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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria,
+Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12), by G. Maspero
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12)
+
+Author: G. Maspero
+
+Editor: A.H. Sayce
+
+Translator: M.L. McClure
+
+Release Date: December 16, 2005 [EBook #17322]
+Last Updated: September 7, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT, CHALDÆA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Spines]
+
+[Illustration: Cover]
+
+HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA
+
+By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen’s
+College, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of
+France
+
+Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford
+
+Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the Egypt
+Exploration Fund
+
+
+CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+Volume II., Part A.
+
+
+LONDON
+
+THE GROLIER SOCIETY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+[Illustration: Frontispiece]
+
+[Illustration: Titlepage]
+
+
+_THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT_
+
+_THE KING, QUEEN, AND ROYAL PRINCES--PHARAONIC ADMINISTRATION_
+
+_FEUDALISM AND THE EGYPTIAN PRIESTHOOD, THE MILITARY--THE CITIZENS AND
+THE COUNTRY-PEOPLE._
+
+_The cemeteries of Gizeh and Saqqâra: the Great Sphinx; the mastabas,
+their chapel and its decoration, the statues of the double, the
+sepulchral vault--Importance of the wall-paintings and texts of the
+mastabas in determining the history of the Memphite dynasties._
+
+_The king and the royal family--Double nature and titles of the
+sovereign: his Horus-names, and the progressive formation of the
+Pharaonic Protocol--Royal etiquette an actual divine worship; the
+insignia and prophetic statues of Pharaoh, Pharaoh the mediator between
+the gods and his subjects--Pharaoh in family life; his amusements, his
+occupations, his cares--His harem: the women, the queen, her origin, her
+duties to the king--His children: their position in the State; rivalry
+among them during the old age and at the death of their father;
+succession to the throne, consequent revolutions._
+
+_The royal city: the palace and its occupants--The royal household and
+its officers: Pharaoh’s jesters, dwarfs, and magicians--The royal domain
+and the slaves, the treasury and the establishments which provided for
+its service: the buildings and places for the receipt of taxes--The
+scribe, his education, his chances of promotion: the career of Amten,
+his successive offices, the value of his personal property at his
+death._
+
+_Egyptian feudalism: the status of the lords, their rights, their
+amusements, their obligations to the sovereign--The influence of the
+gods: gifts to the temples, and possessions in mortmain; the priesthood,
+its hierarchy, and the method of recruiting its ranks--The military:
+foreign mercenaries; native militia, their privileges, their training._
+
+_The people of the towns--The slaves, men without a master--Workmen and
+artisans; corporations: misery of handicraftsmen--Aspect of the towns:
+houses, furniture, women in family life--Festivals; periodic markets,
+bazaars: commerce by barter, the weighing of precious metals._
+
+_The country people--The villages; serfs, free peasantry--Rural domains;
+the survey, taxes; the bastinado, the corvée--Administration of justice,
+the relations between peasants and their lords; misery of the peasantry;
+their resignation and natural cheerfulness; their improvidence; their
+indifference to political revolutions._
+
+[Illustration: 003.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT
+
+
+_The king, the queen, and the royal princes--Administration under
+the Pharaohs--Feudalism and the Egyptian priesthood, the military--The
+citizens and country people._
+
+
+Between the Fayûm and the apex of the Delta, the Lybian range expands
+and forms a vast and slightly undulating table-land, which runs parallel
+to the Nile for nearly thirty leagues. The Great Sphinx Harmakhis has
+mounted guard over its northern extremity ever since the time of the
+Followers of Horus.
+
+     Illustration: Drawn by Boudier, from _La Description de
+     l’Egypte,_ A., vol. v. pl. 7. vignette, which is also by
+     Boudier, represents a man bewailing the dead, in the
+     attitude adopted at funerals by professional mourners of
+     both sexes; the right fist resting on the ground, while the
+     left hand scatters on the hair the dust which he has just
+     gathered up. The statue is in the Gîzeh Museum.
+
+Hewn out of the solid rock at the extreme margin of the
+mountain-plateau, he seems to raise his head in order that he may be the
+first to behold across the valley the rising of his father the Sun. Only
+the general outline of the lion can now be traced in his weather-worn
+body. The lower portion of the head-dress has fallen, so that the neck
+appears too slender to support the weight of the head. The cannon-shot
+of the fanatical Mamelukes has injured both the nose and beard, and
+the red colouring which gave animation to his features has now almost
+entirely disappeared. But in spite of this, even in its decay, it still
+bears a commanding expression of strength and dignity. The eyes look
+into the far-off distance with an intensity of deep thought, the lips
+still smile, the whole face is pervaded with calmness and power. The
+art that could conceive and hew this gigantic statue out of the
+mountain-side, was an art in its maturity, master of itself and sure of
+its effects. How many centuries were needed to bring it to this degree
+of development and perfection!
+
+[Illustration: 004.jpg THE MASTABA OF KHOMTINI IN THE NECROPOLIS OF
+GÎZEH]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Lepsius. The
+     cornerstone at the top of the mastaba, at the extreme left
+     of the hieroglyphic frieze, had been loosened and thrown to
+     the ground by some explorer; the artist has restored it to
+     its original position.
+
+In later times, a chapel of alabaster and rose granite was erected
+alongside the god; temples were built here and there in the more
+accessible places, and round these were grouped the tombs of the whole
+country. The bodies of the common people, usually naked and uncoffined,
+were thrust under the sand, at a depth of barely three feet from the
+surface. Those of a better class rested in mean rectangular chambers,
+hastily built of yellow bricks, and roofed with pointed vaulting.
+No ornaments or treasures gladdened the deceased in his miserable
+resting-place; a few vessels, however, of coarse pottery contained
+the provisions left to nourish him during the period of his second
+existence.
+
+Some of the wealthy class had their tombs cut out of the mountain-side;
+but the majority preferred an isolated tomb, a “mastaba,” * comprising a
+chapel above ground, a shaft, and some subterranean vaults.
+
+     * “The Arabic word ‘mastaba,’ plur. ‘masatib,’ denotes the
+     stone bench or platform seen in the streets of Egyptian
+     towns in front of each shop. A carpet is spread on the
+     ‘mastaba,’ and the customer sits upon it to transact his
+     business, usually side by side with the seller. In the
+     necropolis of Saqqâra, there is a temple of gigantic
+     proportions in the shape of a ‘mastaba.’The inhabitants of
+     the neighbourhood call it ‘Mastabat-el-Farâoun,’ the seat of
+     Pharaoh, in the belief that anciently one of the Pharaohs
+     sat there to dispense justice. The Memphite tombs of the
+     Ancient Empire, which thickly cover the Saqqâra plateau, are
+     more or less miniature copies of the ‘Mastabat-el-
+     Farâoun.’Hence the name of mastabas, which has always been
+     given to this kind of tomb, in the necropolis of Saqqâra.”
+
+From a distance these chapels have the appearance of truncated pyramids,
+varying in size according to the fortune or taste of the owner; there
+are some which measure 30 to 40 ft. in height, with a façade 160 ft.
+long, and a depth from back to front of some 80 ft., while others attain
+only a height of some 10 ft. upon a base of 16 ft. square.*
+
+     * The mastaba of Sabû is 175 ft. 9 in. long, by about 87 ft.
+     9 in. deep, but two of its sides have lost their facing;
+     that of Ranimait measures 171 ft. 3 in. by 84 ft. 6 in. on
+     the south front, and 100 ft. on the north front. On the
+     other hand, the mastaba of Papû is only 19 ft. 4 in. by 29
+     ft. long, and that of KMbiûphtah 42 ft. 4 in. by 21 ft. 8
+     in.
+
+The walls slope uniformly towards one another, and usually have a smooth
+surface; sometimes, however, their courses are set back one above the
+other almost like steps.
+
+[Illustration: 006.jpg THE GREAT SPHINX OF GÎZEH PARTIALLY UNCOVERED,
+AND THE PYRAMID OF KHEPHREN]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey,
+     taken in the course of the excavations begun in 1886, with
+     the funds furnished by a public subscription opened by the
+     _Journal des Débats._
+
+The brick mastabas were carefully cemented externally, and the layers
+bound together internally by fine sand poured into the interstices.
+Stone mastabas, on the contrary, present a regularity in the decoration
+of their facings alone; in nine cases out of ten the core is built of
+rough stone blocks, rudely cut into squares, cemented with gravel and
+dried mud, or thrown together pell-mell without mortar of any kind. The
+whole building should have been orientated according to rule, the four
+sides to the four cardinal points, the greatest axis directed north and
+south; but the masons seldom troubled themselves to find the true north,
+and the orientation is usually incorrect.*
+
+     * Thus the axis of the tomb of Pirsenû is 17° east of the
+     magnetic north. In some cases the divergence is only 1° or
+     2°, more often it is 6°, 7°, 8°, or 9°, as can be easily
+     ascertained by consulting the work of Mariette.
+
+The doors face east, sometimes north or south, but never west. One of
+these is but the semblance of a door, a high narrow niche, contrived
+so as to face east, and decorated with grooves framing a carefully
+walled-up entrance; this was for the use of the dead, and it was
+believed that the ghost entered or left it at will. The door for the
+use of the living, sometimes preceded by a portico, was almost always
+characterized by great simplicity. Over it is a cylindrical tympanum,
+or a smooth flagstone, bearing sometimes merely the name of the dead
+person, sometimes his titles and descent, sometimes a prayer for his
+welfare, and an enumeration of the days during which he was entitled to
+receive the worship due to ancestors. They invoked on his behalf, and
+almost always precisely in the same words, the “Great God,” the Osiris
+of Mendes, or else Anubis, dwelling in the Divine Palace, that burial
+might be granted to him in Amentît, the land of the West, the very great
+and very good, to him the vassal of the Great God; that he might walk
+in the ways in which it is good to walk, he the vassal of the Great
+God; that he might have offerings of bread, cakes, and drink, at the New
+Year’s Feast, at the feast of Thot, on the first day of the year, on the
+feast of Ûagaît, at the great fire festival, at the procession of the
+god Mînû, at the feast of offerings, at the monthly and half-monthly
+festivals, and every day.
+
+[Illustration: 008.jpg TETINIÔNKHÛ, SITTING BEFORE THE FUNERAL REPAST]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the original monument
+     which is preserved in the Liverpool Museum; cf. Gatty,
+     _Catalogue of the Mayer Collection;_ I. Egyptian
+     Antiquities, No. 294, p. 45.
+
+The chapel is usually small, and is almost lost in the great extent
+of the building.* It generally consists merely of an oblong chamber,
+approached by a rather short passage.**
+
+     * Thus the chapel of the mastaba of Sabu is only 14 ft. 4
+     in. long, by about 3 ft. 3 in. deep, and that of the tomb of
+     Phtahshopsisû, 10 ft. 4 in. by 3 ft. 7 in.
+
+     ** The mastaba of Tinti has four chambers, as has also that
+     of Assi-ônkhû; but these are exceptions, as may be
+     ascertained by consulting the work of Mariette. Most of
+     those which contain several rooms are ancient one-roomed
+     mastabas, which have been subsequently altered or enlarged;
+     this is the case with the mastabas of Shopsi and of
+     Ankhaftûka. A few, however, were constructed from the outset
+     with all their apartments--that of Râônkhûmai, with six
+     chambers and several niches; that of Khâbiûphtah, with three
+     chambers, niches, and doorway ornamented with two pillars;
+     that of Ti, with two chambers, a court surrounded with
+     pillars, a doorway, and long inscribed passages; and that of
+     Phtahhotpû, with seven chambers, besides niches.
+
+[Illustration: 009.jpg THE FAÇADE AND THE STELE OF THE TOMB OF
+PHTAHSHOPSISU AT SAQQARA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Dûhichen.
+
+At the far end, and set back into the western wall, is a huge
+quadrangular stele, at the foot of which is seen the table of offerings,
+made of alabaster, granite or limestone placed flat upon the ground,
+and sometimes two little obelisks or two altars, hollowed at the top to
+receive the gifts mentioned in the inscription on the exterior of the
+tomb. The general appearance is that of a rather low, narrow doorway,
+too small to be a practicable entrance. The recess thus formed is almost
+always left empty; sometimes, however, the piety of relatives placed
+within it a statue of the deceased. Standing there, with shoulders
+thrown back, head erect, and smiling face, the statue seems to step
+forth to lead the double from its dark lodging where it lies embalmed,
+to those glowing plains where he dwelt in freedom during his earthly
+life: another moment, crossing the threshold, he must descend the few
+steps leading into the public hall. On festivals and days of offering,
+when the priest and family presented the banquet with the customary
+rites, this great painted figure, in the act of advancing, and seen
+by the light of flickering torches or smoking lamps, might well appear
+endued with life. It was as if the dead ancestor himself stepped out of
+the wall and mysteriously stood before his descendants to claim their
+homage. The inscription on the lintel repeats once more the name and
+rank of the dead. Faithful portraits of him and of other members of his
+family figure in the bas-reliefs on the door-posts.
+
+[Illustration: 010.jpg STELE IN THE FORM OF A DOOR]
+
+The little scene at the far end represents him seated tranquilly at
+table, with the details of the feast carefully recorded at his side,
+from the first moment when water is brought to him for ablution, to that
+when, all culinary skill being exhausted, he has but to return to his
+dwelling, in a state of beatified satisfaction. The stele represented to
+the visitor the door leading to the private apartments of the deceased;
+the fact of its being walled up for ever showing that no living mortal
+might cross its threshold. The inscription which covered its surface was
+not a mere epitaph informing future generations who it was that reposed
+beneath. It perpetuated the name and genealogy of the deceased, and
+gave him a civil status, without which he could not have preserved his
+personality in the world beyond; the nameless dead, like a living man
+without a name, was reckoned as non-existing. Nor was this the only use
+of the stele; the pictures and prayers inscribed upon it acted as so
+many talismans for ensuring the continuous existence of the ancestor,
+whose memory they recalled. They compelled the god therein invoked,
+whether Osiris or the jackal Anubis, to act as mediator between the
+living and the departed; they granted to the god the enjoyment of
+sacrifices and those good things abundantly offered to the deities, and
+by which they live, on condition that a share of them might first be
+set aside for the deceased. By the divine favour, the soul or rather the
+doubles of the bread, meat, and beverages passed into the other world,
+and there refreshed the human double. It was not, however, necessary
+that the offering should have a material existence, in order to be
+effective; the first comer who should repeat aloud the name and the
+formulas inscribed upon the stone, secured for the unknown occupant, by
+this means alone, the immediate possession of all the things which he
+enumerated.
+
+The stele constitutes the essential part of the chapel and tomb. In many
+cases it was the only inscribed portion, it alone being necessary to
+ensure the identity and continuous existence of the dead man; often,
+however, the sides of the chamber and passage were not left bare. When
+time or the wealth of the owner permitted, they were covered with scenes
+and writing, expressing at greater length the ideas summarized by the
+figures and inscriptions of the stele.
+
+[Illustration: 014.jpg A REPRESENTATION OF THE DOMAINS OF THE LORD TI,
+BRINGING TO HIM OFFERINGS IN PROCESSION]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin taken from a “squeeze” taken from the
+     tomb of Ti. The domains are represented as women. The name
+     is written before each figure with the designation of the
+     landowner.
+
+
+Neither pictorial effect nor the caprice of the moment was permitted
+to guide the artist in the choice of his subjects; all that he drew,
+pictures or words, bad a magical purpose. Every individual who built for
+himself an “eternal house,” either attached to it a staff of priests
+of the double, of inspectors, scribes, and slaves, or else made an
+agreement with the priests of a neighbouring temple to serve the chapel
+in perpetuity. Lands taken from his patrimony, which thus became the
+“Domains of the Eternal House,” rewarded them for their trouble, and
+supplied them with meats, vegetables, fruits, liquors, linen and vessels
+for sacrifice.
+
+[Illustration: 015.jpg THE REPRESENTATION OF THE LORD TI ASSISTING AT
+THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE SACRIFICE AND OFFERINGS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Dumichen,
+     Besultate, vol. i. pl. 13.
+
+In theory, these “liturgies” were perpetuated from year to year, until
+the end of time; but in practice, after three or four generations, the
+older ancestors were forsaken for those who had died more recently.
+Notwithstanding the imprecations and threats of the donor against the
+priests who should neglect their duty, or against those who should usurp
+the funeral endowments, sooner or later there came a time when, forsaken
+by all, the double was in danger of perishing for want of sustenance. In
+order to ensure that the promised gifts, offered in substance on the day
+of burial, should be maintained throughout the centuries, the relatives
+not only depicted them upon the chapel walls, but represented in
+addition the lands which produced them, and the labour which contributed
+to their production. On one side we see ploughing, sowing, reaping, the
+carrying of the corn, the storing of the grain, the fattening of the
+poultry, and the driving of the cattle. A little further on, workmen of
+all descriptions are engaged in their several trades: shoemakers ply
+the awl, glassmakers blow through their tubes, metal founders watch over
+their smelting-pots, carpenters hew down trees and build a ship; groups
+of women weave or spin under the eye of a frowning taskmaster, who seems
+impatient of their chatter. Did the double in his hunger desire meat? He
+might choose from the pictures on the wall the animal that pleased him
+best, whether kid, ox, or gazelle; he might follow the course of its
+life, from its birth in the meadows to the slaughter-house and the
+kitchen, and might satisfy his hunger with its flesh. The double saw
+himself represented in the paintings as hunting, and to the hunt he
+went; he was painted eating and drinking with his wife, and he ate and
+drank with her; the pictured ploughing, harvesting, and gathering into
+barns, thus became to him actual realities. In fine, this painted world
+of men and things represented upon the wall was quickened by the same
+life which animated the double, upon whom it all depended: the _picture_
+of a meal or of a slave was perhaps that which best suited the _shade_
+of guest or of master.
+
+Even to-day, when we enter one of these decorated chapels, the idea of
+death scarcely presents itself: we have rather the impression of being
+in some old-world house, to which the master may at any moment return.
+We see him portrayed everywhere upon the walls, followed by his
+servants, and surrounded by everything which made his earthly life
+enjoyable. One or two statues of him stand at the end of the room, in
+constant readiness to undergo the “Opening of the Mouth” and to receive
+offerings. Should these be accidentally removed, others, secreted in
+a little chamber hidden in the thickness of the masonry, are there to
+replace them. These inner chambers have rarely any external outlet,
+though occasionally they are connected with the chapel by a small
+opening, so narrow that it will hardly admit of a hand being passed
+through it. Those who came to repeat prayers and burn incense at this
+aperture were received by the dead in person. The statues were not mere
+images, devoid of consciousness. Just as the double of a god could be
+linked to an idol in the temple sanctuary in order to transform it into
+a prophetic being, capable of speech and movement, so when the double of
+a man was attached to the effigy of his earthly body, whether in stone,
+metal, or wood, a real living person was created and was introduced into
+the tomb. So strong was this conviction that the belief has lived on
+through two changes of religion until the present day. The double still
+haunts the statues with which he was associated in the past. As in
+former times, he yet strikes with madness or death any who dare to
+disturb is repose; and one can only be protected from him by breaking,
+at the moment of discovery, the perfect statues which the vault
+contains. The double is weakened or killed by the mutilation of these
+his sustainers.*
+
+     * The legends still current about the pyramids of Gîzeh
+     furnish some good examples of this kind of superstition.
+     “The guardian of the Eastern pyramid was an idol... who had
+     both eyes open, and was seated on a throne, having a sort of
+     halberd near it, on which, if any one fixed his eye, he
+     heard a fearful noise, which struck terror to his heart, and
+     caused the death of the hearer. There was a spirit appointed
+     to wait on each guardian, who departed not from before
+     him.” The keeping of the other two pyramids was in like
+     manner entrusted to a statue, assisted by a spirit. I have
+     collected a certain number of tales resembling that of
+     Mourtadi in the _Études de Mythologie et Archéologie
+     Égyptiennes,_ vol. i. p. 77, et seq.
+
+The statues furnish in their modelling a more correct idea of the
+deceased than his mummy, disfigured as it was by the work of the
+embalmers; they were also less easily destroyed, and any number could
+be made at will. Hence arose the really incredible number of statues
+sometimes hidden away in the same tomb. These sustainers or imperishable
+bodies of the double were multiplied so as to insure for him a practical
+immortality; and the care with which they were shut into a secure
+hiding-place, increased their chances of preservation. All the same, no
+precaution was neglected that could save a mummy from destruction. The
+shaft leading to it descended to a mean depth of forty to fifty feet,
+but sometimes it reached, and even exceeded, a hundred feet. Running
+horizontally from it is a passage so low as to prevent a man standing
+upright in it, which leads to the sepulchral chamber properly so called,
+hewn out of the solid rock and devoid of all ornament; the sarcophagus,
+whether of fine limestone, rose-granite, or black basalt, does not
+always bear the name and titles of the deceased. The servants who
+deposited the body in it placed beside it on the dusty floor the
+quarters of the ox, previously slaughtered in the chapel, as well as
+phials of perfume, and large vases of red pottery containing muddy
+water; after which they walled up the entrance to the passage and filled
+the shaft with chips of stone intermingled with earth and gravel. The
+whole, being well watered, soon hardened into a compact mass, which
+protected the vault and its master from desecration.
+
+During the course of centuries, the ever-increasing number of tombs at
+length formed an almost uninterrupted chain of burying-places on the
+table-land. At Gîzeh they follow a symmetrical plan, and line the sides
+of regular roads; at Saqqâra they are scattered about on the surface
+of the ground, in some places sparsely, in others huddled confusedly
+together. Everywhere the tombs are rich in inscriptions, statues, and
+painted or sculptured scenes, each revealing some characteristic custom,
+or some detail of contemporary civilization. From the womb, as it were,
+of these cemeteries, the Egypt of the Memphite dynasties gradually takes
+new life, and reappears in the full daylight of history. Nobles and
+fellahs, soldiers and priests, scribes and craftsmen,--the whole nation
+lives anew before us; each with his manners, his dress, his daily round
+of occupation and pleasures. It is a perfect picture, and although in
+places the drawing is defaced and the colour dimmed, yet these may be
+restored with no great difficulty, and with almost absolute certainty.
+The king stands out boldly in the foreground, and his tall figure towers
+over all else. He so completely transcends his surroundings, that at
+first sight one may well ask if he does not represent a god rather than
+a man; and, as a matter of fact, he is a god to his subjects. They call
+him “the good god,” “the great god,” and connect him with Râ through the
+intervening kings, the successors of the gods who ruled the two worlds.
+His father before him was “Son of Râ,” as was also his grandfather, and
+his great-grandfather, and so through all his ancestors, until from
+“son of Râ” to “son of Râ” they at last reached Râ himself. Sometimes
+an adventurer of unknown antecedents is abruptly inserted in the series,
+and we might imagine that he would interrupt the succession of the solar
+line; but on closer examination we always find that either the intruder
+is connected with the god by a genealogy hitherto unsuspected, or that
+he is even more closely related to him than his predecessors, inasmuch
+as Râ, having secretly descended upon the earth, had begotten him by a
+mortal mother in order to rejuvenate the race.*
+
+     * A legend, preserved for us in the Westcar Papyrus (Erman’s
+     edition, pl. ix. 11. 5-11, pl. x. 1. 5, et seq.), maintains
+     that the first three kings of the Vth dynasty, Ûsirkaf,
+     Sahûrî, and Kakiû, were children born to Râ, lord of
+     Sakhîbû, by Rûdîtdidît, wife of a priest attached to the
+     temple of that town.
+
+If things came to the worst, a marriage with some princess would soon
+legitimise, if not the usurper himself, at least his descendants, and
+thus firmly re-establish the succession.
+
+[Illustration: 021.jpg THE BIRTH OF A KING AND HIS DOUBLE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Gay et. The
+     king is Amenôthes III., whose conception and birth are
+     represented in the temple of Luxor, with the same wealth of
+     details that we should have expected, had he been a son of
+     the god Amon and the goddess Mût.
+
+The Pharaohs, therefore, are blood-relations of the Sun-god, some
+through their father, others through their mother, directly begotten
+by the God, and their souls as well as their bodies have a supernatural
+origin; each soul being a double detached from Horus, the successor of
+Osiris, and the first to reign alone over Egypt. This divine double
+is infused into the royal infant at birth, in the same manner as the
+ordinary double is incarnate in common mortals. It always remained
+concealed, and seemed to lie dormant in those princes whom destiny did
+not call upon to reign, but it awoke to full self-consciousness in those
+who ascended the throne at the moment of their accession. From that time
+to the hour of their death, and beyond it, all that they possessed of
+ordinary humanity was completely effaced; they were from henceforth
+only “the sons of Râ,” the Horus, dwelling upon earth, who, during his
+sojourn here below, renews the blessings of Horus, son of Isis. Their
+complex nature was revealed at the outset in the form and arrangement of
+their names. Among the Egyptians the choice of a name was not a matter
+of indifference; not only did men and beasts, but even inanimate
+objects, require one or more names, and it may be said that no person or
+thing in the world could attain to complete existence until the name
+had been conferred. The most ancient names were often only a short word,
+which denoted some moral or physical quality, as Titi the Runner, Mini
+the Lasting, Qonqeni the Crusher, Sondi the Formidable, Uznasît the
+Flowery-tongued. They consisted also of short sentences, by which
+the royal child confessed his faith in the power of the gods, and his
+participation in the acts of the Sun’s life--“Khâfrî,” his rising is
+Râ; “Men-kaûhorû,” the doubles of Horus last for ever; “Usirkerî,” the
+double of Râ is omnipotent. Sometimes the sentence is shortened, and the
+name of the god is understood: as for instance, “Ûsirkaf,” his double is
+omnipotent; “Snofmi,” he has made me good; “Khûfïïi,” he has protected
+me, are put for the names “Usirkerî,” “Ptahsnofrûi,” “Khnûmkhûfûi,” with
+the suppression of Râ, Phtah, and Khnûrnû.
+
+[Illustration: 023.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+The name having once, as it were, taken possession of a man on his
+entrance into life, never leaves him either in this world or the next;
+the prince who had been called Unas or Assi at the moment of his birth,
+retained this name even after death, so long as his mummy existed, and
+his double was not annihilated.
+
+     {Hieroglyphics indicated by [--], see the page images in
+     the HTML file}
+
+When the Egyptians wished to denote that a person or thing was in a
+certain place, they inserted their names within the picture of the place
+in question. Thus the name of Teti is written inside a picture of Teti’s
+castle, the result being the compound hieroglyph [--] Again, when the
+son of a king became king in his turn, they enclose his ordinary name
+in the long flat-bottomed frame [--] which we call a cartouche;
+the elliptical part [--] of which is a kind of plan of the world, a
+representation of those regions passed over by Râ in his journey, and
+over which Pharaoh, because he is a son of Râ, exercises his rule.
+When the names of Teti or Snofrûi, following the group [----] which
+respectively express sovereignty over the two halves of Egypt, the
+South and the North, the whole expression describing exactly the visible
+person of Pharaoh during his abode among mortals. But this first name
+chosen for the child did not include the whole man; it left without
+appropriate designation the double of Horus, which was revealed in
+the prince at the moment of accession. The double therefore received a
+special title, which is always constructed on a uniform plan: first the
+picture [--] hawk-god, who desired to leave to his descendants a portion
+of his soul, then a simple or compound epithet, specifying that virtue
+of Horus which the Pharaoh wished particularly to possess--“Horû
+nîb-mâîfc,” Horus master of Truth; “Horû miri-toûi,” Horus friend of
+both lands; “Horû nîbkhâùû,” Horus master of the risings; “Horu mazîti,”
+ Horus who crushes his enemies.
+
+[Illustration: 024.jpg THE ADULT KING ADVANCING, FOLLOWED BY HIS DOUBLE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an illustration in Arundale-
+     Bonomi-Birch’s _Gallery of Antiquities from the British
+     Museum,_ pl. 31. The king thus represented is Thutmosis II.
+     of the XVIIIth dynasty; the spear, surmounted by a man’s
+     head, which the double holds in his hand, probably recalls
+     the human victims formerly sacrificed at the burial of a
+     chief.
+
+The variable part of these terms is usually written in an oblong
+rectangle, terminated at the lower end by a number of lines portraying
+in a summary way the façade of a monument, in the centre of which a
+bolted door may sometimes be distinguished: this is the representation
+of the chapel where the double will one day rest, and the closed door is
+the portal of the tomb.* The stereotyped part of the names and titles,
+which is represented by the figure of the god, is placed outside the
+rectangle, sometimes by the side of it, sometimes upon its top: the hawk
+is, in fact, free by nature, and could nowhere remain imprisoned against
+his will.
+
+     * This is what is usually known as the “Banner Name;”
+      indeed, it was for some time believed that this sign
+     represented a piece of stuff, ornamented at the bottom by
+     embroidery or fringe, and bearing on the upper part the
+     title of a king. Wilkinson thought that this “square title,”
+      as he called it, represented a house. The real meaning of
+     the expression was determined by Professor Flinders Petrie
+     and by myself.
+
+This artless preamble was not enough to satisfy the love of precision
+which is the essential characteristic of the Egyptians. When they wished
+to represent the double in his sepulchral chamber, they left out of
+consideration the period in his existence during which he had presided
+over the earthly destinies of the sovereign, in order to render them
+similar to those of Horus, from whom the double proceeded.
+
+[Illustration: 026.jpg Page Image]
+
+They, therefore, withdrew him from the tomb which should have been his
+lot, and there was substituted for the ordinary sparrow-hawk one of
+those groups which symbolize sovereignty over the two countries of the
+Nile--the coiled urasus of the North, and the vulture of the South,
+[--]; there was then finally added a second sparrow-hawk, the golden
+sparrow-hawk, [--], the triumphant sparrow-hawk which had delivered
+Egypt from Typhon. The soul of Snofrai, which is called, as a surviving
+double, [--], “Horus master of Truth,” is, as a living double, entitled
+“[--]” “[--]” the Lord of the Vulture and of the “Urous,” master of
+Truth, and Horus triumphant.*
+
+     * The Ka, or double name, represented in this illustration
+     is that of the Pharaoh Khephren, the builder of the second
+     of the great pyramids at Gîzeh; it reads “Horu usir-Hâîti,”
+      Horus powerful of heart.
+
+On the other hand, the royal prince, when he put on the diadem,
+received, from the moment of his advancement to the highest rank, such
+an increase of dignity, that his birth-name--even when framed in a
+cartouche and enhanced with brilliant epithets--was no longer able to
+fully represent him. This exaltation of his person was therefore marked
+by a new designation. As he was the living flesh of the sun, so his
+surname always makes allusion to some point in his relations with his
+father, and proclaims the love which he felt for the latter, “Mirirî,”
+ or that the latter experienced for him, “Mirnirî,” or else it indicates
+the stability of the doubles of Râ, “Tatkerî,” their goodness,
+“Nofirkerî,” or some other of their sovereign virtues. Several Pharaohs
+of the IVth dynasty had already dignified themselves by these surnames;
+those of the VIth were the first to incorporate them regularly into the
+royal preamble.
+
+[Illustration: 027.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+There was some hesitation at first as to the position the surname ought
+to occupy, and it was sometimes placed after the birth-name, as in “Papi
+Nofirkerî,” sometimes before it, as in [--] “Nofirkerî Papî.” It was
+finally decided to place it at the beginning, preceded by the group [--]
+“King of Upper and Lower Egypt,” which expresses in its fullest extent
+the power granted by the gods to the Pharaoh alone; the other, or
+birth-name, came after it, accompanied by the words [--]. “Son of the
+Sun.” There were inscribed, either before or above these two solar names
+--which are exclusively applied to the visible and living body of the
+master--the two names of the sparrow-hawk, which belonged especially to
+the soul; first, that of the double in the tomb, and then that of the
+double while still incarnate. Four terms seemed thus necessary to the
+Egyptians in order to define accurately the Pharaoh, both in time and in
+eternity.
+
+Long centuries were needed before this subtle analysis of the royal
+person, and the learned graduation of the formulas which corresponded to
+it, could transform the Nome chief, become by conquest suzerain over all
+other chiefs and king of all Egypt, into a living god here below, the
+all-powerful son and successor of the gods; but the divine concept of
+royalty, once implanted in the mind, quickly produced its inevitable
+consequences. From the moment that the Pharaoh became god upon earth,
+the gods of heaven, his fathers or his brothers, and the goddesses
+recognized him as their son, and, according to the ceremonial imposed
+by custom in such cases, consecrated his adoption by offering him the
+breast to suck, as they would have done to their own child.
+
+[Illustration: 028.jpg THE GODDESS ADOPTS THE KING BY SUCKLING HIM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger. The
+     original is in the great speos of Silsilis. The king here
+     represented is Harmhabît of the XVIIIth dynasty; cf.
+     Champollion, _Monuments de l’Egypt et de la Nubie,_ pl.
+     cix., No. 3; Rosellini, _Monumenti Storici,_ pl. xliv. 5;
+     Lepsius, Denkm., iii. 121 b.
+
+Ordinary mortals spoke of him only in symbolic words, designating him by
+some periphrasis: Pharaoh, “Pirûi-Aûi,” the Double Palace, “Prûîti,” the
+Sublime Porte, His Majesty,* the Sun of the two lands, Horus master of
+the palace, or, less ceremoniously, by the indeterminate pronoun “One.”
+
+     * The title “Honûf” is translated by the same authors,
+     sometimes as “His Majesty,” sometimes as “His Holiness.” The
+     reasons for translating it “His Majesty,” as was originally
+     proposed by Champollion, and afterwards generally adopted,
+     have been given last of all by E. de Rougé.
+
+The greater number of these terms is always accompanied by a wish
+addressed to the sovereign for his “life,” “health,” and “strength,” the
+initial signs of which are written after all his titles. He accepts all
+this graciously, and even on his own initiative, swears by his own life,
+or by the favour of Râ, but he forbids his subjects to imitate him: for
+them it is a sin, punishable in this world and in the next, to adjure
+the person of the sovereign, except in the case in which a magistrate
+requires from them a judicial oath.
+
+[Illustration: 029.jpg THE CUCUPHA-HEADED SCEPTRE.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the engraving in Prisse
+     d’Avennes, _Recherches sur les légendes royales et l’époque
+     du règne de Schai ou Scheraï,_ in the _Revue Archéologique_,
+     1st series, vol. ii. p. 467. The original is now preserved
+     in the Bibliothèque Nationale, to which it was presented by
+     Prisse d’Avennes. It is of glazed earthenware, of very
+     delicate and careful workmanship.
+
+He is approached, moreover, as a god is approached, with downcast eyes,
+and head or back bent; they “sniff the earth” before him, they veil their
+faces with both hands to shut out the splendour of his appearance; they
+chant a devout form of adoration before submitting to him a petition.
+No one is free from this obligation: his ministers themselves, and the
+great ones of his kingdom, cannot deliberate with him on matters of
+state, without inaugurating the proceeding by a sort of solemn service
+in his honour, and reciting to him at length a eulogy of his divinity.
+They did not, indeed, openly exalt him above the other gods, but these
+were rather too numerous to share heaven among them, whilst he alone
+rules over the “Entire Circuit of the Sun,” and the whole earth, its
+mountains and plains, are in subjection under his sandalled feet.
+People, no doubt, might be met with who did not obey him, but these
+were rebels, adherents of Sît, “Children of Euin,” who, sooner or later,
+would be overtaken by punishment.
+
+[Illustration: 030.jpg DIFFERENT POSTURES FOR APPROACHING THE KING]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. The
+     picture represents Khâmhaît presenting the superintendents
+     of storehouses to Tûtânkhamon, of the XVIIIth dynasty.
+
+While hoping that his fictitious claim to universal dominion would be
+realized, the king adopted, in addition to the simple costume of the old
+chiefs, the long or short petticoat, the jackal’s tail, the turned-up
+sandals, and the insignia of the supreme gods,--the ankh, the crook, the
+flail, and the sceptre tipped with the head of a jerboa or a hare, which
+we misname the cucupha-headed sceptre.* He put on the many-coloured
+diadems of the gods, the head-dresses covered with feathers, the white
+and the red crowns either separately or combined so as to form the
+pshent. The viper or uraeus, in metal or gilded wood, which rose from
+his forehead, was imbued with a mysterious life, which made it a means
+of executing his vengeance and accomplishing his secret purposes. It was
+supposed to vomit flames and to destroy those who should dare to attack
+its master in battle. The supernatural virtues which it communicated to
+the crown, made it an enchanted thing which no one could resist. Lastly,
+Pharaoh had his temples where his enthroned statue, animated by one
+of his doubles, received worship, prophesied, and fulfilled all the
+functions of a Divine Being, both during his life, and after he had
+rejoined in the tomb his ancestors the gods, who existed before him and
+who now reposed impassively within the depths of their pyramids.**
+
+     * This identification, suggested by Champollion, is, from
+     force of custom, still adhered to, in nearly all works on
+     Egyptology. But we know from ancient evidence that the
+     cucupha was a bird, perhaps a hoopoe; the sceptre of the
+     gods, moreover, is really surmounted by the head of a
+     quadruped having a pointed snout and long retreating ears,
+     and belonging to the greyhound, jackal, or jerboa species.
+
+     ** This method of distinguishing deceased kings is met with
+     as far back as the “Song of the Harpist,” which the
+     Egyptians of the Ramesside period attributed to the founder
+     of the XIth dynasty. The first known instance of a temple
+     raised by an Egyptian king to his double is that of
+     Amenôthes III.
+
+Man, as far as his body was concerned, and god in virtue of his soul and
+its attributes, the Pharaoh, in right of this double nature, acted as a
+constant mediator between heaven and earth. He alone was fit to transmit
+the prayers of men to his fathers and his brethren the gods. Just as the
+head of a family was in his household the priest _par excellence_ of the
+gods of that family,--just as the chief of a nome was in his nome the
+priest _par excellence_ in regard to the gods of the nome,--so was
+Pharaoh the priest _par excellence_ of the gods of all Egypt, who were
+his special deities. He accompanied their images in solemn processions;
+he poured out before them the wine and mystic milk, recited the formulas
+in their hearing, seized the bull who was the victim with a lasso and
+slaughtered it according to the rite consecrated by ancient tradition.
+Private individuals had recourse to his intercession, when they asked
+some favour from on high; as, however, it was impossible for every
+sacrifice to pass actually through his hands, the celebrating priest
+proclaimed at the beginning of each ceremony that it was the king who
+made the offering--_Sûtni di hotpu_--he and none other, to Osiris,
+Phtah, and Ka-Harmakhis, so that they might grant to the faithful
+who implored the object of their desires, and, the declaration being
+accepted in lieu of the act, the king was thus regarded as really
+officiating on every occasion for his subjects.*
+
+     *I do not agree with Prof. Ed. Meyer, or with Prof. Erman,
+     who imagine that this was the first instance of the
+     practice, and that it had been introduced into Nubia before
+     its adoption on Egyptian soil. Under the Ancient Empire we
+     meet with more than one functionary who styles himself, in
+     some cases during his master’s lifetime, in others shortly
+     after his death, “Prophet of Horus who lives in the palace,”
+      or “Prophet of Kheops,” “Prophet of Sondi,” “Prophet of
+     Kheops, of Mykerinos, of Usirkaf,” or “of other sovereigns.”
+
+He thus maintained daily intercourse with the gods, and they, on their
+part, did not neglect any occasion of communicating with him. They
+appeared to him in dreams to foretell his future, to command him to
+restore a monument which was threatened with ruin, to advise him to set
+out to war, to forbid him risking his life in the thick of the fight.*
+
+     * Among other examples, the texts mention the dream in which
+     Thûtmosis IV., while still a royal prince, received from
+     Phrâ-Harmakhis orders to unearth the Great Sphinx, the dream
+     in which Phtah forbids Minephtah to take part in the battle
+     against the peoples of the sea, that by which Tonûatamon,
+     King of Napata, is persuaded to undertake the conquest of
+     Egypt. Herodotus had already made us familiar with the
+     dreams of Sabaco and of the high priest Sethos.
+
+Communication by prophetic dreams was not, however, the method usually
+selected by the gods: they employed as interpreters of their wishes
+the priests and the statues in the temples. The king entered the chapel
+where the statue was kept, and performed in its presence the invocatory
+rites, and questioned it upon the subject which occupied his mind. The
+priest replied under direct inspiration from on high, and the dialogue
+thus entered upon might last a long time. Interminable discourses,
+whose records cover the walls of the Theban temples, inform us what
+the Pharaoh said on such occasions, and in what emphatic tones the
+gods replied. Sometimes the animated statues raised their voices in
+the darkness of the sanctuary and themselves announced their will; more
+frequently they were content to indicate it by a gesture. When they were
+consulted on some particular subject and returned no sign, it was their
+way of signifying their disapprobation. If, on the other hand, they
+significantly bowed their head, once or twice, the subject was an
+acceptable one, and they approved it. No state affair was settled
+without asking their advice, and without their giving it in one way or
+another.
+
+The monuments, which throw full light on the supernatural character
+of the Pharaohs in general, tell us but little of the individual
+disposition of any king in particular, or of their everyday life. When
+by chance we come into closer intimacy for a moment with the sovereign,
+he is revealed to us as being less divine and majestic than we might
+have been led to believe, had we judged him only by his impassive
+expression and by the pomp with which he was surrounded in public. Not
+that he ever quite laid aside his grandeur; even in his home life,
+in his chamber or his garden, during those hours when he felt himself
+withdrawn from public gaze, those highest in rank might never forget
+when they approached him that he was a god. He showed himself to be a
+kind father, a good-natured husband,* ready to dally with his wives and
+caress them on the cheek as they offered him a flower, or moved a piece
+upon the draught-board.
+
+     * As a literary example of what the conduct of a king was
+     like in his family circle, we may quote the description of
+     King Minîbphtah, in the story of Satni-Khâmoîs. The pictures
+     of the tombs at Tel-el-Amarna show us the intimate terms on
+     which King Khuniaton lived with his wife and daughters, both
+     big and little.
+
+He took an interest in those who waited on him, allowed them certain
+breaches of etiquette when he was pleased with them, and was indulgent
+to their little failings. If they had just returned from foreign lands,
+a little countrified after a lengthy exile from the court, he would
+break out into pleasantries over their embarrassment and their
+unfashionable costume,--kingly pleasantries which excited the forced
+mirth of the bystanders, but which soon fell flat and had no meaning for
+those outside the palace. The Pharaoh was fond of laughing and drinking;
+indeed, if we may believe evil tongues, he took so much at times as to
+incapacitate him for business. The chase was not always a pleasure
+to him, hunting in the desert, at least, where the lions evinced a
+provoking tendency to show as little respect for the divinity of the
+prince as for his mortal subjects; but, like the chiefs of old, he felt
+it a duty to his people to destroy wild beasts, and he ended by counting
+the slain in hundreds, however short his reign might be.*
+
+     *Amenôthes III. had killed as many as a hundred and two
+     lions during the first ten years of his reign.
+
+A considerable part of his time was taken up in war--in the east,
+against the Libyans in the regions of the Oasis; in the Nile Valley to
+the south of Aswan against the Nubians; on the Isthmus of Suez and in
+the Sinaitic Peninsula against the Bedouin; frequently also in a civil
+war against some ambitious noble or some turbulent member of his own
+family. He travelled frequently from south to north, and from north to
+south, leaving in every possible place marked traces of his visits--on
+the rocks of Elephantine and of the first cataract, on those of Silsilis
+or of El-Kab, and he appeared to his vassals as Tûmû himself arisen
+among them to repress injustice and disorder. He restored or enlarged
+the monuments, regulated equitably the assessment of taxes and
+charges, settled or dismissed the lawsuits between one town and another
+concerning the appropriation of the water, or the possession of certain
+territories, distributed fiefs which had fallen vacant, among his
+faithful servants, and granted pensions to be paid out of the royal
+revenues.*
+
+     * These details are not found on the historical monuments,
+     but are furnished to us by the description given in “The
+     Book of Knowledge of what there is in the other world” of
+     the course of the sun across the domain of the hours of
+     night; the god is there described as a Pharaoh passing
+     through his kingdom, and all that he does for his vassals,
+     the dead, is identical with what Pharaoh was accustomed to
+     do for his subjects, the living.
+
+At length he re-entered Memphis, or one of his usual residences, where
+fresh labours awaited him. He gave audience daily to all, whether high
+or low, who were, or believed that they were, wronged by some official,
+and who came to appeal to the justice of the master against the
+injustice of his servant. If he quitted the palace when the cause
+had been heard, to take boat or to go to the temple, he was not left
+undisturbed, but petitions and supplications assailed him by the way.
+In addition to this, there were the daily sacrifices, the despatch
+of current affairs, the ceremonies which demanded the presence of the
+Pharaoh, and the reception of nobles or foreign envoys. One would think
+that in the midst of so many occupations he would never feel time hang
+heavy on his hands. He was, however, a prey to that profound _ennui_
+which most Oriental monarchs feel so keenly, and which neither the cares
+nor the pleasures of ordinary life could dispel. Like the Sultans of the
+“Arabian Nights,” the Pharaohs were accustomed to have marvellous tales
+related to them, or they assembled their councillors to ask them to
+suggest some fresh amusement: a happy thought would sometimes strike one
+of them, as in the case of him who aroused the interest of Snofrûi by
+recommending him to have his boat manned by young girls barely clad in
+large-meshed network.
+
+[Illustration: 037.jpg PHARAOH IN HIS HAREM]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin.
+
+All his pastimes were not so playful. The Egyptians by nature were not
+cruel, and we have very few records either in history or tradition of
+bloodthirsty Pharaohs; but the life of an ordinary individual was of so
+little value in their eyes, that they never hesitated to sacrifice it,
+even for a caprice. A sorcerer had no sooner boasted before Kheops of
+being able to raise the dead, than the king proposed that he should try
+the experiment on a prisoner whose head was to be forthwith cut off.
+The anger of Pharaoh was quickly excited, and once aroused, became an
+all-consuming fire; the Egyptians were wont to say, in describing its
+intensity, “His Majesty became as furious as a panther.” The wild beast
+often revealed itself in the half-civilized man.
+
+The royal family was very numerous. The women were principally chosen
+from the relatives of court officials of high rank, or from the
+daughters of the great feudal lords; there were, however, many strangers
+among them, daughters or sisters of petty Libyan, Nubian, or Asiatic
+kings; they were brought into Pharaoh’s house as hostages for the
+submission of their respective peoples. They did not all enjoy the same
+treatment or consideration, and their original position decided their
+status in the harem, unless the amorous caprice of their master should
+otherwise decide. Most of them remained merely concubines for life,
+others were raised to the rank of “royal spouses,” and at least one
+received the title and privileges of “great spouse,” or queen. This was
+rarely accorded to a stranger, but almost always to a princess born in
+the purple, a daughter of Râ, if possible a sister of the Pharaoh, and
+who, inheriting in the same degree and in equal proportion the flesh and
+blood of the Sun-god, had, more than others, the right to share the bed
+and throne of her brother.*
+
+     * It would seem that Queen Mirisônkhû, wife of Khephren, was
+     the daughter of Kheops, and consequently her husband’s
+     sister.
+
+[Illustration: 039.jpg PHARAOH GIVES SOLEMN AUDIENCE TO ONE OF HIS
+MINISTERS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Lepsius. The king is Amenôthes
+     III. (XVIIIth. dynasty).
+
+She had her own house, and a train of servants and followers as large
+as those of the king; while the women of inferior rank were more or less
+shut up in the parts of the palace assigned to them, she came and went
+at pleasure, and appeared in public with or without her husband. The
+preamble of official documents in which she is mentioned, solemnly
+recognizes her as the living follower of Horus, the associate of
+the Lord of the Vulture and the Uraeus, the very gentle, the very
+praiseworthy, she who sees her Horus, or Horus and Sit, face to face.
+Her union with the god-king rendered her a goddess, and entailed upon
+her the fulfilment of all the duties which a goddess owed to a god. They
+were varied and important. The woman, indeed, was supposed to combine
+in herself more completely than a man the qualities necessary for the
+exercise of magic, whether legitimate or otherwise: she saw and heard
+that which the eyes and ears of man could not perceive; her voice, being
+more flexible and piercing, was heard at greater distances; she was by
+nature mistress of the art of summoning or banishing invisible
+beings. While Pharaoh was engaged in sacrificing, the queen, by her
+incantations, protected him from malignant deities, whose interest it
+was to divert the attention of the celebrant from holy things: she put
+them to flight by the sound of prayer and sistrum, she poured libations
+and offered perfumes and flowers. In processions she walked behind her
+husband, gave audience with him, governed for him while he was engaged
+in foreign wars, or during his progresses through his kingdom: such
+was the work of Isis while her brother Osiris was conquering the world.
+Widowhood did not always entirely disqualify her. If she belonged to the
+solar race, and the new sovereign was a minor, she acted as regent by
+hereditary right, and retained the authority for some years longer.*
+
+     * The best-known of these queen regencies is that which
+     occurred during the minority of Thûtmosis III., about the
+     middle of the XVIIIth dynasty. Queen Tûaû also appears to
+     have acted as regent for her son Ramses II. during his first
+     Syrian campaigns.
+
+It occasionally happened that she had no posterity, or that the child
+of another woman inherited the crown. In that case there was no law or
+custom to prevent a young and beautiful widow from wedding the son, and
+thus regaining her rank as Queen by a marriage with the successor of her
+deceased husband. It was in this manner that, during the earlier part
+of the IVth dynasty, the Princess Mirtîttefsi ingratiated herself
+successively in the favour of Snofrûi and Kheops.* Such a case did not
+often arise, and a queen who had once quitted the throne had but little
+chance of again ascending it. Her titles, her duties, her supremacy over
+the rest of the family, passed to a younger rival: formerly she had been
+the active companion of the king, she now became only the nominal spouse
+of the god,** and her office came to an end when the god, of whom she
+had been the goddess, quitting his body, departed heavenward to rejoin
+his father the Sun on the far-distant horizon.
+
+Children swarmed in the palace, as in the houses of private individuals:
+in spite of the number who died in infancy, they were reckoned by tens,
+sometimes by the hundred, and more than one Pharaoh must have been
+puzzled to remember exactly the number and names of his offspring.***
+
+     * M. de Rougé was the first to bring this fact to light in
+     his _Becherches sur les monuments qu’on peut attribuer aux
+     six premières dynasties de Manéthon,_ pp. 36-38. Mirtîttefsi
+     also lived in the harem of Khephren, but the title which
+     connects her with this king--_Amahhit_, the vassal--proves
+     that she was then merely a nominal wife; she was probably by
+     that time, as M. de Rougé says, of too advanced an age to
+     remain the favourite of a third Pharaoh.
+
+     ** The title of “divine spouse” is not, so far as we know at
+     present, met with prior to the XVIIIth dynasty. It was given
+     to the wife of a living monarch, and was retained by her
+     after his death; the divinity to whom it referred was no
+     other than the king himself.
+
+     *** This was probably so in the case of the Pharaoh Ramses
+     II., more than one hundred and fifty of whose children, boys
+     and girls, are known to us, and who certainly had others
+     besides of whom we know nothing.
+
+[Illustration: THE QUEEN SHAKES THE SISTKUJU WHILE THE KING OFFERS THE
+SACRIFICE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the temple of
+     Ibsambûl: Nofrîtari shakes behind Ramses II. two sistra, on
+     which are representations of the head of Hâthor.
+
+The origin and rank of their mothers greatly influenced the condition
+of the children. No doubt the divine blood which they took from a common
+father raised them all above the vulgar herd but those connected with
+the solar line on the maternal side occupied a decidedly much higher
+position than the rest: as long as one of these was living, none of his
+less nobly-born brothers might aspire to the crown.*
+
+     * Proof of this fact is furnished us, in so far as the
+     XVIIIth dynasty is concerned, by the history of the
+     immediate successors of Thûtmosis I., the Pharaohs Thûtmosis
+     IL, Thûtmosis III., Queen Hâtshopsîtû, Queen Mûtnofrît, and
+     Isis, concubine of Thûtmosis IL and mother of Thûtmosis III.
+
+Those princesses who did not attain to the rank of queen by marriage,
+were given in early youth to some well-to-do relative, or to some
+courtier of high descent whom Pharaoh wished to honour; they filled the
+office of priestesses to the goddesses Nît or Hâthor, and bore in their
+households titles which they transmitted to their children, with such
+rights to the crown as belonged to them. The most favoured of the
+princes married an heiress rich in fiefs, settled on her domain, and
+founded a race of feudal lords. Most of the royal sons remained at
+court, at first in their father’s service and subsequently in that of
+their brothers’ or nephews’: the most difficult and best remunerated
+functions of the administration were assigned to them, the
+superintendence of public works, the important offices of the
+priesthood, the command of the army. It could have been no easy matter
+to manage without friction this multitude of relations and connections,
+past and present queens, sisters, concubines, uncles, brothers, cousins,
+nephews, sons and grandsons of kings who crowded the harem and the
+palace. The women contended among themselves for the affection of the
+master, on behalf of themselves or their children. The children were
+jealous of one another, and had often no bond of union except a common
+hatred for the son whom the chances of birth had destined to be their
+ruler. As long as he was full of vigour and energy, Pharaoh maintained
+order in his family; but when his advancing years and failing strength
+betokened an approaching change in the succession, competition showed
+itself more openly, and intrigue thickened around him or around his
+nearest heirs. Sometimes, indeed, he took precautions to prevent an
+outbreak and its disastrous consequences, by solemnly associating with
+himself in the royal power the son he had chosen to succeed him: Egypt
+in this case had to obey two masters, the younger of whom attended
+to the more active duties of royalty, such as progresses through the
+country, the conducting of military expeditions, the hunting of wild
+beasts, and the administration of justice; while the other preferred to
+confine himself to the _rôle_ of adviser or benevolent counsellor. Even
+this precaution, however, was insufficient to prevent disasters. The
+women of the seraglio, encouraged from without by their relations or
+friends, plotted secretly for the removal of the irksome sovereign.*
+Those princes who had been deprived by their father’s decision of any
+legitimate hope of reigning, concealed their discontent to no purpose;
+they were arrested on the first suspicion of disloyalty, and were
+massacred wholesale; their only chance of escaping summary execution was
+either by rebellion** or by taking refuge with some independent tribe of
+Libya or of the desert of Sinai.
+
+     * The passage of the Uni inscription, in which mention is
+     made of a lawsuit carried on against Queen Amîtsi, probably
+     refers to some harem conspiracy. The celebrated lawsuit,
+     some details of which are preserved for us in a papyrus of
+     Turin, gives us some information in regard to a conspiracy
+     which was hatched in the harem against Ramses II.
+
+     ** A passage in the “Instructions of Amenemhâît” describes in
+     somewhat obscure terms an attack on the palace by
+     conspirators, and the wars which followed their undertaking.
+
+[Illustration: 044.jpg The Island and Temple of Philæ]
+
+Did we but know the details of the internal history of Egypt, it would
+appear to us as stormy and as bloody as that of other Oriental
+empires: intrigues of the harem, conspiracies in the palace, murders of
+heirs-apparent, divisions and rebellions in the royal family, were
+the almost inevitable accompaniment of every accession to the Egyptian
+throne.
+
+The earliest dynasties had their origin in the “White Wall,” but the
+Pharaohs hardly ever made this town their residence, and it would be
+incorrect to say that they considered it as their capital; each king
+chose for himself in the Memphite or Letopolite nome, between the
+entrance to the Fayûni and the apex of the Delta, a special residence,
+where he dwelt with his court, and from whence he governed Egypt. Such
+a multitude as formed his court needed not an ordinary palace, but an
+entire city. A brick wall, surmounted by battlements, formed a square
+or rectangular enclosure around it, and was of sufficient thickness
+and height not only to defy a popular insurrection or the surprises of
+marauding Bedouin, but to resist for a long time a regular siege. At the
+extreme end of one of its façades, was a single tall and narrow opening,
+closed by a wooden door supported on bronze hinges, and surmounted with
+a row of pointed metal ornaments; this opened into a long narrow passage
+between the external wall and a partition wall of equal strength; at
+the end of the passage in the angle was a second door, sometimes leading
+into a second passage, but more often opening into a large courtyard,
+where the dwelling-houses were somewhat crowded together: assailants ran
+the risk of being annihilated in the passage before reaching the centre
+of the place.* The royal residence could be immediately distinguished by
+the projecting balconies on its façade, from which, as from a tribune,
+Pharaoh could watch the evolutions of his guard, the stately approach of
+foreign envoys, Egyptian nobles seeking audience, or such officials as
+he desired to reward for their services. They advanced from the far
+end of the court, stopped before the balcony, and after prostrating
+themselves stood up, bowed their heads, wrung and twisted their hands,
+now quickly, now slowly, in a rhythmical manner, and rendered worship to
+their master, chanting his praises, before receiving the necklaces and
+jewels of gold which he presented to them by his chamberlains, or which
+he himself deigned to fling to them.**
+
+     * No plan or exact drawing of any of the palaces of the
+     Ancient Empire has come down to us, but, as Erman has very
+     justly pointed out, the signs found in contemporary
+     inscriptions give us a good general idea of them. The doors
+     which lead from one of the hours of the night to another, in
+     the “Book of the Other World,” show us the double passage
+     leading to the courtyard. The hieroglyph [--] gives us the
+     name Ûôskhît (literally, _the broad_ [place]) of the
+     courtyard on to which the passage opened, at the end of
+     which the palace and royal judgment-seat (or, in the other
+     world, the tribunal of Osiris, the court of the double
+     truth) were situated.
+
+     ** The ceremonial of these receptions is not represented on
+     any monuments with which we are at present acquainted, prior
+     to the XVIIIth dynasty.
+
+It is difficult for us to catch a glimpse of the detail of the internal
+arrangements: we find, however, mention made of large halls “resembling
+the hall of Atûmû in the heavens,” whither the king repaired to deal
+with state affairs in council, to dispense justice and sometimes also to
+preside at state banquets. Long rows of tall columns, carved out of
+rare woods and painted with bright colours, supported the roofs of these
+chambers, which were entered by doors inlaid with gold and silver, and
+incrusted with malachite or lapis-lazuli.*
+
+     * This is the description of the palace of Amon built by
+     Ramses III. Ramses II. was seated in one of these halls, on
+     a throne of gold, when he deliberated with his councillors
+     in regard to the construction of a cistern in the desert for
+     the miners who were going to the gold-mines of Akiti. The
+     room in which the king stopped, after leaving his
+     apartments, for the purpose of putting on his ceremonial
+     dress and receiving the homage of his ministers, appears to
+     me to have been called during the Ancient Empire “Pi-dait”
+      --“The House of Adoration,” the house in which the king was
+     worshipped, as in temples of the Ptolemaic epoch, was that
+     in which the statue of the god, on leaving the sanctuary,
+     was dressed and worshipped by the faithful. Sinûhît, under
+     the XIIth dynasty, was granted an audience in the “Hall of
+     Electrum.”
+
+The private apartments, the “âkhonûiti,” were entirely separate, but
+they communicated with the queen’s dwelling and with the harem of the
+wives of inferior rank. The “royal children” occupied a quarter to
+themselves, under the care of their tutors; they had their own houses
+and a train of servants proportionate to their rank, age, and the
+fortune of their mother’s family. The nobles who had appointments
+at court and the royal domestics lived in the palace itself, but the
+offices of the different functionaries, the storehouses for their
+provisions, the dwellings of their _employés_, formed distinct quarters
+outside the palace, grouped around narrow courts, and communicating
+with each other by a labyrinth of lanes or covered passages. The entire
+building was constructed of wood or bricks, less frequently of roughly
+dressed stone, badly built, and wanting in solidity. The ancient
+Pharaohs were no more inclined than the Sultans of later days to occupy
+palaces in which their predecessors had lived and died. Each king
+desired to possess a habitation after his own heart, one which would not
+be haunted by the memory, or perchance the double, of another sovereign.
+These royal mansions, hastily erected, hastily filled with occupants,
+were vacated and fell into ruin with no less rapidity: they grew old
+with their master, or even more rapidly than he, and his disappearance
+almost always entailed their ruin. In the neighbourhood of Memphis many
+of these palaces might be seen, which their short-lived masters had
+built for eternity, an eternity which did not last longer than the lives
+of their builders.*
+
+Nothing could present a greater variety than the population of these
+ephemeral cities in the climax of their splendour. We have first the
+people who immediately surrounded the Pharaoh,** the retainers of
+the palace and of the harem, whose highly complex degrees of rank are
+revealed to us on the monuments.*** His person was, as it were, minutely
+subdivided into departments, each requiring its attendants and their
+appointed chiefs.
+
+     * The song of the harp-player on the tomb of King Antûf
+     contains an allusion to these ruined palaces: “The gods
+     [kings] who were of yore, and who repose in their tombs,
+     mummies and manes, all buried alike in their pyramids, when
+     castles are built they no longer have a place in them; see,
+     thus it is done with them! I have heard the poems in praise
+     of Imhotpû and of Hardidif which are sung in the songs, and
+     yet, see, where are their places to-day? their walls are
+     destroyed, their places no more, as though they have never
+     existed!”
+
+     ** They are designated by the general terms of Shonîtiû, the
+     “people of the circle,” and Qonbîtiû, the “people of the
+     corner.” These words are found in religious inscriptions
+     referring to the staff of the temples, and denote the
+     attendants or court of each god; they are used to
+     distinguish the notables of a town or borough, the sheikhs,
+     who enjoyed the right to superintend local administration
+     and dispense justice.
+
+     *** The Egyptian scribes had endeavoured to draw up an
+     hierarchical list of these offices. At present we possess
+     the remains of two lists of this description. One of these,
+     preserved in the “Hood Papyrus” in the British Museum, has
+     been published and translated by Maspero, in _Études
+     Égyptiennes,_ vol. ii. pp. 1-66; another and more complete
+     copy, discovered in 1890, is in the possession of M.
+     Golénischeff. The other list, also in the British Museum,
+     was published by Prof. Petrie in a memoir of _The Egypt
+     Exploration Fund _; in this latter the names and titles are
+     intermingled with various other matter. To these two works
+     may be added the lists of professions and trades to be found
+     _passim_ on the monuments, and which have been commented on
+     by Brugsch.
+
+His toilet alone gave employment to a score of different trades. There
+were royal barbers, who had the privilege of shaving his head and chin;
+hairdressers who made, curled, and put on his black or blue wigs and
+adjusted the diadems to them; there were manicurists who pared and
+polished his nails, perfumers who prepared the scented oils and pomades
+for the anointing of his body, the kohl for blackening his eyelids, the
+_rouge_ for spreading on his lips and cheeks. His wardrobe required a
+whole troop of shoemakers, belt-makers, and tailors, some of whom had
+the care of stuffs in the piece, others presided over the body-linen,
+while others took charge of his garments, comprising long or short,
+transparent or thick petticoats, fitting tightly to the hips or cut with
+ample fulness, draped mantles and flowing pelisses. Side by side
+with these officials, the laundresses plied their trade, which was an
+important one among a people devoted to white, and in whose estimation
+want of cleanliness in dress entailed religious impurity. Like the
+fellahîn of the present time, they took their linen daily to wash in
+the river; they rinsed, starched, smoothed, and pleated it without
+intermission to supply the incessant demands of Pharaoh and his family.*
+
+     * The “royal laundrymen” and their chiefs are mentioned in
+     the Conte des deux frères under the XIXth dynasty, as well
+     as their laundries on the banks of the Nile.
+
+
+[Illustration: 051.jpg MEN AND WOMEN SINGERS, FLUTE-PLAYERS, HARPISTS,
+AND DANCERS, FROM THE TOMB OF TI]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a squeeze taken at Saqqâra in
+     1878 by Mariette
+
+The task of those set over the jewels was no easy one, when we consider
+the enormous variety of necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, and
+sceptres of rich workmanship which ceremonial costume required for
+particular times and occasions. The guardianship of the crowns almost
+approached to the dignity of the priesthood; for was not the uraeus,
+which ornamented each one, a living goddess? The queen required numerous
+waiting-women, and the same ample number of attendants were to be
+encountered in the establishments of the other ladies of the harem.
+Troops of musicians, singers, dancers, and almehs whiled away the
+tedious hours, supplemented by buffoons and dwarfs. The great Egyptian
+lords evinced a curious liking for these unfortunate beings, and amused
+themselves by getting together the ugliest and most deformed creatures.
+They are often represented on the tombs beside their masters in company
+with his pet dog, or a gazelle, or with a monkey which they sometimes
+hold in leash, or sometimes are engaged in teasing. Sometimes the
+Pharaoh bestowed his friendship on his dwarfs, and confided to
+them occupations in his household. One of them, Khnûmhotpû, died
+superintendent of the royal linen. The staff of servants required for
+supplying the table exceeded all the others in number. It could scarcely
+be otherwise if we consider that the master had to provide food, not
+only for his regular servants,* but for all those of his _employés_ and
+subjects whose business brought them to the royal residence: even those
+poor wretches who came to complain to him of some more or less imaginary
+grievance were fed at his expense while awaiting his judicial verdict.
+Head-cooks, butlers, pantlers, pastrycooks, fishmongers, game or fruit
+dealers--if all enumerated, would be endless. The bakers who baked the
+ordinary bread were not to be confounded with those who manufactured
+biscuits. The makers of pancakes and dough-nuts took precedence of the
+cake-bakers, and those who concocted delicate fruit preserves ranked
+higher than the common dryer of dates.
