The Grange advance., 1875-04-27

old Village Chief, remarkable alike for its
iite'llke appearance, it's evident resem.
olance to the original, and its state of
preservation after, as some say, six thou
sand years: Then the trilinqual stone,
the companion to the rosetta stone, vari.
GUS statues, mummics, &c. Not the least
interesting to me. though, was the col'ec-
tion Of household utensils. There were
al1srent kinds of cloth, some of which
looked as if they were new, round coils of
rope. to act as pad when things were
carried on the head, mallets, chisels Of
oronze' and other things too numerous to
mention. saw also thigh bone, which
nao oeen broken and set with the two
paris considerably overlapping each other
ana the arm OF mummy, the flesh OF
which looked like dried herring.
The jewelry also formed a very attrac.
tive part of the mueseum. also Maid q
visit to the khedive's stables. where he
has hundred very fair horses, and the
usual array Of carriages. the stables
are connected with the palaces bv tele.
graph lines, so that carr iage can be or
dered without sending long distance.
| At three o'clock l was aboard The
steamer Bahava bound for Assouan. This
is one Of line Of boats owned bv the
KhediYe, and managed by Cook and Son.
the travelling agents, almost exclusively
for the benefit of tourists. A boat leaves
Cairo every fortnight in winter, and only
stops for sightseeing. Twenty days is
the regulation time for the trip Of l,18O
miles. They 60 very slowly, their run
ming rate up stream being only six miles
an hour, and as they only run in the day
time, they seldom make more than sew
enty-tive miles day. Down stream
they 60 ten miles al hour. The days pass
by very quickly and pleasantly, and it is
quite as good as a quiet rest at some city,
with the advantage that almost every
DAY we have some excursion to visit an
clent tombs or temples.
The first and second days we had moth.
ing to see, except the quarries above
Cairo, and the villages as we passed. Fri
day we stopped at Minieh, large town
with several sugar manufactures, one of
them very large; upon which We made an
assault in solid body of forty. We saw
the various operations of rolling, evapor.
atlng, drying. &C., and were importuned
for backsheesh by every employee in the
establishment ard numerous outsiders.
On our way back, party ahead of US
was foolish enough to give something to
the crowd that beset them, to
keep them away. In a
moment they were surrounded by at least
fifty Of all sizes, sexes and colers, c)ar,or-
irg for backsheesh. I had stolen piece
Of sugar cane from the factory, and they
all kept clear of that, for they are NOR.
tally afraid of stick, and have reason to
be, for they feel it often enough. The
crowd in front of us seemed absolutely
crazy; some ran up to lady, pulled her
dress and ran away again, apparently just
for the excitement. No one can imagine
the scene unless they have witnessed it.
Saturday morning We visited the
famous tombs of Benz Hassan. These
are caverns Of different sizes and styles
cut in the rock. The best are excavated
in imitation of houses, with columns,
architraves and all. Two of the grottos
are filled with paintings representing the
different occupations of the people, every
possible attitude in wrestling, hunting
scenes, &c. The two northernmost are
the most interesting. They each have
several columns in the Doric style, some
of which are simple polygons of eight,
sixteen and eighteen sides, and others
slightly futed. In one Of these grottoes
are some pictures representing the emf
grafton of Asiatic tribes into Egypt, who
were once supposed to be Jacob and his
sons; but the antiquity of the tombs,
which were excavated some centuries be-
fore their time shows the impossibility of
this. In some of the t0mbs are very Gu
rious columns, representing four stems of
water plants, bound together, with bud
in four lobes for the capitol. The tombs
consist Of three parts, the main chamber
which is ornamented, we'll in one corner.
and a vault beneath, in which are placed
the sarcophagus aad mummy. Many
have also niche for the statue of a god.
rhe villages of Benz Hassan have been
several times destroyed by the authorities
on account of the thieving propensities of
the Inhabitants, and as We returned to
the boat, we saw the ruins of the old
town. We reached the boat without seri.
Gus accident, although the donkeys were
very poor and small. Mine could not
possibly fill the saddle, and was thrown
off three times, the first time fat on the
ground, as obuld not get my feet out of
the stirups, but afterwards rode without
such assistance, and when the saddle
turned, merely stepped off, l finally
managed to balance myself very we'll.
Just before the boat started, we had
quite an exhibition on shore. AL the