Dancing is the poetry of motion. It must be performed with ease and grace, and always with a perfect regard for propriety of movement. As an art, it is taught by professed masters; and one of the leading rules given to the learner is to raise and lower himself gracefully on the elastic part of his feet-that is, the toes; never to leap or come down on the whole sole or heels; also to keep exact time to the music. Dancing This is a round game at cards, the term round mean-is therefore a simple and elegant gliding on the toes, ing that it can be played by a large party round a table. The number most suitable is from seven to thirteen.

both ladies pass to the gentlemen's side, while the gen- | the dance begins, the plan is for each person to perform tlemen pass at their backs to the ladies' side; all again set, and return to their places.

5. Pousette. This signifies that the two top couples respectively join hands, each couple dancing round the other.

6. Down the Middle. The top couple go down hand in hand and return, stopping one couple lower than they commenced.

7. Casting off is the lady going down behind the ladies, and the gentleman behind the gentlemen, and returning to their places.

There are English, Irish, and Scotch country dances; but we know of no distinction among them except the tunes. All vary less or more in their figures. In each, however, as already observed, the plan is followed of the first or top couple dancing with each following couple in succession to the bottom of the room; and as soon as a sufficient number of couples are disengaged at top, another couple commences, and so on through the whole party. The following is an outline of the figures in a few of the more popular country dances. It will be understood that we always refer to what each couple does in succession:

Voulez vous Dancer, Mademoiselle.-Set and change sides, down the middle, up again, and pousette. John of Paris.-Right and left, down the middle, up again, and pousette.

Captain Fleming.-Hands across, down the middle, up again, and hands four round.

The Honeymoon.-Hands three round on the ladies' side, then on the gentlemen's side, down the middle, up again, pousette, right and left.

The Triumph.-Down the middle and up again; then the lady down with the next gentleman; her partner follows: the two gentlemen now lead the lady up between them, taking hold of her hands by one hand, and joining their other hands over her head; pousette.

Petronella. First couple move to the right into the middle, and set; to the right again, and set at the side; to the right again, and set in the middle; to the right again to places; down the middle, up again, and pousette.

Caper Fey.-Top couple go down backs and up again; down the middle and up again; set, and turn corners, and reel on the sides.

The Legacy-Hands three round on the ladies' side; then on the gentlemen's side; down the middle and up again; set in the middle, and turn with both hands.

the figure of eight by winding round the others, and setting to partners alternately. The music of course guides the time for the setting and the moving.

Highlanders dance reels with great agility, and are fond of introducing the steps ordinarily called the Highland Fling, which is of the character of dancing on each foot alternately, and flinging the other in front and behind the leg which is dancing.

Quadrilles.

These are modern dances of French origin, comparatively tranquil in character, and very suitable for small domestic parties. They are danced by four couples, or eight persons, a couple standing on each side of a square. The lady is always on the gentleman's right. There are many sets of quadrilles, the figures in each varying from the others; but in by far the greater number of instances one set is adhered to, which is termed Payne's first set. This set, of which we present an outline, consists of four figures, and a finale. The couples at top and bottom first perform a figure; then it is performed by the others; and so on.

La Pantalon.-First right and left, set and turn partners; ladies' chain, which is performed by the two ladies giving their right hands to each other, and changing places; then their left hands to the gentlemen, and turn round; and the same back again to places. Now promenade (each couple holding hands crossed) to the opposite side; then half right and left back to places.

L'Ete. The first lady and opposite gentleman advance and retire, dance to the right, then to the left, cross over, lady and gentleman changing places. Dance to the right and left, cross again to their own places, and turn their partners. The second lady and first gentleman do the same.

The

La Poule. The first lady and opposite gentleman cross over, giving their right hands; back again, giving their left and then right to their partners, and set, forming a line; promenade to opposite places. two who began advance and retire; advance a second time; the lady curtsies and the gentleman bows, and return. The two couples advance and retire; half right and left to their original places.

