Page:The Pharaohs and their people; scenes of old Egyptian life and history (IA pharaohstheirpeo00berkiala).pdf/164

 occasion we read that the king gave his city the name of 'Delight of the Sun's disk,' and offered sacrifices with solemn invocation. 'Tender love fills my heart for the queen and her young children. Grant long years of life to Nefer-tai, that she may keep the king's hand. Grant long life to the royal daughters, that they may keep the hand of the queen, their mother, for evermore.' Nefer-tai appears to have died comparatively young; in one of the sculptures she is represented 'with terrible fidelity,' Mr. Villiers Stuart says, as apparently in the last stage of wasting disease. Her only son must have died quite in childhood; he is not represented again, but the daughters, seven in number, are frequently seen. As Khu-en-aten died without a male heir, the crown passed to his daughters' husbands, two if not three of whom reigned in succession. They soon returned to Thebes, and to the worship of Amen-Ra, but none of them were ever acknowledged as true-born kings; it is doubtful whether they were crowned at Thebes. Ai was the last of them, and a beautiful rose-coloured sarcophagus of granite found in a tomb to the west of the