CHAPTER VIII.

The Eighteenth Dynasty—Queen Hatasu and Thothmes III.

(_Circa_ 1600-1400 B.C.)

On the east bank of the river, about 50 miles from Thebes, there stood in ancient times a strong fortified city, surrounded by massive walls of such thickness, that chariots might have been driven abreast upon them. Of the city itself nothing survives save ruins; but in the valley that lies eastward, behind the hills, are still to be seen long rows of tombs and memorial sanctuaries, where were laid to rest the heroes of the great war of liberation.

The whole district was ruled by native governors, tributaries of the Hyksos, throughout the whole period of the foreign supremacy, and the daily course of Egyptian life seems to have gone on with but little interruption. The tombs just mentioned belonged chiefly to one family, and the walls are adorned as usual with inscriptions and representations of scenes and events from daily life. Baba-Abana, head of the family, tells us that he was the parent of 52 children, and was able to provide abundant food and every necessary comfort for them all. ‘If any one supposes I am jesting,’ he adds, ‘I invoke the god Munt to witness that I am speaking the truth.’ Baba-Abana was an officer under Taa III. (the Victorious), and was no doubt actively engaged in helping forward the construction of the Egyptian flotilla. He tells us further of a famine that ‘lasted for many years,’ and that he provided corn for his city each year of the famine. This must have been the same famine that is mentioned in Genesis, when Joseph, at the court of the Hyksos Pharaoh, was providing corn for the land—the famine which led to the establishment of the Hebrew colony in the Goshen district of the Delta. Their presence there would be welcome, as they were no doubt of kindred race with those who then bore rule.

One of the numerous family of Baba-Abana, named Aahmes (like the king), did good service in the fleet during all the closing scenes of the war. He has left us an account of his doings, which opens thus:—‘The Chief of the fleet, Aahmes, son of Abana (the Blessed), speaketh to you all, ye people, that you may know the honours that have fallen to his lot.’ He was born, he tells us, in the city of Nek-heb (the Greek Eileithyia), and as a lad he served King Aahmes on board a ship called the ‘_Calf_.’ He married, and set up a house, after which he was promoted, ‘because of his strength,’ to another vessel called the ‘_North_.’ And when the king went out in his chariot, it was the duty of the young captain to follow him on foot. In the siege of the Hyksos stronghold, Avaris, he fought bravely on foot in presence of his majesty. During the siege he was further promoted to the vessel called ‘_Going up into Memphis_.’

Hard fighting went on around Avaris, and Aahmes tells us of the trophies of the dead[30] he brought in, as well as of his living prisoners. One of the latter he had much difficulty in securing, for he had to drag him some distance with a firm grasp through the water to avoid the road to the town. His prisoners were assigned to him as slaves, and many rewards and golden gifts were presented him for his services. Avaris was taken at length, and the Hyksos driven beyond the frontier, the king pursuing them as far as Sherohan, in Canaan, which town he also captured in the sixth year of his reign.

This was the final act of the long-protracted struggle in the north, but the mountaineers of Nubia were still in arms. There was sharp fighting in the south before the naval captain could record that his majesty ‘had taken possession of the land, both of the north and of the south.’ Aahmes received a gift of some acres of cultivated land in his native district. Later on we find him, as a veteran warrior, accompanying the two succeeding sovereigns on campaigns in the south, where he fought as admiral, at the head of the fleet. His final exploits were performed on a more distant field of battle—the ‘land of the two rivers’—Naharina (Mesopotamia). There he captured a chariot, with its horses and charioteers, for which deed he received for the seventh time a gift in gold. He concludes his story thus:—‘Now I have passed many days, and reached a grey old age. I too shall pass away to Amenti, and I shall rest in the tomb which I have prepared for myself.’ And there may still be seen a portrait of the old sailor and of his wife. He is a ‘bluff, resolute-looking man, not handsome; a short snub nose, and low solid brow—a short beard curling upwards from his chin.’[31]

The three monarchs under whom this distinguished officer served in succession, Aahmes, Amenhotep I., and Thothmes I., were the first three kings of the eighteenth dynasty. Aahmes inherited the throne by right of his mother’s descent from Mena, but he strengthened his position further by himself marrying a princess of the royal line, Nefertari, who was greatly revered by succeeding generations, both as heiress in her own right, and as mother and ancestress of an illustrious dynasty.

