Chapter TWENTY-NINE: Cleopatra VI.—continued 432 (8)

Bubastis was the goddess Aphrodite of foreigners, represented with the head of a lion or cat. The cat was sacred to this goddess and said to have honorable burial here. Indeed a regular cat cemetery, filled with the remains of mummied felines, has been found. The feast was held at what corresponds to our Christmas time, and Herodotus thus describes it. “When the Egyptians travel to Bubastis they do it in this manner. Men and women sail together and in each boat there are many persons of both sexes. Some of the women make a noise with rattles and some blow pipes during the whole journey, while the other men and women sing and clap their hands. If they pass a town on the way they lay to and some of the women land and shout and mock at the women of the place, while others dance and make a disturbance. They do this at every town that lies on the Nile and when they arrive at Bubastis they begin the festival with great sacrifices and on this occasion more wine is consumed than during the whole of the rest of the year. All the people of both sexes, except children, make a pilgrimage thither, 700,000 persons in all, as the Egyptians assert.” In these festivals both queens probably, separately or together, took a share.

Amen-Ra was the patron deity of Rameses II, but he also paid homage to Sutech in honor probably to his Khitan wife, as this was chiefly confined to Tanis, where we may believe Ur-maa-nofru-ra resided. The god is represented with the head-dress of a Khitan prince. Whatever travelling she may have done, whatever her experiences, Tanis was home to this queen, while the city grew in magnificence and she watched the erection of a grand temple to the god of her fathers, some proof at least that she held a high place in Rameses’ affection and regard.

The name Thebes is of Greek origin, as are many of the Egyptian places, our knowledge of the country being in so large a part derived from the Greeks. Tanis also was so named by the Greeks. This formerly great city, of which now only mounds, ruins, etc., remain, was variously known as Tanis, Zoan, or San, the last of Arab designation. It is believed by some authorities to be the Zoan of the Bible, where the miracles were performed. Its history is now told by broken statues, mounds, tombs and hieroglyphics. Scarcely one stone remains upon another. It is in the Delta of the Nile and is called in some of the inscriptions, “The Place of the Leg,” “The Winged Disk of the North,” and “The Cradle of Lower Egypt.” It was an old city when Rameses II occupied and embellished it. He never hesitated to pull down and use the materials with which his predecessors had builded, nor to smooth out their cartouches and replace them with his own. Why should he, the greatest monarch the world had ever known, as he doubtless thought himself, shrink from taking his full rights or even obliterating the name and fame of some more insignificant ancestor. And devoted as he seemed to have been to his father’s memory, he even did the like occasionally with his father’s signature.

The monumental history of Tanis, it is said, begins with the Twelfth Dynasty, a fine broken statue of Amenemhat I having been found. Then follow memorials of later times. Superb statues of the Hyksos period have also been discovered. Of the work of Rameses II it is quoted that “he found the place given over to the abomination of desolation, he left it one of the most magnificent of Egyptian cities.” For this purpose he laid all Egypt under contribution, red granite and black from Syene, and the Valley of Hammamat, sandstone and limestone from Silsilis and Toorah. His great temples to the gods were but as the parchment on which he inscribed the story of his own victories. It was the spirit of the Pharisee which said, ‘I am not as other men are.’

Wars and fires at different times have done much to obliterate Tanis and its records as well as to destroy all traces of it. Mr. Petrie, who, like many archeologists, spares neither strength nor effort to bring to light the history of the past, with the true lover’s fervency in his favorite pursuit, which is to be a gain not to himself, but to the world, and Miss Edwards, who to a close study of the old ruins and remains, adds a charming power of picturesque description, have both told much of Tanis. We condense their accounts of the city at this past era. The Nile was alive with vessels, the banks bordered with towns and villas, the land beyond occupied by villages. The great temple, which looked like a fortress, was half a mile from the shore, and approached by a fine road, in part bordered by sphinxes and the city entered by a massive gateway. Gigantic statues of the king alternated with sphinxes, the last statue being fourteen times the size of a man. There was a grand avenue bordered by columns, thirty-six feet in height. Pylons, statues, obelisks, a very forest of them—the tribute of the previous centuries, many of them, to the present king. Through these passed many processions, the king, his son and officials, his warriors and his captives. He, with the double crown on his head, and glittering with jewels, the leopard skin over his shoulders, to be received by the priests, with divine honors, amid the plaudits and adulation of the people. All to the sound of the harp and flute, cimbals and sistrum. The queen doubtless looking, from some gorgeously decorated point of vantage when she did not personally share in the pageant.

This was the home of the young queen, these the magnificent sights to which her eyes were accustomed. Parts of private letters on parchment and on pottery have been found, telling familiarly of the feasts and festivals, the expenses and the daily incidents of the life of this period. And the love stories and other fragments of fiction which have, come down to us also give their share of local color.

The last forty-six years of Rameses II’s long reign (which is said to have lasted sixty-seven) were peaceful, and says one author, “It became his passion and his pride to found new cities, to raise dykes, to dig canals, to build fortresses, to multiply statues, obelisks and inscriptions, and to erect the most costly temples in which man ever worshipped.”

His eldest sons appear to have died before him, or been passed over in the succession, for it was his thirteenth son, Meremptah, who shared his authority and eventually succeeded him. He is believed to have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus, as Rameses II of the oppression of the Israelites.

