the many wived rameses ii, if so he was, did not adopt blue beard’s plan of despatching one before he espoused another, but merely set up separate establishments for each, and so preserved the peace. the king could do no wrong in those days, his divine right never being questioned, and it may be doubted whether the first wife was surprised at, or even objected to, the arrangement. it was an early form of mormonism and accepted without protest.
while queen nofritari-minimut was, there is little question, first and chief wife, and probably had been so for many years, and also the mother of a number of children, the keetan princess, and perhaps others, shared the honor of being legal consort.
we know little about the marriage ceremonials of the egyptians, compared to our very full knowledge of their funeral rites, but a late writer thus describes a wedding which may in part resemble that used by the kings. “at the temple the people remained outside the walls, while the bride and groom, the pharaoh and dignitaries, entered the hall of columns. there hebron (the[236] bride) burned incense before the veiled statue of amon, priestesses performed a sacred dance and tutmosis (the groom) read the following act from a papyrus:
“‘i, tutmosis, commander of the guard of his holiness rameses xiii, take thee, hebron, daughter of antefa, the monarch of thebes, to wife, as wife—i give thee now the sum of ten talents, because thou hast consented to marry me. for thy robes i designate to thee three talents yearly, and for household expenses one talent a month. of the children which we may have the eldest son will be heir to the property, which i possess now, and which i may acquire hereafter, if i should not live with thee, but divorce myself and take another wife, i shall be obliged to pay thee forty talents, which sum i secure with my property. our son on receiving his estate is to pay thee fifteen talents yearly. children of another wife are to have no right to the property of our first-born son.’
“the chief judge appeared now and read an act in which the bride promised to give good food and raiment to her husband, to care for his house, family, servants, slaves and cattle, and to entrust to that husband the management of the property which she had received, or would receive, from her father.
“after the facts were read herhor gave tutmosis a goblet of wine. the bridegroom drank half, the bride moistened her lips with it, and then both burned incense before the purple curtain.
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“leaving the temple of amon the young couple and their splendid retinue passed through the avenue of sphinxes, to the pharaoh’s palace. crowds of people and warriors greeted them with shouts, scattering flowers on their pathway.”
the experience of this same khitan or chetan princess, who adopted the name of ur-maa-nofru-ra, or, as given in other places, noferura-urmda and ra-maa-nofre, “sun, truth, beautiful exceedingly,” reminds one of that of maria louisa of austria, who became the wife of napoleon first of france. the father of each had to bow the neck to the conqueror, the daughter became in a sense the hostage, she paid the penalty of defeat. there could not but have been a sense of bitterness at such a fate, in which love could have had no share. how far did ambition, the feeling of being the wife of the greatest monarch of the then known world, satisfy the empty heart?
among rameses ii’s numerous children his favorites are known to have been his son, khamus, and his daughter, bint-antha, both perhaps the children of nofritari-minimut, though one writer gives isemofer, probably not a legal consort, as the mother of khamus. we do not know the names of the children of the khitan princess or even if she had any. a picture of a number of his sons and daughters, with names attached, the sons with fans, the daughters with sistra, is between elephantine and abou simbel.
among the pictures of his children are those of the ramessium at thebes, where khamus, his[238] favorite son, is represented in a battle. there are two processions of his children and in one, two princesses. the eldest son of the pharaoh was called “prince of cush,” as the eldest son of the king of england is now called “prince of wales.”
“sutem-hemt” was the royal wife, “sutem-mut,” the royal mother, as such in the prime of life we see queen nofritari-minimut. queen urm-maa-nofru-ra appears only in her beautiful youth, as the bride; she herself, says one inscription, “knew not the impression her beauty made on the heart of the king.” in a novel founded on this part of egyptian history a queen is thus described, “her eyes were the color of her hair, a rich sunny brown, like syriac women of damascus. on her head the double diadem of thebes and memphis, the inner crown a graceful conical bonnet of white silk, terminating in a knob like a pomegranite bud. outside a rich band of gold and lined with red silk; red, the special color of lower, as white was of upper egypt; this was open at the top and worn over the other. then a necklace of precious stones, with a clasp of a vulture, his neck encircled by an asp, emblem of the goddess, maut. she wore a white vestment of gauzy persian silk, enriched with gold and blue needlework below the waist, and secured by a girdle blazing with diamonds. a long royal robe from the damascus looms descended to her feet.” some such outline perhaps conveys an idea of the new queen. not an exact portrait, but a mere suggestion, helpful in filling in our mosaic.
