D'Athanasi, Giovanni; Salt, Henry [Editor]: A brief account of the researches and discoveries in Upper Egypt: To which is added a detailed catalogue of Mr. Salts collection of Egyptian antiquities (London, 1836)

PAPYRI.

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81

its enormous size, is nothing in comparison with
these two sphinxes. Mr. Belzoni in the account
of his travels boasts of having removed a monolithe
weighing twenty or five-and-twenty thousand
pounds; but what would he have said if he had
seen these two sphinxes, each of which weighs
two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and had
he known also that the spot on which they stood
was farther from the sea than was the head of the
younger Memnon? He would have been over-
whelmed with astonishment on learning that in
less than a month these two sphinxes were removed
from the place they were found in, behind the two
colossi, to that where I shipped them by the
sycamore trees. I took less than three hours to
deposit each of them in the vessel. Mr. Belzoni
required forty days to remove the head of the
younger Memnon from the temple of Kasir Jdig-
gaggi to the river.

The papyri which were in the collection of
Mr. Salt amounted to upwards of a hundred
in number, and consisted of five different sorts
of characters, namely, Hieroglyphic, Hieratic,
Demotic, Greek, and Coptic. Of all the papyri
which I have seen, to the number of upwards of
three hundred and fifty, I have not met with one

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