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TRiMUiY I

EGYPT

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yPiioto by A'. Macnaghtcn.

A slatuo oftho hawk-g-od Horus in front ot the temple of Edfu.
The author stands beside it.

P'RONTISI'IICCK.

The Treasury of Ancient Egypt

man is explicable by nothing less than all his history."

— Emerson.

The Treasury of
Ancient Egypt

Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient
Egyptian History and Archaeology

ARTHUR E. P. B. WEIGALL

INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF UPPER EGYPT, DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES

AUTHOR OF 'travels IN THE UPPER EGYPTIAN DESERTS,' 'tHE LIFE AND

TIMES OF AKHNATON, PHARAOH OF EGYPT,' ' A GUIDE TO THE

ANTIQUITIES OF UPPER EGYPT,' ETC., ETC.

William Blackwood and Sons

Edinburgh and London

191 1

<6^

ALAN H. GARDINER, ESQ.,

M.A., D.LlTT.

LAYCOCK STUDENT OF EGYPTOLOGY AT WORCESTER
COLLEGE, OXFORD^

THIS BOOK,

WHICH WILL RECALL SOME SUMMER NIGHTS UPON
THE THEBAN HILLS,

IS DEDICATED.

274857

■I

PREFACE.

No person who has travelled in Egypt will require
to be told that it is a country in which a consider-
able amount of waiting and waste of time has to
be endured. One makes an excursion by train to
see some ruins, and, upon returning to the station,
the train is found to be late, and an hour or more
has to be dawdled away. Crossing the Nile in a
rowing-boat the sailors contrive in one way or
another to prolong the journey to a length of half
an hour or more. The excursion steamer will run
upon a sandbank, and will there remain fast for a
part of the day.

The resident official, travelling from place to
place, spends a great deal of time seated in railway
stations or on the banks of the Nile, waiting for
his train or his boat to arrive ; and he has, there-
fore, a great deal of time for thinking. I often try
to fill in these dreary periods by jotting down a
few notes on some matter which has recently been

viii Preface. ■

discussed, or registering and elaborating argu-
ments which have chanced lately to come into the
thoughts. These notes are shaped and "written
up " when next there is a spare hour, and a few
books to refer to ; and ultimately they take the
form of articles or papers, some of which find
their way into print.

This volume contains twelve chapters, written
at various times and in various places, each
dealing with some subject drawn from the great
treasury of Ancient Egypt. Some of the chap-
ters have appeared as articles in magazines.
Chapters iv., v., and viii. were published in
' Blackwood's Magazine ' ; chapter vii. in ' Put-
nam's Magazine ' and the ' Pall Mall Magazine ' ;
and chapter ix. in the ' Century Magazine.' I
have to thank the editors for allowing me to re-
print them here. The remaining seven chapters
have been written specially for this volume.

Luxor, Upper Egypt,
November 1910.

CONTENTS.

PART I.— THE VALUE OF THE TREASURY.

OHAP.

PAGE

I. THE VALUE OF ARCHEOLOGY ... 3

IL THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE . . . .26

III. THE NECESSITY OF ARCHEOLOGY TO THE GAIETY OF

THE WORLD ..... 55

PART II.— STUDIES IN THE TREASURY.

IV, THE TEMPERAMENT OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS
V. THE MISFORTUNES OF WENAMON
VI. THE STORY OF THE SHIPWRECKED SAILOR

PART III.— RESEARCHES IN THE TREASURY.

VII. RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN EGYPT . • .165

VIII. THE TOMB OF TIY AND AKHNATON . . .185

IX. THE TOMB OF HOREMHEB .... 209

PART IV.— THE PRESERVATION OF THE TREASURY.

X. THEBAN THIEVES ..... 239

XI. THE FLOODING OF LOWER NUBIA . . .261

XII. ARCHEOLOGY IN THE OPEN .... 282

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE
PLATB

A STATUE OF THE HAWK-GOD HORUS IN FRONT OF
THE TEMPLE OF EDFU. THE AUTHOR STANDS

BESIDE IT . . . Frontispiece

I. THE MUMMY OF RAMESES II. OF DYNASTY XIX.
II. WOOD AND ENAMEL JEWEL-CASE DISCOVERED IN THE
TOMB OF YUAA AND TUAU. AN EXAMPLE OF
THE FURNITURE OF ONE OF THE BEST PERIODS
OP ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART .
III. HEAVY GOLD EARRINGS OF QUEEN TAUSERT OF
DYNASTY XX. AN EXAMPLE OP THE WORK
OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN GOLDSMITHS . . 22

IV. IN THE PALM-GROVES NEAR SAKKARA, EGYPT . 36

V. THE MUMMY OF SETY I. OF DYNASTY XIX. . 48

VI. A RELIEF UPON THE SIDE OF THE SARCOPHAGUS
OF ONE OF THE WIVES OF KING MENTUHOTEP
III., DISCOVERED AT DIIR EL BAHRI (tHEBES).
THE ROYAL LADY IS TAKING SWEET-SMELLING
OINTMENT FROM AN ALABASTER VASE. A
HANDMAIDEN KEEPS THE FLIES AWAY WITH

A bird's-wing fan . . . .62

VII. LADY ROUGING HERSELF : SHE HOLDS A MIRROR

AND ROUGE-POT . . . .71

DANCING GIRL TURNING A BACK SOMERSAULT . 71

xii Illustrations.

VIII. TWO EGYPTIAN BOYS DECKED WITH FLOWERS AND
A THIRD HOLDING A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.
THEY ARE STANDING AGAINST THE OUTSIDE
WALL OP THE DENDEREH TEMPLE . . 82

IX. A GARLAND OF LEAVES AND FLOWERS DATING FROM
ABOUT B.C. 1000. IT WAS PLACED UPON THE
NECK OF A MUMMY . . . .94

X. A RELIEF OP THE SATTIC PERIOD, REPRESENTING
AN OLD MAN PLAYING UPON A HARP, AND A
WOMAN BEATING A DRUM. OFFERINGS OP
POOD AND FLOWERS ARE PLACED BEFORE
THEM ..... 100

XI. AN EGYPTIAN NOBLE OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY
HUNTING BIRDS WITH A BOOMERANG AND
DECOYS. HE STANDS IN A REED-BOAT WHICH
FLOATS AMIDST THE PAPYRUS CLUMPS, AND A
CAT RETRIEVES THE FALLEN BIRDS. IN THE
BOAT WITH HIM ARE HIS WIPE AND SON . 108

XII. A REED BOX FOR HOLDING CLOTHING, DISCOVERED

IN THE TOJIB OF YUAA AND TUAU . .118

XIII. A FESTIVAL SCENE OF SINGERS AND DANCERS FROM

A TOMB-PAINTING OF DYNASTY XVII, . .133

XIV. A SAILOR OP LOWER NUBIA AND HIS SON . .144
XV. A NILE BOAT PASSING THE HILLS OP THEBES , 159

XVI. THE EXCAVATIONS ON THE SITE OF THE CITY OF

ABYDOS ..... 166

XVII. EXCAVATING THE OSIREION AT ABYDOS. A CHAIN
OP BOYS HANDING UP BASKETS OP SAND TO
THE SURFACE . . . .175

XVIII. THE ENTRANCE OP THE TOMB OF QUEEN TIY, WITH
EGYPTIAN POLICEMAN STANDING BESIDE IT. ON
THE LEFT IS THE LATER TOMB OP RAMBSES X. 186

Illustrations. xiii

XIX. TOILET-SPOONS OF CAUVED WOOD, DISCOVERED IN
TOMBS OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY. THAT
ON THE RIGHT HAS A MOVABLE LID . . 192

XX. THE COFFIN OF AKHNATON LYING IN THE TOMB OF ,

QUEEN TIY ..... 207

XXI. HEAD OP A GRANITE STATUE OF THE GOD KHONSU,
PROBABLY DATING FROM ABOUT THE PERIOD
OF HOREMHEB . . . .217

XXII. THE MOUTH OF THE TOMB OF HOREMHEB AT THE
TIME OF ITS DISCOVERY. THE AUTHOR IS
SEEN EMERGING FROM THE TOMB AFTER THE
FIRST ENTRANCE HAD BEEN EFFECTED. ON
THE HILLSIDE THE WORKMEN ARE GROUPED . 229

XXin, A MODERN THBBAN FELLAH-WOMAN AND HER CHILD 240

XXIV. A MODERN GOURNAWI BEGGAR . . . 250

XXV. THE ISLAND AND TEMPLES OF PHIL^ WHEN THE

RESERVOIR IS EMPTY .... 269

XXVI. A RELIEF REPRESENTING QUEEN TIY, FROM THE
TOMB OF USERHAT AT THEBES. THIS RELIEF
WAS STOLEN PROM THE TOMB, AND FOUND ITS
WAY TO THE BRUSSELS MUSEUM, WHERE IT IS
SHOWN IN THE DAMAGED CONDITION SEEN IN

PL. XXVII. ..... 282

XXVIl. A RELIEF REPRESENTING QUEEN TIY, FROM THE

TOMB OF USERHAT, THEBES. (SEE PL. XXVL) 293

PART I.
THE VALUE OF THE TREASURY.

" History no longer shall be a dull book. It shall walk incarnate in every
just and wise man. You shall not tell me by languages and titles a cata-
logue of the volumes you have read. You shall make me feel what periods
you have lived. A man shall be the Temple of Fame. He shall walk, as
the poets have described that goddess, in a robe painted all over with
wonderful events and experiences. . . . He shall be the priest of Pan, and
bring with him into humble cottages the blessing of the morning stars, and
all the recorded benefits of heaven and earth. " Emerson.

CHAPTER 1.

THE VALUE OF ARCH.i:OLOGY.

The archaeologist whose business it is to bring to
light by pick and spade the relics of bygone ages,
is often accused of devoting his energies to work
which is of no material profit to mankind at the
present day. ArchjBology is an unapplied science,
and, apart from its connection with what is called
culture, the critic is inclined to judge it as a
pleasant and worthless amusement. There is
nothing, the critic tells us, of pertinent value
to be learned from the Past which will be of use
to the ordinary person of the present time ; and,
though the archceologist can offer acceptable infor-
mation to the painter, to the theologian, to the
philologist, and indeed to most of the followers
of the arts and sciences, he has nothing to give to
the ordinary layman.

In some directions the imputation is unanswer-
able ; and when the interests of modern times
clash with those of the past, as, for example, in
Egypt where a beneficial reservoir has destroyed
the remains of early days, there can be no question
that the recording of the threatened information

4 The Value of the Treasury.

and the minimising of the destruction, is all that
the value of the archaeologist's work entitles him
to ask for. The critic, however, usually overlooks
some of the chief reasons that archaeology can give
for even this much consideration, reasons which
constitute its modern usefulness ; and I therefore
propose to point out to him three or four of the
many claims which it may make upon the atten-
tion of the layman.

In the first place it is necessary to define the
meaning of the term " Archaeology." Archaeology
is the study of the facts of ancient history and
ancient lore. The word is applied to the study
of all ancient documents and objects which may be
classed as antiquities ; and the archaeologist is
understood to be the man who deals with a period
for which the evidence has to be excavated or
otherwise discovered. The age at which an object
becomes an antiquity, however, is quite undefined,
though practically it may be reckoned at a hundred
years ; and ancient history is, after all, the tale of
any period which is not modern. Thus an archae-
ologist does not necessarily deal solely with the

remote ages.

Every chronicler of the events of the less recent
times who goes to the original documents for his
facts, as true historians must do during at least a
part of their studies, is an archaeologist ; and, con-
versely, every archaeologist who in the course of
his work states a series of historical facts, becomes
an historian. Archaeology and history are insepar-

The Value of Archaeology. 5

able ; and nothing is more detrimental to a noble
science than the attitude of certain so - called
ai'ch?eoloirists who devote their entire time to the
study of a sequence of objects without proper
consideration for the history which those objects
reveal. Antiquities are the relics of human mental
energy; and they can no more be classified without
reference to the minds which produced them than
geological specimens can be discussed without
regard to the earth. There is only one thing
worse than the attitude of the archseologist who
does not study the story of the periods with which
he is dealing, or construct, if only in his thoughts,
living history out of the objects discovered by
him ; and that is the attitude of the historian who
has not familiarised himself with the actual relics
left by the people of whom he writes, or has not,
when possible, visited their lands. There are
many " archaeologists " who do not care a snap of
the fingers for history, surprising as this may
appear ; and there are many historians who take
no interest in manners and customs. The influence
of either is pernicious.

It is to be understood, therefore, that in using
the word Archaeology I include History : I refer to
history supplemented and aggrandised by the
study of the arts, crafts, manners, and customs
of the period under consideration.

As a first argument the value of archaeology in
providing a precedent for important occurrences
may be considered. Archaeology is the structure

6 The Value of the Treasury.

of ancient history, and it is the voice of history
which tells us that a Cretan is always a Cretan,
and a Jew always a Jew. History, then, may
well take her place as a definite asset of state-
craft, and the law of Precedent may be regarded
as a fundamental factor in international politics.
What has happened before may happen again ;
and it is the hand of the archaeologist that directs
our attention to the affairs and circumstances of
olden times, and warns us of the possibilities of
their recurrence. It may be said that the states-
man who has ranged in the front of his mind the
proven characteristics of the people with whom
he is dealing has a perquisite of the utmost
importance.

Any archaeologist who, previous to the rise of
Japan during the latter half of the nineteenth
century, had made a close study of the history
of that country and the character of its people,
might well have predicted unerringly its future
advance to the position of a first - class power.
The amazing faculty of imitation displayed by
the Japanese in old times was patent to him.
He had seen them borrow part of their arts,
their sciences, their crafts, their literature, their
religion, and many of their customs from the
Chinese ; and he might have been aware that
they would likewise borrow from the West, as
soon as they had intercourse with it, those essen-
tials of civilisation which would raise them to their
present position in the world. To him their fear-

The Value of Archaeology. 7

lessness, their tenacity, and their patriotism, were
known ; and he was so well aware of their powers
of organisation, that he might have foreseen the
rapid development which was to take place.

What historian who has read the ancient books
of the Irish — the Book of the Dun Cow, the Book
of Ballymote, the Book of Lismore, and the like —
can show either surprise or dismay at the events
which have occurred in Ireland in modern times ?
Of the hundreds of kings of Ireland whose histories
are epitomised in such works as that of the old
archaeologist Keating, it would be possible to
count upon the fingers those who have died in
peace ; and the archaeologist, thus, knows better
than to expect the descendants of these kings to
live in harmony one with the other. National
characteristics do not change unless, as in the
case of the Greeks, the stock also changes.

In the Jews we have another example of the
persistence of those national characteristics which
history has made known to us. The Jews first
appear in the dimness of the remote past as a
group of nomad tribes, wandering over southern
Palestine, Egypt, and the intervening deserts ;
and at the present day we see them still home-
less, scattered over the face of the globe, the
" tribe of the wandering foot and weary breast."

In no country has the archaeologist been more
active than in Egypt during the last half century,
and the contributions which his spade and pick
have offered to history are of first-rate importance

8 The Value of the Treasury.

to that study as a whole. The eye may now travel
down the history of the Nile Valley from pre-
historic days to the present time almost without
interruption ; and now that the anthropologist has
shown that the modern Egyptians, Mussulman and
Copt, peasant and townsman, belong to one and
the same race of ancient Egyptians, one may
surely judge to-day's inhabitants of the country in
the light of yesterday's records. In his report for
the year 1906, Lord Cromer, questioning whether
the modern inhabitants of the country were cap-
able of governing their own land, tells us that we
must go back to the precedent of Pharaonic days
to discover if the Egyptians ever ruled themselves
successfully.

In this pregnant remark Lord Cromer was using
information which the archaeologist and historian
had made accessible to him. Lookincr back over
the history of the country, he was enabled, by the
study of this information, to range before him the
succession of foreign occupations of the Nile Valley
and to assess their significance. It may be worth
while to repeat the process, in order to give an
example of the bearing of history upon modern
polemics, though I propose to discuss this matter
more fully in another chapter.

Previous to the British occupation the country
was ruled, as it is now, by a noble dynasty of
Albanian princes, whose founder was set upon
the throne by the aid of Turkish and Albanian
troops. From the beginning of the sixteenth

The Value of Archaeology. 9

century until that time Egypt had been ruled
by the Ottoman Government, the Turk having
replaced the Circassian and other foreign " Mara-
lukes" who had held the country by the aid of
foreign troops since the middle of the thirteenth
century. For a hundred years previous to the
Mamluke rule Egypt had been in the hands of
the Syrian and Arabian dynasty founded by
Saladdin. The Fatimides, a North African dynasty,
governed the country before the advent of Salad-
din, this family having entered Egypt under their
general, Jauhar, who was of Greek origin. In
the ninth century Ahmed ibn Tulun, a Turk,
governed the land with the aid of a foreign gar-
rison, his rule being succeeded by the Ikhshidi
dynasty of foreigners. Ahmed had captured
Egypt from the Byzantines who had held it
since the days of the Roman occupation. Pre-
vious to the Romans the Ptolemies, a Greek
family, had governed the Nile Valley with the
help of foreign troops. The Ptolemies had fol-
lowed close upon the Greek occupation, the
Greeks having replaced the Persians as rulers
of Egypt. The Persian occupation had been
preceded by an Egyptian dynasty which had
been kept on the throne by Greek and other
foreign garrisons. Previous to this there had
been a Persian occupation, which had followed
a short period of native rule under foreign
influence. We then come back to the Assyrian
conquest which had followed the Ethiopian rule.

10 The Value of the Treasury.

Libyan kings had held the country before the
Ethiopian conquest. The XXIst and XXth
Dynasties preceded the Libyans, and here, in a
disgraceful period of corrupt government, a series
of so-called native kings are met with. Foreigners,
however, swarmed in the country at the time,
foreign troops were constantly used, and the
Pharaohs themselves were of semi-foreign origin.
One now comes back to the early XlXth and
XVIIIth Dynasties which, although largely tinged
with foreign blood, may be said to have been
Egyptian families. Before the rise of the XVIIIth
Dynasty the country was in foreign hands for
the long period which had followed the fall of
the Xllth Dynasty, the classical period of
Egyptian history (about the twentieth century
B.C.), when there were no rivals to be feared.
Thus the Egyptians may be said to have been
subject to foreign occupation for nearly four
thousand years, with the exception of the strong
native rule of the XVIIIth Dynasty, the semi-
native rule of the three succeeding dynasties,
and a few brief periods of chaotic government
in later times ; and this is the information which
the archaeologist has to give to the statesman
and politician. It is a story of continual con-
quest, of foreign occupations following one upon
another, of revolts and massacres, of rapid retri-
butions and punishments. It is the story of a
nation which, however ably it may govern itself

',>,•»

[P/ioto by E. lirugsch Pasha.
The mummy of Rameses II. ot Dynasty XIX.— Cairo Museum.

Pl. I.

The Value of Arch?eology. 1 1

in the future, has only once in four thousand
years successfully done so in the past.

Such information is of far-reaching value to
the politician, and to those interested, as every
Englishman should be, in Imperial politics. A
nation cannot alter by one jot or tittle its funda-
mental characteristics; and only those who have
studied those characteristics in the pages of his-
tory are competent to foresee the future. A
certain Englishman once asked the Khedive
Ismail whether there was any news that day
about Egyptian affairs. "That is so like all
you English," replied his Highness. "You are
always expecting something new to happen in
Egypt day by day. To-day is here the same as
yesterday, and to-morrow will be the same as
to-day ; and so it has been, and so it will be,
for thousands of years." ^ Neither Egypt nor
any other nation will ever change ; and to this
it is the archaeologist who will bear witness with
his stern law of Precedent.

I will reserve the enlarging of this subject for
the next chapter : for the present we may con-
sider, as a second argument, the efficacy of the
past as a tonic to the present, and its ability
to restore the vitality of any age that is
weakened.

In ancient Egypt at the beginning of the
XXVIth Dynasty (b.c. 663) the country was at

1 E. Dicey. ' The Story of the Khedivate,' p. 528.

12 The Value of the Treasury.

a very low ebb. Devastated by conquests, its
people humiliated, its government impoverished,
a general collapse of the nation was imminent.
At this critical period the Egyptians turned their
minds to the glorious days of old. They re-
modelled their arts and crafts upon those of the
classical periods, introduced again the obsolete
ofiEices and titles of those early times, and organ-
ised the government upon the old lines. This
movement saved the country, and averted its
collapse for a few more centuries. It renewed
the pride of workmanship in a decadent people ;
and on all sides we see a revival which was the
direct result of an archaeological experiment.

The importance of archaeology as a reviver of
artistic and industrial culture will be realised at
once if the essential part it played in the great
Italian Renaissance is called to mind. Previous
to the age of Cimabue and Giotto in Florence,
Italian refinement had passed steadily down the
path of deterioration. Graeco-Roman art, which
was still at a high level in the early centuries
of the Christian era, entirely lost its originality
during Byzantine times, and the dark ages settled
down upon Italy in almost every walk of life.
The Venetians, for example, were satisfied with
comparatively the poorest works of art imported
from Constantinople or Mount Athos ; and in
Florence so great was the poverty of genius
that when Cimabue in the thirteenth century
painted that famous Madonna which to our eyes

The Value of Archaeology. 13

appears to be of the crudest workmanship, the
httle advance made by it in the direction of
naturalness was received by the city with
acclamations, the very street down which it was
carried being called the "Happy Street" in
honour of the event. Giotto carried on his
master's teachings, and a few years later the
Florentines had advanced to the standard of
Fra Angelico, who was immediately followed by
the two Lippis and Botticelli. Leonardo da Vinci,
artist, architect, and engineer, was almost con-
temporaneous with Botticelli, being born not much
more than a hundred years after the death of
Giotto. With him art reached a level which it
has never surpassed, old traditions and old canons
were revived, and in every direction culture pro-
ceeded again to those heights from which it had
fallen.

The reader will not need to be reminded that
this great renaissance was the direct result of
the study of the remains of the ancient arts of
Greece and Rome. Botticelli and his contem-
poraries were, in a sense, archreologists, for their
work was inspired by the relics of ancient days.

Now, though at first sight it seems incredible
that such an age of barbarism as that of the
later Byzantine period should return, it is indeed
quite possible that a relatively uncultured age
should come upon us in the future ; and there
is every likelihood of certain communities passing
over to the ranks of the absolute Philistines.

14 The Value of the Treasury.

Socialism run mad would have no more time to
give to the intellect than it had during the French
Kevolution. Any form of violent social upheaval
means catalepsy of the arts and crafts, and a
trampling under foot of old traditions. The
invasions and revolts which are met with at
the close of ancient Egyptian history brought
the culture of that country to the lowest ebb
of vitality. The fall of Greece put an absolute
stop to the artistic life of that nation. The
invasions of Italy by the inhabitants of less
refined countries caused a set-back in civilisation
for which almost the whole of Europe suffered.
Certain of the French arts and crafts have never
recovered from the effects of the Revolution.

A national convulsion of one kind or another
is to be expected by every country ; and history
tells us that such a convulsion is generally fol-
lowed bv an acre of industrial and artistic coma,
which is brought to an end not so much by the
introduction of foreign ideas as by a renascence
of the early traditions of the nation. It thus
behoves every man to interest himself in the
continuity of these traditions, and to see that
they are so impressed upon the mind that they
shall survive all upheavals, or with ease be
re-established.

There is no better tonic for a people who have
weakened, and whose arts, crafts, and industries
have deteriorated than a return to the conditions
which obtained at a past age of national pros-

The Value of Archaeology. 15

perity ; and there are few more repaying tasks
in the long-run than that of reviving an interest
in the best periods of artistic or industrial activity.
This can only be effected by the study of the past,
that is to say by archyeology.

It is to be remembered, of course, that the
sentimental interest in antique objects which, in
recent years, has given a huge value to all ancient
things, regardless of their intrinsic worth, is a
dangerous attitude, unless it is backed by the most
expert knowledge ; for instead of directing the
attention only to the best work of the best
periods, it results in the diminishing of the output
of modern original work and the setting of little
of worth in its place. A person of a certain
fashionable set will now boast that there is no
object in his room less than two hundred years
old : his only boast, however, should be that the
room contains nothing which is not of intrinsic
beauty, interest, or good workmanship. The old
chairs from the kitchen are dragged into the
drawing-room — because they are old ; miniatures
unmeritoriously painted by unknown artists for
obscure clients are nailed in conspicuous places —
because they are old ; hideous plates and dishes,
originally made by ignorant workmen for im-
poverished peasants, are enclosed in glass cases —
because they are old ; iron-bound chests, which had
been cheaply made to suit the purses of farmers,
are rescued from the cottages of their descendants
and sold for fabulous sums — because they are old.

i6 The Value of the Treasury.

A person who fills a drawing-room with chairs,
tables, and ornaments, dating from the reign of
Queen Anne, cannot say that he does so because
he wishes it to look like a room of that date ; for if
this were his desire, he would have to furnish it
with objects which appeared to be newly made,
since in the days of Queen Anne the first quality
noticeable in them would have been their newness.
In fact, to produce the desired effect everything in
the room, with very few exceptions, would have to
be a replica. To sit in this room full of antiques
in a frock-coat would be as bad a breach of good
taste as the placing of a Victorian chandelier in an
Elizabethan banqueting-hall. To furnish the room
with genuine antiquities because they are old and
therefore interesting would be to carry the museum
spirit into daily life with its attending responsi-
bilities, and would involve all manner of incon-
gruities and inconsistencies ; while to furnish in
this manner because antiques were valuable would
be merely vulgar. There are, thus, only three
justifications that I can see for the action of the
man who surrounds himself with antiquities : he
must do so because they are examples of good
workmanship, because they are beautiful, or be-
cause they are endeared to him by family usage.
These, of course, are full and complete justifica-
tions ; and the value of his attitude should be felt
in the impetus which it gives to conscientious
modern work. There are periods in history at
which certain arts, crafts, or industries reached

c t ' t/

C C C €

• to c t- t

[P/io/o by E. Brtii^sc/i Pasha.

Wood

)d and enamel jewel-case discovered in the tomb of Yuaaand Tuau.
An example of the furniture of one of the best periods of ancient

ipl
Eg-yptian art.— Cairo Museum.

Pl. II,

The Value of ArchcTeology. 17

an extremely high level of excellence ; and nothing
can be more valuable to modern workmen than
familiarity with these periods. Well-made replicas
have a value that is overlooked only by the in-
artistic. Nor must it be forgotten that modern
objects of modern design will one day become
antiquities ; and it should be our desire to assist
in the making of the period of our lifetime an age
to which future generations will look back for
guidance and teaching. Every man can, in this
manner, be of use to a nation, if only by learning
to reject poor work wherever he comes upon it —
work which he feels would not stand against the
criticism of Time ; and thus it may be said that
archaeology, which directs him to the best works of
the ancients, and sets him a standard and criterion,
should be an essential part of his education.

The third argument which I wish to employ
here to demonstrate the value of the study of
archaeology and history to the layman is based
upon the assumption that patriotism is a desirable
ingredient in a man's character. This is a premise
which assuredly will be admitted. True patriotism
is essential to the maintenance of a nation. It has
taken the place, among certain people, of loyalty to
the sovereign ; for the armies which used to go to
war out of a blind loyalty to their king, now do so
from a sense of patriotism which is shared by the
monarch (if they happen to have the good fortune
to possess one).

Patriotism is often believed to consist of a love

1 8 The Value of the Treasury.

of one's country, in an affection for the famiUar
villages or cities, fields or streets, of one's own
dwelling-place. This is a grievous error. Pat-
riotism should be an unqualified desire for the
welfare of the race as a whole. It is not really
patriotic for the Englishman to say, " I love Eng-
land " : it is only natural. It is not patriotic for
him to say, " I don't think much of foreigners " : it
is only a form of narrowness of mind which, in
the case of England and certain other countries,
happens sometimes to be rather a useful attitude,
but in the case of several nations, of which a good
example is Egypt, would be detrimental to their
own interests. It was not unqualified patriotism
that induced the Greeks to throw off the Ottoman
yoke : it was largely dislike of the Turks. It is
not patriotism, that is to say undiluted concern for
the nation as a whole, which leads some of the
modern Egyptians to prefer an entirely native
government to the Anglo-Egyptian administration
now obtaining in that country : it is restlessness ;
and I am fortunately able to define it thus without
the necessity of entering the arena of polemics by
offering an opinion as to whether that restlessness
is justified or not justified.

If patriotism were but the love of one's tribe and
one's dwelling-place, then such undeveloped or
fallen races as, for example, the American Indians,
could lay their downfall at the door of that senti-
ment ; since the exclusive love of the tribe pre-
vented the small bodies from amalgamating into

The Value of Archaeology. 19

one great nation for the opposing of the invader.
If patriotism were but the desire for government
without interference, then the breaking up of the
world's empires would be urged, and such federa-
tions as the United States of America would be
intolerable.

Patriotism is, and must be, the desire for the
progress and welfare of the whole nation, without
any regard whatsoever to the conditions under
which that progress takes place, and without any
prejudice in favour either of self-government or of
outside control. I have no hesitation in saying
that the patriotic Pole is he who is in favour of
Russian or German control of his country's affairs ;
for history has told him quite plainly that he
cannot manage them himself. The Nationalist in
any country runs the risk of being the poorest
patriot in the land, for his continuous cry is for
self-government, without any regard to the ques-
tion as to whether such o^overnment will be bene-
ficial to his nation in the long-run.

The value of history to patriotism, then, is to be
assessed under two headings. In the first place,
history defines the attitude which the patriot should
assume. It tells him, in the clear light of experi-
ence, what is, and what is not, good for his nation,
and indicates to him how much he may claim for
his country. And in the second place, it gives to
the patriots of those nations which have shown
capacity and ability in the past a confidence in the
present ; it permits in them the indulgence of that

20 The Value of the Treasury.

enthusiasm which will carry them, sure-footed,
along the path of glory.

Archasology, as the discovery and classification
of the facts of history, is the means by which we
may obtain a true knowledge of what has happened
in the past. It is the instrument with which we
may dissect legend, and extract from myth its
ingredients of fact. Cold history tells the Greek
patriot, eager to enter the fray, that he must set
little store by the precedent of the deeds of the
Trojan war. It tells the English patriot that the
" one jolly Englishman " of the old rhyme is not
the easy vanquisher of the " two froggy Frenchmen
and one Portue^ee " which tradition would have
him believe. He is thus enabled to steer a middle
course between arrant conceit and childish fright.
History tells him the actual facts : history is to
the patriot what " form " is to the racing man.

In the case of the English (Heaven be praised !)
history opens up a boundless vista for the patriotic.
The Englishman seldom realises how much he has
to be proud of in his history, or how loudly the
past cries upon him to be of good cheer. One
hears much nowadays of England's peril, and it
is good that the red signals of danger should some-
times be displayed. But let every Englishman
remember that history can tell him of greater
perils faced successfully ; of mighty armies com-
manded by the greatest generals the world has
ever known, held in check year after year, and
finally crushed by England; of vast fleets scattered

The Value of Archaeology. 21

or destroyed by English sailors ; of almost im-
pregnable cities captured by British troops.
" There is something very characteristic," writes
Professor Seeley,^ " in the indifference which we
show towards the mighty phenomenon of the
diffusion of our race and the expansion of our
state. We seem, as it were, to have conquered
and peopled half the world in a fit of absence
of mind,"

The history of England, and later of the British
Empire, constitutes a tale so amazing that he who
has the welfare of the nation as a whole at heart —
that is to say, the true patriot — is justified in en-
tertaining the most optimistic thoughts for the
future. He should not be indifferent to the past :
he should bear it in mind all the time. Patriotism
may not often be otherwise than misguided if no
study of history has been made. The patriot of
one nation will wish to procure for his country a
freedom which history would show him to have
been its very curse ; and the patriot of another
nation will encourao^e a nervousness and restraint
in his people which history would tell him was
unnecessary. The English patriot has a history
to read which, at the present time, it is especially
needful for him to consider ; and, since Egyptology
is my particular province, I cannot better close
this argument than by reminding the modern
Egyptians that their own history of four thousand
years and its teaching must be considered by them

1 ' The Expansion of England,' p. 10.

22 The Value of the Treasury.

when they speak of patriotism. A nation so
talented as the descendants of the Pharaohs, so
industrious, so smart and clever, should give a
far larger part of its attention to the arts, crafts,
and industries, of which Egyptian archaeology has
to tell so splendid a story.

As a final argument for the value of the study
of history and archseology an aspect of the question
may be placed before the reader which will perhaps
be regarded as fanciful, but which, in all sincerity,
I believe to be sober sense.

In this life of ours which, under modern con-
ditions, is lived at so great a speed, there is a
growing need for a periodical pause wherein the
mind may adjust the relationship of the things
that have been to those that are. So rapidly are
our impressions received and assimilated, so in-
dividually^ are they shaped or classified, that, in
whatever direction our brains lead us, we are
speedily carried beyond that province of thought
which is common to us all. A man who lives
alone finds himself, in a few months, out of touch
with the thought of his contemporaries ; and,
similarly, a man who lives in what is called an
up - to - date manner soon finds himself grown
unsympathetic to the sober movement of the
world's slow round-about.

Now, the man who lives alone presently de-
velopes some of the recognised eccentricities of
the recluse, which, on his return to society, cause
him to be regarded as a maniac ; and the man

• " ' , ' ,

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t! "o

■T.

I'l.. 111.

The Value of Archaeology. 23

who lives entirely in the present cannot argue
that the characteristics which he has developed
are less maniacal because they are shared by his
associates. Eapidly he, too, has become eccentric ;
and just as the solitary man must needs come into
the company of his fellows if he would retain a
healthy mind, so the man who lives in the present
must allow himself occasional intercourse with the
past if he would keep his balance.

Heraclitus, in a quotation preserved by Sextus
Empiricus,^ writes : "It behoves us to follow the
common reason of the world ; yet, though there
is a common reason in the world, the majority
live as though they possessed a wisdom peculiar
each unto himself alone." Every one of us who
considers his mentality an important part of his
constitution should endeavour to give himself
ample opportunities of adjusting his mind to this
"common reason" which is the silver thread that
runs unbroken throughout history. We should
remember the yesterdays, that we may know what
the pother of to - day is about ; and we should
foretell to-morrow not by to-day but by every
day that has been.

Forgetfulness is so common a human failing.
In our rapid transit through life we are so inclined
to forget the past stages of the journey. All
things pass by and are swallowed up in a moment
of time. Experiences crowd upon us ; the events
of our life occur, are recorded by our busy brains

1 By water : ' Heracliti Ephesii Reliquiae,' p. 38.

24 The Value of the Treasury.

are digested, and are forgotten before the sub-
stance of which they were made has resolved
into its elements. We race through the years,
and our progress is headlong through the days.

Everything, as it is done with, is swept up
into the basket of the past, and the busy hand-
maids, unless we check them, toss the contents,
good and bad, on to the great rubbish heap of the
world's waste. Loves, hates, gains, losses, all
things upon which we do not lay fierce and strong
hands, are gathered into nothingness, and, with a
few exceptions, are utterly forgotten.

And we, too, will soon have passed, and our
little brains which have forgotten so much will
be forgotten. We shall be throttled out of the
world and pressed by the clumsy hands of Death
into the mould of that same rubbish-hill of oblivion,
unless there be a stronger hand to save us. We
shall be cast aside, and left behind by the hurrying
crowed, unless there be those who will see to it
that our soul, like that of John Brown, goes
marching along. There is only one human force
stronger than death, and that force is History.
By it the dead are made to live again : history
is the salvation of the mortal man as religion is
the salvation of his immortal life.

Sometimes, then, in our race from day to day it
is necessary to stop the headlong progress of ex-
perience, and, for an hour, to look back upon the
past. Often, before we remember to direct our
mind to it, that past is already blurred and dim.

The Value of ArchcXology. 25

The picture is out of focus, and turning from it
in sorrow instantly the flight of our time begins
again. This should not be. " There is," says
Emerson, "a relationship between the hours of
our life and the centuries of time." Let us give
history and archaeology its due attention ; for thus
not only shall we be rendering a service to all the
dead, not only shall we be giving a reason and a
usefulness to their lives, but we shall also lend to
our own thought a balance which in no otherwise
can be obtained, w^e shall adjust ourselves to the
true movement of the world, and, above all, we
shall learn how best to serve that nation to which
it is our inestimable privilege to belong.

CHAPTER 11.

THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE.

" History," says Sir J. Seeley, "lies before science
as a mass of materials out of which a political
doctrine can be deduced. . . . Politics are vulgar
when they are not liberalised by history, and
history fades into mere literature when it loses
sight of its relation to practical politics. . . .
Politics and history are only different aspects of
the same study." ^

These words, spoken by a great historian, form
the keynote of a book which has run into nearly
twenty editions ; and they may therefore be
regarded as having some weight. Yet what
historian of old Egyptian affairs concerns himself
with the present welfare and future prospects of
the country, or how many statesmen in Egypt give
close attention to a study of the past ? To the
former the Egypt of modern times offers no scope
for his erudition, and gives him no opportunity
of making " discoveries," which is all he cares
about. To the latter, Egyptology appears to be

1 ' The Expansion of England.'

The Egyptian Empire. 27

but a pleasant amusement, the main value of
which is the finding of pretty scarabs suitable
for the necklaces of one's lady friends. Neither
the one nor the other would for a moment admit
that Egyptology and Egyptian politics " are only
different aspects of the same study." And yet
there can be no doubt that they are.

It will be aro-ued that the historian of ancient
Egypt deals with a period so extremely remote
that it can have no bearing upon the conditions
of modern times, when the inhabitants of Egypt
have altered their language, religion, and customs,
and the Mediterranean has ceased to be the active
centre of the civilised world. But it is to be re-
membered that the study of Egyptology carries
one down to the Muhammedan invasion without
much straining of the term, and merges then into
the study of the Arabic period at so many points
that no real termination can be given to the science ;
while the fact of the remoteness of its beginnings
but serves to give it a greater value, since the
vista before the eyes is wider.

It is my object in this chapter to show that
the ancient history of Egypt has a real bearing
on certain aspects of the polemics of the country.
I need not again touch upon the matters which
were referred to on page 8 in order to demon-
strate this fact. I will take but one subject —
namely, that of Egypt's foreign relations and her
wars in other lands. It will be best, for this pur-
pose, to show first of all that the ancient and

28 The Value of the Treasury.

modern Egyptians are one and the same people ;
and, secondly, that the political conditions, broadly
speaking, are much the same now as they have
been throughout history.

Professor ElHot Smith, F.R.S., has shown clearly
enough, from the study of bones of all ages, that
the ancient and modern inhabitants of the Nile
Valley are precisely the same people anthropo-
logically ; and this fact at once sets the matter
upon an unique footing : for, with the possible
exception of China, there is no nation in the
world which can be proved thus to have retained
its type for so long a period. This one fact makes
any parallel with Greece or Rome impossible. The
modern Greeks have not much in common, an-
thropologically, with the ancient Greeks, for the
blood has become verv mixed ; the Italians are
not the same as the old Komans ; the English
are the result of a comparatively recent con-
glomeration of types. But in Egypt the subjects
of archaic Pharaohs, it seems certain, were exactly
similar to those of the modern Khedives, and new
blood has never been introduced into the nation
to an appreciable extent, not even by the Arabs.
Thus, if there is any importance in the bearing
of history upon politics, we have in Egypt a
better chance of appreciating it than we have in
the case of any other country.

It is true that the language has altered, but
this is not a matter of first-rate importance. A
Jew is not less typical because he speaks German,

The Egyptian Empire. 29

French, or EngUsh ; and the cracking of skulls
in Ireland is introduced as easily in English as
it was in Erse. The old language of the Egyptian
hieroglyphs actually is not yet quite dead ; for,
in its Coptic form, it is still spoken by many
Christian Egyptians, who will salute their friends
in that tongue, or bid them good-morning or good-
night. Ancient Egyptian in this form is read in
the Coptic churches ; and God is called upon by
that same name which was given to Anion and
his colleagues. Many old Egyptian words have
crept into the Arabic language, and are now in
common use in the country ; while often the old
words are confused with Arabic words of similar
sound. Thus, at Abydos, the archaic fortress is
now called the Shunet es Zehib, which in Arabic
would have the inexplicable meaning " the store-
house of raisins " ; but in the old Egyptian lan-
guage its name, of similar sound, meant " the
fortress of the Ibis-jars," several of these sacred
birds having been buried there in jars, after the
place had been disused as a military stronghold.
A large number of Egyptian towns still bear their
hieroglyphical names : Aswan, (Kom) Ombo, Edfu,
Esneh, Keft, Kus, Keneh, Dendereh, for example.
The real origin of these being now forgotten, some
of them have been given false Arabic derivations,
and stories have been invented to account for the
peculiar significance of the words thus introduced.
The word Silsileh in Arabic means " a chain," and
a place in Upper Egypt which bears that name

30 The Value of the Treasury.

is now said to be so called because a certain kincr
here stretched a chain across the river to inter-
rupt the shipping ; but in reality the name is
derived from a mispronounced hieroglyphical word
meanino" '' a boundary. '" Similarly the town of
Damanhur in Lower Egypt is said to be the
place at which a great massacre took place, for
in Arabic the name may be interpreted as mean-
ing " rivers of blood." whereas actually the name
in Ancient Egyptian means simply "the Town of
Horus." The archaeological traveller in Eg3'pt
meets with instances of the continued use of the
lano^uao;e of the Pharaohs at everv turn ; and
there are few thino;s that make the science of
Egyptology more alive, or remove it further from
the dusty atmosphere of the museum, than this
hearing of the old words actually spoken by the
modern inhabitants of the land.

The religion of Ancient Egypt, like those of
Greece and Rome, was killed by Christianity,
which largely gave place, at a later date, to
Muhammedanism ; and yet, in the hearts of the
people there are still an extraordinary number
of the old pagan beliefs. I will mention a few
instances, taking them at random from my
memory.

In ancient days the ithiphallic god Min was the
patron of the crops, who watched over the growth
of the D-rain. In modern times a desfenerate fio-ure
of this o-od Min. made of whitewashed wood and
mud, may be seen standing, like a scarecrow, in

The Egyptian Empire. 31

the fields throughout Egypt. When the sailors
cross the Nile they may ofteu be heard singing
Ya Amuni, Ya Amuni, " O Anion, O Amon," as
though calling upon that forgotten god for assist-
ance. At Aswan those who are about to travel
far still go up to pray at the site of the travellers'
shrine, which was dedicated to the gods of the
cataracts. At Thebes the women climb a certain
hill to make their supplications at the now lost
sanctuary of Meretsegert, the serpent-goddess of
olden times. A snake, the relic of the household
goddess, is often kept as a kind of pet in the
houses of the peasants. Barren women still go
to the ruined temples of the forsaken gods in the
hope that there is virtue in the stones ; and I
myself have given permission to disappointed hus-
bands to take their childless wives to these places,
where they have kissed the stones and embraced
the figures of the gods. The hair of the jackal
is burnt in the presence of dying people, even of
the upper classes, unknowingly to avert the jackal-
god Anubis, the Lord of Death. A scarab repre-
senting the god of creation is sometimes placed
in the bath of a young married woman to give
virtue to the water. A decoration in white paint
over the doorways of certain houses in the south
is a relic of the religious custom of placing a
bucranium there to avert evil. Certain temple-
watchmen still call upon the spirits resident in
the sanctuaries to depart before they will enter
the building. At Karnak a statue of the goddess

32 The Value of the Treasury.

Sekhmet is regarded with holy awe ; and the god-
dess who once was said to have massacred mankind
is even now thought to delight in slaughter. The
golden barque of Amon - Ea, which once floated
upon the sacred lake of Karnak, is said to be
seen sometimes by the natives at the present
time, who have not yet forgotten its former
existence. In the processional festival of Abu'l
Haggag, the patron saint of Luxor, whose mosque
and tomb stand upon the ruins of the Temple of
Amon, a boat is dragged over the ground in
unwitting remembrance of the dragging of the
boat of Amon in the processions of that god.
Similarly in the Molded el Nebi procession at
Luxor, boats placed upon carts are drawn through
the streets, just as one may see them in the
ancient paintings and reliefs. The patron gods
of Kom Ombo, Horur and Sebek, yet remain in
the memories of the peasants of the neighbour-
hood as the two brothers who lived in the temple
in the days of old. A robber entering a tomb
will smash the eyes of the figures of the gods
and deceased persons represented therein, that
they may not observe his actions, just as did
his ancestors four thousand years ago. At Gurneh
a farmer recently broke the arms of an ancient
statue, which lay half-buried near his fields, be-
cause he believed that they had damaged his
crops. In the south of Egypt a pot of water
is placed upon the graves of the dead, that their
ghost, or ha, as it would have been called in old

The Egyptian Empire. 33

times, may not suffer from thirst ; and the living
will sometimes call upon the name of the dead,
standing at night in the cemeteries.

The ancient magic of Egypt is still widely
practised, and many of the formnlre used in
modern times are familiar to the Egyptologist.
The Egyptian, indeed, lives in a world much
influenced by magic and thickly populated by
spirits, demons, and djins. Educated men holding
Government appointments, and dressing in the
smartest European manner, will describe their
miraculous adventures and their meetings with
djins. An Egyptian gentleman holding an im-
portant administrative post, told me the other
day how his cousin was wont to change himself
into a cat at night time, and to prowl about
the town. When a boy, his father noticed this
peculiarity, and on one occasion chased and beat
the cat, with the result that the boy's body next
morning was found to be covered with stripes and
bruises. The uncle of my informant once read
such strong language (magically) in a certain
book that it began to tremble violently, and
finally made a dash for it out of the window.
This same personage was once sitting beneath
a palm-tree with a certain magician (who, I fear,
was also a conjurer), when, happening to remark
on the clusters of dates twenty feet or so above
his head, his friend stretched his arms upwards
and his hands were immediately filled with the
fruit. At another time this mas^ician left his

34 The Value of the Treasury.

overcoat by mistake in a railway carriage, and
only remembered it when the train was a mere
speck upon the horizon ; but, on the utterance
of certain words, the coat immediately flew
through the air back to him.

I mention these particular instances because
they were told to me by educated persons ; but
amongst the peasants even more incredible stories
are gravely accepted. The Omdeh, or headman,
of the village of Chaghb, not far from Luxor, sub-
mitted an official complaint to the police a short
time ago against an afrit or devil which was doing
much mischief to him and his neighbours, snatch-
ing up oil-lamps and pouring the oil over the
terrified villagers, throwing stones at passers-by,
and so forth. Spirits of the dead in like manner
haunt the living, and often do them mischief At
Luxor, lately, the ghost of a well-known robber
persecuted his widow to such an extent that she
finally went mad. A remarkable parallel to this
case, dating from Pharaonic days, may be men-
tioned. It is the letter of a haunted widower to
his dead wife, in which he asks her why she per-
secutes him, since he was always kind to her
during her life, nursed her through illnesses, and
never grieved her heart. ^

These instances might be multiplied, but those
which I have quoted will serve to show that the
old gods are still alive, and that the famous
magic of the Egyptians is not yet a thing of the

1 Maspero : ' Etudes egyptologiques,' i, 145.

The Egyptian Empire. 35

past. Let us now turn to the affairs of everyday

hfe.

An archaeological traveller in Egypt cannot fail
to observe the similarity between old and modern
customs as he rides through the villages and across
the fields. The houses, when not built upon the
European plan, are surprisingly like those of
ancient days. The old cornice still survives, and
the rows of dried palm stems, from which its form
was originally derived, are still to be seen on the
walls of gardens and courtyards. The huts or
shelters of dried corn-stalks, so often erected in
the fields, are precisely the same as those used in
prehistoric days ; and the archaic bunches of corn-
stalks smeared with mud, which gave their form to
later stone columns, are set up to this day, though
their stone posterity are now in ruins. Looking
through the doorway of one of these ancient
houses, the traveller, perhaps, sees a woman
grinding corn or kneading bread in exactly the
same manner as her ancestress did in the days
of the Pharaohs. Only the other day a native
asked to be allowed to purchase from us some of
the ancient millstones lying in one of the Theban
temples, in order to re-use them on his farm. The
traveller will notice, in some shady corner, the
villaofe barber shavincf the heads and faces of his
patrons, just as he is seen in the Theban tomb-
paintings of thousands of years ago ; and the small
boys who scamper across the road will have just
the same tufts of hair left for decoration on their

36 The \^alue of the Treasury.

shaven heads as had the boys of ancient Thebes
and Memphis. In another house, Avhere a death
has occurred, the mourning women, waving the
same blue cloth which was the token of mourning
in ancient days, will toss their arms about in
gestures familiar to every student of ancient
scenes. Presently the funeral will issue forth,
and the men will sing that solemn 3^et cheery tune
which never fails to call to mind the far-famed
Maneros — that song which Herodotus describes
as a plaintive funeral dirge, and which Plutarch
asserts was suited at the same time to festive
occasions. In some other house a marriage will
be taking place, and the singers and pipers will,
in like manner, recall the scenes upon the monu-
ments. The former have a favourite gesture — the
placing of the hand behind the ear as they sing —
which is frequently shown in ancient representa-
tions of such festive scenes. The dancing girls,
too, are here to be seen, their eyes and cheeks
heavily painted, as were those of their ancestresses;
and in their hands are the same tambourines as are
carried by their class in Pharaonic paintings and
reliefs. The same date-wine which intoxicated
the worshippers of the Egyptian Bacchus goes the
round of this village company, and the same food
stuif, the same small, flat loaves of bread, are
eaten.

