TRANSLATION.[136]
Said by Thoth, the Lord of Sesennu,[137] [residing] in Amenheri:[138] “I give to thee an everlasting sovereignty over the two countries, O son of [my] body, beloved, Ra-user-ma Sotep-en-Ra, acting as propitiator of thy Ka. I give to thee myriads of festivals of Rameses, beloved of Amen, Ra-user-ma Sotep-en-Ra, as prince of every place where the sun-disk revolves. The beautiful living god, maker of beautiful things for [his] father Thoth, Lord of Sesennu [residing] in Amenheri. He made mighty and beautiful monuments forever facing the eastern horizon of heaven.”
The meaning of which is that Thoth, addressing Rameses II, then living and reigning, promises him a long life and many anniversaries of his jubilee,[139] in return for the works made in his (Thoth’s) honor at Abou Simbel and elsewhere.
NORTH WALL.
At the upper end of this wall is depicted a life-size female figure wearing an elaborate blue head-dress surmounted by a disk and two ostrich feathers. She holds in her right hand the ankh, and in her left the jackal-headed scepter. This not being the scepter of a goddess and the head-dress resembling that of the queen as represented on the façade of the Temple of Hathor, I conclude we have here a portrait of Nefertari corresponding to the portrait of Rameses on the opposite wall. Near her stands a table of offerings, on which, among other objects, are placed four vases of a rich blue color traversed by bands of yellow. They perhaps represent the kind of glass known as the false murrhine.[140] Each of these vases contains an object like a pine, the ground-color of which is deep yellow, patterned over with scale-like subdivisions in vermilion. We took them to represent grains of maize pyramidially piled.
Lastly, a pendant to that on the opposite wall, comes the sacred bari. It is, however, turned the reverse way, with its prow toward the east; and it rests upon an altar, in the center of which are the cartouches of Rameses II and a small hieroglyphic inscription signifying: “Beloved by Amen-Ra, king of the gods, resident in the land of Kenus.”[141]
Beyond this point, at the end nearest the northeast corner of the chamber, the piled sand conceals whatever else the wall may contain in the way of decoration.
EAST WALL.
If the east wall is decorated like the others (which may be taken for granted), its tableaux and inscriptions are hidden behind the sand which here rises to the ceiling. The doorway also occurs in this wall, occupying a space four feet three and one-half inches in width on the inner side.
One of the most interesting incidents connected with the excavation of this little adytum remains yet to be told.