The first twenty-two years of the reign of Aahmes were passed in unremitting warfare. After the capture of Sherohan, he followed his foes no farther, but contented himself with erecting fortresses to protect the frontier. He would not feel his supremacy sufficiently assured over the numerous princes and chieftains who had gladly followed his victorious banner against the common foe, but would not have been quite ready when success had been achieved to resign their independent authority. At length, however, the king was able to lay aside his sword, and to turn his attention to the much needed work of restoring and renovating the temples of the gods. Again the limestone quarries were opened, and there are representations now to be seen in the sculptures of the huge blocks drawn along upon rollers by twelve or more oxen on the way to Memphis.

Aahmes left an infant son as heir to the crown, and the royal mother acted as regent until he was of age to reign. Amenhotep I. died young, and did not accomplish much; we learn, however, that during his reign Ta-Khent (Nubia) was mastered—‘the land in its complete extent lay at the feet of the king.’

In the great discovery of coffins and royal mummies, made not far from Thebes in 1881, were brought to light the bodies of Taa the Victorious (the last of the brave Sekenen-Ras), of Aahmes, and of his son Amenhotep I. The conqueror of the Hyksos is enwreathed in garlands and festoons, his young son is swathed in lotus leaves and flowers—amongst them is a perfectly preserved wasp, that must have been accidentally shut in when the coffin-lid was closed more than 3000 years ago. This coffin and its case are in very good preservation; on the lid is an effigy of the young king, which is evidently a portrait. The coffin of Thothmes I. was found, but the mummy was missing.

When Thothmes I. became king, the internal dissensions of Egypt had quieted down, and, after one campaign in the south, the king proceeded to ‘cool his heart’ by undertaking the war on which the mind of the Egyptians was set—a war of retribution and of conquest. In this distant expedition (already alluded to in the memoirs of Aahmes), Thothmes rapidly pushed his way as far as Naharina (Mesopotamia), and returned home laden with treasures and spoil, having exacted a promise of annual tribute from many tribes in many regions. In the memorial chapel of the Thothmes family a sculpture is still remaining to tell of his triumphant home-coming. ‘The soldiers holding branches in their hands, as emblems of peace, step out briskly as they approach their native land, and are met by a deputation of citizens, who slay fat oxen and sheep to feed them with. In the procession figure a couple of tigers, led along by their keepers,’[32] and apparently tame.

The king employed both his prisoners and his gold in continuing the construction of the great temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes. Its foundation had been laid by Amenemhat I. many centuries before, but the building had been hindered, or had altogether stopped, during the long years of foreign rule.

When Thothmes I. died, he left behind him one daughter and two sons, each of whom bore the same name as his father, but the younger of the brothers was only a little child. Their sister Hatasu was a proud ambitious woman, and had already been, to some extent, associated with her father during his reign. When Thothmes II. succeeded, she was formally associated with him in the government. We read but little about this king; his reign was brief, and he was probably outshone by the energetic partner of his throne. Hatasu, in fact, could ill brook even the slight restraint imposed by his co-regency, and no sooner was he dead than the proud queen, ‘throwing aside her womanly veil, appeared in all the splendour of a Pharaoh—like a born king.’[33] She assumed man’s attire, and was seen on state occasions in the dress and regalia of an Egyptian king—even to the plaited beard. She revered her father, and paid homage to his memory, but on the unfortunate Thothmes II. she hastened to avenge herself for the wrong he had done her in wearing a crown that was his own; she obliterated every trace of his existence to the best of her ability, and, vindictively erasing his name, she substituted her own. Hatasu also succeeded in having her name inscribed by the priests on the roll of Egyptian sovereigns.

Meantime the boy Thothmes, the rightful king, was sent by order of his imperious sister to the almost inaccessible marshes of the Delta, where he was doomed to wear out the years of his dreary boyhood, cherishing, there can be little doubt, the most vindictive feelings towards the sister who, having usurped his place, was ruling Egypt with splendour and renown.