+
+     * Even after death they remained inscribed on the registers
+     of the palace, and had rations served out to them every day
+     as funeral offerings.
+
+[Illustration: 052.jpg THE DWARF KHNUMHOTPU, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE ROYAL
+LINEN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-
+     Bey; the original is at Gizeh
+
+If one had held a post in the royal household, however low the
+occupation, it was something to be proud of all one’s life, and after
+death to boast of in one’s epitaph. The chiefs to whom this army of
+servants rendered obedience at times rose from the ranks; on some
+occasion their master had noticed them in the crowd, and had transferred
+them, some by a single promotion, others by slow degrees, to the
+highest offices of the state. Many among them, however, belonged to
+old families, and held positions in the palace which their fathers
+and grandfathers had occupied before them, some were members of the
+provincial nobility, distant descendants of former royal princes and
+princesses, more or less nearly related to the reigning sovereign.*
+
+     * It was the former who, I believe, formed the class of
+     _rokhu sûton_ so often mentioned on the monuments. This
+     title is generally supposed to have been a mark of
+     relationship with the royal family. M. de Rougé proved long
+     ago that this was not so, and that functionaries might bear
+     this title even though they were not blood relations of the
+     Pharaohs. It seems to me to have been used to indicate a
+     class of courtiers whom the king condescended to “know”
+      (_rokhu_) directly, without the intermediary of a
+     chamberlain, the “persons known by the king;” the others
+     were only his “friends” (samirû).
+
+They had been sought out to be the companions of his education and of
+his pastimes, while he was still living an obscure life in the “House
+of the Children;” he had grown up with them and had kept them about his
+person as his “sole friends” and counsellors. He lavished titles and
+offices upon them by the dozen, according to the confidence he felt in
+their capacity or to the amount of faithfulness with which he credited
+them. A few of the most favoured were called “Masters of the Secret of
+the Royal House;” they knew all the innermost recesses of the palace,
+all the passwords needed in going from one part of it to another, the
+place where the royal treasures were kept, and the modes of access to
+it. Several of them were “Masters of the Secret of all the Royal Words,”
+ and had authority over the high courtiers of the palace, which gave
+them the power of banishing whom they pleased from the person of the
+sovereign. Upon others devolved the task of arranging his amusements;
+they rejoiced the heart of his Majesty by pleasant songs, while the
+chiefs of the sailors and soldiers kept watch over his safety. To these
+active services were attached honorary privileges which were highly
+esteemed, such as the right to retain their sandals in the palace, while
+the general crowd of courtiers could only enter unshod; that of kissing
+the knees and not the feet of the “good god,” and that of wearing the
+panther’s skin. Among those who enjoyed these distinctions were the
+physicians of the king, chaplains, and men of the roll--“khri-habi.”
+ The latter did not confine themselves to the task of guiding Pharaoh
+through the intricacies of ritual, nor to that of prompting him with the
+necessary formulas needed to make the sacrifice efficacious; they were
+styled “Masters of the Secrets of Heaven,” those who see what is in the
+firmament, on the earth and in Hades, those who know all the charms
+of the soothsayers, prophets, or magicians. The laws relating to the
+government of the seasons and the stars presented no mysteries to them,
+neither were they ignorant of the months, days, or hours propitious to
+the undertakings of everyday life or the starting out on an expedition,
+nor of those times during which any action was dangerous. They drew
+their inspirations from the books of magic written by Thot, which
+taught them the art of interpreting dreams or of curing the sick, or
+of invoking and obliging the gods to assist them, and of arresting
+or hastening the progress of the sun on the celestial ocean. Some are
+mentioned as being able to divide the waters at their will, and to
+cause them to return to their natural place, merely by means of a short
+formula. An image of a man or animal made by them out of enchanted
+wax, was imbued with life at their command, and became an irresistible
+instrument of their wrath. Popular stories reveal them to us at work.
+“Is it true,” said Kheops to one of them, “that thou canst replace a
+head which has been cut off?” On his admitting that he could do so,
+Pharaoh immediately desired to test his power. “Bring me a prisoner from
+prison and let him be slain.” The magician, at this proposal, exclaimed:
+“Nay, nay, not a man, sire my master; do not command that this sin
+should be committed; a fine animal will suffice!” A goose was brought,
+“its head was cut off and the body was placed on the right side, and
+the head of the goose on the left side of the hall: he recited what he
+recited from his book of magic, the goose began to hop forward, the head
+moved on to it, and, when both were united, the goose began to cackle.
+A pelican was produced, and underwent the same process. His Majesty then
+caused a bull to be brought forward, and its head was smitten to the
+ground: the magician recited what he recited from his book of magic,
+the bull at once arose, and he replaced on it what had fallen to the
+earth.” The great lords themselves deigned to become initiated into
+the occult sciences, and were invested with these formidable powers.
+A prince who practised magic would enjoy amongst us nowadays but small
+esteem: in Egypt sorcery was not considered incompatible with royalty,
+and the magicians of Pharaoh often took Pharaoh himself as their pupil.*
+
+Such were the king’s household, the people about his person, and those
+attached to the service of his family. His capital sheltered a still
+greater number of officials and functionaries who were charged with
+the administration of his fortune--that is to say, what he possessed
+in Egypt.** In theory it was always supposed that the whole of the
+soil belonged to him, but that he and his predecessors had diverted and
+parcelled off such an amount of it for the benefit of their favourites,
+or for the hereditary lords, that only half of the actual territory
+remained under his immediate control. He governed most of the nomes of
+the Delta in person:*** beyond the Fayum, he merely retained isolated
+lands, enclosed in the middle of feudal principalities and often at
+considerable distance from each other.
+
+     * We know the reputation, extending even to the classical
+     writers of antiquity, of the Pharaohs Nechepso and Nectanebo
+     for their skill in magic. Arab writers have, moreover,
+     collected a number of traditions concerning the marvels
+     which the sorcerers of Egypt were in the habit of
+     performing; as an instance, I may quote the description
+     given by Makrîzî of one of their meetings, which is probably
+     taken from some earlier writer.
+
+     ** They were frequently distinguished from their provincial
+     or manorial colleagues by the addition of the word _khonû_
+     to their titles, a term which indicates, in a general
+     manner, the royal residence. They formed what we should
+     nowadays call the departmental staff of the public officers,
+     and might be deputed to act, at least temporarily, in the
+     provinces, or in the service of one of the feudal princes,
+     without thereby losing their status as functionaries of the
+     _khonû_ or central administration.
+
+     *** This seems, at any rate, an obvious inference from the
+     almost total absence of feudal titles on the most ancient
+     monuments of the Delta. Erman, who was struck by this fact,
+     attributed it to a different degree of civilization in the
+     two halves of Egypt; I attribute it to a difference in
+     government. Feudal titles naturally predominate in the
+     South, royal administrative titles in the North.
+
+The extent of the royal domain varied with different dynasties, and even
+from reign to reign: if it sometimes decreased, owing to too frequently
+repeated concessions,* its losses were generally amply compensated by
+the confiscation of certain fiefs, or by their lapsing to the crown. The
+domain was always of sufficient extent to oblige the Pharaoh to confide
+the larger portion of it to officials of various kinds, and to farm
+merely a small remainder of the “royal slaves:” in the latter case,
+he reserved for himself all the profits, but at the expense of all the
+annoyance and all the outlay; in the former case, he obtained without
+any risk the annual dues, the amount of which was fixed on the spot,
+according to the resources of the nome.
+
+     * We find, at different periods, persons who call themselves
+     masters of new domains or strongholds--Pahûrnofir, under the
+     IIIrd dynasty; several princes of Hermopolis, under the VIth
+     and VIIth; Khnûmhotpû at the begining of the XIIth. In
+     connection with the last named, we shall have occasion,
+     later on, to show in what manner and with what rapidity one
+     of these great _new_ fiefs was formed.
+
+In order to understand the manner in which the government of Egypt was
+conducted, we should never forget that the world was still ignorant of
+the use of money, and that gold, silver, and copper, however abundant we
+may suppose them to have been, were mere articles of exchange, like
+the most common products of Egyptian soil. Pharaoh was not then, as the
+State is with us, a treasurer who calculates the total of his receipts
+and expenses in ready money, banks his revenue in specie occupying but
+little space, and settles his accounts from the same source. His fiscal
+receipts were in kind, and it was in kind that he remunerated his
+servants for their labour: cattle, cereals, fermented drinks, oils,
+stuffs, common or precious metals,--“all that the heavens give, all
+that the earth produces, all that the Nile brings from its mysterious
+sources,” * --constituted the coinage in which his subjects paid him their
+contributions, and which he passed on to his vassals by way of salary.
+
+     * This was the most usual formula for the offering on the
+     funerary stelo, and sums up more completely than any other
+     the nature of the tax paid to the gods by the living, and
+     consequently the nature of that paid to the king; here, as
+     elsewhere, the domain of the gods is modelled on that of the
+     Pharaohs.
+
+One room, a few feet square, and, if need be, one safe, would easily
+contain the entire revenue of one of our modern empires: the largest
+of our emporiums would not always have sufficed to hold the mass of
+incongruous objects which represented the returns of a single Egyptian
+province. As the products in which the tax was paid took various forms,
+it was necessary to have an infinite variety of special agents and
+suitable places to receive it; herdsmen and sheds for the oxen,
+measurers and granaries for the grain, butlers and cellarers for
+the wine, beer, and oils. The product of the tax, while awaiting
+redistribution, could only be kept from deteriorating in value by
+incessant labour, in which a score of different classes of clerks and
+workmen in the service of the treasury all took part, according to their
+trades. If the tax were received in oxen, it was led to pasturage, or at
+times, when a murrain threatened to destroy it, to the slaughter-house
+and the currier; if it were in corn, it was bolted, ground to flour, and
+made into bread and pastry; if it were in stuffs, it was washed, ironed,
+and folded, to be retailed as garments or in the piece. The royal
+treasury partook of the character of the farm, the warehouse, and the
+manufactory.
+
+Each of the departments which helped to swell its contents, occupied
+within the palace enclosure a building, or group of buildings, which was
+called its “house,” or, as we should say, its storehouse.
+
+[Illustration: 059.jpg THE PACKING OF THE LINEN AND ITS REMOVAL TO THE
+WHITE STOREHOUSE.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a chromolithograph in Lepsius,
+     _Denhm._, ii. 96.
+
+There was the “White Storehouse,” where the stuffs and jewels were
+kept, and at times the wine; the “Storehouse of the Oxen,” the “Gold
+Storehouse,” the “Storehouse for Preserved Fruits,” the “Storehouse for
+Grain,” the “Storehouse for Liquors,” and ten other storehouses of the
+application of which we are not always sure. In the “Storehouse of
+Weapons” (or Armoury) were ranged thousands of clubs, maces, pikes,
+daggers, bows, and bundles of arrows, which Pharaoh distributed to his
+recruits whenever a war forced him to call out his army, and which were
+again warehoused after the campaign. The “storehouses” were further
+subdivided into rooms or store-chambers,* each reserved for its own
+category of objects.
+
+     * Aît, Âî. Lefébure has collected a number of passages in
+     which these storehouses are mentioned, in his notes _Sur
+     différents mots et noms Égyptiens._ In many of the cases
+     which he quotes, and in which he recognizes an office of the
+     State, I believe reference to be made to a trade: many of
+     the ari âît-afû, “people of the store-chambers for meat,”
+      were probably butchers; many of the ari âît-hiqÎtû, “people
+     of the store-chamber for beer,” were probably keepers of
+     drink-shops, trading on their own account in the town of
+     Abydos, and not _employés_ attached to the exchequer of
+     Pharaoh or of the ruler of Thinis.
+
+It would be difficult to enumerate the number of store-chambers in
+the outbuildings of the “Storehouse of Provisions”--store-chambers for
+butcher’s meat, for fruits, for beer, bread, and wine, in which were
+deposited as much of each article of food as would be required by the
+court for some days, or at most for a few weeks. They were brought there
+from the larger storehouses, the wines from vaults, the oxen from their
+stalls, the corn from the granaries. The latter were vast brick-built
+receptacles, ten or more in a row, circular in shape and surmounted by
+cupolas, but having no communication with each other. They had only two
+openings, one at the top for pouring in the grain, another on the ground
+level for drawing it out; a notice posted up outside, often on the
+shutter which closed the chamber, indicated the character and quantity
+of the cereals within. For the security and management of these, there
+were employed troops of porters, store-keepers, accountants, “primates”
+ who superintended the works, record-keepers, and directors. Great nobles
+coveted the administration of the “storehouses,” and even the sons
+of kings did not think it derogatory to their dignity to be entitled
+“Directors of the Granaries,” or “Directors of the Armoury.” There was
+no law against pluralists, and more than one of them boasts on his tomb
+of having held simultaneously five or six offices. These storehouses
+participated like all the other dependencies of the crown, in that
+duality which characterized the person of the Pharaoh. They would
+be called in common parlance, the Storehouse or the Double White
+Storehouse, the Storehouse or the Double Gold Storehouse, the Double
+Warehouse, the Double Granary.
+
+[Illustration: 061.jpg MEASURING THE WHEAT AND DEPOSITING IT IN THE
+GRANARIES]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a scene on the tomb of Amoni at
+     Beni-Hasan. On the right, near the door, is a heap of grain,
+     from which the measurer fills his measure in order to empty
+     it into the sack which one of the porters holds open. In the
+     centre is a train of slaves ascending the stairs which lead
+     to the loft above the granaries; one of them empties his
+     sack into a hole above the granary in the presence of the
+     overseer. The inscriptions in ink on the outer wall of the
+     receptacles, which have already been filled, indicate the
+     number of measures which each one of them contains.
+
+The large towns, as well as the capital, possessed their double
+storehouses and their store-chambers, into which were gathered the
+products of the neighbourhood, but where a complete staff of employés
+was not always required: in such towns we meet with “localities”
+ in which the commodities were housed merely temporarily. The least
+perishable part of the provincial dues was forwarded by boat to the
+royal residence,* and swelled the central treasury.
+
+     * The boats employed for this purpose formed a flotilla, and
+     their commanders constituted a regularly organized transport
+     corps, who are frequently to be found represented on the
+     monuments of the New Empire, carrying tribute to the
+     residence of the king or of the prince, whose retainers they
+     were.
+
+The remainder was used on the spot for paying workman’s wages, and for
+the needs of the Administration. We see from the inscriptions, that
+the staffs of officials who administered affairs in the provinces was
+similar to that in the royal city. Starting from the top, and going down
+to the bottom of the scale, each functionary supervised those beneath
+him, while, as a body, they were all responsible for their depot. Any
+irregularity in the entries entailed the bastinado; peculators were
+punished by imprisonment, mutilation, or death, according to the gravity
+of the offence. Those whom illness or old age rendered unfit for work,
+were pensioned for the remainder of their life.
+
+[Illustration: 063.jpg PLAN OF A PRINCELY STOREHOUSE FOR PROVISIONS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius, _Denkm_., iii. 95. The
+     illustration is taken from one of the tombs at Tel el-
+     Amarna. The storehouse consists of four blocks, isolated by
+     two avenues planted with trees, which intersect each other
+     in the form of a cross. Behind the entrance gate, in a small
+     courtyard, is a kiosque, in which the master sat for the
+     purpose of receiving the stores or of superintending their
+     distribution; two arms of the cross are lined by porticoes,
+     under which are the entrances to the “chambers” (dît) for
+     the stores, which are filled with jars of wine, linen-
+     chests, dried fish, and other articles.
+
+The writer, or, as we call him, the scribe, was the mainspring of
+all this machinery. We come across him in all grades of the staff: an
+insignificant registrar of oxen, a clerk of the Double White Storehouse,
+ragged, humble, and badly paid, was a scribe just as much as the noble,
+the priest, or the king’s son. Thus the title of scribe was of no value
+in itself, and did not designate, as one might naturally think, a savant
+educated in a school of high culture, or a man of the world, versed in
+the sciences and the literature of his time; El-kab was a scribe who
+knew how to read, write, and cipher, was fairly proficient in wording
+the administrative formulas, and could easily apply the elementary rules
+of book-keeping. There was no public school in which the scribe could be
+prepared for his future career; but as soon as a child had acquired the
+first rudiments of letters with some old pedagogue, his father took him
+with him to his office, or entrusted him to some friend who agreed to
+undertake his education. The apprentice observed what went on around
+him, imitated the mode of procedure of the _employés_, copied in his
+spare time old papers, letters, bills, flowerily-worded petitions,
+reports, complimentary addresses to his superiors or to the Pharaoh, all
+of which his patron examined and corrected, noting on the margin letters
+or words imperfectly written, improving the style, and recasting or
+completing the incorrect expressions.* As soon as he could put together
+a certain number of sentences or figures without a mistake, he was
+allowed to draw up bills, or to have the sole superintendence of some
+department of the treasury, his work being gradually increased in amount
+and difficulty; when he was considered to be sufficiently _au courant_
+with the ordinary business, his education was declared to be finished,
+and a situation was found for him either in the place where he had begun
+his probation, or in some neighbouring office.**
+
+     * We still possess school exercises of the XIXth and XXth
+     dynasties, e.g. the _Papyrus Anastasi n IV_., and the
+     _Anastasi Papyrus n V._, in which we find a whole string of
+     pieces of every possible style and description--business
+     letters, requests for leave of absence, complimentary verses
+     addressed to a superior, all probably a collection of
+     exercises compiled by some professor, and copied by his
+     pupils in order to complete their education as scribes; the
+     master’s corrections are made at the top and bottom of the
+     pages in a bold and skilful hand, very different from that
+     of the pupil, though the writing of the latter is generally
+     more legible to our modern eyes (_Select Papyri,_ vol. i.
+     pls. lxxxiii.-cxxi.).
+
+     ** Evidence of this state of things seems to be furnished by
+     all the biographies of scribes with which we are acquainted,
+     e.g. that of Amten; it is, moreover, what took place
+     regularly throughout the whole of Egypt, down to the latest
+     times, and what probably still occurs in those parts of the
+     country where European ideas have not yet made any deep
+     impression.
+
+[Illustration: 065.jpg THE STAFF OF A GOVERNMENT OFFICER IN THE TIME OF
+THE MEMPHITE DYNASTIES]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a wall-painting on the tomb of
+     Khûnas. Two scribes are writing on tablets. Before the
+     scribe in the upper part of the picture we see a palette,
+     with two saucers, on a vessel which serves as an ink-bottle,
+     and a packet of tablets tied together, the whole supported
+     by a bundle of archives. The scribe in the lower part rests
+     his tablet against an ink-bottle, a box for archives being
+     placed before him. Behind them a _nakht-khrôû_ announces the
+     delivery of a tablet covered with figures which the third
+     scribe is presenting to the master.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CRIER ANNOUNCES THE ARRIVAL OF FIVE REGISTRARS OF THE
+TEMPLE OF KING ÛSIRNIRÎ, OF THE Vth DYNASTY]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a picture in the tomb of
+     Shopsisûri. Four registrars of the funerary temple of
+     Ûsirnirî advance in a crawling posture towards the master,
+     the fifth has just risen and holds himself in a stooping
+     attitude, while an usher introduces him and transmits to him
+     an order to send in his accounts.
+
+Thus equipped, the young man ended usually by succeeding his father or
+his patron: in most of the government administrations, we find whole
+dynasties of scribes on a small scale, whose members inherited the same
+post for several centuries. The position was an insignificant one, and
+the salary poor, but the means of existence were assured, the occupant
+was exempted from forced labour and from military service, and he
+exercised a certain authority in the narrow world in which he lived; it
+sufficed to make him think himself happy, and in fact to be so. “One has
+only to be a scribe,” said the wise man, “for the scribe takes the lead
+of all.” Sometimes, however, one of these contented officials, more
+intelligent or ambitious than his fellows, succeeded in rising above
+the common mediocrity: his fine handwriting, the happy choice of his
+sentences, his activity, his obliging manner, his honesty--perhaps also
+his discreet dishonesty--attracted the attention of his superiors and
+were the cause of his promotion. The son of a peasant or of some poor
+wretch, who had begun life by keeping a register of the bread and
+vegetables in some provincial government office, had been often known
+to crown his long and successful career by exercising a kind of
+vice-regency over the half of Egypt. His granaries overflowed with corn,
+his storehouses were always full of gold, fine stuffs, and precious
+vases, his stalls “multiplied the backs” of his oxen; the sons of his
+early patrons, having now become in turn his _protégés_, did not venture
+to approach him except with bowed head and bended knee.
+
+No doubt the Amten whose tomb was removed to Berlin by Lepsius, and put
+together piece by piece in the museum, was a _parvenu_ of this kind. He
+was born rather more than four thousand years before our era under one
+of the last kings of the IIIrd dynasty, and he lived until the reign of
+the first king of the IVth dynasty, Snofrûi. He probably came from the
+Nome of the Bull, if not from Xoïs itself, in the heart of the Delta.
+His father, the scribe Anûpûmonkhû, held, in addition to his office,
+several landed estates, producing large returns; but his mother,
+Nibsonît, who appears to have been merely a concubine, had no personal
+fortune, and would have been unable even to give her child an education.
+Anûpûmonkhû made himself entirely responsible for the necessary
+expenses, “giving him all the necessities of life, at a time when he had
+not as yet either corn, barley, income, house, men or women servants,
+or troops of asses, pigs, or oxen.” As soon as he was in a condition to
+provide for himself, his father obtained for him, in his native Nome,
+the post of chief scribe attached to one of the “localities” which
+belonged to the Administration of Provisions. On behalf of the Pharaoh,
+the young man received, registered, and distributed the meat, cakes,
+fruits, and fresh vegetables which constituted the taxes, all on his
+own responsibility, except that he had to give an account of them to the
+“Director of the Storehouse” who was nearest to him. We are not told how
+long he remained in this occupation; we see merely that he was
+raised successively to posts of an analogous kind, but of increasing
+importance. The provincial offices comprised a small staff of _employés,
+_ consisting always of the same officials:--a chief, whose ordinary
+function was “Director of the Storehouse;” a few scribes to keep the
+accounts, one or two of whom added to his ordinary calling that of
+keeper of the archives; paid ushers to introduce clients, and, if need
+be, to bastinado them summarily at the order of the “director;” lastly,
+the “strong of voice,” the criers, who superintended the incomings and
+outgoings, and proclaimed the account of them to the scribes to be noted
+down forthwith. A vigilant and honest crier was a man of great value.
+
+[Illustration: 068.jpg THE FUNERAL STELE OF THE TOMB OF AMTEN, THE
+“GRAND HUNTSMAN.”]
+
+He obliged the taxpayer not only to deliver the exact number of measures
+prescribed as his quota, but also compelled him to deliver good measure
+in each case; a dishonest crier, on the contrary, could easily favour
+cheating, provided that he shared in the spoil. Amten was at once
+“crier” and “taxer of the colonists” to the civil administrator of the
+Xoïte nome: he announced the names of the peasants and the payments they
+made, then estimated the amount of the local tax which each, according
+to his income, had to pay. He distinguished himself so pre-eminently in
+these delicate duties, that the civil administrator of Xoïs made him one
+of his subordinates. He became “Chief of the Ushers,” afterwards “Master
+Crier,” then “Director of all the King’s flax” in the Xoïfce nome--an
+office which entailed on him the supervision of the culture, cutting,
+and general preparation of flax for the manufacture which was carried
+on in Pharaoh’s own domain. It was one of the highest offices in the
+Provincial Administration, and Amten must have congratulated himself on
+his appointment.
+
+From that moment his career became a great one, and he advanced quickly.
+Up to that time he had been confined in offices; he now left them to
+perform more active service. The Pharaohs, extremely jealous of their
+own authority, usually avoided placing at the head of the nomes in their
+domain, a single ruler, who would have appeared too much like a prince;
+they preferred having in each centre of civil administration, governors
+of the town or province, as well as military commanders who were jealous
+of one another, supervised one another, counterbalanced one another, and
+did not remain long enough in office to become dangerous. Amten held all
+these posts successively in most of the nomes situated in the centre or
+to the west of the Delta. His first appointment was to the government
+of the village of Pidosû, an unimportant post in itself, but one which
+entitled him to a staff of office, and in consequence procured for him
+one of the greatest indulgences of vanity that an Egyptian could enjoy.
+The staff was, in fact, a symbol of command which only the nobles,
+and the officials associated with the nobility, could carry without
+transgressing custom; the assumption of it, as that of the sword with
+us, showed every one that the bearer was a member of a privileged class.
+
+[Illustration: 072.jpg STATUE OF AMTEN, FOUND IN HIS TOMB]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 120 a;
+     the original is in the Berlin Museum.
+
+Amten was no sooner ennobled, than his functions began to expand;
+villages were rapidly added to villages, then towns to towns, including
+such an important one as Bûto, and finally the nomes of the Harpoon, of
+the Bull, of the Silurus, the western half of the Saïte nome, the nome
+of the Haunch, and a part of the Fayûm came within his jurisdiction. The
+western half of the Saïte nome, where he long resided, corresponded with
+what was called later the Libyan nome. It reached nearly from the apex
+of the Delta to the sea, and was bounded on one side by the Canopic
+branch of the Nile, on the other by the Libyan range; a part of the
+desert as well as the Oases fell under its rule. It included among
+its population, as did many of the provinces of Upper Egypt, regiments
+composed of nomad hunters, who were compelled to pay their tribute
+in living or dead game. Amten was metamorphosed into Chief Huntsman,
+scoured the mountains with his men, and thereupon became one of the most
+important personages in the defence of the country. The Pharaohs had
+built fortified stations, and had from time to time constructed walls at
+certain points where the roads entered the valley--at Syene, at Coptos,
+and at the entrance to the Wady Tûmilât. Amten having been proclaimed
+“Primate of the Western Gate,” that is, governor of the Libyan marches,
+undertook to protect the frontier against the wandering Bedouin from the
+other side of Lake Mareotis. His duties as Chief Huntsman had been
+the best preparation he could have had for this arduous task. They had
+forced him to make incessant expeditions among the mountains, to explore
+the gorges and ravines, to be acquainted with the routes marked out by
+wells which the marauders were obliged to follow in their incursions,
+and the pathways and passes by which they could descend into the plain
+of the Delta; in running the game to earth, he had gained all the
+knowledge needful for repulsing the enemy. Such a combination of
+capabilities made Amten the most important noble in this part of Egypt.
+When old age at last prevented him from leading an active life, he
+accepted, by way of a pension, the governorship of the nome of
+the Haunch: with civil authority, military command, local priestly
+functions, and honorary distinctions, he lacked only one thing to make
+him the equal of the nobles of ancient family, and that was permission
+to bequeath without restriction his towns and offices to his children.
+
+His private fortune was not as great as we might be led to think. He
+inherited from his father only one estate, but had acquired twelve
+others in the nomes of the Delta whither his successive appointments had
+led him--namely, in the Saïte, Xoïte, and Letopolite nomes. He received
+subsequently, as a reward for his services, two hundred portions of
+cultivated land, with numerous peasants, both male and female, and an
+income of one hundred loaves daily, a first charge upon the funeral
+provision of Queen Hâpûnimâit. He took advantage of this windfall to
+endow his family suitably. His only son was already provided for, thanks
+to the munificence of Pharaoh; he had begun his administrative career by
+holding the same post of scribe, in addition to the office of provision
+registrar, which his father had held, and over and above these he
+received by royal grant, four portions of cornland with their population
+and stock. Amten gave twelve portions to his other children and fifty to
+his mother Nibsonît, by means of which she lived comfortably in her old
+age, and left an annuity for maintaining worship at her tomb. He built
+upon the remainder of the land a magnificent villa, of which he has
+considerately left us the description. The boundary wall formed a square
+of 350 feet on each face, and consequently contained a superficies of
+122,500 square feet. The well-built dwelling-house, completely furnished
+with all the necessities of life, was surrounded by ornamental and
+fruit-bearing trees,--the common palm, the nebbek, fig trees, and
+acacias; several ponds, neatly bordered with greenery, afforded a
+habitat for aquatic birds; trellised vines, according to custom, ran in
+front of the house, and two plots of ground, planted with vines in full
+bearing, amply supplied the owner with wine every year.
+
+[Illustration: 075.jpg PLAN OF THE VILLA OF A GREAT EGYPTIAN NOBLE]
+
+     This plan is taken from a Theban tomb of the XVIIIth
+     dynasty; but it corresponds exactly with the description
+     which Amten has left us of his villa.
+
+It was there, doubtless, that Amten ended his days in peace and quietude
+of mind. The tableland whereon the Sphinx has watched for so many
+centuries was then crowned by no pyramids, but mastabas of fine white
+stone rose here and there from out of the sand: that in which the mummy
+of Amten was to be enclosed was situated not far from the modern village
+of Abûsîr, on the confines of the nome of the Haunch, and almost in
+sight of the mansion in which his declining years were spent.*
+
+     * The site of Amten’s manorial mansion is nowhere mentioned
+     in the inscriptions; but the custom of the Egyptians to
+     construct their tombs as near as possible to the places
+     where they resided, leads me to consider it as almost
+     certain that we ought to look for its site in the Memphite
+     plain, in the vicinity of the town of Abûsîr, but in a
+     northern direction, so as to keep within the territory of
+     the Letopolite nome, where Amten governed in the name of the
+     king.
+
+The number of persons of obscure origin, who in this manner had risen in
+a few years to the highest honours, and died governors of provinces or
+ministers of Pharaoh, must have been considerable. Their descendants
+followed in their fathers’ footsteps, until the day came when royal
+favour or an advantageous marriage secured them the possession of an
+hereditary fief, and transformed the son or grandson of a prosperous
+scribe into a feudal lord. It was from people of this class, and from
+the children of the Pharaoh, that the nobility was mostly recruited.
+In the Delta, where the authority of the Pharaoh was almost everywhere
+directly felt, the power of the nobility was weakened and much
+curtailed; in Middle Egypt it gained ground, and became stronger and
+stronger in proportion as one advanced southward. The nobles held the
+principalities of the Gazelle, of the Hare, of the Serpent Mountain, of
+Akhmîm, of Thinis, of Qasr-es-Sayad, of El-Kab, of Aswan, and doubtless
+others of which we shall some day discover the monuments.
+
+[Illustration: 077.jpg HUNTING WITH THE BOOMERANG AND FISHING WITH THE
+DOUBLE HARPOON IN A MARSH OR POOL]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Gayet.
+
+They accepted without difficulty the fiction according to which Pharaoh
+claimed to be absolute master of the soil, and ceded to his subjects
+only the usufruct of their fiefs; but apart from the admission of the
+principle, each lord proclaimed himself sovereign in his own domain, and
+exercised in it, on a small scale, complete royal authority.
+
+[Illustration: 078.jpg PRINCE API, BORNE IN A PALANQUIN, INSPECTS HIS
+FUNERARY DOMAIN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-
+     Bey. The tomb of Api was discovered at Saqqâra in 1884. It
+     had been pulled down in ancient times, and a new tomb built
+     on its ruins, about the time of the XIIth dynasty; all that
+     remains of it is now in the museum at Gîzeh.
+
+Everything within the limits of this petty state belonged to him--woods,
+canals, fields, even the desert-sand: after the example of the Pharaoh,
+he farmed a part himself, and let out the remainder, either in farms or
+as fiefs, to those of his followers who had gained his confidence or
+his friendship. After the example of Pharaoh, also, he was a priest, and
+exercised priestly functions in relation to all the gods--that is,
+not of all Egypt, but of all the deities of the nome. He was an
+administrator of civil and criminal law, received the complaints of his
+vassals and serfs at the gate of his palace, and against his decisions
+there was no appeal. He kept up a flotilla, and raised on his estate a
+small army, of which he was commander-in-chief by hereditary right. He
+inhabited a fortified mansion, situated sometimes within the capital of
+the principality itself, sometimes in its neighbourhood, and in which
+the arrangements of the royal city were reproduced on a smaller scale.
+
+[Illustration: 079.jpg A DWARF PLAYING WITH CYNOCEPHALI AND A TAME IBIS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a chromolithograph in Flinders
+     Petrie’s _Medûm,_ pl. xxiv.
+
+Side by side with the reception halls was the harem, where the
+legitimate wife, often a princess of solar rank, played the rôle of
+queen, surrounded by concubines, dancers, and slaves. The offices of
+the various departments were crowded into the enclosure, with their
+directors, governors, scribes of all ranks, custodians, and workmen, who
+bore the same titles as the corresponding employés in the departments of
+the State: their White Storehouse, their Gold Storehouse, their Granary,
+were at times called the Double White Storehouse, the Double Gold
+Storehouse, the Double Granary, as were those of the Pharaoh. Amusements
+at the court of the vassal did not differ from those at that of the
+sovereign: hunting in the desert and the marshes, fishing, inspection of
+agricultural works, military exercises, games, songs, dancing, doubtless
+the recital of long stories, and exhibitions of magic, even down to the
+contortions of the court buffoon and the grimaces of the dwarfs.
+
+[Illustration: 080.jpg IN A NILE BOAT]
+
+It amused the prince to see one of these wretched favourites leading to
+him by the paw a cynocephalus larger than himself, while a mischievous
+monkey slyly pulled a tame and stately ibis by the tail. From time to
+time the great lord proceeded to inspect his domain: on these occasions
+he travelled in a kind of sedan chair, supported by two mules yoked
+together; or he was borne in a palanquin by some thirty men, while
+fanned by large flabella; or possibly he went up the Nile and the canals
+in his beautiful painted barge. The life of the Egyptian lords may be
+aptly described as in every respect an exact reproduction of the life of
+the Pharaoh on a smaller scale.
+
+Inheritance in a direct or indirect line was the rule, but in every
+case of transmission the new lord had to receive the investiture of
+the sovereign either by letter or in person. The duties enforced by the
+feudal state do not appear to have been onerous. In the first place,
+there was the regular payment of a tribute, proportionate to the
+extent and resources of the fief. In the next place, there was military
+service: the vassal agreed to supply, when called upon, a fixed number
+of armed men, whom he himself commanded, unless he could offer a
+reasonable excuse such as illness or senile incapacity.*
+
+     * Prince Amoni, of the Gazelle nome, led a body of four
+     hundred men and another body of six hundred, levied in his
+     principality, into Ethiopia under these conditions; the
+     first that he served in the royal army, was as a substitute
+     for his father, who had grown too old. Similarly, under the
+     XVIIIth dynasty, Âhmosis of El-Kab commanded the war-ship,
+     the Calf, in place of his father. The Uni inscription
+     furnishes us with an instance of a general levy of the
+     feudal contingents in the time of the VIth dynasty (1. 14,
+     et seq.).
+
+Attendance at court was not obligatory: we notice, however, many nobles
+about the person of Pharaoh, and there are numerous examples of princes,
+with whose lives we are familiar, filling offices which appear to have
+demanded at least a temporary residence in the palace, as, for instance,
+the charge of the royal wardrobe. When the king travelled, the great
+vassals were compelled to entertain him and his suite, and to escort
+him to the frontier of their domain. On the occasion of such visits, the
+king would often take away with him one of their sons to be brought
+up with his own children: an act which they on their part considered a
+great honour, while the king on his had a guarantee of their fidelity in
+the person of these hostages. Such of these young people as returned to
+their fathers’ roof when their education was finished, were usually most
+loyal to the reigning dynasty. They often brought back with them
+some maiden born in the purple, who consented to share their little
+provincial sovereignty, while in exchange one or more of their sisters
+entered the harem of the Pharaoh. Marriages made and marred in their
+turn the fortunes of the great feudal houses. Whether she were
+a princess or not, each woman received as her dowry a portion of
+territory, and enlarged by that amount her husband’s little state;
+but the property she brought might, in a few years, be taken by her
+daughters as portions and enrich other houses. The fief seldom could
+bear up against such dismemberment; it fell away piecemeal, and by
+the third or fourth generation had disappeared. Sometimes, however,
+it gained more than it lost in this matrimonial game, and extended its
+borders till they encroached on neighbouring nomes or else completely
+absorbed them. There were always in the course of each reign several
+great principalities formed, or in the process of formation, whose
+chiefs might be said to hold in their hands the destinies of the
+country. Pharaoh himself was obliged to treat them with deference,
+and he purchased their allegiance by renewed and ever-increasing
+concessions.
+
+Their ambition was never satisfied; when they were loaded with favours,
+and did not venture to ask for more for themselves, they impudently
+demanded them for such of their children as they thought were poorly
+provided for. Their eldest son “knew not the high favours which came
+from the king. Other princes were his privy counsellers, his chosen
+friends, or foremost among his friends!” he had no share in all this.
+Pharaoh took good care not to reject a petition presented so humbly:
+he proceeded to lavish appointments, titles, and estates on the son in
+question; if necessity required it, he would even seek out a wife for
+him, who might give him, together with her hand, a property equal to
+that of his father. The majority of these great vassals secretly aspired
+to the crown: they frequently had reason to believe that they had some
+right to it, either through their mother or one of their ancestors. Had
+they combined against the reigning house, they could easily have gained
+the upper hand, but their mutual jealousies prevented this, and the
+overthrow of a dynasty to which they owed so much would, for the most
+part, have profited them but little: as soon as one of them revolted,
+the remainder took arms in Pharaoh’s defence, led his armies and
+fought his battles. If at times their ambition and greed harassed
+their suzerain, at least their power was at his service, and their
+self-interested allegiance was often the means of delaying the downfall
+of his house.
+
+Two things were specially needful both for them and for Pharaoh in order
+to maintain or increase their authority--the protection of the gods,
+and a military organization which enabled them to mobilize the whole of
+their forces at the first signal. The celestial world was the faithful
+image of our own; it had its empires and its feudal organization, the
+arrangement of which corresponded to that of the terrestrial world. The
+gods who inhabited it were dependent upon the gifts of mortals, and the
+resources of each individual deity, and consequently his power, depended
+on the wealth and number of his worshippers; anything influencing one
+had an immediate effect on the other. The gods dispensed happiness,
+health, and vigour;* to those who made them large offerings and
+instituted pious foundations, they lent their own weapons, and inspired
+them with needful strength to overcome their enemies. They even came
+down to assist in battle, and every great encounter of armies involved
+an invisible struggle among the immortals. The gods of the side which
+was victorious shared with it in the triumph, and received a tithe of
+the spoil as the price of their help; the gods of the vanquished were
+so much the poorer, their priests and their statues were reduced
+to slavery, and the destruction of their people entailed their own
+downfall.
+
+     * I may here remind my readers of the numberless bas-reliefs
+     and stelae on which the king is represented as making an
+     offering to a god, who replies in some such formula as the
+     following: “I give thee health and strength;” or, “I give
+     thee joy and life for millions of years.”
+
+It was, therefore, to the special interest of every one in Egypt, from
+the Pharaoh to the humblest of his vassals, to maintain the good will
+and power of the gods, so that their protection might be effectively
+ensured in the hour of danger. Pains were taken to embellish their
+temples with obelisks, colossi, altars, and bas-reliefs; new buildings
+were added to the old; the parts threatened with ruin were restored or
+entirely rebuilt; daily gifts were brought of every kind--animals which
+were sacrificed on the spot, bread, flowers, fruit, drinks, as well
+as perfumes, stuffs, vases, jewels, bricks or bars of gold, silver,
+lapis-lazuli, which were all heaped up in the treasury within the
+recesses of the crypts.* If a dignitary of high rank wished to
+perpetuate the remembrance of his honours or his services, and at the
+same time to procure for his double the benefit of endless prayers and
+sacrifices, he placed “by special permission” ** a statue of himself on a
+votive stele in the part of the temple reserved for this purpose,--in
+a courtyard, chamber, encircling passage, as at Karnak,*** or on
+the staircase of Osiris as in that leading up to the terrace in the
+sanctuary of Abydos; he then sealed a formal agreement with the priests,
+by which the latter engaged to perform a service in his name, in front
+of this commemorative monument, a stated number of times in the year, on
+the days fixed by universal observance or by local custom.
+
+     * See the “Poem of Pentaûîrît” for the grounds on which
+     Ramses II. bases his imperative appeal to Araon for help:
+     “Have I not made thee numerous offerings? I have filled thy
+     temple with my prisoners. I have built thee an everlasting
+     temple, and have not spared my wealth in endowing it for
+     thee; I lay the whole world under contribution in order to
+     stock thy domain.... I have built thee whole pylons in
+     stone, and have myself reared the flagstaffs which adorn
+     them; I have brought thee obelisks from Elephantine.”
+
+     ** The majority of the votive statues were lodged in a
+     temple “by special favour of a king “--em HOSÎtû nti KUÎr
+     sûton--as a recompense for services rendered. Some only of
+     the stelae bear an inscription to the above effect, no
+     authorization from the king was required for the
+     consecration of a stele in a temple.
+
+     *** It was in the encircling passage of the limestone temple
+     built by the kings of the XIIth dynasty, and now completely
+     destroyed, that all the Karnak votive statues were
+     discovered. Some of them still rest on the stone ledge on
+     which they were placed by the priests of the god at the
+     moment of consecration.
+
+For this purpose he assigned to them annuities in kind, charges on his
+patrimonial estates, or in some cases, if he were a great lord, on the
+revenues of his fief,--such as a fixed quantity of loaves and drinks
+for each of the celebrants, a fourth part of the sacrificial victim,
+a garment, frequently also lands with their cattle, serfs, existing
+buildings, farming implements and produce, along with the conditions
+of service with which the lands were burdened. These gifts to the
+god--“notir hotpûû”--were, it appears, effected by agreements analogous
+to those dealing with property in mortmain in modern Egypt; in each
+nome they constituted, in addition to the original temporalities of the
+temple, a considerable domain, constantly enlarged by fresh endowments.
+The gods had no daughters for whom to provide, nor sons among whom to
+divide their inheritance; all that fell to them remained theirs for
+ever, and in the contracts were inserted imprecations threatening with
+terrible ills, in this world and the next, those who should abstract the
+smallest portion from them. Such menaces did not always prevent the king
+or the lords from laying hands on the temple revenues: had this not been
+the case, Egypt would soon have become a sacerdotal country from one end
+to the other. Even when reduced by periodic usurpations, the domain of
+the gods formed, at all periods, about one-third of the whole country.*
+
+     * The tradition handed down by Diodorus tells us that the
+     goddess Isis assigned a third of the country to the priests;
+     the whole of Egypt is said to have been divided into three
+     equal parts, the first of which belonged to the priests, the
+     second to the kings, and the third to the warrior class.
+     When we read, in the great Harris Papyrus, the list of the
+     property possessed by the temple of the Theban Amon alone,
+     all over Egypt, under Ramses III., we can readily believe
+     that the tradition of the Greek epoch in no way exaggerated
+     matters.
+
+Its administration was not vested in a single body of Priests,
+representing the whole of Egypt and recruited or ruled everywhere in
+the same fashion. There were as many bodies of priests as there were
+temples, and every temple preserved its independent constitution with
+which the clergy of the neighbouring temples had nothing to do: the
+only master they acknowledged was the lord of the territory on which
+the temple was built, either Pharaoh or one of his nobles. The tradition
+which made Pharaoh the head of the different worships in Egypt*
+prevailed everywhere, but Pharaoh soared too far above this world
+to confine himself to the functions of any one particular order of
+priests: he officiated before all the gods without being specially
+the minister of any, and only exerted his supremacy in order to make
+appointments to important sacerdotal posts in his domain.**
+
+     * The only exception to this rule was in the case of the
+     Theban kings of the XXIst dynasty, and even here the
+     exception is more apparent than real. As a matter of fact,
+     these kings, Hrihor and Pinozmû, began by being high priests
+     of Amon before ascending the throne; they were pontiffs who
+     became Pharaohs, not Pharaohs who created themselves
+     pontiffs. Possibly we ought to place Smonkharî of the XIVth
+     dynasty in the same category, if, as Brugsch assures us, his
+     name, Mîr-mâshâù, is identical with the title of the high
+     priest of Osiris at Mendes, thus proving that he was pontiff
+     of Osiris in that town before he became king.
+
+     ** Among other instances, we have that of the king of the
+     XXIst Tanite dynasty, who appointed Mankhopirrî, high priest
+     of the Theban Amon, and that of the last king of the same
+     dynasty, Psûsennes IL, who conferred the same office on
+     prince Aûpûti, son of Sheshonqû. The king’s right of
+     nomination harmonized very well with the hereditary
+     transmission of the priestly office through members of the
+     same family, as we shall have occasion to show later on.
+
+He reserved the high priesthood of the Memphite Phtah and that of Râ of
+Heliopolis either for the princes of his own family or more often for
+his most faithful servants; they were the docile instruments of his
+will, through whom he exerted the influence of the gods, and disposed
+of their property without having the trouble of administrating it. The
+feudal lords, less removed from mortal affairs than the Pharaoh, did not
+disdain to combine the priesthood of the temples dependent on them with
+the general supervision of the different worships practised on their
+lands. The princes of the Gazelle nome, for instance, bore the title
+of “Directors of the Prophets of all the Gods,” but were, correctly
+speaking, prophets of Horus, of Khnûmû master of Haoîrît, and of Pakhît
+mistress of the Speos-Artemidos. The religious suzerainty of such
+princes was the complement of their civil and military power, and their
+ordinary income was augmented by some portion at least of the revenues
+which the lands in mortmain furnished annually. The subordinate
+sacerdotal functions were filled by professional priests whose status
+varied according to the gods they served and the provinces in which they
+were located. Although between the mere priest and the chief prophet
+there were a number of grades to which the majority never attained,
+still the temples attracted many people from divers sources, who, once
+established in this calling of life, not only never left it, but never
+rested until they had introduced into it the members of their families.
+The offices they filled were not necessarily hereditary, but the
+children, born and bred in the shelter of the sanctuary, almost always
+succeeded to the positions of their fathers, and certain families thus
+continuing in the same occupation for generations, at last came to be
+established as a sort of sacerdotal nobility.*
+
+     * We possess the coffins of the priests of the Theban Montû
+     for nearly thirty generations, viz. from the XXVth dynasty
+     to the time of the Ptolemies. The inscriptions give us their
+     genealogies, as well as their intermarriages, and show us
+     that they belonged almost exclusively to two or three
+     important families who intermarried with one another or took
+     their wives from the families of the priests of Amon.
+
+The sacrifices supplied them with daily meat and drink; the temple
+buildings provided them with their lodging, and its revenues furnished
+them with a salary proportionate to their position. They were exempted
+from the ordinary taxes, from military service, and from forced labour;
+it is not surprising, therefore, that those who were not actually
+members of the priestly families strove to have at least a share in
+their advantages. The servitors, the workmen and the _employés_ who
+congregated about them and constituted the temple corporation, the
+scribes attached to the administration of the domains, and to the
+receipt of offerings, shared _de facto_ if not _de jure_ in the immunity
+of the priesthood; as a body they formed a separate religious society,
+side by side, but distinct from, the civil population, and freed from
+most of the burdens which weighed so heavily on the latter.
+
+The soldiers were far from possessing the wealth and influence of the
+clergy. Military service in Egypt was not universally compulsory, but
+rather the profession and privilege of a special class of whose
+origin but little is known. Perhaps originally it comprised only the
+descendants of the conquering race, but in historic times it was not
+exclusively confined to the latter, and recruits were raised everywhere
+among the fellahs,* the Bedouin of the neighbourhood, the negroes,**
+the Nubians,*** and even from among the prisoners of war, or adventurers
+from beyond the sea.****
+
+     * This is shown, _inter alia,_ by the real or supposititious
+     letters in which the master-scribe endeavours to deter his
+     pupil from adopting a military career, recommending that of
+     a scribe in preference.
+
+     ** Uni, under Papi I., recruited his army from among the
+     inhabitants of the whole of Egypt, from Elephantine to
+     Letopolis at the mouth of the Delta, and as far as the
+     Mediterranean, from among the Bedouin of Libya and of the
+     Isthmus, and even from the six negro races of Nubia
+     _(Inscription d’Ouni, 11. 14-19)_.
+
+     *** The Nubian tribe of the Mâzaiû, afterwards known as the
+     Libyan tribe of the Mâshaûasha, furnished troops to the
+     Egyptian kings and princes for centuries; indeed, the Mâzaiû
+     formed such an integral part of the Egyptian armies that
+     their name came to be used in Coptic as a synonym for
+     soldier, under the form “matoï.”
+
+     **** Later on we shall come across the Shardana of the Royal
+     Guard under Ramses II. (E. de Rougé, _Extrait d’un mémoire
+     sur les attaques,_ p. 5); later still, the Ionians, Carians,
+     and Greek mercenaries will be found to play a decisive part
+     in the history of the Saïte dynasties.
+
+This motley collection of foreign mercenaries composed ordinarily the
+body-guard of the king or of his barons, the permanent nucleus round
+which in times of war the levies of native recruits were rallied. Every
+Egyptian soldier received from the chief to whom he was attached, a
+holding of land for the maintenance of himself and his family. In the
+fifth century B.C. twelve _aruræ_ of arable land was estimated as ample
+pay for each man,* and tradition attributes to the fabulous Sesostris
+the law which fixed the pay at this rate. The soldiers were not taxed,
+and were exempt from forced labour during the time that they were away
+from home on active service; with this exception they were liable to the
+same charges as the rest of the population. Many among them possessed
+no other income, and lived the precarious life of the fellah,--tilling,
+reaping, drawing water, and pasturing their cattle,--in the interval
+between two musters. Others possessed of private fortunes let their
+holdings out at a moderate rental, which formed an addition to their
+patrimonial income.**
+
+     * Herodotus, ii. 168. The arura being equal to 27.82 ares
+     [an are = 100 square metres], the military fief contained
+     27*82 x 12 = 333.84 ares. [The “arura,” according to F. L.
+     Griffith, was a square of 100 Egyptian cubits, making about
+     3/5 of an acre, or 2600 square metres.--Trs.] The _chifliks_
+     created by Mohammed-Ali, with a view to bringing the
+     abandoned districts into cultivation, allotted to each
+     labourer who offered to reclaim it, a plot of land varying
+     from one to three feddans, i.e. from 4200.83 square metres
+     to 12602.49 square metres, according to the nature of the
+     soil and the necessities of each family. The military fiefs
+     of ancient Egypt were, therefore, nearly three times as
+     great in extent as these _abadiyehs_, which were considered,
+     in modern Egypt, sufficient to supply the wants of a whole
+     family of peasants; they must, therefore, have secured not
+     merely a bare subsistence, but ample provision for their
+     proprietors.
+
+     ** Diodorus Siculus says in so many words (i. 74) that “the
+     farmers spent their life in cultivating lands which had been
+     let to them at a moderate rent by the king, by the priests,
+     and _by the warriors_.”
+
+Lest they should forget the conditions upon which they possessed this
+military holding, and should regard themselves as absolute masters
+of it, they were seldom left long in possession of the same place:
+Herodotus asserts that their allotments were taken away-yearly and
+replaced by others of equal extent. It is difficult to say if this law
+of perpetual change was always in force; at any rate, it did not prevent
+the soldiers from forming themselves in time into a kind of aristocracy,
+which even kings and barons of highest rank could not ignore. They were
+enrolled in special registers, with the indication of the holding which
+was temporarily assigned to them. A military scribe kept this register
+in every royal nome or principality.
+
+[Illustration: 092.jpg SOME OF THE MILITARY ATHLETIC EXERCISES]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a scene in the tomb of Amoni-
+     Amenemhâît at Beni-Hasan.
+
+He superintended the redistribution of the lands, the registration of
+privileges, and in addition to his administrative functions, he had in
+time of war the command of the troops furnished by his own district; in
+which case he was assisted by a “lieutenant,” who as opportunity offered
+acted as his substitute in the office or on the battle-field. Military
+service was not hereditary, but its advantages, however trifling they
+may appear to us, seemed in the eyes of the fellahs so great, that
+for the most part those who were engaged in it had their children also
+enrolled. While still young the latter were taken to the barracks, where
+they were taught not only the use of the bow, the battle-axe, the mace,
+the lance, and the shield, but were all instructed in such exercises as
+rendered the body supple, and prepared them for manoeuvring, regimental
+marching, running, jumping, and wrestling either with closed or open
+hand. They prepared themselves for battle by a regular war-dance,
+pirouetting, leaping, and brandishing their bows and quivers in the
+air. Their training being finished, they were incorporated into local
+companies, and invested with their privileges. When they were required
+for service, part or the whole of the class was mustered; arms kept in
+the arsenal were distributed among them, and they were conveyed in boats
+to the scene of action. The Egyptians were not martial by temperament;
+they became soldiers rather from interest than inclination.
+
+The power of Pharaoh and his barons rested entirely upon these two
+classes, the priests and the soldiers; the remainder, the commonalty and
+the peasantry, were, in their hands, merely an inert mass, to be
+taxed and subjected to forced labour at will. The slaves were probably
+regarded as of little importance; the bulk of the people consisted of
+free families who were at liberty to dispose of themselves and their
+goods. Every fellah and townsman in the service of the king, or of
+one of his great nobles, could leave his work and his village when
+he pleased, could pass from the domain in which he was born into a
+different one, and could traverse the country from one end to the other,
+as the Egyptians of to-day still do.
+
+His absence entailed neither loss of goods, nor persecution of the
+relatives he left behind, and he himself had punishment to fear only
+when he left the Nile Valley without permission, to reside for some time
+in a foreign land.* But although this independence and liberty were in
+accordance with the laws and customs of the land, yet they gave rise to
+inconveniences from which it was difficult to escape in practical life.
+Every Egyptian, the King excepted, was obliged, in order to get on in
+life, to depend on one more powerful than himself, whom he called his
+master. The feudal lord was proud to recognize Pharaoh as his master,
+and he himself was master of the soldiers and priests in his own petty
+state.
+
+     * The treaty between Ramses and the Prince of Khiti contains
+     a formal extradition clause in reference to Egyptians or
+     Hittites, who had quitted their native country, of course
+     without the permission of their sovereign. The two
+     contracting parties expressly stipulate that persons
+     extradited on one side or the other shall not be punished
+     for having emigrated, that their property is not to be
+     confiscated, nor are their families to be held responsible
+     for their flight. From this clause it follows that in
+     ordinary times unauthorized emigration brought upon the
+     culprit corporal punishment and the confiscation of his
+     goods, as well as various penalties on his family. The way
+     in which Sinûhît makes excuses for his flight, the fact of
+     his asking pardon before returning to Egypt, the very terms
+     of the letter in which the king recalls him and assures him
+     of impunity, show us that the laws against emigration were
+     in full force under the XIIth dynasty.
+
+     ** The expressions which bear witness to this fact are very
+     numerous: Miri nîbûf = “He who loves his master;” Aqû hâîti
+     ni nîbûf = “He who enters into the heart of his master,” etc.
+     They recur so frequently in the texts in the case of persons
+     of all ranks, that it was thought no importance ought to be
+     attached to them. But the constant repetition of the word
+     NIB, “master,” shows that we must alter this view, and give
+     these phrases their full meaning.
+
+From the top to the bottom of the social scale every free man
+acknowledged a master, who secured to him justice and protection in
+exchange for his obedience and fealty. The moment an Egyptian tried to
+withdraw himself from this subjection, the peace of his life was at
+an end; he became a man without a master, and therefore without a
+recognized protector.*
+
+     * The expression, “a man without a master,” occurs several
+     times in the _Berlin Papyrus_, No. ii. For instance, the
+     peasant who is the hero of the story, says of the lord
+     Mirûitensi, that he is “the rudder of heaven, the guide of
+     the earth, the balance which carries the offerings, the
+     buttress of tottering walls, the support of that which
+     falls, _the great master who takes whoever is without a
+     master_ to lavish on him the goods of his house, a jug of
+     beer and three loaves” each day.
+
+Any one might stop him on the way, steal his cattle, merchandise, or
+property on the most trivial pretext, and if he attempted to protest,
+might beat him with almost certain impunity.
+
+[Illustration: 095.jpg WAR-DANCE PERFORMED BY EGYPTIAN SOLDIERS BEFORE A
+BATTLE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the tomb of Khîti at Beni-
+     Hasan. These are soldiers of the nome of Gazelle.
+
+The only resource of the victim was to sit at the gate of the palace,
+waiting to appeal for justice till the lord or the king should appear.
+If by chance, after many rebuffs, his humble petition were granted, it
+was only the beginning of fresh troubles. Even if the justice of the
+cause were indisputable, the fact that he was a man without home or
+master inspired his judges with an obstinate mistrust, and delayed the
+satisfaction of his claims. In vain he followed his judges with his
+complaints and flatteries, chanting their virtues in every key: “Thou
+art the father of the unfortunate, the husband of the widow, the brother
+of the orphan, the clothing of the motherless: enable me to proclaim
+thy name as a law throughout the land. Good lord, guide without caprice,
+great without littleness, thou who destroyest falsehood and causest
+truth to be, come at the words of my mouth; I speak, listen and do
+justice. O generous one, generous of the generous, destroy the cause of
+my trouble; here I am, uplift me; judge me, for behold me a suppliant
+before thee.” If he were an eloquent speaker and the judge were inclined
+to listen, he was willingly heard, but his cause made no progress, and
+delays, counted on by his adversary, effected his ruin. The religious
+law, no doubt, prescribed equitable treatment for all devotees of
+Osiris, and condemned the slightest departure from justice as one of the
+gravest sins, even in the case of a great noble, or in that of the
+king himself; but how could impartiality be shown when the one was the
+recognized protector, the “master” of the culprit, while the plaintiff
+was a vagabond, attached to no one, “a man without a master”!
+
+The population of the towns included many privileged persons other than
+the soldiers, priests, or those engaged in the service of the
+temples. Those employed in royal or feudal administration, from the
+“superintendent of the storehouse” to the humblest scribe, though
+perhaps not entirely exempt from forced labour, had but a small part
+of it to bear.* These _employés_ constituted a middle class of several
+grades, and enjoyed a fixed income and regular employment: they were
+fairly well educated, very self-satisfied, and always ready to declare
+loudly their superiority over any who were obliged to gain their
+living by manual labour. Each class of workmen recognized one or more
+chiefs,--the shoemakers, their master-shoemakers, the masons, their
+master-masons, the blacksmiths, their master-blacksmiths,--who
+looked after their interests and represented them before the local
+authorities.**
+
+     * This is a fair inference from the indirect testimony of
+     the Letters: the writer, in enumerating the liabilities of
+     the various professions, implies by contrast that the scribe
+     (i.e. the _employé_ in general) is not subject to them, or
+     is subject to a less onerous share of them than others. The
+     beginning and end of the instructions of Khîti would in
+     themselves be sufficient to show us the advantages which the
+     middle classes under the XIIth dynasty believed they could
+     derive from adopting the profession of scribe.
+
+     ** The stelæ of Abydos are very useful to those who desire
+     to study the populations of a small town. They give us the
+     names of the head-men of trades of all kinds; the head-mason
+     Didiû, the master-mason Aa, the master-shoemaker Kahikhonti,
+     the head-smiths Ûsirtasen-Ûati, Hotpû, Hot-pûrekhsû.
+
+It was said among the Greeks, that even robbers were united in a
+corporation like the others, and maintained an accredited superior as
+their representative with the police, to discuss the somewhat delicate
+questions which the practice of their trade gave occasion to. When the
+members of the association had stolen any object of value, it was
+to this superior that the person robbed resorted, in order to regain
+possession of it: it was he who fixed the amount required for its
+redemption, and returned it without fail, upon the payment of this sum.
+Most of the workmen who formed a state corporation, lodged, or at least
+all of them had their stalls, in the same quarter or street, under the
+direction of their chief. Besides the poll and the house tax, they were
+subject to a special toll, a trade licence which they paid in products
+of their commerce or industry.*
+
+     * The registers (for the most part unpublished), which are
+     contained in European museums show us that fishermen paid in
+     fish, gardeners in flowers and vegetables, etc., the taxes
+     or tribute which they owed to their lords. In the great
+     inscription of Abydos the weavers attached to the temple of
+     Seti I. are stated to have paid their tribute in stuffs.
+
+[Illustration: 098.jpg TWO BLACKSMITHS WORKING THE BELLOWS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rosellini, Monumenti Civili,
+     pl. 2 a.
+
+Their lot was a hard one, if we are to believe the description which
+ancient writers have handed down to us: “I have never seen a blacksmith
+on an embassy--nor a smelter sent on a mission--but what I have seen
+is the metal worker at his toil,--at the mouth of the furnace of his
+forge,--his fingers as rugged as the crocodile,--and stinking more than
+fish-spawn.--The artisan of any kind who handles the chisel,--does not
+employ so much movement as he who handles the hoe;*
+
+     * The literal translation would be, “The artisan of all
+     kinds who handles the chisel is more motionless than he who
+     handles the hoe.” Both here, and in several other passages
+     of this little satiric poem, I have been obliged to
+     paraphrase the text in order to render it intelligible to
+     the modern reader.
+
+[Illustration: 099.jpg STONE-CUTTERS FINISHING THE DRESSING OF LIMESTONE
+BLOCKS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rosellini, _Monumenti civili_,
+     pl. xlviii. 2.
+
+--but for him his fields are the timber, his business is the metal,--and
+at night when the other is free,--he, he works with his hands over and
+above what he has already done,--for at night, he works at home by the
+lamp.--The stone-cutter who seeks his living by working in all kinds of
+durable stone,--when at last he has earned something--and his two arms
+are worn out, he stops;--but if at sunrise he remain sitting,--his legs
+are tied to his back.* --The barber who shaves until the evening,--when
+he falls to and eats, it is without sitting down** --while running from
+street to street to seek custom;--if he is constant [at work] his two
+arms fill his belly--as the bee eats in proportion to its toil.--Shall
+I tell thee of the mason--how he endures misery?--Exposed to all the
+winds--while he builds without any garment but a belt--and while the
+bunch of lotus-flowers [which is fixed] on the [completed] houses--is
+still far out of his reach,***
+
+     * This is an allusion to the cruel manner in which the
+     Egyptians were accustomed to bind their prisoners, as it
+     were in a bundle, with the legs bent backward along the back
+     and attached to the arms. The working-day commenced then, as
+     now, at sunrise, and lasted till sunset, with a short
+     interval of one or two hours at midday for the workmen’s
+     dinner and siesta.
+
+     ** Literally, “He places himself on his elbow.” The metaphor
+     seems to me to be taken from the practice of the trade
+     itself: the barber keeps his elbow raised when shaving and
+     lowers it when he is eating.
+
+     *** This passage is conjecturally translated. I suppose the
+     Egyptian masons had a custom analogous to that of our own,
+     and attached a bunch of lotus to the highest part of a
+     building they had just finished: nothing, however, has come
+     to light to confirm this conjecture.
+
+--his two arms are worn out with work; his provisions are placed
+higgledy piggledy amongst his refuse,--he consumes himself, for he has
+no other bread than his fingers--and he becomes wearied all at once.--He
+is much and dreadfully exhausted--for there is [always] a block [to be
+dragged] in this or that building,--a block of ten cubits by six,--there
+is [always] a block [to be dragged] in this or that month [as far as
+the] scaffolding poles [to which is fixed] the bunch of lotus-flowers
+on the [completed] houses.--When the work is quite finished,--if he has
+bread, he returns home,--and his children have been beaten unmercifully
+[during his absence].--The weaver within doors is worse off there than
+a woman;--squatting, his knees against his chest,--he does not
+breathe.--If during the day he slackens weaving,--he is bound fast as
+the lotuses of the lake;--and it is by giving bread to the doorkeeper,
+that the latter permits him to see the light.
+
+[Illustration: 101.jpg A WORKSHOP OF SHOEMAKERS MANUFACTURING SANDALS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Champollion’s _Monuments de
+     l’Êypte et de la Nubie_. This Picture belongs to the XVIIIth
+     dynasty; but the sandals in it are, however, quite like
+     those to be seen on more ancient monuments.
+
+The dyer, his fingers reeking--and their smell is that of
+fish-spawn;--his two eyes are oppressed with fatigue,--his hand does not
+stop,--and, as he spends his time in cutting out rags--he has a
+hatred of garments.--The shoemaker is very unfortunate;--he moans
+ceaselessly,--his health is the health of the spawning fish,--and he
+gnaws the leather.--The baker makes dough,--subjects the loaves to the
+fire;--while his head is inside the oven,--his son holds him by the
+legs;--if he slips from the hands of his son,--he falls there into the
+flames.” These are the miseries inherent to the trades themselves: the
+levying of the tax added to the catalogue a long sequel of vexations
+and annoyances, which were renewed several times in the year at regular
+intervals.
+
+[Illustration: 101.jpg THE BAKER MAKING HIS BREAD AND PLACING IT IN THE
+OVEN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the painted picture in one of
+     the small antechambers of the tomb of Ramses III., at Bab-
+     el-Molûk.
+
+Even at the present day, the fellah does not pay his contributions
+except under protest and by compulsion, but the determination not to
+meet obligations except beneath the stick, was proverbial from ancient
+times: whoever paid his dues before he had received a merciless beating
+would be overwhelmed with reproaches by his family, and jeered at
+without pity by his neighbours. The time when the tax fell due, came
+upon the nomes as a terrible crisis which affected the whole population.
