CHAPTER XI.

Musical Instrument(nefer)holy. This instrument resembles a heart surmounted by a cross. Some think it represents a guitar, and from the purifying effects of music, became the symbol for goodness or holiness.Ostrich Feather(shu)true. The usual symbol of truth. The nomen therefore in this case may be rendered, “Thothmes, the holy, the true.”

Ostrich Feather(shu)true. The usual symbol of truth. The nomen therefore in this case may be rendered, “Thothmes, the holy, the true.”

Bennu(bennu) sacred bird of An. Thisbennuis usually depicted with two long feathers on the back of the head.

Pylonor gateway, is a hieroglyph that stands forAnorOn, the Greek Heliopolis. Its great antiquity is shown from the fact that the city is referred to in the Book of Genesis under the name ofOn, translated Ων in the Septuagint: “And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On.... And unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, which Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On bare unto him.”

Heliopolis was by the ancient Egyptians named Benbena, “the house of pyramidia;” but as no pyramids proper ever existed at On, the monuments alluded to are either pylons, that is, gateways of temples, or obelisks.

The Hieroglyphics of Thothmes III.

Translation of the Fourth Side.

“Horus, beloved of Osiris, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-men-Kheper, making offerings, beloved of the gods, supplying the altar of the three Spirits of Heliopolis, with a sound life hundreds of thousands of festivals of thirty years, very many; Son of the Sun, Thothmes, divine Ruler, beloved of Haremakhu, ever-living.”

The first part of the inscription, “Horus, beloved of Osiris, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-men-Kheper,” is similar to the other faces, except that the figure of Osiris, the benignant declining sun, occurs.

Chessboard(men)making.Three Vases(menu)offerings. Plurality is indicated by the vase being repeated thrice.Hand Plough(mer)beloved.Hatchet(neter)god. The three vertical lines before the hatchet indicate plurality.Long Serpent(g) phonetic}The two formgef,supplying.Horned Snake(ef) phoneticAltar,altar.Zigzag(nu)of.Three Birds,three spirits. These birds represent the bennu, or sacred bird of Heliopolis, supposed to be an incarnation of a solar god. Three are depicted to represent respectively the three solar deities, Horus, Ra, Tum.Pylon(An)Heliopolis.Vase(n) complement to (An).CirclewithCross(nu) determinative of city An.

Chessboard(men)making.

Three Vases(menu)offerings. Plurality is indicated by the vase being repeated thrice.

Hand Plough(mer)beloved.

Hatchet(neter)god. The three vertical lines before the hatchet indicate plurality.

Altar,altar.

Zigzag(nu)of.

Three Birds,three spirits. These birds represent the bennu, or sacred bird of Heliopolis, supposed to be an incarnation of a solar god. Three are depicted to represent respectively the three solar deities, Horus, Ra, Tum.

Pylon(An)Heliopolis.

Vase(n) complement to (An).

CirclewithCross(nu) determinative of city An.

Owl(em)with.Cross(ankh)life. This hieroglyph is the usual symbol of life. It is therefore known as the key of life, and from its shape is calledcrux ansata, “handled cross.” It ought to be distinguished from the musical instrument called sistrum, which it somewhat resembles.Sceptre(uas)sound. The sceptre usually stands for power, but power in life is soundness of health.Little Man(hefen)hundreds of thousands. This little figure with hands upraised is the usual symbol for an indefinite number, and may be rendered millions, or as above.Palace(heb)festivals.Seeface one.Swallow(ur)very. This symbol generally means great. Here it is an intensive, very.Lizard(ast)many.

Owl(em)with.

Cross(ankh)life. This hieroglyph is the usual symbol of life. It is therefore known as the key of life, and from its shape is calledcrux ansata, “handled cross.” It ought to be distinguished from the musical instrument called sistrum, which it somewhat resembles.

Sceptre(uas)sound. The sceptre usually stands for power, but power in life is soundness of health.

Little Man(hefen)hundreds of thousands. This little figure with hands upraised is the usual symbol for an indefinite number, and may be rendered millions, or as above.

Palace(heb)festivals.Seeface one.

Swallow(ur)very. This symbol generally means great. Here it is an intensive, very.

Lizard(ast)many.

Offering(hotep)offering. The three vertical lines indicating plurality may refer both to offering and succeeding hieroglyph.Cone(hen)majesty. We have called this cone, from its likeness to a fir-cone.Two Circles(aten)two seasons. Each is a solar disk, the ordinary symbol of Ra, but here means season, because seasons depend on the sun.Shoot(renpa)year. This is a shoot of a palm tree; with one notch it equals year.

Offering(hotep)offering. The three vertical lines indicating plurality may refer both to offering and succeeding hieroglyph.

Cone(hen)majesty. We have called this cone, from its likeness to a fir-cone.

Two Circles(aten)two seasons. Each is a solar disk, the ordinary symbol of Ra, but here means season, because seasons depend on the sun.

Shoot(renpa)year. This is a shoot of a palm tree; with one notch it equals year.

The following hieroglyphs are obscure, but the highest authorities say that they probably mean, “that he might repose by means of them;” that is, that Thothmes hoped that repose might be brought to his mind from the fact that he made due offerings to his gods at the two appointed seasons.

Rameses II.

The lateral columns of hieroglyphics on the London Obelisk are the work of Rameses II., who lived about two centuries after Thothmes III., and ascended the throne about 1300B.C.Rameses II. was the third king of the XIXth dynasty; and for personal exploits, the magnificence of his works, and the length of his reign, he was not surpassed by any of the kings of ancient Egypt, except by Thothmes III.

