his ring in token of his office, of course I cannot say.

"When George had read the cartouche he handed me the ring which I
slipped upon the first finger of my left hand, where I still wear
it. Then leaving the grave open for further examination, we went
on with the work, for we were greatly excited. At length, this was
towards evening, we had cleared enough of the sanctuary, which was
small, to uncover the shrine that, if not a monolith, was made of
four pieces of granite so wonderfully put together that one could
not see the joints. On the curved architrave as I think it is
called, was carved the symbol of a winged disc, and beneath in
hieroglyphics as fresh as though they had only been cut yesterday,
an inscription to the effect that Peroa, Royal Son of the Sun,
gave this shrine as an 'excellent eternal work,' together with the
statues of the Holy Mother and the Holy Child to the 'emanations
of the great Goddess Isis and the god Horus,' Amada, Royal Lady,
being votaress or high-priestess.

"We only read the hieroglyphics very hurriedly, being anxious to
see what was within the shrine that, the cedar door having rotted
away, was filled with fine, drifted sand. Basketful by basketful
we got it out and then, my friend, there appeared the most
beautiful life-sized statue of Isis carved in alabaster that ever
I have seen. She was seated on a throne-like chair and wore the
vulture cap on which traces of colour remained. Her arms were held
forward as though to support a child, which perhaps she was
suckling as one of the breasts was bare. But if so, the child had
gone. The execution of the statue was exquisite and its tender and
mystic face extraordinarily beautiful, so life-like also that I
think it must have been copied from a living model. Oh! my friend,