

One visit worth noting was made to the town of Keneh. We tied up to the bank in our summary way, just as the wayfaring horseman dismounts and ties his horse to a tree. There is no question of wharves or quays or permission. When we tied, we all went ashore and picked out our donkeys. The boys had seen our smoke far down the river, and were there to meet us. The town was a mile or so off, and we rode over the plain. Sami Bey told us what a calamity this bad Nile meant to Egypt. When the Nile rises in its season and floods the fields, only departing when it leaves the richness that it brought all the way from Central Africa, then Egypt is rich. The ground teems with fatness, and I could well believe Sami Bey when he told us how he had ridden from the river bank to the town through fields of corn and sugar cane, through fields of waving, living, joyous green. To-day the fields are parched and brown and cracked. The irrigating ditches are dry. You see the stalk stumps of the last season's crop. But with the exception of a few

clusters of the castor bean and some weary, drooping date palms, the earth gives forth no fruit. A gust of sand blows over the plain and adds to the sombreness of the scene. Here are hundreds of thousands of acres which, in a good year, would give generous crops. Now they give nothing, and the people who till them must be fed. A bad Nile, therefore, means bad times for the people and bad times for the Government. For when there are no crops there are no taxes, and even an Egyptian taskmaster could not force barren fields to pay revenue to the Khedive's treasury. It is safe to say that a bad Nile costs Egypt millions and millions of dollars. The people must live on last year's grain, and instead of helping the Government, must be helped by the Government. When you remember that the Khedive is under many burdens-the burden of an enormous debt, the interest of which is in default; a burden of a contingent in the Turkish army which he must support, the burden of the annual tribute to the Sultan, over $3,500,000 a year, you can understand the calamity of a bad Nile and why it is that most of the civil and military officers are in arrears for their salary-some of them for a year. Happily such a calamity as a bad Nile does not often occur. If it happened for two or three continuous years a famine would be the result. If the Nile ceased its office Egypt would have to be abandoned and these fertile plains given over to the desert. In fact, Egypt is only an annual struggle between the river and the desert. If ever the river surrenders, Egypt will become a barren, treeless plain of rocks and sand.

The sand was blowing heavily as we entered Keneh. We had not been expected, so there were no ceremonies, and we could wander as we pleased. We dismounted under a grove of trees and went on foot into the town, our donkeys and donkey boys following after. We strolled