Another painting of the queen shows her on her knees drinking milk from
the sacred cow, with an intent and greedy figure, and an extraordinarily
sensual and expressive face. That she was well guarded is surely proved
by a brave display of her soldiers--red men on a white wall. Full
of life and gaiety all in a row they come, holding weapons, and,
apparently, branches, and advancing with a gait of triumph that tells of
"spacious days." And at their head is an officer, who looks back, much
like a modern drill sergeant, to see how his men are marching.
In the southern shrine of the temple, cut in the rock as is the northern
shrine, once more I found traces of the "Lady of the Under-World." For
this shrine was dedicated to Hathor, though the whole temple was sacred
to the Theban god Amun. Upon a column were the remains of the goddess's
face, with a broad brow and long, large eyes. Some fanatic had hacked
away the mouth.
The tomb of Hatshepsu was found by Mr. Theodore M. Davis, and the famous
_Vache_ of Deir-el-Bahari by Monsieur Naville as lately as 1905. It
stands in the museum at Cairo, but for ever it will be connected in the
minds of men with the tiger-colored precipices and the Colonnades of
Thebes. Behind the ruins of the temple of Mentu-Hotep III., in a chapel
of painted rock, the Vache-Hathor was found.
It is not easy to convey by any description the impression this
marvellous statue makes.
Pages:
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85