to conceive Karnak as it was, than it is to conceive the Pyramidal platform as it was. The smooth casing of part of the top of the Second Pyramid, and the magnificent granite blocks which form the lower stages of the third, serve to show what they must have been all, from top to bottom; the first and second, brilliant white or yellow limestone, smooth from top to bottom, instead of those rude disjointed masses which their striped sides now present; the third, all glowing with the red granite from the First Cataract. As it is, they have the barbarous look of Stonehenge; but then they must have shone with the polish of an age already rich with civilization, and that the more remarkable when it is remembered that these granite blocks which furnished the outside of the third, and inside of the first, must have come all the way from the First Cataract. It also seems, from Herodotus and others, that these smooth outsides were covered with sculptures. Then you must build up or uncover the massive tombs, now broken or choked with sand, so as to restore the aspect of vast streets of tombs, like those on the Appian Way, out of which the Great Pyramid would rise like a cathedral above smaller churches. Lastly, you must enclose the two other Pyramids with stone precincts and gigantic gateways, and above all you must restore the Sphinx, as he (for it must never be forgotten that a female Sphinx was almost unknown) was in the days of his glory.

Even now, after all we have seen of colossal statues, there was something stupendous in the sight of that enormous head-its vast projecting wig, its great ears, its open

eyes, the red colour still visible on its cheek, the immense projection of the whole lower part of its face. Yet what must it have been when on its head there was the royal helmet of Egypt; on its chin the royal beard; when the stone pavement, by which men approached the Pyramids, ran up between its paws; when immediately under its breast an altar stood, from which the smoke went up into the gigantic nostrils of that nose, now vanished from the face, never to be conceived again! All that is known with certainty from the remains which actually exist deep under the sand on which you stand, as you look up from a distance into the broken but still expressive features.

And for what purpose was this Sphinx of Sphinxes called into being-as much greater than all other Sphinxes as the Pyramids are greater than all other temples or tombs? If, as is likely, he lay couched at the entrance, now deep in sand, of the vast approach to the second, that is, the Central Pyramid, so as to form an essential part of this immense group; still more, if, as seems possible, there was once intended to be (according to the usual arrangement which never left a solitary Sphinx any more than a solitary obelisk) a brother Sphinx on the Northern side, as this on the Southern side of the approach, its situation and significance was worthy of its grandeur. And if, further, the Sphinx was the giant representative of Royalty, then it fitly guards the greatest of Royal sepulchres; and, with its half-human, half-animal form, is the best welcome and the best farewell to the history and religion of Egypt.

A

A WINTER MIDNIGHT BEFORE THE

GREAT SPHINX

PIERRE LOTI

VERY clear night, with a colour unknown in our

climate, in a place that is fantastic and filled with mystery. A silver moon intensely bright and even dazzling illuminates a world that does not seem to be ours, for it resembles nothing that is familiar,—a world where everything is of a uniform rose beneath the midnight stars and where in a ghostly immobility rise up giant symbols.

Is that a hill of sand that rises before us? We cannot tell, for it does not seem to have any contour; moreover, it seems to give the impression of a great rosy cloud or a great solidified wave that has reared itself and then become fixed forever. From it emerges a colossal human effigy, also rose-coloured, a nameless and illusive rose, which lifts its head, stares with fixed gaze and smiles; to be so large it must be unreal, perhaps a reflection thrown from some mirror hidden in the moon. And behind this monster face, far away in the background at the summit of those indefined and softly undulating hills of sand, three apocalyptic signs lift themselves into the sky, three rose-coloured triangles, regular as the figures in geometry but so enormous that they create fear; you believe them to be selfluminous, so vividly do they stand out in bright rose

against the dark blue of the starry heavens; and the impossibility of their apparent self-radiation makes them perfectly terrible.

Around us is the desert, a corner of the mournful Kingdom of Sand. Nothing else is to be seen-anywhere —but those three awful things that stand there so still-the three geometrical mountains and the human effigy magnified beyond measurement; at first the three vaporous mountains seem like visions, but here and there on that grand mute face clearly defined shadows indicate that it exists, rigid and immovable, formed of imperishable stone.

Even if we had not known we would have guessed, for these things are unique in the world and pictures of every age have made them familiar to everybody-the Sphinx and the Pyramids! But one would not expect them to be so disquieting. And how comes this rose colour when the moon tints with blue the objects on which it shines? One would never expect this colour, which, nevertheless, is that of the sand and all the granite of Egypt and Arabia. And then, the eyes of the statue, we have seen them thousands of times, we knew that they looked with a fixed stare. Then how is it that we are surprised and frozen by the motionless gaze of the Sphinx, even while we are obsessed by the smile of the set lips that seem to guard the answer to the supreme enigma?

It is cold; cold as the fine January nights at home and a wintry mist winds about the valleys of sand. And that we did not expect, either; the latest invaders of this country