AND LOWER EGYPT. I25 



and a half in breadth, and four in thickness. Un- 

 derneath the uncovered part of this hirge lump 

 the earth is dug up ; this permits you to see per- 

 fectly the paintings with which the surface which 

 fronts the ground is covered. You distinguish 

 there, in the middle, a sphere, with the twelve 

 signs of the zodiac. The colour which has best 

 withstood time and devastation, is an azure blue ; 

 the other colours are scarcely perceptible. This 

 stony and white mass is of a calcareous nature ; it 

 contains a great quantity of fossiie shell-work ; it 

 is the same stone with the rocks of the neighbour- 

 ing mountains ; but exposed to the air for such a 

 length of time, it has acquired a hardness which 

 that of the rock has not wljen tirst extracted from 

 the quarries. 



By the side of this block, you see another less 

 remarkable ; this is almost entirely covered by the 

 earth. The women of this country have formed 

 a cavity in it, which corresponds to a little aque- 

 duct. It is there that by secret and natural irriga- 

 tions they pretend to procure fecundity. 



A little farther cfF, the ruins of an ancient edi- 

 fice present themselves to observation ; but you 

 can no longer distinguish anything of the general 

 design ; all is overthrov»'n. Immense stones, re- 

 sembling those which I have just mentioned, dis- 

 play 



