DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11610#0108
96
TEN YEARS' DIGGING IN EGYPT
hawk, the Osiris-crocodile, and the bennu, with
inscriptions ; the lower part inside bore other animals,
the vulture, the cow, and white hippopotamus; the
inside of the lid had the two crocodilc-hcadcd
Sebeks and the ape ; and underneath the lower part,
or body, was a long inscription, partly biographical.
I had a terrifying experience with this coffin ; when
I found it much of the stucco was loose, and any
amount of trouble was worth while to preserv e so
beautiful and important an object. I observed in
copying it that parts had been waxed, to heighten the
colour, and this suggested to me to fasten down the
stucco by wax. I tried melting it on with a plate of
hot iron, but could scarcely do it without blackening
it with smoke. In course of this I poured a layer of
wax over the surface ; but what was my horror to see
as the wax cooled that it contracted into saucer-
formed patches, lifting up with it the stucco, and
leaving bare wood beneath ! To touch these wax
patches must irrevocably ruin all hopes of replacing
the stucco ; so I covered it with sheets of paper, and
thought on it for some days, a spectre of dismal
failure. I tried in vain to buy a brazier at Mcdinet:
so at last, making a grating of wire, I filled it with
red-hot charcoal, and supported it over part of the
unlucky coffin. As I watched it, the wax softened,
flattened, and dropped exactly into place again;
patch after patch settled down, the wax melted and
ran in under the stucco; and at last I saw the whole
surface completely relaid, and fixed so firmly that
even the fearful rattle of an Egyptian railway wagon,
in the long journey to Bulak, did not injure it.
TEN YEARS' DIGGING IN EGYPT
hawk, the Osiris-crocodile, and the bennu, with
inscriptions ; the lower part inside bore other animals,
the vulture, the cow, and white hippopotamus; the
inside of the lid had the two crocodilc-hcadcd
Sebeks and the ape ; and underneath the lower part,
or body, was a long inscription, partly biographical.
I had a terrifying experience with this coffin ; when
I found it much of the stucco was loose, and any
amount of trouble was worth while to preserv e so
beautiful and important an object. I observed in
copying it that parts had been waxed, to heighten the
colour, and this suggested to me to fasten down the
stucco by wax. I tried melting it on with a plate of
hot iron, but could scarcely do it without blackening
it with smoke. In course of this I poured a layer of
wax over the surface ; but what was my horror to see
as the wax cooled that it contracted into saucer-
formed patches, lifting up with it the stucco, and
leaving bare wood beneath ! To touch these wax
patches must irrevocably ruin all hopes of replacing
the stucco ; so I covered it with sheets of paper, and
thought on it for some days, a spectre of dismal
failure. I tried in vain to buy a brazier at Mcdinet:
so at last, making a grating of wire, I filled it with
red-hot charcoal, and supported it over part of the
unlucky coffin. As I watched it, the wax softened,
flattened, and dropped exactly into place again;
patch after patch settled down, the wax melted and
ran in under the stucco; and at last I saw the whole
surface completely relaid, and fixed so firmly that
even the fearful rattle of an Egyptian railway wagon,
in the long journey to Bulak, did not injure it.