No reign was more distinguished than that of Hatasu for art and architecture. She completed the magnificent temple begun during her joint reign with her brother. An avenue of sphinxes led up to the gate towers and the obelisks, which were 97 feet in height, and made of red granite capped with gold. The temple itself stood upon four broad and stately terraces, which rose one above another until they touched the dazzling marble-like limestone cliff against which they rested; the terraces were covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions and carvings in bas-relief. In the limestone rock above were excavated vast funeral chambers, and here were buried the queen’s father and mother, a sister who died young, and Thothmes II. Here also Hatasu herself and Thothmes III. were laid in due time, but none of these royal mummies have been suffered to remain in peace. To avoid violation and plunder, it became customary some centuries later to examine and to report upon the state of royal tombs and coffins from time to time, and to remove them occasionally to securer resting-places. Thus it came to pass in the great discovery of 1881, the empty coffin of Thothmes I. was found, together with the coffin and mummy of his son and successor, Thothmes II.

To the architect Semnut, who so successfully carried out the grand conception of the terraced temple, his royal mistress raised a memorial—a statue in black granite in a sitting attitude of calm repose; on his shoulder is the inscription—‘His ancestors were not found in writing,’ _i.e._ they were unknown men, a not unfrequent phrase in Egyptian inscriptions. Semnut is represented as saying, ‘I loved _him_, and gained the admiration of the _lord_ of the country. _He_ made me great, and I have become first of the first, clerk of the works above all clerks. I lived during the reign of _King_ Ma-Ka-Ra;[34] may _he_ live for ever!’ No doubt it was the general custom thus to flatter the foible of their sovereign, who was, in fact, designated by a name signifying ‘Lady-King.’

Under the queen’s rule, however, there was an entire cessation of military enterprises, for Hatasu did not so far assume the character of a Pharaoh as to put on armour and lead her troops to the battle-field. Egypt therefore enjoyed unbroken tranquillity during her peaceful and brilliant reign—a reign not only distinguished for the splendour of its architecture, but memorable also for an expedition to the land of Punt. This expedition is portrayed in curious and interesting detail upon the stages of the terraced temple. Long ago we know that the Egyptian imagination had been stirred by the supposed marvels of that ‘sacred land’ of dream and legend. And in the days of Hatasu the expedition sent thither by King Sankhkara, centuries before, would not have been forgotten. By the queen’s command an embassy was despatched to its shores. Princes and lords were intrusted with rich and royal gifts for the purpose of conciliating the people of that land over which the Lady-King desired to establish a supremacy, although not at the sword’s point.

The expedition arrived in safety, and found the people inhabiting little dome-shaped dwellings, supported on piles and approached by ladders, under the shade of their cocoa-nut and incense-trees. The Egyptians, with their strong turn for natural history, were much interested by the novelties they beheld around them, the unfamiliar plants and trees, the strange birds and animals not known in Egypt. All went well. Gifts were exchanged, and the natives promised to acknowledge the supremacy of Egypt, and to send an annual tribute thither. The king of the country appeared on the scene accompanied, say the hieroglyphs, ‘by his enormously fat wife ... an ass serves the fat wife to ride on.’ This lady, the queen of the fairyland of Egyptian fancy, is in truth a painful object to behold; not merely fat but bloated, and swollen in such an extraordinary manner as to render it probable that, although the ‘Queen of Punt,’ she ‘was a leper.’

Soon began the work of packing and of lading the transport vessels with the rare and beautiful products of the land. The busy scene is delineated upon the walls of the temple, and the inscriptions relate how the ‘ships were laden to the uttermost with all the wonderful products of the land of Punt, with the precious woods of the divine land, with heaps of the resin of incense and fresh incense-trees; with ebony and objects carved in ivory and inlaid with gold, with sweet woods and paint for the eyes, with dog-headed apes and long-tailed monkeys, with greyhounds and with leopards, besides some of the natives and their children.’ The Egyptians, on the voyage home, were evidently much taken by the antics of the monkeys, as they sprang about amongst the sails, up and down the rigging. The fresh incense-trees, thirty-one in number, were carefully planted in tubs, and six men were assigned for the transport of each of them to the vessel which was to carry it north for transplantation into another soil.

