p.

5.
& he said he did not know. And when I suggested the reason
he quite agreed - so I decided I still did not know.
Both these carvings are very much the same, except for
the stone. They are enormous, to a staggering degree - they
are clothed in stone, I mean part of the carving - just
to me to be amazing accurate & lifelike for so enormous
a figure - & then there are various signs of kingship & so
on on the wrists. The amount of damage is very small.
The faces were smooth & highly polished, particularly the
alabaster of course, & the rest of the body was by no
means rough or rugged. Am I telling you anything
you did not know, darling? & even if I'm not, is this at all
interesting to you? Anyway - I must go on. It was so
disappointing & sad that you were not with me. IT would
have been so much more interesting & everything else for
me, if I could have heard what you had to say, & you
would have been able to tell me many things I Wanted to
know - & I should have been able to hear what you had to say
about what I had to say. I asked the dragoman all sorts of
questions, but I think most of his clients - as he calls them
must have been satisfied with the dynasty & how many thousand
years Bc, & how big & how heavy & how many horses to drag
it from there to here & so on - because he could not answer
any of them. I wonder so much about how many people
were responsible for such a huge carving - was it several more,
or was it one man together with a lot of men to do the
rough work. And are they really works of art. I think
they must be. But was the work spontaneous or was
it a commission, & if so, was the commission caused by
artistic sense & enthusiasm, or just self agrandisement,