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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cleopatra's Needle, by James King
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Cleopatra's Needle
+       A History of the London Obelisk, with an Exposition of the Hieroglyphics
+
+Author: James King
+
+Release Date: October 18, 2011 [EBook #37785]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE HIEROGLYPHICS ON CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE.
+
+(The central columns were cut by THOTHMES III., the side columns by
+RAMESES II. The Inscriptions at the base of each side are much mutilated,
+and those on the Pyramidion are not shown in the Plate.)]
+
+
+
+
+  BY-PATHS OF BIBLE KNOWLEDGE.
+
+  I.
+
+
+  CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE:
+
+  A HISTORY OF THE LONDON OBELISK,
+  WITH AN
+  EXPOSITION OF THE HIEROGLYPHICS.
+
+
+  BY THE REV. JAMES KING, M.A.,
+  AUTHORIZED LECTURER TO THE PALESTINE EXPLORATION FUND.
+
+
+  "The Land of Egypt is before thee."--_Gen._ xlvii. 6.
+
+
+  LONDON:
+  THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,
+  56, PATERNOSTER ROW, 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD,
+  AND 164, PICCADILLY.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
+
+  INTRODUCTION                                                       5
+
+     I.--THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS            9
+
+    II.--OBELISKS, AND THE OBELISK FAMILY                           17
+
+   III.--THE LARGEST STONES OF THE WORLD                            27
+
+    IV.--THE LONDON OBELISK                                         36
+
+     V.--HOW THE HIEROGLYPHIC LANGUAGE WAS RECOVERED                47
+
+    VI.--THE INTERPRETATION OF HIEROGLYPHICS                        53
+
+   VII.--THOTHMES III.                                              61
+
+  VIII.--THE HIEROGLYPHICS OF THOTHMES III. TRANSLATION OF THE
+         FIRST SIDE                                                 69
+
+    IX.--THE HIEROGLYPHICS OF THOTHMES III. TRANSLATION OF THE
+         SECOND SIDE                                                83
+
+     X.--THE HIEROGLYPHICS OF THOTHMES III. TRANSLATION OF THE
+         THIRD SIDE                                                 88
+
+    XI.--THE HIEROGLYPHICS OF THOTHMES III. TRANSLATION OF THE
+         FOURTH SIDE                                                92
+
+   XII.--RAMESES II.                                                95
+
+  XIII.--THE HIEROGLYPHICS OF RAMESES II.                          101
+
+   XIV.--THE RECENT DISCOVERY OF THE MUMMIES OF THOTHMES III.
+         AND RAMESES II. AT DEIR-EL-BAHARI                         111
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+
+  THOTH                                                             12
+
+  OBELISK OF USERTESEN I., STILL STANDING AT HELIOPOLIS             20
+
+  OBELISK OF THOTHMES III., AT CONSTANTINOPLE                       23
+
+  COLOSSAL STATUE OF RAMESES II., AT MEMPHIS                        29
+
+  CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, AT ALEXANDRIA                                 38
+
+  CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, ON THE THAMES EMBANKMENT                      44
+
+  THE ROSETTA STONE                                                 48
+
+  COLOSSAL HEAD OF THOTHMES III.                                    67
+
+  COLOSSAL HEAD OF RAMESES II.                                      98
+
+
+[The illustrations of the obelisk at Constantinople, and of Cleopatra's
+Needle on the Embankment, are taken, by the kind permission of Sir Erasmus
+Wilson, from his work, "The Egypt of the Past."]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+The London Obelisk, as the monument standing on the Thames Embankment is
+now called, is by far the largest quarried stone in England; and the
+mysterious-looking characters covering its four faces were carved by
+workmen who were contemporaries of Moses and the Israelites during the
+time of the Egyptian Bondage. It was set up before the great temple of the
+sun at Heliopolis about 1450 B.C., by Thothmes III., who also caused to be
+carved the central columns of hieroglyphs on its four sides. The eight
+lateral columns were carved by Rameses II. two centuries afterwards. These
+two monarchs were the two mightiest of the kings of ancient Egypt.
+
+In 1877 the author passed through the land of Egypt, and became much
+interested during the progress of the journey in the study of the
+hieroglyphs covering tombs, temples, and obelisks. He was assisted in the
+pursuit of Egyptology by examining the excellent collections of Egyptian
+antiquities in the Boolak Museum at Cairo, the Louvre at Paris, and the
+British Museum. He feels much indebted to Dr. Samuel Birch, the leading
+English Egyptologist, for his kind assistance in rendering some obscure
+passages on the Obelisk.
+
+This little volume contains a _verbatim_ translation into English, and an
+exposition, of the hieroglyphic inscriptions cut by Thothmes III. on the
+Obelisk, and an exposition of those inscribed by Rameses II. Dr. Samuel
+Birch, the late W. R. Cooper, and other Egyptologists, have translated the
+inscription in general terms, but no attempt was made by these learned men
+to show the value of each hieroglyph; so that the student could no more
+hope to gain from these general translations a knowledge of Egyptology,
+than he could hope to gain a knowledge of the Greek language by reading
+the English New Testament.
+
+In the march of civilisation, Egypt took the lead of all the nations of
+the earth. The Nile Valley is a vast museum of Egyptian antiquities, and
+in this sunny vale search must be made for the germs of classical art.
+
+The London Obelisk is interesting to the architect as a specimen of the
+masonry of a people accounted as the great builders of the Ancient World.
+It is interesting to the antiquary as setting forth the workmanship of
+artists who lived in the dim twilight of antiquity. It is interesting to
+the Christian because this same venerable monument was known to Moses and
+the Children of Israel during their sojourn in the land of Goshen.
+
+The inscription is not of great historical value, but the hieroglyphs are
+valuable in setting forth the earliest stages of written language, while
+their expressive symbolism enables us to interpret the moral and religious
+thoughts of men who lived in the infancy of the world.
+
+Egypt is a country of surpassing interest to the Biblical student. From
+the early days of patriarchal history down to the discovery in 1883 of the
+site of Pithom, a city founded by Rameses II., Egyptian and Israelitish
+and Christian history have touched at many points. Abraham visited the
+Nile Valley; Joseph, the slave, became lord of the whole country; God's
+people suffered there from cruel bondage, but the Lord so delivered them
+that "Egypt was glad at their departing;" the rulers of Egypt once and
+again ravaged Palestine, and laid Jerusalem under tribute. When, in the
+fulness of time, our Saviour appeared to redeem the world by the sacrifice
+of Himself, He was carried as a little child into Egypt, and there many of
+His earliest and most vivid impressions were received. Thus, from the time
+of Abraham, the father of the faithful, to the advent of Jesus, the Lord
+and Saviour of all, Egypt is associated with the history of human
+redemption.
+
+And although the Obelisk which forms the subject of this volume tells us
+in its inscriptions nothing about Abraham, Joseph, or Moses, yet it serves
+among other important ends one of great interest. It seems to bring us
+into very direct relationship with these men who lived so many generations
+ago. The eyes of Moses must have rested many times upon this ancient
+monument, old even when first he looked upon it, and read its story of
+past greatness; the toiling, suffering Israelites looked upon it, and we
+seem to come into a closer fellowship with them as we realize this fact.
+
+The recent wonderful discovery of mummies and Egyptian antiquities, of
+which an account is given in this volume, and the excavations now being
+carried on at Pithom and Zoan, are exciting much fresh interest in
+Egyptian research.
+
+This little volume will have served its end if it interests the reader in
+the historical associations of the monument, which he can visit, if he
+cares to do so, and by its aid read for himself what it has to tell us of
+the men and deeds of a long-distant past.
+
+It also seeks to stimulate wider interest and research into all that the
+monuments of Egypt can tell us in confirmation of the historical parts of
+the Bible, and of the history of that wondrous country which is prominent
+in the forefront of both Old and New Testaments, from the day when "Abram
+went down into Egypt to sojourn there," until the day when Joseph "arose
+and took the young Child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt:
+and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which
+was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called
+My Son."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.
+
+
+Standing some time ago on the top of the great pyramid, the present writer
+gazed with wonder at the wide prospect around. Above Cairo the Nile Valley
+is hemmed in on both sides by limestone ridges, which form barriers
+between the fertile fields and the barren wastes on either side; and on
+the limestone ridge by the edge of the great western desert stand the
+pyramids of Egypt. Looking forth from the summit of the pyramid of Cheops
+eastwards, the Nile Valley was spread out like a panorama. The distant
+horizon was bounded by the Mokattam hills, and near to them rose the lofty
+minarets and mosques of Grand Cairo.
+
+The green valley presented a pleasing picture of richness and industry.
+Palms, vines, and sycamores beautified the fertile fields; sowers,
+reapers, builders, hewers of wood and drawers of water plied their busy
+labours, while long lines of camels, donkeys, and oxen moved to and fro,
+laden with the rich products of the country. The hum of labour, the
+lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, the song of women, and the merry
+laughter of children, spoke of peace and plenty.
+
+Looking towards the west how changed was the scene! The eye rested only on
+the barren sands of the vast desert, the great land of a silence unbroken
+by the sound of man or beast. Neither animal nor vegetable life exists
+there, and the solitude of desolation reigns for ever supreme; so that
+while the bountiful fields speak of activity and life, the boundless waste
+is a fitting emblem of rest and death.
+
+It is manifest that this striking contrast exercised a strong influence
+upon the minds of the ancient Egyptians. To the edge of the silent desert
+they carried their dead for burial, and on the rocky platform that forms
+the margin of the sandy waste they reared those vast tombs known as the
+pyramids. The very configuration of Egypt preached a never-ending sermon,
+which intensified the moral feelings of the people, and tended to make the
+ancient Egyptians a religious nation.
+
+The ancient Egyptians were a very religious people. The fundamental
+doctrine of their religion was the unity of deity, but this unity was
+never represented by any outward figure. The attributes of this being were
+personified and represented under positive forms. To all those not
+initiated into the mysteries of religion, the outward figures came to be
+regarded as distinct gods; and thus, in process of time, the doctrine of
+divine unity developed into a system of idolatry. Each spiritual
+attribute in course of time was represented by some natural object, and in
+this way nature worship became a marked characteristic of their mythology.
+
+The sun, the most glorious object of the universe, became the central
+object of worship, and occupies a conspicuous position in their religious
+system. The various aspects of the sun as it pursued its course across the
+sky became so many solar deities. Horus was the youthful sun seen in the
+eastern horizon. He is usually represented as holding in one hand the
+stylus or iron pen, and in the other, either a notched stick or a tablet.
+In the hall of judgment, Thoth was said to stand by the dreadful balance
+where souls were weighed against truth. Thoth, with his iron pen, records
+on his tablet the result of the weighing in the case of each soul, and
+whether or not, when weighed in the balance, it is found wanting.
+According to mythology, Thoth was the child of Kneph, the ram-headed god
+of Thebes.
+
+Ra or Phra was the mid-day sun; Osiris the declining sun; Tum or Atum the
+setting sun; and Amun the sun after it had sunk below the horizon. Ptah, a
+god of the first order, worshipped with great magnificence at Memphis,
+represented the vivifying power of the sun's rays: hence Ptah is spoken of
+as the creative principle, and creator of all living things. Gom, Moui,
+and Khons, were the sons of the sun-god, and carried messages to mankind.
+In these we notice the rays personified. Pasht, literally a lioness, the
+goddess with the lioness head, was the female personification of the sun's
+rays.
+
+The moon also as well as the sun was worshipped, and lunar deities
+received divine adoration as well as solar deities.
+
+[Illustration: THOTH.]
+
+Thoth, the reputed inventor of hieroglyphs and the recorder of human
+actions, was a human deity, and represented both the light moon and the
+dark moon. He is also called Har and Haremakhu--the Harmachis of Greek
+writers--and is the personification of the vigorous young sun, the
+conqueror of night, who each morning rose triumphant from the realms of
+darkness. He was the son of Isis and Osiris, and is the avenger of his
+father. Horus appears piercing with his spear the monster Seth or Typho,
+the malignant principle of darkness who had swallowed up the setting sun.
+The parable of the sun rising was designed to teach the great religious
+lesson of the final triumph of spiritual light over darkness, and the
+ultimate victory of life over death. Horus is represented at the
+coronation of kings, and, together with Seth, places the double crown upon
+the royal head, saying: "Put this cap upon your head, like your father
+Amen-Ra." Princes are distinguished by a lock of hair hanging from the
+side of the head, which lock is emblematic of a son. This lock was worn in
+imitation of Horus, who, from his strong filial affection, was a model son
+for princes, and a pattern of royal virtue. The sphinx is thought to be a
+type of Horus, and the obelisks also seem to have been dedicated, for the
+most part, to the rising sun.
+
+There were also sky divinities, and these were all feminine. Nu was the
+blue mid-day sky, while Neit was the dark sky of night. Hathor or Athor,
+the "Queen of Love," the Egyptian Venus, represented the evening sky.
+
+There were other deities and objects of worship not so easily classified.
+Hapi was the personification of the river Nile. Anubis, the jackal-headed
+deity, was the friend and guardian of the souls of good men. Thmei or Ma,
+the goddess of truth, introduced departed souls into the hall of judgment.
+
+Amenti, the great western desert, in course of time was applied to the
+unknown world beyond the desert. Through the wilderness of Amenti departed
+spirits had to pass on their way to the judgment hall. In this desert were
+four evil spirits, enemies of the human soul, who endeavoured to delude
+the journeying spirits by drawing them aside from the way that led to the
+abode of the gods. On many papyri, and on the walls of tombs, scenes of
+the final judgment are frequently depicted. Horus is seen conducting the
+departed spirits to the regions of Amenti; a monstrous dog, resembling
+Cerberus of classic fable, is guardian of the judgment hall. Near to the
+gates stand the dreadful scales of justice. On one side of the scales
+stands Thoth, the recorder of human actions, with a tablet in his hand,
+ready to make a record of the sentence passed on each soul. Anubis is the
+director of the weights; in one scale he places the heart of the deceased,
+and in the other a figure of the goddess of truth. If on being weighed the
+heart is found wanting, then Osiris, the judge of the dead, lowers his
+sceptre in token of condemnation, and pronounces judgment against the
+soul, condemned to return to earth under the form of a pig. Whereupon the
+soul is placed in a boat and conveyed through Amenti under charge of two
+monkeys. If the deeds done in the flesh entitle the soul to enter the
+mansions of the blest, then Horus, taking the tablet from Thoth,
+introduces the good spirit into the presence of Osiris, who, with crook
+and flagellum in his hands, and attended by his sister Isis, with
+overspreading wings, sits on a throne rising from the midst of the waters.
+The approved soul is then admitted to the mansions of the blest.
+
+To this belief in a future life, the custom among the Egyptians of
+embalming the dead was due. Each man as he died hoped to be among those
+who, after living for three thousand years with Osiris, would return to
+earth and re-enter their old bodies. So they took steps to ensure the
+preservation of the body against the ravages of time, and entombed them in
+massive sarcophagi and in splendid sepulchres. So well did they ensure
+this end that when, a few months ago, human eyes looked upon the face of
+Thothmes III., more than three thousand years after his body had been
+embalmed, it was only the sudden crumbling away of the form on exposure to
+the air, that recalled to the remembrance of the onlookers the many ages
+that had passed since men last saw that face.
+
+It is with the worship of the sun that the obelisk now on the Embankment
+is associated, as it stood for many ages before one of the great temples
+at Heliopolis, the Biblical On.
+
+Impressive as this ancient Egyptian religious life was, it cannot be
+compared for a moment, judged even on the earthly standard of its moral
+power, to the monotheism and the religious life afterwards revealed to the
+Hebrews, when emancipated from Egyptian bondage. The religion first made
+known through God's intercourse with the Patriarchs, continued by Moses
+and the Prophets, and culminating in the incarnation and death of Christ
+the Lord, lacks much of the outward splendour and magnificence of the
+Egyptian religion, but satisfies infinitely better the hearts of weary
+sinful men. The Egyptian worship and religious life testify to a constant
+degradation in the popular idea of the gods and in the moral life of their
+worshippers. The worship and religious life of which the God of the
+Hebrews is the centre, tends ever more and more to lead men in that "path
+of the just, which is as the shining light, that shineth more and more
+unto the perfect day."[1] Now in Christ Jesus those that once "were far
+off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."[2] "The times of ignorance" are
+now past, and God "commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent:
+inasmuch as He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world
+in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained."[3]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+OBELISKS, AND THE OBELISK FAMILY.
+
+
+An obelisk is a single upright stone with four sides slightly inclined
+towards each other. It generally stands upon a square base or pedestal,
+also a single stone. The pedestal itself is often supported upon two
+broad, deep steps. The top of the obelisk resembles a small pyramid,
+called a pyramidion, the sides of which are generally inclined at an angle
+of sixty degrees. The obelisks of the Pharaohs are made of red granite
+called Syenite.
+
+In the quarries at Syene may yet be seen an unfinished obelisk, still
+adhering to the native rock, with traces of the workmen's tools so clearly
+seen on its surface, that one might suppose they had been suddenly called
+away, and intended soon to return to finish their work. This unfinished
+obelisk shows the mode in which the ancients separated these immense
+monoliths from the native rock. In a sharply cut groove marking the
+boundary of the stone are holes, evidently designed for wooden wedges.
+After these had been firmly driven into the holes, the groove was filled
+with water. The wedges gradually absorbing the water, swelled, and cracked
+the granite throughout the length of the groove.
+
+The block once detached from the rock, was pushed forwards upon rollers
+made of the stems of palm-trees, from the quarries to the edge of the
+Nile, where it was surrounded by a large timber raft. It lay by the
+riverside until the next inundation of the Nile, when the rising waters
+floated the raft and conveyed the obelisk down the stream to the city
+where it was to be set up. Thousands of willing hands pushed it on rollers
+up an inclined plane to the front of the temple where it was designed to
+stand. The pedestal had previously been placed in position, and a firm
+causeway of sand covered with planks led to the top of it. Then, by means
+of rollers, levers, and ropes made of the date-palm, the obelisk was
+gradually hoisted into an upright position. It speaks much for the
+mechanical accuracy of the Egyptian masons, that so true was the level of
+the top of the base and the bottom of the long shaft, that in no single
+instance has the obelisk been found to be out of the true perpendicular.
+
+There has not yet been found on the bas-reliefs or paintings any
+representation of the transport of an obelisk, although there is
+sufficient external evidence to prove that the foregoing mode was the
+usual one. In a grotto at El Bersheh, however, is a well-known
+representation of the transportation of a colossal figure from the
+quarries. The colossus is mounted on a huge sledge, and as a man is
+represented pouring oil in front of the sledge, it would appear that on
+the road prepared for its transport there was a sliding groove along which
+the colossus was propelled. Four long rows of men, urged on in their
+work by taskmasters, are dragging the figure by means of ropes.
+
+[Illustration: OBELISK OF USERTESEN I., STILL STANDING AT HELIOPOLIS.]
+
+The Syenite granite was very hard, and capable of taking a high polish.
+The carving is very beautifully executed, and the hieroglyphs rise from a
+sunken surface, in a style known as "incavo relievo." In this mode of
+carving the figures never project beyond the surface of the stone, and
+consequently are not so liable to be chipped off as they would have been
+had they projected in "high relief." The hieroglyphs are always arranged
+on the obelisks with great taste, in long vertical columns, and these were
+always carved after the obelisk was placed in its permanent position.
+
+The hewing, transport, hoisting, and carving of such a monolith was a
+gigantic undertaking, and we are not therefore surprised to learn that
+"the giant of the obelisk race," now in front of St. John Lateran, Rome,
+occupied the workmen thirty-six years in its elaboration.
