Part 19 (1/2)

We had been riding on a very narrow trail along the edge of a precipice, but now we dismounted and descended, on foot, a winding path, too steep and dangerous for riding, that led us to the rest-house in the valley below. Here, at the Chalet Hatasu, as it was named, the servants had unpacked the hampers which they had brought from the hotel at Luxor, and the hungry travelers were soon seated around well-spread tables. During the meal a throng of scantily clad men, boys, and small children a.s.sembled outside the Chalet. These bare-footed Arabs offered for sale scarabs, stone mummy images, mummified feet, skulls, beads, and trinkets so clamorously and persistently that our dragoman had to use his long lashed whip to clear the way. After leaving the chalet, naked boys, apparently from four to ten years of age, followed us with outstretched hands, begging for backsheesh. Some of these boys earned money by posing to be kodaked.

[Ill.u.s.tration: I. COLOSSUS OF RAMSES LAY BROKEN.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: II. MOSLEMS HAD MUTILATED THE STATUES.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TWO WEATHER-WORN FIGURES OF PRODIGIOUS SIZE]

The walls and columns of the Ramesseum, the magnificent temple built by Ramses II, and those of Medinet Habu, the great temple built by Ramses III, were covered with pictures in relief, made in the golden days of Theban prosperity.

”The ancient artists, to perpetuate their work, used chisels on lasting stone instead of brushes on perishable canvas,” remarked the professor as we examined the reliefs, ”and their pictures carved on the stone walls have endured through centuries.”

We saw battle scenes with the king leading in the fray, archers discharging arrows, charioteers riding down the foe, and enemies fleeing in dismay; triumphal marches with the king borne aloft on a canopied litter, fan-bearers waving fans, musicians blowing trumpets and beating drums, courtiers bearing standards, and captives led in chains; festal processions with the king marching in front, the sacred white bull festooned with wreaths, maidens carrying flowers, and priests bearing images; and nations paying tribute to the king upon his throne, Nubians bringing leopard skins, giraffes, and grinning apes, and princes presenting gems, costly vases, and golden s.h.i.+elds. One picture at Medinet Habu represented the soldiers cutting off the right hands of their enemies who had been slain in battle and bringing these gruesome emblems of the dead to the secretaries to be counted and recorded. The secretaries had counted and recorded twelve thousand five hundred and thirty-five hands. To enumerate the many interesting scenes sculptured on the temple walls would be like cataloguing a picture gallery.

At the Ramesseum, the enormous Colossus of Ramses lay broken on the ground, overthrown by some mighty force.

”This huge granite figure,” said Mahmoud, ”was, before its fall, the largest statue ever carved out of one block of stone. Its height was nearly sixty feet, the fingers three feet long, and its weight has been estimated at one thousand tons.”

The Colossi of Memnon, the two enormous seated figures in the midst of level cultivated fields, were pa.s.sed and photographed as we returned to Luxor. Their hugeness may be judged by comparing their size with the height of the tourists alongside in the ill.u.s.tration.

”During the weeks of inundation each year,” said Mahmoud, after he had told us the dimensions of the statues and the mythical stories a.s.sociated with them, ”these grain fields as far as the vegetation extends are covered with water to a depth of from ten to fifteen feet.

When the Nile is at its height the heads of the great Colossi, surrounded by water, rise forty feet above the flood.”

A bath and a thorough brus.h.i.+ng of clothes at the hotel removed the desert sand. We sipped our afternoon tea in the shaded garden and then the party of forty-two persons boarded the Nile steamer Amasis in time for an evening dinner on the boat. Suit cases and satchels were unpacked and the staterooms made cozy, for the Amasis was to be the tourists'

home for a number of days during the trip down the Nile.

CHAPTER XV.

ON THE NILE.

At daylight on Monday morning, March sixteenth, the Amasis steamed away from Luxor and by nine o'clock had arrived at the landing for Dendera.

The donkey boys of Dendera, having been notified of our coming, were waiting with their donkeys. In a few minutes the tourists were mounted for a half hour's ride on narrow paths through green barley fields to the ruined temple. I rode on a donkey named Whiskey and Soda, with my donkey boy Ha.s.san running behind prodding the animal occasionally with a sharp-pointed stick, and yelling ”Haow! Haow!” to urge Whiskey and Soda to a more rapid gait. Along the paths through the fields many children ran to greet us with outstretched palms. Their costumes were those of the Garden of Eden before the fall; but having been informed of our approach, the bronze colored youngsters had decorated themselves for the occasion with wreaths of green barley around their waists and crowns of the same material on their heads. The little Arabs, bright-eyed, smooth-limbed, and handsome featured, attractive and picturesque in appearance, shouted with glee when a few small coins were thrown among them.

”Look at that!” exclaimed one of the party. ”I have heard of the shepherds carrying the lambs on their shoulders, but here is a man coming with the foal of a donkey in his arms.”

”What a dear little pet,” said the ladies as the Arab pa.s.sed us with the young donkey nestling contentedly on his breast.

”The famous Temple of Dendera was not so magnificent nor so large as the temples of Karnak and Thebes,” said the guide, as we stood before the gates, ”but it was more richly decorated with carvings and paintings.

Every inch of column, wall, and ceiling was carved with hieroglyphic and pictorial decorations. These were painted in bright colors which are yet faintly visible. This structure is a modern one compared with Karnak; for Karnak was an ancient temple more than one thousand years old when King Ptolemy began the erection of this building just before the Christian Era. An inscription on the walls states that the time required for its construction was one hundred and eight years, six months, and fourteen days. When Egypt became a Roman province after the death of Cleopatra, the Roman emperors continued the construction of the unfinished temple. Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero are represented in reliefs on the walls. The temple was dedicated to the wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ddess Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, or G.o.ddess of love and beauty.”

”Why was the temple built here two miles away from the river, instead of near the banks of the Nile?” inquired a tourist.

”It was because this terrace is higher than the valley,” answered Mahmoud. ”Remember that these green fields through which we rode are made fertile by the overflow of the Nile; then I think that the reason for building on this plateau will be plain to you.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: DONKEY BOYS WERE WAITING FOR US.]

”But why was it built in a depression?”

”It was not originally in a hole,” explained the guide, ”but was built on level ground. Some sixteen hundred years ago the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius forbade the wors.h.i.+p of idols. After that time, the wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ddess Hathor being discontinued, the temple was neglected and a village of mud huts sprang up around it. These huts, built of sun-dried bricks, crumbled to dust in the pa.s.sage of years and were trampled under foot. Again and again new huts supplanted the old until in the course of centuries the debris acc.u.mulated many feet in depth. When the government, fifty years ago, undertook to restore the temple, the workmen had to begin by shoveling mud huts off the roof.”