RUINS OF ZOAN-FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. 97

and Mr Bonar, passing over some heaps of rubbish a few minutes' walk from the village, started a fox from its lair. Following after it, he found himself among low hills of loose alluvial matter, full of fragments of pottery, while beyond these lay several heaps of large stones, which on a nearer inspection he found to be broken obelisks and ruins of what may have been ancient temples-the relics of a glory that is departed. But darkness came on, and obliged him to return to the tent. It was a lovely moonlight night, and very pleasant it was to unite in prayer and in singing psalms amid the wild Arabs, in the very region where God had wrought so many wonders long ago. We read over Isaiah XIX, "The burden of Egypt," in our tent, and when we looked out on the paltry mud village of San, with its wretched inhabitants, we saw God's word ful

filled before our eyes. "Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish:" "Where are they? where are thy wise men?" "The princes of Zoan are become fools." The people of the modern village are extremely filthy and ignorant, famous for pilfering, and not to be trusted. Our sheikh and servants were a little afraid of them, and insisted on making one or two discharges of fire-arms, to instil a salutary awe into the villagers. They also kept watch round our tents the whole night, (one of them with a naked sabre, which lay by his side gleaming in the moonlight,) keeping one another awake by a low Arab chant.

(May 24, Friday.) At sunrise, we took a full survey of all that now remains of ancient Zoan. We found that the large mounds of alluvial matter which cover

1 Isa, XIX. 11-13

I

the ruins of brick and pottery, extend about two miles from east to west, and one mile and a half from north to south. The whole country round appeared to be covered not with sand, but with soil which might be cultivated to the utmost if there was water. The most remarkable relics of this ancient city lie at the western extremity. We came upon immense blocks of red granite lying in a heap. All had been hewn, some were carved, and some were still lying regularly placed one above another. Here probably stood the greatest temple of Zoan; and there seems to have been an open square round it. Possibly also a stream flowed through the very midst of the city, for at present there is the dry channel of a torrent. Further to the north, we found ten or twelve obelisks, fallen and prostrate, and two sphinxes, broken and half sunk into the ground. The finest of the obelisks was thirty feet long, the culmen unbroken, and the carving unimpaired. All were covered with hieroglyphics. Several had the symbol of Ibis, others of Anubis and Osiris. One of the sphinxes was thirteen feet long, and nearly perfect, the other was a fragment.

Towards the south were the remains of two columns having capitals of the Corinthian order, though in the form of the shaft there seemed to be an imitation of the lotus-leaf. Among the mounds we could clearly trace buildings of brick, the bricks still retain

RUINS OF ZOAN-LOADING OF THE CAMEL. 99

ing their original place. The remains of pottery, how

ever, were most remarkable, jars

of the ancient form without number, all broken into fragments, many of them bearing the clearest marks of the action of fire, shewing that God has literally fulfilled the word of the prophet, I will set fire in Zoan."1

Returning to our tents we found eight camels waiting for us, each attended by a Bedouin. This was our first trial of "the ship of the desert." The loading of the camel is a singular scene. At the word of command the animal sinks down upon the sand, with its limbs all crouched under it. A wooden frame is fastened on the highest part of the back, to which a net-work of ropes is commonly attached, for the convenience of enclosing luggage. A carpet and covering are then placed above, and form a soft saddle, upon which the rider must sit either astride or sideways, without stirrup or bridle, and balance himself according to the best of his ability. The camel often moans sadly during the time of mounting, and sometimes tries to bite. When it rises there is much danger of being thrown over its head, and then of being thrown the other way; and the Arabs are very careless in warning, for they say no one is hurt by a fall from a camel. All things being ready, we proceeded forward at the slow rate of somewhat less than three miles an hour. The long step of the camel causes a constant monotonous rocking of the body, which is very fatiguing at first, and our patience was tried by their incessantly bending down their swan-like necks to crop the dry prickly herbage of the desert. The

1 Ezek. xxx. 14. See Dr Keith's Evidences of Prophecy, p. 380, last edition.