ones, and were shaped in the form of a mummy, with inscriptions running
from the breast to the feet. Of such colossal size was that of Queen
Nefertari-Aahmes that it took sixteen men to move it, and it was over
seven metres in height. After the Eighteenth Dynasty the cases were
again smaller. The queen’s was made of innumerable layers of linen,
saturated and hardened together by some kind of glue, was painted
blue and yellow with a mesh-like effect, and the features, necklace,
bracelets, etc., picked out in blue. The face, evidently a portrait,
was large and round, with a sweet expression, and she wore an extensive
wig, with the plumes of Amen and Maut. In each hand she held the royal
“ankh,” or life sign, and the helmet and plumes, also the investiture
of Osiris, were befitting the wife of a warrior and one who was
regarded as a goddess.
There was also the coffin of the Lady Rai, nurse of Queen Nefertari, in
green garnished with bands of yellow. Within were inscriptions to the
goddess Maut, in honor of Ra, and other inscriptions with the name of
Ra, but the body had disappeared. There has been found also the little
blue coffin of the Princess Sitamon, daughter of Aahmes and Nefertari.
The theories and ideas of the Egyptians seem utterly strange to us. So
strong was their belief in a future existence that their whole life in
this world was a preparation for it, and the greatest care was taken
that every portion of the body should be preserved—that no limb or
member should be lacking in another world.
The Egyptian was, according to his own idea, archeological authorities
tell us, a composite being, composed of several different entities,
of which each had its functions and its own life. There was, first,
the body, then the double, or “Ka,” images of which are found so
constantly in the tombs and reproduced in paintings and statues, as we
remember that of Queen Mertytefs and her Ka, before described. This
double bore, in miniature, the form and lineaments of the departed,
and was a sort of second example of the body in a less dense material
than the corporal body. A colored projection but an aerial one of the
individual. It represented the departed, feature for feature, male or
female, adult or child.
After the double came the soul, “Ba” or “Bai,” which the popular
imagination represented under the figure of a bird; and after the
soul the luminous particle of light, “Khau,” detached from the divine
fire. None of these were imperishable, and the man left to himself
would die a second time and fall into nothing. By embalmment the
body was preserved from destruction, and by prayers and offerings
the other portions of this strange and composite whole. The double
remained always with the mummy, the others went and came. The places of
sepulchre for the sovereigns were the numerous pyramids, usually having
sides to the points of the compass and a door to the north; these
were frequently enlarged and altered by succeeding monarchs, as that
of Mycerenas was so extended and beautified by Queen Nitocris that it
often bore her name, instead of its first builder.
The stele were originally false doors by which the living world was
supposed to communicate with the dead. Food for the departed was
often placed before the door, and later represented upon it, which by
incantations became real. At last the stele were used only as a place
for inscriptions. This applies merely to funerary stele. Sometimes
there was a statue or bas-relief in the stele.
To the pyramids were added grottoes, rock, tombs and caves, not
alone for royalty, and the mastabas built of brick, like a truncated
pyramid, and so named by the Arabs because they resembled the long,
low seat used in Oriental houses. Naturally, the more important the
person buried was deemed the more indestructible were the materials
of his tomb, and the more care was taken to preserve them. Not many
tombs were found before the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties until the later
discovery of the burial places of the kings of the First Dynasty. It
is the mastabas and smaller tombs at Gizeh and elsewhere that teach us
about the earliest period in Egyptian history, those at Thebes later,
and Beni-Hasen the Middle Empire. The monuments and temples were the
canvas upon which the self-glorifying kings painted their own history,
and it is the absence of these, as has been before shown, which leaves
the period in comparative darkness. It is the tomb of Ty in the Fourth
Dynasty and those of Beni-Hassen in the Twelfth which are so invaluable
in giving the pictures of the daily life during their respective eras.
We read of a stele or tablet (which in the Eighteenth Dynasty were
usually rounded at the top) on which at the left is seated the figure
of King Amosis or Aahmes and “the divine spouse of Amen, the royal
spouse, Aahmes-Nefertari,” also at the left are seated King Amenophis
I and his spouse, Aahmes-Nefertari. “Is it the same queen?” questioned
Mariette, yet the spelling and the faces are different. There is also a
stele bearing the name of King Aahmes and his mother, Queen Aah-hotep.
