standing statue of the Dame or Lady “Takarshit.” She wears a short
wig, in rows of curls, and an embroidered band across her head, a very
scant, narrow, and short robe, which almost makes us wonder how she
had free play for her limbs (this, too, is embroidered in rows with
religious subjects), and she has bracelets and chains on her wrists and
arms. The face is older than the figure, as the Egyptians in sculpture
would occasionally unite the beauty of youthful form with that of the
more mature head and countenance.
The list of Queen Aah-hotep’s treasures, habited, as we can picture
her to be, in the garb just described, is a long one. On the gilded
coffin lid she is represented with face uncovered and body enveloped
in wings of Isis. This goddess was a special object of worship at
this time, as later in the Ptolemaic period also. Among the most
interesting of the trinkets is a little golden boat set on a wheeled
wooden carriage and manned with small figures, the central one of which
is her son, King Kames, or, as it was originally thought, her husband.
He is going to Abydos, and holds in his hand an axe and a sceptre.
There is also another little silver boat with its crew of rowers. A
diadem as small as a bracelet for the wrist was found attached to the
head of the queen, and terminated in tiny sphinxes, with the name of
Aahmes engraved in letters of gold upon a groundwork of lapis-lazuli.
A funeral collar, prescribed by the ritual, has designs of animals in
chased gold, the figures outlined by fine gold wires, like Chinese
cloissonne, between paste and colored stones. The coloring of all
this enamel is particularly rich. There are three massive gold bees,
possibly intended as the decoration for some order; also silver bees. A
necklace with hanging ornaments in the shape of red and blue almonds.
A box in the form of a royal cartouch as a large seal guarded by two
sphinxes. A magnificent chain with the head of a goose at either end,
the name of King Aahmes on the neck and the scarabeus or sacred beetle
hanging from it.
Necklaces of gold and silver, rings and bracelets, the former with
little figures of the gods, or amulets of various sorts hanging from
them, were much worn; and it is said that after the Twenty-sixth
Dynasty, owing to Phoenician influences, the bracelets usually
terminated in lions’ heads. These amulets were supposed to preserve the
wearer from harm, both in a present and a future world, and the gods
themselves, strange to say, sought such protection. The “evil eye,”
still thought to exist in our comparatively modern life, as witness the
Salem witchcraft craze, was especially dreaded, and there were various
designs to ward off its ill effects. Among these were outstretched
fingers; “Ut-a’” eyes, sometimes with wings and hands, holding a disk,
in different substances; the right symbolized the king, as the sun, the
left, the queen, as the moon, and, either sculptured or worn, guarded
the owner from this particular form of harm.
The heart amulet and the scarab or scarabeus was very common. Many
curious notions prevailed about this insect. It was believed to be of
only one sex, and women ate it to induce fecundity. The fact that the
male and female closely resemble each other and share in the care of
their offspring probably was the foundation of this idea. A remarkable
example of a scarab was taken from the mummy of Tahut’mes III. It was
of steatite, glazed, of a greenish purple hue, in a hold frame bound
across. There was a figure of Tahut’mes kneeling, with crown on head,
and the whip, signifying authority, in his hand, while with the other
he made an offering to the god. A dog was represented in front and a
hawk behind him, and a gold loop was attached to hang the scarab to
the chain on the neck. All Egyptians loved jewelry, the men as well as
the women wearing necklaces, collars, etc., of gold, silver, beads and
precious stones. Great use was made of carnelian, lapis lazuli, jasper,
etc., and ladies would occupy themselves, as do the blind of our own
time, in stringing glass beads and bugles into network, which in these
latter days is used to trim the clothing of the living, while with the
Egyptian it was chiefly for the adornment of the dead.
A chapter from the Book of the Dead was found on a scarab of the time
of Mycerinas. These scarabs seem to have been of three classes; the
first merely for ornament, the second for historic record, and the
third for funeral purposes. They sometimes bore the names of kings
earlier than those with whose mummies they have been found. A signet
ring was of special importance and a necessary article among the
belongings of either king or queen, as also of many others of less
elevated rank. It was the same thing as the signing of a personal name
at the present time—they sealed instead of signing, and when an Eastern
monarch wished to send special orders he would sometimes intrust his
signet ring to the bearer in token of authority. This ring was of gold
or less valuable material, according to the rank of the owner. Many
examples of a pretty class of ring made of faience, in blue, green,
purple, etc., and manufactured at Tel-el-Amarna, the city built by
Amen-hotep IV, formerly called Khu-n-aten, in the latter part of the
Eighteenth Dynasty have been found, and are among the collections in
various museums.