In strange contrast to the life of Rameses II was the disposition of his body after death; there is a story told of the mummy of one of the Pharaohs, that in order to obtain entrance into Cairo, with his prize, Bruch Bey was obliged to pay octroi duty on “dead fish,” as the officials refused to admit it free of duty and the register contained no directions as to mummies. Doubtless Rameses II received magnificent burial, but in later reigns many royal tombs were rifled and his among them; the empty tomb now remains, but only filled with rubbish, the body of the king, with those of many others, being removed. Inscriptions record that this occurred more than once. In the sixteenth year of the reign of Pinotem I it was placed in the tomb of Amenophis I, so that even in death sometimes “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” It is said that in 1880 his mummy was offered for sale to an American gentleman, who, doubting its genuineness, refused to purchase.

In 1881 the wonderful discovery of the shaft containing so many royal mummies was made, and their removal to the museum of Gizeh is thus described, “Already it was known, far and wide, that these kings and queens of ancient times were being conveyed to Cairo, and for more than fifty miles below Thebes the villages turned out en masse, not merely to stare at the piled decks, as the steamer went by, but to show respect to the illustrious dead. Women, running along the banks and shrieking the death wail; men, ranged in solemn silence and firing their guns in the air, greeted the Pharaohs as they passed.”

And so after change of burial place and even of coffin, one of the most celebrated of human monarchs lies in a museum, for the inspection of every careless passerby; a strong commentary on human greatness and human pride.

The mummy was unrolled, by Maspero, June, 1886, and was found to be five feet six inches in length. The head was small and long; the hair, apparently white at the time of death, was made yellow with drugs; the forehead, low and narrow; the eyebrows, arched and bushy; the eyes, small and close to the thin-hooked nose; the temples were hollow, the cheek bones prominent and the ears wearing rings were round. The expression he calls intelligent, but slightly sensual, proud, obstinate and majestic, even in death.

And what of Queen Urmaa-nofrura? As the bride alone, young and fair, she comes before us, and we find no record of her further history, or of her death. Was it in her power, as in that of the fair Queen Esther of Scripture, to do aught for the people of her native land or to influence in any way for good the haughty sovereign to whom she was allied? Perhaps, and perhaps only.

CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH.

TAUSERT.

As Queen Urma-nofru-Ra may be considered the bride of life, so we may call Queen Tausert the bride of the tomb, since it is from her tomb alone that we learn anything of her history, and even there the information is most meagre. Her name is mentioned as Ta-ursr, Tauser, Tausert or Taosiri, and it makes her somewhat distinctive among the various Neferts and Tis. She is called “the great queen and the lady of the land, the princess of Upper and Lower Egypt.”

She is noteworthy chiefly as being of the blood royal and thus conferring dignity upon her husband, Siptah, or Si-Ptah, her name taking precedence of his on the monuments, as did that of Queen Ti, wife of Seti I. Also she was the last queen of the great Nineteenth Dynasty, of which Seti I and Rameses II were such renounced monarchs, and of whose queens Ti, Nofritari Mini-mut and Urma-nofru-Ra we have already given outline sketches. To this Dynasty, called Diospolites, Lepsius gives the date beginning 1443 B. C., and Wilkinson 1340 B. C., and one division makes it the Middle Empire.

The earliest Egyptian monarchs of whom we have any record built for themselves tombs which seemed destined to last till eternity, the Pyramids, which some one has finely described as “stony tents where innumerable centuries have encamped, which time in vain seeks to drive from the field,” and which seem more like Druidical remains than specimens of architecture.

Says Lady Duff Gordon, in her charming “Letters:” “There is such a curious sight of a crowd of men carrying huge blocks of stone up out of a boat. One sees exactly how the stones were carried in ancient times; they sway their bodies all together like one great lithe animal, with many legs, and hum a low chant to keep time. It is quite unlike carrying heavy weights in Europe.”

Later kings spent their energies differently. They built palaces and temples and chose to be buried in caverns in the natural rocks through which they honeycombed innumerable passages, hewed out great halls, or constructed pits in which their mortal remains could be hidden from the light of day.

Rameses II lived to a ripe old age, his wives perhaps dying before him, as many of his children certainly did. Of their lives we know little, of their death nothing. The sacred books say of one Pharaoh, perhaps of Rameses II, that in heaven he will, at his pleasure, take wives from their husbands, so idolatrous was the worship accorded to these haughty, and often tyrannical kings. Seti I had, as we have seen, in early years united his son, Rameses, with himself in the government of his kingdom, and Rameses II adopted the same plan, making his thirteenth son, Meremptah, co-ruler, with himself. In the government of the kingdom. The elder sons, of whom Khamus is known to have been an especial favorite of his father (as was Bint-Antha among the daughters), died before him, or there was some other reason which prevented their following in natural succession. The consensus of opinion seems to be that Rameses II was the oppressor of the Hebrews, and Meneptah the monarch from whom they escaped.

The Israelites are believed to have toiled on the temples, palaces and other architectural works at Tanis, and on the treasure city of Paten or Pithom. They are mentioned in a triumphal inscription, found by Petrie, near the temple of Medinet Aboo, opposite Thebes. It was engraved on an old slab, originally polished, inscribed and put in place in a temple, by Amen-hotep III, which Meremptah, with the ruthlessness of many of the kings, took and also inscribed on the back, or rougher side, to glorify himself. Part of it reads, “The Hittites are quieted. Taken is Askelon. The Israelites are

(Transcriber’s Note: A line (or more) seems to be missing here from the original.)

tions, who had invaded Egypt. Petrie also found, among the ruins of a funeral temple at Thebes, a bust of this king, in grey granite, which has “a firm and rather dogged expression, not untinged with melancholy.” The wife of Meremptah is given as Ast-Nefert or Isis Nefert, but of her personal history we know nothing. The mummy of a certain Queen Anhipu, said to belong to the Nineteenth Dynasty, was found, but no details of her life.

