A Queen’s Tomb
“Mr. Trelawny’s hope was at least as great as my own. He is not so
volatile a man as I am, prone to ups and downs of hope and despair; but
he has a fixed purpose which crystallises hope into belief. At times I
had feared that there might have been two such stones, or that the
adventures of Van Huyn were traveller’s fictions, based on some
ordinary acquisition of the curio in Alexandria or Cairo, or London or
Amsterdam. But Mr. Trelawny never faltered in his belief. We had many
things to distract our minds from belief or disbelief. This was soon
after Arabi Pasha, and Egypt was no safe place for travellers,
especially if they were English. But Mr. Trelawny is a fearless man;
and I almost come to think at times that I am not a coward myself. We
got together a band of Arabs whom one or other of us had known in
former trips to the desert, and whom we could trust; that is, we did
not distrust them as much as others. We were numerous enough to
protect ourselves from chance marauding bands, and we took with us
large impedimenta. We had secured the consent and passive co-operation
of the officials still friendly to Britain; in the acquiring of which
consent I need hardly say that Mr. Trelawny’s riches were of chief
importance. We found our way in dhahabiyehs to Aswan; whence, having
got some Arabs from the Sheik and having given our usual backsheesh, we
set out on our journey through the desert.
“Well, after much wandering and trying every winding in the
interminable jumble of hills, we came at last at nightfall on just such
a valley as Van Huyn had described. A valley with high, steep cliffs;
narrowing in the centre, and widening out to the eastern and western
ends. At daylight we were opposite the cliff and could easily note the
opening high up in the rock, and the hieroglyphic figures which were
evidently intended originally to conceal it.
“But the signs which had baffled Van Huyn and those of his time—and
later, were no secrets to us. The host of scholars who have given
their brains and their lives to this work, had wrested open the
mysterious prison-house of Egyptian language. On the hewn face of the
rocky cliff we, who had learned the secrets, could read what the Theban
priesthood had had there inscribed nearly fifty centuries before.
“For that the external inscription was the work of the priesthood—and
a hostile priesthood at that—there could be no living doubt. The
inscription on the rock, written in hieroglyphic, ran thus:
“‘Hither the Gods come not at any summons. The “Nameless One” has
insulted them and is for ever alone. Go not nigh, lest their vengeance
wither you away!’
“The warning must have been a terribly potent one at the time it was
written and for thousands of years afterwards; even when the language
in which it was given had become a dead mystery to the people of the
land. The tradition of such a terror lasts longer than its cause. Even
in the symbols used there was an added significance of alliteration.
‘For ever’ is given in the hieroglyphics as ‘millions of years’. This
symbol was repeated nine times, in three groups of three; and after
each group a symbol of the Upper World, the Under World, and the Sky.
So that for this Lonely One there could be, through the vengeance of
all the Gods, resurrection in neither the World of Sunlight, in the
World of the Dead, or for the soul in the region of the Gods.
“Neither Mr. Trelawny nor I dared to tell any of our people what the
writing meant. For though they did not believe in the religion whence
the curse came, or in the Gods whose vengeance was threatened, yet they
were so superstitious that they would probably, had they known of it,
have thrown up the whole task and run away.
“Their ignorance, however, and our discretion preserved us. We made an
encampment close at hand, but behind a jutting rock a little further
along the valley, so that they might not have the inscription always
before them. For even that traditional name of the place: ‘The Valley
of the Sorcerer’, had a fear for them; and for us through them. With
the timber which we had brought, we made a ladder up the face of the
rock. We hung a pulley on a beam fixed to project from the top of the
cliff. We found the great slab of rock, which formed the door, placed
clumsily in its place and secured by a few stones. Its own weight kept
it in safe position. In order to enter, we had to push it in; and we
passed over it. We found the great coil of chain which Van Huyn had
described fastened into the rock. There were, however, abundant
evidences amid the wreckage of the great stone door, which had revolved
on iron hinges at top and bottom, that ample provision had been
originally made for closing and fastening it from within.