Another statue is spoken of, whose pure profile recalls the handsome
portraits of Seti I. It represents the god Amen standing. On the base
we read in red ink, with the legend of Amenophis I, “the royal spouse
whom he loves, Aahmes-Nefertari.”
The mourning color of the Egyptians, as now of the Burmese, was yellow,
and it is curious to observe how varied in this respect are the customs
of different lands. With us, and all over Europe, since the days of
Rome black is the usual, as it seems the most natural, trapping of
woe; but it is stated that until 1498 white was worn in Spain for the
members of the family, as it or yellow now is in China. In Turkey the
mourning color is a bright violet, while formerly purple and violet
were assumed for the kings and cardinals of France. In Bokara and
other parts of Asia deep blue is used, and in Syria and Armenia, sky
blue. In Persia it is pale brown, the color of winter leaves; in the
Soudan, grayish brown, the color of the earth; and among the South Sea
Islanders a black and white striped goods serves for this purpose.
By different nations, too, various days in the week are observed for
public worship. The Christians keep Sunday, the Greeks Monday, the
Persians Tuesday, the Assyrians Wednesday, the Egyptians Thursday, the
Turks Friday, and the Jews Saturday.
At the time of a death, in token of grief the mourning women would
leave the house where the body was lying, put dust and mud on their
heads and faces, and with bare bosoms run through the streets, striking
themselves and uttering lamentations. Some of the pictures show even
little children thus testifying sorrow, and there is something both
pathetic and ludicrous in the scene. At the death and funeral of a
member of the royal family great ceremony was observed. The people
wept, the temples were closed, and no festival was kept for seventy-two
days. The mourners fasted and went round with mud on their heads and
their garments knotted together, like girdles, below the breast.
They marched in procession, singing funeral dirges. The statement is
somewhere made that women of quality were not embalmed immediately, but
in so warm a climate the process could not have been long delayed.
From the use of bitumen, “mumia,” the word “mummy” is derived. There
were several methods of preservation, varying in expense with the
dignity of the deceased and the financial ability of the survivors.
The work of preparation for the tomb was, especially in the case of
the wealthy and high-born, costly and protracted, and all details were
prescribed. The person who, in the service of the embalmer, commenced
the task by making a long cut in the side, was, as a matter of form,
it is generally believed, driven away with sticks and stones, but
some authorities deny this. The organs were then removed through this
opening, embalmed and placed in jars, each under the protection of
its special god, the four children of Horus. Mesta, with the head of
a man, was for the stomach, and, under the protection of Isis, thus
justifying a modern theory that a man can be influenced largely through
his appetite and is most amiable after dining. The jar Hapi, with the
head of an ape, held the smaller intestines, under the protection of
Nepthys. The jar Tuan-antef, with the head of a jackal, was for the
heart, guarded by Neith. Qubhsennuf was hawk-headed and held the liver.
Examples of all these may perhaps be seen in the New York Metropolitan
Museum among the Egyptian antiquities and other places. On a box for
funerary jars is a figure of Isis, and the inscription, “Says Isis, the
divine mother, queen of heaven, first of the gods: ‘I am come that I
may be for thy protection, Osiris Chonsu.’”
The body was laid in liquid natron for seventy days, and was then
stuffed with spices and natron and sewed up again. Various trees have
been supposed to furnish the frankincense used by ancient peoples, the
Indian Olibanum among them. The Egyptians used it in their religious
rites, burning it on the altars of Osiris, Isis and Pasht, while it
was exacted as tribute from some of the conquered nations. It was also
used by the Jews in their sanctuary. All parts of the tree emit an
agreeable odor, something like lemon, the sap hardens into the gum used
in commerce, being extracted by incisions in the bark, as is the case
with maple sugar. It is an evergreen, the leaves are prettily notched,
the flowers small, pink and star-like, and the fruit also very small
and three-sided. It grows in Persia and Arabia.
After the body was thus prepared, the skull, from which the brains had
been drawn through the nose, was filled with plaster and the nostrils
plugged with small rolls of linen, and obsidian eyes placed in the
sockets. The Book of the Dead provided a formula for all this. The eye
of Horus was placed upon the breast, which signifies the transformation
by which life is preserved and constantly renewed, and was consecrated
to the god Ptah. A scarab was laid on the neck, the nails were stained
with henna, rings were placed on the hands and chains and necklets on
the throat. The bandages were narrow strips of linen inscribed with
texts.