Amenmesses “Mighty Bull, beloved of Maat,” is, by some authorities, said to have usurped the throne after Meremptah; his mother is given as Taak Taakhat, “divine mother, royal mother, great Lady,” and his wife as “royal spouse, the great one, lady of the two lands.” He built a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and he, with his mother and wife, are buried there. It has three corridors and two chambers, and in one his mother and in another his wife are making offerings to the gods.

Another list commonly given is as follows, Rameses II, then Meremptah, Seti II, his grandson, and Siptah, his great-grandson, perhaps by marriage. Reproductions of the pictures of Seti II and Siptah are given in Petrie’s articles, in Miss Edward’s “Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers,” as well doubtless as in other places, and she claims for each of them the distinctive features of the Rammeside family, long heads, long noses, long bodies and long legs. Photographs have been taken of Siptah and others from the bas-reliefs in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, at Thebes. Ebers, in his romance of “Joshua,” mentions Siptah as the nephew of Meremptah and as intriguing to supplant him.

Queen Tausert’s husband is elsewhere spoken of as Meremptah Siptah, the son of an usurper, giving color to the idea that it was she and not he who was the descendant of Rameses II. Among ordinary people the tomb was often prepared for husband and wife together, and occasionally the mummy of the first who died was kept in the house till the death of the second, a constant suggestion that they might soon be reunited, and in pictures they are often betrayed with the arm of one around the neck or waist of the other, showing that affectionate relations were usual. Death and the future life appear to have occupied so large a share in the thoughts of the ancients that their daily life was a sort of Appian Way, lined with tombs, and we know much more of their funerals than of their marriages and other festivities.

The Egyptians were among the earliest, if not the earliest nation to regard literature, to write books (the inscribed papyrus roll being their printed page, to be handed down to posterity) and to preserve and value them.

The Book of the Dead, of which sections belonging to different periods have been found, was a sort of Bible, for which the Egyptians entertained the most profound respect and whose maxims they seem to have used, both as a guide in life and in their preparation of the dead for the tomb. The papyrus containing the tale of “The Two Brothers,” in which the younger was unjustly accused of wrongdoing towards his elder brother’s wife, bears some resemblance to the Bible story of Joseph’s experiences, and belongs to the period of Seti II.

Diodorus speaks of a sacred library which he said was inscribed “Dispensary of the Mind,” and belonged to the period of Rameses III; some ruins believed to have been this building have been found. There was a great hall and several smaller rooms, supported by columns. “On the jamb of one of the smaller rooms,” says Kendrick, “was sculptured Thoth, the inventor of Letters, and the goddess Saf, his companion, with the title of ‘Lady of Letters and President of the Hall of Books,’ accompanied, the former with an emblem of the sense of sight, the latter with that of hearing.”

Treaties with foreign nations were often inscribed, like that of Rameses II and the father of Queen Urma-nofrura, on tablets of silver or other metal, while accounts, letters and more trivial matters, were written on pottery, fragments of which have come down to our own day. In these times, or even earlier, the Greeks made their way into Egypt, and through them, as well as from the monuments, we have derived much of our knowledge of the Egyptians.

A late writer on Egypt, Isaac Meyer, draws a parallel between Christianity and the old Egyptian religion, and advances a theory, more ingenious than reliable, that Christ may have been in Egypt later than in his infancy. The “Book of the Dead,” said to be the great storehouse of Egyptian theology, shows refined and ethical ideas. Horus, the sun-god, the victorious of the resurrection from the dead to eternal life, is found chief among the deities there represented, wearing the Osirian crown, and with an endless serpent, symbolic of eternity. Chapters of this book were found in isolated places, and at different times, “a collection of preceptus and maxims on the conduct of life.” Many had fragments of the revered volume buried beside them or engraved on scarabeii as ornaments and decorations. In later times than those which we are now considering the mummy of a young girl was found, with part of Homer in her coffin, having in life probably been devoted to his poetry.

Some archeologists and students see traces of original monotheism in the religion of the Egyptians, one central idea of deity perhaps under many forms, but the idea is not supported by general testimony. “Deities,” says one writer, “were merged into one another, qualities of one were attributed to another till the pantheon resembled the shifting pictures of the kaleidoscope.”

Some of the Egyptian precepts and maxims are not without their value in modern times, such as “If thou humblest thyself in obeying a superior, thy conduct is wholly good before God. Knowing who ought to obey and who ought to command, lift not thy heart against the latter.” And again, “If thou desirest thy conduct to be good and preserved from evil, keep thyself from attacks of bad temper. It is wrong to fly in a passion with one’s neighbor to the point of not knowing how to manage one’s words.”

