The Life Of The King Of The South & North Kamari'a Daughter Of The Sun Hatshepsut

Front matter

"SKM PR6013.G782 Gray, Terence,

The life of the king of outh & Nort

[| 65

Contents

THE PRODUCTION OF THIS PAGEANT ON THE STAGE xix

THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY ~ - - - Xxiii GENEALOGICAL TABLE - - Facing page xxiv THE PERSONS OF THE PERIOD PRESENTED - - XXV11 PROLOGUE - - - - - - - - iT THE Lire oF HATSHEPSUT, PART I. - - - 9 » » ParT II. - “1, 40 » e Part III. - acme re A Part IV. - - 143 re F PART V. - - 208 THE END oF HATSHEPSUT - - - - - 251 SOME RELICS - - - - - - - 253 ECHOES FROM THE PAST - - - - - 255 BIBLIOGRAPHY - - - - - - - 260

List of [lustrations

Preface

“Let not him who shall hear. ‘this'say it is a lie which I have said, but say, ‘ How like her ‘it is who is truthful in the sight of her Father ,’.’”’-— Hatshepsut.

‘““ Hear ye, all persons! Ye people as many as ye are! I have done this according to the design of My heart. . . . I have restored that which was in ruins, I have raised up that which was incomplete. . . .’’—Hatshepsut.

‘“Come, Glorious One, I have placed Thee before Me that Thou mayest see Thine administration in the Palace, and the excellent deeds of Thy Kau-souls, that Thou mayest assume Thy royal dignity, glorious in Thy Majesty, mighty in Thy strength.’’—Tahutmosis I. to Hatshepsut.

‘* Hail to Thee, King of the Two Lands, the Female Ri’a, She who shines like the Sun, your

Sovereign, Mistress of Heaven. .. . Thy name reaches as far as the circuit of the sky, the fame of Kamari’a encircles the sea.’’—Jnscription at

Deir-el-Bahart.

“An offering for the Life, Prosperity, and Health of Her Majesty.’’—IJnscription at Detr-el-Bahart.

f ae ie

Summary

Page 1. PROLOGUE. The Roof of the House of

PARTI. g. Scene I.

38. Scene 3.

PART Il. 46. Scene I. (additional scene.) 55. Scene 2.

6x. Scene 3. (additional scene.)

TAHUTIY. History.

A Private Apartment in the

Palace of TAHUTMOSIS I. The Question of the Succession.

A Private Apartment of the Young Prince TAHUTMOSIS II.

The Royal Children at play.

A Private Apartment in the Palace of TAHUTMOSIS I. HAT- SHEPSUT decides the question of the Succession.

(Historical Scene from Deir-el- Bahari.) The Mystical Coronation of HATSHEPSUT in the Temple of Yamoun.

(Historical Scene from Deir-el- Bahari.) The Association of HATSHEPSUT with her father on the throne, in the Hall of Ceremonies in the Palace.

(Historical Scene from Deir-el- Bahari.) The Coronation of HATSHEPSUT, in the Great Hall, and the Hall of Diadems.

(Historical Scene from a Pylon of TAHUTMOSIS I.) The Sanctuary of Yamoun in his Temple.

TAHUTMOSIS prays for his daughter.

SUMMARY

PART I1I.—(continued).

Page 66. Scene 5.

PARTE 80." scene=1.

GO. Scene’ 2.

‘IIo. Scene 3.

Ti4.-ocenend.

rz8.. Scene 5.

RARECLYS TAS. Scenest,

I5I. Scene 2. (additional scene.)

The Hail of Pillars. The Commencement of the Reign of HATSHEPSUT. A_ Royal Wedding. Rival Sovereigns on the throne of Horu.

The Hall of Pillars. The miserable Kush rebel. Rival factions at Court. The royal panther draws in her claws and watches, crouching for a spring.

The Hall of Pillars in the New Palace. TAHUTMOSIS II, goes to war, to wash his heart among the Lords of the Sands.

The Succession again in dispute.

The young King passes into the Sky, uniting Himself with the Solar Disk.

The Hall of Pillars. HATSHEPsuT claims her right to rule alone.

The Hall of Pillars. The commencement of the sole reign of HATSHEPSUT. Great projects. The Expedition to the Land of Puanit. TAHUT- MOSIS 111. claims his right.

A Private Apartment in the Inner Palace. HATSHEPSUT bids for peace with her nephew. (Historical Scene from Deir-el- Bahari.) The Temple of Yamoun. The expedition to the land of Puanit has returned.

