Grant's tour around the world; with incidents of his journey through England, Ireland, Scotland .. . en the home of a king. Herewe would see the columns of Luxor, the twin obelisk to theone now in Paris, the stupendous ruins of Karnak and thetombs of the kings. Thebes alone would repay us for our longjourneyings; and we talked about Sesostris and the Phara-ohs in a familiar manner, as though they knew we were com-ing, and would be at home. And when we became a littlehazy on our history and could not get our kings exactlystraight, and were not sure whether Sesostris was in thenineteenth or the
Grant's tour around the world; with incidents of his journey through England, Ireland, Scotland .. . en the home of a king. Herewe would see the columns of Luxor, the twin obelisk to theone now in Paris, the stupendous ruins of Karnak and thetombs of the kings. Thebes alone would repay us for our longjourneyings; and we talked about Sesostris and the Phara-ohs in a familiar manner, as though they knew we were com-ing, and would be at home. And when we became a littlehazy on our history and could not get our kings exactlystraight, and were not sure whether Sesostris was in thenineteenth or the twenty-ninth dynasty, we always fellback on Brugsch, who knew all the dynasties and was anever-running spring of information, and always as gentle 272 AROUND THE WORLD, 273 and willing as he was learned. By tlie time we approachedThebes we were well out of that stage and were well up inEameses, and knew all about Thebes, the mighty, our the magnificent Thebes, the city of a worlds renown, ofwhich we had been reading and dreaming all these as Brugsch, leaning over the rail, talked about. RUINS AT THEBES. Thebes, we listened and watched through the clear air forthe first sign of its glory. There were the mountainsbeyond, the very mountains of which we had read, andthere was the plain. But where was Thebes ? We lookedthrough our glasses and saw at first only the brown caver-ned hills, the parched fields and the shining sand. Welooked again, and there, sure enough, were the colossalstatues of Memnon, two broken pillars so they seemed,with a clump of trees near them. Only the field, the sandand the hills beyond, only the same cluster of hovels onon the shore and the two distant columns. This was allthat remained of the glory of the city that was the gloryof the ancient world. 274 GRANTS TOUR There was one, at least, in that small company whoseimagination fell, and who could scarcely believe that somuch splendor could only be this barren plain. But thisis no time for moral
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