6 feet 10 inches long, and 4 feet 4 inches high) had inscriptions. These inscriptions, which were well carved, contained the five titles of the king as follows: "The living Horus, life of diadems, king of upper and lower Egypt, life of diadems Meren-ra the double or second golden hawk Meren-ra the heir of Kheb Meren-ra, the great god lord of the horizon Meren-ra living like the sun." The other inscription was essentially the same, but ended with the antithetical title of "Son of Nut of her body Meren-ra the Horus of the horizon Meren-ra living like the sun.” This was an indirect manner of expressing that the monarch was an "Osiris," or "Osirian," a title in the other inscriptions prefixed to his name. It is also to be observed that the king is identified with Harmachis or Harkhuti.

The mummy found with the sarcophagus, which has been removed to Boulaq, had the skin well preserved, the outlines of the features distinct, eyes closed, nose fallen in. The body had been carefully embalmed, and wrapped in fine linen. It was of a young person. The contents of the smaller sarcophagus are not mentioned. The sarcophagus has been recognized as that which the officer Una brought from the land of Abhat with a pyramidion and the statue of the king. None of the other remains mentioned by Una were discovered.

The genealogy of the family of Pepi and Meren-ra given by Brugsch Pasha is as follows: From Khua and his wife Nebet descended Mer-ra-ankmas, the wife and queen of Pepi I, or Meri-ra, the Phiops of the VIth Dynasty, the mother and father of Haremsaf, Meren-ra, and his brother Noferkara. A portion only of the inscription of this pyramid has been published, but the contents of the whole are like those of the pyramid of Pepi, without any historical interest, and only contain ritualistic expressions connected with the Osiris and Sun myths. One peculiarity distinguished these early texts, rarely found elsewhere-the upper portions only of human figures in different actions and attitudes were substituted for the entire figure. The texts are so full of difficulties that Brugsch has only translated a portion of the lines published of part of the pyramid (the corridor of Mer-en-ra) :

Line 1. Stands (my) father, stand the Osiris, H. M. I am thy son, I am Horus, I have come to thee, thou art cleaned, purified.

Line 2. Thou has been made to live, thou hast united thy bones, thou hast brought back what has swam away from thee; thou hast regained what has been divided from thee for I am Horus, the avenger of his father.

Line 3. I have struck for thee, thou hast been struck, I have avenged my father, my father the Osiris H. M., from the one doing ill to him, I have come to thee.

Line 4. By my duty as Horus, who has made a burnt offering to thee, my father the Osiris H. M., on the throne of Ra Tum, thou accompaniest, or the revolutions, what is to be done in the light.

Line 5. Thou passest the night in the bark of the sun, Meruneter, prepared for him is Meruneter, he goes in it, the sun is rowed in it

Line 6. to the horizon H. M. goes on to it, Ra, thy seat is for thee on the throne of Ra, thou orderest words to the gods.

Line 7. When the sun (Ra) proceeds from Nut born is Ra daily, this H. M. is born daily like the sun, thou hast taken the inheritance

Line 8. Of thy father's Seb before the nine gods in An or Heliopolis in company of the eighteen gods, very great the greatest amidst the spirits of An [Heliopolis].

Line 9. These two great gods have put thee forth, the greatest amidst the fields of the Aahlu, as the throne of Horus.

Line 10. They have assembled, they have placed Shu at thy east side, Tefnu at thy west, Nu at thy south, Nut at thy north.

The ideas which follow, and are of a ritualistic nature, alluding to the work, especially that done of reaping and sowing the corn in the Aahlu or Elysium, to the reception of food, drink, clothes, the power of passing the gates, and the things done by command of his father Seb or Kheb. The king's passage in the future state is also identified with the revolution of the sidereal heavens. The text here reads at the end: "Oh Osiris H. M. The heaven goes pregnant with thee and with Orion, the morning star is born wtth Orion, here a rising, there a rising, according to the orders of the gods. Thou goest and appearest with Orion at the east of the heaven. Thy

setting is with Orion, in the west of the heaven. Ye three are there when Sothis makes clean her place, ye conduct her to the good distances in heaven, fields of the Aahlu." The rest of the published text refers to the acts and condition of the king in the Aahlu and the heaven. Some of the mythological notions here are peculiar, as "Is," it says, "the horizon like the sun, the morning star of the celestial gate, the divine parts of the Uatur, or sea which the heaven produces." This text describes the gods as produced of Nut (the Ether or Egyptian Rhea), "at the time of the inclination of her face, their crowns on their heads, and collars on their necks, prepared of verdant leaves, the lower crowns, the pools of the Aahlu, the Hotep pools of the great place, tied by olives (het) from the meadow of Lower Egypt." It continues: "She brings her hand, she anoints her chief son, Har-pa-chrut, or Harpocrates, the youth who traverses the earth in whitened sandals, who goes to see his father, the Osiris ministers to H. M., he goes along with Karheb of her son to the legs of H. M." In another place, allusions occurs, as in the pyramid of Pepi I, to the myth of Set. "He (H. M.) has taken the rising before thee, as Horus takes the house of his father from his brother Set before Seb."

