View my colossal features with amaze, But who my future destiny shall guess? Saint Paul's may lie-like Memnon's temple-low; And Thames, like Nile, through silent ruins flow. Then haply may my travels be renew'd :— To some new seat of empire in the west. Mortal!-since human grandeur ends in dust, In those blest realms--where nought shall pass away! (Lond. Mag.) BELZONI'S NARRATIVE OF HIS OPERATIONS AND RECENT DISCOVERIES IN EGYPT AND NUBIA. WE WE have never seen a work that more palpably bore on its face evidence of being dictated by a fearless, candid, and naturally judicious character. The author introduces himself to our acquaintance in a very unaffected manner, in a short preface. He tells us that he is not an Englishman, but that he preferred writing his book himself, to running the risk of having his meaning misrepresented by another: it is our duty to say, that he has succeeded in giving us a very perspicuous, amusing, and manly narrative; in which the manner is as lively as the details are important. No single individual has yet effected so much in the way of discovery and elucidation of those celebrated monuments of an antiquity, which was also antiquity to the generations that we term ancient; and the monuments of which surpass, in stupendous character, those of Greece and Rome, as much as these latter surpass our modern productions. Mr. Belzoni seems to be in possession of some absolute and peculiar faculty, at once adapt ing him for this sort of research, and impelling him to the perils and labours which are inevitably connected with it. He seems to have been directed to some of his most valuable conclusions by a sort of instinct, sharpening his external senses to indications that existed not for common observers, and suggesting a train of deduction from them quicker and surer than the usual course of reasoning. His style of narrative has the effect of exciting a strong interest in what relates to himself personally: and this is increased by the remarkable fact of his having been accompanied up the Nile by Mrs. Belzoni,-without the accommodation of servants and equipage, but as a married couple, taking by themselves a jaunt of pleasure or business in a civilized country y! only attendant was a young Irish lad. Their Mrs. Belzoni is, on more than one occasion, introduced to us in the attitude of presenting a pistol when necessary, and she seems to have made very light of the inconveniences and dangers of the journey. We owe to this lady an amusing appendix to her husband's work, under the title of " Mrs. Belzoni's trifling Account of the Women of Egypt, Nubia, and Syria.” The following is Mr. Belzoni's account of himself, his family, and the principal results of his labours in the East : am of a Roman family, which had resided My native place is the city of Padua : I there for many years. The state and troubles of Italy in 1800, which are too well known to require any comment from me, compelled me to leave it, and from that time I have visited different parts of Europe, and suffered many vicissitudes. The greater part of my younger days I passed in Rome, the former abode of my ancestors, monk; but the sudden entry of the French where I was preparing myself to become a army into that city altered the course of my education, and being destined to travel, I have been a wanderer ever since. My family supplied me occasionally with re- antiquity of that primitive nation. I suc- baster sarcophagus, found in the tombs of the kings, is on its way to England. It is due to the interests of science, as well as to the reputation and interests of this very meritorious individual, to enter an indignant protest against the cabals and persecutions, to the evil influence of which he has been exposed by the envy and cupidity of beings, who, destitute of his sagacity, courage, industry, grudged him the precious results of these qualities. The French Consul, Drouetti, and his agents, renegadoes, &c. of various nations, conducted themselves towards this solitary, and inoffensive traveller, in a spirit of intrigue and injustice, that, we regret to say, there are but too many examples of, under similar circumstances, staining the name of the nation in question. By Count Forbin, too, the present director of the Museum in France, our traveller has been most meanly treated. That weak-minded, small-souled person, had neither the sagacity to do any thing worth mentioning himself, nor the honour or grat48 ATHENEUM VOL. 14. itude to acknowledge what was done for him by another. Mr. Belzoni, however, unfortunately for these parties, can tell his own story in a plain but strong way: he has the ability to put the facts clearly before the public, -a circumstance which his enemies did not probably suppose likely, in consequence of Mr. B.'s not being a man of what is commonly called learning. He is, however, a man of shrewd sense, and that is often more to the purpose. But he has already secured for England some first-rate prizes,— objects whose names convey celebrity, or rather immortality,-and made discoveries which secure for himself that fame which must have been the chief animation to his exertions. We allude particularly to the Head of Memnon, which is now safely lodged in the British Museum; and the discovery of the entrance into the second pyramid-an operation suggested by infinite sagacity, and executed with a hardihood and industry unparalleled. - We shall make a few amusing extracts from this volume-chiefly calcu