Several of the princes and chief men of Punt accompanied the expedition on its return, and were received in state by the queen in her male attire. It is a pity we have no records that might convey the impression made by the wonders of Egypt upon the visitors in their turn. The rich treasures they had brought were offered by Hatasu to the god Amen-Ra with gladness and national rejoicings. The queen appeared in royal pomp; the priests carried in solemn procession ‘the sacred bark’ of the deity, before which the youthful Thothmes offered incense; the warriors of Hatasu’s guard followed, bearing branches in their hands as signs of peace, and tumultuous cries of joy rent the air on all sides.

The appearance of Thothmes on the scene proves that the time had come when his claims could no longer be ignored nor he himself be detained amid the distant and dreary marshes of the Delta by the jealous fears of the queen. The sight of the brave and handsome youth who had been King of Egypt by right for fifteen years could hardly fail to win the people’s hearts, and his imperious sister found herself at last compelled to let him take his place at her side, with what long suppressed feelings of rancour and ill-will may be readily imagined.

The coronation of Thothmes III. was celebrated with all fitting splendour and state, and, for a short time at any rate, the brother and sister ruled jointly. But Hatasu must have felt that her day was over, and after a little while her name silently disappears from the historic records. Of the close of her life we know nothing, but we know that Thothmes, with vindictive satisfaction, chiselled out her name wherever he could find it, and that he always dated the years of his own reign from the time of his brother’s death, ignoring Hatasu’s sovereignty as a usurpation.

The reign of Thothmes, thus reckoned, was a very long one, close upon 54 years, and much of it was passed by the warlike sovereign in other lands and upon distant battle-fields.

Nubia was by this time really an Egyptian province, and was governed by a viceroy, who was often one of the king’s sons. In the gold-yielding districts a miserable population—prisoners, slaves, and criminals, were toiling beneath the scorching sun, extracting the gold from the stubborn stone; which had first to be hewn out, then crushed, and finally the grains of the precious metals to be washed out. Elsewhere the province was peopled by an active race, grouped around the temples, fortresses, and garrison towns, where they found employment, and received abundant supplies of food for their sustenance from Egypt; others were engaged in the navigation of the dangerous cataracts. The natives had grown accustomed to Egyptian rule, and were rapidly adopting Egyptian religion and civilisation. Their chief city Napata was indeed destined to become one day the seat of a strong Egyptian dynasty, and a stronghold of the worship of Amen-Ra.

There was therefore no cause for anxiety concerning the south, and the eyes of the young sovereign turned eagerly to the regions where his father had made his rapid campaign, and acquired military renown and abundant spoil. The policy of ‘extending the frontiers of Egypt’ was no doubt partly dictated by the desire of rendering the country safe from any further invasion, by subduing the neighbouring lands; but it is certain that the vision of establishing an Egyptian empire fascinated the imagination of Thothmes III., and he was able to realise the dream.

The course of Egyptian history had flowed on century after century, for 2000 or 3000 years, in a sort of majestic solitude, like its own mighty river, which for 1800 miles of its course receives no tributary stream. The people might be said to have ‘dwelt alone.’ The position of the land was isolated and secluded, its people had an innate dislike of the sea, and possessed no sea-going ships; they were perfectly content within the bounds of their own luxuriant domains, and knew and cared very little about the world that lay beyond. The frontiers were well guarded and no foe had crossed them, nor had any vision of conquest or wide-spread empire arisen to dazzle the imagination of the early kings.

The coming of the Hyksos had wrought a great change, and had broken down the barriers of isolation. And the mighty wave of national energy, which, gathering strength as it rose, swept away the foe, did not thus spend all its force. A longing arose for retribution, conquest, empire; the avenging campaign of Thothmes I. had stimulated rather than satisfied a national craving for glory and for wealth. The Pharaohs now emerge from the seclusion of the valley of the Nile, and enter that blood-stained arena—the battle-field of the nations—the Syrian and Mesopotamian lands. But the brilliant successes and far-reaching supremacy of the Egyptian arms ended at last in disaster and decline, from which there was no power of recovery.

