^U'Wdhs ufUiLklOiou/ivdo The Dwellers ONTHE Nile Chapters ON THE Life, Literature, H J STORX'*" AND Customs of the Ancient EcYPTiANf <^^4i4,^ W. I S$n lO'j IMS OF THE LTIANS. ^ \\^ p i3i)')^at]g0 of IStble itncluletrge. VIII. ,g^ W. J. Serschol THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE CHAPTERS ON THE LIFE LITERATURE HISTORY AND CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, M.A. Christ's college^'cambridge. Assistant m the Department of Oriental Antiquities, British Museuifi. Author of ''Babylonian Life and History.^ THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, 56, Paternoster Row ; 65, St. Paul's Churchyard. iSSq. And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof ; and I will destroy the counsel thereof : and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. And they shall turn the rivers far away ; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up : the reeds and flags shall wither. The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more. The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded. And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish. Surely the Princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish : how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings ? The Princes of Zoan are become fools, the Princes of Noph are deceived. Isaiah xix. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction. 7 CHAPTER I. Decipherment of the Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Attempts of Kircher and others to read them — Guignes and Zoega — Rosetta Stone — Translation of the Greek portion by Dr. Birch — Absurd conjectures about the meaning of the hieroglyphs — Young and his work — Champollion's wonderful genius — The decipher- ment accomplished by the names of Cleopatra and Ptolemy — Attack by Sir G. C. Lewis, and refutation of his arguments by Mr. Renouf — Letter of Dr. Lepsius — Labours of Dr. Birch, Lepsius, and others ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 15 CHAPTER n. The Egyptian Language and Writing. ^Yriting materials, papyrus, stone, wood, etc. — Mode of writing — The hieroglyphs, ideographic and phonetic — Determinatives — Short list of Egyptian words — List of the most common phonetic signs — Hieratic writing — Ornamental nature of Egyptian writing ... ^S CHAPTER HL The Land of Egypt, its People and their History. Geographical position of Egypt — Its names — Original home of the Egyptians in Asia — Biblical genealogy — Eirst Kings of Egypt — Menes first historical King of Egypt — Cheops and his Pyramid at Gizeh — Theory of the pyramids — Chephren — Mycerinus — The Usertsens and the Amenemhas — Shepherd Kings — Ahmes, Thothmes, Hatasu — The Amenhoteps, Seti — Rameses II. and the Hittites — End of the reign of Rameses II. ... 50 A 2 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. Illustrations of the Pentateuch and Bible Passages from THE Egyptian Monuments. PAGE Abraham's sojourn in Eg>'pt — Famines — Abundance of food in Egypt — Lake Moeris and its builder — ^Joseph sold into Egypt — D'Orbiney papyrus — ^Joseph in prison — Bakers' baskets — Pharaoh's birthday — Seven cows of Athor — ^Joseph interprets the dream — Egyptian barber and razors — Fine linen and golden chain — Joseph's Egj'ptian name and its meaning — Oppression of the Israelites — Bricks made without straw — Moses laid in a papyrus box — The Exodus in the reign of Meneptah — Subsequent contact of the Egyptians and Israelites — Pharaoh Hophra and Pharaoh Necho — Decline of the Empire — Persian rule and subjugation of Egypt ... 80 CHAPTER V. Egyptian Literature. Poem of Pentaur on the war of Rameses II. with the Khita — Hymns to the Nile — Hymn to Ra — Magical works — Tale of Two Brothers — Possessed Princess of Bakhten — The Song of the Harper 99 CHAPTER VI. The Egyptian Religion. Immense number of the gods of Egypt— Triads — Meaning of the word for 'god' — Egyptian conception of the Supreme Deity — Morality — List of deities — Sacrifices, priests and their food ... ... ... 129 CHAPTER VII. The Burial of the Dead. Egj'ptian tombs and coffins — Book of the Dead — Description of a tomb of the Ancient Empire — Pictures and inscriptions on tombs — funereal stelae *. 147 CONTENTS. 5 CHAPTER VIII. The Mummy. }>AGE Egyptian soul, ka, and shade — Modes of making mummies — The genii of the dead — Cartonnage — Scarab?ei and objects deposited with the dead — Ushabti figures ... ... ... ... ... ... 156 CHAPTER IX. The Book of the Dead. Contents of the * Book of the Dead ' — Explanation of parts of it — The blessed dead — The forty-two judges — The final judgment before Osiris — The negative confession — The Egyptian a fatalist ... 167 CHAPTER X. The Life of the Ancient Egyptians. Egyptian children and their toys — Dress of the kings, priests, and common people — Toilet articles — Kohl — Marriage — Titles of the king, and his duties — Queens reigned over Egypt — Cemetery of Memphis — Egyptian houses — Agriculture — Nilometers — Egyptian army, arms and weapons — Diet of the Egyptians — Sports and amusements ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 179 CHAPTER XI. Architecture and Art. Principal periods of Egyptian architecture — Statues of Chephren — Obelisks — Tomb at Beni-Hassan — Decline of architecture under the Shepherd Kings— Golden age of art and architecture under ■ Rameses II. — Imitations of old works in the time of the XXVIth Dynasty — The Ptolemies and the influence of the Greeks — Cha- racter of the Egypiian ... ... ... ... ... ... 189 APPENDIX. The Egyptian Calendar 195 Index 197 List of Scripture Rfferences .. 203 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Semites coming into Egypt Fac-simile of Inscriptions on Rosetta Stone ... Papyrus and Palette with Reeds for writing Hieratic Writing ... The Sphinx Bust of Thothmes III Rameses II. in battle Egyptian Barbers at work Brickmakers Hieroglyphic Borders ... Groups of Egyptian Gods Ra Figure of Ptah-Socharis-Osiris, and Box for holding Mummied Object Thoth Female Mourners for the Dead ... Soul with Symbols of Life and Breath revisiting Mummied Body INtummy of the lady Katebt, a Musician of the God Amen Scarabaeus inscribed with a part of the Thirtieth Chapter of the Ritual of the Dead Ushabti Figures containing the Sixth Chapter of the Ritual of the Dead The Elysian Fields Part of the Seventeenth Chapter of the Ritual of the Dead The Judgment Hall of Osiris PAGE Frontispiece 20 40 49 60 70 ... 76 ... 84 91 no, III ... 128 ... 136 137 140 148 156 160 163 165 169 171 174 INTRODUCTION, The land of Egypt, its people and their history, have been the subjects of the most earnest enquiry both in ancient and modern times. The reason is not far to seek, for apart from its importance to the philologist and profane historian, the nation claims the attention of every Bible reader and student, from the fact of its being contemporary with Abraham, and the nursing land of the Jewish nation. When the patriarch Abraham found a famine in Canaan, he sought food and life in the land of the Pharaohs ; and after Joseph had become * the ruler of the land,' Jacob journeyed thither that his posterity might fill the measure of their four hundred (or four hundred and thirty) years' captivity. The Jews entered the land 'when they were but a few men in number,' they went out by myriads ; they went in as visitors dependent on the good favour of the Pharaoh, they went out with triumph. Egypt was a place of refuge alike for the founder of the race, for the families of the patriarchs, and for their mighty Descendant, * The Giver of Life,' Who with His mother departed by night into Egypt. The influence of the Egyptians upon the Jews was 8 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. marked and powerful, and there can be no doubt that living for so long a time in a land where civilization had been known for thousands of years, where learning in all its branches was studied and cultivated, and where there was a luxurious and polished system of life, with its magnificent temples and buildings and worship, must have influenced Israel in its infancy for good and for bad. In a good way the influence would show itself by the Jews gathering to themselves some of the learning and wisdom for which the Egyptians were famed among the nations around. The Egyptian education of Moses was never forgotten by the posterity of Abraham, for the martyr Stephen in his dying speech remembered that Moses 'was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.' Much else too would they learn of the arts of the Egyptians : the dyeing of skins, the weaving of cloth, the cutting of precious stones, and the manufacture of 'fine twined linen wrought with needlework,' etc. All this knowledge was put to a glorious use later on in the making of the Tabernacle and the instruments for its service. The whole description of the Tabernacle in Exodus is full of allusions to Egyptian customs : the strict rules for the purifying of the priests, the ephod of the high-priest, the pomegranate decoration of the hem of his robe, his breast-plate and his mitre, all had their counterpart among the Egyptians. And not only was the knowledge gained from the Egyptians sanctified to the service of the Lord, but the mirrors which the Israelitish women possessed, and which had been brought by them INTRODUCTION. 9 from Egypt, were melted down and went to make the 'laver of brass and the foot of it.'^ Recently, Renouf has shown that the word cherubim may have been derived from the Egyptian cherefii. The evil effects of the stay of the Hebrews in Egypt are best shown by the readiness with which they worshipped the ' golden calf,' or Apis, set up by Aaron during the absence of Moses ; and when difficulties met them and food was scarce, by their demoralised proneness to return to Egypt, where, though in a state of servitude, they had enjoyed an abun- dance of cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. Before the present century every writer on Egypt was compelled to rely upon the statements of Greek and other historians, who not only often misunderstood what they were told, but filled up their works in many places with obsolete traditions and their own ideas. The day for this necessity, however, is now past, and though there are many difficulties yet to be overcome in the Egyptian language, still enough has been made out to show how carelessly the religion and customs of the Egyptians have been represented by foreign writers. Pyramid and obelisk, sarcophagus and coffin, stele and papyrus and leather have now spoken, and their inscriptions, ranging from 4000 B.C. to the time of Christ, have in a great measure yielded up the authentic history of the dwellers by the Nile ; and its real bearing on the civilization of the West, extending even to our own times, is now beginning to be rightly appreciated. 1 Exodus xxxviii. 8. 10 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. The mere names of the works on Egypt would fill a large book, but a strong line of demarcation must be drawn between those published before and after the year 1817. Before that time Egypt was the subject of the wildest theories and conjectures, but after ChampoUion's discovery of the true reading of the hieroglyphs and their meaning, this was no longer possible ; theory vanished before fact, and conjecture before certain knowledge. In the following pages an attempt has been made to give a very brief sketch of a few of the principal events in the history of Egypt (especially the part relating to the Bible narratives of Joseph and of Moses), its people their mode of life and literature, etc. But I wish it to be distinctly understood that I am well aware how impossible it is even to touch upon all the important heads of so vast a subject in a little book like this. The information here given has been obtained from the first and best sources. For the history of the decipherment of the hieroglyphs I have relied upon that of Dr. Birch, published in the late Sir Gardner Wilkinson's * The Egyptians in the time of the Pharaohs,' London, 1857. Considering that this is the only good and trustworthy account of this matter in England, I wonder much that no one has considered it worth while to reprint Dr. Birch's part of that work. The greater part of Egyptian history has been long well known, and the principal books consulted by me for the history of Eg}'pt were ' Egypt,' by Dr. Birch, in the INTRODUCTION. 1 1 'Ancient History from the Monuments' series; Wiede- mann's * Aeo^yptische Geschichte,' and Brugsch's * Egypt under the Pharaohs.' A long array of books and papers in the ' Transactions ' of the learned Societies constitute the authorities for the remaining chapters of the book ; and I am glad to express my obligations to their authors, more especially to Dr. Birch, Mr. Le Page Renouf, and Messrs. Stern, Brugsch, Maspero, Naville, Wilkin- son, and Wiedemann. My thanks are also due to Dr. Garnett of the British Museum for his care and kindness in reading the proof sheets. 12 Chronological Table of the Principal Kings OF Egypt, with approximate Dates.^ Isf Dymasty. B.C. B.C. Cha-f-Ra . 3666 Mena . . 4400 Men-kau-Ra • 3^33 Teta .. 4366 Shepseskaf ... . 3600 Atet •• 4333 Ata Hesep-ti .. 4266 5M Dynasty. Mer-bapen ... Semenptah Kebh... * .. 4233 .. 4200 .. 4166 Userkaf Sahu-Ra 3566 • 3533 Kaka • 3500 Nefer-Ra • 3466 2mi Dynasty. Ra-en-user-An • 3433 Menkau-Her • 3400 Bet'au ■• 4133 Tet-ka-Ri . 3366 Kakau .. 4100 Unas • 3333 Ba-neter-en .. 4066 Uatnes • • 4033 Senta .. 40CO 6t/i Dynasty. User-l?a-Ra . 3300 3;v/ Dynasty. Teta . 3266 Meri-Ra • 3233 Tatai .. 3966 Meren-Ra . 3200 Nebka • 3933 Nefer-ka-Ra . 3166 T'er-sa ■ • 3900 I\Ier-en-Ra-Ment-eni-saf . • 3133 Teta .. 3866 Setes • Z^ll Ra-nefer-ka .. 3800 yt/i-iit/i Dynasties. Neter-ka-Ra ■ 3100 i,th Dynasty. Men-ka-Ra . 3066 ■ Nefer-ka-Ra • 3033 Snefru .. 3766 •• 3733 Nefer-ka-Ra Nebi ... . 3000 Chufu Tet-ka-Ra-maa-kes (?) . 2966 Ra-tet-f .. 3700 Nefer-ka-Ra Chentu • 2933 1 The dates are those of Brug.-ch, as published in ' Egypt under the Pharaohs,' ii., p. 311. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. B.C. B.C. Mer-en-Her 2900 19/// Dynasty. Senefer-ka 2866 Ra-en-ka 2833 Rameses I 1400 Nefer-ka-Ra Tererl 2800 Seti I • 1366 Mefer-ka-Her 2766 Rameses II. • 1333 Nefer-ka-Ra Pepi-seneb ... 2733 Merenptah ... 1300 Nefer-ka-Ra Annu 2700 Seti II . 1266 kau-Ra ... 2666 Nefer-kau-Ra 2633 Nefer-kau-Her 26C0 20th Dynasty. Neferarka-Ra 2566 Neb-cher-Ra 2533 Setnecht, Rameses III. • 1233 Seanchka-Ra 2500 Rameses III. „ IV. 1 V. 1 . 1200 „ VL \ . 1 166 \2th Dynasty. „ VIL 1 ,, VIILJ Amenemha I. 2466 t, IX. 1 X. Usertsen I 2433 Amenemha II 2400 XL \ • 1133 Usertsen *IL 2366 „ XIL Ill 2333 ,, XIILJ Amenemha III 2300 „ ' IV 2266 2\st Dynasty. \yh-\1th Dynasties. Herher Piankhi 1 100 . 1066 Here comes a break of 50c ^ears, vings' ' Pi-net'em • 1033 in which the ' Shepherd '. Pa-seb-cha-nen I . 1000 rule falls. Men-cheper-Ra — Amen-em-ap-t — Pa-seb-cha-nen II — \%th Dynasty. Ahmes ...^^^^ ... 1700 22nd Dynasty. Amenhetep I 1666 Sheshank I. ... . 966 Thothmes I 1633 Osorkon I 933 ,, n. 1 . „ in.J 1600 Takelot I .. 900 Osorkon II .. 866 Amenhetep 11 1566 Sheshank II • 833 Thothmes IV 1533 Takelot II . 800 Amenhetep III 1500 Sheshank II I — Her-em-heb 1466 Pimai — Heretic kings 1433 1 Sheshank IV — 14 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 2yd Dynasty B.C. I Pet-tu-Bast Osorkon IIL 2^th Dynasty Bak-en-ren-f 2^th Dynasty. Shabaka Shabataka Taharka 26th Dynasty Psamtek L . Nekau Psamtek II... Uah-ab-Ra .. Ahmes II. .. Psamtek III. 2-]th Dynasty Cambyses Darius I. Xerxes I. 766 700 693 666 612 596 591 572 528 527 521 486 I Artaxerxes ! Xerxes II. i Sogdianus Darius If. 2^th Dynasty. 733 ! Amen-rut (Amyrtaeus) 2gth Dynasty, I. ... Nai-f-aa-u-nit Muthes Pa-sa-Mut ... Nai-f-aa-u-rut II ^ct/i Dynasty. Necht-Her heb Teher Necht-neb-f (Nectanebus) B.C. 465 424 399 379 378 360 358 3 1 J-/ Dynasty. Ochus ... ... ... 340 Arses 338 Darius IIL ... ... ... 336 Conquest by Alexander the Gi'eat 332 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE, OR, CHAPTERS ON THE LIFE, LITERATURE, HISTORY, AND CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAPTE%L Decipherment of the Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Among the many linguistic triumphs which have been achieved by scholars in the nineteenth century, the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions^ and the Egyptian hieroglyphics takes the foremost place. By their decipherment two of the greatest and most important nations of antiquity have had their proper place assigned to them among the nations of the past, and what is still better and of more use, their history has been unfolded and their learning and wisdom made available for the people of to-day. Egypt, and its people, whose past extends through a vista of sixty or seventy centuries, have ever been the subject of » For a popular and interesting account of the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions, see Prof. Sayce, ' Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments,' pp. iQ-20. 1 6 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. misunderstanding and of misrepresentation. The highly cultivated nations that flourished about the period of Egypt's final decay despised its religion, and invented a variety of absurd statements to cover their ignorance of a subject which they did not understand. But now there is neither room nor need for conjecture or hypothesis, for, thanks to the labour of Egyptologists, the native Egyptian records have been forced to yield up their secrets, and we have the means of judging for ourselves what their language, literature, and religion were like. It must not be imagi|^d for a moment that everything relating to the Egyptians is known, for it is not. Much has still to be done in many branches of the science. Travellers who visit Egypt year by year see each time antiquities and ruins that they have never seen before, and tell us that in spite of the magnificent collections of Egyptian antiquities in London, Paris, Turin, Berlin, Boulak, and elsewhere, Egypt is only half excavated, and that as much, if not more, exists under the ground as above it. What has already been found will serve as a specimen of what is still to be found ; so likewise what Egyptologists have already made out from the monuments and papyri is but an earnest of what is yet to come. Before going further, however, it will be convenient here to relate briefly the story of the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics.^ The man to whom the world 1 For the history of this triumph, and for a Hst of the writers on DECIPHERMENT OF THE EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 1/ principally owes its gratitude for this work is Cham- poUion. As might be expected, one of the most serious difficulties to be overcome before any good work could be done in the way of reading the Egyptian hiero- glyphics, was to obtain careful and accurate copies of inscriptions. Many scholars like Kircher, and travellers like Pococke, published copies of inscriptions, but the characters were so distorted and badly drawn that they were worthless for the purpose of reading or study. Many attempts had been made to read the hieroglyphics in the sixteenth century, but no real progress was made ; and in the seventeenth century Athanasius Kircher published his * CEdipus ^Egy ptiacus,' in which he professed to give translations of Egyptian stelae and also of an obelisk. It is perhaps needless to say that his principles of decipherment were absolutely worthless, and it is quite clear that he did not understand that some of the signs represented letters. He considered each sign to represent an idea, and, as Dr. Birch has pointed out,' he translated Domitian's title Atitocrator^ by 'the author of fruitfulness and of all vegetation is Osiris, whose productive force was produced in his kingdom of heaven through the holy Mophta.' The first three-quarters of the eighteenth century also saw much valuable time and learning wasted in Egyptian, ancient and modern (up to 1857), see the ' Introduction to the Study of the Egyptian Hieroglyphs,' by Dr. Birch, in Wilkinson's 'The Egyptians in the Time of the Pharaohs.' ' Wilkinson, 'The Egyptians in the Time of the Pharaohs,' p. 191, B l8 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. . . . producing works on the Egyptian hieroglyphics which were; productive of no good results; but in the fourth quarter some facts were made out which served to hasten the solution of the difficult problem of decipher- ment. De Guignes found out that groups with determinative characters existed in Egyptian, and Zoega made two startling discoveries, (i) that the hiero- glyphs were letters ; (2) that each cartouche contained a royal name,^ though this latter discovery was also made independently by Thomas Young. These were the first steps made in the right direction. Matters remained thus until the French scientific expedition to Egypt under Napoleon I. took place. In 1799 an artillery officer named Boussard discovered, while digging the foundation of a house at Fort St. Julien, near Rosetta, the ancient Bolbitane, a large black stone, which has since been generally called the * Rosetta Stone,' and which is now in the British Museum. It stood originally in a temple of the god Tmu, and was presented to the French Institute of Cairo : it was afterwards surrendered to General Hutchinson, and was presented by George III. to the British Museum.^ Now, to understand an unknown language it is necessary to have an interpreter, and, as Champollion ^ The names of kings, queens, and princes are enclosed in ovals, to which the name cartouche has been given : thus f D 1 ^ ,^_-^ 1' Psammetichus.' ^ Wilkinson, ' The Eg}'ptians in the Time of the Pharaohs,' p. 192.- B 2 _^. AT. 'ptian Hieroglyphs,' p. 194 ; and see Young in the 'Encyclopaedia Critannica :' London, 1828, art. Hieroglyphics. 30 - THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. ancient character of that language, in order to reproduce' the Egyptian papyri, and that these latter contained many Biblical books. In 1806 M, von Hammer had given to the world the translation of the work of some Arabic charlatan, which professed to explain the hieroglyphics. Lenoir, in 18 10, considered them to be Hebrew docu- ments. An anonymous author, in 18 12, thought that the inscription of the portico of Dendera contained a translation into hieroglyphs of the Hundredth Psalm.'^ If possible, still more absurd statements on the subject of the contents of Egyptian inscriptions were made : it was gravely asserted that one text contained an account of a battle between the wicked and the good in the early days of the Egyptian empire about 40(X) B.C. ; that portions of the Bible would be found in another, and that a third contained abstruse philosophical ideas. It is sad to see what an amount of learning and energy was utterly wasted in the attempt to prove these absurd theories. But among all this chaos and confusion there were two men quietly working at the decipherment of Egyptian in different parts of Europe, and independently of each other, viz., Thomas Young, born 1773, and Francois Champollion, born at Grenoble in 1790. It was suggested to Young that the unknown language of the Rosetta Stone was capable of being resolved into an alphabet of thirty letters '^ and a very brief account of > Dr. Birch, in Wilkinson's 'The Egyptians,' p. 194. 2 By Prof. Vater, ibid., p. 195. DECIPHERMENT OF THE EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 3 I' his labours is as follows. He published some account of the demotic or enchorial writing in the 'Journal of the Society of Antiquaries' in 1817 ; he was not very successful in identifying the groups of hieroglyphs, though after a time he found out the name of Ptolemy, and that the first hieroglyph in the name was the equivalent of the demotic or enchorial form. He obtained this result by arguing that if the demotic was phonetic, the hieroglyphic must be also. He picked out from the inscriptions the cartouches of Ptolemy and Berenice ; and in each of these he identified the phonetic value of some of the characters ; but when he tried to read other names by these he failed ; for example, he read Autocrator for Arsinoe, and Caesar for Euergetes. His contribution to the decipherment amounted to the identification of five characters, and this is all that can be said. Much of his work, as Dr. Birch has said, is * beneath criticism,' and he failed alike by attributing wrong values to some of the characters, and by his interpretation of the meaning of them. As a physicist, however, Thomas Young was a great thinker, and a very celebrated man : but it is not true that he deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphics, or even that his labours assisted the real decipherer, Ghampollion ; because he had studied and knew a great deal more about demotic rather than the hieroglyphic language. About the year 181 8, Champollion began the study of Egyptian. He had busied himself before this date in studying the Coptic language and the geography of 33 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. ancient Egypt ; and as he had read and studied all that the ancients had written upon the subject ol" Egyptian, he was exceedingly well prepared to grapple with the difficult task before him. The unfortunate Belzoni had found at Philae a small obelisk which had a Greek inscription on the base, and one in hieroglyphics on the shaft. A copy of the Greek text was sent in 1822 to Letronne, and afterwards another containing the hieroglyphs. He at once considered that the latter must contain the same matter as the former. Here Champollion's work began. It was argued that the subject matter of the Greek would be translated into hieroglyphs, but as the Greek proper names would not give any sense in Egyptian, they could not be translated : therefore it is absolutely necessary that the sounds which formed the proper names in Greek should be written in Egyptian characters. If this argument is correct, certain phonetic signs or characters stand revealed. In the Eg^^ptian text of the obelisk we have a group of signs enclosed in an oval, and this group is repeated a large number of times. Now the name of Ptolemy occurs in the Greek several times, therefore this group of hiero- glyphs must represent the name Ptolemy. If this is the case, then the first sign is P, the second T, and so on. Now the way to prove if these signs have been rightly read, is to apply them to other names written both in hieroglyphs and in Greek where these same signs or letters occur or are supposed to occur. The Greek inscription mentioned above gave the name of a king DECIPHERMEx\T OF THE EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 33 called Ptolemy, and of a queen called Cleopatra ; on comparing the hieroglyphic signs which were supposed to be the equivalent of the Greek name Ptolemaios, with the group on the Rosetta Stone also supposed to be Ptolemaios, they were found to correspond exactly ; hence it was certain that the group was the Greek name Ptolemy written in hieroglyphic letters. If now the first name on the obelisk of Philae was that of Ptolemy, the second must be that of Cleopatra. The following is the way in which the names Ptolemy and Cleopatra are written in Egyptian characters : — I. Cleopatra. II. Ptolemy, living for ever, beloved of the god Ptah. Next, Champollion supposed that each hieroglyph had the value of the initial syllable of the object which is represented,^ and re-writing these names with numbers attached to each sign, we have : — I. Cleopatra. