CHAPTER VIII.
DEPARTURE FROM SHENDY. — DIFFICULTIES. — DESERT. — VISIT FROM AND ANECDOTES OF LIONS. — IMMENSE RUINS. — CONFUSION OF THE PLAN. — BUILT BY BAD ARCHITECTS. — DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRINCIPAL TEMPLE. — STYLE OF THE SCULPTURE. — OTHER RUINS. — SINGULAR SITUATION OF THE RUINS. — THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH THEY WERE CONSTRUCTED. — THEIR PROBABLE AGE.
March 9. We left Shendy later than we intended, having been delayed by the following little difficulties. I had engaged from the government six camels, with three drivers, of which they only sent me one driver. As I found I should lose a day, or perhaps two, in going back to Metammah, and there were said to be none procurable here, I was forced to yield this point. I had also stipulated for a Turkish soldier, who accompanied Cailliaud, and for a habeer (guide), and had agreed to give twelve piastres per day for these two persons. Before setting out, I asked the soldier, “where was the habeer?” “I am the habeer,” he said. “Where, then,” asked I, “is the soldier?” “Oh,” said he, “I am soldier and habeer both.” I was resolved not to start without another, my own men not being sufficient to load the camels. After a long dispute, he at length procured me an Arab. This is a specimen of the little annoyances to which travellers are generally liable in dealing with Turks. The desert to-day has had the appearance of a shrubbery, being richly covered with long yellow grass, acacias, tamarinds, and thorns, and enlivened with numerous herds of gazelles. Every two or three minutes we saw six or eight, but so wild that our attempts to approach them were fruitless.
_Ruins of Wady Owataib, or Mecaurat.—March_ 10. We started this morning at six, and at eleven arrived at these interesting ruins. We passed, at about nine, a range of soft sandstone hills, which run from east to west.
I was surprised to find in this situation, which may be called the interior of the Desert, such extensive remains of antiquity. They consist of an edifice, containing temples, courts, corridors, &c. destined for purposes not religious only, but civil, domestic, or military. After taking a general survey, I returned to my tent for my portfolio, pencils, &c. My dragoman met me, with a bewildered look, and communicated to me intelligence which was any thing but agreeable. A man, who was driving cattle, the only person we have met to-day, came and asked my servants, who were pitching the tent, if they were not afraid of lions, as they seemed to be preparing to pass the night amongst the ruins. He told them that he brought his cattle here to pasture only during the day, when the lions are asleep in their dens among the mountains, but through the night they prowl all over this part of the plain; and only six nights ago four of them had killed three of his cattle, within 200 yards of our tent. He showed them the spot where their bones lay, and advised us immediately to quit this place, and remove either to the Nile, or to a distant mountain, whither he was going, and where we should be in safety. These tidings caused no slight consternation in my little caravan; some repented having come, others wished to return immediately; all seemed dismayed at the idea of passing the night exposed to such unpleasant visiters. Was I then to leave the antiquities of Meroe, and abandon the hope of being able to procure any further memorials of their magnificence? There were only two alternatives: to return with the mortification of having failed in one of the great objects of my journey, and still, as we could not arrive before night, perhaps incur the same danger; or to take the necessary precautions for defence in case of being attacked by these animals. I chose the latter course, and made my men collect all the wood that could be found, to keep up fires during the night. I sent my dragoman and the Turkish soldier towards the neighbouring hills, to see if they could discover any traces of them. After an hour they returned, and said they had seen none. The fact was, my dragoman did not know their footprints, and the Turk concealed the truth. Scarcely had I finished an address to my artist and servants, endeavouring to assure them that, after this intelligence, we should, with proper precautions, be perfectly safe, when, looking down, I perceived, in my very tent, the distinct traces of a lion; but I put my foot upon them, and said nothing. I could discover no other marks about the ruins; but a very light wind is sufficient to efface the impression on a loose sandy desert like this. This evening I have established a watch, and kept it myself five hours. My servants are sleeping on the ground, according to their custom, and have taken the precaution to form the camels into a sort of fortification, by tying them down in a circle round themselves. They are now all sleeping soundly, unconscious of danger, except my habeer, who has fastened the heel of his camel to his own leg, knowing well that the instinct of that creature (trembling and restive whenever a lion is near) will warn him of danger, and at the same time the animal will be prevented from flying off and escaping without his master.