+
+The chief obelisks known, taking them in chronological order, are as
+follows:--Three were erected by Usertesen I., a monarch of the XIIth
+dynasty, who lived about 1750 B.C. He is thought by some to be the Pharaoh
+that promoted Joseph. Of these three obelisks one still stands at
+Heliopolis in its original position, and from its great age it has been
+called "the father of obelisks." It is sixty-seven and a-half feet high,
+and is therefore about a foot shorter than the London obelisk. Its
+companion is missing, and probably lies buried amid the ruins of the
+sacred city. The third is at Biggig, in the Fyoom, and, unfortunately, is
+broken into two parts. Its shape is peculiar, and on that account Bonomi
+and others say that it cannot with propriety be classed among the
+obelisks.
+
+After the XIIth dynasty Egypt was ruled for many centuries by monarchs of
+Asiatic origin, called the Hykshos or "Shepherd Kings." During the rule of
+those foreigners it does not appear that any obelisks were erected.
+
+Thothmes I., of the XVIIIth dynasty, erected two in front of the Osiris
+temple at Karnak. One of these is still standing, the other lies buried by
+its side. Hatasu, daughter of Thothmes I., and queen of Egypt, erected two
+obelisks inside the Osiris temple of Karnak, in honour of her father. One,
+still standing, is about one hundred feet high, and is the second highest
+obelisk in the world. Its companion has fallen to the ground. According to
+Mariette Bey, Hatasu erected two other obelisks in front of her own temple
+on the western bank of the Nile. These, however, have been destroyed,
+although the pedestals still remain.
+
+Thothmes III., the greatest of Egyptian monarchs, and brother of Hatasu,
+erected four obelisks at Heliopolis, and probably others in different
+parts of Egypt. These four have been named "The Needles"--two of them
+"Pharaoh's Needles," and two "Cleopatra's Needles." The former pair were
+removed from Heliopolis to Alexandria by Constantine the Great. Thence one
+was taken, according to some Egyptologists, to Constantinople, where it
+now stands at the Atmeidan. It is only fifty feet high, but it is thought
+that the lower part has been broken off, and that the part remaining is
+only the upper half of the original obelisk.
+
+[Illustration: THE OBELISK OF THOTHMES III., AT CONSTANTINOPLE.]
+
+The other was conveyed to Rome, and now stands in front of the church of
+St. John Lateran, and from its great magnitude it is regarded as "the
+giant of the obelisk family."
+
+Amenophis II., of the XVIIIth dynasty, set up a small obelisk, of Syenite
+granite, about nine feet high. It was found amid the ruins of a village
+of the Thebaid, and presented to the late Duke of Northumberland, then
+Lord Prudhoe.
+
+Amenophis III., of the XVIIIth dynasty, erected two obelisks in front of
+his temple at Karnak; but the temple is in ruins, and the obelisks have
+entirely disappeared.
+
+Seti I. set up two; one, known as the Flaminian obelisk, now stands at the
+Porta del Popolo, Rome, and the other at Trinita de Monti, in the same
+city.
+
+Rameses II. was, next to Thothmes III., the mightiest king of Egypt; and
+in the erection of obelisks he surpassed all other monarchs. He set up two
+obelisks before the temple of Luxor; one is still standing, but the other
+was transported to Paris about forty years ago. The latter is seventy-six
+feet high, and seven and a-half feet higher than the London one. Two
+obelisks, bearing the name of Rameses II., are at Rome, one in front of
+the Pantheon, the other on the Coelian Hill.
+
+Ten obelisks, the work of the same monarch, lie buried at Tanis, the
+ancient Zoan.
+
+Menephtah, son and successor of Rameses, set up the obelisk which now
+stands in front of St. Peter's, Rome. It is about ninety feet high, and as
+regards magnitude is the third obelisk in the world.
+
+Psammeticus I., of the XXVIth dynasty, set up an obelisk at Heliopolis in
+the year 665 B.C. It now stands at Rome on the Monte Citorio. Psammeticus
+II., about the same time that Solomon's temple was destroyed, erected an
+obelisk which now stands at Rome, on the back of an elephant. Nectanebo
+I. made two small obelisks of black basalt. They are now in the British
+Museum, and, according to Dr. Birch, were dedicated to Thoth, the Egyptian
+god of letters. They were found at Cairo, built into the walls of some
+houses. One was used as a door-sill, the other as a window-sill. They came
+into possession of the English when the French in Egypt capitulated to the
+British, and were presented to the British Museum by King George III. in
+1801. They are only eight feet high.
+
+Nectanebo II., of the XXXth dynasty, who lived about four centuries before
+the Christian era, set up two obelisks. One hundred years afterwards they
+were placed by Ptolemy Philadelphus in front of the tomb of his wife
+Arsinoe. They were taken to Rome, and set up before the mausoleum of
+Augustus, where they stood till the destruction of the city in 450 A.D.
+They lay buried amid the _debris_ of Rome for many hundreds of years, but
+about a century ago they were dug out. One now stands behind the Church of
+St. Maria Maggiore, the other in the Piazza Quirinale. Each is about fifty
+feet high.
+
+Two large obelisks were transported from Egypt to Nineveh in 664 B.C. by
+Assurbanipal. These two monoliths probably lie buried amid the ruins of
+that ancient city. The above include the chief obelisks erected by the
+Pharaohs; but several others were erected by the Roman Emperors. Domitian
+set up one thirty-four feet high, which now stands in the Piazza Navona,
+in front of the Church of St. Agnes. Domitian and Titus erected a small
+obelisk of red granite nine feet high, which now stands in the cathedral
+square of Benevento. Hadrian and Sabina set up two obelisks, one of which,
+thirty feet high, now stands on Monte Pincio. An obelisk twenty-two feet
+high, of Syenite granite, was brought by Mr. Banks from Philae to England,
+and now stands in front of Kingston Lacy Hall, Wimborne.
+
+Among obelisks of obscure origin is one of sandstone nine feet high at
+Alnwick; two in the town of Florence, and one sixty feet high, in the city
+of Arles, made of grey granite from the neighbouring quarries of Mont
+Esterel. The total number of existing obelisks is fifty-five. Of these
+thirty-three are standing, and twenty-two lie prostrate on the ground or
+are buried amid rubbish. Of those standing, twenty-seven are made of
+Syenite granite.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE LARGEST STONES OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+It is interesting to compare the obelisk on the Embankment with the other
+large stones of the world; stones, of course, that have been quarried and
+utilized by man. Of this kind, the largest in England are the blocks at
+Stonehenge. The biggest weighs about eighteen tons, and is raised up
+twenty-five feet, resting, as it does, on two upright stones. These were
+probably used for religious purposes, and their bulk has excited in all
+ages the wonder of this nation.
+
+The London Obelisk weighs one hundred and eighty-six tons, and therefore
+is about ten times the weight of Stonehenge's largest block. It is
+therefore by far the largest stone in England. The obelisk was moreover
+hoary with the age of fifteen centuries when the trilithons of Stonehenge
+were set up, and therefore its colossal mass and antiquity may well fill
+our minds with amazement and veneration.
+
+The individual stones of the pyramids, large though they are, and
+wonderful as specimens of masonry, are nevertheless small compared with
+the giant race of the obelisks.
+
+The writer, when inspecting the outer wall of the Temple Hill at
+Jerusalem, measured a magnificent polished stone, and found it to be
+twenty-six feet long, six feet high, and seven feet wide. It is composed
+of solid limestone, and weighs about ninety tons. This stone occupies a
+position in the wall one hundred and ten feet above the rock on which rest
+the foundation stones, and arouses wonder at the masonic and engineering
+skill of the workmen of King Solomon and Herod the Great. This block,
+however, is only half the weight of Cleopatra's Needle, and even this
+obelisk falls far short in bulk of many of Egypt's gigantic granite
+stones.
+
+At Alexandria, Pompey's Pillar is still to be seen. It is a beautifully
+finished column of red granite, standing outside the walls of the old
+town. Its total length is about one hundred feet, and its girth round the
+base twenty-eight feet. The shaft is made of one stone, and probably
+weighs about three hundred tons.
+
+Even more gigantic than Pompey's Pillar is a colossal block found on the
+plain of Memphis. Next to Thebes, in Upper Egypt, Memphis was the most
+important city of ancient Egypt. Here lived the Pharaohs while the
+Israelites sojourned in the land, and within sight of this sacred city
+were reared the mammoth pyramids. "As the hills stand round about
+Jerusalem, so stand the pyramids round about Memphis."
+
+A few grassy mounds are the only vestiges of the once mighty city; and in
+the midst of a forest of palm trees is an excavation dug in the ground, in
+which lies a huge granite block, exposed to view by the encompassing
+_debris_ being cleared away. This huge block is a gigantic statue lying
+face downwards. It is well carved, the face wears a placid countenance,
+and its size is immense. The nose is longer than an umbrella, the head is
+about ten feet long, and the whole body is in due proportion; so that the
+colossal monolith (for it is one stone) probably weighs about four hundred
+tons.
+
+[Illustration: COLOSSAL STATUE OF RAMESES II., AT MEMPHIS.]
+
+In the day of Memphis' glory a great temple, dedicated to Ptah, was one of
+the marvels of the proud city. "Noph" (Memphis) "shall be waste and
+desolate," saith Jeremiah; a prediction literally fulfilled. Of the great
+temple not a vestige remains; but Herodotus says that in front of the
+great gateway of the temple, Rameses II., called by the Greeks Sesostris,
+erected a colossal statue of himself. The colossal statue has fallen from
+its lofty position, and now lies prostrate, buried amid the ruins of the
+city, as already described. On the belt of the colossus is the cartouche
+of Rameses II. The fist and big toe of this monster figure are in the
+British Museum. In the Piazza of St. John Lateran, at Rome, the tall
+obelisk towers heavenwards like a lofty spire, adorning that square.
+Originally it was one hundred and ten feet long, and therefore the longest
+monolith ever quarried. It was also the heaviest, weighing, as it does,
+about four hundred and fifty tons, and therefore considerably more than
+twice the weight of the London obelisk.
+
+As the sphinx is closely associated with the obelisk, and as Thothmes is
+four times represented by a sphinx on the London Obelisk, and as,
+moreover, two huge sphinxes have lately been placed on the Thames
+Embankment, one on each side of the Needle, it may not be out of place to
+say a few words respecting this sculptured figure. An Egyptian sphinx has
+the body of a lion couchant with the head of a man. The sphinxes seem for
+the most part to have been set up in the avenues leading to the temples.
+It is thought by Egyptologists that the lion's body is a symbol of power,
+the human head is a symbol of intellect. The whole figure was typical of
+kingly royalty, and set forth the power and wisdom of the Egyptian
+monarch.
+
+In ancient Egypt, sphinxes might be numbered by thousands, but the
+gigantic figure known by pre-eminence as "_The Sphinx_," stands on the
+edge of the rocky platform on which are built the pyramids of Ghizeh. When
+in Egypt, the writer examined this colossal figure, and found that it is
+carved out of the summit of the native rock, from which indeed it has
+never been separated. On mounting its back he found by measurement that
+the body is over one hundred feet long. The head is thirty feet in length,
+and fourteen feet in width, and rears itself above the sandy waste. The
+face is much mutilated, and the body almost hidden by the drifting sand of
+the desert. It is known that the tremendous paws project fifty feet,
+enclosing a considerable space, in the centre of which formerly stood a
+sacrificial altar for religious purposes. On a cartouche in front of the
+figure is the name of Thothmes IV.; but as Khufu, commonly called Cheops,
+the builder of the great pyramid, is stated to have repaired the Sphinx,
+it appears that the colossus had an existence before the pyramids were
+built. This being so, "The Sphinx" is not only the most colossal, but at
+the same time the oldest known idol of the human race.
+
+One of the most appreciative of travellers thus describes the impression
+made upon him by this hoary sculpture:--
+
+"After all that we have seen of colossal statues, there was something
+stupendous in the sight of that enormous head--its vast projecting wig,
+its great ears, its open eyes, the red colour still visible on its cheek;
+the immense proportion of the whole lower part of its face. Yet what must
+it have been when on its head there was the royal helmet of Egypt; on its
+chin the royal beard; when the stone pavement by which men approached the
+pyramids ran up between its paws; when immediately under its breast an
+altar stood, from which the smoke went up into the gigantic nostrils of
+that nose, now vanished from the face, never to be conceived again! All
+this is known with certainty from the remains that actually exist deep
+under the sand on which you stand, as you look up from a distance into the
+broken but still expressive features. And for what purpose was this sphinx
+of sphinxes called into being, as much greater than all other sphinxes as
+the pyramids are greater than all other temples or tombs? If, as is
+likely, he lay couched at the entrance, now deep in sand, of the vast
+approach to the second, that is, the central pyramid, so as to form an
+essential part of this immense group; still more, if, as seems possible,
+there was once intended to be a brother sphinx on the northern side as on
+the southern side of the approach, its situation and significance were
+worthy of its grandeur. And if further the sphinx was the giant
+representative of royalty, then it fitly guards the greatest of royal
+sepulchres, and with its half human, half animal form, is the best welcome
+and the best farewell to the history and religion of Egypt."--Stanley's
+_Sinai and Palestine_, p. lviii.
+
+Standing amid the sand of the silent desert, gazing upon the placid
+features so sadly mutilated by the devastations of ages, the colossal
+figure seemed to awake from sleep, and speak thus to the writer:--
+
+"Traveller, you have wandered far from your peaceful home in sea-girt
+England, and you long to gaze upon the crumbling glories of the ages that
+are passed. You have come to see the marvels of Egypt--the land which in
+the march of civilization took the lead of all the nations of antiquity.
+Here as strangers and pilgrims sojourned the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob.
+This was the adopted land of the princely Joseph, the home of Moses, and
+the abode of Israel's oppressed race. I remember them well, for from the
+land of Goshen they all came to see me, and as they gazed at my
+countenance they were filled with amazement at my greatness and my beauty.
+You have heard of the colossal grandeur of Babylon and Nineveh, and the
+might of Babylonia and Assyria. You know by fame of the glories of Greece,
+and perhaps you have seen on the Athenian Acropolis those chaste temples
+of Pericles, beautiful even in their decay. You have visited the ruins of
+ancient Rome, and contemplated with wonder the ruined palace of the
+Caesars, Trajan's column, Constantine's arches, Caracalla's baths, and the
+fallen grandeur of the Forum.
+
+"Traveller, long before the foundation of Rome and Athens; yea, long
+before the ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia rose from the dim
+twilight, I stood here on this rocky platform, and was even old when
+Romulus and Cecrops, when Ninus and Asshur, were in their infancy. You
+have just visited the pyramids of Cheops and Cephren; you marvel at their
+greatness, and revere their antiquity. Over these mighty sepulchres I have
+kept guard for forty centuries, and here I stood amid the solitude of the
+desert ages before the stones were quarried for these vast tombs. Thus
+have I seen the rise, growth, and decay of all the great kingdoms of the
+earth. From me then learn this lesson: 'grander than any temple is the
+temple of the human body, and more sacred than any shrine is the hidden
+sanctuary of the human soul. Happiness abideth not in noisy fame and vast
+dominion, but, like a perennial stream, happiness gladdens the soul of him
+who fears the Most High, and loves his fellow-men. Be content, therefore,
+with thy lot, and strive earnestly to discharge the daily duties of thine
+office.'
+
+"This world, with all its glittering splendours, the kings of the earth,
+and the nobles of the people, are all mortal, even as thou art. The tombs
+which now surround me, where reposes the dust of departed greatness,
+proclaim that you are fast hastening to the destiny they have reached.
+Change and decay, which you now see on every side, is written on the brow
+of the monarch as much as on the fading flower of the field. Only the
+'Most High' changeth not. He remaineth the same from generation to
+generation. Trust in Him with all thine heart, serve Him with all thy
+soul, and all will be well with thee, even for evermore."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE LONDON OBELISK.
+
+
+Seven hundred miles up the Nile beyond Cairo, on the frontiers of Nubia,
+is the town of Syene or Assouan. In the neighbourhood are the renowned
+quarries of red granite called Syenite or Syenitic stone. The place is
+under the tropic of Cancer, and was the spot fixed upon through which the
+ancients drew the chief parallel of latitude, and therefore Syene was an
+important place in the early days of astronomy. The sun was of course
+vertical to Syene at the summer solstice, and a deep well existed there in
+which the reflection of the sun was seen at noon on midsummer-day.
+
+About fifteen centuries before the Christian era, in the reign of Thothmes
+III., by royal command, the London Obelisk, together with its companion
+column, was quarried at Syene, and thence in a huge raft was floated down
+the Nile to the sacred city of Heliopolis, a distance of seven hundred
+miles. Heliopolis, called in the Bible On, and by the ancient Egyptians
+An, was a city of temples dedicated to the worship of the sun. It is a
+place of high antiquity, and was one of the towns of the land of Goshen.
+Probably the patriarch Abraham sought refuge here when driven by famine
+out of the land of Canaan. Heliopolis is inseparably connected with the
+life of Joseph, who, after being sold to Potiphar as a slave, and after
+suffering imprisonment on a false accusation, was by Pharaoh promoted to
+great honour, and by royal command received "to wife Asenath, the daughter
+of Poti-pherah, priest of On" (Gen. xli. 45). Heliopolis was probably the
+scene of the affecting meeting of Joseph and his aged father Jacob. The
+place was not only a sacred city, but it was also a celebrated seat of
+learning, and the chief university of the ancient world. "Moses was
+learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," and his wisdom he acquired in
+the sacred college of Heliopolis. Pythagoras and Plato, and many other
+Greek philosophers, were students at this Egyptian seat of learning.
+
+On arriving at Heliopolis, the two obelisks now called Cleopatra's Needles
+were set up in front of the great temple of the sun. There they stood for
+fourteen centuries, during which period many dynasties reigned and passed
+away; Greek dominion in Egypt rose and flourished, until the Ptolemies
+were vanquished by the Caesars, and Egypt became a province of imperial
+Rome.
+
+Possibly Jacob and Joseph, certainly Moses and Aaron, Pythagoras and
+Plato, have gazed upon these two obelisks; and therefore the English
+nation should look at the hoary monolith on the Thames Embankment with
+feelings of profound veneration.
+
+[Illustration: CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, AT ALEXANDRIA.]
+
+In the eighth year of Augustus Caesar, 23 B.C., the Roman Emperor caused
+the two obelisks to be taken down and transported from Heliopolis to
+Alexandria, there to adorn the Caesarium, or Palace of the Caesars. "This
+palace stood by the side of the harbour of Alexandria, and was surrounded
+by a sacred grove. It was ornamented with porticoes, and fitted up with
+libraries, paintings and statues, and was the most lofty building in the
+city. In front of this palace Augustus set up the two ancient obelisks
+which had been made by Thothmes III., and carved by Rameses II., and
+which, like the other monuments of the Theban kings, have outlived all the
+temples and palaces of their Greek and Roman successors." The obelisks
+were set up in front of the Caesarium seven years after the death of
+Cleopatra, the beautiful though profligate queen of Egypt, and the last of
+the race of the Ptolemies. Cleopatra may have designed the Caesarium, and
+made suggestions for the decoration of the palace. The setting up of the
+two venerable obelisks may have been part of her plan; but although the
+monoliths are called Cleopatra's Needles, it is certain that Cleopatra had
+nothing to do with their transfer from Heliopolis to Alexandria.
+
+Cleopatra, it appears, was much beloved by her subjects; and it is not
+improbable that they associated her name with the two obelisks as a means
+of perpetuating the affectionate regard for her memory.
