rt of the colossus itself in
inscriptions which may be seen at the present day. Amenhotep, identified
by the idle fancy of some Greek or Roman scholar with the Memnon of
Homer, son of Tithonus and _The Dawn_, who led an army of Ethiopians to
the assistance of Priam of Troy against the Greeks, was regarded as a
god, and to hear the sound was not only to witness a miracle, but to
receive an assurance of the god's favourable regard. For the statue did
not emit a sound--the god did not speak--every day. Sometimes travellers
had to depart disappointed altogether, sometimes they had to make a
second, a third, or a fourth visit before hearing the desired voice. But
still it was a frequent phenomenon; and a common soldier has recorded
the fact on the base of the statue, that he heard it no fewer than
thirteen times. The origin of the sound, the time when it began to be
heard, and the circumstances under which it ceased, are all more or less
doubtful. Some of those exceedingly clever persons who find priest-craft
everywhere, think that the musical sound was the effect of human
contrivance, and explain the whole matter to their entire satisfaction
by "the jugglery of the priests." The priests either found a naturally
vocal piece of rock, and intentionally made the statue out of it; or
they cunningly introduced a pipe into the interior of the figure, by
which they could make musical notes issue from the mouth at their
pleasure. It is against this view that in the palmy days of the Egyptian
hierarchy, the vocal character of the statue was entirely unknown; we
have no evidence of the sound having been heard earlier than the time of
Strabo (B.C. 25-10), when Egypt was in the possession of the Romans, and
the priests had little influence. Moreover, the theory is disproved by
the fact that, during the two centuries of the continuance of the
marvel, there were occasions when Memnon was obstinately silent, though
the priests must have been most anxious that he should speak, while
there were others when he spoke freely, though they must have been
perfectly indifferent. The wife of a prefect of Egypt made two visits to
the spot to no purpose; and the Empress Sabina, wife of the Emperor
Hadrian, was, on her first visit, also disappointed, so that "her
venerable features were inflamed with anger." On the other hand, as
already mentioned, a common Roman soldier heard the sound thirteen
times.

With respect to the time when, and the circumstan