before. Light is admitted by apertures in the roof, for little illumination could ever hope to penetrate from the northern front. In this we took more than a passing interest because it was our first hypostyle hall name long productive of awe-struck expectancy because of the celebrity of the great halls of Karnak. Doubtless that in the latter temple is immensely more extensive, but it will be difficult, surely, to afford a more impressive sight than that dim and lofty corridor in Hathor's fane.

Penetrating still farther into the shrine, you come to a series of great antechambers, facing the last of which is the actual sanctuary of the goddess herself. It occupies the very centre of the building and is open only at the front. When the religion was in its power, only the king might penetrate to the Holy of Holies—and he but once a year. All about the central chamber we found a narrow corridor, from which opened a dozen small apartments once used by the priests for various purposes, doubtless in part as robing-rooms and storehouses for the temple treasure. Everywhere was the omnipresent hieroglyphic record, a sealed book save for the interpretations of Raschid, representing the various phases of the worship - the goddess carried in procession in her silver boat, attended by priests and dignitaries.

I cannot now remember all that he told us, and I

am not sure that it would be worth while. One would be hopelessly dazed if one attempted to memorize all these carved and painted representations that adorn the walls of Egypt. But I have gained, I think, a lively conception of the Egyptian temples as they stood in the later days- majestic stone buildings, totally inclosed in high outer walls, and containing, after passing many courts and antechambers, one dark and narrow cell in the heart of the huge structure, which was the very pulse of the machine, so to speak the sacred place where abode the god or goddess, and where none might go save only the high priest and devotee of the god.

Taken as a stupendous whole, such a temple is highly impressive, its golden-brown stones mellowed by time, its majestic proportions fully satisfying the eye, and its grand propylon admirably setting off the picture. To have seen one of these great places of worship in the time of its glory, the throng of worshipers streaming to and fro, the royal priest advancing in procession with all the attendant trappings, and the banners of state flapping from the six tall staves that once were set before the massive pylon must it not have been truly glorious and inspiring?

At Dendera one is permitted to ascend to the roof above and to the crypts beneath- and each is well worth doing. From the roof, which is reached by a

long and gradual staircase in the massive thickness of the wall, you may gaze far out over the billowing desert to infinite distances under the glare of the sun, or back toward the river over that carpet of vivid green. Besides, you get a better idea than before of the massiveness of the temple with its roof of solid stone. In one corner of the level roof there is also a tiny and graceful shrine sacred to Isis and Osiris, for one might not ignore those potent deities even in joyous Dendera. And in the inclosure below there lies in abject ruin, half buried in the intruding débris, a so-called "birth house" devoted to the children of the goddess.

Everybody goes down to the crypt, or nearly everybody, although the way thither is very narrow and excessively steep, not to say fearsomely dark. Our Seventy had a difficult time deciding which should go first, for the dragoman would admit no more than fifteen or twenty at a time, owing to the constricted quarters below and the difficulty of seeing well what decoration remains. Our party descended in successive squads with many squeals. By the light of magnesium wire we were allowed to view some very ancient paintings on the stone walls which are as fresh and fair as if laid on yesterday; but it is the freshness that is chiefly remarkable. Merely as art, neither the paintings nor the carvings on the walls

of Dendera rank with the magnificent work at Sakkâra, whatever shall prove to be true of the kindred temples we are daily approaching in the South. In short, it is not the detail that one finds most impressive at Dendera, but rather the grand ensemble of the temple, especially when seen from within as one gazes down its vistas of dark aisles amid the forest of massive columns. The one bit of detail that seems to have impressed everyone is the incised carving of Cleopatra and her son Cæsarion, — the great Julius was his putative sire, — which are still to be seen on the rear outer wall of the shrine. It should be remembered, however, that these are by no means "portraits," so that not much historic interest is to be awakened by them. They are simply huge and rather grotesque carvings representing a world-famous queen and her son.

The Professor, Katrina, and I rode leisurely back to the ship together, rejoicing in having seen at last something that spoke of joy and life. Hitherto we have been shown almost nothing but tombs and mummified remains, and the shadow of it had fallen across our otherwise blithe spirits. There really is something rather gruesome about traversing a mighty cemetery, hundreds of miles in length, marked only by empty tombs hewn out of the eternal rock, without a vestige of the cities and abodes of the living

men of that past day. Dendera has given us something new a glimpse of the worship of that joyous goddess whom the Greeks identified with their own deity of love and delight.

We left at noon. Late in the day we came to rest at the long landing-stage of Luxor, the goal of many dreams; and to-night we lie moored safely below the long line of glittering hotels. We are away ahead of time, because, as Raschid says of our pilots, "they are very skilled men, very smart; they have not stuck on no sand-bars!" Of the lions of the place - the temples we have of course seen little as yet. That is reserved for to-morrow and the days thereafter. Sufficient unto the day has been the wandering through Luxor's narrow streets and the inspection of the deep gardens of those famous hostelries, where grows real grass!

Besides, there is the prospect of a moon- and moonlight visits to Karnak are said to be among God's last best gifts to man.