The year Ix. of her reign.

v .

. ~

SUMMARY Xi

PART IV.—(continued).

Page 158. Scene 3.

(additional " scene.)

16x. Scene 4. (additional scene.)

162, scene’ G. (additional scene.)

196.. Scene 7, (additional scene.)

PART VJ. 208. Scene I.

(Historical Scene from Deir-el- Bahari.) The Sanctuary of Yamoun in His Temple. The God, and His priests, are grateful to His daughter for her gifts.

In front of the Temple of Deir-el-Bahari, the ‘ Most Splendid.”’

A glimpse of the years of peace, art and architecture.

The Hall of Pillars. Rumours of unrest among the miserable Kush. TAHUTMOSIS demands an army. Rumours of unrest at home. Obelisks are decreed, for the satisfaction of Yamoun —and His priests.

The Office of SENMUT. = Arrangements for the obelisks.

The Princess NEFERURI’A and her father-tutor. Literary moments. The year Xv.

The Royal Barque on the Nile.

Royal differences. Love-songs of old Egypt. The obelisks arrive.

A Private Apartment in the Inner Palace. Royal inscriptions for the Temple of Pakht.

The miserable Kush rebel.

TAHUTMOSIS III. again asks for an army. He loses his temper, and is punished. The land of the miserable Kush is sacrificed.

(x) The Sed-Festival of HATSHEP-

21g. (additional (2) suT (reconstructed from the

(3) monuments of all periods).

Xi

SUMMARY

PART V.—(continued).

Page 226. Scene 3.

A Balcony in the Inner Palace.

The old Queen and her daughters. The world is changing. A new generation is growing up.

The eastern provinces refuse their tribute. A_ terrible dilemma and a great determination. TAHUTMOSIS receives his army at last.

The Hall of Pillars. The old Queen will review her army ere it sets out. The soldiers acclaim their King. The old generation passes and the new takes its place. A_ bitter decree. TAHUTMOSIS III. commences his great reign.

Introduction

This work is an attempt to achieve three objects.

1. To reconstruct the life of one of the greatest women in history, the earliest known of all great women, and one of the most masterful, obscure, and arresting figures of the ancient world.

2. To reconstruct the life of the great Egyptian civilisation, not as it has been reconstructed by modern novelists, librettists, and other brilliant, fanciful, and utterly unlearned persons, but from the point of view of the Egyptologist, using every known document, translating every known inscription of the period, consulting every authority, studying every surviving portrait, and utilising as much as possible of the colossal mass of knowledge that is in existence on the civilisation of Egypt, transfusing the whole with all the life that imagination, thus guided, can give.

3. To create a great natural drama, a drama that is not a version of an incident recorded by history, but is history itself.

I

Of the first I would say that this great woman will not appeal to all. Those whose hearts are satisfied with woman as she is to be seen in the public places of any city, overdressed, weak, incompetent, fluffy, lacking muscle of body and muscle of mind, pretty, pampered, petted, privileged, abusing those privileges, ignorant, vain beyond, parallel, painted, powdered, reeking with scent, hobbling about the world, striking attitudes and making faces in front of the looking-glasses of hatshops and dressmakers, will have no love for this great and beautiful ruler of what was once the civilised world. But all women are not such as this, nor are all men satisfied that they should be so. It is not fitting that the lover of wobbly-kneed women behold Queen Hatshepsut, for rather is she an heroic figure from the xiil

X1V INTRODUCTION

Ancient World to whom the strong-souled who have in them the Spirit.of Adventure may look for inspiration.

I may have misread the character of Hatshepsut. There are but the bare facts of her reign, her temple, her tomb, her expedition to Puanit, her obelisks, her inscriptions, her statues, her bas-reliefs, the love and hate she inspired, the words of her ministers and herself, her father, his faith in her, and her own achievements, and they are all—or nearly all—herein, translated, for any man to judge of them for himself. Let the doubter look upon her portraits ere he speak. They reveal all that history has to tell us of her character. The facts we have can speak not more lucidly.

