meant to furnish
the sovereign with provisions, to dispel serpents and malevolent
divinities, to keep his soul from death, and to lead him into the bark
of the sun or into the Paradise of Osiris. They constitute a portion of
a vast book, whose chapters are found scattered over the monuments of
subsequent periods. They are the means of restoring to us, not only the
religion but the most ancient language of Egypt: the majority of the
formulas contained in them were drawn up in the time of the earliest
human kings, perhaps even before Menes.

The history of the VIth dynasty loses itself in legend and fable.
Two more kings are supposed to have succeeded Papi Nofirkeri, Mirniri
Mihtimsaut (Metesouphis II.) and Nitauqrit (Nitokris). Metesouphis II.
was killed, so runs the tale, in a riot, a year after his accession.*

* Manetho does not mention this fact, but the legend given
by Herodotus says that Nitokris wished to avenge the king,
her brother and predecessor, who was killed in a revolution;
and it follows from the narrative of the facts that this
anonymous brother was the Metesouphis of Manetho. The Turin
Papyrus assigns a reign of a year and a month to Mihtimsaul-
Metesouphis II.

His sister, Nitokris, the "rosy-cheeked," to whom, as was the custom, he
was married, succeeded him and avenged his death. She built an immense
subterranean hall; under pretext of inaugurating its completion, but in
reality with a totally different aim, she then invited to a great feast,
and received in this hall, a considerable number of Egyptians from among
those whom she knew to have been instigators of the crime. During the
entertainment, she diverted the waters of the Nile into the hall by means
of a canal which she had kept concealed. This is what is related of her.
They add, that "after this, the queen, of her own will, threw herself
into a great chamber filled with ashes, in order to escape punishment."
She completed the pyramid of Mykerinos, by adding to it that costly
casing of Syenite which excited the admiration of travellers; she
reposed in a sarcophagus of blue basalt, in the very centre of the
monument, above the secret chamber where the pious Pharaoh had hidden
his mummy.*

* The legend which ascribes the building of the third
pyramid to a woman has been preserved by Herodotus: E. de
Bunsen, comparing it with the observations of Vyse, was
inclined to attribute to Nitokr