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of maternity. Above the beak of the bird rises a hooded asp, carrying a miniature disk of the sun, always the emblem of a sovereign. A large earring peeps from under a sun-bonnet, fringed with gold and falling around her shoulder. In her right hand she holds up a sistrum, or copper bow with cross-bars strung with beads, ornamented by a head of Hathor as a sign that she is a priestess of the highest rank or prophetess of peculiarly sacred character; while in her left she grasps a scourge as another sign of royal supremacy. In her outline the Egyptian artist manifestly tried to realize a beauty which he was never afterwards called upon to outdo: he has expressed a sweet grace, united with a force of character, quite sufficient to gain and to keep the affections even of a Rameses the Great.

A variant of her dedication of the temple to him reads, according to Mr. Villiers Stuart:

"To the sovereign of the two lands, Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, UserMa-Ra, Son of the Sun, Beloved of Ra, Lord of Crowns, Rameses Mer-Amen, his loving Lady, Queen and Princess Nefertari has built a temple in the locality of Abbû by the waters. Grant him life for evermore."

Throwing these epithets into a natural. succession, "His Princess andQueen"

at once, we may curiously ask, Does the first of these terms explain the romantic attachment and offer the ground of exaltation to the last?

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19. TWO STATUES AT RIGHT OF PRECEDING FAÇADE. THE QUEEN MER-EN-MUT NEFER-ARI AND THE KING RAMESES 11. FROM PRISSE D'AVENNES.

nates with both the style and the detail of the Ramesseum statue. Also, closely compare the two countenances of king and queen and note a very apparent kinship lying back of, older than, the relationship of husband and wife. Evidently the love that is now so warm and paramount in their lives is a continuation of an affection never less tender or strong.

Upon a pillar deep within the recesses of this grotto, on the left, we may find a more exact delineation of this fair queen, revealing the same secret. Just the same hieroglyphs identify her as the "Royal Wife, Great Lady Mer-en-Mut Nefer-ari." As illustration 20 indicates, she dons the plumes and horns and disk of the goddess to whom her home is dedicated; she wears a coronet; and, not unlike some fashionable ladies nowadays, she bears upon her head the livery of a bird, that of a vulture,-in her case, however, a symbol

If so, the revelation is capable of a test which will either confirm or disprove it.

One step backward in her history would be a time when she had not yet assumed the title Mer-enMut, "Beloved of the goddess Mut," just as her liege-lord was proud to call himself Mer-Amen, "Beloved of Amen," and his son Mer-en-Ptah," Beloved of the deity Ptah." And such a period is readi ly recovered. Among the bas-reliefs of West Silsilis

20. RAMESES' ROYAL WIFE, GREAT LADY MER-EN-MUT NEFER-ARI. FROM LEPSIUS.

this same queen may be observed occupied with the pious task of offering sacrifice to certain divinities (illustration 21). Here she is announced to the world as the "Royal Wife," and the "Great Royal Wife, Lady Ruler of the Two Lands," etc., while her cartouch reads merely "Nefer-ari." Her insignia are essentially the same, the plumes, etc., of Hathor, a coronet, but no uræus, and now she holds a sistrum in each hand high above the altars, upon which libation-jars are standing. As a sistrum-player, ahi-t, and in the act of performing certain religious ceremonies before an altar, she again signalizes her membership in that holy order of priesthood to which only the wives and daughters of kings could belong.