+For several days there was nothing to be heard but protestations,
+threats, beating, cries of pain from the tax-payers, and piercing
+lamentations from women and children. The performance over, calm was
+re-established, and the good people, binding up their wounds, resumed
+their round of daily life until the next tax-gathering.
+
+The towns of this period presented nearly the same confined and
+mysterious appearance as those of the present day.*
+
+     * I have had occasion to make “soundings” or excavations at
+     various points in very ancient towns and villages, at
+     Thebes, Abydos and Mataniyeh, and I give here a _résumé_ of
+     my observations. Professor Petrie has brought to light and
+     regularly explored several cities of the XIIth and XVIIIth
+     dynasties, situated at the entrance to the Fayûm. I have
+     borrowed many points in my description from the various
+     works which he has published on the subject, _Kahun, Gurob
+     and Hawara,_ 1890; and _Illahun, Kahun and Gurob_, 1891.
+
+[Illustration: 103.jpg THE HOUSE OF A GREAT EGYPTIAN LORD]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a water-colour by Boussac, _Le
+     Tombeau d’Anna_ in the _Mémoires de la Mission Française_.
+     The house was situated at Thebes, and belonged to the
+     XVIIIth dynasty. The remains of the houses brought to light
+     by Mariette at Abydos belong to the same type, and date back
+     to the XIIth dynasty. By means of these, Mariette was
+     enabled to reconstruct an ancient Egyptian house at the
+     Paris Exhibition of 1877. The picture of the tomb of Anna
+     reproduces in most respects, we may therefore assume, the
+     appearance of a nobleman’s dwelling at all periods. At the
+     side of the main building we see two corn granaries with
+     conical roofs, and a great storehouse for provisions.
+
+They were grouped around one or more temples, each of which was
+surrounded by its own brick enclosing wall, with its enormous gateways:
+the gods dwelt there in real castles, or, if this word appears too
+ambitious, redouts, in which the population could take refuge in cases
+of sudden attack, and where they could be in safety.
+
+[Illustration: 104.jpg PLAN OF A PART OF THE ANCIENT TOWN OF KAHUN]
+
+     From a plan made and published by Professor Flinders Petrie,
+     _Illahun, Kahun and Gurob_, pl. xiv.
+
+
+The towns, which had all been built at one period by some king or
+prince, were on a tolerably regular ground plan; the streets were paved
+and fairly wide; they crossed each other at right angles, and were
+bordered with buildings on the same line of frontage. The cities of
+ancient origin, which had increased with the chance growth of centuries,
+presented a totally different aspect.
+
+[Illustration: 105.jpg STELE OF SÎTÛ, REPRESENTING THE FRONT OF A HOUSE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. The
+     monument is the stele of Sîtû (IVth dynasty), in the Gîzeh
+     Museum.
+
+A network of lanes and blind alleys, narrow, dark, damp, and badly
+built, spread itself out between the houses, apparently at random: here
+and there was an arm of a canal, all but dried up, or a muddy pool where
+the cattle came to drink, and from which the women fetched the water for
+their households; then followed an open space of irregular shape, shaded
+by acacias or sycamores, where the country-folk of the suburbs held
+their market on certain days, twice or thrice a month; then came
+waste ground covered with filth and refuse, over which the dogs of
+the neighbourhood fought with hawks and vultures. The residence of
+the prince or royal governor, and the houses of rich private persons,
+covered a considerable area, and generally presented to the street a
+long extent of bare walls, crenellated like those of a fortress: the
+only ornament admitted on them consisted of angular grooves, each
+surmounted by two open lotus flowers having their stems intertwined.
+
+[Illustration: 106.jpg A STREET IN THE HIGHER QUARTER OF MODERN SIÛT]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph, taken in 1884, by Emil
+     Brugsch-Bey.
+
+Within these walls domestic life was entirely secluded, and as it were
+confined to its own resources; the pleasure of watching passers-by was
+sacrificed to the advantage of not being seen from outside. The entrance
+alone denoted at times the importance of the great man who concealed
+himself within the enclosure. Two or three steps led up to the door,
+which sometimes had a columned portico, ornamented with statues, lending
+an air of importance to the building. The houses of the citizens were
+small, and built of brick; they contained, however, some half-dozen
+rooms, either vaulted, or having flat roofs, and communicating with each
+other usually by arched doorways.
+
+[Illustration: 107.jpg A HALL WITH COLUMNS IN ONE OF THE XIIth DYNASTY
+HOUSES AT GUROB]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Professor Petrie,
+     _Elahun, Kahun and Gurob_, pl. xvi. 3.
+
+A few houses boasted of two or three stories; all possessed a terrace,
+on which the Egyptians of old, like those of to-day, passed most
+of their time, attending to household cares or gossiping with their
+neighbours over the party wall or across the street. The hearth was
+hollowed out in the ground, usually against a wall, and the smoke
+escaped through a hole in the ceiling: they made their fires of sticks,
+wood charcoal, and the dung of oxen and asses. In the houses of the
+rich we meet with state apartments, lighted in the centre by a square
+opening, and supported by rows of wooden columns; the shafts, which were
+octagonal, measured ten inches in diameter, and were fixed into flat
+circular stone bases.
+
+[Illustration: 108a.jpg WOODEN HEAD-REST]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a head-rest in my possession
+     obtained at Gebelên (XIth dynasty): the foot of the head-
+     rest is usually solid, and cut out of a single piece of
+     wood.
+
+[Illustration: 108b.jpg PIGEON ON WHEELS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Petrie, _Hawara,
+     Biahmu, and Arsinoe_, pl. xiii. 21. The original, of rough
+     wood, is now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.
+
+The family crowded themselves together into two or three rooms in
+winter, and slept on the roof in the open air in summer, in spite of
+risk from affections of the stomach and eyes; the remainder of the
+dwelling was used for stables or warehouses. The store-chambers
+were often built in pairs; they were of brick, carefully limewashed
+internally, and usually assumed the form of an elongated cone, in
+imitation of the Government storehouses. For the valuables which
+constituted the wealth of each household--wedges of gold or silver,
+precious stones, ornaments for men or women--there were places of
+concealment, in which the possessors attempted to hide them from robbers
+or from the tax-collectors. But the latter, accustomed to the craft of
+the citizens, evinced a peculiar aptitude for ferreting out the hoard:
+they tapped the walls, lifted and pierced the roofs, dug down into the
+soil below the foundations, and often brought to light, not only the
+treasure of the owner, but all the surroundings of the grave and human
+corruption. It was actually the custom, among the lower and middle
+classes, to bury in the middle of the house children who had died at the
+breast. The little body was placed in an old tool or linen box, without
+any attempt at embalming, and its favourite playthings and amulets were
+buried with it: two or three infants are often found occupying the same
+coffin. The playthings were of an artless but very varied character;
+dolls of limestone, enamelled pottery or wood, with movable arms and
+wigs of artificial hair; pigs, crocodiles, ducks, and pigeons on wheels,
+pottery boats, miniature sets of household furniture, skin balls filled
+with hay, marbles, and stone bowls. However, strange it may appear, we
+have to fancy the small boys of ancient Egypt as playing at bowls
+like ours, or impudently whipping their tops along the streets without
+respect for the legs of the passers-by.
+
+[Illustration: 109.jpg APPARATUS FOR STRIKING A LIGHT]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch published in Fl.
+     Petrie, _Illahun, Kdhun and Gurob,_ pl. vii. The bow is
+     represented in the centre; on the left, at the top, is the
+     nut; below it the fire-stick, which was attached to the end
+     of the stock; at the bottom and right, two pieces of wood
+     with round carbonized holes, which took fire from the
+     friction of the rapidly rotating stick.
+
+Some care was employed upon the decoration of the chambers. The
+rough-casting of mud often preserves its original grey colour;
+sometimes, however, it was limewashed, and coloured red or yellow, or
+decorated with pictures of jars, provisions, and the interiors as well
+as the exteriors of houses.
+
+[Illustration: 110.jpg MITRAL PAINTINGS IN THE RUINS OF AN ANCIENT HOUSE
+AT KAHUN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the facsimile in Petrie’s
+     _Illahun, Kahun and Gurob_, pl. xvi. 6.
+
+The bed was not on legs, but consisted of a low framework, like the
+“angarebs” of the modern Nubians, or of mats which were folded up in the
+daytime, but upon which they lay in their clothes during the night, the
+head being supported by a head-rest of pottery, limestone, or wood: the
+remaining articles of furniture consisted of one or two roughly hewn
+seats of stone, a few lion-legged chairs or stools, boxes and trunks
+of varying sizes for linen and implements, kohl, or perfume, pots of
+ababaster or porcelain, and lastly, the fire-stick with the bow by which
+it was set in motion, and some roughly made pots and pans of clay or
+bronze.
+
+[Illustration: 111.jpg WOMAN GRINDING GRAIN]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Béchard (cf.
+     Mariette, _Alburn photographique du Musée de Boulaq_, pl.
+     20; Maspero, _Guide du Visiteur_, P- 220, Nos. 1012, 1013).
+
+Men rarely entered their houses except to eat and sleep; their
+employments or handicrafts were such as to require them for the most
+part to work out-of-doors. The middle-class families owned, almost
+always, one or two slaves--either purchased or born in the house--who
+did all the hard work: they looked after the cattle, watched over the
+children, acted as cooks, and fetched water from the nearest pool or
+well. Among the poor the drudgery of the household fell entirely upon
+the woman. She spun, wove, cut out and mended garments, fetched fresh
+water and provisions, cooked the dinner, and made the daily bread. She
+spread some handfuls of grain upon an oblong slab of stone, slightly
+hollowed on its upper surface, and proceeded to crush them with a
+smaller stone like a painter’s muller, which she moistened from time to
+time. For an hour and more she laboured with her arms, shoulders, loins,
+in fact, all her body; but an indifferent result followed from the great
+exertion. The flour, made to undergo several grindings in this rustic
+mortar, was coarse, uneven, mixed with bran, or whole grains, which had
+escaped the pestle, and contaminated with dust and abraded particles
+of the stone. She kneaded it with a little water, blended with it, as a
+sort of yeast, a piece of stale dough of the day before, and made from
+the mass round cakes, about half an inch thick and some four inches in
+diameter, which she placed upon a flat flint, covering them with hot
+ashes. The bread, imperfectly raised, often badly cooked, borrowed, from
+the organic fuel under which it was buried, a special odour, and a taste
+to which strangers did not readily accustom themselves. The impurities
+which it contained were sufficient in the long run to ruin the strongest
+teeth; eating it was an action of grinding rather than chewing, and old
+men were not unfrequently met with whose teeth had been gradually worn
+away to the level of the gums, like those of an aged ass or ox.*
+
+     * The description of the woman grinding grain and kneading
+     dough is founded on statues in the Gîzeh Museum. All the
+     European museums possess numerous specimens of the bread in
+     question, and the effect which it produces in the long run
+     on the teeth of those who habitually used it as an article
+     of diet, has been observed in mummies of the most important
+     personages.
+
+Movement and animation were not lacking at certain hours of the day,
+particularly during the morning, in the markets and in the neighbourhood
+of the temples and government buildings: there was but little traffic
+anywhere else; the streets were silent, and the town dull and sleepy. It
+woke up completely only three or four times a year, at seasons of solemn
+assemblies “of heaven and earth:” the houses were then opened and their
+inhabitants streamed forth, the lively crowd thronging the squares and
+crossways. To begin with, there was New Year’s Day, quickly followed
+by the Festival of the Bead, the “Ûagaît.” On the night of the 17th
+of Thot, the priests kindled before the statues in the sanctuaries and
+sepulchral chapels, the fire for the use of the gods and doubles during
+the twelve ensuing months. Almost at the same moment the whole country
+was lit up from one end to the other: there was scarcely a family,
+however poor, who did not place in front of their door a new lamp in
+which burned an oil saturated with salt, and who did not spend the whole
+night in feasting and gossiping.*
+
+     * The night of the 17th Thot--which, according to our
+     computation, would be the night of the 16th to the 17th
+     --was, as may be seen from the Great Inscription of Siût,
+     appointed for the ceremony of “lighting the fire” before the
+     statues of the dead and of the gods. As at the “Feast of
+     Lamps”
+
+
+
+The festivals of the living gods attracted considerable crowds, who
+came not only from the nearest nomes, but also from great distances in
+caravans and in boats laden with merchandise, for religious sentiment
+did not exclude commercial interests, and the pilgrimage ended in a
+fair.
+
+[Illustration: 114.jpg TWO WOMEN WEAVING LINEN AT A HORIZANTAL LOOM]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a picture on the tomb of Khnûm-
+     hotpû at Beni-Hasan. This is the loom which was
+     reconstructed in 1889 for the Paris Exhibition, and which is
+     now to be seen in the galleries of the Trocadero.
+
+For several days the people occupied mentioned by Herodotus, the
+religious ceremony was accompanied by a general illumination which
+lasted all the night; the object of this, probably, was to facilitate
+the visit which the souls of the dead were supposed to pay at this time
+to the family residence themselves solely in prayers, sacrifices, and
+processions, in which the faithful, clad in white, with palms in their
+hands, chanted hymns as they escorted the priests on their way. “The
+gods of heaven exclaim ‘Ah! ah! ‘in satisfaction, the inhabitants of
+the earth are full of gladness, the Hâthors beat their tabors, the great
+ladies wave their mystic whips, all those who are gathered together in
+the town are drunk with wine and crowned with flowers; the tradespeople
+of the place walk joyously about, their heads scented with perfumed
+oils, all the children rejoice in honour of the goddess, from the rising
+to the setting of the sun.” *
+
+     * The people of Dendera crudely enough called this the
+     “Feast of Drunkenness.” From what we know of the earlier
+     epochs, we are justified in making this description a
+     general one, and in applying it, as I have done here, to the
+     festivals of other towns besides Dendera.
+
+The nights were as noisy as the days: for a few hours, they made up
+energetically for long months of torpor and monotonous existence. The
+god having re-entered the temple and the pilgrims taken their departure,
+the regular routine was resumed and dragged on its tedious course,
+interrupted only by the weekly market. At an early hour on that day,
+the peasant folk came in from the surrounding country in an interminable
+stream, and installed themselves in some open space, reserved from time
+immemorial for their use. The sheep, geese, goats, and large-horned
+cattle were grouped in the centre, awaiting purchasers.
+Market-gardeners, fishermen, fowlers and gazelle-hunters, potters, and
+small tradesmen, squatted on the roadsides or against the houses, and
+offered their wares for the inspection of their customers, heaped up
+in reed baskets, or piled on low round tables: vegetables and fruits,
+loaves or cakes baked during the night, meat either raw or cooked in
+various ways, stuffs, perfumes, ornaments,--all the necessities and
+luxuries of daily life. It was a good opportunity for the workpeople, as
+well as for the townsfolk, to lay in a store of provisions at a cheaper
+rate than from the ordinary shops; and they took advantage of it, each
+according to his means.
+
+Business was mostly carried on by barter. The purchasers brought with
+them some product of their toil--a new tool, a pair of shoes, a reed
+mat, pots of unguents or cordials; often, too, rows of cowries and
+a small box full of rings, each weighing a “tabnû,” made of copper,
+silver, or even gold, all destined to be bartered for such things as
+they needed. When it came to be a question of some large animal or of
+objects of considerable value, the discussions which arose were keen and
+stormy: it was necessary to be agreed not only as to the amount, but
+as to the nature of the payment to be made, and to draw up a sort of
+invoice, or in fact an inventory, in which beds, sticks, honey, oil,
+pick-axes, and garments, all figure as equivalents for a bull or
+a she-ass. Smaller retail bargains did not demand so many or such
+complicated calculations. Two townsfolk stop for a moment in front of
+a fellah who offers onions and corn in a basket for sale. The first
+appears to possess no other circulating medium than two necklaces
+made of glass beads or many-coloured enamelled terra-cotta; the other
+flourishes about a circular fan with a wooden handle, and one of those
+triangular contrivances used by cooks for blowing up the fire. “Here is
+a fine necklace which will suit you,” cries the former, “it is just what
+you are wanting;” while the other breaks in with: “Here is a fan and a
+ventilator.” The fellah, however, does not let himself be disconcerted
+by this double attack, and proceeding methodically, he takes one of the
+necklaces to examine it at his leisure: “Give it to me to look at,
+that I may fix the price.” The one asks too much, the other offers too
+little; after many concessions, they at last come to an agreement,
+and settle on the number of onions or the quantity of grain which
+corresponds exactly with the value of the necklace or the fan. A little
+further on, a customer wishes to get some perfumes in exchange for a
+pair of sandals, and conscientiously praises his wares: “Here,” says
+he, “is a strong pair of shoes.” But the merchant has no wish to be shod
+just then, and demands a row of cowries for his little pots: “You have
+merely to take a few drops of this to see how delicious it is,” he urges
+in a persuasive tone. A seated customer has two jars thrust under his
+nose by a woman--they probably contain some kind of unguent: “Here is
+something which smells good enough to tempt you.” Behind this group two
+men are discussing the relative merits of a bracelet and a bundle of
+fish-hooks; a woman, with a small box in her hand, is having an argument
+with a merchant selling necklaces; another woman seeks to obtain a
+reduction in the price of a fish which is being scraped in front of her.
+Exchanging commodities for metal necessitated two or three operations
+not required in ordinary barter. The rings or thin bent strips of metal
+which formed the “tabnû” and its multiples,* did not always contain the
+regulation amount of gold or silver, and were often of light weight.
+
+     * The rings of gold in the Museum at Leyden, which were used
+     as a basis of exchange, are made on the Chaldæo-Babylonian
+     pattern, and belong to the Asiatic system.
+
+[Illustration: 118.jpg one of the forms of egyptian scales]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after a sketch by Rosellini
+
+They had to be weighed at every fresh transaction in order to estimate
+their true value, and the interested parties never missed this excellent
+opportunity for a heated discussion: after having declared for a quarter
+of an hour that the scales were out of order, that the weighing had been
+carelessly performed, and that it should be done over again, they at
+last came to terms, exhausted with wrangling, and then went their way
+fairly satisfied with one another.* It sometimes happened that a clever
+and unscrupulous dealer would alloy the rings, and mix with the precious
+metal as much of a baser sort as would be possible without danger of
+detection. The honest merchant who thought he was receiving in payment
+for some article, say eight tabnû of fine gold, and who had handed to
+him eight tabnû of some alloy resembling gold, but containing one-third
+of silver, lost in a single transaction, without suspecting it, almost
+one-third of his goods. The fear of such counterfeits was instrumental
+in restraining the use of tabnû for a long time among the people, and
+restricted the buying and selling in the markets to exchange in natural
+products or manufactured objects.
+
+     * The weighing of rings is often represented on the
+     monuments from the XVIIIth dynasty onwards. I am not
+     acquainted with any instance of this on the bas-reliefs of
+     the Ancient Empire. The giving of false weight is alluded to
+     in the paragraph in the “Negative Confession,” in which the
+     dead man declares that he has not interfered with the beam
+     of the scales (cf. vol. i. p. 271) _civili,_ pl. lii. 1. As
+     to the construction of the Egyptian scales, and the working
+     of their various parts, see Flinders Petrie’s remarks in _A
+     Season in Egypt_, P- 42, and the drawings which he has
+     brought together on pl. xx. of the same work.
+
+
+[Illustration: 118b.jpg SCENES IN A BAZAAR]
+
+We must, perhaps, agree with Fr. Lenormant, in his conclusion that the
+only kind of national metal of exchange in use in Egypt was a copper
+wire or plate bent thus [--]. this being the sign invariably used in the
+hieroglyphics in writing the word _tàbnû_.
+
+The present rural population of Egypt scarcely ever live in isolated
+and scattered farms; they are almost all concentrated in hamlets and
+villages of considerable extent, divided into quarters often at some
+distance from each other. The same state of things existed in ancient
+times, and those who would realize what a village in the past was
+like, have only to visit any one of the modern market towns scattered
+at intervals along the valley of the Nile:--half a dozen fairly built
+houses, inhabited by the principal people of the place; groups of brick
+or clay cottages thatched with durra stalks, so low that a man standing
+upright almost touches the roof with his head; courtyards filled with
+tall circular mud-built sheds, in which the corn and durra for the
+household is carefully stored, and wherever we turn, pigeons, ducks,
+geese, and animals all living higgledly-piggledly with the family. The
+majority of the peasantry were of the lower class, but they were not
+everywhere subjected to the same degree of servitude. The slaves,
+properly so called, came from other countries; they had been bought from
+foreign merchants, or they had been seized in a raid and had lost their
+liberty by the fortune of war.* Their master removed them from place
+to place, sold them, used them as he pleased, pursued them if they
+succeeded in escaping, and had the right of recapturing them as soon as
+he received information of their whereabouts. They worked for him under
+his overseer’s orders, receiving no regular wages, and with no hope of
+recovering their liberty.**
+
+     * The first allusion to prisoners of war brought back to
+     Egypt, is found in the biography of Uni. The method in which
+     they were distributed among the officers and soldiers is
+     indicated in several inscriptions of the New Empire, in that
+     of Ahmosis Pannekhabît, in that of Ahmosis si-Abîna, where
+     one of the inscriptions contains a list of slaves, some of
+     whom are foreigners, in that of Amenemhabi. We may form
+     some idea of the number of slaves in Egypt from the fact
+     that in thirty years Ramses III. presented 113,433 of them
+     to the temples alone. The “Directors of the Royal Slaves,”
+      at all periods, occupied an important position at the court
+     of the Pharaohs.
+
+     ** A scene reproduced by Lepsius shows us, about the time of
+     the VIth dynasty, the harvest gathered by the “royal slaves”
+      in concert with the tenants of the dead man. One of the
+     petty princes defeated by the Ethiopian Piônkhi Miamûn
+     proclaims himself to be “one of the royal slaves who pay
+     tribute in kind to the royal treasury.” Amten repeatedly
+     mentions slaves of this kind, “sûtiû.”
+
+Many chose concubines from their own class, or intermarried with the
+natives and had families: at the end of two or three generations their
+descendants became assimilated with the indigenous race, and were
+neither more nor less than actual serfs attached to the soil, who were
+made over or exchanged with it.* The landed proprietors, lords, kings,
+or gods, accommodated this population either in the outbuildings
+belonging to their residences, or in villages built for the purpose,
+where everything belonged to them, both houses and people.
+
+     * This is the status of serfs, or _mirîtiû,_ as shown in the
+     texts of every period. They are mentioned along with the
+     fields or cattle attached to a temple or belonging to a
+     noble. Ramses II. granted to the temple of Abydos “an
+     appanage in cultivated lands, in serfs (_mirîtiû_), in
+     cattle.” The scribe Anna sees in his tomb “stalls of bulls,
+     of oxen, of calves, of milch cows, as well as serfs, in the
+     mortmain of Amon.” Ptolemy I. returned to the temple at Bûto
+     “the domains, the boroughs, the serfs, the tillage, the
+     water supply, the cattle, the geese, the flocks, all the
+     things” which Xerxes had taken away from Kabbisha. The
+     expression passed into the language, as a word used to
+     express the condition of a subject race: “I cause,” said
+     Thûtmosis III., “Egypt to be a sovereign (_hirît_) to whom
+     all the earth is a slave” (_mirîtû_).
+
+[Illustration: 123.jpg PART OF THE MODERN VILLAGE OF KARNAK, TO THE WEST
+OF THE TEMPLE OF APÎT]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato, taken in 1886.
+
+The condition of the free agricultural labourer was in many respects
+analogous to that of the modern fellah. Some of them possessed no other
+property than a mud cabin, just large enough for a man and his wife,
+and hired themselves out by the day or the year as farm servants. Others
+were emboldened to lease land from the lord or from a soldier in the
+neighbourhood. The most fortunate acquired some domain of which they
+were supposed to receive only the product, the freehold of the property
+remaining primarily in the hands of the Pharaoh, and secondarily in
+that of lay or religious feudatories who held it of the sovereign: they
+could, moreover, bequeath, give, or sell these lands and buy fresh ones
+without any opposition. They paid, besides the capitation tax, a ground
+rent proportionate to the extent of their property, and to the kind of
+land of which it consisted.*
+
+     * The capitation tax, the ground rent, and the house duty of
+     the time of the Ptolemies, already existed under the rule of
+     the native Pharaohs. Brugsch has shown that these taxes are
+     mentioned in an inscription of the time of Ameuôthes III.
+
+It was not without reason that all the ancients attributed the invention
+of geometry to the Egyptians. The perpetual encroachments of the Nile
+and the displacements it occasioned, the facility with which it effaced
+the boundaries of the fields, and in one summer modified the whole face
+of a nome, had forced them from early times to measure with the greatest
+exactitude the ground to which they owed their sustenance. The territory
+belonging to each town and nome was subjected to repeated surveys made
+and co-ordinated by the Royal Administration, thus enabling Pharaoh
+to know the exact area of his estates. The unit of measurement was the
+arura; that is to say, a square of a hundred cubits, comprising in
+round numbers twenty-eight ares.* A considerable staff of scribes and
+surveyors was continually occupied in verifying the old measurements
+or in making fresh ones, and in recording in the State registers any
+changes which might have taken place.** Each estate had its boundaries
+marked out by a line of stelas which frequently bore the name of the
+tenant at the time, and the date when the landmarks were last fixed.***
+
+     * [One “are” equals 100 square metres.--Tr.]
+
+     ** We learn from the expressions employed in the great
+     inscription of Beni-Hasan (11. 13--58, 131-148) that the
+     cadastral survey had existed from the very earliest times;
+     there are references in it to previous surveys. We find a
+     surveying scene on the tomb of Zosirkerîsonbû at Thebes,
+     under the XVIIIth dynasty. Two persons are measuring a field
+     of wheat by means of a cord; a third notes down the result
+     of their work.
+
+     *** The great inscription of Beni-Hasan tells us of the
+     stelæ which bounded the principality of the Gazelle on the
+     North and South, and of those in the plain which marked the
+     northern boundary of the nome of the Jackal; we also possess
+     three other stelo which were used by Amenôthes IV. to
+     indicate the extreme limits of his new city of Khûtniaton.
+     In addition to the above stele, we also know of two others
+     belonging to the XIIth dynasty which marked the boundaries
+     of a private estate, and which are reproduced, one on plate
+     106, the other in the text of _Monuments divers_, p. 30;
+     also the stele of Bûhani under Thûtmosis IV.
+
+[Illustration: 125.jpg a boundary stele]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph given by Mariette,
+     Monuments divers, pl. 47 a. The stele marked the boundary of
+     the estate given to a priest of the Theban Amon by Pharaoh
+     Thûtmosis IV. of the XVIIIth dynasty. The original is now in
+     the Museum at Gizeh.
+
+Once set up, the stele received a name which gave it, as it were, a
+living and independent personality. It sometimes recorded the nature
+of the soil, its situation, or some characteristic which made it
+remarkable--the “Lake of the South,” the “Eastern Meadow,” the “Green
+Island,” the “Fisher’s Pool,” the “Willow Plot,” the “Vineyard,” the
+“Vine Arbour,” the “Sycamore;” sometimes also it bore the name of
+the first master or the Pharaoh under whom it had been erected--the
+“Nurse-Phtahhotpû,” the “Verdure-Kheops,” the “Meadow-Didifrî,” the
+“Abundance-Sahûri,” “Khafri-Great-among-the Doubles.” Once given, the
+name clung to it for centuries, and neither sales, nor redistributions,
+nor revolutions, nor changes of dynasty, could cause it to be forgotten.
+The officers of the survey inscribed it in their books, together with
+the name of the proprietor, those of the owners of adjoining lands,
+and the area and nature of the ground. They noted down, to within a
+few cubits, the extent of the sand, marshland, pools, canals, groups
+of palms, gardens or orchards, vineyards and cornfields,* which it
+contained.
+
+     * See in the great inscription of Beni-Hasan the passage in
+     which are enumerated at full length, in a legal document,
+     the constituent parts of the principality of the Gazelle,
+     “its watercourses, its fields, its trees, its sands, from
+     the river to the mountain of the West” (11. 46-53).
+
+The cornland in its turn was divided into several classes, according to
+whether it was regularly inundated, or situated above the highest rise
+of the water, and consequently dependent on a more or less costly system
+of artificial irrigation. All this was so much information of which the
+scribes took advantage in regulating the assessment of the land-tax.
+
+Everything tends to make us believe that this tax represented one-tenth
+of the gross produce, but the amount of the latter varied. It depended
+on the annual rise of the Nile, and it followed the course of it with
+almost mathematical exactitude: if there were too much or too little
+water, it was immediately lessened, and might even be reduced to nothing
+in extreme cases. The king in his capital and the great lords in their
+fiefs had set up nilo-meters, by means of which, in the critical weeks,
+the height of the rising or subsiding flood was taken daily. Messengers
+carried the news of it over the country: the people, kept regularly
+informed of what was happening, soon knew what kind of season to expect,
+and they could calculate to within very little what they would have to
+pay. In theory, the collecting of the tax was based on the actual amount
+of land covered by the water, and the produce of it was constantly
+varying. In practice it was regulated by taking the average of preceding
+years, and deducting from that a fixed sum, which was never departed
+from except in extraordinary circumstances.*
+
+     * We know that this was so, in so far as the Roman period is
+     concerned, from a passage in the edict of Tiberius
+     Alexander. The practice was such a natural one, that I have
+     no hesitation in tracing it back to the time of the Ancient
+     Empire; repeatedly condemned as a piece of bad
+     administration, it reappeared continually. At Beni-Hasan,
+     the nomarch Amoni boasts that, “when there had been abundant
+     Niles, and the owners of wheat and barley crops had thriven,
+     he had not increased the rate of the land-tax,” which seems
+     to indicate that, so far as he was concerned, he had fixed
+     the tax to pay his dues without difficulty.
+
+[Illustration: 128.jpg THE LEVYING OF THE TAX: THE TAXPAYER IN THE
+SCRIBE’S OFFICE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a picture at Beni-Hasan. This
+     picture and those which follow it represent a census in the
+     principality of the Gazelle under the XIIth dynasty as well
+     as the collection of a tax.
+
+The year would have to be a very bad one before the authorities would
+lower the ordinary rate: the State in ancient times was not more willing
+to deduct anything from its revenue than the modern State would be.*
+
+     * The two decrees of Rosetta and of Canopus, however,
+     mention reductions granted by the Ptolemies after an
+     insufficient rise of the Nile.
+
+The payment of taxes was exacted in wheat, durra, beans, and field
+produce, which were stored in the granaries of the nome. It would seem
+that the previous deduction of one-tenth of the gross amount of the
+harvest could not be a heavy burden, and that the wretched fellah ought
+to have been in a position on land at a permanent figure, based on the
+average of good and bad harvests.
+
+It was not so, however, and the same writers who have given us such a
+lamentable picture of the condition of the workmen in the towns, have
+painted for us in even darker colours the miseries which overwhelmed the
+country people. “Dost thou not recall the picture of the farmer, when
+the tenth of his grain is levied? Worms have destroyed half of the
+wheat, and the hippopotami have eaten the rest; there are swarms of rats
+in the fields, the grasshoppers alight there, the cattle devour, the
+little birds pilfer, and if the farmer lose sight for an instant of
+what remains upon the ground, it is carried off by robbers;* the thongs,
+moreover, which bind the iron and the hoe are worn out, and the team has
+died at the plough. It is then that the scribe steps out of the boat at
+the landing-place to levy the tithe, and there come the keepers of
+the doors of the granary with cudgels and the negroes with ribs of
+palm-leaves, who come crying: ‘Come now, corn!’ There is none, and they
+throw the cultivator full length upon the ground; bound, dragged to the
+canal, they fling him in head first;** his wife is bound with him, his
+children are put into chains; the neighbours, in the mean time, leave
+him and fly to save their grain.”
+
+     * This last danger survives even to the present day. During
+     part of the year the fellahîn spend the night in their
+     fields; if they did not see to it, their neighbours would
+     not hesitate to come and cut their wheat before the harvest,
+     or root up their vegetables while still immature.
+
+     ** The same kind of torture is mentioned in the decree of
+     Harmhabi, in which the lawless soldiery are represented as
+     “running from house to house, dealing blows right and left
+     with their sticks, ducking the fellahîn head downwards in
+     the water, and not leaving one of them with a whole skin.”
+      This treatment was still resorted to in Egypt not long ago,
+     in order to extract money from those taxpayers whom beatings
+     had failed to bring to reason.
+
+One might be tempted to declare that the picture is too dark a one to be
+true, did one not know from other sources of the brutal ways of filling
+the treasury which Egypt has retained even to the present day. In the
+same way as in the town, the stick facilitated the operations of the
+tax-collector in the country: it quickly opened the granaries of the
+rich, it revealed resources to the poor of which he had been ignorant,
+and it only failed in the case of those who had really nothing to give.
+Those who were insolvent were not let off even when they had been more
+than half killed: they and their families were sent to prison, and they
+had to work out in forced labour the amount which they had failed to pay
+in current merchandise.*
+
+     * This is evident from a passage in the _Sallier Papyrus n°
+     I_, quoted above, in which we see the taxpayer in fetters,
+     dragged out to clean the canals, his whole family, wife and
+     children, accompanying him in bonds.
+
+[Illustration: 130.jpg LEVYING THE TAX: THE TAXPAYER IN THE HANDS OF THE
+EXACTORS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a picture on the tomb of Khîti
+     at Beni-Hasan (cf. Champollion, _Monuments de l’Egypte_, pl.
+     cccxc. 4; Rosellini, _Monumenti civili_, pl. cxxiv. b).
+
+The collection of the taxes was usually terminated by a rapid revision
+of the survey. The scribe once more recorded the dimensions and
+character of the domain lands in order to determine afresh the amount
+of the tax which should be imposed upon them. It often happened, indeed,
+that, owing to some freak of the Nile, a tract of ground which had been
+fertile enough the preceding year would be buried under a gravel bed, or
+transformed into a marsh. The owners who thus suffered were allowed an
+equivalent deduction; as for the farmers, no deductions of the burden
+were permitted in their case, but a tract equalling in value that of the
+part they had lost was granted to them out of the royal or seignorial
+domain, and their property was thus made up to its original worth.
+
+[Illustration: 131.jpg LEVYING THE TAX: THE BASTINADO]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a picture on the tomb of Khîti
+     at Beni-Hasan.
+
+What the collection of the taxes had begun was almost always brought
+to a climax by the _corvées_. However numerous the royal and seignorial
+slaves might have been, they were insufficient for the cultivation of
+all the lands of the domains, and a part of Egypt must always have lain
+fallow, had not the number of workers been augmented by the addition of
+those who were in the position of freemen.
+
+This excess of cultivable land was subdivided into portions of equal
+dimensions, which were distributed among the inhabitants of neighbouring
+villages by the officers of a “regent” nominated for that purpose. Those
+dispensed from agricultural service were--the destitute, soldiers on
+service and their families, certain _employés_ of the public works, and
+servitors of the temple;* all other country-folk without exception
+had to submit to it, and one or more portions were allotted to each,
+according to his capabilities.** Orders issued at fixed periods called
+them together, themselves, their servants and their beasts of burden, to
+dig, sow, keep watch in the fields while the harvest was proceeding, to
+cut and carry the crops, the whole work being done at their own expense
+and to the detriment of their own interests.***
+
+     * That the scribes, i.e. the employés of the royal or
+     princely government, were exempt from enforced labour, is
+     manifest from the contrast drawn by the letter-writers of
+     the Sallier and Anastasi Papyri between themselves and the
+     peasants, or persons belonging to other professions who were
+     liable to it. The circular of Dorion defines the classes of
+     soldiers who were either temporarily or permanently exempt
+     under the Greek kings.
+
+     ** Several fragments of the Turin papyri contain memoranda
+     of enforced labour performed on behalf of the temples, and
+     of lists of persons liable to be called on for such labour.
+
+     *** All these details are set forth in the Ptolemaic period,
+     in the letter to Dorion which refers to a royal edict. As
+     Signor Lumbroso has well remarked, the Ptolemies merely
+     copied exactly the misdeeds of the old native governments.
+     Indeed, we come across frequent allusions to the enforced
+     labour of men and beasts in inscriptions of the Middle
+     Empire at Beni-Hasan or at Siût; many of the pictures on the
+     Memphite tombs show bands of such labourers at work in the
+     fields of the great landowners or of the king.
+
+[Illustration: 132.jpg COLLOSAL STATUE OF A KING]
+
+As a sort of indemnity, a few allotments were left uncultivated for
+their benefit; to these they sent their flocks after the subsidence of
+the inundation, for the pasturage on them was so rich that the sheep
+were doubly productive in wool and offspring. This was a mere apology
+for a wage: the forced labour for the irrigation brought them no
+compensation. The dykes which separate the basins, and the network
+of canals for distributing the water and irrigating the land, demand
+continual attention: every year some need strengthening, others
+re-excavating or cleaning out. The men employed in this work pass whole
+days standing in the water, scraping up the mud with both hands in order
+to fill the baskets of platted leaves, which boys and girls lift on to
+their heads and carry to the top of the bank: the semi-liquid contents
+ooze through the basket, trickle over their faces and soon coat their
+bodies with a black shining mess, disgusting even to look at. Sheikhs
+preside over the work, and urge it on with abuse and blows. When the
+gangs of workmen had toiled all day, with only an interval of two hours
+about noon for a siesta and a meagre pittance of food, the poor wretches
+slept on the spot, in the open air, huddled one against another and but
+ill protected by their rags from the chilly nights. The task was so hard
+a one, that malefactors, bankrupts, and prisoners of war were condemned
+to it; it wore out so many hands that the free peasantry were scarcely
+ever exempt. Having returned to their homes, they were not called until
+the next year to any established or periodic _corvée_, but many an
+irregular one came and surprised them in the midst of their work, and
+forced them to abandon all else to attend to the affairs of king or
+lord. Was a new chamber to be added to some neighbouring temple, were
+materials wanted to strengthen or rebuild some piece of wall which had
+been undermined by the inundation, orders were issued to the engineers
+to go and fetch a stated quantity of limestone or sandstone, and the
+peasants were commanded to assemble at the nearest quarry to cut
+the blocks from it, and if needful to ship and convey them to their
+destination. Or perhaps the sovereign had caused a gigantic statue of
+himself to be carved, and a few hundred men were requisitioned to haul
+it to the place where he wished it to be set up. The undertaking ended
+in a gala, and doubtless in a distribution of food and drink: the
+unfortunate creatures who had been got together to execute the work
+could not always have felt fitly compensated for the precious time they
+had lost, by one day of drunkenness and rejoicing.
+
+[Illustration: 136.jpg COLORED SCULPTURES IN THE PALACE]
+
+We may ask if all these corvées were equally legal? Even if some of them
+were illegal, the peasant on whom they fell could not have found the
+means to escape from them, nor could he have demanded legal reparation
+for the injury which they caused him. Justice, in Egypt and in the whole
+Oriental world, necessarily emanates from political authority, and is
+only one branch of the administration amongst others, in the hands
+of the lord and his representatives. Professional magistrates were
+unknown--men brought up to the study of law, whose duty it was to ensure
+the observance of it, apart from any other calling--but the same men
+who commanded armies, offered sacrifices, and assessed or received
+taxes, investigated the disputes of ordinary citizens, or settled the
+differences which arose between them and the representatives of the
+lords or of the Pharaoh. In every town and village, those who held by
+birth or favour the position of governor were ex-officio invested with
+the right of administering justice. For a certain number of days in the
+month, they sat at the gate of the town or of the building which served
+as their residence, and all those in the town or neighbourhood possessed
+of any title, position, or property, the superior priesthood of the
+temples, scribes who had advanced or grown old in office, those
+in command of the militia or the police, the heads of divisions or
+corporations, the “qonbîtiû,” the “people of the angle,” might if
+they thought fit take their place beside them, and help them to decide
+ordinary lawsuits. The police were mostly recruited from foreigners and
+negroes, or Bedouin belonging to the Nubian tribe of the Mâzaiû. The
+litigants appeared at the tribunal, and waited under the superintendence
+of the police until their turn came to speak: the majority of the
+questions were decided in a few minutes by a judgment by which there was
+no appeal; only the more serious cases necessitated a cross-examination
+and prolonged discussion. All else was carried on before this
+patriarchal jury as in our own courts of justice, except that
+the inevitable stick too often elucidated the truth and cut short
+discussions: the depositions of the witnesses, the speeches on both
+sides, the examination of the documents, could not proceed without the
+frequent taking of oaths “by the life of the king” or “by the favour of
+the gods,” in which the truth often suffered severely. Penalties were
+varied somewhat--the bastinado, imprisonment, additional days of work
+for the corvée, and, for grave offences, forced labour in the Ethiopian
+mines, the loss of nose and ears, and finally, death by strangulation,
+by beheading,* by empalement, and at the stake.
+
+     * The only known instance of an execution by hanging is that
+     of Pharaoh’s chief baker, in Gen. xl. 19, 22, xli. 13; but
+     in a tomb at Thebes we see two human victims executed by
+     strangulation. The Egyptian hell contains men who have been
+     decapitated, and the block on which the damned were beheaded
+     is frequently mentioned in the texts.
+
+Criminals of high rank obtained permission to carry out on themselves
+the sentence passed upon them, and thus avoided by suicide the shame of
+public execution. Before tribunals thus constituted, the fellah who came
+to appeal against the exactions of which he was the victim had little
+chance of obtaining a hearing: had not the scribe who had overtaxed him,
+or who had imposed a fresh corvée upon him, the right to appear among
+the Judges to whom he addressed himself? Nothing, indeed, prevented
+him from appealing from the latter to his feudal lord, and from him to
+Pharaoh, but such an appeal would be for him a mere delusion. When he
+had left his village and presented his petition, he had many delays
+to encounter before a solution could be arrived at; and if the adverse
+party were at all in favour at court, or could command any influence,
+the sovereign decision would confirm, even if it did not aggravate, the
+sentence of the previous judges. In the mean while the peasants’
+land remained uncultivated, his wife and children bewailed their
+wretchedness, and the last resources of the family were consumed in
+proceedings and delays: it would have been better for him at the outset
+to have made up his mind to submit without resistance to a fate from
+which he could not escape.
+
+In spite of taxes, requisitions, and forced labour, the fellahîn came
+off fairly well, when the chief to whom they belonged proved a kind
+master, and did not add the exactions of his own personal caprice to
+those of the State. The inscriptions which princes caused to be devoted
+to their own glorification, are so many enthusiastic panegyrics dealing
+only with their uprightness and kindness towards the poor and lowly.
+Every one of them represents himself as faultless: “the staff of support
+to the aged, the foster father of the children, the counsellor of the
+unfortunate, the refuge in which those who suffer from the cold in
+Thebes may warm themselves, the bread of the afflicted which never
+failed in the city of the South.” Their solicitude embraced everybody
+and everything: “I have caused no child of tender age to mourn; I have
+despoiled no widow; I have driven away no tiller of the soil; I have
+taken no workmen away from their foreman for the public works; none
+have been unfortunate about me, nor starving in my time. When years of
+scarcity arose, as I had cultivated all the lands of the nome of the
+Gazelle to its northern and southern boundaries, causing its inhabitants
+to live, and creating provisions, none who were hungry were found there,
+for I gave to the widow as well as to the woman who had a husband, and I
+made no distinction between high and low in all that I gave. If, on the
+contrary, there were high Niles, the possessors of lands became rich in
+all things, for I did not raise the rate of the tax upon the fields.”
+ The canals engrossed all the prince’s attention; he cleaned them out,
+enlarged them, and dug fresh ones, which were the means of bringing
+fertility and plenty into the most remote corners of his property. His
+serfs had a constant supply of clean water at their door, and were no
+longer content with such food as durra; they ate wheaten bread daily.
+His vigilance and severity were such that the brigands dared no longer
+appear within reach of his arm, and his soldiers kept strict discipline:
+“When night fell, whoever slept by the roadside blessed me, and was [in
+safety] as a man in his own house; the fear of my police protected him,
+the cattle remained in the fields as in the stable; the thief was as the
+abomination of the god, and he no more fell upon the vassal, so that the
+latter no more complained, but paid exactly the dues of his domain, for
+love” of the master who had procured for him this freedom from care.
+This theme might be pursued at length, for the composers of epitaphs
+varied it with remarkable cleverness and versatility of imagination. The
+very zeal which they display in describing the lord’s virtues betrays
+how precarious was the condition of his subjects. There was nothing to
+hinder the unjust prince or the prevaricating officer from ruining and
+ill-treating as he chose the people who were under his authority. He
+had only to give an order, and the corvée fell upon the proprietors of a
+village, carried off their slaves and obliged them to leave their lands
+uncultivated; should they declare that they were incapable of paying
+the contributions laid on them, the prison opened for them and their
+families. If a dyke were cut, or the course of a channel altered, the
+nome was deprived of water: prompt and inevitable ruin came upon the
+unfortunate inhabitants, and their property, confiscated by the treasury
+in payment of the tax, passed for a small consideration into the hands
+of the scribe or of the dishonest administrator. Two or three years of
+neglect were almost enough to destroy a system of irrigation: the canals
+became filled with mud, the banks crumbled, the inundation either failed
+to reach the ground, or spread over it too quickly and lay upon it
+too long. Famine soon followed with its attendant sicknesses: men and
+animals died by the hundred, and it was the work of nearly a whole
+generation to restore prosperity to the district.
+
+The lot of the fellah of old was, as we have seen, as hard as that
+of the fellah of to-day. He himself felt the bitterness of it, and
+complained at times, or rather the scribes complained for him, when with
+selfish complacency they contrasted their calling with his. He had to
+toil the whole year round,--digging, sowing, working the shadouf from
+morning to night for weeks, hastening at the first requisition to the
+corvée, paying a heavy and cruel tax,--all without even the certainty
+of enjoying what remained to him in peace, or of seeing his wife and
+children profit by it. So great, however, was the elasticity of his
+temperament that his misery was not sufficient to depress him: those
+monuments upon which his life is portrayed in all its minutias,
+represent him as animated with inexhaustible cheerfulness. The summer
+months ended, the ground again becomes visible, the river retires into
+its bed, the time of sowing is at hand: the peasant takes his team and
+his implements with him and goes off to the fields. In many places, the
+soil, softened by the water, offers no resistance, and the hoe easily
+turns it up; elsewhere it is hard, and only yields to the plough. While
+one of the farm-servants, almost bent double, leans his whole weight
+on the handles to force the ploughshare deep into the soil, his comrade
+drives the oxen and encourages them by his songs: these are only two
+or three short sentences, set to an unvarying chant, and with the time
+beaten on the back of the nearest animal. Now and again he turns round
+towards his comrade and encourages him: “Lean hard!”--“Hold fast!”
+
+[Illustration: 142a.jpg TWO FELLAHÎN WORK THE SHADOUF IN A GARDEN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
+
+The sower follows behind and throws handfuls of grain into the furrow: a
+flock of sheep or goats brings up the rear, and as they walk, they tread
+the seed into the ground. The herdsmen crack their whips and sing some
+country song at the top of their voices,--based on the complaint of some
+fellah seized by the corvée to clean out a canal. “The digger is in the
+water with the fish,--he talks to the silurus, and exchanges greetings
+with the oxyrrhynchus:--West! your digger is a digger from the West!”*
+
+     * The silurus is the electrical fish of the Nile. The text
+     ironically hints that the digger, up to his waist in water,
+     engaged in dredging the dykes or repairing a bank swept away
+     by an inundation, is liable at any moment to salute, i.e. to
+     meet with a silurus or an oxyrrhynchus ready to attack him;
+     he is doomed to death, and this fact the couplet expresses
+     by the words, “West! your digger is a digger from the West.”
+      The West was the region of the tombs; and the digger, owing
+     to the dangers of his calling, was on his way thither.
+
+[Illustration: 142b.jpg CUTTING AND CARRYING THE HARVEST]
+
+All this takes place under the vigilant eye of the master: as soon as
+his attention is relaxed, the work slackens, quarrels arise, and
+the spirit of idleness and theft gains the ascendency. Two men have
+unharnessed their team. One of them quickly milks one of the cows, the
+other holds the animal and impatiently awaits his turn: “Be quick, while
+the farmer is not there.” They run the risk of a beating for a potful
+of milk. The weeks pass, the corn has ripened, the harvest begins. The
+fellahîn, armed with a short sickle, cut or rather saw the stalks, a
+handful at a time. As they advance in line, a flute-player plays them
+captivating tunes, a man joins in with his voice marking the rhythm by
+clapping his hands, the foreman throwing in now and then a few words of
+exhortation: “What lad among you, when the season is over, can say:
+‘It is I who say it, to thee and to my comrades, you are all of you but
+idlers!’--Who among you can say: ‘An active lad for the job am I!’” A
+servant moves among the gang with a tall jar of beer, offering it to
+those who wish for it. “Is it not good!” says he; and the one who drinks
+answers politely: “‘Tis true, the master’s beer is better than a cake
+of durra!” The sheaves once bound, are carried to the singing of fresh
+songs addressed to the donkeys who bear them: “Those who quit the ranks
+will be tied, those who roll on the ground will be beaten,--Geeho!
+then.” And thus threatened, the ass trots forward. Even when a tragic
+element enters the scene, and the bastinado is represented, the
+sculptor, catching the bantering spirit of the people among whom he
+lives, manages to insinuate a vein of comedy. A peasant, summarily
+condemned for some misdeed, lies flat upon the ground with bared back:
+two friends take hold of his arms, and two others his legs, to keep him
+in the proper position. His wife or his son intercedes for him to the
+man with the stick: “For mercy’s sake strike on the ground!” And as a
+fact, the bastinado was commonly rather a mere form of chastisement than
+an actual punishment: the blows, dealt with apparent ferocity, missed
+their aim and fell upon the earth; the culprit howled loudly, but was
+let off with only a few bruises.
+
+An Arab writer of the Middle Ages remarks, not without irony, that the
+Egyptians were perhaps the only people in the world who never kept any
+stores of provisions by them, but each one went daily to the market to
+buy the pittance for his family. The improvidence which he laments
+over in his contemporaries had been handed down from their most remote
+ancestors. Workmen, fellahîn, _employés_, small townsfolk, all lived
+from hand to mouth in the Egypt of the Pharaohs. Pay-days were almost
+everywhere days of rejoicing and extra eating: no one spared either
+the grain, oil, or beer of the treasury, and copious feasting continued
+unsparingly, as long as anything was left of their wages. As their
+resources were almost always exhausted before the day of distribution
+once more came round, beggary succeeded to fulness of living, and a part
+of the population was literally starving for several days. This almost
+constant alternation of abundance and dearth had a reactionary
+influence on daily work: there were scarcely any seignorial workshops or
+undertakings which did not come to a standstill every month on account
+of the exhaustion of the workmen, and help had to be provided for the
+starving in order to avoid popular seditions. Their improvidence,
+like their cheerfulness, was perhaps an innate trait in the national
+character: it was certainly fostered and developed by the system of
+government adopted by Egypt from the earliest times. What incentive was
+there for a man of the people to calculate his resources and to lay up
+for the future, when he knew that his wife, his children, his cattle,
+his goods, all that belonged to him, and himself to boot, might be
+carried off at any moment, without his having the right or the power
+to resent it? He was born, he lived, and he died in the possession of a
+master.
+
+[Illustration: 147.jpg A FLOCK OF GOATS AND THE SONG OF A GOATHERD]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-
+     Bey. The picture is taken from the tomb of Ti.
+
+The lands or houses which his father had left him, were his merely on
+sufferance, and he enjoyed them only by permission of his lord. Those
+which he acquired by his own labour went to swell his master’s domain.
+If he married and had sons, they were but servants for the master from
+the moment they were brought into the world. Whatever he might enjoy
+to-day, would his master allow him possession of it to-morrow? Even life
+in the world beyond did not offer him much more security or liberty:
+he only entered it in his master’s service and to do his bidding; he
+existed in it on tolerance, as he had lived upon this earth, and he
+found there no rest or freedom unless he provided himself abundantly
+with “respondents” and charmed statuettes. He therefore concentrated his
+mind and energies on the present moment, to make the most of it as of
+almost the only thing which belonged to him: he left to his master the
+task of anticipating and providing for the future. In truth, his masters
+were often changed; now the lord of one town, now that of another; now a
+Pharaoh of the Memphite or Theban dynasties, now a stranger installed
+by chance upon the throne of Horns. The condition of the people never
+changed; the burden which crushed them was never lightened, and whatever
+hand happened to hold the stick, it never fell the less heavily upon
+their backs.
+
+[Illustration: 148.jpg TAILPIECE]
+
+
+
+
+Volume II., Part B.
+
+
+_THE MEMPHITE EMPIRE_
+
+_THE ROYAL PYRAMID BUILDERS: KHEOPS, KHEPHREN, MYKERINOS--MEMPHITE
+LITERATURE AND ART--EXTENSION OF EGYPT TOWARDS THE SOUTH, AND THE
+CONQUEST OP NUBIA BY THE PHARAOHS._
+
+_Snofrûi--The desert which separates Africa from Asia: its physical
+configuration, its inhabitants, their incursions into Egypt, and their
+relations with the Egyptians--The peninsula of Sinai: the turquoise
+and copper mines, the mining works of the Pharaohs--The two tombs of
+Snofrûi: the pyramid and the mastabas of Mêdûm, the statues of Bahotpû
+and his wife Nofrît._
+
+_Kheops, Ehephren, and Myherinos--The Great Pyramid: its construction
+and internal arrangements--The pyramids of Khephren and Myherinos; the
+rifling of them--Legend about the royal pyramid builders: the impiety
+of Kheops and Khephren, the piety of Myherinos; the brick pyramid of
+Asychis--The materials employed in building, and the quarries of Turah;
+the plans, the worship of the royal “double;” the Arab legends about
+the guardian genii of the pyramids._
+
+_The kings of the fifth dynasty: Ùsirkaf, Sahûri, Kalciû, and the
+romance about their advent--The relations of the Delta to the peoples
+of the North: the shipping and maritime commerce of the Egyptians--Nubia
+and its tribes: the Ûaûaiû and the Mazaiû, Pûanît, the dwarfs and
+the Danga--Egyptian literature: the Proverbs of Phtahhotpû--The arts:
+architecture, statuary and its chief examples, bas-reliefs, painting,
+industrial art._
+
+_The development of Egyptian feudalism, and the advent of the sixth
+dynasty: Ati, Imhotpâ, Teti--Papi I. and his minister Uni: the affair
+of Queen Amitsi; the wars against the Hirû-Shâîtû and the country of
+Tiba--Metesûphis I. and the second Papi: progress of the Egyptian power
+in Nubia--the lords of Elephantine; Hirkhûf, Papinakhîti: the way
+for conquest prepared by their explorations, the occupation of the
+Oases--The pyramids of Saqqâra: Metesûphis the Second--Nitokris and the
+legend concerning her--Preponderance of the feudal lords, and fall of
+the Memphite dynasty._
+
+
+[Illustration: 151.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--THE MEMPHITE EMPIRE
+
+
+_The royal pyramid builders: Kheops, Khephren, Mykerinos--Memphite
+literature and art--Extension of Egypt towards the South, and the
+conquest of Nubia by the Pharaohs._
+
+
+At that time “the Majesty of King Huni died, and the Majesty of King
+Snofrûi arose to be a sovereign benefactor over this whole earth.” All
+that we know of him is contained in one sentence: he fought against the
+nomads of Sinai, constructed fortresses to protect the eastern frontier
+of the Delta, and made for himself a tomb in the form of a pyramid.
+
+The almost uninhabited country which connects Africa with Asia is
+flanked towards the south by two chains of hills which unite at right
+angles, and together form the so-called Gebel et-Tîh. This country is
+a tableland, gently inclined from south to north, bare, sombre, covered
+with flint-shingle, and siliceous rocks, and breaking out at frequent
+intervals into long low chalky hills, seamed with wadys, the largest
+of which--that of El-Arish--having drained all the others into itself,
+opens into the Mediterranean halfway between Pelusiam and Gaza. Torrents
+of rain are not infrequent in winter and spring, but the small quantity
+of water which they furnish is quickly evaporated, and barely keeps
+alive the meagre vegetation in the bottom of the valleys. Sometimes,
+after months of absolute drought, a tempest breaks over the more
+elevated parts of the desert.*
+
+     * In chap. viii. of the _Account of the Survey_, pp. 226-
+     228, Mr. Holland describes a sudden rainstorm or “sell” on
+     December 3, 1867, which drowned thirty persons, destroyed
+     droves of camels and asses, flocks of sheep and goats, and
+     swept away, in the Wady Feîrân, a thousand palm trees and a
+     grove of tamarisks, two miles in length. Towards 4.30 in the
+     afternoon, a few drops of rain began to fall, but the storm
+     did not break till 5 p.m. At 5.15 it was at its height, and
+     it was not over till 9.30. The torrent, which at 8 p.m. was
+     10 feet deep, and was about 1000 feet in width, was, at 6
+     a.m. the next day, reduced to a small streamlet.
+
+The wind rises suddenly in squall-like blasts; thick clouds, borne one
+knows not whence, are riven by lightning to the incessant accompaniment
+of thunder; it would seem as if the heavens had broken up and were
+crashing down upon the mountains. In a few moments streams of muddy
+water rushing down the ravines, through the gulleys and along the
+slightest depressions, hurry to the low grounds, and meeting there in a
+foaming concourse, follow the fall of the land; a few minutes later,
+and the space between one hillside and the other is occupied by a deep
+river, flowing with terrible velocity and irresistible force. At the end
+of eight or ten hours the air becomes clear, the wind falls, the rain
+ceases; the hastily formed river dwindles, and for lack of supply is
+exhausted; the inundation comes to an end almost as quickly as it began.
+In a short time nothing remains of it but some shallow pools scattered
+in the hollows, or here and there small streamlets which rapidly dry up.
+The flood, however, accelerated by its acquired velocity, continues to
+descend towards the sea. The devastated flanks of the hills, their
+torn and corroded bases, the accumulated masses of shingle left by
+the eddies, the long lines of rocks and sand, mark its route and bear
+evidence everywhere of its power. The inhabitants, taught by experience,
+avoid a sojourn in places where tempests have once occurred. It is in
+vain that the sky is serene above them and the sun shines overhead; they
+always fear that at the moment in which danger seems least likely to
+threaten them, the torrent, taking its origin some twenty leagues off,
+may be on its headlong way to surprise them. And, indeed, it comes so
+suddenly and so violently that nothing in its course can escape it:
+men and beasts, before there is time to fly, often even before they
+are aware of its approach, are swept away and pitilessly destroyed. The
+Egyptians applied to the entire country the characteristic epithet of
+To-Shûît, the land of Emptiness, the land of Aridity.
+
+[Illustration: 154.jpg MAP SINAITIC PENINSULAR, TIME OF MEMPHITE EMPIRE]
+
+They divided it into various districts--the upper and lower Tonû, Aia,
+Kadûma. They called its inhabitants Hirû-Shâîtû, the lords of the Sands;
+Nomiû-Shâîtû, the rovers of the Sands; and they associated them with the
+Amu--that is to say, with a race which we recognize as Semitic. The type
+of these barbarians, indeed, reminds one of the Semitic massive
+head, aquiline nose, retreating forehead, long beard, thick and not
+infrequently crisp hair. They went barefoot, and the monuments represent
+them as girt with a short kilt, though they also wore the _abayah_.
+Their arms were those commonly used by the Egyptians--the bow, lance,
+club, knife, battle-axe, and shield. They possessed great flocks of
+goats or sheep, but the horse and camel were unknown to them, as well as
+to their African neighbours. They lived chiefly upon the milk of their
+flocks, and the fruit of the date-palm. A section of them tilled the
+soil: settled around springs or wells, they managed by industrious
+labour to cultivate moderately sized but fertile fields, flourishing
+orchards, groups of palms, fig and olive trees, and vines. In spite of
+all this their resources were insufficient, and their position would
+have been precarious if they had not been able to supplement their
+stock of provisions from Egypt or Southern Syria. They bartered at the
+frontier markets their honey, wool, gums, manna, and small quantities
+of charcoal, for the products of local manufacture, but especially for
+wheat, or the cereals of which they stood in need. The sight of the
+riches gathered together in the eastern plain, from Tanis to Bubastis,
+excited their pillaging instincts, and awoke in them an irrepressible
+covetousness. The Egyptian annals make mention of their incursions at
+the very commencement of history, and they maintained that even the gods
+had to take steps to protect themselves from them. The Gulf of Suez and
+the mountainous rampart of Gebel Geneffeh in the south, and the marshes
+of Pelusium on the north, protected almost completely the eastern
+boundary of the Delta; but the Wady Tumilât laid open the heart of the
+country to the invaders. The Pharaohs of the divine dynasties in the
+first place, and then those of the human dynasties, had fortified this
+natural opening, some say by a continuous wall, others by a line of
+military posts, flanked on the one side by the waters of the gulf.*
+
+     * The existence of the wall, or of the line of military
+     posts, is of very ancient date, for the name Kîm-Oîrît is
+     already followed by the hieroglyph of the wall, or by that
+     of a fortified enclosure in the texts of the Pyramids.
+
+[Illustration: 156.jpg A BARBARIAN MONÎTI FROM SINAI]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Petrie. The
+     original is of the time of Nectanebo, and is at Karnak; I
+     have chosen it for reproduction in preference to the heads
+     of the time of the Ancient Empire, which are more injured,
+     and of which this is only the traditional copy.
+
+Snofrûi restored or constructed several castles in this district, which
+perpetuated his name for a long time after his death. These had the
+square or rectangular form of the towers, whose ruins are still to
+be seen on the banks of the Nile. Standing night and day upon the
+battlements, the sentinels kept a strict look-out over the desert, ready
+to give alarm at the slightest suspicious movement.
+
+[Illustration: 157.jpg TWO REFUGE TOWERS OF THE HIRÛ-SHÂÎTÛ, IN THE WADY
+BÎAR]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the vignette by E. H. Palmer,
+     _The Desert of the Exodus_, p. 317.
+
+     The expression Kîm-Oîrît, “the very black,” is applied to
+     the northern part of the Red Sea, in contradistinction to
+     Ûaz-Oîrît, Uazît-Oîrît, “the very green,” the
+     Mediterranean; a town, probably built at a short distance
+     from the village of Maghfâr, had taken its name from the
+     gulf on which it was situated, and was also called Kîm-
+     Oîrît.
+
+The marauders took advantage of any inequality in the ground to approach
+unperceived, and they were often successful in getting through the
+lines; they scattered themselves over the country, surprised a village
+or two, bore off such women and children as they could lay their hands
+on, took possession of herds of animals, and, without carrying their
+depredations further, hastened to regain their solitudes before
+information of their exploits could have reached the garrison. If their
+expeditions became numerous, the general of the Eastern Marches, or the
+Pharaoh himself, at the head of a small army, started on a campaign of
+reprisals against them. The marauders did not wait to be attacked, but
+betook themselves to refuges constructed by them beforehand at certain
+points in their territory. They erected here and there, on the crest of
+some steep hill, or at the confluence of several wadys, stone towers put
+together without mortar, and rounded at the top like so many beehives,
+in unequal groups of three, ten, or thirty; here they massed themselves
+as well as they could, and defended the position with the greatest
+obstinacy, in the hope that their assailants, from the lack of water and
+provisions, would soon be forced to retreat.*
+
+     * The members of the English Commission do not hesitate to
+     attribute the construction of these towers to the remotest
+     antiquity; the Bedouin call them “namûs,” plur. “nawamîs,”
+      mosquito-houses, and they say that the children of Israel
+     built them as a shelter during the night from mosquitos at
+     the time of the Exodus. The resemblance of these buildings
+     to the “Talayôt” of the Balearic Isles, and to the Scotch
+     beehive-shaped houses, has struck all travellers.
+
+Elsewhere they possessed fortified “duars,” where not only their
+families but also their herds could find a refuge--circular or oval
+enclosures, surrounded by low walls of massive rough stones crowned by a
+thick rampart made of branches of acacia interlaced with thorny bushes,
+the tents or huts being ranged behind, while in the centre was an empty
+space for the cattle. These primitive fortresses were strong enough to
+overawe nomads; regular troops made short work of them. The Egyptians
+took them by assault, overturned them, cut down the fruit trees, burned
+the crops, and retreated in security, after having destroyed everything
+in their march. Each of their campaigns, which hardly lasted more than a
+few days, secured the tranquillity of the frontier for some years.*
+
+     * The inscription of Uni (11. 22-32) furnishes us with the
+     invariable type of the Egyptian campaigns against the Hirû-
+     Shâîtû: the bas-reliefs of Karnak might serve to illustrate
+     it, as they represent the great raid led by Seti I. into the
+     territory of the Shaûsûs and their allies, between the
+     frontier of Egypt and the town of Hebron.
+
+[Illustration: 159.jpg VIEW OF THE OASIS OF WADY FEÎKÂN IN THE PENINSULA
+OF SINAI]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the water-colour drawing published by
+     Lepsius, _Denhn._, i. 7, No. 2.