Siptah is sometimes spoken of as an anti-king, regarded as an usurper, rather than a rightful heir, and his name is occasionally omitted from the list of kings. His Horus name is said to mean Horus rising in Khebit; he added nothing important to the temples and, though depicted in relief in Silsila and other places, it is probably only commemorative of small repairs. Buried in his wife’s tomb, he was removed, in the troublous times of the Twentieth Dynasty, to the tomb of Amenhetep II. The original tomb has three or four corridors and several chambers. A picture of the queen, offering gifts to the gods, was plastered over by Sek-nebta, who usurped the tomb. The remains of the funeral temple of the king and queen were excavated by Professor Petrie in 1896. Her temple was between those of Meren-Ptah and Thothmes IV, and his north of the temple of Amenhetep II.

Another suggestion as regards Siptah is that he may have ruled over one part of Egypt—the rightful king over another. But, whatever the ambiguity of his earlier history, it is known that he was buried with his wife in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, Queen Tausert taking her place with her husband, and not among the Tombs of the Queens where so many of the royal ladies were laid.

There were probably revolutions and counter revolutions, till the reins of government were once more finally in the hands of Rameses III. Whether from the ambition of an usurper to be laid with the true line of kings, or from a deep affection, Siptah and Tausert shared their tomb, the queen probably having died first, and the king subsequently, no doubt by special order being laid beside her. The tomb was elaborately painted and inscribed, but much is faded by time and the light and air admitted by explorers. Champoleon believed, we are told, that he had discovered a cartouch of Seti-Nekht, engraved above that of Seti II, and the latter above that of Tausert and Siptah; but “there is no visible trace of this superposition which would assign to Siptah a date anterior to Seti II.”

One writer says of Tausert that who the queen was is unknown; she may have been a queen dowager, with special rights as daughter of a Pharaoh, and may have been the widow of Seti I and mother of the Prince of Cush, if so Siptah was her husband’s brother and child’s uncle. She is also spoken of as “hereditary daughter—exalted.”

Belzone made a close investigation of these tombs, discovering various points of interest which had escaped the notice of earlier explorers. The tombs were cut in the face of the limestone rock, with passages, steps and doorways, and a pit at the end, probably to discourage intruders. He broke through a wall which gave a hollow sound when struck, and discovered several more pillared halls and passages. The body, which, by embalming, was converted into a mummy, was, especially in the case of royalty and other distinguished people, most carefully preserved. First placed in a casket of cedar or other wood elaborately painted with figures of the gods, this again in an outer casket of wood, more roughly decorated, and finally in a stone sarcophagus.

Reference has been made before to a sort of court or trial which was held at the entrance to the grave to decide if the deceased was worthy to enter the presence of Osiris.

In a modern Arab funeral a number of men walk first, chanting a ritual. The bier, with a high peak in front, like the prow of a Nile boat, is carried by friends and comes next, and upon the bier a tin horn is placed if the corpse is a man, a shawl and jewelry and other ornaments, if a woman, and a red shawl indicates youth. A more minute description of this is given by Pollard, in the “Land of the Monuments.” The funerals take place within a few hours of death. Different from the old Egyptian custom, the body in its winding sheet is covered with shawls, and the procession is closed by the chief mourners, followed by friends, sometimes walking hand in hand.

Details as regards the tomb of Tausert and Siptah are to be found in the guide books, but the passing traveller will probably glance hastily at pictures and inscriptions and hurry on; only the student has leisure or inclination for minute or accurate investigation. The tomb represents the royal couple absorbed in religious exercises, offering to the various gods and goddesses their prayers, praises and gifts. The queen stands before Harmachus, “god of the morning,” and Anubis, “the god of the dead,” and Ne-fer-tum-Hor, and again before Ptah, “the Opener,” and Ma, “goddess of Truth.” All representations of this last goddess are said to be “refined, calm and peaceful” in expression and worthy of the character of the goddess of Truth.

Then the king stands before Isis, “the mother,” and Horns, “the son,” and in other pictures the royal consorts are together before some god, perhaps carrying or crowned with flowers. And again the queen before Harmachus, Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, and Nepthys, “lady of the house.” The sarcophagus of Tausert bears her likeness, between Isis and Nepthys, a conventional idea of what a goddess was or should be, setting the pattern.

The tomb has also other pictures of some of the lesser gods, armed with knives, keeping guard over a chapel, to ward off evil ones, Hathor standing in the doorway. Again the king and the high priest, sacrificing to Osiris and the winged goddess Ma in the doorway of a chapel, signifying that only Truth may enter. Here is what is called the act of opening the mouth of the royal likeness in the Hall of Gold. The high priest appears with his staff and panther skin, the Kereb and lower priests, who take part in the ceremony, and the people as “those who come to the tomb,” offering incense. Various rooms are carved and ornamented with pictures of numerous gods, Thoth with the moon upon his head, Ma with outspread wings, serpents, boats and other symbols.

Mrs. Stevenson, who has made an especial study of Egyptian symbols, says that most of the Egyptian goddesses may be said, broadly speaking, to represent either luminous space, or the activity of the god with whom they are associated, and their common attributes make it easy for the Egyptians to reduce them to one type. Sekhet, “the striker”; Neith, who “shoots”; Hat-Hor, meaning “the home of Horus,” the mother of Horus; one of those designations is “the mighty striker,” son of Hat-Hor, and who, at Dendereh, where she was especially worshipped as the “holy one,” is expressly called Sekhet-Neith, while all are called “Eye of Ra.” “There are,” she continues, “exceptions, such as Maut, who represents abstract truth and justice, Safekh, etc.; and in certain localities where the goddess stood alone, like Neith at Sais, she included all the attributes of divinity, but her place in the local triad is as indicated above.”