Another step backward in her history would be a time when she had not yet attained the position of queen or the title of " Royal Wife," but was known simply as "Princess." Looking through the lists of royal daughters born to Rameses, among the troop depicted at Derr we find one little girl portrayed beneath the king, accompanied by his lion and about to dispatch a group of prisoners, who lifts her arms on high and holds a sistrum in one hand, who wears a coronet, and bears the name of "Nefer-ari." On the walls of the Great Temple here at Abu Simbel she also appears, beneath a similar scene, and is recorded as "Nefertari" by name: in illustration 22 is her picture. At first thought it might seem, from the occurrence of Mer-en-Mut Nefer-ari in the company of Rameses offering sacrifice on one wall in the Great Temple, and the occurrence of these daughters on another wall of the same temple, that the queen was grown when the princess was young. But on second thought this objection disappears; for this troop of princesses is merely a genealogical table, a duplicate of others at Derr and at Thebes, without reference to the queen, who is represented upon the walls of both these temples at Abu Simbel as she appeared at several other epochs in her life; and also for the reason that among these various princesses, all alike of about a twelve-year-old size, no less than a whole generation of years must be di

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21, RAMEBES GREAT ROYAL WIFE NEFER-ARI. FROM LEPSIUS.

VOL. XXXIV.—4.

vided up-they could not all have been exactly twelve years of age at once.

Let us estimate that the daughter of Pharaoh the Oppressor was not far from sweet sixteen when she found the little waif upon the Nile: at this time she was only the "Princess" Nefer-ari, and the Bible is perfectly accurate in referring to her as "Pharaoh's daughter." As Brugsch believes, this occurred in the sixth year of Rameses' reign, who may then have been six-and-thirty years of age: we know that he had grown-up sons, who were assisting him in war, when he himself began to rule. On the other hand, votive tablets in our Hathor Temple, dating from the thirty-eighth year of Rameses' reign, would indicate fortyeight and sixty-eight as the ages of the royal couple when this sacred abode was finished and in constant use.

But in two or three or four or more years after her discovery of the ark in the flags by the river's brink, the "Princess " became the king's peerless consort, and at first was distinguished by no other than her former name, the "Royal Wife Nefer-ari"; but, presently, for some reason best known to herself, she added a second appellation, Mer-en-Mut, the basis of the Thermuthis (T-mer-mut) of Greek historians.

Here lies the key to the strange procedure of Josephus, who first styles her "Daughter," then calls her " Thermuthis," and finally describes her as Co-regent in the administration of affairs.

And this very singularly clears up the records of other historians hitherto obscure.

One of them, Georgius (Syncellus), calls Rameses "Amosis Pharao❞—a close approximation, yet not a perfect echo, "Amosis" having lost an initial Ŕ in its transit across the sea and two thousands of years. Besides, he relates, "The Daughter of Pharaō, Thermuthis who was also called Pharia." Ah! this, too, has a familiar accent, "Pharia ?". yet something is missing. What can it be? Again across the great sea and a space of twenty centuries "Pharia" has lost an initial N : if Georgius's record were to read

22. RAMESES' ROYAL DAUGHTER NEFER-ARI. FROM LEPSIUS.

Nepharia, nothing would be wanting. Thus, according to this authority, the full name of Pharaoh's Daughter was no less than Thermuthis-Nefer-ari.

Another of them, Cedrenus, tells how the Daughter of Pharao was named "Muthidis," as well as Thermuthis, and "Phareïs." Of course, as before this, "Phareïs" is a reduced survival of Nefer-ari, while" Muthidis" stands as a fragment of Mer-Mut; and so in both combined we have represented about half of the long Egyptian designation Mer-en-Mut Nefer-ari.

Artapanus, also, was right, as far as he went, in saying that Pharao's Daughter bore the name of "Merrhis," which selects the other half of Meri-Mut. By putting the halves preserved by Cedrenus and Artapanus together, we get the whole of Mer-en-Mut after all. Unconscious of all our perplexity in regard to her identity, the Daughter of Pharaoh is silently waiting for recognition, in life-size and bold relief, upon the walls of Hathor's Grotto today (23). A gentler spirit never breathed from any countenance, together with a charm as irresistible to us as it was to the king; and yet she exhibits no lack of intelligence, good sense, wit, or strength. She wears all the grace and majesty of a real queen: a marked refinement betrays her superiority in rank and race to everything natively Egyptian. The narrative of Josephus respecting the events which took place after Moses had ceased to be an infant abundantly exhibits Thermuthis as active and influential in the government as any queen could be. She certainly exercised the power of veto when, having brought the boy Moses to her father, saying she intended him to be heir to his kingdom, and the great Rameses, drawing his daughter's pet close to his breast and playfully putting the royal diadem on the head of the lad, the latter audaciously dashed it to the ground and trod upon it with his feet, for which act of evil omen the sacred scribe, looking on, made a violent attempt to kill him on the spot - she snatched her darling away, and so saved his life a second time. We shall also err if, from the standpoint of our better psychology, judicially condemning the relation here involved, we pronounce it inadmissible. We are in search of facts, re

