While none of these ephemeral Pharaohs left behind them a, either legitimate or illegitimate, son there was no lack of princesses, any of which, having on her accession to the throne to choose a consort after her own heart, might thus become the founder of a new dynasty. By such a chance alliance Harmhabî, who was himself descended from Thûtmosis III., was raised to the kingly office.* His mother, Mûtnozmît, was of the royal line, and one of the most beautiful statues in the Gîzeh Museum probably represents her. The body is mutilated, but the head is charming in its intelligent and animated expression, in its full eyes and somewhat large, but finely modelled, mouth. The material of the statue is a finegrained limestone, and its milky whiteness tends to soften the malign character of her look and smile. It is possible that Mûtnozmît was the daughter of Amenôthes III. by his marriage with one of his sisters: it was from her, at any rate, and not from his great-grandfather, that Harmhabî derived his indisputable claims to royalty.**

      * A fragment of an inscription at Karnak calls Thûtmosis
     III."the father of his fathers." Champollion called him
     Hornemnob, Rosellini, Hôr-hemheb, Hôr-em-hbai, and both
     identified him with the Hôros of Manetho, hence the custom
     among Egyptologists for a long time to designate him by the
     name Horus. Dévéria was the first to show that the name
     corresponded with the Armais of the lists of Manetho, and,
     in fact, Armais is the Greek transcription of the group
     Harmhabî in the bilingual texts of the Ptolemaic period.
 
     ** Mûtnozmît was at first considered the daughter and
     successor of Harmhabî, or his wife. Birch showed that the
     monuments did not confirm these hypotheses, and he was
     inclined to think that she was Harmhabî's mother. As far as
     I can see for the present, it is the only solution which
     agrees with the evidence on the principal monument which has
     made known her existence.
 

He was born, probably, in the last years of Amenôthes, when Tîi was the exclusive favourite of the sovereign; but it was alleged later on, when Harmhabî had emerged from obscurity, that Amon, destining him for the throne, had condescended to become his father by Mûtnozmît—a customary procedure with the god when his race on earth threatened to become debased.* It was he who ha