ften
belies itself, what ought we to consider of that which comes through the
shadowy distance of ages? It will be remembered that a mummy of a human
being, taken from the smallest of the three pyramids, that of Myceninus,
is to be seen in the British Museum. The familiar story of the beautiful
Egyptian princess, who is said to have erected this pyramid with the
fortunes of her many lovers, will occur to the reader. A volume of
legendary matter could be filled relative to these structures, which are
called pyramids of Gizeh, after the crumbled city which once stood so
near to them.

Not many hundred feet from the pyramids, on a somewhat lower plain,
stands that colossal mystery, the Sphinx. The Arabs call it "The Father
of Terror," and it certainly has a most weird, unworldly look. Its body,
and most of the head, is hewn out of the solid rock where it stands, the
upper portion forming the head and bust of a human being, to which is
added the paws and body of an animal. The great size of the figure will
be realized when we recall the fact that the face is thirty feet long
and half as wide. The body is in a reclining, or rather a sitting
posture, with the paws extended forward some fifty feet or more. This
strange figure is believed to be of much greater antiquity than the
pyramids, but no one knows how old it is. Notwithstanding its mutilated
condition, showing the furrows of time, the features have still a sad,
tranquil expression, the whole reminding us, in its apparent purpose, of
the great bronze image Dai-Butsu at Kamakura, though it is some five
thousand years older, at least, than the Japanese figure. There is also
the foundation of an ancient temple near at hand, the upper portion of
the structure having long since crumbled to dust. This is supposed to
have been in some way connected with the great statue, half animal and
half human in form. Ages ago, from a sanctuary between the lion-like
paws of the sphinx, sacrifices were undoubtedly offered, as
archaeologists believe, of human beings, to the divinity it was designed
to represent. Here, for five or six thousand years, more or less, this
strange figure has remained unchanged in the midst of change, through
ancient Ethiopian dynasties, mediaeval battles, and pestilences; even to
our day, calm, unalterable, crumbling in parts, but still bodily extant,
and doubtless the oldest known object erected by the hand of man.

In a visit to the house of our guide in Cairo