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from the British stretched most of the artillerymen on the ground, and the rest abandoned the guns. The allies were now in complete possession of the town, and the enemy fleeing in all directions.

The French had been quite taken by surprise; the unprecedented boldness of the attempt went far towards securing its success, for the enemy could scarcely be lieve that it would be made until they saw it accomplished. The British general had indeed performed a feat, which alone would have established for him a reputation of the highest order; the enterprise was opposed by difficulties which, to any but one of equal genius, might have fairly appeared insurmountable: to borrow Colonel Napier's expression, Alexander the Great might have shrunk from it without shame!

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Soult, in the mean while, took the road to Amarante, which lay along a narrow pass, between the mountains on the left, and the Douro on the right; but when he had advanced some distance on this route, he learnt that, on the approach of Beresford, Loison had abandoned the bridge over the Tamega, upon which he had rested all his hopes of safety.

Soult's situation now seemed desperate, and already some of his officers spoke of a capitulation. But the marshal put forth all his energy; and learning, from a Spanish pedlar, that there was a path leading over the heights, which would conduct him to Guimaraeus, he immediately destroyed his artillery, abandoned the military chest and baggage, and leaving behind every thing that might encumber him, “ Our head-quarters," says the Marquess of | boldly followed his guide across the mountains, by a Londonderry," being established in the house which wild unbeaten track, and amid torrents of pouring Soult had occupied, we found every preparation for a rain. Crossing the frontier on the 18th, he entered comfortable dinner in progress; for the French | marshal quitted the place so lately as two in the afternoon, long after his sumptuous meal had been ordered; it will be readily imagined that we were not backward in doing ample justice to it."

The joyous feelings which the inhabitants of the city evinced at this welcome liberation may be easily conceived. "Porto," says Mr. Southey, " presented an extraordinary scene that night: every house was illuminated, while the gutters were still red with blood, and the streets strewn with dead bodies, both of horses and men. There had been three hours' fighting in the suburbs, and before night, the French who had fallen were stripped and left naked where they lay; they had their plunder about them for removal, and they had provoked, by the most intolerable wrongs, a revengeful people." Sir Arthur Wellesley, however, secured to the French prisoners that treatment which humanity dictated, and which they were entitled to by the laws of war.

The remainder of the British army, with the baggage, stores, and artillery, was now brought over to Oporto, from the opposite side of the river, and as soon as practicable the pursuit was commenced.

Orense on the 19th, without guns, stores, ammunition, or baggage,-his numbers reduced by six thousand soldiers, from what they were when he quitted that town two months before to enter Portugal,-his remaining troops exhausted with fatigue and misery, the greatest part without shoes, many without accoutrements, and some even without muskets.

His men committed great cruelties in their flight, plundering and murdering the peasants at their pleasure. Many of the unhappy inhabitants were found by the English hanging from trees by the way-side, and the track of the retreating columns might be traced from afar, by the smoke of the burning houses. The revenge of the people was fearful; every sick soldier or wretched straggler, who fell into their hands, was tortured and mutilated by the peasantry with the like merciless fury, and some of the French were thrown alive into the flames which their comrades had kindled.

LONDON:

JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTI FRICE SIXPENCE, AND

Sold by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in the Kingdom.

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No 116.

VOL. IV.

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The Embalmed Body.
The Outer Case.
EGYPTIAN MUMMY AND CASE, IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

In

EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES.

I.

IN these days of discovery and research, Egypt and its Antiquities have received no small share of attention from travellers, and from those who, in the spirit of quiet and earnest investigation at home, are still throwing light on what has hitherto been obscure. Though it would be idle to deny the Learning of the Egyptians, it has been very much like a sealed book, with regard to whose contents conjecture has been thoughtfully employed. Judging, however, of the mighty undertakings of that extraordinary people, from what we now see of their relics, but left in the dark as to the mode in which they executed their operations on so grand a scale, we may fairly conclude, that certain inventions and improvements in arts and manufactures, which we call modern, were practised by them; and that, on the other hand, many valuable attainments familiar to the Egyptians, have become, by lapse of years, wholly forgotten, and are therefore concealed from us.