lated for the miscellaneous reader :those who are interested in the subjects must be referred by us to the work itself. Of the private life of the Bashaw of Cairo the following is a sketch :— The Bashaw is in continual motion, be ing sometimes at his citadel, and sometimes is his principal residence. His chief amuseat his seraglio in the Esbakie; but Soubra ment is in the evening a little before sunset, when he quits his seraglio, and seats himself on the bank of the Nile, to fire at an earthen pot, with his guards. If any of them hit it, he makes him a present, occasionally of forty or fifty rubles. He is himself an excellent marksman; for I saw him fire at and hit a pot only fifteen inches of the Nile, though the river at Soubra is high, set on the ground on the opposite side considerably wider than the Thames at Westminster Bridge. As soon as it is dark, he retires into the garden, and reposes either in an alcove, or by the margin of a fountain, or an European chair, with all his attendants round him, Here his numerous buffoons keep him in continual high spirits and good humour. By moonlight the scene was beautiful, I was admitted inte the garden whenever I wished, by which means I had an opportunity of observing the domestic life of a man, who from nothing rose to be viceroy of Egypt, and conqueror of the most powerful tribes of Ara bia. From the number of lights I frequently saw through the windows of the seraglio I supposed the ladies were at such times amusing themselves in some way or other. Dancing women were often brought to divert them, and sometimes the famous Catalani of Egypt was introduced. One of the buffoons of the Bashaw took it into his head one day, for a frolic, to shave his beard; which is no trifle among the Turks; for some of them, I really believe, would sooner have their head cut off than their beard: he borrowed some Franks' clothes of the Bashaw's apothecary, who was from Europe, and, after dressing himself in our costume, presented himself to the Bashaw as a European, who could not speak a single word either of Turkish or Arabic, which is often the case. Being in the dark, the Bashaw took him for what he represented himself to be, and sent immediately for the interpreter, who put some questions to him in Italian, which he did not answer: he was then questioned in French, but no reply; and next in the German and Spanish lan guages, and still he was silent: at last, when he saw that they were all deceived, the Bashaw not excepted, he burst out in plain Turkish, the only language he was acquainted with, and his well known voice told them who he was; for such was the change of his person, particularly by the cutting off his beard, that otherwise they could scarcely have recognized him. The Bashaw was delighted with the fellow; and to keep up the frolic, gave him an order on the treasury for an enormous sum of money, and sent him to the Kaciabay, to present himself as a Frank, to receive it. The Kaciabay started at the immensity of the sum, as it was nearly all that the treasury could furnish: but upon questioning this new European, it was soon perceived who he was. In this attire he went home to his women, who actually thrust him out of the door; and such was the disgrace of cutting off his beard, that even his fellow buffoons would not eat with him till it was grown again, Camel dealers in the East seem to be pretty much on a par with horse. dealers in the West. At an Arabian marriage, our author saw a dramatic entertainment performed, of which he gives the following account: When the dancing was at an end, a sort of play was performed, the intent of which was to exhibit life and manners, as we do in our theatres. The subject represented an Hadgee, who wants to go to Mecca, and applies to a camel-driver, to procure a camel for him. The driver imposes on him, by not letting him see the seller of the camel, and putting a higher price on it than is really asked, giving so much less to the seller than he received from the purchaser. A camel is produced at last, made up by two men covered with a cloth, as if ready to de part for Mecca. The Hadgee mounts on the camel, but finds it so bad, that he refus es to take it, and demands his money back again. A scuffle takes place, when, by chance, the seller of the camel appears, and finds that the camel in question is not that which he sold to the driver for the Hadgee. Thus it turns out, that the driver was not satisfied with imposing both on the buyer and seller in the price, but had also kept the good camel for himself, and produced a bad one to the Hadgee. In consequence he receives a good drubbing, and runs off-Simple as this story appears, yet it was so interesting to the audience, that it seemed as if nothing could please them better, as it taught them to be on their guard against dealers in camels, &c. This was the play, he says; the ridicule of the farce was directed against Europeans. The afterpiece represented a European traveller, who served as a sort of clown. He is in the dress of a Frank; and, on his travels, comes to the house of an Arab, who, though poor, wishes to have the appearance of being rich. Accordingly be gives orders to his wife, to kill a sheep immediately. She pretends to obey; but returns in a few minutes, saying, that the flock has strayed away, and it would be the loss of too much time to fetch one. The host then orders four fowls to be killed; but these cannot be caught. A third time, he sends his wife