Passingf out into the fields the traveller observ^es
the ground raked into the small squares for irriga-
tion which the prehistoric farmer made ; and the

> J •, » • '

, ^ » ) J >

T ill

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' " >'. "l •, ' '

>.' ■>.

Pl. IV.

The Egyptian Empire. 37

plough is shaped as it always was. The shadoof,
or water- hoist, is patiently worked as it has been
for thousands of years ; while the cylindrical hoist
employed in Lower Egypt was invented and intro-
duced in Ptolemaic times. Threshing and win-
nowing proceed in the manner represented on the
monuments, and the methods of sowing and
reaping have not changed. Along the embanked
roads, men, cattle, and donkeys file past against
the sky-line, recalling the straight rows of such
figures depicted so often upon the monuments.
Overhead there flies the vulture goddess Nekheb,
and the hawk Horus hovers near by. Across the
road ahead slinks the jackal, Anubis ; under one's
feet crawls Khepera, the scarab ; and there, under
the sacred tree, sleeps the horned ram of Amon.
In all directions the hieroglyphs of the ancient
Egyptians pass to and fro, as though some old
temple-inscription had come to life. The letter m,
the owl, goes hooting past. The letter a, the
eagle, circles overhead ; the sign ur, the wagtail,
flits at the roadside, chirping at the sign rekh,
the peewit. Along the road comes the sign ah,
the frolicking calf; and near it is ha, the bull;
while behind them walks the sign fa, a man
carrying a basket on his head. In all directions
are the figures from which the ancients made their
hieroglyphical script ; and thus that wonderful old
writing at once ceases to be mysterious, a thing of
long ago, and one realises how natural a product of
the country it was.

38 The Value of the Treasury.

In a word, ancient and modern Egyptians are
fundamentally similar. Nor is there any great
difference to be observed between the country's
relations with foreign powers in ancient days and
those of the last hundred years. As has been
seen in the last chapter, Egypt was usually
occupied by a foreign power, or ruled by a foreign
dynasty, just as at the present day ; and a foreign
army was retained in the country during most of
the later periods of ancient history. There were
always numerous foreigners settled in Egypt, and
in Ptolemaic and Roman times Alexandria and
Memphis swarmed with them. The great powers
of the civilised world were always watching Egypt
as they do now, not always in a friendly attitude
to that one of themselves which occupied the
country ; and the chief power with which Egypt
was concerned in the time of the Ramesside
Pharaohs inhabited Asia Minor and perhaps
Turkey, just as in the middle ages and the last
century. Then, as in modern times, Egypt had
much of her attention held by the Sudan, and
constant expeditions had to be made into the
regions above the cataracts. Thus it cannot be
argued that ancient history offers no precedent
for modern affairs because all things have now
changed. Things have changed extremely little,
broadly speaking ; and general lines of conduct
have the same significance at the present time
as they had in the past.

I wish now to give an outline of Eo^ypt's re-

The Egyptian Empire. 39

lationship to her most important neighbour, Syria,
In order that the bearing of history upon modern
pohtical matters may be demonstrated ; for it
would seem that the records of the past make
clear a tendency which is now somewhat over-
looked. I employ this subject simply as an
example.

From the earliest historical times the Egyptians
have endeavoured to hold Syria and Palestine as a
vassal state. One of the first Pharaohs with whom
we meet in Egyptian history, King Zeser of Dynasty
III., is known to have sent a fleet to the Lebanon
in order to procure cedar wood, and there is some
evidence to show that he held sway over this
country. For how many centuries previous to
his reign the Pharaohs had overrun Syria we
cannot now say, but there is no reason to suppose
that Zeser initiated the aggressive policy of Egypt
in Asia. Sahura, a Pharaoh of Dynasty V. , attacked
the Phoenician coast with his fleet, and returned
to the Nile Valley Avith a number of Syrian cap-
tives. Pepi I. of the succeeding dynasty also
attacked the coast-cities, and Pepi II. had con-
siderable intercourse with Asia. Amenemhat I.,
of Dynasty XIL, fought in Syria, and appears to
have brought it once more under Egyptian sway.
Senusert I. seems to have controlled the country
to some extent, for Egyptians lived there in some
numbers. Senusert III. won a great victory over
the Asiatics in Syria ; and a stela and statue be-
longing to Egyptian officials have been found at

40 The Value of the Treasury.

Gezer, between Jerusalem and the sea. After
each of the above-mentioned wars it is to be pre-
sumed that the Egyptians held Syria for some
years, though little is now known of the events
of these far-off times.

During the Hyksos dynasties in Egypt there
lived a Pharaoh named Khyan who was of Semitic
extraction ; and there is some reason to suppose
that he ruled from Baghdad to the Sudan, he and
his fathers having created a great Egyptian Em-
pire by the aid of foreign troops. Egypt's con-
nection with Asia during the Hyksos rule is not
clearly defined, but the very fact that these
foreign kings were anxious to call themselves
"Pharaohs" shows that Egypt dominated in the
east end of the Mediterranean. The Hyksos kings
of Egypt very probably held Syria in fee, being
possessed of both countries, but preferring to hold
their court in Egypt.

We now come to the great Dynasty XVIIL,
and we learn more fully of the Egyptian invasions
of Syria. Ahmosis I. drove the Hyksos out of the
Delta and pursued them through Judah. His
successor, Amenhotep I., appears to have seized
all the country as far as the Euphrates ; and
Thutmosis I., his son, was able to boast that he
ruled even unto that river. Thutmosis IH.,
Egypt's greatest Pharaoh, led invasion after in-
vasion into Syria, so that his name for generations
was a terror to the inhabitants. From the Euph-
rates to the fourth cataract of the Nile the countries

The Egyptian Empire. 41

acknowledged him king, and the mighty Egyptian
fleet patrolled the seas. This Pharaoh fought no
less than seventeen campaigns in Asia, and he left
to his son the most powerful throne in the world.
Amenhotep II. maintained this empire and quelled
the revolts of the Asiatics with a strong hand.
Thutmosis IV., his son, conducted two expeditions
into Syria ; and the next king, Amenhotep III.,
was acknowledged throughout that country.

That extraordinary dreamer, Akhnaton, the
succeeding Pharaoh, allowed the empire to pass
from him owing to his religious objections to war ;
but, after his death, Tutankhamen once more led
the Egyptian armies into Asia. Horemheb also
made a bid for Syria ; and Seti I. recovered Pales-
tine. Rameses II., his son, penetrated to North
Syria ; but, having come into contact with the
new power of the Hittites, he was unable to hold
the country. The new Pharaoh, Merenptah, seized
Canaan and laid w^aste the land of Israel. A few
years later, Rameses III. led his fleet and his army
to the Syrian coast and defeated the Asiatics in
a great sea-battle. He failed to hold the country,
however, and after his death Egypt remained im-
potent for two centuries. Then, under Sheshonk I.,
of Dynasty XXII,, a new attempt was made, and
Jerusalem was captured. Takeloth II., of the
same dynasty, sent thither an Egyptian army
to help in the overthrow of Shalmaneser II.

From this time onwards the power of Egypt
had so much declined that the invasions into Syria

42 The Value of the Treasury.

of necessity became more rare. Shabaka of Dy-
nasty XXV. concerned himself deeply with Asiatic
politics, and attempted to bring about a state
of affairs which would have given him the oppor-
tunity of seizing the country. Pharaoh Necho,
of the succeeding dynasty, invaded Palestine and
advanced towards the Euphrates. He recovered
for Egypt her Syrian province, but it was speedily
lost again. Apries, a few years later, captured the
Phoenician coast and invaded Palestine ; but the
country did not remain for long under Egyptian
rule. It is not necessary to record all the Syrian
wars of the Dynasty of the Ptolemies. Egypt and
Asia were now closely connected, and at several
periods during this phase of Egyptian history the
Asiatic province came under the control of the
Pharaohs. The wars of Ptolemy I. in Syria were
conducted on a large scale. In the reign of
Ptolemy III. there were three campaigns, and I
cannot refrain from quoting a contemporary record
of the King's power, if only for the splendour of its
wordino- : —

" The great King Ptolemy . . . having in-
herited from his father the royalty of Egypt and
Libya and Syria and Phoenicia and Cyprus and
Lycia and Caria and the Cyclades, set out on
a campaign into Asia with infantry and cavalry
forces, and a naval armament and elephants, both
Troglodyte and Ethiopic. . . . But having become
master of all the country within the Euphrates,
and of Cilicia and Pamphylia and Ionia and the

The Egyptian Empire. 43

Hellespont and Thrace, and of all the military
forces and elephants in these countries, and hav-
ini^ made the monarchs in all these places his
subjects, he crossed the Euphrates, and having
brought under him Mesopotamia and Babylonia
and Susiana and Persis and Media, and all the
rest as far as Bactriana ... he sent forces through
the canals " (Here the text breaks off.)

Later in this dynasty Ptolemy VII. was crowned
King of Syria, but the kingdom did not remain
long in his power. Then came the Romans, and
for many years Syria and Egypt were sister pro-
vinces of one empire.

There is no necessity to record the close con-
nection between the two countries in Arabic times.
For a large part of that era Egypt and Syria
formed part of the same empire ; and we con-
stantly find Egyptians fighting in Asia. Now,
under Edh Dhahir Bebars of the Baharide Mame-
luke Dynasty, we see them helping to subject
Syria and Armenia; now, under El-Mansur
Kalaun, Damascus is captured ; and now En
Nasir Muhammed is found reigning from Tunis
to Baghdad. In the Circassian Mameluke Dy-
nasty we see El Muayyad crushing a revolt in
Syria, and El Ashraf Bursbey capturing King
John of Cyprus and keeping his hand on Syria.
And so the tale continues, until, as a final picture,
we see Ibrahim Pasha leading the Egyptians into
Asia and crushing the Turks at Iconium.

Such is the long list of the wars waged by Egypt

44 The Value of the Treasury.

in Syria. Are we to suppose that these continuous
incursions into Asia have suddenly come to an
end ? Are we to imagine that because there
has been a respite for a hundred years the pre-
cedent of six thousand years has now to be dis-
regarded ? By the recent reconquest of the Sudan
it has been shown that the old political necessities
still exist for Egypt in the south, impelling her
to be mistress of the upper reaches of the Nile. Is
there now no longer any chance of her expanding
in other directions should her hands become free ?

The reader may answer with the argument that
in early days England made invasion after invasion
into France, yet ceased after a while to do so. But
this is no parallel. England was impelled to war
with France because the English monarchs believed
themselves to be, by inheritance, kings of a large
part of France ; and when they ceased to believe
this they ceased to make war. The Pharaohs of
Egypt never considered themselves to be kings of
Syria, and never used any title suggesting an in-
herited sovereignty. They merely held Syria as a
buffer state, and claimed no more than an overlord-
ship there. Now Syria is still a buffer state, and the
root of the trouble, therefore, still exists. Though
I must disclaim all knowledge of modern politics,
I am quite sure that it is no meaningless phrase
to say that England will most carefully hold this
tendency in check and prevent an incursion into
Syria ; but, with a strong controlling hand re-
laxed, it would require more than human strength

The Egyptian Empire. 45

to eradicate an Egyptian tendency — nay, a habit,
of six thousand years' standing. Try as she might,
Egypt, as far as an historian can see, would not
be able to prevent herself passing ultimately into
Syria again. How or when this would take place
an Egyptologist cannot see, for he is accustomed
to deal in long periods of time, and to consider
the centuries as others might the decades. It
might not come for a hundred years or more : it
might come suddenly quite by accident.

In 1907 there was a brief moment when Egypt
appeared to be, quite unknowingly, on the verge
of an attempted reconquest of her lost province.
There was a misunderstanding with Turkey regard-
ing the delineation of the Syrio-Sinaitic frontier ;
and, immediately, the Egyptian Government took
strong action and insisted that the question should
be settled. Had there been bloodshed the seat
of hostilities would have been Syria ; and suppos-
ing that Egypt had been victorious, she would have
pushed the opposing forces over the North Syrian
frontier into Asia Minor, and when peace was
declared she would have found herself dictating
terms from a point of vantage three hundred miles
north of Jerusalem. Can it be supposed that she
would then have desired to abandon the recon-
quered territory ?

However, matters were settled satisfactorily with
the Porte, and the Egyptian Government, which
had never realised this trend of events, and had
absolutely no designs upon Syria, gave no further

46 The Value of the Treasury.

consideration to Asiatic affairs. In the eyes of the
modern onlookers the whole matter had developed
from a series of chances ; but in the view of the
historian the moment of its occurrence was the
only chance about it, the fact of its occurrence
being inevitable according to the time-proven rules
of history. The phrase " England in Egypt " has
been given such prominence of late that a far more
important phrase, "Egypt in Asia," has been
overlooked. Yet, whereas the former is a catch-
word of barely thirty years' standing, the latter
has been familiar at the east end of the Mediter-
ranean for forty momentous centuries at the lowest
computation, and rings in the ears of the Egypt-
ologist all through the ages. I need thus no justi-
fication for recalling it in these pages.

Now let us glance at Egypt's north-western
frontier. Behind the deserts which spread to
the west of the Delta lies the oasis of Siwa ; and
from here there is a continuous line of communi-
cation with Tripoli and Tunis. Thus, during the
present winter (1910-11), the outbreak of cholera
at Tripoli has necessitated the despatch of quaran-
tine officials to the oasis in order to prevent the
spread of the disease into Egypt. Now, of late
years we have heard much talk regarding the
Senussi fraternity, a Muhammedan sect which is
said to be prepared to declare a holy war and
to descend upon Egypt. In 1909 the Egyptian
Mamur of Siwa was murdered, and it was freely
stated that this act of violence was the beginning

The Egyptian Empire. 47

of the trouble. I have no idea as to the real
extent of the danger, nor do I know whether
this bogie of the west, which is beginning to cause
such anxiety in Egypt in certain classes, is but
a creation of the imagination ; but it will be
interesting to notice the frequent occurrence of
hostilities in this direction, since the history
of Egypt's gateways is surely a study meet for
her guardians.

When the curtain first rises upon archaic times,
we find those far-off Pharaohs struggling with
the Libyans who had penetrated into the Delta
from Tripoli and elsewhere. In early dynastic
history they are the chief enemies of the Egyp-
tians, and great armies have to be levied to drive
them back through Siwa to their homes. Again
in Dynasty XII., Amenemhat I. had to despatch
his son to drive these people out of Egypt ; and at
the beginning of Dynasty XVIII. , Amenhotep I.
was obliged once more to give them battle. Seti
I. of Dynasty XIX. made war upon them, and
repulsed their invasion into Egypt. Rameses II.
had to face an alliance of Libyans, Lycians, and
others, in the western Delta. His son Merenptah
waged a most desperate war with them in order
to defend Egypt against their incursions, a war
which has been described as the most perilous in
Egyptian history ; and it was only after a battle
in which nine thousand of the enemy were slain
that the war came to an end. Kameses III., how-
ever, was again confronted with these persistent

48 The Value of the Treasury.

invaders, and only succeeded in checking them
temporarily. Presently the tables were turned,
and Dynasty XXII., which reigned so gloriously
in Egypt, was Libyan in origin. No attempt was
made thenceforth for many years to check the
peaceful entrance of Libyans into Egypt, and soon
that nation held a large part of the Delta. Occa-
sional mention is made of troubles upon the north-
west frontier, but little more is heard of any
serious invasions. In Arabic times disturbances
are not infrequent, and certain sovereigns, as for
example. El Mansur Kalaun, were obliged to in-
vade the enemy's country, thus extending Egypt's
power as far as Tunis.

There is one lesson which may be learnt from
the above facts — namely, that this frontier is some-
what exposed, and that incursions from North
Africa by way of Siwa are historic possibilities.
If the Senussi invasion of Egypt is ever at-
tempted it will not, at any rate, be without
precedent.

When England entered Egypt in 1882 she
found a nation without external interests, a
country too impoverished and weak to think of
aught else but its own sad condition. The reviv-
ing of this much -bled, ansemic people, and the
reorganisation of the Government, occupied the
whole attention of the Anglo-Egyptian officials,
and placed Egypt before their eyes in only this
one aspect. Egypt appeared to be but the Nile
Valley and the Delta ; and, in truth, that was,

The mummy of Soty I. of Dynasty XIX. — Cairo Mlskum.

Pl. v.

The Egyptian Empire. 49

and still is, quite as much as the hard -worked
officials could well administer. The one task of
the regeneration of Egypt was all absorbing, and
the country came to be regarded as a little land
wherein a concise, clearly -defined, and compact
problem could be worked out.

Now, while this was most certainly the correct
manner in which to face the question, and while
Egypt has benefited enormously by this single-
ness of purpose in her officials, it was, historically,
a false attitude. Egypt is not a little country :
Egypt is a crippled Empire. Throughout her his-
tory she has been the powerful rival of the people
of Asia Minor. At one time she was mistress of
the Sudan, Somaliland, Palestine, Syria, Libya,
and Cyprus ; and the Sicilians, Sardinians, Cret-
ans, and even Greeks, stood in fear of the Pharaoh.
In Arabic times she held Tunis and Tripoli, and
even in the last century she was the foremost
Power at the east end of the Mediterranean.
Napoleon when he came to Egypt realised this
very thoroughly, and openly aimed to make her
once more a mighty empire. But in 1882 such
fine dreams were not to be considered : there was
too much work to be done in the Nile Valley itself.
The Egyptian Empire was forgotten, and Egypt
was regarded as permanently a little country.
The conditions which we found here we took to
be permanent conditions. They were not. We
arrived when the country was in a most unnatural
state as regards its foreign relations ; and we were

50 The Value of the Treasury.

obliged to regard that state as chronic. This,
though wise, was absolutely incorrect. Egypt in
the past never has been for more than a short
period a single country ; and all history goes to
show that she will not always be single in the
future.

With the temporary loss of the Syrian province
Egypt's need for a navy ceased to exist ; and the
fact that she is really a naval power has now
passed from men's memory. Yet it was not much
more than a century ago that Muhammed Ali
fought a great naval battle with the Turks, and
utterly defeated them. In ancient history the
Egyptian navy was the terror of the Mediter-
ranean, and her ships policed the east coast of
Africa. In prehistoric times the Nile boats were
built, it would seem, upon a seafaring plan : a fact
that has led some scholars to suppose that the
land was entered and colonised from across the
waters. We talk of Englishmen as being born to
the sea, as having a natural and inherited tend-
ency towards "business upon great waters" ; and
yet the English navy dates from the days of
Queen Elizabeth. It is true that the Plantagenet
wars with France checked what was perhaps al-
ready a nautical bias, and that had it not been for
the Norman conquest, England, perchance would
have become a sea power at an earlier date. But
at best the tendency is only a thousand years old.
In Egypt it is seven or eight thousand years old
at the lowest computation. It makes one smile to

The Egyptian Empire. 51

think of Egypt as a naval power. It is the busi-
ness of the historian to refrain from smihng, and
to remark only that, absurd as it may sound,
Egypt's future is largely upon the water as her
past has been. It must be remembered that she
was fighting great battles in huge warships three
or four hundred feet in length at a time when
Britons were paddling about in canoes.

One of the ships built by the Pharaoh Ptolemy
Philopator was four hundred and twenty feet long,
and had several banks of oars. It was rowed by
four thousand sailors, while four hundred others
manaofed the sails. Three thousand soldiers were
also carried upon its decks. The royal dahabiyeh
which this Pharaoh used upon the Nile was three
hundred and thirty feet long, and was fitted with
state rooms and private rooms of considerable size.
Another vessel contained, besides the ordinary
cabins, large bath-rooms, a library, and an astro-
nomical observatory. It had eight towers, in
which there were machines capable of hurling
stones weighing three hundred pounds or more,
and arrows eighteen feet in length. These huge
vessels were built some two centuries before Csesar
landed in Britain.^

In concliTsion, then, it must be repeated that
the present Nile-centred policy in Egypt, though
infinitely best for the country at this juncture, is
an artificial one, unnatural to the nation except
as a passing phase ; and what may be called the

' Athenseiis, v. 8.

52 The Value of the Treasury.

Imperial policy is absolutely certain to take its
place in time, although the Anglo-Egyptian Gov-
ernment, so long as it exists, will do all in its power
to check it. History tells us over and over again
that Syria is the natural dependant of Egypt,
fought for or bargained for with the neighbouring
countries to the north ; that the Sudan is likewise
a natural vassal which from time to time revolts
and has to be reconquered ; and that Egypt's most
exposed frontier lies on the north-west. In con-
quering the Sudan at the end of the nineteenth
century the Egyptians were but fulfilling their
destiny : it was a mere accident that their arms
were directed against a Mahdi. In discussing
seriously the situation in the western oases, they
are working upon the precise rules laid down by
history. And if their attention is not turned in
the far future to Syria, they will be defying rules
even more precise, and, in the opinion of those
who have the whole course of Egyptian history
spread before them, will but be kicking against
the pricks. Here surely we have an example of
the value of the study of a nation's history, which
is not more nor less than a study of its political
tendencies.

Speaking of the relationship of history to poli-
tics. Sir J. Seeley wrote: 'T tell you that when
you study English history, you study not the past
of England only but her future. It is the welfare
of your country, it is your whole interest as citi-
zens, that is in question when you study history."

The Egyptian Empire. 53

These words hold good when we deal with Egyp-
tian history, and it is our business to learn the
political lessons which the Egyptologist can teach
us, rather than to listen to his dissertations upon
scarabs and blue glaze. Like the astronomers of
old, the Egyptologist studies, as it were, the stars,
and reads the future in them ; but it is not the
fashion for kings to wait upon his pronouncements
any more ! Indeed he reckons in such very long
periods of time, and makes startling statements
about events which probably will not occur for
very many years to come, that the statesman,
intent upon his task, has some reason to declare
that the study of past ages does not assist him
to deal with urgent affairs. Nevertheless, in all
seriousness, the Egyptologist's study is to be con-
sidered as but another aspect of statecraft, and he
fails in his labours if he does not make this his
point of view.

In his arrogant manner the Egyptologist will
remark that modern politics are of too fleeting a
nature to interest him. In answer, I would tell
him that if he sits studying his papyri and his
mummies without regard for the fact that he is
dealing with a nation still alive, still contributing
its strength to spin the wheel of the world around,
then are his labours worthless and his brains mis-
used. I w^ould tell him that if his work is paid
for, then is he a robber if he gives no return in
information which will be of practical service to
Egypt in some way or another. The Egyptian

54 The Value of the Treasury.

Government spends enormous sums each year
upon the preservation of the magnificent rehcs
of bygone ages — rehcs for which, I regret to say,
the Egyptians themselves care extremely little.
Is this money spent, then, to amuse the tourist in
the land, or simply to fulfil obligations to ethical
susceptibilities ? No ; there is but one justifica-
tion for this very necessary expenditure of public
money — namely, that these relics are regarded, so
to speak, as the school-books of the nation, which
range over a series of subjects from pottery-mak-
ing to politics, from stone -cutting to statecraft.
The future of Egypt may be read upon the walls
of her ancient temples and tombs. Let the
Egyptologist never forget, in the interest and
excitement of his discoveries, what is the real
object of his work.

CHAPTER III.

THE NECESSITY OF ARCHEOLOGY TO THE
GAIETY OF THE WORLD.

When a great man puts a period to his existence
upon earth by dying, he is carefully buried in a
tomb, and a monument is set up to his glory in
the neighbouring church. He may then be said
to begin his second life, his life in the memory of
the chronicler and historian. After the lapse of
an seon or two the works of the historian, and per-
chance the tomb itself, are rediscovered ; and the
great man begins his third life, now as a subject
of discussion and controversy amongst archaeolo-
gists in the pages of a scientific journal. It may
be supposed that the spirit of the great man, not
a little pleased with its second life, has an extreme
distaste for his third. There is a dead atmosphere
about it which sets him yawning as only his grave
yawned before. The charm has been taken from
his deeds ; there is no longer any spring in them.
He must feel towards the archaeologist much as a
young man feels towards his cold-blooded parent
by whom his love affair has just been found out.

56 The \'alue of the Treasury.

The pubhc, too, if bv chance it comes upon this
archteological journal, finds the discussion nothing
more than a mental gymnastic, which, as the
reader drops off to sleep, gives him the impression
that the writer is a man of profound brain capacity,
but, like the remains of the great man of olden
times, as dry as dust.

There is one thing, however, ^^■hicll has been
overlooked. This scientific journal does not con-
tain the ultimate results of the archaeologist's
researches. It contains the researches themselves.
The public, so to speak, has been listening to the
pianist playing his morning scales, has been
watching the artist mixing his colours, has been
examining the unshaped block of marble and the
chisels in the sculptor's studio. It must be con-
fessed, of course, that the archseologist has so
enjoyed his researches that often the ultimate
result has been overlooked by him. In the case of
Egyptian archaeology, for example, there are only
two Egyptologists who have ever set themselves to
write a readable history,^ whereas the number of
books which record the facts of the science is legion.

The archaeologist not infrequently lives, for a
large part of his time, in a museum, a somewhat
dismal place. He is surrounded by rotting tapes-
tries, decaying bones, crumbling stones, and rusted
or corroded metal objects. His indoor work has
paled his cheek, and his muscles are not like iron
bands. He stands, often, in the contiouitv to an

^ Professor J. H. Bi-easted and Sir Ga-ston Maspero.

Necessity of Archaeology to the World. 57

ancient broadsword most fitted to demonstrate the
fact that he could never use it. He would prob-
ably be dismissed his curatorship were he to tell of
any dreams which might run in his head — dreams
of the time when those tapestries hung upon the
walls of barons' banquet-halls, or when those stones
rose high above the streets of Camelot.

Moreover, those who make researches independ-
ently must needs contribute their results to scien-
tific journals, written in the jargon of the learned.
I came across a now forgotten journal, a short time
ago, in which an English gentleman, believing
that he had made a discovery in the province of
Egyptian hieroglyphs, announced it in ancient
Greek. There would be no supply of such pedantic
swagger were there not a demand for it.

Small wonder, then, that the archaeologist is
often represented as partaking somewhat of the
quality of the dust amidst which he works. It is
not necessary here to discuss whether this estimate
is just or not : I wish only to point out its para-
doxical nature.

More than any other science, archaeology might
be expected to supply its exponents with stuff
that, like old wine, would fire the blood and
stimulate the senses. The stirring events of the
Past must often be reconstructed by the archaeolo-
gist with such precision that his prejudices are
aroused, and his sympathies are so enlisted as to
set him fighting with a will under this banner or
under that. The noise of the hardy strife of young

58 The \'aiue of the Treasun-.

nations is nor ver silenced for him, nor have the
flags and the pennants faded from sight. He has
knowledge of the state secrets of kings, and, all
along the line, is an intimate spectator of the
crowded pageant of history. The caravan-masters
of the elder days, the admirals of the " great green
sea," the captains of archers, have related their
adventures to V>im ; and he might repeat to you
their stories. Indeed, he has such a tale to tell
thai, looking at it in this %ht, one might expect
his listeners all to be good fighting men and noble
women- It might be supposed that the archaeolo-
gist would gather around him only men who have
pleasure in the road that leads over the hills, and
women who have known the delight of the open.
One has heard so often of the '''' brave days of old
that the archaeologist might weU be expected to
have his liead stuffed with brave tales and Httle
else.

His rangre, however, may be wider than this. To
him, perhaps, it has been given to listen to the voice
of the ancient poet, heard as a far-off whisper ; to
breathe in forgotten gardens the perfume of long
dead flowers; to contemplate the love of women
whose beautv is all perished in the dust : to hearken
to the sound of the harp and the sistra, to be the
possessor of the riches of historical romance. Dim
armies have battled aroxmd him for the love of
Helen ; shadowv captains of sea-going ships have
sung to him through the storm the song of the
sweetiiearts left behind them ; he has feasted with

Necessity of Archaiology to the World. 59

sultans, and kings' goblets have been held to his
lips ; he has watched Uriah the Hittite sent to the
forefront of the battle.

Thus, were he to offer a story, one might now
suppose that there would gather around him, not
the men of muscle, but a throng of sallow listeners,
as improperly expectant as Were those who heark-
ened under the moon to the narrations of Boccaccio,
or, in old Baghdad, gave ear to the tales of the
thousand and one nights. One might suppose
that his audience would be drawn from those
classes most fondly addicted to pleasure, or most
nearly representative, in their land and in their
time, of the light-hearted and not unwanton races
of whom he had to tell. For his story might be
expected to be one wherein wine and women and
sonof found countenance. Even were he to tell of
ancient tragedies and old sorrows, he would still
make his appeal, one might suppose, to gallants
and their mistresses, to sporting men and women
of fashion, just as, in the mournful song of Rosa-
belle, Sir Walter Scott is able to address himself
to the " ladies gay," or Coleridge in his sad " Ballad
of the Dark Ladie " to " fair maids."

Who could better arrest the attention of the
coxcomb than the arch geologist who has knowledge
of silks and scents now lost to the living world ?
To the gourmet who could more appeal than the
archaeologist who has made abundant acquaintance
with the forgotten dishes of the East ? Who could
so surely thrill the senses of the courtesan than the

6o The Value of the Treasury.

archaeologist who can relate that which was whis-
pered by Anthony in the ear of Cleopatra ? To
the gambler who could be more enticing than the
archaeologist who has seen kings play at dice for
their kingdoms? The imaginative, truly, might
well collect the most highly disreputable audience
to listen to the tales of the archaeologist.

But no, these are not the people who are anxi-
ous to catch the pearls which drop from his mouth.
Do statesmen and diplomatists, then, listen to him
who can unravel for them the policies of the Past ?
Do business men hasten from Threadneedle Street
and Wall Street to sit at his feet, that they may
have instilled into them a little of the romance of
ancient money ? I fear not.

Come with me to some provincial town, where
this day Professor Blank is to deliver one of his
archaeological lectures at the Town Hall. We
are met at the door by the secretary of the
local archaeological society : a melancholy lady in
green plush, who suffers from St Vitus's dance.
Gloomily we enter the hall and silently accept the
seats which are indicated to us by an unfortunate
gentleman with a club-foot. In front of us an
elderly female with short hair is chatting to a very
plain young woman draped like a lay figure. On
the right an emaciated man with a very bad cough
shuffles on his chair ; on the left two old grey-
beards grumble to one another about the weather,
a subject which leads up to the famihar " Mine
catches me in the small of the back " ; while

Necessity of Archaeology to the World. 6i

behind us the inevitable curate, of whose appear-
ance it would be trite to speak, describes to an
astonished old lady the recent discovery of the
pelvis of a mastodon.

The professor and the aged chairman step on to
the platform ; and, amidst the profoundest gloom,
the latter rises to pronounce the prefatory rigma-
role. " Archa3ology," he says, in a voice of brass,
" is a science wdiich bars its doors to all but the
most erudite ; for, to the layman who has not been
vouchsafed the opportunity of studying the dusty
volumes of the learned, the bones of the dead will
not reveal their secrets, nor will the crumbling
pediments of naos and cenotaph, the obliterated
tombstones, or the worm-eaten parchments, tell
us their story. To-night, however, we are privi-
leged ; for Professor Blank will open the doors for
us that we may gaze for a moment upon that
solemn charnel - house of the Past in which he
has sat for so many long hours of inductive
meditation."

And the professor by his side, whose head, per-
haps, was filled with the martial music of the long-
lost hosts of the Lord, or before whose eyes there
swayed the entrancing forms of the dancing-girls
of Babylon, stares horrified from chairman to
audience. He sees crabbed old men and barren
old women before him, afflicted youths and fatuous
maidens ; and he realises at once that the golden
keys which he possesses to the gates of the treas-
ury of the jewelled Past will not open the doors of

62 The Value of the Treasury.

that charnel-house which they desire to be shown.
The scent of the king's roses fades from his nostrils,
the Egyptian music which throbbed in his ears is
hushed, the glorious illumination of the Palace of
a Thousand Columns is extinguished ; and in the
gathering gloom we leave him fumbling with a
rusty key at the mildewed door of the Place of
Bones.

Why is it, one asks, that archaeology is a thing
so misunderstood ? Can it be that both lecturer
and audience have crushed down that which was
in reality uppermost in their minds : that a shy
search for romance has led these people to the
Town Hall ? Or perchance archseology has become
to them something not unlike a vice, and to listen
to an archaeological lecture is their remaining
chance of being naughty. It may be that, having
one foot in the grave, they take pleasure in kick-
ing the moss from the surrounding tombstones
with the other ; or that, being denied, for one
reason or another, the jovial society of the living,
like Robert Southey's " Scholar " their hopes are
with the dead.

Be the explanation what it may, the fact is
indisputable that archaeology is patronised by
those who know not its real meaning. A man
has no more right to think of the people of old
as dust and dead bones than he has to think of
his contemporaries as lumps of meat. The true
archaeologist does not take pleasure in skeletons
as skeletons, for his whole effort is to cover them

J >

> 0 1.

> >'

) 1 1 » -■

> >

'■,'

> 5 S >

[/V/.'/t) /y A'. Brugicii J'asiui.

A reliet upon the side of the sarcophag-us ot one of the wives ot King-
Mentuhotep III., discovered at Der el Bahri (Thebes). The royal
lady is taking- sweet-smelling- ointment from an alabaster vase. A
handmaiden' keeps the flies" away with a bird's-wing fan.— Cairo
MrsEi M.

Pl. VI.

cc c c
e ' « c c

»; ' . • '

t % t m I .t

Necessity of Archaeology to the World. 63

decently with flesh and skin once more, and to
put some thoughts back into the empty skulls.
He sets himself to hide again the things which
he would not intentionally lay bare. Nor does he
delight in ruined buildings : rather he deplores
that they are ruined. Coleridge wrote like the
true archaeologist when he composed that most
magical poem " Khubla Khan " —

" In Xanadu did Khubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea."

And those who would have the pleasure -domes
of the gorgeous Past reconstructed for them must
turn to the archaeologist ; those who \vould see
the damsel with the dulcimer in the gardens of
Xanadu must ask of him the secret, and of none
other. It is true that, before he can refashion
the dome or the damsel, he will have to grub his
way through old refuse heaps till he shall lay bare
the ruins of the walls and expose the bones of
the lady. But this is the " dirty work " ; and the
mistake which is made lies here : that this pre-
liminary dirty work is confused with the final
clean result. An artist will sometimes build up
his picture of Venus from a skeleton bought from
an old Jew round the corner ; and the smooth
white paper which he uses will have been made
from putrid rags and bones. Amongst painters
themselves these facts are not hidden, but by

64 The Value of the Treasury.

the pubh"c they are most carefully obscured. In
the case of archaeology, however, the tedious
details of construction are so placed in the fore-
ground that the final picture is hardly noticed
at all. As well might one go to Rheims to see
men fly, and be shown nothing else but screws
and nuts, steel rods and cog-wheels. Originally
the fault, perhaps, lay with the archaeologist ; now
it lies both with him and with the public. The
public has learnt to ask to be shown the works,
and the archaeologist is often so proud of them
that he forgets to mention the purpose of the
machine.

A Roman statue of bronze, let us suppose, is
discovered in the Thames valley. It is so cor-
roded and eaten away that only an expert could
recognise that it represents a reclining goddess.
In this condition it is placed in the museum, and
a photograph of it is published in ' The Graphic'
Those who come to look at it in its glass case
think it is a bunch of grapes, or possibly a
monkey ; those who see its photograph say that
it is more probably an irregular catapult-stone or
a fish in convulsions.

The archaeologist alone holds its secret, and
only he can see it as it was. He alone can
know the mind of the artist who made it, or
interpret the full meaning of the conception. It
might have been expected, then, that the public
would demand, and the archaeologist delightedly
furnish, a model of the figure as near to the

Necessity of Archaeology to the World. 65

original as possible ; or, failing that, a restoration
in drawing, or even a worded description of its
original beauty. But no : the public, if it wants
anything, wants to see the shapeless object in
all its corrosion ; and the archaeologist forgets
that it is blind to aught else but that corrosion.
One of the main duties of the archaeologist is
thus lost sight of: his duty as Interpreter and
Remembrancer of the Past.

All the riches of olden times, all the majesty,
all the power, are the inheritance of the present
day ; and the archaeologist is the recorder of this
fortune. He must deal in dead bones only so far
as the keeper of a financial fortune must deal in
dry documents. Behind those documents glitters
the gold, and behind those bones shines the
wonder of the things that were. And when an
object once beautiful has by age become unsightly,
one might suppose that he would wish to show
it to none save his colleagues or the reasonably
curious layman. When a man makes the state-
ment that his grandmother, now in her ninety-
ninth year, was once a beautiful woman, he does
not go and find her to prove his words and
bring her tottering into the room : he shows a
picture of her as she was ; or, if he cannot
find one, he describes what good evidence tells
him was her probable appearance. In allow-
ing his controlled and sober imagination thus
to perform its natural functions, though it would
never do to tell his grandmother so, he be-

66 The Value of the Treasury.

comes an archaeologist, a remembrancer of the

Past.

In the case of archeology, however, the public
does not permit itself so to be convinced. In the
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford excellent facsimile
electrotypes of early Greek weapons are exhibited ;
and these have far more value in bringing the
Past before us than the actual weapons of that
period, corroded and broken, would have. But
the visitor says, "These are shams," and passes on.
It will be seen, then, that the business of
archaeology is often misunderstood both by archae-
ologists and by the public ; and that there is
really no reason to believe, with Thomas Earle,
that the real antiquarian loves a thing the
better for that it is rotten and stinketh. That
the impression has gone about is his own fault,
for he has exposed too much to view the mechan-
ism of his work ; but it is also the fault of the
public for not asking of him a picture of things
as they were.

Man is by nature a creature of the present.
It is only by an effort that he can consider the
future, and it is often quite impossible for him
to give any heed at all to the Past. The days
of old are so blurred and remote that it seems
right to him that any relic from them should,
by the maltreatment of Time, be unrecognisable.
The finding of an old sword, half-eaten by rust,
will only please him in so far as it shows him
once more by its sad condition the great gap

Necessity of Archaeology to the World. 67

between those days aud these, and convinces him
again of the sole importance of the present. The
archaeoloofist, he will tell you, is a fool if he
expects him to be interested in a wretched old
bit of scrap-iron. He is right. It would be as
rash to suppose that he would hnd interest in
an ancient sword in its rusted condition as it
would be to expect the spectator at Rheims to
find fascination in the nuts and screws. The
true archfeologist would hide that corroded weapon
in his workshop, where his fellow-workers alone
could see it. For he recognises that it is only
the sword which is as good as new that im-
presses the public ; it is only the Present that
counts. That is the real reason why he is an
archaeologist. He has turned to the Past because
he is in love with the Present. He, more than
any man, worships at the altar of the goddess
of To-day ; and he is so desirous of extending
her dominion that he has adventured, like a
crusader, into the lands of the Past in order to
subject them to her. Adoring the Now, he would
resent the publicity of anything which so obviously
suorcrested the Then as a rust - eaten old blade.
His whole business is to hide the gap between
Yesterday and To - day ; and, unless a man is
initiate, he would have him either see the perfect
sword as it was when it sought the foeman's
bowels, or see nothing. The Present is too small
for him ; and it is therefore that he calls so
insistently to the Past to come forth from the

68 The Value of the Treasury.

darkness to augment it. The ordinary man Uves
in the Present, and he will tell one that the
archaeolofrist lives in the Past. This is not so.
The layman, in the manner of the Little Eng-
lander, lives in a small and confined Present ;
but the archaeologist, like a true Imperialist,
ranges through all time, and calls it not the
Past but the Greater Present.

The archaeologist is not, or ought not to be,
lacking in vivacity. One might say that he is
so sensible to the charms of society that, finding
his companions too few in number, he has drawn
the olden times to him to search them for jovial
men and agreeable women. It might be added
that he has so laughed at jest and joke that,
fearing lest the funds of humour run dry, he has
gathered the laughter of all the years to his
enrichment. Certainly he has so delighted in
noble adventure and stirring action that he finds
his newspaper insufficient to his needs, and fetches
to his aid the tales of old heroes. In fact, the
archaeologist is so enamoured of life that he would
raise all the dead from their graves. He will not
have it that the men of old are dust : he would
bring them to him to share with him the sun-
light which he finds so precious. He is so much
an enemy of Death and Decay that he would
rob them of their harvest ; and, for every life
that the foe has claimed, he would raise up, if
he could, a memory that would continue to live.
The meaning of the heading which has been

Necessity of Archcieology to the World. 69

given to this chapter is now becoming clear, and
the direction of the argument is already apparent.
So far it has been my purpose to show that the
archaeologist is not a rag-and-bone man, though
the public generally thinks he is, and he often
thinks he is himself. The attempt has been made
to suggest that archaeology ought not to consist
in sitting in a charnel-house amongst the dead,
but rather in ignoring that place and taking the
bones into the light of day, decently clad in flesh
and finery. It has now to be shown in what
manner this parading of the Past is needful to
the gaiety of the Present.

Amongst cultured people whose social position
makes it difficult for them to dance in circles on
the grass in order to express or to stimulate their
gaiety, and whose school of deportment will not
permit them to sing a merry song of sixpence
as they trip down the streets, there is some
danger of the fire of merriment dying for want
of fuel. Vivacity in printed books, therefore, has
been encouraged, so that the mind at least, if
not the body, may skip about and clap its hands.
A portly gentleman with a solemn face, reading
his ' Punch ' in the club, is, after all, giving play
to precisely those same humours which in ancient
days might have led him, like Georgy Porgy, to
kiss the girls or to perform any other merry joke.
It is necessary, therefore, ever to enlarge the
stock of things humorous, vivacious, or rousing,
if thoughts are to be kept young and eyes

70 The Value of the Treasury.

bright in this age of restraint. What would
Yuletide be without the olden times to bolster
it? What would the Christmas numbers do
without the pictures of our great-grandparents'
coaches snow-bound, of huntsmen of the eighteenth
century, of jesters at the courts of the barons ?
What should we do without the ' Vicar of Wake-
field,' the ' Compleat Angler,' ' Pepys' Diary,' and
all the rest of the ancient books? And, going
back a few centuries, what an amount we should
miss had we not '^sop's Fables,' the ' Odyssey,'
the tales of the Trojan War, and so on. It is
from the archaeologist that one must expect the
augmentation of this supply ; and just in that
degree in which the existing supply is really a
necessary part of our equipment, so archaeology,
which looks for more, is necessary to our gaiety.
In order to keep his intellect undulled by the
routine of his dreary work, Matthew Arnold was
wont to write a few lines of poetry each day.
Poetry, like music and song, is an effective dis-
peller of care ; and those who find Omar Khayyam
or *' In Memoriam " incapable of removing the
burden of their woes, will no doubt appreciate
the " Owl and the Pussy-cat," or the Bab Ballads.
In some form or other verse and song are closely
linked with happiness ; and a ditty from any age
has its interest and its charm.

" She gazes at the stars above :
I would I were the skies.
That I might gaze upon my love
With such a thousand eyes ! "

Lady roug-'ing herself : she holds a mirror and rouge-
pot.— From A PaPVRI-S, TlRIN.

Dancing girl turnirig a back somersault.
— New Kingdom.

Pl. VII.

Necessity of Archaeology to the World. 71

That is probably from the Greek of Plato, a
writer who is not much read by the public at
large, and whose works are the legitimate property
of the antiquarian. It suffices to show that it is
not only to the moderns that we have to look
for dainty verse that is conducive to a light
heart. The following lines are from the ancient
Egyptian : —

" While in my room I lie all day
In pain that will not pass away,

The neighbours come and go.
Ah, if with them my darling came
The doctors would be put to shame :

She understands my woe."

Such examples might be multiplied indefinitely ;
and the reader will admit that there is as much
of a lilt about those which are here quoted as there
is about the majority of the ditties which he has
hummed to himself in his hour of contentment.
Here is Philodemus' description of his mistress's
charms : —

" My lady-love is small and brown ;
My lady's skin is soft as down ;
Her hair like parseley twists and turns ;
Her voice with magic passion burns. . . ."

And here is an ancient Egyptian's description of
not very dissimilar phenomena : —

" A damsel sweet unto the sight,

A maid of whom no like there is ;
Black are her tresses as the night,
And blacker than the blackberries."

Does not the archaeologist perform a service

72 The Value of the Treasury.

to his contemporaries by searching out such
rhymes and delving for more ? They bring with
them, moreover, so subtle a suggestion of bygone
romance, they are backed by so fair a scene of
Athenian luxury or Theban splendour, that they
possess a charm not often felt in modern verse.
If it is argued that there is no need to increase
the present supply of such ditties, since they are
really quite unessential to our gaiety, the answer
may be given that no nation and no period has
ever found them unessential ; and a light heart
has been expressed in this manner since man came
down from the trees.

Let us turn now to another consideration. For
a man to be light of heart he must have confi-
dence in humanity. He cannot greet the morn
with a smiling countenance if he believes that
he and his fellows are slipping down the broad
path which leads to destruction. The archaeologist
never despairs of mankind ; for he has seen nations
rise and fall till he is almost giddy, but he knows
that there has never been a general deterioration.
He realises that though a great nation may suffer
defeat and annihilation, it is possible for it to go
down in such a thunder that the talk of it
stimulates other nations for all time. He sees,
if any man can, that all things work together for
happiness. He has observed the cycle of events,
the good years and the bad ; and in an evil time
he is comforted by the knowledge that the good
will presently roll round again. Thus the lesson

Necessity of Archaeology to the World. 73

which he can teach is a very real necessity to
that contentment of mind which lies at the root
of all gaiety.

Again, a man cannot be permanently happy
unless he has a just sense of proportion. He
who is too big for his boots must needs limp ;
and he who has a swollen head is in perpetual
discomfort. The history of the lives of men, the
history of the nations, gives one a fairer sense
of proportion than does almost any other study.
In the great company of the men of old he cannot
fail to assess his true value : if he has any conceit
there is a greater than he to snub him ; if he has
a poor opinion of his powers there is many a fool
with whom to contrast himself favourably. If
he would risk his fortune on the spinning of a
coin, being aware of the prevalence of his good-
luck, archaeology will tell him that the best luck
will change ; or if, when in sore straits, he asks
whether ever a man was so unlucky, archaeology
will answer him that many millions of men have
been more unfavoured than he. Archaeology
provides a precedent for almost every event or
occurrence where modern inventions are not in-
volved ; and, in this manner, one may reckon
their value and determine their trend. Thus
many of the small worries which cause so leaden
a weight to lie upon the heart and mind are by
the archaeologist ignored ; and many of the larger
calamities by him are met with serenity.

But not only does the archaeologist learn to

74 The Value of the Treasury.

estimate himself and his actions : he learns also
to see the relationship in which his life stands
to the course of Time. Without archaeology a
man may be disturbed lest the world be about
to come to an end : after a study of history he
knows that it has only just begun ; and that
gaiety which is said to have obtained " when the
world was young" is to him, therefore, a present
condition. By studying the ages the archaeologist
learns to reckon in units of a thousand years ; and
it is only then that that little unit of threescore-
and-ten falls into its proper proportion. " A
thousand ages in Thy sight are like an evening
gone," says the hymn, but it is only the archaeolo-
gist who knows the meaning of the words ; and
it is only he who can explain that great discrep-
ancy in the Christian faith between the statement
" Behold, I come quickly " and the actual fact.
A man who knows where he is in regard to his
fellows, and realises where he stands in regard
to Time, has learnt a lesson of archaeology which
is as necessary to his peace of mind as his peace
of mind is necessary to his gaiety.

It is not needful, however, to continue to point
out the many ways in which archaeology may be
shown to be necessary to happiness. The reader
will have comprehended the trend of the argu-
ment, and, if he be in sympathy with it, he will
not be unwilling to develop the theme for him-
self. Only one point, therefore, need here be taken
up. It has been reserved to the end of this

Necessity of Archaeology to the World. 75

chapter, for, by its nature, it closes all arguments.
I refer to Death.

Death, as we watch it around us, is the black
menace of the heavens which darkens every man's
day ; Death, coming to our neighbour, puts a
period to our merry-making ; Death, seen close
beside us, calls a halt in our march of pleasure.
But let those who would wrest her victory from
the grave turn to a study of the Past, where
all is dead yet still lives, and they will find that
the horror of life's cessation is materially lessened.
To those who are familiar with the course of his-
tory. Death seems, to some extent, but the happy
solution of the dilemma of life. So many men
have welcomed its coming that one begins to feel
that it cannot be so very terrible. Of the death
of a certain Pharaoh an ancient Egyptian wrote :
" He goes to heaven like the hawks, and his
feathers are like those of the geese ; he rushes
at heaven like a crane, he kisses heaven like the
falcon, he leaps to heaven like the locust " ; and
we who read these words can feel that to rush
eagerly at heaven like the crane would be a
mighty fine ending of the pother. Archaeology,
and especially Egyptology, in this respect is a
bulwark to those who find the faith of their
fathers wavering ; for, after much study, the
triumphant assertion which is so often found in
Egyptian tombs — " Thou dost not come dead to
thy sepulchre, thou comest living" — begins to
take hold of the imagination. Death has been

76 The Value of the Treasury.

the parent of so much goodness, dying men have
cut such a dash, that one looks at it with an
awakening interest. Even if the sense of the
misfortune of death is uppermost in an archaeolo-
gist's mind, he may find not a little comfort in
having before him the example of so many good
men, who, in their hour, have faced that great
calamity with squared shoulders.

