using only their expressive hands and raised fingers.  And now also the colossal Isis begins to appear—­the one carved on the left of the portico by which you enter; first, her refined head with its bird’s helmet, surmounted by a solar disc; then, as the light continues to descend, her neck and shoulders, and her arm, raised to make who knows what mysterious, indicating sign; and finally the slim nudity of her torso, and her hips close bound in a sheath.  Behold her now, the goddess, come completely out of the shadow. . . .  But she seems surprised and disturbed at seeing at her feet, instead of the stones she had known for two thousand years, her own likeness, a reflection of herself, that stretches away, reversed in the mirror of the water. . . .

And suddenly, in the mist of the deep nocturnal calm of this temple, isolated here in the lake, comes again the sound of a kind of mournful booming, of things that topple, precious stones that become detached and fall—­and then, on the surface of the lake, a thousand concentric circles form, close one another and disappear, ruffling indefinitely this mirror embanked between the terrible granites, in which Isis regards herself sorrowfully.

Postscript.—­The submerging of Philae, as we know, has increased by no less than seventy-five millions of pounds the annual yield of the surrounding land.  Encouraged by this success, the English propose next year to raise the barrage of the Nile another twenty feet.  As a consequence this sanctuary of Isis will be completely submerged, the greater part of the ancient temples of Nubia will be under water, and fever will infect the country.  But, on the other hand, the cultivation of cotton will be enormously facilitated. . . .