+
+To the south of Gebel et-Tîh, and cut off from it almost completely by a
+moat of wadys, a triangular group of mountains known as Sinai thrusts a
+wedge-shaped spur into the Red Sea, forcing back its waters to the right
+and left into two narrow gulfs, that of Akabah and that of Suez. Gebel
+Katherin stands up from the centre and overlooks the whole peninsula. A
+sinuous chain detaches itself from it and ends at Gebel Serbâl, at
+some distance to the northwest; another trends to the south, and after
+attaining in Gebel Umm-Shomer an elevation equal to that of Gebel
+Katherin, gradually diminishes in height, and plunges into the sea at
+Ras-Mohammed. A complicated system of gorges and valleys--Wady Nasb,
+Wady Kidd, Wady Hebrân, Wady Baba--furrows the country and holds it as
+in a network of unequal meshes. Wady Feîrân contains the most fertile
+oasis in the peninsula. A never-failing stream waters it for about two
+or three miles of its length; quite a little forest of palms enlivens
+both banks--somewhat meagre and thin, it is true, but intermingled with
+acacias, tamarisks, nabecas, carob trees, and willows. Birds sing amid
+their branches, sheep wander in the pastures, while the huts of the
+inhabitants peep out at intervals from among the trees. Valleys and
+plains, even in some places the slopes of the hills, are sparsely
+covered with those delicate aromatic herbs which affect a stony soil.
+Their life is a perpetual struggle against the sun: scorched, dried up,
+to all appearance dead, and so friable that they crumble to pieces in
+the fingers when one attempts to gather them, the spring rains annually
+infuse into them new life, and bestow upon them, almost before one’s
+eyes, a green and perfumed youth of some days’ duration. The summits of
+the hills remain always naked, and no vegetation softens the ruggedness
+of their outlines, or the glare of their colouring. The core of the
+peninsula is hewn, as it were, out of a block of granite, in which
+white, rose-colour, brown, or black predominate, according to the
+quantities of felspar, quartz, or oxides of iron which the rocks
+contain. Towards the north, the masses of sandstone which join on to
+Gebel et-Tîh assume all possible shades of red and grey, from a delicate
+lilac neutral tint to dark purple. The tones of colour, although placed
+crudely side by side, present nothing jarring nor offensive to the eye;
+the sun floods all, and blends them in his light. The Sinaitic peninsula
+is at intervals swept, like the desert to the east of Egypt, by terrible
+tempests, which denude its mountains and transform its wadys into so
+many ephemeral torrents. The Monîtû who frequented this region from the
+dawn of history did not differ much from the “Lords of the Sands;” they
+were of the same type, had the same costume, the same arms, the same
+nomadic instincts, and in districts where the soil permitted it, made
+similar brief efforts to cultivate it. They worshipped a god and a
+goddess whom the Egyptians identified with Horus and Hâthor; one of
+these appeared to represent the light, perhaps the sun, the other the
+heavens. They had discovered at an early period in the sides of the
+hills rich metalliferous veins, and strata, bearing precious stones;
+from these they learned to extract iron, oxides of copper and manganese,
+and turquoises, which they exported to the Delta. The fame of their
+riches, carried to the banks of the Nile, excited the cupidity of the
+Pharaohs; expeditions started from different points of the valley, swept
+down upon the peninsula, and established themselves by main force in the
+midst of the districts where the mines lay. These were situated to the
+north-west, in the region of sandstone, between the western branch
+of Gebel et-Tîh and the Gulf of Suez. They were collectively called
+Mafkaît, the country of turquoises, a fact which accounts for the
+application of the local epithet, lady of Mafkaît, to Hâthor. The
+earliest district explored, that which the Egyptians first attacked, was
+separated from the coast by a narrow plain and a single range of hills:
+the produce of the mines could be thence transported to the sea in a
+few hours without difficulty. Pharaoh’s labourers called this region the
+district of Baîfc, the mine _par excellence_, or of Bebît, the country
+of grottoes, from the numerous tunnels which their predecessors had made
+there: the name Wady Maghara, Valley of the Cavern, by which the site
+is now designated, is simply an Arabic translation of the old Egyptian
+word.
+
+The Monîtû did not accept this usurpation of their rights without a
+struggle, and the Egyptians who came to work among them had either to
+purchase their forbearance by a tribute, or to hold themselves always in
+readiness to repulse the assaults of the Monîtû by force of arms. Zosiri
+had already taken steps to ensure the safety of the turquoise-seekers
+at their work; Snofrûi was not, therefore, the first Pharaoh who passed
+that way, but none of his predecessors had left so many traces of his
+presence as he did in this out-of-the-way corner of the empire. There
+may still be seen, on the north-west slope of the Wady Maghara, the
+bas-relief which one of his lieutenants engraved there in memory of a
+victory gained over the Monîtû. A Bedouin sheikh fallen on his knees
+prays for mercy with suppliant gesture, but Pharaoh has already seized
+him by his long hair, and brandishes above his head a white stone mace
+to fell him with a single blow.
+
+[Illustration: 163.jpg THE MINING WORKS OF WADY MAGHARA]
+
+     Plan made by Thuillier, from the sketch by Brugscii,
+     _Wanderung nach den Tiirhis Minen_, p. 70.
+
+The workmen, partly recruited from the country itself, partly despatched
+from the banks of the Nile, dwelt in an entrenched camp upon an isolated
+peak at the confluence of Wady Genneh and Wady Maghara. A zigzag pathway
+on its smoothest slope ends, about seventeen feet below the summit, at
+the extremity of a small and slightly inclined tableland, upon which are
+found the ruins of a large village; this is the High Castle--Hâît-Qaît
+of the ancient inscriptions. Two hundred habitations can still be made
+out here, some round, some rectangular, constructed of sandstone blocks
+without mortar, and not larger than the huts of the fellahîn: in former
+times a flat roof of wicker-work and puddled clay extended over each.
+The entrance was not so much a door as a narrow opening, through which
+a fat man would find it difficult to pass; the interior consisted of
+a single chamber, except in the case of the chief of the works, whose
+dwelling contained two.
+
+[Illustration: 164.jpg THE HIGH CASTLE OF THE MINERS--HAÎT-QAÎT--AT THE
+CONFLUENCE OF WADY GENNEH AND WADY MAGHARA]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph published in the
+     Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai, Photographs, vol.
+     ii. pls. 59, 60.
+
+A rough stone bench from two to two and a half feet high surrounds the
+plateau on which the village stands; a _cheval défrise_ made of thorny
+brushwood probably completed the defence, as in the _duars_ of the
+desert. The position was very strong and easily defended. Watchmen
+scattered over the neighbouring summits kept an outlook over the distant
+plain and the defiles of the mountains. Whenever the cries of these
+sentinels announced the approach of the foe, the workmen immediately
+deserted the mine and took refuge in their citadel, which a handful of
+resolute men could successfully hold, as long as hunger and thirst did
+not enter into the question. As the ordinary springs and wells would
+not have been sufficient to supply the needs of the colony, they had
+transformed the bottom of the valley into an artificial lake. A dam
+thrown across it prevented the escape of the waters, which filled the
+reservoir more or less completely according to the season. It never
+became empty, and several species of shellfish flourished in it--among
+others, a kind of large mussel which the inhabitants generally used as
+food, which with dates, milk, oil, coarse bread, a few vegetables, and
+from time to time a fowl or a joint of meat, made up their scanty fare.
+Other things were of the same primitive character. The tools found in
+the village are all of flint: knives, scrapers, saws, hammers, and heads
+of lances and arrows. A few vases brought from Egypt are distinguished
+by the fineness of the material and the purity of the design; but the
+pottery in common use was made on the spot from coarse clay without
+care, and regardless of beauty. As for jewellery, the villagers had
+beads of glass or blue enamel, and necklaces of strung cowrie-shells.
+In the mines, as in their own houses, the workmen employed stone tools
+only, with handles of wood, or of plaited willow twigs, but their
+chisels or hammers were more than sufficient to cut the yellow
+sandstone, coarse-grained and very friable as it was, in the midst of
+which they worked.*
+
+     * E. H. Palmer, however, from his observations, is of
+     opinion that the work in the tunnels of the mines was
+     executed entirely by means of bronze chisels and tools; the
+     flint implements serving only to incise the scenes which
+     cover the surfaces of the rocks.
+
+The tunnels running straight into the mountain were low and wide, and
+were supported at intervals by pillars of sandstone left _in situ_.
+These tunnels led into chambers of various sizes, whence they followed
+the lead of the veins of precious mineral. The turquoise sparkled on
+every side--on the ceiling and on the walls--and the miners, profiting
+by the slightest fissures, cut round it, and then with forcible blows
+detached the blocks, and reduced them to small fragments, which they
+crushed, and carefully sifted so as not to lose a particle of the gem.
+The oxides of copper and of manganese which they met with here and
+elsewhere in moderate quantities, were used in the manufacture of those
+beautiful blue enamels of various shades which the Egyptians esteemed
+so highly. The few hundreds of men of which the permanent population was
+composed, provided for the daily exigencies of industry and commerce.
+Royal inspectors arrived from time to time to examine into their
+condition, to rekindle their zeal, and to collect the product of their
+toil. When Pharaoh had need of a greater quantity than usual of minerals
+or turquoises, he sent thither one of his officers, with a select body
+of carriers, mining experts, and stone-dressers. Sometimes as many
+as two or three thousand men poured suddenly into the peninsula, and
+remained there one or two months; the work went briskly forward, and
+advantage was taken of the occasion to extract and transport to Egypt
+beautiful blocks of diorite, serpentine or granite, to be afterwards
+manufactured there into sarcophagi or statues. Engraved stelæ, to be
+seen on the sides of the mountains, recorded the names of the principal
+chiefs, the different bodies of handicraftsmen who had participated in
+the campaign, the name of the sovereign who had ordered it and often the
+year of his reign.
+
+It was not one tomb only which Snofrui had caused to be built, but two.
+He called them “Khâ,” the Rising, the place where the dead Pharaoh,
+identified with the sun, is raised above the world for ever. One of
+these was probably situated near Dahshur; the other, the “Khâ rîsi,” the
+Southern Rising, appears to be identical with the monument of Mêdûm.
+
+[Illustration: 167.jpg THE PYRAMID OF MÊDÛM]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the plans of Flinders Petrie,
+     _Medum_, pl. ii.
+
+The pyramid, like the mastaba,* represents a tumulus with four sides,
+in which the earthwork is replaced by a structure of stone or brick. It
+indicates the place in which lies a prince, chief, or person of rank in
+his tribe or province. It was built on a base of varying area, and was
+raised to a greater or less elevation according to the fortune of the
+deceased or of his family.**
+
+     * No satisfactory etymon for the word _pyramid_, has as yet
+     been proposed: the least far-fetched is that put forward by
+     Cantor-Eisenlohr, according to which _pyramid_ is the Greek
+     form, irupauç, of the compound term “piri-m-ûisi,” which in
+     Egyptian mathematical phraseology designates the _salient
+     angle_, the ridge or height of the pyramid.
+
+     ** The brick pyramids of Abydos were all built for private
+     persons. The word “mirit,” which designates a pyramid in
+     the texts, is elsewhere applied to the tombs of nobles and
+     commoners as well as to those of kings.
+
+The fashion of burying in a pyramid was not adopted in the environs of
+Memphis until tolerably late times, and the Pharaohs of the primitive
+dynasties were interred, as their subjects were, in sepulchral chambers
+of mastabas. Zosiri was the only exception, if the step-pyramid of
+Saqqâra, as is probable, served for his tomb.*
+
+     * It is difficult to admit that a pyramid of considerable
+     dimensions could have disappeared without leaving any traces
+     behind, especially when we see the enormous masses of
+     masonry which still mark the sites of those which have been
+     most injured; besides, the inscriptions connect none of the
+     predecessors of Snofrûi with a pyramid, unless it be Zosiri.
+     The step-pyramid of Saqqâra, which is attributed to the
+     latter, belongs to the same type as that of Mêdûm; so does
+     also the pyramid of Rigah, whose occupant is unknown. If we
+     admit that this last-mentioned pyramid served as a tomb to
+     some intermediate Pharaoh between Zosiri and Snofrûi--for
+     instance, Hûni--the use of pyramids would be merely
+     exceptional for sovereigns anterior to the IVth dynasty.
+
+The motive which determined Snofrûi’s choice of Mêdûm as a site, is
+unknown to us: perhaps he dwelt in that city of Heracleopolis, which in
+course of time frequently became the favourite residence of the kings;
+perhaps he improvised for himself a city in the plain between El-Wastah
+and Kafr el-Ayat. His pyramid, at the present time, is composed of three
+large unequal cubes with slightly inclined sides, arranged in steps one
+above the other. Some centuries ago five could be still determined, and
+in ancient times, before ruin had set in, as many as seven. Each block
+marked a progressive increase of the total mass, and bad its external
+face polished--a fact which we can still determine by examining the
+slabs one behind another; a facing of large blocks, of which many of the
+courses still exist towards the base, covered the whole, at one angle
+from the apex to the foot, and brought it into conformity with the type
+of the classic pyramid. The passage had its orifice in the middle of the
+north face about sixty feèt above the ground: it is five feet high, and
+dips at a tolerably steep angle through the solid masonry. At a depth of
+a hundred and ninety-seven feet it becomes level, without increasing
+in aperture, runs for forty feet on this plane, traversing two low and
+narrow chambers, then making a sharp turn it ascends perpendicularly
+until it reaches the floor of the vault. The latter is hewn out of the
+mountain rock, and is small, rough, and devoid of ornament: the ceiling
+appears to be in three heavy horizontal courses of masonry, which
+project one beyond the other corbel-wise, and give the impression of a
+sort of acutely pointed arch. Snofrûi slept there for ages; then robbers
+found a way to him, despoiled and broke up his mummy, scattered the
+fragments of his coffin upon the ground, and carried off the stone
+sarcophagus. The apparatus of beams and cords of which they made use for
+the descent, hung in their place above the mouth of the shaft until ten
+years ago. The rifling of the tomb took place at a remote date, for from
+the XXth dynasty onwards the curious were accustomed to penetrate into
+the passage: two scribes have scrawled their names in ink on the back
+of the framework in which the stone cover was originally inserted.
+The sepulchral chapel was built a little in front of the east face; it
+consisted of two small-sized rooms with bare surfaces, a court whose
+walls abutted on the pyramid, and in the court, facing the door,
+a massive table of offerings flanked by two large stelo without
+inscriptions, as if the death of the king had put a stop to the
+decoration before the period determined on by the architects. It was
+still accessible to any one during the XVIIIth dynasty, and people came
+there to render homage to the memory of Snofrûi or his wife Mirisônkhû.
+Visitors recorded in ink on the walls their enthusiastic, but
+stereotyped impressions: they compared the “Castle of Snofrûi” with the
+firmament, “when the sun arises in it; the heaven rains incense there
+and pours out perfumes on the roof.” Ramses II., who had little respect
+for the works of his predecessors, demolished a part of the pyramid in
+order to procure cheaply the materials necessary for the buildings which
+he restored to Heracleopolis. His workmen threw down the waste stone
+and mortar beneath the place where they were working, without troubling
+themselves as to what might be beneath; the court became choked up,
+the sand borne by the wind gradually invaded the chambers, the chapel
+disappeared, and remained buried for more than three thousand years.
+
+The officers of Snofrûi, his servants, and the people of his city
+wished, according to custom, to rest beside him, and thus to form a
+court for him in the other world as they had done in this. The menials
+were buried in roughly made trenches, frequently in the ground merely,
+without coffins or sarcophagi. The body was not laid out its whole
+length on its back in the attitude of repose: it more frequently rested
+on its left side, the head to the north, the face to the east, the legs
+bent, the right arm brought up against the breast, the left following
+the outline of the chest and legs.*
+
+     * W. Fl. Petrie, _Medum_, pp. 21, 22. Many of these mummies
+     were mutilated, some lacking a leg, others an arm or a hand;
+     these were probably workmen who had fallen victims to an
+     accident during the building of the pyramid. In the majority
+     of cases the detached limb had been carefully placed with
+     the body, doubtless in order that the double might find it
+     in the other world, and complete himself when he pleased for
+     the exigencies of his new existence.
+
+The people who were interred in a posture so different from that with
+which we are familiar in the case of ordinary mummies, belonged to
+a foreign race, who had retained in the treatment of their dead the
+customs of their native country.
+
+[Illustration: 171.jpg THE COURT AND THE TWO STELÆ OF THE CHAPEL
+ADJOINING THE PYRAMID OF MÊDÛM]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Fl. Petrie, _Ten
+     Years’ Digging in Egypt_, p. 141.
+
+The Pharaohs often peopled their royal cities with prisoners of war,
+captured on the field of battle, or picked up in an expedition through
+an enemy’s country. Snofrûi peopled his city with men from the Libyan
+tribes living on the borders of the Western desert or Monîtû captives.*
+
+     * Petrie thinks that the people who were interred in a
+     contracted position belonged to the aboriginal race of the
+     valley, reduced to a condition of servitude by a race who
+     had come from Asia, and who had established the kingdom of
+     Egypt. The latter were represented by the mummies disposed
+     at full length (_Medum_, p. 21).
+
+The body having been placed in the grave, the relatives who had taken
+part in the mourning heaped together in a neighbouring hole the funerary
+furniture, flint implements, copper needles, miniature pots and pans
+made of rough and badly burned clay, bread, dates, and eatables in
+dishes wrapped up in linen. The nobles ranged their mastabas in a single
+line to the north of the pyramid; these form fine-looking masses of
+considerable size, but they are for the most part unfinished and empty.
+Snofrûi having disappeared from the scene, Kheops who succeeded him
+forsook the place, and his courtiers, abandoning their unfinished tombs,
+went off to construct for themselves others around that of the new king.
+We rarely find at Mêdûm finished and occupied sepulchres except that of
+individuals who had died before or shortly after Snofrûi. The mummy of
+Eânofir, found in one of them, shows how far the Egyptians had carried
+the art of embalming at this period. His body, though much shrunken,
+is well preserved: it had been clothed in some fine stuff, then covered
+over with a layer of resin, which a clever sculptor had modelled in such
+a manner as to present an image resembling the deceased; it was then
+rolled in three or four folds of thin and almost transparent gauze.
+
+Of these tombs the most important belonged to the Prince Nofirmâît
+and his wife Atiti: it is decorated with bas-reliefs of a peculiar
+composition; the figures have been cut in outline in the limestone, and
+the hollows thus made are filled in with a mosaic of tinted pastes which
+show the moulding and colour of the parts. Everywhere else the ordinary
+methods of sculpture have been employed, the bas-reliefs being enhanced
+by brilliant colouring in a simple and delicate manner.
+
+[Illustration: 173.jpg NOFKÎT, LADY OF MÊDÛM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken by Éinil Brugsch-
+     Bey.
+
+The figures of men and animals are portrayed with a vivacity of manner
+which is astonishing; and the other objects, even the hieroglyphs, are
+rendered with an accuracy which does not neglect the smallest detail.
+The statues of Eâhotpû and of the lady Nofrît, discovered in a
+half-ruined mastaba, have fortunately reached us without having suffered
+the least damage, almost without losing anything of their original
+freshness; they are to be seen in the Gîzeh Museum just as they were
+when they left the hands of the workman. Eâhotpû was the son of a king,
+perhaps of Snofrûi: but in spite of his high origin, I find something
+humble and retiring in his physiognomy. Nofrît, on the contrary, has
+an imposing appearance: an indescribable air of resolution and command
+invests her whole person, and the sculptor has cleverly given expression
+to it. She is represented in a robe with a pointed opening in the front:
+the shoulders, the bosom, the waist, and hips, are shown under the
+material of the dress with a purity and delicate grace which one does
+not always find in more modern works of art. The wig, secured on the
+forehead by a richly embroidered band, frames with its somewhat heavy
+masses the firm and rather plump face: the eyes are living, the nostrils
+breathe, the mouth smiles and is about to speak. The art of Egypt has at
+times been as fully inspired; it has never been more so than on the day
+in which it produced the statue of Nofrît.
+
+The worship of Snofrûi was perpetuated from century to century.
+After the fall of the Memphite empire it passed through periods of
+intermittence, during which it ceased to be observed, or was observed
+only in an irregular way; it reappeared under the Ptolemies for the last
+time before becoming extinct for ever. Snofrûi was probably, therefore,
+one of the most popular kings of the good old times; but his fame,
+however great it may have been among the Egyptians, has been eclipsed in
+our eyes by that of the Pharaohs who immediately followed him--Kheops,
+Khephren, and Mykerinos. Not that we are really better acquainted with
+their history. All we know of them is made up of two or three series
+of facts, always the same, which the contemporaneous monuments teach us
+concerning these rulers. Khnûmû-Khûfûi,* abbreviated into Khûfûi, the
+Kheops** of the Greeks, was probably the son of Snofrûi.***
+
+     * The existence of the two cartouches Khûfûi and Khnûmû-
+     Khûfûi on the same monuments has caused much embarrassment
+     to Egyptologists: the majority have been inclined to see
+     here two different kings, the second of whom, according to
+     M. Robiou, would have been the person who bore the pre-nomen
+     of Dadûfri. Khnûmû-Khûfûi signifies “the god Khnûmû protects
+     me.”
+
+     ** Kheops is the usual form, borrowed from the account of
+     Herodotus; Diodorus writes Khembes or Khemmes, Eratosthenes
+     Saôphis, and Manetho Souphis.
+
+     *** The story in the “Westcar” papyrus speaks of Snofrûi as
+     father of Khûfûi; but this is a title of honour, and proves
+     nothing. The few records which we have of this period give
+     one, however, the impression that Kheops was the son of
+     Snofrûi, and, in spite of the hesitation of de Rougé, this
+     affiliation is adopted by the majority of modern historians.
+
+[175.jpg alabaster statue of kheops]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey.
+
+He reigned twenty-three years, and successfully defended the mines of
+the Sinaitic peninsula against the Bedouin; he may still be seen on the
+face of the rocks in the Wady Maghara sacrificing his Asiatic prisoners,
+now before the jackal Anubis, now before the ibis-headed Thot. The gods
+reaped advantage from his activity and riches; he restored the temple
+of Hâ-thor at Den-dera, embellished that of Bubastis, built a stone
+sanctuary to the Isis of the Sphinx, and consecrated there gold, silver,
+bronze, and wooden statues of Horus, Nephthys, Selkît, Phtah, Sokhît,
+Osiris, Thot, and Hâpis. Scores of other Pharaohs had done as much or
+more, on whom no one bestowed a thought a century after their death, and
+Kheops would have succumbed to the same indifference had he not forcibly
+attracted the continuous attention of posterity by the immensity of his
+tomb.*
+
+     * All the details relating to the Isis of the Sphinx are
+     furnished by a stele of the daughter of Kheops, discovered
+     in the little temple of the XXIst dynasty, situated to the
+     west of the Great Pyramid, and preserved in the Gîzeh
+     Museum. It was not a work entirely of the XXIst dynasty, as
+     Mr. Petrie asserts, but the inscription, barely readable,
+     engraved on the face of the plinth, indicates that it was
+     remade by a king of the Saïte period, perhaps by Sabaco, in
+     order to replace an ancient stele of the same import which
+     had fallen into decay.
+
+[Illustration: 176.jpg THE TRIUMPHAL BAS-RELIEFS OF KHEOPS ON THE ROCKS
+OF WADY MAGHARA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph published in the
+     _Ordnance Survey, Photographs_, vol. iii. pl. 5. On the left
+     stands the Pharaoh, and knocks down a Monîti before the
+     Ibis-headed Thot; upon the right the picture is destroyed,
+     and we see the royal titles only, without figures. The
+     statue bears no cartouche, and considerations purely
+     artistic cause me to attribute it to Kheops: it may equally
+     well represent Dadûfrî, the successor of Kheops, or
+     Shopsiskaf, who followed Mykerinos.
+
+[Illustration: 176b.jpg PROFILE OF HEAD OF A MUMMY, (A MAN) THEBES]
+
+[Illustration: 177.jpg PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH]
+
+The Egyptians of the Theban period were compelled to form their opinions
+of the Pharaohs of the Memphite dynasties in the same way as we do, less
+by the positive evidence of their acts than by the size and number
+of their monuments: they measured the magnificence of Kheops by the
+dimensions of his pyramid, and all nations having followed this example,
+Kheops has continued to be one of the three or four names of former
+times which sound familiar to our ears. The hills of Gîzeh in his time
+terminated in a bare wind-swept table-land. A few solitary mastabas were
+scattered here and there on its surface, similar to those whose ruins
+still crown the hill of Dahshur.* The Sphinx, buried even in ancient
+times to its shoulders, raised its head half-way down the eastern slope,
+at its southern angle;** beside him*** the temple of Osiris, lord of the
+Necropolis, was fast disappearing under the sand; and still further back
+old abandoned tombs honey-combed the rock.****
+
+     * No one has noticed, I believe, that several of the
+     mastabas constructed under Kheops, around the pyramid,
+     contain in the masonry fragments of stone belonging to some
+     more ancient structures. Those which I saw bore carvings of
+     the same style as those on the beautiful mastabas of
+     Dahshur.
+
+     ** The stele of the Sphinx bears, on line 13, the cartouche
+     of Khephren in the middle of a blank. We have here, I
+     believe, an indication of the clearing of the Sphinx
+     effected under this prince, consequently an almost certain
+     proof that the Sphinx was already buried in sand in the time
+     of Kheops and his predecessors.
+
+     *** Mariette identifies the temple which he discovered to
+     the south of the Sphinx with that of Osiris, lord of the
+     Necropolis, which is mentioned in the inscription of the
+     daughter of Kheops. This temple is so placed that it must
+     have been sanded up at the same time as the Sphinx; I
+     believe, therefore, that the restoration effected by Kheops,
+     according to the inscription, was merely a clearing away of
+     the sand from the Sphinx analogous to that accomplished by
+     Khephren.
+
+     **** These sepulchral chambers are not decorated in the
+     majority of instances. The careful scrutiny to which I
+     subjected them in 1885-86 causes me to believe that many of
+     them must be almost contemporaneous with the Sphinx; that is
+     to say, that they had been hollowed out and occupied a
+     considerable time before the period of the IVth dynasty.
+
+Kheops chose a site for his Pyramid on the northern edge of the plateau,
+whence a view of the city of the White Wall, and at the same time of the
+holy city of Heliopolis, could be obtained.
+
+[Illustration: 179.jpg KHÛÎT, THE GREAT PYRAMID OF GÎZEH, THE SPHINX,
+AND THE TEMPLE OF THE SPHINX]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey. The
+     temple of the Sphinx is in the foreground, covered with sand
+     up to the top of the walls. The second of the little
+     pyramids below the large one is that whose construction is
+     attributed to Honîtsonû, the daughter of Kheops, and with
+     regard to which the dragomans of the Saite period told such
+     strange stories to Herodotus.
+
+A small mound which commanded this prospect was roughly squared, and
+incorporated into the masonry; the rest of the site was levelled to
+receive the first course of stones. The pyramid when completed had a
+height of 476 feet on a base 764 feet square; but the decaying influence
+of time has reduced these dimensions to 450 and 730 feet respectively.
+It possessed, up to the Arab conquest, its polished facing, coloured
+by age, and so subtily jointed that one would have said that it was a
+single slab from top to bottom.* The work of facing the pyramid began
+at the top; that of the point was first placed in position, then the
+courses were successively covered until the bottom was reached.**
+
+     * The blocks which still exist are of white limestone.
+     Letronne, after having asserted in his youth (Recherches sur
+     Dicuil, p. 107), on the authority of a fragment attributed
+     to Philo of Byzantium, that the facing was formed of
+     polychromatic zones of granite, of green breccia and other
+     different kinds of stone, renounced this view owing to the
+     evidence of Vyse. Perrot and Chipiez have revived it, with
+     some hesitation.
+
+     ** Herodotus, ii. 125, the word “point” should not be taken
+     literally. The Great Pyramid terminated, like its neighbour,
+     in a platform, of which each side measured nine English feet
+     (six cubits, according to Diodorus Siculus, i. 63), and
+     which has become larger in the process of time, especially
+     since the destruction of the facing. The summit viewed from
+     below must have appeared as a sharp point. “Having regard
+     to the size of the monument, a platform of three metres
+     square would have been a more pointed extremity than that
+     which terminates the obelisks” (Letronne).
+
+In the interior every device had been employed to conceal the exact
+position of the sarcophagus, and to discourage the excavators whom
+chance or persistent search might have put upon the right track. Their
+first difficulty would be to discover the entrance under the limestone
+casing. It lay hidden almost in the middle of the northern face, on
+the level of the eighteenth course, at about forty-five feet above the
+ground. A movable flagstone, working on a stone pivot, disguised it so
+effectively that no one except the priests and custodians could have
+distinguished this stone from its neighbours. When it was tilted up, a
+yawning passage was revealed,* three and a half feet in height, with a
+breadth of four feet.
+
+     * Strabo expressly states that in his time the subterranean
+     parts of the Great Pyramid were accessible: “It has on its
+     side, at a moderate elevation, a stone which can be moved,
+     [--Greek phrase--]”. “When it has been lifted up, a tortuous
+     passage is seen which leads to the tomb.” The meaning of
+     Strabo’s statement had not been mastered until Mr. Petrie
+     showed, what we may still see, at the entrance of one of the
+     pyramids of Dahshur, arrangements which bore witness to the
+     existence of a movable stone mounted on a pivot to serve as
+     a door. It was a method of closing of the same kind as that
+     described by Strabo, perhaps after he had seen it himself,
+     or had heard of it from the guides, and like that which Mr.
+     Petrie had reinstated, with much probability, at the
+     entrance of the Great Pyramid.
+
+[Illustration: 181a.jpg THE MOVABLE FLAGSTONE AT THE entrance to the
+great pyramid]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Petrie’s The Pyramids and
+     Temples of Gîzeh, pl. xi.
+
+The passage is an inclined plane, extending partly through the masonry
+and partly through the solid rock for a distance of 318 feet; it passes
+through an unfinished chamber and ends in a _cul-de-sac_ 59 feet
+further on. The blocks are so nicely adjusted, and the surface so finely
+polished, that the joints can be determined only with difficulty. The
+corridor which leads to the sepulchral chamber meets the roof at an
+angle of 120° to the descending passage, and at a distance of 62 feet
+from the entrance. It ascends for 108 feet to a wide landing-place,
+where it divides into two branches. One of these penetrates straight
+towards the centre, and terminates in a granite chamber with a
+high-pitched roof. This is called, but without reason, the “Chamber
+of the Queen.” The other passage continues to ascend, but its form and
+appearance are altered. It now becomes a gallery 148 feet long and some
+28 feet high, constructed of beautiful Mokattam stone. The lower courses
+are placed perpendicularly one on the top of the other; each of the
+upper courses projects above the one beneath, and the last two, which
+support the ceiling, are only about 1 foot 8 inches distant from each
+other. The small horizontal passage which separates the upper landing
+from the sarcophagus chamber itself, presents features imperfectly
+explained. It is intersected almost in the middle by a kind of depressed
+hall, whose walls are channelled at equal intervals on each side by four
+longitudinal grooves. The first of these still supports a fine flagstone
+of granite which seems to hang 3 feet 7 inches above the ground, and the
+three others were probably intended to receive similar slabs. The latter
+is a kind of rectangular granite box, with a flat roof, 19 feet 10
+inches high, 1 foot 5 inches deep, and 17 feet broad. No figures or
+hieroglyphs are to be seen, but merely a mutilated granite sarcophagus
+without a cover. Such were the precautions taken against man: the result
+witnessed to their efficacy, for the pyramid preserved its contents
+intact for more than four thousand years.* But a more serious danger
+threatened them in the great weight of the materials above. In order
+to prevent the vault from being crushed under the burden of the hundred
+metres of limestone which surmounted it, they arranged above it five
+low chambers placed exactly one above the other in order to relieve the
+superincumbent stress. The highest of these was protected by a pointed
+roof consisting of enormous blocks made to lean against each other at
+the top: this ingenious device served to transfer the perpendicular
+thrust almost entirely to the lateral faces of the blocks. Although an
+earthquake has to some extent dislocated the mass of masonry, not one
+of the stones which encase the chamber of the king has been crushed,
+not one has yielded by a hair’s-breadth, since the day when the workmen
+fixed it in its place.
+
+     * Professor Petrie thinks that the pyramids of Gîzeh were
+     rifled, and the mummies which they contained destroyed
+     during the long civil wars which raged in the interval
+     between the VIth and XIIth dynasties. If this be true, it
+     will be necessary to admit that the kings of one of the
+     subsequent dynasties must have restored what had been
+     damaged, for the workmen of the Caliph Al-Mamoun brought
+     from the sepulchral chamber of the “Horizon” “a stone
+     trough, in which lay a stone statue in human form, enclosing
+     a man who had on his breast a golden pectoral, adorned with
+     precious stones, and a sword of inestimable value, and on
+     his head a carbuncle of the size of an egg, brilliant as the
+     sun, having characters which no man can read.” All the Arab
+     authors, whose accounts have been collected by Jomard,
+     relate in general the same story; one can easily recognize
+     from this description the sarcophagus still in its place, a
+     stone case in human shape, and the mummy of Kheops loaded
+     with jewels and arms, like the body of Queen Âhhotpû I.
+
+[Illustration: 181b.jpg the interior of the great pyramid]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from pl. ix., Petrie, The Pyramids
+     and Temples of Gîzeh. A is the descending passage, B the
+     unfinished chamber, and C the horizontal passage pierced in
+     the rock. D is the narrow passage which provides a
+     communication between chamber B and the landing where the
+     roads divide, and with the passage FG leading to the
+     “Chamber of the Queen.” E is the ascending passage, H the
+     high gallery, I and J the chamber of barriers, K the
+     sepulchral vault, L indicates the chambers for relieving the
+     stress; finally, a, are vents which served for the
+     aeration of the chambers during construction, and through
+     which libations were introduced on certain feast-days in
+     honour of Kheops. The draughtsman has endeavoured to render,
+     by lines of unequal thickness, the varying height of the
+     courses of masonry; the facing, which is now wanting, has
+     been reinstated, and the broken line behind it indicates the
+     visible ending of the courses which now form the northern
+     face of the pyramid.
+
+[Illustration: 183.jpg The ascending passage OF THE great pyramid]
+
+     Facsimile by Boudier of a drawing published in the
+     _Description de l’Egypte, Ant._, vol. v. pl. xiii. 2.
+
+Four barriers in all were thus interposed between the external world and
+the vault.*
+
+     * This appears to me to follow from the analogous
+     arrangements which I met with in the pyramid of Saqqâra. Mr.
+     Petrie refuses to recognize here a barrier chamber (cf. the
+     notes which he has appended to the English translation of my
+     _Archéologie égyptienne_, p. 327, note 27,) but he confesses
+     that the arrangement of the grooves and of the flagstone is
+     still an enigma to him. Perhaps only one of the four
+     intended barriers was inserted in its place--that which
+     still remains.
+
+The Great Pyramid was called Khûît, the “Horizon” in which Khûfûî had to
+be swallowed up, as his father the Sun was engulfed every evening in
+the horizon of the west. It contained only the chambers of the deceased,
+without a word of inscription, and we should not know to whom it
+belonged, if the masons, during its construction, had not daubed here
+and there in red paint among their private marks the name of the king,
+and the dates of his reign.*
+
+     * The workmen often drew on the stones the cartouches of the
+     Pharaoh under whose reign they had been taken from the
+     quarry, with the exact date of their extraction; the
+     inscribed blocks of the pyramid of Kheops bear, among
+     others, a date of the year XVI.
+
+Worship was rendered to this Pharaoh in a temple constructed a little in
+front of the eastern side of the pyramid, but of which nothing remains
+but a mass of ruins. Pharaoh had no need to wait until he was mummified
+before he became a god; religious rites in his honour were established
+on his accession; and many of the individuals who made up his court
+attached themselves to his double long before his double had become
+disembodied. They served him faithfully during their life, to repose
+finally in his shadow in the little pyramids and mastabas which
+clustered around him. Of Dadûfri, his immediate successor, we can
+probably say that he reigned eight years;* but Khephren, the next son
+who succeeded to the throne,** erected temples and a gigantic pyramid,
+like his father.
+
+     * According to the arrangement proposed by E. de Rougé for
+     the fragments of the Turin Canon. E. de Rougé reads the name
+     Râ-tot-ef, and proposes to identify it with the Ratoises of
+     the lists of Manetho, which the copyists had erroneously put
+     out of its proper place. This identification has been
+     generally accepted. Analogy compels us to read Dadûfrî, like
+     Khâfrî, Menkaurî, in which case the hypothesis of de Rougé
+     falls to the ground. The worship of Dadûfrî was renewed
+     towards the Saite period, together with that of Kheops and
+     Khephren, according to some tradition which connected his
+     reign with that of these two kings. On the general scheme of
+     the Manethonian history of these times, see Maspero, _Notes
+     sur quelques points de Grammaire et d’Histoire dans le
+     Recueil de Travaux_, vol. xvii. pp. 122-138.
+
+     ** The Westcar Papyrus considers Khâfri to be the son of
+     Khûfû; this falls in with information given us, in this
+     respect, by Diodorus Siculus. The form which this historian
+     assigns--I do not know on what authority--to the name of the
+     king, Khabryies, is nearer the original than the Khephren of
+     Herodotus.
+
+He placed it some 394 feet to the south-west of that of Kheops; and
+called it Ûîrû, the Great. It is, however, smaller than its neighbour,
+and attains a height of only 443 feet, but at a distance the difference
+in height disappears, and many travellers have thus been led to
+attribute the same elevation to the two. The facing, of which about
+one-fourth exists from the summit downwards, is of nummulite limestone,
+compact, hard, and more homogeneous than that of the courses, with
+rusty patches here and there due to masses of a reddish lichen, but
+grey elsewhere, and with a low polish which, at a distance, reflects the
+sun’s rays. Thick walls of unwrought stone enclose the monument on
+three sides, and there may be seen behind the west front, in an oblong
+enclosure, a row of stone sheds hastily constructed of limestone and
+Nile mud.
+
+[Illustration: 187.jpg THE NAME OF KHEOPS DRAWN IN RED ON SEVERAL BLOCKS
+OF THE GREAT PYRAMID]
+
+     Facsimile by Faucher-Gudin of the sketch in Lepsius, Denkm.,
+     ii., 1 c.
+
+Here the labourers employed on the works came every evening to huddle
+together, and the refuse of their occupation still encumbers the ruins
+of their dwellings, potsherds, chips of various kinds of hard stone
+which they had been cutting, granite, alabaster, diorite, fragments of
+statues broken in the process of sculpture, and blocks of smooth granite
+ready for use. The chapel commands a view of the eastern face of the
+pyramid, and communicated by a paved causeway with the temple of the
+Sphinx, to which it must have borne a striking resemblance.* The plan of
+it can be still clearly traced on the ground, and the rubbish cannot
+be disturbed without bringing to light portions of statues, vases, and
+tables of offerings, some of them covered with hieroglyphs, like the
+mace-head of white stone which belonged in its day to Khephren himself.
+
+     * The connection of the temple of the Sphinx with that of
+     the second pyramid was discovered in December, 1880, during
+     the last diggings of Mariette. I ought to say that the whole
+     of that part of the building into which the passage leads
+     shows traces of having been hastily executed, and at a time
+     long after the construction of the rest of the edifice; it
+     is possible that the present condition of the place does not
+     date back further than the time of the Antonines, when the
+     Sphinx was cleared for the last time in ancient days.
+
+[Illustration: 188.jpg ALABASTER STATUE OF KHEPHREN]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. See
+     on p. 199 the carefully executed drawing of the best
+     preserved among the diorite statues which the Gîzeh Museum
+     now possesses of this Pharaoh.
+
+The internal arrangements of the pyramid are of the simplest character;
+they consist of a granite-built passage carefully concealed in the north
+face, running at first at an angle of 25°, and then horizontally, until
+stopped by a granite barrier at a point which indicates a change of
+direction; a second passage, which begins on the outside, at a distance
+of some yards in advance of the base of the pyramid, and proceeds, after
+passing through an unfinished chamber, to rejoin the first; finally, a
+chamber hollowed in the rock, but surmounted by a pointed roof of fine
+limestone slabs.
+
+[Illustration: 188b.jpg THE PYRAMID OF KHEPHREN]
+
+The sarcophagus was of granite, and, like that of Kheops, bore neither
+the name of a king nor the representation of a god. The cover was fitted
+so firmly to the trough that the Arabs could not succeed in detaching
+it when they rifled the tomb in the year 1200 of our era; they were,
+therefore, compelled to break through one of the sides with a hammer
+before they could reach the coffin and take from it the mummy of the
+Pharaoh.*
+
+     * The second pyramid was opened to Europeans in 1816 by
+     Belzoni. The exact date of the entrance of the Arabs is
+     given us by an inscription, written in ink, on one of the
+     walls of the sarcophagus chamber: “Mohammed Ahmed Effendi,
+     the quarryman, opened it; Othman Effendi was present, as
+     well as the King Ali Mohammed, at the beginning and at the
+     closing.” The King Ali Mohammed was the son and successor of
+     Saladin.
+
+Of Khephren’s sons, Menkaûrî (Mykerinos), who was his successor, could
+scarcely dream of excelling his father and grandfather;* his pyramid,
+the Supreme--Hirû** --barely attained an elevation of 216 feet, and was
+exceeded in height by those which were built at a later date.*** Up to
+one-fourth of its height it was faced with syenite, and the remainder,
+up to the summit, with limestone.****
+
+     * Classical tradition makes Mykerinos the son of Kheops.
+     Egyptian tradition regards him as the son of Khephren, and
+     with this agrees a passage in the Westcar Papyrus, in which
+     a magician prophesies that after Kheops his son (Khâfrî)
+     will yet reign, then the son of the latter (Menkaûrî), then
+     a prince of another family.
+
+     ** An inscription, unfortunately much mutilated, from the
+     tomb of Tabhûni, gives an account of the construction of the
+     pyramid, and of the transport of the sarcophagus.
+
+     *** Professor Petrie reckons the exact height of the pyramid
+     at 2564 ±15 or 2580 ± 2 inches; that is to say, 214 or 215
+     feet in round numbers.
+
+     **** According to Herodotus, the casing of granite extended
+     to half the height. Diodorus states that it did not go
+     beyond the fifteenth course. Professor Petrie discovered
+     that there were actually sixteen lower courses in red
+     granite.
+
+For lack of time, doubtless, the dressing of the granite was not
+completed, but the limestone received all the polish it was capable of
+taking. The enclosing wall was extended to the north so as to meet, and
+become one with, that of the second pyramid. The temple was connected
+with the plain by a long and almost straight causeway, which ran for
+the greater part of its course* upon an embankment raised above the
+neighbouring ground. This temple was in fair condition in the early
+years of the eighteenth century,** and so much of it as has escaped
+the ravages of the Mameluks, bears witness to the scrupulous care and
+refined art employed in its construction.
+
+     * This causeway should not be confounded, as is frequently
+     done, with that which may be seen at some distance to the
+     east in the plain: the latter led to limestone quarries in
+     the mountain to the south of the plateau on which the
+     pyramids stand. These quarries were worked in very ancient
+     times.
+
+     ** Benoit de Maillet visited this temple between 1692 and
+     1708. “It is almost square in form. There are to be found
+     inside four pillars which doubtless supported a vaulted roof
+     covering the altar of the idol, and one moved around these
+     pillars as in an ambulatory. These stones were cased with
+     granitic marble. I found some pieces still unbroken which
+     had been attached to the stones with mastic. I believe that
+     the exterior as well as the interior of the temple was cased
+     with this marble” (Le Mascrier, Description de l’Egypte,
+     1735, pp. 223, 224).
+
+[Illustration: 192.jpg DIORITE STATUE OF MENRAÛRÏ]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph, by Emil Brugsch-Bey, of
+     a statue preserved in the Museum of Gîzeh.
+
+Coming from the plain, we first meet with an immense halting-place
+measuring 100 feet by 46 feet, and afterwards enter a large court with
+an egress on each side: beyond this we can distinguish the ground-plan
+only of five chambers, the central one, which is in continuation with
+the hall, terminating at a distance of some 42 feet from the pyramid,
+exactly opposite the middle point of the eastern face. The whole mass
+of the building covers a rectangular area 184 feet long by a little
+over 177 feet broad. Its walls, like those of the temple of the Sphinx,
+contained a core of lime-stone 7 feet 10 inches thick, of which the
+blocks have been so ingeniously put together as to suggest the idea that
+the whole is cut out of the rock. This core was covered with a casing
+of granite and alabaster, of which the remains preserve no trace of
+hieroglyphs or of wall scenes: the founder had caused his name to be
+inscribed on the statues, which received, on his behalf, the offerings,
+and also on the northern face of the pyramid, where it was still shown
+to the curious towards the first century of our era. The arrangement of
+the interior of the pyramid is somewhat complicated, and bears witness
+to changes brought unexpectedly about in the course of construction. The
+original central mass probably did not exceed 180 feet in breadth at the
+base, with a vertical height of 154 feet. It contained a sloping passage
+cut into the hill itself, and an oblong low-roofed cell devoid of
+ornament. The main bulk of the work had been already completed, and the
+casing not yet begun, when it was decided to alter the proportions of
+the whole.
+
+[Illustration: 194.jpg THE COFFIN OF MYKERINOS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. The coffin is in the British Museum.
+     The drawing of it was published by Vyse, by Birch-Lenormant,
+     and by Lepsius. Herr Sethe has recently revived an ancient
+     hypothesis, according to which it had been reworked in the
+     Saite period, and he has added to archaeological
+     considerations, up to that time alone brought to bear upon
+     the question, new philological facts.
+
+Mykerinos was not, it appears, the eldest son and appointed heir of
+Khephren; while still a mere prince he was preparing for himself a
+pyramid similar to those which lie near the “Horizon,” when the deaths
+of his father and brother called him to the throne. What was sufficient
+for him as a child, was no longer suitable for him as a Pharaoh; the
+mass of the structure was increased to its present dimensions, and a new
+inclined passage was effected in it, at the end of which a hall
+panelled with granite gave access to a kind of antechamber.* The latter
+communicated by a horizontal corridor with the first vault, which was
+deepened for the occasion; the old entrance, now no longer of use, was
+roughly filled up.**
+
+     * Vyse discovered here fragments of a granite sarcophagus,
+     perhaps that of the queen; the legends which Herodotus (ii.
+     134, 135), and several Greek authors after him, tell
+     concerning this, show clearly that an ancient tradition
+     assumed the existence of a female mummy in the third pyramid
+     alongside of that of the founder Mykerinos.
+
+     ** Vyse has noticed, in regard to the details of the
+     structure, that the passage now filled up is the only one
+     driven from the outside to the interior; all the others were
+     made from the inside to the outside, and consequently at a
+     period when this passage, being the only means of
+     penetrating into the interior of the monument, had not yet
+     received its present dimensions.
+
+Mykerinos did not find his last resting-place in this upper level of the
+interior of the pyramid: a narrow passage, hidden behind the slabbing
+of the second chamber, descended into a secret crypt, lined with granite
+and covered with a barrel-vaulted roof. The sarcophagus was a single
+block of blue-black basalt, polished, and carved into the form of a
+house, with a façade having three doors and three openings in the form
+of windows, the whole framed in a rounded moulding and surmounted by a
+projecting cornice such as we are accustomed to see on the temples.*
+
+     * It was lost off the coast of Spain in the vessel which was
+     bringing it to England. We have only the drawing remaining
+     which was made at the time of its discovery, and published
+     by Vyse. M. Borchardt has attempted to show that it was
+     reworked under the XXVIth Saite dynasty as well as the
+     wooden coffin of the king.
+
+The mummy-case of cedar-wood had a man’s head, and was shaped to
+the form of the human body; it was neither painted nor gilt, but an
+inscription in two columns, cut on its front, contained the name of the
+Pharaoh, and a prayer on his behalf: “Osiris, King of the two Egypts,
+Menkaûrî, living eternally, given birth to by heaven, conceived by Nûît,
+flesh of Sibii, thy mother Nûît has spread herself out over thee in
+her name of ‘Mystery of the Heavens,’ and she has granted that thou
+shouldest be a god, and that thou shouldest repulse thine enemies, O
+King of the two Egypts, Menkaûrî, living eternally.” The Arabs opened
+the mummy to see if it contained any precious jewels, but found within
+it only some leaves of gold, probably a mask or a pectoral covered
+with hieroglyphs. When Vyse reopened the vault in 1837, the bones lay
+scattered about in confusion on the dusty floor, mingled with bundles of
+dirty rags and wrappings of yellowish woollen cloth.
+
+The worship of the three great pyramid-building kings continued in
+Memphis down to the time of the Greeks and Romans. Their statues, in
+granite, limestone, and alabaster, were preserved also in the buildings
+annexed to the temple of Phtah, where visitors could contemplate these
+Pharaohs as they were when alive.
+
+[Illustration: 196.jpg THE GRANITE SARCOPHAGUS OF MYKERINOS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a chromolithograph in Prisse
+     D’Avennes, _Histoire de l’Art Égyptien_.
+
+Those of Khephren show us the king at different ages, when young,
+mature, or already in his decadence. They are in most cases cut out of
+a breccia of green diorite, with long irregular yellowish veins, and of
+such hardness that it is difficult to determine the tool with which they
+were worked. The Pharaoh sits squarely on his royal throne, his hands on
+his lap, his body firm and upright, and his head thrown back with a look
+of self-satisfaction. A sparrow-hawk perched on the back of his seat
+covers his head with its wings--an image of the god Horus protecting
+his son. The modelling of the torso and legs of the largest of these
+statues, the dignity of its pose, and the animation of its expression,
+make of it a unique work of art which may be compared with the most
+perfect products of antiquity. Even if the cartouches which tell us the
+name of the king had been hammered away and the insignia of his rank
+destroyed, we should still be able to determine the Pharaoh by his
+bearing: his whole appearance indicates a man accustomed from his
+infancy to feel himself invested with limitless authority. Mykerinos
+stands out less impassive and haughty: he does not appear so far removed
+from humanity as his predecessor, and the expression of his countenance
+agrees, somewhat singularly, with the account of his piety and good
+nature preserved by the legends. The Egyptians of the Theban dynasties,
+when comparing the two great pyramids with the third, imagined that the
+disproportion in their size corresponded with a difference of character
+between their royal occupants. Accustomed as they were from infancy to
+gigantic structures, they did not experience before “the Horizon” and
+“the Great” the feeling of wonder and awe which impresses the beholder
+of to-day. They were not the less apt on this account to estimate
+the amount of labour and effort required to complete them from top to
+bottom. This labour seemed to them to surpass the most excessive corvée
+which a just ruler had a right to impose upon his subjects, and the
+reputation of Kheops and Khephren suffered much in consequence. They
+were accused of sacrilege, of cruelty, and profligacy.
+
+[Illustration: 198.jpg DIORITE STATUE OF KHEPHREN, GÎZEU MUSEUM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey. It
+     is one of the most complete statues found by Mariette in the
+     temple of the Sphinx.
+
+It was urged against them that they had arrested the whole life of their
+people for more than a century for the erection of their tombs.
+Kheops began by closing the temples and by prohibiting the offering of
+sacrifices: he then compelled all the Egyptians to work for him. To some
+he assigned the task of dragging the blocks from the quarries of the
+Arabian chain to the Nile: once shipped, the duty was incumbent on
+others of transporting them as far as the Libyan chain. A hundred
+thousand men worked at a time, and were relieved every three months.*
+
+     * Professor Petrie thinks that this detail rests upon an
+     authentic tradition. The inundation, he says, lasts three
+     months, during which the mass of the people have nothing to
+     do; it was during these three months that Kheops raised the
+     100,000 men to work at the transport of the stone. The
+     explanation is very ingenious, but it is not supported by
+     the text: Herodotus does not relate that 100,000 men were
+     called by the corvée for three months every year; but from
+     three months to three months, possibly four times a year,
+     bodies of 100,000 men relieved each other at the work. The
+     figures which he quotes are well-known legendary numbers,
+     and we must leave the responsibility for them to the popular
+     imagination (Wiedemann, Herodots Zweites Buck, p. 465).
+
+The period of the people’s suffering was divided as follows: ten years
+in making the causeway along which the blocks were dragged--a work, in
+my opinion, very little less onerous than that of erecting the pyramid,
+for its length was five _stadia_, its breadth ten _orgyio_, its greatest
+height eight, and it was made of cut stone and covered with figures.*
+Ten years, therefore, were consumed in constructing this causeway
+and the subterranean chambers hollowed out in the hill.... As for the
+pyramid itself, twenty years were employed in the making of it.... There
+are recorded on it, in Egyptian characters, the value of the sums paid
+in turnips, onions, and garlic, for the labourers attached to the works;
+if I remember aright, the interpreter who deciphered the inscription
+told me that the total amounted to sixteen hundred talents of silver.
+If this were the case, how much must have been expended for iron to make
+tools, and for provisions and clothing for the workmen?**
+
+     * Diodorus Siculus declares that there were no causeways to
+     be seen in his time. The remains of one of them appear to
+     have been discovered and restored by Vyse.
+
+     ** Herodotus, ii. 124, 125. The inscriptions which were read
+     upon the pyramids were the graffiti of visitors, some of
+     them carefully executed. The figures which were shown to
+     Herodotus represented, according to the dragoman, the value
+     of the sums expended for vegetables for the workmen; we
+     ought, probably, to regard them as the thousands which, in
+     many of the votive temples, served to mark the quantities of
+     different things presented to the god, that they might be
+     transmitted to the deceased.
+
+The whole resources of the royal treasure were not sufficient for such
+necessaries: a tradition represents Kheops as at the end of his means,
+and as selling his daughter to any one that offered, in order to procure
+money.* Another legend, less disrespectful to the royal dignity and to
+paternal authority, assures us that he repented in his old age, and that
+he wrote a sacred book much esteemed by the devout.**
+
+     * Herodotus, ii. 126. She had profited by what she received
+     to build a pyramid for herself in the neighbourhood of the
+     great one--the middle one of the three small pyramids: it
+     would appear in fact, that this pyramid contained the mummy
+     of a daughter of Kheops, Honîtsonû.
+
+     ** Manetho, Unger’s edition, p. 91. The ascription of a book
+     to Kheops, or rather the account of the discovery of a
+     “sacred book” under Kheops, is quite in conformity with
+     Egyptian ideas. The British Museum possesses two books,
+     which were thus discovered under this king; the one, a
+     medical treatise, in a temple at Coptos; the other comes
+     from Tanis. Among the works on alchemy published by M.
+     Berthelot, there are two small treatises ascribed to Sophé,
+     possibly Souphis or Kheops: they are of the same kind as the
+     book mentioned by Manetho, and which Syncellus says was
+     bought in Egypt.
+
+Khephren had imitated, and thus shared with, him, the hatred of
+posterity. The Egyptians avoided naming these wretches: their work was
+attributed to a shepherd called Philitis, who in ancient times pastured
+his flocks in the mountain; and even those who did not refuse to them
+the glory of having built the most enormous sepulchres in the world,
+related that they had not the satisfaction of reposing in them after
+their death. The people, exasperated at the tyranny to which they had
+been subject, swore that they would tear the bodies of these Pharaohs
+from their tombs, and scatter their fragments to the winds: they had
+to be buried in crypts so securely placed that no one has succeeded in
+finding them.
+
+Like the two older pyramids, “the Supreme” had its anecdotal history,
+in which the Egyptians gave free rein to their imagination. We know
+that its plan had been rearranged in the course of building, that it
+contained two sepulchral chambers, two sarcophagi, and two mummies:
+these modifications, it was said, belonged to two distinct reigns; for
+Mykerinos had left his tomb unfinished, and a woman had finished it at
+a later date--according to some, Nitokris, the last queen of the VIth
+dynasty; according to others, Rhodopis, the Ionian who was the mistress
+of Psammetichus I. or of Ainasis.*
+
+     * Zoega had already recognized that the Rhodopis of the
+     Greeks was no other than the Nitokris of Manetho, and his
+     opinion was adopted and developed by Bunsen. The legend of
+     Rhodopis was completed by the additional ascription to the
+     ancient Egyptian queen of the character of a courtesan: this
+     repugnant trait seems to have been borrowed from the same
+     class of legends as that which concerned itself with the
+     daughter of Kheops and her pyramid. The narrative thus
+     developed was in a similar manner confounded with another
+     popular story, in which occurs the episode of the slipper,
+     so well known from the tale of Cinderella. Herodotus
+     connects Rhodopis with his Amasis, Ælian with King
+     Psammetichus of the XXVIth dynasty.
+
+The beauty and richness of the granite casing dazzled all eyes, and
+induced many visitors to prefer the least of the pyramids to its two
+imposing sisters; its comparatively small size is excused on the ground
+that its founder had returned to that moderation and piety which
+ought to characterize a good king. “The actions of his father were not
+pleasing to him; he reopened the temples and sent the people, reduced
+to the extreme of misery, back to their religious observances and their
+occupations; finally, he administered justice more equitably than all
+other kings. On this head he is praised above those who have at any time
+reigned in Egypt: for not only did he administer good justice, but if
+any one complained of his decision he gratified him with some present in
+order to appease his wrath.” There was one point, however, which excited
+the anxiety of many in a country where the mystic virtue of numbers
+was an article of faith: in order that the laws of celestial arithmetic
+should be observed in the construction of the pyramids, it was necessary
+that three of them should be of the same size. The anomaly of a third
+pyramid out of proportion to the two others could be explained only on
+the hypothesis that Mykerinos, having broken with paternal usage,
+had ignorantly infringed a decree of destiny--a deed for which he was
+mercilessly punished. He first lost his only daughter; a short time
+after he learned from an oracle that he had only six more years to
+remain upon the earth. He enclosed the corpse of his child in a hollow
+wooden heifer, which he sent to Sais, where it was honoured with divine
+worship.*
+
+     * Herodotus, ii. 129-133. The manner in which Herodotus
+     describes the cow which was shown to him in the temple of
+     Sais, proves that he was dealing with Nit, in animal form,
+     Mihî-ûîrît, the great celestial heifer who had given birth
+     to the Sun. How the people could have attached to this
+     statue the legend of a daughter of Mykerinos is now
+     difficult to understand. The idea of a mummy or a corpse
+     shut up in a statue, or in a coffin, was familiar to the
+     Egyptians: two of the queens interred at Déir el-Baharî,
+     Nofritari Ahhotpû II., were found hidden in the centre of
+     immense Osirian figures of wood, covered with stuccoed
+     fabric. Egyptian tradition supposed that the bodies of the
+     gods rested upon the earth. The cow Mîhî-ûîrît might,
+     therefore, be bodily enclosed in a sarcophagus in the form
+     of a heifer, just as the mummified gazelle of Déîr el-Baharî
+     is enclosed in a sarcophagus of gazelle form; it is even
+     possible that the statue shown to Herodotus really contained
+     what was thought to be a mummy of the goddess.
+
+“He then communicated his reproaches to the god, complaining that his
+father and his uncle, after having closed the temples, forgotten the
+gods and oppressed mankind, had enjoyed a long life, while he, devout as
+he was, was so soon about to perish. The oracle answered that it was for
+this very reason that his days were shortened, for he had not done that
+which he ought to have done. Egypt had to suffer for a hundred and fifty
+years, and the two kings his predecessors had known this, while he had
+not. On receiving this answer, Mykerinos, feeling himself condemned,
+manufactured a number of lamps, lit them every evening at dusk, began to
+drink and to lead a life of jollity, without ceasing for a moment night
+and day, wandering by the lakes and in the woods wherever he thought to
+find an occasion of pleasure. He had planned this in order to convince
+the oracle of having spoken falsely, and to live twelve years, the
+nights counting as so many days.” Legend places after him Asychis or
+Sasychis, a later builder of pyramids, but of a different kind. The
+latter preferred brick as a building material, except in one place,
+where he introduced a stone bearing the following inscription: “Do not
+despise me on account of the stone pyramids: I surpass them as much as
+Zeus the other gods. Because, a pole being plunged into a lake and the
+clay which stuck to it being collected, the brick out of which I was
+constructed was moulded from it.” The virtues of Asychis and Mykerinos
+helped to counteract the bad impression which Kheops and Khephren had
+left behind them. Among the five legislators of Egypt Asychis stood out
+as one of the best. He regulated, to minute details, the ceremonies of
+worship. He invented geometry and the art of observing the heavens.*
+
+     * Diodorus, i. 94. It seems probable that Diodorus had
+     received knowledge from some Alexandrian writer, now lost,
+     of traditions concerning the legislative acts of Shashanqû
+     I. of the XXIInd dynasty; but the name of the king, commonly
+     written Sesonkhis, had been corrupted by the dragoman into
+     Sasykhis.
+
+He put forth a law on lending, in which he authorized the borrower to
+pledge in forfeit the mummy of his father, while the creditor had the
+right of treating as his own the tomb of the debtor: so that if the
+debt was not met, the latter could not obtain a last resting-place for
+himself or his family either in his paternal or any other tomb.
+
+History knows nothing either of this judicious sovereign or of many
+other Pharaohs of the same type, which the dragomans of the Greek period
+assiduously enforced upon the respectful attention of travellers. It
+merely affirms that the example given by Kheops, Khephren, and Mykerinos
+were by no means lost in later times. From the beginning of the IVth
+to the end of the XIVth dynasty--during more than fifteen hundred
+years--the construction of pyramids was a common State affair, provided
+for by the administration, secured by special services. Not only did
+the Pharaohs build them for themselves, but the princes and princesses
+belonging to the family of the Pharaohs constructed theirs, each one
+according to his resources; three of these secondary mausoleums are
+ranged opposite the eastern side of “the Horizon,” three opposite the
+southern face of “the Supreme,” and everywhere else--near Abousir, at
+Saqqâra, at Dahshur or in the Fayûm--the majority of the royal pyramids
+attracted around them a more or less numerous cortège of pyramids of
+princely foundation often debased in shape and faulty in proportion. The
+materials for them were brought from the Arabian chain. A spur of the
+latter, projecting in a straight line towards the Nile, as far as
+the village of Troiû, is nothing but a mass of the finest and whitest
+limestone. The Egyptians had quarries here from the earliest times. By
+cutting off the stone in every direction, they lowered the point of this
+spur for a depth of some hundreds of metres. The appearance of these
+quarries is almost as astonishing as that of the monuments made out of
+their material. The extraction of the stone was carried on with a skill
+and regularity which denoted ages of experience. The tunnels were so
+made as to exhaust the finest and whitest seams without waste, and the
+chambers were of an enormous extent; the walls were dressed, the pillars
+and roofs neatly finished, the passages and doorways made of a regular
+width, so that the whole presented more the appearance of a subterranean
+temple than of a place for the extraction of building materials.*
+
+     * The description of the quarries of Turah, as they were at
+     the beginning of the century, was somewhat briefly given by
+     Jomard, afterwards more completely by Perring. During the
+     last thirty years the Cairo masons have destroyed the
+     greater part of the ancient remains formerly existing in
+     this district, and have completely changed the appearance of
+     the place.
+
+Hastily written graffiti, in red and black ink, preserve the names of
+workmen, overseers, and engineers, who had laboured here at certain
+dates, calculations of pay or rations, diagrams of interesting details,
+as well as capitals and shafts of columns, which were shaped out on the
+spot to reduce their weight for transport. Here and there true official
+stelas are to be found set apart in a suitable place, recording that
+after a long interruption such or such an illustrious sovereign had
+resumed the excavations, and opened fresh chambers. Alabaster was met
+with not far from here in the Wady Gerrauî. The Pharaohs of very early
+times established a regular colony here, in the very middle of the
+desert, to cut the material into small blocks for transport: a strongly
+built dam, thrown across the valley, served to store up the winter and
+spring rains, and formed a pond whence the workers could always supply
+themselves with water. Kheops and his successors drew their alabaster
+from Hâtnûbû, in the neighbourhood of Hermopolis, their granite from
+Syene, their diorite and other hard rocks, the favourite material for
+their sarcophagi, from the volcanic valleys which separate the Nile from
+the Red Sea--especially from the Wady Hammamât. As these were the only
+materials of which the quantity required could not be determined in
+advance, and which had to be brought from a distance, every king was
+accustomed to send the principal persons of his court to the quarries
+of Upper Egypt, and the rapidity with which they brought back the stone
+constituted a high claim on the favour of their master. If the building
+was to be of brick, the bricks were made on the spot, in the plain
+at the foot of the hills. If it was to be a limestone structure, the
+neighbouring parts of the plateau furnished the rough material in
+abundance. For the construction of chambers and for casing walls, the
+rose granite of Elephantine and the limestone of Troiu were commonly
+employed, but they were spared the labour of procuring these specially
+for the occasion. The city of the White Wall had always at hand a supply
+of them in its stores, and they might be drawn upon freely for public
+buildings, and consequently for the royal tomb. The blocks chosen from
+this reserve, and conveyed in boats close under the mountain-side, were
+drawn up slightly inclined causeways by oxen to the place selected by
+the architect.
