ANCIENT EGYPT. 1 25 



to decipher ; they are often enigmatical and difficult of inter- 

 pretation. Each part of the tomb has its own special theme 

 of decoration, and the general scheme is common to all the 

 tombs, varying only in quantity and in the manner of execu- 

 tion. There is a long hymn to Ra, in Amenti or the lower 

 world, in which his name is glorified in 74 forms, with the 

 legend " Praise be to Ra, the Almighty " ; the king is justified 

 in the 125th chapter of the Book of the Dead, and he enters 

 into the most holy place. The gods of the dead are every- 

 where present, guiding and introducing the king into ever- 

 lasting life, into which he enters when the obstacles of evil 

 have been overcome, and he dwells among the stars as a god. 

 The deeds done in the body are freely depicted, and the 

 king's descent into Amenti is shown. In the first hall the 

 nations of the world are differentiated in the colours red, 

 black, and white. The inscriptions in the second hall mostly 

 concern the ritual of the dead. A scheme of astronomy is 

 represented on the ceiling of the golden chamber, and an 

 interesting feature is some large free-hand pencilled drawings, 

 corrected by the hand of the master artist for the chisel, and 

 left unfinished on the death of the king. The inscriptions on 

 the sarcophagus would seem to be an epitome of those on the 

 walls of the tomb generally. When the catacomb was opened 

 by Belzoni early in the last century the colours of the decora- 

 tions were all fresh as when painted; but, like most of the 

 monuments of Egypt, they have suffered greatly at the hands 

 of the tourist, and even savants have not been ashamed to 

 deface .long spaces in order to carry away some particular 

 piece of inscription. These tombs, like the pyramids, impress 

 one with the utter futility of the extraordinary and elaborate 

 precautions that were taken to preserve "the tenement of 

 clay " for future use, for most of them have been violated and 

 plundered by Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Arabs, 

 tourists, and, sad to say, by Egyptologists also. 



Obelisks. 

 This very ancient form of monument is supposed by some 

 to be an emblem of Amen, as representing a ray of the sun, 



