Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/32

Rh 22 M U M M U M cedar-wood coffin of this pharaoh. All these are now in the British Museum. The fragments consist of the ribs and vertebrae and the bones of the legs and feet, the dried flesh upon the thighs being perfectly preserved. The date of these remains may be approximately assigned to 4000 B.C. Next in antiquity comes the mummy of King Merenra of Dynasty VI., now in the Bulak Museum, the date of which is about 3600 B.C. Most famous and most interesting of all, however, are the royal mummies of Dynasties XVII, XVIII., XIX., and XXI., found at Dair al-Bahari, near the great temple of Queen Hatshepsu, on the left bank of the Nile opposite Karnak, in July 1881. The circumstances of this, the most extraordinary archaeo logical discovery of any age, are too remarkable to be passed over in silence. The so-called &quot;Theban Arabs&quot; are the busiest treasure-seekers and antiquity-vendors in Egypt. But not often, apparently, have they lighted upon a royal interment. The royal sepulchres in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings and the neighbourhood have tempted the cupidity of all ages ; and we have the direct evidence of two legal documents of the time of Rameses IX., 7th pharaoh of Dynasty XX., to show that bands of organized tomb-breakers infested the cemeteries of Thebes at that comparatively early period. It is now about twelve years since certain objects of great rarity and antiquity, mostly belonging to the period of the Amenide Dy nasty (XXL), began to find their way to Europe from Upper Egypt. Foremost in importance among the said relics were four funereal papyri (consisting of extracts from the Ritual or Book of the Dead] written for royal personages of the Amenide family. Concurrent testimony pointed to a family of Arab brothers named Abd er- Rasoul as the original holders of these papyri ; it was therefore concluded that the tombs of Pinotem I. and of the Queens Notem- Maut and Hathor Hont-taui (for whom the papyri were written) had by them been discovered and pillaged. The eldest brother was ultimately induced to reveal the secret, and pointed out a lonely spot at the foot of the cliffs not far from the ruins of the great temple of Hatshepsu, on the western bank of the Nile, where the bottom of a hidden shaft opened into a short corridor leading to a gallery 74 metres in length, at the end of which was a sepul chral vault measuring 7 metres by 4. The whole of this gallery and vault were crowded with mummies and mortuary furniture, as sacred vessels, funereal statuettes, canopic and libation vases, and precious objects in alabaster, bronze, glass, acacia wood, and the like. The mummies were thirty -six in number, including upwards of twenty kings and queens from Dynasty XVII. to Dynasty XXI., besides princes, princesses, and high priests, all of which, together with four royal papyri and a miscellaneous treasure consisting of upwards of 6000 objects, are now in the Bulak Museum. The door -jambs of the mortuary chamber at the end of this long gallery are inscribed with various attestations of burial. These entries refer to interments of members of the Amenide line only. It is also to be observed that only members of that line were found inside the chamber, so proving that the sepulchre was the family vault of the descendants of the first priest-king. All the other royal mummies, and all the objects appertaining to those mummies (that is to say, to the representatives of Dynasties XVII., XVIII., and XIX.) were found in the long gallery outside. When these earlier kings, queens, and princesses were brought out into the light of day, and conveyed to the museum of Bulak, it was discovered that the coffins of some, and the wrappings of others, were inscribed with short official entries written thereon at different times and in different places by successive inspectors of tombs. The dates of these visits of inspection are restricted to the period of Dynasty XXI., whence it is evident that the necessity for protecting the last homes of the illustrious dead was as urgent then as the &quot;Amherst&quot; and &quot;Abbott&quot; papyri prove it to have been in the reign of Rameses IX. The terms of these entries show that it was the duty of the said inspectors to enter the sepulchres of the &quot;royal ancestors,&quot; to report upon the condition of the mummies, to repair their wrappings and mummy -cases when requisite, and, if expedient, to remove them from their own tombs into any others which might be regarded as more secure. The mummies and mummy-cases thus inscribed are five in number namely, those of Amenhotep I., Thothmes II., Rameses I., Seti I., and Rameses II. Two entries on the coffin-lid of Amenhotep I. show his tomb to have been inspected and his wrappings renewed in the 6th year of Pinotem II., fourth of the priest -king line, and again in the 16th year of the pontificate of Masahirti, his son and successor. In the 6th year of Pinotem I. the same was done for the mummy of Thothmes II. The three pharaohs of Dynasty XIX. Rameses I., Seti I., and Rameses II. seem, however, to have been still more anxiously looked after. Either because their mummies were specially revered, or because their sepulchres