Far enough, however, were any such gloomy forebodings from the thoughts of King Thothmes III., when he mounted his war-chariot and assembled his troops upon the field of Zoan. The tributes promised to his father by the conquered princes had for a long time ceased to be paid. They knew that a female sovereign held the sceptre, and the tribes that had acknowledged the father’s supremacy cast off all fealty to the daughter. The town of Gaza alone had remained faithful to the Egyptian allegiance. Here Thothmes took up his quarters for the night on the twenty-third anniversary of his accession (dating _i.e._ from his brother’s death). Next morning he left the city, ‘full of power and strength, to conquer the miserable enemy, and to extend the frontiers of Egypt, as his father Amen-Ra had promised him.’

The country known to us as Palestine or Syria was then, as at a later date, divided into several petty kingdoms, each with a fortified capital of its own. The general name by which its inhabitants were known to the Egyptians was that of the Rutennu, and at this moment their various tribes were allied against Egypt under the leadership of the King of Kadesh, and, encamped within and around Megiddo, they were waiting the attack of King Thothmes.

There was a choice of roads before the invading host. One broad highway led along the Mediterranean coast, keeping the sea in sight, until it turned in an easterly direction, and opened out finally upon the wide plain of Kadesh. Another way led along the banks of the Jordan, but it was a dangerous route, often very narrow and amongst thickets, where a foe might easily lurk unseen. After leaving the Jordan it went through the narrow valley of the Orontes until it also reached the capital of the King of Kadesh. Thothmes addressed his army, and told them of the information he had just received concerning the position of the enemy, who had said, ‘I will withstand the King of Egypt at Megiddo.’ ‘And now,’ said the king, ‘tell me the way by which we shall go to break into the city.’ The army with one accord entreated to be led by any way but that which wound along by the Jordan. ‘It has been told us,’ they said, ‘that the foe lies there in ambush, and the way is impassable for a great host; one horse cannot stand there beside another, nor can one man find room by another. The army would be blocked, and be helpless before the enemy. There is a broad way that starts from Aluna, and it offers no opportunity for an attack. Whithersoever our victorious leader goes we will follow him, only we pray that he will not take us by the impassable way.’ Thothmes decided on the broad road, and made the soldiers take an oath that they would not go on in advance of the king with any idea of protecting his person, but would let him take the place of danger at their head. Dismounting from his chariot, he advanced on foot in the forefront of the army. ‘He went forward,’ says the story; ‘his divine father Amen-Ra was before him, and Horus-Hormakhu was at his side.’

In a few days the camp was pitched opposite Megiddo. ‘Keep yourselves ready,’ said the king, ‘look to your arms, for we shall meet the enemy in battle early to-morrow morning.’ And they set the watch, saying, ‘Be of good courage; watch, watch—watch over the life in the king’s tent.’ Next morning the assault was made, but the Canaanites were unable to make a stand against the disciplined valour of the Egyptian troops; they fled at the first onset ‘with terror on their faces.’ The dead ‘lay on the ground like fishes,’ and the fugitives in their haste left behind them their horses and their chariots of gold and silver, and ‘were drawn up by their clothes as by ropes into the fortress.’ The king’s own tent was captured on the field, amidst shouts of joy and of thanks to Amen-Ra. Megiddo itself was taken, and the victor entrenched himself there to await the submission and the tribute of the confederated princes. Then the chiefs of the land came to do homage to the king, and, though the civilisation of the Canaanitish tribes may not have been high, yet there was no lack, at any rate, of a certain splendour at their kings’ courts. They were graciously received by the young conqueror, and laid rich gifts at his feet, gold, silver, and _lapis lazuli_—wheat, wine, and wool,—besides many suits of brazen armour and chariots plated with gold.

The capture of Megiddo opened the way to the more distant field of Mesopotamia. In former ages that country had been the seat of civilised and highly cultivated states,[35] but these kingdoms had fallen, probably before some foreign conquerors, about the time that the twelfth dynasty was ruling in Egypt. About the period of the Hyksos supremacy there seems to have been an empire established at Babylon which included Assyria as a province; but this again had passed away, and the country was broken up into a number of petty principalities, which it was no hard task for Thothmes to subdue and reduce to some sort of vassalage. Among the Asiatic princes who brought him tribute are named those of _Assur_ and of _Babilu_.