ANCIENT THEBES, AND ITS TEMPLES. THE CITY OF THEBES was, perhaps, the most astonishing work ever performed by the hand of man. Its ruins afford the most positive proof of the ancient civilization of Egypt. The origin of this famous place is lost in the obscurity of time, it being coeval with the nation which first took possession of the country. Its extent was vast; though its hundred gates, immortalized by Homer, and often interpreted as the gates of the city, may possibly have been the gates of the temples, or of the palaces of its princes.

D'Anville and Denon state its circumference to have been thirty-six miles; its diameter not less than ten and a half. The number of inhabitants was in proportion to these dimensions. Diodorus says, that the houses were four and five stories high. Although Thebes had greatly fallen from its former splendour at the time of Cambyses the Persian, it was the fury of this merciless conqueror that gave the last blow to its grandeur, about 520 years before the Christian æra. He pillaged its temples, and carried away the ornaments of gold, silver, and ivory. Before this period, no city in the world could be compared with it in size, beauty, and wealth; and, according to the expression of Diodorus, The sun had never seen so magnificent a city.

The temple of Karnac, the most considerable monument of ancient Thebes, was not less than a mile and a half in circumference. It is not intended here to furnish an account of this extraordinary building, from the still mighty ruins of which, we may gather evidence of what it once was; but we may observe, as the most striking circumstance connected with the place, that a portion of the structure

is considered to be more than four thousand years old, or 2272 years before the coming of Christ.

Speaking of this magnificent edifice, and of the enormous sphinxes and other figures, into an avenue of which he had entered, Belzoni says in his enthusiastic style, "I was lost in a mass of colossal objects, every one of which was more than sufficient of itself to attract my whole attention. I seemed alone, in the midst of all that is most sacred in the world; a forest of enormous columns, adorned all round with beautiful figures and various ornaments from top to bottom; the graceful shape of the lotus which forms their capitals, and is so well proportioned to the columns; the gates, the walls, the pedestals, the architraves, also adorned in every part with symbolical figures in low-relief, representing battles, processions, triumphs, feasts, and sacrifices, all relating

to the ancient history of the country; the sanctuary wholly formed of fine red granite; the high portals, seen at a distance from the openings of this vast labyrinth of edifices; the various groups of ruins of the other temples within sight: these altogether had such an effect upon my soul, as to separate me in imagination, from the rest of mortals, exalt me on high above all, and cause me to forget entirely the trifles and follies of life. I was happy for a whole day, which escaped like a flash of lightning."

66

"It is absolutely impossible," again exclaims the same indefatigable traveller, in describing his visit to to imagine the scene disanother temple, (Luxor,) played, without seeing it. The most sublime ideas that can be formed from the most magnificent specimens of our present architecture, would give a very incorrect It appeared to me like picture of these ruins. entering a city of giants, who after a long conflict were all destroyed, leaving ruins of their various temples as the only proof of their former existence." So far Belzoni: and in this he is borne out by the learned Frenchman, Champollion, who speaks of Thebes in terms of equal admiration. "All that I had seen, all that I had learned on the left bank, appeared miserable in comparison with the gigantic conceptions by which I was surrounded at Karnac. I shall take care not to attempt to describe any thing; for either my description would not express the thousandth part of what ought to be said, or if I drew a faint sketch, I should be taken for an to add, that no people, either ancient or modern, ever enthusiast, or perhaps, for a madman. conceived the art of architecture on so sublime, and so grand a scale, as the ancient Egyptians. Their conceptions were those of men a hundred feet high.”

It will suffice

After Karnac and Luxor, the next grand building at Thebes was the Memnonium; that is, the tomb or palace of one of the Pharaohs, whom the Greeks In the supposed to be the same as Memnon. middle of the first court was the largest figure ever seventy-five feet high. Behind it, there was an enraised by the Egyptians,—the statue of the monarch, trance which led into a second court, surrounded by porticos supported by fifty other colossuses; and at the end of several porticos and different apartments was the celebrated library, at the entrance of which was an inscription, signifying The medicine of the mind.'

