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

dxn. xviii. HIS CORONATION 233

4. As King Ser-kheperu-Ra, who is elected by the sun-god :

5. As the Son of Ra, Mer-Amen Hor-em-heb.
May he live for ever ! "

' Then came forth from the palace the Majesty of this glorious
.god Amen, the king of the gods, with his son before him, and he
embraced his pleasing form, which was crowned with the royal
nelmet, in order to deliver to him the golden protecting image of
the sun's disk. The nine foreign nations were under his feet, the
heaven was in a most festive disposition, the land was filled with
ecstasy, and as for the divinities of Egypt, their souls were full of
pleasant feelings. Then the inhabitants, in high delight, raised
towards heaven the song of praise ; great and small lifted up their
voices, and the whole land was moved with joy.

'After this festival in Apet of the Southern country was finished,
then Amen, the king of the gods, went in peace to Thebes, and the
king went down the river on board his ship, like an image of
Horemkhu. Thus had he taken possession of this land, as was
the custom since the time of the sun-god Ra. He renewed the
dwellings of the gods, from the shallows of the marsh-land of
-Nathu as far as Nubia. He had all their images sculptured, each
as it had been before, more than . . . And the sun-god Ra rejoiced,
when he beheld [that renewed which] had been destroyed in former
times.

' He set them up in their temple, and he had a hundred images
made, one of each of them, of like form, and of all kinds of costly
stones. He visited the cities of the gods, which lay as heaps of
rubbish in this land, and he had them restored, just as they had
keen from the beginning of all things. He took care for their daily
festival of sacrifice, and for all the vessels of their temples, formed
out of gold and silver. He provided them (the temples) with
holy persons and singers, and with the best body-guards; and
he presented to them arable land and cattle, and supplied them
"With all kinds of provisions which they required, to sing thus each
new morning to the sun-god Ra : " Thou hast made the kingdom
great for us in thy son, who is the consolation of thy soul, King
Hor-em-heb. Grant him the continuance of the thirty years' feasts,
give him the victory over all countries, as to Horus, the son of Isis,
towards whom in like manner thy heart yearned in On, in the com-
pany of thy circle of gods.'"

It is noticeable that the late king Ai is passed over
in silence. The passage is also obscure, in which men-
tion is made of ' the daughter '—in all probability his
■heiress-daughter—who had taken refuge in the temple