The

La Trenise.-Ladies' chain; set and turn partners; first couple advance and retire; advance again; the gentleman returns, leaving the lady on the left of the opposite gentleman; the two ladies pass or cross to the opposite side, changing to opposite corners, during which the gentleman passes between them, and sets. ladies cross over again, and pass to opposite corners, while the gentleman returns to his place, and sets. The first couple set and turn. During these performances, the gentleman at the bottom of the dance stands still. The movement being finished, a similar figure is performed by himself and partner.

Sir Roger de Coverley, or the Haymakers.-Top lady and the bottom gentleman advance to the centre of the dance, turn with both hands, and back to their places; the first gentleman and bottom lady do the same; the top lady and bottom gentleman again advance, turn with the right hand, and back to places; then the top gentleman and bottom lady do the same; top lady and bottom gentleman advance and turn with left hand, and La Finale. All eight dance or chassé across, changback to places; the top gentleman and bottom lady doing places with their partners, and set at the corners; the same. The top lady and bottom gentleman advance, back again to places, and set. After this, L'Ete is the gentleman bows and the lady curtsies; the top gentle- danced, concluding with chassé across. man and bottom lady do the same. The top lady and bottom gentleman advance, and pass back to back; top gentleman and bottom lady do the same. The top couple turn, the lady to the right and the gentleman to the left; all the ladies following the lady, and all the gentlemen following the gentleman to the bottom of the room, where they meet their partners and lead up the centre of the room. The top couple then half pousette with each couple, till they reach the bottom of the dance.

Scotch Reels.

These are rapid and rather fatiguing, but not ungraceful dances. They are danced by three, four, five, or six persons; but four is best, and most common. The foursome reel is danced very much according to fancy; the two couples commencing by placing themselves opposite each other, or in a line, with the two ladies in the middle, back to back. In whichever way

This finale is danced in another way. All eight promenade round the room to their own places. The first and second couple advance and retire; advance again, the gentlemen taking the opposite ladies, or exchanging partners. Ladies' chain; advance and retire; advance again, reclaiming partners, and promenade. This is called the gallopade finale.

The preceding embraces nearly all dances usually performed in private parties and balls of an ordinary kind. In the higher class of assemblies, various foreign dances are introduced, such as waltzes, mazourkas, pas seuls, minuets, and gallopades; but of these it is unnecessary to offer any description, as they require careful training under a master. Latterly, a new dance, called the Polka, has been introduced; it appears to be a combination of a waltz and an Irish jig, and we should think will never become popular, however fashionable it may be considered.

ARCHEOLOGY.

THE term Archaeology, though sufficiently definite | and comprehensive in its original meaning, was confined, until a comparatively recent period, to the study of Greek and Roman art. The word, however, literally signifies the description of ancient things, and it has now been universally adopted in its largest sense to give name to the science which deduces history from the relics of the past.

The recent adoption of this term to characterise the pursuits of the antiquary marks a new era in the study of antiquities, in which it has been reduced to an intelligible and comprehensive system based on philosophic induction. By this it has been at the same time elevated to its proper rank as a science, and rendered generally acceptable as a popular branch of study. Archæology, however, is no newly-discovered science. It has its origin in the natural cravings of the human mind to master the secrets of the mysterious past, no less than of the mysterious future: it forms an essential branch of the historian's studies: it enters largely into the inquiries of the ethnologist, or investigator of the various races of the human family; and into those of the philologist, or analyser of their numerous languages. We accordingly find evident traces of an archæological spirit in the literature of every civilised nation; and generally it exhibits the strongest symptoms of development during periods most marked by rapid progress in the arts of civilisation. It manifested itself at the revival of letters in the sixteenth century, by a return to classic models. Its present tendency throughout Europe seems to be, if not to a total abandonment of these models, at least to a preference for medieval art, and a desire to carry out its ideas to a more perfect development.

from the narrow views which induced them to investigate with untiring zeal the natural history of a mammoth or a plesiosaurus, and yet allowed them to despise the equally accessible evidence from whence we may recover the history of our own race. While, however, the rude burial mounds, or the chance revelations of the later alluvial deposits, disclose to us traces of uncivilised tribes to whom we must assign a very remote date, the speculations of the archaeologist, as well as the earliest investigations of the historian, into the records of nations, find their first unquestionable data among the monuments of Egyptian civilisation.

EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES.

