Queer Things about Egypt

Front Cover
J.B. Lippincott Company, 1911 - 428 pages

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 169 - Nay, but this dotage of our general's O'erflows the measure : those his goodly eyes, That o'er the files and musters of the war Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn The office and devotion of their view Upon a tawny front...
Page 245 - It contains two .kinds of rooms, some under ground and some above ground over them, to the number of three thousand, fifteen hundred of each. The rooms above ground, I myself went through, and saw, and relate from personal inspection. But the underground rooms I only know from report ; for the Egyptians who have charge of the building would, on no account, show me them, saying, that there were the sepulchres of the kings who originally built this labyrinth, and of the sacred crocodiles. I can therefore...
Page 173 - I wish it paid to him, and to no one except Fadius. I think that amount was put into my hands, and I have written to Eros to produce it. I can't stand the Queen: and the voucher for her promises, Hammonius, knows that I have good cause for saying so. What she promised, indeed, were all things of the learned sort and suitable to my character — such as I could avow even in a public meeting. As for Sara, besides finding him to be an unprincipled rascal, I also found him inclined to give himself airs...
Page 245 - I myself saw ; for the passages through the corridors, and the windings through the courts, from their great variety, presented a thousand occasions of wonder as I passed from a court to the rooms, and from the rooms to halls, and to other corridors from the halls, and to other courts from the rooms. The roofs of all these are of stone, as also are the walls ; but the walls are full of sculptured figures. Each court is surrounded by a colonnade of white stone, closely fitted.
Page 376 - Neferkere, who liveth forever and ever. Thou hast said in this thy letter, that thou hast brought a dancing dwarf of the god from the land of spirits, like the dwarf which the treasurer of the god Burded brought from Punt in the time of Isesi. Thou hast said to my majesty: "Never before has one like him been brought by any other who has visited Yam.
Page 244 - Yet the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids. For it has twelve courts enclosed with walls, with doors opposite each other, six facing the north, and six the south, contiguous to one another ; and the same exterior wall encloses them. It contains two kinds of rooms, some under ground and some above ground over them, to the number of three thousand, fifteen hundred of each. The rooms above ground I myself went through and saw, and relate from personal inspection. But the underground rooms I only...
Page 245 - That it is made by hand and dry, this circumstance proves, for about the middle of the lake stand two pyramids, each rising fifty orgyae above the surface of the water, and the part built under water extends to an equal depth : on each of these is placed a stone statue, seated on a throne.
Page 316 - Tuat or Under-world was a long, narrow valley which ran parallel with Egypt, and was neither above nor below the level of this earth. It had a river flowing through the whole length of it. This valley began on the west bank of the Nile, ran due north, bent round towards the east when the Delta was approached, and terminated at the place where the sun rose. It was divided into ten sections, and at each end was a sort of vestibule or chamber. The ante-chamber, at its beginning, was called Amentet,...
Page 245 - The water in this lake does not spring from the soil, for these parts are excessively dry, but it is conveyed through a channel from the Nile, and for six months it flows into the lake, and six months out again into the Nile.
Page 244 - Now, they determined to leave in common a memorial of themselves ; and having so determined, they built a labyrinth, a little above the lake of Moeris, situated near that called the city of Crocodiles ; this I have myself seen, and found it greater than can be described. For if any one should reckon up the buildings and public works of the Grecians, they would be found to have cost less labour and expense than this labyrinth ; though the temple in Ephesus is deserving of mention, and also that in...

Bibliographic information