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diff --git a/19400.txt b/19400.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a2b352 --- /dev/null +++ b/19400.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9996 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, +Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (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, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12) + +Author: G. Maspero + +Editor: A.H. Sayce + +Translator: M.L. McClure + +Release Date: September 28, 2006 [EBook #19400] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT *** + + + + +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 I., Part A. + + +LONDON + +THE GROLIER SOCIETY + +PUBLISHERS + +[Illustration: Frontispiece] + +[Illustration: Titlepage] + + + +EDITOR'S PREFACE + +Professor Maspero does not need to be introduced to us. His name is +well known in England and America as that of one of the chief masters of +Egyptian science as well as of ancient Oriental history and archaeology. +Alike as a philologist, a historian, and an archaeologist, he occupies +a foremost place in the annals of modern knowledge and research. He +possesses that quick apprehension and fertility of resource without +which the decipherment of ancient texts is impossible, and he also +possesses a sympathy with the past and a power of realizing it which are +indispensable if we would picture it aright. His intimate acquaintance +with Egypt and its literature, and the opportunities of discovery +afforded him by his position for several years as director of the Bulaq +Museum, give him an unique claim to speak with authority on the history +of the valley of the Nile. In the present work he has been prodigal of +his abundant stores of learning and knowledge, and it may therefore be +regarded as the most complete account of ancient Egypt that has ever yet +been published. + +In the case of Babylonia and Assyria he no longer, it is true, speaks +at first hand. But he has thoroughly studied the latest and best +authorities on the subject, and has weighed their statements with the +judgment which comes from an exhaustive acquaintance with a similar +department of knowledge. + +Naturally, in progressive studies like those of Egyptology and +Assyriology, a good many theories and conclusions must be tentative and +provisional only. Discovery crowds so quickly on discovery, that the +truth of to-day is often apt to be modified or amplified by the truth +of to-morrow. A single fresh fact may throw a wholly new and unexpected +light upon the results we have already gained, and cause them to assume +a somewhat changed aspect. But this is what must happen in all sciences +in which there is a healthy growth, and archaeological science is no +exception to the rule. + +The spelling of ancient Egyptian proper names adopted by Professor +Maspero will perhaps seem strange to many. But it must be remembered +that all our attempts to represent the pronunciation of ancient Egyptian +words can be approximate only; we can never ascertain with certainty how +they were actually sounded. All that can be done is to determine what +pronunciation was assigned to them in the Greek period, and to work +backwards from this, so far as it is possible, to more remote ages. +This is what Professor Maspero has done, and it must be no slight +satisfaction to him to find that on the whole his system of +transliteration is confirmed by the cuneiform tablets of Tel el-Amarna. + +The difficulties attaching to the spelling of Assyrian names are +different from those which beset our attempts to reproduce, even +approximately, the names of ancient Egypt. The cuneiform system of +writing was syllabic, each character denoting a syllable, so that we +know what were the vowels in a proper name as well as the consonants. +Moreover, the pronunciation of the consonants resembled that of the +Hebrew consonants, the transliteration of which has long since become +conventional. When, therefore, an Assyrian or Babylonian name is written +phonetically, its correct transliteration is not often a matter +of question. But, unfortunately, the names are not always written +phonetically. The cuneiform script was an inheritance from the +non-Semitic predecessors of the Semites in Babylonia, and in this script +the characters represented words as well as sounds. Not unfrequently +the Semitic Assyrians continued to write a name in the old Sumerian way +instead of spelling it phonetically, the result being that we do not +know how it was pronounced in their own language. The name of the +Chaldaean Noab, for instance, is written with two characters which +ideographically signify "the sun" or "day of life," and of the first of +which the Sumerian values were _ut, babar, khis, tarn,_ and _par_, +while the second had the value of _zi_. Were it not that the Chaldaean +historian Berossos writes the name Xisuthros, we should have no clue to +its Semitic pronunciation. + +Professor Maspero's learning and indefatigable industry are well known +to me, but I confess I was not prepared for the exhaustive acquaintance +he shows with Assyriological literature. Nothing seems to have escaped +his notice. Papers and books just published, and half forgotten articles +in obscure periodicals which appeared years ago, have all alike been +used and quoted by him. Naturally, however, there are some points on +which I should be inclined to differ from the conclusions he draws, +or to which he has been led by other Assyriologists. Without being an +Assyriologist himself, it was impossible for him to be acquainted with +that portion of the evidence on certain disputed questions which is only +to be found in still unpublished or untranslated inscriptions. + +There are two points which seem to me of sufficient importance +to justify my expression of dissent from his views. These are the +geographical situation of the land of Magan, and the historical +character of the annals of Sargon of Accad. The evidence about Magan is +very clear. Magan is usually associated with the country of Melukhkha, +"the salt" desert, and in _every_ text in which its geographical +position is indicated it is placed in the immediate vicinity of Egypt. +Thus Assur-bani-pal, after stating that he had "gone to the lands of +Magan and Melukhkha," goes on to say that he "directed his road to +Egypt and Kush," and then describes the first of his Egyptian campaigns. +Similar testimony is borne by Esar-haddon. The latter king tells us that +after quitting Egypt he directed his road to the land of Melukhkha, a +desert region in which there were no rivers, and which extended "to the +city of Rapikh" (the modern Raphia) "at the edge of the wadi of Egypt" +(the present Wadi El-Arish). After this he received camels from the king +of the Arabs, and made his way to the land and city of Magan. The Tel +el-Amarna tablets enable us to carry the record back to the fifteenth +century b.c. In certain of the tablets now as Berlin (Winckler and Abel, +42 and 45) the Phoenician governor of the Pharaoh asks that help should +be sent him from Melukhkha and Egypt: "The king should hear the words of +his servant, and send ten men of the country of Melukhkha and twenty men +of the country of Egypt to defend the city [of Gebal] for the king." And +again, "I have sent [to] Pharaoh" (literally, "the great house") "for a +garrison of men from the country of Melukhkha, and... the king has +just despatched a garrison [from] the country of Melukhkha." At a still +earlier date we have indications that Melukhkha and Magan denoted the +same region of the world. In an old Babylonian geographical list which +belongs to the early days of Chaldsean history, Magan is described as +"the country of bronze," and Melukhkha as "the country of the _samdu_," +or "malachite." It was this list which originally led Oppert, Lenormant, +and myself independently to the conviction that Magan was to be looked +for in the Sinaitic Peninsula. Magan included, however, the Midian of +Scripture, and the city of Magan, called Makkan in Semitic Assyrian, is +probably the Makna of classical geography, now represented by the ruins +of Mukna. + +As I have always maintained the historical character of the annals of +Sargon of Accad, long before recent discoveries led Professor Hilprecht +and others to adopt the same view, it is as well to state why I +consider them worthy of credit. In themselves the annals contain +nothing improbable; indeed, what might seem the most unlikely portion +of them--that which describes the extension of Sargon's empire to the +shores of the Mediterranean--has been confirmed by the progress of +research. Ammi-satana, a king of the first dynasty of Babylon (about +2200 B.C.), calls himself "king of the country of the Amorites," and +the Tel el-Amarna tablets have revealed to us how deep and long-lasting +Babylonian influence must have been throughout Western Asia. Moreover, +the vase described by Professor Maspero in the present work proves that +the expedition of Naram-Sin against Magan was an historical reality, and +such an expedition was only possible if "the land of the Amorites," the +Syria and Palestine of later days, had been secured in the rear. +But what chiefly led me to the belief that the annals are a document +contemporaneous with the events narrated in them, are two facts which +do not seem to have been sufficiently considered. On the one side, while +the annals of Sargon are given in full, those of his son Naram-Sin break +off abruptly in the early part of his reign. I see no explanation of +this, except that they were composed while Naram-Sin was still on the +throne. On the other side, the campaigns of the two monarchs are coupled +with the astrological phenomena on which the success of the campaigns +was supposed to depend. We know that the Babylonians were given to the +practice and study of astrology from the earliest days of their history; +we know also that even in the time of the later Assyrian monarchy it was +still customary for the general in the field to be accompanied by +the _asipu_, or "prophet," the ashshaph of Dan. ii. 10, on whose +interpretation of the signs of heaven the movements of the army +depended; and in the infancy of Chaldaen history we should accordingly +expect to find the astrological sign recorded along with the event with +which it was bound up. At a subsequent period the sign and the event +were separated from one another in literature, and had the annals of +Sargon been a later compilation, in their case also the separation would +assuredly have been made. That, on the contrary, the annals have the +form which they could have assumed and ought to have assumed only at +the beginning of contemporaneous Babylonian history, is to me a strong +testimony in favour of their genuineness. + +It may be added that Babylonian seal-cylinders have been found in +Cyprus, one of which is of the age of Sargon of Accad, its style and +workmanship being the same as that of the cylinder figured in vol. iii. +p. 96, while the other, though of later date, belonged to a person +who describes himself as "the servant of the deified Naram-Sin." Such +cylinders may, of course, have been brought to the island in later +times; but when we remember that a characteristic object of prehistoric +Cypriote art is an imitation of the seal-cylinder of Chaldsea, their +discovery cannot be wholly an accident. + +Professor Maspero has brought his facts up to so recent a date that +there is very little to add to what he has written. Since his +manuscript was in type, however, a few additions have been made to our +Assyriological knowledge. A fresh examination of the Babylonian dynastic +tablet has led Professor Delitzsch to make some alterations in the +published account of what Professor Maspero calls the ninth dynasty. +According to Professor Delitzsch, the number of kings composing the +dynasty is stated on the tablet to be twenty-one, and not thirty-one as +was formerly read, and the number of lost lines exactly corresponds with +this figure. The first of the kings reigned thirty-six years, and he +had a predecessor belonging to the previous dynasty whose name has been +lost. There would consequently have been two Elamite usurpers instead of +one. + +I would further draw attention to an interesting text, published by +Mr. Strong in the _Babylonian and Oriental Record_, which I believe to +contain the name of a king who belonged to the legendary dynasties of +Chaldaea. This is Samas-natsir, who is coupled with Sargon of Accad and +other early monarchs in one of the lists. The legend, if I interpret it +rightly, states that "Elam shall be altogether given to Samas-natsir;" +and the same prince is further described as building Nippur and Dur-ilu, +as King of Babylon and as conqueror both of a certain Baldakha and of +Khumba-sitir, "the king of the cedar-forest." It will be remembered that +in the Epic of Gil-games, Khumbaba also is stated to have been the lord +of the "cedar-forest." + +But of new discoveries and facts there is a constant supply, and it +is impossible for the historian to keep pace with them. Even while the +sheets of his work are passing through the press, the excavator, the +explorer, and the decipherer are adding to our previous stores of +knowledge. In Egypt, Mr. de Morgan's unwearied energy has raised as it +were out of the ground, at Kom Ombo, a vast and splendidly preserved +temple, of whose existence we had hardly dreamed; has discovered +twelfth-dynasty jewellery at Dahshur of the most exquisite workmanship, +and at Meir and Assiut has found in tombs of the sixth dynasty painted +models of the trades and professions of the day, as well as fighting +battalions of soldiers, which, for freshness and lifelike reality, +contrast favourably with the models which come from India to-day. In +Babylonia, the American Expedition, under Mr. Haines, has at Niffer +unearthed monuments of older date than those of Sargon of Accad. Nor +must I forget to mention the lotiform column found by Mr. de Morgan in +a tomb of the Old Empire at Abusir, or the interesting discovery made by +Mr. Arthur Evans of seals and other objects from the prehistoric sites +of Krete and other parts of the AEgean, inscribed with hieroglyphic +characters which reveal a new system of writing that must at one time +have existed by the side of the Hittite hieroglyphs, and may have had +its origin in the influence exercised by Egypt on the peoples of the +Mediterranean in the age of the twelfth dynasty. + +In volumes IV., V., and VI. we find ourselves in the full light of an +advanced culture. The nations of the ancient East are no longer each +pursuing an isolated existence, and separately developing the seeds of +civilization and culture on the banks of the Euphrates and the Nile. +Asia and Africa have met in mortal combat. Babylonia has carried its +empire to the frontiers of Egypt, and Egypt itself has been held in +bondage by the Hyksos strangers from Asia. In return, Egypt has driven +back the wave of invasion to the borders of Mesopotamia, has substituted +an empire of its own in Syria for that of the Babylonians, and has +forced the Babylonian king to treat with its Pharaoh on equal terms. +In the track of war and diplomacy have come trade and commerce; Western +Asia is covered with roads, along which the merchant and the courier +travel incessantly, and the whole civilised world of the Orient is knit +together in a common literary culture and common commercial interests. + +The age of isolation has thus been succeeded by an age of intercourse, +partly military and antagonistic, partly literary and peaceful. +Professor Maspero paints for us this age of intercourse, describes +its rise and character, its decline and fall. For the unity of Eastern +civilization was again shattered. The Hittites descended from the ranges +of the Taurus upon the Egyptian province of Northern Syria, and cut off +the Semites of the west from those of the east. The Israelites poured +over the Jordan out of Edom and Moab, and took possession of Canaan, +while Babylonia itself, for so many centuries the ruling power of the +Oriental world, had to make way for its upstart rival Assyria. The old +imperial powers were exhausted and played out, and it needed time before +the new forces which were to take their place could acquire sufficient +strength for their work. + +As usual, Professor Maspero has been careful to embody in his history +the very latest discoveries and information. Notice, it will be found, +has been taken even of the _stela_ of Meneptah, recently disinterred by +Professor Petrie, on which the name of the Israelites is engraved. +At Elephantine, I found, a short time since, on a granite boulder, an +inscription of Khufuankh--whose sarcophagus of red granite is one of +the most beautiful objects in the Gizeh Museum--which carries back the +history of the island to the age of the pyramid-builders of the fourth +dynasty. The boulder was subsequently concealed under the southern side +of the city-wall, and as fragments of inscribed papyrus coeval with the +sixth dynasty have been discovered in the immediate neighbourhood, on +one of which mention is made of "this domain" of Pepi II., it would seem +that the town of Elephantine must have been founded between the period +of the fourth dynasty and that of the sixth. Manetho is therefore +justified in making the fifth and sixth dynasties of Elephantine origin. + +It is in Babylonia, however, that the most startling discoveries have +been made. At Tello, M. de Sarzec has found a library of more than +thirty thousand tablets, all neatly arranged, piled in order one on the +other, and belonging to the age of Gudea (b.c. 2700). Many more tablets +of an early date have been unearthed at Abu-Habba (Sippara) and Jokha +(Isin) by Dr. Scheil, working for the Turkish government. But the most +important finds have been at Niffer, the ancient Nippur, in Northern +Babylonia, where the American expedition has brought to a close its long +work of systematic excavation. Here Mr. Haynes has dug down to the very +foundations of the great temple of El-lil, and the chief historical +results of his labours have been published by Professor Hilprecht (in +_The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania_, vol. i. +pl. 2, 1896). + +About midway between the summit and the bottom of the mound, Mr. Haynes +laid bare a pavement constructed of huge bricks stamped with the names +of Sargon of Akkad and his son Naram-Sin. He found also the ancient wall +of the city, which had been built by Naram-Sin, 13.7 metres wide. The +_debris_ of ruined buildings which lies below the pavement of Sargon +is as much as 9.25 metres in depth, while that above it, the topmost +stratum of which brings us down to the Christian era, is only 11 metres +in height. We may form some idea from this of the enormous age to which +the history of Babylonian culture and writing reaches back. In fact, +Professor Hilprecht quotes with approval Mr. Haynes's words: "We must +cease to apply the adjective 'earliest' to the time of Sargon, or to any +age or epoch within a thousand years of his advanced civilization." "The +golden age of Babylonian history seems to include the reign of Sargon +and of Ur-Gur." + +Many of the inscriptions which belong to this remote age of human +culture have been published by Professor Hilprecht. Among them is a long +inscription, in 132 lines, engraved on multitudes of large stone +vases presented to the temple of El-lil by a certain Lugal-zaggisi. +Lugal-zaggisi was the son of Ukus, the _patesi_ or high priest of the +"Land of the Bow," as Mesopotamia, with its Bedawin inhabitants, was +called. He not only conquered Babylonia, then known as Kengi, "the land +of canals and reeds," but founded an empire which extended from the +Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. This was centuries before Sargon +of Akkad followed in his footsteps. Erech became the capital of +Lugal-zaggisi's empire, and doubtless received at this time its Sumerian +title of "the city" _par excellence_. + +For a long while previously there had been war between Babylonia and the +"Land of the Bow," whose rulers seem to have established themselves +in the city of Kis. At one time we find the Babylonian prince +En-sag(sag)-ana capturing Kis and its king; at another time it is a king +of Kis who makes offerings to the god of Nippur, in gratitude for his +victories. To this period belongs the famous "Stela of the Vultures" +found at Tello, on which is depicted the victory of E-dingir-ana-gin, +the King of Lagas (Tello), over the Semitic hordes of the Land of the +Bow. It may be noted that the recent discoveries have shown how correct +Professor Maspero has been in assigning the kings of Lagas to a period +earlier than that of Sargon of Akkad. + +Professor Hilprecht would place E-dingir-ana-gin after Lugal-zaggisi, +and see in the Stela of the Vultures a monument of the revenge taken +by the Sumerian rulers of Lagas for the conquest of the country by the +inhabitants of the north. But it is equally possible that it marks +the successful reaction of Chaldsea against the power established by +Lugal-zaggisi. However this may be, the dynasty of Lagas (to which +Professor Hilprecht has added a new king, En-Khegal) reigned in peace +for some time, and belonged to the same age as the first dynasty of Ur. +This was founded by a certain Lugal-kigubnidudu, whose inscriptions have +been found at Niffer. The dynasty which arose at Ur in later days (cir. +b.c. 2700), under Ur-Gur and Bungi, which has hitherto been known as +"the first dynasty of Ur," is thus dethroned from its position, and +becomes the second. The succeeding dynasty, which also made Ur its +capital, and whose kings, Ine-Sin, Pur-Sin IL, and Gimil-Sin, were +the immediate predecessors of the first dynasty of Babylon (to which +Kharnmurabi belonged), must henceforth be termed the third. + +Among the latest acquisitions from Tello are the seals of the _patesi_, +Lugal-usumgal, which finally remove all doubt as to the identity of +"Sargani, king of the city," with the famous Sargon of Akkad. The +historical accuracy of Sargon's annals, moreover, have been fully +vindicated. Not only have the American excavators found the contemporary +monuments of him and his son Naram-Sin, but also tablets dated in the +years of his campaigns against "the land of the Amorites." In short, +Sargon of Akkad, so lately spoken of as "a half-mythical" personage, has +now emerged into the full glare of authentic history. + +That the native chronologists had sufficient material for reconstructing +the past history of their country, is also now clear. The early +Babylonian contract-tablets are dated by events which officially +distinguished the several years of a king's reign, and tablets have been +discovered compiled at the close of a reign which give year by year the +events which thus characterised them. One of these tablets, for example, +from the excavations at Niffer, begins with the words: (1) "The year +when Par-Sin (II.) becomes king. (2) The year when Pur-Sin the king +conquers Urbillum," and ends with "the year when Gimil-Sin becomes King +of Ur, and conquers the land of Zabsali" in the Lebanon. + +Of special interest to the biblical student are the discoveries made +by Mr. Pinches among some of the Babylonian tablets which have recently +been acquired by the British Museum. Four of them relate to no less a +personage than Kudur-Laghghamar or Chedor-laomer, "King of Elam," as +well as to Eri-Aku or Arioch, King of Larsa, and his son Dur-makh-ilani; +to Tudghula or Tidal, the son of Gazza[ni], and to their war against +Babylon in the time of Khamrnu[rabi]. In one of the texts the question +is asked, "Who is the son of a king's daughter who has sat on the throne +of royalty? Dur-makh-ilani, the son of Eri-Aku, the son of the lady +Kur... has sat on the throne of royalty," from which it may perhaps be +inferred that Eri-Aku was the son of Kudur-Laghghamar's daughter; and in +another we read, "Who is Kudur-Laghghamar, the doer of mischief? He +has gathered together the Umman Manda, has devastated the land of Bel +(Babylonia), and [has marched] at their side." The Umman Manda were the +"Barbarian Hordes" of the Kurdish mountains, on the northern frontier of +Elam, and the name corresponds with that of the Goyyim or "nations" in +the fourteenth chapter of Genesis. We here see Kudur-Laghghamar acting +as their suzerain lord. Unfortunately, all four tablets are in a +shockingly broken condition, and it is therefore difficult to discover +in them a continuous sense, or to determine their precise nature. + +They have, however, been supplemented by further discoveries made by +Dr. Scheil at Constantinople. Among the tablets preserved there, he has +found letters from Kharnmurabi to his vassal Sin-idinnam of Larsa, +from which we learn that Sin-idinnam had been dethroned by the Elamites +Kudur-Mabug and Eri-Aku, and had fled for refuge to the court of +Kharnmurabi at Babylon. In the war which subsequently broke out between +Kharnmurabi and Kudur-Laghghamar, the King of Elam (who, it would seem, +exercised suzerainty over Babylonia for seven years), Sin-idinnam +gave material assistance to the Babylonian monarch, and Khammurabi +accordingly bestowed presents upon him as a "recompense for his valour +on the day of the overthrow of Kudur-Laghghamar." + +I must also refer to a fine scarab--found in the rubbish-mounds of the +ancient city of Kom Ombos, in Upper Egypt--which bears upon it the +name of Sutkhu-Apopi. It shows us that the author of the story of the +Expulsion of the Hyksos, in calling the king Ra-Apopi, merely, like an +orthodox Egyptian, substituted the name of the god of Heliopolis for +that of the foreign deity. Equally interesting are the scarabs brought +to light by Professor Flinders Petrie, on which a hitherto unknown +Ya'aqob-hal or Jacob-el receives the titles of a Pharaoh. + +In volumes VII., VIII., and IX., Professor Maspero concludes his +monumental work on the history of the ancient East. The overthrow of the +Persian empire by the Greek soldiers of Alexander marks the beginning of +a new era. Europe at last enters upon the stage of history, and becomes +the heir of the culture and civilisation of the Orient. The culture +which had grown up and developed on the banks of the Euphrates and Nile +passes to the West, and there assumes new features and is inspired with +a new spirit. The East perishes of age and decrepitude; its strength is +outworn, its power to initiate is past. The long ages through which it +had toiled to build up the fabric of civilisation are at an end; fresh +races are needed to carry on the work which it had achieved. Greece +appears upon the scene, and behind Greece looms the colossal figure of +the Roman Empire. + +During the past decade, excavation has gone on apace in Egypt and +Babylonia, and discoveries of a startling and unexpected nature have +followed in the wake of excavation. Ages that seemed prehistoric step +suddenly forth into the daydawn of history; personages whom a sceptical +criticism had consigned to the land of myth or fable are clothed once +more with flesh and blood, and events which had been long forgotten +demand to be recorded and described. In Babylonia, for example, the +excavations at Niffer and Tello have shown that Sargon of Akkad, so far +from being a creature of romance, was as much a historical monarch as +Nebuchadrezzar himself; monuments of his reign have been discovered, and +we learn from them that the empire he is said to have founded had a very +real existence. Contracts have been found dated in the years when he was +occupied in conquering Syria and Palestine, and a cadastral survey that +was made for the purposes of taxation mentions a Canaanite who had been +appointed "governor of the land of the Amorites." Even a postal service +had already been established along the high-roads which knit the several +parts of the empire together, and some of the clay seals which franked +the letters are now in the Museum of the Louvre. + +At Susa, M. de Morgan, the late director of the Service of Antiquities +in Egypt, has been excavating below the remains of the Achremenian +period, among the ruins of the ancient Elamite capital. Here he +has found numberless historical inscriptions, besides a text in +hieroglyphics which may cast light on the origin of the cuneiform +characters. But the most interesting of his discoveries are two +Babylonian monuments that were carried off by Elamite conquerors from +the cities of Babylonia. One of them is a long inscription of about 1200 +lines belonging to Manistusu, one of the early Babylonian kings, whose +name has been met with at Niffer; the other is a monument of Naram-Sin, +the Son of Sargon of Akkad, which it seems was brought as booty to Susa +by Simti-silkhak, the grandfather, perhaps, of Eriaku or Arioch. + +In Armenia, also, equally important inscriptions have been found by +Belck and Lehmann. More than two hundred new ones have been added to the +list of Vannic texts. It has been discovered from them that the kingdom +of Biainas or Van was founded by Ispuinis and Menuas, who rebuilt +Yan itself and the other cities which they had previously sacked and +destroyed. The older name of the country was Kumussu, and it may be that +the language spoken in it was allied to that of the Hittites, since a +tablet in hieroglyphics of the Hittite type has been unearthed at Toprak +Kaleh. One of the newly-found inscriptions of Sarduris III. shows that +the name of the Assyrian god, hitherto read Ramman or Rimmon, was +really pronounced Hadad. It describes a war of the Vannic king against +Assur-nirari, son of Hadad-nirari (_A-da-di-ni-ra-ri_) of Assyria, thus +revealing not only the true form of the Assyrian name, but also the +parentage of the last king of the older Assyrian dynasty. From another +inscription, belonging to Rusas II., the son of Argistis, we learn that +campaigns were carried on against the Hittites and the Moschi in the +latter years of Sennacherib's reign, and therefore only just before the +irruption of the Kimmerians into the northern regions of Western Asia. + +The two German explorers have also discovered the site and even the +ruins of Muzazir, called Ardinis by the people of Van. They lie on the +hill of Shkenna, near Topsana, on the road between Kelishin and Sidek. +In the immediate neighbourhood the travellers succeeded in deciphering +a monument of Rusas I., partly in Vannic, partly in Assyrian, from which +it appears that the Vannic king did not, after all, commit suicide when +the news of the fall of Muzazir was brought to him, as is stated by +Sargon, but that, on the contrary, he "marched against the mountains +of Assyria" and restored the fallen city itself. Urzana, the King of +Muzazir, had fled to him for shelter, and after the departure of the +Assyrian army he was sent back by Rusas to his ancestral domains. The +whole of the district in which Muzazir was situated was termed Lulu, and +was regarded as the southern province of Ararat. In it was Mount Nizir, +on whose summit the ark of the Chaldsean Noah rested, and which is +therefore rightly described in the Book of Genesis as one of "the +mountains of Ararat." It was probably the Rowandiz of to-day. + +The discoveries made by Drs. Belck and Lehmann, however, have not been +confined to Vannic texts. At the sources of the Tigris Dr. Lehmann has +found two Assyrian inscriptions of the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser IL, +one dated in his fifteenth and the other in his thirty-first year, and +relating to his campaigns against Aram of Ararat. He has further found +that the two inscriptions previously known to exist at the same spot, +and believed to belong to Tiglath-Ninip and Assur-nazir-pal, are really +those of Shalmaneser II., and refer to the war of his seventh year. + +But it is from Egypt that the most revolutionary revelations have +come. At Abydos and Kom el-Ahmar, opposite El-Kab, monuments have been +disinterred of the kings of the first and second dynasties, if not of +even earlier princes; while at Negada, north of Thebes, M. de Morgan has +found a tomb which seems to have been that of Menes himself. A new world +of art has been opened out before us; even the hieroglyphic system of +writing is as yet immature and strange. But the art is already advanced +in many respects; hard stone was cut into vases and bowls, and even +into statuary of considerable artistic excellence; glazed porcelain was +already made, and bronze, or rather copper, was fashioned into weapons +and tools. The writing material, as in Babylonia, was often clay, +over which seal-cylinders of a Babylonian pattern were rolled. Equally +Babylonian are the strange and composite animals engraved on some of the +objects of this early age, as well as the structure of the tombs, which +were built, not of stone, but of crude brick, with their external +walls panelled and pilastered. Professor Hommel's theory, which brings +Egyptian civilisation from Babylonia along with the ancestors of the +historical Egyptians, has thus been largely verified. + +But the historical Egyptians were not the first inhabitants of the +valley of the Nile. Not only have palaeolithic implements been found on +the plateau of the desert; the relics of neolithic man have turned up +in extraordinary abundance. When the historical Egyptians arrived with +their copper weapons and their system of writing, the land was already +occupied by a pastoral people, who had attained a high level of +neolithic culture. Their implements of flint are the most beautiful and +delicately finished that have ever been discovered; they were able to +carve vases of great artistic excellence out of the hardest of stone, +and their pottery was of no mean quality. Long after the country had +come into the possession of the historical dynasties, and had even been +united into a single monarchy, their settlements continued to exist +on the outskirts of the desert, and the neolithic culture that +distinguished them passed only gradually away. By degrees, however, +they intermingled with their conquerors from Asia, and thus formed the +Egyptian race of a later day. But they had already made Egypt what it +has been throughout the historical period. Under the direction of the +Asiatic immigrants and of the eugineering science whose first home had +been in the alluvial plain of Babylonia, they accomplished those great +works of irrigation which confined the Nile to its present channel, +which cleared away the jungle and the swamp that had formerly bordered +the desert, and turned them into fertile fields. Theirs were the hands +which carried out the plans of their more intelligent masters, and +cultivated the valley when once it had been reclaimed. The Egypt +of history was the creation of a twofold race: the Egyptians of the +monuments supplied the controlling and directing power; the Egyptians of +the neolithic graves bestowed upon it their labour and their skill. + +The period treated of by Professor Maspero in these volumes is one for +which there is an abundance of materials sucli as do not exist for +the earlier portions of his history. The evidence of the monuments is +supplemented by that of the Hebrew and classical writers. But on this +very account it is in some respects more difficult to deal with, and the +conclusions arrived at by the historian are more open to question and +dispute. In some cases conflicting accounts are given of an event which +seem to rest on equally good authority; in other cases, there is a +sudden failure of materials just where the thread of the story becomes +most complicated. Of this the decline and fall of the Assyrian empire +is a prominent example; for our knowledge of it, we have still to depend +chiefly on the untrustworthy legends of the Greeks. Our views must be +coloured more or less by our estimate of Herodotos; those who, like +myself, place little or no confidence in what he tells us about Oriental +affairs will naturally form a very different idea of the death-struggle, +of Assyria from that formed by writers who still see in him the Father +of Oriental History. + +Even where the native monuments have come to our aid, they have not +unfrequently introduced difficulties and doubts where none seemed to +exist before, and have made the task of the critical historian harder +than ever. Cyrus and his forefathers, for instance, turn out to have +been kings of Anzan, and not of Persia, thus explaining why it is that +the Neo-Susian language appears by the side of the Persian and the +Babylonian as one of the three official languages of the Persian empire; +but we still have to learn what was the relation of Anzan to Persia on +the one hand, and to Susa on the other, and when it was that Cyrus of +Anzan became also King of Persia. In the Annalistic Tablet, he is called +"King of Persia" for the first time in the ninth year of Nabonidos. + +Similar questions arise as to the position and nationality of Astyages. +He is called in the inscriptions, not a Mede, but a Manda--a name which, +as I showed many years ago, meant for the Babylonian a "barbarian" of +Kurdistan. I have myself little doubt that the Manda over whom Astyages +ruled were the Scythians of classical tradition, who, as may be gathered +from a text published by Mr. Strong, had occupied the ancient kingdom of +Ellipi. It is even possible that in the Madyes of Herodotos, we have a +reminiscence of the Manda of the cuneiform inscriptions. That the Greek +writers should have confounded the Mada or Medes with the Manda or +Barbarians is not surprising; we find even Berossos describing one of +the early dynasties of Babylonia as "Median" where Manda, and not +Mada, must plainly be meant. + +These and similar problems, however, will doubtless be cleared up by the +progress of excavation and research. Perhaps M. de Morgan's excavations +at Susa may throw some light on them, but it is to the work of the +German expedition, which has recently begun the systematic exploration +of the site of Babylon, that we must chiefly look for help. The Babylon +of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadrezzar rose on the ruins of Nineveh, and +the story of downfall of the Assyrian empire must still be lying buried +under its mounds. + +A. H. SAYCE. + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE + +In completing the translation of this great work, I have to thank +Professor Maspero for kindly permitting me to appeal to him on various +questions which arose while preparing the translation. His patience and +courtesy have alike been unfailing in every matter submitted for his +decision. + +I am indebted to Miss Bradbury for kindly supplying, in the midst of +much other literary work for the Egypt Exploration Fund, the translation +of the chapter on the gods, and also of the earlier parts of some of the +first chapters. She has, moreover, helped me in my own share of the work +with many suggestions and hints, which her intimate connection with the +late Miss Amelia B. Edwards fully qualified her to give. + +As in the original there is a lack of uniformity in the transcription +and accentuation of Arabic names, I have ventured to alter them in +several cases to the form most familiar to English readers. + +The spelling of the ancient Egyptian words has, at Professor Maspero's +request, been retained throughout, with the exception that the French +_ou_ has been invariably represented by u, e.g. Khnoumou by Khnumu. + +By an act of international courtesy, the director of the _Imprimerie +Nationale_ has allowed the beautifully cut hieroglyphic and cuneiform +type used in the original to be employed in the English edition, and +I take advantage of this opportunity to express to him our thanks and +appreciation of his graceful act. + +M. L. McClure. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I.--THE NILE AND EGYPT The River and its Influence upon the +Formation of the Country--The Oldest Inhabitants of the Valley and its +First Political Organization + + +CHAPTER II.--THE GODS OF EGYPT Their Number and their Nature--The Feudal +Gods, Living and Dead--The Triads--Temples and Priests--The Cosmogonies +of the Delta--The Enneads of Heliopolis and of Hermopolis + + +CHAPTER III.--THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT The Divine Dynasties: +Ra, Shu, Osiris, Sit, Horus-Thot, and the Invention of Sciences and +Writing-Menes, and the Three First Human Dynasties + +[Illustration: 001.jpg PAGE ONE] + +[Illustration: 002.jpg PAGE TWO] + + + + +CHAPTER I.--THE NILE AND EGYPT + +_THE RIVER AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE FORMATION AND CHARACTER OF +THE COUNTRY--THE OLDEST INHABITANTS OF THE LAND--THE FIRST POLITICAL +ORGANIZATION OF THE VALLEY._ + +_The Delta: its gradual formation, its structure, its canals--The valley +of Egypt--The two arms of the river--The Eastern Nile--The appearance +of its hanks--The hills--The gorge of Gehel Silsileh--The cataracts: the +falls of Aswan--Nubia--The rapids of Wady Halfah--The Takazze--The Blue +Nile and the White Nile. + +The sources of the Nile--The Egyptian cosmography--The four pillars +and the four upholding mountains--The celestial Nile the source of the +terrestial Nile--the Southern Sea and the islands of Spirits--The tears +of Isis--The rise of the Nile--The Green Nile and the Bed Nile--The +opening of the dykes---The fall of the Nile--The river at its lowest +ebb. + +The alluvial deposits and the effects of the inundation upon the soil of +Egypt--Paucity of the flora: aquatic plants, the papyrus and the lotus; +the sycamore and the date-palm, the acacias, the dom-palms--The fauna: +the domestic and wild animals; serpents, the urstus; the hippopotamus +and the crocodile; birds; fish, the fahaka. + +The Nile god: his form and its varieties--The goddess Mirit--The +supposed sources of the Nile at Elephantine--The festivals of Gebel +Silsileh-Hymn to the Nile from papyri m the British Museum. + +The names of the Nile and Egypt: Bomitu and Qimit--Antiquity of the +Egyptianpeople--Their first horizon--The hypothesis of their Asiatic +origin--The probability of their African origin--The language and its +Semitic affinities--The race and its principal types. + +The primitive civilization of Egypt--Its survival into historic +times--The women of Amon--Marriage--Rights of women and +children--Houses--Furniture--Dress--Jewels--Wooden and metal +arms--Primitive life-Fishing and hunting--The lasso and "bolas"--The +domestication of animals--Plants used for food--The lotus--Cereals--The +hoe and the plough. + +The conquest of the valley--Dykes--Basins--Irrigation--The princes--The +nomes--The first local principalities--Late organization of the +Delta--Character of its inhabitants--Gradual division of the +principalities and changes of then areas--The god of the city._ + +[Illustration: 003.jpg CHAPTER ONE] + + + +THE NILE AND EGYPT + +_The river and its influence upon the formation of the country--The +oldest inhabitants of the valley and its first political organization._ + + * The same expression has been attributed to Hecatseus of + Miletus. It has often been observed that this phrase seems + Egyptian on the face of it, and it certainly recalls such + forms of expression as the following, taken from a formula + frequently found on funerary "All things created by heaven, + given by earth, _brought by the Nile--from its mysterious + sources._" Nevertheless, up to the present time, the + hieroglyphic texts have yielded nothing altogether + corresponding to the exact terms of the Greek historians-- + _gift_ of the Nile, or its natural _product_. + +A long low, level shore, scarcely rising above the sea, a chain of +vaguely defined and ever-shifting lakes and marshes, then the triangular +plain beyond, whose apex is thrust thirty leagues into the land--this, +the Delta of Egypt, has gradually been acquired from the sea, and is +as it were the gift of the Nile. The Mediterranean once reached to the +foot of the sandy plateau on which stand the Pyramids, and formed a +wide gulf where now stretches plain beyond plain of the Delta. The +last undulations of the Arabian hills, from Gebel Mokattam to Gebel +Geneffeh, were its boundaries on the east, while a sinuous and shallow +channel running between Africa and Asia united the Mediterranean to +the Red Sea. Westward, the littoral followed closely the contour of the +Libyan plateau; but a long limestone spur broke away from it at about +31 deg. N., and terminated in Cape Abukir. The alluvial deposits first +tilled up the depths of the bay, and then, under the influence of the +currents which swept along its eastern coasts, accumulated behind that +rampart of sand-hills whose remains are still to be seen near Benha. +Thus was formed a miniature Delta, whose structure pretty accurately +corresponded with that of the great Delta of to-day. Here the Nile +divided into three divergent streams, roughly coinciding with the +southern courses of the Rosetta and Damietta branches, and with the +modern canal of Abu Meneggeh. The ceaseless accumulation of mud brought +down by the river soon overpassed the first limits, and steadily +encroached upon the sea until it was carried beyond the shelter +furnished by Cape Abukir. Thence it was gathered into the great littoral +current flowing from Africa to Asia, and formed an incurvated coast-line +ending in the headland of Casios, on the Syrian frontier. From that time +Egypt made no further increase towards the north, and her coast remains +practically such as it was thousands of years ago:[*] the interior +alone has suffered change, having been dried up, hardened, and gradually +raised. Its inhabitants thought they could measure the exact length of +time in which this work of creation had been accomplished. According +to the Egyptians, Menes, the first of their mortal kings, had found, so +they said, the valley under water. The sea came in almost as far as the +Fayum, and, excepting the province of Thebes, the whole country was +a pestilential swamp. Hence, the necessary period for the physical +formation of Egypt would cover some centuries after Menes. This is +no longer considered a sufficient length of time, and some modern +geologists declare that the Nile must have worked at the formation of +its own estuary for at least seventy-four thousand years.[**] + + * Elie de Beaumont, "The great distinction of the Nile Delta + lies in the almost uniform persistence of its coast-line.... + The present sea-coast of Egypt is little altered from that + of three thousand years ago." The latest observations + prove it to be sinking and shrinking near Alexandria to rise + in the neighbourhood of Port Said. + + ** Others, as for example Schweinfurth, are more moderate + in their views, and think "that it must have taken about + twenty thousand years for that alluvial deposit which now + forms the arable soil of Egypt to have attained to its + present depth and fertility." + +This figure is certainly exaggerated, for the alluvium would gain on +the shallows of the ancient gulf far more rapidly than it gains upon the +depths of the Mediterranean. But even though we reduce the period, we +must still admit that the Egyptians little suspected the true age of +their country. Not only did the Delta long precede the coming of Menes, +but its plan was entirely completed before the first arrival of the +Egyptians. The Greeks, full of the mysterious virtues which they +attributed to numbers, discovered that there were seven principal +branches, and seven mouths of the Nile, and that, as compared with +these, the rest were but false mouths. + +[Illustration: 006.jpg THE MOUTH OF THE NILE PREVIOUS TO THE FORMATION +OF THE DELTA.] + +As a matter of fact, there were only three chief outlets. The Canopic +branch flowed westward, and fell into the Mediterranean near Cape +Abukir, at the western extremity of the arc described by the coast-line. +The Pelusiac branch followed the length of the Arabian chain, and flowed +forth at the other extremity; and the Sebennytic stream almost bisected +the triangle contained between the Canopic and Pelusiac channels. Two +thousand years ago, these branches separated from the main river at the +city of Cerkasoros, nearly four miles north of the site where Cairo now +stands. But after the Pelusiac branch had ceased to exist, the fork of +the river gradually wore away the land from age to age, and is now some +nine miles lower down.[*] These three great waterways are united by a +network of artificial rivers and canals, and by ditches--some natural, +others dug by the hand of man, but all ceaselessly shifting. They silt +up, close, open again, replace each other, and ramify in innumerable +branches over the surface of the soil, spreading life and fertility on +all sides. As the land rises towards the south, this web contracts and +is less confused, while black mould and cultivation alike dwindle, and +the fawn-coloured line of the desert comes into sight. The Libyan and +Arabian hills appear above the plain, draw nearer to each other, and +gradually shut in the horizon until it seems as though they would unite. +And there the Delta ends, and Egypt proper has begun. + +It is only a strip of vegetable mould stretching north and south between +regions of drought and desolation, a prolonged oasis on the banks of the +river, made by the Nile, and sustained by the Nile. The whole length of +the land is shut in between two ranges of hills, roughly parallel at a +mean distance of about twelve miles.[**] + + * By the end of the Byzantine period, the fork of the river + lay at some distance south of Shetnufi, the present + Shatanuf, which is the spot where it now is. The Arab + geographers call the head of the Delta Batn-el-Bagaraji, the + Cow's Belly. Ampere, in his Voyage en Egypte et en Nubie, p. + 120, says,--"May it not be that this name, denoting the place + where the most fertile part of Egypt begins, is a + reminiscence of the Cow Goddess, of Isis, the symbol of + fecundity, and the personification of Egypt?" + + **De Roziere estimated the mean breadth as being only a + little over nine miles. + +During the earlier ages, the river filled all this intermediate space, +and the sides of the hills, polished, worn, blackened to their very +summits, still bear unmistakable traces of its action. Wasted, and +shrunken within the deeps of its ancient bed, the stream now makes a way +through its own thick deposits of mud. The bulk of its waters keeps +to the east, and constitutes the true Nile, the "Great River" of the +hieroglyphic inscriptions. A second arm flows close to the Libyan +desert, here and there formed into canals, elsewhere left to follow +its own course. From the head of the Delta to the village of Demt it +is called the Bahr-Yusuf; beyond Derut--up to Gebel Silsileh--it is the +Ibrahimiyeh, the Sohagiyeh, the Raian. But the ancient names are unknown +to us. This Western Nile dries up in winter throughout all its upper +courses: where it continues to flow, it is by scanty accessions from +the main Nile. It also divides north of Henassieh, and by the gorge of +Illahun sends out a branch which passes beyond the hills into the basin +of the Fayurn. The true Nile, the Eastern Nile, is less a river than +a sinuous lake encumbered with islets and sandbanks, and its navigable +channel winds capriciously between them, flowing with a strong and +steady current below the steep, black banks cut sheer through the +alluvial earth. + +[Illustration: 009.jpg A LINE OF LADEN CAMELS EMERGES FROM A HOLLOW OF +THE UNDULATING ROAD. 1] + + 1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by + Insinger, taken in 1884. + +There are light groves of the date-palm, groups of acacia trees and +sycamores, square patches of barley or of wheat, fields of beans or of +bersim,[*] and here and there a long bank of sand which the least breeze +raises into whirling clouds. And over all there broods a great silence, +scarcely broken by the cry of birds, or the song of rowers in a passing +boat. + + * Bersim is a kind of trefoil, the _Trifolium Alexandrinum_ + of LINNAEUS. It is very common in Egypt, and the only plant + of the kind generally cultivated for fodder. + +Something of human life may stir on the banks, but it is softened into +poetry by distance. A half-veiled woman, bearing a bundle of herbs upon +her head, is driving her goats before her. An irregular line of asses or +of laden camels emerges from one hollow of the undulating road only to +disappear within another. A group of peasants, crouched upon the shore, +in the ancient posture of knees to chin, patiently awaits the return of +the ferry-boat. + +[Illustration: 010.jpg] + + 1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by + Insinger, taken in 1886. + +A dainty village looks forth smiling from beneath its palm trees. Near +at hand it is all naked filth and ugliness: a cluster of low grey huts +built of mud and laths; two or three taller houses, whitewashed; +an enclosed square shaded by sycamores; a few old men, each seated +peacefully at his own door; a confusion of fowls, children, goats, and +sheep; half a dozen boats made fast ashore. But, as we pass on, the +wretchedness all fades away; meanness of detail is lost in light, and +long before it disappears at a bend of the river, the village is again +clothed with gaiety and serene beauty. Day by day, the landscape repeats +itself. The same groups of trees alternate with the same fields, growing +green or dusty in the sunlight according to the season of the year. With +the same measured flow, the Nile winds beneath its steep banks and about +its scattered islands. + +[Illustration: 011.jpg PART OF GEBEL SHEKH HERIDI. 1] + + 1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, + taken in 1882. + +One village succeeds another, each alike smiling and sordid under its +crown of foliage. The terraces of the Libyan hills, away beyond the +Western Nile, scarcely rise above the horizon, and lie like a white +edging between the green of the plain and the blue of the sky. The +Arabian hills do not form one unbroken line, but a series of mountain +masses with their spurs, now approaching the river, and now withdrawing +to the desert at almost regular intervals. At the entrance to the +valley, rise Gebel Mokattam and Gebel el-Ahmar. Gebel Hemur-Shemul and +Gebel Shekh Embarak next stretch in echelon from north to south, and are +succeeded by Gebel et-Ter, where, according to an old legend, all the +birds of the world are annually assembled.[*] + + * In Makrizi's _Description of Egypt_ we read: "Every year, + upon a certain day, all the herons (Boukir, _Ardea bubulcus_ + of Cuvier) assemble at this mountain. One after another, + each puts his beak into a cleft of the hill until the cleft + closes upon one of them. And then forthwith all the others + fly away But the bird which has been caught struggles until + he dies, and there his body remains until it has fallen into + dust." The same tale is told by other Arab writers, of which + a list may be seen in Etienne Quatremere, _Memoires + historiques et geographiques sur l'Egypte et quelques + contrees voisines_, vol. i. pp. 31-33. It faintly recalls + that ancient tradition of the Cleft at Abydos, whereby souls + must pass, as human-headed birds, in order to reach the + other world. + +[Illustration: 12.jpg THE HILL OF KASR ES-SAYYAD. 2] + + 2 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by + insinger, taken in 1882. + +Then follows Gebel Abufeda, dreaded by the sailors for its sudden gusts. +Limestone predominates throughout, white or yellowish, broken by veins +of alabaster, or of red and grey sandstones. Its horizontal strata are +so symmetrically laid one above another as to seem more like the walls +of a town than the side of a mountain. But time has often dismantled +their summits and loosened their foundations. Man has broken into their +facades to cut his quarries and his tombs; while the current is secretly +undermining the base, wherein it has made many a breach. As soon as any +margin of mud has collected between cliffs and river, halfah and wild +plants take hold upon it, and date-palms grow there--whence their seed, +no one knows. Presently a hamlet rises at the mouth of the ravine, +among clusters of trees and fields in miniature. Beyond Siut, the light +becomes more glowing, the air drier and more vibrating, and the green of +cultivation loses its brightness. The angular outline of the dom-palni +mingles more and more with that of the common palm and of the heavy +sycamore, and the castor-oil plant increasingly abounds. But all these +changes come about so gradually that they are effected before we notice +them. The plain continues to contract. At Thebes it is still ten miles +wide; at the gorge of Gebelen it has almost disappeared, and at Gebel +Silsileh it has completely vanished. There, it was crossed by a natural +dyke of sandstone, through which the waters have with difficulty scooped +for themselves a passage. From this point, Egypt is nothing but the bed +of the Nile lying between two escarpments of naked rock. + +Further on the cultivable land reappears, but narrowed, and changed +almost beyond recognition. Hills, hewn out of solid sandstone, succeed +each other at distances of about two miles, low, crushed, sombre, and +formless. Presently a forest of palm trees, the last on that side, +announces Aswan and Nubia. Five banks of granite, ranged in lines +between latitude 24 deg. and 18 deg. N., cross Nubia from east to west, and from +north-east to south-west, like so many ramparts thrown up between the +Mediterranean and the heart of Africa. The Nile has attacked them from +behind, and made its way over them one after another in rapids which +have been glorified by the name of cataracts. + +[Illustration: 014.jpg ENTRANCE TO THE FIRST CATARACT. 1] + + 1 View taken from the hills opposite Elephantine, by + Insinger, in 1884. + +Classic writers were pleased to describe the river as hurled into the +gulfs of Syne with so great a roar that the people of the neighbourhood +were deafened by it. Even a colony of Persians, sent thither by +Cambyses, could not bear the noise of the falls, and went forth to seek +a quieter situation. The first cataract is a kind of sloping and sinuous +passage six and a quarter miles in length, descending from the island +of Philae to the port of Aswan, the aspect of its approach relieved and +brightened by the ever green groves of Elephantine. Beyond Elephantine +are cliffs and sandy beaches, chains of blackened "roches moutonnees" +marking out the beds of the currents, and fantastic reefs, sometimes +bare and sometimes veiled by long grasses and climbing plants, in +which thousands of birds have made their nests. There are islets +too, occasionally large enough to have once supported something of a +population, such as Amerade, Salug, Sehel. The granite threshold of +Nubia, is broken beyond Sehel, but its debris, massed m disorder against +the right bank, still seem to dispute the passage of the waters, dashing +turbulently and roaring as they flow along through tortuous channels, +where every streamlet is broken up into small cascades, ihe channel +running by the left bank is always navigable. + +[Illustration: 015.jpg ENTRANCE TO NUBIA.] + +During the inundation, the rocks and sandbanks of the right side are +completely under water, and their presence is only betrayed by eddies. +But on the river's reaching its lowest point a fall of some six feet is +established, and there big boats, hugging the shore, are hauled up by +means of ropes, or easily drift down with the current. + +[Illustration: 016.jpg LEAGUE BEYOND LEAGUE, THE HILLS STKETCH ON IN LOW +IGNOBLE OUTLINE. 1] + + 1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, + taken in 1881. + +All kinds of granite are found together in this corner of Africa. There +are the pink and red Syenites, porphyritic granite, yellow granite, grey +granite, both black granite and white, and granites veined with black +and veined with white. As soon as these disappear behind us, various +sandstones begin to crop up, allied to the coarsest _calcaire grossier_. +The hill bristle with small split blocks, with peaks half overturned, +with rough and denuded mounds. League beyond league, they stretch in low +ignoble outline. Here and there a valley opens sharply into the desert, +revealing an infinite perspective of summits and escarpments in echelon +one behind another to the furthest plane of the horizon, like motionless +caravans. The now confined river rushes on with a low, deep murmur, +accompanied night and day by the croaking of frogs and the rhythmic +creak of the sakieh.[*] + + * The sakieh is made of a notch-wheel fixed vertically on a + horizontal axle, and is actuated by various cog-wheels set + in continuous motion by oxen or asses. A long chain of + earthenware vessels brings up the water either from the + river itself, or from some little branch canal, and + empties it into a system of troughs and reservoirs. + Thence, it flows forth to be distributed over all the + neighbouring land. + +Jetties of rough stone-work, made in unknown times by an unknown people, +run out like breakwaters into midstream. + +[Illustration: 018.jpg THE ENTRANCE TO THE FIRST CATARACT] + +From time to time waves of sand are borne over, and drown the narrow +fields of durra and of barley. Scraps of close, aromatic pasturage, +acacias, date-palms, and dom-palms, together with a few shrivelled +sycamores, are scattered along both banks. The ruins of a crumbling +pylon mark the site of some ancient city, and, overhanging the water, +is a vertical wall of rock honeycombed with tombs. Amid these relics of +another age, miserable huts, scattered hamlets, a town or two surrounded +with little gardens are the only evidence that there is yet life in +Nubia. South of Wady Halfah, the second granite bank is broken through, +and the second cataract spreads its rapids over a length of four +leagues: the archipelago numbers more than 350 islets, of which some +sixty have houses upon them and yield harvests to their inhabitants. The +main characteristics of the first two cataracts are repeated with slight +variations in the cases of the three which follow,--at Hannek, at +Guerendid, and El-Hu-mar. It is Egypt still, but a joyless Egypt bereft +of its brightness: impoverished, disfigured, and almost desolate. + +[Illustration: 020.jpg ENTRANCE TO THE SECOND CATAKACT. 1] + + 1 View taken from the top of the rocks of Abusir, after a + photograph by Insinger, in 1881. + +There is the same double wall of hills, now closely confining the +valley, and again withdrawing from each other as though to flee into +the desert. Everywhere are moving sheets of sand, steep black banks with +their narrow strips of cultivation, villages which are scarcely visible +on account of the lowness of their huts sycamore ceases at Gebel-Barkal, +date-palms become fewer and finally disappear. The Nile alone has not +changed. And it was at Philse, so it is at Berber. Here, however, on +the right bank, 600 leagues from the sea, is its first affluent, the +Takazze, which intermittently brings to it the waters of Northern +Ethiopia. At Khartum, the single channel in which the river flowed +divides; and two other streams are opened up in a southerly direction, +each of them apparently equal in volume to the main stream. Which is +the true Nile? Is it the Blue Nile, which seems to come down from the +distant mountains? Or is it the White Nile, which has traversed the +immense plains of equatorial Africa. The old Egyptians never knew. +The river kept the secret of its source from them as obstinately as it +withheld it from us until a few years ago. Vainly did their victorious +armies follow the Nile for months together as they pursued the +tribes who dwelt upon its banks, only to find it as wide, as full, as +irresistible in its progress as ever. It was a fresh-water sea, and +sea--_iauma, ioma_--was the name by which they called it. + +The Egyptians therefore never sought its source. They imagined the whole +universe to be a large box, nearly rectangular in form, whose greatest +diameter was from south to north, and its least from east to west. The +earth, with its alternate continents and seas, formed the bottom of the +box; it was a narrow, oblong, and slightly concave floor, with Egypt +in its centre. The sky stretched over it like an iron ceiling, flat +according to some, vaulted according to others. Its earthward face was +capriciously sprinkled with lamps hung from strong cables, and which, +extinguished or unperceived by day, were lighted, or became visible to +our eyes, at night. + +[Illustration: 022.jpg AN ATTEMPT TO REPRESENT THE EGYPTIAN UNIVERSE.2] + + 2 Section taken at Hermopolis. To the left, is the bark of + the sun on the celestial river. + +Since this ceiling could not remain in mid-air without support, four +columns, or rather four forked trunks of trees, similar to those which +maintained the primitive house, were supposed to uphold it. But it was +doubtless feared lest some tempest should overturn them, for they were +superseded by four lofty peaks, rising at the four cardinal points, and +connected by a continuous chain of mountains. The Egyptians knew little +of the northern peak: the Mediterranean, the "Very Green," interposed +between it and Egypt, and prevented their coming near enough to see it. +The southern peak was named Apit the Horn of the Earth; that on the east +was called Bakhu, the Mountain of Birth; and the western peak was known +as Manu, sometimes as Onkhit, the Region of Life. + +[Illustration: 023.jpg FOOTNOTES WITH GRAPHICS] + +Bakhu was not a fictitious mountain, but the highest of those distant +summits seen from the Nile in looking towards the red Sea. In the same +way, Manu answered to some hill of the Libyan desert, whose summit +closed the horizon. When it was discovered that neither Bakhu nor Manu +were the limits of the world, the notion of upholding the celestial roof +was not on that account given up. It was only necessary to withdraw the +pillars from sight, and imagine fabulous peaks, invested with familiar +names. These were not supposed to form the actual boundary of +the universe; a great river--analogous to the Ocean-stream of the +Greeks--lay between them and its utmost limits. This river circulated +upon a kind of ledge projecting along the sides of the box a little +below the continuous mountain chain upon which the starry heavens were +sustained. On the north of the ellipse, the river was bordered by a +steep and abrupt bank, which took its rise at the peak of Manu on the +west, and soon rose high enough to form a screen between the river and +the earth. The narrow valley which it hid from view was known as +Da'it from remotest times. Eternal night enfolded that valley in thick +darkness, and filled it with dense air such as no living thing could +breathe. Towards the east the steep bank rapidly declined, and ceased +altogether a little beyond Bakhu, while the river flowed on between low +and almost level shores from east to south, and then from south to west. +The sun was a disc of fire placed upon a boat. At the same equable rate, +the river carried it round the ramparts of the world. Erom evening until +morning it disappeared within the gorges of Dait; its light did not then +reach us, and it was night. From morning until evening its rays, being +no longer intercepted by any obstacle, were freely shed abroad from one +end of the box to the other, and it was day. The Nile branched off from +the celestial river at its southern bend;[*] hence the south was +the chief cardinal point to the Egyptians, and by that they oriented +themselves, placing sunrise to their left, and sunset to their right. + + * The classic writers themselves knew that, according to + Egyptian belief, the Nile flowed down from heaven. The + legend of the Nile having its source in the ocean stream was + but a Greek transposition of the Egyptian doctrine, which + represented it as an arm of the celestial river whereon the + sun sailed round the earth. + +Before they passed beyond the defiles of Gebel Silsileh, they thought +that the spot whence the celestial waters left the sky was situate +between Elephantine and Philae, and that they descended in an immense +waterfall whose last leaps were at Syene. It may be that the tales about +the first cataract told by classic writers are but a far-off echo of +this tradition of a barbarous age. Conquests carried into the heart of +Africa forced the Egyptians to recognize their error, but did not weaken +their faith in the supernatural origin of the river. They only placed +its source further south, and surrounded it with greater marvels. +They told how, by going up the stream, sailors at length reached an +undetermined country, a kind of borderland between this world and the +next, a "Land of Shades," whose inhabitants were dwarfs, monsters, +or spirits. Thence they passed into a sea sprinkled with mysterious +islands, like those enchanted archipelagoes which Portuguese and Breton +mariners were wont to see at times when on their voyages, and which +vanished at their approach. These islands were inhabited by serpents +with human voices, sometimes friendly and sometimes cruel to the +shipwrecked. He who went forth from the islands could never more +re-enter them: they were resolved into the waters and lost within the +bosom of the waves. A modern geographer can hardly comprehend such +fancies; those of Greek and Roman times were perfectly familiar with +them. They believed that the Nile communicated with the Red Sea near +Suakin, by means of the Astaboras, and this was certainly the route +which the Egyptians of old had imagined for their navigators. The +supposed communication was gradually transferred farther and farther +south; and we have only to glance over certain maps of the sixteenth +and seventeenth centuries, to see clearly drawn what the Egyptians had +imagined--the centre of Africa as a great lake, whence issued the Congo, +the Zambesi, and the Nile. Arab merchants of the Middle Ages believed +that a resolute man could pass from Alexandria or Cairo to the land of +the Zindjes and the Indian Ocean by rising from river to river.