"Our ancestors said the same of the horse, which helped the Hyksos to conquer Egypt, but today it is indispensable to our army. Time changes men's judgments greatly," said Pentuer.
The last clouds had vanished from the sky and a clear night set in. Though the moon was absent the air was so clear that on the background of the white sand a man could distinguish the general outline of objects, even when small or distant. The piercing cold also diminished. All advanced now in silence, and sank, as they walked, in the sand to their ankles. Suddenly a tumult and cries rose among the Asiatics,
"A sphinx! Look, a sphinx! We shall not escape from this desert if specters show themselves all the time."
Indeed, outlines of a sphinx on a white limestone hill were seen very clearly. The body of a lion, an immense head with an Egyptian cap, and as it were a human profile.
"Calm yourselves, barbarians," said the old Libyan. "That is no sphinx; it is a lion, and he will do no harm, for he is occupied in eating."
"Indeed, that is a lion!" confirmed the prince halting. "But how he resembles a sphinx."
"He is the father of our sphinxes," added the priest in a low voice.
"His face recalls a man's features, his mane is the wig."
"And our great sphinx, that at the pyramids?"
"Many ages before Menes," said Pentuer, "when there were no pyramids yet, there was on that spot a rock which looked like a recumbent lion, as if the gods wished in that way to indicate the beginning of the desert. The holy priests of that period commanded artists to hew the rock around with more accuracy and to fill out its lacks by additions. The artists, seeing people oftener than lions, cut out the face of a man, and thus the first sphinx had its origin."
"To which we give divine honor," said the prince, smiling.