Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-08-10
A VIEW FROM THE PYRAMIDS.
Egypt as 1T Appears To-Day.

tr1Outlug 10 the Christian Union q Serie
of letters on Egypt, which are more thought
ful and interesting than tourists letters ar
apt to be. From his latest we quote fe,
extracts:
''The view from the great pyramid G
Ghlzeh is as unique as it is fine. Just a
the base stretches away a vast plain, whicl
was the historic battle ground of one @
Napoleon's most splendid victories il
his contest of the East. Indeed, we con
slider ourselves as perched at this momen
on the high outlook of those forty cen
turies which he told his sol iers wer
gazing down upon them, and we can Sc,
the entire arent in which the legion
were displayed. Beautifully diversified
fields beyond it, of all colors un
der the various approaching harvests, Ii,
between us and Old Cairo. Then the mys
terious Nile, the creator of all the empire
which fills that narrow strip of land it ha!
for unreckoned years defended from the en-
croachments of the pillows of sand that the
indefatigable winds of the desert have heap
ed up to engulf it, winds placidly along its
slnuous course. Beyond this the delicate
domes and minarets of New Cairo succeed
IN the prospect, shining among the heavy
green plumes of the palm. trees. And, tol
just touch of life in the stiffness, we car
see long trains of ungainly camels, the dark
tents and brown garments OF the struggling
travellers that accompany them-tht scene
ry of the Arabian Nights once mere sudden.
ly realized as if out of a youthful dream.
Cali this, looking one way only; any
other direction revt ais no moro than the
travellers and verdureless wastes of the
great Libyan Desert; sand, sank, treeless
and ilteless; an ocean without wave; a
sea unbounded even by crests of foam at
the horizon. motionless expanse that has
no actual confines, whose limits to human
vision consist only of spaces losing them.
selves in mere vanishing distance, leaving
the eyes tingling and blinded under the
glittering glare.
THE LAY OF THE LAND.
No one can have any adequate concep-
ton of the queer shape of Egypt until he
has seen at least this part OF it. A little
green ribbon, lying loosely as if dropped
on a yellow sand heap, would be its fitting
emblem. The exceeding emaciation of the
&aament of soil, redeemed by the
river from the desert, can hardly be des-
cribed. You see the entire width of it,
from edge to edge, for many a mile as you
sit on the summit of the pyramid. And
really it does appear so thin and insignif-
can't that you marvel anew at the history
which stands OF record to its credit, evi-
dence to which 1t bears in solemn dignity
Of reserve beneath it's accumulations of
soil.
mot far from the base of these vast
in the shadow of a small copse
Of palms, have been already gathered q
large number of broken statutes and
images, unearthed at one time and another
in this region. They serve as most effect
ing reminders of the genius and skill of the
forgotten generations. These headless un-
couth creations in stone would make one
laugh, if it were not that he remembers
that they are the mementoes of race
coeval with the patriarchs. They may be
awkward in look; but few are there who
would dare to say, go up, thou bald-head, ;
to even the worst of them.
'tAway up on the Nile, close by the cat-
aract, so near the tropics that once it was
reported that gnomons on the dial cast no
shadow lie the now silent quarries from
which many of the enormous stones we
are sitting upon earliest came for the build
ing of the pyramids. One finds his imagi-
nation kindled into curiosity, first, as to
the methods employed ts transport such
mighty masses of rocks so far; and then
1ls mind lapses into pensiYe sentiment of
while he remembers how
silent to-day are the myriad hands which
once In these sands wrought so busily.
THE SPHINX
SAT the foot of the pyramids, imme-
1iately below US as we sat on the ledges
here rises out of the verdureless sand one
If the most singular idols that human in
genuity ever imagined; one of the awk-
wardest bodies and one of the most mas
sive heads that human hands ever carved.
No line Of beauty has 1t anywhere to eXhib-
t. The ears are enormous; the nose is
gone; the mouth is ragged; the beard is
broken; the open eyes stare blankly and
closely down upon you the wig bags fatty
and faringly out on either side; the chin
has lost half its stony hair, and ALI SEM
blance of dignity; the face was formerly
painted and the red is washed off on the
weather side; altogether the structure has
pretty much gone under the effects of age
and has quite the look of a used-up piece
Of property, but there yet remains tram
quill majesty in it's mien that every one re-
cognises and feels the moment he sees it.
Coarse in its construction, uncouth and
stiff in every lineament 1t is yet able to
impress the soul of every traveller, even
the most careless, who beholds it. 1t is
better seen from below; the first sight of
1t, If from the top of the pyramids, belittles
and dwarfs its proportions; If from the
long and winding approach OF the old path,
it is best of all. This figure is the colossal
form, sculptures roughly in yellowish
full Of millious of mil
lions Of minute and perfect shells-of a
brute's body with a human head. The
body reclines at length in the sand; the
head is finely erect in the air. There used
to be an altar between the forepaws, To-
Gated precisely where the sweet SAVIOR of a
sacrifice might most easily be supposed to
reach the nostril.
PYRAMIDS IN SCRIPTURE.
cit has been said more than once that
these most remarkable structures are no.
where mentioned in the Bible, One thing
is very certain; any concordance will show
that the name does not at all appear in our
English version. And this seems very
strange; for surely they are the most con-
spicuous objects to be seen in Egypt, and
most likely to furnish symbols to the pro-
phets in their predictions concerning that
land From this silence some have even
gone so far as to assert that they are far
more modern than their friends suppose,
and were erected subsequent to the closing
of the Old Testament canon.
"Long ago, however, it was pointed out
by MIR. Gliddon, and has been dwelt upon
much by those who have followed him, that
i'll the Book of Job, the Oldest in the Bible,
occurs form of expression in the original
Hebrew, which points very plainly to them
and intimates that even in Jobs day the
mistake was prevalent that all the pyramids
were burial places. The passage is that in
which the weary patriarch wishes he had
died early-'for now shoQld l have lain
still and been quiet; should have slept
then l had been at rest with kings and
counsellors of the earth, which built desc.
late places for themselves
The single word rendered here 'desolate
places is pyramids. And in one of his lit.
tie volumes of comment, DR.. Horatio Bonal
adds to this, as he remarks upon verse IL
the third chapter of Jeremiah's 'Lamenta
tions, that single allusion seems quite
pertinent, since the prophet composed
these sorrowful utterances in Egypt, name
ly, when he says, 'he hath set me in dGrA
places, as they that be dead of old Here
the word rendered dark places is pyramids
as before A II this oratifiAS curiOSjtV bu