Egypt (La Mort de Philae) (Hardcover)

Text extracted from opening pages of book: E G Y P T ( LA MORT DE PHIL E) BY PIERRE LOTI TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY W. P. BAINES WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY A. LAMPLOUGH NEW YORK DUFFIELD & COMPANY 1910 CONTENTS CHA* TR PAOM I. A WINTER MIDNIGHT BEFORE THE GREAT SPHINX 1 II. THE PASSING OF CAIRO 15 HI. THE MOSQUES OF CAIRO 29 IV, THE HALL OF THE MUMMIES 41 V. A CENTRE OF ISLAM .59 VI. IN THE TOMBS OF THE APIS 75 VII. THE OUTSKIRTS OF CAIRO 91 VIII. ARCHAIC CHRISTIANITY 103 IX. THE RACE OF BRONZE 117 X, A CHARMING LUNCHEON 129 XI. THE DOWNFALL OF THE NILE .... 147 XII. IN THE TEMPLE OF THE GODDESS OF LOVE AND JOY 161 XIII. MODERN LUXOR 175 XIV. A TWENTIETH-CENTURY EVENING AT THEBES . 191 V vi Contents OBULPTER PAC XV. THEBES BY NIGHT XVI. THEBES IN SUNLIGHT 2 XVII. AN AUDIENCE OF AMENOPHIS II. ... 3 XVUI. A* THEBES IN THE TEMPLE OF THE OoEtEBs 5: XIX. A TOWN PROMPTLY EMBELLISHED ... 27, XX. THE PASSING OF PHHWE 81 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PHIL/ E PRESENT DAY . . . . . . Frontispiece THE SPHINX FROM THE DESERT ... To face page 10 A VIEW OF THE CITADEL 22 A CAIRO STREET SCENE 32 A DISTANT VIEW OF THE PYRAMIDS ... 80 SUNSET ON THE BANKS OF THE NILE . 152 THE COLOSSI OF MEMNON 440 THE CATARACT AT ASSOUAN .... 278 A WINTER MIDNIGHT BEFORE THE GREAT SPHINX CHAPTER I A WINTER MIDNIGHT BEFORE THE GREAT SPHINX A NIGHT wondrously clear and of a colour unknown to our climate; a place of dreamlike aspect, fraught with mystery. The moon of a bright silver, which dazzles by its shining, illumines a world which surely is no longer ours; for it resembles in nothing what may be seen in other lands, A world in which every thing is suffused with rosy colour beneath the stars of midnight, andwhere granite symbols rise up, ghostlike and motionless. Is that a hill of sand that rises yonder? One can scarcely tell, for it has as it were no shape, no outline; rather it seems like a great rosy cloud, or some huge, trembling billow, which once perhaps raised itself there, forthwith to become motionless for ever. . . . And from out this kind of mummified wave a colossal human effigy emerges, rose-coloured too, a name less, elusive rose; emerges, and stares with fixed eyes and smiles. It is so huge it seems unreal, as if it were a reflection cast by some mirror hidden in the moon. . . . And behind this mon 4 ster face, far away in the rear, on the top of those undefined and gently undulating sand hills, three apocalyptic signs rise up against the sky, three rose-coloured triangles, regular as the figures of geometry, but so vast in the distance that they inspire you with fear. They seem to be luminous of themselves, so vividly do they stand out in their clear rose against the deep blue of the star-spangled vault. And this ap parent radiation from within, by its lack of like lihood, makes them seem more awful. And all around is the desert; a corner of the mournful kingdom of sand. Nothing else is to be seen anywhere save those three awful things that stand there upright and still the human likeness magnified beyond all measurement, and the three geometric mountains; things at first sight like exhalations, visionary things, with nevertheless here and there, and most of all in the features of the vast mute face, subtleties of shadow which show that it at least exists, rigid and immovable, fashioned out of imperishable stone. Even had we not known, we must soon have guessed, for thesethings are unique in the world, and pictures of every age have made the know ledge of them commonplace: the Sphinx and the Pyramids But what is strange is that they should be so disquieting. . . . And this per