[252] The ancient name of Egypt was Kem, Khem, or Kam, signifying Black, or the Black Land; in allusion to the color of the soil.
[253] “Mena, tel que nous le presente la tradition, est le type le plus complet du monarque Égyptian. Il est à la fois constructeur et législateur; il fonde le grande temple de Phtah à Memphis et régle le culte des dieux. Il est guerrier, et conduit les expéditions hors de ses frontières.”—“Hist. Ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient.” G. Maspero. Chap. ii, p. 55: Paris, 1876.
“N’oublions pas qu’avant Ménès l’Égypte était divisée en petits royaumes indépendants que Ménès réunit le premier sous un sceptre unique. Il n’est pas impossible que des monuments de cette antique période de l’histoire Égyptienne subsistent encore.”—“Itinéraire de la Haute Égypte.” A Mariette Bey. Avant Propos, p. 40. Alexandrie, 1872.
[254] See opening address of Professor R. Owen, C. B., etc., “Report of Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Orientalists, Ethnological Section;” London, 1874. Also a paper on “The Ethnology of Egypt,” by the same, published in the “Journal of the Anthropological Institute,” vol. iv, No. 1, p. 246: Lond., 1874.
[255] M. Mariette, in his great work on the excavations at Abydus, observes that these seven vaulted sanctuaries resemble sarcophagi of the form most commonly in use; namely, oblong boxes with vaulted lids. Two sarcophagi of this shape are shown in cut 496 of Sir G. Wilkinson’s second volume (see figures 1 and 6), “A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians,” vol. ii, chap. x; Lond., 1871. Of the uses and purport of the temple, he also says: “What do we know of the dée mère that presided at its construction? What was done in it? Is it consecrated to a single divinity, who would be Osiris; or to seven gods, who would be the seven gods of the seven vaulted chambers; or to the nine divinities enumerated in the lists of deities dispersed in various parts of the temple?... One leaves the temple in despair, not at being unable to make out its secret from the inscriptions, but on finding that its secret has been kept for itself alone, and not trusted to the inscriptions.”—“Description des Fouilles d’Abydos.” Mariette Bey. Paris, 1869. “Les sept chambres voûtées du grand temple d’Abydos sont relatifs aux cérémonies que le roi devait y célébrer successivement. Le roi se présentait au côté droit de la porte, parcourait la salle dans tout son pourtour et sortait par le côté gauche. Des statues étaient disposées dans la chambre. Le roi ouvrait la porte ou naos où elles étaient enfermées. Dès que la statue apparaissait è ses yeux il lui offrait l’encens, il enlevait le vêtement qui la couvrait, il lui imposait les mains, il la parfumait, il la recouvrait de son vêtement,” etc. Mariette Bey. “Itinéraire de la Haute Égypte: Avant Propos, p. 62. Alex. 1872. There is at the upper end of each of these seven sanctuaries a singular kind of false door, or recess, conceived in a style of ornament more Indian than Egyptian, the cutting being curiously square, deep, and massive, the surface of the relief-work flattened, and the whole evidently intended to produce its effect by depths of shadow in the incised portions rather than by sculpturesque relief. These recesses, or imitation doors, may have been designed to serve as backgrounds to statues, but are not deep enough for niches. There is a precisely similar recess sculptured on one of the walls of the westernmost chamber in the Temple of Gournah.
[256] These are all representations of minor gods commonly figured in the funereal papyri, but very rarely seen in the temple sculptures. The frog Goddess, for instance, is Hek, and symbolizes eternity. She is a very ancient divinity, traces of her being found in monuments of the fifth dynasty. The goose-headed god is Seb, another very old god. The object called the Nilometer was a religious emblem signifying stability, and probably stands in this connection as only a deified symbol.
[257] Rameses II is here shown with the side-lock of youth. This temple, founded by Seti I, was carried on through the time when Rameses the Prince was associated with his father upon the throne, and was completed by Rameses the King, after the death of Seti I. The building is strictly coeval in date and parallel in style with the Temple of Gournah and the Specs of Bayt-el-Welly.
[258] These seventy-six Pharaohs (represented by their cartouches) were probably either princes born of families originally from Abydus, or were sovereigns who had acquired a special title to veneration at this place on account of monuments or pious foundations presented by them to the holy city. A similar tablet, erected apparently on the same principles though not altogether to the same kings, was placed by Thothmes III in a side chamber of the Great Temple at Karnak, and is now in the Louvre.
The great value of the present monument consists in its chronological arrangement. It is also of the most beautiful execution, and in perfect preservation. “Comme perfection de gravure, comme conservation, comme étendue, il est peu de monuments qui la depassent.” See “La Nouvelle Table d’Abydos,” par A. Mariette Bey: “Révue Arch.,” vol. vii. “Nouvelle Série,” p. 98. This volume of the “Review” also contains an engraving in outline of the tablet.
[259] See “Itinéraire de la Haute Égypte:” A. Mariette Bey: p. 147. Alex. 1872.