KNOWLllx.l. 



Jt-M-.. 1912. 



slick of ri'il soaliiij; \\;i.\ was foiiiul in tlic pcjsscssion 

 of Major l-"ink and the (|iieslioii tlicii-forc arose 

 wliutlior tliis wax agreed in composition witli the 

 wax in tlie seals upon the two letters. 



Tliij t:l()se a|,'rcement in tlu- coni|>osition of the 

 stick of sealing wax and the seals upon the two 

 letters left little room for doubting the origin of the 

 latter. 



T.^BI.R 19. Composition of Sealiii.i^ Waxes. 



At the same time an anal\-si.s was made of the 

 wax from the post office where the letters had been 

 posted, and of various other commercial specimens 

 of sealing \\a.\, taken at random, and the results 

 which well' obtained are given in Table 19. 



After hearing evidence upon this and the other 

 scientific points raised in the case, the jury found 

 the prisoner guilty, but they also concluded from 

 the medical evidence put before them that he was 

 insane at the tiiue he committed the forgery. 



TiiK oi.Dr-sT nr-RP-.x 



M IX Till". WORLD. 



-KONOR.V ARMIT.VC] 



\\ iii:n I foinid my way to the scchidcd gallery in the great 

 Mnscnin of .Anticinities at Kasr el Nil. in Cairo, where repose 

 what are, I supjiose, the most ancient dried plants on the face 

 of the earth, 1 wondered how many people ever paid them the 

 tribute of a passing inspection ! Men come in thousands to 

 wonder at and admire the vast assemblage of human 

 handiwork of byegone ages, gathered from a thousand miles 

 of the Nile Valley, but there seemed to be scarcely one who 

 cared to enter and ponder for a few moments on these works 

 of nature, preserved by the men of Ancient Egypt with care 

 and loving reverence to do honour to the dead, whose earthly 

 tabernacles were to last like these for scores of centuries. 



One's memory is recalled to that era of brilliant civilisation 

 and of elaborate development of art which obtained during 

 the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, a period between the 

 seventeenth and twelfth centuries before Christ, which is 

 especially associated with the names of Amenhotep, Thothmcs. 

 and Queen Hatshepset, and later with those of Seti the Fir.st 

 and Rameses the Second, the (ireat. 



For what are we gazing at ? Garlands and wreaths from 

 the tombs of these kings. There is no c|uestion here of the 

 ancient floras of the earth, which are hewn from time to time 

 from the rocks to rejoice the heart of the palaeo-botanist ; 

 these plants are all truly " recent " in the geological sense ; but 

 the fact that they are all precisely similar in every detail with 

 , their congeners growing in the Nile Valley to this dav, proves 

 the anli(|uily and persistence of certain species of plants. It 

 is interesting to see the ancient and modern specimens 

 inounted side by side in the cases to invite comparison. 



The long wreaths taken from the mummy cases of Aahmes I 

 and Amenhotep I were elaborately and beautifully made. 

 To a strong foundation of palm-leaf fibre were tied a close 

 succession of split and folded leaves of the Mimusops Tree, 

 large oval loavi-s, tied with narrow thongs of palm fibre, while 

 within each leaf w.is placed a petal of the Hluc Water Lily, the 

 Lotus of the Nile. It is astonishing to see how well these 

 petals, now brown or white, are preserved. Other wreaths 

 had a foundation of Willow leaves between which were the 



fragile petals of a Hollyhock, or blue Larkspur flowers were 

 used, while sometimes in addition we find the sweet-scented 

 yellow balls of the Nile Acacia, the Sunt. Some of the 

 wreaths investing the mummy of Rameses II when it was 

 found at Der el Bahari had been renewed by the pious care of 

 some Twentieth Dynasty ruler, and were composed of 

 Mimusops and of another species of Lotus. There were floral 

 neck-wreaths, too : one made of wild celery leaves all smoothly 

 pressed out, another of malt, the germinated barley with a 

 thick tangle of rootlets : besides which are found branches of 

 Olive, of the Sycamore Fig, and leaves of the creeping desert 

 Gourd, the Colocynth, and several other flowers. Numbers of 

 seeds of this period have been found, chiefly of cereals, 

 legumes or forage plants, just the same kinds which are still 

 grown by the industrious fellahin on the irrigated land. 



Before we leave the .gallery we must glance at the portraits 

 in colour of several of the native Nile plants which we see on 

 the walls. These come from the palace of the well-known 

 heretical king, Akhenaten, of the Eighteenth Dynasty, who, 

 deserting the ancient worship of the Sun God for that of the 

 Solar Disk, left Thebes to build a new capital at Tel el .-Vmarna. 

 Needless to say his successor returned to the old faith and the 

 old city : but here we see how the floors of reception halls in 

 royal palaces four thousand years ago were decorated. The 

 stucco pavements were painted over with designs of water with 

 aquatic birds and beasts amid clumps of vegetation, reeds and 

 grasses, the colouring being green, red and blue on a white 

 ground. Here one recognises red and blue Lotus flowers, 

 there waving Reeds and Papyrus, blue-headed Thistles, Scarlet 

 Poppies and trails of Convolvulus, all depicted with exact yet 

 conventional accuracy. 



Who is there that has voyaged to the upper Nile and has 

 not seen the water, and the stretches of vegetation and the 

 birds and the beasts, and may not yet see the Chieftaincss of 

 Thebes, the Sacred Cow of Hathor, pushing her way through 

 the Papyrus brakes and Nile Lotus, even as she is depicted on 

 her statue which came from Der el Bahari ? Egypt is very 

 old — and vet she is. 