had already been attacked by the tomb-breaking gangs of that period, we find them continually being removed from one tomb to another. In the 6th year of Her-Hor, the founder of the Amenide line, while they yet occupied their own splendid sepulchres in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, they were there examined by a Government inspector, who &quot;renewed their funerary equip ments&quot; and made an entry of his visit on the coffins of Seti I. and Rameses II. After this Rameses I. and Rameses II. were removed to the tomb of Seti I. (the tomb known as Belzoni s), whence, in the 16th year of Her-Hor, all three mummies, father, son, and grandson, were transferred to the tomb of Queen Ansera. This act of transfer is written, dated, signed, and witnessed on all three coffins. Again, in the 10th year of Pinotem I., grandson of Her-Hor, occur more entries showing them to have been conveyed from the tomb of Queen Ansera to the tomb of one of the Amen- hoteps. Finally, in bold hieratic characters, written with marking- ink upon the breast-bandages of Rameses II., we find the following memorandum recording how, ten years later still, the mummy of this illustrious pharaoh was again taken back to the tomb of his father Seti I. : &quot;The year 16, the third month of Pert (i.e., seed-time), the sixth day, being the day of carrying the defunct King Ra-user-Ma Sotep- en-Ra, for the renewal of his funerary appointments, into the tomb of the defunct King Ra-men-Ma Seti, by the first prophet of Amen, Pinotem.&quot; At what precise date these and the earlier royal mummies were brought into the Dair al - Bahari vault does not appear ; but, as that vault was finally closed on the burial of Queen Isi-em-Kheb, we may conclude that, as a last resource against possible depreda tion, the &quot; royal ancestors &quot; were deposited therein at or about that time. This would be in the reign of King Menkheperra (brother and successor of Masahirti, and husband of Isi-em-Kheb), whose seal, impressed on clay, was found upon the shattered door of the mortuary chamber. The condition of the various mummies and mummy-cases thus hospitably sheltered gives every indication that their original sepulchres had been previously violated. The coffins of Thothmes III. and Rameses I. are much damaged. That of Rameses II. was probably destroyed, since the one in which his mummy now reposes is of Dynasty XXI. workmanship. The mummy of Rameses I. is doubtful, that of Thothmes I. is miss ing, as are also the coffins of Queen Ansera, Queen Merit-Amen, and Queen Sitka. The mummy of Thothmes III. greatest of all Egyptian pharaohs greater than even Seti I. or Rameses II. is broken in three pieces. All this is apparently the work of ancient marauders. For these identifications, see especially two articles on Dynasty XXI. (Manethonian) in the Zeit. f. sEgyp. Sp., 1882, by Dr R. Lepsius and Dr A. Wiedemann ; also in Recutil des Travaux, vol. iii., 1883, an article on &quot;Relics from the Tomb of the Priest-Kings at Dayr el-Baharee,&quot; by Amelia B. Edwards. GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. G. Maspero, Sur la Cachetic decouverte a Dir el-Ba- hari; Verhandlungen des Fiinften Or ientalisten- Congresses, Berlin, 1881; G. Maspero, La Trouvaille de Deir el-Bahari, Cairo, 1881 ; A. Rhone, &quot; Decouverte des Momies Royales de Thebes,&quot; in Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1883 ; A. B. Ed wards, &quot;Lying in State in Cairo,&quot; in Harper s Monthly Magazine, July 1882; H. Villiers Stuart, The Funeral Tent of an Egyptian Queen, London, 1882 ; Colonel Howard Vyse, Operations carried on at the Pyramids of Gheezeh, &c., 1840-2 ; Sir J. G. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, new ed., London, 1878 ; Records of the Past, edited by Birch ; E. Ledrain, Les Momies Greco- figyptiennes, Paris, 1877 ; T. J. Pettigrew, History of Egyptian Mummies, London, 1840 ; A. H. Rhind, Thebes, its Tombs and their Tenanta, London, 1862. (A. B. E.) MUMPS (syn. Cynanche parotideea, parotitis, also &quot; The Branks &quot;), a contagious disease characterized by inflam matory swelling of the parotid and other salivary glands, frequently occurring as an epidemic, and affecting mostly young persons. The disease generally sets in with symp toms of a cold or catarrh accompanied with slight febrile dis turbance, but soon the nature of the ailment is announced by the occurrence of swelling and stiffening in the region of the parotid gland in front of the ear. The swelling speedily increases in size and spreads downwards towards the neck and under the jaw, involving the numerous glands in that locality. The effect is to produce much disfigure ment, which becomes still greater should the inflammation spread, as often happens, to the glands on the other side of the face and neck. Pain is present in the swollen parts, but it is seldom very severe, nor is there much redness or any tendency to suppuration. There is, however, con siderable interference with the acts of mastication and swallowing. After continuing for four or five days the swelling and other symptoms abate, and the parts are soon restored to their normal condition. During the period of convalescence there occasionally occur some swelling and