for pigeons; but the pig. eons are all out of their holes; and at last the traveller is treated only with sour milk and dhourra bread, the only provision in the house. Mr. Belzoni forcibly describes his view from the top of the first pyramid at sun-rise : We went there to sleep, that we might ascend the first pyramid early enough in the morning, to see the rising of the sun; and accordingly we were on the top of it long before the dawn of day. The scene here is majestic and grand, far beyond description: a mist over the plains of Egypt formed a veil, which ascended and vanished gradually as the sun rose and unveiled to the view that beautiful land, once the site of Memphis The distant view of the smaller pyramids on the south marked the extension of that vast capital; while the solemn endless spectacle of the desert on the west inspired us with reverence for the all-powerful Creator. The fertile lands on the north, with the serpentine course of the Nile, descending towards the sea; the rich appearance of Cairo, and its numerous minarets, at the foot of the Mokatam mountain on the east; the beautiful plain which extends from the pyramids to that city; the Nile, which flows magnificently through the centre of the sacred valley, and the thick groves of palm trees under our eyes; all together formed a scene, of which very imperfect ideas can be given by the most elaborate description. We descended to admire at some distance the astonishing pile that stood before us, composed of such an accumulation of enormous blocks of stones, that I was at loss to conjecture how they could be brought thither. Of the ruins of Thebes he says, "it appeared to me like entering a city of giants, who, after a long conflict, were all destroyed, leaving the ruins of their various temples as the only proofs of their former existence." Nothing, we think, can be more animating than the following description of one of the temples of this "hundred-gated"capital. Having then set the people to work in another direction, where also I had hopes, I took the opportunity to examine at leisure the superb ruins of this edifice. In a distant view of them nothing can be seen but the towering propylæa, high portals, and obelisks, which project above the various groups of lofty palm-trees, and even at a distance announce magnificence. On approaching the avenue of Sphinxes, which leads to the great temple, the visitor is inspired with devotion and piety: their enor mous size strikes him with wonder and re spect to the Gods, to whom they were dedicated. They represent lions with heads of rams, the symbols of strength and inno. cence, the power and purity of the Gods, Advancing farther in the avenue, there stand before it towering propylæa, which lead to inner courts, where immense colossi are seated at each side of the gate, as if guarding the entrance to the holy ground. Still farther on was the magnificent temple dedicated to the great God of the creation. It was the first time that I entered it alone, without being interrupted by the noise of the Arabs, who never leave the traveller an instant. Again. I had seen the temple of Tentyra, and I still acknowledge that nothing can exceed that edifice in point of preservation, and in the beauty of its workmanship and sculpture; but here I was lost in a mass of colossal objects, every one of which was more than sufficient of itself alone to attract my attention. How can I describe my sensations at that moment! I seemed alone in the midst of all that is most sacred in the world; a forest of enormous columns, adorned all around with beautiful figures, and various ornaments, from the top to the bottom; the graceful shape of the lotus, which forms their capitals, and is so well proportioned to the columns, that it gives to the view the most pleasing effect; the gates, the walls, the pedestals, the architraves, also adorned in every part with symbolical figures in bassa relievo and intaglio, repre senting battles, processions,triumphs, feasts, offerings, and sacrifices, all relating, no doubt, to the ancient history of the country; the sanctuary, wholly formed of fine red granite, with the various obelisks standing before it, proclaiming to the distant passenger, "Here is the seat of holiness;" the high portals, seen at a distance from the openings to this vast labyrinth of edifices; ples within sight; these altogether had the various groups of ruins of the other temsuch an effect upon my soul, as to separate me in imagination from the rest of mortals, exalt me on high over all, and cause me to forget entirely the trifles and follies of life. I was happy for a whole day, which escaped like a flash of lightning; but the obscurity of the night caused me to stumble over one large block of stone and to break my nose against another, which, dissolving the enchantment, brought me to my senses again. But his description of what he encountered in the galleries of the mummies is, for picturesque effect, more striking than any other passage in the book, and with this our extracts from it must close. What a place of rest! surrounded by bodies, by heaps of mummies in all directions, which, previous to my being accustomed to the sight, impressed me with horror. The blackness of the wall, the faint light given by the candles or torches for want of air, the different objects that surrounded me, seeming to converse with each other, and the Arabs with the candles or torches in their hands naked and covered with