+
+The exact date of their erection at Alexandria was found out by the recent
+discovery of an inscription, engraved in Greek and Latin, on a bronze
+support of one of the obelisks. The inscription in Latin reads thus: "Anno
+viii Caesaris, Barbarus praefectus AEgypte posuit. Architecture Pontio."
+"In the eighth year of Caesar, Barbarus, prefect of Egypt, erected this,
+Pontius being the architect."
+
+The figure of an obelisk is often used as a hieroglyph, and is generally
+represented standing on a low base. The bronze supports reproduced at the
+bottom of the London Obelisk never appear in the hieroglyphic
+representations, and were probably an invention of the Ptolemies or the
+Caesars.
+
+For about fifteen centuries the two obelisks stood in their new position
+at Alexandria. The grand palace of the Caesars, yielding to the ravages of
+Time's resistless hand, has for many ages disappeared. The gradual
+encroachment of the sea upon the land continued through the course of many
+centuries, and ultimately, by the restless action of the waves, the
+obelisk which now graces our metropolis became undermined, and about 300
+years ago the colossal stone fell prostrate on the ground, leaving only
+its companion to mark the spot where once stood the magnificent palace of
+the imperial Caesars.
+
+In 1798 Napoleon Buonaparte, with forty thousand French troops, landed on
+the coast of Egypt, and soon conquered the country. Admiral Nelson
+destroyed the French fleet in Aboukir Bay; and at a decisive battle fought
+within sight of Cleopatra's Needle in 1801, Sir Ralph Abercrombie
+completely defeated the French army, and rescued Egypt from their
+dominion. Our soldiers and sailors, wishful to have a trophy of their Nile
+victories, conceived the idea of bringing the prostrate column to
+England. The troops cheerfully subscribed part of their pay, and set to
+work to move the obelisk. After considerable exertions they moved it only
+a few feet, and the undertaking, not meeting with the approval of the
+commanders of the army and navy, was unfortunately abandoned. Part of the
+pedestal was, however, uncovered and raised, and a small space being
+chiselled out of the surface, a brass plate was inserted, on which was
+engraved a short account of the British victories.
+
+George IV., on his accession to the throne in 1820, received as a gift the
+prostrate obelisk from Mehemet Ali, then ruler of Egypt. The nation looked
+forward with hope to its speedy arrival in England, but for some reason
+the valuable present was not accepted. In 1831 Mehemet Ali not only
+renewed his offer to King William IV., but promised also to ship the
+monolith free of charge. The compliment, however, was declined with
+thanks. In 1849 the Government announced in the House of Commons their
+desire to transport it to London, but as the opposition urged "that the
+obelisk was too much defaced to be worth removal," the proposal was not
+carried out. In 1851, the year rendered memorable by the Great Exhibition
+in Hyde Park, the question was again broached in the House, but the
+estimated outlay of L7,000 for transport was deemed too large a grant from
+the public purse. In 1853 the Sydenham Palace Company, desirous of having
+the obelisk in their Egyptian court, expressed their wish to set it up in
+the transept of the Palace, and offered to pay all expenses. The consent
+of the Government was asked for its removal, but the design fell through,
+because, as was urged, national property could only be lent, not given to
+a private company.
+
+Great diversity of opinion existed about that time respecting its value,
+even among the leading Egyptologists; for in 1858 that enthusiastic
+Egyptian scholar, Sir Gardner Wilkinson, referring to Mehemet Ali's
+generous offer, said:--"The project has been wisely abandoned, and cooler
+deliberation has pronounced that from its mutilated state and the
+obliteration of many of the hieroglyphics by exposure to the sea air, it
+is unworthy the expense of removal."
+
+In 1867 the Khedive disposed of the ground on which the prostrate Needle
+lay to a Greek merchant, who insisted on its removal from his property.
+The Khedive appealed to England to take possession of it, otherwise our
+title to the monument must be given up, as it was rapidly being buried
+amid the sand. The appeal, however, produced no effect, and it became
+evident to those antiquaries interested in the treasures of ancient Egypt,
+that if ever the obelisk was to be rescued from the rubbish in which it
+lay buried, and transported to the shores of England, the undertaking
+would not be carried out by our Government, but by private munificence.
+
+The owner of the ground on which it lay actually entertained the idea of
+breaking it up for building material, and it was only saved from
+destruction by the timely intervention of General Alexander, who for ten
+successive years pleaded incessantly with the owner of the ground, with
+learned societies and with the English Government, for the preservation
+and removal of the monument. The indefatigable General went to Egypt to
+visit the spot in 1875. He found the prostrate obelisk hidden from view
+and buried in the sand; but through the assistance of Mr. Wyman Dixon,
+C.E., it was uncovered and examined.
+
+On returning to England, the General represented the state of the case to
+his friend Professor Erasmus Wilson, and the question of transport was
+discussed by these two gentlemen together with Mr. John Dixon, C.E. The
+latter after due consideration gave the estimated cost at L10,000,
+whereupon Professor Wilson, inspired with the ardent wish of rescuing the
+precious relic from oblivion, signed a bond for L10,000, and agreed to pay
+this sum to Mr. Dixon, on the obelisk being set up in London. The Board of
+Works offered a site on the Thames Embankment, and Mr. Dixon set to work
+_con amore_ to carry out the contract.
+
+[Illustration: CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, ON THE THAMES EMBANKMENT.]
+
+Early in July, 1877, he arrived at Alexandria, and soon unearthed the
+buried monolith, which he was delighted to find in much better condition
+than had been generally represented. With considerable labour it was
+encased in an iron watertight cylinder about one hundred feet long, which
+with its precious treasure was set afloat. The _Olga_ steam tug was
+employed to tow it, and on the 21st September, 1877, steamed out of the
+harbour of Alexandria _en route_ for England. The voyage for twenty days
+was a prosperous one, but on the 14th October, when in the Bay of Biscay,
+a storm arose, and the pontoon cylinder was raised on end. At midnight it
+was thought to be foundering, and to save the crew its connection with the
+_Olga_ was cut off. The captain, thinking that the Needle had gone to the
+bottom of the sea, sailed for England, where the sorrowful tidings soon
+spread of the loss of the anxiously expected monument. To the great
+delight of the nation, it was discovered that the pontoon, instead of
+sinking, had floated about for sixty hours on the surface of the waters,
+and having been picked up by the steamer _Fitzmaurice_, had been towed to
+Vigo, on the coast of Spain. After a few weeks' delay it was brought to
+England, and set up in its present position on the Thames Embankment.
+
+The London Needle is about seventy feet long, and from the base, which
+measures about eight feet, it gradually tapers upwards to the width of
+five feet, when it contracts into a pointed pyramid seven feet high. Set
+up in its original position at Heliopolis about fifteen centuries before
+the Christian era, this venerable monument of a remote antiquity is nearly
+thirty-five centuries old.
+
+"Such is the British Obelisk, unique, grand, and symbolical, which
+devotion reared upward to the sun ere many empires of the West had emerged
+from obscurity. It was ancient at the foundation of the city of Rome, and
+even old when the Greek empire was in its cradle. Its history is lost in
+the clouds of mythology long before the rise of the Roman power. To
+Solomon's Egyptian bride the Needle must have been an ancestral monument;
+to Pythagoras and Solon a record of a traditional past antecedent to all
+historical recollection. In the college near the obelisk, Moses, the
+meekest of all men, learned the wisdom of the Egyptians. When, after the
+terrible last plague, the mixed multitude of the Israelites were driven
+forth from Egypt, the light of the pillar of fire threw the shadow of the
+obelisk across the path of the fugitives. Centuries later, when the
+wrecked empire of Judaea was dispersed by the king of Babylon, it was again
+in the precincts of the obelisk of On that the exiled people of the Lord
+took shelter. Upon how many scenes has that monolith looked!" Amid the
+changes of many dynasties and the fall of mighty empires it is still
+preserved to posterity, and now rises in our midst--the most venerable and
+the most valuable relic of the infancy of the world.
+
+"This British Obelisk," says Dean Stanley, "will be a lasting memorial of
+those lessons which are taught by the Good Samaritan. What does it tell us
+as it stands, a solitary heathen stranger, amidst the monuments of our
+English Christian greatness--near to the statues of our statesmen, under
+the shadow of our Legislature, and within sight of the precincts of our
+Abbey? It speaks to us of the wisdom and splendour which was the parent of
+all past civilization, the wisdom whereby Moses made himself learned in
+all the learning of the Egyptians for the deliverance and education of
+Israel--whence the earliest Grecian philosophers and the earliest
+Christian Fathers derived the insight which enabled them to look into the
+deep things alike of Paganism and Christianity. It tells us--so often as
+we look at its strange form and venerable characters--that 'the Light
+which lighteneth every man' shone also on those who raised it as an emblem
+of the beneficial rays of the sunlight of the world. It tells us that as
+true goodness was possible in the outcast Samaritan, so true wisdom was
+possible even in the hard and superstitious Egyptians, even in that dim
+twilight of the human race, before the first dawn of the Hebrew Law or of
+the Christian Gospel."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+HOW THE HIEROGLYPHIC LANGUAGE WAS RECOVERED.
+
+
+On the triumph of Christianity, the idolatrous religion of the ancient
+Egyptians was regarded with pious abhorrence, and so in course of time the
+hieroglyphics became neglected and forgotten. Thus for fifteen centuries
+the hieroglyphic inscriptions that cover tombs, temples, and obelisks were
+regarded as unmeaning characters. Thousands of travellers traversed the
+land of Egypt, and yet they never took the trouble to copy with accuracy a
+single line of an inscription. The monuments of Egypt received a little
+attention about the middle of the eighteenth century, and vague notions of
+the nature of hieroglyphs were entertained by Winckelman, Visconti, and
+others. Most of their suggestions are of little value; and it was not
+until the publication of the description of ancient Egypt by the first
+scientific expedition under Napoleon that the world regained a glimpse of
+the true nature of the long-forgotten hieroglyphs.
+
+In 1798 M. Boussard discovered near Rosetta, situated at one of the mouths
+of the Nile, a large polished stone of black granite, known as "The
+Rosetta Stone." This celebrated monument it appears was set up in the
+temple of Tum at Heliopolis about 200 B.C., in honour of Ptolemy V.,
+according to a solemn decree of the united priesthood in synod at Memphis.
+On its discovery, the stone was presented to the French Institute at
+Cairo; but on the capture of Alexandria by the British in 1801, and the
+consequent defeat of the French troops, the Rosetta Stone came into the
+possession of the English general, and was presented by him to King George
+III. The king in turn presented the precious relic to the nation, and the
+stone is now in safe custody in the British Museum.
+
+[Illustration: THE ROSETTA STONE.]
+
+The Rosetta Stone has opened the sealed book of hieroglyphics, and enabled
+the learned to understand the long-forgotten monumental inscriptions. On
+the stone is a trigrammatical inscription, that is, an inscription thrice
+repeated in three different characters; the first in pure hieroglyphs,
+the second in Demotic, and the third in Greek. The French savants made the
+first attempt at deciphering it; but they were quickly followed by German,
+Italian, Swedish, and English scholars. Groups of characters on the stone
+were observed amid the hieroglyphs to correspond to the words, Alexander,
+Alexandria, Ptolemy, king, etc., in the Greek inscription. Many of the
+opinions expressed were very conflicting, and most of them were ingenious
+conjectures. A real advance was made in the study when, in 1818, Dr.
+Young, a London physician, announced that many of the characters in the
+group that stood for Ptolemy must have a phonetic value, somewhat after
+the manner of our own alphabet. M. Champollion, a young French savant,
+deeply interested in Egyptology, availed himself of Dr. Young's discovery,
+and pursued the study with ardent perseverance.
+
+In 1822 another inscribed monument was found at Philae, in Upper Egypt,
+which rendered substantial help to such Egyptologists as were eagerly
+striving to unravel the mystery of the hieroglyphs. It was a small obelisk
+with a Greek inscription at the base, which inscription turned out to be a
+translation of the hieroglyphs on the obelisk. Champollion found on the
+obelisk a group of hieroglyphs which stood for the Greek name Kleopatra;
+and by carefully comparing this group with a group on the Rosetta Stone
+that stood for Ptolemy, he was able to announce that Dr. Young's teaching
+was correct, inasmuch as many of the hieroglyphs in the royal names are
+alphabetic phonetics, that is, each represents a letter sound, as in the
+case of our own alphabet.
+
+Champollion further announced that the phonetic hieroglyph stood for the
+initial letter of the name of the object represented. Thus, in the name
+Kleopatra, the first hieroglyph is a knee, called in Coptic _kne_, and
+this sign stands for the letter _k_, the first letter in Kleopatra. The
+second hieroglyph is a lion couchant, and stands for _l_, because that
+letter is the first in _labu_, the Egyptian name of lion. Further, by
+comparing the names of Ptolemy and Kleopatra with that of Alexander,
+Champollion discovered the value of fifteen phonetic hieroglyphs. In the
+pursuit of his studies he also found out the existence of homophones, that
+is, characters having the same sound; and that phonetics were mixed up in
+every inscription with ideographs and representations.
+
+In 1828, the French Government sent Champollion as conductor of a
+scientific expedition to Egypt. He translated the inscriptions with
+marvellous facility, and seemed at once to give life to the hitherto mute
+hieroglyphs. On a wall of a temple at Karnak, amidst the prisoners of King
+Shishak, he found the name "Kingdom of Judah." It will be remembered that
+the Bible states that "In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, King
+of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem: and he took away the treasures of the
+house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house" (1 Kings xiv,
+25, 26). The discovery, therefore, of the name "Kingdom of Judah" in
+hieroglyphs in connection with Shishak excited much interest in the
+Christian world, corroborating as it did the Biblical narrative.
+
+In 1830 Champollion returned from Egypt laden with the fruits of his
+researches; and by his indefatigable genius he worked out the grand
+problem of the deciphering and interpretation of hieroglyphic
+inscriptions.
+
+Since that time the study of Egyptology has been pursued by Rosellini,
+Bunsen, De Rouge, Mariette, Lenormant, Brugsch, Lepsius, Birch, Poole,
+etc. The number of hieroglyphs at present are about a thousand. A century
+ago there existed no hope of recovering the extinct language of the
+ancient Egyptians; but by the continued labours of genius, the darkness of
+fifteen centuries has been dispelled, and the endless inscriptions
+covering obelisks, temples and tombs, proclaim in a wondrous manner the
+story of Egypt's ancient greatness.
+
+Dr. Brugsch has written a long and elaborate history of Egypt, derived
+entirely from "ancient and authentic sources;" that is, from the
+inscriptions on the walls of temples, on obelisks, etc., and from papyri.
+The work has been translated into English, and published with the title,
+"Egypt under the Pharaohs." The student also has only to turn to the
+article "Hieroglyphics" in Vol. XI. of the ninth edition of the
+"Encyclopaedia Britannica," to see what progress has been made recently in
+this direction.
+
+But notwithstanding all this, the language of the hieroglyphs is not yet
+by any means perfectly understood and Egyptian grammar still presents
+many knotty problems that await solution. Rapid strides are daily being
+made in the study of Egyptology; and it may be hoped that the time is not
+far distant when the student will read hieroglyphic inscriptions with the
+same facility that the classic student reads a page of Greek and Latin.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE INTERPRETATION OF HIEROGLYPHICS.
+
+
+Hieroglyphs or hieroglyphics, literally "sacred sculptures," is the term
+applied to those written characters by means of which the ancient
+Egyptians expressed their thoughts. Hieroglyphs are usually pictures of
+external objects, such as the sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, man, the
+members of man's body, and various other objects.
+
+They may be arranged in four classes.
+
+First. _Representational_, _iconographic_, or _mimic_ hieroglyphs, in
+which case each hieroglyph is a picture of the object referred to. Thus,
+the sun's disk means the sun; a crescent the moon; a whip means a whip; an
+eye, an eye. Such hieroglyphs form picture-writing, and may be called
+_iconographs_, or representations.
+
+Secondly. _Symbolical_, _tropical_, or _ideographic_ hieroglyphs, in which
+case the hieroglyph was not designed to stand for the object represented,
+but for some quality or attribute suggested by the object. Thus, heaven
+and a star meant night; a leg in a trap, deceit; incense, adoration; a
+bee, Lower Egypt; the heart, love; an eye with a tear, grief; a beetle,
+immortality; a crook, protection. Such hieroglyphs are called
+_ideographs_, and are perhaps the most difficult to interpret, inasmuch
+as they stand for abstract ideas. Ideographic writing was carried to great
+perfection, the signs for ideas became fixed, and each ideograph had a
+stereotyped signification.
+
+Thirdly. _Enigmatic_ hieroglyphs include all those wherein one object
+stands for some other object. Thus, a hawk stands for a solar deity; the
+bird ibis, for the god Thoth; a seated figure with a curved beard, for a
+god.
+
+Fourthly. _Phonetic_ hieroglyphs, wherein each hieroglyph represents a
+sound, and is therefore called a phonetic. Each phonetic at first probably
+stood for a syllable, in which case it might be called a syllabic sign.
+Thus, a chessboard represents the sound _men_; a hoe, _mer_; a triple
+twig, _mes_; a bowl, _neb_; a beetle, _khep_; a bee, _kheb_; a star,
+_seb_.
+
+It appears that when phonetic hieroglyphs were first formed, the spoken
+language was for the most part made up of monosyllabic words, and that the
+names given to animals were imitations of the sounds made by such animals;
+thus, _ab_ means lamb; _ba_, goat; _au_, cow; _mau_, lion; _su_, goose;
+_ui_, a chicken; _bak_, a hawk; _mu_, an owl; _khep_, a beetle; _kheb_, a
+bee, etc.
+
+It is easy to see how the figure of any such animal would stand for the
+name of the animal. According to Dr. Birch, the original monosyllabic
+words usually began with a consonant, and the vowel sound between the two
+consonants of a syllable was an indifferent matter, because the name of an
+object was variously pronounced in different parts; thus a guitar, which
+is an ideograph meaning goodness, might be pronounced _nefer_ or _nofer_;
+a papyrus roll, which stood for oblation, was called _hetep_ or _hotep_.
+
+Most phonetics remained as syllabic signs, but many of them in course of
+time lost part of the sound embodied in the syllable, and stood for a
+letter sound only. Thus, the picture of a lion, which at first stood for
+the whole sound _labo_, the Egyptian name of lion, in course of time stood
+only for _l_, the initial sound of the word; an owl first stood for _mu_,
+then for _m_; a water-jug stood first for _nen_, then for _n_, its initial
+letter.
+
+Phonetics which represent letters only and not syllables may be called
+_alphabetic_ signs, in contradistinction to _syllabic_ signs.
+
+Plutarch asserts that the ancient Egyptians had an alphabet of twenty-five
+letters, and although in later epochs of Egyptian history there existed at
+least two hundred alphabetic signs, yet at a congress of Egyptologists
+held in London in 1874, it was agreed that the ancient recognized alphabet
+consisted of twenty-five letters. These were as follows:--An eagle stood
+for _a_; a reed, _a_; an arm, _a_; leg, _l_; horned serpent, _f_; maeander,
+_h_; pair of parallel diagonals, _i_; knotted cord, h; double reed, _i_;
+bowl, _k_; throne or stand, _k_; lion couchant, _l_; owl, _m_; zigzag or
+waterline, _n_; square or window shutter, _p_; angle or knee, _q_; mouth,
+_r_; chair or crochet, _s_; inundated garden or pool, _sh_; semicircle,
+_t_; lasso or sugar-tongs-shaped noose, _th_; hand, _t_; snake, _t_;
+chicken, _ui_; sieve, _kh_.
