DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0231
LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 211
lowed by the submission of the Prince of Kbeta and the con-
clusion of a treaty of peace. This treaty was shortly con-
firmed by the marriage of Barneses with a Khetan princess;
and the friendship thus cemented continued unbroken through-
out the rest of his long reign-
The foregoing passages are much abridged, but they fairly
represent the fervent diction and the dramatic action of this
celebrated poem. The style is singularly capricious, narra-
tive and dialogue succeeding each other according to the ex-
igencies of the situation. These changes are unmarked by
any of those devices whereby the modern writer assists his
reader; they must therefore have been emphasized by the
reciter.
To use a very modern word in connection with a very an-
cient composition, one might say that Barneses " published "
this poem in a most costly manner, with magnificent illustra-
EGYPTIAN ATTACK ON II1TTITK (TIAI'.IOT.
From the great Abft-Simbel Tableau.
tions. And lie did so upon a scale which puts our modern
publishing houses to shame. His imperial edition was issued
on sculptured stone, and illustrated with bas-relief subjects
gorgeously colored by hand. Four more or less perfect cop-
ies of this edition have survived the wreck of ages, and we
know not how many have perished. These four are carved
on the pylon walls of the Great Temples of Luxor and the
llamesseumat Thebes, on a wall of the Great Temple of Aby-
dos, and in the main hall of the great rock-cut Temple of
Abu-Simbel in Xubia. One of the tableaux in this hall is
fifty feet in length by about forty feet in height, and it con-
tains many thousands of figures. A fifth copy is also graven
lowed by the submission of the Prince of Kbeta and the con-
clusion of a treaty of peace. This treaty was shortly con-
firmed by the marriage of Barneses with a Khetan princess;
and the friendship thus cemented continued unbroken through-
out the rest of his long reign-
The foregoing passages are much abridged, but they fairly
represent the fervent diction and the dramatic action of this
celebrated poem. The style is singularly capricious, narra-
tive and dialogue succeeding each other according to the ex-
igencies of the situation. These changes are unmarked by
any of those devices whereby the modern writer assists his
reader; they must therefore have been emphasized by the
reciter.
To use a very modern word in connection with a very an-
cient composition, one might say that Barneses " published "
this poem in a most costly manner, with magnificent illustra-
EGYPTIAN ATTACK ON II1TTITK (TIAI'.IOT.
From the great Abft-Simbel Tableau.
tions. And lie did so upon a scale which puts our modern
publishing houses to shame. His imperial edition was issued
on sculptured stone, and illustrated with bas-relief subjects
gorgeously colored by hand. Four more or less perfect cop-
ies of this edition have survived the wreck of ages, and we
know not how many have perished. These four are carved
on the pylon walls of the Great Temples of Luxor and the
llamesseumat Thebes, on a wall of the Great Temple of Aby-
dos, and in the main hall of the great rock-cut Temple of
Abu-Simbel in Xubia. One of the tableaux in this hall is
fifty feet in length by about forty feet in height, and it con-
tains many thousands of figures. A fifth copy is also graven