The Modern Traveller: A Popular Description, Geographical, Historical, and Topographical of the Various Countries of the Globe, Volume 1James Duncan, 1827 - Africa |
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Common terms and phrases
Aboukir Ægyptus Alexandria ancient appears Arabian Arabs army banks beautiful brick Bubastis built called canal capital chamber Cheops Christian Clarke colour Coptic Copts covered cubits Damietta Delta desert distance Djizeh dynasty east eastern Egmont Egyptian Ency erected feet Fostat French granite Greek height Heliopolis Henniker Herodotus hieroglyphics honour houses inches inhabitants inscription inundation Khalif king lake land Libyan Lower Egypt Malte Brun Mamlouks Manetho Memphis Menouf ment Metrop miles Mizraim Mohammed mosque mounds mountains mouth native nearly Nile Norden obelisk Old Cairo Pasha passage passed Pelusium pillars plain Pococke probably province Ptolemy pyramids reign remains remarks rendered Richardson river rock Roman Rosetta round rubbish ruins Saladin Salt sand says seems Serapis shew side soil Sphinx square stone Strabo sultan supposed Syria temple Thebes throne tion tombs town Travels Turks Upper Egypt valley village Volney walls
Popular passages
Page 302 - Thy form stupendous here the gods have placed, Sparing each spot of harvest.bearing land ; And with this mighty work of art have graced A rocky isle, encumber'd once with sand ; And near the Pyramids have bid thee stand : Not that fierce Sphinx that Thebes erewhile laid waste. But great Latona's servant mild and bland ; Watching that prince beloved who fills the throne Of Egypt's plains, and calls the Nile his own. That heavenly monarch [who his foes defies], Like Vulcan powerful [and like Pallas...
Page 270 - As human nature's broadest, foulest blot, Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat With stripes, that Mercy with a bleeding heart Weeps, when she sees inflicted on a beast. Then what is man? And what man, seeing this, And having human feelings, does not blush And hang his head, to think himself a man?
Page 296 - I here saw the original of many of Homer's battles, the portrait of some of the historical narratives of Herodotus, and one of the principal ground-works of the description of Diodorus : and, to complete the gratification, we felt that had the artist been better acquainted with the rules and use of perspective, the performance might have done credit to the genius of a Michael- Angelo or a Julio Romano.
Page 171 - From that time, like everything else which falls into the hands of the Mussulman, it has been going to ruin, and the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope gave the deathblow to its commercial greatness.
Page 99 - ... continued to preserve their accustomed order and tranquillity. The victorious soldier repeated his blows : the huge idol was overthrown, and broken in pieces ; and the limbs of Serapis were ignominiously dragged through the streets of Alexandria. His mangled carcase was burnt in the amphitheatre, amidst the shouts of the populace ; and many persons attributed their conversion to this discovery of the impotence of their tutelar deity.
Page 50 - upon opening the oldest history in the world, we find the Ishmaelites from Gilead, conducting a caravan loaded with the spices of India, the balsam and myrrh of Hadramaut, and in the regular course of their traffic proceeding to Egypt for a market. The date of this transaction is more than seventeen centuries before the Christian era, and notwithstanding its antiquity, it has all the genuine features of a caravan crossing the desert at the present hour
Page 302 - In front of the temple was a granite altar, with one of the four ' horns' still retaining its place at the angle. From the effects of fire evident on the stone, this altar, it would seem, had been used for burnt-offerings. On the side of the paw of the great Sphinx were cut several indistinct inscriptions in Greek characters, addressed to different deities, one of which appeared to be a mere play upon words; another commencing with the usual phrase...
Page 280 - They tell you that he is not sanguinary ; men grow tired of shedding blood, as well as of other pleasures ; but if the cutting off a head would drop gold into his coffers, he would not be slow to give the signal. 'His laugh has nothing in it of nature; how can it have ? I can hear it now,— a hard sharp laugh, such as that with which strong heartless men would divide booty torn from the feeble. I leave him to his admirers.
Page 153 - So far from improving, as far as we could hear and see, he is ruining and impoverishing his country. He has got rid of his Turks and Albanians, and flatters himself his new levy is a master-stroke of policy. He does not pay, and will never attach them ; and if they do not (which I think probable) desert with their arms, and disturb his conquests and possessions above the cataracts, they will die away as a body, and fall to pieces in a very short period of time.
Page 247 - To describe the interior of the city," says Dr. Clarke, " would only be to repeat what has often been said of all Turkish towns, with this difference ; that there is not, perhaps, upon earth, a more dirty metropolis. Every place is covered with dust ; and its particles are so minute, that it rises into all the courts and chambers of the city. The streets, destitute of any kind of pavement, appear like a series of narrow, dusty lanes between walls.