" When Death comes," says a certain sage of
ancient Egypt, "it seizes the babe that is on the
breast of its mother as well as he that has become
an old man. When thy messenger comes to carry
thee away, be thou found by him ready!' Why,
here is our chance ; here is the opportunity for
that flourish which modesty, throughout our life,
has forbidden to us ! John Tiptoft, Earl of
Worcester, when the time came for him to lay
his head upon the block, bade the executioner
smite it off with three strokes as a courtesy to
the Holy Trinity. King Charles the Second, as
he lay upon his death -bed, apologised to those
who stood around him for " being such an un-
conscionable time adying." The story is familiar
of Napoleon's aide-de-camp, who, when he had
been asked whether he were wounded, replied,
" Not wounded : killed," and thereupon expired.
The Past is full of such incidents ; and so inspiring
are they that Death comes to be regarded as a
most stirring adventure. The archaeologist, too,
better than any other, knows the vastness of the
dead men's majority ; and if, like the ancients.

Necessity of Archaeology to the World. 77

he believes in the Elysian fields, where no death
is and decay is unknown, he alone will realise
the excellent nature of the company into which
he will there be introduced.

There is, however, far more living going on in
the world than dying ; and there is more happiness
(thanks be !) than sorrow. Thus the archaeologist
has a great deal more of pleasure than of pain
to give to us for our enrichment. The reader
will here enter an objection. He will say : " This
may be true of archaeology in general, but in the
case of Egyptology, with which we are here mostly
concerned, he surely has to deal with a sad and
solemn people." The answer will be found in the
next chapter. No nation in the world's history
has been so gay, so light-hearted as the ancient
Egyptians ; and Egyptology furnishes, perhaps,
the most convincing proof that archaeology is, or
should be, a merry science, very necessary to the
gaiety of the world. I defy a man suffering from
his liver to understand the old Egyptians ; I defy
a man who does not appreciate the pleasure of
life to make anything of them. Egyptian archae-
ology presents a pageant of such brilliancy that
the archaeologist is often carried along by it as
in a dream, down the valley and over the hills,
till, Past blending with Present, and Present with
Future, he finds himself led to a kind of Island
of the Blest, where death is forgotten and only
the joy of life, and life's good deeds, still remain ;
where pleasure - domes, and all the ancient

78 The Value of the Treasury.

"miracles of rare device," rise into the air from
above the flowers ; and where the damsel with
the dulcimer beside the running stream sings to
him of Mount Abora and of the old heroes of the
elder days. If the Egyptologist or the archaeolo-
gist could revive within him one-hundredth part
of the elusive romance, the delicate gaiety, the
subtle humour, the intangible tenderness, the un- i

speakable goodness, of much that is to be found |

in his province, one would have to cry, like |

Coleridge — '

" Beware, beware ! j

Weave a circle round him thrice, j

And close your eyes with holy dread, j

For he on honey-dew hath fed, j

And drunk the milk of Paradise."

PART 11.
STUDIES IN THE TREASURY.

" And I could tell thee stories that would make thee laugh at all thy
trouble, and take thee to a land of which thou hast never even dreamed.
Where the trees have ever blossoms, and are noisy with the humming of in-
toxicated bees. Where by day the suns are never burning, and by night
the moonstones ooze with nectar in the rays of the camphor-laden moon.
"Where the blue lakes are filled with rows of silver swans, and where, on
steps of lapis lazuli, the peacocks dance in agitation at the murmur of the
thunder in the hills. Where the lightning flashes without harming, to
light the way to women stealing in the darkness to meetings with their
lovers, and the rainbow hangs for ever like an opal on the dark blue curtain
of the cloud. Where, on the moonlit roofs of crystal palaces, pairs of lovers
laugh at the reflection of each other's love-sick faces in goblets of red wine,
breathing, as they drink, air heavy with the fragrance of the sandal, wafted
on the breezes from the mountain of the south. Where they play and pelt
each other with emeralds and rubies, fetched at the churning of the ocean
from the bottom of the sea. Where rivers, whose sands are always golden,
flow slowly past long lines of silent cranes that hunt for silver fishes in the
rushes on the banks. Where men are true, and maidens love for ever, and
the lotus never fades. F. W. Bain : A Heifer of the Dawn.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TEMPERAMENT OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.

A CERTAIN school geography book, now out of
date, condenses its remarks upon the character of
our Galhc cousins into the following pregnant
sentence : " The French are a gay and frivolous
nation, fond of dancing and red wine." The
description would so nearly apply to the ancient
inhabitants of Egypt, that its adoption here as a
text to this chapter cannot be said to be extra-
vagant. The unbiassed inquirer into the affairs of
ancient Egypt must discover ultimately, and per-
haps to his regret, that the dwellers on the Nile
were a "gay and frivolous people," festive, light-
hearted, and mirthful, "fond of dancing and red
wine," and pledged to all that is brilliant in life.
There are very many people, naturally, who hold
to those views which their forefathers held before
them, and picture the Egyptians as a sombre,
gloomy people ; replete with thoughts of Death
and of the more melancholy aspect of religion ;
burdened with the menacing presence of a multi-
tude of horrible gods and demons, whose priests
demanded the erection of vast temples for their

82 Studies in the Treasury.

appeasement ; having httle joy of this hfe, and
much uneasy conjecture about the next ; making |

entertainment in solemn gatherings and ponderous
feasts ; and holding merriment in holy contempt.
Of the five startling classes into which the dic-
tionary divides the human temperament, namely,
the bilious or choleric, the phlegmatic, the san-
guine, the melancholic, and the nervous, it is
probable that the first, the second, and the fourth
would be those assigned to the ancient Egyptians !

by these people. This view is so entirely false that
one will be forgiven if, in the attempt to dissolve
it, the gaiety of the race is thrust before the
reader with too little extenuation. The sanguine,
and perhaps the nervous, are the classes of tem-
perament under which the Egyptians must be
docketed. It cannot be denied that they were an
industrious and even a strenuous people, that they
indulged in the most serious thoughts, and at-
tempted to study the most complex problems of
life, and that the ceremonial side of their religion
occupied a large part of their time. But there is
abundant evidence to show that, like their descen-
dents of the present day, they were one of the
least gloomy people of the world, and that they
took their duties in the most buoyant manner,
allowing as much sunshine to radiate through
their minds as shone from the cloudless Egyptian
skies upon their dazzling country.

It is curiously interesting to notice how general
is the present belief in the solemnity of this ancient

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:rj

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Ms,.

- ••/^"^■'I ,

fe ^^-^

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;/:

Pl. VIII.

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tec

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f. ^ ', ,

I ■

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 83

race's attitude towards existence, and how little
their real character is appreciated. Already the
reader will be protesting, perhaps, that the appli-
cation of the geographer's summary of French
characteristics to the ancient Egyptians lessens in
no wise its ridiculousness, but rather increases it.
Let the protest, how^ever, be held back for a while.
Even if the Egyptians were not always frivolous,
they were always uncommoiily gay, and any slight
exaggeration will be pardoned in view of the fact
that old prejudices have to be violently overturned,
and the stigma of melancholy and ponderous
sobriety torn from the national name. It would
be a matter of little surprise to some good persons
if the products of excavation in the Nile Valley
consisted largely of antique black kid gloves.

Like many other nations the ancient Egyptians
rendered mortuary service to their ancestors, and
solid tomb-chapels had to be constructed in honour
of the more important dead. Both for the purpose
of preserving the mummy intact, and also in order
to keep the ceremonies going for as long a period
of time as possible, these chapels were constructed
in a most substantial manner, and many of them
have withstood successfully the siege of the years.
The dwelling-houses, on the other hand, were
seldom delivered from father to son ; but, as in
modern Egypt, each grandee built a palace for
himself, designed to last for a lifetime only, and
hardly one of these mansions still exists even as
a ruin.

84 Studies in the Treasury.

Moreover the tombs were constructed in the dry
desert or in the soHd hillside, whereas the dwelling-
houses were situated on the damp earth, where
they had little chance of remaining undemolished.
And so it is that the main part of our knowledge
of the Egyptians is derived from a study of their
tombs and mortuary temples. How false would be
our estimate of the character of a modern nation
were we to glean our information solely from its
churchyard inscriptions ! We should know abso-
lutely nothing of the frivolous side of the life of
those whose bare bones lie beneath the gloomy
declaration of their Christian virtues. It will be
realised how sincere was the light -heartedness
of the Egyptians when it is remembered that
almost everything in the following record of their
gaieties is derived from a study of the tombs, and
of objects found therein.

Light-heartedness is the key-note of the ancient
philosophy of the country, and in this assertion
the reader will, in most cases, find cause for sur-
prise. The Greek travellers in Egypt, who re-
turned to their native land impressed with the
wonderful mysticism of the Egyptians, committed
their amazement to paper, and so led off that
feeling of awed reverence which is felt for the
philosophy of Pharaoh's subjects. But in their
case there was the presence of the priests and
wise men eloquently to baffle them into the state
of respect, and there were a thousand unwritten
arguments, comments, articles of faith, and con-

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 85

troverted points of doctrine heard from the mouths
of the believers, to surprise them into a reverential
attitude. But we of the present day have left to
us only the more outward and visible remains of
the Egyptians. There are only the fundamental
doctrines to work on, the more penetrating notes
of the harmony to listen to. Thus the outline of
the philosophy is able to be studied without any
complication, and we have no whirligig of priestly
talk to confuse it. Examined in this way, working
only from cold stones and dry papyri, we are con-
fronted with the old " Eat, drink, and be merry,"
which is at once the happiest and most danger-
ous philosophy conceived by man. It is to be
noticed that this way of looking at life is to be
found in Egypt from the earliest times down to
the period of the Greek occupation of the country,
and, in fact, until the present day. That is to say,
it was a philosophy inborn in the Egyptian, — a
part of his nature.

Imhotep, the famous philosopher of Dynasty III.,
about B.C. 3000, said to his disciples : " Behold the
dwellings of the dead. Their walls fall down, their
place is no more ; they are as though they had
never existed " ; and he drew from this the lesson
that man is soon done with and forgotten, and that
therefore his life should be as happy as possible.
To Imhotep must be attributed the earliest known
exhortation to man to resign himself to his candle-
end of a life, and to the inevitable snufHng-out to
come, and to be merry while yet he may. There

86 Studies in the Treasury.

is a poem, dating from about B.C. 2000, from which
the following is taken : —

" Walk after thy heart's desire so long as thou livest. Put
myrrh on thy head, clothe thyself in tine linen, anoint thy-
self with the true marvels of God. . . . Let not thy heart
concern itself, until there cometh to thee that great day of
lamentation. Yet he who is at rest can hear not thy com-
plaint, and he who lies in the tomb can understand not thy
weeping. Therefore, with smiling face, let thy days be
happy, and rest not therein. For no man carrieth his goods
away with him ; " 0, no man returneth again who is gone
thither."

Again, we have the same sentiments expressed
in a tomb of about B.C. 1350, belonging to a certain
Neferhotep, a priest of Amen. It is quoted on
page 235, and here we need only note the ending :

" Come, songs and music are before thee. Set behind thee
all cares ; think only upon gladness, until that day cometh
whereon thou shalt go down to the land which loveth
silence."

A Ptolemaic inscription quoted more fully towards
the end of this chapter reads : " Follow thy desire
by night and by day. Put not care within thy
heart."

The ancient Egyptian peasants, like their modern
descendants, were fatalists, and a happy careless-
ness seems to have softened the strenuousness
of their daily tasks. The peasants of the present
day in Egypt so lack the initiative to develop
the scope of their industries that their life cannot
be said to be strenuous. In whatever work they

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 87

undertake, however, they show a wonderful degree
of cheerfulness, and a fine disregard for misfortune.
Their forefathers, similarly, went through their
labours with a song upon their lips. In the tombs
at Sakkara, dating from the Old Empire, there are
scenes representing flocks of goats treading in the
seed on the newly-sown ground, and the inscrip-
tions give the song which the goat-herds sing : —

" The goat-herd is in the water with the fishes, —
He speaks with the nar-fish, he talks with the pike ;
From the west is your goat-herd; your goat-herd is from the
west."

The meaning of the words is not known, of course,
but the song seems to have been a popular one.
A more comprehensible ditty is that sung to the
oxen by their driver, which dates from the New
Empire : —

" Thresh out for yourselves, ye oxen, thresh out for yourselves.
Thresh out the straw for your food, and the grain for your

masters.
Do not rest yourselves, for it is cool to-day."

Some of the love-songs have been preserved
from destruction, and these throw much light upon
the subject of the Egyptian temperament. A
number of songs, supposed to have been sung by
a girl to her lover, form themselves into a collec-
tion entitled "The beautiful and gladsome songs
of thy sister, whom thy heart loves, as she walks
in the fields." The girl is supposed to belong
to the peasant class, and most of the verses are
sung whilst she is at her daily occupation of snar-

88 Studies in the Treasury.

ing wild duck in the marshes. One must imagine
the songs warbled without any particular refrain,
just as in the case of the modern Egyptians,
who pour out their ancient tales of love and
adventure in a series of bird-like cadences, full-
throated, and often wonderfully melodious. A
peculiar sweetness and tenderness will be noticed
in the following examples, and though they suffer
in translation, their airy lightness and refinement
is to be distinguished. One characteristic song,
addressed by the girl to her lover, runs—

" Caught by the worm, the wild duck cries,
But in the love-light of thine eyes
I, trembling, loose the trap. So flies

The bird into the air.
What will my angry mother say 1
With basket full I come each day,
But now thy love hath led me stray,

And I have set no snare."

Again, in a somewhat similar strain, she sings —

" The wild duck scatter far, and now
Again they light upon the bough

And cry unto their kind ;
Anon they gather on the mere —
But yet unharmed I leave them there,

For love hath filled my mind."

Another song must be given here in prose form.
The girl who sings it is supposed to be making
a wreath of flowers, and as she works she
cries —

" I am thy first sister, and to^ me thou art as a garden
which I have planted with flowers and all sweet-smeUing

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 89

herbs. And I have directed a caual into it, that thou
mightest dip thy hand into it when the north wind blows
cool. The place is beautiful where we walk, because we
walk together, thy hand resting within mine, our mind
thoughtful and our heart joyful. It is intoxicating to me
to hear thy voice, yet my life depends upon hearing it.
Whenever I see thee it is better to me than food and
drink."

One more song must be quoted, for it is so
artless and so full of human tenderness that I may
risk the accusation of straying from the main
argument in repeating it. It runs : —

" The breath of thy nostrils alone
Is that which maketh my heart to live.
I found thee :
God grant thee to me
For ever and ever."

It is really painful to think of these words as
having fallen from the lips of what is now a resin-
smelling lump of bones and hardened flesh, perhaps
still unearthed, perhaps lying in some museum
show-case, or perhaps kicked about in fragments
over the hot sand of some tourist-crowded necro-
polis. Mummies are the most lifeless objects one
could well imagine. It is impossible even for those
whose imaginations are most powerful, to infuse
life into a thing so utterly dead as an em-
balmed body ; and this fact is partly responsible
for that atmosphere of stark, melancholy, sobriety
and aloofness w^hich surrounds the affairs of ancient
Egypt. In reading these verses, it is imperative
for their right understanding that the mummies

90 Studies in the Treasury.

and their resting-places should be banished from
the thoughts. It is not always a simple matter
for the student to rid himself of the atmosphere
of the museum, where the beads which should
be jangling on a brown neck are lying numbered
and labelled on red velvet ; where the bird-trap,
once the centre of such feathered commotion, is
propped up in a glass case as " D, 18,432";
and where even the document in which the verses
are written is the lawful booty of the grammarian
and philologist in the library. But it is the first
duty of an archaeologist to do away w4th that
atmosphere.

Let those who are untrammelled then, pass
out into the sunshine of the Egyptian fields and
marshes, where the wild duck cry to each other
as they scuttle through the tall reeds. Here in
the early morning comes our songstress, and one
may see her as clearly as one can that Shulamite
of King Solomon's day, who has had the good
fortune to belong to a land where stones and
bones, being few in number, do not endanger
the atmosphere of the literature. One may see
her, her hair moving in the breeze " as a flock
of goats that appear from Mount Gilead " ; her
teeth white " as a flock of shorn sheep which came
up from the washing," and her lips "like a thread
of scarlet." Through such imaginings alone can
one appreciate the songs, or realise the lightness
of the manner in which they were sung.

With such a happy view of life amongst the

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 91

upper classes as is indicated by their philosophy,
and with that merry disposition amongst the
peasants which shows itself in their love of song,
it is not surprising to find that asceticism is
practically unknown in ancient Egypt before the
time of Christ. At first sight, in reflecting on
the mysteries and religious ceremonies of the
nation, we are apt to endow the priests and
other participators with a degree of austerity
wholly unjustified by facts. We picture the
priest chanting his formulae in the dim light of
the temple, the atmosphere about him heavy with
incense ; and we imagine him as an anchorite who
has put away the things of this world. But in
reality there seems to have been not even such
a thing as a celibate amongst the priests. Each
man had his wife and his family, his house, and
his comforts of food and fine linen. He indulged
in the usual pastimes and was present at the
merriest of feasts. The famous wise men and
magicians, such as Uba - ana of the Westcar
Papyrus, had their wives, their parks, their plea-
sure-pavilions, and their hosts of servants. Great
dignitaries of the Anion Church, such as Amen-
hotepsase, the Second Prophet of Amen in the
time of Thutmosis TV. , are represented as feasting
with their friends, or driving through Thebes in
richly-decorated chariots drawn by prancing horses,
and attended by an array of servants. A monastic
life, or the life of an anchorite, was held by the
Egyptians in scorn ; and indeed the state of mind

92 Studies in the Treasury.

which produces the monk and the hermit was
almost entirely unknown to the nation in dynastic
times. It was only in the Ptolemaic and Ptoman
periods that asceticism came to be practised ; and
some have thought that its introduction into Egypt
is to be attributed to the preaching of the Hindoo
missionaries sent from India to the court of the
Ptolemies. It is not really an Egyptian char-
acteristic ; and its practice did not last for more
than a few centuries.

The religious teachings of the Egyptians before
the Ptolemaic era do not suggest that the morti-
fication of the flesh was a possible means of puri-
fying the spirit. An appeal to the senses and to
the emotions, however, was considered as a legiti-
mate method of reaching the soul. The Egyptians
were passionately fond of ceremonial display. Their
huge temples, painted as they were with the most
brilliant colours, formed the setting of processions
and ceremonies in which music, rhythmic motion,
and colour were brought to a point of excellence.
In honour of some of the gods dances were con-
ducted ; while celebrations, such as the fantastic
Feast of Lamps, were held on the anniversaries
of religious events. In these gorgeously spec-
tacular ceremonies there was no place for anything
sombre or austere, nor could they have been con-
ceived by any but the most life-loving tempera-
ments.

As in his religious functions, so in his home,
the Egyptian regarded brilliancy and festivity

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 93

as an edification. When in trouble or distress,
he was wont to relieve his mind as readily by
an appeal to the vanities of this world as by an
invocation of the powers of Heaven. Thus, when
King Sneferu, of Dynasty IV., was oppressed
with the cares of state, his councillor Zazamankh
constructed for him a pleasure boat which was
rowed around a lake by the most beautiful
damsels obtainable. And again, when Wenamon,
the envoy of Herhor of Dynasty XXI., had fallen
into trouble with the pirates of the Mediterranean,
his depression was banished by a gift of a dancing-
girl, two vessels of wine, a young goat of tender
flesh, and a message which read — "Eat and drink,
and let not thy heart feel apprehension."

An intense craving for brightness and cheerful-
ness is to be observed on all sides, and the attempt
to cover every action of life with a kind of lustre
is perhaps the most apparent characteristic of the
race. At all times the Egyptians decked them-
selves with flowers, and rich and poor alike
breathed what they called "the sweet north
wind" throuofh a screen of blossoms. At their
feasts and festivals each guest was presented
Avith necklaces and crowns of lotus-flowers, and
a specially selected bouquet was carried in the
hands. Constantly, as the hours passed, fresh
flowers were brought to them, and the guests
are shown in the tomb paintings in the act of
burying their noses in the delicate petals with
an air of luxury which even the conventionalities

94 Studies in the Treasury.

of the draughtsman cannot hide. In the women's
hair a flower was pinned which hung down before
the forehead ; and a cake of ointment, concocted
of some sweet-smeUing unguent, was so arranged
upon the head that, as it slowly melted, it re-
perfumed the flower. Complete wreaths of flowers
were sometimes worn, and this was the custom as
much in the dress of the home as in that of the
feast. The common people also arrayed them-
selves with wreaths of lotuses at all galas and
carnivals. The room in which a feast was held
was decorated lavishly with flowers. Blossoms
crept up the delicate pillars to the roof; gar-
lands twined themselves around the tables and
about the jars of wine ; and single buds lay in
every dish of food. Even the dead were decked
in their tombs with a mass of flowers, as though
the mourners would hide with the living delights
of the earth the misery of the grave.

The Egyptian loved his garden, and filled it
with all manner of beautiful flowers. Great
parks were laid out by the Pharaohs, and it is
recorded of Thutmosis III. that he brought back
from his Asiatic campaigns vast quantities of rare
plants with which to beautify Thebes. Festivals
were held at the season when the flowers were
in full bloom, and the light - hearted Egyptian
did not fail to make the flowers talk to him, in
the imagination, of the delights of life. In one
case a fig - tree is made to call to a passing
maiden to come into its shade.

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o w

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Pi.. IX.

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Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 95

"Come," it says, "and spend this festal day, and to-
morrow, and the day after to-morrow, sitting iu my shadow.
Let thy lover sit at thy side, and let him drink. . . . Thy
servants will come with the dinner-things — they will bring
drink of every kind, with all manner of cakes, flowers of
yesterday and of to-day, and all kinds of refreshing fruit."

Than this one could hardly find a more convincing
indication of the gaiety of the Egyptian tempera-
ment. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
A.D. the people were so oppressed that any display
of luxury was discouraged, and a happy smile
brought the tax-gatherer to the door to ascertain
whether it was due to financial prosperity. But
the carrying of flowers, and other indications of
a kind of unworried contentment, are now again
becoming apparent on all sides.

The affection displayed by the Egyptians for
bright colours would alone indicate that their
temperament was not melancholic. The houses
of the rich were painted with colours which would
be regarded as crude had they appeared in the
Occident, but which are admissible in Egypt
where the natural brilliancy of the sunshine and
the scenery demands a more extreme colour-
scheme in decoration. The pavilions in which
the nobles " made a happy day," as they phrased
it, were painted with the most brilliant wall-
decorations, and the delicately - shaped lotus
columns supporting the roof were striped with
half a dozen colours, and were hung with
streamers of linen. The ceilings and pavements

96 Studies in the Treasury.

seem to have afforded the artists a happy field
for a display of their originality and skill, and
it is on these stretches of smooth-plastered sur-
face that gems of Egyptian art are often found.
A pavement from the palace of Akhnaton at
Tell el Amarna shows a scene in which a cow
is depicted frisking through the reeds, and birds
are represented flying over the marshes. In the
palace of Amenhotep III. at Gurneh there was
a ceiling decoration representing a flight of doves,
which, in its delicacy of execution and colouring,
is not to be classed with the crude forms of
Egyptian decoration, but indicates an equally
light-hearted temperament in its creator. It is
not probable that either bright colours or dainti-
ness of design would emanate from the brains
of a sombre- minded people.

Some of the feminine garments worn in ancient
Eo-ypt ^vere exceedingly gaudy, and they made
up in colour all that they lacked in variety of
design. In the Middle and New Empires the
robes of the men were as many - hued as their
wall decorations, and as rich in composition. One
may take as a typical example the costume of
a certain priest who lived at the end of Dynasty
XVIII. An elaborate wig covers his head ; a
richly ornamented necklace surrounds his neck ;
the upper part of his body is clothed in a tunic
of gauze-like linen ; as a skirt there is swathed
around him the most delicately coloured fine linen,
one end of which is brought up and thrown grace-

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 97

fully over his arm ; decorated sandals cover his
feet and curl up over his toes ; and in his hand
he carries a jewelled wand surmounted by feathers.
It would be an absurdity to state that these folds
of fine linen hid a heart set on things higher than
this world and its vanities. Nor do the objects
of daily use found in the tombs suggest any
austerity in the Egyptian character. There is
no reflection of the Underworld to be looked for
in the ornamental bronze mirrors, nor smell of
death in the frail perfume pots. Religious abstrac-
tion is not to be sought in lotus-formed drinking-
cups, and mortification of the body is certainly
not practised on golden chairs and soft cushions.
These were the objects buried in the tombs of
the priests and religious teachers.

The puritanical tendency of a race can generally
be discovered by a study of the personal names of
the people. The names by which the Egyptians
called their children are as gay as they are pretty,
and lack entirely the Puritan character. " Eyes-
of-love," " My - lady - is - as - gold," "Cool-breeze,"
" Gold-and-lapis-lazuli," " Beautiful-morning," are
Egyptian names very far removed from " Through-
trials-and-tribulations-we-enter-into-the-Kingdom-
of-Heaven Jones," which is the actual name of a
now living scion of a Koundhead family. And the
well-known " Praise-God Barebones " has little to
do with the Egyptian "Beautiful-Kitten," "Little-
Wild-Lion," " I-have-wanted-you," " Sweetheart,"
and so on.

98 Studies in the Treasury.

The nature of the folk-tales is equally indicative
of the temperament of a nation. The stories which
have come down to us from ancient Egypt are
often as frivolous as they are quaint. Nothing
delighted the Egyptians more than the listening
to a tale told by an expert story-teller ; and it
is to be supposed that such persons were in as
much demand in the old days as they are now.
One may still read of the adventures of the Prince
who was fated to die by a dog, a snake, or a
crocodile ; of the magician who made the waters
of the lake heap themselves up that he might
descend to the bottom dry-shod to recover a lady's
jewel ; of the fat old wizard who could cut a man's
head off and join it again to his body ; of the fairy
godmothers who made presents to a new - born
babe ; of the shipwrecked sailor who was thrown
up on an island inhabited by serpents with human
natures ; of the princess in the tower whose lovers
spent their days in attempting to climb to her
window, — and so on. The stories have no moral,
they are not pompous : they are purely amusing,
interesting, and romantic. As an example one
may quote the story which is told of Prince
Setna, the son of Rameses II. This Prince was
one day sitting in the court of the temple of
Ptah, when he saw a woman pass " beautiful
exceedingly, there being no woman of her beauty."
There were wonderful golden ornaments upon her,
and she was attended by fifty-two persons, them-
selves of some rank and much beauty. " The hour

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 99

that Setna saw her, he knew not the place on
earth where he was " ; and he called to his servants
and told them to "go quickly to the place where
she is, and learn what comes under her command."
The beautiful lady proved finally to be named
Tabubna, the daughter of a priest of Bast, the
Cat. Setna's acquaintance with her was later of
a most disgraceful character ; and, from motives
which are not clear, she made him murder his own
children to please her. At the critical moment,
however, when the climax is reached, the old, old
joke is played upon the listener, who is told that
Setna then woke up, and discovered that the whole
affair had been an afternoon dream in the shade of
the temple court.

The Egyptians often amused themselves by
drawing comic pictures and caricatures, and there
is an interesting series still preserved in which
animals take the place of human beings, and are
shown performing all manner of antics. One sees
a cat walking on its hind legs driving a flock of
geese, while a wolf carrying a staff and knapsack
leads a herd of goats. There is a battle of the mice
and cats, and the king of the mice, in his chariot
drawn by two dogs, is seen attacking the fortress
of the cats. A picture which is worthy of Edward
Lear shows a ridiculous hippopotamus seated
amidst the foliage of a tree, eating from a table,
whilst a crow mounts a ladder to wait upon him.
There are caricatures showing women of fashion
rouging their faces, unshaven and really amusing

loo Studies in the Treasury.

old tramps, and so forth. Even upon the walls of
the tombs there are often comic pictures, in which
one may see little girls fighting and tearing at
each others' hair, men tumbling one over another
as they play, and the like ; and one must suppose
that these were the scenes which the owner of the
tomb wished to perpetuate throughout the eternity
of Death.

The Egyptians took keen delight in music. In
the sound of the trumpet and on the well-tuned
cymbals they praised God in Egypt as merrily as
the Psalmist could wish. The strings and the
pipe, the lute and the harp, made music at every
festival — religious, national, or private. Plato
tells us that " nothing but beautiful forms and fine
music was permitted to enter into the assemblies
of young people " in Egypt ; and he states that
music was considered as being of the greatest con-
sequence for its beneficial effects upon youthful
minds. Strabo records the fact that music was
largely taught in Egypt, and the numbers of
musical instruments buried in the tombs or repre-
sented in the decorations confirm his statement.
The music was scientifically taught, and a know-
ledge of harmony is apparent in the complicated
forms of the instruments. The harps sometimes
had as many as twenty-two strings ; the long-
handled guitars, fitted with three strings, were
capable of wide gradations ; and the flutes were
sufliciently complicated to be described by early
writers as " many- toned." The Egyptian did not

. ',. . ..

I 111

» t * * «

...-'•^:^

^:^

tf-^gr-^C,- jj- • -'•

-'-«?: ,^»

A relief of the Saitic Period, representing- an old man playing uyiow a
harp, and a woman beating a drum. Offerings oi ioo^ and flowers
are placed before them. — Alexandria Mlsel'.m.

Pl. X.

Temperament of Ancient Egypt iaris. iDi^ '

merely bang a drum with his fist because it made
a noise, nor blow blasts upon a trumpet as a means
of expressing the inexpressible. He was an edu-
cated musician, and he employed the medium of
music to encourage his lightness of heart and to
render his gaiety more gay.

One sees representations of the women in a rich
man's harem amusing themselves by dancing and
singing. In the tomb of Ay there is a scene show-
ing the interior of the women's quarters, and here
the ladies are shown dancing, playing guitars,
feasting, or adorning themselves with their jewel-
lery ; while the store-rooms are seen to be filled
with all manner of musical Instruments, as well
as mirrors, boxes of clothes, and articles of femi-
nine use. At feasts and banquets a string band
played during the meal, and songs were sung to
the accompaniment of the harp. At religious
festivals choruses of male and female voices were
introduced. Soldiers marched through the streets
to the sound of trumpets and drums, and marriage
processions and the like were led by a band. At
the feasts it was customary for the dancing-girls,
who were employed for the amusement of the
guests, to perform their dances and to play a
guitar or a flute at the same time. One sees
representations of girls, their heads thrown back
and their long hair flying, merrily twanging a
guitar as they skip round the room. In the civil
and religious processions many of the participators
danced along as though from sheer lightness of

IQ2' Studies in the Treasury.

heart ; and on some occasions even the band footed
it down the high-road, circhng, jumping, and skip-
ping as they played.

The words for " rejoice " and " dance " were
synonymous in the hterature of the Egyptians.
In early days dancing naturally implied rejoicing,
and rejoicing was most easily expressed by danc-
ing. But the Egyptians of the refined periods
more often danced to amuse themselves, regarding
it, just as we do at the present day, as an exhil-
aration. Persons of the upper classes, however,
did not indulge very freely in it, but preferred to
watch the performances of professional dancers.
At all banquets dancing was as indispensable as
wine, women, and song, and it rather depended
on the nature of the wine and women as to
whether the guests joined personally in the sport
or sat still while the dancers swayed around the
room. The professionals were generally women,
but sometimes men were employed, and one sees
representations of a man performing some difficult
solo while a chorus of women sings and marks
time by clapping the hands. Men and women
danced together on occasions, but as a general
rule the Egyptian preferred to watch the move-
ments of the more graceful sex by themselves.
The women sometimes danced naked, to show off
the grace of their poses and the suppleness of their
muscles ; sometimes they were decked with ribbons
only ; and sometimes they wore transparent dresses
made of linen of the finest texture. It was not

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 103

unusual for them to carry tambourines and casta-
nets with which to beat time to their dances. On
the other hand, there were delicate and sober per-
formances, unaccompanied by music. The paint-
ings show some of the poses to have been exceed-
ingly graceful, and there were character dances
enacted in which the figures must have been
highly dramatic and artistic. For example, the
tableau which occurs in one dance, and is called
" The Wind," shows two of the dancing-girls bent
back like reeds when the wind blows upon them,
while a third figure stands over them in protection,
as though symbolising the immovable rocks.

But more usually the merry mood of the Egypt-
ians asserted itself, as it so often does at the present
day, in a demand for something approaching nearer
to buffoonery. The dancers whirled one another
about in the wildest manner, often tumbling head
over heels on the floor. A trick, attended gener-
ally with success, consisted in the attempt by the
dancers to balance the body upon the head with-
out the support of the arms. This buffoonery was
highly appreciated by the audience which wit-
nessed it; and the banqueting -room must have
been full of the noise of riotous mirth. One can-
not, indeed, regard a feast as pompous or solemn
at which the banging of the tambourines and the
click of castanets vied with the clatter of the
dishes and the laughter of the guests in creating a
general hullabaloo. Let those state who wall that
the Egyptian was a gloomy individual, but first

I04 Studies in the Treasury.

let them not fail to observe that same Egyptian
standing upon his head amidst the roars of laugh-
ter of his friends.

Dancing as a religious ceremony is to be found
in many primitive countries, and in Egypt it exists
at the present day in more than one form. In the
days of the Pharaohs it was customary to institute
dances in honour of some of the gods, more especi-
ally those deities whose concerns were earthy —
that is to say, those connected with love, joy,
birth, death, fertility, reproduction, and so on. It
will be remembered how David danced before the
Ark of the Lord, and how his ancestors danced in
honour of the golden calf In Egypt the king was
wont to dance before the great god Min of the
crops, and at harvest-time the peasants performed
their thanksgiving before the figures of Min in
this manner. Hathor and Bast, the two great
goddesses of pleasure, were worshipped in the
dance. Hathor was mistress of sports and danc-
ing, and patron of amusements and mirth, joy and
pleasure, beauty and love ; and in regard to the
happy temperament of the Egyptians, it is signi-
ficant that this goddess was held in the highest
esteem throughout the history of the nation.

Bast was honoured by a festival which for merri-
ment and frivolity could not well be equalled. The
festival took place at Bubastis, and is described by
Herodotus in the following words : —

" This is the nature of the ceremony on the way to Bubas-
tis. They go by water, and numerous boats are crowded

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 105

with persons of both sexes. During the voyage several
women strike the cymbals, some men play the flute, the
rest singing and clapping their hands. As they pass near a
town they bring the boat close to the bank. Some of the
women continue to sing and play the cymbals ; others cry
out as long as they can, and utter mocking jests against the
people of the town, who begin to dance, while the former
pull up their clothes before them in a scoffing manner. The
same is repeated at every town they pass upon the river.
Arrived at Bubastis, they celebrate the festival of Bast,
sacrificing a great number of victims, and on that occasion
a greater consumption of wine takes place than during the
whole of the year."

At this festival of Bast half the persons taking
part in the celebrations must have become intoxi-
cated. The Egyptians were always given to wine-
drinking, and Athenseus goes so far as to say that
they were a nation addicted to systematic intem-
perance. The same writer, on the authority of
Hellanicus, states that the vine was cultivated in
the Nile valley at a date earlier than that at
which it was first grown by any other people ; and
it is to this circumstance that Dion attributes the
Egyptian's love of wine. Strabo and other writers
speak of the wines of Egypt as being particularly
good, and various kinds emanating from different
localities are mentioned. The wines made from
grapes were of the red and white varieties ; but
there were also fruit wines, made from pomegran-
ates and other fruits. In the lists of offerings
inscribed on the walls of temples and tombs one
sees a large number of varieties recorded — \\ines

io6 Studies in the Treasury.

from the north, wines from the south, wines pro-
vincial, and wines foreign. Beer, made of barley,
was also drunk very largely, and this beverage
is heartily commended by the early writers. In-
deed, the wine- and beer-bibber was so common
an offender against the dignity of the nation, that
every moralist who arose had a word to say against
him. Thus, for example, in the Maxims of Ani
one finds the moralist writing —

"Do not put thyself in a beer-house. An evil thing are
words reported as coming from thy mouth when thou dost
not know that they have been said by thee. When thou
fallest thy limbs are broken, and nobody giveth thee a hand.
Thy comrades in drink stand up, saying, ' Away with this
drunken man.' "

The less thoughtful members of society, however,
considered drunkenness as a very good joke, and
even went so far as to portray it in their tomb
decorations. One sees men carried home from a
feast across the shoulders of three of their com-
panions, or ignominiously hauled out of the house
by their ankles and the scruff of their neck. In
the tomb of Paheri at El Kab women are repre-
sented at a feast, and scraps of their conversation
are recorded, such, for instance, as " Give me
eighteen cups of wine, for I should love to drink to
drunkenness : my inside is as dry as straw." There
are actually representations of women overcome
with nausea through immoderate drinking, and
being attended by servants who have hastened
with basins to their assistance. In another tomb-

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. loy

painting a drunken man is seen to have fallen
against one of the delicate pillars of the pavilion
with such force that it has toppled over, to the
dismay of the guests around.

In the light of such scenes as these one may
picture the life of an Egyptian in the elder days
as being not a little depraved. One sees the men
in their gaudy raiment, and the women luxuriously
clothed, staining their garments with the wine
spilt from the drinking-bowls as their hands shake
with their drunken laughter ; and the vision of
Egyptian solemnity is still further banished at
the sight. It is only too obvious that a land of
laughter and jest, feasting and carouse, must be
situated too near a Pompeian volcano to be capable
of endurance, and the inhabitants too purposeless
in their movements to avoid at some time or other
running into the paths of burning lava. The
people of Egypt went merrily through the radiant
valley in w^hich they lived, employing all that the
gods had given them, — not only the green palms,
the thousand birds, the blue sky, the hearty wind,
the river and its reflections, but also the luxuries
of their civilisation, — to make for themselves a
frail feast of happiness. And when the last
flowers, the latest empty drinking -cup, fell to
the ground, nothing remained to them but that
sodden, drunken night of disgrace which shocks
one so at the end of the dynastic history, and
which inevitably led to the fall of the nation.
Christian asceticism came as the natural reaction

io8 Studies in the Treasury.

and Muhammedan strictness followed in due
course ; and it required the force of both these
movements to put strength and health into the
people once more.

One need not dwell, however, on this aspect of
the Egyptian temperament. It is more pleasing,
and as pertinent to the argument, to follow the
old lords of the Nile into the sunshine once more,
and to glance for a moment at their sports. Hunt-
ing was a pleasure to them, in which they indulged
at every opportunity. One sees representations
of this with great frequency upon the walls of the
tombs. A man will be shown standing in a reed
boat which has been pushed in amongst the waving
papyrus. A boomerang is in his hand, and his
wife by his side helps him to locate the wild duck,
so that he may penetrate within throwing-distance
of the birds before they rise. Presently up they
go with a whir, and the boomerang claims its
victims ; while all manner of smaller birds dart
from amidst the reeds, and gaudy butterflies pass
startled overhead. Again one sees the hunter
galloping in his chariot over the hard sand of
the desert, shooting his arrows at the gazelle as
he goes. Or yet again with his dogs he is shown
in pursuit of the long-eared Egyptian hare, or of
some other creature of the desert. When not thus
engaged he may be seen excitedly watching a bull-
fight, or eagerly judging the merits of rival wrest-
lers, boxers, and fencers. One may follow him
later into the seclusion of his garden, where, sur-

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Pl. xi.

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 109

rounded by a wealth of trees and flowers, he plays
draughts with his friends, romps with his children,
or fishes in his artificial ponds. There is much
evidence of this nature to show that the Egyptian
was as much given to these healthy amusements as
he was to the mirth of the feast. Josephus states
that the Egyptians were a people addicted to
pleasure, and the evidence brought together in
the foregoing pages shows that his statement is
to be confirmed. In sincere joy of living they
surpassed any other nation of the ancient world.
Life was a thing of such delight to the Egyptian,
that he shrank equally from losing it himself and
from taking it from another. His prayer was that
he might live to be a centenarian. In spite of the
many wars of the Egyptians, there was less un-
necessary bloodshed in the Nile valley than in any
other country which called itself civilised. Death
was as terrible to them as it was inevitable, and
the constant advice of the thinker was that the
living- should make the most of their life. When
a king died, it was said that " he w^ent forth to
heaven having spent life in happiness," or that
"he rested after life, having completed his years
in happiness." It is true that the Egyptians
wished to picture the after-life as one of con-
tinuous joy. One sees representations of a man's
soul seated in the shade of the fruit-trees of the
Underworld, while birds sing in the branches
above him, and a lake of cool water lies before
him ; but they seemed to know that this was too

no Studies in the Treasury. '

pleasant a picture to be the real one. A woman,
the wife of a high priest, left upon her tomb-
stone the following inscription, addressed to her
husband : —

" 0, brother, husband, frieud," she says, " thy desire to
drink and to eat hath not ceased. Therefore be drunken,
enjoy the love of women — make holiday. Follow thy desire
by night and by day. Put not care within thy heart. Lo !
are not these the years of thy life upon earth ? For as for
the Underworld, it is a land of slumber and heavy dark-
ness, a resting-place for those who have passed within it.
Each sleepeth there in his own form, they never awake
to see their fellows, they behold not their fathers nor
their mothers, their heart is careless of their wives and^
children." ,

She knows that she will be too deeply steeped in ,|

the stupor of the Underworld to remember her |i

husband, and unselfishly she urges him to continue f

to be happy after the manner of his nation. Then, |'

in a passage which rings down the years in its ^'^

terrible beauty, she tells of her utter despair, lying
in the gloomy Underworld, suffocated with the
mummy bandages, and craving for the light, the
laughter, and the coolness of the day.

" The water of life," she cries, " with which every mouth
is moistened, is corruption to me, the water that is by me
corrupteth me. I know not what to do since I came into
this valley. Give me running water, say to me, 'Water
shall not cease to be brought to thee.' Turn my face to the
north wind upon the edge of the water. Verily thus shall
my heart be cooled and refreshed from its pain."

It is, however, the glory of life, rather than the

Temperament of Ancient Egyptians. 1 1 1

horror of^eath, which is the dominant note in the
inscriptions and reliefs. The scenes in the tomb
decorations seem to cry out for very joy. The
artist has imprisoned in his representations as
much sheer happiness as was ever infused into
cold stone. One sees there the gazelle leaping^
over the hills as the sun rises, the birds flapping
their wings and singing, the wild duck rising from
the marshes, and the butterflies flashing overhead.
The fundamental joy of living — that gaiety of life
which the human being may feel in common with
the animals — is shown in these scenes as clearly as
^is the merriment in the representations of feasts
and dancing. In these paintings and reliefs one
finds an exact illustration to the joyful exhorta-
tion of the Psalmist as he cries, " Let the heavens
rejoice, and let the earth be glad ; ... let the
fields be joyful, and all that is therein." In a land
where, to quote one of their own poems, " the tanks
are full of water and the earth overflows with
love, ' where " the cool north wind " blows merrily
over the fields, and the sun never ceases to shine,
it would be a remarkable phenomenon if the ancient
Egyptians had not developed the sanguine tempera-
ment. The foregoing pages have shown them at
their feasts, in their daily occupations, and in their
sports, and the reader will find that it is not difti-
cult to describe them, in the borrowed words of
the old geographer, as a people always gay and
often frivolous, and never - ceasingly "fond of
dancing and red wine."

112

CHAPTEE V.

THE MISFORTUNES OF WENAMON.

In the third chapter of this book it has been shown
that the archaeologist is, to some extent, enamoured
of the Past because it can add to the stock of
things which are Ukely to tickle the fancy. So
humorous a man is he, so fond of the good things
of life, so stirred by its adventures, so touched by
its sorrows, that he must needs go to the Past to
replenish his supplies, as another might go to Paris
or Timbuctoo.

Here, then, is the place to give an example of
the entertainment which he is likely to find in
this province of his ; and if the reader can detect
any smell of dust or hear any creak of dead bones
in the story which follows, it will be a matter of
surprise to me.

In the year 1891, at a small village in Upper
Egypt named El Hibeh, some natives unearthed a
much damaged roll of papyrus which appeared to
them to be very ancient. Since they had heard
that antiquities have a market value they did not
burn it along with whatever other scraps of inflam-

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 113

mable material they had collected for their evening
fire, but preserved it, and finally took it to a dealer,
who gave them in exchange for it a small sum of
money. From the dealer's hands it passed into the
possession of Monsieur GolenischefF, a Russian
Egyptologist, who happened at the time to be
travelling in Egypt ; and by him it was carried
to St Petersburg, where it now rests. This
savant presently published a translation of the
document, which at once caused a sensation in
the Egyptological world ; and during the next
few years four amended translations were made
by different scholars. The interest shown in this
tattered roll was due to the fact that it had been
found to contain the actual report written by an
odicial named Wenamon to his chief, the Hiofh
Priest of Amon-Pa, relating his adventures in the
Mediterranean while procuring cedar-wood from
the forests of Lebanon. The story which Wena-
mon tells is of the greatest value to Egyptology,
giving as it does a vivid account of the political
conditions obtaining in Syria and Egypt during
the reign of the Pharaoh Pameses XII.; but it also
has a very human interest, and the misfortunes of
the writer may excite one's sympathy and amuse-
ment, after this lapse of three thousand years, as
though they had occurred at the present time.

In the time at which Wenamon wrote his report
Egypt had fallen on evil days. A long line of
incapable descendants of the great Pameses II.
and Pameses III. had ruled the Nile valley ; and

114 Studies in the Treasury.

now a wretched ghost of a Pharaoh, Kameses XII.,
sat upon the throne, bereft of all power, a ruler in
name only. The government of the country lay in
the hands of two great nobles : in Upper Egypt,
Herhor, High Priest of Amon-Ra, was undisputed
master ; and in Lower Egypt, Nesubanebded, a
prince of the city of Tanis (the Zoan of the Bible),
virtually ruled as king of the Delta. Both these
persons ultimately ascended the throne of the
Pharaohs ; but at the time of Wenamon's adven-
tures the High Priest was the more powerful of
the two, and could command the obedience of
the northern ruler, at any rate in all sacerdotal
matters. The priesthood of Amon-Ra was the
greatest political factor in Egyptian life. That
god's name was respected even in the courts of
Syria, and though his power was now on the
wane, fifty years previously the great religious
body which bowed the knee to him was feared
throughout all the countries neighbouring to
Egypt. The main cause of Wenamon's troubles
was the lack of appreciation of this fact that the
god's influence in Syria was not as great as it had
been in the past ; and this report would certainly
not have been worth recording here if he had
realised that prestige is, of all factors in inter-
national relations, the least reliable.

In the year 1113 B.C. the High Priest undertook
the construction of a ceremonial barge in which
the image of the god might be floated upon the
sacred waters of the Nile during the great religious

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 115

festivals at Thebes ; and for this purpose he found
himself in need of a large amount of cedar- wood
of the best quality. He therefore sent for Wena-
mon, who held the sacerdotal title of "Eldest of
the Hall of the Temple of Amon," and instructed
him to proceed to the Lebanon to procure the
timber. It is evident that Wenamon was no
traveller, and we may perhaps be permitted to
picture him as a rather portly gentleman of middle
age, not wanting either in energy or pluck, but
given, like some of his countrymen, to a fluctua-
tion of the emotions which would jump him from
smiles to tears, from hope to despair, in a manner
amazing to any but an Egyptian. To us he often
appears as an overgrown baby, and his misfortunes
have a farcical nature which makes its appeal as
much through the medium of one's love of the
ludicrous as throuo^h that of one's interest in the
romance of adventure. Those who are acquainted
with Egypt will see in him one of the types of naif,
delightful children of the Nile, whose decorous in-
troduction into the parlour of the nations of to-day
is requiring such careful rehearsal.

For his journey the High Priest gave Wenamon
a sum of money, and as credentials he handed him
a number of letters addressed to Egyptian and
Syrian princes, and intrusted to his care a par-
ticularly sacred little image of Amon-Ra, known
as Amon-of-the-Road, which had probably accom-
panied other envoys to the Kingdoms of the Sea
in times past, and would be recognised as a

ii6 Studies in the Treasury.

token of the official nature of any embassy which
carried it.