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. D i 7. 8. 1 10. 11. ^ Dr. Birch, in \Vilkin5on's 'The Eg}'ptians,' p. 199. 34 THE DWELLERS OX THE NILE. II. Ptolemy. f l.D 2. o 3. ^ 4. _£:^ 5. / 6. ( 7. [ 8. 1 J Now, sign No. i in the name Cleopatra represents a ' knee,' and as the Coptic- word for knee begins with k, this sign should be K. Sign No. 2 in the same name represents a 'lion;' as the Coptic word for lion begins with /, this sign should be L. It will be noticed that this same sign occurs in the name of Ptolemy, No. 4. Sign No. 3 in the same name represents a ' reed,' and forms Nos. 6 and 7 in the name Ptolemy ; as the Coptic word for reed begins with a, this sign should be Aor E. Sign No. 4 in the same name represents a ' noose,' and must be equivalent to O. Sign No. 5 in the same name, being the same as No. i in the name Ptolemy, must therefore be P. Sign No. 6 in the same name represents an ' eagle ; ' and as the Coptic word for eagle begins with a, and as it is the samiC as sign No, 9 in the name Cleopatra in the place where the a recurs, it must be A. Sign No. 7 represents a ' hand ;' as the Coptic name for hand begins with /, this sign should be T. Sign No. 8, in the same name, represents a 'mouth;' as the Coptic word for mouth begins with ?', this sign should be R. Of sign No. 9 w^e have already spoken. Signs ' We omit here the other signs which are given in the cartouche above, as they form titles of the king, and are not necessary for our present purpose. - The ancient Egyptian language is the mother of Coptic. DECIPHERMENT OF THE P:GYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 35 No. 10 (the same as No. 2 in the name Ptolemy) and No. 1 1 have no equivalent in the Greek ; but subsequent researches have proved that these signs are placed after the name of a female. If we look at the signs in the name of Ptolemaios, we find that only Nos. 5 and 8 remain without values, and it is easy to see from the Greek that they must represent M and S respectively. Going back now to the signs X V^ in the unnumbered cartouche, we recog^nize the first two D at once, for we have had them both in the names of Ptolemy and Cleopatra ; and as the Greek version tells us that Ptolemy is ' beloved of Phtha,' we know that the third sign I must have the value h, and that the fourth must mean * beloved.' Champollion, after studying the other names of the later rulers of Egypt, was enabled to put together a very fair list of values of the signs, and by continuous work and study he succeeded in finding out many of the more difficult values of rare and uncommon signs. All difficulties were not yet overcome, for some of the signs were syllabic ; but little by little these difficulties melted away, and it became certain that the entire solution of the problem of Egyptian decipher- ment was not very far off. For about nine years Champollion pursued his studies in the most unremitting manner, and work after work issued from his pen, containing texts, translations, explanations and information of the greatest value about ancient Egypt and its people. C 2 36 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. But although Champollion had, quite alone, set the decipherment of Egyptian upon a sure and firm base, there lacked not men who started new theories on the subject, and fought for them with a degree of fierceness and zeal that now appear almost incredible. A large number of people objected to such a simple explanation of the hieroglyphics, and wished and hoped to find in them something of the mysterious and the marvellous. Others maintained that the language was sacred, and proceeded to divide the signs into classes, to understand which is more difficult than Egyptian itself Worse than all, there still appeared works containing explanations of Egyptian texts based upon the old ideographic theor>^;^ and Klaproth attacked Champollion on every possible occasion, relying upon his having found out a few small and unimportant details in which Champollion had tripped ; while others still believed in the absurd interpretations published by Kircher in his ' CEdipus Aegyptiacus.' Little by little, however, ChampoUion's system was gaining ground, and many scholars who published works at that time hastened to supplement their arguments by proofs drawn from the new source of information. About the year 1837 the late Dr. Lepsius published a letter to Rosellini, in which he analysed and laid down the structure of the language in his usual masterly ^ For example, Janelli on the Rosetta Stone, published under the title of ' Fundamenta Hermeneutica Hieroglyphicae Cr}pticK veterum Gentium.' 8vo. Neapol., 1830. DECIPHERMENT OF THE EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS, 3/ manner; and from this time onwards the good work advanced rapidly. Students arose in England, France, Germany, Italy, and elsewhere ; but until very recently there remained some who persistently refused to acknow- ledge that Champollion's system of decipherment was the true one ; and so late as 1862 Sir G, C. Lewis maintained in his ' Astronomy of the Ancients ' that, practically, the tradition of the Egyptian language had not been preserved unbroken, either in writing or orally, and since a period had elapsed during which it was entirely forgotten, it could never be restored. For the refutation of this gentleman's ideas, the reader is referred to the learned and masterly article by Mr. Renouf in the * Atlantis,' Vol. IV., 1861, pp. 23-57. Thus has grown the edifice of the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the stones bearing them, some little, some big, having been shaped ages ago in many distant lands. By reading two names on the obelisk of Philae and on the Rosetta Stone, and by spelling out the Greek, Roman, and Persian names of the rulers of Egypt, has this great work been accomplished. 38 CHAPTER II. The Egyptian Language and Writing. The Egyptians used a variety of substances for writing upon, such as stone, wood, leather, Hnen, and papyrus. When stone of any sort was used for this purpose the characters were cut into it with a chisel : and many of the inscriptions upon sandstone and the like were filled in with the most beautiful colours. Unfortunately, however, much of tlie colour has disappeared and now, in many cases, only traces of it can be seen. In the better class of sculptures the details of the object represented are most carefully carved, and some characters are cut into the stone to the depth of nearly an inch. In the case of wood, the characters are sometimes cut as in stone, and sometimes merely painted. Papyrus was the material which was in the greatest demand for making copies of the Book of the Dead, literary compositions, and official documents. The plant grew in Upper Egypt, the Delta, and other parts of the country. To fit it for writing purposes the interior of the stalks were cut into thin slices in the direction of their length ; these were laid on a board in a row, and similar slices were placed upon them at PQ THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE AND WRITING. 4 1 right angles ; and when their surfaces had been joined by a kind of gum or glue, and pressed and dried, the papyrus was complete.^ Inscribed papyri are of different widths, viz., six, eleven, twelve and a half, thirteen and even fourteen and a half inches ; while their length varies from a few inches to one hundred and fifty feet.^ The scribe wrote on papyrus with a reed, the hieroglyphs being generally traced in outline. He carried his inks in small hollows in his palette. The greater part of the ordinary inscriptions on papyrus are written with black ink, but directions for the repetition of certain passages or rubrics, and the initial paragraphs, are written with red. Texts written in other colours are found, but they are not common. Where it was possible the scribe represented an object in its natural colour ; he made the sun red, the moon yellow, trees, plants, and all vegetables, green ; but objects requiring out of the way colours were not so well done, owing to the comparatively limited supply of colours at the disposal of the scribe. Reeds cut like modern pens were also used for writing, and specimens of these may be seen in the British Museum (North Gallery, 2nd Egyptian Room). The scribe's palettes were made of wood, ivory, and stone ; they were of different lengths and widths, varying from five or six inches to twenty in length, and from two to three inches in breadth. They were frequently ^ Wilkinson's 'Ancient Egyptians,' ii. p. 180. " Dr. Birch, in Willcinson's ' Ancient Egyptians,' ii. p. 182 ; Bunsen's ' Egypt,' V. p. 590. 42 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. inscribed, and at times the characters were most beautifully inlaid with lapis lazuli. There is an oblong hollow in them wherein the writing reeds may be placed ; and at the end are generally shallow holes for the ink, traces of which, of a red and black colour, still remain in some of them. Palettes are sometimes dedicated to the god Thoth, and the British Museum possesses among others one which originally belonged to a scribe of the time of Amenophis III. (about B.C. 1500), and one of a scribe who lived in the time of Rameses II. (about B.C. 1350). In this latter, five of the scribe's reeds still remain. The office of scribe was very im- portant, and was generally held by a person belonging to the priestly or first caste of Egyptians.^ The hierogylphics may be divided into two classes : (i) those representing ideas, and (2) those used for sounds. For example, the picture of an obelisk, 11, expressed that object ; \\> a vulture, expressed that bird ; and so on. Sometimes, however, the cause was put for the effect, and the reverse : thus Ma palette and reed, represented * writing ' (also ' scribe ') ; and "^J^, dishevelled liair, stood for ' grieving,' because the hair was disturbed and uncared for in a time of trouble. It will be readily understood that the ideographic part of the writing is much older than the phonetic ; and in the very early texts we find the use of ideographs greater than in those of a later period. ' Wilkinson's 'Ancient Egyptians,' i. p. 157. THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE AND WRITING. 43 This is what one would expect, because all nations use a pictorial language long before they come to phonetics. The pictorial method of representation in the texts is exceedingly useful, for it frequently suggests the right meaning of a word ; and wherji new words are found phonetically spelt, but without ideographs, it is often difficult to find out what they mean. An ideograph was often repeated three or more times, to express the plural, thus: — e e e 'bones,' umu Moors,' | | ] 'gods,' "^"^"^ 'glorified souls,' jj jj jj 'seats,' ^:^^^^^ 'roads,' and 111111111111111111 'the two cycles of the gods.' It must be mentioned that every hieroglyph could be used to express the sound of the object which it represented.^ Custom, however, set aside a certain number which were used to express the sounds of other objects. For example ^'^isl represents a ' plough,' and a 'mouth,' but ^^ means 'beloved ;' <=> represents a 'mouth,' and ^^^^^ 'water'; but <^=^ means 'name.' Under the class of phonetics must also be mentioned those which have syllabic values, such as ""^^sl 7/ier, ^ /ie7n, and ^^3^ ned. A large number of these are used as determinative of sound : for example, the value of H- is ^/ix, but we find •;:^ -?-, i.e., d-n-x + the syllable -?-;also '^-2- i.e., d-u -F the syllable Y-, and so on. 1 Dr. Birch, in Bunsen's ' Egypt,' v. p. 597. 44 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. Certain hieroglyphs were used as Determinatives^ By a Determinative is meant a sign which represents the idea, either directly or indirectly, of the word written ; and a determinative could be placed either before or after a word. For example, in the word for * child,' ^ %^^A the first three signs give the word for child, and then follows the determinative, which is the picture of a child ; the word i—^v-i ap8, means 'tortoise;' but it is written in the texts with the picture for 'tortoise ' after it ; so, ""g "^^^ «^§. The few following words will illustrate the way in which the phonetic signs and ideographs are employed in writing words : — AWAAA B w MJl sesh tart man Dienfat qerJin ubn ana enisuh hfi .. bird's nest. .. scorpion. . . cat. soldier. night. . . to shine. .. ox. .. crocodile. . . worm. THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE AND WRITING. 45 fl + w 5^1;^ md')(ait .. pair of sc ales. af . bee. cidh . moon. addni . ape. iierdu . vulture. The number of hieroglyphic signs may be considered to be about two thousand, and a short list of the commoner phonetics is as follows : — - — fl d 1 b ra / h h (or kh) W i V x6 k S k n I W I s (or sJi) t ih X The arrangement of the hieroglyphics in inscriptions varies, but generally they face to the right, and are read from right to left like Arabic, Syriac, Hebrew, etc. Sometimes they face to the left, and are to be read from left to right ; but very often they are arranged in perpendicular rows, with carefully drawn lines separating 46 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. each row. Instances have occurred where the characters face in one direction, but are to be read in the other. The hieroglyphics were particularly useful for the purpose of ornament ; and when each hieroglyphic is painted in the colours which most nearly resembles the object which it represents, the effect is vivid and gorgeous. The scribe or mason frequently sacrificed the strict order of the letters in a word to his love of symmetrical arrangement : in the papyri, however, the right order is usually kept. For an example of the ornamental effect produced by a collection of hieroglyphs, see the extract from the text inscribed upon the Pyramid of Pepi, printed round pages i lo, in : and the following is a specimen of Egyptian with interlinear transliteration, and literal translation. Specimen of Interlinear Transliteration AND Translation.^ au arna hesest ret hereret nutaru heres Done Jiave I behests of men and the ivill of the gods ; au ta - na ta en heqr sesau - na wherefore giveji have I bread to the Jinngry^ satiated have I t: ^\ Jfl^— 12. ^ ^ ^ ^^, atet au ses - na nutar em pa - f an the indigent, follozved have I the god in house his, not '* See 'Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch.,' vol. viii. p. 309. THE EGVPTIAX LANGUAGE AND WRITING. 47 9 IM aa re -a em s'enit an JiatJi magnified mouth viy against s7iperior officers^ not is pet em nemt - a sem - a her sa %ent tJiej-e stretch in stride my, walk I according to measure. \ ar - na em mat mer en suten Done have I law beloved by the king^ re;)^ - kua entet utu - nef set res - na knezv I zvhat commanded Jie it, watched I her ast - a er seqa baiu - f tua - na tua - f at seat my to exalt will his, rose I for ivorship his hru neb er ta - na ab - a %enti t'et - f day every, gave I heart my to what said he an mahi her sa - nef ;)^er - a without hesitating at luhat determined he ''^^^ J^^^J'^'^^^' 48 THE DWELLERS ON THE NH.E. 1W f=iSi t:2^ tet - na metrit (?) hna metit ^ook I uprightness and fairness y peh ' na enen her kar - a qebeb hesna - ua arrived I at what was for silence, refreshing, favoured nte rl I AATTNAA T ^LL neb -a her men^-a niaa-nef rut lord the kiiig my for beneficence ;;/;', saw he that vigorous 1^ \\^ ^^ nrllh J^ aa - a an ab - a se^enti ast - a were hands my through heart my advancing seat my. Hieroglyphics were employed for inscriptions on public monuments, etc., but two other characters of writing are found, the hieratic, and the demotic or enchorial ; this latter is not comparatively very ancient, and a specimen of it is given in the reproduction of the Rosetta Stone p. 20. The hieratic was the cursive hand, and was much used by the priests in making their reports of government transactions, and in writing down literary compositions. It was taken from the hieroglyphic, as the following example, with the hieroglyphic transcription beneath, will show. THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE AND WRITING. 49 J^i}^^/M^iU Hieratic Writing.^ Transcription. ^. 1 AA/WV\ 1-A 3- P'T::il^^M:-»-r-^°-°' To what group or family of languages Egyptian belongs, is at present an undecided point : there is a great influx of Semitic words about 1400 B.C. ; for further information on this subject the reader is referred to the works of Benfey, Lepsius, Brugsch, Renan, and others. ^ See Birch, * Select Papyri in the Hieratic Character,' Part II, pi. xi, page 5, line 9, and page 6, line i. The hieratic text is written from right to left, but the hieroglyphs read the opposite way. D 5C CHAPTER III. The Land of Egypt, its People and their History. Egypt lies between the twenty-fourth and thirty-second parallels of north latitude, in the north-east of Africa ; it is about six hundred miles long, and is really com- prised of a strip of land on each bank of the Nile. This strip varies in width from ten to thirty miles. The Egyptians called their country Kem, ?>., ' the black,' because of the very dark colour of the soil. It bore a variety of names, each having some particular application ; and among these must come Ta-mera, which means the * land of the inundation.' The Assyrians called the land Miistir, the Hebrews Misraiin, and the Arabs to this day Misr. The Egyptian kings called themselves ' lords of the two countries,' thereby indicating that the land was divided into two great parts, the north and the south : veiy probably a remembrance of the * double ' land is preserved in the Hebrew name Misraini, which is a dual form. The kings are also called on the monuments * lords of the white and red crown ; ' the former signifying their rule over Upper Egypt, and the latter their dominion over THE LAND OF EGYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC. 5 I Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt was divided into twenty- two nomes, and Lower Egypt into twenty.^ Hitherto the name ' Egypt ' has remained unexplained ; but some have supposed that it is derived from Ha-ka-ptah, (i.e., the temple of the genius of Ptah), the sacred name of Memphis. From what country did the Egyptians come } Ethnologists and anthropologists, having examined a large number of skulls of mummies, have come to the conclusion that the Egyptians belong to the Caucasian race. Hence it is generally understood now that some thousands of years before the Christian era (how many it is quite impossible to say) the nation which afterwards inhabited the Nile set out from Asia, for some reason still unexplained, journeyed westward, and crossing the Isthmus of Suez, entered Africa, and settling down by the Nile, founded there a mighty kingdom. This agrees too with what is stated in the table of nations given by Moses, who says, ' And the sons of Ham ; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan,'"^ Now Ham (or Kham) is the same as Khem, Egypt, and a proof of this may be deduced from the Psalms, where it is said, ' And smote all the firstborn in Egypt ; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham; '3 and again, 'Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea."^ Now the Mizraim mentioned in the table of nations is Egypt itself. * For a list, see Brugsch, ' Egypt under the Pharaohs,' ii. p. 8. 2 Gen. X. 6. ^ Ps. Ixxviii. 51. '* Ps. cvi. 22. D 2 52 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. As for the other sons of Ham, the inhabitants of Kush, i.e., the region called after the son of Ham, are represented on the Egyptian monuments. Their bodily appearance is the same, though their skin is a little darker, and at the outset they appear to have had a religion and speech akin to that of the Egyptians/ We find Phut, most probably, in the Punt of the inscriptions, the land from whence spices came, which was situated to the south of Egypt on both sides of the Red Sea. As early as 2500 years before Christ, the hieroglyphics tell us that a king of Egypt sent one of his people called Anti, to bring back a peculiarly valuable kind of frankincense from this land. The fourth son, Canaan, is represented by the original inhabitants of Canaan, who were pro- bably near relatives of the Egyptians. It has been thought by some scholars that there are indications in the inscriptions which would lead one to suppose that the Egyptians considered that the home of the race was the Nile ; this idea, however, has never been worked out. Some again, following a Greek tradition, have thought that the civilization of Egypt came from Ethiopia ; but all modern researches show that this idea has no ground- work of truth. The Egyptians of the later empire believed that men had been made out of clay upon a potter's wheel- They believed that the god Harmachis^ attacked his foes, who fled in all directions from before him. Those who ' Wiedemann, ' ^gyptische Geschichte,' p. 23. 2 Chabas, ' Etudes,' p. i ; Naville, ' Mythe d'Horus.' THE LAND OF f:GYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC. 53 came to the south became the Cushites, those who came to the north became the Amu, those who came to the west the Libyans, and those who came to the east the Shasu; and thus were the four races of mankind made. Of the Amu more will be said further on ; for it was from this race that the Khita nation, so celebrated for having waged war successfully with Rameses II., and recently identified with the Biblical Hittites, sprang. What was the Egyptian like in stature ? His head was large, his forehead square, his eyes large, his cheeks full, his mouth wide, his nose short and rounded, and his lips thick.i The ancient history of Egypt goes back into a far dis- tant past. The exact time when the early settlers on the Nile first made their home in the ' black ' land is quite unknown ; and who ruled them and gave them laws is, historically, also unknown. Only one thing about the matter is quite certain, and that is that the migration from the East must have taken place some thousands of years before Christ. The Egyptians believed that the first three dynasties of kings who ruled over Egypt were composed of gods, who reigned in succession, and of a series of beings who were called * the followers of Horus.'^ The first dynasty consisted of a number of gods, Ptah, Ra, Shu, Seb, Osiris, Set or Typhon, and Horus : these were supposed to have reigned for 12,300 years, * Wiedemann, ' y^^gyptische Geschichte,' p. 25. ^ Maspero, ' Histoire Ancienne, p. 18. 54 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. according to Manetho, a celebrated priest of Heliopolis who flourished about B. C. 261. Of the next two dynasties we only know that they were termed, it is supposed, 'the followers of Horus.' So that at present nothing is really known of the Eg>^ptian rulers before Menes, the first historical king of Egypt. Many dates have been fixed by scholars for the reign of this king : Champollion-Figeac thought about B.C. 5867, Bunsen 3623, Lepsius 3892, Brugsch 4455, and Wilkinson 2320; but it must be understood that a correct chronology of the early empire of Egypt is not at present possible, for only approximate data can be given. ^ ft^^^^ [j j Mena or Menes, the first king of Egypt, came from the town of Teni, the Greek This, near Abydos. According to Herodotus, he built the great temple of Ptah, established a regular worship there, and is said to have founded the great city of Memphis, which name means * the good place.' He built a large dyke to protect this city, and it is that which even to-day protects Gizeli from excessive inundation. He was a mighty warrior, and waged war with the Libyans. The tradition of his death is that he was devoured by a "■ Since it is impossible to give here an account of each king of Eg}'pt and his works, we can only refer to the most important of them, reserving our special attention for those kings with whom the children of Israel came in contact. On pages 12 to 14 we have given a list of the kings and the approximate dates of their reigns from Brugsch's ' Egypt under the Pharaohs : ' and for fuller information on matters of Eg)'ptian history we refer the reader to Dr. Birch's 'Egypt,' Wiedemann's ' ^E^gyptische Geschichte,' and the above-mentioned work of Brugsch. THE LAND OF EGYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC. 55 crocodile. He was succeeded by his son Athothis, who is said to have written books on anatomy. Remarkably little is known of Menes, for none of his inscriptions have been found ; his name, however, is placed first in the list of kings. The next Egyptian king of importance was Ata, or as the Greeks called him, Ouenephes ; and he is famous for having built pyramids at Kochome near Sakkarah. Of the remaining kings of the first and second dynasties but little is known. During the reign of Necherophes or Nefer-ka-Seker, the first king of the third or Memphitic dynasty, we are told by Manetho that an eclipse took place, and the Libyans, with whom this king was fighting, were so terrified that they submitted im- mediately. The fourth dynasty was also from Memphis, and it was under these kings that Egypt became famous ; it must be remembered that at this period we are able to obtain information from the monuments which the kings of the fourth dynasty erected. During the reign of Senefru (pi ;^ ^ j its first king, a veiy valuable mine of turquoise was found in Arabia at Wady Magharah, and traces of the workings, etc., are still to be seen. An invasion of the Amu took place in the reign of this king, who appears to have been occupied in various wars. Some have thought that the pyramid of Meydoum marks the place of his sepulchre, but his body has not hitherto been found. 