Discovery of the sphinx’s paws

in 1926

A woman’s hand that cuts off, a woman’s cut-off hand, turns over like a feather the group of heartless cards. A man’s hand shuffled the cards. A woman’s hand changes the order of eternal calculations.

They have discovered the sphinx’s paws. The sphinx deceived them.

Alas, the dupes are no longer to be counted. The underground buildings bear witness to this, full of stuffed kings, kings stuffed and covered with gold, kings covered with gold and adoration.

Of course the discreet intelligence of policemen and archæologists deserves our praise, but one too much forgets what role the hand of the Nile played in this formidable enterprise of death.

Each day a new ruse becomes obvious (cross of asses, goatee of colossi). Notwithstanding that century upon century Egypt committed its crimes with impunity under the hypocritical mask of beauty.

Jean Cocteau