“Mr. Trelawny and I went alone into the tomb. We had brought plenty of
lights with us; and we fixed them as we went along. We wished to get a
complete survey at first, and then make examination of all in detail.
As we went on, we were filled with ever-increasing wonder and delight.
The tomb was one of the most magnificent and beautiful which either of
us had ever seen. From the elaborate nature of the sculpture and
painting, and the perfection of the workmanship, it was evident that
the tomb was prepared during the lifetime of her for whose
resting-place it was intended. The drawing of the hieroglyphic
pictures was fine, and the colouring superb; and in that high cavern,
far away from even the damp of the Nile-flood, all was as fresh as when
the artists had laid down their palettes. There was one thing which we
could not avoid seeing. That although the cutting on the outside rock
was the work of the priesthood, the smoothing of the cliff face was
probably a part of the tomb-builder’s original design. The symbolism
of the painting and cutting within all gave the same idea. The outer
cavern, partly natural and partly hewn, was regarded architecturally as
only an ante-chamber. At the end of it, so that it would face the east,
was a pillared portico, hewn out of the solid rock. The pillars were
massive and were seven-sided, a thing which we had not come across in
any other tomb. Sculptured on the architrave was the Boat of the Moon,
containing Hathor, cow-headed and bearing the disk and plumes, and the
dog-headed Hapi, the God of the North. It was steered by Harpocrates
towards the north, represented by the Pole Star surrounded by Draco and
Ursa Major. In the latter the stars that form what we call the ‘Plough’
were cut larger than any of the other stars; and were filled with gold
so that, in the light of torches, they seemed to flame with a special
significance. Passing within the portico, we found two of the
architectural features of a rock tomb, the Chamber, or Chapel, and the
Pit, all complete as Van Huyn had noticed, though in his day the names
given to these parts by the Egyptians of old were unknown.
“The Stele, or record, which had its place low down on the western
wall, was so remarkable that we examined it minutely, even before going
on our way to find the mummy which was the object of our search. This
Stele was a great slab of lapis lazuli, cut all over with hieroglyphic
figures of small size and of much beauty. The cutting was filled in
with some cement of exceeding fineness, and of the colour of pure
vermilion. The inscription began:
“‘Tera, Queen of the Egypts, daughter of Antef, Monarch of the North
and the South.’ ‘Daughter of the Sun,’ ‘Queen of the Diadems’.
“It then set out, in full record, the history of her life and reign.
“The signs of sovereignty were given with a truly feminine profusion of
adornment. The united Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt were, in
especial, cut with exquisite precision. It was new to us both to find
the Hejet and the Desher—the White and the Red crowns of Upper and
Lower Egypt—on the Stele of a queen; for it was a rule, without
exception in the records, that in ancient Egypt either crown was worn
only by a king; though they are to be found on goddesses. Later on we
found an explanation, of which I shall say more presently.
“Such an inscription was in itself a matter so startling as to arrest
attention from anyone anywhere at any time; but you can have no
conception of the effect which it had upon us. Though our eyes were
not the first which had seen it, they were the first which could see it
with understanding since first the slab of rock was fixed in the cliff
opening nearly five thousand years before. To us was given to read
this message from the dead. This message of one who had warred against
the Gods of Old, and claimed to have controlled them at a time when the
hierarchy professed to be the only means of exciting their fears or
gaining their good will.
“The walls of the upper chamber of the Pit and the sarcophagus Chamber
were profusely inscribed; all the inscriptions, except that on the
Stele, being coloured with bluish-green pigment. The effect when seen
sideways as the eye caught the green facets, was that of an old,
discoloured Indian turquoise.
“We descended the Pit by the aid of the tackle we had brought with us.
Trelawny went first. It was a deep pit, more than seventy feet; but it
had never been filled up. The passage at the bottom sloped up to the
sarcophagus Chamber, and was longer than is usually found. It had not
been walled up.