56 THE DWELLERS OX THE NILE. [ s^^.=^^ j| ^2ifu^ or Cheops (B.C. 3733), the successor of Senefru, is celebrated chiefly for the immense pyramid, called ' Height,' which he built at Gizeh, the height of which is 450 feet, and the breadth at the base 746 feet. The pyramids which come next in point of size are the pyramids of Chephren and IMycerinus ; the former is 447 feet high, and measures 690 feet at the base ; while the latter is 203 feet high, and measures 352 feet at the base. The pyramids were graves ; the plan of construction, as laid down by Lepsius, is as follows : When a new king ascended the throne he began at once to build a pyramid. The site having been chosen, the ground was levelled, and a slanting shaft was bored out of the solid rock ; and at the end of this shaft a rectangular chamber was made, which was intended to hold the sarcophagus containing the king's body. On the flat site a comparatively small building was made, the outsides of which were steep steps. If the king died at this stage of the work, he was laid in his sarcophagus, and the steep steps of the little building were filled up with triangular pieces of stone, and so its sides became smooth, and the pyramid, though little, was complete. If, on the other hand, the king lived another year, a second layer of stones was built on to the four sides of the pyramid ; and for ^v&ry year the king lived a fresh layer of stones was built on to the four sides ; but the layers became gradually smaller. When the king died no further layers were added, and the pyramid was finished either by the steps being filled THE LAND OF EGYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC. 5/ up with exactly fitting pieces of stone, or another layer of stones was added, and then the edges of the stones were chiselled away until each side of the structure was perfectly smooth. It is perfectly evident that such a tomb might well be considered everlasting, for it was inaccessible to the attacks of the elements, and its destruction would be a very difficult piece of work even for modern nations. The size of a pyramid then, varied generally with the length of the king's life ; but vanity and a desire to possess the largest pyramid, may have induced a king to add two layers or even more for each year of his life. There are some who doubt the truth of this theory of pyramid construction, but it has been pointed out that the nearer the inside the better is the work found to be ; while each subsequent layer seems to have been more carelessly and hastily built than its fellow.^ The Egyptian word for pyramid is abiner. The greater part of a pyramid was built of limestone, but red granite was used for certain parts, such as the interior of the passages, of the Great Pyramid. Small passages leading upwards and downwards are found inside some of the pyramids. When the mummy of the king had been deposited in the sarcophagus inside the chamber within the pyramid, all the various path- ways were filled up with blocks of stone. ^ Various elaborate theories have been propounded in respect of the building of the pyramids, and the reader is referred to Prof. Piazzi Smyth's works, and ' The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh,' by Mr. W. M. F. Pctrie. 58 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. Even to the Egyptians, who were accustomed to build pyramids, such constructions must have appeared difficult ; and an idea will be obtained of the amount of labour necessary for the building of the pyramid of Cheops, when we consider that the causeway along which the stone was brought took ten years to build, the work being performed by a gang of one hundred thousand men, changed every three months ; thus four million men were employed on this work alone, w^hile it required seven millions more to build the pyramid itself^ The number of chambers in the pyramids has been accounted for by supposing that when the pyramid was begun a subterranean chamber was made for the royal tomb : but when the king lived long, and the pyramid grew larger, they built another chamber and left the first one empty. If the king should still continue to live, and the pyramid grew very large, another chamber was built to receive his sarcophagus and mummy. These first chambers v/ere then probably used for his queen or his relatives. The family of Cheops was buried near his pyramid, and Lepsius, during his journey across the plains stretch- ing from Meydoum to Memphis, found the remains of no less than seventy-five pyramids, including those of various members of the family of Cheops. Cheops waged war against his enemies, and the rocks in the Wady Maghara represent him not only in combat with them., but victorious over them. He is said to have been 1 Birch, ' Eg>^pt,' p. 35. The Sphinx. THE LAND OF EGYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC. 6 1 a great tyrant and a very wicked man ; but Manetho vvent so far as to say that in his old age he repented of his folly and wrote a book, which posterity considered holy. Another story is that the Egyptian nation hated him so bitterly on account of the forced labour which he imposed upon them, that it was necessary to bury him in a subterranean chamber surrounded on all sides by the waters of the Nile. During the reign of Cheops a medical papyrus, now in the British Museum, was found by a priest in a temple, by moonlight.^ (OS " — ° 1 X^f~-^^ ^^ Chephren, the successor of Cheops, also built a pyramid, which he called ' Great,' near that of Cheops ; it is most beautifully made, but is not so large as that of his predecessor. Chephren is also justly renowned for having built the small temple behind the Sphinx. The Sphinx (called in Egyptian Hu) is really an immense lion with a man's head and represented the god Harmachis, or the sun on the horizon cOj. Between its paws is a narrow way leading to a temple which has been made in front of the figure ; and as the name of Chephren is found in inscriptions on the spot, it has been supposed by some that this king caused the Sphinx to be hewn out of the living rock ; but it is not certain. The total height of the monument is about 65 feet, and its length about 190 feet. The face of this magnificent monster was originally coloured red, and covered with polished stone, but almost every trace of this covering ' See ' Zeitschrift fvir Aegyptische Sprache,' 1871, p. 62. 62 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. has now disappeared. The beard is in the British Museum. The features are said to have been solemn, majestic, and benignant. Its nose has been quite destroyed, and many visitors to the Sphinx now-a-days think that this magnificent figure, which has seen hundreds of genera- tions rise and decay, which has gazed across the fiery sands of the desert for thousands of years, and to whom the duration of an empire is but a few years, exists solely for them to chip and carve their names upon. (^O i!ii^ U U Ul Menkmi-Rd, or Mycerinus, like his two predecessors, built for himself a pyramid, and is supposed to have reigned sixty-three years. Tradition makes him to have been a pious and good king, and one who was a devout worshipper of the god Osiris. An attempt was made in the year 1196 A.D. to entirely destroy the pyramid which he built ; but in reality, his pyramid, which is the third at Gizeh, is the least damaged. Colonel Vyse says that when he had reached the sarcophagus chamber inside the pyramid, he found there the stone sarcophagus of the king, and the wooden cover of the inside coffin, which was made of cedar. The body of the king had been carried to the upper chamber in the pyramid, and had literally been torn to pieces, most probably when the pyramid was broken open A.D. 1 196 in search of treasure. The sarcophagus and cover of the coffin were shipped on board an English vessel ; but, alas ! the ship was wrecked and the sarcophagus found a resting-place at the bottom THE LAND OF EGYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC. 6^ of the sea near Gibraltar. Fortunately the wooden cover was cast up by the sea, and the British Museum (third Egyptian Room) possesses this, together with a small fragment of the stone sarcophagus, and some fragments of the mummy. On the cover are two lines of inscrip- tion, which are translated by Dr. Birch ■} ' Osiris, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Menkaura, the ever living, born of Nut (the goddess of the celestial waters), substance of Seb ; thy mother Nut is spread over thee ; she renders thee divine by annihilating thy enemies. O king Menkaura, living for ever.' These fragments of mummy, coffin, and sarcophagus are of the greatest interest ; for not only do they show that mummifying was at that time a well-understood art, but they speak to us across a gulf of five thousand five hundred j^ears, and tell us something of their religious views and ideas. Moreover, there is very little difference between the shape of the hieroglyphs of those days and those of a much later date ; and however far we go back, we never come to an inscription belonging to a period in which we can see that the Egyptians were learning to write. Mycerinus was followed by a king called Sheps-es-kaf, and with him the great and important fourth dynasty closes. We pass over the kings of the fifth and sixth dynasties, merely remarking that their united reigns occupied a period of about four hundred years, and that what is • For other versions, see Brugsch, ' Eg)'pt under the Pharaohs,' p. S;^ ; and Wiedemann, ' Geschichte,' p. 192. 64 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. generally known as the ' Old Empire ' came to an end with this dynasty about three thousand years before Christ. Very little beyond the names of the kings who belonged to the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh dynasties is known ; and a gap of about five hundred years occurs in the history which it is absolutely impos- sible to fill up in detail. The first king of the twelfth dynasty was called Amenemha ; he did battle with a Lybian tribe called the Mat'iu, and defeated the Uaua of Nubia in the twenty- ninth year of his reign. During his reign Egypt enjoyed great tranquillity, and the people from the highest to the lowest received the proper care due to them. In his later years a conspiracy was formed against him ; but he was fortunate enough to escape the death by which he was threatened at the hand of his foes, who attacked him in his bed-room at night. His son Usertsen I. was associated with him in the kingdom during the last years of his reign ; and he wrote a book for this son full of instructive sayings, a late copy of which is now in the British Museum. Usertsen I. was occupied for some years in fighting a confederacy of Ethiopian tribes ; and during the first years of his reign he built some magnificent edifices in Heliopolis, and completed several of the works under- taken by his father ; he also had gold brought from Nubia, and turquoise from the peninsula of Sinai. A beautiful inscription at Beni-Hassan records that a THE LAND OF EGYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC 65 prince named Amen, at the head of four hundred men, accompanied the king in one of his Ethiopian wars ; he describes himself as being an upright, honest, and indefatigable servant of the king, doing his behests in and out of season ; rendering up to him whatever was due to him without keeping back the least particle for himself, giving strict justice to all, showing kindness to the fatherless and widow, the poor and the distressed, taking nought of the poor man's crop, nor accepting the person of a great man before his humbler fellow ; and he boasts that having ploughed the whole of his land from the north to the south, there was not a hungry person in the whole land. Following the example of his father, Usertsen I. associated his son Amenemha II. in the rule of the kingdom during the last few years of his life, and the like was done by Amenemha in respect of his son Usertsen II. During the reign of this monarch there lived a prince called Khnum-hetep, the son of Nehara and his wife Bakat. His official position was that of chief of the district of Menat-Khufu, but our attention is drawn to him by his tomb, which still exists. Everything connected with the life of an Egyptian, the appliances of art, the tools of trade, sacrificial scenes, and scenes of life itself, are represented by picture and hieroglyph on Egyptian tombs with wonderful accuracy and beauty. One scene more than all others demands our attention, for in it some have seen a representation of Jacob's arrival in Egypt. It would appear that a family of thirty-seven people belonging to the Amu E 66 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. race emigrated to Egypt in the reign of Usertsen II., and brought with them an eye-paint called mestevi, which was considered of great value. The features of these people are Jewish, their garments are of different shape, pattern and colours from those of the Egyptians ; the leader is better dressed than his fellows, and is called Abesha. The rest of the company is composed of men (armed with bows and arrows, and spears), women, and children ; one man plays a seven-stringed lyre; and then follow the baggage animals. At all events such a picture will give an idea of what the arrival of a party of foreigners in Egypt would look like ; and when we read in the hieroglyphs that the chief of the party brought the valuable eye unguent to the chief of the land, we are reminded of Jacob's speech to his sons, ' Carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds.'^ The next king, Usertsen III., continued the wars against the Ethiopians, and built the fortress of Samneh. The struggle between the Ethiopians and the Egyptians appears to have been very severe ; and at Samneh there was a tablet erected which forbade any negroes to pass by this place, unless they were in boats laden with goats, oxen, or other animals. Eventually the Egyptians were victorious. About fifteen hundred years after, Thoth- mes II. deified king Usertsen III., and caused festivals to be celebrated in his honour. Amenemha III., the successor of Usertsen III., is ^ Gen. xliii. ii. (See Frontispiece also.) THE LAND OF EGYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC. 6/ renowned not for wars or conquests, but for a thoroughly useful piece of work, whose benefit to the people of that day it would be hard to estimate, and still harder to over- rate. It is well known that the prosperity of Egypt de- pends upon a regular inundation, neither too great nor too little, of the Nile. If it is too little, then there ensues a famine, and if it is too great, there is also a famine. Amenemha III. sought to lessen the danger of the starvation of his people by building the enormous lake Moeris (in Egyptian Mi-iir, ' the great water '), in the district called the Fayoum, in the west of Egypt, in which the surplus water of the inundation might be stored up for use in time of need. It was surrounded on all sides by dams, and was connected by a canal with the Nile. The lake was stocked with fish. In the Museum at Boulak there is preserved part of a papyrus which gives a plan of the lake and canal. The constructor of this work also built a pyramid 246 feet high, and the wonderful palace called the Labyrinth, which some say had three hundred rooms above ground, and the same number below ; Herodotus, however, gives the immense number of four thousand five hundred. The last king of the twelfth dynasty was Amenemha IV. ; and from this period (about 2200 B.C.) to the eighteenth dynasty there is a gap of about five hundred years. It is during this break that the rule of the Hyksos or 'Shepherd Kings' comes in. Having migrated into Egypt from the East, they established themselves at Memphis, and made themselves masters E 2 6S THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. of the whole country ; but they were expelled from Egypt finally by Ahmes, the first king of the eighteenth dynasty, about 1700 B.C. Before their downfall wars had been going on for several years between these rulers from the East and such of the native chiefs as were able to muster armed men and to make an attempt to liberate their country. The British Museum possesses a very valuable papyrus relating to this period, the importance of which was first recognized by De Rouge. It appears that the last * Shepherd King,' Apepi II., was a worshipper of the god Sutech, and wishing to build a magnificent temple to this god, he sent and demanded assistance in the shape of men and materials for his work from the Egyptian prince called Sekenen Ra. The prince called a council, and determined to refuse to comply with this demand ; but although Sekenen Ra began the rebellion against the usurpers of the throne of Egypt, he appears never to have attained the throne himself, for the next monarch of all Egypt was called Ahmes, i.e., ' the child of the Moon,' who was descended from the kings of the seventeenth dynasty ; the official position which he held under Sekenen Ra was 'chief of the sailors' in a vessel called the * Calf He distinguished himself by his valour in a number of victorious battles at Avaris and the fortress of Sharuhen, by which the power of the * Shepherd Kings ' was utterly broken ; and at length, having reconquered the land of Egypt, this mighty soldier took up the reins of government and became THE LAND OF EGYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC. 69 king. Under his firm but mild rule the temples, which had been sadly neglected, were repaired, a temple dedicated to Ptah at Memphis, and another to Amen- Ra at Thebes. Ahmes reigned twenty-two years, and married Ahmes- Nefertari, a negress, who appears to have ruled for some time after her husband's death. Their son Amenhotep ruled eleven years. Following this monarch came Thothmes I., who made expeditions into Mesopotamia, attacked the Syrians, and among other buildings erected two granite obelisks before the temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes. He was succeeded by his daughter, queen Hatasu, who in compliance with public opinion associated her brother Thothmes 11. with her in the kingdom. Thothmes 11. ruled apparently for a short time only, and it is hard to say whether he was murdered, or whether he died in peace. After his death the queen became sole ruler, put on the dress of a man, and gave orders to have the name of her brother Thothmes 11. erased from the monuments. During her reign an expedition was undertaken to the land of Punt, or the spice country ; and spices, gold, ivory, precious stones, and all other products of this wonderful — and to the Egyptians new — land were brought home. Some trees were brought home so large that it took six men to carry each of them. This queen also ordered two magnificent monolith granite obelisks with shining metal tops to be made, which should stand before the gate of Thothmes I., and record her works for ever. 70 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. Later on in her reign she associated another brother, Thothmes III., with herself in the kingdom, but the same fate befell her as befell her brother Thothmes II. ; for wherever on the monuments she appears co-regent with Thothmes III., her name has been carefully chiselled out and destroyed. Bust of Thothmes HL After the death of Hatasu, {q t^^ ^J Thothmes III. became sole ruler of Egypt. By his success in mighty wars, and by the enormous quantity of tribute with which he enriched the Egyptian nation, as well as by his numerous and beautiful buildings in Thebes, Memphis, THE LAND OF EGYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC. 7 1 and Heliopolis, he deserves in all respects the name of 'great' among the Egyptian kings. He marched into Mesopotamia as far as Nineveh, and wherever he went the nations hastened to submit to him, and to pay tribute; the few that would not do this, but preferred to do battle with him, were ignominiously defeated. Ethiopia, Syria, and Phoenicia were among the principal countries that paid immense tribute ; and the record of the wars of this monarch, and the enumeration of the different amounts of tribute received, are sufficient to form a large decoration for the sandstone wall which surrounds the temple at Thebes, which he built. Among the lists of the peoples conquered by Thothmes III. occurs the name Aperti^ which some have considered to represent the Hebrews. The reader will be familiar with the name of Thothmes HI., for it was this king who had made, and inscribed with his own name, the obelisk which is commonly known as ' Cleopatra's Needle,' which now stands on the Thames Embankment^ Thothmes reigned fifty-four years, and was succeeded by Amenhotep H., who after a short reign made way for Thothmes IV., the king mentioned on the tablet between the forepaws of the Sphinx. A useful piece of work done by him was to remove the sand which almost buried this mighty figure and prevented people from fully appreciating its size. Following Thothmes IV. comes Amenhotep HI,, in whose reign architecture and sculpture arrived at a high pitch of perfection. He was a great warrior, and ' See ' Cleopatra's Needle,' By-paths of Bible Knowledge, No. i. 72 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. the sculptures represent him receiving tribute of all sorts from the people of Mesopotamia and Ethiopia. In the former land he says that he killed two hundred and ten lions with his own hand. He is renowned also for the famous statues of Memnon, about 68 feet high, which he erected before the palace of Luxor ; one of these was broken by an earthquake a few years before our era, and was afterwards repaired by the Emperor Severus about 190 A.D. Before this accident it was alleged that the figure sang when the rays of the sun fell upon it at dawn. Amenhotep III. was a devout worshipper of the god Amen, and during his reign he built a large number of temples to this god and to others. Amenhotep III. made his son, Amenhotep IV., king during his own reign. He is famous as having been the introducer of the worship of the sun's disk. According to the Egyptian priests, he was an unbeliever of the rankest type, for the most popular worship at that time was that of the god Amen. He seemed to have taken such a dislike to this god, that he changed his name from Amen-hotep to K/m-en-aten, i.e., 'the glory of the disk ;' and not content with this, he gave orders to have the name Amen erased from all the sculptures, and he determined to remove from the capital city and found a new one for himself, where he could erect temples to his favourite deity. In this place, which is known to-day by the name of Tel-el-Amarna, he built a magnificent temple in honour of the sun's disk, not far from the Nile on the eastern side. The THE LAND OF EGYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC. 73 next important kings of this dynasty were called Ai and Har-em-hebi : but we pass on at once to the important nineteenth dynasty. From the monuments we learn very little about Rameses, the first of that name, and the founder of the nineteenth dynasty (about 1400 B.C.). From later sources he is known to have joined battle with Saprer the king of the Khita or Hittites, but of this we shall speak further on ; his battles with the Khita and other nations were continued by his son Seti I. Seti took up arms against the Asiatics, and made war with the Shasu or Arabs, the Libyans and the Ethiopians : in the sculptures we see him not only directing the battle, but at times fighting hand to hand in mortal combat. The names of the towns and fortresses were abolished by him, and new Egyptian names given in their stead ; new fortresses were built where necessary, and great pains were taken to systematically reduce the countries around to the rule of the king. Among the names of the places to which he went are many which are met with in the Bible, such as Canaan, Migdol, and Kadesh. He built the Memnonium, a small temple to Sekhet at Beni-Hassan, a well in the desert, and set up in Heliopolis an obelisk, which is now in Rome, as well as many other great works. He reigned fifty-one years, and the visitor to Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields may there see his beautiful marble sarcophagus. . If Seti I. made Egypt great at home and abroad, it was only a fitting preparation of the country for the long 74 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. and brilliant reign of his successor f | jj © i> — . ^-^^^^ J Rameses II. Under his rule the wars were carried out on a larger scale than had ever before been contemplated ; countries where the Egyptians had never been seen, learned to know them by the soldiers of Rameses ; and at home the arts and sciences advanced with such mag- nificent strides, that the civilised nations of to-day have not yet ceased to wonder at the ingenuity and skill which performed such wonderful deeds and works. Josiah the king of Judah began to reign at the age of eight years,^ and it is probable that Rameses the Great was at an equally early age associated with his father in the rule of the kingdom : only four or five years after this association he was already a man of war, having led an expedition against the enemies of Egypt