Chapter XXXII: Appendix: V (2)

[59] In the time of Strabo, the Island of Philæ, as has been recently shown by Professor Revillout in his “Seconde Mémoire sur les Blemmys,” was the common property of the Egyptians and Nubians, or rather of that obscure nation called the Blemmys, who, with the Nobades and Megabares, were collectively classed at that time as “Ethiopians.” The Blemmys (ancestors of the present Barabras) were a stalwart and valiant race, powerful enough to treat on equal terms with the Roman rulers of Egypt. They were devout adorers of Isis, and it is interesting to learn that in the treaty of Maximin with this nation, it is expressly provided that, “according to the old law,” the Blemmys were entitled to take the statue of Isis every year from the sanctuary of Philæ to their own country for a visit of a stated period. A graffito at Philæ, published by Letronne, states that the writer was at Philæ when the image of the goddess was brought back from one of these periodical excursions, and that he beheld the arrival of the sacred boats “containing the shrines of the divine statues.” From this it would appear that other images than that of Isis had been taken to Ethiopia; probably those of Osiris and Horus, and possibly also that of Hathor, the divine nurse. [Note to second edition.]

[60] The Emperor Justinian is credited with the mutilation of the sculptures of the large temple; but the ancient worship was probably only temporarily suspended in his time.

[61] These and the following particulars about the Christians of Nubia are found in the famous work of Makrizi, an Arab historian of the fifteenth century, who quotes largely from earlier writers. See Burckhardt’s “Travels in Nubia,” 4to, 1819, Appendix iii. Although Belak is distinctly described as an island in the neighborhood of the cataract, distant four miles from Assûan, Burckhardt persisted in looking for it among the islets below Mahatta, and believed Philæ to be the first Nubian town beyond the frontier. The hieroglyphic alphabet, however, had not then been deciphered. Burckhardt died at Cairo in 1817, and Champollion’s discovery was not given to the world till 1822.

[62] This inscription, which M. About considers the most interesting thing in Philæ, runs as follows: “A’ An VI de la République, le 15 Messidor, une Armée Française commandée par Bonaparte est descendue a Alexandrie. L’Armée ayant mis, vingt jours après, les Mamelouks en fuite aux Pyramides, Desaix, commandant la première division, les a poursuivis au dela des Cataractes, ou il est arrivé le 18 Ventôse de l’an VII.”

[63] About two-and-sixpence English.

[64] See previous note, p. 181.

[65] The story of Osiris--the beneficent god, the friend of man, slain and dismembered by Typhon, buried in a score of graves: sought by Isis; recovered limb by limb; resuscitated in the flesh; transferred from earth to reign over the dead in the world of shades--is one of the most complex of Egyptian legends. Osiris under some aspects is the Nile. He personifies abstract good, and is entitled Unnefer, or “The Good Being.” He appears as a myth of the solar year. He bears a notable likeness to Prometheus and to the Indian Bacchus.

“Osiris, dit-on, était autrefois descendu sur la terre. Étre
bon par excellence, il avait adouci les mœurs des hommes par la
persuasion et la bienfaisance. Mais il avait succombé sous les
embûches de Typhon, son frère, le génie du mal, et pendant que ses
deux sœurs, Isis et Nephthys, recueillaient son corps qui avait
été jeté dans le fleuve, le dieu ressuscitait d’entre les morts
et apparaissait à son fils Horus, qu’il instituait son vengeur.
C’est ce sacrifice qu’il avait autrefois accompli en faveur des
hommes qu’ Osiris renouvelle ici eu faveur de l’âme dégagée de
ses liens terrestres. Non seulement il devient son guide, mais
il s’identifie à elle; il l’absorbe en son propre sein. C’est
lui alors qui, devenu le défunt lui même, se soumet à toutes les
épreuves que celui-ci doit subir avant d’être proclamé juste; c’est
lui qui, à chaque âme qu’il doit sauver, fléchit les gardiens des
demeures infernales et combat les monstres compagnons de la nuit
et de la mort; c’est lui enfin qui, vainqueur des ténèbres, avec
l’assistance d’Horus, s’assied au tribunal de la suprême justice et
ouvre à l’âme déclarée pure les portes du séjour éternel. L’image
de la mort aura été empruntée au soleil qui disparait à l’horizon
du soir: le soleil resplendissant du matin sera la symbole de cette
seconde naissance à une vie qui, cette fois, ne connaîtra pas la
mort.

“Osiris est donc le principe du bien.... Chargé de sauver les
âmes de la mort définitive, il est l’intermédiaire entre l’homme
et Dieu; il est le type et le sauveur de l’homme.”--“Notice des
Monuments à Boulaq”--Aug. Mariette Bey, 1872, pp. 105 _et seq._

[It has always been taken for granted by Egyptologists that Osiris was originally a local god of Abydos, and that Abydos was the cradle of the Osirian myth. Professor Maspero, however, in some of his recent lectures at the Collége de France, has shown that the Osirian cult took its rise in the Delta; and, in point of fact, Osiris, in certain ancient inscriptions, is styled the King Osiris, “Lord of Tattu” (Busiris), and has his name inclosed in a royal oval. Up to the time of the Græco-Roman rule the only two cities of Egypt in which Osiris reigned as the principal god were Busiris and Mendes.]

“Le centre terrestre du culte d’Osiris, était dans les cantons
nord-est du Delta, situés entre la branche Sébennytique et la
branche Pélusiaque, comme le centre terrestre du culte de Sit, le
frère et le meurtrier d’Osiris: les deux dieux étaient limitrophes
l’un de l’autre, et des rivalités de voisinage expliquent peut-être
en partie leurs querelles.... Tous les traits de la tradition
Osirienne ne sont pas également anciens: le fond me parait être
d’une antiquité incontestable. Osiris y réunit les caractères
des deux divinités qui se partageaient chaque nome: il est le
dieu des vivants et le dieu des morts en même temps; le dieu qui
nourrit et le dieu qui détruit. Probablement, les temps où, saisi
de pitié pour les mortels, il leur ouvrit l’accès de son royaume,
avaient été précédés d’autres temps où il était impitoyable et
ne songeait qu’à les anéantir. Je crois trouver un souvenir de
ce rôle destructeur d’Osiris dans plusieurs passages des textes
des Pyramides, où l’on promet au mort que Harkhouti viendra vers
lui, ‘déliant ses liens, brisant ses chaines pour le délivrer de
la ruine; _il ne le livrera pas à Osiris, si bien qu’il ne mourra
pas_, mais il sera glorieux dans l’horizon, solide comme le Did
dans la ville de Didou.’ L’Osiris farouche et cruel fut absorbé
promptement par l’Osiris doux et bienveillant. L’Osiris qui domine
toute la religion Égyptienne dès le début, c’est l’Osiris Onnofris,
l’Osiris Éntre bon, que les Grecs ont connu. Commes ses parents,
Sibou et Nouit, Osiris Onnofris appartient à la classe des dieux
généraux qui ne sont pas confinés en un seul canton, mais qui sont
adorés par un pays entier.” See “Les Hypogées Royaux de Thèbes”
(Bulletin critique de la religion Égyptienne) par Professeur G.
Maspero, “Revue de l’Histoire des Religions,” 1888. [Note to second
edition.]