Those who love greatness, human greatness, human beings who, by breeding, by training and upbringing, by character, by achievement, have been of the noblest, those who believe that a quality is noble of itself and whether it be applied to male or female, to whom strength, courage, capability, are noble in men and— if anything—nobler in women, in whose eyes a weak man is contemptible and a weak woman hardly less so, will love Hatshepsut. If they do not, the fault lies in my work. As regards those others, let them lay down this book and go powder their noses and practise a grimace.

ox

Of the second of my aims I would say this. In the civilisation of Egypt there is something of charm, something of nobility, something of majestic completeness, which is known to none but the Egyptologist—save in so far as it is reflected in the art that survives—who as a rule does not possess either the type of imagination or the inclination to utilise his knowledge in the reconstruction of the life of that civilisation. There is a strange fascination in that ancient world, a quaint charm in the ways of the people and their manner of speech as it comes out in our language ; and the decorative effect of their world, the nobility of their art, and their superb Pharaonic administration which carried them to their highest heights of civilisation and led them

INTRODUCTION XV out of their periodical phases of decline throughout their long 5000 years of supremacy, are worthy indeed of the most earnest reconstruction.

The amount of knowledge we possess is so incalculably greater than the unlearned person imagines that the difficulty of such a task lies less in ignorance than in the immensity of the matter from which knowledge has to be ascertained concerning every detail of the manners, life, and costume of the people. In fact, owing largely to the tomb-paintings illustrating almost every detail of their owners’ lives, and to the temples illustrating all the ceremonial and religion, we can obtain an insight into this civilisation which is possible in the case of no other nation in history, even Greece and Rome which have left us so much finer a literature.

It is not strange therefore that the littérateur and casual historical trifler should have painted for the public such a ludicrous picture of old Egypt, dealing almost always with the Israelites, to him so important, to the Egyptians so insignificant that among the almost incalculable number of names still surviving of tribes and subject peoples of their period they cannot even be located.

In fact, the task needs—let me confess it at once— a knowledge far greater than the few years of study I have given it could allow. The truth is, it needs one of the masters. But their task is far different from this, and my only excuse for attempting it is that in addition to my love of Egypt my mind would always make that mighty civilisation live its life and build up its empires in imagination, and cared more for gaining knowledge to add to the fulness of that life than for gaining knowledge for the sake of increasing the number of facts in its possession.

I have worked hard. I have respected truth utterly, filling in blanks in history regarding probability before drama. I have made Egypt live, to myself, and I trust, in some measure, to any imaginative person who may read.

a xvi INTRODUCTION

I chose the dramatic form because drama, with its dialogue and concentrated scenes, more fully and actually than any other form of literature, can reproduce that which is no more, also because it is the form of which I have most knowledge and experience myself.

Of the third of my aims I have but this that I would say. Drama has developed in the hands of a succession of great dramatists, most of them unplayed in England, until it has become an art that seeks most utterly for subject-matter completely natural and inevitable in its development. The days of artificially devised incidents, situations, and conflicts, are passed as far as really great drama is concerned. This truly grand and fundamental drama I believe is to be found most utterly in history, not in occasional almost fortuitous incidents, but in long courses, lives of great administrators, soldiers, thinkers, who have by their achievements made and moulded the history of a people.

Such a life is this of Hatshepsut. Here is no hysterical heroine, here are no incredible, artificially-contrived incidents, here is history itself, history with its own great natural conflicts which are the essence of all drama. I am not concerned in this story in the capacity of dramatist, save as interpreter merely, general father and overseer of all things, and master of ceremonies. I am even as the great officials in the work itself ; I would like to add to my name the titles “‘ Hereditary Prince, Master of the Palace, Royal Herald, Overseer of the Temples, Particular Friend, Chief Secretary,’ for such has been my office in this pageant. I decline to accept praise or blame at all save as organiser and archaeologist.

Of course I have done more than just that ; but such is my office rather than that of the absolute monarch, semi-divine, which most dramatists assume in dealing with history, those who take a story out of a historybook, distort it to suit themselves, give the persons concerned whatever characters they feel inclined to portray, and never dream of investigating the manners

INTRODUCTION XV1i and customs, life and institutions, of the time, or of learning the language of the people. Indeed nearly always they treat history as though it were an imagination of their own devising instead of a sacred heritage of mankind, an honourable trust which imposes upon those who venture to deal with it in words a responsibility as regards truth that should appal the most wanton and inspire the most noble.

The period is much clouded in obscurity, owing to the destruction wrought on everything connected with Hatshepsut, and I have had to decide among rival theories on many points, and fill in many blanks with imagination, sometimes relying on nothing more solid than character as written in a surviving portrait. On the other hand, some of the things that will appear to the casual reader the most unlikely and outrageous, ideas, phrases, manners, and nicknames, are probably among the most indubitable and unquestioned of historical certainties. I have spared no pains and, I hope, falsified nothing willingly. Indeed, I shall append a real Egyptian colophon to my work, with a clear conscience.

