small basket. The guard inquired what it contained; and the man, lifting up the leaves at top, showed them a parcel of figs. As they admired their size and beauty, he smiled, and bade them take some, but they declined; not suspecting that the basket contained any thing else, it was carried in. After supper, Cleopatra sent a letter to Octavius, and, ordering every body out of the monument except her two women, she made fast the door. Octavius read the letter, and suspected, from the plaintive style in which it was written, and the earnest request that she might be buried in the same tomb with Antony, that she had some fatal design. At first, he was for hastening to her; but, on second thought, he sent others. They ran the whole way, alarmed the guards, and broke open the doors, but were too late to save her. They found her quite dead, lying on a golden bed, and dressed in all her regal ornaments. Iras, one of her women, lay dead at her feet, and Charmion, hardly able to support herself, was adjusting her mistress's diadem. One of the messengers exclaimed, angrily, "Charmion, was this well done?" "Perfectly well," she replied, "and worthy a descendant of the kings of Egypt." Saying this, she fell down dead.

Some say an asp was brought in among the figs, hidden under the leaves, and Cleopatra managed so that she might be bitten without seeing it. On removing the leaves, however, she perceived it, and said, “This is what I wanted"; on which, she immediately held out her arm to it. Others say, the asp was kept in a water-vessel, and that she vexed and pricked it with a golden spindle till it seized her arm. Nothing of this, however, could be ascertained with certainty. There

is still another report, that she carried about with her a certain poison in a hollow bodkin, which she wore in her hair. Yet, there was neither any mark of poison on her body, nor was any reptile found in the monument, though the track of one was said to have been discovered on the sands opposite Cleopatra's window. Others, again, have affirmed, that she had two small punctures on her arm, apparently caused by the sting of the asp; and it seems Octavius gave credit to this, for her effigy, which he carried in triumph, had an asp on the arm.

The beauty of Cleopatra is said to have been no way extraordinary nor striking; but her wit and fascinating manners rendered her absolutely irresistible. Her voice was delightfully melodious, and had the same variety of modulation as a many-stringed instrument. She spoke most languages; and there were but few of the foreign ambassadors at her court whom she answered by means of an interpreter. She gave audience in person to the Ethiopians, the Troglodytes, the Hebrews, Arabs, Scythians, Medes, and Parthians; nor were these all the languages with which she was familiar.

Cleopatra died in the twenty-eighth year before Christ. Egypt became reduced to a Roman province, and shared the fortunes of that empire till the irruption of the Saracens; by which event, it became subjected to the sway of the Mohammedans, under which it continues to the present day, nominally subject to the Ottoman Porte, but virtually independent. We shall hereafter give a sketch of some of the most interesting events in the history of Modern Egypt.

ANTIQUITIES OF EGYPT.

ALMOST every intelligent traveller, who has visited Egypt for a century past, has made discoveries of more or less importance among the antiquities of that country, yet there is every reason to believe that a vast deal yet remains to reward further researches. Belzoni, in 1816, was the first to open the great temple of Ipsambul, which is cut in the side of a mountain, and the front of which was so much encumbered with sand, that only the upper part of it was visible. A still greater discovery of this enterprising traveller was the opening of a splendid tomb in the Biban el Molouk, or Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. He found out by conjecture the right entrance, which had been blocked up for many centuries, caused it to be cleared, and at last made his way into the sepulchral chambers, cut in the calcareous rock, and richly adorned with pictures in low relief, and hieroglyphics painted in the brightest colors. He also opened numerous sepulchres in the rocks at Gornou, at the foot of the Libyan mountains, near western Thebes, and in other places.

In the interior of the temple of Carnac, he says, "I

was lost in a mass of colossal objects, every one of which was more than sufficient of itself to attract my whole attention. How can I describe my sensations at that moment! I seemed alone in the midst of all that is sacred in the world; a forest of enormous columns, adorned all round with beautiful figures and various ornaments, from the top to the bottom; the graceful shape of the lotus which forms their capitals, so well proportioned to the columns that it gives to the view the most pleasing effect; the gates, the walls, the pedestals, and the architrave, also adorned in every part with symbolical figures in basso relievo, and intaglio, representing battles, processions, triumphs, feasts, offerings, and sacrifices, all relating, no doubt, to the ancient history of the country, 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 over 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; but the obscurity of the night caused me to stumble over one large block of stone, and to break my nose against another, which, dissolving the enchantment, brought me to my senses again."

The catacombs of Beni Hassan are among the finest and most interesting in Egypt. They were explored by the French scientific body, who accompanied Bonaparte in his expedition to that country, in 1799. The walls of the interior are covered with paintings, many of which are in perfect preservation, and with the colors as vivid as if recently applied, while others have