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DAWN

OF CIVILIZATION

EGYPT AND CHALD.SA BY

GASTON MASPERO,

HON.

K.C.M.G.

HOX. D.C.L. AND FELLOW OF QUEEN's COLLEGE, OXFORD INSTITUTE, AND PROFESSOR AT THE COLLEGE OF FRANCE DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF ANTIQUITIES IN EGYPT

MEMBER OF THE

EDITED BY A.

H.

SAYCE

PROFESSOR OF ASSYRIOLOGY, OXFORD

TRANSLATED BY

M. L.

McCLURE

MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND

A^

Reprint

:

FIFTH EDITION

[THE FOURTH EDITION WAS BROUGHT UP TO DATE BY THE AUTHOR^

SOCIETY FOE PEOMOTIXG CHRTSTIAX KNOWLEDGE lo:ndon: noethumbeeland avenue, w.c. 43,

Queen Victoria Street, E.G. 1910

.c^

^

-x^-^'

[Date of Fourth Edition, October, 1901]

EDITOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 7

h Peofessor Maspero does not need

name

is

well

known

in this

to be introduced to English readers.

country 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

he occupies a foremost place

archaeologist,

He

the annals of Qiodern knowledge and research.

in

apprehension and ancient texts

is

fertility

of resource without

it

which are indispensable

His intimate acquaintance with Egypt and of discovery afforded

him by

possesses that quick

which the decipherment of

impossible, and he also possesses a

a power of realizing

His

sympathy with the past and

if

we would

its literature,

picture

it aright.

and the opportunities

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 as

it

may

therefore be regarded

the most complete account of ancient Egypt that has ever yet been

published.

In the case of Babylonia and Assyria he no longer, first

hand.

But he has thoroughly studied the

latest

it

is

true, speaks at

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. Here, too, as elsewhere, references have been given with an unsparing hand,

~^ \

so that the reader, if

he pleases, can examine the evidence

for himself.

Naturally, in progressive studies like those of Egyptology and Assyriology,

a good

\

many

theories and conclusions

must be tentative and provisional

Discovery crowds so quickly on discovery, that the truth of to-day to

be modified or amplified by the truth of to-morrow.

A single

is

only.

often apt

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

EDITOR'S PREFACE TO TEE FIRST EDITION.

IV

what must happen in archaeological science

The

spelling

Maspero

will

all

is

sciences in which there is a healthy growth, and

no exception to the

Egyptian proper names adopted by Professor

of ancient

many English

perhaps seem strange to

remembered that

rule.

But

readers.

must be

it

our attempts to represent the pronunciation of ancient

all

Egyptian words can be approximate only

how they were actually sounded.

we can never

;

ascertain with certainty

All that can be done

is

what

to determine

pronunciation was assigned to them in the Greek period, and to work backwards

from

this, so far as it is possible, to

Maspero has done, and

it

more remote

must be no

slight satisfaction to

the whole his system of transliteration of Tel el-Amarna.

This

ages.

is

The system, however,

is

him

what Professor

to find that on

confirmed by the cuneiform tablets is

unfamiliar to English eyes, and

consequently, for the sake of " the weaker brethren," the equivalents of the

geographical and proper names he has used are given in the more spelling at the

The

usual

end of the work.

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

character denoting a syllable, so that

proper

name

we know what were the vowels

as well as the consonants.

consonants resembled that of the

is

Hebrew

written phonetically,

a matter of question. phonetically.

in a

Moreover, the pronunciation of the consonants, the transliteration of

When,

which has long since become conventional. Babylonian name

of writing was syllabic, each

its

therefore,

an Assyrian

correct transliteration

or

not often

is

But, unfortunately, the names are not always written

The cuneiform

script

was an inheritance from the non-Semitic

predecessors of the Semites in Babylonia, and in this script the characters

Not unfrequently the Semitic Assyrians

represented words as well as sounds.

continued to write a

name

in the old

phonetically, the result being that their

own language.

The name

Sumerian way instead of spelling

we do not know how

of the

first

was pronounced in

of the Chaldsean Noah, for instance,

with two characters which ideographically signify

and

it

'*

Beiossos writes the

zi.

Were

it

is

written

the sun " or " day of

of which the Sumerian values were ut, lobar, hhis,

while the second had the value of

it

tarn,

life,"

and

jpar,

not that the Chaldasan historian

name Xisuthros, we should have no

clue to

its

Semitic

pronunciation. Professor Maspero's learning and indefatigable industry are well

me but

I confess I

was not prepared

with Assyriological literature.

for the exhaustive

known

to

acquaintance he shows

Nothing seems to have escaped

his

notice.

Papers and books published during the present year, and half-forgotten articles

EDITORS FliEFACE TO TEE FIRST EDITION. in obscure periodicals

quoted by him.

which appeared years ago, have

all alike

\ been used and

Naturally, however, there are some points on which I should

from the conclusions he draws, or to which he has been led by other Assyriologists. Without being an Assyriologist himself, it was be inclined to

impossible for

differ

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.

me

There are two points which seem to

my

expression of dissent from his views.

of the land of

Accad.

Magan, and the

of sufficient importance to justify

These are the geographical situation

historical character of the annals of

The evidence about Magan

is

Magan

very clear.

is

Sargon of

usually associated

with the country of Melukhkha, "the salt " desert, and in every text in which geographical position

Egypt.

is

indicated

Thus Assur-bani-pal,

it

is

placed in the immediate vicinity of

he had " gone

after stating that

Magan and Melukhkha," goes on

he " directed

to say that

and Kush," and then describes the borne by Esar-haddon.

first

The

its

to the lands of

of his Egyptian campaigns.

king

Egypt

his road to

Similar

testimony

is

Egypt he

directed his road to the land of Melukhkha, a desert region in which

latter

tells

us that after quitting

there were no rivers, and which extended " to the city of Eapikh " (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

The Tel el-Amarna

the land and city of Magan.

record back to the fifteenth century B.C.

made

his

way

to

tablets enable us to carry the

In certain of the tablets now at Berlin

(Wiuckler and Abel, 42 and 45) the Phoenician governor of the Pharaoh asks

that

help should be sent him

king should hear the words of his servant,

Melukhkha and twenty men Gebal]

for the king."

And

Melukhkha and Egypt " The and send ten men of the country of

from

:

of the country of

Egypt

again, " I have sent [to]

great house ") " for a garrison of

men from

to defend the city [of

Pharaoh

" (literally,

the country of Melukhkha, and

the king has just despatched a garrison [from] the country of Melukhkha."

a

still earlier

date we have indications that

the same region of the world.

"the .

.

•

At

Melukhkha and Magan denoted

In an old Babylonian geographical

belongs to the early days of Chaldaean history,

Magan

is

list

which

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

Magan included, however, the Midian of Scripture, and Magan, called Makkan in Semitic Assyrian, is probably the Makna

Sinaitic Peninsula.

the city of

of classical geography,

now represented by the

ruins of

Mukna.

EDITORS PREFACE TO TEE FIRST EDITION.

vi

I have always maintained the historical character

As

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 In themselves the annals contain nothing improbable

of credit.

might seem the most unlikely portion of them

—that

;

indeed, what

which describes the

extension of Sargon's empire to the shores of the Mediterranean

confirmed by the progress of research. of

Babylon (about 2200

B.C.),

Ammi-satana, a king of the

calls

— has

first

been

dynasty

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

Moreover, the vase described by Professor Maspero on

p.

600 of the present

work proves that the expedition of Naram-Sin against Magan was an reality,

and such an expedition was only possible

if

me

to the belief that the annals are a

historical

" the land of the Amorites,"

But what

the Syria and Palestine of later days, had been secured in the rear. chiefly led

Asia.

document contemporaneous

with the events narrated in them, are two facts which do not seem to have

On

been sutSciently considered. given in

full,

the one side, while the annals of Sargon are

those of his son Naram-Sin break off abruptly in the early part

no explanation of

I see

of his reign.

while Naram-Sin was

still

this,

on the throne.

except that they were composed

On

the other side, the campaigns

monarchs are coupled with the astrological phenomena on which

of the two

We

the success of the campaigns was supposed to depend.

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 by the

it

was

asi'pu, or

still

customary for the general in the

" prophet," the ashshdph of Dan.

ii.

10,

field to

on whose interpretation

army depended

of the signs of heaven the

movements

infancy of Chaldsean history

we should accordingly expect

o-ical

be accompanied

of the

sign recorded along with the event with which

it

;

and

in the

to find the astrolo-

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

also the separation

later compilation, in their case

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

me

history,

is

to

a strong testimony in favour of their genuineness. IL

may

be added that Babylonian seal-cylinders have been found in Cyprus, of the age of Sargon of Accad,

its

the same as that of the cylinder figured on

p.

one of which

other,

is

though of

later date,

style

and workmanship being

601 of this volume, while the

belonged to a person who describes himself as " the

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

EDITOR'S

Such cylinders may,

servant of the deified Naram-Sin."

VU

of course, have been

but when we remember that a characteristic

brought to the island in later times

;

object of prehistoric Cypriote art

is

an imitation of the seal-cylinder of Chaldaea,

their discovery cannot be wholly

an accident.

up

Professor Maspero has brought his facts

very

little to

add to what he has written.

A

fresh examination of the

Delitzsch to

Maspero

number one,

make some

to our Assyriological knowledge.

Babylonian dynastic tablet has led Professor

alterations in the published account of

According

the ninth dynasty.

calls

of kings composing the dynasty

is

Professor

to

what Professor Delitzsch,

The

exactly corresponds with this figure.

the

stated on the tablet to be twenty-

and not thirty-one as was formerly read, and the number of

six years,

is

Since his manuscript was in type,

made

however, a few additions have been

to so recent a date that there

lost lines

of the kings reigned thirty-

first

and he had a predecessor belonging to the previous dynasty whose

name has been

There would consequently have been two Elamite

lost.

usurpers instead of one. I

would further draw attention to an

interesting

Mr. Strong in the Babylonian and Oriental Record I believe

to

contain

name

the

This

dynasties of Chaldasa.

is

of a king

who

in one of the

lists.

Accad and other early monarchs it

rightly, states

that

and the same prince

King

of

is

"Elam

shall

1892, which

to the legendary

coupled with Sargon of

is

The

further described as building

legend,

if

I interpret

Nippur and Dur-ilu,

Khumbaba

It will be

also is stated

as

Baldakha and of

Babylon and as conqueror both of a certain

the Epic of Gilgames,

by

be altogether given to Samas-natsir;"

Khumba-sitir, "the king of the cedar-forest." in

for July,

who belonged

Samas-natsir,

published

text,

remembered that

have been the lord

to

of the " cedar-forest."

But

of

new

discoveries and facts there

is

a constant supply, and

impossible for the historian to keep pace with them. of his

work are passing through the

Even while the

press, the excavator, the explorer,

decipherer are adding to our previous stores of knowledge.

not fallen behind

its

predecessors in this respect.

unwearied energy has raised as

it

The

it is

sheets

and the

past year has

In Egypt, Mr. de Morgan's

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

contrast favourably with

freshness

the models which come from

and

lifelike

reality,

India to-day.

In

EDITORS PBEFACE TO TEE FIRST EDITION.

Vlll

Babylonia, the American Expedition, under Mr. Haines, has at Niffer unearthed

monuments

of older date than those of Sargon of Accad.

conclusion, forget to mention the lotiform in a

tomb

of the

Nor must

I, in

column found by Mr. de Morgan

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 ^gean, inscribed with hieroglyphic characters which reveal a

new system

of writing that

of the Hittite hieroglyphs,

exercised by

must

at one time

and may have had

Egypt on the peoples

its

have existed by the side origin in the influence

of the Mediterranean in the age of the

twelfth dynasty.

A. H. London, October 1894.

SAYOE.

.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

In completing the translation of so great a work as " Les Origines," I have to

thank Professor Maspero

for

kindly permitting

me

to appeal to

him on various

questions which arose while preparing the volume for English readers.

His

patience and courtesy have alike been unfailing in every matter submitted for his decision.

I

am

much

indebted to Miss Bradbury for kindly supplying, in the midst of

other literary work for the

of the chapter

She

and VI.

many

Egypt Exploration Fund, the

translation

on the gods, and also of the earlier parts of Chapters has, moreover, helped

suggestions

and

hints,

me

in

my own

III.,

I.,

share of the work with

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

accentuation of Arabic names, I have ventured to alter to the

them

and

in several cases

form most -familiar to English readers.

The

spelling of the ancient Egyptian words has, at Professor

request, been retained throughout, with the exception that the

Khnoumou by Khnumii.

been invariably represented by w,

e.g.

index, however, which has been

added

Maspero's

French ou has In the copious

to the English edition, the forms of

Egyptian names familiar to readers in this country

will

be found, together with

Professor Maspero's equivalents.

The

translation

is

further distinguished from the

French

original

by the

enlargement of the general map, which combines the important geographical information given in the various separate maps scattered throughout the work.

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

M. London, October

1 1

L.

act.

McClure.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND ENGLISH EDITION.

A NEW

work having been called

edition of the English translation of this

for within a little over

the author to

embody

a year from in

it

its

publication, an opportunity was afforded

the results

of the

latest

research.

The

part

dealing with Egypt has consequently been enriched with additions to text

and

notes,

and

in the chapter

on Chaldsea the author has utilized fresh infor-

mation from the recent works of Tallqvist, Winckler, and Hilprecht, and from Monsieur de Sarzec's

extract from a letter of Professor Maspero to the translator

The following will

show that he has spared no pains

recent discoveries "

latest publications.

La

:

work abreast of the most

to bring his

— marche

correction des dernieres epreuves n'a pas

I'aurais souhaite,

parceque je voulais etudier

les livres

aussi

vite

que je

nouveaux qui ont paru J'espere pourtant ne pas

depuis I'an passe dans le domaine de TAf^syriologie.

vous avoir occasionne trop de retard, et vous avoir mis le texte au point des dernieres decouvertes sans vous avoir obligee a trop remanier la composition."

The of the

translation has been carefully revised throughout,

new

edition has been kept uniform with that of the

and the pagination

first

edition,

and also

with the French original, so as to facilitate reference.

The three coloured

plates omitted in the

first

edition of the translation

have now been added at the author's request.

M. L. M. LONDOif,

February. 189&

—

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO THE THIRD ENGLISH EDITION.

The

following extract from a letter by Professor Maspero to the translator

will sufficiently indicate

English translation of " Les Origines '*

Cette

fois-ci

encore je

progres accomplis

d'Amelineau

et

made

the changes

me

in this, the third edition of the

" :

suis efforce

dans nos sciences

de mettre

mon

;

de Morgan sont encore trop mal connues, et

en revanche,

j'ai insere

que Petrie nous avait

connaitre

fait

pourque

a

Ballas et

j'aie ose

a Neggadeh.

en

tirer

meme

:

j'ai

Dans

les

grace a la complaisance amicale

de Monsieur Heuzey, indiquer un certain nombre de cette annee

aperpus que

les

a leur place probable les documents nouveaux

ehapitres consacres a la Chaldee, j'ai pu,

mencement de

Les decouvertes

depuis I'an dernier.

leurs auteurs nous en ont fournis sont trop sommaires, parti

texte au courant des

faits

signales au com-

donne tous raes soins a completer

la

bibliographie de chaque sujet et a revoir les traductions des textes originaux. J'ai ete

gene quelquefois par

le clichage,

mais je crois n'avoir rien omis qu'il

importat reellement de faire connaitre au lecteur."

In spite of considerable additional pages being

difficulties,

numbered 453a,

the pagination remains the same, the b, etc.,

and so inserted

in the Index.

M. L. M. Sandgate, Auqiist, 1897.

——

PKEFACE TO THE FOURTH ENGLISH EDITION.

The

"Dawn

fourth edition of the

of Civilization"

best introduced by a

is

quotation from a letter addressed by Professor Maspero to the translator

:

"This new edition contains much fresh matter. As far as Egypt is concerned, I have been able to bring it completely up to date, and have embodied

made in the Nile valley by Amelineau, who assisted the latter in his excavations.

in it the results of the latest discoveries

De Morgan, The

Petrie,

and the experts

description of the

manners and customs

been rewritten, and made as complete as hypothesis.

On

pp. 112, 112a,

and 112b

the early Egyptians

of

possible

indulging in

found an account of the

will be

various methods of burial of which we are as

without

has

yet cognizant.

The

theories

entertained with regard to the history of the earliest dynasties have

been

inserted on pp. 232-232d, and are further dealt with on p. 236, and from thence to the

end of the chapter.

" Everything connected with the kings

Abydos

is still

reserve,

and have

so obscure that I classified

have as yet been ascertained.

discovered

have treated the subject with the greatest

those few sovereigns only whose proper

They

all

appear to

Whether the

classification of

preceded him was in every instance correct is

quite possible that

many

jecture which can be confirmed only for

to belong to the

—rightly,

is

first

two

as

entirely another question,

of the Pharaohs placed

have reigned previous to that prince.

we must be content

me

names

we now know Manetho and of the annalists who

dynasties of Manetho, those which he designates as Thinite.

in the necropolis of

by them

This, however,

is

after

and

it

Menes may

again merely a con-

by the discovery of

fresh

monuments

:

know that the earliest kings reEgyptians have now been brought to light Thinite the present to

membered by the ancient Egypt has emerged from the realm

:

of legend

and has entered the pale

of

history. "

As

far as regards the Xll'^

Dynasty, I

still

adhere to the date which I

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH ENGLISH EDITION. The

have hitherto adopted.

date recently proposed does not

xiii in

fit

with any

Supposing even that the text quoted by Borchardt were of a nature to furnish us with materials for an exact calculation, which is

well-authenticated facts.

disputable,

we are

still

confronted with the alternative between the fourth and

the second millennium B.C.

The

reasons which led Borchardt to choose the

second millennium are all a priori, and, outside the very small circle of scholars

who derive

their inspirations from Berlin, have called

forth objections on

every hand,

"I had hoped

to

have been able to accomplish

for

the peoples of the

Euphrates what I have doue for those of the Nile valley; but unfortunately Hilprecht's book, which would have placed so disposal, has not yet appeared,

and

many new documents

at ray

after waiting for its publication for six

months, further delay was rendered impossible on account of the urgent demand for this fourth edition.

come

I have, however, inserted the

to light in the course of the last three years,

fresli

and

facts

which have

in so

doing have

taken advantage of the interesting discoveries made by M. de Morgan at Susa.

There, however, our historical advance has been more limited than in

Egypt, and we have to deal with detail and not with an entire epoch." Professor Maspero's words render further introduction superfluous, and a reference to the pages he has quoted will show

been brought abreast of

how completely the volume has

last season's excavations in

everything relating to

Egypt.

M. Halberstadt, September, 1901.

L.

McCluee.

EGYPTIAV VULTURE nOLDIKG T'WO FLACELI

A.

CONTENTS. CHAPTER

I.

THE NILE AND EGYPT. The Rivkr and

Influence upon the Formation of the Country

its

Oldest Inhabitants of the Valley and

its

CHAPTER

—The

TAGR

First Political Organization

II.

THE GODS OF EGYPT. Their Number and their Nature

— The

The Triads— Temples and Priests The Enneads of Heliopolis and of

Feudal Gods, Living and Dead-

—The

Cosmogonies of the Delta-

IIermopolis

CHAPTER

81

III.

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT. The Divine Dynasties: Ea, Shu, tion

OF

Sciences

Dynasties

Osiris, Sit,

—Menes,

and Wriiing

...

...

...

CHAPTER

Horus

—Thot,

and the Inven-

and the Three First Human ...•

...

...

...

155

IV.

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT. Tuz

King, the Queen, and the Eoyal Princes

Pharaohs

The

—Feudalism

— Administration

under the

and the Egyptian Priesthood, the Military

Citizens and Country People

...

...

...

— ;..

247

—

—

^vi

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V MEMPHITE EMPIRE.

THE

The Eotal Pykamid Builders: Kheops, Kiiephren, Mykerinos — Memphite Literature and Art Extension of Egypt towards the South, and

PAGB

—

the Conquest of Nubia by the Pharaohs

CHAPTER

...

...

...

...

347

VI.

THE FIRST THEBAN EMPIRE. Two

The

Dynasties and the Twelfth

ITeracleopolitan

Conquest of Ethiopia, and the making

Thepan Kings

...

...

...

CHAPTER

Dynasty

Greater Egypt

of

...

...

— The

by the

...

•••

445

YII.

ANCIENT CHALD>EA. The

Creation, the Deluge, the History of the Gods Cities, its Inhabitants, its

Early Dynasties

CHAPTER

— The ...

Country, ...

its ...

537

VIII.

THE TEMPLES AND THE GODS OF CHALD/EA. 1'he Construction

logical

TwAUs

and Eevenues of the Temples

The Dead and Hades

CHAPTER CHALD>EAN IiOY'ALTY'

The Constitution

Commerce and Industry

of ...

— Popular ...

...

Gods and Theo...

...

623

IX.

CIVILIZATION.

the Family and ...

its

...

Property— Chald.ean ...

...

...

703

...

...

...

785

••

•••

--^

791

APPENDIX. The Pharaohs Index

...

of the Ancient

...

...

and Middle Empires

...

••

FRY

OF

iwo '-of

Vhe

mr ha the

0/

r

he he

he 'le

MAP TO ILLUSTEIATE'THE DAWN

OP CIVILIZATION'"

BY PROF MASPERO.

Tl -3B

,--^^l

30

25

Zd

IE

1.0

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

THE RIVER AND

—THE

INFLUENCE UPON THE FORMATION AND CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY

ITS

OLDEST INHABITANTS OF THE LAND

— THE

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF

FIRST

THE VALLEY.

The Delta:

arms of

the river

Gebel SUsileh

Takazze

its

gradiMl formation,

—

The Eastern Nile

— The cataracts the

upholding mountains

and

the islands

Red Nile

Nile

celestial

of Sjnrits

— The opening of

the flora

:

acacias, the

Aswan

— The

— The fauna:

The Nile god:

his

Nile at Elephantine

;

form and

— The

birds

rise

hills

— The

two

— The gorge of

four pillars and the four

of the Nile

inundation upon

the domestic ;

fish, the

its varieties

— The festivals

— The

;

the

—

— The

— The fall of the Nile— The river at

the effects of the

hippopotamus and the crocodile

hanks

Nile the source of the terrestrial Nile

aquatic plants, the papyrus and the lotus

dom-palms

its

Egypt

—Nubia— The rapids of Wddy Halfah— The

Egyptian cosmography

tears of Isis

the dyhes

The alluvial deposits and

appearance of

valley of

White Nile,

— The

— The — The

canals— The

structure, its

— Tlie

the falls of

:

— The Blue Nile and the

The sources of

its

its

Southern Sea

Green Nile and the lowest ebb.

the soil of

sycamore and

and wild animals;

T}ie

Egypt

—Paucity of

the date-palm, the

serpents, the urceu^

;

the

fahaka.

— The

goddess Mirit

of Gebel SUsileh— Hymn

to

— The

supposed sources of the

the Nile

from papyri

British Museiimt

B

in the

(

The names of the Nile and Egypt

:

2

)

j

BomiM and Qimit— Antiquity

of the Egyptian people

— The hypothesis of their Asiatic origin— Tlie prohability of their African — The race and principal types. Semitic origin— Tlie language and The primitive civilization of Egypt — Its survival into historic times — The women of Amon — Marriage — Rights of women and children — Houses—Furnitwre—Dress —Jewels — Wooden and — Fishing and hunting — The lasso and ^^bolas" — The domestication metal arms — Primitive — — — of animals —Plants used for food The lotus Cereals The hoe and the plough. —Dykes —Basins —Irrigation— The princes — The names — The Tlie conqtiest of the valley —Their first horizon

its

affinities

its

life

first local prvmipalities

—Late organization of the Delta— Character of its inhabitants — Gradual

division of the principalities

and changes of their areas

— The god of the

city.

]

\

)

;

:

I

\

'

THE BANKS OF THE NILE NEAR BENI-EDEF.

CHAPTEK

I.

THE NILE AND EGYPT The

river

and

its

influence upon the formation of the country valley and

LONG-,

its first

—The oldest inhabitants of the

political organization.

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

of Egypt, sea,

and

is

has gradually as

it

were the

—

this,

the Delta

been acquired from gift

of the Nile.^

the

The

Mediterranean once reached to the foot of the sandy plateau on which stand the Pyramids, and formed a wide gulf where of the Delta. hills, its

'

The

stretches plain

last

beyond plain

undulations of the Arabian

from Gebel Mokattam to Gebel Geneffeh, were

boundaries on the east, while a sinuous and shallow

channel running between Africa and Asia united the

"^"CwtBq u^../-

*

now

a drawing by Boudier, after a pliotograph by the Dutch traveller Insiuger, taken in 18S4. Herodotus, ii. 5 eVrl AlyvTrTioifft 6Vikt7?t((s re 7^ koI ScSpov tov -Korafxov. Tlie same expression

From

:

has been attributed to Hecatfeus of Miletus (Mijller-Didot, Fragmenta Ridoricorum Grxcorum, vol. It has often been observed that this phrase cf. Diels, Hermes, vol. xxii. p. 423). i. p. 19, fragm. 279 such forms of expression as the following, recalls seems Egyptian on the face of it, and it certainly " All things created by heaven, given by stelae taken from a formula frequently found on funerary ;

:

earth, brought by the Nile

from

its

mysterious sources."

Nevertheless,

up

to the present time, the

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

4

Mediterranean to the Red Sea.^ oontour of the Libyan plateau at about 31° N.,

littoral followed closely

and terminated

which swept along

its

the

but a long limestone spur broke away from

;

in

Cape Abukir.^

The

it

alluvial deposits first

up the depths of the bay, and then, under the influence

filled

hills

Westward, the

of the currents

eastern coasts, accumulated behind that rampart of sand-

whose remains are

still

to be seen near Benha.

Thus was formed a minia-

ture Delta, whose structure pretty accurately corresponded with that of the

great Delta of to-day.

into three divergent streams,

Here the Nile divided

roughly coinciding with the southern courses of the Rosetta and Damietta branches, and with the

mulation of

mud

modern canal

Abu Meneggeh.

of

The

ceaseless accu-

brought down by the river soon overpassed the

and steadily encroached upon the sea furnished by Cape Abukir.

Thence

until

first limits,

was carried beyond the shelter

it

was gathered into the great

it

littoral

current flowing from Africa to Asia, and formed an incurvated coast-line ending in the

headland of Casios, on the Syrian

From

frontier.

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 Its inhabitants

been dried up, hardened, and gradually raised.

thought they

could measure the exact length of time in which this work of creation had been accomplished.

According to the Egyptians, Menes, the

kings, had found, so they said, the valley under water. as far as the

Fayum,

first

The

sea

of their mortal

came

in almost

and, excepting the province of Thebes, the whole country

was a pestilential swamp.*

Hence, the necessary period

for the physical for-

mation of Egypt would cover some centuries after Menes. considered a sufficient length of time, and some

modern

the Nile must have worked at the formation of seventy-four thousand years.^

This figure

is

its

This

is

no longer

geologists declare that

own estuary

for at least

certainly exaggerated, for the

hieroglyphic texts have yielded nothing altogether corresponding to the exact terms of the Greek historians— gii7< {^
Delta was studied and explained at length, more than forty years It is from this book that ago, by Elie de Beaumont, in his Legons de G^ologie, vol. i. pp. 405-492. generally without any and taken, still are on Egypt the theories set forth in the latest works '

The formation

of the

important modification. * Ste Elie de Beaumont, Legons de Geologic, vol. i. p. 483, et seq., as to the part played in the formation of the coast-line by the limestone ridge of Abfikir; its composition was last described by

Oscar Fraas, .4ms d«m Orient, vol. i. pp. 175, ' Elie de Beaumont, Legona de G^uhgie, lies in

the almost uniform persistence of

176. vol.

i.

p.

its coast-line.

altered from that of three thousand years ago."

The

460 .

.

The great distinction of the Nile Delta The present sea-coast of Egypt is little

•' :

.

latest observations prove it to

be sinking and

shrinking near Alexandria to rise in the neighbourhood of Port Said. * Herodotus, 11. 4 cf. xcix. Bene, vol. xii. p. 206), ' Others, as for example Schweinpurth (^Bulletin de I'Listitut Egyptien, thousand years twenty are more moderate in their views, and think "that it must have taken about for that alluvial deposit which now forms the arable soil of Egypt to have attained to its present ;

depth and

fertility."

V

THE FORMATION OF THE DELTA.

5

alluvium would gain on the shallows of the ancient gulf far more rapidly than

it

gains upon the depths of the Mediterranean.

reduce the period, we must true age of their country.

of Menes,

but

still

Not only

The Greeks,

the Egyptians.

admit that the Egyptians

full

little

suspected the

did the Delta long precede the coming

plan was entirely completed

its

But even though we

of the

before

the

first

arrival

of

mysterious virtues which they

30

30

E

.

of Greerx-wicK

THE MOUTH OF THE NILE PREVIOUS TO THE FORMATION OF THE DELTA.

attributed to numbers, discovered that there were seven

and seven mouths of the Nile, and were but outlets.

false

mouths.^

that, as

As a matter

compared with

coast-line.2

The Pelusiac branch

and flowed forth

these, the rest

of fact, there were only three chief

The Canopic branch flowed westward, and

near Cape Abukir, at the western

principal branches,

fell

into the Mediterranean

extremity of the arc described by the

followed the length of the Arabian chain,

at the other extremity

;

and the Sebennytic stream almost

bisected the triangle contained between the Canopic and Pelusiac channels.

Two thousand '

^€i»So(rT({;xoTa

years ago, these branches separated from the main river at was the word used by the Alexandrian geographers and retiiined by Strabo Pliny, Nat., v. 10: "Duodecim enim repperiuntur, superquequattuor. quae

(xvi. pp. 788, 801); cf.

S

ipsi /aZsa ora appellant." * Lancret retraced the course of this branch, but death prevented him from publishing his discovery and an account of all which it involved (Lancret, Notice sur la Branche Canopique, with

an Addition by Jomakd, in the Description de VFgypte,

vol. viii. pp. 19-26).

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

6

the city of Cerkasoros,^ nearly four miles north of the site where

now

But

stands.

after the Pelusiac

away the land from age

of the river gradually wore

some nine miles lower down.^ network of

artificial rivers

dug by the hand

of

of the

soil,

spreading

all

and

in

fertility

on

The Libyan and Arabian

is

now

silt

natural, others

up, close, open

is

hills

And

land rises

while black mould

less confused,

line of the desert

comes

appear above the plain, draw

nearer to each other, and gradually shut in the horizon until unite.

and

As the

sides.

all

and cultivation alike dwindle, and the fawn-coloured

though they would

the fork

innumerable branches over the surface

towards the south, this web contracts and

into sight.

age,

— some

They

ceaselessly shifting.

and ramify

life

to

exist,

These three great waterways are united by a

and canals, and by ditches

man, but

again, replace e<)ch other,

branch had ceased to

Cairo

there the Delta ends, and

it

seenis as

Egypt proper has

begun. It is only a strip of vegetable

mould

stretcliing north

and south between

regions of drought and desolation, a prolonged oasis on the banks of the river,

land

made by is

shut in between two ranges of

this intermediate space,

to their very summits,

and the

still

its

earlier ages, the river filled all

sides of the hills, polished, worn, blackened

bear unmistakable traces of

and shrunken within the deeps of

own thick deposits

of

of the

roughly parallel at a mean

hills,

During the

distance of about twelve miles.^

through

The whole length

the Nile, and sustained by the Nile.

its

its

ancient bed, the stream

mud.

The bulk

of

its

action.

Wasted,

now makes a way

waters keeps to the east,

and constitutes the true Nile, the "Great River "of the hieroglyphic

inscriptions.^

According to Brugsch {Geogr. Ins., vol. i, pp. 244, 296), the name of Kerkasoros (Herodotus, (Strabo, xvii. p. 806), has its Egyptian origin in Kerk-osiri. But the Greek transcription of Kerk-osiri would have been KerlMsiris, of which Herr Wilcken has found the variant Kerkeusiris among names from the Fayftm (Wilcken, JEgyptische Eigennamen in Griechischen Texten, in the Zeitschri/t fiir JEgyptisclie Sprache, 1883, p. 162). Herr Wilcken proposes to correct the text of Herodotus and Strabo, and to introduce the reading Kerkeusiris in place of Kerkasoros or Kerke'sura. Professor Erman considers that Kerkeusiris means The Habitation of Osiris, and contains the radical Korku, KerkS, which is found in Kerkesttkhos, KerkeramsisftMiamun, and in the modern name of Grirgeh. The site of El-Akhsas, which D'Anville identified with that of Kerkasoros (M^moires ge'ograpliiques sur VEgypte, p. 73), is too far north. The ancient city must have been situate in the neighbourhood of the present town of Embabeh. - By the end of the Byzantine period, tlie fork of the river lay at some distance south of Shetniifi, the present Shatuniif, which is the spot where it now is (Champollion, L'Egypte sous le» Pharaons, vol. ii. pp. 28, 147-151). The Arab geographers call the head of the Delta Batn-elBagarah, 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 (I>e la constitution physique de VEgypte et de ses rapports avec les anciennes institutions de cette contr^e, in the Description '

ii.

15, 17, 97), or Kerke'sura

de VEgypte, *

vol. xx. p. 270). latur-du, laur-du, which becomes lar-o, lal-o in the Coptic (Brugsch, Geogr. Ins., vol.

78, 79;

and Dictionnaire G^ographique,

pp. 84-88).

The word

matician designated the sources of the Nile (Pliny, Hist. Nat.,

i.

pp.

Phiala, by which Timseus the mathe-

v.

9

;

cf.

Solinus, PolyhisL, ch. xxxv.)

THE APPEARANCE OF TEE BANES.

A LINE OF LADEN CAMELS EMERGES FROM A HOLLOW OF THE UNDULATING ROAD.'

A

second arm

into

flows

close

elsewhere

canals,

to

to

left

the

Libyan

follow

of the Delta to the village of Deriit Deriit

— up

Gebel

to

Silsileh

But the ancient names

—

are

it is

the

head

beyond

the Ibrahimiyeh, the Sohagiyeh, the Kaian.

unknown

This Western Nile dries up

to us. :

where

by scanty accessions from the main Nile.

Heuassieh, and

From

course.

called the Bahr-Yusuf;

is

in winter throughout all its upper courses is

own

its it

and there formed

desert, here

it

It

continues to flow,

also

divides north

it

of

by the gorge of Illahun sends out a branch which passes the basin of the Fayum.

The

beyond the

hills into

Nile,

a river than a sinuous lake encumbered with islets and sandbanks,

and

is less

its

true Nile, the Eastern

navigable channel winds capriciously between them, flowing with a

strong and steady current below the steep, black banks cut sheer through the alluvial trees

There are light groves of the date-palm, groups of acacia

earth.

and sycamores, square patches of barley or of wheat,

fields of

beans or of

hersim^ and here and there a Jong bank of sand which the least breeze raises into

whirling

cluuds.

And

over

all

there broods a great silence, scarcely

broken by the cry of birds, or the song of rowers in a passing boat. thing of distance.

human

A

life

may

half-veiled

stir

on the banks, but

it

is

Some-

softened into poetry by

woman, bearing a bundle of herbs upon her head,

driving her goats before her.

An

is

irregular line of asses or of laden camels

emerges from one hollow of the undulating road only to disappear within another. is

only this

the native

A

group of peasants, crouched upon the shore, in the ancient posture

name lalo preceded by the masculine article phi, ph. Ptolemy the geographer translated name by an exact equivalent, 6 /neyas -noraixos, the great river (Bkugsch, op. cit., pp. 78, 79).

From

a drawiug by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, taken in 1884. Bersim is a kind of trefoil, the Trifolium Alexandrinum of LiNNiEUS. It is very common in Egypt, and the only plant of the kind generally cultivated for fodder (Kaffeneau-Delile, Hidoire '

'

des plantes cultivehs eu Egyple, in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xix. p. 59, sqq.).

;

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

8

of knees to chin, patiently awaits the return of the ferry-boat. trees.

Near

at

hand

A DAINTY VILLAGE LOOKS FORTH SMILING FBOM

BENEATH

ITS

PALM

looks forth smiling from beneath

filth

A

and ugliness

:

its

palm

three taller houses, whitewashed

;

a few old men, each seated peacefully at his

'•-2

and sheep

;

naked

TREES.'

laths

;

two or

'

own door

half a dozen boats

From drawings by Boudier,

is all

an enclosed square shaded by sycamores

GEBEL ABUFEDA, DREADED BY THE SAILORS

children, goats,

it

mud and

a cluster of low grey^ huts built of

dainty village

after photographs

made

;

a confusion of fowls,

fast ashore.

by Insinger, taken

But, as we

in 1886.

THE BILLS. pass light,

on,

the wretchedness

and long before

all

fades

away

;

meanness of

detail

is

disappears at a bend of the river, the village

it

clothed with gaiety and serene beauty.

Day by

lost is

in

ao-ain

day, the landscape repeats

PART OF GEBEL SHEKH HERIDI.'

itself.

The same groups

same

of trees alternate with the

fields,

growing green

or dusty in the sunlight according to the season of the year.

same measured Bow, the Nile winds beneath

its

steep

With the

banks and about

its

THE HILL OF KASB ES-SAYyAD*

scattered islands.

under

its

crown of

One

village succeeds another, each alike smiling

foliage.

The

terraces of the

Libyan

hills,

and sordid

away beyond a

white

edging between the green of the plain and the blue of the sky.

The

the Western

'-*

Nile, scarcely rise

From drawings by Boudier,

above the horizon, and

after

lie

like

photographs by Insinger, taken ia 1882.

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

10 Arabian masses

hills

with

do not form one unbroken

now

spurs,

their

but a series of mountain

line,

approaching

the

drawing to the desert at almost regular intervals. valley, rise

Gebel Mokattam and Gebel el-Ahmar.

now

with-

At the entrance

to the

and

river,

Hemur-Shemul and

G-ebel

Gebel Shekh Embarak next stretch in echelon from north

to south,

succeeded by Gebel et-Ter, where, according to an old legend,

Then

the world are annually assembled.^

the sailors for

its

sudden

or yellowish, broken

horizontal

more

are

strata

follows Gebel Abufeda, dreaded by

and grey sandstones.

alabaster, or of red

like the walls of a

wild plants take hold

mud

upon

has collected between it,

clusters of trees

and

loses its brightness.

and more

The angular

mouth

Beyond

fields in miniature.

air drier

cliffs

and date-palms grow there

Presently a hamlet rises at the

outline of the

castor-oil plant increasingly abounds.

all

it

At Thebes

it

is

still

and

a breach.

As

river, halfah

and

— whence

their seed,

of the ravine, light

among

becomes

dom-palm mingles more and heavy sycamore, and the

come about

these changes

gradually that they are effected before we notice them. to contract.

while the current

Siut, the

of the

But

has

and the green of cultivation

vibrating,

more with that of the common palm and

;

made many

base, wherein it has

no one knows.

more glowing, the

Man

summits and loosened their foundations.

undermining the

soon as any margin of

But time has

town than the side of a mountain.

broken into their facades to cut his quarries and his tombs secretly

Its

symmetrically laid oue above another as to seem

so

often dismantled their

is

the birds of

Limestone predominates throughout, white

gusts.^

by veins of

all

and are

ten miles wide

has almost disappeared, and at Gebel Silsileh

The

so

plain continues

at the gorge of Gebeleii

;

it

has completely vanished.

was crossed by a natural dyke of sandstone, through which the

There,

it

waters

have with difficulty scooped for themselves a passage.

point,

Egypt

is

nothing

but

the

bed

of

the

Nile

lying

From

this

between

two

escarpments of naked rock.^ In Makkizi's Description of Egypt, BUlak Edition, vol. i. p. 31 (cfr. Botjrtant, Topographie de '' Every year, upon a certain day, all the herons (Boukik, Ardea vol. i. p. 87), we read One after another, each puts his beak into a cleft of huhulcus of Cxjvier) assemble at this mountain. 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 The same tale is told by other Arab writers, of which a list may be seen in Etienne into dust." QxjatkemIire, Memoires Mstoriques et geographiques sur VEgypte et quelques contr^es voisines, vol. i. It faintly recalls that ancient tradition of the Cleft at Abydos, whereby souls must pass, pp. 31-33. as human-headed birds, iu order to reach the other world (Lefebure, Etude sur Abydos, in the '

VEgypte,

:

Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archxology, vol. xv. pp. 149, 150). ^ Ebers, Cicerone durch das alte- und neu-Mgypten, vol. ii. pp. 157, 158. ' The gorge of Gebel Silsileh is about 3940 feet iu length (P. S. Girard, Observations sur la valle'e de VEgypte et sur V exhaussement s^culaire du sol qui la recouvre, in the Description de VEgypte, See De vol. XX. p. 35); its width at the narrowest point is 1640 feet (Isambert, £gypte, p. 590).

RoziERE,

De

la Constitution

physique de VEgypte, in the Description de VEgypte,

vol. xxi. p. 26, et seq.,

THE FALLS OF ASWAN.

11

Further on the cultivable land reappears, but narrowed, and changed almost

beyond recognition.

hewn out

Hills,

of solid sandstone, succeed each other at

distances of about two miles,^ low, crushed, sombre, and formless. forest of

palm

trees, the last

on that

side,

Presently a

announces Aswan and Nubia.

Five

banks of granite, ranged in lines between latitude 24° and 18° 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. has attacked them

from behind, and made

its

The Nile

way over them one

after

ENTEANCE TO THE FIB8T CATAEACT.*

another

in rapids

which have been

glorified

by the name of

Classic

cataracts.

writers were pleased to describe the river as hurled into the gulfs of

Syene

with so great a roar that the people of the neighbourhood were deafened by

Even a colony

it.^

noise of the is

falls,

of Persians, sent thither

and went forth

by Cambyses, could not bear the

to seek a quieter situation.*

The

first

cataract

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. and the recent work of Chelu, Le Nil, le Soudan, I'jSgypte, pp. 77, 78, with regard to the primeval Chelu considers that it was broken through before the advent of man in barrier at Gebel Silsileh. Egypt, wliereas Wilkinson (in Eawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 298), followed by A. Wiedemann (JiJyyptische Geschichte, vol. ii. p. 255), maintains that it lasted until near the Hyksos or Shepherd times. P. S. GiRARD, Observations sur la valine de I'Egypte, in the Description de I'Egypte, vol. xx. pp. With regard to the nature and aspect of the country between Gebel Silsileh and Aswan, see also De Rozieue, De la Constitution physique de I'Egypte, in the Description, vol. xxi. pp. 4-58. *

34, 35.

^

View taken from the hills opposite Elephantine, by Insinger, JoMARD made a collection of such passages from aiicient

in 1884.

writers as refer to the cataracts with which their statements were confidence 154-174). the can judge of pp. still received at the close of the seventeenth century by looking through that curious little work De hominibus ad catadupas Nili obscurdescentibus, Consentiente AmpUssimo Philvsophorum Ordine, Publice '

(Description, vol.

We

i.

J. Leonhakdus Lenzils, et respondtns Jo. BaIvTholom.«:us Lenzius, MarcoWittebergx, Typis Cliristiani In auditorio Minori. 24 Decembr., mdcxcix.

disputabunt Prxses M. breitha-Franci,

d.

Acad. Typis. Seneca, Qusest. Natural,

Schrsedleri, *

ii.

§ 2.

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

12

Beyond Elephantine " roches

moutonnees

are

"

cliffs

and

sandy

marking out the beds

chains

beaches,

of the currents,

blackened

of

and

fantastic reefs,

sometimes bare, and sometimes veiled by long grasses and climbing plants, in which thousands of birds have made their ally large

enough

Amerade, Salug, Sehel, but

There are

nests.

islets, too,

occasion-

to have once supported something of a population, such as

Sehel.

its debris,

The

granite threshold of

Nubia

is

broken beyond

massed in 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

The channel running by

small cascades.

the left

bank

is

broken up into

always navigable.

is

ENTUANCfi TO NCBIA.'

During the inundation, the rocks and sandbanks of the right pletely under water, and their presence

is

the river's reaching

its

fall of

and there big

hugging the

or easily

boats,

drift

lowest point a

down with the

together in this corner of Africa. porpiiyritic

some

All

white, and granites veined with black

com-

But on

six feet is established,

up by means of

ropes,

kinds of granite are found

There are the pink and red

granite, grey

granite, yellow

only betrayed by eddies.

shore, are hauled

current.^

side are

Syenites,

both black granite and

granite,

and veined with white.^

As soon

as

these disappear behind us, various sandstones begin to crop up, allied to the coarsest

calcaire

grossier.

The

peaks half overturned, with

hills

bristle

with

small

split

rough and denuded mounds.

blocks, with

League beyond

View taken from the southern point of the island of PhilsB. From a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. " For a detailed description of the first cataract, see Jomard, Description de Syene tt des cataractes, '

In the Description de I'Egypte, vol. '

De

i.

pp. 144-154.

RozikRE has scheduled and analyzed the Syene granites

I'Eyypte, in the Description de VEgypie, vol. xxi. pp. 59-93).

(^De la Constitution physique

de

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

14

league, they stretch in low ignoble outliue.

sharply into the desert, revealing an

infinite

perspective

summits and

of

one behind another to the furthest

escarpments in echelon motionless

horizon, like

Here and there a valley opens

The now

caravans.

confined

plane

of the

river rushes on with

a low, deep murmur, accompanied night and day by the croaking of frogs

and the rhythmic creak of the in

sakieh.^

unknown times by an unknown

Jetties of rough stone-work,

people, run out like breakwaters into mid-

LEAGUE BEYOND LEAGUE, THE HILLS STRETCH ON

stream.^

narrow

From time fields

to

of durra

acacias, date-palms,

LOW IGNOBLE OUTLINE.*

and of barley.

Scraps of close, aromatic pasturage,

and dom-palms, together with a few shrivelled sycamores,

some ancient

city,

The

ruins of a crumbling pylon

and, overhanging the water,

rock honeycombed with tombs. huts, scattered

IN

time waves of sand are borne over, and drown the

are scattered along both banks. site of

made

hamlets, a town

the only evidence that there

is

Amid

a vertical wall of

these relics of another age, miserable

or two

yet

is

mark the

life

surrounded in Nubia.

with

little

South of

gardens are

Wady

Halfah,

' The sdHeh 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. long chain of earthenware vessels

A

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. Various elevators of the same type are drawn and described in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xii. pp. 408-415, Atlas, Mat moderne, vol. ii., Arts et Meiers, pis. iii.-v. * From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, taken in 1881. « « Our progress was often stopped by jetties of rough stone stretching out into the middle of the river. Were they intended for raising the level of the Nile at the inundations ? , . They produce very rapid currents. Sometimes, when the boat has been heavily dragged as far as the projecting point, it cannot cross it. The men then turn aside, drawing the ropes after them, and take the boat back again a few hundred yards down the river" (H. Gammas and A. Lekevke, La VaWe du Nil, .

The positions of many of these jetties are indicated on Prokesch's map (Land ztoisclim dm und grossen KataraJcten des Nil. Astronomisch beUiinmt und au/genommen im Jahre 1827 durch. ... A. von Peokesch, Vienna, C. Gerold). p.

104).

kleinen

NUBIA. the second granite bank

than 350

broken through, and the second cataract spreads

over a length of four leagues:

rapids

its

is

islets,

of which

some

the archipelago numbers

sixty have houses

The main

to their inhabitants.^

15

more

upon them and yield harvests

characteristics of the first two cataracts are

repeated with slight variations in the cases of the

which

three

Hannek, and

Egypt

erished,

almost

is

a joy-

bereft

brightness

its

It

but

still,

less

at

Guerendid,

at

El-Hu-mar.^

Egypt

—

follow,

of

impov-

;

and

disfigured,

There

desolate.

the same double wall

is

of hills,

now

closely con-

the

fining

again

withdrawing

each

other

to

flee

and

valley,

into

from

as

though

the

desert.

are moving

Everywhere

sand,

sheets

of

black

banks

steep

with their

narrow strips of cultiva-

which are

villages

tion,

scarcely

on

visible

ac-

count of the lowness

The

huts.

their

more ceases

of

ENTRANCE TO THE SECOND CATARACT.'

syca-

The Nile alone has not changed. Here, however, on the right affluent,

become fewer and

at Gebel-Barkal, date-palms

the

Takazze,

Northern Ethiopia. flowed divides

;

As

it

was at Phiiae, so

finally disappear. it

is

bank, 600 leagues from the sea,

which

intermittently

At Khartum,

the

single

brings

channel

and two other streams are opened up

to in

it

the

at Berber. is

its

first

waters of

which the river

in a southerly direction,

A list of the Nubian names of these rocks and islets has been somewhat incorrectly drawn up by RiFAUD, Tableau de I'Egypte, de la Nubie et des lieux civconvouins, pp. 55-60 (towards the end of the volume, after the Vocabulaires). Rifaud only counted forty-four cultivated islands at the '

J. J.

beginning of this centurj'. 2 The cataract system has been studied, and

du Nil

et spe'cialement

(ie Nil, »

le

de

celles

de

Hannek

et

its plan published by E. de Gottberg (Des cataractes de Kaybar, 1867, Paris, 4to), and later again by Chelc

Soudan, I'Egypte, pp. 29-73).

View taken from the top

of the rocks of Abusir, after a photograph by Iiisinger, in 1881.

— THE NILE AND EGYPT.

16

each of them apparently equal is

—

the true Nile?

Is

the distant mountains

immense

it

?

it

is

it

its

The

months together

follow the Nile for

banks, only to find

its

as ever.

It

The Egyptians

as they

victorious

armies

pursued the tribes who dwelt

as wide, as full, as irresistible in its progress

it

was a fresh-water

which they called

as obstinately as it withheld

Vainly did their

ago.

The

old Egyptians never knew.

them

source from

from us until a few years

upon

the White Nile, which has traversed the

plains of equatorial Africa.

river kept the secret of

Which

the main stream.

to

Blue Nile, which seems to come down from

the

Or

volume

in

sea,

and sea

iaumd, ioma

— was the name by

it.^

therefore never sought

its

They imagined the whole

source.

universe to be a large box, nearly rectangular in form, whose greatest diameter

was from south to north, and alternate continents

and

its least

seas,

to others.^

it

Its

like

The

formed the bottom of the box

oblong, and slightly concave stretched over

from east to west.^

with

floor,

an iron ceiling,

flat

Egypt

in

its

;

earth, with its

it

was a narrow,

The sky

centre.^

according to some,* vaulted according

earthward face was capriciously sprinkled with lamps hung

from strong cable?,* and which, extinguished or unperceived by day, were lighted, or

became

visible to our eyes, at night.'

Since this ceiling could

not remain in mid-air without support, four columns, or rather four forked Maspeho, Lea Contes populaires de Vilgypte ancienne, 2nd edition, pp. 20, 177. With regard to the ancient comparison of the Nile to a si a. see Letronne, Becherch s g^ographiques et critiques sur le livre " De Mensnra Orbis Terrse," compost en Islande au commencement du ix'^ siecle par Dicuil; For Arab authorities on the same subject, see S. de Sacy, Gkrestomathie arabe, 2nd text, p. 25, § 8. '

edition, vol.

i.

pp. 13-15.

Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie

et d'Arch^oIogie ^gyptiennes, vol, i. pp. 159-162, 330, et seq., and pp. 205-208 (cf. Bulletin de VInslitut ^gyptien, 2nd series, vol. vi. pp. 19, 20, and Bevue de VHistoire des Beligions, vol. xviii. pp. 266-270). For analogous ideas, even in Byzantine times, see ^

vol.

ii.

Letronne's memoir on the Opinions cosmographiques des Peres de V^glise series, vol.

i.

(_CEuvres

choisies,

2nd

p. 382, et seq.).

HoRAPOLLO, Hieroglyphica (Leemans' edition), i. xxi. p. 31 ^ AlyvitTiwv y^, inel uta-ri Tr)S Compare a fragment by Homer Trismegistus, in Stob^us, Eclog., i. 52 'Eird Sf iv Tip y.i(T(f Tjfs 77)s T) rwv Kpoy6vwu rjfKJov ifpoTdrri x'^P"A late hieroglyphic group is so arranged as to express the same idea, and can be read the middle land. * To my knowledge, Deveria was the first to prove that " the Egyptians believed that the sky was of iron or steel " (Th. Deveria, Le Fer et VAimant, leur nom et leur usage dans V Ancienne Egypte, in the Mdanges d' archeologie, vol. i. pp. 9, 10). So well established was the belief in a sky-ceiling of iron, that it was preserved in common speech by means of the name given to the metal itself, viz. *

:

olKoufj.fvr]s virapxei.

:

•

Bai-ni-pit (in the Coptic Benipi, benipe)

— metal

•

•

of heaven (Chabas, V Antiquity historique, 1st edition,

pp. 64-67).

* This is sufiQciently proved by the mere form of the character ^—», used in the hieroglyphs for heaven, or the heavenly deities. * Certain arched stelae are surmounted by the hieroglyph given in the preceding note, only in these cases it is curved to represent the vaulted sky. Brugsch has given several good examples of this conception of the firmament in his Beligion und Mythologie der alten JEgypter, p. 203, et seq. '

The

variants of the sign for night

— "t^,

|l

—

—are

most

significant.

The end

of the rope to

which the star is attached passes over the sky, ^, and falls free, as though arranged for drawing a lamp up and down when lighting or extinguishing it. And furthermore, the name of the stars khabim is the same word as that used to designate an ordinary lamp.

—

THE FOUR PILLARS AND THE FOUR MOUNTAINS.

17

trunks of trees, similar to those which maintained the primitive house, were sup-

posed to uphold

But

it.^

it

was doubtless feared

lest

some tempest ^ should

overturn them, for they were superseded by four lofty peaks, rising at the four

AN ATTEMPT TO REPRESENT THE EGYPTIAN UNIVERSE.' cardinal points, and connected tians

knew

little of

interposed between

by a continuous chain of mountains.

the northern peak it

YYYY-

the Mediterranean, the " Very Green,"

and Egypt, and prevented their coming near enough

Isolated, these pillars are represented

supporting the sky

:

The Egyp-

under the form

Brugsch, who was the

first

*

to

T,

but they are often found together as

to

study their function, thought that

four were placed to the north, and that they denoted to the Egyptians the mountains of Armenia (Geographische Inschri/ten, vol. i. pp. 35-39). He afterwards recognized that they were set up at each of the four cardinal points, but thought that this conception of their use was not older

all

than Ptolemaic times (G. Ins., vol. iii. pp. 53-55). Like all Egyptologists, heiffterwards admitted that these pillars were always placed at the four cardinal points (Religion und Mythologie, pp. 201-202). * The words designating hurricanes, storms, or any kind of cataclysm, are followed by the Masign Hffff-, which represents the sky as detaclied and falling from its four supporting pillars. gicians sometimes threatened to overthrow the four pillars if the gods would not obey their orders. '

Section taken at Hermopolis.

To

the

left, is

the bark of the sun on the celestial river.

first recognized by Birch (The Annals of Tlwtmes Archxologia, vol. xxxv. p. 162, and p. 46 of the reprint); E. de Rouge (Notice de quelques teztes hi^roghjphiques r€cemment publics par M. Greene dayis I'Ath^nieum Frangais. 1855, pp. 12-14 of the reprint) and especially Brugsch (Geog. Insch., vol. i. pp. 37-40) completed this demonstration.

The name

of Uaz-oirit, the Very Greene,

was

III., in

;

The

lied Sea

is

called Qnn-Oirit the Very Black.

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

18 see

The southern peak was named Apit-to/ the Horn

it.

on the east was called Bakhii, the Mountain of Birth

known

;

that

and the western peak was

;

Manu, sometimes as Oukhit, the Region of

as

of the Earth

Bakhu was not

Life.^

a fictitious mountain, but the highest of those distant summits seen from the Nile in looking towards the

Red

whose summit closed the

to

some

it

was discovered that neither Bakhu nor

of the

hill

Libyan

desert,

Manu answered When uorizon.^

In the same way,

Sea.

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

form

to

to the

with

peaks, invested

fabulous

the

actual

familiar

boundary of the

Ocean-stream of the Greeks

These were not supposed

names. universe

— lay between

a great

;

them and

river its

—analogous

utmost

limits.

This river circulated upon a kind of ledge projecting along the sides of the

box a

below the continuous mountain chain upon which the starry

little

On

heavens were sustained.

the north of the ellipse, the river was bordered by

a steep and abrupt bank, which took

and soon rose high enough

The narrow

valley which

to

its rise

known

as Dait from remotest

Eternal night enfolded that valley in thick darkness, and

times.^

west,

form a screen between the river and the earth.

hid from view was

it

peak of Manu on the

at the

with dense air such as no living thing could breathe.^

Towards the

steep bank rapidly declined, and ceased altogether a little

filled

it

east the

beyond Bakhu,

while the river flowed on between low and almost level shores from east to south, and then from south to west.^

At the same equable

a boat.' *

Compare the

was the

first to

pp. 35, 36

;

Mountains of

Theban

the

v/as

a disc of

the river carried

it

fire

placed upon

round the ramparts

Greek geographers. Brugsch placed at the southern extremity of the world (G. Ins., vol. i. has hypothetically identified the Horn of the Earth with the

expressions, Ndrou Kepas, 'Eo-irfpov Kepas, of the

note that Apit-to

vol.

rate,

The sun

iii.

p.

Moon

52).

of

the

He

is

Arab geographers.

I

believe

Egyptians of the great the mountain ranges of affluents, they saw tliis group

that the

period (eighteenth to twentieth dynasties) indicated by that

name

In the course of their raids along the Blue Nile and its afar, but they never reached it. 2 With regard to Bdhhu and Ma?iM, see an article by Brugsch (?7e6er den Ost- unci Westpunkt des Sonnenlaufes nach den ulldgyptischea Vorstellungen, in the Zeitschrift, 1864, pp. 73-76), which is a digest of indications furnished by Dijmichen. See also BRvascn, Die allagyptische Voikertafel (in the Verhandlung des 5« Orientalisten Congresses, vol. ii., Afrikanische Sektion, pp. 62, 63), and Maspero, Etudes de Mythohgie et d' Arch^ologie ^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp 6-8 (cf. Revue de VHistoire des Religions, Brugsch places the mountain of Bakhii at Gebel Zmfirud, a little too far south. vol. XV. pp. 270-272). ' In Ptolemaic lists, Manu is localized in the Libyan nome of Lower Egypt, and ought to be fouTid somewhere on the road leading through the desert to the Wady Natrfin (Brugsch, Dictionnaire

Abyssinia. of

summits from

ge'ographique, p. 259). *

The name of Dait, and the epithet Da'iti, " dweller in Dait," which is derived from it, are met with in Pyramid texts. Hence they must belong to the older strata of the language. Kakui samui, Maspero, Etudes de Mythohgie et d'Arch^ologie €gyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 31 (cf.

frequently *

Revue de VHistoire des Religions, vol. xvii. p. 274). ° Maspero, Etudes de Mythohgie et d? Arch^ohgie ^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. \Q-\% (cLla Revue deV Histoire des Religions, vol. xviii. pp. 266-268, where all these conceptions are indicated for the first time). ' So the native artists represented it; as, for example, in several vignettes of the Booh of the Dead (Naville's edition, vol. i. pis. xxx., cxliv.).

THE CELESTIAL NILE. From evening

of the world. of Dait;

its

until

morning

disappeared within the gorges

it

and

light did not then reach us,

19

it

From morning

was night.

being no longer intercepted by any obstacle, were

until

evening

freely

shed abroad from one end of the box to the other, and

its rays,

Nile branched off from the celestial river at

its

it

The

was day.

southern bend;^ hence the

south was the chief cardinal point to the Egyptians, and by that they oriented themselves, placing sunrise to their

they passed beyond spot

whence the

and

Philae,

the

and that they descended

writers

classic

of Gebel

It

may

Silsileh,

Before

to tlieir right.^

they thought that the

sky was situate between Elephantine

celestial waters left the

leaps were at Syene.

by

defiles

and sunset

left,

in

an immense waterfall whose

be that the tales about the

first

last

cataract told

but a far-off echo of this tradition of a barbarous

are

Conquests carried into the heart of Africa forced the Egyptians to

age.^

recognize their error, but did not weaken their faith

They only placed

origin of the river.

rounded stream,

with

it

at

sailors

They

marvels.

greater

an

reached

length

source

its

told

in the

supernatural

further south,* and

sur-

up

the

by

how,

undetermined

going

kind

country, a

of

borderland between this world and the next, a " Land of Shades," whose

were dwarfs, monsters, or

inhabitants

a

sprinkled

sea

with

mysterious

spirits.^

islands,

Thence

like

those

they passed

enchanted

into

archi-

pelagoes which Portuguese and Breton mariners were wont to see at times

when

on

islands

their

voyages, and

which

were inhabited by serpents with human voices, sometimes friendly

He who

and sometimes cruel to the shipwrecked. islands

waters •

The

These

vanished at their approach.

could

and

never

more

lost within

the bosom

classic writers themselves

from heaven

:

re-enter

knew

that,

them

went forth from the

they were

:

of the

waves.**

A

resolved

into

the

modern geographer

according to Egyptian belief, the Nile flowed down (Porphyry, in Eusebius, Priep.

"Ocripis etrriv 6 'He'iKos, ov e^ ovpavov Kara
iii. 11, 54, et seq.). The legend of the Nile having its source iu the ocean stream was but Greek transposition of the Egyptian doctrine, which represented it as an arm of the celestial river whereon ihe sun sailed round the earth (Herodotus, ii. 21 Diodorus, i. 37). ^ Tliis Egyptian method of orientation was discovered by Chabas, Les Inscriptions des Mines d'or,

Evang., a

;

1862, '

p. 32, et seq.

Maspeuo, Etudes de Mythologie

VEistoiredes Religions,

et

vol. xviii. pp. 269,

ii. pp. 17, 18 11 of the present volume.

d'Arche'ulogie ^gyptiennes, vol.

270);

cf. p.

(cf.

Eevue de

* It was perhaps a recollection of some such legend as this which led the Nubians speaking to Burckhardt, to describe the second catar.tct " as though falling from heaven" (Burckuardt, Travels There must have been a time when the sources of the Nile stopped near in Nubia, p. 78, note 2). Wady Halfah, or Semneh, before receding further towards Central Africa. ^ In the time of the sixth dynasty, in the account of the voyages of Hirkhfif, mention is made of r/ifi Land of tipirits (Schiapaeeli.i, Una Tomba Egiziana inedita della YI<^ Dinasiia con iscrizioni The storiche e geografiche, pp. 21, 33, 34; cf. Maspero, Revue Critique, 1892, vol. ii. pp. 362, 366). Land of Spirits was vaguely placed near the Land of Puanit that is to say, towards the Aromati/era

—

Regio of the Graeco-Komau geographers. "

This

is

the subject of a tale which was discovered and published by

M. Golenischeff.

in

1881

Oriental Congress at

(Sur un ancien conte e'gyptien, 1881, Berlin), and in the Abhandlungen Berlin, African Section, pp. 100-122). See also Maspero, Les Contes populaires de I'Ancienne Egypte, 2nd edit., pp. 131-146. of the

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

20

can hardly comprehend such fancies

They

them.

perfectly familiar with

Roman

those of Greek and

;

believed that the Nile communicated

with the

Red Sea near Suakin, by means

certainly

the route

of the Astaboras, and

and farther south

and we have only

;

was

this

which the Egyptians of old had imagined

The supposed communication was gradually

navigators.^

times were

for

their

transferred farther

glance over certain maps of the

to

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to see clearly drawn what the Egyptians

had imagined

—the

centre

Arab merchants of the Middle Ages

Congo, the Zambesi, and the Nile.^ believed

a

that

the land of the

Many

river.^

man

resolute

could

pass

from

Alexandria or Cairo to

and the Indian Ocean by

Zindjes

whence issued the

Africa as a great lake,

of

legends relating to this subject are

of the

from river to

rising

lost,

Jewish and

have been collected and embellished with fresh features by

The Nile was

Christian theologians.

burning

traverse

to

whence

into a sea

from

celestial

its

The

earth.^

regions

made

it

said to have

inaccessible

way

its

fruits

sea mentioned in all these tales

invention than we are at

first

inclined

is

perhaps a

A

to think.

el-Abiad unites

with

have

Birket Nii;

enough sea,

to

within them

far

but

Chassinat,

to

deepest depression,

preceding our era,

Indian

the

its

soldiers

on

the

must

which

is

Bahr

Alluvial

known

as

have been vast

still

and boatmen the idea of an actual outline

was

southward on the further shores, doubtless contained

Go. et la, §

iii.,

Grammnire

In M^moires historiques

it

down

extravagant

where

The mountains, whose

Ocean.

There the inundation was made ready,

mysterious source.^

its

sur differents points de "

all

suggest to Egyptian

opening into

Cf.

up

less

with the Bahr el-Ghazal.

Sobat, and

but, in ages

vaguely seen

'

filled

carried

lake, nearly as large

Nyanza, once covered the marshy plain

deposits

it

fall

unlike any to be found

as the Victoria

the

Paradise,

afterwards to

Sometimes

to Egypt.

branches and

sources

source in

its

man, and

to

while other

et

in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. xvii. p. 53 pp. 76-78.

;

and Maspero, Notes

et d'Histoire, § v., ibid.,

g^ographiques sur VEgypte,

vol.

ii.

pp

22, 23, 181, et seq., ExiiiNNE

QuATREM^uE has collected various passages bearing on this subject, from the works of Arab writers. Even in 1859, Figari Bey admitted that the great equatorial lakes -miglit send out "two streams, of which the one would flow westward, follow the northern valley, and rush dowa the great cataract " The second would turu in the opposite direction, of Gebel Kegef " to run into the Mediterranean form the river of Melindus, which is some seventy-five leagues north of the equator," and open into the Indian Ocean (Figari Bey, Aper^u tMorique de la G^ugraphie ge'ognostique de I'Afrique centrale, in the Memoires de I'Instilut Egyptien, vol. i. p. 108, and the map to p. 114). * A. KiRCHER, (Edipus Mgyptiacus, vol. i. p. 52 Letronne, Sur la situation du Paradis terrestre, Joinville has given a special chapter to the 415-422. in (Euvres choisies, 2ud series, vol. i. pp. which he believed as firmly as in an article in description of the sources and wonders of the Nile, late as the beginning of the seventeenth century, As of his creed (Histoire de Saint Louis, ch. xL). Wendelinus devoted part of his Admiranda Nili (§ iii. pp. 27-37) to proving that the river did not rise in the earthly Paradise. At Gurnali, forty years ago, Rhind picked up a legend which stated ;

that the Nile flows

down from

the sky (^Thebes,

its

Tombs and

their Tenants, pp. 301-304).

Elisee Keclus, Nouvelle G^oyraphie universelle, vol. x. p. 67, et seq. to the Egyptian conception of the sources of the Nile, and the outcome of their ideas on the subject, see Maspero's remarks in Les Contes populaires, 2nd edit., p. xciii., et seq. * *

As

TEE TEARS OF and there rise

and

began upon a

it fall,

The

fixed day.

21

ISIS. celestial

Nile had

its

on which those of the earthly Nile depended.

periodic

Every

year,

SOUTH AFRICA AND THE SOURCES OF THE NILE, BY ODOARDO LOPEZ.'