23. HEAD OF PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER. ENLARGED FROM FIGURE 20.

gardless where they may lead; and we must judge the parties concerned by their standards and circumstances, not by ours. It is already admitted by Pierret, Lenormant, and others that Bint-antha thus became the queen she was; while Wiedemann asserts the same as true, not of Bint-antha only, but of Amenmeri-t and of Neb-taui also. But, if of these three daughters or only of one, why not of Nefer-ari as well? Reflecting a moment upon the reputed number of the progeny of this great king, one hundred and seventy,- half of whom must have been daughters, an array unprecedented in the annals of Egypt, we see how difficult a matter it must have been to find royal suitors for the hands of the princesses. Rameses was at war with all the world within his reach until there was no king but himself in all his wide domains. Intermarriage was regarded as expedient by the lofty house of Egypt, as the true means of keeping its royalty pure and the family perfect. People in the olden times over there reasoned precisely as the daughters of Abraham's brother did, when their mother became defunct by crystallization into a pillar of salt. Isaac, by Abraham's express direction, and Jacob took wives from their own kindred; and when Esau preferred to go out of the lines of consanguinity and marry Hittite damsels, it was "a grief to Isaac and Rebekah." Besides, toward the end of Egyptian history the Ptolemies were famous for close alliances, and we think it not so very strange only because we have got used to the fact.

Rameses the Great was about thirty years old when he began to rule alone, and he reigned sixty-seven years. As Professor Maspero says in his report, " And so he ought to have been almost a centenarian at death." The Scriptures imply that the Pharaoh who had brought the Israelites under the yoke of bondage was sovereign on the throne when Moses was born, we may estimate, with Professor H. Brugsch, in the sixth year of his reign. After this, Moses had time for growing up to adult age, and for retreating into Midian forty years, according to the chronology in our A. V., ere he could return to Egypt with safety. Can there be, therefore, an undercurrent of irony in the words of the Bible where it reads, "And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died"? Be this as it may, we have, also, the testimony of one profane historian, at least, who records of Sesostris that,having lived to so great age as to lose his sight, he preferred to put an end to his earthly existence rather than allow it to be further prolonged. "This last act," Diodorus continues, "was admired by the priests as well as by the other Egyptians, as terminating life in a manner worthy the ac

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tions of this king." Accordingly, the walls of his magnificent Ramesseum preserve a bas-relief depicting the apotheosis of this exalted scepterbearer (24). He is seated as upon a throne still, and, already their equal, he enters the society of the gods, all of whom are engaged in inscribing his name upon the fruits of the Tree of Life. On the left sits Amen-Ra-Tum, the sun, the supreme deity, under the form he assumes in the lower world where the dead reside. On the right stands Tahut, having the head of an ibis, god of science and all knowledges, scribe to the assembly of the immortals. In the midst and facing the king newly arrived, stands Safekh, the "Lady of Writings" or god

dess of letters, who, along with Tahut, carries in the left hand the emblem of perpetuity during millions and millions of years. The double royal cartouch of Rameses II. appears directly over his head; and even in this outline drawing of his countenance the artist of more than thirty centuries ago clearly endeavored to trace the very profile which time has dealt so tenderly with and now in these last days has unveiled to our reverent gaze.

Even if his royal name had not been officially written by the high-priest Pinotem upon his cerements, we would have been able readily to recognize and safely to identify the Great Rameses from his iconographic monuments.