When the head was bandaged, an attendant recited this petition: “O most
august goddess, O lady of the West, O mistress of the East, come and
enter into the two ears of the deceased! O doubly powerful, eternal,
young and very mighty lady of the West and mistress of the East, may
breathing take place in the head of the deceased in the nether world.
Grant that he may see with his eyes, that he may hear with his two
ears, that he may breathe through his nose, that he may utter sounds
with his mouth and articulate with his tongue in the nether world.
Receive his voice in the hall of truth and justice and his triumph
in the hall of Seb, in the presence of the great lord of the West. O
Osiris (this addressed to the deceased), the thick oil which comes
from thee furnishes thy mouth with life and thine eye looketh into the
lower heaven, as Ra looketh upon the upper heaven. It giveth thee thy
two ears to hear that which thou wishest, just as Shu in Hebit heard
merely that which he wished to hear. It giveth thee thy nose to smell a
beautiful perfume, like Seb. It giveth thee thy mouth well furnished by
its passage (into the throat) like the mouth of Thoth when he weigheth
Maat. It giveth thee Maat (Law) in Hebit, O worshipper in Hetbenben,
the cries of thy mouth are in Siut. Osiris of Siut comes to thee, thy
mouth is the mouth of Ap-not in the mountains of the West.”
The god Osiris, so often referred to, was the great (unseen One), the
immortal divine spirit, and was always associated in the Egyptian’s
mind with the thought of immortality. He was usually colored blue,
the tint of the sky perhaps suggested perpetuity and immortality. The
Egyptians from the earliest times seem to have worshipped one divine
spirit under a thousand manifestations.
The coffins and covering were of wood, with human head and face;
painted with figures of gods, names and titles of the deceased, and
cartouch of the king. Inside was frequently a purple ground, painted
with yellow figures of apes, lions, etc., adoring Ra. The face on the
coffin was often a likeness, and the coffin was painted inside and
out with figures of protecting gods. Another coffin, more coarsely
made and with less of detail in its paintings, was placed over the
first to preserve it. A lady’s coffin sometimes contained spoons with
female heads and various toilette articles, mirrors, pins and cases for
henna, stibium and other cosmetics, while miniature figures, the little
“ushebti,” like troops of slaves, mounted guard. Sometimes these were
hollow and contained chapters from the Book of the Dead. An ordinance
required that the nearest city should embalm persons who were drowned
or seized by crocodiles.
The funeral procession included players on lyres, flutes, harps and
servants carrying inverted bouquets, a red calf for sacrifice and white
geese. A sort of court was held before the body was deposited in the
tomb, in which those who had accusations against the deceased were
allowed to present them. If these were sustained, the mummy was sent
back to the house; but if not, the priest cried “Approved! Let the good
be entombed, and may their souls dwell in Amenti, with Osiris. Judgment
is passed in her favor! Let her be buried!” The dead sometimes carried
a papyrus on which his good deeds were written. The mummy was placed
recumbent or upright in the tomb, and the soul was received by Horus
and conducted to Amenti, where a sort of Cerberus kept the gate of
Truth. The goddess of Justice, with scales of gold, weighed the virtues
of the deceased, which the god Thoth wrote down on a tablet, like the
scribes of their daily life, and, after reading, Osiris presented him
with the ostrich feather, the emblem of Truth, while Isis led him to
the abode of the gods, where he dwelt in perpetual honor and happiness.
Very poetical are some of the tomb inscriptions relating to the future
state. “The Shining One cometh who dwelleth in Netat, the Master who
dwelleth in Tini (Thinis), and Isis speaks upon thee. Nephthys holdeth
converse with thee, and the Shining Ones come up to thee, bowing down
even to the ground in adoration at thy feet, by reason of the power of
the writing which thou hast, O Pepi, in the region of Sa (Sabu?). Thou
goest forth to thy Mother Nut (i.e., the sky), and strengthen thy arm,
and she maketh a way for thee through the road to the sky” (perhaps
referring to the Milky Way) “to the place where Ra (the sun-deity)
abideth. Thou hast then opened the two gates of heaven, thou hast
opened the two doors of Quobhu (i.e., the celestial deep), thou hast
there found Ra and he watcheth over thee, he hath taken thee by thy
hand, he hath guided thee into temples of heaven, and he hath placed
thee upon the throne of Osiris.” We are reminded of some parts of
the book of Job or some of the picturesque speeches of our own North
American Indian.
