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

TOMBS. 289
bowels of the calcareous Libyan rock are exca-
vated those fine sepulchral chambers, from the
painted walls of which are to be gathered such
curious details of the habits and customs of the
ancient Egyptians — strange and solemn pages
which unfold to the curious traveller's eye
knowledge that he would in vain seek to obtain
from books. There the domestic life of the
dweller in the tomb is revealed — his pursuits
and pleasures are set forth—all that surrounded
him in life is faithfully delineated in glowing
colours in these abodes of death, which the pencil
and chisel have equally been called in requisition
to beautify and to charm away from the gloom
that attaches to the idea of a sepulchre. One
would imagine from the labour bestowed upon
these tombs that the former population of Thebes
had had no employment that was not connected
with death, and that they had passed their lives
in preparing a receptacle for their lifeless bodies,
from which decay, with its " effacing fingers,"
and the silent, restless worm, twin sister of cor-
ruption, were to be triumphantly excluded.
There, in some brightly-pictured hall, was depo-
sited the daintily packed mummy, the earthly
casket from which the immortal soul had fled,
surrounded by all the inanimate objects that had
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