12. AN EARLY PORTRAIT OF RAMESES. FROM PRISSE D'AVENNES.

nobody so impolite as, when they saw Moses, they were not greatly surprised at the beauty of his countenance, which was so remarkable and natural to him that it detained the spectators, and made them stay longer to look upon him."

Even in boyhood the countenance of Rameses began to exhibit the cast of his father; and the instant we look upon any one of his early copies we recognize the shape and color of his mature life as in a bud the prophecy of the open flower. One of these early portraitures is brought out in the next illustration (12). A royal uræus in winds about the fillet binding a head-dress on the brow, from which on the left side depends that long artificial tress, recurved at the end, which every prince was bound to wear as long as his father remained still in the land of the living. Around the neck reposes a highly ornamental collar, in part composed of precious stones, the like of which apparently he never ceased to bear, if we may so judge from his next costume and that of his last portrait in this series. And the pelt of a panther, with its head resting on his left breast and one paw thrown over his right shoulder, half covering his tunic, marks the wearer as already a member of that sacred class of priests called Sam, more fully detailed in the next figure. All of which, however, fail to conceal the fresh round form of the lad, and the bright look, the happy expression breaking forth in every feature about to blossom out in the face of the Rameses of the future.

As soon as old enough, Rameses began to assist his father in every regal and ritualistic duty-sometimes holding the plate of offering, pouring the libation, pronouncing the invocation, or reciting the hymn of worship, while his father performed the sacred rites; at

other times, in order to learn the science of war, accompanying his valorous parent on military campaigns, and, at length, venturing forth alone to victory. In illustration 13 we behold him engaged in one of these services - pouring out a libation of wine - as set forth by a tablet in the Temple of Abydus, upon which Mr. Villiers Stuart declares "more care has been lavished than on anything else in the entire temple; as a specimen of sculpture it is quite a gem." In the strength of youth Rameses stands erect before an altar surmounted with flowers, partly shaven as to his head, yet retaining that side-lock which marks him still as a princely minor, and upon which he has lavished a golden clasp, a row of pearls, and a royal basilisk. Beads encircle his neck, and an elaborate collar. Over his shoulder hangs a panther's skin, which only priests of a certain rank had the right to wear. A leopard-headed buckle secures the apronstrings, and the straps suspending a plate of gold upon which are inscribed the cartouches of the heir to the crown. In his left hand he grasps a papyrus-roll, containing, doubtless, the litany of his worship. But, that countenance! How, at this early age, it involves all the elements that are to render it peculiar in manhood, in old age, and even after three and thirty centuries have rolled away,-traits, inherited mainly from the paternal line, the salient chin, the impulsive lips, a nose that would identify its owner quite as well as his name, and the extension of its outline over the brow at scarcely a different angle. But while the backward consanguinity is unmistakable, the forward relationship between this unchangeable bas-relief at Abydus and the veritable personage rendered equally unchangeable by the embalmer is also unmistak

13. RAMESES AS PRIEST. FROM MARIETTE'S "ABYDOS."

reproduced in illustration 14, now enriching the Museum at Turin, but obtained early in the present century by the Italian collector Drovetti at Tanis in all probability. It pertains to a sitting statue, which ranks as the best one that has come down to us in point of complete form, unblemished preservation, and genuine artistic skill. Even without the tell-tale cartouches of Rameses upon the pilaster at the back, we should be struck instantly by the distinction it conveys of its ancient original. He wears a military casque bearing the royal uræus, and holds in the right hand a crook, emblem of dominion. His large eyes betoken a large soul, a fearless purpose, and a consciousness of supremacy. While the nose is

perience. Shall we venture a guess as to the scene of that incident? Can this brave warrior ever cease to brood over that narrow escape he had in his conflict with the Kheta, afar on the banks of the Orontes?

"And not one of my princes, not one of my captains of the chariots, not one of my chief men, not one of my knights, was there. My warriors and my chariots had abandoned me.

"Thereupon I lifted up my voice: Where art thou, my father Amen? If this means that the father has forgotten his son, behold have I done anything without thy knowledge, or have I not gone and followed the judgments of thy mouth? Shall it be for nothing that I have dedicated to thee many and noble monuments? Behold, now, Amen, I am in the midst of many unknown peoples in great numbers. All have

united themselves, and I am all alone; no other is with me; my warriors and my charioteers have deserted me. I called to them, and not one of them heard my voice. The works of a multitude of men are nothing; Amen is better than they.'

