DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0169
158
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
skill and labour to the meanest uses; and descend-
ing between the excavated columns, finds himself,
"without surprise or sorrow, in a large cleared
space, filled with grain, earthen jars, and Arabs.
The gigantic columns, with their lotus-leaved cap-
itals, are familiar things; but among the devices
on the ceiling, his wandering eye is fixed by cer-
tain mysterious characters which have been called
the signs of the zodiac, and from which speculators
in science have calculated that the temple was
built more than six thousand years ago, before the
time assigned by the Mosaic account as the begin-
ning of the world.
But this little town contains objects of more in-
terest than the ruins of a heathen temple; for
here, among the bigoted followers of Mohammed,
dwell fifty or sixty Christian families ; being the
last in Egypt, and standing on the very outposts
of the Christian world. They exhibited, however,
a melancholy picture of the religion they profess.
The priest was a swarthy, scowling Arab, and, as
Paul said, looked more like a robber than a pastor.
He followed us for bucksheesh, and, attended by a
crowd of boys, we went to the house of the bishop.
This bishop, as he is styled by courtesy, is a mis-
erable-looking old man ; he told us he had charge
of the two churches at Esneh, and of all the Chris-
tians in the world beyond it to the south. His
flock consists of about two hundred, poor wan-
derers from the true principles of Christianity, and
knowing it only as teaching them to make the sign
of the cross, and to call upon the Son, and Virgin,
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
skill and labour to the meanest uses; and descend-
ing between the excavated columns, finds himself,
"without surprise or sorrow, in a large cleared
space, filled with grain, earthen jars, and Arabs.
The gigantic columns, with their lotus-leaved cap-
itals, are familiar things; but among the devices
on the ceiling, his wandering eye is fixed by cer-
tain mysterious characters which have been called
the signs of the zodiac, and from which speculators
in science have calculated that the temple was
built more than six thousand years ago, before the
time assigned by the Mosaic account as the begin-
ning of the world.
But this little town contains objects of more in-
terest than the ruins of a heathen temple; for
here, among the bigoted followers of Mohammed,
dwell fifty or sixty Christian families ; being the
last in Egypt, and standing on the very outposts
of the Christian world. They exhibited, however,
a melancholy picture of the religion they profess.
The priest was a swarthy, scowling Arab, and, as
Paul said, looked more like a robber than a pastor.
He followed us for bucksheesh, and, attended by a
crowd of boys, we went to the house of the bishop.
This bishop, as he is styled by courtesy, is a mis-
erable-looking old man ; he told us he had charge
of the two churches at Esneh, and of all the Chris-
tians in the world beyond it to the south. His
flock consists of about two hundred, poor wan-
derers from the true principles of Christianity, and
knowing it only as teaching them to make the sign
of the cross, and to call upon the Son, and Virgin,