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,

Facsimile of the map published by Kircher in CEcHpus Mgyptiacus, vol. 1. Qconismus II.), p. 53. The legend of the tears of Isis is certainly a very ancient one. During the embalmment, and then throughout all the funeral rites of Osiris, Isis and Nephthys had been the wailing women, and their tears had helped to bring back the god to life. Now, Osiris was' a Nile god. "The night of the great flood of tears issuing from the Great Goddess" is an expression found in '

*

Pyramid texts {Unas, line 395), and is in all probability a reference to the Night of (he Drop (Lepage-Renouf, Nile Mythology, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, vol. xiii. Our earliest authentic form of the tradition comes to us tlirough Pausanias (x. 32, § 10): p. 9). 'Eoi/coto 5e av'hphs ijKoucra ^oluiKos ctyeic

Keyouat.

us

TO,

Tjj'

"itriSi

TrivtKavTa Se Koi 6 NeTAox avafiaiveiv

Alyuwriovs

(T(ii'i.cnv

TTjf ^opTrif,

&pxeTat, Kol

T(tiv

ore

aiirr^v rhi'''0(npiv trevdeii'

iirixupldiv iroWots iintv fipi]fxeva,

aij^ovra tov iroTaijLov koX apSeiv rots apovpas iroiovvTa SdKpvd effri rrjs ''lenSor.

phenomenon

is

fixed for us by the

modern

tradition

winch places the Night of

The date

of the

Drop

June

the

(Brugscu, Mute'riaux pour servir a la construction du calendrier des anciens Egyptiens,

in

p. 11, et seq.).

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

22 and her very name

is

unknown

to the descendants of her worshippers

tradition of her fertilizing tears has survived her

memory.

Even

;

but the

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 Lakes, the

fall

in

February over the region of the Great

White Nile rushes northward, sweepmg

before

by the inundation of the previous

sheets of water left

the Bahr el-Ghazal brings

it

between Darfur and the Congo

the stagnant

it

On

year.

the

left,

the overflow of the ill-defined basin stretching ;

and the Sobat pours in on the right a tribute

from the rivers which furrow the southern slopes of the Abyssinian mountains.

The

swell passes

first

Khartum by the end

there by about a foot, then

away

in

Egypt

it

of April,

slowly makes

at the beginning of June.

its

and

raises the water-level

way through Nubia, and

Its waters, infected

dies

by half-putrid

organic matter from the equatorial swamps, are not completely freed from

even in the course of this long journey, but keep a greenish tint as

They

the Delta.

are said to be poisonous,

bladder to any who

may

drink them.

away

long, but generally flows

far as

to give severe pains in

the

Happily, this Green Nile does not

last

in three or four days,

The melting

of the real flood.^

and

it

is

only the forerunner

and the excessive spring rains

of the snows

having suddenly swollen the torrents which

and

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 Khartiim in the middle of May, they

refuse to mingle with those of the

colour

before

miles below.

by day.

The

White

Nile, and do not lose their peculiar

reaching the neighbourhood of

From

river, constantly reinforced

become a devastating check

its

torrent were

Here

six basins,

course,

and permit

moderated stream.^

three

hundred

that time the height of the Nile increases rapidly day

by

from the Great Lakes and from Abyssinia,

cataracts.

Abu Hamed,

its

floods following one

rises in furious

bounds, and would

rage not checked by the Nubian

one above another, it

upon another

in

which the water

collects,

to flow thence only as a jiartially filtered

It is signalled at

Syene towards the 8th of June,

and

at Cairo

' Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 4th edit., vol. ii. p. 224. The date varies, and the FaU of the Drop may take place either during the night of the 17th to 18th, of the 18th to

19th, or of the 19th to 20th of June, according to the year. ' Sylvestre de Sacy has collected the principal Arabic and European texts bearing upon the Green Nile, in his Relation de I'Egypte par Abd-Allatif, pp. 332-33S, 34-1-346. I am bound to say that every June, for five years, I drauk 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. ' The moderating effect of tlie cataracts has been judicially defined by E. de Gottberg in

Des Cataractes du Nil, pp.

10, 11.

— THE GREEN NILE AND TEE RED by the 17th to the 20th, and there "

Night of the Drop."

^

Two days

to save the country from

birth

its

later

drought and

is officially

by a layer of grey dust. patches of

vegetables

lingers along

struggle

canals and

the

The

evaporated.

About the

The

for

fifty

trees are covered

life,

hollows whence all

plain lies panting in the sun

usual width, and

water which

former

its

not

bed,,

and attains It

is,

covered, there an

it

— naked,

has at

It

first

contact

is

The Nile

first

is

of the

only half

volume of

hard work to recover rise

is

however, continually gaining ground; here a sandbank

empty channel

filled, islets

is

are outlined where there

itself

and gains the old

shore.

disastrous to the banks; their steep sides, disintegrated

and cracked by the heat, no longer

and

dusty, and ashen

by such subtle gradations that the

was a continuous beach, a new stream detaches

The

and choked

moisture has not yet

more than a twentieth

borne down in October.

is

scarcely noted. is

holds

nothing

meagre and laboriously watered while some show of green still

scored with intersecting cracks as far as eye can see. its

days, seems

villages,

for

in

celebrated durino- the

Egypt, burnt up by the

sterility.

desert.

23

reaches the Delta, just in time

it

Khamsin, a west wind blowing continuously

more than an extension of the

NILE.

offer

any resistance

to

the current,

with a crash, in lengths of a hundred yards and more.

As the

successive floods -grow stronger and are more heavily charged with

mud, the

fall

whole mass of water becomes turbid and changes colour. days a

it

has turned from greyish blue to dark red, occasionally of so intense

colour as

to

unwholesome

lightness.

to

blood.

The

"

Green Nile," and the suspended

Eed Nile

mud

appearance deprives the water of none of

prevent

it

it,

"

to which

its

It reaches its full height towards the 15th of July

which confine still

look like newly shed

like the "

suspicious

its

In eight or ten

;

is

not

it

owes

freshness

and

but the dvkes

and the barriers constructed across the mouths of canals,

from overflowing.

The Nile must be considered high enough

submerge the land adequately before

it is

set free.^

The

ancient Egyptians

See the description of festivals and superstitious rites pertaining to The Drop, in Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 4th edit., vol. ii. p. 224. - There are few documents to show what the Egyptians considered the proper height of a "-ood inundation. However, we are told in a Ptolemaic inscription that at the moment when " in its own season the Nile comes forth from its sources, if it reaches to the height of twenty-four cubits (42 ft. 6 in.) at Elephantine, then there is no scarcity; the measure is not defective, and it comes to inundate the fields " (Brugsch, Angabe einer Nilhohe nach Ellen in einem Eieroglyphischen Texte, in the Zeitschrift, 1865, pp. 43, 44). Another text (Brugsch, Die Biblischen sicben Jahre der Eungersnoth, p. 153) fixes the height to be registered by the nilometer at Elephantine at twenty-eight cubits, and at seven, by the nilometer of Diospolis, in the Delta. The height of twenty-four cubits, taken from the nilometer at Elephantine, is confirmed by varinus passages from ancient and moJern writers. The indications given in my text are drawn from the nilometer of EoJa, as being that from which quotations are usually made. In computing the ancient levels of the rising Nile at Memphis, I have adopted the results of the cak-ulations undertaken by A. dk KoziJirk, Dp la constitution physique de I'Egypte, in the Description, vol. xx. pp. 351-381. He shows from Le FhRE *

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

24 measured

cubits, they

fourteen

above

height by cubits of twenty-one and

its

pronounced

an excellent Nile

it

To

hand.

at

advance with the same anxious eagerness

its

July, public

criers,

what progress

walking the

has made since evening.^

it

Cairo,

of

streets

More

At

inches.

below thirteen, or

;

was accounted insufficient or excessive, and

fifteen, it

meant famine, and perhaps pestilence watch

quarter

a

in either case

day the natives

this

and from the 3rd

;

of

announce each morning

or less authentic traditions

prelude to the opening of the canals, in the time of the

assert that the

Pharaohs, was the solemn casting to the waters of a young girl decked as for her bridal

— the

bosom

irruption of the river into the

actual marriage

firmed

its

to

is

fantastic

formalities

When

break through the dykes. state,

the flood

still

edge of the desert.

Egypt

it

is

has been

that proceeding

takes several days to

and afterwards spreads over the low lands, advancing

to the very

Oriental

of

generally between the 1st and 16th of July that

solemnly accon)plished in canals,

Arab conquest, the

the contract was drawn up by a cadi, and witnesses con-

;

It

after the

of the land was still considered as an

consummation with the most

ceremonial.^

decided

Even

"Bride of the Nile."^

little

fill

by

the

little

then one sheet of turbid water

is

spreading between two lines of rock and sand, flecked with green and black spots where there are irregular

towns or where the ground

compartments by raised roads connecting the

the river attains

its

greatest height towards the end of

in the Delta not until three

weeks or a month

remains stationary, and then begins to is

rises,

fall

and divided into

August

;

at Cairo

unsustained

;

once more

it falls

imperceptibly.

as rapidly as

the river has completely retired to the limits of the

streams which fed

it

the sands before rejoining

{M€moire sur la

valine

du Nil

et

sur

it,

le

dwindle.

or

fail

and the

Blue

its

and

For about eight days

later.

it

rose,

But the

and by December

One

bed.

it

Sometimes there

a new freshet in October, and the river again increases in height.

rise is

Nubia

In

villages.

The Tacazze

is

Nile, well-nigh

after another, lost

among

deprived of

nilometre de Vile de RoudaTi, in the Description, vol. xviii.

number

of cubits is only apparent, and that the actual rise almost invariable, although the registers of the nilometers advance from age to age. table of most of the known rises, both ancient and modern, is to be found in the recent work of Ghelu, Le Nil, le Soudan, VEgypte, pp. 81-93. p.

555, et eeq.) that the increase in the

A

is

In his Manners and Customs, 4th edit., vol. ii. pp. 225-236, Lane described the criers of the Their proclamations have scarcely changed since his time, excepting that the introduction cf steam-power has supplied them witli new images for indicating the rapidity of the rise. ^ G. LuMRROSO lias collected the principal passages in ancient and modern writers relating to This tradition furnished Tlie Bride of the Nile, in L'Egitto al tempo dei Greet e dei Bomani, pp. 6-10. G. Ebeks witii material for a romance called Die Nilbraut, wherein he depicts Coptic life during the first years of Arab rule with much truth and vivacity. ' Syltestke de Sacy, Le Livre des Etoiles errantes, par le Scheikh Schemseddin Mohammtd bin '

Nile.

Ahilsorur al-Bakeri al-Sadiki, in the Notices

et

Extraits des Manuscrits, vol.

i.

p. 275.

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

26 tributaries, is

but scantily maintained by Abyssinian snows. The White Nile

indebted to the Great Lakes for the greater persistence of

is

which

its waters,

feed the river as far as the Mediterranean, and save the valley from utter

drought

But, even with this resource, the level of the water

in winter.

falls

diminished.

Long-hidden sandbanks reappear, and

are again linked into continuous line.

Islands expand by the rise of shingly

daily,

and

volume

its

is

beaches, which gradually reconnect

them with each other and with the

Smaller branches of the river cease to

muddy

nant pools and

and form a mere network of stag-

The main channel

ponds, which fast dry up.

only intermittently navigable

;

after

March

boats run aground in

middle of April to the middle of June, Egypt

is

itself is

it,

and are

From

the return of the inundation for their release.

to await

forced

flow,

shore.

the

only half alive, awaiting

the new Nile.^

Those ruddy and heavily charged waters, rising and retiring with almost mathematical regularity, bring and leave the spoils of the countries they sand from Nubia, whitish clav

from

the regions

of the

Lakes, ferruginous mud, and the various rock-formations of Abyssinia.^

These

have traversed

:

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. surface,

The mud and

finer particles rise

and are deposited upon the land after the opening of the dykes.*

which

is

entirely dependent on the deposit of a river,

invaded by

it,

necessarily maintains but a scanty flora;

Soil

known

towards the

and periodically

and though

it is

that, as a general rule, a flora is rich in proportion to its distance

the poles and

its

approach to the equator,

an exception to this

rule.

At

it is

also admitted that

Egypt

well

from offers

the most, she has not more than a thousand

The main phases of the rise are chiefly described from the very full account of Le Pere, M^moire aur la valine du Nil et le nilometre de I'isle de Boudah, in tlie Description de I'Ugypte, vol. '

xviii. pp.

555-645.

All manner of marvels were related by the ancients as to the nature and fertilizing properties of the waters of the Nile. A hcientific analysis of these waters was first made by Regnaut, Analyse de I'eau du Nil et de qiielqwn eaux salves, in the Decade €gyptienne, vol. i. pp. 261-271. The result *

most recent esaminatiou is to be found, in great detail, in Cheltj's work, Le Nil, le Soudan, VEgypte, pp. 177-179. ' On the nature and movements of the alluvial deposits, see P. S. Giraed, Ohservations sur la valine d'Egypie et sur V exhaussement f^culaire du sol qui la recouvre, iu tlie Description de VEgypte, vol. xix. p. 140, sqq. and E. de Rozierb, De la constitution physique de VEgypte et de ses rapports avec les anciennes institutions de cette contre'e, in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xx. p. 328,. of the

;

et seq.

SCANTINESS OF THE EGYPTIAN FLORA. species, while, with equal area,

hundred

Many

and of

^ ;

of

England,

for instance, possesses

more than

are

making

it

man

river

birds

;

himself has contributed his part

From Asia he

more complete.^

fifteen

not indigenous.

them have been brought from Central Africa by the

and winds have continued the work, and in

number

thousand, the greater

this

27

has at different times brouo-ht

wheat, barley, the olive, the apple, the white or pink almond, and some twenty

other species now acclimatized on the banks of the Nile.

dominate

in the

Delta

;

Marsh plants

pre-

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.*

The sycamore and the date-palm, both importations from Central have better adapted themselves to their ized

on Egyptian

desert

hills,

supreme.

search of

and they absorb

The heavy,

which

water, it

freely,

foliage

are

Gay-Lussac,

Du

as

far

the

Its

so wide-spreading

sol ^gyptien,

A

roots

gorges of

squat, gnarled trunk occasionally attains to

impenetrable to the sun.

'

country.

even where drought seems to reign

Its

colossal

rounded masses of com-

that a single tree in the distance

give the impression of several grouped together

Raffeneau-Delile

as

infiltrates

dimensions, without ever growing very high. pact

fully natural-

in sand on the edge of the

as vigorously as in the midst of a well-watered

go deep in the

The sycamore^ grows

soil.

and are now

exile,

Africa,

;

and

its

shade

striking contrast to the sycamore

in the Bulletin de

VlvsWut

^gyptien,

2nd

is is

may

dense, and

presented

series, vol

ii.

p. 221.

(Florie ^gyptiacse lllustratio, in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xix. pp. 69-1 14)

enumerates 1030 species. Wilkinson {Manwrs and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. ii. p. 403) counts about 1300, which 250 are only to be found in the desert, thus bringing down the number belonging to Egypt Ascherson and Schweinfdrth (Illustration proper to Ihe figures given by Delile and Gay-Lussac. de la Flore d'Egypte, in the M^moires de I'Institut egyptien, vol. ii. pp. 25-260) have lately raised the list to 1260, and since then fresii researches have brought it up to 1313 (Schweinftjrth, Sur la Flore Coquedes anciens jardins arabes, in the Bulletin de VInstitut Egyptien, 2Qd series, vol. viii. p. 331). BERT had already been struck by the poverty of the Egyptian flora as compared with that of France (Reflexions sur quelques points de comparaison a elahlir entre les plantes d'Egypte et celles de France, of

in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xix. pp. 8,

'-i).

A. Raffenau-Delile, M^moire sur les planies qui croissent spontan^inent en Egypte, in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xix. p. 23, et seq. Schweinfl'rth, Veyetaux cultiv€s en Egypte et qui se retrouvent a V^tat spontane dans le Soudan et dans Vint€rieur de VAfrique, in the Bulletin de VInstitut *

Egyptien, 1st series, vol. xii.

p.

200, et seq.

For the lotus in general, see Raffenau-Delile, Flore d'Egypte (in the Description, vol. xix. pp. The white lotus, Nymphxa 415-43.1), and F. W(enig, Die Pflanzen im Alten ^gypten, pp. 17-74. lotus, was called soshini in Egyptian (Loret, Sur les noms ^gyptiens du lotus, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. i. pp. 191, 19'i, and La Flore pharaonique d'apres les documents hi€roglyphiques et les sped' mens d^couverts daris les tombes. No. 129, pp. 53-55). The blue lotus, Nymphxa casrulea, the most ^

tomb scenes (Schweinftjrth, De la Flore pharaonique, in the Bulletin de VInstitut Egyptien, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 60, et seq.), was called sarpedu (Lohet, Sur les noms ^gyptiens, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. i. p. 194). The rose lotus was called nakhabu, nahhu (ibid., pp. 192, Pleyte (Die Egyptiache Lotus, p. 9) thinks that this last kind was introduced into Egypt 193). somewhat late, towards the time of Darius and Xerxes. * F. W(ENIG, Die Pflanzen im Alten ^gypten, pp. 280-292, has made a fairly exhaustive collection of ancient and modern material referring to tiie Egyptian sycamore (nuhit, nuhe). frequent in

28

777^

by the date-palm.^

NILE AND EGYPT.

round and slender stem

Its

height of thirteen to sixteen yards;

a

head

its

uninterruptedly to

rises is

crowned with a cluster

of flexible leaves arranged in two or three tiers, but so scanty, so pitilessly slit,

that

they

unrefreshing

fail

keep

to

Few

shadow.

the

off

light,

have

trees

so

and cast elegant

but

an

slight

and

appearance,

yet

a

SYCAMORES AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE MUDIBIYEH OF ASYUT.^

few are so monotonously every hand ravines

the

and about the

river

— these grouped,

clustered

isolated,

;

like

are

rows

the

by

twos

of

columns,

the

and

palm threes

at

symmetrically arranged

background

landscape.

against

The

which

feathery

be seen on

trees to

the

in regular file along

villages, planted

invariable

diversifying

There are

elegant.

mouths

of

the banks of

in

plantations,

other

tamarisk

^

trees

are

and

the

A. Raffenau-Delile, Flore d'Egypte, in the Description Je VEgit'pte,\o\. xx. pp. 435-448. The Egyptians called the date-palm haunirit, haunit (Loret, Etude svr quelques arhres ^gyptiens, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. ii. pp. 21-26). ' From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, taken in 1881. * The Egyptian name lor the tamarisk, asari, asri, is identical with that given to it in Semitic languages, both ancient and modern (Loret, La Flore pharaonique. No. 88, p. 88). 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 Thebau tombs, have yielded us leaves, twigs, and even whole branches of the tamarisk (Schweinfurth, Les dernieres Dgcouvertes hotaniques dans les %nciens tombeaux de VEgijpte, in the Bulletin de V Inslitut e'gyptien, 2nd series, vol. vl. p. 283). '

o I

o to

3 pa

K

a X S3

SO

o o

ja a.

O pa

o ^.

c.

ss

o

w

-q

a

a o a

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

30

the moriaga,^ the carob,^ or locust tree, several varieties of acacia

nabk,*

the mimosa — the —and the pomegranate

and mimosa Farnesiana

'^

sont,*

tree,^ increase in

from the Mediterranean.

makes the

to them, but aerial aspect,

climates.^

habbas,^ the white acacia,^ the Acacia

The dry

air of

number with the

the valley

distance

marvellously suited

is

tissue of their foliage hard and fibrous, imparting an

and such faded

tints as are

The greater number

unknown

to their

in other

of these trees do not reproduce themselves

spontaneously, and tend to disappear when neglected.

formerly abundant by the banks of the river, fined to certain valleys of the

growth

Theban

kernelled dom-palm,^^ of which a

is

The Acacia

now almost

desert, along with

poetical description

Seyal,^^

entirely con-

a variety of the

has come

down

to

nubsu of the ancient Egyptian lists pharaonique, No. 112, pp. 44, 45; Ddmichen, in Moldenke, Ueber die in alt^gyptischen Texten erudhnten Bdume, pp. 108, 109, note; Maspero, iVo^es aujour le jour, § 12, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1890-91, vol. xiii. pp. 496-501). The fruit and wood of the tree has been found iu tombs, more especially in those of the twentieth dynasty (Schwein-

The nabeca, (LoRET, La Flore '

or nabk, Zizyphus

Spina

Christi, Desf., is the

2nd series, vol. v. p. 260. which Ben oil is obtained, the myrobalanum of the ancients, was called bcilihu, and its oil is mentioned iu very early texts (Loret, Jiecherches sur plusiturs plantea connues des anciens Egyptiens, in the Becueil de Travaux, vol. vii. pp. 103-106; and La Flore For its presence in Theban tombs, see Schweinfurth, Les pharaonique. No. 95, pp. 39, 40). I'Institut €gyptien, 2nd series, vol. vi. p. 270. in the Bulletin de dernieres Decouvertes, ' The carob tree, Ceratonia siliqua, was called dunraga, tenraka (Loret. La Flore pharaonique. No. 96, p. 40; and Becueil de Travaux, vol. xv. pp. 120-130). Unger thought that he had found some remains of it in Egyptian tombs {Die Pflamen des Alten JEgyptens, p. 132), but Schweinfurth (^Sur la Flore des anciens jar dins arabes d'Egypte, in the Bulletin de I'Institut ggyptien, 2nd series, vol. viii pp. 306, 334, 335) does not admit his testimony. FtJBTH, Les dernieres D€couvertes, in tlie Bulletin de I'Institut ^gyptien, *

The Moringa

*

The

sont tree, in ancient Egyptian, shondu, shonti, has long been identified with the Acacia

Del.

Nilotica,

aptera, from

Its history

may be found

in SfiHWEiNFUKTH's memoir, Aufz'dhlung

und Beschreibung

der Acacia-Arten des Nil-Gebiets, in Linnma, xxxv. (new series, i.) pp. 333, 334. * Mimosa habbas, A. Kapfekau-Delile, Florae Mgyptiacie Illustratio, in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xix. p. 111. * The Acacia dlbida is still not uncommon on the ancient site of Thebes, near Medlnet Habfi (Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. ii. p. 405, note 2). * This is the acacia bearing bunches of feathery and fragrant yellow flowers, and known in the South of France as the cassia tree. It is common throughout the Nile valley. Loret thinks that its hairy seeds were called pirshonu and senndru {Le Kyphi, parfum sacr€ des anciens Egyptiens, pp. 52-54 and La Flore pharaonique. No. 94, p. 39). But did the tree exist in Egypt in Pharaonic times ? * The pomegranate tree does not appear on Egyptian monuments before the time of the eighteenth dynasty perhaps it was first introduced into Egypt about that time. It is occasionally represented (Champollion, Monuments, pi. clxxiv. Lepsius, Denkm., iii. 48), and the flowers have been found in several Theban tombs (Schweinfurth, Les dernieres Decouvertes botaniques, in the Bulletin de V Institut e'gyptien, 2nd series, vol. vi. p. 268). Both Loret {Recherches sur plusieurs plantes connues des anciens Egyptiens, in the Becueil, vol. vii. pp. 108-111) and Moldenke {Anrhemen, Pomegranate Tree, in Etudes arch^ologiques d€di€es a M. Leemans, pp. 17, 18, and Ueber die in den altdgyptischen Texten erwdhnten Baiime, pp. 114, 1 15) have recovered its ancient Egyptian name of anhrama, anhramon. * A. Eaffenau-Delile, M^moire sur les plantes qui croissent spontan^ment en Egypte, in the ;

;

;

Description, vol. xix. pp. 35, 36.

The Acacia Seyul

probably the ashu of ancient texts (Loret, Les arhres ash, sib, et shent, in Moldenke, Ueber die in ii. p. 60, et seq., and La Flore pharaonique. No. 93, p. 39 alidgyptischea Texten erwdhnten Baiime, pp. 87-92). " Tills is the Hyphxne Argun, Mart., or the Medemia Argun, Hooker, called by the ancients Mama ni kkanini, or kernelled dom-palm (Loret, Ftude sur quelques arbres egyptiens, in the Becueil, '"

the Becueil, vol.

is

;

Uebtr die in altdgyptischen ii. pp. 21-20, and La Flore pharaonique. No. 29, p. 16: Moldenke, Texten erudhnten Baiime, pp. 71-73). Its fruit is occasionally found in Theban tombs (Unger, Die

vol.

ACAOIAS, TEE DdM-PALM. us from the

Ancient Egyptians.-^

The common dom-palm^

eight or ten yards from the ground

;

31 bifurcates

at

these branches are subdivided, and

terminate in bunches of twenty to thirty palmate and fibrous leaves, six to

ACACIAS AT THE ENTKAKCE TO A GARDEN OUTSIDE EKHMIM.'

eight feet long.

At the beginning

Upper Egypt, but

it

distance of the time

is

now becoming

when

its

sacred trees of Ancient Egypt,

the remaining tree species are

scarce,

common

is

in

in

and we are within measurable

presence will be an exception north of the

Willows* are decreasing

cataract.

of this century the tree was

first

number, and the persea,^ one of the

now only

to be found in gardens.

common enough

to

grow in large

None

clusters;

of

and

Egypt, reduced to her lofty groves of date-palms, presents the singular Pflanzen des Alten ^gyptens, Y). 107; Schweinfurth, Ueber Pflanzenreste au» altagyptischen Grahern, tl.e Berichte des Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft, 188i, p. 3tJ9)

in

'

First Sallier Papyrus,

Mama

pi. viii. lines 4, 5.

name for the dom-palm {Eypha&ne Thehaiaa of Mart.), and its fruit was quqa (Loret, Etude sur quelques arbres e'gyptiens, in the Mecueil, vol. ii. pp. 21-26). The tree itself has been fnlly described by Eaffexau-Delile, Description du pahnier-doum de la Haute Egypte ou Cucifera Thebaica, in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xx. p. 11, et seq. ^ From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, taken in 1884. * Known to-day as the Salix safsaf, Foksk. In Ancient Egyptian, it was called tarit, tore (Loret, La Flore pharaonique. No. 42, p. 20). Its leaves were use'd for making the funerary garlands so common in Theban tombs of the eighteenth to twentieth dynasties (Schweinfurth, Ueber Pflanzenreste aus altagyptischen Grabern, in the Berichte der D. Bot. Ges.. 1884, p. 369). ^ Raffenau-Delile, Flore d'Egypte, in the Description de V£gypte, vol. six. pp. 263-280, identified the persea, or Ancient l^^gyptian shaHaba, with ihe Balanites ^gyptiaca, Del., the lebakh of mediseval Arab writings. Schweinfurth has siiowu that it was the Mimusops Schimeperi, Hochst. (Z7e6er *

is

the Egyptian

called

.

Pflanzenreste, p. 364),

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

32

spectacle of a country where there

is

no lack of

but an almost entire

trees,

absence of shade.^ If

Egypt

is

a laud of imported flora,

it is

imported fauna,

also a land of

and

all

animal

its

been brought from

Some

countries.

have

species

neighbouring

of these

—

as, for

example, the horse ^ and the camel

— were

^

only introduced at a com-

paratively recent period, two thou-

sand

to

eighteen

before our era

The animals

;

hundred

the camel

years

still later.

— such as the long and

short-homed oxen, together with varieties

of goats

and dogs

—

are,

like the plants, generally of African

A SHE-ASS AND HER FOAL.*

and the

origin,^

ass of

Egypt

pre-

serves 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,

hedgehog, the ichneumon,^ the moufiflon, or maned sheep, innumerable

the

E. DE KoziERE,

'

Be

la constitution 'physique de VlEgypte, in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xx.

pp. 280, 281.

my knowledge, Prisse d'Avennes was the first to publish facts relating to the the horse in Egypt, Des Chevaux chez les avciens Egtjptiens, in Perron's AhouBekr ibn-Bedr They were le Naferi, la Perfection des deux arts, ou Traits d'hippiatrique, 1852, vol. i. p. 128, et seq. republished by Fr. Lenokmant, Notes sur nn voyage en Kgypte, 1870, pp. 2-4, and unsuccessfully contested by Chabas, Etudes sur V Antiquity hi stori que, 2nd edit., p. 421, et seq. M. Lefebure {Sui To

2

the best of

liistory of

I'AncienneM du cheval en Egypte, in L'Annuaire de la Faculty des lettres de Lyon, 2ud year, pp. 1-11, and again Le Norn du cheval, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, 1889-90, vol. xii. pp. 449-456) has since endeavoured to show, but without success, that the horse was known The most complete information with regard in Egypt under the twelfth dynasty, and even curlier. to the history of the horse in Egypt is to be found in the work of C.-A. Pietre.ment, Les Chevaux

dans

les

temps pr^historiques

et

hidoriques, 1883, p. 459, et seq.

The camel is never found on Egyptian monuments before the Saite period, and was certainly unknown in Egypt throughout preceding ages. The texts in which M. Chabas thought that he had found its name are incorrectly translated, or else they reler to other animals, perhaps to mules (Chabas, JEtudes sur Vantiquit^ historique, 2nd edit., p. 397, et seq.; compare also W. Houghton, Was the Camel known to the Ancient Egyptians ? in the Proceedings Soc. Bib. Arch., 1889-90, vol. ^

xii.

pp. 81-84). *

Scene from the tomb of Ti, drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after a photograph by DiJMiCHEN,

Resultate der PhotographischArchaioltgischen Expedition, vol.

animaux employes par

ii.

pi. x.

et a la guerre, Fr. Lenormant, Sur les of his civilisations. first volume Premieres republislied in the 1870, first and second notes, as ® Fr. Lenormant, Sur Vantiquite de Vane et du cheval, in the Notes sur un voyage en Egypte, pp. 2-4. The African origin of the donkey was first brought to light by H. Milne-Edwarus, in the Comptes renduK de V Academic des sciences, 1869, vol. Ixix. p. 1259. ' The pig is rarely represented on Egyptian monuments. Fr. Lenormant (Swr Vintrodvction et la domesticite du pore chez les anciens Egyptiens, p. 2) thought it unknown under the first dynasties. Nevertheless there are instances of its occurrence under the fourth dynasty (Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 5; *

and Peteie, Medum, p. 39, and pi. xxi.). * The ichneumon was called khaturii, khalul,

les

ancitns Egyptiens a la chasse

ihaiul, in

Egyptian (Lefebere, Le

Nam

Egyptien

SERPENTS, TEE UHJ^US. gazelles, including the

Egyptian gazelles, and antelopes with lyre-shaped horns,

much West Asian

are as

prey they are striped

—the

33

as African, like the carnivorge of all sizes, whose

wild cat, the wolf, the jackal, the

and spotted hyenas, the leopard, the panther, the

hunting leopard, and the of the serpents, large

On

lion.^

the other hand, most

and small, are indigenous.

are harmless, like the colubers

;

Some

others are venomous, such

as the scytale, the cerastes, the haje viper,

and the

asp.

The asp was worshipped by under

Egyptians

the

name

of

It

urseus.^

the occa-

sionally attains to a length

of six

and a half

when approached head and

its

and

feet,

will erect

inflate its throat

in readiness for darting for-

ward.

The

bite is fatal, like

that of the

cerastes;

are literally struck

birds

down by

the strength of the poison, while the

great

mammals,

and man himself, almost variably is

succumb

to

it

the UR^US of EGYPT.'

in-

The

after a longer or shorter death-struggle.^

uraeus

rarely found except in the desert or in the fields; the_scorjiion_crawkevery-

where, in desert and city alike, and

itiSTaTTably causes terrible pain.

if its

sting

is

not always followed by death,

Probabty'^ttrefe'

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;^

de V ichneumon, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archxology, 1884-85, vol. vii. pp. 193-194). ' Only two complete memoirs in which the ancient and modern Egyptian fauna are compared together are known to me. One is by Kosellini (Monumenti civili, vol. i. pp. 202-220), and the other

Versuch einer systematischen Aufzdhlung der von der alien ^yyptern hildlich dargestelUen Thiere, mit Riichsicht auf die heutige Fauna des Nilgebietes, in the Zeitschrift, 1864, pp. 7-12, 19-28). There is also a too brief note by Mariette, in the Bulletin de V Institut ^gy^jtien, let

is

by R. Haktjiann

(

series, vol. xiv. pp. 57-66). ^

Aurdit, urdit, transcribed in

Greek as Ovpaios (Horapollo, Eieroglyphica, book

i.

§

1,

Leemaus'

edition, p. 2). ' *

the

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from pi. iii. of the Reptiles-Supplement to the Description de VEgypte. The venomous serpents of Egypt have been described by Isidore Geoffroy Sai>t-Hilaire in Description, vol. xxiv. pp. 77-96. The effects of their poisons have been studied by Dr.

Pancieri, Esperienze intorno agli

effetti

del veleno delta

Naja Egiziana

e delle

Ceraste, Naples,

1

873,

and Bulletin de V Institut e'gyptim, Ist series, vol. xii. pp. 187-193; vol. xiii. pp. 89-92. * As, for example, in the BooTc of the Dead (Naville, Todtenbuch, vol. i. pi. liv., and p. 188 of the Introduction), and in composite mythological scones from royal Theban tombs (Lefebure, Tombeau de S€ti I^, in the Memoires de la Mission du Caire, vol. ii., 2ud part, pis. x., xl., xll., xliii., etc.).

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

34 for, like

the elephant, the giraffe,^ and other animals which

had disappeared

south, they

far

hippopotamus long maintained regions whence

it

its

now only

ground before returning

to those equatorial

Common under

the

dynasties, but afterwards withdrawing to the marshes of the Delta,

which came with

it,

to

the thirteenth century of our era.^

has, like

it

also,

The

the beginning of historic times.

at

had been brought by the Nile.

continued to flourish up

thrive

been compelled to beat a

The

it

there

crocodile,

Lord

retreat.

of the river throughout all ancient times, worshipped and protected in provinces, execrated and proscribed in others,

might

it

still

neighbourhood of Cairo towards the beginning of our century.^

first

some

be seen in the

In 1840,

it

no

longer passed beyond the neighbourhood of Gebel et-Ter,* nor beyond that of Manfalut

in

Thirty years

1849.^

later,

steadily retreating before the guns of tourists,

Mariette asserted that

it

was

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

is

occasionally carried

down by the current fellahin, or

by some

first

cataract

into Egypt,

:

where

'

one of them it

is

speedily despatched

The

traveller in quest of adventure.

fertility of

by the the

soil,^

The

exactitude with which the characteristic details of certain kinds are drawn, shows that the Egyptians had themselves seen the originals of the monstrous serpents which they depicted (Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie ^gyptienne, vol. i. p. 32, No. 3 cf. the Revue de I'Histoire dea ;

Religions, vol. xv. p. 296).

In texts of the fifth and sixtli dynasties, the sign of the elephant is used in writing Abu, the of the town and island of Elephantine (Inscription d'Uni, 1. 38, in Mariette's Abydos, vol. ii. pi. 48 cf. ScHiAPARELLi, Una Tomba Egiziana inedita delta FJ" Dinastia, p. 23, 1. 5) from that time onward, it is so clumsily drawn as to justify the idea that the people of Aswan henceforth saw the beast itself but rarely. The sign of the giraffe appears as a syllabic, or as a determinative, in several words containing the sound sarii, soru. * SiLVESTRE DE Sacy, Relation de VEgypte par Abd-Allatif, The French pp. 143-145, 165, 166. consul, Du Maillet, noticed one of these animals near Damietta, at the beginning of the eighteenth century (Le Mascrier, Description de VEgypte, p. 31). Burckhardt {Travels in Nubia, p. 62) relates that in 1812 a troop of hippopotami passed the second cataract, and descended to Wady Halfeh and One of them was carried along by the current, came down the rapids at Aswin, and was Derr. *

name

;

;

seen at Derafi, a day's march north of the first cataract. ^ Shortly afterwards, Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire stated that "they are now no longer 10 be found in all the hundred leagues of the Lower Nile, and can only be seen as high up the river as Thebes " {Description des crocodiles d'^gypte in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xsiv. p. 408). He was mistaken, as is proved by the evidence of several later travellers. *

Marmont mentioned them

due de Raguse,

as being

still

there, near to the

Convent of the Pulley

(

Voyages du

vol. iv. p. 44).

^ Bayle St.-John, Village Life in Egypt, with Sketches of the Said, vol. i. p. 268. In Le Nil, by Maxime Dccamp, p. 108, there is an Arab legend (about 1849) professing to explain why crocodiles cannot pass below Shekh Abadeh. The legend cited by Bayle St.-John was intended to show why they remained between Manfalut and Asyut. " Mariette, Itineraire des invites aux fetes de Vinauguration du canal de Suez, 1869, p. 175. ' In 1883, I saw several stretched out on a sandbank, a few hundred yards from the southern point of the island of Elephantine. The same year, two had been taken alive by the Arabs of the

cataract, *

The

who

them for sale to travellers. modern Egypt have been described by J.-C. Savigny, Systeme des oiseauz de VEgypte

offered

birds of

de la Syrie, in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xxiii. p. 221, et seq. In pis. vii.-xiv. of his Monuraenti civili, Rosellini has collected a fair number of drawings of birds, copied from the tombs

et

— BIRDS.

35

and the vastness of the lakes and marshes, attract many migratory birds; passerines 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

cold and inclement weather.

from

Even

the non-migratory birds are really. for

the most part, strangers acclima-

by long

tized

Some

sojourn.

of

them

—the

magpie, the kingfisher, the

turtledove, the

partridge, and the sparrow

—may be

classed

with our European species, while others betray their equatorial origin in the brightness

White and black

of their colours.

red

flamingoes,

pelicans,

and

ibises,^

cormorants

enliven the waters of the river, and animate

reedy swamps of the Delta in infinite

the

They

variety.

long

files

are to be

upon

the

seen

ranged in

sand-banks,

fishing

and basking in the sun; suddenly the flock with

seized

is

panic,

rises

heavily,

and THE

settles

the

away further

hills,

ofl:'.

In

hollows

IBIS

OF EGYPT.*

of

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 chattering birds

many

come

at eventide to perch in flocks

tamarisk and acacia.

of

in fresh waters

sions

far

originally,

Many

sea-fish

—shad, mullet, perch, and

into the Sai'd.^

and

still

A

pillaging and well-armed barons.

make

their

the labrus

thousand

upon the

—and

boughs

frail

way upstream

little

to

swim

carry their excur-

Those species which are not Mediterranean came

come annually, from the heart

of Ethiopia with the rise

of the Nile, including two kinds of Alestes, the soft-shelled turtle, the

Bagrus

Thebes and Beni Hasan (cf. the text in vol. i. of the Monumenti civili, pp. 146-190). Lohet haa some most ingenious identifications of names inscribed upon the ancient monuments with various modern species (^Notes sur la Faune pharaonique, in the Zeitsclirift, vol. xsx. pp. 24-30). Facts relating to the ibis have been collected by Ct:vier, M^moire sur Vihis des anciens Egyptiens, in the Annates du Museum d'histoire naturelle, 1804, vol. iv. p. 116, et seq. and by J. C. Savignt, of

offered

*

;

Histoire naturelle et mythologique de Vihis.

An

extract from the' latter

is

reprinted in the Description

de VEgypte, vol. xxiii. p. 435, et seq. One ancient species of ibis is believed to have disappeared from Egypt, and is now only to be met with towards the regions of the Upper Nile. But it may still be represented by a few families in the great reedy growths encumbering the western pait of Lake Menzaleh.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Oiseaux,

pi. vii. 1, in the Commission d'Egypte. Herodotus, it. 93 His mistakes on this head are corrected by Isidore Geoffeoy SaintHiLAiRE in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xxiv. p. 25.'i. *

'

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

36

Some

docmac,and the mormyrus.^ and the

turtle

^

attain to a gigantic size, the

to about one yard, the latus to three

Bagrus bayad

and a half yards in

lenf>th,^

THE MORMTRU8 OXYEUTNCHUS.

while others, such as the silurus perties.

Nature seems

to

*

noted for their electric pro-

(cat-fish), are

have made the fahaka (the globe-fish) in a playfulness. fish

It

of

a long

is

from beyond the cata-

and

racts,

is

it

the Nile the

more

easily on

of filling itself with inflating

When

its

the

has

it

air,

body

swelled out

rately,

by

carried

account of the faculty

THE FAHAKA.

fit

at

and will.

immode-

fahaka

over-

balances, and drifts along upside down, its belly to the wind, covered with

spikes so that

it

looks like a hedgehog.

During the inundation,

the current from one canal to another, and

upon the muddy

fields,

where

it

is

cast

it floats

with

by the retreating waters

becomes the prey of birds or of jackals, or

serves as a plaything for children.^

Everything

is

dependent upon the river

the species of animals

it

bears, the birds

:

—the

which

Egyptians placed the river among their gods.^ '

it

soil,

the produce of the

feeds

They

:

and hence

personified

it

it

as a

soil,

was the

man with

Isidore Geoffrot Saint-Hilaire, Hidoire naturelle des poissons du Nil, in the Description de

I'Egypte, vol. xxiv. pp. 181, 335, et seq.

Trionyx JiJgyptiacus ; cf. Loret, Notes sur la Faune pharaonique, in the Zeitschrift, vol. xxx. p. 25. Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Sistoire naturelle de poissons du Nil, in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xxiv. pp. 279, 326, 327. In Egyptian, the Latus niloticus was called dim, the warrior '

j^

Medum, pi. xii., and p. 38). The illustration on p. 37 represents a particularly fine specimen. The ndrH of the Ancient Egyptians (Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 75, note 4), described by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Histoire naturelle des poissons du Nil, in the Description de (Petrie, *

I'Egypte, vol. xxiv. pp. 299-307).

Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Histoire naturelle des poissons du Nil, in the Description de I'Egypte, 176-217. The most complete list of the fishes of the Nile known to me is that of A. B. Clot- Bey, Aperfu ge'n^rale sur I'J^gypte, vol. i. pp. 231-234;; but the Arab names as given in that ^

vol. xxiv. pp.

list

are very incorrect. «

In his Pantheon u^gyptiorum, vol.

ii.

pp. 139-176, 214-230, 231-258,

Jablonski has collected

all

TEE NILE-OOD.

37

regular features, and a vigorous and portly body, such as befits the rich of high

His

lineage.

developed like those of a woman, though

breasts, fully

hang heavily upon a wide bosom where the whose ends

abdomen, and

A narrow

girdle,

about the

fall free

supports

thighs,

fat lies in folds.

less firm,

his

spacious

his attire is

com-

pleted by sandals, and a closefitting head-dress, generally sur-

mounted with a crown

of water-

Sometimes waterspriDgs

plants.

from his breast; sometimes he a

presents

vases

;

life

;

or

libation

or holds a bundle of the

^

cruces

frog,

ansatse,^

as

symbols of

or bears a flat tray, full of

offerings

—bunches

ears of corn, heaps of fish,

and

geese tied together by the

feet.

the gods, lord of sustenance, lands of

Egypt with

of lotus- flowers latter

has

Delta.^

red,

upon

a bunch

Two

JDST CAUGHT.^

The

inscriptions call him, " Hapi, father of

who maketh food

his products

the granaries to overflowing."

sometimes coloured

TWO FISHERMEN CARRYING A LATUS WHIOH THEY HAVE

of flowers,

*

who giveth

;

He

is

banisheth want, and

The former, who wears a

his

head-dress,

for

Lower Egypt

cluster

—personified

;

the

and watches over the

goddesses corresponding to the two Hapis

Upper, and Mirit Mihit

filleth

over the Egypt of the south

his head, presides for

life,

and covereth the two

evolved into two personages, one being

and the other blue.

of papyrus

to be,

—Mirit

Qimait

for

the banks of the river.

the data to be obtained from classic writers concerning the Nile-god. The principal hieroglyphic texts referring to this deity are to be found in Arundale-Bonomi-Birch, Gallery of Antiquities selected from the British Museum, pp. 25-26, pi. xiii. ; Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. iii. pi. xliv. pp. 206-210; Bkugsch, Geogr. Inschriften, vol. i. pp. 77-79, and Religion und Mythologie der alten ^gypter, pp. 638-641 pis. cxcviii., '

;

Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, pp. 514-525,

cxcix,

Champollion, Monuments de VEgypte,

pi.

cxxxiii.

1

;

Rosellini, Monumenti del Culto,

pis.

XXV., xxvii.

Wilkinson, Materia, ser. 11, pi. xlii.. No. 3; and Manners and Customs, 2nd edit, vol. iii. No. 3. ' Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Medum painting. Petrle, Medum^ pi. xii. * Arundale-Bonomi-Birch, Gallery of Antiquities, pi. xii.; Lepsics, Auswahl der wiclitigsten JJrkunden des ^gyptifchen Altherthums, pi. xv. c. * Champollion, Monuments, pi. ccc. ; Eosellini, Monumenti Storici, pi. xxxix. Lepsics, Denkm., iii. 7. Wilkinson (Manners and Customs, 2Dd edit., vol. iii. p. 209) was tlie first who suggested '

pi. xliv.,

;

the High) Nile, and, when painted blue, to be identified with tlie Low Nile. This opinion has since been generally adopted (Eosellini, JVfoTj. Star., part i. p. 229, note 2; Arundale-Bonomi-Birch, Gallery, p. 25); 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 siglit.

that this god,

was

when painted

red,

was the Eed (that

is,

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

38

They

are often represented

begging

for

the water

had his chapel was to bury

it

river

;

for the

belonged.^

in all

standing with outstretched arms, as though

as

which should make them

fertile.^

every province, and priests whose bodies of

men

or beasts

god had claimed them, and to

Several towns

were dedicated

Nuit-Hapi,

cast

The Nile-god

right

up by the

his servants they

to

him

Nilopolis.^

:

Hath^pi,

It

was told in the Thebaid how the god dwelt within a grotto, or shrine

in the island

{topJiit),

of Biggeh,

whence he issued

at the inundation.

This

dition dates from a time

tra-

when

the cataract was believed to

be at the end of the world,

andtobring down the heavenly river

upon

ing gulfs

earth.^

Two yawnthe foot

{qoriti), at

two granite

of the (moniti)

cliffs

between which

it

ran, gave access to this THE GODDESS MIRIT, BEARING A basBUNCH OP PAPYRUS ON HER mysterious retreat.^

«AUC HU^ tmt<-?

THE

A

HEAD.

relief

NILE-GOD.*

from Philse represents blocks of stone piled one

above another, the vulture of the south and the hawk of the north, each perched on a summit, 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

'

ThesG goddesses are represented in Wilkinson, Materia Hieroglyphica, edit., vol. iii. pp. 230-232, pi, liii. 2; and

and Manners and Customs, 2nd

di Mitologia, pp. 817, 318, pis. xv., cxxx.

The

functions ascribed to

them

in

its

over-

ser. 12, pi. xlvli., part

i.,

Lanzone, Dizionario the text were recognized in

by Maspeuo, Fragment d'un commentaire sur le Livre II, d'H^rodote, ii. 28, p. 5 (cf. Annales de la Faculty des lettres de Bordeaux, vol. ii., 1880). Herodotus, ii. 90 cf. Wiedemann's Herodots Zweites Buck, pp. 364, 365. ' Brugsch, Dictionnaire g^ographique, Nilopolis is mentioned by Stephanus pp. 483-488, 1338. of Byzantium (s.v. N€7Aos), quoting from Hecat^eus of Miletus (fragment 277 in Mijller-Didot's Frogm. Hist. Grsec., vol. i. p. 19). * See above, p. 19, for an account of this tradition. * 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, liigli-priest of Amou in Tliebes, afterwards King of Egypt under the name of Sheshhonqu II., and he is represented as standing behind the leg of tiie god, wearing a panther skin, with both arms upheld in adoration. The statue is mutilated tlie end of the nose, the beard, and part of the tray bave 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. ° The most important passage in this connection is to be found in Maspero, M^moire sur quelques papyrus du Louvre, pp. 99, 100 ; reproduced by Brugsch in the Dictionnaire g^ogra/phique, pp. 860, 861. '^

;

:

TEE FESTIVALS OF GEBEL SILSILEH. lapping head and

through which the rising waters

tail

appointed, bringing to

gods and

summer

men

Egypt

may overflow

at the time

and sweet, and pure," whereby

Towards the

are fed.

the very

solstice, at

" all things good,

39

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 that might insure to fits

Egypt the bene-

of a normal inundation.^

Pharaoh himself deigned the

memory

all

When

to officiate,

the event was pre-

of

served by a stela engraved upon the

Even

roeks.^

in

his

festivals of the Nile

absence,

the

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.

f~^f

CmF ^fUj

u^

THE SHRINE OF THE NILE AT BIGUEU.

Had

the faithful shown the slightest lukewarmness, the Nile might have refused waters of the rising Nile past Silsileh have been treated of by Brugsch, MaMriaux pour servir a la reconstruction du calendrier des anciens Egyptiens, pour p. 37, et seq., and especially by E. de Kocgk, Sur le nouveau systeme propose par M. Brugsch It was probably some Vinterpretation du calendrier €gyptien, in the Zeitschrift, 1866, pp. 3-7. tradition of this custom which gave birth to the legend telling how the Khalif Omar commanded the >

Questions relating to the flowing of the

first

about a propitious inundation for the land of Egypt (Moubtadi, by Pierre Vattier, pp. 165-167). Eamses II. ^ Of these oflBcial stelae, the three hitherto known belong to the three Pharaohs (Champollion, Minephtah Denkm., iii. 175 a), Lepsius, seq. ; vol. et i. Notices, 641, (Champollion, p. Monuments, pi. cxiv. Kosellini, Monum. Storicl, pp. 302-304, and pi. cxx. 1 Lepsius, Denkm., iii.

river in writing that it should bring

Les Merveilles de I'Egypte, translation

:

;

;

III. 200 d; Brugsch, Becueil de monuments, vol ii. pi. Ixxiv. 5, 6, and pp. 83, 84), and Ramses by translated have been They 217 Denkm. iii. d). Lepsius, civ.; (Champollion, Monuments, pl. 125-135. the Zeitschrift, 1873, pp. L. Stern, Die NiUtele von Gebel Silsileh, in » The Nile festivals of the Grseco-Roman period have been described by Heliodorus, the romance His description is probably based upon the lost works of some writer, Mthiopica, book ix. § 9.

Ptolemaic autlior.

reproduced from a bas-relief in the small temple of Phila), built by Trajan and his successors (Wilkinson, Materia Eieroglyphica, ser. 11, pl. xlii. fig. 4 Champollion, Monuments, The Eosellini, Monumenti del Culto, pl. xxvii. 3 Dijmichkn, Geogr. Ins., vol. ii. pl. Ixxix.). pl.xciii. 1 artist Egyptian the of drawing the window or door of this temple opened upon Biggeh, and by comparing *

The

shrine of the Nile

is

;

;

;

in with the view from the end of the chamber, it is easy to recognize the original of his cliff silhouette way. wrong faces the drawing his copyist's, the piled-up rocks of the island. By a mistake of the modern

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

40

obey the command and failed to spread freely over the surface of the

to

country.

Peasants from a distance, each bringing his own provisions, ate

and lived

their meals together for days,

long as this kind of fair lasted. forth in procession

On

in a state of brutal intoxication as

the great day

itself,

the priests

came

from the -sanctuary, bearing the statue of the god along

the banks, to the sound of instruments and the chanting of hymns.^

— who appearest in the land and comest—to give to Egypt — thou who dost hide thy coming in darkness —in very day whereon thy coming sung,^ — wave, which spreadest over the orchards created by Ra —to give them that are athirst — who refusest to give drink to unto the desert — of the overflow of the waters of heaven as soon as thou descendest, — Sibu, the earth-god, enamoured of bread, — Napri, the god of grain, presents his —Phtah maketh every workshop to prosper.* " — Lord of the as soon as he passeth the cataract —the birds no longer descend upon the — creator of corn, maker of barley, — he prolongeth the existence of temples. —Do his fingers cease from their labours, or doth he —then are the millions of beings in misery — doth he wane in heaven then the gods — themselves, and men perish " III. — The cattle are driven mad, and the world —both great and small, "

I.

— Hail

life

to thee,

H^pi

!

;

this

is

all

life

;

^

is

offering,

II.

fish

!

fields

suffer ?

;

all

;

all

?

;

all

are in torment rising

—and

!

(for

— But

if,

*'

'

IV.

— when he ariseth, then bellies joyful, — each back shaken

them) he maketh himself Khuiimu,^

the earth shouts for joy, with laughter,

on the contrary, the prayers of men are heard at his

— then

are all

is

—and every tooth grindeth.

— Bringing food, rich in sustenance,— creator of

The text of this hymn has been preserved in two papyri

in the British

all

good things,

Museum

;

—lord

the second Sallier

and the seventh Anastasi papyrus (ibid., pi. cxxxiv. It has been translated in full by Maspero (Hymne au Nil, 1868 of. Histoire 1, 7, pi. cxxxix.). ancienne des i^euplea de V Orient, 4th edit., pp. 11-13); by Fa. Cook (Records of the Past, 1st series, by Amelineau (Bibliotheque de I'Ecole des hautes etudes. Section des sciences vol. iv. p. 105, et seq.) religieuses, vol. i. pp. 341-371) and by Guieyssb (Becueil de Travaux, vol. xiii. pp. 1-26). Some few strophes have been turned into German by Brugsch (Religion und Mythologie, pp. 639-641). Literally, " Concealing the passage through darkness on the day of the songs of passing." The text alludes to the passage of the celestial river giving issue to the Nile through the dim regions of the West. The origin of the god is never revealed, nor yet the day on which he will reach Egypt to inundate the soil, and when his wave is greeted with the song of hymns. ^ Literally, " To let the desert drink of the overflow of heaven, is his abhorrence " The orchards created by Ra are naturally favoured of the Nile-god; but hill and desert, which are Set's, are abhorrent to the water which comes down from heaven, and is neither more nor less than the flowing papyrus (Select Papyri,

vol.

i.

pi. xxi.

1.

6, pi. xxiii.)

;

;

;

—

'^

1

of Osiris.

Cf. p. 21, note 3.

Freed from mythological allusions, the end of this phrase signifies that at the coming of the waters the earth returns to life and brings forth bread the corn sprouts, and all crafts flourish under the auspices of Phtah, the artificer and mason-god. * Literally, '* Answered are men when he sends forth (his waters), being in the form of Khndma." Khnfimil, lord of Elephantine and of the cataract, is a Nile-god, and inasmuch as he is a supreme deity, he has formed the world of alluvial earth mingled with his waters. In order to comprise within one image all that the Nile can do when rising in answer to the prayers of men, the Egyptian poet states that the god takes upon himself the form of Khndmii that is to say, he becomes a creator for the faithful, and works to make for them all good things out of his alluvial earth. *

;

;

—

;

HYMN of all seeds of

life,

pleasant unto his elect,

producetli fodder for the cattle,

fr tfi'M

TO THE NILE.

—

if his

41 friendship

secured

is

— and he provideth for the sacrifices of

—he

all

the

nn

NILE-GODS FROil THE TEBIPLE OF SETI L AT ABYDOS BRINGING FOOD TO EVERY NOME OF EGYPT.'

gods,

—

than any other

finer

possession of the two lands

prosperous,

"V.

is

the incense which cometh from

—and

the granaries are

filled,

him

;

—he taketh

the storehouses are

— and the goods of the poor are multiplied.

— He

at the service of

is

all

prayers to answer them,

— withholding

— Stones are not sculptured placed —he him — nor statues whereon the double crown unseen —no tribute not paid unto him and no offerings are brought unto him, —he charmed by words of mystery —the place of his dwelling unknown, nor To make

nothing.

boats to be that

is

his strength.^

for

is

;

is

;

is

is

;

is

can his shrine be found by virtue of magic writings

" VI.

— There

is

no house large enough for thee,

—nor any who may penetrate

—Nevertheless, the generations of thy children rejoice in thee — thou dost rule as a king — whose decrees are established the whole earth, —who manifest presence of the people of the South and of the North, are washed from every eye, —and who lavish of his bounties. by whom the "VII. — Where sorrow was, there doth break forth joy —and every heart within thy heart

!

for

for

in

is

tears

rejoiceth.

Sovkii, the crocodile, the child of Nit, leaps for gladness

the Nine gods •

From

*

Literally,

is

who accompany thee have ordered

a drawing

by Faucher-Gudin,

"He makes

after a photograph

all things,

— the

^ ;

— for

overflow

by Beato.

prosperity (surud) at the baton (er

hlitt)

of all

wishes, withholding

cause boats {ammu) to be, that is his strength." It was said of a man or a thing which depended on some higli personage as, for example, on the Pharaoh or high priest of Amen, that he or it was at the baton {er khit) of the Pharaoh or high priest. Our author represents the Nile as putting itself at the baton of all wishes to make Egypt prosperous. And since the traffic of the country is almost entirely carried on by water, he immediately adds that the forte of the Nile, nothing

:

to

—

which it best succeeds, lies in supplying such abundance of richea as to oblige the dwellers by the river to mild boats enough for the freight to be transported. ' 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. that in

I

— — — TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

42

giveth drink unto the fields to drink of the labour ot

— and

maketh

another,

all

— without

men

valiant

;

— one man taketh

charge being brought against

him.^

—If thou dost enter the midst of songs go forth the midst of gladness,^ — they dance with joy when thou comest forth out of the unknown, — that thy heaviness^ death and corruption. — And when thou implored to give the water of the year,— the people of the Thebaid and of the North are seen side by — each man with the of none behind his neighbour;— of those who clothed themselves, " IX.

in

to

in

if

it

is

is

art

side,

tools

tarrieth

all

no man clotheth himself (with

god of

his trade,

riches,

festive

garments)

— the

children of Thot, the

no longer adorn themselves with jewels,*

but they are in the night

!

— As

—nor

the Nine gods,

soon as thou hast answered by the rising,

each one anointeth himself with perfumes. " X.

—Establisher of true

in order that

riches, desire of

thou mayest reply

the heavenly Ocean,

;

—

if

men,

— here are seductive words

^

thou dost answer mankind by waves of

—Napri, the grain-god, presents his

offering,

—

all

the gods

—the birds no longer descend upon the —though that which thy hand formeth were of gold— or in the shape of a brick of — not lapis-lazuli that we — but wheat of more worth than precious " XL — They have begun 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 thee with salutations of praise — for adore (thee),

hills

;

silver,

eat,

it is

stones.

is

to

filled

the god of Riches

the sight of

man

who adorn eth the

— who rejoiceth the

;

earth,

— who maketh

heart of

women

it

is

barks to prosper in

with child

— who loveth

the increase of the flocks.

the rich — When thou in the of the Prince, — then and man — the small man (the poor) disdaineth the — give food good quality, — herbage children. — Doth he forget prosperity forsaketh the dwellings, — and earth into a wasting sickness." " XII.

art risen

filled

city

is

lotus,

all

to

is for his

of

all is solid

?

falleth

an allusion to the quarrels and lawsuits resulting from the distribution of the water in or bad. If the inundation is abundant, disputes are at an end. ' Here again the text is corrupt. I have corrected it by taking as a model phrases in which it is said of some high personage that he comes before the king amid words of praise, and goes forth in IqQ khib muditu piru khir hosit6 (c. 26 of the Louvre, in Piebret, Eecueil the midst of songs The court of Egypt, like that of Byzantium, had its des inscriptions in^dites, vol. ii. p. 25, 1. 5). formulse of songs and graduated recitatives to mark the entrance and departure of great personages and the Nile, which brings the inundation, and comes forth from unknown sources, is compared with one of these great personages, and hailed as such according to the rules of etiquette. * The heaviness of the god here means the heaviness of his waters, the slowness and difficulty with which they rise and spread over the soil. * See Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie, p. 441, on the identity of Shopsfi, the god of riches, with Thot, tlie ibis or cynocephalus, lord of letters and of soug. * Literally, " delusive words." The gods were cajoled with promises which obviously could never be kept and in this case the god allowed himself to be taken in all the same, and answered them by the inundation.

This

'

years

is

when the Nile was poor

—

;

;

TEEIB NAMES. The word Nile they took

it

is

43

We

of uncertain origin.^

have

from the Greeks, and

it

from a people foreign to Egypt, either from the Phoenicians, the

Khiti, the Libyans, or from people of Asia Minor.

They had twenty terms

different phases

which

it

assumed according

the Egyptians them-

god Hapi, they called

selves did not care to treat their river as the

or the great river.^

When

or

more by which

it

the sea,

to designate the

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

The Egyptians the black land.' '

The

town to be found upon the shores of their

called themselves

Eomitu, Rotu,^ and their country Qimit,

Whence came they?

least unlikely

etymology

is still

sea.

How

time are we to carry

far off in

that which derives Neilos from the

Hebrew

or nakhal, a torrent (Lepsius, Einleitung, zur Chronologie der ^gypter, p. 275).

nalir,

a river,

It is also derived

from Ne-ialu, the branches of the Nile in the Delta (Groff, in the Bulletin de I'Institut Egyptien, 3rd series, vol. iii. pp. 165-175). ^ See above, p. ] 6, for what is said on this subject cf. also p. 6, note 4. ;

They may be found

enumerated in the Hood Papyrus of the British Museum (Beugsch, Dictionnaire g^ograpldque, pp. 1282, 1283; Maspero, Etudes ^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 5, 6). * It is first met with in the Homeric poems, where it is applied to the river (Odyssey, ix. 355, '

partially

country (Odyssey, iv. 351, xiv. 257). means the mansion of the douhles of the god Phtah, This is the etymology proposed by-BRUGSCH (Geogr. Ins., vol. i. p. 83). Even in the last century a similar derivation had occurred to Foester, viz. Ai-go-phtash, which he translated the earthly house of Phtah (Jablonski, Opuscula, Te Water edition, vol. i. pp. 426, 427). Confirmation of this conjecture might be found in the name Hephsestia, which was sometimes applied to the country. As a matter of fact, Hephajstos was the god with whom the Greeks identified Phtah. Another hypothesis, first proposed by Eeinisch {Ueber die Namen JEg^jptens bei den Semiten und Griechen, in the Sitzungsherichte of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna, 1889), and adopted with slight modifications by Ebers (^gypteu und die Biicher Moses, p. 132, et seq.), derives ib]gyptos from Ai-Kaphtor, the island of Kaphtor. In that case, the Caphtor of the Bible would be the Delta, not Crete. Gutschmid {Kleins Sehriften, vol. i. pp. 382, 383), followed by Wiedemann (JHerodots Zioeites Buch, p. 47, note 1), considers it an archaic, but purely Greek form, taken from yv\f/, a vulture, like alyvirios. " The impetuous river, with its many arms, suggested to the Hellenes the idea of a bird of prey of powerful bearing. The name eagle, aeros, which is occasionally, though rarely, applied to the river, is incontestably in favour of this etymology." ° Bomitu is the more ancient form, and is currently used in the Pyramid texts. By elision of the final t, it has become the Coptic romi, rom^, the Pi-romi-s of Hecat^us of Miletus and of Herodotds (ii. 143). Bomi is one of the words which have inspired Prof. Lieblein with the idea of seeking traces of the Ancient Egyptian in the Gypsy tongue (Om Ziguenerne, in his Mgyptologiske Studier, pp. 26, 27; cf. Vidensk. Selsk. Forhandlinger, Christiania, 1870). Botu, lotu, is the same word as romitu, without the intermediate nasal. Its ethnic significance was recognized by ChamPOLUON (Leltres Sorites d'Egypte, 2nd edit., p. 259). E. de Rouge connected it with the name Lndim, which is given in Genesis (x. 13) to the eldest son of Mizraim (Becherch'es sur les monuments qu'on pent attribuer aux six premieres dynasties de Man€thon, p. 6). Kochemonteix {Sur les noms des fils de Mizraim, in the Journal asiatique, 1888, 8th series, vol. xii. pp. 199-201; cf. (Euvres diverses, pp. 86-89) takes it for the name of the fellahln, and the poorer classes, in distinction to the term Anamim, which would stand for the wealthy classes, the zatiat of Mohammedan times. ^ A digest of ancient discussions on this name is to be found in Champollion {L'Egypte sous les Pharaons, vol. i. pp. 73, 74), and the like service has been done for modern research on the subject by Brugsch {Geogr. Ins., vol. i. pp. 73, 74). The name was known to the Greeks under the form Khemia, Khimia {De Iside et Osiride, § 33, Parthey edition, p. 58. 7) but it was rarely used, at xiv. 258) as well as to the *

Edikuplitah, Edhuphtah,

;

least for literary purposes.

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

44

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

combined a system of administration, government, and a long past of accumulated centuries behind them.

It

so ingeniously

we

religion, that

must always be

infer

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 fifty

we

shall be misled in granting

them

forty or

centuries wherein to bring so complicated an achievement to a successful

issue,

and

appearance at eight or ten thousand years

in placing their first

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 Manii 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 wafted them to mortals

it

were laden with

end towards the lagoons of the Delta, whose

inaccessible islands were believed

to be the sojourning-place of souls after death.^

knowledge of

it

scarcely went

beyond the

perfumes, and sometimes

Northward, the world came to an

the desert.*

lost in

its

As regards the

defiles of

Gebel

south, precise

Silsileh,

where the

last

remains of the granite threshold had perhaps not altogether disappeared.

The

district

beyond Gebel

Silsileh, the

province of Konilsit, was

still

a foreign

and almost mythic country, directly connected with heaven by means of the

Long

cataract.^ '

This

is

after the

Egyptians had broken through

the date admitted by Chabas, of

all

^

See what

is

*

Brugsch

(JDie altagyptiscjie VSUierta/el, in

ii.

known

savants the least disposed to attribute exaggerated

men (Etudes

sur V antiquity historique, 2nd edit., pp. 6-10). said above on the mountain of Manft, p. 18.

antiquity to races of

vol.

this restricted circle,

the Verhandlungen des 5ten Orienialisfen-CongressLS,

pp. 62-64) identifies the mountain of Bakhfi with the Emerald Mountain of classic geography, to-day as Gebel Zabarah. The name of Bakhft does not seem to have been restricted to an

insignificant chain of hills.

The

was applied to several mountains situate north Gebel Gharib, one of the peaks of this region, from afar (Schweinfurth, La terra incognita delV Egitto

texts prove that

it

of Gebel Zabarah, especially to Gebel ed-Dukhan, attains a height of 6180 feet,

and

is visible

propiamente detto, in V Esploratore, 1878). * Brugsoh, Dictionnaire g€ograpMque, The perfumes and pp. 382-385, 396-398, 1231, 1234-1236. 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 (^Pulicharia undulata, Schwkinf.), 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, Tine excursion a B^r^nice, in the Becueil, vol. "

Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie

et d' Arch^ulogie ^gyptiennes,

vol.

ii.

pp. 12-14

xiii. (cf.

pp. 93, 94).

the Bevue de

Prof. Lauth (^Aus ^gyptens Vorzeit, p. 53, et seq.) VHisloire des Beligions, vol. xvii. pp. 259-261). was the first to show that the sojourning-place of the Egyptian de&d, Sohhit laru, was localized in one of the nomes of the Delta. ^ Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie

et

d'ArcMologie €gyptienne8,

VEistoire des Beligions, vol. xviii. pp. 269, 270).

vol.

ii.

pp. 17, 18

(cf.

the Bevue de

;;

PROBABLE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF TEE EGYPTIANS. the names of those places which had as

it

45

were marked out their frontiers

continued to be associated in their minds with the idea of the four cardinal

Bakhu and Manii were

points.

extreme East and West.^

the most frequent expressions for the

still

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

narrow limits that Egyptian civilization struck

What

closed vessel.

were the people by

whom

It was within these

JSTorth.^

root

and ripened,

was developed, the country

it

whence they came, the races to which they belonged,

The majority would

as in a

is

to-day unknown.

place their cradle-land in Asia,^ but cannot agree in

Some

determining the route which was followed in the emigration to Africa.

think that the people took the shortest road across the Isthmus of Suez,* others give

them longer peregrinations and a more complicated

They would have them Abyssinian

cross the Straits of

mountains, and, spreading

Nile, finally settle in the

Egypt

itinerary.

