It appears that the sculpture on the Gate of the Lions, as it is called, at Mycenæ, had a strong resemblance to the centre ornament of the statue.—See Hughes’s Travels, v. i. p. 229.
[58] The labours of Mr. Belzoni, in removing and embarking the head of Memnon in a barge, entirely set at naught all boasting of what was done at Ascalon. Columns of granite, indeed, are much heavier than Memnon’s head; but they are round, and may be made to roll easily in any direction.
[59] Those who have read Bruce’s and Salt’s travels will recollect that both of them speak of a particular rotundity in a certain part of a woman as a criterion of noble birth, and as giving an air of high breeding and gentility to the happy possessor. In this respect it must be allowed that Mariam might lay claim to a descent from a distinguished race.
[60] For Mariam, the Abyssinian woman’s parentage, see at page 164 vol. 3rd Lord Valentia’s travels, what is said of Ras Ayto, who raised Tecla Georgis to the throne. Subsequently, Elias gave me his Abyssinian name as Elias Jegurgos lidj, or Elias the son of George, and hers as Trungore Rashyelo lidj—urarefs or curnakyb Dinkanesh Rashyelo lidj—yeroda midjt—confusing all these terms in a way that left me in the dark as to which of them was her own name, and which that of her parents.
[61] Pococke, who saw the flourishing state of Tyre, even in 1737, not knowing how to reconcile with it the words of Ezekiel, xxvi. 14; and xxviii. 19, says, that the prophecy must be understood of the ancient city on the continent. He adds, “It is a place where they export great quantities of corn, and Malta itself is supplied from this place.” Vol. ii. p. 82, fol. Surely a port which supplies Malta must be a populous and thriving one! I know that evidence contrary to this may be brought from the relations of other travellers, and I believe the particular bias of a person’s mind has much to do with the colouring which he gives to objects. It would be well if commentators on prophecy would consider that Antioch, Ascalon, Berytus, Cæsarea, Decapolis, Emesa, Famagusta, Gebayl, Heliopolis, or Bâlbec, Laodicea, Palmyra, or Tadmûr, and other cities, the rivals in commerce and luxury of Tyre, will be found fallen from their flourishing greatness, many of them lower than it; and yet against the greater part of them there is no denunciation at all in the prophetic writings. On the other hand, we read (Isaiah v. 1, c. xvii)—“Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap:” yet, in spite of its doom, so emphatically predicted, Damascus has flourished from that time until now. The editor of “The Monthly Review” for November, 1822, looking at the account of Tyre given by Mr. Buckingham, whose Travels he is reviewing, and who states that he saw 800 substantial houses, containing full 5,000 inhabitants, is staggered at the assertion, and confronts with it the testimony of Maundrell, Bruce, Jolliffe, and some others. He observes, very justly, that what were good comfortable houses in the eyes of Mr. Buckingham, accustomed from the age of nine years to roam about the world, might not be so in reality. But perhaps a means for settling his doubts may be found when he is told that the houses of Tyre were equally good with those at Jaffa and Acre, two neighbouring towns, which have not fallen under the prophet’s interdict, and that therefore no manifestation of the Divine wrath can be said to have descended more on it than on the two others. Cæsarea, where the good Centurion lived, has not now one house standing; yet the walls which encompass it were built by Saint Louis:—but then he was a Catholic.
[62] Murex.
[63] The Arabic saying is, “The month of August, the month of wind and wave.”
[64] Yet it may be safely affirmed that this gentleman had never read the story of Hippomenes and Atalanta.
[65] Mohammed Aga Abu Nabût, actuated by a more sanguinary feeling, was accustomed, in his petty wars, to give 150 for a head and 100 for a prisoner. The consequence was natural.
[66] The mode used by the soldiers, when plundering a village, to discover where the peasants have hidden their corn and effects, is ingenious enough. They know that such things are generally concealed in holes in their cottages, but the difficulty is to discover where to dig. The floors are of clay mixed up with chaff. The soldiers make three or four piles of stones in different parts of the room, each pile consisting of several large stones placed one upon another. They then jar the floor by jumping or stamping on it, and wherever a pile falls there is the hole, because the jar is felt only where there is a hollow.