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

CLEOPATRA. 317
lishments that some English tourists, with bet-
ter eyes than mine, have so pompously described.
I shall enter into nothing like detail of the
sculptures which I did see at Denderah; one
of the outer walls of the temple represents
the whole Pantheon of Egypt; monstrous hy-
brids, calculated to excite derision rather than
veneration,—human forms with the heads of
rams, of cows, of hawks, of vultures, of chacals,
of crocodiles, of ibeses, of monkeys, crowned
with the mitres of priesthood or royalty ! These
strange caricatures of course cover a hidden
meaning, and are merely symbols ; but if sym-
bolical imagery w^as required to veil the myste-
ries of the Egyptian worship, why not have
chosen one of a more exalting, more awe-in-
spiring description ?
On another portion of the walls is repre-
sented " Egypt's graceful Queen," that " serpent
of old Nile," the famous Cleopatra, with the
son she bore to Julius Caesar, the young Ptolemy
Cscsarion. As these are undoubted portraits, I
contemplated them with peculiar interest and
curiosity ; but in vain I sought in the profile
of Cleopatra for that surpassing beauty which
had made captive her Roman masters, and cost
a world to Antony. The features possess none