I now came in full sight of the building. Yes, it had been made by
hands, and hollowed partly out of a great rock. I should have supposed
it at the first glance to have been of the earliest form of Egyptian
architecture. It was fronted by huge columns, tapering upward from
massive plinths, and with capitals that, as I came nearer, I perceived
to be more ornamental and more fantastically graceful that Egyptian
architecture allows. As the Corinthian capital mimics the leaf of the
acanthus, so the capitals of these columns imitated the foliage of the
vegetation neighbouring them, some aloe-like, some fern-like. And now
there came out of this building a form--human;--was it human? It stood
on the broad way and looked around, beheld me and approached. It
came within a few yards of me, and at the sight and presence of it an
indescribable awe and tremor seized me, rooting my feet to the ground.
It reminded me of symbolical images of Genius or Demon that are seen on
Etruscan vases or limned on the walls of Eastern sepulchres--images that
borrow the outlines of man, and are yet of another race. It was tall,
not gigantic, but tall as the tallest man below the height of giants.
Its chief covering seemed to me to be composed of large wings folded
over its breast and reaching to its knees; the rest of its attire was
composed of an under tunic and leggings of some thin fibrous material.
It wore on its head a kind of tiara that shone with jewels, and carried
in its right hand a slender staff of bright metal like polished steel.
But the face! it was that which inspired my awe and my terror. It was
the face of man, but yet of a type of man distinct from our known extant
races. The nearest approach to it in outline and expression is the
face of the sculptured sphinx--so regular in its calm, intellectual,
mysterious beauty. Its colour was peculiar, more like that of the red
man than any other variety of our species, and yet different from it--a
richer and a softer hue, with large black eyes, deep and brilliant, and
brows arched as a semicircle. The face was beardless; but a nameless
something in the aspect, tranquil though the expression, and beauteous
though the features, roused that instinct of danger which the sight of
a tiger or serpent arouses. I felt that this manlike image was endowed
with forces inimical to man. As it drew near, a cold shudder came over
me. I fell on my knees and covered my face with my hands.