40 EXTRACT FROM A JOURNAL, DURING 



turning hence, after visiting some rooms to our 

 right, we went through a pyjssage to the left that 

 led to an apartment, where we in vain endeavored 

 to maintain our ground against a host of bats, that 

 finally obliged us to resume the course of this pas- 

 sage, which led by many steps of easy ascent, and 

 many windings round their centre, to tl^.e summit 

 of the temple ; in approaching which it branches off 

 to the right and left, the latter opening to a corri- 

 dore, within which was a sanctuary, through the 

 floor of which a perforation afforded light to a part 

 of the temple which had not fallen under our obser- 

 vation. On the ceiling of this corridore, which is 

 about twenty feet long, and half that breadth, is a cu- 

 rious female figure sculptured in rehevo, represented 

 in a bent, exttndtd posture. The limbs, though dis- 

 proportioned, are particularly beautiful : it is in the 

 highest preservation, and worthy peculiar attention. 

 By some steps projecting from the rear of the peri- 

 style, we ascended to its summit, whence we com- 

 manded a fine view of the country, Ginnie, our 

 camp, and the meanderings of the river; in our 

 rear was a spacious burial ground ; beyond an ex- 

 tensive desert. The intervening distance to the 

 Nile was covered with rushes, and a thorny weed 

 which gave the country a verdant appearance, and 

 supplied the place of a luxuriant cultivation. 

 The numerous villages, each shaded by its grove of 

 dates, afforded a faint conception of an Indian 

 scene, but the sterility of the neighbouring deserts 

 that bounded the contracted landscape, forbade.the 

 indulgence of the pleasing comparison. 



On the slabs arc cut the names of several French 

 travellers, who visited the place in 1779, and one 

 of a democrat, dated the year eight. 



Leaning over the temple, I discovered, on the 



