RHAMPSINITUS, ramp-sl-mtfis, a Gra cised form of the Egyptian name Rameses, Rame ses III, the first king of the 20th dynasty and the builder of the pavilion of Medinet Habu at Thebes. Brugsch makes Rharnpsinitos a Greek form of Rennessu pa muter (eRameses the God"); Maspero, Rantsix-si-nit (cRameses, son of NeithA) ; by Diodorus he was called Rernphis (Rempsis), from which comes the name Rame set by which Pliny called the monarch. Of him Herodotus (II, 121 et seq.) relates a story sub stantially the same as one of the most wide folktales of the Aryan world. The king acqurred an enormous treasure, and to secure it built a treasury of stone. The architect left one stone loose, so nicely adjusted as to be un noticed, yet capable of being taken out arid replaced without difficulty. Before death he entrusts the secret to his two sons, who from time to time plunder the king's treasure at their will, until at length the elder is caught in a snare set by the king. According to his desire, the younger brother cuts off and carries away his head, so that he may remain unknown. The king now orders the headless body to be ex posed unburied, protected by a guard of soldiers, but the younger brother lades an ass with skins of wine, allows some of it to run out and is relieved in his distress by the soldiers, to whom in gratitude he gives his wines so freely that they all sink into a drunken sleep. Thereupon
he shaves the right half of all their beards, and carries his brother's body to his mother. The king neat sends his daughter to find out the clever thief. She promises her love to those who reveal to her the most extraordinary things that have ever happened to them, and when the young man in his turn relates the strange pas sages of his life she seizes him; but he cun ningly slips his brother's dead hand into hers, and so escapes. The king is so much struck with wonder and admiration that he promises the clever thief his daughter in marriage, since he surpassed all mankind in knowledge; for, while the Egyptians surpassed all the world, he surpassed the Egyptians.
he wealth of Rameses III is said to have been equal to 400,000 talents, or $387,500,000, an incredible sum for those ages. It is repre sented on the walls of the palace treasury in the Medinet Habu as consisting of the precious metals and of wonderful jewels.
Herodotus gives the generally accepted story of the supposed thefts from, the treasury, but his chronology and historical facts have been proven to be too inaccurate to be relied upon.