es I., and the three of the name Thutmosis, together with the
favourites of their respective harems--Nofritari, Ahhotpu II., Anhapu,
Honittimihu, and Sitkamosis; and, in addition, Ramses I., Seti I.,
Ramses II. of the XIXth dynasty, Ramses III. and Ramses X. of the XXth
dynasty. The "Servants of the True Place" were accustomed to celebrate
at the appointed periods the necessary rites established in their
honour. Inspectors, appointed for the purpose by the government,
determined from time to time the identity of the royal mummies, and
examined into the condition of their wrappings and coffins: after each
inspection a report, giving the date and the name of the functionary
responsible for the examination, was inscribed on the linen or the lid
covering the bodies. The most of the mummies had suffered considerably
before they reached the refuge in which they were found. The bodies of
Sitamon and of the Princess Honittimihu had been completely destroyed,
and bundles of rags had been substituted for them, so arranged with
pieces of wood as to resemble human figures. Ramses I., Ramses II., and
Thutmosis had been deprived of their original shells, and were found in
extemporised cases. Hrihor's successors, who regarded these sovereigns
as their legitimate ancestors, had guarded them with watchful care, but
Auputi, who did not feel himself so closely related to these old-world
Pharaohs, considered, doubtless, this vigilance irksome, and determined
to locate the mummies in a spot where they would henceforward be secure
from all attack. A princess of the family of Manakhpirri--Isimkhobiu, it
would appear--had prepared a tomb for herself in the rocky cliff which
bounds the amphitheatre of Deir el-Bahari on the south. The position
lent itself readily to concealment. It consisted of a well some 130 feet
deep, with a passage running out of it at right angles for a distance of
some 200 feet and ending in a low, oblong, roughly cut chamber, lacking
both ornament and paintings. Painotmu II. had been placed within this
chamber in the XVIth year of the reign of Psiukhannit II., and several
members of his family had been placed beside him not long afterwards.
Auputi soon transferred thither the batch of mummies which, in the
chapel of Amenothes I., had been awaiting a more definite sepulture; the
coffins, with what remained of their funerary furniture, were huddled
together in disorder. The chamber having been filled up to the roof, the
remai