And so after change of burial place and even of coffin, one of the most celebrated of human monarchs lies in a museum, for the inspection of every careless passerby; a strong commentary on human greatness and human pride.
The mummy was unrolled, by Maspero, June, 1886, and was found to be five feet six inches in length. The head was small and long; the hair, apparently white at the time of death, was made yellow with drugs; the forehead, low and narrow; the eyebrows, arched and bushy; the eyes, small and close to the thin-hooked nose; the temples were hollow, the cheek bones prominent and the ears wearing rings were round. The expression he calls intelligent, but slightly sensual, proud, obstinate and majestic, even in death.
And what of Queen Urmaa-nofrura? As the bride alone, young and fair, she comes before us, and we find no record of her further history, or of her death. Was it in her power, as in that of the fair Queen Esther of Scripture, to do aught for the people of her native land or to influence in any way for good the haughty sovereign to whom she was allied? Perhaps, and perhaps only.
CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH.
TAUSERT.
As Queen Urma-nofru-Ra may be considered the bride of life, so we may call Queen Tausert the bride of the tomb, since it is from her tomb alone that we learn anything of her history, and even there the information is most meagre. Her name is mentioned as Ta-ursr, Tauser, Tausert or Taosiri, and it makes her somewhat distinctive among the various Neferts and Tis. She is called “the great queen and the lady of the land, the princess of Upper and Lower Egypt.”
She is noteworthy chiefly as being of the blood royal and thus conferring dignity upon her husband, Siptah, or Si-Ptah, her name taking precedence of his on the monuments, as did that of Queen Ti, wife of Seti I. Also she was the last queen of the great Nineteenth Dynasty, of which Seti I and Rameses II were such renounced monarchs, and of whose queens Ti, Nofritari Mini-mut and Urma-nofru-Ra we have already given outline sketches. To this Dynasty, called Diospolites, Lepsius gives the date beginning 1443 B. C., and Wilkinson 1340 B. C., and one division makes it the Middle Empire.
The earliest Egyptian monarchs of whom we have any record built for themselves tombs which seemed destined to last till eternity, the Pyramids, which some one has finely described as “stony tents where innumerable centuries have encamped, which time in vain seeks to drive from the field,” and which seem more like Druidical remains than specimens of architecture.