of the marble?" The mere hauling down of the slabs would induce fractures, leaving fragments, which are not now to be discovered. Most of the débris of the pyramid is at the southern and western sides, most exposed to weather, and consists of particles of the stone steps, brought down by wind and rain, besides sand blown up from the desert. Furthermore, he paturally asked why the supposed Saracenic spoiler, in his anxiety for marble casing, did not take it from the more convenient little pyramids, but pass them by to attack the more formidable building?

THE TOP.

It is a glorious view from the upper platform over the level but continuous garden of the Nile. One looks down upon the plain where Bonaparte's squares repelled the charge of the Mameluke horsemen, and which glorious feat was witnessed, not by forty centuries, but by sixty. The mysterious desert and the Libyan hills stretch northward, southward, and westward. The site of Memphis and the marvellous old pyramids of Saqqarah are before one. There lie the tombs of the sacred bulls; and around the pyramid are the graves of kings, nobles, priests, and ladies of the Ancient Empire, 5000, 6000, or more, years ago. Quiet thoughts on the pyramid are suggestive ones. When Thevenot was there he counted "twelve lovely large stones." Greaves, the astronomer, wrote: "The top of this pyramid is covered, not with one or three massy stones, as some have imagined, but nine, besides two which are wanting at the angles." Another describes it "surrounded with thirteen great stones, two of which do not now appear."

The top has been generally estimated at 30 feet. Dr. Richardson has this statement :-" Arrived at the summit we found it ample and spacious; a square, from 25 feet to 30 feet a side, consisting of long square blocks of stone, with the upper surface coarse and uneven, as are the usual surfaces of stones in the courses of a building. We perceived a thin cement of lime be tween the different courses of stones, but there was no appearance of any cement having been placed upon the upper surface of the highest course." The conclusion was that it had never been higher. Mr. Agnew said :—“The platform was not intended to form part of the pyramidal portion of the monument." But Dufeu and others regard the platform as the real top, which was never covered, though it may have had a column or cippe to serve as an imaginary apex.

The Rev. T. Gabb, 1808, who had no doubt of its being originally pointed, as were all the other pyramids, was a little troubled to account for this being stripped of the top while others retained theirs in safety. "Nor do I doubt," quoth he, "but the apex was severed from it by the impetuosity of the waters (at the Flood) while in their unabated rapidity, and thus left the flat, which has furnished various conjectures." Others that retained their caps, when the Flood carried off the top of the 'great pyramid, were, thinks he, "erected nearer to the time of the Deluge, it may be even a thousand years after the great

one.'

Having now taken a survey of the exterior, the consultation of authorities concerning the interior will next engage attention. Although some reference elsewhere has been made to the name of the building, it may not be out of place to say something here upon

THE NAME.

Murtadi, as an Arab, thinks the Arabic birba, plural barabi, is probably corrupted into pyramis. But Pococke and Sacy call birba a temple. Thevenot says the Turks call it Pharaon Daglary, and the Arabs Dgebel Pharaon, meaning Pharaoh's hills. Abenesi and others thought the first syllable of the word was only the masculine article in Egyptian. The word el Harm or ancient, is an Arabic derivation. Abdullatiff writes :-" Galen speaks in one place of the pyramids, and he derives their name from a word which signifies the decrepit state of old age." According to Galen himself, "we call him who is in the third epoch of old age haram, and those who love to search etymology say this word, which is given him, is derived from that of the pyramids (ahram), into which they ought soon to take their place."

On this the Professor of Arabic in Paris, 130 years ago, M. Vattier, had this observation :-"The pyramids are expressed in the Arabian tongue by two names, Birba, which I have used in several places, and Haram. Haram, in the Arabian, signifies an old structure." Macrizi speaks of Ahram, the pyramid. D'Herbelot observes, "Ehram or Eheram, Arabic plural of Herem, which signifies old age, this plural, joined to the article, makes Alehram, and signifies, in particular, the pyramids of Egypt, because of their great antiquity." Michaelis would give the same. Ah'ram, according to others, is the local name now given to the pyramids; El-Haram is said to be a corruption of Pi-Haram.

Silvestre de Sacy says:-"This name (Haram) signifies the holy place, the edifice consecrated in a particular manner, it may

be to some divinity, or some religious usage. It is very possible that the Egyptians might have written 'HRAM, without any vowel after the aspirated consonant, as they write even now 'HRA, face, &c., and it is not surprising that the Greeks may have supposed that aspiration too hard for them." He sees, however, some objection :-"The first is that the root HRM is not found in modern Egyptian. That objection does not appear strong to me. We know but very imperfectly the Coptic language, and above all the dialect of Said."

Jablonski takes up Pliny's ray definition of the obelisk, saying "The Egyptians then gave the name of pyramids to the obelisks, because they had a sort of resemblance to the rays of the sun; afterwards they carried that name to more considerable edifices, which one properly names pyramids, because that, nowithstanding that their distinction was different, they preserved some relation to the figure of the solar rays." Elsewhere he notices the Coptic words pirá-mona, splendour of the sun. Lacroze gets pi-re-mi as the splendour of the sun. Ammien Marcellion, or Marcellinus, says :-" It got the name because it ends in a cone, imitating in that the fire." But as De Sacy properly adds, "That only offers the first part of the word, pyr."

Adler and Rossi find it in pi-rama, height, or a raised monument. Silvestre de Sacy, citing this opinion, tells us that "This etymology possesses faith and simplicity, and the most strikingly sensible application to the pyramids." Wahl sees the Coptic root ramas, rich. Wilkins reads pouro, king, and mici, birth, because intended for royal families. Lacroze has for interpretation, "the inhabitant or possessor of the elevation." Kircher finds a meaning in hero; adding, "the piromes were then statues of the kings and priests, which were raised as a witness of the

superiority of their strength, and of their heroic actions." Dufeu has pi-re-mit, to mean the tenth part of measures or numbers. Volney gives the definition of cave of the dead. "In ancient Greek," says he, "the u was pronounced oo; we should therefore say pooramis. Pooramis is not Greek, but Egyptian." He thinks pour or bour is prison or sepulchre, and amit is of the dead. Others, from the Greek puros, wheat, and metron, measure, may have imagined the story of Joseph's granaries. As a Coptic word it may mean a measure of ten. Prof. Smyth has the authority of the editor of the Hebrew Christian Witness for "considering the word Matzaybhah in Isa. xix. 19 to mean a pyramid." The same word is translated pillar there, and in Gen. xxviii. 19.

THE OPENING.

Whether absolutely cased or not, the pyramid was practically shut up, according to popular account, until about the year 830, when the Caliph Mamoun found an opening. For this story we are indebted to Arabian sources, which are slightly doubtful. The truth is generally somewhere, though nearly overwhelmed by imaginative details.

One of the well-known versions is about Al-Mamoun, Caliph of Babylon, gaining access to the interior. When he got to the king's chamber, we are informed that he saw there a hollow stone (the Sarcophagus), in which lay the statue of a man. But the statue inclosed a body, whose breastplate of gold was brilliantly set with jewels. A sword of inestimable value lay upon the corpse. At the head shone, with the light of day, a carbuncle as large as an egg. We have also a tale about one Melec-Alaziz-Othman-ben-Yousouf, who made so desperate an