Some of these collections have sets of ornaments belonging to ancient
kings and queens. Berlin has that of an Ethiopean Candace. The Louvre
that of a Prince Pzar, with griffins and lotus. Also a ring of Rameses
II, with little horses standing on the bezel. At Gizeh are heavy
earrings of Rameses IX, with filagree chains and uræus, and bracelets
of Pinotem in gold encrusted with stones, like those made to-day in the
Soudan. The later discoveries of this sort, belonging to the latter
period of the Egyptian Empire, show Greek influences. But the most
extensive, tasteful and finely wrought of these objects was the parure
of Queen Aah-hotep. Chains to the women were as essential as rings to
the men; a woman was indeed poor if her jewel box held only one.
As the North American Indian slays the favorite horse and lays beside
his dead chief bows and arrows for use in the “happy hunting grounds,”
so the Egyptian placed in the tomb of his revered and beloved things
that he used in daily life. At one time it was even the custom in the
case of a king to kill some of his slaves, whose souls might accompany
and attend upon him, but this cruel practice was not kept up. For
service in another existence, food, furniture and personal belongings
surrounded the dead in his grave, as they had done the living in his
household; and, in the case of a woman especially, all her feminine
appliances for the toilette and many of her ornaments and jewels were
included. Some were what had belonged to her in the past, some were
newly prepared for the future state. Even faded flowers hundreds of
years old have been discovered, and fruit has been found with mummies
of the Eleventh Dynasty.
One museum possesses a sarcophagus of a priest of Maut and a prophet
of Queen Aah-hotep. To her the priests of Amen rendered divine honors.
On the inside of the coffin are invocations to the divine Amenophis
II (a descendant of the queen’s), and also to both Queens Aah-hotep
and Nefertari Ahmes. The coffin of the former was not so gigantic as
that of the latter, and somehow one pictures her as rather smaller and
more feminine looking than the daughter who succeeded her in the royal
honors, with the thick eyelashes blackened with kohl, the straight
brows, the almond-shaped eyes and the other features characteristic of
the Egyptian face. Into the future life in which the Egyptian believed
so ardently she stepped, after a long pilgrimage in this world,
accompanied by all the little devices which had made her comfort and
pleasure here, to be honored and revered as she had been accustomed to
be in the lower world.
Among the valued amulets was the buckle, or “Tie,” made of jasper,
carnelian, porphery, red glass, faience and sycamore wood, more rarely
of gold. The red material stood for the blood of Isis, and this amulet
was put on the neck of a mummy for its protection. Such were usually
without inscription, but two found together would occasionally be
inscribed with a chapter from the Book of the Dead. The “Tet,” made
of gold, sometimes had plumes, when it signified Osiris and meant
firmness. This also was for protection. Serpents’ heads guarded from
their bites in another world. The vulture amulet was of gold, but was
not common. It referred to “Mother Isis,” and bore such inscriptions
from the Book of the Dead as “His Mother, the mighty lady, makes his
protection and brings him to Horus.” This was sometimes suspended from
the usual gold collar worn by the dead. The “anck,” or life sign, was
something like a small cross with an oval ring on top instead of the
upper arm, and was very frequent. The amulet “Nefer” was for good luck.
“Maut,” always worn by the god Ptah, was a frequent emblem of Hathor.
Frogs, disks, plumes, etc., were of this list. Some of these, and more,
probably surrounded Queen Aah-hotep.