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Belzoni, in his travels, gives a most interesting account of his discovering and opening the great He made on the tomb of Psammuthis at Thebes. spot drawings of all the figures, hieroglyphics, and ornaments in the sepulchre, and took impressions in -a most laborious task, which occupied him more than a twelvemonth. The personal vigour of this enterprising traveller, guided by uncommon intelligence and energy, enabled him to accomplish objects which had before never been thought of, or had been attempted in vain. On his arrival in England, he constructed, and exhibited, a perfect fac-simile of the tomb, which some of our readers will, doubtless, recollect having seen.

THE ALABASTER SARCOPHAGUS. IT was in the tomb of Psammuthis, in the centre of the saloon, that Belzoni found the beautiful ALABASTER SARCOPHAGUS. This magnificent remnant of ancient days, which, most probably, once contained a royal mummy, has not its equal in the world. It is of the finest Oriental alabaster, nine feet five inches long, and three feet seven inches wide; and, though of considerable thickness, is highly transparent: this may be proved on placing a light within. It is minutely and richly sculptured, inside and outside, with several

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great doubt, whether we could give it the fine smooth surface, and sharp clear edge, which we see so perfect in these ancient remains, some of which, in this respect, may be said to look as if they had been finished but yesterday. For an illustration of this, we may refer our readers to an admirable specimen of Egyptian sculpture in the British Museum, Ninth Room, No. 66. It consists of the head, and upper part of the body, of a colossal figure, brought from the Memnonium, and thence probably called, by mistake, the " Younger Memnon;" while the statue of the genuine Memnon, famous for his concert of Music at sun-rise, still exists at Thebes. The fragment, however, to which we have adverted, is well worthy of inspection, conveying a remarkable instance of preservation as a relic of art, and, at the same time, of the simple and pleasing expression of the Egyptian countenance.

In considering these astonishing works, we can scarcely doubt the deserved eminence of the ancient Egyptians in the arts and sciences. Indeed, some of the most illustrious characters of Greece; Homer, Pythagoras, Plato, Lycurgus, and Solon, are said to have travelled thither to complete their studies, and to draw from that source whatever was most valuable in every kind of knowledge. But the Holy Scriptures themselves have incidentally given this testimony, when they speak of Moses as being learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and mighty in words and deeds. (Acts vii. 22.) Yet we wonder how the WE must not here omit to touch, however briefly, history of a people, which was once so great as to erect these mighty edifices, could be so far obscured, that even their language and method of writing are in a great degree unknown to us.

HIEROGLYPHICS.

MUCH has indeed been done of late, in deciphering hieroglyphics; and with the knowledge of them which is now gained, it may be hoped, that ere long, this picture-language of ancient Egypt may be read with correctness and certainty. The labours of M. Champollion in this department are well known. Among Englishmen, Mr. Wilkinson, an intelligent traveller, who has examined the tombs in Thebes, has pursued the subject with perseverance, and a gratifying degree of success. It was clear, that no master-key to these hidden stores could be obtained, unless some ancient inscription were found, written in hieroglyphics, as well as in some known language. Now, it so happens, that a stone of this kind actually exists among us; the celebrated ROSETTA STONE, found by the French in digging for the foundation of Fort St. Julian, near Rosetta. It is a large black stone, containing three inscriptions of the same import; namely, one in hieroglyphics, another in the ancient and common characters of the country, and another in Greek. Though imperfect, the stone being broken, the writing is sufficiently ample to form a most valuable guide in further researches. The visiter to the British Museum, may see in the Ninth Room, No. 65, this invaluable specimen, which records a decree of the Egyptian priests, in honour of Ptolemy Epiphanes; the leading events of his reign; his liberality to the temples; his conquests over certain rebellious subjects; his clemency towards some of the traitors; the measures he took against the fatal consequences of an excessive inundation of the Nile, and his generosity towards the College of the Priests. Proceeding upon this and other documents, Champollion published in 1824, his Précis du Système Hieroglyphique, a work of high interest and value, as affording light on some of the most intricate points that can engage the attention of the antiquary.

SCULPTURE.

