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The next day the shaft was filled up again, thus closing the door of the empty theater, for the drama was ended, and the actors were gone.

I made a long Nile journey after that and photographed many a stone-cut "permanent likeness" of " the Michael Angelo of Egypt." The profile of the southern colossus of the Great Temple at Abou-Simbel has all these centuries retained the beautiful expression left it by the Nubian chisel, and presents a striking resemblance to the photograph of the recently unfolded mummy of the great king. Of this unfolding the world has been told by almost every newspaper in it. When I was at Bûlâq, all I could catch of the Sesostris face and form was as it appeared after the last neat work of the Inspector of Tombs had been finished. Since the unfolding, which took place June 1st, 1886, the camera of Brugsch Bey has enabled us all to "see how Pharaoh looked." Likewise, the report of Professor Maspero, giving the particulars of his removal of the wrappings, has ever since been a topic of conversation all over the wide world.

Only fifteen minutes were occupied in undoing the labor of many days by the careful embalmers. The kingly body had "reposed in peace" at least twice as long as was enjoined by the faith of Isis in order to secure immortality.

This paste being partly cut away with the scissors, disclosed some much worn and very brittle teeth, which, moreover, are white and well preserved. The mustache and beard are thin. They seem to have been kept shaven during life, but were probably allowed to grow during the king's last illness, or they may have grown after death. The hairs are white, like those of the head to three millimeters in length. The skin is of earthy and eyebrows, but are harsh and bristly, and from two brown, spotted with black. Finally, it may be said the face of the mummy gives a fair idea of the face of the

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As recently as 1880 it was offered to an American traveler "for a reasonable bakhshish," but declined because its genuineness was doubted.

But no doubt now exists, for " in black ink, written upon the mummy-case by the highpriest and King Pinotem, is the record testifying to the identity of the royal contents." Then "upon the outer winding-sheet of the mummy, over the region of the breast," the indisputable testimony is repeated. The coverings being all removed by the careful hands of Professor Maspero, in the presence of the Khedive and other distinguished persons, Rameses II. appeared. Professor Maspero further reports that

PROFILE OF RAMESES II.

PHOTOGRAPH OF THE SOUTHERN COLOSSUS AT THE GREAT TEMPLE OF ABOU-SIMBEL.

slightly animal; but even under the somewhat groliving king. The expression is unintellectual, perhaps tesque disguise of mummification, there is plainly to be seen an air of sovereign majesty, of resolve, and of head; but, in consequence of the reduction of the tispride. The rest of the body is as well preserved as the

no thicker than the vertebral column. The chestisbroad;

the shoulders are square; the arms are crossed upon the breast; the hands are small and dyed with henna; and the wound in the left side, through which the embalmers extracted the viscera, is large and open. The legs and thighs are fleshless; the feet are long, slender, somewhat flat-soled, and dyed, like the hands, with henna. The corpse is that of an old man, but of a vigorous and robust old man. We know, indeed, that Rameses II. reigned for sixty-seven years, and that he must have been nearly one hundred years old when he died."

"The head is long, and small in proportion to the body. The top of the skull is quite bare. On the temples there are a few sparse hairs, but at the poll the hair issues, its external aspect is less life-like. The neck is quite thick, forming smooth, straight locks about five centimeters in length. White at the time of death, they have been dyed a light yellow by the spices used in embalmment. The forehead is low and narrow; the brow-ridge prominent; the eyebrows are thick and white; the eyes are small and close together; the nose is long, thin, arched like the noses of the Bourbons, and slightly crushed at the tip by the pressure of the bandages. The temples are sunken; the cheek-bones very prominent; the ears round, standing far out from the head, and pierced like those of a woman for the wearing of ear-rings. The jaw-bone is massive and strong; the chin very prominent; the mouth small, but thick-lipped, and full of some kind of black paste.

VOL. XXXIV.-2.

On the same day that the face of the great Sesostris was unwrapped, the mummy of

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PHARAOH THE OPPRESSOR, AND HIS DAUGHTER, IN THE

LIGHT OF THEIR MONUMENTS.

HE ancient Egyptians have placed us greatly in their debt by a science that surpasses ours. Even in the extravagant fancies of childhood over the tales and heroes of the Bible, we never dreamed that some day we might stand face to face with the figure of that "new king over Egypt" who" said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land"; - of that father whose daughter not only spared the weeping babe in the little ark among the flags, but adopted the child, and he became her son, and she named him Moses;of that royal patron who thus educated him for the public service as a prince in his own household; and yet of that sovereign in whose breast the prejudice of race ran so deep that he sought to slay this Moses, his foster-son, the moment he heard the hand of the latter had lifted itself against an Egyptian.

purely Egyptian; and the conjecture has as often been hazarded that the type of expression they wear is obviously Semitic. Such a surmise has had for its foundation not only the narrow retreating forehead and the aquiline nose, but the long head from chin to crown and the entire cast of visage. The strange traits are limited to the Theban race or ruling

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1. ETHNIC TRAITS OF AN INDIGENOUS EGYPTIAN. FROM LENORMANT'S "HISTOIRE ANCIENNE DE L'ORIENT."*

Now, upon the reappearance of this venerable monarch on the stage of modern life, one of the questions suggesting themselves as soon as our first surprise is over, is, How does this man of renown bear out his portraits upon the monuments? Placing his actual features side by side with the faces of the numerous statues and sculptures by which he sought to immortalize himself, are the latter thus found true to their subject? Do they present faithful likenesses of this very physiognomy before us? Whatever it may be, the answer to this question will also have a material bearing upon the accuracy of the art of that remote period. A second surprise lies in wait for us.

