‘Five times was I sent to subdue revolts among the Herusha until the land was completely conquered. King Merienra made me Governor of the South, and bestowed high dignity upon me in his household. ‘I was charged to bring the sarcophagus and statue for the pyramid of Merienra, and I transported them in boats. I also quarried a great slab of alabaster for the king in seventeen days. I constructed a boat of 100 feet in length, and 50 in breadth. But there was not water enough to tow it in safety. Therefore I excavated four docks in the land of the south, and next year at the time of the inundation I disembarked in safety both the alabaster slab and all the granite required for the pyramid Kha-nefer[15] of Merienra. Then for those docks I erected a building in which the spirits of the king might be invoked, even of the king Merienra, by whose command all had been done that was done. ‘The beloved of his father, the praised of his mother, the delight of his brethren, the chief, the Governor of the South, the truly devoted to Osiris—Una.’ FOOTNOTES: [11] The face of the Sphinx is 30 feet long and 14 wide. Its body 140, and its front paws 50 feet long. Between the paws was a small sanctuary. [12] Stanley’s _Sinai and Palestine_. [13] On the coffin-lid is a hieroglyphic inscription, which is interesting as showing at how early a period the departed spirit was regarded as one with Osiris. It runs thus: ‘O Osiris, King of Egypt, Menkaura, living for ever! born of Heaven, offspring of Seb. May thy Mother Nut (Heaven) stretch herself over thee, and cover thee in her Name of Heavenly Mystery. May she render thee divine, destroying all thine enemies, O King Menkaura, living for ever!’ [14] Tribes inhabiting the desert beyond the north-east frontier of Egypt. [15] The Beautiful Rising. CHAPTER III. The Pyramid Builders—_Continued_. The warlike expeditions described by Una, the Governor of the South, form the exception rather than the rule in this early history. Fearing no rivals at home, and almost entirely free from enemies abroad, these powerful monarchs devoted their thoughts and care to the building of temples and of those gigantic funeral piles that have immortalised their names. It is certain that the pyramids could not have been erected without a very considerable amount of scientific knowledge, whilst as records of engineering skill they are simply marvellous. Immense blocks were brought from a distance of 500 miles up the river, were polished like glass, and fitted into their places with such exactness that the joints could hardly be detected. ‘Nothing can be more wonderful,’ says Fergusson, ‘than the extraordinary amount of knowledge and perfect precision of execution displayed in the construction of the interior chambers and galleries; nothing more perfect mechanically has ever been executed since.’