[215] “Une dignité tout à fait particulier est celle que les inscriptions hiéroglyphiques désignent par le titre ‘prophète de la pyramide, de tel Pharaon.’ Il parait qu’après sa mort chaque roi était vénéré par un culte spécial.” “Histoire d’Egypte:” Brugsch. 2d ed., chap, v., p. 35. Leipzig: 1875.
[216] There is a very curious window at the end of this sanctuary, with grooves for the shutter, and holes in which to slip and drop the bar by which it was fastened.
[217] The Gate of the King.
[218] These funerary statues are represented each on a stand or platform, erect, with one foot advanced, as if walking, the right hand holding the ankh, or symbol of life, the left hand grasping a staff. The attitude is that of the wooden statue at Boulak; and it is worth remark that the figures stand detached, with no support at the back, which was never the case with those carved in stone or granite. There can be no doubt that this curious series of funerary statues represent those which were actually placed in the tomb; and that the ceremonies here represented were actually performed before them, previous to closing the mouth of the sepulcher. One of these very wooden statues, from this very tomb, was brought to England by Belzoni, and is now in the British Museum (No. 854, Central Saloon). The wood is much decayed, and the statue ought undoubtedly to be placed under glass. The tableaux representing the above ceremonies are well copied in Rosellini, “Mon. del Culto,” plates 60-63.
[219] A remarkable inscription in this tomb, relating the wrath of Ra and the destruction of mankind, is translated by M. Naville, vol. iv, Pt. i, “Translations of the Biblical Arch. Society.” In this singular myth, which bears a family resemblance to the Chaldæan record of the flood, the deluge is a deluge of human blood. The inscription covers the walls of a small chamber known as the Chamber of the Cow.
[220] The longest tomb in the valley, which is that of Seti I, measures four hundred and seventy feet in length to the point where it is closed by the falling in of the rock; and the total depth of its descent is about one hundred and eighty feet. The tomb of Rameses III (No. 11) measures in length four hundred and five feet, and descends only thirty-one feet. The rest average from about three hundred and fifty to one hundred and fifty feet in length, and the shortest is excavated to a distance of only sixty-five feet.
We visited, however, one tomb in the Assaseef, which in extent far exceeds any of the tombs of the kings. This astonishing excavation, which consists of a bewildering labyrinth of halls, passages, staircases, pits and chambers, is calculated at twenty-three thousand eight hundred and nine square feet. The name of the occupant was Petamunap, a priest of uncertain date.
[221] Apophis, in Egyptian Apap; the great serpent of darkness, over whom Ra must triumph after he sets in the west, and before he again rises in the east.
[222] Kheper, the scarab deity. See [chap. vi], [p. 90].
[223] Symbolical of darkness.