AN EGYPTIAN BLUE BEARD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 229, 15 February 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN EGYPTIAN BLUE BEARD

STORY OF AMUNOPH 111,

KILLED 300 WIVES BEFORE 27 YEARS OF AGE.

''Blue Beard." champion of the world— King Amunoph 111. of Egypt. Murder will out, although it may be 5000 years coming. Egyptologists are just learning that Egypt's printers in the stone age were like the reporter who knew all of the story hut the facts. They knew Amunoph was a brutal man, with a penchant for getting rid of his wives and friends, especially his wives, faster than the high priests could get him married, but they never dreamed that he was dealing in cartload lots. It so happened that a lialf-dozeu murders at the palace on a bright May morning never feazed 'em (says the Chicago Tribune). Amunoph was descended from a vigorous line of fighters, notably the four Thothmeses, none of them champions, but all of, them with good fighting blood in their veins. There was nothing they liked better than a scrap.

Amunoph started out friendly enough until he became king, and the nhe took oft' the lid. Prof. James Henry Breasted, of the University of Chicago, among other students of ancient history and F.gvptology. has just discovered that all was not serene in the palace during the rein of- Amunoph—in fact, recent developments show that Amunoph holds the wife murder record for all time. COFFIN ENLIVENED STAG PARTY. Within the last few months the fact that up to the time Amunoph was 27 years of age he had nfcirdered over 300 wives has been piratically established beyond a shadow of a doubt. As yet they can only generalise as to the mad career of this king. They hope that in years to come they may be able to ascertain more definitely the identity of his manv victims.

Amunoph was having a party one night. It was one of those stag affairs, common enough in these days, but then they were viewed with suspicion. Having been invited to one of the king's parties there was no dodging it for a previous engagement. While the salad was being served the waiters brought in a coffin one or two cubits in leng&i. and in it the wooden effigy of a dead body, perfectly imitated by the king's own private sculptor and painter. It was handed to Amunoph, who gazed admiringly on it and then passed it around his quaking guests. "Look upon this." he said, ''then drink and be merry, for such as thou seest it wilth thou be. after thy death." Now that was where the joke came in —'•after thy death." The guests knew right away that there was going to be something doing for them in the near future, so they began to wind up their little business' matters and prepare for the grand blow-off. It came on the following morning, before the king and his assembled family, consisting of a couple of hundred wives. The men. whose names posterity does not know, went through the ordeal without a murmur. But they had had a good time the night before, anyway.

FIRST WIFE IS FROLIC VICTIM.

The performance made a great hit with Amunoph. and lie began looking around for novelties in this line. It seems that he had had for his first wife a venerated heiress named Xitocris. Her advent into Amunoph's family was quickly followed by scores of others, many of them prettier, more attractive as to figure, and invariably better able to amuse his highness. All she had on her rivals was a little Egyptian money, but she didn't have it long, for no sooner was she the wife of Amunoph than her money was his, too. Of course, that was understood.

As Amunoph looked over the field full of dead bodies—the mortal remains of the men he had wined and dined the night before —and caught sight of wife number one. Xitocris. lounging around on the outer edge of his presence, who wondered. 110 doubt, if she was going to get by. Xo, she was not. The frolic was on.

Amunoph beckoned his attendants,

' ; See thou yonder woman, Xitocris, whom I first took unto myself?" he said. "See that her life is taken from her — noWj in the presence of these, my prettier and more gracious wives."

Amunoph yawned during the epilogue, which bad its little moral for the other wives, who. we are told, ''counselled among themselves as to the best way of restoring the good humor of his grace." As of Xitocris, riddled by swords, was dragged away, the sigh of the remaining 200 wives was not for the one who had been slain, but for the others who might even now be tagged for public slaughter.

MARRIED DOZEN" TIMER A DAY.

Then. Amunoph began tampering with the rules. Kvery up-to-date method then in existence was brought into play. Amunoph, it has lately been learned, even hired men of originality to conceive novel means by which he might kill a couple of his wives. Something new and clever he was looking for all the time.

Murders were being pulled off in every corner of the palace. Of course, the king did his best to keep all his engagements. but he could hardly be expected to do more than an ordinary man's work. He attended the deathbed scenes of his favorite wives, while the others who did not stand so high in bis estimation had to get through it alone as best they could.

In the meantime Amunoph was getting married a dozen times a day. Sometimes his dates so conflicted that when there were a large numbers of wives going out, those coming in were married in bulk. Individual service was absolutely impossible, for the king was a busy man. Occasionally there would be an unusually good-looking candidate in the lot. and this one the king would favor with a little extra grace. But invariably it was found that those who were tiius honored at the start had a more horrible finish, just to equalise things and to keep the rest of them from getting jealous. .Now, Amumioph 111. was otherwise known as Achencheres, or Chebres, and was one of the Theban or Diospolitan kings of the eighteenth dynasty. It was in this dynasty that Egypt had a large circle of friends, and it was probably because doings at the palace were kept so quiet that kings of the smaller countries surrounding were glad to get places for their daughters in Amunoph's palace, for it was reported about the country that they had jolly good times there.

One king. Timaios, who was from the north of Egypt, was thus deceived by public gossip, and be sent his daughter, Hatasu. to the king for his approval. Now Amunoph was not over particular about the looks. Tt was an item, of course, but the main thing was that they had roval blood in them.

preparing for the attack the wives took occasion to sneak from the palace and throw themselves into the river where the crocodiles could get them. Amunopli was injured ill the battle that followed with Timaios, and his death resulted. His army, however, was victorious, and Timaois was put to death for his impertinence. Egyptologists are greatly interested m the career of Amunoph, which is just as yet a little hazy. They know that he ascended tke throne after Thothmes IV., about 1450 8.C., and that he was sueceded in 1408 8.C., by Khuenaten, and that he was only forty-two years old when lie had his fatal quarrel with Timaois. Having murdered over 300 wives by the time he was twenty-seven years of age, searchers for the truth are horrified at the possibilities contained in those last fifteen years which he served as king of Egypt. In the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is contained a sword said to have belonged to Amunoph. Probably it saw a lot of service, for there is evidence enough to show that Amunoph himself helped in the murder of many of his wives.