BUT our admiration of ancient Egyptian skill will increase, when we take into account the nature of the materials on which they worked, in raising their temples, obelisks, and statues. The stones, particularly the granite and the breccia, are extremely hard, and we do not know with what tools they were cut. The tools of the present day will not cut granite without much difficulty; and there is a

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THE PYRAMIDS.

on those
mysterious buildings*," THE PYRAMIDS,
as amazing monuments of power and industry. These
structures have generally been viewed as relics of
antiquity, and matters of curiosity only; but they
are also important as furnishing a striking illustration
into which we have not room to enter at present,
of a portion of Sacred History. For various reasons,
they may be supposed to have formed a portion of
the labours of the Israelites before the Exodus; and
we may rationally conjecture that Pharaoh—that is,
one of the Pharaohs †, "the king who knew not
Joseph," set the people to execute these works under
task-masters, from a fear of their increasing numbers
and strength.

It is intended, in a future number, to give some account of the proficiency of the ancient Egyptians in various manufactures, and to add, under the head Mummies; when we propose saying something reof Egyptian Antiquities, a short notice respecting specting the figures at the head of the present

number.

For a view and memoir of the Pyramids, see the Saturday Magazine, Vol. I., pp. 137-8; and for an account of the Catern Temples and Tombs, Vol. II., p. 249

+ Pharaoh is a title of honour, and was applied to severa. Egyptian kings successively, for a very long period of time.

THE ANSWER OF THE EGYPTIAN MUMMY *.
CHILD of the latter days! thy words have broken
A spell that long has bound these lungs of clay,
For since this smoke-dried tongue of mine hath spoken,
Three thousand tedious years have rolled away.
Unswathed at length, I "stand at ease" before ye,
List, then, oh! list, while I unfold my story.
THEBES was my birth-place-an unrivalled city,
With many gates, but here I might declare
Some strange plain truths, except that it were pity
To blow a poet's fabric into air;

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Oh! I could read you quite a Theban lecture,
And give a deadly finish to conjecture.
But then you would not have me throw discredit
On grave historians-or on him who sung
THE ILIAD-true it is I never read it,

But heard it read when I was very young;
An old blind minstrel, for a trifling profit,
Recited parts-I think the author of it.
All that I know about the town of HOMER

Is, that they scarce would own him in his day,
Were glad, too, when he proudly turned a roamer,
Because by this they saved their parish-pay;
His townsmen would have been ashamed to flout him,
Had they foreseen the fuss since made about him.
One blunder I can fairly set at rest,

He says that men were once more big and bony
Than now, which is a bouncer at the best

I'll just refer you to our friend Belzoni,
Near seven feet high! in sooth a lofty figure!
Now look at me, and tell me, am I bigger?

* See the ADDRESS TO THE MUMMY, p. 72 of this Volume

Not half the size but then I'm sadly dwindled;
Three thousand years, with that embalming glue,
Have made a serious difference, and have swindled
My face of all its beauty-there were few
Egyptian youths more gay,-behold the sequel,
Nay smile not, you and I may soon be equal!
For this lean hand did one day hurl the lance
With mortal aim-this light fantastic toe
Threaded the mystic mazes of the dance:

This heart hath throbbed at tales of love and woe,
These shreds of raven hair once set the fashion,
This withered form inspir'd the tender passion.
In vain! the skilful hand, and feelings warm,
The foot that figur'd in the bright quadrille,
The palm of genius and the manly form,

All bowed at once to Death's mysterious will,

Who sealed nie up where Mummies sound are sleeping, In cere-cloth, and in tolerable keeping.

Where cows and monkies squat in rich brocade,

And well-dress'd crocodiles in painted cases,

Rats, bats, and owls, and cats in masquerade,

With scarlet flounces and with varnish'd faces; Men, birds, brutes, reptiles, fish, all cramm'd together With ladies that might pass for well-tanned leather.

Where Rameses and Sabacon lie down,

And splendid Psammis in his hide of crust; Princes and heroes, men of high renown,

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Who in their day kicked up a mighty dust,-
Their swarthy Mummies kicked up dust in numbers,
When huge Belzoni came to scare their slumbers +
Who'd think these rusty hams of mine were seated
At Dido's table, when the wond'rous tale
Of" Juno's hatred" was so well repeated?