The ancient monuments of Egypt arrest attention and impress the mind no less by their intrinsic excellence as the creations of human genius, than by the remote antiquity with which they are associated. We dwell with interest on British monuments of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and look beyond that date as into a remote and comparatively unknown era, the memorials of which are mostly crumbled into dust. But on turning to the pyramids, temples, and tombs of Egypt, we look upon the monuments of a people whose civilisation is anterior to the eldest-written records, and whose edifices preserve to us memorials contemporary with the patriarchal age, when the fathers of the Hebrew monarchy dwelt in tents, or groaned under the hard bondage of Egyptian taskmasters.

to this. The formation of the skulls of mummies found in the catacombs no less distinctly exhibit the characteristics of the Caucasian variety, which so remarkably contrasts with all the cranial developments of the true African race. We are left to conjecture in assigning that remote period during the infancy of nations, when the first Asiatic colony settled on the banks of the Nile. It suffices, however, for our present purpose to know that, from the ascertained dates of its early history, there can be no doubt Egypt was one of the first countries brought under a fixed social and political system, and where an associated community successfully pursued the arts of civilisation.

It may naturally excite surprise that the remotest evidences of civilisation should be discovered on the African continent. All writers, however, who have investigated the subject, agree in assigning an Asiatic origin to the ancient Egyptians. Their features, their The history of archæology bears a very near resem-language, and many of their peculiarities, clearly point blance to that of its elder sister-science, geology, to which, indeed, it has in many respects a close analogy. They are like two successive series of links in the same chain of reasoning, the earliest data of the archæologist being found exactly where those of the geologist endin the debateable land of the later alluvial formations. An intelligent geologist, in describing a recent visit to the Newcastle Museum, thus clearly recognises the labours of the archeologist as applying to the human era the same inductive speculations which his own science treats of in relation to a still earlier state of things:- As I passed in the geological apartment from the older Silurian to the newer Tertiary, and then on from the newer Tertiary to the votive tablets, sacrificial The date assigned as the epoch of Menes, or Men, altars, and sepulchral memorials of the Anglo-Roman the earliest Egyptian ruler of whom any trustworthy gallery, I could not help regarding them as all belong-notice has descended to modern times, is about 2000 ing to one department. The antiquities piece on in natural sequence to the geology; and it seems but rational to indulge in the same sort of reasonings regarding them. They are the fossils of an extinct order of things newer than the Tertiary: of an extinct raceof an extinct religion-of a state of society and a class of enterprises which the world saw once, but which it will never see again. And with but little assistance from the direct testimony of history, one has to grope one's way along this comparatively modern formation, guided chiefly, as in the more ancient deposits, by the clue of circumstantial evidence.'

Such is the rank among the inductive sciences which is at length being justly conceded to the pursuits of the archeologist. Like the geologist, he deals with records of a period prior to written annals, and traces out the history of ages heretofore believed to be irrecoverable. He deals, it is true, with a recent period, when contrasted with geological eras: but from this he derives the strongest claim to general interest in his pursuits. Intelligent thinkers are shaking themselves free No. 93.

years B.C.; an era nearly corresponding with the time fixed by Biblical chronologists for the foundation of the kingdom of Assyria by Nimrod, and with the commonly-received commencement of the historic chronology of the Chinese empire. With the solitary exception of the very slight notices recorded in the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis, all attempts to retrace the records of our race beyond this period have hitherto been based on mere conjecture, unsupported by evidence, although, according to the received chronology of Biblical critics, a period of fully 2000 years intervenes between the era of Menes, the founder of the Egyptian monarchy, and the origin of the human race. Between these two important dates, however, we learn from the Sacred Writings of the destruction of the ancient world by the Deluge, and the recommencement of the human race from one family, according to the accepted chronology, 2348 years B.C.; and about a century later, of the dispersion of the builders of Babel on the plain of Shinar, and the subdivision of the human family into distinct and rival communities. Within

