e into being must
pass away again. The young men and maidens go to their
places; the sun riseth at dawn, and setteth again in the
hills of the west. Men beget and women conceive. The
children, too, go to the places which are appointed for
them. O, then, be happy! Come, scents and perfumes are
set before thee: _mahu_-flowers and lilies for the arms
and neck of thy beloved. Come, songs and music are before
thee. Set behind thee all cares; think only upon
gladness, until that day cometh whereon thou shalt go
down to the land which loveth silence."

Horemheb must often have heard this song sung in his palace at Thebes by
its composer; but did he think, one wonders, that it would be the walls
of his own tomb which would fall down, and his own bones which would be
almost as though they had never existed?

PART IV.

THE PRESERVATION OF THE TREASURY.

"Laugh and mock if you will at the worship of stone
idols, but mark ye this, ye breakers of images, that in
one regard the stone idol bears awful semblance of
Deity--the unchangefulness in the midst of change--the
same seeming will, and intent for ever and ever
inexorable!... And we, we shall die, and Islam will
wither away, and the Englishman straining far over to
hold his loved India, will plant a firm foot on the banks
of the Nile and sit in the seats of the Faithful, and
still that sleepless rock will lie watching and watching
the works of the new busy race, with those same sad
earnest eyes, and the same tranquil mien everlastingly."
--KINGLAKE: _Eothen_ (1844).

CHAPTER X.

THEBAN THIEVES.

Thebes was the ancient capital of Egypt, and its ruins are the most
extensive in the Nile Valley. On the east bank of the river, at the
modern towns of Luxor and Karnak, there are the remains of mighty
temples; and on the west bank, in the neighbourhood of the village of
Gurneh, tombs, mortuary chapels, and temples, literally cover the
ground. The inhabitants of these three places have for generations
augmented their incomes by a traffic in antiquities, and the peasants of
Gurneh have, more especially, become famous as the most hardy pilferers
of the tombs of their ancestors in all Egypt. In conducting this
lucrativ