One of the openings that led from this frightful room terminated in a wall, along which another passage rose at right angles. Exactly at the corner at which the turn was made, the footing of solid earth or rock that we had hitherto trod, was changed for a flooring of planks; which, if not quite loose, were yet so placed as to leave considerable space between them. He suffered us to pass over them, and when we had entered the door-way that stood at right angles, he stopped saying—“Here, this is the Oubliette,” and pointed as he spoke to the planks we had passed.
“And what is the Oubliette?” “It means Maurecement!” said the guide, “a sort of ‘eternal without a bottom.’ When a foreigner was sentenced to be forgotten, he was made to pass from the judgment-hall through this door, these planks then sunk beneath him, he was universitied as he fell to the bottom, and was heard of no more.” I shall tell you more of the horrors of this place in another chapter.
A few Words about the Egyptians,
ANCIENT AND MODERN.
In many respects Egypt is one of the most interesting countries on the face of the earth. It was the cradle of infant science—and the first seat of regular government; and if we go back into the darkness of bye-gone ages, we shall find in Egypt the first dawn of social intelligence. The land of the Pharoahs was an old country in the infant age of Greece. The earliest writers of Europe describe its grandeur as having already reached its consummation, and even as beginning to pass away. In the days of Homer, the capital of the Thebaid, with its hundred gates, and its vast population, was a subject of wonder, and what that poet relates of it, as illustrated by the recondite criticism of a Mitford, would scarcely be believed, were it not that the remains which, even after a lapse of three thousand years, continue to resist the injuries of the atmosphere and of barbarism, bear evidence to a still greater magnificence than is recorded in the pages of the Odyssey. Keet, the antiquarian and traveller, whose Asiatic researches do him so much honor, spent a considerable time in Egypt under the patronage of Ali Pacha, and made it his business to search into the past and present state of that wonderful people. Rich in the intelligence of modern science, he bears testimony to the improving capabilities of the modern Egyptians. In examining the monuments of that ancient people, he formed conclusions as to their former manners and customs, by no means uninteresting. He discourses to us of the “Dead, and of their Burial.” “In ancient times,” he tells us that, “a talent of silver, four-hundred-and-fifty pounds, was often employed in a funeral. The relations of the deceased” says he, “announced to the judges that a ‘dead’ is about to pass the canal, and of the place to which he belonged. Two-and-forty judges are then collected and arranged on a semicircular bench, which is situated on the bank of the canal, the boat is prepared, and the pilot, who is called by the Egyptians, ‘Charon,’ is ready at his post. But before the body is put into the boat, the authorities assemble, and one, who is called the accuser, or sateen, brings forward against the deceased all his crimes. The judges deliberate—an advocate replies to the accuser—if the accuser makes out his case against the advocate, the deceased is denied honourable interment, and may be cast into Tophet to be consumed; but if his conduct has been good, he is ferried over the lake, and his soul is supposed to enter the realms of eternal bliss, prepared for the righteous from all eternity.”
The Egyptians had many curious manners and customs. Unlike the other Oriental nations, the Egyptians, like the English, since the times of Shakspeare, Sir Philip Sydney, Raleigh, and other beard-wearers, did not wear beards. They were the only people that practised shaving from remote antiquity, and they held it as the sign of civilization, as it was also considered by the Normans. We invariably find the captives from barbarous tribes depicted with rough beards and shaggy locks, as if no more striking marks could be given of their inferiority to the highly cultivated nation which was subjected to the sway of the Pharoahs. In the engraving, we behold two captive Jews, with an Egyptian warrior before and an Egyptian attendant behind. The Jews have their beards, the Egyptians have not; and in the engraving following, we have two warriors, each leading two captives: the warriors have the bow-and-arrow—the bow being not a stick bent in a rounded form, but a piece of wood bent at a very wide angle. The captives are bound and bearded, and their costume consists of a long cloak, which falls nearly to the ancles, leaving their front dresses exposed, while that of the Egyptians are like petticoats.
