Aahmes, also called Amosis, son of Queen Aah-hotep and an Egyptian father (whose history is as yet unknown), was one of the greatest warriors and most noted kings of Egypt, and regarded as the savior of his country, since he freed it from the long thrall of an alien race. Ambition was evidently a ruling passion with him, but he appears to have been devoted and even tender to those he loved. His wife, the Princess Nefertari-Aahmes, or Aahmes-Nefertari, was long supposed to be the daughter of an Ethiopian king, and therefore not of kin to him, since her pictures on the monuments show a black skin, though Caucasian features.
Nefertari Aahmes.
Later researches have proved her to be his half-sister, the daughter of his mother, but not of his father. She was evidently the first daughter of Queen Aah-hotep’s marriage with Sequenenra, and with a more direct title to the succession than her husband, so that there were state reasons as well as private ones for the marriage. From Sequenenra, therefore, he being of the Berber type, she took her coloring and the right of succession, and she may perhaps be said to have been three-quarters black. The name signifies[92] “good or beautiful companion,” and she was regarded with great veneration on earth and shared with her mother, and mother-in-law, divine honors after death.
Thebes, which had risen to political consequence in the time of the Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasties, was now the royal city, the safest home of the royal family, and was said to have stood to Ethiopia, as well as to Egypt, as Rome did to mediaeval Christendom. It was in Upper Egypt, the sacred city, and devoted to the worship of the god Amen, or Amon, whom the Greeks regarded as their Jove. From here went out the great war chariots and the bands of soldiers to battle, and often, especially at this period, to conquest.
“The chief peculiarity of the Egyptians,” says a writer who is an authority, “is the remarkable closeness of their eyelashes on both lids, forming a dense double fringe, which gives so animated an expression to their almond-shaped eyes.” The very ancient and still existing custom of blackening the edges of the eyelids with antimony (kohl), which is said to serve a sanitary purpose, contributes to enhance this natural expression. The eyebrows are straight and smooth, never bushy. The mouth is wide and thick-lipped, and very different from that of the Beduin or inhabitant of the oases. The high cheek bones, the receding forehead, the lowness of the bridge of the nose (this last in some pictures of the statues of Queen Nefertari-Aahmes being noticeable), which is always distinctly separated from the forehead, and the flatness of the nose[93] itself are the chief characteristics of the Egyptian skull; but as the jaw projects less than those of most of the other African colored races, it has been assumed that the skull is Asiatic and not African in shape. A headless statue at Karnak and statuettes at various places exist. They suggest a queenly bearing, and from these and the general description we must form our mental picture of this dark-skinned lady. A light complexion was much admired, but Queen Nefertari-Aahmes was of different type, and perhaps set the fashion of her own style of beauty; at one place she was painted yellow, and one authority claimed that she was only black in a mythological sense, but it now seems to be agreed that to a Berber father she owed her tint.
The two names, Nefruari and Nefertari, appear to be interchangeable, and probably bear the same relation to each other as Mary and Maria. We can see plainly the difference ’twixt our Jacks and Johns, our Marys and Marias, but the alteration of a single letter in a foreign tongue leaves us somewhat bewildered, and the Nofruaris and the Nefertaris, the Nefrits and the Nofrits, etc., are often very puzzling, and, unless great care is taken, may lead to serious complications and mistakes.
Our knowledge of this period comes largely from two sources, the tomb of a naval officer in the service of Aahmes and the discoveries of comparatively late years, which have brought to light many of the very bodies of the kings, queens and princesses of this and subsequent lines. Even in death the truth of the proverb[94] seems to hold, that “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” and not in what was intended to be their last resting places, but in collections and museums, are gathered many royalties whose eyes looked out on the light of an ancient world.
Aahmes, son of Abuna, directly or indirectly the king’s namesake, was an officer of the ship called “The Calf,” and later served on one named “Ruling in Memphis,” which perhaps celebrated the reconquering of the ancient capital. Of his early life there are some amusing records: “I was too young to have a wife, and slept in the semt cloth and shennu garment.” This was about 1586 B. C., and his age perhaps twenty. Nor, following the example of his sovereigns, does he hesitate to blow his own trumpet “As soon as I had a house,” says the martial hero, “I was taken to a ship called the ‘North’ on account of my valor.” Apparently, he could face the enemy early in life, but not a fair lady. Diospolis, or Thebes, “hundred-gated Thebes,” was now the chief city, and Officer Aahmes saw active service, but survived and was rewarded by his monarch. The chronicle reads: “I brought very many prisoners. I do not reckon them,” and, further, that he was “presented with gold seven times in the face of the whole land.” The story of his exploits on his tomb throws much light upon the history of the time.
In the summer of 1881, in a pit, near Thebes, was found a concourse of mummies, the bodies of many kings and queens, among them Queen Nefertari-Aahmes. The existence of royal tombs had long been suspected from the various articles[95] which had found their way into the market, and the authorities were at length able to secure the Arab who was the chief purloiner. He and his accomplices long obstinately resisted all inducements, even that of imprisonment, to reveal their secret, but finally yielded, and the bodies of various sovereigns of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties (the Twentieth was missing) were found.
The experienced archeologist can tell from the appearance of a mummy case to what period it belongs. The oldest mummy in the world, until recently, about which there was no doubt, is that of Saken-em-saf, son of Pepi I, of the Sixth Dynasty. The mummies of the Eleventh Dynasty are poorly made, brittle and yellowish; those of the Twelfth Dynasty are black, and from these to the Seventeenth are also inferior. But those of the Eighteenth are so finely embalmed that the limbs are pliable and bend without breaking. At Thebes they were generally painted yellow. Alexander the Great is said to have been buried in honey, as was the case with others. Bitumen was used towards the time of the Ptolemies, and grew hard with age. Later still, pieces of wood were inserted, with the face painted upon them.