His grandfather, Rameses I., was the founder of the dynasty. His father, Seti I., is celebrated for his victories over the Rutennu, or Syrians, and over the Shasu, or Arabians, as well as for his public works, especially the great temple he built at Karnak. Rameses II. was, however, a greater warrior than his father. He first conquered Kush, or Ethiopia; then he led an expedition against the Khitæ, or Hittites, whom he completely routed at Kadesh, the ancient capital, a town on the River Orontes, north of Mount Lebanon. In this battle Rameses was placed in the greatest danger; but his personal bravery stood him in good stead, and he kept the Hittites at bay till his soldiers rescued him. He thus commemorates on the monuments his deeds;

“I became like the god Mentu; I hurled the dart with my right hand; I fought with my left hand; I was like Baal in his time before their sight; I had come upon two thousand five hundred pairs of horses; I was in the midst of them; but they were dashed in pieces before my steeds. Not one of them raised his hand to fight; their courage was sunken in their breasts; their limbs gave way; they could not hurl the dart, nor had they strength to thrust the spear. I made them fall into the waters like crocodiles; they tumbled down on their faces one after another. I killed them at my pleasure, so that not one looked back behind him; nor did any turn round. Each fell, and none raised himself up again.”[6]

Rameses fought with and conquered the Amorites, Canaanites, and other tribes of Palestine and Syria. His public works are also very numerous; he dug wells, founded cities, and completed a great wall begun by his father Seti, reaching from Pelusium to Heliopolis, a gigantic structure, designed to keep back the hostile Asiatics, thus reminding one of the Great Wall of China. Pelusium was situated near the present Port Saïd, and the wall must therefore have been about a hundred miles long. In its course it must have passed near the site of Tel-el-Kebir. It is now certain that Rameses built the treasure cities spoken of in Exodus: “Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses” (Exod. i. 11). According toDr. Birch, Rameses II. was a monarch of whom it was written: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph.”

He enlarged On and Tanis, and built temples at Ipsambul, Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, Memphis, etc.

“The most remarkable of the temples erected by Rameses is the building at Thebes, once called the Memnonium, but now commonly known as the Rameseum; and the extraordinary rock temple of Ipsambul, or Abu-Simbel, the most magnificent specimen of its class which the world contains.

“The façade is formed by four huge colossi, each seventy feet in height, representing Rameses himself seated on a throne, with the double crown of Egypt upon his head. In the centre, flanked on either side by two of these gigantic figures, is a doorway of the usual Egyptian type, opening into a small vestibule, which communicates by a short passage with the main chamber. This is an oblong square, sixty feet long, by forty-five, divided into a nave and two aisles by two rows of square piers with Osirid statues, thirty feet high in front, and ornamented with painted sculptures over its whole surface. The main chamber leads into an inner shrine, or adytum, supported by four piers with Osirid figures, but otherwise as richly adorned as the outer apartment. Behind the adytum are small rooms for the priests who served in the temple. It is the façade of the work which constitutes its main beauty.”[7]

Colossal Head of Rameses II.

“The largest of the rock temples at Ipsambul,” says Mr. Fergusson, “isthe finest of its class known to exist anywhere. Externally the façade is about one hundred feet in height, and adorned by four of the most magnificent colossi in Egypt, each seventy feet in height, and representing the king, Rameses II., who caused the excavation to be made. It may be because they aremore perfect than any other now found in that country, but certainly nothing can exceed their calm majesty and beauty, or be more entirely free from the vulgarity and exaggeration which is generally a characteristic of colossal works of this sort.”[8]

A great king Rameses was, undoubtedly; but he showed no disposition to underrate his greatness. The hieroglyphics on Cleopatra’s Needles are written in a vaunting and arrogant strain; and in all the monuments celebrating his deeds the same spirit is present. His character has been well summarized by Canon Rawlinson:—

“His affection for his son, and for his two principal wives, shows that the disposition of Rameses II. was in some respects amiable; although, upon the whole, his character is one which scarcely commends itself to our approval. Professing in his early years extreme devotion to the memory of his father, he lived to show himself his father’s worst enemy, and to aim at obliterating his memory by erasing his name from the monuments on which it occurred, and in many cases substituting his own. Amid a great show of regard for the deities of his country, and for the ordinances of the established worship, he contrived that the chief result of all that he did for religion should be the glorification of himself. Other kings had arrogated to themselves a certain qualified dignity, and after their deaths had sometimes been placed by some of their successors on a par with thereal national gods; but it remained for Rameses to associate himself during his lifetime with such leading deities as Ptah, Ammon, and Horus, and to claim equally with them the religious regards of his subjects. He was also, as already observed, the first to introduce into Egypt the degrading custom of polygamy and the corrupting influence of a harem. Even his bravery, which cannot be denied, loses half its merit by being made the constant subject of boasting; and his magnificence ceases to appear admirable when we think at what a cost it displayed itself. If, with most recent writers upon Egyptian history, we identify him with the ‘king who knew not Joseph,’ the builder of Pithom and Raamses, the first oppressor of the Israelites, we must add some darker shades to the picture, and look upon him as a cruel and ruthless despot, who did not shrink from inflicting on innocent persons the severest pain and suffering.”

The Hieroglyphics of Rameses II.

First side.—Right hand.

“Horus, powerful bull, son of Tum, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-user-ma-sotep-en-Ra, lord of kingly and queenly royalty, guardian of Kham (Egypt), chastiser of foreign lands, son of the sun, Ra-meri-Amen, dragging the foreigners of southern nations to the Great Sea, the foreigners of northern nations to the four poles of heaven, lord of the two countries, Ra-user-ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Ra-mes-su-men-Amen, giver of life like the sun.”