Thus armed Wenamon set out from El Hibeh —
probably the ancient Hetbennu, the capital of the
Eighteenth Province of Upper Egypt — on the
sixteenth day of the eleventh month of the fifth
year of the reign of E,ameses XII. (1113 B.C.),
and travelled down the Nile by boat to Tanis,
a distance of some 200 miles. On his arrival
at this fair city of the Delta, whose temples
and palaces rose on the borders of the swamps
at the edge of the sea, Wenamon made his way
to the palace of Nesubanebded, and handed to him
the letters which he had received from the High
Priest. These were caused to be read aloud ; and
Nesubanebded, hearing that Wenamon was desirous
of reaching the Lebanon as soon as possible, made
the necessary arrangements for his immediate de-
spatch upon a vessel which happened then to be
lying at the quay under the command of a Syrian
skipper named Mengebet, who was about to set
out for the Asiatic coast. On the first day of the
twelfth month, that is to say fourteen days after
his departure from his native town, Wenamon set
sail from Tanis, crossing the swamps and heading
out into "the Great Syrian Sea."

The voyage over the blue rippling Mediterranean
was calm and prosperous as the good ship sailed
alono; the barren shores of the land of the Shasu,
along the more mountainous coast of Edom, and
thence northwards past the cities of Askalon

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 117

and Ashdod. To Wenamon, however, the journey
was fraught with anxiety. He was full of fears as
to his reception in Syria, for the first of his mis-
fortunes had befallen him. Although he had with
him both money and the image of Amon-of-the
Koad, in the excitement and hurry of his departure
he had entirely forgotten to obtain again the
bundle of letters of introduction which he had
given Nesubanebded to read ; and thus there were
grave reasons for supposing that his mission might
prove a complete failure. Mengebet was evidently
a stern old salt who cared not a snap of the fingers
for Amon or his envoy, and whose one desire was
to reach his destination as rapidly as wind and oars
would permit ; and it is probable that he refused
bluntly to return to Tanis when Wenamon in-
formed him of the oversight. This and the inher-
ent distrust of an Egyptian for a foreigner led
Wenamon to regard the captain and his men with
suspicion ; and one must imagine him seated in
the rough deck-cabin gloomily guarding the divine
image and his store of money. He had with him
a secretary and probably two or three servants ;
and one may picture these unfortunates anxiously
watching the Syrian crew as they slouched about
the deck. It is further to be remembered that,
as a general rule, the Egyptians are most extremely
bad sailors.

After some days the ship arrived at the little
city of Dor, which nestled at the foot of the Ridge
of Carmel ; and here they put in to replenish

ii8 Studies in the Treasury.

their supphes. Wenamon states in his report that
Dor was at this time a city of the Thekel or
Sicilians, some wandering band of sea-rovers hav-
ing left their native Sicily to settle here, at first
under the protection of the Egyptians, but now
independent of them. The King of Dor, by name
Bedel, hearing that an envoy of the High Priest of
Amon-Ra had arrived in his harbour, very politely
sent doAvn to him a joint of beef, some loaves of
bread, and a jar of wine, upon which Wenamon
must have set to with an appetite, after subsisting
upon the scanty rations of the sea for so long a
time.

It may be that the wine was more potent than
that to which the Egyptian was accustomed ; or
perhaps the white buildings of the city, glistening
in the sunlight, and the busy quays, engrossed his
attention too completely : anyhow, the second of
his misfortunes now befel him. One of the Syrian
sailors seized the opportunity to slip into his cabin
and to steal the money which was hidden there.
Before Wenamon had detected the robbery the
sailor had disappeared for ever amidst the houses
of Dor. That evening the distracted envoy,
seated upon the floor of his cabin, was obliged
to chronicle the list of stolen money, which list
was afterwards incorporated in his report in the
following manner : —

One vessel containing gold amounting to
Four vessels containing silver amounting to
One wallet containing silver amounting to

Total of what was stolen : gold, 5 debeus; silver, 31 debens-

debens.

b/.

Pl. xii.

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 119

A deben weighed about 100 grammes, and thus
the robber was richer by 500 grammes of gold,
which in those days would have the purchasing
value of about £600 in our money, and 3100
grammes of silver, equal to about £2200.^

Wenamon must have slept little that night, and
early on the following morning he hastened to the
palace of King Bedel to lay his case before him.
Fortunately Bedel did not ask him for his creden-
tials, but with the utmost politeness he gave
his consideration to the aifair. Wenamon's words,
however, were by no means polite, and one finds
in them a blustering assurance which suggests that
he considered himself a personage of extreme con-
sequence, and regarded a King of Dor as nothing
in comparison with an envoy of Amon-Ba.

" I have been robbed in your harbour," he cried,
so he tells us in the report, " and, since you are
the king of this land, you must be regarded as
a party to the crime. You must search for my
money. The money belongs to Nesubanebded,
and it belongs to Herhor, my lord" (no mention,
observe, of the wretched Barneses XII.), "and
to the other nobles of Egypt. It belongs also
to Weret, and to Mekmel, and to Zakar-Baal
the Prince of By bios. "^ These latter were the
persons to whom it was to be paid.

The King of Dor listened to this outburst
with Sicilian politeness, and replied in the fol-

1 See Weigall : Catalogue of Weights and Balances in the Cairo
Museum, p. xvi.
* The translation is based on that of Prof. Breasted.

I20 Studies in the Treasury.

lowing very correct terms : " With all due re-
spect to your honour and excellency," he said,
" I know nothing of this complaint which you
have lodged with me. If the thief belonged to
my land and went on board your ship in order
to steal your money, I would advance you the
sum from my treasury while they were finding
the culprit. But the thief who robbed you be-
longed to your ship. Tarry, however, a few days
here with me and I will seek him."

Wenamon, therefore, strode back to the vessel,
and there remained, fuming and fretting, for nine
long days. The skipper Mengebet, however, had
no reason to remain at Dor, and seems to have
told Wenamon that he could wait no longer.
On the tenth day, therefore, Wenamon retraced
his steps to the palace, and addressed himself once
more to Bedel. "Look," he said to the king,
when he was ushered into the royal presence,
"you have not found my money, and therefore
you had better let me go with my ship's captain
and with those . . ." The rest of the interview
is lost in a lacuna, and practically the only words
which the damaged condition of the papyrus per-
mits one now to read are, " He said, ' Be silent ! ' "
which indicates that even the patience of a King
of Dor could be exhausted.

When the narrative is able to be resumed one
finds that Wenamon has set sail from the city,
and has travelled along the coast to the proud
city of Tyre, where he arrived one afternoon

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 121

penDiless and letterless, having now nothing left
but the little Amon-of-the-Koad and his own
audacity. The charms of Tyre, then one of the
great ports of the civilised world, were of no con-
sequence to the destitute Egyptian, nor do they
seem to have attracted the skipper of his ship,
who, after his long delay at Dor, was in no
mood to linger. At dawn the next morning,
therefore, the journey was continued, and once
more an unfortunate lacuna interrupts the pas-
sage of the report. From the tattered fragments
of the writing, however, it seems that at the next
port of call — perhaps the city of Sidon — a party
of inoffensive Sicilian merchants was encountered,
and immediately the desperate Wenamon hatched
a daring plot. By this time he had come to place
some trust in Mengebet, the skipper, who, for the
sake of his own good standing in Egypt, had shown
himself willing to help the envoy of Amon-Ha in
his troubles, although he would not go so far as to
delay his journey for him ; and Wenamon therefore
admitted him to his councils. On some pretext or
other a party led by the Egyptian paid a visit
to these merchants and entered into conversation
with them. Then, suddenly overpowering them,
a rush was made for their cash-box, which Wena-
mon at once burst open. To his disappointment
he found it to contain only thirty-one debens
of silver, which happened to be precisely the
amount of silver, though not of gold, which he
had lost. This sum he pocketed, saying to the

122

Studies in the Treasury.

struggling merchants as he did so, "I will take
this money of yours, and will keep it until you
find my money. Was it not a Sicilian who stole
it, and no thief of ours ? I will take it."

With these words the party raced back to the
ship, scrambled on board, and in a few moments
had hoisted sail and were scudding northwards
towards Byblos, where Wenamon proposed to
throw himself on the mercy of Zakar-Baal, the
prince of that city. Wenamon, it will be remem-
bered, had always considered that he had been
robbed by a Sicilian of Dor, notwithstanding the
fact that only a sailor of his own ship could have
known of the existence of the money, as King
Bedel seems to have pointed out to him. The
Egyptian, therefore, did not regard this forcible
seizure of silver from these other Sicilians as a
crime. It was a perfectly just appropriation of
a portion of the funds which belonged to him by
rights. Let us imagine ourselves robbed at our
hotel by Hans the German waiter : it would surely
give us the most profound satisfaction to take
Herr Schnupfendorff, the piano - tuner, by the
throat when next he visited us, and go through
his pockets. He and Hans, being of the same
nationality, must suffer for one another's sins, and
if the magistrate thinks otherwise he must be
regarded as prejudiced by too much study of
the law.

Byblos stood at the foot of the hills of Lebanon,
in the very shadow of the great cedars, and it was

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 123

therefore Wenamon's destination. Now, however,
as the ship dropped anchor in the harbour, the
Egyptian reaHsed that his mission would probably
be fruitless, and that he himself would perhaps
be flung into prison for illegally having in his
possession the famous image of the god to which
he could show no written right. Moreover, the
news of the robbery of the merchants might well
have reached Byblos overland. His first action,
therefore, was to conceal the idol and the money ;
and this having been accomplished he sat himself
down in his cabin to await events.

The Prince of Byblos certainly had been advised
of the robbery ; and as soon as the news of the
ship's arrival was reported to him he sent a curt
message to the captain saying simply, " Get out
of my harbour." At this Wenamon gave up all
hope, and, hearing that there was then in port
a vessel which was about to sail for Egypt, he
sent a pathetic message to the prince asking
whether he might be allowed to travel by it
back to his own country.

No satisfactory answer was received, and for
the best part of a month Wenamon's ship rode
at anchor, while the distracted envoy paced the
deck, vainly pondering upon a fitting course of
action. Each morning the same brief order, " Get
out of my harbour," w^as delivered to him by the
harbour-master ; but the indecision of the authori-
ties as to how to treat this Egyptian oflicial pre-
vented the order being backed by force. Mean-

124

Studies in the Treasury.

while Wenamon and Mengebet judiciously spread
through the city the report of the power of Amon-
of-the-Road, and hinted darkly at the wrath which
would ultimately fall upon the heads of those who
suffered the image and its keeper to be turned
away from the quays of Byblos. No doubt, also,
a portion of the stolen debens of silver was ex-
pended in bribes to the priests of the city, for, as
we shall presently see, one of them took up Wen-
amon's cause with the most unnatural vigour.

All, however, seemed to be of no avail, and
Wenamon decided to get away as best he could.
His worldly goods Avere quietly transferred to the
ship which was bound for the Nile ; and, when
night had fallen, with Amon-of-the-Road tucked
under his arm, he hurried along the deserted quay.
Suddenly out of the darkness there appeared a
group of figures, and Wenamon found himself con-
fronted by the stalwart harbour-master and his
police. Now, indeed, he gave himself up for lost.
The image would be taken from him, and no
longer would he have the alternative of leaving
the harbour. He must have groaned aloud as he
stood there in the black night, with the cold sea
wind threatening to tear the covers from the
treasure under his arm. His surprise, therefore,
was unbounded when the harbour - master ad-
dressed him in the followincr words : " Remain
until morning here near the prince."

The Egyptian turned upon him fiercely. "Are
you not the man who came to me every day

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 125

saying, "Get out of my harbour?" he cried.
"And now are you not saying, 'Remain in
Byblos?' your object being to let this ship which.
I have found depart for Egypt without me, so
that you may come to me again and say,
'Go away.'"

The harbour-master in reahty had been ordered
to detain Wenamon for quite another reason. On
the previous day, while the prince was sacrificing
to his gods, one of the noble youths in his train,
who had probably seen the colour of Wenamon's
debens, suddenly broke into a religious frenzy,
and so continued all that day, and far into the
night, calling incessantly upon those around him
to go and fetch the envoy of Amon-Ra and the
sacred image. Prince Zakar-Baal had considered
it prudent to obey this apparently divine com-
mand, and had sent the harbour-master to prevent
Wenamon's departure. Finding, however, that
the Egyptian was determined to board the ship,
the olHcial sent a messenger to the prince, who
replied with an order to the skipper of the vessel
to remain that night in harbour.

Upon the following morning a deputation, evi-
dently friendly, waited on Wenamon, and urged
him to come to the palace, which he finally did,
incidentally attending on his way the morning
service which was being celebrated upon the sea-
shore. " I found the prince," writes Wenamon in
his report, " sitting in his upper chamber, leaning
his back against a window, while the waves of the

126

Studies in the Treasury.

Great Syrian Sea beat against the wall below. I
said to him, ' The mercy of Amon be with you ! '
He said to me, ' How long is it from now since
you left the abode of Amon ? ' I replied, ' Five
months and one day from now,' "

The prince then said, " Look now, if what you
say is true, where is the writing of Amon which
should be in your hand ? Where is the letter of
the High Priest of Amon which should be in
your hand ? "

" I gave them to Nesubanebded," replied
Wenamon.

" Then," says Wenamon, " he was very wroth,
and he said to me, ' Look here, the writings and
the letters are not in your hand. And where is
the fine ship which Nesubanebded would have
given you, and where is its picked Syrian crew ?
He would not put you and your affairs in the
charge of this skipper of yours, who might have
had you killed and thrown into the sea. Whom
would they have sought the god from then ? — and
you, whom would they have sought you from
then ? ' So said he to me, and I replied to him,
' There are indeed Egyptian ships and Egyptian
crews that sail under Nesubanebded, but he had at
the time no ship and no Syrian crew to give me.' "

The prince did not accept this as a satisfactory
answer, but pointed out that there were ten
thousand ships sailing between Egypt and
Syria, of which number there must have been
one at Nesubanebded's disposal.

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 127

" Then," writes Wenamon, " I was silent in
this great hour. At length he said to me, ' On
what business have you come here ? ' I replied, ' I
have come to get wood for the great and august
barge of Amon - Ra, king of the gods. Your
father supplied it, your grandfather did so, and
you too shall do it.' So spoke I to him."

The prince admitted that his fathers had sent
wood to Egypt, but he pointed out that they had
received proper remuneration for it. He then
told his servants to go and find the old ledger
in which the transactions were recorded, and this
being done, it was found that a thousand debens
of silver had been paid for the wood. The prince
now argued that he was in no way the servant
of Amon, for if he had been he would have been
obliged to supply the wood without remuneration.
"I am," he proudly declared, "neither your
servant nor the servant of him who sent you
here. If I cry out to the Lebanon the heavens
open and the logs lie here on the shore of the
sea." He went on to say that if, of his condescen-
sion, he now procured the timber Wenamon would
have to provide the ships and all the tackle. " If
I make the sails of the ships for you," said the
prince, "they may be top-heavy and may break,
and you will perish in the sea when Amon
thunders in heaven ; for skilled workmanship
comes only from Egypt to reach my place of
abode." This seems to have upset the composure
of Wenamon to some extent, and the prince took

128 Studies in the Treasury.

advantage of his uneasiness to say, " Anyway,
what is this miserable expedition that they have
had you make (without money or equipment) ? "
At this Wenamon appears to have lost his
temper. "O guilty one!" he said to the prince,
" this is no miserable expedition on which I am
engaged. There is no ship upon the Nile which
Amon does not own, and his is the sea, and his
this Lebanon of which you say, ' It is mine.' Its
forests grow for the barge of Amon, the lord of
every ship. Why Amon - Ra himself, the king
of the gods, said to Herhor, my lord, ' Send me ' ;
and Herhor made me go bearing the statue of
this great god. Yet see, you have allowed this
great god to wait twenty-nine days after he had
arrived in your harbour, although you certainly
knew he was there. He is indeed still what he
once was : yes, now while you stand bargaining
for the Lebanon with Amon its lord. As for
Amon-Ra, the king of the gods, he is the lord
of life and health, and he v/as the lord of vour
fathers, who spent their lifetime offering to him.
You also, you are the servant of Amon. If you
will say to Amon, ' I will do this,' and you ex-
ecute his command, you shall live and be prosper-
ous and be healthy, and you shall be popular with
your whole country and people. Wish not for
yourself a thing belonging to Amon-Ra, king of
the gods. Truly the lion loves his own ! Let
my secretary be brought to me that I may send
him to Nesubanebded, and he will send you all

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 129

that I shall ask him to send, after which, when I
return to the south, I will send you all, all your
trifles aofain."

" So spake I to him," says Wenamon in his
report, as with a flourish of his pen he brings this
fine speech to an end. No doubt it would have
been more truthful in him to say, "So would I
have spoken to him had I not been so flustered " ;
but of all types of lie this is probably the most
excusable. At all events, he said sufficient to
induce the prince to send his secretary to Egypt ;
and as a token of good faith Zakar-Baal sent with
him seven logs of cedar- wood. In forty -eight
days' time the messenger returned, bringing with
him five golden and five silver vases, twenty
garments of fine linen, 500 rolls of papyrus, 500
ox-hides, 500 coils of rope, twenty measures of
lentils, and five measures of dried fish. At this
present the prince expressed himself most satisfied,
and immediately sent 300 men and 300 oxen with
proper overseers to start the work of felling the
trees. Some eight months after leaving Tanis,
Wenamon's delighted eyes gazed upon the com-
plete number of logs lying at the edge of the
sea, ready for shipment to Egypt.

The task being finished, the prince walked
down to the beach to inspect the timber, and he
called to Wenamon to come with him. When the
Egyptian had approached, the prince pointed to
the logs, remarking that the work had been carried
through although the remuneration had not been

130 Studies in the Treasury.

nearly so great as that which his fathers had
received. Wenamon was about to reply when
inadvertently the shadow of the prince's umbrella
fell upon his head. What memories or anticipa-
tions this trivial incident aroused one cannot
now tell with certainty. One of the gentlemen-
in-waiting, however, found cause in it to whisper
to Wenamon, " The shadow of Pharaoh, your
lord, falls upon you " — the remark, no doubt,
being accompanied by a sly dig in the ribs. The
prince angrily snapped, " Let him alone " ; and,
with the picture of Wenamon gloomily staring
out to sea, we are left to worry out the meaning
of the occurrence. It may be that the prince
intended to keep Wenamon at Byblos until the
uttermost farthing had been extracted from Egypt
in further payment for the wood, and that there-
fore he was to be regarded henceforth as Wena-
mon's king and master. This is perhaps indicated
by the following remarks of the prince.

" Do not thus contemplate the terrors of the
sea," he said to Wenamon. " For if you do that
you should also contemplate my own. Come, I
have not done to you what they did to certain
former envoys. They spent seventeen years in
this land, and they died where they were." Then,
turning to an attendant, " Take him," he said,
"and let him see the tomb in which they lie."

" Oh, don't let me see it," Wenamon tells us that
he cried in anguish ; but, recovering his composure,
he continued in a more valiant strain. " Mere

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 131

human beings," he said, " were the envoys who
were then sent. There was no god among them
(as there now is)."

The prince had recently ordered an engraver to
write a commemorative inscription upon a stone
tablet recording the fact that the king of the
gods had sent Amon-of-the-Road to Byblos as
his divine messenger and Wenamon as his human
messenger, that timber had been asked for and
supplied, and that in return Amon had promised
him ten thousand years of celestial life over and
above that of ordinary persons. Wenamon now
reminded him of this, asking him why he should
talk so slightingly of the Egyptian envoys w^hen
the making of this tablet showed that in reality
he considered their presence an honour. More-
over, he pointed out that when in future years
an envoy from Egypt should read this tablet, he
would of course pronounce at once the magical
prayers which would procure for the prince, who
would probably then be in hell after all, a draught
of water. This remark seems to have tickled the
prince's fancy, for he gravely acknowledged its
value, and spoke no more in his former strain.
Wenamon closed the interview by promising that
the High Priest of Amon-Ra would fully reward
him for his various kindnesses.

Shortly after this the Egyptian paid another
visit to the sea-shore to feast his eyes upon the
logs. He must have been almost unable to contain
himself in the deliofht and excitement of the end-

132 Studies in the Treasury.

ing of his task and his approaching return m
triumph to Egypt ; and we may see him jauntily
walking over the sand, perhaps humming a tune
to himself". Suddenly he observed a fleet of
eleven ships sailing towards the town, and the
song must have died upon his lips. As they
drew nearer he saw to his horror that they be-
longed to the Sicilians of Dor, and we must picture
him biting his nails in his anxiety as he stood
amongst the logs. Presently they were within
hailing distance, and some one called to them
asking their business. The reply rang across the
water, brief and terrible : " Arrest Wenamon !
Let not a ship of his pass to Egypt." Hearing
these words the envoy of Amon-Ra, king of the
gods, just now so proudly boasting, threw himself
upon the sand and burst into tears.

The sobs of the wretched man penetrated to
a chamber in which the prince's secretary sat
writing at the open window, and he hurried
over to the prostrate figure. "Whatever is the
matter with you 1 " he said, tapping the man on
the shoulder.

Wenamon raised his head. " Surely you see
these birds which descend on Egypt," he groaned.
" Look at them ! They have come into the har-
bour, and how long shall I be left forsaken here ?
Truly you see those who have come to arrest me."

With these words one must suppose that Wen-
amon returned to his weeping, for he says in his
report that the sympathetic secretary went off to

*^'\^t,' ^

- (

c >

- M

ru xuM,

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 133

find the prince in order that some plan of action
might be formulated. When the news was reported
to Zakar-Baal, he too began to lament; for the
whole affair was menacing and ugly. Looking out
of the window he saw the Sicilian ships anchored
as a barrier across the mouth of the harbour, he
saw the loo-s of cedar-wood strewn over the beach,
he saw the writhing figure of Wenamon pouring
sand and dust upon his head and drummiug feebly
with his toes ; and his royal heart was moved with
pity for the misfortunes of the Egyptian.

Hastily speaking to his secretary, he told him
to procure two large jars of wine and a ram, and
to give them to Wenamon on the chance that they
might stop the noise of his lamentations. The
secretary and his servants procured these things
from the kitchen, and, tottering down with them
to the envoy, placed them by his side. Wenamon,
however, merely glanced at them in a sickly
manner, and then buried his head once more. The
failure must have been observed from the window
of the palace, for the prince sent another servant
flying off for a popular Egyptian lady of no reputa-
tion, who happened to be living just then at By bios
in the capacity of a dancing-girl. Presently she
minced into the room, very much elated, no doubt,
at this indication of the royal favour. The prince
at once ordered her to hasten down on to the
beach to comfort her countryman. "Sing to him,"
he said. " Don't let his heart feel apprehension."

Wenamon seemed to have waved the girl aside,

134 Studies in the Treasury.

and we may picture the prince making urgent
signs to the lady from his window to renew her
efforts. The moans of the miserable man, however^
did not cease, and the prince had recourse to a
third device. This time he sent a servant ta
Wenamon with a message of calm assurance.
"Eat and drink," he said, "and let not your
heart feel apprehension. You shall hear all that
I have to say in the morning." At this Wenamon
roused himself, and, wiping his eyes, consented ta
be led back to his rooms, ever turning, no doubt,
to cast nervous glances in the direction of the
silent ships of Dor.

On the following morning the prince sent for
the leaders of the Sicilians and asked them for
what reason they had come to Byblos. They
replied that they had come in search of Wenamon,
who had robbed some of their countrymen of
thirty - one debens of silver. The prince was
placed in a difficult position, for he was desirous-
to avoid giving offence either to Dor or to Egypt
from whence he now expected further payment ;.
but he managed to pass out on to clearer ground
by means of a simple stratagem.

"I cannot arrest the envoy of Amon in my
territory," he said to the men of Dor. " But I
will send him away, and you shall pursue him
and arrest him,"

The plan seems to have appealed to the sporting
instincts of the Sicilians, for it appears that they
drew off from the harbour to await their quarry.
Wenamon was then informed of the scheme, and

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 135

one may suppose that he showed no rehsh for it.
To be chased across a bihous sea by sporting men
of hardened stomach was surely a torture for the
damned ; but it is to be presumed that Zakar-Baal
left the Egyptian some chance of escape. Hastily
he was conveyed on board a ship, and his misery
must have been complete when he observed that
outside the harbour it was blowing a gale. Hardly
had he set out into the " Great Syrian Sea" before
a terrific storm burst, and in the confusion which
ensued we lose sight of the waiting fleet. No
doubt the Sicilians put in to Byblos once more
for shelter, and deemed Wenamon at the bottom
of the ocean as the wind whistled through their
own bare rigging.

The Egyptian had planned to avoid his enemies
by beating northwards when he left the harbour,
instead of southwards towards Egypt ; but the
tempest took the ship's course into its own hands
and drove the frail craft north-westwards towards
Cyprus, the wooded shores of which were, in course
of time, siofhted. Wenamon was now indeed 'twixt
the devil and the deep sea, for behind him the
waves raged furiously, and before him he per-
ceived a threatening group of Cypriots awaiting
him upon the wind-swept shore. Presently the
vessel grounded upon the beach, and immediately
the ill-starred Egyptian and the entire crew were
prisoners in the hands of a hostile mob. Roughly
they were dragged to the capital of the island,
which happened to be but a few miles distant,
and with ignominy they were hustled, Avet and

136 Studies in the Treasury.

bedraggled, through the streets towards the palace
of Hetebe, the Queen of Cyprus.

As they neared the building the queen herself
passed by, surrounded by a brave company of
nobles and soldiers. Wenamon burst away from
his captors, and bowed himself before the royal
lady, crying as he did so, " Surely there is some-
body amongst this company who understands
Egyptian." One of the nobles, to Wenamon's
joy, replied, " Yes, I understand it."

" Say to my mistress," cried the tattered envoy,
"that I have heard even in far-off Thebes, the
abode of Amon, that in every city injustice is
done, but that justice obtains in the land of
Cyprus. Yet see, injustice is done here also this
day."

This was repeated to the queen, who replied,
" Indeed ! — what is this that you say ? "

Through the interpreter Wenamon then ad-
dressed himself to Hetebe. " If the sea raged,"
he said, " and the wind drove me to the land
where I now am, will you let these people take
advantage of it to murder me, I who am an
envoy of Amon ? I am one for w^hom they will
seek unceasingly. And as for these sailors of the
prince of Byblos, whom they also wish to kill,
their lord will undoubtedly capture ten crews
of yours, and will slay every man of them in
revenge."

This seems to have impressed the queen, for
she ordered the mob to stand on one side, and
to Wenamon she said, " Pass the night. ..."

The Misfortunes of Wenamon. 137

Here the torn writing comes to an abrupt end,
and the remainder of Wenamon's adventures are
for ever lost amidst the dust of El Hibeh. One
may suppose that Hetebe took the Egyptian under
her protection, and that ultimately he arrived once
more in Egypt, whither Zakar-Baal had perhaps
already sent the timber. Returning to his native
town, it seems that Wenamon wrote his report,
which for some reason or other was never des-
patched to the High Priest. Perhaps the envoy
was himself sent for, and thus his report was
rendered useless ; or perhaps our text is one of
several copies.

There can be no question that he was a writer
of great power, and this tale of his adventures
must be regarded as one of the jewels of the
ancient Egyptian language. The brief descrip-
tion of the Prince of Byblos, seated with his back
to the window, while the waves beat against the
wall below, brings vividly before one that far-off
scene, and reveals a lightness of touch most un-
usual in writers of that time. There is surely,
too, an appreciation of a delicate form of humour
observable in his account of some of his dealings
with the prince. It is appalling to think that
the peasants who found this roll of papyrus might
have used it as fuel for their evening fire ; and
that, had not a drifting rumour of the value of
such articles reached their village, this little tale
of old Egypt and the long-lost Kingdoms of the
Sea would have gone up to empty heaven in a
puff of smoke.

138

CHAPTER VI.

THE STORY OF THE SHIPWRECKED SAILOR.

When the early Spanish explorers led their expe-
ditions to Florida, it was their intention to find
the Fountain of Perpetual Youth, tales of its
potent waters having reached Peter Martyr as
early as 1511. This desire to discover the things
pertaining to Fairyland has been, throughout
history, one of the most fertile sources of advent-
ure. From the days when the archaic Egyptians
penetrated into the regions south of the Cataracts,
where they believed that the inhabitants were
other than human, and into Pount, the " Land of
the Ghosts," the hope of Fairyland has led men to
search the face of the earth and to penetrate into
its unknown places. It has been the theme of
countless stories : it has supplied material for
innumerable songs.

And in spite of the circumambulations of science
about us, in spite of the hardening of all the
tissues of our imagination, in spite of the pheno-
menal development of the commonplace, this desire
for a glimpse of the miraculous is still set deeply

Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor. 139

ill our hearts. The old quest of Fairyland is as
active now as ever it was. We still presume, in
our unworthiness, to pass the barriers, and to walk
upon those paths which lead to the enchanted
forests and through them to the city of the Moon.
At any moment we are ready to set forth, like
Arthur's knights, in search of the Holy Grail.

The explorer who penetrates into Central Africa
in quest of King Solomon's mines is impelled by a
hope closely akin to that of the Spaniards. The
excavator who digs for the buried treasures of the
Incas or of the Egyptians is often led by a desire
for the fabulous. Search is now being made in the
western desert of Egypt for a lost city of burnished
copper ; and the Anglo - Egyptian official is con-
stantly urged by credulous natives to take camels
across the wilderness in quest of a town whose
houses and temples are of pure gold. What arch-
aeologist has not at some time given ear to the
whispers that tell of long-lost treasures, of for-
gotten cities, of Atlantis swallowed by the sea ?
It is not only children who love the tales of Fairy-
land. How happily we have read Kipling's ' Puck
of Pook's Hill,' De la Motte Fouque's ' Undine,'
Kenneth Grahame's ' Wind in the Willows,' or
F. W. Bain's Indian stories. The recent fairy
plays — Barry's " Peter Pan," Maeterlinck's " Blue
Bird," and the like — have been enormously suc-
cessful. Say what we will, fairy tales still hold
their old power over us, and still we turn to them
as a relief from the commonplace.

140 Studies in the Treasury.

Some of us, failing to find Fairyland upon earth,
have transferred it to the kingdom of Death ; and
it has become the hope for the future. Each
Sunday in church the congregation of business
men and hard-worked women set aside the things
of their monotonous life, and sing the songs of the
endless search. To the rolling notes of the organ
they tell the tale of the Elysian Fields : they take
their unfilled desire for Fairyland and adjust it to
their deathless hope of Heaven. They sing of
crystal fountains, of streets paved with gold, of
meadows dressed with living green where they
shall dwell as children who now as exiles mourn.
There everlasting spring abides and never-wither-
ing flowers ; there ten thousand times ten thousand
clad in sparkling raiment throng up the steeps of
light. Here in the church the most unimaginative
people cry aloud upon their God for Fairyland.

" The roseate hues of early dawn,

The brightness of the day,
The crimson of the sunset sky.

How fast they fade away ■
Oh, for the pearly gates of Heaven,

Oh, for the golden floor ..."

They know no way of picturing the incomprehen-
sible state of the future, and they interpret it,
therefore, in terms of the fairy tale.

I am inclined to think that this sovereignty of
the fairies is beneficial. Fairy tales fill the minds
of the young with knowledge of the kindly people
who will reward with many gifts those that are

Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor. 141

charitable to the old ; they teach a code of chivalry
that brings as its reward the love of the beautiful
princess in the tower ; they tell of dangers over-
come by courage and perseverance ; they suggest
a contact with nature which otherwise might never
be developed. Where angels and archangels over-
awe by their omnipotence, the microscopic fairies
who can sit singing upon a mushroom and dangle
from the swaying stem of a bluebell, carry the
thoughts down the scale of life to the little and
really important things. A sleepy child will rather
believe that the Queen of the Fairies is acting
sentry upon the knob of the bedpost than that an
angel stands at the head of the cot with great
wings spread in protection — wings which suggest
the probability of claws and a beak to match.

The dragons which can only be slain by the
noble knight, the enchantments which can only
be broken by the outwitting of the evil witch, the
lady who can only be won by perils bravely en-
dured, form the material of moral lessons which no
other method of teaching could so impress upon
the youthful mind.

And when mature years are attained the atmos-
phere of Fairyland remains with us. The lost
songs of the little people drift through the brain,
recalling the infinite possibilities of beauty and
goodness which are so slightly out of reach ; the
forgotten wonder of elfs and brownies suggests
itself to us from the heart of flowers and amidst
the leaves of trees. The clear depths of the sea

142 Studies in the Treasury.

take half their charm from the memory of the
mermaid's palace ; the silence of forests is rich
with the expectancy of the Knight of the Golden
Plume ; the large spaces of kitchens and corri-
dors are hushed for the concealment of Robin
Goodfellow.

It is the elusiveness, the enchantment, of Fairy-
land which, for the mature mind, constitutes its
greatest value and charm ; it is a man's desire for
the realms of Midsummer -night that makes the
building of those realms in our childhood so valu-
able. We are constantly endeavouring to recapture
the grace of that intangible kingdom, and the hope
of ultimate success retains the elasticity of the
mind. Held fast by the stiffened joints of reason
and closeted with the gout of science, we are fet-
tered prisoners in the world unless there be the
knowledge that something eludes us to lead us on.
We know quite well that the fairies do not exist,
but at the same time we cannot deny that the
elusive atmosphere of Fairyland is one with that
of our fondest dreams.

Who has not, upon a grey morning, awakened
from sleep with the knowledge that he has passed
out from a kingdom of dream more dear than all
the realms of real life ? Vainly we endeavour to
recall the lost details, but only the impression
remains. That impression, however, warms the
tone of our whole day, and frames our thoughts as
it were with precious stones. Thus also it is with
the memory of our childhood's idea of Fairyland :

Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor. 143

the impression is recalled, the brain peers forward,
the thoughts go on tiptoe, and we feel that we
have caught a glimpse of Beauty. Indeed, the
recollection of the atmosphere created in our
youthful minds by means of fairy tales is perhaps
the most abundant of the sources of our knowledge
of Beauty in mature years.

I do not suppose that I am alone in declaring
that some of the most tender feelinofs of childhood
are inspired by the misfortunes of the Beast in the
story of " Beauty and the Beast" ; and the Sleep-
ing Beauty is the first love of many a small boy.
Man, from his youth up, craves enchantment ; and
though the business of life gives him no oppor-
tunity for the indulging in day-dreams, there are
few of us indeed who have not at some time sousfht
the phantom isles, and sought in vain. There is
no stormy night, when the wind moans through
the trees, and the moon-rack flies overhead, but
takes something of its mystery from the recollec-
tion of the enchantments of the dark ao-es. The
sun does not sink into the sea amidst the low-lying
clouds but some vague thought is brought to mind
of the uncharted island whereon that maiden lies
sleeping whose hair is dark as heaven's wrath, and
whose breast is white like alabaster in the pathway
■of the moon. There she lies in the charmed circle
under the trees, where none may enter until that
hour when some pale, lost mariner shall surprise
the secret of the pathway, and, coming suddenly
upon her, shall kiss her shadowed lips. Vague,

144 Studies in the Treasury.

elusive, undefined, as such fancies must be, they
yet tinge the thoughts of almost every man at
certain moments of his life, and set him searching
for the enchantment of bygone days. Eagerly he
looks for those ^ij

"... Magic casements opening on the foam

Of perilous seas, in fairy lands forlorn " ;

and it is the fact of their unreality that gives them
their haunting value.

The following story, preserved in a papyrus now
at St Petersburg, describes a mysterious island
whereon there dwelt a monster most lovable and
most forlorn : a creature so tenderly drawn, indeed,
that the reader will not fail to enthrone him in the
little company of the nobility of the kingdom of
the fairy tale. Translations of the story by two
or three savants have appeared ; but the present
version, which I give in its literal form, has been
prepared especially for this volume by Mr Alan
Gardiner ; and, coming from him, it may be said
to be the last word of the science upon the subject
of this difficult text.

The scene with which the story opens is clearly
indicated by the introductory sentences, though
actually it is not described. A large war-galley
had come swinging down the Nile from the land
of Wawat in the south, the oars flashing in the
Nubian sunlight. On the left the granite rocks
of the island of Bigeh towered above the vessel ;
on the right the island of Philse, as yet devoid of

, >"

, > , ' . •>««

[P/zo/c' rj i:. Bird.

A sailor oi Lower Xiibia and his son.

Pl. XIV.

Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor. 145

buildings, rested placidly on the blue waters.
Ahead were the docks of Shallal, where the clus-
tered boats lay darkly against the yellow of the
desert, and busy groups of figures, loading and
unloading cargoes, moved to and fro over the sand.
Away to the left, behind Bigeh, the distant roar
of the First Cataract could be heard as the waters
went rushing' down from Nubia across the frontier
into Egypt.

The great vessel had just returned from the
little-known country of Ethiopia, which bordered
the Land of the Ghosts, having its frontiers upon
the shores of the sea that encircled the world ; and
the sailors were all straining their eyes towards
these docks which formed the southernmost out-
post of Egypt, their home. The greatest excite-
ment prevailed on deck ; but in the cabin, erected
of vari-coloured cloth in the stern of the vessel, the
noble leader of the expedition which was now at
its conclusion lay in a troubled sleep, tossing ner-
vously upon his bed. His dreams were all of the
terrible ordeal which was before him. He could
take no pleasure in his home-coming, for he was
driven nigh crazy by the thought of entering the
presence of the great Pharaoh himself in order to
make his report.

It is almost impossible to realise nowadays the
agonies of mind that a man had to suffer who was
obliged to approach the incarnation of the sun
upon earth, and to crave the indulgence of this
god in regard to any shortcomings in the conduct

146 Studies in the Treasury.

of the affairs intrusted to him. Of all the kings
of the earth the Pharaoh was the most terrible,
the most thoroughly frightening. Not only did
he hold the lives of his subjects in his hand to do
with them as he chose, but he also controlled the
welfa.re of their immortal souls ; for, being a god,
he had dominion over the realms of the dead. To
be censured by the Pharaoh was to be excommuni-
cated from the pleasures of this earth and out-
lawed from the fair estate of heaven. A well-
known Egyptian noble named Sinuhe, the hero of
a fine tale of adventure, describes himself as pet-
rified with terror when he entered the audience-
chamber. " I stretched myself on my stomach,"
he writes, " and became unconscious before him
(the Pharaoh). This god addressed me kindly,
but I was as a man overtaken by the twilight : my
soul departed, my flesh trembled ; my heart was
no more in my body that I should know life from
death." ^ Similarly another personage writes :
"Remember the day of bringing the tribute,
when thou passest into the Presence under the
window, the nobles on each side before his
Majesty, the nobles and ambassadors (?) of all
countries. They stand and gaze at the tribute,
while thou fearest and shrinkest back, and thy
hand is weak, and thou knowest not whether it
is death or life that is before thee ; and thou art
brave (only) in praying to thy gods : ' Save me,
prosper me this one time.'"-

1 Sinuhe, 254-256. - Papyrus KoUer, 5, 1-4.

Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor. 147

Of the Pharaoh it is written —

" Thine eye is clearer than the stars of heaven;
Thou seest farther than the sun.
If I speak afar off, thine ear hears ;
If I do a hidden deed, thine eye sees it." ^

Or aofain —

" The god of taste is in thy mouth,
The god of knowledge is in thy heart ;
Thy tongue is enthroned in the temple of truth ;
God is seated upon thy lips." -

To meet face to face this all-knowing, all-seeing,
celestial creature, from whom there could be no
secrets hid nor any guilt concealed, was an ordeal
to which a man might well look forward with
utter horror. It was this terrible dread that,
in the tale with which we are now concerned,
held the captain of this Nubian vessel in agony
upon his couch.

As he lay there, biting his finger-nails, one of
the ship's officers, himself a former leader of ex-
peditions, entered the cabin to announce their
arrival at the Shallal docks.

" Good news, prince," said he cheerfully to his
writhing master. " Look, we have reached home.
They have taken the mallet and driven in the
mooring-post ; the ship's cable has been put on
land. There is merrymaking and thanksgiving,
and every man is embracing his fellow. Our
crew has returned unscathed, without loss to
our soldiers. We have reached the end of

^ Anastasi Papyri, 4, 5, 6 ff. ^ Kubban stela.

148 Studies in the Treasury.

Wawat, we have passed Bigeh. Yes, indeed,
we have returned safely ; we have reached our
own land."

At this the prince seems to have groaned anew,
much to the distress of his friend, who could but
urge him to pull himself together and to play the
man.

" Listen to me, prince," he begged, " for I am
one void of exaggeration. Wash yourself, pour
water on your fingers."

The wretched man replied, it would seem, with
a repetition of his fears ; whereupon the old sailor
seems to have sat down by his side and to have
given him a word of advice as to how he should
behave in the king's presence. " Make answer
when you are addressed," he said ; " speak to the
king with a heart in you ; answer without re-
straint. For it is a man's mouth that saves
him. . . . But do as you will : to talk to you
is wearisome (to you)."

Presently the old sailor was seized with an idea.
He would tell a story, no matter whether it were
strictly true or not, in which his own adventures
should be set forth. He would describe how he
was wrecked upon an unknown island, how he was
saved from death, and how, on his return, he was
conducted into the Pharaoh's presence. A narra-
tion of his own experiences before his sovereign
might give heart to his captain, and might effect-
ually lift the intolerable burden of dread from the
princely shoulders.

Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor. 149

"I will relate to you," he began, "a similar
thing which befell me my very self. I was
making a journey to the mines of the sove-

reio'n

The prince may here be supposed to have sat up
and given gloomy attention to his friend's words,
for Egyptians of all ages have loved a good story,
and tales of adventures in the south were, in early
times, most acceptable. The royal gold mines re-
ferred to were probably situated at the southern-
most end of the eastern Egyptian desert. To
reach them one would take ship from Kossair or
some other Red Sea port, sail down the coast to
the frontiers of Fount, the modern Somaliland,
and then travel inland by caravan. It was a
perilous undertaking, and, at the time when
this story was written, the journey must have
furnished material for amazing yarns.

"I went down on the Great Green Sea," con-
tinued the speaker, "in a ship one hundred and
fifty cubits 1 in length and forty cubits in breadth,
and in it were a hundred and fifty sailors, picked
men of Egypt. They scanned the heavens and
they scanned the earth, and their hearts were
stouter than lions. They foretold the storm or
ever it came, and the tempest when as yet it
was not."

A storm arose while they were out of sight of
land, and rapidly increased in violence, until the
waves, according to the very restrained estimate

1 The average cubit was about 20i inches.

150 Studies in the Treasury.

of the narrator, were eight cuhits high — that is to
say, about thirteen or fourteen feet. To one who
was accustomed to the waves of the Nile this
would be a great height ; and the passage thus
suggests that the scribe was an untravelled man.
A vessel of 150 cubits, or about 250 feet, in length
might have been expected to ride out a storm of
this magnitude ; but, according to the story, she
went to pieces, and the whole ship's company, with
the single exception of the teller of the tale, were
drowned. The survivor managed to cling to a
plank of wood, which was driven by the wind
towards the shores of an uncharted island, and
here at length he was cast up by the waves.

Not far from the beach there was a small
thicket, and to this the castaway hastened,
sheltering therein from the fury of the storm.
For three days in deep despair he lay hidden,
"without a companion," as he said, "save my
heart ; " but at last the tempest subsided, the
sun shone in the heavens once again, and the
famished mariner was able to go in search of
food, which, to his delight, he found in abund-
ance.

The scene upon which he gazed as he plucked
the fruit of the laden trees was most mysterious,
and all that he saw around him must have had an
appearance not altogether consistent with reality,
for, indeed, the island was not real. It had been
called into existence, perhaps, at the bidding of
some god to relieve the tedium of an eternal after-

Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor. 151

nooii, and suddenly it had appeared, floating upon
the blue waters of the ocean. How long it had
remained there, how long it would still remain,
none could tell, for at any moment the mind of
the god might be diverted, and instantly it would
dissolve and vanish as would a dream. Beneath
the isle the seas moved, and there in the darkness
the fishes of the deep, with luminous, round eyes,
passed to and fro, nibbling the roots of the trees
above them. Overhead the heavens stretched,
and around about spread the expanse of the sea
upon which no living thing might be seen, save
only the dolphins as they leapt into the sunshine
and sank again amidst the gleaming spray.

There was abundant vegetation upon the island,
but it does not appear to have looked quite real.
The fig-trees were heavy with fruit, the vines were
festooned from bough to bough, hung with clusters
of grapes, and pomegranates were ripe for the
plucking. But there seems to have been an
unearthliness about them, as though a deep en-
chantment were upon them. In the tangled
undergrowth through which the bewildered sailor
walked there lay great melons and pumpkins.
The breeze wafted to his nostrils the smell of the
incense-trees ; and the scent of the flowers, after
the storm, must have made every breath he
breathed a pleasure of Paradise to him. Moving-
over the luxuriant ground, he put up flights of
wonderful birds which sped towards the interior,
red, green, and golden, against the sky. Monkeys

152 Studies in the Treasury.

chattered at him from the trees, and sprang from
branch to branch amidst the dancing flowers. In
shadowed pools of clear water fishes were to be
seen, gliding amidst the reeds ; and amongst the
rocks beside the sea the castaway could look down
upon the creatures of the deep imprisoned between
the tides.

Food in all forms was to hand, and he had but
to fill his arms with the good things which Fate
had provided. " I found there," he said, " figs,
grapes, and all manner of goodly onions ; melons
and pomegranates were there, and pumpkins of
every kind. Fishes were there and fowls : there
was nought that was lacking in it. I satisfied
myself, and set upon the ground the abundance
of that with which my arms were filled. I took
the fire-borer and kindled a fire, and made a burnt-
oflering to the gods."

Seated in the warm sunshine amidst the trees,
eating a roast fowl seasoned with onions or some
equally palatable concoction, he seems to have
found the life of a shipwrecked mariner by no
means as distressing as he had anticipated ; and
the wording of the narrative appears to be so
arranged that an impression of comfortable ease
and security may surround his sunlit figure.
Suddenly, however, all was changed. " I heard,"
said he, " a sound as of thunder, and I thought it
was the waves of the sea." Then " the trees
creaked and the earth trembled " ; and, like the
Egyptian that he was, he went down on his shak-

Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor. 153

ing hands and knees, and buried his face in the
ground.

At length " I uncovered my face," he declared,
" and I found it was a serpent that came, of the
length of thirty cubits " — about fifty feet — "and
his tail was more than two cubits " in diameter.
" His skin was overlaid with gold, and his eye-
brows were of real lapis lazuli, and he was
exceeding perfect."

" He opened his mouth to me," he continued,
" as I lay on my stomach before him, and said to
me : ' Who brought thee, who brought thee, little
one ? — who brought thee ? If thou delayest to
tell me who brougfht thee to this island I will
cause thee to know thyself (again only) when thou
art ashes, and art become that which is not seen
• — that is to say, a ghost.

" Thus you spoke to me," whispered the old
sailor, as though again addressing the serpent,
who, in the narration of these adventures, had
become once more a very present reality to him,
" but I heard it not. I lay before thee, and was

unconscious."

Continuing his story, he told how the great
serpent lifted him tenderly in his golden mouth,
and carried him to his dwelling-place, setting him
down there without hurt, amongst the fruit-trees
and the flowers. The Egyptian at once flung
himself upon his stomach before him, and lay
there in a stupor of terror. The serpent, how-
ever, meant him no harm, and indeed looked down

154 Studies in the Treasury.

on him with tender pity as he questioned him
once more.

" Who brought thee, who brought thee, Httle
one?" he asked again. "Who brought thee to
this island of the Great Green Sea, whereof the
(under) half is waves ? "

On his hands and knees before the kindly
monster the shipwrecked Egyptian managed to
regain possession of his faculties sufficiently to
give an account of himself.

" I was going down to the mines," he faltered,
"on a mission of the sovereign, in a ship one
hundred and fifty cubits in length and forty in
breadth, and in it were one hundred and fifty
sailors, picked men of Egypt. They scanned the
heavens and they scanned the earth, and their
hearts were stouter than lions. They foretold the
storm or ever it came, and the tempest when as
yet it was not. Every one of them, his heart was
stout and his arm strong beyond his fellow.
There was none unproven amongst them. The
storm arose while that we were on the Great
Green Sea, before we touched land ; and as we
sailed it redoubled (its strength), and the waves
thereof were eight cubits. There was a plank of
wood to which I clung. The ship perished, and
of them that were in her not one was left saving
me alone, who now am at your side. And I was
brought to this island by the waves of the Great
Green Sea."

At this point the man seems to have been over-

Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor. 155

come once more with terror, and the serpent,
therefore, hastened to reassure him.

" Fear not, Httle one," he said iu his gentle
voice ; " fear not. Let not thy face be dismayed.
If thou hast come to me it is God who has let
thee live, who has brought thee to this phantom
isle in which there is naught that is lacking, but
it is full of all good things. Behold, thou shalt
pass month for month until thou accomplish four
months upon this island. And a ship shall come
from home, and sailors in it whom thou knowest,
and thou shalt go home with them, and shalt die
in thine own city."

"How glad is he," exclaimed the old mariner
as he related his adventures to the prince, " how
glad is he that recounts what he has experienced
when the calamity is passed ! " The prince, no
doubt, replied with a melancholy grunt, and the
thread of the story was once more taken up.

