placed by the side of this, is the well-known Cistern which was formerly called the "Lover's Fountain," and stood near to the Castle of Kallat el Kabsh in Grand Cairo'. Other remains of the same nature, less perfectly preserved, came from Upper Egypt; whence they were brought by the French to Alexandria. It had been somewhat loosely affirmed, that the Egyptians always buried their dead in an upright posture: and the author, noticing this egregious error in his "Testimonies concerning Alexander's Tomb," maintained that the opinion could neither be reconciled with the appearance of the Tombs of the Kings of Thebes, nor with the evidence afforded by the principal Pyramid at MEMPHIS'. Since that publication appeared, Mr. Hamilton has incontestably proved that the affirmation was loose indeed, for that the Egyptians never buried their dead in an upright posture'. A writer, however, in one of the Monthly (3) See a correct representation of it, as engraved in Bowyer's Work, entitled Sir Robert Ainslie's Collection of Views in Egypt, &c. from Drawings by Luigi Mayer. (4) Tomb of Alexander. Introd. p. 7. Camb. 1805. (5) See p. 227, Note (7), of this Volume. See also Hamilton's Ægyptiaca, p. 317. Lond. 1809. "It was evident," says Mr. Hamilthat the bodies had been placed horizontally, not upright: consequently the passage of Silius Italicus, quoted to assist the ton, contrary Journals', attacked the author for having disputed, although upon his own ocular demonstration, the upright position of the bodies. ઃઃ Surely," said he, "it will surprise the reader, to learn, that one of the principal writers by whom the fact above alluded to has so loosely been affirmed, was Herodotus." It might, indeed, surprise any reader, if this were true: but the assertion is groundless, and altogether founded upon the most glaring misconception of the text of that author; as it is not only admitted by every scholar, but decidedly manifested by the appearance of the bodies in the sepulchres of EGYPT. Herodotus does not say that they were placed upright in the tombs, but in the private houses of the Egyptians, after the persons employed to embalm the body had delivered it into the care of the relatives. It is well known that the Egyptians frequently kept the bodies of their dead, after the funeral rites were performed, for a long time, in this manner in their dwellings. Sometimes they made them to be contrary supposition, must have alluded to the posture in which the deceased were kept, while yet retained in the houses of their relations." The same is maintained by PAUW: Philos. Diss. vol. II. p.39. Lond. 1795. (1) See the Critical Review for July 1805. vol. V. No. 3. p. 276. (2) See Pauw, Philos. Dissert. vol. II. p. 39. Lond. 1795. present at their feasts'. And hence it is, that Herodotus, alluding to this practice, says, the relations take the body home, and place it in a chamber appropriated for its reception, "setting it upright against the wall." Upon these last words, the absurd notion was founded of its upright position in the sepulchres of the country; a notion entirely exploded, and contradicted by the evidence of the sepulchres themselves. Upon reviewing the observations made upon the Grecian Theatres, the author is aware that they might have been more collectively disposed, instead of being dispersed in different parts of his Work: but the business of a traveller requires, that he should register facts, rather than write dissertations: if his remarks be deemed worth preserving, others will not be wanted, hereafter, to collect the scattered materials, and give them a more connected form. (3) -"Et à mensis exsanguem haud separat umbram." Sil. Ital. lib. xiii. (4) Ἱστάντες ὀρθὸν πρὸς τοῖχον. Herodot. Hist. lib. ii. c. 86. p. 120. Lond, 1679. Cambridge, May 24th, 1814. Remains of an Edifice with Pointed Arches, at Acre; from Arabs raising Water from the Nile into their Plantations; Entrance to the Amnis Trajanus from the Nile; from . . 135 The Obelisk of Heliopolis, near Caïro; from a Drawing made upon the Spot by the Author; etched by Letitia Byrne. CHAP. V.. to face 143 Remarkable Form of one of the Pyramids of Saccára; as designed by the Author . 209 Antient Egyptian Sepulchre, having the Hemispherical 220 221 |