Most of the above hieroglyphs have already been explained, but the following remarks will enable the reader to understand better this column of hieroglyphs.

Cartouche containing the divine name of Rameses:—

Oval(aten)Ra. The oval is the solar disk, the usual symbol of the supreme solar deity called Ra.Anubis Staff(user)abounding in. This symbol was equal to Latindives, rich, abounding in. Theuser, or Anubis staff, was a rod with a jackal-head on the top. The jackal was the emblem of Anubis, son of Osiris, and brother of Thoth. The god Anubis was the friend and guardian of pure souls. He is therefore frequently depicted by the bed of the dying. After death Anubis was director of funeral rites, and presided over the embalmers of the dead. He was also the conductor of souls to the regions of Amenti, and in the hall of judgment presides over the scales of justice.Female Figure(ma)MaorThmei, the goddess of truth. She is generally represented in a sitting posture, holding in her hand theankh, the key of life, an emblem of immortality.Disk(aten)Ra, the supreme solar deity.Drill or Auger(sotep)approved.Sotepmeans to judge, to approve of. Here it simply meansapproved.Zigzag(en)of.

Oval(aten)Ra. The oval is the solar disk, the usual symbol of the supreme solar deity called Ra.

Anubis Staff(user)abounding in. This symbol was equal to Latindives, rich, abounding in. Theuser, or Anubis staff, was a rod with a jackal-head on the top. The jackal was the emblem of Anubis, son of Osiris, and brother of Thoth. The god Anubis was the friend and guardian of pure souls. He is therefore frequently depicted by the bed of the dying. After death Anubis was director of funeral rites, and presided over the embalmers of the dead. He was also the conductor of souls to the regions of Amenti, and in the hall of judgment presides over the scales of justice.

Female Figure(ma)MaorThmei, the goddess of truth. She is generally represented in a sitting posture, holding in her hand theankh, the key of life, an emblem of immortality.

Disk(aten)Ra, the supreme solar deity.

Drill or Auger(sotep)approved.Sotepmeans to judge, to approve of. Here it simply meansapproved.

Zigzag(en)of.

The prenomen, or divine name of Rameses, means “The supreme solar god, abounding in truth, approved of Ra.” Thus in his divine nature Rameses claims to be a descendant of Ra, and of the same nature with the god. This prenomen is repeated twice in each column of hieroglyphs, and as there are eight lateral columns cut by Rameses, it follows that this divine name occurs sixteen times on the obelisk.

The Vulture(mut) was worn on the diadem of a queen, and was a badge of queenly royalty.The Sacred Asp, calleduræus, was worn on the forehead of a king. It was a symbol of kingly royalty and immortality, and being worn by the king Βασιλευς, the sacred asp was also calledbasilisk. Rameses, in choosing the epithet “Lord of kingly and queenly royalty,” wished perhaps to set forth that he embodied in himself the graces of a queen with the wisdom of a king.Crocodile’s Tail(Kham)Egypt.Khamliterally means black, and Egypt in early times was called “the black country,” from the black alluvial soil brought down by the Nile. The symbol thought to be a crocodile’s tail represents Egypt, because the crocodile abounded in Egypt, and was a characteristic of that country. Even at the present time Egypt is sometimes spoken of as “the land of the crocodile.”Two Straight Lines(tata) is the usual symbol for the two countries of Egypt. They appear above the second prenomen of this column of hieroglyphs. Each line represents a layer of earth, and is namedta. Egypt was a flat country, and on this account the emblem of Egypt was a straight line.A figure with an undulating surface, calledset, is the usual emblem of a foreign country. The undulating surface probably indicates the hills and valleys of those foreign lands around Egypt, such as Nubia, Arabia Petra, Canaan, Phœnicia, etc. These countries, in comparison with the flat land of Egypt, were countries of hills and valleys. This hieroglyph for foreign lands occurs in this column immediately above the first nomen.

The Vulture(mut) was worn on the diadem of a queen, and was a badge of queenly royalty.

The Sacred Asp, calleduræus, was worn on the forehead of a king. It was a symbol of kingly royalty and immortality, and being worn by the king Βασιλευς, the sacred asp was also calledbasilisk. Rameses, in choosing the epithet “Lord of kingly and queenly royalty,” wished perhaps to set forth that he embodied in himself the graces of a queen with the wisdom of a king.

Crocodile’s Tail(Kham)Egypt.Khamliterally means black, and Egypt in early times was called “the black country,” from the black alluvial soil brought down by the Nile. The symbol thought to be a crocodile’s tail represents Egypt, because the crocodile abounded in Egypt, and was a characteristic of that country. Even at the present time Egypt is sometimes spoken of as “the land of the crocodile.”

Two Straight Lines(tata) is the usual symbol for the two countries of Egypt. They appear above the second prenomen of this column of hieroglyphs. Each line represents a layer of earth, and is namedta. Egypt was a flat country, and on this account the emblem of Egypt was a straight line.

A figure with an undulating surface, calledset, is the usual emblem of a foreign country. The undulating surface probably indicates the hills and valleys of those foreign lands around Egypt, such as Nubia, Arabia Petra, Canaan, Phœnicia, etc. These countries, in comparison with the flat land of Egypt, were countries of hills and valleys. This hieroglyph for foreign lands occurs in this column immediately above the first nomen.

Cartouche with nomen: “Ra-mes-es Meri Amen.”

Figure with Hawk’s Headis Ra. On his head he wears theaten, or solar disk, and in his hand holds theankh, or key of life.Triple Twig(mes) is here the syllabicmes. This is the usual symbol forbirthorborn; thus the monarch in his nameRamesesclaims to beborn of Ra.Chair Back(s). The final complement inmes.Reed(es)es. The final syllable in name Rameses. Some are disposed to render the reed assu, and thus make the name Ramessu. With his name the king associates the remaining hieroglyphs of the cartouche.