_March_ 11. I had not been long asleep, during the watch of my servants and artist, when I was suddenly roused. The Turk had seen two lions among the ruins, within 100 yards of my tent, and had fired his gun to frighten them away. I immediately ordered additional fires to be lighted: shortly afterwards, the peasant, who had advised us against encamping here, came to us for protection. By the light of the moon he had perceived the approach of two lions, which, he said, were behind him in the plain. I went a short distance from my tent, with the Turk, to reconnoitre, and I heard them roaring at no considerable distance. The roar soon became very distinct, even in my tent, but it did not prevent my falling asleep, as I was dreadfully fatigued by the previous day’s work, the long watch I had made, and the excessive heat. This was yesterday extraordinary for the season, being 110° in the shade (of the temple), though the extreme has been hitherto 98° and 100°. I slept the remainder of the night. This morning we found that the four lions had rambled all over the ruins, and their traces were quite fresh in every part. They had evidently been deterred only by our fires from attacking us. I ascertained them, by their footsteps, to be two males and two females; one of the males must have been very large, the females much smaller.
Every place and country has its danger, but few spread more alarm than this terror of the deserts. Seas and oceans have their tempests, in which vessels are frequently shipwrecked; and, even in smooth water, rocks and shoals send many to a watery grave. The traveller, even on the king’s high road, has sometimes to dread banditti. How many accidents occur even to the citizen on his holyday trips! Thus he who has never quitted his native country, and the traveller in foreign lands, are alike beset with perils; but there are few dangers which cannot be alleviated, often prevented, by prudent and precautionary measures, and which, stripped of the terrors in which heated imaginations have clothed them, present in their reality much that is alarming. By simply keeping up a few fires, the merchants who pass these deserts sleep securely, in defiance of their being infested by the most formidable of all wild beasts. I should, however, state, that instances are mentioned of fires not having this effect, when the lions are excessively pressed by hunger, particularly at the season when they require food for their young. Towards evening (for it is very seldom, if ever, that the lion is seen during the day), one alone has often arrested a large caravan. In some instances they have been known to attack men; but are generally content with an ox or a camel, which they kill, and sometimes, particularly if they have left their females or young in their den, carry away a large part on their shoulders. The number of these animals must increase rapidly every year, for it is very seldom that an instance occurs of one being killed.
They tell me, that a party of twenty peasants went lately to destroy two which had taken a station within a very short distance of the river, and committed great ravages among the flocks. The men were armed with lances, shields, and sabres. They traced the lions to their den, and began lighting fires, to drive them out. The female darted past them immediately. The male remained some time, until he could no longer endure the smoke, when he began to roar in a most terrific manner; he then rushed out, infuriated, upon the peasants: not one, however, of these gallant assailants had the courage to fling his lance, but each, without any consideration for the fate of his friends, sought his own security in flight. Fire-arms only are of use against these formidable animals, but the Italian proverb is said to be true of them:—_Il lione ferito alla morte non s’avvilisce ancora_. They are generally seen two and four together, often more, but always in pairs. They are very rarely disturbed; and, as no attempts have been made to exterminate them, their number is said to have increased considerably during these last few years. This may be considered the place where their haunts begin. They infest the road to Sennaar and the west side of the Atbara; but travellers incur less danger in the beaten track of the caravans than when, like us, they deviate from it.
The reader will recollect that, at the entrance of this desert, I observed great numbers of gazelles, but for several miles round these ruins and hills I saw none. These timid creatures prefer the risk of approaching the habitations of man, considering the arts of the peasants to destroy them less perilous than the vicinity of the lions. The latter know the places in the plain where the gazelles sleep, and, favoured by the darkness of night, dart upon their victims, whose superior swiftness only avails them when sometimes the roaring of their enemy intimates his approach. The Arabs tell some singularly superstitious tales of the generosity of the lion. The following has been related to me as a fact, by different peasants; but I must confess that, like the generality of Arab tales, it partakes of the marvellous: yet, perhaps, with a _mélange_ of fable, there may be some kind of foundation of truth. They say, that when the lion seizes the cow of a peasant, he will permit the owner to carry away a portion; particularly if he asks for it in the name of his mother, wife, or family, _and takes it without showing any fear_.—I must apologise to the antiquarian, and perhaps to readers in general, for this long digression from my description of these antiquities, but I promised to give some account, not only of the remains, but also of the present inhabitants of Ethiopia.