Bab el-Mandeb, and then

northward and keeping

of to-day.^

A

along

the

the

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 of the

Libyan continent

Egypt from the West

;

all

antiquity on the Mediterranean slope

this population is of African origin,

or South- West.^

In the valley, perhaps,

and came to it

may have

Brcgsch, Ueber den Ost-und Westpunkt dee Sonnenlaufes nach den altdgyptischen Vorstellungen,

'

in the Zeitschrift, 1864, pp. 73-76. * Bbugsch, Dictionnaire g^ographique, pp. 213-215, 351-353. * The greater number of contemporary Egyptologists, Bkugsch, Ebeks,

Lauth, Lieblein, have

de Eotjge (Eecherches sur les monuments, pp. 1-11) 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 Bdbylonische TJnprung der agyptischen Kultur, 1892, wherein he endeavours to prove that the Heliopolitan myths, and heuce tlie whole Egyptian religion, are derived from the cults of Eridu, and would make the name of the Egyptian city Onfl, or Anfi, identical with that of Nun-ki, Nun, which is borne by the Chaldean. * E. DE Rouge, Eecherches sur les monuments qu'on peut attribuer aux six premieres dynasties, Bkugsch, Geschichte Mgyptens, p. 8 Wiedemann, ^yyptische Geschichte, p. 21, et seq. p. 4 * Ebers, ^gypten und die Biicher Moses, p. 41, L'Egypte (French translation), vol. ii. p. 230 DtJMiCHEN, Geschichte des Alien ^gyptens, pp. 118, 119. Brcgsch has adopted this opinion in his rallied to this opinion, in the train of E.

;

;

;

^gyptiscJie Beitrdge zur Volkerlcunde der dltesten Welt (Deutsche Revue, 1881, p. 48). ^ 1.

p.

This

is

the theory preferred by naturalists and ethnologists (R.

180, et seq.;

Mokton, who was

Hartmann, Die

at first hostile to this view, accepted

it

Nigritier, vol.

in the Transactions

American Ethnological Society, vol. iii. p. 215; cf. Nott-Gliddon, Types of Mankind, ^i. '618 sur les races humaines de la basse valine du Nil, in the Bulletin de la SociH^d' anthropologic, 1886, pp. 718-743). A Viennese Egyptologist, Herr Eeinisch, even holds that not only are the Egyptians of African origin, but that " the human races of the ancient world, of Europe, Asia, and Africa, are descended from a single family, whose original seat was on the shores of the great lakes of equatorial Africa" {Der einheitliche Ursprung der Sprachen der Alten Welt, jiachgewiesen of the

Hamy, Apergu

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

46

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 as

it

has never ceased to do in the case of strangers

who have occupied

itself,

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 of

its

in

a

roots.^

similar

It forms

personal pronouns, whether isolated or suffixed,

its

One

way.^

simplest and most archaic,

many

of the is

conjugation, and

of the

tenses

formed with identical

upon resemblances which are open

doubt,

to

that most of the grammatical processes used

may

it

in

Without

affixes.

that the insisting

be almost affirmed

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

Subject to different influences, the two families would

taken definite shape.

common

treat in diverse fashion the elements

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, durcli Vergleichung der Afrilcanischen,

ung des Teda, Vienna, 1873, Lepsids, TJeber die

'

Erytrxischen und Indogermanischen Sprachen, mit Zugrundleg-

p. x.).

Annahme

Zeitschrift, 1870, p. 92, et seq.

;

eines sogenannten praMstorischen Steinallers in JEgypten, in the

Lefebure, Le Cham

et

VAdam

€gyptiens, in the Transactions of the

Society of Biblical Arclixology, vol. x. pp. 172, 173. * This is the opinion which has generally obtained TJeber

Das

among Egyptologists since Benfey's researches, das Verhaltniss der JEgyptischen Sprache zum Semitischen Sprachstamm, 1844; cf. Schwabtze,

Alte J^Jgypten, vol.

part

2003, et seq.

E. DE Rouge, Eecherches sur

les monuments, pp. 2-4 ; BnvGScn, Geschichte ^gyptens, pp. Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des alten ^gyptens, p. 23. Erman {Mgypten, pp. 54, 55) is tempted to 8, 9 explain the relationships found between Egyptian and the idioms of Northern Africa as the effects of a series of emigrations taking place at different times, probably far enough apart, the first wave having passed over Egypt at a very remote period, another over Syria and Arabia, and, finally, a third over Eastern Africa. Prof. Erman has also published a very substantial memoir, in which he sets forth with considerable caution those points of contact to be observed between the Semitic and Egyptian languages (A. Erman, Bas Verhaltniss der JSgi/ptischen zu den Semitischen Sprachen, in the Zeitschrift der Morgenl'dndischen Gesellschaft, vol. xlvi. pp. 85-129). The many Semitic words introduced into classic Egyptian from the time of the XVIII"' dynasty must be carefully excluded from the terms of the comparison. An extensive list of these will be found in Bondi, Dem Eebralsch-Phdnizischen

Lepsius, Ueber die

i.

ii.

p.

Annahme, in the

;

Zeitschrift, 1870, pp. 91, 92;

;

Sprachzweige angehorige Lehnvcdrter in hieroglyphi&chen und hieratischen Texten, Leipzig, 1886. ' Maspero, Des Fronoms personnels en ^gyptien et dans les langues s^mitiques, in the Memoire de la Soci€t€de linguistique, vol. ii. p. 1, et seq. very forcible exposition of different conclusions may

A

be found in a memoir by Lepage-Renouf (Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archxology, 1888-89' pp. 247-264).

EGYPTIAN TYPES. this connexion

is

nevertheless sufficiently remote to leave to the Egyptian

We

race a distinct physiognomy."^

recognize

portraits, as well as in

thousands of

The

of

tombs.2

highest type

slender, with a proud

full

it

mummied

Egyptian was

and imperious

in sculptured and painted

bodies out of subterranean tall

and

air in the carriage of

He had

head and in his whole bearing.

his

47

i

wide and

and vigorous pectoral

shoulders, well-marked

muscles, muscular arms, a long, fine hand, slightly

The

developed hips, and sinewy legs.

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

owing

the extremities

at

custom of going barefoot.

to the

The head

is

rather short, the face oval, the forehead somewhat

The eyes

retreating.

wide and fully opened,

are

marked, the nose

the cheek-bones not too

fairly

The

prominent, and either straight or aquiline.

mouth

long, the lips full, and lightly ridged along

is

their outline

;

the teeth small, even, well-set, and

remarkably sound head.

At

portion to

;

the ears are set

birth the skin its

white, but darkens in pro-

is

Men

exposure to the sun.^

rally painted red in the pictures,

of fact,

there

must

shades which we see

already

among

from a most delicate

high on the

are gene-

though, as a matter

have

been

all

the

the present population,

rose

-

tinted

complexion to THE NOBLE TYPE OF EGTPTIAX.'

that

of a

smoke-coloured

Women, who

bronze.

were less exposed to the sun, are generally painted yellow, the tint paler in proportion as

they

rise in the social scale.

wavy, and even to curl into the wool of the negro.

little

ringlets,

The beard was

Such was the highest type

;

the

The

hair was inclined to be

but without ever turning into

scanty, thick only

commoner was

squat,

upon the

chin.

dumpy, and heavy.

Chest and shoulders seem to be enlarged at the expense of the pelvis and E. DE Rouge, Eecherches sur les monuments qu on peut attrihuer aux six premieres dynasties, p. 3. All the features of the two portraits given below are taken either from the statues, the basreliefs, or the many mummies which it fell to my lot both to see and to study during the time I was in Egypt. They correspond pretty closely with those drawn by Hamy, Aperfu sur les races humaines '

*

du Nil, p. 4, et seq. (cf. Bulletin de la Soci^t^ d'Anthropologie, 18SG, p. 721, et With regard to this question, see, more recently, R. Virchow, Anthropologie JUgyptens,

de la basse valine ^

Correspondenz- Blaft der d. Anlhr. Ges., 1888, No. 10, p. 107, et seq. * Statue of Ranofir in the Gizeh Museum (V"' dynasty), after a photograph by

seq.).

in the

Emil Brugsch-Bcy.

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

48 the hips, to such an

make

extent as to

the want of proportion between

the upper and lower parts of the body startling and ungraceful. is

long,

somewhat

and slightly flattened on the top

retreating,

are coarse, of

and as though carved

blocking

the

-

out

in flesh

;

The

skull

the features

by great strokes

chisel.

Small freenated eyes, a short nose,

by

flanked

distended

widely

round

nostrils,

cheeks, a square chin, thick,

but not curling

lips

—this

unattractive and ludicrous

sometimes

physiognomy,

by

animated sion

is

old

expres-

which

cunning

of

recalls the

an

an

shrewd face of

French

often lighted

HEAD OF A THKBAN MUMMY.

peasant,

up by gleams

of gentleness and of

melancholy good-nature.

The external characteristics of

these two princi-

pal types in the ancient

monuments,

in

all

varieties of modifications,

be seen living.^

may still among the The

pro-

AN EGYPTIAN OF THE ORDINARY TYPE.' file

Theban

mummy

from a

taken at hazard from a necropolis

of the XVIII**' dynasty,

likeness of a

copied

Wandering Bisharin have

face of a great noble, the contemporary of Statue of

EGYPT.

modern Luxor peasant, would almost

pass for a family portrait.^

'

HEAD OF A FELLAH OF UPPER

and compared with the

tiBiri

(VI"" dynasty) in the Gizeh

Kheops

Museum.

;

inherited the type of

and any peasant woman

From a photograph by Emil Brugsch-

Bey.

According to Virchow (Anthropologie Mgyptens, i. 1), this impression is not borne out by facts. Sundry Orientalists, especially BmcH {Egypt from the Earliest Times to B.C. 309-310) and Satcb {The Ancient Empires of the East, pp. 309, 310), have noted considerable differences of type among the personages represented upon monuments of different periods. Virchow {Die Mumien der Konige im Museum von Bulaq, p. 17, cf. Sitzungsberichte of the Academy of Berlin, 1888, pp. 782, 783, and Anthropologie JEgyptens, i. 1) has endeavoured to show that the difference was even greater than liad been stated, because the ancient Egyptian was brachycephalic, while the modern is dolichocephalic. "I * Description de I'Egypte, Ant, vol. ii. pi. xlix. fig. 1, and Jomard's text (vol. ii. pp. 78, 79) once tried to sketch a Turkish coiffure, on a head copied from a mummy, and asking some one to *

:

EARLY of the Delta

A

king. Seti

I.

may

CIVILIZATION.

bear upon her shoulders the head of a twelfth -dynasty-

citizen of Cairo, gazing with

in the

49

Gizeh Museum,

of those ancient Pharaohs,

is

wonder at the statues of Khafra or of

himself, feature for feature, the very image

though removed from them by

Until quite recently nothing, or

all

fifty centuries.

but nothing, had been discovered which

A FELLAH WOMAN WITH THE FEATDBES 0? AK ANCIENT KING.'

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.

and knives, not only

in the

They made

stone arrowheads, hammers,

time of the Pharaohs, but under the Romans, and

the great folks of Cairo were well known which of the sheikhs my drawing was like, he unhesitatingly named a sheikh of the Divan, whom, indeed, it did fairly resemble." Hamy pointed out a similar resemblance between the head to which Jomard refers and the portrait of a fellah from Upper Egypt, painted by Lefebure for the collections of the Museum of Natural History

whom

all

humaines de la basse valine du Nil, pp. 10-12; of. Bulletin de la Social^ d'anthro727-729) these are the two types reproduced by Faucher-Gudiu on p. 48. 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. * This question, brought forward for the first time by Hamy and Frangois Lteuonnant (D^couvertes de testes de I'dge de pierre en £gypte, in the Comptes rendus de VAcade'mie des Sciences, 22 nov. 1809), gave rise to a long controversy, in which many European savants took part. The whole account of it is given nearly in full by Salomon Reinach, Description raisonnie du mus^e de Saint-Germain, vol. i. pp. 87, 88. The examination of the sites led me to believe, with Mariette, that the manufactories pointed out before 1896 were certainly not anterior to historic times, but I never doubted, as some have imagined, that there had been a real stone age in Egypt.

(^A-per^u des races

pologie, 1886, pp.

:

'

E

TEE NILE AND E07PT.

50

during the whole period of the Middle Ages, and the manufacture of them has

These

not yet entirely died out.^

made, might therefore be

monuments.

But

the

we met

first a2:es,

if

objects,

less ancient

so far

and the workshops where they were

than the greater part of the inscribed

we had found no examples of any work belonging

in historic times with certain customs

harmony with the general

A

civilization of the period.

to

which were out of

comparison of these

customs with analogous" practices of barbarous nations threw light upon the former, completed their meaning,

and showed us

stages through which the Egyptian people

We

highest civilization.

knew,

for

at the

same time the successive

had to pass before reaching their

example, that even as late as the Caesars,

belonging to noble families at Thebes were consecrated to the service of

girls

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

oflBce.^

Theban women were not the only people

in the world to

such licence was granted or imposed upon them by law country we

civilized

ancient custom which

not yet

exist.*

preserved

the

in

The

religious observance.^

from a time when

a similar

see

practice,

institution of the

women

Amon

is

it

an

into a

a legacy

marriage did

maternity relieved them from this obligation, and

Age and

A

of

in

degenerated

the practice of polyandry obtained, and

them from those incestuous connections

in other races.^

wherever in a

;

we may recognize

of centuries has

course

whom

of

which we

find

examples

union of father and daughter, however, was perhaps not

whollv forbidden,^ and

that

of

brother

and

sister

seems

to

have been

dynasty at Beni-Hasan representing the (Newbekuy-Guiffith, Beni-Hasan, vol. iii. pi. viii.)- An entire collection of ^^„.-^^int tools axes, adzes, knives, and sickles mostly with wooden handles, was found by Prof. Petrie they dated from in the ruins of Kahun, at the entrance to the Fayftm (Illahun, etc., pp. 12, 51-55) Marietta had previously the XII"" dynasty, more than three thousand years before our era. pointed out (Bulletin de VInstitut ^gyptien, 1869-1871, 1st series, vol. xi. p. 58 of. De I'dge de la *

Griffith has called attention to a bas-relief of the XII""

making

of flint knives

—

—

:

;

129) the fact that a Coptic Beis, Salib of Abydos, in charge of the excavations there, 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

pierre en Egypte, in the Becueil

de Travaux. vol.

vii. p.

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. * Stbabo, xvii. § 46, p. 817 Diodorus (i. 47) speaks only of the tombs of these Pallacides of Amon his authority, Hecatseus of Abdera, appears not to have known their mode of life. ^ LiPPERT, KuUurgeschichte der Menschheit in ihrem organischen Au/bau, vol. ii. p. 15. * For the complete development and proofs of the theory on which this view of the fact rests, see ;

;

LiPPERT, KuUurgeschichte der Menschheit, vol. ii. p. 6, et seq. ' As, for instance, among the Medes, the class of the Magi, according to Xanthos of Lydia (fragm. 28 in MtJLLER-DiDOT, Frag. hist, grssc, vol. i. p. 43) and of Otesias (fragm. 30, edit. Mijlleb-Didot, p. 60).

E. DE EouGE held that Rameses II. married at least two of his daughters, Bint Anati and The Achsemenian kings did the same Artaxerxes married two of his own daughters (Plutarch, Artaxerxes, § 27). '

Honittui.

:

MARRIAGE, regarded as perfectly right and natural

;

^

51

the words hrotlier and

Egyptian love-songs the same significance

in

as lover

and

sister possessino-

mistress with us.^

Paternity was necessarily doubtful in a community of this kind, and hence the tie

between fathers and children was slight

in

which we understand the word, except as

;

there being no family, in the sense it

centred

around the mother.

Maternal descent was, therefore, the only one openly acknowledged, and the affiliation

of the child was indicated

When

woman

the

the

man

ceased to belong to

by the name of the mother

all,

and confined herself

reserved to himself the privilege of taking as

wished, or as he was able

to

wives did not enjoy identical rights

to one husband,

many

beginning with his own

keep, :

alone.^

wives as he sisters.

All

those born of the same parents as the

man, or those of equal rank with himself, preserved their independence. the law pronounced fidelity,^

himitu,

him the

and the two words of the in fact, her

or her husband, and of it

the

and performed

fire,

whom

they owed obedience and

they were mistresses of the- house, nibit

them occupied,

in

master, nihu, to

own

title

-piru,

as

well as wives,

Each

express their condition,^

of

house, ^iru, which she had from her parents

which she was absolute

mistress,

in it without constraint all a

She lived

nibit.

woman's duties

;

feeding

grinding the corn, occupying herself in cooking and weaving, making

clothing and perfumes, nursing and teaching her children.^

band

If

visited her,

It appears that

he was a guest

at the outset

authority of an older woman,

who defended

their rights

whom

When

her hus-

she received on an equal footing.

under the

these

various wives were placed

whom

they looked on as their mother, and

and interests against the master

;

but this custom

This custom had been noticed in early times, among others by Diodobus, i. 27, who justifies it by citing the marriage of Osiris with his sister Isis the testimony of historians of the classical period is daily confirmed by the ancient monuments. * Maspero, Etudes ^gyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 221, 22S, 232, 233, 237, 239, 240, etc. * The same custom existed among the Lycians (Herodotus, i. 172; Nicolaus of Damascus, fragm. 129, in MiJLLER-DiDOT, Frag. hist, gr., vol. iii. p. 461, etc.) and among many semi-civilized peoples of ancient and modern times (J. Lubbock, The Origins of Civilization, p. 139, etc.). The first writer to notice its existence in Egypt, to my knowledge, was Schow, Charta Papyracea grxoe scripta Musei Borgiani Velitris, pp. xxxiv., xxxv. * On the most ancient monuments which we possess, the wife says of herself that she is " the one devoted to her master ulio does every day what her master loves, and whom, for tliat reason, her master loves" (Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 10 b); in the same way a subject who is the favourite of a king says that "he loves his master, and that his master loves him" (Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 20). * The title 7iihit piru is ordinarily interpreted as if the woman who bore it were mistress of the house of her husband. Prof. Petrie (A Season in Egypt, pp. 8, 9) considers that this is not an exact This explanation translation, and has suggested that the women called nibit piru are widows. cannot be applied to passages where the woman, whether married or otherwise, says to her lover, '•My good friend, my desire is to share thy goods as thy house-mistress" (Maspero, Etudes The ^gyptiennes, vol. i. p. 247); evidently she does not ask to become the widow oi her beloved. interpretation proposed here was suggested to me by a species of marriage still in vogue among several tribes of Africa and America (Lippert, KuUurgeschichte der Menschheit, vol. ii. p. 27, et seq.) * Compare the touching picture which the author of the Papyrus moral de Boulaq gives of the good mother, at the end of the Theban period (Chabas, VEgyptologie, voL ii. pp. 42-54). *

:

—

— ;

;

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

52

gradually disappeared, and in historic times we read of

The female

in the families of the gods.

other deities,

owed obedience

to several

as existing only

it

singers consecrated to superiors, of

whom

Amon

and

the principal

(generally the widow of a king or high priest) was called chief- superior of the

bines, slaves purchased

of inferior class,

dispose

Amon}

of the harem of

ladies

as

Besides these wives, there were concu-

or born in the

who were the

he wished.^

house, prisoners of war, Egyptians

chattels of the

man and

of

whom he

could

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

brother or sister united in legitimate marriage, took

whose mother was a wife of constituted, the

woman,

inferior

rank or a

of a

precedence of those

In the family thus

slave.^

to all appearances, played the principal part.

Children

The husband

recognized the parental relationship in the mother alone.

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 the

man

at the

it.

They

woman was supreme

time of marriage promised obedience to

into a contract not to raise

We

afiirmed that the

any objection

to

her,

still

first

tools.^

A

the desert, in the oasis of Libya, or in the deep valleys of the

To Doshiru

— between

and entered

Egyptians

living in Africa and America, having an

analogous organization, and similar weapons and

Doshirit,

Egypt

her commands.*

had, therefore, good grounds for supposing that the

were semi-savages, like those

in

the Nile and the sea;

few lived in

Red Land

the poverty of the

Most of the princesses of the family of the high priest of the Theban Amon had this title (Maspero, Les Momies royales de Deir-el-BaJiari, in the M^m. de la Mission frang. du Caire, vol. i. '

In that species of modern African marriage with which I have compared the earliest pp. 575-580). Egyptian marriage, the wives of one man are together subject to the authority of an old woman, to whom they give the title of motlier if the comparison is exact, the harem of the god would form a community of this kind, in which the elder would be the superiors of the younger women. Here again the divine family would preserve an institution which had long ceased to exist among mortals. * One of the concubines of Khnumhotpli at Beni-Hasan, after having presented her master with a son, was given by him in marriage to an inferior officer, by whom she liad several other children (Ohampollion, Mon. de VEgypte, vol. ii. pp. 390, 392, 415; Lepsius, Denhm., vol. ii. 128, 130, 132). ' This explains the history of the children of Thothmes I., and of the other princes of the family of Aahmes, as we shall have occasion to see further on. * DioDORUs SicuLUS, i. 80. Here, as in all he says of Egypt, Diodorus has drawn largely from the historical and philosophic romance of Hecataeus of Abdera. * Up till now but few efforts have been made to throw light on these early times in Egypt Erman (^gypten, pp. 59, 60) and Ed. Meyer (Gesch. ^gyp., pp. 24-30) have devoted merely a few pages to the subject a new theory has been started i)y Prof. Petrie (A History of Egypt, vol. i. pp. 12-15) which seems as yet to have found no acceptance amongst Egyptologists. The examination of the hieroglyphic signs has yielded valuable information they have often preserved for us a representation of objects, and consequently a record of customs flourishing at the time when they were originally drawn (Maspero, Notes au jour le jour, § 5, in the Proceedings of the Bib. Arch. Soc, 1890-91, vol. xiii. pp. 310, 311; Vetrie, Epigraphy in Egyptian Research, in the Asiatic and Quarterly Review, 1891, pp. 315-320 Medum, pp. 29-34). The later discoveries of Petrie, Quibell, Ame'lineau, and De Morgan have confirmed the deductions which the study of the Pharaonic monuments bad led me to make, and in most cases I have merely had to add to my existing notes a reference to their works in order to bring this volume abreast of our present knowledge. ;

:

;

;

HOUSES, FURNITURE.

53

Others, settled on the Black Land,

country fostering their native savagery.

gradually became civilized, and we have found of late considerable remains of tliose

who,

of

generations

their

^

not anterior to the

if

times of written records, were

contemporary with

least

at

the earliest kings of the historical

first

Their

dynasty.

houses were like those of the

low huts of

fellahs of to-day,

daubed with puddled

wattle

clay, or oi bricks

clriecl

in tne

negro

*•

bisuners wearing the panther's skin as a loin-cloth.=

They contained one

sun.i

Those of the

room, either oblong or square, the door being the only aperture. richer class only were large

means of one

or

turned by hand,

two

flat

enough

more trunks of flint

trees,

to

make

needful to support the roof by

it

which did duty

stones for grinding corn,^ a few pieces of

wooden

moulded and baked in wickerwork baskets, which have In

impression on the surface of the clay.

the body being of a fine smooth red,

many

furniture, stools,

and

Their ordinary pottery

heavy and almost devoid of ornament, but some of the

finer kinds

have been

a quaint

trellis-like

left

cases the vases are bicolour,

with a stone, while the

polished

neck and base are of an intense black, the surface of which shining

pots,

knives and other implements, mats of reeds or plaited straw,

head-rests for use at night,^ comprised all the contents. is

Earthen

for columns.

is

even more

Sometimes they are ornamented with

than that of the red part.^

patterns in white of flowers, palms, ostriches, gazelles, boats with undulated

or broken

often traced

the in

lines,

ground red

or geometrical is

lines.

figures

of

More

simple nature.

coloured a fine yellow, and the decoration has been Jars,

saucers,

double vases,

supports for amphoree, trays raised on a foot is

a very

found in use at that remote period.^

— in

flat

plates,

short, every

large

cups,

kind of form

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

DE Morgan, Ethnographie pr^istorique, pp. 65-66, believes that the Egyptians borrowed the use of bricks from the Chaldaeans, and that the huts of the earliest inhabitants were merely of reeds. ^ XIX*'' dynasty drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Eoseluni, Monumenti Storici, pi. Ixxxv. ^ Mariette, Album photographique, pi. xx. Maspero, Guide du visiteur, p. 220, Nos. 1012, 1013. * Hamt, Note sur les chevets des anciens Egyptiens, etc., in the Etudes d^di^es a Leemans, pp. 32-34. » J, DE Morgan, L'Age de la pierre, etc., pp. 156-159, pis. i.-iii., el Ethnographie, pp. 120, 121. ' J. DE Morgan, L'Age de la pierre, etc., pp. 159-161, pis. iv.-ix., et Etknogr. pr^hist., pp. 121-123. ' It is the panther's skin which is seen, for instance, on the shoulders of the negro prisoners of the XVIII"» dynasty (Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit, vol. i. p. 259, No. 13 c, d) it was '

J.

;

;

;

obligatory for certain orders of priests, or for dignitaries performing priestly functions of a prescribed

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

54

of the body, the animal's tail touching the heels behind/ as

negroes of the Upper Nile.

several representations of the their limbs

in

least

with grease or

part,

classes only.^

given

lip.

we

They smeared

and they tattooed their faces and bodies, at

oil,^

but in later times this practice was retained

On

see later in

by the lower

the other hand, the custom of painting the face was never

To complete

their toilet,

it

was necessary to accentuate the arch

A

of the eyebrow with a line of kohl (antimony powder),

similar black line

surrounded and prolonged the oval of the eye to the middle of the temple, a layer of green coloured the under tints of

the cheeks and

lid,*

The

lips.^

and ochre and carmine enlivened 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

blue wig, dressed with

waved on the heads of ear, distinguished

When

woman.

much

was substituted for

skill,^

warriors,'

and a large

it

lock, flattened

A

;

ostrich feathers

behind the right

the military or religious chiefs from their subordinates.^

the art of weaving became common, a belt and

nature (Statues

short, a black or

Should the hair be too

60, 66, 72, 76, in the Louvre, E.

loin-cloth of white

de Rouge, Notice sommaire des Monuments de

la

cf. Galerie Egyptienne. 1872, pp. 44, 36, 38, 39; Lepsics, Denkm., ii. 18, 19, 21, 22, 30, 31 b, 32, etc. The sacerdotal costume ^gypten, 286). Erman, p. Wilkinson, op. cit., 2nd edit., vol. i. pp. 181, 182 Those who inherited or who had obtained is a survival of the ancient attire of the head of the family. the right of wearing the panther's skin on certain occasions, bore, under the ancient empire, the title of Oiiu-basit, "chiefs of the fur" (Mariette, Les Mastabas, pp. 252, 253, 254, 275, etc.). ' Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 259, No. 84, 9-18, and p. 272, No. 88 cf. ;

;

;

pp. 56-58, 124-129. ^ Castor-oil is the oil of kiki (Herodotus, ii. 94). It was called saqnunu, in Greek transcription psagdas, with the Egyptian article p ; ^aySas, without the article, is found in Hesychius. ^ Champollion, Monuments, Rosellini, Man. civili, pi. xli., text, vol. i pi, ccclxxxi. bis, 4 J.

DE Morgan, Ethnographie pr^historique,

;

where the women are seen tattooed on the bosom. In most of the bas-rtdiefs also of the temples of Philse and Kom Ombo, the goddesses and queens have their breasts scored witli long incisions, which, starting from the circumference, unite in the centre round the nipple. The " cartonnages " of Akhmim show that, in the age of Severus, tattooing was as common as it is now among the provincial middle classes and the fellahin (Maspero, Etudes de Myth, et d'Arch. ^gyptiennes, vol. i. p, 218 cf. Bulletin de I'Institut ^gyptien, 2nd series, vol. vi. p. 89). * The green powder (uazit) and the black pulverized vegetable charcoal, or antimony (maszimit), formed part of the otferings considered indispensable to the deceased but already in the age of the Pyramids the use of green paint appears to have been an aifectation of archaism, and we meet with it only on a few monuments, such as the statues of Sapi in the Louvre (E. de Rouge, Notice sommaire, p. 50 A, 36, 37, 28) and the stela of Hathor-nofer-hotpii at Gizeh (Maspero, Guide du The use of black kohl was in those times, as it is still, visiteur, pp. 212, 213, Nos. 991 et 1000). vol.

ii.

pp. 21, 22,

;

;

^^

was called uzait, " the supposed to cure or even prevent ophthalmia, and the painted eye healthy," a term ordinarily applied to the two eyes of heaven the sun and moon (Maspero, Notes

—

§ 25, in the Proceedings of the Bib. Arch. Society, 1891-92, vol, xiv, pp. 313-816). The mummies of Honittui and Nsitanibashra (Maspero, Les Momies royales, in the M€m. de la Miss., vol. i. pp. 577, 579) had their hair dressed and their faces painted before burial. ^ Wigs figure, from the earliest antiquity, in the list of offerings. The use of them is common

aujour lejour, *

among many savage

tribes in Africa at the present day.

and examples, taken by

The blue wig has been found Museum of the Trocadero.

in Abyssinia,

Jules Borelli, are exhibited in the

These may be observed on the head of the

f>^, representing foot-soldiers in the current script in later times they were confined to the mercenaries of Libyan origin. ' In historic times only children ordinarily wore the sidelock with grown men it was the mark of princes of the royal family, or it indicated the exercise of high priestly functions (Wilkinson, '

little

sign

f^. f^,

;

;

Manners and Customs, 2nd

edit., vol.

i,

pp. 162, 163, 182).

;

COSTUME.

55

Fastened round the waist, but so low

linen replaced the leathern garment.^

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

forming a kind of drawers.^

thus

belt,

Tails of animals

and wild beast's skin were henceforth only the insignia of authority with which priests

and princes adorned them-

selves on great days

gious ceremonies.^

and

at

reli-

The skin was

sometimes carelessly thrown over the left shoulder and swayed with

the

movement

times

it

was

of the

body

;

some-

adjusted

carefully

over one shoulder and under the other, so as to bring the curve of

The

the chest into prominence.

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 NOTABLE WEARING THE LARGE CLOAK OVER THE LEFT SHOULDER.'

the skin

with

paws,

attached,

the

claws

hung down over

the thighs

;

the spots of

PRIEST WEARING THE PANTHER'S SKIN ACROSS THE BREAST.'

were manipulated so as to form five-pointed

out-of-doors,

a large wrap

was thrown over

all; this

stars.

On

going

covering was either

of the ancient empire show ns the fellah of that period and the artisan at his wearing the belt (Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 4, 9, 12, 23, 24, 25, 28, 35, 40, etc.). 2 The iirst fashion often figures in the Lepsius, Denkm., ii. pp. 4, 8, 22, 25, 32, 43, etc. See the two statues, pp. latter in Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. ii. p. 322. '

work

The monuments still

;

47, 48.

The custom of wearing a tail made of straw, hemp fibre, or horsehair, still exists among several Upper Nile (Elisee Eeclus, Gebgraphie universelle, vol. ix, pp. 140, 158, 165, 175, The tails worn on state occasions by the Egyptians were imitations of jackals' tails, and 178, etc.). The movable part was of leather or plaited horsehair, not, as has been stated, of those of lions. The museum at Marseilles possesses one of these wooden attached to a rigid part of wood. appendages (Maspero, Catalogue du Mus€e Egyptien, p. 92, No. 279). They formed part of the costume of the deceaseil, and we find two species of them in his wardrobe (Visconti, Monumenti ^

tribes of the

Egiziani delta raccolta del Signer Demetrio Papandriopulo, pi. vi. Lepsius, Mltede Texte, pi. 7, 37; fouilles, in the M^moires de la Mission du Caire, vol. i. pp. 217, 226, ;

Maspero, Trois Ann€es de 235).

Gizeh Museum (IV*^ dynasty), drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Be'chard. See Mariette, Album du Mus€e de Boulaq, pi. 20, and Notice des principaux monuments, 4th edit., p. 235, No. 770; Maspero, Guide du Visiteur, p. 219, No. 1009. * Statue of the second prophet of Amon, Aa-nen, in the Turin Museum (XVIII'" dynasty). *

Wooden

statue

in

the

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

56

smooth or bairy, similar to that in which the Nubians and Abyssinians of the present day envelop themselves. in various

ways;

It could be draped

transversely over the

like the fringed shawl of

left

shoulder

the Chaldeans, or hanging

In

straight from both shoulders like a mantle.^ it

fact,

did duty as a cloak, sheltering the wearer from the sun or from the rain, from the heat or from

They never sought

the cold.

into a luxurious

case

in

later

garment of times with

to transform

state,

as was the

Roman

the

it

toga,

whose amplitude secured a certain dignity of

and whose

carriage,

beforehand,

fell

studied grace.

folds, carefully

around

the

adjusted

body with

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 re-

duced

to a long thin roll

then fastened together, A DIGNITARY WRAPPED IN HIS LARGE CLOAK.*

the ends being

was slung over

the shoulder and round the body like a cavalry cloak.^

those whose occupations called

it

;

them

Travellers, shepherds, all

to the fields, carried

it

as a bundle

This costume, to whicli Egyptologists have not given sufficient attention, is frequently repreBesides the two statues reproduced above, I may cite those of Uahibri sented on the monuments. and of Thoth-nofir in the Louvre (E. he Rouge, Notice des Monuments de la GaUrie Egjjptienne, 1872, Nos. 55 and 91, pp. 32, 44), and the Lady Nofrit in the Gizeh Museum (Maspero, Guide du visiteur, No. 1050, p. 221). Thothotpft in his tomb wears this mantle (Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 134 c). Klinumhotpu and several of his workmen are represented in it at Beni-Hasan (Lepsius, Den/cm., ii. 126,127), 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, Chajipollion, Monuments de I'J^Jgypte, -pi. clvi. 2; Roselltni, Monumenti Civili, pi. cxvi. 1; Boukiant, Le Tombeau d'Harmhahi, in the M^moires de la Mission du Caire, vol. v. pi. iii.). 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 tiie '

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.

Statue of Khiti in the Gizeh Museum (XII''' and XIII"" dynasties), drawn by FaucherGudin see Mariettb, Notice des principaux monuments, 'i:ih edit,, p. 188, No. 464, Catalogue G^ne'ral TJie des Monuments d'Ahydos, p. 36, No. 361, and Album photograpMque du musdj de Boulaq, pi. xxv. "

;

statue was found at Abydos.

Many draughtsmen,

ignorant of what they had to represent, have made incorrect copies of the 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 (Lepsius, Benlim.,\\. 116 a); atZawyet el-Maiyitin, Kliunas, killing birds with the boomerang from his boat, wears it, but simply thrown over the left shoulde-r, with the two extremities hanging free (id., ii. 106 a). Khnumhotpft at Beni-Hasan (id., ii. 130), tho ^

manner

in

:

— COSTUME. at the ends of their sticks

deposited required

it it.^

The women were men;^

cloth like that of the till it

once arrived at the scene of their work, thev with their provisions until they

;

corner

a

in

57

at

first

contented with a loin-

was enlarged and lengthened

it

reached the ankle below and the bosom above, and

became a tightly

garment, with two bands over the

fitting

shoulders, like braces, to keep

were not always covered

it

in place.^

The

feet

on certain occasions, however,

;

sandals of coarse leather,

plaited straw, split reed, or

even painted wood, adorned those shapely Egyptian which, to suit our taste, should be a

men and women

and ankles with many rows

The

of necklaces and bracelets.

made

bracelets were

of elephant ivory, mother-of-pearl, or

even

very

flint,

The necklaces were composed

cleverly perforated.^

little

Both

little shorter.^

loved ornaments, and covered their

necks, breasts, arms, wrists,

strings of

feet,

of

pierced shells,^ interspersed with seeds and

sparkling or of unusual shapes.®

pebbles, either

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 laces

distance beads,

and

terminated

were

between

maintained

by several

slips of

:

the neck-

a

uniform

the

rows of

costcme of Egyptian woman, sptnxing/

wood, bone, ivory, porcelain, or terra-cotta, pierced

Khrihabi (id., 101 b), the overseers {id., 105 b, 110 a, etc.), or the peasant (id., 96), 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 tho material could not be reduced to such small dimensions as (id., 134 h, d). those represented in these drawings of what I believe to be the Egyptian cloak, I may cite our cavalry capes, when rolled and slung, as an instance of what good packing will do in reducing volume. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2Dd edit., vol. ii. p. 100, No. 360, and p. 394, No. 466; see a swineherd, carrying his cloak in a roll on the end of his stick, on p. 64 of the present volume. ^ In the harvest-scenes of the ancient empire, we see the women wearing the loin-cloth tucked up like drawers, to enable them to work with greater freedom (Lepsius, Denkin., ii.). ;

'

=>

Lepsius, Derikm.,

*

Sandals also figure in

ii.

5,

8

c,

all

11, 15, 19, 20, 21, 46, 47, 57, 58, etc.

periods

(ViscoNTi, Monumenti ilgiziani,

pi.

among

vii.

;

the objects contained in the wardrobe of the deceased

Lepsius, Mlteste Texte,

pi. xi. p. xliii.

;

Maspeko, Troic

Ann€es defouilles, in the M^m. de la Miss, frangaise^ vol. i. pp. 218, 228, 237). * J. DE Morgan, Ethnographie pr^historique, pp. 59-62. * 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 (Mariette, La Gal€rie de I'^gypte ancienne a I'exposition retrospective du Trocadero, p. 112; Maspero, Guide du visiteur, p. 271, No. 4130); cf. J. de Morgan, Ethnographie pr^historique, p. 59, who enumerates among the varieties employed as ornaments, the following which belong to the species found in the Nile or the Red Sea Purpura turberoidata, Bhaim; Conus Cleopatra bulimoides, Oliv. pusillus, Chemm. Nerita polita, Linn. ; Sistrum anaxeres, Do S. ' Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the spinning-women at the Paris Exhibition of 1889. * Necklaces of seeds have been found in the tombs of Abydos, Thebes, and Gebelen. Of these ;

;

;

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

58

with holes, through which ran the threads.^

Weapons,

nobility, were an

indispensable part of

Most of them were

tume.

fighting

:

among

at least

for

the cos-

hand-to-hand

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,

enough

offensive

to

look

at,

—

in-

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

—

MAN WEARING WIG AND NECKLACES.*

therejwere the shng, the javelin, and a missile almost forgotten nowadays, the boomerang

;

we have no

proof, however,

Schweinfurth has identified, among others, the Cassia absus, L., "a weed of the Soudan whose seeds are sold in the drug bazaar at Cairo and Alexandria under the name of xhishm, as a remedy, whicli is in great request among the natives, for ophthalmia" (Lea Dernieres D^couvertes botaniques dans les anciens tomheaux de VEgypte, in the Bulletin de I'lnstitut €gyptien, 2nd series, vol. vi. p. 257). For the necklaces of pebbles, cf. Maspero, Guide du visiteur, pp. 270, 271, No. 4129. considerable number of these pebbles, particularly those of strange shape, or presenting a curious combination of

A

must have been regarded as amulets or fetishes by their Egyptian owners; analogous cases, other peoples, have been pointed out by E. B. Ttlok, Primitive Culture, vol. ii. p. 189, et seq.,

colours,

among

For the imitations of cowries and

shells in blue enamelled terra-cotta, cf. Maspero, No. 4160; they are numerous at Abydos, side by side with the real cowries. Some coarse imitations of the Nerita polita were found at Gebel Tukh by De Morgan they were cut in a species of hard crystalline porphyry (Eth. pi-^hist., p. 59). The nature of these little perforated slips has not been understood by the majority of savants; they have been put aside as doubtful cbjects, or have been wrongly described in our museum catalogues. ^ The t^rm mabit for the lance or javelin is found in the most ancient formulas of the pyramids (Pepi I., 1. 424, in the Jlecueil de Travaux, vol. vi. p. 165). The mabit, lance or javelin, was pointed with flint, bone, or metal, after the fashion of arrowheads (Chabas, Etudes sur I'antiquite historique, 2nd edit., p. 382, et seq., 395). See J. de Morgan, Ethnographie pr^historique, pp. 79-84, for the most characteristic shapes of lance and arrowheads found in the ancient Egyptian settlements. ^ In several museums, notably at Leyden, we find Egyptian axes of stone, particularly of serpentine, both rough and polished (Chabas, Etudes sur I'antiquite historique, 2ud edit., pp. 381, 382). For the flint axes and daggers found in the oldest ruins, cf. De Morgan, Etlm. pr^hist, pp. 72-78. * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a portrait of Pharaoh Seti I. of the XIX"" dynasty (Rosellini, Monumerdi Storici, pi. v. 18): the lower part of the necklace has been completed. ^ In primitive times the bone of an animal This is proved by the shape of the served as a club.

205, et seq.

Guide du

visiteur, p. 271,

No. 4130,

p. 276,

;

'

object held in the

hand

in the sign

V—

•

(Maspero, Notes aujour lejour,

Biblical Archxological Society, 1890-91, vol.

xiii.

pp. 310, 311)

:

§ 5, in the Proceedings of the

the hieroglyph

^,

V—

i,

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 tlie bow, see Lepstus, Der Bogen in der Hieroglyphik (Zeitschrift, 1872, pp. 79-88).

From

the earliest times the sign

LM portrays

the soldier equipped with the bow

and bundle of arrows; the quiver was of Asiatic origin, and was not adopted until much later (Maspero, Notes au jour le jour, § 18, in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archaeological Society, 1891-92, vol. xiv. 184-187). In the contemporary texts of the flrst dynasties, the idea of

— ARMS OF WOOD AND METAL. that the Egyptians handled the lians,

or

that they

so as to bring

it

of departure.^

knew how back to

it

boomerang

^

59

with the skill of the Austra-

to throw its

point

Such was approximately

the most ancient equipment as far as

we can ascertain

;

but at a very early

date copper and iron were

Egypt.^

Long before

known

historic

in

times,

the majority of the weapons in wood

by those

were replaced

metal,

of

which pre-

daggers, sabres,

hatchets,

served, however,

the shape of the old

wooden

wooden

Those

instruments.

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

commander's wand of authority,

the

and at

last

degenerated into the walk-

ing-stick of the rich or noble.

weapons

is

THE BOOMERANG AND FIGHTING BOW.*

The club

at length represented

conveyed by the bow, arrow, and club or axe (E. de Rouge, Eecherches sur

merely the

les

monuments,

p. 101).

The boomerang

used by certain tribes of the Nile valley (Elisee Reclus, G^ographie most ancient tombs (Lepsius, Denhn., ii. 12, 60, 106, etc.), and every museum possesses examples, varying in shape (E. de Rouge, Notice sommaire, Besides tlie ordinary Salln Civile, Armoire H., p. 73 Maspero, Guide du visiteur, p. 303, No. 4723). boomerang, the Egyptians used one which ended in a knob (Maspero, Guide du visiteur, p. 303, No. 4724), and another of semicircular shape (Chabas, Etudes sur Vantiquit€ historique, 2nd edit., p. 88; Maspero, Notes au jour le jour, § 27, in the Proceedings of the Biblical Arcliieological SocieUj, vol. xiv., 1891-92, pp. 320, 321): 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. " Tlie 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, '

is still

universelle, vol. ix. p. 352).

It is portrayed in the

;

;

and what can be done with

it,

see

Lubbock, Prehistoric Man, pp. 402, 403.

Metals were introduced into Egypt in very ancient times, since the class of blacksmiths is associated with the worship of Horns of Edfu, and appears in the account of the mythical wars of that god (Maspero, Les Forgerons d'Horus, in Les Ftudes de Mythologie, vol. ii. p. 313, et seq.). The earliest tools we possess, in copper or bronze, date from the IV"* dynasty (Gladstone, On MetuUio Copper, Tin, and Antimony from Ancient Egypt, in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archxological pieces of iron have been found from time to time in the masonry Society, 1891-92, pp. 223-226) '

:

Great Pyramid (Vyse, Pyramids of Gizeh, vol. i. pp. 275, 276; St. John Vincent Day, Examination of the Fragment of Iron from the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, in the Transactions of the International Congress of Orientalists, 1874, pp. 396-399; Maspero, Guide du visiteur, p. 296, and Monte'lius has, however, repeatedly Bulletin de la Socigt^ d'anthrnpologie, 1883, p. 813, et seq.). contested the authenticity of these discoveries, and he thinks that iron was not known in Egypt till a much later period {UAge du bronze en Egypte, in the Anthropologic, vol. i. p. 30, et seq.)Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting in the tomb of Khnumhotpii at Beni-Hasan of the

•*

(Champollion, Monuments de V Egypte,

pi. ccc.

;

Roselltni, Monumenti Civili,

pi. cxvii. 3).

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

60

chieftain,^ while the

rank of a

head of ivory,

crook and the wooden-handled mace, with

diorite, granite, or white stone,

its

the favourite weapons of princes,

continued to the

last

the most

revered insignia of royalty.^

was

Life parative

Of the ponds

left in

passed

and

ease

the open country by the river at

pleasure.

banks.

remained

pools, however,

Other

the returning inundation, as so

which the

soil

an

which birds and wild beasts disputed

of fish, the possession of

with man.*

some

its fall,

dried up more or less quickly during the winter, leaving on the

immense quantity

com-

in

many

till

vivaria in

were preserved for dwellers on the

fish

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

Where the

by the Egyptians from early times. ponds \A

\

^7-^

f^^h "HI

"

~

the

failed,

neighbouring

them with inexhaustible

Nile

Standing in

supplies.

light canoes, or rather supported

furnished

by a plank on

bundles of reeds bound together,' they ventured into mid-stream,

from the

up

1

fish

the

which could not be eaten

The wooden club most commonly

amid

a

they

or

thicket

of

down with the boomerang

which found covert there.

fresh,

The

fowl

were dried, salted, or smoked, and kept

represented i,

us moderns

danger arising

hippopotamus;

canals

aquatic plants, to bring

the birds

and

spite of the

ever-present

penetrated KING HOLDING THE BATON, THE WHITE MACE, AND THE CLUB.*

in

is

Several

the usual insignia of a nobleman.

names, formed Maspero, Trois Annees de

to distinguish, yet bearing different

kinds of clubs, somewhat difficult for a part of the funereal furniture (Lepsios, JElteste Texte, pi. x. 2G-28, 38 fouilles, in the M^moires de la Mission franpaise, vol. i. pp. 24, 221, 232, etc.). ^ Drawn by Paucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Brugsch-Bey of the original at Gizeh. ;

'

The crook

|

is

the sceptre of a prince, a Pharaoh, or a god

;

the white mace

j

has

still

the value

apparently of a weapon in the bands of the king who brandishes it over a group of prisoners, or over an ox which he is sacrificing to a divinity (Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 2 a, c, 39/, 116, etc.). Most museums possess specimens of tlie stone heads of these maces, but until lately their use was not known. I had several placed in the Boulak Museum (Extrait de Vinventaire, p. 10, Nos. 26,586, 26,587, in the Bulletin de VInstitut Egyptien, 2nd series, vol. vi.). It already possessed a model of one entirely of wood (Mariette, La Galerie de VErjypte ancienne, p. 104; Maspeko, Guide, p. 303, No. 4722). For the stone or ivory heads of these early maces, cf. J. de Morgan, Ethnogr. prehistorique, pp. 70-72. *

du Nil, in the Description de VEgypte, The jackals come down from the mountains in the night, and regale them-

Cf. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, Eistoire naturelle des poissons

vol. xxii. pp. 182, 183.

ground by the gradual drying up of these ponds. prehistorique, pp. 84-89, gives the principal shapes of the stone, Ethnographie Morgan, J. de both by himself and also by Petrie (A^agada and Ballas, pi. Ixi. discovered harpoons horu ivory, and selves with the fish left on the *

copper harpoons found on these ancient sites, cf. Petrie, op. cit., pi. Ixv. 7, 8. Bas-relief in the temple of Lusor, from a photograph taken by Insinger in 1886. ' Domichen, Besultate der archaologisch-plwtographischen Expedition, vol. i. pi. viii. Terra-cotta models of these very ancient canoes were discovered by Petbie, Nagada and Ballas, pi. xxxi. 12-16) «

;

for the

HUNTING AND FISHING. for

a

rainy

resources.

Like the

day.^

Only too frequently, the

large felidae were

met with

times,

deemed

animals, ferred

it

as

there.

TWO

FISHING IN THE MARSHES:

their

desert

had

its

The

nobles, like the

or duty to

their

dens.

stalk

Pharaohs of

FISHING IN THE RIVER

:

and destroy these

The common people

'

52.

For the yearly value of the ancient

On

vol.

vi.

letter

156

;

the

as

nondescript packs, in which the jackal

fisheries, see

Herddotds,

ii.

149

lithe Abyssinian

(of. iii.

91)

;

Diodorus.

Michaud, Correand Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. ii.

the system of farm rents iu use at the beginning of the century,

gpondance d'Orienf, pp. 124-126.

ibex,

more humble game, such

and the hyena ran side by side with the wolf-dog and the

i.

pre-

LIFTING A TRAP.'

wild ox, and the ostrich, but did not disdain :

later

THE HARPOON.'

attacking the gazelle, the oryx, the mouflon sheep, the

the porcupine and long-eared hare

its

the leopard, the panther, and other

FISH SPEARED AT ONE STROKE OF

to

and

perils

lion,

privilege

pursuing them even

the

river,

61

cf.

2 Isolated figure from a great fishing scene in the tomb of Khnumhotpa at Beni-Hasan by Faucher-Gudin after Kosellini, Monumenti Civili, pi. xxv. 1. ' Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from squeezes from the tomb of Ti.

;

drawn

-

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

62

greyhound, scented and retrieved pierced with his arrows.^

for their

master the prey which he had

At times a hunter, returning with the dead body

of

HUNTING IN THE MARSHES: ENCOUNTERING AND SPEARING A lUPPOPOTAMUS.*

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.

Such animals,

yg!^—

"F^k-Chtk^Q^l-Vw

HUNTING IN THE DESERT

:

BULL, LION,

AND ORYX PIERCED WITH ARROWS.'

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

and becoming *

On Egyptian

in

case

of necessity a

dogs, see Roselltni,

Animnux employes par

les

Monumenti

ready stock of provisions.^ Civili, vol.

anciens Egyptiens a la chasse

i.

pp. 197-202

;

profit,

Efforts

Fr. Lenormant, Les

a la guerre, iu Premieres Civilisations, vol. in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical et

Birch, The Tablet of Antefaa II., pp. 172-195. ^ Tomb of Ti. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Dijmichen, Eesultate, vol. ii. pi. x. ' Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting at Beni-Hasan, Lepsius, Denhm., ii. 136. * 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 (Lippert, Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit, vol. i. pp. 484, 485). i.

p. 343, et seq.

Archxology, vol.

;

iv.

THE LASSO AND THE SOLA. made

were therefore

to enlarge this flock,

63

and the wish

to procure animals

without seriously injuring them, caused the Egyptians to use the net for birds

and the

and the

lasso

quadrupeds,^

— weapons

hola

for

less brutal

than the arrow and the javelin.

The

hola

was made by them of

a single rounded stone, attached a

to

about

strap

five

yards

in

The stone once thrown,

length.

the cord twisted round the legs,

muzzle, or neck of the animal pursued, and by the attachment PACK FROM THE TOMB OF PTAHUOTPOU.*

thus

made the

his strength,

pursuer, using all

was enabled to bring the beast down half strangled.

has no stone attached to

it,

but a noose prepared beforehand, and the

the hunter consists in throwing victim while running.

The

it

round the neck of

They caught

lasso

skill of

his

indifferently, without

distinction of size or kind, all

that

chance brought within

their reach.

up

kept

The

daily chase

these- half-tamed

flocks of gazelles, wild goats,

water-bucks, stocks, triches,

and

their

reckoned

are

by

and

os-

numbers j^—

,^

hundreds CATCHING ANIMALS WITH THE

on

the

monuments

ancient empire.*

of

BOLA.''

the

Experience alone taught the hunter to distinguish between

Hunting with the bola is constantly represented in the paintings both of the Memphite and Theban periods. Wilkinson (^Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. ii. p. 87, f. 352, 353) has confounded it with lasso-hunting, and his mistake has been reproduced by other Egyptologists (Erman, JEgypten, p. 332). Lasso-hunting is seen in Lepsius, Denlcm., ii. 96, in Dumichen, EesuUate, vol. i. pi. 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 (Mariette, Abydos, voL i. pi. 53). For the terms bola and lasso hunting, cf. Maspero, Notes au jour le jour, §§ 4 and 9, in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archxological Society, 1890-91, vol. xii. pp. 310, and 427-429. ^ Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief of Ptahhotpu (Dumichen, Besultate, vol. i. '

pi. ix.).

The dogs on

the upper level are of hyenoid type, those on the lower are Abyssinian grey-

hounds.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a

bas-relief of Ptahhotpii (Dijmichen, Besultate, vol. i. pL viii.) are seen Above two porcupines, the foremost of which, emerging from his hole, has seized a grass^

hopper.

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 same species, nowadays rebels to restraint (Leg Premieres Civilisations, vol. i. pp. 323-328). It is my belief that the animals represented were tamed, but not domesticated. *

As

;

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

64

draw

those species from which he could

made them impossible

to domesticate.

profit,

The

and others whose wildness

subjection of the most

kinds had not been finished when the historic period opened.

The

sheep, and the goat were already domesticated, but the pig was

useful

ass,

the

out in

still

the marshes in a semi-wild state, under the care of special herdsmen,^ and

the religious

was so

little

rites

preserved the remembrance of the times in which the ox

tamed, that in order to capture while grazing the animals needed

for sacrifice or for slaughter, it

was necessary to use the

lasso.^

Europeans are astonished to meet nowadays whole peoples who make use

and plants whose flavour and

of herbs

properties are nauseating to us

are

remote past

which

with limbs,

the

many

mostly so

the Berbers

and with which the

Said

flavour

vegetables, was

these

legacies from a

example,

for

;

:

their

preferred

castor-oil,

rub

their

fellahin of

and

bread before

all

others by the Egyptians of the PhaA SWINEHERD A\D HIS PIGS.'

and

for

kind of

culinary use.* fruit

raonic

age

for

the

anointing

body

They had begun by eating indiscriminately every

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

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 (Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 12) does not prove that it was bred in captivity; the The fashion gazelle may have been caught before calving, or just after the birth of its young. of keeping flocks of animals taken from the desert died out between the XII"' and XVI II*'' 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 (Maspero, Guide du Visiteur au mus^e de Boulaq, p. 327, No. 5220). The hatred of the Egyptians for the pig (Herodotus, ii. 47) is attributed to mythological motives (Naville, Le Chapitre CXII du Livre des Morts, in the Etudes arch^ologiques d€di€es a M. le Dr. C. Leemans, pp. 75-77). Lippert {KulturgescldcMe, vol. i. p. 545, et seq.) 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 To the of a higher order gazelles, sheep, goats, oxen and would have thus fallen into contempt. 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 tlie tomb with the deceased, to secure for him the protection of the goddess (Maspero, Guide du Visiteur, p. 273, No. 4155). ^ Mariette, Ahtjdos (vol. i. pi. 48 h, 53). To prevent the animal from evading the lasso and during the sacrifice, its right hind foot was fastened to its left horn. escaping ' Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting in a Theban tomb of the XVIII"" dynasty. * I have often been obliged, from politeness, when dining with the native agents appointed by the European powers in Upper Egypt, to eat salads and mayonnaise sauces flavoured with castor-oil the taste was not so disagreeable as might be at first imagined. '

;

—

—

PLANTS USED FOR FOOD. disuse,

and only reappeared at

65

sacrifices, or at funeral feasts

continue to be eaten to the present time

— the

several varieties

;

acid fruits of the nabeca and

of the carob tree, the astringent figs of the sycamore, the insipid pulp of the

dom-palm, besides those which are pleasant to our Western palates, such as the

^

^

.ses^^^.

\

'

f\

'I'

common

flourishcd,

iddle

immemorial the

art

of

fig

Lower

and

making wine from

Egypt

-f-

and the

The

date.

^^ |

THE EGYPTIAN LOTUB.

/

;

vine

at

least

from

time

was known, and even the

it

most ancient monuments enumerate half a dozen famous brands, red or white.^ Vetches,

lupins,

beans,

the meloukhia,^ the itself

supplied

its

arum

chick-peas, lentils, onions, colocasia,^ all

grew wild

quota of nourishing plants.

fenugreek,^

in the fields,

Two

the

bamia,*

and the

river

of the species of lotus

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from the Description de VEgypt/-., Histoire Naturelle, pi. 61. On the wines of Egypt under tlie Pharaolis, cf Brugsch, Beise nach der Grossen Oase el-Khargeh, 90-93. The four kinds of canonical wine, brought respectively from the north, south, east, and

'

*

pp.

west of the country, formed part of the official repast and of the wine-cellar of the deceased from remote antiquity. ' 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 escuhntus, L., is a plant of the family of the ]\Ialvaceae, having a fruit of covered with prickly hairs, and containing round, white, soft seeds, sliglitly sweet, but astringent in taste, and very mucilaginous (S. de Sact, ReJation de I'Egypte par Ahd-AUatif, pp. 16, 37-40). It figures on the monuments of Pharaonic times (Rosellini, Monumenti civili, pi. xxxix. 3, *

five divisions,

cf. Wcenig, Die Pflanzen im Alien Mgypten, pp. 219, 220). i. pp. 380, 381 The meloukhia, Corchorus Olitorius, L., is a plant belonging to the Tilliacese, which is chopped up and cooked much the same as endive is witii us, but which few Europeans can eat witii pleasure,

and

text, vol.

;

*

owing to the mucilage it contains (S. de Sacy, Relation de I'Egypte par Ahd-AUatif, pp. 16, 17, 40-42). Theophrastus says it was celebrated for its bitterness (Historia Plant., vii. 7); it was used as food, however, in the Greek town of Alexandria (Pliny, H. N., xxi. 15, 32). * The colocasia. J.rum xxiv. 16) among the colocasia, L., is mentioned in Pliny (ff. N., xix. 5 vegetables of Egypt the root, cooked in water, is still eaten at tlie present day. ;

:

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

66 which grew

and the blue, have seed-vessels similar to

in the Nile, the white

those of the poppy

the capsules contain small grains of the size of millet-

:

pink lotus "grows on a different stalk from that of the

seed.

The

flower,

and springs directly from the root

or, to

fruit of the

resembles a honeycomb in form,"

it

;

take a more prosaic simile, the rose of a watering-pot.

twenty or thirty

cavities, "

each containing a seed as big as an olive stone, and

pleasant to eat either fresh "

the bean of Egypt.^

The upper part has

The

This

dried."*

or

is

what the ancients called

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. is

sold in the markets, but those

baking."

Twenty

^

who

It is eaten as a delicacy

are fastidious partake of

and

different kinds of grain

it

only after

prepared by crushing

fruits,

between two stones, are kneaded and baked to furnish cakes or bread are often mentioned in the texts as cakes of nabeca, date cakes,

made from the

Lily loaves,

figs.

;

Durrah

people.^

inscriptions.**

barley

is

On

the other hand, of

;

it

it is

many

of

were the delight

places

the " grain of the South " of the

supposed that wheat and six-rowed

is

the Euphrates.''

The

procure and cultivate them.^

that in

lotus,

and cakes

of cereals formed the habitual food of the

of African origin

came from the region

to

lirst

made

bread and cakes

^

and seeds of the

these

;

and appear on the tables of the kings of the XIX^*^

of the gourmand,

dynasty

roots

and

no agricultural

toil

soil

Egypt was among the

there

is

required.

is

so kind

man,

to

As soon

as

the

Herodotus, ii. 92. The root of two species of lotus is still held ia much esteem by the halfsavage inhabitants of Lake Menzaleh, but they prefer that of the Nymphxa Gxrulea (Savary, Lettrea eur V Eyyjjte, \o\. i. p. 8, note 8; Raffeneau-Delile, Flore d'Fgypte, in the Description, vol. six. '

p. 425). =*

DiODORUS SiccLTjs, Herodotds, ii. 92.

i.

10,

On

3i; Theophrastds, Eist. PL,

10; Strabo, xvii. 799.

iv.

Egypt in general, and on its uses, whether as an edible or otherwise, see Fr. Wcenig, Die Pflamen im Alten JEgypten, pp. 74-129. * Till, whicli is the most ancient word for bread, appears in early times to have been used for every kind of paste, whether made with iruits or grain the more modern word dqu applies specially to bread made from cereals. The lily loaves are mentioned in the Papyrus Anastasi, No. 4, p. 14, 1. 1. ' From the Ancient Empire downwards, the rations of the workmen were distributed in corn or in loaves. The long flat loaf (^e> is, moreover, the principal offering brought for the dead another '

the papyrus of

;

;

oval loaf d with a jar of water

shows that

is

the determinative for

idea of funeral repast

tlie

gTg

,

which

use dates from early prehistoric times in Egypt. origin of the common durrali, Eolcus Sorghum, L., is admitted by E. de Candolle, Origine des planies cuUivues, pp. 305-307. Its seeds have been found in the tombs (Loret, La Flore Pharaonique, p. 12, No. 20), and a representation of it in the Theban paintings (Kosellini, Monu•=

its

The African

menti

civili, pi.

of dirati in the

xxxvi. 2, and text, vol. i. p. 361, et seq.). Papyrus Anastasi, No. iv., p. 13, 1. 12 p. ;

'

Wheat,

me

have found

17,

1.

s-ee

E. de Candolle, Origine des plaules

it

mentioned under the name

4.

sHut, suo, is the corn of the north of the inscriptions.

origin of, wheat,

appear to

I

Barley

cultice'es,

is iati, ioti.

On

the Asiatic

pp. 285-288; his conclusions

by fact. The Semitic name of wheat is found under the form hamhH in the Pyramids (Maspero, La Pyramide du roi T(fti, in the Becueil, vol. v. p. 10). ' 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 insufiSciently supported

THE EOE AND THE PLOUOE. water of the Nile

and

the

the ground straight

falling

grain,

mud, grows

retires,

vigorously as in

as

Where

ploughed

furrows.^

hard

necessary to break

is

it

sown without previous preparation, the

into

p

the best-

the it

is

67

earth

is

up, but the

extreme simplicity of the instruments with

which

resistance

hoe

was done shows what a feeble

this

stone

was

or

unequal

was composed either of a

It

sufficed.

large

For a long time the

offered.

it

tied

made

wooden

a

to

two pieces of wood

of

united

length,

one

at

middle by a slack cord

their

of

the plough,

:

enlarged hoe, drawn by oxen.^ the

of

THE EGYPTIAN HOE

and held together towards the

extremities,

on

""

handle,

banks of

The

when

first

invented, was but a slightly

cultivation of cereals, once established

the Nile,

developed, from earliest times, to such a degree

plant

all

rearing

but

occupied place

hunting,

else:

the

ing,

and

fish-

cattle,

.of

secondary

a

compared

culture,

as to sup-

with

agri-

Egypt became, ^r^

that which she

remains,

still

a vast granary of wheat.

The first

part

of

the valley

cultivated was from Gebel

the apex

PLOUGHING.*

the

of

Silsileh

to

Delta.*^

Between the Libyan and Arabian ranges

it

presents

a

slightly

Saqqarah (Schweinfurth, Notice sur les testes de v^g^tauz de VAncienne Egypfe contenus dans una armoire du mus€e de Boulaq, in the Bulletin de VInstitut Egyptien, 2nd series, vol. v. p. 4). Description P.-S. GiRARD, M^moire sur V Agriculture, VIndustrie et le Commerce de I'Egypte, in the

at

'

de r£gypte, vol. xviii. p. 49. " J. DE Morgan, EthnograpTiie pr^iistorique, 2

Bas-relief from

the

tomb

of

Ti

;

p. 9G.

drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil

Brugseh-Bey. ^

CosTAZ, Grottes d' EMhyia, ii. pp. 68-71.

va.

the Description de I'Egypte,

'\o\.

vi.

p.

105; Maspero, Etudes

£gyptiennes, vol. "

Bas-relief from the

tomb

of Ti;

drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil

Brugsch-Bey. •^

This was the tradition of

all

the ancients.

the whole of Egypt, -with the exception of the of

Menes (Hehodottts,

ii.

4).

according to the Egyptians, swamp previous to the time xiv.) adds that the Eed Sea, the Mediterranean,

Herodotus related

Theban nome, was a

Aristotle {Mtteorolog.,

i.

and the area now occupied by the Delta, foriued one

sea.

that,

vast

TEE NILE AND EGYFT.

68

convex surface, furrowed lengthways by a depression, in the bottom of which the Nile

is

gathered and enclosed when the inundation

summer, as soon as the river had

In the

is over.

risen higher than the top of its banks, the

water rushed by the force of gravity towards the lower lands, hollowing in course long channels, some of which never completely dried up, even

the Nile reached

of these natural reservoirs, but everywhere else the

were rather injurious

movements

of the river

The inundation

advantageous to man.

th.'in

when

Cultivation was easy in the neighbourhood

lowest level.^

its

its

scarcely

ever covered the higher ground in the valley, which therefore remained unproductive

;

it

medium

flowed rapidly over the lands of

and moved

elevation,

sluggishly in the hollows that they became weedy and stagnant pools.^

any year the portion not watered by the

by the sand

river was invaded

:

so

In

from

the lush vegetation of a hot country, there was but one step to absolute aridity.

At the present day an ingeniously

and distribute the overflow according

agriculturist to direct

From Gebel Ain

established system of irrigation allows the

to the sea, the Nile

and

left,

embankments.

stable

needs.

his

principal branches are bordered

its

by long dykes, which closely follow the windings sufiiciently

to

Numerous

of the river and furnish

canals

lead

off

to

right and

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 risiug of the

Some

desert.

of a in

bank of earth

them would

dykes protect one

of these ;

others

command

entail the ruin of

district only,

and consist merely

a large extent of territory, and a breach

an entire province.

These

latter are some-

times like real ramparts, made of crude brick carefully cemented;

have a core of hewn

as at Qosheish,

stones,

which

a few,

later generations

have

covered with masses of brickwork, and strengthened with constantly renewed

They wind

buttresses of earth.

apparently aimless turns; on closer examination, that this irregularity

is

many unexpected and however, it may be seen

across the plain with

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

have followed carefully the singular, it

is

to

sinuosities,

and

if

:

of these they

the course of the dykes appears

be ascribed to the natural configuration of the ground.

Subsidiary embankments thrown up between the principal ones, and parallel

•

The whole

inundation travaux

is

damage which can be done by the Nile in places where the borrowed from Linant de Bellefonds, M^moire sur les principaux

description of the

not regulated,

is

cC utility puhlique, p. 3.

This physical coufiguration of the country explains the existence at a very early date of those gigantic serpents which I have already mentioned cf. p. 33, note 5, of this History. *

;

DYKES, BASINS, IRRIGATION. to the Nile, separate

the higher ground bordering the river from the low

lands on the confines of the valley divisions of varying area, in

As long

special trenches.^

69

;

they divide the larger basins into smaller

which the irrigation

is

regulated by means of

as the Nile is falling, the dwellers on

leave their canals in free communication with it;

its

banks

dam them up

but they

towards the end of the winter, just before the return of the inundation, and

do not reopen them

till

The waters then flowing enough

flood is at its height.

by the trenches are arrested by the nearest

in

dyke and spread over the

verse

when the new

early in August,

When

fields.

dyke

to saturate the ground, the

is

trans-

they have stood there long

pierced,

and they pour into the

next basin until they are stopped by a second dyke, which in

its

them again

renewed from

to spread out

dyke to dyke,

till

on either

This operation

side.

the valley soon becomes a series of

is

artificial

turn forces

ponds, ranged

one above another, and flowing one into another from Gebel Silsileh to the

dammed up

anew,

from flowing back into the stream.

