Ibis-headed, jackal-featured, vulture-hooded, pass on high, There, revealed by fitful flashes, in a gloom that may be felt, And on high, o'er shining waters, in their barks the gods sail by, In the Sunboat and the Moonboat, rowed across the rose-hued sky. Night, that was before Creation, watches sphinxlike, starred with eyes, And the hours and days are passing, and the years and centuries. But these mummied Kings of Egypt, pictures of a perished race, Lie, of busy Death forgotten, face by immemorial face. Though the glorious sun above them, burning on the naked plain, Clothes the empty wilderness with the golden, glowing grain; Though the balmy Moon above them, floating in the milky Blue, Fills the empty wilderness with a silver fall of dew; Though life comes and flies unresting, like the shadow which a dove Casts upon the Sphinx, in passing, for a moment from above; Still these mummied Kings of Egypt, wrapped in linen, fold on fold, Bide through ages in their coffins, crowned with crowns of dusky gold. Had the sun once brushed them lightly, or a breath of air, they must Instantaneously have crumbled into evanescent dust. Pale and passive in their prisons, they have conquered, chained to death; And their lineaments look living now as when they last drew breath! Have they conquered? Oh, the pity of those Kings within their tombs, Locked in stony isolation in those petrifying glooms! Motionless where all is motion in a rolling Universe, Heaven, by answering their prayer, turned it to a deadly curse. Left them fixed where all is fluid in a world of star-winged skies; Where, in myriad transformations, all things pass and nothing dies; Nothing dies but what is tethered, kept when Time would set it free, To fulfill Thought's yearning tension upward through Eternity. THE EPIC OF PENTAUR. ON THE EXPLOITS OF RAMESES II., ABOUT B.C. 1400. (Translated by Heinrich Brugsch-Bey, in "Egypt of the Pharaohs.") [HEINRICH KARL BRUGSCH, a celebrated Egyptologist, was born in Berlin, Germany, February 18, 1827. He early become an enthusiast on Egyptian antiquities, visited Egypt twice to study them, and founded in 1864 at Leipsic a periodical devoted to them. He was professor at Göttingen, 1868–1869, when by invitation of the Khedive he took the headship of the School of Egyptology in Cairo, and was given the titles of Bey and Pasha. In 1881 he succeeded Mariette as keeper of the Museum at Boulak; later in the same year he returned to Berlin to lecture on Egyptology, and was made director of the Egyptian Museum there. He had been a member of the embassy to Persia in 1860. He died September 10, 1894. His works include: "Egyptian Monuments," 1857 and 18621866; "History of Egypt," 1859, 1877, revised more than once since and still valuable; "Hieroglyphic-demotic Dictionary," 1867-1882; "The Exodus and the Egyptian Monuments," 1875; "Geographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt," 1879-1880.] - BEGINNING of the victory of king Ramses Miamun may he live forever! - which he obtained over the people of the Khita, of Naharain, of Malunna, of Pidasa, of the Dardani, over the people of Masa, of Karkisha, of Qasuatan, of Qarkemish, of Kati, of Anaugas, over the people of Akerith and Mushanath. The youthful king with the bold hand has not his equal. His arms are powerful, his heart is firm, his courage is like that of the god of war, Monthu, in the midst of the fight. He leads his warriors to unknown peoples. He seizes his weapons, and is a wall, their [his warriors'] shield in the day of battle. He seizes his bow, and no man offers opposition. Mightier than a hundred thousand united together goes he forwards. His courage is firm like that of a bull. He has smitten all peoples who had united themselves together. No man knows the thousands of men who stood against him. A hundred thousand sank before his glance. Terrible is he when his war cry resounds; bolder than the whole world; he is as the grim lion in the valley of the gazelles. His command will be performed. No one dares to speak against him. Wise is his counsel. Complete are his decisions, when he wears the royal crown Atef and declares his will, a protector of his people. His heart is like a mountain of iron. Such is king Ramses Miamun. After the king had armed his people and his chariots, and in like manner the Shardonians, which were once his prisoners, then was the order given them for the battle. The king took his way downwards, and his people and his chariots accompanied him, and followed the best road on their march. . . Now had the miserable king of the hostile Khita, and the many peoples which were with him, hidden themselves in an ambush to the northwest of the city of Kadesh, while Pharaoh was alone, no other was with him. The legion of Amom advanced behind him. The legion of Phra went into the ditch on the territory which lies to the west of the town of Shabatuna, divided by a long interval from the legion of Ptah in the midst [marching] towards the town of Arnama. The legion of Sutekh marched on by their roads. And the king called together all the chief men of his warriors. the lake of the land of the Amorites. miserable king of Khita was in the midst of his warriors which were with him. But his hand was not so bold as to venture on battle with Pharaoh. Therefore he drew away the horsemen and the chariots which were numerous as the sand. And they stood three men on each war chariot, and there were assembled in one spot the best heroes of the army of Khita, well appointed with all weapons for the fight. Behold, they were at At the same time the They did not dare to advance. They stood in ambush to the northwest of the town of Kadesh. Then they went out from Kadesh, on the side of the south, and threw themselves into the midst of the legion of Pra-Hormakhu, which gave way, and was not prepared for the fight. Then Pharaoh's warriors and chariots gave way before them. And Pharaoh had placed himself to the north of the town of Kadesh, on the west side of the river Arunatha. Then they came to tell the king. Then the king arose, like his father Month; he grasped his weapons and put on his armor, just like Baal in his time. And the noble pair of horses which carried Pharaoh, and whose name was "Victory in Thebes," they were from the court of King Ramses Miamun. When the king had quickened his course, he rushed into the midst of the hostile hosts of Khita, all alone, no other was with him. When Pharaoh had done this, he looked behind him and found himself surrounded by 2500 pairs of horses, and his retreat was beset by the bravest heroes of the king of the miserable Khita, and by all the numerous peoples which were with him, of Arathu, of Masu, of Pidasa, of Kesh |