and beaten them ; but, as we shall see soon, the youthful king had the utmost need of all his power and bravery to keep in check the immense number of nations which had been rendered tributary to Egypt. The first war in which the young prince took part was that against the Ethiopians ; and in the fifth year of his reign the brave rebellion of the Khita or Hittites took place, which ended in the Khita being reckoned a nation of almost equal importance with the Egyptians. This war and its incidents have formed the subject of the prize poem of a scribe called Pentaur, and although Rameses II. did not come out of this fight with such ^ 2 Kings xxii. i. THE LAND OF EGYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC. // glory as he wished, yet the words of this song describing the bravery and deeds of the king in the highest terms of praise, were inscribed upon the walls of the temples at Abydos, and copies of it were made upon papyrus, to be handed down to future generations. Rameses II. was obliged to make a treaty with the Khita,^ a copy of which, mutilated in some parts, is still extant. Mr. Lushington's translation of the poems of Pentaur on the war will be found in the chapter on Egyptian literature, p. lOO. Not only in writing was this battle of Rameses II. celebrated, but the best artists of the day were employed to depict its various incidents at Abu-Simbel, Beit Oually, and elsewhere. At Kadesh on the Orontes a very fierce battle took place, and both sides fought with the greatest courage. The chariots of the Khita and their allies are depicted as having been overturned into the river. This battle cost them a number of very important lives : for the brother of the king of the Khita, the charioteer of the king, the chief general of the army, and the leader of the cavalry were all killed. One of the pictures shows the king of Khilibu or Khiribu, an ally of the Khita king, being rescued by his own men from drowning in the river. From the ^ A translation of this document was first made by Rosellini in 1839 ; another by De Rouge in 1866 ; and a third by Goodwin in 1862. English versions are given in Brugsch's ' Egypt under the Pharaohs,' vol. ii., p. 68 ; and in Prof. Sayce's 'Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments,' pp.191-197. yS THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. description of the battle we learn that Rameses advanced too far into the thick of the fight, and so found himself surrounded on all sides. In this difficulty and dire necessity the king prayed to Amen, who appearing to him, encouraged him with words, and taking him by the hand, led him to victory over the foe. So ended this great war ; but whether Egypt gained much more than glory by it, is difficult to say. The treaty between Egypt and the Khita was, however, in later days firmly cemented by Rameses marrying, in his thirty-fourth year, the daughter of the king of the Khita, who took the Egyptian name of Ur-ma-neferu-Ra. After the battle with the Khita Rameses in a series of wars reduced the Canaanites, the Amorites, the people of Syria, and others. He was a mighty builder, and erected temples to the principal gods of Egypt at Memphis, Thebes, and Abydos : he completed the great wall from Heliopolis to Pelusium, which his father Seti I. had begun to build, in order to keep out the never quiet Asiatics, who for ever desired to make inroads on the land of Egypt. It was on this wall that the ' treasure cities ' of Pithom and Raamses,^ which the children of Israel built, are supposed by some to have been placed ; but other scholars have placed Pithom elsewhere, and identified the Hebrew Succoth with a district of Egypt called TJiiikn. In the latter part of his reign Rameses II. erased his father's name from the monuments, inserting his own in its place : the reader ' Ex. i. II. THE LAND OF ECxYPT, ITS PEOPLE, ETC. 79 will remember that this king caused his name to be inscribed on two of the faces of ' Cleopatra's Needle/ while the other two bear the name of the king Thothmes III. who erected it. Rameses II. reigned sixty-seven years ; as co-regent with his father Seti I. for more than one-half of the time, and the remainder of the period as sole monarch. The monuments inform us that he had several wives, and one hundred and sixty-two children, of whom one hundred and eleven were sons. He was succeeded by his thirteenth son, called Mer-en-Ptah, or Meneptah, who is remarkable for neither wars nor buildings, but who calls for our attention as being in all probability the ' Pharaoh ' of the Exodus. 8o CHAPTER IV. Illustrations of the Pentateuch and Bible passages from the egyptian monuments. The first of the Hebrew patriarchs who had intimate deahngs with the Egyptians was the Chaldean Abraham. From his eastern home he wandered towards the West, and under the guidance of El-Shaddai the already aged man directed his journey to Canaan. During his journey through this land his God appeared to him/ and declared the promise that his seed should be its possessors. Now Abraham journeyed on towards the south.^ Centuries must have elapsed since Egypt had become a settled monarchy with absolute monarchs, and a regular system of rule prevailed over the land. The care with which the Nile inundation was watched, how its waters were used for the irrigation of the country, the fertility of the land, its immense resources and its riches ; the report of all these things would become the common property of the nations around, and hence the stranger Abraham journey- ing through Canaan would hear that even though there was a scarcity of food in Canaan, there was a certainty of food in Egypt. So towards Egypt he bent his steps, ' Gen. xii. 7. ^ Qg^. xii. 9. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. 8 J meaning to remain there for a time.^ But the patriarch dreaded lest his wife should be taken from him, and lest himself should be slain. ^ The possibility of such a thing being done has made some argue that the manners of the Egyptians must have been savage and barbaric. In the inscriptions, however, we meet two facts which bear upon this point ; the first is recorded in the * Tale of Two Brothers,' where we are told that a king of Egypt sent two armies to bring a beautiful woman to him, and to murder her husband ; and the second is a statement in a papyrus pointed out by M. Chabas, which states that the wife and children of a foreigner are by right the lawful property of the king. The kindness of the Pharaoh of Abraham is too well known to need any mention, and after receiving rich presents the patriarch went up out of Egypt. It has been very generally supposed that Abraham's visit to Egypt took place under the reign of one of the kings of the twelfth dynasty, but which king has not yet been satisfactorily made out. Egypt, like every country where the supply of water is irregular, was exceedingly liable to terrible famines, and history tells us that it was Amenemha III. who was the first king that appreciated the full danger of this calamity, for he gave all his attention to building the huge reservoir called Lake Moeris in the Fayoum. Connected with this lake was a series of locks, dykes, and channels, by which the whole land might receive a regulated supply ^ Gen. xii. lo, 2 q^^ ^-jj j2. ]QIa^ S2 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. of water. Even modern engineers have admired the remains of this construction, and it has been said that the Egypt of to-day would be a great gainer if the work could be restored, and a new lake made. Hence some Biblical critics have considered that Amenemha III. was king of Egypt when Abraham came there, and others that Usertsen I. was king, and that Amenemha was the Pharaoh of the time of Joseph ; but in any case the fact that Abraham came there adout that time is generally accepted. The next and most important of all the relations which ever existed between the Jews and Egyptians, was that begun by the arrival of Jacob's darling child in Egypt. Sold by his brethren to a company of Ish- maelites for twenty pieces of silver,^ he was in turn sold by them in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and the captain of the guard or executioners. Here the youthful and handsome Hebrew showed his devotion to his master, and eventually became so trusted that he was set over all his house. The next part of his history is illustrated by an extract from the D'Orbiney Papyrus in the British Museum, containing the Story of the Two Brothers.- The papyrus was written by the scribe Enna, and was originally in the possession of Scti H., a king of the nineteenth dynasty, so that it is as old as the stay of the Jews in Egypt. A paraphrase of the whole story is given in the chapter on Egyptian litera- ture, p. 115. ^ Gen. xxxvii. 28. ^ See ' Records of the Past,' ii. p' 137. ILT,USTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. 83 When Potiphar had heard his wife's story, Joseph was cast into prison, where again he held a superior position, and where he interpreted the dreams of the butler and baker, the former of whom was pardoned on the king's birthday. Later he is called upon to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh. In all these narratives we find passages in which the testimony of the Bible and of the monuments go hand in hand. Cups such as the king would have taken his wine from are portrayed ; baskets such as the baker would have carried his 'bakemeats' in are used even unto this day, and may be seen in the British Museum. We know from the Rosetta Stone (line forty-six of the Greek text) that as late as that period (195 B.C.) it was customary to make great rejoicings on the king's birthday/ to consider it holy, and to do no work on it, and that the Pharaoh would pardon his butler as an act of grace is more than probable. In the seven cows which Pharaoh saw feeding in the meadow, Dr. Birch has seen a reference to the seven cows of Athor, pictured in the vignette of the one hundred and forty-eighth chapter of the Book of the Dead ; and the Hebrew Bible has preserved the Egyptian word for ' reed grass ' in the word which has been translated * meadow.' During the period of Pharaoh's anxiety to have his dreams interpreted, the butler remembered his former prison companion, Joseph, and made mention of him to ^ Wilkinson, ' Ancient Egyptians,' iii. p. 330. F 2 84 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. his lord. Before Joseph entered the presence he shaved, and changed his raiment.^ Here again the monuments and profane history offer us illustrations. The Egyptians only allowed their hair to grow during the times of mourning, and to neglect the hair was considered very slovenly and dirty ; when a man of low station had to be represented, the artist always drew him with a beard. The artists carried this so far, that Rameses Egyptian Barbers at Work. VII., who was negligent about his dress, is portrayed on his tomb at Thebes with the addition of a stubbly beard of some few days' growth. The heads of the Egyptians were shaved, only locks being left here and there, and the priests shaved the whole body every three days, while the Jews and other foreign nations delighted in long beards. The British Museum possesses Egyptian razors, and in a tomb at Beni-Hassan the act of shaving ' Gen. xli. 14. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. S5 is actually represented. The razors are of various shapes, and were carried about in a bag from place to place. The scribe who wrote the hymn in praise of learning has contrasted the hard work of the barber with that of the scribe. The scribe holds places of honour ; from his youth he is a counsellor, and is sent on royal commissions ; but The barber is shaving till evening. When he places himself to eat he places himself on his elbows. He places himself at street after street to seek after shaving. He wearies his hands to fill his belly, as bees feed by their labour.^ When Pharaoh had told his dream, and had heard its interpretation, he determined to accept the advice given by Joseph, and straightway appointed him lord over all Egypt, second only to the king, at the same time giving him rich and valuable presents. He first gave him a ring, the supreme emblem of the king's authority, which by that gift was transferred to Joseph ; he next arrayed him in fine linen, for which Egypt was so celebrated, and which was the material of which the dress of the Egyptian priests was made ; and putting a chain of gold about his neck, he made him ride through the land as ruler, while all the people shouted before him words of praise. The gift of a chain or collar of ^ Dr. Birch, 'Records of the Past,' vlii. p. 148. 86 THE DWELLERS O^S THE NILE. gold to a high officer was apparently a custom with the kings of Egypt. When Ahmes, the chief of the sailors, and afterwards king of Egypt, cut off the head of a dead enemy at Avaris and brought it to the king, a collar of gold was given to him as a reward ; and after another battle, in which he had shown the same prowess, he received another chain or collar from the hands of the grateful king. The word or words which the Egyptians cried out before Joseph offer much difficulty of explanation ; some have said that they should be trans- lated ' Bow the head,' and others think it means * Rejoice ; ' but so far its real meaning is a mystery, though, should the word be Hebrew, the rendering 'Bow the knee' is probably good. Besides all this, Pharaoh gave Joseph an Egyptian name, and he married Asenath, the daughter of a priest of On. The name of his former master, Potiphar, appears to be a perfectly good Egyptian name, and Egyptologists have pointed out that its probable equivalent in hieroglyphics is : — D /^ □ ^^ ^^^^ ® % i.e., ' devoted to the Sun-god.' Pa-ta-pa-Ra So likewise has Joseph's new name Zaphnath-paaneah been shown by Mr. Le Page Renouf and others to be ^ ^ ^-^ ^ ^ i.e., ' Storehouse of the house K-^ln ^ T © ofLife.'i t'eft-ent-pa-an;^ * Brugsch makes it, 'Governor of the district of the place of Life.' — * Egypt under the Pharaohs,' ii. p. 265. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC ^y The name of his wife, Asenath, is said to mean * devoted to Neit,' while the city On is the Annu, m ^ or Heliopolis of the Egyptians. The gift of a new name to Joseph reminds us of Daniel being called Belte- shazzar by Nebuchadnezzar, and the new names of Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael ; while a parallel case of a foreigner being raised to so high a position in Egypt is given by the papyrus relating to the story of Saneha. The subsequent history of Joseph, his divining cup, his giving his brethren changes of garments, the land of Goshen being set apart for his father and brethren, because the shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians, and the embalming of his father, exhibit in a striking manner the rigid accuracy of the Bible in its many references to Egyptian habits and customs. Joseph would, of course, be held in the highest honour by the Pharaoh and his successors for the wonderful policy by which he ' bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh ;' and he proved beyond all doubt that it was possible for the crops of the years of plenty to be stored up, so that the inhabitants of the land should not perish in the years of drought or scarcity. So when we read that the people said to Joseph, * Thou hast saved our lives,'* we must understand that it was not said with the lips only and without meaning ; but that it was the truth, and represented the heartfelt and grateful thanks ' Gen. \lvii. 2v 88 THE DWELLERS ON THE NH.E. of a native to the man who was, as his Egyptian name signified, * the storehouse of the house of Life.' After the days had multiphed, and the good and grjat things which Joseph had done for Egypt had been forgotten by the ruling dynasty, ' there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.'^ It is generally accepted now that Joseph was sold into Egypt at the time when the Hyksos were in power ; and it is also generally accepted that the Exodus took place after the death of Rameses II., and under the reign of Merenptah or Meneptah. Now the children of Israel were in captivity in Egypt for four hundred,^ or four hundred and thirty years ;' and as they went out of Egypt after the death of Rameses II., it was probably some time about the year 1350 B.C. There is little doubt that the Pharaoh who persecuted the Israelites so shamefully was Rameses II.; though there are some who say that it was Ahmes or Amasis I. The Pharaoh first set the Israelites hard and difficult burdens, and then appointed overseers to look after them and see that they did their work. Both tradition and the monuments prove and supplement this statement ; for Diodorus'* tells us that Rameses II. or Sesostris put up an inscription in each of his buildings saying that it had been erected by captives, and that not a single native Egyptian was employed on the work. Again, this king set up a brick factory, or field as we should say, and by » Ex i. 8. 2 Gen. xv. 13. ^ Ex. xii. 40. ■* i. 56; Herod, ii, 108. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. BRICK STAMP OF RAMESES II. employing the labour of captives and others was enabled to sell his bricks at a lower price than any other maker.^ Rameses II., like Nebuchadnezzar and the other kings of Babylon, had a stamp made, and his bricks were impressed with it.^ They were made with or without straw, and it was a common custom not to burn the bricks, but to dry them in the sun ; for in that dry country, where rain seldom comes, the sun-dried brick was just as useful for the pur- pose of building as the baked. The Jews appear to have lived upon their own land, and some members of each family no doubt tilled it, that the others might have food. They were not the only nations so employed, for the monuments show us people who are certainly not Jews making bricks and performing other servile work. They worked in detachments, each superintended by a taskmaster, and they were compelled to make so many bricks per day.^ When Pharaoh wished to increase their labour, he ordered them to use stubble instead of strawy and so the already overtasked labourers were obliged to go into the fields where the reapers had been, and to cut off the stalks ' Wilkinson, * Ancient Egyptians,' i. p. 343. - Sun-dried bricks of Rameses II., Tholhmes III,, &c., may be seen in the British Museum (first Egyptian Room) ; as also a piece of burnt brick of Thothmes III. ^ Ex. V. 13. 90 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. that remained, to chop them small, and then to mix them with the mud. Whatever the Pharaoh ordered had to be done. Dr. Birch mentions the endorsement of a papyrus referring to twelve brick-makers employed to build a house, where it is said, * Let there be no relaxation that they should make their number of bricks daily in the new house in the same manner, to obey the messages sent by my lord.' So then, together with slaves of other nations, the Jews were forced to build for their oppressor the treasure cities of Pithom and Raamses.^ The town Raamses was called after the name of its builder Rameses II. ; and the remains of a town called Pithom — whose name means the ' Temple of Tmu ' — have been found by M. Naville at a place which the monuments there call Thuku or TJuikiit, and which is said to be the Succoth of the Old Testament. There are difficulties in the way of accepting this theory, but their discussion here would be tedious to the non-expert, and quite out of place. ' We have in a papyrus a description of the happy town of Raamses contained in a poem, the conckiding lines of which run : — There is a supply of provisions there daily. Gladness dwells within it. None speak scorn of it. There are sweet drinks in Aa-nechtu ; its liquors are like sugar, its syrups like the taste of caroobs surpassing honey. Joy remains there prolonged, unceasing. Rameses, the war-god of the world, is its god 3 ^ bJO , H S ^^TfWF^ ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. 93 In addition to the cruelty already exercised toward the children of Israel, the Pharaoh next gave orders to throw all the new-born male children into the river Nile : though, in spite of all the watchfulness employed in this matter, the child Moses was saved by being put in an ark of bulrushes, and laid among the reeds of the river. This ark was made of the papyrus plant, and it has been pointed out that the mother made the ark of this substance because it was imagined by the Egyptians to be a preservative against the attacks of crocodiles and other noxious beasts. When Pharaoh's daughter found the child, she decided to adopt it and bring it up ; and there can be little doubt that the future of the Jewish nation was much influenced by her act. As soon as he was of a sufficient age he would be sent to the Egyptian schools ; there he would learn all that the most celebrated and profound masters of the day could teach : and after some years he w^ould return, being skilled in writing and mathematics, and learned in all matters relating to the Egyptian religion, including its numerous branches of legend, myth, and history. The manners and customs of the best of the Egyptians would be familiar to him, as well as the rules of government : and such learning was a fitting help for his divine mission, as it enabled him to fight Pharaoh with his own weapons, while it taught the great deliverer of his race how to rule, and judge, and to' provide for the necessities of the people of Israel in future day?. There is no direct mention of the Israelites on the' 94 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. monuments or in the papyri, it is true, neither is there any representation of their servitude ; but it will be seen from what has been said above that the references and allusions in the Bible to Egypt and the Egyptians are perfectly accurate. The Amu, the representatives of the Semitic race generally, are depicted as brick-makers, and literally hewers of wood and drawers of water : hence none need expect that every family or tribe of this numerous and wide-spreading race would be portrayed on the temples, or walls, or tombs. Also, there is no mention of the plagues which came upon the oppressors ; but the nations of antiquity were not given to chronicling the misfortunes that overtook them. The persecution which Ramescs II. began was continued with vigour by Meri-en-Ptah or Meneptah( ^"""^ ^ 8 =^= ^^ ^^ ^ 9 J The bricks had to be made just the same, and the appointed * tale ' brought at the end of the day. Relying upon the long-sufferance and the captivity of the hosts of Israel, he increased their burdens, and made their lives so hard that their groans mounted up to the throne of God. The edict of deliverance came, the people went out in haste, but with riches, and the heart- hardened Pharaoh and the chiefs of his host were destroyed. The route of the Exodus has been a subject of much discussion and much conjecture ; but it will suffice to say that each of the theories hitherto laid down offers many difficulties, and a mere enumeration ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. 95 of them here would occupy much space, and give no satisfactory result. After Israel had gone forth out of Egypt, for some two or three centuries there were no friendly relations between the two nations until Solomon's time, when we are told that ' Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David ; ' ^ but meanwhile the twentieth dynasty had enjoyed its rule, and made way for the twenty-first dynasty, whose first king was called Harhor or Herher, and was a priest of the god Amen. The Egyptians again come in contact with Israel under the reign of Sheshank, or Shishak, the first king of the twenty-second dynasty. * In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord, with twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen : and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt ; the Lubims, the Sukkiims and the Ethiopians. And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem.'- A list of the towns captured by Shishak is given on a wall at Thebes ;'and among them we find Bethhoron, Ajalon, Megiddo, Edom, and * Judah-melek,' which Dr. Birch considers to be the royal city of Judah, i.e., Jerusalem.^ By the time of the twenty-fifth dynasty Egypt had ^ I Kings iii. I. - 2 Chron xii. 2-4. •^ ' History of Egypt,' p. 157. 96 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. become divided into a number of small principalities, which the Ethiopian prince Pi-ankhi ruled over at Noph.^ During the latter years of his reign, a rebellion of the native princes, headed by Nimrod the prince of Hermopolis. the chief of Menouthes, and others, broke out ; but the Ethiopian prince assembled his forces, and having beaten the rebels in a series of successful battles, he became lord of all Egypt. Concerning Tirhakah,- a successor of Pi-ankhi, we derive very important information from the Assyrian inscriptions. Tirhakah had been defeated by Esarhaddon, who had divided the country of Egypt into a number of districts, generally under Egyptian governors ; some of the rulers were, however, Assyrian, and a few of the Egyptian towns were re -named with Assyrian names. Tirhakah had incited the king of Tyre to rebel against the Assyrian authority, and hence he brought down upon himself Esarhaddon's attack, which resulted in his subjugation in the twenty-third year of his reign. The Ethiopian kings had offered help to the Jewish nation if they would resist the Assyrians ; but Egypt's growing weakness was well known, for Rab-shakeh, remembering the successful attacks that Shalmaneser had made against dependencies of Egypt, taunted Hezekiah with the forlornness of any hope which was based upon 1 Is. xix. 13 ; Jer. ii. 16; xlvi. 14, 19 ; Ezek. xxx. 13-16. ' The Tiihakah of 2 Kings xix. 9 ; Is. xxxvii. 9 ; and the ( p^-| y^ j of the hieroglyphs. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. 97 Egyptian assistance, and compared Egypt's king to ' a bruised reed.'