But to return to the tomb. One hall with seats seems to suggest that another sarcophagus rested there. So we spell out, read and speculate over these monuments of long ago. This king and queen were doubtless buried with great honors; which was it, love or ambition, that ruled their lives and stamped with its signet even their tomb? Could it be said of them that “they were lovely in their lives and in death they were not divided”? Evidently they did not wish to accept the common lot of man, to pass away and be forgotten.

CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH.

SUCCEEDING QUEENS.

From the time of Rameses II to that of the Ptolemy period no queen seems to make a marked impression on the passing centuries. We have here and there a name, here and there an anecdote; but no figure, with salient points, stands out, about which cluster vitalizing incidents, or upon whom we may drape a robe of woven romance. Nor were there many, even among the kings, who have the bold outlines of some of their predecessors.

Seck-net or Seti-nekht was first of the Twentieth Dynasty, is believed to have reigned seven years, and united with himself, and was succeeded by, his son Rameses III. He seems to have made no special mark upon his time, was neither a great ruler nor a great builder, and we know little of him. There is a picture of him and Rameses III kneeling on either side of the sun’s disk, and he appropriated and enlarged the tomb of Queen Tausert for himself, covering the figures and name of the queen with stucco.

Rameses III was a builder of temples, a rich, magnificent and splendor-loving monarch, a warrior and conqueror. His Hobrus names were “Mighty bull, great one of kings,” and “Mighty bull, beloved of Maat, establisher of the lands.” But, even at a period, whose moral point of view was so different from the Christian, it is claimed that this was a court distinguished for its licentiousness. His queen’s name is given as Ast, or Ise, also as Hemalczotha, which seems to suggest that she was a foreigner, possibly a Khitan or Assyrian princess. Her father is spoken of as Hebuansozanath. Often the space beside the king’s name is left vacant, as if she could not or would not appear in his company. From her tomb also her name is obliterated, while that of her husband and son remain.

The walls of the temples and palaces built by Rameses III are adorned with the story of his life. There are naval engagements, the ships with embroidered sails, and the king is seen as a conqueror, of the Libyans and others, carried in state above the heads of the people, surrounded by priests and followed by warriors and captives, while in other processions the queen also appears, following. The great Harris papyrus, too, of the thirty-second year of his reign, found near the temple of Medinet-Abou or Haboo, gives much information concerning him and a long list of gifts which he presented to the temples.

Among the other pictures on the walls we see Rameses III enjoying himself in the midst of, some say his daughters, but more probably the members or slaves of his harem. Others, again, believe them to be intended for goddesses or mythological characters. Sylph-like figures attend upon the king. To quote from a previous article upon the subject, “One plays draughts with him, another holds a lotus blossom to his nose (a favorite attention in Egypt), others offer him wine and refreshments. The queen, as a chief figure, nowhere appears. The costumes approach that of the Garden of Eden, a necklace and light sandals. We are reminded of the description of a Japanese family: ‘The summer costume of a middle class Japanese consists of a queue, a breechcloth and a pair of sandals; that of his son and heir the same minus the queue, the cloth and the sandals, while that of his spouse is a little, and only a little more elaborate.’”

It is impossible, naively and gravely, remarks one critic, rather than from the standpoint of the Twentieth Century, than the Twentieth Dynasty, that respectable families should so have conducted themselves, therefore the garments must have evaporated in the course of years. But it was so near the Garden of Eden, the climate was so warm, and the little creatures seem so at ease in their airy nothings, that it is almost appears as if “beauty unadorned was adorned the most.” Some of the pictures are too obscene for reproduction.

It is of interest to note how very ancient are certain games, such as chess, draughts or checkers, and others which still hold a place among our modern amusements. Other pictures, discovered years ago in the mastabas or grave chambers, of still earlier date, 5200 B. C., give also the game of chess, the invention of which has been attributed both to India and China.

Extensive insurrection and disturbances, it is evident, had prevailed in the kingdom, and that Rameses III had brought order out of the chaos. He described himself as “the darling of Amen, the victory-bringing Horus.” After his conquests he turned his attention to building, commerce, digging of reservoirs and planting of trees; nevertheless a general decline of Egypt is said to have begun in his reign.

But if the king had restored order in the land, not so well had he kept his own household in check. Records remain of a conspiracy which arose in his harem, headed by the Lady Ti, Thi, or Tey, said to be the mother of a certain Pentaur or Pen-ta-urt, whom she wished to put upon the throne. She probably hated the “royal wife, the great lady, the lady of two lands, Ast.” In exactly what way the Lady Ti was related to the king is not specified. In both the museums of Paris and Turin there is some account of this _cause celebre_. The steward, Pal-bak-Amen, was her chief co-adjutor, also a certain Penhuiban or Hui, a cattle inspector, who indulged in “Black Art,” made amulets and images of wax for ladies, and had books containing directions how to strike people blind and to make figures in effigy to bring trouble upon any one who was hated. Melting wax figures and sticking pins in them to harm an enemy we think of as belonging to the age of Queen Elizabeth, and lo, it was known and practiced in Egypt thousands of years before!

