of the Romans, and the priests had little influence.  Moreover, the theory is disproved by the fact that, during the two centuries of the continuance of the marvel, there were occasions when Memnon was obstinately silent, though the priests must have been most anxious that he should speak, while there were others when he spoke freely, though they must have been perfectly indifferent.  The wife of a prefect of Egypt made two visits to the spot to no purpose; and the Empress Sabina, wife of the Emperor Hadrian, was, on her first visit, also disappointed, so that “her venerable features were inflamed with anger.”  On the other hand, as already mentioned, a common Roman soldier heard the sound thirteen times.

With respect to the time when, and the circumstances under which, the phenomenon first showed itself, all that can be said is, that the earliest literary witness to the fact is Strabo (about B.C. 25); that the earliest of the inscriptions on the base that can be dated belongs to the reign of Nero, and that it is at least questionable whether the sound ever issued from the stone before B.C. 27.  In that year there was an earthquake which wrought great havoc at Thebes; and it is an acute suggestion, that it was this earthquake which at once shattered the upper part of the colossus, and so affected the remainder of the block of stone that it became vocal then for the first time.  For centuries the figure remained a torso, and it was while a torso that it emitted the musical tone—­

    “Dimidio magicae resonabant Memnone chordae.”

After a long interval of years, probably about A.D. 174, that restoration of the monument took place which is to be seen to the present day.  Five blocks of stone, rudely shaped into a form like that of the unharmed colossus, were emplaced upon the torso, which was thus reconstructed.  The intention was to do Memnon honour; but the effect was to strike him dumb.  The peculiar condition of the stone, which the earthquake had superinduced, and which made it vocal, being changed by the new arrangement, the sound ceased, and has been heard no more.

It is a fact well known to scientific persons at the present day, that musical sounds are often given forth both by natural rocks and by quarried masses of stone, in consequence of a sudden change of temperature.  Baron Humboldt, writing on the banks of the Oronooko, says:  “The granite rock on which we lay is one of those where travellers have heard from time to time, towards sunrise, subterraneous sounds, resembling those of the organ.  The missionaries call these stones loxas de musica.  ‘It is witchcraft,’ said our young Indian pilot....  But the existence of a phenomenon that seems to depend on a certain state of the atmosphere cannot be denied.  The shelves of rock are full of very narrow and deep crevices.  They are heated during the day to about 50 deg..  I often found their temperature during the night at