In a pectoral on her breast King Ahmes was represented, while the two
divinities Amen and Ra poured the water of purification on his head;
they stand in a little green temple. Bracelets for the ankle or upper
arm were simple rings of gold, massive, solid or hollow, edged with
threads of gold to represent filagree. Others worn at the wrist, like
ours, were formed of beads of gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian and green
feldspar, mounted on threads of gold and disposed in squares in which
half was a different color. The fastenings were two gold plates united
by an aiglet of gold, the cartouch of Ahmes engraved lightly at the
point. Some of the bracelets were more complicated but not so fine in
workmanship—three parallel bands garnished with turquoise. There was
also a vulture, the queen’s special ornament, with outstretched wings;
also the heads of sparrow-hawks. Some of the ornaments were attached to
the cloth in which the mummy was wrapped by rings. But for what we may
call the trousseau of a bride of the tomb, jewelry was not sufficient.
Arms, with which she was to protect herself, or be protected, from
the evil spirits of another world, were also provided and placed with
her. There was a unique specimen of a baton, bent at the extremity and
adorned with a spiral of gold. Such forms as this are found to-day
among the inhabitants of Nubia and the Soudan, but probably have
not the same meaning. An axe was ornamented with gold and precious
stones, inlaid, and with a picture of the warlike Aahmes slaying an
enemy. Handles of knives in ebony were carved with the lotus. There
were poinards with female heads, and sheaths with raised ornaments of
damascened gold and inscriptions. On the blade on one side was “The
beneficent god Ra-neb-pebti, life giver, as the sun, ever.” On the
other, “The son of the sun and of his side Aahmes-nakht—life giver and
always.” One hatchet had a handle of horn and a silver blade. A poinard
had a yellow bronze blade and silvered handle, and there was also a
clasp of bronze with holes left for ostrich feathers.
To these were added a large variety of toilette articles, vases and
jars of various sorts for spices, unguents, etc. Alabaster jars in
tombs are as ancient as the Fourth Dynasty, and examples are also known
inscribed with the name of Unas, Pepi I, Men-tu-em-saf, Amasis I,
Tahutimes II, Amenophis II, Rameses II, and Queen Amen-eritis.
The god Bes, said to be introduced from Punt, presided over the
toilette. He had a squat, hideous figure, and a face which was
doubtless chiefly appreciated from its contrast to that of his fair
votaries. He bore a double character, one side being military or
martial in aspect, the other a sort of Bacchus or god of Pleasure,
and it was in this last, probably, that he was regarded as a suitable
guardian for the preparations for feasts and revels. Toilette articles,
of which a number were found with the body of the queen, were mirrors,
tweezers, hairpins of wood, bone, ivory and metal, and occasionally
combs of wood and ivory, though these last are believed by some
authorities not to have been introduced till later. There were also
kohl pots and little tubes and jars of various forms. Tiny hands of
ivory on a stick for scratching the back were sometimes found.
The mirrors, from three to twelve inches in diameter, had handles
ornamented with flowers, particularly the well-beloved lotus, and
heads of the goddess Hathor and the god Bes. Vases and jars found in
the tombs were of various shapes, for wine, oils, spices, unguents,
scents, etc., but transparent glass ones are not found earlier than
the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. The kohl pots were to hold stibium and
antimony of copper to stain the eyelids and eyebrows and give the eyes
a wide-open appearance; also for such purposes were little hollow tubes
of wood, glass, ivory and alabaster, a column with a palm leaf and
figures of Bes. Sometimes the tubes were double, with movable covers
on a pivot and accompanied by a stick of bronze wood to apply the
unguent. The wicked Jezabel in the Bible is said to have “set her eyes
in stibium,” which was, however, a common Eastern practice.
Fine examples of such articles, with the pre-nomen of Amenophis III
and his wife Tyi, and of Tut-arch-Amen and his wife Anknes-Amen, have
been found. Hematite pillows or head rests, generally uninscribed,
and papyrus sceptres mounted in mother-of-emerald and faience, may
perhaps be added to this list and not exhaust it. Thus was the queen,
surrounded by all the paraphernalia of life, laid in her last resting
place. The Egyptian, as has been before said, spent much of his time
in preparing and providing for a future existence, and it is through
his death, as it were, and on tombs and monuments that we attain to any
realistic knowledge of his living days.
The queen is believed to have had a number of children besides Aahmes
and Nefertari, whose personality stands out pre-eminent among them.
