490 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

only buried about half way to the knee, but of the two northern ones there is little else to be seen except the heads. Obscured as is the effect of this grand front, it is still without parallel in the world. I had not thought it possible that in statues of such enormous magnitude there could be such singular beauty of expression. The face of Remeses, the same in each, is undoubtedly a portrait, as it resembles the faces of the statues in the interior and those of the King in other places. Besides, there is an individuality in some of the features which is too marked to represent any general type of the Egyptian head.

The fullness of the drooping eyelid, which yet does not cover the large, oblong Egyptian eye ; the nose, at first slightly inclining to the aquiline, but curving to the round, broad nostrils ; the generous breadth of the calm lips, and the placid, serene expression of the face, are worthy of the conqueror of Africa and the builder of Karnak and Medeenet Abou.

The statue next the door, on the southern side, has been shivered to the throne on which it is seated, and the fragments are not to be seen, except a few which lie upon the knees.

The ridiculous vanity of tourists has not even spared these sublime monuments, and they are covered wherever a hand can reach, with the names of noble and ignoble snobs. The enthusiastic antiquaries who cleared away the sands have recorded the fact in modest inscriptions, near the door, where they do not offend the eye ; and one readily pardons the liberty the writers have taken. But there are two G-ermans (whose names I will not mention, since it would help give them the very notoriety they covet), who have carved their names in letters a foot long, on the thigh of one of the statues, and afterwards filled them with black paint. I should like to see them subjected to a