+
+   1 [Glyph]   a             Eagle                      'Aa
+
+   2 [Glyph]   a             Reed                        Au
+
+   3 [Glyph]   a             Arm                         Aa
+
+   4 [Glyph]   b             Leg                         Bu
+
+   5 [Glyph]   f             Cerastes Serpent            Fi
+
+   6 [Glyph]   h             Maeander                     Ha
+
+   7 [Glyph]   h             Knotted Cord                Hi
+
+   8 [Glyph]   i             Pair of parallel diagonals  --
+
+   9 [Glyph]   i             Double Reed                 iu
+
+  10 [Glyph]   k             Bowl                        Ka
+
+  11 [Glyph]   k             Throne (stand)              Qa
+
+  12 [Glyph]   l             Lion couchant               Lu or Ru
+
+  13 [Glyph]   m             Owl                         Mu
+
+  14 [Glyph]   n             Zigzag or Water Line        Na
+
+  15 [Glyph]   p           { Square or Window-blind      Pu
+                           { (shutter)
+
+  16 [Glyph]   q             Angle (Knee)                Qa
+
+  17 [Glyph]   r             Mouth                       Ru, Lu
+
+  18 [Glyph]   s             Chair or Crochet            Sen or Set
+
+  19 [Glyph]   s             Inundated(?) Garden (Pool)  Shi
+
+  20 [Glyph]   t             Semicircle                  Tu
+
+  21 [Glyph]   [Greek: th] { Lasso (sugar-tongs-shaped)  Ti
+                           { Noose
+
+  22 [Glyph]   t             Hand                        Ti
+
+  23 [Glyph]   t'            Snake                       --
+
+  24 [Glyph]   ...           Chick                       ui
+
+  25 [Glyph]   [Greek: ch]   Sieve                       Khi
+
+About 600 B.C., during the XXVIth dynasty, many hieroglyphs, about a
+hundred in number, which previously were used as ideographs only, had
+assigned to them a phonetic value, and became henceforth alphabetic signs
+as well as ideographs. In consequence of this innovation, in the last ages
+of the Egyptian monarchy, we find many hieroglyphs having the same
+phonetic value. Such hieroglyphs are called homophones, and they are
+sometimes very numerous; for instance, as many as twenty hieroglyphs had
+each the value of _a_, and _h_ was represented by at least thirty
+homophones. In spite of the great number of homophones, the Egyptians
+usually spelled their words by consonants only, after the manner of the
+ancient Hebrews; thus, _hk_ stood for _hek_, a ruler; _htp_ for _hotep_,
+an offering; _km_ for _kam_, Egypt; _ms_ for _mes_, born of.
+
+The Egyptians began at an early age to use syllabic signs for proper
+names. Osiris was a well-known name; and as _os_ in their spoken language
+meant a throne, and _iri_, an eye, a small picture of a throne followed by
+that of an eye, stood for _Osiri_, the name of their god.
+
+An ideograph was often preceded and followed by two phonetic signs, which
+respectively represented the initial and final sound of the name of the
+ideograph. Thus a chessboard was an ideograph, and stood for a gift, and
+sometimes a building. It was called _men_, and sometimes the chessboard is
+preceded by an owl, the phonetic sign of _m_, and followed by a zigzag
+line, the phonetic sign of _n_. Such complementary hieroglyphs are
+intended primarily to show with greater precision the pronunciation of
+_men_, and they are known by the name of complements.
+
+Phonetic hieroglyphs are often followed by a representation or ideograph
+of the object referred to. Such explanatory representations and ideographs
+are called determinatives, because they help to determine the precise
+value of the preceding hieroglyph.
+
+They were rendered necessary on the monuments from the fact that the
+Egyptians had few vowel sounds; thus _nib_ meant an ibis; _nebi_, a
+plough; _neb_, a lord; but each word was represented by the consonantal
+signs _n-b_; and consequently it was necessary to put after _n-b_ a
+determinative sign of an ibis or a plough, to show which of the two was
+meant.
+
+From the earliest to the latest ages of the Egyptian monarchy, all kinds
+of hieroglyphs are used in the same inscription, iconographs, ideographs,
+and phonetics are mingled together; and if it were not for the judicious
+use of complements and determinatives, it would often be impossible to
+interpret the inscriptions.
+
+The hieroglyphs constitute the most ancient mode of writing known to
+mankind. They were used, as the name hieroglyphs, that is, "sacred
+sculptures," implies, almost exclusively for sacred purposes, as may be
+proved from the fact that the numerous inscriptions found on temples,
+tombs and obelisks relate to the gods and the religious duties of man.
+Hence the Egyptians called their written language _neter tu_, which means
+"sacred words." The hieroglyphs at present known are about a thousand,
+but further discoveries may augment their number. On the monuments they
+are arranged with artistic care, either in horizontal lines or in vertical
+columns, with all the animals and symbols facing one way, either to the
+right hand or the left.
+
+The hieroglyphs on obelisks and other granite monuments are sculptured
+with a precision and delicacy that excite the admiration of the nineteenth
+century. In tombs and on papyri the hieroglyphs are painted sometimes with
+many colours, while on obelisks and on the walls of temples they are
+generally carved in a peculiar style of cutting known as _cavo relievo_,
+that is, raised relief sunk below the surface. The beautiful artistic
+effect of the coloured hieroglyphs as seen on some of the tombs is as much
+superior to our mode of writing as the flowing robes of the Orientals as
+compared with the dress of the Franks. The spoken language of the
+Egyptians was Semitic, but it had little in common with the Hebrew, for
+Joseph conversed with his brothers by means of an interpreter.
+
+Hieroglyphic inscriptions are found in the earliest tombs. The cartouche
+of Khufu, or Cheops, a king of the IVth dynasty, was found on a block of
+the great pyramid; and as hieroglyphic inscriptions were used until the
+age of Caracalla, a Roman emperor of the third century, it follows that
+hieroglyphs were used as a mode of writing for about three thousand years.
+
+The Egyptians had two modes of cursive writing. The _hieratic_, used by
+the priests and employed for sacred writings only. The hieratic
+characters, which are really abbreviated forms of hieroglyphics, bear the
+same relation to the hieroglyphs that our handwriting does to the printed
+text. Another mode of cursive writing used by the people and employed in
+law, literature, and secular matters, is known as _demotic_ or
+_enchorial_. The characters in demotic are derived from the hieratic, but
+appear in a simpler form, and phonetics largely prevail over ideographs.
+
+To any students who wish to pursue the absorbing study of hieroglyphics,
+the following works are recommended:--"Introduction to the Study of
+Hieroglyphics," by Dr. Samuel Birch; "Egyptian Texts," by the same author,
+and "Egyptian Grammar," by P. Le Page Renouf. The two latter works are
+published in Bagster's series of Archaic Classics. Wilkinson's "Ancient
+Egyptians," and Cooper's "Egyptian Obelisks," are instructive volumes. The
+author obtained much help from the works of Champollion, Rosellini,
+Sharpe, Lepsius, and from Vol. II. of "Records of the Past."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THOTHMES III.
+
+
+Thothmes III. is generally regarded as the greatest of the kings of
+Egypt--the Alexander the Great of Egyptian history. The name Thothmes
+means "child of Thoth," and was a common name among the ancient Egyptians.
+On the pyramidion of the obelisk he is represented by a sphinx presenting
+gifts of water and wine to Tum, the setting sun, a solar deity worshipped
+at Heliopolis. On the hieroglyphic paintings at Karnak, the fact of the
+heliacal rising of Sothis, the dog-star, is stated to have taken place
+during this reign, from which it appears that Thothmes III. occupied the
+throne of Egypt about 1450 B.C. This is one of the few dates of Egyptian
+chronology that can be authenticated.
+
+Thothmes III. belonged to the XVIIIth dynasty, which included some of the
+greatest of Egyptian monarchs. Among the kings of this dynasty were four
+that bore the name of Thothmes, and four the name of Amenophis, which
+means "peace of Amen." The monarchs of this dynasty were Thebans.
+
+The father of Thothmes III. was a great warrior. He conquered the
+Canaanitish nations of Palestine, took Nineveh from the Rutennu, the
+confederate tribes of Syria, laid waste Mesopotamia, and introduced the
+war-chariots and horses into the army of Egypt.
+
+Thothmes III., however, was even a greater warrior than his father; and
+during his long reign Egypt reached the climax of her greatness. His
+predecessors of the XVIIIth dynasty had extended the dominions of Egypt
+far into Asia and the interior of Africa. He was a king of great capacity
+and a warrior of considerable courage. The records of his campaigns are
+for the most part preserved on a sandstone wall surrounding the great
+temple of Karnak, built by Thothmes III. in honour of Amen-Ra. From these
+hieroglyphic inscriptions it appears that Thothmes' first great campaign
+was made in the twenty-second year of his reign, when an expedition was
+made into the land of Taneter, that is, Palestine. A full account of his
+marches and victories is given, together with a list of one hundred and
+nineteen conquered towns.
+
+This monarch lived before the time of Joshua, and therefore the records of
+his conquests present us with the ancient Canaanite nomenclature of places
+in Palestine between the times of the patriarchs and the conquest of the
+land by the Israelites under Joshua. Thothmes set out with his army from
+Tanis, that is, Zoan; and after taking Gaza, he proceeded, by way of the
+plain of Sharon, to the more northern parts of Palestine. At the battle of
+Megiddo he overthrew the confederated troops of native princes; and in
+consequence of this signal victory the whole of Palestine was subdued.
+Crossing the Jordan near the Sea of Galilee, Thothmes pursued his march to
+Damascus, which he took by the sword; and then returning homewards by the
+Judean hills and the south country of Palestine, he returned to Egypt
+laden with the spoils of victory.
+
+In the thirtieth year of his reign Thothmes lead an expedition against the
+Rutennu, the people of Northern Syria. In this campaign he attacked and
+captured Kadesh, a strong fortress in the valley of Orontes, and the
+capital town of the Rutennu. The king pushed his conquests into
+Mesopotamia, and occupied the strong fortress of Carchemish, on the banks
+of the Euphrates. He then led his conquering troops northwards to the
+sources of the Tigris and the Euphrates, so that the kings of Damascus,
+Nineveh, and Assur became his vassals, and paid tribute to Egypt.
+
+Punt or Arabia was also subdued, and in Africa his conquests extended to
+Cush or Ethiopia. His fleet of ships sailed triumphantly over the waters
+of the Black Sea. Thus Thothmes ruled over lands extending from the
+mountains of Caucasus to the shores of the Indian Ocean, and from the
+Libyan Desert to the great river Tigris.
+
+"Besides distinguishing himself as a warrior and as a record writer,
+Thothmes III. was one of the greatest of Egyptian builders and patrons of
+art. The great temple of Ammon at Thebes was the special object of his
+fostering care, and he began his career of builder and restorer by
+repairing the damages which his sister Hatasu had inflicted on that
+glorious edifice to gratify her dislike of her brother Thothmes II., and
+her father Thothmes I. Statues of Thothmes I. and his father Amenophis,
+which Hatasu had thrown down, were re-erected by Thothmes III. before the
+southern propylaea of the temple in the first year of his independent
+reign. The central sanctuary which Usertesen I. had built in common stone,
+was next replaced by the present granite edifice, under the directions of
+the young prince, who then proceeded to build in rear of the old temple a
+magnificent hall or pillared chamber of dimensions previously unknown in
+Egypt. This edifice was an oblong square one hundred and forty-three feet
+long by fifty-five feet wide, or nearly half as large again as the nave of
+Canterbury Cathedral. The whole of this apartment was roofed in with slabs
+of solid stone; two rows of circular pillars thirty feet in height
+supported the central part, dividing it into three avenues, while on each
+side of the pillars was a row of square piers, still further extending the
+width of the chamber, and breaking it up into five long vistas. In
+connection with this noble hall, on three sides of it, north, east, and
+south, Thothmes erected further chambers and corridors, one of the former
+situated towards the south containing the 'Great Table of Karnak.'
+
+"Other erections of this distinguished monarch are the enclosure of the
+temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, and the obelisks belonging to the same
+building, which the irony of fate has now removed to Rome, England, and
+America; the temple of Ptah at Thebes; the small temple at Medinet Abou; a
+temple at Kneph, adorned with obelisks, at Elephantine, and a series of
+temples and monuments at Ombos, Esneh, Abydos, Coptos, Denderah,
+Eileithyia, Hermonthis and Memphis in Egypt; and at Amada, Corte, Talmis,
+Pselus, Semneh, and Koummeh in Nubia. Large remains still exist in the
+Koummeh and Semneh temples, where Thothmes worships Totun, the Nubian
+Kneph, in conjunction with Usertesen III., his own ancestor. There are
+also extensive ruins of his great buildings at Denderah, Ombos, and
+Napata. Altogether Thothmes III. is pronounced to have 'left more
+monuments than any other Pharaoh, excepting Rameses II.,' and though
+occasionally showing himself as a builder somewhat capricious and
+whimsical, yet still on the whole to have worked in 'a pure style,' and
+proved that he was 'not deficient in good taste.'
+
+"There is reason to believe that the great constructions of this mighty
+monarch were, in part at least, the product of forced labours. Doubtless
+his eleven thousand captives were for the most part held in slavery, and
+compelled to employ their energies in helping towards the accomplishment
+of those grand works which his active mind was continually engaged in
+devising. We find among the monuments of his time a representation of the
+mode in which the services of these foreign bondsmen were made to
+subserve the glory of the Pharaoh who had carried them away captive. Some
+are seen kneading and cutting up the clay; others bear them water from a
+neighbouring pool; others again, with the assistance of a wooden mould,
+shape the clay into bricks, which are then taken and placed in long rows
+to dry; finally, when the bricks are sufficiently hard, the highest class
+of labourers proceed to build them into walls. All the work is performed
+under the eyes of taskmasters, armed with sticks, who address the
+labourers with the words: 'The stick is in my hand, be not idle.' Over the
+whole is an inscription which says: 'Here are to be seen the prisoners
+which have been carried away as living captives in very great numbers;
+they work at the building with active fingers; their overseers are in
+sight; they insist with vehemence' (on the others working), 'obeying the
+orders of the great skilled lord' (_i.e._, the head architect), 'who
+prescribes to them the works, and gives directions to the masters; they
+are rewarded with wine and all kinds of good dishes; they perform their
+service with a mind full of love for the king; they build for Thothmes
+Ra-men-khepr a Holy of Holies for the gods. May it be rewarded to him
+through a range of many years.'"[4]
+
+[Illustration: COLOSSAL HEAD OF THOTHMES III.]
+
+"In person Thothmes III. does not appear to have been very remarkable. His
+countenance was thoroughly Egyptian, but not characterised by any strong
+individuality. The long, well-shaped, but somewhat delicate nose, almost
+in a line with the forehead, gives a slightly feminine appearance to the
+face, which is generally represented as beardless and moderately plump.
+The eye, prominent, and larger than that of the ordinary Egyptian, has a
+pensive but resolute expression, and is suggestive of mental force. The
+mouth is somewhat too full for beauty, but is resolute, like the eye, and
+less sensual than that of most Egyptians. There is an appearance of
+weakness about the chin, which is short, and retreats slightly, thus
+helping to give the entire countenance a womanish look. Altogether, the
+face has less of strength and determination than we should have expected,
+but is not wholly without indications of some of those qualities."[5]
+
+Thothmes III. died after a long and prosperous reign of fifty-four years,
+and when he was probably about sixty years old, his father having died
+when he was only an infant.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE HIEROGLYPHICS OF THOTHMES III.
+
+_Translation of the First Side._
+
+
+"The Horus, powerful Bull, crowned in Uas, King of Upper and Lower Egypt,
+'Ra-men-Kheper.' He has made as it were monuments to his father Haremakhu;
+he has set up two great obelisks capped with gold at the first festival of
+Triakonteris. According to his wish he has done it, Son of the Sun,
+Thothmes, beloved of Haremakhu, ever-living."
+
+[Illustration: "Horus, powerful Bull, crowned in Uas."]
+
+    HAWK (=bak=) _Horus_. Horus is a solar deity, and represented the
+    rising sun, or the sun in the horizon. Horus is here represented by a
+    hawk, surmounted by the double crown of Egypt called PSCHENT. The hawk
+    flew higher than any other bird of Egypt, and therefore became the
+    usual emblem of any solar deity, just as the eagle, from its lofty
+    soaring, is an emblem of sublimity, and therefore an emblem of St.
+    John. The double crown named PSCHENT is composed of a conical hat
+    called HET, the crown and emblem of Upper Egypt, and the TESHER, or
+    red crown, the emblem of Lower Egypt. The wearer of the double crown
+    was supposed to exercise authority over the two Egypts. The oblong
+    form upon the top of which the sacred hawk, the symbol of Horus,
+    stands, is thought by some to be a representation of the standard of
+    the monarch. Dr. Birch thinks it is the ground plan of a palace, and
+    the avenue and approaches to the palace.
+
+    BULL (=Mnevis=). The _Mnevis_ was the name of the black bull, or
+    sacred ox of Heliopolis. It was regarded as an avatar or incarnation
+    of a solar deity. On the London Obelisk Mnevis appears twelve times on
+    the palatial titles, and twice on the lateral columns of Rameses II.
+
+    ARM WITH STICK (=khu=) _powerful_, is the common symbol of power. In
+    the Bible also an arm stands for power. "The Lord brought us forth out
+    of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm" (Deut. xxvi.
+    8). There are twelve palatial titles on the obelisk, three on each
+    face, and in eleven cases occurs the arm holding a stick in its hand.
+    In each case this hieroglyph may be rendered by the word _powerful_.
+    The same hieroglyph appears several times in both the central and
+    lateral columns.
+
+    CROWN (=kha=) _crowned_, because placed on the head at the time of
+    coronation. This hieroglyph is thought by some to be a part of a
+    dress.
+
+    OWL (=em=) _in_, is a preposition.
+
+    SCEPTRE (=Uas=) _Western Thebes_. The sceptre here depicted is that
+    carried in the left hand of Theban kings. It is composed of three
+    parts, the top is the head of a greyhound, the shaft is the long stalk
+    of some reed, perhaps that of the papyrus or lotus, while the curved
+    bottom represents the claws of the crocodile, an animal common in
+    Upper Egypt in ancient times. This sceptre, called KAKUFA, was often
+    represented by an ostrich feather, the common symbol of truth, and
+    stands for _Uas_, the name of that part of Thebes which stood on the
+    western bank of the Nile. The sceptre as an ideograph means power, in
+    the same manner as the sceptre carried by our monarch on state
+    occasions is a badge of authority.
+
+Thus the palatial title may be rendered, "The powerful bull, crowned in
+Western Thebes."
+
+Above the cartouche will be noticed a group of four hieroglyphs, namely,
+a _reed_, _bee_, and two _semicircles_. This group is usually placed above
+the cartouche containing the prenomen or sacred name of the king, and the
+four are descriptive of the authority exercised by the monarch. They may
+be thus explained:--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    REED (=su=) is the symbol of Upper Egypt, where reeds of this kind
+    were probably common, especially by the banks of the Nile. A flower or
+    plant is often used as the emblem of a nation.
+
+    In ancient times the vine was the emblem of the king of Judah, and on
+    the same principle the reed was the emblem of Upper Egypt. The
+    semicircle below is called _tu_, and here stands for king. The two
+    hieroglyphs together are called SUTEN, and may be rendered "king of
+    Upper Egypt."
+
+    BEE (=kheb=) is the emblem of Lower Egypt.
+
+    The four hieroglyphs are called SUTEN-KHEB, and mean "king of Upper
+    and Lower Egypt."