The Production of this Pageant on the Stage

As it stands this work could not easily be produced. It is longer than ‘“‘Hamlet”’ in its printed form. It is, however, designed for the stage, and an acting edition may be brought into existence by the omission of eight scenes—

Part II., Nos. 1 and 3

Part V., No. 2 (sections 1, 2 and 3) ; and by minor technical omissions in the text.

On the stage such a work would depend for much of its charm on its setting, and the accuracy thereof. The tragedy and the pathos of the life-story of this great woman should not come with a rush, like a burst of shrapnel, as in an artificial drama, but should ooze out from the play, and permeate the atmosphere as the short pictures of her life are flashed before one’s eyes as though one looked through a chink in a curtain at a world that knew not that it was being observed, for there are not here the tragic moments of an hysterical heroine, but a woman going through her life, feeling her moments of glory and of sadness when they come, and accepting her fate without waving her arms in the air and hissing curses, but with characteristic pride and good-nature and the vanity that insists on asserting its achievements.

If this pageant ever be produced perhaps it will do one great service, tentative and, in a way, experimental as it is in itself. It may strike at the root of this miserable spirit in stage production which mounts historical works in a fanciful and inaccurate setting. In plays, pageants, ballets, operas, of all historical periods, is this done, and nowhere more utterly than in plays, pageants, ballets, and operas, which deal with Egypt. The fact that only ro per cent. of the audience

XIX xx THE PRODUCTION OF THIS PAGEANT know the real thing from the false is no excuse for this barbarity. A work of art is further removed from perfection by just so much as it is false in such matters as this.

In mounting an Egyptian work the usual process is to paint a Sphinx in one corner and a Pyramid in the other, to cover the walls with badly-drawn figures carelessly copied from some published and illustrated edition of the Book of the Dead, invariably of a late and bad period, or from photographs of a Ptolomaic, or even Roman, temple, and to fill up all the bare spaces with circles, triangles, and squiggles, which are intended to represent hieroglyphs. Probably the people who produce these plays do not even know that we can read the hieroglyphs, or that we understand the significance of the figures on the temples; at any rate, the last thing they dream of is ringing up for an Egyptologist to come round and superintend the production.

This spirit is utterly contemptible. It must be remembered that a century or so ago Shakespeare’s classical plays were played in the costume of Elizabethan England, and even in the then modern costumes. To-day such a procedure would evoke howls of merriment from the most ignorant of audiences. It is but a step further to experience the same contempt for historically-false productions of to-day. You have but to know a little more and the contempt is there in full measure.

But the most curious and ironical fact in this connection is that if these people only knew how infinitely more beautiful and fraught with art the real thing was than their sham, the beautifully drawn Egyptian figures, the artistically grouped, perfectly chiselled hieroglyphs, than the hideous things painted on stage scenery, and the chaste white fine-linen garments relieved by exquisitely coloured collars, royal sashes, etc., than their gaudily broidered silks and satins ; and if they but realised the dramatic effect obtainable from the crowns and royal uraei, the prerogative of the King, which they indiscriminately bestow on every priest and

THE PRODUCTION OF THIS PAGEANT xxi slave on the stage, and from the elaborate ceremonial with its elegant and clearly-defined gestures for all occasions of their ceremonial lives, these unimaginative and inefficient artists of the theatre would feel themselves the silly asses that they are.

May this truly ignorant and miserable spirit be no more! Lest any man after my death should endeavour to produce this play in this style I will append for his destruction an elegant Egyptian curse to which I give all the new life at my command :—

“ Tf there be any man—anyone of this land, or anyone, Negro, Kushite, or Syrian (American, German, or French), who removeth this writing, or carrieth it away as a thief, (doing those things which I have condemned in this writing), let none approach to them, nor give to them of cooling water, nor let them breathe the soft winds, nor permit to remain to them son or daughter of their begetting, nor let the name of such an one be mentioned in the land if they be born, nor let them behold the beams of the sun.

“ But if there be a man, anyone whomsoever, who beholdeth this writing and causeth my soul and my name to become established among those who are blessed, (acting according to the principles indicated herein), let it be done for him likewise after his final arriving at the end of life in recompense for what was done by him for me.”

