362 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



In the sacred trinity — Isis, Osiris, and Horus — to whom the 

 temple of Philse was dedicated, Isis stood supreme. " Isis, the great 

 goddess, the queen of heaven, sovereign of all gods and goddesses, 

 who with her son Horus and her brother Osiris is worshipped in 

 every city; the exalted, divine mother, the spouse of Osiris, she is 

 the queen of Philae." Such is the tenor of the inscriptions in the 

 temple itself. But records in all the different kinds of writing that 

 were in use at various epochs of Egyptian history tell also of the 

 changes which have befallen the temple in the course of ages, down 

 to the time when the Christian priests, who had succeeded the 

 servants of Isis, were driven from the sanctuary by hordes of 

 immigrant Arabs. 



To-day the greater part of Philse is in ruins. Instead of the 

 solemn chant of the priests, one hears only the simple song of the 

 desert-lark; but the waves of the stream still roar in their strength 

 as they did thousands of years ago. The island is desolate, but the 

 peace of the temple has remained to it. And, in spite of all changes, 

 island and temple are still the jewel of the first cataract.'^^ 



For some distance upwards from this point the Nile is free from 

 rocks, yet quite incapable of bestowing its blessing upon the shore. 

 Laboriously man endeavours to force from the stream what is else- 

 where so lavishly bestowed. Wheel after wheel creaks as it raises 

 the life-giving water to the narrow fringe of cultivation along the 

 banks. But in most places the desert and the rocks press so closely 

 on the river that no space is left for field or grove of palms. For long 

 stretches one sees nothing but stunted weeds, between which the 

 yellow drift-sand rolls ceaselessly down, as though it would help 

 the desert even here to a victory over the sacred giver of fruitful 

 land. 



To the south of Wady Haifa, the most southern village of the 

 tract above mentioned, the stream again rages among impeding 

 rocky islands. Countless masses of stone, blocks and cones of rock, 

 compel the river to divide its forces; the eye is bewildered by a 

 chaos of rock and water, the like of which is to be seen nowhere else. 

 When the water is high, the roar of the waves whirling and surging 

 between the rocks drowns the human voice; the river rumbles and 