The “Book of the Dead,” so often spoken of, and whose reputed author was the god Thoth, was a sort of Bible to the Egyptians, and contained minute directions in regard to burial rites. It was written in chapters, and was an accretion, taking shape gradually, some parts being much older than others. It was seldom or never collected in one roll. It is said that a fairly complete[96] copy was ninety feet long and about fifteen inches wide. It was written on papyrus; chapters of it were buried with the dead, and extracts were inscribed on scarabs and other objects and used in the same way. The book is a storehouse of information as regards Egyptian theology and practice, and translations of it exist in several languages besides English. Figures like small mummies and called Ushabti, or Ushebti, “little servants,” to accompany and attend upon the departed, were buried with them. This was probably a survival of the original custom of killing some of his slaves at the tomb of the master. In the Thirteenth Dynasty these images were made of granite or wood; in the Eighteenth of faience, or made in moulds, and from the Twenty-fourth to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty they were not much used, and later were carelessly made. They were often inscribed with the Sixth chapter from the Book of the Dead.
The coffins of the Eighteenth Dynasty were larger than the previous ones, and were shaped in the form of a mummy, with inscriptions running from the breast to the feet. Of such colossal size was that of Queen Nefertari-Aahmes that it took sixteen men to move it, and it was over seven metres in height. After the Eighteenth Dynasty the cases were again smaller. The queen’s was made of innumerable layers of linen, saturated and hardened together by some kind of glue, was painted blue and yellow with a mesh-like effect, and the features, necklace, bracelets, etc., picked out in blue. The face, evidently a portrait, was large and round, with a sweet expression,[97] and she wore an extensive wig, with the plumes of Amen and Maut. In each hand she held the royal “ankh,” or life sign, and the helmet and plumes, also the investiture of Osiris, were befitting the wife of a warrior and one who was regarded as a goddess.
There was also the coffin of the Lady Rai, nurse of Queen Nefertari, in green garnished with bands of yellow. Within were inscriptions to the goddess Maut, in honor of Ra, and other inscriptions with the name of Ra, but the body had disappeared. There has been found also the little blue coffin of the Princess Sitamon, daughter of Aahmes and Nefertari.
The theories and ideas of the Egyptians seem utterly strange to us. So strong was their belief in a future existence that their whole life in this world was a preparation for it, and the greatest care was taken that every portion of the body should be preserved—that no limb or member should be lacking in another world.
The Egyptian was, according to his own idea, archeological authorities tell us, a composite being, composed of several different entities, of which each had its functions and its own life. There was, first, the body, then the double, or “Ka,” images of which are found so constantly in the tombs and reproduced in paintings and statues, as we remember that of Queen Mertytefs and her Ka, before described. This double bore, in miniature, the form and lineaments of the departed, and was a sort of second example of the body in a less dense material than the corporal body. A colored projection but an aerial one of[98] the individual. It represented the departed, feature for feature, male or female, adult or child.
After the double came the soul, “Ba” or “Bai,” which the popular imagination represented under the figure of a bird; and after the soul the luminous particle of light, “Khau,” detached from the divine fire. None of these were imperishable, and the man left to himself would die a second time and fall into nothing. By embalmment the body was preserved from destruction, and by prayers and offerings the other portions of this strange and composite whole. The double remained always with the mummy, the others went and came. The places of sepulchre for the sovereigns were the numerous pyramids, usually having sides to the points of the compass and a door to the north; these were frequently enlarged and altered by succeeding monarchs, as that of Mycerenas was so extended and beautified by Queen Nitocris that it often bore her name, instead of its first builder.
The stele were originally false doors by which the living world was supposed to communicate with the dead. Food for the departed was often placed before the door, and later represented upon it, which by incantations became real. At last the stele were used only as a place for inscriptions. This applies merely to funerary stele. Sometimes there was a statue or bas-relief in the stele.
To the pyramids were added grottoes, rock, tombs and caves, not alone for royalty, and the mastabas built of brick, like a truncated pyramid, and so named by the Arabs because they resembled[99] the long, low seat used in Oriental houses. Naturally, the more important the person buried was deemed the more indestructible were the materials of his tomb, and the more care was taken to preserve them. Not many tombs were found before the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties until the later discovery of the burial places of the kings of the First Dynasty. It is the mastabas and smaller tombs at Gizeh and elsewhere that teach us about the earliest period in Egyptian history, those at Thebes later, and Beni-Hasen the Middle Empire. The monuments and temples were the canvas upon which the self-glorifying kings painted their own history, and it is the absence of these, as has been before shown, which leaves the period in comparative darkness. It is the tomb of Ty in the Fourth Dynasty and those of Beni-Hassen in the Twelfth which are so invaluable in giving the pictures of the daily life during their respective eras.
We read of a stele or tablet (which in the Eighteenth Dynasty were usually rounded at the top) on which at the left is seated the figure of King Amosis or Aahmes and “the divine spouse of Amen, the royal spouse, Aahmes-Nefertari,” also at the left are seated King Amenophis I and his spouse, Aahmes-Nefertari. “Is it the same queen?” questioned Mariette, yet the spelling and the faces are different. There is also a stele bearing the name of King Aahmes and his mother, Queen Aah-hotep. Another statue is spoken of, whose pure profile recalls the handsome portraits of Seti I. It represents the god Amen standing. On the base we read in red ink, with[100] the legend of Amenophis I, “the royal spouse whom he loves, Aahmes-Nefertari.”
The mourning color of the Egyptians, as now of the Burmese, was yellow, and it is curious to observe how varied in this respect are the customs of different lands. With us, an............