There was a particular reason why the serpent
should be touched and interested to hear how
Providence had saved the Egyptian from death,
for he himself had survived a great calamity, and
had been saved from an equally terrible fate, as
he now proceeded to relate.

" I will tell to thee the like thereof," he said,
" which happened in this island. I dwelt herein
with my brothers, and my children were among
them. Seventy -two serpents we were, all told,
with my offspring and my brothers ; nor have I
yet mentioned to thee a little girl brought to me

156 Studies in the Treasury.

by fortune, A star came down, and all these
went up in the flames. And it happened so that
I was not together with them when they were
consumed ; I was not in their midst. I could
have died (of grief) for them when I found them
as a single pile of corpses."

It is clear from the story that this great
serpent was intended to be pictured as a sad
and lonely, but most lovable, character. All
alone upon this ghostly isle, the last of his race,
one is to imagine him dreaming of the little girl
who was taken from him, together with all his
family. Although fabulous himself, and half
divine, he was yet the victim of the gods, and
was made to suffer real sorrows in his unreal
existence. Day by day he wandered over his
limited domain, twisting his golden body amidst
the pumpkins, and rearing himself above the fig-
trees ; thundering down to the beach to salute
the passing dolphins, or sunning himself, a golden
blaze, upon the rocks. There remained naught
for him to do but to await the cessation of the
phantasy of his life ; and yet, though his lot was
hard, he was ready at once to subordinate his
sorrows to those of the shipwrecked sailor before
him. No more is said of his distress, but with
his next words he seems to have dismissed his
own misfortunes, and to have attempted to com-
fort the Egyptian.

" If thou art brave," he said, " and restrainest
thy longing, thou shalt press thy children to thy

Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor. 157

bosom and kiss thy wife, and behold thy house
— that is the best of all things. Thou shalt
reach home, and shalt dwell there amongst thy
brothers."

" Thereat," said the mariner, " I cast me upon
my stomach and touched the ground before him,
and I said to him : ' I will tell of thy might to
the Sovereign, I will cause him to be acquainted
with thy greatness. I will let bring to thee per-
fume and spices, myrrh and sweet-scented woods,
and incense of the sanctuaries wherewithal every
god is propitiated. I will recount all that has
befallen me, and that which I have seen by his
might ; and they shall praise thee in that city
before the magistrates of the entire land. I will
slaughter to thee oxen as a burnt-offering, geese
will I pluck for thee, and I will let bring to thee
vessels laden with all the goodly things of Egypt,
as may be (fitly) done to a god who loves men
in a distant land, a land unknown to men.' "

At these words the serpent opened his golden
mouth and fell to laughing. The thought that
this little mortal, grovelling before him, could
believe himself able to repay the kindnesses
received tickled him immensely.

" Hast thou not much incense (here, then) ? "
he laughed. " Art not become a lord of frank-
incense ? And I, behold I am prince of Fount,"
the land of perfumes, " and the incense, that is my
very own. As for the spices which thou sayest
shall be brought, they are the wealth of this

158 Studies in the Treasury.

island. But it shall happen when thou hast
left this place, never shalt thou see this island
more, for it shall be changed to waves."

The teller of the story does not relate in what
manner he received this well - merited reproof.
The gentle monster, no doubt, was tolerant of
his presumptuousness, and soon put him at his
ease again. During the whole period of the
Egyptian's residence on the island, in fact, the
golden serpent seems to have been invariably
kind to him. The days passed by like a happy
dream, and the spell of the island's enchantment
possessed him so that, in after times, the details
of the events of every day were lost in the
sinofle illusion of the whole adventure.

At last the ship arrived, as it had been fore-
told, and the sailor watched her passing over
the hazy sea towards the mysterious shore. " I
went and got me up into a tall tree," he said,
" and I recognised those that were in it. And
I went to report the matter (to the serpent),
and I found that he knew it."

Very tenderly the great monster addressed him.
"Fare thee well, little one," he said. "Fare thee
well to thy house. Mayest thou see thy children
and raise up a good name in thy city. Behold,
such are my wishes for thee."

" Then," continued the sailor, " I laid me on
my stomach, my arms were bended before him.
And he gave me a freight of frankincense, per-
fume and myrrh, sweet-scented woods and anti-

f t t

CI * %.J

« c t

«r c c

, ...

■r.

PL. XV,

Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor. 159

mony, giraffes' tails, great heaps of incense,
elephant tusks, dogs, apes and baboons, ajid all
manner of valuable things. And I loaded them
in that ship, and I laid myself on my stomach
to make thanksgiving to him. Then he said to
me : ' Behold, thou shalt come home in two
months, and shalt press thy children to thy
bosom, and shalt flourish in their midst ; and
there thou shalt be buried.' "

To appreciate the significance of these last
words it is necessary to remember what an
important matter it was to an Egyptian that
he should be buried in his native city. In our
own case the position upon the map of the place
where we lay down our discarded bones is gener-
ally not of first-rate importance, and the thought
of being buried in foreign lands does not frighten
us. Whether our body is to be packed away in
the necropolis of our city, or shovelled into a
hole on the outskirts of Timbuctoo, is not a
matter of vital interest. There is a certain sen-
timent that leads us to desire interment amidst
familiar scenes, but it is subordinated with ease
to other considerations. To the Egyptian, how-
ever, it was a matter of paramount importance.
"What is a greater thing," says Sinuhe in the
tale of his adventures in Asia, " than that I
should be buried in the land in which I was
born ? " " Thou shalt not die in a foreign land ;
Asiatics shall not conduct thee to the tomb,"
says the Pharaoh to him; and again, "It is no

i6o Studies in the Treasury.

little thinof that thou shalt be buried without
Asiatics conducting thee."^ There is a stela
now preserved in Stuttgart, in which the de-
ceased man asks those who pass his tomb to
say a prayer for his soul ; and he adjures them
in these words : "So truly as ye wish that your
native gods should praise you, and that ye should
be established in your seats, and that ye should
hand down your offices to your children : that ye
should reach your homes in safety, and recount
your travels to your wives ; — then say a
prayer," &c.^

The serpent was thus giving the castaway a
promise which meant more to him than all the
other blessings, and it was with a light heart
indeed that he ran down to the beach to greet
his countrymen. " I went down to the shore
where the ship was," he continued, " and I
called to the soldiers which were in that ship,
and I gave praises upon the shore to the lord
of this island, and likewise did they which were
in the ship."

Then he stepped on board, the gangway was
drawn up, and, with a great sweep of the oars,
the ship passed out on to the open sea. Standing
on deck amongst the new cargo, the officers and
their rescued friend bowed low to the great ser-
pent who towered above the trees at the water's
edge, gleaming in the sunshine. " Fare thee well,

1 Sinuhe, B. 159, 197, 258.

2 Zeit. Aeg. Spr., 39 (1901), p. 118.

Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor. i6i

little one," his deep voice rolled across the water ;
and again they bo\A^ed in obeisance to him. The
main-sail was unfurled to the wind, and the vessel
scudded bravely across the Great Green Sea ; but
for some time yet they must have kept their eyes
upon the fair shape of the phantom island, as the
trees blended into the hills and the hills at last
into the haze ; and their vision must have been
focussed upon that one gleaming point where the
golden serpent, alone once more with his memories,
watched the ship moving over the fairy seas.

" So sailed we northwards," said the sailor, " to
the place of the Sovereign, and we reached home
in two months, in accordance with all that he had
said. And I entered in before the Sovereign, and
I brought to him this tribute which I had taken
away from within this island. Then gave he
thanksgivings for me before the magistrates of
the entire land. And I was made a ' Follower,'
and was rewarded with the serfs of such an
one.

The old sailor turned to the gloomy prince
as he brought his story to an end. "Look at
me," he exclaimed, " now that I have reached
land, now that I have seen (again in memory)
what I have experienced. Hearken thou to me,
for behold, to hearken is o-ood for men."

But the prince only sighed the more deeply,
and, with a despairing gesture, replied : "Be not
(so) superior, my friend ! Doth one give water to
a bird on the eve, when it is to be slain on the

1 62 Studies in the Treasury.

morrow ? " With these words the manuscript
abruptly ends, and we are supposed to leave the
prince still disconsolate in his cabin, while his
friend, unable to cheer him, returns to his duties
on deck.

PART III.
RESEAECHES IN THE TREASURY.

"... And he, shall be,

Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair,
Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
Who roll'd the i)salm to wintry skies,

Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,

Who loved, who suffered countless ills,
Who battled for the True, the Just,
Be blown about the desert dust,

Or seal'd within the iron hills ? "

— Tennyson.

CHAPTER VII.

RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN EGYPT.

There came to the camp of a certain professor,
who was engaged in excavating the ruins of an
ancient Egyptian city, a young and faultlessly-
attired Englishman, whose thirst for dramatic
adventure had led him to offer his services as
an unpaid assistant digger. This immaculate
personage had read in novels and tales many an
account of the wonders which the spade of the
excavator could reveal, and he firmly believed
that it was only necessary to set a "nigger" to
dig a little hole in the ground to open the way
tot the treasuries of the Pharaohs. Gold, silver,
and precious stones gleamed before him, in his
imagination, as he hurried along subterranean
passages to the vaults of long-dead kings. He
expected to slide upon the seat of his very well-
made breeches down the staircase of the ruined
palace which he had entered by way of the sky-
light, and to find himself, at the bottom, in the
presence of the bejewelled dead. In the intervals
between such experiences he was of opinion that
a little quiet gazelle shooting would agreeably fill

1 66 Researches in the Treasury.

in the swiftly passing hours ; and at the end of
the season's work he pictured himself returning
to the bosom of his family with such a tale to
tell that every ear would be opened to him.

On his arrival at the camp he was conducted
to the site of his future labours ; and his horri-
fied gaze was directed over a large area of mud-
pie, knee-deep in which a few bedraggled natives
slushed their way downwards. After three weeks'
work on this distressing site, the professor an-
nounced that he had managed to trace through
the mud the outline of the palace walls, once the
feature of the city, and that the work here might
now be regarded as finished. He was then con-
ducted to a desolate spot in the desert, and until
the day on which he fled back to England he was
kept to the monotonous task of superintending a
gang of natives whose sole business it was to dig
a very large hole in the sand, day after day and
week after week.

It is, however, sometimes the fortune of the
excavator to make a discovery which almost rivals
in dramatic interest the tales of his youth. Such
an experience fell to the lot of Emil Brugsch
Pasha when he was lowered into an ancient tomb
and found himself face to face with a score of the
Pharaohs of Egypt, each lying in his coffin ; or
again, when Monsieur de Morgan discovered the
great mass of royal jewels in one of the pyramids
at Dachour. But such " finds' can be counted
on the fingers, and more often an excavation is

J > > »

1 > J >

Ti.. XVI.

• r t <
c 5 r '

' ■' i c

ft r ; r ,

c ' t • * • «

Recent Excavations in Egypt. 167

a fruitless drudgery. Moreover, the life of the
digger is not often a pleasant one.

It will perhaps be of interest to the reader of
romances to illustrate the above remarks by the
narration of some of my own experiences ; but
there are only a few interesting and unusual
episodes in which I have had the peculiarly
good fortune to be an actor. There will probably
be some drama to be felt in the account of the
more important discoveries (for there certainly is
to the antiquarian himself) ; but it should be
pointed out that the interest of these rare finds
pales before the description, which many of us
have heard, of how the archaeologists of a past
century discovered the body of Charlemagne clad
in his royal robes and seated upon his throne, —
which, by the way, is quite untrue. In spite
of all that is said to the contrary, truth is seldom
stranger than fiction ; and the reader who desires
to be told of the discovery of buried cities whose
streets are paved with gold should take warning
in time and return at once to his novels.

If the dawning interest of the reader has now
been thoroughly cooled by these words, it may
be presumed that it will be utterly annihilated
by the following narration of my first fruitless
excavation ; and thus one will be able to con-
tinue the story wath the relieved consciousness
that nobodv is attending".

In the capacity of assistant to Professor Flinders
Petrie, I was set, many years ago, to the task of

1 68 Researches in the Treasury.

excavating a supposed royal cemetery in the desert
behind the ancient city of Abydos, in Upper Egypt.
Two mounds were first attacked ; and after many
weeks of work in digging through the sand, the
superstructure of two great tombs was bared. In
the case of the first of these several fine passages
of good masonry were cleared, and at last the
burial -chamber was reached. In the huge sar-
cophagus which was there found great hopes were
entertained that the body and funeral- offerings of
the dead prince would be discovered ; but when
at last the interior was laid bare the solitary
article found was a copy of a French newspaper
left behind by the last, and equally disgusted,
excavator. The second tomb defied the most
ardent exploration, and failed to show any traces
of a burial. The mystery was at last solved by
Professor Petrie, who, with his usual keen per-
ception, soon came to the conclusion that the
whole tomb was a dummy, built solely to hide
an enormous mass of rock chippings, the presence
of which had been a puzzle for some time. These
masons' chippings were evidently the output from
some large cutting in the rock, and it became
apparent that there must be a great rock tomb
in the neighbourhood. Trial trenches in the
vicinity presently revealed the existence of a
long wall, which, being followed in either direc-
tion, proved to be the boundary of a vast court
or enclosure built upon the desert at the foot
of a conspicuous cliff. A ramp led up to the

Recent Excavations in Egypt. 169

entrance ; but as it was slightly askew and
pointed to the southern end of the enclosure, it
was supposed that the rock tomb, which presum-
ably ran into the cliff from somewhere inside
this area, was situated at that end. The next
few weeks were occupied in the tedious task of
probing the sand hereabouts, and at length in
clearing it away altogether down to the surface
of the underlying rock. Nothing was found, how-
ever ; and sadly we turned to the exact middle
of the court, and began to work slowly to the
foot of the cliff. Here, in the very middle of
the back wall, a pillared chamber was found,
and it seemed certain that the entrance to the
tomb would now be discovered.

The best men were placed to dig out this cham-
ber, and the excavator — it was many years ago —
went about his work with the weight of fame upon
his shoulders and an expression of intense mystery
upon his sorely sun-scorched face. How clearly
memory recalls the letter home that week, "We
are on the eve of a great discovery " ; and how
vividly rises the picture of the baking desert sand
into which the sweating workmen were slowly
digging their way ! But our hopes were short-
lived, for it very soon became apparent that
there was no tomb entrance in this part of the
enclosure. There remained the north end of
the area, and on to this all the available men
were turned. Deeper and deeper they dug their
wav, until the mounds of sand thrown out formed.

lyo Researches in the Treasury.

as it were, the Hp of a great crater. At last, some
forty or fifty feet down, the underlying rock was
struck, and presently the mouth of a great shaft
was exposed leading down into the bowels of the
earth. The royal tomb had at last been dis-
covered, and it only remained to effect an
entrance. The days were now filled with excite-
ment, and, the thoughts being concentrated on
the question of the identity of the royal occupant
of the tomb, it was soon fixed in our minds that
we were about to enter the burial-place of no
less a personage than the great Pharaoh Senusert
III. (Sesostris), the same king whose jewels were I

found at Dachour. \

One evening, just after I had left the work, !

the men came down to the distant camp to say '

that the last barrier was now reached and that an ;.

entrance could be effected at once. In the pale
light of the moon, therefore, I hastened back to
the desert with a few trusted men. As we walked .

along, one of these natives very cheerfully re- »;

marked that we should all probably get our ?■

throats cut, as the brigands of the neighbourhood
had got wind of the discovery, and were sure to
attempt to enter the tomb that night. With this
pleasing prospect before us we walked with some
caution over the silent desert. Reaching the
mound of sand which surrounded our excavation,
we crept to the top and peeped over into the
crater. At once we observed a dim light below
us, and almost immediatel}^ an agitated but polite

Recent Excavations in Egypt. 171

voice from the opposite mound called out in Arabic,
" Go away, mister. We have all got guns." This
remark was followed by a shot which whistled
past me ; and therewith I slid down the hill once
more, and heartily wished myself safe in my bed.
Our party then spread round the crater, and at a
given word we proposed to rush the place. But
the enemy was too quick for us, and after the
briefest scrimmage, and the exhanging of a harm-
less shot or two, we found ourselves in possession
of the tomb, and were able to pretend that we
were not a bit frightened.

Then into the dark depths of the shaft we
descended, and ascertained that the robbers had
not effected an entrance. A long night watch
followed, and the next day we had the satisfaction
of arrestinof some of the criminals. The tomb was
found to penetrate several hundred feet into the
cliff, and at the end of the long and beautifully
worked passage the great royal sarcophagus was
found — empty ! So ended a very strenuous
season's work.

If the experiences of a digger in Professor
Petrie's camp are to be regarded as typical, they
will probably serve to damp the ardour of eager
young gentlemen in search of ancient Egyptian
treasure. One lives in a bare little hut con-
structed of mud, and roofed with cornstalks or
corrugated iron ; and if by chance there happened
to be a rain storm, as there was when I was a
member of the community, one may watch the

172 Researches in the Treasury.

frail building gently subside in a liquid stream
on to one's bed and books. For seven days in
the week one's work continues, and it is only to
the real enthusiast that that work is not mon-
otonous and tiresome.

A few years later it fell to my lot to excavate
for the Government the funeral temple of
Thutmosis III. at Thebes, and a fairly large sum
was spent upon the undertakings Although the
site was most promising in appearance, a couple
of months' work brought to light hardly a single
object of importance, whereas exactly similar sites
in the same neighbourhood had produced inscrip-
tions of the greatest value. Two years ago I
assisted at an excavation upon a site of my
own selection, the net result of which, after six
weeks' work, was one mummified cat ! To sit
over the work day after day, as did the un-
fortunate promoter of this particular enterprise,
with the flies buzzing- around his face and the
sun blazing down upon him from a relentless
sky, was hardly a pleasurable task ; and to watch
the clouds of dust go up from the tip -heap,
where tons of unprofitable rubbish rolled down
the hillside all day long, was an occupation for
the damned. Yet that is excavating as it is
usually found to be.

Now let us consider the other side of the
story. In the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings
at Thebes excavations have been conducted for
some years by Mr Theodore M. Davis, of New-

Recent Excavations in Egypt. 173

port, Rhode Island, by special arrangement with
the Department of Antiquities of the Egyptian
Government ; and as an official of that Depart-
ment I have had the privilege of being present
at all the recent discoveries. The lindinof of the
tomb of Yuaa and Tuau a few years ago was one
of the most interesting archaeological events of
recent times, and one which came somewhere
near to the standard of romance set by the
novelists. Yuaa and Tuau were the parents of
Queen Tiy, the discovery of whose tomb is re-
corded in the next chapter. When the entrance
of their tomb was cleared, a flight of steps was
exposed, leading down to a passage blocked by a
wall of loose stones. In the top right-hand corner
a small hole, large enough to admit a man, had
been made in ancient times, and throuerh this we
could look down into a dark passage. As it was
too late in the day to enter at once, we postponed
that exciting experience until the morrow, and
some police were sent for to guard the entrance
during the night. I had slept the previous night
over the mouth, and there was now no possibility
of leaving the place for several more nights, so a
rough camp was formed on the spot.

Here I settled myself down for the long watch,
and speculated on the events of the next morning,
when Mr Davis and one or two well-known Egypt-
ologists were to come to the valley to open the
sepulchre. Presently, in the silent darkness, a
slight noise was heard on the hillside, and im-

174 Researches in the Treasury.

mediately the challenge of the. sentry rang out.
This was answered by a distant call, and after
some moments of alertness on our part we ob-
served two figures approaching us. These, to my
surprise, proved to be a well - known American
artist and his wife,^ who had obviously come on
the expectation that trouble was ahead ; but
though in this they were certainly destined to
suffer disappointment, still, out of respect for the
absolute unconcern of both visitors, it may be men-
tioned that the mouth of a lonely tomb already
said by native rumour to contain incalculable
wealth is not perhaps the safest place in the
world. Here, then, on a level patch of rock we
three lay down and slept fitfully until the dawn.
Soon after breakfast the wall at the mouth of the
tomb was pulled down, and the party passed into
the low passage which sloped down to the burial
chamber. At the bottom of this passage there
was a second wall blocking the way ; but when
a few layers had been taken off the top we were
able to climb, one by one, into the chamber.

Imagine entering a town house which had been
closed for the summer : imagine the stuffy room,
the stiff, silent appearance of the furniture, the
feeling that some ghostly occupants of the vacant
chairs have just been disturbed, the desire to
throw open the windows to let life into the
room once more. That was perhaps the first
sensation as we stood, really dumfounded, and

^ Mr and Mrs Joseph Lindon Smith.

C C C i. » * . t

i c « c^ c c c

f < p r , « c e c

iP koto by the Author.

Excavating the Osireion at Abydos. A chain of boys handing- up
baskets of sand to the surface.

Pi.. XVII.

Recent Excavations in Egypt. 175

stared around at the relics of the life of over
three thousand years ago, all of which were as
new almost as when they graced the palace of
Prince Yuaa. Three arm-chairs were perhaps the
first objects to attract the attention : beautiful
carved wooden chairs, decorated with gold. Be-
longing to one of these was a pillow made of
down and covered with linen. It was so perfectly
preserved that one might have sat upon it or
tossed it from this chair to that without doing
it injury. Here were fine alabaster vases, and in
one of these we were startled to find a liquid,
like honey or syrup, still unsolidified by time.
Boxes of exquisite workmanship stood in various
parts of the room, some resting on delicately
wrought legs. Now the eye was directed to a
wicker trunk fitted with trays and partitions, and
ventilated with little apertures, since the scents
were doubtless strong. Two most comfortable
beds were to be observed, fitted with springy
string mattresses and decorated with charming
designs in gold. There in the far corner, placed
upon the top of a number of large white jars,
stood the light chariot which Yuaa had owned
in his lifetime. In all directions stood objects
gleaming with gold undulled by a speck of dust,
and one looked from one article to another with
the feeling that the entire human conception of
Time was wrong'. These were the thinsfs of
yesterday, of a year or so ago. Why, here were
meats prepared for the feasts in the Underworld ;

176 Researches in the Treasury.

here were Yuaa's favourite joints, each neatly
placed in a wooden box as though for a journey.
Here was his staff, and here were his sandals, —
a new pair and an old. In another corner there
stood the magical figures by the power of which
the prince was to make his way through Hades.
The words of the mystical " Chapter of the
Flame" and of the "Chapter of the Magical
Figure of the North Wall" were inscribed upon
them ; and upon a great roll of papyrus twenty-
two yards in length other efficacious prayers were
written.

But though the eyes passed from object to object,
they ever returned to the two lidless gilded coffins
in which the owners of this room of the dead lay as
though peacefully sleeping. First above Yuaa and
then above his wife the electric lamps were held,
and as one looked down into their quiet faces there
was almost the feeling that they would presently
open their eyes and blink at the light. The stern
features of the old man commanded one's attention,
and again and again our gaze was turned from this
mass of wealth to this sleeping figure in whose
honour it had been placed here.

At last we returned to the surface to allow the
thoughts opportunity to collect themselves and
the pulses time to quiet down, for, even to the
most unemotional, a discovery of this kind, bring-
ing one into the very presence of the past, has
really an unsteadying effect. Then once more we
descended, and made the preliminary arrangements

Recent Excavations in Egypt. 177

for the cataloguing of the antiquities. It was now
that the real work began, and, once the excitement
was past, there was a monotony of labour to be
faced which put a very considerable strain on the
powers of all concerned. The hot days when one
sweated over the heavy packing-cases, and the
bitterly cold nights when one lay at the mouth of
the tomb under the stars, dragged on for many a
week ; and when at last the long train of boxes
was carried down to the Nile en route for the
Cairo Museum, it was with a sigh of relief that
the official returned to his regular work.

This, of course, was a very exceptional discovery.
Mr Davis has made other great finds, but to me
they have not equalled in dramatic interest the
discovery just recorded. Even in this royal valley,
however, there is much drudgery to be faced, and
for a large part of the season's work it is the ex-
cavator's business to turn over endless masses of
rock chippings, and to dig huge holes which have
no interest for the patient digger. Sometimes the
mouth of a tomb is bared, and is entered with the
profoundest hopes, which are at once dashed by
the sudden abrupt ending of the cutting a few
yards from the surface. At other times a tomb-
chamber is reached and is found to be absolutely
empty.

At another part of Thebes the well - known
Egyptologist, Professor Schiaparelli, had exca-
vated for a number of years without finding any-
thing of much importance, when suddenly one fine

178 Researches in the Treasury.

day he struck the mouth of a large tomh which
was evidently intact. I was at once informed of
the discovery, and proceeded to the spot as quickly
as possible. The mouth of the tomb was approached
down a flight of steep, rough steps, still half-choked
with debris. At the bottom of this the entrance
of a passage running into the hillside was blocked
by a wall of rough stones. After photographing
and removing this, we found ourselves in a long,
low tunnel, blocked by a second wall a few yards
ahead. Both these walls were intact, and we
realised that we were about to see what probably
no living man had ever seen before : the absolutely
intact remains of a rich Theban of the Imperial
Age — i.e., about 1200 or 1300 B.C. When this
second wall was taken down we passed into a care-
fully-cut passage high enough to permit of one
standing upright.

At the end of this passage a plain wooden door
barred our progress. The wood retained the light
colour of fresh deal, and looked for all the world
as though it had been set up but yesterday. A
heavy wooden lock, such as is used at the pres-
ent day, held the door fast. A neat bronze
handle on the side of the door was connected by
a spring to a wooden knob set in the masonry
door-post ; and this spring was carefully sealed
with a small dab of stamped clay. The whole con-
trivance seemed so modern that Professor Schia-
parelli called to his servant for the key, who quite
seriously replied, " I don't know where it is, sir."

Recent Excavations in Egypt. 179

He then thumped the door with his hand to see
whether it would be Hkely to give ; and, as the
echoes reverberated through the tomb, one felt
that the mummy, in the darkness beyond, might
well think that his resurrection call had come.
One almost expected him to rise, like the dead
knights of Kildare in the Irish legend, and to ask,
"Is it time ? " for the three thousand years which
his religion had told him was the duration of his
life in the tomb was already long past.

Meanwhile we turned our attention to the objects
which stood in the passage, having been placed
there at the time of the funeral, owing to the lack
of room in the burial-chamber. Here a vase, rising
upon a delicately shaped stand, attracted the eye
by its beauty of form ; and here a bedstead caused
us to exclaim at its modern appearance. A palm-
leaf fan, used by the ancient Egyptians to keep
the flies off their wines and unguents, stood near a
now empty jar ; and near by a basket of dried-up
fruit was to be seen. This dried fruit gave the
impression that the tomb was perhaps a few months
old, but there was nothing else to be seen which
suggested that the objects were even as much as a
year old. It was almost impossible to believe, and
quite impossible to realise, that we were standing
where no man had stood for well over three thou-
sand years ; and that we were actually breathing
the air which had remained sealed in the passage
since the ancient priests had closed the entrance
thirteen hundred years before Christ.

i8o Researches in the Treasury.

Before we could proceed farther, many flashhght
photographs had to be taken, and drawings made
of the doorway ; and after this a panel of the
woodwork had to be removed with a fret-saw in
order that the lock and seal might not be damaged.
At last, however, this was accomplished, and the
way into the tomb- chamber was open. Stepping
through the frame of the door, we found ourselves
in an unencumbered portion of the floor, while
around us in all directions stood the funeral furni-
ture, and on our left the coffins of the deceased
noble and his wife loomed large. Everything
looked new and undecayed, and even the order in
which the objects were arranged suggested a tidy-
ing-up done that very morning. The gravel on
the floor was neatly smoothed, and not a speck of
dust was anywhere to be observed. Over the
large outer coffin a pall of fine linen was laid, not
rotting and falling to pieces like the cloth of
mediaeval times we see in our museums, but soft
and strong like the sheets of our beds. In the
clear space before the coffin stood a wooden pedes-
tal in the form of a miniature lotus column. On
the top of this, resting on three wooden prongs,
was a small copper dish, in which were the ashes
of incense, and the little stick used for stirring
them. One asked oneself in bewilderment whether
the ashes here, seemingly not cold, had truly
ceased to glow at a time when Kome and Greece
were undreamt of, when Assyria did not exist,

Recent Excavations in Egypt. i8i

and when the Exodus of the Children of Israel
was yet unaccomplished.

On low tables round cakes of bread were laid
out, not cracked and shrivelled, but smooth and
brown, with a kind of white-of-egg glaze upon
them. Onions and fruit were also spread out ; and
the fruit of the doni palm was to be seen in plenty.
In various parts of the chamber there were numer-
ous bronze vessels of different shapes, intended for
the holding of milk and other drinkables.

Well supplied with food and drink, the senses
of the dead man were soothed by a profusion of
flowers, which lay withered but not decayed beside
the coffin, and which at the time of the funeral
must have filled the chamber with their sweetness.
Near the doorway stood an upright wooden chest
closed with a lid. Opening this, we found it to
contain the great ceremonial wig of the deceased
man, which was suspended from a rail passing
across the top of the chest, and hung free of the
sides and bottom. The black hair was plaited
into hundreds of little tails, but in size the wig
was not unlike those of the early eighteenth cen-
tury in Europe. Chairs, beds, and other pieces of
furniture were arranged around the room, and at
one side there were a number of small chests and
boxes piled up against the wall. We opened one
or two of these, and found them to contain delicate
little vases of glass, stone, and metal, wrapped
round with rags to prevent them breaking. These,

1 82 Researches in the Treasury.

like everything else in the tomb, were new and
fresh, and showed no trace of the passing of the
years.

The coffins, of course, were hidden by the great
casing in which each rested, and which itself was
partly hidden by the linen pall. Nothing could
be touched for many days, until photographs had
been taken and records made ; and we therefore
returned through the long passage to the light of
the day.

There must have been a large number of intact
tombs to be found when first the modern interest
in Egyptian antiquities developed ; but the market
thus created had to be supplied, and gangs of
illicit diggers made short work of the most acces-
sible tombs. This illegal excavation, of course,
continues to some extent at the present day, in
spite of all precautions, but the results are be-
coming less and less proportionate to the labour
expended and risk taken. A native likes best to
do a little quiet digging in his own back yard and
to admit nobody else into the business. To illus-
trate this, I may mention a tragedy which was
brought to my notice a few years ago. A certain
native discovered the entrance of a tomb in the
floor of his stable, and at once proceeded to worm
his way down the tunnel. That was the end of
the native. His wife, finding that he had not
returned two hours or so later, went down the
newly found tunnel after him. That was the end
of her also. In turn, three other members of the

Recent Excavations in Egypt. 183

tamily went down into the darkness, and that was
the end of them. A native official was then
called, and, lighting his way with a candle, pene-
trated down the winding passage. The air was so
foul that he was soon obliged to retreat, but he
stated that he was just able to see in the distance
ahead the bodies of the unfortunate peasants, all
of whom had been overcome by what he quaintly
described as " the evil lighting and bad climate."
Various attempts at the rescue of the bodies
having failed, we gave orders that this tomb
should be regarded as their sepulchre, and that
its mouth should be sealed up. According to the
natives, there was evidently a vast hoard of
wealth stored at the bottom of this tomb, and
the would-be robbers had met their death at the
hands of the demon in charge of it, who had
seized each man by the throat as he came down
the tunnel and had strangled him.

The Egyptian peasants have a very strong belief
in the power of such creatures of the spirit world.
A native who was attempting recently to discover
hidden treasure in a certain part of the desert,
sacrificed a lamb each night above the spot where
he believed the treasure to lie, in order to pro-
pitiate the djin who guarded it. On the other
hand, however, they have no superstition as re-
gards the sanctity of the ancient dead, and they
do not hesitate on that ground to rifle the tombs.
Thousands of graves have been desecrated by
these seekers after treasure, and it is very largely

184 Researches in the Treasury.

the result of this that scientific excavation is often
so fruitless nowadays. When an excavator states
that he has discovered a tomb, one takes it for
granted that he means a jplundered tomb, unless
he definitely says that it was intact, in which case
one calls him a lucky fellow and regards him with
green envy.

And thus we come back to my remarks at the
beginning of this chapter, that there is a painful
disillusionment awaiting the man who comes to
dig in Egypt in the hope of finding the golden
cities of the Pharaohs or the bejewelled bodies of
their dead. Of the latter there are but a few left
to be found. The discovery of one of them forms
the subject of the next chapter.

i85

CHAPTER VIII.

THE TOMB OF TIY AND AKHNATON.^

In January 1907 the excavations in the Valley of
the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, which are
being conducted each year by Mr Davis, brought
to light the entrance of a tomb which, by its style,
appeared to be that of a royal personage of the
XVIIIth Dynasty. The Valley lies behind the
cliffs which form the western boundary of Thebes,
and is approached by a long winding road running
between the rocks and rugged hills of the Lybian
desert. Here the Pharaohs of the XVHIth to the
XXth Dynasties were buried in large sepulchres
cut into the sides of the hills ; and the present
excavations have for their object the removal of
the debris which has collected at the foot of these
hills, in order that the tombs hidden beneath may
be revealed. About sixty tombs are now open,
some of which were already known to Greek and

1 A few pai-agraphs in this chapter also appear in my 'Life and
Times of Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt.' (Wm. Blackwood & Sons,
1910.)

1 86 Researches in the Treasury.

Roman travellers ; and there are probably not
more than two or three still to be discovered.

When this new tomb - entrance was uncovered
I was at once notified, and proceeded with all
despatch to the Valley. It was not long before
we were able to enter the tomb. A rough stair-
way led down into the hillside, bringing us to the
mouth of a passage which was entirely blocked by
a wall of built stones. On removing this wall we
found ourselves in a small passage, descending at
a sharp incline to a chamber which could be seen a
few yards farther on. Instead of this passage being
free from debris, however, as we had expected on
finding the entrance-wall intact, it was partly filled
with fallen stones which seemed to be the ruins of
an earlier entrance-wall. On top of this heap of
stones lay one of the sides of a large funeral shrine,
almost entirely blocking the passage. This shrine,
as we later saw, was in the form of a great box-like
sarcophagus, made of cedar - wood covered with
gold, and it had been intended as an outer cover-
ing for the coffin of the deceased person. It was,
however, not put together : three sides of it were
leaning against the walls of the burial -chamber,
and the fourth was here in the passage. Either it
was never built up, or else it was in process of
being taken out of the tomb again when the work
was abandoned.

To pass this portion of the shrine which lay in
the passage without doing it damage was no easy
matter. We could not venture to move it, as the

The Tomb of Tiy and Akhnaton. 187

wood was rotten ; and indeed, for over a year it
remained in its original position. We therefore
made a bridge of planks within a few inches of the
low roof, and on this we wriggled ourselves across
into the unencumbered passage beyond. In the
funeral-chamber, besides the other portions of the
shrine, we found at one corner a splendid coffin, in
the usual form of a recumbent figure, inlaid in a
dazzling manner with rare stones and coloured glass.
The coffin had originally lain upon a wooden bier,
in the form of a lion-legged couch ; but this had
collapsed and the mummy had fallen to the ground,
the lid of the coffin being partly thrown off by
the fall, thus exposing the head and feet of the
body, from which the bandages had decayed and
fallen off. In the powerful glare of the electric light
which we carried, the bare skull, with a golden
vulture upon it, could be seen protruding from
the remains of the linen bandages and from the
sheets of flexible gold-foil in which, as we after-
wards found, the whole body was wrapped. The
inscription on the coffin, the letters of which were
made of rare stones, gave the titles of Akhnaton,
" the beautiful child of the Sun " ; but turning to
the shrine we found other inscriptions stating that
King Akhnaton had made it for his mother. Queen
Tiy, and thus no immediate reply could be given
to those at the mouth of the tomb who called to
us to know which of the Pharaoh's of Egypt had
been found.

In a recess in the wall above the body there

1 88 Researches in the Treasury.

stood four alabaster "canopy" jars, each with a
hd exquisitely sculptured in the form of a human
head. In another corner there was a box con-
taining many little toilet vases and utensils of
porcelain. A few alabaster vases and other
objects were lying in various parts of the chamber,
arranged in some sort of rough order.

Nothing, of course, could yet be touched, and
for several days, during the lengthy process of
photographing and recording the contents of the
tomb in situ, no further information could be
obtained as to the identity of the owner of the
tomb. The shrine was certainly made for Queen
Tiy, and so too were the toilet utensils, judging
by an inscription upon one of them which gave the
names of Tiy and her husband. King Amenhotep
III., the parents of Akhnaton. It was, therefore,
not a surprise when a passing doctor declared the
much broken bones to be those of a woman — that
is to say, those of Queen Tiy. For reasons which
will presently become apparent, it had been diffi-
cult to believe that Akhnaton could have been
buried in this Valley, and one was very ready
to suppose that the coffin bearing his name had
but been given by him to his mother.

The important discovery was now announced,
and caused considerable interest and excitement.
At the end of the winter the various archaelogists
departed to their several countries, and it fell
to me to 'despatch the antiquities to the Cairo
Museum, and to send the bones, soaked in wax to

The Tomb of Tiy and Akhnaton. 189

prevent their breakage, to Dr ElHot Smith, to be
examined by that eminent authority. It may be
imagined that my surprise was considerable when
I received a letter from him reading — " Are you
sure that the bones you sent me are those which
were found in the tomb ? Instead of the bones of
an old woman, you have sent me those of a young
man. Surely there is some mistake."

There was, however, no mistake. Dr Elliot
Smith later informed me that the bones were those
of a young man of about twenty-eight years of
age, and at first this description did not seem to
tally with that of Akhnaton, who was always
thought to have been a man of middle age. But
there is now no possibility of doubt that the coffin
and mummy were those of this extraordinary
Pharaoh, although the tomb and funeral furniture
belonged to Queen Tiy. Dr Elliot Smith's decision
was, of course, somewhat disconcerting to those
who had written of the mortal remains of the
great Queen ; but it is difficult to speak of Tiy
without also referring to her famous son Akh-
naton, and in these articles he had received full
mention.

About the year B.C. 1500 the throne of Egypt
fell to the young brother of Queen Hatshepsut,
Thutmosis III., and under his vigorous rule the
country rose to a height of power never again
equalled. Amenhotep II. succeeded to an empire
which extended from the Sudan to the Euphrates
and to the Greek Islands ; and when he died he

1 90 Researches in the Treasury.

left these great possessions almost intact to his
son, Thutmosis IV., the grandfather of Akhnaton.
It is important to notice the chronology of this
period. The mummy of Thutmosis IV. has been
shown by Dr Elliot Smith to be that of a man
of not more than twenty-six years of age ; but we
know that his son Amenhotep III. was old enough
to hunt lions at about the time of his father's
death, and that he was already married to Queen
Tiy a year later. Thus one must suppose that
Thutmosis IV. was a father at the age of thirteen
or fourteen, and that Amenhotep III. was mar-
ried to Tiy at about the same age. The wife of
Thutmosis IV. was probably a Syrian princess,
and it must have been during her regency that
Amenhotep III. married Tiy, who was not of
royal blood. Amenhotep and Tiy introduced into
Egypt the luxuries of Asia ; and during their bril-
liant reign the Nile Valley was more open to
Syrian influence than it had ever been before.
The language of Babylon was perhaps the Court
tongue, and the correspondence was written in
cuneiform instead of in the hieratic script of Egypt.
Amenhotep III., as has been said, was probably
partly Asiatic ; and there is, perhaps, some reason
to suppose that Yuaa, the father of Queen Tiy,
was also a Syrian. One has, therefore, to picture
the Egyptian Court at this time as being saturated
with foreign ideas, which clashed with those of the
orthodox Egyptians.

Queen Tiy bore several children to the King ;

The Tomb of Tiy and Akhnaton. 191

but it was not until they had reigned over twenty
years that a son and heir was born, whom they
named Amenhotep, that being changed later to
Akhnaton, It is probable that he first saw the
light in the royal palace at Thebes, which was
situated on the edge of the desert at the foot of
the western hills. It was an extensive and roomy
structure, lightly built and gaily decorated. The
ceiUng and pavements of its halls were fantas-
tically painted with scenes of animal life : wild
cattle ran through reedy swamps beneath one's
feet, and many-coloured fish swam in the water ;
while overhead flights of pigeons, white against a
blue sky, passed across the hall, and the wild duck
hastened towards the open casements. Through
curtained doorways one might obtain glimpses of
a garden planted with flowers foreign to Egypt;
and on the east of the palace the King had made
a great pleasure-lake for the Queen, surrounded by
the trees of Asia. Here, floating in her golden
barge, which was named Aton-gleams, the Queen
might look westwards over the tree-tops to the
splendid Theban hills towering above the palace,
and eastwards to the green valley of the Nile and
the three great limestone hills beyond. Amen-
hotep HI. has been rightly called the " Magnifi-
cent," and one may well believe that his son
Akhnaton was born to the sound of music and
to the clink of golden wine-cups. Fragments of
countless thousands bf wine-jars and blue fayence
drinking-vessels have been found in the ruins of

192 Researches in the Treasury.

the palace ; and contemporary objects and paint-
ings show us some of the exquisitely wrought
bowls of gold and silver which must have graced
the royal tables, and the charming toilet utensils
which were to be found in the sleeping apart-
ments.

While the luxurious Court rejoiced at the birth
of this Egypto- Asiatic prince, one feels that the
ancient priesthood of Amon-Ra must have stood
aloof, and must have looked askance at the baby
who was destined one day to be their master.
This priesthood was perhaps the proudest and
most conservative community which conservative
Egypt ever produced. It demanded implicit
obedience to its stiff and ancient conventions,
and it refused to recognise the growing tendency
towards religious speculation. One of the great
gods of Syria was Aton, the god of the sun ; and
his recognition at the Theban Court was a source
of constant irritation to the ministers of Amon-Ra.

Probably they would have taken stronger meas-
ures to resist this foreign god had it not been for
the fact that Atum of Heliopolis, an ancient god
of Egypt, was on the one hand closely akin to Ha,
the associated deity with Amon, and on the other
hand to Aton of Syria. Thus Aton might be re-
o-arded merely as another name for Ea or Amon-
Ra ; but the danger to the old regime lay in the
fact that with the worship of Aton there went
a certain amount of freethought. The sun and
its warm rays were the heritage of all mankind ;

[Photo by E. Brttgsch Pasha.

Toilet-spoons of carved wood, discovered in tombs of the Eig-liteenth
Dynasty. That ow the ris^-ht has a movable lid. — Cairo Ml skim.

Pl. xix.

c c, t r '

The Tomb of Tiy and Akhnaton. 193

and the speculative mind of the Asiatic, ahvays in
advance of the less imaginative Egyptian, had not
failed to collect to the Aton-worship a number of
semi-philosophical teachings far broader than the
strict doctrines of Amon-Ra could tolerate.

There is much reason to suppose that Queen Tiy
was the prime factor in the new movement. It
may, perhaps, be worth noting that her father
was a priest of the Egyptian god Min, who corre-
sponded to the North S3"rian Aton in his capacity
as a god of vegetation ; and she may have imbibed
something of the broader doctrines from him. It
is the barge upon her pleasure-lake which is called
Aton-gleams, and it is her private artist who is
responsible for one of the first examples of the
new style of art which begins to appear at this
period. Egyptian art was bound down by con-
ventions jealously guarded by the priesthood, and
the slight tendency to break away from these,
which now becomes apparent, is another sign of
the broadening of thought under the reign of
Amenhotep III. and Tiy.

King Amenhotep III. does not seem to have
been a man of strong- character, and in the chansfes
which took place at this time he does not appear
to have taken so very large a part. He always
showed the most profound respect for, and devotion
to, his Queen ; and one is inclined to regard him as
a tool in her hands. According to some accounts
he reigned only thirty years, but there are con-
temporary monuments dated in his thirty -sixth

194 Researches in the Treasury.

year, and it seems probable that for the last few
years he was reigning only in name, and that
in reality his ministers, under the regency of
Queen Tiy, governed the land. Amenhotep III.
was perhaps during his last years insane or stricken
with some paralytic disease, for we read of an
Asiatic monarch sending a miracle-working image
to Egypt, apparently for the purpose of attempting
to cure him. It must have been during these six
years of absolute power, while Akhnaton was a
boy, that the Queen pushed forward her reforms
and encouraged the breaking down of the old
traditions, especially those relating to the worship
of Amon-Ra.

Amenhotep III. died in about the forty-ninth
year of his age, after a total reign of thirty-six
years ; and Akhnaton, who still bore the name
of Amenhotep, ascended the throne. One must
picture him now as an enthusiastic boy, filled with
the new thought of the age, and burning to assert
the broad doctrines which he had learned from his
mother and her friends, in defiance of the priests
of Amon-Ea. He was already married to a Syrian
princess named Nefertiti, and certainly before he
was fifteen years of age he was the father of two
daughters.

The new Pharaoh's first move, under the guid-
ance of Tiy, was to proclaim Aton the only true
god, and to name himself high priest of that deity.
He then began to build a temple dedicated to
Aton at Karnak ; but it must have been distaste-

The Tomb of Tiy and Akhnaton, 195

ful to observe how overshadowed and dwarfed was
this new temple by the mighty buildings in honour
of the older gods which stood there. Moreover,
there must have been very serious opposition to
the new religion in Thebes, where Amon had ruled
for so many centuries unchallenged. In whatever
direction he looked he was confronted with some
evidence of the worship of Amon-Ra : he might
proclaim Aton to be the only god, but Amon and
a hundred other deities stared down at him from
every temple wall. He and his advisers, therefore,
decided to abandon Thebes altogether and to found
a new capital elsewhere.

Akhnaton selected a site for the new city on
the west bank of the river, at a point now named
El Amarna, about 160 miles above Cairo. Here
the hills recede from the river, forming a bay
about three miles deep and five long ; and in this
bay the young Pharaoh decided to build his
capital, which was named " Horizon of Aton."
With feverish speed the new buildings were
erected. A palace even more beautiful than that
of his parents at Thebes was prepared for him ;
a splendid temple dedicated to Aton was set up
amidst a garden of rare trees and brilliant flowers ;
villas for his nobles were erected, and streets were
laid out. Queen Tiy, who seems to have con-
tinued to live at Thebes, often came down to
El Amarna to visit her son ; but it seems to
have been at his own wish rather than at her
advice that he now took the important step

196 Researches in the Treasury.

which set the seal of his rehgion upon his
Hfe.

Around the bay of El Amarna, on the cliffs
which shut it off so securely, the King caused
landmarks to be made at intervals, and on these
he inscribed an oath which some have interpreted
to mean that he would never again leave his new
city. He would remain, like the Pope in the
Vatican, for the rest of his days within the limits
of this bay ; and, rather than be distracted by the
cares of state and the worries of empire, he would
shut himself up with his god and would devote his
life to his religion. He was but a youth still,
and, to his inexperienced mind, this oath seemed
nothing ; nor in his brief life does it seem that he
broke it, though at times he must have longed
to visit his domains.

The religion which this boy, who now called
himself Akhnaton, " The Glory of Aton," taught
was by no means the simple worship of the sun.
It was, without question, the most enlightened
religion which the world at that time had ever
known. The young priest-king called upon man-
kind to worship the unknown power which is be-
hind the sun, that power of which the brilliant
sun was the visible symbol, and which might
be discerned in the fertilising warmth of the sun's
rays. Aton was originally the actual sun's disk ;
but Akhnaton called his god " Heat which is in
Aton," and thus drew the eyes of his followers
towards a Force far more intangible and distant

The Tomb of Tiy and Akhnaton. 197

than the dazzling orb to which they bowed down.
Akhnaton's god was the force which created the
sun, the something which penetrated to this earth
in the sun's heat and caused the vegetation to
grow.

Amon-Ra and the gods of Egypt were for the
most part but deified mortals, endued with mons-
trous, though limited, power, and still having
around them traditions of exaggerated human
deeds. Others had their origin in natural pheno-
mena— the wind, the Nile, the sky, and so on.
All were terrific, revengeful, and able to be
moved by human emotions. But Akhnaton's god
was the intangible and yet ever-present Father
of mankind, made manifest in sunshine. The
youthful High Priest called upon his followers
to search for their god not in the confusion of
battle or behind the smoke of human sacrifices,
but amidst the flowers and trees, amidst the
wild duck and the fishes. He preached an en-
lightened nature - study ; he was perhaps the
first apostle of the Simple Life. He strove to
break down conventional religion, and ceaselessly
urged his people to worship in Truth, simply,
without an excess of ceremonial. While the
elder gods had been manifest in natural convul-
sions and in the more awful incidents of life,
Akhnaton's kindly god could be seen in the chick
which broke out of its egg, in the wind which
filled the sails of the ships, in the fish which
leapt from the water. Aton was the joy which

198 Researches in the Treasury.

caused the young sheep " to dance upon their
feet," and the birds to "flutter in their marshes."
He was the god of the simple pleasures of life,
and Truth was the watchword of his followers.

