d and is found to be absolutely empty.

At another part of Thebes the well-known Egyptologist, Professor
Schiaparelli, had excavated for a number of years without finding
anything of much importance, when suddenly one fine day he struck the
mouth of a large tomb which was evidently intact. I was at once informed
of the discovery, and proceeded to the spot as quickly as possible. The
mouth of the tomb was approached down a flight of steep, rough steps,
still half-choked with _debris_. At the bottom of this the entrance of a
passage running into the hillside was blocked by a wall of rough stones.
After photographing and removing this, we found ourselves in a long, low
tunnel, blocked by a second wall a few yards ahead. Both these walls
were intact, and we realised that we were about to see what probably no
living man had ever seen before: the absolutely intact remains of a rich
Theban of the Imperial Age--_i.e._, about 1200 or 1300 B.C. When this
second wall was taken down we passed into a carefully-cut passage high
enough to permit of one standing upright.

At the end of this passage a plain wooden door barred our progress. The
wood retained the light colour of fresh deal, and looked for all the
world as though it had been set up but yesterday. A heavy wooden lock,
such as is used at the present day, held the door fast. A neat bronze
handle on the side of the door was connected by a spring to a wooden
knob set in the masonry door-post; and this spring was carefully sealed
with a small dab of stamped clay. The whole contrivance seemed so modern
that Professor Schiaparelli called to his servant for the key, who quite
seriously replied, "I don't know where it is, sir." He then thumped the
door with his hand to see whether it would be likely to give; and, as
the echoes reverberated through the tomb, one felt that the mummy, in
the darkness beyond, might well think that his resurrection call had
come. One almost expected him to rise, like the dead knights of Kildare
in the Irish legend, and to ask, "Is it time?" for the three thousand
years which his religion had told him was the duration of his life in
the tomb was already long past.

Meanwhile we turned our attention to the objects which stood in the
passage, having been placed there at the time of the funeral, owing to
the lack of room in the burial-chamber. Here a vase, rising upon a
delicately shaped stand, attracted the eye by its beauty of form; and
here a bedstead c