And My Stomach
Revolts Equally From The Odor Of Sanctity And Of Science.
I saw there a mummy of a little baby; and though it was black as my
shoe, and a disgusting, dry thing, nevertheless the little head was
covered with fine, soft, auburn hair.
Four thousand years ago, some
mother thought the poor little thing a beauty. Also I saw mummies of
cats, crocodiles, the ibis, and all the other religious
_bijouterie_ of Egypt, with many cases of their domestic
utensils, ornaments, &c.
The whole view impressed me with quite an idea of barbarism; much more
so than the Assyrian collection. About the winged bulls there is a
solemn and imposing grandeur; they have a mountainous and majestic
nature. These Egyptian things give one an idea of inexpressible
ungainliness. They had a clumsy, elephantine character of mind, these
Egyptians. There was not wanting grace, but they seemed to pick it up
accidentally; because among all possible forms some must be graceful.
They had a kind of grand, mammoth civilization, gloomy and goblin.
They seem to have floundered up out of Nile mud, like that old, slimy,
pre-Adamite brood, the what's-their-name - _megalosaurus,
ichthyosaurus, pterodactyle, iguanodon_, and other misshapen
abominations, with now and then wreaths of lotus and water lilies
round their tusks.
The human face, as represented in Assyrian sculptures, is a higher
type of face than even the Greek: it is noble and princely; the
Egyptian faces are broad, flat, and clumsy. If Egypt gave birth to
Greece, with her beautiful arts, then truly this immense, clumsy roc's
egg hatched a miraculous nest of loves and graces.
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