It may be understood how the boy longed for
truth in all things when one remembers the
thousand exaggerated conventions of Egyptian
life at this time. Court etiquette had developed
to a degree which rendered life to the Pharaoh
an endless round of unnatural poses of mind a/id
body. In the preaching of his doctrine of truth
and simplicity, Akhnaton did not fail to call
upon his subjects to regard their Pharaoh not
as a god but as a man. It was usual for the
Pharaoh to keep aloof from his people : Akh-
naton was to be found in their midst. The
Court demanded that their lord should drive in
solitary state through the city : Akhnaton sat
in his chariot with his wife and children, and
allowed the artist to represent him joking with
his little daughter, who has mischievously poked
the horses with a stick. In representing the
Pharaoh, the artist was expected to draw him
in some conventional attitude of dignity : Akh-
naton insisted upon being shown in all manner
of natural attitudes — now leaning languidly upon
a staff, now nursing his children, and now caress-
ing his wife.

As has been said, one of the first artists to break
away from the ancient conventions was in the
service of Queen Tiy, and was probably under her
influence. But in the radical change in the art

The Tomb of Tiy and Akhnaton. 199

which took place, Akhnaton is definitely stated
to have been the leader, and the new school
acknowledge that they were taught by the King.
The new art is extraordinary, and it must be
owned that its merit lies rather in its originality
than in its beauty. An attempt is made to do
away with the prescribed attitudes and the strict
proportions, and to portray any one individual
with his natural defects. Some of the sculptured
heads, however, which have come down to us, and
notably the four "canopic" heads found in this
tomb, are of wonderful beauty, and have no trace
of traditional mannerisms, though they are highly
idealised. The King's desire for light-heartedness
led him to encourage the use of bright colours and
gay decorations in the palace. Some of the ceiling
and pavement paintings are of great beauty, while
the walls and pillars inlaid with coloured stones
must have given a brilliancy to the halls un-
equalled in Egypt at any previous time.

The group of nobles who formed the King's
Court had all sacrificed much in coming to the
new capital. Their estates around Thebes had
been left, their houses abandoned, and the tombs
which were in process of being made for them
in the Theban hills had been rendered useless.
The King, therefore, showered favours upon
them, and at his expense built their houses and
constructed sepulchres for them. It is on the
walls of these tombs that one obtains the main
portion of one's information regarding the teach-
ings of this w^onderful youth, who was now

200 Researches in the Treasury.

growing into manhood. Here are inscribed those
beautiful hymns to Aton which rank so high in
ancient literature. It is unfortunate that space
does not allow more than a few extracts from
the hymns to be quoted here ; but something of
their beauty may be realised from these. (Pro-
fessor Breasted's translation.)

" Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of heaven,
0 living Aton, Beginning of life !
When thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven
Thou fillest every land with thy beauty."

" Though thou art afar, thy rays are on earth ;
Though thou art on high, thy footprints are the day."

" When thou settest in the western horizon of heaven
The world is in darkness like the dead.
Men sleep in their chambers, their heads are wrapt up.
Every lion cometh forth from his den.
The serpents, they sting.
Darkness reigns, the world is in silence :
He that made them has gone to rest in his horizon."

" Bright is the earth when thou risest in the horizon . . .
When thou sendest forth thy rays
The two lands of Egypt are in daily festivity.
Awake and standing upon their feet.
For thou hast raised them up.
Their limbs bathed, they take their clothing,
Their arms uplifted in adoration to thy dawning.
Then in all the world they do their work."

" All cattle rest upon their herbage, all trees and plants flourish.
The birds flutter in their marshes, their wings uplifted in

adoration to thee.
All the sheep dance upon their feet.
All winged things fly ; they live when thou hast shone upon

them."

The Tomb of Tiy and Akhnaton. 201

" The barques sail up-stream and down-stream alike, . . .
The fish in the river leap up before thee,
And thy rays are in the midst of the great sea."

" Thou art he who Greatest the man-child in woman . . .
"Who giveth life to the son in the body of his mother ;
Who soothest him that he may not weep,
A nurse even in the womb."

" When the chick crieth in the egg-shell,
Thou givest liim breath therein to preserve him alive . . .
He Cometh forth from the egg, to chirp with all his might.
He runneth about upon his two feet."

" How manifold are all thy works !
They are hidden from before us."

There are several verses of this hymn which are
almost identical with Psalm civ., and those who
study it closely will be forced to one of two con-
clusions : either that Psalm civ. is derived from
this hymn of the young Pharaoh, or that both are
derived from some early Syrian hymn to the sun.
Akhnaton may have only adapted this early psalm
to local conditions ; though, on the other hand, a
man capable of bringing to pass so great a reli-
gious revolution in Egypt may well be credited
with the authorship of this splendid song. There
is no evidence to show that it was written before
the King had reached manhood.

Queen Tiy probably did not now take any fur-
ther part in a movement which had got so far out
of her hands. She was now nearly sixty years
old, and this, to one who had been a mother so
early in life, was a considerable age. It seems
that she sometimes paid visits to her son at El

202 Researches in the Treasury.

Amarna, but her interest lay in Thebes, where she
had once held so brilliant a Court. When at last
she died, therefore, it is not surprising to find
that she was buried in the Valley of the Tombs
of the Kings. The tomb which has been de-
scribed above is most probably her original
sepulchre, and here her body was placed in the
golden shrine made for her by Akhnaton, sur-
rounded by the usual funeral furniture. She thus
lay no more than a stone's throw from her parents,
whose tomb was discovered two years ago, and
which was of very similar size and shape.

After her death, although preaching this gentle
creed of love and simple truth, Akhnaton waged
a bitter and stern war against the priesthoods of
the old gods. It may be that the priesthoods of
Amon had again attempted to overthrow the new
doctrines, or had in some manner called down the
particular wrath of the Pharaoh. He issued an
order that the name of Amon was to be erased
and obliterated wherever it was found, and his
agents proceeded to hack it out on all the temple
walls. The names also of other gods were erased ;
and it is noticeable in this tomb that the word
mut, meaning " mother," was carefully spelt in
hieroglyphs which would have no similarity to
those used in the word Mut, the goddess-consort
of Amon. The name of Amenhotep III., his own
father, did not escape the King's wrath, and the
first syllables were everywhere erased.

As the years went by Akhnaton seems to have

The Tomb of Tiy and Akhnaton. 203

given himself more and more completely to his
new religion. He had now so trained one of his
nobles, named Merira, in the teachings of Aton
that he was able to hand over to him the high
priesthood of that god, and to turn his attention
to the many other duties which he had imposed
upon himself. In rewarding Merira, the King is
related to have said, " Hang gold at his neck
before and behind, and gold on his legs, because
of his hearing the teaching of Pharaoh concerning
every saying in these beautiful places." Another
official whom Akhnaton greatly advanced says :
" My lord advanced me because I have carried out
his teaching, and I hear his word without ceas-
ing." The King's doctrines were thus beginning
to take hold ; but one feels, nevertheless, that the
nobles followed their King rather for the sake of
their material gains than for the spiritual comforts
of the A ton- worship. There is reason to suppose
that at least one of these nobles was degraded and
banished from the city.

But w^hile Akhnaton was preaching peace and
goodwill amidst the flowers of the temple of Aton,
his generals in Asia Minor were vainly struggling
to hold together the great empire created by
Thutmosis III. Akhnaton had caused a temple
of Aton to be erected at one point in Syria at
least, but in other respects he took little or no
interest in the welfare of his foreign dominions.
War was not tolerated in his doctrine : it was a
sin to take away life which the good Father had

204 Researches in the Treasury.

given. One pictures the hardened soldiers of the
empire striving desperately to hold the nations of
Asia faithful to the Pharaoh whom they never
saw. The small garrisons were scattered far and
wide over Syria, and constantly they sent messen-
gers to the Pharaoh asking at least for some sign
that he held them in mind.

There is no more pathetic page of ancient his-
tory than that which tells of the fall of the Egyp-
tian Empire. The Amorites, advancing along the
sea-coast, took city after city from the Egyptians
almost without a struggle. The chiefs of Tunip
wrote an appeal for help to the King: "To the
King of Egypt, my lord, — The inhabitants of
Tunip, thy servant." The plight of the city is
described and reinforcements are asked for.
" And now," it continues, " Tunip thy city
weeps, and her tears are flowing, and there is
no help for us. For twenty years we have been
sending to our lord the King, the King of Egypt,
but there has not come a word to us, no, not one."
The messengers of the beleaguered city must have
found the King absorbed in his religion, and must
have seen only priests of the sun where they had
hoped to find the soldiers of former days. The
Egyptian governor of Jerusalem, attacked by
Aramaeans, writes to the Pharaoh, saying : " Let
the King take care of his land, and ... let him
send troops. . . . For if no troops come in this
year, the whole territory of my lord the King will
perish." To this letter is added a note to the

The Tomb of Tiy and Akhnaton. 205

King's secretary, which reads, " Bring these words
plainly before my lord the King : the whole land
of mv lord the Kins: is o^oing- to ruin."

So city after city fell, and the empire, won at
such cost, was gradually lost to the Egyptians.
It is probable that Akhnaton had not realised how
serious was the situation in Asia Minor. A few
of the chieftains who were not actually in arms
against him had written to him every now and
then assuring him that all was well in his do-
minions ; and, strange to relate, the tribute of
many of the cities had been regularly paid. The
Asiatic princes, in fact, had completely fooled the
Pharaoh, and had led him to believe that the
nations were loyal while they themselves prepared
for rebellion. Akhnaton, hating violence, had
been only too ready to believe that the de-
spatches from Tunip and elsewhere were un-
justifiably pessimistic. He had hoped to bind
together the many countries under his rule, by
giving them a single religion. He had hoped that
when Aton should be worshipped in all parts of
his empire, and when his simple doctrines of love,
truth, and peace should be preached from every
temple throughout the length and breadth of his
dominions, then war would cease and a unitv of
faith would hold the lands in harmony one with
the other.

When, therefore, the tribute suddenly ceased,
and the few refuo-ees came staofa-ering- home to
tell of the perfidy of the Asiatic princes and the

2o6 Researches in the Treasury.

fall of the empire, Akhnaton seems to have
received his deathblow. He was now not more
than twenty-eight years of age ; and though his
portraits show that his face was already lined
with care, and that his body was thinner than
it should have been, he seems to have had plenty
of reserve strength. He was the father of several
daughters, but his queen had borne him no son
to succeed him ; and thus he must have felt that
his religion could not outlive him. With his
empire lost, with Thebes his enemy, and with
his treasury wellnigh empty, one feels that
Akhnaton must have sunk to the very depths
of despondency. His religious revolution had
ruined Egypt, and had failed : did he, one
wonders, find consolation in the sunshine and
amidst the flowers ?

His death followed speedily ; and, resting in
the splendid coffin in which we found him, he
was laid in the tomb prepared for him in the
hills behind his new capital. The throne fell to
the husband of one of his daughters, Smenkhkara,
who, after an ephemeral reign, gave place to
another of the sons-in-law of Akhnaton, named
Tutankhaton. This king was speedily persuaded
to change his name to Tutankhamon, to abandon
the worship of Aton, and to return to Thebes.
Akhnaton's city fell into ruins, and soon the
temples and palaces had become the haunt of
jackals and the home of owls. The nobles
returned with their new king to Thebes, and

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Pl. XX.

The Tomb of Tiy and Akhnaton. 207

not one remained faithful to those " teachinirs "
to which they had once pretended to be such
earnest Hsteners.

The fact that the body in the new tomb was
that of Akhnaton, and not of Queen Tiy, g-ives
a new reading to the history of the burial. When
Tutankhamon returned to Thebes, Akhnaton's
memory was still, it appears, regarded with
reverence, and it seems that there was no ques-
tion of leaving his body in the neighbourhood
of his deserted palace, where, until the discovery
of this tomb, Egyptologists had expected to find
it. It was carried to Thebes, together with some
of the funeral furniture, and was placed in the
tomb of Queen Tiy, which had been reopened
for the purpose. But after some years had
passed and the priesthood of Amon - Ra had
again asserted itself, Akhnaton began to be
regarded as a heretic and as the cause of the
loss of Egypt's Asiatic dominions. These senti-
ments were vigorously encouraged by the priest-
hood, and soon Akhnaton came to be spoken of
as "that criminal," and his name was obliterated
from his monuments. It was now felt that his
body could no longer lie in state together with
that of Queen Tiy in the Valley of the Tombs
of the Kings. The sepulchre was therefore opened
once more, and the name Akhnaton was every-
where erased from the inscriptions. The tomb,
polluted by the presence of the heretic, was no
longer fit for Tiy, and the body of the Queen

2o8 Researches in the Treasury.

was therefore carried elsewhere, perhaps to the
tomb of her husband Amenhotep III. The shrine
in which her mummy had lain was pulled to
pieces and an attempt was made to carry it out
of the tomb ; but this arduous task was presently
abandoned, and one portion of the shrine was left
in the passage, where we found it. The body of
Akhnaton, his name erased, was now the sole
occupant of the tomb. The entrance was blocked
with stones, and sealed with the seal of Tutan-
khamon, a fragment of which was found ; and
it was in this condition that it was discovered
in 1907.

The bones of this extraordinary Pharaoh are
in the Cairo Museum ; but, in deference to the
sentiments of many worthy persons, they are
not exhibited. The visitor to that museum,
however, may now see the "canopic" jars, the
alabaster vases, the gold vulture, the gold neck-
lace, the sheets of gold in which the body was
wrapped, the toilet utensils, and parts of the
shrine, all of which we found in the burial-
chamber.

209

CHAPTER IX.

THE TOMB OF HOREMHEB.

In the last chapter a discovery was recorded
which, as experience has shown, is of consider-
able interest to the general reader. The romance
and the tragedy of the life of Akhnaton form a
really valuable addition to the store of good things
which is our possession, and which the archaeologist
so diligently labours to increase. Curiously enough,
another discovery, that of the tomb of Horemheb,
was made by the same explorer (Mr Davis) in
1908 ; and as it forms the natural sequel to the
previous chapter, I may be permitted to record
it here.

Akhnaton was succeeded by Smenkhkara, his
son-in-law, who, after a brief reign, gave place
to Tutankhamon, during whose short life the court
returned to Thebes. A certain noble named Ay
came next to the throne, but held it for only
three years. The country was now in a chaotic
condition, and was utterly upset and disorganised
by the revolution of Akhnaton, and by the vacil-
lating policy of the three weak kings who suc-

2IO Researches in the Treasury.

ceeded him, each reigning for so short a time.
One cannot say to what depths of degradation
Egypt might have sunk had it not been for the
timely appearance of Horemheb, a wise and good
ruler, who, though but a soldier of not particularly
exalted birth, managed to raise himself to the
vacant throne, and succeeded in so organising the
country once more that his successors, Rameses I.,
Sety I., and Rameses II., were able to regain most
of the lost dominions, and to place Egypt at the
head of the nations of the world.

Horemheb, " The Hawk in Festival," was born
at Alabastronpolis, a city of the 18th Province of
Upper Egypt, during the reign of Amenhotep III.,
who has rightly been named " The Magnificent,"
and in whose reign Egypt was at once the most
powerful, the most wealthy, and the most luxurious
country in the world. There is reason to suppose
that Horemheb's family were of noble birth, and
it is thought by some that an inscription which
calls King Thutmosis III. " the father of his
fathers" is to be taken literally to mean that
that old warrior was his great- or great -great-
grandfather. The young noble was probably
educated at the splendid court of Amenhotep
III., where the wit and intellect of the world
was congregated, and where, under the presi-
dency of the beautiful Queen Tiy, life slipped
by in a round of revels.

As an impressionable young man, Horemheb
must have watched the gradual development of

The Tomb of Horemheb. 2ti

freethought in the palace, and the ever-increas-
ing irritation and chafing against the bonds of
relisfious convention which bound all Thebans to
the worship of the god Amon. Judging by his
future actions, Horemheb did not himself feel
any real repulsion to Amon, though the religious
rut into which the country had fallen was suffi-
ciently objectionable to a man of his intellect to
cause him to cast in his lot with the movement
towards emancipation. In later life he would
certainly have been against the movement, for
his mature judgment led him always to be on
the side of ordered habit and custom as being
less danoerous to the national welfare than a
social upheaval or change.

Horemheb seems now to have held the appoint-
ment of captain or commander in the army, and
at the same time, as a " Royal Scribe," he cul-
tivated the art of letters, and perhaps made
himself acquainted with those legal matters
which in later years he was destined to reform.

When Amenhotep III. died, the new king,
Akhnaton, carried out the revolution which had
been pending for many years, and absolutely
banned the worship of Amon, with all that it
involved. He built himself a new capital at El
Amarna, and there he instituted the worship of
the sun, or rather of the heat or power of the
sun, under the name of Aton. In so far as the
revolution constituted a breaking away from tire-
some convention, the young Horemheb seems to

212 Researches in the Treasury.

have been with the King. No one of intelUgence
could deny that the new rehgion and new phil-
osophy which was preached at El Amarna was
more worthy of consideration on general lines
than was the narrow doctrine of the Amon
priesthood ; and all thinkers must have rejoiced
at the freedom from bonds which had become
intolerable. But the world was not ready, and
indeed is still not ready, for the schemes which
Akhnaton propounded; and the unpractical model-
kingdom which was uncertainly developing under
the hills of El Amarna must have already been
seen to contain the elements of grave danger to
the State.

Nevertheless the revolution oifered many at-
tractions. The frivolous members of the court,
always ready for change and excitement, welcomed
with enthusiasm the doctrine of the moral and
simple life which the King and his advisers
preached, just as in the decadent days before the
French Revolution the court, bored with licenti-
ousness, gaily welcomed the morality-painting of
the young Greuze. And to the more serious-
minded, such as Horemheb seems to have been,
the movement must have appealed in its imperial
aspect. The new god Aton was largely worshipped
in Syria, and it seems evident that Akhnaton
had hoped to bind together the heterogeneous
nations of the empire by a bond of common wor-
ship. The Asiatics were not disposed to worship
Amon, but Aton appealed to them as much as

The Tomb of Horemheb. 213

any god, and Horemheb must have seen great
possibihties in a common rehgion.

It is thought that Horemheb may be identified
amongst the nobles who followed Akhnaton to
El Amarna, and though this is not certain, there
is little doubt that he was in high favour with
the King at the time. To one whose tendency
is neither towards frivolity nor towards fanaticism,
there can be nothing more broadening than the
influence of reliofious chansfes. More than one
point of view is appreciated : a man learns that
there are other ruts than that in which he runs, and
so he seeks the smooth midway. Thus Horemheb,
while acting loyally towards his King, and while
appreciating the value of the new movement, did
not exclude from his thoughts those teachings
which he deemed good in the old order of things.
He seems to have seen life broadly ; and when
the new religion of Akhnaton became narrowed
and fanatical, as it did towards the close of the
tragic chapter of that king's short life, Horemheb
was one of the few men who kept an open mind.

Like many other nobles of the period, he had
constructed for himself a tomb at Sakkara, in the
shadow of the pyramids of the old kings of Egypt ;
and fragments of this tomb, which of course was
abandoned when he became Pharaoh, are now to
be seen in various museums. In one of the scenes
there sculptured Horemheb is shown in the
presence of a king who is almost certainly
Akhnaton ; and yet in a speech to him inscribed

214 Researches in the Treasury.

above the rehefs, Horemheb makes reference to
the god Amon whose very name was anathema to
the King. The royal figure is drawn according to
the canons of art prescribed by Akhnaton, and
upon which, as a protest against the conventional
art of the old order, he laid the greatest stress
in his revolution ; and thus, at all events,
Horemheb was in sympathy with this aspect of
the movement. But the inscriptions which refer to
Amon, and yet are impregnated with the Aton
style of expression, show that Horemheb was
not to be held down to any one mode of thought.
Akhnaton was, perhaps, already dead when these
inscriptions were added, and thus Horemheb may
have had no further reason to hide his views ; or
it may be that they constituted a protest against
that narrowness which marred the last years of a
pious king.

Those who read the history of the period in the
last chapter will remember how Akhnaton came
to persecute the worshippers of Amon, and how
he erased that god's name wherever it was written
throughout the length and breadth of Egypt.
Evidently wdth this action Horemheb did not
agree ; nor was this his only cause for complaint.
As an officer, and now a highly placed general,
of the army, he must have seen with feelings of
the utmost bitterness the neglected condition of
the Syrian provinces. Revolt after revolt occurred
in these states ; but Akhnaton, dreaming and
praying in the sunshine of El Amarna, ^vould

The Tomb of Horemheb. 215

send no expedition to punish the rebels. Good-
fellowship with all men was the King's watch-
word, and a policy more or less democratic did
not permit him to make war on his fellow-creatures.
Horemheb could smell battle in the distance, but
could not taste of it. The battalions which he
had trained were kept useless in Egypt ; and even
when, during the last years of Akhnaton's reign,
or under his successor Smenkhkara, he was made
commander - in - chief of all the forces, there was
no means of using his power to check the loss
of the cities of Asia. Horemheb must have
watched these cities fall one by one into the
hands of those who preached the doctrine of the
sword, and there can be little wonder that he
turned in disgust from the doings at El Amarna.
During the times which followed, when Smenkh-
kara held the throne for a year or so, and after-
wards, when Tutankhamon became Pharaoh,
Horemheb seems to have been the leader of the
reactionary movement. He did not concern him-
self so much with the religious aspect of the
questions : there was as much to be said on behalf
of Aton as there was on behalf of Amon. But it
was he who knocked at the doors of the heart
of Egypt, and urged the nation to awake to the
danger in the East. An expedition against the
rebels was organised, and one reads that Horemheb
was the " companion of his Lord upon the battle-
field on that day of the slaying of the Asiatics."
Akhnaton had been opposed to warfare, and had

2i6 Researches in the Treasury.

dreamed that dream of universal peace which still
is a far-off light to mankind. Horemheb was a
practical man in whom such a dream would have
been but weakness ; and, though one knows
nothing more of these early campaigns, the fact
that he attempted to chastise the enemies of the
empire at this juncture stands to his credit for
all time.

Under Tutankhamon the court returned to
Thebes, though not yet exclusively to the worship
of Amon ; and the political phase of the revolution
came to an end. The country once more settled
into the old order of life, and Horemheb, having
experienced the full dangers of philosophic specula-
tion, was glad enough to abandon thought for
action. He was now the most powerful man in the
kingdom, and inscriptions call him " the greatest
of the great, the mightiest of the mighty, presider
over the Two Lands of Egypt, general of generals,"
and so on. The King " appointed him to be Chief
of the Land, to administer the laws of the land
as Hereditary Prince of all this land"; and "all
that was done was done by his command." From
chaos Horemheb was producing order, and all
men turned to him in gratitude as he reorgan-
ised the various government departments.

The offices which he held, such as Privy
Councillor, King's Secretary, Great Lord of the
People, and so on, are very numerous ; and in
all of these he dealt justly though sternly, so
that "when he came the fear of him was great

» « •

■ r • «

I* • •.•

[/'//<'?i> .r /:.,,:c>.

Head of a granite statue of the god Khoiisu, probably dating- from about
the period of Horemheb. — Cairo Mlseum.

I'L. XXI.

The Tomb of Horemheb. 217

in the sight of the people, prosperity and health
were craved for him, and he was greeted as
' Father of the Two Lands of Egypt.' " He was
indeed the saviour and father of his country, for
he had found her corrupt and disordered, and he
was leading her back to greatness and dignity.

At this time he was probably a man of about
forty years of age. In appearance he seems to
have been noble and good to look upon. " When
he was born," says the inscription, " he was clothed
with strength : the hue of a god was upon him " ;
and in later life, " the form of a god was in his
colour," whatever that may mean. He was a man
of considerable eloquence and great learning. " He
astonished the people by that which came out of
his mouth," we are told ; and "when he was sum-
moned before the King the palace began to fear."
One may picture the weak Pharaoh and his cor-
rupt court, as they watched with apprehension the
movements of this stern soldier, of whom it was
said that his every thought was " in the footsteps
of the Ibis," — the ibis being the god of wisdom.

On the death of Tutankhamon, the question of
inviting Horemheb to fill the vacant throne must
have been seriously considered ; but there was
another candidate, a certain Ay, who had been
one of the most important nobles in the group of
Akhnaton's favourites at El Amarna, and who had
been the loudest in the praises of Aton. Religious
feeling was at the time running high, for the par-
tizans of Amon and those of Aton seem to have

2i8 Researches in the Treasury.

been waging war on one another ; and Ay appears
to have been regarded as the man most Hkely to
bridge the gulf between the two parties. A favour-
ite of Akhnaton, and once a devout worshipper of
Aton, he was not averse to the cults of other
gods ; and by conciliating both factions he man-
aged to obtain the throne for himself. His power,
however, did not last for long ; and as the priests
of Amon regained the confidence of the nation at
the expense of those of Aton, so the power of Ay
declined. His past connections with Akhnaton
told against him, and after a year or so he dis-
appeared, leaving the throne vacant once more.

There was now no question as to who should
succeed. A princess named Mutnezem, the sister
of Akhnaton's queen, and probably an old friend of
Horemheb, was the sole heiress to the throne, the
last surviving member of the greatest Egyptian
dynasty. All men turned to Horemheb in the
hope that he would marry this lady, and thus
reign as Pharaoh over them, perhaps leaving a
son by her to succeed him when he was gathered
to his fathers. He was now some forty-five years
of age, full of energy and vigour, and passionately
anxious to have a free hand in the carrying out of
his schemes for the reorganisation of the govern-
ment. It was therefore with joy that, in about
the year 1350 B.C., he sailed up to Thebes in order
to claim the crown.

He arrived at Luxor at a time when the annual
festival of Amon was being celebrated, and all the

The Tomb of Horemheb. 219

city was en fete. The statue of the god had been
taken from its shrine at Karnak, and had been
towed up the river to Luxor in a gorgeous barge,
attended by a fleet of gaily -decorated vessels.
With songs and dancing it had been conveyed
into the Luxor temple, where the priests had
received it standing amidst piled- up masses of
flowers, fruit, and other offerings. It seems to
have been at this moment that Horemheb ap-
peared, while the clouds of incense streamed up
to heaven, and the morning air was full of the
sound of the harps and the lutes. Surrounded by
a crowd of his admirers, he was conveyed into the
presence of the divine figure, and was there and
then hailed as Pharaoh.

From the temple he was carried amidst cheering
throngs to the palace which stood near by ; and
there he was greeted by the Princess Mutnezem,
who fell on her knees before him and embraced
him. That very day, it would seem, he v^^as
married to her, and in the evening the royal
heralds published the style and titles by which
he would be known in the future : "Mighty Bull,
Heady in Plans ; Favourite of the Two Goddesses,
Great in Marvels ; Golden Hawk, Satisfied with
Truth ; Creator of the Two Lands," and so forth.
Then, crowned with the royal helmet, he was led
once more before the statue of Anion, w^hile the
priests pronounced the blessing of the gods upon
him. Passing down to the quay before the temple
the figure of the_'god was placed once more upon the

220 Researches in the Treasury.

state-barge, and was floated down to Karnak; while
Horemheb was led through the rejoicing crowds
back to the palace to begin his reign as Pharaoh.

In religious matters Horemheb at once adopted
a strong attitude of friendship towards the Amon
party which represented the old order of things.
There is evidence to show that Aton was in no
way persecuted ; yet one by one his shrines were
abandoned, and the neglected temples of Amon
and the elder gods once more rang with the hymns
of praise. Inscriptions tell us that the King "re-
stored the temples from the marshes of the Delta
to Nubia. He fashioned a hundred images with all
their bodies correct, and with all splendid costly
stones. He established for them daily offerings
every day. All the vessels of their temples were
wrought of silver and gold. He equipped them
with priests and with ritual-priests, and with the
choicest of the army. He transferred to them
lands and cattle, supplied with all equipment."
By these gifts to the neglected gods, Horemheb
was striving to bring Egypt back to its normal
condition, and in no way was he prejudiced by
any particular devotion to Amon.

A certain Patonemheb, who had been one of
Akhnaton's favourites in the days of the revolu-
tion, v/as appointed High Priest of Ra — the older
Egyptian form of Aton who was at this time
identified with that god — at the temple of Helio-
polis ; and this can only be regarded as an act of
friendship to the Aton-worshippers. The echoing

The Tomb of Horemheb. 221

and deserted temples of Aton in Thebes, and El
Amarna, however, were now pulled down, and the
blocks were used for the enlarging of the temple
of Amon, — a fact which indicates that their ori-
ginal dedication to Aton had not caused them to
be accursed.

The process of restoration was so gradual that
it could not have much disturbed the country.
Horemheb's hand was firm but soothing" in these
matters, and the revolution seems to have been
killed as much by kindness as by force. It was
probably not till quite the end of his reign that he
showed any tendency to revile the memory of
Akhnaton ; and the high feeling which at length
brought the revolutionary king the name of " that
criminal of El Amarna " did not rise till half
a century later. The difficulties experienced by
Horemheb in steering his course between Amon
and Aton, in quietly restoring the old equilibrium
without in any way persecuting those who by
religious convictions were Aton-worshippers, must
have been immense ; and one cannot but feel that
the King must have been a diplomatist of the
highest standing. His unaffected simplicity won
all hearts to him ; his toleration and broadness
of mind brought all thoughtful men to his train ;
and his strong will led them and guided them
from chaos to order, from fantastic Utopia to the
solid old Egypt of the past. Horemheb was the
preacher of Sanity, the apostle of the Normal, and
Order was his watchword.

222 Researches in the Treasury.

The inscriptions tell us that it was his custom
to give public audiences to his subjects, and there
was not a man amongst those persons whom he
interviewed whose name he did not know, nor one
who did not leave his presence rejoicing. Up and
down the Nile he sailed a hundred times, until he
was able truly to say, " I have improved this entire
land ; I have learned its whole interior ; I have
travelled it entirely in its midst." We are told
that " his Majesty took counsel with his heart how
he might expel evil and suppress lying. The plans
of his Majesty were an excellent refuge, repelling
violence and delivering the Egyptians from the
oppressions which were around them. Behold, his
Majesty spent the whole time seeking the welfare
of Egypt, and searching out instances of oppression
in the land."

It is Interesting, by the way, to note that in
his eighth year the King restored the tomb of
Thutmosis IV., which had been robbed during
the revolution ; and the inscription which the
inspectors left behind them was found on the wall
when Mr Theodore Davis discovered the tomb a
few years ago. The plundering of the royal tombs
is a typical instance of the lawlessness of the times.
The corruption, too, which followed on the dis-
order was appalling ; and wherever the King went
he was confronted by deceit, embezzlement, bribery,
extortion, and official tyranny. Every Govern-
ment officer was attempting to obtain money from
his subordinates by illegal means ; and bakshish —

The Tomb of Horemheb. 223

that bogie of the Nile Valley — cast its shadow
upon all men.

Horemheb stood this as long as he could ; but
at last, regarding justice as more necessary than
tact, we are told that " his Majesty seized a
writing - palette and scroll, and put into writino-
all that his Majesty the King had said to him-
self." It is not possible to record here more than
a few of the good laws which he then made, but
the following examples will serve to show how
near to his heart were the interests of his
people.

It was the custom for the tax - collectors to
place that portion of a farmer's harvest, which
they had taken, upon the farmer's own boat, in
order to convey it to the public granary. These
boats often failed to be returned to their owners
when finished with, and were ultimately sold by
the officials for their own profit. Horemheb,
therefore, made the following law : —

" If the poor man has made for himself a boat with its
sail, and, in order to serve the State, has loaded it with
the Government dues, and has been robbed of the boat, the
poor man stands bereft of his property and stripped of his
many labours. This is wrong, and the Pharaoh will sup-
press it by his excellent measures. If there be a poor man
who pays the taxes to the two deputies, and he be robbed
of his property and his boat, my majesty commands : that
every officer who collects the taxes and takes the boat of
any citizen, this law shall be executed against him, and
his nose shall be cut off; and he shall be sent in exile to
Tharu. Furthermore, concerning the tax of timber, my

224 Researches in the Treasury.

majesty commands that if any officer find a poor man
without a boat, then he shall bring him a craft belonging
to another man in which to carry the timber; and in
return for this let the former man do the loading of the
timber for the latter."

The tax - collectors were wont to commandeer
the services of all the slaves in the town, and to
detain them for six or seven days, " so that it
was an excessive detention indeed." Often, too,
they used to appropriate a portion of the tax
for themselves. The new law, therefore, was as
follows : —

" If there be any place where the officials are tax-collect-
ing, and any one shall hear the report saying that they are
tax - collecting to take the produce for themselves, and
another shall come to report saying, ' My man slave or my
female slave has been taken away and detained many days
at work by the officials,' the offender's nose shall be cut off,
and he shall be sent to Tharu."

One more law may here be quoted. The police
used often to steal the hides which the peasants
had collected to hand over to the Government
as their tax. Horemheb, having satisfied him-
self that a tale of this kind was not merely an
excuse for not paying the tax, made this law : —

■' As for any policeman concerning whom one shall hear
it said that he goes about stealing hides, beginning with
this day the law shall be executed against him, by beating
him a hundred blows, opening five wounds, and taking
from him by force the hides which he took."

To carry out these laws he appointed two chief

The Tomb of Horemheb. 225

judo-es of very high standing, who are said to
have been " perfect in speech, excellent in good
qualities, knowing how to judge the heart." Of
these men the Kino^ writes : "I have directed
them to the way of life, I have led them to the
truth, I have taught them, saying, ' Do not receive
the reward of another. How, then, shall those
like you judge others, while there is one among
you committing a crime against justice?'" Under
these two officials Horemheb appointed many
judges, who went on circuit around the country ;
and the King took the wise step of arranging,
on the one hand, that their pay should be so
good that they would not be tempted to take
bribes, and, on the other hand, that the penalty
for this crime should be most severe.

So many were the King's reforms that one is
inclined to forget that he was primarily a soldier.
He appears to have made some successful expedi-
tions against the Syrians, but the fighting was
probably near his own frontiers, for the empire
lost by Akhnaton was not recovered for many
years, and Horemheb seems to have felt that
Egypt needed to learn to rule herself before she
attempted to rule other nations. An expedition
against some tribes in the Sudan was successfully
carried through, and it is said that " his name
was mighty in the land of Kush, his battle-cry
was in their dwelling-places." Except for a semi-
military expedition which was dispatched to the
land of Punt, these are the only recorded foreign

226 Researches in the Treasury.

activities of the King; but that he had spent
much time in the organisation and improvement
of the army is shown by the fact that three
years after his death the Egyptian soldiers were
swarming over the Lebanon and hammering at
the doors of the cities of Jezreel.

Had he hved for another few years he might
have been famous as a conqueror as well as an
administrator, though old age might retard and
tired bones refuse their office. As it is, however,
his name is written sufficiently large in the book
of the world's great men ; and when he died,
about B.C. 1315, after a reign of some thirty-
five years, he had done more for Egypt than
had almost any other Pharaoh. He found the
country in the wildest disorder, and he left it
the master of itself, and ready to become once
more the master of the empire which Akhnaton's
doctrine of Peace and Goodwill had lost. Under
his direction the purged worship of the old gods,
which for him meant but the maintenance of some
time-proved customs, had gained the mastery over
the chimerical worship of Aton ; without force or
violence he had substituted the practical for the
visionary ; and to Amon and Order his grateful
subjects were able to cry, " The sun of him who
knew thee not has set, but he who knows thee
shines ; the sanctuary of him who assailed thee
is overwhelmed in darkness, but the whole earth
is now in light."

The tomb of this great Pharaoh was cut in the

The Tomb of Horemheb. 227

rocks on the west side of the Valley of the Tombs
of the Kings, not far from the resting - place of
Amenhotep 11. In the days of the later Ramesside
kings the tomb-plunderers entered the sepulchre,
pulled the embalmed body of the king to pieces
in the search for hidden jewels, scattered the bones
of the three members of his family who were buried
with him, and stole almost everything of value
v\^hich they found. There must have been other
robberies after this, and finally the Government
inspectors of about B.C. 1100 entered the tomb,
and, seeing its condition, closed its mouth with
a compact mass of stones. The torrents of rain
which sometimes fall in winter in Egypt percolated
through this filling, and left it congealed and difii-
cult to cut through ; and on the top of this hard
mass tons of rubbish were tossed from other ex-
cavations, thus completely hiding the entrance.

In this condition the tomb was found by Mr
Davis in February 1908. Mr Davis had been
working on the side of the valley opposite to
the tomb of Rameses III., where the accumula-
tions of debris had entirely hidden the face of
the rocks, and, as this was a central and likely
spot for a " find," it was hoped that when the
skin of rubbish had been cleared away the entrance
of at least one royal tomb would be exposed. Of
all the XVIIIth-Dynasty kings, the burial-places
of only Thutmosis II., Tutankhamon, and Horem-
heb remained undiscovered, and the hopes of the
excavators concentrated on these three Pharaohs.

228 Researches in the Treasury.

After a few weeks of digging, the mouth of
a large shaft cut into the hmestone was cleared..
This proved to lead into a small chamber half-
filled with rubbish, amongst which some fine
jewellery, evidently hidden here, was found.
This is now well published by Mr Davis in
facsimile, and further mention of it here is un-
necessary. Continuing the work, it was not long
before traces of another tomb became apparent,
and in a few days' time we were able to look
down from the surrounding mounds of rubbish
upon the commencement of a rectangular cutting
in the rock. The size and style of the entrance
left no doubt that the work was to be dated to
the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty, and the ex-
cavators were confident that the tomb of either
Tutankhamen or Horemheb lay before them.
Steps leading down to the entrance were pres-
ently uncovered, and finally the doorway itself
was freed from debris.

On one of the door-posts an inscription was
now seen, written in black ink by one of the
Government inspectors of B.C. 1100. This stated
that in the fourth year of an unknown king the
tomb had been inspected, and had been found
to be that of Horemheb.

We had hoped now to pass into the tomb
without further difficulty, but in this we were
disappointed, for the first corridor was quite
choked with the rubbish placed there by the
inspectors. This corridor led down at a steep

> > » '

•nxx -ij

The Tomb of Horemheb. 229

angle through the Hmestone hillside, and, like
all other parts of the tomb, it was carefully
worked. It was not until two days later that
enough clearing had been done to allow us to
crawl in over the rubbish, which was still piled
up so nearly to the roof that there was only
just room to wriggle downwards over it with
our backs pressing against the stone above. At
the lower end of the corridor there was a flight
of steps towards which the rubbish shelved, and,
sliding down the slope, we were here able to
stand once more. It was obvious that the tomb
did not stop here, and work, therefore, had to
be begun on the rubbish which choked the stair-
way in order to expose the entrance to further
passages. A doorway soon became visible, and
at last this was sufficiently cleared to permit of
our crawling into the next corridor, though now
we were even more closely squeezed between the
roof and the debris than before.

The party which made the entrance consisted of
Mr Davis ; his assistant, Mr Ayrton ; Mr Harold
Jones ; Mr Max Dalison, formerly of the Egypt
Exploration Fund ; and myself Wriggling and
crawling, we pushed and pulled ourselves down the
sloping rubbish, until, with a rattling avalanche
of small stones, we arrived at the bottom of the
passage, where we scrambled to our feet at the
brink of a large rectangular well, or shaft. Hold-
ing the lamps aloft, the surrounding walls were
seen to be covered with wonderfully preserved

230 Researches in the Treasury.

paintings executed on slightly raised plaster. Here
Horemheb was seen standing before Isis, Osiris,
Horus, and other gods ; and his cartouches stood
out boldly from amidst the elaborate inscriptions.
The colours were extremely rich, and, though there
was so much to be seen ahead, we stood there for
some minutes, looking at them with a feeling much
akin to awe.

The shaft was partly filled with rubbish, and
not being very deep, we were able to climb down
it by means of a ladder, and up the other side to
an entrance which formed a kind of window in the
sheer wall. In entering a large tomb for the first
time, there are one or two scenes which fix them-
selves upon the memory more forcefully than
others, and one feels as though one might carry
these impressions intact to the grave. In this
tomb there was nothing so impressive as this view
across the well and through the entrance in the
opposite wall. At one's feet lay the dark pit ;
around one the gaudy paintings gleamed ; and
through the window - like aperture before one, a
dim suggestion could be obtained of a white-
pillared hall. The intense eagerness to know what
was beyond, and, at the same time, the feeling
that it was almost desecration to climb into those
halls w^hich had stood silent for thousands of
years, cast a spell over the scene and made it
unforgetable.

This aperture had once been blocked up with
stones, and the paintings had passed across it,

The Tomb of Horemheb. 231

thus hiding it from view, so that a robber entering
the tomb might think that it ended here. But
the trick was an old one, and the plunderers had
easily detected the entrance, had pulled away the
blocks, and had climbed through. Following in
their footsteps, we went up the ladder and passed
through the entrance into the pillared hall. Parts
of the roof had fallen in, and other parts appeared
to be likely to do so at any moment. Clambering
over the debris we descended another sloping cor-
ridor, which was entered through a cutting in the
floor of the hall, originally blocked up and hidden.
This brouo^ht us into a chamber covered with
paintings, like those around the well ; and again
we were brought to a standstill by the amazingly
fresh colours which arrested and held the attention.

We then passed on into the large burial-hall, the
roof of which was supported by crumbling pillars.
Slabs of limestone had broken off here and there
and had crashed down on to the floor, bringing
with them portions of the ceiling painted with a
design of yellow stars on a black ground. On the
walls were unfinished paintings, and it was inter-
esting to notice that the north, south, east, and
west were clearly marked upon the four walls for
ceremonial purposes.

The main feature towards which our eyes were
turned was the great pink - granite sarcophagus
which stood in the middle of the hall. Its sides
were covered with well-cut inscriptions of a religi-
ous nature ; and at the four corners there were

232 Researches in the Treasury.

figures of Isis and Nephthys, in reUef, with their
wings spread out as though in protection around
the body. Looking into the sarcophagus, the hd
having been thrown off by the plunderers, we
found it empty except for a skull and a few bones
of more than one person. The sarcophagus stood
upon the limestone floor, and under it small holes
had been cut, in each of which a little wooden
statue of a god had been placed. Thus the king's
body was, so to speak, carried on the heads of the
gods, and held aloft by their arms. This is a
unique arrangement, and has never before been
found in any burial.

In all directions broken figures of the gods were
lying, and two defaced wooden statues of the king
were overthrown beside the sarcophagus. Beauti-
ful pieces of furniture, such as were found by Mr
Davis in the tomb of Yuaa and Thuau, were not to
be expected in the sepulchre of a Pharaoh ; for
whereas those two persons were only mortals and
required mortal comforts in the Underworld, the
king was a god and needed only the comfort of
the presence of other gods. Dead flowers were
found here and there amidst the debris, these
being the remnant of the masses of garlands
which were always heaped around and over the
coffin.

Peering into a little side chamber on the rig-ht,
we saw two skulls and some broken bones lying in
the corner. These appeared to be female, and one jjt

The Tomb of Horemheb. 233

of the skulls may have been that of Mutnezem,
the queen. In another small chamber on the left
there was a fine painting of Osiris on the back
wall; and, crouching at the foot of this, a statuette
of a god with upraised hands had been placed.
As we turned the corner and came upon it in the
full glare of the lamps, one felt that the arms were
raised in horror at sight of us, and that the god
was gasping with surprise and indignation at our
arrival. In the floor of another ante-chamber a
square hole was cut, leading down to a small room.
A block of stone had neatly fitted over the open-
ing, thus hiding it from view ; but the robbers had
detected the crack, and had found the hiding-
place. Here there were a skull and a few bones,
again of more than one person. Altogether there
must have been four bodies buried in the tomb ;
and it seems that the inspectors, finding them
strewn in all directions, had replaced one skull in
the sarcophagus, two in the side room, and one in
this hiding-place, dividing up the bones between
these three places as they thought fit. It may be
that the king himself was buried in the under-
ground chamber, and that the sarcophagus was a
sort of blind ; for he had seen the destruction
caused by robbers in the tomb of Thutmosis IV.,
which he had restored, and he may have made this
attempt to secure the safety of his own body.
Whether this be so or not, however. Fate has not
permitted the body of the great king to escape the

234 Researches in the Treasury.

hands of the destroyer, and it will now never be
known with certainty whether one of these four
heads wore the crown of the Pharaohs.

The temperature was very great in the tomb,
and the perspiration streamed down our faces as
we stood contemplating the devastation. Now
the electric lamps would flash upon the gods sup-
porting the ransacked sarcophagus, lighting for a
moment their grotesque forms ; now the attention
would concentrate upon some wooden figure of a
hippopotamus-god or cow-headed deity ; and now
the light would bring into prominence the great
overthrown statue of the king. There is some-
thing peculiarly sensational in the examining of a
tomb which has not been entered for such thou-
sands of years, but it must be left to the imagina-
tive reader to infuse a touch of that feeling of the
dramatic into these words. It would be hopeless
to attempt to put into writing those impressions
which go to make the entering of a great Egyptian
sepulchre so thrilling an experience : one cannot |

describe the silence, the echoing steps, the dark
shadows, the hot, breathless air ; nor tell of the
sense of vast Time and the penetrating of it which
stirs one so deeply.

The air was too bad to permit of our remaining
long so deep in the bowels of the earth ; and we
presently made our way through halls and corri-
dors back to the upper world, scrambling and
crashing over the debris, and squeezing ourselves
through the rabbit-hole by which we had entered.

The Tomb of Horemheb. 235

As we passed out of this hot, dark tomb into the
brilhant sunhght and the bracing north wind, the
gloomy wreck of the place was brought before the
imagination with renewed force. The scattered
bones, the broken statues, the dead flowers,
grouped themselves in the mind into a picture
of utter decay. In some of the tombs which have
been opened the freshness of the objects has
caused one to exclaim at the inaction of the years ;
but here, where vivid and well-preserved wall-
paintings looked down on a jumbled collection of
smashed fragments of wood and bones, one felt
how hardly the Powers deal with the dead. How
far away seemed the great fight between Amon
and Aton ; how futile the task which Horemheb
accomplished so gloriously ! It was all over and
forofotten, and one asked oneself what it mattered
whether the way was difficult or the battle slow to
win. In the fourth year of the reign of Horemheb
a certain harper named Neferhotep partly com-
posed a song which was peculiarly appropriate to
the tune which ran in one's head at the opening
of the tomb of this Pharaoh whom the harper
served —

" (1.) Behold the dwellings of the dead. Their walls fall
down ; their place is no more : they are as though they had
never existed. (2.) That which hath come into being must
pass away again. The young men and maidens go to their
places ; the sun riseth at dawn, and setteth again in the
hills of the west. Men beget and women conceive. The
children, too, go to the places which are appointed for them.

236 Researches in the Treasury.

0, then, be happy ! Come, scents and perfumes are set
before thee : w«^w-flowers and lilies for the arms and neck
of thy beloved. Come, songs and music are before thee.
Set behind thee all cares ; think only upon gladness, until
that day cometh whereon thou shalt go down to the land
which loveth silence."

Horemheb must often have heard this song sung
in his palace at Thebes by its composer ; but did
he think, one wonders, that it would be the walls
of his own tomb which would fall down, and his
own bones which would he almost as though they
had never existed ?

PAUT IV.
THE PEESERVATION OF THE TEEASUBY.

" Laugh and mock if you will at the worship of stone idols, but mark ye
this, ye breakers of images, that in one regard the stone idol bears awful
semblance of Deity— the unchangef ulness in the midst of change — the same
seeming will, and intent for ever and ever inexorable ! . . . And we, we
shall die, and Islam will wither away, and the Englishman straining far over
to hold his loved India, will plant a firm foot on the banks of the Nile and
sit in the seats of the Faithful, and still that sleepless rock will lie watching
and watching the works of the new busy race, with those same sad earnest
eyes, and the same tranquil mien everlastingly."

— KiNGLAKE : Eothen {"[Sii).

(v-

CHAPTER X.

THEBAN THIEVES.

Thebes was the ancient capital of Egypt, and its
ruins are the most extensive in the Nile Valley.
On the east bank of the river, at the modern
towns of Luxor and Karnak, there are the remains
of mighty temples ; and on the west bank, in the
neighbourhood of the village of Gurneh, tombs,
mortuary chapels, and temples, literally cover the
ground. The inhabitants of these three places
have for generations augmented their incomes
by a traffic in antiquities, and the peasants of
Gurneh have, more especially, become famous as
the most hardy pilferers of the tombs of their
ancestors in all Egypt. In conducting this
lucrative business they have lately had the
misfortune to be recognised as thieves and
robbers by the Government, and it is one of
my duties to point this out to them. As a
matter of fact they are no more thieves than
you or I. It is as natural for them to scratch
in the sand for antiquities as it is for us to pick
flowers by the roadside : antiquities, like flowers,
are the product of the soil, and it is largely be-

240 The Preservation of the Treasury.

cause the one is more rare than the other that its
promiscuous appropriation has been constituted
an offence. The native who is sometimes child
enough to put his eyes out rather than serve
in the army, who will often suffer all manner of
wrongs rather than carry his case to the local
courts, and who will hide his money under his bed
rather than trust it to the safest bank, is not
likely to be intelligent enough to realise that, on
scientific grounds, he is committing a crime in
digging for scarabs. He is beginning to under-
stand that in the eyes of the law he is a criminal,
but he has not yet learnt so to regard himself.
I here name him thief, for officially that is his
designation ; but there is no sting in the word,
nor is any insult intended. By all cultured per-
sons the robbery of antiquities must be regarded
as a grave offence, and one which has to be
checked. But the point is ethical ; and what
has the Theban to do with ethics ? The robbery
of antiquities is carried out in many different
ways and from many different motives. Some-
times it is romantic treasure hunting that the
official has to deal with ; sometimes it is adven-
turous robbery with violence ; sometimes it is the
taking advantage of chance discoveries ; some-
times it is the pilfering of objects found in author-
ised excavations ; and sometimes it is the stealing
of fragments smashed from the walls of the ancient
monuments. All these forms of robbery, except
the last, may call for the sympathy of every

' > ' , > > J J

. ', ->"

{P/wto by E. Bird.

