the ornamentation.

In the centre of the facade rose a great building flanked by two wings
surmounted by a roof in the form of a truncated triangle. A broad,
deeply cut moulding of striking profile ended the wall, in which was
visible no opening other than a door placed, not symmetrically in the
centre, but in the corner of the building, no doubt to allow ample space
for the staircase within. A cornice in the same style as the entablature
surmounted this single door. The building projected from a wall on which
rested like balconies two stories of galleries, resembling open
porticoes, composed of pillars singularly fantastic in style. The bases
of these pillars represented huge lotus-buds, from the capsule of which,
as it opened its dentelated rim, sprang the shaft like a giant pistil,
swelling below, more slender at the top, girdled under the capital by a
collar of mouldings, and ending in a half-blown flower. Between the
broad bays were small windows with their sashes in two parts filled with
stained glass. Above ran a terraced roof flagged with huge slabs of
stone.

On the outer galleries great clay vases, rubbed inside with bitter
almonds and closed with leaves, resting upon wooden pedestals, cooled
the Nile water in the draughts of air. Tables bore pyramids of fruits,
sheaves of flowers and drinking-cups of different shapes; for the
Egyptians love to eat in the open air, and take their meals, so to
speak, upon the public street. On either side of the main building
stretched others rising to the height of one story only, formed of a row
of pillars engaged half-way up in a wall divided into panels in such a
manner as to form around the house a shelter closed to the sun and the
gaze of the outer world. All these buildings, enlivened by ornamental
paintings,--for the capitals, the shafts, the cornices, and the panels
were coloured,--produced a delightful and superb effect.

The door opened into a vast court surrounded by a quadrilateral portico
supported by pillars, the capitals of which showed on each face a
woman's head, with the ears of a cow, long, narrow eyes, slightly
flattened noses, and a broad smile; each wore a thick red cushion and
supported a cap of hard sandstone. Under the portico opened the doors of
the apartments, into which the light came softened by the shade of the
galleries. In the centre of the court sparkled in the sunshine a pool of
water, edged with a margin of Syene granite. On the surface of