The

In autumn, the mouth of each ditch

apex of the Delta.

in order to prevent the

mass

of water

is

transverse dykes, which have been cut in various places, are also repaired, and

the basins become completely landlocked, separated by narrow causeways.

some

In

places, the water thus imprisoned is so shallow that it is soon absorbed

by the

soil

weeks,

it is

;

in others,

it

is

necessary to let

so deep, that after it has been kept in for several it

run

off into a

neighbouring depression, or straight

into the river itself.^

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

said to

have made the dyke of Qosheish, on which depends the prosperity of

the Delta

*

to the

god

Osiris

:

^

then Menes, the

and Middle Egypt, and the fabulous Moeris

first

is

extended the blessings of the irrigation to the Fayum.^

The

mortal king,

is

supposed to have

In

reality,

the

was by Martin, Description ge'ographique des provinces de BeniSoueyf et du Fayoum, in the Description de VEgypte, vol. xvi. p. 6, et seq. The regulations to which the basins of Upper Egypt and of the Delta are subject has been well described by Chelu, Le Nil, '

first

precise information about the arrangement of a basin, or a series of basins,

collected at the beginning of our century

le

Soudan, VEgypte, p. 323, et seq. ^ P.-S. GiRARD, Me'moire sur V Agriculture, Vlndustrie

et le

Commerce de VEgypte,

in the Description

de VEgypte, vol. xvii. pp. 10-13. For the technical details of the progressive filling the basins, see again Chllu, Le Nil, le Soudan, VEgypte, pp. 325-333.

and emptying

of

DiOD. SicuLDS, i. 19, who borrowed this information from the hymns of the Alexandrine period. BcN.SEN, Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. ii. p. 41, interpreting a passage of Herodotus 91), thinks that it was the dyke of Qosheish, the construction of which the Egyptians attributed

'

*

(ii.

to

Menes. ^ Herodotus,

Mo!ri8.

ii,

150,

149,

where

it

is

useless to

seek

to

identify an

actual Pharaoh

with

;

TEE NILE AND EGYPT.

70

ref^ulation of the inundation

of unrecorded generations

and the making of cultivable land are the work

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

waterways with which

its

day chequered by the network of

to this

is

inhabitants covered

earliest

The work must

it.

have begun simultaneously at several points, without previous agreement, and, as

it

A

were, instinctively.

or watering

dyke protecting a

some small province, demanded the

village, a canal draining

of but

efforts

few indi-

then the dykes would join one another, the canals would be pro-

viduals

;

longed

till

improved

they met others, and the work undertaken by chance would be

and would spread with

the concurrence of

an ever-increasing

TAUCMica^Cyi^t

BOATMEN FIGHTING

population.

ON'

What happened

i

r>r^-

.1

A CANAL COMM0NICATING WITH THE NILE.

at the

end of

last century,

shows us that the

system grew and was developed at the expeDse of considerable quarrels and bloodshed.

The inhabitants

most conducive

to their

and discharging

it

their

of each district carried out the part of the work

own

interest, seizing the supply of water,

at pleasure, without considering

keeping

it

whether they were injuring

neighbours by depriving them of their supply or by flooding them

hence arose perpetual rights of the

strife

and

fighting.

It

became imperative that 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.^

The country was divided

among communities, whose members were

supposed to be descended from the same seed {pdit) and to belong to the same drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by E. Brugsch-Bey. For the state of the irrigation service at the beginning of our century, and for the differences which arose between the villages over the distribution of the water, and on the manner in which the supply was cut off, see P.-S. Girard, Me'moire sur V Agriculture, VIndustrie et le Commerce de J^gijpte, for the present legislation, see Chelo, Le Nil, in the Description de l'£gypte, vol. xvii. p. 13, et seq. •

Bas-relief from the

tomb of Ti

;

'

;

le

Soudan, V^gypte, pp. 308-321, 482,

et seq.

—

a

TnE PRINCES OF TEE NOMES. family

the chiefs of them were called ropditu, the guardians, or

(pditu'^):

pastors of the family,

nobility

the

to

71

and

in later times their

name became

a title applicable

general.

in

Families combined and formed

groups of various importance

under the authority of a head ropditu-lid?

chief

They were,

in fact, hereditary lords, dis-

pensing justice, levying taxes in

kind on their subordinates,

reserving

themselves the

to

of land,

redistribution

ing their

men

to battle,

lead-

and

sacrificing to the gods.^

The

which

they

territories

over

exercised

authority

formed

small states, whose boundaries

even now, in some places, can be pointed out with certainty.

The

principality of the Tere-

binth

occupied

*

heart of valley

is

the

very

Egypt, where widest,

of the Nile

the

and the course

most advantage-

ously disposed by nature

— A GREAT EGYPriAN LORD,

country well suited to be the cradle of an infant civilization

TI,

Siaut (Siut), the capital,

AND is

HIS WIFE.^

built almost at

the foot of the Libyan range, on a strip of land barely a mile in width, which

*

M. Lepage-Renouf {Proceedings of the Biblical ArchasoThe sense indicated in was proposed by Maspero {Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 15, et seq ) and afterwards adopted

The word

failu lias been interpreted b}'

logical Society, 1887-88, x. p. 77) to signify " the dead, past generations."

the text

by Brugsch {Die ^gyptologie, p. 291). ' These titles have been explained by Maspero {Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 15-19, and Notes au jour le jour, § 25, in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archxological Society, 1891-92, cf. Piehl, in the Eecueil de Travaux, vol. i. p. 133, n. 1, and Zeitschrift, 1883, vol. xiv. p. 314 ;

p. 128). ' These prerogatives were still exercised by the princes of tlie nomes under the Middle and New Empires (Maspero, La Grande Inscription de Beni- Hassan, in the Eecueil, vol. i. pp. 179-181); 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 Pistacin Terebinthus, L., which furnished tlie Egyptians with the scented resin sniliir (Loret, La Flore pharaonique, p. 4-1,

No. 110). *

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Dumichen,

Eesultate, vol.

ii.

pi. vii.

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

72

A canal surrounds it on three sides, and makes,

sepavates the river from the hills.

as -OL

were, a

it

about

walls

its

inundation

^

g/^^^-.,

ielNomeDrthe Knife •liiLTTuh,

^^\

flfT'<)Ilir^p^^;ii't

with

connected

is

it

causeways

with mimosas

^TTieituhor (Eshjrvent)

during the

;

mainland only by

the

narrow

Mitum. 0{eidu7Kj)

ditch

natural

— shaded

— and

looking

like a raft of verdure aground

the

in

The

current.^

site

.23

is

happy

as

esque

'i^°^iomi, fStpporws.ElSibeh.,)

as

only

not

;

pictur-

is

it

does

the

town command the two arms

(Sha7Ton.aJv?) ifd, - suiorv (SKeikhFcuU, //

'^'Taujciy

'•^

the

of

(SerieJUajuju-)

the

closing

i

or

waterway

at

from time imme-

but

will,

openmg

river,

morial the most frequented

^^^"'^- Tehrveh) llaJuLel-^m'd VfS&i^^'^'"' ^J7ievd£>sL^o7ts^yMibomZ- fjffvrvuAJ '

^or^ tl'

of

~^$i?5>'i[>ig/^«; iKorrvel-AhTTUXrJ

Central

into

routes

the

^'"!«^^>?il\of ftjbai elle

Africa has terminated at

C8

^^^'^•''^'^ ^3^--^s^ iff ^Ae^JWI, mJ'aJchxt (SpeosArUmxxiost

gates,

(/tntinae, Sheikh, AbtLdeh '-

bringing

it

the

of

the

Soudan,

sway,

at

the out-

commerce

^JlerniopoUs MajjrLa,^ihj7vunjejhj)

to

its

^kllaiii/

It

held

over both

set,

range

•ajtCe.

(J{lAgcLbita.j^^S^^

Te T e t

i

n.

Lower

JVuU nb. ^auAu. /Mieracon/zoli^

as

northward

range,

to

far

banks, from

Deyrut,

as

where

%,^k^^if>^* '^.k'^''"^ Jw*^v?^5^^!>Q^«Jlf,,f,of the

the true Bahr Yusuf leaves

m^

the Nile, and southward to

'X.vj

n.

the neighbourhood of Gebel

Baali

^MountgiilL I)w-QcaZ

NOMES

3;

of

Sheikh Haridi.

and original number of the

DO-ffiifiX

Nom e ?>

MIDDLE EGYPT

(ylphr-cj^poa^.^

U^zit

of

Scale

-ft/../

"5^Ka.

NaV

-

^pw (FajLopoU^'t^ A'ashi(PtoUmais.^i^-f"'

is

easily determined.

The most

important,

I,.ThuiIlier.del1-

Siut,

The

principality of the

not so

other principalities °/-,

3lE.of Greenwich.

and the Oleander.

The extent

to

the

north

of

were those of the Hare

Hare never reached the dimen-

sions of that of its neighbour the Terebinth, but

its

chief town was Khmiinu,

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,

Boudier's drawing, reproduced on p. 25, and taken from a photograph by Beato, gives most by the plain and the modern town of Siout during the inundation.

faithfully the aspect presented *

Khmiinu, the present Ashmflnein,

is tlie

Hermopolis of the Greeks, the town of the god Thot.

TEE EARLIEST FRINCIPALITIES. on the contrary, Hininsu,

73

even larger than that of the Terebinth, and from

Avas

Fayum and

chief governor ruled alike over the marshes of the

its

the plains of Beni-Suef.^

To the

south, Apii on the

right

bank governed

3^E^f Greenwich

^a^oidr)

^%^':

a

district so closely shut in

a bend

between Nile and

two

the

of

spurs of

tvio ftie >

the range, that

its

have never varied

Vv

much

tween weaving and culture of cereals.

-'^

Its

employment

in their

26

Sparrovr '^^ -hawks

^-

were divided

inhabitants

'g^a' (CopUls,Cm/i)

Ji*f Ait |li_

Saii fpiosf

limits

since ancient times.

^

t^f the

-

«^

..

xr,

.^-^

,

(

Errnj-nti Errrventii

be-

rSpit -rCsii(Zunsor)

^=^J^ (Tuphjion,JiuicL) f^^

AniiC (AphradilopoiisPai

tB

the

.two.

Feathers

From

early times they possessed

the privilege of furnish-

ing

clothing

to a

large

part of Egypt, and their

looms, at the present day, still

make

those checked '*

striped

or

melayahs

" Ver.trctMa/isrcrie/L

which the fellah women

NOmES

wear over their long blue

Beyond

tunics.^

Apu,

of

UPPER EGYPT {GhnrbC fslojui. cfSeA/3j£-^

Thinis, the

Girgeh of the

•^ o soKil

Arabs,

situate

on

both

Khmiimi

S'n.rut

n

dsl^/Bts!^^"^^'^'^!

320

L.Thmllier,

banks of the

4P^ {Zleph^mtine.

flnCataracl u. s

Scale

del"-

river, rivalled

in

antiquity

and

Siut

in

wealth:

its

plains

still

produce the

and feed the most numerous herds of sheep and oxen in As we approach the cataract, information becomes scarcer. Qubti

richest harvests

the Said.

the capital, see Maspero, Notes au vol. xiv. pp. jour, § 19, in the Proceedings of the Biblical Arcltseohgical Society, 1891-92,

For the geography of the nome of the Hare, of which

it

is

jour le 187-20i.

Hininsd is the Heracleopolis Magna of the Greeks, the present Henassieh, called also Ahnas-elNaiut Medineh. The Egyptian word for the tree which gives its name to this principality, is oleander (DuMiCHEN, Geschichte JEgijptens, pp. 209, 210). Loret has shown tbat this tree, Ndrit, is the (Sur Varhre Ndrou des anciens Egyptiens, in the Recueil de Travauz, vol. xv. p. 102). « Apa was the Panopolis or Chemmis of the Greeks, the town of the god Min or ithyphallic Khimti by (Brugsch, Dictionnaire gebgrapMque, pp. 575, 1380). Its manufactures of linen are mentioned have which embroideries Strabo (xvii. p. 813): the majority of the beautiful Coptic woven fabrics and been brought to Europe lately, come from the necropolis of the Arab period at Apa. '

TDE NILE AND EGYPT.

74

and Aunu of the South, the Coptos and*

He rm on this

of the Greeks, shared

peaceably the plain occupied later on by Thebes and khabit and Zobu watched over the safety of Egypt.^ position as a frontier town, Silsileh

its

temples, and Ne-

Nekhabit soon

lost its

and that portion of Nubia lying between Gebel

and the rapids of Syene formed a kind of border province, of which

Nubit-Ombos was the beyond

this

and Abu-Elephantine the

principal sanctuary

fortress

^ :

were the barbarians, and those inaccessible regions whence the

Nile descended upon our earth.

The organization about.

It

of the Delta,

it

would appear, was more slowly brought

must have greatly resembled that

Africa, towards the confluence of the

Great tracts of mud,

Bahr

el

of the lowlands of Equatorial

Abiad and the Bahr

difficult to describe as either

dotted here and there with sandy

islets, bristling

el Ghazal.

solid or liquid,

marshes

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 unfit for cultivation

and scarcely available

of such districts, engaged

tion

for

pasturing cattle.^

in a ceaseless

and

pools,

The popula-

struggle with nature, always

preserved relatively ruder manners, and a more rugged and savage character, impatient of

edge only. localities

all authority.

A

The conquest

of this region began from the outer

few principalities were established at the apex of the Delta in

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

In very early times the principality was divided, and formed three

independent of each other. each other, the

The

first

district of the

north,

river,

new

states,

Those of Aunu and the Haunch were opposite to

on the Arabian, the latter on the Libyan bank of the Nile.

White Wall marched with

and on the south touched the

down the

its capital.

that of the

Haunch on the

Oleander.

territory of the

Further

between the more important branches, the governors of Sais

and of Bubastis, of Athribis and of primitive Delta.'*

Two

Busiris, shared

among themselves the

frontier provinces of unequal

size,

the Arabian on

Nftkhabit, Nekhabit, the hieroglyphic name of which was first correctly read by E. de Rouge' {Cours pro/ess^ au College de France, 1869), is el-Kab, the Eilithyia of the Greeks (Bkugsch, Dictionnaire G^ographique, pp. 351-353), and Zobfl, Edffi, Apollinopolis Magna (Bbugsch, Dictionnaire *

G^ographique, pp. 921, 922). * The nome of Elephantine was called Khontit, the advanced, the point of Egypt (Lepsids, Der Bogen in der Eieroglyphik, in the Zeitschrift, 1872, pp. 86-88; cf. Bkugsch, Die Biblischen eieben

Jahre der Hungersnoth, p. 26, et seq.). ' All the features of this description are taken from notes of my travels it is the aspect presented in those districts of the Delta where the artificial regulation of the water has completely disappeared owing to the inveterate negligence of the central government. * See p. 4 of this volume for the description of this primitive Delta. ;

COMPARATIVELY LATE DIVISION OF THE DELTA,

Wady

ite east in the

7b

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 littoral, were not conducive to the civilization.

They only comprised

principalities of the

Harpoon and

of the interior

and the dunes

development of any great industry or

tracts of thinly populated country, like the

of the Cow, and others whose limits varied

from century to century with the changing course of the

river.

The work

of

L TKuilliet' del

rendering the marshes salubrious and of digging canals, which had been so successful in the Nile Valley, was less efficacious in the Delta,

more slowly.

and proceeded

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

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

76

work of several generations was

long

for a

The Delta

time undone.

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.^

These

principalities,

first

large to remain undivided.

however small they appear to

us,

were yet too

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

living sufficiently near to Siut to

come

into the

town

of the Terebinth,

for a few hours in the

morning, returning in the evening to the villages when business was done,

would not

any desire to withdraw from the rule of the prince who

feel

On

governed there. circle

who

the other hand, those

lived outside that restricted

were forced to seek elsewhere some places of assembly to attend the

administration of justice, to sacrifice in

exchange the produce of the

common

and of

fields

to the national gods,

local manufactures.

and

to

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

When

of the prince.

the

new

they succeeded in doing

state thus created, the old

The primitive

an epithet.

three distinct communities of the tree

— the

;

they often preserved for

name, slightly modified by the addition of

territory of Siut was in this

way divided

two, which remained faithful to the old

Upper Terebinth, with

Lower Terebinth, with Kusit

v^

this,

become independent

into

emblem

Siut itself in the centre, and the

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

Sparrow Hawk.

The

town was that of the

Oleander produced by

territory of the

its

dismemberment

the principality of the Upper Oleander, that of the Lower Oleander, and that of the Knife.

The

territory of the

Harpoon

The

the Western and Eastern Harpoon.^

been accomplished without struggles cipalities

;

in the Delta divided itself into

fission in

but,

it

most cases could not have

did take place, and

all

the prin-

having a domain of any considerable extent had to submit to

however they may have striven to avoid as circumstances afforded

it.

it,

This parcelling out was continued

opportunity, until the whole of Egypt, except the

' For the geography of the Delta, consult the work of J. de Rouge, G^grapMe ancienne de la Basse-Egypte, 1891, in which are brought together, discussed, and carefully co-ordinated, the information scattered about in alphabetical order in the admirable Dictionnaire G^ographique of

Brugsch. -

.T.

DE Rouge,

Ge'ograpliie ancienne de la Basse-Egypte, pp. 30-5G.

TEE GOD OF TEE NOME. half desert districts about the cataract, states nearly equal in

The Greeks them

;

^

them nomes, and we have borrowed the word from named them in several ways, the most ancient term being domam,^ and the most common appellation

translated

being "hospu," which

nomes varied considerably ments and

in the course of centuries

them sometimes

classical authors fixed

their history,

up

:

The

fifty.

of the

the hieroglyphic monu-

at thirty-six, sometimes at little

that

we know

of

to the present time, explains the reason of this variation.

Ceaselessly quarrelled over by the princely families

nomes were alternately humbled and exalted by conquest, which caused or divided.

The number

signifies districts

sometimes at forty-four, or even

forty,

of petty

power and population.^

may be

in recent times

became but an agglomeration

called

the natives

" nuit," which

'J'J

them continually

The Egyptians, whom we

who

civil

possessed them, the wars, marriages,

and

to pass into fresh hands, either entire

are accustomed to consider as a people

respecting the established order of things, and conservative of ancient tradition,

showed themselves

work of the

past, as the

of time which separates

and as prone to modify or destroy the

as restless

most inconstant of our modern nations.

them from

us,

The

distance

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

existiug shall have been

unearthed, their history will present the same complexity of incidents, the

same

agitations, the

same

instability,

which we suspect or know

characteristic of most other Oriental nations.

among them

in the

midst of so

many

One thing

revolutions,

from losing their individuality and from coalescing

Denderah, Athribis

Nekhabit

and

whose origin Buto,

Siut,

is

in a

lost in a

Thinis,

alone remained stable

and which prevented them

was the belief in and the worship of one particular capitals of the petty states

to have been

common deity.

unity.

If the little

remote past

Khmunu,

This

— Edfu

Sais,

and

Bubastis,

— had only possessed that importance which resulted from the presence

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 Ranftfir, with tlie Onilphis of classical geographers for its capital (Brugsch, •

Examples

of the subdivision of ancient

nomes and

tlie

creation of fresh

—

Didionnaire G^ographique, pp. 1012-1020). 2 The definition of the word nome, and those passages in ancient authors where it is used, will be found in Jablonski, Opuscula, ed. T. Water, vol. i. pp. 169-176. ' For the various meanings of this word, see Maspero, Sur le sens des mots Nuit et Edit, in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archeeological Society, 1889-90, vol.

xii. p.

236, et seq.

Brugsch, Geogr. Ins., vol. i. pp. 18-21 cf. Maspero, Etudes ligijptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 183-186. The word tosh, which in the Coptic texts has replaced hospw and nuit, signified originally limit, frontier; it is, properly speaking, the territory marked out and limited by the stelx which belongs to a town or a village. ;

THE NILE AND EGYPT.

78 of

an ambitious petty prince, or

fi-ooi

the wealth of their inhabitants, they

would never have passed safe and sound through the long centuries of

which they enjoyed from the opening

existence

Fortune raised their

history.

in turn abased

chiefs,

them

some even

by

and

glory

was but too often eclipsed, there was

side

The

through

all

size

uiitir

might diminish or increase, the

and population

or

fall

ruins

in

the

:

town might

god lived on

these vicissitudes, and his presence alone preserved intact the

his worshippers, his

If any disaster befell

temple was the spot where the survivors of the catastrophe

around him, their religion preventing them from mixing with the

among them.

inhabitants of neighbouring towns and from becoming lost survivors

multiplied

racteristic of the losses

nome a

whose greatness

nuiti,"

rights of the state over which he reigned as sovereign.

rallied

whose

princely families might be exiled or become extinct,

the extent of the territory

be doubled in

rank of rulers of the

enthroned in each

divine ruler, a deity, a god of the domain, "

never perished.

to the

Egyptian

side with the earthly ruler,

world,

:

to the close of

with that

Egyptian

extraordinary

fellah,

rapidity

which

and a few years of peace

which apparently were irreparable.

is

The

the cha-

sufficed to repair

Local religion was the

tie

which

bound together those divers elements of which each principality was composed, and as long

as

appeared with

it it.

remained, the nomes remained

;

when

it

vanished, they dis-

THE GODS OF EGYPT. —THE FEUDAL

THEIR NUMBER AND NATOBE

AND PRIESTHOOD

AND DEAD

GODS, LIVING

THE COSMOGONIES OF THE DELTA

— THE

—TRIADS— THE

TEMPLES

ENNEADS OF HELIOPOLIS AND

HERMOPOLIS,

Midtiplicity of the Egyptian gods

:

man and

and intermediate between

the

commonalty of

the gods, its varieties,

human, animal, and

beast; gods of foreign origin, indigenous gods,

the

contradictory forms with which they were invented in accordance with various conceptions of their nature.

The Star-gods harks, voyages

— The Sun-god as the Eye of

round

the world,

enemies— The Star-gods: planevs

;

SotJiis Sirius,

the

the

Horus-gods

riages

:

—The

— The

;

as

a

bird, as

the serpent

a

Apopi

calf,

and

as

a

man

— The Moon-god

;

its

a/nd its

of the Ox, the Hippopotamus, the Lion, the five Horus-

Orion.

classes

:

the Nile-gods, the earth-gods, the sky-gods

goddesses

;

and

the sun-god,

their persons, alliances,

and mar-

— The triads and their various developments.

The nature of the gods:

dead

Haunch

— The equality of feudal gods and

their children

after death

and encounters with

and SahU

The feudal gods and their

the SJcy

necessity

the double, the soul, the body, death of

gods,

for preserving the body, mummification— Dead gods

living gods, their temples

and images

fetiches— The theory of prayer and sacrifice gods, the sacerdotal colleges.

men and

:

— The gods of

and

their fate

the gods of the

the people, trees, serpents,

family

the servants of the temples, the property of the

80

(

The. cosmogonies of the Delta: Sib'A

and

its theological schools:

tion of

AtHmH-Tlie

Hermopolitan Ennead

Enneads: only gods.

M,

and

mU,

his identification

Heliopolitan Enneads :

creation

their connection

:

)

Osiris

and

Isis, Sit

and Nephthys-Eeliopolis

idth Horns, his dual nature, and the concep-

formation of the Great Ennead—Thot and

the

alone— Diffusion of

the

by articulate ^vords and hj voice

unth the

local triads, the

god One and ihe god Eight-The one and

SOLEMN SACRIFICIAL PKOCESSIOX OF THE FATTED BULL.'

CHAPTEK

11.

THE GODS OF EGYPT. Their number and their nature

— The

feudal gods, living and dead

priests— The cosmogonies of the Delta

HE

incredible

among of

—The

Triads

—Temples

and

— The Enneads of Heliopolis and of Hermopolis. number

of religious scenes to be found

the representations on the ancient

Egypt

is

monuments

at first glance very striking.

Nearly

every illustration in the works of Egyptologists brings before us the figure of

som e deity

re ceiving

with an impassive countenance the prayers and

One would think

offerings of a worshipper. -»-

.^

^«,

the country had part

^'4 "^».. ,>«i*^

by

gods,

heeh

inhabited

and contained

and animals to

satisfy the

just

for

the

suflBcient

that

most

men

requirements of their

worship.

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

a function, a universe '

The two personages marching

in the life of

man

or of the

Drawn by

King

Seti

I.

kneeling,

is

also

^ ;

Boudier, from a photograph by Beato, taken and each with an up-

in front, carrying great bouquets,

hand, are the last in a long procession of

represents

moment

severally represented

thus Naprit was identified with the ripe ear, or the grain of wheat

Bas-relief in the temple of Luxor.

in 1890. lifted

:

They

unconscious existence.

^**^t'd^/li#*'

tlie

sons of

drawn by Boudier, and

The vignette, which II. from a bas-relief of the temple

Eameses is

of Abydos. ' The word naprit means grain, the grain of wheat (Brugsch, Diet. Hi^roglypldque, pp. 752, 753). The grain-god is represented in the tomb of Seti I. (Lefebure, Le Tomheau de SM I'"^, in the

1-71017

82

THE OODS OF EGYPT.

Maskhonit appeared by the

child's cradle at the very

moment

of

its

birth

:

*

and

Raninit presided over the naming and the nurture ''

J"^

'

, ''

'.'

(J'Wl "9

\

Neither Eaninit, the fairy god-

of the newly born.^

mother, nor Maskhonit exercised over nature as a

whole that sovereign authority which we are accus-

tomed

consider the

to

Every day

primary attribute of deity.

of every year

in easing the

was passed by the one

pangs of women in travail

other, in choosing for each

by the

;

baby a name of an auspi-

cious 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 child-bed fulfilled

their to

presence

child-bed

and

their

From

care.

they passed, and

if

they

the single ofiSces in which they were ac-

counted adepts, the pious asked nothing more of

Bands of mysteriuus cynocephali haunting

them. the

Eastern and

trated ^=.J|

the

Western mountains concen-

the whole of their activity on one

passing

w,-- ..„ .

^tr--.-r«j,.rf

t-s.

THE GODDESS NAPRIT,

a^-af^^r?^

moment

NAPJt.'

in the East for half

of the day.

They danced and

chattered

an hour, to salute the sun at

M^moires de la Mission Fran^aise, vol. ii. part iv. pi. xxix., 2nd row pi. xxxi., 3rd row) as a man wearing two full ears of wheat or bailey upon hi3 head. He is mentioned in the Hymn to the Nile (cf. p. 40) about the same date, and in two or three other texts of different periods. The goddess Naprtt, or Napit, to whom reference is here made, was his duplicate (Bvrton, Fxcerpta Uieroglyphica, pi. xix. Lepsixjs, Denhn., iv. 52; Dumichen, Resultate, vo\. ii. i^l. Ixi.); her head-dress is a sheaf of corn (Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia, pp. 380, 381), 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 (Mariette, Dende'rah, vol. iv. pi. Ixxiv. a, and p. 288 of the text). She is mentioned along with Shait, destiny, and Raninit, suckling (Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. i. Her part of fairy godmother at the cradle of the new-born child is indicated in the passage of p. 27). the Westcar Papyrus giving a detailed account of the births of three kings of the hftU dynasty (Erman, Die Marchen des Papyrus M^estcai; pi. ix. part 21, et seq. ; cf. Maspeuo, Les Contes populaires de I'Egypte Ancienne, 2nd edit., pp. 7G-81 Petrie, Egyptian Tales, vol. i. pp. 33-38). She is represented in human form, and olten wears upon her head two long palm-shoots, curling over at their ends (Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia, pp. 329, 330, and pi. cxxxiv. 1, 2). ^ Raninit presides over the child's suckling, but she also gives him liis name (Maspero, Les Contes populaires, 2nd edit., p. 76, note 1), and hence, his fortune (Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. i. p. 27). She is on the whole the nursing goddess (Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia, pp. 472-477, and pis. clxxxviii.-clxxxix.). Sometimes she is represented as a human-headed woman (Lepsius, Denhn., in. 188 a Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. iii. pi. xlv. 5, 6, and pp. 213, 214), or as lionessheaded (Lepsius, Denkm., iv. 57), most frequently with the head of a serpent (Lepsius, Denkm., iii.. pi. clxx. Prisse d'Avennes, Monuments, pi. i. Mariette, Dendd'rah, vol. iii. pi. Ixxv. h~c) she is also the urseus, clothed, and wearing two long plumes on her head (Feisse d'Avennes, Monuments, frontispiece), and a simple urseus. as represented in the illustration on p. 120. ^ 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. ;

;

'

;

;

;

;

;

—

—

THE LOWER ORDER OF GODS. his

even as others in the West hailed him on his entrance into

rising,

night.^

was the duty of certain genii to open

It

keep the paths daily traversed posts, never free

their

at

than that of punctually

the

to

by the

acts

specific

of

These genii were always

leave them, and

possessed no other faculty

fulfilling their

their

appointed

were

lives

These being completed, the divinities

and

were,

so

to

on

the

at

the

Their existence,

ofiSces.

very

point

moment when

accomplishment.

of

back into their state of

fell

by

reabsorbed

speak,

gates in Hades, or to

sun.^

unperceived, was suddenly revealed

generally

83

their

functions

until

inertia,

the

next

SOME FABULOUS BEASTS OF THE EGYPTIAN DESEST.'

Scarcely

occasion.*

depicted

visible

their real forms

;

conjectured

from their

even

by

they

glimpses,

souls

cut

to

T he

occupations.

character and cos tume

dead with arrows or with javelins.

theiFThroats~~andr^ack"them

women armed

with

Some appeared

in

monkeys,

knives,

carvers

human form;

serpents, fish,

not^^asily

being often unknown, these were approximately

archer, or of a spear-man, were ascribed to such as to pierce the

were

ibises,

donit

to

— or

;

others

an

roamed through Hades,

Those who prowled around pieces were else

others as animals

hawks

of

as

—bulls

represented as

lacerators

nohit.^

or lions, rams or

dwelt in inanimate things.

This is the subject of a vignette in the Book of the Dead, oh. xvL (Naville's edition, pi. xxi. A2 and Lo, pi. xxii. Da), 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 otfer worship by gesticulations. - Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d" Archeologie £gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 34, 35. ^ Drawn by Faucher-Gudia 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 grifSn and, lastly, we have the serpent-headed saza. * 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

them immediately, that these forms ate them, or that they ate their own forms (Maspero, Etudes de Mijthnlogie et d'Arcli€olugie £gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 104, 105, 106, 124, etc.). ' Maspero, Eludes de Mythologie et d' Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. Examples of pp. 34, 35. donit and nokit are incidentally given on the walls of the tomb of Seti I. (Lefebure, Le Tombeau de ISeti !"', in the M^moires de la Mission Fran^aise, vol. ii., 4th part, pi. xliv., •2nd row). in order to re-enter

THE GODS OF EOYPT.

84 such as

trees,^

stuck in the ground

sistrums,^ stakes

betrayed a mixed origin in their combinations of

rest,

^

and

;

to the

but none the

How

forms.

Egyptians, they

and

tlieir like

could

men who

less real,

might be encountered in the neighbourhood of Egypt.*

many

lastly,

human and animal

These latter would be regarded by us as monsters were beings, rarer perhaps than the

;

believed themselves surrounded by sphinxes and griffins of flesh and blood

human was proved by much

doubt that there were bull-headed and hawk-headed divinities with

The existence

busts ?

authentic testimony

;

of

such paradoxical creatures

more than one hunter had

them

distinctly seen

as they

ran along the furthest planes of the horizon, beyond the herds of gazelles of

^ ^^

which he was in chase as th ey dreaded the

;

and shepherds dreaded them

li ons,

for their flocks as truly

or the great felida* of the desert.

This nation of gods, like nations of men, contained foreign elements, the origin of which was that Hathor, the

known

to the

of her

They knew

milch cow, had taken up her abode in their land from

very ancient times, and they called

name

Egyptians themselves.

native

country.^

her the

Lady

of Puanit,

;

then

the

Bisu had followed her in course of time,

and claimed his share of honours and worship along with appeared as a leopard

after

became a man clothed

Jie

He

her. in

first

a leopard's

' Thus, the sycamores planted on the edge of the desert were supposed to be inhabited by Hathor, NuSt, Selkit, Nit, or some other goddess (Maspero, Eludes de Mythologie et d' Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 28, 29). In vignettes representing the deceased as stopping before one of tliese trees and receiving water and loaves of bread, the bust of the goddess generally appears from amid her shelter-

pi. cli. 2). But occasionally, as on the sarcophagus (Maspero, Catalogue du Musee Egyptien de Marseille, p- 52), the transformation is complete, and the trunk from which the branches spread is the actual body of the god or goddess (cf. RocHEMONTEix, Edfou, pi. xxix. a, Isis and Nephthys in the sycamore). 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 (Naville, Todtenbuch, pis. Ixxiii., ciii.). * Thus, in Mariette, Dende'rah, vol. ii. pi. 55 c, we have the image of the great sistrum consecrated by Thdtmosis III., which was the fetish of the goddess Hathor. ' 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 (Maspero, Catalogue du Mus€e Egyptien de Marseille, p. 164, No. 878). 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 (Petrie, Medum, p. 31 ; Maspero, Eludes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie Egyptiennes,

ing foliage (Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia, of Petosiris

;

vol.

ii. *

p. 359,

The

Mythologie

note

3).

belief in the real existence of fantastic animals et

d'Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol.

i.

was

first

pp. 117, 118, 132,

noted by Maspero, Etudes de Until then, vol. ii. p. 213.

and

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 (Le Culte des animaux en Egypte, pp. 14, 15), and by most contemporary Egyptologists. * 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 (Champollion, Monuments de VEgypte et de la Nubie, pis. ccclxxxii. Wilkinson, Rosellini, Monumsnti civili, pi. xxxiii. 3, 4, ccccxviii. his, and vol. ii. pp. 339, 360 Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, 2ud edit., vol. ii. p. 93). * On Hatiior, Lady of Puanit, her importation into Egypt, and the bonds of kinship connecting her with Bisu, see Pleyte, Chapitres swppUmentaires du Livre des Marts, p. 134, et seq.

scholars only recognized the sphinx,

;

;

GODS OF FOREIGN ORIGIN. skio,

but

countenance and

strange

of

alarming

85

character,

a

big-headed

dwarf with high cheek-bones, and a wide and open mouth, whence hung an

enormous tongue

and of

;

In historic times

battle.^

transferred

he was at once jovial and martial, the friend of the dance

some

by the Pharaohs

nations subjugated

all

of their principal divinities to their conquerors,

Libyan Shehadidi was enthroned

in the valley of the Nile, in the

and the

same way

as

the Semitic Baalii and his retinue of Astartes, Anitis, Eeshephs, and Kadshus.^

These divine colonists fared like the banks of the Nile

and

made

:

who have sought

to settle

on

they were promptly assimilated, wrought, moulded,

Egyptian

into

all foreigners

deities

scarcely

from

distinguisliable

those

of

SOME FABtJLOTJS BEASTS OF THE EGTPTIAN DESERT.^

This mixed pantheon had

the old race.

and each of

members was

its

its

representative of one of the

stituting the world, or of one of the forces

The

grades of nobles, princes, kings,

which regulated

lives

were daily manifest in the

They were worshipped from one end

of

its

life of

the valley to the

whole nation agreed in proclaiming their sovereign power. people began to ticularize this

their

name them, forms,

or

to

define their powers

the relationships

unanimity was at an end.

almost every village, conceived

Each

that

and

breathing

the universe.

otlier,

and the

But when the

attributes, to par-

subsisted

principality, each

and represented them

government.

many

sky, the earth, the stars, the sun, the Nile, were so

and thinking beings whose

elements con-

among them,

nome, each

differently.

city,

Some

has been closely studied by Pleyte {Chapitres »uppJ€ineniaires du Livre des Morts, Traj^p. 111-184), and by Krali, {Ueber den j^guptischen Gott Bes, in BexndorfNiemann's Das Heroon von Gjolbaschi-Trysa, pp. 72-96). 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 name of Shehadidi is found in that of a certain Peteshehadidi, whose statue has passed from the Posno collection {Antiquites Egyptiennes, 1SS3, p. 15, No. 57, pi. 2) into the Berlin Museum; cf. the god Saharuaii in Maspero's Sur deux steles re'cemment de'couvertes, in the Becueil, vol. xv. The Semitic gods introduced into Egypt have been studied at length by M. de Voguij p. 85. (M^lanries d'Archeologie Orientale, p. 41, et seq., 76, et seq.) and by Ed. Meyer (JJeher einige Semitische Gotter, § ii., Semitische Gotter in JEgypten, in the Zeiischri/t d. Deut. Morg. Gesellscha/t, vol. '

Bisfi

ductionet Commentaire,

xxxi. pp. 724-729). '

The hawk-headed monster with

the saga.

flower-tipped

tail,

represented in the illustration, wua called

;

THE OODS OF EGYPT.

86

H aroeris,

said that the sky was thg^Qr eat Horiis,

7

plumage which hovers i

whole

3tween his

in highest air,

and whose gaze embraces

Owing

of creation.^

field

the sparrow-hawk of mottled

name and the word

punning assonance

to a

horu, which designates the

luman countenance, the two senses were combined, and

to

the idea of the sparrow-hawk there was added that of a

whose two eyes opened

ivine face,

in turn, the right

eye being the sun, to give light by day, and the

eye the moon, to illumine the

shone also with a light of light,

face

own, the zodiacal

its

which appeared unexpectedly, morning or

evening, after

The

night.^

left

a

common

and

sunrise,

a

little

luminous beams, radiating

These

sunset.

from a

before

little

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

and attached

divine face was symmetrically framed, to earth

by four thick locks of hair

these were the pillars which

and

prevented

falling

its

upbore the firmament

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 come forth that shall be.

the

NUIT THE STARRY ONE.'

that

is,

and

all

earth-god Sibu as extended

beneath Nuit the Starry One; lier

all

Most people invested them with human

and represented

form,

has been,

all that

the goddess stretched

out

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

' It is generally admitted that Haroeris is Ka, the sun (Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alien Mgypter, p. 529, et seq.)- Haroeris was worshipped in Upper Egypt, where he and his fellow, Sit of Ombos, represented the heavens and the earth (Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'Arch^ologie, vol. ii. They were often depicted as a two-headed personage (Lefsius, Denhm,, iii. 234 h). p. 329, et seq.). * E. Lefebure, Les Yeux d'Horus, Tlie part played by the two eyes of the celestial pp. 96-98. Horns, iriti, uzaiti, was first recognized by Brugsch, Geographische Inschri/len, vol. i. p. 75. ^ Brugsch, a ou la lumiere zodiacale, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archxology, 1892-93, vol. XV. p. 233, et seq. Hermann Guuson, Im Reiche des Lichtes, Sonnen, Zodiahallichter, Kometen, Ddmmerungi'licht-Pyramiden nach den dltesten segyptischen Quellen, 1893. * These locks, and the gods presiding over them, are mentioned in the Pyramid texts (Papi J., lines 436-440, Mirinri, lines 649-656; cf. Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'Arch^ologie, vol. ii. ;

pp. 366, 367). '

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

a painted coflBn of the

XXP'

dynasty in Leydeu.

;

TEEHi CONFLICTING FORMS.

87

was concealed under the form of a colossal gander, whose mate once laid the

Sun Egg, and perhaps

still

laid

From

daily.

it

the piercing cries where-

with he congratulated her, and announced the good news to

—

to hear

it

— he

had

the

after

all

who cared

manner of his kind the

received epithet

flattering:

of

oiru, the

Ngagu jJfWk^ W W.VA

^^

THE GOOSE-GOD FACING THE CAT-GODDESS, THE LADY OF HEAVEN.'

Great Cackler.^ bull,

Other versions repudiated the goose in favo ur of a vigorous

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

visible to the inhabitants of

earth,

body,

which we

call

the firmament,

and her four legs are the four

is

pillars

standing at the four cardinal points of the world.*

The

planets,

and especially the sun, varied

to the prevailing conception of the heavens.

form and nature according

in

The

fiery

disk Aton4, by which

the sun revealed himself to men, was a living god, called Ea, as was also the a stela in tbe museum of Gizeb (Grebaut, Le Mus€e Egyptien, Tbia is not tbe goose of Sibu, but tbe goose of Amon, wliicb was nurtured in tbe temple Amon, Facing it is tbe cat of IMaiit, tbe wife of Amon. of Karnak, and was called SmonQ. originally an eartb-god, was, as we see, confounded witb Sibii, and tbus natuniUy appropriated tbat deity's form of a goose. Seh the great 2 Book of the Dead, cb. liv., Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. l.Kvi. cf. Lepage-Renodf, On tbe egg 152-154. vii. vol. pp. CacMer, in tbe Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, la Relidans Lefebdre {l'(Enf see of Siba, and aa to Egyptian ideas in general concerning tbe egg, '

Drawn by Faucber-Gudin, from

pi. iii.).

;

gion Egyptienne, in tbe Revue de I'Histoire des Religions, vol. xvi. pp. 16-25).

On

tbe otber hand,

several Egyptologists (Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie, pp. 171-173 Liebleiv, Proceedings, 1884-85, itself gave pp. 99, 100) consider tbat tbe sign of tbe goose, currently used for writing tbe god's name, ;

mytb ascribing to bim a goose's form. Hence be is called tbe bull of Nuit in tbe Pyramid text of Unas (1. 452). See it as represented in Lefebure, Le Tombeau de S€ti I"", in tbe M^moires de

birth to tbe ^

*

pt. 4, pi. xvii.

la Mission, vol. iL

THE GODS OF EGYPT.

88 planet

itselfJ

Where

the sky was regarded as Horus,

Ra formed

of the divine face:^

the right eye

when Horus opened he made

his eyelids in the morning,

the

dawn and day

them

;

when he

dusk and

in the evening, the

night were at hand.

closed

Where

the sky

was looked upon as the incarnation of a goddess,

Ea 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

human children were represented. He was

to his lips as

con-

ventionally

also

that luminous egg, laid and hatched in

the East by the celestial goose, from

which the sun

breaks

the world with

its rays.^

less,

forth

contain

* The name cf Ea has been variously explained. name from a verb ra, to give, to mnle to be a person

Neverthe-

egg did not always

the same kind of bird

lapwing, or a heron, might it,''

fill

by an anomaly not uncommon

in religions, the

THE COW HATHOR, THE LADY OF HEAVEN.*

to

or perhaps, in

a

;

come out

memory

of

of Horus,

Tlie commonest etymology is that deriving the or a thing, so that ES, would tlius be the great

organizer (Birch, in Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. iii. p. 214), the author of all things (Brcgsch, Beligion und Mythologie, pp. 86, 87). Lauth (^Aus J^Jgijptens Vorzeit, pp. 46, 68) goes 80 far as to say that " notwithstanding its brevity, Ea is a composite word (r-a, maher to he)." As

—

a matter of fact, the word nothing more.

is

simply the name of the planet applied

to the god.

It

means the

sun,

and

The Edfu texts mention the face of Horus furnished with its two eyes (Naville, Teztes relati/s au mythe d'Horus, pi. xxii. 1. 1). As for the identification of the riglit eye of the god with the sun, cf. the unimpeacliable evidence collected by Chabas (Le
(Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. xxv. lines 58-61 Lepsius, Todtenbuch, pi. ix. IL 50, 51). * Drawn by Boudier, from a XXX^'-dynasty statue of green basalt in the Gizeh Museum (Maspero, Guide dii Visiteur, p. 345, No. 5243). The statue was also published by Mariette, Monuments divers, pi. 96 A-B, and in the Album photographique du Mus€e de Boulaq, pi. x. * The lapwing or the heron, the Egyptian bo7iu, 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 Ea. Cf. tiie form taken by the sun during the third hour of the day, as given in the text published and explained by Brugsch, Die Kapitel der Verivandlungen {Zeitschrift, 1867, p. 23). ;

^

TEE SUN AS A MAN. one of the beautiful

Hawk, hovering a bold

in

89

golden sparrow-hawks of Southern Egypt,^

high

heaven on outspread

and poetic image; but what can be said

under the innocent aspect of a spotted

calf,

A

Sun-

wings, at least presented for a

Sun-Calf?

Yet

it

is

a "sucking calf of pure mouth,"

n§m!^mn%t^MM^il% siHMioffifePililf^iWl^ ij-^^^.^^i THli

tliat

TWELVE STAGES

IN

THE LIFE OF THE SUN AND

ITS

TWELVE FORMS THUOUGHOCT THE

the Egyptians were pleased to describe the

was a

bull,

which the

of

heifer.

presiding over the East received the orb

upon

their hands at

midwives receive a new-born child, and cared for tlie

>

day and of

Sibu, the father,

But the prevalent conception was that in The two deities the sun was likened to the life of man.

and Hatlior a life

Sun-God when

DAY.*

its life.^

It soon left

its birth,

during the

it

first

just as

hour of

them, and proceeded " under the belly

Jjooh of the Dead, ch. Ixxvii. (Naville's edition, pi. Ixxxviii.

1.

2, et seq.),

and

ch. Ixxviii. (pi.

the forms of the sun during the third and eighth hours of the day, as given in the test published and explained by Brdgsch, Die Kapitel der Vericandlungen QZeitschrift, 1S67, pp. 23, 24). Ixxxix.);

cf.

^ The calf is represented in ch. cix. of the Boole of the Dead (Naville's edition, pi. cxx.), wliere 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 Ea." The expression " sucking calf of pure mouth" is taken word

word from a formula preserved in the Pyramid texts (Unas, 1. 20). The twelve forms of the sua during the twelve hours of the day, from the ceiling of the Hull Drawing by Faucher-Gudin. of the New Year at Eifu (Rochemonteix, Edfou, pi. xxxiii. c). * The birth of the sun was represented in detail at Erment (Champollion, Monuments, pi. cxlv.; Rosellixi, Monumenti dd Culto, pis. lii., liii.. and Texle, p. 293, et seq.; Lepsius, Denhn., iv. for

'

TEE GODS OF EGYPT.

90

of Nuit," growing and strengthening from minute to minute, until at noon

become a triumphant hero whose splendour

is

shed abroad over

night comes on his strength forsakes him and his glory

all.

obscured

is

;

he

it

had

But is

as

bent

and broken down, and heavily drags himself along like an old man leaning

upon

At length he

his stick.^

away beyond the

passes

westward into the mouth of Nuit, and traversing

anew the next morning, again

lier

horizon, plunging

body by night

to follow the paths along

to be born

which he had travelled

on the preceding day.^

A

first

bark, the saktit^ awaited

him

at his birth,

Eastern to the Southern extremity of the world.

tlie

received

him

at

noon, and bore

the entrance into Hades

;

veyed him by night, from

him

and carried him from

Mdzit,^ the second bark,

into the land

of

Manii, which

is

at

other barks, with which we are less familiar, conhis rising at morn.^

his setting until

Sometimes

he was supposed to enter the barks alone, and then they were magic and self-directed,

having neither

equipped with a

full

oars,

nor

sails,

nor helm.^

Sometimes they were

crew, like that of an Egyptian boat

—a

prow to take soundings in the channel and forecast the wind, a

pilot at

the

pilot asteri

to steer, a quartermaster in the midst to transmit the orders of the pilot

prow

at the

to the

poles or oars.'

pilot

at the

and half a dozen

stern,

sailors to

handle

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 banks,

its

the god.^

came

forth from the depth of the waters

As soon

as they caught sight of

it

and arose in the path

in the distance,

of

the crew flew to

d), and in a more abridged form on the sarcophagus of one of the rams of Mendes, Gizeh Museum (Mariette, Monuments divers, pi. Ixvi., and Texte, pp. 13, 14). The growth and decadence of the forms of the sun are clearly marked in the scene first published by Brugsch {Die Kapitel der Vericandlungen, in the Zeitschrift, 1867, pp. 21-26, and plate; Thesaurus Inscriptionum ^gyptiacarum, pp. 55-59), taken from the coffin of Khaf in the Gizeh Museum and from two scenes, of which the one is at Denderah (Description de VEgypte, Ant., vol. iv. *pl8. 16-19), the other in the Hall of the New Year at Edfii (Champollion, Monuments, pi. cxxiii., et RoCHEMONTEix, Ed/ou, in the M^moires de la Mission du Caire, vol. ix. pi. xxxiii. c). seq. * Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d' Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 218, note 2. ' Its most ancient name was Samktit (Tela, 1. 222 Papi I., 11. 570, 670, etc.). Brugsch (Dictionnaire Hie'roglyphique, pp. 1327, 1328) first determined the precedence of the Saktit and Mazit boats. * In the oldest texts it is Mdnzit, with an interpolated nasal (Teta, 11. 222, 223, 344, etc.). * In the formulae of the Book of Knoiving 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 ho changes into another (Maspero, Eludes de Mythologie et d' Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 69, et seq.). * 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 (Naville's edition, pi. xxx., La, Ag, pi. cxiii., Pe, cxxxiii.. Pa, cxlv.), and at the head of many stelae. ' Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archd'ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 38, 39. * In Upper Egypt there is a widespread belief in the existence of a monstrous serpent, who dwells at tlie bottom of the river, and is the genius of the Nile. It is he who brings about those falls of earth (batahit) at the decline of the inundation which often destroy the banks and eat whole At such times, offerings of durrah, fowls, and dates are made to him, that his hunger may be fields. pi,

60, a,

now

c,

in the

'

;

;

;

TEE VOYAGES OF THE SUN. arms, and entered upon the struggle against

Men

in their cities saw the sun faint

his distress; they cried aloud, they

and

91

him with prayers and

fail,

and sought

spear-tlirusts.

him

to succour

in

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

might

their clamour

of anguish,

heaven and terrify the monster.

rise to

Ra emerged from

After a time

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

no one could

Apart from these temporary

a wound.

foretell,

the Sun-King steadily followed

which

eclipses,

his course

round the

Day

world, according to laws which even his will could not change.

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

diminished, and he came closer to Egypt

he went farther away. from equinox to god's departure

solstice,

and from

and the day of

the nature of the world.

this

The

solstice

it

increased, and

to equinox, that the

phenomenon according solar bark

men

day of the

be confidently predicted.

his return could

the celestial river which was nearest to the

during the winter

This double movement recurred with such regularity

The Egyptians explained

at

;

his course

to their conceptions of

always kept close to that bank of ;

and when the river overflowed

annual inundation, the sun was carried along with

it

regular bed of the stream, and brought yet closer to Egypt.

dation abated, the bark descended and receded,

its

outside the

As the

inun-

greatest distance from earth

corresponding with the lowest level of the waters.

back to us by the rising strength of the next flood

;

It was again brought

and, as this

phenomenon

was yearly repeated, the periodicity of the sun's oblique movements was regarded as the necessary consequence of the periodic appeased, and

it is

movements

of the celestial Nile.^

who give themselves up to these superstitious practices. Part Karnak hotel at Luxor having been carried away during the autumn made the customary oflFerings to the serpent of the Nile (Maspero,

not only the natives

of the grounds belonging to the of 1884, the manager, a Greek,

Etudes de Mythologie et d' Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 412, 413). ' 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 {Lettres ^crites d'Egypte, 2ud edit., Occasionally, but very rarely, Apopi seems to win. and his triumph over Ka 1833, p. 231, et seq.).

Lepage-

furnishes one explanation of a solar eclipse (Lefebure, Les

Yeux d'Borus,

Kenodf, The Eclipse in Egyptian Texts, in the Proceedings

of the Society of Biblical Archaeology,

A

p. 46, et seq.

;

to many races (cf. E. Tyloh, Egyptian legend, the sun is the Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 297, et seq.). In one very ancient form of mountains that uphold the the represented by a wild ass running round the world along the sides of sky, and the serpent which attacks it is called Raiu (finas, 11. 544, 545 ; Booh of the Bead, eh. xl.,

1884-85, vol.

viii. p.

163, et seq.).

similar explanation is

common

Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. liv.). ^ This explanation of Egyptian beliefs concerning the oblique course of the sun was proposed by Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d' Archeologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 208-210. It is no moro strange nor yet more puerile than most of the explanations of the same phenomenon advanced bv Greek cosmographers (Letronne, Opinions populaires et scientifiques des Grecs sur la route oblique dii soleil,

in his CEuvres choisies,

2nd

series, vol.

i.

pp. 336-359).

—

;

TEE GOD 8 OF EGYPT.

92

The same stream

also carried a

whole crowd of gods, whose existence waa

At an

revealed at night only to the inhabitants of earth. hours, and in

the

disk

own

its

of the

moon

Yduhu Aiihu

various forms

cynocephalus or an

ibis

;

^

the ibis or cynocephalus.

— here, as a man

elsewhere,

Like Ra,

it it

was the

had

born of Nuit

left

its

— followed

The moon,

sun along tbe ramparts of the world.^

many

appeared in

bark, the pale disk of the

interval of twelve

;

^

also,

there, as a

eye of Horus,* guarded by

enemies incessantly upon the

EGYPTIAN CONCEPTION OF THE PRINCIPAL CONSTELLATIONS OF THE NORTHEP.N SKY.'

watch the

for it

full,

the crocodile, the hippopotamus, and the sow.

:

about the 15th of each month, that the lunar eye was

The sow

fell

upon

it,

tore

it

out of the face of heaven, and cast

blood and tears, into the celestial Nile,^ where '

But

The lunar Thot

is

We

was when

at

in greatest peril.

it,

streaming with

was gradually extinguished,

represented ou the heads of stelae as alone within his bark, either in the form

of the lunar disk, or seated, as an ibis-headed xxxvii., xxxviii.).

it

it

also read in

Be

man (Lanzone,

Iside (ch. xxxiv.,

Dizionario di Mitologta Egizia, pis. edition, p. 58), "HKiov 5e Kal

Parthey's

ovx apfiaffiv aWa. irXoiois oxv/J-acri xP'^MfO"* TrfpitrAuv aei. The most striking examples are be found in the astronomic ceilings of Esneh and Denderah, often reproduced since tlieir publication at the beginning of the century in the Description de VEgypte, Ant., vol. i. pi. Ixxix. ^iXi^vrjv

to

vol. iv. pi. xviii.). * He may be seen as a child, or man, bearing the lunar disk upon his head, and pressing the lunar eye to his breast (Lanzone, Dizionario, pi. xxxvi. 2, 4 Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2n(l edit., vol. iii. pi. xxxvi. 3, and p. 170, No. 54). Passages from the Pyramid text of tlnas (lines 236, 2-! 0-2.V2) indicate the relationship subsisting between Thot, SIbii, and Ndit, making Thot the brother of In later times he was considered a son of Ka (Brugsch, Religion und Isis, Sit, and Nephthys.

*

;

Mytliologie, p. 445). ' Even as late as the Grseco-Roman period, the temple of Thot at Khmfinu contained a sacred ibis, which was the incarnation of the god, and said to be immortal by the local priesthood. The temjile sacristans showed it to Apion the grammarian, who reports the fact, but is very sceptical in the matter (Apion Oasita, frag. 11, in MIjller-Didot, Fragmenta historicorum grsecorum, vol. iii. p. 512). See the drawing of the cyuocephalous Thot in Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. iii. pi. xxxvi. 4. * The texts quoted by Chabas and Lepsius (p. 88, note 2) to show that the sun is the right eye of Horus also prove thar his left eye is the moon. ^ Drawn On the right, the female by Fauchur-Gudin, from the ceiling of the Eamesscum. hippopotamus bearing the crocodile, and leaning on the Mondit; in the middle, the Haunch, here represented by the whole bull to the left, Selhit and the Sparroio-haicl:, with the Lion, and the Giant ;

fighting the Crocodile. "

These

facts are set forth briefly, but clearly

enough, in chs.

cxii.

and

cxiii. of

the

Book of

the

— THE STAR GODS. and

days

lost for

immediately

iizaW^

but

its twin,

set forth to find it

replaced, tlian

well

;

it

the sun, or

its

and to restore

93 guardian, the cynocephalus,

it

slowly recovered, and renewed

—the sow again attacked

and again revived

to Horus.

Each month there was a

it.

by a

of growing splendour, followed

fortnight's

radiance

its

and mutilated

No

it,

;

sooner was

when

it

it

was

and the gods rescued

fortnight

of youth

and

agony and ever-increasing

^ m

THE LUNAE BARE, SELF-PROPELLED, TNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE TWO EYES. pallor.

year,

It was born to die,

and died

to

be born again twelve times in the

and each of these cycles measured a month

world.

One

invariable accident from time to time disturbed the routine of

These

it,

by some

Profiting

its existence.

swallowed

for the inhabitants of the

and then

eclipses,

light

its

distraction of the guardians, the sow greedily

went out suddenly, instead of fading gradually.

which alarmed mankind at

least as

much

as did those of the

more than momentary, the gods compelling the monster Every evening the lunar to cast up the eye before it had been destroyed.^ bark issued out of Hades by the door which Ea had passed through in

sun, were scarcely

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 Lepsius' editiou, pi. xliii.). Goodwin (On the of these I12th Chapter of the Ritual, in the Zeitschrift, 1871, pp. 144-147) pointed out tlie importance part of first the in Lefeburb by given chapters, but their complete explanation came later, and was

Dead (Naville's

his

edition, vol.

work on the Mythe Osirien '

>=

i.

pis. cxxiv., cxxv.

;

Yeuz

d' Horus. pointed out on p. 54, note 4. Cf. the -work of Lefebure, Les Yeux d'Horus, p. 43, et seq., for the explanation of this

The exact

;

I. les

sense of this expression

is

little

dmma

—

—

— THE GODS OF EGYPT.

94 of a distant army.

many

However many

Indestructibles

whose charge

it

AJcMmu

SoJcu

of

them there might

— or

be, there

Unchanging Ones

AJcJmnu

were as

Urdu—

was to attend upon them and watch over their maintenance.^

They were not

scattered at

random by the hand which had suspended them,

.

M-

but

their

distribution

had

been

ordered

in

accordance with a certain plan, and they were

arranged in fixed groups like so

J,'J -! I-

^ ,/iH.

he J'*f

repub-

dent of

its

neighbours.

^'"J^

They

,^\\

THE HAITNS'CII, AND THE FEMALE HIPPOPOTAMUS.*

represented

/.it 01 bodies

,-,.

outlines

men and

star

each being indepen-

lics,

-J)

many

the n

of

animals dimly traced out upon the depths of night, but shining with

greater brilliancy in certain important places.

The seven

stars

which we liken

a chariot (Charles's Wain) suggested to the Egyptians the haunch of

to

Two

an ox placed on the northern edge of the horizon.^ nected

the

haunch

silhouette of a female

The

Maslcliait

—with

hippopotamus

thirteen

Ririt

others,

— erect

lesser stars con-

which recalled

the

upon her hind legs/ and

ami the AliMmu-Urdu have been very variously defined by different studied them. Chabas (Bymne a Osiris, in the Revue Arcli^ologique, Ist series, vol. xiv. p. 71, note 1, and Le Papyrus magique Harris, pp. 82-84) considered them to be gods or genii of the constellations of the ecliptic, whicii mark tlie apparent course of the sun through tiie sky. Following the indications given by De've'ria, 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 AUhimu-SoTiu being those who are rowing, and the AlcMmu-tfrdu those who are resting. But texts found and cited by BuTJGscH (Thesaurus Inscriptionum JEgi/ptiacarum, pp. 40-42; Die ^gyptologie, p. 321, et seq.) show that the AhJiimu-Soliu are the planets accompanying ES. in the northern sky, while the AkhimuUrdu are his escort in the south. The nomenclature of the stars included in these two classes is furnished by monuments of widely different epochs (Brlgsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum JEgyptiacartim, The two names should be translated according to the meaning of their component p. 79, et seq.). words: Alshimu Soku, those who know not destruction, the Indestructibles ; and Akhimu tfrdu (tfrzu), '

AkJiimu-Soliu

Egyptologists

those *

who have

who know not the immobility of death, the Imperishable s. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the rectangular zodiac carved upon

the ceiling of the great temple of Dcnderah (Dijmichen, Resultate^ vol. ii. pi. xxxix.). * The forms of the constellations, and the number of stars composing them in the astronomy The identity of different periods, are known from the astronomical scenes of tombs and temples. of the Haunch with the Chariot, or Great Bear of modern astronomy, was discovered by Lepsius (Einleitung zur Clironologie der Mgypter, p. 184) and confirmed by Bioi- {Sur les testes de I'ancienne ITranographie €gitptienne que Von pourrait retrouver aujourdliui chez les Arabes qui habitent Vint^rieur de VJEgypte, p. 51, et seq., in the Journal des Savants, 1854). Mariette pointed out that the Pyramid Arabs applied tjje name of the Haunch {er-Rigl) to the same group of stars as that thus

designated by the ancient Egyptians (cf. Brugsch, Die ^gyptologie, p. 343). Champollion had noted the position of the Haunch in the northern sky {Dictionnaire hi^roglyphique, p. 355), but had not

suggested smy identification.

Parthey's

The Haunch appertained

to

Sit-Typhon (De Iside

et Osiride), § 2i,

edition, p. 36).

The connection of Birit, the female hippopotamus, with the Haunch is made quite clear scenes from Philae and Edtu (Brugsch, Thesaurus, pp. 126, 127), representing Isis holding *

in

back Typhon by a chain, that he might do no hurt to Sahu-Osiris

(ibid., p. 122).

Jollois and

;:

THE EORUS PLANETS.

95

jauntily carrying upon her shoulders a monstrous crocodile whose jaws opened

threateningly above

Eighteen luminaries of varying

her head.

splendour, forming a group hard

by the hippopotamus, indicated the

of a gigantic lion couchant, with stiffened

Most

and facing the Haunch.^

ORION, SOTHIS,

night

after

were

with

shining

tail, its

to

the

be found

same

even

and

always

slow

movement passed annually beyond the

a

at

time.

quity,

and

Five their

at

least

of

characteristic

our

planets

colours

and

never

left

and

outline

head turned to the

of the constellations

AND THREE HORDS-PLANETS STANDING

they

night

size

right,

the sky

IN THEIli BARKS.'

almost in

Otiiers

light.

of

limits

were

the

same

sight

our Jupiter, Kahiri-(Saturn), Sobku-(Mercury), steered

a

months

for

all

carefully

Sometimes each was thought to be a hawk-headed Horus.

by

borne

known from

appearances

places,

anti-

noted.

Uapshetatui,

their barks straight

Devilliers (Eecherches sur les las-reliefs astronomiques des Egyptiens, in the Description de VEgijple, BiOT (Recherches sur plusieurs vol. viii. p. 451) thought that the hippopotamus was the Great Bear. points de Vastronomie ^gyptienne, pp. 87-91) 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 Bcene only as an ornament, or as an emblem (cf. Sur les restes de Vancienne The present tendency is to identify the hippopotamus with the uranographie egyptienne, p. 56). included in the constellations surrounding it (Brugsch, Die with certain fctars not Dragon and ^gyptologie,

p. 343).

is represented on the tomb of Seti I. (Lefebure, Le Tomheau M^moires de la Mission frangaise, vol. ii.); on the ceiling of the de Seti I^, 4th part, pi. xx.wi., in the Ramesseum (Burton, Excerpta Hieroglyphica, pi. Iviii. Eosellini, Monumenti del Culto, pi. Ixxii. \ol. i. Lepsitjs, Denkmdler, iii. 170) and on the sarcophagus of Htari-(BRIJGSCH, Recueil de monuments, (Sur un Biot to According tail. crocodile's The Lion is sometimes shown as having a pi. xvii.). Lion has Egyptian the 102-111) calendrier astronomique et astrologique trouve'a Tliebes en Egypte, pp. nothing in common with tlie Greek constellation of that name, nor yet with our own, but was comI

The

Lion, with

its

eighteen stars,

;

;

belonging to the Greek constellation of the Cup or to the continuation of the and | of Hydra, so that its head, its body, and its tail would follow the a of the Hydra, between the that constellation, or the y of the Virgin. ' From the astronomic ceiling in the tomb of Seti I. (Lefebore, 4th part, pi. xxxvi.).

posed of smaller

stars,

cj>'

—

;

TEE GODS OF EGYPT.

96

ahead

As a

like star,

lauliu

Bonu

and Ea

but Mars-Dosbiri, the red,

;

the bird (Venus) bad a dual personality

backwards.

sailed ^

;

in the evening it

was Uati, the lonely star which is the first to rise, often before nightfall in the morning it became Tiu-nutiri, the god who ;

bails

dawn

the sun before his rising and proclaims the

of

day.^

and Sopdit, Orion and

Sahii

Sahu consisted of

this mysterious world.

large

were the rulers of

Sirius,

and eight small,

fifteen stars,

seven

so arranged as to represent a runner

darting through space, while the fairest of

them shone above

and marked him out from afar

to the admiration

his head,

of

With

mortals.

ansata,

follow

right

bis

head towards Sethis as he beckoned

and turning

her on with his

seemed

left,

The

him.

goddess,

crowned with a diadem of

most radiant

star,

overtake

back, and

Sirius

tall

in

though inviting her to

feathers surmounted

by her

Sahu with a

gesture,

call of

pursuit as

Sometimes

him.^

cow lying down

in

as

standing sceptre in hand, and

answered the

and quietly embarked to

hand he flourished the crux

his

she

though is

sAHu-ouioN.*

often

forth

in

described

no anxiety

represented

as

her bark, with three stars along

flaming from

full

upon

daylight the

sky

rays,

a

her

Not

between her horns.^

content to shine by night only, her bluish darted

in

suddenly

and without any warning, the

mystic

lines

of

the

representing the five planets known to the ancient Egyptians were first recognized by Lepsius (Einleitung zur Chronologie der ^gypter, p. 84, et seq.). Their names were ufterwards partly determined by Brcgsch (Nouvellea Becherches sur les divisions de Vann^e chez les anciens Egyptiens suivies d'un m^moire sur des observations plan€taires, p. 140, et seq.), and finally settled by E. de Rouge {Note sur les noms Egyptiens des planetes, in the Bulletin arch^ologique dc

The personages

•

V Atlienseum frangai^, vol. ii. pp. 18-21, 25-28). The connection between tTdti and Tiu-nutiri, between the Evening and the Morning Star, was first noted by Brugsch (Thesaurus Inscriptionum, p. 72, et seq., and Die ^gyptologie, pp. 332-337). ' It is thus that Sahfi and Sopdit are represented in the Ramess6um (Burton, Excerpta, pi. Iviii. "^

Monumenti del Culto, pi. Ixxi. Lepsius, Denk.,in. 170), in the tomb of Seti I. (Lefebure, Le Tombeau de S€ti I^, part 4, pl. xxxvi., in the M^moires de la Mission frangaise, vol, ii.), and, with Champollion, slight variations, upon other monuments (Brugsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum, p. 80). who had recognized Orion in the astronomic scene at Denderah, read his name as Keshes, or Kos, on what authority I do not know (firammaire J^gyptienne, p. 95). Lepsius (Einleitung zur Chronologie, Sahu {M€moire p. 77) proposed that it should be read Seh, and E. de Rouge found the true reading In the same way, Champollion transcribed the name of sur I'inscription d'Ahmes, p. 88, et seq). Sothis by Thot, Tet, without being under any misapprehension as to the identity of that goddess {Grammaire Egyptienne, p. 96 M€inoire sur les signes employes par les anciens Egyptiens a la notation des divisions du temps, p. 38); Lepsius was the first to decipher it correctly (Einleitung zur CliroYlosELi.im,

;

;

nologie, pp. 135, 136). *

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

a small bronze in the Gizeh Museum, published by Mariette, Album photographique du Mus^e de Boulaq, pl. 9. The legs are a modern restoration. The identity of the cow with Sothis was discovered by Jollois and Devilliers (Sur les has-

in the *

ORION AND SOTHIS. triangle which stood for her name.

curious

phenomena

Horus

himself.^

was then

It

of the zodiacal light

97 she produced those

that

which other legends attributed to

One, and perhaps the most ancient of the innumerable

A

accounts of this god and goddess, represented Sahu as a wild hunter.^

world as vast as ours rested upon the other side of the iron firmament ours, it

was distributed into

seas,

and continents divided by

but peopled by races unknown to men.

