But the truth seems to be after all, that the
Pyramids are quite of this world; that they were
Piled up into the
air for the realisation of some kingly crotchets about immortality,
some priestly longing for burial fees; and that as for the
building, they were built like coral rocks by swarms of insects - by
swarms of poor Egyptians, who were not only the abject tools and
slaves of power, but who also ate onions for the reward of their
immortal labours! {37} The Pyramids are quite of this world.
I of course ascended to the summit of the great Pyramid, and also
explored its chambers, but these I need not describe. The first
time that I went to the Pyramids of Ghizeh there were a number of
Arabs hanging about in its neighbourhood, and wanting to receive
presents on various pretences; their Sheik was with them. There
was also present an ill-looking fellow in soldier's uniform. This
man on my departure claimed a reward, on the ground that he had
maintained order and decorum amongst the Arabs. His claim was not
considered valid by my dragoman, and was rejected accordingly. My
donkey-boys afterwards said they had overhead this fellow propose
to the Sheik to put me to death whilst I was in the interior of the
great Pyramid, and to share with him the booty. Fancy a struggle
for life in one of those burial chambers, with acres and acres of
solid masonry between one's self and the daylight! I felt
exceedingly glad that I had not made the rascal a present.
I visited the very ancient Pyramids of Aboukir and Sakkara. There
are many of these, and of various shapes and sizes, and it struck
me that, taken together, they might be considered as showing the
progress and perfection (such as it is) of pyramidical
architecture. One of the Pyramids at Sakkara is almost a rival for
the full-grown monster at Ghizeh; others are scarcely more than
vast heaps of brick and stone: these last suggested to me the idea
that after all the Pyramid is nothing more nor less than a variety
of the sepulchral mound so common in most countries (including, I
believe, Hindustan, from whence the Egyptians are supposed to have
come). Men accustomed to raise these structures for their dead
kings or conquerors would carry the usage with them in their
migrations, but arriving in Egypt, and seeing the impossibility of
finding earth sufficiently tenacious for a mound, they would
approximate as nearly as might be to their ancient custom by
raising up a round heap of stones - in short, conical pyramids. Of
these there are several at Sakkara, and the materials of some are
thrown together without any order or regularity. The transition
from this simple form to that of the square angular pyramid was
easy and natural, and it seemed to me that the gradations through
which the style passed from infancy up to its mature enormity could
plainly be traced at Sakkara.
CHAPTER XX - THE SPHINX
And near the Pyramids more wondrous and more awful than all else in
the land of Egypt, there sits the lonely Sphinx. Comely the
creature is, but the comeliness is not of this world. The once
worshipped beast is a deformity and a monster to this generation;
and yet you can see that those lips, so thick and heavy, were
fashioned according to some ancient mould of beauty - some mould of
beauty now forgotten - forgotten because that Greece drew forth
Cytherea from the flashing foam of the Aegean, and in her image
created new forms of beauty, and made it a law among men that the
short and proudly wreathed lip should stand for the sign and the
main condition of loveliness through all generations to come. Yet
still there lives on the race of those who were beautiful in the
fashion of the elder world, and Christian girls of Coptic blood
will look on you with the sad, serious gaze, and kiss you your
charitable hand with the big pouting lips of the very Sphinx.
Laugh and mock if you will at the worship of stone idols, but mark
ye this, ye breakers of images, that in one regard the stone idol
bears awful semblance of Deity - unchangefulness in the midst of
change; the same seeming will, and intent for ever, and ever
inexorable! Upon ancient dynasties of Ethiopian and Egyptian
kings; upon Greek, and Roman; upon Arab and Ottoman conquerors;
upon Napoleon dreaming of an Eastern Empire; upon battle and
pestilence; upon the ceaseless misery of the Egyptian race; upon
keen-eyed travellers - Herodotus yesterday, and Warburton to-day:
upon all and more, this unworldly Sphinx has watched, and watched
like a Providence with the same earnest eyes, and the same sad,
tranquil mien. And we, we shall die, and Islam will wither away,
and the Englishman, leaning far over to hold his loved India, will
plant a firm foot on the banks of the Nile, and sit in the seats of
the Faithful, and still that sleepless rock will lie watching, and
watching the works of the new, busy race with those same sad,
earnest eyes, and the same tranquil mien everlasting. You dare not
mock at the Sphinx.
CHAPTER XXI - CAIRO TO SUEZ
The "dromedary" of Egypt and Syria is not the two-humped animal
described by that name in books of natural history, but is, in
fact, of the same family as the camel, to which it stands in about
the same relation as a racer to a cart-horse. The fleetness and
endurance of this creature are extraordinary. It is not usual to
force him into a gallop, and I fancy from his make that it would be
quite impossible for him to maintain that pace for any length of
time; but the animal is on so large a scale, that the jog-trot at
which he is generally ridden implies a progress of perhaps ten or
twelve miles an hour, and this pace, it is said, he can keep up
incessantly, without food, or water, or rest, for three whole days
and nights.
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