The plan (see Plate XIII.) which I give of these ruins was made with the utmost care by my artist, Mr. B., and drawn out on the spot. I can testify for the pains that were taken to render it as accurate as possible. The ruin is too much destroyed for the plan to be perfectly correct, as to the size and situation of some of the doors, and the dimensions of many of the apartments; still, there is all that is necessary to exhibit to the reader the general form of the edifice. Even if all the walls were remaining, without any inscription to elucidate them, it would still be doubtful what this extraordinary mass of building has been. The appearance of the ruins is very imposing, from their immense extent; and I will give a detailed description of them, as they are certainly the most curious and inexplicable I have yet seen in Ethiopia. They consist of chambers, courts, corridors, and temples, in an enclosure or parallelogram, 760 by 660 feet; but in more accurate numbers the entire circumference is 2854 feet. The north-east side is 660 feet long; the north-west, the only side on which there are entrances,—
Ft. In.
From the angle to the door 88 0
Width of the door 13 0
To the central entrance 220 6
Width of the central entrance 16 0
Thence to the other entrance 228 0
Width of that entrance 16 0
Thence to the angle 188 0 ------- Total north-west side 769 6
south-west side 665 0
south-east side 760 0
north-east side 660 0 -------- Total circumference of the edifice 2854 6 --------
On the north-east, south-east, and south-west sides, there are no entrances into the enclosure. The wall on the north-west side cannot be traced accurately through its whole extent. There have apparently been three entrances on this side; the central one, which is the most distinguishable, leads into a large court, 620 feet wide and 144 feet long. Opposite to the central entrance, on the south-east side of the court, is a long narrow corridor, 8 feet wide and 205 feet long, which leads to the principal temple, situated in a court 94 feet long by 85 feet wide. To give an exact idea of the situation of this court, I should state, that from the wall of the court to the enclosure on the south-east side is 106 feet; 165 feet to the enclosure on the south-west side; 204 feet from the north-west and 150 feet from the north-east side. Although not exactly in the centre of the structure, a slight examination of the plan will enable the reader to perceive that, from its situation, size, and the circumstance of the corridors leading into it, that edifice was, evidently, the principal temple: it is 47 feet long, from north-west to south-east; and 40 feet 6 inches broad. The large court, and the corridor from it to the temple, in a line with the central entrance of the enclosure, clearly indicate that the grand entrance was on the west side; and yet it is singular there is no doorway in the temple on that side. There are five entrances into the latter; one on the south-east side, two on the north-east, and two on the south-west. In front of the south-east end have been twelve columns, three feet and a half in diameter, in two rows of six each; before the west end, six columns, and five at each side, not including the columns at the angles: making, altogether, twenty-eight columns. There are the remains of four columns, which ornamented the interior of the temple. In front of it, on the south-east side, is a doorway which leads into a room 20 feet by 26, with two chambers on one side and one on the other; before them is an inclined parapet: an architectural ornament to the façades of temples, of which there are examples even in the best style of Egyptian edifices, such as at Solib. (Plate XL.) The axis of the door leading through this room to the parapet is the same as that of the central edifice into the temple. The circumstance of this inclined parapet wall, and there being a double row of columns only at this end of the temple, prove that it fronted to the south-east.
[Illustration: Pl. 13.
_From a Drawing by L. Bandoni._
_Printed by C. Hullmandel._
RUINS OF WADY OWATAIB OR MECAURAT.
_Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835._]
The court containing the inclined parapet leading into the temple is 125 feet wide and 75 feet long: several doors lead out of it; one to the east into a court of 96 feet long and 165 feet broad, in which is a small temple fronting the south-west. A few rows of steps lead up to a portico which was ornamented with four columns, fragments of which are still remaining. On each side of the door leading from the portico into the temple is a colossal statue, very much mutilated, being now without either head or arms. They are attached to the wall in the Egyptian manner, and they have the attitude of one foot advanced before the other, like the Egyptians. The style of one is tolerably good; the other, that is, the one on the east side of the doorway, is much inferior. They are accurately represented in my drawing. The exterior of this little temple is 53 feet by 45: at the angles is the Egyptian beading. The doorway is ornamented with a twisted serpent on each side. The interior, which consisted of one room, contains the remains of two columns without their capitals. From their situation, there appears to have been originally six: on the walls are some rude scratches, but undoubtedly modern. South of the principal temple is a large court, 258 feet long and 248 feet broad. On the north-east side of the principal temple is a corridor 7 feet wide and 96 feet long, having a north-west direction, whence it turns to the south-east for 45 feet, and leads into a court where there is another small temple: this had also a portico before it, which was ornamented with four columns. The exterior of this temple measures 52 feet by 29. In the interior there are now the remains of four columns, from the position of which there seem to have been originally eight. On the south-west side of the principal temple is a corridor 86 feet long and 12 feet wide, having a south-west direction, whence it turns to the north-west for 20 feet, and leads to some small rooms, and also into a large court 88 feet long, containing two small chambers, in one of which are the fragments of three columns.