Figure with Hawk’s Headis Ra. On his head he wears theaten, or solar disk, and in his hand holds theankh, or key of life.

Triple Twig(mes) is here the syllabicmes. This is the usual symbol forbirthorborn; thus the monarch in his nameRamesesclaims to beborn of Ra.

Chair Back(s). The final complement inmes.

Reed(es)es. The final syllable in name Rameses. Some are disposed to render the reed assu, and thus make the name Ramessu. With his name the king associates the remaining hieroglyphs of the cartouche.

The figure with sceptre is the god Amen. On his head he wears a tall hat made up of two long plumes or ostrich feathers. On his chin he wears the long curved beard which indicates his divine nature. A singular custom among the Egyptians was tying a false beard, made of plaited hair, to the end of the chin. It assumed various shapes, to indicate the dignity and position of the wearer. Private individuals wear a small beard about two inches long. That worn by a king was of considerable length, and square at the end; while figures of gods are distinguished by having long beards turned up at the end. The divine beard, the royal beard, and the ordinary beard, are thus easily distinguished.

Amen was the supreme god worshipped at Thebes. He corresponds to Zeus among the Greeks, and Jupiter among the Latins. Rameses associates with his own name that of Amen. The hieroglyphs inside the cartouche are “Ra-mes-es-meri-Amen,” which literally translated mean, “Born of Ra, beloved of Amen.” The king consequently claims descent from the supreme solar deity of Heliopolis, and the favour of the supreme god of Thebes.

First side.—Left hand.

“Horus, powerful bull, beloved of Ra, lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, lord of festivals, like his father Ptah-Totanen, son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen, powerful bull, like the son of Nut; none can stand before him, lord of the two countries, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen.”

On the third face, Rameses calls himself the son of Tum, but here he claims Ptah Totanen as his father.

Ptah, also called Ptah Totanen, was the chief god worshipped at Memphis, and is spoken of as the creator of visible things. Tum is also represented as possessing the creative attribute, and it is not improbable that Ptah and Tum sometimes stand for each other. The obelisk stood before the temple of Tum at Heliopolis, and was probably connected with that deity. That Ptah stands for Tum seems to receive confirmation from the fact that after Ptah’s name comes the figure of a god used as a determinative. This figure has on its head a solar disk, and therefore appears to be intended for a solar deity.

Nut was a sky-goddess, and represents the blue midday sky. She was said to be the mother of Osiris, who is the friend of mankind, and one of the gods much beloved.

Second side.—Right hand.

“Horus, powerful bull, son of Kheper, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, golden hawk, abounding in years, greatly powerful, son of the sun,Rameses-meri-Amen; the eyes of created beings witness what he has done, nothing has been said against the lord of the two countries, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun. Rameses-meri-Amen, the lustre of the son, like the sun.”

Thekheper, or sacred beetle, was sacred to both Ptah and to Tum, and it ought to be observed that Rameses claims each of these gods as his father.

Thehawkwas an emblem of a solar deity, and it was described as golden, in reference to the golden rays of the sun.

The bird at the bottom of this lateral column of hieroglyphs rendered the lustre, is thebennu, or sacred bird of Heliopolis, regarded as an incarnation of a solar deity, and therefore the symbol for lustre or splendour. It is often depicted with two long feathers, or one feather, on the back of its head.

Second side.—Left hand.

“Horus, powerful bull, beloved of truth, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, born of the gods, holding the country as son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen, making his frontiers at the place he wishes—at peace by means of his power, lord of the two countries, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen, with splendour like Ra.”

In the abovefrontieris represented by across, to indicate where one country passes into another. Theflat land of Egypt is represented by a straight line (ta), probably designed to be a layer of earth, while a chip of rock stands for any rocky country, such as Nubia, or for a rocky locality, as Syene, on the frontiers of Nubia, the region of the great granite quarries. In the column it will be noticed that Rameses vauntingly asserts that his conquests were co-extensive with his desires.

Third side.—Right hand.

“Horus, powerful bull, beloved by Ra, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, lord of festivals, like his father Ptah, son of the sun. Rameses-meri-Amen, son of Tum, out of his loins, loved of him. Hathor, the guide of the two countries, has given birth to him, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen, giver of life, like the sun.”

In the above, the hieroglyph rendered Hathor is an oblong figure with a small square inscribed in one corner, thus resembling a stamped envelope. This oblong figure calledha, probably represented the ground plan of a temple or house, and is rendered abode, house, temple, or palace, according to the context. Inside the ground-plan in this case is a figure of a hawk, the emblem of a solar deity. Here it stands for Horus, and the entire hieroglyph (ha,hor) rendered Hathor, means “the abode of Horus.” The “abode of Horus” refers to his mother, a goddess who is therefore named Hathor, or Athor.The cow is often used as an emblem of this goddess. Isis also is the reputed mother of Horus, and consequently some think that Hathor and Isis are two names for one and the same goddess.

Third side.—Left hand.

“Horus, the powerful bull, son of Tum, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, lord of kingly and queenly royalty, guardian of Egypt, chastiser of foreign lands, son of the sun. Rameses-meri-Amen, coming daily into the temple of Tum; he has seen nothing in the house of his father, lord of the two countries, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen, like the sun.”

In the above the word rendered guardian ismak, a word made up of three phonetic hieroglyphs, namely, a hole, arm, and semicircle.

Egypt, calledKham, that is the black country, is here represented by a crocodile’s tail, since crocodiles were common in the country, and characteristic of Egypt.

