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

198 ROCK OF ABOUSIR.
alacrity when we mounted them. Our way lay
for two hours and a half across the desert, the
sands of which are so loose and shifting as to
render them intolerably fatiguing to walk over,
and the only signs of life we met with were a
covey of partridges, much resembling our English
species, but with a brighter plumage. Signs of
death were more plentiful, for no less than three
skeletons of dromedaries did we find on our road,
bleached and dried by the sun and winds into
such lightness that I think I could have lifted
them without an effort. We reached the rock at
one o'clock, under such a sun as it would be vain
to talk of to you dwellers in the North—for one
must have entered the Torrid Zone in order to
understand its force—and as I gaspingly ascended
to the utmost summit of the rock, I endeavoured
to cool my imagination by thinking of the sort of
weather to which you and our other dear friends
are now exposed in London and Paris, where De-
cember always shows itself in its dreariest colours
and, bitterest temper. The force of imagination,
however, did not in this instance overcome the
reality that was overpowering me, and although
my thoughts and aspirations were at that moment
careering three thousand miles away from Abou-
sir, / felt that the material portion of me was
there, chained to that burning rock.