673

The

a vault beneath the bottom of the pyramid. Some in-
telligible idea of this vast structure will be conveyed
by describing its base as occupying an area almost
exactly corresponding to that of Lincoln's-Inn Fields,
London, measured to the houses and to the wall of
Lincoln's-Inn Garden, while its summit towers to an
altitude of 119 feet above the Cross of St Paul's.
oldest monuments of Egypt,' says Wilkinson, and
probably of the world, are the pyramids to the north
of Memphis; but the absence of hieroglyphics and of
every trace of sculpture, precludes the possibility of
ascertaining the exact period of their erection, or the
names of their founders. From all that can be col-
lected on this head, it appears that Suphis and his
brother Sensuphis erected them about the year 2120
B.C.' The probable uses for which these vast structures
were designed have been the subject of much discus-
sion, and repeated attempts have been made to prove
their construction for astronomical purposes. The fact,
however, of their being found only to contain sarco-
phagi and their mouldering contents, with the collec-
tion alongside of the largest pyramids, of many of
small dimensions, and the whole grouping along with
catacombs, notoriously constructed as places of sepul-
ture, seem to point them out as the tombs of royal
founders. This is still further confirmed by the great
care with which the passages to the sepulchral cham-
bers have invariably been found closed up and con-
cealed, so that even now the majority of them appear
never to have been entered. (See vignette to No. 55.)

less than two centuries and a-half after this latter | historian was informed that its founder was interred in event the history of Egypt commences, as a community possessed of political institutions and social arts. The researches of modern archæologists have done much to free the early history of Egypt from the fables and inconsistent traditions derived chiefly from the narrations of the priests, and preserved in the writings of Herodotus, Manetho, and others. These placed the era of Menes several thousand years farther back, and furnished a list of intervening kings and dynasties whose history bears the usual mythic characteristics of the traditions of infant nations. Modern research has corrected rather than rejected these historic traditions. It is now thought probable that several, if not the whole, of Manetho's dynasties, which seemed to give countenance to the remote era assigned by the priests to the reign of Menes, were not successive, but contemporaneous, the Valley of the Nile having then been divided into various independent kingdoms. By the labours of Champollion, Wilkinson, and other modern students of Egyptian archæology, aided by recent fortunate discoveries, hereafter referred to, something like a satisfactory chronological series of the kings of Egypt from the time of Menes has been made out. The study, however, is still in its infancy. It dates its commencement within the present century; and its progress has not been accelerated by the excessive zeal of M. Champollion, the professor of Egyptian antiquities in the College of France, who, either from a too sanguine fancy, or from even less creditable causes, announced the discovery of more than any one else has been able to substantiate from the data on which his disclosures are founded. (See No. 55.)

The characteristics of the great Valley of the Nile at once account for its early occupation by the human race, and its becoming the seat of one of the first kingdoms which grew out of the natural tendency of man towards social union. The Valley of the Nile includes, along with the Delta, an area of about 17,000 square miles of cultivable land. The climate during the greater part of the year is salubrious. The annual overflowing of the Nile reduces agricultural operations to little more than the sowing of the seed in spring, and the reaping of the abundant harvest which it yields in an early autumn. While the country is so isolated as to be protected by natural barriers from the ready encroachments of hostile armies, it is most advantageously situated for commercial intercourse with other nations. Hence it is that, after repeated conquests, and under the most tyrannical and oppressive forms of government, Egypt has never become extinct like the great empires of Asia. With some slight amelioration of the suicidal exactions of despotic rulers, it has again and again given evidence of renewed vitality; and holding as it does the real key to the commerce of the East, the indirect and partial command of which was the source of all the greatness of Venice and the Italian republics of the fourteenth century, it can hardly be doubted that Egypt only needs the advantages of social civilisation and free institutions, to resume her ancient place among the empires of the world.

Pyramids.