It has often been remarked how the countenance of Rameses II., whether upon colossal monolith or mural carving, together with those of other members of the Ramesside line before and after him, can scarcely have been

class, in contradistinction to the race of primitive inhabitants of the lower Nile valley.

Let us turn aside a moment to make this difference clearer by noting how the genuine Egyptians, having a better claim to be regarded as the natives of the country, looked. Though their fac-similes have been preserved in the monuments all along through the ages, yet some of the best of them have come down to us from the earliest times. One of these is reproduced in illustration 1, taken from a remarkable bust treasured in the Louvre. Whether regarded as a work of sculpture, or

2. PROFILE OF RAMESES II. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE MUMMY TAKEN UNDER PROFESSOR MASPERO AT BULAQ.

as a success in portraiture, or as a creation almost endowed with life, it is a rare attainment in plastic skill and a rival to the highest art of any age. Professor G. Maspero sketches the prototype as follows:

"A great effort of the imagination is no longer required to recover the figure of an Egyptian of the time of Kheops, who contributed his part to the construction of the Pyramids to-day we have merely to step into the Museum and look at the statues in the olden style there brought together. At the first glance of the eye we shall perceive that the artist who produced them sought to effect a strict resemblance in the modeling of the head

and members after the person whom he desired to represent; and yet, neglecting the peculiarities of each individual, we may readily regain the common type of the race. The Égyptian.. carried

a head often too large in proportion to the body, presenting usually a spirit of mildness and even of instinctive sadness. The forehead is square, perhaps a trifle low; the nose short and round; the eyes are large and wide open; the cheeks filled out; the lips thick, but not reversed; the mouth, somewhat wide, bears a smile of resig

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We have only to compare this precursory portrait of an Egyptian who lived and died under the Old Empire with the remarkable picture of Rameses II. (2) vividly repeating a photograph of his mummy's profile, in order to perceive the dissimilarity instantly. The two have not the first feature in common; in fact, the one is the opposite of the other at every turn, proportion, and measure. Clearly, the great Rameses by these presents is demonstrated to have belonged to the royal Theban race of foreign stock, just as the monuments indicated.

Can this foreign stock be traced back to its source? Until modern research began in Egypt the answer to such a question was a positive "No"; but not long since a monument came to light whose testimony is strikingly confirmed by our mute effigy of the king. Among the ruins of Zoan Mariette Bey found a memorial slab of syenite, carved with a vignette on the upper part and inscribed on the lower portion, which at once became famous under the title of "The Tablet of Four Hundred Years" (3). The subject of the vignette is a scene representing Rameses the Great offering wine to the god Set in his human form and wearing the white crown, an officer also in adoration standing behind the monarch. The object of the stela is thus revealed to be a recognition on the part of the king of that

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4. SPHINX OF ZOAN, BEARING THE PORTRAIT OF THE SHEPHERD KING APOPHIS. FROM "REVUE ARCHÉOLOGIQUE."

Typhonic Set or Sutekh, and a participation came across four very peculiar sphinxes, on in his worship, who had been the national the avenue leading up to the shrine of the deity of the Shepherds, at the ancient capital temple. Writing to the Vicomte de Rougé, of these rulers. By the date of four hundred he describes them in the following terms: years from the king Set Aa-peh-peh Nubti, he uses an era founded upon the reign of one of these Shepherd Kings, a predecessor of Apophis. Furthermore, the officer explains, "His Majesty ordered that a great tablet of

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"You will be struck by the style that characterizes these four sphinxes. The clever chisel which carved the body may, doubtless, have been that of an Egyptian; but I dare not say as much in regard to the hand that modeled the face with so peculiar an energy. The

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3. TABLET OF FOUR HUNDRED YEARS. FROM "REVUE ARCHÉOLOGIQUE."

stone should be made in the great name of his fathers for the sake of setting up the name of the father of his fathers," apparently from his parent Seti I. back to Set Aa-peh-peh, four centuries before, both named after the same deity; and thus we are given to understand that Rameses thereby sought to acknowledge and honor the line of the Shepherd Kings as his ancestors.

Fortunately, we are to-day able to verify this acknowledgment and relationship in a conclusive, because physical, way.

In the same ruins of Zoan Mariette Bey

sphinxes of Egyptian origin impress us above all by their tranquil majesty. Generally the heads are portraits; and yet the eye is always calm and wide open, the mouth always smiling, the contours of the visage always rounded; and especially you observe that the Egyptian sphinxes almost never abandon the grand head-dress with spreading wings, which harmonizes so well with the quiet unity of the monument. Here, however, you are far from recognizing that type. The head of the Sphinx of Zoan is of an art with which I am really at a loss for aught to compare (4). The eyes are small, the nose is strong and arched though at the same time somewhat flat, the cheeks are large while marked by prominent bones, the chin is a projecting one, and the mouth attracts notice by the manner in which it falls at the corners. The whole visage sympa

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of the features making it up; and the bushy mane encircling the head, to such extent as almost to bury it, imparts a still more remarkable aspect to the monument. On beholding these strange figures we perceive that we have under our eyes the products of an art not purely Egyptian, and also not exclusively foreign, and, accordingly, we conclude that the sphinxes of Avaris [Zoan] may well excite the immense interest of dating from the time of the Hyksos [Shepherd Kings] themselves. Upon the right shoulder of each one of our four symbolical sphinxes inscriptions, which had been graven there, have been chiseled out; but the name of the deity Sutekh still remains upon the head, then follows

the title the beneficent god,' then the illegible cartouches of the king, and the whole recalls so well, by the manner in which the inscriptions are disposed, by the length of the lines, by the style of the hieroglyphics surviving, the legend of Apophis upon the colossus of Ra-smenkh-ka [a statue of a seated Pharaoh found near by ], that we cannot hesitate to read the same leg

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