EDFOU.

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sailors, provided with stout sticks, to accompany us,
headed by Achmet himself, and our man-servant; and,
alas! we carefully took off our watches and rings,
and the few trinkets and little valuables one cared for
most, and put them by in our cabins, as we thought, in
safety. Then we sallied forth en masse, without hats,—
for it was a very sultry stifling night, — and had a plea-
sant walk over the fields for about three-quarters of an
hour before we reached the magnificent Temple. It
has gigantic pylons, and a huge square, with an interior
peristyle of thirty-two columns ; then comes a splendid
portico of lofty and richly carved pillars, which looked
mysteriously beautiful in the strong lights from the
torches, and the deep black conflicting shadows thrown
by the bright moonbeams: then we mounted on the
roof, in order to survey the wide extent of the Temple,
and looked down on the great courts, into which burning
wood was thrown to show us, though dimly, their depth
and width. The view thence, too, in the calm clear
moonlight, was serenely pretty; from the lofty platform
on which we stood we looked over the village, which lay
in a hollow below us, over a mile or so of field
between us and the river bank, and then across the
river, shining in silver lustre, to the dark dim moun-
tains on the other side. The bank was much too high
to admit of our seeing the dahabiehs, but we remarked
to each other that the sailors had lit a more than usually
large fire on the bank, by the light of which our flags
were gaily illuminated; but in another minute that
seemingly trifling idea was forgotten. We lingered a
little in the Temple, and then walked quickly through
the village, stopping only to observe a circle of Der-
wishes performing a zikr, or sacred dance; about
twenty of them joined hand in hand, jerking their

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