dust, themselves resembling living mummies, absolutely formed a scene that cannot be described. In such a situation I found myself several times, and often returned exhausted and fainting, till at last became inured to it and indifferent to what I suffered, except from the dust, which never failed to chook my throat and nose, and though, fortunately, I am destitute of the sense of smelling, I could taste that the mummies were rather unpleasant to swallow. After the exertion of entering into such a place, through a passage of fifty, a hundred, three hundred, or perhaps six hundred yards, pearly overcome, I sought a resting-place, found one, and contrived to sit; but my weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, it crushed it like a band-box. I naturally had recourse to my hands to sustain my weight, but they found no better support; so that I sunk altogether among the broken mummies, with a crash of bones, rags, and wooden cases, which raised such a dust as kept me motionless for a quarter of an hour, waiting till it subsided again. I could not remove from the place, however, without increasing it, and every step I took I crushed a mummy in some part or other. Once I was conducted from such a place to another resembling it, through a passage of about twenty feet in length, and no wider than that a body could be forced through. It was choaked with mummies, and I could not pass without putting my face in contact with that of some decayed Egyptian; but as the passage inclined downwards, my own weight helped me on: however, I could not avoid being covered with bones, legs, arms, and heads rolling from above. Thus I proceeded from one cave to another, all full of mummies piled up in various ways, some standing, some lying, and some on their heads. The purpose of my researches was to rob the Egyptians of their papyri: of which I found a few hidden in their breasts, under their arms, in the space above the knees, or on the legs, and covered by the numerous folds of cloth, that envelop the mummy. A superb volume of plates accompanies the work, which may be purchased or not, at pleasure. [An ingenious and useful book for youth, on the above and other interesting subjects, embellished with 24 copperplate engravings, has been just published by Munroe and Francis, Boston, entitled Fruits of Enterprize exhibited in the Travels of Belzoni in Egypt and Nubia, interspersed with the observations of a Mother to her Children," who acknowledges her obligations to the enterprising traveller for politely permitting the use of his materials. This excellent work should be in the hands of every parent.] WE (Lit. Gaz.) DE COMINES' MEMOIRS.* WHEN we introduced this book a few Numbers back, we intimated our design of making it better known to general readers than it has ever been; but could only partially complete that purpose, owing to the appearance of publications, whose claims were of a more temporary nature. We now however return to De Comines for some illustrating and pleasing extracts, still keeping in view their bearing on Quentin Durward. approach of old age to Louis XI. and his death are singular sketches:— The ---"He began now to decline in his age, and to be subject to infirmity, and as he was sitting at dinner one day at Forges, near Chynon, he was seized on a sudden with a fit that took away his speech. Those who were about him took him from the table, held him to the fire, shut up the windows, and though he endeavoured to get to them for the benefit of the air, yet imagining it for the best, they would not suffer him to stir. It was in March 1479, when this fit seized upon him after this manner, which deprived him of his speech, understanding, and memory." Some remedies being applied, and the windows being opened by the lord of Vienne, "to give him fresh air, he came a little to himself immediately, recovered his speech and his senses in some measure, and mounting on horseback, he returned to Forges, for he was taken with this fit in a small village about a quarter of a league off, whither he went to hear mass. He was diligently attended, and made signs for every thing he wanted: among other things, he desired the official of Tours to come and take his confession, and made signs that he should he sent for, for I was gone to Argenton about ten leagues off: upon my return I found him at the table, and with him Monsieur Adam Fumée (physician to the late King Charles, and at present master of the requests,) and one Monsieur Claude, another physician. He made signs that I should lie in his chamber; he understood little that was said to him, and his words were not intelligible; but he felt no manner of pain. I waited on him above a month at the table, and in his chamber as one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber, which I took for a great honour, and it gave me great reputation. At the end of two or three days, he began to recover his speech and his senses; he fancied nobody understood him so clearly as myself, and therefore would have me always to attend him. He confessed himself to the official in my presence, for otherwise he could not have understood what he had said: there was no great matter in his confession, for he had been at confession a few days before, because whenever the Kings of France touch for the king's evil, they confess themselves first, and he never missed touching once every week, and if other princes do not the same, I think they are highly to blame: for * London 1823. |