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210

IDOLS v. KNOWLEDGE.

ting from all hostile nations—and not believe that in the god-directed river we saw thy bounteous hand, and in that wilderness thine arm defending? Soldier. Forbid it, Piety!

Priest.-Amun forbids me not to feel that no people on the earth have ever been placed as we are placed, and that the existence of our land differs from that of every other land. Amun forbids me not this boast of Heaven's hand-forbids me not yet more;-though favoured Egypt has all these, yet Egypt has no words of God-no voice of Heaven-no syllabled speech-no writings; but had she these, what then? - wanting these she falls, and fables-weak fables

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Priest.-All speech, all words, all writings, all love-and they too, they fall, and fables take the place of reality. Idols-idols-man, low material man, will have his visible God which he can see, and touch, and understand, whether He be in the Adytum, or at Sinai, or on the hills of Palestine, or of the hundred gods of Rome. With all light and all knowledge he kneels down before the comprehensible, but senseless, clay-sinks from high things to low-for religion is too high for him, and he falls to easy superstition. O Egypt Egypt!

THE VISION FADETH.

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thou yet shalt arise when the Voice calls all menthose that slumber, and those that wake-for thou hast done less against thy God than these."

The thrilling words of the priest ceased; but his form erect and commanding in its antique dress, with arms uplifted and hands stretched towards Heaven, and countenance refulgent with triumphhe was an imposing figure; and the soldier, where was he? His form was fading from the sight; and the traveller, when he looked again for the priest, he saw but an indistinct shade; and the light that shone around became misty ;-and the vision-the vision-there was nothing but the moonlight palely streaming in through the windows; and the murmur of running water was hard by.

CHAPTER XI.

The Second Cataract-Wady Halfah-Modesty in Nubia-Black v. White Christianity and Slavery-The 'Cambria's' Mario-The Fine Gentleman-Officious Zeyd-Story-telling Djad-The 'Cambria's' Transformation-Jebel Aboosir-Joys of the Nile Boat-Sorrow everywhere at Home-The Goal-The Schools of Egypt-The Bible and the Koran-The Down Voyage-Everything passes away but God."

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WE will get on to the Second Cataract. We have passed Aboosimbel, the sight of whose solemn colossi, and a short visit to the interior of the temple, of which they are the imposing guardians, caused a great deal of the last chapter-and pushed on for Wady Halfah, the wind being too good to be lost even for the ne plus ultra of Egyptian labour, with which no temple of either Egypt or Nubia can be put in competition,' as Sir Frederick Henniker writes of Epsambul.

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The approach to Wady Halfah, the so anxiously wished-for place the ultima thule of the Nile voyage is pretty enough, but there is nothing striking in the scenery. The western bank is a plain of sand, waving and sloping to some low hills at half a mile from the river; but on the eastern side the hills fall back for a mile or more from the Nile, and between them and the water is a cultivated level plain. All along the river bank for a few miles is a grove of date palm-trees, and at the southern end of this is Wady Halfah-a scattered village. Just beyond it, distant about a mile, begins the Second Cataract; but as you sail up to Wady Halfah you see nothing of this low tract of rocks but the tops of the little islands, and the only point of mark which catches your eye is the hill of Aboosir, where the western desert hills make a curve round from your right-hand to your front, and abut suddenly and perpendicularly on the Cataract. We found but one travelling boat lying at the shore by the village, and this had the English flag flying at the stern.

How pretty is Wady Halfah,-its straggling groups of houses and huts lying in and about the long grove of palms on the river bank-small fields here and there among them-and occasionally dom-palms and acacias varying the woodland. We soon went out into the country towards the Desert,

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MODESTY IN NUBIA.

and through large fields of young wheat and peas, and returned by the palm grove, shady and full of village life. This grove reminded us of that by Korosko. The village straggled in and out of it, and the women and girls would assemble in little parties, and evidently plan a little roundabout adventure, having for its object to obtain a good view of the Sitt's face, and having accomplished this satisfactorily, they would rnn laughing back to others to report what it was like. All these were dressed like those by Korosko, in a kind of upper cloak with large sleeves, fastened to the neck and reaching to the knees, and in a loose full trouser, the feet naked and the hair falling all round the head in corkscrew curls. Some of the younger girls, when they came close to us, would raise the lower part of the full cloak and draw it across the mouth, and many of them had a shy and modest manner and looked on the ground as they met us. These latter were not of the conspiring parties of the curious as to the Sitt's face, but were accidental passengers from house to house. In the article of beauty, the Koroskian girls beat those of Wady Halfah, for they were all undeniably plain. The antique Nubian type was lost; the small nose and the full peculiar Hathor lip were exchanged for broad noses and enormous mouths coarsely cut. The men were

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