80 THE B1>V. F. A. WALKEi;, D.h., F.L.S., ON 



of sculpture is formed by a dado of lotus leaves and fruit. 

 The westernmost chamber contains by far the most interest- 

 ing- series of carvings, because on its "western and northern 

 walls is sculptured the Last Judgment of ]\[an. On the 

 northern wall Osii-is Avith scourge and crook, and again on 

 the western, awaits those souls who are ushered before him 

 in Ameuti. Before him stand the four genii on a lotus 

 blossom. (See JVine Jfundred Miles up the Nile, p. 15(5 ; and 

 again p. 17<^ of same work.) "On the eastern side of the 

 island {i.e.^ Phila?) is the temple commonly known as 

 Pharaoh's Bed, a beautiful building of late date, possessing- 

 foin-teen large sandstone columns Avith the usual lotus and 

 papyrus capitals." But the lotus is not only reproduced in 

 art OAving to the gracefulness of its petals and general 

 shape, it is intimately and mysteriously connected Avith the 

 entrance of the soul into another world. One instance of 

 this has already been given above in the representation in 

 the shnne of Dayr el Medineh. Also in the copies made 

 of coloured plaster that I obtained in Cairo of the ancient 

 frescoes in the Tomb of Till at Sakkarah. the lotus blossoms 

 occur among the various hieroglyphics that form the border. 

 Yet again, the buds and tendrils of the lotus previously 

 alluded to as beheld in the mummy case of Amenophis I of the 

 XVlTIth dynasty show that the lotus is connected with the 

 ancient conception of the last journey, possibly as an offering* 

 to the deities of the nether realm. Anyhow it frequently 

 figures in the mural paintings of the temples,* along with 

 sundry other offerings to the gods. These instances might 

 be multiplied indefinitely. It may be noticed once more with 

 regard to the figuring of the lotus in sculpture that as the 

 lotus is a native of Egypt and the favourite flower of that 

 country, so the representations of the lotus, of the palm leaf, 

 and of the papyrus as decorations of the capitals of columns, 



* So too ill the temple of Edfoii a monarch makes libation and offers 

 the lotus, and here again are three jackal-lieaded deities and three hawk- 

 headed deities after them, who ai'e all bearing a long-stemmed lotus 

 between them {Nine Hundred Miles, p. 169), tyjjical once more of the 

 connection with Amenti, of which not only Horns, the hawk-headed god, 

 to whom the temple of Edfou is dedicated, was symbolical, but the jackal^ 

 whose figure of wood is often found in mummy cases painted black to 

 denote consecration. And so hawks on a jewelled necklace or corselet 

 bearing the ci'own of Upper Egypt have beenrecencly discovered in tombs 

 of the XVlIIth dynasty, guaiding on either side the grave of Osirtaseu II, 

 depicted on said trinket. 