“The astronomical and physical elements are too obvious to be mistaken. Osiris and Isis are the Nile and Egypt. The myth of Osiris typifies the solar year--the power of Osiris is the sun in the lower hemisphere, the winter solstice. The birth of Horus typifies the vernal equinox--the victory of Horus, the summer solstice--the inundation of the Nile. Typhon is the autumnal equinox.”--“Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” Bunsen, 1st ed., vol. i, p. 437.

“The Egyptians do not all worship the same gods, excepting Isis and Osiris.”--Herodotus, book ii.

[66] “These vases, made of alabaster, calcareous stone, porcelain, terra-cotta, and even wood, were destined to hold the soft part or viscera of the body, embalmed separately and deposited in them. They were four in number, and were made in the shape of the four genii of the Karneter, or Hades, to whom were assigned the four cardinal points of the compass.” Birch’s “Guide to the First and Second Egyptian Rooms,” 1874, p. 89. See also Birch’s “History of Ancient Pottery,” 1873, p. 23 _et seq._

[67] Thus depicted, he is called “the germinating Osiris.” [Note to second edition.]

[68] See M. P. J. de Horrack’s translation of “The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys. Records of the Past,” vol. ii, p. 117 _et seq._

[69] “Operations Carried On at the Pyramids of Ghizeh.”--Col. Howard Vyse, London, 1840, vol. i, p. 63.

[70] A city of Ethiopia, identified with the ruins at Gebel Barkel. The worship of Amen was established at Napata toward the end of the twentieth dynasty, and it was from the priests of Thebes who settled at that time in Napata that the Ethiopian conquerors of Egypt (twenty-third dynasty) were descended.

[71] The men hereabout can nearly all speak Arabic; but the women of Nubia know only the Kensee and Berberee tongues, the first of which is spoken as far as Korosko.

[72] _Lepsius’ Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia_, etc. Letter xviii, p. 184. Bohn’s ed., A.D. 1853.

[73] See the interesting account of funereal rites and ceremonies in Sir G. Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. ii, ch. x, Lond., 1871. Also wood-cuts Nos. 493 and 494 in the same chapter of the same work.

[74] _Abshek_: The hieroglyphic name of Abou Simbel. _Gr._ Aboccis.

[75] In the present state of Egyptian chronology it is hazardous to assign even an approximate date to events which happened before the conquest of Cambyses. The Egyptians, in fact, had no chronology in the strict sense of the word. Being without any fixed point of departure, such as the birth of Christ, they counted the events of each reign from the accession of the sovereign. Under such a system error and confusion were inevitable. To say when Rameses II was born and when he died is impossible. The very century in which he flourished is uncertain. Mariette, taking the historical lists of Manetho for his basis, supposes the nineteenth dynasty to have occupied the interval comprised within B.C. 1462 and 1288; according to which computation (allowing fifty-seven years for the reigns of Rameses I and Seti I) the reign of Rameses II would date from B.C. 1405. Brugsch gives him from B.C. 1407 to B.C. 1341; and Lepsius places his reign in the sixty-six years lying between B.C. 1388 and B.C. 1322; these calculations being both made before the discovery of the stella of Abydos. Bunsen dates his accession from B.C. 1352. Between the highest and the lowest of these calculations there is, as shown by the following table, a difference of fifty-five years:

Rameses II began to reign B.C.

{ Brugsch 1407
According { Mariette 1405
to { Lepsius 1388
{ Bunsen 1352

[76] See chap. viii, foot note, p. 126.

[77] See “Essai sur l’Inscription Dédicatoire du Temple d’Abydos et la Jeunesse de Sesotris.”--G. Maspero, Paris, 1867.

[78] See chap, viii, p. 125.

[79] _i. e._ Prince of the Hittites; the Kheta being now identified with that people.

[80] This invaluable record is sculptured on a piece of wall built out, apparently, for the purpose, at right angles to the south wall of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak. The treaty faces to the west, and is situated about half-way between the famous bas-relief of Sheshonk and his captives and the Karnak version of the poem of Pentaur. The former lies to the west of the southern portal; the latter to the east. The wall of the treaty juts out about sixty feet to the east of the portal. This south wall and its adjunct, a length of about two hundred feet in all, is perhaps the most precious and interesting piece of sculptured surface in the world.

[81] See “Treaty of Peace Between Rameses II and the Hittites,” translated by C. W. Goodwin, M. A. “ Records of the Past,” vol. iv, p. 25.

[82] Since this book was written, a further study of the subject has led me to conjecture that not Seti I, but Queen Hatshepsu (Hatasu) of the eighteenth dynasty, was the actual originator of the canal which connected the Nile with the Red Sea. The inscriptions engraved upon the walls of her great temple at Dayr-el-Baharî expressly state that her squadron sailed from Thebes to the land of Punt and returned from Punt to Thebes, laden with the products of that mysterious country which Mariette and Maspero have conclusively shown to have been situated on the Somali coast-line between Bab-el-Mandeb and Cape Guardafui. Unless, therefore, some water-way existed at that time between the Nile and the Red Sea, it follows that Queen Hatshepsu’s squadron of discovery must have sailed northward from Thebes, descended the Nile to one of its mouths, traversed the whole length of the Mediterranean sea, gone out through the pillars of Hercules, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at the Somali coast by way of the Mozambique Channel and the shores of Zanzibar. In other words, the Egyptian galleys would twice have made the almost complete circuit of the African continent. This is obviously an untenable hypothesis; and there remains no alternative route except that of a canal, or chain of canals, connecting the Nile with the Red Sea. The old Wady Tûmilât canal has hitherto been universally ascribed to Seti I, for no other reason than that a canal leading from the Nile to the ocean is represented on a bas-relief of his reign on the north outer wall of the great temple of Karnak; but this canal may undoubtedly have been made under the preceding dynasty, and it is not only probable, but most likely, that the great woman-Pharaoh, who first conceived the notion of venturing her ships upon an unknown sea, may also have organized the channel of communication by which those ships went forth. According to the second edition of Sir J. W. Dawson’s “Egypt and Syria,” the recent surveys conducted by Lieut.-Col. Ardagh, Maj. Spaight and Lieut. Burton, all of the royal engineers, “render it certain that this valley [_i. e._ the Wady Tûmilât] once carried a branch up the Nile which discharged its waters into the Red Sea” (see chap. iii. p. 55); and in such case, if that branch were not already navigable, Queen Hatshepsu would only have needed to canalize it, which is what she probably did. [Note to second edition.]