[Illustration: SMALL TEMPLE AT WADY EL OWATAIB.]
[Illustration: Pl. 14.
_On stone from a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr._
_Printed by C. Hullmandel._
WADY OWATAIB.
_Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835._]
I will attempt no further description of this extraordinary edifice. The reader will perceive, from the inspection of the plan (Plate XIII.), how utterly impossible it is to give a more detailed, and, at the same time, clear, description of its various compartments. The confusion of successive rooms, corridors, small and large courts, and temples, together with the total absence of any attempt at regularity, excited my curiosity to find out the nature of this singular construction. It has evidently been built by wretched architects, at different periods, in an age when the art had sadly declined in Ethiopia; but, before alluding to the different surmises concerning the object of its erection, I will first give a detailed description of the principal temple in the centre. The view (Plate XIV.) will give a good idea of its present state of preservation. The columns in Plates XIII., XIV., and vignette, executed architecturally, will sufficiently indicate the style of art: a few fragments of capitals alone remain, and those are on the north-east side of the temple. It will be seen by Plate XIV. that the forms only of several of the capitals are visible, but only one fragment has the appearance of having been finished. (See vignette.) Their form is somewhat similar to that usual in the Ptolemaic age of architecture in Egypt; but the ornaments of the fragment, above alluded to, consist only of parallel lines: whether these terminated in the lotus flower cannot be ascertained, but there certainly is a resemblance, though not complete, to a Ptolemaic capital. Under the capital of this column are seven rows of beading; the rest of the shaft, consisting of five pieces, is fluted, except the lowest stone, which is ornamented with the lotus flower. The style of the fluting is Grecian. The shaft swells out a little towards the lower part, and is rounded off at the bottom. It bears another resemblance to the Egyptian style in the base it rests upon being circular. There remains one fragment (see vignette), of a fluted column with a smooth panel in the centre, in which a wreath is sculptured in imitation of the leaves of the palm tree. Another fragment of a column is ornamented with sculpture, and at the base the triangular ornament not unlike the Egyptian.
[Illustration: COLUMNS AT WADY EL OWATAIB.]
The sculpture is in very high relief—not less than 1¾ inch; but the style is decidedly bad: the figures are generally from about 3 to 4 feet in height; and, notwithstanding their defaced condition, I could distinguish that some of them are _en face_; but the rudeness of the execution of what remains perfect, demonstrates an epoch when the arts had wofully degenerated in this their parent land. At Uffidunia, in Lower Nubia, an edifice well known to be Roman, there is a piece of sculpture on the detached propylon very much in this style. The view (Plate XV.) represents fortuitously almost all the most perfect fragments which now exist; and so completely shows the style of the sculpture, that I regretted the less not having time to make separate drawings, particularly as not a single hieroglyphic remains, or has ever existed, to elucidate the sculpture. I trust, therefore, that the accurate notes I took on the spot, of every fragment I could find, and the specimens of the style in my drawings, will be considered quite sufficient. What sculpture remains, is chiefly on the lower part of two columns and on several fragments which lie scattered about: some of the figures are _en face_, and some _en profile_. Notwithstanding their defaced condition, I distinguished the following:—Thriphis with the lion’s head, _en profile_; the hawk-headed divinity (Horus); two figures, seemingly goddesses, but not very discernible, _en face_; a divinity with a vase; Kneph, _en face_, with a globe at his breast; a goddess, _en face_, in a kind of monolithic temple. On another fragment I discerned a figure presenting offerings with one hand, and the other raised behind his head. On another large fragment, Isis, Horus, and a king were discernible: the ovals of his name seem never to have been filled up. On another fragment I observed a border consisting alternately of a lion and the goddess of truth with outstretched wings. As there are no hieroglyphics, the names of these divinities are, of course, only inferred from the presence of their usual attributes. Except on these fragments of columns in front of the central temple, there are no other remains of sculpture in any part of these ruins, with the exception of the two fragments of colossal statues I have before alluded to as ornamenting the façades of the small temple to the east. There are some other ruins at a short distance from the great enclosure, but they are of little importance. One of the rooms contains the remains of six columns, on one of which is sculptured an elephant destroying a dog with his trunk, and on another a winged lion is represented killing a man.