John A. Paine.

CARTOUCHES OF RAMESES 11.- KING OF THE UPPER AND LOWER COUNTRIES.

ZWEIBAK; OR, NOTES OF A PROFESSIONAL EXILE.-V.

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IGHT on the top of my remark that the passion of love, or that simple passions of any sort, such as the plays describe, are not to be met with in Zweibak, comes the adorable spinster Phillis, accompanied by Amyntas, who has been in love with her for years. She is a really fine person,-a tall, full, blonde woman, with a coquetry which approaches philanthropy, it is so amiable, so vague and elevated. Her desire to please expands itself into a fine and gentle enthusiasm. She has a freedom and a strength of position which would be possible to no other than an American spinster. She is not emancipated, or peculiar, or anything that is unbecoming, but sits by her tea-table like Deborah of old under her palm tree; from this position, in which I have often seen her, she radiates her interest in mankind in general and the male portion thereof in particular.

Amyntas has been in pursuit of her for years, if that may be called pursuit, where she does not fly and he scarcely dares follow. The affair has reached a state of suspended motion. He is quite content to be near her, to listen to the sound of her voice, and to be conscious of her movements. Indeed, it is to be doubted whether her actual presence is necessary to him. I should think he might sit very comfortably in the same room with one of her old dresses.

... An American should not spend the years of his early and middle life in Europe. When Americans first come abroad, they are very much taken up with associations. These are often so attractive as to make them think they could never weary of such things. A day or two after my first landing in England as a youngster, fifteen years ago, I went with a college friend to the Haymarket Theatre. This was in the time before the hand of the improver had been laid upon that charming abode of Thespis. It was a dingy white-and-gilt old place, stodgy and full of draughts, still redolent of old comedy and of the days of the pit and "half price." We sat in the stalls in the second row from the orchestra, and were very near the actors. Our compatriot, Mr. Vezin, who was playing in "The Man of Airlie," did us the great kindness to wink at us. I wonder if he was sensible of the effect upon our young minds of his benevolent action. In an instant I felt

such "a man about town." I was one with the wits of Queen Anne, with Colley Cibber and Barry and Betterton, and the dandies of fifty and a hundred years ago. We were very happy.

The next day I went to a levee at St. James's Palace. A beef-eater in the dress of three centuries ago stood at a turn of the staircase, and, recognizing my black coat, motioned me in the direction of the entrée. I was vastly pleased by the man's deferential manner. His semblance was in some way familiar to me. I looked again and saw that it was Henry VIII., no longer proud and valiant as in Holbein's picture, but contrite in mind, much tutored by the lapse of time and the course of events, having fully adopted the view of the school histories regarding his own actions, and now doing homage to the spirit of democracy in the person of a Yankee diplomate.

But one cannot live on associations. One has but a single life and cannot spend that on traditions. Associations and traditions soon weary. I sometimes go and stay at the country house of an old lady who has known pretty much every European celebrity of the century and who has entertained many of them under her most hospitable roof. She likes to talk about them. At first it was interesting to listen; but it has come to bore me sadly. The kind old lady sits discoursing all day upon the past of these eminent people-to me, who am altogether interested in my own future.

.. I begin to want a country badly. I have so long breathed foreign air as to have begun to wonder whether the atmosphere of my own land, like this, is made of oxygen and nitrogen, and whether our piece of ground has as much of the sun, the moon, and the stars as these countries. I am aware that my country is a great one, but I require in my exile an outward and visible sign of the fact. It has altogether too much moral and future greatness. I wish it had more ships of war and bands of music. I would give some tons of moral greatness and, as for the future, would throw in an eon or two, for one smart drummer-boy.

A year ago a United States ship of war visited the country in which the writer holds a diplomatic appointment. I accompanied my chief on a visit to this ship. We were met at the dock by a steam launch, commanded by a midshipman, a tall youth with delicate and distinct features and a complexion that suggested ague. He told us he was from south

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