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

SARCOPHAGUS. 371
lid is carved like the tops of wooden niunimy-
chests, with the representation of a human form,
the countenance soft and pleasing, the Egyptian
head-dress beautifully executed, the hands crossed
over the bosom, and the lower part of the figure
in the shape of a mummy, and covered with
hieroglyphics, which doubtless chronicle the name
and worldly honours of the person whose body
once tenanted this beautiful sarcophagus. The
Arab guides told us, that when it was discovered,
and opened by them, the only contents found
within were the embalmed remains of some
birds, a few trifling stone ornaments, and some
scarabgei,—from which it may be inferred that it
had already been opened at some earlier period,
and rifled of its human mummy.
Our ride back to Bedrechein was delightful,
through fragrant bean-fields and clumps of thorny
mimosas, on which the camel loves to browse.
The sun was sinking in the horizon, and its rays,
falling obliquely upon the trunks of the lofty
palm-trees, appeared to convert them into so
many columns of fretted bronze ; the })yramids
standing out in sharp relief against the illumi-
nated sky, assumed a beauty of aspect as they
lessened in the distance, which they had not pos-
sessed when seen near. The inelancholv creak-