[Illustration: Pl. 15.
_On stone by W. P. Sherlock, from a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr._
_Printed by C. Hullmandel._
WADY OWATAIB.
_Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835._]
I have now only to advert to the singular situation of these ruins, their probable use, and the age when they were most probably erected. In a direct line, they are distant from the river six hours’ journey, which may be sixteen or eighteen miles. About a quarter of a mile from the ruin, I saw three or four blocks of stones, but no indication of their having formed part of an aqueduct, and there are no traces of wells; but both may have existed, and be now entirely buried by the sand of the desert. I could not, however, observe or hear of any decided traces of aqueducts between the ruin and the river. The occupants of the edifice may have been supplied with water by geerbahs, as the peasants of Metammah and other villages distant from the river are at this day.[21] If the edifice was only used as a residence during the season of the malaria, the rain water might have been preserved in cisterns and in the sacred lakes; but rain does not invariably fall here every year, and would afford, therefore, only a precarious supply. Those, however, who constructed such a building would certainly know how to sink a well, and, from the appearance of the ground, the trees, and the vicinity of the mountains, I do not conceive it would be a very laborious undertaking to find water.
Cailliaud considered this edifice to have been a college of priests; and Professor Heeren supposes it to be the celebrated Ammonium. I think neither of these suppositions probable. With regard to the first, we know that the priests were always surrounded with representations of the divinities and the mysterious language of hieroglyphics; but is it not remarkable that there is no structure either in Egypt or Ethiopia so destitute of the sacred writing as this? The priests, also, are supposed, with great probability, to have themselves executed the sculpture and hieroglyphics; and they cannot be imagined to have been unacquainted with that language. It must, on the contrary, have formed a principal branch of their education. I think it, therefore, very improbable that the place where they would be occupied in teaching hieroglyphics should, of all the ruins in the valley of the Nile, be the only one destitute of them; that where instruction was given in the mysteries of their religion, there should be so few representations of the gods, and those few almost of no use to the student, from being unexplained by hieroglyphics. One would imagine they would have gladly availed themselves of the opportunity of the unoccupied walls to exercise the skill of the students. If this were a college, their system of education must assuredly have been very defective, if they did not take care to have the mysteries they taught represented on the walls of the universities, and not on those of the temples only. We must consider the Ethiopians as ignorant indeed, if we suppose that they neglected to place them where they would have been really useful, while they covered with these subjects their temples, where they would be less observed, and the interior of the porticoes of their tombs, which were rarely opened. Had it been a college, some urchin would have shown his progress in the study by carving his name in hieroglyphics; and, considering that this was more the fashion with the ancients than the moderns, we should have as long a list of Ethiopian names _here_ as we have of English at Eton or Harrow. In such a seminary, I conceive, the walls of the chambers, corridors, and temples, inside and outside, like the temples and palaces of Egypt, would have been decorated with sculpture. The walls are not rough, but smooth and finished; it has therefore not been the original intention to embellish them with such subjects.
Had this edifice, as Professor Heeren supposes, been the Ammonium, the original seat of the oracle of Jupiter Ammon, at whose command those religious colonies issued forth, which carried civilisation, arts, and religion from Ethiopia to the Delta; had this been the centre and stronghold of the superstitions of the Nile; the priests, the guardians of the sacred rituals, would not have omitted to decorate the abode of their great divinity with art and magnificence proportionate to the wealth and power of so great a nation. Well aware of the awe with which the appearance of mysterious learning inspires the vulgar, they would not have neglected to adorn the walls with imposing and mysterious subjects, to augment their veneration, to excite them to devotion, and to munificence in their offerings to the god. It accords in no degree with the religious pomp elsewhere displayed by the Ethiopians and Egyptians, to conceive that this unfinished and comparatively insignificant temple contained the golden altar, the “holiest of holies,” of their great divinity. That the great Ethiopian oracle, whose celebrity even Homer has testified, should not have had a more magnificent habitation than this, cannot be admitted. We know, from Pausanias and others, the costly presents which were made to the oracles of Greece; and can we conceive that the Ethiopians, probably equally, if not as more ancient, a much more religious and superstitious people, would have allowed their celebrated Ammonium to be the least finished, least magnificent and imposing, of all the temples which now exist in the valley of the Nile?