[*] + + * Joinville has given a special chapter to the description + of the sources and wonders of the Nile, in which he believed + as firmly as in an article of his creed. As late as the + beginning of the seventeenth century, Wendelinus devoted + part of his _Admiranda Nili_ to proving that the river did + not rise in the earthly Paradise. At Gurnah, forty years + ago, Rhind picked up a legend which stated that the Nile + flows down from the sky. + +[Illustration: 027.jpg SOUTH AFRICA AND THE SOURCES OF THE NILE, BY +ODOAKDO LOPEZ. 1] + + 1 Facsimile of the map published by Kircher in _OEdipus + AEgyptiacus_, vol. i. (_Iconismus II_), p. 53. + +Many of the legends relating to this subject are lost, while others +have been collected and embellished with fresh features by Jewish and +Christian theologians. The Nile was said to have its source in Paradise, +to traverse burning regions inaccessible to man, and afterwards to fall +into a sea whence it made its way to Egypt. Sometimes it carried down +from its celestial sources branches and fruits unlike any to be found +on earth. The sea mentioned in all these tales is perhaps a less +extravagant invention than we are at first inclined to think. A lake, +nearly as large as the Victoria Nyanza, once covered the marshy plain +where the Bahr el-Abiad unites with the Sobat, and with the Bahr +el-Ghazal. Alluvial deposits have filled up all but its deepest +depression, which is known as Birket Nu; but, in ages preceding our era, +it must still have been vast enough to suggest to Egyptian soldiers and +boatmen the idea of an actual sea, opening into the Indian Ocean. +The mountains, whose outline was vaguely seen far to southward on the +further shores, doubtless contained within them its mysterious source. +There the inundation was made ready, and there it began upon a fixed +day. The celestial Nile had its periodic rise and fall, on which those +of the earthly Nile depended. Every year, towards the middle of June, +Isis, mourning for Osiris, let fall into it one of the tears which she +shed over her brother, and thereupon the river swelled and descended +upon earth. Isis has had no devotees for centuries, and her very name is +unknown to the descendants of her worshippers; but the tradition of her +fertilizing tears has survived her memory. Even to this day, every one +in Egypt, Mussulman or Christian, knows that a divine drop falls from +heaven during the night between the 17th and 18th of June, and forthwith +brings about the rise of the Nile. Swollen by the rains which fall +in February over the region of the Great Lakes, the White Nile rushes +northward, sweeping before it the stagnant sheets of water left by the +inundation of the previous year. On the left, the Bahr el-Ghazal brings +it the overflow of the ill-defined basin stretching between Darfur and +the Congo; and the Sobat pours in on the right a tribute from the rivers +which furrow the southern slopes of the Abyssinian mountains. The first +swell passes Khartum by the end of April, and raises the water-level +there by about a foot, then it slowly makes its way through Nubia, and +dies away in Egypt at the beginning of June. Its waters, infected +by half-putrid organic matter from the equatorial swamps, are not +completely freed from it even in the course of this long journey, but +keep a greenish tint as far as the Delta. They are said to be poisonous, +and to give severe pains in the bladder to any who may drink them. I am +bound to say that every June, for five years, I drank this green water +from the Nile itself, without taking any other precaution than the usual +one of filtering it through a porous jar. Neither I, nor the many people +living with me, ever felt the slightest inconvenience from it. Happily, +this _Green Nile_ does not last long, but generally flows away in three +or four days, and is only the forerunner of the real flood. The melting +of the snows and the excessive spring rains having suddenly swollen the +torrents which rise in the central plateau of Abyssinia, the Blue Nile, +into which they flow, rolls so impetuously towards the plain that, when +its waters reach Khartum in the middle of May, they refuse to mingle +with those of the White Nile, and do not lose their peculiar colour +before reaching the neighbourhood of Abu Hamed, three hundred miles +below. From that time the height of the Nile increases rapidly day +by day. The river, constantly reinforced by floods following one upon +another from the Great Lakes and from Abyssinia, rises in furious +bounds, and would become a devastating torrent were its rage not checked +by the Nubian cataracts. Here six basins, one above another, in which +the water collects, check its course, and permit it to flow thence only +as a partially filtered and moderated stream. It is signalled at Syene +towards the 8th of June, at Cairo by the 17th to the 20th, and there its +birth is officially celebrated during the "Night of the Drop." Two +days later it reaches the Delta, just in time to save the country from +drought and sterility. Egypt, burnt up by the Khamsin, a west wind +blowing continuously for fifty days, seems nothing more than an +extension of the desert. The trees are covered and choked by a layer of +grey dust. About the villages, meagre and laboriously watered patches +of vegetables struggle for life, while some show of green still +lingers along the canals and in hollows whence all moisture has not +yet evaporated. The plain lies panting in the sun--naked, dusty, and +ashen--scored with intersecting cracks as far as eye can see. The Nile +is only half its usual width, and holds not more than a twentieth of +the volume of water which is borne down in October. It has at first hard +work to recover its former bed, and attains it by such subtle gradations +that the rise is scarcely noted. It is, however, continually gaining +ground; here a sandbank is covered, there an empty channel is filled, +islets are outlined where there was a continuous beach, a new stream +detaches itself and gains the old shore. The first contact is disastrous +to the banks; their steep sides, disintegrated and cracked by the heat, +no longer offer any resistance to the current, and fall with a crash, in +lengths of a hundred yards and more. + +[Illustration: 31.jpg DURING THE INUNDATION] + +As the successive floods grow stronger and are more heavily charged with +mud, the whole mass of water becomes turbid and changes colour. In eight +or ten days it has turned from greyish blue to dark red, occasionally of +so intense a colour as to look like newly shed blood. The "Red Nile" is +not unwholesome like the "Green Nile," and the suspended mud to which +it owes its suspicious appearance deprives the water of none of its +freshness and lightness. It reaches its full height towards the 15th +of July; but the dykes which confine it, and the barriers constructed +across the mouths of canals, still prevent it from overflowing. The Nile +must be considered high enough to submerge the land adequately before +it is set free. The ancient Egyptians measured its height by cubits of +twenty-one and a quarter inches. At fourteen cubits, they pronounced it +an excellent Nile; below thirteen, or above fifteen, it was accounted +insufficient or excessive, and in either case meant famine, and perhaps +pestilence at hand. To this day the natives watch its advance with the +same anxious eagerness; and from the 3rd of July, public criers, walking +the streets of Cairo, announce each morning what progress it has made +since evening. More or less authentic traditions assert that the prelude +to the opening of the canals, in the time of the Pharaohs, was +the solemn casting to the waters of a young girl decked as for her +bridal--the "Bride of the Nile." Even after the Arab conquest, the +irruption of the river into the bosom of the land was still considered +as an actual marriage; the contract was drawn up by a cadi, and +witnesses confirmed its consummation with the most fantastic formalities +of Oriental ceremonial. It is generally between the 1st and 16th of July +that it is decided to break through the dykes. When that proceeding has +been solemnly accomplished in state, the flood still takes several days +to fill the canals, and afterwards spreads over the low lands, advancing +little by little to the very edge of the desert. Egypt is then one sheet +of turbid water spreading between two lines of rock and sand, flecked +with green and black spots where there are towns or where the ground +rises, and divided into irregular compartments by raised roads +connecting the villages. In Nubia the river attains its greatest height +towards the end of August; at Cairo and in the Delta not until three +weeks or a month later. For about eight days it remains stationary, and +then begins to fall imperceptibly. Sometimes there is a new freshet +in October, and the river again increases in height. But the rise is +unsustained; once more it falls as rapidly as it rose, and by December +the river has completely retired to the limits of its bed. One after +another, the streams which fed it fail or dwindle. The Tacazze is +lost among the sands before rejoining it, and the Blue Nile, well-nigh +deprived of tributaries, is but scantily maintained by Abyssinian +snows. The White Nile is indebted to the Great Lakes for the greater +persistence of its waters, which feed the river as far as the +Mediterranean, and save the valley from utter drought in winter. But, +even with this resource, the level of the water falls daily, and its +volume is diminished. Long-hidden sandbanks reappear, and are again +linked into continuous line. Islands expand by the rise of shingly +beaches, which gradually reconnect them with each other and with the +shore. Smaller branches of the river cease to flow, and form a mere +network of stagnant pools and muddy ponds, which fast dry up. The main +channel itself is only intermittently navigable; after March boats run +aground in it, and are forced to await the return of the inundation for +their release. From the middle of April to the middle of June, Egypt is +only half alive, awaiting the new Nile. + +[Illustration: 034.jpg ASSIOUT] + +Those ruddy and heavily charged waters, rising and retiring with almost +mathematical regularity, bring and leave the spoils of the countries +they have traversed: sand from Nubia, whitish clay from the regions +of the Lakes, ferruginous mud, and the various rock-formations of +Abyssinia. These materials are not uniformly disseminated in the +deposits; their precipitation being regulated both by their specific +gravity and the velocity of the current. Flattened stones and rounded +pebbles are left behind at the cataract between Syene and Keneh, while +coarser particles of sand are suspended in the undercurrents and serve +to raise the bed of the river, or are carried out to sea and form the +sandbanks which are slowly rising at the Damietta and Rosetta mouths of +the Nile. The mud and finer particles rise towards the surface, and are +deposited upon the land after the opening of the dykes. Soil which is +entirely dependent on the deposit of a river, and periodically invaded +by it, necessarily maintains but a scanty flora; and though it is well +known that, as a general rule, a flora is rich in proportion to its +distance from the poles and its approach to the equator, it is also +admitted that Egypt offers an exception to this rule. At the most, she +has not more than a thousand species, while, with equal area, England, +for instance, possesses more than fifteen hundred; and of this thousand, +the greater number are not indigenous. Many of them have been brought +From Central Africa by the river: birds and winds have continued +the work, and man himself has contributed his part in making it more +complete. From Asia he has at different times brought wheat barley +the olive, the apple, the white or pink almond, and some twenty +other species now acclimatized on the banks of the Nile. Marsh plants +predominate in the Delta; but the papyrus, and the three varieties of +blue, white, and pink lotus which once flourished there, being no longer +cultivated, have now almost entirely disappeared, and reverted to their +original habitats. + +[Illustration: 036.jpg ENTRANCE OF THE MUDIRIYEH OF ASYUT.] + +The sycamore and the date-palm, both importations from Central Africa, +have better adapted themselves to their exile, and are now fully +naturalized on Egyptian soil. + +[Illustration: 037.jpg FOREST OF DATE PALMS] + +The sycamore grows in sand on the edge of the desert as vigorously as +in the midst of a well-watered country. Its roots go deep in search of +water, which infiltrates as far as the gorges of the hills, and they +absorb it freely, even where drought seems to reign supreme. The heavy, +squat, gnarled trunk occasionally attains to colossal dimensions, +without ever growing very high. Its rounded masses of compact foliage +are so wide-spreading that a single tree in the distance may give the +impression of several grouped together; and its shade is dense, +and impenetrable to the sun. A striking contrast to the sycamore +is presented by the date-palm. Its round and slender stem rises +uninterruptedly to a height of thirteen to sixteen yards; its head +is crowned with a cluster of flexible leaves arranged in two or three +tiers, but so scanty, so pitilessly slit, that they fail to keep off the +light, and cast but a slight and unrefreshing shadow. Few trees have so +elegant an appearance, yet few are so monotonously elegant. There are +palm trees to be seen on every hand; isolated, clustered by twos and +threes at the mouths of ravines and about the villages, planted +in regular file along the banks of the river like rows of columns, +symmetrically arranged in plantations,--these are the invariable +background against which other trees are grouped, diversifying the +landscape. The feathery tamarisk[*] and the nabk, the moringa, the +carob, or locust tree several varieties of acacia and mimosa-the sont, +the mimosa habbas, the white acacia, the Acacia Parnesxana--and +the pomegranate tree, increase in number with the distance from the +Mediterranean. + + * The Egyptian name for the tamarisk, _asari, asri_, is + identical with that given to it in Semitic languages, both + ancient and modern. This would suggest the question + whether the tamarisk did not originally come from Asia. In + that case it must have been brought to Egypt from remote + antiquity, for it figures in the Pyramid texts. Bricks of + Nile mud, and Memphite and Theban tombs have yielded us + leaves, twigs, and even whole branches of the tamarisk. + +[Illustration: 40.jpg ACACIAS AT THE ENTRANCE TO A GARDEN OUTSIDE +EKHMIM. 1] + + 1 From a drawing by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger, + taken in 1884. + +The dry air of the valley is marvellously suited to them, but makes the +tissue of their foliage hard and fibrous, imparting an aerial aspect, +and such faded tints as are unknown to their growth in other climates. +The greater number of these trees do not reproduce themselves +spontaneously, and tend to disappear when neglected. The Acacia Seyal, +formerly abundant by the banks of the river, is now almost entirely +confined to certain valleys of the Theban desert, along with a variety +of the kernelled dom-palm, of which a poetical description has come +down to us from the Ancient Egyptians. The common dom-palm bifurcates at +eight or ten yards from the ground; these branches are subdivided, and +terminate in bunches of twenty to thirty palmate and fibrous leaves, six +to eight feet long. At the beginning of this century the tree was +common in Upper Egypt, but it is now becoming scarce, and we are within +measurable distance of the time when its presence will be an exception +north of the first cataract. Willows are decreasing in number, and the +persea, one of the sacred trees of Ancient Egypt, is now only to be +found in gardens. None of the remaining tree species are common enough +to grow in large clusters; and Egypt, reduced to her lofty groves of +date-palms, presents the singular spectacle of a country where there is +no lack of trees, but an almost entire absence of shade. + +[Illustration: 41.jpg SHE-ASS AND HER FOAL.] + +If Egypt is a land of imported flora, it is also a land of imported +fauna, and all its animal species have been brought from neighbouring +countries. Some of these--as, for example, the horse and the camel--were +only introduced at a comparatively recent period, two thousand to +eighteen hundred years before our era; the camel still later. The +animals--such as the long and short-horned oxen, together with varieties +of goats and dogs--are, like the plants, generally of African origin, +and the ass of Egypt preserves an original purity of form and a vigour +to which the European donkey has long been a stranger. The pig and +the wild boar, the long-eared hare, the hedgehog, the ichneumon, the +moufflon, or maned sheep, innumerable gazelles, including the Egyptian +gazelles, and antelopes with lyre-shaped horns, are as much West Asian +as African, like the carnivors of all sizes, whose prey they are--the +wild cat, the wolf, the jackal, the striped and spotted hyenas, the +leopard, the panther, the hunting leopard, and the lion. + +[Illustration: 042.jpg THE URAEUS OF EGYPT. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from pl. iii. of the Reptiles- + Supplement to the _Description de AEgypte_. + +On the other hand, most of the serpents, large and small, are +indigenous. Some are harmless, like the colubers; others are venomous, +such as the soy tale, the cerastes, the haje viper, and the asp. The asp +was worshipped by the Egyptians under the name of uraeus. It occasionally +attains to a length of six and a half feet, and when approached will +erect its head and inflate its throat in readiness for darting forward. +The bite is fatal, like that of the cerastes; birds are literally struck +down by the strength of the poison, while the great mammals, and man +himself, almost invariably succumb to it after a longer or shorter +death-struggle. The uraeus is rarely found except in the desert or in the +fields; the scorpion crawls everywhere, in desert and city alike, and if +its sting is not always followed by death, it invariably causes terrible +pain. Probably there were once several kinds of gigantic serpent in +Egypt, analogous to the pythons of equatorial Africa. They are still to +be seen in representations of funerary scenes, but not elsewhere; for, +like the elephant, the giraffe, and other animals which now only thrive +far south, they had disappeared at the beginning of historic times. +The hippopotamus long maintained its ground before returning to those +equatorial regions whence it had been brought by the Nile. Common under +the first dynasties, but afterwards withdrawing to the marshes of the +Delta, it there continued to flourish up to the thirteenth century of +our era. The crocodile, which came with it, has, like it also, been +compelled to beat a retreat. Lord of the river throughout all ancient +times, worshipped and protected in some provinces, execrated and +proscribed in others, it might still be seen in the neighbourhood of +Cairo towards the beginning of our century. In 1840, it no longer passed +beyond the neighbourhood of Gebel et-Ter, nor beyond that of Manfalut +in Thirty years later, Mariette asserted that it was steadily retreating +before the guns of tourists, and the disturbance which the regular +passing of steamboats produced in the deep waters. To-day, no one knows +of a single crocodile existing below Aswan, but it continues to infest +Nubia, and the rocks of the first cataract: one of them is occasionally +carried down by the current into Egypt where it is speedily despatched +by the fellahin, or by some traveller in quest of adventure. The +fertility of the soil, and the vastness of the lakes and marshes, +attract many migratory birds; passerinae and palmipedes flock thither +from all parts of the Mediterranean. Our European swallows, our +quails, our geese and wild ducks, our herons--to mention only the +most familiar--come here to winter, sheltered from cold and inclement +weather. + +[Illustration: 044.jpg THE IBIS OF EGYPT.] + +Even the non-migratory birds are really, for the most part, strangers +acclimatized by long sojourn. Some of them--the turtledove, the magpie, +the kingfisher, the partridge, and the sparrow-may be classed with our +European species, while others betray their equatorial origin in the +brightness of their colours. White and black ibises, red flamingoes, +pelicans, and cormorants enliven the waters of the river, and animate +the reedy swamps of the Delta in infinite variety. They are to be seen +ranged in long files upon the sand-banks, fishing and basking in the +sun; suddenly the flock is seized with panic, rises heavily, and settles +away further off. In hollows of the hills, eagle and falcon, the merlin, +the bald-headed vulture, the kestrel, the golden sparrow-hawk, find +inaccessible retreats, whence they descend upon the plains like so many +pillaging and well-armed barons. A thousand little chattering birds come +at eventide to perch in flocks upon the frail boughs of tamarisk and +acacia. + +[Illustration: 045.jpg THE MORMYRUS OXYRHYNCHUS.] + +Many sea-fish make their way upstream to swim in fresh waters-shad, +mullet, perch, and labrus--and carry their excursions far into the Said. +Those species which are not Mediterranean came originally, still come +annually, from the heart of Ethiopia with the of the Nile, including two +kinds of Alestes, the elled turtle, the Bagrus docmac, and the mormyrus. +Some attain to a gigantic size, the Bagrus bayad and the turtle to about +one yard, the latus to three and a half yards in length, while others, +such as the sihlrus (catfish), are noted for their electric properties. +Nature seems to have made the fahaka (the globe-fish) in a fit of +playfulness. It is a long fish from beyond the cataracts, and it is +carried by the Nile the more easily on account of the faculty it has of +filling itself with air, and inflating its body at will. + +[Illustration: 046.jpg AHAKA] + +When swelled out immoderately, the fahaka overbalances, and drifts along +upside down, its belly to the wind, covered with spikes so that it looks +like a hedgehog. During the inundation, it floats with the current from +one canal to another, and is cast by the retreating waters upon the +muddy fields, where it becomes the prey of birds or of jackals, or +serves as a plaything for children. + +[Illustration: 47.jpg TWO FISHERMEN CARRYING A LATUS. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Medum painting. Petrie, + _Medum_, pl. xii. + +Everything is dependent upon the river:--the soil, the produce of the +soil, the species of animals it bears, the birds which it feeds: and +hence it was the Egyptians placed the river among their gods. They +personified it as a man with regular features, and a vigorous and +portly body, such as befits the rich of high lineage. His breasts, fully +developed like those of a woman, though less firm, hang heavily upon a +wide bosom where the fat lies in folds. A narrow girdle, whose ends fall +free about the thighs, supports his spacious abdomen, and his attire +is completed by sandals, and a close-fitting head-dress, generally +surmounted with a crown of water-plants. Sometimes water springs from +his breast; sometimes he presents a frog, or libation vases; or holds a +bundle of the cruces ansato, as symbols of life; or bears a flat tray, +full of offerings--bunches of flowers, ears of corn, heaps of fish, +and geese tied together by the feet. The inscriptions call him, "Hapi, +father of the gods, lord of sustenance, who maketh food to be, and +covereth the two lands of Egypt with his products; who giveth life, +banisheth want, and filleth the granaries to overflowing." He is evolved +into two personages, one being sometimes coloured red, and the other +blue. The former, who wears a cluster of lotus-flowers upon his head, +presides over the Egypt of the south; the latter has a bunch of papyrus +for his head-dress, and watches over the Delta.[**] + + [**] Wilkinson was the first who suggested that this god, + when painted red was the Red (that is High) Nile and when + painted blue, was to be identified with the Low Nile. + This opinion has since been generally adopted; but to me it + does not appear so incontrovertible as it has been + considered. Here, as in other cases, the difference in + colour is only a means of making the distinction between two + personages obvious to sight. + +Two goddesses, corresponding to the two Hapis--Mirit Qimait for Upper, +and Mirit Mihit for Lower Egypt--personified the banks of the river. +They are often represented as standing with outstretched arms, as though +begging for the water which should make them fertile. The Nile-god had +his chapel in every province, and priests whose right it was to bury all +bodies of men or beasts cast up by the river; for the god had claimed +them, and to his servants they belonged. + +[Illustration: 048.jpg THE NILE GOD. 1] + + 1 THE NILE GOD: Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after a statue in + the British Museum. The dedication of this statue took place + about 880 B.c. The giver was Sheshonqu, high-priest of Amon + in Thebes, afterwards King of Egypt under the name of + Sheshhonqu II., and he is represented as standing behind the + leg of the god. + +[Illustration: 049.jpg THE Shrine Of The Nile At Biggeh.1] + + 1 Reproduced from a bas-relief in the small temple of + Philae, built by Rajan and his successors. The window or + door of this temple opened upon gen, and by comparing the + drawing of the Egyptian artist with the view i the end of + the chamber, it is easy to recognize the original of this + cliff bouette in the piled-up rocks of the island. By a + mistake of the modern copyist's, his drawing faces the wrong + way. + +Several towns were dedicated to him: Hathapi, Nuit-Hapi, Nilo-polis. +It was told in the Thebaid how the god dwelt within a grotto, or shrine +(tophit), in the island of Biggeh, whence he issued at the inundation. +This tradition dates from a time when the cataract was believed to be at +the end of the world, and to bring down the heavenly river upon earth. +Two yawning gulfs (_qoriti_), at the foot of the two granite cliffs +(_moniti_) between which it ran, gave access to this mysterious retreat. +A bas-relief from Philae represents blocks of stone piled one above +another, the vulture of the south and the hawk of the north, each +perched on a summit, wearing a panther skin, with both arms upheld in +adoration. The statue is mutilated: the end of the nose, the beard, and +part of the tray have disappeared, but are restored in the illustration. +The two little birds hanging alongside the geese, together with a bunch +of ears of corn, are fat quails, and the circular chamber wherein Hapi +crouches concealed, clasping a libation vase in either hand. A single +coil of a serpent outlines the contour of this chamber, and leaves a +narrow passage between its overlapping head and tail through which the +rising waters may overflow at the time appointed, bringing to Egypt "all +things good, and sweet, and pure," whereby gods and men are fed. Towards +the summer solstice, at the very moment when the sacred water from the +gulfs of Syene reached Silsileh, the priests of the place, sometimes the +reigning sovereign, or one of his sons, sacrificed a bull and geese, and +then cast into the waters a sealed roll of papyrus. This was a written +order to do all that might insure to Egypt the benefits of a normal +inundation. When Pharaoh himself deigned to officiate, the memory of +the event was preserved by a stela engraved upon the rocks. Even in his +absence, the festivals of the Nile were among the most solemn and joyous +of the land. According to a tradition transmitted from age to age, the +prosperity or adversity of the year was dependent upon the splendour +and fervour with which they were celebrated. Had the faithful shown the +slightest lukewarmness, the Nile might have refused to obey the command +and failed to spread freely over the surface of the country. Peasants +from a distance, each bringing his own provisions, ate their meals +together for days, and lived in a state of brutal intoxication as long +as this kind of fair lasted. On the great day itself, the priests came +forth in procession from the sanctuary, bearing the statue of the god +along the banks, to the sound of instruments and the chanting of hymns. + +[Illustration: 051.jpg NILE GODS FROM THE TEMPLE OF SETI I. AT ABYDOS +BRINGING FOOD TO EVERY NOME OF EGYPT. 1] + + 1 From a drawing by Faucher-Gudin, after a photograph by + Beato. + +"I.--Hail to thee, Hapi!--who appearest in the land and comest--to give +life to Egypt;--thou who dost hide thy coming in darkness--in this very +day whereon thy coming is sung,--wave, which spreadest over the orchards +created by Ra--to give life to all them that are athirst--who refusest +to give drink unto the desert--of the overflow of the waters of heaven; +as soon as thou descendest,--Sibu, the earth-god, is enamoured of +bread,--Napri, the god of grain, presents his offering,--Phtah maketh +every workshop to prosper. + +"II.--Lord of the fish! as soon as he passeth the cataract--the +birds no longer descend upon the fields;--creator of corn, maker of +barley,--he prolongeth the existence of temples.--Do his fingers cease +from their labours, or doth he suffer?--then are all the millions of +beings in misery;--doth he wane in heaven? then the gods--themselves, +and all men perish. + +"III.--The cattle are driven mad, and all the world--both great and +small, are in torment!--But if, on the contrary, the prayers of men are +heard at his rising--and (for them) he maketh himself Khnumu,--when +he ariseth, then the earth shouts for joy,--then are all bellies +joyful,--each back is shaken with laughter,--and every tooth grindeth. + +"IV.--Bringing food, rich in sustenance,--creator of all good +things,--lord of all seeds of life, pleasant unto his elect,--if his +friendship is secured--he produceth fodder for the cattle,--and he +provideth for the sacrifices of all the gods,--finer than any other +is the incense which cometh from him;--he taketh possession of the +two lands--and the granaries are filled, the storehouses are +prosperous,--and the goods of the poor are multiplied. + +"V.--He is at the service of all prayers to answer them,--withholding +nothing. To make boats to be that is his strength.--Stones are not +sculptured for him--nor statues whereon the double crown is placed;--he +is unseen;--no tribute is paid unto him and no offerings are brought +unto him,--he is not charmed by words of mystery;--the place of his +dwelling is unknown, nor can his shrine be found by virtue of magic +writings. + +"VI.--There is no house large enough for thee,--nor any who may +penetrate within thy heart!--Nevertheless, the generations of thy +children rejoice in thee--for thou dost rule as a king--whose decrees +are established for the whole earth,--who is manifest in presence of the +people of the South and of the North,--by whom the tears are washed from +every eye,--and who is lavish of his bounties. + +"VII.--Where sorrow was, there doth break forth joy--and every +heart rejoiceth. Sovku, the crocodile, the child of Nit, leaps for +gladness;[*]--for the Nine gods who accompany thee have ordered all +things,--the overflow giveth drink unto the fields--and maketh all men +valiant; one man taketh to drink of the labour of another,--without +charge being brought against him.[**] + + * The goddess Nit, the heifer born from the midst of the + primordial waters, had two crocodiles as her children, which + are sometimes represented on the monuments as hanging from + her bosom. Both the part played by these animals, and the + reason for connecting them with the goddess, are still + imperfectly understood. + + ** This is an allusion to the quarrels and lawsuits + resulting from the distribution of the water in years when + the Nile was poor or bad. If the inundation is abundant, + disputes are at an end. + +"IX.--If thou dost enter in the midst of songs to go forth in the midst +of gladness,--if they dance with joy when thou comest forth out of the +unknown,--it is that thy heaviness is death and corruption.--And when +thou art implored to give the water of the year,--the people of the +Thebai'd and of the North are seen side by side,--each man with the +tools of his trade,--none tarrieth behind his neighbour;--of all +those who clothed themselves, no man clotheth himself (with festive +garments)--the children of Thot, the god of riches, no longer adorn +themselves with jewels,--nor the Nine gods, but they are in the +night!--As soon as thou hast answered by the rising,--each one anointeth +himself with perfumes. + +"X.--Establisher of true riches, desire of men,--here are seductive +words in order that thou mayest reply;--if thou dost answer mankind +by waves of the heavenly Ocean,--Napri, the grain-god, presents his +offering,--all the gods adore (thee),--the birds no longer descend upon +the hills;--though that which thy hand formeth were of gold--or in the +shape of a brick of silver,--it is not lapis-lazuli that we eat,--but +wheat is of more worth than precious stones. + +"XI.--They have begun to sing unto thee upon the harp,--they sing +unto thee keeping time with their hands,--and the generations of thy +children rejoice in thee, and they have filled thee with salutations of +praise;--for it is the god of Riches who adorneth the earth,--who maketh +barks to prosper in the sight of man--who rejoiceth the heart of women +with child--who loveth the increase of the flocks. + +"XII.--When thou art risen in the city of the Prince,--then is the rich +man filled--the small man (the poor) disdaineth the lotus,--all is solid +and of good quality,--all herbage is for his children.--Doth he forget +to give food?--prosperity forsaketh the dwellings,--and earth falleth +into a wasting sickness." + +[Illustration: 055.jpg Libyan Mountains] + +The word Nile is of uncertain origin. We have it from the Greeks, +and they took it from a people foreign to Egypt, either from the +Phoenicians, the Khiti, the Libyans, or from people of Asia Minor. When +the Egyptians themselves did not care to treat their river as the god +Hapi, they called it the sea, or the great river. They had twenty terms +or more by which to designate the different phases which it assumed +according to the seasons, but they would not have understood what was +meant had one spoken to them of the Nile. The name Egypt also is part +of the Hellenic tradition; perhaps it was taken from the temple-name of +Memphis, Haikuphtah, which barbarian coast tribes of the Mediterranean +must long have had ringing in their ears as that of the most important +and wealthiest town to be found upon the shores of their sea. The +Egyptians called themselves Bomitu, Botu, and their country Qimit, the +black land. Whence came they? How far off in time are we to carry back +the date of their arrival? The oldest monuments hitherto known scarcely +transport us further than six thousand years, yet they are of an art so +fine, so well determined in its main outlines, and reveal so ingeniously +combined a system of administration, government, and religion, that we +infer a long past of accumulated centuries behind them. It must always +be difficult to estimate exactly the length of time needful for a race +as gifted as were the Ancient Egyptians to rise from barbarism into a +high degree of culture. Nevertheless, I do not think that we shall be +misled in granting them forty or fifty centuries wherein to bring so +complicated an achievement to a successful issue, and in placing their +first appearance at eight or ten thousand years before our era. +Their earliest horizon was a very limited one. Their gaze might wander +westward over the ravine-furrowed plains of the Libyan desert without +reaching that fabled land of Manu where the sun set every evening; but +looking eastward from the valley, they could see the peak of Bakhu, +which marked the limit of regions accessible to man. + +Beyond these regions lay the beginnings of To-nutri, the land of the +gods, and the breezes passing over it were laden with its perfumes, and +sometimes wafted them to mortals lost in the desert.[*] + + * The perfumes and the odoriferous woods of the Divine + Land were celebrated in Egypt. A traveller or hunter, + crossing the desert, "could not but be vividly impressed by + suddenly becoming aware, in the very midst of the desert, of + the penetrating scent of the _robul (Puliciaria undulata_, + Schwbine.), which once followed us throughout a day and two + nights, in some places without our being able to distinguish + whence it came; as, for instance, when we were crossing + tracts of country without any traces of vegetation whatever." + (Golenischeff). + +Northward, the world came to an end towards the lagoons of the Delta, +whose inaccessible islands were believed to be the sojourning-place +of souls after death. As regards the south, precise knowledge of it +scarcely went beyond the defiles of Gebel Sil-sileh, where the last +remains of the granite threshold had perhaps not altogether disappeared. +The district beyond Gebel Silsileh, the province of Konusit, was still +a foreign and almost mythic country, directly connected with heaven by +means of the cataract. Long after the Egyptians had broken through this +restricted circle, the names of those places which had as it were marked +out their frontiers, continued to be associated in their minds with the +idea of the four cardinal points. Bakhu and Manu were still the most +frequent expressions for the extreme East and West. Nekhabit and Buto, +the most populous towns in the neighbourhoods of Gebel Silsileh and the +ponds of the Delta, were set over against each other to designate South +and North. It was within these narrow limits that Egyptian civilization +struck root and ripened, as in a closed vessel. What were the people by +whom it was developed, the country whence they came, the races to +which they belonged, is to-day unknown. The majority would place their +cradle-land in Asia,[*] but cannot agree in determining the route which +was followed in the emigration to Africa. + + * The greater number of contemporary Egyptologists, Brugsch, + Ebers,--Lauth, Lieblein, have rallied to this opinion, in + the train of E. de Rouge; but the most extreme position has + been taken up by Hommel, the Assyriologist, who is inclined + to derive Egyptian civilization entirely from the + Babylonian. After having summarily announced this thesis in + his _Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens_, p. 12, et seq., + he has set it forth at length in a special treatise, _Der + Babylonische Ursprung der agyptischen Kultur_, 1892, wherein + he endeavours to prove that the Heliopolitan myths, and + hence the whole Egyptian religion, are derived from the + cults of Eridu, and would make the name of the Egyptian city + Onu, or Anu, identical with that of _Nun-H, Nun_, which is + borne by the Chaldean. + +Some think that the people took the shortest road across the Isthmus +of Suez, others give them longer peregrinations and a more complicated +itinerary. They would have them cross the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, +and then the Abyssinian mountains, and, spreading northward and keeping +along the Nile, finally settle in the Egypt of to-day. A more minute +examination compels us to recognize that the hypothesis of an Asiatic +origin, however attractive it may seem, is somewhat difficult +to maintain. The bulk of the Egyptian population presents the +characteristics of those white races which have been found established +from all antiquity on the Mediterranean slope of the Libyan continent; +this population is of African origin, and came to Egypt from the West +or South-West. In the valley, perhaps, it may have met with a black race +which it drove back or destroyed; and there, perhaps, too, it afterwards +received an accretion of Asiatic elements, introduced by way of the +isthmus and the marshes of the Delta. But whatever may be the origin +of the ancestors of the Egyptians, they were scarcely settled upon the +banks of the Nile before the country conquered, and assimilated them to +itself, as it has never ceased to do in the case of strangers who have +occupied it. At the time when their history begins for us, all the +inhabitants had long formed but one people, with but one language. + +This language seems to be connected with the Semitic tongues by many +of its roots. It forms its personal pronouns, whether isolated or +suffixed, in a similar way. One of the tenses of the conjugation, and +that the simplest and most archaic, is formed with identical affixes. +Without insisting upon resemblances which are open to doubt, it may be +almost affirmed that most of the grammatical processes used in Semitic +languages are to be found in a rudimentary condition in Egyptian. One +would say that the language of the people of Egypt and the languages of +the Semitic races, having once belonged to the same group, had separated +very early, at a time when the vocabulary and the grammatical system +of the group had not as yet taken definite shape. Subject to different +influences, the two families would treat in diverse fashion the elements +common to both. The Semitic dialects continued to develop for centuries, +while the Egyptian language, although earlier cultivated, stopped short +in its growth. "If it is obvious that there was an original connexion +between the language of Egypt and that of Asia, this connexion is +nevertheless sufficiently remote to leave to the Egyptian race a +distinct physiognomy." We recognize it in sculptured and painted +portraits, as well as in thousands of mummied bodies out of subterranean +tombs. The highest type of Egyptian was tall and slender, with a proud +and imperious air in the carriage of his head and in his whole bearing. +He had wide and full shoulders, well-marked and vigorous pectoral +muscles, muscular arms, a long, fine hand, slightly developed hips, and +sinewy legs. The detail of the knee-joint and the muscles of the calf +are strongly marked beneath the skin; the long, thin, and low-arched +feet are flattened out at the extremities owing to the custom of going +barefoot. The head is rather short, the face oval, the forehead somewhat +retreating. The eyes are wide and fully opened, the cheekbones not too +marked, the nose fairly prominent, and either straight or aquiline. The +mouth is long, the lips full, and lightly ridged along their outline; +the teeth small, even, well-set, and remarkably sound; the ears are set +high on the head. At birth the skin is white, but darkens in proportion +to its exposure to the sun. Men are generally painted red in the +pictures, though, as a matter of fact, there must already have been +all the shades which we see among the present population^ from a most +delicate, rose-tinted complexion to that of a smoke-coloured bronze. +Women, who were less exposed to the sun, are generally painted yellow, +the tint paler in proportion as they rise in the social scale. The hair +was inclined to be wavy, and even to curl into little ringlets, but +without ever turning into the wool of the negro. + +[Illustration: 059.jpg THE NOBLE TYPE OF EGYPTIAN. 1] + + 1 Statue of Ranofir in the Gizeh Museum (Vth dynasty), after + a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. + +[Illustration: 060.jpg HEAD OF A TILEBAN MUMMY.] + +The beard was scanty, thick only upon the chin. Such was the highest +type; the commoner was squat, dumpy, and heavy. Chest and shoulders seem +to be enlarged at the expense of the pelvis and the hips, to such an +extent as to make the want of proportion between the upper and lower +parts of the body startling and ungraceful. The skull is long, somewhat +retreating, and slightly flattened on the top; the features are coarse, +and as though carved in flesh by great strokes of the blocking-out +chisel. Small frseuated eyes, a short nose, flanked by widely distended +nostrils, round cheeks, a square chin, thick, but not curling lips--this +unattractive and ludicrous physiognomy, sometimes animated by an +expression of cunning which recalls the shrewd face of an old French +peasant, is often lighted up by gleams of gentleness and of melancholy +good-nature. The external characteristics of these two principal types +in the ancient monuments, in all varieties of modifications, may still +be seen among the living. The profile copied from a Theban mummy taken +at hazard from a necropolis of the XVIIIth dynasty, and compared with +the likeness of a modern Luxor peasant, would almost pass for a family +portrait. Wandering Bisharin have inherited the type of face of a great +noble, the contemporary of Kheops; and any peasant woman of the Delta +may bear upon her shoulders che head of a twelfth-dynasty king. A +citizen of Cairo, gazing with wonder at the statues of Khafra or of Seti +I. in the Gizeh Museum, is himself, feature for feature, the very image +of those ancient Pharaohs, though removed from them by fifty centuries. + +[Illustration: 062.jpg A FELLAH WOMAN WITH THE FEATURES OF AN ANCIENT +KING. 1] + + 1 The face of the woman here given was taken separately, + and was subsequently attached to the figure of an Egyptian + woman whom Naville had photographed sitting beside a + colossal head. The nose of the statue has been restored. + +Until quite recently nothing, or all but nothing, had been discovered +which could be attributed to the primitive races of Egypt: even the +flint weapons and implements which had been found in various places +could not be ascribed to them with any degree of certainty, for the +Egyptians continued to use stone long after metal was known to them. +They made stone arrowheads, hammers, and knives, not only in the time of +the Pharaohs, but under the Romans, and during the whole period of +the Middle Ages, and the manufacture of them has not yet entirely died +out.[**] + + ** An entire collection of flint tools--axes, adzes, + knives, and sickles--mostly with wooden handles, were found + by Prof. Petrie in the ruins of Kahun, at the entrance to + the Fayum: these go back to the time of the twelfth dynasty, + more than three thousand years before our era. Mariette had + previously pointed out to the learned world the fact that a + Coptic _Reis_, Salib of Abydos, in charge of the + excavations, shaved his head with a flint knife, according + to the custom of his youth (1820-35). I knew the man, who + died at over eighty years of age in 1887; he was still + faithful to his flint implement, while his sons and the + whole population of El Kharbeh were using nothing but steel + razors. As his scalp was scraped nearly raw by the + operation, he used to cover his head with fresh leaves to + cool the inflamed skin. + +These objects, and the workshops where they were made, might therefore +be less ancient than the greater part of the inscribed monuments. But if +so far we had found no examples of any work belonging to the first ages, +we met in historic times with certain customs which were out of harmony +with the general civilization of the period. A comparison of these +customs with analogous practices of barbarous nations threw light upon +the former, completed their meaning, and showed us at the same time the +successive stages through which the Egyptian people had to pass before +reaching their highest civilization. We knew, for example, that even +as late as the Caesars, girls belonging to noble families at Thebes were +consecrated to the service of Amon, and were thus licensed to a life +of immorality, which, however, did not prevent them from making rich +marriages when age obliged them to retire from office. Theban women were +not the only people in the world to whom such licence was granted or +imposed upon them by law; wherever in a civilized country we see a +similar practice, we may recognize in it an ancient custom which in the +course of centuries has degenerated into a religious observance. The +institution of the women of Amon is a legacy from a time when the +practice of polyandry obtained, and marriage did not yet exist. Age and +maternity relieved them from this obligation, and preserved them from +those incestuous connections of which we find examples in other races. +A union of father and daughter, however, was perhaps not wholly +forbidden,[*] and that of brother and sister seems to have been regarded +as perfectly right and natural; the words brother and sister possessing +in Egyptian love-songs the same significance as lover and mistress with +us. + + * E. de Rouge held that Rameses II. married at least two of + his daughters, Bint Anati and Honittui; Wiedemann admits + that Psammetichus I. had in the same way taken to wife + Nitocris, who had been born to him by the Theban princess + Shapenuapit. The Achaemenidan kings did the same: Artaxerxes + married two of his own daughters. + +Paternity was necessarily doubtful in a community of this kind, and +hence the tie between fathers and children was slight; there being +no family, in the sense in which we understand the word, except as it +centred around the mother. + +Maternal descent was, therefore, the only one openly acknowledged, and +the affiliation of the child was indicated by the name of the mother +alone. When the woman ceased to belong to all, and confined herself to +one husband, the man reserved to himself the privilege of taking as many +wives as he wished, or as he was able to keep, beginning with his own +sisters. All wives did not enjoy identical rights: those born of the +same parents as the man, or those of equal rank with himself, preserved +their independence. If the law pronounced him the master, _nibu_, to +whom they owed obedience and fidelity, they were mistresses of the +house, _nibit piru_, as well as wives, _himitu_, and the two words of +the title express their condition. Each of them occupied, in fact, her +own house, _piru_, which she had from her parents or her husband, and of +which she was absolute mistress, _nibit_. She lived in it and performed +in it without constraint all a woman's duties; feeding the fire, +grinding the corn, occupying herself in cooking and weaving, making +clothing and perfumes, nursing and teaching her children. When her +husband visited her, he was a guest whom she received on an equal +footing. It appears that at the outset these various wives were placed +under the authority of an older woman, whom they looked on as their +mother, and who defended their rights and interests against the master; +but this custom gradually disappeared, and in historic times we read +of it as existing only in the families of the gods. The female singers +consecrated to Amon and other deities, owed obedience to several +superiors, of whom the principal (generally the widow of a king or high +priest) was called _chief-superior of the ladies of the harem of Amon_. +Besides these wives, there were concubines, slaves purchased or born in +the house, prisoners of war, Egyptians of inferior class, who were the +chattels of the man and of whom he could dispose as he wished. All the +children of one father were legitimate, whether their mother were a wife +or merely a concubine, but they did not all enjoy the same advantages; +those among them who were born of a brother or sister united in +legitimate marriage, took precedence of those whose mother was a wife of +inferior rank or a slave. In the family thus constituted, the woman, +to all appearances, played the principal part. Children recognized the +parental relationship in the mother alone. The husband appears to have +entered the house of his wives, rather than the wives to have entered +his, and this appearance of inferiority was so marked that the Greeks +were deceived by it. They affirmed that the woman was supreme in Egypt; +the man at the time of marriage promised obedience to her and entered +into a contract not to raise any objection to her commands. + +We had, therefore, good grounds for supposing that the first Egyptians +were semi-savages, like those still living in Africa and America, having +an analogous organization, and similar weapons and tools. A few lived +in the desert, in the oasis of Libya, or in the deep valleys of the Red +Land--Doshirit, To Doshiru--between the Nile and the sea; the poverty +of the country fostering their native savagery. Others, settled on +the Black Land, gradually became civilized, and we have found of late +considerable remains of those of their generations who, if not anterior +to the times of written records, were at least contemporary with the +earliest kings of the first historical dynasty. + +[Illustration: 066.jpg NEGRO PRISONERS WEARING THE PANTHER'S SKIST AS A +LOIN-CLOTH.] + +Their houses were like those of the fellahs of to-day, low huts of +wattle daubed with puddled clay, or of bricks dried in the sun. They +contained one room, either oblong or square, the door being the only +aperture. Those of the richer class only were large enough to make it +needful to support the roof by means of one or more trunks of trees, +which did duty for columns. Earthen pots, turned by hand, flint knives +and other implements, mats of reeds or plaited straw, two flat stones +for grinding corn, a few pieces of wooden furniture, stools, and +head-rests for use at night, comprised all the contents. Their ordinary +pottery is heavy and almost devoid of ornament, but some of the finer +kinds have been moulded and baked in wickerwork baskets, which have left +a quaint trellis-like impression on the surface of the clay. In many +cases the vases are bicolour, the body being of a fine smooth red, +polished with a stone, while the neck and base are of an intense black, +the surface of which is even more shining than that of the red part. +Sometimes they are ornamented with patterns in white of flowers, +palms, ostriches, gazelles, boats with undulated or broken lines, or +geometrical figures of a very simple nature. More often the ground is +coloured a fine yellow, and the decoration has been traced in red lines. +Jars, saucers, double vases, flat plates, large cups, supports for +amphorae, trays raised on a foot--in short, every kind of form is found +in use at that remote period. The men went about nearly naked, except +the nobles, who wore a panther's skin, sometimes thrown over the +shoulders, sometimes drawn round the waist, and covering the lower part +of the body, the animal's tail touching the heels behind, as we see +later in several representations of the negroes of the Upper Nile. They +smeared their limbs with grease or oil, and they tattooed their faces +and bodies, at least in part; but in later times this practice was +retained by the lower classes only. On the other hand, the custom of +painting the face was never given up. To complete their toilet, it was +necessary to accentuate the arch of the eyebrow with a line of kohl +(antimony powder). A similar black line surrounded and prolonged the +oval of the eye to the middle of the temple, a layer of green coloured +the under lid, and ochre and carmine enlivened the tints of the cheeks +and lips. The hair, plaited, curled, oiled, and plastered with grease, +formed an erection which was as complicated in the case of the man as in +that of the woman. + +[Illustration: 068.jpg NOTABLE WEARING THE LARGE CLOAK OVER THE LEFT +SHOULDER. 1; AND PRIEST WEARING THE PANTHER'S SKIN ACROSS THE BREAST. 2] + + 1 Wooden statue in the Gizeh Museum (IVth dynasty), drawn by + Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Bechard. + + 2 Statue of the second prophet of Amon, Aa-nen, in the Turin + Museum (XVIIIth dynasty). + +Should the hair be too short, a black or blue wig, dressed with much +skill, was substituted for it; ostrich feathers waved on the heads +of warriors, and a large lock, flattened behind the right ear, +distinguished the military or religious chiefs from their subordinates. +When the art of weaving became common, a belt and loin-cloth of white +linen replaced the leathern garment. Fastened round the waist, but so +low as to leave the navel uncovered, the loin-cloth frequently reached +to the knee; the hinder part was frequently drawn between the legs and +attached in front to the belt, thus forming a kind of drawers. Tails +of animals and wild beast's skin were henceforth only the insignia of +authority with which priests and princes adorned themselves on great +days and at religious ceremonies. The skin was sometimes carelessly +thrown over the left shoulder and swayed with the movement of the body; +sometimes it was carefully adjusted over one shoulder and under the +other, so as to bring the curve of the chest into prominence. The head +of the animal, skilfully prepared and enlivened by large eyes of enamel, +rested on the shoulder or fell just below the waist of the wearer; the +paws, with the claws attached, hung down over the thighs; the spots of +the skin were manipulated so as to form five-pointed stars. On going +out-of-doors, a large wrap was thrown over all; this covering was either +smooth or hairy, similar to that in which the Nubians and Abyssinians of +the present day envelop themselves. It could be draped in various +ways; transversely over the left shoulder like the fringed shawl of the +Chaldeans, or hanging straight from both shoulders like a mantle.[**] + + ** This costume, to which Egyptologists have not given + sufficient attention, is frequently represented on the + monuments. Besides the two statues reproduced above, I may + cite those of Uahibri and of Thoth-nofir in the Louvre, and + the Lady Nofrit in the Gizeh Museum. Thothotpu in his tomb + wears this mantle. Khnumhotpu and several of his workmen are + represented in it at Beni-Hasan, as also one of the princes + of Elephantine in the recently discovered tombs, besides + many Egyptians of all classes in the tombs of Thebes (a + good example is in the tomb of Harmhabi). The reason + why it does not figure more often is, in the first place, + that the Egyptian artists experienced actual difficulty in + representing the folds of its drapery, although these were + simple compared with the complicated arrangement of the + Roman toga; finally, the wall-paintings mostly portray + either interior scenes, or agricultural labour, or the work + of various trades, or episodes of war, or religious + ceremonies, in all of which the mantle plays no part. Every + Egyptian peasant, however, possessed his own, and it was in + constant use in his daily life. + +In fact, it did duty as a cloak, sheltering the wearer from the sun +or from the rain, from the heat or from the cold. They never sought to +transform it into a luxurious garment of state, as was the case in later +times with the Roman toga, whose amplitude secured a certain dignity of +carriage, and whose folds, carefully adjusted beforehand, fell around +the body with studied grace. The Egyptian mantle when not required was +thrown aside and folded up. The material being fine and soft it occupied +but a small space and was reduced to a long thin roll; the ends being +then fastened together, it was slung over the shoulder and round the +body like a cavalry cloak.[*] + + * Many draughtsmen, ignorant of what they had to represent, + have made incorrect copies of the manner in which this cloak + was worn; but examples of it are numerous, although until + now attention has not been called to them. The following are + a few instances taken at random of the way in which it was + used: Pepi I., fighting against the nomads of Sinai, has the + cloak, but with the two ends passed through the belt of his + loin-cloth; at Zawyet el-Maiyitin, Khunas, killing birds + with the boomerang from his boat, wears it, but simply + thrown over the left shoulder, with the two extremities + hanging free. Khnumhotpu at Beni-Hasan, the Khrihdbi, the + overseers, or the peasants, all have it rolled and slung + round them; the Prince of el-Bersheh wears it like a mantle + in folds over the two shoulders. If it is objected that the + material could not be reduced to such small dimensions as + those represented in these drawings of what I believe to be + the Egyptian cloak, I way cite our cavalry capes, when + rolled and slung, as an instance of what good packing will + do in reducing volume. + +[Illustration: 070.jpg a dignitary wrapped in his large cloak. 1] + + 1 Statue of Khiti in the Gizeh Museum (XIIth and XIIIth + dynasties), drawn by Faucher-Gudin. + +Travellers, shepherds, all those whose occupations called them to the +fields, carried it as a bundle at the ends of their sticks; once arrived +at the scene of their work, they deposited it in a corner with their +provisions until they required it. The women were at first contented +with a loin-cloth like that of the men; it was enlarged and lengthened +till it reached the ankle below and the bosom above, and became a +tightly fitting garment, with two bands over the shoulders, like braces, +to keep it in place. The feet were not always covered; on certain +occasions, however, sandals of coarse leather, plaited straw, split +reed, or even painted wood, adorned those shapely Egyptian feet, which, +to suit our taste, should be a little shorter. + +[Illustration: 072.jpg COSTUME OF EGYPTIAN WOMAN, SPINNING. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the spinning-women at + the Paris Exhibition of 1889. It was restored from the + paintings in the tomb of Khnumhotpu at Beni-Hasan. + +Both men and women loved ornaments, and covered their necks, breasts, +arms, wrists, and ankles with many rows of necklaces and bracelets. The +bracelets were made of elephant ivory, mother-of-pearl, or even flint, +very cleverly perforated. The necklaces were composed of strings of +pierced shells,[**] interspersed with seeds and little pebbles, +either sparkling or of unusual shapes.[***] Subsequently imitations +in terra-cotta replaced the natural shells, and precious stones were +substituted for pebbles, as were also beads of enamel, either round, +pear-shaped, or cylindrical: the necklaces were terminated and a uniform +distance maintained between the rows of beads, by several slips of wood, +bone, ivory, porcelain, or terra-cotta, pierced with holes, through +which ran the threads. + + ** The burying-places of Abydos, especially the most + ancient, have furnished us with millions of shells, pierced + and threaded as necklaces; they all belong to the species of + cowries used as money in Africa at the present day. + + *** Necklaces of seeds have been found in the tombs of + Abydos, Thebes, and Gebelen. Of these Schweinfurth + has identified, among others, the _Cassia absus_, "a + weed of the Soudan whose seeds are sold in the drug bazaar + at Cairo and Alexandria under the name of _shishn_, as a + remedy, which is in great request among the natives, for + ophthalmia." For the necklaces of pebbles, cf. Maspeeo, + Guide du visiteur, pp. 270, 271, No. 4129. A considerable + number of these pebbles, particularly those of strange + shape, or presenting a curious combination of colours, must + have been regarded as amulets or fetishes by their Egyptian + owners; analogous cases, among other peoples, have been + pointed out by E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii. p. + 189. + +[Illustration: 073.jpg MAN WEARING WIG AND NECKLACES.1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a portrait of Pharaoh Seti I. + of the XIXth dynasty: the lower part of the necklace has + been completed. + +Weapons, at least among the nobility, were an indispensable part of +costume. Most of them were for hand-to-hand fighting: sticks, clubs, +lances furnished with a sharpened bone or stone point, axes and daggers +of flint,[*] sabres and clubs of bone or wood variously shaped, pointed +or rounded at the end, with blunt or sharp blades,--inoffensive enough +to look at, but, wielded by a vigorous hand, sufficient to break an arm, +crush in the ribs, or smash a skull with all desirable precision.[**] +The plain or triple curved bow was the favourite weapon for attack at +a distance,[***] but in addition to this there were the sling, the +javelin, and a missile almost forgotten nowadays, the boomerang, we have +no proof however, that the Egyptians handled the boomerang[****] with +the skill of the Australians, or that they knew how to throw it so as to +bring it back to its point of departure.[v] + + * In several museums, notably at Leyden, we find Egyptian + axes of stone, particularly of serpentine, both rough and + polished. + + ** In primitive times the bone of an animal served as a + club. This is proved by the shape of the object held in + the hand in the sign and the hieroglyph which is the + determinative in writing for all ideas of violence or + brute force, comes down to us from a time when the principal + weapon was the club, or a bone serving as a club. + + *** For the two principal shapes of the bow, see Lepsius, + Der Bogen in der Hieroglypliik (Zeitschrift, 1872, pp. 79- + 88). From the earliest times the sign mL portrays the + soldier equipped with the bow and bundle of arrows; the + quiver was of Asiatic origin, and was not adopted until much + later. In the contemporary texts of the first dynasties, the + idea of weapons is conveyed by the bow, arrow, and club or + axe. + + **** The boomerang is still used by certain tribes of the + Nile valley. It is portrayed in the most ancient tombs, + and every museum possesses examples, varying in shape. + Besides the ordinary boomerang, the Egyptians used one which + ended in a knob, and another of semicircular shape: this + latter, reproduced in miniature in cornelian or in red + jasper, served as an amulet, and was placed on the mummy to + furnish the deceased in the other world with a fighting or + hunting weapon. + + v The Australian boomerang is much larger than the Egyptian + one; it is about a yard in length, two inches in width, and + three sixteenths of an inch in thickness. For the manner of + handling it, and what can be done with it, see Lubbock, + Prehistoric Man, pp. 402, 403. + +[Illustration: 074.jpg the boomerang and FIGHTING bow. 2 ] + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting in the tomb of + Khnumhotpu at Beni-Hasan. + +[Illustration: 075.jpg VOTIVE AXE. 3] + + 3 The blade is of bronze, and is attached to the wooden + handle by interlacing thongs of leather (Gizeh Museum). + Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch- + Bey. + +Such was approximately the most ancient equipment as far as we can +ascertain; but at a very early date copper and iron were known in +Egypt.[**] Long before historic times, the majority of the weapons in +wood were replaced by those of metal,--daggers, sabres, hatchets, which +preserved, however, the shape of the old wooden instruments. + + ** Metals were introduced into Egypt in very ancient times, + since the class of blacksmiths is associated with the + worship of Horus of Edfu, and appears in the account of the + mythical wars of that God. The earliest tools we possess, in + copper or bronze, date from the IVth dynasty: pieces of iron + have been found from time to time in the masonry of the + Great Pyramid. Mons Montelius has again and again contested + the authenticity of these discoveries, and he thinks that + iron was not known in Egypt till a much later period. + +Those wooden weapons which were retained, were used for hunting, or were +only brought out on solemn occasions when tradition had to be respected. +The war-baton became the commander's wand of authority, and at last +degenerated into the walking-stick of the rich or noble. + +[Illustration: 076.jpg KING HOLDING THE BATON. 3] + + 3 Bas-relief in the temple of Luxor, from a photograph + taken by Insinger in 1886. + +The club at length represented merely the rank of a chieftain,[*] while +the crook and the wooden-handled mace, with its head of ivory, diorite, +granite, or white stone, the favourite weapons of princes, continued to +the last the most revered insignia of royalty.[**] + +Life was passed in comparative ease and pleasure. Of the ponds left in +the open country by the river at its fall, some dried up more or less +quickly during the winter, leaving on the soil an immense quantity +of fish, the possession of which birds and wild beasts disputed with +man.[***] + + * The wooden club most commonly represented is the usual + insignia of a nobleman. Several kinds of clubs, somewhat + difficult for us moderns to distinguish, yet bearing + different names, formed a part of funereal furniture. + + ** The crook is the sceptre of a prince, a Pharaoh, or a + god; the white mace has still the value apparently of a + weapon in the hands of the king who brandishes it over a + group of prisoners or over an ox which he is sacrificing to + a divinity. Most museums possess specimens of the stone + heads of these maces, but until lately their use was not + known. I had several placed in the Boulak Museum. It already + possessed a model of one entirely of wood. + + *** Cf. the description of these pools given by Geoffroy- + Saint-Hilaire in speaking of the fahaka. Even at the present + day the jackals come down from the mountains in the night, + and regale themselves with the fish left on the ground by + the gradual drying up of these ponds. + +[Illustration: 077.jpg FISHING IN THE MARSHES] + +Other pools, however, remained till the returning inundation, as so many +_vivaria_ in which the fish were preserved for dwellers on the banks. +Fishing with the harpoon, made either of stone or of metal, with the +line, with a net or with traps, were all methods of fishing known and +used by the Egyptians from early times. Where the ponds failed, the +neighbouring Nile furnished them with inexhaustible supplies. Standing +in light canoes, or rather supported by a plank on bundles of reeds +bound together, they ventured into mid-stream, in spite of the danger +arising from the ever-present hippopotamus; or they penetrated up +the canals amid a thicket of aquatic plants, to bring down with the +boomerang the birds which found covert there. + +[Illustration: 078.jpg HUNTING IN THE MARSHES: ENCOUNTERING AND SPEARING +A HIPPOPOTAMUS. 