The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-05-13
The Ruins of Memphis.
BY DIR. HURST.

you take donlleys for ride of an hour anC
half to the ancient city of Memphis
One can also go by railway from Cairo t.
Sakkara. An Arab village or town is bull
of sun-dried brick, with streets running il
crooked directions, and Just about wide
enough for donkey with full panniers tc
pass. The only roof of the houses consists
OF palm-leaves or sugar-canes, and there is
no bed. The people sleep on the floor, OF
rather hard, dry ground, if you except the
single layers Of straw-matting on which
they lie. Such, at least, is Sakkara, as
all other towns and villages I have so fal
seen. There are generally few tall and
graceful palms that mark the site of the
villages, and by their shade they afford
almost the only protection against the sun
that the Arab poor enjoy.
was unfortunate to get stumbling
donkey at Sakkara for the ride to Memphis.
lie frequently betrayed feeble legs, and
when our dragoman stopped us on the
brink of the deep excavation where the
colossal statue of the great Rameses II.
lies upon what the archaologist tells us is
its very beautiful y face, my donkey
began backing me down and down. until !
rapidly escaped from his back and slide
below with him into tho green slime and
mud which cover the bottom of the excava-
ton and surround the granite features of
the massive sculpture. If the statue were
erect, and its feet not gone, it would be
thirty feet high. 1t has been presented to
the British Museum, but, from some cause
perhaps eXpense-has never been remov-
ed. There are some other statues, and
many fragmentS-such as immense arms.
legs, heads, ears, noses-lying around and
they are used indis criminatey for any pur-
pose that may suggest itself. One Arab
has hit upon the device for turning pias-
ter by raking up few of them into little
court, to which every one who passes is
most gravely invited by this turbaned Bar
mum to pay and walk IN. The road leads
for time through palms and mud-huts,
and then across beautiful field of growing
grain, which seemed to be wheat or barley.
Wild flowers lifted up their gray heads
amid the light green stocks, and gathered
not few of them both in going and return
ing. After crossing the only relic of the
distant past in all that field-a solid and
still magnificent stone bridge over an old
canal leading from the Nile, with only a
few stones gone-our path struck the dry
and painless desert. To the left rose the
stone pyramids of Dashoor, but as their
size is so much inferior to those near Cairo
| had no disposition to approach them,
either to grope through their tomb-passages
or to climb to their top.
The desert in which we now were was
at considerable elevation above the green
fields over which we had passed. and had
the very appearance of covering, by its
shifting sands, many a splendid and for
gotten treasure of the past. The Arab
village from which we had set out, the
Of 10
come, the filthy excavations where the frag-
mentary statues still lay, the green fields,
and this vast section of csert-mounds,
were all that the eye could rest upon of the
first and perhaps greatest of Egypts capt.
tails. The very ground seemed sacred, for
it was to Memphis that Joseph was sold /:
here he passed through all the vicisstudes
from bondage and a dungeon to be second
only to the king; and hither came his
brethren from aflr for corn, and at last the
aged Israel himself, to be gladdened by
again meeting the lost one. Here Moses
grew up a member of the royal household,
and became in time the chosen instrument
for leading the oppressed out into ga broad
place ;" and back again to its splendid
streets and those matchless temples, which
furnished the model for those of Greece
and Rome of n later day, came only the
sound of wailin1 that the royal host in pur-
suit had been swallowed mp by the sea-
AS the sun shone hot upon the white sand
and reflected a dazzling glare upon my
eyes, despite my turned hat-brm and dark
glasses, a bleached skull looked IN from
its lonely resting place, as if to remind one
that we were trespassing upon its former
home. And of whom was it the skull p
OF the hard Egyptian taskmaster, or the
hoping Israclitish slave? What changes
had taken place since its eyes had closed on
the waving palms and rafting chariots and
cycr-chcerful Nile.
u,r,, ,,,,,,.
inr NJ MN A-ills'
AS we proceed further, at every step our
donkeys sinking deeper into the sand, we
came to mummy-pit, which had been
recently excavated. l saw no whole mum
mics these had no doubt been taken OIL
by ready hands TO adorn museums III other
lands. But there were many fragments
lying III hurried coniusion.beautlfully
bandaSed arms ana legs, with the wrap
pings sui IN the same careful folds as when
they were lett, perhaps four thousand years
ago skulls of all sizes, and on some of
them the flesh so well preserved that you
could have recognized the face had it been
that of friend ; diSiointed vertcbre, ribs,
and bones from all parts OF the body; the
still white linen III which the cold clay had
been lovingly wrapped fragments OF the
eoihnS, winch bore upon their outer surface
meroglyphlcs as bright as you could lnscrlbe
tins hour and all this III the open air, for
sun and VINO TO sport with, Tor donkeys to
tralnple uhder 1901, ana Tor the Arabs to
gather up and vend to the first who would
buy. Tins was 4 picture which L shall
never forget, and, while | little thought of
meeting with anything OF the KIND at Mem
phls, 1t was to me the most thrllllngly
interesting object saw during the day.
Alter winding around few more mounds,
and now and then getting the full benefit
of the gusts OF sand, we reached low
modern house, the only one in the desert
part OF old Memphis. We were all intensely
AR 1 10 stnod oro,nd lilo dogS volt
ing for our chicken and mutton bones, and
seemed to take but little pleasure i'll every
additional slice of bread and meat or orange
that we consumed. After brief rest, we
were conducted by the sheikh into the
tombs of the Apis, or sacred bull, of the
an the monuments Vi 'icien' -hG,'ipilis'
nave l ,I peeii oiscosGlea ny + iellcli-
W h'i "no il''s 'i:o oo,i'iue'ioe
VI tiie iceioy, mas pteil "ppolh'ee =, supei-
lii'It,'aen. VI an 'i,e vi i.Sypt'