Sahu traversed

rivers

it

and

;

like

canals,

during the day,

surrounded by genii who presided over the lamps forming his constellation.

OEION AND THE COW SOTHIS SEPAUATED BY THE SPABH0W-UAWK.3 I

his appearing " the

At

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

themselves.

it

was no

common game

One attendant secured

that he hunted, but the very gods

the prey with a lasso, as bulls are caught

the pastures, while another examined each capture to decide

in

pure and good for food.

were

This being determined, others bound the divine

victim, cut its throat, disembowelled

it,

cut up

a pot, and superintended their cooking. that the fortune of the chase

all

if it

its

carcass, cast the joints into

Sahu did not devour

might bring him, but

indifferently

classified his

game

in

astronomiques. in the Description de V Egijpie, vol. viii. pp. 464, 465). It is under this animal form that Sothis is represented in most of the Graeco-Roman temples, at Denderah, Edfii, Esneh, Der el-Medineh (Bbugsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum Mcjyptiacarum, pp. 80-82). Beugsch, a ou la lumiere zodiacale, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archxology, 1892-93, vol. XV. p. 233 and in Hermann Gruson, Im Beiehe des Lichtes, 1st edit., pp. 126, 127. * For this legend, see tfnas, lines 496-525 and Teti, lines 318-331. Its meaning was pointed out by Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d' Arche'ologie Egyptiennes, vol. i. p. 156; vol. ii. p. 18, et seq.,

reliefs

'

;

;

pp. 231, 232. ' Scene from the rectangular zodiac of Denderah, drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken with magnesium light by Ddmichen, Resultate, pi. xx.^vi.

H

TEE GODS OF EGYPT.

98 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

more

rendered

by

tender

As

roasting.

were

old

god

each

was assimilated bv 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

their

all

fires,

as they penetrated his being,

served to maintain the perpetual splendour of his light

The nome gods who sided

over the destinies of

Egyptian AMON-EA, AS MiXU OF COPTOS, AND INVESTED WITH HIS

a

pre-

true

cities,

feudal

and formed system

of

EMBLEMS.'

divinities,

or other of these natural categories.^

belonged to one

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.

Delta,^

Khnumu

Osiris of the

of the Cataract,'* Harshafitii of Heracleopolis,^ were each of

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. 2 Champollion had already very clearly recognized this primordial character of the Egyptian religion. "These gods," said he, "had in a manner divided Egypt and Nubia among themselves, thus making a kind of feudal subdivision of the land " (Lettres Rentes d'Egypte, 2nd edit., 1833, *

;

p. 157). '

The

identity of Osiris

iepiccp ou [xovov

and the Nile was well known

rhv ^iflKov "Offipiv Ka\ov(rii',

Koi Swafiip, alriav yefeaeais Kal

o-rrep/xaTos

.

.

.

aWa

to the classic writers

"Oaipiv fxku airXaii airaa-av

ohtrCav vofxi^ovTes

.

.

.

:

ol Se ffocpiirepoi

tV

rhv he "Ocipiv av

vypoiroibv

-rrdXiv

rwv

apx^v

fxeXdyxpovv

yeyovivai fiv9o\oyodariv {De hide

That was indeed

et Oriside, § xxxiii., Paethey's edition, p. 57 ; cf. § xxxiii. p. 54). his original character, afterwards amplified, and partially obscured by the various

him when confounded with other gods. For an analysis of the role attributed to the god Khniimii of the cataract, and with the Nile, see Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie Egyptiennes, attributes ascribed to *

for his identity vol.

il.

p.

273,

et seq. *

be. this

The position of the god Harshafitfl, of Heracleopolis Magna, has not yet been studied as it should Brugsch (Religion und Mythologie, pp. 303-308) regards him as a duplication of Khnumii, and is the mast commonly received opinion. My own researches have led me to consider him a

Nile-god, like

all

the ram-headed gods.

'

THE H0RU8 GODS. them incarnations of the there

in the river, there

and worshipped

installed

especially

and life-sustaining Nile.

fertilizing

some important change

is

99

Khnumu

:

Wherever

they are more

at

the

place

of

entering into Egypt, and again at the town of Haurit, near

its

arm branches

the point where a great

Libyan

to flow towards the

Yusuf leaves the valley at

and form the Bahr-Yusuf: Har-

hills

the gorges of the Fayum, where the Bahr-

shafitu at

and

from the Eastern stream

off

Busiris,

branch, which

;

towards

and, finally, Osiris at Mendes

the

mouth

middle

the

of

was held to be the true Nile by the Isis of

people of the land.^

Buto denoted the black

vegetable mould of the valley, the distinctive

Egypt annually covered and

fertilized

soil

by the inundation.^

But

—the

earth

the earth in general, as distinguished from the sky

with

and

continents, its seas,

its

fertile lands

Amon

— was

alternation

its

represented as a

of

man

:

of barren

deserts

Phtah at Memphis,"

Amoa

Thebes, Minu at Coptos and at Panopolis.*

at

symbolized

have

seems rather to

Minu reigned over the

desert.

the

productive

But these were

soil,

whil(»

fine distinctions,

not invariably insisted upon, and his worshippers often invested

Amon gods,

with the most significant attributes of Minu.

like_the

Earth-gods,

the one consisting of of Sais

derived

or

Thinis

;

him

from

:

of

Sky.-

separa;tedinto__tffiQ__groups^

women: Hathor

the other composed

;

were

The

men

Anhuri-Shu

of Denderah, or Nit identical with Horus,

^

of

Sebennytos

and

Harmerati, Horus of the two eyes, at Pharbsethos

Har-Sapdi, Horus the source of the zodiacal light, in the

anhuki

'

;

Wady

Tumilat;^

Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d' Arclieologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 333. Evon in the Greek period, tlie soil is sometimes Isis herself (De Iside et Osiride, § xxxviii., Paethey's edition, p. 54, § Ivii. p. 102), and sometimes the body of Isis: "lirtSos o-oj^a y-qv exovcri kuI '

^

voixi^ovaiv,

oil

iracrav

aW'

t)S

6

NeTAos itnfialvei

ffixepfiaiueoy Kal /xtyvv/xevos'

e'/c

Se ttjs avvovffias ravrris

In the case of Isis, as in that of Osiris, we must mark the original character; and note lier characteristics as goddess of the Delta before she had become a multiple and contradictory personality through being confounded with other divinities. ^ The nature of Phtah is revealed iu the processes of creation and in the various surnames, Toneii, To-tui-nen, by which some of his most ancient forms were known at Memphis (Bkugsch, Religion und Mythologie, pp. 509-511 Wiedemann, Die Religion der alien yEgypter, pp. 74, 75). • Amon and his neighbour Miniiof Coptos are in fact both ithyphallic, and occasionally mummies. Each wears the mortar head-dress surmounted by two long plumes. ^ Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze of the Saite period, in my own possession. " For the duality of Anhuri-Shu and his primitive nature as a combination of Sky-god and Earth-god, see Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d' Arch€ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 332, 356, 357. ' Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alien ^gypter, Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia p. 667

ytvvicri Tov'^O.pov {ibid., § xxxviii. pp. 56-68).

;

;

Egizia, pp. 616-619. * Brugsch, a ou la lumiere zodiacale, iu the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archxology, 1892-93, vol. XV. p. 235; cf. Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alien j^gypter,pp. 566-571, for the feudal role of Horus Sapdi, or Sapditi in the east of the Delta.

THE OODS OF EGYPT.

100 and

finally

Harhuditi at

Ra, the solar disk, was enthroned at Helio-

Edfii.^

polis,

and sun-gods were numerous among the

nome

deities,

but they were sun-gods closely

gods

with

connected

representing

and resembled Horus quite as

Whether under the name

of

luminary,

its

and

eye,

solar

its

none

of Heliopolis,

could

ended.

say

had

where

One by one

usurped by Horus, and

the

Horus

the

of

divinity was

brilliant

as

were

it

permeated each other that one

and

began

the functions of

all

been appropriated by Ra. huiti,

so

the

all

Auhiiri,

most

its

as Ra.

Horus the Sun, and Ra, the

fused into that of the Sun.^

Sun-God

much

Horus or of

the sky was early identified with

sky,

the

other

the

Ra had been

the designations of Horus had

The sun was two

styled

mountains

Harmak-

— that

is,

the

Horus who comes forth from the mountain of the east the morning, and retires at evening into the mountain the west

;^ or

in

of

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 latter

THE HAWK-HEADED

HOETJs.-

who represented the

were numerous.

sun.

The

Sometimes, as in

tho casc of Harkhobl, Horus of Khobiu,'

The reading Har-Behiiditi was proposed by Mr. Lepage-Renouf {Proceedings of the Society of I do not Biblical Archxoloqy, 1885-86, pp. 143, 14-1), and has been adopted by most Egyptologists. for the name of the think it so well founded as to involve an alteration of the old reading of Hudit city of Edfa (Maspero, Etude»de Mythologie et d'Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 313, note 2). ^ The confusion of Horus, the sky, with Ra, the sun, has supplied M. Lepebure with the subject of one of the most interesting chapters in his Yeux d' Horus, p. 94, et seq., to vyhich I refer the reader '

for further details. ^

From

the time of Champollion, Harmakhuiti has been identified with the Harmachis of the

Greeks, the great Sphinx. * Har-timd has long been considered as a Horus maldng truth by the destruction of his adversaries (PiERRET, Le Pantheon ^gyptien, pp. 18-21). I gave the trye meaning of this word as early as 1876, in the course of my lectures at the College de France (BIaspeeo, J^tudes de Mythologie et d'Arche'ologie J^gyptiennes, vol.

i.

p. 411).

Harnubi is the god of the Antseopolite nome (J. de Eouge, Textes geographiques du temple d'Edfou, in the Revue arch€ologique, 2nd series, vol. xxii. pp. 6, 7 cf. Brdgsch, Bictionnaire geogrophique, p. 507). " A bronze of the Suite 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. ' Harkhohi, Harumkhohiu is the Horus of the marshes (Ichohiu) of the Delta, the lesser Horus the son of Isis (Brugsch, Dictionnaire geogrophique, p. 568, et seq.), who was also made into the son of Osiris ^

;

;

EQUALITY OF GODS AND GODDESSES.

101

a geographical qualification was appended to the generic term of Horus, while specific

names, almost invariably derived from the parts which they were sup-

posed to play, were borne by

The sky-god wor-

others.

shipped at Thinis in Upper

Egypt, at Zarit and at Sebennytos in

Lower Egypt, was

When

called Anhiiri.

sumed the

he

as-

attributes of Ea,

and took upon himself the

name was

nature, his

solar

interpreted as denoting the

He

conqueror of the sky.

was

combative.

essentially

Crowned with a group

of up-

right plumes, his spear raised

and ever ready to

strike the

he advanced along the

foe,

firmament and triumphantly traversed

day by day.^ The

it

THE HOErS OF HIBON©, OX THE BACK OF THE GAZELLE.

sun-ofod who at Medamot Taud

and Erment had preceded

Amon

as ruler of the

Theban plain, was also a

warrior,

He

was de-

and his name of Montu had reference to his method of

fighting.

picted as brandishing a curved sword and cutting off the heads of his adversaries.^

Each of the

feudal gods naturally cherished pretensions to universal dominion,

and proclaimed himself the suzerain, the father of prince was the suzerain, the father of all of

god or prince

nomes began.

really

The

in

The goddesses shared

human

;

the gods, as the local

but the effective suzerainty

ended where that of his peers ruling over the adjacent

the same right of inheritance and

women had

men

all

law.^

Isis

in the exercise of

possession

as

supreme power, and had

regards sovereignty that

was entitled lady and mistress at Buto, as

name was given as far back as Lepsius (JJeher den ersten ^gyptisohen The part played by the god, and the nature of the link connecting him with Shu, have been explained by Maspero 0tudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie ^gyptiennes, vol. ii. The Greeks transcribed his name Onouris, and identified him with Ares (Leepp. 332, 356, 357). •

right reading of the

Gotterhreis, p. 170, n. 3).

JiANS,

Papyri

Grasci, vol.

i.

p. 124,

1.

13,

and

p. 128).

Monta preceded Amon

as god of the land between Ktis and Gebelen, and he recovered his old position in tlie Graeco-Roman period after the destruction of Thebes. Most Egyptologists, and finally Brxjgsch (Religion und Mythologie, p. 701), made him into a secondary form of Amon, which is con^

what we know of the history of the province. Just as Onii of the south (Erment) preceded Thebes as the most important town in that district, so Mont(i had been its most honoured god. Here "Wiedemann (Die Religion der alien Mgypter, p. 71) thinks the name related to that of Amou and derived from it, with the addition of the final tu. ' 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 Maspero (Etudeit de Mythologie et d'ArchMogie ^gyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 253, et seq.).

trary to

:

THE GODS OF EQYFT.

102 Hathor was

at

Denderah, and as Nit at

Sais, " the firstborn,

had been no cities

birth."

when

as yet there

They enjoyed

^

in their

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

attached to

bodies

animal heads, shared omnipotence with those in

human

form.

Horus of Hibonii swooped down

upon the back of a gazelle

a hunting

like

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.^ ibis

Hermopolis worshipped the

and cynocephalus

rhynchus the mormyrus bos and the

the

name

the

epithet

We

Fayum

of

fish

^ ;

and Om-

a crocodile, under

of Sobku,^ sometimes with

of

Azai,

the

brigand.''

cannot always understand what led

the inhabitants of each THE CAT-HEADED BAST.'

Thot; Oxyr-

nome

to affect

^^^ ^^i^j^j ^athcr thau anothcr.

Why,

towards Graeco-Roman times, should they have worshipped the jackal, or even Champollion, Monuments de VEgypte et de la Nubie, vol. i. p. 683 A cf. the inscription on the Naophoros statuette in the Vatican (Bkugsch, Thesaurus Inseriptionum J^gyptiacarum, p. 637, 1. 8) "Nit the Great, the mother of Ea, who was born the first, in the time when as yet there had been no '

;

birth." ^

J.

DE KouGE, Textes G^ographiques du Temple d'Edfou, in the Bevue 73 Brdgsch, Religion und Mythologie, pp. 664, 665.

vol. xsiii. pp. 72,

ArcJie'ologique,

2nd

series,

;

Nekhabit, the goddess of the south, is the vulture, so often represented in scenes of war or who hovers over the head of the Pharaolis. She is also shown as a vulture-headed woman (Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, p. 1020, and pi. cccxlviii. 2, 4). * We have this on the testimony of classic writers, Strabo, book xvii. p. 812; Be Iside et Osiride, *

sacrifice,

Pakthey's

edition, pp. 9, 30, 128 ^lianus, Hist, anim., book x. § 46. the animal's name, and the exact translation of Sovku would be crocodile-godIts Greek transcription is 'S.ovxos (Stkabo, book xvii. p. 811 ; cf. Wilcken, Der Labyrintherbauer Petesuchos, in the Zeitsclirift, 1884, pp. 136-139). On account of the assonance of the names he was § vii., ^

1872,

Sdbhu, SovhH,

;

is

sometimes confounded with Sivu, Sibu by the Egyptians themselves, and thus obtained the titles of that god (RosELLiNi, Monumenti del Culto, pi. xx. 3; cf. Becgsch, Religion und Mythologie, pp. 590, 591). 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.

Azai is generally considered to be the Osiris of the Fayftm (Brugsch, Dictionnaire g^ograpliiquey Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia, p. 103), but he was only transformed into Osiris, and that p. 770 by the most daring process of assimilation. His full name defines him as Osiri Azai hi-hdit To-shit {Osiris the Brigand, who is in the Fayum), that is to say, as Sovku identified with Osiris (Mariette, Monuments divers, pi. 39 6). Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a green enamelled figure in my possession (Saite period). '^

;

TEE TRIADS.

How came

the dog, at Siiit?^

quadruped

?

it

tering

noisily

a

sunset,

would

almost

Egyptians

cynocephali

with

of

sunrise

the as

justify

follow the train of thought that

certain

monkeys

in

and chat-

full court,

before

little

uncivilized

we can

The habit

were in

assembling as

hailing

be incarnate in a fennec, or in an imaginary

Occasionally, however,

^

determined their choice.

of

Sit to

103

and

yet

entrusting

in

the charge

the god morning

and evening as he appeared

in

the east, or passed away in the it xta

west.

was

neld.

to

a grasshopper under the

Empire,

it

re

tiie

was because he flew

neias

far

in the sky like the clouds of locusts driven

which suddenly

-^^^^^-r^rr:.^

,-<:s*^,.^fflXj<^*

or of a

IN

Kbnum u,

buc k.

"

•

,

;^^^^^^.^^^^^^\^^

;:^^

ADORATION BEFORE THE RISING Osiris,

Ha rshafitu,

fall

and ravage them.*

,

Most of the Nile-gods,

ram

up

^---^^z^^-

TWO CYNOCEPHALI

of a

supposkd prototype of the typhonian animal

Old

from Central Africa

upon

^gj, j-ennec,

SUN.*

were incarnate in the form

Does not the masculine vigour and procreative

rage of these animals naturally point them out as fitting images of the life-giving Nile

how

and the overflowing of

its

waters ?

It is easy to

understand

the neighbourhood of a marsh or of a rock-encumbered rapid should

have suggested the crocodile as supreme deity to the inhabitants of the •

tlapuaitft, the guide of the celestial ways,

Cynopolite

nome

of

Upper Egypt, was

who must

not be confounded with Anubis of the

originally the feudal god of

Siiit.

He

guided

human

souls

and the sun upon its southern path by day, and its northern path by night. 2 Champollion, Eosellini, 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 (Planners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. iii. pp. 13G, 137). This would rather tend to show that they believed in its actual existence (cf. p. 84 of this History). Pleyte (La Religion des Prg-Israelites, p. 187) thinks that it may be a degenerated form of tlie figure of the to the paradise of the Oasis,

ass or oryx.

Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie tgyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 34, 35 cf. Lepage-Renodp, Book of the Dead, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, vol. xiv. pp. 272, 273. * Cf. La sauterelle de Rd from Papi II., 1. 660, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. xii. p. 170. ' Sculptured and painted scene from the tympanum of a stela in the Gxzeh Museum. Diawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. ^

Tlie

;

TEE GODS OF EGYPT.

104

Fayum

The

or of Ombos.

constitute

a serious danger

there multiplied

crocodiles

there they had

;

appeased only by means of prayers and

had been superseded by

rapidly as to

the mastery, and could

When

sacrifices.

be

instinctive terror

and some explanation was offered of the

reflection,

of the various

origin

so

cults,

the very nature of the

animal seemed to justify the veneration with which it

The

was regarded.

Sobku was supposed the

the

creation

into

the dark

crocodile

is

amphibious; and

be a crocodile, because before

to

sovereign god

plunged recklessly

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 solitary

their later.^

divinities

began their

grandeur, apart from, and often hostile

Each appropriated two companions and formed it

is

generally called, a triad.

there were several kinds of triads.

custom.

one wife and one son

who were

at once his sisters

;

In nomes subject

but often he was united to two

and his wives according to the national

Thus, Thot of Hermopolis possessed himself of a harem consisting

of Seshait-Safkhitabui and Nahmauit.^

Tumu

divided the

inhabitants of Heliopolis with Nebthotpit and with lusasit.^ *

But

was frequently content with

to a god, the local deity

goddesses,

to,

Families were assigned to them

neighbours.

a trinity, or as

NIT OF SAIS.

lives in

Cbampollion, Monuments de VEgypte

et

de la NuUe,

vol.

i.

p.

233

:

homage

of the

Khnumu seduced

" Sobkfl, lord of

Ombos, the

god Sibfl, father of the gods, the great god, lord of Neshit (Ptolemais), crocodile which ariseth resplendent from the waters of the divine Na, which was in the beginning, and, when once it was, then was all which has been since the time of Ra." * The existence of the Egyptian triads was discovered and defined by Champollion {Lettres These triads have long served as the basis upon Rentes d'Egypte, 2nd edit., 1833, pp. 155-159).

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 Tlie proceas of forming local triads, as here set forth, was first pointed out by de'r alien Mgypter.

Maspero {Etudes de Mythologie et d' Arch€ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 269, et seq.). « At Denderah, for example, we find Thot followed by his two wives (Dubuchen, Bauurkunde der Tempelanlagen von Dendera, pp. 26, 27). Nahmauit, tie/xavovs, is a form of Hathor, and wears the sistrum upon her head. Her uauie signifies she who removes evil; it was an epithet of Hathor's, and alludes to the power of her sistrum's sound to drive away evil spirits (Brugsoh, Religion und MythoThere has, as yet, been no satisfactory interpretation of the name of Safkhltlogie, pp. 471, 472). abui, or Seshait

(Lepage-Renouf, The Booh of

the

Dead, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical herself is a duplicate of Thot as the inventor

The goddess

Archxology, 1892-93, vol. xv. p. 378). of letters and founder of temples (Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie, pp. 473-475). * Here again the names are only epithets showing the impersonal character of the goddesses. The first may mean the lady of the quarry, or of the mine, and denote Hathor of Belbeis or Sinai, as

found on monuments of various epochs (Brt:gsch, Dictionnaire g^ographique^ The second name, which the Greeks transcribed as 2a&Jo-(j {De hide et pp. 332, 333, 1272, 1273). Osiride, § sv., Parthey's edition, p. 26), seems to mean, " She comes, she grows," and is also nothing but a qualification applied to Hathor iu allusion to some circumstance as yet unknown to us (Ledrain, Le Papyrus de Luynes, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. i. p. 91 cf. Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et

united with Tumfi.

It is

;

THE TEIADS. and married the two

the neighbouring cataract

fairies of

who compresses the Nile between

strainer,

anid ^tit

its

—Aniikit

the con-

rocks at Philae and at Syene,

the ar cherfigflj-wtio shoots forth tha.-current straight and swift as an

Where a goddess

arrow.^

105

two^^ale

reigned over a nome, the triad~was completed by

a divine consort and a divine son.

deities,

of Sais had taken for her

Nit

husband Osiris of Mendes, and

Hathor

borne him a lion's whelp, Ari-hos-nofir.^

of

Den-

derah had completed her household with Haroeris and a

younger Horus, with the epithet of Ahi

A triad

the sistrum.^

no

legitimate

people

;

who

strikes

containing two goddesses produced

and was unsatisfactory to a

offspring,

who regarded the lack

from heaven

—he

of

progeny as a curse

one in which the presence of a son pro-

mised to ensure the perpetuity of the race was more in keeping with the idea of a blessed

that of

family, as

gods

should

former kind were therefore almost

up a

into

two new

divine

triads,

mother,

and prosperous Triads

be.

of

the

everywhere broken

each containing a divine father,

and

a

divine

son.

Two

fruitful

households arose from the barren union of Thot with

Saf khitabui

and

Nahmauit

one

:

composed

Thot,

of

Saf khitabui, and Harnubi, the golden sparrow-hawk

;

^

into

the other Nahmauit and her nursling Nofirhoru entered.^

niHOTpe.«

The persons united with the old feudal divinities in order to form were not all of the same class. Goddesses, especially, were made to and might often be described as grammatical, so obvious to

which they owe their being.

From

Ea,

is

triads

order,

the linguistic device

Amon, Horus, Sobku, female Eas,

Amons, Horuses, and Sobkus were derived, by the addition

of the regular

In the Luynes Papyrus, for instance, they are represented i., plate belonging to M. Ledrain's memoir). 1 Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 273, et seq. ^ Arihosnqfir means the lion whose gaze has a beneficent fascination (Brugsch, Beligion und Mythologie, pp. 349-351). He also goes under the name of TutH, which seems as thougli it should bo translated " the bounding" a mere epithet characterizing one gait of the liou-god's.

d' Archeologie Egyptiennes, vol,

as standing behind their

ii.

husband

p. 273).

(Recueil, vol.

—

Bkcgsch (Religion und Mythologie der alien JiJgypter, p. 376) 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 mondit (Lanzone, Bizionario di Mitologia, pi. xl. 2, 3). Moreover, ahi, ahit is an invariable title of the priests and priestesses whose office it is, during religious ceremonies, to strike tho sistrum, and that- other mystic musical instrument, the sounding whip called mondit (cf. Maspero, in the Eevue Critique, 1893, vol. i. p. 289). * This somewhat rare triad, noted by Wilkinson (Matiners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. iii. p. 230), is sculptured on the wall of a chamber in the Tiirali quarries. ^ Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alten ^gypier, pp. 483, 481. *

^

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze statuette encrusted with gold, in the Gizeli Museum Album du Mus^e de Boulaq, pi. 6). The seat is alabaster, and of modern manufacture.

(BIariette,

;

TEE GODS OF EGYPT.

106 feminine

affix to

the primitive masculine names

—Eait, Amonit, Horit, Sobkit.^

In the same way, detached cognomens of divine fathers were

embodied in divine

m

Imhotpu, " he who comes in peace,"

sons.

was merely one of the epithets of Phtah before he became incarnate as the third

member

of the

Memphite

In other

triad.^

were contracted between divinities of ancient

cases, alliances

stock, but natives of different nomes, as in the case of Isis of

and the Mendesian Osiris Denderah.

Buto

of Haroeris of Edfu and Hathor of

;

In the same manner Sokhit of Letopolis and Bastit

of Bubastis were appropriated as wives to

Phtah

of

Memphis,

Nofirtiimu 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 tility

powers whose unremitting hos-

would mean the swift ruin of entire peoples.

The system

begun

of triads,

unbrokenly up to the in

rival

last

in primitive times

and continued

days of Egyptian polytheism, far from

any way lowering the prestige of the feudal gods, was rather

the means of enhancing ful lords as the

in the eyes of the multitude.

it

new-comers might be at home,

it

Power-

was only in the

strength of an auxiliary title that they could enter a strange city,

and then only on condition of submitting NOFiRTcsiO.*

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.^

On

the other hand, Haroeris

when

at

Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d' ArchMogie j^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 7, 8, 256. Imhotpu, the Imouthes of the Greeks, and by them identified with ^sculapius, was discovered by Salt (^Exsay on Dr. Young's and M. Champollion's Phonetic System of Hieroglyphics, pp. 49, 50, pi. iii. 1), and his name was first translated as he who comes with offering (Akundale-Bonomi-Birch, Gallery of Antiquities selected from the British Museum, p. 29). The translation, he who comes in peace, proposed by E. de Rouge, is now universally adopted (Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie, p. 526 PiERRET, Le Pantheon Egyptien, p. 77 "Wiedemann, Die Religion der alten JEgypter, p. 77). Imhotpii did not take form until the time of the New Empire his great popularity at Memphis and throughout '

*

;

;

and Greek periods. 2 Originally, Nofirtiimii 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 (cf. Lanzone, Diziouario di Mitologia, p. 385, pi. cxlvii. 4, cxlviii. 1, 2). to have been in the first place an incarnation of Atumfi, but he was afiiliated to the god Phtah of Memphis when that god became the husband of his mothers, and preceded Imhotpu as the third

Egypt dates from the

Sai'te

personage in the oldest Memphite triad. * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze statuette incrusted with gold, in the Gizeh Museum (Mariette, Album photographique du Muse'e de Boulaq, pi. 5). * Each year, and at a certain time, the goddess came in high state to spend a few days in the

THEIR

HUMAN NATURE.

107

Denderah descended from the supreme rank, and was nothing more than the His name came

almost useless consort of the lady Hathor.

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 chief of

in second place,

Denderah and

Hathor was none the

less the real

Thus, the principal

of its divine family.^

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

divine triad had of himself but limited authority.

When

Isis

and

an infant Horus, naked,

Osiris were his parents, he was generally

or simply adorned with necklaces

son in a

and bracelets

;

a thick lock of

hair depended from his temple, and his mother squatting on her heels, or else sitting,

Even

breast.^

nursed him upon her knees, offering him her

where the son was supposed

triads

in

to

have

attained to man's estate, he held the lowest place, and there was

enjoined upon as

him the same

respectful attitude towards his parents

observed by children of

is

human

race

the presence of

in

HOBDS, SON OP ISIS.*

theirs.

He

took the lowest place at

his

own, and

filled

Occasionally

will.

a definite

was the patron of

science.*

having either

or

reflection

office

of his

as

he was vouchsafed a character

of

position,

But,

marked

father's,

derived from him.

command and

permission, acted

only with his parents' the agent of their

solemn receptions, spoke

all

only by

Memphis, where Imhotpii

at

as

generally,

individuality

;

he was his being

and possessed neither

Two such

contiguous

their

life

not

considered

as

was but a feeble

nor power except as

personalities

must needs have

great temple of Edfii, with her husband Haroeris (J. de Kouge, Textes g^ographiques du temple

d'Edfou, pp. 52, 53 Mariette, Denderah, vol. iii. pi. vii. 73, aad Texte, pp. 99, 107). ' The part played by HaroSris 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, ;

more remarkable since at Thebes, at Memphis, at Philse, at the cataracts, at ElephanEdfu, 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 The triad of Edfii consists of Hor-Hut, Hathor, and Hor-Sam-ta-ui. The triad of Denderah case. At Edfii, the male princontains Hathor, Hor-Hut, and Hor-Sam-ta-ui. The difference is obvious. ciple, as represented by Hor-Hut, takes the first place, whereas the first person at Denderah is Hathor,

and

this is the

tine, at

who

represents the female principle" (Mariette, Denderah, Texte, pp. 80, 81). For representations of Harpocrates, the child Horus, see Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, pis. ccxxvii., ccxxviii., and particularly pi. 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. '

^

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from

de Boulaq,

a statuette in the Gizeh "Museum (Mariette, Album du Mus^e

pi. 4).

* E. DE Rouge, Notice sommaire dea Monuments Egyptiens, 1855, p. 106; Brcgsch, Religion und Mythologie der alien ^gypter, p. 526, et seq. Wiedemann, Die Religion der alien JEgypter, p. 77. 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. 105.

—

—

—

;

THE GODS OF EGYPT.

108

been confused, and, as a matter of

were so confused as to become at

fact,

who united

length nothing more than two aspects of the same god,

own person degrees

of

in his

relationship

mutually exclusive of each other in a

human

he was the

by

son,

Father, inasmuch as

family.

member

member

first

of

virtue ;

identical

of the triad

being

third

its

with himself in

both capacities, he was at once his

own

his

father,

own

son,

and

the

husband of his mother.^ Gods, like men, might be resolved THE BLACK SHADOW COMING OUT INTO THE

into at least two elements, soul and

SUNLIGHT.'

body;^ but, in Egypt, the conception

the soul

of

—

might be an

hai

hi,

or the

insect

butterfly,

— whose

times and

different

bee,

wings enabled

black shadow

hhaihit

—that

in

different

praying mantis

or

human-headed

sparrow-hawk, the

ordinary

crane

varied in

it

to

or

;

a bird

heron

sparrow-hawk, a

free,

so that

it

can move about at

Finally,

it

might be a kind

The

part

^ ;

attached to every body,^ but which

is

will,

and go out into the open sunlight.

of light

human

and the genesis

figure, a

double

of these son-deities

cation d'une inscription €gyptienne prouvant que

du

a

or

through space

pass rapidly

shadow, like a reflection from the

surface of calm water, or from a polished mirror, the living and

'

—the

and which thenceforward leads an independent existence,

death sets

projection of the

It

schools.

Fils de Bleu, p. 24, et seq.

;

cf.

les

Tea

were

coloured

—reproducing

in minutest detail

clearly defined

by E. de Rouge (Expli-

first

anciens £gyptiens out connu la generation ^ternelle

Annales de philosophie chr^tienne, May, 1851

Etude sur une

;

stele

^gyptienne appartenant a la Bibliotheque imp^riale, pp. 6, 7). 2 In one of the Pyramid texts, S&hli-Orion, the wild hunter, captures the gods, slaughters and disembowels them, cooks their joiuts, their haunches, their legs, in his burning cauldrons, and feeds

on their souls as well as on their bodies (ZTnas, lines 509-514). 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 (Dijmichen, ;

E! von Bergmann, Hieroglyphische Inschriften, pi. xxxiii. note of the text; and 25, Bblgsch, 1, Dictionnaire Hie'roglypliique, Supplement, pp. 997, 1230; 1. 3, p. Lepage-Renouf, On the true Sense of an important Egyptian Word, in the Transactions of the Society Tempel-Inschriften, I, Edfou, pi. xxix.

of Biblical Archeeology, vol. ^ *

vi.

;

pp. 504, 505).

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Naville's Das Thebanische Todlenbuch, Mr. Lepage-Renouf supposes that the soul may have been considered

times, as in Greece

^

i.

pi. civ.

Po.

as being a butterfly at

(A Second Note,

in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archxology, vol. xiv. it must sometimes have been incarnate as a wasp I should rather

M. p. 400) say a bee or a praying mantis (Ftude sur Abydos, in the Proceedings, ;

vol.

Lefebuke thinks that

The simple sparrow-hawk ^k

is

—

vol. xv. pp. 142, 143).

chiefly used to denote the soul of a

god

;

the human-headed

sparrow-hawk \y^, the heron, or the crane '^j is used indifferently for human or divine souls. It is from Hokapollo (book i. § 7, Leemans' edition, pp. 8, 151, 152) that we learn this symbolic signifisance of the sparrow-hawk and the pronunciation of the name of the soul as bai. ^ For the black Shadow, see Birch, On the Shade or Shadow of the Dead (Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archseology, vol. viii. pp. 386-397), and the illustrations of his paper.

109

TEEIE BODIES.

whom

the complete image of the object or the person to soul, the

OSIIUS

AND

the soul, shadow, or double of a

same

belonged.^

The

shadow, the double of a god, was in no way essentially different from

THE AUGUST SOULS OP

of a

it

more

rarefied substance,

qualities,

and subject

HORTJS IN

man

;

ADORATION BEFORE THE SOLAR

his body, indeed,

and generally

to

invisible,

DISK.^

was moulded out

but endowed with the

the same imperfections as ours.

The

gods,

The nature of the double has long been misapprehended by Egyptologists, who had even made name into a kind of pronominal form (E. de Kouge, Chrestomathie £gyptienne, 2ud part, pp. 61-63). That nature was publicly and almost simultaneously announced in 1878, first by Maspero '

its

{Mudes de Mytliologie et d'Arch^ologie tgyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 1-34 cf. ibid., pp. 35-52), and directly afterwards by Lepage-Rexouf (On the true Sense of an important Egyptian Word, in the Transactions The idea whioh the Egyptians had of the Society of Biblical Archeology, vol. vi. pp. 494-508). formed of the double, and the influence which that idea exercised upon their conception of the life ;

beyond, have been mainly studied by Maspero (^Etudes de Mytliologie et d' Archeologie £gyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 77-91, 388-406), and Wiedemann, The Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of the Immortality of the Stul, 1895. - Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Dijmichen (Eesultate, vol. ii. pi. lix.), of a scene on the cornice of the front room of Osiris on the terrace of the great temple of Denderah. The Each bears upon its soul on the left belongs to Horus, that on the right to Osiris, lord of Amentit. head the group of tall feathers wliich is characteristic of figures of Auhfiri (cf. p. 99).

THE GODS OF EGYPT.

110

were more ethereal, stronger, more powerful, better

therefore, on the whole,

command,

fitted to

men.

still

ate,

to enjoy,

They had

and to

The

sa,

and carried with

it

charged with to the

it

;

than ordinary men, but they were

bones,^ muscles, flesh, blood;

they were thirsty and drank

also theirs.

suffer

a mysterious

our passions, griefs, joys, infirmities, were

;

fluid, circulated

health, vigour, and

some had more, others

who lacked

less, their

it,

throughout their members,

They were not

life.^

The

amount which they contained.

their superfluity to those

they were hungry and

all

equally

energy being in proportion

better supplied willingly gave of

and

could readily transmit

all

it

The

mankind, this transfusion being easily accorhplished in the temples. king, or any ordinary

man who

wished to be thus impregnated, presented

himself before the statue of the god, and squatted at

towards

it.

The

statue then placed

and by making passes, caused the

him

in

as in

This

a receiver.

its

right

fluid

rite

using or transmitting

it

its feet

with his back

hand upon the nape of

to flow

from

it,

his neck,

and to accumulate

was of temporary efiScacy only, and

required frequent renewal in order that

By

to

its

benefit

might be maintained.

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 this

'*

pond of the Sa." ^

magic

fluid,

preserved their vigour far beyond the term allotted to the

men and

bodies of

beasts.

and transformed them silver, their

Divine bodies, continually recruited by the influx of

flesh

to

Age, instead of quickly destroying them, hardened

into precious metals.

gold

;

their

hair,

piled

Their bones were changed to

up and painted

the manner of great chiefs, was turned into lapis-lazuli.*

blue,

after

This transfor-

mation of each into an animated statue did not altogether do away with

For example, the text of the Destruction of Men (1- 2), and other documents, teacli us that the aged sun had become gold, and his bones silver (Lepebure, Le Tombeau de S^ti I<"; 4th The blood of Ka is mentioned part, pi. XV. 1. 2, in vol. ii. of the M^moires de la Mission du Caire). in the Book of the Dead (chap. xvii. 1. 29, Natille's edition, pi. xxiv.), as well as the blood of Isia (chap. clvi. cf. Mirinri, 1. 774) and of other divinities. 2 On the sa of life, whose action had already been partially studied by E. de Rouge (iJtude sur une stele egyptienne appartenant a la Bibliotheque imp^riale, p. 110, et seq.), see Maspeko, J^tudes de '

flesh of the

;

Mythologie et d'Arche'ologie jSgyptiennes, vol.

i.

pp. 307-309.

thus that in the Tale of the Daughter of the Prince of Bahhtan we find that one of the statues of the Theban Khonsfi supplies itself with sa from another statue representing one of the most powerful forms of the god (E. de Eodge, j^tude sur une stele, pp. 110, 111; Maspero, Les Contes The pond of Sa, whither the gods go to draw the magic fluid, ia populaires, 2nd edit., p. 221). mentioned in the Pyramid texts. ^

It is

Men

(II. 1, 2) referred to above, where age produces these 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. * Cf. the text of the Destruction of transformations in the body of the sun.

:

'

;;

TEE DEATH OF MEN AND GODS. the ravages of time.

Decrepitude was no

with men, although

came

to

it

them more slowly

when

;

'

"

'

'

mouth trembled, down

velling ran

^L;.i;.ivLL

" his

his

with them than

less irremediable

'

the sun had grown old

Ill

ImAiimimlMiiiiML

dri-

to earth,

upon the

his spittle dropped

ground."^

None

of the feudal gods

had escaped

them

for

this destiny

as

mankind

for

the day came when they

must leave the forth

to

ancients

and go

city

The

the tomb.^

long

mmm

refused

to

believe that death was natural

and

thought

They

inevitable.

that

v.— IJ

once

life,

begun, might go on indefinitely

stopped it

if

:

it

no

short,

accident

why

cease of itself ?

men

did not die in

were

they

The

±

should

And

so

-^^

'"^

^•'

^

-'

.jCt^

a?

«^

Egypt

assassinated.*

murderer

xv>

often

THE KING AFTER

HIS

COROKATION RECEIVING THE IMPOSITION OF THE SA*

be-

longed to this world, and was easily recognized as another man, an animal,

some inanimate object such fell

as a stone loosened from the hillside, a tree which

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 malig-

nant attacks only.

He

was a god, an evil

spirit,

a disembodied soul who slily

Un Pleyte-Kossi, LeB PapyTus Ei€ratiques de Turin, pi. cxxxii. 11. 1, 2 cf. Lefebure, Chapitre de la chronique solaire, in the Zeitschrift, 1883, p. 28. ^ 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, pi. x. 11. 6, 7), which has not to my " I am that Osiris in the West, and Osiris knoweth his day in knowledge liitherto been noticed " 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, Khnumii, 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 '

;

:

;

(De Iside

Leemaxs' edition, p. 36). a photograph by M. Gayet, taken in 1SS9, of a scene in the hypostyle hall at Lfisor. Amon, after having This illustration shows the relative positions of prince and god. placed the pschent upon the head of the Pharaoh Amenothes III., who kneels before him, proceeds 2

et

Osiride, § 21,

Drawn by Boudier from

to impose the sa. *

Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie

et d' Arch^ologie

Egyptiennes, vol.

ii.

p. 250.

TEE GODS OF EG TFT.

112

insinuated itself into the living man, or

— illness

As soon

as the former

people, and his place

moment

the

ignorant of

irresistible violence

in its

which he had ceased natural fate.

And

breath of wind.

fortunes, but these

As

ended for him with

to the body, no one was

and a few years

sufficed

as for the skeleton, in the lapse of centuries

became a mere

The

train of dust, to be blown

might have a longer career and

soul

Every advance made

robbed the soul of some part of left

to breathe ?

all

his

away fuller

were believed to be dependent upon those of the body, and

commensurate with them.

nothing was

But had

It quickly fell to decay,

that too was disintegrated and first

succumbed he was carried away from

knew him no more.

to reduce it to a skeleton.

by the

upon him with

being a struggle between the one possessed and the power which

possessed him.

own

fell

in the process of decomposition

itself; its consciousness

gradually faded until

but a vague and hollow form that vanished altogether when

the corpse had entirely disappeared.

From 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.

was imperative that during that such that

terrors, the flesh it

which

for

them was fraught with

should neither become decomposed nor turn to dust,

should be free from offensive odour ^ and secure from predatory worms.^

They

set to work, therefore, to

burials which

discover

how

to preserve

The

it.

oldest

have as yet been found prove that these early inhabitants were

successful in securing

When

last sleep,

It

the permanence of the body for a few decades only.

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.^

Having taken

these precautions, they placed the body in

the grave, sometimes entirely naked, sometimes partially covered with

ordinary garments, or sewn up in- a closely fitting gazelle skin.*

its

The dead

* Cf., among other examples, the passage from the Pyramid of Teti, 11. 347-354, in Masfeeo, Les ryramides de Sakkarah, p. 141. ^ Booh of the Dead, Lkpsius's edition, pi. Ixxvii. ch. clxiii. 1. 1. Various chapters of the same book show a similar horror of the worm, and give various ways of preserving flesh and bones from its attacks. Thus in ch. cliv. a hope is expressed that the body may not decay nor become a multitude

of worms.

from the various Pyramid texts relating to the purification by water and 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. * For the primitive mode of burial in hides, and the rites which originated in connection with it, ^

This

is

to be gathered

to fumigation

cf.

:

Lefebuke, Etudes sur Ahydos,

vol.

XV. pp. 433-435.

De Morgan

ii.,

in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archxology. 1892-93,

found some bodies wrapped in a gazelle skin (Ethnogr.

pr^hist., p. 131).

TEE OLDEST BURIALS. man was east, in

placed on his

some

112A

lying north and south with his face to the

left side,

cases on the bare ground, in others on a mat, a strip of leather

The knees were

or a fleece, in the position of a child in the foetal state.

sharply bent at an angle of 45° with the thighs, while the latter were either

body, or drawn up so as almost to touch the elbows.

at right angles with the

are sometimes extended in front of the face, sometimes the arms

The hands are folded

legs are bent

effort,

upward

in such a fashion that they almost lie parallel with the

The deceased could only be made

trunk.

to assume this position

and in many cases the tendons and the

The dryness

the operation.

it,

and

by taking the

flesh

be cut to facilitate

true,

is

it

from being

;

is

the head

finally destroyed.

is

or,

missing, or

The

bodies

detached from

is

on the other hand, the body

flints.

The forearms and the hands

were subjected to the same treatment as the head. in others they are deposited

by the

In

many

cases no trace of

side of the skull or scattered

Other mutilations are frequently met with

;

the ribs are

divided and piled up behind the body, the limbs are disjointed or the body entirely dismembered,

cist.^

These precautions were satisfactory in so

felt this result

more

solid parts of the

was obtained at too great a

thus deprived of

all

flesh

far as they ensured the better

human

frame, but the Egyptians

sacrifice.

The human organism

was not only reduced to half

remained had neither unity, consistency, nor continuity.

its

bulk, but what

It

was not even a

perfect skeleton with its constituent parts in their relative places, but a

mass of bones with no connecting remedied by the

artificial

links.

This drawback,

reconstruction in the

tomb

it

were laid in their natural order

fear inspired

and arms, and

;

is

mere

true,

was

of the individual thus

completely dismembered in the course of the funeral ceremonies.

of the leg, trunk,

is

and the fragments arranged upon the ground or enclosed

together in an earthenware

preservation of the

is

found in the grave, generally placed apart on

a brick, a heap of stones, or a layer of cut

about haphazard.

but only

was determined to accelerate the

it

the neck and laid in another part of the pit,

them appears,

to

from the bones before interment.

thus treated are often incomplete

not there, and the head only

had

a long time,

so did not prevent the soul

Seeing decay could not be prevented, process,

flesh

by a violent

of the ground selected for these burial-places

of the flesh for

retarded the corruption

retarded

In some instances the

and the hands joined on the breast or neck.

The bones

those of the feet at the bottom, then those

finally the skull itself.

by the dead man, particularly

But the

superstitious

of one thus harshly handled, and

For tbe traces of these primitive customs in the formulas and rites of the times of the Pharaohs, of. tiie curious memoir by Wiedemann, Les modes d'ensevelissement dans la N^oropole de Nagadah, etc., in J. de Morgan, op. cit., pp. 203-228. 1

J.

DE Morgan,

op.

cit.,

pp. 137-139.

J

:

tee oods of eoypt,

112b

particularly the apprehension that he

might revenge himself on

his relatives

the treatment to which they had subjected him, often induced them to

for

make

When

this restoration intentionally incomplete.

they had reconstructed

the entire skeleton, they refrained from placing the head in position, or else

they suppressed one or should be unable to

all of

rise

the vertebraB of the spine, so that the deceased

and go forth

and harass the

to bite

taken this precaution, they nevertheless

a doubt whether the soul could

felt

really enjoy life so long as one half only of the

was

lost for ever

:

body remained, and the other

they therefore sought to discover the means of preserving the

fleshy parts in addition to the

bony framework

when a corpse had been buried

that

Having

living.

of the body.

It

had been observed

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

An

in appearance, while its integrity ensured that of the soul.

made by

artificial

means

attempt was

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 deathagony.

It

was the god Anubis

—the

jackal

He

supposed to have made this discovery.

it first

thick layers of linen.

The

it

was

with salts and aromatic

of all with the hide of a beast,

victory the god

—who

cleansed the body of the viscera,

those parts which most rapidly decay, saturated substances, protected

sepulture

lord of

and over

this laid

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

and what remained

dissolved,

after the period of

saturation was so desiccated that its bulk was seriously dimioished.

When from

any human being had been submitted to this

process,

a mere skeleton, over which the skin remained tightly drawn

it

shrivelled limbs,

sunken

chest, grinning features, yellow

but rather a caricature of what he had been.

;

man

these

himself,

As nevertheless he was

against immediate destruction, the Egyptians described his shape

^

:

and blackened skin

spotted by the efflorescence of the embalmer's salts, were not the

him

secure

as furnished with

henceforth he had been purged of all that was evil in him,^ and he

could face with tolerable security whatever awaited of Anubis, transmitted to the '

he emerged

him

in the future.

The

art

embalmers and employed by them from gene-

Such was the appearance of the bodies

which

I

of Coptic monks of the sixth, eighth, and ninth centuries, found in the convent cemeteries of Contra-Syene, Tafid, and Akhmim, right in the midst of

the desert. -

This

is

stated as early as Herodotus

TOv veKpov rh Sepfia fiovvou koI '

Cf.

Pepi

I., 1.

11, in

(ii.

88)

:

Tas

Se a-apKUS rh virpov KaTar-fiKei koI

to, ucrrea.

Maspkro, Les Pyramides de Sakkarah,

p. 150.

Stj

Kelinrai

FATE AFTER DEATH. by almost eliminating the corruptible part

ration to generation, had,

body without destroying

mummied

thither the

outward appearance, arrested decay,

its

an unlimited period of time.

ever, at least for

were

dead

still

In

make

to

sandy

not for

from custom, partly

partly

soil offered

Delta where the

them a further chance were so distant as

hills

very costly to reach them, advantage was taken of the smallest

it

rising above the marshes,

islet

Where

districts of tlie

if

of the

If there were hills at hand,

borne,

because the dryness of the air and of the of preservation.

113

this resource failed, the

and there a cemetery was founded.^

mummy

was fearlessly entrusted to the

soil

but only after being placed within a sarcophagus of hard stone, whose

itself,

and trough, hermetically fastened together with cement, prevented the

lid

penetration of any moisture.

Eeassured on this point, the soul followed the

body to the tomb, and there dwelt with

as in

it

its

upon

eternal house,

the confines of the visible and invisible worlds.

Here the to

it

soul kept the distinctive character :

" upon the earth

a double after

it

had been a " double

it

"

it

O my brother, withhold

from drunkenness, from love, from night and by day

wherein

its

forms, never

life after its

;

earth ?

had

left

disturbed

its

not thyself from drinking and from eating,

all

enjoyment, from following thy desire by

put not sorrow within thy heart, for what are the years of

The West

is

a land of sleep and of heavy shadows, a place

when once

inhabitants,

more waking

installed,

to see their brethren

living water, which earth giveth to all

but stagnant and dead

me

it

is

;

never more to recognize their

;

and children.

water

my *

with

heart

As

my

face

to

know not

I

drink of running water

to

who dwell upon

that water floweth to all

valley

!

.

.

.

Let

who are on

its

is

mine.

it,

is

me

sorrow."

^

for

me

earth, while for

Since I

where nor what I am.

came

Give

me

be placed by the edge of the

the North, that the

be refreshed from

mummy-

slumber on in their

but liquid putrefaction, this water that

this funereal

into

Unceasing

mournful and inert

fathers or their mothers, with hearts forgetful of their wives

The

own

were mechanically, rather from an instinctive horror

regret for the bright world which

man upon

remained

it

from any rational desire for immortality.

of annihilation than

a

before death, so

able to perform all functions of animal

it,

without pleasure, and as

existence.

"

moved, went, came, spoke, breathed, accepted pious homage, but

It

fashion.

" as

and appearance which pertained

breeze

By day

may

caress

the double

me and remained

in the case of the islets forming the cemetery of the great city of Tennis, in the midst of

Lake Menzaleh (Etienne QuATEEMiiRE, M^moires geographiques pp. 331, 332). ' This text

et historiques

sur Vl^gypte, vol.

i.

published in Pbisse d'Avennes, Monuments, pi. xxvi. his, 11. 15-21, and in Lepsius, pi. xvi. It has been translated into English by Birch, On Two Egyptian Tablets of the Ptolemaic Period (from Archxologia, vol. xxxix.), into German by Brugsch. is

Auswahl der wichtigsten Urkunden,

—

— TEE GODS OF EGYPT.

114

concealed within the tomb. sentimental

capricious

or

a happier

life.

Its organs

body, and of itself drink."

to

the

revisit

was from no

it

where

spots

had led

it

needed nourishment as formerly did those of

its

nothing "but hunger for food, thirst for

possessed

it

went forth by night,

it

desire

Want and misery

^

If

drove

from

it

retreat,

its

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

meagre resources

and, should these

forgotten, house

left or

and stable refuse

even the most revolting dung and

fail,

This ravenous spectre had not the dim and misty form, the

excrement.^

long shroud or floating draperies of our modern phantoms, but a precise

and

worn

name

family

its

to

earth,

clothed

and

Luminous

of

forget

remind them of terrified

upon

yet

while

owed the

naked, or

shape,

definite

it,

but

emitting

Khu, KhiXu? used

existence.

its

It

all

its

Die Mgyptisclie GraberweJt, pp.

39, 40,

pale

The double means

to

light,

at

did

its

had

it

which

it

not allow

disposal

to

sudden apparitions, struck them

madness,^ and would

or

disease

the

a

which

garments

entered their houses and their bodies,

them waking and sleeping by

down with

the

in

even

suck

their

blood

and into French by Maspero, Eludes ^gypliennes,

vol.

like

i.

pp.

regards the persistence of this gloomy Egyptian conception of the other world, see Maspeko, Etudes de Mythologie et d^ Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 179-181. " Hateful unto Teti is hunger, and he eateth it not ; hateful unto Teti \a > Teti, 11. 74, 75. 187-190.

thirst,

As

nor hath he drunk

We

it."

see that the

Egyptians made hunger and

thirst into

two sub-

stances or beings, to be swallowed as food is swallowed, but whose eflfects were poisonous unless counteracted by the immediate absorption of more satisfying sustenance (Maspero, Etudes de

Mythologie

et d' Arch^ologie

i. pp. 154-156). his fate from that of the

Egyptiennes, vol.

common dead, stated that he had 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 Booh of the Dead. * 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 (Maspero, Etudes d^motiques, in the Becueil, vol. i. p. 21, note 6, and the Revue critique, 1872, vol. ii. p. 338 Deveuia, Lettre a M. Paul Pierret sur le chapitre In my opinion the idea is a less abstract one, P*" du Todtenbuch, in the Zeitschri/t, 1870, pp. 62-64). Egyptians the soul was supposed to appear many other the nations, so with and shows that, as among or emitting as a glow analogous to the phosphorescent halo which is seen by as a kind of pale flame, *

King

Teti,

abundance of

when distinguishing

food,

;

night about a piece of rotten wood, or putrefying fish. This primitive conception may have subsequently faded, and khO, 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 (Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes^ it then came to have that significance of resplendent with light which is vol. ii. p. 12, note 1) ;

ordinarily attributed to

it.

Leyden Papyrus published by Plette is full {Etudes Egyptologiques, vol. i.) 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 (Leemans, Monuments Egyptiens du musge d'antiquit€s des Pays-Bas a Leyde, 2nd part, pis. clxxxiii., clxxxiv.), briefly analyzeil by Chabas (Notices sommaires des Papyrus Egyptiens, p. 49), and translated by Maspero *

The

incantations of which the

(Eludes Egyptiennes, vol. requisition of a

any just cause

husband

for

i.

or rather the formal act of in his home, without torment the luminous of his wife returned to

pp. 145-159),

whom

such conduct.

contains the complaint,

.

THEIR MUMMIFICATION. One

the modern vampire.^

effectual

escaping or preventing these

tomb

means there was, and one

visitations,

and

this

lay

in

only, of

taking to

the

pro-

which the double

of

visions

various

the

all

115

stood in need, and for which

Funerary

and

sacrifices

cultus

regular

dwellings.

their

visited

it

the

dead

the

of

.S3:

originated in the need experi-

snced for making provision

for

the sustenance of the manes

having

after

secured

their

itf.'P

mum-

by the

lasting existence

^. \.^^

%i their

mification

of

Gazelles

and

bodies.^

oxen

were

m

c o r c o/

:1i ii?C?

i-l,

brought and sacrificed at the door of the tomb chapel

and

haunches, heart,

each

of

i .r

mm

breast

being

victim

r^.

the

;

pre-

sented and heaped together

upon the ground, that there might

dead

the

when

they

hungry.

began

be

to

Vessels of beer or

wine,

great

water,

purified

jars

of

with

or perfumed, were pleasure,

them

find

fresh

THE DEAD

IN

THE TOMB CHAPEL/

natron,

brought to them that they might drink their

and by such voluntary tribute men bought their good

daily life they bought that of

'

SACRIFICING TO

some neighbour too powerful

Maspero, Notes sur quelques points de grammaire

et

fill

will,

at

as in

to be opposed.

d'Mstoire, § 2, in the Zeitschrift, 1S79, p. 53,

on a text of the JBook of the Dead. Several chapters of the Book of the Dead consist of directions for giving food to that part of survives his death, e.g. chap, cv., " Chapter for providing food for the double" (Naville's edition, pi. cxvii.), and chap, cvi., " Chapter for giving daily abundance unto the deceased, in Memphis" ^

man which

(Naville's edition,

pi. cxviii.).

Ant&f I., Prince of Thebes, drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a photograph taken by Emil Brugsch-Bey (cf. Mariette, Monuments divers, pi. 50 b). 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 eceues, indicates that what is *

Stela of

:

;

represented above

it

takes place within the tomb.

TUE GODS OF EGYPT.

116

The gods were spared none

of the anguish and none of the perils

Their bodies suffered change and

death so plentifully bestows upon men. gradually perished until nothing was souls,

Their souls, like

them.

left of

human

were only the representatives of their bodies, and gradually became

extinct

of arresting the natural tendency to decay were not found

means

if

men

Thus, the same necessity that forced

time.

in

which

to

seek the kind of

sepulture which gave the longest term of existence to their souls, compelled

At

the gods to the same course.

one of their oldest

from putrefaction

safe

discovered, the

mummified.

god

titles describes

afterwards,

who are upon

mummy and the mummy of Tumu at names

their

;

^

dead

mummy

In some of the

altering the

mode

of their

Nit and Hathor when dead

But Phtah

Uapiiaitu, the jackal of Siut, was

^

its

of Anhuri, the

Heliopolis.^

;

their sand,"

and the tomb of

tomb

in

and

new invention and were

of the

mummy

hills,

embalming had been

of

art

Nit and Hathor, at Sais and at Denderah.

became Sokaris by dying ;

benefit

the deceased Osiris remained Osiris

:

still

Anubis

when the

was the

nomes the gods did not change

were

as those "

Each nome possessed the

of Osiris at Mendes, the

existence

them

gods received the

at Thinis there

:

;

they were buried in the

first,

of

Memphis

changed into

and when his disk had disappeared at evening, Anhuri, the sunlit

*

sky of Thinis, was Khontamentit, Lord of the West, until the following day.^

That

which we dream of enjoying

bliss

to the gods any larvae, "

more than

to

with unmoving heart,"

^

come was not granted

in the world to

men.

Their bodies were nothing but inert

weak and shrivelled limbs, unable

to stand

' In the Booh of Knowing that icliich 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 Elsetheir sand (Maspeeo, Etudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 61-73). Tomheau de S^ti I'^, 4th (Lefebuke, zipon its sand cynocephalus book have a same we in the where on their who are sand mysterious gods also eighth hour are of the xxxii.), and the gods part, pi. Wherever these personages are represented in the vignettes, the Egyptian (ibid., pi. xlvii., et seq.). the ellipse painted in yellow and sprinkled with red, which is the concarefully drawn artist has sand, and sandy districts. rendering of ventional 2 The sepulclires of Tfimu, Khopri, Ea, Osirj^, and in each of them the heap of sand hiding the body, are represented in the tomb of Seti I. (Lefebuee, Tomheau de Se'ti 1^, 4th part, pis. xliv., xlv.), as also the four rams in which the souls of the god are incarnate (cf. Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie The tombs of the gods were known even in Roman et d' Arche'ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 112). Oil fj.6vov 5e tovtov QOaipiSos) ol lepets Keyovaiv aWa Koi ra>v dWcuv deaiv, oaroi ju^ ayivvrjToi. times.

;U7jS'

a.(p9apT0i, Tot /xlv

awfiaTa

irap'

avToT^ Ks7cr6ai Ka/xovra Kal depaTreveffdai, ras Si ipvxa.s iv ovpavcf

(De Iside et Osiride, chap, xxi., Pakthey's edition, p. 30). Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie Egyptiennes,

\ajj,Treiv

aiTTpa ^ *

To my

jackal god

is

called tTapiiaitii, as the living god, lord of the city,

or of the Oasis, lord of Ea-qririt, stone,

vol.

mind, at least, this is an obvious conclusion from the

was the name which

inasmuch as he

is

god

ii.

of the dead.

the people of Siiit gave to their necropolis

Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie

et d' Arch^ologie

Egyptiennes, vol.

This

is

ii.

pp. 23, 24.

Urdu-hit, he whose heart

the characteristic epithet for the dead Osiris, whose heart no longer beats, and who has therefore ceased to live. "

Ea-qririt, the door of the to the infernal domain

and

'

of their god. *

pp. 21, 22.

monuments of Siut, in which the and Anupu, master of embalming

is

unmoving, he

DEAD GODS TEE GODS OF TEE DEAD. upright were

them

117

not that the bandages in which they were swathed stiffened

it

into one rigid block.

Their hands and heads alone were

of the green or black shades of putrid fiesh.

men, both dreaded and regretted the

by the hunger from which they

free,

and were

Their doubles, like those of

All sentiment was extinguished

light.

and

suffered,

gods who were noted for their compassionate kindness when alive, became pitiless and fero-

When

cious tyrants in the tomb.

men

once

were bidden to the presence of Sokaris, Khontamentit, or even of Osiris,^ " mortals

come

terri-

fying their hearts with fear of the god, and

none dareth to look him in the face either

among gods

or

He

as the small.

him

he

;

men

for

;

him the

great are

who

spareth not those

away

beareth

the

love

from

child

its

man who walketh on his all creatures make suppli-

mother, and the old

way;

of fear,

full

cation

face towards them."

payment

of

he

him, but

before

turneth

not his

Only by the unfailing

^

and by feeding him

tribute,

as

though he were a simple human double, could living or

dead escape the consequences of

furious temper. in

The

him

living paid

pomps and solemn

sacrifices,

his

his dues

FHTAH AS A MDMMY.^

repeated from

year to year at regular intervals

;

^

but the dead bought more dearly the

protection which he deigned to extend to them. receive directly the

and

their friends wished to send

fruits,

presented

he to

insisted

himself;

that

then

to such or such a double,

He

him.

>

On

did not allow them to

prayers, sepulchral meals, or offerings of kindred on

feast-days; all that was addressed to

When

He

them

these

he

them must

pass through his hands.

wine, water, bread, meat, vegetables,

should

was

first

first

be

offered

humbly prayed

to

and formally

transmit

them

whose name and parentage were pointed out to

took possession of them, kept part for his own use, and of his

the baleful character of Osiris, see Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie

et d' Areh€ologie, vol. ii.

pp. 11, 12. -

This

is

a continuation of the text cited above, p. 113. of Saite period, found in the department of

Drawing by Faucher-Gudin of a bronze statuette He'rault, at the end of a gallery in an ancient mine. '

days of the year, at the others (Benedite, Le Tombeau feast tagait, as is evident from texts in the tomb of Norfirhotpu and de Noferhotpu, in the Me'moires de la Mission frangaise, vol. V. p. 417, et seq.). *

The most solemn

of these sacrifices

were celebrated during the

first

—

—

THE GODS OF EGYPT.

118

bounty gave the remainder to

its

Thus death made no

destined recipient.^

change in the relative positions of the feudal god and his worshippers. worshipper who called himself the amahhu of the god during

mummied god

subject and vassal of his

life

The

was the

even in the tomb;^ and the god

who, while living, reigned over the living, after his death continued to reign over the dead.

He

dwelt in the city near the prince and in the midst of his subjects

Haroeris in Edfu

living in Heliopolis along with the prince of Heliopolis;

together with the prince of Edfu;

Nit in Sais with the prince of

come down

A-lthough none of the primitive temples have

Ea

:

to us, the

Sais.

name

given to them in the language of the time, shows what they originally were.

A

temple was considered as the feudal mansion

— of the

god, better cared

for,

^

Jidif,

—the house

joiru, pi,

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

provided

against

A

earth.

settlements

or

gloomy, covered

in

infiltration,

This was

I'oundations of the building.* scribed,

sand spread

layer of

by a

and formed a bed

vaulted

roof,

opening but the doorway, which was framed by two

its

and

sub-soil

the

for

tall

having no

masts, whence

from afar the notice of worshippers

floated streamers to attract

of

the

of all a single room, circum-

first

slightly

uniformly on

;

in front

Within the temple

fapade^ was a court, fenced in with palisading.

were pieces of matting, low tables of stone, wood, or metal, a few utensils cooking the offerings, a few vessels for containing the blood,

oil,

wine,

for

and

for the first time by Maspebo in 1878 d^ArcMologie Egyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 3-6). * The word amahhu is applied to an individual who has freely entered the service of king or baron, and taken him for his lord amahhu hhir nibuf means vassal of his lord. In the same way, each chose for himself a god who became his patron, and to whom he oy/ed feally, i.e. to whom he was '

This functioa of the god of the dead was clearly defined

(Etudes de Mytlwlogie

et

:

— —

amahhu — vassal. To the god he owed the service of a good vassal tribute, sacrifices, ofi'erings; 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 amahhit, master of fealty, or, relatively to a god, amahhu hhir Osiri, the vassal of Osiris, amahhu hhir Phtah-Sohari, the vassal of Phtah-Sokaris. *

Maspeko, Sur

le

sens des mots Nouit et Edit, pp. 22, 23

Archseology, 1889-90, vol. xii. pp. 256, 257.

M. DE EocHEMONTEix's

Iccturo On

The

La Grande

cf. Proceedings of the Society of Biblical ; further development of this idea may be found in

Salle hypostyle de Karnah, in his CEuvres diverses,

p. 49, et seq.

This custom lasted into Grseco-Roman times, and was part of the ritual for laying the foundaAfter 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 (DiiMiCHEN, Baugeschichte des Denderatempels, pi, li. and Beugsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum, JEgyptiacarum, pp. 1272, 1273). * No Egyptian temples of tlie first period have come down to our time, but Here Erman {^gypten, has very justly remarked that we have pictures of them in several of the signs denoting the 379) p. *

tions of a temple.

;

\yord temple in texts of the

Memphite

period.

THEIR TEMPLES AND IMAGES. water with which the god was every day regaled. increased, the

perfumes,

abode;

number

stuffs,

no more than

provisions for sacrifice

chambers increased with them, and rooms

of

for flowers,

precious vessels, and food were grouped around the primitive

which had once constituted the whole temple became

that

until

As

119

sanctuary.^

its

There the god dwelt, not only in spirit but in body,^ fact

that

it

upon him to

and the

was incumbent live in

several

not prevent his being

cities did

present in all of

them

at once.

'He could divide his double, imparting

it

to as

many

sepa-

rate bodies as he pleased,

these bodies might be

and

human

or animal, natural objects or

things manufactured

THE SACRED BULL, HAPIS OE MNEYIS.

—such as

statues of stone, metal, or wood.* Osiris at

Several of the gods were incarnate in ¥am8\:

Mendes, Harshafitu at Heracleopolis, Khniimu at Elephantine.

Living

rams were kept iiPtheir temples, and allowed to gratify any fancy that came into their animal brains.

Other gods entered into bulls

subsequently, Phtah at Memphis, Minii at Thebes, and

They indicated beforehand by

certain

:

Ea at Heliopolis, and,

Montu

marks such beasts

at Hermonthis.

as they intended to

animate by their doubles, and he who had learnt to recognize these signs was at

no

loss to find

senting

'

it

a living god when the time came for seeking one and pre-

to the adoration of worshippers in the temple.^

'iilhS?%uo, Arch^ologie

Egyptienne,

-p"^.

And

if

the statues

65,66, 105, 106; English edition, pp. 63, 64, 104, 105;

M. DE RocHEMONTEix, (Euvres diverges, p. 10, et seq. * Thus at Denderah (Mariette, Denderah, vol. i. pi. liv.), 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 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 {Denderah, Texte, p. 156). ' A sculptor's model from Tanis, now in the Gizeh Museum (Mariette, Notice des principauz monuments, 1876, p. 222, No. 666), drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a photograph by Emil BrugschBey. The sacred marks, as given in the illustration, are copied from those of similar figures on stelas of the Serapeum. Arch^ologie * Maspero, Mudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie Egijptiennes, vol. i. p. 77, et seq. divine cycle, to

;

This notion of actuated statues Egyptienne, pp. 106, 107; edition, pp. 105, that Egyptologists of the rank Egyptians the seemed so strange and so unworthy of the wisdom of ImpEriale, p. 109) have taken BibUotheque of M. be Eouge (^Etude sur une stele Egyptienne de la movements of divine automatic the to in an abstract and metaphorical sense expressions referring English

106,

images. *

The

(De Iside

bulls of et

Ra and

Mnevis and the Hapis, are known to us from classic writers Parthey's edition, pp. 7, 8, 58; Herodotus, ii. 153, iii. 28;

of Phtah, the

Osiride, ^ i, 33, etc.:

TEE GODS OF EGYPT.