1] + + 1 Tomb of Ti. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Dumichen, + Besultate, vol. ii. pl. x. + +The fowl and fish which could not be eaten fresh, were dried, salted, +or smoked, and kept for a rainy day. Like the river, the desert had its +perils and its resources. Only too frequently, the lion, the leopard, +the panther, and other large felidse were met with there. + +[Illustration: 079.jpg HUNTING IN THE DESERT: BULL, LION, AND ORYX +PIERCED WITH ARROWS. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting by Beni-Hasan, + Lepsius, Denhm., ii. 136. + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief of Ptahhotpu. + The dogs on the upper level are of hyenoid type, those on + the lower are Abyssinian greyhounds. + +The nobles, like the Pharaohs of later times, deemed it as their +privilege or duty to stalk and destroy these animals, pursuing them even +to their dens. The common people preferred attacking the gazelle, the +oryx, the mouflon sheep, the ibex, the wild ox, and the ostrich, but did +not disdain more humble game, such as the porcupine and long-eared hare: +nondescript packs, in which the jackal and the hyena ran side by side +with the wolf-dog and the lithe Abyssinian greyhound, scented and +retrieved for their master the prey which he had pierced with his +arrows. At times a hunter, returning with the dead body of the mother, +would be followed by one of her young; or a gazelle, but slightly +wounded, would be taken to the village and healed of its hurt. + +[Illustration: 080.jpg CATCHING ANIMALS WITH THE BOLA. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief of Ptahhotpu. + Above are seen two porcupines, the foremost of which, + emerging from his hole, has seized a grasshopper. + +Such animals by daily contact with man, were gradually tamed, and +formed about his dwelling a motley flock, kept partly for his pleasure +and mostly for his profit, and becoming in case of necessity a ready +stock of provisions.[**] + + ** In the same way, before the advent of Europeans, the + half-civilized tribes of North America used to keep about + their huts whole flocks of different animals, which were + tame, but not domesticated. + +Efforts were therefore made to enlarge this flock, and the wish to +procure animals without seriously injuring them, caused the Egyptians +to use the net for birds and the lasso and the _bola_ for +quadrupeds,[*]--weapons less brutal than the arrow and the javelin. The +_bola_ was made by them of a single rounded stone, attached to a strap +about five yards in length. The stone once thrown, the cord twisted +round the legs, muzzle, or neck of the animal pursued, and by the +attachment thus made the pursuer, using all his strength, was enabled to +bring the beast down half strangled. The lasso has no stone attached +to it, but a noose prepared beforehand, and the skill of the hunter +consists in throwing it round the neck of his victim while running. +They caught indifferently, without distinction of size or kind, all +that chance brought within their reach. The daily chase kept up these +half-tamed flocks of gazelles, wild goats, water-bucks, stocks, and +ostriches, and their numbers are reckoned by hundreds on the monuments +of the ancient empire.[**] + + * Hunting with the bola is constantly represented in the + paintings both of the Memphite and Theban periods. Wilkinson + has confounded it with lasso-hunting, and his mistake has + been reproduced by other Egyptologists. Lasso-hunting is + seen in Lepsius, Denhn., ii. 96, in Dumichen, _resultate_, + vol. i. pl. viii., and particularly in the numerous + sacrificial scenes where the king is supposed to be + capturing the bull of the north or south, previous to + offering it to the god. + + ** As the tombs of the ancient empire show us numerous + flocks of gazelles, antelopes, and storks, feeding under the + care of shepherds, Fr. Lenormant concluded that the + Egyptians of early times had succeeded in domesticating some + species, nowadays rebels to restraint. It is my belief that + the animals represented were tamed, but not domesticated, + and were the result of great hunting expeditions in the + desert. The facts which Lenormant brought forward to support + his theory may be used against him. For instance, the fawn + of the gazelle nourished by its mother does not prove that + it was bred in captivity; the gazelle may have been caught + before calving, or just after the birth of its young. The + fashion of keeping flocks of animals taken from the desert + died out between the XIIth and XVIIIth dynasties. At the + time of the new empire, they had only one or two solitary + animals as pets for women or children, the mummies of which + were sometimes buried by the side of their mistresses. + +Experience alone taught the hunter to distinguish between those species +from which he could draw profit, and others whose wildness made them +impossible to domesticate. The subjection of the most useful kinds had +not been finished when the historic period opened. + +[Illustration: 082.jpg A SWINEHERD AND HIS PIGS. 2] + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting in a Theban tomb + of the XVIIIth dynasty. + +The ass, the sheep, and the goat were already domesticated, but the pig +was still out in the marshes in a semi-wild state, under the care of +special herdsmen,[*] and the religious rites preserved the remembrance +of the times in which the ox was so little tamed, that in order to +capture while grazing the animals needed for sacrifice or for slaughter, +it was necessary to use the lasso.[***] + + * The hatred of the Egyptians for the pig (Herodotus, ii. + 47) is attributed to mythological motives. Lippert thinks + this antipathy did not exist in Egypt in primitive times. At + the outset the pig would have been the principal food of the + people; then, like the dog in other regions, it must have + been replaced at the table by animals of a higher order-- + gazelles, sheep, goats, oxen--and would have thus fallen + into contempt. To the excellent reasons given by Lippert + could be added others drawn from the study of the Egyptian + myths, to prove that the pig has often been highly esteemed. + Thus, Isis is represented, down to late times, under the + form of a sow, and a sow, whether followed or not by her + young is one of the amulets placed in the tomb with the + deceased, to secure for him the protection of the goddess. + + *** Mariette, Abydos (vol. i. pl. 48 b, 53). To prevent + the animal from evading the lasso and escaping during the + sacrifice, its right hind foot was fastened to its left + horn. + +Europeans are astonished to meet nowadays whole peoples who make use +of herbs and plants whose flavour and properties are nauseating to +us: these are mostly so many legacies from a remote past; for example, +castor-oil, with which the Berbers rub their limbs, and with which the +fellahin of the Said flavour their bread and vegetables, was preferred +before all others by the Egyptians of the Pharaonic age for +anointing the body and for culinary use.[*] They had begun by eating +indiscriminately every kind of fruit which the country produced. Many +of these, when their therapeutic virtues had been learned by experience, +were gradually banished as articles of food, and their use restricted to +medicine; others fell into disuse, and only reappeared at sacrifices, or +at funeral feasts; several varieties continue to be eaten to the +present time--the acid fruits of the nabeca and of the carob tree, +the astringent figs of the sycamore, the insipid pulp of the dam-palm, +besides those which are pleasant to our Western palates, such as the +common fig and the date. The vine flourished, at least in Middle and +Lower Egypt; from time immemorial the art of making wine from it was +known, and even the most ancient monuments enumerate half a dozen famous +brands, red or white.[**] + + * I have often been obliged, from politeness, when dining + with the native agents appointed by the European powers at + Port Said, to eat salads and mayonnaise sauces flavoured + with castor-oil; the taste was not so disagreeable as might + be at first imagined. + + ** The four kinds of canonical wine, brought respectively + from the north, south, east, and west of the country, formed + part of the official repast and of the wine-cellar of the + deceased from remote antiquity. + +Vetches, lupins, beans, chick-peas, lentils, onions, fenugreek,[*] the +bamia,[**] the meloukhia,[***] the arum colocasia, all grew wild in the +fields, and the river itself supplied its quota of nourishing plants. + + * All these species have been found in the tombs and + identified by savants in archaeological botany--Kunth, + Unger, Schweinfurth (Loret, _La Flore Pharaonique_, pp. 17, + 40, 42, 43, Nos. 33, 97, 102, 104, 105, 106). + + ** The bamia, _Hibiscus esculentus_, L., is a plant of the + family of the Malvaceae, having a fruit of five divisions, + covered with prickly hairs, and pontaining round, white, + soft seeds, slightly sweet, but astringent in taste, and + very mucilaginous. It figures on the monuments of + Pharaonic times. + + *** The meloukhia, _Corchorus Olitorius_, L., is a plant + belonging to the Tilliacese, which is chopped up and cooked + much the same as endive is with us, but which few Europeans + can eat with pleasure, owing to the mucilage it contains. + Theophrastus says it was celebrated for its bitterness; it + was used as food, however, in the Greek town of Alexandria. + +[Illustration: 084.jpg THE EGYPTIAN LOTUS. 4] + + 4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from the _Description de + l'Egypte_, Histoire Naturelle, pl. 61. + +Two of the species of lotus which grew in the Nile, the white and the +blue, have seed-vessels similar to those of the poppy: the capsules +contain small grains of the size of millet-seed. The fruit of the pink +lotus "grows on a different stalk from that of the flower, and springs +directly from the root; it resembles a honeycomb in form," or, to take +a more prosaic simile, the rose of a watering-pot. The upper part has +twenty or thirty cavities, "each containing a seed as big as an olive +stone, and pleasant to eat either fresh or dried." This is what the +ancients called the bean of Egypt. "The yearly shoots of the papyrus are +also gathered. After pulling them up in the marshes, the points are cut +off and rejected, the part remaining being about a cubit in length. It +is eaten as a delicacy and is sold in the markets, but those who are +fastidious partake of it only after baking." Twenty different kinds of +grain and fruits, prepared by crushing between two stones, are kneaded +and baked to furnish cakes or bread; these are often mentioned in the +texts as cakes of nabeca, date cakes, and cakes of figs. Lily loaves, +made from the roots and seeds of the lotus, were the delight of the +gourmand, and appear on the tables of the kings of the XIXth dynasty.[*] + + * _Tiu_, which is the most ancient word for bread, appears + in early times to have been used for every kind of paste, + whether made with fruits or grain; the more modern word aqu + applies specially to bread made from cereals. The lily + loaves are mentioned in the Papyrus Anastasi, No. 4, p. 14. + 1. 1. + +Bread and cakes made of cereals formed the habitual food of the people. +Durrah is of African origin; it is the "grain of the South" of the +inscriptions. On the other hand, it is supposed that wheat and six-rowed +barley came from the region of the Euphrates. Egypt was among the first +to procure and cultivate them.[*] The soil there is so kind to man, that +in many places no agricultural toil is required. + + * The position which wheat and barley occupy in the lists + of offerings, proves the antiquity of their existence in + Egypt. Mariette found specimens of barley in the tombs of + the Ancient Empire at Saqqarah. + +[Illustration: 086.jpg THE EGYPTIAN HOE.2] + + 2 Bas-relief from the tomb of Ti; drawn by Faucher-Gudin, + from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. + +As soon as the water of the Nile retires, the ground is sown without +previous preparation, and the grain, falling straight into the mud, +grows as vigorously as in the best-ploughed furrows. Where the earth is +hard it is necessary to break it up, but the extreme simplicity of the +instruments with which this was done shows what a feeble resistance it +offered. For a long time the hoe sufficed. It was composed either of a +large stone tied to a wooden handle, or was made of two pieces of wood +of unequal length, united at one of their extremities, and held together +towards the middle by a slack cord: the plough, when first invented was +but a slightly enlarged hoe, drawn by oxen. The cultivation of cereals, +once established on the banks of the Nile, developed, from earliest +times, to such a degree as to supplant all else: hunting, fishing, +the rearing of cattle, occupied but a secondary place compared with +agriculture, and Egypt became, that which she still remains, a vast +granary of wheat. The part of the valley first cultivated was from Gebel +Silsileh to the apex of the Delta.[*] + + * This was the tradition of all the ancients. Herodotus + related that, according to the Egyptians, the whole of + Egypt, with the exception of the Theban nome, was a vast + swamp previous to the time of Menes. Aristotle adds that the + Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and the area now occupied by the + Delta, formed one sea. Cf. pp. 3-5 of this volume, on the + formation of the Delta. + +[Illustration: 087.jpg PLOUGHING. 2] + + 2 Bas-relief from the tomb of Ti; drawn by Faucher-Gudin, + from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. + +Between the Libyan and Arabian ranges it presents a slightly convex +surface, furrowed lengthways by a depression, in the bottom of which +the Nile is gathered and enclosed when the inundation is over. In the +summer, as soon as the river had risen higher than the top of its +banks, the water rushed by the force of gravity towards the lower lands, +hollowing in its course long channels, some of which never completely +dried up, even when the Nile reached its lowest level.[*] Cultivation +was easy in the neighbourhood of these natural reservoirs, but +everywhere else the movements of the river were rather injurious than +advantageous to man. The inundation scarcely ever covered the higher +ground in the valley, which therefore remained unproductive; it flowed +rapidly over the lands of medium elevation, and moved so sluggishly in +the hollows that they became weedy and stagnant pools.[**] + + * The whole description of the damage which can be done by + the Nile in places where the inundation is not regulated, is + borrowed from Linant de Bellefonds, _Memoire sur les + principaux travaux d'utilite publique_, p. 3. + + ** This physical configuration of the country explains the + existence at a very early date of those gigantic serpents + which I have already mentioned. + +[Illustration: 089.jpg AN EGYPTIAN SAKIA (WELL) SHOWING METHOD OF +PROCURING WATER FOR IRRIGATION.] + +In any year the portion not watered by the river was invaded by the +sand: from the lush vegetation of a hot country, there was but one +step to absolute aridity. At the present day an ingeniously established +system of irrigation allows the agriculturist to direct and distribute +the overflow according to his needs. From Gebel Ain to the sea, the Nile +and its principal branches are bordered by long dykes, which closely +follow the windings of the river and furnish sufficiently stable +embankments. Numerous canals lead off to right and left, directed more +or less obliquely towards the confines of the valley; they are divided +at intervals by fresh dykes, starting at the one side from the river, +and ending on the other either at the Bahr Yusuf or at the rising of +the desert. Some of these dykes protect one district only, and consist +merely of a bank of earth; others command a large extent of territory, +and a breach in them would entail the ruin of an entire province. These +latter are sometimes like real ramparts, made of crude brick carefully +cemented; a few, as at Qosheish, have a core of hewn stones, which later +generations have covered with masses of brickwork, and strengthened with +constantly renewed buttresses of earth. They wind across the plain with +many unexpected and apparently aimless turns; on closer examination, +however, it may be seen that this irregularity is not to be attributed +to ignorance or caprice. Experience had taught the Egyptians the art +of picking out, upon the almost imperceptible relief of the soil, the +easiest lines to use against the inundation: of these they have followed +carefully the sinuosities, and if the course of the dykes appears +singular, it is to be ascribed to the natural configuration of the +ground. Subsidiary embankments thrown up between the principal ones, +and parallel to the Nile, separate the higher ground bordering the river +from the low lands on the confines of the valley; they divide the larger +basins into smaller divisions of varying area, in which the irrigation +is regulated by means of special trenches. As long as the Nile +is falling, the dwellers on its banks leave their canals in free +communication with it; but they dam them up towards the end of the +winter, just before the return of the inundation, and do not reopen them +till early in August, when the new flood is at its height. The waters +then flowing in by the trenches are arrested by the nearest transverse +dyke and spread over the fields. When they have stood there long enough +to saturate the ground, the dyke is pierced, and they pour into the next +basin until they are stopped by a second dyke, which in its turn forces +them again to spread out on either side. This operation is renewed from +dyke to dyke, till the valley soon becomes a series of artificial ponds, +ranged one above another, and flowing one into another from Grebel +Silsileh to the apex of the Delta. In autumn, the mouth of each ditch is +dammed up anew, in order to prevent the mass of water from flowing back +into the stream. The transverse dykes, which have been cut in various +places, are also repaired, and the basins become completely landlocked, +separated by narrow causeways. In some places, the water thus imprisoned +is so shallow that it is soon absorbed by the soil; in others, it is so +deep, that after it has been kept in for several weeks, it is necessary +to let it run off into a neighbouring depression, or straight into the +river itself. + +[Illustration: 091.jpg BOATMEN FIGHTING ON A CANAL COMMUNICATING WITH +THE NILE. 1] + + 1 Bas-relief from the tomb of Ti; drawn by Faucher-Gudin, + from a photograph by E. Brugsch-Bey. + +History has left us no account of the vicissitudes of the struggle in +which the Egyptians were engaged with the Nile, nor of the time expended +in bringing it to a successful issue. Legend attributes the idea of the +system and its partial working out to the god Osiris: then Menes, the +first mortal king, is said to have made the dyke of Qosheish, on which +depends the prosperity of the Delta and Middle Egypt, and the fabulous +Mceris is supposed to have extended the blessings of the irrigation to +the Fayum. In reality, the regulation of the inundation and the making +of cultivable land are the work of unrecorded generations who peopled +the valley. The kings of the historic period had only to maintain and +develop certain points of what had already been done, and Upper Egypt +is to this day chequered by the network of waterways with which its +earliest inhabitants covered it. The work must have begun simultaneously +at several points, without previous agreement, and, as it were, +instinctively. A dyke protecting a village, a canal draining or watering +some small province, demanded the efforts of but few individuals; then +the dykes would join one another, the canals would be prolonged till +they met others, and the work undertaken by chance would be improved, +and would spread with the concurrence of an ever-increasing population. +What happened at the end of last century, shows us that the system grew +and was developed at the expense of considerable quarrels and bloodshed. +The inhabitants of each district carried out the part of the work most +conducive to their own interest, seizing the supply of water, keeping +it and discharging it at pleasure, without considering whether they +were injuring their neighbours by depriving them of their supply or +by flooding them; hence arose perpetual strife and fighting. It became +imperative that the rights of the weaker should be respected, and that +the system of distribution should be co-ordinated, for the country to +accept a beginning at least of social organization analogous to that +which it acquired later: the Nile thus determined the political as well +as the physical constitution of Egypt. + +[Illustration: 092.jpg A GREAT EGYPTIAN LORD, TI, AND HIS WIFE. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Dumichen, + _Resultate_, vol. ii. pl. vit + +The country was divided among communities, whose members were supposed +to be descended from the same seed (_pait_) and to belong to the +same family (_paitu_): the chiefs of them were called _ropaitu_, the +guardians, or pastors of the family, and in later times their name +became a title applicable to the nobility in general. Families combined +and formed groups of various importance under the authority of a head +chief--_ropaitu-ha_. They were, in fact, hereditary lords, dispensing +justice, levying taxes in kind on their subordinates, reserving to +themselves the redistribution of land, leading their men to, battle, and +sacrificing to the gods.[*] The territories over which they exercised +authority formed small states, whose boundaries even now, in some +places, can be pointed out with certainty. The principality of the +Terebinth[**] occupied the very heart of Egypt, where the valley is +widest, and the course of the Nile most advantageously disposed +by nature--a country well suited to be the cradle of an infant +civilization. Siaut (Siut), the capital, is built almost at the foot +of the Libyan range, on a strip of land barely a mile in width, which +separates the river from the hills. A canal surrounds it on three sides, +and makes, as it were, a natural ditch about its walls; during +the inundation it is connected with the mainland only by narrow +causeways--shaded with mimosas--and looking like a raft of verdure +aground in the current.[***] + + * These prerogatives were still exercised by the princes of + the nomes under the Middle and New Empires; they only + enjoyed them then by the good will of the reigning + sovereign. + + ** The Egyptian word for the tree which gives its name to + this principality is _atf, iatf, iotf_: it is only by a + process of elimination that I have come to identify it with + the _Pistacia Terebinthus_, L., which furnished the + Egyptians with the scented resin _snutir_. + + *** Boudier's drawing, reproduced on p. 31, and taken from + a photograph by Beato, gives most faithfully the aspect + presented by the plain and the modern town of Siout during + the inundation. + +[Illustration: 094.jpg NOMES OF MIDDLE EGYPT] + +The site is as happy as it is picturesque; not only does the town +command the two arms of the river, opening or closing the waterway at +will, but from time immemorial the most frequented of the routes into +Central Africa has terminated at its gates, bringing to it the commerce +of the Soudan. It held sway, at the outset, over both banks, from range +to range, northward as far as Deyrut, where the true Bahr Yusuf leaves +the Nile, and southward to the neighbourhood of Gebel Sheikh Haridi. The +extent and original number of the other principalities is not so easily +determined. + +The most important, to the north of Siut, were those of the Hare and the +Oleander. The principality of the Hare never reached the dimensions +of that of its neighbour the Terebinth, but its chief town was Khmunu, +whose antiquity was so remote, that a universally accepted tradition +made it the scene of the most important acts of creation.[*] That of the +Oleander, on the contrary, was even larger than that of the Terebinth, +and from Hininsu, its chief governor ruled alike over the marshes of the +Fayum and the plains of Beni-Suef.[**] To the south, Apu on the right +bank governed a district so closely shut in between a bend of the Nile +and two spurs of the range, that its limits have never varied much since +ancient times. Its inhabitants were divided in their employment between +weaving and the culture of cereals. From early times they possessed the +privilege of furnishing clothing to a large part of Egypt, and their +looms, at the present day, still make those checked or striped +"melayahs" which the fellah women wear over their long blue tunics.[***] + + * Khmunu, the present Ashmunein, is the Hermopolis of the + Greeks, the town of the god Thot. + + ** Hininsu is the _Heraecleopolis Magna_ of the Greeks, the + present Henassieh, called also Ahnas-el-Medineh. The + Egyptian word for the tree which gives its name to this + principality, is Narit. Loret has shown that this tree, + _Narit_, is the oleander. + + *** Apu was the Panopolis or Chemmis of the Greeks, the + town of the god Min or ithyphallic Khimu. Its manufactures + of linen are mentioned by Strabo; the majority of the + beautiful Coptic woven fabrics and embroideries which have + been brought to Europe lately, come from the necropolis of + the Arab period at Apu. + +Beyond Apu, Thinis, the Girgeh of the Arabs, situate on both banks of +the river, rivalled Khmunu in antiquity and Siut in wealth: its plains +still produce the richest harvests and feed the most numerous herds of +sheep and oxen in the Said. + +[Illustration: 096.jpg NOMES OF UPPER EGYPT] + +As we approach the cataract, information becomes scarcer. Qubti and Aunu +of the South, the Coptos and Hermonthis of the Greeks, shared peaceably +the plain occupied later on by Thebes and its temples, and Nekhabit and +Zobu watched over the safety of Egypt. Nekhabit soon lost its position +as a frontier town, and that portion of Nubia lying between Gebel +Silsileh and the rapids of Syene formed a kind of border province, of +which Nubit-Ombos was the principal sanctuary and Abu-Elephantine +the fortress: beyond this were the barbarians, and those inaccessible +regions whence the Nile descended upon our earth. + +The organization of the Delta, it would appear, was more slowly brought +about. It must have greatly resembled that of the lowlands of Equatorial +Africa, towards the confluence of the Bahr el Abiad and the Bahr el +Ghazal. Great tracts of mud, difficult to describe as either solid or +liquid, marshes dotted here and there with sandy islets, bristling with +papyrus reeds, water-lilies, and enormous plants through which the arms +of the Nile sluggishly pushed their ever-shifting course, low-lying +wastes intersected with streams and pools, unfit for cultivation +and scarcely available for pasturing cattle. The population of such +districts, engaged in a ceaseless struggle with nature, always preserved +relatively ruder manners, and a more rugged and savage character, +impatient of all authority. The conquest of this region began from the +outer edge only. A few principalities were established at the apex of +the Delta in localities where the soil had earliest been won from the +river. It appears that one of these divisions embraced the country +south of and between the bifurcation of the Nile: Aunu of the North, +the Heliopolis of the Greeks, was its capital. In very early times the +principality was divided, and formed three new states, independent of +each other. Those of Aunu and the Haunch were opposite to each other, +the first on the Arabian, the latter on the Libyan bank of the Nile. The +district of the White Wall marched with that of the Haunch on the north, +and on the south touched the territory of the Oleander. Further down the +river, between the more important branches, the governors of Sai's and +of Bubastis, of Athribis and of Busiris, shared among themselves the +primitive Delta. Two frontier provinces of unequal size, the Arabian on +the east in the Wady Tumilat, and the Libyan on the west to the south of +Lake Mareotis, defended the approaches of the country from the attacks +of Asiatic Bedawins and of African nomads. The marshes of the interior +and the dunes of the littoral, were not conducive to the development of +any great industry or civilization. They only comprised tracts of thinly +populated country, like the principalities of the Harpoon and of the +Cow, and others whose limits varied from century to century with +the changing course of the river. The work of rendering the marshes +salubrious and of digging canals, which had been so successful in the +Nile Valley, was less efficacious in the Delta, and proceeded more +slowly. Here the embankments were not supported by a mountain chain: +they were continued at random across the marshes, cut at every turn to +admit the waters of a canal or of an arm of the river. The waters left +their usual bed at the least disturbing influence, and made a fresh +course for themselves across country. If the inundation were delayed, +the soft and badly drained soil again became a slough: should it last +but a few weeks longer than usual, the work of several generations was +for a long time undone. The Delta of one epoch rarely presented the same +aspect as that of previous periods, and Northern Egypt never became as +fully mistress of her soil as the Egypt of the south. + +[Illustration: 099.jpg NOMES OF LOWER EGYPT] + +These first principalities, however small they appear to us, were yet +too large to remain undivided. In those times of slow communication, the +strong attraction which a capital exercised over the provinces under its +authority did not extend over a wide radius. That part of the population +of the Terebinth, living sufficiently near to Siut to come into the town +for a few hours in the morning, returning in the evening to the villages +when business was done, would not feel any desire to withdraw from the +rule of the prince who governed there. On the other hand, those who +lived outside that restricted circle were forced to seek elsewhere some +places of assembly to attend the administration of justice, to sacrifice +in common to the national gods, and to exchange the produce of the +fields and of local manufactures. Those towns which had the good fortune +to become such rallying-points naturally played the part of rivals to +the capital, and their chiefs, with the district whose population, so +to speak, gravitated around them, tended to become independent of the +prince. When they succeeded in doing this, they often preserved for the +new state thus created, the old name, slightly modified by the addition +of an epithet. The primitive territory of Siut was in this way divided +into three distinct communities; two, which remained faithful to the old +emblem of the tree--the Upper Terebinth, with Siut itself in the centre, +and the Lower Terebinth, with Kusit to the north; the third, in the +south and east, took as their totem the immortal serpent which dwelt in +their mountains, and called themselves the Serpent Mountain, whose +chief town was that of the Sparrow Hawk. The territory of the Oleander +produced by its dismemberment the principality of the Upper Oleander, +that of the Lower Oleander, and that of the Knife. The territory of +the Harpoon in the Delta divided itself into the Western and Eastern +Harpoon. The fission in most cases could not have been accomplished +without struggles; but it did take place, and all the principalities +having a domain of any considerable extent had to submit to it, however +they may have striven to avoid it. This parcelling out was continued as +circumstances afforded opportunity, until the whole of Egypt, except the +half desert districts about the cataract, became but an agglomeration of +petty states nearly equal in power and population.[*] + + * Examples of the subdivision of ancient nomes and the + creation of fresh nomes are met with long after primitive + times. We find, for example, the nome of the Western Harpoon + divided under the Greeks and Romans into two districts--that + of the Harpoon proper, of which the chief town was Sonti- + nofir; and that of Ranunr, with the Onuphis of classical + geographers for its capital. + +The Greeks called them nomes, and we have borrowed the word from them; +the natives named them in several ways, the most ancient term +being "nuit," which may be translated _domain_, and the most common +appellation in recent times being "hospu," which signifies _district_. +The number of the nomes varied considerably in the course of centuries: +the hieroglyphic monuments and classical authors fixed them sometimes at +thirty-six, sometimes at forty, sometimes at forty-four, or even fifty. +The little that we know of their history, up to the present time, +explains the reason of this variation. Ceaselessly quarrelled over by +the princely families who possessed them, the nomes were alternately +humbled and exalted by civil wars, marriages, and conquest, which caused +them continually to pass into fresh hands, either entire or divided. The +Egyptians, whom we are accustomed to consider as a people respecting +the established order of things, and conservative of ancient tradition, +showed themselves as restless and as prone to modify or destroy the work +of the past, as the most inconstant of our modern nations. The distance +of time which separates them from us, and the almost complete absence +of documents, gives them an appearance of immobility, by which we are +liable to be unconsciously deceived; when the monuments still existing +shall have been unearthed, their history will present the same +complexity of incidents, the same agitations, the same instability, +which we suspect or know to have been characteristic of most other +Oriental nations. One thing alone remained stable among them in the +midst of so many revolutions, and which prevented them from losing their +individuality and from coalescing in a common unity. This was the belief +in and the worship of one particular deity. If the little capitals +of the petty states whose origin is lost in a remote past--Edfu and +Denderah, Nekhabit and Buto, Siufc, Thinis, Khmunu, Sais, Bubastis, +Athribis--had only possessed that importance which resulted from the +presence of an ambitious petty prince, or from the wealth of their +inhabitants, they would never have passed safe and sound through the +long centuries of existence which they enjoyed from the opening to the +close of Egyptian history. Fortune raised their chiefs, some even to the +rank of rulers of the world, and in turn abased them: side by side with +the earthly ruler, whose glory was but too often eclipsed, there was +enthroned in each nome a divine ruler, a deity, a god of the domain, +"nutir nuiti," whose greatness never perished. The princely families +might be exiled or become extinct, the extent of the territory might +diminish or increase, the town might be doubled in size and population +or fall in ruins: the god lived on through all these vicissitudes, and +his presence alone preserved intact the rights of the state over which +he reigned as sovereign. If any disaster befell his worshippers, his +temple was the spot where the survivors of the catastrophe rallied +around him, their religion preventing them from mixing with the +inhabitants of neighbouring towns and from becoming lost among them. +The survivors multiplied with that extraordinary rapidity which is the +characteristic of the Egyptian fellah, and a few years of peace sufficed +to repair losses which apparently were irreparable. Local religion +was the tie which bound together those divers elements of which each +principality was composed, and as long as it remained, the nomes +remained; when it vanished, they disappeared with it. + + +[Illustration: 105.jpg PAGE IMAGE] + +[Illustration: 106.jpg PAGE IMAGE] + + + + +CHAPTER II.--THE GODS OF EGYPT + +_THEIR NUMBER AND NATURE--THE FEUDAL GODS, LIVING AND DEAD--TRIADS---- +THE TEMPLES AND PRIESTHOOD--THE COSMOGONIES OF THE DELTA----THE ENNEADS +OF HELIOPOLIS AND HERMOPOLIS._ + +_Multiplicity of the Egyptian gods: the commonalty of the gods, its +varieties, human, animal, and intermediate between man and beast; gods +of foreign origin, indigenous gods, and the contradictory forms with +which they were invested in accordance with various conceptions of their +nature. + +The Star-gods--The Sun-god as the Eye of the Shy; as a bird, as a calf, +and as a man; its barks, voyages round the world, and encounters with +the serpent Apopi--The Moon-god and its enemies--The Star-gods: the +Haunch of the Ox, the Hippopotamus, the Lion, the five Horus-planets; +Sothis Sirius, and Sahu Orion. + +The feudal gods and their classes: the Nile-gods, the earth-gods, the +sky-gods and the sun-god, the Horus-gods--The equality of feudal +gods and goddesses; their persons, alliances, and marriages: their +children--The triads and their various developments. + +The nature of the gods: the double, the soul, the body, death of men and +gods, and their fate after death--The necessity for preserving the body, +mummification--Dead gods the gods of the dead--The living gods, their +temples and images--The gods of the people, trees, serpents, family +fetiches--The theory of prayer and sacrifice: the servants of the +temples, the property of the gods, the sacerdotal colleges. + +The cosmogonies of the Delta: Sibu and Nait, Osiris and Isis, SU and +Nephthys--Heliopolis and its theological schools: Ra, his identification +with Horus, his dual nature, and the conception of Atumu--The +Heliopolitan Enneads: formation of the Great Ennead--Thot and +the Hermopolitan Ennead: creation by articulate words and by voice +alone--Diffusion of the Enneads: their connection with the local triads, +the god One and the god Eight--The one and only gods._ + +[Illustration: 107.jpg PAGE IMAGE] + + + +THE GODS OF EGYPT + +The incredible number of religious scenes to be found among the +representations on the ancient monuments of Egypt is at first glance +very striking. Nearly every illustration in the works of Egyptologists +brings before us the figure of some deity receiving with an impassive +countenance the prayers and offerings of a worshipper. One would think +that the country had been inhabited for the most part by gods, and +contained just sufficient men and animals to satisfy the requirements of +their worship. + +[Illustration: 108.jpg THE GODDESS NAPKIT, STAPIT.1] + + 1 The goddess Naprit, Napit; bas-relief from the first + chamber of Osiris, on the east side of the great temple of + Denderah. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. + +On penetrating into this mysterious world, we are confronted by an +actual rabble of gods, each one of whom has always possessed but a +limited and almost unconscious existence. They severally represented a +function, a moment in the life of man or of the universe; thus Naprit +was identified with the ripe ear, or the grain of wheat;[**] + + ** The word _naprit_ means _grain_, the grain of wheat. The + grain-god is represented in the tomb of Seti I. as a man + wearing two full ears of wheat or barley upon his head. He + is mentioned in the _Hymn to the Nile_ about the same date, + and in two or three other texts of different periods. The + goddess _Naprit_, or _Napit_, to whom reference is here + made, was his duplicate; her head-dress is a sheaf of corn, + as in the illustration. + + *** This goddess, whose name expresses and whose form + personifies the brick or stone couch, the child-bed or + -chair, upon which women in labour bowed themselves, is + sometimes subdivided into two or four secondary divinities. + She is mentioned along with Shait, _destiny_, and Raninit, + _suckling_. Her part of fairy godmother at the cradle of the + new-born child is indicated in the passage of the Westcar + Papyrus giving a detailed account of the births of three + kings of the fifth dynasty. She is represented in human + form, and often wears upon her head two long palm-shoots, + curling over at their ends. + +Maskhonit appeared by the child's cradle at the very moment of its +birth;[*] and Raninit presided over the naming and the nurture of the +newly born.[*] Neither Raninit, the fairy godmother, nor Maskhonit +exercised over nature as a whole that sovereign authority which we are +accustomed to consider the primary attribute of deity. Every day +of every year was passed by the one in easing the pangs of women in +travail; by the other, in choosing for each baby a name of an auspicious +sound, and one which would afterwards serve to exorcise the influences +of evil fortune. No sooner were their tasks accomplished in one place +than they hastened to another, where approaching birth demanded their +presence and their care. From child-bed to child-bed they passed, and if +they fulfilled the single offices in which they were accounted adepts, +the pious asked nothing more of them. Bands of mysterious cynocephali +haunting the Eastern and the Western mountains concentrated the whole +of their activity on one passing moment of the day. They danced and +chattered in the East for half an hour, to salute the sun at his rising, +even as others in the West hailed him on his entrance into night.[**] + + * Raninit presides over the child's suckling, but she also + gives him his name, and hence, his fortune. She is on the + whole the nursing goddess. Sometimes she is represented as a + human-headed woman, or as lioness-headed, most frequently + with the head of a serpent; she is also the urseus, clothed, + and wearing two long plumes on her head, and a simple urous, + as represented in the illustration on p. 169. + + ** This is the subject of a vignette in the _Book of the + Dead_, ch. xvi., where the cynocephali are placed in echelon + upon the slopes of the hill on the horizon, right and left + of the radiant solar disk, to which they offer worship by + gesticulations. + +It was the duty of certain genii to open gates in Hades, or to keep the +paths daily traversed by the sun.[*] These genii were always at their +posts, never free to leave them, and possessed no other faculty than +that of punctually fulfilling their appointed offices. Their existence, +generally unperceived, was suddenly revealed at the very moment when the +specific acts of their lives were on the point of accomplishment. These +being completed, the divinities fell back into their state of inertia, +and were, so to speak, reabsorbed by their functions until the next +occasion.[***] + + * Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie + Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. pp. 34, 35. + + *** The Egyptians employed a still more forcible expression + than our word "absorption" to express this idea. It was said + of objects wherein these genii concealed themselves, and + whence they issued in order to re-enter them immediately, + that these forms _ate_ them, or that they _ate_ their own + forms. + +[Illustration: 110.jpg SOME FABULOUS BEASTS OF THE EGYPTIAN DESERT. 2] + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from Champollion's copies, made + from the tombs of Beni-Hassan. To the right is the _sha_, + one of the animals of Sit, and an exact image of the god + with his stiff and arrow-like tail. Next comes the _safir_, + the griffin; and, lastly, we have the serpent-headed _saza_. + +Scarcely visible even by glimpses, they were not easily depicted; their +real forms being often unknown, these were approximately conjectured +from their occupations. The character and costume of an archer, or of a +spear-man, were ascribed to such as roamed through Hades, to pierce the +dead with arrows or with javelins. Those who prowled around souls to cut +their throats and hack them to pieces were represented as women armed +with knives, carvers--_donit_--or else as lacerators--_nokit_. Some +appeared in human form; others as animals--bulls or lions, rams or +monkeys, serpents, fish, ibises, hawks; others dwelt in inanimate +things, such as trees,[*] sistrums, stakes stuck in the ground;[**] and +lastly, many betrayed a mixed origin in their combinations of human and +animal forms. These latter would be regarded by us as monsters; to the +Egyptians, they were beings, rarer perhaps than the rest, but not the +less real, and their like might be encountered in the neighbourhood of +Egypt.[***] + + * Thus, the sycamores planted on the edge of the desert + were supposed to be inhabited by Hathor, Nuit, Selkit, Nit, + or some other goddess. In vignettes representing the + deceased as stopping before one of these trees and receiving + water and loaves of bread, the bust of the goddess generally + appears from amid her sheltering foliage. But occasionally, + as on the sarcophagus of Petosiris, the transformation is + complete, and the trunk from which the branches spread is + the actual body of the god or goddess. Finally, the whole + body is often hidden, and only the arm of the goddess to be + seen emerging from the midst of the tree, with an + overflowing libation vase in her hand. + + ** The trunk of a tree, disbranched, and then set up in the + ground, seems to me the origin of the Osirian emblem called + _tat_ or _didu_. The symbol was afterwards so + conventionalized as to represent four columns seen in + perspective, one capital overtopping another; it thus became + the image of the four pillars which uphold the world. + + *** The belief in the real existence of fantastic animals + was first noted by Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et + d'Archeologie Egyptiennes_, vol. i. pp. 117, 118, 132, and + vol. ii. p. 213. Until then, scholars only + recognized the sphinx, and other Egyptian monsters, as + allegorical combinations by which the priesthood claimed to + give visible expression in one and the same being to + physical or moral qualities belonging to several different + beings. The later theory has now been adopted by Wiedemann, + and by most contemporary Egyptologists. + +How could men who believed themselves surrounded by sphinxes and +griffins of flesh and blood doubt that there were bull-headed and +hawk-headed divinities with human busts? The existence of such +paradoxical creatures was proved by much authentic testimony; more +than one hunter had distinctly seen them as they ran along the furthest +planes of the horizon, beyond the herds of gazelles of which he was +in chase; and shepherds dreaded them for their flocks as truly as they +dreaded the lions, or the great felidse of the desert.[*] + + * At Beni-Hassan and in Thebes many of the fantastic animals + mentioned in the text, griffins, hierosphinxes, serpent- + headed lions, are placed along with animals which might be + encountered by local princes hunting in the desert. + +This nation of gods, like nations of men, contained foreign elements, +the origin of which was known to the Egyptians themselves. They knew +that Hathor, the milch cow, had taken up her abode in their land from +very ancient times, and they called her the Lady of Puanit, after the +name of her native country. Bisu had followed her in course of time, +and claimed his share of honours and worship along with her. He first +appeared as a leopard; then he became a man clothed in a leopard's skin, +but of strange countenance and alarming character, a big-headed dwarf +with high cheek-bones, and a wide and open mouth, whence hung an +enormous tongue; he was at once jovial and martial, the friend of the +dance and of battle.[*] + + * The hawk-headed monster with flower-tipped tail was + called the saga. + +In historic times all nations subjugated by the Pharaohs transferred +some of their principal divinities to their conquerors, and the Libyan +Shehadidi was enthroned in the valley of the Nile, in the same way as +the Semitic Baalu and his retinue of Astartes, Anitis, Eeshephs, and +Kadshus. These divine colonists fared like all foreigners who +have sought to settle on the banks of the Nile: they were promptly +assimilated, wrought, moulded, and made into Egyptian deities scarcely +distinguishable from those of the old race. This mixed pantheon had +its grades of nobles, princes, kings, and each of its members was +representative of one of the elements constituting the world, or of one +of the forces which regulated its government. + +[Illustration: 113.jpb SOME FABULOUS BEASTS OF THE EGYPTIAN DESERT 1] + + 1 Bisu, pp. 111-184. The tail-piece to the summary of this + chapter is a figure of Bisu, drawn by Faucher-Gudin from an + amulet in blue enamelled pottery. + +The sky, the earth, the stars, the sun, the Nile, were so many breathing +and thinking beings whose lives were daily manifest in the life of the +universe. + +They were worshipped from one end of the valley to the other, and the +whole nation agreed in proclaiming their sovereign power. But when the +people began to name them, to define their powers and attributes, to +particularize their forms, or the relationships that subsisted among +them, this unanimity was at an end. Each principality, each nome, each +city, almost every village, conceived and represented them differently. +Some said that the sky was the Great Horus, Haroeris, the sparrow-hawk +of mottled plumage which hovers in highest air, and whose gaze embraces +the whole field of creation. Owing to a punning assonance between his +name and the word _horu_, which designates the human countenance, the +two senses were combined, and to the idea of the sparrow-hawk there was +added that of a divine face, whose two eyes opened in turn, the right +eye being the sun, to give light by day, and the left eye the moon, to +illumine the night. The face shone also with a light of its own, the +zodiacal light, which appeared unexpectedly, morning or evening, a +little before sunrise, and a little after sunset. These luminous beams, +radiating from a common centre, hidden in the heights of the firmament, +spread into a wide pyramidal sheet of liquid blue, whose base rested +upon the earth, but whose apex was slightly inclined towards the zenith. +The divine face was symmetrically framed, and attached to earth by four +thick locks of hair; these were the pillars which upbore the firmament +and prevented its falling into ruin. A no less ancient tradition +disregarded as fabulous all tales told of the sparrow-hawk, or of the +face, and taught that heaven and earth are wedded gods, Sibu, and Nuit, +from whose marriage came forth all that has been, all that is, and all +that shall be. + +[Illustration: 115.jpg NUIT THE STARRY ONE. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painted coffin of the XXIth + dynasty in Leyden. + +Most people invested them with human form, and represented the earth-god +Sibu as extended beneath Nuit the Starry One; the goddess stretched out +her arms, stretched out her slender legs, stretched out her body above +the clouds, and her dishevelled head drooped westward. But there were +also many who believed that Sibu was concealed under the form of a +colossal gander, whose mate once laid the Sun Egg, and perhaps still +laid it daily. From the piercing cries wherewith he congratulated her, +and announced the good news to all who cared to hear it--after the +manner of his kind--he had received the flattering epithet of _Ngagu +oiru_, the Great Cack-ler. Other versions repudiated the goose in favour +of a vigorous bull, the father of gods and men, whose companion was a +cow, a large-eyed Hathor, of beautiful countenance. The head of the +good beast rises into the heavens, the mysterious waters which cover +the world flow along her spine; the star-covered underside of her body, +which we call the firmament, is visible to the inhabitants of earth, and +her four legs are the four pillars standing at the four cardinal points +of the world. + +[Illustration: 116.jpg THE GOOSE-GOD FACING THE CAT-GODDESS, THE LADY OF +HEAVEN. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a stella in the museum of + Gizeh. This is not the goose of Sibu, but the goose of Amon, + which was nurtured in the temple of Karnak, and was called + Smonu. Pacing it is the cat of Maut, the wife of Amon. Amon, + originally an earth-god, was, as we see, confounded with + Sibu, and thus naturally appropriated that deity's form of a + goose. + +The planets, and especially the sun, varied in form and nature according +to the prevailing conception of the heavens. The fiery disk _Atonu_, by +which the sun revealed himself to men, was a living god, called Ra, as +was also the planet itself.[*] Where the sky was regarded as Horus, Ra +formed the right eye of the divine face: when Horus opened his eyelids +in the morning, he made the dawn and day; when he closed them in the +evening, the dusk and night were at hand. + + * The name of Ra has been variously explained. The + commonest etymology is that deriving the name from a verb + ra, _to give, to make to be_ a person or a thing, so that Ra + would thus be the great organizer, the author of all things. + Lauth goes so far as to say that "notwithstanding its + brevity, Ra is a composite word (r-a, _maker--to be_)" As a + matter of fact, the word is simply the name of the + planet applied to the god. It means the _sun_, and nothing + more. + +[Illustration: 117.jpg THE COW HATHOR, THE LADY OP HEAVEN.3] + + 3 Drawn by Boudier, from a XXXth dynasty statue of green + basalt in the Gizeh Museum (Maspero, _Guide du Visiteur_, p. + 345, No. 5243). The statue was also published by Mariette, + _Monuments divers_, pl. 96 A-B, and in the _Album + photographique du Musee de Boulaq_, pl. x. + +Where the sky was looked upon as the incarnation of a goddess, Ra was +considered as her son,[**] his father being the earth-god, and he was +born again with every new dawn, wearing a sidelock, and with his finger +to his lips as human children were conventionally represented. + + ** Several passages from the Pyramid texts prove that the + _two eyes_ were very anciently considered as belonging to + the face of Nuit, and this conception persisted to the last + days of Egyptian paganism. Hence, we must not be surprised + if the inscriptions generally represent the god Ra as coming + forth from Nuit under the form of a disc, or a scarabaeus, + and born of her even as human children are born. + +He was also that luminous egg, laid and hatched in the East by the +celestial goose, from which the sun breaks forth to fill the world with +its rays.[**] + + ** These are the very expressions used in the seventeenth + chapter of the _Book of the Dead_ (Naville's edition, vol. + i. pl. xxv. lines 58-61; Lepsius, _Todtenbuch_, pl. ix. 11. + 50, 51). + +[Illustration: 118.jpg THE TWELVE STAGES IN THE LIFE OF THE SUN AND ITS +TWELVE FORMS THROUGHOUT THE DAY. 1] + + 1 The twelve forms of the sun during the twelve hours of + the day, from the ceiling of the Hall of the New Year at + Edfu. Drawing by Faucher-Gudin. + +Nevertheless, by an anomaly not uncommon in religions, the egg did not +always contain the same kind of bird; a lapwing, or a heron, might +come out of it,[*] or perhaps, in memory of Horus, one of the beautiful +golden sparrow-hawks of Southern Egypt. A Sun-Hawk, hovering in high +heaven on outspread wings, at least presented a bold and poetic image; +but what can be said for a Sun-Calf? Yet it is under the innocent +aspect of a spotted calf, a "sucking calf of pure mouth,"[**] that the +Egyptians were pleased to describe the Sun-God when Sibu, the father, +was a bull, and Hathor a heifer. + + * The lapwing or the heron, the Egyptian _bonu_, is + generally the Osirian bird. The persistence with which it is + associated with Heliopolis and the gods of that city shows + that in this also we have a secondary form of Ra. + + ** The calf is represented in ch. cix. of the _Book of the + Dead_ (Naville's edition, pl. cxx.), where the text says + (lines 10, 11), "I know that this calf is Harmakhis the Sun, + and that it is no other than the Morning Star, daily + saluting Ra." The expression "_sucking calf of pure + mouth_" is taken word for word from a formula preserved in + the Pyramid texts (Unas, 1. 20). + +But the prevalent conception was that in which the life of the sun was +likened to the life of man. The two deities presiding over the East +received the orb upon their hands at its birth, just as midwives receive +a new-born child, and cared for it during the first hour of the day and +of its life. It soon left them, and proceeded "under the belly of Nuit," +growing and strengthening from minute to minute, until at noon it had +become a triumphant hero whose splendour is shed abroad over all. But as +night comes on his strength forsakes him and his glory is obscured; he +is bent and broken down, and heavily drags himself along like an old +man leaning upon his stick. At length he passes away beyond the horizon, +plunging westward into the mouth of Nuit, and traversing her body by +night to be born anew the next morning, again to follow the paths along +which he had travelled on the preceding day. + +A first bark, the _saktit_, awaited him at his birth, and carried him +from the Eastern to the Southern extremity of the world. _Mazit_, the +second bark, received him at noon, and bore him into the land of Manu, +which is at the entrance into Hades; other barks, with which we are less +familiar, conveyed him by night, from his setting until his rising at +morn.[*] Sometimes he was supposed to enter the barks alone, and then +they were magic and self-directed, having neither oars, nor sails, nor +helm.[**] + + * In the formulae of the _Book of Knowing that which is in + Hades_, the dead sun remains in the bark Saktit during part + of the night, and it is only to traverse the fourth and + fifth hours that he changes into another. + + ** Such is the bark of the sun in the other world. Although + carrying a complete crew of gods, yet for the most part it + progresses at its own will, and without their help. The bark + containing the sun alone is represented in many vignettes of + the _Book of the Dead_, and at the head of many stelae. + +Sometimes they were equipped with a full crew, like that of an Egyptian +boat--a pilot at the prow to take soundings in the channel and forecast +the wind, a pilot astern to steer, a quartermaster in the midst to +transmit the orders of the pilot at the prow to the pilot at the stern, +and half a dozen sailors to handle poles or oars. Peacefully the bark +glided along the celestial river amid the acclamations of the gods who +dwelt upon its shores. But, occasionally, Apopi, a gigantic serpent, +like that which hides within the earthly Nile and devours its banks, +came forth from the depth of the waters and arose in the path of the +god.[*] As soon as they caught sight of it in the distance, the crew +flew to arms, and entered upon the struggle against him with prayers +and spear-thrusts. Men in their cities saw the sun faint and fail, +and sought to succour him in his distress; they cried aloud, they were +beside themselves with excitement, beating their breasts, sounding their +instruments of music, and striking with all their strength upon every +metal vase or utensil in their possession, that their clamour might rise +to heaven and terrify the monster. After a time of anguish, Ra emerged +from the darkness and again went on his way, while Apopi sank back into +the abyss,[**] paralysed by the magic of the gods, and pierced with many +a wound. + + * In Upper Egypt there is a widespread belief in the + existence of a monstrous serpent, who dwells at the bottom + of the river, and is the genius of the Nile. It is he who + brings about those falls of earth (_batabit_) at the decline + of the inundation which often destroy the banks and eat + whole fields. At such times, offerings of durrah, fowls, and + dates are made to him, that his hunger may be appeased, and + it is not only the natives who give themselves up to these + superstitious practices. Part of the grounds belonging to + the Karnak hotel at Luxor having been carried away during + the autumn of 1884, the manager, a Greek, made the customary + offerings to the serpent of the Nile. + + ** The character of Apopi and of his struggle with the sun + was, from the first, excellently defined by Champollion as + representing the conflict of darkness with light. + Occasionally, but very rarely, Apopi seems to win, and his + triumph over Ra furnishes one explanation of a solar + eclipse. A similar explanation is common to many races. In + one very ancient form of the Egyptian legend, the sun is + represented by a wild ass running round the world along the + sides of the mountains that uphold the sky, and the serpent + which attacks it is called _Haiu_. + +Apart from these temporary eclipses, which no one could foretell, the +Sun-King steadily followed his course round the world, according to laws +which even his will could not change. Day after day he made his oblique +ascent from east to south, thence to descend obliquely towards the west. +During the summer months the obliquity of his course diminished, and +he came closer to Egypt; during the winter it increased, and he went +farther away. This double movement recurred with such regularity from +equinox to solstice, and from solstice to equinox, that the day of +the god's departure and the day of his return could be confidently +predicted. The Egyptians explained this phenomenon according to their +conceptions of the nature of the world. The solar bark always kept close +to that bank of the celestial river which was nearest to men; and when +the river overflowed at the annual inundation, the sun was carried along +with it outside the regular bed of the stream, and brought yet closer +to Egypt. As the inundation abated, the bark descended and receded, its +greatest distance from earth corresponding with the lowest level of the +waters. It was again brought back to us by the rising strength of the +next flood; and, as this phenomenon was yearly repeated, the periodicity +of the sun's oblique movements was regarded as the necessary consequence +of the periodic movements of the celestial Nile. + +The same stream also carried a whole crowd of gods, whose existence was +revealed at night only to the inhabitants of earth. At an interval of +twelve hours, and in its own bark, the pale disk of the moon--_Yauhu +Auhu_--followed the disk of the sun along the ramparts of the world. +The moon, also, appeared in many various forms--here, as a man born of +Nuit;[*] there, as a cynocephalus or an ibis;[**] elsewhere, it was the +left eye of Horus,[***] guarded by the ibis or cynocephalus. Like Ra, +it had its enemies incessantly upon the watch for it: the crocodile, the +hippopotamus, and the sow. But it was when at the full, about the 15th +of each month, that the lunar eye was in greatest peril. + + * He may be seen as a child, or man, bearing the lunar disk + upon his head, and pressing the lunar eye to his breast. + Passages from the Pyramid text of Unas indicate the + relationship subsisting between Thot, Sibu, and Nuit, making + Thot the brother of Isis, Sit, and Nephthys. In later times + he was considered a son of Ra. + + ** Even as late as the Graeco-Roman period, the temple of + Thot at Khmunu contained a sacred ibis, which was the + incarnation of the god, and said to be immortal by the local + priesthood. The temple sacristans showed it to Apion the + grammarian, who reports the fact, but is very sceptical in + the matter. + + *** The texts quoted by Chabas and Lepsius to show that the + sun is the right eye of Horus also prove that his left eye + is the moon. + +[Illustration: 123.jpg EGYPTIAN CONCEPTION OF THE PRINCIPAL +CONSTELLATIONS OF THE NORTHERN SKY.4] + + 4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the ceiling of the + Ramesseum. On the right, the _female hippopotamus_ bearing + the _crocodile_, and leaning on the _Monait_; in the middle, + the _Haunch_, here represented by the whole bull; to the + left, _Selkit_ and the _Sparrow-hawk_, with the _Lion_, and + the _Giant fighting the Crocodile_. + +The sow fell upon it, tore it out of the face of heaven, and cast it, +streaming with blood and tears, into the celestial Nile, where it was +gradually extinguished, and lost for days; but its twin, the sun, or +its guardian, the cyno-cephalus, immediately set forth to find it and +to restore it to Horus. No sooner was it replaced, than it slowly +recovered, and renewed its radiance; when it was well--_uzait_--the sow +again attacked and mutilated it, and the gods rescued and again revived +it. + +[Illustration: 124.jpg THE LUNAR BARK, SELF-PROPELLED, UNDER THE +PROTECTION OF THE TWO EYES.] + +Each month there was a fortnight of youth and of growing splendour, +followed by a fortnight's agony and ever-increasing pallor. It was born +to die, and died to be born again twelve times in the year, and each +of these cycles measured a month for the inhabitants of the world. +One invariable accident from time to time disturbed the routine of +its existence. Profiting by some distraction of the guardians, the sow +greedily swallowed it, and then its light went out suddenly, instead of +fading gradually. These eclipses, which alarmed mankind at least as much +as did those of the sun, were scarcely more than momentary, the gods +compelling the monster to cast up the eye before it had been destroyed. + +[Illustration: 125.jpg THE HAUNCH, AND THE FEMALE HIPPOPOTAMUS.1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the rectangular zodiac + carved upon the ceiling of the great temple of Denderah + (Dumichen, _Resultate_, vol. ii. pl. xxxix.). + +Every evening the lunar bark issued out of Hades by the door which Ra +had passed through in the morning, and as it rose on the horizon, the +star-lamps scattered over the firmament appeared one by one, giving +light here and there like the camp-fires of a distant army. However +many of them there might be, there were as many Indestructibles--_Akhimu +Soku_--or Unchanging Ones--_Akhimu Urdu_--whose charge it was to attend +upon them and watch over their maintenance.[**] + + ** The _Akhimu Soku_ and the _Akhimu Urdu_ have been very + variously defined by different Egyptologists who have + studied them. Chabas considered them to be gods or genii of + the constellations of the ecliptic, which mark the apparent + course of the sun through the sky. Following the indications + given by Deveria, he also thought them to be the sailors of + the solar bark, and perhaps the gods of the twelve hours, + divided into two classes: the _Akhimu Soku_ being those who + are rowing, and the _Akhimu Urdu_ those who are resting. But + texts found and cited by Brugsch show that the _Akhimu Soku_ + are the planets accompanying Ra in the northern sky, while + the _Akhimu Urdu_ are his escort in the south. The + nomenclature of the stars included in these two classes is + furnished by monuments of widely different epochs. The two + names should be translated according to the meaning of their + component words: _Akhimu Soku_, those who know not + destruction, the Indestructibles; and _Akhimu Urdu_ ( + _Urzii_), those who know not the immobility of death, the + _Imperishables_. + +They were not scattered at random by the hand which had suspended them, +but their distribution had been ordered in accordance with a certain +plan, and they were arranged in fixed groups like so many star +republics, each being independent of its neighbours. They represented +the outlines of bodies of men and animals dimly traced out upon +the depths of night, but shining with greater brilliancy in certain +important places. The seven stars which we liken to a chariot (Charles's +Wain) suggested to the Egyptians the haunch of an ox placed on the +northern edge of the horizon.[*] + + * The forms of the constellations, and the number of stars + composing them in the astronomy of different periods, are + known from the astronomical scenes of tombs and temples. The + identity of the _Haunch_ with the _Chariot_, or _Great Bear_ + of modern astronomy, was discovered by Lepsius and confirmed + by Biot. Mariette pointed out that the Pyramid Arabs applied + the name of the _Haunch (er-Rigl)_ to the same group of + stars as that thus designated by the ancient Egyptians. + Champollion had noted the position of the _Haunch_ in the + northern sky, but had not suggested any identification. The + _Haunch_ appertained to Sit-Typhon. + +Two lesser stars connected the haunch--_Maskhait_--with +thirteen others, which recalled the silhouette of a female +hippopotamus--_Ririt_--erect upon her hind legs,[*] and jauntily +carrying upon her shoulders a monstrous crocodile whose jaws opened +threateningly above her head. Eighteen luminaries of varying size and +splendour, forming a group hard by the hippopotamus, indicated the +outline of a gigantic lion couchant, with stiffened tail, its head +turned to the right, and facing the Haunch.