34 ANNUAL ADDRESS : 



records of their achievements. One of the monarchs of this 

 dynasty was, doubtless, that new king who knew not Joseph, 

 and who reduced the Israelites to hard and cruel servitude. 

 On the monuments of the period we find graphic representa- 

 tions of brickmakers, with marked Jewish features, working 

 under the lash of taskmasters. 



Recent Researches and Discoveries. 



The researches that are now being made at Tanis and other 

 places in the Delta by the Egyptian Exploration Societ}^ I 

 have not time even to glance at. They have been pretty fully 

 described in the periodical press. But there is one most 

 remarkable discovery of recent years which I must not over- 

 look ; it is that of 



Deir el-Bahry. 



In the wild ravine of Deir el-Bahry, near Thebes, a cave 

 was found some years ago by shepherds, who are always 

 searching after antiquities. They kept their secret for a 

 time, gradually drew forth from the cave long-hidden 

 treasures, and found a ready market for them among 

 travellers. At length the attention of the directors of the 

 Boulak Museum was attracted; the secret was discovered, 

 and the cave visited by Brugsch. He found there a vast 

 horde of mummies of kings, queens, and high dignitaries,, 

 who flourished from the time of Joseph down to the capture 

 of Jerusalem by Shishak. The secret of the cave was this. 

 On the decline of Thebes, the inhabitants being poor, bands 

 were organised to break open and plunder the royal tombs, 

 so numerous around the great city, and so rich in concealed 

 treasures. Some pious patriot, disapproving of those sacri- 

 legious acts, collected a number of the most precious contents 

 of tombs still intact, and stowed them away secretly in this 

 obscure cave. There they remained until found in some 

 chance way by the shepherds. 



I have only time to mention a very few of the most 

 remarkable mummies, all of which are now in the Boulak 

 Museum. I get my information mainly from the monograph 

 of Maspero, published at Cairo in 1881, and illustrated with 

 twenty photographs by Brugsch. 



One of the first is Ahmes I., a monarch of the eighteenth 



