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and at a time when tribute flowed into the country from Syria, Palestine, Libya, Nubia, and a part of the Northern Sûdân. When we consider the group as a whole it is easy to see that all are built practically on one and the same plan; the modifications which occur in the details of each are due partly to structural difficulties and partly to the difference in the lengths of time which were devoted to the making of them. If the king began to build his tomb early in life, and had a long and successful reign, his tomb would be large and contain many chambers, and be elaborately decorated with scenes and texts from the religious works which were most esteemed at the time; if his reign were short and supplies were not forthcoming to provide the food of the workmen and others employed on the work, the corridors had to be shortened, and the number of rooms diminished. It may well be assumed that these tombs were built by forced labour.

One of the commonest religious views of the Egyptians was that the Ţuat, or Underworld, was a long, narrow valley which ran parallel with Egypt, and was neither above nor below the level of this earth. It had a river flowing through the whole length of it. This valley began on the west bank of the Nile, ran due north, bent round towards the east when the Delta was approached, and terminated at the place where the sun rose. It was divided into 10 sections, and at each end was a sort of vestibule or chamber. The ante-chamber at its beginning was called Amentet, and was a place of gloom; as the passenger through this valley went onwards each of the first five sections grew darker and darker, until at the end of the fifth section the darkness was absolute. As the passenger moved on through the last five sections the darkness grew less and less dense, until at the end of the tenth section he entered the chamber, the gloom of which resembled that of the chamber at the beginning of the valley. The whole night, which was

supposed to consist of 12 hours, was occupied in passing through the Tuat, and the two chambers and the 10 main divisions of it were traversed each in one hour. The Tuat was a difficult place to pass through, for portions of it were filled with hideous monsters and horrible reptiles, and a lake of boiling and stinking water. Religious tradition declared that the Sun-god Rā had made his way in it seated in his boat, but that he was only enabled to do so by employing his words of magical power, and by the exercise of the functions of deity. The priests declared that they possessed the knowledge of such words of power, and people believed that if they learned them, and learned to recognize the various divisions of the Tuat and the beings in them by means of the pictures which the priests provided, they could make the journey through the Tuat in safety, and would rise in the next world with the sun.

The priests of Amen, who promulgated this view, which was based upon an older system of indigenous belief, presided over the building of the royal tombs in the XVIIIth dynasty, and made each tomb to resemble the long, narrow valley of the Tuat by providing it with long corridors. When the body was deposited in the tomb the priests repeated the words of power which Ra was believed to have uttered, and performed ceremonies in imitation of those of the acts of the god; in fact, made very full use of sympathetic magic, and the worshippers of Amen believed that their kings would surely and certainly pass safely through the dark valley, and would overcome all their foes, and would rise together with the sun to a new life in the next world. Now, the Sun-god traversed this valley each night in his boat, and, of course, rose each day; the aim, then, of every one of his worshippers was to secure a passage in his boat, for if only this could be obtained resurrection was certain. The doctrine of the sun-worshippers and the priests of Amen taught that the souls of all who died during the

day made their way to Amentet, where, provided they were equipped with the knowledge of the necessary "divine words," they entered the boat of the Sun-god. When they arrived at the kingdom of Osiris at midnight they were judged, and the blessed were rewarded, and the wicked were annihilated; this done the boat of the Sun-god passed on towards the East, where, having destroyed all the nature powers of night and darkness, i.e., cloud, mist, rain, etc., he rose on this world in glorious strength, and the souls who had chosen to stay with him rejoiced in renewed light and were happy.