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beautiful we may believe her to have been, and much the junior of the man she must needs accept for a husband. she was never allowed to forget the cost at which her honors were bought, however; on many walls of temples and perhaps palaces also, the painted record stared her in the face. yet did the conqueror regard his adversary, khitazar or khitasar, king or prince of the khitans (by some believed to be the hittites of the scriptures or, accord to others, the aramaeans), as no mean foe and the compact of peace between them, which was engraved on a silver tablet, was honorable to both. king khitazar seems to have inspired rameses ii with more respect than some of his adversaries, on whom he looked down with the utmost contempt. it is said that he refused an offer of marriage for one of his daughters from a mesopotamian prince or king, stating that he would not give his daughter to a “nobody.”
the vanquished kitazar offered his daughter to the victor, who accepted this marriage as a means of cementing the alliance between them. rameses had married nofritari-minimut, who is spoken of as the “great princess, of every grace in her heart, the beloved palm, mistress of both lands, beloved of the king and united with the ruler,” before the death of his father, seti i, ur-maa-nofru-ra years after. the queen’s establishments were far apart, probably they seldom or never met, but doubtless queen nofritari-minimut held proudly to her position as first consort. both queens must have had some acquaintance[240] with the king’s singular and dangerous pet, the lion, who fought with him in his battle against the khita, one of which is named in the picture in which he accompanied the king, “smaru-khef-tu-f,” “the tearer in pieces.”
according to most authorities the marriage of rameses ii and ur-maa-nofru-ra took place in the fifth year of the king’s sole reign. near the temple of abou-simbel there is a passage in the rocks, where there is a picture of rameses ii, sitting under a canopy, between two gods, while before him appears the khitan princess, followed by her father, kitazar, in the dress of his country. the princess’ name is enclosed with that of rameses ii in a royal cartouche, which shows her to have been his legal consort. the stele celebrating this event was probably put up in the 34th year of his reign, a number of years after the marriage.
perhaps the most ancient international treaty in the world, which differs little from those of modern times, is this concordat established between rameses ii and kitazar, which was intended to put an end to the wars between the egyptians and asiatics. on the side wall of the temple of amon at karnak it is given in an inscription. it is dated 21st tybi, in 21st year of rameses ii miamun, in the town of tanis and was engraved on a silver tablet and brought by ambassadors of peace. after speaking of the fact that there had been peace between their ancestors at one time, it goes on to say, “khetasar, prince of the khita, unites with rameses miamun,[241] the mighty king of egypt, to cause to exist between them good peace and good alliance, from this time on forever. he shall be allied with me, he shall be at peace with me. and i, i shall be allied with him, and i, i shall be at peace with him forever.” many pictures of the battles which preceded this agreement of peace are also to be seen on the temple walls.
rameses ii’s reign was also something of an elizabethan age in egyptian literature. a number of old works on papyrus have been found, left by a galaxy of theban writers. history, divinity, practical philosophy, poetry and tales are among them. a list of temple scribes is given, naming bek-en-tah, qu-ge-bu, hor anna, mer-em-aput, amen-em-api, pan and pentaur. the victorious campaign of rameses ii against the ethiopians is described by herodotus, who perhaps derived his authority from some of these sources. pentaur, sometimes spoken of as the jovial poet, was easily laureate of this reign. in high, joyful, but martial strains, he celebrated, in heroic verse, the achievements of his master. he glorifies his every deed and makes him a demi-god rather than a man. again and again rameses ii had pentaur’s poem, the so-called iliad of the egyptians, inscribed on the temple walls. to the east of the southern door, near the great hall of columns at karnak, the poem is to be found. at abydos, luxor, karnak, the ramessium, on the inner face of the pylon at the ramessium, and at the memnonium or tomb of osymandeus and abou-simbel the same familiar[242] scene of rameses fighting alone is pictured or described. the king is shown in a chariot with prancing horses, and again on a throne with the inscription, “victory for thebes.” four of these copies of the poem are perfect, at abydos, luxor and abou-simbel, a fifth, without illustration, is on the wall of the temple of karnak and a fragment at the temple of deir in nubia.