+
+The internal arrangements, the length of the passages and the height
+of the pyramids, varied much: the least of them had a height of some
+thirty-three feet merely. As it is difficult to determine the motives
+which influenced the Pharaohs in building them of different sizes, some
+writers have thought that the mass of each increased in proportion to
+the time bestowed upon its construction--that is to say, to the length
+of each reign. As soon as a prince mounted the throne, he would probably
+begin by roughly sketching out a pyramid sufficiently capacious to
+contain the essential elements of the tomb; he would then, from year to
+year, have added fresh layers to the original nucleus, until the day of
+his death put an end for ever to the growth of the monument.*
+
+     * This was the theory formulated by Lepsius, after the
+     researches made by himself, and the work done by Erbkam, and
+     the majority of Egyptologists adopted it, and still maintain
+     it. It was vigorously attacked by Perrot-Chipiez and by
+     Petrie; it was afterwards revived, with amendments, by
+     Borchardt whose conclusions have been accepted by Ed. Meyer.
+     The examinations which I have had the opportunity of
+     bestowing on the pyramids of Saqqâra, Abusir, Dahshur,
+     Rîgah, and Lisht have shown me that the theory is not
+     applicable to any of these monuments.
+
+This hypothesis is not borne out by facts: such a small pyramid as that
+of Saqqâra belonged to a Pharaoh who reigned thirty years, while
+“the Horizon” of Gîzeh is the work of Kheops, whose rule lasted only
+twenty-three years.
+
+[Illustration: 208.jpg MAP OLEANDER LOWER]
+
+The plan of each pyramid was arranged once for all by the architect,
+according to the instructions he had received, and the resources at his
+command. Once set on foot, the work was continued until its completion,
+without addition or diminution, unless something unforeseen occurred.
+The pyramids, like the mastabas, ought to present their faces to the
+four cardinal points; but owing to unskilfulness or negligence, the
+majority of them are not very accurately orientated, and several of them
+vary sensibly from the true north. The great pyramid of Saqqâra does not
+describe a perfect square at its base, but is an oblong rectangle, with
+its longest sides east and west; it is stepped--that is to say, the six
+sloping sided cubes of which it is composed are placed upon one another
+so as to form a series of treads and risers, the former being about two
+yards wide and the latter of unequal heights. The highest of the stone
+pyramids of Dahshur makes at its lower part an angle of 54° 41’ with the
+horizon, but at half its height the angle becomes suddenly more acute
+and is reduced to 42° 59’. It reminds one of a mastaba with a sort of
+huge attic on the top. Each of these monuments had its enclosing wall,
+its chapel and its college of priests, who performed there for ages
+sacred rites in honour of the deceased prince, while its property in
+mortmain was administered by the chief of the “priests of the double.”
+ Each one received a name, such as “the Fresh,” “the Beautiful,” “the
+Divine in its places,” which conferred upon it a personality and, as it
+were, a living soul. These pyramids formed to the west of the White Wall
+a long serrated line whose extremities were lost towards the south and
+north in the distant horizon: Pharaoh could see them from the terraces
+of his palace, from the gardens of his villa, and from every point in
+the plain in which he might reside between Heliopolis and Mêdûm--as a
+constant reminder of the lot which awaited him in spite of his divine
+origin. The people, awed and inspired by the number of them, and by the
+variety of their form and appearance, were accustomed to tell stories
+of them to one another, in which the supernatural played a predominant
+part. They were able to estimate within a few ounces the heaps of gold
+and silver, the jewels and precious stones, which adorned the royal
+mummies or rilled the sepulchral chambers: they were acquainted with
+every precaution taken by the architects to ensure the safety of all
+these riches from robbers, and were convinced that magic had added to
+such safeguards the more effective protection of talismans and genii.
+There was no pyramid so insignificant that it had not its mysterious
+protectors, associated with some amulet--in most cases with a statue,
+animated by the double of the founder. The Arabs of to-day are still
+well acquainted with these protectors, and possess a traditional respect
+for them. The great pyramid concealed a black and white image, seated
+on a throne and invested with the kingly sceptre. He who looked upon the
+statue “heard a terrible noise proceeding from it which almost caused
+his heart to stop beating, and he who had heard this noise would die.”
+ An image of rose-coloured granite watched over the pyramid of Khephren,
+standing upright, a sceptre in its hand and the urous on its brow,
+“which serpent threw himself upon him who approached it, coiled
+itself around his neck, and killed him.” A sorcerer had invested these
+protectors of the ancient Pharaohs with their powers, but another
+equally potent magician could elude their vigilance, paralyze their
+energies, if not for ever, at least for a sufficient length of time
+to ferret out the treasure and rifle the mummy. The cupidity of the
+fellahîn, highly inflamed by the stories which they were accustomed to
+hear, gained the mastery over their terror, and emboldened them to risk
+their lives in these well-guarded tombs. How many pyramids had been
+already rifled at the beginning of the second Theban empire!
+
+The IVth dynasty became extinct in the person of Shop-siskaf, the
+successor and probably the son of Mykerinos.* The learned of the time of
+Ramses II. regarded the family which replaced this dynasty as merely
+a secondary branch of the line of Snofrûi, raised to power by the
+capricious laws which settled hereditary questions.**
+
+     * The series of kings beginning with Mykerinos was drawn up
+     for the first time in an accurate manner by E. de Rougé,
+     _recherches sur les Monu-mails qu’on peut attribuer aux six
+     premières dynasties_, pp. 66-84, M. de Rouge’s results have
+     been since adopted by all Egyptologists. The table of the
+     IVTH dynasty, restored as far as possible with the
+     approximate dates, is subjoined:--
+
+[Illustration: 211.jpg TABLE OF THE IVTH DYNASTY]
+
+     ** The fragments of the royal Turin Papyrus exhibit, in
+     fact, no separation between the kings which Manetho
+     attributes to the IVth dynasty and those which he ascribes
+     to the Vth, which seems to show that the Egyptian annalist
+     considered them all as belonging to one and the same family
+     of Pharaohs.
+
+Nothing on the contemporary monuments, it is true, gives indication of a
+violent change attended by civil war, or resulting from a revolution at
+court: the construction and decoration of the tombs continued without
+interruption and without indication of haste, the sons-in-law of
+Shopsiskaf and of Mykerinos, their daughters and grandchildren, possess
+under the new kings, the same favour, the same property, the same
+privileges, which they had enjoyed previously. It was stated, however,
+in the time of the Ptolemies, that the Vth dynasty had no connection
+with the IVth; it was regarded at Memphis as an intruder, and it was
+asserted that it came from Elephantine.* The tradition was a very old
+one, and its influence is betrayed in a popular story, which was current
+at Thebes in the first years of the New Empire. Kheops, while in search
+of the mysterious books of Thot in order to transcribe from them the
+text for his sepulchral chamber,** had asked the magician Didi to be
+good enough to procure them for him; but the latter refused the perilous
+task imposed upon him.
+
+     * Such is the tradition accepted by Manetho. Lepsius thinks
+     that the copyists of Manetho were under some distracting
+     influence, which made them transfer the record of the origin
+     of the VIth dynasty to the Vth: it must have been the VIth
+     dynasty which took its origin from Elephantine. I think the
+     safest plan is to respect the text of Manetho until we know
+     more, and to admit that he knew of a tradition ascribing the
+     origin of the Vth dynasty to Elephantine.
+
+     ** The Great Pyramid is mute, but we find in other pyramids
+     inscriptions of some hundreds of lines. The author of the
+     story, who knew how much certain kings of the VIth dynasty
+     had laboured to have extracts of the sacred books engraved
+     within their tombs, fancied, no doubt, that his Kheops had
+     done the like, but had not succeeded in procuring the texts
+     in question, probably on account of the impiety ascribed to
+     him by the legends. It was one of the methods of explaining
+     the absence of any religious or funereal inscription in the
+     Great Pyramid.
+
+“‘Sire, my lord, it is not I who shall bring them to thee.’ His Majesty
+asks: ‘Who, then, will bring them to me?’ Didi replies, ‘It is the
+eldest of the three children who are in the womb of Rudîtdidît who will
+bring them to thee.’ His Majesty says: ‘By the love of Râ! what is this
+that thou tellest me; and who is she, this Rudîtdidît?’ Didi says to
+him: ‘She is the wife of a priest of Râ, lord of Sakhîbû. She carries in
+her womb three children of Râ, lord of Sakhîbû, and the god has promised
+to her that they shall fulfil this beneficent office in this whole
+earth,* and that the eldest shall be the high priest at Heliopolis.” His
+Majesty, his heart was troubled at it, but Didi says to him: “‘What are
+these thoughts, sire, my lord? Is it because of these three children?
+Then I say to thee: ‘Thy son, his son, then one of these.’”** The good
+King Kheops doubtless tried to lay his hands upon this threatening trio
+at the moment of their birth; but Râ had anticipated this, and saved his
+offspring. When the time for their birth drew near, the Majesty of Râ,
+lord of Sakhîbû, gave orders to Isis, Nephthys, Maskhonît, Hiquît,***
+and Khnûmû: “Come, make haste and run to deliver Budîtdidît of these
+three children which she carries in her womb to fulfil that beneficent
+office in this whole earth, and they will build you temples, they will
+furnish your altars with offerings, they will supply your tables with
+libations, and they will increase your mortmain possessions.”
+
+     * This kind of circumlocution is employed on several
+     occasions in the old texts to designate royalty. It was
+     contrary to etiquette to mention directly, in common speech,
+     the Pharaoh, or anything belonging to his functions or his
+     family. Cf. pp. 28, 29 of this History.
+
+     ** This phrase is couched in oracular form, as befitting the
+     reply of a magician. It appears to have been intended to
+     reassure the king in affirming that the advent of the three
+     sons of Râ would not be immediate: his son, then a son of
+     this son, would succeed him before destiny would be
+     accomplished, and one of these divine children succeed to
+     the throne in his turn. The author of the story took no
+     notice of Dadufrî or Shopsiskaf, of whose reigns little was
+     known in his time.
+
+     *** Hiquît as the frog-goddess, or with a frog’s head, was
+     one of the mid-wives who is present at the birth of the sun
+     every morning. Her presence is, therefore, natural in the
+     case of the spouse about to give birth to royal sons of the
+     sun.
+
+The goddesses disguised themselves as dancers and itinerant musicians:
+Khnûmû assumed the character of servant to this band of nautch-girls and
+filled the bag with provisions, and they all then proceeded together
+to knock at the door of the house in which Budîtdidît was awaiting her
+delivery. The earthly husband Baûsîr, unconscious of the honour that the
+gods had in store for him, introduced them to the presence of his wife,
+and immediately three male children were brought into the world one
+after the other. Isis named them, Maskhonît predicted for them their
+royal fortune, while Khnûmû. infused into their limbs vigour and health;
+the eldest was called Ûsirkaf, the second Sahûrî, the third Kakiû.
+Kaûsîr was anxious to discharge his obligation to these unknown persons,
+and proposed to do so in wheat, as if they were ordinary mortals: they
+had accepted it without compunction, and were already on their way to
+the firmament, when Isis recalled them to a sense of their dignity, and
+commanded them to store the honorarium bestowed upon them in one of
+the chambers of the house, where henceforth prodigies of the strangest
+character never ceased to manifest themselves. Every time one entered
+the place a murmur was heard of singing, music, and dancing, while
+acclamations such as those with which kings are wont to be received gave
+sure presage of the destiny which awaited the newly born. The manuscript
+is mutilated, and we do not know how the prediction was fulfilled. If we
+may trust the romance, the three first princes of the Vth dynasty were
+brothers, and of priestly descent, but our experience of similar stories
+does not encourage us to take this one very seriously: did not such
+tales affirm that Kheops and Khephren were brothers also?
+
+The Vth dynasty manifested itself in every respect as the sequel and
+complement of the IVth.* It reckons nine Pharaohs after the three which
+tradition made sons of the god Râ himself and of Rudîtdidîfc. They
+reigned for a century and a half; the majority of them have left
+monuments, and the last four, at least, Ûsirnirî Ânû, Menkaû-horû,
+Dadkerî Assi, and Unas, appear to have ruled gloriously. They all built
+pyramids,** they repaired temples and founded cities.***
+
+     * A list is appended of the known Pharaohs of the Vth
+     dynasty, restored as far as can be, with the closest
+     approximate dates of their reigns:--
+
+[Illustration: 215.jpg TABLE OF PHARAOHS OF THE VTH DYNASTY]
+
+     ** It is pretty generally admitted, but without convincing
+     proofs, that the pyramids of Abûsîr served as tombs for the
+     Pharaohs in the Vth dynasty, one for Sahûrî, another to
+     Ûsirnirî Anû, although Wiedemann considers that the
+     truncated pyramid of Dahshur was the tomb of this king. I am
+     inclined to think that one of the pyramids of Saqqâra was
+     constructed by Assi; the pyramid of Unas was opened in 1881,
+     and the results made known by Maspero, _Études de Mythologie
+     et d’Archéologie_, vol. i. p. 150, et seq., and _Recueil de
+     Travaux_, vols. iv. and v. The names of the majority of the
+     pyramids are known to us from the monuments: that of Ûsirkaf
+     was called “Ûâbisîtu”; that of Sahûrî, “Khâbi”; that of
+     Nofiririkerî, “Bi”; that of Anû, “Min-isûîtû”; that of
+     Menkaûhorû, “Nûtirisûîtû”; that of Assi, “Nutir”; that of
+     Unas, “Nofir-isûîtû.”
+
+     *** Pa Sahûrî, near Esneh, for instance, was built by
+     Sahûrî. The modern name of the village of Sahoura still
+     preserves, on the same spot, without the inhabitants
+     suspecting it, the name of the ancient Pharaoh.
+
+[Illustration: 210.jpg STATUE IN ROSE-COLOURED GRANITE OF THE PHARAOH
+ANÛ, IN THE GÎZEH MUSEUM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.
+
+The Bedouin of the Sinaitic peninsula gave them much to do. Sahûrî
+brought these nomads to reason, and perpetuated the memory of his
+victories by a stele, engraved on the face of one of the rocks in the
+Wady Magharah; Anû obtained some successes over them, and Assi repulsed
+them in the fourth year of his reign. On the whole, they maintained
+Egypt in the position of prosperity and splendour to which their
+predecessors had raised it.
+
+In one respect they even increased it. Egypt was not so far isolated
+from the rest of the world as to prevent her inhabitants from knowing,
+either by personal contact or by hearsay, at least some of the peoples
+dwelling outside Africa, to the north and east.
+
+
+[Illustration: 217.jpg TRIUMPHAL BAS-RELIEF OF PHARAOH SAHÛRÛ, ON THE
+ROCKS OF WADY MAGHARAH.]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the water-colour published in
+     Lepsius, _Denhn._, i. pl. 8, No. 2
+
+They knew that beyond the “Very Green,” almost at the foot of the
+mountains behind which the sun travelled during the night, stretched
+fertile islands or countries and nations without number, some barbarous
+or semi-barbarous, others as civilized as they were themselves. They
+cared but little by what names they were known, but called them all by
+a common epithet, the Peoples beyond the Seas, “Haûi-nîbû.” If they
+travelled in person to collect the riches which were offered to them by
+these peoples in exchange for the products of the Nile, the Egyptians
+could not have been the unadventurous and home-loving people we have
+imagined. They willingly left their own towns in pursuit of fortune
+or adventure, and the sea did not inspire them with fear or religious
+horror. The ships which they launched upon it were built on the model of
+the Nile boats, and only differed from the latter in details which would
+now pass unnoticed. The hull, which was built on a curved keel, was
+narrow, had a sharp stem and stern, was decked from end to end, low
+forward and much raised aft, and had a long deck cabin: the steering
+apparatus consisted of one or two large stout oars, each supported on
+a forked post and managed by a steersman. It had one mast, sometimes
+composed of a single tree, sometimes formed of a group of smaller masts
+planted at a slight distance from each other, but united at the top by
+strong ligatures and strengthened at intervals by crosspieces which made
+it look like a ladder; its single sail was bent sometimes to one yard,
+sometimes to two; while its complement consisted of some fifty men,
+oarsmen, sailors, pilots, and passengers. Such were the vessels for
+cruising or pleasure; the merchant ships resembled them, but they were
+of heavier build, of greater tonnage, and had a higher freeboard. They
+had no hold; the merchandise had to remain piled up on deck, leaving
+only just enough room for the working of the vessel. They nevertheless
+succeeded in making lengthy voyages, and in transporting troops into the
+enemy’s territory from the mouths of the Nile to the southern coast of
+Syria. Inveterate prejudice alone could prevent us from admitting that
+the Egyptians of the Memphite period went to the ports of Asia and to
+the Haûi-nîbû by sea. Some, at all events, of the wood required for
+building* and for joiner’s work of a civil or funereal character, such
+as pine, cypress or cedar, was brought from the forests of Lebanon or
+those of Amanus.
+
+     * Cedar-wood must have been continually imported into Egypt.
+     It is mentioned in the Pyramid texts; in the tomb of Ti, and
+     in the other tombs of Saqqâra or Gîzeh, workmen are
+     represented making furniture of it. Chips of wood from the
+     coffins of the VIth dynasty, detached in ancient times and
+     found in several mastabas at Saqqâra, have been pronounced
+     to be, some cedar of Lebanon, others a species of pine which
+     still grows in Cilicia and in the north of Syria.
+
+[Illustration: 219.jpg PASSENGER VESSEL UNDER SAIL]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-
+     Bey; the picture is taken from one of the walls of the tomb
+     of Api, discovered at Saqqâra, and now preserved in the
+     Gîzeh Museum (VIth dynasty). The man standing at the bow is
+     the fore-pilot, whose duty it is to take soundings of the
+     channel, and to indicate the direction of the vessel to the
+     pilot aft, who works the rudder-oars.
+
+Beads of amber are still found near Abydos in the tombs of the oldest
+necropolis, and we may well ask how many hands they had passed through
+before reaching the banks of the Nile from the shores of the Baltic.*
+The tin used to alloy copper for making bronze,** and perhaps bronze
+itself, entered doubtless by the same route as the amber.
+
+     * I have picked up in the tombs of the VIth dynasty at Kom-
+     es-Sultan, and in the part of the necropolis of Abydos
+     containing the tombs of the XIth and XIIth dynasties, a
+     number of amber beads, most of which were very small.
+     Mariette, who had found some on the same site, and who had
+     placed them in the Boulaq Museum, mistook them for corroded
+     yellow or brown glass beads. The electric properties which
+     they still possess have established their identity.
+
+     ** I may recall the fact that the analysis of some objects
+     discovered at Mèdûm by Professor Petrie proved that they
+     were made of bronze, and contained 9.l per cent, of tin; the
+     Egyptians, therefore, used bronze from the IVth dynasty
+     downwards, side by side with pure copper.
+
+The tribes of unknown race who then peopled the coasts of the Ægean Sea,
+were amongst the latest to receive these metals, and they transmitted
+them either directly to the Egyptians or Asiatic intermediaries, who
+carried them to the Nile Valley. Asia Minor had, moreover, its treasures
+of metal as well as those of wood--copper, lead, and iron, which
+certain tribes of miners and smiths, had worked from the earliest times.
+Caravans plied between Egypt and the lands of Chaldæan civilization,
+crossing Syria and Mesopotamia, perhaps even by the shortest desert
+route, as far as Ur and Babylon. The communications between nation and
+nation were frequent from this time forward, and very productive, but
+their existence and importance are matters of inference, as we have no
+direct evidence of them. The relations with these nations continued to
+be pacific, and, with the exception of Sinai, Pharaoh had no desire to
+leave the Nile Valley and take long journeys to pillage or subjugate
+countries from whence came so much treasure. The desert and the sea
+which protected Egypt on the north and east from Asiatic cupidity,
+protected Asia with equal security from the greed of Egypt.
+
+On the other hand, towards the south, the Nile afforded an easy means
+of access to those who wished to penetrate into the heart of Africa. The
+Egyptians had, at the outset, possessed only the northern extremity of
+the valley, from the sea to the narrow pass of Silsileh; they had then
+advanced as far as the first cataract, and Syene for some time marked
+the extreme limit of their empire. At what period did they cross this
+second frontier and resume their march southwards, as if again to seek
+the cradle of their race? They had approached nearer and nearer to the
+great bend described by the river near the present village of Korosko,*
+but the territory thus conquered had, under the Vth dynasty, not as yet
+either name or separate organization: it was a dependency of the fiefdom
+of Elephantine, and was under the immediate authority of its princes.
+
+     * This appears to follow from a passage in the inscription
+     of Uni. This minister was raising troops and exacting wood
+     for building among the desert tribes whose territories
+     adjoined at this part of the valley: the manner in which the
+     requisitions were effected shows that it was not a question
+     of a new exaction, but a familiar operation, and
+     consequently that the peoples mentioned had been under
+     regular treaty obligations to the Egyptians, at least for
+     some time previously.
+
+Those natives who dwelt on the banks of the river appear to have offered
+but a slight resistance to the invaders: the desert tribes proved more
+difficult to conquer. The Nile divided them into two distinct bodies. On
+the right side, the confederation of the Uaûaiu spread in the direction
+of the Bed Sea, from the district around Ombos to the neighbourhood of
+Korosko, in the valleys now occupied by the Ababdehs: it was bounded on
+the south by the Mâzaiû tribes, from whom our contemporary Mâazeh have
+probably descended. The Amamiu were settled on the left bank opposite
+to the Mâzaiû, and the country of Iritît lay facing the territory of the
+Uaûaiu. None of these barbarous peoples were subject to Egypt, but
+they all acknowledged its suzerainty,--a somewhat dubious one, indeed,
+analogous to that exercised over their descendants by the Khedives of
+to-day. The desert does not furnish them with the means of subsistence:
+the scanty pasturages of their wadys support a few flocks of sheep and
+asses, and still fewer oxen, but the patches of cultivation which they
+attempt in the neighbourhood of springs, yield only a poor produce of
+vegetables or dourah. They would literally die of starvation were they
+not able to have access to the banks of the Nile for provisions. On
+the other hand, it is a great temptation to them to fall unawares on
+villages or isolated habitations on the outskirts of the fertile lands,
+and to carry off cattle, grain, and male and female slaves; they would
+almost always have time to reach the mountains again with their spoil
+and to protect themselves there from pursuit, before even the news
+of the attack could reach the nearest police station. Under treaties
+concluded with the authorities of the country, they are permitted to
+descend into the plain in order to exchange peaceably for corn and
+dourah, the acacia-wood of their forests, the charcoal that they make,
+gums, game, skins of animals, and the gold and precious stones which
+they get from their mines: they agree in return to refrain from any
+act of plunder, and to constitute a desert police, provided that they
+receive a regular pay.
+
+[Illustration: 223.jpg MAP OF NUBIA IN THE TIME OF THE MEMPHITE EMPIRE]
+
+The same arrangement existed in ancient times. The tribes hired
+themselves out to Pharaoh. They brought him beams of “sont” at the first
+demand, when he was in need of materials to build a fleet beyond the
+first cataract. They provided him with bands of men ready armed, when
+a campaign against the Libyans or the Asiatic tribes forced him to seek
+recruits for his armies: the Mâzaiû entered the Egyptian service in such
+numbers, that their name served to designate the soldiery in general,
+just as in Cairo porters and night watchmen are all called Berberines.
+Among these people respect for their oath of fealty yielded sometimes
+to their natural disposition, and they allowed themselves to be carried
+away to plunder the principalities which they had agreed to defend: the
+colonists in Nubia were often obliged to complain of their exactions.
+When these exceeded all limits, and it became impossible to wink at
+their misdoings any longer, light-armed troops were sent against
+them, who quickly brought them to reason. As at Sinai, these were easy
+victories. They recovered in one expedition what the Ûaûaiû had
+stolen in ten, both in flocks and fellahîn, and the successful general
+perpetuated the memory of his exploits by inscribing, as he returned,
+the name of Pharaoh on some rock at Syene or Elephantine: we may surmise
+that it was after this fashion that Usirkaf, Nofiririkerî, and Unas
+carried on the wars in Nubia. Their armies probably never went beyond
+the second cataract, if they even reached so far: further south the
+country was only known by the accounts of the natives or by the few
+merchants who had made their way into it. Beyond the Mâzaiû, but still
+between the Nile and the Red Sea, lay the country of Pûanît, rich in
+ivory, ebony, gold, metals, gums, and sweet-smelling resins. When some
+Egyptian, bolder than his fellows, ventured to travel thither, he could
+choose one of several routes for approaching it by land or sea. The
+navigation of the Red Sea was, indeed, far more frequent than is usually
+believed, and the same kind of vessels in which the Egyptians coasted
+along the Mediterranean, conveyed them, by following the coast of
+Africa, as far as the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. They preferred, however,
+to reach it by land, and they returned with caravans of heavily laden
+asses and slaves.
+
+[Illustration: 225.jpg HEAD OF AN INHABITANT OF PÛANÎT]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Professor
+     Petrie. This head was taken from the bas-relief at Karnak,
+     on which the Pharaoh Harmhabi of the XVIIIth dynasty
+     recorded his victories over the peoples of the south of
+     Egypt.
+
+All that lay beyond Pûanît was held to be a fabulous region, a kind
+of intermediate boundary land between the world of men and that of the
+gods, the “Island of the Double,” “Land of the Shades,” where the living
+came into close contact with the souls of the departed. It was inhabited
+by the Dangas, tribes of half-savage dwarfs, whose grotesque faces and
+wild gestures reminded the Egyptians of the god Bîsû (Bes). The chances
+of war or trade brought some of them from time to time to Pûanît, or
+among the Amamiû: the merchant who succeeded in acquiring and bringing
+them to Egypt had his fortune made. Pharaoh valued the Dangas highly,
+and was anxious to have some of them at any price among the dwarfs with
+whom he loved to be surrounded; none knew better than they the dance
+of the god--that to which Bîsû unrestrainedly gave way in his merry
+moments. Towards the end of his reign Assi procured one which a certain
+Biûrdidi had purchased in Pûanît. Was this the first which had made its
+appearance at court, or had others preceded it in the good graces of
+the Pharaohs? His wildness and activity, and the extraordinary positions
+which he assumed, made a lively impression upon the courtiers of the
+time, and nearly a century later there were still reminiscences of him.
+
+A great official born in the time of Shopsiskaf, and living on to a
+great age into the reign of Nofiririkerî, is described on his tomb as
+the “Scribe of the House of Books.” This simple designation, occurring
+incidentally among two higher titles, would have been sufficient
+in itself to indicate the extraordinary development which Egyptian
+civilization had attained at this time. The “House of Books” was
+doubtless, in the first place, a depository of official documents, such
+as the registers of the survey and taxes, the correspondence between
+the court and the provincial governors or feudal lords, deeds of gift
+to temples or individuals, and all kinds of papers required in the
+administration of the State. It contained I also, however, literary
+works, many of which even at this early date were already old, prayers
+drawn up during the first dynasties, devout poetry belonging to times
+prior to the misty personage called Mini--hymns to the gods of light,
+formulas of black magic, collections of mystical works, such as the
+“Book of the Dead” * and the “Ritual of the Tomb;” scientific treatises
+on medicine, geometry, mathematics, and astronomy; manuals of practical
+morals; and lastly, romances, or those marvellous stories which preceded
+the romance among Oriental peoples.
+
+     * The “Book of the Dead” must have existed from
+     prehistoric times, certain chapters excepted, whose
+     relatively modern origin has been indicated by those who
+     ascribe the editing of the work to the time of the first
+     human dynasties.
+
+All these, if we had them, would form “a library much more precious to
+us than that of Alexandria;” unfortunately up to the present we have
+been able to collect only insignificant remains of such rich stores. In
+the tombs have been found here and there fragments of popular songs.
+The pyramids have furnished almost intact a ritual of the dead which
+is distinguished by its verbosity, its numerous pious platitudes, and
+obscure allusions to things of the other world; but, among all this
+trash, are certain portions full of movement and savage vigour, in which
+poetic glow and religious emotion reveal their presence in a mass of
+mythological phraseology. In the Berlin Papyrus we may read the end of
+a philosophic dialogue between an Egyptian and his soul, in which the
+latter applies himself to show that death has nothing terrifying to man.
+“I say to myself every day: As is the convalescence of a sick person,
+who goes to the court after his affliction, such is death.... I say to
+myself every day: As is the inhaling of the scent of a perfume, as a
+seat under the protection of an outstretched curtain, on that day, such
+is death.... I say to myself every day: As the inhaling of the odour
+of a garden of flowers, as a seat upon the mountain of the Country of
+Intoxication, such is death.... I say to myself every day: As a road
+which passes over the flood of inundation, as a man who goes as a
+soldier whom nothing resists, such is death.... I say to myself every
+day: As the clearing again of the sky, as a man who goes out to catch
+birds with a net, and suddenly finds himself in an unknown district,
+such is death.” Another papyrus, presented by Prisse d’Avennes to the
+_Bibliothèque Nationale_, Paris, contains the only complete work of
+their primitive wisdom which has come down to us. It was certainly
+transcribed before the XVIIIth dynasty, and contains the works of two
+classic writers, one of whom is assumed to have lived under the
+IIIrd and the other under the Vth dynasty; it is not without reason,
+therefore, that it has been called “the oldest book in the world.” The
+first leaves are wanting, and the portion preserved has, towards
+its end, the beginning of a moral treatise attributed to Qaqimnî, a
+contemporary of Hûni. Then followed a work now lost: one of the
+ancient possessors of the papyrus having effaced it with the view of
+substituting for it another piece, which was never transcribed.
+
+The last fifteen pages are occupied by a kind of pamphlet, which has
+had a considerable reputation, under the name of the “Proverbs of
+Phtahhotpû.”
+
+This Phtahhotpû, a king’s son, flourished under Menkaûhorû and Assi: his
+tomb is still to be seen in the necropolis of Saqqâra. He had sufficient
+reputation to permit the ascription to him, without violence to
+probability, of the editing of a collection of political and moral
+maxims which indicate a profound knowledge of the court and of men
+generally. It is supposed that he presented himself, in his declining
+years, before the Pharaoh Assi, exhibited to him the piteous state to
+which old age had reduced him, and asked authority to hand down for the
+benefit of posterity the treasures of wisdom which he had stored up in
+his long career. The nomarch Phtahhotpû says: “‘Sire, my lord, when
+age is at that point, and decrepitude has arrived, debility comes and
+a second infancy, upon which misery falls heavily every day: the eyes
+become smaller, the ears narrower, strength is worn out while the heart
+continues to beat; the mouth is silent and speaks no more; the heart
+becomes darkened and no longer remembers yesterday; the bones become
+painful, everything which was good becomes bad, taste vanishes entirely;
+old age renders a man miserable in every respect, for his nostrils close
+up, and he breathes no longer, whether he rises up or sits down. If the
+humble servant who is in thy presence receives an order to enter on a
+discourse befitting an old man, then I will tell to thee the language
+of those who know the history of the past, of those who have heard
+the gods; for if thou conductest thyself like them, discontent shall
+disappear from among men, and the two lands shall work for thee!’ The
+majesty of this god says: ‘Instruct me in the language of old times, for
+it will work a wonder for the children of the nobles; whosoever enters
+and understands it, his heart weighs carefully what it says, and it does
+not produce satiety.’” We must not expect to find in this work any great
+profundity of thought. Clever analyses, subtle discussions, metaphysical
+abstractions, were not in fashion in the time of Phtahhotpû. Actual
+facts were preferred to speculative fancies: man himself was the subject
+of observation, his passions, his habits, his temptations and his
+defects, not for the purpose of constructing a system therefrom, but in
+the hope of reforming the imperfections of his nature and of pointing
+out to him the road to fortune. Phtahhotpû, therefore, does not show
+much invention or make deductions. He writes down his reflections just
+as they occur to him, without formulating them or drawing any conclusion
+from them as a whole. Knowledge is indispensable to getting on in the
+world; hence he recommends knowledge. Gentleness to subordinates is
+politic, and shows good education; hence he praises gentleness. He
+mingles advice throughout on the behaviour to be observed in the various
+circumstances of life, on being introduced into the presence of a
+haughty and choleric man, on entering society, on the occasion of dining
+with a dignitary, on being married. “If thou art wise, thou wilt go
+up into thine house, and love thy wife at home; thou wilt give her
+abundance of food, thou wilt clothe her back with garments; all that
+covers her limbs, her perfumes, is the joy of her life; as long as thou
+lookest to this, she is as a profitable field to her master.” To analyse
+such a work in detail is impossible: it is still more impossible to
+translate the whole of it. The nature of the subject, the strangeness of
+certain precepts, the character of the style, all tend to disconcert the
+reader and to mislead him in his interpretations. From the very earliest
+times ethics has been considered as a healthy and praiseworthy subject
+in itself, but so hackneyed was it, that a change in the mode of
+expressing it could alone give it freshness. Phtahhotpû is a victim
+to the exigencies of the style he adopted. Others before him had given
+utterance to the truths he wished to convey: he was obliged to clothe
+them in a startling and interesting form to arrest the attention of his
+readers. In some places he has expressed his thought with such subtlety,
+that the meaning is lost in the jingle of the words. The art of the
+Memphite dynasties has suffered as much as the literature from the
+hand of time, but in the case of the former the fragments are at least
+numerous and accessible to all. The kings of this period erected temples
+in their cities, and, not to speak of the chapel of the Sphinx, we find
+in the remains still existing of these buildings chambers of granite,
+alabaster and limestone, covered with religious scenes like those of
+more recent periods, although in some cases the walls are left bare.
+Their public buildings have all, or nearly all, perished; breaches have
+been made in them by invading armies or by civil wars, and they have
+been altered, enlarged, and restored scores of times in the course of
+ages; but the tombs of the old kings remain, and afford proof of the
+skill and perseverance exhibited by the architects in devising and
+carrying out their plans. Many of the mastabas occurring at intervals
+between Gîzeh and Mêdûm have, indeed, been hastily and carelessly built,
+as if by those who were anxious to get them finished, or who had an eye
+to economy; we may observe in all of them neglect and imperfection,--all
+the trade-tricks which an unscrupulous jerry-builder then, as now, could
+be guilty of, in order to keep down the net cost and satisfy the natural
+parsimony of his patrons without lessening his own profits.* Where,
+however, the master-mason has not been hampered by being forced to work
+hastily or cheaply, he displays his conscientiousness, and the choice of
+materials, the regularity of the courses, and the homogeneousness of the
+building leave nothing to be desired; the blocks are adjusted with such
+precision that the joints are almost invisible, and the mortar between
+them has been spread with such a skilful hand that there is scarcely an
+appreciable difference in its uniform thickness.**
+
+     * The similarity of the materials and technicalities of
+     construction and decoration seem to me to prove that the
+     majority of the tombs were built by a small number of
+     contractors or corporations, lay or ecclesiastical, both at
+     Memphis, under the Ancient, as well as at Thebes, under the
+     New Empire.
+
+     ** Speaking of the Great Pyramid and of its casing,
+     Professor Petrie says: “Though the stones were brought as
+     close as [--] inch, or, in fact, into contact, and the mean
+     opening of the joint was but [--] inch, yet the builders
+     managed to fill the joint with cement, despite the great
+     area of it, and the weight of the stone to be moved--some 16
+     tons. To merely place such stones in exact contact at the
+     sides would be careful work; but to do so with cement in the
+     joint seems almost impossible.”
+
+The long low flat mass which the finished tomb presented to the eye
+is wanting in grace, but it has the characteristics of strength and
+indestructibility well suited to an “eternal house.” The façade,
+however, was not wanting in a certain graceful severity: the play of
+light and shade distributed over its surface by the stelæ, niches, and
+deep-set doorways, varied its aspect in the course of the day, without
+lessening the impression of its majesty and serenity which nothing
+could disturb. The pyramids themselves are not, as we might imagine,
+the coarse and ill-considered reproduction of a mathematical figure
+disproportionately enlarged. The architect who made an estimate for that
+of Kheops, must have carefully thought out the relative value of the
+elements contained in the problem which had to be solved--the vertical
+height of the summit, the length of the sides on the ground line,
+the angle of pitch, the inclination of the lateral faces to one
+another--before he discovered the exact proportions and the arrangement
+of lines which render his monument a true work of art, and not merely a
+costly and mechanical arrangement of stones.*
+
+     * Cf. Borchardt’s article, _Wie wurden die Boschungen der
+     Pyramiden bestimmt?_ in which the author--an architect by
+     profession as well as an Egyptologist--interprets the
+     theories and problems of the _Rhind mathematical Papyrus_ in
+     a new manner, comparing the result with his own
+     calculations, made from measurements of pyramids still
+     standing, and in which he shows, by an examination of the
+     diagrams discovered on the wall of a mastaba at Mêdûm, that
+     the Egyptian contractors of the Memphite period were, at
+     that early date, applying the rules and methods of procedure
+     which we find set forth in the Papyri of Theban times.
+
+The impressions which he desired to excite, have been felt by all who
+came after him when brought face to face with the pyramids. From a great
+distance they appear like mountain-peaks, breaking the monotony of the
+Libyan horizon; as we approach them they apparently decrease in size,
+and seem to be merely unimportant inequalities of ground on the surface
+of the plain. It is not till we reach their bases that we guess their
+enormous size. The lower courses then stretch seemingly into infinity to
+right and left, while the summit soars up out of our sight into the sky.
+“The effect is gained by majesty and simplicity of form, in the contrast
+and disproportion between the stature of man and the immensity of his
+handiwork: the eye fails to take it in; it is even difficult for the
+mind to grasp it. We see, we may touch hundreds of courses formed of
+blocks, two hundred cubic feet in size,... and thousands of others
+scarcely less in bulk, and wo are at a loss to know what force has
+moved, transported, and raised so great a number of colossal stones, how
+many men were needed for the work, what amount of time was required
+for it, what machinery they used; and in proportion to our inability to
+answer these questions, we increasingly admire the power which regarded
+such obstacles as trifles.”
+
+We are not acquainted with the names of any of the men who conceived
+these prodigious works. The inscriptions mention in detail the princes,
+nobles, and scribes who presided over all the works undertaken by the
+sovereign, but they have never deigned to record the name of a single
+architect.*
+
+     * The title “mir kaûtû nîbû nîti sûton,” frequently met
+     with under the Ancient Empire, does not designate the
+     architects, as many Egyptologists have thought: it signifies
+     “director of all the king’s works,” and is applicable to
+     irrigation, dykes and canals, mines and quarries, and all
+     branches of an engineer’s profession, as well as to those of
+     the architect’s. The “directors of all the king’s works ”
+      were dignitaries deputed by Pharaoh to take the necessary
+     measurements for the building of temples, for dredging
+     canals, for quarrying stone and minerals; they were
+     administrators, and not professionals possessing the
+     technical knowledge of an architect or engineer.
+
+[Illustrations: 234a.jpg Avenue of Sphinxes--Karnak]
+
+[Illustrations: 234a-text.jpg]
+
+They were people of humble extraction, living hard lives under fear of
+the stick, and their ordinary assistants, the draughtsmen, painters, and
+sculptors, were no better off than themselves; they were looked upon
+as mechanics of the same social status as the neighbouring shoemaker or
+carpenter. The majority of them were, in fact, clever mechanical workers
+of varying capability, accustomed to chisel out a bas-relief or set a
+statue firmly on its legs, in accordance with invariable rules which
+they transmitted unaltered from one generation to another: some were
+found among them, however, who displayed unmistakable genius in
+their art, and who, rising above the general mediocrity, produced
+masterpieces. Their equipment of tools was very simple--iron picks with
+wooden handles, mallets of wood, small hammers, and a bow for boring
+holes. The sycamore and acacia furnished them with a material of a
+delicate grain and soft texture, which they used to good advantage:
+Egyptian art has left us nothing which, in purity of Hue and delicacy of
+modelling, surpasses the panels of the tomb of Hosi, with their seated
+or standing male figures and their vigorously cut hieroglyphs in the
+same relief as the picture. Egypt possesses, however, but few trees of
+suitable fibre for sculptural purposes, and even those which were
+fitted for this use were too small and stunted to furnish blocks of any
+considerable size. The sculptor, therefore, turned by preference to the
+soft white limestone of Turah.
+
+[Illustration: 236.jpg ONE OF THE WOODEN PANELS OF HOSI, IN THE GÎZEH
+MUSEUM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. The
+     original is now in the Gîzeh Museum.
+
+He quickly detached the general form of his statue from the mass of
+stone, fixed the limits of its contour by means of dimension guides
+applied horizontally from top to bottom, and then cut away the angles
+projecting beyond the guides, and softened off the outline till he made
+his modelling correct. This simple and regular method of procedure was
+not suited to hard stone: the latter had to be first chiselled, but when
+by dint of patience the rough hewing had reached the desired stage, the
+work of completion was not entrusted to metal tools. Stone hatchets
+were used for smoothing off the superficial roughnesses, and it was
+assiduously polished to efface the various tool-marks left upon
+its surface. The statues did not present that variety of gesture,
+expression, and attitude which we aim at to-day. They were, above
+all things, the accessories of a temple or tomb, and their appearance
+reflects the particular ideas entertained with regard to their nature.
+The artists did not seek to embody in them the ideal type of male
+or female beauty: they were representatives made to perpetuate the
+existence of the model.
+
+[Illustration: 237.jpg A SCULPTOR’s STUDIO, AND EGYPTIAN PAINTERS AT
+WORK]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a chromolithograph by Prisse
+     d’Avennes, _Histoire de l’Art Égyptien_. The original is in
+     the tomb of Rakhmirî, who lived at Thebes under the XVIIIth
+     dynasty. The methods which were used did not differ from
+     those employed by the sculptors and painters of the Memphite
+     period more than two thousand years previously.
+
+The Egyptians wished the double to be able to adapt itself easily to
+its image, and in order to compass that end, it was imperative that the
+stone presentment should be at least an approximate likeness, and should
+reproduce the proportions and peculiarities of the living prototype
+for whom it was meant. The head had to be the faithful portrait of the
+individual: it was enough for the body to be, so to speak, an average
+one, showing him at his fullest development and in the complete
+enjoyment of his physical powers. The men were always represented in
+their maturity, the women never lost the rounded breast and slight hips
+of their girlhood, but a dwarf always preserved his congenital ugliness,
+for his salvation in the other world demanded that it should be so. Had
+he been given normal stature, the double, accustomed to the deformity of
+his members in this world, would have been unable to accommodate himself
+to an upright carriage, and would not have been in a fit condition to
+resume his course of life.
+
+[Illustration: 238.jpg CELLARER COATING A JAR WITH PITCH]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. The
+     original is now in the Gîzeh Museum.
+
+The particular pose of the statue was dependent on the social position
+of the person. The king, the nobleman, and the master are always
+standing or sitting: it was in these postures they received the homage
+of their vassals or relatives. The wife shares her husband’s seat,
+stands upright beside him, or crouches at his feet as in daily life. The
+son, if his statue was ordered while he was a child, wears the dress of
+childhood; if he had arrived to manhood, he is represented in the dress
+and with the attitude suited to his calling. Slaves grind the grain,
+cellarers coat their amphoræ with pitch, bakers knead their dough,
+mourners make lamentation and tear their hair. The exigencies of rank
+clung to the Egyptians in temple and tomb, wherever their statues were
+placed, and left the sculptor who represented them scarcely any liberty.
+He might be allowed to vary the details and arrange the accessories
+to his taste; he might alter nothing in the attitude or the general
+likeness without compromising the end and aim of his work. The statues
+of the Memphite period may be counted at the present day by hundreds.
+
+[Illustration: 239.jpg BAKER KNEADING HIS DOUGH]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Béchard. The original
+     is now in the Gîzeh Museum.
+
+Some are in the heavy and barbaric style which has caused them to be
+mistaken for primaeval monuments: as, for instance, the statues of Sapi
+and his wife, now in the Louvre, which are attributed to the beginning
+of the IIIrd dynasty or even earlier. Groups exactly resembling these in
+appearance are often found in the tombs of the Vth and VIth dynasties,
+which according to this reckoning would be still older than that of
+Sapi: they were productions of an inferior studio, and their supposed
+archaism is merely the want of skill of an ignorant sculptor. The
+majority of the remaining statues are not characterized either by
+glaring faults or by striking merits: they constitute an array of
+honest good-natured folk, without much individuality of character and
+no originality. They may be easily divided into five or six groups, each
+having a style in common, and all apparently having been executed on the
+lines of a few chosen models; the sculptors who worked for the mastaba
+contractors were distributed among a very few studios, in which a
+traditional routine was observed for centuries. They did not always
+wait for orders, but, like our modern tombstone-makers, kept by them a
+tolerable assortment of half-finished statues, from which the purchaser
+could choose according to his taste. The hands, feet, and bust lacked
+only the colouring and final polish, but the head was merely rough-hewn,
+and there were no indications of dress; when the future occupant of
+the tomb or his family had made their choice, a few hours of work were
+sufficient to transform the rough sketch into a portrait, such as it
+was, of the deceased they desired to commemorate, and to arrange his
+garment according to the latest fashion. If, however, the relatives or
+the sovereign* declined to be satisfied with these commonplace images,
+and demanded a less conventional treatment of body for the double of him
+whom they had lost, there were always some among the assistants to be
+found capable of entering into their wishes, and of seizing the lifelike
+expression of limbs and features.
+
+     * It must not be forgotten that the statues were often, like
+     the tomb itself, given by the king to the man whose services
+     he desired to reward. His burying-place then bore the
+     formulary, “By the favour of the king,” as I have mentioned
+     previously.
+
+[Illustration: 241.jpg THE SHEIKH-EL BELED IN THE GIZEH MUSEUM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey.
+
+We possess at the present day, scattered about in museums, some score of
+statues of this period, examples of consummate art,--the Khephrens, the
+Kheops, the Anû, the Nofrît, the Râhotpû I have already mentioned, the
+“Sheîkh-el-Beled” and his wife, the sitting scribe of the Louvre and
+that of Gîzeh, and the kneeling scribe. Kaâpirû, the “Sheîkh-el-Beled,”
+ was probably one of the directors of the corvée employed to build the
+Great Pyramid.* He seems to be coming forward to meet the beholder, with
+an acacia staff in his hand. He has the head and shoulders of a bull,
+and a common cast of countenance, whose vulgarity is not wanting in
+energy. The large, widely open eye has, by a trick of the sculptor, an
+almost uncanny reality about it.
+
+     * It was discovered by Mariette at Saqqâra. “The head,
+     torso, arms, and even the staff, were intact; but the
+     pedestal and legs were hopelessly decayed, and the statue
+     was only kept upright by the sand which surrounded it.” The
+     staff has since been broken, and is replaced by a more
+     recent one exactly like it. In order to set up the figure,
+     Mariette was obliged to supply new feet, which retain the
+     colour of the fresh wood. By a curious coincidence, Kaâpirû
+     was an exact portrait of one of the “Sheikhs el-Beled,” or
+     mayors of the village of Saqqâra: the Arab workmen, always
+     quick to see a likeness, immediately called it the “Sheikh
+     el-Beled,” and the name has been retained ever since.
+
+[Illustration: 242.jpg THE KNEELING SCRIBE IN THE GIZEH MUSEUM]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-
+     Bey.
+
+     [Illustration: 242b.jpg THE SITTING SCRIBE IN THE GÎZEH MUSEUM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey.
+     This scribe was discovered at Saqqâra, by M. de Morgan, in
+     the beginning of 1893.
+
+The socket which holds it has been hollowed out and filled with an
+arrangement of black and white enamel; a rim of bronze marks the outline
+of the lids, while a little silver peg, inserted at the back of the
+pupil, reflects the light and gives the effect of the sparkle of a
+living glance. The statue, which is short in height, is of wood, and one
+would be inclined to think that the relative plasticity of the material
+counts for something in the boldness of the execution, were it not that
+though the sitting scribe of the Louvre is of limestone, the sculptor
+has not shown less freedom in its composition. We recognize in this
+figure one of those somewhat flabby and heavy subordinate officials of
+whom so many examples are to be seen in Oriental courts. He is squatting
+cross-legged on the pedestal, pen in hand, with the outstretched leaf of
+papyrus conveniently placed on the right: he waits, after an interval
+of six thousand years, until Pharaoh or his vizier deigns to resume the
+interrupted dictation. His colleague at the Gîzeh Museum awakens in us
+no less wonder at his vigour and self-possession; but, being younger,
+he exhibits a fuller and firmer figure with a smooth skin, contrasting
+strongly with the deeply wrinkled appearance of the other, aggravated as
+it is by his flabbiness. The “kneeling scribe” preserves in his pose
+and on his countenance that stamp of resigned indecision and monotonous
+gentleness which is impressed upon subordinate officials by the
+influence of a life spent entirely under the fear of the stick. Banofir,
+on the contrary, is a noble lord looking upon his vassals passing in
+file before him: his mien is proud, his head disdainful, and he has
+that air of haughty indifférence which is befitting a favourite of the
+Pharaoh, possessor of generously bestowed sinecures, and lord of a score
+of domains. The same haughtiness of attitude distinguishes the
+director of the granaries, Nofir. We rarely encounter a small statue
+so expressive of vigour and energy. Sometimes there may be found among
+these short-garmented people an individual wrapped and almost smothered
+in an immense _abayah_; or a naked man, representing a peasant on his
+way to market, his bag on his left shoulder, slightly bent under the
+weight, carrying his sandals in his other hand, lest they should be
+worn out too quickly in walking. Everywhere we observe the traits of
+character distinctive of the individual and his position, rendered
+with a scrupulous fidelity: nothing is omitted, no detail of the
+characteristics of the model is suppressed. Idealisation we must not
+expect, but we have here an intelligent and sometimes too realistic
+fidelity. Portraits have been conceived among other peoples and in other
+periods in a different way: they have never been better executed.
+
+[Illustration: 246.jpg PEASANT GOING TO MARKET]
+
+     * Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Béchard. The
+     original is at Gizeh.--Vth dynasty.
+
+The decoration of the sepulchres provided employment for scores of
+draughtsmen, sculptors, and painters, whose business it was to multiply
+in these tombs scenes of everyday life which were indispensable to the
+happiness or comfort of the double. The walls are sometimes decorated
+with isolated pictures only, each one of which represents a distinct
+operation; more frequently we find traced upon them a single subject
+whose episodes are superimposed one upon the other from the ground to
+the ceiling, and represent an Egyptian panorama from the Nile to the
+desert. In the lower portion, boats pass to and fro, and collide with
+each other, while the boatmen come to blows with their boat-hooks within
+sight of hippopotami and crocodiles. In the upper portions we see a band
+of slaves engaged in fowling among the thickets of the river-bank, or
+in the making of small boats, the manufacture of ropes, the scraping and
+salting of fish. Under the cornice, hunters and dogs drive the gazelle
+across the undulating plains of the desert. Every row represents one of
+the features of the country; but the artist, instead of arranging the
+pictures in perspective, separated them and depicted them one above the
+other.
+
+[Illustration: 247.jpg KOFIR, THE DIRECTOR OF GRANARIES]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey.
+     original is in the Gîzeh Museum.--Vth dynasty.
+
+The groups are repeated in one tomb after another; they are always
+the same, but sometimes they are reduced to two or three individuals,
+sometimes increased in number, spread out and crowded with figures and
+inscriptions. Each chief draughtsman had his book of subjects and texts,
+which he combined in various ways, at one time bringing them close
+together, at another duplicating or extending them according to the
+means put at his disposal or the space he had to cover. The same
+men, the same animals, the same features of the landscape, the same
+accessories, appear everywhere: it is industrial and mechanical art at
+its highest. The whole is, however, harmonious, agreeable to the eye,
+and instructive. The conventionalisms of the drawing as well as those
+of the composition are very different from ours. Whether it is man or
+beast, the subject is invariably presented in outline by the brush, or
+by the graving tool in sharp relief upon the background; but the animals
+are represented in action, with their usual gait, movement, and play of
+limbs distinguishing each species. The slow and measured walk of the ox,
+the short step, meditative ears, and ironical mouth of the ass, the calm
+strength of the lion at rest, the grimaces of the monkeys, the slender
+gracefulness of the gazelle and antelope, are invariably presented with
+a consummate skill in drawing and expression. The human figure is the
+least perfect: every one is acquainted with those strange figures, whose
+heads in profile, with the eye drawn in full face, are attached to a
+torso seen from the front and supported by limbs in profile. These are
+truly anatomical monsters, and yet the appearance they present to us
+is neither laughable nor grotesque. The defective limbs are so deftly
+connected with those which are normal, that the whole becomes natural:
+the correct and fictitious lines are so ingeniously blent together
+that they seem to rise necessarily from each other. The actors in these
+dramas are constructed in such a paradoxical fashion that they could not
+exist in this world of ours; they live notwithstanding, in spite of the
+ordinary laws of physiology, and to any one who will take the trouble to
+regard them without prejudice, their strangeness will add a charm which
+is lacking in works more conformable to nature. A layer of colour spread
+over the whole heightens and completes them. This colouring is never
+quite true to nature nor yet entirely false. It approaches reality as
+far as possible, but without pretending to copy it in a servile way. The
+water is always a uniform blue, or broken up by black zigzag lines; the
+skin of the men is invariably brown, that of the women pale yellow.
+
+[Illustration: 249.jpg BAS-RELIEF IN IVORY]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Bouriant. The
+     original is in private possession.
+
+The shade befitting each being or object was taught in the workshops,
+and once the receipt for it was drawn up, it was never varied in
+application. The effect produced by these conventional colours, however,
+was neither discordant nor jarring. The most brilliant colours were
+placed alongside each other with extreme audacity, but with a perfect
+knowledge of their mutual relations and combined effect. They do not
+jar with, or exaggerate, or kill each other: they enhance each other’s
+value, and by their contact give rise to half-shades which harmonize
+with them. The sepulchral chapels, in cases where their decoration had
+been completed, and where they have reached us intact, appear to us as
+chambers hung with beautifully luminous and interesting tapestry, in
+which rest ought to be pleasant during the heat of the day to the soul
+which dwells within them, and to the friends who come there to hold
+intercourse with the dead.
+
+The decoration of palaces and houses was not less sumptuous than that of
+the sepulchres, but it has been so completely destroyed that we should
+find it difficult to form an idea of the furniture of the living if we
+did not see it frequently depicted in the abode of the double. The great
+armchairs, folding seats, footstools, and beds of carved wood, painted
+and inlaid, the vases of hard stone, metal, or enamelled ware, the
+necklaces, bracelets, and ornaments on the walls, even the common
+pottery of which we find the remains in the neighbourhood of the
+pyramids, are generally distinguished by an elegance and grace
+reflecting credit on the workmanship and taste of the makers.* The
+squares of ivory which they applied to their linen-chests and their
+jewel-cases often contained actual bas-reliefs in miniature of as bold
+workmanship and as skilful execution as the most beautiful pictures in
+the tombs: on these, moreover, were scenes of private life--dancing or
+processions bringing offerings and animals.**
+
+     * The study of the alabaster and diorite vases found near
+     the pyramids has furnished Petrie with very ingenious views
+     on the methods among the Egyptians of working hard stone.
+     Examples of stone toilet or sacrificial bottles are not
+     unfrequent in our museums: I may mention those in the Louvre
+     which bear the cartouches of Dadkerî Assi (No. 343), of Papi
+     I., and of Papi II., the son of Papi I.; not that they are
+     to be reckoned among the finest, but because the cartouches
+     fix the date of their manufacture. They came from the
+     pyramids of these sovereigns, opened by the Arabs at the
+     beginning of this century: the vase of the VIth dynasty,
+     which is in the Museum at Florence, was brought from Abydos.
+
+     ** M. Grébaut bought at the Great Pyramids, in 1887, a
+     series of these ivory sculptures of the Ancient Empire. They
+     are now at the Gîzeh Museum. Others belonging to the same
+     find are dispersed among private collections: one of them is
+     reproduced on p. 249 of this History.
+
+[Illustration: 252.jpg STELE OF THE DAUGHTER OF KHEOPS]
+
+Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Bochard.
+
+One would like to possess some of those copper and golden statues which
+the Pharaoh Kheops consecrated to Isis in honour of his daughter: only
+the representation of them upon a stele has come down to us; and the
+fragments of sceptres or other objects which too rarely have reached us,
+have unfortunately no artistic value.
+
+A taste for pretty things was common, at least among the upper classes,
+including not only those about the court, but also those in the most
+distant nomes of Egypt. The provincial lords, like the courtiers of
+the palace, took a pride in collecting around them in the other world
+everything of the finest that the art of the architect, sculptor, and
+painter could conceive and execute. Their mansions as well as their
+temples have disappeared, but we find, here and there on the sides of
+the hills, the sepulchres which they had prepared for themselves in
+rivalry with those of the courtiers or the members of the reigning
+family. They turned the valley into a vast series of catacombs, so that
+wherever we look the horizon is bounded by a row of historic tombs.
+Thanks to their rock-cut sepulchres, we are beginning to know the
+Nomarchs of the Gazelle and the Hare, those of the Serpent-Mountain, of
+Akhmîm, Thinis, Qasr-es-Sayad, and Aswan,--all the scions, in fact, of
+that feudal government which preceded the royal sovereignty on the
+banks of the Nile, and of which royalty was never able to entirely
+disembarrass itself. The Pharaohs of the IVth dynasty had kept them in
+such check that we can hardly find any indications during their reigns
+of the existence of these great barons; the heads of the Pharaonic
+administration were not recruited from among the latter, but from the
+family and domestic circle of the sovereign. It was in the time of the
+kings of the Vth dynasty, it would appear, that the barons again
+entered into favour and gradually gained the upper hand; we find them
+in increasing numbers about Anû, Menkaûhorû, and Assi. Did Unas, who was
+the last ruler of the dynasty of Elephantine, die without issue, or were
+his children prevented from succeeding him by force? The Egyptian annals
+of the time of the Ramessides bring the direct line of Menés to an end
+with this king. A new line of Memphite origin begins after him.
+
+[Illustration: 253.jpg THE PHARAOH MENKAUHORÛ]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Faucher-Gudin. The
+     original, which came from Mariette’s excavations at the
+     Serapeum, is in the Louvre.
+
+It is almost certain that the transmission of power was not accomplished
+without contention, and that there were many claimants to the crown. One
+of the latter, Imhotpû, whose legitimacy was always disputed, has
+left hardly any traces of his accession to power,* but Ati established
+himself firmly on the throne for a year at least:** he pushed on
+actively the construction of his pyramid, and sent to the valley of
+Hammamât for the stone of his sarcophagus.
+
+     * The monuments furnish proof that their contemporaries
+     considered these ephemeral rulers as so many illegitimate
+     pretenders. Phtahshopsîsû and his son Sabû-Abibi, who
+     exercised important functions at the court, mention only
+     Unas and Teti III.; Uni, who took office under Teti III.,
+     mentions after this king only Papi I. and Mihtimsaûf I. The
+     official succession was, therefore, regulated at this epoch
+     in the same way as we afterwards find it in the table of
+     Saqqâra, Unas, Teti III., Papi I., Mihtimsaûf I., and in the
+     Royal Canon of Turin, without the intercalation of any other
+     king.
+
+     ** Brugsch, in his Histoire d’Egypte, pp. 44, 45, had
+     identified this king with the first Metesouphis of Manetho:
+     E. de Rougé prefers to transfer him to one of the two
+     Memphite series after the VIth dynasty, and his opinion has
+     been adopted by Wiedemann. The position occupied by his
+     inscription among those of Hamraamât has decided me in
+     placing him at the end of the Vth or beginning of the VIth
+     dynasty: this E. Meyer has also done.
+
+We know not whether revolution or sudden death put an end to his
+activity: the “Mastabat-el-Faraun” of Saqqâra, in which he hoped to
+rest, never exceeded the height which it has at present.* His name was,
+however, inscribed in certain official lists,** and a tradition of the
+Greek period maintained that he had been assassinated by his guards.***
+Teti III. was the actual founder of the VIth dynasty,**** historians
+representing him as having been the immediate successor of Unas.
+
+     * Ati is known only from the Hammamât, inscription dated in
+     the first year of his reign. He was identified by Brugsch
+     with the Othoes of Manetho, and this identification has been
+     generally adopted. M. de Rougé is inclined to attribute to
+     him as _prænomen_ the cartouche Usirkeri, which is given in
+     the Table of Abydos between those of Teti III. and Papi I.
+     Mariette prefers to recognize in Urikeri an independent
+     Pharaoh of short reign. Several blocks of the Mastabat-el-
+     Faraun at Saqqâra contain the cartouche of Unas, a fact
+     which induced Mariette to regard this as the tomb of the
+     Pharaoh. The excavations of 1881 showed that Unas was
+     entombed elsewhere, and the indications are in favour of
+     attributing the mastaba to Ati. We know, indeed, the
+     pyramids of Teti III., of the two Papis, and of Metesouphis
+     I.; Ati is the only prince of this period with whose tomb we
+     are unacquainted. It is thus by elimination, and not by
+     direct evidence, that the identification has been arrived
+     at: Ati may have drawn upon the workshops of his predecessor
+     Unas, which fact would explain the presence on these blocks
+     of the cartouche of the latter.
+
+     ** Upon that of Abydos, if we agree with E. de Rougé that
+     the cartouche Usirkeri contains his prænomen; upon that
+     from which Manetho borrowed, if we admit his identification
+     with Othoes.
+
+     *** Manetho (Unger’s edition, p. 101), where the form of the
+     name is Othoes.
+
+     **** He is called Teti Menephtah, with the cartouche
+     prænomen of Seti I., on a monument of the early part of the
+     XIXth dynasty, in the Museum at Marseilles: we see him in
+     his pyramid represented as standing. This pyramid was opened
+     in 1881, and its chambers are covered with long funerary
+     inscriptions. It is a work of the time of Seti I., and not a
+     contemporary production of the time of Menkaûhorû.
+
+He lived long enough to build at Saqqâra a pyramid whose internal
+chambers are covered with inscriptions,* and his son succeeded him
+without opposition. Papi I. reigned at least twenty years.**
+
+     * The true pronunciation of this name would be Pipi, and of
+     the one before it Titi. The two other Tetis are Teti I. of
+     the Ist dynasty, and Zosir-Teti, or Teti II., of the IIIrd.
+
+     ** From fragment 59 of the Royal Canon of Turin, An
+     inscription in the quarries of Hât-nûbû bears the date of
+     the year 24: if it has been correctly copied, the reign must
+     have been four years at least longer than the chronologists
+     of the time of the Ramessides thought.
+
+[Illustration: 255.jpg THE MASTABAT-EL-FARAUN, LOOKING TOWARDS THE WEST
+FAÇADE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Béchard.
+
+He manifested his activity in all corners of his empire, in the nomes
+of the Said as well as in those of the Delta, and his authority extended
+beyond the frontiers by which the power of his immediate predecessors
+had been limited. He owned sufficient territory south of Elephantine to
+regard Nubia as a new kingdom added to those which constituted ancient
+Egypt: we therefore see him entitled in his preamble “the triple
+Golden Horus,” “the triple Conqueror-Horus,” “the Delta-Horus,” “the
+Said-Horus,” “the Nubia-Horus.” The tribes of the desert furnished him,
+as was customary, with recruits for his army, for which he had need
+enough, for the Bedouin of the Sinaitic Peninsula were on the move, and
+were even becoming dangerous. Papi, aided by Uni, his prime minister,
+undertook against them a series of campaigns, in which he reduced them
+to a state of helplessness, and extended the sovereignty of Egypt for
+the time over regions hitherto unconquered.
+
+Uni began his career under Teti.* At first a simple page in the
+palace,** he succeeded in obtaining a post in the administration of the
+treasury, and afterwards that of inspector of the woods of the royal
+domain.***
+
+     * The beginning of the first line is wanting, and I have
+     restored it from other inscriptions of the same kind: “I
+     was born under Unas.” Uni could not have been born before
+     Unas; the first office that he filled under Teti III. was
+     while he was a child or youth, while the reign of Unas
+     lasted thirty years.
+
+     ** Literally, “crown-bearer.” This was a title applied
+     probably to children who served the king in his private
+     apartments, and who wore crowns of natural flowers on their
+     heads: the crown was doubtless of the same form as those
+     which we see upon the brows of women on several tombs of the
+     Memphite epoch.
+
+     *** The word “Khoniti” probably indicates lands with
+     plantations of palms or acacias, the thinly wooded forests
+     of Egypt, and also of the vines which belonged to the
+     personal domain of the Pharaoh.
+
+Papi took him into his friendship at the beginning of his reign, and
+conferred upon him the title of “friend,” and the office of head of
+the cabinet, in which position he acquitted himself with credit. Alone,
+without other help than that of a subordinate scribe, he transacted all
+the business and drew up all the documents connected with the harem and
+the privy council. He obtained an ample reward for his services. Pharaoh
+granted to him, as a proof of his complete satisfaction, the furniture
+of a tomb in choice white limestone; one of the officials of the
+necropolis was sent to obtain from the quarries at Troiû the blocks
+required, and brought back with him a sarcophagus and its lid, a
+door-shaped stele with its setting and a table of offerings. He affirms
+with much self-satisfaction that never before had such a thing happened
+to any one; moreover, he adds, “my wisdom charmed his Majesty, my zeal
+pleased him, and his Majesty’s heart was delighted with me.” All this
+is pure hyperbole, but no one was surprised at it in Egypt; etiquette
+required that a faithful subject should declare the favours of his
+sovereign to be something new and unprecedented, even when they
+presented nothing extraordinary or out of the common. Gifts of
+sepulchral furniture were of frequent occurrence, and we know of more
+than one instance of them previous to the VIth dynasty--for example,
+the case of the physician Sokhît-niônkhû, whose tomb still exists at
+Saqqâra, and whom Pharaoh Sahurî rewarded by presenting him with a
+monumental stele in stone from Turah. Henceforth Uni could face without
+apprehension the future which awaited him in the other world; at the
+same time, he continued to make his way no less quickly in this, and was
+soon afterwards promoted to the rank of “sole friend” and superintendent
+of the irrigated lands of the king. The “sole friends” were closely
+attached to the person of their master. In all ceremonies, their
+appointed place was immediately behind him, a place of the highest
+honour and trust, for those who occupied it literally held his life
+in their hands. They made all the arrangements for his processions and
+journeys, and saw that the proper ceremonial was everywhere observed,
+and that no accident was allowed to interrupt the progress of his train.