“Within, we found a great sarcophagus of yellow stone. But that I need
not describe; you have seen it in Mr. Trelawny’s chamber. The cover of
it lay on the ground; it had not been cemented, and was just as Van
Huyn had described it. Needless to say, we were excited as we looked
within. There must, however, be one sense of disappointment. I could
not help feeling how different must have been the sight which met the
Dutch traveller’s eyes when he looked within and found that white hand
lying lifelike above the shrouding mummy cloths. It is true that a
part of the arm was there, white and ivory like.
“But there was a thrill to us which came not to Van Huyn!
“The end of the wrist was covered with dried blood! It was as though
the body had bled after death! The jagged ends of the broken wrist
were rough with the clotted blood; through this the white bone,
sticking out, looked like the matrix of opal. The blood had streamed
down and stained the brown wrappings as with rust. Here, then, was
full confirmation of the narrative. With such evidence of the
narrator’s truth before us, we could not doubt the other matters which
he had told, such as the blood on the mummy hand, or marks of the seven
fingers on the throat of the strangled Sheik.
“I shall not trouble you with details of all we saw, or how we learned
all we knew. Part of it was from knowledge common to scholars; part we
read on the Stele in the tomb, and in the sculptures and hieroglyphic
paintings on the walls.
“Queen Tera was of the Eleventh, or Theban Dynasty of Egyptian Kings
which held sway between the twenty-ninth and twenty-fifth centuries
before Christ. She succeeded as the only child of her father, Antef.
She must have been a girl of extraordinary character as well as
ability, for she was but a young girl when her father died. Her youth
and sex encouraged the ambitious priesthood, which had then achieved
immense power. By their wealth and numbers and learning they dominated
all Egypt, more especially the Upper portion. They were then secretly
ready to make an effort for the achievement of their bold and
long-considered design, that of transferring the governing power from a
Kingship to a Hierarchy. But King Antef had suspected some such
movement, and had taken the precaution of securing to his daughter the
allegiance of the army. He had also had her taught statecraft, and had
even made her learned in the lore of the very priests themselves. He
had used those of one cult against the other; each being hopeful of
some present gain on its own part by the influence of the King, or of
some ultimate gain from its own influence over his daughter. Thus, the
Princess had been brought up amongst scribes, and was herself no mean
artist. Many of these things were told on the walls in pictures or in
hieroglyphic writing of great beauty; and we came to the conclusion
that not a few of them had been done by the Princess herself. It was
not without cause that she was inscribed on the Stele as ‘Protector of
the Arts’.
“But the King had gone to further lengths, and had had his daughter
taught magic, by which she had power over Sleep and Will. This was
real magic—“black” magic; not the magic of the temples, which, I may
explain, was of the harmless or “white” order, and was intended to
impress rather than to effect. She had been an apt pupil; and had gone
further than her teachers. Her power and her resources had given her
great opportunities, of which she had availed herself to the full. She
had won secrets from nature in strange ways; and had even gone to the
length of going down into the tomb herself, having been swathed and
coffined and left as dead for a whole month. The priests had tried to
make out that the real Princess Tera had died in the experiment, and
that another girl had been substituted; but she had conclusively proved
their error. All this was told in pictures of great merit. It was
probably in her time that the impulse was given in the restoring the
artistic greatness of the Fourth Dynasty which had found its perfection
in the days of Chufu.
“In the Chamber of the sarcophagus were pictures and writings to show
that she had achieved victory over Sleep. Indeed, there was everywhere
a symbolism, wonderful even in a land and an age of symbolism.
Prominence was given to the fact that she, though a Queen, claimed all
the privileges of kingship and masculinity. In one place she was
pictured in man’s dress, and wearing the White and Red Crowns. In the
following picture she was in female dress, but still wearing the Crowns
of Upper and Lower Egypt, while the discarded male raiment lay at her
feet. In every picture where hope, or aim, of resurrection was
expressed there was the added symbol of the North; and in many
places—always in representations of important events, past, present,
or future—was a grouping of the stars of the Plough. She evidently
regarded this constellation as in some way peculiarly associated with
herself.
