The native American., 1839-01-26


square mass of still more prodigious dimensions,
and brought TO its present position and there fash
oned by the art of the sculptor into the form no
man. One is utterly at loss to conceive the ma
turc OF the machines by which this amazing work
was efected tie statue being twenty-five feet four
inches across The shoulders, and of proportional
height and breadth every way, and seated original
Iiy on an enormous throne, with the hands resting
on the knees. An approximation to its weight is
between eight and nine hundred tons. In the
lsccond place it is broken in two at the waist and
the upper part has fallen backwards on the ground,
where It now lies, consisting of the head and
shoulders, while the lower limbs are shattered in
large fragments, and the enormous pedestal itself
is cracked and rent in such manner as no con-
ceivabie instrun,entality but that of gunpowder
could have effected. Nor could even that
agent had it been known and employed,
either by the Persans or any other invaders, have
left the colossus in its present state. Lightning
might have done it, and both this gigantic statue,
and the gigantic poplyon in front OF the temple
seemed to me to exhibit the marks of some such
convulsion Of nature.
This temple, with that of Jupiter Ammon. is in
more runous condition than any other in this re-
gion. The multitudcs of the foundations of
columns, which are visible at regular intervals,
show that its extent must originally have been
far greater than its present appearance, at first
sight, would indicate and they seem in such po-
sitons that it is difficult to discover what the whole
plan Of the temple could have been. Behind and
around it are the remains of brick vaults and sub
tewanean passages, Of which it is impossible to
guess the purpose.
From the midst of these ruins we proceeded
southeasterly the desoate plain, to the two
colossal statues, which rise huge, grim, mysterious
and solitary in the midst of it, and one of which,
49, 4
at the suns first rays, has filled the world with the
fame. They occupy the centre of the plain, in
sitting posture, looking in colossal grandeur and
repose towards the east, and their effect upon the
mind, alone, in the midst Of such a region Of
wonders, like silent petrifed, gigantic guardians
over the remnants Of a dim past world, is not with
outa degree of solemnty, and even unacknowl-
lodged feeling of awe, as in the presence of some
thing supernatural. "A spirit passed before my
face: it stood still: an image was before my eyes,
there was silence, and heard voice." 1t seems
as if some dreaded mysterious intelligence were
there. You think Of 'Deah the skeleton, and
Time the shadow" and the dominion and the very
atmosphere around you are those of the shadowy
past, and those like silent statues become
vocal to the soul with the melancholy voices Of
three thousand years.
They were not always alone, but formed once
the front giants in the series of long prodgious
dramos course, or avenue or sphinxes, and other
colossi, which extended far back across the plain
to the propylon, Or gateway of temple, probably
Of corresponding gigantic dimensions the founda-
tions of which, with the fragments of a colossus,
which must have been almost as large the two
that remained, are still visible. The discovery Of
these hugh fragments and remains are like that of
the mammoth creations of the Antediluvian world;
the Theban temples and colossi are veritable Be-
hemoths of the antiquity. Impressive indeed
must have been the effect upon the supersitious
minds of the Egyptians, Of passing through such
portentous avenue Of grim and motionless giants
grim silent and motionless, yet wondrous and ma
iesc-to the entrance Of the temples of their
grotesqne and hideous deities.
The height OF these colossi is stated at fifty
three feet above the present level of the plain,
which has increased upon the pedestal nearly
seven feet making sixty in all, for the pedestal and
statue taken together without the pedestal, the
measurement is torty-seven. They are called sim
gularly enough by the Arabs Shammah and Tam
nah, appellations of man and woman, perhaps
generic, as has been suggested, not improbably,
and signifying to their minds the first man, the
first woman. That one of the statues, to which
belongs the story of the Lyre of Memnon is still
called by the modern native Thebans, the Arabs of
the region salamaat salatataons, referring to its
supposed mysterious property Of saluting the sun
at MS rising Out WHctHGF IulS Will liCih, DC
merely information, or continued relic OF the an
tique tradition an unconscious heirloom from ge-
neration to generation in the meagre intellectual
furniture Of its inhabitants it is hard to say. The
miraculous sound was doubtless an artifce of the
priests bv means ola stone in the lap ofhe statues
giving when struck, metallic ring to the ear OF
the spectators. The dimensions of the statue are
such, that there was plenty of room for priest to
be hidden from the sight in order to produce the
supernatural sound, and the fact that other parts
|ofthe statue give out the sort of metallic ring
when struck, adds to the certainty that such must
have been the trick played upon the credulous
world. Mr. Wilkinson in 1880, got up by means
of ladders into the lap ofthe statue having posted
some peasants below to listen :" You are st'7hang
BRASS they excIaimed--an answer that convinced
him that it was the same sound which deceived
the Romans, and led Strabo to speak OF IT as similar
10 that which mighthave been productivity slight
blow. When Strabo visitedit it was in amutllat-
ed state, the upper part having been broken in the
fury of some barbarous invasion, and not then re-
stoTed,--an he says the noise was made from the
remaining part in the base. 1t was afterwards
repaired with blocks Of sandstone in five layers
but at what period is not known. The material OF