The supremacy of the Egyptian crown may thus be said to have been acknowledged in some sort over the ‘known world;’ for the Egyptian horizon did not extend beyond the Mediterranean Sea, the Euphrates, and the range of Mount Taurus in Armenia. ‘I have placed the boundaries of Egypt at the horizon,’ said Thothmes III., ‘and I have set Egypt at the head of all nations, because its people are united with me in the worship of Amen.’

These Asiatic campaigns were often renewed during this long reign; thirteen or fourteen such are recorded. Each was followed by a longer or shorter interval of peace. The principal episodes of the wars were sculptured in bas-relief upon the walls of the great temple at Karnak, where also was inscribed a careful geographical enumeration of the conquered peoples, and a record of the tributes they respectively paid. Full accounts were also preserved in the libraries attached to the temples; but the Egyptian archives have perished, and Egyptian history with them, except so far as it was carved on the enduring stone, or written in the few papyri that have survived the general wreck.

There is an inscription on the tomb of a valiant captain of Thothmes, named Amenemhib, in which he tells us of the campaigns he was engaged in by his master’s side. ‘I never left him,’ he says; ‘great was the valour of his arm.’ Then he records his own deeds, and describes the rich rewards assigned him. Twice he saved the king’s life when in imminent peril. ‘I saw the lord of the two countries in the land of Ni; he was hunting 120 elephants for the sake of their tusks. The largest one of the herd rushed upon his majesty, but I cut his trunk, and escaped through the water between the rocks.’ Another time the King of Kadesh had started a wild horse to run upon the king. ‘I followed him as he dashed among the warriors, and I slew him with my sword, and cut off his tail, which I presented to the king as a trophy.’ In the siege of Kadesh he led the party that stormed the walls. ‘I broke them open; I led all the valiant. None other went before me.’

The return of the king and his army from these distant expeditions was a sort of triumphal procession. No presage or foreboding of future ill troubled the Egyptians as they looked out for the appearance of their hero king and welcomed him with rapturous acclamations. In his train came princes and princesses of Canaan, prisoners of war, and slaves. Slaves formed a portion of the tribute imposed upon the subject countries. Then came horses (amongst them snow-white and bay), wild goats and asses, zebras or humped buffaloes, together with wilder animals of rarer species—tigers, the cinnamon-coloured bear of Mount Taurus, and occasionally a young elephant. The wealth brought home by the conquerors was incalculable. From the fruitful land of Palestine, corn, oil olive, and honey; Phœnicia sent her merchandise gathered in from many lands—gold, silver, and gems; turquoise, ruby, and coral; copper and lead, besides cedar and other fragrant woods. Nor were there wanting specimens of skilled and splendid artistic workmanship. There were chariots richly adorned with silver and gold, costly stuffs and embroidery, and ‘goodly Babylonish garments;’ gold vases from North Palestine are especially mentioned, inlaid with precious stones; flowers were carved upon the rim, and the handles made in the shape of some animal. In addition there was the tribute that flowed in regularly from the South. The friendly inhabitants of Punt sent, in recognition of the Egyptian supremacy, gums and fragrant spices in abundance. Kush was now ruled by an Egyptian viceroy, who took care that the contributions should never fail—negro slaves, long-horned oxen, bloodhounds, apes, panther skins, ostrich eggs, ivory, ebony, and rare trees. The last-named item possessed a special interest for the Egyptians, who had a strong love for natural history. An artist has depicted some wonderful plants, cactuses and water-lilies from the southern lands, and underneath is the inscription:—

‘Here are all sorts of plants and flowers from Ta-nuter. The king speaks thus, “I swear by Ra, I call Amen-Ra to witness that everything is plain truth. What the splendid soil brings forth I have portrayed, to offer it to my father Amen-Ra, in his great temple as a memorial for all time.”’ It is also recorded of Thothmes, at the close of one of his campaigns, that four new species of birds that were brought to him ‘pleased the king more than all the rest.’

