In these strange conglomerations of various races of animals--the lions with human heads and hawks' heads--there is generally preserved that majestic repose, and that mighty force of execution, which rescue the most incomprehensible of the ancient Egyptian monuments from contempt. Not at all farcical or barbarous could the effect have been, when the Egyptian approached his place of worship through an avenue formed by rows of these colossal sphinxes--all grandly fashioned and full of majesty. Mr. Long says: "Most speculations on the origin of the compound figure, called a sphinx, appear unsatisfactory; nor, indeed, is it an easy matter for the modern inhabitants of Western Europe to conceive what is meant by the symbolical forms which enter so largely into the ancient religious systems of the Eastern world. It seems to us altogether an assumption without proof, that either the andro-sphinx, or the sphinx with the female head, ought to be considered as the original type of this compound figure. The sphinx differs from other compound figures, which occur very often in the Egyptian pictorial representations, in always having the body of a lion, or, it may be, a panther, or some such animal as might be considered a symbol of strength and courage. The whole history of our species bears testimony to that tendency of the human mind, when not restrained and guided by better knowledge, to pourtray in some visible form its conceptions of Deity. However far many superior minds of the heathen world might advance, in deducing from the contemplation of all around them more correct views of the goodness and wisdom of an all-ruling power, these were ideas far too refined for the mass, who felt the want of something more apparent to the senses--something on which the mind could repose from vain imaginings and real fears. Hence the Deity was invested with various forms of familiar objects, under which he was venerated as a protector and friend, or feared as an avenging and angry power. Under the form of a ram, and the name of Ammon, we find a deity worshipped along the banks of the Nile, from the temple of the ancient Meroe to the sand-girt oasis of Siwah. The mild and benignant expression of the sacred ram would indicate the diffusion of tranquillity and peace, nor would the essential value of the symbol be changed by finding the head of the ram placed on human shoulders, or attached to the body of a lion. In the first case it would, in accordance with the Egyptian tradition of gods having assumed the forms of animals, commemorate, as in the Hindoo mythology, an incarnation of the superior power; and in the second, the union of strength and courage with mildness and the arts of peace. The crio-sphinx, then, belongs to the Ammonian mythology, and is a distinct symbol from the andro-sphinx and female sphinx, which, probably, are connected with the worship of Osiris and Isis." Something of the effect may be comprehended from the two large red