It is a more probable supposition that, as the wealth of the oracle of Apollo at Delphi exposed it from the beginning to the enterprises of avaricious and impious men, and was too powerful a temptation even to the Phocians, in the same manner the great oracle of Ammon in the valley of the Nile, particularly in a country like Ethiopia, where history tells us that gold was once so plentiful, might suffer from the celebrated altar which was dedicated to its worship being loaded with the valuable and magnificent devotional offerings of a wealthy and superstitious people. Such parade and splendour would serve as incentives to the enemies of their religion, equally anxious to appropriate the spoil and eradicate the superstitions of the worshippers of Ammon. But it is most probable that, at the time when the religion of the Gospel was widely spread in this part of Africa, some Christian king of Ethiopia, zealous, and desirous of obliging his subjects to embrace the true religion, and aware that, if his faith prevailed at all, it must prevail, to use the language of Paley, by the overthrow of every statue, altar, and temple in the world, may have utterly destroyed not only the Ammonium, but also many of the other temples; and this may account for the few remains of sacred edifices which are now found in Ethiopia. Another argument, in answer to the supposition of Professor Heeren, is, that, among the numerous representations of the divinities on the columns of the principal temples, there is not one single figure of Ammon, except with the attributes of Kneph.
This edifice may have been a _château de chasse_ of the king, or a palace in which he passed the rainy season, which might then, as now, be unhealthy near the Nile. The objection to this supposition is, that the kings as well as the priests were generally, and probably always, surrounded with religious pomp and ceremony. I conceive it, therefore, a more reasonable conjecture that it was an hospital, to which invalids, particularly those suffering from malaria, were sent during the rainy season. This will account for the immense courts and chambers, and the insignificance of the temples, evidently intended for persons of little consideration. From the experience I have had of the climate of the desert, I must say I consider them much more healthy, in any season, than the valley of the Nile. At the instigation, I conceive, of some person acquainted with this fact, the Pasha established a splendid hospital and college at Abou Zabel, situated in the Desert, about twelve miles from Cairo. The dryness of the atmosphere, the sand immediately absorbing any rain that falls, renders these wildernesses in the highest degree salubrious. The stones of which this edifice is constructed are nearly the same size as those of the pyramids of Meroe; that is, about 1 foot high and 2½ feet long, and are apparently quarried from the neighbouring hills.
With regard to the antiquity of the ruins, it does not appear to me to be very great. The sculpture, which, in the absence of hieroglyphics, forms the only criterion, resembles, as already mentioned, that on the propylons at Uffidunia; not exactly indicating that they were built at the same period, but that they belonged equally to the last stage of sculpture in the two countries; and, as the arts first flourished in Ethiopia, they may have decayed there earlier than in Egypt, particularly as the wealth and power of this country diminished more rapidly, the Nile washing down to the lower valley the source of their affluence and prosperity. From the Grecian character of the fluting of the columns, as well as from the plan of the temple and sculpture, it is not improbable that this edifice was constructed about the period of Ergamenes, whose reign was coeval with that of Ptolemy II. Diodorus describes this king of Ethiopia as having had a Greek education, and having introduced into this his native country a taste for the philosophy of Greece, and delivered himself and his people from the tyranny of the priests; and perhaps, I may add, he endeavoured, by the introduction of foreign ornaments, to regenerate a taste for architecture and sculpture: but in this specimen we only see the last effort of a people whose greatness was passed away, their taste corrupted, and all the lights of knowledge and civilisation just expiring. The elegant pyramids of Meroe differ as widely, in taste and execution, from the immensely extensive but ill-planned ruins of Wady el Owataib, as the best sculpture at Thebes, during the age of Rameses II., differs from the corrupted style under the Ptolemies and Cæsars.