Hanit the Enchantress

t rays of the sinking sun fall full upon them, from colossal bars of red NubSan gold. You hav gazed in awe and reverence at the mummy of King Amenhotep, lying in his granite sarcophagus, peacefully asleep he seemed, deep down in the very heart of the Theban Hills. In an alcove nearby you may recall the three bodie - s lying, uhcoffined, upon the bare rock of the tomb chamber. You were informed that the bodies had been removed from their own tombs to this secret chamber of a dead Pharaoh, that they might be saved from the hands of tombrobbers. The mummies of unknown royal personages,, your Arab guide informed you. Perhaps the guide permitted you to touch the long black tresses of one of the three. He pointed out what he called the mark of an arrow, which caused the death of another. He told you that the boy had undoubtedly met his death at the hands of a strangler. He hinted at foul murder l If what he said of the three was true, fie might well have attempted to identify the bodies. They are, perhaps, those of Wazmes, Queen Hanits murdered son, the beautiful slave girl Bhanar, . and her one-time mistress, the Princess Sesen, whose wavy blaclr hair appears as soft to-day as when Ramses and Menna wooed her, as when Renny the Syrian died for her. U1 this, and more, you have doubtless seen. - Foreword vii Yet, it is safe to say, you have never so much as heard of the mystery surrounding the tomb . of Menna, son of Menna, that most baffling among the many mysterious tombs in and about the great Theban cemeteries. Undo bte dlyM, enna, son of Menna, had in life an enemy, a most vindictive enemy one whose malignant hatred followed Menna into his very tomb. Enter that tomb to-day, and you see at a glance that this enemy sought to nullify and make ineffectual the entire series of engraved prayers and magic formuls which witness to Mennas hopes for an eternity of bliss upon the banks of the Celestial Nile. Yes, Mennas implacable foe sought to destroy him, both body and soul I Mennas body was not found when, recently, his tomb was discovered and opened. We may thus infer that Mennas arch-enemy accomplishe, d the destruction of Mennays body as successfully, as fiendishly we may suppose, as he did that of Mennas soul. viii Foreword Examine the sculptures upon the walls of his tomb. You will find that Mennas eyes have been cut out that the lips of his servants and field hanas are missing that the tips of his hunting arrows have been blunted that the knots in his measuring-rope have been destroyed. Yet, worse than all, the plumb of the scales, upon which Mennas heart will be , weighed at the Judgment, has vanished. Let us suppose that Mennas mummy had been found, found intact, at the opening of his tomb. That empty shell would have been of little use to Menna...