TAI-TI, QUEEN OF AMENHOTEP III., _Frontispiece_ WINGED FIGURE,—ISIS OR NEPHTHYS, PAGE 2 ISIS SUCKLING HORUS, 4 THE SPHINX, 18 THE PYRAMIDS, 23 NETTING BIRDS, 31 CARESSING A GAZELLE, 63 BOATMEN AND CATTLE DRIVERS, 68 PAINTING A STATUE, 72 CARVING A STATUE, 73 ASIATIC IMMIGRANTS, 76 AMENHOTEP PRESENTED TO AMEN-RA BY HORUS, 118 AMENHOTEP II. ON THE LAP OF A GODDESS, 122 AMENHOTEP III., 128 THE COLOSSI AT THEBES, 129 RAMESES II., 162 HALL IN THE GREAT TEMPLE OF ABU-SIMBEL, 166 DISCOVERY OF MUMMIES AT DEIR EL BAHARI, 173 TEMPLE AND GARDEN, 177 THE SACRED ARK, 181 PLAYING AT DRAUGHTS, 184 THE WEIGHING OF ACTIONS, 193 MUMMY AND MUMMY-CASE OF THE PRIEST NEBSENI, 231 MUMMY OF A GAZELLE, 235 THE WORSHIP OF APIS, 244 SPHINX WITH HUMAN HANDS, 287 [Illustration: ANCIENT EGYPT.] THE PHARAOHS AND THEIR PEOPLE. CHAPTER I. Reign of the gods—Osiris, Isis, and Horus Myth—Ancient cities and early kings. The first royal name that meets us on the monuments of Egypt, which was inscribed there during the lifetime of the king who bore it, is that of Senefru (predecessor of Khufu who built the Great Pyramid), and belongs to a remote antiquity.[1] And yet we must look back through the dimness of many more centuries still before we come to the name of Mena, first King of Egypt—a name that seems to twinkle faintly from beyond the abyss of long past ages like a far-off star on the horizon from beyond the wide waste of waters. Mena, founder of Memphis, and his successors, we know, at least, by name; but of the ‘old time before them’ the traditions of Egypt only said that the gods governed the land. According to one ancient record, Ptah, the ‘Hidden Being,’ the ‘Former of all,’ ruled in the beginning; Ra, the bright Sun-god, Seb, the ancient Earth-god, followed; and later still Osiris reigned, the ‘Good Being’ and ‘Lord of life.’ After having conferred manifold blessings and benefits on the land, he was slain by his brother and rival Set. Set concealed the body, but Isis, the ‘great divine Mother,’ sister and wife of Osiris, sought after it. An ancient hymn says, ‘No word of hers fails; good is she, and kind in will and speech. It is Isis, the exalted one, the avenger of her brother: she went up and down the world lamenting him.’ [Illustration: Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.