+
+The bee was an insect that received great attention among the ancient
+Egyptians. They were kept in hives which resembled our own, and when
+flowers were not numerous, the owners of bees often carried their hives in
+boats to various spots on the banks of the Nile where many flowers were
+blooming. The wild bees frequented the sunny banks and made their
+habitations in the clefts of the rocks. Moses says that God made His
+people to "suck honey out of the rock," and the Psalmist repeats the same
+idea, when he says, "with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied
+thee."
+
+Below this group of hieroglyphs stands what is called the cartouche of
+Thothmes III. The word was first used by Champollion, and signifies a
+scroll or label, or escutcheon on which the name of a king is inscribed.
+The oval form of the cartouche was probably taken from the scarabeus or
+sacred beetle, an emblem of the resurrection and immortality; and thus the
+very framework on which the king inscribed his name spoke of the eternity
+of a future state. The form, however, may be from a plate of armour. The
+cartouche is somewhat analogous to a heraldic shield bearing a coat of
+arms, and its object was probably to give prominence to the king's name,
+just as an aureole in Christian art gives prominence to the figure it
+encloses.
+
+The three hieroglyphs charged in this cartouche make up the divine name of
+Thothmes, and consist of a solar disk, chessboard, and beetle. Each
+monarch had two names, respectively called prenomen, or divine name,
+somewhat analogous to our Christian name, and the nomen, corresponding to
+our surname. The prenomen is called the divine name, because it contains
+the name of the god from whom the king claims his descent, and often the
+deities also by whom he is beloved, and with whom he claims relationship.
+The king not only claimed descent from the gods, but he was accounted by
+his subjects as a representation of the deity.
+
+The title of Pharaoh applied to their kings is derived from Phaa or Ra,
+the midday sun, and the notion was taught that kingly power was derived
+from the supreme solar deity. The divine right of kings was thus an
+article of faith among the ancient Egyptians. He was the head of their
+religious system, defender of the faith; and in all matters,
+ecclesiastical as well as civil, the king was supreme. He was consequently
+instructed in the mysteries of the gods, the services of the temples, and
+the duties of the priesthood. The Theban kings claimed relationship with
+Amen, the supreme god of Thebes; and most kings also claimed Ra, the
+supreme solar deity, worshipped at Heliopolis, as their grand ancestor.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    SUN'S DISK (=aten=) was the emblem of Ra, who was said to have in
+    perfection all the attributes possessed by inferior deities. He was
+    all in all; from him came, and to him return, the souls of men.
+
+    Ra or Phra was, properly speaking, the mid-day sun; and as the sun
+    shines with greatest power and brightness at mid-day, the attributes
+    of majesty and authority were intimately associated with this deity.
+    Amen-Ra, the god of Thebes, was supposed to possess the attributes of
+    Amen and Ra.
+
+    The ATEN was originally circular, and thus in shape resembled the
+    sun's disk, but in many inscriptions the shape is oval, or that of an
+    oblate-spheroid, considerably flattened at top and bottom.
+
+    CHESSBOARD (=men=) is by many thought to be a battlemented wall, but
+    it is probably a chessboard; for at Thebes a picture represents
+    Rameses III. playing a game at chess, or some kindred game. What
+    appears to be a battlement is really the chessmen on the board.
+
+    MEN, as part of the divine name of Thothmes, may be the shortened form
+    of Amen, the supreme god of Thebes, just as Tum is the shortened form
+    of Atum. Ptah was the supreme god of Memphis, and Ra the supreme god
+    of Heliopolis. Amen literally means "the concealed one," and was the
+    name applied to the sun after it had sunk below the horizon. He was
+    reputed to be the oldest and most venerable of deities, called the
+    "dweller in eternity," and the source of light and life. Before the
+    creation he dwelt alone in the lower world, but on his saying "come,"
+    the sun appeared, and drove away the darkness of night. Sometimes he
+    is called Amen-Ra, and his principal temple was at Thebes. He is
+    generally represented by the figure of a man with his face concealed
+    under the head of a horned ram. The figure is coloured blue, the
+    sacred colour of the source of life.
+
+    SACRED BEETLE (=kheper=) usually called _scarabeus_ or _scarabee_. It
+    was thought that the beetle hid its eggs in the sand, where they
+    remained until the young beetles broke forth to life. Thus the
+    scarabeus became the symbol of the resurrection and a future life.
+
+    According to Cooper, the sacred beetle was in the habit of laying its
+    eggs in a ball of clay, which it kept rolling until the eggs were
+    vivified by the heat of the sun. The beetle thus became the emblem of
+    the sun, the vivifier, and was therefore consecrated to Ra, who is on
+    that account called Ra-Kheper.
+
+    When dedicated to Ra, the beetle holds the cosmic ball between its
+    front legs. Sometimes it is an emblem of the world, and is then
+    consecrated to Ptah, the creator of heaven and earth.
+
+    The divine name, or prenomen, of Thothmes is thus _Ra-Men-Kheper_,
+    frequently read _Men-Khepera-Ra_, and is made up of three hieroglyphs,
+    which stand for Ra, Amen, and Ptah, the supreme gods respectively
+    worshipped at Heliopolis, Thebes, and Memphis. From these three great
+    deities Thothmes thus claims his descent.
+
+The cartouche with the divine name of Thothmes occurs four times on the
+obelisk, once on each side at the top of the central column of
+hieroglyphs. The sacred beetle occurs in two other places in the central
+columns of Thothmes, but never appears in the eight lateral columns of
+Rameses.
+
+[Illustration: "He has made as it were monuments to his father
+Haremakhu."]
+
+    EYE (=ar=) _made_. As a verb _ar_ signifies to make.
+
+    ZIGZAG (=en=) _has_. After verbs the zigzag means _has_, and is
+    therefore a sign of perfect.
+
+    HORNED SNAKE (=ef=) _he_. The usual personal pronoun.
+
+    OWL (=mu=) _as it were_.
+
+    CHESSBOARD (=men=) _monument_.
+
+    VASE (=nu=). The vase represents an _ampulla_ or bottle. The three
+    vases in this place are used as a determinative to _men_, monument;
+    and being three in number, indicate plurality, making MEN into MENU,
+    monuments.
+
+    HORNED SNAKE (=ef=) _his_. This figure is often called cerastes.
+    Standing by itself it usually stands for the possessive pronoun _his_.
+
+    ZIGZAG (=en=) _to_. Used here as a preposition.
+
+    SEMICIRCLE and CERASTES (=tef=) _father_. The semicircle is here an
+    alphabetic phonetic, equal to _t_, and with _ef_ makes TEF, meaning
+    father.
+
+    HAWK (=bak=) _Horus_. The hawk alone stood for any solar deity. With
+    the solar disk on the head and two ovals by the side, as in the
+    present hieroglyph, it stood for Haremakhu, the sun in the horizon.
+    The two ovals are called KHU, and stand for the eastern and western
+    horizons.
+
+Thothmes III. claims Horus as his father, and it is moreover evident from
+the above that the obelisk itself is dedicated to the rising sun. The
+great Sphinx at the pyramids of Ghizeh is also dedicated to Haremakhu, and
+this may account for the fact that the gigantic figure faces the east, the
+region of the rising sun.
+
+[Illustration: "He has set up two great obelisks capped with gold."]
+
+    THRONE BACK (=es=). This may be the back of a chair. It is the old
+    hieroglyph for the letter _s_.
+
+    REEL (=ha=) _set up_. This hieroglyph is by some thought to be the leg
+    of a stool.
+
+    ZIGZAG (=en=) _has_.
+
+    HORNED SNAKE (=ef=) _he_.
+
+    OBELISK (_tekhen_) is in this place an image or picture of the thing
+    spoken of, namely obelisk. This hieroglyph is therefore an iconograph,
+    or representation. Two obelisks are here depicted, to indicate that
+    two were set up. According to Cooper the obelisk was an emblem of the
+    sun--the clearest symbol of supreme deity. The Egyptian name was
+    TEKHEN, a word signifying mystery, and it was regarded among the
+    initiated as the esoteric symbol of light and life. The obelisk was
+    consequently dedicated to Horus, the god of the rising sun, while the
+    pyramid, the house of the dead, was dedicated to Tum, or Atum, the god
+    of the setting sun. Hence obelisks are found only on the east bank of
+    the Nile, while pyramids are built on the west side, by the edge of
+    the silent desert.
+
+    SWALLOW (=ur=) _great_. The swallow is an emblem of greatness, and
+    therefore may be called an ideograph, or symbolic hieroglyph.
+
+    Two swallows are here depicted, because there are two obelisks, and
+    the dual form extends to the adjective.
+
+    TWO LEGS (=bu=) _capped_. There are two legs, to express duality, and
+    thus agree with the preceding substantive, two obelisks. A human leg
+    is the original alphabetic sign for letter _b_. The letter _u_ is a
+    plural termination.
+
+    SEMICIRCLE (=ta=) _the_. Under the right leg is a semicircle, which is
+    here the feminine article to agree with the little triangular
+    hieroglyph below.
+
+    PYRAMIDION. The summit of the obelisk, known as the pyramidion, from
+    its resemblance to a small pyramid, is here represented by a small
+    triangle. This hieroglyph represents the top or cap of the obelisk,
+    and is a determinative to _capped_.
+
+    OWL (=mu=) _with_. Owl, as a preposition, has the same meaning as the
+    prepositions _with_, _from_, _by_--the usual signs of the ablative
+    case.
+
+    BOWL (=neb=) _gold_. Under this crater or bowl will be noticed three
+    small dots, probably designed to represent grains of the metal
+    intended.
+
+    SCEPTRE (=user=) is here used as a determinative of metal; and some
+    Egyptologists think that when it accompanies the bowl called NEB, the
+    metal referred to is not gold but copper.
+
+Among the hieroglyphs on the London Obelisk may be found many ideographs
+or pictures of outward objects, each of which stands for an attribute or
+abstract idea. Thus arm stands for power, interior of a hall for
+festivity, lizard for multitude, beetle for immortality, sceptre for
+power, crook for authority, Anubis staff for plenty, vulture for queenly
+royalty, asp for kingly royalty, ostrich feather for truth, ankh or crux
+ansata for life, weight for equality, adze for approval, pike for power,
+horn for opposition, the bird called bennu for lustre, pyramous loaf for
+giving, hatchet called neter for god, lion's head for victory, swallow for
+greatness.
+
+In addition to the obelisk, the other iconographs or picture
+representations found on the London Obelisk are the sun, moon, star,
+heaven, pole, throne, abode, altar, tree.
+
+From this hieroglyphic sentence we learn that the pyramidion of each
+obelisk was covered or capped with some metal, probably copper. This was
+done to protect the monument from lightning and rain. Cooper draws
+attention to the fact that obelisks were capped with metals, and pyramids
+were covered with polished stones. The pyramidia of Hatasu's obelisks at
+Karnak were covered with gold. The venerable obelisk still standing at
+Heliopolis had a cap of bronze, which remained until the Middle Ages, and
+was seen by an Arabian physician about A.D. 1300.
+
+The avarice of greed and the rapacity of war have long since stripped
+every obelisk of its metal covering.
+
+[Illustration: "At the first festival of the Triakonteris."]
+
+    DISK (=aten=) _time_. The solar disk is usually a symbol of Ra, but as
+    the sun is the measurer of times and seasons, the disk sometimes
+    stands for time, as it does here.
+
+    The hieroglyphs following are defaced. Some think one hieroglyph is a
+    cerastes, but Dr. Birch says the group probably consisted of a harpoon
+    and three vertical lines--a common sign of plurality. Thus the
+    preceding sentence would be "at time the first," that is, "at the
+    first time."
+
+    OWL (=mu=) _in_. Here a preposition governing _time_.
+
+    PALACE (=seh=) _Festival of the Triakonteris_. This hieroglyph with
+    three compartments probably represents the interior of a palace. It is
+    the usual symbol for a festival. With two small thrones inside, as
+    seen here, the hieroglyph probably represents the interior of a
+    palace; and is the ideograph for the festival called triakonteris,
+    because celebrated every thirty years. This cyclical festival was
+    celebrated with great festivity. The space of time between two
+    successive feasts was called a triakontennial period. The thrones
+    which distinguish the triakonteris from an ordinary festival indicates
+    also the royal character of this great feast.
+
+    HALL (=seh=) is the usual hieroglyph for an ordinary festival, and
+    represents the interior of a hall. It consists of two compartments.
+    The pole in the centre supporting the roof is here a carved post.
+    _Seh_ is here used as a determinative to the preceding hieroglyph.
+    The symbol for festival here stands on a large semicircle, with an
+    inscribed diamond-shaped aperture. This semicircle with the
+    diamond-shaped aperture is called HEB, and often appears alone as the
+    hieroglyph for _festival_.
+
+Thothmes III. reigned fifty-four years, and therefore witnessed the
+beginning of two triakontennial periods. Probably he set up the two
+obelisks at the first triakonteris that happened during his reign.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The hieroglyphs following seem to be zigzag, line, semicircle, zigzag,
+hoe, mouth, mouth, cerastes, semicircle, two arms united, line, eye,
+zigzag, cerastes. These are defaced somewhat on the obelisk, and therefore
+doubtfully copied in the transcript. Dr. Birch translates them: "according
+to his wish he has done it." The student should notice that the
+hieroglyphs hoe and mouth together mean _wish_.
+
+Eye (=ar=) here means _done_; and zigzag _has_, the usual sign of perfect.
+
+The nomen is the family name or surname of the monarch. It may be made up
+of iconographs, ideographs, syllabic signs, and alphabetic phonetics; or
+the name may consist of a combination of all these. If it be composed of
+the first three, then the nomen corresponds to what in heraldry is called
+a rebus. The name of Thothmes is made up of the well-known sacred bird
+called _ibis_, and the triple twig called _mes_.
+
+[Illustration: "Son of the Sun, Thothmes."]
+
+    GOOSE (=sa=) _son_. The goose was a common article of food in Egypt,
+    and as hieroglyphs for the most part are representations of common
+    objects, we find the goose repeatedly figured on the inscriptions.
+    Sometimes it stands for _Seb_, the father of the gods, the _Saturn_ of
+    classic mythology.
+
+    SOLAR DISK (=aten=) _the sun_. It stands for Ra, the sun-god. The
+    goose and disk mean "son of the sun," and almost invariably precede
+    the nomen of the king, because kings were thought to be lineal
+    descendants of the supreme solar deity.
+
+    IBIS. A common bird in Egypt, resembling the crane, phoenix, and
+    bennu. It was sacred to, and an emblem of, Thoth, the god of letters,
+    who is usually depicted with an ibis head. As Thoth represented both
+    the visible and concealed moon, he was fitly represented by the sacred
+    bird ibis, which on account of its mingled black and white feathers,
+    was an effective emblem of both the dark and illumined side of the
+    moon. The ibis alone on a standard, as depicted on the obelisk, stood
+    for Thoth, the first syllable of the word Thothmes.
+
+    TRIPLE TWIG (=mes=) means _born_, and is a symbol of birth. Thus
+    _ibis_ and _mes_ together form the rebus Thothmes, which name thus
+    means, "born of Thoth."
+
+In this particular cartouche will be noticed a small scarabeus or beetle,
+which is an emblem of existence and immortality, and probably indicates
+the self-existent nature and immortality of Thothmes; but this part of the
+obelisk is much defaced, and what follows is well nigh obliterated.
+
+In ancient times kings and great persons were frequently named after the
+god they worshipped; thus among the Egyptians, Rameses from Ra, Amen-hotep
+from Amen, Seti from Set, etc. Similarly in Scripture we find Joshua,
+Jeremiah, Jesus, derived from Jehovah; Jerubbaal, Ethbaal, Jezebel,
+Belshazzar, and many others, from Baal or Bel, the sun-god; Elijah,
+Elisha, Elias, Elishama, etc., from El or Eloah, the true God. The same
+mode of deriving names from deities prevailed more or less among all
+ancient nations. On this principle Thothmes, the mighty Egyptian monarch,
+was named after the god Thoth.
+
+What follows on this side of the obelisk is well nigh obliterated, but the
+hieroglyphs were probably the same as those following the cartouche of
+Thothmes at the bottom of the central column on the second and fourth
+sides of the obelisk, and therefore would mean, "Beloved of Haremakhu,
+ever living."
+
+[Illustration: "Beloved of Haremakhu, ever living."]
+
+    HAWK (=bak=), as has been already explained, is the emblem of any
+    solar deity, but surmounted by the _aten_ or solar disk, and
+    accompanied by two ovals called _khu_, which indicate the two
+    horizons, in the east and west parts of the sky, the hawk, as here,
+    stands for Horus, or Haremakhu, the sun in the horizon.
+
+    The hoe, called =mer= or =tore=, is equal to the phonetic _m_, and was
+    one of the commonest implements used in agriculture. It is sometimes
+    spoken of as a hand-plough, or pick or spade, and probably it answered
+    all these purposes. In shape it somewhat resembled our capital letter
+    A, as it consisted of two lines tied together about the centre with a
+    twisted rope. One limb was of uniform thickness, and generally
+    straight, and formed the head; while the other, curved inwards, and
+    sometimes of considerable width, formed the handle. The hoe stands
+    here for the phonetic sound of _m_, the first letter of the word
+    =mai=, which means _beloved_.
+
+    TWO REEDS. One reed is equal to _a_, the double reed equals phonetic
+    _i_, and is generally a plural sign. Here the double reed is an
+    intensive, so that the hoe and double reeds spell _mai_, which means
+    "much beloved."
+
+These hieroglyphs, taken in the order in which they ought to be translated
+into English, consist of a hoe, two reeds, a hawk, two ovals, and a solar
+disk.
+
+The last group of hieroglyphs consists of a long serpent, a semicircle,
+and a straight line. The long serpent is equal to the phonetic _t_, or
+_th_, or _g_. The semicircle, which represents the upper grindstone for
+bruising corn, equals phonetic _t_. It is often called a muller or
+millstone. The straight line is a phonetic equal to _ta_. The three
+hieroglyphs therefore form the word _getta_ or _tetta_, a term which means
+everlasting.
+
+_Getta_ appears as the last group of hieroglyphs at the bottom of the
+central column on the third and fourth sides. They were probably at first
+at the end of the central column on the first and second sides also,
+although they have been obliterated on the two latter faces.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE HIEROGLYPHICS OF THOTHMES III.
+
+_Translation of the Second Side._
+
+
+"Horus, the powerful Bull, crowned by Truth, Lord of Upper and Lower
+Egypt, Ra-men-Kheper. The Lord of the Gods has multiplied Festivals to him
+upon the great Persea Tree within the Temple of the Phoenix; he is known
+as his son--a divine person, his limbs issuing in all places according to
+his wish. Son of the Sun, Thothmes, of Holy An, beloved of Haremakhu."
+
+[Illustration: "Horus, the powerful bull, crowned by Truth, lord of Upper
+and Lower Egypt, Ra-men-Kheper."]
+
+    SEATED FIGURE (=Ma=) _goddess of Truth_. She was called Thmei or Ma,
+    and was generally represented by a seated female, holding in one hand
+    the ankh, the symbol of life, and on her head an ostrich feather. The
+    ostrich feather alone is also the symbol of truth or justice, because
+    of the equal length of the feathers. In courts of justice the chief
+    judge wore a figure of Thmei suspended from his neck by a golden
+    chain.
+
+    Thmei or Ma is always represented as present at the dreadful balance
+    in the hall of justice, where each soul was weighed against the symbol
+    of divine truth.
+
+The above is the same as face one, the only new idea being that of
+_Truth_, mentioned in the palatial title.
+
+[Illustration: "The lord of the gods has multiplied Festivals to him."]