On the other hand, may it not have been also possible that Queen Ise or Ast had some share in the plot, or at least sympathized with it, thus giving another reason for the non-appearance of her name beside the king’s. One of the ladies concerned wrote to her brother, commanding the army in Ethiopia, and ordered or entreated him to fight against the king. But whether he did as was desired or not, the revolt was unsuccessful. It was crushed with some severity, and it is said forty men and six women were compelled to commit suicide, and a mummy, thought to be that of Pentaur, and showing signs of death by poison, has been found.

Rameses III reigned thirty-seven years, and there is a list of his sons, several of whom succeeded him. He was buried in the Tombs of the Kings, doubtless with all the honors of state, but his body was not allowed to rest in peace, it was included in the general upheaval caused by robbers, before described. His mummy was found in the large coffin of Nefertari-Aames, and on being unrolled fell to dust. His features were said to be softer, finer and more intelligent than some of his predecessors, his figure less straight and vigorous and his shoulders narrower. His red granite sarcophagus is in the Louvre and the lid in the Fitz-William museum at Cambridge. His tomb is sometimes called “the Harpers,” from the figure of two harpers in a scene on one side, also “Bruce’s tomb” from the name of the modern discoverer. Among the treasures found in this tomb were two golden baskets. His period is given as 1200 B. C.

Rameses III was succeeded by his sons or connections of the same name, who followed him, as one writer has said, with “ominous rapidity,” from number one to number thirteen. They seem to have been a faineant race, and the proud name of Rameses degenerated from reign to reign. Here and there in the Tombs of the Kings, or in other spots, we find their last resting places.

Among them, perhaps, Rameses IV was one of the most conspicuous; and his queen, given as Isis-Ast, was buried in the Tombs of the Queens. The tombs of Rameses IV and VI are decorated with astronomical designs; the sun appears in his chariot as Horus-Ra, and that of Rameses IV has pictures of the resurrection. The seventh son is given as Ramessu Meritum, son of Queen Muf-nofer-ari.

A papyrus of the time of Rameses IX gives an account of the violation of the royal tombs by robbers, which was then discovered; and this Abbott papyrus contains a list of the tombs inspected, hence the mummies were removed at different periods from place to place for greater safety. A woman called “Little Cat” confessed that she had been in the tomb of Queen Ast, wife of Rameses III, and purloined various articles.

The line of priest-kings, of whom Her-Hor was the first, chose a common place of sepulture, and thither were at last carried many of the earlier royal remains. The discovery of these in the cave at Deir-el-Bahari made a world-wide sensation and has already been referred to. There were three kings of the Thothmes name, two Rameses and Seti I, as well as the later kings of the priestly line, Pinotem or Pinozem I and II.

Here, too, we learn the little we know of some of the queens. There was Queen Ansera, of the Seventeenth Dynasty, Queen Aames Nofritari, Hatimoohoo, and Sitha of the Eighteenth, and queens Notem-Maut, Hathor-Houtta-ni, Ma-ka-Ra, and Isem-Kheb, and a queen Hest-em-Seket, as well as Princess Nesi-Khonsu, and a number of princesses and priestesses, called “Singers of Amen.”

Some of the coffins of this period show, on a yellow ground, a picture of the dead piercing a serpent with a lance. Among the Tombs of the Queens are a few of the Eighteenth, but more of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. Here was placed the wife of Rameses III, with name no longer legible. Here Queen Ti, or Titi, wife of the earlier King Amenophis III, with her blue eyes and fair skin, pictured as making offerings to the gods. Here Bint-Antha, favorite daughter of Rameses II. One tomb has the name obliterated and Tuattent-apt written upon it in red ink. Here is Isis-Ast, wife of Rameses IV, Queen Sitra of the Twentieth Dynasty, and many others.

There is an interesting story of a queen, by some authorities said to be the wife of Rameses XIII, by others of Rameses XII, and by some queen of Rameses II or III, claiming that Rameses XII was never in Mesopotamia, while Mariette believes it to have been merely a legend invented by the priests to do honor to the god Chonsu or Khonsu. This king, whatever his place in the royal line, was, like his great predecessor, Amenophis III, fond of hunting. He also went abroad to collect tribute from subjugated peoples, and in Mesopotamia among those who came to pay was a certain chief or prince, who brought with him a beautiful daughter, with whom the Egyptian king at once fell in love and bore her home to share his life and throne. This princess of Bakhten took the name of Ra-neferu, “the glories of the sun,” and evidently had much influence with her husband. For later came messengers from her native country, saying that her sister, Bentresh, was ill, and begging for the loan of the ark of the god Khonsu, which was sure to cure her. We can hardly imagine the king willing to part with such a treasure, except to pleasure the queen. To her wishes, therefore, he yielded, and the ark, with a proper escort, was sent away, and accomplished a miraculous cure, as had been anticipated. Naturally, those who were benefited clung to the same, and years passed without the return of the borrowed treasure. But finally the king, or prince, of Bakhtan, “dreamed a dream,” like the Pharaoh of Scriptures, in which a golden hawk came out of the ark and flew to Egypt. Possibly the king of Egypt had demanded its return before, or perhaps the queen’s influence had been used to induce him to leave it, for the benefit of her family, as long as possible. The explanation is not given, but at last the conscience of the delinquent was pricked, and the ark, with royal honors, was returned to its native land.

Queen Ra-neferu is variously spoken of as Mesopotamian, Bakhtan or Lidyan. From this story we may infer that she was young and beautiful at the period of her marriage, that she had great influence with the king, and possessed near relatives to whom she was warmly attached. But this, so far as we know it, is the whole of her history, and other queens than she of this same general period make no figure among the records.