+Lastly, they had to take care that none of the nobles ever departed from
+the precise position to which his birth or office entitled him. This was
+a task which required a great deal of tact, for questions of precedence
+gave rise to nearly as many heart-burnings in Egypt as in modern courts.
+Uni acquitted himself so dexterously, that he was called upon to act
+in a still more delicate capacity. Queen Amîtsi was the king’s chief
+consort. Whether she had dabbled in some intrigue of the palace, or had
+been guilty of unfaithfulness in act or in intention, or had been mixed
+up in one of those feminine dramas which so frequently disturb the peace
+of harems, we do not know. At any rate, Papi considered it necessary to
+proceed against her, and appointed Uni to judge the case. Aided only
+by his secretary, he drew up the indictment and decided the action so
+discreetly, that to this day we do not know of what crime Amîtsi was
+accused or how the matter ended. Uni felt great pride at having been
+preferred before all others for this affair, and not without reason,
+“for,” says he, “my duties were to superintend the royal forests, and
+never before me had a man in my position been initiated into the secrets
+of the Royal Harem; but his Majesty initiated me into them because my
+wisdom pleased his Majesty more than that of any other of his lieges,
+more than that of any other of his mamelukes, more than that of any
+other of his servants.” These antecedents did not seem calculated to
+mark out Uni as a future minister of war; but in the East, when a man
+has given proofs of his ability in one branch of administration, there
+is a tendency to consider him equally well fitted for service in any
+of the others, and the fiat of a prince transforms the clever scribe of
+to-day into the general of to-morrow. No one is surprised, not even
+the person promoted; he accepts his new duties without flinching, and
+frequently distinguishes himself as much in their performance as though
+he had been bred to them from his youth up. When Papi had resolved to
+give a lesson to the Bedouin of Sinai, he at once thought of Uni, his
+“sole friend,” who had so skilfully conducted the case of Queen
+Amîtsi. The expedition was not one of those which could be brought to
+a successful issue by the troops of the frontier nomes; it required a
+considerable force, and the whole military organization of the country
+had to be brought into play. “His Majesty raised troops to the number of
+several myriads, in the whole of the south from Elephantine to the nome
+of the Haunch, in the Delta, in the two halves of the valley, in each
+fort of the forts of the desert, in the land of Iritît, among the blacks
+of the land of Maza, among the blacks of the land of Amamît, among the
+blacks of the land of Ûaûait, among the blacks of the land of Kaaû,
+among the blacks of To-Tamû, and his Majesty sent me at the head of this
+army. It is true, there were chiefs there, there were mamelukes of the
+king there, there were sole friends of the Great House there, there
+were princes and governors of castles from the south and from the north,
+‘gilded friends,’ directors of the prophets from the south and the
+north, directors of districts at the head of troops from the south and
+the north, of castles and towns that each one ruled, and also blacks
+from the regions which I have mentioned, but it was I who gave them
+their orders--although my post was only that of superintendent of the
+irrigated lands of Pharaoh,--so much so that every one of them obeyed
+me like the others.” It was not without much difficulty that he brought
+this motley crowd into order, equipped them, and supplied them with
+rations. At length he succeeded in arranging everything satisfactorily;
+by dint of patience and perseverance, “each one took his biscuit and
+sandals for the march, and each one of them took bread from the towns,
+and each one of them took goats from the peasants.” He collected his
+forces on the frontier of the Delta, in the “Isle of the North,” between
+the “Gate of Imhotpû” and the “Tell of Horû nib-mâît,” and set out into
+the desert. He advanced, probably by Gebel Magharah and Gebel Helal,
+as far as Wady-el-Arîsh, into the rich and populous country which lay
+between the southern slopes of Gebel Tîh and the south of the Dead Sea:
+once there he acted with all the rigour permitted by the articles of
+war, and paid back with interest the ill usage which the Bedouin had
+inflicted on Egypt. “This army came in peace, it completely destroyed
+the country of the Lords of the Sands. This army came in peace, it
+pulverized the country of the Lords of the Sands. This army came in
+peace, it demolished their ‘douars.’ This army came in peace, it cut
+down their fig trees and their vines. This army came in peace, it burnt
+the houses of all their people. This army came in peace, it slaughtered
+their troops to the numbers of many myriads. This army came in peace, it
+brought back great numbers of their people as living captives, for which
+thing his Majesty praised me more than for aught else.” * As a matter of
+fact, these poor wretches were sent off as soon as taken to the quarries
+or to the dockyards, thus relieving the king from the necessity of
+imposing compulsory labour too frequently on his Egyptian subjects.
+
+     * The locality of the tribes against which Uni waged war
+     can, I think, be fixed by certain details of the campaign,
+     especially the mention of the oval or circular enclosures
+     “ûanît” within which they entrenched themselves. These
+     enclosures, or ndars, correspond to the nadami which are
+     mentioned by travellers in these regions, and which are
+     singularly characteristic. The “Lords of the Sands”
+      mentioned by Uni occupied the naûami country, i.e. the Negeb
+     regions situated on the edge of the desert of Tih, round
+     about Aîn-Qadis, and beyond it as far as Akabah and the Dead
+     Sea. Assuming this hypothesis to be correct, the route
+     followed by Uni must have been the same as that which was
+     discovered and described nearly twenty years ago, by
+     Holland.
+
+“His Majesty sent me five times to lead this army in order to penetrate
+into the country of the Lords of the Sands, on each occasion of their
+revolt against this army, and I bore myself so well that his Majesty
+praised me beyond everything.” The Bedouin at length submitted, but
+the neighbouring tribes to the north of them, who had no doubt assisted
+them, threatened to dispute with Egypt the possession of the territory
+which it had just conquered. As these tribes had a seaboard on the
+Mediterranean, Uni decided to attack them by sea, and got together a
+fleet in which he embarked his army. The troops landed on the coast of
+the district of Tiba, to the north of the country of the Lords of the
+Sands, thereupon “they set out. I went, I smote all the barbarians, and
+I killed all those of them who resisted.” On his return, Uni obtained
+the most distinguished marks of favour that a subject could receive,
+the right to carry a staff and to wear his sandals in the palace in the
+presence of Pharaoh.
+
+These wars had occupied the latter part of the reign; the last of them
+took place very shortly before the death of the sovereign. The domestic
+administration of Papi I. seems to have been as successful in its
+results, as was his activity abroad. He successfully worked the mines
+of Sinai, caused them to be regularly inspected, and obtained an unusual
+quantity of minerals from them; the expedition he sent thither, in the
+eighteenth year of his reign, left behind it a bas-relief in which are
+recorded the victories of Uni over the barbarians and the grants
+of territory made to the goddess Hâthor. Work was carried on
+uninterruptedly at the quarries of Hatnûbû and Kohanû; building
+operations were carried on at Memphis, where the pyramid was in course
+of erection, at Abydos, whither the oracle of Osiris was already
+attracting large numbers of pilgrims, at Tanis, at Bubastis, and
+at Heliopolis. The temple of Dendera was falling into ruins; it was
+restored on the lines I of the original plans which were accidentally
+discovered, and this piety displayed towards one of the most honoured
+deities was rewarded, as it deserved to be, by the insertion of the
+title of “son of Hâthor” in the royal cartouche. The vassals rivalled
+their sovereign in activity, and built new towns on all sides to serve
+them as residences, more than one of which was named after the Pharaoh.
+The death of Papi I. did nothing to interrupt this movement; the elder
+of his two sons by his second wife, Mirirî-ônkhnas, succeeded him
+without opposition. Mirnirî Mihtimsaûf I. (Metesouphis) was almost a
+child when he ascended the throne. The recently conquered Bedouin gave
+him no trouble; the memory of their reverses was still too recent to
+encourage them to take advantage of his minority and renew hostilities.
+Uni, moreover, was at hand, ready to recommence his campaigns at the
+slightest provocation. Metesouphis had retained him in all his offices,
+and had even entrusted him with new duties. “Pharaoh appointed me
+governor-general of Upper Egypt, from Elephantine in the south to
+Letopolis in the north, because my wisdom was pleasing to his Majesty,
+because my zeal was pleasing to his Majesty, because the heart of his
+Majesty was satisfied with me.... When I was in my place I was above all
+his vassals, all his mamelukes, and all his servants, for never had
+so great a dignity been previously conferred upon a mere subject. I
+fulfilled to the satisfaction of the king my office as superintendent of
+the South, so satisfactorily, that it was granted to me to be second in
+rank to him, accomplishing all the duties of a superintendent of works,
+judging all the cases which the royal administration had to judge in
+the south of Egypt as second judge, to render judgment at all hours
+determined by the royal administration in this south of Egypt as second
+judge, transacting as a governor all the business there was to do in
+this south of Egypt.” The honour of fetching the hard stone blocks
+intended for the king’s pyramid fell to him by right: he proceeded to
+the quarries of Abhaît, opposite Sehel, to select the granite for
+the royal sarcophagus and its cover, and to those of Hatnûbû for the
+alabaster for the table of offerings. The transport of the table was a
+matter of considerable difficulty, for the Nile was low, and the stone
+of colossal size: Uni constructed on the spot a raft to carry it, and
+brought it promptly to Saqqâra in spite of the sandbanks which obstruct
+navigation when the river is low.*
+
+     * Prof. Petrie has tried to prove from the passage which
+     relates to the transport, that the date of the reign of Papi
+     I. must have been within sixty years of 3240 B.C.; this date
+     I believe to be at least four centuries too late. It is,
+     perhaps, to this voyage of Uni that the inscription of the
+     Vth year of Metesouphis I. refers, given by Blackden-Frazer
+     in A Collection of Hieratic Graffiti from the Alabaster
+     Quarry of Rat-nub, pl. xv. 2.
+
+This was not the limit of his enterprise: the Pharaohs had not as yet a
+fleet in Nubia, and even if they had had, the condition of the channel
+was such as to prevent it from making the passage of the cataract.
+He demanded acacia-wood from the tribes of the desert, the peoples
+of Iritit and Uaûaît, and from the Mâzaiû, laid down his ships on the
+stocks, built three galleys and two large lighters in a single year;
+during this time the river-side labourers had cleared five channels
+through which the flotilla passed and made its way to Memphis with
+its ballast of granite. This was Uni’s last exploit; he died shortly
+afterwards, and was buried in the cemetery at Abydos, in the sarcophagus
+which had been given him by Papi I.
+
+[Illustration: 265.jpg THE ISLAND OF ELEPHANTINE]
+
+     Plan drawn up by Thuillier, from the Map of the _Commission
+     d’Egypte._
+
+Was it solely to obtain materials for building the pyramid that he
+had re-established communication by water between Egypt and Nubia? The
+Egyptians were gaining ground in the south every day, and under their
+rule the town of Elephantine was fast becoming a depot for trade with
+the Soudan.*
+
+     * The growing importance of Elephantine is shown by the
+     dimensions of the tombs which its princes had built for
+     themselves, as well as by the number of graffiti
+     commemorating the visits of princes and functionaries, and
+     still remaining at the present day.
+
+The town occupied only the smaller half of a long narrow island, which
+was composed of detached masses of granite, formed gradually into a
+compact whole by accumulations of sand, and over which the Nile, from
+time immemorial, had deposited a thick coating of its mud. It is now
+shaded by acacias, mulberry trees, date trees, and dôm palms, growing in
+some places in lines along the pathways, in others distributed in groups
+among the fields. Half a dozen saqiyehs, ranged in a line along the
+river-bank, raise water day and night, with scarcely any cessation of
+their monotonous creaking. The inhabitants do not allow a foot of their
+narrow domain to lie idle; they have cultivated wherever it is possible
+small plots of durra and barley, bersim and beds of vegetables.
+
+[Illustration: 266.jpg THE ISLAND OF ELAPHANTINE SEEN FROM THE RUINS OF
+SYENNE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato. In the
+     foreground are the ruins of the Roman mole built of brick,
+     which protected the entrance to the harbour of Syene; in the
+     distance is the Libyan range, surmounted by the ruins of
+     several mosques and of a Coptic monastery. Cf. the woodcut
+     on p. 275 of the present work.
+
+A few scattered buffaloes and cows graze in corners, while fowls and
+pigeons without number roam about in flocks on the look-out for what
+they can pick up. It is a world in miniature, tranquil and pleasant,
+where life is passed without effort, in a perpetually clear atmosphere
+and in the shade of trees which never lose their leaf. The ancient city
+was crowded into the southern extremity, on a high plateau of granite
+beyond the reach of inundations. Its ruins, occupying a space half a
+mile in circumference, are heaped around a shattered temple of Khnûrnû,
+of which the most ancient parts do not date back beyond the sixteenth
+century before our era.
+
+[Illustration: 267.jpg THE FIRST CATARACT]
+
+     Map by Thuillier, from _La Description de l’Egypte, Ant_.,
+     vol. i. pl. 30, 1. I have added the ancient names in those
+     cases where it has been possible to identify them with the
+     modern localities.
+
+It was surrounded with walls, and a fortress of sun-dried brick perched
+upon a neighbouring island to the south-west, gave it complete com-mand
+over the passages of the cataract. An arm of the river ninety yards wide
+separated it from Sûanît, whose closely built habitations were
+ranged along the steep bank, and formed, as it were, a suburb. Marshy
+pasturages occupied the modern site of Syene; beyond these were gardens,
+vines, furnishing wine celebrated throughout the whole of Egypt, and a
+forest of date palms running towards the north along the banks of the
+stream. The princes of the nome of Nubia encamped here, so to speak,
+as frontier-posts of civilization, and maintained frequent but variable
+relations with the people of the desert. It gave the former no trouble
+to throw, as occasion demanded it, bodies of troops on the right or left
+sides of the valley, in the direction of the Red Sea or in that of the
+Oasis; however little they might carry away in their raids--of oxen,
+slaves, wood, charcoal, gold dust, amethysts, cornelian or green felspar
+for the manufacture of ornaments--it was always so much to the good, and
+the treasury of the prince profited by it. They never went very far in
+their expeditions: if they desired to strike a blow at a distance,
+to reach, for example, those regions of Pûanît of whose riches the
+barbarians were wont to boast, the aridity of the district around the
+second cataract would arrest the advance of their foot-soldiers, while
+the rapids of Wady Haifa would offer an almost impassable barrier to
+their ships. In such distant operations they did not have recourse to
+arms, but disguised themselves as peaceful merchants. An easy road led
+almost direct from their capital to Ras Banât, which they called the
+“Head of Nekhabît,” on the Red Sea; arrived at the spot where in later
+times stood one of the numerous Berenices, and having quickly put
+together a boat from the wood of the neighbouring forest, they made
+voyages along the coast, as far as the Sinaitic peninsula and the
+Hirû-Shâîtû on the north, as well as to the land of Pûânît itself on
+the south. The small size of these improvised vessels rendered such
+expeditions dangerous, while it limited their gain; they preferred,
+therefore, for the most part the land journey.
+
+[Illustration: 269.jpg SMALL WADY, FIVE HOURS BEYOND ED-DOUEÎG, ON THE
+ROAD TO THE RED SEA]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Golénischeff.
+
+It was fatiguing and interminable: donkeys--the only beast of burden
+they were acquainted with, or, at least, employed--could make but short
+stages, and they spent months upon months in passing through countries
+which a caravan of camels would now traverse in a few weeks.*
+
+     * The _History of the Peasant_, in the Berlin Papyri Nos.
+     ii. and iv., affords us a good example of the use made of
+     pack-asses; the hero was on his way across the desert, from
+     the “Wady Natrûn” to Henasieh, with a quantity of merchandise
+     which he intended to sell, when an unscrupulous artisan,
+     under cover of a plausible pretext, stole his train of pack-
+     asses and their loads. Hirkhûf brought back with him a
+     caravan of three hundred asses from one of his journeys; cf.
+     p. 278 of the present work.
+
+The roads upon which they ventured were those which, owing to the
+necessity for the frequent watering of the donkeys and the impossibility
+of carrying with them adequate supplies of water, were marked out at
+frequent intervals by wells and springs, and were therefore necessarily
+of a tortuous and devious character. Their choice of objects for barter
+was determined by the smallness of their bulk and weight in comparison
+with their value. The Egyptians on the one side were provided with
+stocks of beads, ornaments, coarse cutlery, strong perfumes, and rolls
+of white or coloured cloth, which, after the lapse of thirty-five
+centuries, are objects still coveted by the peoples of Africa. The
+aborigines paid for these articles of small value, in gold, either
+in dust or in bars, in ostrich feathers, lions’ and leopards’ skins,
+elephants’ tusks, cowrie shells, billets of ebony, incense, and gum
+arabic. Considerable value was attached to cynocephali and green
+monkeys, with which the kings or the nobles amused themselves, and which
+they were accustomed to fasten to the legs of their chairs on days of
+solemn reception; but the dwarf, the Danga, was the rare commodity which
+was always in demand, but hardly ever attainable.*
+
+     * Domichen, _Geographische Inschriften_, vol. i. xxxi. 1. 1,
+     where the dwarfs and pigmies who came to the court of the
+     king, in the period of the Ptolemies, to serve in his
+     household, are mentioned. Various races of diminutive
+     stature, which have since been driven down to the upper
+     basin of the Congo, formerly extended further northward, and
+     dwelt between Darfûr and the marshes of Bahr-el-Ghazâl. As
+     to the Danga, cf. what has been said on p. 226 of the
+     present work.
+
+[Illustration: 270.jpg THE ROCKS OF THE ISLAND OF SEHÊL, WITH SOME OF
+THE VOTIVE INSCRIPTIONS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken by Dévèria in 1864.
+
+Partly by commerce, and partly by pillage, the lords of Elephantine
+became rapidly wealthy, and began to play an important part among the
+nobles of the Said: they were soon obliged to take serious precautions
+against the cupidity which their wealth excited among the tribes of
+Konusît. They entrenched themselves behind a wall of sun-dried brick,
+some seven and a half miles long, of which the ruins are still an object
+of wonder to the traveller. It was flanked towards the north by the
+ramparts of Syene, and followed pretty regularly the lower course of the
+valley to its abutment at the port of Mahatta opposite Philas: guards
+distributed along it, kept an eye upon the mountain, and uttered a
+call to arms, when the enemy came within sight. Behind this bulwark
+the population felt quite at ease, and could work without fear at the
+granite quarries on behalf of the Pharaoh, or pursue in security their
+callings of fishermen and sailors. The inhabitants of the village of
+Satît and of the neighbouring islands claimed from earliest times the
+privilege of piloting the ships which went up and down the rapids,
+and of keeping clear the passages which were used for navigation.
+They worked under the protection of their goddesses Anûkît and Satît:
+travellers of position were accustomed to sacrifice in the temple of the
+goddesses at Sehêl, and to cut on the rock votive inscriptions in their
+honour, in gratitude for the prosperous voyage accorded to them. We meet
+their scrawls on every side, at the entrance and exit of the cataract,
+and on the small islands where they moored their boats at nightfall
+during the four or five days required for the passage; the bank of
+the stream between Elephantine and Philæ is, as it were, an immense
+visitors’ book, in which every generation of Ancient Egypt has in turn
+inscribed itself. The markets and streets of the twin cities must have
+presented at that time the same motley blending of types and costumes
+which we might have found some years back in the bazaars of modern
+Syene. Nubians, negroes of the Soudan, perhaps people from Southern
+Arabia, jostled there with Libyans and Egyptians of the Delta. What the
+princes did to make the sojourn of strangers agreeable, what temples
+they consecrated to their god Khnûmû and his companions, in gratitude
+for the good things he had bestowed upon them, we have no means of
+knowing up to the present. Elephantine and Syene have preserved for us
+nothing of their ancient edifices; but the tombs which they have left
+tell us their history. They honeycomb in long lines the sides of the
+steep hill which looks down upon the whole extent of the left bank of
+the Nile opposite the narrow channel of the port of Aswan. A rude flight
+of stone steps led from the bank to the level of the sepulchres. The
+mummy having been carried slowly on the shoulders of the bearers to the
+platform, was deposited for a moment at the entrance cf the chapel.
+The decoration of the latter was rather meagre, and was distinguished
+neither by the delicacy of its execution nor by the variety of the
+subjects. More care was bestowed upon the exterior, and upon the walls
+on each side of the door, which could be seen from the river or from the
+streets of Elephantine. An inscription borders the recess, and boasts
+to every visitor of the character of the occupant: the portrait of the
+deceased, and sometimes that of his son, stand to the right and left:
+the scenes devoted to the offerings come next, when an artist of
+sufficient skill could be found to engrave them.
+
+[Illustration: 275.jpg THE MOUNTAIN OF ASWAN AND THE TOMBS OF THE
+PRINCES OF ELEPHANTINE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger. The
+     entrance to the tombs are halfway up; the long trench,
+     cutting the side of the mountain obliquely, shelters the
+     still existing steps which led to the tombs of Pharaonic
+     times. On the sky-line may be noted the ruins of several
+     mosques and Coptic monasteries.
+
+The expeditions of the lords of Elephantine, crowned as they frequently
+were with success, soon attracted the attention of the Pharaohs:
+Metesouphis deigned to receive in person at the cataract the homage of
+the chiefs of Ûaûaît and Iritît and of the Màzaiû during the early days
+of the fifth year of his reign.*
+
+     * The words used in the inscription, “The king himself went
+     and returned, ascending the mountain to see what there was
+     on the mountain,” prove that Metesouphis inspected the
+     quarries in person. Another inscription, discovered in 1893,
+     gives the year V. as the date of his journey to Elephantine,
+     and adds that he had negotiations with the heads of the four
+     great Nubian races.
+
+The most celebrated caravan guide at this time was Hirkhûf, own cousin
+to Mikhû, Prince of Elephantine. He had entered upon office under the
+auspices of his father Iri, “the sole friend.” A king whose name he does
+not mention, but who was perhaps Unas, more probably Papi I., despatched
+them both to the country of the Amamît. The voyage occupied seven
+months, and was extraordinarily successful: the sovereign, encouraged by
+this unexpected good fortune, resolved to send out a fresh expedition.
+Hirkhûf had the sole command of it; he made his way through Iritît,
+explored the districts of Satir and Darros, and retraced his steps
+after an absence of eight months. He brought back with him a quantity
+of valuable commodities, “the like of which no one had ever previously
+brought back.” He was not inclined to regain his country by the ordinary
+route: he pushed boldly into the narrow wadys which furrow the territory
+of the people of Iritît, and emerged upon the region of Situ, in the
+neighbourhood of the cataract, by paths in which no official traveller
+who had visited the Amamît had up to this time dared to travel. A third
+expedition which started out a few years later brought him into regions
+still less frequented. It set out by the Oasis route, proceeded towards
+the Amamît, and found the country in an uproar. The sheikhs had convoked
+their tribes, and were making preparations to attack the Timihû “towards
+the west corner of the heaven,” in that region where stand the pillars
+which support the iron firmament at the setting sun. The Timihû were
+probably Berbers by race and language. Their tribes, coming from beyond
+the Sahara, wandered across the frightful solitudes which bound the Nile
+Valley on the west. The Egyptians had constantly to keep a sharp look
+out for them, and to take precautions against their incursions; having
+for a long time acted only on the defensive, they at length took the
+offensive, and decided, not without religious misgivings, to pursue
+them to their retreats. As the inhabitants of Mendes and of Busiris
+had relegated the abode of their departed to the recesses of the
+impenetrable marshes of the Delta, so those of Siût and Thinis had at
+first believed that the souls of the deceased sought a home beyond the
+sands: the good jackal Anubis acted as their guide, through the gorge
+of the Cleft or through the gate of the Oven, to the green islands
+scattered over the desert, where the blessed dwelt in peace at a
+convenient distance from their native cities and their tombs. They
+constituted, as we know, a singular folk, those _uiti_ whose members
+dwelt in coffins, and who had put on the swaddling clothes of the dead;
+the Egyptians called the Oasis which they had colonised, the land of the
+shrouded, or of mummies, _ûît_, and the name continued to designate
+it long after the advance of geographical knowledge had removed this
+paradise further towards the west. The Oases fell one after the other
+into the hands of frontier princes--that of Bahnesa coming under the
+dominion of the lord of Oxyrrhynchus, that of Dakhel under the lords of
+Thinis. The Nubians of Amamît had relations, probably, with the Timihû,
+who owned the Oasis of Dush--a prolongation of that of Dakhel, on the
+parallel of Elephantine. Hirkhûf accompanied the expedition to the
+Amamît, succeeded in establishing peace among the rival tribes, and
+persuaded them “to worship all the gods of Pharaoh:” he afterwards
+reconciled the Iritît, Amamît, and Ûaûaît, who lived in a state of
+perpetual hostility to each other, explored their valleys, and collected
+from them such quantities of incense, ebony, ivory, and skins that three
+hundred asses were required for their transport.
+
+[Illustration: 278.jpg HIRKHÛF RECEIVING POSTHUMOUS HOMAGE AT THE DOOR
+OF HIS TOMB FROM HIS SON]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph, taken in 1892, by
+     Alexander Gayet.
+
+He was even fortunate enough to acquire a Danga from the land of ghosts,
+resembling the one brought from Pûanît by Biûrdidi in the reign of Assi
+eighty years before. Metesouphis, in the mean time, had died, and his
+young brother and successor, Papi II., had already been a year upon the
+throne. The new king, delighted to possess a dwarf who could perform
+“the dance of the god,” addressed a rescript to Hirkhuf to express his
+satisfaction; at the same time he sent him a special messenger, Uni, a
+distant relative to Papi I.’s minister, who was to invite him to come
+and give an account of his expedition. The boat in which the explorer
+embarked to go down to Memphis, also brought the Danga, and from that
+moment the latter became the most important personage of the party. For
+him all the royal officials, lords, and sacerdotal colleges hastened to
+prepare provisions and means of conveyance; his health was of greater
+importance than that of his protector, and he was anxiously watched
+lest he should escape. “When he is with thee in the boat, let there be
+cautious persons about him, lest he should fall into the water; when he
+rests during the night, let careful people sleep beside him, in case of
+his escaping quickly in the night-time. For my Majesty desires to see
+this dwarf more than all the treasures which are being imported from
+the land of Pûanît.” Hirkhûf, on his return to Elephantine, engraved the
+royal letter and the detailed account of his journeys to the lands of
+the south, on the façade of his tomb.
+
+These repeated expeditions produced in course of time more important
+and permanent results than the capture of an accomplished dwarf, or the
+acquisition of a fortune by an adventurous nobleman. The nations which
+these merchants visited were accustomed to hear so much of Egypt, its
+industries, and its military force, that they came at last to entertain
+an admiration and respect for her, not unmingled with fear: they learned
+to look upon her as a power superior to all others, and upon her king as
+a god whom none might resist. They adopted Egyptian worship, yielded to
+Egypt their homage, and sent the Egyptians presents: they were won over
+by civilization before being subdued by arms. We are not acquainted
+with the manner in which Nofirkiri-Papi II. turned these friendly
+dispositions to good account in extending his empire to the south. The
+expeditions did not all prove so successful as that of Hirkhûf, and one
+at least of the princes of Elephantine, Papinakhîti, met with his death
+in the course of one of them. Papi II. had sent him on a mission, after
+several others, “to make profit out of the Ûaûaiû and the Iritît.” He
+killed considerable numbers in this raid, and brought back great spoil,
+which he shared with Pharaoh; “for he was at the head of many warriors,
+chosen from among the bravest,” which was the cause of his success in
+the enterprise with which his Holiness had deigned to entrust him. Once,
+however, the king employed him in regions which were not so familiar to
+him as those of Nubia, and fate was against him. He had received orders
+to visit the Amu, the Asiatic tribes inhabiting the Sinaitic Peninsula,
+and to repeat on a smaller scale in the south the expedition which Uni
+had led against them in the north; he proceeded thither, and his sojourn
+having come to an end, he chose to return by sea. To sail towards
+Pûanît, to coast up as far as the “Head of Nekhabît,” to land there
+and make straight for Elephantine by the shortest route, presented no
+unusual difficulties, and doubtless more than one traveller or general
+of those times had safely accomplished it; Papinakhîti failed miserably.
+As he was engaged in constructing his vessel, the Hirû-Shâîtû fell
+upon him and massacred him, as well as the detachment of troops who
+accompanied him: the remaining soldiers brought home his body, which was
+buried by the side of the other princes in the mountain opposite Syene.
+Papi II. had ample leisure to avenge the death of his vassal and to
+send fresh expeditions to Iritît, among the Amamît and even beyond, if,
+indeed, as the author of the chronological Canon of Turin asserts,* he
+really reigned for more than ninety years; but the monuments are almost
+silent with regard to him, and give us no information about his possible
+exploits in Nubia. An inscription of his second year proves that he
+continued to work the Sinaitic mines, and that he protected them from
+the Bedouin.
+
+     * The fragments of Manetho and the Canon of Eratosthenes
+     agree in assigning to him a reign of a hundred years--a fact
+     which seems to indicate that the missing unit in the Turin
+     list was nine: Papi II. would have thus died in the hundreth
+     year of his reign. A reign of a hundred years is impossible:
+     Mihtimsaûf I. having reigned fourteen years, it would be
+     necessary to assume that Papi II., son of Papi I., should
+     have lived a hundred and fourteen years at the least, even
+     on the supposition that he was a posthumous child. The
+     simplest solution is to suppose (1) that Papi II. lived a
+     hundred years, as Ramses II. did in later times, and that
+     the years of his life were confounded with the years of his
+     reign; or (2) that, being the brother of Mihtimsaûf I., he
+     was considered as associated with him on the throne, and
+     that the hundred years of his reign, including the fourteen
+     of the latter prince, were identified with the years of his
+     life. We may, moreover, believe that the chronologists, for.
+     lack of information on the VIth dynasty, have filled the
+     blanks in their annals by lengthening the reign of Papi II.,
+     which in any case must have been very long.
+
+On the other hand, the number and beauty of the tombs in which mention
+is made of him, bear witness to the fact that Egypt enjoyed continued
+prosperity. Recent discoveries have done much to surround this king and
+his immediate predecessors with an air of reality which is lacking in
+many of the later Pharaohs.
+
+[Illustration: 282.jpg HEAD OF THE MUMMY OF METESOUPHIS I]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. The
+     mummy is now in the Gîzeh Museum (cf. Maspero, _Guide au
+     Musée de Boulaq_, pp. 347, 348, No. 5250).
+
+Their pyramids, whose familiar designations we have deciphered in the
+texts, have been uncovered at Saqqâra, and the inscriptions which they
+contain, reveal to us the names of the sovereigns who reposed within.
+Unas, Teti III., Papi I., Mete-souphis I., and Papi II. now have as
+clearly defined a personality for us as Ramses II. or Seti I.; even the
+mummy of Metesouphis has been discovered near his sarcophagus, and can
+be seen under glass in the Gîzeh Museum. The body is thin and slender;
+the head refined, and ornamented with the thick side-lock of boyhood;
+the features can be easily distinguished, although the lower jaw has
+disappeared and the pressure of the bandages has flattened the nose.
+All the pyramids of the dynasty are of a uniform-type, the model being
+furnished by that of Unas. The entrance is in the centre of the northern
+façade, underneath the lowest course, and on the ground-level.
+An inclined passage, obstructed by enormous stones, leads to an
+antechamber, whose walls are partly bare, and partly covered with long
+columns of hieroglyphs: a level passage, blocked towards the middle by
+three granite barrier, ends in a nearly square chamber; on the left are
+three low cells devoid of ornament, and on the right an oblong chamber
+containing the sarcophagus.
+
+[Illustration: 283.jpg PLAN OF THE PYRAMID OF UNAS]
+
+     From drawings by Maspero, _La Pyramide d’Ounas_, in the
+     _Recueil de Travaux_, vol. iv. p. 177.
+
+These two principal rooms had high-pitched roofs. They were composed of
+large slabs of limestone, the upper edges of which leaned one against
+the other, while the lower edges rested on a continuous ledge which ran
+round the chamber: the first row of slabs was surmounted by a second,
+and that again by a third, and the three together effectively protected
+the apartments of the dead against the thrust of the superincumbent
+mass, or from the attacks of robbers. The wall-surfaces close to the
+sarcophagus in the pyramid of Unas are decorated with many-coloured
+ornaments and sculptured and painted doors representing the front of
+a house: this was, in fact, the dwelling of the double, in which he
+resided with the dead body.
+
+[Illustration: 284.jpg THE SEPULCHRAL CHAMBER IN THE PYRAMID OF UNAS,
+AND HIS SARCOPHAOUS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph, taken in 1881, by Émil
+     Brugsch-Bey.
+
+The inscriptions, like the pictures in the tombs, were meant to furnish
+the sovereign with provisions, to dispel serpents and malevolent
+divinities, to keep his soul from death, and to lead him into the bark
+of the sun or into the Paradise of Osiris. They constitute a portion of
+a vast book, whose chapters are found scattered over the monuments of
+subsequent periods. They are the means of restoring to us, not only the
+religion but the most ancient language of Egypt: the majority of the
+formulas contained in them were drawn up in the time of the earliest
+human kings, perhaps even before Menés.
+
+The history of the VIth dynasty loses itself in legend and fable.
+Two more kings are supposed to have succeeded Papi Nofirkeri, Mirnirî
+Mihtimsaût (Metesouphis II.) and Nîtaûqrît (Nitokris). Metesouphis II.
+was killed, so runs the tale, in a riot, a year after his accession.*
+
+     * Manetho does not mention this fact, but the legend given
+     by Herodotus says that Nitokris wished to avenge the king,
+     her brother and predecessor, who was killed in a revolution;
+     and it follows from the narrative of the facts that this
+     anonymous brother was the Metesouphis of Manetho. The Turin
+     Papyrus assigns a reign of a year and a month to Mihtimsaul-
+     Metesouphis II.
+
+His sister, Nitokris, the “rosy-cheeked,” to whom, as was the custom, he
+was married, succeeded him and avenged his death. She built an immense
+subterranean hall; under pretext of inaugurating its completion, but in
+reality with a totally different aim, she then invited to a great feast,
+and received in this hall, a considerable number of Egyptians from among
+those whom she knew to have been instigators of the crime. During the
+entertainment, she diverted the waters of the Nile into the hall by means
+of a canal which she had kept concealed. This is what is related of her.
+They add, that “after this, the queen, of her own will, threw herself
+into a great chamber filled with ashes, in order to escape punishment.”
+ She completed the pyramid of Mykerinos, by adding to it that costly
+casing of Syenite which excited the admiration of travellers; she
+reposed in a sarcophagus of blue basalt, in the very centre of the
+monument, above the secret chamber where the pious Pharaoh had hidden
+his mummy.*
+
+     * The legend which ascribes the building of the third
+     pyramid to a woman has been preserved by Herodotus: E. de
+     Bunsen, comparing it with the observations of Vyse, was
+     inclined to attribute to Nitokris the enlarging of the
+     monument, which appears to me to have been the work of
+     Mykerinos himself.
+
+The Greeks, who had heard from their dragomans the story of the
+“Rosy-cheeked Beauty,” metamorphosed the princess into a courtesan,
+and for the name of Nitokris, substituted the more harmonious one of
+Rhodopis, which was the exact translation of the characteristic epithet
+of the Egyptian queen. One day while she was bathing in the river, an
+eagle stole one of her gilded sandals, carried it off in the
+direction of Memphis, and let it drop in the lap of the king, who was
+administering justice in the open air. The king, astonished at the
+singular occurrence, and at the beauty of the tiny shoe, caused a search
+to be made throughout the country for the woman to whom it belonged:
+Rhodopis thus became Queen of Egypt, and could build herself a pyramid.
+Even Christianity and the Arab conquest did not entirely efface the
+remembrance of the courtesan-princess.
+
+[Illustration: 286.jpg THE ENTRANCE TO THE PYRAMID OF UNAS AT SAQQÀRA]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.
+
+It is said that the spirit of the Southern Pyramid never appears abroad,
+except in the form of a naked woman, who is very beautiful, but whose
+manner of acting is such, that when she desires to make people fall
+in love with her, and lose their wits, she smiles upon them, and
+immediately they draw near to her, and she attracts them towards her,
+and makes them infatuated with love; so that they at once lose their
+wits, and wander aimlessly about the country. Many have seen her moving
+round the pyramid about midday and towards sunset. It is Nitokris still
+haunting the monument of her shame and her magnificence.*
+
+     * The lists of the VIth dynasty, with the approximate dates
+     of the kings, are as follows:--
+
+[Illustration: 289.jpg TABLE OF THE DATES OF THE KINGS VITH DYNASTY]
+
+After her, even tradition is silent, and the history of Egypt remains
+a mere blank for several centuries. Manetho admits the existence of
+two other Memphite dynasties, of which the first contains seventy kings
+during as many days. Akhthoës, the most cruel of tyrants, followed next,
+and oppressed his subjects for a long period: he was at last the victim
+of raving madness, and met with his death from the jaws of a crocodile.
+It is related that he was of Heracleopolite extraction, and the
+two dynasties which succeeded him, the IXth and the Xth, were also
+Heracleopolitan. The table of Abydos is incomplete, and the Turin
+Papyrus, in the absence of other documents, too mutilated to furnish
+us with any exact information; the contemporaries of the Ptolemies were
+almost entirely ignorant of what took place between the end of the VIth
+and the beginning of the XIIth dynasty; and Egyptologists, not finding
+any monuments which they could attribute to this period, thereupon
+concluded that Egypt had passed through some formidable crisis out of
+which she with difficulty extricated herself.*
+
+     * Marsham (_Canon Chronicus_, edition, of Leipzig, 1676, p.
+     29) had already declared in the seventeenth century that he
+     felt no hesitation in considering the Heracleopolites as
+     identical with the successors of Menes-Misraîm, who reigned
+     over the Mestraea, that is, over the Delta only. The idea of
+     an Asiatic invasion, analogous to that of the Hyksos, which
+     was put forward by Mariette, and accepted by Fr. Lenormant,
+     has found its chief supporters in Germany. Bunsen made of
+     the Heracleopolitan two subordinate dynasties reigning
+     simultaneously in Lower Egypt, and originating at
+     Heracleopolis in the Delta: they were supposed to have been
+     contemporaries of the last Memphite and first Theban
+     dynasties. Lepsius accepted and recognized in the
+     Heracleopolitans of the Delta the predecessors of the
+     Hyksos, an idea defended by Ebers, and developed by Krall in
+     his identification of the unknown invaders with the Hirû-
+     Shâîtû: it has been adopted by Ed. Meyer, and by Petrie.
+
+The so-called Heracleopolites of Manetho were assumed to have been the
+chiefs of a barbaric people of Asiatic origin, those same “Lords of the
+Sands” so roughly handled by Uni, but who are considered to have invaded
+the Delta soon after, settled themselves in Heracleopolis Parva as their
+capital, and from thence held sway over the whole valley. They appeared
+to have destroyed much and built nothing; the state of barbarism into
+which they sank, and to which they reduced the vanquished, explaining
+the absence of any monuments to mark their occupation. This hypothesis,
+however, is unsupported by any direct proof: even the dearth of
+monuments which has been cited as an argument in favour of the
+theory, is no longer a fact. The sequence of reigns and details of the
+revolutions are wanting; but many of the kings and certain facts in
+their history are known, and we are able to catch a glimpse of the
+general course of events. The VIIth and VIIIth dynasties are Memphite,
+and the names of the kings themselves would be evidence in favour of
+their genuineness, even if we had not the direct testimony of Manetho:
+the one recurring most frequently is that of Nofirkerî, the prenomen of
+Papi II., and a third Papi figures in them, who calls himself Papi-Sonbû
+to distinguish himself from his namesakes. The little recorded of them
+in Ptolemaic times, even the legend of the seventy Pharaohs reigning
+seventy days, betrays a troublous period and a rapid change of rulers.*
+
+     * The explanation of Prof. Lauth, according to which Manetho
+     is supposed to have made an independent dynasty of the five
+     Memphite priests who filled the interregnum of seventy days
+     during the embalming of Nitokris, is certainly very
+     ingenious, but that is all that can be said for it. The
+     legendary source from which Manetho took his information
+     distinctly recorded seventy successive kings, who reigned in
+     all seventy days, a king a day.
+
+We know as a fact that the successors of Nitokris, in the Royal Turin
+Papyrus, scarcely did more than appear upon the throne. Nofirkerî
+reigned a year, a month, and a day; Nofîrûs, four years, two months,
+and a day; Abu, two years, one month, and a day. Each of them hoped,
+no doubt, to enjoy the royal power for a longer period than his
+predecessors, and, like the Ati of the VIth dynasty, ordered a pyramid
+to be designed for him without delay: not one of them had time to
+complete the building, nor even to carry it sufficiently far to leave
+any trace behind. As none of them had any tomb to hand his name down to
+posterity, the remembrance of them perished with their contemporaries.
+By dint of such frequent changes in the succession, the royal authority
+became enfeebled, and its weakness favoured the growing influence of the
+feudal families and encouraged their ambition. The descendants of those
+great lords, who under Papi I. and II. made such magnificent tombs for
+themselves, were only nominally subject to the supremacy of the reigning
+sovereign; many of them were, indeed, grandchildren of princesses of the
+blood, and possessed, or imagined that they possessed, as good a right
+to the crown as the family on the throne. Memphis declined, became
+impoverished, and dwindled in population. Its inhabitants ceased to
+build those immense stone mastabas in which they had proudly displayed
+their wealth, and erected them merely of brick, in which the decoration
+was almost entirely confined to one narrow niche near the sarcophagus.
+Soon the mastaba itself was given up, and the necropolis of the city was
+reduced to the meagre proportions of a small provincial cemetery. The
+centre of that government, which had weighed so long and so heavily upon
+Egypt, was removed to the south, and fixed itself at Heracleopolis the
+Great.
+
+
+
+
+Volume II., Part .
+
+
+_THE FIRST THEBAN EMPIRE_
+
+
+_THE TWO HERACLEOPOLITAN DYNASTIES AND THE TWELFTH DYNASTY--THE CONQUEST
+OF ETHIOPIA, AND THE MAKING OF GREATER EGYPT BY THE THEBAN KINGS._
+
+_The principality of Heracleopolis: Achthoës-Khîti and the
+Heracleopolitan dynasties--Supremacy of the great barons: the feudal
+fortresses, El-Kab and Abydos; ceaseless warfare, the army--Origin of
+the Theban principality: the principality of Sidt, and the struggles of
+its lords against the princes of Thebes--The kings of the XIth dynasty
+and their buildings: the brick pyramids of Abydos and Thebes, and the
+rude character of early Theban art._
+
+_The XIIth dynasty: Amenemdidît I., his accession, his wars; he shares
+his throne with his son Usirtasen I., and the practice of a coregnancy
+prevails among his immediate successors--The relations of Egypt
+with Asia: the Amû in Egypt and the Egyptians among the Bedouin; the
+Adventures of Sinûhît--The mining settlements in the Sinaitic peninsula:
+Sarbût-el-Khddim and its chapel to Hâthor._
+
+_Egyptian policy in the Nile Valley--Nubia becomes part of Egypt: works
+of the Pharaohs, the gold-mines and citadel of Kubân--Defensive
+measures at the second cataract: the two fortresses and the Nilometer
+of Semnêh--The vile Kush and its inhabitants: the wars against Kûsh
+and their consequences; the gold-mines--Expeditions to Pûanît, and
+navigation along the coasts of the Bed Sea: the Story of the Shipwrecked
+Sailor._
+
+_Public works and new buildings--The restoration of the temples of the
+Delta: Tanis and the sphinxes of Amenemhâît III., Bubastis, Heliopolis,
+and the temple of Usirtasen I.--The increasing importance of Thebes
+and Abydos--Heracleopolis and the Fayûm: the monuments of Begig and of
+Biahmil, the fields and water-system of the Fayûm; preference shown by
+the Pharaohs for this province--The royal pyramids of Dashdr, Lisht,
+Ulahûn, and Haiodra._
+
+_The part played by the feudal lords under the XIIth dynasty--History of
+the princes of Mondît-Khûfûi: Khnûmhotpil, Khîti, Amoni-Amenemhâît--The
+lords of Thébes, and the accession of the XIIIth dynasty: the Sovkhotpûs
+and the Nfirhotpûs--Completion of the conquest of Nubia; the XIVth
+dynasty_.
+
+[Illustration: 295.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--THE FIRST THEBAN EMPIRE
+
+
+_The two Heracleopolitan dynasties and the XIIth dynasty--The conquest
+of Ethiopia, and the making of Greater Egypt by the Theban kings._
+
+
+The principality of the Oleander--Nârû--was bounded on the north by the
+Memphite nome; the frontier ran from the left bank of the Nile to the
+Libyan range, from the neighbourhood of Riqqah to that of Mêdûm. The
+principality comprised the territory lying between the Nile and the Bahr
+Yûsûf, from the above-mentioned two villages to the Harabshent Canal--a
+district known to Greek geographers as the island of Heracleopolis;--it
+moreover included the whole basin of the Fâyûm, on the west of the
+valley. In very early times it had been divided into three parts: the
+Upper Oleander--Nârû Khonîti--the Lower Oleander--Nârû Pahûi--and
+the lake land--To-shît; and these divisions, united usually under
+the supremacy of one chief, formed a kind of small state, of which
+Heracleopolis was always the capital. The soil was fertile, well
+watered, and well tilled, but the revenues from this district, confined
+between the two arms of the river, were small in comparison with the
+wealth which their ruler derived from his hands on the other side of the
+mountain range. The Fayûm is approached by a narrow and winding gorge,
+more than six miles in length--a depression of natural formation,
+deepened by the hand of man to allow a free passage to the waters of the
+Nile. The canal which conveys them leaves the Bahr Yûsûf at a point a
+little to the north of Heracleopolis, carries them in a swift stream
+through the gorge in the Libyan chain, and emerges into an immense
+amphitheatre, whose highest side is parallel to the Nile valley, and
+whose terraced slopes descend abruptly to about a hundred feet below the
+level of the Mediterranean. Two great arms separate themselves from this
+canal to the right and left--the Wady Tamieh and the Wady Nazleh; they
+wind at first along the foot of the hills, and then again approaching
+each other, empty themselves into a great crescent or horn-shaped lake,
+lying east and west--the Moeris of Strabo, the Birket-Kerun of the
+Arabs. A third branch penetrates the space enclosed by the other two,
+passes the town of Shodû, and is then subdivided into numerous canals
+and ditches, whose ramifications appear on the map as a network
+resembling the reticulations of a skeleton leaf. The lake formerly
+extended beyond its present limits, and submerged districts from which
+it has since withdrawn.*
+
+     * Most of the specialists who have latterly investigated the
+     Fayûm have greatly exaggerated the extent of the Birket-
+     Kerûn in historic times. Prof. Petrie states that it covered
+     the whole of the present province throughout the time of the
+     Memphite kings, and that it was not until the reign of
+     Amenemhâît I. that even a very small portion was drained.
+     Major Brown adopts this theory, and considers that it was
+     under Amenemhâît III. that the great lake of the Fayûm was
+     transformed into a kind of artificial reservoir, which was
+     the Mceris of Herodotus. The city of Shodû, Shadû, Shadît--
+     the capital of the Fayûm--and its god Sovkû are mentioned
+     even in the Pyramid texts: and the eastern district of the
+     Fayûm is named in the inscription of Amten, under the IIIrd
+     dynasty.
+
+[Illustration: 297.jpg MAP, THE FAYUM]
+
+In years when the inundation was excessive, the surplus waters were
+discharged into the lake; when, however, there was a low Nile, the
+storage which had not been absorbed by the soil was poured back into
+the valley by the same channels, and carried down by the Bahr-Yûsûf to
+augment the inundation of the Western Delta.
+
+[Illustration: 298.jpg FLAT-BOTTOMED VESSEL OF BRONZE OPEN-WORK BEARING
+THE CARTOUCHES OF PHARAOH KHÎTI I]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original in the Louvre
+     Museum.
+
+The Nile was the source of everything in this principality, and hence
+they were gods of the waters who received the homage of the three nomes.
+The inhabitants of Heracleopolis worshipped the ram Harshafîtû, with
+whom they associated Osiris of Narûdûf as god of the dead; the people
+of the Upper Oleander adored a second ram, Khnûmû of Hâsmonîtû, and the
+whole Fayûm was devoted to the cult of Sovkû the crocodile. Attracted by
+the fertility of the soil, the Pharaohs of the older dynasties had
+from time to time taken up their residence in Heracleopolis or its
+neighbourhood, and one of them--Snofrûi--had built his pyramid at Mêdûm,
+close to the frontier of the nome. In proportion as the power of the
+Memphites declined, the princes of the Oleander grew more vigorous and
+enterprising; and when the Memphite kings passed away, these princes
+succeeded their former masters and sat “upon the throne of Horus.”
+
+The founder of the IXth dynasty was perhaps Khîti I., Miribrî, the
+Akhthoës of the Greeks. He ruled over all Egypt, and his name has been
+found on rocks at the first cataract. A story dating from the time of
+the Ramessides mentions his wars against the Bedouin of the regions east
+of the Delta; and what Manetho relates of his death is merely a romance,
+in which the author, having painted him as a sacrilegious tyrant like
+Kheops and Khephren, states that he was dragged down under the water and
+there devoured by a crocodile or hippopotamus, the appointed avengers of
+the offended gods. His successors seem to have reigned ingloriously
+for more than a century. Their deeds are unknown to history, but it
+was under the reign of one of them--Nibkaûrî--that a travelling fellah,
+having been robbed of his earnings by an artisan, is said to have
+journeyed to Heracleopolis to demand justice from the governor, or
+to charm him by the eloquence of his pleadings and the variety of his
+metaphors. It would, of course, be idle to look for the record of any
+historic event in this story; the common people, moreover, do not long
+remember the names of unimportant princes, and the tenacity with
+which the Egyptians treasured the memories of several kings of the
+Heracleopolitan line amply proves that, whether by their good or evil
+qualities, they had at least made a lasting impression upon the popular
+imagination.
+
+[Illustration: 300.jpg PART OF THE WALLS OF EL-KAB ON THE NORTHERN SIDE]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Grébaut. The
+     illustration shows a breach where the gate stood, and the
+     curves of the brickwork courses can clearly be traced both
+     to the right and the left of the opening.
+
+The history of this period, as far as we can discern it through the
+mists of the past, appears to be one confused struggle: from north to
+south war raged without intermission; the Pharaohs fought against their
+rebel vassals, the nobles fought among themselves, and--what scarcely
+amounted to warfare--there were the raids on all sides of pillaging
+bands, who, although too feeble to constitute any serious danger to
+large cities, were strong enough either in numbers or discipline to
+render the country districts uninhabitable, and to destroy national
+prosperity. The banks of the Nile already bristled with citadels,
+where the monarchs lived and kept watch over the lands subject to their
+authority: other fortresses were established wherever any commanding
+site--such as a narrow part of the river, or the mouth of a defile
+leading into the desert--presented itself. All were constructed on
+the same plan, varied only by the sizes of the areas enclosed, and the
+different thickness of the outer walls. The outline of their ground-plan
+formed a parallelogram, whose enclosure wall was often divided into
+vertical panels easily distinguished by the different arrangements of
+the building material. At El-Kab and other places the courses of crude
+brick are slightly concave, somewhat resembling a wide inverted arch
+whose outer curve rests on the ground. In other places there was a
+regular alternation of lengths of curved courses, with those in which
+the courses were strictly horizontal. The object of this method of
+structure is still unknown, but it is thought that such building offers
+better resistance to shocks of earthquake. The most ancient fortress
+at Abydos, whose ruins now lie beneath the mound of Kom-es-Sultân, was
+built in this way. Tombs having encroached upon it by the time of the
+VIth dynasty, it was shortly afterwards replaced by another and similar
+fort, situate rather more than a hundred yards to the south-east;
+the latter is still one of the best-preserved specimens of military
+architecture dating from the times immediately preceding the first
+Theban empire.*
+
+     * My first opinion was that the second fortress had been
+     built towards the time of the XVIIIth dynasty at the
+     earliest, perhaps even under the XXth. Further consideration
+     of the details of its construction and decoration now leads
+     me to attribute it to the period between the VIth and XIIth
+     dynasties.
+
+[Illustration: 302.jpg THE SECOND FORTRESS OF ABYDOS--THE
+SHÛNET-EZ-ZEBÎB--AS SEEN FROM THE EAST]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.
+     Modern Arabs call it Shûnet-ez-Zébïb, the storehouse of
+     raisins.
+
+The exterior is unbroken by towers or projections of any kind, and
+consists of four sides, the two longer of which are parallel to each
+other and measure 143 yards from east to west: the two shorter sides,
+which are also parallel, measure 85 yards from north to south. The outer
+wall is solid, built in horizontal courses, with a slight batter, and
+decorated by vertical grooves, which at all hours of the day diversify
+the surface with an incessant play of light and shade. When perfect it
+can hardly have been less than 40 feet in height. The walk round the
+ramparts was crowned by a slight, low parapet, with rounded battlements,
+and was reached by narrow staircases carefully constructed in the
+thickness of the walls. A battlemented covering wall, about five and a
+half yards high, encircled the building at a distance of some four feet.
+The fortress itself was entered by two gates, and posterns placed at
+various points between them provided for sorties of the garrison. The
+principal entrance was concealed in a thick block of building at the
+southern extremity of the east front. The corresponding entrance in
+the covering wall was a narrow opening closed by massive wooden doors;
+behind it was a small _place d’armes_, at the further end of which was
+a second gate, as narrow as the first, and leading into an oblong court
+hemmed in between the outer rampart and two bastions projecting at right
+angles from it; and lastly, there was a gate purposely placed at the
+furthest and least obvious corner of the court. Such a fortress was
+strong enough to resist any modes of attack then at the disposal of the
+best-equipped armies, which knew but three ways of taking a place by
+force, viz. scaling, sapping, and breaking open the gates. The height
+of the walls effectually prevented scaling. The pioneers were kept at
+a distance by the brave, but if a breach were made in that, the small
+flanking galleries fixed outside the battlements enabled the besieged to
+overwhelm the enemy with stones and javelins as they approached, and to
+make the work of sapping almost impossible. Should the first gate of
+the fortress yield to the assault, the attacking party would be crowded
+together in the courtyard as in a pit, few being able to enter together;
+they would at once be constrained to attack the second gate under a
+shower of missiles, and did they succeed in carrying that also, it was
+at the cost of enormous sacrifice. The peoples of the Nile Valley
+knew nothing of the swing battering-ram, and no representation of
+the hand-worked battering-ram has ever been found in any of their
+wall-paintings or sculptures; they forced their way into a stronghold
+by breaking down its gates with their axes, or by setting fire to its
+doors.
+
+[Illustration: 304.jpg ATTACK UPON AN EGYPTIAN FORTRESS BY TROOPS OF
+VARIOUS ARMS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a scene in the tomb of Amoni-
+     Amenemhâît at Beni-Hasan.
+
+While the sappers were hard at work, the archers endeavoured, by the
+accuracy of their aim, to clear the enemy from the curtain, while
+soldiers sheltered behind movable mantelets tried to break down the
+defences and dismantle the flanking galleries with huge metal-tipped
+lances. In dealing with a resolute garrison none of these methods proved
+successful; nothing but close siege, starvation, or treachery could
+overcome its resistance.
+
+The equipment of Egyptian troops was lacking in uniformity, and men
+armed with slings, or bows and arrows, lances, wooden swords, clubs,
+stone or metal axes, all fought side by side. The head was protected
+by a padded cap, and the body by shields, which were small for light
+infantry, but of great width for soldiers of the line. The issue of a
+battle depended upon a succession of single combats between foes armed
+with the same weapons; the lancers alone seem to have charged in line
+behind their huge bucklers. As a rule, the wounds were trifling, and the
+great skill with which the shields were used made the risk of injury to
+any vital part very slight. Sometimes, however, a lance might be driven
+home into a man’s chest, or a vigorously wielded sword or club might
+fracture a combatant’s skull and stretch him unconscious on the ground.
+With the exception of those thus wounded and incapacitated for flight,
+very few prisoners were taken, and the name given to them, “Those struck
+down alive”--_sokirûonkhû_--sufficiently indicates the method of their
+capture. The troops were recruited partly from the domains of military
+fiefs, partly from tribes of the desert or Nubia, and by their aid
+the feudal princes maintained the virtual independence which they had
+acquired for themselves under the last kings of the Memphite line.
+Here and there, at Hermopolis, Shit, and Thebes, they founded actual
+dynasties, closely connected with the Pharaonic dynasty, and even
+occasionally on an equality with it, though they assumed neither
+the crown nor the double cartouche. Thebes was admirably adapted for
+becoming the capital of an important state. It rose on the right bank
+of the Nile, at the northern end of the curve made by the river towards
+Hermonthis, and in the midst of one of the most fertile plains of Egypt.
+Exactly opposite to it, the Libyan range throws out a precipitous spur
+broken up by ravines and arid amphitheatres, and separated from the
+river-bank by a mere strip of cultivated ground which could be easily
+defended. A troop of armed men stationed on this neck of land could
+command the navigable arm of the Nile, intercept trade with Nubia at
+their pleasure, and completely bar the valley to any army attempting to
+pass without having first obtained authority to do so. The advantages
+of this site do not seem to have been appreciated during the Memphite
+period, when the political life of Upper Egypt was but feeble.
+Elephantine, El-Kab, and Koptos were at that period the principal cities
+of the country. Elephantine particularly, owing to its trade with the
+Soudan, and its constant communication with the peoples bordering the
+Red Sea, was daily increasing in importance. Hermonthis, the Aûnû of the
+South, occupied much the same position, from a religious point of view,
+as was held in the Delta by Heliopolis, the Aûnû of the North, and its
+god Montû, a form of the Solar Horus, disputed the supremacy with Mînû,
+of Koptos. Thebes long continued to be merely an insignificant village
+of the Uisit nome and a dependency of Hermonthis. It was only towards
+the end of the VIIIth dynasty that Thebes began to realize its power,
+after the triumph of feudalism over the crown had culminated in the
+downfall of the Memphite kings.
+
+[Illustration: 306.jpg Denderah--Temple of Tentyra]
+
+[Illustration: 306-text.jpg--Temple of Tentyra]
+
+A family which, to judge from the fact that its members affected the
+name of Monthotpû, originally came from Hermonthis, settled in Thebes
+and made that town the capital of a small principality, which rapidly
+enlarged its borders at the expense of the neighbouring nomes. All the
+towns and cities of the plain, Mâdûfc, Hfûîfc, Zorît, Hermonthis,
+and towards the south, Aphroditopolis Parva, at the gorge of the Two
+Mountains (Gebelên) which formed the frontier of the fief of El-Kab,
+Kûsît towards the north, Denderah, and Hû, all fell into the hands of
+the Theban princes and enormously increased their territory. After the
+lapse of a very few years, their supremacy was accepted more or less
+willingly by the adjacent principalities of El-Kab, Elephantine, Koptos,
+Qasr-es-Sayad, Thinis, and Ekhmîm. Antûf, the founder of the family,
+claimed no other title than that of Lord of Thebes, and still submitted
+to the suzerainty of the Heracleopolitan kings. His successors
+considered themselves strong enough to cast off this allegiance, if
+not to usurp all the insignia of royalty, including the uraeus and the
+cartouche. Monthotpû I., Antûf II., and Antûf III. must have occupied a
+somewhat remarkable position among the great lords of the south, since
+their successors credited them with the possession of a unique preamble.
+It is true that the historians of a later date did not venture to
+place them on a par with the kings who were actually independent; they
+enclosed their names in the cartouche without giving them a prenomen;
+but, at the same time, they invested them with a title not met with
+elsewhere, that of the first Horus--_Horû tapi_. They exercised
+considerable power from the outset. It extended over Southern Egypt,
+over Nubia, and over the valleys lying between the Nile and the Red
+Sea.* The origin of the family was somewhat obscure, but in support
+of their ambitious projects, they did not fail to invoke the memory of
+pretended alliances between their ancestors and daughters of the solar
+race; they boasted of their descent from the Papis, from Usirnirî Anû,
+Sahûri, and Snofrûi, and claimed that the antiquity of their titles did
+away with the more recent rights of their rivals.
+
+The revolt of the Theban princes put an end to the IXth dynasty, and,
+although supported by the feudal powers of Central and Northern Egypt,
+and more especially by the lords of the Terebinth nome, who viewed the
+sudden prosperity of the Thebans with a very evil eye, the Xth dynasty
+did not succeed in bringing them back to their allegiance.**
+
+     * In the “Hall of Ancestors” the title of “Horus” is
+     attributed to several Antûfs and Monthotpûs bearing the
+     cartouche. This was probably the compiler’s ingenious device
+     for marking the subordinate position of these personages as
+     compared with that of the Heracleopolitan Pharaohs, who
+     alone among their contemporaries had a right to be placed on
+     such official lists, even when those lists were compiled
+     under the great Theban dynasties. The place in the XIth
+     dynasty of princes bearing the title of “Horus” was first
+     determined by E. de Rougé.
+
+     ** The history of the house of Thebes was restored at the
+     same time as that of the Heracleopolitan dynasties, by
+     Maspero, in the _Revue Critique_, 1889, vol. ii. p. 220. The
+     difficulty arising from the number of the Theban kings
+     according to Manetho, considered in connection with the
+     forty-three years which made the total duration of the
+     dynasty, has been solved by Barucchi, _Discord critici
+     sojpra la Cronologia Egizia_, pp. 131-134. These forty-three
+     years represent the length of time that the Theban dynasty
+     reigned alone, and which are ascribed to it in the Royal
+     Canon; but the number of its kings includes, besides the
+     recognized Pharaohs of the line, those princes who were
+     contemporary with the Heracleopolitan rulers and are
+     officially reckoned as forming the Xth dynasty.
+
+The family which held the fief of Siût when the war broke out, had
+ruled there for three generations. Its first appearance on the scene of
+history coincided with the accession of Akhthoës, and its elevation was
+probably the reward of services rendered by its chief to the head of the
+Heracleopolitan family.*
+
+     * By ascribing to the princes of Siut an average reign equal
+     to that of the Pharaohs, and admitting with Lepsius that the
+     IXth dynasty consisted of four or five kings, the accession
+     of the first of these princes would practically coincide
+     with the reign of Akhthoës. The name of Khîti, borne by two
+     members of this little local dynasty, may have been given in
+     memory of the Pharaoh Khiti Miribrî; there was also a second
+     Khîti among the Heracleopolitan sovereigns, and one of the
+     Khîtis of Siut may have been his contemporary. The family
+     claimed a long descent, and said of itself that it was “an
+     ancient litter”; but the higher rank and power of “prince”
+      --hiqû--it owed to Khîti I. [Miribri?--Ed.] or some other
+     king of the Heracleo-politian line.
+
+[Illustration: 309.jpg MAP, PLAIN OF THEBES]
+
+From this time downwards, the title of “ruler”--_hiqû_--which the
+Pharaohs themselves sometimes condescended to take, was hereditary in
+the family, who grew in favour from year to year. Khiti I., the fourth
+of this line of princes, was brought up in the palace of Heracleopolis,
+and had learned to swim with the royal children. On his return home
+he remained the personal friend of the king, and governed his domains
+wisely, clearing the canals, fostering agriculture, and lightening the
+taxes without neglecting the army. His heavy infantry, recruited from
+among the flower of the people of the north, and his light infantry,
+drawn from the pick of the people of the south, were counted by
+thousands. He resisted the Theban pretensions with all his might, and
+his son Tefabi followed in his footsteps. “The first time,” said he,
+“that my foot-soldiers fought against the nomes of the south which were
+gathered together from Elephantine in the south to Gau on the north,
+I conquered those nomes, I drove them towards the southern frontier, I
+overran the left bank of the Nile in all directions. When I came to a
+town I threw down its walls, I seized its chief, I imprisoned him at the
+port (landing-place) until he paid me ransom. As soon as I had finished
+with the left bank, and there were no longer found any who dared resist,
+I passed to the right bank; like a swift hare I set full sail for
+another chief.... I sailed by the north wind as by the east, by the
+south as by the west, and him whose ship I boarded I vanquished utterly;
+he was cast into the water, his boats fled to shore, his soldiers were
+as bulls on whom falleth the lion; I compassed his city from end to end,
+I seized his goods, I cast them into the fire.” Thanks to his energy and
+courage, he “extinguished the rebellion by the counsel and according to
+the tactics of the jackal Uapûaîtû, god of Siût.”