+
+    LIZARD (=as=) _multiplied_. _As_ is the usual verb to multiply.
+
+    With the zigzag line under the sign of the perfect, the two
+    hieroglyphs mean _has multiplied_.
+
+    BACK OF CHAIR (=s=) phonetic hieroglyph. Is here the consonantal
+    complement of _as_, the preceding hieroglyph.
+
+    ZIGZAG (=en=) _to_. A preposition here.
+
+    CERASTES (=ef=) _him_. Personal pronoun.
+
+    BASKET (=neb=) _lord_. This hieroglyph might be thought to be a basin,
+    but in painted hieroglyphs it appears as a wicker basket.
+
+    THREE HATCHETS (=neteru=) _gods_. A hatchet or battle-axe was called
+    neter, and was the usual symbol for a god. Plurality is often
+    indicated by a hieroglyph being repeated three times. The letter _u_
+    is a plural termination; thus _neter_ is god, _neteru_ gods.
+
+    PALACE (=seh=) _festival_.
+
+    HALL (=seh=) _festival_. Here used as a determinative to the
+    preceding.
+
+Every syllabic sign possesses an inherent vowel sound, or an inherent
+consonant sound, or both. The vowel sign is often placed before, and the
+consonant sign after the syllabic sign. Such alphabetic hieroglyphs are
+called complements, and are very frequently used in the inscriptions.
+
+[Illustration: "Upon the great Persea Tree within the Temple of the
+Phoenix."]
+
+    HUMAN HEAD (=Her=) _upon_.
+
+    The vertical line preceding is the masculine article. The defaced
+    signs on the left were probably three short vertical lines, to
+    indicate the plurality of festivals.
+
+    POOL (=shi=). Here a phonetic united with succeeding hieroglyph.
+
+    HAND (=t=) alphabetic phonetic. The two spell _shit_, the name of
+    _persea_, a beautiful tree abounding in ancient Egypt, bearing
+    pear-shaped fruit.
+
+    TREE (=persea=) _tree_. A determinative to the preceding hieroglyphs.
+    The tree here referred to may have been situated at Heliopolis; and it
+    is worthy of notice that in a picture at Thebes, the god Tum appears
+    in the act of writing the name of Thothmes on the fruit of the persea.
+
+    PERSON ON THRONE (=sep=) _great_. The throne is a common symbol for
+    greatness.
+
+    CHAIR BACK (=s=) alphabetic phonetic. Here an initial complement to
+    _sep_.
+
+    OWL (=em=)                }
+                              } The two form _emkhen_, the preposition
+    DECAPITATE FIGURE (=khen=)} _within_.
+
+    SEMICIRCLE (=tu=) _the_. Feminine article.
+
+    OPEN SQUARE (=ha=) _house_. The figure probably represents the ground
+    plan of an ancient house.
+
+    LARGE SQUARE (=ha=) _temple_. This square is not open, but it encloses
+    a smaller square in one corner, and thus resembles a stamped envelope.
+    The god or sacred bird that dwells in this temple is depicted within
+    the square. On the third face of the obelisk, right lateral column,
+    the goddess Athor or Hathor--literally the abode of Horus, thus
+    implying that she was Horus' mother--is represented by a large square,
+    enclosing a hawk, the emblem of Horus. Within the square hieroglyph
+    now under consideration will be noticed the figure of a bird somewhat
+    defaced, probably the crane or phoenix. The square itself is perhaps
+    the ground plan of a temple, or adytum of a temple. Thus the sentence
+    means, "within the house, the temple of the phoenix." Cooper thinks
+    the bird depicted is the _bennu_, the sacred bird of Heliopolis, and
+    that the temple of the bennu, called _habennu_, is the great temple of
+    the sun at Heliopolis.
+
+[Illustration: "He is known as his son, a divine person. His limbs issuing
+in all places, according to his wish."]
+
+    MOUTH (=ru=)   }
+                   } The two, _ru-aten_, equal _known_.
+    CIRCLE (=aten=)}
+
+    GOOSE (=sa=) son.
+
+    CERASTES (=ef=) _he_.
+
+    CHICK (=u=) _is_.
+
+    HATCHET (=neter=) _divine_.
+
+    HUMAN FIGURE _person_.
+
+    Thothmes, in virtue of his royalty, styles himself a "divine person."
+
+    TWISTED CORD (=hi=) _limbs_. The three dots represent fragments of his
+    body, and form a determinative of limbs.
+
+    HOUSE (=p=)}
+               } The two form _per_, _issuing_.
+    MOUTH (=r=)}
+
+    OWL (=em=) _in_.
+
+    MAEANDER (=ha=) _place_.
+
+    BASKET (=neb=) _all_.
+
+    MOUTH (=er=) _according to_.
+
+    POOL (=mer=) _wish_.
+
+    MOUTH (=er=) _his_.
+
+Then follows, "son of the sun, Thothmes of An," etc., the same hieroglyphs
+as those already explained at the lower part of the first column. The only
+new hieroglyph is the _pylon_, rendered _An_ in the cartouche. It may be
+explained as follows:--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    PYLON (=An=) _Heliopolis_. The sacred city of the sun must have been a
+    city of obelisks, temples, and pylons, or colossal gateways. The
+    latter must have formed a conspicuous feature of the place, inasmuch
+    as the massive masonry of the gateways would tower high above the
+    other buildings. This being so, it is not surprising that a pylon with
+    a flagstaff should be the usual symbol for Heliopolis.
+
+The hieroglyphs following the cartouche mean, "Beloved of Haremakhu,"
+etc., and have already been explained.
+
+It ought to be observed that on three sides of the obelisk Thothmes'
+columns of hieroglyphs ended alike, namely: face one, now almost
+obliterated in this part; face two, still distinct; and face four, more
+complete in its termination than any other side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE HIEROGLYPHICS OF THOTHMES III.
+
+_Translation of the Third Side._
+
+
+"Horus, powerful Bull, beloved of Ra, King of Upper and Lower Egypt,
+Ra-men-Kheper. His father Tum has set up for him a great name, with
+increase of royalty, in the precincts of Heliopolis, giving him the throne
+of Seb, the dignity of Kheper, Son of the Sun, Thothmes, the Holy, the
+Just, beloved of the Bennu of An, ever-living."
+
+The first part of the inscription, namely, "Horus, powerful bull, beloved
+of Ra, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-men-Kheper," is the same as in
+the first and second side, the only new idea occurring in the lower part
+of the palatial title, namely, "beloved of Ra."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    HAND PLOUGH (=mer=) _beloved_.
+
+    FIGURE (=Ra=) _sun-god_. The seated figure has a hawk's head,
+    surmounted by the aten or solar disk. Ra being the supreme solar
+    deity, the "beloved of Ra" was one of the favourite epithets of the
+    king.
+
+[Illustration: "His father Tum set up for him a great name, with increase
+of royalty."]
+
+    CHESSBOARD (=men=) _set up_.
+
+    ZIGZAG (=en=) _has_. After zigzag appears a thick line, which Dr.
+    Birch thinks to be a papyrus roll, the usual sign of possession.
+
+    SEMICIRCLE (=t=) with cerastes (_ef_) make up (_tef_) _father_.
+
+    SEMICIRCLE (=t=) phonetic consonantal complement of _t_ in _Tum_.
+
+    SLEDGE (=tm=) _Tum_. The setting sun, worshipped at Heliopolis,
+    probably same as Atum. The god Tum appears on the four sides of the
+    pyramidion, and some therefore think that the obelisk stood with its
+    companion in front of the temple of Tum at Heliopolis.
+
+    MOUTH (=ru=) _for_.
+
+    ZIGZAG (=n=)   }
+                   } The two form (_nef_) _him_.
+    CERASTES (=ef=)}
+
+    SWALLOW (=ur=) _great_. This is the usual hieroglyph for greatness.
+
+    CARTOUCHE (=khen=) _name_. The cartouche is usually the oval form in
+    which the king inscribed his name. Here it stands for _name_.
+
+    OWL (=em=) _with_. The owl has generally the force of the ablative
+    case.
+
+    TWISTED CORD (=uah=) _increase_. The top of this hieroglyph resembles
+    papyrus flower, and ought therefore to be distinguished from the
+    simple twisted cord.
+
+    REED (=su=) _royalty_.
+
+[Illustration: "In the precincts of Heliopolis, giving him the throne of
+Seb, the dignity of Kepher."]
+
+    OWL (=em=) _m_. Complement to _am_, preceding.
+
+    CROSS (=am=) _in_.
+
+    SEMICIRCLE (=ta=) _the_.
+
+    OBLONG (=hen=) _precincts_. The usual hieroglyph for temple.
+
+    PYLON (=An=) _Heliopolis_.
+
+    CIRCLE with CROSS (=nu=) determinative of a city.
+
+    MOUTH (=r=)}
+               } The two phonetics form _ra_, _giving_.
+    ARM (=a=)  }
+
+    SEMICIRCLE (=ta=) _the_.
+
+    CERASTES (=ef=) _him_.
+
+    THRONE (=kher=) _throne_.
+
+    GOOSE (=s=)} The two phonetics form _sb_ or _Seb_, name of a god. Seb
+               } was the Chronos of the Greeks, the Saturn of the Latins.
+    LEG (=b=)  }
+
+    HORNS ON A POLE (=aa=) _dignity_. On the horns is a coiled rope.
+
+    ZIGZAG (=en=) _of_.
+
+    BEETLE (=khep=) _Kheper_. The scarabeus or sacred beetle, dedicated to
+    Ra and Ptah.
+
+The remaining hieroglyphs of this column have already been explained
+(_see_ p. 80), except the two small hieroglyphs beside the nomen Thothmes,
+and the termination of the column.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    MUSICAL INSTRUMENT (=nefer=) _holy_. This instrument resembles a heart
+    surmounted by a cross. Some think it represents a guitar, and from the
+    purifying effects of music, became the symbol for goodness or
+    holiness.
+
+    OSTRICH FEATHER (=shu=) _true_. The usual symbol of truth. The nomen
+    therefore in this case may be rendered, "Thothmes, the holy, the
+    true."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    BENNU (=bennu=) sacred bird of An. This _bennu_ is usually depicted
+    with two long feathers on the back of the head.
+
+[Illustration: "An or Heliopolis."]
+
+    PYLON or gateway, is a hieroglyph that stands for _An_ or _On_, the
+    Greek Heliopolis. Its great antiquity is shown from the fact that the
+    city is referred to in the Book of Genesis under the name of _On_,
+    translated [Greek: On] in the Septuagint: "And Pharaoh called Joseph's
+    name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of
+    Poti-pherah priest of On.... And unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were
+    born Manasseh and Ephraim, which Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah
+    priest of On bare unto him."
+
+Heliopolis was by the ancient Egyptians named Benbena, "the house of
+pyramidia;" but as no pyramids proper ever existed at On, the monuments
+alluded to are either pylons, that is, gateways of temples, or obelisks.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE HIEROGLYPHICS OF THOTHMES III.
+
+_Translation of the Fourth Side._
+
+
+"Horus, beloved of Osiris, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-men-Kheper,
+making offerings, beloved of the gods, supplying the altar of the three
+Spirits of Heliopolis, with a sound life hundreds of thousands of
+festivals of thirty years, very many; Son of the Sun, Thothmes, divine
+Ruler, beloved of Haremakhu, ever-living."
+
+The first part of the inscription, "Horus, beloved of Osiris, king of
+Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-men-Kheper," is similar to the other faces,
+except that the figure of Osiris, the benignant declining sun, occurs.
+
+[Illustration: "Making offerings, beloved of the gods, supplying the altar
+of the three Spirits of Heliopolis."]
+
+    CHESSBOARD (=men=) _making_.
+
+    THREE VASES (=menu=) _offerings_. Plurality is indicated by the vase
+    being repeated thrice.
+
+    HAND PLOUGH (=mer=) _beloved_.
+
+    HATCHET (=neter=) _god_. The three vertical lines before the hatchet
+    indicate plurality.
+
+    LONG SERPENT (=g=) phonetic }
+                                } The two form _gef_, _supplying_.
+    HORNED SNAKE (=ef=) phonetic}
+
+    ALTAR, _altar_.
+
+    ZIGZAG (=nu=) _of_.
+
+    THREE BIRDS, _three spirits_. These birds represent the bennu, or
+    sacred bird of Heliopolis, supposed to be an incarnation of a solar
+    god. Three are depicted to represent respectively the three solar
+    deities, Horus, Ra, Tum.
+
+    PYLON (=An=) _Heliopolis_.
+
+    VASE (=n=) complement to (_An_).
+
+    CIRCLE with CROSS (=nu=) determinative of city An.
+
+[Illustration: "With a sound life, hundreds of thousands of festivals of
+thirty years, very many."]
+
+    OWL (=em=) _with_.
+
+    CROSS (=ankh=) _life_. This hieroglyph is the usual symbol of life. It
+    is therefore known as the key of life, and from its shape is called
+    _crux ansata_, "handled cross." It ought to be distinguished from the
+    musical instrument called sistrum, which it somewhat resembles.
+
+    SCEPTRE (=uas=) _sound_. The sceptre usually stands for power, but
+    power in life is soundness of health.
+
+    LITTLE MAN (=hefen=) _hundreds of thousands_. This little figure with
+    hands upraised is the usual symbol for an indefinite number, and may
+    be rendered millions, or as above.
+
+    PALACE (=heb=) _festivals_. _See_ face one.
+
+    SWALLOW (=ur=) _very_. This symbol generally means great. Here it is
+    an intensive, very.
+
+    LIZARD (=ast=) _many_.
+
+[Illustration: "Making offerings to their Majesties at two seasons of the
+year, that he might repose by means of them."]
+
+    OFFERING (=hotep=) _offering_. The three vertical lines indicating
+    plurality may refer both to offering and succeeding hieroglyph.
+
+    CONE (=hen=) _majesty_. We have called this cone, from its likeness to
+    a fir-cone.
+
+    TWO CIRCLES (=aten=) _two seasons_. Each is a solar disk, the ordinary
+    symbol of Ra, but here means season, because seasons depend on the
+    sun.
+
+    SHOOT (=renpa=) _year_. This is a shoot of a palm tree; with one notch
+    it equals year.
+
+The following hieroglyphs are obscure, but the highest authorities say
+that they probably mean, "that he might repose by means of them;" that is,
+that Thothmes hoped that repose might be brought to his mind from the fact
+that he made due offerings to his gods at the two appointed seasons.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+RAMESES II.
+
+
+The lateral columns of hieroglyphics on the London Obelisk are the work of
+Rameses II., who lived about two centuries after Thothmes III., and
+ascended the throne about 1300 B.C. Rameses II. was the third king of the
+XIXth dynasty; and for personal exploits, the magnificence of his works,
+and the length of his reign, he was not surpassed by any of the kings of
+ancient Egypt, except by Thothmes III.
+
+His grandfather, Rameses I., was the founder of the dynasty. His father,
+Seti I., is celebrated for his victories over the Rutennu, or Syrians, and
+over the Shasu, or Arabians, as well as for his public works, especially
+the great temple he built at Karnak. Rameses II. was, however, a greater
+warrior than his father. He first conquered Kush, or Ethiopia; then he led
+an expedition against the Khitae, or Hittites, whom he completely routed at
+Kadesh, the ancient capital, a town on the River Orontes, north of Mount
+Lebanon. In this battle Rameses was placed in the greatest danger; but his
+personal bravery stood him in good stead, and he kept the Hittites at bay
+till his soldiers rescued him. He thus commemorates on the monuments his
+deeds;
+
+"I became like the god Mentu; I hurled the dart with my right hand; I
+fought with my left hand; I was like Baal in his time before their sight;
+I had come upon two thousand five hundred pairs of horses; I was in the
+midst of them; but they were dashed in pieces before my steeds. Not one of
+them raised his hand to fight; their courage was sunken in their breasts;
+their limbs gave way; they could not hurl the dart, nor had they strength
+to thrust the spear. I made them fall into the waters like crocodiles;
+they tumbled down on their faces one after another. I killed them at my
+pleasure, so that not one looked back behind him; nor did any turn round.
+Each fell, and none raised himself up again."[6]
+
+Rameses fought with and conquered the Amorites, Canaanites, and other
+tribes of Palestine and Syria. His public works are also very numerous; he
+dug wells, founded cities, and completed a great wall begun by his father
+Seti, reaching from Pelusium to Heliopolis, a gigantic structure, designed
+to keep back the hostile Asiatics, thus reminding one of the Great Wall of
+China. Pelusium was situated near the present Port Said, and the wall must
+therefore have been about a hundred miles long. In its course it must have
+passed near the site of Tel-el-Kebir. It is now certain that Rameses built
+the treasure cities spoken of in Exodus: "Therefore they did set over them
+taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh
+treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses" (Exod. i. 11). According to Dr.
+Birch, Rameses II. was a monarch of whom it was written: "Now there arose
+up a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph."
+
+He enlarged On and Tanis, and built temples at Ipsambul, Karnak, Luxor,
+Abydos, Memphis, etc.
+
+"The most remarkable of the temples erected by Rameses is the building at
+Thebes, once called the Memnonium, but now commonly known as the Rameseum;
+and the extraordinary rock temple of Ipsambul, or Abu-Simbel, the most
+magnificent specimen of its class which the world contains.
+
+"The facade is formed by four huge colossi, each seventy feet in height,
+representing Rameses himself seated on a throne, with the double crown of
+Egypt upon his head. In the centre, flanked on either side by two of these
+gigantic figures, is a doorway of the usual Egyptian type, opening into a
+small vestibule, which communicates by a short passage with the main
+chamber. This is an oblong square, sixty feet long, by forty-five, divided
+into a nave and two aisles by two rows of square piers with Osirid
+statues, thirty feet high in front, and ornamented with painted sculptures
+over its whole surface. The main chamber leads into an inner shrine, or
+adytum, supported by four piers with Osirid figures, but otherwise as
+richly adorned as the outer apartment. Behind the adytum are small rooms
+for the priests who served in the temple. It is the facade of the work
+which constitutes its main beauty."[7]
+
+[Illustration: COLOSSAL HEAD OF RAMESES II.]
+
+"The largest of the rock temples at Ipsambul," says Mr. Fergusson, "is
+_the finest of its class known to exist anywhere_. Externally the facade
+is about one hundred feet in height, and adorned by four of the most
+magnificent colossi in Egypt, each seventy feet in height, and
+representing the king, Rameses II., who caused the excavation to be made.
+It may be because they are more perfect than any other now found in that
+country, but certainly nothing can exceed their calm majesty and beauty,
+or be more entirely free from the vulgarity and exaggeration which is
+generally a characteristic of colossal works of this sort."[8]
+
+A great king Rameses was, undoubtedly; but he showed no disposition to
+underrate his greatness. The hieroglyphics on Cleopatra's Needles are
+written in a vaunting and arrogant strain; and in all the monuments
+celebrating his deeds the same spirit is present. His character has been
+well summarized by Canon Rawlinson:--
+
+"His affection for his son, and for his two principal wives, shows that
+the disposition of Rameses II. was in some respects amiable; although,
+upon the whole, his character is one which scarcely commends itself to our
+approval. Professing in his early years extreme devotion to the memory of
+his father, he lived to show himself his father's worst enemy, and to aim
+at obliterating his memory by erasing his name from the monuments on which
+it occurred, and in many cases substituting his own. Amid a great show of
+regard for the deities of his country, and for the ordinances of the
+established worship, he contrived that the chief result of all that he did
+for religion should be the glorification of himself. Other kings had
+arrogated to themselves a certain qualified dignity, and after their
+deaths had sometimes been placed by some of their successors on a par with
+the real national gods; but it remained for Rameses to associate himself
+during his lifetime with such leading deities as Ptah, Ammon, and Horus,
+and to claim equally with them the religious regards of his subjects. He
+was also, as already observed, the first to introduce into Egypt the
+degrading custom of polygamy and the corrupting influence of a harem. Even
+his bravery, which cannot be denied, loses half its merit by being made
+the constant subject of boasting; and his magnificence ceases to appear
+admirable when we think at what a cost it displayed itself. If, with most
+recent writers upon Egyptian history, we identify him with the 'king who
+knew not Joseph,' the builder of Pithom and Raamses, the first oppressor
+of the Israelites, we must add some darker shades to the picture, and look
+upon him as a cruel and ruthless despot, who did not shrink from
+inflicting on innocent persons the severest pain and suffering."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE HIEROGLYPHICS OF RAMESES II.
