Card/Transcription No.: 257-2

MAGICAL FIGURES, Nos. 257, 258, 259 and 260, hidden in four
niches in the walls of the Burial-chamber "to repel the enemy
of Osiris, in whatever form he may come".

The four niches (i.e. roughly cut recesses in the wall of the
Burial-chamber) to receive the four magical figures were made
before the walls of the chamber were decorated. After the
walls were decorated the figures were placed in their
respective niches. The niches, closed with suitable but quite
rough splinters of limestone, were plastered over flush with
the surfaces of the walls and were then painted over to match
the colour decorating the walls.

Testimony for the above conclusions: (1) the interiors of some
of the niches bear splashes of the yellow paint employed when
decorating the walls; (2) the colour used when the niches were
closed does not match exactly the rest of the decoration, and
it was obviously painted over that already decorating the
walls; and (3) the name of one of the cynocephalus apes, west
wall centre of lower register, is missing owing to the
presence of the open niche (No. 258) when the wall was being
decorated.

The actual positions of the four magical figures hidden in the
walls of the Burial-chambers, their positions with relation to
the cardinal points, North, S.E. and W., and also the actual
symbols employed, vary in the New Empire royal tombs as well
as in the vignettes representing the nether chamber in the
copies of the Book of Dead.

...................................................


Vide:
Naville, DAS AEGYPTISCHE TODTENBUCH
Naville, FUNERAL PAPYRUS OF IOUIYA, ch. 151, p. 13, pls. xii,
xiii.
Book of the Dead, PAPYRUS ANI, pls. 33, 34.
Carter and Newberry, TOMB OF THOUTMOSIS IV., pp.9, 10 pl. iv.
Gardiner, THE TOMB OF AMENEMHET, pp. 116-118.
GUIDE EG. COLLS. B.M., London, 1909, pl. 151., Nos. 41545 to
41548.

For comparison of measurements I have used the following
reckoning for the cubit:
1 cubit = 52.310 cents., 1 palm (=1/7 cubit) = 7.472 cents.,
1 Digit (= ¼ palm = 1/28 cubit) = 1.868 cents. This reckoning
being the mean of the various examples of the xviiith. Dyn.
cubits.
The four wooden examples of the cubit found in this Tomb (see
chest No. 50) show: a mean of 52.675 = 1 cubit (Max. 52.8,
Min. 52.5).
7.525 = 1 palm
1.881 = 1 digit.