[***] + + * The connection of _Birit_, the female hippopotamus, with + the Haunch is made quite clear in scenes from Philae and + Edfu, representing Isis holding back Typhon by a chain, that + he might do no hurt to Sahii-Osiris. Jollois and Devilliers + thought that the hippopotamus was the _Great Bear_. Biot + contested their conclusions, and while holding that the + hippopotamus might at least in part present our + constellation of the Dragon, thought that it was probably + included in the scene only as an ornament, or as an emblem. + The present tendency is to identify the hippopotamus with + the Dragon and with certain stars not included in the + constellations surrounding it. + + *** The Lion, with its eighteen stars, is represented on + the tomb of Seti I.; on the ceiling of the Ramesseum; and on + the sarcophagus of Htari. + +[Illustration: 127.jpg OKION, SOTHIS, AND TWO HOKUS-PLANETS STANDING IN +THEIR BAKKS. 2] + + 2 From the astronomic ceiling in the tomb of Seti I. + (Lefebure, 4th part, pl. xxxvi.). + +The Lion is sometimes shown as having a crocodile's tail. According +to Biot the Egyptian Lion has nothing in common with the Greek +constellation of that name, nor yet with our own, but was composed of +smaller stars, belonging to the Greek constellation of the Cup or to +the continuation of the Hydra, so that its head, its body, and its +tail would follow the [ ] of the Hydra, between the [ ] and [ ] of that +constellation, or the [ ] of the Virgin. + +Most of the constellations never left the sky: night after night they +were to be found almost in the same places, and always shining with the +same even light. + +[Illustration: 128.jpg SAHU-ORION. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a small bronze in the Gizeh + Museum, published by Mariette, in the _Album photographique + du Musee de Boulaq_, pl. 9. The legs are a modern + restoration. + +Others borne by a slow movement passed annually beyond the limits of +sight for months at a time. Five at least of our planets were known +from all antiquity, and their characteristic colours and appearances +carefully noted. Sometimes each was thought to be a hawk-headed Horus. +Uapshetatui, our Jupiter, Kahiri-(Saturn), Sobku-(Mercury), steered +their barks straight ahead like Iauhu and Ra; but Mars-Doshiri, the +red, sailed backwards. As a star Bonu, the bird (Yenus) had a dual +personality; in the evening it was Uati, the lonely star which is +the first to rise, often before nightfall; in the morning it became +Tiunutiri, the god who hails the sun before his rising and proclaims the +dawn of day. + +Sahu and Sopdit, Orion and Sirius, were the rulers of this mysterious +world. Sahu consisted of fifteen stars, seven large and eight small, +so arranged as to represent a runner darting through space, while the +fairest of them shone above his head, and marked him out from afar to +the admiration of mortals. + +[Illustration: 129.jpg ORION AND THE COW SOTHIS SEPARATED BY THE +SPARROW-HAWK. 1] + + 1 Scene from the rectangular zodiac of Denderah, drawn by + Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken with magnesium light + by Dumichen. + +With his right hand he flourished the _crux ansata_, and turning his +head towards Sothis as he beckoned her on with his left, seemed as +though inviting her to follow him. The goddess, standing sceptre in +hand, and crowned with a diadem of tall feathers surmounted by her most +radiant star, answered the call of Sahu with a gesture, and quietly +embarked in pursuit as though in no anxiety to overtake him. Sometimes +she is represented as a cow lying down in her bark, with tree stars +along her back, and Sirius flaming from between her horns.[*] + + * The identity of the cow with Sothis was discovered by + Jollois and Devilliers. It is under this animal form that + Sothis is represented in most of the Graeco-Roman temples, + at Denderah, Edfu, Esneh, Der el-Medineh. + +Not content to shine by night only, her bluish rays, suddenly darted +forth in full daylight and without any warning, often described upon the +sky the mystic lines of the triangle which stood for her name. It was +then that she produced those curious phenomena of the zodiacal light +which other legends attributed to Horus himself. One, and perhaps +the most ancient of the innumerable accounts of this god and goddess, +represented Sahu as a wild hunter. A world as vast as ours rested upon +the other side of the iron firmament; like ours, it was distributed into +seas, and continents divided by rivers and canals, but peopled by races +unknown to men. Sahu traversed it during the day, surrounded by genii +who presided over the lamps forming his constellation. At his appearing +"the stars prepared themselves for battle, the heavenly archers rushed +forward, the bones of the gods upon the horizon trembled at the sight +of him," for it was no common game that he hunted, but the very gods +themselves. One attendant secured the prey with a lasso, as bulls are +caught in the pastures, while another examined each capture to decide if +it were pure and good for food. This being determined, others bound the +divine victim, cut its throat, disembowelled it, cut up its carcass, +cast the joints into a pot, and superintended their cooking. Sahu did +not devour indifferently all that the fortune of the chase might bring +him, but classified his game in accordance with his wants. He ate the +great gods at his breakfast in the morning, the lesser gods at his +dinner towards noon, and the small ones at his supper; the old were +rendered more tender by roasting. + +[Illustration: 131.jpg AMON-RA, AS MINU OF COPTOS, AND INVESTED WITH HIS +EMBLEMS. 1] + + 1 Scene on the north wall of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak; + drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger, taken in + 1882. The king, Seti I., is presenting bouquets of leaves to + Amon-Minu. Behind the god stands Isis (of Coptos), sceptre + and _crux ansata_ in hand. + +As each god was assimilated by him, its most precious virtues were +transfused into himself; by the wisdom of the old was his wisdom +strengthened, the youth of the young repaired the daily waste of his +own youth, and all their fires, as they penetrated his being, served to +maintain the perpetual splendour of his light. + +The nome gods who presided over the destinies of Egyptian cities, and +formed a true feudal system of divinities, belonged to one or other of +these natural categories. In vain do they present themselves under +the most shifting aspects and the most deceptive attributes; in vain +disguise themselves with the utmost care; a closer examination generally +discloses the principal features of their original physiognomies. Osiris +of the Delta, Khuumu of the Cataract, Harshafitu of Heracleopolis, were +each of them, incarnations of the fertilizing and life-sustaining Nile. +Wherever there is some important change in the river, there they are +more especially installed and worshipped: Khnumu at the place of its +entering into Egypt, and again at the town of Haurit, near the point +where a great arm branches off from the Eastern stream to flow towards +the Libyan hills and form the Bahr-Yusuf: Harshafitu at the gorges of +the Fayum, where the Bahr-Yusuf leaves the valley; and, finally, Osiris +at Mendes and at Busiris, towards the mouth of the middle branch, which +was held to be the true Nile by the people of the land. Isis of Buto +denoted the black vegetable mould of the valley, the distinctive soil of +Egypt annually covered and fertilized by the inundation.[*] + + * In the case of Isis, as in that of Osiris, we must mark + the original character; and note her characteristics as + goddess of the Delta before she had become a multiple and + contradictory personality through being confounded with + other divinities. + +But the earth in general, as distinguished from the sky--the earth with +its continents, its seas, its alternation of barren deserts and fertile +lands--was represented as a man: Phtah at Memphis, Amon at Thebes, Minu +at Coptos and at Panopolis. Amon seems rather to have symbolized the +productive soil, while Minu reigned over the desert. But these were fine +distinctions, not invariably insisted upon, and his worshippers often +invested Amon with the most significant attributes of Minu. + +[Illustration: 133.jpg ANHURI. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze of the Saite period, + in my own possession. + +The Sky-gods, like the Earth-gods, were separated into two groups, the +one consisting of women: Hathor of Denderah, or Nit of Sais; the other +composed of men identical with Horus, or derived from him: Anhuri-Shu of +Sebennytos and Thinis; Harmerati, Horus of the two eyes, at Pharbaethos; +Har-Sapdi, Horus the source of the zodiacal light, in the Wady Tumilat; +and finally Harhuditi at Edfu. Ra, the solar disk, was enthroned at +Heliopolis, and sun-gods were numerous among the nome deities, but they +were sun-gods closely connected with gods representing the sky, and +resembled Horus quite as much as Ra. Whether under the name of Horus +or of Anhuri, the sky was early identified with its most brilliant +luminary, its solar eye, and its divinity was as it were fused into that +of the Sun. Horus the Sun, and Ra, the Sun-Cod of Heliopolis, had so +permeated each other that none could say where the one began and the +other ended. One by one all the functions of Ra had been usurped by +Horus, and all the designations of Horus had been appropriated by Ra. +The sun was styled Harmakhuiti, the Horus of the two mountains--that is, +the Horus who comes forth from the mountain of the east in the morning, +and retires at evening into the mountain of the west;[*] or Hartima, +Horus the Pikeman, that Horus whose lance spears the hippopotamus or the +serpent of the celestial river; or Harnubi, the Golden Horus, the great +golden sparrow-hawk with mottled plumage, who puts all other birds +to flight; and these titles were indifferently applied to each of the +feudal gods who represented the sun. + + * From the time of Champollion, Harmakhuiti has been + identified with the Harmachis of the Greeks, the great + Sphinx. + +[Illustration: 134.jpg THE HAWK-HEADED HOKUS.2] + + 2 A bronze of the Saite period, from the Posno collection, + and now in the Louvre; drawn by Faucher-Gudin. The god is + represented as upholding a libation vase with both hands, + and pouring the life-giving water upon the king, standing, + or prostrate, before him. In performing this ceremony, he + was always assisted by another god, generally by Sit, + sometimes by Thot or Anubis. + +The latter were numerous. Sometimes, as in the case of Harkhobi, Horus +of Khobiu,[*] a geographical qualification was appended to the generic +term of Horus, while specific names, almost invariably derived from +the parts which they were supposed to play, were borne by others. The +sky-god worshipped at Thinis in Upper Egypt, at Zarit and at Sebennytos +in Lower Egypt, was called Anhuri. When he assumed the attributes of +Ra, and took upon himself the solar nature, his name was interpreted as +denoting the conqueror of the sky. He was essentially combative. Crowned +with a group of upright plumes, his spear raised and ever ready to +strike the foe, he advanced along the firmament and triumphantly +traversed it day by day.[**] The sun-god who at Medamofc Taud and Erment +had preceded Amon as ruler of the Theban plain, was also a warrior, +and his name of Montu had reference to his method of fighting. He was +depicted as brandishing a curved sword and cutting off the heads of his +adversaries.[***] + + * _Harkhobi, Haramkhobiu_ is the Horus of the marshes + (_khobiu_) of the Delta, the lesser Horus the son of Isis, + who was also made into the son of Osiris. + + ** The right reading of the name was given as far back as + Lepsius. The part played by the god, and the nature of the + link connecting him with Shu, have been explained by + Maspero. The Greeks transcribed his name Onouris, and + identified him with Ares. + + *** Montu preceded Amon as god of the land between Kus and + Gebelen, and he recovered his old position in the Graeco- + Roman period after the destruction of Thebes. Most + Egyptologists, and finally Brugsch, made him into a + secondary form of Amon, which is contrary to what we know of + the history of the province. Just as Onu of the south + (Erment) preceded Thebes as the most important town in that + district, so Montu had been its most honoured god. Heer + Wiedemann thinks the name related to that of Amon and + derived from it, with the addition of the final _tu_. + +Each of the feudal gods naturally cherished pretensions to universal +dominion, and proclaimed himself the suzerain, the father of all the +gods, as the local prince was the suzerain, the father of all men; but +the effective suzerainty of god or prince really ended where that of his +peers ruling over the adjacent nomes began. + +[Illustration: 136.jpg THE HOEUS OF HIBONU, ON THE BACK OF THE GAZELLE.] + +The goddesses shared in the exercise of supreme power, and had the same +right of inheritance and possession as regards sovereignty that women +had in human law.[*] Isis was entitled lady and mistress at Buto, as +Hathor was at Denderah, and as Nit at Sais, "the firstborn, when as yet +there had been no birth." They enjoyed in their cities the same honours +as the male gods in theirs; as the latter were kings, so were they +queens, and all bowed down before them. The animal gods, whether +entirely in the form of beasts, or having human bodies attached to +animal heads, shared omnipotence with those in human form. Horus of +Hibonu swooped down upon the back of a gazelle like a hunting hawk, +Hathor of Denderah was a cow, Bastit of Bubastis was a cat or a tigress, +while Nekhabit of El Kab was a great bald-headed vulture.[**] Hermopolis +worshipped the ibis and cynocephalus of Thot; Oxyrrhynchus the +_mor-myrus_ fish;[***] and Ombos and the Fayum a crocodile, under the +name of Sobku,[****] sometimes with the epithet of Azai, the brigand.[v] + + * In attempts at reconstituting Egyptian religions, no + adequate weight has hitherto been given to the equality of + gods and goddesses, a fact to which attention was first + called by Maspeeo (_Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie + Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. p. 253, et seq.). + + ** Nekhabit, the goddess of the south, is the vulture, so + often represented in scenes of war or sacrifice, who hovers + over the head of the Pharaohs. She is also shown as a + vulture-headed woman. + + *** We have this on the testimony of classic writers, + Steabo, book xvii. p. 812, _De Iside et Csiride_, Sec. vii., + 1872, Paethey's edition, pp. 9, 30, 128. ^Elianus, Hist, + anim., book x. Sec. 46. + + **** Sobhu, Sovku is the animal's name, and the exact + translation of Sovu would be crocodile-god. Its Greek + transcription is [ ]. On account of the assonance of the + names he was sometimes confounded with _Sivu, Sibu_ by the + Egyptians themselves, and thus obtained the titles of that + god. This was especially the case at the time when Sit + having been proscribed, Sovku the crocodile, who was + connected with Sit, shared his evil reputation, and + endeavoured to disguise his name or true character as much + as possible. + + v Azai is generally considered to be the Osiris of the + Fayum, but he was only transformed into Osiris, and that by + the most daring process of assimilation. His full name + defines him as _Osiri Azai hi halt To-sit (Osiris the + Brigand, who is in the Fayum)_, that is to say, as Sovku + identified with Osiris. + +[Illustration: 138.jpg THE CAT-HEADED BAST. 4] + + 4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a green enamelled figure in + my possession (Saite period). + +We cannot always understand what led the inhabitants of each nome to +affect one animal rather than another. Why, towards Graeco-Roman times, +should they have worshipped the jackal, or even the dog, at Siut?[**] +How came Sit to be incarnate in a fennec, or in an imaginary +quadruped?[***] Occasionally, however, we can follow the train of +thought that determined their choice. + + ** Uapuaitu, the _guide of the celestial ways_, who must not + be confounded with Anubis of the Cynopolite nome of Upper + Egypt, was originally the feudal god of Siut. He guided + human souls to the paradise of the Oasis, and the sun upon + its southern path by day, and its northern path by night. + + *** Champollion, Rosellini, Lepsius, have held that the + Typhonian animal was a purely imaginary one, and Wilkinson + says that the Egyptians themselves admitted its unreality by + representing it along with other fantastic beasts. This + would rather tend to show that they believed in its actual + existence (cf. p. 112 of this History). Plbyte thinks that + it may be a degenerated form of the figure of the ass or + oryx. + +The habit of certain monkeys in assembling as it were in full court, +and chattering noisily a little before sunrise and sunset, would almost +justify the as yet uncivilized Egyptians in entrusting cynocephali with +the charge of hailing the god morning and evening as he appeared in the +east, or passed away in the west. + +[Illustration: 139.jpg TWO IMAGES] + +If Ra was held to be a grasshopper under the Old Empire, it was because +he flew far up in the sky like the clouds of locusts driven from Central +Africa which suddenly fall upon the fields and ravage them. Most of the +Nile-gods, Khnumu, Osiris, Harshafitu, were incarnate in the form of a +ram or of a buck. Does not the masculine vigour and procreative rage +of these animals naturally point them out as fitting images of the +life-giving Nile and the overflowing of its waters? It is easy to +understand how the neighbourhood of a marsh or of a rock-encumbered +rapid should have suggested the crocodile as supreme deity to the +inhabitants of the Fayum or of Ombos. The crocodiles there multiplied so +rapidly as to constitute a serious danger; there they had the mastery, +and could be appeased only by means of prayers and sacrifices. +When instinctive terror had been superseded by reflection, and some +explanation was offered of the origin of the various cults, the very +nature of the animal seemed to justify the veneration with which it was +regarded. The crocodile is amphibious; and Sobku was supposed to be +a crocodile, because before the creation the sovereign god plunged +recklessly into the dark waters and came forth to form the world, as the +crocodile emerges from the river to lay its eggs upon the bank. + +Most of the feudal divinities began their lives in solitary grandeur, +apart from, and often hostile to, their neighbours. Families were +assigned to them later.[*] + + * The existence of the Egyptian triads was discovered and + defined by Champollion. These triads have long served as the + basis upon which modern writers have sought to establish + their systems of the Egyptian religion. Brugsch was the + first who rightly attempted to replace the triad by the + Ennead, in his book Religion und Mythologie der alten + AEgypter. The process of forming local triads, as here set + forth, was first pointed out by Maspero (_Etudes de + Mythologie et d'Archeologie Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. p. 269, + et seq.). + +Each appropriated two companions and formed a trinity, or as it is +generally called, a triad. But there were several kinds of triads. In +nomes subject to a god, the local deity was frequently content with one +wife and one son; but often he was united to two goddesses, who were at +once his sisters and his wives according to the national custom. + +[Illustration: 141.jpg NIT OF SAIS.] + +Thus, Thot of Hermopolis possessed himself of a harem consisting of +Seshait-Safk-hitabui and Hahmauit. Tumu divided the homage of the +inhabitants of Helio-polis with Nebthotpit and with Iusasit. Khnumu +seduced and married the two fairies of the neighbouring cataract--Anukit +the constrainer, who compresses the Nile between its rocks at Philse and +at Syene, and Satit the archeress, who shoots forth the current straight +and swift as an arrow.[*] Where a goddess reigned over a nome, the triad +was completed by two male deities, a divine consort and a divine son. +Nit of Sai's had taken for her husband Osiris of Mendes, and borne him a +lion's whelp, Ari-hos-nofir.[**] + + * Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie + Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. p. 273, et seq. + + ** _Arihosnofir_ means _the lion whose gaze has a + beneficent fascination_. He also goes under the name of + _Tutu_, which seems as though it should be translated "_the + bounding_,"--a mere epithet characterizing one gait of the + lion-god's. + +Hathor of Denderah had completed her household with Haroeris and a +younger Horus, with the epithet of Ahi--he who strikes the sistrum.[*] + + * Brugsch explains the name of Ahi as meaning _he who + causes his waters to rise_, and recognizes this personage as + being, among other things, a form of the Nile. The + interpretation offered by myself is borne out by the many + scenes representing the child of Hathor playing upon the + sistrum and the _monait_. Moreover, _ahi, ahit_ is an + invariable title of the priests and priestesses whose office + it is, during religious ceremonies, to strike the sistrum, + and that other mystic musical instrument, the sounding whip + called _monait_. + +[Illustration: 142.jpg IMHOTPU. 2] + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze statuette encrusted + with gold, in the Gizeh Museum. The seat is alabaster, + and of modern manufacture. + +A triad containing two goddesses produced no legitimate offspring, and +was unsatisfactory to a people who regarded the lack of progeny as a +curse from heaven; one in which the presence of a son promised to +ensure the perpetuity of the race was more in keeping with the idea of a +blessed and prosperous family, as that of gods should be. Triads of +the former kind were therefore almost everywhere broken up into two new +triads, each containing a divine father, a divine mother, and a divine +son. Two fruitful households arose from the barren union of Thot +with Safkhitabui and Nahmauit: one composed of Thot, Safkhitabui, and +Harnubi, the golden sparrow-hawk;[***] into the other Nahmauit and her +nursling Nofirhoru entered. + + *** This somewhat rare triad, noted by Wilkinson, is + sculptured on the wall of a chamber in the Turah quarries. + +[Illustration: 143.jpg NOFIRTUMU. 3] + + 3 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze statuette incrusted + with gold, in the Gizeh Museum. + +The persons united with the old feudal divinities in order to form +triads were not all of the same class. Goddesses, especially, were made +to order, and might often be described as grammatical, so obvious is the +linguistic device to which they owe their being. From Ra, Amon, Horus, +Sobku, female Ras, Anions, Horuses, and Sobkus were derived, by the +addition of the regular feminine affix to the primitive masculine +names--Rait, Amonit, Horit, Sobkit.[*] In the same way, detached +cognomens of divine fathers were embodied in divine sons. Imhotpu, "he +who comes in peace," was merely one of the epithets of Phtah before he +became incarnate as the third member of the Memphite triad.[**] In other +cases, alliances were contracted between divinities of ancient stock, +but natives of different nomes, as in the case of Isis of Buto and the +Mendesian Osiris; of Haroeris of Edfu and Hathor of Denderah. + + * Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie + Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. pp. 7, 8, 256. + + ** Imhotpu, the Imouthes of the Greeks, and by them + identified with AEsculapius, was discovered by Salt, and his + name was first translated as _he who comes with offering_. + The translation, _he who comes in peace_, proposed by E. de + Rouge, is now universally adopted. Imhotpu did not take form + until the time of the New Empire; his great popularity at + Memphis and throughout Egypt dates from the Saite and Greek + periods. + +In the same manner Sokhit of Letopolis and Bastit of Bubastis were +appropriated as wives to Phtah of Memphis, Nofirtumu being represented +as his son by both unions.[*] These improvised connections were +generally determined by considerations of vicinity; the gods of +conterminous principalities were married as the children of kings of two +adjoining kingdoms are married, to form or to consolidate relations, +and to establish bonds of kinship between rival powers whose unremitting +hostility would mean the swift ruin of entire peoples. + +The system of triads, begun in primitive times and con-, tinned +unbrokenly up to the last days of Egyptian polytheism, far from in any +way lowering the prestige of the feudal gods, was rather the means +of enhancing it in the eyes of the multitude. Powerful lords as the +new-comers might be at home, it was only in the strength of an auxiliary +title that they could enter a strange city, and then only on condition +of submitting to its religious law. Hathor, supreme at Denderah, shrank +into insignificance before Haroeris at Edfu, and there retained only the +somewhat subordinate part of a wife in the house of her husband.[**] + + * Originally, Nofirtumu appears to have been the son of cat + or lioness-headed goddesses, Bastit and Sokhit, and from + them he may have inherited the lion's head with which he is + often represented. His name shows him to have been in the + first place an incarnation of Atumu, but he was affiliated + to the god Phtah of Memphis when that god became the husband + of his mothers, and preceded Imhotpu as the third personage + in the oldest Memphite triad. + + ** Each year, and at a certain time, the goddess came in + high state to spend a few days in the great temple of Edfu, + with her husband Haroeris. + +On the other hand, Haroeris when at Denderah descended from the supreme +rank, and was nothing more than the almost useless consort of the lady +Hathor. His name came first in invocations of the triad because of his +position therein as husband and father; but this was simply a concession +to the propriety of etiquette, and even though named in second place, +Hathor was none the less the real chief of Denderah and of its divine +family.[*] Thus, the principal personage in any triad was always the +one who had been patron of the nome previous to the introduction of the +triad: in some places the father-god, and in others the mother-goddess. + + * The part played by Haroeris at Denderah was so + inconsiderable that the triad containing him is not to be + found in the temple. "In all our four volumes of plates, the + triad is not once represented, and this is the more + remarkable since at Thebes, at Memphis, at Philse, at the + cataracts, at Elephantine, at Edfu, among all the data which + one looks to find in temples, the triad is most readily + distinguished by the visitor. But we must not therefore + conclude that there was no triad in this case. The triad of + Edfu consists of Hor-Hut, Hathor, and Hor-Sam-ta-ui. The + triad of Denderah contains Hathor, Hor-Hut, and Hor-Sam-ta- + ui. The difference is obvious. At Edfu, the male principle, + as represented by Hor-Hut, takes the first place, whereas + the first person at Denderah is Hathor, who represents the + female principle" (Mariette, _Denderah_, Texte, pp. 80, 81). + +[Illustration: 145.jpg HORUS] + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a statuette in the Gizeh + Museum (Mariette, _Album du Musee de Boulaq_, pl. 4). + +The son in a divine triad had of himself but limited authority. When +Isis and Osiris were his parents, he was generally an infant Horus, +naked, or simply adorned with necklaces and bracelets; a thick lock of +hair depended from his temple, and his mother squatting on her heels, +or else sitting, nursed him upon her knees, offering him her breast.[*] +Even in triads where the son was supposed to have attained to man's +estate, he held the lowest place, and there was enjoined upon him the +same respectful attitude towards his parents as is observed by children +of human race in the presence of theirs. He took the lowest place at all +solemn receptions, spoke only with his parents' permission, acted only +by their command and as the agent of their will. Occasionally he was +vouchsafed a character of his own, and filled a definite position, as at +Memphis, where Imhotpu was the patron of science.[**] + + * For representations of Harpocrates, the child Horus, see + Lanzone, _Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia_, pis. ccxxvii., + ccxxviii., and particularly pl. cccx. 2, where there is a + scene in which the young god, represented as a sparrow-hawk, + is nevertheless sucking the breast of his mother Isis with + his beak. + + ** Hence he is generally represented as seated, or + squatting, and attentively reading a papyrus roll, which + lies open upon his knees; cf. the illustration on p. 142. + +But, generally, he was not considered as having either office or marked +individuality; his being was but a feeble reflection of his father's, +and possessed neither life nor power except as derived from him. Two +such contiguous personalities must needs have been confused, and, as +a matter of fact, were so confused as to become at length nothing more +than two aspects of the same god, who united in his own person degrees +of relationship mutually exclusive of each other in a human family. +Father, inasmuch as he was the first member of the triad; son, by virtue +of being its third member; identical with himself in both capacities, he +was at once his own father, his own son, and the husband of his mother. + +Gods, like men, might be resolved into at least two elements, soul and +body;[*] but in Egypt, the conception of the soul varied in different +times and in different schools. It might be an insect--butterfly, +bee, or praying mantis;[**] or a bird--the ordinary sparrow-hawk, the +human-headed sparrow-hawk, a heron or a crane--bi, hai--whose +wings enabled it to pass rapidly through space;[***] or the black +shadow--khaibit--that is attached to every body, but which death sets +free, and which thenceforward leads an independent existence, so that it +can move about at will, and go out into the open sunlight. + + * In one of the Pyramid texts, Sahu-Orion, the wild hunter, + captures the gods, slaughters and disembowels them, cooks + their joints, their haunches, their legs, in his burning + cauldrons, and feeds on their souls as well as on their + bodies. A god was not limited to a single body and a single + soul; we know from several texts that Ra had _seven souls + and fourteen doubles_. + + ** Mr. Lepage-Renouf supposes that the soul may have been + considered as being a butterfly at times, as in Greece. M. + Lefebure thinks that it must sometimes have been incarnate + as a wasp--I should rather say a bee or a praying mantis. + + *** The simple sparrow-hawk is chiefly used to denote the + soul of a god; the human-headed sparrow-hawk, the heron, or + the crane is used indifferently for human or divine souls. + It is from Horapollo that we learn this symbolic + significance of the sparrow-hawk and the pronunciation of + the name of the soul as _bai_. + +[Illustration: 147.jp THE BLACK SHADOW COMING OUT INTO THE SUNLIGHT. 4] + + 4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Naville's _Das Thebanische + Todtenbuch, vol. i. pl. civ._ + +Finally, it might be a kind of light shadow, like a reflection from +the surface of calm water, or from a polished mirror, the living and +coloured projection of the human figure, a double--_ka_--reproducing in +minutest detail the complete image of the object or the person to whom +it belonged.[*] + + * The nature of the double has long been misapprehended by + Egyptologists, who had even made its name into a kind of + pronominal form. That nature was publicly and almost + simultaneously announced in 1878, first by Maspero, and + directly afterwards by Lepage-Renouf. + +[Illustration: 148.jpg THE AUGUST SOULS OF OSIRIS AnD HORUS IN ADORATION +BEFORE THE SOLAR DISK. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Dumichen, of + a scene on the cornice of the front room of Osiris on the + terrace of the great temple of Denderah. The soul on the + left belongs to Horus, that on the right to Osiris, lord of + Amentit. Each bears upon its head the group of tall feathers + which is characteristic of figures of Anhuri (cf. p. 103). + +The soul, the shadow, the double of a god, was in no way essentially +different from the soul, shadow, or double of a man; his body, indeed, +was moulded out of a more rarefied substance, and generally invisible, +but endowed with the same qualities, and subject to the same +imperfections as ours. The gods, therefore, on the whole, were more +ethereal, stronger, more powerful, better fitted to command, to enjoy, +and to suffer than ordinary men, but they were still men. They had +bones,[**] muscles, flesh, blood; they were hungry and ate, they were +thirsty and drank; our passions, griefs, joys, infirmities, were also +theirs. The _sa_, a mysterious fluid, circulated throughout their +members, and carried with it health, vigour, and life. + + ** For example, the text of the _Destruction of Men_, and + other documents, teach us that the flesh of the aged sun had + become gold, and his bones silver. The blood of Ra is + mentioned in the _Book of the Dead_, as well as the blood of + Isis and of other divinities. + +They were not all equally charged with it; some had more, others less, +their energy being in proportion to the amount which they contained. The +better supplied willingly gave of their superfluity to those who lacked +it, and all could readily transmit it to mankind, this transfusion being +easily accomplished in the temples. The king, or any ordinary man who +wished to be thus impregnated, presented himself before the statue of +the god, and squatted at its feet with his back towards it. The statue +then placed its right hand upon the nape of his neck, and by making +passes, caused the fluid to flow from it, and to accumulate in him as +in a receiver. This rite was of temporary efficacy only, and required +frequent renewal in order that its benefit might be maintained. + +[Illustration: 150.jpg THE KING AFTER HIS CORONATION RECEIVING THE +IMPOSITION OF THE SA. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Boudier from a photograph by M. Gay et, taken in + 1889, of a scene in the hypostyle hall at Luxor. This + illustration shows the relative positions of prince and god. + Anion, after having placed the pschent upon the head of the + Pharaoh Amenothes III., who kneels before him, proceeds to + _impose the sa_. + +By using or transmitting it the gods themselves exhausted their _sa_ of +life; and the less vigorous replenished themselves from the stronger, +while the latter went to draw fresh fulness from a mysterious pond +in the northern sky, called the "pond of the Sa."[*] Divine bodies, +continually recruited by the influx of this magic fluid, preserved their +vigour far beyond the term allotted to the bodies of men and beasts. +Age, instead of quickly destroying them, hardened and transformed them +into precious metals. Their bones were changed to silver, their flesh to +gold; their hair, piled up and painted blue, after the manner of great +chiefs, was turned into lapis-lazuli.[**] + + * It is thus that in the _Tale of the Daughter of the + Prince of Bakhtan_ we find that one of the statues of the + Theban Konsu supplies itself with _sa_ from another statue + representing one of the most powerful forms of the god. The + _pond of Sa_, whither the gods go to draw the magic fluid, + is mentioned in the Pyramid texts. + + ** Cf. the text of the _Destruction of Men_ (Il. 1, 2) + referred to above, where age produces these transformations + in the body of the sun. This changing of the bodies of the + gods into gold, silver, and precious stones, explains why + the alchemists, who were disciples of the Egyptians, often + compared the transmutation of metals to the metamorphosis of + a genius or of a divinity: they thought by their art to + hasten at will that which was the slow work of nature. + +This transformation of each into an animated statue did not altogether +do away with the ravages of time. Decrepitude was no less irremediable +with them than with men, although it came to them more slowly; when the +sun had grown old "his mouth trembled, his drivelling ran down to earth, +his spittle dropped upon the ground." + +None of the feudal gods had escaped this destiny; for them as for +mankind the day came when they must leave the city and go forth to the +tomb.[*] + + * The idea of the inevitable death of the gods is expressed + in other places as well as in a passage of the eighth + chapter of the Booh of the Dead (Naville's edition), which + has not to my knowledge hitherto been noticed: "I am that + Osiris in the West, and Osiris knoweth his day in which he + shall be no more;" that is to say, the day of his death + when he will cease to exist. All the gods, Atumu, Horus, Ra, + Thot, Phtah, Khnumu, are represented under the forms of + mummies, and this implies that they are dead. Moreover, + their tombs were pointed out in several places in Egypt. + +The ancients long refused to believe that death was natural +and inevitable. They thought that life, once began, might go on +indefinitely: if no accident stopped it short, why should it cease of +itself? And so men did not die in Egypt; they were assassinated. The +murderer often belonged to this world, and was easily recognized as +another man, an animal, some inanimate object such as a stone loosened +from the hillside, a tree which fell upon the passer-by and crushed him. +But often too the murderer was of the unseen world, and so was hidden, +his presence being betrayed in his malignant attacks only. He was a god, +an evil spirit, a disembodied soul who slily insinuated itself into the +living man, or fell upon him with irresistible violence--illness being a +struggle between the one possessed and the power which possessed him. +As soon as the former succumbed he was carried away from his own people, +and his place knew him no more. But had all ended for him with the +moment in which he had ceased to breathe? As to the body, no one was +ignorant of its natural fate. It quickly fell to decay, and a few years +sufficed to reduce it to a skeleton. And as for the skeleton, in the +lapse of centuries that too was disintegrated and became a mere train of +dust, to be blown away by the first breath of wind. The soul might +have a longer career and fuller fortunes, but these were believed to +be dependent upon those of the body, and commensurate with them. Every +advance made in the process of decomposition robbed the soul of some +part of itself; its consciousness gradually faded until nothing was left +but a vague and hollow form that vanished altogether when the corpse had +entirely disappeared. Erom an early date the Egyptians had endeavoured +to arrest this gradual destruction of the human organism, and their +first effort to this end naturally was directed towards the preservation +of the body, since without it the existence of the soul could not be +ensured. It was imperative that during that last sleep, which for +them was fraught with such terrors, the flesh should neither become +decomposed nor turn to dust, that it should be free from offensive odour +and secure from predatory worms. + +They set to work, therefore, to discover how to preserve it. The oldest +burials which have as yet been found prove that these early inhabitants +were successful in securing the permanence of the body for a few decades +only. When one of them died, his son, or his nearest relative, carefully +washed the corpse in water impregnated with an astringent or aromatic +substance, such as natron or some solution of fragrant gums, and then +fumigated it with burning herbs and perfumes which were destined to +overpower, at least temporarily, the odour of death.[*] + + * This is to be gathered from the various Pyramid texts + relating to the purification by water and to fumigation: the + pains taken to secure material cleanliness, described in + these formulas, were primarily directed towards the + preservation of the bodies subjected to these processes, and + further to the perfecting of the souls to which these bodies + had been united. + +Having taken these precautions, they placed the body in the grave, +sometimes entirely naked, sometimes partially covered with its ordinary +garments, or sewn up in a closely fitting gazelle skin. The dead man +was placed on his left side, lying north and south with his face to the +east, in some cases on the bare ground, in others on a mat, a strip of +leather or a fleece, in the position of a child in the foetal state. The +knees were sharply bent at an angle of 45 deg. with the thighs, while the +latter were either at right angles with the body, or drawn up so as +almost to touch the elbows. The hands are sometimes extended in front +of the face, sometimes the arms are folded and the hands joined on the +breast or neck. In some instances the legs are bent upward in such a +fashion that they almost lie parallel with the trunk. The deceased could +only be made to assume this position by a violent effort, and in +many cases the tendons and the flesh had to be cut to facilitate the +operation. The dryness of the ground selected for these burial-places +retarded the corruption of the flesh for a long time, it is true, but +only retarded it, and so did not prevent the soul from being finally +destroyed. Seeing decay could not be prevented, it was determined +to accelerate the process, by taking the flesh from the bones before +interment. The bodies thus treated are often incomplete; the head is +missing, or is detached from the neck and laid in another part of the +pit, or, on the other hand, the body is not there, and the head only is +found in the grave, generally placed apart on a brick, a heap of stones, +or a layer of cut flints. The forearms and the hands were subjected to +the same treatment as the head. In many cases no trace of them appears, +in others they are deposited by the side of the skull or scattered +about haphazard. Other mutilations are frequently met with; the ribs are +divided and piled up behind the body, the limbs are disjointed or the +body is entirely dismembered, and the fragments arranged upon the ground +or enclosed together in an earthenware chest. + +These precautions were satisfactory in so far as they ensured the +better preservation of the more solid parts of the human frame, but the +Egyptians felt this result was obtained at too great a sacrifice. The +human organism thus deprived of all flesh was not only reduced to +half its bulk, but what remained had neither unity, consistency, nor +continuity. It was not even a perfect skeleton with its constituent +parts in their relative places, but a mere mass of bones with no +connecting links. This drawback, it is true, was remedied by the +artificial reconstruction in the tomb of the individual thus completely +dismembered in the course of the funeral ceremonies. The bones were laid +in their natural order; those of the feet at the bottom, then those +of the leg, trunk, and arms, and finally the skull itself. But the +superstitious fear inspired by the dead man, particularly of one thus +harshly handled, and particularly the apprehension that he might revenge +himself on his relatives for the treatment to which they had subjected +him, often induced them to make this restoration intentionally +incomplete. When they had reconstructed the entire skeleton, they +refrained from placing the head in position, or else they suppressed +one or all of the vertebras of the spine, so that the deceased should be +unable to rise and go forth to bite and harass the living. Having taken +this precaution, they nevertheless felt a doubt whether the soul could +really enjoy life so long as one half only of the body remained, and the +other was lost for ever: they therefore sought to discover the means +of preserving the fleshy parts in addition to the bony framework of the +body. It had been observed that when a corpse had been buried in the +desert, its skin, speedily desiccated and hardened, changed into a case +of blackish parchment beneath which the flesh slowly wasted away,[*] and +the whole frame thus remained intact, at least in appearance, while its +integrity ensured that of the soul. + + * Such was the appearance of the bodies of Coptic monks of + the sixth, eighth, and ninth centuries, which I found in the + convent cemeteries of Contra-Syene, Taud, and Akhmim, right + in the midst of the desert. + +An attempt was made by artificial means to reproduce the conservative +action of the sand, and, without mutilating the body, to secure at will +that incorruptibility without which the persistence of the soul was but +a useless prolongation of the death-agony. It was the god Anubis--the +jackal lord of sepulture--who was supposed to have made this discovery. +He cleansed the body of the viscera, those parts which most rapidly +decay, saturated it with salts and aromatic substances, protected it +first of all with the hide of a beast, and over this laid thick layers +of linen. The victory the god had thus gained over corruption was, +however, far from being a complete one. The bath in which the dead man +was immersed could not entirely preserve the softer parts of the body: +the chief portion of them was dissolved, and what remained after the +period of saturation was so desiccated that its bulk was seriously +diminished. + +When any human being had been submitted to this process, he emerged from +it a mere skeleton, over which the skin remained tightly drawn: these +shrivelled limbs, sunken chest, grinning features, yellow and blackened +skin spotted by the efflorescence of the embalmer's salts, were not +the man himself, but rather a caricature of what he had been. As +nevertheless he was secure against immediate destruction, the Egyptians +described him as furnished with his shape; henceforth he had been purged +of all that was evil in him, and he could face with tolerable security +whatever awaited him in the future. The art of Anubis, transmitted to +the embalmers and employed by them from generation to generation, +had, by almost eliminating the corruptible part of the body without +destroying its outward appearance, arrested decay, if not for ever, +at least for an unlimited period of time. If there were hills at hand, +thither the mummied dead were still borne, partly from custom, partly +because the dryness of the air and of the soil offered them a further +chance of preservation. In districts of the Delta where the hills were +so distant as to make it very costly to reach them, advantage was +taken of the smallest sandy islet rising above the marshes, and there +a cemetery was founded. Where this resource failed, the mummy was +fearlessly entrusted to the soil itself, but only after being placed +within a sarcophagus of hard stone, whose lid and trough, hermetically +fastened together with cement, prevented the penetration of any +moisture. Reassured on this point, the soul followed the body to the +tomb, and there dwelt with it as in its eternal house, upon the confines +of the visible and invisible worlds. + +Here the soul kept the distinctive character and appearance which +pertained to it "upon the earth:" as it had been a "double" before +death, so it remained a double after it, able to perform all functions +of animal life after its own fashion. It moved, went, came, spoke, +breathed, accepted pious homage, but without pleasure, and as it were +mechanically, rather from an instinctive horror of annihilation than +from any rational desire for immortality. Unceasing regret for the +bright world which it had left disturbed its mournful and inert +existence. "O my brother, withhold not thyself from drinking and from +eating, from drunkenness, from love, from all enjoyment, from following +thy desire by night and by day; put not sorrow within thy heart, for +what are the years of a man upon earth? The West is a land of sleep and +of heavy shadows, a place wherein its inhabitants, when once installed, +slumber on in their mummy-forms, never more waking to see their +brethren; never more to recognize their fathers or their mothers, with +hearts forgetful of their wives and children. The living water, which +earth giveth to all who dwell upon it, is for me but stagnant and dead; +that water floweth to all who are on earth, while for me it is but +liquid putrefaction, this water that is mine. Since I came into this +funereal valley I know not where nor what I am. Give me to drink of +running water!... Let me be placed by the edge of the water with my face +to the North, that the breeze may caress me and my heart be refreshed +from its sorrow." By day the double remained concealed within the tomb. +If it went forth by night, it was from no capricious or sentimental +desire to revisit the spots where it had led a happier life. Its organs +needed nourishment as formerly did those of its body, and of itself it +possessed nothing "but hunger for food, thirst for drink."[*] Want and +misery drove it from its retreat, and flung it back among the living. +It prowled like a marauder about fields and villages, picking up and +greedily devouring whatever it might find on the ground--broken meats +which had been left or forgotten, house and stable refuse--and, +should these meagre resources fail, even the most revolting dung and +excrement.[**] + + * _Teti_, 11. 74, 75. "Hateful unto Teti is hunger, and + he eateth it not; hateful unto Teti is thirst, nor hath he + drunk it." We see that the Egyptians made hunger and thirst + into two substances or beings, to be swallowed as food is + swallowed, but whose effects were poisonous unless + counteracted by the immediate absorption of more satisfying + sustenance. + + ** King Teti, when distinguishing his fate from that of the + common dead, stated that he had abundance of food, and hence + was not reduced to so pitiful an extremity. "Abhorrent unto + Teti is excrement, Teti rejecteth urine, and Teti abhorreth + that which is abominable in him; abhorrent unto him is + faecal matter and he eateth it not, hateful unto Teti is + liquid filth." (_Teti_, 11. 68, 69_). The same doctrine is + found in several places in the Book of the Dead_. + +This ravenous sceptre had not the dim and misty form, the long shroud +of floating draperies of our modern phantoms, but a precise and definite +shape, naked, or clothed in the garments which it had worn while yet +upon earth, and emitting a pale light, to which it owed the name of +Luminous--_Khu, Khuu_.[*] The double did not allow its family to +forget it, but used all the means at its disposal to remind them of +its existence. It entered their houses and their bodies, terrified them +waking and sleeping by its sudden apparitions, struck them down with +disease or madness,[**] and would even suck their blood like the modern +vampire. + + * The name of luminous was at first so explained as to make + the light wherewith souls were clothed, into a portion of + the divine light. In my opinion the idea is a less abstract + one, and shows that, as among many other nations, so with + the Egyptians the soul was supposed to appear as a kind of + pale flame, or as emitting a glow analogous to the + phosphorescent halo which is seen by night about a piece of + rotten wood, or putrefying fish. This primitive conception + may have subsequently faded, and _khu the glorious one_, one + of the _manes_, may have become one of those flattering + names by which it was thought necessary to propitiate the + dead; it then came to have that significance of _resplendent + with light_ which is ordinarily attributed to it. + + ** The incantations of which the Leyden Papyrus published + by Pleyte is full are directed against _dead men or dead + women_ who entered into one of the living to give him the + _migraine_, and violent headaches. Another Leyden Papyrus, + briefly analyzed by Ohabas, and translated by Maspero, + contains the complaint, or rather the formal act of + requisition of a husband whom the _luminous_ of his wife + returned to torment in his home, without any just cause for + such conduct. + +One effectual means there was, and one only, of escaping or preventing +these visitations, and this lay in taking to the tomb all the various +provisions of which the double stood in need, and for which it visited +their dwellings. Funerary sacrifices and the regular cultus of the +dead originated in the need experienced for making provision for the +sustenance of the manes after having secured their lasting existence by +the mummification of their bodies.[*] + + * Several chapters of the _Book of the Dead_ consist of + directions for giving food to that part of man which + survives his death, e.g. chap, cv., "_Chapter for providing + food for the double_" (Naville's edition, pl. cxvii.), and + chap, cvi., "_Chapter for giving daily abundance unto the + deceased, in Memphis_" (Naville's edition, pl. cxviii.). + +[Illustration: 161.jpg SACRIFICING TO THE DEAD IN THE TOMB CHAPEL. 2] + + 2 Stela of Antuf I., Prince of Thebes, drawn by Faucher- + Gudin from a photograph taken by Emil Brugsch-Bey. Below, + servants and relations are bringing the victims and cutting + up the ox at the door of the tomb. In the middle is the dead + man, seated under his pavilion and receiving the sacrifice: + an attendant offers him drink, another brings him the haunch + of an ox a third a basket and two jars; provisions fill the + whole chamber. Behind Antuf stand two servants, the one + fanning his master, and the second offering him his staff + and sandals. The position of the door, which is in the + lowest row of the scenes, indicates that what is represented + above it takes place within the tomb. + +Gazelles and oxen were brought and sacrificed at the door of the tomb +chapel; the haunches, heart, and breast of each victim being presented +and heaped together upon the ground, that there the dead might find them +when they began to be hungry. Vessels of beer or wine, great jars of +fresh water, purified with natron, or perfumed, were brought to them +that they might drink their fill at pleasure, and by such voluntary +tribute men bought their good will, as in daily life they bought that of +some neighbour too powerful to be opposed. + +The gods were spared none of the anguish and none of the perils which +death so plentifully bestows upon men. Their bodies suffered change and +gradually perished until nothing was left of them. Their souls, +like human souls, were only the representatives of their bodies, and +gradually became extinct if means of arresting the natural tendency to +decay were not found in time. Thus, the same necessity that forced men +to seek the kind of sepulture which gave the longest term of existence +to their souls, compelled the gods to the same course. At first, they +were buried in the hills, and one of their oldest titles describes them +as those "who are upon the sand,"[*] safe from putrefaction; afterwards, +when the art of embalming had been discovered, the gods received the +benefit of the new invention and were mummified. + + * In the _Book of Knowing that which is in Hades_, for the + fourth and fifth hours of the night, we have the description + of the sandy realm of Sokaris and of the gods _Hiriu Shaitu- + senu_, who are on their sand. Elsewhere in the same book we + have a cynocephalus _upon its sand_, and the gods of the + eighth hour are also mysterious gods who are on their sand. + Wherever these personages are represented in the vignettes, + the Egyptian artist has carefully drawn the ellipse painted + in yellow and sprinkled with red, which is the conventional + rendering of sand, and sandy districts. + +Each nome possessed the mummy and the tomb of its dead god: at Thinis +there was the mummy and the tomb of Anhuri, the mummy of Osiris at +Mendes, the mummy of Tumu at Heliopolis.[*] In some of the nomes the +gods did not change their names in altering the mode of their existence: +the deceased Osiris remained Osiris; Nit and Hathor when dead were still +Nit and Hathor, at Sais and at Denderah. But Phtah of Memphis became +Sokaris by dying; Uapuaitu, the jackal of Siut, was changed into +Anubis;[**] and when his disk had disappeared at evening, Anhuri, the +sunlit sky of Thinis, was Khontamentit, Lord of the West, until the +following day. + + * The sepulchres of Tumu, Khopri, Ra, Osiris, and in each + of them the heap of sand hiding the body, are represented in + the tomb of Seti I., as also the four rams in which the + souls of the god are incarnate. The tombs of the gods were + known even in Roman times. + + ** To my mind, at least, this is an obvious conclusion from + the monuments of Siut, in which the jackal god is called + Uapuaitu, as the living god, lord of the city, and Anupu, + master of embalming or of the Oasis, lord of Ra-qririt, + inasmuch as he is god of the dead. Ra-qririt, _the door of + the stone_, was the name which the people of Siut gave to + their necropolis and to the infernal domain of their god. + +That bliss which we dream of enjoying in the world to come was not +granted to the gods any more than to men. Their bodies were nothing +but inert larvae, "with unmoving heart,"[*] weak and shrivelled limbs, +unable to stand upright were it not that the bandages in which they were +swathed stiffened them into one rigid block. Their hands and heads alone +were free, and were of the green or black shades of putrid flesh. + + * This is the characteristic epithet for the dead Osiris, + Urdu Mt, he whose heart is unmoving, he whose heart no + longer beats, and who has therefore ceased to live. + +[Illustration: 164.jpg PHTAH AS A MUMMY. 2] + + 2 Drawing by Faucher-Gudin of a bronze statuette of the + Saite period, found in the department of Herault, at the end + of a gallery in an ancient mine. + +Their doubles, like those of men, both dreaded and regretted the light. +All sentiment was extinguished by the hunger from which they suffered, +and gods who were noted for their compassionate kindness when alive, +became pitiless and ferocious tyrants in the tomb. When once men were +bidden to the presence of Sokaris, Khontamentifc, or even of Osiris, +"mortals come terrifying their hearts with fear of the god, and none +dareth to look him in the face either among gods or men; for him the +great are as the small. He spareth not those who love him; he beareth +away the child from its mother, and the old man who walketh on his way; +full of fear, all creatures make supplication before him, but he turneth +not his face towards them." Only by the unfailing payment of tribute, +and by feeding him as though he were a simple human double, could living +or dead escape the consequences of his furious temper. The living paid +him his dues in pomps and solemn sacrifices, repeated from year to year +at regular intervals; but the dead bought more dearly the protection +which he deigned to extend to them. He did not allow them to receive +directly the prayers, sepulchral meals, or offerings of kindred on +feast-days; all that was addressed to them must first pass through his +hands. When their friends wished to send them wine, water, bread, meat, +vegetables, and fruits, he insisted that these should first be offered +and formally presented to himself; then he was humbly prayed to transmit +them to such or such a double, whose name and parentage were pointed out +to him. He took possession of them, kept part for his own use, and of +his bounty gave the remainder to its destined recipient. Thus death +made no change in the relative positions of the feudal god and his +worshippers. The worshipper who called himself the _amakhu_ of the god +during life was the subject and vassal of his mummied god even in the +tomb;[*] and the god who, while living, reigned over the living, after +his death continued to reign over the dead. + + * The word _amakhu_ is applied to an individual who has + freely entered the service of king or baron, and taken him + for his lord: _amakhu khir nibuf_ means _vassal of his + lord_. In the same way, each chose for himself a god who + became his patron, and to whom he owed _fealty_, i.e. to + whom he was _amakhu_--vassal. To the god he owed the service + of a good vassal--tribute, sacrifices, offerings; and to his + vassal the god owed in return the service of a suzerain-- + protection, food, reception into his dominions and access to + his person. A man might be absolutely _nib amahkit_, master + of fealty, or, relatively to a god, _amakhu khir Osiri_, the + vassal of Osiris, _amakhu khir Phtah-Sokari_, the vassal of + Phtah-Sokaris. + +He dwelt in the city near the prince and in the midst of his subjects: +Ra living in Heliopolis along with the prince of Heliopolis; Haroeris +in Edfu together with the prince of Edfu; Nit in Sais with the prince of +Sais. Although none of the primitive temples have come down to us, +the name given to them in the language of the time, shows what +they originally were. A temple was considered as the feudal +mansion--hait,--the house--_piru, pi_,--of the god, better cared for, +and more respected than the houses of men, but not otherwise differing +from them. It was built on a site slightly raised above the level of +the plain, so as to be safe from the inundation, and where there was no +natural mound, the want was supplied by raising a rectangular platform +of earth. A layer of sand spread uniformly on the sub-soil provided +against settlements or infiltration, and formed a bed for the +foundations of the building.[*] + + * This custom lasted into Graeco-Roman times, and was part of + the ritual for laying the foundations of a temple. After the + king had dug out the soil on the ground where the temple was + to stand, he spread over the spot sand mixed with pebbles + and precious stones, and upon this he laid the first course + of stone. + +This was first of all a single room, circumscribed, gloomy, covered in +by a slightly vaulted roof, and having no opening but the doorway, which +was framed by two tall masts, whence floated streamers to attract from +afar the notice of worshippers; in front of its facade [*] was a court, +fenced in with palisading. + + * No Egyptian temples of the first period have come down to + our time, but Herr Erman has very justly remarked that we + have pictures of them in several of the signs denoting the + word _temple_ in texts of the Memphite period. + +[Illustration: 167.jpg THE SACRED BULL. 2] + + 2 A sculptor's model from Tanis, now in the Gizeh Museum, + drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a photograph by Emil Brugsch- + Bey. The sacred marks, as given in the illustration, are + copied from those of similar figures on stelae of the + Serapeum. + +Within the temple were pieces of matting, low tables of stone, wood, +or metal, a few utensils for cooking the offerings, a few vessels for +containing the blood, oil, wine, and water with which the god was +every day regaled. As provisions for sacrifice increased, the number of +chambers increased with them, and rooms for flowers, perfumes, stuffs, +precious vessels, and food were grouped around the primitive abode; +until that which had once constituted the whole temple became no more +than its sanctuary. There the god dwelt, not only in spirit but in +body,[*] and the fact that it was incumbent upon him to live in several +cities did not prevent his being present in all of them at once. He +could divide his double, imparting it to as many separate bodies as he +pleased, and these bodies might be human or animal, natural objects +or things manufactured--such as statues of stone, metal, or wood.[**] +Several of the gods were incarnate in rams: Osiris at Mendes, Harshafitu +at Heracleopolis, Khnumu at Elephantine. Living rams were kept in their +temples, and allowed to gratify any fancy that came into their +animal brains. Other gods entered into bulls: Ra at Heliopolis, and, +subsequently, Phtah at Memphis, Minu at Thebes, and Montu at Hermonthis. +They indicated beforehand by certain marks such beasts as they intended +to animate by. their doubles, and he who had learnt to recognize these +signs was at no loss to find a living god when the time came for +seeking one and presenting it to the adoration of worshippers in the +temple.[***] + + * Thus at Denderah, it is said that the soul of Hathor + likes to leave heaven "in the form of a human-headed + sparrow-hawk of lapis-lazuli, accompanied by her divine + cycle, to come and unite herself to the statue." "Other + instances," adds Mariette, "would seem to justify us in + thinking that the Egyptians accorded a certain kind of life + to the statues and images which they made, and believed + (especially in connection with tombs) that the spirit + haunted images of itself." + + ** Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et l'Archeologie + Egyptiennes_, vol. i. p. 77, et seq.; _Archeologie + Egyptienne_, pp. 106, 107; English edition, pp. 105, 106. + This notion of actuated statues seemed so strange and so + unworthy of the wisdom of the Egyptians that Egyptologists + of the rank of M. de Rouge have taken in an abstract and + metaphorical sense expressions referring to the automatic + movements of divine images. + + *** The bulls of Ra and of Phtah, the Mnevis and the Hapis, + are known to us from classic writers. The bull of Minu at + Thebes may be seen in the procession of the god as + represented on monuments of Ramses II. and Ramses III. Bakhu + (called Bakis by the Greeks), the bull of Hermonthis, is + somewhat rare, and mainly represented upon a few later + stelae in the Gizeh Museum; it is chiefly known from the + texts. The particular signs distinguishing each of these + sacred animals have been determined both on the authority of + ancient writers, and from examination of the figured + monuments; the arrangement and outlines of some of the black + markings of the Hapis are clearly shown in the illustration + on p. 167. + +And if the statues had not the same outward appearance of actual life as +the animals, they none the less concealed beneath their rigid exteriors +an intense energy of life which betrayed itself on occasion by gestures +or by words. They thus indicated, in language which their servants could +understand, the will of the gods, or their opinion on the events of the +day; they answered questions put to them in accordance with prescribed +forms, and sometimes they even foretold the future. + +[Illustration: 169.jpg OPEN-AIR OFFERINGS TO THE SERPENT. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken in the + tomb of Khopirkerisonbu. The inscription behind the urseus + states that it represents _Banuit the August, lady of the + double granary_. + +Each temple held a fairly large number of statues representing so many +embodiments of the local divinity and of the members of his triad. These +latter shared, albeit in a lesser degree, all the honours and all the +prerogatives of the master; they accepted sacrifices, answered prayers, +and, if needful, they prophesied. They occupied either the sanctuary +itself, or one of the halls built about the principal sanctuary, or +one of the isolated chapels which belonged to them, subject to the +suzerainty of the feudal god. The god has his divine court to help him +in the administration of his dominions, just as a prince is aided by his +ministers in the government of his realm. + +This State religion, so complex both in principle and in its outward +manifestations, was nevertheless inadequate to express the exuberant +piety of the populace. There were casual divinities in every nome +whom the people did not love any the less because of their inofficial +character; such as an exceptionally high palm tree in the midst of the +desert, a rock of curious outline, a spring trickling drop by drop from +the mountain to which hunters came to slake their thirst in the hottest +hours of the day, or a great serpent believed to be immortal, which +haunted a field, a grove of trees, a grotto, or a mountain ravine.[*] + + * It was a serpent of this kind which gave its name to the + hill of Sheikh Haridi, and the adjacent nome of the Serpent + Mountain; and though the serpent has now turned Mussulman, + he still haunts the mountain and preserves his faculty of + coming to life again every time that he is killed. + +The peasants of the district brought it bread, cakes, fruits, and +thought that they could call down the blessing of heaven upon their +fields by gorging the snake with offerings. Everywhere on the confines +of cultivated ground, and even at some distance from the valley, are +fine single sycamores, flourishing as though by miracle amid the sand. + +[Illustration: 171.jpg THE PEASANT'S OFFERING TO THE SYCAMORE. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a scene in the tomb of + Khopirkerisonbu. The sacred sycamore here stands at the end + of a field of corn, and would seem to extend its protection + to the harvest. + +Their fresh greenness is in sharp contrast with the surrounding +fawn-coloured landscape, and their thick foliage defies the midday sun +even in summer. But, on examining the ground in which they grow, we soon +find that they drink from water which has infiltrated from the Nile, and +whose existence is in nowise betrayed upon the surface of the soil. They +stand as it were with their feet in the river, though no one about them +suspects it. Egyptians of all ranks counted them divine and habitually +worshipped them,[**] making them offerings of figs, grapes, cucumbers, +vegetables, and water in porous jars daily replenished by good and +charitable people. + + ** Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie + Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. pp. 224--227. They were represented + as animated by spirits concealed within them, but which + could manifest themselves on occasion. At such times the + head or whole body of the spirit of a tree would emerge from + its trunk, and when it returned to its hiding-place the + trunk reabsorbed it, or _ate_ it again, according to the + Egyptian expression, which I have already had occasion to + quote above; see p. 110, note 3. + +Passers-by drank of the water, and requited the unexpected benefit with +a short prayer. There were several such trees in the Memphite nome, and +in the Letopolite nome from Dashur to Gizeh, inhabited, as every one +knew, by detached doubles of Nuit and Hathor. These combined districts +were known as the "Land of the Sycamore," a name afterwards extended +to the city of Memphis; and their sacred trees are worshipped at the +present day both by Mussulman and Christian fellahin.