punishments in the
underworld, the sacred sun-disk, animal-headed gods, patron goddesses,
fierce demons, sacred animals, winged serpents, flying spirits, evil
genii, coiled snakes, and creeping scarabs are portrayed repeatedly.

[Illustration: AT THE TOMBS OF THE KING.]

Mahmoud explained the pictures and inscriptions as we slowly went
forward, stopping frequently to inspect more closely those of greater
interest.

"After Seti's death," said Mahmoud, as we stood in the chamber of the
tomb, brilliantly lighted by the electric bulbs, "his body was embalmed
and with great pomp and ceremony the mummy was carried from the palace
in the great city of Thebes through the dismal gorge and deposited in a
magnificent alabaster sarcophagus that had been prepared for its
reception in this chamber in the limestone rock ninety feet below the
surface of the ground. Then the tomb was closed and sealed so that the
body of the king might remain in peace until it should be called forth
at the end of time to undergo trial before the god Osiris.

"For hundreds of years, the mummy lay tranquilly in its sealed tomb;
then the seals were rudely broken and the tomb was despoiled by robbers
who wished to obtain the valuables deposited with the body. When this
despoliation was discovered, the rulers of the Empire removed Seti's
mummy and the mummies of other kings to a tomb near the Temple of
Der-el-bahri which could be more closely guarded. There the mummies
remained until the year 1881, when they were taken away to the Museum at
Cairo."

"And now," said one of the visitors, as the guide concluded, "after
thirty centuries of repose, the proud features of this oppressor of the
Israelites, little the worse for the lapse of time, are exposed in the
great hall of the National Museum in Cairo to the gaze of the rude
multitude from whom he desired to be hidden, and his alabaster
sarcophagus is admired by visitors in the Soane Museum of London."

Almost all the articles of value in the Tombs that the robbers did not
succeed in carrying away, as well as the mummies and sarcophagi, have
been removed to museums in the large cities, the most valuable being
retained for the Museum in Cairo. In the tomb of Amenophis II, however,
the mummy of the king in a decorated coffin remains for the inspection
of visitors. Above the head of this ruler of the ancient empire, a
modern electric bulb hangs, illuminating the rugged features and showing
every detail of h