The visitor, having reached the northern end of the Egyptian Saloon,
should turn to the south, and begin a minute examination of its
contents. The sarcophagi, or outer coffins of stone, in which the rich
ancient Egyptians deposited the embalmed bodies of their relations,
occupy the greater part of the ground space of the saloon. They are
massive shells, hewn from the solid rock, polished and engraved
skilfully with hieroglyphics, which, so far as the learned have been
able to decipher, record the exploits of the great men they contained.
Some of them are in the shape of common boxes with raised lids; while
in others, attempts to represent the features of the deceased, and a
rough outline of a mummy are apparent. These massive coffins, which
are upwards of three thousand years old, and are eloquent with the
mystic written language of that remote antiquity, deserve more than a
transient notice even from the unscientific visitor. Mummies were
found in most of these, proving their use. Some were discovered placed
in an erect, and others in a recumbent posture, in the tombs of
Thebes, or on the sites of ancient cities.
Of the sarcophagi or coffins, fashioned in the shape of a mummy, the
visitor should notice that in calcareous stone, numbered 47, which was
discovered at Tana; another, with the paintings restored, marked 39;
another in green basalt, marked 33, known to be that of a female
called Auch, decorated with the embalming deities, and inscribed with
a prayer on behalf of the deceased woman; and one of later date which
has held the remains of a member of the priestly class, numbered 17.
To arrive at a fair estimate of the average art displayed in these
ancient sepulchral remains, it is worth the trouble of the visitor to
wander a little about the saloon from one specimen to the next
immediately connected with, or proximately resembling it. Having
examined the coffins shaped like mummies, the visitor should next
direct his attention to the massive oblong cases which lie upon the
ground on either side of him.
The first of these which he may examine is that marked 32. This
sarcophagus was excavated from the back of the palace of Sesostris,
near Thebes. Athor appears in bas-relief upon the lid; the sun is
represented in the interior, together with Heaven represented as a
female, and a repetition of the goddess Athor.
The names of several royal ladies have been deciphered from the
inscriptions, which are the addresses of deities. The black granite
chest of a sarcophagus, numbered 23, is that of a royal scribe named
Hapimen. Here the well-known figures of the Amenti, the embalmer
Anubis, and other deities and symbols, will remind the visitor of the
Egyptian room up stairs, with its strange green little images of
figures half human and half bestial. Round the interior are the
deities to whom the various parts of the human body were severally
dedicated. Since this massive granite was the coffin of Hapimen, it
has been known to the Turks as the "Lover's Fountain," and used by
them as a cistern. The Syenite sarcophagus of a standard-bearer, is
marked 18. The chest of a royal sarcophagus that was taken from the
mosque of St. Athanasius at Alexandria, and which contained the mummy
of a king of the twenty-eighth dynasty, is marked number 10. On the
exterior, the Sun is represented, attended by appropriate deities
travelling through the hours of the day; and on the interior the
visitor will recognise the quaint symbolic forms of the usual
sepulchral gods and goddesses. The two remaining sarcophagi are those
of a scribe and priest of the acropolis of Memphis, and a bard. That
of the former, marked 3, is covered with the figures of Egyptian
divinities and inscriptions to the deceased; that of the latter, in
arragonite, is in the form of a mummy, like those first examined by
the visitor. This coffin has five distinct lines of hieroglyphics
engraved down the front, expressing a chapter of the funeral ritual:
and the face bears evidence of having been gilt.
Having sufficiently examined these massive coffins, upon which the
proudest undertaker of modern times must look humbly, and deplore the
decline of his business as an art, the visitor should at once turn to
other specimens of the sepulchral art of the ancient Egyptians. Of
these, the most interesting are the sepulchral tablets, which are
literally