The word rendered chastiser is in the originalauf, a name made up of three phonetic hieroglyphs, namely, an arm, chick, horned snake. The arrangement of these hieroglyphs with a view to neatness and economising space displays both taste and ingenuity.

While it is asserted that Rameses went into the temple of Tum every day, it is also said that he saw nothing in the temple. This seems like a contradiction;but, according to classic writers, Rameses II., called by the Greeks Sesostris, became blind in his old age, and the preceding passage may have reference to the monarch’s blindness.

Fourth side.—Right hand.

“Horus, powerful bull, beloved of Ra, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, the son of Ra, born of the gods, holding his dominions with power, victory, glory; the bull of princes, king of kings, lord of the two countries, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Rameses-men-Amen, of Tum, beloved of Heliopolis, giver of life.”

In the above, a lion’s head, calledpeh, stands for glory, and a crook like that of a shepherd, calledhek, stands for ruler or prince.

The phrase, “king of kings,” occurs in the above, and is the earliest instance of this grand expression—familiar to Christian ears from the fact that in the Bible it is applied to the High and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity. “Alleluia: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ... and on His vesture a name written,King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

Fourth side.—Left hand.

“Horus, powerful bull, son of Truth, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, golden hawk,supplier of years, most powerful son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen, leading captive the Rutennu and Peti out of their countries to the house of his father; lord of the two countries, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen, beloved of Shu, great god like the sun.”

The first half of the above is almost identical with the upper part of the lateral column on the second side, right hand. TheRutennuprobably mean the Syrians, and thePetieither the Libyans or Nubians.

Shu was a solar deity, the son of Tum.

The Recent Discovery of the Mummies of Thothmes III. and Rameses II. at Deir-el-Bahari.

In Cairo, at the Boolak Museum, there is a vast collection of Egyptian antiquities, even more valuable than the collections to be seen at the British Museum, and at the Louvre, Paris. The precious treasures of the Boolak Museum were for the most part collected through the indefatigable labours of the late Mariette Bey. Since his death the charge of the Museum has been entrusted to the two well-known Egyptologists, Professor Maspero and Herr Emil Brugsch.

Professor Maspero lately remarked that for the last ten years he had noticed with considerable astonishment that many valuable Egyptian relics found their way in a mysterious manner to European museums as well as to the private collections of European noblemen. He therefore suspected that the Arabs in the neighbourhood of Thebes, in Upper Egypt, had discovered and were plundering some royal tombs. This suspicion was intensified by the fact that Colin Campbell, on returning to Cairo from a visit to Upper Egypt, showed to theProfessor some pages of a superb royal ritual, purchased from some Arabs at Thebes. M. Maspero accordingly made a journey to Thebes, and on arriving at the place, conferred on the subject with Daoud Pasha, the governor of the district, and offered a handsome reward to any person who would give information of any recently discovered royal tombs.

Behind the ruins of the Ramesseum is a terrace of rock-hewn tombs, occupied by the families of four brothers named Abd-er-Rasoul. The brothers professed to be guides and donkey-masters, but in reality they made their livelihood by tomb-breaking and mummy-snatching. Suspicion at once fell upon them, and a mass of concurrent testimony pointed to the four brothers as the possessors of the secret. With the approval of the district governor, one of the brothers, Ahmed-Abd-er-Rasoul, was arrested and sent to prison at Keneh, the chief town of the district. Here he remained in confinement for two months, and preserved an obstinate silence. At length Mohammed, the eldest brother, fearing that Ahmed’s constancy might give way, and fearing lest the family might lose the reward offered by M. Maspero, came to the governor and volunteered to divulge the secret. Having made his depositions, the governor telegraphed to Cairo, whither the Professor had returned. It was felt that no time should be lost. Accordingly M. Maspero empowered Herr Emil Brugsch, keeper of the Boolak Museum, and Ahmed Effendi Kemal, also of the Museum service, to proceed without delay to UpperEgypt. In a few hours from the arrival of the telegram the Boolak officials were on their way to Thebes. The distance of the journey is about five hundred miles; and as a great part had to be undertaken by the Nile steamer, four days elapsed before they reached their destination, which they did on Wednesday, 6th July, 1881.

On the western side of the Theban plain rises a high mass of limestone rock, enclosing two desolate valleys. One runs up behind the ridge into the very heart of the hills, and being entirely shut in by the limestone cliffs, is a picture of wild desolation. The other valley runs up from the plain, and its mouth opens out towards the city of Thebes. “The former is the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings—the Westminster Abbey of Thebes; the latter, of the Tombs of the Priests and Princes—its Canterbury Cathedral.” High up among the limestone cliffs, and near the plateau overlooking the plain of Thebes, is the site of an old temple, known as “Deir-el-Bahari.”

At this last-named place, according to agreement, the Boolak officials met Mohammed Abd-er-Rasoul, a spare, sullen fellow, who simply from love of gold had agreed to divulge the grand secret. Pursuing his way among desecrated tombs, and under the shadow of precipitous cliffs, he led his anxious followers to a spot described as “unparalleled, even in the desert, for its gaunt solemnity.” Here, behind a huge fragment of fallen rock, perhaps dislodged for that purpose from the cliffs overhead, theywere shown the entrance to a pit so ingeniously hidden that, to use their own words, “one might have passed it twenty times without observing it.” The shaft of the pit proved to be six and a-half feet square; and on being lowered by means of a rope, they touched the ground at a depth of about forty feet.

Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, and certainly nothing in romantic literature can surpass in dramatic interest the revelation which awaited the Boolak officials in the subterranean sepulchral chambers of Deir-el-Bahari. At the bottom of the shaft the explorers noticed a dark passage running westward; so, having lit their candles, they groped their way slowly along the passage, which ran in a straight line for twenty-three feet, and then turned abruptly to the right, stretching away northward into total darkness. At the corner where the passage turned northward, they found a royal funeral canopy, flung carelessly down in a tumbled heap. As they proceeded, they found the roof so low in some places that they were obliged to stoop, and in other parts the rocky floor was very uneven. At a distance of sixty feet from the corner, the explorers found themselves at the top of a flight of stairs, roughly hewn out of the rock. Having descended the steps, each with his flickering candle in hand, they pursued their way along a passage slightly descending, and penetrating deeper and further into the heart of the mountain. As they proceeded, the floor became more and more strewn with fragments of mummy cases and tattered pieces of mummy bandages.

Presently they noticed boxes piled on the top of each other against the wall, and these boxes proved to be filled with porcelain statuettes, libation jars, and canopic vases of precious alabaster. Then appeared several huge coffins of painted wood; and great was their joy when they gazed upon a crowd of mummy cases, some standing, some laid upon the ground, each fashioned in human form, with folded hands and solemn faces. On the breast of each was emblazoned the name and titles of the occupant. Words fail to describe the joyous excitement of the scholarly explorers, when among the group they read the names of Seti I., Thothmes II., Thothmes III., and Rameses II., surnamed the Great.

The Boolak officials had journeyed to Thebes, expecting at most to find a few mummies of petty princes; but on a sudden they were brought, as it were, face to face with the mightiest kings of ancient Egypt, and confronted the remains of heroes whose exploits and fame filled the ancient world with awe more than three thousand years ago.

The explorers stood bewildered, and could scarcely believe the testimony of their own eyes, and actually inquired of each other if they were not in a dream. At the end of a passage, one hundred and thirty feet from the bottom of the rock-cut passage, they stood at the entrance of a sepulchral chamber, twenty-three feet long, and thirteen feet wide, literally piled to the roof with mummy cases of enormous size. The coffins were brilliant with colour-gilding and varnish, and looked asfresh as if they had recently come out of the workshops of the Memnonium.

Among the mummies of this mortuary chapel were found two kings, four queens, a prince and a princess, besides royal and priestly personages of both sexes, all descendants of Her-Hor, the founder of the line of priest-kings known as the XXIst dynasty. The chamber was manifestly the family vault of the Her-Hor family; while the mummies of their more illustrious predecessors of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties, found in the approaches to the chamber, had evidently been brought there for the sake of safety. Each member of the family was buried with the usual mortuary outfit. One queen, named Isi-em-Kheb (Isis of Lower Egypt), was also provided with a sumptuous funereal repast, as well as a rich sepulchral toilet, consisting of ointment bottles, alabaster cups, goblets of exquisite variegated glass, and a large assortment of full dress wigs, curled and frizzed. As the funereal repast was designed for refreshment, so the sepulchral toilet was designed for the queen’s use and adornment on the Resurrection morn, when the vivified dead, clothed, fed, anointed and perfumed, should leave the dark sepulchral chamber and go forth to the mansions of everlasting day.

When the temporary excitement of the explorers had somewhat abated, they felt that no time was to be lost in securing their newly discovered treasures. Accordingly, three hundred Arabs were engaged from the neighbouring villages; and working as they did with unabatedvigour, without sleep and without rest, they succeeded in clearing out the sepulchral chamber and the long passages of their valuable contents in the short space of forty-eight hours. All the mummies were then carefully packed in sail-cloth and matting, and carried across the plain of Thebes to the edge of the river. Thence they were rowed across the Nile to Luxor, there to lie in readiness for embarkation on the approach of the Nile steamers.

Some of the sarcophagi are of huge dimensions, the largest being that of Nofretari, a queen of the XVIIIth dynasty. The coffin is ten feet long, made of cartonnage, and in style resembles one of the Osiride pillars of the Temple of Medinat Aboo. Its weight and size are so enormous that sixteen men were required to remove it. In spite of all difficulties, however, only five days elapsed from the time the Boolak officials were lowered down the shaft until the precious relics lay ready for embarkation at Luxor.

The Nile steamers did not arrive for three days, and during that time Messrs. Brugsch and Kemal, and a few trustworthy Arabs, kept constant guard over their treasure amid a hostile fanatical people who regarded tomb-breaking as the legitimate trade of the neighbourhood. On the fourth morning the steamers arrived, and having received on board the royal mummies, steamed down the streamen routefor the Boolak Museum. Meanwhile the news of the discovery had spread far and wide, and for fifty miles below Luxor, the villagerslined the river banks, not merely to catch a glimpse of the mummies on deck as the steamers passed by, but also to show respect for the mighty dead. Women with dishevelled hair ran along the banks shrieking the death-wail; while men stood in solemn silence, and fired guns into the air to greet the mighty Pharaohs as they passed. Thus, to the mummified bodies of Thothmes the Great, and Rameses the Great, and their illustrious compeers, the funeral honours paid to them three thousand years ago were, in a measure, repeated as the mortal remains of these ancient heroes sailed down the Nile on their way to Boolak.

The principal personages found either as mummies, or represented by their mummy cases, include a king and queen of the XVIIth dynasty, five kings and four queens of the XVIIIth dynasty, and three successive kings of the XIXth dynasty, namely, Rameses the Great, his father, and his grandfather. The XXth dynasty, strange to say, is not represented; but belonging to the XXIst dynasty of royal priests are four queens, two kings, a prince, and a princess.