“Perhaps the most remarkable statement in the records, both on the
Stele and in the mural writings, was that Queen Tera had power to
compel the Gods. This, by the way, was not an isolated belief in
Egyptian history; but was different in its cause. She had engraved on
a ruby, carved like a scarab, and having seven stars of seven points,
Master Words to compel all the Gods, both of the Upper and the Under
Worlds.
“In the statement it was plainly set forth that the hatred of the
priests was, she knew, stored up for her, and that they would after her
death try to suppress her name. This was a terrible revenge, I may
tell you, in Egyptian mythology; for without a name no one can after
death be introduced to the Gods, or have prayers said for him.
Therefore, she had intended her resurrection to be after a long time
and in a more northern land, under the constellation whose seven stars
had ruled her birth. To this end, her hand was to be in the
air—‘unwrapped’—and in it the Jewel of Seven Stars, so that wherever
there was air she might move even as her Ka could move! This, after
thinking it over, Mr. Trelawny and I agreed meant that her body could
become astral at command, and so move, particle by particle, and become
whole again when and where required. Then there was a piece of writing
in which allusion was made to a chest or casket in which were contained
all the Gods, and Will, and Sleep, the two latter being personified by
symbols. The box was mentioned as with seven sides. It was not much of
a surprise to us when, underneath the feet of the mummy, we found the
seven-sided casket, which you have also seen in Mr. Trelawny’s room.
On the underneath part of the wrapping—linen of the left foot was
painted, in the same vermilion colour as that used in the Stele, the
hieroglyphic symbol for much water, and underneath the right foot the
symbol of the earth. We made out the symbolism to be that her body,
immortal and transferable at will, ruled both the land and water, air
and fire—the latter being exemplified by the light of the Jewel Stone,
and further by the flint and iron which lay outside the mummy wrappings.
“As we lifted the casket from the sarcophagus, we noticed on its sides
the strange protuberances which you have already seen; but we were
unable at the time to account for them. There were a few amulets in
the sarcophagus, but none of any special worth or significance. We
took it that if there were such, they were within the wrappings; or
more probably in the strange casket underneath the mummy’s feet. This,
however, we could not open. There were signs of there being a cover;
certainly the upper portion and the lower were each in one piece. The
fine line, a little way from the top, appeared to be where the cover
was fixed; but it was made with such exquisite fineness and finish that
the joining could hardly be seen. Certainly the top could not be moved.
We took it, that it was in some way fastened from within. I tell you
all this in order that you may understand things with which you may be
in contact later. You must suspend your judgment entirely. Such
strange things have happened regarding this mummy and all around it,
that there is a necessity for new belief somewhere. It is absolutely
impossible to reconcile certain things which have happened with the
ordinary currents of life or knowledge.
“We stayed around the Valley of the Sorcerer, till we had copied
roughly all the drawings and writings on the walls, ceiling and floor.
We took with us the Stele of lapis lazuli, whose graven record was
coloured with vermilion pigment. We took the sarcophagus and the
mummy; the stone chest with the alabaster jars; the tables of
bloodstone and alabaster and onyx and carnelian; and the ivory pillow
whose arch rested on ‘buckles’, round each of which was twisted an
uraeus wrought in gold. We took all the articles which lay in the
Chapel, and the Mummy Pit; the wooden boats with crews and the ushaptiu
figures, and the symbolic amulets.
“When coming away we took down the ladders, and at a distance buried
them in the sand under a cliff, which we noted so that if necessary we
might find them again. Then with our heavy baggage, we set out on our
laborious journey back to the Nile. It was no easy task, I tell you, to
bring the case with that great sarcophagus over the desert. We had a
rough cart and sufficient men to draw it; but the progress seemed
terribly slow, for we were anxious to get our treasures into a place of
safety. The night was an anxious time with us, for we feared attack
from some marauding band. But more still we feared some of those with
us. They were, after all, but predatory, unscrupulous men; and we had
with us a considerable bulk of precious things. They, or at least the
dangerous ones amongst them, did not know why it was so precious; they
took it for granted that it was material treasure of some kind that we
carried. We had taken the mummy from the sarcophagus, and packed it
for safety of travel in a separate case. During the first night two
attempts were made to steal things from the cart; and two men were
found dead in the morning.
