Memoirs, (chiefly autobiographical), from 1798 to 1886 / edited by his son Thomas More Madden.

  • Richard Robert Madden
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoirs, (chiefly autobiographical), from 1798 to 1886 / edited by his son Thomas More Madden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    ourselves by bis side. The presents which Mr. Salt was charged to present on behalf of the Indian Government were brought in. These were extolled by all the Court. Coffee was handed°round, and after a long conversation our audience terminated. The Pasha appeared a hale, good-looking old man, with nothing but his piercing eyes to redeem his countenance from vulgarity. When I was in the antechamber I had all the officers of the Viceroy gathered round telling me their disorders, and only got away at last by promising to physic the whole Court gratis next morning. A day or two afterwards I made the customary expedition to the pyramids, visited “ Pharoon’s coffin,” and ascended the great pyramid. Hence I gazed with a delight I can still recall on the wide prospect that was outstretched, from the base of the pyramid to the distant tombs of Saccara, along the verdant valley of the Nile, fertility- everywhere following its course. Before me was the chain of the Mokattam, at its foot the mosques and minarets of Cairo, and the sites of Babylon and Heliopolis. Behind was the Libyan Desert, dreary and desolate, an ocean of sand agitated by burning winds, and traversed only by the descendants of him whose “ hand was lifted against all men, and every man’s hand against him.” [From Cairo Dr. Madden proceeded up to Thebes, and thence along the Nile on to Assouan, the last town in Egypt.] We arrived at Philce after a fatiguing walk from Assouan in the heat of noon day, and crossing over to the island, took up our quarters in a deserted Nubian hut within the precincts of the great Temple. The beauty of the scenery around this enchanting isle compensated us for all our toil from Alexandria to the cataract. It was indeed the only spot in the journey where scenery deserved to he called sublime. The granite rocks, in a thousand mystic forms, rise from the Nile at its western extremity, and are beautifully con- trasted with the picturesque effects of the palm-trees and magnificent structures of Philce ; indeed the whole island seems to be a delightful garden studded with obelisks and the ruins of stately temples. Every trace of Arab civilization, and that is little enough, is lost at the cataracts. Neighbouring villages are at war, and towns not twenty miles distant have been in hostility for ages. This accounts for every man being armed. Every man must have his shield and spear on his arm if he has only to cross his fields; and a man would as soon think of going into his neighbour’s bouse without his skull cap as without his weapons. Whilst I remained at PhiltB I was continually pestered, and more especially by the Nubian women, with entreaties for physic. They all imagined I effected cures by supernatural agency, and they considered a waraga, or triangular scroll, inscribed with some outlandish figures, a better remedy for every complaint, from lovesickness to ophthalmia, than any of my drugs.