These royal mummies belong to four dynasties, and between the earliest and the latest there intervenes a period of above seven centuries,—a space of time as long as that which divides the Norman Conquest from the accession of George III. Under the dynasties above mentioned ancient Egypt reached the summit of her fame, through the expulsion of the Hykshos invaders, and the extensive conquests of Thothmes III.and Rameses the Great. The oppression of Israel in Egypt and the Exodus of the Hebrews, the colossal temples of Thebes, the royal sepulchres of the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, the greater part of the Pharaonic obelisks, and the rock-cut temples of the Nile Valley, belong to the same period.

It would be beyond the scope of this brief account to describe each royal personage, and therefore there can only be given a short description of the two kings connected with the London Obelisk, namely, Thothmes III. and Rameses the Great, the mightiest of the Pharaohs.

Standing near the end of the long dark passage running northward, and not far from the threshold of the family vault of the priest-kings, lay the sarcophagus of Thothmes III., close to that of his brother Thothmes II. The mummy case was in a lamentable condition, and had evidently been broken into and subjected to rough usage. On the lid, however, were recognized the well-known cartouches of this illustrious monarch. On opening the coffin, the mummy itself was exposed to view, completely enshrouded with bandages; but a rent near the left breast showed that it had been exposed to the violence of tomb-breakers. Placed inside the coffin and surrounding the body were found wreaths of flowers: larkspurs, acacias and lotuses. They looked as if but recently dried, and even their colours could be discerned.

Long hieroglyphic texts found written on the bandages contained the seventeenth chapter of the “Ritual of the Dead,” and the “Litanies of the Sun.”

The body measured only five feet two inches; so that, making due allowance for shrinking and compression in the process of embalming, still it is manifest that Thothmes III. was not a man of commanding stature; but in shortness of stature as in brilliancy of conquests, finds his counterpart in the person of Napoleon the Great.

It was desirable in the interests of science to ascertain whether the mummy bearing the monogram of Thothmes III. was really the remains of that monarch. It was therefore unrolled. The inscriptions on the bandages established beyond all doubt the fact that it was indeed the most distinguished of the kings of the brilliant XVIIIth dynasty; and once more, after an interval of thirty-six centuries, human eyes gazed on the features of the man who had conquered Syria, and Cyprus, and Ethiopia, and had raised Egypt to the highest pinnacle of her power; so that it was said that in his reign she placed her frontiers where she pleased. The spectacle was of brief duration; the remains proved to be in so fragile a state that there was only time to take a hasty photograph, and then the features crumbled to pieces and vanished like an apparition, and so passed away from human view for ever. The director felt such remorse at the result that he refused to allow the unrolling of Rameses the Great, for fear of a similar catastrophe.

Thothmes III. was the man who overran Palestine with his armies two hundred years before the birth of Moses, and has left us a diary of his adventures; for, like Cæsar,he was author as well as soldier. It seems strange that though the body mouldered to dust, the flowers with which it had been wreathed were so wonderfully preserved, that even their colour could be distinguished; yet a flower is the very type of ephemeral beauty, that passeth away and is gone almost as soon as born. A wasp which had been attracted by the floral treasures, and had entered the coffin at the moment of closing, was found dried up, but still perfect, having lasted better than the king whose emblem of sovereignty it had once been; now it was there to mock the embalmer’s skill, and to add point to the sermon on the vanity of human pride and power preached to us by the contents of that coffin. Inexorable is the decree, “Unto dust thou shalt return.”

Following the same line of meditation, it is difficult to avoid a thought of the futility of human devices to achieve immortality. These Egyptian monarchs, the veriest type of earthly grandeur and pride, whose rule was almost limitless, whose magnificent tombs seem built to outlast the hills, could find no better method of ensuring that their names should be had in remembrance than the embalmment of their frail bodies. These remain, but in what a condition, and how degraded are the uses to which they are put. The spoil of an ignorant and thieving population, the pet curiosity of some wealthy tourist, who buys a royal mummy as he would buy the Sphinx, if it were moveable; “to what base uses art thou come,” O body, so tenderly nurtured, so carefully preserved!

Rameses II. died about thirteen centuries before the Christian era. It is certain that this illustrious monarch was originally buried in the stately tomb of the magnificent subterranean sepulchre by royal order hewn out of the limestone cliffs in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. In the same valley his grandfather and father were laid to rest; so that these three mighty kings “all lay in glory, each in his own house.” This burial-place of the Pharaohs of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties is in a deep gorge behind the western hills of the Theban plain. “The valley is the very ideal of desolation. Bare rocks, without a particle of vegetation, overhanging and enclosing in a still narrower and narrower embrace a valley as rocky and bare as themselves—no human habitation visible—the stir of the city wholly excluded. Such is, such always must have been, the awful aspect of the resting-place of the Theban kings. The sepulchres of this valley are of extraordinary grandeur. You enter a sculptured portal in the face of these wild cliffs, and find yourself in a long and lofty gallery, opening or narrowing, as the case may be, into successive halls and chambers, all of which are covered with white stucco, and this white stucco, brilliant with colours, fresh as they were thousands of years ago. The sepulchres are in fact gorgeous palaces, hewn out of the rock, and painted with all the decorations that could have been seen in palaces.”