[*] + + * The tree at Matarieh, commonly called the _Tree of the + Virgin_, seems to me to be the successor of a sacred tree of + Heliopolis in which a goddess, perhaps Hathor, was + worshipped. + +The most famous among them all, the Sycamore of the South--_nuhit +risit_--was regarded as the living body of Hathor on earth. Side by side +with its human gods and prophetic statues, each nome proudly advanced +one or more sacred animals, one or more magic trees. Each family, and +almost every individual, also possessed gods and fetishes, which had +been pointed out for their worship by some fortuitous meeting with an +animal or an object; by a dream, or by sudden intuition. They had a +place in some corner of the house, or a niche in its walls; lamps were +continually kept burning before them, and small daily offerings +were made to them, over and above what fell to their share on solemn +feast-days. In return, they became the protectors of the household, its +guardians and its counsellors. Appeal was made to them in every exigency +of daily life, and their decisions were no less scrupulously carried out +by their little circle of worshippers, than was the will of the feudal +god by the inhabitants of his principality. + +[Illustration: 173.jpg THE SACRIFICE OF THE BULL.--THE OFFICIATING +PRIEST LASSOING THE VICTIM. 1] + + 1 Bas-relief from the temple of Seti I. at Abydos; drawn by + Boudier, from a photograph by M. Daniel Heron. Seti I., + second king of the XIXth dynasty, is throwing the lasso; his + son, Ramses II., who is still the crown prince, holds the + bull by the tail to prevent its escaping from the slipknot. + +The prince was the great high priest. The whole religion of the nome +rested upon him, and originally he himself performed its ceremonies. Of +these, the chief was sacrifice,--that is to say, a banquet which it was +his duty to prepare and lay before the god with his own hands. He went +out into the fields to lasso the half-wild bull; bound it, cut its +throat, skinned it, burnt part of the carcase in front of his idol +and distributed the rest among his assistants, together with plenty of +cakes, fruits, vegetables, and wine.[*] On the occasion, the god was +present both in body and double, suffering himself to be clothed and +perfumed, eating and drinking of the best that was set on the table +before him, and putting aside some of the provisions for future use. +This was the time to prefer requests to him, while he was gladdened and +disposed to benevolence by good cheer. He was not without suspicion as +to the reason why he was so feasted, but he had laid down his conditions +beforehand, and if they were faithfully observed he willingly yielded +to the means of seduction brought to bear upon him. Moreover, he himself +had arranged the ceremonial in a kind of contract formerly made with his +worshippers and gradually perfected from age to age by the piety of new +generations.[**] Above all things, he insisted on physical cleanliness. +The officiating priest must carefully wash--_uabu_--his face, mouth, +hands, and body; and so necessary was this preliminary purification +considered, that from it the professional priest derived his name of +_uibu_, the washed, the clean.[***] + + * This appears from the sacrificial ritual employed in the + temples up to the last days of Egyptian paganism; cf., for + instance, the illustration on p. 173, where the king is + represented as lassoing the bull. That which in historic + times was but an image, had originally been a reality. + + ** The most striking example of the divine institution of + religious services is furnished by the inscription relating + the history of the destruction of men in the reign of Ra, + where the god, as he is about to make his final ascension + into heaven, substitutes animal for human sacrifices. + + *** The idea of physical cleanliness comes out in such + variants as _uibu totui_, "clean of both hands," found on + stelae instead of the simple title _uibu_. We also know, on + the evidence of ancient writers, the scrupulous daily care + which Egyptian priests took of their bodies. It was only as + a secondary matter that the idea of moral purity entered + into the conception of a priest. + +His costume was the archaic dress, modified according to circumstances. +During certain services, or at certain points in the sacrifices, it was +incumbent upon him to wear sandals, the panther-skin over his shoulder, +and the thick lock of hair falling over his right ear; at other times he +must gird himself with the loin-cloth having a jackal's tail, and take +the shoes from off his feet before proceeding with his office, or attach +a false beard to his chin. The species, hair, and age of the victim, the +way in which it was to be brought and bound, the manner and details of +its slaughter, the order to be followed in opening its body and cutting +it up, were all minutely and unchangeably decreed. And these were but +the least of the divine exactions, and those most easily satisfied. The +formulas accompanying each act of the sacrificial priest contained +a certain number of words whose due sequence and harmonies might not +suffer the slightest modification whatever, even from the god himself, +under penalty of losing their efficacy.[*] + + * The Purification Ritual for officiating priests is + contained in a papyrus of the Berlin Museum, whose analysis + and table of chapters has been published by Herr Oscar von + Lemm, _Das Bitualbuch des Ammonsdienstes_, p. 4, et seq. + +They were always recited with the same rhythm, according to a system of +chaunting in which every tone had its virtue, combined with movements +which confirmed the sense and worked with irresistible effect: one +false note, a single discord between the succession of gestures and the +utterance of the sacramental words, any hesitation, any awkwardness in +the accomplishment of a rite, and the sacrifice was vain. + +Worship as thus conceived became a legal transaction, in the course of +which the god gave up his liberty in exchange for certain compensations +whose kind and value were fixed by law. By a solemn deed of transfer the +worshipper handed over to the legal representatives of the contracting +divinity such personal or real property as seemed to him fitting payment +for the favour which he asked, or suitable atonement for the wrong which +he had done. If man scrupulously observed the innumerable conditions +with which the transfer was surrounded, the god could not escape the +obligation of fulfilling his petition;[*] but should he omit the least +of them, the offering remained with the temple and went to increase +the endowments in mortmain, while the god was pledged to nothing in +exchange. + + * This obligation is evident from texts where, as in the + poem of Pentauirit, a king who is in danger demands from his + favourite god the equivalent in protection of the sacrifices + which he has offered to that divinity, and the gifts + wherewith he has enriched him. "Have I not made unto thee + many offerings?" says Ramses II. to Amon. "I have filled + thy temple with my prisoners, I have built thee a mansion + for millions of years.... Ah if evil is the lot of them who + insult thee, good are thy purposes towards those who honour + thee, O Amon!" + +Hence the officiating priest assumed a formidable responsibility +as regarded his fellows: a slip of memory, the slightest accidental +impurity, made him a bad priest, injurious to himself and harmful to +those worshippers who had entrusted him with their interests before the +gods. Since it was vain to expect ritualistic perfections from a prince +constantly troubled with affairs of state, the custom was established +of associating professional priests with him, personages who devoted all +their lives to the study and practice of the thousand formalities whose +sum constituted the local religion. Each temple had its service of +priests, independent of those belonging to neighbouring temples, whose +members, bound to keep their hands always clean and their voices true, +were ranked according to the degrees of a learned hierarchy. At their +head was a sovereign pontiff to direct them in the exercise of their +functions. In some places he was called the first prophet, or rather the +first servant of the god--_hon-nutir topi_; at Thebes he was the first +prophet of Amon, at Thinis he was the first prophet of Anhuri.[*] + + * This title of _first prophet_ belongs to priests of the + less important towns, and to secondary divinities. If we + find it employed in connection with the Theban worship, it + is because Amon was originally a provincial god, and only + rose into the first rank with the rise of Thebes and the + great conquests of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties. + +But generally he bore a title appropriate to the nature of the god whose +servant he was. The chief priest of Ra at Heliopolis, and in all the +cities which adopted the Heliopolitan form of worship, was called _Oiru +mau_, the master of visions, and he alone besides the sovereign of +the nome, or of Egypt, enjoyed the privilege of penetrating into the +sanctuary, of "entering into heaven and there beholding the god" face +to face. In the same way, the high priest of Anhuri at Sebennytos was +entitled the wise and pure warrior--_ahuiti sau uibu_--because his god +went armed with a pike, and a soldier god required for his service a +pontiff who should be a soldier like himself. + +These great personages did not always strictly seclude themselves +within the limits of the religious domain. The gods accepted, and even +sometimes solicited, from their worshippers, houses, fields, vineyards, +orchards, slaves, and fishponds, the produce of which assured their +livelihood and the support of their temples. There was no Egyptian who +did not cherish the ambition of leaving some such legacy to the patron +god of his city, "for a monument to himself," and as an endowment +for the priests to institute prayers and perpetual sacrifices on his +behalf.[*] In course of time these accumulated gifts at length formed +real sacred fiefs--_hotpu-nutir_--analogous to the _wakfs_ of Mussulman +Egypt.[**] They were administered by the high priest, who, if necessary, +defended them by force against the greed of princes or kings. Two, +three, or even four classes of prophets or _heiroduli_ under his orders +assisted him in performing the offices of worship, in giving religious +instruction, and in the conduct of affairs. Women did not hold equal +rank with men in the temples of male deities; they there formed a kind +of harem whence the god took his mystic spouses, his concubines, his +maidservants, the female musicians and dancing women whose duty it was +to divert him and to enliven his feasts. But in temples of goddesses +they held the chief rank, and were called _hierodules_, or priestesses, +_hierodules_ of Nit, _hierodules_ of Hathor, _hierodules_ of +Pakhit.[***] + + * As regards the Saite period, we are beginning to + accumulate many stelae recording gifts to a god of land or + houses, made either by the king or by private individuals. + + ** We know from the _Great Harris Papyrus_ to what the + fortune of Amon amounted at the end of the reign of Ramses + III.; its details may be found in Brugsch, _Die + AEgyptologie_, pp. 271-274. Cf. in Naville, _Bubastis, Eighth + Memoir of the Egyptian Exploration Fund_, p. 61, a + calculation as to the quantities of precious metals + belonging to one of the least of the temples of Bubastis; + its gold and silver were counted by thousands of pounds. + + *** Mariette remarks that priests play but a + subordinate part in the temple of Hathor. This fact, which + surprised him, is adequately explained by remembering that + Hathor being a goddess, women take precedence over men in a + temple dedicated to her. At Sais, the chief priest was a + man, the Tcharp-haitu; but the persistence with which women + of the highest rank, and even queens themselves, took the + title of prophetess of Nit from the times of the Ancient + Empire shows that in this city the priestess of the goddess + was of equal, if not superior, rank to the priest. + +The lower offices in the households of the gods, as in princely +households, were held by a troop of servants and artisans: butchers to +cut the throats of the victims, cooks and pastrycooks, confectioners, +weavers, shoemakers, florists, cellarers, water-carriers and +milk-carriers. In fact, it was a state within a state, and the prince +took care to keep its government in his own hands, either by investing +one of his children with the titles and functions of chief pontiff', +or by arrogating them to himself. In that case, he provided against +mistakes which would have annulled the sacrifice by associating with +himself several masters of the ceremonies, who directed him in the +orthodox evolutions before the god and about the victim, indicated the +due order of gestures and the necessary changes of costume, and prompted +him with the words of each invocation from a book or tablet which they +held in their hands.[*] + + * The title of such a personage was _khri-habi_, the man + with the roll or tablet, because of the papyrus roll, or + wooden tablet containing the ritual, which he held in his + hand. + +In addition to its rites and special hierarchy, each of the sacerdotal +colleges thus constituted had a theology in accordance with the nature +and attributes of its god. Its fundamental dogma affirmed the unity of +the nome god, his greatness, his supremacy over all the gods of Egypt +and of foreign lands[*]--whose existence was nevertheless admitted, and +none dreamed of denying their reality or contesting their power. + + * In the inscriptions all local gods bear the titles of + _Nutir ua_, only god; Suton nutiru, Suntiru, [ Greek word], + king of the gods; of _Nutir aa nib pit_, the great god, lord + of heaven, which show their pretensions to the sovereignty + and to the position of creator of the universe. + +The latter also boasted of their unity, their greatness, their +supremacy; but whatever they were, the god of the nome was master of +them all--their prince, their ruler, their king. It was he alone who +governed the world, he alone kept it in good order, he alone had created +it. Not that he had evoked it out of nothing; there was as yet no +concept of nothingness, and even to the most subtle and refined of +primitive theologians creation was only a bringing of pre-existent +elements into play. + +[Illustration: 180.jpg SHU UPLIFTING THE SKY. 2] + + 2 Drawing by Faucher-Gudin of a green enamelled statuette + in my possession. It was from Shu that the Greeks derived + their representations, and perhaps their myth of Atlas. + +The latent germs of things had always existed, but they had slept for +ages and ages in the bosom of the Nu, of the dark waters. In fulness of +time the god of each nome drew them forth, classified them, marshalled +them according to the bent of his particular nature, and made his +universe out of them by methods peculiarly his own. Nit of Sais, who was +a weaver, had made the world of warp and woof, as the mother of a family +weaves her children's linen. + +Khnumu, the Nile-God of the cataracts, had gathered up the mud of his +waters and therewith moulded his creatures upon a potter's table. In the +eastern cities of the Delta these procedures were not so simple. There +it was admitted that in the beginning earth and sky were two lovers lost +in the Nu, fast locked in each other's embrace, the god lying beneath +the goddess. On the day of creation a new god, Shu, came forth from the +primaeval waters, slipped between the two, and seizing Nuit with both +hands, lifted her above his head with outstretched arms.[*] + + * This was what the Egyptians called _the upliftings of + Shu_. The event first took place at Hermopolis, and certain + legends added that in order to get high enough the god had + been obliged to make use of a staircase or mound situate in + this city, and which was famous throughout Egypt. + +Though the starry body of the goddess extended in space--her head being +to the west and her loins to the east--her feet and hands hung down to +the earth. These were the four pillars of the firmament under another +form, and four gods of four adjacent principalities were in charge of +them. Osiris, or Horus the sparrow-hawk, presided over the southern, and +Sit over the northern pillar; Thot over that of the west, and Sapdi, the +author of the zodiacal light, over that of the east. They had divided +the world among themselves into four regions, or rather into four +"houses," bounded by those mountains which surround it, and by the +diameters intersecting between the pillars. Each of these houses +belonged to one, and to one only; none of the other three, nor even +the sun himself, might enter it, dwell there, or even pass through +it without having obtained its master's permission. Sibu had not been +satisfied to meet the irruption of Shu by mere passive resistance. He +had tried to struggle, and he is drawn in the posture of a man who has +just awakened out of sleep, and is half turning on his couch before +getting up. One of his legs is stretched out, the other is bent and +partly drawn up as in the act of rising. The lower part of the body is +still unmoved, but he is raising himself with difficulty on his left +elbow, while his head droops and his right arm is lifted towards the +sky. His effort was suddenly arrested. Rendered powerless by a stroke of +the creator, Sibu remained as if petrified in this position, the obvious +irregularities of the earth's surface being due to the painful attitude +in which he was stricken. His sides have since been clothed with +verdure, generations of men and animals have succeeded each other +upon his back, but without bringing any relief to his pain; he suffers +evermore from the violent separation of which he was the victim when +Nuit was torn from him, and his complaint continues to rise to heaven +night and day. + +[Illustration: 182.jpg SHU FORCIBLY SEPARATING SIBU AND NUIT. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting on the mummy-case + of Butehamon in the Turin Museum. "Shu, the great god, lord + of heaven," receives the adoration of two ram-headed souls + placed upon his right and left. + +[Illustration: 183.jpg THE DIDU OF OSIRIS. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a specimen in blue enamelled + pottery, now in my possession. + +[Illustration: 183b.jpg THE DIDU DRESSED. 2] + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a figure frequently found in + Theban mummy-cases of XXIst and XXIInd dynasties (Wilkinson, + _Manners and Customs_. 2nd edit., vol. iii. pl. xxv., No 5). + +The aspect of the inundated plains of the Delta, of the river by which +they are furrowed and fertilized, and of the desert sands by which they +are threatened, had suggested to the theologians of Mendes and Buto an +explanation of the mystery of creation, in which the feudal divinities +of these cities and of several others in their neighbourhood, Osiris, +Sit, and Isis, played the principal parts. Osiris first represented the +wild and fickle Nile of primitive times; afterwards, as those who dwelt +upon his banks learned to regulate his course, they emphasized +the kindlier side of his character and soon transformed him into +a benefactor of humanity, the supremely good being, Unnofriu, +Onnophris.[*] He was lord of the principality of Didu, which lay along +the Sebennytic branch of the river between the coast marshes and the +entrance to the Wady Tumilat, but his domain had been divided; and the +two nomes thus formed, namely, the ninth and sixteenth nomes of the +Delta in the Pharaonic lists, remained faithful to him, and here +he reigned without rival, at Busiris as at Mendes. His most famous +idol-form was the Didu, whether naked or clothed, the fetish, formed +of four superimposed columns, which had given its name to the +principality.[**] + + * It has long been a dogma with Egyptologists that Osiris + came from Abydos. Maspero has shown that from his very + titles he is obviously a native of the Delta, and more + especially of Busiris and Mendes. + + ** The Didu has been very variously interpreted. It has + been taken for a kind of nilometer, for a sculptor's or + modeller's stand, or a painter's easel for an altar with + four superimposed tables, or a sort of pedestal bearing four + door-lintels, for a series of four columns placed one behind + another, of which the capitals only are visible, one above + the other, etc. The explanation given in the text is that of + Reuvens, who recognized the Didu as a symbolic + representation of the four regions of the world; and of + Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie + Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. p. 359, note 3. According to Egyptian + theologians, it represented the spine of Osiris, preserved + as a relic in the town bearing the name of _Didu, Bidit_. + +[Illustration: 185.jpg OSIRIS-ONNOPHRIS, WHIP AND CROOK IN HAND. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Boudier from a statue in green basalt found at + Sakkarah, and now in the Gizeh Museum. + +They ascribed life to this Didu, and represented it with a somewhat +grotesque face, big cheeks, thick lips, a necklace round its throat, a +long flowing dress which hid the base of the columns beneath its folds, +and two arms bent across the breast, the hands grasping one a whip and +the other a crook, symbols of sovereign authority. This, perhaps, was +the most ancient form of Osiris; but they also represented him as a +man, and supposed him to assume the shapes of rams and bulls,[*] or +even those of water-birds, such as lapwings, herons, and cranes, which +disported themselves about the lakes of that district.[**] + + * The ram of Mendes is sometimes Osiris, and sometimes the + soul of Osiris. The ancients took it for a he-goat, and to + them we are indebted for the record of its exploits. + According to Manetho, the worship of the sacred ram is not + older than the time of King Kaiekhos of the second dynasty. + A Ptolemaic necropolis of sacred rams was discovered by + Mariette at Tmai el-Amdid, in the ruins of Thmuis, and some + of their sarcophagi are now in the Gizeh Museum. + + ** The Bonu, the chief among these birds, is not the + phoenix, as has so often been asserted. It is a kind of + heron, either the _Ardea cinerea_, which is common in Egypt, + or else some similar species. + +The goddess whom we are accustomed to regard as inseparable from him, +Isis the cow, or woman with cow's horns, had not always belonged to him. +Originally she was an independent deity, dwelling at Buto in the +midst of the ponds of Adhu. She had neither husband nor lover, but had +spontaneously conceived and given birth to a son, whom she suckled among +the reeds--a lesser Horus who was called Harsiisit, Horus the son of +Isis, to distinguish him from Haroeris. At an early period she was +married to her neighbour Osiris, and no marriage could have been better +suited to her nature. For she personified the earth--not the earth in +general, like Sibu, with its unequal distribution of seas and mountains, +deserts and cultivated land; but the black and luxuriant plain of the +Delta, where races of men, plants, and animals increase and multiply +in ever-succeeding generations. To whom did she owe this inexhaustible +productive energy if not to her neighbour Osiris, to the Nile? The Nile +rises, overflows, lingers upon the soil; every year it is wedded to the +earth, and the earth comes forth green and fruitful from its embraces. + +[Illustration: 187.jpg ISIS, WEARING THE COW-HORN HEAD-DRESS. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Boudier from a green basalt statue in the Gizeh + Museum. Prom a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. + +The marriage of the two elements suggested that of the two divinities; +Osiris wedded Isis and adopted the young Horus. But this prolific and +gentle pair were not representative of all the phenomena of nature. +The eastern part of the Delta borders upon the solitudes of Arabia, and +although it contains several rich and fertile provinces, yet most of +these owe their existence to the arduous labour of the inhabitants, +their fertility being dependent on the daily care of man, and on his +regular distribution of the water. The moment he suspends the straggle +or relaxes his watchfulness, the desert reclaims them and overwhelms +them with sterility. Sit was the spirit of the mountain, stone and sand, +the red and arid ground as distinguished from the moist black soil of +the valley. On the body of a lion or of a dog he bore a fantastic head +with a slender curved snout, upright and square-cut ears; his cloven +tail rose stiffly behind him, springing from his loins like a fork. He +also assumed a human form, or retained the animal head only upon a man's +shoulders. He was felt to be cruel and treacherous, always ready to +shrivel up the harvest with his burning breath, and to smother Egypt +beneath a shroud of shifting sand. The contrast between this evil being +and the beneficent couple, Osiris and Isis, was striking. Nevertheless, +the theologians of the Delta soon assigned a common origin to these +rival divinities of Nile and desert, red land and black. Sibu had +begotten them, Nuit had given birth to them one after another when the +demiurge had separated her from her husband; and the days of their birth +were the days of creation.[*] + + * According to one legend which is comparatively old in + origin, the fous* children of Nuit, and Horus her grandson, + were born one after another, each on one of the intercalary + days of the year. This legend was still current in the Greek + period. + +At first each of them had kept to his own half of the world. Moreover +Sit, who had begun by living alone, had married, in order that he might +be inferior to Osiris in nothing. + +[Illustration: 189.jpg NEPHTHYS, AS A WAILING WOMAN. 1 and THE GOD SIT, +FIGHTING. 2] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a painted wooden statuette + in my possession, from a funeral couch found at Akhmim. On + her head the goddess bears the hieroglyph for her name; she + is kneeling at the foot of the funeral couch of Osiris and + weeps for the dead god. + + 2 Bronze statuette of the XXth dynasty, encrusted with + gold, from the Hoffmann collection: drawn by Faucher-Gudin + from a photograph taken by Legrain in 1891. About the time + when the worship of Sit was proscribed, one of the Egyptian + owners of this little monument had endeavoured to alter its + character, and to transform it into a statuette of the god + Khnumu. He took out the upright ears, replacing them with + ram's horns, but made no other change. In the drawing I have + had the later addition of the curved horns removed, and + restored the upright ears, whose marks may still be seen + upon the sides of the head-dress. + +As a matter of fact, his companion, Nephthys, did not manifest any great +activity, and was scarcely more than an artificial counterpart of the +wife of Osiris, a second Isis who bore no children to her husband;[*] +for the sterile desert brought barrenness to her as to all that it +touched. + + * The impersonal character of Nephthys, her artificial + origin, and her derivation from Isis, have been pointed out + by Maspero (_Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie + Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. pp. 362-364). The very name of the + goddess, which means _the lady (nibit)_ of the_ mansion + (hait)_, confirms this view. + + [Illustration: 190.jpg PLAN OF THE RUINS OF HELIOPOLIS. 2] + + 2 Drawn by Thuillier, from the _Description de l'Egypte_ + (Atlas, Ant., vol. v. pl. 26, 1). + +Yet she had lost neither the wish nor the power to bring forth, and +sought fertilization from another source. Tradition had it that she had +made Osiris drunken, drawn him to her arms without his knowledge, and +borne him a son; the child of this furtive union was the jackal Anubis. +Thus when a higher Nile overflows lands not usually covered by the +inundation, and lying unproductive for lack of moisture, the soil +eagerly absorbs the water, and the germs which lay concealed in the +ground burst forth into life. The gradual invasion of the domain of +Sit by Osiris marks the beginning of the strife. Sit rebels against the +wrong of which he is the victim, involuntary though it was; he surprises +and treacherously slays his brother, drives Isis into temporary +banishment among her marshes, and reigns over the kingdom of Osiris +as well as over his own. But his triumph is short-lived. Horus, having +grown up, takes arms against him, defeats him in many encounters, and +banishes him in his turn. The creation of the world had brought the +destroying and the life-sustaining gods face to face: the history of the +world is but the story of their rivalries and warfare. + +None of these conceptions alone sufficed to explain the whole mechanism +of creation, nor the part which the various gods took in it. The priests +of Heliopolis appropriated them all, modified some of their details +and eliminated others, added several new personages, and thus finally +constructed a complete cosmogony, the elements of which were learnedly +combined so as to correspond severally with the different operations by +which the world had been evoked out of chaos and gradually brought to +its present state. Heliopolis was never directly involved in the great +revolutions of political history; but no city ever originated so many +mystic ideas and consequently exercised so great an influence upon the +development of civilization.[*] + + * By its inhabitants it was accounted older than any + other city of Egypt. + +[Illustration: 192.jpg HORUS, THE AVENGER OF HIS FATHER, AND ANUBIS +UAPOAITU. 2] + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato of a + bas-relief in the temple of Seti I. at Abydos. The two gods + are conducting King Ramses II., here identified with Osiris, + towards the goddess Hathor. + +It was a small town built on the plain not far from the Nile at the apex +of the Delta, and surrounded by a high wall of mud bricks whose remains +could still be seen at the beginning of the century, but which have now +almost completely disappeared. + +[Illustration: 191.jpg THE SUN SPRINGING FROM AN OPENING LOTUS-FLOWER] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. The open lotus-flower, with a bud + on either side, stands upon the usual sign for any water- + basin. Here the sign represents the Nu, that dark watery + abyss from which the lotus sprang on the morning of + creation, and whereon it is still supposed to bloom. + +One obelisk standing in the midst of the open plain, a few waste mounds +of debris, scattered blocks, and two or three lengths of crumbling wall, +alone mark the place where once the city stood. Ka was worshipped there, +and the Greek name of Heliopolis is but the translation of that which +was given to it by the priests--Pi-ra, City of the Sun. Its principal +temple, the "Mansion of the Prince," rose from about the middle of the +enclosure, and sheltered, together with the god himself, those animals +in which he became incarnate: the bull Mnevis, and sometimes the Phoenix. +According to an old legend, this wondrous bird appeared in Egypt only +once in five hundred years. It is born and lives in the depths of +Arabia, but when its father dies it covers the body with a layer of +myrrh, and flies at utmost speed to the temple of Helio-polis, there to +bury it.[*] + + * The Phoenix is not the _Bonu_ (cf. p. 186, note 2), but a + fabulous bird derived from the golden sparrow-hawk, which + was primarily a form of Haroeris, and of the sun-gods in + second place only. On the authority of his Heliopolitan + guides, Herodotus tells us (ii. 83) that in shape and size + the phoenix resembled the eagle, and this statement alone + should have sufficed to prevent any attempt at identifying + it with the Bonu, which is either a heron or a lapwing. + +[Illustration: 194.jpg THE PLAIN AND MOUNDS OF HELIOPOLIS FIFTY YEARS +AGO.2] + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a water-colour published by + Lepsius, _Denkm_., i. 56. The view is taken from the midst + of the ruins at the foot of the obelisk of Usirtasen. A + little stream runs in the foreground, and passes through a + muddy pool; to right and left are mounds of ruins, which + were then considerable, but have since been partially razed. + In the distance Cairo rises against the south-west. + +In the beginning, Ra was the sun itself, whose fires appear to be +lighted every morning in the east and to be extinguished at evening +in the west; and to the people such he always remained. Among the +theologians there was considerable difference of opinion on the point. +Some held the disk of the sun to be the body which the god assumes when +presenting himself for the adoration of his worshippers. Others affirmed +that it rather represented his active and radiant soul. Finally, there +were many who defined it as one of his forms of being--_khopriu_--one of +his self-manifestations, without presuming to decide whether it was his +body or his soul which he deigned to reveal to human eyes; but whether +soul or body, all agreed that the sun's disk had existed in the Nu +before creation. But how could it have lain beneath the primordial ocean +without either drying up the waters or being extinguished by them? At +this stage the identification of Ra with Horus and his right eye served +the purpose of the theologians admirably: the god needed only to have +closed his eyelid in order to prevent his fires from coming in contact +with the water.[*] + + * This is clearly implied in the expression so often used by + the sacred writers of Ancient Egypt in reference to the + appearance of the sun and his first act at the time of + creation: "_Thou openest the two eyes_, and earth is flooded + with rays of light." + +He was also said to have shut up his disk within a lotus-bud, whose +folded petals had safely protected it. The flower had opened on the +morning of the first day, and from it the god had sprung suddenly as +a child wearing the solar disk upon his head. But all theories led the +theologians to distinguish two periods, and as it were two beings in +the existence of supreme deity: a pre-mundane sun lying inert within the +bosom of the dark waters, and our living and life-giving sun. + +[Illustration: 196.jpg HAKMAKHUITI-HAKMAKHIS, THE GREAT GOD. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger of an + outer wall of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak. Harmakhis grants + years and festivals to the Pharaoh Seti I., who kneels + before him, and is presented by the lioness-headed goddess + Sokhit, here described as a magician--_Oirit hilcau_. + +One division of the Heliopolitan school retained the use of traditional +terms and images in reference to these Sun-gods. To the first it left +the human form, and the title of Ra, with the abstract sense of creator, +deriving the name from the verb _ra_, which means to give. For +the second it kept the form of the sparrow-hawk and the name of +Harma-khuiti--Horus in the two horizons--which clearly denoted his +function;[*] and it summed up the idea of the sun as a whole in the +single name of Ra-Harmakhuiti, and in a single image in which the +hawk-head of Horus was grafted upon the human body of Ra. The other +divisions of the school invented new names for new conceptions. The sun +existing before the world they called Creator--_Tumu, Atumu_ [**]--and +our earthly sun they called _Khopri_--He who is. + + * Harmakhuiti is Horus, the sky of the two horizons; _i.e._ + the sky of the daytime, and the night sky. When the + celestial Horus was confounded with Ra, and became the sun + (cf. p. 133), he naturally also became the sun of the two + horizons, the sun by day, and the sun by night. + + ** E. de Rouge, _Etudes sur le Rituel funeraire_, p. 76: + "His name may be connected with two radicals. Tem is a + negation; it may be taken to mean _the Inapproachable One, + the Unknown_ (as in Thebes, where _Aman_ means mystery). + Atum is, in fact, described as 'existing alone in the + abyss,' before the appearance of light. It was in this time + of darkness that Atum performed the first act of creation, + and this allows of our also connecting his name with the + Coptic tamio, _creare_. Atum was also the prototype of man + (in Coptic tme, _homo_), and becomes a perfect 'tum' after + his resurrection." Rugsch would rather explain _Tumu_ as + meaning _the Perfect One, the Complete_. E. de Rouge's + philological derivations are no longer admissible; but his + explanation of the name corresponds so well with the part + played by the god that I fail to see how that can be + challenged. + +Tumu was a man crowned and clothed with the insignia of supreme power, a +true king of gods, majestic and impassive as the Pharaohs who succeeded +each other upon the throne of Egypt. The conception of Khopri as a disk +enclosing a scarabaeus, or a man with a scarabous upon his head, or a +scarabus-headed mummy, was suggested by the accidental alliteration of +his name and that of Khopirru, the scarabaeus. The difference between +the possible forms of the god was so slight as to be eventually +lost altogether. His names were grouped by twos and threes in every +conceivable way, and the scarabaeus of Khopri took its place upon the +head of Ra, while the hawk headpiece was transferred from the shoulders +of Harmakhuiti to those of Tumu. The complex beings resulting from these +combinations, Ra-Tumu, Atumu-Ra, Ra-Tumu-Khopri, Ra-Harmakhuiti-Tumu, +Tum-Harmakhuiti-Khopri, never attained to any pronounced individuality. + +[Illustration: 198.jpg KHOPRI, IN HIS BARK] + +They were as a rule simple duplicates of the feudal god, names rather +than persons, and though hardly taken for one another indiscriminately, +the distinctions between them had reference to mere details of their +functions and attributes. Hence arose the idea of making these gods into +embodiments of the main phases in the life of the sun during the day +and throughout the year. Ra symbolized the sun of springtime and before +sunrise, Harmakhuiti the summer and the morning sun, Atumu the sun of +autumn and of afternoon, Khopri that of winter and of night. The people +of Heliopolis accepted the new names and the new forms presented for +their worship, but always subordinated them to their beloved Ra. For +them Ra never ceased to be the god of the nome; while Atumu remained the +god of the theologians, and was invoked by them, the people preferred +Ra. At Thinis and at Sebennytos Anhuri incurred the same fate as befell +Ra at Heliopolis. After he had been identified with the sun, the similar +identification of Shu inevitably followed. Of old, Anhuri and Shu were +twin gods, incarnations of sky and earth. They were soon but one god in +two persons--the god Anhuri-Shu, of which the one half under the title +of Auhuri represented, like Atumu, the primordial being; and Shu, the +other half, became, as his name indicates, the creative sun-god who +upholds (_shu_) the sky. + +Turnu then, rather than Ra, was placed by the Heliopolitan priests at +the head of their cosmogony as supreme creator and governor. Several +versions were current as to how he had passed from inertia into action, +from the personage of Tumu into that of Ra. According to the version +most widely received, he had suddenly cried across the waters, "Come +unto me!"[*] and immediately the mysterious lotus had unfolded its +petals, and Ra had appeared at the edge of its open cup as a disk, +a newborn child, or a disk-crowned sparrow-hawk; this was probably a +refined form of a ruder and earlier tradition, according to which it +was upon Ra himself that the office had devolved of separating Sibu from +Nuit, for the purpose of constructing the heavens and the earth. + + * It was on this account that the Egyptians named the first + day of the year the _Day of Come-unto-me!_ + +But it was doubtless felt that so unseemly an act of intervention was +beneath the dignity even of an inferior form of the suzerain god; Shu +was therefore borrowed for the purpose from the kindred cult of Anhuri, +and at Heliopolis, as at Sebennytos, the office was entrusted to him +of seizing the sky-goddess and raising her with outstretched arms. The +violence suffered by Nuit at the hands of Shu led to a connexion of the +Osirian dogma of Mendes with the solar dogma of Sebennytos, and thus the +tradition describing the creation of the world was completed by another, +explaining its division into deserts and fertile lands. Sibu, hitherto +concealed beneath the body of his wife, was now exposed to the sun; +Osiris and Sit, Isis and Nephthys, were born, and, falling from the sky, +their mother, on to the earth, their father, they shared the surface of +the latter among themselves. Thus the Heliopolitan doctrine recognized +three principal events in the creation of the universe: the dualization +of the supreme god and the breaking forth of light, the raising of the +sky and the laying bare of the earth, the birth of the Nile and the +allotment of the soil of Egypt, all expressed as the manifestations +of successive deities. Of these deities, the latter ones already +constituted a family of father, mother, and children, like human +families. Learned theologians availed themselves of this example to +effect analogous relationships between the rest of the gods, combining +them all into one line of descent. As Atumu-Ra could have no fellow, he +stood apart in the first rank, and it was decided that Shu should be +his son, whom he had formed out of himself alone, on the first day of +creation, by the simple intensity of his own virile energy. Shu, reduced +to the position of divine son, had in his turn begotten Sibu and Nuit, +the two deities which he separated. Until then he had not been supposed +to have any wife, and he also might have himself brought his own progeny +into being; but lest a power of spontaneous generation equal to that +of the demiurge should be ascribed to him, he was married, and the wife +found for him was Tafnuit, his twin sister, born in the same way as +he was born. This goddess, invented for the occasion, was never fully +alive, and remained, like Nephthys, a theological entity rather than a +real person. The texts describe her as the pale reflex of her husband. + +[Illustration: 201.jpg THE TWIN LIONS, SHU AND TAFNUIT. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a vignette in the papyrus of + Ani in the British Museum, published by Lepage-Renouf in the + _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology_, vol. + xi., 1889-90, pp. 26-28. The inscription above the lion on + the right reads _safu_, "yesterday;" the other, _duau_, + "this morning." + +Together with him she upholds the sky, and every morning receives +the newborn sun as it emerges from the mountain of the east; she is a +lioness when Shu is a lion, a woman when he is a man, a lioness-headed +woman if he is a lion-headed man; she is angry when he is angry, +appeased when he is appeased; she has no sanctuary wherein he is not +worshipped. In short, the pair made one being in two bodies, or, to use +the Egyptian expression, "one soul in its two twin bodies." + +Hence we see that the Heliopolitans proclaimed the creation to be the +work of the sun-god, Atumu-Ra, and of the four pairs of deities who were +descended from him. It was really a learned variant of the old doctrine +that the universe was composed of a sky-god, Horus, supported by his +four children and their four pillars: in fact, the four sons of the +Heliopolitan cosmogony, Shu and Sibu, Osiris and Sit, were occasionally +substituted for the four older gods of the "houses" of the world. This +being premised, attention must be given to the important differences +between the two systems. At the outset, instead of appearing +contemporaneously upon the scene, like the four children of Horus, the +four Heliopolitan gods were deduced one from another, and succeeded each +other in the order of their birth. They had not that uniform attribute +of supporter, associating them always with one definite function, but +each of them felt himself endowed with faculties and armed with special +powers required by his condition. Ultimately they took to themselves +goddesses, and thus the total number of beings working in different ways +at the organization of the universe was brought up to nine. Hence they +were called by the collective name of the Ennead, the Nine gods--_pauit +nutiru_,[*]--and the god at their head was entitled _Pauiti_, the god of +the Ennead. + + * The first Egyptologists confounded the sign used in + writing _pauit_ with the sign _kh_, and the word _khet, + other_. E. de Rouge was the first to determine its phonetic + value: "it should be read Pau, and designates a body of + gods." Shortly afterwards Beugsch proved that "the group of + gods invoked by E. de Rouge must have consisted of nine "-- + of an Ennead. This explanation was not at first admitted + either by Lepsius or by Mariette, who had proposed a mystic + interpretation of the word in his _Memoire sur la mere + d'Apis_, or by E. de Rouge, or by Chabas. The interpretation + a _Nine_, an _Ennead_, was not frankly adopted until later, + and more especially after the discovery of the Pyramid + texts; to-day, it is the only meaning admitted. Of course + the Egyptian Ennead has no other connection than that of + name with the Enneads of the Neo-Platonists. + +When creation was completed, its continued existence was ensured by +countless agencies with whose operation the persons of the Ennead were +not at leisure to concern themselves, but had ordained auxiliaries +to preside over each of the functions essential to the regular and +continued working of all things. The theologians of Heliopolis selected +eighteen from among the innumerable divinities of the feudal cults of +Egypt, and of these they formed two secondary Enneads, who were regarded +as the offspring of the Ennead of the creation. The first of the two +secondary Enneads, generally known as the Minor Ennead, recognized +as chief Harsiesis, the son of Osiris. Harsiesis was originally an +earth-god who had avenged the assassination of his father and the +banishment of his mother by Sit; that is, he had restored fulness to the +Nile and fertility to the Delta. When Harsiesis was incorporated into +the solar religions of Heliopolis, his filiation was left undisturbed +as being a natural link between the two Enneads, but his personality +was brought into conformity with the new surroundings into which he was +transplanted. He was identified with Ra through the intervention of the +older Horus, Haroeris-Harmakhis, and the Minor Ennead, like the Great +Ennead, began with a sun-god. This assimilation was not pushed so far +as to invest the younger Horus with the same powers as his fictitious +ancestor: he was the sun of earth, the everyday sun, while Atumu-Ra was +still the sun pre-mundane and eternal. Our knowledge of the eight other +deities of the Minor Ennead is very imperfect. + +[Illustration: 204.jpg THE FOUR FUNERARY GENII, KHABSONUF, TIUMAUTF, +HAPI, AND AMSIT. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Wilkinson's _Manners and + Customs_, 2nd edit., vol. iii. p. 221, pl. xlviii. + +We see only that these were the gods who chiefly protected the sun-god +against its enemies and helped it to follow its regular course. Thus +Harhuditi, the Horus of Edfu, spear in hand, pursues the hippopotami +or serpents which haunt the celestial waters and menace the god. The +progress of the Sun-bark is controlled by the incantations of Thot, +while Uapuaitu, the dual jackal-god of Siufc, guides, and occasionally +tows it along the sky from south to north. The third Ennead would seem +to have included among its members Anubis the jackal, and the four +funerary genii, the children of Horus--Hapi, Amsit, Tiumautf, Kabhsonuf; +it further appears as though its office was the care and defence of +the dead sun, the sun by night, as the second Ennead had charge of +the living sun. Its functions were so obscure and apparently so +insignificant as compared with those exercised by the other Enneads, +that the theologians did not take the trouble either to represent it +or to enumerate its persons. They invoked it as a whole, after the +two others, in those formulas in which they called into play all the +creative and preservative forces of the universe; but this was rather as +a matter of conscience and from love of precision than out of any true +deference. At the initial impulse of the lord of Heliopolis, the three +combined Enneads started the world and kept it going, and gods whom +they had not incorporated were either enemies to be fought with, or mere +attendants. + +The doctrine of the Heliopolitan Ennead acquired an immediate and a +lasting popularity. It presented such a clear scheme of creation, and +one whose organization was so thoroughly in accordance with the spirit +of tradition, that the various sacerdotal colleges adopted it one after +another, accommodating it to the exigencies of local patriotism. Each +placed its own nome-god at the head of the Ennead as "god of the Nine," +"god of the first time," creator of heaven and earth, sovereign ruler +of men, and lord of all action. As there was the Ennead of Atumu at +Heliopolis, so there was that of Anhuri at Thinis and at Sebennytos; +that of Minu at Coptos and at Panopolis; that of Haroeris at Edfu; that +of Sobkhu at Ombos; and, later, that of Phtah at Memphis and of Amon +at Thebes. Nomes which worshipped a goddess had no scruples whatever in +ascribing to her the part played by Atumu, and in crediting her with the +spontaneous maternity of Shu and Tafnuit. + +Illustration: 206.jpg [PLAN OF THE RUINS OP HERMOPOLIS MAGNA. 1] + + 1 Plan drawn by Thuillier, from the _Description de l' + Egypte_, Ant., vol. iv. pl. 50. + +Nit was the source and ruler of the Ennead of Sais, Isis of that of +Buto, and Hathor of that of Denderah.[**] Few of the sacerdotal colleges +went beyond the substitution of their own feudal gods for Atumu. +Provided that the god of each nome held the rank of supreme lord, the +rest mattered little, and the local theologians made no change in the +order of the other agents of creation, their vanity being unhurt even by +the lower offices assigned by the Heliopolitan tradition to such powers +as Osiris, Sibu, and Sit, who were known and worshipped throughout the +whole country. + + ** On the Ennead of Hathor at Denderah, see Mariette, + Denderah, p. 80., et seq., of the text. The fact that Nit, + Isis, and, generally speaking, all the feudal goddesses, + were the chiefs of their local Enneads, is proved by the + epithets applied to them, which represent them as having + independent creative power by virtue of their own unaided + force and energy, like the god at the head of the + Heliopolitan Ennead. + +The theologians of Hermopolis alone declined to borrow the new system +just as it stood, and in all its parts. Hermopolis had always been one +of the ruling cities of Middle Egypt. Standing alone in the midst of the +land lying between the Eastern and Western Mies, it had established upon +each of the two great arms of the river a port and a custom-house, where +all boats travelling either up or down stream paid toll on passing. Not +only the corn and natural products of the valley and of the Delta, but +also goods from distant parts of Africa brought to Siufc by Soudanese +caravans, helped to fill the treasury of Hermopolis. Thot, the god of +the city, represented as ibis or baboon, was essentially a moon-god, who +measured time, counted the days, numbered the months, and recorded the +years. Lunar divinities, as we know, are everywhere supposed to exercise +the most varied powers: they command the mysterious forces of the +universe; they know the sounds, words, and gestures by which those +forces are put in motion, and not content with using them for their own +benefit, they also teach to their worshippers the art of employing them. + +[Illustration: 208.jpg THE IBIS THOT. 1; and THE CYNOCEPHALOUS THOT. 2] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from an enamelled pottery figure + from Coptos, now in my possession. Neck, feet, and tail are + in blue enamel, the rest is in green. The little personage + represented as squatting beneath the beak is Mait, the + goddess of truth, and the ally of Thot. The ibis was + furnished with a ring for suspending it; this has been + broken off, but traces of it may still be seen at the back + of the head. + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a green enamelled pottery + figure in my possession (Saite period). + +Thot formed no exception to this rule. He was lord of the voice, master +of words and of books, possessor or inventor of those magic writings +which nothing in heaven, on earth, or in Hades can withstand.[***] + + *** Cf. in the tale of Satni (Maspero, _Contes populaires + de l'Ancienne Egypte_, 2nd edit., p. 175) the description of + the book which Thot has himself written with his own hand, + and which makes its possessor the equal of the gods. "The + two formulas which are written therein, if thou recitest the + first thou shalt charm heaven, earth, Hades, the mountains, + the waters; thou shalt know the birds of the sky and the + reptiles, how many soever they be; thou shalt see the fish + of the deep, for a divine power will cause them to rise to + the surface of the water. If thou readest the second + formula, even although thou shouldest be in the tomb, thou + shalt again take the form which was thine upon earth; thou + shalt even see the sun rising in heaven, and his cycle of + gods, and the moon in the form wherein it appeareth." + +He had discovered the incantations which evoke and control the gods; he +had transcribed the texts and noted the melodies of these incantations; +he recited them with that true intonation--_ma khrou_--which renders +them all-powerful, and every one, whether god or man, to whom he +imparted them, and whose voice he made true--_sma khrou_--became like +himself master of the universe. He had accomplished the creation not +by muscular effort to which the rest of the cosmogonical gods primarily +owed their birth, but by means of formulas, or even of the voice alone, +"the first time" when he awoke in the Nu. In fact, the articulate word +and the voice were believed to be the most potent of creative forces, +not remaining immaterial on issuing from the lips, but condensing, so +to speak, into tangible substances; into bodies which were themselves +animated by creative life and energy; into gods and goddesses who lived +or who created in their turn. By a very short phrase Tumu had called +forth the gods who order all things; for his "Come unto me!" uttered +with a loud voice upon the day of creation, had evoked the sun from +within the lotus. Thot had opened his lips, and the voice which +proceeded from him had become an entity; sound had solidified into +matter, and by a simple emission of voice the four gods who preside over +the four houses of the world had come forth alive from his mouth without +bodily effort on his part, and without spoken evocation. Creation by the +voice is almost as great a refinement of thought as the substitution +of creation by the word for creation by muscular effort. In fact, sound +bears the same relation to words that the whistle of a quartermaster +bears to orders for the navigation of a ship transmitted by a speaking +trumpet; it simplifies speech, reducing it as it were to a pure +abstraction. At first it was believed that the creator had made the +world with a word, then that he had made it by sound; but the further +conception of his having made it by thought does not seem to have +occurred to the theologians. It was narrated at Hermopolis, and the +legend was ultimately universally accepted, even by the Heliopolitans, +that the separation of Nuit and Sibu had taken place at a certain spot +on the site of the city where Sibu had ascended the mound on which +the feudal temple was afterwards built, in order that he might better +sustain the goddess and uphold the sky at the proper height. The +conception of a Creative Council of five gods had so far prevailed at +Hermopolis that from this fact the city had received in remote antiquity +the name of the "House of the Five;" its temple was called the "Abode of +the Five" down to a late period in Egyptian history, and its prince, +who was the hereditary high priest of Thot, reckoned as the first of his +official titles that of "Great One of the House of the Five." + +The four couples who had helped Atumu were identified with the four +auxiliary gods of Thot, and changed the council of Five into a Great +Hermopolitan Ennead, but at the cost of strange metamorphoses. However +artificially they had been grouped about Atumu, they had all preserved +such distinctive characteristics as prevented their being confounded one +with another. When the universe which they had helped to build up +was finally seen to be the result of various operations demanding a +considerable manifestation of physical energy, each god was required to +preserve the individuality necessary for the production of such effects +as were expected of him. They could not have existed and carried on +their work without conforming to the ordinary conditions of humanity; +being born one of another, they were bound to have paired with living +goddesses as capable of bringing forth their children as they were of +begetting them. On the other hand, the four auxiliary gods of Hermopolis +exercised but one means of action--the voice. Having themselves come +forth from the master's mouth, it was by voice that they created and +perpetuated the world. Apparently they could have done without goddesses +had marriage not been imposed upon them by their identification with the +corresponding gods of the Heliopolitan Ennead; at any rate, their wives +had but a show of life, almost destitute of reality. As these four gods +worked after the manner of their master, Thot, so they also bore his +form and reigned along with him as so many baboons. When associated with +the lord of Hermopolis, the eight divinities of Heliopolis assumed the +character and the appearance of the four Hermopolitan gods in whom they +were merged. They were often represented as eight baboons surrounding +the supreme baboon, or as four pairs of gods and goddesses without +either characteristic attributes or features; or, finally, as four pairs +of gods and goddesses, the gods being, as far as we are able to judge, +the couple Nu-Nuit answers to Shu-Tafnuit; Hahu-Hehit to Sibu and Nuifc; +Kaku-Kakit to Osiris and Isis; Ninu-Ninit to Sit and Nephthys. There +was seldom any occasion to invoke them separately; they were addressed +collectively as the Eight--_Khmunu_--and it was on their account that +Hermopolis was named _Khmunu_, the City of the Eight. Ultimately they +were deprived of the little individual life still left to them, and were +fused into a single being to whom the texts refer as Khomninu, the god +Eight. + +[Illustration: 212.jpg THE HERMOPOLITAN OGDOAD. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a photograph by Beato. Cf. + Lepsius, Denkm., iv. pl. 66 c. In this illustration I have + combined! the two extremities of a great scene at Philae, in + which the _Eight_, divided into two groups of four, frog- + headed men, and the goddesses serpent-headed women. Morning + and evening do they sing; and the mysterious hymns + wherewith they salute the rising and the setting sun ensure + the continuity of his course. Their names did not survive + their metamorphoses; each pair had no longer more than a + single name, the termination of each name varying according + as a god or a goddess was intended:--Nu and Nuit, Hehu and + Hehit, Kaku and Kakit, Ninu and Ninit, the god One and the + god Eight, the Monad and the Ogdoad. The latter had scarcely + more than a theoretical existence, and was generally + absorbed into the person of the former. Thus the theologians + of Hermopolis gradually disengaged the unity of their feudal + god from the multiplicity of the cosmogonie deities. + +[Illustration: 213.jpg AMON. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a bronze statuette found at + Thebes, and now in my possession. + +By degrees the Ennead of Thot was thus reduced to two terms: take part +in the adoration of the king. According to a custom common towards the +Graeco-Roman period, the sculptor has made the feet of his gods like +jackals' heads; it is a way of realizing the well-known metaphor which +compares a rapid runner to the jackal roaming around Egypt. + +As the sacerdotal colleges had adopted the Heliopolitan doctrine, so +they now generally adopted that of Hermopolis: Amon, for instance, being +made to preside indifferently over the eight baboons and over the four +independent couples of the primitive Ennead. In both cases the process +of adaptation was absolutely identical, and would have been attended by +no difficulty whatever, had the divinities to whom it was applied only +been without family; in that case, the one needful change for each city +would have been that of a single name in the Heliopolitan list, thus +leaving the number of the Ennead unaltered. But since these deities had +been turned into triads they could no longer be primarily regarded as +simple units, to be combined with the elements of some one or other of +the Enneads without preliminary arrangement. The two companions whom +each had chosen had to be adopted also, and the single Thot, or single +Atumu, replaced by the three patrons of the nome, thus changing the +traditional nine into eleven. Happily, the constitution of the triad +lent itself to all these adaptations. We have seen that the father +and the son became one and the same personage, whenever it was thought +desirable. We also know that one of the two parents always so far +predominated as almost to efface the other. Sometimes it was the goddess +who disappeared behind her husband; sometimes it was the god whose +existence merely served to account for the offspring of the goddess, and +whose only title to his position consisted in the fact that he was her +husband. Two personages thus closely connected were not long in blending +into one, and were soon defined as being two faces, the masculine and +feminine aspects of a single being. On the one hand, the father was one +with the son, and on the other he was one with the mother. Hence the +mother was one with the son as with the father, and the three gods of +the triad were resolved into one god in three persons. + +[Illustration: 215.jpg THE THEBAN ENNEAD] + + 1 This Ennead consists of fourteen members--Montu, + duplicating Atumu; the four usual couples; then Horus, the + son of Isis and Osiris, together with his associate deities, + Hathor, Tanu, and Anit. + +Thanks to this subterfuge, to put a triad at the head of an Ennead was +nothing more than a roundabout way of placing a single god there: the +three persons only counted as one, and the eleven names only amounted +to the nine canonical divinities. Thus, the Theban Ennead of +Amon-Maut-Khonsu, Shu, Tafnuit, Sibu, Nuit, Osiris, Isis, Sit, and +Nephthys, is, in spite of its apparent irregularity, as correct as the +typical Ennead itself. In such Enneads Isis is duplicated by goddesses +of like nature, such as Hathor, Selkit, Taninit, and yet remains but +one, while Osiris brings in his son Horus, who gathers about himself +all such gods as play the part of divine son in other triads. The +theologians had various methods of procedure for keeping the number of +persons in an Ennead at nine, no matter how many they might choose to +embrace in it. Supernumeraries were thrown in like the "shadows" at +Roman suppers, whom guests would bring without warning to their host, +and whose presence made not the slightest difference either in the +provision for the feast, or in the arrangements for those who had been +formally invited. + +Thus remodelled at all points, the Ennead of Heliopolis was readily +adjustable to sacerdotal caprices, and even profited by the facilities +which, the triad afforded for its natural expansion. In time the +Heliopolitan version of the origin of Shu-Tafnuit must have appeared too +primitively barbarous. Allowing for the licence of the Egyptians during +Pharaonic times, the concept of the spontaneous emission whereby Aturnu +had produced his twin children was characterized by a superfluity of +coarseness which it was at least unnecessary to employ, since by +placing the god in a triad, this double birth could be duly explained +in conformity with the ordinary laws of life. The solitary Aturnu of the +more ancient dogma gave place to Aturnu the husband and father. He had, +indeed, two wives, Iusasit and Nebthotpit, but their individualities +were so feebly marked that no one took the trouble to choose between +them; each passed as the mother of Shu and Tafnuifc. This system of +combination, so puerile in its ingenuity, was fraught with the gravest +consequences to the history of Egyptian religions. Shu having been +transformed into the divine son of the Heliopolitan triad, could +henceforth be assimilated with the divine sons of all those triads which +took the place of Tumu at the heads of provincial Enneads. Thus we find +that Horus the son of Isis at Buto, Arihosnofir the son of Nit at Sais, +Khnumu the son of Hathor at Esneh, were each in turn identified with +Shu the son of Aturnu, and lost their individualities in his. Sooner +or later this was bound to result in bringing all the triads closer +together, and in their absorption into one another. Through constant +reiteration of the statement that the divine sons of the triads were +identical with Shu, as being in the second rank of the Ennead, the idea +arose that this was also the case in triads unconnected with Enneads; in +other terms, that the third person in any family of gods was everywhere +and always Shu under a different name. It having been finally admitted +in the sacerdotal colleges that Tumu and Shu, father and son, were one, +all the divine sons were, therefore, identical with Tumu, the father +of Shu, and as each divine son was one with his parents, it inevitably +followed that these parents themselves were identical with Tumu. +Reasoning in this way, the Egyptians naturally tended towards that +conception of the divine oneness to which the theory of the Hermopolitan +Ogdoad was already leading them. In fact, they reached it, and the +monuments show us that in comparatively early times the theologians were +busy uniting in a single person the prerogatives which their ancestors +had ascribed to many different beings. But this conception of deity +towards which their ideas were converging has nothing in common with the +conception of the God of our modern religions and philosophies. No god +of the Egyptians was ever spoken of simply as God. Tumu was the "one +and only god"--_nutir uau uaiti_--at Heliopolis; Anhuri-Shu was also the +"one and only god" at Sebennytos and at Thinis. The unity of Atumu did +not interfere with that of Anhuri-Shu, but each of these gods, although +the "sole" deity in his own domain, ceased to be so in the domain of the +other. The feudal spirit, always alert and jealous, prevented the higher +dogma which was dimly apprehended in the temples from triumphing over +local religions and extending over the whole land. Egypt had as many +"sole" deities as she had large cities, or even important temples; she +never accepted the idea of the sole God, "beside whom there is none +other." + +[Illustration: 218.jpg TAILPIECE] + +[Illustration: 219.jpg PAGE IMAGE] + +[Illustration: 220.jpg PAGE IMAGE] + + + + +CHAPTER III.---THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT + +_THE DIVINE DYNASTIES: RA, SHU, OSIEIS, SIT, HOEUS--THOT, AND THE +INVENTION OF SCIENCES AND WRITING--MENES, AND THE THREE FIRST HUMAN +DYNASTIES._ + +_The Egyptians claim to Be the most ancient of peoples: traditions +concerning the creation of man and of animals--The Heliopolitan Enneads +the framework of the divine dynasties--Ra, the first King of Egypt, and +his fabulous history: he allows himself to be duped and robbed by Isis, +destroys rebellious men, and ascends into heaven. + +The legend of Shu and Sibil--The reign of Osiris Onnophris and of Isis: +they civilize Egypt and the world--Osiris, slain by Sit, is entombed by +Isis and avenged by Horus--The wars of Typhon and of Horus: peace, and +the division of Egypt between the two gods. + +The Osirian embalmment; the kingdom of Osiris opened to the followers of +Horus--The Book of the Dead--The journeying of the soul in search of the +fields of Ialu--The judgment of the soul, the negative confession--The +privileges and duties of Osirian souls--Confusion between Osirian and +Solar ideas as to the state of the dead: the dead in the hark of the +Sun--The going forth by day--The campaigns of Harmakhis against Sit. + +Thot, the inventor: he reveals all sciences to men--Astronomy, stellar +tables; the year, its subdivisions, its defects, influence of +the heavenly bodies and the days upon human destiny--Magic arts; +incantations, amulets---Medicine: the vitalizing spirits, diagnosis, +treatment--Writing: ideographic, syllabic, alphabetic. + +The history of Egypt as handed down by tradition: Manetho, the royal +lists, main divisions of Egyptian history--The beginnings of its early +history vague and uncertain: Menes, and the legend of Memphis--The first +three human dynasties, the two Thimie and the Memphite--Character and, +origin of the legends concerning them--The famine stela--The earliest +monuments: the step pyramid of Saqgdrah._ + +[Illustration: 221.jpg PAGE IMAGE] + + + +THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT + +_The divine dynasties: Ra, Shu, Osiris, Sit, Horus--Thot, and the +invention of sciences and writing--Menes, and the three first human +dynasties._ + +The building up and diffusion of the doctrine of the Ennead, like the +formation of the land of Egypt, demanded centuries of sustained effort, +centuries of which the inhabitants themselves knew neither the number +nor the authentic history. When questioned as to the remote past of +their race, they proclaimed themselves the most ancient of mankind, in +comparison with whom all other races were but a mob of young children; +and they looked upon nations which denied their pretensions with such +indulgence and pity as we feel for those who doubt a well-known truth. +Their forefathers had appeared upon the banks of the Nile even before +the creator had completed his work, so eager were the gods to behold +their birth. No Egyptian disputed the reality of this right of the +firstborn, which ennobled the whole race; but if they were asked the +name of their divine father, then the harmony was broken, and each +advanced the claims of a different personage.[*] Phtah had modelled man +with his own hands;[**] Khnumu had formed him on a potter's table.[***] + + * We know the words which Plato puts into the mouth of an + Egyptian priest: "O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always + children, and there is no old man who is a Greek! You are + all young in mind; there is no opinion or tradition of + knowledge among you which is white with age." Other nations + disputed their priority--the Phrygians, the Medes, or rather + the tribe of the Magi among the Medes, the Ethiopians, the + Scythians. A cycle of legends had gathered about this + subject, giving an account of the experiments instituted, by + Psamtik, or other sovereigns, to find out which were right, + Egyptians or foreigners. + + ** At Philae and at Denderah, Phtah is represented as piling + upon his potter's table the plastic clay from which he is + about to make a human body, and which is somewhat wrongly + called the egg of the world. It is really the lump of earth + from which man came forth at his creation. + + *** At Philas, Khnumu calls himself "the potter who + fashions men, the modeller of the gods." He there moulds the + members of Osiris, the husband of the local Isis, as at + Erment he forms the body of Harsamtaui, or rather that of + Ptolemy Caesarion, the son of Julius Caesar and the celebrated + Cleopatra, identified with Harsamtaui. + +Ra at his first rising, seeing the earth desert and bare, had flooded it +with his rays as with a flood of tears; all living things, vegetable and +animal, and man himself, had sprung pell-mell from his eyes, and were +scattered abroad with the light over the surface of the world.[*] +Sometimes the facts were presented under a less poetic aspect. The mud +of the Nile, heated to excess by the burning sun, fermented and brought +forth the various races of men and animals by spontaneous generation, +having moulded itself into a thousand living forms. Then its procreative +power became weakened to the verge of exhaustion. Yet on the banks of +the river, in the height of summer, smaller animals might still be found +whose condition showed what had once taken place in the case of the +larger kinds. Some appeared as already fully formed, and struggling +to free themselves from the oppressive mud; others, as yet imperfect, +feebly stirred their heads and fore feet, while their hind quarters +were completing their articulation and taking shape within the matrix of +earth.[**] + + * With reference to the substances which proceeded from the + eye of Ra, see the remarks of Birch, _Sur un papyrus magique + du Musee Britannique_. By his tears (_romitu_) Horus, or his + eye as identified with the sun, had given birth to all men, + Egyptians (_romitu, rotu_), Libyans, and Asiatics, excepting + only the negroes. The latter were born from another part of + his body by the same means as those employed by Atumu in the + creation of Shu and Tafnuit. + + ** The same story is told, but with reference to rats only, + by Pliny, by Diodorus, by AElianus, by Macrobius, and by + other Greek or Latin writers. Even in later times, and in + Europe, this pretended phenomenon met with a certain degree + of belief, as may be seen from the curious work of Marcus + Fredericus Wendelinus, _Archipalatinus, Admiranda Nili_, + Franco-furti, mdcxxiii., cap. xxi. pp. 157-183. In Egypt all + the fellahin believe in the spontaneous generation of rats + as in an article of their creed. They have spoken to me of + it at Thebes, at Denderah, and on the plain of Abydos; and + Major Brown has lately noted the same thing in the Fayum. + The variant which he heard from the lips of the notables is + curious, for it professes to explain why the rats who infest + the fields in countless bands during the dry season, + suddenly disappear at the return of the inundation; born of + the mud and putrid water of the preceding year, to mud they + return, and as it were dissolve at the touch of the new + waters. + +It was not Ra alone whose tears were endowed with vitalizing power. All +divinities whether beneficent or malevolent, Sit as well as Osiris or +Isis, could give life by weeping; and the work of their eyes, when once +it had fallen upon earth, flourished and multiplied as vigorously as +that which came from the eyes of Ra. + +[Illustration: 224.jpg KHNUMU MODELLING MAN UPON A POTTER'S TABLE. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gayet. The scene is + taken from bas-reliefs in the temple of Luxor, where the god + Khnumu is seen completing his modelling of the future King + Amenothes III. and his double, represented as two children + wearing the side-lock and large necklace. The first holds + his finger to his lips, while the arms of the second swing + at his sides. + +The individual character of the creator was not without bearing upon +the nature of his creatures; good was the necessary outcome of the +good gods, evil of the evil ones; and herein lay the explanation of +the mingling of things excellent and things execrable, which is found +everywhere throughout the world. Voluntarily or involuntarily, Sit and +his partisans were the cause and origin of all that is harmful. Daily +their eyes shed upon the world those juices by which plants are made +poisonous, as well as malign influences, crime, and madness. Their +saliva, the foam which fell from their mouths during their attacks of +rage, their sweat, their blood itself, were all no less to be feared. +When any drop of it touched the earth, straightway it germinated, and +produced something strange and baleful--a serpent, a scorpion, a plant +of deadly nightshade or of henbane. But, on the other hand, the sun +was all goodness, and persons or things which it cast forth into life +infallibly partook of its benignity. Wine that maketh man glad, the bee +who works for him in the flowers secreting wax and honey, the meat and +herbs which are his food, the stuffs that clothe him, all useful things +which he makes for himself, not only emanated from the Solar Eye +of Horus, but were indeed nothing more than the Eye of Horus under +different aspects, and in his name they were presented in sacrifice. The +devout generally were of opinion that the first Egyptians, the sons and +flock of Ra, came into the world happy and perfect;[*] by degrees their +descendants had fallen from that native felicity into their present +state. + + * In the tomb of Seti I, the words _flock of the Sun, flock + of Ra_, are those by which the god Horus refers to men. + Certain expressions used by Egyptian writers are in + themselves sufficient to show that the first generations of + men were supposed to have lived in a state of happiness and + perfection. To the Egyptians _the times of Ra, the times of + the god_--that is to say, the centuries immediately + following on the creation---were the ideal age, and no good + thing had appeared upon earth since then. + +Some, on the contrary, affirmed that their ancestors were born as so +many brutes, unprovided with the most essential arts of gentle life. +They knew nothing of articulate speech, and expressed themselves by +cries only, like other animals, until the day when Thot taught them both +speech and writing. + +These tales sufficed for popular edification; they provided but meagre +fare for the intelligence of the learned. The latter did not confine +their ambition to the possession of a few incomplete and contradictory +details concerning the beginnings of humanity. They wished to know the +history of its consecutive development from the very first; what manner +of life had been led by their fathers; what chiefs they had obeyed and +the names or adventures of those chiefs; why part of the nations had +left the blessed banks of the Nile and gone to settle in foreign lands; +by what stages and in what length of time those who had not emigrated +rose out of native barbarism into that degree of culture to which the +most ancient monuments bore testimony. No efforts of imagination were +needful for the satisfaction of their curiosity: the old substratum of +indigenous traditions was rich enough, did they but take the trouble +to work it out systematically, and to eliminate its most incongruous +elements. The priests of Heliopolis took this work in hand, as they had +already taken in hand the same task with regard to the myths referring +to the creation; and the Enneads provided them with a ready-made +framework. They changed the gods of the Ennead into so many kings, +determined with minute accuracy the lengths of their reigns, and +compiled their biographies from popular tales. The duality of the feudal +god supplied an admirable expedient for connecting the history of the +world with that of chaos. Tumu was identified with Nu, and relegated to +the primordial Ocean: Ra was retained, and proclaimed the first king +of the world. He had not established his rule without difficulty. The +"Children of Defeat," beings hostile to order and light, engaged him in +fierce battles; nor did he succeed in organizing his kingdom until +he had conquered them in nocturnal combat at Hermopolis, and even at +Heliopolis itself.[*] + + * The _Children of Defeat_, in Egyptian _Mosu batashu_, or + _Mosu batashit_, are often confounded with the followers of + Sit, the enemies of Osiris. From the first they were + distinct, and represented beings and forces hostile to the + sun, with the dragon Apopi at their head. Their defeat at + Hermopolis corresponded to the moment when Shu, raising the + sky above the sacred mound in that city, substituted order + and light for chaos and darkness. This defeat is mentioned + in chap xvii. of the _Book of the Dead_ (Naville's edition, + vol. i. pl. xxiii. 1. 3, et seq.), in which connexion E. de + Rouge first explained its meaning. In the same chapter of + the _Book of the Dead_ (Naville's edition, vol. i. pis. + xxiv., xxv., 11. 54-58), reference is also made to the + battle by night, in Heliopolis, at the close of which Ra + appeared in the form of a cat or lion, and beheaded the + great serpent. + +Pierced with wounds, Apopi the serpent sank into the depths of Ocean at +the very moment when the new year began. The secondary members of the +Great Ennead, together with the Sun, formed the first dynasty, which +began with the dawn of the first day, and ended at the coming of Horus, +the son of Isis. The local schools of theology welcomed this method of +writing history as readily as they had welcomed the principle of the +Ennead itself. Some of them retained the Heliopolitan demiurge, and +hastened to associate him with their own; others completely eliminated +him in favour of the feudal divinity,--Amon at Thebes, Thot at +Hermopolis, Phtah at Memphis,--keeping the rest of the dynasty +absolutely unchanged.[*] The gods in no way compromised their prestige +by becoming incarnate and descending to earth. Since they were men of +finer nature, and their qualities, including that of miracle-working, +were human qualities raised to the highest pitch of intensity, it was +not considered derogatory to them personally to have watched over +the infancy and childhood of primeval man. The raillery in which the +Egyptians occasionally indulged with regard to them, the good-humoured +and even ridiculous _roles_ ascribed to them in certain legends, do not +prove that they were despised, or that zeal for them had cooled. The +greater the respect of believers for the objects of their worship, +the more easily do they tolerate the taking of such liberties, and the +condescension of the members of the Ennead, far from lowering them +in the eyes of generations who came too late to live with them upon +familiar terms, only enhanced the love and reverence in which they were +held. Nothing shows this better than the history of Ra. His world was +ours in the rough; for since Shu was yet nonexistent, and Nuit still +reposed in the arms of Sibu, earth and sky were but one.[**] + + * Thot is the chief of the Hermopolitan Ennead, and the + titles ascribed to him by inscriptions maintaining his + supremacy show that he also was considered to have been the + first king. One of the Ptolemies said of himself that he + came "as the Majesty of Thot, because he was the equal of + Atumu, hence the equal of Khopri, hence the equal of Ra." + Atumu-Khopri-Ra being the first earthly king, it follows + that the _Majesty of Thot_, with whom Ptolemy identifies + himself, comparing himself to the three forms of the God Ra, + is also the first earthly king. + + ** This conception of the primitive Egyptian world is + clearly implied in the very terms employed by the author of + The Destruction of Men. Nuit does not rise to form the sky + until such time as Ra thinks of bringing his reign to an + end; that is to say, after Egypt had already been in + existence for many centuries. In chap. xvii. of the Book of + the Dead (Naville's edition, vol. i. pl. xxiii. 11. 3-5) it + is stated that the reign of Ra began in the times when the + upliftings had not yet taken place; that is to say, before + Shu had separated Nuit from Sibu, and forcibly uplifted her + above the body of her husband. + +Nevertheless in this first attempt at a world there was vegetable, +animal, and human life. Egypt was there, all complete, with her two +chains of mountains, her Nile, her cities, the people of her nomes, and +the nomes themselves. Then the soil was more generous; the harvests, +without the labourer's toil, were higher and more abundant;[*] and when +the Egyptians of Pharaonic times wished to mark their admiration of any +person or thing, they said that the like had never been known since the +time of Ra. + + * This is an ideal in accordance with the picture drawn of + the fields of Ialu in chap. ex. of the _Book of the Dead_ + (Naville's edition, vol. i. pis. cxxi.~ cxxiii.). As with + the Paradise of most races, so the place of the Osirian dead + still possessed privileges which the earth had enjoyed + during the first years succeeding the creation; that is to + say, under the direct rule of Ra. + +It is an illusion common to all peoples; as their insatiable thirst +for happiness is never assuaged by the present, they fall back upon the +remotest past in search of an age when that supreme felicity which is +only known to them as an ideal was actually enjoyed by their ancestors. +Ra dwelt in Heliopolis, and the most ancient portion of the temple of +the city, that known as the "Mansion of the Prince"--Hait Saru,--passed +for having been his palace. His court was mainly composed of gods and +goddesses, and they as well as he were visible to men. It contained +also men who filled minor offices about his person, prepared his food, +received the offerings of his subjects, attended to his linen and +household affairs. It was said that the _oiru mau_--the high priest of +Ra, the _hankistit_--his high priestess, and generally speaking all the +servants of the temple of Heliopolis, were either directly descended +from members of this first household establishment of the god, or had +succeeded to their offices in unbroken succession. + +[Illustration: 230.jpg AT THE FIRST HOUR OF THE BAY THE SUN EMBARKS FOB +HIS JOURNEY THROUGH EGYPT.1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the scenes represented + upon the architraves of the pronaos at Edfu (Rosellini, + _Monumenti del Culto_, pl. xxxviii. No. 1). + +In the morning he went forth with his divine train, and, amid the +acclamations of the crowd, entered the bark in which he made his +accustomed circuit of the world, returning to his home at the end of +twelve hours after the accomplishment of his journey. He visited each +province in turn, and in each he tarried for an hour, to settle all +disputed matters, as the final judge of appeal. He gave audience to both +small and great, he decided their quarrels and adjudged their lawsuits, +he granted investiture of fiefs from the royal domains to those who +had deserved them, and allotted or confirmed to every family the income +needful for their maintenance. He pitied the sufferings of his people, +and did his utmost to alleviate them; he taught to all comers potent +formulas against reptiles and beasts of prey, charms to cast out evil +spirits, and the best recipes for preventing illness. His incessant +bounties left him at length with only one of his talismans: the name +given to him by his father and mother at his birth, which they had +revealed to him alone, and which he kept concealed within his bosom lest +some sorcerer should get possession of it to use for the furtherance of +his evil spells. + +But old age came on, and infirmities followed; the body of Ra grew bent, +"his mouth trembled, his slaver trickled down to earth and his +saliva dropped upon the ground." Isis, who had hitherto been a mere +woman-servant in the household of the Pharaoh, conceived the project of +stealing his secret from him, "that she might possess the world and make +herself a goddess by the name of the august god." Force would have been +unavailing; all enfeebled as he was by reason of his years, none was +strong enough to contend successfully against him. But Isis "was a woman +more knowing in her malice than millions of men, clever among millions +of the gods, equal to millions of spirits, to whom as unto Ra nothing +was unknown either in heaven or upon earth." She contrived a most +ingenious stratagem. When man or god was struck down by illness, the +only chance of curing him lay in knowing his real name, and thereby +adjuring the evil being that tormented him. Isis determined to cast a +terrible malady upon Ra, concealing its cause from him; then to offer +her services as his nurse, and by means of his sufferings to extract +from him the mysterious word indispensable to the success of the +exorcism. She gathered up mud impregnated with the divine saliva, and +moulded of it a sacred serpent which she hid in the dust of the road. +Suddenly bitten as he was setting out upon his daily round, the god +cried out aloud, "his voice ascended into heaven and his Nine called: +'What is it? what is it?' and his gods: 'What is the matter? what is the +matter?' but he could make them no answer so much did his lips tremble, +his limbs shake, and the venom take hold upon his flesh as the Nile +seizeth upon the land which it invadeth." Presently he came to himself, +and succeeded in describing his sensations. "Something painful hath +stung me; my heart perceiveth it, yet my two eyes see it not; my hand +hath not wrought it, nothing that I have made knoweth it what it is, yet +have I never tasted suffering like unto it, and there is no pain that +may overpass it.... Fire it is not, water it is not, yet is my heart in +flames, my flesh trembleth, all my members are full of shiverings born +of breaths of magic. Behold! let there be brought unto me children of +the gods of beneficent words, who know the power of their mouths, and +whose science reacheth unto heaven." They came, these children of the +gods, all with their books of magic. There came Isis with her sorcery, +her mouth full of life-giving breaths, her recipe for the destruction of +pain, her words which pour life into breathless throats, and she said: +"What is it? what is it, O father of the gods? May it not be that a +serpent hath wrought this suffering in thee; that one of thy children +hath lifted up his head against thee? Surely he shall be overthrown by +beneficent incantations, and I will make him to retreat at the sight +of thy rays." On learning the cause of his torment, the Sun-god is +terrified, and begins to lament anew: "I, then, as I went along the +ways, travelling through my double land of Egypt and over my mountains, +that I might look upon that which I have made, I was bitten by a serpent +that I saw not. Fire it is not, water it is not, yet am I colder than +water, I burn more than fire, all my members stream with sweat, I +tremble, mine eye is not steady, no longer can I discern the sky, drops +roll from my face as in the season of summer." Isis proposes her remedy, +and cautiously asks him his ineffable name. But he divines her trick, +and tries to evade it by an enumeration of his titles. He takes the +universe to witness that he is called "Khopri in the morning, Ra at +noon, Tumu in the evening." The poison did not recede, but steadily +advanced, and the great god was not eased. Then Isis said to Ra: "Thy +name was not spoken in that which thou hast said. Tell it to me and the +poison will depart; for he liveth upon whom a charm is pronounced in his +own name." The poison glowed like fire, it was strong as the burning +of flame, and the Majesty of Ra said, "I grant thee leave that thou +shouldest search within me, O mother Isis! and that my name pass from my +bosom into thy bosom." In truth, the all-powerful name was hidden within +the body of the god, and could only be extracted thence by means of +a surgical operation similar to that practised upon a corpse which +is about to be mummified. Isis undertook it, carried it through +successfully, drove out the poison, and made herself a goddess by virtue +of the name. The cunning of a mere woman had deprived Ra of his last +talisman. + +In course of time men perceived his decrepitude. They took counsel +against him: "Lo! his Majesty waxeth old, his bones are of silver, his +flesh is of gold, his hair of lapis-lazuli." As soon as his Majesty +perceived that which they were saying to each other, his Majesty said to +those who were of his train, "Call together for me my Divine Eye, Shu, +Tafnuit, Sibu, and Nuit, the father and the mother gods who were with +me when I was in the Nu, with the god Nu. Let each bring his cycle along +with him; then, when thou shalt have brought them in secret, thou shalt +take them to the great mansion that they may lend me their counsel and +their consent, coming hither from the Nu into this place where I have +manifested myself." So the family council comes together: the ancestors +of Ra, and his posterity still awaiting amid the primordial waters +the time of their manifestation--his children Shu and Tafnuit, his +grandchildren Sibu and Nuit. They place themselves, according to +etiquette, on either side his throne, prostrate, with their foreheads to +the ground, and thus their conference begins: "O Nu, thou the eldest of +the gods, from whom I took my being, and ye the ancestor-gods, behold! +men who are the emanation of mine eye have taken counsel together +against me! Tell me what ye would do, for I have bidden you here before +I slay them, that I may hear what ye would say thereto." Nu, as the +eldest, has the right to speak first, and demands that the guilty shall +be brought to judgment and formally condemned. "My son Ra, god greater +than the god who made him, older than the gods who created him, sit thou +upon thy throne, and great shall be the terror when thine eye shall +rest upon those who plot together against thee!" But Ra not unreasonably +fears that when men see the solemn pomp of royal justice, they may +suspect the fate that awaits them, and "flee into the desert, their +hearts terrified at that which I have to say to them." The desert was +even then hostile to the tutelary gods of Egypt, and offered an almost +inviolable asylum to their enemies. The conclave admits that the +apprehensions of Ra are well founded, and pronounces in favour of +summary execution; the Divine Eye is to be the executioner. "Let it go +forth that it may smite those who have devised evil against thee, for +there is no Eye more to be feared than thine when it attacketh in the +form of Hathor." So the Eye takes the form of Hathor, suddenly falls +upon men, and slays them right and left with great strokes of the knife. +After some hours, Ra, who would chasten but not destroy his children, +commands her to cease from her carnage; but the goddess has tasted +blood, and refuses to obey him. "By thy life," she replies, "when I +slaughter men then is my heart right joyful!" + +[Illustration: 236.jpg SOKHIT, THE LIONESS-HEADED. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a bronze statuette of the + Saite period in the Gizeh Museum (Mariette, _Album + photographique du Musee de Boulaq_, pl. 6). + +That is why she was afterwards called Sokhit the slayer, and represented +under the form of a fierce lioness. Nightfall stayed her course in the +neighbourhood of Heracleopolis; all the way from Heliopolis she had +trampled through blood. As soon as she had fallen asleep, Ra hastily +took effectual measures to prevent her from beginning her work again on +the morrow. "He said: 'Call on my behalf messengers agile and swift, +who go like the wind.' When these messengers were straightway brought +to him, the Majesty of the god said: 'Let them run to Elephantine and +bring me mandragora in plenty.'"[**] + +** The mandragora of Elephantine was used in the manufacture of an +intoxicating and narcotic drink employed either in medicine or in magic. +In a special article, Brugsch has collected particulars preserved by the +texts as to the uses of this plant. It was not as yet credited with +the human form and the peculiar kind of life ascribed to it by western +sorcerers. + +When they had brought him the mandragora, the Majesty of this great god +summoned the miller which is in Heliopolis that he might bray it; and +the women-servants having crushed grain for the beer, the mandragora, +and also human blood, were mingled with the liquor, and thereof was made +in all seven thousand jars of beer. Ra himself examined this delectable +drink, and finding it to possess the wished-for properties: "'It is +well,' said he; 'therewith shall I save men from the goddess;' then, +addressing those of his train: 'Take these jars in your arms, and carry +them to the place where she has slaughtered men.' Ra, the king, caused +dawn to break at midnight, so that this philtre might be poured down +upon the earth; and the fields were flooded with it to the depth of four +palms, according as it pleased the souls of his Majesty." In the morning +the goddess came, "that she might return to her carnage, but she +found that all was flooded, and her countenance softened; when she had +drunken, it was her heart that softened; she went away drunk, without +further thought of men." There was some fear lest her fury might return +when the fumes of drunkenness were past, and to obviate this danger +Ra instituted a rite, partly with the object of instructing future +generations as to the chastisement which he had inflicted upon the +impious, partly to console Sokhit for her discomfiture. He decreed +that "on New Year's Day there should be brewed for her as many jars of +philtre as there were priestesses of the sun. That was the origin of +all those jars of philtre, in number equal to that of the priestesses, +which, at the feast of Hathor, all men make from that day forth." + +Peace was re-established, but could it last long? Would not men, as +soon as they had recovered from their terror, betake themselves again to +plotting against the god? Besides, Ra now felt nothing but disgust for +our race. The ingratitude of his children had wounded him deeply; he +foresaw ever-renewed rebellions as his feebleness became more marked, +and he shrank from having to order new massacres in which mankind would +perish altogether. "By my life," says he to the gods who accompanied +him, "my heart is too weary for me to remain with mankind, and slay them +until they are no more: annihilation is not of the gifts that I love +to make." And the gods exclaim in surprise: "Breathe not a word of thy +weariness at a time when thou dost triumph at thy pleasure." But Ra does +not yield to their representations; he will leave a kingdom wherein +they murmur against him, and turning towards Nu he says: "My limbs are +decrepit for the first time; I will not go to any place where I can +be reached." It was no easy matter to find him an inaccessible retreat +owing to the imperfect state in which the universe had been left by the +first effort of the demiurge. Nu saw no other way out of the difficulty +than that of setting to work to complete the creation. Ancient tradition +had imagined the separation of earth and sky as an act of violence +exercised by Shu upon Sibu and Nuit. History presented facts after a +less brutal fashion, and Shu became a virtuous son who devoted his time +and strength to upholding Nuit, that he might thereby do his father a +service. Nuit, for her part, showed herself to be a devoted daughter +whom there was no need to treat roughly in order to teach her her duty; +of herself she consented to leave her husband, and place her beloved +ancestor beyond reach. "The Majesty of Nu said: 'Son Shu, do as thy +father Ra shall say; and thou, daughter Nuit, place him upon thy back +and hold him suspended above the earth!' Nuit said: 'And how then, my +father Nu?' Thus spake Nuit, and she did that which Nu commanded her; +she changed herself into a cow, and placed the Majesty of Ra upon her +back. When those men who had not been slain came to give thanks to Ra, +behold! they found him no longer in his palace; but a cow stood there, +and they perceived him upon the back of the cow." They found him so +resolved to depart that they did not try to turn him from his purpose, +but only desired to give him such a proof of their repentance as should +assure them of the complete pardon of their crime. "They said unto him: +'Wait until the morning, O Ra! our lord, and we will strike down thine +enemies who have taken counsel against thee.' So his Majesty returned to +his mansion, descended from the cow, went in along with them, and earth +was plunged into darkness. But when there was light upon earth the next +morning, the men went forth with their bows and their arrows, and began +to shoot at the enemy. Whereupon the Majesty of this god said unto them: +'Your sins are remitted unto you, for sacrifice precludes the execution +of the guilty.' And this was the origin upon earth of sacrifices in +which blood was shed." + +Thus it was that when on the point of separating for ever, the god +and men came to an understanding as to the terms of their future +relationship. Men offered to the god the life of those who had offended +him. Human sacrifice was in their eyes the obligatory sacrifice, the +only one which could completely atone for the wrongs committed against +the godhead; man alone was worthy to wash away with his blood the sins +of men.[*] For this one time the god accepted the expiation just as it +was offered to him; then the repugnance which he felt to killing his +children overcame him, he substituted beast for man, and decided that +oxen, gazelles, birds, should henceforth furnish the material for +sacrifice.[**] + + * This legend, which seeks to explain the discontinuance of + human sacrifices among the Egyptians, affords direct proof + of their existence in primitive times. This is confirmed by + many facts. We shall see that _uashbiti_ laid in graves were + in place of the male or female slaves who were originally + slaughtered at the tombs of the rich and noble that they + might go to serve their masters in the next world. Even in + Thebes, under the XIXth dynasty, certain rock-cut tombs + contain scenes which might lead us to believe that + occasionally at least human victims were sent to doubles of + distinction. During this same period, moreover, the most + distinguished hostile chiefs taken in war were still put to + death before the gods. In several towns, as at Eilithyia and + at Heliopolis, or before certain gods, such as Osiris or + Kronos-Sibu, human sacrifice lasted until near Roman times. + But generally speaking it was very rare. Almost everywhere + cakes of a particular shape, and called [Greek word], or + else animals, had been substituted for man. + + ** It was asserted that the partisans of Apopi and of Sit, + who were the enemies of Ra, Osiris, and the other gods, had + taken refuge in the bodies of certain animals. Hence, it was + really human or divine victims which were offered when + beasts were slaughtered in sacrifice before the altars. + +This point settled, he again mounted the cow, who rose, supported on her +four legs as on so many pillars; and her belly, stretched out above the +earth like a ceiling, formed the sky. He busied himself with organizing +the new world which he found on her back; he peopled it with many +beings, chose two districts in which to establish his abode, the Field +of Reeds--_Sokhit Ialu_--and the Field of Rest--_Sokhit Hotpit_--and +suspended the stars which were to give light by night. All this is +related with many plays upon words, intended, according to Oriental +custom, as explanations of the names which the legend assigned to the +different regions of heaven. At sight of a plain whose situation pleased +him, he cried: "The Field rests in the distance!"--and that was +the origin of the Field of Rest. He added: "There will I gather +plants!"--and from this the Field of Reeds took its name. While he gave +himself up to this philological pastime, Nuit, suddenly transported to +unaccustomed heights, grew frightened, and cried for help: "For pity's +sake give me supports to sustain me!" This was the origin of the +support-gods. They came and stationed themselves by each of her four +legs, steadying these with their hands, and keeping constant watch over +them. As this was not enough to reassure the good beast, "Ra said, 'My +son Shu, place thyself beneath my daughter Nuit, and keep watch on both +sides over the supports, who live in the twilight; hold thou her +up above thy head, and be her guardian!'" Shu obeyed; Nuit composed +herself, and the world, now furnished with the sky which it had hitherto +lacked, assumed its present symmetrical form. + +Shu and Sibu succeeded Ra, but did not acquire so lasting a popularity +as their great ancestor. Nevertheless they had their annals, fragments +of which have come down to us. Their power also extended over the whole +universe: "The Majesty of Shu was the excellent king of the sky, of the +earth, of Hades, of the water, of the winds, of the inundation, of +the two chains of mountains, of the sea, governing with a true voice +according to the precepts of his father Ra-Harmakhis." + +[Illustration: 242.jpg COW, SUSTAINED ABOVE THE EARTH BY SHU AND THE +SUPPORT] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. + +Only "the children of the serpent Apopi, the impious ones who haunt +the solitary places and the deserts," disavowed his authority. Like the +Bedawin of later times, they suddenly streamed in by the isthmus routes, +went up into Egypt under cover of night, slew and pillaged, and then +hastily returned to their fastnesses with the booty which they had +carried off. From sea to sea Ka had fortified the eastern frontier +against them. He had surrounded the principal cities with walls, +embellished them with temples, and placed within them those mysterious +talismans more powerful for defence than a garrison of men. Thus +Ait-nobsu, near the mouth of the Wady-Tumilat, possessed one of the +rods of the Sun-god, also the living uraeus of his crown whose breath +consumes all that it touches, and, finally, a lock of his hair, which, +being cast into the waters of a lake, was changed into a hawk-headed +crocodile to tear the invader in pieces.[*] + + * Egyptians of all periods never shrank from such marvels. + One of the tales of the Theban empire tells us of a piece of + wax which, on being thrown into the water, changed into a + living crocodile capable of devouring a man. The talismans + which protected Egypt against invasion are mentioned by the + Pseudo-Callisthenes, who attributes their invention to + Nectanebo. Arab historians often refer to them. + +The employment of these talismans was dangerous to those unaccustomed +to use them, even to the gods themselves. Scarcely was Sibu enthroned as +the successor of Shu, who, tired of reigning, had reascended into heaven +in a nine days' tempest, before he began his inspection of the eastern +marches, and caused the box in which was kept the uraeus of Ra to be +opened. "As soon as the living viper had breathed its breath against the +Majesty of Sibu there was a great disaster--great indeed, for those +who were in the train of the god perished, and his Majesty himself was +burned in that day. When his Majesty had fled to the north of Ait-nobsu, +pursued by the fire of this magic urasus, behold! when he came to the +fields of henna, the pain of his burn was not yet assuaged, and the gods +who were behind him said unto him: 'O Sire! let them take the lock of Ra +which is there, when thy Majesty shall go to see it and its mystery, and +his Majesty shall be healed as soon as it shall be placed upon thee.' +So the Majesty of Sibu caused the magic lock to be brought to +Piarit,--the lock for which was made that great reliquary of hard stone +which is hidden in the secret place of Piarit, in the district of the +divine lock of the Lord Ra,--and behold! this fire departed from the +members of the Majesty of Sibu. And many years afterwards, when this +lock, which had thus belonged to Sibu, was brought back to Piarit +in Ait-nobsu, and cast into the great lake of Piarit whose name is +_Ait-tostesu_, the dwelling of waves, that it might be purified, behold! +this lock became a crocodile: it flew to the water and became Sobku, +the divine crocodile of Ait-nobsu." In this way the gods of the solar +dynasty from generation to generation multiplied talismans and enriched +the sanctuaries of Egypt with relics. + +[Illustration: 244.jpg THREE OF THE DIVINE AMULETS PRESERVED IN THE +TEMPLE OF AIT-NOBSU AT THE ROMAN PERIOD. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Griffith. The + three talismans here represented are two crowns, each in a + naos, and the burning fiery uraeus. + +Were there ever duller legends and a more senile phantasy! They did not +spring spontaneously from the lips of the people, but were composed at +leisure by priests desirous of enhancing the antiquity of their cult, +and augmenting the veneration of its adherents in order to increase +its importance. Each city wished it to be understood that its feudal +sanctuary was founded upon the very day of creation, that its privileges +had been extended or confirmed during the course of the first divine +dynasty, and that these pretensions were supported by the presence +of objects in its treasury which had belonged to the oldest of the +king-gods. Such was the origin of tales in which the personage of the +beneficent Pharaoh is often depicted in ridiculous fashion. Did we +possess all the sacred archives, we should frequently find them quoting +as authentic history more than one document as artificial as the +chronicle of Ait-nobsu. When we come to the later members of the Ennead, +there is a change in the character and in the form of these tales. +Doubtless Osiris and Sit did not escape unscathed out of the hands of +the theologians; but even if sacerdotal interference spoiled the legend +concerning them, it did not altogether disfigure it. Here and there +in it is still noticeable a sincerity of feeling and liveliness of +imagination such as are never found in those of Shu and of Sibu. +This arises from the fact that the functions of these gods left them +strangers, or all but strangers, to the current affairs of the world. +Shu was the stay, Sibu the material foundation of the world; and so long +as the one bore the weight of the firmament without bending, and the +other continued to suffer the tread of human generations upon his +back, the devout took no more thought of them than they themselves +took thought of the devout. The life of Osiris, on the other hand, was +intimately mingled with that of the Egyptians, and his most trivial +actions immediately reacted upon their fortunes. They followed the +movements of his waters; they noted the turning-points in his struggles +against drought; they registered his yearly decline, yearly compensated +by his aggressive returns and his intermittent victories over Typhon; +his proceedings and his character were the subject of their minute +study. If his waters almost invariably rose upon the appointed day and +extended over the black earth of the valley, this was no mechanical +function of a being to whom the consequences of his conduct are +indifferent; he acted upon reflection, and in full consciousness of the +service that he rendered. He knew that by spreading the inundation +he prevented the triumph of the desert; he was life, he was +goodness--_Onnofriu_--and Isis, as the partner of his labours, became +like him the type of perfect goodness. But while Osiris developed +for the better, Sit was transformed for the worse, and increased in +wickedness as his brother gained in purity and moral elevation. In +proportion as the person of Sit grew more defined, and stood out more +clearly, the evil within him contrasted more markedly with the innate +goodness of Osiris, and what had been at first an instinctive struggle +between two beings somewhat vaguely defined--the desert and the Nile, +water and drought--was changed into conscious and deadly enmity. No +longer the conflict of two elements, it was war between two gods; one +labouring to produce abundance, while the other strove to do away with +it; one being all goodness and life, while the other was evil and death +incarnate. + +A very ancient legend narrates that the birth of Osiris and his brothers +took place during the five additional days at the end of the year; a +subsequent legend explained how Nuit and Sibu had contracted marriage +against the express wish of Ra, and without his knowledge. When he +became aware of it he fell into a violent rage, and cast a spell over +the goddess to prevent her giving birth to her children in any month of +any year whatever. But Thot took pity upon her, and playing at draughts +with the moon won from it in several games one seventy-second part of +its fires, out of which he made five whole days; and as these were not +included in the ordinary calendar, Nuit could then bring forth her five +children, one after another: Osiris, Haroeris, Sit, Isis, and Nephthys. +Osiris was beautiful of face, but with a dull and black complexion; his +height exceeded five and a half yards.[*] + + * As a matter of fact, Osiris is often represented with + black or green hands and face, as is customary for gods of + the dead; it was probably this peculiarity which suggested + the popular idea of his black complexion. A magic papyrus of + Ramesside times fixes the stature of the god at seven + cubits, and a phrase in a Ptolemaic inscription places it at + eight cubits, six palms, three fingers. + +He was born at Thebes, in the first of the additional days, +and straightway a mysterious voice announced that the lord of +all--_nibu-r-zaru_--had appeared. The good news was hailed with shouts +of joy, followed by tears and lamentations when it became known with +what evils he was menaced.[*] The echo reached Ra in his far-off +dwelling, and his heart rejoiced, notwithstanding the curse which he +had laid upon Nuit. He commanded the presence of his great-grandchild +in Xois, and unhesitatingly acknowledged him as the heir to his throne. +Osiris had married his sister Isis, even, so it was said, while both of +them were still within their mother's womb;[**] and when he became king +he made her queen regent and the partner of all his undertakings. + + * One variant of the legend told that a certain Pamylis of + Thebes having gone to draw water had heard a voice + proceeding from the temple of Zeus, which ordered him to + proclaim aloud to the world the birth of the great king, the + beneficent Osiris. He had received the child from the hands + of Kronos, brought it up to youth, and to him the Egyptians + had consecrated the feast of Pamylies, which resembled the + Phallophoros festival of the Greeks. + + ** _De Iside et Osiride_, Leemans' edition, Sec. 12, pp. 20, + 21. Haroeris, the Apollo of the Greeks, was supposed to be + the issue of a marriage consummated before the birth of his + parents while they were still within the womb of their + mother Rhea-Nuit. This was a way of connecting the personage + of Haroeris with the Osirian myths by confounding him with + the homonymous Harsiesis, the son of Isis, who became the + son of Osiris through his mother's marriage with that god. + +The Egyptians were as yet but half civilized; they were cannibals, and +though occasionally they lived upon the fruits of the earth, they did +not know how to cultivate them. Osiris taught them the art of making +agricultural implements--the plough and the hoe,--field labour, the +rotation of crops, the harvesting of wheat and barley,[*] and vine +culture. + + * Diodoeus even ascribes to him the discovery of barley and + of wheat; this is consequent upon the identification of Isis + with Demeter by the Greeks. According to the historian, Leo + of Pella, the goddess twined herself a crown of ripe ears + and placed it upon her head one day when she was sacrificing + to her parents. + +Isis weaned them from cannibalism, healed their diseases by means of +medicine or of magic, united women to men in legitimate marriage, and +showed them how to grind grain between two flat stones and to prepare +bread for the household. She invented the loom with the help of her +sister Nephthys, and was the first to weave and bleach linen. There +was no worship of the gods before Osiris established it, appointed the +offerings, regulated the order of ceremonies, and composed the texts and +melodies of the liturgies. He built cities, among them Thebes itself, +according to some; though others declared that he was born there. As he +had been the model of a just and pacific king, so did he desire to be +that of a victorious conqueror of nations; and, placing the regency in +the hands of Isis, he went forth to war against Asia, accompanied by +Thot the ibis and the jackal Anubis. He made little or no use of force +and arms, but he attacked men by gentleness and persuasion, softened +them with songs in which voices were accompanied by instruments, and +taught them also the arts which he had made known to the Egyptians. +No country escaped his beneficent action, and he did not return to the +banks of the Nile until he had traversed and civilized the world from +one horizon to the other. + +Sit-Typhon was red-haired and white-skinned, of violent, gloomy, and +jealous temper.[*] Secretly he aspired to the crown, and nothing but the +vigilance of Isis had kept him from rebellion during the absence of his +brother. The rejoicings which celebrated the king's return to Memphis +provided Sit with his opportunity for seizing the throne. + + * The colour of his hair was compared with that of a red- + haired ass, and on that account the ass was sacred to him. + As to his violent and jealous disposition, see the opinion + of Diodorus Siculus, book i. 21, and the picture drawn by + Synesius in his pamphlet AEgyptius. It was told how he tore + his mother's bowels at birth, and made his own way into the + world through her side. + +[Illustration: 250.jpg THE OSMIAN TRIAD HOKUS. OSIRIS, ISIS. 2] + + 2 Drawing by Boudier of the gold group in the Louvre + Museum. The drawing is made from a photograph which belonged + to M. de Witte, before the monument was acquired by E. de + Rouge in 1871. The little square pillar of lapis-lazuli, + upon which Osiris squats, is wrongly set up, and the names + and titles of King Osorkon, the dedicator of the triad, are + placed upside down. + +He invited Osiris to a banquet along with seventy-two officers whose +support he had ensured, made a wooden chest of cunning workmanship and +ordered that it should be brought in to him, in the midst of the feast. +As all admired its beauty, he sportively promised to present it to any +one among the guests whom it should exactly fit. All of them tried it, +one after another, and all unsuccessfully; but when Osiris lay down +within it, immediately the conspirators shut to the lid, nailed it +firmly down, soldered it together with melted lead, and then threw it +into the Tanitic branch of the Nile, which carried it to the sea. The +news of the crime spread terror on all sides. The gods friendly to +Osiris feared the fate of their master, and hid themselves within the +bodies of animals to escape the malignity of the new king. Isis cut off +her hair, rent her garments, and set out in search of the chest. She +found it aground near the mouth of the river[*] under the shadow of +a gigantic acacia, deposited it in a secluded place where no one ever +came, and then took refuge in Buto, her own domain and her native +city, whose marshes protected her from the designs of Typhon even as in +historic times they protected more than one Pharaoh from the attacks of +his enemies. There she gave birth to the young Horus, nursed and reared +him in secret among the reeds, far from the machinations of the wicked +one.[**] + + * At this point the legend of the Saite and Greek period + interpolates a whole chapter, telling how the chest was + carried out to sea and cast upon the Phoenician coast near + to Byblos. The acacia, a kind of heather or broom in this + case, grew up enclosing the chest within its trunk. This + addition to the primitive legend must date from the XVIIIth + to the XXth dynasties, when Egypt had extensive relations + with the peoples of Asia. No trace of it whatever has + hitherto been found upon Egyptian monuments strictly so + called; not even on the latest. + + ** The opening illustration of this chapter (p. 221) is + taken from a monument at Phihe, and depicts Isis among the + reeds. The representation of the goddess as squatting upon a + mat probably gave rise to the legend of the floating isle of + Khemmis, which HECATAEUS of Miletus had seen upon the lake of + Buto, but whose existence was denied by Herodotus + notwithstanding the testimony of Hecataeus. + +But it happened that Sit, when hunting by moonlight, caught sight of the +chest, opened it, and recognizing the corpse, cut it up into fourteen +pieces, which he scattered abroad at random. Once more Isis set forth on +her woeful pilgrimage. She recovered all the parts of the body excepting +one only, which the oxyrhynchus had greedily devoured;[*] and with the +help of her sister Nephthys, her son Horus, Anubis, and Thot, she joined +together and embalmed them, and made of this collection of his remains +an imperishable mummy, capable of sustaining for ever the soul of a god. +On his coming of age, Horus called together all that were left of the +loyal Egyptians and formed them into an army.[**] + + * This part of the legend was so thoroughly well known, + that by the time of the XIXth dynasty it suggested incidents + in popular literature. When Bitiu, the hero of _The Tale of + the Two Brothers_, mutilated himself to avoid the suspicion + of adultery, he cast his bleeding member into the water, and + _the Oxyrhynchus devoured it_. + + ** Towards the Grecian period there was here interpolated + an account of how Osiris had returned from the world of the + dead to arm his son and train him to fight. According to + this tale he had asked Horus which of all animals seemed to + him most useful in time of war, and Horus chose the horse + rather than the lion, because the lion avails for the weak + or cowardly in need of help, whereas the horse is used for + the pursuit and destruction of the enemy. Judging from this + reply that Horus was ready to dare all, Osiris allowed him + to enter upon the war. The mention of the horse affords + sufficient proof that this episode is of comparatively late + origin (cf. p. 41 for the date at which the horse was + acclimatized in Egypt). + +His "Followers"--_Shosuu Horu_--defeated the "Accomplices of +Sit"--_Samiu Sit_--who were now driven in their turn to transform +themselves into gazelles, crocodiles and serpents,--animals which were +henceforth regarded as unclean and Typhonian. For three days the two +chiefs had fought together under the forms of men and of hippopotami, +when Isis, apprehensive as to the issue of the duel, determined to bring +it to an end. "Lo! she caused chains to descend upon them, and made them +to drop upon Horus. Thereupon Horus prayed aloud, saying: 'I am thy son +Horus!' Then Isis spake unto the fetters, saying; 'Break, and unloose +yourselves from my son Horus!' She made other fetters to descend, and +let them fall upon her brother Sit. Forthwith he lifted up his voice and +cried out in pain, and she spake unto the fetters and said unto them: +'Break!' Yea, when Sit prayed unto her many times, saying: 'Wilt thou +not have pity upon the brother of thy son's mother?' then her heart was +filled with compassion, and she cried to the fetters: 'Break, for he is +my eldest brother!' and the fetters unloosed themselves from him, and +the two foes again stood face to face like two men who will not come +to terms." Horus, furious at seeing his mother deprive him of his prey, +turned upon her like a panther of the South. She fled before him on that +day when battle was waged with Sit the Violent, and he cut off her head. +But Thot transformed her by his enchantments and made a cow's head for +her, thereby identifying her with her companion, Hathor. + +[Illustration: 253.jpg ISIS-HATHOR, COW-HEADED. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze statuette of Saite + period in the Gizeh Museum (Mariette, _Album photographique + du musee de Boulaq_, pl. 5, No. 167). + +The war went on, with all its fluctuating fortunes, till the gods at +length decided to summon both rivals before their tribunal. According to +a very ancient tradition, the combatants chose the ruler of a +neighbouring city, Thot, lord of Hermopolis Parva, as the arbitrator of +their quarrel. Sit was the first to plead, and he maintained that Horus +was not the son of Osiris, but a bastard, whom Isis hao conceived after +the death of her husband. Horua triumphantly vindicated the legitimacy +of his birth; and Thot condemned Sit to restore, according to some, the +whole of the inheritance which he had wrongly retained,--according to +others, part of it only. The gods ratified the sentence, and awarded to +the arbitrator the title of _Uapirahuhui_: he who judges between two +parties. A legend of more recent origin, and circulated after the +worship of Osiris had spread over all Egypt, affirmed that the case had +remained within the jurisdiction of Sibu, who was father to the one, and +grandfather to the other party. Sibu, however, had pronounced the same +judgment as Thot, and divided the kingdom into halves--_poshui_; Sit +retained the valley from the neighbourhood of Memphis to the first +cataract, while Horus entered into possession of the Delta. Egypt +henceforth consisted of two distinct kingdoms, of which one, that of the +North, recognized Horus, the son of Isis, as its patron deity; and the +other, that of the South, placed itself under the protection of Sit +Nubiti, the god of Ombos.[*] + + * Another form of the legend gives the 27th Athyr as the + date of the judgment, assigning Egypt to Horus, and to Sit + Nubia, or _Doshirit_, the red land. It must have arisen + towards the age of the XVIIIth dynasty, at a time when their + piety no longer allowed the devout to admit that the + murderer of Osiris could be the legitimate patron of half + the country. So _the half_ belonging to Sit was then placed + either in Nubia or in the western desert, which had, indeed, + been reckoned as his domain from earliest times. + +The moiety of Horus, added to that of Sit, formed the kingdom which Sibu +had inherited; but his children failed to keep it together, though it +was afterwards reunited under Pharaohs of human race. + +The three gods who preceded Osiris upon the throne had ceased to reign, +but not to live. Ra had taken refuge in heaven, disgusted with his own +creatures; Shu had disappeared in the midst of a tempest; and Sibu had +quietly retired within his palace when the time of his sojourning upon +earth had been fulfilled. Not that there was no death, for death, too, +together with all other things and beings, had come into existence in +the beginning, but while cruelly persecuting both man and beast, had for +a while respected the gods. Osiris was the first among them to be struck +down, and hence to require funeral rites. He also was the first for whom +family piety sought to provide a happy life beyond the tomb. Though he +was king of the living and the dead at Mendes by virtue of the rights of +all the feudal gods in their own principalities, his sovereignty after +death exempted him no more than the meanest of his subjects from that +painful torpor into which all mortals fell on breathing their last. But +popular imagination could not resign itself to his remaining in that +miserable state for ever. What would it have profited him to have +Isis the great Sorceress for his wife, the wise Horus for his son, +two master-magicians--Thot the Ibis and the jackal Anubis--for his +servants, if their skill had not availed to ensure him a less gloomy +and less lamentable after-life than that of men. Anubis had long before +invented the art of mummifying, and his mysterious science had secured +the everlasting existence of the flesh; but at what a price! + +[Illustration: 256.jpg THE OSIRIAN MUMMY PREPARED AND LAID UPON THE +FUNERARY COUCH BY THE JACKAL ANUBIS.1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rosellint, _Monumenti + Civili_, pl. cxxxiv. 2. While Anubis is stretching out his + hands to lay out the mummy on its couch, the soul is + hovering above its breast, and holding to its nostrils the + sceptre, and the wind-filled sail which is the emblem of + breath and of the new life. + +For the breathing, warm, fresh-coloured body, spontaneous in movement +and function, was substituted an immobile, cold and blackish mass, a +sufficient basis for the mechanical continuity of the double, but which +that double could neither raise nor guide; whose weight paralysed and +whose inertness condemned it to vegetate in darkness, without pleasure +and almost without consciousness of existence. Thot, Isis, and Horus +applied themselves in the case of Osiris to ameliorating the discomfort +and constraint entailed by the more primitive embalmment. + +[Illustration: 257.jpg THE RECEPTION OP THE MUMMY BY ANUBIS AT THE DOOR +OP THE TOMB, AND THE OPENING OF THE MOUTH. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting in the tomb of a + king in the Theban necropolis. + +They did not dispense with the manipulations instituted by Anubis, +but endued them with new power by means of magic. They inscribed the +principal bandages with protective figures and formulas; they decorated +the body with various amulets of specific efficacy for its different +parts; they drew numerous scenes of earthly existence and of the life +beyond the tomb upon the boards of the coffin and upon the walls of +the sepulchral chamber. When the body had been made imperishable, they +sought to restore one by one all the faculties of which their previous +operations had deprived it. The mummy was set up at the entrance to the +vault; the statue representing the living person was placed beside it, +and semblance was made of opening the mouth, eyes, and ears, of loosing +the arms and legs, of restoring breath to the throat and movement to the +heart. The incantations by which these acts were severally accompanied +were so powerful that the god spoke and ate, lived and heard, and could +use his limbs as freely as though he had never been steeped in the bath +of the embalmer. He might have returned to his place among men, and +various legends prove that he did occasionally appear to his faithful +adherents. But, as his ancestors before him, he preferred to leave +their towns and withdraw into his own domain. The cemeteries of the +inhabitants of Busiris and of Mendes were called _Sokhit Ialu_, the +Meadow of Reeds, and _Sokhit Hotpu_, the Meadow of Best. They were +secluded amid the marshes, in small archipelagoes of sandy islets where +the dead bodies, piled together, rested in safety from the inundations. +This was the first kingdom of the dead Osiris, but it was soon placed +elsewhere, as the nature of the surrounding districts and the geography +of the adjacent countries became better known; at first perhaps on the +Phoenician shore beyond the sea, and then in the sky, in the Milky Way, +between the North and the East, but nearer to the North than to the +East. This kingdom was not gloomy and mournful like that of the other +dead gods, Sokaris or Khontamentit, but was lighted by sun and moon; +the heat of the day was tempered by the steady breath of the north wind, +and its crops grew and throve abundantly. + +[Illustration: 259.jpg OSIKIS IN HADES, ACCOMPANIED BY ISIS, AMENTIT, +AND NEPHTHYS, RECEIVES THE HOMAGE OF TRUTH. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Daniel Heron, + taken in 1881 in the temple of Seti I. at Abydos. + +Thick walls served as fortifications against the attacks of Sit and +evil genii; a palace like that of the Pharaohs stood in the midst +of delightful gardens; and there, among his own people, Osiris led a +tranquil existence, enjoying in succession all the pleasures of earthly +life without any of its pains. + +The goodness which had gained him the title of Onnophris while he +sojourned here below, inspired him with the desire and suggested the +means of opening the gates of his paradise to the souls of his former +subjects. Souls did not enter into it unexamined, nor without trial. +Each of them had first to prove that during its earthly life it had +belonged to a friend, or, as the Egyptian texts have it, to a vassal of +Osiris--_amakhu khir Osiri_--one of those who had served Horus in his +exile and had rallied to his banner from the very beginning of the +Typhonian wars. + +[Illustration: 260.jpg THE DECEASED CLIMBING THE SLOPE OF THE MOUNTAIN +OF THE WEST,2] + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Naville Bas AEgyptische + Todtenbuch, vol. i. pl. cxxviii. Ai. + +These were those followers of Horus--_Shosuu Horu_--so often referred to +in the literature of historic times.[*] + + * Cf, p. 252. The _Followers of Horns_, i.e. those who had + followed Horus during the Typhonian wars, are mentioned in a + Turin fragment of the Canon of the Kings, in which the + author summarizes the chronology of the divine period. Like + the reign of Ra, the time in which the followers of Horus + were supposed to have lived was for the Egyptians of classic + times the ultimate point beyond which history did not reach. + +Horus, their master, having loaded them with favours during life, +decided to extend to them after death the same privileges which he had +conferred upon his father. He convoked around the corpse the gods who +had worked with him at the embalmment of Osiris: Anubis and Thot, +Isis and Nephthys, and his four children--Hapi, Qabhsonuf, Amsit, and +Tiumautf--to whom he had entrusted the charge of the heart and viscera. +They all performed their functions exactly as before, repeated the same +ceremonies, and recited the same formulas at the same stages of the +operations, and so effectively that the dead man became a real Osiris +under their hands, having a true voice, and henceforth combining the +name of the god with his own. + +[Illustration: 261.jpg THE MUMMY OF SUTIMOSU CLASPING HIS SOUL INTO HIS +ARMS. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Guieysse-Lefebure, _Le + Papyrus de Soutimes_, pl. viii. The outlines of the original + have unfortunately been restored and enfeebled by the + copyist. + +He had been Sakhomka or Menkauri; he became the Osiris Sakhomka, or the +Osiris Menkauri, true of voice. Horus and his companions then celebrated +the rites consecrated to the "Opening of the Mouth and the Eyes:" +animated the statue of the deceased, and placed the mummy in the tomb, +where Anubis received it in his arms. Recalled to life and movement, the +double reassumed, one by one, all the functions of being, came and went +and took part in the ceremonies of the worship which was rendered to him +in his tomb. There he might be seen accepting the homage of his +kindred, and clasping to his breast his soul under the form of a great +human-headed bird with features the counterpart of his own. After being +equipped with the formulas and amulets wherewith his prototype, Osiris, +had been furnished, he set forth to seek the "Field of Reeds." The way +was long and arduous, strewn with perils to which he must have succumbed +at the very first stages had he not been carefully warned beforehand and +armed against them. + +[Illustration: 262.jpg CYNOCEPHALI DRAWING THE NET IN WHICH SOULS ARE +CAUGHT. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a facsimile by Deveria (E. de + Rouge, _Etudes sur le Rituel Funeraire_, pl. iv. No. 4). + Ignorant souls fished for by the cynocephali are here + represented as fish; but the soul of Nofirubnu, instructed + in the protective formulas, preserves its human form. + +A papyrus placed with the mummy in its coffin contained the needful +topo-graphical directions and passwords, in order that he might +neither stray nor perish by the way. The wiser Egyptians copied out the +principal chapters for themselves, or learned them by heart while yet +in life, in order to be prepared for the life beyond. Those who had not +taken this precaution studied after death the copy with which they were +provided; and since few Egyptians could read, a priest, or relative of +the deceased, preferably his son, recited the prayers in the mummy's +ear, that he might learn them before he was carried away to the +cemetery. If the double obeyed the prescriptions of the "Book of the +Dead" to the letter, he reached his goal without fail.[*] On leaving +the tomb he turned his back on the valley, and staff in hand climbed +the hills which bounded it on the west, plunging boldly into the desert, +where some bird, or even a kindly insect such as a praying mantis, a +grasshopper, or a butterfly, served as his guide. Soon he came to one of +those sycamores which grow in the sand far away from the Nile, and +are regarded as magic trees by the fellahin. Out of the foliage a +goddess--Nuit, iiathor, or Nit--half emerged, and offered him a dish of +fruit, loaves of bread, and a jar of water. + + * Manuscripts of this work represent about nine-tenths of + the papyri hitherto discovered. They are not all equally + full; complete copies are still relatively scarce, and most + of those found with mummies contain nothing but extracts of + varying length. The book itself was studied by Champollion, + who called it the _Funerary Ritual_; Lepsius afterwards gave + it the less definite name of _Book of the Dead_, which seems + likely to prevail. It has been chiefly known from the + hieroglyphic copy at Turin, which Lepsius traced and had + lithographed in 1841, under the title of _Das Todtenbuch der + AEgypter_. In 1865, E. du Rouge began to publish a hieratic + copy in the Louvre, but since 1886 there has been a critical + edition of manuscripts of the Theban period most carefully + collated by E. Naville, _Das Mgyptische Todtenbuch der XVIII + bis XX Dynastie_, Berlin, 1886, 2 vols, of plates in folio, + and 1 vol. of Introduction in 4to. On this edition see + Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie + Egyptiennes_, vol. i. pp. 325-387. + +By accepting these gifts he became the guest of the goddess, and could +never more retrace his steps[*] without special permission. Beyond +the sycamore were lands of terror, infested by serpents and ferocious +beasts, furrowed by torrents of boiling water, intersected by ponds and +marshes where gigantic monkeys cast their nets. + + * Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie + Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. pp. 224-227. It was not in Egypt + alone that the fact of accepting food offered by a god of + the dead constituted a recognition of suzerainty, and + prevented the human soul from returning to the world of the + living. Traces of this belief are found everywhere, in + modern as in ancient times, and E. B. Tylob, has collected + numerous examples of the same in Primitive Culture, 2nd + edit., vol. ii. pp. 47, 51, 52. + +[Illustration: 264.jpg THE DECEASED AND HIS WIFE SEATED IN FRONT OF THE +SYCAMORE OF NUIT AND RECEIVING THE BREAD AND WATER OF THE NEXT WORLD. 2] + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coloured plate in + Rosellini, _Monumenti civili._,pl. cxxxiv. 