wooden knives."

Now I began to walk forward, bearing to the left so as to regain our
former line. We could do nothing with these metal skeletons, and I
felt that there must be more to find beyond. Presently I saw something
looming ahead of me and quickened my pace, only to recoil. For there,
not thirty feet away and perhaps three hundred yards from the mouth of
the cave, suddenly appeared what looked like a gigantic man. Tommy saw
it also and barked as dogs do when they are frightened, and the sound
of his yaps echoed endlessly from every quarter, which scared him to
silence. Recovering myself I went forward, for now I guessed the truth.
It was not a man but a statue.

The thing stood upon a huge base which lessened by successive steps,
eight of them, I think, to its summit. The foot of this base may have
been a square of fifty feet or rather more; the real support or pedestal
of the statue, however, was only a square of about six feet. The figure
itself was little above life-size, or at any rate above our life-size,
say seven feet in height. It was very peculiar in sundry ways.

To begin with, nothing of the body was visible, for it was swathed like
a corpse. From these wrappings projected one arm, the right, in the hand
of which was the likeness of a lighted torch. The head was not veiled.
It was that of a man, long-nosed, thin-lipped, stern-visaged; the
countenance pervaded by an awful and unutterable calm, as deep as that
of Buddha only less benign. On the brow was a wreathed head-dress, not
unlike an Eastern turban, from which sprang two little wings resembling
in some degree those on the famous Greek head of Hypnos, lord of Sleep.
Between the folds of the wrappings on the back sprang two other wings,
enormous wings bent like those of a bird about to take flight. Indeed
the whole attitude of the figure suggested that it was springing from
earth to air. It was executed in black basalt or some stone of the sort,
and very highly finished. For instance, on the bare feet and the arm
which held the torch could be felt every muscle and even some of
the veins. In the same way the details of the skull were perfectly
perceptible to the touch, although at first sight not visible on the
marble surface. This was ascertained by climbing on the pedestal and
feeling the face with our hands.

Here I may say that its modelling as well as that of the feet and the
arm filled Bickley, who, of course, was a highly trained anatomist,