DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0177
166
INCIDENTS OP TRAVEL.
out the imposing scene that was presented in the
crowded streets of the now desolate city, when,
with all the gorgeous ceremonies of pagan idol-
atry, the priests, bearing the sacred image of their
god, and followed by thousands of the citizens,
made their annual procession from temple to tem-
ple, and, " with harps, and cymbals, and songs of
rejoicing," brought back their idol and replaced
him in his shrine in the grand temple at Carnac.
The rambler among the ruins of Thebes will
often ask himself, "Where are the palaces of the
kings, and princes, and people who worshipped in
these mighty temples ?" With the devout though
degraded spirit of religion that possessed the Egyp-
tians, they seem to have paid but little regard to
their earthly habitations; their temples and their
tombs were the principal objects that engrossed
the thoughts of this extraordinary people. It has
been well said of them that they regarded the hab-
itations of the living merely as temporary resting-
places, while the tombs were regarded as perma-
nent and eternal mansions; and while not a vestige
of a habitation is to be seen, the tombs remain,
monuments of splendour and magnificence, perhaps
even more wonderful than the ruins of their tem-
ples. Clinging to the cherished doctrine of the
metempsychosis, the immortal part, on quitting its
earthly tenement, was supposed to become a wan-
dering, migratory spirit, giving life and vitality to
some bird of the air, some beast of the field, or
some fish of the sea, waiting for a regeneration ia
the natural body. And it was of the very essence
INCIDENTS OP TRAVEL.
out the imposing scene that was presented in the
crowded streets of the now desolate city, when,
with all the gorgeous ceremonies of pagan idol-
atry, the priests, bearing the sacred image of their
god, and followed by thousands of the citizens,
made their annual procession from temple to tem-
ple, and, " with harps, and cymbals, and songs of
rejoicing," brought back their idol and replaced
him in his shrine in the grand temple at Carnac.
The rambler among the ruins of Thebes will
often ask himself, "Where are the palaces of the
kings, and princes, and people who worshipped in
these mighty temples ?" With the devout though
degraded spirit of religion that possessed the Egyp-
tians, they seem to have paid but little regard to
their earthly habitations; their temples and their
tombs were the principal objects that engrossed
the thoughts of this extraordinary people. It has
been well said of them that they regarded the hab-
itations of the living merely as temporary resting-
places, while the tombs were regarded as perma-
nent and eternal mansions; and while not a vestige
of a habitation is to be seen, the tombs remain,
monuments of splendour and magnificence, perhaps
even more wonderful than the ruins of their tem-
ples. Clinging to the cherished doctrine of the
metempsychosis, the immortal part, on quitting its
earthly tenement, was supposed to become a wan-
dering, migratory spirit, giving life and vitality to
some bird of the air, some beast of the field, or
some fish of the sea, waiting for a regeneration ia
the natural body. And it was of the very essence