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

24 CEMETERY.
run will write, when will they leave behind them
evidence that they have not travelled in vain, and
that the solemn and almost awful presence of the
oldest monuments in the world has replaced
such schoolboy trivialities by higher inspirations,
—nobler, and more appropriate reflections ?
Returning from the pillar, we passed by the
great Moslem cemetery of Alexandria, a dreary
place of stones, far spreading around, without a
blade of grass, or a cypress-tree, to break the
burning monotony of the sandy soil. Two or
three funeral processions were approaching it
the bodies, laid upon a wooden tray, and covered
with a cotton cloth, were irreverently borne along
at a quick trot, upon the shoulders of four men,
and behind followed the mourners, some chant-
ing, and others uttering the conventional funeral
howl ; but there appeared to be no real woe in
the thing, — an indecent haste to be rid of the
lifeless burthen seemed to be the characteristics
of the actors in the scene.
From Pompey's Pillar to Cleopatra's Needles
the transition is inevitable when one is in the
course of sight-seeing. These latter interested
me far more than the former, inasmuch as they
are thoroughly Egyptian, having been brought
to Alexandria from Ileliopolis, where INIoeris
;