120

had not the same outward appearance of actual

the animals, they none

life as

the less concealed beneath their rigid exteriors an intense energy of

betrayed

itself

on occasion by gestures or by words.

language which their servants could understand, the opinion on the events of the day;

They thus

which

life

indicated, in

will of the gods, or their

they answered questions put to them in accordance with prescribed they

forms, and sometimes

the

future.

Each temple held

a fairly

even

foretold

number

of statues re-

presenting so

many embodi-

ments of the

local divinity

large

and of the members triad.

These

of his

latter shared,

albeit in a lesser degree, all

the honours and

all

the pre-

rogatives of the master OPEN-AIR OFFERINGS TO THE SERPENT.

They occupied

built about the

if

needful, they

either the sanctuary itself, or one of the halls

principal sanctuary, or one of the isolated chapels which

belonged to them, subject to the suzerainty of the feudal god.^

had

his divine court to

as a prince

is

populace.

The god

help him in the administration of his dominions, just

aided by his ministers in the government of his realm.

This State religion, so complex both in principle and in festations,

they

accepted sacrifices, answered prayers, and,

prophesied.

;

its

outward mani-

was nevertheless inadequate to express the exuberant piety of the There were casual divinities in every nome

not love any the

less

because

of

their

inoflScial

whom

the people did

character;

such as an

DiODORUS, i. 84, 88; ^Elianus, xi. 11; Ammianus Marc^llinus, xxii. 14, 2). The bull of Miufi at Thebes may be seen in the procession of the god as represented on monuments of Ramses II. Bakhu (called and Ramses III. (Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. iii. pi. Ix.). Bakis by the Greeks), the bull of Hermonthis, is somewhat rare, and mainly represented upon a few later stelso in the Gizeh Museum (Grebact, Le Mus^e Egyptien, pi. vi., where it is certainly the bull of Hermonthis, although differently named): it is chiefly known from the The texts (cf. Brugsch, Dictionnaire g^ograpluque, p. 200 cf. Macrobius, Saturnales, 1. 21). particular signs distinguishing each of these sacred animals have been determined both on the authority of ancient writers, and from examination of the figured mouumeuts; the arrangement and outlines of some of the black markings of the Hapis are clearly shown in the illustration ou ;

p. 119. '

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

a photograph taken in the tomb of Khopirkerisonbfi (Scheil, The inscription v. pi. iv., wall C of the tomb, 2nd row).

Me'moires de la Mission Frangaise, vol.

behind the urseus states that it represents Banuit the August, lady of the double granary. ^ They are the 9fo). avwaoi of Greek writers. For their accommodation in the temples, RocHKMONTEix, CEuvres diver ses, p. 11, et seq.

cf.

M. pe

TREE AND SERPENT WORSHIP. exceptionally high line,

palm

121

tree in the midst of the desert/ a rock of curious out-

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, ravine.^

which haunted a

The peasants

field,

a grove of trees, a grotto, or a mountain

of the district brought

it

bread, cakes, fruits, and thought

down the

that they could call

blessing of heaven upon their fields

by gorging the snake with Everywhere on the

offerings.

ground,

confines of cultivated

and even

at

some distance from

the valley, are fine single sycamores, flourishing as though by

miracle amid the sand. fresh greenness

is

Their

in sharp con-

trast with

the surrounding fawn-

coloured

landscape, and

their

thick foliage defies the

midday

sun even in summer.

But, on

examining the ground they grow,

we soon

in

THE peasant's OFFEKING TO THE SYCAMOEE.*

which

find

that

they drink

trated from the Nile, and whose existence surface of the

soil.

They stand

no one about them suspects

it.

is

from water which in nowise betrayed

has

upon the

as it veere veith their feet in the river,

Egyptians of

all

infil-

though

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 Such as the palm tree, which grows a hundred cubits high, and belongs to the species Hyphxna Argun, Mart., now eo rare. The author of the prayer in the Sallier Papyrus I., pi. viii. 11. 4, 5, ideutifies it with Thot, the god of letters and eloquence. 2 Such as the Bir-el-Ain, the spring of the tfady Sabun, near Akhmim, where the hermitage of a Mussulman weli has succeeded the chapel of a Christian saint which had supplanted the rustic shrine of a form of the god Minii (Maspero, £tudes de Mythologie et d'Arch^oIogie Egyptiennes, vol. i. p. '

240, et seq.).

kind which gave its name to the hill of Sheikh Haridi, and the adjacent Mountain (DOmichen, Ge'ograpMe des Alten-JEgypten, pp. 178, 179; Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d' ArcJie'ologie ^Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 412) and though the serpent has now turned Mussulman, he still haunts the mountain and preserves his faculty of coming to life again *

nome

It

was a serpent

of this

of the Serpent

;

every time that he "

is killed.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a scene

de la Mission frangaise, vol.

v. pi. iv.,

in the

tomb of Khopirkerisonba (cf. Scheil, M^moires The sacred sycamore here stands at the end

wall C, top row).

and would seem to extend its protection to the harvest. Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d' Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 224-227. They were represented as animated by spirits concealed within tliem, 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 (Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie Egyptiennes, vol ii. pp. 104, 105, 108, etc.), which I have already had occasion to quote above; see p. 83, note 4. of a field of corn, 5

— TEE GODS OF EGYPT.

122

Passers-by drank of the water, and requited the unexpected

charitable people.

benefit with a short prayer.

nome, and

in the Letopolite

There were several such trees in the Memphite

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

them living

the Sycamore of the

all,

body of Hathor on

prophetic statues, each

one or more magic

niche in

Each

walls

;

in

its

made

in

also

for their worship ;

by a dream,

or

some corner of the house, or a

them, over and above what

to

fell

to

In return, they became the protectors

feast-days.

guardians and

scrupulously carried out by. their

its life,

Appeal was made to

counsellors.

and

their

little circle of

were no

decisions

less

worshippers, than was the

god by the inhabitants of his principality.

The prince was the great high rested

more sacred animals,

had been pointed out

every exigency of daily

will of the feudal

or

human gods and

lamps were continually kept burning before them, and

their share on solemn

them

its

regarded as the

and almost every individual,

family,

They had a place

small daily offerings were

of the household,

— was

Side by side with

earth.^

nome proudly advanced one

trees.

intuition.

its

risit

meeting with an animal or an object

fortuitous

by sudden

nuMt

South

possessed gods and fetishes, which

by some

The most famous among

fellahin.-^

priest.^

The whole

upon him, and originally he himself performed

the chief was sacrifice,

—that

is

to say, a

banquet which

and lay before the god with his own hands. lasso the half-wild

bull

;

bound

it,

cut

its

He

its it

fruits,

nome

Of

these,

ceremonies.

was his duty to prepare

went out into the

throat, skinned

the carcase in front of his idol and distributed the rest

together with plenty of cakes,

religion of the

it,

burnt part of

among

vegetables, and wine.*

fields to

On

his assistants,

the occasion,

the god was present both in body and double, suffering himself to be clothed and * The tree at Matarieli, commonly called the Tree of ^he Virgin, seems to me to be the successor of a sacred tree of Heliopolis in which a goddess, perhaps Hathor, was worshipped. * Bkugsoh, Dictionnaire g^ographiqtte, pp. 330-332, 1244, etc. ; cf. Lanzone, Dizionario di Mito-

The Memphite Hathor was called the Lady of the Southern Sycamore. See the examples of the princes of Beni-Hasan and Ashm(inein, under the XIP'* dynasty (Maspero, La grande Inscription de Beni-Hassan, in the liecueil de Travaux, vol. i. pp. 179, 180), and of the princes of Elephantine under the VI''' and VII"* dynasties (Bouriant, Les Tomheaux M. Lepage-Eenouf has given a very clear d' J.ssoMan, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. x. pp. 182-193). current on tliis subject in of ideas his article On the Priestly Character of the Earliest account Egyptian Civilization (^Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archseology, 1889-90, vol. xii. p. 355, logia, p. 878. *

et seq.).

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. 123 (Mariette, Abydos, vol. i. pi. IHi.), where the king is represented as lassoing the bull. That which in historic times was but au image, had originally been a reality (Maspero, Lectures historiques, pp. 71-73). *

;

— TEE THEORY OF PBAYER AND SACRIFICE.

123

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

he was gladdened and disposed to benevolence by good cheer. He was not without suspicion as to the reason why he was beforehand, and if they were go feasted, but he had laid down his conditions seduction brought faithfully observed he willingly yielded to the means of prefer requests to him, while

THE 6ACIUF1CE OF THE BULL. to bear

upon him.

—THE

OFFICIATING PRIEST LASSOING THE VICTIM.'

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.^

on physical cleanliness. his face,

The

officiating priest

mouth, hands, and body

purification considered, that from

of uihu, the washed, the clean.^ '

it

;

Above

all things,

he insisted

must carefully wash

and so necessary was

this

udlu

preliminary

the professional priest derived his

His costume was the archaic

—

name

dress, modified

Bas-relieffrom thetempleofSetil. at Abydos; drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Daniel

his son, Eamses 11., second king of the XIX"» dynasty, is throwing the lasso from the slip-knot. who is still the crown prince, holds the bull by the tail to prevent its escaping * 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 Ka (Lefebcre, Le Tombeau de S€ti !'', 4th part, pi. xvi. 1. 31, et seq., in vol. ii. of the Memoires de la Mission Frangaise du Caire), where the god, as he is about to make his final ascension into heaven, substitutes animal for

Heron.

Seti

I.,

human sacrifices. ^ The idea of

;

physical cleanliness comes

out in such variants as uihu

totui,

" clean of both

hands," found on stelae instead of the simple title uihu.- We also know, on the evidence of ancient writers, the scrupulous daily care which Egyptian priests took of their bodies (Herodotus, I* ^^s only as a secondary matter ii. 37 cf. Wiedemann, Herodot's Zweites Buck, p. 160, et seq.> that the idea of moral purity entered into the conception of a priest. The Purification Ritual foi ;

oflSciating priests is contained in a ters

has been published by

papyrus of the Berlin Museum, whose analysis and table of cliapEitualbuch des Ammonsdienstes, p. 4, et seq.

Here Oscar von Lemm, Das

TEE OODS OF EGYPT.

124

During certain

according to circumstances.

services, or

certain

at

points

was incumbent upon him to wear sandals, the panther-

in the sacrifices, it

skin over his shoulder, and the thick lock of hair falling over his right ear at other times he

must gird himself with the

and take the shoes from

tail,

or attach victim, the

way

in

which

it

loin-cloth having a jackal's

off his feet before

The

a false beard to his chin.^

proceeding with his

species, hair,

and age of the

slaughter, the order to be followed in opening

its

cutting

up, were all minutely and unchangeably decreed.^

formulas accompanying each act of the of words

sacrificial priest

its

And

but the least of the divine exactions, and those most easily

number

slightest modification whatever, even

these were

The

contained a certain suffer the

from the god himself, under penalty of

They were always

recited with the

ing to a system of chaunting in which every tone had

same rhythm, accord-

its virtue,

movements which confirmed the sense and worked with false note, a single discord

body and

satisfied.

whose due sequence and harmonies might not

losing their efficacy.

office,

was to be brought and bound, the manner and

details of it

^ ;

combined with

irresistible effect

:

one

between the succession of gestures and the utterance

of the sacramental words, any hesitation, any awkwardness in the accomplish-

ment

of a rite,

Worship

and the

sacrifice

as thus conceived

which the god gave up

was vain.*

became a

his liberty in

exchange

By

kind and value were fixed by law.

legal transaction, in the course of for certain compensations

whose

a solemn deed of transfer the wor-

shipper handed over to the legal representatives of the contracting divinity

such personal or real property as seemed to him

which he asked, or suitable atonement

man

for the

fitting

payment

wrong which he had done.

If

scrupulously observed the innumerable conditions with which the transfer

was surrounded, the god could not escape the obligation of tion

for the favour

^ ;

fulfilling his peti-

but should he omit the least of them, the offering remained with the

* Thus it was with the Samu and Anmautif priests, whatever the nature and significatiou of these two sacerdotal titles may be (Lepsius, Denhm., ii. IS, 19, 21, 22, etc. Maeiette, Ahydos, vol. i. ;

pis. xxxi., xxxii., xxxiii., xxxiv., etc.). *

Maeiette, Ahydos,

vol.

i.

pis. xvii.,

xxxv.,

xliii., xiiv., etc.,

where sacerdotal functions are invari-

ably exercised by Seti I., assisted by his son. ^ See the detailed representation of sacrifice in Maeiette, Ahydos, vol. i. pi. xlviii. For the examination of the victims and the signs by which the priests knew that they were good to sacrifice before the gods, cf. Heeodotds, ii. 38 (Wiedemann, HerodoVs Zweites Buck, p. 180, et seq.). * The real value of formulas and of the melopoeia in Egyptian rites was recognized by Maspero, Etude de Mythologie et d'Arche'ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 3(12, 303, 373, et seq. * This obligation is evident from texts where, as in the poem of Pentaflirit, a king who is in danger demands from his favourite god the equivalent in protection of the sacrifices which he has " Have I not made unto thee offered to that divinity, and the gifts wherewith he has enriched him. offerings?" many says Ramses II. to Amon. "I have filled thy temple witli 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 " (E. and J. de Rouge Le Foeme de Pentaour, in the Revue J^gyptologique, vol. v. p. 15, et seq.). .

.

.

!

— THE SERVANTS AND PROPEETY OF TEMPLES.

125

temple and went to increase the endowments in mortmain, while the god was pledged to nothing in exchange.

Hence the

officiating

formidable responsibility as regarded his fellows

priest

assumed a

a slip of memory, the

:

made him a bad priest, injurious worshippers who had entrusted him with

and

slightest accidental impurity,

to himself

harmful to those

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

study and practice of the thousand formalities whose

Each temple had

religion.

its

all their lives to

sum

the

constituted the local

service of priests, independent of those belong-

ing to neighbouring temples, whose members, bound to keep their hands

always clean and their voices true, were ranked according to the degrees of a

At

learned hierarchy.^

their head was a sovereign pontiff to direct

the exercise of their functions. or rather the first

first

In some places he was called the

servant of the god

servant cities

he

he

bore

was.^

a

title

The

appropriate

chief priest

in

prophet,

hon-nutir topi ; at Thebes he was the

prophet of Amon, at Thinis he was the

generally

first

them

of

first

prophet of Anhiiri.^

the nature of

to

Ka

at

the

Heliopolis,

But

god whose

and in

all

the

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

— ahidti sau uihu —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 first published attempt at reconstructing the Egyptian hierarchy from the monuments was made by M. A. Baillet, De V Election et de la dur€e desfonctions du grand pretre d' Amman a Thebes Long afterwards Herr Rheinisch (extract from the Revue Arch^ologique, 2nd series, vol. vi., 1862). endeavoured to show that the learned organization of the Egyptian priesthood is not older than the XII"* dynasty, and mainly dates from the second Theban empire (^Ur sprung und Entwickelungsgeschichte des ^gyptisclien Priestertume und Ausbildung der Lehre von der Einheit Gottes, Vienna, The most complete account of our knowledge on this subject, the catalogue of the principal 1878). priesthoods, the titles of the high priests and priestesses in each nome, are to be found in Bbugsch, '

Die Mgiiytologie, vol. iL pp. 275-291. * This title o^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 XVIII"* and XIX"» dynasties (Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 53-55). * For a very full list of those titles, see Brugsch, Die ^gypfologie, pp. 280-282. * The mystic origin of this name Oiru maO. is given in. chap. cxv. of the Booh of the Dead (Lepsius' edition, pi. xliv. see also Ed. Naville, Un Ostracon Egyptien, extract from the Annales du Mus€e Guimet, vol. i. p. 51, et seq.). The high office of the Oiru mait is described in the Piankhi stela (E. DE Rouge's edition in the Chrentomathie, vol. iv. pp. 59-61), where we find it discharged by the Ethiopian king on his entry into Heliopolis. * Brugsch, Dictionnaire G^ographique, p. 1368. .

;

— THE OODS OF EGYPT.

126

the limits of the religions domain. solicited,

and

The gods accepted, and even sometimes

from their worshippers, houses, produce

the

fishponds,

of

which

vineyards, orchards, slaves,

fields,

assured

ambition of leaving some such legacy to the patron god of his to himself,"

and perpetual gifts at

and as an endowment

sacrifices

sary, defended three, or

fiefs

for the priests to institute prayers

—analogous

hotpu-nutir

They were administered by the high

them by

to the wahfs of

priest,

who,

neces-

Two,

even four classes of prophets or hieroduli under his orders assisted him

conduct of

male

if

force against the greed of princes or kings.

in performing the offices of worship, in giving religious instruction,

of

"for a

city,

In course of time these accumulated

on his behalf.^

length formed real sacred

Mussulman Egypt.^

the

There was no Egyptian who did not cherish the

support of their temples.

monument

and

livelihood

their

Women

affairs.

deities; they there

did not hold equal rank with

men

and

in the

in the temples

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

in temples of goddesses they held the chief rank,

offices in

:

butchers to cut the throats of

the victims, cooks and pastrycooks, confectioners, weavers, shoemakers, cellarers, water-carriers

As

The

the households of the gods, as in princely households, were

held by a troop of servants and artisans

'

But

hierodules, or

Hathor, hierodules of Pakhit.*

priestesses, hierodules of Nit, hierodules of

lower

and were called

feasts.^

and milk-carriers.^ In

fact, it

florists,

was a state within a

state,

we are beginning to accumulate many stelse recording gifts to a god by the king or by private individuals (Revillout, Acte de fondation

regards the Sai'te period,

of land or houses,

made

either

d'une chapelle a Hor-merti dans la ville de Pharbxtus,

Acte de fondation d'une chapelle a Bast dans pp. 32-44; Maspero, Notes sur plusieurs points

et

la ville de Bubastis, in the

Bevue £gyptologique, vol.

de grammaire

in the Zeitschrift, 1881, p. 117, and 1885, p. 10

et dliistoire,

ii.

;

also

Sur deux

steles

r€cem-

ment d^couvertes, in the Becueil de Travaux, vol. xv. pp. 84-86). ^ We know from the Great Harris Papyrus to what the fortune of Amon amounted at the end of the reign of Kamses III. its details may be found in Brugsch, Die Mgyptologie, 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. 3 The names of the principal priestesses of Egypt are collected in Bkugsch, Die Mgypiologie, pp. 262, 263 ; for their offices and functions, cf. Erman, JEgypten,'pp. 399-401, who seems to me to ascribe too modern an origin to the conception by which the priestesses of a god were considered as forming his earthly harem. Under the Old Kingdom we find prophetesses of Thot (Mariette, Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, p. 183) and of tJapfiaitft (ibid., p. 162). * See Mariette, Dend^rah, text, Mariette pp. 86, 87, on the priestess of Hathor at Denderah. remarks (ibid., pp. 83-86) 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 hharp-haitv, (Brugsch, Dictionnaire G€ograpliique, p. 1368); 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 (Mariette, Les Mastabas, pp. 90, 162, 201, 262, 302, 303, 326, 377, etc.) shows that in this city the priestess of the goddess was of equal, if not superior, rank to the priest. * A partial list of these may be found in the Hood Papyrus (Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. iL pp. 56-64), where half the second page is filled with their titles. ;

— THE COSMOGONIES OF TEE DELTA.

127

and the prince took care to keep

its

by arrogating them to himself.^

In that case, he provided against mistakes

government in his own hands, either by investing one of his children with the titles and functions of chief pontiff, or which would have annulled the

sacrifice

by associating with

liimself several

masters of the ceremonies, who directed him in the

orthodox evolutions before the god and about the victim, indicated the

changes of

necessary

due order of gestures and the costume,

and prompted him

with the words of each invocation from a book or tablet

which they held in their hands.^

In addition to

its rites

colleges

the sacerdotal

of

and special hierarchy, each thus constituted

had a

theology in accordance with the nature and attributes of

its

unity of the

over

all

Its

fundamental dogma affirmed the

nome

god, his greatness, his supremacy

god.

the gods of Egypt and of foreign lands ^

whose existence was nevertheless admitted, and none

dreamed of denying their power.

The

supremacy

master of them

all

who governed the it.

SHU UPLIFTING THE SKY.*

latter also boasted of their unity, their

greatness, their

created

reality or contesting their

Not

;

— their

but whatever they were, the god of the nome was prince, their ruler, their king.

world, he alone kept

that he had evoked

it

it

in

It was he alone

good order, he alone had

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.

The

latent

germs

of things

had always

existed, but they

and ages in the bosom of the Nu, of the dark waters.^ the god of each

nome drew them

them by methods peculiarly

his own.

Nit of

slept for ages

In fulness of time

them, marshalled them

forth, classified

according to the bent of his particular nature, and of

had

made

Sais,

his universe out

who was a weaver,

As in the case of the princes of Beni-Hassan and Beisheh under the XII"^ dynasty (Maspero, La Chande Inscription de B^ni-Hassan, in the Recueil de Travauz, vol. i. pp. 179, 180). ^ The title of such a personage was hhri-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 the inscriptions all local gods bear tlie titles of Nutir ud, only god Suton nutiru, Suntiru, king of the gods of Nutir da nib pit, the great god, lord of heaven, which show their pretensions to the sovereignty and to the position of creator of the universe. * Drawing by Faucher-Gudin of a green enamelled statuette in my possession. It was from Shfl that the Greeks derived their representations, and perhaps their myth of Atlas. * Tills name is generally read Nun (cf. Brugsch, Religion un'd Mythologie, p. 107). I have elsewhere given my reasons for the reading Nu {Revue critique, 1872, vol. i. p. 178), which is moreover '

'S.ovQiip,

;

;

KouGE {Etudes sur le rituel Hn€raire des anciens Egijptiens, p. 41). N6 would seem nothing more than a personage mentally evolved by theologians and derived from Nuit, the sky-goddess (Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d' Arclieologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 358, 359) ho had never any worshippers nor ever possessed a sanctuary to himself. that of E. DE to be

;

K

TEE GODS OF EGYPT.

128

made

had

world

the

weaves her children's

upon a

and

In the eastern

There

two lovers

sky were

cities of

Nu,

the

in

lost

new

god, Shu,

two,

and seizing Nuit with both hands,

outstretched

space

—her

forth from

Though

arms.^

head being

to the west

were in charge of them. southern, and

fast

her above

These were the four four

gods of

four

or

Horus the

over

the

northern

Sit

even the sun himself, might enter

tried to

its

meet the irruption

struggle,

awakened out of

and he and

sleep,

head with

—her

pillars of

feet

and

the firma-

sparrow-hawk, presided pillar

;

Thot over that

light,

over that of

into four regions,

it,

;

pillars.

of these

none of the other three, nor

dwell there, or even

master's permission.^

of

Each

ShA by mere

Sibii

pass

through

had not been

passive resistance.

He had

drawn in the posture of a man who has

is

in

bounded by those mountains which surround

houses belonged to one, and to one only

satisfied to

other's

adjacent principalities

the zodiacal

and by the diameters intersecting between the

without having obtained

each

his

loins to the east

Osiris,

or rather into four " houses,"

it

in

the day of creation a

They had divided the world among themselves

the east.^

it,

locked

On

lifted

and her

the west, and Sapdi, the author of

of

the Delta these procedures

the starry body of the goddess extended

ment under another form, and the

family

the primaeval waters, slipped between the

hands hung down to the earth.

over

a

of

was admitted that in the beginning earth

it

embrace, the god lying beneath the goddess.

came

mother

the

as

and therewith moulded his creatures

of his waters

potter's table.^

were not so simple.^

woof,

Khniimu, the Nile-god of the cataracts, had

linen.^

mud

gathered up the

and

warp

of

is

just

half turning on his couch before getting up.'

D. Mallet, Le Culte de Neith a Sais, pp. 185, 186. the father of the gods, who is himself, who moulds (Ichnumu) At Philae he is called " Klmiima men and models {masu) the gods " (Brdgsch, Thesaurus Inscriptiomim ^gyptiacarum, p. 752, No. 11). ' Sibu and Nuit, as belonging to the old fundamental conceptions common to Egyptian religions, especially in the Delta, must have been known at Sebennytos as in the neighbouring cities. In the present state of our knowledge it is difficult to decide whether their separation by Shfi was a conception of the local theologians, or aa invention of the priests of Heliopolis at the time of the constitution of the Great Ennead (Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'Arch^ologie J^gyptiennes, vol. ii. '

^

.

.

.

pp. 356, 357, 370).

This was what the Egyptians called the upUftings of Shu (Book of the Dead, Naville's edition, ch. xvii., parts 26, 27 cf. Maspeko, J^tudes de Mythologie et d' Arch^ologie £gyptiennes, vol. i. first took place at Hermopolis, and certain legends added that in order to The event 337-340). pp. 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 (Book of the Dead, Naville's edition, pi. xxiii. ch. xvii. *

pi. xxiii.,

11.

;

4, 5). *

Osiris

and Horus are in

east of the Delta.

Sit

is

the Arabian nome, to the tiady-l'fimilat tiennes, vol.

ii.

Mendes and the Osirian cities in the Thot belongs to Baklilieh, and Sapdi to Maspero, £tudes de Mythologie et d'Arch^ologie £gyp-

this connection the feudal gods of

lord of the districts about Tanis; (cf.

p. 364, et sei^.).

^ On the houses of the loorld, and the meaning to be attached to this expression, see Maspero, La Pyramide du roi Papi II., in the Becueil de Travaux, vol. xii. pp. 78, 79. * In Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia, pis. clv.-clviii., we have a considerable number of scenes

AND

OSIBIS

One

of his legs

is

stretched out, the other

The lower

the act of rising.

129

ISIS. is

bent and partly drawn up as in

part of the body

is still

unmoved, but he

raising himself with difficulty on his left elbow, while his his right

arm

is lifted

His

towards the sky.

Rendered powerless by a stroke

head droops and

was suddenly arrested.

effort

remained as

of the creator, Sibu

in this position, the obvious irregularities of the earth's surface

His

the painful attitude in which he was stricken.^

is

sides

if petrified

being due to

have since been

SHU FORCIBLY SEPARATING SIBU AND NUIT.-

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

The aspect

his complaint continues to rise to

heaven night and day.*

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, in

which

Some

Nuit.

he

is

Sibfi

and

had suggested to the theologians of Mendes and Buto an Nflit

them and sustaining on which it is unnecessary to dwell; generally describe, and as in the illustration.

are represented, often along with Shft separating

place Sibft in exceptional postures,

shown in a similar

attitude to that

which

I

BRrGSCH, Eeligion und Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting on the mummy-case of BAtehamon in the Turin Museum (Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia, pi. Ixi. 4). " Sha, the great god, lord of heaven," receives the adoration of two ram-headed souls placed upon his right and left. ' In several scenes plants are seen growing on his body (Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia, pi. civ. The expression upon the back of SibH is frequent in the texts, especially in those belonging to the 1). Ptolemaic period. Attention was drawn to its importance by D{jmichen, Bauurkunde der Tempel'

Mythologie der alien j^gypter, p. 224.

'

anlagen von Edfu, in the Zeitschrift, 1871, pp. 91-93. * The Greeks knew that Kronos lamented and wept

:

the sea was

made

of his tears

(De Iside

rh vnh ruv TlvdayopiKcSv \ey6fi(vov, ws

et

BaKarra

rt Partuey's edition, p. 56) Aa^ei Se ko.\ haKpv6v fariv alviTrea^eai rh jut? naQaphv f/.7j5h crv^KpvXov fhat. The Pythagorean belief was probably borrowed from Kgypt, and in Egyptian writings there are allusions to the grief of Sibfl

Osiride, § 32,

:

Vip6vov

(Beugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alten Mgypter,

p. 227).

TEE GODS OF EGYPT.

130

explanation of tbe mystery of creation, in which the feudal divinities of these cities

and of several others

in their neighbourhood, Osiris, Sit,

Osiris first represented

the principal parts.^

primitive times; afterwards, as those

learned to regulate

his

side

him

of

and

who dwelt upon

his

banks

the kindlier

and soon

transformed

character

a

into

benefactor

played

the wild and fickle Nile of

course, they emphasized his

Isis,

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

been divided

;

Tumilat, but his domain had

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 as at IMendes.^

rival, at Busiris

His most famous idol-form was

the Didu, whether naked or clothed, the fetish,

formed of four superimposed columns, which TUE DIUU OK

OSIRIS.*

had given ascribed

its

life

name

to this Didu,

and represented

with a somewhat grotesque face, big cheeks, thick throat, a long flowing dress folds,

^gj.

^,^^ pressed,*

it

a necklace round

its

which hid the base of the columns beneath

its

and two arms bent across the

Maspeho

They

to the principality.^

breast, the

lips,

hands grasping one a whip and

ii. pp. 359-364) was the first to cosmogony originated in tlie Delta, and in connection with the Osirian cities. * 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 (J^tudes de Mythologie et d'Archfyhnjie Egyptieunes, vol. ii. pp. 9, 10), and more especially of Busiris and Mendes. * With reference to these two nomes, see J. de Rouge, G^ugraphie ancienne de la Basse-£gypte, where the ideas found la pp. 57-60 for the Busirite nome, and 108-115 for the Mendesian nome, different parts of Brugsch's Dictionnaire Geographique, pp. 11, 166, 171, 185, 953, 977, 1144, 1149, etc., are collected and co-ordinated. * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a specimen in blue enamelled pottery, now in my possession. * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a figure frequently found in Theban mumniy-cases of XXI** and XXII'"' dynasties (Wii.kinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. iii. pi. xxv.. No. 5). " The Didi has been very variously interpreted. It has been taken for a kind of nilometer (Chamfollion), for a sculptor's or modeller's stand (Salvolini, Analy>ie grammaticale raisonn^e de diff^rents textes anciens €gypiiens, p. 41, No. 171), or a painter's easel (Arundale-Bonomi-Birch, Gallery of Antiquities in the British Museum, p. 31 Bunsen, ^gyptens Stelle, vol. i. p. 688, No, 27) for an altar with four superimposed tables, or a sort of pedestal bearing four door-lintels (E. de Rouge, Chrestomathie ^gyptienne, vol. i. p. 88, note 1), for a series of four columns placed one behind another, of which tiie capitals only are visible, one above the other (Flinders Petrie, Medum, p. Z\\ etc. The explanation given in the text is that of Reu vens (Lettres a M. Letronne, i. p. 69), who recognized the Didii as a symbolic representation of the four regions of the world and of Maspeko, Etudes de Mythologie et d' Arch^alogie ijgyptiennes, 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, Didit. '

{t^ludes de Mythologie et d'Arch^ulogie iJgyptiennes, vol.

point out that this

—

—

;

;

— OSJUIS

AND

ISIS.

131

the other a crook, symbols of sovereign authority.

This, perhaps, was the most

ancient form of Osiris also represented

him

but they

;

as a

man,

and supposed him to assume the shapes of rams and bulls,^

even those of water-birds,

or

such as lapwings, herons, and

which disported them-

cranes,

selves about the lakes of that

The goddess whom

district.^

we are accustomed inseparable from

as

woman

the cow, or

him, Isis with cow's

had not always belonged

horns,

him.

to

regard

to

Originally

she was

an independent deity, dwelling

Buto in the midst of the

at

ponds

of

She

Adhii.

had

neither husband nor lover, but

had

spontaneously

conceived

and given birth to a son, she suckled

among the

Harsiisit,

called

Horus the son of

to distinguish

At an

eris.^

reeds

Horus who was

a lesser

whom

Isis,

him from Haroearly period she

was married to her neighbour

and no marriage could

Osiris,

have been better suited to her

osibis-onnophris, whip

and crook in hand.*

of Mendes is sometimes Osiris, and sometimes the soul of Osiris. The ancionts took a he-goat, and to them wo are indebted for the record of its exploits (Herodotus, ii. 46 cf. Wiedemann, Eerodots Zioeites Buck, p. 216, et seq.). According to Manetho, the worship of tiie '

The ram

it for

;

sacred

ram

p. 84).

A

is not ohhir than the time of King Kaiekhos of the second dynasty (Unger's edition, Ptolemaic necropolis of sacred rams was discovered by Mariette at Tmai el-Aindid, in the ruins of Thmiiis, and some of their sarcophagi are now in the Gizeh Museum (Mariette, Monuments

divers, pis. xlii., xlvi., text, pp. 12, 13, 14). ^ The Bonu, the chief among these birds, is not the phoenix, as has so often been asserted (B2.VGScn, Nouvelles Eecherches sur la division de I'ann^e, D/e P/iOHio: (Sage Y>p. i9, 50; Wiedemann, iin alien ^gyjden, 1878, pp. 89-106, and Eerodots Zioeites Buck, kind of heron, is It a 314-316). pp.

either the '

The

Ardea

cinerea,

which is common in Egypt, or else some similar species. and the peculiarity of her spontaneous maternity, were pointed out by

origin of Isis,

Maspero, £tudes de Mytholcgie et d'Arch^ulogie £gi/ptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 254, 255, 359-362. * Drawn by Boudier from a statue in green basalt found at Sakkarnh, and now in the Gizeli Museum (Maspeko, Guide du Visiteur, p. 345, No. 5245). It was published by Mariette, Monuments divers, pi. 96 d, and Album phofographique du musee de Bulnq, pi. x.

THE GODS OF EGYPT.

132 nature.

For she personified the earth

— not the earth in general, like Sibu, with

unequal distribution of seas and mountains, deserts and cultivated land

its

but the black and luxuriant plain of the Delta,

where

men,

of

races

plants,

and

animals

crease

and

multiply

ever- succeeding

in

genera-

To whom did she

tions.^

owe

in-

inexhaustible

this

productive energy

if

not

to

her neighbour Osiris,

to

the Nile?

lingers

overflows,

rises,

upon the it is

The Nile

soil

wedded

every year

;

to the earth,

comes

and

the

forth

green and fruitful

from

earth

embraces.

its

The

marriage of the two ele-

ments suggested that of the two divinities; Osiris

wedded

Isis

and adopted

the young Horus.

But

this

prolific

and

gentle pair were not representative

of

phenomena

of

The ISIS,

WEARING THE COW-HORN

-

although

it

these owe fertility

contains

their

several

rich

and

existence to the arduous

fertile

the

nature.

eastern part of the

Delta

HEAD-DP.E,SS.*

all

borders upon

the

of Arabia,

and

solitudes

provinces,

yet

most

of

labour of the inhabitants, their

being dependent on the daily care of man, and on his regular

The moment he suspends the struggle or relaxes watchfulness, the desert reclaims them and overwhelms them with

distribution of the water. his

evidence of De Iside et Osiride as to the nature of the goddess. Drawn by Boudier from a green basalt statue in the Gizeh Museum 'Maspero, Guide du Visiteur, p. 346, No. 5246). The statue has been published by Mariette, Monuments divers, pi. 96 o, '

Cf. p. 99, note 2, for the

*

and Album pJwtographique,

pi. x.

It is here

reproduced from a photograph by Einil Brugsch-Bey.

AND NEPETEY3.

SIT sterility.

Sit

was the

spirit of

133

the mountain, stone and sand, the red and

ground as distinguished from the moist black soil of the On the body of a lion or of a dog he bore a fanvalley.^

arid

head with a slender curved snout, upright and squarecut ears; his cloven tail rose stiffly behind him, springing from his loins like a fork.^ He also assumed a tastic

human upon

form, or retained the animal head only

He

a man's shoulders.

was

to

felt

be

cruel and treacherous, always ready to shrivel

up the harvest with his burning breath, and to smother Egypt beneath a shroud of shifting

The

sand.

contrast be-

tween this evil being and the beneficent

couple, Osiris and

Nevertheless, the

soon

assigned

a

Isis,

theologians

common

rival divinities of Nile

and

was striking. of

the Delta

origin

these

to

desert, red land

Sibu had begotten them, Nuit

and black.

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.^ first

each of them had kept to his own

half of Sit,

NEPHTHYS, AS A WAILING WOMAN.*

At

the world.

Moreover

who had begun by

alone,

had married,

living

in order that

THE GOD

monograph by Ed. Meyer, may be consulted as

s!t, fighting.''

but it pushes mystic The explanation of Sit as typifying the desert and drought has prevailed interpretation too far. T:v(pwva Si Trap rh . from antiquity (of. De Iside et Osinde, § 33, Pabthey's edition, p. 57: His modern transformation into ahxt^riphv /col TrypwScs koX ^rjpauTiKhv oXws Kal iroXe/xiov rt) vyp6Ti\Ti). a god who originally represented the slaying and devouring sun, is obtained by a mere verbal artifice *

Set-Typlion, a

to Sit;

.

.

(Bbugsch, Religion und Mythologie, p. 702, et seq.). * See the illustration of the typhonian animal on It is there shown walking, and goea p. 83. under the name of Sha. ^ 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. * Bronze statuette of the XX'^ 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 prosciibed, one of the Egyptian owners of this little monument had endeavoured to

and to transform it into a statuette of the god Khnumfl. He took out the uprij^ht them with ram's horns, but made no other change. In the drawing I have had the addition of the curved horns removed, and restored the upright ears, whose marks may still be

alter its character, ears, replacing

later

seen upon the sides of the head-dress. *

According to one legend which

is

comparatively old in origin, the four children of

Nfiit,

and

THE GODS OF EGYPT.

134

As

he might be inferior to Osiris in nothing.

a matter of fact, his companion,

Nephthys, did not manifest any great activity, and was scarcely more than an

counterpart

artificial

no children to her husband her as to

that

all

power to bring

;

of

wife

the

for

^

and sought

a second

Osiris,

sterile desert

Yet she had

touched.

it

forth,

the

of

fertilization

brought barrenness to wish nor the

lost neither the

from another source.

had

it

"• "^.o

...

.-/

,"'•,/"•;

,."V'

VI?

had made drawn him

without

his

knowledge, and borne him

/s...

^c

arms

her

to

t?. i^'CW-.

Tradition

that she

Osiris drunken, ^'^

who bore

Isis

,,.=j>"-""S';

,.,.v

^i|

a

son

the

;

child

furtive union

this

was the jackal

when

Thus

Anubis.^

of

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 Scale

lay concealed in the ground

SooACiirer

burst forth

PLAN OF THE RUINS OF HEMOPOLIS.'

gradual

domain of

by

Sit

against the

Osiris

marks the beginning

wrong of which he

germs which

of the

into

invasion strife.*

of

he surprises and treacherously slays his brother, drives

Isis

the

rebels

Sit

the victim, involuntary though

is

The

life.

it

was;

into temporary

banishment among her marshes, and reigns over the kingdom of Osiris as well

But

as over his own.

his triumph

takes arms against hitn, defeats in

The

his turn.

creation of

is

him

short-lived.

in

many

Horus, having grown up,

encounters, and banishes

him

the world had brought the destroying and

Korus her grandson, were born one after another, each on one of the intercalary days of the year (Chabas, Le Calendrier des jours fastes et n^jastes de Vannie egyptlenne, pp. 105, 106). This legend was still current in the Greek period (De Iside et Osiride, § xii., Parthey's edition, pp. 19-21). ' The impersonal character of Nephthys, her artificial origin, and her derivation from Isis, have been pointed out by Maspero {iHudes de Myfhologie et d'Arclie'ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 362-364). The very name of the goddess, which means the lady (nibit) of the mansion Qidit), confirms this view. * De Iside et Osiride, Another legend has it that Isis, § 14, 38, Parthey's edition, pp. 24, 25, 67. and not Nephthys, was the mother of Anubis the jackal (De Iside et Osiride, § 44, Parthey's edition, p. 77 cf. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2ud edit., vol. iii. p. 157). ^ Plan drawn by Thuillier, from the Description de I'-Egypte (Atlas, Aut., vol. v. pi. 26, 1). * De Iside et Osiride, Parthey's edition, p. 66 "Oraf Se vTTfpBaKwv koI trKeovda-as o Ne?A.os 38, § ;

:

tireK€iva (pvru!!/

TrXricriacrrj

rols ea-xciTevovffi, tovto fu^ii/'Oa-'ipiSos Trphs 'ii4
i\iyxonev7]v,

S)V

KOl rh fx.i\i\wr6v ioTiv, uv

yeveffdai Tvcpuvi T19S wepl rhp ydfioy adiKids.

(pvcri

twv ava/BKaarafSi/Tecy

fivdos airoppvii'Tos Kol aTroXeiipdtvTos a'ia6r)
EELIOPOLIS AND ITS SCHOOLS OF THEOLOGY, life-sustaining

the

gods face to face: the history of the world

story of their rivalries

None

of these conceptions alone sufficed to explain the whole

Heliopolis

is

but the

and warfare.

of creatioCj nor the part

of

135

which the various gods took

appropriated

them

all,

in

modified some of

mechanism

The

it.

their

priests

details

and

eliminated others, added several new personages, and thus finally constructed

L^^ HORUS, THE AVENGER OF HIS FATHER,

AND ANUBIS UAPUAItC

a complete cosmogony, the elements of which wore 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; city ever originated so

many mystic

but no

ideas and consequently exercised so great

an influence upon the development of

civilization.^

It

was a small town built

on the plain not far from the Nile at the apex of the Delta, and surrounded Drawn by Fauclier-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato of. a bas-relief Abydoij. The two gods are couductiug King Ramses II., here identified >

at

in the temple of Seti witli

I.

Osiris, towards the

goddess Hathor. *

Maspero

(^Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie tgijpHennes, vol.

ii.

p.

236, et seq., 352, et

.seq.)

first elucidated the part played by the priests of Heliopolis in constructing the cosmogony which was adopted by historic Egypt. * By its inhabitants it was accounted older than any other city of Egypt (Diodorus, v. 56).

— THE GODS OF EGYPT.

136 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.

One

obelisk standing in the midst of the

open plain, a few waste mounds of

and two or

debris, scattered blocks,

three lengths of crumbling wall, alone

mark the

Ra was worshipped there, Greek name of Heliopolis

stood.^

and the is

place where once the city

but the translation of that which

was given to

by the

it

priests

Pi-ra,

City of the Sun.^

cipal

temple, the "Mansion of the

Prince,"

rose from about the

^

the

of

Its prin-

and

enclosure,

middle

sheltered,

together with the god himself, those

animals in which he became incarnate

:

times

the bull Mnevis, and some-

According to

the Phoenix.

an old legend, this wondrous bird appeared in Egypt only once in

hundred

years.

It is born

and

its ^v.

I

"

father

dies it

with a layer of

THE SUN bPKINGING FROM AN OPENING LOTCS FLOWER IN THE FORM OF THE CHILD HOEUS.*

at utmost speed

covers the body

myrrh, and to

Ea was

the sun

itself,

whose

fires

flies

the temple of

Heliopolis, there to bury

beginning,

lives

when

in the depths of Arabia, but

I

five

it.^

In the

appear to be lighted every

Lancret and Du Boys Aime, in the Description d'H^liopolis, in the Description de VEgypte, The greater part of the walls and ruins then visible have disappeared, for the family of Ibrahim-Pacha, to whom the land belongs, have handed it over to cultivation. '

vol. V. pp. 66, 67.

"

Brl'gsch, Geographische Inschriften, vol.

i.

p. 254.

Hdit Saru (Beugsch, Dictionnaire GeograpMque, p. 153, where the author reads Hat ura, and translates Palace of the Ancient One, Palace of the Old Man, and Lefebuke agrees with nim, Sur le Cham et V Adam ^gyptien, in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. ix. pp. 175, It was so called because it was supposed to have been the dwelling-place of Ka while the god 176). abode upon earth as King of Egypt (cf. ch. iii. p. 160, et seq.). * 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 Nil, that dark watery abyss from wJiich the lotus sprang on the morning of creation, and whereon it is still supposed to bloom. ^ The Phoenix is not the Boim (cf. p. 131, 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. 88) that in shape and size the phcenix resembled the eagle, and this statement alone should have sufSced to prevent any attempt at identifying it with the Bonu, which is either a heron or a lapwing. '

BA, EIS IDENTIFICATION

WITH HORUS.

morning in the east and to be extinguished at evening people such he always remained.

Among

Others affirmed that

hhopriu

— one

^

and

to

the

for the adoration of his

rather represented his active and radiant

it

many who

Finally, there were

soul.

;

the disk of the sun to be the

body which the god assumes when presenting himself worshippers.

in the west

the theologians there was considerable

Some held

difference of opinion on the point.

137

defined

it

of his self-manifestations, without

as one of his forms of being

presuming to decide whether

TUE PLAIN AND MOUNDS OP HELIOPOLIS FIFTY TEAE8 AGO.= it

was his body or his soul which he deigned to reveal to human eyes

whether soul or body, creation.^

all

But how could

either drying

it

Ka

Nu before

At

this stage the

with Horus and his right eye served the purpose of the

theologians admirably fires

but

have lain beneath the primordial ocean without

up the waters or being extinguished by them ?

identification of

prevent his

agreed that the sun's disk had existed in the

;

:

the god needed only to have closed his eyelid in order to

from coming in contact with the water.^

He was also said to have

shut up his disk within a lotus-bud, whose folded petals had safely protected DE Rouge, Etudes sur

'

E.

*

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

le

Eituel fun^raire des anciens Egyptiens,

p. 76.

a water-colour published by Lepsius, Denkm.,

taken from the midst of the ruins at the foot of the obelisk of tjsirtasen. foreground, and passes through a

muddy

pool

;

to right

considerable, but have since been partially razed.

and

left are

A

mounds

In the distance Cairo

it.^

little

i.

56.

The view is

stream runs in the

of ruins, which were then

rises against the south-west.

Book of the Dead, ch. xvii., Naville's edition, 1. 3, et seq. * 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." * Mariette, Dend^raft, vol. i.pl.lv.a; Brugsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum Mgyptiacarum, p.764,No.66 *

:

—

:

THE GODS OF EGYPT.

138 The

—

flower

had opened on the morning of the

first

day, and from it the god had

upon his head. sprung suddenly as a child wearing the solar disk

But

all theories

led the theologians to dis-

^fStm&jBamO^^^^^m^U

two periods, and

tinguish as

it

were two beings in the

existence of supreme deity a

pre-mundane sun lying

bosom of

inert within the

the dark living

waters,

and our

and life-giving

One

sun.^

division of the

school

liopolitan

He-

retained

the use of traditional terms

and images in reference to these

first it left

UAUMAKHLlil-llAiaiAKHIt<, THK GliKAT UUD.

the

hawk and the name

of

For the second

Harmakhuiti

clearly denoted his function

;

^

and

it

it

— Horus

human

form,

and the

title of

Ra, with the

abstract

sense

of creator,

deriving the

verb rd, which means to give.^

To the

Sun-gods.

name from

the

kept the form of the sparrowin

summed up

the two horizons

— which

the idea of the sun as a

whole in the single name of Ea-Harmakhuiti, and in a single image in which the hawk-head of Horus was grafted upon the human body of Ra. other divisions of the school invented

new names

sun existing before the world they called Creator earthly sun they called Khopri

— He

who

is.

new

for

conceptions.

Tumu, Atmnu^

Tumu

was a

—and

The The our

man crowned

Maspero, Mudes de Mytliologie et d' ArcMologie J^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 281, et seq., 356, et seq. Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger of an outer wall of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak. Harmakbis grants years and festivals to the Pharaoh Seti I., who kneels before him, and Oirit hikau. is presented by the lioness-headed goddess Sokhit, here described as a magician ^ This manufactured etymology was accepted by at least a section of Egyptian theologians, as is proved by their interminable playing upon the words Ea, the nanie of the sun, and rd, tlie verb *

'

Drawn by

make. As regards the weiglit to be attached to it, see p. 88, note 1. Harmakhftiti is Horus, the sky of the two horizons; i.e. the sky of the daytime, and the niglit When the celestial Horus was confounded with Ea, and became the sun (cf. p. 100), lie eky. naturally also became the sun of the two horizons, the sun by day, and the sun by night. " His name may be connected with two * E. UE KouGE, J^tudes sur le Rituel fun^raire, p. 76 radicals. Tern is a negation it may be taken to mean the Inapproachable One, the Unknown (as in Thebes, where Amun means mystery). Atdm is, in fact, described as existing alone in the abyss,' It was in this time of darkness that Atdm performed the first act of beforo the appearance of light. Alfim was creation, and this allows of our also connecting his name with the Coptic tamio, creare. to give, to *

:

;

'

man (in Coptic the, homo), and becomes a perfect item, after his resurrection." Brugsoh {Religion und Mythologie, pp. 231, 232) 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

also the prototype of

'

'

;

ATUMU.

139

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

man

or a

scarabaeus,

mummy,

headed

with

a scarabaeus upon his

head,

or a

scaraba^us-

was sug-

gested by the accidental of

alliteration

his

name

and that of Ehopirru, the

The

scarabaeus.

difference

between the possible forms of the god was so slight as to be eventually lost alto-

His names were

gether.

grouped by twos and threes every conceivable way,

in

and

the

scarabaeus

Khopri took

its

of

place upon

the head of Ka, while the

hawk headpiece was

trans-

iiBiii?iittp'tir'gi{i.'^nHitgteM

ferred from the shoulders

of

KHOPRI, THE SCABAB^US GOD, IN HIS BARK.

Harmakhuiti to those of

The complex beings

Tumii.

Atiimu-Ka,

resulting from these combinations,

Ea-fiavmakhuiti-Tumu,

Ea-Tutnu-Khopri,

Khopri, never attained to any pronounced individuality.

Ea-Tumu,

Tum-Harmakhuiti-

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 the idea of the

life

to

mere

making

details of their functions

these gods into

and attributes.

embodiments

of the

of the sun during the day and throughout the year.

the sun of springtime and before sunrise, Harmakhuiti the

Hence

arose

main phases

in

Ea symbolized 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

For them Ea never ceased to be the god of the nome while Atiimu remained the god of the theologians, and was invoked by them, the people preferred Ea. At Thinis and at Sebennytos Anhuri incurred their

to

beloved

El

;

the same fate as befell

Ea

at

Heliopolis.

After he had been identified

exhaustive study of these theological combinations has been made by Brugsch (Religion und Mijthologie, pp. 231-280) with great care and sagacity, and with special reference to inscriptions from temples of the Ptolemaic and Eoman periods. Unfortunately Brugsch has attributed to these temple speculations an importance which they never held in popular estimation. '

An

THE GODS OF EG TFT.

140

Shu

with the sun, the similar identification of

half under the

god Anhuri-Shu, of which the one

Anhuri represented, like Atumu, the primordial

of

title

— the

old,

They were

Anhuri and Shu were twin gods, incarnations of sky and earth. soon but one god in two persons

Of

inevitably followed.

being; and Shu, the other

half,

became, as his name indicates, the creative

sun-god who upholds (shu) the sky.^

Tumu

then, rather than Ka, was

placed by the Heliopolitan priests at

the head of their cosmogony as supreme creator and governor.

how he had passed from

versions were current as to

the personage of

Tumu

into that of Ea.

According to the version most widely

immediately the mysterious lotus had unfolded

Come unto me " ^ and petals, and Ka had appeared

;

^

was probably a refined form of a ruder and earlier

this

according to which

tradition,

its

!

open cup as a disk, a newborn child, or a disk-crowned

at the edge of its

sparrow-hawk

from

inertia into action,

he had suddenly cried across the waters, "

received,

Several

Ea

was upon

it

himself that the

had

office

devolved of separating Sibu from Nuit, for the purpose of constructing the

heavens and the earth.

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

;

Sim was therefore borrowed

for the

purpose from the kindred cult of

Anhuri, and at Heliopolis, as at Sebennytos, the of seizing the sky-goddess

of

Mendes with the

solar

dogma

Shu

body of his

wife,

and

The

led to a connexion of the Osirian

of Sebennytos,

describing the creation of the world was completed division into deserts

was entrusted to him

and raising her with outstretched arms.

violence suffered by Nuit at the hands of

dogma

office

fertile lands.

and thus the tradition

by another, explaining

its

Sibu, hitherto concealed beneath the

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 deities.*

soil of

Of these

Egypt,

deities,

all

expressed as the manifestations of successive

the latter ones already constituted a family of

Maspero, J^tudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie ^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 282, 356, 357. It was on this account that the Egyptians named the first day of the year the Day of Come-untome! (E. de Kouge, Etudes sur le Eituel fun^raire des anciens J^gyptiens, pp. 54, 55). In ch. xvii. of the Booh of the Dead, Osiris takes the place of Tumfi as the creator-god. ' See the illustration on p. 136, which represents the infant sun-god springing from the opening '

'

lotus. *

On

the formation of the Heliopolitan Ennead, see Maspero, iJtudes de MytJiologie

derivatioi),

and

et d' Arch^ologie

Brugsch's solution and version of the composition, pp. 244, et seq., 352, et seq. history of this Ennead is entirely different from mine {Religion und Mythologie der

iJgyptiennes, vol.

ii.

alien Egypter, p. 183, et seq.).

TEE EELIOPOLITAN VERSION OF THE CREATION. father,

human

mother, and children, like

families.

Learned

141 theologians

availed themselves of this example to effect analogous relationships between

the rest of the gods, combining

Ra

them

all into

one line of descent.

could have no fellow, he stood apart in the

that

Shu should be

first

day of

his son,

creation,

whom

rank, and

first

it

As Atumuwas decided

he had formed out of himself alone, on the

by the

simple intensity of his own

Shu, reduced

virile energy.

to the position of divine son,

had

in his turn begotten Sibii

and

two

deities

he separated.

Until

the

Nuit,

which

then he had not been supposed to have any wife, and

he also might have himself

brought his own progeny into being;

but

5HE TWIN

LIONS,

SHU AND TAFNUIT,

a power of

lest

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 born in the same way as he was born.

was never fully

alive,

and remained,

The

than a real person.

sister,

This goddess, invented for the occasion,

like

Nephthys, a theological entity rather

texts describe her as the pale reflex of her husband.

Together with him she upholds the sky, and every morning receives the

newborn sun as

when Shu he is

is

a

is

it

emerges from the mountain of the east ; she

lion,

a lion-headed

woman when he is a man, a man she is angry when he is a

;

appeased; she has no sanctuary wherein he

the pair

made one being

" one soul in its

in

two bodies,

two twin bodies."

or, to

is

is

woman

lioness-headed

of the sun-god,

Atumu-Ra, and

if

angry, appeased when he

In short,

not worshipped.

use the Egyptian expression,

^

see that the Heliopolitans proclaimed the creation to be the

Hence we

of the four pairs of deities

work

who were descended

It was really a learned variant of the old doctrine

from him.

a lionness

that the

^

a vignette in the papyrus of Ani in the British Museum, vol. xi., published by Lepage-Renoup in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Arclixology, " yesterday " the other, reads safu, right the on the lion above inscription 26-28. The 1889-90, pp. »

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from

;

duau, "this morning." part Dead, ch. xvii. 1. 154, et seq. (Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. xxiv.). For the d'Arch^ologie played by Tafnit or Tafnuit with regard to Shft, see Maspero, ttudes de Mythologie et In 571-575. Mythologie, und pp. Religion Brugsch, and iJgyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 247, 248, 357; the and god the two, exactly, more or, Dawn-god, the M. Lepage-Renoxjf, Sha and Tafnfiit are ==

Booh of

the

goddess of the

Dawn

{Egyptian Mythology, particularly with reference

to

Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archxology, vol. viii. p. 206, et seq.)* See this doctrino. pp. 86, 87, 128, 129, for some ancient variants of

Mist and Cloud, in the

— TEE GODS OF EGYPT.

142

universe was composed of a sky-god, Horus, supported by bis four children

and

tbeir four pillars

Shu and

Sibii, Osiris

:

in fact, tbe four sons of tbe Heliopolitan

and

Sit,

cosmogony,

were occasionally substituted for the four older

gods of tbe " bouses" of tbe world.

Tbis being premised, attention must be

given to tbe important differences between tbe two systems.

At

the outset,

instead of appearing contemporaneously upon tbe scene, like tbe four children of Horns, tbe four Heliopolitan

gods were deduced one from another, and

succeeded each other in tbe order of

tbeir

They bad not that

birth.

uniform attribute of supporter, associating them always with one definite function, but each of

them

felt

with special powers required

themselves goddesses, and different

ways

nutirii,^

Ennead.

by bis condition.

thus

called

—and

When

Ultimately they took to

number

tbe total

at tbe organization of tbe universe

Hence they were pauU

himself endowed with faculties and armed

beings

of

working

in

was brought up to nine.

by the collective name of tbe Enuead, the Nine gods

tbe god at tbeir bead was entitled Pauiti, the god of the

creation was completed, its continued existence was ensured by

countless agencies with whose operation the persons of the

Ennead were not

leisure to concern themselves, but

to preside over each

bad ordained auxiliaries

of the functions essential to the regular

The theologians

of Heliopolis selected

at

and continued working

of all things.

among

the innumer-

eighteen from

able divinities of tbe feudal cults of Egypt, and of these they formed two

secondary Enneads, who were regarded as the offspring of the Enuead of the creation.

The

first

of tbe two secondary Enneads, generally

Minor Ennead, recognized originally an earth-god

as chief Harsiesis, the son of Osiris.

who had avenged the

tbe banishment of bis mother by Sit Nile and fertility to the Delta.

;

When

that

known

as the

Harsiesis was

assassination of his father and

is,

be bad restored fulness to tbe

Harsiesis was incorporated into the solar

religions of Heliopolis, his filiation was left undisturbed as being a natural link * The first Egyptologists confounded the sign used in writing pauit with the sign kh, and the word khet, other (Chami'OLLIon, Grammaire ^gyptienne, pp. 292, 320, 331, 404, etc.). E. de Rouge was the first to determine its phonetic value " it should be read Pau, and designates a body of gods." (Letter from E. de Eouge, June, 1852, published by F. Lajaed, Becherches mr le Cypres Pyramidal, in the M€moires de VAcad€inie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, vol. xx. 2nd part, p. 176.) :

Shortly afterwards Bkugsch proved that "the group of gods invoked by E. de Rouge must have consisted

—

of an Ennead (TJeher die Hieroglyph des Neumondes und ihre verschiedenen Bedeutungen, in the Zeitsclirift der Morg. G., vol. x. p. 668, et seq.). This explanation was not at first admitted either by Lepsius (JJeber die Goiter der Vier Elemente hei den Mgypter) or by Maeiette, who had proposed a mystic interpretation of the word in his M^moire sur la mere d'Apis (pp. 25-36), or by E. de Rouge (Mudessur le Bituel fun^raire, p. 43), or by Chabas (tJwe Inscription historique du regne de SAi 1''',

of nine"

p. 37,

and

TJn

Eymne

a Osiris in the Bevue ArcMologique, 1st series, vol. xiv. pp. 198-200). The was not frankly adopted until later (Maspero, Me'moires sur quelques

interpretation a Niue,a.n Ennead,

Papyrus du Louvre, pp.

94, 95),

and more especially

after

the discovery of the Pyramid

texts

(Bkugsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum JEgyptiacarum, p. 707, et seq.); 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.

;

THE HELIOPOLITAN ENNEADS.

143

between the two Eimeads, but his personality was brought into conformity with the new surroundings into which he was transplanted. He was identified with

Ka through

the intervention of the older Horus, Haroeris-Harmakhis, and

the Minor Ennead, like the Great Ennead, began with a sun-god.

was not pushed so

lation

powers as his while

We

were

these

it

Our knowledge

is

very

see only that

gods

the

who

the sun-god

chiefly protected

against

he was the sun of earth, the everyday sun,

the sun pre-mundaue and eternal

still

Ennead

imperfect.

:

younger Horus with the same

other deities of

eight

Minor

the

fictitious ancestor

Atumu-Ka was

of the

far as to invest the

This assimi-

enemies and helped

its

to follow its regular course.

Thus Harhuditi, the Horus of hand, pursues

Edfu, spear in

THE FOUB i^UNEKAay

GENII,

AND

the

KHABSONUf, TIUMAUTF, HAPI, AMSIT.'

hippopotami or serpents

which haunt the

celestial

the

Sun-bark

controlled

the

dual jackal-god of Siut,

is

sky from south to north.

among

by the incantations

The

The

and menace the god.

guides,

third

of Thot,

while

and occasionally tows

Ennead would seem

progress of

Uapuaitu,

along the

it

have included

to

memt>ers Anubis the jackal, and the four funerary genii, the

its

children

waters

of

Horus

— Hapi,

though

by

night, as the second

ofiice

it

further appears

was the care and defence of the dead sun, the sun

as

its

Amsit, Tiumautf, Kabhsonuf;

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 as

it

called

it

or to enumerate

its

persons.

a whole, after the two others, in those formulas into

play

all

They invoked in

which

they

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. Heliopolis, the three

At the

initial

impulse of the lord of

combined Enneads started the world and kept

and gods whom they had not incorporated were either enemies with, or

*

it

going,

to be fought

mere attendants.^

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

AVilkinson's Manners- and Customs, 2iid edit., vol.

iii.

p. 221,

pi. xlviii. ^ The little which we know of the two secondary Enneads of Heliopolis has been put together by Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'Arch^ologie ^gypliennes, voL ii. pp. 289, et seq., 353, 354,

371, 372.

L

;;

THE GODS OF EGYPT.

144

The

Ennead acquired an immediate and a lastpresented such a clear scheme of creation, and one whose

doctrine of the Heliopolitan

ing popularity.

It

organization was so thoroughly in accordance with the spirit of tradition, that the various

sacerdotal colleges

adopted

it

one after another,

accommodating

to

it

the

exigencies of local patriot-

Each placed

ism.

nome-god

Ennead

at the

own

head of the

"god

as

Nine," "god time,"

its

the

the

first

of

of

heaven

of

creator

and earth, sovereign ruler men, and

of

As

action.

Ennead

lord of

all

there was

the

of Atiimu at Helio-

there was that of

polis, so

Anhuri

at

Thinis and at

Sebennytos; that of Minu at Coptos

and

at Panopolis

that of Haroeris that of Soo JKeire*

ISO

at

Edfu

Ombos

and, later, that of Phtah

Scalp o

Sobkhu

at

PLAN OF THE RUINS OF HERMOPOLIS MAGNA.*

at

Memphis and

at Thebes.^

of

Amon

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.

Nit was the source and ruler of the Ennead of Sais, Isis of that of Bute, and Hathor of that of Denderah.^ Few of the sacerdotal colleges

went beyond the substitution of their own feudal gods that the god of each little,

nome

for

Atumu.

Provided

held the rank of supreme lord, the rest mattered

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

Plan drawn by Thuillier, from the Description de V^gypte, Ant., vol. Iv. pi. 50. The Ennead of Phtah, and that of Amon, who was replaced by Montfi in later times, are the two Enneads of which we have as yet the greatest number of examples (Lepsius, Deber den Ersten JEgijptischen Gotterkreis, pis. i.-iii. ; Brugsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum, pp. 727-730). = Ou the Ennead of Hathor at Denderah, see Mariettb, Denderah, p. 80, et seq., of the text. The fact that Nit, Isis, and, generally speaking, all the feudal gorldesses, were the chiefs of their local Ennead?, 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. '

*

;

THOT AND TEE EERMOPOLITAN ENNEAD. known and worshipped throughout the whole

145

The theologians

country.

of

Hermopolis alone declined to borrow the new system just as

it

stood;

and in

all

its

Hermopolis

parts.

had always been one of the ruling

cities of

Middle

Standing alone in the midst of the land

Egypt.

lying between the Eastern and Western Niles,

it

had established upon each of the two great arms of the

river

boats THE

a port and a custom-house,

travelling

either

where

all

up or down stream paid

IBIS THOT.'

Not only the corn and

on passing.

toll

natural

products of the valley and of the Delta, but also goods from distant parts

brought

Africa

of

helped to

fill

god of the

to

by Soudanese

Siiit

the treasury of Hermopolis.

city,

caravans,^

Tjiot, the

represented as ibis or baboon, was

essentially a moon-god,

who measured time, counted

the days, numbered the months, and recorded the

Lunar

years.^

divinities, as

we know,

are everywhere

supposed to exercise the most varied powers: they

command the mysterious they know the sounds,

forces

words,

which those forces are put

the

of

and

universe

gestures

by

motion, and not

in

content with using them for their own benefit,

they also teach to their worshippers the art of

employing them. this rule.

He

Thot formed no exception

'

to

THE CYNOCEPHALOUS THOT.*

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.^ the incantations which evoke and control the gods '

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from an enamelled

;

He had

he had transcribed the

pottery figure from Coptos,

The

discovered

now

in

my

possession.

personage represented as The ibis was equatting beneath the beak is Mait, the goddess of truth, and the ally of Thot. 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. * On the custom-houses of Hermopolis and why they were established, see Maspero, Notes aujour le jour. § 19, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, 1891-92, vol. xiv. pp. 196-202. » The name of Thot, ZeMti, Tehuti, seems to mean— he who belongs to the bird Zehii, Tehu; he

Neck,

feet,

and

tail

are in blue enamel, the rest

is

in green.

little

;

who

ibis (Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie, p. 440). a green enamelled pottery figure in my possession (Saite period). * Cf. in the tale of Satni (Maspero, Contes populaires de VAncienne iJgypte, 2ad edit., p. 175) the description of " the book which Thot has himself writteu 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 thou shalt know the birds first thou shalt charm heaven, earth, Hades, the mountains, the waters *

is

the

ibis, or

belongs to the divine

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from

;

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 ;

— THE OODS OF EGYPT.

146

texts and noted the melodies of these incantations

md

true intonation

Miroii

whether god or man, to

—smd Zf/irow—became

— which

;

he recited them with that

renders them all-powerful, and every one,

he imparted them, and whose voice he made true

whom

He had accom-

like himself master of the universe.^

plished the creation not by muscular eflbrt to which the rest of the cosmogonical

gods primarily owed their birth, but by means of formulas, or even of the voice alone,

"the

time" when he awoke

first

in the Nil.

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, tangible substances;

into

creative life and energy in

their

who

turn.

;

into bodies into gods

which were themselves animated by

and goddesses who lived or who created

a very short phrase Tiimu had

By

order all things

for his "

;

Come unto me

!

gods

the

called forth

" 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

the four gods

who

alive from his

solidified into matter,

mouth without bodily is

effort

on his

part,

fact,

forth

and without spoken

almost as great a refinement of thought

as the substitution of creation by the word for creation

In

had come

preside over the four houses of the world

Creation by the voice

evocation.

and by a simple emission of voice

by muscular

effort.

sound bears the same relation to words that the whistle of a quarterthe navigation of a ship transmitted by a speaking

master bears

to orders for

trumpet;

it

simplifies speech, reducing it as

At

was believed that the creator had made the world with a word, then

first it

that he had it

made

it

by sound

;

it

were to a pure abstraction.

but the further conception of his having

by thought does not seem to have occurred to the theologians.^

made

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.*

thou shalt even see the sun rising in heaven, and his cycle of gods, and the moon in the form wherein it appeareth." > For the interpretation of these expressions, see Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie

earth

;

Egyptiennes, vol.

i.

pp. 93-1 14.

