a small cradle, with two sides made of semicircular pieces of wood,
joined along the curved portion by round wooden bars. M. Legrain has now
explained this as a model of the machine used to raise heavy stones from
tier to tier of a pyramid or other building, and illustrations of
the method of its use may be found in Choisy's _Art de Bâtir chez les
anciens Egyptiens_. There is little doubt that this primitive machine
is that to which Herodotus refers as having been used in the erection of
the pyramids.

The later historian, Diodorus, also tells us that great mounds or ramps
of earth were used as well, and that the stones were dragged up these
to the requisite height. There is no doubt that this statement also is
correct. We know that the Egyptians did build in this very way, and
the system has been revived by M. Legrain for his work at Karnak, where
still exist the remains of the actual mounds and ramps by which the
great western pylon was erected in Ptolemaïc times. Work carried on
in this way is slow and expensive, but it is eminently suited to the
country and understood by the people. If they wish to put a great stone
architrave weighing many tons across the top of two columns, they do not
hoist it up into position; they rear a great ramp or embankment of earth
against the two pillars, half-burying them in the process, then drag
the architrave up the ramp by means of ropes and men, and put it into
position. Then the ramp is cleared away. This is the ancient system
which is now followed at Karnak, and it is the system by which, with the
further aid of the wooden machines, the Great Pyramid and its compeers
were erected in the days of the IVth Dynasty. _Plus cela change, plus
c'est la même chose_.

The brick pyramids of the XIIth Dynasty were erected in the same way,
for the Egyptians had no knowledge of the modern combination of wooden