In addition to the description already given, Brugsch Pasha states that the cover of the sarcophagus of Pepi had been pushed aside by a thief, and that part of an alabaster object, probably portion of a canopus, was found in the stone chest. I would however mention that the alabaster vases of the elegant calathus or basket shape of this material, which are in the different European Museums, one of which is figured by Prisse in his "Monuments Egyptiens," probably came from this pyramid, as also some wooden boxes and other objects. Remains of the bandages of brown and yellow colour of fine texture were found, but it is not said if they were of linen. A well embalmed hand (probably that of the king Pepi) was also found amidst the debris.

The lower vertical inscription marked I of the pyramid of Pepi, consisting of forty-four lines, containing the speeches and mythological notions connected, contains (first) a speech addressed to the king, announcing that he is inundated with the fluid which emanates from the limbs of Osiris, and that he proceeds as the great bull of Heliopolis and the Uat or Buto of another region, and that, although buried, he is not dead (lines 3, 4), followed by another speech that he has

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PROCEEDINGS.

[1881.

been buried as Osiris, embalmed by Anubis, and conducted to the nine (pset) gods; that he has received his spirit, and become spiritualised. In it the antagonism of Set and Horus is distinctly alluded to. The king is said to go to the heaven as Horus, and his "sah," or form, "to come forth from the mouth of the sun, as Horus dwelling amidst spirits on the marvellous throne as Horus." There is also an allusion (line 12) to "sailing through the waters of Kha, conducted by Nut (Rhea) as a star, passing over the sea under the belly of Nut, his hand seizing the Tiaut (a place of residence of departed spirits) situated under the constellation Sahu" (or Orion). The king also is described as fed by the viands of the gods, and that neither his father nor mother is mortal, and that he the king does not die. In fact the monarch is entirely apotheosed in this and the subsequent address (line 25), where he is recognized by the sun, not allowed to be detained on earth, but identified with Horus. Another speech (line 30) mentions the name of the god Amen, which is remarkable for so early a period, but it still continues to identify the monarch with the constellation Sahu, with which he comes forth from the east and sets in the west, and of which the tuaut, or morning, is born; and in line 35 Sothis is said to be the third. The rest consists of description of the protection accorded by Nut, and the qa or eidolon of the king and gods.

B 22 lines of upper vertical inscription, containing ideas very similar to those in A, 44 lines, and offering no great point of mythological interest, and the same applies to C. The 5 horizontal lines of inscription copied from the western wall, repeating the usual ideas connected with Nut, and a repetition of the idea that the king is alive and not dead. The fragment D on the eastern side of the passage has 9 vertical lines, with the cartouches all obliterated. Besides which there is a fragment E, of 17 vertical lines, displaced, but originally in the passage, also alluding to Orion, and influence of Nut, or the heaven. F 1-2 are red quarry marks on the stones. F 3-4 black ones on the same, and three coarsely-written hieroglyphs approach hieratic forms. The fragment Hi is a scrap of the east end, with larger figures than on the western side, and has no remarkable interest. H 2-3-4, fragments from the sides of the chamber lying in the rubbish, they are also parts of the usual inscriptions. H 4 reading "in thy (masc.) name of Mena," or men. set, but are too fragmentary to be of much mythological importance.

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SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL ARCH.EOLOGY.

[1881. The last inscription (I) is described as six columns, beneath the first six of the lower vertical north end of sarcophagus; and it is stated this is placed over an erased inscription which has been polished off, and of which traces remain all over the stone; the former inscription came further on south side, and the following inscription (line 1) is legible, and has been covered over by the masonry support of the lid of the sarcophagus. This inscription is of the same nature as the preceding, and comprises the same ideas. The main points are the identification of the monarch with Osiris and Horus, or Harmachis, the constellation Orion, and the mention of Sothis affecting the chronological date of the Vth Dynasty, and the mention of the principal deities of the Pantheon.

A paper from Professor E. L. Lushington, on the Stèle of Mentuhotep, was read by the Secretary.

The text of this monument will be found in Mariette's work on Abydos (Vol. II, pl. 23), &c., having been discovered by him amongst the ruins of that place.

The solar disk is represented at the top, with two uræi, and prominent outspread wings; below the middle point the square royal scutcheon, above which stands a hawk facing the sinister side with the double crown. In front of it stands Osiris "dweller of the west, lord of Abydos;" on the other side behind it, "Son of Ra, Usertesen, the gracious lord, &c., &c." Below the extremity of the wings on each side, the characters expressing Hut (Edfu). This fills the arched top of the stèle, and below are twenty-three horizontal lines of hieroglyphics. A figure of Mentuhotep is carved, facing and shortening the last eleven lines of the inscription.

The text records the honours and services of Mentuhotep, a favoured officer of Usertesen, the second king of the XIIth dynasty, son, co-regent and successor of his father, Amenemha, founder of the dynasty, who in the twenty-first year of his reign associated Usertesen in the sovereignty with himself.

Mentuhotep calls himself at the end of the inscription (line 23), "I, princely ruler, keeper of the seal, single overseer of temples, overseer of marshes for sport, overseer of the double storehouse for gold, overseer of the seal, Mentuhotep, son of Asenka, justified.”

A translation of the inscription was given, with notes, discussing many of the difficult passages.