Whatever is connected with Napoleon possesses deep interest. The engraving prefixed which represents the tomb of this distinguished man in the Island of St. Helena, will be found upon close examination to exhibit a strange phenomenon, being his full-length portrait in his favourite musing attitude. As we have selected this subject in order to exercise the ingenuity of our readers, we will not lessen their curiosity by any further explanation, remarking only that when they have traced the mystery they will admire its excellence not less than its singularity.
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A VISIT TO THE PYRAMIDS.
We have selected from Mrs. Elwood’s account of her overland journey to India, the following pleasant narrative: —
The 2nd of May was the day appointed for our pic-nic to the Pyramids. We started long before day-break, and traversed the streets of Cairo by the lurid light of flambeaux. Soon after we passed the gates of the city, the stars “’gan to pale their ineffectual light,” and “young-eyed day” appeared in the east, whilst a flood of liquid amber proclaimed the approach of the sun, and every minaret, cupola, and airy grove of date-trees was tinged with a roseate hue, or burnished with living gold. The air was fresh even to coolness, as we were ferried over the Nile, and right glad were we to hail the glorious luminary as he appeared above the horizon. The travellers passed the island of Rhoda, the village of Ghiza, and then crossed a very fertile plain, covered with corn, where we could have imagined the Pyramids were close to us; but their immensity deceived us, for they were still several miles distant. We then came to a barren tract, where were goats browsing, buffaloes ruminating, camels grazing, and several Bedouin encampments. The men were “sitting in the tent-door in the heat of the day;” the women were within, working at the mill, and making bread. The Sheiks came forward and saluted us most respectfully, and when they saw me, they called out “Haram.” As we wound along the plain, you cannot conceive how picturesque our party appeared. The heavily-armed Janissaries; Osman in his Mameluke dress; some of our English friends in their splendid Turkish costumes, rich in scarlet and crimson, green, blue, and gold; our Turkish, Arab, and Indian attendants, whose dark complexions, wild countenances and fantastic dresses, harmonized well with the scene, and I could have fancied we were a caravan bound to Mecca, or a party flying to the Desert for safety. I, in my English attire, was the only humdrum among the whole, and perhaps the only one who could have walked the streets in London without being mobbed. By the time
“The sultry sun had gained the middle sky,”
we came into the neighbourhood of the Sphinx; —the Sphynx, of which every one has heard so much; and here the soil presented such immense fissures, and such heavy beds of sand, that whilst wrapped no doubt in some very sublime speculation, down fell my donkey, and over its head went I. * * * * The Sphynx presented an African countenance, and her hair was dressed much in the same style with my Nubian friends in the slave-market. The sand, which at times has been cleared away, has again collected, and it was at this time nearly embedded in it. We
