Says our own Curtis, who has written so charmingly of his Egyptian experiences: “Yearly comes the Nile humbly to his feet, and leaving them pays homage. Then receding slowly leaves water plants wreathed around the throne, on which he is sculptured as a good genius harvesting the lotus, and brings a hundred travellers to perpetuate the homage. These sublime sketches in stone are an artist’s work. In those earlier days Art was not content with the grace of Nature, but coped with its proportions. Vain attempts, but glorious!” The fact of this musical note being heard from “the darling of the dawn” is recorded on the base of the statue, and is mentioned by Strabo, the elder Pliny and many others. Sandy beaches sometimes emit musical sounds and something in the structure of the rock, warmed by the rays of the rising sun, may have caused the sounds to be heard, or they may have been produced by artificial means, at the instance of the priests, striving to impress the people. The true origin of the mystery was never discovered, though its existence seems well attested, and eventually the sounds ceased, probably as the result of an earthquake or the restoration of the figures which was undertaken by a later king. Another theory lays the injury of the statues at the door of Cambyses, who was credited with all possible crimes, and a sculptured inscription reads: “I wrote after having heard Memnon. Cambyses has wounded me. A stone cut into the image of the sun-king. I had once the sweet voice of Memnon, but Cambyses has deprived me of the accents which express joy and grief.”
The sounds are said by some authorities to have been heard during a period of two hundred and twenty years. Travellers in ancient times (like the modern vandal) were very fond of scribbling their names on monuments, which should be held in more respect, and a number of these, including some of their remarks and silly verses, have been found on the base of the statue and refer to the sounds. At the time of their erection the level of the Nile was evidently different from that of the present day for its waters, as Curtis has said, now occasionally leave the feet of the giant pair.
Amenophis III began quarrying stone for his numerous architectural works in the first and second years of his reign from quarries near Silseleh, and his palace was said to resemble that subsequently built by his son at Tel-el-Amarna in some respects. Scarabs bearing the name of this king are to be seen in our own New York Museum, as also in various other places, but those of Tahutmes III are still more frequent here. The tomb of Amenophis III was found in the west valley of the Tombs of the Kings by a French expedition.
Queen Maut-a-mua had the pleasure, we may believe, of seeing a number of grandchildren, as Amenophis III had four sons and three daughters, if not others unmentioned, and so kindly seem to have been the family relations that we may perhaps picture her with her son’s wife in the midst of the home circle spoiling them quite like a modern grandmother. Up to this period the men of the family appear to have been a stalwart, good-looking race, while the women probably possessed more beauty than their pictures would lead us to infer. Of the general outline of their history we have some knowledge, but seldom or never can we definitely place the day of their birth or that of their death. So at what exact period Queen Maut-a-mua passed away we cannot state, only we may believe she was watched over by filial affection to the last, was buried amid tears and lamentations, and had all due funeral rites observed, even if she was not numbered among those royalties who were specially regarded as divinities, the founders of the race, and to whom divine honors were subsequently paid, yet is she occasionally spoken of as “the goddess queen.”
CHAPTER ELEVENTH.
TYI.
With Queen Tyi (or as her name is variously spelled, Ti, Tai, Tity, Tii, Teye, Tuaa, Thua) we again consider the story of a woman of unusual power, and though not leaving such indelible impression upon the page of history as did Queen Hatasu, her influence was strongly felt. Both as wife and mother we see the traces of her ideas and wishes on the actions of husband and son; both, evidently, turned to her for counsel and each in his own way showed her devoted affection. So potent was her sway over the latter that to it is largely attributed the religious and political revolution which occurred in the lifetime of Amenophis IV. Though its effects were comparatively temporary and passed away during the reign of his successors for the time being it convulsed Egypt to its centre and the records of it have not been obliterated by the lapse of centuries.
Amenophis III, son of Tahutmes IV and Maut-a-mua, was, we judge, an attractive youth. He had a fine presence, an agreeable expression and an amiable and generous disposition, while his love story holds more of romance than usually falls to the lot of kings or queens. He is credited with a number of wives or less reputable connections. Perhaps they included the errors of the “sowing of wild oats,” and at any rate seem to have been relegated to or kept in the background by a devoted affection for the lady who became pre-eminently his legal wife. These various wives are given as a sister and two daughters of Kalima-Sin, King of Karaduniyash, and a sister and daughter of Tushratta, King of Mittani, none of whom, it is said, were acknowledged queen of Egypt, while other records seem to imply that Queen Tyi was the daughter of Tushratta of Dushratta, King of Mittanni. A letter to Babylon seems to show that Amenophis III had married a Babylonish princess, and that her brother, Kali-masin, was not satisfied about her safety, but was reassured by Amenophis. A match between another princess of that country and the Egyptian sovereign seems to have failed for lack of sufficient gold on the lady’s part. Wars also interfered with connubial arrangements.
Another account says that Amenophis III haughtily refused when the King of Mesopotamia, Kalima-Sin, wished to marry one of the Egyptian princesses, saying that the daughter of the king of the Land of Egypt had never been given to a “nobody.” This, of course, occurred later, if at all, and it seems not quite reasonable that the king himself should take a princess as his wife from the same family to which he refused his daughter. The sovereign of great Egypt evidently viewed with contempt the claims of these petty princes to be considered in any way his equal. Yet one letter in the collection found at Tel-el-Amarna shows that Tahutmes III, Tahutmes IV and Amenophis IV all married Mitannian princesses. After such a lapse of time and among conflicting statements it is hard to arrive at the absolute facts, but as our present concern is chiefly with Queen Tyi it matters the less. She alone of these various ladies has a distinct personality and takes a prominent place.