. William H. Seward's travels around the world. with good wishes for thevoyage we were about to resume. Our favorite English-speakingdonkey-boy, Youssef, petitioned us to take him with us to theUnited States, but he depends on his vocation to support his wid-owed mother. We raised steam and cast off from the bank at day-light, passed Edfou without stopping, but either our pilot was atfault, or sand-bars had suddenly changed. We came to a dead Pacha, at that moment, coming down the river with his RUINS OF ESNEH. 553 steamer of lighter draught, threw us a rope, and drew us over theob
. William H. Seward's travels around the world. with good wishes for thevoyage we were about to resume. Our favorite English-speakingdonkey-boy, Youssef, petitioned us to take him with us to theUnited States, but he depends on his vocation to support his wid-owed mother. We raised steam and cast off from the bank at day-light, passed Edfou without stopping, but either our pilot was atfault, or sand-bars had suddenly changed. We came to a dead Pacha, at that moment, coming down the river with his RUINS OF ESNEH. 553 steamer of lighter draught, threw us a rope, and drew us over theobstructions. So we fixed our stake on the bank at Esneh. It is asmall village, whose principal occupation it is to coal the govern-ment steamers. There is here an Egyptian temple, which isapproached closely at high water. We, however, were obliged totraverse a sandy plain, a mile wide, under the noonday sun. Theruins, like those of Medeenet Haboo, were buried beneath an Arabvillage, a part of which still remains. Only the great hall of the tem-. ViUKSEF AND HIS DONKKY. pie has been excavated. Unfortunately, this chamber is discolored by smoke; doubtless it was used ignominiously by the Arabs. The spectator is struck by seeing on the ceiling a perfect table of the zodiac, in which all the circumferential emblems are identical with those of our own tables of the constellations, excepting Cancer, the Crab, which resembles the scarabseus or sacred beetle. The ancient Egyptian ornamentation of the great hall has given place to more modern embellishments—among them the shields of the Roman Emperors Claudius, Domitian, Septimus Severus, Commodus, and42 554 EGYPT AND PALESTINE. Caracalla. The bass-reliefs and sculptures are in a low style of art,showing a great decline in sculpture and painting after the Persianand Greek conquest, but these faults are redeemed by the surpass-ing beauty of the columns. They prove that, for a time at least,Egyptian architecture improved under the Grecia
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Keywords: ., bookcentury180, bookdecade1870, booksubjectvoyagesaroundtheworld