[83] “Les circonstances de l’histoire hebraïque s’appliquent ici d’une manière on ne peut plus satisfaisante. Les Hébreux opprimés batissaient une ville du nom de Ramsès. Ce récit ne peut donc s’appliquer qu’à l’époque où la famille de Ramsès était sur le trône. Moïse, contraint de fuir la colère du rois après le meurtre d’un Égyptien, subit un long exil, parceque le roi ne mourut _qu’après un temps fort long_; Ramsès II regna en effet plus de 67 ans. Aussitôt après le retour de Moïse commença la lutte qui se termina par le célèbre passage de la Mer Rouge. Cet événement eut donc lieu sous le fils de Ramsès II, ou tout au plus tard pendant l’époque de troubles quit suivit son règne. Ajoutons que la rapidité des derniers événements ne permet pas de supposer que le roi eût sa résidence à Thèbes dans cet instant. Or, Merenptah a précisément laissé dans la Basse-Egypte, et spécialement à Tanis, des preuves importantes de son séjour.”--De Rougé, “Notice des Monuments Égyptiennes du Rez de Chaussée du Musée du Louvre,” Paris, 1857, p. 22.

“Il est impossible d’attribuer ni à Meneptah I, ni à Seti II, ni à Siptah, ni à Amonmesès, un règne même de vingt années; à plus forte raison de cinquante ou soixante Seul le règne de Ramsès II remplit les conditions indispensables. Lors même que nous ne saurions pas que ce souverain a occupé les Hébreux à la construction de la ville de Ramsès, nous serions dans l’impossibilité de placer Moïse à une autre époque, à moins de faire table rase des renseignements bibliques.”--“Recherches pour servir à l’Histoire de la XIX dynastie.” F. Chabas, Paris, 1873, p. 148.

[84] The Bible narrative, it has often been observed, invariably designates the king by this title, than which none, unfortunately, can be more vague for purposes of identification. “Plus généralement,” says Brugsch, writing of the royal titles, “sa personne se cache sous une série d’expressions qui toutes ont le sens de la ‘_grande maison_’ ou du ‘_grand_ palais,’ quelquefois au duel, des ‘_deux grandes maisons_,’ par rapport à la division de l’Égypte en deux parties. C’est du titre très frequent Per-aa, ‘la grande maison,’ ‘la haute porte,’ qu’on a heureusement dérivé le nom biblique _Pharao_ donné aux rois d’Égypte.”--“Histoire d’Égypte,” Brugsch, second edition, Part I, p. 35; Leipzig, 1875.

* * * * *

This probably is the only title under which it was permissible for the plebeian class to speak or write of the sovereign. It can scarcely have escaped Herr Brugsch’s notice that we even find it literally translated in Genesis, 1. 4, where it is said that “when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake _unto the house_ of Pharaoh, saying: ‘If now I have found grace in your eyes,’” etc. etc. If Moses, however, had but once recorded the cartouche name of either of his three Pharaohs, archæologists and commentators would have been spared a great deal of trouble.

[85] This remarkable manuscript relates the journey made by a female pilgrim of French birth, _circa_ A.D. 370, to Egypt, Mesopotamia and the holy land. The manuscript is copied from an older original and dates from the tenth or eleventh century. Much of the work is lost, but those parts are yet perfect which describe the pilgrim’s progress through Goshen to Tanis and thence to Jerusalem, Edessa and the Haran. Of Pithom it is said: “Pithona etiam civitas quam œdificaverunt filii Israel ostensa est nubis in ipso itinere; in eo tamen loco ubi jam fines Egypti intravimus, religentes jam terras Saracenorum. Nam et ipsud nunc Pithona castrum est. Heroun autem civitas quæ fuit illo tempere, id est ubi occurit Joseph patri suo venienti, sicut scriptum est in libro Genesis nunc est comes sed grandis quod nos dicimus vicus ... nam ipse vicus nunc appellatur Hero.” See a letter on “Pithom-Heroöpolis” communicated to “The Academy” by M. Naville, March 22, 1884. See also M. Naville’s memoir, entitled “The Store-City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus” (third edition); published by order of the committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1888.

[86] See M. Naville’s memoir, entitled “Goshen and the Shrine of Saft-el-Henneh,” published by order of the committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1887.

[87] Kadesh, otherwise Katesh or Kades. A town on the Orontes. See a paper entitled “The Campaign of Ramesis II in His Fifth Year Against Kadesh on the Orontes,” by the Rev. G. H. Tomkins, in the “Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology,” 1881, 1882; also in the “Transactions” of the society, vol. viii.

[88] Anastasi Papyri, No. III, Brit. Mus.

[89] See “Mélanges Égyptologiques,” by F. Chabas, 1 Série, 1862. There has been much discussion among Egyptologists on the subject of M. Chabas’ identification of the Hebrews. The name by which they are mentioned in the papyri here quoted, as well as in an inscription in the quarries of Hamamat, is _Aperi-u_. A learned critic in the “Revue Archéologique” (vol. v, 2d series, 1862) writes as follows: “La découverte du nom des Hébreux dans les hiéroglyphes serait un fait de la dernière importance; mais comme aucun autre point historique n’offre peut-être une pareille séduction, il faut aussi se méfier des illusions avec un soin méticuleux. La confusion des sons R et L dans la langue Égyptienne, et le voisinage des articulations B et P nuisent un peu, dans le cas particular, à la rigueur des conclusions quon peut tirér de la transcription. Néanmoins, il y a lieu de prendre en considération ce fait que les _Aperiu_, dans les trois documents qui nous parlent d’eux, sent montrés employés à des travaux de même espèce que ceux auxquels, selon l’Ecriture, les Hébreux furent assujettis par les Égyptiens. La circonstance que les papyrus mentionnant ce nom ont été trouvés à Memphis, plaide encore en faveur de l’assimilation proposée--découverte importante qu’il est à désirer de voir confirmée dar d’autres monuments.” It should be added that the Aperiu also appear in the inscription of Thothmes III at Karnak and were supposed by Mariette to be the people of Ephon. It is, however, to be noted that the inscriptions mention two tribes of Aperiu--a greater and a lesser, or an upper and a lower tribe. This might perhaps consist with the establishment of Hebrew settlers in the delta and others in the neighborhood of Memphis. The Aperiu, according to other inscriptions, appear to have been horsemen, or horse-trainers, which certainly tells against the probability of their identity with the Hebrews.

