OP EXCAVATIONS AT BUBASTlS. 13 



of the nose. The head-dress was absolutely that of an 

 Egyptian king, and the height of the whole head could be 

 estimated as more than three feet. The next day, to our 

 great joy, the lower part of the head was discovered ; it 

 was complete, except a fragment of one of the cheeks 

 and one of the ears, and we recognised at once the Hyksos 

 type; there was the projecting mouth, the thick and curved 

 nose, the strongly-marked cheek-bones, the cheeks themselves 

 being rather hollow. It was the first time that the head of a 

 Hyksos king was discovered wearing a thoroughly Egyptian 

 head-dress, which rendered more conspicuous the strange type 

 of the foreign race. At the distance of a few feet a broken 

 fragment of black granite was emerging out of the ground, 

 and on digging a few inches it was easy to recognise that it 

 was the lower part of the legs of a colossal statue, which clearly 

 belonged to the same monument as the head. I could not 

 excavate immediately. It was the beginning of March, and 

 the soil was still so full of infiltration-water that beyond a 

 certain depth we were in ponds of water, which hampered the 

 work considerably. I waited a few weeks ; the water sank, 

 and my impatience grew in proportion. At last, although 

 there was still much water, I ordered that the base of the 

 statue should b3 cleared and dragged out. The first thing to 

 be done was of course to make room around it. Our surprise 

 was immense when this revealed to us the lower part of a 

 colossal torso close to the base we were endeavouring to drag 

 out ; and a few feet to the south, very near the place where we 

 had found the broken head, the base of another statue of the 

 same size, lying on the side and showing the whole of one leg. 

 Thus it was not one but two statues which had stood there ; 

 we had two bases, we could reasonably hope that we should 

 discover another head. The one we had, the Hyksos, was 

 broken, perhaps the other might be intact. From that moment 

 the researches grew intensely interesting. I promised a good 

 baksheesh to the workmen if the head was discovered ; and a 

 few hours afterwards, while I was in another part of the 

 temple, I suddenly heard them shouting : rdy, rds, the head, 

 the head ! I shall never forget this sight, nor this hour, 

 perhaps the most impressive I went through during my five 

 winters of excavation. It was late in the afternoon ; out of a 

 pond of water, between the baseband the torso, emerged the 

 top of a head and the royal asp, the upper part only had been 

 cleared and was visible above the water. There was no place for 

 us to stand, or rather to kneel, except on that head, which we 

 did in turn, Count d'Hulst and I ; and while the excited work- 

 men drove out with their hands the water which was coming 



