'He is not graven in marble,
No eye of man can behold him;
He hath no ministers nor offerings!
He is not adored in sanctuaries,
His dwelling is not known;
No shrine is found, nor pictured words,
No building may contain him!'
But then the loftier strain subsides again, and the hymn closes with the words:—
Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile!
Giving life to men by his oxen,
Life to his oxen by his meadow land—
Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile!'
Rameses III. constructed for himself in the 'valley of the kings,' a tomb which contained eight or ten chambers adorned with pictures of scenes taken from both the present and the future life. Amongst them occurs one evidently intended as an allegoric representation of the hope of life after death—'The horizon of heaven supported by a female figure, and the sun just rising above it; this is so placed that a ray of light can penetrate from the entrance of the tomb, 350 feet off, and pass over the sarcophagus and illuminate this emblem of eternal hope.'[1]
The thirteen succeeding sovereigns all bore
- ↑ Villiers Stuart, Nile Gleanings.
