MUMMIES OF THE PHARAOHS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 270, 12 November 1881, Page 4

MUMMIES OF THE PHARAOHS.

A correspond r.t of tbe London Post adds the following details about tbe recent discoveries in Egypt: — "The place were these precious relics were found is an almost inaccessible cave in the face of tbe perpendicular mountain, in another part of which the royal cemetery, known as Bab-el-Melouk, is excavated and not far from Deir-pl-Bahri The most remarkable of tbe 400 objects are^ thirty-six royal sarcophagi, with tbeir inner case;* and mummies intact, belonging to tbe pbaroahs, queens, princes, princesses, and high priests of the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twenty-first dynasties, so that we are actually in possession of the lifeless bodies of ,mar_y heroes, wbo upward of three thousand years ago ruled over this country and adorned ifc witb temples and obelisks which are the wonder and admiration of tho whole civilised world. Among them ia tbat of Seti 1., whose tomb m tbe Bab-el-Melouk was discovered by Belzoni, but that explorer found neither coffin nor mummy, only tbe large alabaster sarcophagus now in tbe Sosne Museum, which was made to contain and preserve tbem. "Next in importance we bave the plain bufc highly polished wooden coffin of Barneses IL, the Sesostria ofthe Greek?, with tkem*jmmy intact, the royal cartouche distinctly legible on the c fH n lid and on the mummy "cloths enveloping the body. The mummy cases of Amoai*?, son of Amousa, of Totmes I, IL, and IIL, of Queen Ra-ma-ka and her daughter Mout-em-hat, of King Kae-ken en of Ahmes-notert-nrf, of Aah Hotep, Kame. es 1., and of Amenonphis are also in tbe collection, with the mummies in perfect preservation. The majority of these mummies are enclosed in two coffins, both elaborately ornamented with paintings and gildings, some of them having also certain ornaments inlaid with coloured glass and many of

tbe faces have glass eyes, which give tbem a most lifelike appearance Another remarkable object is a royal tent made of coloured leather in a chequered pattern of red and green. The inner side of the dome is of blue leather, with yellow star?., and the hieroglyphic inscriptions are perforated in the coloured leather with a backing of yellow. Fifteen royal wigi for State occasions are alao in the collection. Besides the human mummies we find one of a gazelle, which waa probably a favourite playmate of one of the Egyp^ tian priuce. or princesses. We have also four scrolls of papyruß of great siz»> on which is inscribed "the ritual of the dead, elaborately illuminated, and oontainiog the cartouches of the royal persona for whom they were written, one of whom is Queen Hatason, sister of Totmes 111. Moreover, we hare several sets of canopic vases in alabaster, with royal names engraven on the outer surface, 3,700 funeral statuettes and many other objects of interest. The poiition of the cave in an almost inaccessible part of the mountain, the well, 36 feet deep, communicating by a gallery of 250 feet in length with a rough hewn chamber, and tbe confused state in which all these objects of veneration were found, heaped one on another, and strewn about on the ground, lead Mr. Brugsch to tbe very plausible inference that tbey had been by friendly hands collected from the various tomba and concealed in thia place of safety at tho time of some threatened foreign invasion.