Nefertari-Aahmes was a devout worshipper of the gods, like her mother
before her, and made valuable gifts to the temples, so these funeral
rites were doubtless observed with great care and ceremony, especially
as she had many children, some of whom survived her, to pay the last
tributes of love and respect. The list is given as Meryt-amen, the
eldest daughter, who died young; Sat-amen, a second daughter, who
died as an infant; Sa’pair, the eldest son, of whom some statuettes
and memorials remain, though he also appears to have died young and
did not succeed his father; Aah-hotep, doubtless named after the
beloved grandmother, and who also became queen later; Amenhotep
I, who succeeded his father, and Sat-Kames, a daughter. Besides
Nefertari-Aahmes, the king seems to have had another royal wife, called
Queen Anhapi, who bore him a daughter, Hent’ta’mehu, and a secondary
wife, whose name is preserved as Kasmut, and who bore him Tair and
other children. Queen on earth and goddess in heaven though she might
be, Queen Aahmes-Nefertari had the common human experience of sorrow;
she lost a number of children, and though holding the first place,
and doubtless having her own establishment, shared her husband’s
attention and affection with various rivals. Yet human ambition could
reach no greater height; she was recorded as “the royal daughter,
sister and great royal wife, royal mother, great ruler, mistress of
both lands.” The ancestress and foundress of her race, she had a
priesthood of her own, a large sacred shrine, and was worshipped like
the great gods at Abydos, Karnak and Thebes. She is believed to have
outlived her husband, and to have reigned temporarily for her son, who
was associated with her and worshipped with her at Thebes. “She sits
enthroned with her husband,” says one writer, “at the head of all the
Pharonic pairs and before all the royal children of their race, as the
specially venerated ancestress of the Eighteenth Dynasty.” Her title of
wife of the god Amen expressly designated the chief priestess of the
tutelary god of Thebes.
The wife and children of Aahmes often adopted or combined his name
with their own and encircled it with their cartouch. The king was
called “the golden Horus, the binding together of the two lands.” His
coffin and body were found at Deir-el-Bahri. The coffin was of the new
style, plain in outline, less massive and shaped to the figure behind,
painted yellow, picked out with blue, instead of gilt. The body was
fairly preserved, the head long and small, with thick and wavy hair,
not shaved, as later. The muscles were strong and vigorous, and he
might have been something over fifty at the time of his death. Not a
long life, but that of a warrior was perhaps necessarily a hard one.
The mummy case of the queen was one of the largest and most magnificent
ever discovered, and at the time it was found contained also the mummy
of Thothmes or Tehutimes III, which, left unexamined and not properly
cared for, decomposed, and had to be buried. A headless statue of Queen
Aahmes-Nefertari, smaller statuettes, scarabs and a bas-relief or a
statue in which she appears with her son Amenophis I exist. So king
and queen passed from earth to the delights of heaven, and, as Curtis
expresses it, exchanged “the silver for the golden goblet.”
Amenhotep, Amenophis or Amenothes, son of Aahmes and Nefertari-Aahmes,
succeeded his father, and married his sister Aah-hotep II, or some say
Nefutari, of whom, beyond her name, we know little or nothing. The king
was about twenty, she probably younger, at the time. Like his father
before him, he was a warrior, and is pictured holding captives by the
hair, probably Lydians. His children are given as Uaz’mes, Aahmes,
Tehutimes I, Neb’ta and Mutnefert, whose statue is at Karnak. The first
two are on the tomb of a certain Peperi, where the king holds Prince
Uaz’mes on his knee.
The mummy of the king is among those that have been discovered. It was
clothed in an orange robe, held in place by bands of linen. There was a
mask of wood and painted pasteboard identical with the outside. He was
enveloped from head to foot with long garlands, among which a wasp had
crawled, attracted by the flowers, and thus preserved for centuries.
According to the traditions, he also was a devout worshipper of the
gods, and accorded divine honors. So for all these had come the day
when they drew towards “the land that loveth silence.”
CHAPTER EIGHTH.
HATSHEPSUT.