^ In the beginning of the reign of Assurbanipal, Esarhaddon's son, Tirhakah made another attempt to become sole king of Egypt ; and having collected a large army he entered Memphis and scattered the Assyrian rulers. Assurbanipal marched promptly against the rebel, and defeated him with great slaughter. Tirhakah then fled to Napata, where he with others made arrangements for another rebellion ; and he succeeded so well that he conquered Upper Egypt, and actually gained possession of Thebes. Assurbanipal sent an army against him, and Tirhakah was compelled to retire to Napata, where he died, and so the twenty- fifth dynasty came to an end. Two of the kings of the next dynasty are mentioned in the Bible, Pharaoh Necho f ^^^^^^ \J _p j and Pharaoh Hophra f O | O j. The first met Josiah, king of Judah, in battle at Megiddo, where Josiah was slain, and set up Jehoiakim as king in the place of Josiah's eldest son Jehoahaz, the lawful heir. His power was, however, broken by Nebuchadnezzar II., king of Babylon, and we read that ' the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land.'^ The second, Pharaoh Hophra, assisted Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, kings of Judah, to rebel against their lord, Nebuchadnezzar ; but this was merely inviting the conquest of Egypt at the hands of the Babylonian king, and a few years after the prophecies of ^ 2 Kings xviii. 21. ^ 2 Kings xxiv. 7. G 98 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. Ezekiel and Jeremiah regarding its destruction were fulfilled. During the reign of Psammetichus I. the great temples at Sais, Thebes, Memphis and elsewhere were repaired. This king made use of the Greeks in the battle-field, and after the wars gave them a settlement near Bubastis. There was one among the last kings who caused the fast-fading light of Egypt's glory to flicker brightly, and this was Amasis II. After his death the country was invaded by Cambyses the Persian, who became king, and was the first of the Persian dynasty of Egyptian kings. Thdr rule lasted for about one hundred years ; and following them came a few Egyptian kings of little importance ; their reigns were very short, and they in their turn were succeeded by another Persian dynasty. For some time past Egypt had ceased to be Egyptian ; the various conquerors of the country had caused new customs to spring up; the use of the old system of hieroglyphics had now practically died out ; the national spirit was broken, and from this time forward Egypt was a dependency and tributary to whatever king arose and had power to seize it. The nation with a history that numbered thousands of years, and the country that had shed the light of civilization abroad when those round about were steeped in barbarism and ignorance, now sank into a darkness which obscured and eventually swallowed up the glory and majesty of the Pharaohs and their land. 99 CHAPTER V. Egyptian Literature. A LARGE portion of the literature of Egypt comes down to us in the shape of historical inscriptions graven upon pyramids, obelisks, walls of temples, and stelae. The sentences are sometimes short and abrupt ; but fre- quently they have a kind of rhythm which is exceedingly fine, and, owing to the parallelism of the members, reminds us of many of the Psalms. If, how^ever, we were obliged to depend upon stone sculptures for our idea of the Egyptian literature, we should not have an adequate idea of it at all. Though the early * pyramid texts,' with their rubrics, reveal to us the inscriptions which were fitting for funereal monuments, they give us no idea of the wonderful fairy stories which we obtain from the papyri. We have already stated that the hieratic writing was the writing of the priests, and as the learning of Egypt was locked up in the breasts of this caste, we must look to their works to understand what the literature of the Egyptians was. It must not be imagined that the hieratic is the only sort of writing found on papyrus ; on the contrary, we find many papyrus copies of the Book of the Dead in hieroglyphs, G 2 100 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. and about 700 B.C. in demotic also. Still, a very large number of the most interesting compositions are found on papyrus in hieratic, and we give a few specimens from the best of them. The first is a translation of the very celebrated prize poem by the scribe Pentaur, giving a thrilling account of the battle of Rameses II. with the Khita or Hittites. This prize poem was considered so fine that it was inscribed upon the walls of temples, and a large number of copies must have been made. A papyrus which the British Museum possesses contains a very complete copy of it. Professor Lushington's translation is as follows : — • The Poem of Pentaur on the Conquest of the Khiti BY Rameses II.^ Several days after that King Rameses was in the town Rameses Miamon. Moving northward he reached the border of Katesh ; then marched onward like his father (Mentu, towards) Hanruta. The first brigade of Ammcn, ' that brings victory of King Rameses ' (accompanied him). He was nearing the town ; then the vile chief of Cheta came ; he gathered (forces) from the margin of the sea to the land of Cheta ; came all the Naharina, the Airatu, the Masu, the Kashkash, the Kairakamasha, the Leka, Katuatana, Katesh, Akarita, Anaukasa, the whole Mashanata likewise, nor left he silver or gold in his land, he stripped it of all his treasures (which) he brought with him. The vile chief of Cheta, with many allies accompanying him, lay ambushed to north-west of (Katesh). Now King Rameses was all alone, no other with ^ Prof. Lushington's translation, in the ' Records of the Past,' ii. p. 6r. EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. 10 1 him, the brigade of Ammon marching after him ; the brigade (of Ra ?) at the dyke west of the town Shabutuna ; the brigade of Ptah in the centre, the brigade of Set on the border of the land of Amairo. Then the vile Cheta chief made an (advance) with men and horses numerous as sand ; they were three men on a car, they had joined with every champion of Chetaland, equipped with all war gear, in (countless numbers) ; they lay in ambush hidden to north-west of the town Katesh ; then they charged the brigade of Ra Harmachis in the centre, as they were marching on, and were not prepared to fight. Foot and horse of King Rameses gave way before them ; they then took Katesh on the western bank of Hanruta ; this news was told to the King ; then he rose as Mentu, he seized his arms for battle ; he clutched his corslet like Bar in his hour ; the great horse that bore him, ' Victory in Thebes ' his name, from the stable of Rameses Miamon, within the van. The King drew himself up, he pierced the line of the foe, the vile Cheta ; he was all alone, no other with him. When he advanced to survey behind him, he found there encircled him 2,500 chariots stopping his way out. Every champion of the vile Cheta ar d abundant lands with him of Airatu, of Maasu, of Patasu, end of Kashkash, of Iriuna, of Katuatana, of Chirabu, of Akarita, Katesh, Leka, they were three men on a car ; they made (a charge), there was no chief with me, no marshal, no captain of archers, no officers ; fled were my troops and horse. I was left alone of them to fight the foe. Then said King Rameses, ' What art thou, my father Ammon ? what father denies his son ? For have I done aught without thee ? Have I not stepped or stayed looking to thee, not transgressing the decisions of thy mouth, nor passing far astray beyond 'thy counsels ? Sovran Ford of Egypt, who makest to bow down 102 THE DWELLERS ON TEE NILE. the peoples that withstand thee ; what are these Amu to thy heart ? Ammon brings them low who know not God. Have I not made thee monuments very many ? filled thy temple with my spoils ? built thee a house for milHons of years ? given treasures to thy shrine ? dedicated to thee all lands, enriched thy sacrifices? I have slain to thee 30,000 bulls, with all wood of sweet scent, good incense coming from my hand. The making of thy court completed, I have built thee great towers of stone above thy gate, groves everlasting. I brought thee obelisks from Elephantine ; it is I who had eternal stones carried, guiding for thee galleys on the sea, conveying to thee the labours of all lands. When was it said such happened in other time ? Shame on him who opposes thy counsels, well be to him who approves thee, Ammon. What thou hast done is from a heart of love ; I call on thee, my father Ammon. I am amid multitudes unknown, nations gathered against me ; I am alone, no other with me ; my foot and horse have left me. I called aloud to them, none of them heard ; I cried to them. I find Ammon worth more than millions of soldiers, 100,000 cavalry, io,ooc brothers and sons, were they gathered all in one. No works of many men avail, Ammon against them. I attain that by the counsels of thy mouth, O Ra, not overstepping thy counsels. Lo, have I not done homage to the farthest ends of the land ? ' My cry rang unto Hermonthis ; Ra heard when I called, he put his hand to me, I was glad ; he called to me behind ;'.... Rameses Miamon, I am with thee, I thy father Ra, my hand is with thee. I am worth to thee 100,000 joined in one; I am Sovran Lord of Victory, loving valour ; if T find courage, my heart overflows with joy; all my doihgis fulfilled.' I am as Mentu, I shoot to the right, I seize on my left, like Bar in his fury against them ; I find 2,500 EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. IO3 chariots, I am amidst them, then were they overthrown before my steeds; not one of them found his hand to fight, their hearts shrank within them ; their hands all dropped, they knew not how to shoot, they found no heart to grasp the spear ; I made them fall into the water as fall crocodiles, they tumbled headlong one over another ; I slew them ; my pleasure was that none of them should look behind him, nor any return ; whoever falls of them he must not raise himself up. Then the vile chief of Cheta stood amid his army to see the prowess of King Rameses. The King was all alone, no soldiers with him, no horse ; he turned in dread of the King. Then he made his mighty men go in numbers, each one of them with cars, they brought all war harness, the chief of Airatu, the chief of Masu, the chief of Iriuna, the Leka, the chief of Tantani, the Kashkash, the chief of Kairkamash, the Chirabu, the alHes of Cheta, all banded in one, 2,500 chariots. Charging the midst of them fiercer than flame, I rushed upon them, I was as Mentu; I let my hand taste them in a moment's space, I hew at them to slay them in their seats ; each one of them called to his fellow, saying, ' No mortal born is he whoso is among us, Set the m.ighty of strength ; Bar in bodily form, verily whoever comes close to him, his hand droops through all his frame, they know not how to grasp bow nor spear when they have seen him,' Coming to the junction of roads, the King pursued them as a griffin. I was slaying them, none escaped me ; I gave a call to my foot and horse, saying, ' Be firm, be firm in heart, my foot and horse ; behold my victory. I was alone, Tum (Amnion) my support, his hand with me.' Now when Menna my Squire saw me thus encircled by many chariots, he cowered, his heart quailed, great terror entered his limbs, he said to the King, ' My gracious Lord, Prince revered, valiant exceed- 104 THE DWELLERS OX THE NILE. ingly, "protector of Egypt in day of battle, verily we stand alone amid the foe, how make a stand to save breath to our mouth? how rescue us, King Rameses, my gracious Lord?' The King said to his Squire, ' Courage, courage, my Squire, I will pierce them as a hawk ; I will slay and hew them, cast them to the dust. What forsooth to thy heart are these Amu ? Amnion brings very low them who know not God, who brightens not his face on millions of them.' King Rameses dashed into the van, then he pierced the foe, the caitiff Cheta, six times, one and all, he pierced them. I was as Bar in his season, pre- vailing over them I slew them, none escaped. Then the King called to his archers and cavalry, likewise to his chiefs who failed to fight. ' Naught profits full heart in you. Is there one of them who did his duty in my land ? Had I not stood as Royal Master, ye were downstricken. I make Princes of you always. I set son in his father's estate : if any evil comes on Egypt, ye quit your service . . . . Whoever comes to make petitions I always pay regard to his claims. Never any Royal Master did for his soldiers what King Rameses has done for you, I let you sit in your houses and your towns ; ye have not performed my hests, my archers and cavalry. I have given them a road to their cities, Lo, ye have played cowards all together, not one of you stood to aid me while I had to fight. Blessed be Ammon Turn, lo, I am over Eg}'pt as my father Ra ; there was not one of them to observe my commands in the land of Egypt. O noble feat ! for consecrating images in Thebes, Amnion's city : great shame on that act of my foot and horse, greater than to tell, for lo, I achieve my victories ; there was no soldier with me, no horseman ; every land beholds the path of my victories and might. I was all alone, no other with me, no chiefs behind, no marshals, no captains of the EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. IO5 army, no officers, all peoples saw and will tell my name to limits of lands unknown. If any warriors, relics of my hand, remain, they will turn at seeing me ; if 10,000 of them come upon me, their feet will not stand firm, they will fly ; whoever would shoot straight at me, down dropped their arrows, even as they ap- proached me. Now when my foot and horse saw, I was addressed as Mentu, the strong sword of Ra, my father, who was with me in time of need, he made all peoples as straw before my horses. They were marching one after another to the camp at eventide ; they found all the tribes through whom I pierced strewn in carnage, whelmed amid their blood, with all brave fighters of Cheta-land, with children and brothers of their chief. Morning lighted the field of Katesh ; no space was found to tread on for their multitude. Then my soldiers came glorifying our names to see what was done, my cavalry likewise, extolling my prowess. 'What a goodly deed of valour ! firm in heart, thou hast saved thy army, thy cavalry, son of Tum, framed by his arms, spoiling Cheta-land by thy victorious sword. Royal Conqueror, none is like thee. King fighting for his host on day of battle, thou great of heart, first in the fray, thou reckest not for all peoples banded together, thou great conqueror before thy army, in the face of the whole land. No gainsaying. Thou guardest Egypt, chastisest lands of thy foes, thou bruisest back of Cheta for ever.' Then the King addressed his foot and horse, likewise his chiefs who failed to fight : ' Not well done of one of you, your leaving me alone amid the foe ; there came no chiefs, ofticer or captain of host to aid me. I fought repelling millions of tribes all alone. " Victory in Thebes" and " Nehrahruta" (my horses) they are all I found to succour me. I was all alone in the midst of foes. I will let them eat corn before Ra daily, I06 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. when I am in my royal palace : these are they found in the midst of the foe, and my Marshal Menna my Squire, with the officers of my household who were near me, the witnesses of conflict who saw them fall before the King; with victorious strength he felled 100,000 all at once, by his sword of might.' At dawn he joined in fray of battle ; he went terrible to fight, as a bull terrible with pointed horns he rose against them as Mentu ordering the fray, alike valiant in entering battle, fighting fierce as a hawk, overthrowing them as Sechet who sends flames of fire in the face of thy foes ; as Ra in his rising at the front of dawn, shooting flames upon the wicked ; one man amongst them calls to his fellow, ' Mark, take heed, verily Sechet the mighty is with him ; she guides his horses : her hand is with him.' Whoever approaches sinks to ruin ; she sends fire to burn their limbs, they were brought to kiss the dust. King Rameses prevailed over them, he slew them, they escaped not, they were overthrown under his steeds, they were strewn huddled in their gore. Then the vile Cheta Prince sent to do homage to the great name of King Rameses. ' Thou art Ra Harmachis, thou art Set mighty of strength, son of Nut, Bar himself; thy terror is over Cheta-land brought low : thou hast broken back of Cheta for ever and ever.' Then came a herald bearing a scroll in his hand to the great name of Rameses, ' To soothe the heart of the King, Horus, conquering Bull, dear to Ma, Prince guarding thy army, valiant with the sword, bulwark of his troops in day of battle, King mighty of strength, great Sovran, Sun powerful in truth, approved of Ra, mighty in victories, Rameses Miamon. The servant speaks to tell the King, My gracious Tord, fair son of Ra Harmachis, truly thou art born of Ammon, issue of his body, he gives thee all lands together, land of Egypt and land of Cheta, they offer their EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. 10/ service beneath thy feet to thee, Ra, prevailing over them. Yea, thy spirit is mighty, thy strength weighs heavy on Cheta- land ; is it good to kill thy servants ? thou exercisest thy might upon them ; art thou not softened ? thou camest yesterday and slewest 100,000 of them; thou art come to-day victorious King, Spirit glad in battle, grant us breath of life.' Then the King rose in life and strength, as Mentu in his season. Then he bade summon all the leaders of foot and horse, his army all assembled in one place to let them hear the message sent by the great chief of Cheta to King Rameses. They answered, saying to the King, ' 'Tis very good to let fall thy wrath, Prince, Sovran Lord, who can soothe thee in thy day of anger ? ' Then King Rameses gave assent to their words ; he gave his hand in peace, returning to the South, passing in peace to Egypt with his chiefs, his foot and horse, in life and strength, in sight of all lands. Dread of his might is in ever)' heart, he protects his army, all nations come to the great name, falling down and adoring his noble countenance. King Rameses reached fort Rameses Miamon great image of Ra Harmachis reposing in the royal palace in Thebes, as the sun's orbs, on his two- fold throne ; Amnion hailed his form, saying, ' Glory to thee, son loved of us, Rameses Miamon (to whonv we grant) festivities for ever on the throne of thy father Tum. All lands are overthrown under his feet : he has quelled (all enemies).' Written in the year 7, month Payni, in the reign of King Rameses Miamon, giver of life for ever and ever like his father Ra . . . . To the Head Guardian of the royal writings by the Royal Scribe Pentaur. When the Egyptian wrote history, he related the facts clearly and concisely, and with but few unnecessary I08 THE DWELLERS OX THE NH.F. additions ; these consist principally of the incessant repetition of the names and titles of honour of the Pharaohs.^ It seems probable that the Egyptians did not write a compendium of the history of their nation, for as each' king proclaimed his own works and glories upon his edifices and buildings, succeeding generations could read the history of the times before upon them : yet they forgot that dynasties are overthrown and monuments destroyed. If we had a complete nati\'e history of Egypt, however brief, what a number of unproven facts it would make certain ! It is evident that with a nation like the Egyptians, possessing such a number of gods, a very large portion of their works would turn upon religion and myths about the gods, hymns to them, and the like. To the Nile, as a god whose practical gifts would be apparent to all, would the pious Egyptian poet address his dev^otions. The two following extracts will show the reverence in which it was held. The hieroglyphs surrounding the pages are not part of the text of which the hymns are translations, but are given simply as an illustration of hieroglyphic text. They are taken from Maspero's * La Pyramide du Roi Pepi I",' lines 163 and 164. ^ As a specimen of this, .see the first few lines of the trar.slalicn of the Reset ta Stone on p. 22. no ra^(M>5^i^¥Tkr^'^ A 1 Blessed be the good god/ N the Nun^^-loving Nile, ^^ the father of the gods of the holy Nine' <=i> dwelling on the waters, the plenty, wealth, and food of Kgypt. He maketh everybody live by himself, riches are on his path, "^^^^ and plenteousness is in his fingers ; the pious are rejoiced at his coming. Thou art alone and self-created, ^ one knoweth not whence thou art. rri But on the day thou comest forth and (I 111 openest thyself, ^^ everybody is rejoicing. cq q q Thou art a lord of many fish and gifts, g ^ I I I and thou bestowest plenteousness on Egypt. "^ a a a The cycle of the holy Nine knoweth not •- — >^ m m m m ^ t(i oa ^^ whence thou art, thou art their life. For when thou comest their offerings are redoubled, and their altars filled, and they are shouting when thou appearest. 1 ' Records of the Past,' x. p. 37. 2 I.e., Heaven-loving. 3 Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Horus, Isis, Nephthys, ^^^ f] and Set. H"^ I P-P-f<^^^^o^ fl » fllh B II. He giveth light on his coming from dark- ness in the pastures of his cattle rjTk his might produceth all : what was not, his moisture bringeth to life. ^ Men are clothed to fill his gardens : he careth for his labourers. He maketh even and noontide, he is the infinite Ptah and Kabes. He createth all works therein, All writing, all sacred words, n n All his implements in the North. I I The hymn is addressed to thee with the harp; It is played with a (skilful) hand to thee ! The youths rejoice at thee ! Thy own children. Thou hast rewarded their labour. ^ There is a great one adorning the land ; ^t^ An enlightener, a buckler in front of men, i -^ Quickening the heart in depression, O Loving the increase of all his cattle. 1 1 Mortals extol (him), and the cycle of gods ! 1= Awe is felt by the terrible ones ; 1 'Records of the Past,' iv. p. iii. 112 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. his son {i.e. Pharaoh) is made Lord of all, to enlighten all Egypt. Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile ! shine forth ! Giving life to his oxen by the pastures ! Shine forth in glory, O Nile. But though the Nile was thus hymned and praised as the giver of all good gifts and life to the Egyptians, the highest and best praises were reserved for the great gods of the Egyptian Pantheon. The sun-god Ra, as the giver of light and warmth to the world, the nourisher of crops and the dispeller of darkness, was a favourite theme for the Egyptian poet, and in combination with other gods the most beautiful hymns, full of noble epithets, v/ere written in his honour ; as for example : — Hail to thee Ra, Lord of truth : whose shrine is hidden, Lord of the gods : Chepera (/>., the Creator) in his boat : at whose command the gods were made : Atum, maker of men : supporting their works, giving them life : distinguishing the colour of one from another : listening to the poor who is in distress : gentle of heart when one cries unto him. Deliverer of the timid man from the violent : judging the poor, the poor and the oppressed : Lord of wisdom whose precepts are wise : at whose pleasure the Nile overflows : Lord of mercy most loving : ^ See 'Transactions Soc. Bib. Arch.,' ii. p. 250. EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. II 3 at whose coming men live : opener of every eye : proceeding from the firmament : causer of pleasure and light : at whose goodness the gods rejoice their hearts revive when they see him. ■X- * * ^ * -it Hail to thee for all these things : the One alone with many hands ! lying awake while all men lie (asleep) '} Amen, sustainer of all things : Atum, Horus of the horizon : homage to thee in all their voices ; salutation to thee for thy mercy unto us ; protestations to thee who hast created us. III. Thou wakest beauteous Amen-Ra-Harmachis, thou watchest in triumph, Amen-Ra, Lord of the horizon. O blessed one beaming in splendour, towed by thy mariners who are of the unresting gods, sped by thy mariners of the unmoving gods. Thou comest forth, thou ascendest, thou towerest in beauty, thy barge divine careers wherein thou speedest, blest by thy mother Nut each day, heaven embraces thee, thy foes fall as thou turnest thy face to the West of heaven. Counted are thy bones, collected thy limbs, living thy flesh, thy members blossom, thy soul blossoms, glorified is thy august form, advanced thy state on the road of darkness. Ra hath quelled his impious foes, heaven rejoices, earth is in delight, gods and goddesses are in festival to make adoration to Ra-Hor, as they ^ Compare Psalm cxxi. 4. H 114 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. see him rise in his bark. He fells the wicked in his season, the abode is inviolate, the diadem in its place, the uraeus has smitten the wicked.'