TEMPLE OF ABOO SIMBEL.

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age of Rameses II., whose name appears on the adjacent columns in the Crystal Palace. To have been strictly in accordance with the usual practice of the ancient Egyptian architects, the corresponding space at the other end of the portico should have been decorated with the same subject; but the modern Egyptian architect (Owen Jones) has most judiciously avoided this repetition, and has availed himself of the opportunity for additional instructive illustration by giving in its stead another Egyptian design, taken likewise from the interior of the same great Temple of Aboo Simbel.

This subject exhibits the king contending with two men of large stature, light complexion, scanty beard, and having a remarkable lock of hair pendent from the side of the head.

The king is in his early manhood, as we gather from the youth

Fig. 9.

ful appearance of the whole figure, and from the absence of that square black appendage usually attached to the chin by a band which we see on all Egyptian statues of full-grown living men; nor has he that attribute of Osiris, the curved beard, distinctive of all posthumous statues whether of kings or other men. Instead of either of these modes of expressing the beard, there is an indication of the natural beard conveyed by a multitude of small lines on the upper lip and chin. The head-dress of the king is of the form of one in the British Museum, made of hair, but to it is added the distinctive mark of royalty—the Ureus, or sacred asp; and from the back of the wig float two scarlet

ribands. Around his neck is a broad golden necklace worn over a tight-fitting, richly-decorated kind of vest, which terminates just below the shoulder at the upper armlets. The vest, and the fine linen tunic which appears underneath, are confined at the waist by an embroidered belt with its royal appendages; and from the back proceeds the imitation cow's tail worn by the monarch as a votary of Isis. Besides the armlets and the bracelets the left wrist is protected from the recoil of the bow-string by a golden plate enamelled with blue and green ornaments. The sandals of the king turn up like skates or snow-shoes, and are of a kind well known to us through many specimens in the British Museum and elsewhere. This would complete the description of the royal attire but for one very curious and interesting particular, which we have purposely left to the last, as it seems heretofore to have escaped the notice of Egyptian students; we allude to the embroidered bandage worn over the tight-fitting vest, and which we shall term a military fascia, or bandage, because it is found only on figures in warlike costume. This band proceeds from under the necklace, and having apparently been passed over the shoulder, is made to encircle the chest several times, being finally secured in front a little above the waist-belt.

One of these curious fasciæ, or bandages, was brought to England a few months ago; and, as we apprehend that it has been the only one ever seen here, it is worthy of detailed description.

The band was of woven linen and sixteen feet in length. At its widest end, which was four inches and seven-eighths in width, were two loops; while at its narrow end, which was only two inches in width, were the threads of the warp twisted into six strings, seven inches long. The band was curiously woven with certain Egyptian emblems and lines, which maintained their relative proportions as they diminished towards

GIRDLE OF STRENGTH.

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the narrow end. The entire space down the middle was unoccupied by this symbolic ornament; but near the wide end of the plain stripe was written,-not woven like the other characters, but written,-in very legible hieroglyphics, the name of a successor of the king whose heroic deeds are displayed in the picture we are describing. No one has hitherto appeared to divine the intention of this curious relic of antiquity; but we venture to believe, that, on comparing it with our picture (fig. 9), there can be little doubt regarding its real use. The object of this bandage must have been to brace up, and “gird with strength," as it were, the muscles of the back during violent action, by affording a species of fulcrum against which they would act with increased vigour. Here, again, in this Egyptian picture, is another embodiment of the metaphors of the Psalmist (Psalm xviii. 38, 39): "I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet. For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle; thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me."

This "girding with strength" is also an Egyptian idiom, for we find the representation of the buckle or fastening of the girdle used as a hieroglyphic signifying strength, clearly suggesting its derivation from the custom of girding the loins with a shawl, or long piece of cloth, before undertaking any work in which bodily exertion was required. For the same reason were the Israelites commanded to eat the passover with their "loins girded,” (Exod. xii. 11), that they might be ready immediately after to commence a journey.

The youthful hero, Rameses, is in the action of trampling upon one of his assailants, while he inflicts a deadly wound upon the other by thrusting his spear into the region of the heart. Here we must pause to point out that the spear, which properly should pass before the face of the

king, is made to pass behind it, in observance of a law in Egyptian art which requires that the less worthy object should not be represented to the prejudice of the more worthy.

The large stature of the people with whom the king is contending is a marked peculiarity, for this is the only composition in which the enemies of Egypt are represented as approaching their conqueror in size. The one whom the king is in the act of striking is clad in a long robe, while the vanquished foe whom he treads under his foot has only a scarf round his chest and loins; but both have the pendent lock of hair, and have their skins painted or tattooed, forcibly recalling the ordinance in Leviticus, xix. 27, 28: "Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you :" and also xxi. 5, "They shall not make baldness upon their head; neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard; nor make any cuttings in their flesh.”

These injunctions were given by the great lawgiver to the people of Israel, lest they should learn the superstitious customs that prevailed in the land they were about to occupy, and thus lose their peculiar and distinct character as a nation.

The people so remarkable in dress and so unusual in dimensions are repeatedly met with in representations of the various nations of the world with whom the Egyptians were acquainted. Exactly the same composition as we have now under notice is sculptured on the north wall of the Temple of Karnak; but the feat of arms is, in that instance, attributed to Oimenepthah I., the grandfather of the hero of our picture, thus corroborating the notion that the deeds of many Egyptian kings were attributed to Rameses II., the Sesostris of the Greeks.

Delineations of the same people occur in several of the royal tombs of Biban-el-Moluk; and they are likewise represented on the north face of the south wall of the court of Medina Tabou, as brought in great numbers to Egypt on the return of Rameses III. from his conquests over various white races of men. From this curious historical document, it would appear that the Egyptian king, after some great battle against these people, while still in his warchariot, receives the prisoners and superintends the counting of the slain by

the enumeration of their hands brought from the battle - field and piled in heaps before him. The name of this people is not given in the hieroglyphics accompanying the sculpture at Aboo Simbel, but it occurs in the bassorelievo representing the same incident sculptured on the north wall of Karnak, as well as in the remarkable

*

Fig. 10.

picture in the royal tomb opened by Belzoni, in which these people are seen in juxtaposition with Ethiopians, Egyptians, and another race of white men, and are represented as half a

* See left-hand wall of the Egyptian Court of the Crystal Palace, B. 1, and also Rosellini and Champollion.