So fresh and delicate are they we forget that the royal ladies
to whom they belonged have been dead, and their bodies stiffened and
disfigured into mummies, for nearly five thousand years. At Berlin may be
seen the _parure_ of an Ethiopian Candace; at the Louvre we have the jewels
of Prince Psar; at Gizeh are preserved the ornaments of Queen Aahhotep.
Aahhotep was the wife of Kames, a king of the Seventeenth Dynasty, and she
was probably the mother of Ahmes I., first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Her mummy had been stolen by one of the robber bands which infested the
Theban necropolis towards the close of the Twentieth Dynasty. They buried
the royal corpse till such time as they might have leisure to despoil it in
safety; and they were most likely seized and executed before they could
carry that pretty little project into effect. The secret of their hiding-
place perished with them, till discovered in 1860 by some Arab diggers.
Most of the objects which this queen took with her into the next world were
exclusively women's gear; as a fan-handle plated with gold, a bronze-gilt
mirror mounted upon an ebony handle enriched with a lotus in chased gold
(fig. 298). Her bracelets are of various types. Some are anklets and
armlets, and consist merely of plain gold rings, both solid and hollow,
bordered with plaited chainwork in imitation of filigree. Others are for
wearing on the wrist, like the bracelets of modern ladies, and are made of
small beads in gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, and green felspar. These are
strung on gold wire in a chequer pattern, each square divided diagonally in
halves of different colours. Two gold plates, very lightly engraved with
the cartouches of Ahmes I., are connected by means of a gold pin, and form
the fastening. A fine bracelet in the form of two semicircles joined by a
hinge (fig. 299), also bears the name of Ahmes I. The make of this jewel
reminds us of _cloisonne_ enamels. Ahmes kneels in the presence of the god
Seb and his acolytes, the genii of Sop and Khonu.

[Illustration: Fig. 298.--Mirror of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Illustration: Fig. 299.--Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of
King Ahmes I.]

[Illustration: Fig. 300.--Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Illustration: Fig. 301.--Diadem of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Illustration: Fig. 302.--Gold "Usekh" of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Illustration: Fig. 303.--Pectoral of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of
King Ahmes I.]

[Illustration: Fig. 30