were like him. This was a grievous crime, worthy of death, and grievous wickedness for the land, which he had committed. But they found out the grievous crime, worthy of death, which he had committed. He died by his own hand.' The reader can now, from the preceding translations, form his own idea of the way in which the harem conspiracy endeavoured to compass the destruction of the king by magical influence. At the head of the women of the royal harem there was a lady, Thi, who is frequently named, and her son Pentaur, a second accused person of this name. We shall not err in supposing her to have been a wife of the king, and her son the son of Ramses III., who had plotted, during the lifetime of his own father, to place himself upon the throne. This wide-spread conspiracy, in which humble and distinguished persons took part, and above all the immediate officials of the king in the service of the harem, points to an agitation at the court in opposition to the reigning king, which vividly reminds us of similar events in Eastern history. In spite of the parts that are missing of this great trial, what has been preserved will always form a remarkable contribution to the life of the Pharaohs, and the dangers which threatened them in their immediate circle. The wife of Ramses, or at least the one of whose name and origin the monuments inform us, bore, besides her Egyptian appellation, Ise, that is, Isis, the foreign name of Hema-rozath, or Hemalozatha. The name also of her father, Hebuanrozanath, has nothing of an Egyptian sound, so that we may suppose that the Pharaoh had followed the custom of the time, and had brought home a foreign princess, (of Khita? or Assyria?) as his wife, and had placed her beside him on the throne. We are accurately informed from the monuments about the number and names of his sons. The list of them in the temple of victory of Medinet Abu is all the more precious, because it gives us likewise the opportunity of knowing beforehand and setting the names of the successors of the king. The following are the sons in their order : 1. Prince Ramessu I., commander of the infantry, afterwards king Ramessu IV. 2. Prince Ramessu II., afterwards king Ramessu VI. 3. Prince Ramessu III., royal master of the horse, afterwards king Ramessu VII. 4. Prince Ramessu IV., Set-hi-khopeshef, royal master of the horse, afterwards king Ramessu VIII. 5. Prince Pra-hi-unamif, first captain of the chariots of war. 6. Prince Menthu-hi-khopeshef, chief marshal of the army. 7. Prince Ramessu V., Meritum, high priest of the Sun in Heliopolis, afterwards king Meritum. 8. Prince Ramessu VI., Khamus, high priest of Ptah-Sokar in Memphis. 9. Prince Ramessu VII., Amon-hi-khopeshef. 10. Prince Ramessu VIII., Miamun. Of eight other princes and fourteen princesses we do not know the names. Their portraits have no explanatory inscriptions appended. Among the contemporaries of the king we must mention, above all the rest, the Theban chief priest of Amon, Meribast. After the example of his predecessors, Ramses III. had prepared during his lifetime his orbit of light,' that is, his future sepulchre in the valley of the royal tombs, according to the pattern of the age, in the form of a long tunnel in the rock, divided into rooms and halls. In its decoration it corresponds with the modest proportions of the other buildings of the king, being remarkable only for a range of side-chambers, in which, among other things, the possessions of the king, such as weapons, household furniture, and so forth, are represented in coloured pictures, just as they were once actually deposited in the rooms apportioned for them. After the death of king Rhampsinitus, the eldest of his sons ascended the throne RAMESSU IV. MIAMUN III. HAQ MAA, or, as he afterwards changed his name, according to the probable supposition of Lepsius, RAMESSU IV. MIAMUN III. MAMA. ABOUT B.C. 1166. According to the inscriptions which cover the walls of the rock in the valleys of Hammamat, this Ramses took especial pleasure in the exploration of the desert mountain valleys on the Arabian side of Egypt. Under the pretext of making search there for stones suitable for the erection of monuments, the most distinguished Egyptians were sent away to these gloomy regions, and their mission was perpetuated by inscriptions on the rock. We will subjoin in a literal translation the historical contents of a rock-tablet of the third year of his reign, in order to give an idea of the number of officials and workmen who, in the twelfth century before our era, gave life to these wild valleys. The memorial tablet begins with the date of the 27th Payni, in the third year of the reign of king Ramessu. We will, as usual, pass over in silence the long list of official flatteries, of which two, unusually detailed, must have had an historical foundation. In one of them the praise of the Pharaoh is sung, for that he had laid waste the lands and plundered the inhabitants in their valleys,' which evidently refers to a war in some mountain regions. In the other it is vauntingly declared that good times were in Egypt, as in those of the sun-god Ra, in his kingdom, for this divine benefactor was like the god Thut, on account of the keeping of the laws.' Without doubt our Ramses IV. must have occupied himself in bringing about orderly times by means of wise ordinances; and this is the more likely, as it is evidently not without a purpose that the remark follows immediately, 'the offenders were increased, but the lies were put down, and the land was restored to a peaceful state in the time of his reign.' After the closing words, in the usual official language, he prepared joy for Egypt a hundred-thousandfold,' the especial purport of the memorial tablet begins to be set forth in the following terms: 'His heart watched to seek out something good for his father (Hor of Coptos), the creator of his body. He caused to be opened for him (9) an entrance to the holy land, which was not known before, because the (existing) road to it was too distant for all the people, and their consideration was not sufficient to discover it. Then the king considered in his mind, like his father Horus, the son of Isis, how he might lay down a road, to reach the place at his pleasure. (10) He made a circuit through this splendid mountain land, for the creation of monuments of granite for his father and for his ancestors, and for the gods and goddesses, who are the lords of Egypt. He set up a memorial-tablet on the summit of this mountain, inscribed with the full name of king Ramessu. '(11) Then did the king give directions to the scribe of the holy sciences, Ramessu-akhtu-hib, and to the scribe of Pharaoh, Hora, and to the seer, User-ma-ra-nakhtu, of the temple of KhimHor, and of Isis in Coptos, to seek a suitable site for (12) a temple in the mountain of Bukhan. When they had gone (thither) [they found a fit place], which was very good. There were great quarries of granite. 'And the king issued a command, and gave directions to the chief priest of Amon, and the chief architect (13) Ramessu-nakhtu, to bring such (monuments) to Egypt. 'These are the distinguished councillors, who were in his company (namely): The royal councillor User-ma-ra-Sekheper, And the Adon Kha-m-thir of the warriors, (14) The superintendent of the quarry, prince Amon-mas of the city (Thebes), The superintendent of the quarry and overseer of the (holy) herds, Bok-en-khonsu, of the temple of User-ma-ra-Miamun, The colonel of the war chariots, Nakhtu-amon of the court, The scribe of the enlistment of the warriors, Suanar, The scribe of the Adon of the warriors, Ramessu-nakhtu, 20 scribes of the warriors, 20 superior officials of the court administration, The colonel of the marshal's-men of the warriors, Kha-m-maaanar, 20 marshal's-men of the warriors, (16) 50 captains of the two-horse chariots, 50 superiors of the seers, superintendents of the (holy) animals, seers, scribes, and land surveyors, 5,000 people of the warriors, (17) 200 foremen of the guild of the fishermen, 800 redskins (Erythræans, 'Aper) from the tribes of 'Ain (be tween the Red Sea and the Nile), 2,000 house servants of the house of Pharaoh, 1 Adon as chief overseer (of these), 50 men of the police (Mazai), The superintendent of the works of art, Nakhtu-amon, |