Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1847-06-03

81 do ~ spare HE any great 1al1gue- en-
couraging me with the few words of Eng
llsh they had picked up, every good - and
e 'hali-way!' After one particularly diff
} cult step, they were in great delight, and
! patted me on the back, all three crying out
e "Ah! ah good morning-good morningr'
S They were ordered to be quiet, while we
!, were at the top, where we wished to look
about US undisurbed, and to date and begin
f some letters to our friends; but, with all
, my interest in the scene which spread a.
, broad, could not but look on these men
with wonder and sorrow that they should
t be inhabitants of country Astounding in
such monuments.
The landscape which we overlooked was
this: From near the foot Of the py ramid to
the northern horizon stretched the line
: which divides the sandy desert from the fer
tile plain which extends to the Nile The
, line OF separation was wavy and marked by
little canal, which had still in it some of
the water left by the inunda,ion. To the
east of this line, filling up the landscape to
the river and vanishing in the northern ho-
rlzon, spread the most fertile plain in the
: world, covered with green crops, dotted with
villages of brown mud houses overshadow-
ed with palms, and marked by faint line
of causeway here and there, and by many
threads of blue water. To the east was the
Nile, about five miles from us at the nearest
point, but winding away from the Carlhest
north to the utmost south. Beyond the
river spread the beautiful city of Cairo its
white citadel growing a lofty rock, and be-
ing itself backed by the rocky heights of The
AIokuttum hills. These eastern hills then
spread away southwark into the Arabian
desert, which allowed the eve no rest till it
came round TO the river again. The circuit
of landscape was completed by the Lybi-
an desert; the parched, glaring desert where
nothing was to be seen on the nterminable
sands but line of camels pacing along in
the heat, and few brown Arab tents not far
from The pyramid, For few miles to the
south of lis, and close round about us, were
clustered a crowd ofpyramids- larger
some smaller, but none to compare with the
one we stood on. OF these, the most in
teresting were those Of Sakhara, which we
amid ann tie N ,ha fs tf a great He Be
ground of the mighty old city of Memphis
of which nothing now remains but statue
here and there, and some scattered blocks
Of scultptured stone; nothing else but the
tombs, which are enough to show that this
was a great city indeed.
Here, in these tombs, which are chambers
cut out of the rock, and adorned with col
umns and pictured walls; in these tombs
and others were men busy soul pturing and
painting at time when we have been apt to
suppose the earliest generations were learn
ing how to live on the rude earth. These
pictures on the walls, however, show the
way of life of the Egyptians to be not very
far behind our own. have seen what the
possessions of men were in those days, from
these memorials in the chambers of their
graves. have seen their flocks of cattle,
their poultry-yards, their fields in seedtime
and harvest, their fisheries, their hunting and
shooting parties, their boats with many oars
and gay-chequered sails, their beautiful fur
niture, couches, easy chairs, lamps and vases,
very like the handsomest Of ours at the pre-
sent day +; their kitchens, with the slaugh-
terng of cattle, and the cooking of the joints
of beef; their wne-presses and their ward
robes of rich clothes and handsome neck
Iaces; their arms and war-chariots, and the
bridges and fortified towns they passed over
or s,ormed. Ihave seen the weaving OF gay
cloth, and the sleeping and spinning of flax;
rope-making; glass-bowng, just such as
may be seen at Newcastle any day; the
building of houses, the carving of statues !;
games at ball and gymnastics, dancing, wrest-
ling, and playing the harp.
What is of far more consequence, as oc-
curing long before any clear tidlngs thai
we have elsewhere of mems condition os
mind and life; there are solemn plctnres
and sculptures about death and burial, ans
the state of the soul. have seen the bods
laid out and embalmed, carried on a bier te
the boat, and borne in the boat to the lakb
or river which usually lay between the cltle
and the burial places. have seen the fefl
ryman, the dog which waited OH the lurlhec
shore, and the judges who were to assess tb
deeds of the deceased. ! have seen th:
, weighing of his deeds, and his admission
into the presence of the approving gods, b..s
means of his integrity, the symbol OF WhIc S
he carried in his right hand. Thus earl,
did the people of this country believe thai
the soul lived after the body was dead, ann
that its integrity was the means of its blesso
edness.
= These tombs had been prepared for their
|. owners, occupied by the embalmed bodIe;e
and closed up for far future age to opene
' the mighty pyramids had been built, ams
r their appearance had grown familiar to g.na'
h rations; and their builders-,ens of tlotu
sands in number-had long slept in heve
o graves, when rich Arab entered the c'ur1o
. try, W it'll his flocks and servants and ianllri
!, to seek subsistence for them all in the firth,