Eight or ten, or perhaps more, they are more disquieting in that they are so numerous and so alike.

They are not gigantic, as one might have expected, but of ordinary human stature--easy therefore to carry away, or to destroy, and that again, if one reflects, augments the singular impression they cause.

When so many colossal figures lie in pieces on the ground, how comes it that they, little people seated so tranquilly on their chairs, have contrived to remain intact, during the passing of the three and thirty centuries of the world's history?
The passage of the march birds, which for a moment disturbed the clear mirror of the lake, has ceased.

Around the goddesses nothing moves and the customary infinite silence envelops them as at the fall of every night.

They dwell indeed in such a forlorn corner of the ruins! Who, to be sure, even in broad daylight, would think of visiting them?
Down there in the west a trailing cloud of dust indicates the departure of the tourists, who had flocked to the temple of Amen, and now hasten back to Luxor, to dine at the various _tables d'hote_.