File:Egypt and its monuments (1908) (14777206362).jpg

Identifier: egyptitsmonument00hich (find matches)
Title: Egypt and its monuments
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Hichens, Robert Smythe, 1864-1950
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Century Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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mesto a sound of flutes, a merry noise of thin,bright music, backed by a clashing of barbariccymbals, along the corridors of the past; this queen whois shown upon Egyptian walls dressed as a man, whois said to have worn a beard, and who sent to the landof Punt the famous expedition which covered her withglory and brought gold to the god Amun. To me mostfeminine she seemed when I saw her temple at Deir-el-Bahari, with its brightness and its suavity; its prettyshallowness and sunshine; its white, and blue, and yel-low, and red, and green and orange; all very trim andfanciful, all very smart and delicate; full of finesseand laughter, and breathing out to me of the twentiethcentury the coquetry of a woman in 1500 B.C. Afterthe terrific masculinity of Medinet-Abu, after the greatfreedom of the Ramesseum, and the grandeur of itscolossus, the manhood of all the ages concentrated ingranite, the temple at Deir-el-Bahari came upon me likea delicate woman, perfumed and arranged, clothed in a 148
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DEIR-EL-BAHARI creation of white and blue and orange, standing—everso knowingly — against a background of orange andpink, of red and of brown-red, a smiling coquette of themountain, a gay and sweet enchantress who knew herpretty powers and meant to exercise them. Hatshepsu with a beard ! Never will I believe it.Or if she ever seemed to wear one, I will swear it wasonly the tattooed ornament with-which all the lovelywomen of the Fayum decorate their chins to-day,throwing into relief the smiling, soft lips, the delicatenoses, the liquid eyes, and leading one from it step bystep to the beauties it precedes. Mr. Wallis Budge says in his book on the antiquitiesof Egypt: It would be unjust to the memory of agreat man and a loyal servant of Hatshepsu, if weomitted to mention the name of Senmut, the architectand overseer of works at Deir-el-Bahari. By allmeans let Senmut be mentioned, and then let him beutterly forgotten. A radiant queen reigns here — aqueen of fantasy and splendor, and

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