congealed by the
cold and by the night.

I was prepared for silence in such a place, but not for the sounds which
I commence to hear. First of all an osprey sounds the prelude, above my
head and so close to me that it holds me trembling throughout its long
cry. Then other voices answer from the depths of the ruins, voices very
diverse, but all sinister. Some are only able to mew on two long-drawn
notes: some yelp like jackals round a cemetery, and others again imitate
the sound of a steel spring slowly unwinding itself. And this concert
comes always from above. Owls, ospreys, screech-owls, all the different
kinds of birds, with hooked beaks and round eyes, and silken wings that
enable them to fly noiselessly, have their homes amongst the granites
massively upheld in the air; and they are celebrating now, each after
its own fashion, the nocturnal festival. Intermittent calls break upon
the air, and long-drawn infinitely mournful wailings, that sometimes
swell and sometimes seem to be strangled and end in a kind of sob. And
then, in spite of the sonority of the vast straight walls, in spite of
the echoes which prolong the cries, the silence obstinately returns.
Silence. The silence after all and beyond all doubt is the true master
at this hour of this kingdom at once colossal, motionless and blue--a
silence that seems to be infinite, because we know that there is
nothing around these ruins, nothing but the line of the dead sands, the
threshold of the deserts.

*****

I retrace my steps towards the west in the direction of the hypostyle,
traversing again the avenue of monstrous splendours, imprisoned and,
as it were, dwarfed between the rows of sovereign stones. There are
obelisks there, some upright, some overthrown. One like those of Luxor,
but much higher, remains intact and raises its sharp point into the sky;
others, less well known in their exquisite simplicity, are quite plain
and straight from base to summit, bearing only in relief gigantic lotus
flowers, whose long climbing stems bloom above in the half light cast
by the stars. The passage becomes narrower and more obscure, and it is
necessary sometimes to grope my way. And then again my hands encounter
the everlasting hieroglyphs carved everywhere, and sometimes the legs of
a colossus seated on its throne. The stones are still slightly warm, so
fierce has been the heat of the sun during the day. And certain of the
granites, so hard that our steel chisels coul