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Sidelights on the Scriptures.
The Third Egyptian Room.
pp. 29-31
Table case A contains a good set of sandals of various periods. As we look at these,
and remember that Israel's shoes did not wear out, neither did their feet swell even
though they walked miles in the sandy wilderness, we can appreciate the better both the
kindness and the miracle.
Table case B contains a series of weapons, axe-heads, daggers and spears being
prominent. Table case C contains a series of writing examples and implements. No. 7 is
interesting. It is a school copy, to be hung up for the young students to copy. No. 10 is
particularly interesting. It is a working drawing for either a bas-relief or statue of
Thothmes 3: At the side are a series of rough sketches of the bent arm. What is most
striking is the fact that the drawing is made out on a basis of red squares exactly as an
architect or engineer would work to scale to-day! This is older than Moses. No. 20 is a
school exercise, a geography lesson. The names of Keftin, or "hinterlands", the southern
corner of Asia Minor and the Island of Crete are copied out. In this table case there is
also a collection of Scribes' palettes. The colour of the paint, red and black chiefly, is
quite clear, although some of these palettes were old in Abraham's day.
Table case E contains a collection of wool, combs, spindles, needles, and needlework.
No. 1 is marked with "indelible ink", with surely a guarantee behind it that no modern ink
can put forward.
Standard case F and G contains a series of vignettes and hieroglyphic texts from the
Book of the Dead, as they appear in the Papyrus of Ani, the scribe whose wife's toilet
box we described in our last paper. This papyrus measures 78 ft. by 1 ft. 3 ins. The full
title of Ani is
"Veritable (i.e. not merely honorary) royal scribe, scribe and accountant of the
divine offerings of all the gods, the governor of the granary of the lords of
Abydos, scribe of the divine offerings of the gods of Thebes."
His wife was a priestess in the temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes. The papyrus contains
some sixty two chapters, there being only a portion of the whole, for the sixty-second
chapter of the papyrus is the one hundred and eighty sixth of the whole collection. It
would be wearying to the reader to give the chapter headings of all this set, we give one
or two that are most suggestive.
2.
Of coming forth by day, and living after death.
17.
Of coming forth by day, of playing at draughts, of sitting in the Sekh hall,
and of coming forth as a living soul.
44.
Of dying a second time.
45.
Of not suffering corruption.
77, 78. Deal with changing into a golden hawk, a god, a lotus, a crocodile, etc.