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THE BIRD MOUNTAINS.

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wood, from the centre of which the plough is suspended, draw the rude machine along. The animals at work in the fields through which we passed, being refractory, or unused to the labour, constantly ran out of the right course, and drew from their director, who was ambitious of exhibiting his best skill before the strangers, the opprobrious epithet of kelb, or " dog," which an angry Arab applies indiscriminately to man or beast. The ploughman was followed by an older man, his father or master, who, with a light kind of hoe or mattock, broke the rough clods left among the furrows: a very necessary process after such imperfect tillage.

CLXIX. The vast perpendicular cliffs of the Bird Mountains, now in the morning sun no longer gloomy, continue for some miles to confine the course of the stream towards the east, until at length a sinuosity in the river leaves between it and their base a narrow strip of ground, which is brought into cultivation. A little to the north of the village of Gebel et Teir, there is a break in the chain, where the rocks bend inward in a semicircle, about the centre of which they have been shattered, rent, and bored by the labour of man; and on the small sandy plain lying between the horns of this half moon, we saw the ruins of an ancient wall, which seems to have extended from mountain to mountain, filling up the space left open by the retreating of the rocks. In the face of the cliffs were numerous catacombs or grottoes, to examine which we here crossed the Nile. It soon

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SALT GATHERERS OF THE GEBEL ET TEIR.

became evident why the Arabian chain is in this part called the "Mountain of Birds;" for the number of cormorants and wild ducks frequenting it is prodigious. Every day, early in the morning, they arrive in vast flights from the desert, the rustling of their wings in the wind, though at a great height above our heads, sounding like the rushing of a storm; and having reached the mountains, settle in clouds upon the rocks, descending at intervals, and diving for fish, which must here be very plentiful, in the deep waters below.

CLXX. We found the excavations small and insignificant, though there were several openings which, when cleansed, may lead to more spacious chambers. The ruined wall is of sun-dried brick, and appears to have run quite across the sandy valley, wherever inaccessible rocks did not render it unnecessary. On an eminence near the middle are the ruins of a fort or castle. The mountain is here split into several smaller ridges, between which as many narrow rugged gorges open a way into the Arabian desert. Two or three women employed, like her of Cynopolis, in digging for salt, alarmed at our approach, made their escape, like a flock of wild goats, among the cliffs; but presently reappeared accompanied by a number of Bedouins, who came running towards us with their long ugly spears, but were soon checked in their career by the sight of our arms. The heat in this sandy hollow, though very

BLACK EAGLE OF THE ARABIAN MOUNTAINS. 243

great, was far from disagreeable, yet it probably exceeded the temperature of Burgundy in July.

CLXXI. From these nameless ruins we proceeded along the foot of the mountains towards the village, dogged by two Arabs, one of whom was armed with a spear and sword, and had as truculent an aspect as any galley-slave in Tuscany, where you are elbowed at every turning by a murderer in chains. Here we saw a number of eagles, equal or superior in size to the lämmergeyer of the Alps, floating about in the air, or perched among the precipices, which seemed to me greatly to exceed in height the cliffs of Dover. The village of Gebel et Teir, situated in a narrow valley between rugged precipitous cliffs, is one of the most savage-looking places I have any where beheld; but as it contains no ruins, we contented ourselves with a cursory glance, and continued our walk towards Teheneh, supposed to stand on the site of Achoris. The rocks which here form the basis or lower stratum of the mountain, seem to contain iron ore, and are honeycombed to the height of seventy or eighty feet, like the cliffs on the sea-shore, or those lofty precipices of the Aravulli range, in Rajpootana, described by Colonel Tod. At Teheneh we saw a Saracenic archway, several Roman ruins, fragments of square columns with Egyptian capitals, sacrificial stone troughs, a statue of Isis half buried in the rubbish, with innumerable catacombs, inscriptions, &c.; but the day being far spent, we deferred a complete examination of the place until the morrow.

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NECROPOLIS OF ACHORIS.

CHAPTER XI.

NECROPOLIS OF ACHORIS - GREEK PTOLEMAIC INSCRIPTION-SEPULCHRAL CHAMBERS- SITE OF ACHORIS ANCIENT CHAPEL

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TWELVE GODS OF EGYPT ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAIN-TANK EXCAVATED IN THE ROCK ROMAN BASSI-RILIEVI — MILDNESS AND BEAUTY OF AN EGYPTIAN WINTER-BROWN EAGLE RUINED VILLAGE-BREADTH OF THE NILE-DESCRIPTION OF MINIEH CHEAPNESS OF BREAD, ETC.- DWELLINGS OF PILGRIMS SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS AT BENIHASSAN EGYPTIAN TRIAD ANCIENT PAINTED CHAMBERS CAVE OF DIANA VILLAGE CEMETERY-SUGAR REFINERY BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE ISLANDS IN THE RIVER- FLESH OF THE CROCODILE MOONLIGHT ON THE NILE MANFALOOT ARAB STORY-TELLERS AFFECTING PARTING SCENE.

Tuesday, Dec. 25. Minich.

CLXXII. HAVING sent forward our kandjias to Minieh where it was our intention to dine, we returned across the plain to the Necropolis of Achoris, where our first operation was to copy a Greek Ptolemaic inscription*, engraved in very beautiful characters on a tablet smoothed out in the face of the mountain, about fifty feet above the plain, over the commencement of a flight of steps, cut in the rock, and leading to the catacombs above. the catacombs above. Sepulchral

* This inscription is very imperfect; but what remains of it runs as follows:—ΥΓΕ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ ΕΓΙΑΝΟΥΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΕΥΧΑΡΙΣΤΟΥ ΑΚΟΡΙΣ Ν ---- ΩΣΙΣ ΔΙΜΩΧΙΑ ΛΙΧΩ - ΕΙΡΜΙ --.

SEPULCHRAL CHAMBERS.

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chambers perforate the mountain on all sides; several large and lofty ones being excavated in the perpendicular cliff, overlooking the plain, which must be approached over rugged rocks and sloping dangerous terraces. In these we found large square pillars, niches or recesses, apparently intended for the reception of images, and square wells or mummy-pits, not less than fifty feet in depth, with their mouths half concealed by rubbish. Proceeding from these catacombs round the northern side of the mountain, which is an isolated mass of rock, we cast a hasty glance over the site of the ancient city situated in the entrance to a valley, which, commencing in a narrow gorge, gradually grows wider and wider, until it opens into the plain. The whole space was now covered with red mounds, rough with the fragments of broken columns, capitals, friezes, and architraves, scattered around in fantastic desolation.

CLXXIII. Among these mounds, and in the greater number of the sepulchral apartments, we found little worthy of attention; but our guide from Teheneh at length conducted us to a small chapel excavated in the perpendicular face of the mountain, about two hundred feet above the level of the plain, which, notwithstanding its diminutive dimensions, will be thought worthy of examination even by those who have beheld the vast hypogea of Upper Egypt and Nubia. A narrow flight of steps cut in the rock formerly led up to this chapel from a terrace extending along the cliff; but these time or bar

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