One of the most gorgeous of these sepulchral palaces was that prepared in this valley by Rameses II., and after the burial of the king the portals were walled up,and the mummified body laid to rest in the vaulted hall till the morn of the Resurrection. From a hieratic inscription found on the mummy-case of Rameses, it appears that official Inspectors of Tombs visited this royal tomb in the sixth year of Her-Hor, the founder of the priestly line of kings; so that for at least two centuries the mummy of Rameses the Great lay undisturbed in the original tomb prepared for its reception. From several papyri still extant, it appears that the neighbourhood of Thebes at this period, and for many years previously, was in a state of social insecurity. Lawlessness, rapine and tomb-breaking, filled the whole district with alarm. The “Abbott Papyrus” states that royal sepulchres were broken open, cleared of mummies, jewels, and all their contents. In the “Amherst Papyrus,” a lawless tomb-breaker, in relating how he broke into a royal sepulchre, makes the following confession:—“The tomb was surrounded by masonry, and covered in by roofing-stones. We demolished it, and found the king and queen reposing therein. We found the august king with his divine axe beside him, and his amulets and ornaments of gold about his neck. His head was covered with gold, and his august person was entirely covered with gold. His coffins were overlaid with gold and silver, within and without, and incrusted with all kinds of precious stones. We took the gold which we found upon the sacred person of this god, as also his amulets, and the ornaments which were about his neck and the coffins in which he reposed. And havinglikewise found his royal wife, we took all that we found upon her in the same manner; and we set fire to their mummy cases, and we seized upon their furniture, their vases of gold, silver, and bronze, and we divided them amongst ourselves.”

Such being the dreadful state of insecurity during the latter period of the XXth dynasty, and throughout the whole of the Her-Hor dynasty, we are not surprised to find that the mummy of Rameses II., and that of his grandfather, Rameses I., were removed for the sake of greater security from their own separate catacombs into the tomb of his father Seti I. In the sixteenth year of Her-Hor, that is, ten years after the official inspection mentioned above, a commission of priests visited the three royal mummies in the tomb of Seti. On an entry found on the mummy case of Seti and Rameses II., the priests certify that the bodies are in an uninjured condition; but they deemed it expedient, on grounds of safety, to transfer the three mummies to the tomb of Ansera, a queen of the XVIIth dynasty. For ten years at least Rameses’ body reposed in this abode; but in the tenth year of Pinotem was removed into “the eternal house of Amen-hotep.” A fourth inscription on the breast bandages of Rameses relates how that after resting for six years the body was again carried back to the tomb of his father in “the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings,” a valley now called “Bab-el-Molook.”

How long the body remained in this resting-place, and how many transfers it was subsequently subjectedto, there exists no evidence to show; but after being exposed to many vicissitudes, the mummy of Rameses, together with those of his royal relatives, and many of his illustrious predecessors, was brought in as a refugee into the family vault of the Her-Hor dynasty. In this subterranean hiding-place, buried deep in the heart of the Theban Hills, Rameses the Great, surrounded by a goodly company of thirty royal mummies, lay undisturbed and unseen by mortal eye for three thousand years, until, a few years ago, the lawless tomb-breakers of Thebes burrowed into this sepulchral chamber.

The mummy-case containing Rameses’ mummy is not the original one, for it belongs to the style of the XXIst dynasty, and was probably made at the time of the official inspection of his tomb in the sixth year of Her-Hor’s reign. It is made of unpainted sycamore wood, and the lid is of the shape known as Osirian, that is, the deceased is represented in the well-known attitude of Osiris, with arms crossed, and hands grasping a crook and flail. The eyes are inserted in enamel, while the eyebrows, eyelashes, and beard are painted black. Upon the breast are the familiar cartouches of Rameses II., namely,Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, his prenomen; andRa-me-su-Meri-amen, his nomen.

The mummy itself is in good condition, and measures six feet; but as in the process of mummification the larger bones were probably drawn closer together in their sockets, it seems self-evident that Rameses was a man of commanding appearance. It is thus satisfactory tolearn that the mighty Sesostris was a hero of great physical stature, that this conqueror of Palestine was in height equal to a grenadier.

The outer shrouds of the body are made of rose-coloured linen, and bound together by very strong bands. Within the outer shrouds, the mummy is swathed in its original bandages; and Professor Maspero has expressed his intention of removing these inner bandages on some convenient opportunity, in the presence of scholars and medical witnesses.

It has been urged that since Rameses XII., of the XXth dynasty, had a prenomen similar though not identical with the divine cartouche of Rameses II., the mummy in question may be that of Rameses XII. We have, however, shown that the mummies of Rameses I., Seti I., and Rameses II., were exposed to the same vicissitudes, buried, transferred, and reburied again and again in the same vaults. When, therefore, we find in the sepulchre at Deir-el-Bahari, in juxta-position, the mummy-case of Rameses I., the mummy-case and acknowledged mummy of Seti I., and on the mummy-case and shroud the well-known cartouches of Rameses II., the three standing in the relation of grandfather, father, and son, it seems that the evidence is overwhelming in favour of the mummy in question being that of Rameses the Great.

All the royal mummies, twenty-nine in number, are now lying in state in the Boolak Museum. Arranged together side by side and shoulder to shoulder, they forma solemn assembly of kings, queens, royal priests, princes, princesses, and nobles of the people. Among the group are the mummied remains of the greatest royal builders, the most renowned warriors, and mightiest monarchs of ancient Egypt. They speak to us of the military glory and architectural splendour of that marvellous country thirty-five centuries ago; they illustrate the truth of the words of the Christian Apostle: “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.”[9]

These great Egyptian rulers, in all their magnificence and power, had no Gospel in their day, and can preach no Gospel to those who gaze wonderingly upon their remains, so strangely brought to light. Much as we should like to hear the tale they could unfold of a civilization of which we seem to know so much, and yet in reality know so little, on all these questions they are for ever silent. But they utter a weighty message to all whose temptation now is to lose sight of the future in the present, of the eternal by reason of the temporal. They show how fleeting and unsubstantial are even the highest earthly rank and wealth and influence; and how true is the lesson taught by him who knew all that Egypt could teach, and much that God could reveal, and whose life is interpreted for us by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews: “By faith Moses,when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.”[10]

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