[90] See the famous wall painting of the Colossus on the Sledge engraved in Sir G. Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians;” frontispiece to vol. ii, ed. 1871.

[91] In a letter written by a priest who lived during this reign (Rameses II), we find an interesting account of the disadvantages and hardships attending various trades and pursuits, as opposed to the ease and dignity of the sacerdotal office. Of the mason he says: “It is the climax of his misery to have to remove a block of ten cubits by six, a block which it takes a month to drag by the private ways among the houses.”--Sallier Pap. No. II, Brit. Musæ.

[92] “Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves.”

“And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof.--Exodus, chap. v, 7, 8.

M. Chabas says: “Cese détails sont complètement conformes aux
habitudes Égyptiennes. Le mélange de paille et d’argile dans les
briques antiques a été parfaitement reconnu. D’un autre côté, le
travail à la tâche est mentionne dans un texte écrit an revers d’un
papyrus célébrant la splendeur de la ville de Ramsès, et datant,
selon toute vraisemblance, du règne de Meneptah I. En voici la
transcription: ‘Compte des maçons, 12; en outre des hommes à mouler
la brique dans leurs villes, amenés aux travaux de la maison. Eux
à faire leur nombre de briques journellesment; non ils sont à se
relâcher des travaux dans la maison neuve; c’est ainsi que j’ai
obéi au mandat donné par mon maître.’” See “Recherches pour servir
à l’Histoire de la XIX Dynastie,” par F. Chabas. Paris: 1873, p.
149.

The curious text thus translated into French by M. Chabas is written on the back of the papyrus already quoted (_i. e._ Letter of Panbesa, Anastasi Papyri, No. III), and is preserved in the British Museum. The wall-painting in a tomb of the eighteenth dynasty at Thebes, which represents foreign captives mixing clay, molding, drying, and placing bricks, is well known from the illustration in Sir G. Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” ed. of 1871, vol. ii, p. 196. Cases sixty-one and sixty-two in the first Egyptian room, British Museum, contain bricks of mixed clay and straw stamped with the name of Rameses II.

[93] “Les affaires de la cour et de l’administration du pays sont expédiées par les ‘chefs’ ou les ‘intendants,’ par les ‘secretaires’ et par la nombreuse classe des scribes.... Le trésor rempli d’or et d’argent, et le divan des depenses et des recettes avaient leurs intendants à eux. La chambre des comptes ne manque pas. Les domaines, les propriétés, les palais, et même les lacs du roi sont mis sous la garde d’inspecteurs. Les architectes du Pharaon s’occupent de bâtisses d’après l’ordre du Pharaon. Les carrières, à partir de celles du Mokattam (le Toora de nos jours) jusqu’à celles d’Assouan, se trouvent exploitées par des chefs qui surveillent le transport des pierres taillés a la place de deur destination. Finalement la corvée est dirigée par les chefs des travaux publics.”--“Histoire d’Égypte,” Brugsch; second edition, 1875; chap, v, pp. 34 and 35.

[94] The Pa-Rameses of the Bible narrative was not the only Egyptian city of that name. There was a Pa-Rameses near Memphis, and another Pa-Remeses at Abou Simbel; and there may probably have been many more.

[95] “The remains were apparently those of a large hall paved with white alabaster slabs. The walls were covered with a variety of bricks and encaustic tiles; many of the bricks were of most beautiful workmanship, the hieroglyphs in some being inlaid in glass. The capitals of the columns were inlaid with brilliant colored mosaics, and a pattern in mosaics ran round the cornice. Some of the bricks are inlaid with the oval of Rameses III.” See “Murray’s Hand-book for Egypt,” route 7, p. 217.

Case D, in the second Egyptian room at the British Museum, contains several of these tiles and terra-cottas, some of which are painted with figures of Asiatic and negro captives, birds serpents, etc.; and are extremely beautiful both as regards design and execution. Murray is wrong, however, in attibuting the building to Rameses II. The cartouches are those of Rameses III. The discovery was made by some laborers in 1870.

NOTE TO SECOND EDITION.--This mound was excavated last year (1887) by M. Naville, acting as before for the Egypt Exploration Fund. See supplementary sheet to _The Illustrated London News_, 17th September, 1887, containing a complete account of the excavations at Tel-el-Yahoodeh, etc., with illustrations.

[96] This tablet is votive, and contains in fact a long Pharisaic prayer offered to Osiris by Rameses IV in the fourth year of his reign. The king enumerates his own virtues and deeds of piety, and implores the god to grant him length of days. See “Sur une Stèle inédite d’Abydos,” par P. Pierret. “Revue Archéologique, vol. xix, p. 273.

[97] M. Mariette, in his great work on Abydos, has argued that Rameses II was designated during the lifetime of his father by a cartouche signifying only _Ra-User-Ma_; and that he did not take the additional _Setp-en-Ra_ till after the death of Seti I. The Louvre, however, contains a fragment of bas-relief representing the infant Rameses with the full title of his later years. This important fragment is thus described by M. Paul Pierret: “Ramesés II enfant, représenté assis sur le signe des montagnes _du_: c’est une assimilation au soleil levant lorsqu’il émerge à l’horizon céleste. Il porte la main gauche à sa bouche, en signe d’enfance. La main droite pend sur les genoux. Il est vétu d’une longue robe. La tresse de l’enfance pend sur son épaule. Un diadème relie ses cheveux, et un uræus se dresse sur son front. Voici la traduction de la courte légende qui accompagne cette représentation. ‘Le roi de la Haute et de la Basse Égypte, maitre des deux pays, _Ra-User-Ma Setp-en-Ra_, vivificateur, éternel comme le soleil.’”--“Catalogue de la Salle Historique.” P. Pierret. Paris, 1873, p. 8.

