204 PYRAMIDS OF DJIZA. 
CHAP. Above these, and closer under the ear, were 
, written, very conspicuously, these curious 
monograms. 
^ 
O 
probably also Arabic, but in their appearance 
somewhat resembling the kind of writing pre- 
served among the Inscriptiones Sindicce, as pub- 
lished by Kircher and by Pococke\ According 
to Pococke, this was not engraven, but painted, 
or stained, upon the rock where he saw it. 
Custom of "Whatsoever may be the age of these charac- 
painting , . ^.. i-i-ii i 
Antient ters, the specimen ot pamtmg exhibited by the 
Statues. 
superficies of the stone is of still higher anti- 
quity ; not merely because the inscription ap- 
pears upon the painted surface, but from the 
(1) See Plate LV. Inscript. 86. Descr. of the East, vol. I. p. 149. 
Land. 1743. " The Greeks," says Pococke, " call this inscription 
Giou ^K^axra y^d/ifiara, " The words of God engraved." The same 
inscription may also be found in Kircher's Prodromus Copticus. 