+
+[Illustration: 310.jpg MAP, THE PRINCIPALITY OF SIÛT]
+
+[Illustration: 311.jpg THE HEAVY INFANTRY OF THE PRINCES OF SIÛT, ARMED
+WITH LANCE AND BUCKLER]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger, taken in
+     1882. The scene forms part of the decoration of one of the
+     walls of the tomb of Khîti III.
+
+From that time “no district of the desert was safe from his terrors,”
+ and he “carried flame at his pleasure among the nomes of the south.”
+ Even while bringing desolation to his foes, he sought to repair the ills
+which the invasion had brought upon his own subjects. He administered
+such strict justice that evil-doers disappeared as though by magic.
+“When night came, he who slept on the roads blessed me, because he was
+as safe as in his own house; for the fear which was shed abroad by my
+soldiers protected him; and the cattle in the fields were as safe there
+as in the stable; the thief had become an abomination to the god, and he
+no longer oppressed the serf, so that the latter ceased to complain, and
+paid the exact dues of his land for love of me.” In the time of Khîti
+II., the son of Tefabi, the Heracleopolitans were still masters of
+Northern Egypt, but their authority was even then menaced by the
+turbulence of their own vassals, and Heracleopolis itself drove out the
+Pharaoh Mirikarî, who was obliged to take refuge in Siût with that Kkîti
+whom he called his father. Khîti gathered together such an extensive
+fleet that it encumbered the Nile from Shashhotpû to Gebel-Abufodah,
+from one end of the principality of the Terebinth to the other. Vainly
+did the rebels unite with the Thebans; Khîti “sowed terror over the
+world, and himself alone chastised the nomes of the south.” While he was
+descending the river to restore the king to his capital, “the sky grew
+serene, and the whole country rallied to him; the commanders of the
+south and the archons of Heracleopolis, their legs tremble beneath them
+when the royal urous, ruler of the world, comes to suppress crime; the
+earth trembles, the South takes ship and flies, all men flee in dismay,
+the towns surrender, for fear takes hold on their members.” Mirikarî’s
+return was a triumphal progress: “when he came to Heracleopolis the
+people ran forth to meet him, rejoicing in their lord; women and men
+together, old men as well as children.” But fortune soon changed. Beaten
+again and again, the Thebans still returned to the attack; at length
+they triumphed, after a struggle of nearly two hundred years, and
+brought the two rival divisions of Egypt under their rule.
+
+[Illustration: 313.jpg PALETTE INSCRIBED WITH THE NAME OF MIRIKARÎ]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original, now in the Museum
+     of the Louvre. The palette is of wood, and bears the name of
+     a contemporary personage; the outlines of the hieroglyphs
+     are inlaid with silver wire. It was probably found in the
+     necropolis of Meîr, a little to the north of Siût. The
+     sepulchral pyramid of the Pharaoh Mirikarî is mentioned on a
+     coffin in the Berlin Museum.
+
+The few glimpses to be obtained of the early history of the first
+Theban dynasty give the impression of an energetic and intelligent race.
+Confined to the most thinly populated, that is, the least fertile part
+of the valley, and engaged on the north in a ceaseless warfare which
+exhausted their resources, they still found time for building both at
+Thebes and in the most distant parts of their dominions. If their power
+made but little progress southwards, at least it did not recede, and
+that part of Nubia lying between Aswan and the neighbourhood of Korosko
+remained in their possession. The tribes of the desert, the Amamiû, the
+Mâzaiû, and the Uaûaiû often disturbed the husbandmen by their sudden
+raids; yet, having pillaged a district, they did not take possession of
+it as conquerors, but hastily returned to their mountains. The Theban
+princes kept them in check by repeated counter-raids, and renewed the
+old treaties with them. The inhabitants of the Great Oasis in the west,
+and the migratory peoples of the Land of the Gods, recognized the Theban
+suzerainty on the traditional terms.
+
+[Illustration: 314.jpg THE BRICK PYRAMID OF ANTÛFÂA, AT THEBES]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Prisse d’Avennes.
+     This pyramid is now completely destroyed.
+
+As in the times of Uni, the barbarians made up the complement of the
+army with soldiers who were more inured to hardships and more accustomed
+to the use of arms than the ordinary fellahîn; and several obscure
+Pharaohs--such as Monthotpû I. and Antûf III.--owed their boasted
+victories over Libyans and Asiatics* to the energy of their mercenaries.
+
+     * The cartouches of Antûfâa, inscribed on the rocks of
+     Elephantine, are the record of a visit which this prince
+     paid to Syenê, probably on his return from some raid; many
+     similar inscriptions of Pharaohs of the XIIth dynasty were
+     inscribed in analogous circumstances. Nûbkhopirrî Antûf
+     boasted of having worsted the Amû and the negroes. On one of
+     the rocks of the island of Konosso, Monthotpû Nibhotpûrî
+     sculptured a scene of offerings in which the gods are
+     represented as granting him victory over all peoples. Among
+     the ruins of the temple which he built at Gebelên, is a
+     scene in which he is presenting files of prisoners from
+     different countries to the Theban gods.
+
+But the kings of the XIth dynasty were careful not to wander too far
+from the valley of the Nile. Egypt presented a sufficiently wide field
+for their activity, and they exerted themselves to the utmost to remedy
+the evils from which the country had suffered for hundreds of years.
+They repaired the forts, restored or enlarged the temples, and evidences
+of their building are found at Koptos, Gebelên, El-Kab, and Abydos.
+Thebes itself has been too often overthrown since that time for any
+traces of the work of the XIth dynasty kings in the temple of Amon to
+be distinguishable; but her necropolis is still full of their “eternal
+homes,” stretching in lines across the plain, opposite Karnak, at
+Drah abû’l-Neggah, and on the northern slopes of the valley of
+Deir-el-Baharî. Some were excavated in the mountain-side, and presented
+a square façade of dressed stone, surmounted by a pointed roof in the
+shape of a pyramid. Others were true pyramids, sometimes having a pair
+of obelisks in front of them, as well as a temple. None of them
+attained to the dimensions of the Memphite tombs; for, with only its own
+resources at command, the kingdom of the south could not build monuments
+to compete with those whose construction had taxed the united efforts of
+all Egypt, but it used a crude black brick, made without grit or straw,
+where the Egyptians of the north had preferred more costly stone. These
+inexpensive pyramids were built on a rectangular base not more than six
+and a half feet high; and the whole erection, which was simply faced
+with whitewashed stucco, never exceeded thirty-three feet in height. The
+sepulchral chamber was generally in the centre; in shape it resembled an
+oven, its roof being “vaulted” by the overlapping of the courses.
+Often also it was constructed partly in the base, and partly in the
+foundations below the base, the empty space above it being intended
+merely to lighten the weight of the masonry. There was not always an
+external chapel attached to these tombs, but a stele placed on the
+substructure, or fixed in one of the outer faces, marked the spot to
+which offerings were to be brought for the dead; sometimes, however,
+there was the addition of a square vestibule in front of the tomb,
+and here, on prescribed days, the memorial ceremonies took place.
+The statues of the double were rude and clumsy, the coffins heavy and
+massive, and the figures with which they were decorated inelegant and
+out of proportion, while the stelæ are very rudely cut. From the time
+of the VIth dynasty the lords of the Saïd had been reduced to employing
+workmen from Memphis to adorn their monuments; but the rivalry between
+the Thebans and the Heracleopolitans, which set the two divisions of
+Egypt against each other in constant hostility, obliged the Antufs to
+entrust the execution of their orders to the local schools of sculptors
+and painters. It is difficult to realize the degree of rudeness to
+which the unskilled workmen who made certain of the Akhmîtn and Gebelên
+sarcophagi must have sunk; and even at Thebes itself, or at Abydos, the
+execution of both bas-reliefs and hieroglyphs shows minute carefulness
+rather than any real skill or artistic feeling. Failing to attain to
+the beautiful, the Egyptians endeavoured to produce the sumptuous.
+Expeditions to the Wady Ham marnât to fetch blocks of granite for
+sarcophagi become more and more frequent, and wells were sunk from point
+to point along the road leading from Koptos to the mountains. Sometimes
+these expeditions were made the occasion for pushing on as far as the
+port of Saû and embarking on the Eed Sea. A hastily constructed boat
+cruised along by the shore, and gum, incense, gold, and the precious
+stones of the country were brought from the land of the Troglodytes. On
+the return of the convoy with its block of stone, and various packages
+of merchandise, there was no lack of scribes to recount the dangers of
+the campaign in exaggerated language, or to congratulate the reigning
+Pharaoh on having sown abroad the fame and terror of his name in the
+countries of the gods, and as far as the land of Pûanît.
+
+The final overthrow of the Heracleopolitan dynasty, and the union of the
+two kingdoms under the rule of the Theban house, are supposed to have
+been the work of that Monthotpû whose throne-name was Nibkhrôûrî;
+his, at any rate, was the name which the Egyptians of Kamesside times
+inscribed in the royal lists as that of the founder and most illustrious
+representative of the XIth dynasty. The monuments commemorate his
+victories over the Uaûaiû and the barbarous inhabitants of Nubia. Even
+after he had conquered the Delta he still continued to reside in Thebes;
+there he built his pyramid, and there divine honours were paid him from
+the day after his decease. A scene carved on the rocks north of Silsileh
+represents him as standing before his son Antûf; he is of gigantic
+stature, and one of his wives stands behind him.*
+
+     * Brugsch makes him out to be a descendant of Amenemhâît,
+     the prince of Thebes who lived under Monthotpu Nibtûirî, and
+     who went to bring the stone for that Pharaoh’s sarcophagus
+     from the Wady Hammamât. He had previously supposed him to be
+     this prince himself. Either of these hypotheses becomes
+     probable, according as Nibtûirî is supposed to have lived
+     before or after Nibkhrôûrî.
+
+[Illustration: 318.jpg THE PHARAOH MONTHOTPU RECEIVING THE HOMAGE OF HIS
+SUCCESSOR--ANTUE--IN THE SHAT ER-RIGELEH.]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a sketch by Petrie, _Ten Years’
+     Digging in Egypt_, p. 74, No. 2.
+
+Three or four kings followed him in rapid succession; the least
+insignificant among them appearing to have been a Monthotpii Nibtouiri.
+Nothing but the prenomen--Sonkherî--is known of the last of these latter
+princes, who was also the only one of them ever entered on the official
+lists. In their hands the sovereignty remained unchanged from what it
+had been almost uninterruptedly since the end of the VIth dynasty. They
+solemnly proclaimed their supremacy, and their names were inscribed at
+the head of public documents; but their power scarcely extended beyond
+the limits of their family domain, and the feudal chiefs never concerned
+themselves about the sovereign except when he evinced the power or will
+to oppose them, allowing him the mere semblance of supremacy over the
+greater part of Europe. Such a state of affairs could only be reformed
+by revolution. Amenemhâît I., the leader of the new dynasty, was of the
+Theban race; whether he had any claim to the throne, or by what means he
+had secured the stability of his rule, we do not know. Whether he had
+usurped the crown or whether he had inherited it legitimately, he showed
+himself worthy of the rank to which fortune had raised him, and the
+nobility saw in him a new incarnation of that type of kingship long
+known to them by tradition only, namely, that of a Pharaoh convinced of
+his own divinity and determined to assert it. He inspected the valley
+from one end to another, principality by principality, nome by nome,
+“crushing crime, and arising like Tûmû himself; restoring that which he
+found in ruins, settling the bounds of the towns, and establishing for
+each its frontiers.” The civil wars had disorganized everything; no one
+knew what ground belonged to the different nomes, what taxes were due
+from them, nor how questions of irrigation could be equitably
+decided. Amenemhâît set up again the boundary stelae, and restored its
+dependencies to each nome: “He divided the waters among them according
+to that which was in the cadastral surveys of former times.” Hostile
+nobles, or those whose allegiance was doubtful, lost the whole or part
+of their fiefs; those who had welcomed the new order of things received
+accessions of territory as the reward of their zeal and devotion.
+Depositions and substitutions of princes had begun already in the time
+of the XIth dynasty. Antûf V., for instance, finding the lord of Koptos
+too lukewarm, had had him removed and promptly replaced. The fief of
+Siût accrued to a branch of the family which was less warlike, and above
+all less devoted to the old dynasty than that of Khîti had been. Part of
+the nome of the Gazelle was added to the dominions of Nûhri, prince of
+the Hare nome; the eastern part of the same nome, with Monaît-Khûfûi
+as capital, was granted to his father-in-law, Khnûmhotpû I. Expeditions
+against the Ûaûaiû, the Mâzaiû, and the nomads of Libya and Arabia
+delivered the fellahîn from their ruinous raids and ensured to the
+Egyptians safety from foreign attack. Amenemhâît had, moreover, the wit
+to recognize that Thebes was not the most suitable place of residence
+for the lord of all Egypt; it lay too far to the south, was thinly
+populated, ill-built, without monuments, without prestige, and almost
+without history. He gave it into the hands of one of his relations to
+govern in his name, and proceeded to establish himself in the heart of
+the country, in imitation of the glorious Pharaohs from whom he claimed
+to be descended. But the ancient royal cities of Kheops and his children
+had ceased to exist; Memphis, like Thebes, was now a provincial town,
+and its associations were with the VIth and VIIIth dynasties only.
+Amenemhâît took up his abode a little to the south of Dahshur, in the
+palace of Titoûi, which he enlarged and made the seat of his government.
+Conscious of being in the hands of a strong ruler, Egypt breathed freely
+after centuries of distress, and her sovereign might in all sincerity
+congratulate himself on having restored peace to his country. “I caused
+the mourner to mourn no longer, and his lamentation was no longer
+heard,--perpetual fighting was no longer witnessed,--while before my
+coming they fought together as bulls unmindful of yesterday,--and no
+man’s welfare was assured, whether he was ignorant or learned.”--“I
+tilled the land as far as Elephantine,--I spread joy throughout the
+country, unto the marshes of the Delta.--At my prayer the Nile granted
+the inundation to the fields:--no man was an hungered under me, no
+man was athirst under me,--for everywhere men acted according to my
+commands, and all that I said was a fresh cause of love.”
+
+In the court of Amenemhâît, as about all Oriental sovereigns, there were
+doubtless men whose vanity or interests suffered by this revival of
+the royal authority; men who had found it to their profit to intervene
+between Pharaoh and his subjects, and who were thwarted in their
+intrigues or exactions by the presence of a prince determined on keeping
+the government in his own hands.
+
+These men devised plots against the new king, and he escaped with
+difficulty from their conspiracies. “It was after the evening meal, as
+night came on,--I gave myself up to pleasure for a time,--then I
+lay down upon the soft coverlets in my palace, I abandoned myself to
+repose,--and my heart began to be overtaken by slumber; when, lo! they
+gathered together in arms to revolt against me,--and I became weak as
+a serpent of the field.--Then I aroused myself to fight with my own
+hands,--and I found that I had but to strike the unresisting.--When
+I took a foe, weapon in hand, I make the wretch to turn and
+flee;--strength forsook him, even in the night; there were none
+who contended, and nothing vexatious was effected against me.” The
+conspirators were disconcerted by the promptness with which Amenemhâît
+had attacked them, and apparently the rebellion was suppressed on the
+same night in which it broke out. But the king was growing old, his son
+Usirtasen was very young, and the nobles were bestirring themselves in
+prospect of a succession which they supposed to be at hand. The best
+means of putting a stop to their evil devices and of ensuring the future
+of the dynasty was for the king to appoint the heir-presumptive, and at
+once associate him with himself in the exercise of his sovereignty. In
+the XXth year of his reign, Amenemhâît solemnly conferred the titles and
+prerogatives of royalty upon his son Usirtasen: “I raised thee from the
+rank of a subject,--I granted thee the free use of thy arm that thou
+mightest be feared.--As for me, I apparelled myself in the fine
+stuffs of my palace until I appeared to the eye as the flowers of my
+garden,--and I perfumed myself with essences as freely as I pour forth
+the water from my cisterns.” Usirtasen naturally assumed the active
+duties of royalty as his share. “He is a hero who wrought with the
+sword, a mighty man of valour without peer: he beholds the barbarians,
+he rushes forward and falls upon their predatory hordes. He is the
+hurler of javelins who makes feeble the hands of the foe; those whom
+he strikes never more lift the lance. Terrible is he, shattering skulls
+with the blows of his war-mace, and none resisted him in his time. He is
+a swift runner who smites the fugitive with the sword, but none who run
+after him can overtake him. He is a heart alert for battle in his time.
+He is a lion who strikes with his claws, nor ever lets go his weapon.
+He is a heart girded in armour at the sight of the hosts, and who leaves
+nothing standing behind him. He is a valiant man rushing forward when
+he beholds the fight. He is a soldier rejoicing to fall upon the
+barbarians: he seizes his buckler, he leaps forward and kills without
+a second blow. None may escape his arrow; before he bends his bow the
+barbarians flee from his arms like dogs, for the great goddess has
+charged him to fight against all who know not her name, and whom
+he strikes he spares not; he leaves nothing alive.” The old Pharaoh
+“remained in the palace,” waiting until his son returned to announce
+the success of his enterprises, and contributing by his counsel to the
+prosperity of their common empire. Such was the reputation for wisdom
+which he thus acquired, that a writer who was almost his contemporary
+composed a treatise in his name, and in it the king was supposed to
+address posthumous instructions to his son on the art of governing. He
+appeared to his son in a dream, and thus admonished him: “Hearken unto
+my words!--Thou art king over the two worlds, prince over the three
+regions. Act still better than did thy predecessors.--Let there be
+harmony between thy subjects and thee,--lest they give themselves up to
+fear; keep not thyself apart in the midst of them; make not thy brother
+solely from the rich and noble, fill not thy heart with them alone;
+yet neither do thou admit to thy intimacy chance-comers whose place is
+unknown.” The king confirmed his counsels by examples taken from his
+own life, and from these we have learned some facts in his history. The
+little work was widely disseminated and soon became a classic; in the
+time of the XIXth dynasty it was still copied in schools and studied
+by young scribes as an exercise in style. Usirfcasen’s share in the
+sovereignty had so accustomed the Egyptians to consider this prince
+as the king _de facto_, that they had gradually come to write his name
+alone upon the monuments. When Amenemhâît died, after a reign of thirty
+years, Ûsirtasen was engaged in a war against the Libyans. Dreading an
+outbreak of popular feeling, or perhaps an attempted usurpation by
+one of the princes of the blood, the high officers of the crown kept
+Amenemhâît’s death secret, and despatched a messenger to the camp to
+recall the young king. He left his tent by night, unknown to the troops,
+returned to the capital before anything had transpired among the
+people, and thus the transition from the founder to his immediate
+successor--always a delicate crisis for a new dynasty--seemed to
+come about quite naturally. The precedent of co-regnancy having been
+established, it was scrupulously followed by most of the succeeding
+sovereigns. In the XIIIth year of his sovereignty, and after having
+reigned alone for thirty-two years, Ûsirtasen I. shared his throne with
+Amenemhâît II.; and thirty-two years later Amenemhâît II. acted in a
+similar way with regard to Ûsirtasen II. Amenemhâît III. and Amenemhâît
+IV. were long co-regnant. The only princes of this house in whose cases
+any evidence of co-regnancy is lacking are Ûsirtasen III., and the queen
+Sovknofriûrî, with whom the dynasty died out.
+
+[Illustration: 325.jpg AN ASIATIC CHIEF IS PRESENTED TO KHNÛMHOTPÛ BY
+NOFIRHOPTU, AND BY KHITI, THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE HUNTSMEN]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a chromolithograph in Lepsius,
+     _Denhm._, ii. 133.
+
+It lasted two hundred and thirteen years, one month, and twenty-seven
+days,* and its history can be ascertained with greater certainty and
+completeness than that of any-other dynasty which ruled over Egypt.
+
+     *This is its total duration, as given in the Turin papyrus.
+     Several Egyptologists have thought that Manetho had, in his
+     estimate, counted the years of each sovereign as
+     consecutive, and have hence proposed to conclude that the
+     dynasty only lasted 168 years (Brugscii), or 160 (Lieblein),
+     or 194 (Ed. Meyer). It is simpler to admit that the compiler
+     of the papyrus was not in error; we do not know the length
+     of the reigns of Ûsirtasen II., Ûsirtasen III., and
+     Amenemhâît III., and their unknown years may be considered
+     as completing the tale of the two hundred and thirteen
+     years.
+
+We are doubtless far from having any adequate idea of its great
+achievements, for the biographies of its eight sovereigns, and the
+details of their interminable wars are very imperfectly known to us. The
+development of its foreign and domestic policy we can, however, follow
+without a break.
+
+[Illustration: 326.jpg SOME OF THE BAND OF ASIATICS, WITH THEIR BEASTS,
+BROUGHT FROM KHNÛMHOTPÛ]
+
+Asia had as little attraction for these kings as for their Memphite
+predecessors; they seem to have always had a certain dread of its
+warlike races, and to have merely contented themselves with repelling
+their attacks. Amenemhâît I. had completed the line of fortresses across
+the isthmus, and these were carefully maintained by his successors. The
+Pharaohs were not ambitious of holding direct sway over the tribes of
+the desert, and scrupulously avoided interfering with their affairs
+as long as the “Lords of the Sands” agreed to respect the Egyptian
+frontier. Commercial relations were none the less frequent and certain
+on this account.
+
+[Illustration: 327.jpg THE WOMEN PASSING BY IN PROCESSION, IN CHARGE OF
+A WARRIOR AND OF A MAN PLAYING UPON THE LYRE]
+
+Dwellers by the streams of the Delta were accustomed to see the
+continuous arrival in their towns of isolated individuals or of whole
+bands driven from their homes by want or revolution, and begging for
+refuge under the shadow of Pharaoh’s throne, and of caravans offering
+the rarest products of the north and of the east for sale. A celebrated
+scene in one of the tombs of Beni-Hasan illustrates what usually took
+place. We do not know what drove the thirty-seven Asiatics, men, women,
+and children, to cross the Red Sea and the Arabian desert and hills in
+the VIth year of Usirtasen II.;* they had, however, suddenly appeared in
+the Gazelle nome, and were there received by Khîti, the superintendent
+of the huntsmen, who, as his duty was, brought them before the prince
+Khnûmhotpû.
+
+     * This bas-relief was first noticed and described by
+     Champollion, who took the immigrants for Greeks of the
+     archaic period. Others have wished to consider it as
+     representing Abraham, the sons of Jacob, or at least a band
+     of Jews entering into Egypt, and on the strength of this
+     hypothesis it has often been reproduced.
+
+The foreigners presented the prince with green eye-paint, antimony
+powder, and two live ibexes, to conciliate his favour; while he, to
+preserve the memory of their visit, had them represented in painting
+upon the walls of his tomb. The Asiatics carry bows and arrows,
+javelins, axes, and clubs, like the Egyptians, and wear long garments or
+close-fitting loin-cloths girded on the thigh. One of them plays, as he
+goes, on an instrument whose appearance recalls that of the old Greek
+lyre. The shape of their arms, the magnificence and good taste of the
+fringed and patterned stuffs with which they are clothed, the elegance
+of most of the objects which they have brought with them, testify to a
+high standard of civilisation, equal at least to that of Egypt. Asia had
+for some time provided the Pharaohs with slaves, certain perfumes, cedar
+wood and cedar essences, enamelled vases, precious stones, lapis-lazuli,
+and the dyed and embroidered woollen fabrics of which Chaldæa kept the
+monopoly until the time of the Komans. Merchants of the Delta braved
+the perils of wild beasts and of robbers lurking in every valley, while
+transporting beyond the isthmus products of Egyptian manufacture, such
+as fine linens, chased or _cloisonné_ jewellery, glazed pottery, and
+glass paste or metal amulets. Adventurous spirits who found life dull
+on the banks of the Nile, men who had committed crimes, or who believed
+themselves suspected by their lords on political grounds, conspirators,
+deserters, and exiles were well received by the Asiatic tribes, and
+sometimes gained the favour of the sheikhs. In the time of the XIIth
+dynasty, Southern Syria, the country of the “Lords of the Sands,” and
+the kingdom of Kadûma were full of Egyptians whose eventful careers
+supplied the scribes and storytellers with the themes of many romances.
+
+Sinûhît, the hero of one of these stories, was a son of Amenemhâît I.,
+and had the misfortune involuntarily to overhear a state secret. He
+happened to be near the royal tent when news of his father’s sudden
+death was brought to Usirtasen. Fearing summary execution, he fled
+across the Delta north of Memphis, avoided the frontier-posts, and
+struck into the desert. “I pursued my way by night; at dawn I had
+reached Pûteni, and set out for the lake of Kîmoîrî. Then thirst fell
+upon me, and the death-rattle was in my throat, my throat cleaved
+together, and I said, ‘It is the taste of death!’ when suddenly I lifted
+up my heart and gathered my strength together: I heard the lowing of the
+herds. I perceived some Asiatics; their chief, who had been in Egypt,
+knew me; he gave me water, and caused milk to be boiled for me, and
+I went with him and joined his tribe.” But still Sinûhît did not feel
+himself in safety, and fled into Kadûma, to a prince who had provided an
+asylum for other Egyptian exiles, and where he “could hear men speak the
+language of Egypt.” Here he soon gained honours and fortune. “The chief
+preferred me before his children, giving me his eldest daughter in
+marriage, and he granted me that I should choose for myself the best of
+his land near the frontier of a neighbouring country. It is an excellent
+land, Aîa is its name. Figs are there and grapes; wine is more plentiful
+than water; honey abounds in it; numerous are its olives and all the
+produce of its trees; there are corn and flour without end, and cattle
+of all kinds. Great, indeed, was that which was bestowed upon me when
+the prince came to invest me, installing me as prince of a tribe in the
+best of his land. I had daily rations of bread and wine, day by day;
+cooked meat and roasted fowl, besides the mountain game which I took, or
+which was placed before me in addition to that which was brought me by
+my hunting dogs. Much butter was made for me, and milk prepared in every
+kind of way. There I passed many years, and the children which were born
+to me became strong men, each ruling his own tribe. When a messenger was
+going to the interior or returning from it, he turned aside from his way
+to come to me, for I did kindness to all: I gave water to the thirsty,
+I set again upon his way the traveller who had been stopped on it, I
+chastised the brigand. The Pitaîtiû, who went on distant campaigns to
+fight and repel the princes of foreign lands, I commanded them and
+they marched forth; for the prince of Tonû made me the general of his
+soldiers for long years. When I went forth to war, all countries towards
+which I set out trembled in their pastures by their wells. I seized
+their cattle, I took away their vassals and carried off their slaves, I
+slew the inhabitants, the land was at the mercy of my sword, of my bow,
+of my marches, of my well-conceived plans glorious to the heart of my
+prince. Thus, when he knew my valour, he loved me, making me chief among
+his children when he saw the strength of my arms.
+
+“A valiant man of Tonu came to defy me in my tent; he was a hero beside
+whom there was none other, for he had overthrown all his adversaries. He
+said: ‘Let Sinûhît fight with me, for he has not yet conquered me!’ and
+he thought to seize my cattle and therewith to enrich his tribe. The
+prince talked of the matter with me. I said: ‘I know him not. Verily,
+I am not his brother. I keep myself far from his dwelling; have I ever
+opened his door, or crossed his enclosures? Doubtless he is some jealous
+fellow envious at seeing me, and who believes himself fated to rob me
+of my cats, my goats, my kine, and to fall on my bulls, my rams, and my
+oxen, to take them.... If he has indeed the courage to fight, let him
+declare the intention of his heart! Shall the god forget him whom he has
+heretofore favoured? This man who has challenged me to fight is as one
+of those who lie upon the funeral couch. I bent my bow, I took out my
+arrows, I loosened my poignard, I furbished my arms. At dawn all the
+land of Tonu ran forth; its tribes were gathered together, and all the
+foreign lands which were its dependencies, for they were impatient to
+see this duel. Each heart was on live coals because of me; men and women
+cried ‘Ah!’ for every heart was disquieted for my sake, and they said:
+‘Is there, indeed, any valiant man who will stand up against him? Lo!
+the enemy has buckler, battle-axe, and an armful of javelins.’ When he
+had come forth and I appeared, I turned aside his shafts from me. When
+not one of them touched me, he fell upon me, and then I drew my bow
+against him. When my arrow pierced his neck, he cried out and fell to
+the earth upon his nose; I snatched his lance from him, I shouted my cry
+of victory upon his back. While the country people rejoiced, I made
+his vassals whom he had oppressed to give thanks to Montu. This prince,
+Ammiânshi, bestowed upon me all the possessions of the vanquished, and
+I took away his goods, I carried off his cattle. All that he had desired
+to do unto me that did I unto him; I took possession of all that was in
+his tent, I despoiled his dwelling; therewith was the abundance of my
+treasure and the number of my cattle increased.” In later times, in
+Arab romances such as that of Antar or that of Abû-Zeît, we find the
+incidents and customs described in this Egyptian tale; there we have
+the exile arriving at the court of a great sheikh whose daughter he
+ultimately marries, the challenge, the fight, and the raids of one
+people against another. Even in our own day things go on in much the
+same way. Seen from afar, these adventures have an air of poetry and of
+grandeur which fascinates the reader, and in imagination transports him
+into a world more heroic and more noble than our own. He who cares to
+preserve this impression would do well not to look too closely at the
+men and manners of the desert. Certainly the hero is brave, but he
+is still more brutal and treacherous; fighting is one object of his
+existence, but pillage is a far more important one. How, indeed, should
+it be otherwise? the soil is poor, life hard and precarious, and from
+remotest antiquity the conditions of that life have remained unchanged;
+apart from firearms and Islam, the Bedouin of to-day are the same as the
+Bedouin of the days of Sinûhît.
+
+There are no known documents from which we can derive any certain
+information as to what became of the mining colonies in Sinai after the
+reign of Papi II. Unless entirely abandoned, they must have lingered
+on in comparative idleness; for the last of the Memphites, the
+Heracleopohtans, and the early Thebans were compelled to neglect them,
+nor was their active life resumed until the accession of the XIIth
+dynasty. The veins in the Wady Maghara were much exhausted, but a series
+of fortunate explorations revealed the existence of untouched deposits
+in the Sarbût-el-Khâdîm, north of the original workings. From the time
+of Amenemhâît II. these new veins were worked, and absorbed attention
+during several generations. Expeditions to the mines were sent out every
+three or four years, sometimes annually, under the command of such
+high functionaries as “Acquaintances of the King,” “Chief Lectors,”
+ and Captains of the Archers. As each mine was rapidly worked out, the
+delegates of the Pharaohs were obliged to find new veins in order
+to meet industrial demands. The task was often arduous, and the
+commissioners generally took care to inform posterity very fully as to
+the anxieties which they had felt, the pains which they had taken, and
+the quantities of turquoise or of oxide of copper which they had brought
+into Egypt. Thus the Captain Haroëris tells us that, on arriving at
+Sarbût in the month Pha-menoth of an unknown year of Amenemhâît III.,
+he made a bad beginning in his work of exploration. Wearied of fruitless
+efforts, the workmen were quite ready to desert him if he had not put a
+good face on the business and stoutly promised them the support of the
+local Hâthor.
+
+[Illustration: 334.jpg PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF SARBUT EL KHADIM]
+
+And, as a matter of fact, fortune did change. When he began to despair,
+“the desert burned like summer, the mountain was on fire, and the vein
+exhausted; one morning the overseer who was there questioned the miners,
+the skilled workers who were used to the mine, and they said: ‘There is
+turquoise for eternity in the mountain.’ At that very moment the vein
+appeared.” And, indeed, the wealth of the deposit which he found so
+completely indemnified Haroëris for his first disappointments, that in
+the month Pachons, three months after the opening of these workings, he
+had finished his task and prepared to leave the country, carrying his
+spoils with him. From time to time Pharaoh sent convoys of cattle and
+provisions--corn, sixteen oxen, thirty geese, fresh vegetables, live
+poultry--to his vassals at the mines.
+
+[Illustration: 335.jpg THE RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF HATHOR]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in the _Ordnance Survey,
+     Photo-graphs_, vol. iii. pl. 8.
+
+The mining population increased so fast that two chapels were built,
+dedicated to Hâthor, and served by volunteer priests. One of these
+chapels, presumably the oldest, consists of a single rock-cut chamber,
+upheld by one large square pillar, walls and pillar having been covered
+with finely sculptured scenes and inscriptions which are now almost
+effaced. The second chapel included a beautifully proportioned
+rectangular court, once entered by a portico supported on pillars with
+Hâthor-head capitals, and beyond the court a narrow building divided
+into many small irregular chambers. The edifice was altered and rebuilt,
+and half destroyed; it is now nothing by a confused heap of ruins, of
+which the original plan cannot be traced. Votive stehe of all shapes and
+sizes, in granite, sandstone, or limestone, were erected here and there
+at random in the two chambers and in the courts between the columns, and
+flush with the walls. Some are still _in situ_, others lie scattered in
+the midst of the ruins. Towards the middle of the reign of Amenemhâît
+III., the industrial demand for turquoise and for copper ore became so
+great that the mines of Sarbût-el-Khâdîm could no longer meet it, and
+those in the Wady Maghara were re-opened. The workings of both sets of
+mines were carried on with unabated vigour under Amenemhâîfc IV., and
+were still in full activity when the XIIIth dynasty succeeded the XIIth
+on the Egyptian throne. Tranquillity prevailed in the recesses of the
+mountains of Sinai as well as in the valley of the Nile, and a small
+garrison sufficed to keep watch over the Bedouin of the neighbourhood.
+Sometimes the latter ventured to attack the miners, and then fled in
+haste, carrying off their meagre booty; but they were vigorously pursued
+under the command of one of the officers on the spot, and generally
+caught and compelled to disgorge their plunder before they had reached
+the shelter of their “douars.” The old Memphite kings prided themselves
+on these armed pursuits as though they were real victories, and had them
+recorded in triumphal bas-reliefs; but under the XIIth dynasty they were
+treated as unimportant frontier incidents, almost beneath the notice
+of the Pharaoh, and the glory of them--such as it was--he left to his
+captains then in command of those districts.
+
+Egypt had always kept up extensive commercial relations with certain
+northern countries lying beyond the Mediterranean. The reputation for
+wealth enjoyed by the Delta sometimes attracted bands of the Haiû-nîbû
+to come prowling in piratical excursions along its shores; but their
+expeditions seldom turned out successfully, and even if the adventurers
+escaped summary execution, they generally ended their days as slaves in
+the Fayûm, or in some village of the Said. At first their descendants
+preserved the customs, religion, manners, and industries of their
+distant home, and went on making rough pottery for daily use, which was
+decorated in a style recalling that of vases found in the most ancient
+tombs of the Ægean archipelago; but they were gradually assimilated
+to their surroundings, and their grandchildren became fellahîn like the
+rest, brought up from infancy in the customs and language of Egypt.
+
+The relations with the tribes of the Libyan desert, the Tihûnû and the
+Timihû, were almost invariably peaceful; although occasional raids of
+one of their bands into Egyptian territory would provoke counter raids
+into the valleys in which they took refuge with their flocks and herds.
+Thus, in addition to the captive Haiû-nîbû, another heterogeneous
+element, soon to be lost in the mass of the Egyptian population, was
+supplied by detachments of Berber women and children.
+
+[Illustration: 338.jpg MAP]
+
+The relations Egypt with her northern neighbours during the hundred
+years of the XIIth dynasty were chiefly commercial, but occasionally
+this peaceful intercourse was broken by sudden incursions or piratical
+expeditions which called for active measures of repression, and were
+the occasion of certain romantic episodes. The foreign policy of the
+Pharaohs in this connexion was to remain strictly on the defensive.
+Ethiopia attracted all their attention, and demanded all their strength.
+The same instinct which had impelled their predecessors to pass
+successively beyond Gebel-Silsileh and Elephantine now drove the XIIth
+dynasty beyond the second cataract, and even further. The nature of the
+valley compelled them to this course. From the Tacazze, or rather from
+the confluence of the two Niles down to the sea, the whole valley forms
+as it were a Greater Egypt; for although separated by the cataracts
+into different divisions, it is everywhere subject to the same physical
+conditions. In the course of centuries it has more than once been
+forcibly dismembered by the chances of war, but its various parts have
+always tended to reunite, and have coalesced at the first opportunity.
+The Amami, the Irittt, and the Sitiu, all those nations which wandered
+west of the river, and whom the Pharaohs of the VIth and subsequently of
+the XIth dynasty either enlisted into their service or else conquered,
+do not seem to have given much trouble to the successors of Amenemhâît
+I. The Ûaûaiû and the Mâzaiû were more turbulent, and it was necessary
+to subdue them in order to assure the tranquillity of the colonists
+scattered along the banks of the river from Philo to Korosko. They were
+worsted by Amenemhâît I. in several encounters.
+
+Ûsirtasen I. made repeated campaigns against them, the earlier ones
+being undertaken in his father’s lifetime. Afterwards he pressed on, and
+straightway “raised his frontiers” at the rapids of Wady Haifa; and the
+country was henceforth the undisputed property of his successors. It was
+divided into nomes like Egypt itself; the Egyptian language succeeded in
+driving out the native dialects, and the local deities, including Didûn,
+the principal god, were associated or assimilated with the gods of
+Egypt. Khnûmû was the favourite deity of the northern nomes, doubtless
+because the first colonists were natives of Elephantine, and subjects
+of its princes. In the southern nomes, which had been annexed under the
+Theban kings and were peopled with Theban immigrants, the worship of
+Khnûmû was carried on side by side with the worship of Amon, or Amon-Ra,
+god of Thebes. In accordance with local affinities, now no longer
+intelligible, the other gods also were assigned smaller areas in the new
+territory--Thot at Pselcis and Pnûbsît, where a gigantic nabk tree was
+worshipped, Râ near Derr, and Horus at Miama and Baûka. The Pharaohs
+who had civilized the country here received divine honours while still
+alive. Ûsirtasen III. was placed in triads along with Didûn, Amon, and
+Khnûmû; temples were raised to him at Semneh, Shotaûi, and Doshkeh;
+and the anniversary of a decisive victory which he had gained over the
+barbarians was still celebrated on the 21st of Pachons, a thousand years
+afterwards, under Thutmosis III. The feudal system spread over the land
+lying between the two cataracts, where hereditary barons held their
+courts, trained their armies, built their castles, and excavated their
+superbly decorated tombs in the mountain-sides. The only difference
+between Nubian Egypt and Egypt proper lay in the greater heat and
+smaller wealth of the former, where the narrower, less fertile, and
+less well-watered land supported a smaller population and yielded less
+abundant revenues.
+
+The Pharaoh kept the charge of the more important strategical points
+in his own hands. Strongholds placed at bends of the river and at
+the mouths of ravines leading into the desert, secured freedom of
+navigation, and kept off the pillaging nomads. The fortress of Derr
+[Kubbân?--Ed.], which was often rebuilt, dates in part at least from
+the early days of the conquest of Nubia. Its rectangular boundary--a
+dry brick wall--is only broken by easily filled up gaps, and with some
+repairs it would still resist an Ababdeh attack.*
+
+     * The most ancient bricks in the fortifications of Derr,
+     easily distinguishable from those belonging to the later
+     restorations, are identical in shape and size with those of
+     the walls at Syene and El-Kab; and the wall at El-Kab was
+     certainly built not later than the XIIth dynasty.
+
+The most considerable Nubian works of the XIIth dynasty were in the
+three places from which the country can even now be most effectively
+commanded, namely, at the two cataracts, and in the districts extending
+from Derr to Dakkeh. Elephantine already possessed an entrenched camp
+which commanded the rapids and the land route from Syene to Philo.
+Usirtasen III. restored its great wall; he also cleared and widened
+the passage to Sériel, as did Papi I. to such good effect that easy and
+rapid communication between Thebes and the new towns was at all times
+practicable. Some little distance from Phihe he established a station
+for boats, and an emporium which he called Hirû Khâkerî--“the Ways of
+Khâkerî”--after his own throne name--Khâkerî.*
+
+     * The widening of the passage was effected in the VIIIth
+     year of his reign, the same year in which he established the
+     Egyptian frontier at Semneh. The other constructions are
+     mentioned, but not very clearly, in a stele of the same year
+     which came from Elephantine, and is now in the British
+     Museum. The votive tablet, engraved in honour of Anûkît at
+     Sehêl, in which the king boasts of having made for the
+     goddess “the excellent channel [called] ‘the Ways of
+     Khâkeûrî,’” probably refers to this widening and deepening
+     of the passage in the VIIIth year.
+
+Its exact site is unknown, but it appears to have completed on the
+south side the system of walls and redoubts which protected the cataract
+provinces against either surprise or regular attacks of the barbarians.
+Although of no appreciable use for the purposes of general security, the
+fortifications of Middle Nubia were of great importance in the eyes of
+the Pharaohs. They commanded the desert roads leading to the Eed Sea,
+and to Berber and Gebel Barkel on the Upper Nile. The most important
+fort occupied the site of the present village of Kuban, opposite Dakkeh,
+and commanded the entrance to the Wady Olaki, which leads to the richest
+gold deposits known to Ancient Egypt. The valleys which furrow the
+mountains of Etbai, the Wady Shauanîb, the Waddy Umm Teyur, Gebel Iswud,
+Gebel Umm Kabriteh, all have gold deposits of their own. The gold is
+found in nuggets and in pockets in white quartz, mixed with iron oxides
+and titanium, for which the ancients had no use. The method of mining
+practised from immemorial antiquity by the Uaûaiû of the neighbourhood
+was of the simplest, and traces of the workings may be seen all over the
+sides of the ravines. Tunnels followed the direction of the lodes to a
+depth of fifty-five to sixty-five yards; the masses of quartz procured
+from them were broken up in granite mortars, pounded small and
+afterwards reduced to a powder in querns, similar to those used for
+crushing grain; the residue was sifted on stone tables, and the finely
+ground parts afterwards washed in bowls of sycamore wood, until the gold
+dust had settled to the bottom.*
+
+     * The gold-mines and the method of working them under the
+     Ptolemies have been described by Agatharchides; the
+     processes employed were very ancient, and had hardly changed
+     since the time of the first Pharaohs, as is shown by a
+     comparison of the mining tools found in these districts with
+     those which have been collected at Sinai, in the turquoise-
+     mines of the Ancient Empire.
+
+This was the Nubian gold which was brought into Egypt by nomad tribes,
+and for which the Egyptians themselves, from the time of the XIIth
+dynasty onwards, went to seek in the land which produced it. They made
+no attempt to establish permanent colonies for working the mines, as at
+Sinai; but a detachment of troops was despatched nearly every year to
+the spot to receive the amount of precious metal collected since their
+previous visit. The king Usirtasen would send at one time the prince of
+the nome of the Gazelle on such an expedition, with a contingent of
+four hundred men belonging to his fief; at another time, it would be
+the faithful Sihâthor who would triumphantly scour the country, obliging
+young and old to work with redoubled efforts for his master Amenemhâît
+II. On his return the envoy would boast of having brought back more gold
+than any of his predecessors, and of having crossed the desert without
+losing either a soldier or a baggage animal, not even a donkey.
+
+[Illustration: 314.jpg ONE OF TUE FAÇADES OF THE FORTRESS OF KUBBAN]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger, taken in
+     1881.
+
+Sometimes a son of the reigning Pharaoh, even the heir-presumptive,
+would condescend to accompany the caravan. Amenemhâît III. repaired or
+rebuilt the fortress of Kubbân, the starting-place of the little army,
+and the spot to which it returned. It is a square enclosure measuring
+328 feet on each side; the ramparts of crude brick are sloped slightly
+inwards, and are strengthened at intervals by bastions projecting from
+the external face of the wall. The river protected one side; the other
+three were defended by ditches communicating with the Nile. There were
+four entrances, one in the centre of each façade: that on the east,
+which faced the desert, and was exposed to the severest attacks, was
+flanked by a tower.
+
+The cataract of Wady Haifa offered a natural barrier to invasion from
+the south. Even without fortification, the chain of granite rocks which
+crosses the valley at this spot would have been a sufficient obstacle to
+prevent any fleet which might attempt the passage from gaining access to
+northern Nubia.
+
+[Illustration: 345.jpg THE SECOND CATARACT BETWEEN HAMKEH AND WADY
+HALFA]
+
+The Nile here has not the wild and imposing aspect which it assumes
+lower down, between Aswan and Philae. It is bordered by low and receding
+hills, devoid of any definite outline. Masses of bare black rock, here
+and there covered by scanty herbage, block the course of the river in
+some places in such profusion, that its entire bed seems to be taken
+up by them. For a distance of seventeen miles the main body of water
+is broken up into an infinitude of small channels in its width of
+two miles; several of the streams thus formed present, apparently, a
+tempting course to the navigator, so calm and safe do they appear, but
+they conceal ledges of hidden reefs, and are unexpectedly forced into
+narrow passages obstructed by granite boulders. The strongest built and
+best piloted boat must be dashed to pieces in such circumstances, and
+no effort or skilfulness on the part of the crew would save the vessel
+should the owner venture to attempt the descent. The only channel at
+all available for transit runs from the village of Aesha on the Arabian
+side, winds capriciously from one bank to another, and emerges into calm
+water a little above Nakhiet Wady Haifa. During certain days in August
+and September the natives trust themselves to this stream, but only with
+boats lightly laden; even then their escape is problematical, for they
+are in hourly danger of foundering. As soon as the inundation begins to
+fall, the passage becomes more difficult: by the middle of October it
+is given up, and communication by water between Egypt and the countries
+above Wady Haifa is suspended until the return of the inundation. By
+degrees, as the level of the water becomes lower, remains of wrecks
+jammed between the rocks, or embedded in sandbanks, emerge into view,
+as if to warn sailors and discourage them from an undertaking so fraught
+with perils. Usirtasen I. realized the importance of the position, and
+fortified its approaches.
+
+[Illustration: 346.jpg THE SECOND CATARACT AT LOW NILE]
+
+He selected the little Nubian town of Bohani, which lay exactly opposite
+to the present village of Wady Haifa, and transformed it into a strong
+frontier fortress. Besides the usual citadel, he built there a temple
+dedicated to the Theban god Amon and to the local Horus; he then set
+up a stele commemorating his victories over the peoples beyond the
+cataract.
+
+[Illustration: 349.jpg THE TRIUMPHAL STELE OF USIRTASEN I.]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph of the original in
+     the museum at Florence.
+
+Ten of their principal chiefs had passed before Amon as prisoners, their
+arms tied behind their backs, and had been sacrificed at the foot of
+the altar by the sovereign himself: he represented them on the stele by
+enclosing their names in battlemented cartouches, each surmounted by
+the bust of a man bound by a long cord which is held by the conqueror.
+
+Nearly a century later Ûsirtasen III. enlarged the fortress, and finding
+doubtless that it was not sufficiently strong to protect the passage of
+the cataract, he stationed outposts at various points, at Matûga, Fakus,
+and Kassa. They served as mooring-places where the vessels which went
+up and down stream with merchandise might be made fast to the bank at
+sunset. The bands of Bedouin, lurking in the neighbourhood, would
+have rejoiced to surprise them, and by their depredations to stop the
+commerce between the Said and the Upper Nile, during the few weeks in
+which it could be carried on with a minimum of danger. A narrow gorge
+crossed by a bed of granite, through which the Nile passes at Semneh,
+afforded another most favourable site for the completion of this
+system of defence. On cliffs rising sheer above the current, the
+king constructed two fortresses, one on each bank of the river, which
+completely commanded the approaches by land and water. On the right bank
+at Kummeh, where the position was naturally a strong one, the engineers
+described an irregular square, measuring about two hundred feet each
+side; two projecting bastions flanked the entrance, the one to the
+north covering the approaching pathways, the southern one commanding
+the river-bank. A road with a ditch runs at about thirteen feet from the
+walls round the building, closely following its contour, except at the
+north-west and south-east angles, where there are two projections which
+formed bastions. The town on the other bank, Samninû-Kharp-Khâkerî,
+occupied a less favourable position: its eastern flank was protected by
+a zone of rocks and by the river, but the three other sides were of easy
+approach. They were provided with ramparts which rose to the height
+of eighty-two feet above the plain, and were strengthened at unequal
+distances by enormous buttresses. These resembled towers without
+parapets, overlooking every part of the encircling road, and from them
+the defenders could take the attacking sappers in flank.
+
+[Illustration: 351.jpg THE RAPIDS OF THE NILE AT SEMNEH, AND THE TWO
+FORTRESSES BUILT BY USIRTASEN III]
+
+     Map drawn up by Thuillier from the somewhat obsolete survey
+     of Cailliaud
+
+The intervals between them had been so calculated as to enable the
+archers to sweep the intervening space with their arrows. The main
+building is of crude brick, with beams laid horizontally between; the
+base of the external rampart is nearly vertical, while the upper part
+forms an angle of some seventy degrees with the horizon, making the
+scaling of it, if not impossible, at least very difficult. Each of the
+enclosing walls of the two fortresses surrounded a town complete in
+itself, with temples dedicated to their founders and to the Nubian
+deities, as well as numerous habitations, now in ruins. The sudden
+widening of the river immediately to the south of the rapids made a
+kind of natural roadstead, where the Egyptian squadron could lie without
+danger on the eve of a campaign against Ethiopia; the galiots of the
+negroes there awaited permission to sail below the rapids, and to
+enter Egypt with their cargoes. At once a military station and a river
+custom-house, Semneh was the necessary bulwark of the new Egypt, and
+Usirtasen III. emphatically proclaimed the fact, in two decrees, which
+he set up there for the edification of posterity. “Here is,” so runs the
+first, “the southern boundary fixed in the year VIII. under his Holiness
+of Khâkerî, Usirtasen, who gives life always and for ever, in order that
+none of the black peoples may cross it from above, except only for the
+transport of animals, oxen, goats, and sheep belonging to them.” The
+edict of the year XVI. reiterates the prohibition of the year VIII.,
+and adds that “His Majesty caused his own statue to be erected at the
+landmarks which he himself had set up.” The beds of the first and second
+cataracts were then less worn away than they are now; they are therefore
+more efficacious in keeping back the water and forcing it to rise to a
+higher level above. The cataracts acted as indicators of the inundation,
+and if their daily rise and fall were studied, it was possible to
+announce to the dwellers on the banks lower down the river the progress
+and probable results of the flood.
+
+[Illustration: 353.jpg THE CHANNEL OF THE NILE BETWEEN THE TWO
+FORTRESSES OF SEMNEH AND KUMMEH]
+
+     Reproduction by Faucher-Gudin of a sketch published by
+     Cailliaud, _Voyage à Méroe, Atlas_, vol. ii. pl. xxx.
+
+As long as the dominion of the Pharaohs reached no further than Philæ,
+observations of the Nile were always taken at the first cataract; and
+it was from Elephantine that Egypt received the news of the first
+appearance and progress of the inundation. Amenemhâît III. set up a
+new nilometer at the new frontier, and gave orders to his officers to
+observe the course of the flood. They obeyed him scrupulously, and every
+time that the inundation appeared to them to differ from the average
+of ordinary years, they marked its height on the rocks of Semneh and
+Kummeh, engraving side by side with the figure the name of the king and
+the date of the year. The custom was continued there under the XIIIth
+dynasty; afterwards, when the frontier was pushed further south, the
+nilometer accompanied it.
+
+The country beyond Semneh was virgin territory, almost untouched and
+quite uninjured by previous wars. Its name now appears for the first
+time upon the monuments, in the form of Kaûshû--the humbled Kûsh. It
+comprised the districts situated to the south within the immense loop
+described by the river between Dongola and Khartoum, those vast plains
+intersected by the windings of the White and Blue Niles, known as the
+regions of Kordofan and Darfur; it was bounded by the mountains of
+Abyssinia, the marshes of Lake Nû, and all those semi-fabulous countries
+to which were relegated the “Isles of the Manes” and the “Lands of
+Spirits.” It was separated from the Red Sea by the land of Pûanît; and
+to the west, between it and the confines of the world, lay the Timihû.
+Scores of tribes, white, copper-coloured, and black, bearing strange
+names, wrangled over the possession of this vaguely defined territory;
+some of them were still savage or emerging from barbarism, while others
+had attained to a pitch of material civilization almost comparable with
+that of Egypt. The same diversity of types, the same instability and the
+same want of intelligence which characterized the tribes of those days,
+still distinguish the medley of peoples who now frequent the upper
+valley of the Nile. They led the same sort of animal life, guided by
+impulse, and disturbed, owing to the caprices of their petty chiefs, by
+bloody wars which often issued in slavery or in emigration to distant
+regions.
+
+[Illustration: 355.jpg KÛSHITE PRISONERS BROUGHT TO EGYPT]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Guclin, from the water-colour drawing by
+     Mr. Blackden.
+
+With such shifting and unstable conditions, it would be difficult to
+build up a permanent State. From time to time some kinglet, more daring,
+cunning, tenacious, or better fitted to govern than the rest, extended
+his dominion over his neighbours, and advanced step by step, till he
+united immense tracts under his single rule. As by degrees his kingdom
+enlarged, he made no efforts to organize it on any regular system, to
+introduce any uniformity in the administration of its affairs, or to
+gain the adherence of its incongruous elements by just laws which would
+be equally for the good of all: when the massacres which accompanied his
+first victories were over, when he had incorporated into his own army
+what was left of the vanquished troops, when their children were led
+into servitude and he had filled his treasury with their spoil and his
+harem with their women, it never occurred to him that there was anything
+more to be done. If he had acted otherwise, it would not probably have
+been to his advantage. Both his former and present subjects were too
+divergent in language and origin, too widely separated by manners and
+customs, and too long in a state of hostility to each other, to draw
+together and to become easily welded into a single nation. As soon as
+the hand which held them together relaxed its hold for a moment, discord
+crept in everywhere, among individuals as well as among the tribes, and
+the empire of yesterday resolved itself into its original elements
+even more rapidly than it had been formed. The clash of arms which had
+inaugurated its brief existence died quickly away, the remembrance of
+its short-lived glory was lost after two or three generations in the
+horrors of a fresh invasion: its name vanished without leaving a trace
+behind. The occupation of Nubia brought Egypt into contact with this
+horde of incongruous peoples, and the contact soon entailed a struggle.
+It is futile for a civilized state to think of dwelling peacefully with
+any barbarous nation with which it is in close proximity. Should it
+decide to check its own advances, and impose limits upon itself which
+it shall not pass over, its moderation is mistaken for feebleness and
+impotence; the vanquished again take up the offensive, and either
+force the civilized power to retire, or compel it to cross its former
+boundary. The Pharaohs did not escape this inevitable consequence of
+conquest: their southern frontier advanced continually higher and higher
+up the Nile, without ever becoming fixed in a position sufficiently
+strong to defy the attacks of the Barbarians. Usirtasen I. had subdued
+the countries of Hahû, of Khonthanunofir, and Shaad, and had beaten in
+battle the Shemîk, the Khasa, the Sus, the Aqîn, the Anu, the Sabiri,
+and the people of Akîti and Makisa. Amenemhâît II., Usirtasen II., and
+Usirtasen III. never hesitated to “strike the humbled Kush” whenever
+the opportunity presented itself. The last-mentioned king in particular
+chastised them severely in his VIIIth, XIIth, XVIth, and XIXth years,
+and his victories made him so popular, that the Egyptians of the Greek
+period, identifying him with the Sesostris of Herodotus, attributed to
+him the possession of the universe. On the base of a colossal statue of
+rose granite which he erected in the temple of Tanis, we find preserved
+a list of the tribes which he conquered: the names of them appear to
+us most outlandish--Alaka, Matakaraû, Tûrasû, Pamaîka, Uarakî,
+Paramakâ--and we have no clue as to their position on the map. We know
+merely that they lived in the desert, on both sides of the Nile, in the
+latitude of Berber or thereabouts. Similar expeditions were sent after
+Ûsirtasen’s time, and Amenem-hâît III. regarded both banks of the Nile,
+between Semneh and Dongola, as forming part of the territory of Egypt
+proper. Little by little, and by the force of circumstances, the making
+of Greater Egypt was realized; she approached nearer and nearer towards
+the limit which had been prescribed for her by nature, to that point
+where the Nile receives its last tributaries, and where its peerless
+valley takes its origin in the convergence of many others.
+
+The conquest of Nubia was on the whole an easy one, and so much personal
+advantage accrued from these wars, that the troops and generals entered
+on them without the least repugnance. A single fragment has come down to
+us which contains a detailed account of one of these campaigns, probably
+that conducted by Usirtasen III. in the XVIth year of his reign. The
+Pharaoh had received information that the tribes of the district of
+Hûâ, on the Tacazze, were harassing his vassals, and possibly also
+those Egyptians who were attracted by commerce to that neighbourhood.
+He resolved to set out and chastise them severely, and embarked with
+his fleet. It was an expedition almost entirely devoid of danger:
+the invaders landed only at favourable spots, carried off any of the
+inhabitants who came in their way, and seized on their cattle--on one
+occasion as many as a hundred and twenty-three oxen and eleven asses, on
+others less. Two small parties marched along the banks, and foraging to
+the right and left, drove the booty down to the river. The tactics of
+invasion have scarcely undergone any change in these countries;
+the account given by Cailliaud of the first conquest of Fazogl by
+Ismail-Pasha, in 1822, might well serve to complete the fragments of
+the inscription of Usirtasen III., and restore for us, almost in every
+detail, a faithful picture of the campaigns carried on in these regions
+by the kings of the XIIth dynasty. The people are hunted down in
+the same fashion; the country is similarly ravaged by a handful of
+well-armed, fairly disciplined men attacking naked and disconnected
+hordes, the young men are massacred after a short resistance or forced
+to escape into the woods, the women are carried off as slaves, the huts
+pillaged, villages burnt, whole tribes exterminated in a few hours.
+Sometimes a detachment, having imprudently ventured into some thorny
+thicket to attack a village perched on a rocky summit, would experience
+a reverse, and would with great difficulty regain the main body of
+troops, after having lost three-fourths of its men. In most cases there
+was no prolonged resistance, and the attacking party carried the place
+with the loss of merely two or three men killed or wounded. The spoil
+was never very considerable in any one locality, but its total amount
+increased as the raid was carried afield, and it soon became so bulky
+that the party had to stop and retrace their steps, in order to place
+it for safety in the nearest fortress. The booty consisted for the most
+part of herds of oxen and of cumbrous heaps of grain, as well as wood
+for building purposes. But it also comprised objects of small size but
+of great value, such as ivory, precious stones, and particularly gold.
+The natives collected the latter in the alluvial tracts watered by the
+Tacazze, the Blue Nile and its tributaries. The women were employed
+in searching for nuggets, which were often of considerable size; they
+enclosed them in little leather cases, and offered them to the merchants
+in exchange for products of Egyptian industry, or they handed them over
+to the goldsmiths to be made into bracelets, ear, nose, or finger rings,
+of fairly fine workmanship. Gold was found in combination with several
+other metals, from which they did not know how to separate it: the
+purest gold had a pale yellow tint, which was valued above all others,
+but electrum, that is to say, gold alloyed with silver in the proportion
+of eighty per cent., was also much in demand, while greyish-coloured
+gold, mixed with platinum, served for making common jewellery.*
+
+     * Cailliaud has briefly described the auriferous sand of the
+     Qamâmyl, and the way in which it is worked: it is from him
+     that I have borrowed the details given in the text. From
+     analyses which I caused to be made at the Bûlaq Museum of
+     Egyptian jewellery of the time of the XVIIIth dynasty, which
+     had been broken and were without value, from an archeo-
+     logical or artistic point of view, I have demonstrated the
+     presence of the platinum and silver mentioned by Cailliaud
+     as being found in the nuggets from the Blue Nile.
+
+None of these expeditions produced any lasting results, and the Pharaohs
+established no colonies in any of these countries. Their Egyptian
+subjects could not have lived there for any length of time without
+deteriorating by intermarriage with the natives or from the effects of
+the climate; they would have degenerated into a half-bred race, having
+all the vices and none of the good qualities of the aborigines. The
+Pharaohs, therefore, continued their hostilities without further
+scruples, and only sought to gain as much as possible from their
+victories. They cared little if nothing remained after they had passed
+through some district, or if the passage of their armies was marked
+only by ruins. They seized upon everything which came across their
+path--men, chattels, or animals--and carried them back to Egypt; they
+recklessly destroyed everything for which they had no use, and made a
+desert of fertile districts which but yesterday had been covered with
+crops and studded with populous villages. The neighbouring inhabitants,
+realizing their incapacity to resist regular troops, endeavoured to buy
+off the invaders by yielding up all they possessed in the way of slaves,
+flocks, wood, or precious metals. The generals in command, however, had
+to reckon with the approaching low Nile, which forced them to beat a
+retreat; they were obliged to halt at the first appearance of it, and
+they turned homewards “in peace,” their only anxiety being to lose the
+smallest possible number of men or captured animals on their return
+journey.
+
+As in earlier times, adventurous merchants penetrated into districts not
+reached by the troops, and prepared the way for conquest. The princes
+of Elephantine still sent caravans to distant parts, and one of them,
+Siranpîtû, who lived under Ûsirtasen I. and Amenemhâit II., recorded his
+explorations on his tomb, after the fashion of his ancestors: the king
+at several different times had sent him on expeditions to the Soudan,
+but the inscription in which he gives an account of them is so
+mutilated, that we cannot be sure which tribes he visited. We
+learn merely that he collected from them skins, ivory, ostrich
+feathers--everything, in fact, which Central Africa has furnished as
+articles of commerce from time immemorial. It was not, however, by
+land only that Egyptian merchants travelled to seek fortune in foreign
+countries: the Red Sea attracted them, and served as a quick route for
+reaching the land of Pûanît, whose treasures in perfumes and rarities
+of all kinds had formed the theme of ancient traditions and navigators’
+tales. Relations with it had been infrequent, or had ceased altogether,
+during the wars of the Heracleo-politan period: on their renewal it
+was necessary to open up afresh routes which had been forgotten for
+centuries.
+
+[Illustration: 362.jpg THE ROUTES LEADING FROM THE NILE TO THE RED SEA,
+BETWEEN KOPTOS AND KOSSEIR.]
+
+Traffic was confined almost entirely to two or three out of the
+many,--one which ran from Elephantine or from Nekhabît to the “Head of
+Nekhabît,” the Berenice of the Greeks; others which started from Thebes
+or Koptos, and struck the coast at the same place or at Saû, the present
+Kosseir. The latter, which was the shortest as well as the favourite
+route, passed through Wady Hammamât, from whence the Pharaohs drew the
+blocks of granite for their sarcophagi. The officers who were sent to
+quarry the stone often took advantage of the opportunity to visit the
+coast, and to penetrate as far as the Spice Regions. As early as the
+year VIII. of Sônkherî, the predecessor of Amenemhâît I., the “sole
+friend” Hûnû had been sent by this road, “in order to take the command
+of a squadron to Pûanît, and to collect a tribute of fresh incense
+from the princes of the desert.” He got together three thousand men,
+distributed to each one a goatskin bottle, a crook for carrying it, and
+ten loaves, and set out from Koptos with this little army. No water was
+met with on the way: Hûnû bored several wells and cisterns in the rock,
+one at a halting-place called Bait, two in the district of Adahaît, and
+finally one in the valleys of Adabehaît. Having reached the seaboard,
+he quickly constructed a great barge, freighted it with merchandise for
+barter, as well as with provisions, oxen, cows, and goats, and set sail
+for a cruise along the coast: it is not known how far he went, but he
+came back with a large cargo of all the products of the “Divine Land,”
+ especially of incense. On his return, he struck off into the Uagai
+valley, and thence reached that of Rohanû, where he chose out splendid
+blocks of stone for a temple which the king was building: “Never had
+‘Royal Cousin’ sent on an expedition done as much since the time of
+the god Râ!” Numbers of royal officers and adventurers followed in his
+footsteps, but no record of them has been preserved for us. Two or three
+names only have escaped oblivion--that of Khnûmhotpû, who in the first
+year of Ûsirtasen I. erected a stele in the Wady Gasûs in the very heart
+of the “Divine Land;” and that of Khentkhîtioîrû, who in the XXVIIIth
+year of Amenemhâît II. entered the haven of Saû after a fortunate cruise
+to Pûanît, without having lost a vessel or even a single man. Navigation
+is difficult in the Red Sea. The coast as a rule is precipitous,
+bristling with reefs and islets, and almost entirely without strand or
+haven. No river or stream runs into it; it is bordered by no fertile or
+wooded tract, but by high cliffs, half disintegrated by the burning sun,
+or by steep mountains, which appear sometimes a dull red, sometimes
+a dingy grey colour, according to the material--granite or
+sandstone--which predominates in their composition. The few tribes who
+inhabit this desolate region maintain a miserable existence by fishing
+and hunting: they were considered, during the Greek period, to be
+the most unfortunate of mortals, and if they appeared to be so to the
+mariners of the Ptolemies, doubtless they enjoyed the same reputation in
+the more remote time of the Pharaohs. A few fishing villages, however,
+are mentioned as scattered along the littoral; watering-places, at some
+distance apart, frequented on account of their wells of brackish water
+by the desert tribes: such were Nahasît, Tap-Nekhabît, Saû, and Tâû:
+these the Egyptian merchant-vessels used as victualling stations,
+and took away as cargo the products of the country--mother-of-pearl,
+amethysts, emeralds, a little lapis-lazuli, a little gold, gums, and
+sweet-smelling resins. If the weather was favourable, and the intake
+of merchandise had been scanty, the vessel, braving numerous risks of
+shipwreck, continued its course as far as the latitude of Sûakîn and
+Massowah, which was the beginning of Pûanît properly so called. Here
+riches poured down to the coast from the interior, and selection became
+a difficulty: it was hard to decide which would make the best cargo,
+ivory or ebony, panthers’ skins or rings of gold, myrrh, incense, or a
+score of other sweet-smelling gums. So many of these odoriferous resins
+were used for religious purposes, that it was always to the advantage of
+the merchant to procure as much of them as possible: incense, fresh or
+dried, was the staple and characteristic merchandise of the Red Sea, and
+the good people of Egypt pictured Pûanît as a land of perfumes, which
+attracted the sailor from afar by the delicious odours which were wafted
+from it.