And my voice found an echo in Hermonthis, and Amen heard it and came at my cry. He reached out his hand to me, and I shouted for joy. He called out to me, I have hastened to thee, Rameses Mer-Amen. I am with thee. I am he, thy father, the sun-god Ra. My hand is with thee.'

"All this came to pass. I was changed, being made like the god Monthu. I hurled the dart with my right hand, I fought with my left hand. Not one of them raised his hand to fight; their courage was smitten in their breasts; their limbs gave way. I made them fall into the waters just as the crocodiles fall in. They tumbled down on their faces one after another. Each one as he fell, he raised himself not up again."

A grove of palm-trees now flourishes where the city of Memphis, formerly a brilliant capital of Egypt, once stood. Out of all its magnificent structures or splendid monuments only a single example survives the others, either drowned by the inundation of the Nile or by its waters left behind during nine months in the year, or groveling, face downwards, in the mire of a pool during the remaining months. The fellahs call this sole remaining inhabitant Abû el-Hawl, "The Father of Terror "; and every traveler to Egypt makes a pilgrimage to the spot to receive an impressive lesson of fallen greatness. It is one of those colossal statues of Rameses II. which its ambitious author scattered through his kingdom from one end to the other-not in sitting posture, as the last one considered, but originally standing erect, with face to the north, against a pylon of the great Temple of Ptah, of which not a vestige is to be found to-day. The surpassing element in this monolithic image is that of height, being about forty-four feet from end to end; though its grandeur of size is paralleled by a majestic grandeur of beauty and style. Again, as illustration 15 well shows, the head so teems with the authentic character of the individual that we cannot tire of admiring it. How very exact the relation of brow to nose! while the entire face presents just such a contour as, from the mummy, we should suppose the features of Rameses must have had in middle life. When the statue fell to the ground the upper part of the double crown, or pschent, towering above the head, was dashed away, and the feet were broken off; but everything else continues intact-uræus, false beard under the chin, even down to the royal titles engraved upon a breastplate, and a papyrus-roll held in the left hand. At the feet diminutive images of a prince and a princess, one of whom lifts an arm as if raised in supplication, reaching to the knee, are supposed to recall the peril from fire at Pelusium to himself as well as to his wife and children, in commem

oration of rescue from which, through personal bravery as well as presence of mind and prayer, he reared memorial statues of the whole family before the grand sanctuary in Memphis. As if contemplating this miraculous extrication, the stony face cannot conceal the gratitude and peace of the king upon his second deliv

erance.

Yet among these masterpieces of art from the days of the nineteenth dynasty, one, judging from the fragment persisting to our day, surpassed all others in a very rare element. In those thus far examined realism has been plain to be seen the fruit of an aim to repeat an actual face not in the least degree departed from nor fallen short of through inadequate talent.

16. RAMESES THE KING, AT THEBES. FROM DESCRIPTION DE L'EGYPT."

upon that face of superhuman symmetry, of spiritual delicacy, reaching out after, really catching, that divine nature and dignity which Rameses was believed to share. So successful were the authors of this statue in their design that, as late as our own century when the French savants reached it, they, looking steadfastly thereon, actually thought it the face of a god:

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One could scarcely represent divinity under traits which should better cause it to be respected and cherished."

From this fragment in its faultless chiseling and polish, we may only imagine what amount of labor must have been expended upon the whole colossus of rosy syenite. It was the choicest monument, probably, in the grand structure of the Ramesseum. How innocently the messieurs of the French Commission add,

"This morceau of sculpture deserves to be carried to Europe, in order to show to what degree of perfection the Egyptians attained in the art of cutting and finishing stone."

Presently this morceau was conveyed to Euгоре- -to the Louvre ? No; but to a hall in the British Museum! Compare this illustration, for a moment, with the full-face view, on page 10, of the mummied king. Is there any difference, aside from the contrast between the bloom of manhood and the emaciation of extreme senility? How many landmarks are common to both the heavy eyebrows, the face broadest at the cheek-bones, the prominent nose, the excessive lips, the sharply jutting chin! The monument and the monarch agree beyond all anticipation.