+
+_First side.--Right hand._
+
+
+"Horus, powerful bull, son of Tum, king of Upper and Lower Egypt,
+Ra-user-ma-sotep-en-Ra, lord of kingly and queenly royalty, guardian of
+Kham (Egypt), chastiser of foreign lands, son of the sun, Ra-meri-Amen,
+dragging the foreigners of southern nations to the Great Sea, the
+foreigners of northern nations to the four poles of heaven, lord of the
+two countries, Ra-user-ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Ra-mes-su-men-Amen,
+giver of life like the sun."
+
+Most of the above hieroglyphs have already been explained, but the
+following remarks will enable the reader to understand better this column
+of hieroglyphs.
+
+Cartouche containing the divine name of Rameses:--
+
+[Illustration: "King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-user-ma-sotep-en-Ra."]
+
+    OVAL (=aten=) _Ra_. The oval is the solar disk, the usual symbol of
+    the supreme solar deity called Ra.
+
+    ANUBIS STAFF (=user=) _abounding in_. This symbol was equal to Latin
+    _dives_, rich, abounding in. The _user_, or Anubis staff, was a rod
+    with a jackal-head on the top. The jackal was the emblem of Anubis,
+    son of Osiris, and brother of Thoth. The god Anubis was the friend and
+    guardian of pure souls. He is therefore frequently depicted by the bed
+    of the dying. After death Anubis was director of funeral rites, and
+    presided over the embalmers of the dead. He was also the conductor of
+    souls to the regions of Amenti, and in the hall of judgment presides
+    over the scales of justice.
+
+    FEMALE FIGURE (=ma=) _Ma_ or _Thmei_, the goddess of truth. She is
+    generally represented in a sitting posture, holding in her hand the
+    _ankh_, the key of life, an emblem of immortality.
+
+    DISK (=aten=) _Ra_, the supreme solar deity.
+
+    DRILL OR AUGER (=sotep=) _approved_. _Sotep_ means to judge, to
+    approve of. Here it simply means _approved_.
+
+    ZIGZAG (=en=) _of_.
+
+The prenomen, or divine name of Rameses, means "The supreme solar god,
+abounding in truth, approved of Ra." Thus in his divine nature Rameses
+claims to be a descendant of Ra, and of the same nature with the god. This
+prenomen is repeated twice in each column of hieroglyphs, and as there are
+eight lateral columns cut by Rameses, it follows that this divine name
+occurs sixteen times on the obelisk.
+
+[Illustration: "Lord of kingly and queenly royalty, guardian of Egypt,
+chastiser of foreign lands."]
+
+    THE VULTURE (=mut=) was worn on the diadem of a queen, and was a badge
+    of queenly royalty.
+
+    THE SACRED ASP, called _uraeus_, was worn on the forehead of a king. It
+    was a symbol of kingly royalty and immortality, and being worn by the
+    king [Greek: (Basileus)], the sacred asp was also called _basilisk_.
+    Rameses, in choosing the epithet "Lord of kingly and queenly royalty,"
+    wished perhaps to set forth that he embodied in himself the graces of
+    a queen with the wisdom of a king.
+
+    CROCODILE'S TAIL (=Kham=) _Egypt_. _Kham_ literally means black, and
+    Egypt in early times was called "the black country," from the black
+    alluvial soil brought down by the Nile. The symbol thought to be a
+    crocodile's tail represents Egypt, because the crocodile abounded in
+    Egypt, and was a characteristic of that country. Even at the present
+    time Egypt is sometimes spoken of as "the land of the crocodile."
+
+    TWO STRAIGHT LINES (=tata=) is the usual symbol for the two countries
+    of Egypt. They appear above the second prenomen of this column of
+    hieroglyphs. Each line represents a layer of earth, and is named _ta_.
+    Egypt was a flat country, and on this account the emblem of Egypt was
+    a straight line.
+
+    A figure with an undulating surface, called _set_, is the usual emblem
+    of a foreign country. The undulating surface probably indicates the
+    hills and valleys of those foreign lands around Egypt, such as Nubia,
+    Arabia Petra, Canaan, Phoenicia, etc. These countries, in comparison
+    with the flat land of Egypt, were countries of hills and valleys. This
+    hieroglyph for foreign lands occurs in this column immediately above
+    the first nomen.
+
+Cartouche with nomen: "Ra-mes-es Meri Amen."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    FIGURE WITH HAWK'S HEAD is Ra. On his head he wears the _aten_, or
+    solar disk, and in his hand holds the _ankh_, or key of life.
+
+    TRIPLE TWIG (=mes=) is here the syllabic _mes_. This is the usual
+    symbol for _birth_ or _born_; thus the monarch in his name _Rameses_
+    claims to be _born of Ra_.
+
+    CHAIR BACK (=s=). The final complement in _mes_.
+
+    REED (=es=) _es_. The final syllable in name Rameses. Some are
+    disposed to render the reed as _su_, and thus make the name Ramessu.
+    With his name the king associates the remaining hieroglyphs of the
+    cartouche.
+
+The figure with sceptre is the god Amen. On his head he wears a tall hat
+made up of two long plumes or ostrich feathers. On his chin he wears the
+long curved beard which indicates his divine nature. A singular custom
+among the Egyptians was tying a false beard, made of plaited hair, to the
+end of the chin. It assumed various shapes, to indicate the dignity and
+position of the wearer. Private individuals wear a small beard about two
+inches long. That worn by a king was of considerable length, and square at
+the end; while figures of gods are distinguished by having long beards
+turned up at the end. The divine beard, the royal beard, and the ordinary
+beard, are thus easily distinguished.
+
+Amen was the supreme god worshipped at Thebes. He corresponds to Zeus
+among the Greeks, and Jupiter among the Latins. Rameses associates with
+his own name that of Amen. The hieroglyphs inside the cartouche are
+"Ra-mes-es-meri-Amen," which literally translated mean, "Born of Ra,
+beloved of Amen." The king consequently claims descent from the supreme
+solar deity of Heliopolis, and the favour of the supreme god of Thebes.
+
+
+_First side.--Left hand._
+
+    "Horus, powerful bull, beloved of Ra, lord of Upper and Lower Egypt,
+    lord of festivals, like his father Ptah-Totanen, son of the sun,
+    Rameses-meri-Amen, powerful bull, like the son of Nut; none can stand
+    before him, lord of the two countries, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of
+    the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen."
+
+On the third face, Rameses calls himself the son of Tum, but here he
+claims Ptah Totanen as his father.
+
+Ptah, also called Ptah Totanen, was the chief god worshipped at Memphis,
+and is spoken of as the creator of visible things. Tum is also represented
+as possessing the creative attribute, and it is not improbable that Ptah
+and Tum sometimes stand for each other. The obelisk stood before the
+temple of Tum at Heliopolis, and was probably connected with that deity.
+That Ptah stands for Tum seems to receive confirmation from the fact that
+after Ptah's name comes the figure of a god used as a determinative. This
+figure has on its head a solar disk, and therefore appears to be intended
+for a solar deity.
+
+Nut was a sky-goddess, and represents the blue midday sky. She was said to
+be the mother of Osiris, who is the friend of mankind, and one of the gods
+much beloved.
+
+
+_Second side.--Right hand._
+
+    "Horus, powerful bull, son of Kheper, king of Upper and Lower Egypt,
+    Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, golden hawk, abounding in years, greatly
+    powerful, son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen; the eyes of created
+    beings witness what he has done, nothing has been said against the
+    lord of the two countries, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun.
+    Rameses-meri-Amen, the lustre of the son, like the sun."
+
+The _kheper_, or sacred beetle, was sacred to both Ptah and to Tum, and it
+ought to be observed that Rameses claims each of these gods as his father.
+
+The _hawk_ was an emblem of a solar deity, and it was described as golden,
+in reference to the golden rays of the sun.
+
+The bird at the bottom of this lateral column of hieroglyphs rendered the
+lustre, is the _bennu_, or sacred bird of Heliopolis, regarded as an
+incarnation of a solar deity, and therefore the symbol for lustre or
+splendour. It is often depicted with two long feathers, or one feather, on
+the back of its head.
+
+
+_Second side.--Left hand._
+
+    "Horus, powerful bull, beloved of truth, king of Upper and Lower
+    Egypt, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, born of the gods, holding the country
+    as son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen, making his frontiers at the
+    place he wishes--at peace by means of his power, lord of the two
+    countries, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen,
+    with splendour like Ra."
+
+In the above _frontier_ is represented by a _cross_, to indicate where one
+country passes into another. The flat land of Egypt is represented by a
+straight line (_ta_), probably designed to be a layer of earth, while a
+chip of rock stands for any rocky country, such as Nubia, or for a rocky
+locality, as Syene, on the frontiers of Nubia, the region of the great
+granite quarries. In the column it will be noticed that Rameses vauntingly
+asserts that his conquests were co-extensive with his desires.
+
+
+_Third side.--Right hand._
+
+    "Horus, powerful bull, beloved by Ra, king of Upper and Lower Egypt,
+    Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, lord of festivals, like his father Ptah, son
+    of the sun. Rameses-meri-Amen, son of Tum, out of his loins, loved of
+    him. Hathor, the guide of the two countries, has given birth to him,
+    Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen, giver of
+    life, like the sun."
+
+In the above, the hieroglyph rendered Hathor is an oblong figure with a
+small square inscribed in one corner, thus resembling a stamped envelope.
+This oblong figure called _ha_, probably represented the ground plan of a
+temple or house, and is rendered abode, house, temple, or palace,
+according to the context. Inside the ground-plan in this case is a figure
+of a hawk, the emblem of a solar deity. Here it stands for Horus, and the
+entire hieroglyph (_ha_, _hor_) rendered Hathor, means "the abode of
+Horus." The "abode of Horus" refers to his mother, a goddess who is
+therefore named Hathor, or Athor. The cow is often used as an emblem of
+this goddess. Isis also is the reputed mother of Horus, and consequently
+some think that Hathor and Isis are two names for one and the same
+goddess.
+
+
+_Third side.--Left hand._
+
+    "Horus, the powerful bull, son of Tum, king of Upper and Lower Egypt,
+    Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, lord of kingly and queenly royalty, guardian
+    of Egypt, chastiser of foreign lands, son of the sun.
+    Rameses-meri-Amen, coming daily into the temple of Tum; he has seen
+    nothing in the house of his father, lord of the two countries,
+    Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen, like the
+    sun."
+
+In the above the word rendered guardian is _mak_, a word made up of three
+phonetic hieroglyphs, namely, a hole, arm, and semicircle.
+
+Egypt, called _Kham_, that is the black country, is here represented by a
+crocodile's tail, since crocodiles were common in the country, and
+characteristic of Egypt.
+
+The word rendered chastiser is in the original _auf_, a name made up of
+three phonetic hieroglyphs, namely, an arm, chick, horned snake. The
+arrangement of these hieroglyphs with a view to neatness and economising
+space displays both taste and ingenuity.
+
+While it is asserted that Rameses went into the temple of Tum every day,
+it is also said that he saw nothing in the temple. This seems like a
+contradiction; but, according to classic writers, Rameses II., called by
+the Greeks Sesostris, became blind in his old age, and the preceding
+passage may have reference to the monarch's blindness.
+
+
+_Fourth side.--Right hand._
+
+    "Horus, powerful bull, beloved of Ra, king of Upper and Lower Egypt,
+    Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, the son of Ra, born of the gods, holding his
+    dominions with power, victory, glory; the bull of princes, king of
+    kings, lord of the two countries, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the
+    sun, Rameses-men-Amen, of Tum, beloved of Heliopolis, giver of life."
+
+In the above, a lion's head, called _peh_, stands for glory, and a crook
+like that of a shepherd, called _hek_, stands for ruler or prince.
+
+The phrase, "king of kings," occurs in the above, and is the earliest
+instance of this grand expression--familiar to Christian ears from the
+fact that in the Bible it is applied to the High and lofty One that
+inhabiteth eternity. "Alleluia: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ...
+and on His vesture a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS."
+
+
+_Fourth side.--Left hand._
+
+    "Horus, powerful bull, son of Truth, king of Upper and Lower Egypt,
+    Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, golden hawk, supplier of years, most powerful
+    son of the sun, Rameses-meri-Amen, leading captive the Rutennu and
+    Peti out of their countries to the house of his father; lord of the
+    two countries, Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun,
+    Rameses-meri-Amen, beloved of Shu, great god like the sun."
+
+The first half of the above is almost identical with the upper part of the
+lateral column on the second side, right hand. The _Rutennu_ probably mean
+the Syrians, and the _Peti_ either the Libyans or Nubians.
+
+Shu was a solar deity, the son of Tum.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE RECENT DISCOVERY OF THE MUMMIES OF THOTHMES III. AND RAMESES II. AT
+DEIR-EL-BAHARI.
+
+
+In Cairo, at the Boolak Museum, there is a vast collection of Egyptian
+antiquities, even more valuable than the collections to be seen at the
+British Museum, and at the Louvre, Paris. The precious treasures of the
+Boolak Museum were for the most part collected through the indefatigable
+labours of the late Mariette Bey. Since his death the charge of the Museum
+has been entrusted to the two well-known Egyptologists, Professor Maspero
+and Herr Emil Brugsch.
+
+Professor Maspero lately remarked that for the last ten years he had
+noticed with considerable astonishment that many valuable Egyptian relics
+found their way in a mysterious manner to European museums as well as to
+the private collections of European noblemen. He therefore suspected that
+the Arabs in the neighbourhood of Thebes, in Upper Egypt, had discovered
+and were plundering some royal tombs. This suspicion was intensified by
+the fact that Colin Campbell, on returning to Cairo from a visit to Upper
+Egypt, showed to the Professor some pages of a superb royal ritual,
+purchased from some Arabs at Thebes. M. Maspero accordingly made a journey
+to Thebes, and on arriving at the place, conferred on the subject with
+Daoud Pasha, the governor of the district, and offered a handsome reward
+to any person who would give information of any recently discovered royal
+tombs.
+
+Behind the ruins of the Ramesseum is a terrace of rock-hewn tombs,
+occupied by the families of four brothers named Abd-er-Rasoul. The
+brothers professed to be guides and donkey-masters, but in reality they
+made their livelihood by tomb-breaking and mummy-snatching. Suspicion at
+once fell upon them, and a mass of concurrent testimony pointed to the
+four brothers as the possessors of the secret. With the approval of the
+district governor, one of the brothers, Ahmed-Abd-er-Rasoul, was arrested
+and sent to prison at Keneh, the chief town of the district. Here he
+remained in confinement for two months, and preserved an obstinate
+silence. At length Mohammed, the eldest brother, fearing that Ahmed's
+constancy might give way, and fearing lest the family might lose the
+reward offered by M. Maspero, came to the governor and volunteered to
+divulge the secret. Having made his depositions, the governor telegraphed
+to Cairo, whither the Professor had returned. It was felt that no time
+should be lost. Accordingly M. Maspero empowered Herr Emil Brugsch, keeper
+of the Boolak Museum, and Ahmed Effendi Kemal, also of the Museum service,
+to proceed without delay to Upper Egypt. In a few hours from the arrival
+of the telegram the Boolak officials were on their way to Thebes. The
+distance of the journey is about five hundred miles; and as a great part
+had to be undertaken by the Nile steamer, four days elapsed before they
+reached their destination, which they did on Wednesday, 6th July, 1881.
+
+On the western side of the Theban plain rises a high mass of limestone
+rock, enclosing two desolate valleys. One runs up behind the ridge into
+the very heart of the hills, and being entirely shut in by the limestone
+cliffs, is a picture of wild desolation. The other valley runs up from the
+plain, and its mouth opens out towards the city of Thebes. "The former is
+the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings--the Westminster Abbey of Thebes; the
+latter, of the Tombs of the Priests and Princes--its Canterbury
+Cathedral." High up among the limestone cliffs, and near the plateau
+overlooking the plain of Thebes, is the site of an old temple, known as
+"Deir-el-Bahari."
+
+At this last-named place, according to agreement, the Boolak officials met
+Mohammed Abd-er-Rasoul, a spare, sullen fellow, who simply from love of
+gold had agreed to divulge the grand secret. Pursuing his way among
+desecrated tombs, and under the shadow of precipitous cliffs, he led his
+anxious followers to a spot described as "unparalleled, even in the
+desert, for its gaunt solemnity." Here, behind a huge fragment of fallen
+rock, perhaps dislodged for that purpose from the cliffs overhead, they
+were shown the entrance to a pit so ingeniously hidden that, to use their
+own words, "one might have passed it twenty times without observing it."
+The shaft of the pit proved to be six and a-half feet square; and on being
+lowered by means of a rope, they touched the ground at a depth of about
+forty feet.
+
+Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, and certainly nothing in
+romantic literature can surpass in dramatic interest the revelation which
+awaited the Boolak officials in the subterranean sepulchral chambers of
+Deir-el-Bahari. At the bottom of the shaft the explorers noticed a dark
+passage running westward; so, having lit their candles, they groped their
+way slowly along the passage, which ran in a straight line for
+twenty-three feet, and then turned abruptly to the right, stretching away
+northward into total darkness. At the corner where the passage turned
+northward, they found a royal funeral canopy, flung carelessly down in a
+tumbled heap. As they proceeded, they found the roof so low in some places
+that they were obliged to stoop, and in other parts the rocky floor was
+very uneven. At a distance of sixty feet from the corner, the explorers
+found themselves at the top of a flight of stairs, roughly hewn out of the
+rock. Having descended the steps, each with his flickering candle in hand,
+they pursued their way along a passage slightly descending, and
+penetrating deeper and further into the heart of the mountain. As they
+proceeded, the floor became more and more strewn with fragments of mummy
+cases and tattered pieces of mummy bandages.
+
+Presently they noticed boxes piled on the top of each other against the
+wall, and these boxes proved to be filled with porcelain statuettes,
+libation jars, and canopic vases of precious alabaster. Then appeared
+several huge coffins of painted wood; and great was their joy when they
+gazed upon a crowd of mummy cases, some standing, some laid upon the
+ground, each fashioned in human form, with folded hands and solemn faces.
+On the breast of each was emblazoned the name and titles of the occupant.
+Words fail to describe the joyous excitement of the scholarly explorers,
+when among the group they read the names of Seti I., Thothmes II.,
+Thothmes III., and Rameses II., surnamed the Great.
+
+The Boolak officials had journeyed to Thebes, expecting at most to find a
+few mummies of petty princes; but on a sudden they were brought, as it
+were, face to face with the mightiest kings of ancient Egypt, and
+confronted the remains of heroes whose exploits and fame filled the
+ancient world with awe more than three thousand years ago.
