36 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
Qurna,
excavated by Passalaqua, was found the mummy of a young woman. Not only
was it evident from the rich ornaments adorning the body that she had
been of noble birth, but it was also apparent that she must have been
exceedingly beautiful in form and feature, and must have died in the
flower of her age. The hair was artistically braided and adorned with
twenty bronze hairpins. About her neck was a remarkably beautiful
necklace composed of four rows of beads with numerous pendants
representing divinities and sacred symbols. There were also two smaller
necklaces with beads of gold, lapis-lazuli, and carnelian; two large
jewelled earrings hung from her ears, and on the index-finger of her
right hand was a ring set with a scarab; a gold belt garnished with
lapis-lazuli and carnelians was bound about her waist and a gold
bracelet adorned with semiprecious stones encircled her left wrist. In
the sarcophagus was a beautiful mirror of golden-yellow bronze, and
three alabaster vases, one still containing some balm or perfume, and
another some galena (native lead sulphide) to be used as a cosmetic
for the eyes, as well as a little ebony pencil for its application. All
these objects are now in the Egyptian collection of the Berlin Museum,
and they probably belong to the period of the XVIII Dynasty, about 1500
b.c.
The
principal necklace was undoubtedly regarded by the fair Egyptian as an
amulet of great power, but it failed to protect her from an untimely
end; perhaps, however, its virtues may have aided her soul in its
passage through the trials and tests imposed in the underworld. Of
the numerous pendants which lent to the necklace its peculiar quality
as an amulet, three, in carnelian, figure the god Bes; seven, also in
carnelian, the hippo-