The Pyramids of Egypt, which have attracted the curious traveller for ages, are already so familiar by numerous descriptions and views, that it is hardly necessary, in an epitome like this, to do more than name them, and refer to their gigantic proportions. The two largest of the pyramids of Jizeh are the most stupendous masses of building that human labour has ever accomplished. According to the information communicated to Herodotus by the priests of Memphis, the largest of these was built by Cheops, whom Wilkinson conceives to have been the Suphis of Manetho. Like too many of the evidences of human power and skill, the Great Pyramid remains a monument of tyranny and oppression: 100,000 men were employed during twenty years in its construction; and the great

There are numerous pyramids of various sizes in Nubia. The Temple of Belus (the Birs Nimroud of the Arabs) and the Mujelibè at Babylon, were both pyramidal buildings of large dimensions, chiefly constructed of brick, and of which there are still very extensive remains. India, in like manner, furnishes examples of pyramidal buildings still standing in the neighbourhood of Benares. But next to the Great Pyramid of Jizeh, those of Mexico are most calculated to excite attention. Like those of Babylon, the Mexican pyramids are chiefly constructed of bricks. The Great Pyramid of Cholula in Mexico covers an area more than three times the base of the Great Pyramid of Jizeh; but it is built in the usual form of the Mexican pyramids, consisting of four receding platforms, each of which is subdivided into a number of small steps, and the top is left as a large open platform, so that the height of the whole is small when compared with the base. These were designed by the ancient Mexicans as pedestals for the statues of their gods. When Cortez first beheld them, a colossal stone statue occupied the summit of each, covered with plates of gold; but the Spaniards stripped them of their costly coverings, and broke them in pieces. Since then, the lofty terrace of the Great Pyramid of Cholula has been chosen as the site of a church, dedicated to the Lady de los Remedios, in which mass is daily celebrated by a priest of the Indian race, whose ancestors practised there the rites of their idolatrous worship, and sacrificed human victims on the altars of their gods.

Architecture.

Previous to the present century, the Pyramids almost invariably attracted the greatest share of attention from those who treated of Egyptian antiquities. The vast and imposing masses of architecture which still remain the chief monuments of Egyptian art, can hardly be said to have received any notice deserving the name of study till the close of last century, when a conquering invader from the far west' led the Gothic races of Europe for the first time to the possession of the ancient cradle-land of civilisation, and incited them to victory by the traditional fame of twenty centuries. Since the French invasion, some of the ablest scholars of Europe have devoted themselves assiduously to the study of Egyptian antiquities; and architects have striven to reduce the style of its ancient builders to a system. By such means, the genius of this won