All the inscriptions on these tombs were written to effect this object, and they may be thus grouped :-(1) The Book of the Praisings, or Litanies, of Rā, which contains 75 short paragraphs; each paragraph supplies one of Ra's names, and a certain attribute. (2) The Book of the Gates, i.e., the 12 Gates or Pylons of the 12 divisions of the Ţuat. This book gave the names of the Gates and of their guardians, and described the various beings that were to be found in each section, and the texts repeated the addresses which they made to Rā, and the answers which Rā made to them. One portion of this book is exceedingly old, and the sympathetic magic described in it must date from pre-dynastic times. (3) The Book of that which is in the Underworld, which treats of the 12 divisions of the Underworld, and contains texts, the knowledge of which was of vital importance to the deceased. It describes at some length the kingdom of the god Seker, and the monster serpents which guard it, and reveals the belief in the existence of a place of doom where the darkness was impenetrable and the depth unfathomable. This work appears to represent the dogmas of the most ancient inhabitants of Egypt with the modifications which were approved of by the priests of Amen, and it seems that they tried to eliminate the belief in Osiris, so far as was possible,

from their writings, and to make their god Amen-Rā all sufficient. They did not, however, succeed in doing so, and the best proof of this fact is supplied by the sarcophagus of Seti I., now in the Soane Museum in London. Seti I. allowed the "Book of that which is in the Underworld" to be inscribed in full on the walls of the chambers of his tomb, but he had the full text of the "Book of the Gates," with all the vignettes, chiselled on his sarcophagus, including the magical part of it, and to make quite certain of his future welfare he caused some important chapters to be added from the old Book of the Dead. Similarly Thothmes III. allowed the walls of his tomb to be covered with the "Book of that which is in the Underworld,” but on one of the swathings of his mummy we find a copy of the CLIVth Chapter of the Book of the Dead.

The group of sepulchres called the Tombs of the Kings may be now briefly enumerated; the order is chronological :

I (No. 38). Tomb of Thothmes I. This tomb, the oldest of the Bibân al-Mulûk, is a small one; it was discovered by M. Victor Loret in 1899. It contains the royal sarcophagus.

II (No. 20). Tomb of Hatshepset.-This tomb was excavated by Mr. Theodore N. Davis in 1903 and 1904. It has already been described.

III (No. 34). Tomb of Thothmes III. This tomb was discovered by M. Victor Loret in 1899, and lies about 325 feet from the tomb of Rameses III. The walls of the various chambers are ornamented with figures of the gods and inscriptions, among others being a long list of gods, and a complete copy of the "Book of that which is in the Underworld." The sarcophagus was, of course, found to be empty, for the king's mummy was taken from Dêr alBaharî, where it had been hidden by the Egyptians during

a time of panic, to the Gîzah Museum about 18 years ago. On a column in the second chamber we see depicted Thothmes followed by his mother Åset, his wife Mert-Rā, his wives Åāḥ-sat and Nebt-kheru, and his daughter Nefertȧru. It is to be hoped that steps will at once be taken to publish the texts and inscriptions in this tomb. The mummy of Thothmes III. was found at Dêr al-Baḥarî by Professor Maspero.

IV. (No. 35). Tomb of Amen-hetep II.-This tomb was found by M. Victor Loret in 1899, and in it is the mummy of the king lying in its sandstone sarcophagus. Thanks to the exertions of Sir William Garstin, the royal mummy and the mummies of the private persons that were found in the tomb and were at first removed, have been replaced, and the visitor is now able to look upon an impressive scene of death. The tomb is lit by electric light. The tomb of Amenophis, the son and successor of Thothmes III., in many respects resembles that of his father; the walls are covered with figures of the gods, with the text of the "Book of that which is in the Underworld," and scenes similar to those in the older tomb. Among the numerous objects found in the tomb may be mentioned:Three mummies, each with a large hole in the skull, and a gash in the breast; fragments of a pink leather cuirass worn by the king; a series of statues of Sekhet, Anubis, Osiris, Horus, Ptaḥ, etc.; a set of alabaster Canopic vases, a collection of amulets of all kinds; a large series of alabaster vessels; and a number of mummies of kings and royal personages, among whom are Thothmes IV.. Amenophis III., Menephthah, Rameses IV., Rameses V., and Rameses VI. Thus in the tomb of Amenophis II. we have another hiding-place of royal mummies similar to that of Dêr al-Bahari.

V. (No. 43). Tomb of Thothmes IV. This tomb was

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