Note 54 — LETTER XXX.
Joanna B. Horner translation
They are called Salamât, “the Salutations,” by earlier travellers. My attention was called to the correct pronunciation of this word by our old intelligent guide, ʾAuad. The alteration is very great to the Arabs, because سَلَامٌ salàm, salus, is pronounced with the dental sin, صَنَمٌ sʾanam, idolum, with the lingual sʾâd. The plural, which usually is expressed by أصْنامٌ asʾnâm, here assumes the feminine form صَنَمَاتٌ sʾanamât. It is impossible now to see by the mutilated heads whether they were masculine figures. The stone of which the statues are composed is a particularly hard quartzose friable sandstone conglomerate, which looks as if it was glazed, and had innumerable cracks. The frequent crackling of small particles of stone at sunrise, when the change of temperature is greatest, in my opinion produced the tones of Memnon, far-famed in song, which were compared to the breaking of a musical string.