TAA i.3.16.1

     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 walls 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 the 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, p. 151., Nos. 41545 to 41548.

For comparison of measurements I have used the following reckon-

ing 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.^sicDyn.^siccubits.

The four wooden examples of cubit found in this tomb (see chest No. 50) show:
a mean of 52.675 = 1 cubit
7.525 = 1 palm
1.881 = 1 digit