^ Following close upon these religious hymns come the magical texts, the knowledge of which enabled its possessor to drive away a disease or devil. If medicine was taken to cure the disease, then an incantation or formula was said at the time of taking it, that the drug might do its work swiftly and well ; and if a man was under the power of one devil, the unfortunate prayed to another and mightier devil, or a god, to protect him from his power of injury. An extract from the transla- tion of a magical text by Dr. Birch will give an idea of this class of work : — - There are four mansions of life, Osiris is master thereof. The four houses are Isis, Nephthys, Seb, and Nu. Isis is placed in one, Nephthys in another, Horus in one, Tahuti in another, at the four angles ; Seb is above, Nu is below. The four outer walls are of stone. It has two stories, its foundation is sand, its exterior is jasper, one is placed to the south, another to the north, another to the west, another to the east , Shu takes the shape of an eagle's wing ; he makes a lock or tress of sheep's wool to go round this god's neck ; it is placed on the throat of Osiris. Shu says : ' O thou shut in the solar disk, hidden in thy house I O you enemies w^ho retain the breath far from him turn your faces. A lock of hair has been made to suffocate your souls. I am Shu who destroys your bodies.' ^ See full translation by Prof. Lushington, ' Records of the Past,' viii. p. 129. ' ' Records f the Past,' \-i. p. 113 EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. II5 The Egyptian appears to have been very devoted to tales of the imagination ; for an instance we cannot do better than paraphrase the Tale of the Two Brothers/ There were two brothers, children of one mother and of one father. Anpu was the name of the elder, Bata that of the younger. Anpu had a house and a wife, and his younger brother w^as like a son to him. He followed after the cattle, he did the ploughing and all the labours of the fields. Behold his younger brother was so good a labourer that there was not his equal in the whole land. Now while the younger brother was with the cattle every day in the fields, taking them home each evening, and while he was in the stables, the elder brother sat with his wife and ate and drank. And when the day dawned, and before his brother rose from his bed, he took bread to the fields and called the labourers to eat in the field. The cattle told him where the best grasses were, and he under- stood their language. And when it w^as the season for ploughing, the elder brother said, ' Come, let us take our teams for plough- ing, for the land has made its appearance ; go and fetch seed for us from the village.' And the younger brother found the eider brother's w^ife sitting at her toilet. And he said, ' Arise and give me seed that I may go back to the field, because my elder brother wishes me to return without delay.' Then she said, ' Go open the bin, and take thyself whatever thou wilt, my hair would fall by the way.' So the youth entered his stable ; he took a large vessel^ for he wished to take a great deal of seed, and he loaded himself with grain and went out with it. And she spoke to him saying, ' What strength is there in thee, indeed. I observe thy vigour every day.' She seized upon him and saidj ' Renouf, ' Records of the Tast,' ii. p. 136. H 2 Il6 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. to him, ' Come let us lie down for an instant' The youth l)ecame like a panther with fury on account of the shameful discourse which she had addressed to him. He spoke to her, saying, 'Verily I have looked upon thee in the light of a mother, and thy husband in the light of a father to me. What a great abomination is this which thou hast mentioned to me. Do not repeat it again to me, and I will not speak of it to any one ; verily I will not let any thing of it come forth from my mouth to any man.' Behold, the wife of his elder brother was alarmed at the discourse which she had held. She made herself like one who had suffered violence, for she wished to say to her husband, ' It is thy younger brother who has done me violence.' Her husband returned at evening and found his wife lying as if murdered by a ruffian. And she said, ' No one has conversed with me except thy younger brother ; when he came to fetch seed for thee, he found me sitting alone, and said insulting words to me. But I did not listen to him. Behold am I not thy mother, and thy elder brother is he not like a father to thee ? This is what I said to him, and he got alarmed, and did me violence that I might not make a report to thee ; but if thou lettest him live I shall kill myself And the elder brother became like a panther; he made his dagger sharp, and took it in his hand, and placed himself behind the door of the stable to kill his younger brother on his return at evening to bring his cattle to the stable. When the sun was set, the younger brother loaded himself v.ith the herbs of the field and came home. And when the first cow entered the stable she said to him, 'Verily thy elder brother is standing before thee with his dagger to slay thee. Betake thyself from before him.' The second beast spake EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. 11/ after the same manner, and when he looked he saw the two feet of his elder brother who was standing behind the door ; and placing his burden upon the ground he fled. In his flight the young man prayed to the Sun-god, who straightway caused the two brothers to be divided by a river full of crocodiles, and each brother stood upon an opposite bank. At daybreak the younger brother declared his innocence, and told his brother the true story ; he then mutilated himself, and declared his intention of going to the Cedar mountains. But before going the younger tells the elder brother what will happen in the folio vving words : ' I shall take my hearf, and place it in the top of the flower of the Cedar, and when the Cedar is cut down it will fall to the ground. Thou shalt come to seek it. If thou art seven years in the search of it, let not thy heart be depressed, and when thou hast found it thou shalt place it in a cup of cold water. Oh ! then I shall live (once more), and fling back a reply to an attack. And this thou shalt learn, namely, that the things have happened to me. When thou shalt take a jug of beer into thy hand and it turns to froth, then delay not ; for to thee of a certainty is the issue coming to pass.' So the young man went to the Cedar mountain, and the elder brother went home. Arrived there, he strews dust upon his head, kills his wife and throws Jier to the dogs, and then mourns for his brother. Meanwhile the younger brother spent his time in hunting, and in building for himself a most beautiful house. And it fell out one day that the company of the gods met him, and one of them asked him why he stayed there alone, seeing that his brother's wife had been slain. Then they pitied him, and the god Chnum made him a wife, a most beautiful woman, in whom was the whole godhead ; but the seven Hathors when they saw her declared with one voice that Il8 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. she would die a violent death. Then the days multiplied, and they lived very happily together, and the young man said to her before he went out hunting, ' Do not go out, lest the Sea carry thee off, for my heart is on the top of the flower of the Cedar, and if any one finds it I shall be overcome by him.' So the young man hunted as usual, and one day while he was away the Sea saw her and chased her; but she fled and reached her house. And the Sea said to the Cedar, ' O that I could seize upon her ! ' And the Cedar carried off one of her fragrant locks and carried it to Egypt, and deposited it where the washers of the king were. Then the odour of this lock diffused itself among the king's clothes, and one day when the chief of the washers was walking by the sea, he saw the lock of hair, picked it up, and finding the odour exceedingly delicious, he took it to the king. When the doctors and magicians saw it they said, ' This lock belongs to a daughter of the Sun-god ; the essence of the whole godhead is in her. Send envoys to every place to seek her, but send a number of troops with the envoy who is to go to the Cedar mountain.' This was done, and after a time all the envoys returned ; but those who had gone to the Cedar mountain returned not ; for the young man Bata had slain them. Then the king sent more troops to the Cedar mountain, who brought back Bata's wife with them, and she advised the king to cut down the Cedar, for then Bata would be destroyed. So the Cedar was cut down, and Bata fell dead. The following day the elder brother Anpu went into his house, and sat down to drink beer, but the beer in the jug became froth ; and when he saw the fulfilment of his younger brother's prophecy he set out on a journey to the Cedar mountain. When he came there he found his brother dead EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. 119 upon the floor, and went out forthwith to look for his brother's heart under the Cedar where he used to He in the evening. For three years he searched for the heart, and, quite dis- heartened, he determined to go back to Egypt ; but going to take a final look at the place, he found a pod, and under the pod his brother's heart. He took the heart and dropped it into water, and the heart absorbed the water. When all the water had been drunk up, Bata, the younger brother, became alive, and the two brothers embraced each other. Bata said to his brother, Anpu, ' I am going to become a great bull with all the sacred marks ; do thou sit upon my back, and when the Sun rises we shall be in the place where my wife is.' On the following day Bata became a bull, and he and his brother arrived at the place where his wife was. Then the king made a great festival and honoured the elder brother greatly. After a while the bull entered the sanctuary and stood near the princess, and said, ' Look upon me, I am alive indeed.' The Princess asked, ' Who art thou then ? ' He answered, ' I am Bata, I am a Bull.' Then she was horribly afraid, and one day when the king sat at meat with her she said, * Come swear to me by God that you will grant whatever I ask.' The king promised, and she asked to eat the liver of the Bull. Then the king was sad, but all the same he gave orders to slay the bull. As they were killing him, two drops of blood fell upon the two door-posts ; and they grew up into two mighty Persea trees, each of which stood alone. After some time the King and the Princess went out to see the Persea trees, and as the latter was sitting under one of them, it said, ' Ho ! thou false one ! I am Bata, I am living still, I have transformed myself At this the Princess asked to have the Persea trees cut down ; and the King gave orders to have this 120 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. done, while she looked on ; but a splinter flew into her mouth. And after a time it was told the King, ' There is born to thee a male child.' When the child grew up he was made Prince of Ethiopia, and afterwards hereditary prince ; and when the King died he summoned all the princes and nobles of his majesty and narrated all that had happened to him. His wife also was brought to him, and he had a reckoning with her in presence of them, and they spoke their speech. Then he appointed his elder brother Anpu to be hereditary prince, and he himself became king. And when he had completed thirty years of life, his elder brother arose in his place, on the day of his death. Such is the brief account of the Tale of the Two Brothers. Another curious story is that of the Possessed Princess of Bakhten.^ It appears that when Rameses XII. was in Mesopotamia registering the annual tributes of vassal princes, the chief of the land of Bakhten, in laying his gifts at the feet of the monarch, placed his eldest daughter first. This lady was very beautiful, and as she delighted the heart of his Majesty beyond all things, she was made chief royal wife, and called Ra- neferu, or ' the glories of the Sun-god.' One day after the king had returned, and was in Thebes, there came ambassadors from the country of Bakhten, who, together with the chief of that land, brought presents for the king's wife, their former princess. When the chief obtained an audience of his Majesty Rameses, he said, * Glory, to thee, sun of the Nine bow barbarians, let us live ^ For full translation by Dr. Birch, see ' Records of the Past,' iv. p. 53. EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. 121 before thee.' He then went on to tell the king that he had come on account of Bent-Rash, the little sister of Ra- neferu, the king's wife, their former princess, for she had become stricken with some evil movement in her limb?, therefore would his Majesty send someone to heal her. Rameses ordered all those learned in mysteries to appear before him, and when they had come his choice fell upon the royal scribe Tahuti-em-heb, who was intelligent in heart and skilled with his fingers. This learned man went to Bakhten, and when he had examined the girl he found that she was under the influence of evil spirits. He found the devils difficult to contend with, and making a report to this effect he wound up by asking that a god might be sent to exorcise the demons. When the king received the report he prostrated himself before the god Chonsu of the double name in Thebes, and entreating his help, prayed that the good god would consent to go to Bakhten, to save the daughter of the prince of that land. The god was gracious and expressed his readiness to go ; then the king forthwith placed him in an ark, and the god departed from the land. When he arrived in Bakhten, the whole army, headed by the chief of the land, made obeisance before him. The god then went to the place where the child possessed of devils was, and cured her immediately ; and the spirit which came out from her spake to Chonsu, 'Thou, O great god, and driver away of possessors, hast come in peace ; the land of Bakhten is thy city ; its men are thy slaves ; I am thy 122 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. slave ; I will go to the place whence I came, to give peace to thy heart on account of thy journey here/ After this speech the god requested that the Prince of Bakhten would offer sacrifice to the spirit that had come forth from his daughter. When this was done the spirit departed, as he had said. At this the Prince of Bakhten was so pleased with the god Chonsu that he determined to keep him there. The god stayed in Bakhten three years and a few months ; but one night when the Prince was lying on his couch he saw the god in the form of a golden hawk come out of his shrine and fly away to the land of Egypt. After this the Prince sent the ark of the god away to Egypt with great and rich presents, troops and many horsemen. The literature of Egypt embraced all subjects, if we may judge by what has come down to us : mathematics, police reports — like that which relates the criminal proceedings against some people who broke open and robbed some of the tombs of the kings — moral sayings, and many other subjects for which we have no room to give specimens here. We reserve a notice of the Book of the Dead for the ninth chapter, and will conclude our series of extracts from Egyptian literature by two most interesting poetical specimens. The first is from a very old work on the praise of learning,^ and the second is the ' Song of the Harper.'^ This latter work is inscribed upon a tomb at Abd-el-Gurnah, and the reader will see ^ ' Records of the Past,' viii. p. 147. 2 Ibid., vi. p. 127. EGYPTIA.N LITERATURE. 1 23 that many of the passages in it are somewhat similar in meaning to verses in Ecclesiastes and other parts of the Bible :— I. I have seen violence, I have seen violence, give thy heart after letters. I have seen one free from labours, consider there is not anything beyond letters. Love letters as thy mother, I make its beauty go in thy face, it is a greater possession than all honours. He who has commenced to avail himself is from his infancy a counsellor. He is sent to perform commissions. He who does not go, is in sackcloth. I have not seen a blacksmith on a commission, a founder who goes on an embassy. I have seen the blacksmith at his work at the mouth of the furnace. His fingers like things of crocodiles, he stinks worse than the eggs of fishes.^ Every carpenter carrying tools, is he more at rest than the labourers ? His fields are of wood, his tools of metal; at night when he is free he does in addition work with his hands for the lighting of his house."^ ' Compare, ' The smith also sitting by^ the anvil, and considering the ironwork, the vapour of the fire wasteth his flesh, and he fighteth with the heat of the furnace : the noise of the hammer and anvil is ever in his ears, and his eyes look still upon the pattern of the thing that he maketh ; he setteth his mind to finish his work, and watcheth to polish it perfectly ' (Ecclesiasticus xxxviii. 28). * Compare Ecclesiasticus xxxviii. 27. 124 THE DWELLERS OX THE NILE. The poet then proceeds to describe the difficulties of each trade, and finishes with : — I tell you the fisherman suffers more than any employment. Consider, is he not toiling on the river? he is mixed up nith the crocodiles. Should the clumps of papyrus diminish, then he is crying out for help. If he has not been told that a crocodile is (not) there, Terrors blind him. Consider, there is not an employment destitute of superior ones. Except the scribe, who is the first. For he who knows letters, he then is better than thee. Should'st thou walk after great men, thou art to proceed with good knowledge. Do not say proud words. Be sealed in thyself alone. 11. The Song of the Harper. [Chanted by the singer to the harp who is in the Chapel of the Osirian, the Patriarch of Amen, the blessed Neferhotep.] He says : The great one is truly at rest,' the good charge is fulfilled.^ Men pass away since the time of Ra, and the youths come in their stead.^ Like as Ra reappears every morning, and Turn sets in the horizon, ^ Job iii. 17. - 2 Tim. iv. 7. ^ Eccles. i. 4. EGYPTIAN LITERATURE. 125 men are begetting, and women are conceiving. Every nostril inhaleth once the breezes of dawn, but all born of women go down to their places. Make a good day, O holy father ! Let odours and oils stand before thy nostril. Wreaths of lotus are on the arms and the bosom of thy sister, dwelling in thy heart, sitting beside thee. Let song and music be before thy face, and leave behind thee all evil cares ! ]Mind thee of joy, till cometh the day of pilgrimage, when we draw near the land which loveth silence.^ Make a good day, O blessed Neferhotep, thou Patriarch perfect and pure of hands ! He finished his existence .... Their abodes pass awa)', and their place is not ; they are as they had never been born since the time of Ra. (They in the shades) are sitting on the bank of the river, thy soul is among them, drinking its sacred water, following thy heart, at peace .... Give bread to him whose field is barren, thy name will be glorious in posterity for evermore ; they will look upon thee . (The priest clad in the skin) of a panther will pour to the ground and bread will be given as offerings ; ^ Eccles. iii. 13; v, 18; viii. 15; Is. xxii. 13; Wisdom of Solomon, chap. ii. 126 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. the singing women .... Their forms are standing before Ra, their persons are protected . Rannu will come at her hour, and Shu will calculate his day, thou shalt awake .... (woe to the bad one I) He shall sit miserable in the heat of infernal fires.^ Make a good day, O holy father, Neferhotep, pure of hands ! No works of buildings in Egypt could avail, his resting-place is all his wealth .... Let me return to know what remaineth of him ! Not the least moment could be added to his Hfe, (when he went to) the realm of eternity, Those who have magazines full of bread to spend, even they shall encounter the hour of a last end.- The moment of that day will diminish the valour of the rich. Mind thee of the day when thou too shalt start for the land, to which one goeth to return not thence.^ Good for thee then will have been (an honest life),^ therefore be just, and hate transgressions,^ for he who loveth justice (will be blessed). The coward and the bold, neither can fly (the grave), the friendless and proud are alike . . .^ Then let thy bounty give abundantly as is fit, (love) truth, and Isis shall bless the good, (and thou shalt attain a happy) old age. 1 Mark ix. 44. ^ Luke xii. 1 8-2 1. ^ The Assyrians also called Hades ' the land of no return ;' and it was there that Ishtar went to seek Tammuz. 4 Ts. xxxvii. 37. * Amos V. 15. ^ Job iii. 14-19. 129 CHAPTER VL The Egyptian Religion.^ The number of gods which went to form the Egyptian Pantheon is at once surprising and confusing. Every nome possessed its god, and of course supported a number of priests to carry on its worship. In some places triads of gods existed ; for example, at Thebes the triad was composed of Amen, Mut, and Chonsu ; and at Abydos, of Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Often too Ave meet with groups of nine gods, and some texts in speaking of the gods repeat the sign for ' god ' eighteen times, to indicate a double group of nine, or the entire company of the greater and lesser cycles of the gods. Frequently the same god has different titles in different places ; and the god of a certain town has generally a title given to him which shows that he inhabits that town, or is lord of it. The names of one god are at times very numerous, for example, in one inscription the Sun-god Ra is addressed under seventy-two different names, and a whole chapter of the Book of the Dead is given up to the ^ The authorities to he consulted on this subject are Renouf, ' Hibbert Lectures ;' Wilkinson, ' Ancient Egyptians,' 2nd edition, with Dr. Birch's notes ; Brugsch, ' Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter, Part I., and Lanzone, ' Dizidnaris di Mitologia Egizia,' Turin, i8Si. I I30 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. names of Osiris. In such lists we often find one god identified with another, and indeed with several others ; so then it is at once evident that a large number of the minor deities are merely forms of the great gods ; and the same statement applies even to the great gods them- selves. For example, the god Ra when he rose in the morning was called Harmachis, i.e., Har on the horizon ; at mid-day he was called Ra, and in the evening he was Atum or Tmu. The gods were supposed to eat and drink, and to have every attribute of man physical and mental. The Egyptian word for god was mitdr, which word Renouf considers to mean 'power.' It has been ex- plained by Brugsch as meaning the * operative power which engenders and makes things in a regular recurrence, which endows them with new life, and gives back to them their youthful freshness.' The Egyptian called every god nictcir ; but in addition to this he seems to have had an idea of God which will bear some comparison in sublimity with our own. For example, let us take an extract from a hymn : — God is One and Alone, and there is none other with Him.^ God is the One, the One who has made all things.^ God is a Spirit, a hidden Spirit, the Spirit of Spirits, the great Spirit of Egypt, the divine Spirit.^ God is from the beginning, and has existed from the beginning.^ Compare — ^ Deut. vi. 4 ; 2 Sam. vii. 22; Is. xlv. 5, 2i ; Mai. ii. lo ; i Cor. viii. 6 ; Eph. iv. 6. 2 John i. 3 ; Col. i. 16, 3 John iv. 24 ; Heb. xii. 9. "• Gen. i. i ; John i. i ; Col. i. 17. THE EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 131 He is the primeval One, and existed when as yet nothing existed : He existed when as yet there was nothing, and whatever is, He made it after He was.^ He is the Father of beginnings.^ God is Eternal,^ He is everlasting, and without end, Perpetual, Eternal : He has endured for endless time, and will exist henceforward for ever.* God is hidden, and no one hath perceived His form, no one hath fathomed His likeness,^ He is hidden in respect of gods and men, and is a mystery to His creatures.^ God is the Truth,^ He lives by Truth, He lives upon Truth, He is the King of Truth. God is Life, and man lives through Him alone.^ He blows the breath of Life^ into their nostrils. God is Father^" and Mother ; the Father of fathers, and the Mother of mothers. God begets, ^^ but he is not begotten, He gives birth to, but is not given birth to. He begets Himself, and gives birth to Himself, He makes, ^* but is not made. He is the Creator of His own form, and the Fashioner of His body. God is the Creator Compare — 1 Rev. iv. II. 2 Rev j g^ 3 DexLt. xxxiii. 27 ; I Tim. i. 17. * Ps. X. 16 ; xc. 2 ; cii. 25-27 ; Jer. x. 10. ^ Ex. xxxiii. 20 ; John i. 18 ; i Tim. vi. 16. ^ Job xxxvii. 23. 7 Ps. XXV. 10 ; xxxi. 5 ; Ivii. 3 ; Ixxxix. 14 ; xci. 4 ; c. 5 ; cxlvi. 6 ; Jer. X. 10 ; John xiv. 6. ^ Acts xvii. 28. ^ Gen. ii. 7 ; Job. xii. 10 ; xxxiii. 4 ; Ps. xxxiii. 6 ; Dan. v. 23 ; Acts xvii. 25. •® Deut. xxxii. 6 ; Ps. xxvii. 10 ; Ixviii. 5 ; Is. ix. 6 ; Mai. ii. 10. " Ps. ii. 7 ; John i. 14, 18 ; iii. 16, 18 ; compare the 112th Surah of the Koran. '^ Prov. xvi. 4; Is. xlv. 12; Jer, xxvii. 5. I 2 132 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. of heaven and earth, the deep, the water, and the mountains. God stretches out the heavens, and makes firm the earth beneath.^ That which emanates from (i.e., the desire of) His heart is performed immediately, and when He has once spoken, it actually comes to pass and endures for ever and ever." God is the father of the gods, and the progenitor of all deities.^ God is compassionate to those that fear Him^ and hears those who cry unto Him.^ He protects the weak against the strong.^ God knows those who know Him,7 He rewards those who serve Him,^ and protects those who follow Him.^ In these sentences we see at once that the Egyptians had recognized the unity, eternity, and infinity of the Deity, as well as His loving-kindness. Moreover, in the moral maxims laid down by the Egyptians it is very evident when they used the word God, they referred to a being with such attributes as have been stated above. As for example : — To obey is to love God, but to disobey is to hate Him.^® Compare — * Ps. civ. 5 ; Prov. viii. 28 ; Is. xl. 12 ; xlii. 5 ; Amos iv. 13. 2 Ps. cxlviii. 5, 6. ' Deut. X. 17 ; Ps. Ixxxvi. 8; cxxxv. 5. "^ * Ex. xxxiv. 6 ; Num. xiv. 18 ; 2 Chron. xiii. 9 ; Lam. iii. 22 ; Rom. ix.is. ^ Num. XX. 16 ; Ps. xxxiv. 17. ® Ps. XXXV. 10; Prov. xxii. 22, 23 ; Mai. iii. 5. " Ps. i. 6 ; Nah. i. 7. ^ Ps. Iviii, II ; Is. xl. 10 ; Luke xix. 12-27. ^ For the full German translation, see Brugsch, ' Religion und Mythologie,' p. 97. ^^ I Sam. XV. 22, 23. THE EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 133 Let not thy voice become loud in the temple of God, for such things He abominates.^ God knows the wicked ; He smites the wicked even to blood.3 The most important of the Egyptian gods were : — Male. Amen-Ra Ptah ... Harmachis Ra Mentu Ra Seb ... Osiris ... Asar-hapi or Serapis Horus ... Harpocrates ... Bes ... Anubis... Set ... Compare - Eccles. V. I, 2, 6 ; Matt, vi 1 AAA/V\A I \ I U "^'^^ o mi D %] 6,7- 2 Ps. Iviii. 10; cxxix. 