‘Hail to thee! say all creatures, from the height of heaven to the breadth of the earth, and to the deep places of the sea—Adoration unto thee who hast created us!
‘The spirits thou hast made bow down before thee; the gods adore thy majesty. We, the creatures of thy hand, praise thee for our being, we give thanks to thee for thy mercy towards us,—whose name is hidden from his creatures—in his Name which is Amen.’[77]
The hymn to the Nile, which is ascribed to the preceding dynasty, is very remarkable from the twofold aspect it presents us. At first we seem to behold only the river or some local deity impersonated in the river:—
‘Hail to thee, O Nile! Coming in peace, giving life to Khemi, Watering the land unceasingly, He maketh the fields ready for the plough; Every creature receiveth food.’
After the song has proceeded for some time in this strain, all on a sudden the Nile disappears from view, and the worshipper is in the presence of the divine and unutterable, though with no apparent change of person:—
‘He is not graven in marble, No eye of man can behold him; He hath no ministers nor offerings! He is not adored in sanctuaries, His dwelling is not known; No shrine is found, nor pictured words, No building may contain him!’
But then the loftier strain subsides again, and the hymn closes with the words:—
‘Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile! Giving life to men by his oxen, Life to his oxen by his meadow land— Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile!’
Rameses iii. constructed for himself in the ‘valley of the kings,’ a tomb which contained eight or ten chambers adorned with pictures of scenes taken from both the present and the future life. Amongst them occurs one evidently intended as an allegoric representation of the hope of life after death—‘The horizon of heaven supported by a female figure, and the sun just rising above it; this is so placed that a ray of light can penetrate from the entrance of the tomb, 350 feet off, and pass over the sarcophagus and illuminate this emblem of eternal hope.’[78]
The thirteen succeeding sovereigns all bore the name of Rameses, but hardly any record is left of their reigns. There are inscriptions extant which belong to this period, lofty and bombastic in the extreme, and exceeding in the pompous assumption of their style those of their predecessors, if possible. They are mere empty phrases, which produce only an impression of absurdity when applied to the Ramessidæ as they pass across the stage in monotonous succession, and leave behind no achievements or triumphs either of peace or of war. The fourth, sixth, and seventh of these kings were sons of Rameses iii.; the fifth of the name was a usurper, so it is not likely that the reigns of all the four together occupied any considerable period. One or two of the Ramessidæ constructed tombs for themselves in the ‘valley of the kings;’ they were given to carving their names and inscriptions on the monuments of their predecessors, but all of them in succession did not quite achieve the completion of the small oracle-temple of Khons, which was the family sanctuary of their house. The chief event which is recorded of these dull times is, however, significant, as showing how the profound sense of veneration for the ‘eternal dwelling-places’ of the departed must have been deadened, if not lost. In the reign of Rameses ix., it was discovered that there was an organised scheme for breaking open and plundering the tombs supposed most likely to contain treasure; the resting-places of the sovereigns themselves were not respected. The accused were brought to trial, and a careful investigation of the tombs was instituted. It was found that in many cases the difficult task of reaching the carefully concealed sarcophagus had been successfully accomplished; the mummies had been dragged out, and the funeral gifts, and aught else of value, carried off. Under the twentieth dynasty the throne was no longer safe from conspiracy and domestic treason; the very sanctity of the grave was violated, and the mummies of the departed were not secure from outrage and plunder.