Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/284

 fiercer, if possible, than the first. Luckily it caine from behind, and we fied before the blast which nearly took our poor donkeys off theirfeet. ‘hese pyramids are older and much more dilapidated than those of Ghizah, near Cairo, Near these crum- bling mounds are the Sarapeum, or “Temple of Apis.” and the tombs in which tle sacred bulis are buried. ‘Vhese have lately been discovered and are among the most interust- fog monuments of Egypt. An enterprising Frenchman, M. Mariette, has spent two years and a large sum of money in bringing to light these wonderful relies of antiquity. We took refege froin the storm in a small building erected for his residence while superintending these excavations, where we fomd un old Sheik who claimed authority over this part of the desert—whieh simply means the privilege of levying blackmail on amy visitor. We paid the fee, and with a young Arab for a guide commenced our explorations, The surface of fhe country for miles in every direction is a desert, and ihe sand-drift has ecoyered many feet deep these ancient remains. It is probable that once this barren waste was as fertile a¢ any part of the Nile valley, but a change in the bed of the river, and the gradual encroach- ment of the desert has made it what it now is.

We deseend by a sloping path to the en- tranee, and lighting our candles find our selves in a long reck-hewn gallery, whicl: formed the cemetery for the bullsthat were worshipped in the adjoining temple of Apis. Opening from this gallery like side chapels are twenty-four recesses cut outof the Jime- stone rock, and in each of these an {m- michse Sarcophaguy, forined from a single pieee of black porphy: They are of uniform shape and size, abontsixteen feet Jong, eight feet wide, aud about nine feet in height. The outside is covered with hieroglyphics, with edges as loan-eut and fresh as if just finished. On two ay three the figures are onty traced, as if the work had been abruptly stopped. hey are polished outside and in smyoth as glass, and the heayy lids of most of then haye heen pushed off a few feet so that we can see the interior, They are now ail cmpty, the saered bulls they onee coutuined having long ngo crumbled to dust. With the assistance of my companions I let myself down into one and examined the interior. The space inside was large enough to contain a mammoth ox, the surface was beautifully polished, and the side, when struck by the