4; Prov. iii. 33; xiv. II. 134 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. Thoth ... Shu ... Chnum Chonsu Tmu ,.. Sebak ... ... s = f 1 Female. Mut Sexet Bast Neith Nut . Isis . Nephth ys Ta-ur (' Tv/r^ rhoueris) Ma Hapi (t he Nile) Jo.rt.AtI D ^^ ■n^ II /VWAAA THE EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 135 THE GENII OF THE DEAD. Amset... Hapi ... Tuaumutef Kebhsenuf THE ENEMY OF RA Apap ... A on D D mh Ptah was the chief god, and was called the Mord of truth.' He made the egg from which the sun and moon came forth, was the father of the gods, who came forth from his eye, and of men, who came forth from his mouth. His seat was Memphis, and he is represented as a mummy holding the symbols of life, stability and power, T" ^ 1. He was worshipped at Memphis under the form of Ptah-Socharis-Osiris, and under this form he was connected with Hades and the dead. Sepulchral figures of Ptah-Socharis-Osiris are found with a box attached to them, to hold mummied objects. The animal sacred to Ptah was the Apis. After Ptah came the great Sun-god Ra. He was the great god of Heliopolis, the ' city of the sun ; ' his father was Nu or the sky, across which he sailed in a boat InJ . His children were called Shu and Tefnut; and he waged war against the demon of darkness called Apap. In the morning the sun was called Harmachis 136 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. C\^, at mid-day Ra, and at evening Turn. The Sun- god Ra died every night, but created himself anew each morning. The hawk and the Mnevis bulls were the animals sacred to him. Osiris was the eldest child of Nut, 'the heaven,' and Seb, ' the earth.' Before he was born he married his sister Isis, and they had a son called Horus. A brother and another sister of his, Set and Nephthys, also married each other. Osiris and Isis lived together very happily ; but their brother Set conspired against him, and at a feast induced him to go into a box ; it was immediately closed, carried to the Nile, thrown in, and borne away by the river. Isis, distracted with grief, searched everywhere for the Figure of Ptah-Socharis-Osiris, and Box for holding Mummied Object. THE EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 1 39 body of her husband, and at last finding it she hid it, and went to fetch her son Horus, to help her to avenge his father. When out hunting one day. Set found the body of Osiris, cut it in pieces, and strewed them everywhere. The faithful Isis hearing this, gathered together the fragments and buried them ; and then she built a sepulchre over each. Osiris, however, still lived, and was king of the infernal regions. Now, the meaning of the story is this : Osiris and Isis are the offspring of the sky and the earth, Nut and Seb. Seb is represented as a goose '^^, and, as such, laid the golden egg, the sun, or Osiris. Isis was the dawn, and Horus her son by Osiris was the sun in his full strength. The wicked brother and sister that conspired against Osiris were Set pvl the Darkness, and Nephthys 3, the Sunset. So the victory of Set over Osiris is the victory of night over day, or of darkness over light. On the following day Horus, or the sun in his strength, would arise and spread light over the wliole world, and so his father Osiris would be revenged through his (Horus') victory over Set. Osiris was called the * good being,' and was the judge of the souls of the dead. In religious texts the deceased person is always called Osiris. Anubis, the god of the dead, was the son of Nephthys and Osiris. He is called the * Chief of the mountain,' i.e., of the western hills where the dead were buried. Anubis is represented in a picture as the embalmer of I40 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. his father Osiris ; and a common title of his was 'lord of embalming.' The Egyptian god of writing and presiding deity of libraries was called Thoth, or in Egyptian Tahuti. He was the inventor of the arts, sciences, and astronomy, and he is usually represented ibis-headed. He was scribe in the infernal regions, and was supposed to keep Thoth. a record of the actions of the dead. In one hand he holds a palette, and with the other he traces with a reed the destiny of the deceased. He also represents the moon ; and as a lunar god he wears either the disk of the full moon or the horns of the crescent moon upon his head. As the god of the moon he measured months, seasons, and years. THE EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 141 Tmu was another form of the Sun-god, and was the setting sun. He was considered to be the creator of men and things, and gave the ' cool breeze of the north wind ' to mankind. Nephthys n , neb kei, ' the lady of the house,' was the wife of Set, the demon who fought against and conquered Osiris. She is represented on coffins and other sepulchral objects standing or kneeling at the bier of Osiris, and beating her head for grief at the death of her husband and brother. Horus, or the ' young sun,' was the son of Osiris and the god who waged war with Set. He was the god called 'avenger of his father,' and his battles against darkness are the favourite theme of compositions in the later days of the Empire. The bird sacred to Horus was the hawk. Mut, a goddess represented by a vulture, was one of the forms of the feminine creative principle. Isis was the wife of Osiris, and had many forms. She gave life to and suckled the youthful Horus : hence a very large number of statues of this goddess represent her seated with Horus upon her knees and wearing a disk and horns upon her head. Hathor or Athor is supposed to be a form of Isis. She is represented at times as a standing figure with a cow's head, upon which are a disk and horns ; in her right hand she carries the symbol of life "y, and in her left a sceptre J. At other times she is depicted as a 142 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. young and beautiful woman, with a vulture's head on her f orehead, and wearing a disk and horns. Her name het Her, means the 'house of Horus,' for it was supposed that he took refuge and grew up under the fostering care of this loving and protectful goddess. Sekhet and Bast were the deities to whom the cat and lion were sacred. They are represented by standing figures having the head of a cat or lion, and wearing the disk of the sun and a uraeus upon their head. The god Chnumis was a form of the Sun-god. He is called the 'creator of mankind,' and is represented as having made man out of clay on a potter's wheel. He was also the original father of all the gods ; and when Osiris had been hacked to pieces by Set, he it was who reconstructed the body. Amen-Ra, together with Mut and Chonsu, formed the great trinity at Thebes. Amen-Ra is represented as a man coloured blue, wearing two long feathers on his head, while in one hand he holds the symbol of life and in the other a sceptre. The word Amen means 'concealer,' and this god is often invoked as the 'concealer of his name.' He was a solar deity, and was styled ' lord of the thrones of the earth ; ' and in him the attribute of every other deity was believed to be found. The Egyptian was a firm believer in immortality, and it is not an uncommon thing to find the title Hiving^ given to the deceased, indicating that his relatives considered him to be enjoying everlasting life. THE EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 1 43 During the festivals the gods were arrayed in sacred vestments, the colour and style of which were all prescribed by the sacred canons on this subject. The offerings to the gods consisted of incense, wine, oil, ointment, flowers, and sacred animals. The incense was made into small balls, and then thrown into a censer in the shape of a cup with a long handle. The sacrificing of sacred animals was a most important ceremony. Plutarch says that the most acceptable offering to the god was a red ox, which calls to mind the command to 'bring a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.'^ The law on this point was so strict, Plutarch says, that a single black or white hair rendered the beast unfit for sacrifice. With the Egyptians the heifer was sacred ; and it is most probable that the Jews remembered this when they asked leave of Pharaoh to go a distance of three days in the wilderness to sacrifice to their God. The monuments, however, represent white and black oxen being sacrificed on the altars of the different gods, thereby showing that a red ox was not absolutely necessary for propitiating the gods. Among the offerings of plants the onion was a very favourite gift, and it seems to have been as great a favourite with the Egyptians as it was with the Hebrews. Ointment was presented in jars with the name of the deity for whom the ointment was intended inscribed upon it. When a king laden with rich booty returned from an * Num. xix. 2. 144 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. expedition into foreign countries, the sanctuaries of the gods were enriched with enormous gifts of untold value as thanksgivings for the victory. In the great Harris Papyrus we are told that Rameses III. (among other things) gave 10,047 cattle of different sorts, 73,800 cakes, 2,396 jars of dry dates, 4,339 waterfowl, 2,366 jars of onions, 41,980 living birds, 2,396 bottles of grapes, 825,840 crystal beads, and 353,919 geese to the temples of his land. The priests of the gods formed the most important caste in the land of Egypt. A certain number of them were always by the side of the king, and from this caste Pharaoh always chose his ministers and judges. They offered sacrifices, and by their great knowledge they were considered to be able to foresee coming events, and hence to warn the king of the failure of an expedition, or to foretell its success. Dr. Birch considers the following to be the principal orders of the priests : — ^ mitcir hen prophet. 7mtdr atf divine father. db purifier. mitar meri ' god beloved.' fa nutdr sentra incense-bearer. ker heb prayer-reciter. hesi bard or poet. net SU: of J iP t ^ Wilkinson's ' Ancient Egyptians,' i. p. 169. THE EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 145 Queens and women of high rank took part in the worship of the temples, and tlie principal dignities held by such were | ^ mitar hernt, or 'divine wife,' I nutcir tuat, -=^ r]4 qema, and U fi^ (j U Tl ahi, ' sistrum-bearen' The most important order of the priests was that of * prophet.' They were the authorities on every point connected with the worship of the gods and the ritual of the temple. The priests were most scrupulously clean in their habits and dress, and we are told that they bathed four times during the twenty- four hours, and shaved the whole body every three days. Their food was sufficient, but no more, and the utmost care was taken by them that nothing forbidden entered into it. They used wine sparingly, and in common with the Jews they hated the flesh of the pig, and were accustomed to eat mutton. All vegetables were not allowed to be eaten, but there can be no doubt that they enjoyed Such things as were offered to the gods. In addition to their strict mode of life, they were compelled to study much, and to be skilled in all the sciences known in Egypt at that time. Their dress was usually made of linen, and very simple. The chief priest, however, wore a panther skin when he went to offer up sacrifice, or to take part in the different processions at a festival, and all the priests put on adornments during the service in the temples. In common with a large K 146 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. number of the people, they practised the rite of circumcision, and this was considered a distinctive mark between the Egyptians and the barbarians. The power of the priests in Egypt must have been enormous, for not only did they belong socially to the highest caste in the land, but by their knowledge of profane sciences and their direction of the ceremonies and worship of the gods, whose representatives they were, they acquired such a power and hold over the king and people, that it would be exceedingly difficult to perform anything of national importance without their aid. Moreover, the right understanding of the beliefs and dogmas of the religion of the land was locked up in their breasts, and the knowledge of the mysteries of the gods was their peculiar property. Little by little, too, everything con- nected with the administration of the land fell under the directing influence of their authority. They took a very prominent part in the processions of the gods, and a certain number of them carried the arks of their gods in the festivals. Festivals were very frequent in Egypt, and the mere enumeration of the most important of them takes up several lines on the sepulchral tablets. The Egyptian's belief in the immortality of the soul, and matters of a kindred nature, we shall consider in the chapter relating to the mummy. 147 CHAPTER VII. The Burial of the Dead. The most casual observer, on examining the Egyptian collection of any of our European museums, will be at once struck with surprise on seeing how large a portion of it relates to the sepulchre and funereal rites of an Egyptian. The most splendid objects, the best work- manship, and the costliest things, were dedicated to the tomb of the deceased by the loving relatives. It will be readily understood that all tombs were not equally beautiful, for then as now the magnificence of a funeral depended upon the will and the power of the relatives to pay for it ; but apparently every one did his best to make the tomb of his friend or beloved as magnificent as his circumstances permitted. The making of tombs, as well as their decoration, appears to have been carried out by one of the grades of the priests, who no doubt persuaded those who could afford it to indulge in a splendid funeral, for this not only tended to their own magnificence, but to their profit. And it is very certain that only the wealthy could afford to indulge in the luxury of a tomb, with its chambers and costly decorations of rows of hieroglyphs and vignettes : also the cost of the cofifins and the process of mummifying would be considerable. The K 2 [48 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. tombs themselves belonged to the priests, who appar- ently kept several in readiness for the family of the deceased to choose from. Inscriptions and chapters of the Book of the Dead and other sacred books were inscribed also upon its walls, as well as pictures which represented the life of an ordinary mortal, so that the series would apply equally well to the life of any Female Mourners for the Dead. purchaser; the only part left blank in the text being- places in which the names of the deceased and his titles could be filled in. We have copies of the Book of the Dead in which the name of the deceased is wanting entirely, the reason being that the friends of the dead man went in a hurry to the place where inscribed papyri could be bought, and finding one 'ready made' which suited their purse, they buried it with him, not taking THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 1 49 the trouble to have his name inserted in the places where it should be. The friends of the dead of all classes endeavoured to bury a copy of the whole or part of the Book of the Dead with their beloved, for it was considered of the greatest importance that the deceased in his journey and wanderings through the nether world should possess the mystic power imparted by the magic words, formulae, and prayers of the book, which was supposed to be of divine origin, having been written by no less a deity than Thoth, the recorder of the destinies of mankind. The greatest frauds were perpetrated in this way, for the scribe, knowing that in all probability the papyrus would never be unrolled, would not take the pains, if he were lazy, to write carefully and well, or if he were ignorant would make hundreds of mistakes ; while if he were both ignorant and lazy, he would produce such hopeless confusion in an inscription that not even the most learned scribe or priest could make sense of it. Again, if the scribe were ever so well disposed, but had to copy from a hieratic version, and did not understand what he was writing, he would undoubtedly make scores of blunders. When an important person needed a tomb, the purchase was usually effected by means of a legal docum.ent ; but if a man died in debt the tomb was seized by the creditors, who could even prevent the deceased from being buried therein. Diodorus tells us that the Egyptians called their houses hostelries, on I50 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE, account of the short time which they dwelt in them ; but they called the tombs * eternal dwelling-places/ This latter statement is fully borne out by the inscriptions, for they call the tomb ' house of ever- lasting.' ^ From investigations made by Mariette at Sakkarah, it appears that a tomb, or viastaba, of the ancients Empire consisted of a chamber or series of chamber above ground, a narrower chamber or corridor, and a deep pit sunk into the rock, which led to a vault for holding the sarcophagus. When a visitor entered the chamber and looked around, he saw the walls (frequently covered with pictures), and a stele facing to the east, which was always covered with a hieroglyphic inscription. This chamber was always found without a door, and the stele with the inscription appears to have been the most important part of the chamber ; while in the corridor next to the chamber were placed images or statues of the deceased. Often this part of the tomb had no communication whatever with the other parts of it, for it was walled up entirely and for ever : at other times a small square opening was made in it, in order to allow the perfume of the incense offered in the other chamber to come in to the statues. The pit or well was square, and varied in depth from 40 to 80 feet ; there was neither staircase nor ladder leading from the upper part of the tomb to the bottom of the pit, and unless _ , pa t et. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 151 provided with a rope ladder, it was impossible for a visitor to descend. Following a narrow passage leading from the pit, the sarcophagus chamber was reached, in one corner of which stood the sarcophagus itself. How difficult it was to break into a tomb to do harm to the mummy is at once seen, since it would be necessary to obtain entrance to the chamber or chapel, to break through the partition wall separating the chamber from the corridor, and to find means of descent into the pit itself. Let us go back again to the first chamber. Within the chamber, and over the door of the tomb, the same inscription was carved, which prayed : ' May Anubis, who dwells within the divine house, grant a royal oblation. May sepulture be granted in the nether world, in the land of the divine Menti, the ancient, the good, the great, to him {i.e., the departed) who is faithful to the great god. May he advance upon the blissful paths upon which those advance who are faithful to the great god. May the funereal oblations be paid to him at the beginning of the year, on the feast of Tehuti, on the first day of the year, on the feast of Uaka, on the feasts of the Great and of the Small Heat, on the apparition of Sechem at the feast of Uaka, at the feasts of each month, and the half-month, and every day.' ^ Other prayers ask that the god will ensure the gift of funereal offerings to the deceased, « Renouf, ' Hibbert Lectures,' p. 131 ; ' Revue Archeologique,' p. 82, vol. xix., 1869. 152 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. and that he will cause him to be buried after a ' happy old age/ But the tomb, besides serving for the abode of the dead, was also the page upon which the biography of its builder was written. The rich and wealthy Egyptian first chose out his place of sepulture, and when all its parts were built under his own superintendence, he caused the principal passages of his life to be drawn in vivid colours upon the walls of the upper chamber. He was depicted leading a life of luxur>% he hunted, he fished, he made expeditions, he was surrounded by a large retinue of servants, and nothing of importance was omitted from^ these illiistrations of his life. At times the builder did not live to finish his tomb, hence Mariette found at Sakkarah a number of incomplete tombs ; and he mentions a curious case where a tomb was built for one Ape-em-ankh, but in the corridor two inscriptions are found stating that he gave up his own tomb to his wife and to his son, who died very young. But how were the poor buried > Judging from the skeletons which remain, they were simply buried in the sand to the depth of about a yard ; for traces of neither coffins nor bandages have been found. In the latter days of the Egyptian empire, stelae which were erected by the friends or family of the deceased often contain a summary of his life, his titles and various offices, his good works, and he is made to speak and proclaim his good deeds. The following translation will illustrate this custom. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 1 53 STELE OF NEXT-AMES. 1. Dated the ist day of the month of the spring of the year of the Majesty of Her Ra, the powerful bull, the saffron diademed, the lord of the two crowns, the supremely mighty, the destroyer of the Asiatics, the golden hawk, the creator of the two earths ; 2. king of the north and south, chief of the nine bows, Ra-;)^eperu-ari-mat, son of the Sun of his belly, lord of diadems, godly father Ai, god, ruler of Uast, Osiris, lord of Abydos beloved, giving life. 3. May south and north, and Anubis upon his hill grant to me glory in heaven, power upon earth, and triumph in xer-neter.^ May they grant that I go in and come forth from my tomb, 4. that my majesty refresh its shade, that I drink water from my own cistern every day, that all my limbs be solid, that the Nile 5. give me bread and flowers of every kind at the season, that I pass over the length of my land every day without ceasing, and that my soul 6. may light upon the branches of the trees which I have planted. May I refresh my face beneath my sycamores, may I eat bread of their giving, 7. may I have my mouth wherewith I may speak like the followers of Horus, may I come forth to heaven, may I descend to earth, may I be not shut out upon 8. the road, may there not be done to me what my ka execrates, may my soul never be captive, may I be in the midst of the obedient, among the faithful. 1 Or Hades. 154 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. 9. May I plough my fields in Sexet-Aaru, may I attain the ' Field of Peace,' may one come out to me with jugs of beer and cakes, 10. the cakes of the lords of eternity, may I receive my slice from the joint upon the table of the great god; I the ka of Next- Ames, first prophet of the god Ames. T I. He says : I have done the behests of men and the will of the gods, wherefore I have given bread to the hungry, and I have satisfied the indigent. I have followed 12. the god in his temple, my mouth hath not spoken insolently against my superior officers, there hath been no haughtiness in my step, but I have walked measuredly {gradatim), I have performed the law beloved by the king. 13. I understood his commands, in my place I watched to exalt his will, I rose up for his worship every day, I gave my mind to what 14. he said without ever hesitating at what he determined with reference to me, I took uprightness and fairness, I understood the things about which I should keep silence. 15. The lord my king refreshed and favoured me for my well doing, he saw that my hands were vigorous through my heart, he advanced my seat exceedingly, he placed me in the council chamber, me, 16. the ka of Next- Ames, triumphant, the superintendent of the prophets of the lords of Apu. Says he : O ye living upon earth, living for eternity, enduring for ever, ye priests 17. and ministrants of Osiris, everyone learned in divine traditions ; when ye enter my sepulchre and pass THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 1 55 through it, do ye utter your prayers by my tablet and do ye proclaim my name without cessation in 18. the presence of the lords of law. So may your gods favour you, and may ye transfer your dignities to your children after a full old age, provided that ye say, 19. 'May Osiris grant a royal oblation to Next-Ames, lord of fidelity, superintendent of works in the temple of Ai, prince and first prophet of Ames and Isis. May his memorial abide in the seat of eternity.'^ * 'Trans. Soc. Bib, Arch,' vol. viii., Part III., p. 29S, m6 CHAPTER VIIT. The Mummy. The ancient Egyptians are the only people known who have succeeded in bringing the art of embalming or mummifying to perfection. They believed that the vSoul with Symbols of Liie and Breath revisiting Mummied Body. soul would revisit the body after a number of years, and therefore it was absolutely necessary that the body should be preserved, if its owner wished to live for ever THE MUMMY. 157 with the gods. This belief appears to be very old, and allusion is made to it in the Book of the Dead. The Egyptians attributed to man a soul, which they represented as a hawk with a human head ^, a ka \ \ or image, and a shadow ^ ; this last was given back to him in his second life. The ka or image is the being to whom funereal gifts were made. It must not for a moment be imagined that the Egyptians worshipped the statues of the deceased, for it was the living ka which was supposed to reside in the stone or wood that was the object of adoration. The ka was not an attribute peculiar to man, for every god had one, and in one place we are told that the god Ra has seven souls and fourteen kaic (plural of ka). The soul, however, had its own body, and was supposed to be able to eat and to drink.^ The soul was an emanation from the god of the universe, and after it left the body it was doomed to undergo a series of existences, until it arrived at a fit state of purity to be absorbed into its original counterpart The Greek historians mention three ways in which mummies were made. In the first, the brain was extracted through the nose, and the intestines were ^ The whole of this subject is exceedingly difficult : the reader is referred to Mr. Le Page Renouf s article on the Ka, in ' Trans. Soc. Eih. Arch.,' vi. p. 405 ; and to M. Maspero's monograph on this matter. Also for a discussion on the Soul and the Shade, see Dr. Birch's paper in ' Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch.,' viii. pt. III. ; and Mr. W. H. Rylands, F.S.A., has drawn many scenes from the monuments illustrating this subject. 