“where art thou, o father amon!” prays the king, “does a father forsake his son? not one of my generals, not one of my captains is with me.” “i hasten to thine aid, o rameses, my son, beloved of amon,” answers the god and singly and alone enables him to perform prodigies of valor. “my soldiers have abandoned me, my horsemen have fled,” cries the king. “i am more to thee than hundreds of thousands,” comes the response and again, “the youthful king with his bold hand has not his equal. his arms are powerful, his heart is firm. his courage is like that of the god of war.” again the king speaks. “the diadem of the royal snake adorns my head. it spits fire and glowing flame in the face of my enemies. they cried out to one another, ‘take care! do not fall, for the powerful snake of royalty has placed itself on his horse.’” the great temple of abou-simbel is said by some to have been made in honor of his first victory over the khitans, years before his marriage with the princess. “the freshness of the statues there,” says curtis, “is startling. it is sublime.”
all these laudations gratified the king’s pride, for the little queen there must have been in it all[243] something of a trial. but it was not a time distinguished for consideration of the feelings of others. for her the old life was probably closed; there was not likely to have been much intercourse, merely for her pleasure, between her and her family. for purposes of war, and perhaps for hunting, they went far afield, but we can well believe that few trips to a distance, solely for the pleasure of the ladies, were undertaken.
innumerable are the pictures and statues of rameses ii. alone, with queen nofritare-minimut and his sons and daughters, and in one or two places with his wife, the khitan princess. at gibel silsileh, on a tablet, is a picture of the king, queen nofritari minimut, queen tuaa or ti, the king’s mother, and the princess bint-antha, all appear in a bas-relief. again the king appears before the gods ptah and nefertum. a stele in the third year of the reign of rameses ii gives the route to the gold mines which rameses had worked. in the rock temple of gerf husen the king appears as a founder and god to be worshipped. in the half rock temple of sebuah is a large statue of him. at the temple of deir there is another picture of him. on the stele of a certain general amenti, near abou-simbel appears prince seti, named, of course, for the father of rameses ii, the king’s mother and the princess bint antha. there are, or were, enormous statues of the king at karnak, tanis, and elsewhere.
to the british museum and other places in europe some of these statues have been removed,[244] and among those in this country may be named one in the museum of the university of pennsylvania. in the museum of gizeh is a red granite figure of rameses ii, life size, as a youth, at eighteen or twenty, crowned with an elaborate osirian helmet, issuing from a diadem, encircled by uraei; this known as the atef-crown.
the hebrews, some believe to have been the slaves who built for rameses ii the treasure cities of pithon and rameses, the pa-tum and pa-rameses of the inscriptions, and bricks made with stubble, or no straw, have been found, confirming, it is thought, the bible record. the egyptian kings, bent on leaving behind them such mammoth structures, all worked with a reckless expenditure of the lives of their slaves and captives.
some of the pictures on tombs give representations of conquered peoples, such as the brown and coal black people of the soudan, their princess in a chariot drawn by oxen and shaded by an umbrella, her attendants with feathers in their hair and a kind of hood, like that worn by some wild tribes in the present day.
rameses ii instituted several festivals, among which may be mentioned that of the nile and that of seknet and the goddess bast at bubastis, where joyous and licentious festivals, like those of hathor, at denderah, were held. at the former festival the king was seated on a throne, borne by twelve nobles, adorned with feathers, the throne having the back and feet of a lion. the king wore a war helmet and carried a staff.[245] behind were the court officials, warding off the sun’s rays, with the long-handled flabellium, while the lower order of priests, the kherheb, carried and swung censors of incense. trains of captives followed and the king was hailed as “rameses miamun, who loves the nile, the father of the gods, his creator.”
as the nile rose lights were lighted like beacon fires at different points, till the whole country was a blaze of joyful illumination. to the inhabitants the rising of the nile meant in great degree life, health and happiness. a hymn sung to celebrate this desired event is vouched for by glovatski, who has evidently made a close study of his subject, as authentic. “be greeted, o nile, sacred river, which appearest on this country! thou comest in peace to give life to egypt. o hidden deity, who scatterest darkness, who moistenest the fields to bring food to dumb animals, o thou precious one, descending from heaven to give drink to the earth, o friend of bread, thou who gladdenest our cottages! thou art the master of fishes; when thou art in our fields no bird dares touch the harvest. thou art the creator of grain and the parent of barley; thou givest rest to the hands of millions of the unfortunate and for ages thou securest the sanctuary.” in some such words as these rose to the blue heavens the praise and acclaim of the grateful people.