Of these are Birpu, who appears on a statuette, Amenmes and Uazrmes.
Of Nebt’ta, one of the daughters, a scarab is known. And Mut’nefert,
subsequently queen, may also have been of this family.
Queen Mertytefs’ name calls up this active, capable ruling spirit
of the household and the court. Queen Nitocris comes before us as
the beauty of her time—the Mary Stuart of an early age, lovely,
captivating and admired, but not blameless in her life story. Queen
Sebek-nefru-ra is associated with father and husband in works of public
usefulness and benefit. But Queen Aah-hotep seems to bear with her an
atmosphere of femininity and tenderness. A devout worshipper of the
gods, we can picture her as a frequent attendant upon the services
and offerings in the temples. At home, a woman perchance with some
foibles and weaknesses and a truly feminine love for ornamentation, and
yet a mother who won an undying affection. Lamentations and mourning
doubtless followed her to the tomb, and upon her inanimate form was
lavished a wealth of adornment which bespoke the clinging tenderness of
the royal son whose name is found so often inscribed upon her ornaments.
CHAPTER SEVENTH.
AAHMES-NEFERTARI.
Aahmes, also called Amosis, son of Queen Aah-hotep and an Egyptian
father (whose history is as yet unknown), was one of the greatest
warriors and most noted kings of Egypt, and regarded as the savior of
his country, since he freed it from the long thrall of an alien race.
Ambition was evidently a ruling passion with him, but he appears to
have been devoted and even tender to those he loved. His wife, the
Princess Nefertari-Aahmes, or Aahmes-Nefertari, was long supposed to
be the daughter of an Ethiopian king, and therefore not of kin to him,
since her pictures on the monuments show a black skin, though Caucasian
features.
[Illustration: NEFERTARI AAHMES.]
Later researches have proved her to be his half-sister, the daughter of
his mother, but not of his father. She was evidently the first daughter
of Queen Aah-hotep’s marriage with Sequenenra, and with a more direct
title to the succession than her husband, so that there were state
reasons as well as private ones for the marriage. From Sequenenra,
therefore, he being of the Berber type, she took her coloring and
the right of succession, and she may perhaps be said to have been
three-quarters black. The name signifies “good or beautiful companion,”
and she was regarded with great veneration on earth and shared with her
mother, and mother-in-law, divine honors after death.
Thebes, which had risen to political consequence in the time of the
Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasties, was now the royal city, the safest home
of the royal family, and was said to have stood to Ethiopia, as well as
to Egypt, as Rome did to mediaeval Christendom. It was in Upper Egypt,
the sacred city, and devoted to the worship of the god Amen, or Amon,
whom the Greeks regarded as their Jove. From here went out the great
war chariots and the bands of soldiers to battle, and often, especially
at this period, to conquest.
“The chief peculiarity of the Egyptians,” says a writer who is an
authority, “is the remarkable closeness of their eyelashes on both
lids, forming a dense double fringe, which gives so animated an
expression to their almond-shaped eyes.” The very ancient and still
existing custom of blackening the edges of the eyelids with antimony
(kohl), which is said to serve a sanitary purpose, contributes to
enhance this natural expression. The eyebrows are straight and smooth,
never bushy. The mouth is wide and thick-lipped, and very different
from that of the Beduin or inhabitant of the oases. The high cheek
bones, the receding forehead, the lowness of the bridge of the nose
(this last in some pictures of the statues of Queen Nefertari-Aahmes
being noticeable), which is always distinctly separated from
the forehead, and the flatness of the nose itself are the chief
characteristics of the Egyptian skull; but as the jaw projects less
than those of most of the other African colored races, it has been
assumed that the skull is Asiatic and not African in shape. A headless
statue at Karnak and statuettes at various places exist. They suggest
a queenly bearing, and from these and the general description we must
form our mental picture of this dark-skinned lady. A light complexion
was much admired, but Queen Nefertari-Aahmes was of different type, and
perhaps set the fashion of her own style of beauty; at one place she
was painted yellow, and one authority claimed that she was only black
in a mythological sense, but it now seems to be agreed that to a Berber
father she owed her tint.
