AND LOWER EGYPT. 167 



earth upon which they generally erect their 

 dweliings. When 1 was at Demlera, this modern 

 village was desolated and overthrown ; its ruins 

 ot hardened mud formed a singular contrast with 

 the magnificent remains of the ancient city of 

 Tentyrls. We beheld there with sorrow the most 

 complete proof of the total annihilation of the 

 arts, in a country which had given birth, and 

 such an astonishing perfection, to them, and the 

 gtill more deplorable decline of the human muid. 



An establishment of barbarous men could not 

 fail to be fatal to the monument which they pro- 

 faned by their presence, rather than overloaded it 

 w ith the weight of their flimsy huts. A number 

 of figures have disappeared under the efforts of 

 the detestation which they have avowed of the 

 arts in general, and of the representations of ani- 

 mated nature in particular. AH those of the 

 figures which were within their reach arc de- 

 stroyed. Those of the ceiling, and those on the 

 heights of the walls, have been spared, from the 

 impossibility of getting at them. But the fellahs 

 have not been the only people who took delight 

 in mutilating one of the most beautiful and inte- 

 resting works of antiquity; they were aided i.i 

 their rage for destruction by the troops of Cairo, 

 who, to serve an usurping and sanguinary bey, 

 pften went into Upper Egypt to search for, and 



M ^ tu 