“On the second night there came on a violent storm, one of those
terrible simooms of the desert which makes one feel his helplessness.
We were overwhelmed with drifting sand. Some of our Bedouins had fled
before the storm, hoping to find shelter; the rest of us, wrapped in
our bournous, endured with what patience we could. In the morning,
when the storm had passed, we recovered from under the piles of sand
what we could of our impedimenta. We found the case in which the mummy
had been packed all broken, but the mummy itself could nowhere be
found. We searched everywhere around, and dug up the sand which had
piled around us; but in vain. We did not know what to do, for Trelawny
had his heart set on taking home that mummy. We waited a whole day in
hopes that the Bedouins, who had fled, would return; we had a blind
hope that they might have in some way removed the mummy from the cart,
and would restore it. That night, just before dawn, Mr. Trelawny woke
me up and whispered in my ear:
“‘We must go back to the tomb in the Valley of the Sorcerer. Show no
hesitation in the morning when I give the orders! If you ask any
questions as to where we are going it will create suspicion, and will
defeat our purpose.’
“‘All right!” I answered. “But why shall we go there?’ His answer
seemed to thrill through me as though it had struck some chord ready
tuned within:
“‘We shall find the mummy there! I am sure of it!’ Then anticipating
doubt or argument he added:
“‘Wait, and you shall see!’ and he sank back into his blanket again.
“The Arabs were surprised when we retraced our steps; and some of them
were not satisfied. There was a good deal of friction, and there were
several desertions; so that it was with a diminished following that we
took our way eastward again. At first the Sheik did not manifest any
curiosity as to our definite destination; but when it became apparent
that we were again making for the Valley of the Sorcerer, he too showed
concern. This grew as we drew near; till finally at the entrance of
the valley he halted and refused to go further. He said he would await
our return if we chose to go on alone. That he would wait three days;
but if by that time we had not returned he would leave. No offer of
money would tempt him to depart from this resolution. The only
concession he would make was that he would find the ladders and bring
them near the cliff. This he did; and then, with the rest of the
troop, he went back to wait at the entrance of the valley.
“Mr. Trelawny and I took ropes and torches, and again ascended to the
tomb. It was evident that someone had been there in our absence, for
the stone slab which protected the entrance to the tomb was lying flat
inside, and a rope was dangling from the cliff summit. Within, there
was another rope hanging into the shaft of the Mummy Pit. We looked at
each other; but neither said a word. We fixed our own rope, and as
arranged Trelawny descended first, I following at once. It was not
till we stood together at the foot of the shaft that the thought
flashed across me that we might be in some sort of a trap; that someone
might descend the rope from the cliff, and by cutting the rope by which
we had lowered ourselves into the Pit, bury us there alive. The
thought was horrifying; but it was too late to do anything. I remained
silent. We both had torches, so that there was ample light as we
passed through the passage and entered the Chamber where the
sarcophagus had stood. The first thing noticeable was the emptiness of
the place. Despite all its magnificent adornment, the tomb was made a
desolation by the absence of the great sarcophagus, to hold which it
was hewn in the rock; of the chest with the alabaster jars; of the
tables which had held the implements and food for the use of the dead,
and the ushaptiu figures.
“It was made more infinitely desolate still by the shrouded figure of
the mummy of Queen Tera which lay on the floor where the great
sarcophagus had stood! Beside it lay, in the strange contorted
attitudes of violent death, three of the Arabs who had deserted from
our party. Their faces were black, and their hands and necks were
smeared with blood which had burst from mouth and nose and eyes.
“On the throat of each were the marks, now blackening, of a hand of
seven fingers.
“Trelawny and I drew close, and clutched each other in awe and fear as
we looked.
“For, most wonderful of all, across the breast of the mummied Queen lay
a hand of seven fingers, ivory white, the wrist only showing a scar
like a jagged red line, from which seemed to depend drops of blood.”