derful people has only become more fully apparent. I mysteries of the priesthood, which was either purLittle more had been previously known of Egyptian posely concealed, or had already been lost, when the architecture, except what could be learned from imper- Romans established themselves in Egypt. Since then, fect ideas of the dimensions of the Pyramids, and some though ponderous folios had been written on the subgeneral notion of the enormous masses and colossal ject, some of them professing to explain the whole grandeur of the temples and monolithic monuments. mystery, nothing was really known of hieroglyphic They were generally esteemed solely as the rude evi- writing till the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon-if we dences of barbaric pomp and power. More careful except the explanation of the Tau, or handled cross, study has not diminished the wonder with which we the symbol of life, the traditional interpretation of regard the gigantic edifices of Thebes or Denderah, and which had strangely survived the oblivion of all else. the vastness and solidity of their materials and mode In digging the foundations of Fort St Julian, near of construction, which seem to bid defiance to time. Rosetta, at one of the mouths of the Nile, the French But in addition to these, Egyptian architecture is now discovered an inscribed block of black basalt, which, known to be characterised by great elegance in the along with the other antiquities secured by the army combinations of its forms; and while in its general of Napoleon in Egypt, was brought home to England, features it betrays the probable suggestive source of and is now familiarly known as the Rosetta Stone. the Doric temples of Greece, it equally claims com- This valuable relic, which forms one of the most inparison with the Gothic styles of medieval Europe, in teresting features of the Egyptian collection in the the endless variety of its details, and in what may be British Museum, contains an inscription in three styled the systematic lawlessness of its proportions. distinct characters-the Hieroglyphic, or sacred; the The details of Greek and Roman architecture are re- Enchorial, or common Egyptian; and the Greek. From ducible to well-defined relative proportions, and their the terms of the latter, it became immediately appastyles admit of variations only by the changing com- rent that the three inscriptions were versions of the binations of a few fixed elements. The architects of same decree, in the several characters; and this was Egypt, on the contrary, like those of Gothic Europe, further confirmed by observing that the hieroglyphic created a style wherein powerful and legitimate archi- inscription ended with the numerals I. II. and III., tectural effects were produced, without its being pos- where the Greek has 'The first and the second.. sible to reduce their plastic elements to any kind of the remainder being broken away. A key seemed to system based on the forms or proportions of any class be at length found to the long-hidden mysteries of of features. [For illustrations of Egyptian Architecture, Egyptian hieroglyphics, which had mocked the curious see No. 28, Vol. I.] gaze of ages with the vain offer of unrevealed secrets. An accurate fac-simile of the three inscriptions was engraved, and extensively circulated by the Society of Antiquaries. The Greek text was translated and discussed by Porson and Heyne, the most eminent among the Greek scholars of Germany and England. But there explanation paused; and it seemed as if, after all the high anticipations excited by this discovery, it was to prove altogether fruitless. The causes of this are easily explained. Unfortunately, a considerable part of the hieroglyphic inscription was entirely wanting. The beginning of the enchorial and the conclusion of the Greek inscriptions were in like manner defaced; so that precise points of coincidence were wanting from whence to set out in deciphering the unknown by the known characters. Dr Thomas Young was the first to master any of the unknown hieroglyphics. With great sagacity, he noted the recurrence of certain words, such as Alexander, Ptolemy, &c.; and in corresponding parts both of the enchorial and hieroglyphic inscriptions, he soon detected corresponding groups of characters, and established the important fact, that these proper names are distinguished by the enclosing oval or royal cartouche, of such frequent occurrence on all Egyptian monuments. This discovery, however, sufficed to prove that the Greek is not a literal translation of the Egyptian. The names do not inBy far the most interesting branch of Egyptian anti-variably recur in corresponding places quities is the hieroglyphics, which a chance discovery of the several inscriptions, synonymes of modern times has done more to elucidate than all or pronouns being substituted for them; the unaided labours of the archeologist could ever so that the Greek cannot be assumed have effected. From the earliest times, these myste- as expressing more than the general rious symbols have excited an interest fully equal to meaning of the other inscriptions. This their value as historic records. The Greeks and Ro- of course greatly detracts from the asmans, partly from national pride, but still more per- sumed value of the Rosetta Stone as a haps from a want of that philological talent peculiar key to the hieroglyphics; and though to modern times, appear to have paid little attention it has now been familiar to the scholars to the languages of the barbarians with whom they of Europe for nearly half a century, were brought in contact. They made up, however, a complete translation of its symbols for their ignorance of Egyptian records by the most still remains a desideratum. As an comprehensive assertions, on the faith of which it has example of hieroglyphic writing, there been believed, almost to our own day, that Egypt was is here given a representation of an the parent of all the arts and sciences; that the hiero- inscription from the obelisk of Philæ. glyphic inscriptions on the public monuments contain The symbols enclosed within the ellipa summary of the most important mysteries of nature, tical ring or cartouche signify the word and the rudiments of all the knowledge we derive from Cleopatra'-there being a phonetic character correclassic literature. The interpretation of the hierogly-sponding to every letter in the Greek name, together phics formed, it was believed, one of the most sacred with the symbols (a small semicircle and oval) of the

One or two attempts have been made to introduce the Egyptian style of architecture into this country, but they have resulted, as was to be anticipated, in utter failures. The vast temples of the Pharaohs, constructed for the worship of ancient Egypt, and adapted to the climate and local peculiarities of the country of their birth, become ridiculous caricatures when reproduced in brick and plaster in the busy thoroughfares of London. The introduction, moreover, of large windows, separate floors, and even shop fronts, with the attendant requisites of modern social habits, make sad havoc with the principles of genuine Egyptian architecture, so that any one who derives his ideas of it from the Egyptian Hall, jammed into the row of brick tenements and smoky chimneys of Picadilly, will arrive at very unsatisfactory conclusions. The style has been revived with better success in the catacombs of some of our great public cemeteries. But after all, its true use and value is as the record of a race, a faith, and a state of religion, extinct beyond the possibility of revival ages ago. The most enthusiastic antiquary can look with little satisfaction on the imperfect adaptation of the obsolete symbols of a forgotten creed to give expression to the sublime anticipations of the Christian faith.

Hieroglyphics.