A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

A SHOAL OF CROCODILES. 155
and gratification than I experienced this morn-
ing among the all-but-contemned columns of
this work of " modern times.""
I have been debating with myself before I sat
down to write, whether it would not be allowable
for me to attempt to cut a scientific figure with
you, and, assuming a fastidious tone based upon
a thorough knowledge of the subject, express
myself contemptuously upon the decline of Egyp-
tian art as visible in the sculptures of Esneh.
But truth has prevailed over vanity, and I give
you my impressions in all their honesty and all
their ignorance. Keep them to yourself, how-
ever, for I do not say but that when I return
home with my hieroglyphical education com-
pleted by the running commentaries I am now
in the course of making through the land, I may
not indulge in some superb disdain when speak-
ing of the Egyptian temples constructed in the
times of the Greek Ptolemies and the Roman
Emperors ; and getting a cheval upon my Pha-
raonic lore, turn up my nose knowingly at the
degeneracy of art exhibited at Esneh and other
edifices of the same date—so pray be discreet
This evening a large shoal of crocodiles — at
least twenty or thirty—swam past our boat, some
of them of prodigious length, and all of them so
!