Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/165

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AHMED, THE TOMB-ROBBER
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captured and brought to justice. And here, from the Amherst papyrus, is the record of their trial. It appears that they were eight in number, most of them servants in the Temple of Amon, and, having been "examined," or, in other words, "beaten with sticks both on their hands and feet"—precisely the same form of "question" it will be seen, as was applied to Abd-er-Rasûl—one of them confessed to the theft. "We broke into the passage," said this sacrilegious Sikes of the age of Rameses IX., "and found the tomb protected and surrounded by masonry and covered with roofing. This we destroyed and found the King's and Queen's mummies inside. We then opened their sarcophagi and the coffins in which they lay. We found the King with his axe beside him and a long chain of golden amulets about his neck. His head was covered with gold, and the mummy was entirely overlaid with gold, and his coffin was burnished with gold and silver, both