316 
pent; he stepped to his cabinet, and 
said, “ I will shew you what I think it 
is”—producing a little amulet of china- 
ware, of the same form, with, on the 
under side, two bodies, placed head to 
head, so that of each, the feet appeared 
only when turned, projecting exactly 
beyond the margin of the tablet, with 
their feet taking opposite directions 
outwards, as the hooks did; and hence, 
I think, we may conjecture, as well as 
from other emblems in the tomb, that 
it represented, hieroglyphically, the 
creation of the first pair of human be- 
ings, from the mind or will of the Crea- 
tor of ali Things. 
To go on with this subject would oc- 
cupy too much of your spare room, I 
shall therefore proceed, at once, with 
the object which first induced me to 
take up my pen, I mean the figures on 
this extraordinary sarcophagus, that 
are, to make them more conspicuous, 
filled up, after engraving them, with a 
mineral blue colour, in which copper 
seems to be the principal ingredient. 
To describe them all is impossible in 
language, though very easy with the 
pencil; and some I had already so se- 
cured, lest it should be torn from us; 
but since nobody has, that I know of, 
spoken of them, I wish to call the public 
attention to a mere verbal description 
of what is most remarkable in it, and 
which justifies, I think, all the pains 
and interest its recoverer bestowed on 
the acquisition. 
Its most striking feature is its general 
form, which resembles a deep trough or 
barge, rounded on the keel, and scooped 
to a curved bottom, narrower at one 
end than the other, and (like our cof- 
fins) a little contracted towards the 
keel; and the delicate indentations, in- 
tended to mark the shape of the mum- 
my formerly placed within, give it, to- 
gether with a small bulge at the ankle 
part, the character of a ribbed vessel ; 
and I have not the smallest doubt that, 
if placed on water, it would float, and 
preserve its upright position, for the 
bottom is quite thick enough to ballast 
it—in a word, it. appears to be a true 
ark, or Noahtic monument ; and an 
hieroglyphical picture, inscribed on its 
broadest end, seems entirely to support 
the conjecture that, whoever construct- 
ed it, intended that it should in that 
part, as well as its form, be a record of 
that great event—the Noahtic deluge. 
_ This design has a border filled with 
small punctures or dots, that, probably, 
were intended to represent tle sur- 
‘rounding air, or sun’s light. At the 
Mr.. Cumberland on Belzoni's Egyptian Soros. 
(May J, 
bottom of the design is a figure of some 
gigantic deity—perhaps their Atlas or 
providence (for the place I saw it in 
was too obscure to be certain), who 
supports, as in some papyrus drawings, 
with extended arms, the sacred boat of 
the Beetle, or Sun, whose ends are the 
lotus’s flowers. In this boat, to the 
right, are three men; and to the left, 
the number of persons recorded to have 
escaped in the ark, viz. five more. The 
Beetle flutters over it with extended 
wings, supporting a disk with. its fore 
feet — which disk, probably the sun, 
is now a cavity, having formerly, doubt- 
less, been inlaid with some metal, which 
was picked out when the tomb was first 
violated. 
On each side this beetle are, as usual 
on other celestial boats, two adoring 
figures, Isis and Osiris perhaps. That 
the other eight personages were the 
family of Noah is, I think, quite as 
good as any other conjecture; and the 
three males on the opposite side of 
the beetle having thrones or canopies 
over their heads, makes it probable they 
were his sons—Shem, Ham, and Japhet. 
The upper part of this very original 
design consists of a yery singular pair 
of figures. The first is a female, in- 
verted as descending over the boat, a 
kind of syren, or sea-nymph, resembling, 
perhaps, the goddess Dicerto, as her 
body ends in a fish’s tail, that forms a 
circular space, in which are included 
some very perfect hieroglyphics, viz. a 
recumbent sphinx, under which is an 
eye, with the.pupil seen; and below 
that a bird, like the goose, fastened to 
a cubical block by a line from the neck; 
on the right hand side, above, is a gar- 
land; under it the well-known zig-zag, 
or liquid element; next the horned 
asps, advancing in opposite directions ; 
below them the figure of a man, placed 
horizontally, as floating ; and at the bot- 
tom a temple, or- habitation. This sea 
nymph, or syren, holds up her arms in 
the act of adoration, and the ends of 
her fingers take the figure of the zig- 
zag, or water, uniting with that which 
surrounds her. On her head stands 
the form of a man, with the character 
of a negro, who touches the ord, before 
described as being over the beetle, at 
its disk; and the whole of his body is 
merged in the symbol of water, except 
his head and arm. 
Now this zig-zag emblem of the fluid 
fills up the picture to the frame, but 
spares the disk of the orb, the beetle and 
the boat, with the people in it, falling, like 
a back ground, over every other part at 
, the 
