3844.] 



Account of Mamallaipur. 



9 



precisely where the king had proposed; for which two reasons 

 are assigned, First that the architect, weary of the labor and time 

 expended on the work,, heaved a deep sigh as the workmen 

 were dragging it forward ; which Amasis interpreted as an 

 unfavorable omen : and secondly, that one of the workmen, 

 having unfortunately fallen under the moving mass, was crush- 

 ed to death, and on this account it was allowed to remain where 

 it then was. Mr. Burton in his excerpta (plate 41) gives a 

 representation of a similar monolith said to be of the same 

 king, and found at Tel-et-mai. This measures externally 

 21 feet 9 inches high, 13 feet broad, and 11 feet 7 inches 

 deep : and internally 19 feet 3 inches high, 8 feet broad, and 

 8 feet 3 inches deep. 



The Sculptured Rocks at Mamallaipur, (on which is repre- 

 sented the penance of Arjuna,) are by no means without their 

 parallel. This primitive application of the art of sculpture 

 seems an obvious mode of perpetuating the memory of events, 

 historical or mythological, and has been adopted from the 

 earliest ages. On the rocks of the river Lycus, near Beirout 

 in Syria, are still to be seen the figure in relief, and the name 

 inscribed, of Remeses the great king of Egypt, who is suppos- 

 ed to have flourished about B. C. 1350, and was therefore con- 

 temporary with Ehud and Shamgar mentioned in the book 

 of Judges : but early Egyptian chronology is so exceeding- 

 ly uncertain, that the era of Remeses must always be 

 conjectural. Not far from this is another sculpture of a 

 Persian king, and an inscription in the arrow headed cha- 

 racter, which not having been yet decyphered affords like- 

 wise no conclusive evidence as to its age. Copies of these 

 have been made by Bonomi. No Christian can have forgotten 

 the exclamation of Job, " Oh that my words were now writ- 

 " ten ! Oh that they were printed in a book ! That they were 

 " graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever !" 

 (chap. xix. 24.) And from some remains in the wady 



