e gallery was transformed by degrees into a kind of record-office,
where each dynasty in turn recorded its name, whenever a fresh
apotheosis afforded them the opportunity: these records were discovered
in our own time by Mariette, almost perfect in spite of the destroying
hand of men, and comprised inscriptions by the Bubastites, by Bocchoris,
and even by the Ethiopians. Taharqa, when menaced by the Assyrians, had
stayed at Memphis, only a year before his death, in the interval between
two campaigns, in order to bury an Apis, and Psammetichus likewise
took care not to neglect this part of his regal duties. He at first was
content to imitate his predecessors, but a subsidence having occurred in
that part of the Serapeum where the Apis who had died in the twentieth
year of his reign reposed, he ordered his engineers to bore another
gallery in a harder vein of limestone, and he performed the opening
ceremony in his fifty-second year. It was the commencement of a thorough
restoration. The vaults in which the sacred bulls were entombed were
severally inspected, the wrappings were repaired together with the mummy
cases, the masonry of the chapel was strengthened, and the building
endowed with woods, stuffs, perfumes, and the necessary oils. No less
activity apparently was displayed at Sais, the native home and favourite
residence of the Pharaoh; but all the monuments which adorned the place,
including the temple of Nit, and the royal palace, have been entirely
destroyed; the enclosing wall of unbaked bricks alone remains, and here
and there, amid the _debris_ of the houses, may be seen some heaps of
shattered stone where the public buildings once stood. On several blocks
the name and titles of Psammetichus may yet be deciphered, and there are
few cities in the Delta which cannot make a similar show. From one end
of the Nile valley to the other the quarries were reopened, and the
arts, stimulated by the orders which flowed in, soon flourished anew.
The engraving of hieroglyphics and the art of painting both attained
a remarkable degree of elegance; fine statues and bas-reliefs were
executed in large numbers, and a widely spread school of art was
developed. The local artists had scrupulously observed and handed down
the traditions which obtained in the time of the Pyramids, and more
especially those of the first Theban period; even the few fragments
that have come down to us of the works of these artists in the age of
the Ramessi