3. + +Ignorant souls, or those ill prepared for the struggle, had no easy work +before them when they imprudently entered upon it. Those who were not +overcome by hunger and thirst at the outset were bitten by a urasus, or +horned viper, hidden with evil intent below the sand, and perished in +convulsions from the poison; or crocodiles seized as many of them as +they could lay hold of at the fords of rivers; or cynocephali netted +and devoured them indiscriminately along with the fish into which the +partisans of Typhon were transformed. They came safe and sound out of +one peril only to fall into another, and infallibly succumbed before +they were half through their journey. But, on the other hand, the +double who was equipped and instructed, and armed with the true voice, +confronted each foe with the phylactery and the incantation by which his +enemy was held in check. As soon as he caught sight of one of them he +recited the appropriate chapter from his book, he loudly proclaimed +himself Ra, Tumu, Horus, or Khopri--that god whose name and attributes +were best fitted to repel the immediate danger--and flames withdrew at +his voice, monsters fled or sank paralysed, the most cruel of genii +drew in their claws and lowered their arms before him. He compelled +crocodiles to turn away their heads; he transfixed serpents with his +lance; he supplied himself at pleasure with all the provisions that he +needed, and gradually ascended the mountains which surround the world, +sometimes alone, and fighting his way step by step, sometimes escorted +by beneficent divinities. Halfway up the slope was the good cow Hafchor, +the lady of the West, in meadows of tall plants where every evening +she received the sun at his setting. If the dead man knew how to ask +it according to the prescribed rite, she would take him upon her +shoulders[*] and carry him across the accursed countries at full speed. + + * Coffins of the XXth and XXIst dynasties, with a yellow + ground, often display this scene. Generally the scene is + found beneath the feet of the dead, at the lower end of the + cartonage, and the cow is represented as carrying off at a + gallop the mummy who is lying on her back. + +[Illustration: 266.jpg THE DECEASED PIERCING A SERPENT WITH HIS LANCE. +2] + + 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Naville (_Das + AEgyptische Todtenbuch_, vol. i. pl. iii. P b). The commonest + enemies of the dead were various kinds of serpents. + +Having reached the North, he paused at the edge of an immense lake, the +lake of Kha, and saw in the far distance the outline of the Islands of +the Blest. One tradition, so old as to have been almost forgotten in +Rames-side times, told how Thot the ibis there awaited him, and bore +him away on his wings;[***] another, no less ancient but of more lasting +popularity, declared that a ferry-boat plied regularly between the solid +earth and the shores of paradise. + + *** It is often mentioned in the Pyramid texts, and + inspired one of the most obscure chapters among them + (_Teti_, 11. 185-200; cf. _Recueil de Travaux_, vol. v. pp. + 22, 23). It seems that the ibis had to fight with Sit for + right of passage. + +The god who directed it questioned the dead, and the bark itself +proceeded to examine them before they were admitted on board; for it +was a magic bark. "Tell me my name," cried the mast; and the travellers +replied: "He who guides the great goddess on her way is thy name." "Tell +me my name," repeated the braces. "The Spine of the Jackal Uapuaitu is +thy name." "Tell me my name," proceeded the mast-head. + +[Illustration: 267.jpg THE GOOD COW HATHOR CARRYING THE DEAD MAN AND HIS +SOUL. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coloured facsimile + published by Leemans, _Monuments Egyptiens du Musee d' + Antiquites des Pays-Bas a Leyden_, part iii. pl. xii. + +"The Neck of Amsit is thy name." "Tell me my name," asked the sail. +"Nuit is thy name." Each part of the hull and of the rigging spoke +in turn and questioned the applicant regarding its name, this being +generally a mystic phrase by which it was identified either with some +divinity as a whole, or else with some part of his body. + +When the double had established his right of passage by the correctness +of his answers, the bark consented to receive him and to carry him to +the further shore. There he was met by the gods and goddesses of the +court of Osiris: by Anubis, by Hathor the lady of the cemetery, by Nit, +by the two Maits who preside over justice and truth, and by the four +children of Horus stiff-sheathed in their mummy wrappings. They formed +as it were a guard of honour to introduce him and his winged guide into +an immense hall, the ceiling of which rested on light graceful columns +of painted wood. + +[Illustration: 268.jpg ANUBIS AND THOT WEIGHING THE HEART OF THE +DECEASED IN THE SCALES OF TRUTH. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from pl. cxxxvi. Ag of + Naville's _Das Thebanische Todtenbuch_. + +At the further end of the hall Osiris was seated in mysterious twilight +within a shrine through whose open doors he might be seen wearing a red +necklace over his close-fitting case of white bandaging, his green face +surmounted by the tall white diadem flanked by two plumes, his slender +hands grasping flail and crook, the emblems of his power. + +[Illustration: 269.jpg THE DECEASED IS BROUGHT BEFORE THE SHRINE OF +OSIRIS THE JUDGE BY HORUS, THE SON OF ISIS.] + +Behind him stood Isis and Nephthys watching over him with uplifted +hands, bare bosoms, and bodies straitly cased in linen. Forty-two jurors +who had died and been restored to life like their lord, and who had +been chosen, one from each of those cities of Egypt which recognized +his authority, squatted right and left, and motionless, clothed in the +wrappings of the dead, silently waited until they were addressed. +The soul first advanced to the foot of the throne, carrying on its +outstretched hands the image of its heart or of its eyes, agents and +accomplices of its sins and virtues. It humbly "smelt the earth," then +arose, and with uplifted hands recited its profession of faith. "Hail +unto you, ye lords of Truth! hail to thee, great god, lord of Truth and +Justice! I have come before thee, my master; I have been brought to see +thy beauties. For I know thee, I know thy name, I know the names of thy +forty-two gods who are with thee in the Hall of the Two Truths, living +on the remains of sinners, gorging themselves with their blood, in that +day when account is rendered before Onnophris, the true of voice. Thy +name which is thine is 'the god whose two twins are the ladies of the +two Truths;' and I, I know you, ye lords of the two Truths, I bring unto +you Truth, I have destroyed sins for you. I have not committed iniquity +against men! I have not oppressed the poor! I have not made defalcations +in the necropolis! I have not laid labour upon any free man beyond that +which he wrought for himself! I have not transgressed, I have not +been weak, I have not defaulted, I have not committed that which is an +abomination to the gods. I have not caused the slave to be ill-treated +of his master! I have not starved any man, I have not made any to +weep, I have not assassinated any man, I have not caused any man to be +treacherously assassinated, and I have not committed treason against +any! I have not in aught diminished the supplies of temples! I have not +spoiled the shrewbread of the gods! I have not taken away the loaves and +the wrappings of the dead! I have done no carnal act within the sacred +enclosure of the temple! I have not blasphemed! I have in nought +curtailed the sacred revenues! I have not pulled down the scale of the +balance! I have not falsified the beam of the balance! I have not taken +away the milk from the mouths of sucklings! I have not lassoed cattle on +their pastures! I have not taken with nets the birds of the gods! I +have not fished in their ponds! I have not turned back the water in its +season! I have not cut off a water-channel in its course! I have not +put out the fire in its time! I have not defrauded the Nine Gods of the +choice part of victims! I have not ejected the oxen of the gods! I have +not turned back the god at his coming forth! I am pure! I am pure! I am +pure! I am pure! Pure as this Great Bonu of Heracleopolis is pure!... +There is no crime against me in this land of the Double Truth! Since I +know the names of the gods who are with thee in the Hall of the Double +Truth, save thou me from them!" He then turned towards the jury and +pleaded his cause before them. They had been severally appointed for +the cognizance of particular sins, and the dead man took each of them by +name to witness that he was innocent of the sin which that one recorded. +His plea ended, he returned to the supreme judge, and repeated, under +what is sometimes a highly mystic form, the ideas which he had already +advanced in the first part of his address. "Hail unto you, ye gods who +are in the Great Hall of the Double Truth, who have no falsehood in +your bosoms, but who live on Truth in Aunu, and feed your hearts upon it +before the Lord God who dwelleth in his solar disc! Deliver me from +the Typhon who feedeth on entrails, O chiefs! in this hour of supreme +judgment;--grant that the deceased may come unto you, he who hath not +sinned, who hath neither lied, nor done evil, nor committed any crime, +who hath not borne false witness, who hath done nought against himself, +but who liveth on truth, who feedeth on truth. He hath spread joy on all +sides; men speak of that which he hath done, and the gods rejoice in it. +He hath reconciled the god to him by his love; he hath given bread to +the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked; he hath given +a boat to the shipwrecked; he hath offered sacrifices to the gods, +sepulchral meals unto the manes. Deliver him from himself, speak not +against him before the Lord of the Dead, for his mouth is pure, and his +two hands are pure!" In the middle of the Hall, however, his acts were +being weighed by the assessors. Like all objects belonging to the gods, +the balance is magic, and the genius which animates it sometimes shows +its fine and delicate little human head on the top of the upright +stand which forms its body. Everything about the balance recalls its +superhuman origin: a cynocephalus, emblematic of Thot, sits perched on +the upright and watches the beam; the cords which suspend the scales are +made of alternate _cruces ansato and tats_. Truth squats upon one of +the scales; Thot, ibis-headed, places the heart on the other, and always +merciful, bears upon the side of Truth that judgment may be favourably +inclined. He affirms that the heart is light of offence, inscribes +the result of the proceeding upon a wooden tablet, and pronounces the +verdict aloud. "Thus saith Thot, lord of divine discourse, scribe of +the Great Ennead, to his father Osiris, lord of eternity, 'Behold the +deceased in this Hall of the Double Truth, his heart hath been weighed +in the balance in the presence of the great genii, the lords of Hades, +and been found true. No trace of earthly impurity hath been found in +his heart. Now that he leaveth the tribunal true of voice, his heart +is restored to him, as well as his eyes and the material cover of his +heart, to be put back in their places each in its own time, his soul in +heaven, his heart in the other world, as is the custom of the "Followers +of Horus." Henceforth let his body lie in the hands of Anubis, who +presideth over the tombs; let him receive offerings at the cemetery in +the presence of Onno-phris; let him be as one of those favourites who +follow thee; let his soul abide where it will in the necropolis of +his city, he whose voice is true before the Great Ennead.'" In this +"Negative Confession," which the worshippers of Osiris taught to their +dead, all is not equally admirable. The material interests of the temple +were too prominent, and the crime of killing a sacred goose or stealing +a loaf from the bread offerings was considered as abominable as calumny +or murder. But although it contains traces of priestly cupidity, yet +how many of its precepts are untarnished in their purity by any selfish +ulterior motive! In it is all our morality in germ, and with refinements +of delicacy often lacking among peoples of later and more advanced +civilizations. The god does not confine his favour to the prosperous and +the powerful of this world; he bestows it also upon the poor. His will +is that they be fed and clothed, and exempted from tasks beyond their +strength; that they be not oppressed, and that unnecessary tears be +spared them. If this does not amount to the love of our neighbour as our +religions preach it, at least it represents the careful solicitude due +from a good lord to his vassals. His pity extends to slaves; not only +does he command that no one should ill-treat them himself, but he +forbids that their masters should be led to ill-treat them. This +profession of faith, one of the noblest bequeathed us by the old world, +is of very ancient origin. It may be read in scattered fragments upon +the monuments of the first dynasties, and the way in which its ideas are +treated by the compilers of these inscriptions proves that it was not +then regarded as new, but as a text so old and so well known that its +formulas were current in all mouths, and had their prescribed places +in epitaphs.[*] Was it composed in Mendes, the god's own home, or in +Heliopolis, when the theologians of that city appropriated the god of +Mendes and incorporated him in their Ennead? In conception it certainly +belongs to the Osirian priesthood, but it can only have been diffused +over the whole of Egypt after the general adoption of the Heliopolitan +Ennead throughout the cities. + +As soon as he was judged, the dead man entered into the possession of +his rights as a pure soul. On high he received from the Universal +Lord all that kings and princes here below bestowed upon their +followers--rations of food,[**] and a house, gardens, and fields to be +held subject to the usual conditions of tenure in Egypt, i.e. taxation, +military service, and the corvee. + + * For instance, one of the formulas found in Memphite tombs + states that the deceased had been the friend of his father, + the beloved of his mother, sweet to those who lived with + him, gracious to his brethren, loved of his servants, and + that he had never sought wrongful quarrel with any man; + briefly, that he spoke and did that which is right here + below. + + ** The formula of the pyramid times is: "Thy thousand of + oxen, thy thousand of geese, of roast and boiled joints from + the larder of the gods, of bread, and plenty of the good + things presented in the hall of Osiris." + +If the island was attacked by the partisans of Sit, the Osirian doubles +hastened in a body to repulse them, and fought bravely in its defence. +Of the revenues sent to him by his kindred on certain days and by means +of sacrifices, each gave tithes to the heavenly storehouses. Yet this +was but the least part of the burdens laid upon him by the laws of the +country, which did not suffer him to become enervated by idleness, but +obliged him to labour as in the days when he still dwelt in Egypt. + +[Illustration: 275.jpg THE MANES TILLING THE GROUND AND REAPING IN THE +FIELDS OF IALU. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a vignette in the funerary + papyrus of Nebhopit in Turin. + +He looked after the maintenance of canals and dykes, he tilled the +ground, he sowed, he reaped, he garnered the grain for his lord and for +himself. Yet to those upon whom they were incumbent, these posthumous +obligations, the sequel and continuation of feudal service, at length +seemed too heavy, and theologians exercised their ingenuity to find +means of lightening the burden. They authorized the manes to look to +their servants for the discharge of all manual labour which they ought +to have performed themselves. Barely did a dead man, no matter how +poor, arrive unaccompanied at the eternal cities; he brought with him a +following proportionate to his rank and fortune upon earth. + +[Illustration: 276.jpg UASHBITI. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a painted limestone statuette + from the tomb of _Sonnozmu_ at Thebes, dating from the end + of the XXth dynasty. + +At first they were real doubles, those of slaves or vassals killed at +the tomb, and who had departed along with the double of the master to +serve him beyond the grave as they had served him here. A number of +statues and images, magically endued with activity and intelligence, +was afterwards substituted for this retinue of victims. Originally of +so large a size that only the rich or noble could afford them, they were +reduced little by little to the height of a few inches. Some were carved +out of alabaster, granite, diorite, fine limestone, or moulded out +of fine clay and delicately modelled; others had scarcely any human +resemblance. They were endowed with life by means of a formula recited +over them at the time of their manufacture, and afterwards traced upon +their legs. All were possessed of the same faculties. When the god who +called the Osirians to the corvee pronounced the name of the dead man to +whom the figures belonged, they arose and answered for him; hence their +designation of "Respondents "--_Uashbiti_. Equipped for agricultural +labour, each grasping a hoe and carrying a seed-bag on his shoulder, +they set out to work in their appointed places, contributing the +required number of days of forced labour. + +[Illustration: 277.jpg THE DEAD MAN AND HIS WIFE PLAYING AT DRAUGHTS IN +THE PAVILION. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a vignette in No, 4 Papyrus, + Dublin (Naville, _Das Mgyptische Todtenbuch_, vol. i. pl. + xxvii. Da). The name of draughts is not altogether accurate; + a description of the game may be found in Falkner, _Games + Ancient and Oriental and how to play them_, pp. 9-101. + +Up to a certain point they thus compensated for those inequalities of +condition which death itself did not efface among the vassals of Osiris; +for the figures were sold so cheaply that even the poorest could always +afford some for themselves, or bestow a few upon their relations; and +in the Islands of the Blest, fellah, artisan, and slave were indebted to +the Uashbiti for release from their old routine of labour and unending +toil. While the little peasants of stone or glazed ware dutifully toiled +and tilled and sowed, their masters were enjoying all the delights +of the Egyptian paradise in perfect idleness. They sat at ease by the +water-side, inhaling the fresh north breeze, under the shadow of trees +which were always green. They fished with lines among the lotus-plants; +they embarked in their boats, and were towed along by their servants, or +they would sometimes deign to paddle themselves slowly about the canals. + +[Illustration: 278.jpg THE DEAD MAN SAILING IN HIS BARK ALONG THE CANALS +OF THE FIELDS OF IALIT. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the Papyrus of Nebhopit, in + Turin. This drawing is from part of the same scene as the + illustration on p. 275. + +They went fowling among the reed-beds, or retired within their painted +pavilions to read tales, to play at draughts, to return to their wives +who were for ever young and beautiful.[**] + + ** Gymnastic exercises, hunting, fishing, sailing, are all + pictured in Theban tombs. The game of draughts is mentioned + in the title of chap. xvii. of the _Book of the Dead_ + (Naville's edition, vol. i. pl. xxiii. 1. 2), and the + women's pavilion is represented in the tomb of Rakhmiri That + the dead were supposed to read tales is proved from the fact + that broken ostraca bearing long fragments of literary works + are found in tombs; they were broken to kill them and to + send on their doubles to the dead man in the next world. + +It was but an ameliorated earthly life, divested of all suffering under +the rule and by the favour of the true-voiced Onnophris. The feudal gods +promptly adopted this new mode of life. + +[Illustration: 279.jpg BOAT OF A FUNERARY FLEET ON ITS WAY TO ABYDOS. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Einil + Brugsch-Bey. The original was found in the course of M. de + Morgan's excavations at Meir, and is now at Gizeh. The dead + man is sitting in the cabin, wrapped in his cloak. As far as + I know, this is the only boat which has preserved its + original rigging. It dates from the XIth or XIIth + dynasty. + +Each of their dead bodies, mummified, and afterwards reanimated in +accordance with the Osirian myth, became an Osiris as did that of any +ordinary person. Some carried the assimilation so far as to absorb the +god of Mendes, or to be absorbed in him. At Memphis Phtah-Sokaris +became Phtah-Sokar-Osiris, and at Thinis Khontamentifc became Osiris +Khontamentit. The sun-god lent himself to this process with comparative +ease because his life is more like a man's life, and hence also more +like that of Osiris, which is the counterpart of a man's life. + +[Illustration: 280.jpg THE SOLAR BARK INTO WHICH THE DEAD MAN IS ABOUT +TO ENTER. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a vignette in the Papyrus of + Nebqadn, in Paris. + +Born in the morning, he ages as the day declines, and gently passes away +at evening. From the time of his entering the sky to that of his leaving +it, he reigns above as he reigned here below in the beginning; but when +he has left the sky and sinks into Hades, he becomes as one of the dead, +and is, as they are, subjected to Osirian embalmment. The same dangers +that menace their human souls threaten his soul also; and when he has +vanquished them, not in his own strength, but by the power of amulets +and magical formulas, he enters into the fields of lalu, and ought to +dwell there for ever under the rule of Onuophris. He did nothing of the +kind, however, for daily the sun was to be seen reappearing in the east +twelve hours after it had sunk into the darkness of the west. Was it a +new orb each time, or did the same sun shine every day? In either case +the result was precisely the same; the god came forth from death and +re-entered into life. Having identified the course of the sun-god with +that of man, and Ra with Osiris for a first day and a first night, +it was hard not to push the matter further, and identify them for all +succeeding days and nights, affirming that man and Osiris might, if they +so wished, be born again in the morning, as Ra was, and together with +him. If the Egyptians had found the prospect of quitting the darkness of +the tomb for the bright meadows of Ialu a sensible alleviation of their +lot, with what joy must they have been filled by the conception which +allowed them to substitute the whole realm of the sun for a little +archipelago in an out-of-the-way corner of the universe. Their first +consideration was to obtain entrance into the divine bark, and this +was the object of all the various practices and prayers, whose text, +together with that which already contained the Osirian formulas, ensured +the unfailing protection of Ra to their possessor. The soul desirous of +making use of them went straight from his tomb to the very spot where +the god left earth to descend into Hades. This was somewhere in the +immediate neighbourhood of Abydos, and was reached through a narrow +gorge or "cleft" in the Libyan range, whose "mouth" opened in front +of the temple of Osiris Khontamentit, a little to the north-west of the +city. The soul was supposed to be carried thither by a small flotilla of +boats, manned by figures representing friends or priests, and laden with +food, furniture, and statues. This flotilla was placed within the +vault on the day of the funeral, and was set in motion by means of +incantations recited over it during one of the first nights of the year, +at the annual feast of the dead. The bird or insect which had previously +served as guide to the soul upon its journey now took the helm to show +the fleet the right way, and under this command the boats left Abydos +and mysteriously passed through the "cleft" into that western sea which +is inaccessible to the living, there to await the daily coming of the +dying sun-god. + +[Illustration: 282.jpg THE SOLAR BARK PASSING INTO THE MOUNTAIN OF THE +WEST. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a very small photograph + published in the Catalogue of the Minutoli Sale. + +As soon as his bark appeared at the last bend of the celestial Nile, +the cynocephali, who guarded the entrance into night, began to dance and +gesticulate upon the banks as they intoned their accustomed hymn. The +gods of Abydos mingled their shouts of joy with the chant of the sacred +baboons, the bark lingered for a moment upon the frontiers of day, and +initiated souls seized the occasion to secure their recognition and +their reception on board of it.[*] Once admitted, they took their share +in the management of the boat, and in the battles with hostile deities; +but they were not all endowed with the courage or equipment needful to +withstand the perils and terrors of the voyage. Many stopped short by +the way in one of the regions which it traversed, either in the realm of +Khontamentit, or in that of Sokaris, or in those islands where the good +Osiris welcomed them as though they had duly arrived in the ferry-boat, +or upon the wing of Thot. There they dwelt in colonies under the +suzerainty of local gods, rich, and in need of nothing, but condemned +to live in darkness, excepting for the one brief hour in which the +solar bark passed through their midst, irradiating them with beams of +light.[**] + + * This description of the embarkation and voyage of the + soul is composed from indications given in one of the + vignettes of chap. xvi. of the _Book of the Dead_ (Naville's + edition, vol. i. pl. xxii.), combined with the text of a + formula which became common from the times of the XIth and + XIIth dynasties (Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et + l'Archeologie Egyptiennes_, vol. i. pp. 14-18, and _Etudes + Egyptiennes_, vol. i. pp. 122, 123). + + + ** Maspero, _Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie + Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. pp. 44, 45. + +The few persevered, feeling that they had courage to accompany the sun +throughout, and these were indemnified for their sufferings by the most +brilliant fate ever dreamed of by Egyptian souls., Born anew with the +sun-god and appearing with him at the gates of the east, they were +assimilated to him, and shared his privilege of growing old and dying, +only to be ceaselessly rejuvenated and to live again with ever-renewed +splendour. They disembarked where they pleased, and returned at will +into the world. If now and then they felt a wish to revisit all that was +left of their earthly bodies, the human-headed sparrow-hawk descended +the shaft in full flight, alighted upon the funeral couch, and, with +hands softly laid upon the spot where the heart had been wont to beat, +gazed upwards at the impassive mask of the mummy. + +[Illustration: 284.jpg THE SOUL DESCENDING THE SEPULCHRAL SHAFT ON ITS +WAY TO REJOIN THE MUMMY. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Deveria. + +This was but for a moment, since nothing compelled these perfect souls +to be imprisoned within the tomb like the doubles of earlier times, +because they feared the light. They "went forth by day," and dwelt in +those places where they had lived; they walked in their gardens by their +ponds of running water; they perched like so many birds on the branches +of the trees which they had planted, or enjoyed the fresh air under the +shade of their sycamores; they ate and drank at pleasure; they travelled +by hill and dale; they embarked in the boat of Ra, and disembarked +without weariness, and without distaste for the same perpetual round. + +This conception, which was developed somewhat late, brought the +Egyptians back to the point from which they had started when first they +began to speculate on the life to come. + +[Illustration: 285.jpg THE SOUL ON THE EDGE OF THE FUNERAL COUCH, WITH +ITS HANDS ON THE HEART OF THE MUMMY. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch- + Bey, reproducing the miniature sarcophagus of the scribe Ra + (Maspero, _Guide du Visiteur_, pp. 130, 131, No. 1621). + +The soul, after having left the place of its incarnation to which in the +beginning it clung, after having ascended into heaven and there sought +congenial asylum in vain, forsook all havens which it had found above, +and unhesitatingly fell back upon earth, there to lead a peaceful, free, +and happy life in the full light of day, and with the whole valley of +Egypt for a paradise. + +The connection, always increasingly intimate between Osiris and Ra, +gradually brought about a blending of the previously separate myths and +beliefs concerning each. The friends and enemies of the one became the +friends and enemies of the other, and from a mixture of the original +conceptions of the two deities, arose new personalities, in which +contradictory elements were blent together, often without true fusion. +The celestial Horuses one by one were identified with Horus, son of +Isis, and their attributes were given to him, as his in the same way +became theirs. Apopi and the monsters--the hippopotamus, the crocodile, +the wild boar--who lay in wait for Ra as he sailed the heavenly ocean, +became one with Sit and his accomplices. Sit still possessed his half +of Egypt, and his primitive brotherly relation to the celestial Horus +remained unbroken, either 'on account of their sharing one temple, as at +Nubit, or because they were worshipped as one in two neighbouring +nomes, as, for example, at Oxyrrhynchos and at Heracleopolis Magna. +The repulsion with which the slayer of Osiris was regarded did not +everywhere dissociate these two cults: certain small districts persisted +in this double worship down to the latest times of paganism. It was, +after all, a mark of fidelity to the oldest traditions of the race, but +the bulk of the Egyptians, who had forgotten these, invented reasons +taken from the history of the divine dynasties to explain the fact. The +judgment of Thot or of Sibu had not put an end to the machinations of +Sit: as soon as Horus had left the earth, Sit resumed them, and pursued +them, with varying fortune, under the divine kings of the second Ennead. +Now, in the year 363 of Harmakhis, the Typhonians reopened the campaign. +Beaten at first near Edfu, they retreated precipitately northwards, +stopping to give battle wherever their partisans predominated,--at +Zatmifc in the Theban nome,[*] at Khaitnutrit to the north-east of +Denderah, and at Hibonu in the principality of the Gazelle. + + * Zatmit appears to have been situate at some distance from + Bayadiyeh, on the spot where the map published by the + Egyptian Commission marks the ruins of a modern village. + There was a necropolis of considerable extent there, which + furnishes the Luxor dealers with antiquities, many of which + belong to the first Theban empire. + +[Illustration: 287.jpg THE SOUL GOING FORTH INTO ITS GARDEN BY DAY. 2] + + 2 Copied by Faucher-Gudin from the survey-drawings of the + tomb of Anni by Boussac, member of the _Mission francaise_ + in Egypt (1891). The inscription over the arbour gives the + list of the various trees in the garden of Anni during his + lifetime. + +Several bloody combats, which took place between Oxyrrhynchos and +Heracleopolis Magna, were the means of driving them finally out of the +Nile Valley; they rallied for the last time in the eastern provinces +of the Delta, were beaten at Zalu, and giving up all hope of success on +land, they embarked at the head of the Gulf of Suez, in order to return +to the Nubian Desert, their habitual refuge in times of distress. +The sea was the special element of Typhon, and upon it they believed +themselves secure. Horus, however, followed them, overtook them near +Shas-hirit, routed them, and on his return to Edfu, celebrated his +victory by a solemn festival. By degrees, as he made himself master +of those localities which owed allegiance to Sit, he took energetic +measures to establish in them the authority of Osiris and of the solar +cycle. In all of them he built, side by side with the sanctuary of the +Typhonian divinities, a temple to himself, in which he was enthroned +under the particular form he was obliged to assume in order to vanquish +his enemies. Metamorphosed into a hawk at the battle of Hibonu, we +next see him springing on to the back of Sit under the guise of a +hippopotamus; in his shrine at Hibonu he is represented as a hawk +perching on the back of a gazelle, emblem of the nome where the struggle +took place. Near to Zalu he became incarnate as a human-headed lion, +crowned with the triple diadem, and having feet armed with claws which +cut like a knife; it was under the form, too, of a lion that he was +worshipped in the temple at Zalu. The correlation of Sit and the +celestial Horus was not, therefore, for these Egyptians of more recent +times a primitive religious fact; it was the consequence, and so to +speak the sanction, of the old hostility between the two gods. + +[Illustration: 289.jpg] + +Horus had treated his enemy in the same fashion that a victorious +Pharaoh treated the barbarians conquered by his arms: he had constructed +a fortress to keep his foe in check, and his priests formed a sort of +garrison as a precaution against the revolt of the rival priesthood and +the followers of the rival deity. In this manner the battles of the gods +were changed into human struggles, in which, more than once, Egypt was +deluged with blood. The hatred of the followers of Osiris to those of +Typhon was perpetuated with such implacability, that the nomes which had +persisted in adhering to the worship of Sit, became odious to the +rest of the population: the image of their master on the monuments was +mutilated, their names were effaced from the geographical lists, they +were assailed with insulting epithets, and to pursue and slay their +sacred animals was reckoned a pious act. Thus originated those +skirmishes which developed into actual civil wars, and were continued +down to Roman times. The adherents of Typhon only became more confirmed +in their veneration for the accursed god; Christianity alone overcame +their obstinate fidelity to him.[*] + + * This incident in the wars of Horus and Sit is drawn by + Faucher-Gudin from a bas-relief of the temple of Edfu. On + the right, Har-Huditi, standing up in the solar bark, + pierces with his lance the head of a crocodile, a partisan + of Sit, lying in the water below; Harmakhis, standing behind + him, is present at the execution. Facing this divine pair, + is the young Horus, who kills a man, another partisan of + Sit, while Isis and Har-Huditi hold his chains; behind + Horus, Isis and Thot are leading four other captives bound + and ready to be sacrificed before Harmakhis. + +The history of the world for Egypt was therefore only the history of the +struggle between the adherents of Osiris and the followers of Sit; an +interminable warfare in which sometimes one and sometimes the other of +the rival parties obtained a passing advantage, without ever gaining a +decisive victory till the end of time. The divine kings of the second +and third Ennead devoted most of the years of their earthly reign +to this end; they were portrayed under the form of the great warrior +Pharaohs, who, from the eighteenth to the twelfth century before our +era, extended their rule from the plains of the Euphrates to the marshes +of Ethiopia. A few peaceful sovereigns are met with here and there in +this line of conquerors--a few sages or legislators, of whom the most +famous was styled Thot, the doubly great, ruler of Hermopolis and of +the Hermopolitan Ennead. A legend of recent origin made him the prime +minister of Horus, son of Isis; a still more ancient tradition would +identify him with the second king of the second dynasty, the immediate +successor of the divine Horuses, and attributes to him a reign of 3226 +years. He brought to the throne that inventive spirit and that creative +power which had characterized him from the time when he was only +a feudal deity. Astronomy, divination, magic, medicine, writing, +drawing--in fine, all the arts and sciences emanated from him as from +their first source. He had taught mankind the methodical observation +of the heavens and of the changes that took place in them, the slow +revolutions of the sun, the rapid phases of the moon, the intersecting +movements of the five planets, and the shapes and limits of the +constellations which each night were lit up in the sky. Most of the +latter either remained, or appeared to remain immovable, and seemed +never to pass out of the regions accessible to the human eye. Those +which were situate on the extreme margin of the firmament accomplished +movements there analogous to those of the planets. + +[Illustration: 293.jpg ONE OF THE ASTRONOMICAL TABLES OF THE TOMB OF +RAMSES IV. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a copy by Lepsius, _Denkm._, + iii. 227, 3. + +Every year at fixed times they were seen to sink one after another below +the horizon, to disappear, and rising again after an eclipse of greater +or less duration, to regain insensibly their original positions. The +constellations were reckoned to be thirty-six in number, the thirty-six +_decani_ to whom were attributed mysterious powers, and of whom Sothis +was queen--Sothis transformed into the star of Isis, when Orion (Sahu), +became the star of Osiris. The nights are so clear and the atmosphere so +transparent in Egypt, that the eye can readily penetrate the depths of +space, and distinctly see points of light which would be invisible +in our foggy climate. The Egyptians did not therefore need special +instruments to ascertain the existence of a considerable number of stars +which we could not see without the help of our telescopes; they could +perceive with the naked eye stars of the fifth magnitude, and note them +upon their catalogues.[*] It entailed, it is true, a long training and +uninterrupted practice to bring their sight up to its maximum keenness; +but from very early times it was a function of the priestly colleges +to found and maintain schools of astronomy. The first observatories +established on the banks of the Nile seem to have belonged to the +temples of the sun; the high priests of Ra--who, to judge from their +title, were alone worthy to behold the sun face to face--were actively +employed from the earliest times in studying the configuration and +preparing maps of the heavens. The priests of other gods were quick to +follow their example: at the opening of the historic period, there was +not a single temple, from one end of the valley to the other, that did +not possess its official astronomers, or, as they were called, "watchers +of the night."[**] + + * Biot, however, states that stars of the third and fourth + magnitude "are the smallest which can be seen with the + naked eye." I believe I am right in affirming that several + of the fellahin and Bedawin attached to the "service des + Antiquites" can see stars which are usually classed with + those of the fifth magnitude. + + ** _Urshu_: this word is also used for the soldiers on + watch during the day upon the walls of a fortress. Birch + believed he had discovered in the British Museum a catalogue + of observations made at Thebes by several astronomers upon a + constellation which answered to the Hyades or the Pleiades; + it was merely a question in this text of the quantity of + water supplied regularly to the astronomers of a Theban + temple for their domestic purposes. + +In the evening they went up on to the high terraces above the shrine, or +on to the narrow platforms which terminated the pylons, and fixing +their eyes continuously on the celestial vault above them, followed the +movements of the constellations and carefully noted down the slightest +phenomena which they observed. A portion of the chart of the heavens, +as known to Theban Egypt between the eighteenth and twelfth centuries +before our era, has survived to the present time; parts of it were +carved by the decorators on the ceilings of temples, and especially on +royal tombs. The deceased Pharaohs were identified with Osiris in a more +intimate fashion than their subjects. They represented the god even in +the most trivial details; on earth--where, after having played the part +of the beneficent Onnophris of primitive ages, they underwent the most +complete and elaborate embalming, like Osiris of the lower world; in +Hades--where they embarked side by side with the Sun-Osiris to cross the +night and to be born again at daybreak; in heaven--where they shone with +Orion-Sahu under the guardianship of Sothis, and, year by year, led the +procession of the stars. The maps of the firmament recalled to them, or +if necessary taught them, this part of their duties: they there saw +the planets and the _decani_ sail past in their boats, and the +constellations follow one another in continuous succession. The lists +annexed to the charts indicated the positions occupied each month by the +principal heavenly bodies--their risings, their culminations, and their +settings. Unfortunately, the workmen employed to execute these pictures +either did not understand much about the subject in hand, or did not +trouble themselves to copy the originals exactly: they omitted many +passages, transposed others, and made endless mistakes, which made it +impossible for us to transfer accurately to a modern map the information +possessed by the ancients. + +In directing their eyes to the celestial sphere, Thot had at the same +time revealed to men the art of measuring time, and the knowledge of the +future. As he was the moon-god _par excellence_, he watched with jealous +care over the divine eye which had been entrusted to him by Horus, and +the thirty days during which he was engaged in conducting it through all +the phases of its nocturnal life, were reckoned as a month. Twelve of +these months formed the year, a year of three hundred and sixty days, +during which the earth witnessed the gradual beginning and ending of the +circle of the seasons. The Nile rose, spread over the fields, sank again +into its channel; to the vicissitudes of the inundation succeeded the +work of cultivation; the harvest followed the seedtime: these formed +three distinct divisions of the year, each of nearly equal duration. +Thot made of them the three seasons,--that of the waters, Shait; that +of vegetation, Piruit; that of the harvest, Shomu--each comprising +four months, numbered one to four; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months of +Shait; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months of Piruit; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, +and 4th months of Shomu. The twelve months completed, a new year began, +whose birth was heralded by the rising of Sothis in the early days of +August. The first month of the Egyptian year thus coincided with the +eighth of ours. Thot became its patron, and gave it his name, relegating +each of the others to a special protecting divinity; in this manner +the third month of Shait fell to Hathor, and was called after her; the +fourth of Piruit belonged to Ranuit or Ramuit, the lady of harvests, and +derived from her its appellation of Pharmuti. Official documents always +designated the months by the ordinal number attached to them in each +season, but the people gave them by preference the names of their +tutelary deities, and these names, transcribed into Greek, and then into +Arabic, are still used by the Christian inhabitants of Egypt, side by +side with the Mussulman appellations. One patron for each month was, +however, not deemed sufficient: each month was subdivided into three +decades, over which presided as many _decani_, and the days themselves +were assigned to genii appointed to protect them. A number of festivals +were set apart at irregular intervals during the course of the year: +festivals for the new year, festivals for the beginning of the seasons, +months and decades, festivals for the dead, for the supreme gods, and +for local divinities. Every act of civil life was so closely allied to +the religious life, that it could not be performed without a sacrifice +or a festival. A festival celebrated the cutting of the dykes, another +the opening of the canals, a third the reaping of the first sheaf, or +the carrying of the grain; a crop gathered or stored without a festival +to implore the blessing of the gods, would have been an act of sacrilege +and fraught with disaster. The first year of three hundred and sixty +days, regulated by the revolutions of the moon, did not long meet the +needs of the Egyptian people; it did not correspond with the length of +the solar year, for it fell short of it by five and a quarter days, and +this deficit, accumulating from twelvemonth to twelvemonth, caused such +a serious difference between the calendar reckoning and the natural +seasons, that it soon had to be corrected. They intercalated, therefore, +after the twelfth month of each year and before the first day of the +ensuing year, five epagomenal days, which they termed the "five days +over and above the year."[*] + + * There appears to be a tendency among Egyptologists now to + doubt the existence, under the Ancient Empire, of the five + epagomenal days, and as a fact they are nowhere to be found + expressly mentioned; but we know that the five gods of the + Osirian cycle were born during the epagomenal day (cf. p. + 247 of this History), and the allusions to the Osirian + legend which are met with in the Pyramid texts, prove that + the days were added long before the time when those + inscriptions were cut. As the wording of the texts often + comes down from prehistoric times, it is most likely that + the invention of the epagomenal days is anterior to the + first Thinite and Memphite dynasties. + +The legend of Osiris relates that Thot created them in order to permit +Nuit to give birth to all her children. These days constituted, at the +end of the "great year," a "little month," which considerably lessened +the difference between the solar and lunar computation, but did not +entirely do away with it, and the six hours and a few minutes of which +the Egyptians had not taken count gradually became the source of fresh +perplexities. They at length amounted to a whole day, which needed to +be added every four years to the regular three hundred and sixty days, +a fact which was unfortunately overlooked. The difficulty, at first only +slight, which this caused in public life, increased with time, and ended +by disturbing the harmony between the order of the calendar and that of +natural phenomena: at the end of a hundred and twenty years, the legal +year had gained a whole month on the actual year, and the 1st of Thot +anticipated the heliacal rising of Sothis by thirty days, instead of +coinciding with it as it ought. The astronomers of the Graeco-Roman +period, after a retrospective examination of all the past history of +their country, discovered a very ingenious theory for obviating this +unfortunate discrepancy. If the omission of six hours annually entailed +the loss of one day every four years, the time would come, after three +hundred and sixty-five times four years, when the deficit would amount +to an entire year, and when, in consequence, fourteen hundred and +sixty whole years would exactly equal fourteen hundred and sixty-one +incomplete years. The agreement of the two years, which had been +disturbed by the force of circumstances, was re-established of itself +after rather more than fourteen and a half centuries: the opening of the +civil year became identical with the beginning of the astronomical +year, and this again coincided with the heliacal rising of Sirius, and +therefore with the official date of the inundation. To the Egyptians of +Pharaonic times, this simple and eminently practical method was unknown: +by means of it hundreds of generations, who suffered endless troubles +from the recurring difference between an uncertain and a fixed year, +might have consoled themselves with the satisfaction of knowing that +a day would come when one of their descendants would, for once in +his life, see both years coincide with mathematical accuracy, and +the seasons appear at their normal times. The Egyptian year might be +compared to a watch which loses a definite number of minutes daily. The +owner does not take the trouble to calculate a cycle in which the total +of minutes lost will bring the watch round to the correct time: he bears +with the irregularity as long as his affairs do not suffer by it; but +when it causes him inconvenience, he alters the hands to the right hour, +and repeats this operation each time he finds it necessary, without +being guided by a fixed rule. In like manner the Egyptian year fell +into hopeless confusion with regard to the seasons, the discrepancy +continually increasing, until the difference became so great, that the +king or the priests had to adjust the two by a process similar to that +employed in the case of the watch. + +The days, moreover, had each their special virtues, which it was +necessary for man to know if he wished to profit by the advantages, or +to escape the perils which they possessed for him. There was not one +among them that did not recall some incident of the divine wars, and had +not witnessed a battle between the partisans of Sit and those of Osiris +or Ra; the victories or the disasters which they had chronicled had as +it were stamped them with good or bad luck, and for that reason they +remained for ever auspicious or the reverse. It was on the 17th of Athyr +that Typhon had enticed his brother to come to him, and had murdered him +in the middle of a banquet. Every year, on this day, the tragedy that +had taken place in the earthly abode of the god seemed to be repeated +afresh in the heights of heaven. Just as at the moment of the death of +Osiris, the powers of good were at their weakest, and the sovereignty +of evil everywhere prevailed, so the whole of Nature, abandoned to the +powers of darkness, became inimical to man. Whatever he undertook on +that day issued in failure. If he went out to walk by the river-side, +a crocodile would attack him, as the crocodile sent by Sit had attacked +Osiris. If he set out on a journey, it was a last farewell which he bade +to his family and friends: death would meet him by the way. To escape +this fatality, he must shut himself up at home, and wait in inaction +until the hours of danger had passed and the sun of the ensuing day had +put the evil one to flight.[*] + + * On the 20th of Thot no work was to be done, no oxen + killed, no stranger received. On the 22nd no fish might be + eaten, no oil lamp was to be lighted. On the 23rd "put no + incense on the fire, nor kill big cattle, nor goats, nor + ducks; eat of no goose, nor of that which has lived." On the + 26th "do absolutely nothing on this day," and the same + advice is found on the 7th of Paophi, on the 18th, on the + 26th, on the 27th, and more than thirty times in the + remainder of the Sallier Calendar. On the 30th of Mechir it + is forbidden to speak aloud to any one. + +It was to his interest to know these adverse influences; and who would +have known them all, had not Thot pointed them out and marked them in +his calendars? One of these, long fragments of which have come down to +us, indicated briefly the character of each day, the gods who presided +over it, the perils which accompanied their patronage, or the good +fortune which might be expected of them. The details of it are not +always intelligible to us, as we are still ignorant of many of the +episodes in the life of Osiris. The Egyptians were acquainted with the +matter from childhood, and were guided with sufficient exactitude by +these indications. The hours of the night were all inauspicious; those +of the day were divided into three "seasons" of four hours each, of +which some were lucky, while others were invariably of ill omen. "The +4th of Tybi: _good, good, good_. Whatsoever thou seest on this day will +be fortunate. Whosoever is born on this day, will die more advanced in +years than any of his family; he will attain to a greater age than his +father. The 5th of Tybi: _inimical, inimical, inimical_. This is the day +on which the goddess Sokhifc, mistress of the double white Palace, burnt +the chiefs when they raised an insurrection, came forth, and manifested +themselves. Offerings of bread to Shu, Phtah, Thot: burn incense to Ra, +and to the gods who are his followers, to Phtah, Thot, Hu-Su, on this +day. Whatsoever thou seest on this day will be fortunate. The 6th of +Tybi: _good, good, good_. Whatsoever thou seest on this day will be +fortunate. The 7th of Tybi: _inimical, inimical, inimical_. Do not +join thyself to a woman in the presence of the Eye of Horus. Beware of +letting the fire go out which is in thy house. The 8th of Tybi: _good, +good, good_. Whatsoever thou seest with thine eye this day, the Ennead +of the gods will grant to thee: the sick will recover. The 9th of Tybi: +_good, good, good_. The gods cry out for joy at noon this day. Bring +offerings of festal cakes and of fresh bread, which rejoice the heart +of the gods and of the manes. The 10th of Tybi: _inimical, inimical, +mimical_. Do not set fire to weeds on this day: it is the day on +which the god Sap-hou set fire to the land of Btito. The 11th of Tybi: +_inimical, inimical, inimical_. Do not draw nigh to any flame on this +day, for Ra entered the flames to strike all his enemies, and whosoever +draws nigh to them on this day, it shall not be well with him during his +whole life. The 12th of Tybi: _inimical, inimical, inimical_. See that +thou beholdest not a rat on this day, nor approachest any rat within thy +house: it is the day wherein Sokhit gave forth the decrees." In these +cases a little watchfulness or exercise of memory sufficed to put a +man on his guard against evil omens; but in many circumstances all the +vigilance in the world would not protect him, and the fatality of the +day would overtake him, without his being able to do ought to avert it. +No man can at will place the day of his birth at a favourable time; he +must accept it as it occurs, and yet it exercises a decisive influence +on the manner of his death. According as he enters the world on the 4th, +5th, or 6th of Paophi, he either dies of marsh fever, of love, or of +drunkenness. The child of the 23rd perishes by the jaws of a crocodile: +that of the 27th is bitten and dies by a serpent. On the other hand, the +fortunate man whose birthday falls on the 9th or the 29th lives to an +extreme old age, and passes away peacefully, respected by all. + +[Illustration: 304.jpg THE GODS FIGHTING FOE THE MAGICIAN WHO HAS +INVOKED THEM. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the tracing by Golbnischeff, + _Die Metternich-Stele_, pi, iii. 14. + + +Thot, having pointed out the evil to men, gave to them at the same time +the remedy. The magical arts of which he was the repository, made him +virtual master of the other gods. He knew their mystic names, their +secret weaknesses, the kind of peril they most feared, the ceremonies +which subdued them to his will, the prayers which they could not refuse +to grant under pain of misfortune or death. His wisdom, transmitted to +his worshippers, assured to them the same authority which he exercised +upon those in heaven, on earth, or in the nether world. The magicians +instructed in his school had, like the god, control of the words and +sounds which, emitted at the favourable moment with the "correct voice," +would evoke the most formidable deities from beyond the confines of the +universe: they could bind and loose at will Osiris, Sit, Anubis, even +Thot himself; they could send them forth, and recall them, or constrain +them to work and fight for them. The extent of their power exposed the +magicians to terrible temptations; they were often led to use it to the +detriment of others, to satisfy their spite, or to gratify their grosser +appetites. Many, moreover, made a gain of their knowledge, putting it at +the service of the ignorant who would pay for it. When they were asked +to plague or get rid of an enemy, they had a hundred different ways of +suddenly surrounding him without his suspecting it: they tormented him +with deceptive or terrifying dreams; they harassed him with apparitions +and mysterious voices; they gave him as a prey to sicknesses, to +wandering spectres, who entered into him and slowly consumed him. They +constrained, even at a distance, the wills of men; they caused women to +be the victims of infatuations, to forsake those they had loved, and +to love those they had previously detested. In order to compose an +irresistible charm, they merely required a little blood from a person, a +few nail-parings, some hair, or a scrap of linen which he had worn, +and which, from contact with his skin, had become impregnated with his +personality. Portions of these were incorporated with the wax of a doll +which they modelled, and clothed to resemble their victim; thenceforward +all the inflictions to which the image was subjected were experienced by +the original; he was consumed with fever when his effigy was exposed +to the fire, he was wounded when the figure was pierced by a knife. The +Pharaohs themselves had no immunity from these spells.[*] + + * Spells were employed against Ramses III., and the evidence + in the criminal charge brought against the magicians + explicitly mentions the wax figures and the philters used on + this occasion. + +These machinations were wont to be met by others of the same kind, and +magic, if invoked at the right moment, was often able to annul the ills +which magic had begun. It was not indeed all-powerful against fate: the +man born on the 27th of Paophi would die of a snake-bite, whatever +charm he might use to protect himself. But if the day of his death +were foreordained, at all events the year in which it would occur was +uncertain, and it was easy for the magician to arrange that it should +not take place prematurely. A formula recited opportunely, a sentence +of prayer traced on a papyrus, a little statuette worn about the person, +the smallest amulet blessed and consecrated, put to flight the serpents +who were the instruments of fate. Those curious stelae on which we see +Horus half naked, standing on two crocodiles and brandishing in his +fists creatures which had reputed powers of fascination, were so many +protecting talismans; set up at the entrance to a room or a house, they +kept off the animals represented and brought the evil fate to nought. + +[Illustration: 306.jpg THE CHILD HORUS ON THE CROCODILES. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Alexandrian stele in the + Gizeh Museum. The reason for the appearance of so many + different animals in this stele and in others of the + same nature, has been given by Maspero, _Etudes de + Mythologie et d'Archeologie Egyptiennes_, vol. ii. pp. 417- + 419; they were all supposed to possess the evil eye and to + be able to fascinate their victim before striking him. + +Sooner or later destiny would doubtless prevail, and the moment would +come when the fated serpent, eluding all precautions, would succeed in +carrying out the sentence of death. At all events the man would have +lived, perhaps to the verge of old age, perhaps to the years of a +hundred and ten, to which the wisest of the Egyptians hoped to attain, +and which period no man born of mortal mother might exceed. If the +arts of magic could thus suspend the law of destiny, how much more +efficacious were they when combating the influences of secondary +deities, the evil eye, and the spells of man? Thot, who was the patron +of sortilege, presided also over exorcisms, and the criminal acts which +some committed in his name could have reparation made for them by others +in his name. To malicious genii, genii still stronger were opposed; to +harmful amulets, those which were protective; to destructive measures, +vitalizing remedies; and this was not even the most troublesome part +of the magicians' task. Nobody, in fact, among those delivered by +their intervention escaped unhurt from the trials to which, he had +been subjected. The possessing spirits when they quitted their victim +generally left behind them traces of their occupation, in the brain, +heart, lungs, intestines--in fact, in the whole body. The illnesses +to which the human race is prone, were not indeed all brought about by +enchanters relentlessly persecuting their enemies, but they were all +attributed to the presence of an invisible being, whether spectre +or demon, who by some supernatural means had been made to enter the +patient, or who, unbidden, had by malice or necessity taken up his +abode within him. It was needful, after expelling the intruder, to +re-establish the health of the sufferer by means of fresh remedies. The +study of simples and other _materiae medicae_ would furnish these; Thot +had revealed himself to man as the first magician, he became in like +manner for them the first physician and the first surgeon. + +Egypt is naturally a very salubrious country, and the Egyptians boasted +that they were "the healthiest of all mortals;" but they did not neglect +any precautions to maintain their health. "Every month, for three +successive days, they purged the system by means of emetics or clysters. +The study of medicine with them was divided between specialists; each +physician attending to one kind of illness only. Every place possessed +several doctors; some for diseases of the eyes, others for the head, +or the teeth, or the stomach, or for internal diseases." But the +subdivision was not carried to the extent that Herodotus would make +us believe. It was the custom to make a distinction only between the +physician trained in the priestly schools, and further instructed by +daily practice and the study of books,--the bone-setter attached to +the worship of Sokhit who treated fractures by the intercession of the +goddess,--and the exorcist who professed to cure by the sole virtue of +amulets and magic phrases. The professional doctor treated all kinds +of maladies, but, as with us, there were specialists for certain +affections, who were consulted in preference to general practitioners. +If the number of these specialists was so considerable as to attract +the attention of strangers, it was because the climatic character of +the country necessitated it. Where ophthalmia and affections of the +intestines raged violently, we necessarily find many oculists[*] as well +as doctors for internal maladies. The best instructed, however, knew but +little of anatomy. As with the Christian physicians of the Middle +Ages, religious scruples prevented the Egyptians from cutting open +or dissecting, in the cause of pure science, the dead body which was +identified with that of Osiris. The processes of embalming, which would +have instructed them in anatomy, were not intrusted to doctors; the +horror was so great with which any one was regarded who mutilated the +human form, that the "paraschite," on whom devolved the duty of making +the necessary incisions in the dead, became the object of universal +execration: as soon as he had finished his task, the assistants +assaulted him, throwing stones at him with such violence that he had to +take to his heels to escape with his life.[**] + + * Affections of the eyes occupy one-fourth of the _Ebers + Papyrus_. + + ** Diodorus Siculus, i. 91. + +The knowledge of what went on within the body was therefore but vague. +Life seemed to be a little air, a breath which was conveyed by the veins +from member to member. "The head contains twenty-two vessels, which draw +the spirits into it and send them thence to all parts of the body. There +are two vessels for the breasts, which communicate heat to the lower +parts. There are two vessels for the thighs, two for the neck, two for +the arms, two for the back of the head, two for the forehead, two for +the eyes, two for the eyelids, two for the right ear by which enter the +breaths of life, and two for the left ear which in like manner admit the +breaths of death." + +[Illustration: 310.jpg A DEAD MAN RECEIVING THE BREATH OF LIFE. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Naville, in the + _AEgyptische Todtenbuch_, vol. i. pl. lxix. The deceased + carries in this hand a sail inflated by the wind, + symbolizing the air, and holds it to his nostrils that he + may inhale the breaths which will fill anew his arteries, + and bring life to his limbs. + +The "breaths" entering by the right ear, are "the good airs, the +delicious airs of the north;" the sea-breeze which tempers the burning +of summer and renews the strength of man, continually weakened by the +heat and threatened with exhaustion. These vital spirits, entering the +veins and arteries by the ear or nose, mingled with the blood, which +carried them to all parts of the body; they sustained the animal, and +were, so to speak, the cause of its movement. The heart, the perpetual +mover--_haiti_--collected them and redistributed them throughout +the body: it was regarded as "the beginning of all the members," and +whatever part of the living body the physician touched, "whether the +head, the nape of the neck, the hands, the breast, the arms, the legs, +his hand lit upon the heart," and he felt it beating under his fingers. +Under the influence of the good breaths, the vessels were inflated and +worked regularly; under that of the evil, they became inflamed, were +obstructed, were hardened, or gave way, and the physician had to remove +the obstruction, allay the inflammation, and re-establish their vigour +and elasticity. At the moment of death, the vital spirits "withdrew with +the soul; the blood," deprived of air, "became coagulated, the veins +and arteries emptied themselves, and the creature perished" for want of +breaths. + +The majority of the diseases from which the ancient Egyptians suffered, +are those which still attack their successors; ophthalmia, affections +of the stomach, abdomen, and bladder, intestinal worms, varicose veins, +ulcers in the leg, the Nile pimple, and finally the "divine mortal +malady," the _divinus morbus_ of the Latins, epilepsy. Anaemia, from +which at least one-fourth of the present population suffers, was not +less prevalent than at present, if we may judge from the number of +remedies which were used against hematuria, the principal cause of it. +The fertility of the women entailed a number of infirmities or local +affections which the doctors attempted to relieve, not always with +success.[*] + + * With regard to the diseases of women, cf. _Ebers Papyrus_, + pis. xciii., xcviii., etc. Several of the recipes are + devoted to the solution of a problem which appears to have + greatly exercised the mind of the ancients, viz. the + determination of the sex of a child before its birth. + +The science of those days treated externals only, and occupied itself +merely with symptoms easily determined by sight or touch; it never +suspected that troubles which showed themselves in two widely remote +parts of the body might only be different effects of the same illness, +and they classed as distinct maladies those indications which we now +know to be the symptoms of one disease. They were able, however, +to determine fairly well the specific characteristics of ordinary +affections, and sometimes described them in a precise and graphic +fashion. "The abdomen is heavy, the pit of the stomach painful, the +heart burns and palpitates violently. The clothing oppresses the sick +man and he can barely support it. Nocturnal thirsts. His heart is sick, +as that of a man who has eaten of the sycamore gum. The flesh loses +its sensitiveness as that of a man seized with illness. If he seek to +satisfy a want of nature he finds no relief. Say to this, 'There is an +accumulation of humours in the abdomen, which makes the heart sick. I +will act.'" This is the beginning of gastric fever so common in Egypt, +and a modern physician could not better diagnose such a case; the +phraseology would be less flowery, but the analysis of the symptoms +would not differ from that given us by the ancient practitioner. The +medicaments recommended comprise nearly everything which can in some way +or other be swallowed, whether in solid, mucilaginous, or liquid form. +Vegetable remedies are reckoned by the score, from the most modest herb +to the largest tree, such as the sycamore, palm, acacia, and cedar, of +which the sawdust and shavings were supposed to possess both antiseptic +and emollient properties. Among the mineral substances are to be noted +sea-salt, alum, nitre, sulphate of copper, and a score of different +kinds of stones--among the latter the "memphite stone" was distinguished +for its virtues; if applied to parts of the body which were lacerated +or unhealthy, it acted as an anaesthetic and facilitated the success of +surgical operations. Flesh taken from the living subject, the heart, the +liver, the gall, the blood--either dried or liquid--of animals, the hair +and horn of stags, were all customarily used in many cases where the +motive determining their preference above other _materiae medicae_ is +unknown to us. Many recipes puzzle us by their originality and by the +barbaric character of the ingredients recommended: "the milk of a woman +who has given birth to a boy," the dung of a lion, a tortoise's brains, +an old book boiled in oil.[*] + + * Ebers Papyrus, pl. lxxviii. 1. 22--lxxix. 1. 1: "To + relieve a child who is constipated.