And as a colophon to my play :—

“Tt is finished, from its beginning unto its end, even as it was found in ancient writing, by the writer excellent with his fingers, (Terence Gray), Life, Strength, Health! ”

CHICAGO

The Eighteenth Dynasty

Notes on the Genealogical Table

Probably no genealogical table so beautiful as this one could anywhere be found. I use the term beautiful literally. It is in every sense a beautiful table. Every member of the family in the direct line, both male and female, is herein, and all the ancestors of every member, and yet a more simple table could not be imagined. Compare it with any modern one. A family of ten generations with all the female ancestry would cover twenty such pages. It is a thing beautiful and unique, a joy to any lover of form. It is a marvel of genealogical concentration.

And just as the genealogy is a remarkable example of concentration, so is the family itself.

A glance at this chart will show the intensity of the selective in-breeding to which this family was subjected. Generation after generation of own brothers and sisters were wedded together and bred rulers of Egypt, occasionally interspersed with the marriage of a_halfbrother to a pure-bred heiress to the throne. Here was indeed a Royal Family, a Family in the most absolute sense of the word, a Family raised altogether above the people over whom it ruled, a Family in which the innate characteristics thereof must have been intensified and concentrated to the utmost possible degree, a Family in which every member must have been almost incredibly like every other, a Family which— since it achieved so much—had reason indeed to be proud. Little wonder need we spend on the similarity of Royal portraits, attributing it to the conventions of art, little wonder that creatures so bred up away from common humanity so successfully claimed to be divine. To-day we should call them Higher-Men, in Egypt they referred to them as Gods.

saxthf

Xx1V THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY

For the sake of those who are unfamiliar with the history of the Kings of this dynasty I will briefly indicate the curve of greatness of these rulers.

The virile Saqnunri’a III. strikes a blow for the freedom of his people from the Hyksos, and dies on the field of battle. His sons continue his work until Yahmase I., completing the task, clears the country of the barbarians and founds the Dynasty.

Yamounhotpu I. continues the work of his father ; his reign is short, and his son Tahutmosis I. commences the task of rebuilding the temples, re-organising the people and the administration, and by a series of spectacular campaigns conquers for Egypt an empire greater than any it had ever possessed in the days of the greatest dynasties of time past.

Of his daughter Hatshepsut I need say little. These pages set forth the greatness of her character and suggest the achievements of her reign.

Her brother’s child, Tahutmosis III., who followed, Egypt’s greatest military leader, stands as the first of the great empire-builders and world-conquerors, the forerunner of Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon.

His son, Yamounhotpu II., was a vigorous and capable Sovereign who followed in the footsteps of his father. Tahutmosis IV. in his short reign, though he achieved little as far as we know, carried on the tradition successfully.

Then followed Yamounhotpu III., “le grand monarch,” “Je roi soleil,” of the XVIIIth dynasty, the ideal Head of the State and Father of His People, in whose long and brilliant reign of magnificent peace Egypt blossomed like a rose, and enjoyed the fruits of her military labours in the past centuries.

Then came the crash. Yamounhotpu was succeeded by his son Yakhunytonu, the famous philosopher. The empire of Egypt fell to pieces like a house of cards, showing thereby what the power and personality of the Sovereign meant to Egypt. It was a crash indeed, but how magnificent a crash even so! Yakhunytonu failed badly as a King, but he was nevertheless the

THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY XXV greatest intellect of his age, the first great worldteacher and philosopher, the forerunner and anticipator of the founders of the great negative world-religions, the Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, and Jesus. The world would have it not then, it claimed another millennium of freedom ere it would receive its chains. The world was still virile.

But old-fashioned eugenists need not prick up their ears when we come to Yakhunytonu. There is no hope for the Victorian school of eugenics in the XVIIIth dynasty. This strange figure with the beautiful face, the queer-shaped body, and the luminous mentality, does not prove that the Family was degenerate from generations of in-breeding.

The great King Harmhabi, whose mother was Yamounhotpu’s daughter, and whose father was a descendant of Tahutmosis III., was still to come. In ten years this brilliant ruler, whose face alone is a thing to inspire, who was possessed of a will of iron and a vitality like a flame of fire, restored all things and handed on to the XIXth dynasty a re-organised Empire which he had reconstructed from the ruins he had inherited from the temporary successors of his famous and disastrous uncle.

I wish to express my gratitude to Mr. Theodore M. Davis, the author, and Messrs. Archibald Constable, the publishers, of the ‘“‘Tomb of Hatshdpsitu,” for kindly allowing me to reproduce the following beautiful drawings from Deir-el-Bahari, executed by Mr. Howard Carter :—

Tahutmosis I.

Queen Yahmase.

