DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0132
114 A THOUSAND MILES UP TUB NILE.
inscriptions of royal ovals, of Hathor-heads of mitered
hawks, of lion-headed chimeras, of divinities and kings in
has-relief, cover the shafts of the great columns from top
to bottom; and even here, every accessible human face,
however small, has been laboriously mutilated.
Bewildered at first sight of these profuse and mysterious
decorations, we wander round and round; going on from
the first hall to the second, from the second to the third;
and plunging into deeper darkness at every step. AVc
have been reading about these gods and emblems for
weeks past—we have studied the plan of the temple
beforehand; yet now that we are actually here, our book
knowledge goes for nothing, and we feel as hopelessly
ignorant as if we had been suddenly landed in a new world.
Not till we have got over this first feeling of confusion—•
not till, resting awhile on the base of one of the columns,
we again open out the plan of the building—do we begin to
realize the purport of the sculptures by which we are
surrounded.
The ceremonial of Egyptian worship was essentially pro-
cessional. Heroin we have the central idea of every
temple and the key to its construction. It was bound to
contain store-chambers in which were kept vestments,
instruments, divine emblems, and the like; laboratories for
the preparation of perfumes and unguents ; treasuries for
the safe custody of holy vessels and precious offerings;
chambers for the reception and purification of tribute in
kind ; halls for the assembling and marshaling of priests
and functionaries; and, for processional purposes, cor-
ridors, staircases, court-yards, cloisters, and vast inclosures
planted with avenues of trees and surrounded by walls
which hedged in with inviolable secrecy the solemn rites of
the priesthood.
In this plan, it will be seen, there is no provision made
for anything in the form of public worship; but then an
Egyptian temple was not a place for public worship. It
was a treasure-house, a sacristy, a royal oratory, a place of
preparation, of consecration, of sacerdotal privacy. There,
in costly shrines, dwelt the divine images. There they
were robed and unrobed; perfumed with incense; visited
and worshiped by the king. On certain great days of the
calendar, as on the occasion of the festival of the new
year, or the panegyrics of the local gods, these images
inscriptions of royal ovals, of Hathor-heads of mitered
hawks, of lion-headed chimeras, of divinities and kings in
has-relief, cover the shafts of the great columns from top
to bottom; and even here, every accessible human face,
however small, has been laboriously mutilated.
Bewildered at first sight of these profuse and mysterious
decorations, we wander round and round; going on from
the first hall to the second, from the second to the third;
and plunging into deeper darkness at every step. AVc
have been reading about these gods and emblems for
weeks past—we have studied the plan of the temple
beforehand; yet now that we are actually here, our book
knowledge goes for nothing, and we feel as hopelessly
ignorant as if we had been suddenly landed in a new world.
Not till we have got over this first feeling of confusion—•
not till, resting awhile on the base of one of the columns,
we again open out the plan of the building—do we begin to
realize the purport of the sculptures by which we are
surrounded.
The ceremonial of Egyptian worship was essentially pro-
cessional. Heroin we have the central idea of every
temple and the key to its construction. It was bound to
contain store-chambers in which were kept vestments,
instruments, divine emblems, and the like; laboratories for
the preparation of perfumes and unguents ; treasuries for
the safe custody of holy vessels and precious offerings;
chambers for the reception and purification of tribute in
kind ; halls for the assembling and marshaling of priests
and functionaries; and, for processional purposes, cor-
ridors, staircases, court-yards, cloisters, and vast inclosures
planted with avenues of trees and surrounded by walls
which hedged in with inviolable secrecy the solemn rites of
the priesthood.
In this plan, it will be seen, there is no provision made
for anything in the form of public worship; but then an
Egyptian temple was not a place for public worship. It
was a treasure-house, a sacristy, a royal oratory, a place of
preparation, of consecration, of sacerdotal privacy. There,
in costly shrines, dwelt the divine images. There they
were robed and unrobed; perfumed with incense; visited
and worshiped by the king. On certain great days of the
calendar, as on the occasion of the festival of the new
year, or the panegyrics of the local gods, these images