DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0076
58 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE.
this charming statue interests one like the portrait of a
familiar friend.*
How pleasant it was, after being suffocated in the Sera-
peum and broiled in the tomb of Ti, to return to Mari-
etta's deserted house and eat our luncheon on the cool
stone terrace that looks northward over the desert! Some
wooden tables and benches are hospitably left here for the
accommodation of travelers, and fresh water in ice-cold
kullehs is provided by the old Arab guardian. The yards
and offices at the back are full of broken statues and frag-
ments of inscriptions in red and black granite. Two
sphinxes from the famous avenue adorn the terrace and
look down upon their half-buried companions in the sand-
hollow below. The yellow desert, barren and undulating,
with a line of purple peaks on the horizon, reaches away
into the far distance. To the right, under a jutting lidgo
of rocky plateau not two hundred yards from tiie house,
yawns an opened-rnonthed black-looking cavern shored up
with heavy beams and approached by a slope of debris.
This is the forced entrance to the earlier vaults of the
Serapeum, in one of which was found a mummy described
by Mariette as that of an Apis, but pronounced by Brugsch
to be the body of Prince Kha-em-uas, governor of Mem-
phis and the favorite son of Barneses the Great.
This remarkable mummy, which looked as much like a
bull as a man, was found covered with jewels and gold
chains and precious amulets engraved with the name of
Kha-em-uas, and had on its face a golden mask; all which
treasures are now to be seen in the Louvre. If it was the
mummy of an Apis, then the jewels with which it was
adorned were probably the offering of the prince at that
time ruling in Memphis. If, on the contrary, it was the
mummy of a man, then, in order to be buried in a place
of peculiar sanctity, he probably usurped one of the vaults
prepared for the god. The question is a curious one and
* These statues were not mere portrait-statues; but were designed
as bodily habitations for the incorporeal ghost, or " Ka," which it
was supposed needed a body, food and drink, and must perish ever-
lastingly if not duly supplied with these necessaries. Hence the
whole system of burying food-offerings, furniture, stuffs, etc., in an-
cient Egyptian sepulchers. [Note to second edition.]
this charming statue interests one like the portrait of a
familiar friend.*
How pleasant it was, after being suffocated in the Sera-
peum and broiled in the tomb of Ti, to return to Mari-
etta's deserted house and eat our luncheon on the cool
stone terrace that looks northward over the desert! Some
wooden tables and benches are hospitably left here for the
accommodation of travelers, and fresh water in ice-cold
kullehs is provided by the old Arab guardian. The yards
and offices at the back are full of broken statues and frag-
ments of inscriptions in red and black granite. Two
sphinxes from the famous avenue adorn the terrace and
look down upon their half-buried companions in the sand-
hollow below. The yellow desert, barren and undulating,
with a line of purple peaks on the horizon, reaches away
into the far distance. To the right, under a jutting lidgo
of rocky plateau not two hundred yards from tiie house,
yawns an opened-rnonthed black-looking cavern shored up
with heavy beams and approached by a slope of debris.
This is the forced entrance to the earlier vaults of the
Serapeum, in one of which was found a mummy described
by Mariette as that of an Apis, but pronounced by Brugsch
to be the body of Prince Kha-em-uas, governor of Mem-
phis and the favorite son of Barneses the Great.
This remarkable mummy, which looked as much like a
bull as a man, was found covered with jewels and gold
chains and precious amulets engraved with the name of
Kha-em-uas, and had on its face a golden mask; all which
treasures are now to be seen in the Louvre. If it was the
mummy of an Apis, then the jewels with which it was
adorned were probably the offering of the prince at that
time ruling in Memphis. If, on the contrary, it was the
mummy of a man, then, in order to be buried in a place
of peculiar sanctity, he probably usurped one of the vaults
prepared for the god. The question is a curious one and
* These statues were not mere portrait-statues; but were designed
as bodily habitations for the incorporeal ghost, or " Ka," which it
was supposed needed a body, food and drink, and must perish ever-
lastingly if not duly supplied with these necessaries. Hence the
whole system of burying food-offerings, furniture, stuffs, etc., in an-
cient Egyptian sepulchers. [Note to second edition.]