The two names, Nefruari and Nefertari, appear to be interchangeable,
and probably bear the same relation to each other as Mary and Maria. We
can see plainly the difference ’twixt our Jacks and Johns, our Marys
and Marias, but the alteration of a single letter in a foreign tongue
leaves us somewhat bewildered, and the Nofruaris and the Nefertaris,
the Nefrits and the Nofrits, etc., are often very puzzling, and, unless
great care is taken, may lead to serious complications and mistakes.
Our knowledge of this period comes largely from two sources, the tomb
of a naval officer in the service of Aahmes and the discoveries of
comparatively late years, which have brought to light many of the very
bodies of the kings, queens and princesses of this and subsequent
lines. Even in death the truth of the proverb seems to hold, that
“uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” and not in what was intended
to be their last resting places, but in collections and museums, are
gathered many royalties whose eyes looked out on the light of an
ancient world.
Aahmes, son of Abuna, directly or indirectly the king’s namesake, was
an officer of the ship called “The Calf,” and later served on one named
“Ruling in Memphis,” which perhaps celebrated the reconquering of the
ancient capital. Of his early life there are some amusing records: “I
was too young to have a wife, and slept in the semt cloth and shennu
garment.” This was about 1586 B. C., and his age perhaps twenty. Nor,
following the example of his sovereigns, does he hesitate to blow
his own trumpet “As soon as I had a house,” says the martial hero,
“I was taken to a ship called the ‘North’ on account of my valor.”
Apparently, he could face the enemy early in life, but not a fair lady.
Diospolis, or Thebes, “hundred-gated Thebes,” was now the chief city,
and Officer Aahmes saw active service, but survived and was rewarded by
his monarch. The chronicle reads: “I brought very many prisoners. I do
not reckon them,” and, further, that he was “presented with gold seven
times in the face of the whole land.” The story of his exploits on his
tomb throws much light upon the history of the time.
In the summer of 1881, in a pit, near Thebes, was found a concourse
of mummies, the bodies of many kings and queens, among them Queen
Nefertari-Aahmes. The existence of royal tombs had long been suspected
from the various articles which had found their way into the market,
and the authorities were at length able to secure the Arab who was
the chief purloiner. He and his accomplices long obstinately resisted
all inducements, even that of imprisonment, to reveal their secret,
but finally yielded, and the bodies of various sovereigns of the
Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties (the
Twentieth was missing) were found.
The experienced archeologist can tell from the appearance of a mummy
case to what period it belongs. The oldest mummy in the world, until
recently, about which there was no doubt, is that of Saken-em-saf, son
of Pepi I, of the Sixth Dynasty. The mummies of the Eleventh Dynasty
are poorly made, brittle and yellowish; those of the Twelfth Dynasty
are black, and from these to the Seventeenth are also inferior. But
those of the Eighteenth are so finely embalmed that the limbs are
pliable and bend without breaking. At Thebes they were generally
painted yellow. Alexander the Great is said to have been buried in
honey, as was the case with others. Bitumen was used towards the time
of the Ptolemies, and grew hard with age. Later still, pieces of wood
were inserted, with the face painted upon them.
The “Book of the Dead,” so often spoken of, and whose reputed author
was the god Thoth, was a sort of Bible to the Egyptians, and contained
minute directions in regard to burial rites. It was written in
chapters, and was an accretion, taking shape gradually, some parts
being much older than others. It was seldom or never collected in one
roll. It is said that a fairly complete copy was ninety feet long and
about fifteen inches wide. It was written on papyrus; chapters of it
were buried with the dead, and extracts were inscribed on scarabs and
other objects and used in the same way. The book is a storehouse of
information as regards Egyptian theology and practice, and translations
of it exist in several languages besides English. Figures like small
mummies and called Ushabti, or Ushebti, “little servants,” to accompany
and attend upon the departed, were buried with them. This was probably
a survival of the original custom of killing some of his slaves at the
tomb of the master. In the Thirteenth Dynasty these images were made of
granite or wood; in the Eighteenth of faience, or made in moulds, and
from the Twenty-fourth to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty they were not much
used, and later were carelessly made. They were often inscribed with
the Sixth chapter from the Book of the Dead.