As might be expected, Thothmes did not neglect to immortalise his name by erecting or adorning the temples of the gods. His greatest work was the Hall of Columns, which he added to the great Temple of Amen, begun by Amenemhat I., and still incomplete. He appointed ‘feasts of victory’ to be celebrated on the festivals of Amen, thus linking his own name very closely with that of his god, and he enriched the temple with enormous donations, the mere enumeration of which would fill pages. Neither gold nor silver, cedar wood or precious stones, need be spared now when all that the world could offer of rich and rare was flowing in a constant stream to add to the ‘treasures in Egypt.’ Special mention is made, amongst countless other gifts, of a beautiful harp of silver and gold and precious stones, to sing the praises of Amen upon his splendid festival days. We read too of a great barge of cedar wood inlaid with gold[36] for the purpose of receiving the god when conducted in solemn procession down the river. Obelisks were also erected by Thothmes, which were ‘reflected with their splendour on the surface of the sacred lakes like stars upon the bosom of Nut.’ One of them is now standing forlornly on the Thames embankment.

Not only did Thothmes confer these numberless and costly gifts upon the temples, but he endowed them munificently. Gardens and arable lands were assigned them, and a fixed system of contributions for their support was established. He also appointed many of his foreign prisoners to the service of the temples and their gardens. Besides these, there were great numbers that he could employ upon the public works, whilst year by year the slaves who formed a part of the annual tributes came to add to the multitude of poor captives. The service was rigorous, and there can be little doubt that their lives were ‘made bitter.’ There is a representation still existing of a number of these bondmen engaged in brick-making. Their faces are of the Asiatic type, and the following words are added by way of explanation:—‘They work at the building with dexterous fingers; their overseers show themselves in sight. They obey the words of the great skilful lord who directs them. They are rewarded with wine, and all kinds of good things. They are building a sanctuary for the god. The overseer says thus to the labourers: “The stick is in my hand: be not idle.”’

Severe oversight, tempered by free access to the ‘flesh-pots of Egypt’ was then, as at a later date, the portion of those to whom the land of Egypt was the ‘house of bondage.’

There can be little doubt that the waste of life upon distant battle-fields, the employment of foreign slave labour, and the luxury born of immense accession of wealth, all combined to produce a demoralisation and a weakening of the Egyptian people in due course of time. For the present, however, all was joy and exultation. The king was never weary of extolling the gods who had shown him such distinguished favour, and their goodwill and his devotion are depicted in every possible way. On one obelisk (the obelisk of the Lateran), we see, _e.g._ the king kneeling and offering wine to Amen-Ra seated on a throne, or adoring the sacred hawk, symbol of Horus, to which he offers flowers, incense, and cakes of white bread. Again, Amen-Ra is seen taking him by the hand in token of his favour and protection, and at a memorial chapel in Nubia, the goddess Isis is represented as about to kiss the Egyptian monarch, whilst in another picture he is seen standing face to face with Sefek, the ‘Lady of Writings.’[37] It is evident, therefore, that it had become customary and familiar to represent the deities, who are but seldom delineated in the pictures and sculptures belonging to the earlier dynasties. They are depicted in various ways. Sometimes it is in human form with some symbol or emblem attached or held in the hand, but very often the head of the deity is represented by that of the animal which, for some reason or other, was his symbol. Thus Horus is seen with a hawk’s head, Thoth with that of an ibis. Isis is delineated not only as a woman, but as a cow, and sometimes as a woman with a cow’s head. The Egyptians never appear to have even attempted to embody the divine majesty or beauty in any statue or picture. But certain objects, animate and inanimate, were regarded as symbolic, and as such were attached to the figures of the gods.[38] Of course they were not intended to be in any sense works of art, which such strange unnatural objects could never be; nor were they regarded as actually representative of the deities, which would have been simply absurd and profane, but they were emblematic signs of the divine attributes and nature, and were understood and recognised as such.

In one tablet at Karnak, Thothmes III. is depicted offering wine and incense to his father Amen-Ra, and the accompanying inscription is an heroic poem or hymn which must have been composed towards the close of his victorious reign. In it the god himself recounts all that he has brought to pass on behalf of his ‘son.’

‘Come to me,’ he says, ‘and rejoice in beholding my favour towards thee, O my son Men-kheper-Ra,[39] thou who livest for evermore! I am glorified by the vows thou renderest; my heart is glad when thou drawest near to my temple; dear unto me is the piety that has set up mine image within my sanctuary.

‘Lo! I do reward thee—in that I give thee power and victory over all nations, for it is through me that the fear of thee resteth upon the whole earth and extendeth unto the pillars of heaven.