* * * * *

M. Maspero is of opinion that this one fragment establishes the disputed fact of his actual sovereignty from early childhood, and so disposes of the entire question. See “L’Inscription dédicatoire du Temple d’Abydos, suivi d’un Essai Sur la jeunesse de Sesostris.” G. Maspero. 4º Paris, 1867. See also chap. viii (foot note), p. 126.

[98] “Le métier d’architecte se trouvait confié aux plus hauts dignitaires de la cour Pharaonique. Les architectes du roi, les _Murket_, se recrutaient assez souvent parmi le nombre des princes.”--“Histoire d’Egypte:” Brugsch, second edition, 1875, chap. v, p. 34.

[99] See “L’Inscription dédicatoire du Temple d’Abydos,” etc., by G. Maspero.

[100] See Rosellini, _Monumenti Storici_, pl. lxxi.

[101] “A la nouvelle de la mort de son père, Ramsès II désormais seul roi, quitta l’Éthiopie et ceignit la couronne à Thebes. Il était alors dans la plénitude de ses forces, et avait autour de lui un grand nombre d’enfants, dont quelques-uns étaient assez âgés pour combattre sous ses ordres.”--“Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient,” par G. Maspero, chap. v, p. 220. 4th edition, 1886.

[102] “Comme Ramsès II regna 66 ans, le règne de son successeur sous lequel la sortie des Juifs eut lieu, embrassa la durée de 20 ans; et comme Moïse avait l’age de 80 ans au temps de la sortie, il en résulte évidemment que les enfants d’Israël quittèrent l’Égypte une des ces dernèires six années du règne de Menepthah; c’est à dire entre 1327 et 1331 avant l’ère chrétienne. Si nous admettons que ce Pharaon périt dans la mer, selon le rapport biblique, Moïse sera né 80 ans avant 1321, ou 1401 avant J. Chr., la _sixième_ année de règne de Ramsès II.”--“Histoire d’Égypte,” Brugsch, chap. viii, p. 157. First edition, Leipzig, 1859.

[103] If the exodus took place, however, during the opening years of the reign of Menepthah, it becomes necessary either to remove the birth of Moses to a correspondingly earlier date, or to accept the amendment of Bunsen, who says “we can hardly take literally the statement as to the age of Moses at the exodus, _twice over_ forty years.” Forty years is the mode of expressing a generation, from thirty to thirty-three years. “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” Bunsen, London, 1859, vol. iii, p. 184. That Meneptah did not himself perish with his host, seems certain. The final oppression of the Hebrews and the miracles of Moses, as narrated in the Bible, give one the impression of having all happened within a comparatively short space of time; and cannot have extended over a period of twenty years. Neither is it stated that Pharaoh perished. The tomb of Menepthah, in fact, is found in the valley of the tombs of the kings (tomb No. 8).

[104] Herodotus, book ii.

[105] Rosellini, for instance, carries hero-worship to its extreme limit when he not only states that Rameses the Great had, by his conquests, filled Egypt with luxuries that contributed alike to the graces of every-day life and the security of the state, but (accepting as sober fact the complimentary language of a triumphal tablet) adds, that “universal peace even secured to him the love of the vanquished” (l’universal pace assicurata dall’ amore dei vinti stessi pel Faraone).--“Mon. Storici,” vol. iii, part ii, p. 294. Bunsen, equally prejudiced in the opposite direction, can see no trait of magnanimity or goodness in one whom he loves to depict as “an unbridled despot, who took advantage of a reign of almost unparalleled length, and of the acquisitions of his father and ancestors, in order to torment his own subjects and strangers to the utmost of his power, and to employ them as instruments of his passion for war and building.”--“Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” Bunsen, vol. iii, book iv, part ii, p. 184.

[106] “Souvent il s’introduit lui-même dans les triades divines auxquelles il dédie les temples. _Le soleil de Ramsès Meïamoun_ qu’on aperçoit sur leur murailles, n’est autre chose que le roi lui-même déifié de son vivant.”--“Notice des Monuments Égyptiennes au Musée du Louvre.” De Rougé, Paris, 1875, p. 20.

[107] See _Hymn to Pharaoh_ (Menepthah), translated by C. W. Goodwin, M. A. “Records of the Past,” vol. vi, p. 101.

[108] The late Vicomte E. de Rougé, in a letter to M. Guigniaut on the discoveries at Tanis, believes that he detects the Semitic type in the portraits of Rameses II and Seti I; and even conjectures that the Pharaohs of the nineteenth dynasty may have descended from Hyksos ancestors: “L’origine de la famille des Ramsès nous est jusqu’ ici complétement inconnue; sa prédilection pour le dieu _Set_ ou _Sutech_, qui éclate des l’abord par le nom de Seti I (_Sethos_), ainsi que d’autres indices, pouvaient déjà engager à la reporter vers la Basse Égypte. Nous savions même que Ramsès II avait épousé une fille du Prince de Khet, quand le traité de l’an 22 eut ramené la paix entre les deux pays. Le profil très-décidément sémitique de Séti et de Ramsès se distinguait nettement des figures ordinal res de nos Pharaons Thébains.” (See “Revue Archéologique”, vol. ix, A.D. 1864.) In the course of the same letter, M. de Rougé adverts to the magnificent restoration of the temple of Sutech at Tanis (San), by Rameses II and to the curious fact that the god is there represented with the peculiar head-dress worn elsewhere by the Prince of Kheta.

It is to be remembered, however, that the patron deity of Rameses II was Amen-Ra. His homage of Sutech (which might possibly have been a concession to his Khetan wife) seems to have been confined almost exclusively to Tanis, where Ma-at-iri-neferu-Ra may be supposed to have resided.

[109] “_L’absence de points fouillés_, la simplification voulue, la restriction desdétails et des ornements à quelques sillons plus ou moins hardis, l’engorgement de toutes les parties délicates, démontrent que les Égyptiens étaient loin d’avoir des procédés et des facilités inconnus.”--“La Scripture Égyptienne,” par Emile Soldi, p. 48.