A modern Theban Fellah-woman and her child.

Pl. XXIII.

: c c c t

Theban Thieves. 241

reader of these hnes who happens not to have
cultivated that vaguely defined " archaeological
sense" which is, practically, the product of this
present generation alone ; and in the instances
which are here to be given the point of view of
the "Theban thief" will be readily appreciated.
Treasure hunting is a relic of childhood that
remains, like all other forms of romance and ad-
venture, a permanently youthful feature in our
worn old hearts. It has been drilled into us bv
the tales of our boyhood, and, in later life, it has
become part of that universal desire to get some-
thing for nothing which lies behind our most
honest eflPorts to obtain the goods of this world.
Who has not desired the hidden wealth of the
late Captain Kidd, or coveted the lost treasure
of the Incas ? I recently wrote an article which
was entitled " Excavations in Egypt," but the
editor of the magazine in which it appeared
hastily altered these words to "Treasure Hunting
in Egypt," and thereby commanded the attention
of twice the number of readers. Can we wonder,
then, that this form of adventure is so often met
with in Egypt, the land of hidden treasure ? The
Department of Antiquities has lately published
a collection of mediaeval traditions with regard
to this subject, which is known as the Book of
the Pearl. In it one is told the exact places
where excavations should be made to lay bare
the wealth of the ancients. "Go to such and
such a spot," says this curious book, " and dig

242 The Preservation of the Treasury.

to the depth of so many cubits, and you will find
a trap-door ; descend through this and you will
find a chamber wherein are forty jars filled with
gold. Take what you want, and give thanks to
God." Many of the sites referred to have been
literally hacked out of all recognition by the picks
and spades of thousands of gold - seekers ; and it
may be that sometimes their efibrts have been
rewarded, since a certain amount of genuine in-
formation is embodied in the traditions. Sir
Gaston Maspero, the Director - General of the
Department of Antiquities, tells a story of how
a native came to him asking permission to ex-
cavate at a certain spot where he believed treasure
to be hidden. Sir Gaston accompanied him to the
place, and a tunnel was bored into what appeared
to be virgin sand and rock. At the end of the
first day's work the futility of his labours was
pointed out to the man, but he was not to be
daunted. For two more days he stood watching
the work from morn to nightfall with hope burn-
ing in his eyes, and on the following morning his
reward came. Suddenly the ground gave way
before the picks of the workmen, and a hole
was seen leading into a forgotten cave. In this
cave the implements of some mediaeval coiners
were discovered, and an amount of metal, false
and true, was found which had been used by them
in the process of their business.

A short time ago a man applied for permission
to perform a similar kind of excavation at a place

Theban Thieves. 243

called Nag HamadI, and in my absence permission
was given him. On my return the following
report was submitted : ". . . Having reached
the spot indicated the man started to blow the
stones by means of the Denamits. Also he
slaught a lamb, thinking that there is a treasure,
and that when the lamb being slaught he will
discover it at once." In plainer English, the man
had blown up the rocks with dynamite, and had
attempted to further his efforts by sacrificing a
lamb to the djin who guarded the treasure. The
djin, however, was not thus to be propitiated, and
the gold of the Pharaohs was never found. More
recently the watchmen of the famous temple of
Der el Bahri found themselves in trouble owing
to the discovery that part of the ancient pave-
ment showed signs of having been raised, stone
by stone, in order that the ground below might be
searched for the treasure which a tradition, such
as those in the Book of the Pearl, had reported as
lying hid there.

Almost as romantic as treasure hunting is
robbery with violence. We all remember our
boyhood's fascination for piracy, smuggling, and
the profession of Dick Turpin ; and to the Theban
peasant, who is essentially youthful in his ideas,
this form of fortune hunting has irresistible at-
tractions. When a new tomb is discovered by
authorised archseologists, especially when it is
situated in some remote spot such as the Valley
of the Kings, there is always some fear of an

244 The Preservation of the Treasury.

armed raid ; and police guard the spot night
and day until the antiquities have been removed
to Cairo. The workmen who have been employed
in the excavation return to their homes with
wonderful tales of the wealth which the tomb
contains, and in the evening the discovery is
discussed by the women at the well where the
water is drawn for the village, with the result
that it very soon assumes prodigious proportions,
inflaming the minds of all men with the greed
of gold. Visitors often ask why it is that the
mummies of the Pharaohs are not left to lie each
in its own tomb ; and it is argued that they
look neither congruous nor dignified in the glass
cases of the museum. The answer is obvious to all
who know the country : put them back in their
tombs, and, without continuous police protection,
they will be broken into fragments by robbers, bolts
and bars notwithstanding. The experiment of leav-
ing the mummy and some of the antiquities in
situ has only once been tried, and it has not been
a complete success. It was done in the case of
the tomb of Amenhotep II. at Thebes, the mummy
being laid in its original sarcophagus ; and a model
boat, used in one of the funeral ceremonies, was
also left in the tomb. One night the six watch-
men who were in charge of the royal tombs stated
that they had been attacked by an armed force ;
and the tomb in question was seen to have been
entered, the iron doors having been forced. The
mummy of the Pharaoh was found lying upon

Theban Thieves. 245

the floor of the burial-hall, its chest smashed in ;
and the boat had disappeared, nor has it since
been recovered. The watchmen showed signs
of having put up something of a fight, their
clothes being riddled with bullet-holes ; but here
and there the cloth looked much as though it
had been singed, which suggested, as did other
evidence, that they themselves had fired the guns
and had acted the struggle. The truth of the
matter will never be known, but its lesson is
obvious. The mummy was put back into its
sarcophagus, and there it has remained secure ever
since ; but one never knows how soon it will be
dragged forth once more to be searched for the
gold with which every native thinks it is
stuffed.

Some years ago an armed gang walked off
with a complete series of mortuary reliefs belong-
ing to a tomb at Sakkarah. They came by night,
overpowered the watchmen, loaded the blocks
of stone on to camels, and disappeared into the
darkness. Sometimes it is an entire cemetery
that is attacked ; and, if it happens to be situated
some miles from the nearest police-station, a good
deal of work can be done before the authorities
get wind of the affair. Last winter six hundred
men set to work upon a patch of desert ground
where a tomb had been accidently found, and,
ere I received the news, they had robbed a score
of little graves, many of which must have con-
tained objects purchasable by the dealers in

246 The Preservation of the Treasury.

antiquities for quite large sums of money. At
Abydos a tomb which we had just discovered
was raided by the villagers, and we only regained
possession of it after a rapid exchange of shots,
one of which came near ending a career whose
continuance had been, since birth, a matter of
great importance to myself But how amusing
the adventure must have been for the raiders !

The appropriation of treasure-trove come upon by
chance, or the digging out of graves accidentally
discovered, is a very natural form of robbery for
the natives to indulge in, and one which commends
itself to the sympathies of all those not actively
concerned in its suppression. There are very few
persons even in western countries who would
be willing to hand over to the Government a
hoard of gold discovered in their own back
garden. In Egypt the law is that the treasure-
trove thus discovered belongs to the owner of
the property ; and thus there is always a certain
amount of excavation going on behind the walls
of the houses. It is also the law that the peasants
may carry away the accumulated rubbish on the
upper layers of ancient town sites, in order to
use it as a fertiliser for their crops, since it
contains valuable phosphates. This work is
supervised by watchmen, but this does not pre-
vent the stealing of almost all the antiquities
which are found. As illegal excavators these
sehakhin, or manure - diggers, are the worst
offenders, for they search for the phosphates in

Theban Thieves. 247

all manner of places, and are constantly coming
upon tombs or ruins which they promptly clear
of their contents. One sees them driving their
donkeys along the roads, each laden with a sack
of manure, and it is certain that some of these
sacks contain antiquities. In Thebes many of
the natives live inside the tombs of the ancient
nobles, these generally consisting of two or three
rock-hewn halls from which a tunnel leads down
to the burial - chamber. Generally this tunnel
is choked with debris, and the owner of the
house will perhaps come upon it by chance, and
will dig it out, in the vain hope that earlier
plunderers have left some of the antiquities un-
disturbed. It recently happened that an entire
family was asphyxiated while attempting to
penetrate into a newly discovered tunnel, each
member entering to ascertain the fate of the
previous explorer, and each being overcome by
the gases. On one occasion I was asked by a
native to accompany him down a tunnel, the
entrance of which was in his stable, in order to
view a sarcophagus which lay at the bottom.
We each took a candle, and, crouching down to
avoid the low roof, we descended the narrow,
winding passage, the loose stones sliding beneath
our feet. The air was very foul ; and below us
there was the thunderous roar of thousands of
wings beating through the echoing passage —
the wings of evil -smelling bats. Presently we
reached this uncomfortable zone. So thickly did

248 The Preservation of the Treasury.

the bats hang from the ceihng that the rock
itself seemed to be black; but as we advanced,
and the creatures took to their wings, this black
covering appeared to peel off the rock. During
the entire descent this curious spectacle of regu-
larly receding blackness and advancing grey was
to be seen a yard or so in front of us. The roar
of wings was now deafening, for the space into ^

which we were driving the bats was very confined. |

My guide shouted to me that we must let them
pass out of the tomb over our heads. We there-
fore crouched down, and a few stones were flung
into the darkness ahead. Then, with a roar and
a rush of air, they came, bumping into us, en-
tangling themselves in our clothes, slapping our
faces and hands with their unwholesome wings,
and clinging to our fingers. At last the thunder
died away in the passage behind us, and we were
able to advance more easily, though the ground
was alive with the bats maimed in the frantic
flight which had taken place, floundering out of
our way and squeaking shrilly. The sarcophagus
proved to be of no interest, so the encounter with
the bats was to no purpose.

The pilfering of antiquities found during the
course of authorised excavations is one of the
most common forms of robbery. The overseer
cannot always watch the workmen sufiiciently
closely to prevent them pocketing the small ob-
jects which they find, and it is an easy matter to
carry off the stolen goods, even though the men

Theban Thieves. 249

are searched at the end of the day. A little girl
minding her father's sheep and goats in the neigh-
bourhood of the excavations, and apparently occu-
pying her hands with the spinning of flax, is perhaps
the receiver of the objects. Thus it is more profit-
able to dig for antiquities even in authorised
excavations than to work the water-hoist, which
is one of the usual occupations of the peasant.
Pulling the hoisting-pole down, and swinging it
up again with its load of water many thousands
of times in the day, is monotonous work ; whereas
digging in the ground, with the eyes keenly
watching for the appearance of antiquities, is
always interesting and exciting. And why
should the digger refrain from appropriating the
objects which his pick reveals ? If he does not
make use of his opportunities and carry off the
antiquities, the western director of the works will
take them to his own country and sell them for
his own profit. All natives believe that the
archaeologists work for the purpose of making
money. Speaking of Professor Flinders Petrie,
a peasant said to me the other day : " He has
worked five-and-twenty years now ; he must be
very rich." He would never believe that the
antiquities were given to museums without any
payment being made to the finder.

The stealing of fragments broken out of the
walls of " show " monuments is almost the only
form of robbery which will receive general con-
demnation. That this vandalism is also distaste-

250 The Preservation of the Treasury.

fill to the natives themselves is shown by the fact
that several better-class Egyptians living in the
neighbourhood of Thebes subscribed, at my in-
vitation, the sum of £50 for the protection of
certain beautiful tombs. When they were shown
the works undertaken with their money, they
expressed themselves as being " pleased with the
delicate inscriptions in the tombs, but very awfully
angry at the damage which the devils of ignorant
people had made." A native of moderate intelli-
gence can quite appreciate the argument that
whereas the continuous warfare between the
agents of the Department of Antiquities and
the illegal excavators of small graves is what
might be called an honourable game, the smash-
ing of public monuments cannot be called fair-
play from whatever point of view the matter is |
approached. Often revenge or spite is the cause
of this damage. It is sometimes necessary to act
with severity to the peasants who infringe the
rules of the Department, but a serious danger
lies in such action, for it is the nature of the
Thebans to revenge themselves not on the offi-
cial directly but on the monuments which he is
known to love. Two years ago a native illegally
built himself a house on Government ground, and
I was obliged to go through the formality of
pulling it down, which I did by obliging him to
remove a few layers of brickwork around the
walls. A short time afterwards a famous tomb
was broken into and a part of the paintings

■ > > . > . . ,' ]

' ' ' 1 > .. J , > 5 ,

. , > , > 3 > 3 > ' ' ' 1 ' I • ^ J "

> ' A B » > ) ' >

{Photo by /■:. Bird.

A modi'rn Goiirnawi betfg'ar.

Pl. XXIV.

Theban Thieves. 251

destroyed ; and there was enough evidence to
show that the owner of this house was the cul-
prit, though unfortunately he could not be con-
victed. One man actually had the audacity to
warn me that any severity on my part would be
met by destruction of monuments. Under these
circumstances an official finds himself in a dilemma.
If he maintains the dignity and prestige of his
Department by punishing any offences against it,
he endangers the very objects for the care of
which he is responsible ; and it is hard to say
whether under a lax or a severe administration
the more damage would be done.

The produce of these various forms of robbery
is easily disposed of When once the antiquities
have passed into the hands of the dealers there
is little chance of further trouble. The dealer
can always say that he came into possession of
an object years ago, before the antiquity laws
were made, and it is almost impossible to prove
that he did not. You may have the body of a
statue and he the head : he can always damage
the line of the breakage, and say that the head
does not belong to that statue, or, if the connec-
tion is too obvious, he can say that he found the
head while excavating twenty years ago on the
site where now you have found the body. Nor is
it desirable to bring an action against the man in
a case of this kind, for it might go against the
official. Dealing in antiquities is regarded as a
perfectly honourable business. The official, crawl-

252 The Preservation of the Treasury.

ing about the desert on his stomach in the bitter
cold of a winter's night in order to hold up a
convoy of stolen antiquities, may use hard lan-
guage in regard to the trade, but he cannot say
that it is pernicious as long as it is confined to
minor objects. How many objects of value to
science would be destroyed by their finders if
there was no market to take them to ! One of
the Theban dealers leads so holy a life that he
will assuredly be regarded as a saint by future
generations.

The sale of small antiquities to tourists on the
public roads is prohibited, except at certain places,
but of course it can be done with impunity by the
exercise of a little care. Men and boys and even
little girls as they pass will stare at you with
studying eyes, and if you seem to be a likely pur-
chaser, they will draw from the folds of their
garments some little object which they will offer
for sale. Along the road in the glory of the
setting sun there will come as fine a young man
as you will see on a day's march. Surely he is
bent on some noble mission : what lofty thoughts
are occupying his mind, you wonder. But as you
pass, out comes the scarab from his pocket, and
he shouts, " Wanty scarab, mister? — two shil-
lin'," while you ride on your way a greater cynic
than before.

Some years ago a large inscribed stone was
stolen from a certain temple, and was promptly
sold to a man who sometimes traded in such ob-

Theban Thieves. 253

jects. This man carried the stone, hidden in a
sack of grain, to the house of a friend, and having
deposited it in a place of hiding, he tramped home,
with his stick across his shoulders, in an attitude
of deep unconcern. An enemy of his, however,
had watched him, and promptly gave information.
Acting on this the police set out to search the
house. When we reached the entrance we were
met by the owner, and a warrant was shown to
him. A heated argument followed, at the end of
which the infuriated man waved us in with a
magnificent and most dramatic gesture. There
were some twenty rooms in the house, and the
stifling heat of a July noon made the task none
too enjoyable. The police inspector was ex-
tremely thorough in his work, and an hour had
passed before three rooms had been searched.
He looked into the cupboards, went down on
his knees to peer into the ovens, stood on tiptoe
to search the fragile wooden shelves (it was a
heavy stone which we were looking for), hunted
under the mats, and even peeped into a little
tobacco-tin. In one of the rooms there were three
or four beds arranged along the middle of the
floor. The inspector pulled ofl" the mattresses, and
out from under each there leapt a dozen rats, which,
if I may be believed, made for the walls and ran
straight up them, disappearing in the rafter-holes
at the top. The sight of countless rats hurrying
up perpendicular walls may be familiar to some
people, but I venture to call it an amazing spec-

254 The Preservation of the Treasury.

tacle, worthy of record. Then came the opening
of one or two travelhng- trunks. The inspector
ran his hand through the clothes which lay therein,
and out jumped a few more rats, which likewise
went up the walls. The searching of the re-
maining rooms carried us well through the after-
noon ; and at last, hot and weary, we decided
to abandon the hunt. Two nights later a man
was seen walking away from the house with a
heavy sack on his back ; and the stone is now,
no doubt, in the Western hemisphere.

The attempt to regain a lost antiquity is seldom
crowned with success. It is so extremely difficult
to obtain reliable information ; and as soon as
a man is suspected his enemies will rush in
with accusations. Thirty -eight separate accusa-
tions were sent in against a certain head-watch-
man during the first days after the fact had
leaked out that he was under suspicion. Not
one of them could be shown to be true. Some-
times one man will bring a charge against another
for the betterment of his own interests. Here
is a letter from a watchman who had resigned, but
wished to rejoin. " To his Exec. Chief Dircoter
of the tembels. I have honner to inform that I
am your servant X, watchman on the tembels
before this time. Sir from one year ago I work in
the Santruple (?) as a watchman about four years
ago. And I not make anything wrong and your
Exec, know me. Now I want to work in my place
in the tembel, because the man which in it he not

Theban Thieves. 255

attintive to His, but alway he in the coffee . . .
He also steal the scribed stones. Please give your
order to point me'again. Your servant, X." " The
coffee " is, of course, the cafe which adjoins the
temple.

A short time ago a young man came to me with
an accusation against his own father, who, he said,
had stolen a statuette. The tale which he told
was circumstantial, but it was hotly denied by his
infuriated parent. He looked, however, a trifle
more honest than his father, and when a younger
brother was brought in as witness, one felt that
the guilt of the old man would be the probable
finding. The boy stared steadfastly at the ground
for some moments, however, and then launched out
into an elaborate explanation of the whole affair.
He said that he asked his father to lend him
four pounds, but the father had refused. The son
insisted that that sum was due to him as his share
in some transaction, and pointed out that though
he only asked for it as a loan, he had in reality
a claim to it. The old man refused to hand it
over, and the son, therefore, waited his oppor-
tunity and stole it from his house, carrying it
off triumphantly to his own establishment. Here
he gave it into the charge of his youno- wife,
and went about his business. The father, how-
ever, guessed where the money had gone ; and
while his son was out, invaded his house, beat
his daughter-in-law on the soles of her feet
until she confessed where the money was hidden,

256 The Preservation of the Treasury.

and then, having obtained it, returned to his home.
When the son came back to his house he learnt
what had happened, and, out of spite, at once in-
vented the accusation which he had brought to me.
This story appeared to be true in so far as the
quarrel over the money was concerned, but that
the accusation was invented proved to be untrue.

Sometimes the peasants have such honest faces
that it is difficult to believe that they are guilty
of deceit. A lady came to the camp of a certain
party of excavators at Thebes, holding in her hand
a scarab. " Do tell me," she said to one of the
archaeologists, " whether this scarab is genuine. I
am sure it must be, for I bought it from a boy
who assured me that he had stolen it from your
excavations, and he looked such an honest and
truthful little fellow."

In order to check pilfering in a certain exca-
vation in which I was assisting we made a rule
that the selected workmen should not be allowed
to put unselected substitutes in their place. One
day I came upon a man whose appearance did not
seem familiar, although his back was turned to me.
I asked him who he was, whereupon he turned
upon me a countenance which might have served
for the model of a painting of St John, and in
a low, sweet voice he told me of the illness of the
real workman, and of how he had taken over
the work in order to obtain money for the pur-
chase of medicine for him, they being friends from
their youth up. I sent him away and told him

Theban Thieves. 257

to call for any medicine he might want that
evening:. I did not see him ao-ain until about
a week later, when I happened to meet him in
the village with a policeman on either side of him,
from one of whom I learned that he was a well-
known thief Thus is one deceived even in the
case of real criminals : how then can one expect
to get at the truth when the crime committed is
so light an affair as the stealing of an antiquity ?

The following is a letter received from one of
the greatest thieves in Thebes, who is now serving
a term of imprisonment in the provincial gaol : —

" Sir General Inspector, — I offer this applica-
tion stating that I am from the natives of Gurneh,
saying the following : —

' On Saturday last I came to your office and
have been told that my family using the sate to
strengthen against the Department. The result
of this talking that all these things which some-
body pretends are not the fact. In fact I am
taking great care of the antiquities for the pur-
pose of my living matter. Accordingly, I wish
to be appointed in the vacant of watching to the
antiquities in my village and promise myself that
if anything happens I do hold myself resposible.' "

I have no idea what " using the sate to
strengthen" means.

It is sometimes said that European excavators
are committing an offence against the sensibil-
ities of the peasants by digging up the bodies

258 The Preservation of the Treasury.

of their ancestors. Nobody will repeat this re-
mark who has walked over a cemetery plundered
by the natives themselves. Here bodies may be
seen lying in all directions, torn limb from limb
by the gold-seekers ; here beautiful vases may
be seen smashed to atoms in order to make
more rare the specimens preserved. The peasant
has no regard whatsoever for the sanctity of
the ancient dead, nor does any superstition in
this regard deter him in his work of destruction.
Fortunately superstition sometimes checks other
forms of robbery. Djins are believed to guard
the hoards of ancient wealth which some of the
tombs are thought to contain, as, for example, in
the case of the tomb in which the family was
asphyxiated, where a fiend of this kind was
thought to have throttled the unfortunate ex-
plorers. Twin brothers are thought to have the
power of changing themselves into cats at will ;
and a certain Huseyn Osman, a harmless indi-
vidual enough, and a most expert digger, would
often turn himself into a cat at night-time, not only
for the purpose of stealing his brother Muhammed
Osman's dinner, but also in order to protect the
tombs which his patron was occupied in excavating.
One of the overseers in some recent excavations
was said to have the power of detecting all rob-
beries on his works. The archgeologist, however,
is unfortunately unable to rely upon this form of
protection, and many are the schemes for the pre-
vention of pilfering which are tried.

Theban Thieves. 259

In some excavations a sum of money is given to
the workman for every antiquity found by him,
and these sums are sufficiently high to prevent any
outbidding by the dealers. Work thus becomes
very expensive for the archaeologist, who is some-
times called upon to pay £10 or £20 in a day.
The system has also another disadvantage, namely,
that the workmen are apt to bring antiquities from
far and near to "discover" in their diggings in
order to obtain a good price for them. Neverthe-
less, it would seem to be the most successful of the
systems. In the Government excavations it is
usual to employ a number of overseers to watch
for the small finds, while for only the really valu-
able discoveries is a reward given.

For finding the famous gold hawk's head at
Hieraconpolis a workman received £14, and with
this princely sum in his pocket he went to a certain
Englishman to ask advice as to the spending of it.
He was troubled, he said, to decide whether to
buy a wife or a cow. He admitted that he had
already one wife, and that two of them would be
sure to introduce some friction into what was now
a peaceful household ; and he quite realised that a
cow would be less apt to quarrel with his first
wife. The Englishman, very properly, voted for
the cow, and the peasant returned home deep in
thought. While pondering over the matter during
the next few weeks, he entertained his friends with
some freedom, and soon he found to his dismay
that he had not enough money left to buy either a

26o The Preservation of the Treasury.

wife or a cow. Thereupon he set to with a will,
and soon spent the remaining guineas in riotous
living. When he was next seen by the English-
man he was a beggar, and, what was worse, his
taste for evil living had had several weeks of
cultivation.

The case of the fortunate finder of a certain
great cache of mummies was different. He re-
ceived a reward of £400, and this he buried in a
very secret place. When he died his possessions
descended to his sons. After the funeral they sat
round the grave of the old man, and very rightly
discussed his virtues until the sun set. Then they
returned to the house and began to dig for the
hidden money. For some days they turned the
sand of the floor over ; but failing to find what
they sought, they commenced operations on a
patch of desert under the shade of some tamarisks
where their father was wont to sit of an afternoon.
It is said that for twelve hours they worked like
persons possessed, the men hacking at the ground,
and the boys carrying away the sand in baskets
to a convenient distance. But the money was
never found.

It is not often that the finders of antiquities
inform the authorities of their good fortune, but
when they do so an attempt is made to give them
a good reward. A letter from the finder of an
inscribed statue, who wished to claim his reward,
read as follows : " With all delight I please inform
you that on 8th Jan. was found a headless temple
of io-ranite sitting on a chair and printed on it."

Theban Thieves. 261

I will end this chapter as I began it, in the
defence of the Theban thieves. In a place where
every yard of ground contains antiquities, and
where these antiquities may be so readily con-
verted into golden guineas, can one wonder that
every man, woman, and child makes use of his
opportunities in this respect to better his fortune?
The peasant does not take any interest in the
history of mankind, and he cannot be expected to
know that in digging out a grave and scattering
its contents, through the agency of dealers, over
the face of the globe, he loses for ever the facts
which the archaeologist is striving so hard to
obtain. The scientific excavator does not think
, the antiquities themselves so valuable as the
record of the exact arrangement in which they
were found. From such data alone can he ob-
tain his knowledofe of the manners and customs
of this wonderful people. When two objects are
found together, the date of one being known and
that of the other unknown, the archaeological
value of the find lies in the fact that the former
will place the latter in its correct chronological
position. But if these two objects are sold separ-
ately, the find may perhaps lose its entire signifi-
cance. The trained archaeologist records every
atom of information with which he meets ; the
native records nothing. And hence, if there is
any value at all in the study of the history of
mankind, illegal excavation must be stopped.

262

CHAPTER XL

THE FLOODING OF LOWER NUBIA.

The country of Lower Nubia lies between the First
and Second Cataracts of the Nile. The town of
Aswan, once famous as the frontier outpost of
Egypt and now renowned as a winter resort for
Europeans and Americans, stands some two or
three miles below the First Cataract ; and two
hundred miles southwards, at the foot of the
Second Cataract, stands Wady Haifa. About
half-way between these two points the little town
of Derr nestles amidst its palms ; and here the
single police-station of the province is situated.
Agriculturally the land is extremely barren, for
the merest strip of cultivation borders the river,
and in many reaches the desert comes down to the
water's edge. The scenery is rugged and often
magnificent. As one sails up the Nile the rocky
hills on either side group themselves into bold
compositions, rising darkly above the palms and
acacias reflected in the water. The villages, clus-
tered on the hillsides as though grown like mush-

The Flooding of Lower Nubia. 263

rooms in the night, are not different in colour to
the ground upon which they are built ; but here
and there neatly whitewashed houses of consider-
al^le size are to be observed. Now we come upon
a tract of desert sand which rolls down to the river
in a golden slope ; now the hills recede, leaving an
open bay wherein there are patches of cultivated
ground reclaimed from the wilderness ; and now a
dense but narrow palm -grove follows the line of
the bank for a mile or more, backed by the villages
at the foot of the hills.

The inhabitants are few in number. Most of
the males have taken service as cooks, butlers,
waiters, and bottle-washers in European houses or
hotels throughout Egypt ; and consequently one
sees more women than men pottering about the
villages or working in the fields. They are a fine
race, clean in their habits and cheery in character-
They can be distinguished with ease from the
Egyptian Jellahin ; for their skin has more the
appearance of bronze, and their features are often
more aquiline. The women do not wear the veil,
and their dresses are draped over one shoulder in
a manner unknown to Egypt. The method of
dressing the hair, moreover, is quite distinctive :
the women plait it in innumerable little strands,
those along the forehead terminating in bead-like
lumps of bee's-wax. The little children go nude
for the first six or eight years of their life, though
the girls sometimes wear around their waists a
fringe made of thin strips of hide. The men still

264 The Preservation of the Treasury.

carry spears in some parts of the country, and a
hght battle-axe is not an uncommon weapon.

There is no railway between Aswan and Haifa,
all traffic being conducted on the river. Almost
continuously a stream of native troops and English
officers passes up and down the Nile bound for
Khartoum or Cairo ; and in the winter the tourists
on steamers and dahahiyehs travel through the
country in considerable numbers to visit the many
temples which were here erected in the days when
the land was richer than it is now. The three
most famous ruins of Lower Nubia are those of
Philae, just above Aswan ; Kalabsheh, some forty
miles to the south ; and Abu Simbel, about thirty
miles below Haifa : but besides these there are
many buildings of importance and interest. The
ancient remains date from all periods of Egyptian
history ; for Lower Nubia played an important
part in Pharaonic affairs, both by reason of its
position as the buffer state between Egypt and
the Sudan, and also because of its gold -mining
industries. In old days it was divided into several
tribal states, these being governed by the Egyptian
Viceroy of Ethiopia ; but the country seldom re-
volted or gave trouble, and to the present day it
retains its reputation for peacefulness and orderly
behaviour.

Owing to the building, and now the heightening,
of the great Nile dam at Aswan, erected for the
purpose of regulating the flow of water by hold-
ing back in the plenteous autumn and winter the

■I

T,,

The Flooding of Lower Nubia. 265

amount necessary to keep up the level in the dry
summer months, the whole of the valley from the
First Cataract to the neighbourhood of Derr will
be turned into a vast reservoir, and a large number
of temples and other ruins will be flooded. Before
the dam was finished the temples on the island of
Philae were strengthened and repaired so as to be
safe from damage by the water ; and now every
other ruin whose foundations are below the future
high - water level has been repaired and safe-
guarded.

In 1906 and 1907 the present writer was dis-
patched to the threatened territory to make a full
report on the condition of the monuments there ; ^
and a very large sum of money was then voted for
the work. Sir Gaston Maspero took the matter
up in the spirit which is associated with his name ;
Monsieur Barsanti was sent to repair and under-
pin the temples ; French, German, and English
scholars were engaged to make copies of the en-
dangered inscriptions and reliefs ; and Dr Beisner,
Mr C. Firth, and others, under the direction of
Captain Lyons, were entrusted with the complete
and exhaustive excavation of all the cemeteries
and remains between the dam and the southern
extremity of the reservoir. As a result of this
work, not one scrap of information of any kind will
be lost by the flooding of the country.

As was to be expected, the building and raising

1 Weigall : ' A Report on the Antiquities of Lower Nubia.' (De-
partment of Antiquities, Cairo, 1907.)

266 The Preservation of the Treasury.

of the dam caused consternation amongst the
archseologically interested visitors to Egypt, and
very considerably troubled the Egyptologists.
Philae, one of the most picturesque ruins on the
Nile, was to be destroyed, said the more hysterical,
and numerous other buildings were to meet with
the same fate. A very great deal of nonsense was
written as to the vandalism of the English ; and the
minds of certain people were so much inflamed by
the controversy that many regrettable words were
spoken. The Department of Antiquities was much
criticised for having approved the scheme, though
it was more generally declared that the wishes of |

that Department had not been consulted, which
was wholly untrue. These strictures are pro-
nounced on all sides at the present day, in spite
of the very significant silence and imperturbation
(not to say supination) of Egyptologists, and it
may therefore be as well to put the matter plainly
before the reader, since the opinion of the person
who is in charge of the ruins in question, has,
whether right or wrong, a sort of interest attached
to it.

In dealing with a question of this kind one has
to clear from the brain the fumes of unbalanced
thought and to behold all things with a level
head. Strong wine is one of the lesser causes
of insobriety, and there is often more damage
done by intemperance of thought in matters
of criticism than there is by actions committed
under the influence of other forms of im-

The Flooding of Lower Nubia. 267

moderation. We are agreed that it is a sad
spectacle which is to be observed in the Old Kent
Road on a Saturday night, when the legs of half
the pedestrians appear to have lost their cunning.
We say in disgust that these people are intoxicated.
What, then, have we to say regarding those per-
sons whose brains are unbalanced by immoderate
habits of thought, who are suffering from that
primary kind of intoxication which the dictionary
tells us is simply a condition of the mind wherein
clear judgment is obscured ? There is sometimes
a debauchery in the reasoning faculties of the
polite which sends their opinions rollicking on
their way just as drink will send a man stagger-
ing up the highroad. Temperance and sobriety
are virtues which in their relation to thought
have a greater value than they possess in any
other regard ; and we stand in more urgent need
of missionaries to preach to us sobriety of opinion,
a sort of critical teetotalism, than ever a drunkard
stood in want of a pledge.

This case of Philae and the Lower Nubian
temples illustrates my meaning. On the one
hand there are those who tell us that the island
temple, far from being damaged by its flooding,
is benefited thereby ; and on the other hand there
are persons who urge that the engineers concerned
in the making of the reservoir should be tarred
and feathered to a man. Both these views are
distorted and intemperate. Let us endeavour to
straighten up our opinions, to walk them soberly

268 The Preservation of the Treasury.

and decorously before us in an atmosphere of
propriety.

It will be agreed by all those who know Egypt
that a great dam was necessary, and it will be
admitted that no reach of the Nile below Wady
Haifa could be converted into a reservoir with so
little detriment to modern interests as that of
Lower Nubia. Here there were very few cul-
tivated fields to be inundated and a very small
number of people to be dislodged. There were,
however, these important ruins which would be
flooded by such a reservoir, and the engineers
therefore made a most serious attempt to find
some other site for the building. A careful study
of the Nile valley showed that the present site
of the dam was the only spot at which a building
of this kind could be set up without immensely
increasing the cost of erection and greatly adding
to the general difficulties and the possible dangers of
the undertaking. The engineers had, therefore, to
ask themselves whether the damage to the temples
weighed against these considerations, whether it
was right or not to expend the extra sum from the
taxes. The answer was plain enough. They were
of opinion that the temples would not be appreci-
ably damaged by their flooding. They argued, very
justly, that the buildings would be under water
for only five months in each year, and for seven
months the ruins would appear to be precisely
as they always had been. It was not necessary,
then, to state the loss of money and the added

'.' ' ^'' '

CC ■• S C c ^(

<cr c

c • c
« c c

c c c C

c c c c

y
X

Pl. XXV.

The Flooding of Lower Nubia. 269

inconveniences on the one hand against the total
loss of the temples on the other. It was simply
needful to ask whether the temporary and ap-
parently harmless inundation of the ruins each
year was worth avoiding at the cost of several
millions of precious Government money ; and,
looking at it purely from an administrative point
of view, remembering that public money had to
be economised and inextravagantly dealt with, I
do not see that the answer given was in any way
outrageous. Philae and the other temples were
not to be harmed : they were but to be closed to
the public, so to speak, for the winter months.

This view of the question is not based upon
any error. In regard to the possible destruction
of Philae by the force of the water, Mr Somers
Clarke, F.S.A., whose name is known all over the
world in connection with his work at St Paul's
Cathedral and elsewhere, states definitely^ that
he is convinced that the temples will not be over-
thrown by the flood, and his opinion is shared
by all those who have studied the matter care-
fully. Of course it is possible that, in spite of
all the works of consolidation which have been
effected, some cracks may appear ; but during the
months when the temple is out of water each year,
these may be repaired. I cannot see that there
is the least danger of an extensive collapse of the
buildings ; but should this occur, the entire temple
will have to be removed and set up elsewhere.

1 Proc. Soc. Antiq., April 20, 1898.

270 The Presen-ation of the Treasun-.

Each summer and autumn when the water goes
down and the buildings once more stand as they
did m the days of the Ptolemies and Eomans. we
shall have ample rime and opportunity to discuss
the situation and to take all proper steps for the
safeofuardino; of the temples against further
damao-e ; and even were we to be confronted by
a mass of fallen ruins, scattered pell-mell over the
island bv the power of the water, I am convinced
that everv block could be replaced before the llood
rose aofain. The temple of Maharraka was entirely
rebuilt in three or four weeks.

Xow. as to the etiecr o^ the water upon the
reliefs and inscriptions with which the walls of
the temples at Philae are covered. In June 1905
I reported^ that a slight disintegration of the sur-
face of the stone was noticeable, and that the
sharp lines of the hieroglyphs had become some-
what blurred. This is due to the action of the
salts in the sandstone : but these salts have now
disappeared, and the disintegration will not con-
tinue. The Report on the Temples of Philae,
issued by the Ministry of Public Works in 190S,
makes this quite clear ; and I may add that the
proof of the statement is to be found at the many
points on the Xile where there are the remains
of quay walls dating from Pharaonic times. Many
of these quays are constructed of inscribed blocks
of a stone precisely similar in quality to that used
at Philae : and although they have been sub-

1 Les A:.: ...ei du Service des Antiquites d'Egypte,'viL 1, p. 74

The Flooding of Lower Nubia. 271

merged for many hundreds of years, the hnes of
the hieroglyphs are almost as sharp now as they
ever were. The action of the water appears to
have little effect upon sandstone, and it may thus
be safely predicted that the reliefs and inscriptions
at Philae will not suffer.

There still remain some traces of colour upon
certain reliefs, and these will disappear. But
archaeologically the loss will be insignificant, and
artistically it will not be much felt. With regard
to the colour upon the capitals of the columns
in the Hall of Isis, however, one must admit
that its destruction would be a grave loss to us,
and it is to be hoped that the capitals will be
removed and replaced by dummies, or else most
carefully copied in facsimile.

Such is the case of Philae when looked at from
a practical point of view. Artistically and senti-
mentally, of course, one deeply regrets the flooding
of the temple. Philae with its palms was a very
charming sight, and although the island still looks
very picturesque each year when the flood has
receded and the cnround is covered with i^jrasses
and vegetation, it will not again possess quite the
ma^ic that once caused it to be known as the
"pearl of Egypt." But these are considerations
which are to be taken into account with very
great caution as standing against the interest of
modern Egypt. If Philae were to be destroyed,
one might, very properly, desire that modern
interests should not receive sole consideration ;

272 The Preservation of the Treasury.

but it is not to be destroyed, or even much
damaged, and consequently the lover of Philae
has but two objections to offer to the operations
now proceeding : firstly, that the temples will be
hidden from sight during a part of each year ;
and secondly, that water is an incongruous and
unharmonious element to introduce into the
sanctuaries of the gods.

Let us consider these two objections. As to
the hiding of the temple under the water, we
have to consider to what class of people the
examination of the ruins is necessary. Archse-
ologists, ofiicials, residents, students, and all
natives, are able to visit the place in the autumn,
when the island stands high and dry, and the
weather is not uncomfortably hot. Every person
who desires to see Philae in its original condition
can arrange to make his journey to Lower Nubia
in the autumn or early winter. It is only the
ordinary winter tourist who will find the ruins
lost to view beneath the brown waters ; and
while his wishes are certainly to be consulted to
some extent, there can be no question that the
fortunes of the Egyptian farmers must receive
the prior attention. And as to the incongruity
of the introduction of the water into these sacred
precincts, one may first remark that water stands
each year in the temples of Karnak, Luxor, the
Ramesseum, Shenhur, Esneh, and many another,
introduced by the natural rise of the Nile, thus
giving us a quieting familiarity with such a con-

The Flooding of Lower Nubia. 273

dition ; and one may further point out that the
presence of water in the buildings is not (speaking
arch geologically) more discordant than that of the
palms and acacias which clustered around the ruins
previous to the building of the dam, and gave
Philae its peculiar charm. Both water and trees
are out of place in a temple once swept and
garnished, and it is only a habit of thought that
makes the trees which grow in such ruins more
congruous to the eye than water lapping around
the pillars and taking the fair reflections of the
stonework.

What remains, then, of the objections? Nothing,
except an undefined sense of dismay that persists
in spite of all arguments. There are few persons
who will not feel this sorrow at the flooding of
Philae, who will not groan inwardly as the water
rises ; and yet I cannot too emphatically repeat
that there is no real cause for this apprehension
and distress.

A great deal of damage has been done to the
prestige of the archaeologist by the ill-considered
outbursts of those persons who have allowed this
natural perturbation to have full sway in their
minds. The man or woman who has protested
the loudest has seldom been in a position even
to offer an opinion. Thus every temperate thinker
has come to feel a greater distaste for the pro-
paganda of those persons who would have hindered
the erection of the dam than for the actual effects
of its erection. Vegetarians, Anti-Vivisectionists,

274 The Preservation of the Treasury.

Militant Suffragists, Little Englanders, and the
like, have taught us to beware of the signs and
tokens of the unbalanced mind ; and it becomes
the duty of every healthy person to fly from the
contamination of their hysteria, even though the
principles which lie at the base of their doctrines
may not be entirely without reason. We must
avoid hasty and violent judgment as we would
the plague. No honest man will deny that the
closing of Philae for half the year is anything
but a very regrettable necessity ; but it has come
to this pass, that a self-respecting person will be
very chary in admitting that he is not mightily
well satisfied with the issue of the whole business.
Recently a poetic effusion has been published
bewailing the "death" of Philae, and because
the author is famous the world over for the
charm of his writing, it has been read, and its
lament has been echoed by a large number of
persons. It is necessary to remind the reader,
however, that because a man is a great artist it
does not follow that he has a sober judgment.
The outward appearance, and a disordered opinion
on matters of everyday life, are often sufficient
indication of this intemperance of mind which is
so grave a human failing, A man and his art, of
course, are not to be confused ; and perhaps it is
unfair to assess the art by the artist, but there
are many persons who will understand my meaning
when I suggest that it is extremely difficult to
give serious attention to writers or speakers

The Flooding of Lower Nubia. 275

of a certain class. Philae is not dead. It
may safely be said that the temples will last
as long as the dam itself Let us never forget
that Past and Present walk hand in hand, and,
as between friends, there must always be much
" give and take." How many millions of pounds,
I wonder, has been spent by the Government, from
the revenues derived from the living Egyptians,
for the excavation and preservation of the records
of the past ? Will the dead not make, in return,
this sacrifice for the benefit of the striving farmers
whose money has been used for the resuscitation
of their history ?

A great deal has been said regarding the de-
struction of the ancient inscriptions which are
cut in such numbers upon the granite rocks in
the region of the First Cataract, many of which
are of great historical importance. Vast quanti-
ties of granite have been quarried for the building
of the dam, and fears have been expressed that
in the course of this work these grafiiti may have
been blasted into powder. It is necessary to say,
therefore, that w^ith the exception of one inscrip-
tion which was damaged when the first quarrymen
set to work upon the preliminary tests for suitable
stone, not a single hieroglyph has been harmed.
The present writer numbered all the inscriptions
in white paint and marked out quarrying conces-
sions, while several watchmen were set to guard
these important relics. In this work, as in all
else, the Department of Antiquities received the

276 The Preservation of the Treasury.

most generous assistance from the Department
concerned with the building of the dam ; and I
should like to take this opportunity of saying that
archaeologists owe a far greater debt to the officials
in charge of the various works at Aswan than they
do to the bulk of their own fellow-workers. The
desire to save every scrap of archaeological infor-
mation has been dominant in the minds of all
concerned in the work throughout the whole
undertaking.

Besides the temples of Philae there are several
other ruins which will be flooded in part by the
water when the heightening of the reservoir is
completed. On the island of Bigeh, over against
Philae, there is a little temple of no great historical
value which will pass under water. The cemeteries
on this island, and also on the mainland in this
neighbourhood, have been completely excavated,
and have yielded most important information.
Farther up stream there stands the little temple
of Dabod. This has been repaired and strength-
ened, and will not come to any harm ; while all
the cemeteries in the vicinity, of course, have
been cleared out. We next come to the fortress
and quarries of Kertassi, which will be partly
flooded. These have been put into good order,
and there need be no fear of their being damaged.
The temple of Tafeh, a few miles farther to the
south, has also been safeguarded, and all the
ancient graves have been excavated.

Next comes the great temple of Kalabsheh

The Flooding of Lower Nubia. 277

which, in 1907, when my report was made, was
in a sorry state. The great hall was filled with
the ruins of the fallen colonnade and its roof; the
hypostyle hall was a mass of tumbled blocks over
which the visitor was obliged to climb ; and all
the courts and chambers were heaped up with
debris. Now, however, all this has been set to
rights, and the temple stands once more in its
glory. The water will flood the lower levels of
the building each year for a few months, but there
is no chance of a collapse taking place, and the
only damage which is to be anticipated is the loss
of the colour upon the reliefs in the inner cham-
bers, and the washing away of some later Coptic
paintings, already hardly distinguishable, in the
first hall.

The temple is not very frequently visited, and
it cannot be said that its closing for each winter
will be keenly felt ; and since it will certainly
come to no harm under the gentle Nile, I do not
see that its fate need cause any consternation.
Let those who are able visit this fine ruin in
the early months of winter, and they will be
rewarded for their trouble by a view of a magni-
ficent temple in what can only be described as
apple-pie order. I venture to think that a building
of this kind washed by the water is a more in-
spiring sight than a tumbled mass of ruins ris-
ing from amidst an encroaching jumble of native
hovels.

Farther up the river stands the temple of

278 The Preservation of the Treasury.

Dendur, This will be partly inundated, though
the main portion of the building stands above
the highest level of the reservoir. Extensive
repairs have been carried out here, and every
grave in the vicinity has been examined. The
fortress of Koshtamneh, which is made of mud-
bricks, will be for the most part destroyed ; but
now that a complete record of this construction
has been made, the loss is insignificant. Some-
what farther to the south stands the imposing
temple of Dakkeh, the lower levels of which will
be flooded. This temple has been most extensively
patched up and strengthened, and no damage of
any kind will be caused by its inundation. The
vast cemeteries in the neighbourhood have all been
excavated, and the remains of the town have been
thoroughly examined. Still farther to the south
stands the mud-brick fortress of Kubban, which,
like Koshtamneh, will be partly destroyed ; but
the detailed excavations and records which have
here been made will prevent any loss being felt by
archaeologists. Finally, the temple of Maharraka
requires to be mentioned. This building in 1907
was a complete ruin, but it was carefully rebuilt,
and now it is quite capable of withstanding the
pressure of the water. From this point to the
southern end of the new reservoir there are no
temples below the new flood-level ; and by the
time that the water is raised every grave and
other relic along the entire banks of the river
will have been examined.

The Flooding of Lower Nubia. 279

To complete these works it is proposed to erect
a museum at Aswan wherein the antiquities dis-
covered in Lower Nubia should be exhibited ; and
a permanent collection of objects illustrating the
arts, crafts, and industries of Lower Nubia at all
periods of its history, should be displayed. It is
a question whether money will he found for the
executing- of this scheme ; but there can be no
doubt that a museum of this kind, situated at
the virtual capital of Lower Nubia, would be a
most valuable institution.

In 1907 the condition of the monuments of
Lower Nubia was very bad. The temples already
mentioned were in a most deplorable state ; the
cemeteries were being robbed, and there was no
proper organisation for the protection of the
ancient sites. There are, moreover, several
temples above the level of high water, and these
were also in a sad condition. Gerf Husen was
both dirty and dilapidated ; Wady Sabua was
deeply buried in sand ; Amada was falling to
pieces ; Derr was the receptacle for the refuse
of the town ; and even Abu Simbel itself was
in a dangerous state. In my report I gave a
gloomy picture indeed of the plight of the monu-
ments. But now all this is changed. Sir Gaston
Maspero made several personal visits to the
country ; every temple was set in order ; many
new watchmen were appointed ; and to-day this
territory may be said to be the "show" portion
of this inspectorate. Now, it must be admitted

28o The Preservation of the Treasury.

that the happy change is due solely to the atten-
tion to which the country was subjected by reason
of its flooding ; and it is not the less true because
it ia paradoxical that the proposed submersion of
certain temples has saved all the Lower Nubian
monuments from rapid destruction at the hands
of robbers, ignorant natives, and barbarous
European visitors. What has been lost in Philae
has been gained a thousand-fold in the repairing
and safeguarding of the temples, and in the
scientific excavation of the cemeteries farther to
the south.

Here, then, is the sober fact of the matter. Are
the English and Egyptian officials such vandals
who have voted over a hundred thousand pounds
for the safeguarding of the monuments of Lower
Nubia ? What country in the whole world has
spent such vast sums of money upon the preserva-
tion of the relics of the Past as has Egypt during
the last five- and- twenty years ? The Government
has treated the question throughout in a fair and
generous manner ; and those who rail at the
officials will do well to consider seriously the re-
marks which I have dared to make upon the
subject of temperate criticism.

28l

CHAPTEE XII.

ARCHEOLOGY IN THE OPEN.

In this chapter I propose to state the case in
favour of the archaeologist who works abroad in
the field, in contrast to him who studies at home
in the museum, in the hope that others will
follow the example of that scholar to whom this
volume is dedicated, who does both.