+
+These voyages were dangerous and trying: popular imagination seized upon
+them and made material out of them for marvellous tales. The hero chosen
+was always a daring adventurer sent by his master to collect gold from
+the mines of Nubia; by sailing further and further up the river, he
+reached the mysterious sea which forms the southern boundary of the
+world. “I set sail in a vessel one hundred and fifty cubits long, forty
+wide, with one hundred and fifty of the best sailors in the land
+of Egypt, who had seen heaven and earth, and whose hearts were more
+resolute than those of lions. They had foretold that the wind would not
+be contrary, or that there would be even none at all; but a squall came
+upon us unexpectedly while we were in the open, and as we approached
+the land, the wind freshened and raised the waves to the height of eight
+cubits. As for me, I clung to a beam, but those who were on the vessel
+perished without one escaping. A wave of the sea cast me on to an
+island, after having spent three days alone with no other companion than
+my own heart. I slept there in the shade of a thicket; then I set my
+legs in motion in quest of something for my mouth.” The island produced
+a quantity of delicious fruit: he satisfied his hunger with it, lighted
+a fire to offer a sacrifice to the gods, and immediately, by the magical
+power of the sacred rites, the inhabitants, who up to this time had
+been invisible, were revealed to his eyes. “I heard a sound like that of
+thunder, which I at first took to be the noise of the flood-tide in the
+open sea; but the trees quivered, the earth trembled. I uncovered my
+face, and I perceived that it was a serpent which was approaching. He
+was thirty cubits in length, and his wattles exceeded two cubits; his
+body was incrusted with gold, and his colour appeared like that of
+real lapis. He raised himself before me and opened his mouth; while I
+prostrated myself before him, he said to me: ‘Who hath brought thee, who
+hath brought thee, little one, who hath brought thee? If thou dost not
+tell me immediately who brought thee to this island, I will cause thee
+to know thy littleness: either thou shalt faint like a woman, or thou
+shalt tell me something which I have not yet heard, and which I knew
+not before thee.’ Then he took me into his mouth and carried me to
+his dwelling-place, and put me down without hurting me; I was safe and
+sound, and nothing had been taken from me.” Our hero tells the serpent
+the story of his shipwreck, which moves him to pity and induces him to
+reciprocate his confidence. “Fear nothing, fear nothing, little one, let
+not thy countenance be sad! If thou hast come to me, it is the god who
+has spared thy life; it is he who has brought thee into this ‘Isle of
+the Double,’ where nothing is lacking, and which is filled with all
+good things. Here thou shalt pass one month after another till thou hast
+remained four months in this island, then shall come a vessel from thy
+country with mariners; thou canst depart with them to thy country,
+and thou shalt die in thy city. To converse rejoices the heart, he who
+enjoys conversation bears misfortune better; I will therefore relate
+to thee the history of this island.” The population consisted of
+seventy-five serpents, all of one family: it formerly comprised also a
+young girl, whom a succession of misfortunes had cast on the island, and
+who was killed by lightning. The hero, charmed with such good nature,
+overwhelmed the hospitable dragon with thanks, and promised to send him
+numerous presents on his return home. “I will slay asses for thee in
+sacrifice, I will pluck birds for thee, I will send to thee vessels
+filled with all the riches of Egypt, meet for a god, the friend of man
+in a distant country unknown to men.” The monster smiled, and replied
+that it was needless to think of sending presents to one who was the
+ruler of Pûanît; besides, “as soon as thou hast quitted this place,
+thou wilt never again see this island, for it will be changed into
+waves.”--“And then, when the vessel appeared, according as he had
+predicted to me, I went and perched upon a high tree and sought to
+distinguish those who manned it. I next ran to tell him the news, but I
+found that he was already informed of its arrival, and he said to me: ‘A
+pleasant journey home, little one; mayst thou behold thy children again,
+and may thy name be well spoken of in thy town; such are my wishes for
+thee!’ He added gifts to these obliging words. I placed all these on
+board the vessel which had come, and prostrating myself, I adored him.
+He said to me: ‘After two months thou shalt reach thy country, thou wilt
+press thy children to thy bosom, and thou shalt rest in thy sepulchre.’
+After that I descended the shore to the vessel, and I hailed the sailors
+who were in it. I gave thanks on the shore to the master of the island,
+as well as to those who dwelt in it.” This might almost be an episode
+in the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor; except that the monsters which
+Sindbad met with in the course of his travels were not of such a kindly
+disposition as the Egyptian serpent: it did not occur to them to console
+the shipwrecked with the charm of a lengthy gossip, but they swallowed
+them with a healthy appetite. Putting aside entirely the marvellous
+element in the story, what strikes us is the frequency of the relations
+which it points to between Egypt and Pûanît. The appearance of an
+Egyptian vessel excites no astonishment on its coasts: the inhabitants
+have already seen many such, and at such regular intervals, that they
+are able to predict the exact date of their arrival. The distance
+between the two countries, it is true, was not considerable, and a
+voyage of two months was sufficient to accomplish it. While the new
+Egypt was expanding outwards in all directions, the old country did not
+cease to add to its riches. The two centuries during which the XIIth
+dynasty continued to rule were a period of profound peace; the monuments
+show us the country in full possession of all its resources and its
+arts, and its inhabitants both cheerful and contented. More than ever do
+the great lords and royal officers expatiate in their epitaphs upon
+the strict justice which they have rendered to their vassals and
+subordinates, upon the kindness which they have shown to the fellahîn,
+on the paternal solicitude with which, in the years of insufficient
+inundations or of bad harvests, they have striven to come forward and
+assist them, and upon the unheard-of disinterestedness which kept them
+from raising the taxes during the times of average Niles, or of unusual
+plenty. Gifts to the gods poured in from one end of the country to the
+other, and the great building works, which had been at a standstill
+since the end of the VIth dynasty, were recommenced simultaneously on
+all sides. There was much to be done in the way of repairing the ruins,
+of which the number had accumulated during the two preceding centuries.
+Not that the most audacious kings had ventured to lay their hands on
+the sanctuaries: they emptied the sacred treasuries, and partially
+confiscated their revenues, but when once their cupidity was satisfied,
+they respected the fabrics, and even went so far as to restore a
+few inscriptions, or, when needed, to replace a few stones. These
+magnificent buildings required careful supervision: in spite of their
+being constructed of the most durable materials--sand-stone, granite,
+limestone,--in spite of their enormous size, or of the strengthening
+of their foundations by a bed of sand and by three or four courses of
+carefully adjusted blocks to form a substructure, the Nile was ever
+threatening them, and secretly working at their destruction. Its waters,
+filtering through the soil, were perpetually in contact with the lower
+courses of these buildings, and kept the foundations of the walls and
+the bases of the columns constantly damp: the saltpetre which the waters
+had dissolved in their passage, crystallising on the limestone, would
+corrode and undermine everything, if precautions were not taken. When
+the inundation was over, the subsidence of the water which impregnated
+the subsoil caused in course of time settlements in the most solid
+foundations: the walls, disturbed by the unequal sinking of the ground,
+got out of the perpendicular and cracked; this shifting displaced the
+architraves which held the columns together, and the stone slabs which
+formed the roof. These disturbances, aggravated from year to year, were
+sufficient, if not at once remedied, to entail the fall of the portions
+attacked; in addition to this, the Nile, having threatened the part
+below with destruction, often hastened by direct attacks the work of
+ruin, which otherwise proceeded slowly. A breach in the embankments
+protecting the town or the temple allowed its waters to rush violently
+through, and thus to effect large gaps in the decaying walls, completing
+the overthrow of the columns and wrecking the entrance halls and secret
+chambers by the fall of the roofs. At the time when Egypt came under
+the rule of the XIIth dynasty there were but few cities which did not
+contain some ruined or dilapidated sanctuary. Amenemhâît I., although
+fully occupied in reducing the power of the feudal lords, restored; the
+temples as far as he was able, and his successors pushed forward the
+work vigorously for nearly two centuries.
+
+The Delta profited greatly by this activity in building. The monuments
+there had suffered more than anywhere else: fated to bear the first
+shock of foreign invasion, and transformed into fortresses while the
+towns in which they were situated were besieged, they have been captured
+again and again by assault, broken down by attacking engines, and
+dismantled by all the conquerors of Egypt, from the Assyrians to the
+Arabs and the Turks. The fellahîn in their neighbourhood have for
+centuries come to them to obtain limestone to burn in their kilns, or to
+use them as a quarry for sandstone or granite for the doorways of their
+houses, or for the thresholds of their mosques. Not only have they been
+ruined, but the remains of their ruins have, as it were, melted away
+and almost entirely disappeared in the course of ages. And yet, wherever
+excavations have been made among these remains which have suffered such
+deplorable ill-treatment, colossi and inscriptions commemorating the
+Pharaohs of the XIIth dynasty have been brought to light. Amenemhâît I.
+founded a great temple at Tanis in honour of the gods of Memphis: the
+vestiges of the columns still scattered on all sides show that the
+main body of the building was of rose granite, and a statue of the same
+material has preserved for us a portrait of the king. He is seated, and
+wears the tall head-dress of Osiris. He has a large smiling face, thick
+lips, a short nose, and big staring eyes: the expression is one of
+benevolence and gentleness, rather than of the energy and firmness which
+one would expect in the founder of a dynasty. The kings who were his
+successors all considered it a privilege to embellish the temple and to
+place in it some memorial of their veneration for the god. Ûsirtasen I.,
+following the example of his father, set up a statue of himself in the
+form of Osiris: he is sitting on his throne of grey granite, and his
+placid face unmistakably recalls that of Amenemhâît I. Amenemhâît II.,
+Usirtasen II., and his wife Nofrît have also dedicated their images
+within the sanctuary.
+
+Nofrît’s is of black granite: her head is almost eclipsed by the heavy
+Hâthor wig, consisting of two enormous tresses of hair which surround
+the cheeks, and lie with an outward curve upon the breast; her eyes,
+which were formerly inlaid, have fallen out, the bronze eyelids are
+lost, her arms have almost disappeared. What remains of her, however,
+gives us none the less the impression of a young and graceful woman,
+with a lithe and well-proportioned body, whose outlines are delicately
+modelled under the tight-fitting smock worn by Egyptian women; the small
+and rounded breasts curve outward between the extremities of her curls
+and the embroidered hem of her garment; and a pectoral bearing the name
+of her husband lies flat upon her chest, just below the column of her
+throat.
+
+[Illustration: 372.jpg THE STATUE OF NOFRIT]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. In
+     addition to the complete statue, the Museum at Gîzeh
+     possesses a torso from the same source. I believe I can
+     recognize another portrait of the same queen in a beautiful
+     statue in black granite, which has been in the Museum at
+     Marseilles since the beginning of the present century.
+
+These various statues have all an evident artistic relationship to
+the beautiful granite figures of the Ancient Empire. The sculptors who
+executed them belonged to the same school as those who carved Khephren
+out of the solid diorite: there is the same facile use of the chisel,
+the same indifference to the difficulties presented by the material
+chosen, the same finish in the detail, the same knowledge of the human
+form. One is almost tempted to believe that Egyptian art remained
+unchanged all through those long centuries, and yet as soon as a
+statue of the early period is placed side by side with one of the XIIth
+dynasty, we immediately perceive something in the one which is lacking
+in the other. It is a difference in feeling, even if the technique
+remains unmodified. It was the man himself that the sculptors desired
+to represent in the older Pharaohs, and however haughty may be the
+countenance which we admire in the Khephren, it is the human element
+which predominates in him. The statues of Amenemhâît I. and his
+successors appear, on the contrary, to represent a superior race: at the
+time when these were produced, the Pharaoh had long been regarded as
+a god, and the divine nature in him had almost eliminated the human.
+Whether intentionally or otherwise, the sculptors idealized their model,
+and made him more and more resemble the type of the divinities. The head
+always appears to be a good likeness, but smoothed down and sometimes
+lacking in expression.
+
+Not only are the marks of age rendered less apparent, and the features
+made to bear the stamp of perpetual youth, but the characteristics
+of the individual, such as the accentuation of the eyebrows, the
+protuberance of the cheek-bones, the projection of the under lip, are
+all softened down as if intentionally, and made to give way to a uniform
+expression of majestic tranquillity. One king only, Amenemhâît III.,
+refused to go down to posterity thus effaced, and caused his portrait
+to be taken as he really was. He has certainly the round full face
+of Amenemhâît or of Usirtasen I., and there is an undeniable family
+likeness between him and his ancestors; but at the first glance we
+feel sure that the artist has not in any way flattered his model. The
+forehead is low and slightly retreating, narrow across the temples; his
+nose is aquiline, pronounced in form, and large at the tip; the thick
+lips are slightly closed; his mouth has a disdainful curve, and its
+corners are turned down as if to repress the inevitable smile common to
+most Egyptian statues; the chin is full and heavy, and turns up in front
+in spite of the weight of the false beard dependent from it; he has
+small narrow eyes, with full lids; his cheekbones are accentuated and
+projecting, the cheeks hollow, and the muscles about the nose and mouth
+strongly defined. The whole presents so strange an aspect, that for a
+long time statues of this type have been persistently looked upon as
+productions of an art which was only partially Egyptian. It is, indeed,
+possible that the Tanis sphinxes were turned out of workshops where the
+principles and practice of the sculptor’s art had previously undergone
+some Asiatic influence; the bushy mane which surrounds the face, and
+the lion’s ears emerging from it, are exclusively characteristic of the
+latter. The purely human statues in which we meet with the same type of
+countenance have no peculiarity of workmanship which could be attributed
+to the imitation of a foreign art. If the nameless masters to whom
+we owe their existence desired to bring about a reaction against the
+conventional technique of their contemporaries, they at least introduced
+no foreign innovations; the monuments of the Memphite period furnished
+them with all the models they could possibly wish for.
+
+Bubastis had no less occasion than Tanis to boast of the generosity of
+the Theban Pharaohs. The temple of Bastît, which had been decorated by
+Kheops and Khephren, was still in existence: Amenemhâît I., Usirtasen
+I., and their immediate successors confined themselves to the
+restoration of several chambers, and to the erection of their own
+statues, but Usirtasen III. added to it a new structure which must have
+made it rival the finest monuments in Egypt. He believed, no doubt, that
+he was under particular obligations to the lioness goddess of the city,
+and attributed to her aid, for unknown reasons, some of his successes in
+Nubia; it would appear that it was with the spoil of a campaign against
+the country of the Hûâ that he endowed a part of the new sanctuary.*
+
+     * The fragment found by Naville formed part of an
+     inscription engraved on a wall: the wars which it was
+     customary to commemorate in a temple were always selected
+     from those in which the whole or a part of the booty had
+     been consecrated to the use of the local divinity.
+
+Nothing now remains of it except fragments of the architraves and
+granite columns, which have been used over again by Pharaohs of a later
+period when restoring or altering the fabric.
+
+[Illustration: 376.jpg ONE OF THE TANIS SPHINXES IN THE GÎZEH MUSEUM]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-
+     Bey, taken in 1881. The sphinx bears on its breast the
+     cartouche of Psiûkhânû, a Tanite Pharaoh of the XXIst
+     dynasty.
+
+A few of the columns belong to the lotiform type. The shaft is composed
+of eight triangular stalks rising from a bunch of leaves, symmetrically
+arranged, and bound together at the top by a riband, twisted thrice
+round the bundle; the capital is formed by the union of the eight lotus
+buds, surmounted by a square member on which rests the architrave. Other
+columns have Hâthor-headed capitals, the heads being set back to back,
+and bearing the flat head-dress ornamented with the urous. The face
+of the goddess, which is somewhat flattened when seen closely on the
+eye-level, stands out and becomes more lifelike in proportion as the
+spectator recedes from it; the projection of the features has been
+calculated so as to produce the desired effect at the right height
+when seen from below. The district lying between Tanis and Bubastis is
+thickly studded with monuments built or embellished by the Amenemhâîts
+and Usirtasens: wherever the pickaxe is applied, whether at Fakus or
+Tell-Nebêsheh, remains of them are brought to light--statues, stelæ,
+tables of offerings, and fragments of dedicatory or historical
+inscriptions. While carrying on works in the temple of Phtah at Memphis,
+the attention of these Pharaohs was attracted to Heliopolis. The temple
+of Râ there was either insufficient for the exigencies of worship, or
+had been allowed to fall into decay. Usirtasen III. resolved, in the
+third year of his reign, to undertake its restoration. The occasion
+appears to have been celebrated as a festival by all Egypt, and the
+remembrance of it lasted long after the event: the somewhat detailed
+account of the ceremonies which then took place was copied out again at
+Thebes, towards the end of the XVIIIth dynasty. It describes the king
+mounting his throne at the meeting of his council, and receiving, as was
+customary, the eulogies of his “sole friends” and of the courtiers
+who surrounded him: “Here,” says he, addressing them, “has my Majesty
+ordained the works which shall recall my worthy and noble acts to
+posterity. I raise a monument, I establish lasting decrees in favour
+of Harmakhis, for he has brought me into the world to do as he did, to
+accomplish that which he decreed should be done; he has appointed me to
+guide this earth, he has known it, he has called it together and he has
+granted me his help; I have caused the Eye which is in him to become
+serene, in all things acting as he would have me to do, and I have
+sought out that which he had resolved should be known. I am a king by
+birth, a suzerain not of my own making; I have governed from childhood,
+petitions have been presented to me when I was in the egg, I have ruled
+over the ways of Anubis, and he raised me up to be master of the two
+halves of the world, from the time when I was a nursling; I had not yet
+escaped from the swaddling-bands when he enthroned me as master of men;
+creating me himself in the sight of mortals, he made me to find favour
+with the Dweller in the Palace, when I was a youth.... I came forth as
+Horus the eloquent, and I have instituted divine oblations; I accomplish
+the works in the palace of my father Atûmû, I supply his altar on earth
+with offerings, I lay the foundations of my palace in his neighbourhood,
+in order that the memorial of my goodness may remain in his dwelling;
+for this palace is my name, this lake is my monument, all that is famous
+or useful that I have made for the gods is eternity.” The great lords
+testified their approbation of the king’s piety; the latter summoned his
+chancellor and commanded him to draw up the deeds of gift and all the
+documents necessary for the carrying out of his wishes. “He arose,
+adorned with the royal circlet and with the double feather, followed by
+all his nobles; the chief lector of the divine book stretched the cord
+and fixed the stake in the ground.” *
+
+     * Stehn, _Urkunde uber den Bau des Sonnentempels zu On_, pl.
+     i. 11. 13--15. The priest here performed with the king the
+     more important of the ceremonies necessary in measuring the
+     area of the temple, by “inserting the measuring stakes,”
+      and marking out the four sides of the building with the
+     cord.
+
+This temple has ceased to exist; but one of the granite obelisks raised
+by Usirtasen I. on each side of the principal gateway is still standing.
+The whole of Heliopolis has disappeared: the site where it formerly
+stood is now marked only by a few almost imperceptible inequalities
+in the soil, some crumbling lengths of walls, and here and there some
+scattered blocks of limestone, containing a few lines of mutilated
+inscriptions which can with difficulty be deciphered; the obelisk has
+survived even the destruction of the ruins, and to all who understand
+its language it still speaks of the Pharaoh who erected it.
+
+The undertaking and successful completion of so many great structures
+had necessitated a renewal of the working of the ancient quarries, and
+the opening of fresh ones. Amenemhâît I. sent Antuf, a great dignitary,
+chief of the prophets of Mînû and prince of Koptos, to the valley
+of Rohanû, to seek out fine granite for making the royal sarcophagi.
+Amenemhâît III. had, in the XLIIIrd year of his reign, been present at
+the opening of several fine veins of white limestone in the quarries of
+Turah, which probably furnished material for the buildings proceeding at
+Heliopolis and Memphis. Thebes had also its share of both limestone and
+granite, and Amon, whose sanctuary up to this time had only attained
+the modest proportions suited to a provincial god, at last possessed a
+temple which raised him to the rank of the highest feudal divinities.
+Amon’s career had begun under difficulties: he had been merely a
+vassal-god of Montû, lord of Hermonthis (the Aûnû of the south), who
+had granted to him the ownership of the village of Karnak only. The
+unforeseen good fortune of the Antufs was the occasion of his emerging
+from his obscurity: he did not dethrone Montû, but shared with him the
+homage of all the neighbouring villages--Luxor, Medamut, Bayadîyeh; and,
+on the other side of the Nile, Gurneh and Medînet-Habu. The accession of
+the XIIth dynasty completed his triumph, and made him the most powerful
+authority in Southern Egypt. He was an earth-god, a form of Mînû who
+reigned at Koptos, at Akhmîm and in the desert, but he soon became
+allied to the sun, and from thenceforth he assumed the name of Amon-Râ.
+The title of “sûton nûtîrû” which he added to it would alone have
+sufficed to prove the comparatively recent origin of his notoriety; as
+the latest arrival among the great gods, he employed, to express his
+sovereignty, this word “sûton,” king, which had designated the rulers
+of the valley ever since the union of the two Egypts under the shadowy
+Menés. Reigning at first alone, he became associated by marriage with a
+vague indefinite goddess, called Maût, or Mût, the “mother,” who never
+adopted any more distinctive name: the divine son who completed
+this triad was, in early times, Montû; but in later times a being of
+secondary rank, chosen from among the genii appointed to watch over the
+days of the month or the stars, was added, under the name of Khonsû.
+Amenemhâît laid the foundations of the temple, in which the cultus of
+Amon was carried on down to the latest times of paganism. The building
+was supported by polygonal columns of sixteen sides, some fragments of
+which are still existing.
+
+[Illustration: 381.jpg THE OBELISK OF ÛSIRTASEN I., STILL STANDING IN
+THE PLAIN OF HELIOPOLIS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger.
+
+The temple was at first of only moderate dimensions, but it was built
+of the choicest sandstone and limestone, and decorated with exquisite
+bas-reliefs. Ûsirtasen I. enlarged it, and built a beautiful house for
+the high priest on the west side of the sacred lake. Luxor, Zorit, Edfu,
+Hierakonpolis, El-Kab, Elephantine, and Dendera,* shared between them
+the favour of the Pharaohs; the venerable town of Abydos became the
+object of their special predilection.
+
+     * Dümichen pointed out, in the masonry of the great eastern
+     staircase of the present temple of Hâthor, a stone obtained
+     from the earlier temple, which bears the name of Amenemhâît;
+     another fragment, discovered and published by Mariette,
+     shows that Amenemhâît I. is here again referred to. The
+     buildings erected by this monarch at Dondera must have been
+     on a somewhat large scale, if we may judge from the size of
+     this last fragment, which is the lintel of a door.
+
+Its reputation for sanctity had been steadily growing from the time of
+the Papis: its god, Khontamentît, who was identified with Osiris, had
+obtained in the south a rank as high as that of the Mendesian Osiris in
+the north of Egypt. He was worshipped as the sovereign of the sovereigns
+of the dead--he who gathered around him and welcomed in his domains
+the majority of the faithful of other cults. His sepulchre, or, more
+correctly speaking, the chapel representing his sepulchre, in which
+one of his relics was preserved, was here, as elsewhere, built upon the
+roof. Access to it was gained by a staircase leading up on the left side
+of the sanctuary: on the days of the passion and resurrection of Osiris
+solemn processions of priests and devotees slowly mounted its steps, to
+the chanting of funeral hymns, and above, on the terrace, away from
+the world of the living, and with no other witnesses than the stars of
+heaven, the faithful celebrated mysteriously the rites of the divine
+death and embalming. The “vassals of Osiris” flocked in crowds to these
+festivals, and took a delight in visiting, at least once during their
+lifetime, the city whither their souls would proceed after death, in
+order to present themselves at the “Mouth of the Cleft,” there to embark
+in the “bari” of their divine master or in that of the Sun. They
+left behind them, “under the staircase of the great god,” a sort of
+fictitious tomb, near the representation of the tomb of Osiris, in the
+shape of a stele, which immortalized the memory of their piety, and
+which served as a kind of hostelry for their soul, when the latter
+should, in course of time, repair to this rallying-place of all
+Osirian souls. The concourse of pilgrims was a source of wealth to
+the population, the priestly coffers were filled, and every year the
+original temple was felt to be more and more inadequate to meet the
+requirements of worship. Usirtasen I. desired to come to the rescue:
+he despatched Monthotpû, one of his great vassals, to superintend the
+works. The ground-plan of the portico of white limestone which preceded
+the entrance court may still be distinguished; this portico was
+supported by square pillars, and, standing against the remains of these,
+we see the colossi of rose granite, crowned with the Osirian head-dress,
+and with their feet planted on the “Nine Bows,” the symbol of vanquished
+enemies. The best preserved of these figures represents the founder, but
+several others are likenesses of those of his successors who interested
+themselves in the temple. Monthotpû dug a well which was kept fully
+supplied by the infiltrations from the Nile. He enlarged and cleaned
+out the sacred lake upon which the priests launched the Holy Ark, on the
+nights of the great mysteries. The alluvial deposits of fifty centuries
+have not as yet wholly filled it up: it is still an irregularly shaped
+pond, which dries up in winter, but is again filled as soon as the
+inundation reaches the village of El-Kharbeh.
+
+[Illustration: 384.jpg USIRTASEN I. OF ABYDOS]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by M. de Banville.
+
+A few stones, corroded with saltpetre, mark here and there the lines
+of the landing stages, a thick grove of palms fringes its northern and
+southern banks, but to the west the prospect is open, and extends as
+far as the entrance to the gorge, through which the souls set forth in
+search of Paradise and the solar bark. Buffaloes now come to drink and
+wallow at midday where once floated the gilded “bari” of Osiris, and the
+murmur of bees from the neighbouring orchards alone breaks the silence
+of the spot which of old resounded with the rhythmical lamentations of
+the pilgrims.
+
+Heracleopolis the Great, the town preferred by the earlier Theban
+Pharaohs as their residence in times of peace, must have been one of
+those which they proceeded to decorate _con amore_ with magnificent
+monuments.
+
+[Illustration: 385.jpg A PART OF THE ANCIENT SACRED LAKE OF OSIRIS NEAR
+THE TEMPLE OF ABYDOS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey,
+     taken in 1884.
+
+Unfortunately it has suffered more than any of the rest, and nothing
+of it is now to be seen but a few wretched remains of buildings of the
+Roman period, and the ruins of a barbaric colonnade on the site of a
+Byzantine basilica almost contemporary with the Arab conquest. Perhaps
+the enormous mounds which cover its site may still conceal the remains
+of its ancient temples. We can merely estimate their magnificence by
+casual allusions to them in the inscriptions.
+
+[Illustration: 368.jpg THE SITE OF THE ANCIENT HERACLEOPOLIS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Golénischeff
+
+We know, for instance, that Usirtasen III. rebuilt the sanctuary of
+Harshâfîtû, and that he sent expeditions to the Wady Hammamât to quarry
+blocks of granite worthy of his god: but the work of this king and his
+successors has perished in the total ruin of the ancient town. Something
+at least has remained of what they did in that traditional dependency
+of Heracleopolis, the Fayum: the temple which they rebuilt to the god
+Sobkû in Shodît retained its celebrity down to the time of the Cæsars,
+not so much, perhaps, on account of the beauty of its architecture as
+for the unique character of the religious rites which took place there
+daily. The sacred lake contained a family of tame crocodiles, the
+image and incarnation of the god, whom the faithful fed with their
+offerings--cakes, fried fish, and drinks sweetened with honey. Advantage
+was taken of the moment when one of these creatures, wallowing on the
+bank, basked contentedly in the sun: two priests opened his jaws, and a
+third threw in the cakes, the fried morsels, and finally the liquid.
+The crocodile bore all this without even winking; he swallowed down his
+provender, plunged into the lake, and lazily reached the opposite bank,
+hoping to escape for a few moments from the oppressive liberality of his
+devotees.
+
+[Illustration: 387.jpg SOBKÛ, THE GOD OF THE FAYÛM, UNDER THE FORM OF A
+SACRED CROCODILE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-
+     Bey, taken in 1885. The original in black granite is now in
+     the Berlin Museum. It represents one of the sacred
+     crocodiles mentioned by Strabo; we read on the base a Greek
+     inscription in honour of Ptolemy Neos Dionysos, in which the
+     name of the divine reptile “Petesûkhos, the great god,” is
+     mentioned.
+
+As soon, however, as another of these approached, he was again beset
+at his new post and stuffed in a similar manner. These animals were in
+their own way great dandies: rings of gold or enamelled terra-cotta
+were hung from their ears, and bracelets were soldered on to their front
+paws. The monuments of Shodît, if any still exist, are buried under the
+mounds of Medinet el-Fayûm, but in the neighbourhood we meet with more
+than one authentic relic of the XIIth dynasty. It was Usirtasen I. who
+erected that curious thin granite obelisk, with a circular top, whose
+fragments lie forgotten on the ground near the village of Begig: a
+sort of basin has been hollowed out around it, which fills during the
+inundation, so that the monument lies in a pool of muddy water during
+the greater part of the year. Owing to this treatment, most of the
+inscriptions on it have almost disappeared, though we can still make
+out a series of five scenes in which the king hands offerings to several
+divinities. Near to Biahmû there was an old temple which had become
+ruinous: Amenemhâît III. repaired it, and erected in front of it two
+of those colossal statues which the Egyptians were wont to place like
+sentinels at their gates, to ward off baleful influences and evil
+spirits.
+
+[Illustration: 388.jpg THE REMAINS OF THE OBELISK OF BEGIG]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Golûnischeff.
+
+The colossi at Biahmû were of red sandstone, and were seated on high
+limestone pedestals, placed at the end of a rectangular court; the
+temple walls hid the lower part of the pedestals, so that the colossi
+appeared to tower above a great platform which sloped gently away from
+them on all sides. Herodotus, who saw them from a distance at the
+time of the inundation, believed that they crowned the summits of
+two pyramids rising out of the middle of a lake. Near Illahun, Queen
+Sovkûnofriûri herself has left a few traces of her short reign.
+
+The Fayum, by its fertility and pleasant climate, justified the
+preference which the Pharaohs of the XIIth dynasty bestowed upon it.
+On emerging from the gorges of Illahun, it opens out like a vast
+amphitheatre of cultivation, whose slopes descend towards the north till
+they reach the desolate waters of the Birket-Kerun.
+
+[Illustration: 389.jpg THE RUINED PEDESTAL OF ONE OF THE COLOSSI OF
+BIAHMÛ]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Major Brown.
+
+On the right and left, the amphitheatre is isolated from the surrounding
+mountains by two deep ravines, filled with willows, tamarisks, mimosas,
+and thorny acacias. Upon the high ground, lands devoted to the
+culture of corn, durra, and flax, alternate with groves of palms and
+pomegranates, vineyards and gardens of olives, the latter being almost
+unknown elsewhere in Egypt.
+
+[Illustration: 390.jpg A VIEW IN THE FAYÛM IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE
+VILLAGE OF FIDEMÎN]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Golenischeff.
+
+The slopes are covered with cultivated fields, irregularly terraced
+woods, and meadows enclosed by hedges, while lofty trees, clustered in
+some places and thinly scattered in others, rise in billowy masses
+of verdure one behind the other. Shodît [Shâdû] stood on a peninsula
+stretching out into a kind of natural reservoir, and was connected with
+the mainland by merely a narrow dyke; the water of the inundation flowed
+into this reservoir and was stored here during the autumn. Countless
+little rivulets escaped from it, not merely such canals and ditches as
+we meet with in the Nile Valley, but actual running brooks, coursing and
+babbling between the trees, spreading out here and there into pools
+of water, and in places forming little cascades like those of our own
+streams, but dwindling in volume as they proceeded, owing to constant
+drains made on them, until they were for the most part absorbed by the
+soil before finally reaching the lake.
+
+[Illustration: 391.jpg THE COURT OF THE SMALL TEMPLE]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Major Brown.
+
+They brought down in their course part of the fertilizing earth
+accumulated by the inundation, and were thus instrumental in raising the
+level of the soil. The water of the Birkeh rose or fell according to the
+season of the year. It formerly occupied a much larger area than it does
+at present, and half of the surrounding districts was covered by it.
+Its northern shores, now deserted and uncultivated, then shared in the
+benefits of the inundation, and supplied the means of existence for
+a civilized population. In many places we still find the remains of
+villages, and walls of uncemented stone; a small temple even has
+escaped the general ruin, and remains almost intact in the midst of the
+desolation, as if to point out the furthest limit of Egyptian territory.
+
+[Illustration: 392.jpg THE SHORES OF THE BIRKET-KERUN NEAR THE
+EMBOUCHURE OF THE WADY NAZLEH]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Golénischeff.
+
+It bears no inscriptions, but the beauty of the materials of which it
+is composed, and the perfection of the work, lead us to attribute its
+construction to some prince of the XIIth dynasty. An ancient causeway
+runs from its entrance to what was probably at one time the original
+margin of the lake. The continual sinking of the level of the Birkeh
+has left this temple isolated on the edge of the Libyan plateau, and
+all life has retired from the surrounding district, and has concentrated
+itself on the southern shores of the lake.
+
+[Illustration: 393.jpg THE TWO PYRAMIDS OF THE XIITH DYNASTY AT LISHT]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.
+
+Here the banks are low and the bottom deepens almost imperceptibly. In
+winter the retreating waters leave exposed long patches of the shore,
+upon which a thin crust of snow-white salt is deposited, concealing the
+depths of mud and quicksands beneath. Immediately after the inundation,
+the lake regains in a few days the ground it had lost: it encroaches
+on the tamarisk bushes which fringe its banks, and the district is soon
+surrounded by a belt of marshy vegetation, affording cover for ducks,
+pelicans, wild geese, and a score of different kinds of birds which
+disport themselves there by the thousand. The Pharaohs, when tired of
+residing in cities, here found varied and refreshing scenery, an equable
+climate, gardens always gay with flowers, and in the thickets of the
+Kerun they could pursue their favourite pastimes of interminable fishing
+and of hunting with the boomerang.
+
+They desired to repose after death among the scenes in which they had
+lived. Their tombs stretch from Heracleo-polis till they nearly meet the
+last pyramids of the Memphites: at Dahshur there are still two of them
+standing. The northern one is an immense erection of brick, placed in
+close proximity to the truncated pyramid, but nearer than it to the edge
+of the plateau, so as to overlook the valley. We might be tempted to
+believe that the Theban kings, in choosing a site immediately to the
+south of the spot where Papi II. slept in his glory, were prompted by
+the desire to renew the traditions of the older dynasties prior to
+those of the Heracleopolitans, and thus proclaim to all beholders the
+antiquity of their lineage. One of their residences was situated at no
+great distance, near Miniet Dahshur, the city of Titoui, the favourite
+residence of Amenemhâîfc I. It was here that those royal princesses,
+Nofirhonît, Sonît-Sonbît, Sîthâthor, and Monît, his sisters, wives, and
+daughters, whose tombs lie opposite the northern face of the pyramid,
+flourished side by side with Amenemhâît III.
+
+[Illustration: 394.jpg PAINTING AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE FIFTH TOMB]
+
+There, as of old in their harem, they slept side by side, and, in spite
+of robbers, their mummies have preserved the ornaments with which they
+were adorned, on the eve of burial, by the pious act of their lords.
+The art of the ancient jewellers, which we have hitherto known only
+from pictures on the walls of tombs or on the boards of coffins, is here
+exhibited in all its cunning. The ornaments comprise a wealth of
+gold gorgets, necklaces of agate beads or of enamelled lotus-flowers,
+cornelian, amethyst, and onyx scarabs. Pectorals of pierced gold-work,
+inlaid with flakes of vitreous paste or precious stones, bear the
+cartouches of Usirtasen III. and of Amenemhâît II., and every one of
+these gems of art reveals a perfection of taste and a skilfulness of
+handling which are perfectly wonderful.
+
+[Illustration: 395.jpg PECTORAL ORNAMENT OF USIRTASEN III]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-
+     Bey.
+
+Their delicacy, and their freshness in spite of their antiquity, make it
+hard for us to realize that fifty centuries have elapsed since they
+were made. We are tempted to imagine that the royal ladies to whom they
+belonged must still be waiting within earshot, ready to reply to our
+summons as soon as we deign to call them; we may even anticipate the joy
+they will evince when these sumptuous ornaments are restored to them,
+and we need to glance at the worm-eaten coffins which contain their
+stiff and disfigured mummies to recall our imagination to the stern
+reality of fact. Two other pyramids, but in this case of stone, still
+exist further south, to the left of the village of Lisht: their casing,
+torn off by the fellahîn, has entirely disappeared, and from a distance
+they appear to be merely two mounds which break the desert horizon line,
+rather than two buildings raised by the hand of man.
+
+[Illustration: 396.jpg THE PYRAMID OF ILLAHUN, AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE
+FAïÛM]
+
+     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Golénischeff.
+
+The sepulchral chambers, excavated at a great depth in the sand, are now
+filled with water which has infiltrated through the soil, and they have
+not as yet been sufficiently emptied to permit of an entrance being
+effected: one of them contained the body of Usirtasen I.; does
+Amenemhâît I. or Amenemhâît II. repose in the other? We know, at all
+events, that Usirtasen II. built for himself the pyramid of Illahun,
+and Amenemhâît III. that of Hawâra. “Hotpû,” the tomb of Usirtasen II.,
+stood upon a rocky hill at a distance of some two thousand feet from
+the cultivated lands. To the east of it lay a temple, and close to
+the temple a town, Haît-Usirtasen-Hotpû--“the Castle of the Repose of
+Usirtasen”--which was inhabited by the workmen employed in building
+the pyramid, who resided there with their families. The remains of the
+temple consist of scarcely anything more than the enclosing wall, whose
+sides were originally faced with fine white limestone covered with
+hieroglyphs and sculptured scenes. It adjoined the wall of the town, and
+the neighbouring quarters are almost intact: the streets were straight,
+and crossed each other at right angles, while the houses on each side
+were so regularly built that a single policeman could keep his eye on
+each thoroughfare from one end to the other. The structures were of
+rough material hastily put together, and among the _débris_ are to be
+found portions of older buildings, stehe, and fragments of statues.
+The town began to dwindle after the Pharaoh had taken possession of his
+sepulchre; it was abandoned during the XIIIth dynasty, and its ruins
+were entombed in the sand which the wind heaped over them. The city
+which Amenemhâît III. had connected with his tomb maintained, on the
+contrary, a long existence in the course of the centuries. The king’s
+last resting-place consisted of a large sarcophagus of quartzose
+sandstone, while his favourite consort, Nofriuphtah, reposed beside
+him in a smaller coffin. The sepulchral chapel was very large, and its
+arrangements were of a somewhat complicated character. It consisted of
+a considerable number of chambers, some tolerably large, and others
+of moderate dimensions, while all of them were difficult of access and
+plunged in perpetual darkness: this was the Egyptian Labyrinth, to
+which the Greeks, by a misconception, have given a world-wide renown.
+Amenemhâît III. or his architects had no intention of building such a
+childish structure as that in which classical tradition so fervently
+believed. He had richly endowed the attendant priests, and bestowed upon
+the cult of his double considerable revenues, and the chambers above
+mentioned were so many storehouses for the safekeeping of the treasure
+and provisions for the dead, and the arrangement of them was not more
+singular than that of ordinary storage depots. As his cult persisted
+for a long period, the temple was maintained in good condition during a
+considerable time: it had not, perhaps, been abandoned when the Greeks
+first visited it.*
+
+     * The identity of the ruins at Hawâra with the remains of
+     the Labyrinth, admitted by Jomard-Caristie and by Lepsius,
+     disputed by Vassali, has been definitely proved by Pétrie,
+     who found remains of the buildings erected by Amenemhâît
+     III. under the ruins of a village and some Græco-Roman
+     tombs.
+
+The other sovereigns of the XIIth dynasty must have been interred not
+far from the tombs of Amenemhâît III. and Usirtasen II.: they also had
+their pyramids, of which we may one day discover the site. The outline
+of these was almost the same as that of the Memphite pyramids, but the
+interior arrangements were different. As at Illahun and Dahshur, the
+mass of the work consisted of crude bricks of large size, between which
+fine sand was introduced to bind them solidly together, and the whole
+was covered with a facing of polished limestone. The passages and
+chambers are not arranged on the simple plan which we meet with in
+the pyramids of earlier date. Experience had taught the Pharaohs that
+neither granite walls nor the multiplication of barriers could preserve
+their mummies from profanation: no sooner was vigilance relaxed, either
+in the time of civil war or under a feeble administration, than robbers
+appeared on the scene, and boring passages through the masonry with
+the ingenuity of moles, they at length, after indefatigable patience,
+succeeded in reaching the sepulchral vault and despoiling the mummy of
+its valuables.
+
+[Illustration: 399.jpg THE MOUNTAIN OF SILT WITH THE TOMBS OF THE
+PRINCES]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey,
+     taken in 1884.
+
+With a view to further protection, the builders multiplied blind
+passages and chambers without apparent exit, but in which a portion of
+the ceiling was movable, and gave access to other equally mysterious
+rooms and corridors. Shafts sunk in the corners of the chambers and
+again carefully closed put the sacrilegious intruder on a false scent,
+for, after causing him a great loss of time and labour, they only led
+down to the solid rock. At the present day the water of the Nile fills
+the central chamber of the Hawâra pyramid and covers the sarcophagus; it
+is possible that this was foreseen, and that the builders counted on the
+infiltration as an additional obstacle to depredations from without.*
+
+     * Indeed, it should be noted that in the Græco-Roman period
+     the presence of water in a certain number of the pyramids
+     was a matter of common knowledge, and so frequently was it
+     met with, that it was even supposed to exist in a pyramid
+     into which water had never penetrated, viz. that of Kheops.
+     Herodotus relates that, according to the testimony of the
+     interpreters who acted as his guides, the waters of the Nile
+     were carried to the sepulchral cavern of the Pharaoh by a
+     subterranean channel, and shut it in on all sides, like an
+     island.
+
+The hardness of the cement, which fastens the lid of the stone coffin
+to the lower part, protects the body from damp, and the Pharaoh, lying
+beneath several feet of water, still defies the greed of the robber or
+the zeal of the archaeologist.
+
+The absolute power of the kings kept their feudal vassals in check: far
+from being suppressed, however, the seignorial families continued
+not only to exist, but to enjoy continued prosperity. Everywhere, at
+Elephantine, Koptos, Thinis, in Aphroditopolis, and in most of the
+cities of the Said and of the Delta, there were ruling princes who
+were descended from the old feudal lords or even from Pharaohs of the
+Memphite period, and who were of equal, if not superior rank, to the
+members of the reigning family. The princes of Siut no longer en-joyed
+an authority equal to that exercised by their ancestors under the
+Heracleopolitan dynasties, but they still possessed considerable
+influence. One of them, Hapizaûfi I., excavated for himself, in the
+reign of Ûsirtasen I., nor far from the burying-place of Khîti and
+Tefabi, that beautiful tomb, which, though partially destroyed by Coptic
+monks or Arabs, still attracts visitors and excites their astonishment.
+
+[Illustration: 401.jpg MAP OF PRINCIPALITY OF THE GAZELLE]
+
+The lords of Shashotpu in the south, and those of Hermopolis in the
+north, had acquired to some extent the ascendency which their neighbours
+of Siût had lost. The Hermopolitan princes dated at least from the time
+of the VIth dynasty, and they had passed safely through the troublous
+times which followed the death of Papi II. A branch of their family
+possessed the nome of the Hare, while another governed that of the
+Gazelle. The lords of the nome of the Hare espoused the Theban cause,
+and were reckoned among the most faithful vassals of the sovereigns of
+the south: one of them, Thothotpû, caused a statue of himself, worthy
+of a Pharaoh, to be erected in his loyal town of Hermopolis, and their
+burying-places at el-Bersheh bear witness to their power no less than
+to their taste in art. During the troubles which put an end to the XIth
+dynasty, a certain Khnûmhotpû, who was connected in some unknown manner
+with the lords of the nome of the Gazelle, entered the Theban service
+and accompanied Amenemhâît I. on his campaigns into Nubia. He obtained,
+as a reward of faithfulness, Monâît-Khûfûi and the district of
+Khûît-Horû,--“the Horizon of Horus,”--on the east bank of the Nile. On
+becoming possessed of the western bank also, he entrusted the government
+of the district which he was giving up to his eldest son, Nakhîti I.;
+but, the latter having died without heirs, Usirtasen I. granted to
+Biqît, the sister of Nakhîti, the rank and prerogative of a reigning
+princess. Biqît married Nûhri, one of the princes of Hermopolis, and
+brought with her as her dowry the fiefdom of the Gazelle, thus doubling
+the possessions of her husband’s house. Khnûmhotpû II., the eldest
+of the children born of this union, was, while still young, appointed
+Governor of Monâît-Khûfuî, and this title appears to have become an
+appanage of his heir-apparent, just as the title of “Prince of Kaûshû”
+ was, from the XIXth dynasty onwards, the special designation of the heir
+to the throne. The marriage of Khnûmhotpû II. with the youthful Khîti,
+the heiress of the nome of the Jackal, rendered him master of one of
+the most fertile provinces of Middle Egypt. The power of this family was
+further augmented under Nakhîti II., son of Khnûmhotpû II. and Khîti:
+Nakhîti, prince of the nome of the Jackal in right of his mother, and
+lord of that of the Gazelle after the death of his father, received
+from Usirtasen II. the administration of fifteen southern nomes, from
+Aphroditopolis to Thebes. This is all we know of his history, but it is
+probable that his descendants retained the same power and position for
+several generations. The career of these dignitaries depended greatly
+on the Pharaohs with whom they were contemporary: they accompanied the
+royal troops on their campaigns, and with the spoil which they collected
+on such occasions they built temples or erected tombs for themselves.
+The tombs of the princes of the nome of the Gazelle are disposed along
+the right bank of the Nile, and the most ancient are exactly opposite
+Minieh. It is at Zawyet el-Meiyetîn and at Kom-el-Ahmar, nearly facing
+Hibonu, their capital, that we find the burying-places of those who
+lived under the VIth dynasty. The custom of taking the dead across the
+Nile had existed for centuries, from the time when the Egyptians first
+cut their tombs in the eastern range; it still continues to the present
+day, and part of the population of Minieh are now buried, year after
+year, in the places which their remote ancestors had chosen as the site
+of their “eternal houses.” The cemetery lies peacefully in the centre
+of the sandy plain at the foot of the hills; a grove of palms, like
+a curtain drawn along the river-side, partially conceals it; a Coptic
+convent and a few Mahommedan hermits attract around them the tombs of
+their respective followers, Christian or Mussulman. The rock-hewn tombs
+of the XIIth dynasty succeed each other in one long irregular line
+along the cliffs of Beni-Hasan, and the traveller on the Nile sees their
+entrances continuously coming into sight and disappearing as he goes
+up or descends the river. These tombs are entered by a square aperture,
+varying in height and width according to the size of the chapel. Two
+only, those of Amoni-Amenemhâît and of Khnûm-hotpû II., have a columned
+façade, of which all the members--pillars, bases, entablatures--have
+been cut in the solid rock: the polygonal shafts of the façade look like
+a bad imitation of ancient Doric. Inclined planes or nights of steps,
+like those at Elephantine, formerly led from the plain up to the
+terrace. Only a few traces of these exist at the present day, and the
+visitor has to climb the sandy slope as best he can: wherever he enters,
+the walls present to his view inscriptions of immense extent, as well
+as civil, sepulchral, military, and historical scenes. These are not
+incised like those of the Memphite mastabas, but are painted in fresco
+on the stone itself. The technical skill here exhibited is not a whit
+behind that of the older periods, and the general conception of the
+subjects has not altered since the time of the pyramid-building kings.
+The object is always the same, namely, to ensure wealth to the double in
+the other world, and to enable him to preserve the same rank among
+the departed as he enjoyed among the living: hence sowing, reaping,
+cattle-rearing, the exercise of different trades, the preparation and
+bringing of offerings, are all represented with the same minuteness as
+formerly. But a new element has been added to the ancient themes.
+
+[Illustration: 405.jpg THE MODERN CEMETERY OF ZAWYET EL-MEIYETÎN]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger.
+
+We know, and the experience of the past is continually reiterating the
+lesson, that the most careful precautions and the most conscientious
+observation of customs were not sufficient to perpetuate the worship of
+ancestors. The day was bound to come when not only the descendants of
+Khnûmhotpû, but a crowd of curious or indifferent strangers, would visit
+his tomb: he desired that they should know his genealogy, his private
+and public virtues, his famous deeds, his court titles and dignities,
+the extent of his wealth; and in order that no detail should be omitted,
+he relates all that he did, or he gives the representation of it upon
+the wall. In a long account of two hundred and twenty-two lines, he
+gives a _résumé_ of his family history, introducing extracts from his
+archives, to show the favours received by his ancestors from the hands
+of their sovereigns. Amoni and Khîti, who were, it appears, the warriors
+of their race, have everywhere recounted the episodes of their military
+career, the movements of their troops, their hand-to-hand fights, and
+the fortresses to which they laid siege. These scions of the house
+of the Gazelle and of the Hare, who shared with Pharaoh himself the
+possession of the soil of Egypt, were no mere princely ciphers: they
+had a tenacious spirit, a warlike disposition, an insatiable desire for
+enlarging their borders, together with sufficient ability to realize
+their aims by court intrigues or advantageous marriage alliances. We can
+easily picture from their history what Egyptian feudalism really was,
+what were its component elements, what were the resources it had at its
+disposal, and we may well be astonished when we consider the power and
+tact which the Pharaohs must have displayed in keeping such vassals in
+check during two centuries.
+
+Amenemhâît I. had abandoned Thebes as a residence in favour of
+Heracleopolis and Memphis, and had made it over to some personage who
+probably belonged to the royal household. The nome of Ûisît had relapsed
+into the condition of a simple fief, and if we are as yet unable to
+establish the series of the princes who there succeeded each other
+contemporaneously with the Pharaohs, we at least know that all those
+whose names have come down to us played an important part in the history
+of their times. Montûnsîsû, whose stele was engraved in the XXIVth year
+of Amenemhâît I., and who died in the joint reign of this Pharaoh and
+his son Usirtasen I., had taken his share in most of the wars conducted
+against neighbouring peoples,--the Anîtiû of Nubia, the Monîtû of Sinai,
+and the “Lords of the Sands:” he had dismantled their cities and razed
+their fortresses. The principality retained no doubt the same boundaries
+which it had acquired under the first Antûfs, but Thebes itself grew
+daily larger, and gained in importance in proportion as its frontiers
+extended southward. It had become, after the conquests of Usirtasen
+III., the very centre of the Egyptian world--a centre from which the
+power of the Pharaoh could equally well extend in a northerly direction
+towards the Sinaitic Peninsula and Libya, or towards the Red Sea and
+the “humiliated Kûsh” in the south. The influence of its lords increased
+accordingly: under Amenemhâît III. and Amenemhâît IV. they were perhaps
+the most powerful of the great vassals, and when the crown slipped from
+the grasp of the XIIth dynasty, it fell into the hands of one of these
+feudatories. It is not known how the transition was brought about which
+transferred the sovereignty from the elder to the younger branch of the
+family of Amenemhâît I. When Amenemhâît IV. died, his nearest heir was a
+woman, his sister Sovkûnofriûrî: she retained the supreme authority
+for not quite four years,* and then resigned her position to a certain
+Sovkhotpû.**
+
+     * She reigned exactly three years, ten months, and eighteen
+     days, according to the fragments of the “Royal Canon of
+     Turin” (Lepsius, Auswahl der wichtigten Urkunden, pl. v.
+     col. vii. 1. 2).
+
+     ** Sovkhotpû Khûtoûirî, according to the present published
+     versions of the Turin Papyrus, an identification which led
+     Lieblein (Recherches sur la Chronologie Égyptienne, pp. 102,
+     103) and Wiedemann to reject the generally accepted
+     assumption that this first king of the XIIIth dynasty was
+     Sovkhotpû Sakhemkhûtoûirî. Still, the way in which the
+     monuments of Sovkhotpû Sakhemkhûtoûirî and his papyri are
+     intermingled with the monuments of Amenemhâît III. at Semneh
+     and in the Fayûm, show that it is difficult to separate him
+     from this monarch. Moreover, an examination of the original
+     Turin Papyrus shows that there is a tear before the word
+     Khûtoûirî on the first cartouche, no indication of which
+     appears in the facsimile, but which has, none the less,
+     slightly damaged the initial solar disk and removed almost
+     the whole of one sign. We are, therefore, inclined to
+     believe that _Sakhemkhûtoûirî_ was written instead of
+     _Khûtoûirî_, and that, therefore, all the authorities are in
+     the right, from their different points of view, and that the
+     founder of the XIIIth dynasty was a Sakhemkhûtoûirî I.,
+     while the Savkhotpû Sakhemkhûtoûirî, who occupies the
+     fifteenth place in the dynasty, was a Sakhemkhûtoûirî II.
+
+[Illustration: 408.jpg THE TOMBS OF PRINCES OF THE GAZELLE-NOME AT
+BENI-HASAN]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a chromolithograph in Lepsius,
+     Denkm., i. pl. 61. The first tomb on the left, of which the
+     portico is shown, is that of Khnûmhotpû II.
+
+Was there a revolution in the palace, or a popular rising, or a civil
+war? Did the queen become the wife of the new sovereign, and thus bring
+about the change without a struggle? Sovkhotpû was probably lord
+of Ûisît, and the dynasty which he founded is given by the native
+historians as of Theban origin. His accession entailed no change in the
+Egyptian constitution; it merely consolidated the Theban supremacy, and
+gave it a recognized position. Thebes became henceforth the head of
+the entire country: doubtless the kings did not at once forsake
+Heracleopolis and the Fayûm, but they made merely passing visits to
+these royal residences at considerable intervals, and after a few
+generations even these were given up. Most of these sovereigns resided
+and built their Pyramids at Thebes, and the administration of the
+kingdom became centralized there. The actual capital of a king was
+determined not so much by the locality from whence he ruled, as by the
+place where he reposed after death. Thebes was the virtual capital
+of Egypt from the moment that its masters fixed on it as their
+burying-place.
+
+Uncertainty again shrouds the history of the country after Sovkhotpû I.:
+not that monuments are lacking or names of kings, but the records of the
+many Sovkhotpûs and Nonrhotpûs found in a dozen places in the valley,
+furnish as yet no authentic means of ascertaining in what order to
+classify them. The XIIIth dynasty contained, so it is said, sixty kings,
+who reigned for a period of over 453 years.*
+
+     * This is the number given in one of the lists of Manetho,
+     in Muller-Didot, _Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum_, vol. ii.
+     p. 565. Lepsius’s theory, according to which the shepherds
+     overran Egypt from the end of the XIIth dynasty and
+     tolerated the existence of two vassal dynasties, the XIIIth
+     and XIVth, was disputed and refuted by E. de Rougé as soon
+     as it appeared; we find the theory again in the works of
+     some contemporary Egyptologists, but the majority of those
+     who continued to support it have since abandoned their
+     position.
+
+The succession did not always take place in the direct line from father
+to son: several times, when interrupted by default of male heirs, it
+was renewed without any disturbance, thanks to the transmission of royal
+rights to their children by princesses, even when their husbands did not
+belong to the reigning family. Monthotpû, the father of Sovkhotpu III.,
+was an ordinary priest, and his name is constantly quoted by his son;
+but solar blood flowed in the veins of his mother, and procured for him
+the crown. The father of his successor, Nofirhotpû IL, did not belong
+to the reigning branch, or was only distantly connected with it, but his
+mother Kamâît was the daughter of Pharaoh, and that was sufficient
+to make her son of royal rank. With careful investigation, we should
+probably find traces of several revolutions which changed the legitimate
+order of succession without, however, entailing a change of dynasty. The
+Nofirhotpûs and Sovkhotpûs continued both at home and abroad the work so
+ably begun by the Amenemhâîts and the Usirtasens.
+
+[Illustration: 410.jpg THE COLOSSAL STATUE OF KING SOVKHOTPU IN THE
+LOUVRE]
+
+They devoted all their efforts to beautifying the principal towns of
+Egypt, and caused important works to be carried on in most of them--at
+Karnak, in the great temple of Amon, at Luxor, at Bubastis, at Tanis,
+at Tell-Mokhdam, and in the sanctuary of Abydos. At the latter
+place, Khâsoshûshrî Nofirhotpû restored to Khontamentit considerable
+possessions which the god had lost; Nozirri sent thither one of his
+officers to restore the edifice built by Usirtasen I.; Sovkûmsaûf
+II. dedicated his own statue in this temple, and private individuals,
+following the example set them by their sovereigns, vied with each other
+in their gifts of votive stehe. The pyramids of this period were of
+moderate size, and those princes who abandoned the custom of building
+them were content like Aûtûabrî I. Horû with a modest tomb, close to the
+gigantic pyramids of their ancestors. In style the statues of this epoch
+show a certain inferiority when compared with the beautiful work of the
+XIIth dynasty: the proportions of the human figure are not so good, the
+modelling of the limbs is not so vigorous, the rendering of the features
+lacks individuality; the sculptors exhibit a tendency, which had been
+growing since the time of the Usirtasens, to represent all their sitters
+with the same smiling, commonplace type of countenance. There are,
+however, among the statues of kings and private individuals which have
+come down to us, a few examples of really fine treatment. The colossal
+statue of Sovkhotpû IV., which is now in the Louvre side by side with an
+ordinary-sized figure of the same Pharaoh, must have had a good effect
+when placed at the entrance to the temple at Tanis: his chest is thrown
+well forward, his head is erect, and we feel impressed by that noble
+dignity which the Memphite sculptors knew how to give to the bearing
+and features of the diorite Khephren enthroned at Gîzeh. The sitting
+Mirmâshaû of Tanis lacks neither energy nor majesty, and the Sovkûmsaûf
+of Abydos, in spite of the roughness of its execution, decidedly holds
+its own among the other Pharaohs.
+
+[Illustration: 414.jpg STATUE OF HARSÛF IN THE VIENNA MUSEUM]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Ernest de Bergmann.
+     From Dahshur, now at Gîzeh; it has been published in
+     Morgan’s Dahshur.
+
+The statuettes found in the tombs, and the smaller objects discovered in
+the ruins, are neither less carefully nor less successfully treated. The
+little scribe at Gîzeh, in the attitude of walking, is a _chef d’oeuvre_
+of delicacy and grace, and might be attributed to one of the best
+schools of the XIIth dynasty, did not the inscriptions oblige us to
+relegate it to the Theban art of the XIIIth. The heavy and commonplace
+figure of the magnate now in the Vienna Museum is treated with a rather
+coarse realism, but exhibits nevertheless most skilful tooling. It is
+not exclusively at Thebes, or at Tanis, or in any of the other great
+cities of Egypt, that we meet with excellent examples of work, or that
+we can prove that flourishing schools of sculpture existed at this
+period; probably there is scarcely any small town which would not
+furnish us at the present day, if careful excavation were carried out,
+with some monument or object worthy of being placed in a museum. During
+the XIIIth dynasty both art and everything else in Egypt were fairly
+prosperous. Nothing attained a very high standard, but, on the other
+hand, nothing fell below a certain level of respectable mediocrity.
+Wealth exercised, however, an injurious influence upon artistic taste.
+The funerary statue, for instance, which Aûtûabrî I. Horû ordered for
+himself was of ebony, and seems to have been inlaid originally with
+gold, whereas Kheops and Khephren were content to have theirs of
+alabaster and diorite.
+
+[Illustration: 415.jpg STATUE OF SOVKHOTPÛ III.]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch by Lepsius; the head was
+     “quite mutilated and separated from the bust.”
+
+During this dynasty we hear nothing of the inhabitants of the Sinaitic
+Peninsula to the east, or of the Libyans to the west: it was in the
+south, in Ethiopia, that the Pharaohs expended all their surplus energy.
+The most important of them, Sovkhotpu I., had continued to register the
+height of the Nile on the rocks of Semneh, but after his time we
+are unable to say where the Nilometer was moved to, nor, indeed, who
+displaced it. The middle basin of the river as far as Gebel-Barkal
+was soon incorporated with Egypt, and the population became quickly
+assimilated. The colonization of the larger islands of Say and Argo
+took place first, as their isolation protected them from sudden attacks:
+certain princes of the XIIIth dynasty built temples there, and erected
+their statues within them, just as they would have done in any of the
+most peaceful districts of the Said or the Delta. Argo is still at the
+present day one of the largest of these Nubian islands:* it is said to
+be 12 miles in length, and about 2 1/2 in width towards the middle.
+
+     * The description of Argo and its ruins is borrowed from
+     Caillaud, Voyage à Méroé, vol. ii. pp. 1-7.
+
+It is partly wooded, and vegetation grows there with tropical
+luxuriance; creeping plants climb from tree to tree, and form an
+almost impenetrable undergrowth, which swarms with game secure from the
+sportsman. A score of villages are dotted about in the clearings,
+and are surrounded by carefully cultivated fields, in which durra
+predominates. An unknown Pharaoh of the XIIIth dynasty built, near to
+the principal village, a temple of considerable size; it covered an
+area, whose limits may still easily be traced, of 174 feet wide by 292
+long from east to west. The main body of the building was of sandstone,
+probably brought from the quarries of Tombos: it has been pitilessly
+destroyed piecemeal by the inhabitants, and only a few insignificant
+fragments, on which some lines of hieroglyphs may still be deciphered,
+remain _in situ_. A small statue of black granite of good workmanship is
+still standing in the midst of the ruins. It represents Sovkhotpû III.
+sitting, with his hands resting on his knees; the head, which has been
+mutilated, lies beside the body.
+
+[Illustration: 417.jpg ONE OF THE OVERTURNED AND BROKEN STATUES OF
+MIRMASIIAÛ AT TANIS]
+
+     Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph in Rougé-Banville’s
+     _Album photographique de la Mission de M. de Bougé_, No.
+     114.
+
+The same king erected colossal statues of himself at Tanis, Bubastis,
+and at Thebes: he was undisputed master of the whole Nile Valley, from
+near the spot where the river receives its last tributary to where
+it empties itself into the sea. The making of Egypt was finally
+accomplished in his time, and if all its component parts were not as yet
+equally prosperous, the bond which connected them was strong enough
+to resist any attempt to break it, whether by civil discord within or
+invasions from without. The country was not free from revolutions, and
+if we have no authority for stating that they were the cause of the
+downfall of the XIIIth dynasty, the lists of Manetho at least show that
+after that event the centre of Egyptian power was again shifted. Thebes
+lost its supremacy, and the preponderating influence passed into the
+hands of sovereigns who were natives of the Delta. Xoïs, situated in the
+midst of the marshes, between the Phatnitic and Sebennytic branches of
+the Nile, was one of those very ancient cities which had played but
+an insignificant part in shaping the destinies of the country. By what
+combination of circumstances its princes succeeded in raising themselves
+to the throne of the Pharaohs, we know not: they numbered, so it was
+said, seventy-five kings, who reigned four hundred and eighty-four
+years, and whose mutilated names darken the pages of the Turin Papyrus.
+The majority of them did little more than appear upon the throne, some
+reigning three years, others two, others a year or scarcely more than a
+few months: far from being a regularly constituted line of sovereigns,
+they appear rather to have been a series of Pretenders, mutually jealous
+of and deposing one another.
+
+The feudal lords who had been so powerful under the Usirtasens had
+lost none of their prestige under the Sovkhotpûs: and the rivalries of
+usurpers of this kind, who seized the crown without being strong enough
+to keep it, may perhaps explain the long sequence of shadowy Pharaohs
+with curtailed reigns who constitute the XIVth dynasty. They did not
+withdraw from Nubia, of that fact we are certain: but what did they
+achieve in the north and north-east of the empire? The nomad tribes were
+showing signs of restlessness on the frontier, the peoples of the Tigris
+and Euphrates were already pushing the vanguards of their armies into
+Central Syria. While Egypt had been bringing the valley of the Nile and
+the eastern corner of Africa into subjection, Chaldæa had imposed both
+her language and her laws upon the whole of that part of Western Asia
+which separated her from Egypt: the time was approaching when these two
+great civilized powers of the ancient world would meet each other face
+to face and come into fierce collision.
+
+END OF VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria,
+Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12), by G. Maspero
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