For some time the priests had been gaining in power and influence, and Rameses XIII seems to have been set aside and Her-Hor, priest of Amen, the third who had directed affairs of state, seized the reins of government. He is described as of a “pleasing countenance,” with features that were delicate and good, and expression that was mild and agreeable. The priest-kings were the chief rulers, but a few descendants of previous Pharaohs held sway in a portion of the kingdom, as Japan was once divided between the Mikado of the old regime and the Shogun, the military and political chief.

Of these monarchs and such of their consorts as are mentioned we now give a brief summary, chiefly following the guidance of the well known Egyptologist, Professor Wallis Budge.

Nes-ba-Tettet is called the first king of the Twenty-first Dynasty of Tanis. From the time of this king to that of Rsammetichus II, third king of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, the dates are given as from about 1100 to 600 B. C. Egypt declined in power and influence, and its tributaries recovered their independence. With the close of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty the New Empire came to an end, and the period of Egyptian Renaissance began. The feeble kingdoms of the South and North were again united, under Shashang I, and a Libyan reigned. The worship of the cat-headed goddess Bast increased, and that of Amen-Ra declined, while his priests were forced to seek refuge in Napata, Nubia. Esarhaddon, king of Asyria, sacked Thebes, and ruled by governors.

Nes-ba-Tettet, the Smendes of Manetho, possibly a descendant of Rameses II, reigned at Tanis, while the priest king Her-Hor reigned at Thebes. The name of the former’s queen, Thent-Amen, is about all we know of her, and is thought to suggest her having the true claim to the throne. King Nes-ba-Tettet reigned twenty-nine years, making no such mark in history as did his great predecessors. This king is also called Nessu Ba-neb-Tet.

Next came Pasebkhanut I, second of the Tanite kings, who was called the “Mighty Bull,” and reigned forty-one years. The statues of the Nile, North and South, in the Cairo Museum, are said to belong to this period.

Long and uneventful seem to have been the reigns of these kings, for Amen-em-apt, “Amen in Karnak,” a descendant of Nes-ba-Tettet, reigned forty-nine years, and our chief knowledge of him seems to be derived from a stele at Cairo, making offerings to Isis, his favorite goddess.

Possibly this king was succeeded by one or two others, with short reigns. Authorities do not seem decided on this point. A king, Sa-Sa-Amen, is believed to have reigned sixteen years; his greatest work was the restoration of the pylons of the temple of Rameses III at Tanis. Gold and porcelain tablets have also been found, engraved with his name, and he added it also to the two obelisks taken from Heliopolis to Alexandria, and thence in modern times to London and New York, thereby proving he had authority in Heliopolis.

Pasebkhanut II added Heru to his name, thus distinguishing himself from Pasebkhanut I. He was the last king of the Tanite, Twenty-first Dynasty, and his daughter is said to have married Solomon. We read in I Kings: “And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David.” Thus, in the so usual fashion, he strengthened his political connection by marriage. And the Bible further says: “Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had gone up and taken Gezer and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon’s wife.” Pasebkhanut II reigned, it is said, twelve years, and another daughter married Osorkon I, the first king of the Twenty-second Dynasty.

We now turn again to the priest-kings in Thebes, also called the Twenty-first Dynasty. Of the first of them, Her-Heru, or Her-Hor, we have already spoken. A common title of his was “Living, beautiful god, son of Amen, lord of the two lands, lord of diadems,” and he wore the royal uraeus on his forehead. Queen Notem-Mut, Notimit, or Netchemet, was either mother or wife of King Her-Hor—authorities differ as to which relation she held to him. By some she was believed to be a princess of Rammeside blood, as her name is found encircled by a royal cartouch, while that of the king was not so decorated until the fifth year of his reign. Another says she was called “great royal consort,” but not king’s daughter or princess. There is a finely executed but dilapidated statue of this queen, inlaid with glass, and her head is also on a sphinx. A papyrus belonging to her, illustrated with medallion heads, or portrait vignettes of her husband, or son, Her-Hor, still exists, part being in the Louvre, part in the British Museum, and part in the possession of a lady in Berlin. It was the sale of some of these fragments that led to the discovery of the royal mummies at Deir-el-Bahari. The canopic boxes of Queen Notem-Mut represented, according to custom, a little chapel, placed on a sledge, a small jackal in black wood, mounted on the cover. Many were found, like the mummies themselves, in coffins not belonging to them, but their inscriptions tell who were the rightful owners. Miss Edwards discovers a likeness between one of the carved masks of Rameses II and the vignettes of Her-Hor, and thinks the mummy case may have been made in the time of the Twenty-first Dynasty and given the likeness of the reigning king, rather than the person for whom it was intended. Her-Hor repaired and preserved many of the mummies of the more ancient kings.

