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.’
Amenhotep presented to Amen-Ra by Horus.
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.