in the month paofi, the second half of july, the waters are rising as much as two hands a day, so that the waves in a continuous murmur may be heard plashing over soil dry in the morning,[246] while the color changes from greenish white to a ruddy tint. then growing darker, as in the month hator, including part of august, it has reached half its height, and where men previously walked they now travel in boats from the middle of september to the middle of october, the month cheoeak, the waters at their height began to fall, while trees blossomed a second time, and fruits were gathered in the gardens. for the next month, tobi, the waters would continue to fall disclosing more and more of the rich and fructified earth. while the winter season, the most delightful in egypt, was beginning, the heat rarely going beyond 70 fahrenheit. as the month mechir advanced more and more land appeared and flowers of varied hue sprang up amid the emerald green of the fresh grass. by phaenoth, part of december, and january, the whole land was abloom. no wonder the heavens rang with the acclaim of the people who witnessed this daily miracle.
bubastis was the goddess aphrodite of foreigners, represented with the head of a lion or cat. the cat was sacred to this goddess and said to have honorable burial here. indeed a regular cat cemetery, filled with the remains of mummied felines, has been found. the feast was held at what corresponds to our christmas time, and herodotus thus describes it. “when the egyptians travel to bubastis they do it in this manner. men and women sail together and in each boat there are many persons of both sexes. some of the women make a noise with rattles and some[247] blow pipes during the whole journey, while the other men and women sing and clap their hands. if they pass a town on the way they lay to and some of the women land and shout and mock at the women of the place, while others dance and make a disturbance. they do this at every town that lies on the nile and when they arrive at bubastis they begin the festival with great sacrifices and on this occasion more wine is consumed than during the whole of the rest of the year. all the people of both sexes, except children, make a pilgrimage thither, 700,000 persons in all, as the egyptians assert.” in these festivals both queens probably, separately or together, took a share.
amen-ra was the patron deity of rameses ii, but he also paid homage to sutech in honor probably to his khitan wife, as this was chiefly confined to tanis, where we may believe ur-maa-nofru-ra resided. the god is represented with the head-dress of a khitan prince. whatever travelling she may have done, whatever her experiences, tanis was home to this queen, while the city grew in magnificence and she watched the erection of a grand temple to the god of her fathers, some proof at least that she held a high place in rameses’ affection and regard.
the name thebes is of greek origin, as are many of the egyptian places, our knowledge of the country being in so large a part derived from the greeks. tanis also was so named by the greeks. this formerly great city, of which now only mounds, ruins, etc., remain, was variously[248] known as tanis, zoan, or san, the last of arab designation. it is believed by some authorities to be the zoan of the bible, where the miracles were performed. its history is now told by broken statues, mounds, tombs and hieroglyphics. scarcely one stone remains upon another. it is in the delta of the nile and is called in some of the inscriptions, “the place of the leg,” “the winged disk of the north,” and “the cradle of lower egypt.” it was an old city when rameses ii occupied and embellished it. he never hesitated to pull down and use the materials with which his predecessors had builded, nor to smooth out their cartouches and replace them with his own. why should he, the greatest monarch the world had ever known, as he doubtless thought himself, shrink from taking his full rights or even obliterating the name and fame of some more insignificant ancestor. and devoted as he seemed to have been to his father’s memory, he even did the like occasionally with his father’s signature.
the monumental history of tanis, it is said, begins with the twelfth dynasty, a fine broken statue of amenemhat i having been found. then follow memorials of later times. superb statues of the hyksos period have also been discovered. of the work of rameses ii it is quoted that “he found the place given over to the abomination of desolation, he left it one of the most magnificent of egyptian cities.” for this purpose he laid all egypt under contribution, red granite and black from syene, and the valley of hammamat,[249] sandstone and limestone from silsilis and toorah. his great temples to the gods were but as the parchment on which he inscribed the story of his own victories. it was the spirit of the pharisee which said, ‘i am not as other men are.’