“Un fait qui nous parait avoir dû entraver les progrès de la sculpture, c’est l’habitude probable des sculpteurs ou entrepreneurs Égyptiens d’entre prendre le travail à même sur la pierre, sans avoir préalablement cherché le modèle en terre glaise, comme on le fait de nos jours. Une fois le modèle fini, on le moule et on le reproduit mathematiquement définitive. Ce procédé a toujours été employé dans les grandes époques de l’art; et il ne nous a pas semblé qu’il ait jamais été en usage en Egypte.”--Ibid, p. 82.

M. Soldi is also of opinion that the Egyptian sculptors were ignorant of many of the most useful tools known to the Greek, Roman, and modern sculptors, such as the emery-tube, the diamond-point, etc.

[110] On the left leg of this colossus is the famous Greek inscription discovered by Messrs. Bankes and Salt. It dates from the reign of Psamatichus I, and purports to have been cut by a certain Damearchon, one of the two hundred and forty thousand Egyptian troops of whom it is related by Herodotus (book ii, chaps. xxix and xxx) that they deserted because they were kept in garrison at Syene for three years without being relieved. The inscription, as translated by Colonel Leake, is thus given in Rawlingson’s “Herodotus” (vol. ii, p. 37); “King Psamatichus having come to Elephantine, those who were with Psamatichus, the son of Theocles, wrote this: ‘They sailed, and came to above Kerkis, to where the river rises ... the Egyptian Amasis....’ The writer is Damearchon, the son of Amœbichus, and Pelephus (Pelekos), the son of Udamus.” The king Psamatichus here named has been identified with the Psamtik I of the inscriptions. It was in his reign, and not as it has sometimes been supposed, in the reign of Psamatichus II, that the great military defection took place.

[111] _Ra_, the principal solar divinity, generally represented with the head of a hawk and the sun-disk on his head. “_Ra_ vent dire _faire_, _disposer_; c’est, en effet, le dieu Ra qui a disposié organsé le monde, dont la matière lui a été donnée par Ptah.”--P. Pierret: “Dictionaire d’Archéologie Égyptienne.”

“Ra est une autre des intelligence démiurgiques. Ptah avait créé le soleil; le soleil, a son tour, est _le créateur des êtres, animaux et hommes_. Il est à l’hémisphère supérieure ce qu’Osiris est à l’hémisphère inferieure. Ra s’incarne à Heliopis.”--A. Mariette: “Notice des Monuments à Boulak,” p. 123.

[112] An instance occurs, however, in a small inscription sculptured on the rocks of the Island of Sehayl in the first cataract, which records the second panegyry of the reign of Rameses II.--See “Récuil des Monuments, etc.:” Brugsch, vol. ii, Planche lxxxii, Inscription No. 6.

[113] Though dedicated by Rameses to Nefertari, and by Nefertari to Rameses, this temple was placed, primarily, under the patronage of Hathor, the supreme type of divine maternity. She is represented by Queen Nefertari, who appears on the façade as the mother of six children and adorned with the attributes of the goddess. A temple to Hathor would also be, from a religious point of view, the fitting pendant to a temple of Ra. M. Mariette, in his “Notice des Monuments à Boulak,” remarks of Hathor that her functions are still but imperfectly known to us. “Peutêtre était-elle à Ra ce que Maut est à Ammon, le récipient où le dieu s’engendre lui-même pour l’éternité.”

[114] It is not often that one can say of a female head in an Egyptian wall painting that it is beautiful; but in these portraits of the queen, many times repeated upon the walls of the first hall of the Temple of Hathor, there is, if not positive beauty according to our western notions, much sweetness and much grace. The name of Nefertari means perfect, good, or beautiful companion. That the word “Nefer” should mean both good and beautiful--in fact, that beauty and goodness should be synonymous terms--is not merely interesting as it indicates a lofty philosophical standpoint, but as it reveals, perhaps, the latent germ of that doctrine which was hereafter to be taught with such brilliant results in the Alexandrian schools. It is remarkable that the word for truth and justice (_Ma_) was also one and the same.

There is often a quaint significance about Egyptian proper names which reminds one of the names that came into favor in England under the commonwealth. Take, for instance, _Bak-en-Khonsu_, Servant-of-Khons; _Pa-ta-Amen_, the Gift of Ammon; _Renpitnefer_, Good-year; _Nub-en Tekh_, Worth-Her-Weight-in-Gold (both women’s names); and _Hor-mes-out’-a-Shu_, Horus Son-of-the-Eye-of Shu--which last, as a tolerably long compound, may claim relationship with Praise-God Barebones, Hew-Agag-in-Pieces-before-the-Lord, etc.

[115] Ra Harmachis, in Egyptian Har-em-Khou-ti, personifies the sun rising upon the eastern horizon.

[116] See chap. viii, p. 126, also chap. xxi.

[117] In Egyptian, _Aaranatu_.

[118] In Egyptian, _Kateshu_. “Aujourdhui encore il existe une ville de Kades près d’une courbe de l’Oronte dans le voisinage de Homs.” _Leçons de M. de Rougé, Professées au Collége de France_. See “Mélanges d’Archéologie,” Egyp. and Assyr., vol. ii, p. 269. Also a valuable paper, entitled “The Campaign of Rameses II Against Kadesh,” by the Rev. G. H. Tomkins, “Trans. of the Soc. of Bib. Arch., vol. viii, part 3, 1882. The bend of the river is actually given in the bas-reliefs.

[119] “La légion _S’ardana_ de l’armée de Ramsès II provenait d’une premiére descente de ces peuples en Égypte. ‘Les _S’ardana_, qui étaient des prisonniers de sa majesté,’ dit expressément le texte de Karnak, au commencement du poëme de _Pentaur_. Les archéologues ont remarqué la richesse de leur costume et de leurs armures. Les principales pièces de leur vêtements semblent couvertes de broderies. Leur bouchier est une rondache: ils portent une longue et large épée de forme ordinaire, mais on remarque aussi dans leurs mains une épée d’une longueur démesurée. Le casque des S’ardana est très caracterisque; sa forme est arrondie, mais il est surmonté d’une tige qui supporte une boule de métal. Cet ornament est accompagné de deux cornes en forme de croissant.... Les S’ardana de l’armée Égyptienne ont seulement des favoris et des moustaches coupés très courts.”--“Memoire sur les Attaques Dirigées contre l’Égypte,” etc. E. de Rougé. “Revue Archéologique,” vol. xvi, pp. 90, 91.

[120] A rich treasure of gold and silver rings was found by Ferlini, in 1834, immured in the wall of one of the pyramids of Meröe, in Upper Nubia. See _Lepsius’ Letters_, translated by L. and J. Horner, Bohn, 1858, p. 151.

