Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

228 THE HOLY FATIIEE AI OH. x.

in the lands of the negroes in the fifteenth century
B.C., from the coloured representations in these sepul-
chral chambers. A certain artistic spirit manifests
itself in the construction and execution of the exterior
forms of the objects. Passing over the golden vessels
set with, precious stones, the manifold utensils of
domestic life, the chariots, ships, weapons, and all the
articles which the queen brings to Thebes, exhibit an
unmistakable development of artistic power, which
must without doubt be ascribed on the one hand to
Egyptian influence, and on the other to the natural
talent of these so-called savage tribes, and to their
imitative instinct.

Tut-ankh-Amen, whose very name serves as a
proof that he had thrown aside the new teaching of
his royal father-in-law about the one living Sun's
disk, reigned in Thebes with the consent of the priests
of Amen. By a brilliant external pomp, he seems to
have obtained the power and commanded the respect
which were denied him on account of his birth and
marriage. Yet in spite of this he remained an ille-
gitimate ruler, to whom, in the eyes of the priests
of Amen, the full Pharaonic blood was wanting.
Neither did his reign last long.

The throne became vacant; the female line of
King Khu-n-aten, the heretic, had left no descendants ;
and so, by stratagem or force, the empire was seized
by Khu-n-aten's former master of the horse,

' THE HOLY FATHER ' Al.

The king's foster-mother, Thi, was married to one
of the lords of the court, a ' holy father' of the
highest grade, by name Ai. This connection with
the king's own nurse led, as a natural consequence,
to Ai's mounting continually up the ladder of dignities,