[35] The late T. Deveria ingeniously conjectured that “Ba-en-pet” (iron of
    heaven) might mean the ferruginous substance of meteoric stones.  See
    Melanges d’Archeologie Egyptienne et Assyrienne, vol. i.—­
    A.B.E.

[36] The traces of tools upon the masonry show the use of bronze and
    jewel-points.—­A.B.E.

[37] Many such trial-pieces were found by Petrie in the ruins of a
    sculptor’s house at Tell el Amarna.

[38] A similar collection was found by Mr. F. Ll.  Griffith at Tell
    Gemayemi, in 1886, during his excavations for the Egypt Exploration
    Fund.  See Mr. Petrie’s Tanis.  Part II., Egypt Exploration
    Fund.—­A.B.E.

[39] Mr. Loftie’s collection contains, however, an interesting piece of
    trial-work consisting of the head of a Ptolemaic queen in red
    granite.—­A.B.E.

[40] For pigments used at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty, see Petrie’s
    Medum.

[41] The rose-coloured, or rather crimson, flesh-tints are also to be seen
    at El Kab, and in the famous speos at Beit el Wally, both tempo
    Nineteenth Dynasty.—­A.B.E.

3.—­WORKS OF SCULPTURE.

[Illustration:  Fig. 183.—­The Great Sphinx of Gizeh.]

To this day, the most ancient statue known is a colossus—­namely, the Great Sphinx of Gizeh.  It was already in existence in the time of Khufu (Cheops), and perhaps we should not be far wrong if we ventured to ascribe it to the generations before Mena, called in the priestly chronicles “the Servants of Horus.”  Hewn in the living rock at the extreme verge of the Libyan plateau, it seems, as the representative of Horus, to uprear its head in order to be the first to catch sight of his father, Ra, the rising sun, across the valley (fig. 183).  For centuries the sands have buried it to the chin, yet without protecting it from ruin.  Its battered body preserves but the general form of a lion’s body.  The paws and breast, restored by the Ptolemies and the Caesars, retain but a part of the stone facing with which they were then clothed in order to mask the ravages of time.  The lower part of the head-dress has fallen, and the diminished neck looks too slender to sustain the enormous weight of the head.  The nose and beard have been broken off by fanatics, and the red hue which formerly enlivened the features is almost wholly effaced.  And yet, notwithstanding its fallen fortunes, the monster preserves an expression of sovereign strength and greatness.  The eyes gaze out afar with a look of intense and profound thoughtfulness; the mouth still wears a smile; the whole countenance is informed with power and repose.  The art which conceived and carved this prodigious statue was a finished art; an art which had attained self-mastery, and was sure of its effects.  How many centuries had it taken to arrive at this degree of maturity and perfection?