st the deep blue sky, with their
towering gateways, gay flags floating from tall flagstaves in front of
them, and great obelisks pointing to the sky; and our pilot says that
this is Memphis, one of the oldest towns in the country, and for long
its capital. Not far from Memphis, three great pyramid-shaped masses of
stone rise up on the river-bank, looking almost like mountains; and the
pilot tells us that these are the tombs of some of the great Kings of
long past days, and that all around them lie smaller pyramids and other
tombs of Kings and great men.

But we are bound for a city greater even than Memphis, and so we never
stop, but hasten always southward. Several days of steady sailing carry
us past many towns that cluster near the river, past one ruined city,
falling into mere heaps of stone and brick, which our pilot tells us was
once the capital of a wicked King who tried to cast down all the old
gods of Egypt, and to set up a new god of his own; and at last we see,
far ahead of us, a huge cluster of buildings on both sides of the river,
which marks a city greater than we have ever seen.

As we sweep up the river we see that there are really two cities. On the
east bank lies the city of the living, with its strong walls and towers,
its enormous temples, and an endless crowd of houses of all sorts and
sizes, from the gay palaces of the nobles to the mud huts of the poor
people. On the west bank lies the city of the dead. It has neither
streets nor palaces, and no hum of busy life goes up from it; but it is
almost more striking than its neighbour across the river. The hills and
cliffs are honeycombed with long rows of black openings, the doorways of
the tombs where the dead of Thebes for centuries back are sleeping. Out
on the plain, between the cliffs and the river, temple rises after
temple in seemingly endless succession. Some of these temples are small
and partly ruined, but some are very great and splendid; and, as the
sunlight strikes upon them, it sends back flashes of gold and crimson
and blue that dazzle the eyes.

[Illustration: Plate 2
THE GODDESS ISIS DANDLING THE KING. _Page 18_]

But now our galley is drawing in towards the quay on the east side of
the river, and in a few minutes the great sail comes thundering down,
and, as the ship drifts slowly up to the quay, the mooring-ropes are
thrown and made fast, and our long voyage is at an end. The Egyptian
Custom-house officers come on board to examine