[121] This cast, the property of the British Museum, is placed over a door leading to the library at the end of the northern vestibule, opposite the staircase. I was informed by the late Mr. Bonomi that the mold was made by Mr. Hay, who had with him an Italian assistant picked up in Cairo. They took with them some barrels of plaster and a couple of ladders, and contrived, with such spars and poles as belonged to the dahabeeyah, to erect a scaffolding and a matted shelter for the plasterman. The colossus was at this time buried up to its chin in sand, which made the task so much the easier. When the mold of the head was brought to England, it was sent to Mr. Bonomi’s studio, together with a mold of the head of the colossus at Mitrahenny, a mold of the apex of the fallen obelisk at Karnak, and molds of the wall-sculptures at Bayt-et-Welly. Mr. Bonomi superintended the casting and placing of all these in the museum about three years after the molds were made. This was at the time when Mr. Hawkins held the post of keeper of antiquities. I mention these details, not simply because they have a special interest for all who are acquainted with Abou Simbel, but because a good deal of misapprehension has prevailed on the subject, some travelers attributing the disfigurement of the head to Lepsius, others to the Crystal Palace Company, and so forth. Even so careful a writer as the late Miss Martineau ascribes it, on hearsay, to Champollion.

[122] “A castle, resembling in size and form that of Ibrim; it bears the name of Kalat Adda; it has been abandoned many years, being entirely surrounded by barren rocks. Part of its ancient wall, similar in construction to that of Ibrim, still remains. The habitations are built partly of stone and partly of brick. On the most elevated spot in the small town, eight or ten gray granite columns of small dimensions lie on the ground, with a few capitals near them of clumsy Greek architecture.”--Burckhardt’s “Travels in Nubia,” 1819, p. 38.

In a curious Arabic history of Nubia written in the tenth century A.D. by one Abdallah Ben Ahmed Ben Solaïm of Assûan, fragments of which are preserved in the great work of Makrizy, quoted by Burckhardt and E. Quatremere (see foot note, p. 202), there occurs the following remarkable passage: “In this province (Nubia) is situated the city of Bedjrasch, capital of Maris, the fortress of Ibrim, and another place called Adwa, which has a port, and is, they say, the birthplace of the sage Lokman and of Dhoul Noun. There is to be seen there a magnificent Birbeh.” (“On y voit un _Berba_ magnifique.”)--“Mémoires Géographiques sur l’Égypte,” etc. E. Quatremere, Paris, 1811; vol. ii, p. 8.

If Adwa and Adda are one and the same, it is possible that in this passage we find preserved the only comparatively modern indication of some great rock-cut temple, the entrance to which is now entirely covered by the sand. It is clear that neither Abou Simbel (which is on the opposite bank, and some three or four miles north of Adda) nor Ferayg (which is also some way off, and quite a small place) can here be intended. That another temple exists somewhere between Abou Simbel and Wady Halfeh, and is yet to be discovered, seems absolutely certain from the tenor of a large stela sculptured on the rock a few paces north of the smaller temple at Abou Simbel. This stela, which is one of the most striking and elaborate there, represents an Egyptian gateway surmounted by the winged globe, and shows Rameses II enthroned and receiving the homage of a certain prince whose name, as translated by Rosellini, is Rameses-Neniseti-Habai. The inscription, which is in sixteen columns and perfectly preserved, records the titles and praises of the king, and states how “he had made a monumental abode for Horus, his father, Lord of Ha’m, excavating in the bowels of the Rock of Ha’m to make him a habitation of many ages.” We know nothing of the Rock of Ha’m (rendered Sciam by Rosellini), but it should no doubt be sought somewhere between Abou Simbel and Wady Halfeh. “Qual sito precisamente dinotisi in questo nome di Sciam, io non saprei nel presente stato delle cose determinare: credo peraltro secondo varie loughi delle iscrizioni che lo ricordano, che fosse situato sull’ una o l’altra sponda del Nilo, nel paese compreso tra Wadi-halfa e Ibsambul, o poco oltre. E qui dovrebbe trovarsi il nominato speco di Horus, fino al presente occulto a noi.”--Rosellini Letterpress to “Monumenti Storici,” vol. iii, part ii, p. 184. It would hence appear that the Rock of Ha’m is mentioned in other inscriptions.

The distance between Abou Simbel and Wady Halfeh is only forty miles, and the likely places along the banks are but few. Would not the discovery of this lost temple be an enterprise worthier the ambition of tourists, than the extermination of such few crocodiles as yet linger north of the second cataract

[123] See foot note page 265.

[124] “Un second temple, plus grand, mais tout aussi détruit que le précédent, existe un peu plus au sud, c’était le grand temple de la villa Égyptienne de _Béhéni_, qui exista sur cet emplacement, et qui d’après l’étendu des débris de poteries répandus sur la plaine aujourdhui déserte, parait avoir été assez grande.”--Champollion, _Lettres écrites d’Égypte_, etc., ed. 1868; Letter ix.

[125] Mount Fogo, as shown upon Keith Johnston’s map of Egypt and Nubia, would seem to be identical with the Ali Bersi of Lepsius.

[126] On referring to Col. H. Vyse’s “Voyage into Upper Egypt,” etc. I see that he also opened one of these tumuli, but “found no indication of an artificial construction.” I can only conclude that he did not carry his excavation low enough. As it is difficult to suppose the tumuli made for nothing, I cannot help believing that they would repay a more systematic investigation.

[127] The inclosure-wall of the great Temple of Tanis is eighty feet thick. See “Tanis,” Part 1, by W. M. F. Petrie; published by the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1885. [Note to second edition.]

[128] It was long believed that the Egyptians were ignorant of the principle of the arch. This, however, was not the case. There are brick arches of the time of Rameses II behind the Ramesseum at Thebes and elsewhere. Still, arches are rare in Egypt. We filled in and covered the arch again, and the greater part of the staircase in order to preserve the former.

[129] Commonly known as Belzoni’s tomb.

[130] I write of these walls, for convenience, as north, south, east and west, as one is so accustomed to regard the position of buildings parallel with the river; but the present monument, as it is turned slightly southward round the angle of the rock, really stands southeast by east, instead of east and west like the large temple.