158 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. removed. The body was then filled with myrrh, cassia, etc., after which it was steeped in natron for seventy days. After the seventy days were over, the body was washed and swathed in linen bandages gummed on the inside until every part of it was covered. In the second, a material, called oil of cedar, was introduced, which dissolved the intestines, so that they could be removed without mutilating the body. It was then laid in natron, which dissolved the greater part of the flesh, and left only the skin and bones. In the third, the body was merely salted for seventy days, and then given back to the friends. The first method would cost about ^^250 of our money, the second £60, while the third would be very cheap. An examination of the mummies shows that many different processes of embalming were in use at different periods in Egypt ; and that the Egyptians possessed a good knowledge of the use of medicines and anatomy. The intestines that were taken out of the body were dedicated to the four genii of the Amenti or Hades, whose names were Amset, Hapi, Tuaumutef, and Kebhsenuf To the first were dedicated the larger intestines, to the second the smaller intestines, to the third the heart, and to the fourth the liver. These were placed in four jars, which had covers made in the shape of a man, an ape, a jackal, and hawk respectively. These jars were placed in the tomb with the sarcophagus, and in the pictures which are painted on the outside of mummies, these are often seen standinL{ beneath the bier. ^mi l\l%.. I^^l im Mummy of the lady Katebt, a Musician of the God Amen, from TheVc = Now in the British Museum. THE MUMMY. l6l When the friends of a poor person wished his intestines to be under the protection of these genii, and could not afford to go to the expense of alabaster or wooden jars, they caused four waxen figures of these gods to be made, and placed inside the body with the intestines. When the body had been mummified, and wrapped up in linen bandages, it was a common thing, if the deceased was a person of rank or a priest, to enclose it in what is called a cartoiinage. The cartonnage was a thin casing made of plaster and linen, and it covered the whole body, fitting closely. In the earlier days the face was painted only, but in the time of the Ptolemies the face and ears were often gilded, and the eyes, eye- brows and lids made of glass or porcelain. On the top of the head a scarabaeus or beetle was painted holding the sun between its antenncE, while at the foot was painted a figure of Nut or heaven, overshadowing the mummy, and Isis and Nephthys, the wife and sister of the Osiris or mummy, stand one on each side of it, with wings stretched out to protect the deceased. At one time the mummy of the deceased is represented as being visited by his soul, or with the sun shining upon him, and at another the judgment scene from the one hundred and twenty-fifth chapter of the Book of the Dead is shown, with the soul of the deceased being weighed in the balance before Osiris, the great god of the dead, while the four genii- of the dead look on. The scenes depicted on the cartonnages vary, very few being exactly alike. On some mummies scarabaei, necklaces, rows of beads, L 1 62 THE DWELLERS ON THE NH^E. breastplates, and figures are found ; and at times objects which were used by the deceased in life have been buried with him, as in the ca^e of the sacred bard An;^-hapi, whose cymbals were found with his mummy, and may be seen in the British Museum. In the last days of the Egyptian empire a portrait of the deceased was painted and laid upon the face of the mummy ; and over the mummy of a child in the British Museum there is a covering on which is painted the face and figure of the little Greek. The hair was mummified, and wrapped in bandages and laid at the foot of the mummy. The mummy being arranged in its gaudily painted cartonnage, was then placed in a coffin or case of sycamore wood, which was usually made to represent the form of a man. As the mummy, so the coffin was made according to the amount of money the friends of the deceased could aft*ord to pay. The rich indulged in most beautiful cofiins, covered inside and out with scenes and chapters from the Book of the Dead, allegorical representations, etc., while in the later days under the Ptolemies, zodiacs are often found. The outer case of all was made of stone, and was sometimes covered entirely with hieroglyphs, and at other times various scenes were introduced to illustrate the text. The magnificent stone sarcophagus of Hor-em-heb in the British Museum is inscribed with a series of pictures representing the passage of the sun through the hours of the day, and above each scene are lines of hieroglyphs saying what gods are portrayed, and what is meant by THE MUMMY. 1 63 the pictures. The scarabaei which were deposited with the mummy were made of various substances, and were usually inscribed with the thirtieth chapter of the Book of the Dead, which has for its vignette the deceased Scarabaeus inscribed with a part of the Thirtieth Chapter of the Ritual ot the Dead. adoring a scarabaeus, and whose rubric directs that this chapter should be * said over a scarabaeus of hard stone. Cause it to be washed with gold, and placed within the heart of a person. Make a phylactery anointed with oil, L 2 164 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. say over it with magic : My heart is my mother, my heart is my transformations.'^ The figures placed with the dead were called nshabtiic, and were -inscribed with the name of the deceased and the sixth chapter of the Book of the Dead. They were supposed to do for the deceased in Hades all the work that would otherwise fall to his lot, such as the ploughing of fields and drawing water. Besides men and women, the Eg}'ptians also mummified cats, crocodiles, snakes, birds such as the ibis and hawk, and many other creatures. ' Dr. Birch, in Bunsen's ' Egypt,' v. 139. Ushabti Figures containing the Si\th Chapter of the Ritual of the Dead. 16/ CHAPTER IX. The Book of the Dead, This is the name usually given by Egyptologists to a book or collection of chapters which the Egyptians called ' coming forth by day.' There are a very large number of copies of this book in the various museums of Europe, and parts of it are inscribed upon papyrus, tombs, coffins, mummies, tishabtiu figures, scaraba^i, and other objects. In many copies the chapters are accom- panied by vignettes, but the arrangement of the chapters is never the same in any two manuscripts, and many of the hieroglyphic copies upon papyrus show that they have been copied from the hieratic character, for the scribe has confused signs which are alike in that style of writing. The work in some form is exceedingly old, for there are evidences as far back as the eleventh dynasty that the knowledge of the meaning of certain parts of it had been already lost. As it is now, it is by no means easy to understand, on account of the allusions to legends in it, and its writer or writers imagining that the reader understands the whole system of religion and mythology. The first complete copy of the text was published by Lepsius in 1842 ; and in 1867 Dr. Birch l68 THE DWELLERS ON THE NU.E. published a literal translation of it in Bunsen's * Egypt's Place in Universal History/ Vol. V. From the Book of the Dead we gather that the religious man gained everlasting life ; first living in Hades as he lived upon earth, then passing through whatever transformations he wished, and finally being identified with Osiris, the god of the dead. The rubric of the first chapter says : ' Let this book be known on earth. It is made in writing on the coffin. It is the chapter by which he comes out every day as he wishes, and he goes to his house. He is not turned back. There are given to him food and drink, slices of flesh off the altar of the Sun. When he passes from the fields of the Elysium, corn and barley are given to him out of them. For he is supplied as he was on earth. '^ In the accompanying illustration the future state of the blessed dead is depicted. The outer border is the waters of the Nile. In the top left-hand corner of the scene are three lakes, underneath which is the inscription : ' Being in peace in the fields of the Se;^et-Aaru.' Before the ' gods of the horizon ' is a table laden with offerings, and a hawk called ' Peace, the Great Lord of Heaven.' The deceased is seen offering to the soul, and he paddles along in a boat containing tables of offerings. Behind the boat is the ' cycle of the great gods,' to whom the deceased offers : and last of all comes Thoth, writing on a palette. In the second division, the deceased is offering to Hapi or the Nile, and is represented performing all ' Bunsen, ' Egypt,' v. p. 163. ^ OJ BO V U Z o E> o < •" 4h '-^ —< . >> . u. S £ £ £ i^ OO 00 OO OO OO OO OO 00 o aiiicococjcoiiiiiiii (-(=(M=(-(=(=(M-( = ( = ( = INDEX Abesha, arrival of, in Egypt 66. Abraham, career of, 80 ; goes into Egypt, 81 ; the Pharaoh who re- ceived, 82, Agriculture, Egyptian, 186. Ahnies, defeats Shepherd Kings, 68 ; reign of, 68 ; a collar of gold given 1 to, 86. I Ahmes-Xefertari, wife of Amen-Ra, | reign of, 69. Ai, reign of, 73, ' Akerblad, efforts of, to translate demotic, 28. Amasis II., reign of, 98. Amen, inscription of, at Beni- Has- san, 64, Amenhotep I., reign of, 69. Amenhotep II., reign of, 71. Amenhotep III., reign of, 71 ; kills 210 lions, 72 ; erects statues of Memnon, 72 ; piety of, 72. Anubis, worship of, 139. Ape-em-ankh, tomb of, 152. Apepi II., reign of, 68. Aperu, conquest of, by Thothmes III. (supposed to be Jews), 71. Apis, sacred to Ptah, 135. Architecture, first period, 189 ; pyra- mids, 190; statues of Chephren, 190; second period, 190 ; obelisks, 191 ; tombs, 191 ; in time of Shep- herd Kings, 191 ; third period, 191 ; in time of Rameses II., 192 ; fourth and fifth periods, 192 ; character of, 193. Army, Egyptian, 186. Arts of Egyptians, 193. Asenath, wife of Joseph, meaning of name, ^J. Assurbanipal, conquests of, 97. Ata, or Ouenephes, history of, 55. Athothis, son of Menes, 55. Autocraior, misiranhlaton of word, Avaris, battle at, 68. Bakemeats, Egyptian, 83. Baker, Pharaoh s, dream of, 83. Bakhten, story of the Possessed Princess of, 120. Barbers, Egyptian, 84 ; poem on, 85. Baskets, Egyptian, i^2>' Bast, worship of, 144, Beer, use of, 188. Belzoni, obelisk fovmd by, 32. Birch, i)r., translation of inscription on Rosetta Stone by, 22 ; on mistakes in translating demotic, 29 ; Mycerinus' inscription trans- lated by, 63 ; on Joseph's seven cows, 83 ; on barbers, 85 ; re- ference of, to brickmakers, 76 ; on magical text, 1 14 ; on orders of priests, 144. Book of the Dead, uses of, 148 ; description and age of, 167 ; contents of, 168 ; illustrations of, 168 ; explanations of, 172 ; transformations of, 172 ; the negative confession, 175 ; prayer in, 177. Bouriant, Urbain, translation of a stele by, 22. Brickmaking, Egyptian, 88. Butler, Pharaoh's, dream of. ?,t,, ' Calf,' the vessel called, 68. Cambyses the Persian conquers Egypt, 98. Canaanites, origin of, 52. Cartonnages, description of, 161. Xaf-Ra, or Chephren, reign of, 61 ; pyramid of, 61 ; sphinx of, 61 ; statues of, 190. Cartouches, meaning of, 18. N 2 198 INDEX. Chain or collar of gold, gifts of, 85- Champollion, M., decipherment of hieroglyphics by, 31. Childhood of Egyptians, 179; edu- cation of, 180. Chnumis, worship of, 142. xufu, or Cheops, reign of, 56, 58 ; pyramid of, 56. Cleopatra, hieroglyphic name of, 33- Cleopatra's Needle, made by Thoth- mes III., 71 ; Rameses II. 's in- scription on, 79, Coffins, description of, 162. Colours used in writing, 41. Cups, Egyptian, 8^. Cushites, legend of origin of, 53. Demotic or enchorial inscription, efforts to translate, 28. Determinatives, use of, 44. Diet of Egyutians, 187. D'Orbiney Papyrus, the, date of, 82. Dresses of women, 180; of men, 181. Drunkenness known to Eg}'ptians, 187. Eclipse during reign of Necherophes, 55- Education of children, 180. Egypt, geography of, 50 ; names of, 50 ; titles of kings of, 50 ; origin of people of, 51 ; legendary origin of, 52 ; history of, 53 ; dynasties of, 53, et seq. ; civilization of, 80 ; liability of, to famines, 81 ; conquered by Cambyses, 98 ; literature of, 99 ; religion of, 129. Egyptians, origin of, 51 ; legend of, concerning Harmachis, 52 ; ap- pearance of, 53 ; wars of, against Ethiopians, 66 ; mode of dressing the hair, 84 ; learning of, 93 ; literature of, 99 ; poetry of, 100 ; mode of writing historj', 107 ; hymns of, 112 ; magical texts of, 114; tales of, 115; religion of, 129 ; belief of, in immortality, 142 ; worship of, 143 ; priests, 144 ; tombs of, 147 ; burial of, 152 ; belief as to the soul after death, 156 ; embalming, 157 ; dedication of intestines, 158 ; cartoniiages, 161 ; description of coffins, 162 ; sarcophagus, 162; uses of scarabsi, 163 ; uses of ushabtiu, 164 ; beliefs of, 178 ; childhood of, 179 ; dress of wo men, 180 ; of men, 181 ; poly- gamy of, 182 ; affection of, 182 ; marriage of brother and sister common, 182 ; position of the king, 182 ; houses of, 184 ; occu- pations of, 185 ; army of, 186 ; laws of, 187 ; diet of, 187 ; use of wine, 187 ; cultivation of vines, 187 ; drunkenness of, 187 ; use of beer, 188 ; fond of hunting, 188 ; architecture of, 189 ; arts of, 193 ; character of, 193. Embalming, modes of, 157. Enchorial and demotic inscriptions, efforts to translate, 28. Enna, the scribe of the D'Orbiney Papyrus, 82. Esarhaddon, conquests of, 96. Ethiopians, wars of, against Egyp- tians, 66, 74. Exodus, the, date of, 88 ; route of, 94- Ezekiel, fulfilment of prophecies of, 98. Gizeh, pyramids at, 56. God, hymn to, 130. Gods, Eg}-ptian, number of, 129 ; triads of, 129; names of, 129; Egyptian name for, 130 ; list of male, 133 ; of female, 134 ; genii of the dead, 135 ; the enemy of Ra, 135 ; Ptah, 135 ; Osiris, 136 ; Anubis, Thoth, 140; Tmu, Nephthys, Horus, Mut, Isis. 141 ; Hathor, 141 ; Sekhet, Bast, Chnu- mis, Amen-Ra, 142 ; worship of, 143 ; offerings to, 143 ; place of women in worship of, 145. Greek inscription on Rosetta Stone, translation of, 22. Guignes, Dr., on hieroglyphics, 18. INDEX. 199 Hammer, M. von, mistakes of, 30. Har-em-hebi, reiga of, 73. Harhor, or Herher, reign of, 95. Harmachi?, legend of, 52. Harris Papyrus, list of offerings in, 144. Hatasu, queen, reign of, 69 ; obelisks of, 69. Hathor, or Athor, worship of, 14 1. Hawk, sacred to Ra, 136. Heifer, sacrifice of, 143. Hieratic writing, specimen of, 49. Hieroglyphics, decipherment of, 15 ; Kircher on, 17 ; Dr. Guignes on, 18; discovery of Zoega, 18; meaning of cartouches, 18 ; dis- covery of Boussard, 18 ; finding of the Rosetta Stone, 18 ; inscrip- tions of, 21 ; translations of Greek, 22 ; efforts to translate demotic by Sacy and Akerblad, 28 ; mis- takes in, 29 ; Chevalier Palin, 29 ; of von Hammer and Lenoir, 30 ; labours of Thomas Young, 30 ; of Champoilion, 31 ; name of Ptolemy, 32 ; of Cleopatra, t,;^ ; objections to interpretation, 36 ; letter of Dr. Lepsius, 36 ; theory of Sir G. C. Lewis, 27 5 ideal writing, 42; pictorial, 43; deter- minatives, 44 ; number of signs, 45 ; arrangement of, 45 ; orna- mental use of, 46 ; specimen of, 46 ; specimens of hieratic and demotic, 49. Hor-em-heb, sarcophagus of, 162. Horus, worship of, 141. Houses, description of, 184. Hunting, fondness for, 188. Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, reigns of, 67. Hymns to Ra, 112 ; to God, 130. Ideal writing, 42. Ink, writing, 41. Intestines, dedication of, 158. Isis, wife of Osiris, 141. Jacob, arrival of, in Egypt, picture of supposed, 65. Janelli, on ideographic theory, 36. Jehoahaz made king, 97. Jehoiakim made king, 97. Jeremiah, fulfilment of prophecies of, 98. Jews, supposed arrival of, in Egvpt, 65. I Jews in Egypt, labour of, 89. Jezebel, painting of, 181. Joseph sold into Egj-pt, 82 ; in prison, 83 ; before Pharaoh, 84 ; interpretations of, 85 ; exaltation of, 86 ; meaning of Egyptian name of, 86 ; wife of, 87 ; wonderful policy of, 87 ; story of, confirms accuracy of Bible, 87. Josiah, death of, 97. Ka, belief in, 157. Kadesh on the Orontes, battle at, between Khita and Rameses II., 77- Kem, native name of Egypt, 50. Khilibu or Khiribu, king of, rescue of, 77. . Khita nation, origin of, 53. Khita, or Hittites, wars of, against Rameses II., 74; poem about, 100. Khnum-hetep, tomb of, description. Kings, position of, 182 ; names of, 182 ; dignity of, 183 ; death of, 183. Kircher on hieroglyphics, 17. Klaproth, objection of, to Champoi- lion, 36. Kochome, pyramids at, built by Ata, 55- Kohl, uses of, 180. Kush, appearance of inhabitants of, Labyrinth, description of, 67. Laws, Egyptian, 187. Learning, poem in praise of, 123, Lenoir, mistake of, 30. Lepsius, Dr., letter of, to Rosellini, Letronne, supposition of, 32. Lewis, Sir G. C, theory of, as to Egyptian language, 37. Libyans, legend of origin of, 53 ; terrified by an eclipse, 55. 200 INDEX. Linen, fine, dress of priests, 85. Literature, Egyptian, description of, 99 ; poem of Pentaur, 100 ; hymns to the Nile, no; to Ra, 112; magical text, 114; Tale of the Two Brothers, 115 ; the Pos- sessed Princess of Bakhten, 120; the praise of learning, 123 ; the Song of the Harper, 124. Lushington, Professor, translation of Pentaur's poem, 100. Magical text translated by Dr. Birch, 114. Mariette on tombs, 150. Mastaba, or tomb, description of, 150. Mat'in, battle of, with Amenemha, 64. Megiddo, battle at, 97. Memphis, founded by Mena, 54. Mena, or Menes, date of reign of, 54 ; history of, 54. Meydoum, pyramid of, supposed sepulchre of Senefru, 55. Memnon, statues of, 72. Memnonium, the, built by Seti L, Menkau-Ra, or Mycerinus, reign of, 62 ; attempt to destroy pyramid of, 62 ; mummy, sarcophagus, and coffin of, 62. Menouthes, chief of the, rebellion of, 96. Mer-en-Ptah, or Meneptah, the probable Pharaoh of the Exodus, 79, 94- Mestem, an eye-paint, 66. Mirrors, 181. Misr, Arabic name of Egypt, 50. Misraim, Hebrew name of Egypt, 50. Mnevis, bulls sacred to Ra, 136. Moeris, lake, description of, 67 ; uses of, 81. Moses in the ark, 93 ; learning of, 93- Mummies, description of, 157 ; animal, 164. Musur, Assyrian name of Egypt, 50 . Mut, worship of, 141. Nebuchadnezzar H., conqueror of Egypt, 97- Necherophes, or Nefer-ka-Seker, eclipse during reign of, 55. Ne;(t-Ames, stele, translation of, 153. Nephthys, worship of, 141. Nile, the, poems to, no; inunda- tions of, 186. Nimrod, prince of Hermopolis, re- bellion of, 96. Noph, ruler of, 96. Obelisks of Thothmes I. at Thebes, 69 ; of Hatasu, 69 ; of Seti L, 73. Ointment, offering of, 143. Onions, a favourite offering, 143. Osiris, story of, 136. Palettes, scribes', 41. Palin, Chevalier, mistakes of, 29. Papyrus used for writing, 38. Pentaur, poem of, copies of, 74 Professor Lushington's translation of, 100. Pharaoh of the Exodus, the probable, 79. Pharaoh, the supposed, who received Abraham, 82. Pharaoh's daughter saves Moses, 93- Pharaoh's dream, 83 ; interpretation of, 85. Pharach Hophra, reign of, 97. Pharaoh Necho, reign of, 97. Phonetic writing, 43. Phut, or Punt, situation of, 52. Pi-ankhi, reign of, 96. Pictorial writing, 43. Pithom, supposed site of, 78, 96. Plutarch on sacrifices, 143. Polygamy, allowance of, 182. Potiphar and Joseph, 82, 83 ; mean- ing of name, 86. Priests, orders of, 144 ; description of, 145. Ptah, temple of, built by Mena, 54 ; temple of, at Memphis, repair of, 69 ; worship of, 135. Ptolemy, hieroglyphic name of, 32. Punt, expedition to land of, or Phut, 69. INDEX. 201 Pyramids of Kochome, 55 ; of Mey- doum, 55 ; of Cheops, 56 ; of Chephren, 56, 61 ; of Mycerinus, 56, 62 ; plan of construction of, 56 ; Egyptian name for, 57 ; materials of, 57 ; amount of labour required in building, 58 ; number of chambers in, 58 ; re- mains of, 58 ; of Amenemha, 67. Ra, hymn to, 1 12; seventy-two names for, 129 ; called Harmachis and Turn or Tmu, 130; worship of, 135- Rab-shakeh, taunt of, 96. Raamses, supposed site of, 78 ; poem on happy town of, 96. Rameses I., reign of, 73. Rameses II., reign of, 74; wars of, against Ethiopians, 74 ; against the Khita, 74 ; poem about, 1 00 ; marriage of, 78 ; buildings of, 78 ; children of, 79 ; persecution of the Jews, 88 ; a gi-eat brickmaker, 89. Rameses III., list of offerings of, 143. Rameses VII., slovenliness of, 84. Razors, Egyptian, 84. Reeds, used in writing, 41. Religion, Egyptian, number of gods, 129; triads, 129; names of gods, 129 ; name for god, 130 ; hymn to God, 130 ; list of male gods, 133 ; of female gods, 134 ; the genii of the dead, 135 ; the enemy of Ra, 135 ; Ptah, 135 ; Osiris, 136; Anubis, 139; Thoth, 140; Tmu, Nephthys, Horus, Mut, Isis, Hathor, 141 ; Sekhet, Bast, Chnumis, Amen-Ra, 142. Ring an emblem of authority, 85. Rosetta Stone, the, discover)' of, 18 ; description of, 21 ; inscriptions on, 21 ; translation of Greek, 22 ; a decree, 23 ; to Good Fortune, 26 ; attempts to translate the enchorial or demotic writing by Sacy and Akerblad, 28 ; mistakes of Palin, von Hammer, and Lenoir, 29, 30 ; labours of Thomas Young, 30 ; of Champollion, 31 ; hieroglyphic name of Ptolemy, 32 ; objections to interpretation, 36 ; letter of Dr. Lepsius, 36 ; theory of Sir G. C. Lewis, '^'j. Rouge, de, on papyrus relating to the Shepherd Kings, 68. Sacrifices, Egyptian, 143. Sacy, Silvestre de, efforts of, to translate demotic, 28. Samneh, fortress of, built by Usert- sen III., 66; tablet at, 66. Sarcophagus, description of, 162. Scarabai, uses of, in embalming, 163. Scribes, importance of, 42, 85. Sculpture writing, 38. Sekenen Ra, rebellion of, 68. Sekhet, worship of, 142. Senefru, reign of, 55. Seti L, reign of, 73 ; builds the Memnonium, a temple to Sekhet, a well, and an obelisk, 73 ; sar- cophagus of, at Soane's Museum, 73- Seti II., the D'Orbiny Papyrus belonged to, 82. Severus, Emperor, repairs statue of Memnon, 72. Sharuhen, fortress of, battle at, 68. Shasu, legend of origin of, 53. Shepherd Kings, reigns of, 67. Sheps-es-kaf, reign of, 63. Sheshank, or Shishak, conquests of, 95- Solomon's affinity with Pharaoh, 95. Song of the Harper, 124. Sphinx, the, description of, 61. Statues of Chephren, 190. Stele, discovery of, at En-Nobeireh, 22 ; of Next-Ames, translation of, 153. Succoth, identification of, 78. Sun's disk worshipped by Amen- hotep IV., 72. Tel-el- Amarua, temple of the sun at, 72. Thoth, worship of, 140. Thothmes I., reign of, 69 ; obelisks of, 69. 202 INDEX. Thothmes II., reign of, 69. Thothmes III., reign of, 70 ; con- quests of, 71 ; maker of Cleo- patra's Needle, 71. Thothmes IV., reign of, 71. Thuku, supposed to be identical with Succoth, 78, 96. Tirhakah, reign of, 96. Tmu, worship of, 141. Toml)S, Egyptian, description of Khnum-hetep's, 65 ; making of, 147 ; description of, 150 ; pictures in, 152 ; at Beni- Hassan, 171. Toys, Egyptian, 179. Translation and transliteration, specimen of, 46. Turquoise mining at Wady Mag- harah, 55 Two Brothers, Tale of the, reference to, 81 ; papyrus containing, 82 ; paraphrase of, 115. Tyre, King of, conquest of, 96. Uaua of Nubia, defeat of, by Amen- emha, 64. Ur-ma-neferu-Ra, wife of Rameses II., 78. Usertsen I., reign of, 64. Usertsen II., reign of, 65. Usertsen III., reign of, 66 ; deifica- tion of, 66. Ushabtiu, uses of, 164. Vines, cultivation of, 187. Vyse, Colonel, on pyramid of Mycerinus, 62. Wall from Heliopolis to Pelusium, built by Rameses 11. , 78. Wine, used by, 187. Writing, Egyptian, materials used in, 38 ; colours used in, 38, 41 ; sculpture, 38 ; papyrus, ^S ; reeds, 41 ; ink, 41 ; palettes, 41 ; ideal, 42 ; pictorial, 43 ; determinatives, 44 ; specimen of, 46 ; specimens of hieratic and demotic, 49. Voung, Thomas, labours of, in de- ciphering hieroglyphics, 30. Zedekiah, rebellion of, 97. Zoega, discovery of, 18, LIST OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES. Genesis. 2 Samuel. Page Page . Page xxxiv. 17 . 132 i. I 130 XXXV. 5 ... 131 "• 7 131 vii. 22 130 " ..^° 132 x. 6 51 xxxvii. 37 . 126 xii. 7, 9 80 Ivii. 3 ... • 131 „ lO, 12 81 I Kings. Iviii. 10 . . . 133 XV. 13 88 „ II ... . 132 xxxvii. 28 82 iii. I 95 Ixviii. 5 . . . 131 xli. 14 84 Ixxviii. 51 • 51 xliii, II 67 2 Kings. Ixxxvi. 8 132 xlvii. 25... 87 Ixxxix. 14 • 131 ix. 30 xviii. 21 181 xc. 2 • 131 Exodus. 97 xci. 4 ... 131 i. 8 88 xix. 9 xxii. I ... 96 74 c. 5 cii. 25-27 • 131 • 131 i. II V. 13 78 89 xxiv. 7 97 civ. 5 cvi. 22 ... . 132 51 xii. 40 xxxiii. 20 88 131 132 9 2 Chronicles cxxi. 4 ... cxxix. 4... .. 113 133 xxxiv. 6 .. xxxviii. 8 xii. 2-4 ... xiii. 9 95 132 cxxxv. 5... cxlvi. 6 ... cxlviii. 5, 6 .. 132 .. 131 .. 132 Numbers. Job. Proverbs xiv. 18 xix. 2 132 143 iii. 14-19 .. 17 xii. 10 126 124 131 iii. 33 ... •• 133 XX. 16 132 viii. 28 ... .. 132 Deuteronomy , xxxiii. 4 xxxvii. 23 131 131 xiv. II ... xvi. 4 ... • 133 .. 131 xxii. 22, 23 .. 132 vi. 4 130 X. 17 132 Psalms. xxii. 8 185 Ecclesiaste s. xxxii. 6 131 i. 6 132 xxxiii. 27 131 "■7 131 i. 4 . 124 X. 16 131 iii. 13 ... .. 125 I Samuel. XXV. 10 ... 131 v. I, 2, 6 • 133 xxvii. 10 131 ,,i8 ... . .. 125 XV. 22, 23 132 xxxiii. 6... 131 viii. 15 ... .. 125 o.^'^ ^ / 204 LIST OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES. Isaiah. ix. 6 .. xix. 13 xxii. 13 xxxvii. 9.. xl, 10, 12 xlii.5 ... Xlv. 5, 21 Xlv. 12 .. Jeremiah. ii. 16 iv. 30 ... X. 10 xxvii. 5 ... xvli. 14, 19 Page 131 96 125 96 132 132 130 131 96 181 131 131 96 Lamentations. iii. 22 132 Ezekiel. xxiii. 40... ... 181 xxx. 13-16 ... 96 Daniel. V. 23 131 Amos. iv. 13 132 V. 15 126 Nahum. 1. 7 11, 10 iii. 5 Page 132 Malachi. 130, 131 ... 132 Matthew. V'- 6, 7 133 Mark, ix. 44 126 Luke. xii. 18-21 ... 126 xix. 12-27 ... 132 John. 1. 13 ••• i. 14, 18... iii, 16, 18 iv. 24 xiv. 6 Acts, xvii. 25, 28 130 131 131 130 131 31 Romans. IX. 15 Page ... 132 I Corinthians. Ephesians. iv. 6 130 Colossians. i, 16, 17 130 I Timothy. i. 17 131 vi. 16 131 2 Timothy, iv. I 124 Hebrews, xii. 9 130 Revelation. 1, 8 131 iv. II 131 Harrison & Sons, Printers in Ordinary to Her Majesty, St. Martin's Lane. 1' ^4*