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

TOMBS. 271
and habits of the several tenants of tlie tombs
and it is curious to observe from these okl de-
signs, how few changes the lapse of more than
three thousand years has effected in the economy
of rural life in Egypt. The corn was sown, and
reaped, and trodden out in the same manner then
that it now is ; and it would appear that the an-
cient Egyptians were in the habit of lightening
.their labour by songs, even in the selfsame way
practised by the Arabs of to-day ; for among the
paintings in the tombs of El Kob, is one repre-
senting the treading out of corn by oxen, to
which are affixed the words of the song addressed
to them by their drivers. Champollion has given
a translation of this song; it contains a simple
but logical argument encouraging the brutes to
labour, by impressing upon them the fact, that in
effecting their master's interest they are securing
their own, as a portion of the grain they are beating
out will be reserved for their own food. Each
succeeding verse is followed by a chorus that is
repeated exactly in the same manner now in use
among the Arabs of Egypt, who can accomplish
no labour without the adjunct of music.
This morning, at Esneh, I returned to the
temple to look for the famous Zodiac, and found
it in one of the compartments of the ceiling, quite
;