wars and fires at different times have done much to obliterate tanis and its records as well as to destroy all traces of it. mr. petrie, who, like many archeologists, spares neither strength nor effort to bring to light the history of the past, with the true lover’s fervency in his favorite pursuit, which is to be a gain not to himself, but to the world, and miss edwards, who to a close study of the old ruins and remains, adds a charming power of picturesque description, have both told much of tanis. we condense their accounts of the city at this past era. the nile was alive with vessels, the banks bordered with towns and villas, the land beyond occupied by villages. the great temple, which looked like a fortress, was half a mile from the shore, and approached by a fine road, in part bordered by sphinxes and the city entered by a massive gateway. gigantic statues of the king alternated with sphinxes, the last statue being fourteen times the size of a man. there was a grand avenue bordered by columns, thirty-six feet in height. pylons, statues, obelisks, a very forest of them—the tribute of the previous centuries, many of them, to the present king. through these passed many processions, the king, his son and officials, his warriors and his captives. he, with the double crown on his[250] head, and glittering with jewels, the leopard skin over his shoulders, to be received by the priests, with divine honors, amid the plaudits and adulation of the people. all to the sound of the harp and flute, cimbals and sistrum. the queen doubtless looking, from some gorgeously decorated point of vantage when she did not personally share in the pageant.
this was the home of the young queen, these the magnificent sights to which her eyes were accustomed. parts of private letters on parchment and on pottery have been found, telling familiarly of the feasts and festivals, the expenses and the daily incidents of the life of this period. and the love stories and other fragments of fiction which have, come down to us also give their share of local color.
the last forty-six years of rameses ii’s long reign (which is said to have lasted sixty-seven) were peaceful, and says one author, “it became his passion and his pride to found new cities, to raise dykes, to dig canals, to build fortresses, to multiply statues, obelisks and inscriptions, and to erect the most costly temples in which man ever worshipped.”
his eldest sons appear to have died before him, or been passed over in the succession, for it was his thirteenth son, meremptah, who shared his authority and eventually succeeded him. he is believed to have been the pharaoh of the exodus, as rameses ii of the oppression of the israelites.
in strange contrast to the life of rameses ii was the disposition of his body after death; there[251] is a story told of the mummy of one of the pharaohs, that in order to obtain entrance into cairo, with his prize, bruch bey was obliged to pay octroi duty on “dead fish,” as the officials refused to admit it free of duty and the register contained no directions as to mummies. doubtless rameses ii received magnificent burial, but in later reigns many royal tombs were rifled and his among them; the empty tomb now remains, but only filled with rubbish, the body of the king, with those of many others, being removed. inscriptions record that this occurred more than once. in the sixteenth year of the reign of pinotem i it was placed in the tomb of amenophis i, so that even in death sometimes “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” it is said that in 1880 his mummy was offered for sale to an american gentleman, who, doubting its genuineness, refused to purchase.
in 1881 the wonderful discovery of the shaft containing so many royal mummies was made, and their removal to the museum of gizeh is thus described, “already it was known, far and wide, that these kings and queens of ancient times were being conveyed to cairo, and for more than fifty miles below thebes the villages turned out en masse, not merely to stare at the piled decks, as the steamer went by, but to show respect to the illustrious dead. women, running along the banks and shrieking the death wail; men, ranged in solemn silence and firing their guns in the air, greeted the pharaohs as they passed.”
and so after change of burial place and even of coffin, one of the most celebrated of human monarchs lies in a museum, for the inspection of every careless passerby; a strong commentary on human greatness and human pride.
the mummy was unrolled, by maspero, june, 1886, and was found to be five feet six inches in length. the head was small and long; the hair, apparently white at the time of death, was made yellow with drugs; the forehead, low and narrow; the eyebrows, arched and bushy; the eyes, small and close to the thin-hooked nose; the temples were hollow, the cheek bones prominent and the ears wearing rings were round. the expression he calls intelligent, but slightly sensual, proud, obstinate and majestic, even in death.
and what of queen urmaa-nofrura? as the bride alone, young and fair, she comes before us, and we find no record of her further history, or of her death. was it in her power, as in that of the fair queen esther of scripture, to do aught for the people of her native land or to influence in any way for good the haughty sovereign to whom she was allied? perhaps, and perhaps only.
