nes until I was almost tired of the journey, which
in the darkness seemed interminable; nor had I any idea where the
carpenter was leading me. At last, after a fatiguing walk, we descended
suddenly into a place something like a gravel pit, one side of which was
closed by the perpendicular face of a low cliff, in which a doorway half
filled up with rubbish betokened the existence of an ancient tomb. By
the side of this doorway sat a little boy, whom I discovered by the
light of the moon, which had just risen, to be the carpenter's son, an
intelligent lad, who often came to pay me a visit in company with his
father. It was here that the Coptic manuscripts were concealed, and it
was a spot well chosen for the purpose; for although I thought I had
wandered about the Necropolis of Thebes in every direction, I had never
stumbled upon this place before, neither could I ever find it
afterwards, although I rode in that direction several times.

I now produced from my pocket three candles, which the carpenter had
desired me to bring, one for him, one for his son, and one for myself.
Having lit them, we entered into the doorway of the tomb, and passing
through a short passage, found ourselves in a great sepulchral hall. The
earth and sand which had been blown into the entrance formed an inclined
plane, sloping downwards to another door sculptured with hieroglyphics,
through which we passed into a second chamber, on the other side of
which was a third doorway, leading into a magnificent subterranean hall,
divided into three aisles by four square columns, two on each side.
There may have been six columns, but I think there were only four. The
walls and columns, or rather square piers which supported the roof,
retained the brilliant white which is so much to be admired in the tombs
of the kings and other stately sepulchres. On the walls were various
hieroglyphics, and on the square piers tall figures of the gods of the
infernal regions--Kneph, Khonso, and Osiris--were portrayed in brilliant
colours, with their immense caps or crowns, and the heads of the jackal
and other beasts. At the further end of this chamber was a stone altar,
standing upon one or two steps, in an apsis or semicircular recess. As
this is not usual in Egyptian tombs, I have since thought that this had
probably been altered by the Copts in early times, and that, like the
Christians of the West in the days of their persecution, they had met in
secret in the tombs fo