510 MERGE TO GYRENE.

and animals are miserably executed, and are generally small, though they vary in size from about three feet and a half to a foot in height, even on the same tombs, which adds to their ridiculous effect ; whilst some palpable and obtruding indecencies render them disgusting.

“ Across a fine but neglected valley, to the south-eastward, in which were numerous herds of wild antelopes, and a few ostriches, is a monumental obelisk of heavy proportions, and near it are four tombs of similar style and ornament with the first set. These are remarkable however as more strongly combining a mixture of Egyptian and Greek architecture, and are placed so as to give a singular interest to the scene. There are but three inscriptions, and those are comparatively insignificant, nor can other particulars be learned, the whole of them having been opened, in search probably of treasure, but as no person permanently resides near the spot, I was deprived of any local information. A wandering Eedoween, who had been some time in the Wadie, brought me a fine medal, in large brass, of the elder F austina, which he had found in the immediate vicinity.

“ The tombs appear to have remained uninjured by the action of either the sun or the atmosphere, excepting only a deep fallow tint they have imbibed ; — the sculpture therefore, as we must call it, remains nearly perfect. As these edifices are near the Eezzan road, people from the interior have occasionally tarried to examine them, and being the only specimens of the art they ever saw, yet representing familiar objects, they have described them on their arrival at the coast in glowing colours. It is this nucleus, which rendered more plausible, perhaps, by the story of Nardoun, soon swelled into