Tahutmosis IT.

Tahutmosis III.

Hatshepsut.

The Persons of the Period Presented

The King of the South and North, AAKHOPRIKARI’A, Son of the Sun, TAHUTMOSIS I.

The King of the South and North, AAKHOPRIENRI’A, Son of the Sun, TAHUTMOSIS II.

The King of the South and North, KAMaRI’A, Son of the Sun, HATSHEPSUT.

The King of the South and North, MENKHOPRIRI’A, Son of the Sun, TAHUTMOSIS III.

The Hereditary Princess, Royal Daughter, Royal Sister, Divine Consort, Great Royal Wife, NEFERURI’A.

The Hereditary Princess, Royal Daughter, Royal Sister, Divine Consort, Great Royal Wife, HATSHEPSET-MERYTRI A. The Royal Mother, ysir.

The Hereditary Prince, Chief of the

Sailors, YAHMASE, Son of E’bina. Princes of The Hereditary Prince, Chief of the | the following Soldiers, of YAHMASE PEN NEKHABIT. TAHUTMOSIS I. Hereditary Prince, Keeper of the and

Double-Silver-House, Seal- | TAHUTMOSIS II. Bearer of the Double-Gold- House, YNENI. /

The Hereditary Prince, Chief Architect, SENMUT.

The Hereditary Prince, Vizier,

‘Princes of Unt a E the following of The Hereditary Prince, Chief Secre- Bei hall ss tary, TAHUTIY.

TheHereditary Prince, ChiefTreasurer, NEHESI.

XXVIl

XXVill PERSONS OF THE PERIOD

The Hereditary Prince, Chief of the ) Princes of Archers, YNEBNI. the following

The Hereditary Prince, Divine Father, f of PUEMRI'A. TAHUTMOSIS II.

PAHRI, the Draughtsman, Grandson of Yahmase, Son of E’bina.

A Nephew of Tahutiy.

Lesser Princes and Officials, a Chief Prophet, Ynmutef Priests, Kher-heb Priests, Priests, Physicians, Heralds, Chamberlains, Draughtsmen, Scribes, Artists, Overseers of Workmen, Workmen, Messengers, Musicians, Dancers, Male and Female Attendants.

Prologue

The house of a high official at the Court of Egypt, Tahutty, Chief Secretary to King Tahutmosis I. of the Eighteenth Dynasty, some 3500 years ago, or about 1200 years before the end of Pharaonic Egypt. On the roof of the house, a flat promenade leading to a little alcove in which is a chair. Nothing else can be seen save the sky. It 1s evening.

Tahuty enters, carrying a long staff in his hand, sandals on his feet, a little square artificial beard beneath his chin and attached to his wig. In one hand he holds a mounted feather, the emblem of his rank. Round his neck hang the writing materials of his office in their case. A servant follows him. He reaches the chair and hands his staff and his fan to the attendant, then he seats himself in his chair. He takes off his writingcase and hands tt to the man, unfastens his beard and gives it likewise.

TAHUTIY.

Take these, and summon me mynephew. Tell him I would speak with him here without delay.

THE ATTENDANT.

Master, it shall be done.

He withdraws, moving backwards, his hands raised in adoration. Tahuity takes off his wig, revealing his shaven head, and leans back in his chair, stretching himself luxuriously and closing his eyes. In a moment or two his nephew appears, a young boy clad in plain linen loin-cloth, with his hair fastened on one side to form a side-lock.

TAHUTIY, replacing ws wig on his head.

Come, come in peace, my dear nephew! I have but this moment returned from the Court, Life, Health, and Strength be to It! Ihave it in my heart to give thee a lesson, having an hour of ease in which I may devote myself to thine upbringing. Thou art growing

I into a fine lad, but thou art ignorant, I fear me, for thine age. Thy masters tell me thou art idle and backward in thy studies; and as for me, my duties as Chief Royal Secretary to the Majesty of King Aakhoprikari’a, Son of the Sun, Tahutmosis, Life, Health, and Strength be to Him, leave me but little time for thy instruction. THE BOY.

I study long and earnestly at the school, Venerable Uncle, I am not idle.

TAHUTIY.

Whether thou be idle or not, I know not; howbeit thou art ignorant for thine age. In what subject wilt thou that I instruct thee this evening ?

THE BOY.

In the history of the Two Lands, Venerable Uncle, if it so please thee.

TAHUTIY.

Thou art interested in the history of the Two Lands ? Knowest thou aught of their history, my boy? THE BOY.