WONDERFUL RELIC OF EGYPT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1039, 14 December 1912, Page 4

WONDERFUL RELIC OF EGYPT.

3000 YEAR-OLD THEOLO GICAL DISPUTE.

The already magnificent collection ot Egyptian papyri in the British Museum has been still further enriched by the gift of Mrs Mary Greenfield of a splendid Theban version of the Book of the Dead of the period of the New Empire, 1000 B.C.

The papyrus, which measures 123 ft in length and about ißin. in width, was found between IS7I and 1881 in the hiding-place ol the royal mummies at Deir-el-Bahair. The lady for, or by, whom the papyrus was written was named “ Nesi-ta-uebt Asheru.” “She who belongs to the I,ady of Asher,’’ that is the goddess Mut of Thebes. She was a princess, being the daughter of the last cf the priest kings of the 2isl dynasty, Paiuetchem 11., by his niece, the grand priestess queen Nesi-Kheusu, a lady who held the highest sacred and secular offices. The mummified forms of Painetchem 11., Nesi-Khensu, and the lady of this papyrus can all be seen in the royal saloon of the Cairo Museum, a fact which has a very personal interest to the document now described. The papyrus is beautifully written, in a small but very clear hieratic script and some of the chapters are given botli in hieratic and hieroglyphic. A PATHETIC PICTURE.

The vignettes which accompany and illustrate the chapters and selections are so finely drawn and often so pathetic in incident—such for example, as the anxious figure of the princess, with her hair loose, watching the weighing of her heart, or standing before the Hall of Osiris—as to suggest comparison with the work of the best artists of Japan. The way in which the author has selected the chapters Irom the older Theban version of the Book of the Dead shows a thorough knowledge of the theology of the period, and the beauty of the newly-published hymns and litanies to Osiris, Atem and Harmachis show the mind of a pious and highly - educated person.

The whole oi the huge papyrus is clearly io one handwriting, a rather small feminine hand, and we learn from the papyrus that the lady held the title of ‘‘Worker or Maker of the Rolls books, of Amen-Ra, King of the Gods.” She was also a musician, being called “Singer of the Quarter of Mut Lady of Asher,” In addition, she was a priestess of Amen, and “Chief Lady of the Ladies of Ameu-Ra”—that is head of the female section of the confraternity of the great Theban god.

What manner of woman was this Theban authoress ? This question can fortunately be answered, tor her mummy at Cairo has been unrolled, and her face is well preserved. The iace is small, with well-shaped forehead, the hair is dark brown and wavy, the eye-lashes abundant, and the false eyes of dim brown, which replace the real, are probably the same colour as those of lifetime. From the condition of the teeth she was at death between 35 and 40, and about sft. 6iu in height. The documents belong to a period of great religious controversy in Egypt. The priests of Amen had by every possible means sought to elevate their divinity above all the other gods, and to obliterate as much as possible the creed of Osiris. In the papyrus of this lady’s mother, the Queen Nesi-Kheuui, all the functions of Osiris are usurped by Amen, Here the authoress has been most diplomatic, and proved herself a theologian of no mean order. She blends, as it were, Osiris and Amen. They become aspects or phases of each other, and so, as Dr. Budge (Keeper of the Egyptian department of the British Museum) says, she is able to believe that the “hidden” creative power which was materialised in Amen was only another form of the new birth and resurrection which was typified by Osiris.