The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1879-08-07


He Is carved out of the natural rock
If we endeaVOr to picture to ourselves
the appearance of the plateau of th'
pvramids before any tOmbs were placed
nnOn it. we can have little difficulty in
the task. Many simalar platforms exist
all along the Nile in lower Egypt. There
Is a broad expanse Of black alluYiPl soil,
dotted with occasional palms, and green
here and there with corn or clover. Be
vOnd the reach of the inundatiOn rises
2 wall of stone, thirty, forty, perhaps
fiftv feet above the lower level. The top
is fat and covered with loose sand,
whicb-bloWs over on the fields below at
every storm. Behind is yet another
RIDGE of higher rocks, and third step
NAV be still further. On the interme-
diofe level the pyramids are placed. But
# we follow the track of the first Bha-
roab who came up from Memphis to find
a suitable place for his tomb, threading
his wav by the side Of the Nile, through
fine network of canals, toward hollow
in fine long line Of low cliffs, the first
object which would meet his eye, stand
mo mn by itself out Of the sand-drift,
halfway on the slope between the. lJWel
and the higher platforms, would be
Great mass or column of rock some
sixtv OF seventy feet in height, and
hacked by a low ridge running out
couDIe of hundred feet toward the face
of the hill. Such isolated rocks are
common in Egypt. One of them stands
to the pyramid of DashOOr just rs the
sphinx stands to the pyramid of Cheph-
rem, A similar rock probably forms the
core Of the mysterious tomb Of SneferOO
at MavdOOn. The rock may have already
appeared to bear the semblanCe Of a
human face, but it could not be over
looked. The first rays of the morning
sun would strike it, and the sphinx, it
is all but certain, must have been rough
heWn DV the earliest OCCupierS OF the
tombs Of the ancient empire. 1t has
more than once been suggested that two
sphinxes sat bv the pyramids, like the
two MemnOns in the plain Of Ihebes,
and that only one remains. But it is i'm
probable that two rocks to be carved
were on the same slope. If a second
sphinx over existed, he may have been
wholly built up, circumstance which
would help to account for his total dis
appearance. In Charlotte BrOnte's pre-
face to her sisters novel, "Wutherlng
Heights" she speaks Of her creation Of
the character of Heathheld in words
which with slight change, describe the
maker of the sphinx. His work was
"heWu in a wild workshop, with simple
tools out Of simple materials" He found
the block of sandstone in the solitary
desert, and, gazing thereon he saw how
from the crag might be ELECTED head,
savage, sWart, sinister; a form nodded
with at least one element Of grandeur
power. He wrought with a rough
chisel and from no model but the vision
Of his meditatiOng. With time and
labor the crag took human shape, and
there it stands, colossal, dark. and frOWn-
ing, half statue, half rock in the former
sense, terrible and gObhn-like; in the
latter, almost beautiful" But the con-
Guiding lines of Currer Bells wonderful
picture do not apply to the sphinx ;
though its cOloring is 'Of mellow gray"
no mCOrland moss clothes it; no "heath
with blooming bells and balmy fragrance
grows faithfully close to the giants
foot" an Arab sits astride on the ear
and offers to chop a large piece out Of
the eyeball for you for half a franc, or
a small piece for piastre.