But in this one there are signs of the indul gence of a conception, together with an effort, while remaining faithful to the real, to express a dream of an ideal king. The result is the most beautiful face of Rameses that was ever produced by Egyptian genius. It graced a court in that transcendent monument raised to the glory of the great potentate, the Ramesseum at Thebes. From illustration 16 we may easily separate the two components, one the object intended to be duplicated with whom we are now familiar, retaining his smile of self complacency, which, perhaps, always flitted around the lips of Rameses; the other a stamp

Our series of representative portraitures of Rameses began with one made vivid by the aid of colors; it may, therefore, appropriately end with another made as brilliant as a painting by never-fading pigments. It occurs at Abu Simbel in Nubia, in the grotto or temple of Hathor. Of course, an illustration (17) in black and white cannot transmit any conception of those powerful tints which render the portrait as natural as life itself, and so perfectly real that you wait to receive some reply to your greeting, or expect the monarch to descend from the wall and welcome you to his royal abode. The surpassing quality here is an intense expression. He is older now, equally tranquil, but less gracious and more stern. His complexion is a deep coppery red; his eye is very long, its apple is black, its ball white, its lids overshadowing; the nose is Rameses' own, depressed at the end; while the mouth and chin are equally peculiar. His costume is a military one; a casque of cobaltblue, enameled with studs of gold and ornamented with the uræus, is bound behind by streaming bands. A broad collar adorns the

neck, variegated with circles and radiant points in blue, green, yellow, red, and black. The hue of his short-sleeved garment, crushed-strawberry, has again come round into the height of fashion, and is rendered highly effective by dominos in black; you would readily imagine the king might have taken the pattern from Joseph's coat of many colors.

But what sort of grotto or temple or abode is this at which we have arrived? Here, certainly, the king can no longer complain that he is "all alone." The temple at Baït el-Walî and the imposing Ramesseum are devoted to his glorious achievements; but here, on all sides, upon façade, walls, pillars, another figure is met with; another presence keeps him company; another regent reigns conjointly with him on the throne. This sacred abode is consecrated to Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, and the second personage who shares it with him is his beloved wife, the idol and ruler of his heart, Mer-en-Mut Nefer-ari. Miss Edwards has unfolded the raison d'être of the shrine, in most inimitable terms:

"The façade is a daring innovation. Here the whole front is but a frame for six recesses, from each of which a colossal statue, erect and life-like, seems to be walking straight out from the heart of the mountain (18). These statues, three to the right and three to the left of the doorway, stand thirty feet high, and represent Rameses II. and Nefer-ari, his queen. Mutilated as they are, the male figures are full of spirit, and the female figures are full of grace. The queen wears on her head the plumes and disk of Hathor. The king is crowned with the pschent, and with a fantastic helmet adorned with plumes and horns. They have their

children with them; the queen her daughters, the king his sons, infants of ten feet high, whose heads just reach the parental knee.

"The superb hieroglyphs that cover the faces of these buttresses and the front of this porch are cut half a foot deep into the rock, and are so large that they can be read from the island in the middle of the river. The tale they tell - a tale retold, in many varied turns of old Egyptian style upon the architraves within is singular and interesting.

"Rameses, the Strong in Truth, the Beloved of Amen,' says the outer legend, made this divine Abode for his royal wife, Nefer-ari, whom he loves.'

"The legend within, after enumerating the titles of the king, records that his royal wife who loves him, Nefer-ari the Beloved of Mût, constructed for him this Abode in the mountain of the Pure Waters.'

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"On every pillar, in every act of worship pictured on the walls, even in the sanctuary, we find the names of Rameses and Nefer-ari' coupled and inseparable.' In this double dedication, and in the unwonted tenderness of the style, one seems to detect traces of some event, perhaps of some anniversary, the particulars of which are lost forever. It may have been a meeting; it may have been a parting; it may have been a prayer answered, or a vow fulfilled. We see, at all events, that Rameses and Nefer-ari desired to leave behind them an imperishable record of their affection which united them on earth, and which they hoped would reunite them in Amenti. What more do we need to know? We see that the queen was fair, that the king was in his prime. We divine the rest; and the poetry of the place at all events is ours. Even in these barren solitudes there is wafted to us a breath from the shores

of old romance. We feel that Love once passed this way, and that the ground is still hallowed where he trod."

In order to get a better view of this loving pair, let us separate the two statues at the right of the picture, or northern end of the façade, from the remainder, and enlarge them as much as possible. This is done in illustration 19. The two cartouches of Rameses the King stand over his head in the cornice, and one of them above the head of each statue at its left; the single cartouch of Mer-en-Mut Nefer-ari falls in the middle of the pilaster just at the elbow of the queen, beneath her title "The Great Royal Wife," equivalent to "Royal Wife, Chief Lady of the land." Out in the sunlight the wonted smile of the king returns, indicating a condition of happiness without alloy. Observe how remarkably this face, with the attire upon the head, coördi

18. FAÇADE OF THE TEMPLE OF HATHOR, AT ABU SIMBEL. FROM PRISSE D'AVENNES