With Hatshepsut, or Hatsu, some 1600 B. C., we come to the most
celebrated of all the Egyptian queens, not perhaps excluding the
world-renowned Cleopatra, and her reign bears also a noteworthy
feature, an especial ornament to a woman’s brow—it was a reign of
peace. Her father and brothers, especially the younger, were warriors,
but she was not. To the male of all species the fighting instinct
more particularly and rightfully belongs. No wars of defence, none of
aggression and conquest, disturbed the peaceful course of her rule. The
arts flourished, and friendly expeditions sought distant shores to gain
fresh knowledge of the outer world, to extend the hand of fellowship,
and to exchange in the ordinary channels of commerce the products and
manufactures of one land for those of the other.
[Illustration: HATASU.]
No such lengthened gap exists between Hatshepsut and the previous kings
as we have noted earlier in our study. She was in direct descent,
being the great-grand-daughter of Aahmes and Nefertari-Aahmes, and
the grand-daughter of Amenhotep or Amenophis I. Her father was Tutmes
or Tahutmes I, “Thut’s child,” and her mother, probably his sister,
Aahmes, A’mose or Amensi, of whom there is a profile portrait in one of
Maspero’s books. Some things suggest that the mother of Queen Amensi
was of different and higher birth than the mother of Tahutmes, and
this may account for the position which seemed at once accorded to
Hatshepsut. Another legend states that the god Amen was Hatshepsut’s
father, and being of divine origin, a sort of Minerva sprung from
the brain of Jupiter, she took unquestioned the first place; but
she was evidently of the blood royal and the arrangement which gave
her precedence of her brothers and claim to the crown did not seem
to be disputed. Every princess at her birth received the title of
“royal consort.” A son and daughter of Tahutmes, probably older than
Hatshepsut, died in childhood, the former named Uatmes (who by some
is believed to be brother rather than son of Tahutmes) and a daughter
Kheb-no-fru-ra or Nefer’kebt. Tahutmes himself is considered the son of
Amenhotep I and Queen Sen-semb.
Tahutmes I, like his predecessors, was a warrior. He fought in the
north, made conquests in Palestine and Syria and penetrated into
Mesopotamia. A stele, erected east of the Euphrates, bore record of
his victories, but his daughter adopted a different policy. She and
her brother regarded many of these conquests as empty possessions,
difficult to retain and of no real value to the kingdom, so preferred
to abandon them.
Hatshepsut rejoiced in the usual wealth of names, in addition to or
instead of that by which she is most generally known, Hatasu, each
writer selecting a different one for his own reasons. These were
Hatshopsitou, Hasheps, Hatshepsut, which seems to be generally used by
Petrie, Khnumt-Amen, Chuemtamun, the throne name Ra-ma-ka, Maat-ka-ra,
etc., as derived from different languages and given by different
authorities.
The Egyptian’s awe of and respect for his monarch was usually so
great that he hesitated to speak of him directly, but used some
circumlocution or descriptive phrase. The name of the god Ra seems to
have been frequently, though not invariably, introduced. This was the
principal solar deity of Egypt, the “sun-god,” the “father of gods and
men,” the chief seat of this very ancient worship being Heliopolis. The
sun’s disk was his emblem, and he was pictured as hawk-headed.
The tie between Tahutmes I and his daughter, admirable wherever seen,
was one of close affection, and the former doubtless recognized and
took pride in the ability of his gifted child. The male historians,
with one or two exceptions, seem rather grudgingly to admit Hatasu’s
claims, pass somewhat slightingly over her achievements and attribute
to her successors what may really be her due. Miss Edwards, on the
contrary, is fired with enthusiasm, encircles this queenly figure with
the halo of her own poetic imagination and claims for her certain
engineering works which others believe to be the performance of her
successors.
There is one familiar portrait bust, a copy of which is in the
Metropolitan Museum in New York and in other places, which has been
appropriated by different authorities to different queens. It is a
smiling, womanly face, with well-rounded lips and a dimpled chin.
Mariette calls it Queen Ti, Maspero believes it to be the wife of
Horemheb, and Miss Edwards claims it as Hatasu. The original, in
limestone and of colossal size, is at Gizeh. It is a masterpiece of
Egyptian art and was found in a chamber back of the obelisk of Hatasu
at Karnak, which perhaps gives color to Miss Edwards’ theory. She says
of it, “the eyes laugh, the lips all but speak, and every feature
is alive with a vivacious charm which is the rarest achievement in
sculpture.” Certainly, if it be this queen, beauty and charm were added
to mental capacity. A half-mocking smile wreathes the lips and seems to
suggest a keen sense of humor.