He was succeeded, apparently, not by his son Piankhi, or Pianchi (who perhaps died before him or whose reign was too short or insignificant to be dwelt upon), but by his grandson, Pinotem, Pinozem, or Pai-netchem I, who is said to have married a princess of the old line, a daughter of Pa-seb-kha-nut I, king of Tanis, and who is variously termed Maat-ka-Ra, Ra-ma-ka, or Rahama. He was both high priest and king, which has caused some confusion to the chronologists. His Horus name was “he who satisfieth the gods, he who performeth glorious things for their doubles.” He had a long reign, some say twenty-one years. Queen Maat-ka-Ra is called on one of her coffins, “divine wife, a priestess of Amen, in the Apts, lady of the two lands.” In the same coffin was the tiny mummy of her infant daughter, Mutem-hat. Mother and child evidently died soon after the birth of the latter. A box with two compartments accompanied them, filled with funeral statuettes for the two queens, for the baby, though she died and was embalmed in infancy, is called Queen Maut-em-hat. An accompanying papyrus gives the royal cartouch, around the name of Maat-ka-Ra, but to the child also, strangely enough, the title of “Royal Wife,” etc. Another wife of the same king was called Henttaui, daughter of Nebseni, and Thent-Amen, and mother of the high priest of Amen, Men-keper-Ra. Her mummy, with double coffin, was found at Deir-el-Bahari. Great efforts had been made to preserve the lifelike aspect, red was put on the lips and cheeks, and the eyes were treated with eye-paint. She wore a much becurled wig, and even the furrows made by mummification were filled with paste. Pai-netchem I had also been removed to Deir-el-Bahari, and the upper part of the body was found rifled of amulets, but the lower part was intact, the Book of the Dead between the legs. He had repaired and found places of safety for royal mummies, Amen-hetep II, Thothmes II, Rameses II and Rameses III.

The priest kings made Thebes their residence while the old line dwelt at Tanis or San. One writer says that the papyri of the princes and princesses of the family of Pai-netchem or Pi-nozem show the best traditions of art to have been yet in force in the time of the Twenty-first Dynasty. The ushabti, little figures which so often were placed in the tombs with the mummies, came into general use in the Eighteenth Dynasty. They were made of painted limestone, hard stone, steatite, wood, etc. At the end of the dynasty they began to be made of porcelain, and were glazed with such colors as mauve, yellow, chocolate and blue. In the Nineteenth Dynasty blue was the universal color, and figures were made like living people, in every-day clothes, rather than, as previously, to resemble mummies. This continued through the Twentieth Dynasty and is found sporadically under the Twenty-second, while in the Twenty-first, as a general rule, they had returned to the mummy form and had a brilliant blue glaze with black inscriptions. In the “Book of the Dead,” in the Eighteenth Dynasty, the vignettes were sometimes colored, sometimes plain, later coarser and more representative of modern things.

Masaherth and Men-kheper-Ra, sons of Pai-netchem I, seem to have been priests rather than kings. The latter married Ast-em-khebit, and became the father of Pai-netchem II, Hent-taui, and others. Ast-em-khebit or Ist-em-khebit is sometimes spoken of as queen, and probably belonged to the royal line. Authorities differ much as to this period, and it is difficult to give a perfectly clear account of the succession. Many of this lady’s belongings were found among those of the royal mummies so often referred to. That she died before her husband is proved by his seals remaining unbroken upon the hamper of mummified food accompanying the body. She was evidently much beloved, and buried, like others of her family, with special care, in three coffins, elaborately decorated and swathed in the finest of linen, in long plaits. The usual shabti, or “little servants,” accompanied her, as well as beautiful vases in blue glass, inscribed with funerary legends. Baskets of food, boxes with wigs, and many other articles, the reproductions of those used in daily life, were included in her burial outfit. A pet gazelle was also mummified and buried with her, a pathetic suggestion of her tenderness of heart. While crumbled and cast aside was her funeral tent, with an inscription wishing her “a happy repose,” among the first articles found when the modern discoverers entered these long hidden places of sepulture.

Pai-netchem II, son of Ast-em-Khebit, married Nes-su-Khensu, who seems sometimes to be regarded as a queen, and is the last of the line of whom we have record. Her husband, too, appears rather as a high priest and commander of soldiers than a king, and again the claim to higher descent may have been on the lady’s side. There were several children of this marriage, but they are not specially noteworthy.

The priests apparently did little for the enlargement or aggrandizement of Egypt. They ruled about a hundred and twenty-five years, preserved generally friendly relations with the more ancient royal line, seem to have been less oppressive and despotic than some of the earlier kings, and contented themselves with repairing the temples and the royal mummies, and have left behind many interesting funeral remains and papyri, said to form a highly important class of literature.

CHAPTER NINETEENTH.

SUCCEEDING QUEENS (CONTINUED).

Authorities agree that the Twenty-second Dynasty made Bubastis its principal city, and seem to have been descended from a race of great chiefs. Shashanq or Sheshenk I, the Sesonchis of the Greeks, and Shishak of I Kings, was the first king of the dynasty, a Libyan, son of the chief Namareth, who was buried at Abydos, and of whom there are statues in Florence, as well as gold bracelets with his name in the British Museum. Also the grandson of Shashanq, the “great prince of Mashauasha,” and the Egyptian princess, Mehtet-en-usekht. Shashanq I married a Rammeside princess, and through her, probably, or possibly through his Egyptian grandmother, laid claim to the throne. His reign seems to have begun before the death of Paseb-khanut II, last king of the Twenty-first, Tanite Dynasty. One author says his wife’s rank was shown by the prefix Sutem-sat, or others claim that this belonged to the Egyptian grandmother.

Shashanq I married Karama, or Karamat, called “a morning star of Amen,” daughter of the last Tanite king. She had been despoiled of her inheritance and was restored to all her rights by this marriage. The custom of taking more than one wife often enables the student to reconcile apparent discrepancies.