o the dry
bones of Champollini, Wilkinson, and Lane. Putting aside its crude
notions of Egyptology, and its wild speculations on religious topics, we
must be prepared to admire its fresh and finely-coloured word pictures,
the glow and power of which are surprising. Miss Martineau went up the
Nile to Philae; she afterwards crossed the desert to the Red Sea, landed
in Arabia, and ascended Mounts Sinai and Horeb; and, finally, explored
a portion of the shores and islands of the Mediterranean. We must pause
in our rapid narrative to give a specimen or two of the sketches she
made on the way; they will show how a strong and vivid genius can deal
with the incidents of travel, and what a record of it may become in the
hands of a skilful and accomplished artist.

Let us take her description of the Sphinx--the Sphinx that for some
thousands of years has held mute companionship with the Great
Pyramids:--

"The full serene gaze of its round face, rendered ugly by the loss of
the nose, which was a very handsome feature of the old Egyptian
face--this full gaze, and the stony calm of its attitude almost turn one
to stone. So life-like, so huge, so monstrous; it is really a fearful
spectacle. I saw a man sitting in a fold of the neck--as a fly might
settle on a horse's mane. In that crease he reposed, while far over his
head extended the vast pent-house of the jaw; and above that, the
dressed hair on either side the face--each bunch a mass of stone which
might crush a dwelling-house. In its present state its proportions
cannot be obtained; but Sir G. Wilkinson tells us, 'Pliny says it
measured from the belly to the highest part of the head sixty-three
feet; its length was one hundred and forty-three; and the circumference
of its head round the forehead one hundred and two feet; all cut out in
the natural rock, and worked smooth.' Fancy the long well-opened eyes,
in such proportion as this--eyes which have gazed unwinking into
vacancy, while mighty Pharaohs, and Hebrew law-givers, and Persian
princes, and Greek philosophers, and Antony with Cleopatra by his side,
and Christian anchorites, and Arab warriors, and European men of
science, have been brought hither in succession by the unpausing ages to
look up into those eyes--so full of meaning, though so fixed!"[39]

* * * * *

At Damascus she visited a Turkish harem, and her account of the visit
the reader will find some interest in comparing with Mada