SPHINX MOTH 



5496 



SPICE 



sphinxes lined both sides of an avenue leading 

 to a temple, as at Karnak. 



The Great Sphinx now to be seen in Egypt 

 stands close to the Great Pyramid at Gizeh ; it 

 is one of the most impressive monuments in 



SPICE, the general name for a group of 

 pungent and aromatic vegetable products, used 

 chiefly to season foods. The various spices, 

 such as pepper, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, allspice, 

 mace, mustard, cinnamon and capsicum, are 



THE GREAT SPHINX 



Egypt, and is carved out of solid rock, except- 

 ing Me paws, which are built of masonry. The 

 saTids of the desert had half buried it, but they 

 have been dug from about it, so that now 

 the spectator looks down upon its massive 

 paws. The great figure is 150 feet long, its head 

 is thirty feet in length, and the width of its 

 face is fourteen feet. These figures give some 

 idea of its enormous size, but it is impossible 

 to convey any idea of the expressiveness of its 

 scarred features. The Arabs mutilated the face 

 shamefully, using the head as a target for their 

 guns. The age of the sphinx is unknown, but 

 it is considered well established that it was in 

 existence at the time of Cheops and was re- 

 paired by him earlier than 3000 B. c. A.MC c. 



Consult Petrie's History of Egypt; Budge's 

 The Gods of the Egyptians. 



SPHINX MOTH, another name for the hawk 

 moth "(which see). 



derived from different parts of plants; for ex- 

 ample, cloves are procured from the bud, cin- 

 namon* from the bark, pepper and nutmeg from 

 the fruit, ginger from the root, and mustard 

 from the seed. The food value of spices arises 

 not from their nutritive content, for their per- 

 centage of nourishment is small, but from the 

 stimulating effect they have on the digestive 

 organs. They should, however, be used with 

 moderation, as excessive use of any seasoning is 

 injurious. The cultivation of spice plants is 

 an important industry in many tropical coun- 

 tries. 



Related Subjects. The following spices are 

 described in these volumes : 

 Allspice Cloves 



Anise Ginger 



Caper Mustard 



Caraway Nutmeg 



Cassia Paprika 



Cinnamon Pepper 



