If this is the same Khensu, her title would imply the rights to which her birth entitled her, rather than her state as an actual queen.

SAT-SEBEK, "The Royal Wife," is another unknown queen whose scarabs exist,1 and who may also be assigned to this age.

there is an

One or two

The XIIIth dynasty merges gradually into a dim period which proceeds the darkest hour, except that of its final extinction, in the history of the Egyptian Empire. There is a long list of kings' names of this time, suggesting a possible division of the double crown and two simultaneous reigns in Upper and Lower Egypt. A series of weak rulers must have exhausted the land, and prepared the way for its downfall before the foreigner. No king of all the list has left any history of his time, and almost total absence of monuments or records. queens appear, but only in name, as do the kings, their husbands and sons. Of these, Brugsch gives KHENSUANKT, connected with a king Ra-se-ankh, and NEB-HETEPTUSAR, the wife of King Khonsu. To this time probably belongs also SENB-HENA-ES, "The Royal Wife who is united to the Beautiful White Crown." This queen is known from three scarabs, two of which, giving her the title of Royal Wife only, are in the Berlin Museum. The third scarab, in the collection of Mr. T. M. Davis, supplies the rest of the title. As the White Crown was the emblem of Upper Egypt, this form probably means that the queen was the hereditary princess of the Southern half of the kingdom.

NEFERT, a Royal Wife, and mother of a princess Hatshepsut, is an unplaced queen, evidence of whom has recently been discovered by Mr. Newberry, who assigns her to the intermediate period between the close of the XIIth and the beginning of the XVIIIth dynasties.

In DAVIS' Coll. pub. by NEWBERRY, Sc., xii, 6. B.M., No. 32,265. 2 Nos. 9,518 and 10,977. 3 Pub. NEWBERRY, P.S.B.A., 1902.

The mention of this queen's daughter is of especial interest, as it seems to be the earliest appearance of the name which queen Hatshepsut rendered famous in a later age.

For the time which follows, the records become practically a blank page, and centuries elapse before a legitimate Pharaoh again sits on the throne of his fathers. With the disappearance of the XIVth dynasty rulers. Egypt fell into the hands of the mysterious race of "Shepherd Kings," or Hyksos, who subjected the country to five hundred years of foreign rule. Many theories have been advanced to explain the origin of the Hyksos. Manetho says of them: "They were a people of ignoble race who "had the confidence to invade our country and easily "subdue it by their power without a battle. They burnt our cities and demolished the temples of the gods, and "inflicted every kind of barbarity upon the inhabitants During the whole period of their dynasty, they "made war upon the Egyptians with the hope of exterminating the whole race. All this nation was styled Hyksos, "that is, Shepherd Kings . Some say they are "Arabians. This people retained possession of Egypt during the period of five hundred and eleven years."

66

Josephus saw in the Hyksos invasion the sojourn of the Children of Israel in Egypt. The majority of writers on the origin of these Shepherd Kings agree that they were barbaric tribes from Asia, who, first settling in small numbers in the Delta, were afterwards joined by others of their people and became strong enough to subdue with ease an already enfeebled monarchy. The names of one or two women of the houses of the Hyksos Kings survive: Tautha and Uazet appear on scarab seals as Royal Wives,

In the collections of the B.M.; PETRIE, U.C; Davis, N.'s Sc., pl. xxiii, 17, xxii, 18.

For history of times, see PETRIE, H.E., vol. I, 233-247; BUDGE, H.E., vol. III, 133-164.

although they can scarcely be considered as having had any connection with the heiress queens of Egypt.

During some part of the Hyksos dominion, a line of native rulers in Upper Egypt seems to have exercised a limited power as vassal kings under the foreign sovereigns. These princes, after centuries of oppression had elapsed, began to rally their forces and to fight the usurpers for the re-establishment of the legitimate monarchy.

CHAPTER V.

QUEENS OF THE XVIITH DYNASTY.

Theban. About 1700 (?) B.C.

AT some time during this period of strife, there lived a queen, TETI-SHERA, who must have been the wife of one of the first kings of the dynasty. A fine statuette in the British Museum1 portrays this princess with the title, "Royal Mother," but she is chiefly known from the records of a later time, when, some generations after her death, a descendant, Queen Nefertari, of the XVIIIth dynasty, rebuilt the tomb of her ancestress. Teti-shera had originally two tombs, one at Thebes in which she was buried, and a fictitious tomb at Abydos, represented by a stela only. This representative tomb was supposed to give the spirit of its owner a restingplace in the most sacred of all cemeteries, for it was at Abydos that the principal tomb of Osiris was believed to exist.

This god, the synonym to the early Egyptians of all that was good and beautiful, once dwelt on earth and had his kingdom among men. Slain through jealousy by Set, his brother, the body was buried by his wife Isis, part of it being interred at Abydos. After a time Osiris rose from the dead, and, ascending to the heavens, there established his kingdom, and received into it the souls who had honoured him on earth. His followers desired to lie after death in the vicinity of his tomb, but since it was not possible that all should have actual burial there, it became customary to erect at Abydos tablets or stelæ to the dead, whose spirits thus obtained the B.M., No. 22,558, pub. by BUDGE, H.E., vol. IV, 64.

right of repose near the god's earthly resting-place. The usual custom was then followed, when Teti-shera was provided with a stela tomb at Abydos.

During the lapse of time the tombs of this queen had fallen into a state of neglect and ruin, so that when Nefertari and her husband wished to restore them, their actual sites were probably lost. Being forced to select a new site, they chose one next to the king's own burial place at Thebes.

A pleasant human touch is given to the story of this restoration by the Abydos stela. There it is recorded that Aahmes and his queen Nefertari were seated together one day in the palace, consulting as to what especial thing they could do to honour their ancestors. The memory of Tetishera suddenly presenting itself to Aahmes, he discovered that her tombs had been neglected and forgotten. He straightway gave orders that two new ones should be erected to replace the old. All this was done, the stela declares, out of the king's love for his wife and his wish to honour her ancestress. The tablet was therefore placed at Abydos, and a brick pyramid with its chapel was built at Thebes, to the memory of Teti-shera. This is a unique tomb record, since the queen to whom they were reared had in the end no fewer than four tombs, the original two, and the two new ones which replaced them.1

SEBEK-EM-SA-ES, a queen bearing full royal titles, should probably be assigned to this period, although it is impossible to state her exact place in the dynasty. She was doubtless a person of much importance in her day, since she appears as "Royal Daughter, Royal Sister, the Great Royal Wife "who is joined to the Beautiful White Crown."

The latter title is found in an inscription upon the lower part of a wooden head-rest inlaid with ivory, which is now in the British Museum. A stela in Cairo, found at Edfu, also mentions the queen's name and titles.3 A gold pendant

1 MS. Catalogue, Cairo Museum, 115.

3

› BOURIANT, Rec., ix, 93; M.'s R.M., 625-628.

2 No. 23,068.