--An old book. Boil it in + oil, and apply half to the stomach, to provoke evacuation." + It must not be forgotten that, the writings being on + papyrus, the old book in question, once boiled, would have + an effect analogous to that of our linseed-meal poultices. + If the physician recommended taking an old one, it was for + economical reasons merely; the Egyptians of the middle + classes would always have in their possession a number of + letters, copy-books, and other worthless waste papers, of + which they would gladly rid themselves in such a profitable + manner. + +The medicaments compounded of these incongruous substances were often +very complicated. It was thought that the healing power was increased by +multiplying the curative elements; each ingredient acted upon a specific +region of the body, and after absorption, separated itself from the rest +to bring its influence to bear upon that region. The physician made use +of all the means which we employ to-day to introduce remedies into +the human system, whether pills or potions, poultices, or ointments, +draughts or clysters. Not only did he give the prescriptions, but he +made them up, thus combining the art of the physician with that of the +dispenser. He prescribed the ingredients, pounded them either separately +or together, he macerated them in the proper way, boiled them, reduced +them by heating, and filtered them through linen. Fat served him as the +ordinary vehicle for ointments, and pure water for potions; but he +did not despise other liquids, such as wine, beer (fermented or +un-fermented), vinegar, milk, olive oil, "ben" oil either crude or +refined, even the urine of men and animals: the whole, sweetened with +honey, was taken hot, night and morning. The use of more than one of +these remedies became worldwide; the Greeks borrowed them from the +Egyptians; we have piously accepted them from the Greeks; and our +contemporaries still swallow with resignation many of the abominable +mixtures invented on the banks of the Nile, long before the building of +the Pyramids. + +It was Thot who had taught men arithmetic; Thot had revealed to them the +mysteries of geometry and mensuration; Thot had constructed instruments +and promulgated the laws of music; Thot had instituted the art of +drawing, and had codified its unchanging rules. He had been the inventor +or patron of all that was useful or beautiful in the Nile valley, +and the climax of his beneficence was reached by his invention of the +principles of writing, without which humanity would have been liable to +forget his teaching, and to lose the advantage of his discoveries. It +has been sometimes questioned whether writing, instead of having been +a benefit to the Egyptians, did not rather injure them. An old legend +relates that when the god unfolded his discovery to King Thamos, whose +minister he was, the monarch immediately raised an objection to it. + +[Illustration: 315.jpg TH0T RECORDS THE YEARS OF THE LIFE OF RAMSES. 1] + + 1 Bas-relief of the temple of Seti I. at Abydos, drawn by + Boudier; from a photograph by Beato. The god is marking with + his reed-pen upon the notches of a long frond of palm, the + duration in millions of years of the reign of Pharaoh upon + this earth, in accordance with the decree of the gods. + +Children and young people, who had hitherto been forced to apply +themselves diligently to learn and retain whatever was taught them, now +that they possessed a means of storing up knowledge without trouble, +would cease to apply themselves, and would neglect to exercise their +memories. Whether Thamos was right or not, the criticism came too late: +"the ingenious art of painting words and of speaking to the eyes" had +once for all been acquired by the Egyptians, and through them by the +greater part of mankind. It was a very complex system, in which were +united most of the methods fitted for giving expression to thought, +namely: those which were limited to the presentment of the idea, and +those which were intended to suggest sounds. + +[Illustration: 316.jpg PAGE IMAGE] + +At the outset the use was confined to signs intended to awaken the idea +of the object in the mind of the reader by the more or less faithful +picture of the object itself; for example, they depicted the sun by a +centred disc, the moon by a crescent, a lion by a lion in the act of +walking, a man by a small figure in a squatting attitude. As by this +method it was possible to convey only a very restricted number of +entirely materialistic concepts, it became necessary to have recourse +to various artifices in order to make up for the shortcomings of the +ideograms properly so-called. The part was put for the whole, the pupil +in place of the whole eye, the head of the ox instead of the complete +ox. The Egyptians substituted cause for effect and effect for cause, the +instrument for the work accomplished, and the disc of the sun signified +the day; a smoking brazier the fire: the brush, inkpot, and palette of +the scribe denoted writing or written documents. They conceived the +idea of employing some object which presented an actual or supposed +resemblance to the notion to be conveyed; thus, the foreparts of a lion +denoted priority, supremacy, command; the wasp symbolized royalty, and +a tadpole stood for hundreds of thousands. They ventured finally to use +conventionalisms, as for instance when they drew the axe for a god, +or the ostrich-feather for justice; the sign in these cases had only a +conventional connection with the concept assigned to it. At times two or +three of these symbols were associated in order to express conjointly an +idea which would have been inadequately rendered by one of them alone: +a five-pointed star placed under an inverted crescent moon denoted a +month, a calf running before the sign for water indicated thirst. + +[Illustration: 317.jpg PAGE IMAGE] + +All these artifices combined furnished, however, but a very incomplete +means of seizing and transmitting thought. When the writer had written +out twenty or thirty of these signs and the ideas which they were +supposed to embody, he had before him only the skeleton of a sentence, +from which the flesh and sinews had disappeared; the tone and rhythm of +the words were wanting, as were also the indications of gender, number, +person, and inflection, which distinguish the different parts of speech +and determine the varying relations between them. Besides this, in order +to understand for himself and to guess the meaning of the author, the +reader was obliged to translate the symbols which he deciphered, +by means of words which represented in the spoken language the +pronunciation of each symbol. Whenever he looked at them, they suggested +to him both the idea and the word for the idea, and consequently a sound +or group of sounds; when each of them had thus acquired three or four +invariable associations of sound, he forgot their purely ideographic +value and accustomed himself to consider them merely as notations of +sound. + +The first experiment in phonetics was a species of rebus, where each of +the signs, divorced from its original sense, served to represent +several words, similar in sound, but differing in meaning in the spoken +language. The same group of articulations, _Naufir, Nofir_, conveyed in +Egyptian the concrete idea of a lute and the abstract idea of beauty; +the sign expressed at once the lute and beauty. + +[Illustration: 318.jpg PAGE IMAGE] + +The beetle was called Khopirru, and the verb "to be" was pronounced +_khopiru_: the figure of the beetle & consequently signified both the +insect and the verb, and by further combining with it other signs, the +articulation of each corresponding syllable was given in detail. The +sieve _Miau_, the mat _pu, pi_, the mouth _ra, ru_, gave the formula +_khau-pi-ru_, which was equivalent to the sound of _khopiru_, the verb +"to be:" grouped together, they denoted in writing the concept of "to +be" by means of a triple rebus. In this system, each syllable of a +word could be represented by one of several signs, all sounding alike. +One-half of these "syllables" stood for open, the other half for closed +syllables, and the use of the former soon brought about the formation of +a true alphabet. The final vowel in them became detached, and left only +the remaining consonant--for example, _r in ru, h in ha, n in ni, b in +bu_--so that ru, ha, bu, eventually stood for r, h, n, and b only. This +process in the course of time having been applied to a certain number of +syllables, furnished a fairly large alphabet, in which several letters +represented each of the twenty-two chief articulations, which +the scribes considered sufficient for their purposes. The signs +corresponding to one and the same letter were homophones or "equivalents +in sound"--[ ] are homophones, just as [ ] and [ ], because each of +them, in the group to which it belongs, may be indifferently used to +translate to the eye the articulations m or n. One would have thought +that when the Egyptians had arrived thus far, they would have been led, +as a matter of course, to reject the various characters which they had +used each in its turn, in order to retain an alphabet only. + +[Illustration: 319.jpg PAGE IMAGE] + +But the true spirit of invention, of which they had given proof, +abandoned them here as elsewhere: if the merit of a discovery was often +their due, they were rarely able to bring their invention to perfection. +They kept the ideographic and syllabic signs which they had used at the +outset, and, with the residue of their successive notations, made for +themselves a most complicated system, in which syllables and ideograms +were mingled with letters properly so called. There is a little of +everything in an Egyptian phrase, sometimes even in a word; as, for +instance, in [ ] masziru, the ear, or [ ] kherou, the voice; there are +the syllables [ ] kher, the ordinary letters [ ], which complete the +phonetic pronunciation, and finally the ideograms, namely, [ ], which +gives the picture of the ear by the side of the written word for it, and +[ ] which proves that the letters represent a term designating an action +of the mouth. This medley had its advantages; it enabled the Egyptians +to make clear, by the picture of the object, the sense of words which +letters alone might sometimes insufficiently explain. The system +demanded a serious effort of memory and long years of study; indeed, +many people never completely mastered it. The picturesque appearance +of the sentences, in which we see representations of men, animals, +furniture, weapons, and tools grouped together in successive little +pictures, rendered hieroglyphic writing specially suitable for the +decoration of the temples of the gods or the palaces of kings. Mingled +with scenes of worship, sacrifice, battle, or private life, the +inscriptions frame or separate groups of personages, and occupy the +vacant spaces which the sculptor or painter was at a loss to fill; +hieroglyphic writing is pre-eminently a monumental script. For the +ordinary purposes of life it was traced in black or red ink on fragments +of limestone or pottery, or on wooden tablets covered with stucco, and +specially on the fibres of papyrus. The exigencies of haste and the +unskilfulness of scribes soon changed both its appearance and its +elements; the characters when contracted, superimposed and united to +one another with connecting strokes, preserved only the most distant +resemblance to the persons or things which they had originally +represented. This cursive writing, which was somewhat incorrectly +termed hieratic, was used only for public or private documents, for +administrative correspondence, or for the propagation of literary, +scientific, and religious works. + +It was thus that tradition was pleased to ascribe to the gods, and +among them to Thot--the doubly great--the invention of all the arts and +sciences which gave to Egypt its glory and prosperity. It was clear, +not only to the vulgar, but to the wisest of the nation, that, had their +ancestors been left merely to their own resources, they would never have +succeeded in raising themselves much above the level of the brutes. The +idea that a discovery of importance to the country could have risen in a +human brain, and, once made known, could have been spread and developed +by the efforts of successive generations, appeared to them impossible +to accept. They believed that every art, every trade, had remained +unaltered from the outset, and if some novelty in its aspect tended to +show them their error, they preferred to imagine a divine intervention, +rather than be undeceived. The mystic writing, inserted as chapter +sixty-four in the _Book of the Dead_, and which subsequently was +supposed to be of decisive moment to the future life of man, was, as +they knew, posterior in date to the other formulas of which this book +was composed; they did not, however, regard it any the less as being of +divine origin. It had been found one day, without any one knowing whence +it came, traced in blue characters on a plaque of alabaster, at the +foot of the statue of Thot, in the sanctuary of Hermopolis. A prince, +Hardiduf, had discovered it in his travels, and regarding it as a +miraculous object, had brought it to his sovereign. This king, according +to some, was Husaphaiti of the first dynasty, but by others was believed +to be the pious Mykerinos. In the same way, the book on medicine, +dealing with the diseases of women, was held not to be the work of +a practitioner; it had revealed itself to a priest watching at night +before the Holy of Holies in the temple of Isis at Coptos. "Although the +earth was plunged into darkness, the moon shone upon it and enveloped +it with light. It was sent as a great wonder to the holiness of King +Kheops, the just of speech." The gods had thus exercised a direct +influence upon men until they became entirely civilized, and this work +of culture was apportioned among the three divine dynasties according +to the strength of each. The first, which comprised the most vigorous +divinities, had accomplished the more difficult task of establishing the +world on a solid basis; the second had carried on the education of +the Egyptians; and the third had regulated, in all its minutiae, the +religious constitution of the country. When there was nothing more +demanding supernatural strength or intelligence to establish it, the +gods returned to heaven, and were succeeded on the throne by mortal men. +One tradition maintained dogmatically that the first human king whose +memory it preserved, followed immediately after the last of the gods, +who, in quitting the palace, had made over the crown to man as his heir, +and that the change of nature had not entailed any interruption in the +line of sovereigns. Another tradition would not allow that the contact +between the human and divine series had been so close. Between the +Ennead and Menes, it intercalated one or more lines of Theban or Thinite +kings; but these were of so formless, shadowy, and undefined an aspect, +that they were called Manes, and there was attributed to them at most +only a passive existence, as of persons who had always been in the +condition of the dead, and had never been subjected to the trouble of +passing through life. Menes was the first in order of those who were +actually living. From his time, the Egyptians claimed to possess an +uninterrupted list of the Pharaohs who had ruled over the Nile valley. +As far back as the XVIIIth dynasty this list was written upon papyrus, +and furnished the number of years that each prince occupied the throne, +or the length of his life.[*] + + * The only one of these lists which we possess, the "Turin + Royal Papyrus," was bought, nearly intact, at Thebes, by + Drovetti, about 1818, but was accidentally injured by him in + bringing home. The fragments of it were acquired, together + with the rest of the collection, by the Piedmontese + Government in 1820, and placed in the Turin Museum, where + Champollion saw and drew attention to them in 1824. + Seyffarth carefully collected and arranged them in the order + in which they now are; subsequently Lepsius gave a facsimile + of them in 1840, in his _Auswahl der wichtigsten Urhunden_, + pls. i.-vi., but this did not include the verso; + Champollion-Figeac edited in 1847, in the _Revue + Archeologique_, 1st series, vol. vi., the tracings taken by + the younger Champollion before Seyffarth's arrangement; + lastly, Wilkinson published the whole in detail in 1851. + Since then, the document has been the subject of continuous + investigation: E. de Rouge has reconstructed, in an almost + conclusive manner, the pages containing the first six + dynasties, and Lauth, with less certainty, those which deal + with the eight following dynasties. + +Extracts from it were inscribed in the temples, or even in the tombs +of private persons; and three of these abridged catalogues are still +extant, two coming from the temples of Seti I. and Ramses II. at +Abydos,[*] while the other was discovered in the tomb of a person +of rank named Tunari, at Saqqara.[**] They divided this interminable +succession of often problematical personages into dynasties, following +in this division, rules of which we are ignorant, and which varied in +the course of ages. In the time of the Ramessides, names in the list +which subsequently under the Lagides formed five groups were made to +constitute one single dynasty.[***] + + * The first table of Abydos, unfortunately incomplete, was + discovered in the temple of Ramses II. by Banks, in 1818; + the copy published by Caillaud and by Salt served as a + foundation for Champollion's first investigations on the + history of Egypt. The original, brought to France by Mimaut, + was acquired by England, and is now in the British Museum. + The second table, which is complete, all but a few signs, + was brought to light by Mariette in 1864, in the excavations + at Abydos, and was immediately noticed and published by + Dumichen. The text of it is to be found in Mariette, _La + Nouvelle Table d'Abydos (Revue Archeologique_, 2nd series, + vol. xiii.), and _Abydos_, vol. i. pl. 43. + + ** The table of Saqqara, discovered in 1863, has been + published by Mariette, _La Table de Saqqara (Revue + Archeologique_, 2nd series, vol. x. p. 169, et seq.), and + reproduced in the _Monuments Divers_, pl. 58. + + *** The Royal Canon of Turin, which dates from the + Ramesside period, gives, indeed, the names of these early + kings without a break, until the list reaches Unas; at this + point it sums up the number of Pharaohs and the aggregate + years of their reigns, thus indicating the end of a dynasty. + In the intervals between the dynasties rubrics are placed, + pointing out the changes which took place in the order of + direct succession. The division of the same group of + sovereigns into five dynasties has been preserved to us by + Manetho. + +Manetho of Sebennytos, who wrote a history of Europe for the use of +Alexandrine Greeks, had adopted, on some unknown authority, a division +of thirty-one dynasties from Menes to the Macedonian Conquest, and his +system has prevailed--not, indeed, on account of its excellence, but +because it is the only complete one which has come down to us.[*] All +the families inscribed in his lists ruled in succession.[**] + + * The best restoration of the system of Manetho is that by + Lepsius, _Das Konigsbuch der Alten AEgypter_, which should be + completed and corrected from the memoirs of Lauth, Lieblein, + Krall, and Unger. A common fault attaches to all these + memoirs, so remarkable in many respects. They regard the + work of Manetho, not as representing a more or less + ingenious system applied to Egyptian history, but as + furnishing an authentic scheme of this history, in which it + is necessary to enclose all the royal names which the + monuments have revealed, and are still daily revealing to + us. + + ** E. de Rouge triumphantly demonstrated, in opposition to + Bunsen, now nearly fifty years ago, that all Manetho's + dynasties are successive, and the monuments discovered from + year to year in Egypt have confirmed his demonstration in + every detail. + +The country was no doubt frequently broken up into a dozen or more +independent states, each possessing its own kings during several +generations; but the annalists had from the outset discarded these +collateral lines, and recognized only one legitimate dynasty, of which +the rest were but vassals. Their theory of legitimacy does not always +agree with actual history, and the particular line of princes which they +rejected as usurpers represented at times the only family possessing +true rights to the crown.[*] + + * It is enough to give two striking examples of this. The + royal lists of the time of the Ramessides suppress, at the + end of the XVIIIth dynasty, Amenothes IV. and several of his + successors, and give the following sequence--Amenothes + III., Harmhabit, Ramses I., without any apparent hiatus; + Manetho, on the contrary, replaces the kings who were + omitted, and keeps approximately to the real order between + Horos (Amenothes III.) and Armais (Harmhabit). Again, the + official tradition of the XXth dynasty gives, between Ramses + II. and Ramses III., the sequence--Minephtah, Seti IL, + Nakht-Seti; Manetho, on the other hand, gives Amenemes + followed by Thuoris, who appear to correspond to the + Amenmeses and Siphtah of contemporary monuments, but, after + Minephtah, he omits Seti II. and Nakhitou-Seti, the father + of Ramses III. + +In Egypt, as elsewhere, the official chroniclers were often obliged to +accommodate the past to the exigencies of the present, and to manipulate +the annals to suit the reigning party; while obeying their orders the +chroniclers deceived posterity, and it is only by a rare chance that +we can succeed in detecting them in the act of falsification, and can +re-establish the truth. + +[Illustration: 325.jpg TABLE OF THE KINGS] + +The system of Manetho, in the state in which it has been handed down +to us by epitomizers, has rendered, and continues to render, service to +science; if it is not the actual history of Egypt, it is a sufficiently +faithful substitute to warrant our not neglecting it when we wish to +understand and reconstruct the sequence of events. His dynasties furnish +the necessary framework for most of the events and revolutions, of which +the monuments have preserved us a record. At the outset, the centre to +which the affairs of the country gravitated was in the extreme north +of the valley. The principality which extended from the entrance of the +Fayum to the apex of the Delta, and subsequently the town of Memphis +itself, imposed their sovereigns upon the remaining nomes, served as an +emporium for commerce and national industries, and received homage and +tribute from neighbouring peoples. About the time of the VIth dynasty +this centre of gravity was displaced, and tended towards the interior; +it was arrested for a short time at Heracleo-polis (IXth and Xth +dynasties), and ended by fixing itself at Thebes (XIth dynasty). From +henceforth Thebes became the capital, and furnished Egypt with her +rulers. With the exception of the XIVth Xoite dynasty, all the families +occupying the throne from the XIth to the XXth dynasty were Theban. When +the barbarian shepherds invaded Africa from Asia, the Thebaid became the +last refuge and bulwark of Egyptian nationality; its chiefs struggled +for many centuries against the conquerors before they were able to +deliver the rest of the valley. It was a Theban dynasty, the XVIIIth, +which inaugurated the era of foreign conquest; but after the XIXth, a +movement, the reverse of that which had taken place towards the end of +the first period, brought back the centre of gravity, little by little, +towards the north of the country. From the time of the XXIst dynasty, +Thebes ceased to hold the position of capital: Tanis, Bubastis, Mendes, +Sebennytos, and above all, Sais, disputed the supremacy with each other, +and political life was concentrated in the maritime provinces. Those +of the interior, ruined by Ethiopian and Assyrian invasions, lost their +influence and gradually dwindled away. Thebes became impoverished and +depopulated; it fell into ruins, and soon was nothing more than a resort +for devotees or travellers. The history of Egypt is, therefore, divided +into three periods, each corresponding to the suzerainty of a town or a +principality:-- + +I.--Memphite Period, usually called the "Ancient Empire," from the Ist +to the Xth dynasty: kings of Memphite origin ruled over the whole of +Egypt during the greater part of this epoch. + +II.--Theban Period, from the XIth to the XXth dynasty. It is divided +into two parts by the invasion of the Shepherds (XVIth dynasty): + +a. The first Theban Empire (Middle Empire), from the XIth to the XIVth +dynasty. + +b. The new Theban Empire, from the XVIIth to the XXth dynasty. + +III.--Saite Period, from the XXIst to the XXXth dynasty, divided into +two unequal parts by the Persian Conquest: + +a. The first Saite period, from the XXIst to the XXVIth dynasty. + +b. The second Saite period, from the XXVIIIth to the XXXth dynasty. + +The Memphites had created the monarchy. The Thebans extended the rule of +Egypt far and wide, and made of her a conquering state: for nearly six +centuries she ruled over the Upper Nile and over Western Asia. Under +the Saites she retired gradually within her natural frontiers, and +from having been aggressive became assailed, and suffered herself to be +crushed in turn by all the nations she had once oppressed.[*] + + * The division into Ancient, Middle, and New Empire, + proposed by Lepsius, has the disadvantage of not taking into + account the influence which the removal of the seat of the + dynasties exercised on the history of the country. The + arrangement which I have here adopted was first put forward + in the _Revue critique_, 1873, vol. i. pp. 82, 83. + +The monuments have as yet yielded no account of the events which tended +to unite the country under the rule of one man; we can only surmise that +the feudal principalities had gradually been drawn together into two +groups, each of which formed a separate kingdom. Heliopolis became the +chief focus in the north, from which civilization radiated over the +rich plains and the marshes of the Delta. Its colleges of priests had +collected, condensed, and arranged the principal myths of the local +religions; the Ennead to which it gave conception would never have +obtained the popularity which we must acknowledge it had, if its princes +had not exercised, for at least some period, an actual suzerainty over +the neighbouring plains. It was around Heliopolis that the kingdom of +Lower Egypt was organized; everything there bore traces of Heliopolitan +theories--the protocol of the kings, their supposed descent from Ra, and +the enthusiastic worship which they offered to the sun. The Delta, owing +to its compact and restricted area, was aptly suited for government from +one centre; the Nile valley proper, narrow, tortuous, and stretching +like a thin strip on either bank of the river, did not lend itself to so +complete a unity. It, too, represented a single kingdom, having the reed +and the lotus for its emblems; but its component parts were more loosely +united, its religion was less systematized, and it lacked a well-placed +city to serve as a political and sacerdotal centre. Hermopolis contained +schools of theologians who certainly played an important part in the +development of myths and dogmas; but the influence of its rulers was +never widely felt. In the south, Siut disputed their supremacy, and +Heracleopolis stopped their road to the north. These three cities +thwarted and neutralized one another, and not one of them ever succeeded +in obtaining a lasting authority over Upper Egypt. Each of the two +kingdoms had its own natural advantages and its system of government, +which gave to it a particular character, and stamped it, as it were, +with a distinct personality down to its latest days. The kingdom +of Upper Egypt was more powerful, richer, better populated, and was +governed apparently by more active and enterprising rulers. It is to +one of the latter, Mini or Menes of Thinis, that tradition ascribes +the honour of having fused the two Egypts into a single empire, and of +having inaugurated the reign of the human dynasties. Thinis figured in +the historic period as one of the least of Egyptian cities. It barely +maintained an existence on the left bank of the Nile, if not on the +exact spot now occupied by Girgeh, at least only a short distance from +it.[*] + + * The site of Thinis is not yet satisfactorily identified. + It is neither at Kom-es-Sultan, as Mariette thought, nor, + according to the hypothesis of A. Schmidt, at El-Kherbeh. + Brugsch has proposed to fix the site at the village of + Tineh, near Berdis, and is followed in this by Dumichen. The + present tendency is to identify it either with Girgeh + itself, or with one of the small neighbouring towns--for + example, Birbeh--where there are some ancient ruins; this + was also the opinion of Champollion and of Nester L'hote. I + may mention that, in a frequently quoted passage of + Hellanicos, Zoega corrects the reading [Greek phrase], which + would once more give us the name of Thinis: the mention of + this town as being "situated on the river," would be a fresh + reason for its identification with Girgeh. + +[Illustration: 332.jpg PLAN OF THE RUINS OF ABYDOS, MADE BY MARIETTE IN +1865 AND 1875.] + +The principality of the Osirian Reliquary, of which it was the +metropolis, occupied the valley from one mountain range to the other, +and gradually extended across the desert as far as the Great Theban +Oasis. Its inhabitants worshipped a sky-god, Anhuri, or rather two twin +gods, Anhuri-Shu, who were speedily amalgamated with the solar deities +and became a warlike personification of Ra. Anhuri-Shu, like all the +other solar manifestations, came to be associated with a goddess having +the form or head of a lioness--a Sokhit, who took for the occasion the +epithet of Mihit, the northern one. Some of the dead from this city +are buried on the other side of the Nile, near the modern village of +Mesheikh, at the foot of the Arabian chain, whose steep cliffs here +approach somewhat near the river: the principal necropolis was at some +distance to the east, near the sacred town of Abydos. It would appear +that, at the outset, Abydos was the capital of the country, for the +entire nome bore the same name as the city, and had adopted for its +symbol the representation of the reliquary in which the god reposed. In +very early times Abydos fell into decay, and resigned its political rank +to Thinis, but its religious importance remained unimpaired. The city +occupied a long and narrow strip of land between the canal and the first +slopes of the Libyan mountains. A brick fortress defended it from the +incursions of the Bedouin, and beside it the temple of the god of the +dead reared its naked walls. Here, Anhuri, having passed from life to +death, was worshipped under the name of Khontamentit, the chief of +that western region whither souls repair on quitting this earth. It is +impossible to say by what blending of doctrines or by what political +combinations this Sun of the Night came to be identified with Osiris of +Mendes, since the fusion dates back to a very remote antiquity; it had +become an established fact long before the most ancient sacred books +were compiled. Osiris Khontamentit grew rapidly in popular favour, and +his temple attracted annually an increasing number of pilgrims. The +Great Oasis had been considered at first as a sort of mysterious +paradise, whither the dead went in search of peace and happiness. It was +called Uifc, the Sepulchre; this name clung to it after it had become +an actual Egyptian province, and the remembrance of its ancient purpose +survived in the minds of the people, so that the "cleft," or gorge +in the mountain through which the doubles journeyed towards it, never +ceased to be regarded as one of the gates of the other world. At the +time of the New Year festivals, spirits flocked thither from all parts +of the valley; they there awaited the coming of the dying sun, in order +to embark with him and enter safely the dominions of Khontamentit. +Abydos, even before the historic period, was the only town, and its god +the only god, whose worship, practised by all Egyptians, inspired them +all with an equal devotion. The excavations of the last few years have +brought to light some, at all events, of the oldest Pharaohs known to +the Egyptian annalists, namely, those whom they placed in their first +human dynasties; and the locality where the monuments of these +princes were discovered, shows us that these writers were correct in +representing Thinis as playing an important part in the history of the +early ages of their country. If the tomb of Menes--that sovereign +whom we are inclined to look upon as the first king of the official +lists--lies near the village of Nagadeh, not far from Thebes,[*] those +of his immediate successors are close to Thinis, in the cemeteries of +Abydos.[**] They stand at the very foot of the Libyan hills, near the +entrance to the ravine--the "Cleft"--through which the mysterious oasis +was reached, and thither the souls flocked in order that they might +enter by a safe way the land beyond the grave.[***] + + * The objects found during these excavations are now in the + Gizeh Museum. + + ** The credit of having discovered this important + necropolis, and of having brought to light the earliest + known monuments of the first dynasties, is entirely due to + Amelineau. He carried on important work there during four + years, from 1895 to 1899: unfortunately its success was + impaired by the theories which he elaborated with regard to + the new monuments, and by the delay in publishing an account + of the objects which remained in his possession. + + *** For the "Cleft," cf. supra, pp. 281, 282, 334. + +The mass of pottery, whole and broken, which has accumulated on this +site from the offerings of centuries has obtained for it among the +Fellahin the name of Omm-el-G-aab--"the mother of pots." The tombs there +lie in serried ranks. They present for the most part a rough model of +the pyramids of the Memphite period--rectangular structures of bricks +without mortar rising slightly above the level of the plain. The funeral +chamber occupies the centre of each, and is partly hollowed out of the +soil, like a shallow well, the sides being bricked. It had a flat timber +roof, covered by a layer of about three feet of sand; the floor also was +of wood, and in several cases the remains of the beams of both ceiling +and pavement have been brought to light. The body of the royal inmate +was laid in the middle of the chamber, surrounded by its funeral +furniture and by a part of the offerings. The remainder was placed in +the little rooms which opened out of the principal vault, sometimes +on the same level, sometimes on one higher than itself; after their +contents had been laid within them, the entrance to these rooms was +generally walled up. Human bodies have been found inside them, probably +those of slaves killed at the funeral that they might wait upon the dead +in his life beyond the grave.[*] The objects placed in these chambers +were mostly offerings, but besides these were coarse stelae bearing the +name of a person, and dictated to "the double of his luminary."[**] +Some of them mention a dwarf[***] or a favourite dog of the sovereign, +who accompanied his master into the tomb. Tablets of ivory or bone +skilfully incised furnish us with scenes representing some of the +ceremonies of the deification of the king in his lifetime and the +sacrifices offered at the time of his burial;[****] in rarer instances +they record his exploits. + + * El. Petrie, The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, part i. + p. 14. + + ** The "luminous double" or the "double of his luminary" is + doubtless that luminous spectre which haunted the tombs and + even the houses of the living during the night, and which I + have mentioned, supra, p. 160. + + *** Petrie found the skeletons of two dwarfs, probably the + very two to whom the two stelae (Nos. 36, 37) in the tomb of + Semempses were raised. Was one of these dwarfs one of the + _Danga_ of Puanit who were sought after by the Pharaohs of + the Memphite dynasties? + + **** This was the ceremony called by the Egyptians "The + Festival of the Foundation "--_habu sadu_. + +The offerings themselves were such as we meet with in burials of +a subsequent age--bread, cakes, meat, and poultry of various +sorts--indeed, everything we find mentioned in the lists inscribed in +the tombs of the later dynasties, particularly the jars of wine and +liquors, on the clay bungs of which are still legible the impression +of the signet bearing the name of the sovereign for whose use they were +sealed. Besides stuffs and mats, the furniture comprised chairs, beds, +stools, an enormous number of vases, some in coarse pottery for common +use, others in choice stone such as diorite, granite, or rock crystal +very finely worked, on the fragments of all of which may be read cut +in outline the names and preamble of the Pharaoh to whom the object +belonged. The ceremonial of the funerary offering and its significance +was already fully developed at this early period; this can be gathered +by the very nature of the objects buried with the deceased, by their +number, quantity, and by the manner in which they were arranged. Like +their successors in the Egypt of later times, these ancient kings +expected to continue their material existence within the tomb, and +they took precautions that life there should be as comfortable as +circumstances should permit. Access to the tomb was sometimes gained +by a sloping passage or staircase; this made it possible to see if +everything within was in a satisfactory condition. After the dead had +been enclosed in his chamber, and five or six feet of sand had been +spread over the beams which formed its roof, the position of the tomb +was shown merely by a scarcely perceptible rise in the soil of the +necropolis, and its site would soon have been forgotten, if its +easternmost limits had not been marked by two large stelae on which +were carefully engraved one of the appellations of the king--that of his +double, or his Horus name.[*] + + * For the Horus name of the Pharaohs, see vol. ii., pp. 23- + 25. + +It was on this spot, upon an altar placed between the two stelae, that +the commemorative ceremonies were celebrated, and the provisions renewed +on certain days fixed by the religious law. Groups of private tombs +were scattered around,--the resting-places of the chief officers of the +sovereign, the departed Pharaoh being thus surrounded in death by +the same courtiers as those who had attended him during his earthly +existence. + +The princes, whose names and titles have been revealed to us by the +inscriptions on these tombs, have not by any means been all classified +as yet, the prevailing custom at that period having been to designate +them by their Horus names, but rarely by their proper names, which +latter is the only one which figures in the official lists which we +possess of the Egyptian kings. A few texts, more explicit than the rest, +enable us to identify three of them with the Usaphais, the Miebis, and +the Semempses of Manetho--the fifth, sixth, and seventh kings of +the Ist dynasty.[*] The fact that they are buried in the necropolis of +Abydos apparently justifies the opinion of the Egyptian chroniclers that +they were natives of Thinis. Is the Menes who usually figures at their +head[**] also a Thinite prince? + + * The credit is due to Sethe of having attributed their + ordinary names to several of the kings of the Ist dynasty + with Horus names only which were found by Amelineau, and + these identifications have been accepted by all + Egyptologists. Petrie discovered quite recently on some + fragments of vases the Horus names of these same princes, + together with their ordinary names. The Usaphais, the + Miebis, and the Semempses of Manetho are now satisfactorily + identified with three of the Pharaohs discovered by + Amelineau and by Petrie. + + ** In the time of Seti I. and Ramses II. he heads the list + of the Table of Abydos. Under Ramses II. his statue was + carried in procession, preceding all the other royal + statues. Finally, the "Royal Papyrus" of Turin, + written in the time of Ramses I., begins the entire series + of the human Pharaohs with his name. + +Several scholars believe that his ordinary name, Mini, is to be read on +an ivory tablet engraved for a sovereign whose Horus name--Ahauiti, the +warlike--is known to us from several documents, and whose tomb also has +been discovered, but at Nagadeh. It is a great rectangular structure +of bricks 165 feet long and 84 broad, the external walls of which were +originally ornamented by deep polygonal grooves, resembling those which +score the facade of Chaldaean buildings, but the Nagadeh tomjb has a +second brick wall which fills up all the hollows left in the first one, +and thus hides the primitive decoration of the monument. The building +contains twenty-one chambers, five of which in the centre apparently +constituted the dwelling of the deceased, while the others, grouped +around these, serve as storehouses from whence he could draw his +provisions at will. Did the king buried within indeed bear the name +of Menes,[*] and if such was the case, how are we to reconcile the +tradition of his Thinite origin with the existence of his far-off tomb +in the neighbourhood of Thebes? + + * The sign _Manu_, which appears on the ivory tablet found + in this tomb, has been interpreted as a king's name, and + consequently inferred to be Menes. This reading has been + disputed on various sides, and the point remains, therefore, + a contested one until further discovery. + +Objects bearing his Horus name have been found at Omm-el-Gaab, and it is +evident that he belonged to the same age as the sovereigns interred in +this necropolis. If, indeed, Menes was really his personal name, there +is no reason against his being the Menes of tradition, he whom the +Pharaohs of the glorious Theban dynasties regarded as the earliest of +their purely human ancestors. Whether he was really the first king who +reigned over the whole of Egypt, or whether he had been preceded +by other sovereigns whose monuments we may find in some site still +unexplored, is a matter for conjecture. That princes had exercised +authority in various parts of the country is still uncertain, but that +the Egyptian historians did not know them, seems to prove that they had +left no written records of their names. At any rate, a Menes lived who +reigned at the outset of history, and doubtless before long the Nile +valley, when more carefully explored, will yield us monuments recording +his actions and determining his date. The civilization of the Egypt of +his time was ruder than that with which we have hitherto been familiar +on its soil, but even at that early period it was almost as complete. +It had its industries and its arts, of which the cemeteries furnish +us daily with the most varied examples: weaving, modelling in clay, +wood-carving, the incising of ivory, gold, and the hardest stone were +all carried on; the ground was cultivated with hoe and plough; tombs +were built showing us the model of what the houses and palaces must have +been; the country had its army, its administrators, its priests, its +nobles, its writing, and its system of epigraphy differs so little from +that to which we are accustomed in later ages, that we can decipher it +with no great difficulty. Frankly speaking, all that we know at present +of the first of the Pharaohs beyond the mere fact of his existence is +practically _nil_, and the stories related of him by the writers of +classical times are mere legends arranged to suit the fancy of the +compiler. "This Menes, according to the priests, surrounded Memphis with +dykes. For the river formerly followed the sandhills for some distance +on the Libyan side. Menes, having dammed up the reach about a hundred +stadia to the south of Memphis, caused the old bed to dry up, and +conveyed the river through an artificial channel dug midway between the +two mountain ranges. Then Menes, the first who was king, having enclosed +a firm space of ground with dykes, there founded that town which is +still called Memphis; he then made a lake round it, to the north and +west, fed by the river, the city being bounded on the east by the +Nile."[*] + + * The dyke supposed to have been made by Menes is evidently + that of Qosheish, which now protects the province of Gizeh, + and regulates the inundation in its neighbourhood. + +The history of Memphis, such as it can be gathered from the monuments, +differs considerably from the tradition current in Egypt at the time of +Herodotus. It appears, indeed, that at the outset, the site on which +it subsequently arose was occupied by a small fortress, Anbu-hazu--the +white wall--which was dependent on Heliopolis, and in which Phtah +possessed a sanctuary. After the "white wall" was separated from the +Heliopolitan principality to form a nome by itself, it assumed a certain +importance, and furnished, so it was said, the dynasties which succeeded +the Thinite. Its prosperity dates only, however, from the time when +the sovereigns of the Vth and VIth dynasties fixed on it for their +residence; one of them, Papi L, there founded for himself and for his +"double" after him, a new town, which he called Minnofiru, from his +tomb. Minnofiru, which is the correct pronunciation and the origin of +Memphis, probably signified "the good refuge," the haven of the good, +the burying-place where the blessed dead came to rest beside Osiris. The +people soon forgot the true interpretation, or probably it did not fall +in with their taste for romantic tales. They were rather disposed, as a +rule, to discover in the beginnings of history individuals from whom the +countries or cities with which they were familiar took their names: +if no tradition supplied them with this, they did not experience any +scruple in inventing one. The Egyptians of the time of the Ptolemies, +who were guided in their philological speculations by the pronunciation +in vogue around them, attributed the patronship of their city to a +Princess Memphis, a daughter of its founder, the fabulous Uchoreus; +those of preceding ages before the name had become altered, thought +to find in Minnofiru a "Mini Nofir," or "Menes the Good," the reputed +founder of the capital of the Delta. Menes the Good, divested of his +epithet, is none other than Menes, the first king, and he owes this +episode in his life to a popular attempt at etymology. The legend which +identifies the establishment of the kingdom with the construction of +the city, must have originated at the time when Memphis was still the +residence of the kings and the seat of government, at latest about the +end of the Memphite period. It must have been an old tradition in the +time of the Theban dynasties, since they admitted unhesitatingly the +authenticity of the statements which ascribed to the northern city so +marked a superiority over their own country. + +[Illustration: 343.jpg NECKLACE, BEARING NAME OF MENES. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin after Prisse d'Avenues. The gold + medallions engraved with the name of Menes are ancient, and + perhaps go back to the XXth dynasty; the setting is entirely + modern, with the exception of the three oblong pendants of + cornelian. + +When once this half-mythical Menes was firmly established in his +position, there was little difficulty in inventing a story which would +portray him as an ideal sovereign. He was represented as architect, +warrior, and statesman; he had begun the temple of Phtah, written laws +and regulated the worship of the gods, particularly that of Hapis, and +he had conducted expeditions against the Libyans. When he lost his only +son in the flower of his age, the people improvised a hymn of mourning +to console him--the "Maneros"--both the words and the tune of which were +handed down from generation to generation. He did not, moreover, disdain +the luxuries of the table, for he invented the art of serving a dinner, +and the mode of eating it in a reclining posture. One day, while +hunting, his dogs, excited by something or other, fell upon him to +devour him. He escaped with difficulty, and, pursued by them, fled to +the shore of Lake Moeris, and was there brought to bay; he was on the +point of succumbing to them, when a crocodile took him on his back and +carried him across to the other side.[*] In gratitude he built a new +town, which he called Crocodilopolis, and assigned to it for its god the +crocodile which had saved him; he then erected close to it the famous +labyrinth and a pyramid for his tomb. Other traditions show him in a +less favourable light. They accuse him of having, by horrible crimes, +excited against him the anger of the gods, and allege that after a reign +of sixty to sixty-two years, he was killed by a hippopotamus which came +forth from the Nile.[**] + + * This is an episode from the legend of Osiris: at Phihe, + in the little building of the Antonines, may be seen a + representation of a crocodile crossing the Nile, carrying on + his back the mummy of the god. The same episode is also + found in the tale of Onus el Ujud and of Uard f'il-Ikmam, + where the crocodile leads the hero to his beautiful prisoner + in the Island of Philae. Ebers, _AEgypte_, French trans., vol. + ii. pp. 415, 416, has shown how this episode in the Arab + story must have been inspired by the bas-relief at Philae and + by the scene which it portrays: the temple is still called + "Kasr," and the island "Geziret Onus el-Ujud." + + ** In popular romances, this was the usual end of criminals + of every kind; we shall see that another king, Akhthoes the + founder of the IXth dynasty, after committing horrible + misdeeds, was killed, in the same way as Menes, by a + hippopotamus. + +They also related that the Saite Tafnakhti, returning from an expedition +against the Arabs, during which he had been obliged to renounce the pomp +and luxuries of royal life, had solemnly cursed him, and had caused his +imprecations to be inscribed upon a stele set up in the temple of Amon +at Thebes. Nevertheless, in the memory that Egypt preserved of its first +Pharaoh, the good outweighed the evil. He was worshipped in Memphis side +by side with Phtah and Ramses II.; his name figured at the head of the +royal lists, and his cult continued till the time of the Ptolemies. + +His immediate successors had an actual existence, and their tombs are +there in proof of it. We know where Usaphais, Miebis, and Semempses[*] +were laid to rest, besides more than a dozen other princes whose real +names and whose position in the official lists are still uncertain. The +order of their succession was often a matter of doubt to the Egyptians +themselves, but perhaps the discoveries of the next few years will +enable us to clear up and settle definitely matters which were shrouded +in mystery in the time of the Theban Pharaohs. As a fact, the forms of +such of their names as have been handed down to us by later tradition, +are curt and rugged, indicative of an early state of society, and +harmonizing with the more primitive civilization to which they belong: +Ati the Wrestler, Teti the Runner, Qenqoni the Crusher, are suitable +rulers for a people, the first duty of whose chief was to lead his +followers into battle, and to strike harder than any other man in the +thickest of the fight.[**] + + * Flinders Petrie, _The 'Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty_, + vol. i. p. 56. + + ** The Egyptians were accustomed to explain the meaning of + the names of their kings to strangers, and the Canon of + Eratosthenes has preserved several of their derivations, of + which a certain number, as, for instance, that of Menes from + auovioc, the "lasting," are tolerably correct. M. Krall is, + to my knowledge, the only Egyptologist who has attempted to + glean from the meaning of these names indications of the + methods by which the national historians of Egypt + endeavoured to make up the lists of the earliest dynasties. + +Some of the monuments they have left us, seem to show that their reigns +were as much devoted to war as those of the later Pharaohs. The king +whose Horus name was Narumir, is seen on a contemporary object which has +come down to us, standing before a heap of beheaded foes; the bodies +are all stretched out on the ground, each with his head placed neatly +between his legs: the king had overcome, apparently in some important +engagement, several thousands of his enemies, and was inspecting the +execution of their leaders. That the foes with whom these early kings +contended were in most cases Egyptian princes of the nomes, is proved by +the list of city names which are inscribed on the fragments of another +document of the same nature, and we gather from them that Dobu (Edfu), +Hasutonu (Cynopolis), Habonu (Hipponon), Hakau (Memphis) and others were +successively taken and dismantled.[*] + + * Palette resembling the preceding one, and with it + deposited in the Gizeh Museum; reproduced by Steindokff, and + by J. de Morgan. The names of the towns were enclosed within + the embattled line which was used later on to designate + foreign countries. The animals which surmount them represent + the gods of Egypt, the king's protectors; and the king + himself, identified with these gods, is making a breach in + the wall with a pick-axe. The names of the towns have not + been satisfactorily identified: Hat-kau, for instance, may + not be Memphis, but it appears that there is no doubt with + regard to Habonu. Cf. Sayce, The Beginnings of the Egyptian + Monarchy in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archaeological + Society, 1898, vol. xx. pp, 99-101. + +On this fragment King Den is represented standing over a prostrate chief +of the Bedouin, striking him with his mace. Sondi, who is classed in the +IInd dynasty, received a continuous worship towards the end of the IIIrd +dynasty. But did all those whose names preceded or followed his on the +lists, really exist as he did? and if they existed, to what extent do +the order and the relation assigned to them agree with the actual truth? +The different lists do not contain the same names in the same positions; +certain Pharaohs are added or suppressed without appreciable reason. +Where Manetho inscribes Kenkenes and Ouenephes, the tables of the time +of Seti I. gave us Ati and Ata; Manetho reckons nine kings to the IInd +dynasty, while they register only five.[*] + + * The impossibility of reconciling the names of the Greek + with those of the Pharaonic lists has been admitted by most + of the savants who have discussed the matter, viz. Mariette, + E. de Rouge, Lieblein, Wiedemann; most of them explain the + differences by the supposition that, in many cases, one of + the lists gives the cartouche name, and the other the + cartouche prenomen of the same king. + +The monuments, indeed, show us that Egypt in the past obeyed princes +whom her annalists were unable to classify: for instance, they associate +with Sondi a Pirsenu, who is not mentioned in the annals. We must, +therefore, take the record of all this opening period of history for +what it is--namely, a system invented at a much later date, by means of +various artifices and combinations--to be partially accepted in default +of a better, but without according to it that excessive confidence which +it has hitherto received. The two Thinite dynasties, in direct descent +from the first human king Menes, furnish, like this hero himself, only a +tissue of romantic tales and miraculous legends in the place of history. +A double-headed stork, which had appeared in the first year of Teti, +son of Menes, had foreshadowed to Egypt a long prosperity, but a famine +under Ouenephes, and a terrible plague under Semempses, had depopulated +the country: the laws had been relaxed, great crimes had been committed, +and revolts had broken out. During the reign of Boethos, a gulf had +opened near Bubastis, and swallowed up many people, then the Nile had +flowed with honey for fifteen days in the time of Nephercheres, and +Sesochris was supposed to have been a giant in stature. A few details +about royal edifices were mixed up with these prodigies. Teti had laid +the foundation of the great palace of Memphis, Ouenephes had built the +pyramids of Ko-kome near Saqqara. Several of the ancient Pharaohs had +published books on theology, or had written treatises on anatomy and +medicine; several had made laws which lasted down to the beginning of +the Christian era. One of them was called Kakou, the male of males, or +the bull of bulls. They explained his name by the statement that he had +concerned himself about the sacred animals; he had proclaimed as gods, +Hapis of Memphis, Mnevis of Heliopolis, and the goat of Mendes. After +him, Binothris had conferred the right of succession upon all the women +of the blood-royal. The accession of the IIIrd dynasty, a Memphite one +according to Manetho, did not at first change the miraculous character +of this history. The Libyans had revolted against Necherophes, and the +two armies were encamped before each other, when one night the disk of +the moon became immeasurably enlarged, to the great alarm of the rebels, +who recognized in this phenomenon a sign of the anger of heaven, and +yielded without fighting. Tosorthros, the successor of Necherophes, +brought the hieroglyphs and the art of stone-cutting to perfection. He +composed, as Teti did, books of medicine, a fact which caused him to +be identified with the healing god Imhotpu. The priests related these +things seriously, and the Greek writers took them down from their lips +with the respect which they offered to everything emanating from the +wise men of Egypt. + +What they related of the human kings was not more detailed, as we see, +than their accounts of the gods. Whether the legends dealt with deities +or kings, all that we know took its origin, not in popular imagination, +but in sacerdotal dogma: they were invented long after the times they +dealt with, in the recesses of the temples, with an intention and a +method of which we are enabled to detect flagrant instances on the +monuments. Towards the middle of the third century before our era, the +Greek troops stationed on the southern frontier, in the forts at the +first cataract, developed a particular veneration for Isis of Philae. +Their devotion spread to the superior officers who came to inspect them, +then to the whole population of the Thebaid, and finally reached the +court of the Macedonian kings. The latter, carried away by force +of example, gave every encouragement to a movement which attracted +worshippers to a common sanctuary, and united in one cult the two races +over which they ruled. They pulled down the meagre building of the +Sa'ite period which had hitherto sufficed for the worship of Isis, +constructed at great cost the temple which still remains almost intact, +and assigned to it considerable possessions in Nubia, which, in +addition to gifts from private individuals, made the goddess the richest +landowner in Southern Egypt. Khnumu and his two wives, Anukit and Satit, +who, before Isis, had been the undisputed suzerains of the cataract, +perceived with jealousy their neighbour's prosperity: the civil wars +and invasions of the centuries immediately preceding had ruined their +temples, and their poverty contrasted painfully with the riches of the +new-comer. + +[Illustration: 350.jpg SATIT PRESENTS THE PHARAOH AMENOTHES III. TO +KHNOMU.1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the + temple of Khnumu, at Elephantine. This bas-relief is now + destroyed. + +The priests resolved to lay this sad state of affairs before King +Ptolemy, to represent to him the services which they had rendered and +still continued to render to Egypt, and above all to remind him of the +generosity of the ancient Pharaohs, whose example, owing to the poverty +of the times, the recent Pharaohs had been unable to follow. + +[Illustration: 351.jpg ANUKIT] + +Doubtless authentic documents were wanting in their archives to support +their pretensions: they therefore inscribed upon a rock, in the island +of Sehel, a long inscription which they attributed to Zosiri of the +IIIrd dynasty. This sovereign had left behind him a vague reputation for +greatness. As early as the XIIth dynasty Usirtasen III. had claimed +him as "his father"--his ancestor--and had erected a statue to him; the +priests knew that, by invoking him, they had a chance of obtaining a +hearing. The inscription which they fabricated, set forth that in +the eighteenth year of Zosiri's reign he had sent to Madir, lord of +Elephantine, a message couched in these terms: "I am overcome with +sorrow for the throne, and for those who reside in the palace, and my +heart is afflicted and suffers greatly because the Nile has not risen in +my time, for the space of eight years. Corn is scarce, there is a lack +of herbage, and nothing is left to eat: when any one calls upon his +neighbours for help, they take pains not to go. The child weeps, the +young man is uneasy, the hearts of the old men are in despair, their +limbs are bent." + +Ptolemies admit the claims which the local priests attempted to deduce +from this romantic tale? and did the god regain possession of the +domains and dues which they declared had been his right? The stele shows +us with what ease the scribes could forge official documents, when +the exigencies of they crouch on the earth, they fold their hands; the +courtiers have no further resources; the shops formerly furnished +with rich wares are now filled only with air, all that was in them has +disappeared. + +"My spirit also, mindful of the beginning of things, seeks to call upon +the Saviour who was here where I am, during the centuries of the gods, +upon Thot-Ibis, that great wise one, upon Imhotpu, son of Phtah of +Memphis. Where is the place in which the Nile is born? Who is the god or +goddess concealed there? What is his likeness?" + +[Illustration: 353.jpg THE STEP PYRAMID OF SAUARA. 1] + + 1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Deveria (1864); in + the foreground, the tomb of Ti. + +The lord of Elephantine brought his reply in person. He described to the +king, who was evidently ignorant of it, the situation of the island and +the rocks of the cataract, the phenomena of the inundation, the gods who +presided over it, and who alone could relieve Egypt from her disastrous +plight. Zosiri repaired to the temple of the principality and offered +the prescribed sacrifices; the god arose, opened his eyes, panted and +cried aloud, "I am Khnumu who created thee!" and promised him a speedy +return of a high Nile and the cessation of the famine. Pharaoh was +touched by the benevolence which his divine father had shown him; he +forthwith made a decree by which he ceded to the temple all his rights +of suzerainty over the neighbouring nomes within a radius of twenty +miles. Henceforward the entire population, tillers and vinedressers, +fishermen and hunters, had to yield the tithe of their incomes to the +priests; the quarries could not be worked without the consent of Khnumu, +and the payment of a suitable indemnity into his coffers, and finally, +all metals and precious woods shipped thence for Egypt had to submit to +a toll on behalf of the temple. Did the daily life forced the necessity +upon them; it teaches us at the same time how that fabulous chronicle +was elaborated, whose remains have been preserved for us by classical +writers. Every prodigy, every fact related by Manetho, was taken from +some document analogous to the supposed inscription of Zosiri.[*] + + * The legend of the yawning gulf at Bubastis must be + connected with the gifts supposed to have been offered by + King Boethos to the temple of that town, to repair the + losses sustained by the goddess on that occasion; the legend + of the pestilence and famine is traceable to some relief + given by a local god, and for which Semempses and Uenephes + might have shown their gratitude in the same way as Zosiri. + The tradition of the successive restorations of Denderah + accounts for the constructions attributed to Teti I. and to + Tosorthros; finally, the prete tided discoveries of sacred + books, dealt with elsewhere, show how Manetho was enabled to + attribute to his Pharaohs the authorship of works on + medicine or theology. + +The real history of the early centuries, therefore, eludes our +researches, and no contemporary record traces for us those vicissitudes +which Egypt passed through before being consolidated into a single +kingdom, under the rule of one man. Many names, apparently of powerful +and illustrious princes, had survived in the memory of the people; +these were collected, classified, and grouped in a regular manner into +dynasties, but the people were ignorant of any exact facts connected +with the names, and the historians, on their own account, were reduced +to collect apocryphal traditions for their sacred archives. The +monuments of these remote ages, however, cannot have entirely +disappeared: they exist in places where we have not as yet thought of +applying the pick, and chance excavations will some day most certainly +bring them to light. The few which we do possess barely go back beyond +the IIIrd dynasty: namely, the hypogeum of Shiri, priest of Sondi and +Pirsenu; possibly the tomb of Khuithotpu at Saqqara; the Great Sphinx +of Gizeh; a short inscription on the rocks of the Wady Maghara, which +represents Zosiri (the same king of whom the priests of Khnumu in the +Greek period made a precedent) working the turquoise or copper mines of +Sinai; and finally the Step-Pyramid where this same Pharaoh rests.[*] + + * The stele of Sehel has enabled us to verify the fact that + the preamble [a string of titles] to the inscription of the + king, buried in the Step-Pyramid, is identical with that of + King Zosiri: it was, therefore, Zosiri who constructed, or + arranged for the construction of this monument as his tomb. + The Step-Pyramid of Saqqara was opened in 1819, at the + expense of the Prussian General Minutoli, who was the first + to give a brief description of the interior, illustrated by + plans and drawings. + +It forms a rectangular mass, incorrectly orientated, with a variation +from the true north of 4 deg. 35', 393 ft. 8 in. long from east to west, +and 352 ft. deep, with a height of 159 ft. 9 in. It is composed of six +cubes, with sloping sides, each being about 13 ft. less in width than +the one below it; that nearest to the ground measures 37 ft. 8 in. in +height, and the uppermost one 29 ft. 9 in. It was entirely constructed +of limestone from the neighbouring mountains. The blocks are small, and +badly cut, the stone courses being concave to offer a better resistance +to downward thrust and to shocks of earthquake. When breaches in the +masonry are examined, it can be seen that the external surface of +the steps has, as it were, a double stone facing, each facing being +carefully dressed. The body of the pyramid is solid, the chambers +being cut in the rock beneath. These chambers have been often enlarged, +restored, and reworked in the course of centuries, and the passages +which connect them form a perfect labyrinth into which it is dangerous +to venture without a guide. The columned porch, the galleries and +halls, all lead to a sort of enormous shaft, at the bottom of which the +architect had contrived a hiding-place, destined, no doubt, to contain +the more precious objects of the funerary furniture. Until the beginning +of this century, the vault had preserved its original lining of glazed +pottery. Three quarters of the wall surface were covered with green +tiles, oblong and slightly convex on the outer side, but flat on the +inner: a square projection pierced with a hole, served to fix them at +the back in a horizontal line by means of flexible wooden rods. + +[Illustration: 356. jpg ONE OF THE CHAMBERS OF THE STEP-PYRAMID, WITH +ITS WALL-COVERING OF GLAZED TILES.1] + + 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the coloured sketch by + Sogato. M. Stern attributes the decoration of glazed pottery + to the XXVI '' dynasty, which opinion is shared by + Borchardt. The yellow and green glazed tiles hearing the + cartouche of Papi I., show that the Egyptians of the + Memphite dynasties used glazed facings at that early date; + we may, therefore, believe, if the tiles of the vault of + Zosiri are really of the Saite period, that they replaced a + decoration of the same kind, which belonged to the time of + its construction, and of which some fragments still exist + among the tiles of more recent date. + +The three bands which frame one of the doors are inscribed with the +titles of the Pharaoh: the hieroglyphs are raised in either blue, red, +green, or yellow, on a fawn-coloured ground. Other kings had built +temples, palaces, and towns,--as, for instance, King Khasakhimu, of +whose constructions some traces exist at Hieraconpolis, opposite to +El-Kab, or King Khasakhmui, who preceded by a few years the Pharaohs of +the IVth dynasty--but the monuments which they raised to be witnesses of +their power or piety to future generations, have, in the course of ages, +disappeared under the tramplings and before the triumphal blasts of many +invading hosts: the pyramid alone has survived, and the most ancient of +the historic monuments of Egypt is a tomb. + +[Illustration: 357.jpg TAILPIECE] + +END OF VOL. I. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, +Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12), by G. 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