And ever and anon the queen turned pale;
Meanwhile the brilliant gas-lights, hung above her,
Threw a wild glare upon her shipwrecked lover.
Aye, gas-lights! mock me not; we men of yore
Were versed in all the knowledge you can mention;
Who hath not heard of Egypt's peerless lore?
Her patient toil? acuteness of invention?
Survey the proofs, our Pyramids are thriving,-
Old Memnon still looks young, and I'm surviving

A land in arts and sciences prolific,

On blocks gigantic building up her fame!
Crowded with signs, and letters hieroglyphic,
Temples and obelisks her skill proclaim!
Yet, though her art and toil unearthly seem,

Those blocks were brought on RAIL-ROADS and by STEAM!
How, when, and why, our people came to rear
The Pyramid of Cheops §, mighty pile!

This, and the other secrets thou shalt hear;

I will unfold if thou wilt stay awhile, The hist'ry of the Sphinx, and who began it, Our mystic marks, and monsters made of granite. Well, then, in grievous times, when king CephrenesBut, ha! what's this?-The shades of bards and kings Press on my lips their fingers! What they mean is, I am not to reveal these hidden things. Mortal, farewell! Till Science' self unbind them, Men must e'en take these secrets as they find them.

See BELZONI's Travels.

MUMMIUS.

"After the exertion of entering into a burial-place, through a passage of six-hundred yards in length, nearly overcome, I sought a resting-place, found oue, and contrived to sit; but when my weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, it crushed it like a band-box. I then had recourse to my hands to sustain my weight, but they found no support. So I sank among the broken mummies with a crash of bones, rags, and wooden cases, which altogether raised such a-dust, as kept me motionless for a quarter of an hour, waiting till it had subsided."-BELZONI.

Should the reader detect some sight anachronism in the Mummy's Answer, he will please to remember, that in point of chronology Virgil himself was not particular about a century or two. His, as well as Ovid's poetical fiction, representing Eneas as living in the age of Dido, involves an error of this kind, of nearly 300 years.

This, the largest of the Pyramids, was reckoned one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

THE SHEA, OR BUTTER-TREE. ON the 24th of July, the people about Rabba, in Africa, were every where employed in collecting the fruit of the SHEA TREES, from which they prepare the vegetable butter.

These trees grow in great abundance all over this part of Bambarra. They are not planted by the natives, but are found growing naturally in the woods; and, in clearing wood-land for cultivation, every tree is cut down but the Shea.

The tree very much resembles the American oak, and the fruit, from the kernel of which, being first dried in the sun, the butter is prepared by boiling the kernel in water, has somewhat the appearance of a Spanish olive. The kernel is enveloped in a sweet

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VISIT TO THE SALT MINES OF HALL AFTER breakfast I proceeded to visit the mines, clothed in a suitable dress; and with a staff in my hand, and preceded by flambeaux, I followed my conductor into the mine. The visit commences with a descent of three hundred steps, when one may fairly believe himself in the bowels of the mountain.

'Tis a strange empire one finds in these dismal abodes: life is a different thing when sun-light is withdrawn ; and there is an icy feeling falls upon the heart, as well as on the senses, when we look around these dismal galleries and dark walls, dimly lighted by a few ineffectual flambeaux, that convey truly the idea of "darkness visible;" and scan the dark subterranean lakes, whose extent and profundity the eye cannot guess but by the plunge of a fragment of the roof, and the dim glimmer of the lights; and hear the distant stroke of the miner's axe, far in the interior of the caverns. Still more do we feel the difference between the world above and regions such as these, when we reach the solitary miner, in some vast cavern, with his single candle, striking his axe ever and ever into the dull wall. But, along with these feelings, astonishment and admiration are engendered, at the power of man, whose perseverance has hollowed out the mountain; and with his seemingly feeble in- has struments-his human arms and little axewaged war with the colossal works of nature.

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The results are, indeed, almost incredible. fewer than forty-eight caverns have been formed, each from one to two acres in size. One of the galleries is three leagues in length; and I was assured that, to traverse all the galleries, six whole days would be required.-INGLIS's Tyrol.

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