Καλλικράτους. εἐ δὲ φοβούμενος ἢ διὰ
ἄλλο τι αὐτὸς λείπει τοῦ ἔργου, πᾶσι
τοῖς ὕστερον αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἐπιστέλλω,
ἕως ποτὲ ἀγαθός τις γενόμενος τῷ
πυρὶ λούσασθαι τολμήσει καὶ τὰ
ἀριστεῖα ἔχων βασιλεῦσαι τῶν
ἀνθρώπων· ἄπιστα μὲν δὴ τὰ τοιαῦτα
λέγω, ὅμως δὲ ἃ αὐτὴ ἔγνωκα οὐκ
ἐψευσάμην.

The English translation was, as I discovered on further investigation,
and as the reader may easily see by comparison, both accurate and
elegant.

Besides the uncial writing on the convex side of the sherd at the top,
painted in dull red, on what had once been the lip of the amphora, was
the cartouche already mentioned as being on the _scarabæus_, which we
had also found in the casket. The hieroglyphics or symbols, however,
were reversed, just as though they had been pressed on wax. Whether this
was the cartouche of the original Kallikrates,[*] or of some Prince or
Pharaoh from whom his wife Amenartas was descended, I am not sure, nor
can I tell if it was drawn upon the sherd at the same time that the
uncial Greek was inscribed, or copied on more recently from the Scarab
by some other member of the family. Nor was this all. At the foot of
the writing, painted in the same dull red, was the faint outline of a
somewhat rude drawing of the head and shoulders of a Sphinx wearing
two feathers, symbols of majesty, which, though common enough upon the
effigies of sacred bulls and gods, I have never before met with on a
Sphinx.