+
+The explorers stood bewildered, and could scarcely believe the testimony
+of their own eyes, and actually inquired of each other if they were not in
+a dream. At the end of a passage, one hundred and thirty feet from the
+bottom of the rock-cut passage, they stood at the entrance of a sepulchral
+chamber, twenty-three feet long, and thirteen feet wide, literally piled
+to the roof with mummy cases of enormous size. The coffins were brilliant
+with colour-gilding and varnish, and looked as fresh as if they had
+recently come out of the workshops of the Memnonium.
+
+Among the mummies of this mortuary chapel were found two kings, four
+queens, a prince and a princess, besides royal and priestly personages of
+both sexes, all descendants of Her-Hor, the founder of the line of
+priest-kings known as the XXIst dynasty. The chamber was manifestly the
+family vault of the Her-Hor family; while the mummies of their more
+illustrious predecessors of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties, found in the
+approaches to the chamber, had evidently been brought there for the sake
+of safety. Each member of the family was buried with the usual mortuary
+outfit. One queen, named Isi-em-Kheb (Isis of Lower Egypt), was also
+provided with a sumptuous funereal repast, as well as a rich sepulchral
+toilet, consisting of ointment bottles, alabaster cups, goblets of
+exquisite variegated glass, and a large assortment of full dress wigs,
+curled and frizzed. As the funereal repast was designed for refreshment,
+so the sepulchral toilet was designed for the queen's use and adornment on
+the Resurrection morn, when the vivified dead, clothed, fed, anointed and
+perfumed, should leave the dark sepulchral chamber and go forth to the
+mansions of everlasting day.
+
+When the temporary excitement of the explorers had somewhat abated, they
+felt that no time was to be lost in securing their newly discovered
+treasures. Accordingly, three hundred Arabs were engaged from the
+neighbouring villages; and working as they did with unabated vigour,
+without sleep and without rest, they succeeded in clearing out the
+sepulchral chamber and the long passages of their valuable contents in the
+short space of forty-eight hours. All the mummies were then carefully
+packed in sail-cloth and matting, and carried across the plain of Thebes
+to the edge of the river. Thence they were rowed across the Nile to Luxor,
+there to lie in readiness for embarkation on the approach of the Nile
+steamers.
+
+Some of the sarcophagi are of huge dimensions, the largest being that of
+Nofretari, a queen of the XVIIIth dynasty. The coffin is ten feet long,
+made of cartonnage, and in style resembles one of the Osiride pillars of
+the Temple of Medinat Aboo. Its weight and size are so enormous that
+sixteen men were required to remove it. In spite of all difficulties,
+however, only five days elapsed from the time the Boolak officials were
+lowered down the shaft until the precious relics lay ready for embarkation
+at Luxor.
+
+The Nile steamers did not arrive for three days, and during that time
+Messrs. Brugsch and Kemal, and a few trustworthy Arabs, kept constant
+guard over their treasure amid a hostile fanatical people who regarded
+tomb-breaking as the legitimate trade of the neighbourhood. On the fourth
+morning the steamers arrived, and having received on board the royal
+mummies, steamed down the stream _en route_ for the Boolak Museum.
+Meanwhile the news of the discovery had spread far and wide, and for fifty
+miles below Luxor, the villagers lined the river banks, not merely to
+catch a glimpse of the mummies on deck as the steamers passed by, but also
+to show respect for the mighty dead. Women with dishevelled hair ran along
+the banks shrieking the death-wail; while men stood in solemn silence, and
+fired guns into the air to greet the mighty Pharaohs as they passed. Thus,
+to the mummified bodies of Thothmes the Great, and Rameses the Great, and
+their illustrious compeers, the funeral honours paid to them three
+thousand years ago were, in a measure, repeated as the mortal remains of
+these ancient heroes sailed down the Nile on their way to Boolak.
+
+The principal personages found either as mummies, or represented by their
+mummy cases, include a king and queen of the XVIIth dynasty, five kings
+and four queens of the XVIIIth dynasty, and three successive kings of the
+XIXth dynasty, namely, Rameses the Great, his father, and his grandfather.
+The XXth dynasty, strange to say, is not represented; but belonging to the
+XXIst dynasty of royal priests are four queens, two kings, a prince, and a
+princess.
+
+These royal mummies belong to four dynasties, and between the earliest and
+the latest there intervenes a period of above seven centuries,--a space of
+time as long as that which divides the Norman Conquest from the accession
+of George III. Under the dynasties above mentioned ancient Egypt reached
+the summit of her fame, through the expulsion of the Hykshos invaders, and
+the extensive conquests of Thothmes III. and Rameses the Great. The
+oppression of Israel in Egypt and the Exodus of the Hebrews, the colossal
+temples of Thebes, the royal sepulchres of the Valley of the Tombs of the
+Kings, the greater part of the Pharaonic obelisks, and the rock-cut
+temples of the Nile Valley, belong to the same period.
+
+It would be beyond the scope of this brief account to describe each royal
+personage, and therefore there can only be given a short description of
+the two kings connected with the London Obelisk, namely, Thothmes III. and
+Rameses the Great, the mightiest of the Pharaohs.
+
+Standing near the end of the long dark passage running northward, and not
+far from the threshold of the family vault of the priest-kings, lay the
+sarcophagus of Thothmes III., close to that of his brother Thothmes II.
+The mummy case was in a lamentable condition, and had evidently been
+broken into and subjected to rough usage. On the lid, however, were
+recognized the well-known cartouches of this illustrious monarch. On
+opening the coffin, the mummy itself was exposed to view, completely
+enshrouded with bandages; but a rent near the left breast showed that it
+had been exposed to the violence of tomb-breakers. Placed inside the
+coffin and surrounding the body were found wreaths of flowers: larkspurs,
+acacias and lotuses. They looked as if but recently dried, and even their
+colours could be discerned.
+
+Long hieroglyphic texts found written on the bandages contained the
+seventeenth chapter of the "Ritual of the Dead," and the "Litanies of the
+Sun."
+
+The body measured only five feet two inches; so that, making due allowance
+for shrinking and compression in the process of embalming, still it is
+manifest that Thothmes III. was not a man of commanding stature; but in
+shortness of stature as in brilliancy of conquests, finds his counterpart
+in the person of Napoleon the Great.
+
+It was desirable in the interests of science to ascertain whether the
+mummy bearing the monogram of Thothmes III. was really the remains of that
+monarch. It was therefore unrolled. The inscriptions on the bandages
+established beyond all doubt the fact that it was indeed the most
+distinguished of the kings of the brilliant XVIIIth dynasty; and once
+more, after an interval of thirty-six centuries, human eyes gazed on the
+features of the man who had conquered Syria, and Cyprus, and Ethiopia, and
+had raised Egypt to the highest pinnacle of her power; so that it was said
+that in his reign she placed her frontiers where she pleased. The
+spectacle was of brief duration; the remains proved to be in so fragile a
+state that there was only time to take a hasty photograph, and then the
+features crumbled to pieces and vanished like an apparition, and so passed
+away from human view for ever. The director felt such remorse at the
+result that he refused to allow the unrolling of Rameses the Great, for
+fear of a similar catastrophe.
+
+Thothmes III. was the man who overran Palestine with his armies two
+hundred years before the birth of Moses, and has left us a diary of his
+adventures; for, like Caesar, he was author as well as soldier. It seems
+strange that though the body mouldered to dust, the flowers with which it
+had been wreathed were so wonderfully preserved, that even their colour
+could be distinguished; yet a flower is the very type of ephemeral beauty,
+that passeth away and is gone almost as soon as born. A wasp which had
+been attracted by the floral treasures, and had entered the coffin at the
+moment of closing, was found dried up, but still perfect, having lasted
+better than the king whose emblem of sovereignty it had once been; now it
+was there to mock the embalmer's skill, and to add point to the sermon on
+the vanity of human pride and power preached to us by the contents of that
+coffin. Inexorable is the decree, "Unto dust thou shalt return."
+
+Following the same line of meditation, it is difficult to avoid a thought
+of the futility of human devices to achieve immortality. These Egyptian
+monarchs, the veriest type of earthly grandeur and pride, whose rule was
+almost limitless, whose magnificent tombs seem built to outlast the hills,
+could find no better method of ensuring that their names should be had in
+remembrance than the embalmment of their frail bodies. These remain, but
+in what a condition, and how degraded are the uses to which they are put.
+The spoil of an ignorant and thieving population, the pet curiosity of
+some wealthy tourist, who buys a royal mummy as he would buy the Sphinx,
+if it were moveable; "to what base uses art thou come," O body, so
+tenderly nurtured, so carefully preserved!
+
+Rameses II. died about thirteen centuries before the Christian era. It is
+certain that this illustrious monarch was originally buried in the stately
+tomb of the magnificent subterranean sepulchre by royal order hewn out of
+the limestone cliffs in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. In the same
+valley his grandfather and father were laid to rest; so that these three
+mighty kings "all lay in glory, each in his own house." This burial-place
+of the Pharaohs of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties is in a deep gorge
+behind the western hills of the Theban plain. "The valley is the very
+ideal of desolation. Bare rocks, without a particle of vegetation,
+overhanging and enclosing in a still narrower and narrower embrace a
+valley as rocky and bare as themselves--no human habitation visible--the
+stir of the city wholly excluded. Such is, such always must have been, the
+awful aspect of the resting-place of the Theban kings. The sepulchres of
+this valley are of extraordinary grandeur. You enter a sculptured portal
+in the face of these wild cliffs, and find yourself in a long and lofty
+gallery, opening or narrowing, as the case may be, into successive halls
+and chambers, all of which are covered with white stucco, and this white
+stucco, brilliant with colours, fresh as they were thousands of years ago.
+The sepulchres are in fact gorgeous palaces, hewn out of the rock, and
+painted with all the decorations that could have been seen in palaces."
+
+One of the most gorgeous of these sepulchral palaces was that prepared in
+this valley by Rameses II., and after the burial of the king the portals
+were walled up, and the mummified body laid to rest in the vaulted hall
+till the morn of the Resurrection. From a hieratic inscription found on
+the mummy-case of Rameses, it appears that official Inspectors of Tombs
+visited this royal tomb in the sixth year of Her-Hor, the founder of the
+priestly line of kings; so that for at least two centuries the mummy of
+Rameses the Great lay undisturbed in the original tomb prepared for its
+reception. From several papyri still extant, it appears that the
+neighbourhood of Thebes at this period, and for many years previously, was
+in a state of social insecurity. Lawlessness, rapine and tomb-breaking,
+filled the whole district with alarm. The "Abbott Papyrus" states that
+royal sepulchres were broken open, cleared of mummies, jewels, and all
+their contents. In the "Amherst Papyrus," a lawless tomb-breaker, in
+relating how he broke into a royal sepulchre, makes the following
+confession:--"The tomb was surrounded by masonry, and covered in by
+roofing-stones. We demolished it, and found the king and queen reposing
+therein. We found the august king with his divine axe beside him, and his
+amulets and ornaments of gold about his neck. His head was covered with
+gold, and his august person was entirely covered with gold. His coffins
+were overlaid with gold and silver, within and without, and incrusted with
+all kinds of precious stones. We took the gold which we found upon the
+sacred person of this god, as also his amulets, and the ornaments which
+were about his neck and the coffins in which he reposed. And having
+likewise found his royal wife, we took all that we found upon her in the
+same manner; and we set fire to their mummy cases, and we seized upon
+their furniture, their vases of gold, silver, and bronze, and we divided
+them amongst ourselves."
+
+Such being the dreadful state of insecurity during the latter period of
+the XXth dynasty, and throughout the whole of the Her-Hor dynasty, we are
+not surprised to find that the mummy of Rameses II., and that of his
+grandfather, Rameses I., were removed for the sake of greater security
+from their own separate catacombs into the tomb of his father Seti I. In
+the sixteenth year of Her-Hor, that is, ten years after the official
+inspection mentioned above, a commission of priests visited the three
+royal mummies in the tomb of Seti. On an entry found on the mummy case of
+Seti and Rameses II., the priests certify that the bodies are in an
+uninjured condition; but they deemed it expedient, on grounds of safety,
+to transfer the three mummies to the tomb of Ansera, a queen of the XVIIth
+dynasty. For ten years at least Rameses' body reposed in this abode; but
+in the tenth year of Pinotem was removed into "the eternal house of
+Amen-hotep." A fourth inscription on the breast bandages of Rameses
+relates how that after resting for six years the body was again carried
+back to the tomb of his father in "the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings,"
+a valley now called "Bab-el-Molook."
+
+How long the body remained in this resting-place, and how many transfers
+it was subsequently subjected to, there exists no evidence to show; but
+after being exposed to many vicissitudes, the mummy of Rameses, together
+with those of his royal relatives, and many of his illustrious
+predecessors, was brought in as a refugee into the family vault of the
+Her-Hor dynasty. In this subterranean hiding-place, buried deep in the
+heart of the Theban Hills, Rameses the Great, surrounded by a goodly
+company of thirty royal mummies, lay undisturbed and unseen by mortal eye
+for three thousand years, until, a few years ago, the lawless
+tomb-breakers of Thebes burrowed into this sepulchral chamber.
+
+The mummy-case containing Rameses' mummy is not the original one, for it
+belongs to the style of the XXIst dynasty, and was probably made at the
+time of the official inspection of his tomb in the sixth year of Her-Hor's
+reign. It is made of unpainted sycamore wood, and the lid is of the shape
+known as Osirian, that is, the deceased is represented in the well-known
+attitude of Osiris, with arms crossed, and hands grasping a crook and
+flail. The eyes are inserted in enamel, while the eyebrows, eyelashes, and
+beard are painted black. Upon the breast are the familiar cartouches of
+Rameses II., namely, _Ra-user-Ma-sotep-en-Ra_, his prenomen; and
+_Ra-me-su-Meri-amen_, his nomen.
+
+The mummy itself is in good condition, and measures six feet; but as in
+the process of mummification the larger bones were probably drawn closer
+together in their sockets, it seems self-evident that Rameses was a man of
+commanding appearance. It is thus satisfactory to learn that the mighty
+Sesostris was a hero of great physical stature, that this conqueror of
+Palestine was in height equal to a grenadier.
+
+The outer shrouds of the body are made of rose-coloured linen, and bound
+together by very strong bands. Within the outer shrouds, the mummy is
+swathed in its original bandages; and Professor Maspero has expressed his
+intention of removing these inner bandages on some convenient opportunity,
+in the presence of scholars and medical witnesses.
+
+It has been urged that since Rameses XII., of the XXth dynasty, had a
+prenomen similar though not identical with the divine cartouche of Rameses
+II., the mummy in question may be that of Rameses XII. We have, however,
+shown that the mummies of Rameses I., Seti I., and Rameses II., were
+exposed to the same vicissitudes, buried, transferred, and reburied again
+and again in the same vaults. When, therefore, we find in the sepulchre at
+Deir-el-Bahari, in juxta-position, the mummy-case of Rameses I., the
+mummy-case and acknowledged mummy of Seti I., and on the mummy-case and
+shroud the well-known cartouches of Rameses II., the three standing in the
+relation of grandfather, father, and son, it seems that the evidence is
+overwhelming in favour of the mummy in question being that of Rameses the
+Great.
+
+All the royal mummies, twenty-nine in number, are now lying in state in
+the Boolak Museum. Arranged together side by side and shoulder to
+shoulder, they form a solemn assembly of kings, queens, royal priests,
+princes, princesses, and nobles of the people. Among the group are the
+mummied remains of the greatest royal builders, the most renowned
+warriors, and mightiest monarchs of ancient Egypt. They speak to us of the
+military glory and architectural splendour of that marvellous country
+thirty-five centuries ago; they illustrate the truth of the words of the
+Christian Apostle: "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the
+flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
+but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by
+the Gospel is preached unto you."[9]
+
+These great Egyptian rulers, in all their magnificence and power, had no
+Gospel in their day, and can preach no Gospel to those who gaze
+wonderingly upon their remains, so strangely brought to light. Much as we
+should like to hear the tale they could unfold of a civilization of which
+we seem to know so much, and yet in reality know so little, on all these
+questions they are for ever silent. But they utter a weighty message to
+all whose temptation now is to lose sight of the future in the present, of
+the eternal by reason of the temporal. They show how fleeting and
+unsubstantial are even the highest earthly rank and wealth and influence;
+and how true is the lesson taught by him who knew all that Egypt could
+teach, and much that God could reveal, and whose life is interpreted for
+us by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews: "By faith Moses, when he
+was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;
+choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy
+the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ
+greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the
+recompence of the reward."[10]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Harrison and Sons, Printers in Ordinary to Her Majesty, St. Martin's Lane,
+London.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Prov. iv. 18.
+
+[2] Eph. ii. 13.
+
+[3] Acts xvii. 30, 31.
+
+[4] Rawlinson's "History of Ancient Egypt," Vol. II., pp. 240-243.
+
+[5] Rawlinson's "History of Ancient Egypt," Vol. II., p. 253.
+
+[6] Brugsch, "History of Egypt," Vol. II., p. 57, 1st ed.
+
+[7] Rawlinson's "Ancient Egypt," Vol. II., p. 318.
+
+[8] "History of Architecture," Vol. I., p. 113.
+
+[9] 1 Peter i. 24, 25.
+
+[10] Heb. xi. 24-26.
+
+
+
+
+BY-PATHS OF BIBLE KNOWLEDGE.
+
+
+Under this general title THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY purposes publishing a
+Series of Books on subjects of interest connected with the Bible, not
+adequately dealt with in the ordinary Handbooks.
+
+The writers will, in all cases, be those who have special acquaintance
+with the subjects they take up, and who enjoy special facilities for
+acquiring the latest and most accurate information.
+
+Each Volume will be complete in itself, and, if possible, the price will
+be kept uniformly at _half-a-crown_.
+
+The Series is designed for general readers, who wish to get in a compact
+and interesting form the fresh knowledge that has been brought to light
+during the last few years in so many departments of Biblical study.
+Intelligent young readers of both sexes, Sunday-school teachers, and all
+Bible students will, it is hoped, find these Volumes both attractive and
+useful.
+
+The order of publication will probably be as follows, the titles in some
+cases being provisional:
+
+=I. CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE.= A History of the Obelisk on the Embankment, a
+Translation and Exposition of the Hieroglyphics, and a Sketch of the two
+kings, whose deeds it commemorates. By Rev. JAMES KING, M.A., Authorized
+Lecturer to the Palestine Exploration Fund. (_Now ready._)
+
+=II. ASSYRIAN LIFE AND HISTORY.= By M. E. HARKNESS, with an Introduction
+by REGINALD STUART POOLE, of the British Museum. (_In October._)
+
+=III. A SKETCH of the most striking Confirmations of the Bible, shown in
+the recent Discoveries and Translations of Monuments in Egypt, Babylonia,
+Assyria, etc.= By the Rev. A. H. SAYCE, M.A., Fellow of Queen's College,
+and Deputy Professor of Comparative Philology in the University of Oxford,
+Member of the Old Testament Revision Committee. (_In November or
+December._)
+
+=IV. BABYLONIAN LIFE AND HISTORY, as Illustrated by the Monuments.= By MR.
+BUDGE, of the British Museum.
+
+=V. THE RECENT SURVEY OF PALESTINE, and the most striking Results of it.=
+
+=VI. EGYPT--HISTORY, ART, and CUSTOMS, as Illustrated by the Monuments in
+the British Museum.=
+
+=VII. UNDERGROUND JERUSALEM.=
+
+
+_N.B.--Other Subjects are in course of preparation, and will be
+announced in due course._
+
+
+LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,
+
+56. PATERNOSTER ROW.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.
+
+The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these
+letters have been replaced with transliterations.
+
+Letters with diacritical marks are not represented in this text version.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cleopatra's Needle, by James King
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