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Egypt's catacombs and pyeamids. 287
fully defaced, conveys the impression of thoughtfulness and
a fixed resolution. The architect evidently fashioned it to
represent Che-ops-see, the builder of the Great Pyramid.
Cheops, alias Che-ops-see, was deified after his death as
" Ramses the Great !
" Ram, Rama, Ramses, are famous
names in India to-day, as well as historic landmarks in the
palmier days of the Asia and Africa of the dreamy past.
On the Sphinx was hieroglyphed thename of this great king
of the tvorld, " "
Ramses the Gkeat !
The figure, according to the measurement of Prof. C. P.
Smyth, Sir Gardner Wilkinson, and other distinguished
explorers, is thirty-seven feet above the sand-surface, and
something like thirty-seven feet below. It is twenty-nine
feet across the wig, for the image, remember, has a colossal
beard. The lips and protruding lower jaw typify a deficient
moral organization. Owing to the perusal of imaginative
and overdrawn descriptions of the Sphinx, it quite disappointed
me, both in size and the architectural elegance of
the workmanship. Still it is a wonder, — a deathless monument
guarding a desert waste !
One quarter of a mile more to the foot of Cheops. Who
would tarry long at the Sphinx ? Off and away, donkeys
They become spirited. See, they actually gallop ! But,
" ha ! ha ! " here we are at the base of the Great Pyramid !
Casting an eye toward its dizzy summit, language proves
inadequate ! Every fiber of my being flames with the grand,
the majestic, the inexpressible ! Come, Beverly, — mad
philosopher of New Zealand, — come, bringing your diagrams
and figured calculations, and let us explore them
together. Do you not remember, friend Beverly, how we
nightly talked of the pyramids, last winter, till the clock
struck ten ; ate fruit, and talked on about the Pyramids
turned the slate, stirred the fire, and still talked about the
old PjTamids ? Hark ! the beU rings out upon the clear
midnight air, — Twelve I and still the pyramid-mania rages.
You, Mr. Beverly, in the estimation of the ignorant Dune-