[131] Horus Aroëris.--“Celui-ci, qui semble avoir été frère d’Osiris, porte une tête d’épervier coiffée du pschent. Il est presque complètement identifié avec le soleil dans la plupart des lieux où il était adoré, et il en est de même très souvent pour Horus, fils d’Isis.”--“Notice Sommaire des Monuments du Louvre,” 1873. De Rougé. In the present instance, this god seems to have been identified with Ra.

[132] “Le sceptre à tête de lévier, nommé à tort sceptre à tête de concoupha, était porté par les dieux.”--“Dic. d’Arch. Égyptienne:” P. Pierret; Paris, 1875.

[133] Amen of the blue complexion is the most ancient type of this god. Here he represents divine royalty, in which character his title is: “Lord of the Heaven, of the earth, of the waters and of the mountains.” “Dans ce rôle de roi du monde, Amon a les chairs peintes en bleu pour indiquer sa nature céleste; et lorsqu’il porte le titre de Seigneur des Trônes, il est représenté assis, la couronne en tête: d’ordinaire il est debout.”--“Étude des Monuments de Karnak.” De Rougé. “Mélanges d’Archeologie,” vol. i, 1873.

There were almost as many varieties of Amen in Egypt as there are varieties of the Madonna in Italy or Spain. There was an Amen of Thebes, an Amen of Elephantine, an Amen of Coptos, an Amen of Chemmis (Panopolis), an Amen of the Resurrection, Amen of the Dew, Amen of the Sun (Amen-Ra), Amen Self-created, etc. Amen and Khem were doubtless identical. It is an interesting fact that our English words, chemical, chemist, chemistry, etc., which the dictionaries derive from the Arabic _al-kimia_, may be traced back a step farther to the Panopolitan name of this most ancient god of the Egyptians, Khem (Gr. Pan; Latin, Priapus), the deity of plants and herbs and of the creative principle. A cultivated Egyptian would, doubtless, have regarded all these Amens as merely local or symbolical types of a single deity.

[134] The material of this blue helmet, so frequently depicted on the monuments, _may_ have been the Homeric Kuanos, about which so much doubt and conjecture have gathered, and which Mr. Gladstone supposes to have been a metal. (See “Juventus Mundi,” chap. xv, p. 532.) A paragraph in _The Academy_ (June 8, 1876) gives the following particulars of certain perforated lamps of a “blue metallic substance,” discovered at Hissarlik by Dr. Schliemann, and there found lying under the copper shields to which they had probably been attached. “An analytical examination by Landerer (Berg., _Hüttenm. Zeitung_, xxxix, 430) has shown them to be sulphide of copper. The art of coloring the metal was known to the coppersmiths of Corinth, who plunged the heated copper into the fountain of Peirene. It appears not impossible that this was a sulphur spring, and that the blue color may have been given to the metal by plunging it in a heated state into the water and converting the surface into copper sulphide.”

It is to be observed that the Pharaohs are almost always represented wearing this blue helmet in the battle pieces and that it is frequently studded with gold rings. It must, therefore, have been of metal. If not of sulphureted copper, it may have been made of steel, which, in the well known instance of the butcher’s sharpener, as well as in representations of certain weapons, is always painted blue upon the monuments.

[135] “This eye, called _uta_, was extensively used by the Egyptians both as an ornament and amulet during life, and as a sepulchral amulet. They are found in the form of right eyes and left eyes, and they symbolize the eyes of Horus, as he looks to the north and south horizons in his passage from east to west, _i. e._, from sunrise to sunset.”

M. Grebaut, in his translation of a hymn to Amen-Ra, observes: “Le soleil marchant d’Orient en Occident éclaire de ses deux yeux les deux régions du Nord et du Midi.”--“Révue Arch.,” vol. xxv, 1873; p. 387.

[136] This inscription was translated for the first edition of this book by the late Dr. Birch; for the present translation I am indebted to the courtesy of E. A. Wallis Budge, Esq.

[137] _Sesennu_--Eshmoon or Hermopolis.

[138] _Amenheri_--Gebel Addeh.

[139] These jubilees, or festivals of thirty years, were religious jubilees in celebration of each _thirtieth_ anniversary of the accession of the reigning Pharaoh.

[140] There are, in the British Museum, some bottles and vases of this description, dating from the eighteenth dynasty; see Case E, Second Egyptian Room. They are of dark-blue translucent glass, veined with waving lines of opaque white and yellow.

[141] _Kenus_--Nubia.

[142] Governors of Ethiopia bore this title, even though they did not themselves belong to the family of Pharaoh.

It is a curious fact that one of the governors of Ethiopia during the reign of Rameses II was called Mes, or Messou, signifying son, or child--which is in fact _Moses_. Now the Moses of the Bible was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, “became to her as a son,” was instructed in the wisdom of the Egyptians, and married a Kushite woman, black but comely. It would perhaps be too much to speculate on the possibility of his having held the office of Governor, or Royal Son of Kush.

[143] _i. e._ Ammon Ra, the sun god, in conjunction or identification with Har-em-a x u, of Horus-on-the-Horizon, another solar deity.

[144] The primæval god.

[145] Inner place, or sanctuary.

[146] Ethiopia.

[147] At about an equal distance to the north of the great temple, on the verge of the bank, is a shapeless block of brick ruin, which might possibly, if investigated, turn out to be the remains of a second pylon corresponding to this which we partially uncovered to the south.

[148] He may, however, be represented on the north wall, where it is covered by the sand-heap.

[149] Letter xiv, p. 235. “Nouvelle Ed.,” Paris, 1868.

[150] That this shock of earthquake occurred during the lifetime of Rameses II seems to be proved by the fact that, where the Osiride column is cracked across, a wall has been built up to support the two last pillars to the left at the upper end of the great hall, on which wall is a large stela covered with an elaborate hieroglyphic inscription, dating from the thirty-fifth year, and the thirteenth day of the month of Tybi, _of the reign of Rameses II_. The right arm of the external colossus, to the right of the great doorway, has also been supported by the introduction of an arm to his throne, built up of square blocks; this being the only arm to any of the thrones. Miss Martineau detected a restoration of part of the lower jaw of the northernmost colossus, and also a part of the dress of one of the Osiride statues in the great hall. I have in my possession a photograph taken at a time when the sand was several feet lower than at present, which shows that the right leg of the northernmost colossus is also a restoration on a gigantic scale, being built up, like the throne-arm, in great blocks, and finished, most probably, afterward.

[151] This refers to the ex-khedive, Ismail Pasha, who ruled Egypt at the time when this book was written and published. [Note to second edition.]