See the account of this mythological episode on p. 140, and also the illustration on p. 137, which represents the Sun-god as a child emerging from the opened lotus. ' The theory of creation by voice was first set forth by Maspero, Creation hy the Voice and the Ennead of Hermopolis (in the Oriental Quarterly Review, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 365, et seq.), and Etudes de Mythologie et d'Arch^ulogie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 372, et seq. * Book Other texts also state that of the Dead (Naville's edition, pi. xxiii.), ch. xvii. 1. 3, et seq. " Dijmichen, it was in the Hermopolite nome that " light began wben thy father Ra ruse from the lotus 2

;

Geographische Inschriften,

vol.

i.

(iii.

of the Recueil de Monuments),

pi. Iv. 11. 2,

3

;

cf. pi.

xcvi.

1.

21.

TEE CREATION BY WORD AND BY The conception

of a Creative Council of five gods

Hermopolis that from this

name

of the "

House

of

;

Five "

tlie

its

had so

had received

fact the city

in

hereditary high priest of Thot, reckoned as the

The

One

of the

four couples

far prevailed at

remote antiquity the

its prince,

who was the

first

of his ofiicial titles that

who had helped Atumu were

identified with the four

House

of the Five."

^

gods of Thot, and changed the council

auxiliary

147

temple was called the " Abode of the

Five " down to a late period in Egyptian history, and of " Great

VOICE.

of Five

Hermopolitan Ennead, but at the cost of strange metamorphoses.^ artificially

they had been grouped about Atumu, they had

all

a Great

into

However

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 neces-

They could

sary for the production of such effects as were expected of him.

not have existed and

carried

ordinary conditions of humanity

on their work without conforming

the

to

being born one of another, they were bound

;

have paired with living goddesses as capable of bringing forth their

to

children

as

On

they were of begetting them.

auxiliary gods of Hermopolis exercised but one

Having themselves come

the other hand, the four

means

of action

from the master's mouth,

forth

that they created and perpetuated the world.

it

— the

voice.

was by voice

Apparently they could have

done without goddesses had marriage not been imposed upon them by their identification with the corresponding

any

rate, their

gods of the Heliopolitan Ennead

wives had but a show of

these four gods worked after the

life,

manner

bore his form and reigned along

almost destitute of reality.

;

at

As

of their master, Thot, so they also

many

with him as so

associated with the lord of Hermopolis, the eight

baboons.

divinities

When

of Heliopolis

assumed the character and the appearance of the four Hermopolitan gods

whom

in

they were merged.

They were often represented

as eight baboons

surrounding the supreme baboon,^ or as four pairs of gods and goddesses E. DE KouGE, Recherches siir les monuments qu'on pent aitrihuer aux six premieres dynasties de Blcniellion, p. 62 BRrGSCH, Lictionnaire G€ographique, p. 9G2. In the Harris Msgio Paiiyriis (pi. iii. 11. 5, 6, Chabas' edition, p. 53) they are called " these five gods . . who are neither in heaven nor upon eartli, and who are not lighted by the sun." For the cosmogouical conception, *

;

.

implied

by these Hermopolitan

The

titles,

see

Maspero,

jStudes

de

Mythologie

et

d'Arcke'ologie

pp. 259-261, 381. relation of the Eight to the

j^gyptiennes, vol.

ii.

{Menioire sur quelques Papyrus

Ennead and the god One has been pointed out by Maspero du Louvre, pp. 9i, 95), as also the formation and character of the

Hermopolitan Ennead {Eludes de Mythologie

et

d' Arch^ologie

£gyptiennes,

vol.

ii.

pp.

257-261,

381-383).

W. GoLENiOHEFF, Bie Metternichstele, pi. i., where apes are adoring the solar disk in his bark. This scene is common on hypocephali found under the heads of Gra3co-Roman mummies. '

TEE OODS OF EGYPT.

148

without either characteristic attributes or features

^

;

or, finally, as

four pairs of

gods and goddesses, the gods being frog-headed men, and the goddesses '

j

'

ii|ii II

|ii|

i

i|i

ii

i|

i

iii|

n» i

|

Hn

l'''''" ''l ll' i ii|iii (iiwifiii

iii| i iiiiii|ii i

i

i

)

'|

)

'i

'

j;

ii

ii)

i)| iiii iiii

'

'

'

! ?i!f! '. ?.?? '

»i

i

li i

!? '.?'g'^! '

! ! '!':''i ?:i

!l:

n

'

i

i i ii| i

|

|

l

iiiii

ii i|

|

i

i

i

°y

iiiii

i i

n

||

|i|ii|i

in

I

I

i

i

i

in

iii

1 1

mt

ii

i

j

THE HKRMOPOLITAN

i i

mi

i

j

i

n nj n i

i |

j.

|ii|iiiii

.

|i

|ii

»

'i ,

iiiii|i|ii|niu»

[

|

mii nmffi<

iii|i

pm

i i

"""'

»w

""""

f

OGDOAU.''

serpent-headed women.^ Morning and evening do they sing

;

and the mysterious

Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia Egitia, pi. xii. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a photograph by Beato. Cf. Lepsitjs, Denlim., iv. pi. 66 c. In this illustration I have combined the two extremities of a great scene at Philse, in which the Eight, divided into two groups of four, take part in the adoration of the king. According to a custom common towards the Graeco-Eoman 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. * hLVSivs, Denkm., iv. 66 c; Mariette, Dend^rah, vol. iv. pi. 70; (Jhampollion Monuments de '

*

;

:

TEE DIFFUSION OF TEE ENNEAD8. hymns wherewith they

salute the

149

and the setting sun ensure the

rising

Their names did not survive their metamorphoses

continuity of his course.

each pair had no longer more than a single name, the termination of each

intended

:

—Nii

Ninu and Nu-Nuit Nuit;

name varying according and

Ninit.

As

answers

to

Kak^i-Kakit

them separately

as

far

we

Hahu-Hehit

;

Ninu-Ninit

Isis;

any occasion

seldom

they were deprived of the were

refer

Ennead

latter

Thot

of

One and

fused

the god

had

thus

was

invoke

to

god

the

more

Monad and

than

a

By

two

to

the

terms: the

god

Ogdoad.

The

existence,

and

was generally absorbed into the person of the former. the theologians of Hermopolis gradually disengaged of their feudal

the

degrees

the

theoretical

left to

whom

to

Eight.

reduced

Ultimately

life still

being

a single

Eight, the

scarcely

individual

little

into

Khomninii,

as

Sit

to

was on their account that Hermopolis

it

was named Khmunu, the City of the Eight.^

texts

Sibu and

to

they were addressed collectively as the Eight

;

—Khmunu'^ — and them, and

Kakit,

able to judge, the couple

and

Osiris

to

Kaku and

Hehit,

are

Shu-Tafnuit

There was

Nephthys.

and

Hehu and

Nuit,

god or a goddess was

as a

Thus

the unity

god from the multiplicity of the cosmogonic

deities.^

As the

sacerdotal colleges had adopted the Heliopolitan

doctrine, so polis

they now generally adopted that

Amon,

:

for

instance,

made

being

over the eight baboons and

ferently

to

Hermo-

of

preside

indif-

AMON.

over the four inde-

pendent couples of the primitive Ennead.^

In both cases the process of

adaptation was absolutely identical, and would have

been attended by no

Their individual value has been and still is a subject of discussion. Lepsius first tried to show in a special memoir {Ueber die Goiter der vier Elemente bei den JEgyplern, 1850) that they were the goils of the four elements Dumichen looks upon the four couples as being severally Primitive Matter, Primitive Space, Primitive Time, Primitive Force (Geschichie ^gijptens, p. 210, et r£gypte,

pi.

cxxx.

;

seq.);

Brugsch (Religion und Mythologie,

p.

123, et seq.) prefers to consider

them

as representing

the primordial Waters, Eternity, Darkness, and the primordial Inertia. '

The name was long read

Sesiinu, after

(Reise nach der Grossen Oase

el

Khargeh,

ChampoUion p.

34

;

of.

;

Bkugsch discovered

its

true pronimciatioii

Veher die Aussprache einiger Zahhcorter

iin

Altdgyptisclien, in the Zeitschrift, 187-1, pp. 145-147). ^

Brugsch, Dictionnaire G^ographique, pp. 749-751. d'ArcMologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 383, et seq., where this

Whence its modern name of El-Ashm&nei'n

;

cf.

Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et Ennead was first pointed out. * Drawn by Fuucber-Gudin from a bronze statuette found at Thebes, and now in my possession. * In a bas-relief at Philse, Amon presides over the Hermopolitan Ennead (Lepsius, Denhm., iv. 66 c) it is to him that the eight baboons address their hymns in the Harris Magic Pajiyrus (pi. iiL 1. 6, et seq. Chabas' edition, pp. 60, 69), beseeching him to come to the help of the magicians. ^

aspect of the Hermopolitan

;

;

;

TEE GODS OF EGYPT.

150 difiSculty

whatever, had the divinities to

without family

;

whom

it

only been

was applied

that case, the one needful change for each city

in

have been that of a single name in the Heliopolitan the number of the Ennead unaltered.

But

since

thus leaving

list,

these deities had

turned into triads they could no longer be primarily regarded units, to be

without

would

been

simple

as

combined with the elements of some one or other of the Enneads

The two companions whom each

preliminary arrangement.

chosen had to be adopted

also,

and

the single Thot, or single

had

Atiimu,

replaced by the three patrons of the nome, thus changing the traditional

nine into eleven.

Happily, the constitution of the triad lent

these adaptations.

We

itself

to all

have seen that the father and the son became one and

the same personage, whenever

it

one of the two parents always so

was thought desirable.

far

know

also

that

predominated as almost to efface the other.

UL

n:

^

We

k(H

IWi

Sfi^^o

THE THEBAN ENNEAD.'

Sometimes it

it

was the goddess who disappeared behind her husband

was the god whose existence merely served

to

;

sometimes

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 blend-

ing 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

Hence the mother

the son, and on the other he was one with 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.

Thanks

to

this

subterfuge,

to

put a triad at the head of an Ennead was nothing more than a roundabout

way

god there

of placing a single

:

the three persons only counted as one,

and the eleven names only amounted to the nine canonical

divinities.

the Theban Ennead of Amon-Maut-Khonsu, Shii, Tafnuit, Sibu, Isis, Sit,

and Nephthys,

the typical Ennead

is,

itself.

NMt,

Thus, Osiris,

in spite of its apparent irregularity, as correct as

In such Enneads

Isis is

duplicated by goddesses of

' This Ennead consists of fourteen members—Montfi, duplicating Atiimft the four usual couples then Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, together with his associate deities, Hathor, Tanu, and Anit. ^ See the explanation of this fact on pp. 104-107. ;

GODS "ONE AND ONLY."

and yet remains but one, while

like nature, such as Hathor, Selkit, Taninit,

Osiris brings in his son Horus,

who gathers about himself

play the part of divine son in other

methods of procedure no matter how

nine,

151

triads.

all

such gods as

The theologians had

various

keeping the number of persons in an Ennead at

for

many they might

choose to embrace in

numeraries were thrown in like the " shadows " at

would bring without warning

to their host,

Eoman

suppers,

it.^

Super-

whom

guests

and whose presence made not the

slightest diflference either in the provision for the feast, or in the arrange-

ments

for those

who had been formally

Thus remodelled

at

invited.

points, the

all

Ennead

of Heliopolis

was readily

adjustable to sacerdotal caprices, and even profited by the facilities which

the triad afforded for of the origin of

Allowing

for

its

In time the Heliopolitan version

natural expansion.

Sh^-TafnMt must have appeared

the

of

licence

too primitively barbarous.

the Egyptians during Pharaonic times, the

concept of the spontaneous emission whereby

Atumu had

produced his twin

children was characterized by a superfluity of coarseness which least unnecessary to

employ, since by placing the god in a

it

was at

triad, this

double

birth could be duly explained in conformity with the ordinary laws of

The

solitary Atiimii of the

husband and

He

father.

more ancient dogma gave place

;

Atumu

the

had, indeed, two wives, lusasit and Nebthotpit, but

their individualities were so feebly

choose between them

to

life.

marked that no one took the trouble

each passed as the mother of Sh^ and Tafnuit.^

system of combination, so puerile in

its

to

This

ingenuity, was fraught with the

gravest consequences to the history of Egyptian religions.

Shtl 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.

of Isis at Biito, Arihosnofir the son of

Nit at

at Esneh, were each in turn identified with their individualities in his.

Thus we Sais,

Shu

find

that Horus the son

Khnurau the son the son of

Hathor

Atumu, and

lost

Sooner or later this was bound to result in bringing

the triads closer together, and in their absorption into one another.

all

of

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 Shii

Many examples of these irregular Enneads were first collected by Lepsius (JJeher den erslen 2Egypluchen Gotterhreis, pis. i.-iv.), and later by Brugsch {Thesaurus Inscriptionum jEgypliacarum, pp 724-730), and they wer* sxplained as they are here explained by Maspero 0tudes de Mijtholoyic et d'Archg'ologie tgyptiennet vol. ii. pp. 245, 246). The best translation which could then be given of pauit was cycle, the cycle of the gods ; but this did not specify the number. ^

— 152

THE GODS OF EGYPT.

under a different name.

It having been finally admitted in the sacerdotal

colleges that

Tum{l and Shu, father and

were one,

son,

it

inevitably followed that these parents themselves were

Eeasoning in

identical with Tiimii.

the divine sons were,

and as each divine son was

therefore, identical with Tum^i, the father of ShiX,

one with his parents,

all

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

But

different beings.

this conception of deity towards

which their ideas were converging has nothing in of the

God

of

our modern religions and philosophies.

Egyptians was ever spoken of simply as God.

god

"

nutit'

udu

common with

—

uditi

at Heliopolis

god " at Sebennytos and

;

No god

of

the

T{lm{l was the " one and only

Anhuri-Shii was also the " one and only

The unity

at Thinis.

the conception

of Attlmii did not interfere

with that of Anhuri-Shu, but each of these gods, although the " sole " deity

The

in his

own domain, ceased

spirit,

always alert and jealous, prevented the higher dogma which was dimly

to be so in the

domain of the

apprehended in the temples from triumphing over over the whole land. cities,

Egypt had

or even important temples

God, " beside

whom

there

is

;

as

many

'*

other.

local religions

feudal

and extending

sole " deities as she

had large

she never accepted the idea of the sole

none other."

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT. THE DIVINE DYNASTIES RA, SHU, OSIRIS, SIT, HORUS— THOT, AND THE INVT;NTI0N OP SCIENCES AND WRITING MENES, AND THE THREE FIRST HUMAN DYNASTIES. :

—

The Egyptians claim

man and first

of animals

to be the

King of Egypt, and

his fabulous history

and ascends

The legend of ShU and SibH the

world

—

peace,

:

The Osirian embalmment

soul,

:

— The reign of Osiris Onnophris and oflsis

and

is

entombed by

privileges

and

subdivisions,

Magic

arts

:

its

:

:

he reveals all sciences to

defects, influence

—Medicine

syllabic, alphabetic.

:

— The wars of

Horus

— The Book

judgment of

— Confusion

the dead in the bark of the

the

between

— The

Sun

Sit.

—Astronomy,

of the heavenly bodies

incantations, amulets

Writing: ideographic,

men

they civilize Egypt

laM— The

duties of Osirian sends

— The campaigns of Harmakhis against

Thot, the inventor

:

Osiris opened to the followers of

Osirian and Solar ideas as to the state of the dead going forth by day

Isis,

the two gods.

the soul in search of the fields of

— The

and robbed by

and avenged by Horvs

Isis

Egypt between

the division of

kingdom of

the

Dead—Tlie journeying of

the negative confession

he allows himself to be duped

:

tJie

into heaven.

by Sit,

Osiris, slain

Typhon and of Horus

of the

traditions concerning the creation of

:

— The Heliopolitan Enneads the framework of the divine dynasties — JRd,

destroys rebellious men,

and

most ancient of peoples

and

the

stellar tables

days upon

the vitalizing spirits,

;

the year, its

— treatment —

human

diagnosis,

destiny

154

(

)

The history of Egypt as handed doicn by tradition : Ma^ietho,

the royal lists,

main

divisions

— The beginnings of early history vague and uncertain Menes, and the legend of Memphis — The first three human dynasties, the two Thinite and the Memphite —

of Egyptian history

its

Character and origin of the legends concerning motium.ents

:

the step

pyramid of Saqqdrah.

:

them

—

TJie

famine

stela

— The

earliest

wgiMiga^^iiifflafftS^g^I^ ISia,

m

LKDLK THE PKUTLCTION OF TUB

HAVINti FLED TO TUE MAKSHES, SICKLES HOKLS

CHAPTEE

GUDa.'

III.

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT. The

divine dynasties

:

Hoius— Thot, and the invention — Manes, and tlie three first human dynasties.

Ea, Shft, Osiris,

Sit,

of sciences

and writing

rriHE building up and diffusion of the doctrine

of

the Ennead, like the formation of the land of

Egypt, demanded centuries of sustained turies

of which

neither the

effort,

cen-

the inhabitants themselves knew

number nor the authentic

history.

When

questioned as to the remote past of their race, they

proclaimed themselves the most ancient of mankind, in

a

comparison with

mob

of

whom

all other races

were but

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 ;

"..-- •Z^.•'-J.'i,-^

had completed his work, so eager were the gods

No

behold their birth.

to

Egyptian disputed the reality of this right of the

drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato (Rosellini, Monuichneumon, menti del Culto, pi. xix. 2). The vignette, also drawn by Faucher-Gudin, represents an has been variously or Pharaoh's rat, sitting up on its haunches, with paws uplifted in adoration. It out of the mud, and interpreted. I take it to be the image of an animal spontaneously generated Gizeh giving thanks to Ea at the very moment of its creation. Tlie original ia of bronze, and in the »

Bas-relief at

Phil»

;

Aluseum (Mabiette, Album photographtque,

pi. 5).

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

156 firstborn,

which ennobled the whole race

;

but

if

they were asked the

name

of

harmony was broken, and each advanced the claims of a different personage.-^ Phtah had modelled man with his own hands ^ Khnumii had formed him on a potter's table.^ Ea at his first rising, their divine father, then the

;

seeing the earth desert and bare, had flooded flood of tears

all living things,

;

it

with his rays as with a

vegetable and animal, and

man

himself,

had

sprung pell-mell from his eyes, and were scattered abroad with the light

Sometimes the

over the surface of the world.*

a

less

poetic

The

aspect.

mud

of

the

facts

were presented under

heated

Nile,

excess

to

burning sun, fermented and brought forth the various races of

by spontaneous forms. tion.

might

Then

generation,^ having

its

into

itself

men and animals

a thousand living

procreative power became weakened to the verge of exhaus-

Yet on the banks still

moulded

by the

of the river, in the height of

summer, smaller animals

be found whose condition showed what had once taken place

in the case of the larger kinds.

Some appeared

struggling to free themselves from the oppressive feebly stirred their heads their articulation

and

fore feet, while their

as already fully formed,

mud

;

and

others, as yet imperfect,

hind quarters were completing

and taking shape within the matrix of

earth.^

It was not

Ea

HiPPTs OF Rhegitjm, frag. 1, in Mxjllek-Didot, Fraqm. Hist. Gr., vol. ii. p. 13 Aristotle, Politics, and Meteorology, i. 14 Diodorus Sicultjs, i. 10, 22, 50, etc. We know the words which Plato puts into the mouth of an Egyptian priest ; " 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" {Timxus, 22 B; Jowett's translation, vol. iii. pp. Other nations disputed tlieir priority— the Phrygians (Herodotus, ii 11), the Medes, or 349, 350). rather the tribe of the Magi among the Medes (Aristotle in Diogenes Laertius, pr. 6), the Ethiopians (Diodorus, iii, 2), the Scythians (Justinus, ii. 1 ; Ajjimianus Marcellinus, xxxi. 15, 2). 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 (Wiedemann, '

;

vii. 9,

;

!

;

Herodots Zweites Buck, pp. 43-46). 2 At Philse (RosELLiNi, Monumenti del Culto, pi. xxi. 1) and at Denderah, Phtah is represented as piling upon his potter's table the phistic clay from which he is about to make a human body (Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia, pi. cccviii.), and which is somewhat wrongly called the egg of the

lump of earth from which man came forth at his creation. Khnamti calls himself ."the potter who fashions men, the modeller of the gods" (Champollion, Monuments de VFgypte et de la Nuhie, pi. Ixxiii. 1 Rosellini, Monumenti del Culto, world. 3

At

It is really the

Philae,

;

XX. 1; Brugsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum Mgyptiacarum, p. 752, No. 11). He there moulds the members of Osiris, the husband of the local Isis (Rosellini, Monumenti del Culto, pi. xxiL 1), as at pi.

Erment he forms the body

of Harsamtafli (Rosellini, Monumenti del Culto, pi. xlviii. 3), or rather that of Ptolemy Csesarion, the son of Julius Caesar and the celebrated Cleopatra, identified with

Harsamtaui.

With reference to the substances which proceeded from the eye of Ra, see the remarks of Birch, Sur un papyrus magique du Musee Britannique (cf. Bevue ArcMu'logique, 2nd series, 1863, vol. vii); and Maspero, M^moire sur quelques papyrus du Louvre, pp. 91, 92. 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 Sha and Tafnuit (Lefebure, Les Quatre Races humaines aujugement dernier, in tiie Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archxology, vol. iii. p. 44, et seq., and Le Cham et VAdam ^gyptien, in the same publication, vol. iv., 1887, p. 167, et seq.). * Diodorus Sicllus, book I. i. 10. * PoMPONius Mela, De Situ " Nilus glebis etiam infundit animas, ipsaque humo orbis, i. 9. vitalia eflingit hoc eo manifestum est, quoJ, ubi sedavit diluvia, ac se sibi reddidit, per humentes :

;

TRADITIONS CONCERNING THE CREATION OF

MAN AND

alone whose tears were endowed with vitalizing power. beneficent or malevolent, Sit as well as Osiris or

ing

^

;

and

and the work of their eyes, when once multiplied

came from the eyes

that which

The

Ra.

vigorously

as

character

individual

it

Isis,

had

ANIMALS.

157

All divinities whether

could give

fallen

upon

life

by weep-

earth, flourished

as of

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

v-i

harmful.

upon the

Daily their eyes shed

world those juices by which plants

made

are

poisonous,

as

well

as

malign influences, crime, and madness. fell

Their

saliva,

the foam which

from their mouths during their

kunCmO modelling man upon a

pottek's table.^

attacks of rage, their sweat, their

blood

itself,

were

all

no

less to

be feared.

When

any drop of

it

touched the

campos quredam nondum perfects animalia, sed turn primum accipientia spiritum, et ex parte jam formata, ex parte adhuc terra visuntur." The same story is told, but with reference to rats only, by Flint {H. N., x. £8), by Diodorus (I. i. 15), by ^lianus (H. Anim., ii. 56 vi. 40), by Mackobids (Saturn., vii. 17, etc.), 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, Archi-palatinus, Admiranda Nili, Fiaucofurti, mdcxxhi., 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 Fayiim (B. H. Brown, The Fayum and Lake Mceris, p. 26). 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. ' The tears of Shft and TafnMt are changed into incense-bearing trees (Birch, Sur un papijrus magique du Mm^e Britannique, p. 3). It was more especially on the day of the death of Osiris tliat the gods had shed their fertilizing tears. On the etfects- produced by the sweat and blood of the gods, see Birch, ibid., pp. 3, 6 and Maspero, M^moire sur quelques papyrus du Louvre, p. 93. ^ Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gayet. The scene is taken from bas-reliefs in the temple of Luxor, where the god Khnftmft 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. ;

;

;

TEE LEGENDARY BISTORT OF EGYPT.

158 earth,

straightway

baleful

—a

and

germiuated,

it

serpent, a scorpion, a plant

produced

something

and

strange

of deadly nightshade or of henbane.

But, on the other hand, the sun was all goodness, and persons or things

which ,

forth

cast

it

maketh man

that

into

infallibly

life

partook of

who works

glad, the bee

for

wax and honey,^ the meat and herbs which clothe him, all useful things which he

him

are

makes

its

benignity.

Wine

in the flowers secreting

his

food, the

that

stuffs

for himself, not only

emanated

from the Solar Eye of Horus, but were indeed nothing more than the Eye of

Horus under

The devout

sacrifice.^

and in his name

different aspects,

generally

the sons and flock of Ea, came

they were presented in

were of opinion that the into the

first

Egyptians,

world happy and perfect

;

^

by

degrees their descendants had fallen from that native felicity into their present

Some, on the contrary, affirmed that their ancestors were born as so

state.

many

brutes,

knew

notliing of articulate speech,

unprovided with the most essential

like other animals, until the

arts of gentle life.

and expressed themselves by

They

cries only,

day when Thot taught them both speech and

writing.

These tales sufficed for popular edification

The

for the intelligence of the learned.

to the possession of a few incomplete

beginnings of humanity.

fathers chiefs

what

;

why

;

gone to

chiefs they

first

foreign

in

latter did not confine

to

know the

what manner of

their ambition

details concerning the

history of

life

its

consecutive

had been led by their

had obeyed and the names or adventures of those

part of the nations

settle

;

they provided but meagre fare

and contradic tory

They wished

development from the very

;

had

lands;

left

the blessed banks of the Rile and

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

No

efforts of

osity

'

:

bore

testimony.

imagination were needful for the satisfaction of their curi-

the old substratum of indigenous traditions was rich enough, did they

Birch, Sur un papyrus magique du Mus^e Britannique, p. 3: " When the Sun-god weeps a fall from his eyes, it is changed into working bees ; they work in all

second time, and lets water

kinds of flowers, and there honey and wax are made instead of water." Elsewhere the bees are suppressed, and the honey or wax flows directly from the Eye of Ea (Maspeeo, M^moire sur quelques papyrus du Louvre, pp. 21, 22, 41, 97). ^ Brugsch was, I believe, the first to recognize different kinds of wine and stuffs in expressions into which "the Eye of Horus" enters (Bictionnaire Hi^roglyphique, p. 103; cf. Supplement, pp. 106-114). The Pyramid texts have since amply confirmed his discovery, and shown it to be of general application. '

In the tomb of Seti

refers to 11.

1, 2, 4).

tliat

To

the

I.,

the words floch of the Sun, flock of Rd, are those by which the god Horus Tlie Alabaster Sarcophagus of Oimenephtah L, King of Egypt, pi. vii. D,

men (Sharpe-Bonomi, first

Certain expressions used by Egyptian writers are in themselves sufficient to show men were supposed to have lived in a state of happiness and perfection.

generations of

—

the Egyptians the times of Rd, the times of the god that is to say, the centuries immediately were the ideal age, and no good thing had appeared upon earth since then.

following on the creation

—

— THE ENNEADS THE FRAMEWORK OF THE DIVINE DYNASTIES. bat take the trouble to work

The

incongruous elements.

had already taken

as they

referring to the creation

;

out systematically, and to eliminate

it

hand the same task with regard

myths

to the

and the Enneads provided them with a ready-made

They changed the gods

framework.

most

its

work in hand,

priests of Heliopolis took this

in

159

of the

Ennead

into

many

so

kings,

determined with minute accuracy the lengths of their reigns, and compiled

The duality

their biographies from popular tales.^

an admirable expedient

Tumu

of chaos.

Ocean

Ea

:

for

was identified with Nu, and relegated to the primordial

was retained, and proclaimed the

and

order

to

hostile

god supplied

connecting the history of the world with that

had not established his rule without beings

of the feudal

light,

did he succeed in organizing his

first

difiQculty.

engaged

kingdom

until

" Children of Defeat,"

The him

in

Pierced with

itself.^

wounds, Apopi the serpent sank into the depths of Ocean at the very

The secondary members

together with the Sun, formed the of the local

first

as

of

theology

welcomed

this

method

of

they had welcomed the principle of the

writing

Ennead

them retained the Heliopolitan demiurge, and hastened to with their own] others completely eliminated him in favour

— Amon

at

Thebes, Thot

Hermopolis, Phtah

at

keeping the rest of the dynasty absolutely unchanged.* '

The

identity of

the

first

with

divine dynasties

haustively demonstrated by Maspeko, Etudes de

dawn

dynasty, which began with the

of

divinity,

moment

of the Great Ennead,

day, and ended at the coming of Horus, the son of

schools

readily

first

nor

battles;

fierce

he had conquered them in

nocturnal combat at Hermopolis, and even at Heliopolis

when the new year began.^

He

king of the world.

at

The

Isis.

as

history

Some

itself.

associate

him

of the feudal

Memphis,

The gods

in

no

the Heliopolitan Enneads has been exet d'Arcli^ologle ^gyptiennes, vol, ii.

Mythologie

pp. 279-296.

The Children of Defeat, in Egyptian Mosu hatashu, or Mosu batashtt, are often confounded with the followers of Sit, the enemies of Osiris. From the first they were distinct, and represented beingg *

dragon Apopi at their head. Their defeat at Hermopolis sky above the sacred mound in that city (cf. p. This defeat is mentioned in chap. xvii. 146), substituted order and light for chaos and darkness. of the Booh of the Dead (Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. xxiii. 1. 3, et seq.), in which connexion E. DE Rouge first explained its meaning (^Etudes sur le Bituel fun^raire des Anciens ^Igyvtiens, In the same chapter of the Book of the Dead (Naville's edition, vol. i. pis. xxiv., xxv., pp. 41, 42). cf. E. de Rouge, Etudes sur le Bituel fun^raire, pp. 56, 57), reference is also made to the 11. 54-58 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. ' See Birch, Inscriptions in the Hieratic and Demotic Character, pi. xxix. 11. 8, 9 and Sur une Stele hi^ratique in Chabas, Mdanges J^gyptoloijiques, 2nd series, p. 334. * On Amon-R§., and on Monta, first king of Egypt according to the Theban tradition, see Lepsius, Ueher den ersten JSgyptischen Gotterlireis, pp. 173, 174, 180-183, 186. Thot is the chief of the Hermopolitan Ennead (see chap. ii. p. 145, et seq.), and the titles ascribed to him by inscriptions maintaining his supremacy (Brugsch, Beligion und Mythologie, p. 445, et seq.) 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 ol Thot, because he was the equal of Atftmii, hence the equal of Khopri, hence the equal of Ra." Atunm-Khopri-Ra being the first earthly king, it follows that the Majesty of Thot, with whom

and forces

hostile to the sun, with the

corresponded to the

moment when

Shfi, raising the

;

;

M

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

160

way compromised their prestige by becoming incarnate and descending

to

men of finer nature, and their qualities, including that were human qualities raised to the highest pitch of

Since they were

earth.

of miracle-working, intensity,

them

was not considered derogatory to

it

have

personally to

The

watched over the infancy and childhood of primeval man.

raillery in

which the Egyptians occasionally indulged with regard to them, the good-

humoured and even ridiculous

them

roles ascribed to

in certain legends, do

them had

cooled.

The

greater the respect of believers for the objects of their worship, the

more

not prove that they were despised, or that zeal for

easily do they tolerate the taking of such liberties,

and the condescension of

them

in the eyes of generations

members

the

who came

of the Ennead, far from lowering

too late to live with

them upon

enhanced the

familiar terms, only

love and j'everence in which they were held.

Nothing shows the rough

arms

for since ShCl

;

of Sibil, earth

complete, with

and sky were but

the

;

abundant

;

^

human

the labourer's

toil,

of

they

supreme

fall

is

Ptolemy

there,

cities,

was more

were higher and more to

mark

like

an illusion common to is

the

had all

never assuaged by the

back upon the remotest past in search of an age when

felicity

actually enjoyed

which

by their

identifies himself,

earthly king.

soil

any person or thing, they said that the It

attempt

Egypt was

Then the

peoples; as their insatiable thirst for happiness

that

life.

first

and when the Egyptians of Pharaonic times wished

never been known since the time of Ra.

present,

reposed in the

her two chains of mountains, her Nile, her

harvests, without

admiration

their

still

Nevertheless in this

one.^

people of her nomes, and the nomes themselves.

generous

His world was ours in

was yet non-existent, and Nuit

was vegetable, animal, and

at a world there all

than the history of Ra.

this better

is

only

ancestors.

Ra

known

to

them

as

an

ideal

was

dwelt in Heliopolis, and the most

comparing himself to the three forms of the god Ri,, is also the first Phtah at the head of the Memphite dynasties, see remarks Mgyptisehen GStterkreis, pp. 168-173, 184, 186, 188-190; and by Maspero,

Finally, on the placing of

by Lepstos, Ueher den

ersten

Etudes de Mythologie et d' Arcli€ologie J^gyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 283, et seq. * This conception of the primitive Egyptian world is clearly implied in the very terms employed by the author of The Degtruction of Men. NMt 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 (Lefebuke, Le Tombeau de S€ti I., part iv. pi. xvi. 1. 28, et seq.). In chap. xvii. of the Book of the Dead (Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. 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 Shd had separated Ndtt from Sibfi, and forcibly uplifted lier above the body of her husband (Naville, Deux lignes du Livre des Moris, in the Zeitschrift, 1874, p. 59 and La Destruction des hommes par les Dieux, ;

;

in tlie Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archasology, vol. iv. p. 3).

This

an ideal in accordance with the picture drawn of the fields of lalfi in chap. ex. of the tlie 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. -

is

Book of

;

— TEE FIRST KING OF EGYPT.

BA,

known

ancient portion of the temple of the city, that

Prince"

Hdit Saru,

— passed

for

161

as the "

having been his palace.^

Mansion of the 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

his food, received the offerings of his subjects,

hold

affairs.

It

offices

about his person, prepared

attended to his linen and house-

was said that the oiru-mau

—the

high priest of Ra, the

AT THE FIRST SOUB OF THE DAY THE SUN EMBARKS FOB HIS JOURNEY THROUGH EGYPT.* hanhistit

— his high

priestess,

and generally speaking

all

the servants of the

temple of Heliopolis, were either directly descended from members of this household establishment of the god, or had succeeded to their

unbroken succession.^ and, his

offices

In the morning he went forth with his divine

amid the acclamations of the crowd, entered the bark

in

first

in

train,

which he made

accustomed circuit of the world, returning to his home at the end of

twelve hours after the accomplishment

of

his

journey.*

He

visited

each

* See p. 136 on the Mansion of the Prince. It was also currently known as Hdit ait, the Great Mansion (Brugsch, Dictionnaire Ge'ograpldque, pp. 475, 476), the name given to the dwellings of kings or princes (Maspero, Sur le sens des mots Nuit et Hdit, in the Proceedings of the Society of

Biblical Archxology, 1889-90, vol. xii. p. 253, et seq.). ^ Drawn by Faucher-Gudiu, from one of the scenes represented upon the architraves of tho prouaos at Edfii (Rosellini, Monumenti del Culto, pi. xxxviii. No. 1). ' Among the human servants of the Pharaoh R§,, the story of the Destruction of Men mentions a miller, and women to grind grain for making beer (Lefebuke, Le Tombeau de S^ti /<", part iv.

In a passage of chap. cxv. of tlie Booh of the Dead (Lepsius' edition, 11. 5, 6), so obscure as to have escaped the first translators, the mythic origin of the hanhistit, the prit-stess with the plaited hair, is referred to the reign of RS, (Goodwin, On Chapter CXV. of the Booh of the Dead, in the Zeitschrift,^ 1873, p. 106; Lefebure, Le Chapitre CXV. du Livre des Marts, in the pi. XV.

11.

17, 18).

Melanges d'Arch^ologie Egyptienne et Assyrienne, vol. i. pp. 161, 163, 165). * Of. Pleyte-Rossi, Les Papyrus de Turin, pi. cxxxii. 11. 2, 5, where there is an account of the going forth of the god, according to his daily custom. The author has simply applied to the Sun as Pharaoh the order of proceedings of the sun as a heavenly body, rising in the morning to make his course

round the world and

to give light

by day.

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

162

province in turn, and in each he tarried for an hour, to settle the

matters, as

judge of

final

He

appeal.-^

all

disputed

gave audience to both small

and great, he decided their quarrels and adjudged their lawsuits, he granted investiture of

from the royal domains to those who had deserved them,

fiefs

income needful

allotted or confirmed to every family the

and

He

tenance.

them

he taught to

;

and did

pitied the sufferings of his people,

His incessant bounties

talismans

name given

the

:

bosom

some

lest

him

left

him by

to

him

they had revealed to

utmost to alleviate

comers potent formulas against reptiles and beasts of

all

prey, charms to cast out evil spirits, and the best illness.

his

main-

for their

alone,

length

at

his father

recipes for preventing

with only one of his

and mother

at his birth,

which

and which he kept concealed within

sorcerer should get possession of

it

his

to use for the furtherance

of his evil spells.^

But old age came " bis

mouth trembled,

upon the ground."

^

and

on,

infirmities followed

his slaver trickled

who had

Isis,

down

;

Ea grew

the body of

bent,

to earth and his saliva dropped

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

millions of men, clever to

whom

as unto

" was a

Isis

among

woman more knowing

illness,

Ra nothing was unknown

the only chance of curing

either in heaven or

him

a terrible malady upon Ra, concealing

him

and by means of

earth."

struck

^

down

lay in knowing his real name, and Isis

its

upon

When man or god was

thereby adjuring the evil being that tormented him.^

services as his nurse,

her malice than

millions of the gods, equal to millions of spirits,

She contrived a most ingenious stratagem.

by

in

cause from his

determined to cast ;

then to

offer

sufferings to extract from

her

him

The dead Sun-god pursued the same course in the world of night, and employed his time in way as a Pharaoh (Maspeko, J^tudes de Mythologie et d' Arch^ologie J^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. So it was with the Sun-god King of Egypt when " he goeth forth to see that which he has 44, 45). created, and to traverse the two kingdoms which he has made " (Pleyte-Rossi, Les Fapyrus de '

the same

Turin,

pi. cxxxii.

1.

12).

The legend of the Sun-god robbed of his heart by Isis was published in by MM. Pleyte and Kossi (Les Papyrus M^ratiques de Turin, pis. xxxi., Ixxvii., ^

three fragments cxxxi.-cxxxviii.),

but they had no suspicion of its importance. Its meaning was first recognized by Lefebure {Un chapitre de la Chronique solaire, in the Zeitschri/t, 1883, pp. 27-33), who made a complete translation of the text. *

Pleyte-Eossi, Les Papyrus hi^ratiques de Turin,

*

Ibid., ibid., pi. cxxxii.

11.

1, 2.

On

pi.

cxxxii.

pp. 110, 111, I have

11.

2, 3.

already pointed out

how

the gods

thus grew old. *

Ibid., ibid., pi. cxxxi.

1.

14

;

pi.

cxxxii.

1.

1.

For the power of the divine names, and the interest which magicians had in exactly knowing them, cf. Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'Arch^ologie iJgyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 298, et seq. *

BA ALLOWS HIMSELF TO BE DUPED AND BOBBED BY mysterious word indispensable to the success of

the

up mud impregnated with the divine

gathered

ISIS.

163

the exorcism.

She

and moulded of

saliva,

a sacred serpent which she hid in the dust of the road.

it

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 his gods

*What

:

the matter? what

is

no answer so much did his

is

*

:

What

is

the matter?

lips tremble, his

what

it ?

but he could

'

limbs shake, and the

hold upon his flesh as the Nile seizeth upon the land which

"

see it

me

Something painful hath stung it

not

what

;

my

my

;

hand hath not wrought

heart perceiveth

it,

pain that

may

in flames,

my

overpass

it.

.

.

Fire

.

my members

flesh trembleth, all

Behold

breaths of magic.

!

They came,

reacheth unto heaven."

There came

books of magic.

it

it,

is not,

me

into

breathless

throats,

May

father of the gods ? in thee

it

of their mouths^

Isis

and she said

and begins

ways, travelling through, I

What

"

:

up

On

^

more than

Fire

fire, all

lament anew

to

water

my members

it is not,

of summer."

name.

his ineffable

enumeration of his called

"Khopri

^

Isis

heart

is

of

full

words which pour

what

it ?

is

O

it,

will

?

Surely

make him

'*

:

and over

mountains, that

was bitten by a serpent that

I

am

yet

my

I colder than water, I burr

drops

from

roll

my

trick,

and

face as in the

evade

tries to

not

is

it

him

by an

takes the universe to witness that he

He

Ka

in the morning,

to

then, as I went along the

I,

proposes her remedy, and cautiously asks

But he divines her titles.

mouth

stream with sweat, I tremble, mine eye

steady, no longer can I discern the sky,

season

my

and whose science

head against thee

his

my double land of Egypt

is not,

it

is

learning the cause of his torment, the

might look upon that which I have made,

1 saw not.

yet

no

is

not be that a serpent hath wrought this suffering

retreat at the sight of thy rays." is terrified,

and there

with her sorcery, her

he shall be overthrown by beneficent incantations, and I

Sun-god

two eyes

these children of the gods, all with their

that one of thy children hath lifted

;

my

children of the gods

life-giving breaths, her recipe for the destruction of pain, her life

sensations.

are full of shiverings born of

there be brought unto

let

who know the power

of beneficent words,

not, water

it is

^

nothing that I have made knoweth

yet have I never tasted suffering like unto

it is,

invadeth."

his

yet

it,

and

'

make them venom take

it

Presently he came to himself, and succeeded in describing

it ?

is

at noon,

Tumu

in the evening."

is

The

poison did not recede, but steadily advanced, and the great god was not eased.

Then said.

Isis said to

TeU

it '

to

Ka: "Thy name was not spoken

me and

the poison will depart

;

Pleyte-Kossi, Les Papyrus hi^ratiqms de Turin,

*

Ibid., ibid., pi. cxxxii.

*

IiiiD., ibid., pi.

cxxxiii.

1.

9

11.

;

pi. cxxxiii.

3-5.

1.

3.

in that

for pi.

which thou hast

he liveth upon cxxxii.

11.

6-8.

whom

TEE LEQENDABY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

164 a charm

is

pronounced in his own name."

The poison glowed

strong as the burning of flame, and the Majesty of leave that thou shouldest search within me,

my bosom

pass from

into thy bosom."

O

mother

Ra Isis

like

said, " I !

was

fire, it

grant thee

my name

and that

In truth, the all-powerful name was

^

hidden within the body of the god, and could only be extracted thence

by means which

of a surgical operation

similar

about to be mummified.

is

undertook

it,

carried

through

it

made herself a goddess by virtue mere woman had deprived Ra of his last

out the poison, and

successfully, drove

The cunning

of the name.

Isis

upon a corpse

that practised

to

of a

talisman.

In course of time against is

him

"

:

Lo

!

his

men

perceived

his decrepitude.^

Majesty waxeth

of gold, his hair of lapis-lazuli."

^

old, his

As soon

They took counsel

bones are of

silver, his flesh

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 Niiit,

me my

Divine Eye, Shu, Tafnuit, Sibu, and

the father an^ the mother gods who were with

the Nii, with the god Nii.

when thou

I was

Let each bring his cycle along with him

shalt have brought

great mansion that they

me when

them

may lend me

in

secret,

:

then,

;

thou shalt take them to the

their counsel and their consent,

hither from the Nii into this place where I have manifested myself."

family council comes together

coming So the

*

the ancestors of Ea, and his posterity

awaiting amid the primordial waters the time of their manifestation children

Sh{l

and

Tafniiit,

his

in

grandchildren Sibxi and Nuit.

They

still

—

his

place

themselves, according to etiquette, on either side his throne, prostrate, with their foreheads

to

the ground, and thus their conference begins

thou the eldest of the gods, from gods, behold

!

men who

whom

I took

are the emanation of

my

being,

"

:

Nii,

and ye the ancestor-

mine eye have taken counsel

Pleyte-Rossi, Les Papyrus hi^ratiquea de Turin, pi. cxxxii. 11. 10-12. The history of the legendary events which brought the reign of Ra to a close was inscribed upon two of the royal tombs in Thebes that of Seti I. and that of Ramses III. It can still be almost completely restored in spite of the many mutilations which deface both copies. It was discovered, translated, and commentated upon by Naville (La Destruction des hommes par les Dieux, in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Arch/eology, vol. iv. pp. 1-19, reproducing Hay's copies made at the beginning of this century; and V Inscription de la Destruction des hommes dans le afterwards published anew tomheau de Ramses III., in the Transactions, vol. viii. pp. 412-420) by Herr von Bergmann (Eieroglyphische Inschriften, pis. Ixxv.-lxxxii., and pp. 55, 56) completely translated by Brbgsch (Die neue Weltordnung nach Vernichtung des sundigen Menschengeschlechts nach einer Alidgyptischen Ueberlieferung, 1881); and partly translated by Latith (Aus JSgyptens Vorzeit, pp. 70-81) and by Lefebure (Un chapitre de la chronique solaire, in the Zeitschrift, 1883, '

*

:

;

;

pp. 32, 33).

Naville, La Destruction des hommes par les Dieux, vol. iv. pi. i. 1. 2; and vol. viii. pi. i. This description of the old age of the Sun-god is found word for word in other texts, and in the Fayum geographical papyrus (Maeiette, Les Papyrus hi€ratiques de Boulaq, vol. i. pi. ii.. No. vi., 11. 2, 3 cf. Latjth, Aus JSgyptens Vorzeit, p. 72). See also pp. 110, 111. * Naville, La Destruction des hommes -par les Dieux, vol. iv. pi. i. 11. 1-6 and vol. viiL pi. L '

I.

2.

;

;

II.

1-6.

BA DESTROYS REBELLIOUS MEN. together against

me

!

Tell

before I slay them, that I

me what ye would do, for may hear what ye would

the eldest, has the right to speak

made him,

upon thy throne, and great

who

those

plot together

not unreasonably

pomp

solemn

fears

awaits

them, and "

The

to say to them." to the tutelary

may

who created him,

sit

thou

shall rest

upon

the

into

which

have

I

desert was even then hostile

to

The

enemies.

their

con-

Ea

are

founded, and pronounces in favour of sum-

well

mary execution; executioner.

"

Eye

is

to be the

go forth that

it

may

the Divine

Let

it

smite

those

who have devised

there

is

no Eye more to be feared than thine

when

it

attacketh in the form of Hathor."

Eye

the

son Ra, god greater

suspect

admits that the apprehensions of

clave

shall

gods of Egypt, and offered an almost

asylum

inviolable

Nri, as

the

see

flee

desert, their hearts terrified at that

^

But Ra

when men

that

of royal justice, they

the fate that

"

My

when thine eye

shall be the terror !

say thereto."

"

older than the gods

against thee

have bidden you here

I

and demands that the guilty

first,

be brought to judgment and formally condemned.

than the god who

165

evil

against

who would chasten but not destroy from her carnage;

By

thy

falls

with

left

SOKHIT, THE LIONESS-HEADED.*

his

children,

commands her

to

cease

but the goddess has tasted blood, and refuses to obey

life,"

heart right joyful!" slayer,^

So

After some hours, Ra,

great strokes of the knife.

"

for

takes the form of Hathor, suddenly

upon men, and slays them right and

him,

thee,

she

replies,

That

is

"

when

why she was

and represented under the form of a

slaughter

I

afterwards called

she had trampled

asleep,

Ra

through

blood.^

As

;

is

my

Sokhit the

Nightfall stayed

fierce lioness.

her co'jrse in the neighbourhood of Heracleopolis opolis

men then

the way from Heli-

all

soon

she

as

had

fallen

hastily took effectual measures to prevent her from beginning her

Naville,

La

Destruction des homines par

les

Dieux, voL

iv. pi.

L

11.

8-10

9-n. ^ Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a bronze statuette of the Saite period (Mariette, Album photographique du Mus^e de Boulaq, pi. 6).

;

and

vol. viii. pi.

L

11.

in the

Gizeh

Museum

may be derived from the verb sokhu, to strike, to kill with the blow of a stick. The passage from the Fayiim papyrus which I have already mentioned alludes to this massacre, but to another tradition of it than we are following, and one according to which men had openly resisted the god, and fought him in pitched battle in the neighbourhood of Heracleopolis Magna (Makiette, Les Papyrus ^gyptiens du Mus^e de Boulaq, vol. i. p). ii., No. vi., *

Sokhit

*

11.

1-6).

TEE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

166

"

work again on the morrow. and

who go

swift,

He

said

When

like the wind.'

me mandragora

in plenty.'^

behalf messengers agile

these messengers were straightway *

Let them run to Elephantine

When

they had brought him the

brought to him, the Majesty of the god said

and bring

my

Call on

'

:

:

mandragora, the Majesty of this great god summoned the miller which Heliopolis that he

grain

might bray

it

made

with the liquor, and thereof was

Ea

human

in

all

goddess

;

"

:

*

he

It is well,' said

*

;

it

:

mingled

to possess the wished-

men from

therewith shall I save

then, addressing those of his train

'

blood, were

seven thousand jars of beer."

himself examined this delectable drink, and finding

for properties

in

and the women-servants having crushed

;

the beer, the mandragora, and also

for

is

*

Take these

the

jars in your arms,

and carry them to the place where she has slaughtered men.'

Ka, the king,

caused dawn to break at midnight, so that this philtre might be poured

down upon the earth palms, according as

;

and the

it

fields

pleased

were flooded with

the depth of four

it to

the souls ot his Majesty."

In the morn-

ing the goddess came, "that she might return to her carnage, but she

found that drunken,

it

all

was flooded, and her countenance softened

was her heart that softened

thought of men."

a

past,

partly with the object

rite,

and

when she had

she went away drunk, without further

;

There was some fear

fumes of drunkenness were

;

lest her fury

might return when the danger Ea instituted

to obviate this

of instructing

future

generations as

to the

chastisement which he had inflicted upon the impious, partly to console Sokhit

He

her discomfiture.

for

brewed for her as

many

That was the origin of

New

decreed that " on

jars of philtre as there

those jars of philtre, in

all

priestesses, which, at the feast of

Hathor,

all

Peace was re-established, but could

it

Year's

Day

there should be

were priestesses of the sun.

number equal

men make from

to that of the

that day forth."

^

Would not men,

as

soon as they had recovered from their terror, betake themselves again

to

plotting against the god ?

The

race.

Besides,

last

Ea now

ingratitude of his children had

felt

long?

nothing but disgust for our

wounded him deeply

;

he Toresaw

ever-renewed rebellions as his feebleness became more marked, and he shrank

from having to order new massacres in which mankind would perish gether.

"By my

heart

too

is

life,"

weary

for

says

me

he to the gods who accompanied him, to

alto-

"my

remain with mankind, and slay them until

Tlie mandragora of Elephantine was used in the manufacture of an intoxicating and narcotic drink employed either in medicine (Ebers, Papyrus Mers, pi. xxxix. I. 10) or in magic. In a special article, Brugsch has collected particulars preserved by the texts as to the uses of this plant (Die '

Alraune ah altdgyptische Zauberpflanze, in the Zeitschrift, vol. xxix. pp. 31-33). It was not as yet credited with the human form and the peculiar kind of life ascribed to it by western sorcerers. * Naville, La Destruction des homines par lea Dieux, vol. iv. pis. i., ii., U. 1-27; vol. viii. pis.

i., ii., 11.

1-34.

!

RA ASCENDS INTO HEAVEN. they are no more

And

annihilation

:

not of the

is

dost triumph

when thou

yield to their representations

he

;

thy pleasure."

at

time

first

;

state in

Nu

weariness

But Ea does not

^

My

'' :

limbs are decrepit for

not go to any place where I can be reached."

I will

no easy matter to

of thy

kingdom wherein they murmur

will leave a

against him, and turning towards Nil he says

the

that I love to make."

gifts

"Breathe not a word

the gods exclaim in surprise:

at a time

167

him an

find

owing to the imperfect

inaccessible retreat

which the universe had been

saw no other way out of the

by the

left

difficulty

It was

first effort

of the demiurge.

than that of setting to work to

Ancient tradition had imagined the separation of

complete the creation.

earth and sky as an act of violence exercised by Shu upon Sibu and Nutt.^

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 Nuit, for her part, showed herself to be a

thereby do his father a service.

devoted daughter her her duty

;

whom

there was no need to treat roughly in order to teach

"

beloved ancestor beyond reach.

Ka

thy father

shall say

;

The Majesty

and thou, daughter

and hold him suspended above the earth father

Nu ?

'

! '

of

Nu

N^iit,

said

Nuit said

*

:

Thus spake Nuit, and she did that which

*

:

Son Shu, do

as

him upon thy back

place

And how

then,

Nu commanded

she changed herself into a cow, and placed the Majesty of

When

and place her

of herself she consented to leave her husband,

Ea upon

my

her

;

her back.

men who had not been slain came to give thanks to Ea, behold but a cow stood there, and they they found him no longer in his palace those

;

perceived

him upon the back

of the cow."

depart that they did not try to turn give

to

him such a proof

of their

the complete pardon of their crime. the morning,

O Ea

!

They found him

him from

his purpose, but only desired

repentance as

"They

so resolved to

should assure them of

said unto

him: 'Wait

until

our lord, and we will strike down thine enemies who

have taken counsel against

thee.'

to his mansion,

So his Majesty returned

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 unto you, for

sacrifice

of this

god said unto them

:

*

Your

precludes the execution of the guilty.'

the origin upon earth of sacrifices in which blood was shed." *

11.

sins are remitted

Navillk, La Destruction des homines par

les

Dieux,

vol.

iv.

pi.

ii.

And

this

was

^

11.

27-29;

viii. pi. li.

3i-37.

See what is said in chap. ii. pp. 128, 129, as to the wresting of Nftit from the arms of Siba. Naville, La Destruction des hommes par les Dieux, vol. iv. pi. ii. U- 27-36. Many lacunaa occur in this part of the text and make its reading difficult in both copies. The general sense is certain, apart from some comparatively unimportant shades of meaning. ==

'

—

—

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

168

Thus

came

to

it

an understanding as to the terms of their future relationship.

god the

life

sins of men.^

accepted the expiation just as

which he

felt to killing his

man

;

For

was offered to him

it

alone was worthy

this one time the

then the repugnance

;

should henceforth furnish the

gazelles, birds,

This point settled, he again mounted the cow, who

material for sacrifice.^

supported on her four legs as on so

many

pillars

and her

;

out above the earth like a ceiling, formed the

He

sky.

beings, chose two districts

—and

in

busied himself

the Field of Rest

SohJiU lalu

pended the

which were to give light by night.

many

stars

names which the legend assigned

the distance

" !

— and that

All this

!

to

—and sus-

related with

to the different regions of heaven. :

"

The Field

pity's sake give

me

from this the Field of Reeds took

its

to this philological pastime, Nuit, suddenly

supports to sustain

They came and

steadying these with

rests in

He added

unaccustomed heights, grew frightened, and cried

the support-gods. legs,

— and

While he gave himself up

transported

For

is

was the origin of the Field of Rest.

" There will I gather plants "

"

it

his abode, the

SoJcMt Eotpit

sight of a plain whose situation pleased him, he cried

name.

he peopled

plays upon words, intended, according to Oriental custom, as explana-

tions of the

At

;

which to establish

Field of Reeds

rose,

belly, stretched

with organizing the new world which he found on her back

many

god

children overcame him, he substituted beast for

man, and decided that oxen,

with

sacrifice

one which could completely

in their eyes the obligatory sacrifice, the only

wash away with his blood the

Human

who had offended him.

of those

atone for the wrongs committed against the godhead to

men Men

was that when on the point of separating for ever, the god and

offered to the

was

:

their

me

!

"

for

help:

This was the origin of

stationed themselves by each of her four

watch over

hands, and keeping constant

This legend, which seeks to explain the discontinuance of human sacrifices among the Egyptians, affords direct proof of their existence in primitive times (Naville, La Destruction dee hommea This 'par Us Dieux, in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. iv. pp. 17, 18). We shall see that uashUti laid in graves were in place of the male is confirmed by many facts. 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 (cf, p. 193), Even in Thebes, under the XIX'" •

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 (Masfero, Le Tomheau de Montuhihhopshouf, During this same period, moreover, in the M^moires de la Mission du Caire, vol. v. p. 452, et seq.). the most distinguished hostile chiefs takea in war were still put to death before the gods. lu several towns, as at Eilithyia

(De hide

et

Osiride, § 73,

Parthet's

edition, pp. 129, 130)

Evang., iv, gods, such as Osiris (Diodoeds, i. 88) or Kronos-Siba (Sextus Empirious, But generally speaking it was very sacrifice lasted until near Koman times. Heliopolis (Porphyrius,

De

Ahstinentid,

ii.

55, cf. Eusebius, Prmper.

and at

16), or before certain iii.

24, 221),

rare.

human

Almost every-

where cakes of a particular shape, and called irt /xfiara (Seleucos of Alexandria, in Athrn^us, iv p. 172), 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.

TEE LEGEND OF SEU AXD As

them.

169

SIBU.

was not enough to reassure the good beast, **Ea

this

my

son Shu, place thyself beneath sides over the supports,

who

head, and be her guardian

daughter Nuit, and keep watch on both

live in the twilight !

'

Shu obeyed

"

;

;

hold thou her up above thy

Nuit composed

herself,

and

#

/f^

*>>

TUE COW, SUSTAINED ABOVE THE EARTH BY SHU ASD TRE

NUIT,

the world,

'ITy

said,

now furnished with the sky which

it

'p

SUPPOKT-GODS.''

had hitherto lacked, assumed

present symmetrical form.^

its

Shu and Sibu succeeded Ea, but did not acquire ments of which have come down to whole universe •

ccxli.

:

"

The Majesty

lasting a popu-

Nevertheless they had their annals, frag-

great ancestor.

larity as their

so

of

us.^

Their power also extended over the

Shu was the excellent king

of the sky, of the

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. Cf. Champollion, Monuments de I'Egypte et de la 3 Lefebure, Le Tombeau de S^ti I. (in the M^moires de la Mission du Caire, vol. ;

Nubie, pi. ii.).

part

iv.

pi. xvii. •

Navtlle,

La

Archceology, vol.

Destruction des homines

iv. pi.

ii. 1.

par

les

Dieux, in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical

37, et seq.

They have been preserved upon

the walls of a naos which was first erected in Ait-Nobsfl, a city and afterwards transported towards the beginning of the Roman period into the This naos, which was discovered and suburban district of Rhinocolfira, the EI-Arish of to-day. pointed out by Gukrin more than twenty years ago (Jud^e, vol. ii. p. 241), has been copied, published, and translated by Griffith {The Antiquities of Tell el Yahudiyeh, in tlie Seventh Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, pis. xxiii.-xxv., and pp. 70-72 cf Maspero in the Eevue Critique, 1891, •

of the Eastern Delta,

;

vol.

i.

pp. 4-4-46).

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

170

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 Ea-Harmakhis."

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

they suddenly streamed in by the

later times,

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

From

ofif.^

sea to sea

Ra had

had surrounded the principal

fortified the eastern frontier against

cities

them.

He

with walls, embellished them with temples,

and placed within them those mysterious

more powerful

talismans

Thus Ait-nobsu, near the mouth

defence than a garrison of men.

it

of the

also the living

Wady-Tumilat, possessed one of the rods of the Sun-god, ursBus of his crown whose breath consumes all that

for

touches, and, finally, a

lock of his hair, which, being cast into the waters of a lake, was changed into

The employment

a hawk-headed crocodile to tear the invader in pieces.^

of

these talismans was dangerous to those unaccustomed to use them, even to

the gods themselves.

Scarcely was Sibii 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 ura^us of Ea to be opened.

had breathed

its

—great indeed,

for those

who were

north of Ait-nobsu, pursued by the

in the train of the

the gods who were behind

and

fire

When

of this

to the fields of henna, the pain of his

lock of

soon as the living viper

breath against the Majesty of Sibu there was a great disaster

Majesty himself was burned in that day.

came

As

Ea which

is

there,

his Majesty shall

him

said unto

be healed as soon as

it

had

his Majesty

magic

uraeus,

behold

:

shall

'

Sire

I

go to see

it

and

its

upon

shall be placed

which was made that great reliquary of hard stone which

is

secret place of Piarit, in the district of the divine lock of the

behold '

this fire departed from the

Griffith, The Antiquities of Tell

Fund, *

I

pi. xxiv.

11.

el

members

I

the

when he

them take the

let

the Majesty of Sibu caused the magic lock to be brought to Piarit for

fled to

burn was not yet assuaged, and

him

when thy Majesty

god perished, and his

mystery,

thee.'

So

—the lock

hidden in the

Lord Ea,

of the Majesty of Sibu.

—and

And many

TaMdiyeh, in the Seventh Memoir of the Egypt Exploration

1, 2.

Ibip., ibid., pi. xxiv.

1.

24, et seq.

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 (Erman, Die Marchen des Papyrus Westcar, pis. iii., iv., p. 8; cf. Maspero, Les Contes populaires, 2nd edit, pp. 60-63, and Petrie, Egyptian Tales, vol. i. pp. 11-18). The talismans which protected Egypt against invasion are mentioned by the Pseudo-Callisthenes (§ 1, MiJLLER's edition, in the Arrianus of the Didot collection), who attributes their invention to Nectanebo. Arab historians often refer to them {L'Egypte de Murtadi, Vattier's translation, pp. 26, 57, etc.; Macoudi, Les Prairies d'Or, translated by Barrier de Meynard,vo1. ii. pp. 414-417). ^

THE REIGN OF OSIRIS ONNOPERIS AND OF years afterwards,

when

this

which had thus belonged to

lock,

171

ISIS.

was

Sibil,

brought back to Piarit in Ait-nobsii, and cast into the great lake of Piarit

whose name behold

!

is

might be

AU-tostesu, the dwelling of waves, that it

this lock

became a crocodile

the divine crocodile of Ait-nobsu."

^

:

it

flew to the water

purified,

and became Sobkil,

In this way the gods of the solar dynasty

from generation to generation multiplied talismans and enriched the sanctuaries of

Egypt with

relics.

^T^^rj^Sv'r

THKEE OF THE DIVINE AMULETS PRESERVED IN THE TEMPLE OF ROMAN PERIOD.*

Were

there ever

duller

legends and a more

AIT-NOBSfi

senile

AT THE

phantasy

!

Tliey

did not spring spontaneously from the lips of the people, but were composed at leisure

by

priests desirous of

augmenting the veneration of

Each

its

enhancing the antiquity of their adherents in order to increase

its

cult,

and

importance.

city wished it to be understood that its feudal sanctuary was founded

upon the very day

of creation, that its privileges

firmed during the course of the

first

divine dynasty, and that these pretensions

were supported by the presence of objects in to the oldest of the king-gods.^

had been extended or con-

its

treasury which had belonged

Such was the origin

of tales in which the

personage of the beneficent Pharaoh

is

Did we

we should frequently

possess all the sacred archives,

as authentic history

of Ait-nobsu.

often depicted in ridiculous fashion.

more than one document

When we come

to the later

as artificial

members

a chause in the character and in the form of these

find

them quoting

as

the chronicle

of the Ennead, there tales.

is

Doubtless Osiris

Griffith, The Antiquities of Tell el YaMdiyeh, in the Seventh Memoir of the Egypt Exploration pi. XXV. 11. 14-21. " Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Griffith, The Antiquities of Tell el Tahidiyeh, xxiii. 3. The three talismans here represented are two crowns, each in a naos, and the burning '

Fund, pi.

fiery urcsus. .

'

Deuderah, for example, had been founded under the divine dynasties, in the time of the Servants Bauurhunde der Tempelanlagen von Dendera, pp. 18, 19, and pi. xv. 11. 37, 38).

of Horus (DiJMiCHEN,

—

;

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

172 and

Sit did not escape

even

if

unscathed out of the hands of the theologians

sacerdotal interference spoiled the legend concerning them,

altogether disfigure

it.

Here and there

in it

is

still

it

;

but

did not

noticeable a sincerity

of feeling and liveliness of imagination such as are never found in those of Shii

and of

left

them

This arises from the fact that the functions of these gods

Sibii.

strangers, or all but strangers, to the current affairs of the world.

Sh{l 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 victories over

compensated by his aggressive returns and his intermittent

Typhon

their minute study.

his proceedings

;

and his character were the subject of

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

he acted upon

reflection,

He knew

rendered.

whom

triumph of the desert

the consequences of his conduct are indifferent

and in

full

consciousness of the service that he

that by spreading the ;

he was

life,

inundation he prevented the

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

of Osiris, and

him contrasted more markedly with the innate goodness

what had been at

somewhat vaguely defined

first

an instinctive struggle between two beings

—the desert

and the Nile, water and drought

changed into conscious and deadly enmity. elements,

it

was war between two gods

;

No

— was

longer the conflict of two

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

' Theae five days were of peculiar importance in Egyptian eyes ; they were so many festivals consecrated to the worsliip of the dead. In a hieratic papyrus of Ramesside date (I. 346 of Leyden), we still have a Book of the Five Dayx over and above the Year, which has been translated and briefly

commented upon by Chabas (Le Calendrier des jours fastes et n€fastes de I'ann^e ^gyptienne, pp101-107). Osiris was born the first day, Haroeris the second, Sit tiie third, Isis the fourth, Nephthys the fifth; and the order indicated by the papyrus is confirmed by scattered references on the

— THE CIVILIZATION OF EGYPT BY

AND

SIB IS

173

ISIS.

legend explained how Nuit and Sibii had contracted marriage against the

When

express wish of Ea, and without his knowledge. it

he

into a violent rage,

fell

and

giving birth to her children in any

he became aware of

cast a spell over the goddess to prevent her

month

of

any year whatever. But Thot took

moon won from it in several out of which he made five whole

pity upon her, and playing at draughts with the

games one seventy-second part of

its fires,

days; and as these were not included in the ordinary calendar, Nuit could then bring forth her five children, one after another

Osiris was beautiful of face, but with a dull

Nephthys.^

exceeded

his height first

five

and a half

of the additional days,

the lord of

Osiris, Haroeris, Sit, Isis,

:

all

He

yards.^

evils

nibu-r-zarCb

— had

The good news was

appeared.

womb

in the

it

hailed with

became known with

in his far-off dwelling,

Osiris

was said, while both of them were

and when

^

;

it

;

laid

and

upon Nuit.

the presence of his great-grandchild in Xois, and unhesitatingly

acknowledged him as the heir to his throne.^ even, so

when

which he had

his heart rejoiced, notwithstanding the curse

Isis,

was born at Thebes,^

The echo reached Ra

he was menaced.^

He commanded

and black complexion

and straightway a mysterious voice announced that

shouts of joy, followed by tears and lamentations

what

and

he became

king

he

had married

still

his sister

within their mother's

made her queen regnant and

Thus, an inscription of the high priest Mankhopirri of the XXP' dynasty records that was born on tlie fourth of these days, which coincided with the festival of Amon at the beginning of the year (BpuGSCH, Becueil de Monuments, vol. i. pi. xsii. 1. 9 and E. de Rotjgk, Etudes sur les monuments du massif de Karnak, in the Melanges d' Arche'ologie, vol. i. p. 133). An inscription in the small temple of Apit in Thebes (Lepsius, Denkm., iv. 29) places the birth of Osiris on the first of the epagomenous days. * All that remains to us of this legend is its Hellenized interpretation as given in De Iside et Osiride (Leemans' edition, § 12, pp. 18-21). But there can be no doubt that it was taken from a good source, like most of the tales included in this curious treatise. ' De Iside et Osiride (Leemans' edition, § 33, p. 57) Thv 56 "Oa-ipiv oS trdXiv /xeXiyxpovu yeyovevai As a matter of fact, Osiria is often represented with black or green hands and face, lj.vdo\oyov(Tii as is customary for gods of the dead it was probably this peculiarity which suggested the popular idea of his black complexion (Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol, iii. p 81). A magic papyrus of Ramesside times fixes the stature of the god at seven cubits (Chabas, Le Papyrus magique Harris, pp. 116, 117), and a phrase in a Ptolemaic inscription places it at eight cubits, six palms, raonuments. Isis

;

:

.

;

three fingers (DtJMiCHEN, Historische Inseliriften, vol.

ii.

pi.

xxxv.).