I have said in a previous chapter that the
archaeologist is generally considered to be a kind
of rag-and-bone man: one who, sitting all his
life in a dusty room, shuns the touch of the
wind and takes no pleasure in the vanities under
the sun. Actually, this is not so very often a
true description of him. The ease with which
long journeys are now undertaken, the immunity
from insult or peril which the traveller now
enjoys, have made it possible for the archaeologist
to seek his information at its source in almost
all the countries of the world ; and he is not
obliged, as was his grandfather, to take it at
second - hand from the volumes of mediaeval
scholars. Moreover, the necessary collections of

282 The Preservation of the Treasury.

books of reference are now to be found in very
diverse places ; and thus it comes about that
there are plenty of archaeologists who are able
to leave their own museums and studies for
limited periods.

And as regards his supposed untidy habits,
the phase of cleanliness which, like a purifying
wind, descended suddenly upon the world in the
second half of the nineteenth century, has
penetrated even to libraries and museums, re-
moving every speck of dust therefrom. The
archaeologist, when engaged in the sedentary side
of his profession, lives nowadays in an atmo-
sphere charged with the odours of furniture-
polish and monkey -brand. A place less dusty
than the Victoria and Albert Museum in South
Kensington, or than the Ashmolean Museum at
Oxford, could not easily be imagined. The dis-
gusting antiquarian of a past generation, with
his matted locks and stained clothing, could but
be ill at ease in such surroundings, and could
claim no brotherhood with the majority of the
present - day archaeologists. Cobwebs are now
taboo ; and the misguided old man who dwelt
amongst them is seldom to be found outside of
caricature, save in the more remote corners of
the land.

The archaeologist in these days, then, is not
often confined permanently to his museum, though
in many cases he remains there as much as pos-

> > > > I 1

"' » . - * • ,

[/"//o/tf /^ //■. Carter.

A relief representing- Queen Tiy, from tlie tomb o\ I'serliat at Thebes.
This rehef was stolen from the tomb, and foiiiul its way to the
Brussels Museum, where it is shown in tlie damaijed eonditioii
seen in Plate xxvii.

Pl. XXVI.

c < ' ' , ' I
tc c <: « t c
c c «* c <

Archaeology in the Open. 283

sible ; and still less often is he a person of ob-
jectionable appearance. The science is generally
represented by two classes of scholar : the man
who sits in the museum or library for the greater
part of his life, and lives as though he would be
worthy of the furniture-polish, and the man who
works in the field for a part of the year and then
lives as though he regarded the clean airs of
heaven in even higher estimation. Thus, in argu-
ing the case for the field- worker, as I propose
here to do, there is no longer the easy target of
the dusty antiquarian at which to hurl the javelin.
One cannot merely urge a musty individual to
come out into the open air : that would make
an easy argument. One has to take aim at the
less vulnerable person of the scholar who chooses
to spend the greater part of his time in a smart
gallery of exhibits or in a well-ordered and spot-
less library, and whose only fault is that he is too
fond of those places. One may no longer tease
him about his dusty surroundings ; but I think it
is possible to accuse him of setting a very bad
example by his affection for " home comforts,"
and of causing indirectly no end of mischief. It
is a fact that there are many Greek scholars who
are so accustomed to read their texts in printed
books that they could not make head nor tail
of an oriofinal document written in a cursive
Greek hand ; and there are not a few students
of Egyptian archaeology who do not know the

284 The Preservation of the Treasury.

conditions and phenomena of the country suffi-
ciently to prevent the occurrence of occasional
"howlers" in the exposition of their theories.

There are three main arguments which may be
set forward to induce Egyptologists to come as
often as possible to Egypt, and to urge their
students to do so, instead of educating the mind
to the habit of working at home.

Firstly, the study of archaeology in the open
helps to train up young men in the path of
health in which they should go. Work in the
Egyptian desert, for example, is one of the most
healthy and inspiring pursuits that could be
imagined ; and study in the shrines overlooking
the Nile, where, as at Gebel Silsileh, one has to
dive into the cool river and swim to the sun-
scorched scene of one's work, is surely more
invigorating than study in the atmosphere of
the British Museum. A gallop up to the Tombs
of the Kings puts a man in a readier mood for a
morning's work than does a drive in an omnibus
along the Tottenham Court Road ; and he will feel
a keenness as he pulls out his note-book that he
can never have experienced in his western city.
There is, moreover, a certain amount of what is
called "roughing it" to be endured by the arch-
aeologist in Egypt ; and thus the body becomes
toughened and prepared for any necessary spurt
of work. To rough it in the open is the best
medicine for tired heads, as it is the finest tonic
for brains in a normal condition.

Archaeology in the Open. 285

In parenthesis an explanation must be given
of what is meant here by that much misunder-
stood condition of life which is generally known
as " roughing it," A man who is accustomed
to the services of two valets will believe that
he is roughing it when he is left to put the
diamond studs in his evening shirts with his
own fingers ; and a man who has tramped the
roads all his life will hardly consider that he is
roughing it when he is outlawed upon the un-
sheltered moors in late autumn. The degree of
hardship to which I refer lies between these two
extremes. The science of Egyptology does not
demand from its devotees a performance of many
extreme acts of discomfort ; but, during the pro-
gress of active work, it does not afford many
opportunities for luxurious self-indulgence, or for
any slackness in the taking of exercise.

As a protest against the dilettante antiquarian
(who is often as objectionable a character as the
unwashed scholar) there are certain archseolosfists
who wear the modern equivalent of a hair shirt,
who walk abroad with pebbles in their shoes, and
who speak of the sitting upon an easy-chair as a
moral set-back. The strained and posed life which
such savants lead is not to be regarded as a rough
one ; for there is constant luxury in the thought of
their own toughness, and infinite comfort in the
sense of superiority which they permit themselves
to feel. It is not roughing it to feed from a bare
board when a tablecloth adds insignificantly to the

286 The Preservation of the Treasury.

impedimenta of the camp : it is pretending to rough
it. It is not roughing it to eat tinned food out of
the tin when a plate costs a penny or two : it is
either hypocrisy or slovenhness.

To rough it is to lead an exposed life under con-
ditions which preclude the possibility of indulging
in certain comforts which, in their place and at the
right time, are enjoyed and appreciated. A man
may well be said to rough it when he camps in the
open, and dispenses with the luxuries of civilisa-
tion ; when he pours a jug of w^ater over himself
instead of lying in ecstasy in an enamelled bath ;
eats a meal of two undefined courses instead of
one of five or six ; twangs a banjo to the moon
instead of ravishing his ear with a sonata upon
the grand piano; rolls himself in a blanket in-
stead of sitting over the library fire ; turns in at
9 P.M. and rises ere the sun has topped the hills
instead of keeping late hours and lying abed ;
sleeps on the ground or upon a narrow camp-
bed (which occasionally collapses) instead of
sprawling at his ease in a four-poster.

A life of this kind cannot fail to be of benefit
to the health ; and, after all, the work of a healthy
man is likely to be of greater value than that of
one who is anaemic or out of condition. It is
the first duty of a scholar to give attention to his
muscles, for he, more than other men, has the
opportunity to become enfeebled by indoor work.
Few students can give sufiicient time to physical
exercise ; but in Egypt the exercise is taken

Archaeology in the Open. 287

during the course of the work, and not an hour
is wasted. The muscles harden and the health
is ensured without the expending of a moment's
thought upon the subject.

Archaeology is too often considered to be the
pursuit of weak-chested youths and eccentric old
men : it is seldom regarded as a possible vocation
for normal persons of sound health and balanced
mind. An athletic and robust young man, clothed
in the ordinary costume of a gentleman, will tell
a new acquaintance that he is an Egyptologist,
whereupon the latter wdll exclaim in surprise :
"Not really? — you don't look like one." A kind
of mystery surrounds the science. The layman
supposes the antiquarian to be a very profound
and erudite person, who has pored over his
books since a baby, and has shunned those games
and sports which generally make for a healthy
constitution. The study of Egyptology is thought
to require a depth of knowledge that places its
students outside the limits of normal learning,
and presupposes in them an unhealthy amount of
schooling. This, of course, is absurd.

Nobody would expect an engineer who built
bridges and dams, or a great military commander,
to be a seedy individual with longish hair, pale
face, and weak eyesight ; and yet probably he has
twice the brain capacity of the average archaeolo-
gist. It is because the life of the antiquarian is,
or is generally thought to be, unhealthy and slug-
gish that he is so universally regarded as a worm.

288 The Preservation of the Treasury.

Some attempt should be made to rid the science
of this forbidding aspect ; and for this end students
ought to do their best to make it possible for them
to be regarded as ordinary, normal, healthy men.
Let them discourage the popular belief that they
are prodigies, freaks of mental expansion. Let
their first desire be to show themselves good,
useful, hardy, serviceable citizens or subjects, and
they will do much to remove the stigma from their
profession. Let them be acquainted with the
feeling of a bat or racket in the hands, or a saddle
between the knees ; let them know the rough path
over the mountains, or the diving-pool amongst the
rocks, and their mentality will not be found to
suffer. A winter's " roughing it " in the Theban
necropolis or elsewhere would do much to banish
the desire for perpetual residence at home in the
west ; and a season in Egypt would alter the point
of view of the student more considerably than he
could imagine. Moreover, the appearance of the
scholar prancing about upon his fiery steed (even
though it be but an Egyptian donkey) will help to
dispel the current belief that he is incapable of
physical exertion ; and his reddened face rising, like
the morning sun, above the rocks on some steep
pathway over the Theban hills will give the
passer-by cause to alter his opinion of those who
profess and call themselves Egyptologists.

As a second argument a subject must be intro-
duced which will be distasteful to a large number
of archaeologists. I refer to the narrow-minded

Archaeology in the Open. 289

policy of the curators of certain European and
American museums, whose desire it is at all costs
to place Egyptian and other eastern antiquities
actually before the eyes of western students, in
order that they and the public may have the
entertainment of examining at home the wonders
of lands which they make no effort to visit. I
have no hesitation in saying that the craze for
recklessly bringing away unique antiquities from
Egypt to be exhibited in western museums for the
satisfaction of the untravelled man, is the most
pernicious bit of folly to be found in the whole
broad realm of archaeoloefical misbehaviour,

A museum has three main justifications for its
existence. In the first place, like a home for lost
dogs, it is a repository for stray objects. No
curator should endeavour to procure for his
museum any antiquity which could be safely
exhibited on its original sight and in its original
position. He should receive only those stray
objects which otherwise would be lost to sight,
or those which would be in danger of destruction.
The curator of a picture gallery is perfectly justi-
fied in purchasing any old master which is legiti-
mately on sale; but he is not justified in obtaining
a painting direct from the walls of a church where
it has hung for centuries, and where it should still
hang. In the same way a curator of a museum of
antiquities should make it his first endeavour not
so much to obtain objects direct from Egypt as to
gather in those antiquities which are in the pos-

290 The Preservation of the Treasury.

session of private persons who cannot be expected
to look after them with due care.

In the second place, a museum is a store-house
for historical documents such as papyri and
ostraca, and in this respect it is simply to be
regarded as a kind of public library, capable of
unlimited and perfectly legitimate expansion.
Such objects are not often found by robbers in the
tombs which they have violated, nor are they
snatched from temples to which they belong.
They are almost always found accidentally, and in
a manner which precludes any possibility of their
actual position having much significance. The
immediate purchase, for example, by museum
agents of the Tell el Amarna tablets — the corre-
spondence of a great Pharaoh — which had been
discovered by accident, and would perhaps have
been destroyed, was most wise.

In the third place, a museum is a permanent
exhibition for the instruction of the public, and
for the enlightenment of students desirous of
obtaining comparative knowledge in any one
branch of their work, and for this purpose it
should be well supplied not so much with ori-
ginal antiquities as with casts, facsimiles, models,
and reproductions of all sorts.

To be a serviceable exhibition both for the
student and the public a museum does not need
to possess only original antiquities. On the con-
trary, as a repository for stray objects, a museum
is not to be expected to have a complete series of

Archaeology in the Open. 291

original antiquities in any class, nor is it the busi-
ness of the curator to attempt to fill up the gaps
by purchase, except in special cases. To do so is
to encourage the straying of other objects. The
curator so often labours under the delusion that it
is his first business to collect together as large a
number as possible of valuable masterpieces. In
reality that is a very secondary matter. His first
business, if he is an Egyptologist, is to see that
Egyptian masterpieces remain in Egypt so far
as is practicable ; and his next is to save what has
irrevocably strayed from straying further. If the
result of this policy is a poor collection, then he
must devote so much the more time and money
to obtaining facsimiles and reproductions. The
keeper of a home for lost dogs does not search
the city for a collie with red spots to complete his
series of collies, or for a peculiarly elongated dachs-
hund to head his procession of those animals.
The fewer dogs he has got the better he is
pleased, since this is an indication that a larger
number are in safe keeping in their homes. The
home of Egyptian antiquities is Egypt, a fact
which will become more and more realised as
travelling is facilitated.

But the curator generally has the insatiable
appetite of the collector. The authorities of one
museum bid vigorously against those of another
at the auction which constantly goes on in the
shops of the dealers in antiquities. They pay
huge prices for original statues, vases, or sar-

292 The Preservation of the Treasury.

cophagi : prices which would procure for them the
finest series of casts or facsimiles, or would give
them valuable additions to their legitimate collec-
tion of papyri. And what is it all for ? It is not
for the benefit of the general public, who could not
tell the difference between a genuine antiquity
and a forgery or reproduction, and who would be
perfectly satisfied with the ordinary, miscellaneous
collection of minor antiquities. It is not for that
class of Egyptologist which endeavours to study
Egyptian antiquities in Egypt. It is almost solely
for the benefit of the student and scholar who
cannot, or will not, go to Egypt. Soon it comes
to be the curator's pride to observe that savants
are hastening to his museum to make their
studies. His civic conceit is tickled by the
spectacle of Egyptologists travelling long dis-
tances to take notes in his metropolitan museum.
He delights to be able to say that the student can
study Egyptology in his well-ordered galleries as
easily as he can in Egypt itself

All this is as wrong - headed as it can be.
While he is fillino: his museum he does not seem
to understand that he is denuding every necro-
polis in Egypt. I will give one or two instances
of the destruction wrought by western museums.
I take them at random from my memory.

In the year 1900 the then Inspector-General
of Antiquities in Upper Egypt discovered a tomb
at Thebes in which there was a beautiful relief
sculptured on one of the walls, representing Queen

. f r C

. 5 / '.

• • • • . • . •

• • • •• • •

• • • • • «

^".it'iy;-..:': :..::\ ,^

{Photo by J. Capart.

A relief representing- Queen Tiy, from the tomb of Userhat, Thebes.
—Brussels Museum. (See PI. xxvi.)

Pl. xxvii.

Archaeology in the Open. 293

Tiy. This he photographed (Plate XXVL), and
the tomb was once more buried. In 1908 I chanced
upon this monument, and proposed to open it up
as a " show place " for visitors ; but alas ! — the
relief of the queen had disappeared, and only a
gaping hole in the wall remained. It appears
that robbers had entered the tomb at about the
time of the change of inspectors ; and, realising
that this relief would make a valuable exhibit for
some western museum, they had cut out of the
wall as much as they could conveniently carry
away — namely, the head and upper part of the
figure of Tiy. The hieroglyphic inscription which
was sculptured near the head was carefully erased,
in case it should contain some reference to the
name of the tomb from which they were taking
the fragment ; and over the face some false in-
scriptions were scribbled in Greek characters, so
as to give the stone an unrecognisable appearance.
In this condition it was conveyed to a dealer's
shop, and it now forms one of the exhibits in the
Royal Museum at Brussels. The photograph on
Plate XXVII. shows the fragment as it appears
after being cleaned.

In the same museum, and in others also, there
are fragments of beautiful sculpture hacked out
of the walls of the famous tomb of Khaemhat at
Thebes. In the British Museum there are large
pieces of wall - paintings broken out of Theban
tombs. The famous inscription in the tomb of
Anena at Thebes, which was one of the most

294 The Preservation of the Treasury.

important texts of the early XVIIIth Dynasty,
was smashed to pieces several years ago to be
sold in small sections to museums ; and the scholar
to whom this volume is dedicated was instru-
mental in purchs^sing back for us eleven of the
fragments, which have now been replaced in the
tomb, and, with certain fragments in Europe, form
the sole remnant of the once imposing stela. One
of the most important scenes out of the famous
reliefs of the Expedition to Fount, at Der el Bahri,
found its way into the hands of the dealers, and
was ultimately purchased by our museum in Cairo.
The beautiful and important reliefs which dec-
orated the tomb of Horemheb at Sakkara, hacked
out of the walls by robbers, are now exhibited in
six different museums : London, Leyden, Vienna,
Bologna, Alexandria, and Cairo. Of the two hun-
dred tombs of the nobles now to be seen at Thebes,
I cannot, at the moment, recall a single one which
has not suffered in this manner at some time pre-
vious to the organisation of the present strict
supervision.

The curators of western museums will argue
that had they not purchased these fragments they
would have fallen into the hands of less desirable
owners. This is quite true, and, indeed, it forms
the nearest approach to justification that can be
discovered. Nevertheless, it has to be remem-
bered that this purchasing of antiquities is the
best stimulus to the robber, who is well aware
that a market is always to be found for his stolen

Archaeology in the Open. 295

goods. It may seem difficult to censure the pur-
chaser, for certainly the fragments were " stray "
when the bargain was struck, and it is the busi-
ness of the curator to collect stray antiquities.
But why were they stray ? Why were they ever
cut from the walls of the Egyptian monuments ?
Assuredly because the robbers knew that museums
would purchase them. If there had been no de-
mand there would have been no supply.

To ask the curators to change their policy, and
to purchase only those objects which are legiti-
mately on sale, would, of course, be as futile as
to ask the nations to disarm. The rivalry be-
tween museum and museum would alone prevent
a cessation of this indiscriminate traffic. I can
see only one way in which a more sane and moral
attitude can be introduced, and that is by the
development of the habit of visiting Egypt and
of working upon archaeological subjects in the
shadow of the actual monuments. Only the per-
son who is familiar with Egypt can know the cost
of supplying the stay-at-home scholar with ex-
hibits for his museums. Only one who has resided
in Egypt can understand the fact that Egypt
itself is the true museum for Egyptian antiquities.
He alone can appreciate the work of the Egyptian
Government in preserving the remains of ancient
days.

The resident in Egypt, interested in archaeology,
comes to look with a kind of horror upon museums,
and to feel extraordinary hostility to what may

296 The Preservation of the Treasury.

be called the museum spirit. He sees with his
own eyes the half-destroyed tombs, which to the
museum curator are things far off and not visual-
ised. While the curator is blandly saying to his
visitor : " See, I will now show you a beautiful
fragment of sculpture from a distant and little-
known Theban tomb," the white resident in Egypt,
with black murder in his heart, is saying : " See,
I will show you a beautiful tomb of which the
best part of one wall is utterly destroyed that a
fragment might be hacked out for a distant and
little-known European museum."

To a resident in Europe, Egypt seems to be a
strange and barbaric land, far, far away beyond
the hills and seas ; and her monuments are
thought to be at the mercy of wild Bedwin
Arabs. In the less recent travel books there is
not a published drawing of a temple in the Nile
valley but has its complement of Arab figures
grouped in picturesque attitudes. Here a fire is
being lit at the base of a column, and the black
smoke curls upwards to destroy the paintings
thereon ; here a group of children sport upon the
lap of a colossal statue ; and here an Arab tethers
his camel at the steps of the high altar. It is
felt, thus, that the objects exhibited in European
museums have been rescued from Egypt and re-
covered from a distant land. This is not so.
They have been snatched from Egypt and lost
to the country of their origin.

He who is well acquainted with Egypt knows

Archaeology in the Open. 297

that hundreds of watchmen, and a small army
of inspectors, engineers, draughtsmen, surveyors,
and other officials now guard these monuments,
that strong iron gates bar the doorways against
unauthorised visitors, that hourly patrols pass
from monument to monument, and that any
damage done is punished by long terms of im-
prisonment ; he knows that the Egyptian Govern-
ment spends hundreds of thousands of pounds
upon safeguarding the ancient remains ; he is
aware that the organisation of the Department
of Antiquities is an extremely important branch
of the Ministry of Public Works. He has seen
the temples swept and garnished, the tombs lit
with electric light, and the sanctuaries carefully
rebuilt. He has spun out to the Pyramids in the
electric tram or in a taxi-cab ; has strolled in even-
ing dress and opera hat through the halls of
Karnak, after dinner at the hotel ; and has rung
up the Theban Necropolis on the telephone.

A few seasons' residence in Egypt shifts the
point of view in a startling manner. No longer
is the country either distant or insecure ; and,
realising this, the student becomes more balanced,
and he sees both sides of the question with equal
clearness. The archaeologist may complain that it
is too expensive a matter to come to Egypt. But
why, then, are not the expenses of such a journey
met by the various museums ? A hundred pounds
will pay for a student's winter in Egypt and his
journey to and from that country. Such a sum

298 The Preservation of the Treasury.

is given readily enough for the purchase of an
antiquity ; but surely rightly-minded students are
a better investment than wrongly - acquired an-
tiquities.

It must now be pointed out, as a third argu-
ment, that an Egyptologist cannot study his sub-
ject properly unless he be thoroughly familiar with
Egypt and the modern Egyptians.

A student who is accustomed to sit at home,
working in his library or museum, and who has
never resided in Egypt, or has but travelled for
a short time in that country, may do extremely
useful work in one way and another, but that
work will not be faultless. It will be, as it were,
lop-sided ; it will be coloured with hues of the
west, unknown to the land of the Pharaohs and
antithetical thereto. A London architect may
design an apparently charming villa for a client in
Jerusalem, but unless he knows by actual and pro-
longed experience the exigencies of the climate of
Palestine, he will be liable to make a sad mess of
his job. By bitter experience the military com-
manders learnt in South Africa that a plan of
campaign prepared in England was of little use
to them. The cricketer may play a very good
game upon the home ground, but upon a foreign
pitch the first straight ball will send his bails
flying into the clear blue sky.

An archgeologist who attempts to record the
material relating to the manners and customs of
the ancient Egyptians cannot complete his task.

Archaeology in the Open. 299

or even assure himself of the accuracy of his state-
ments, unless he has studied the modern customs
and has made himself acquainted with the per-
manent conditions of the country. The modern
Egyptians, as has been pointed out in chapter ii.
(page 28), are the same people as those who bowed
the knee to Pharaoh, and many of their customs
still survive. A student can no more hope to
understand the story of Pharaonic times without
an acquaintance with Egypt as she now is than a
modern statesman can hope to understand his own
times solely from a study of the past.

Nothing is more paralysing to a student of
archaeology than continuous book-work. A collec-
tion of hard facts is an extremely beneficial mental
exercise, but the deductions drawn from such a
collection should be regarded as an integral part
of the work. The road -maker must also walk
upon his road to the land whither it leads him ;
the shipbuilder must ride the seas in his vessel,
though they be uncharted and unfathomed. Too
often the professor will set his students to a com-
pilation which leads them no farther than the final
fair copy. They will be ask^d to make for him,
with infinite labour, a list of the High Priests of
Amon ; but unless he has encouraged them to put
such life into those figures that each one seems to
step from the page to confront his recorder, unless
the name of each calls to mind the very scenes
amidst which he worshipped, then is the work
uninspired and as deadening to the student as it is

300 The Preservation of the Treasury.

useful to the professor. A catalogue of ancient
scarabs is required, let us suppose, and students
are set to work upon it. They examine hundreds
of specimens, they record the variations in design,
they note the differences in the glaze or material.
But can they picture the man who wore the scarab?
— can they reconstruct in their minds the scene in
the workshop wherein the scarab was made '? — can
they hear the song of the workmen or their laugh-
ter when the overseer was not nigh ? In a word,
does the scarab mean history to them, the history
of a period, of a dynasty, of a craft ? Assuredly
not, unless the students know Egypt and the
Egyptians, have heard their songs and their laugh-
ter, have watched their modern arts and crafts.
Only then are they in a position to reconstruct the
picture.

Theodore Roosevelt, in his Homanes lecture at
Oxford, gave it as his opinion that the industrious
collector of facts occupied an honourable but not
an exalted position ; and he added that the merely
scientific historian must rest content with the
honour, substantial, but not of the highest type,
that belongs to him who o-athers material which
some time some master shall arise to use. Now
every student should aim to be a master, to use
the material which he has so laboriously collected ;
and though at the beginning of his career, and
indeed throughout his life, the gathering of
material is a most important part of his work, he

Archaeology in the Open. 301

should never compile solely for the sake of com-
pilation, unless he be content to serve simply as a
clerk of archa3ology.

An archaeoloaist must be an historian. He must
conjure up the past; he must play the Witch of
Endor. His lists and indices, his catalogues and
note-books, must be but the spells which he uses
to invoke the dead. The spells have no potency
until they are pronounced : the lists of the kings
of Egypt have no more than an accidental value
until they call before the curtain of the mind those
monarchs themselves. It is the business of the
archaeologist to awake the dreaming dead : not
to send the living to sleep. It is his business to
make the stones tell their tale : not to petrify the
listener. It is his business to put motion and com-
motion into the past that the present may see and
hear : not to pin it down, spatchcocked, like a
dead thing. In a word, the archaeologist must be
in command of that faculty which is known as the
historic imagination, without which Dean Stanley
was of opinion that the story of the past could not
be told.

But how^ can that imagination be at once exerted
and controlled, as it must needs be, unless the
archaeologist is so well acquainted with the con-
ditions of the country about which he writes that
his pictures of it can be said to be accurate ? The
student must allow himself to be saturated by the
very waters of the Nile before he can permit him-

302 The Preservation of the Treasury.

self to write of Egypt. He must know the modern
Egyptians before he can construct his model of
Pharaoh and his court.

In a recent London play dealing with ancient
Egypt, the actor - manager exerted his historic
imagination, in one scene, in so far as to introduce
a shadoof or water- hoist, which was worked as a
naturalistic side-action to the main incident. But,
unfortunately, it was displayed upon a hillside
where no water could ever have reached it ; and
thus the audience, all unconsciously, was con-
fronted with the remarkable spectacle of a hus-
bandman applying himself diligently to the task
of ladelling thin air on to crops that grew upon
barren sand. If only his imagination had been
controlled by a knowledge of Egypt, the picture
might have been both true and effective.

When the mummy of Akhuaton was discovered
and was proved to be that of a man of twenty-
eight years of age, many persons doubted the
identification on the grounds that the king was
known to have been married at the time when he
came to the throne, seventeen years before his
death, ^ and it was freely stated that a marriage at
the age of ten or eleven was impossible and out of
the question. Thus it actually remained for the
present writer to point out that the fact of the
king's death occurring seventeen years after his
marriage practically fixed his age at his decease

1 Weigall : Life of Akhnaton, p. 56.

Archaeology in the Open. 303

at not much above twenty-eight years, so unlikely
was it that his marriage would have been delayed
beyond his eleventh year. Those who doubted
the identification on such grounds were showing
all too clearly that the manners and customs of
the Egyptians of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, so many of which have come down in-
tact from olden times, were unknown to them.

Here we come to the root of the trouble. The
Egyptologist who has not resided for some time in
Egypt is inclined to allow his ideas regarding the
ancient customs of the land to be influenced by his
unconsciously -acquired knowledge of the habits of
the west. Men do not marry before the age of
eighteen or twenty in Europe : therefore they did not
do so in Egypt. There are streams of water upon
the mountains in Europe : therefore water may be
hoisted upon the hillsides in Egypt. But is he
blind that he sees not the great gulf fixed between
the ways of the east and those of his accustomed
west? It is of no value to science to record the
life of Thutmosis III. with Napoleon as our model
for it, nor to describe the daily life of the Pharaoh
with the person of an English king before our
mind's eye. Our European experience will not
give us material for the imagination to work upon
in dealing with Egypt. The setting for our
Pharaonic pictures must be derived from Egypt
alone ; and no Egyptologist's work that is more
than a simple compilation is of value unless the

304 The Preservation of the Treasury.

sunlight and the sandy glare of Egypt have burnt
into his eyes, and have been reflected on to the
pages under his pen.

The archseologist must possess the historic im-
agination, but it must be confined to its proper
channels. It is impossible to exert this imagina-
tion without, as a consequence, a figure rising up
before the mind partially furnished with the
details of a personality and fully endowed with
the broad character of an individual. The first
lesson, thus, which we must learn is that of allow-
ing no incongruity to appear in our figures. A
king whose name has survived to us upon some
monument becomes at once such a reality that the
legends concerning him are apt to be accepted as
so much fact. Like John Donne one says —

" Thou art so true, that thoughts of thee suffice
To make dreams truth, and fables histories."

But only he who has resided in Egypt can judge
how far the fables are to be regarded as having a
nucleus of truth. In ancient history there can
seldom be sufiicient data at the Egyptologist's
disposal with which to build up a complete figure ;
and his puppets must come upon the stage sadly
deficient, as it were, in arms, legs, and apparel
suitable to them, unless he knows from an experi-
ence of modern Egyptians how to restore them and
to clothe them in good taste. The substance upon
which the imagination works must be no less than
a collective knowledge of the people of the nation

Archaeology in the Open. 305

in question. Rameses must be constructed from
an acquaintance with many a Pasha of modern
Egypt, and liis Chief Butler must reflect tlie
known characteristics of a hundred Beys and
Eftendis. Without such "padding" the figures
will remain but names, and with names Egyptology
is already overstocked.

It is remarkable to notice how little is known
regarding the great personalities in history. Tak-
ing three characters at random : we know extremely
little that is authentic regarding King Arthur ; our
knowledge of the actual history of Robin Hood is
extremely meagre ; and the precise historian would
have to dismiss Cleopatra in a few paragraphs.
But let the archaeologist know so well the manners
and customs of the period with which he is dealing
that he will not, like the author of the stories of
the Holy Grail, dress Arthur in the armour of the
thirteenth century, nor fill the mind of Cleopatra
with the thoughts of the Elizabethan poet ; let
him be so well trained in scientific cautiousness
that he will not give unquestioned credence to the
legends of the past ; let him have sufticient know-
ledge of the nation to which his hero or heroine
belonged to be able to fill up the lacunre with a
kind of collective appreciation and estimate of the
national characteristics, — and I do not doubt that
his interpretations will hold good till the end of all
history.

The student to whom Egypt is not a living
reality is handicapped in his labours more unfairly

3o6 The Preservation of the Treasury.

than Is reahsed by him. Avoid Egypt, and though
your brains be of vast capacity, though your eyes
be never raised from your books, you will yet
remain In many ways an Ignoramus, liable to be
corrected by the merest tourist In the Nile valley.
But come with me to a Theban garden that I
know, where, on some still evening, the dark
palms are reflected In the placid Nile, and the
acacias are mellowed by the last light of the sun-
set ; where, in leafy bowers, the grapes cluster
overhead, and the fig-tree is burdened with fruit.
Beyond the broad sheet of the river rise those un-
changeable hills which encompass the Valley of
the Tombs of the Kings ; and at their foot, dimly
seen In the evening haze, sit the twin colossi, as
they have sat since the days of Amenhotep the
Magnificent. The stars begin to be seen through
the leaves now that the daylight dies, and pres-
ently the Milky Way becomes apparent, stretching
across the vault of the night, as when It was
believed to be the Nile of the Heavens.

The owls hoot to one another through the gar-
den; and at the edge of the alabaster tank wherein
the dusk is mirrored, a frog croaks unseen amidst
the lilies. Even so croaked he on this very ground
In those days when, typifylug eternity, he seemed
to utter the endless refrain, " I am the resurrection,
I am the resurrection," Into the ears of men and
maidens beneath these self-same stars.

And now a boat floats past, on Its way to
Karnak, silhouetted against the last-left light of

Archaeology in the Open. 307

the sky. There is music and song on board. The
sound of the pipes is carried over the water and
pulses to the ears, inflaming the imagination with
the sorcery of its cadences and stirring the blood
by its bold rhythm. The gentle breeze brings the
scent of many flowers to the nostrils, and with
these come drifting thoughts and undefined fancies,
so that presently the busy considerations of the
day are lulled and forgotten. The twilight seems
to cloak the extent of the years, and in the gather-
ing darkness the procession of the centuries is
hidden. Yesterday and to-day are mingled to-
gether, and there is nothing to distinguish to the
eye the one age from the other. An immortal,
brought suddenly to the garden at this hour, could
not say from direct observation whether he had
descended from the clouds into the twentieth
century before or the twentieth century after
Christ ; and the sound of the festal pipes in the
passing boat would but serve to confuse him the
more.

In such a garden as this the student will learn
more Egyptology than he could assimilate in many
an hour's study at home ; for here his five senses
play the student and Egypt herself is his teacher.
While he may read in his books how this Pharaoh
or that feasted o' nights in his palace beside the
river, here, not in fallible imagination but in actual
fact, he may see Nilus and the Libyan desert to
which the royal eyes were turned, may smell the
very perfume of the palace garden, and may hearken

3o8 The Preservation of the Treasury.

to the self-same sounds that luhed a king to sleep
in Hundred-Crated Thebes.

Not in the west, but only by the waters of the
Nile will he learn how best to be an historian of
ancient Egypt, and in what mannL,r to make his
studies of interest, as well as of techr;ical value, to
his readers, for he will here discover the great
secret of his profession. Suddenly the veil will be
lifted from his understanding, and he will become
aware that Past and Present are so indissoluble as
to be incapable of separate interpretation or single
study. He will learn that there is no such thing
as a distinct Past or a defined Present. " Yester-
day this day's madness did prepare," and the
affairs of bygone times must be interpreted in the
light of recent events. The Past is alive to-day,
and all the deeds of man in all the ages are living
at this hour in offspring. There is no real death.
The earthly grave will not hide, nor the mountain
tomb imprison, the actions of the men of old
Egypt, so consequent and fruitful are all human
affairs. This is the knowledge which will make
his work of lasting value ; and nowhere save in
Egypt can he acquire it. This, indeed, is the secret
of the Sphinx ; and only at the lips of the Sphinx
itself can he learn it.

PRlXTtl) BY WILLIAM BLACKWUULi AIJD S02<S.

REVIEWS OF
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF
AKHNATON, PHAEAOH OF EGYPT.

\\U. 13LACKW00D & SONS. IDs. 6d. net.

Manchester Courier. — " Mr Weigall's new book provides the best of
good reading. He makes the dead to live. He has to deal with a great, a
magnificent subject, . . . and we think that he has risen to the occasion.
It is a theme ... to move a writer to express every qualitj' at his com-
mand, and it is well that a writer in command of so many qualities as Mr
Weigall should have the opportunity given him. He shows imagination, an
eye for beauty, feeling for the high spiritual significance of a prophet's
ardours, warmth of sympathy for the projihet's heart : and, perhaps above
all else, a sense for the rhythm and melody of prose. . . . Akhnaton,
Pharaoh of Egypt, was a great mind ; and in Mr Weigall's pages he becomes
a lovable spirit. . . . Akhnaton lived and died three thousand years ago.
To-day, in Mr Weigall's book, he lives again. This seems to us a memorable
achievement. The labour that has gone to effect it is great, and the
knowledge is great."

Irish Times. — " ilr Weigall has written Akhnaton 's history, and
given us a very great book."

The World. — "It is no mean feat of scholarship and research wliich
Mr Weigall has accomplished. . . . The character, genius, and philosophy
of this ' the world's first idealist,' will for ever repay such study as Mr
Weigall has devoted to them in an admirably researchful volume."

Daily News. — " Mr Weigall has given much more than a bare record
of historiciil facts. . . . Closely intimate with the scenes amid which the
Pharaohs moved, steeped in the atmosphere created by the study of temples,
pictures, and inscriptions, he has very brilliantly . . . filled out the
portrait of this most remarkable of F^gyptian kings. . . . In the result
he has produced a fascinating study. . . . The story, as Mr Weigall has
written it, reads like a romance. ... It is a relief to find a scholar so well
versed in liis subject who is able to treat it in so luminous a manner."

Manchester Daily Guardian.—" Mr Weigall's book is eminently
readable. ... He utilises the scanty records so etfectively that the . . .
general reader should be glad to be thus introduced to a boy-reformer who
in the fourteenth century B.C. anticipated the Psalms of Judaism and taught
the loving fatherhood of tlie one God."

Pall Mall Gazette.—" The career of a man with such lofty concep-
tions (as Akhnaton) was well worth telling. Mr Weigall has dealt with his
material in masterly fashion, and he makes his hero as much a reality to us
as is the most familiar character in history. ... He writes with equal
enthusiasm and scholarship."

Daily Telegraph.— " Over 3000 years after his death the youug
Pharaoh's story is newly pieced together, and the biographer for whom he
has so long waited has made real for us the dim past in a remarkable
fashion. , . . It is a deeply interesting book that Mr Weigall has given
us, and a personality of surprising vigour and amazing originality to whom
he has introduced us."

The Literary Post. — " The historical value of the explorations now
being carried on in Egypt is f ullj' exemplified in the work before us, in
which the remote past is conjured uj) with a vividness that is as rare as it
is exhilai'ating. The veil of thirty-tour centuries is lifted, and we see the
Egypt of the Eighteenth Dynasty, in all its power and magnificence, as
clearly as if we were indeed living in that splendid age. But it is more
than a mere picture of a past civilsation that Mr Weigall brings before us ;
for the picture, fine as it is, is but the setting for the study of a tempera-
ment, of the development of a mind curiously in advance of its age. . . .
One of the most fascinating books it has ever been our privilege to read."

Egyptian Gazette. — " The most remarkable figure in the early
history of the world is Akhnaton. . . . The life and times of this Pharaoh
is the subject of a new work by Mr Weigall, and he has made good use of
his material. . . . No more sympathetic writer could have been found for
the task than this young English Egyptologist."

Observer. — "It is a strange and pathetic story, and nothing is more
strange about it than that it should be told at all, and that after these ages
it should be possible to reconstruct, with so much accuracy and detail, the
character of one who has . . . been called ' the first individual in human
history.'"

Glasgow Evening News.— "A fascinating record of one of the
most striking figui^es in history."

Scotsman. — "The aim of Mr Weigall's new volume is . . . to rouse
the interest of the general reader in Egyptology, by introducing him to
what is, perhaps, the most picturesque episode in the whole of Egyptian
history. This is a useful purpose, and one which the book is excellently
calculated to fulfil. . . . Mr Weigall has cast his net widely, so that nothing
escapes him. . . . We cannot help wondering whether Mr Weigall has the
Pharaoh's private diary up his sleeve. . . . His style is vivid and forcible.
. . . The translations that are given are of astonishing interest, and will
whet the appetite of students of religion. . . . The illustrations have been
admirably chosen."

The Academy. — " Mr Weigall has given an interesting and picturesque
sketch of this solitary . . . figure in liistory."

The Bookman. — " Mr Weigall's work is just as good reading for those
who know nothing whatever about Egypt as for those who are experts in
the subject. So clearly and untechnically does the author write, that he
is easily to be understood. . . . This book is really the extraordinarily
interesting biography of the 'first individual in human history.'"

Truth.—" Mr Weigall's extremely interesting . . . ' Life and Times of
Akhnaton ' presents a portrait of a Christ more than a thousand years before
Christ."

Aberdeen Free Press.—" The author might have described this book
by the title . . . ' Christianity in the Fourteenth Century B.C.,' for he sets
before him, and well accomplishes, the task of giving an . . . account of

. . . the establishment of the Aton-worship by Akluiaton, about B.C.
137;". . . . The book is on the right lines, and .siiould do much to
popularise the subject, and awaken a greatly needed interest in the great
work of exploration in Egypt."

Birmingham Daily Post.— "The task which Mr Weigall has under-
taken . . . was well Will th the labour. . . . Mr Weigall has a thic gift of
style, and a singularly attractive subject, of which he shows himself entirely
worthy."

Athenseum^. — "Mr Weigall writes well and easily, while his enthusiasm
for his subject carries the reader along with him, and will doubtless cause
his book to be read by hundreds. ..."

Glasgow Daily Herald. — '■ As an Egyptologist of considerable dis-
tinction, Mr Weigall is eminently qualified to write such a book as this. . . .
To clothe the bones of Akhnaton with flesh and blood is the purpose of this
remarkable volume. It is ... a daring book, undeniably clever, marked
by great learning, and displaying unmistakable touches of genius. . . .
The reader . . . will find much in this volume that will profoundly im-
press him."

Christian Commonwealth. — " A book of most absorbing interest.
It has all the charm of a novel, and . , . nothing is wanting to make it
one of the most notable that has been issued from the Press for a long time."

Times. — "The author of this singularly beautiful book — at once a
reconstruction from the original sources by a scholar deeply versed in
Egyptian arcliLCology and history and himself a partner in many discoveries,
and also an eloquent and illuminating exposition of a learned subject by one
who is himself an idealist gifted with insight and sympathy — has done much
to set ' the world's first idealist ' in his true place as the voice of God in a
barren land. No one, we think, can read Mr ^^'eigal^s volume without being
inspired with the enthusiasm which he makes no effort to disguise."

Saturday Review. — " Mr Weigall has written a fascinating book. . . .
He has the historical imagination and the power of picturesque expression
which enable him ... to present a general picture that is at once lifelike
and satisfying."

Liverpool Daily Courier.— "A fascinating . . . and delightful
book."

Guardian. — " The biographer of the heretic king has done his work
extremely well. He has a power of description and of visualising the events
he describes that is used with great profit and pleasure to the reader, and
his book will interest all who care for the history of religion."

Reynold's Newspaper. — "A truly wonderful story."

Yorkshire Daily Post. — " A singularly readable book. "

Daily Chronicle. — "]Mr Weigall has written a remarkable book.
Seldom does a reviewer, having read a volume through, at once re-read it
because of the pleasure it has given. Yet such was the fact on this occasion.
The story of Akhnaton is strengthening and beautiful : it would perhaps be
pitiful — it is in some respects so human — if it were not remembered that
since it 'happened, ages have drifted by ; and, with the intervention of
centuries, abolition of sorrow comes. Nevertheless, the spirit of its message
lingers ; and men will be wise to remember the facts and the moral of the
efforts Akhnaton made."

TEAVELS IN
THE UPPER EGYPTIAN DESEKTS.

WM. BLACKWOOD & SONS. 7s. 6d. net.

Aberdeen Free Press. — "Antiquities rather than incidents are the
chief characteristics of these 'Travels.' Yet on this account they are none
the less, but indeed much the more, interesting. They take the reader back
to long past ages and tell him many marvellous things. . . . We heartily
commend this pleasantly written volume to thoughtful readers."

Pall Mall Gazette. — "IMrWeigall reveals to us the secrets of the
Eastern desert, that stony waste which stretches from the Nile to the Red
Sea. . . . Next to visiting the desert itself we can imagine nothing so
delightful as reading Mr Weigall's fascinating story."

Irish Times. — ''Mr Weigall has succeeded in making us realise the
desert. What the others (Pierre Loti, &c.) effect by a delicate art, he
accomplishes by simple . . . talk about things which he knows and loves.
This is the real secret of the success of his book, for it is a success. . . . We
hope that he will publish more of these papers soon. "

Newcastle Chronicle. — " The reader will not need to be an enthu-
siastic Egyptologist in order to fully enjoy Mr Weigall's company. ... It
is not easy to overpraise the chapter on ' A Nubian Highway,' full of spirited
pictures of the past."

Westminster Gazette.— "Since the days of Eliot, Warburton, and
Kinglake, many writers have celebrated the delights of travel in the desert.
None, I think, has realised the fascination of the desert more fully than
Mr Weigall. . . . The sights, the sounds, the very air of the desert, visit
the senses of the reader with a keenness that is almost painful. . . . Alto-
gether, Mr Weigall's ' Travels ' reveal the extraordinary variety of interest
these eastern deserts possess for the intelligent European. His delightful
book is most efficiently illustrated."

Observer. — "A graphic and human narrative of a deserted land."

Scotsman. — " Mr Weigall has felt the desert, and he is quite competent
to transfer his feelings to paper. If the reading of his book does not induce
freckles on the reader's nose ... it can only be for physiological reasons."

Liverpool Daily Post. — '-Few writers have given more admirable
pictures of the desert than Mr Weigall. ... His hope is, though he dis-
claims the power, to hold his readers so entranced . . . that they shall feel
the sunlight streaming over the desert plains, and imagine the glow of the
sun and the wind upon their cheeks, till they hold their hands to their eyes
as a shelter from the glare. We can sincerely congratulate him upon his
success. ... He not only leads us through a strange country, but he
peoples it with bygone races, and to the charm of a landscape painting he
adds the erudition of an Egyptologist."

Liverpool Courier. —"The Upper Egyptian deserts . . . were in
remote clays the scene of extraordinary activities, and Mr Weigall, in a very
fascinating way, reveals to us some of the interest they still possess. . . .
Mr Weigall's literary power is very notable, and we have not for a long time
read a more interesting and suggestive book of travel than this."

Manchester Courier.—" There are many delightful descriptions of
days and nights in the desert, graphic in their sense of sight and sound,
many brightly recorded incidents of journeys over wastes of sand that have
long remained untrodden. . . . The style of the author is at all limes
attractive and admirably adapted to tiie theme he is discussing."

Glasgow Evening News.— "It is a book which recalls, without
mucli obvious effort to recall, all the wonder and mystery with which the
name of Kgypt has always been associated."

Belfast News Letter. — " One of the most interesting books of travel
published in recent years."

Yorkshire Daily Post. — " Mr Weigall's account of the quarries (in

the Eastern desert) is fascinating."

Spectator. — " Mr Weigall gives us here what we may call the private
side of some of his official journeys. . . . The book has many interesting
things in it, things both old and nevp."

Homiletic Review. — "This alluring treatise . . . abounds in graphic
illustrations and quaint inscriptions."

Manchester Guardian.— "Mr Weigall's book gives some vivid pic-
tures of a civilisation that is no more, and of a region which is practically
unknown to modern travellers. . . . He traces in a most graphic manner
the history of the (mining and quarrying) industry."

Daily Chronicle. — "The book breathes of the desert. It brings
back the glow of the hot sun on the yellow sands stretching to the horizon,
and the long camel-roads from oasis to oasis. It is full of the zeal of
exploration and research, touched with the true spirit of wonder and
mystery which ought to be in the mind of every explorer. We recommend
it as one of the best products of recent Egyptian exploration."

The Times. — "Mr Weigall is the scholar-sportsman, and the game, of
whose hunting he writes, was found chiefly in the Eastern Egyptian desert.
. . . He describes it in a clear, agreeable English, and with a fine sensitive-
ness to the mystery and romance of ancient things and to the natural
beauties of a desert land. . , , The description of Kossair, so rarely visited,
and especially of the midnight fishery on its reefs, is the bright particular
gem of a book which contains many passages of very great literary merit.
Mr Weigall writes with so much distinction (not to mention his power of
observation and his knowledge) that one of these days he should give us a
travel-book which may take rank in the small company of the very best."'

The Guardian. — '■ Every one who reads Mr Weigall's book will envy
the author's experiences. . . . Whether following the Nubian road to Abu
Simbel, the highway to the ' dream town ' of Kossair, or exploring temples
or Roman stations, Mr Weigall carries the reader with him ; in his company
the dead past lives again. "

The Nation. — " ilr Weigall is an archrcologist of repute, but he is also
a great deal more. The book he has given us includes the results of arch-
reological research ; but it is pre-eminently a book of the desert, and tlie

atmosphere thereof. Its word-painting makes one think of Fromentin in
Algeria, or Mr Robert Hichens in Biskra. ... An altogether delightful
book."

The Sphinx.— " This is a work which every lover of Egypt should
possess. The author has discovered the soul of the desert and has painted
it in beautiful language. . . . We are compelled to admit that the result is
the greatest work on the desert that has ever been written. • • • _ Apart
from exquisite descriptions and word-paintings which only emphasise the
chiaroscuro of his conception, and which carry us beyond the ken of tourist-
land into ' The Garden of Allah,' Mr Weigall gives some interesting accounts
of temples and ruins which add considerably to the value of the book."

Saturday Review.— '"Travels in the Upper Egyptian Deserts' is
really interesting and well worth reading. . . . We think the author has
attained his desire, so modestly expressed, of carrying away his readers on
the fabled magic carpet. For in this book we are really brought face to face
with facts and past history, with which are interwoven the incidents of
exceedingly interesting but arduous journeyings. . . . The tale is well told,
and the reader will not weary of it."

Athenaeum..- " It is a book to be read again. . . . Its main purpose is
to give the impressions of life in the Eastern Egyptian desert, on the old
trade-routes which led from the Nile to the Red Sea. ... Mr Weigall
describes all this excellently. . . . There is much in the book that will
delight all desert travellers, and the photographs will help those who are so
unfortunate as to know the desert only in their dreams."

Douglas Sladen (author of 'Egypt and the English,' &c.)— "The
style is extraordinarily felicitous ; such a wonderful mixture of esprit and
erudition."

John Ward (author of ' Pyramids and Progress,' &c.)— " The very best
book of travel in Egypt that I have seen. . . . The language is so clear, the
descriptive portions so graphic, and yet the style so simple, that the work is,
in its way, a masterpiece."

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