CHAP.

V.

smaller vessel, were now building. Near this village grew a great quantity of INDIGOFERA, Indigofera. which the Arabs call Nilé. Under a similar

་

appellation it was mentioned, at the close of the sixteenth century, as an object of inquiry, by Richard Hakluyt'; for at that time it was not known in England what plant produced the Indigo. Instructions were therefore given, "to know if Anile, that coloureth blew, be a natural commodity; and, if it be compounded of an herbe, to send the seed or root, with the order of sowing." It is remarkable that Nil, or Anil, is the American name of the Indigo plant. The Portuguese have adopted their Anil, or Anileira, from the American. In Chinese it is called Tien Laam, which signifies sky blue. The Arabs, in Egypt, sow the seed of this plant only once in seven years; and they obtain two crops: from it in each year. They cut it green, when about two feet in height: (they were cutting some at this time:) it is then put into boiling water, and left in jars for several days: after this it acquires the blue colour. The French

had taught them to boil the plant, and use the scum for a dye.

(1) A. D. 1582.

(2) See Martyn's edition of Miller's Dictionary. Art. Indigofera.

CHAP.

V.

of Mem

We saw two Arabs crossing the Nile, where it was at least half a mile wide, by means of empty gourds, which they used instead of bladders, with their clothes fastened upon their heads. It was nine o'clock before we steered our djerm into a canal leading towards Saccára. We passed the village which Savary believed Situation to denote the situation of antient Memphis, and phis. concurred with him in his locality of the city'. His description of the place, particularly of the Causeway and the Lake, is very accurate. But the village is not called Menf, or Menph, as he pretends, but Menshee a Dashoo*. The Lake at this time was, in great measure, become a part of the general inundation. We sailed the whole way to the Pyramids of Saccára, with the excep tion of about half a mile, which it was necessary to ride over, to the Mummy Pits.

seen

Pyramid.

Just beyond Menshee a Dashoo we were much Tamulis struck by the appearance of a Tumulus, (stand- among the ing to the south of a large graduated pyramid,) which, instead of being pyramidal, exhibits a less artificial and therefore a more antient form of

(3) Pococke also places it near the same spot.

(4) This seems to have been POCOCKE'S "El Menshich Dashour.“ ee Descr. of the East, vol. I. p. 49.

CHAP. Sepulchre than any of the Pyramids. It is a V. simple hemispherical mound. We saw after

wards others of the same kind.

The most antient Se

not pyra

midal.

Comparing these appearances with that regulapulchres larity of structure which characterizes the Pyramids of Djiza, and also with another style of architecture observable at Saccára, where a transition may be discerned between one and the other, (the curved outline not having wholly disappeared, nor the rectilinear form prevailing altogether,) we may establish a rule for ascertaining different degrees of antiquity throughout the whole series of these monuments. The most antient lie towards the south. Almost all the buildings of Saccára, of whatever size or shape, whether hemispheroïdal or pyramidal, seem to be older than those of Djiza: and, as we proceed in surveying them from the south towards the north, ending with the principal pyramid of Djiza, we pass from the primeval

mound, through all its modifications, until we arrive at the most artificial pyramidal heap; something after the manner represented by the following sketch.

.CHAP.

V.

The same rule will apply to similar monuments in America, which have been held sacred among the inhabitants of that great continent from the earliest periods of their history. In fact, the Scythian Mound, the Tartar Tépé, the Teutonic Barrow, and the Cettic Cairn, do all of them preserve a monumental form which was more antiently in use than that of a Pyramid, because it is less artificial; and a proof of its alleged antiquity may be deduced from the mere circumstance of its association with the Pyramids

V.

CHAP. of Egypt, even if the testimony of Herodotus were less explicit as to the remote period of its existence among Northern nations'.

Village of
Saccára.

We came to the wretched village of Saccára. Near to this place, towards the south, there is an antient causeway, composed of stones twelve yards wide, leading up the short ascent to the plain on which the Pyramids stand. Several of the Arabs left their huts to accompany us. When we reached the principal cluster of them, which is behind the village towards the west, we were conducted to the mouth of one of the Catacombs; and prepared for a descent, as into the mouth of a well, by means of a rope-ladder which we had brought with us for that purpose. The sandy surface of the soil was covered with a quantity of broken vessels of terra cotta, pieces of human bones, sculls, bits of antient glass, and heaps of ruins.

These Pyramids appear to be a continuation of the same great cœmetery to which those of Djiza also belonged. They extend four or fivé miles, both to the north and to the south of the

(1) See the account given by Herodotus of the Scythian mode of sepulture. Melpomene, c. 71.