Great Discovery At Thebes

To anyone with a knowledge, however slight, of the history of Egypt.the mere iiames of the kings whose mummies have been brought into the garish light of this nineteentfa century ase ful] of associations of thehighest interest. The series oommences with a gigantic coffln, painted white, and bearing t long inscription in black on the breast. 16 contains the body of the patriarch of the Egyptian royalty of what Mariette distinguished as the "New Empire." Many of us remember the name of Thtaken Raskenen, about whom such a tantalizing little frag ment has been published in the "Re cords of the Paat." He preceded Aahmes, the first king of the famous eighteenth dynasty, and the fragment which is in the British Museum tells us of the beginuing of his contest with a northeru king, Apapi, who dwelt in the city of Haver, and is generally recoguized as one of the Hyksos or shepherds, about whom so much has been written, but about whom so little is known. Raskenen was the father, it ia now all but certain, of the Queen Aahhotep, whose jewels were exhibited at Paris in 1868. Her husband appears to have been Kames Uaz-KhaperRa, a successful general, sometimes spoken of as himself, perhaps in her right, a king, ;md she was the motber of Aahmes, the founder, as I have said, of the eighteenth dynasty. The ïnscription on the coffln of Raskenen contains no histoiical record, except his name and a prayer to the gods of the dead on his behalf. Be3ide iiim lies his grandson Aahmes- the coffln of wbose mother, Aah-hotep, was already in the museum ; the lid removed, and the royal mummy swathed In wreaths of what 3,000 yeais sigo vvere iresii lotus-flowers, 'ihey are faded and dry now, and so fragüe that a touch destrovs them. SText to King Aahmes ia hls wlfe In a crimson coffln, the body wrapped in grave clothes of link cambiic, with bands of white, so fresb, no delicate m color that no effort of mine suflices to realize the f act that Xef ertary must have died long before Mosesi was bom. Close to her and her royal husband is their son Amen-hot ep J., his face covered with a brilliantly painted raask, and his body like that of his father, wreathed with flowers and lea ves. On his breast his name is written with a singular variation, referring apparently to liis love for his country. "Amen-hotep anited with Egypt." It ïecails Xapoleon'ii reference in üis will to "the people whom hehadloved ao well," but had, we must hope, some better foundation in fact. A.ttraeted perhaps by the flowers, a wasp entered the royal coffln at the last moment before it was closed, and' was found among the wreaths. By the side of the great Amen-hotep rests tbn body of his ypunger brother, Se-Amou, which, when it was opened, waa iouiid to contain nothing but a bundie of reeds packed sy as to reseinble the outline of the human form, snrmounted by an infant's skull. ïhis is not the only example of such deception among the mimber of the supposed mummies. McMillan's Magazine.