404 Some Account of the Monuments 
this march has become a religious procession: the priests, and no 
longer the warriors, are now the principal personages. Soon 
again the scene changes entirely, and the king performs the 
functions of sacrificing high-priest. It is remarkable that this 
scene seems to relate to agriculture. A priest presents to the 
king a handful of stalks which he cuts with a hook: after- 
wards he offers his gifts to the divinity. We ought to separate 
this scene entirely from the preceding one, and represent the 
king protecting the arts of peace, as the former shows him in 
his military glory. This enigma would not be one to us with- 
out doubt if the whole of the sculptures had been preserved. 
One of the lateral halls also contains some curious sculptures: 
they seem to represent the initiation of the king into the my- 
steries. . 
The royal candidate is purified in the first place by some 
priests. Others take him by the hand to introduce him into the 
sanctuary. Here every thing is mysterious, The priests are 
almost all covered with masks of animals. , 
In all these representations the French authors see the ex- 
ploits_of Sesostris, to whom, in fact, we may ascribe this palace. 
At some distance from the palace, to the north-west, is the 
Temple of Medynat-Abou, which fronts the Nile. This temple 
has buttresses which are not finished, and which seem to be of 
an origin posterior to that of the principal templey It is almost 
entirely in ruins ; the distribution of its parts is in conformity 
with that of the other temples. 
To the north-west of this temple a plain extends which is 
extremely curious: it is partly covered with a forest of Mimosa, 
and bears the name of the field of the Colossi. Not less than 
seventeen colossal figures are counted in it: some are in an erect 
posture, others are only half erect, and some are completely 
thrown drown. Among them is the famous colossus of Mem- 
‘non, which at sun-rise emitted certain sounds. 
In the first place, strangers remark two colossi joined toge- 
ther, now called the one on the north Thama, and the other Chama 
on the south; both of them front the Nile. They are both of 
free-stone, are forty-eight feet high without the pedestal,—in 
all sixty. The weight of each when whole is estimated at 
2,612,000 lbs. The Chama is in one piece; the upper part of 
the other is composed of five pieces. As all the colossi of the 
Egyptians were monolites, it cannot be doubted that the 
Thama was so originally. It is this same statue which, from 
the interpretation of the inscriptions which it received in the 
two first centuries of the Christian era, was regarded as that of 
Memnon ; for the inscrtptions say that he who engraved them 
had heard the sound of the colossus, Doubts, however, ee 
een 