‘I stretch forth my hand—for thee do I gather together the Annu by tens of thousands, and the northern people in myriads. By me have thine enemies been overthrown under thy feet. Thou hast penetrated into every land, but none has dared to set foot within thy borders, though I have protected thy steps when thou wast within their boundaries. Thou hast passed over the broad rivers of Mesopotamia; thy war-cry has re-echoed within the caverns of their hiding-places. I have bereft their nostrils of the breath of life.

‘I am come and I have given thee to smite the princes of Tahi (Syria); I have made them behold thee like the star that flameth and that sendeth down the evening dew.

‘I am come, and I have given thee to smite the Western lands; I have made them behold thee like a young bull valiant in his might—he hath sharpened his horns—none may resist him.

‘I am come, and I have given thee to smite all lands; I have made them behold thee as it were a crocodile: terrible is he exceedingly, and lord of the waters—none dare approach him.

‘I am come, and I have given thee to smite the Tahennu in their islands; I have made them behold thee as a lion in his wrath—he lieth down upon the bodies of his prey and taketh his rest in the valleys.

‘I am come, and I have given thee to smite the dwellers by the water-side that they who abide by the great sea may be subdued beneath thy feet; I have made them behold thee even like the king of birds who marketh his prey from on high, and seizeth upon whatsoever he listeth.

‘I am come, and I have given thee to smite the dwellers in the waste; the Herusha are led captive; I have made them behold thee as it were the jackal of the South—he hunteth throughout the land, and he hideth his path in the darkness.

‘I am he that hath watched over thee—oh my son beloved! Horus crowned in Thebes!’

Thothmes III. reigned very nearly 54 years. His faithful attendant Amenemhib, whose prowess had saved his master from the elephant and the wild horse, lived long enough to record that master’s end.

‘So after many years of victory and power,’ he says, ‘the King ended his course. He took his flight upwards into heaven and was joined unto the company of Ra. When the morning broke and the sky grew bright then was King Amenhotep (may he live for ever!) seated upon his father’s throne; crowned like Horus, son of Isis, he took possession of Khemi.’

The magnificent terraced temple of Hatasu formed the mausoleum of the Thothmes family; but, like his predecessors, Thothmes the Great has not been suffered to remain undisquieted in the tomb. It was not far off from Hatasu’s temple that his mummy also was discovered. The coffin was much injured, and the mummy itself broken into three pieces—the mutilated remains of this mighty Pharaoh are lying in the Museum at Boulak.

After the death of their conqueror, the kings of Canaan and the princes of Mesopotamia threw off the foreign yoke. Amenhotep II. overran the country and reduced its inhabitants once more to subjection. It is recorded of him that he smote down and slew seven of the Canaanitish chiefs with his battle-axe, and brought them back with him to Egypt. ‘Six of these enemies,’ says the story, ‘were hung upon the walls of Thebes, and their hands were hung up in the same way;’ the other enemy was brought up the river to Nubia, and hung upon the walls of the town of Napata ‘to show to the people of the land of the negroes for all time the victories of the king over his enemies.’ This is the chief event recorded of the reign of Amenhotep II., who was succeeded by Thothmes IV.

FOOTNOTES:

[30] These were the hands of the slain, which were cut off and counted to ascertain the number of the fallen.

[31] See _Nile Gleanings_, by Villiers Stuart.

[32] _Nile Gleanings._

[33] Brugsch, _History of Egypt_.

[34] Honorific or crown name which Hatasu, like other Egyptian sovereigns, assumed at her accession, and which was distinct from the personal or family name.

[35] The literature and traditions of these early Chaldean states were preserved and highly prized by the Assyrians, who appear to have had none of their own.

[36] This barge was presented in the reign of Thothmes IV.

[37] These two pictures are given in _Nile Gleanings_.

[38] It is comparatively easy to understand the choice of certain animals as symbolic (see on p. 198), but it is impossible to comprehend how an ostrich feather came to be the emblem of Ma, goddess of truth, or a shuttle the sign of Neith, goddess of wisdom. A certain resemblance in name seems sometimes to have suggested the symbol.

[39] Honorific or crown name of Thothmes III.