53 a; Brugsch, Dictionnaire G^ograpMque, p. 865. Originally he was a native of Mendes (see p. 130) the change of his birthplace dates from the Theban supremacy. * 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 Krouos, brought it up to youth, and to him the Egyptians had consecrated the feast of Pumylies, *

Lepsius, Denkm.,

iv.

29

h,

;

which resembled the Phallophoros

festival of the

Greeks (De Iside

et Osiride,

Leemans'

edition, § 12,

pp. 19, 20). * Papyrus 3079 in the Louvre, p. ii. 11. 18. 20; in Pierket, Etudes Egyptologiques, pp. Beugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alten j^gypter, pp. 627, 628.

De

33,

34

;

cf.

Leemans' edition, § 12, pp. 20, 21; Haroeris, the Apollo of the Greeks, was be the issue of a marriage consummated before the birth of his parents while they were still within the womb of their mother Ehea-Nuit (De Iside et Osiride, Leemans' edition, § 12, jip. 20, 21, and § 54, p. 7). 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. *

Iside et Osiride,

supposed

to

— TEE LEGENDARY EISTORY OF EGYPT.

174 tlie

The Egyptians were

partner of all his undertakings.

civilized

;

fruits of

them the

as yet but half

they were cannibals, and though occasionally they lived upon the

the earth, they did not

making

art of

field labour,

know how

to cultivate them.

agricultural implements

Osiris taught

—the plough and the

hoe,

the rotation of crops, the harvesting of wheat and barley/ and

vine culture.^

weaned them from cannibalism,' healed

Isis

means of medicine or of magic, united women to men and showed them how to grind grain between two bread for the household.^

Nephthys, and was the

their diseases

in legitimate marriage,^

flat

and

stones

to prepare

She invented the loom with the help of her

first to

weave and bleach

of the gods before Osiris established

it,

by

linen.^

sister

There was no worship

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

As he had been the model

declared that he was born there.

;

though others

of a just and pacific

king, so did he desire to be that of a victorious conqueror of nations

the regency in the hands of

panied by Thot the force

he went forth

and the jackal Anubis.

to

and, placing

war against Asia, accom-

He made

no use of

little or

and arms, but he attacked men by gentleness and persuasion, softened

them with songs

them

ibis

Isis,

;

in

also the arts

which voices were accompanied by instruments, and taught

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, jealous temper.^"

Secretly he aspired

to

gloomy, and

the crown, and nothing but the

DiODORUS (book i. § 14) 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 (fragments 3, 4, in MiJLLER-DiDOT, Fragmenta Historicoium Grxcorum, vol. ii. p, 331), the goddess twined herself a crown of ripe ears and placed it upon her head one day when she was *

;

sacrificing to her parents. ^

De

Iside et Osiride (Leemans' edition), § 13, p. 21 ; Diodorus Sicdlus, book i. § 14, 15; iyio (Hymn found in the island of los, Kajbel, Epigrammata Grxca, p. xxi.). In

Tfopovs avQpuirois aveSei^a

AviENUS, Desc. Orhis, 354, and in Servius, ^

Ad

Georgicorum,

i.

'£701 fifTo. Tov a.Si\(pov 'Offipews ras avOpuiTropayias eTroi/of

Osiris is the inventor of the plough. (Kaibel, Epigrammata Grxca, p. xxi.).

19.

ywaiKa koI avSpa ffuvrjyaya (Hymn of los, in Kaibel, Epigrammata Grseca, p. xxi.). Diodorus Siculus, book i. § 25; cf. the medical or magic recipes ascribed to her in the Ebers Papijrus, pi. xlvii. 11. 5-10, and on the Metternich Stela, Golenischeff's edition, pi. iv. 1. 4, v. 1. 100 and pp. 10-12. ^ This is implied among other passages in those from the Ritual of Embalmment, where Isis and Nephthys are represented as the one spinning and the other weaving linen (Maspero, M^moire sur quelques papyrus du Louvre, pp. 35, 81). ' The first temples were raised by Osiris and Isis (Diodorus Siculus, book i. § 15), as also the first images of the gods iyu aydAfiara i(TTav eSi5a|o, iyui rejifvi] diuv eiSpvcrdiJi.r]v (Hymn of los, in Kaibel, Epigrammata Grasca, pp. xxi., xxii.). Osiris invented two of the flutes used by Egyptians at their feasts (Juba, fragm. 73, in Mijller-Didot, Fragm- H. Grxc, vol. iii. p. 481). * Baton, fragm. of the Persiea in Muller-Didot, Fragm. H. Grsec, vol. iv. p. 348. ^ Diodorus Siculus, book i. De Iside et Osiride, Leemans' edition, § 13, p. 21. § 17-20 " The colour of his hair was compared with that of a red-haired ass, and on that account the ass was sacred to him (De Iside et Osiride, § 22, 30, 31, Leemans' edition, pp. 37, 51, 52). As to his *

'£70.

*

:

;

OSimS, SLAIN

BY

SEPULCEBED BY

SIT, IS

175

ISIS.

vigilance

of Isis

had kept him from rebellion during the absence of

brother.^

The

which celebrated the king's return

rejoicings

He

provided Sit with his opportunity for seizing the throne. to a banquet along with seventy-two officers

made a wooden

his

Memphis

to

invited Osiris

whose support he had ensured,

chest of cunning work-

manship and ordered that

should be

it

brought in to him, in the midst of the

As

feast.

admired

all

beauty, he

its

sportively promised to present

whom

one among the guests exactly

All of

fit.

them

tried

and

all

when

lay

down within

Osiris

diately the

nailed

it

ther with it

into

conspirators

it,

;

firmly down, soldered

one but

imme-

shut to the it

lid,

toge-

melted lead, and then threw of the

it

of the crime

spread terror on

to the

sea.^

friendly to Osiris

of their

master,

Nile,

The news

which carried

fate

it,

unsuccessfully

the Tanitic branch

The gods

should

it

after another,

any

to

it

all sides.

and hid themselves

to escape the malignity of the

new

king.*

garments, and set out in search of the chest.

mouth

of the river ^ under the

THE OSIRIAN TRIAD, HOEUS,

OSIRIS, ISIS.

feared the

within the Isis

bodies of

animals

cut off her hair, rent her

She found

shadow of a gigantic

it

aground near the

acacia,^ deposited it in a

ond jealous disposition, see the opinion of Diodobus Sicultjs, book i. 21, and the picture drawn by Stnesius in his pamphlet ^gyptius. It was told how he tore his mother's bowels at birth, and made his own way into the world through her side (De Iside et Osiride, Leemans' edition, § 12, p. 20). * De Iside et Osiride, Leemans' edition, § 13, p. 21. * The episode of the chest in which Sit shut up Osiris is briefly but quite intelligibly mentioned in a formula of the Harris great magic papyrus (Chabas' edition, pp. 116, 117). ^ Drawing by Boudier of the gold group in the Louvre Museum (Pierret, Catalogue de la Salle Historique de la Galerie ^gyptienne du Mm^e du Louvre, No. 24, pp. 15, 16). The drawing is made from a photograph which belonged to M. de Witte, before the monument was acquired by E. de Kouge' 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. * De Iside et Osiride, Leemans' edition, § 72, p. 126. ' 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 (De Iside et Osiride, Leemans' edition, § 15-17, pp. 25-29). This addition to the primitive legendmust date from XVIII"" to the the XX"» 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. ^ A bas-relief in the little temple of Taharkft, at Thebes (Pbisse d'Avennes, Monuments de I'iJgypte, pi. xxx.), represents a tree growing upon a mound, and within it is inscribed the name of Osiris. The story shows us that this is tlie Acacia {Nilotica) of the chest, beneath which tlie waters had laid the coflBn of the god (Deveria, Sur un bas-relief ^gyptien relatif a des textes de Plutarque, violent

;

in the Bulletin de la Soci^e'des Antiquaires de France, 1858, 3rd series, vol. v. pp. 133-136).

X

—

—

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

176

secluded place where no one ever came, and then took refuge in Biito, her

own domain and her native

Typhon even

of

city,

whose marshes protected her from the designs

more than one Pharaoh

as in historic times they protected

There she gave birth

from the attacks of his enemies.

among the

nursed and reared him in secret the wicked one.^

But

caught sight of the chest, opened

it,

when hunting by moonlight,

Sit,

and recognizing the corpse, cut

She recovered

all

imperishable

mummy,

the

of this collection of his remains an

Accomplices of Sit

"

all that

were

left of

Samiu

Sit

Shosuu Horn

— who were now

were henceforth regarded as unclean and Typhonian.

driven in their turn to

—animals

had fought together under the forms of men and of hippopotami, when

apprehensive as to the issue of the duel, determined to bring

"

!

she caused chains to descend upon them, and

Horus. Isis

Thereupon Horus prayed aloud, saying

spake unto the

son Horus brother

'

Sit.

unto her

Forthwith he fetters

many

»

rise

saying

:

'

'

:

*

up

his voice

:

*

is

I

am

to drop

thy son Horus

! '

upon

Then

:

*

and

let

them

fall

my

upon her

and cried out in pain, and she

Break

' !

Yea, when Sit prayed

Wilt thou not have pity upon the brother

then her heart was he

•

made them

an end.

it to

Break, and unloose yourselves from

and said unto them

Break., for

:

fetters to descend,

lifted

times, saying

of thy son's mother ? to the fetters

fetters,

She made other

!

spake unto the

Isis

which

For three days the two

Isis,

Lo

his

the loyal Egyptians

transform themselves into gazelles, crocodiles and serpents,

chiefs

On

— defeated

His " Followers "

and formed them into an army.^

joined

slie

capable of sustaining for ever the soul of a god.

coming of age, Horus called together

*'*

Isis set

and with

^ ;

the help of her sister Nephthys, her son Horus, Anubis, and Thot,

embalmed them, and made

into

the parts of the body

excepting one only, which the oxyrhynchus had greedily devoured

together and

up

it

Once more

fourteen pieces, which he scattered abroad at random. forth on her woeful pilgrimage.

young Horns,

reeds, far from the machinations of

happened that

it

to the

my

filled

with compassion, and she cried

eldest brother

' !

and the fetters unloosed

The opening illustration of this chapter (p. 155) is taken from a monument at Philse, and depicts among the reeds. The representation of the goddess as squatting upon a mat probably gave to the legend of the floating isle of Khemmis, which HEOAT^ffius op Miletus (fragm. 284 in

MtJLLER-DiDOT, Fragm. Hist. Grssc, vol. i. p. 20) had seen upon the lake of Buto,but whose existence was denied by Herodotits (ii. 156) notwithstanding the testimony of Hecataua. This part of the legend was so thoroughly well known, that by the time of the XIX'" dynasty it suggested incidents in popular literature. When Bitia, 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 (Maspero, Les Conies populaires de Vantique J^gypte, 2nd edit., p. 15). * 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 (I?e hide et Osiride, Leemans' edition, § 19, pp. 30-31). The mention of the horse affords sufficient pioof that this episode is of comparatively late origin (cf. p. 32, note 2, for the date at which the horse was acclimatized in Egypt). "^

— EGYPT DIVIDED BETWEEN HOBUS AND

177

SIT.

themselves from him, and the two foes again stood face to face like two

who

will not

him of She

come

" Horns, furious at seeing his

to terms.

men

mother deprive

turned upon her like a panther of the South.

his prey,

him on that day when

fled before

Sit the Violent,

and he cut

off

battle was

waged with

But Thot

her head.

formed her by his enchantments and made a cow's head

for her,"

her companion, Hathor.^

thereby identifying her with

war went on, with

all

at length decided to

summon both

fluctuating

its

trans-

fortunes,

The

the gods

till

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.

but a bastard,

whom

had conceived

Isis

first

after the death

Horus triumphantly vindicated the

of her husband.

macy

was the

and he maintained that Horus was not the son of

to plead, Osiris,

Sit

of his birth

;

and Thot condemned

legiti-

Sit to restore, accord-

ing to some, the whole of the inheritance which he had wrongly retained,

—according to others, part of

it

only.

The gods

the sentence, and awarded to the arbitrator the

rahuhui

he who judges between two

:

more recent

and circulated

origin,

had spread over

all

parties.

title

A

ratified

of Uapi-

legend of

after the worship of Osiris

Egypt, affirmed that the case had remained

within the jurisdiction of Sibu,

who was

grandfather to the other party.

Sibii,

father to the one, and

however, had pronounced

isis-hathor, cow-

the same judgment as Thot, and divided the kingdom into halves

posliui

;

Sit retained the valley

from the neighbourhood of Memphis

Horus entered into possession of the

to the first cataract, while

Delta.*

Egypt

henceforth consisted of two distinct kingdoms, of which one, that of the Forth,

'

Sallier

Papyrus IV.,

pi.

ii.

1.

Vann^e ^gyptienne, pp. 28-30, 128. § 19, p. 32,

cf.

6,

et seq.

The same

;

Chabas, Le Calendrier des jours fastes et iitr/astes de is told iu De Iside et Osiride (Leemans' edition,

story

§ 20).

The Greek form

of the tradition represents Thot as having been tlie advocate and not the (De Iside et Osiride, Leemans' edition, § 19, p. 32). The very title of t'api-rahuMi itself implies that Thot was actually the judge of the dispute. Bahuhu strictly means comrade, companion, partner (E. von Bergmann, Inschriftliche Denkmaler der Sammlung dgypiischen AUerlhiimer, in the Becueil de Travaux, vol. ix. p. 57, note 2 and Maspero, Etudes l^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 82, 83). * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze statuette of Saite period in the Gizeh Museum (Mariette, Album photographique du muae'e de Boidaq, pi. 5, No. 167). * This legend was discovered by Goodwin {Upon an Inscription of the reign of ShahaJca, in Chabas, Mdaiiges egyptologiques, 3rJ series, vol. i. pp. 246-285) in a British Museum text published by Sharpe (Egyptian Inscriptions, 1st series, pis. xxxvi.-xxxviii.). The only known copy dates no earlier than the reigu of Sabaco, but a note by the Egyptian scribe informs us that it was copied from a very ancient monument. Reference is also made to the reconciliation of the two foes in De Iside et Odride (Leemans' edition, § 55, p. 98). -

arbitrator

;

TEE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

178

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.^

The moiety

of Horus,

had inherited

added to that of

three gods

but not to creatures

;

who preceded

human

Not

it

was

after-

race.^

in the midst of a

when

to reign,

tempest

;

^

and Sibu had

the time of his sojourning upon earth

that there was no death, for death, too, together with

other things and beings, had

all

together, though

refuge in heaven, disgusted with his own

Shu had disappeared

fulfilled.

it

upon the throne had ceased

Osiris

Ea had taken

live.

quietly retired within his palace

had been

formed the kingdom which Sibu

but his children failed to keep

;

wards reunited under Pharaohs of

The

Sit,

come

into existence in the beginning, but

man and beast, had for a while respected the among them to be struck down, and hence to require

while cruelly persecuting both Osiris was the first

gods.

funeral

He

rites.

a happy

life

also

was the

first for

whom

family piety sought to provide

Though he was king

beyond the tomb.

dead at Mendes by virtue of the rights of principalities, his sovereignty after

all

of the living and the

the feudal gods in their

death exempted him no more than the

meanest of his subjects from that painful torpor into which on breathing their

his remaining in that miserable state for ever.

to

son,

two master-magicians

Isis the

servants, if their skill less

lamentable

What would

after-life

mortals

— Thot

than that of men.

itself to

Horus

the Ibis and the jackal Anubis

had not availed to ensure him a

fell

have profited

it

great Sorceress for his wife, the wise

him

have

all

But popular imagination could not resign

last.

own

less

—

for

his

for

his

gloomy and

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

warm, fresh-coloured body, spontaneous stituted

in

!

For the breathing,

movement and

function, was sub-

an immobile, cold and blackish mass, a sufficient basis

for

the

mechanical continuity of the double, but which that double could neitlier raise nor guide

;

whose weight paralysed and whose inertness condemned

it

Another form of the legend gives the 27th Athyr as the date of the judgment, assigning Egypt and to Sit Nubia, or Doshirit, the red land (Sallier Papyrus IV., pi. ix. 1. 4, et seq.). It must have arisen towards the age of the XVIII"' 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. " Sit and Horus, as gods of South and North, are sometimes called the two Horuses, and their kingdoms th6 two halves of the two Horuses. Examples of these phrases have been collected by Ed. Meyer, in Set-Typhon, pp. 31-40, where their meaning is not sufficiently clearly explained. * Griffith, The AniiquUies of Tell-el-Yahudiyeh, in the Seventh Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, pi. XXV. 11. 6-8. We may here nolo the most ancient known reference to the tempust wliose tumult hid from men the disappearance or apotheosis of kings who had ascended alive into heaven. *

to Horus,

Cf. e.g. the story of *

See chap.

ii.

Eoinulas.

p. 112, et seq.,

on embalmment by Anubis.

TEE OSIRIAN EMBALMMENT. to vegetate in darkness, without pleasure

179

and almost without consciousness of

and Horus applied themselves

in the case of Osiris to

ameliorating the discomfort and constraint entailed

by the more primitive

existence.

Thot,

Isis,

embalmment.

They did not dispense with the manipulations instituted by Anubis, but endued them with new power by means of magic. They

^ri /vyv\A

o THE OSIBIAN IICMMY PREPARED AND LAID UPON THE FDNERABY COUCH BY THE JACKAL ANDBIS.

inscribed the principal bandages with protective figures and formulas

decorated the body with various amulets of specific efficacy for parts

;

they drew numerous scenes of earthly existence and of the

its

;

I

they

different

life

beyond

the tomb upon the boards of the coffin and upon the walls of the sepulchral '

Rosellini, Monumenti Civili, pi. cxxxiv. 2. Wliile Anubis is mummy on its couch, the soul is hovering above its breast, nostrils the sceptre, and the wind-filled sail which is the emblem of breath and of

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

Btretching out his hands to lay out the

and holding the

new

life.

to its

TEE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

180 chamber.^

When

restore one

by one

deprived

all

imperishable, they

was

set

up

at the entrance

statue representing the living person was placed beside

made

sought to

the faculties of which their previous operations had

mummy

The

it.

made

the body had been

it,

to

the vault;

the

and semblance was

of opening the mouth, eyes, and ears, of loosing the arms and legs,

of restoring breath to the throat and tations

by which these

movement

acts were severally

to

The

the heart.

incan-

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 embalmor.^

THE KECEPTION OF TUK MUMMY BY ANUBIS AT THE DOOB OF THE THE MOUTH.'

TOIIB,

He might

AND THE OPENING OF

have returned to his place among men, and various legends prove that he did occasionally appear to his faithful adherents.

he preferred

to leave their

towns and withdraw into his own domain.

teries of the inhabitants of Busiris

Meadow

Meadow

in small archipelagoes of

of Eest.*

sandy

islets

piled together, rested in safety from the inundations.^ '

The

The ceme-

and of Mendes were called SoJcMt

of Keeds, and Sokliit Hotpu, the

amid the marshes,

But, as his ancestors before him,

lalu, the

They were secluded

where the dead bodies,

This was the

first

kingdom

incantations accompanying the various operations were described in the Ritual of Emwe possess the conclusion onlj' (Mariette, Papyrus ^gyptiens du mus^e de Boulaq,

balmment, of which vol.

i.

pis. vi.-xiv.

;

Deveria, Catalogue des Manuscrits ^gyptiens qui sont conserves au Mus^e Egyptien

du Louvre, pp. 168, 169 Maspero, M€moire sur quelques papyrus du Louvre, pp. 14-104). ^ The Book of the Opening of the Mouth, which describes these ceremonies, has been published, translated and commented upon by E. Schiaparelli, 11 Libro dei Funerali dei Antichi Egiziani. ;

There are long extracts from this book in the pyramids of the V"' and VI"* dynasties and in many Memphite and Theban tombs, especially in the tomb of Petemenophis, which dates from the XXVI"» dynasty (Dumichbn, Der Grabpalast des Patuamenap in der Thehanischen NeJcropolis, i., ii.). A large portion has been studied by Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'Arcli^ologie Egyptiennes, vol. '

i.

p.

283, et seq.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a

(RosELLiNi, Monumenti

painting in the tomb of a king in the

Theban

necropolis

Champollion, Monuments de I'Egypte et de la Nubie, Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. iii. pi. Ixviii.). lA. clxxviii. * Lauth, Aus ^gyptens Vorzeit, p. 53, et seq., was the first to point out this important fact in the history of Egyptian doctrine. Cf. Brugsch, Dictionnaire g€oijraphique, pp. 61, 62, and Religion und Mythologie der alten ^gypter, pp. 175, 176; Masiero, lEtudes de Mythologie, etc., vol. ii. pp. 12-16. * On the discovery of certain of these island cemeteries by the Arabs, see a passage by E. Quatremere, Memoires historiques et g€ographiques sur I'Egypte, vol. i. pp. 331, 332. ;

civili, pi.

cxxix. No. 1

;

;

THE KINGDOM OF OSIRIS OPENED TO THE FOLLOWERS OF HOEUS. 181 of the dead Osiris, but

was soon placed elsewhere, as the nature of the sur-

it

rounding districts and the geography of the adjacent countries became better

known

at first perhaps on the Phoenician

;

Milky Way, between the North and the East, but nearer

in the sky, in the

to the

shore beyond the sea, and then

North than to the

East.^

This kingdom was not gloomy and mournful

U^M^:.'S3^''l

>«-

—

-' =fl

J

i

,i

V

OSIRIS IN HADES,

ACCOMPANIED BY

like that of the other

by sun and moon

;

of the north wind,

^

ISIS,

AMENTIT, AND NEPHTHYS, RECEIVES THE HOMAGE OF TBCTU."

dead gods, Sokaris or Khontamentit, but was lighted

the heat of the day was tempered by the steady breath

and

its

crops grew and throve abundantly.*

Thick walls

served as fortifications against the attacks of Sit and evil genii ;^ a palace Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et de Arch^ulogie Egyptifnnes, vol. i. p. 336, et seq. and vol. ii. It was then that the Milky Way in the sky came to be considered as belonging to Ea, as we have seen on p. 168. ' Drawn by Faueher-Gudin, from a photograph by Daniel He'ron, taken in 1881 in the temple of 1

;

pp, 15, 16.

Seti *

I.

at

The

Abydos. vignettes on pp. 192, 194, taken from the funerary papyrus of Nebhopit in Turin, show us lalft lighted by the rayed disc of the sun and by that of the moon (Lanzone, Dizionario

the fields of

di Mitulogia Eghia,

pi. v.).

It is described in chap. ex. of the Book of the Dend (Naville's edition, vol. i. pis. cxxi.-cxxiii. cf Lepsius, Todtenbuch, pi. xli.), where there is also a kind of picture map giving the main groups of thecelestialarchipelagOjtogetherwitbthenamesof theislandsandof thechiinuelswliich separate them. *

' Booh of the Dead, chap. cix. (Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. cxx. 1. 7 ; cf. Lepsius, Todtenbuch, pi. xxxix. chap. 109, 1, 4). Lauth (Aus ^gy-ptens Vorzeit, pp. 56-61) connects the name of Egyptian

Anbu, Telxoy, given to the walls of lalii, with that of the island of Elbo in the marshes of Bato, which current tradition of the Sa'ite period made the refuge of the blind Anysis throughout the whole duration of the Ethiopian dominion, and whose site was afterwards entirely unknown until the day that the Pharanh Amyrtseus flew thither to escape from the Persian generals (Herodotus, ii. 140). fortresses,

—

:

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

182

and

like that of the

Pharaohs stood in the midst of delightful gardens

among

people, Osiris led a tranquil existence, enjoying in succession

all

his

own

the pleasures of earthly

life

without any of

^ ;

there,

pains.

its

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 Souls did

opening the gates of his paradise to the souls of his former subjects. not enter into

it

unexamined, nor without

Each

trial.

prove that during

of

texts have

it,

or, as

first

to

had

life it

the Egyptian

a vassal of Osiris—

to

amaJcM khir Osiri

earthly

its

belonged to a friend,

them had

— one of those who had

served Horus in his exile and had rallied to his

banner from the very beginning of

the Typhonian wars. followers

of

These were those

Horus

Shosial

Horzi

— so

often referred to in the literature of historic times.^

Horus, their master, having

loaded them with favours during cided to extend to THE DECEASED CLIMBING THE SLOPE OF THE MOUNTAIN OF THE WEST.^

Anubis and Thot,

Amstt, and Tiumautf viscera.

They

all

his

who had worked with him

Isis

and Nephthys, and

—to whom he

He

father.

after death the

convoked around

embalmment

at the

his four children

of Osiris

— Hapi, Qabhsoniif,

had entrusted the charge of the heart and

performed their functions exactly as before, repeated the

same ceremonies, and recited the same formulas operations, and so effectively that the dead their hands,

de-

same privileges which he had conferred upon

the corpse the gods

them

life,

at the

same stages of the

man became

a real Osiris under

having a true voice, and henceforth combining the name of the god

with his own.

He had

Sakhomka,

the

or

been Sakhomka or Menkauri

Osiris

Menkaiiri, true

of voice.^

;

he became the Osiris

Horus and

his

panions then celebrated the rites consecrated to the " Opening of the

and the Eyes " animated the statue of the deceased, and placed the :

com-

Mouth

mummy

* The description of the pylons of laid is the subject of a special chapter in the Booh of the Dead, chap. cxlv. (Naville's edition, vol. i. pis. clvi.-clix. ; of. Lepsius, ToJtenbuch, pis. Ixi.-Ixv.). ^ Cf. the explanation given on p. 172 of Onnophris as the cognomen of Osiris. ' Cf. p. 176. The Followers of Horus, 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 sumAuswahl der wichtigsten Urlcuuden, pi. iii. Ka, the time in which the followers of Horus were supposed

.marizes the chronology of the divine period (Lepsius,

fragm. to

1, 11. 9, 10).

have lived was

for

Like the reign of the Egyptians of classic times the ultimate point beyond which history did not

reach. * *

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Navillb, Das Mgyptlsche

Todtenbuch, vol. i. pl.cxxviii. xi. See pp. 145, 146 for the true voice and the importance which the Egyptians attached to it.

TEE BOOK OF TEE DEAD. tomb, where Anubis received

in the

it

and clasping

all

and

life

the functions of being,

ceremonies of the worship which was

in the

There he might be seen accepting the homage

rendered to him in his tomb. of his kindred,

Eecalled to

in his arms.

movement, the double reassumed, one by one,

came and went and took part

183

under the form of a great

to his breast his soul

human-headed bird with features After

the counterpart of his own.

being equipped with the formulas

and amulets wherewith his prototype,

Osiris,^

had been

fur-

nished, he set forth to seek the

« Field of Reeds."

long

The way was

and arduous, strewn with

perils to

which he must have suc-

cumbed

at the very

first

stages

had he not been carefully warned beforehand and armed

A

them.2 the

against

papyrus placed with

mummy

in

its

con-

coffin

tained the needful topographical directions and passwords, in order

that he might neither stray nor

The

perish by the way.

THE UDMMY OF SDTIMOSXJ CLASPING HIS SOUL

Egyptians copied out the principal chapters

them by heart while yet beyond.

in

Those who had not taken

priest, or relative of

iu the

mummy's

to the

cemetery.

of the

Dead "

ear,

in

life,

copy with which they were provided a

IN HIS ARMS,'

wiser

this ;

themselves, or

for

order to

learned

be prepared for the

life

precaution studied after death the

and since few Egyptians could

read,

the deceased, preferably his son, recited the prayers that he might learn

If the

them

double obeyed the

to the letter,

before he was carried

away

"

Book

prescriptions

he reached his goal without

of the

fail.*

On

leaving

the tomb he turned his back on the valley, and staff in hand climbed the *

met

The names

of

Khu

dpiru, " the equipped

with in the inscriptions of funerary

Manes," and

stelae,

Khu

aqiru, " the instructed

arose from the care which

was taken

Manes," often to equip the

dead with amuiets, and instruct them in formulas (Maspero, Etudes de Myihologie et d'Archeologie Egyptiennes, vol. i. p. 347; and Bapport sur une Mission en Italie, in the Eecueil, vol. iii. pp. 105, 106). '

Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie

'

Drawn by Faucher-Gudiu, from Guieysse-Lefebure Le Papyrus de

et

d'Archeologie Egyptiennes, vol.

i.

p. 362, et seq.

Soutimes,

pi. viii.

The

out-

have unfortunately been restored and enfeebled by the copyist. * 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 lines of the original

;

;

TEE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

184 hills

some

which bounded bird, or

on the west, plunging boldly into the

it

desert,^

where

even a kindly insect such as a praying mantis, a grasshopper, or

Soon he came to one

a butterfly, served as his guide.^ of those sycamores which

grow

in the sand far

away from

the Nile, and are regarded as

magic trees by the

lahin.^

Out

—

a

goddess

or

Mt—half

offered

fel-

of the foliage

Hathor,

Niiit,

emerged, and

him a

dish of fruit,

loaves of bread, and a jar of

By

water.

these

gifts

accepting

he became the

guest of the goddess, and

more

retrace

his steps* without

special

could never OTNOCEPHALI DKAWING UHE KET IN WIQCH SOULS AKE CAUGHT.'

sycamore were lands of

terror, infested

permission.

Beyond the

by serpents and ferocious beasts,'' furrowed

by torrents of boiling water,' intersected by ponds and marshes where gigantic 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 Mgypter. In 1865 E. de 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 Mjyptische Todtenbuch der XVIII bis Dynastie, Berlin, 1886, 2 vols, of plates in folio, and 1 vol. of Introduction in 4to. Ou this edition see Maspero, iltudes de Mythologie et

XX

d'Archeologie Egyptiennes, vol.

i.

pp. 325-387.

Maspero, Ftudes de Mythologie

et d'ArchMogie tgyptiennes, vol. i. p. 345. Lepsius. Aelteste Texte, pi. 14, 11. 41, 42 Maspero, Quatre Annies defouilles,m the M^moires de la Mission du Gaire, vol. i. p. 165, 11. 468, 469; and p. 178, 1. 744. guide is the syren, var. my '

2

;

"My

guides are the syrens."

The

green bird common in the Theban plain, and well known to tourists, which runs along in front of the asses and seems to show travellers the way. On this question of bird or insect as the guide of souls in the other world, see Lepage-Rexouf, A Second syren

is

the

little

Note, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archseology, 1891-92, vol. xiv. p. 398, et seq. the Society of Biblical Archseology, 1892-93, vol. p. 135, et seq.). ;

Lefebuke, ^tude sur Abydos {Proceedings of '

See the account of magical trees in chap.

ii.

and xv.

pp. 121, 122.

Maspero, iJtudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie J^gyptiennes, 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. Tvlor has collected numerous examples of the same in Primitive Culture, 2nd edit., vol. ii. pp. 47, 51, 52. = Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a facsimile by De'veria (E. de Kouge, l^tudes sur le Eituel *

Fun^raire,

pi. iv. No. 4). Ignorant souls fished for by the cynocephali are here represented as but the soul of Nofiriibnii, instructed in the protective formulas, preserves its human form.

fish

' Chaps xxxi. and xxxii. of the Book of the Dead (Naville's edition, vol. i. pis. xliv., xlv.) protect the deceased against crocodiles chaps, xxxv.-xl. (Naville's edition, voL i. pis. xlvi.-liv.) ;

enable him to repel all manner of reptiles, both small and great. ' The vignette of chap. Ixiii. B (Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. Ixxiv.) shows us the deceased calmly crossing a river of boiling water which rises above his ankle. In chap. Ixiii. A

lEE JOURNEYINGS OF TEE SOUL. monkeys

cast their nets.^

Ignorant souls, or those

ill

185

prepared for the struggle,

had no easy work before them when they imprudently entered upon

who were not overcome by hunger and

THK DECEASED AND

urseus, or

it.

Those

were bitten by a

thirst at the outset

FRONT OP THE SYCAMORE OP NUIT AND RECEIVING THE BREAD AND WATER OF THE NEXT -WORLD."

DIS WIFE SEATED IN

horned viper, hidden with evil intent below the sand, and perished

in convulsions

from the poison

;

or crocodiles seized as

could lay hold of at the fords of rivers

them indiscriminately along with the were transformed.

They came

safe

;

many

of

them

as they

or cynocephali netted and devoured

fish into

which the partisans of Typhon

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

(Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. Ixxiii.) he is drinking the hot water, without scalding either hand or mouth. Chap, clxiii. (Naville's edition, vol. 1. pis. clxxvi.-clxxviii. cf. E. de Eouge, Etudes sur le Rituel Fungraire des Anciem ^Jgyptiens, p. 35, pis. iv., v.). The cynocephali thus employed are probably those who hailed tbe; setting sun near Abydos, when he entered upon the first hour of the '

;

night. -

Cf. pp. 82, 83, 103.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

a coloured plate in Kosellini, Monumenti

civili, pi.

cxxxiv.

3.

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

186

one of them he recited the

appropriate

chapter from

god whose name and

immediate danger

— and flames withdrew

at his voice, monsters fled or sank paralysed, the

turn away their heads self at pleasure

with

;

most cruel of genii drew

He

and lowered their arms before him.

their claws

in

compelled crocodiles to

he transfixed serpents with his lance

all

ne loudly

— that

proclaimed himself Ra, Tumu, Horus, or Khopri attributes were best fitted to repel the

his book,

he supplied him-

;

the provisions that he needed, and gradually ascended the mountains

which surround the world, some-

times alone, and fighting his

way

sometimes escorted by beneficent

way up the

slope was the

step by step,

Half-

divinities.

good cow Hathor, 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

according

it

rite,

the

to

to ask

prescribed

she would take him upon her

shoulders^ and

carry

him

across

the accursed countries at full speed. THE DECEASED PIERCING A SERPENT WITH HIS LANCE.'

Having

reached

the

North,

he

paused at the edge of an immense lake, the lake of

Kha, and saw in the

One

of the Blest.

so old as

tradition,

Ramesside times, told how Tliot the on his wings

;

*

far distance the outline of the Islands

have been almost forgotten

to

ibis there

another, no less ancient but of

in

awaited him, and bore him away

more lasting popularity, declared

that a ferry-boat plied regularly between the solid earth and the shores of paradise.^

to

The god who

directed

it

questioned the dead, and the bark

examine them before they were admitted on board

" Tell

me my name," cried

the mast

;

;

for it

itself proceeded

was a magic bark.

and the travellers replied " :

He who guides

* See the different vignettes of chap, clxxxvi. of the Booh of the Dead, as collected by Naville in his edition (Das JEgypfisrhe Todtenbuch, \o\. i. pi. ccxii.). Sometimes the v/hole cow is drawn;

sometimes

shown only

Libyan range. XXI'* dynasties, with a yellow ground, often display this scene, of which there is a good example in Lanzone's Dizionario di Mitologia, pi. cccxxii. 2, taken from a coffin in Ley den (cf. p. 187). Generally the scene is found beneath the feet of the dead, at the lower end of tlie cartonage, and the cow is represented as carrying off at a gallop the mummy who is lying on ^

it is

as lialf emerging from the arid slopes of the

Coffins of the XX**" and

her back. *

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a

sketch by Naville (JDas JUgyptisclie Todtenbuch, vol.

i.

pi.

P 6). The commonest

enemies of the dead were various kinds of serpents. * It is often mentioned in the Pyramid texts, and inspired one of the most obscure chapters among them (Teti, 11. 185-200 cf. Bemeil de Travaux, vol. v, pp. 22, 23). It seems that the ibis had to figlit with Sit for right of passage. iii.

;

*

Tiiis tradition, like the former, is often

god who guides the boat

is

found in the Pyramids, e.g. in three formulas, where the why it is incumbent upon him to give a good 396-411 cf. Becueil de Travaux, vol. vii. pp. 161-163).

invoked, and informed

reception to the deceased (Papi

I., 11.

;

THE JUDGMENT OF TEE OSIBIAN SOUL. the great goddess on her "

braces.

way

name," asked the

me my name,"

"

" Niiit

sail.

The Neck is

Amsit

of

thy name."

is

thy name."

Each part

it

"

me my Tell me

of the hull

the rigging spoke in turn and questioned the applicant regarding

being generally a mystic phrase by which

repeated the

" Tell

of the Jackal Uapiiaitu is thy name."

The Spine

name," proceeded the mast-head.

my

" Tell

thy name."

is

187

its

and of

name,

this

was identified either with some

divinity as a whole, or else

with some part of his body.

When

the double had estab-

lished his right of passage by

the correctness of his answers,

the bark consented to receive

him and

him

to carry

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,

two Maits who

and

justice

by the

THE GOOD COW hItHOK CARRYING THE DEAD MAN AND

preside over

truth,

and

HIS 60UL.-

by

mummy

the four children of Horus stiff-sheathed in their

formed as into an

it

wrappings.^

They

were a guard of honour to introduce him and his winged guide

immense

hall,

the ceiling of which rested on light graceful columns of

At the

painted wood.

*

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 sur-

mounted by the

tall

white diadem flanked by two plumes, his slender hands

Chap. xcix. of the Book of the Bead (Naville's edition, vol. i. pis. cx.-cxii.) is entirely devoted the bringing of the bark and the long interrogatories which it involves. Ci', Maspero, Etudes de '

to

Mythologie

et

d'Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol.

Drawn by Faucher-G-udin, from a

i.

pp. 374-376. facsimile

published by Leemans, Monuments Egyptiens du Mus^e d'Antiquit^s des Pays-Bas a Leyden, part iii. pi. xii. ^ All the scenes preceding and accompanying the judgment of the dead are frequently depicted on the outside of the yellow-varnished mummy cases of the XX"» to the XXVI"* dynasties. Museums abound in these monuments, which have hitherto been neither published nor studied as they deserve. ^

The one from which in the text,

is

have taken

I

my

coloured

description of the scenes

in the Olot-Bey collection,

and belongs

Maspero, Catalogue du Mus€e Egyptien de Marseille, pp. 36-39. * Book of the Dead, chap. Ixxvi. (Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. buch, chap. Ixxvi.

1.

1)

:

"I

and the legends partly translated

to the Marseilles

Ixxxviii.

Museum. 11.

1,

i.

pi.

cxvi.

11.

4, 5.

Cf.

;

cf.

Lepsids, Todten-

my guide." See also Lepage-Renocf, A Second Note (in tlie

enter into the Palace of the Prince, for the Bird

chap. civ. (Naville's edition, vol.

2

It is noticed in

is

Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. xiv. pp. 399, 400), and Lefebure, Etude sur Abydos (id., vol. xv. pp. 143, 144).

!

TEE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

188 grasping

flail

and crook, the emblems of his power.

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

Egypt which recognized

of

less,

his authority, squatted right

and

left,

cities

and motion-

clothed in the wrappings of the dead, silently waited until they were

The

addressed.

soul first

advanced to the

foot of the throne, carrying on its

ANCBIS AND THOT WEIGHING THE HEART OF THE DECEASED IN THE SCALES OF TUDTH.'

outstretched hands the image of of

its

and

sins

virtues.

It

its

heart or of

its eyes,

humbly "smelt the

agents and accomplices

earth," then arose, and with

uplifted hands recited its profession of faith.^ "Hail unto you, ye lords of hail to thee, great god, lord of Truth

master

;

1

and

Justice

have been brought to see thy beauties.

know the names

name,

1

of the

Two

of thy forty-two gods

I

I

have come before thee,

For

who

Truth

I

my

know thee, I know thy

are with thee in the Hall

Truths, living on the remains of sinners, gorging themselves with

their blood, in that

day when account

is

rendered before Onnophris, the true of

pi. cxxxvi. Ag of Naville's Das Thebanische Todtenhuch. This forms chap. cxxv. of the Boolt of the Bead (Naville's edition, vol. i. pis. cxxxiii.-cxxxix.), a chapter which Champollion pointed out to the notice of scholars, and interpreted (^Explication de la principale scene peinte des Papyrus Fun€raires Fgyptiens, in the Bulletin Vniversel des Sciences et de V Industrie, sect. viii. vol. iv. pp. 347-356). A special edition of this chapter, accompanied by a translation and philological commentary, was published by W. Pleyte, t'.tiide. sur le ehapitre 125 du Eituel Fungraire, Leyden, 1866, '

*

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

THE NEGATIVE CONFESSION. Thy name which

voice.

the two Truths

; '

and

is

I

I,

thine

know

you Truth, I have destroyed against

men

is

'

the god whose two twins are the ladies of

you, ye lords of the two Truths, I bring unto

sins

for you.

I

I have not oppressed the poor

!

in the necropolis

!

which he wrought

himself

!

I

have not committed iniquity I

!

have not made defalcations

upon any

I have not laid labour for

189

free

have not transgressed,

I

I have not defaulted, I have not committed that which

THE DECEASED

the gods

.

IS

BROUGHT BEFORE THE SHEINE OF

OSIRIS

man beyond

have not been weak, is

an abomination to

THE JUDGE BY HORUS, THE SON OF

I have not caused the slave to be ill-treated of his master

have not starved any man, I have not made any to weep, I have not nated any man, I have not caused any

and

I

man

have not committed treason against any

the supplies of temples

!

that

ISIS.

!

I

assassi-

to be treacherously assassinated, I have not in

I

aught diminished

I have not spoiled the shewbread of the gods

have not taken away the loaves and the wrappings of the dead no carnal act within the sacred enclosure of the temple

!

I

I

!

!

I

have done

have not blas-

I have not I have in nought curtailed the sacred revenues phemed pulled down the scale of the balance! I have not falsified the beam of the I I have not taken away the milk from the mouths of sucklings balance !

!

!

!

have not lassoed cattle on their pastures birds of the gods

the water in

its

!

!

I

have not taken with nets the

I have not fished in their ponds

season

!

!

I liave not turned back

I have not cut off a water-channel in its course

!

I

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

190

have not put out the

Gods

in its time!

fire

of the choice part of victims

gods

!

I

pure

!

I

have not

am

pure

Heracleopolis

is

Double Truth

!

pure

am

!

.

.

pure

god

at

pure

I

am

I

!

There

.

Pure as

me

them by name

under what

who live on Truth in the Lord God who dwelleth in his

O

feedeth on entrails,

that the deceased

They had been sin

which that one

solar disc

feedeth on truth.

He

naked

sacrifices to

;

himself, but

hath spread joy on it.

who

!

men speak

He

hath reconciled the god to him

Like

;

all objects

magic, and the genius which animates

human head on sits

;

thirsty, clothing

he hath offered

Deliver him from

mouth

is

it

belonging to the gods, the

sometimes shows its

the top of the upright stand which forms

Everything about the balance emblematic of Thot,

of that which

sides

" In the middle of the Hall, however, his acts

were being weighed by the assessors.

delicate little

who

all

before the Lord of the Dead, for his

pure, and his two hands are pure

false

liveth on truth,

the gods, sepulchral meals unto the manes.

him

— grant

who hath not borne

he hath given a boat to the shipwrecked

himself, speak not against

before

from the Typhon

he hath given bread to the hungry, water to the

;

it

unto you, he who hath not sinned, who hath

he hath done, and the gods rejoice in his love

me

Deliver

!

in your

hour of supreme judgment;

chiefs! in this

may come

unto you, ye gods who

" Hail

and feed your hearts upon

Aiinii,

who hath done nought against

is

severally

and the dead man took each

sins,

neither lied, nor done evil, nor committed any crime,

balance

then turned

Double Truth, who have no falsehood

bosoms, but

to the

He

from them "

part of his address.

first

are in the Great Hall of the

by

are with thee in

sometimes a highly mystic form, the ideas which he had already

is

advanced in the

witness,

Great Bonfi of

His plea ended, he returned to the supreme judge, and repeated,

recorded.

who

who

he was innocent of the

to witness that

am

I

I

in this land of the

!

towards the jury and pleaded his cause before them.

appointed for the cognizance of particular

forth

this

me

of the gods

the Hall of the Double Truth, save thou

of

coming

his

no crime against

is

know the names

Since I

!

back the

turned I

have not ejected the oxen of the

I

!

have not defrauded the Nine

I

recalls its

superhuman origin

:

fine

its

body.^

a cynocephalus,

perched on the upright and watches the beam

cords which suspend the scales are

made

and

of alternate cruces ansatse

;

and

the tats.^

' The souls of objects thus animated are not unfrequently mentioned and depicted in the Book knowing that which is in Hades. Their heads emerge from the material bodies to which they of belong while the Sun-god is passing by, to draw in when he has disappeared, and their bodies

reabsorb, or eat text

them

(cf.

(Maspero, iJtudes de

p.

83, note 4), according to the energetic expression of the

Mythologie

et

d'Arch^ologie J^gyptiennes,

vol.

ii.

pp.

124, etc.). ''

See the amulet called Tat or Didu, as represented on

p.

130

(cf. p.

84, note 3).

101,

Egyptian 105,'

106 '

TEE NEGATIVE CONFESSION. Truth squats upon one of the scales

191

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 "

the verdict aloud.

Thus

saith

Great Ennead, to his father in this Hall of the

in

No

true.

lord of eternity,

*

Behold the deceased

weighed

his heart hath been

in the balance

the great genii, the lords of Hades, and been found

presence of

the

and pronounces

tablet,

Thot, lord of divine discourse, scribe of the

Osiris,

Double Truth,

upon a wooden

Now

trace of earthly impurity hath been found in his heart.

he leaveth the tribunal true of voice, his heart

that

restored to him, as well

is

as his eyes

and the material cover of his heart, to be put back in their places

each in

own

its

custom of the of Anubis,

'

time, his soul in heaven, his heart in the other world, as

Followers of Horus.'

Henceforth

who presideth over the tombs

cemetery in the presence of Onnophris

who

follow thee

he whose voice

let his soul

;

is

;

;

let

abide where

let his

body

the

is

the hands

lie in

him

receive offerings at the

him be

as one of those favourites

let

in the necropolis of his city,

it will

true before the Great Ennead.' "

^

In this " Negative Confession," which the worshippers of Osiris taught to their dead, all

is

The material

not equally admirable.

temple

interests of the

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

cepts are untarnished in their purity by any selfish ulterior motive all

of its pre-

In

!

our morality in germ, and with refinements of delicacy often lacking

The god does not

peoples of later and more advanced civilizations.

favour to the prosperous and the powerful of this world

upon the

His

poor.

will is that

tasks beyond their strength tears be spared them.

as our religions preach

it,

amount

he bestows

it

them

;

himself, but

due from

not only does he com-

he forbids that

their

This profession of faith, one of the is

of very ancient origin.

be read in scattered fragments upon the monuments of the ideas are treated

by the compilers

first

It

Maspeko, Catalogue du Mus^e £gijptien de

may

dynasties,

of these inscrip-

tions proves that it was not then regarded as new, but as a text so old 1

also

to the love of our neighbour

His pity extends to slaves

by the old world,

its

confine his

at least it represents the careful solicitude

masters should be led to ill-treat them.

and the way in which

among

that they be not oppressed, and that unnecessary

that no one should ill-treat

noblest bequeathed us

is

they be fed and clothed, and exempted from

If this does not

a good lord to his vassals.

mand

;

;

it

Marseille, p. 38

and

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

192

known that

so well

formulas were current in

its

Was

prescribed places in epitaphs.^

composed

it

all

mouths, and had their

in

Mendes, the god's own

home, or in Heliopolis, when the theologians of that city appropriated the

god of Mendes and incorporated him

Ennead?

in their

tainly belongs to the Osirian priesthood, but

over the whole of

Egypt

In conception

it

cer-

can only have been diffused

it

after the general adoption of the Heliopolitan

throughout the

As

Ennead

cities.

soon as he

judged, the

dead

was

man

entered into the possession of his rights as a

pure

On

soul.

high he

received from the UniTHE

MANE.-)

TILLJNG THE GKOUND

AND REAPING

THE

UN

VCrSal

I'lELDS

0^ 'alO.2

below

bestowed

upon

gardens, and fields to

Egypt,

in

their

kings and princes here followers

military

to

Sit,

the

and

of

and

food,^

his kindred

If

the corveeJ^

Osirian

repulse them, and fought bravely in

him by

sent to

— rations

service,

was attacked by the partisans of

body

tliat

all

a

house,

be held subject to the usual conditions of tenure

taxation,

i.e.

IjOrO.

doubles hastened

defence.

its

Yet

this

in

a

Of the revenues

on certain days and by means of

gave tithes to the heavenly storehouses.

the island

sacrifices,

each

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

when he

still

idleness, but obliged

He

dwelt in Egypt.^

him

to labour as in the days

looked after the maintenance of canals

For instance, one of the formulas found in Meinphite tombs states that the deceased had been friend of his father, the beloved of his mother, sweet to those who lived with him, gracious to his the 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 (Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 43 c, d; cf. Pleyte, *

£liide sur le chapitre

de Grammaire

et

125 du Eituel fun^iaire, pp.

11, 12

;

Maspero, Notes sur

Mdanges d'ArcliMogie Egyptienne

d'Histoire, § 21, in the

et

differents points

Assyrienne, vol.

ii.

pp. 215, 216). * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a vignette in the funerary papyrus of Nebhopit in Turin (Lanzone, Bizionario di Mitologia Egizia, pi. v.). ' The formula of the pyramid (imes 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" (Fapi IL, 1. 1348, in the Becueil de Travaux, vol. xiv. p. 150). * On the assimilation of the condition of the dead enrolled in the service of a god and of the vassals of a Pharaoh, cf. Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie ^gyptiennes, vol, ii. :

pp. 44-46. * Book of the Dead, chap. ex. (Naville's edition, vol. i. pis. cxxi.-cxxiii.). The vignette to this chapter shows us the dead attending to their various occupations in the archipelago of lalft. There are numerous variants of the same, of which the most curious are perhaps those of the funerary

papyrus of Nebhopit in Turin, published by Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia, reproduced on this page and on p. 194.

pi.

v.,

and partly

— TEE PRIVILEGES OF OSIRIAN SOULS. and dykes, he for his lord

tilled the

and

at length

ground, he sowed, he reaped, he garnered the grain

Yet to those upon whom they were incumbent,

for himself.

these posthumous

193

obligations, the sequel

and continuation of feudal

service,

seemed too heavy, and theologians exercised their

They

ingenuity to find means of lightening the burden.

authorized the manes to look to their servants for the dis-

charge of

all

manual labour which they ought

unaccompanied

at the eternal cities

;

he brought

with him a following proportionate to his rank

At

tune upon earth.

have per-

Earely did a dead man, no matter how

formed themselves. poor, arrive

to

first

and

for-

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

A number of statues

grave as they had served him here.^

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 a few inches. fine

diorite,

little

by

little

Some were carved out limestone,

or

to

the height of

of alabaster, granite,

moulded out of

fine

and

clay

UASHBITI.*

delicately

semblance.*

modelled

;

others

had

scarcely

They were endowed with

life

any human

by means of a formula recited

over them at the time of their manufacture, and their legs.

called

the

afterwards traced upon

All were possessed of the same faculties. Osirians to the corvee

whom

re-

When

the god

who

pronounced the name of the dead man

the figures belonged, they arose and answered for him hence their A JJaslibiti.^ Equipped for agricultural labour, designation of "Respondents" to

;

each grasping a hoe and carrying a seed-bag on his shoulder, they set out to

On the occasional persistence of human sacrifice, real or simulated, even into the times of the eecond Theban Empire, see Maspero, Le Tombeau de Montouhilihop-
Such are the women grinding corn, the bread-kneaders and the cellarers sometimes found in the more elaborate tombs of the Ancient Empire (Maspero, Guide du Visiteur au mm^e de Boulaq, Perhaps even the statues of the double (Ka-statues) should be included in pp. 215, 218, 219, 220). this category. *

' Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a painted limestone statuette from the tomb of Sonnozmu at Thebes, dating from the end of the XX"* dynasty. * The origin and signification of the tfashhiti, or Respondents,ha.ve hsen several times pointed out by Maspero (Guide du Visiteur au mus€e Boulaq, pp. 131-133, and £(udes de Mythologie et d'Arch^-

ologie iJgyptiennes, vol.

i.

pp. 355, 356).

The magical formula which was

to endow the Respondents with life, and order their task in the next world, forms tlie sixth chapter of the Book of the Dead (Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. viii.). It has been studied by Chabas, Observations sur le Cliapilre VI du Riluel fun€raire ^gyptien, a propos *

d'une statuette fun^raire du mus^e de Langres (an extract from the M^inoires de la Soei^l^ historique

et

;

THE LEGEND ARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

194

work iu their appointed places, contributing the required number of days of Up to a certain point they thus compensated for those inforced labour. equalities of condition

which

not

efface

death

did

itself

among the

vassals of Osiris

for the figures

were sold so

cheaply that even the poorest could always afford some for themselves, or

upon their the

bestow a few

relations

Islands

of

fellah, artisan,

;

the

and

in

Blest,

and slave were

indebted to the Uashhiti for release from their old routine of labour

and unending

While the

little

toil.

peasants of

stone or glazed ware dutifully toiled

THE DEAD MAN AND

HIS WIFE PLAYING AT DRAUGHTS IN THE PAVILION.'

their all

They

tian paradise in perfect idleness.

THE DEAD MAN SAILING

IN HIS

and

tilled

and sowed,

masters were enjoying

the delights of the Egyp-

sat at ease

by the water-side,

in-

BARK ALONG THE CANALS OF THE FIELDS OF IAlC*

haling the fresh north breeze, under the shadow of trees which were always green.

They

fished

with lines

among

the

lotus-plants

;

they embarked

more especially by V. Loret, Les Stnfuettes fun^raires du mus^e de Boulaq, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. iv. pp. 89-117, vol. v. pp. 70-76. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a vignette in No. 4 Papyrus, Dublin (Naville, Das Mgyptische TodtenJmch, vol. i. pi. 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, arch^ologique de Langres, 1863), and

'

;

pp. 9-101. '^

of Nebhoplt, in Turin (Lanzone, Dizionario di from part of the same scene as the illustration on

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the Papyrus

Mitologia Eqizia, p. 192.

pi.

v

).

This drawing

is

CONFUSION OF

deign

sometimes

AND SOLAR

and were towed along by their

boats,

in their

SIB IAN

to

IDEAS.

servants,

paddle themselves slowly about

or

the

195 they would

They

canals.

went fowling among the reed-beds, or retired within their painted pavilions at draughts, to return to

read tales, to play

to

wives who were

their tiful.^

It

for ever

young and beau-

ameliorated

was but an

earthly

life,

suffer-

:-^fjKlMS^

ing under the

by the favour of the

fe^^/ifl^'^Ui^^^

true-voiced Onnophris.

divested of

The

all

feudal

and

rule

new

jiromptly adopted this

gods

mode

of

life.

Each

of

iheir

dead bodies, mummi-

fied,

and afterwards reani-

BOAT OF A FUNERARY FLEET ON ITS WAY TO ABYDOS.*

mated

in

accordance with the Osirian myth, became an Osiris as did that

Some

of any ordinary person. of Mendes,

the god

Sokaris

or

to

be

carried the assimilation so far as to absorb

absorbed

became Phtah-Sokar-Osiris, and

Osiris Khontamentit.^

The sun -god

parative ease because his like that of Osiris,

which

life is is

in

at

At Memphis

him.

Thinis

Phtah-

Khontamentit became

lent himself to this process with

more

like a man's

life,

com-

and hence also more

the counterpart of a man's

life.

Born

in the

Gymnastic exercises, hunting, fishing, sailing, are all pictured in Theban tombs. The game of draughts is mentioned in the title of chap. xvli. of the Book of the Dead (Naville's edition, vol. i. Tomheau pi. xxiii. 1. 2), and the women's pavilion is represented in the tomb of Eakhmiri (Virey, Le supposed were dead the That xxv.). de Eekhmara, in the M^moires de la Mission du Caire, vol. v. pi. '

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 (Maspero, Les Premieres Lignes des M^moires de Sinuhit, pp. 1, 2). 2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. The original was found The dead man is sitting Gizeh. at in the course of M. de Morgan's excavations at Meir, and is now has preserved its which boat only the As far as I know, this is in the cabin, wrapped in his cloak. to

read tales

is

;

It dates from the XI"' or XII"* dynasty. Maspero, £tudes de Mythologie et d' Arcli^ologie l^gijptiennes,

original rigging. *

vol.

ii.

pp. 21-24.

THE LEGENDARY BISTORT OF EGYFT.

196

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

human

their

also

souls threaten his soul

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

and ought to dwell there

lalii,

for ever

He

the

kind, however, for daily the

sun

was

IS

nothing

did

of

phris.

THE SOLAR BAKK INTO WHICH THE DEAD MAN ABOUT TO ENTER.'

under the rule of Onno-

be seen

to

reappearing

the east twelve hours after

Was

sunk into the darkness of the west did

the same sun shine every day?

same

cisely the

Having

;

came

the god

it

new orb each

a

a

first

day and a

matter further, and affirming

identify

man and

that

forth

in the morning, as

Ra

Ea

with

push

the

night,

them

for

might,

not

If the

realm of the sun for a universe.

and

this

Their

first

little

that which

all

the god

'

^

left

of

again

Egyptians had for

the

bright

with what joy must they to substitute the

whole

archipelago in an out-of-the-way corner of the

them went

the various practices and prayers, whose text,

already contained the Osirian formulas, ensured

Ea

the unfailing protection of

making use

nights,

consideration was to obtain entrance into the divine bark,

was the object of

together with

lot,

by the conception which allowed them

tilled

and

they so wished, be born

of laiii a sensible alleviation of their

have been

to

succeeding days

all if

hard

was

it

man, and

found the prospect of quitting the darkness of the tomb

meadows

or

life.

and together with him.^

was,

time,

from death and re-entered into

first

Osiris

had

it

In either case the result was pre-

identified the course of the sun-god with that of

Osiris for

in

their

possessor.^

straight from his

earth to descend

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie

to

into Hades.

tomb

The

soul

desirous

to the very spot

This was somewhere

of

where in

the

a vignette in the Papyrus of Nebqadu, in Paris. Egyiitiennes, vol. ii. pp. 24-27.

et d' Arche'ologie

' The formulas enablinj; the soul to enter the solar bark form the cliief part of chaps, c.-cii. (Naville's edition, vol. i. pis. cxiii., cxiv.), cxxxiv.-cxxxvi. (Naville's edition, vol. i. pis. cxlv.cxlix.) fif the Book of the Bead. But in this work the mingling of solar and Osirian conceptions is already complete, and several chapters intended for other purposes contain many allu&ious to tlie embarkation of souls in the boat of Ra.

THE DEAD IN TEE BARK OF THE SUN.

197

immediate neighbourhood of Abydos, and was reached through a narrow gorge " cleft "

or

in

Libyan

the

range, whose "mouth" opened front

in

the temple of

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

or

priests,

and laden with

food, furniture,

This

flotilla

friends

and

statues.

was placed with-

in the vault

on the day of

the funeral,^ and was set in

motion by means of incantations recited over

one of the

first

THE SOLAR BARK PASSING INTO THE MOUNTAIV OF THE

W'EsT.'

during

it

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 the boats left

to

show the

fleet

the right way,° and under this

Ahydos and mysteriously passed through the

western sea which

is

command

" cleft " into that

inaccessible to the living,^ there to await the daily

of the dying sun-god.

As soon

as his bark appeared at the last

coming

bend of the

Mouth of the Cleft, and the way in which souls arrived there, see Maspero, Etudes de d'Archeologie Mythologie et jSgyptiennes, vol. i. p. 14, etc. ; and Mudes ^gyptiennes, vol. i. p. 121, '

As

to the

et seq.

There are many of these boats in museums, and several in the Louvre (Salle Civile, Case K). flotillas whose origin is known there are only that in the Berlin Museum, which is from Thebes (Passalacqtja, Catalogue, pp. 126-129, reproduced in Prisse d'Avennes, Histoire de VArt ijgyptien), and those in the Gizeh Museum, of which one was found at Saqqarah (Maspero, Quatre Ann€t8 de fouilles, in the M^moires de la Missiori du Caire, vol. i. p. 209, with plate), and the other at Meir, north of Sifit. They belong to the XI"' and XIP" dynasties. ^ Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a very small photograph published in the Catalogue of the Minutoli Sale (Catalog der Sammlungen von Musterwerken der Industrie und Kunst zusammengebracht durch En. Freiherrn, Br. Alexander von Minutoli, Cologne, 1875). * These formulas are traced upon the walls of an XVIII"'-dynasty tomb, that of Nofirhotpft at Thebes; they have been published by DDmichen, Kalendarische Inschriften, pi. xxsv. II. 31-60 (cf. Die Flotte einer Mgyptischen Konigin, pl. xxxi. pp. 31-60) and by Benedite, Le Tombeau de N^ferhotpou, in the M€moires de la Mission du Caire, vol. v. p. 516, et seq., with plate. * "Thourisest again like the grasshopper of Abydos, for whom room is made in the bark of Osiris, and who accompanieth the god as far as the region of the cleft " (Sharpe, Egyptian Inscriptions, 1st series, pl. 105, 11. 23, 24; E. A. W. Budge, Notes on Egyptian Stelas, principally of the XVIII"' Dynasty, in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. viii. p. 327 Lefebure, J^tude sur Abydos, also in the Proceedings of the same Society, vol. xv. pp. 136, 137). The pilot of the sacred barks is generally a hawk-headed man, a Horns, perhaps a reminiscence of this bird ^

Of the

;

pilot. *

Maspero, iJtudes ^gyptiennes,

vol.

i.

pp. 123-130.

TEE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

198

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

Abydos mingled

of

their shouts of joy with the

chant of the sacred baboons, the bark lingered for a moment

upon the

frontiers of day,

and

initiated

the

souls seized

occasion to secure their recognition and their reception on

board of

Once admitted, they took

it.^

management

of the

deities; but they

boat,

were not

and all

in

the battles with hostile

endowed with the courage or

equipment needful to withstand the the voyage.

Many

regions which

it

their share in the

and

perils

terrors

of

stopped short by the way in one of the

traversed, either in the realm of Klionta-

mentit, or in that of Sokaris, or in those islands where the

good Osiris welcomed them in

as

though they had duly arrived There they

the ferry-boat, or upon the wing of Thot.

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

of

beams

The few

light.^

per-

severed, feeling that they

had courage the

sun

to

accompany

throughout, and

these were indemnified for their sufferings by the most brilliant fate ever

of

THE SOUL DESCENDIKG THE SEPULCHRAL SHAFT ON TO EEJOIN THE MUMMY.'

ITS

WAY

by Egyptian

dreamed

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

This description of the embarkation and voyage of the soul is composed from indications given Booh of the Dead (Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. xxii.), combined with the text of a formula which became common from the times of the XI"* and XII"* dynasties (Maspero, Etudes de Mytliologie et d'Arch^ologie ^gyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 14-18, and Mudes '

in one of the vignettes of chap. xvi. of the

iJgyptiennes, vol.

i.

pp. 122, 123.)

Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d' Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 44, 45. ' Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Deveuia, Le Papyrus de Neb-Qed, pi. i. (cf. Chabas, Notice sur le Pire-em-hrou, in the M^moires du Congres des Orientalistes de Paris, vol. ii. pp. 14-50, pi. Iviii., and Naville, Das jEgypiisclie Todtenhuch, vol. i. pi. iv. Pe). The scene of the soul contemplating the face of the mummy is often represented in Theban copies of the Book of the Dead (Naville's edition, *

THE GOING FORTE OF SOULS BY DAY. ever-renewed splendour. at will into the world.^

was

left of their

199

They disembarked where they pleased, and returned If now and then they felt a wish to revisit all that

earthly bodies, the human-headed sparrow-hawk descended

the shaft in full flight, alighted upon the funeral couch, and, with hands softly laid at the

upon the spot where the heart had been wont

impassive mask of the

mummy.

to beat,

gazed upwards

This was but for a moment, since

THE SOUL ON THE EDGE OF THE FUNERAL COUCH, WITH THE MUMMY.*

ITS

HANDS ON THE HEART OF

nothing compelled these perfect souls to be imprisoned within the tomb like the doubles of earlier times, because they feared the light.

by day," ^ and dwelt their gardens

in those places

They

where they had lived

by their ponds of running water

;

;

" went forth

they walked in

many

they perched like so

birds on the branches of the trees which they had planted, or enjoyed the fresh

under the shade of their sycamores

air

travelled

by

hill

and dale

;

;

they ate and drank at pleasure

i.

pi. cl.

chap. Ixxxix.);

it is

they

they embarked in the boat of Ra, and disembarked,

without weariness, and without distaste for the same perpetual round.^ vol.

;

better

shown

in the little

monument

This

of the scribe Ka, reproduced in

the illustiation on this page (Maspeeo, Guide du Visiteur an Mus^e deBoulaq, pp. 130, 131, No. 1621). ' ]Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 24-27. * 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). ^ This is the title, Piru-m-liru, of the first section of the Book of the Dead, and of several chapters in other sections (Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 352-355). The true It has been translated going out from day, being manifest to day, going forth like the day. in Miramar Denhmaler Mgyptischen translation, going forth by day, was suggested by Reinisch (Die p. 44:) and demonstrated by Lefebure (Le Per-m-hru, £tude sur la vie future chez les £gyptiens, in Chabas, Mdanges Egyptologiques, 3rd series, vol. ii. pp. 218-241 cf. E. VON Bergmann, Das Buck ;

vom Durchwandeln der Ewigkeit,

pp. 8, 31). This picture of the life of the soul going forth by

day is borrowed from the frequent formula upon stelae of the XVIII"" to the XX^ dynasties, of which the best known example is C 55 in tiie Louvre (Pierret, iZecueiZ d' inscriptions in^dites, vol. ii. pp. 90-93; cf. E. A. "W. Budge, Notes on *

TEE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

200

conception, which was developed somewhat late, brought the Egyptians back to the point from which they

on the

The

to come.

life

to which in the beginning

had started when

soul, after it

having

the

life in

fell

full light of

left

they began to speculate

the place of

its

incarnation

clung, after having ascended into heaven and there

sought congenial asylum in vain, forsook

and unhesitatingly

first

havens which

all

it

had found above,

back upon earth, there to lead a peaceful, day, and with the whole valley of

Egypt

The connection, always increasingly intimate between

and happy

free,

for a paradise.

Osiris

and Ra,

gradually brought about a blending of the previously separate myths and

concerning each.

beliefs

and enemies of the

The

other,

friends

and enemies of the one became the friends

and from a mixture

of the original conceptions of

the two deities, arose new personalities, in which contradictory elements were

The

blent together, often without true fusion.

were identified with Horus, son of as

his

way became

the same

in

Isis,

and

celestial

their attributes were given to him,

Apopi and the monsters

theirs.

—who

hippopotamus, the crocodile, the wild boar

still

lay in wait for

Ea

—the as he

heavenly ocean, became one with Sit and his accomplices.

the

sailed

Horuses one by one

Sit

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 neigh-

bouring nomes,

The

as, for

example, at Oxyrrhynchos and at Heracleopolis Magna.

repulsion with which the slayer of Osiris was regarded did not every-

where dissociate these two cults:

certain

small

persisted in

districts

double worship down to the latest times of paganism.

tliis

It was, after all,

a mark of fidelity to the oldest traditions of the race, but the bulk of the

who had

Egyptians,

forgotten these, invented reasons taken from the history

of the divine dynasties to explain the

had not put an end

Sibil

had

the earth,

left

fact.

The judgment

to the machinations of

Sit

Harmakhis, the Typhonians reopened the campaign.

Edfli,

soon as Horus

Now,

in the year

Beaten at

first

363 near

they retreated precipitately northwards, stopping to give battle wherever

Egyptian Stelx, principalhj of ArchsBology, vol. '

as

Thot or of

resumed them, and pursued them, with varying

Sit

fortune, under the divine kings of the second Ennead.^ of

:

of

The war

of

viii.

XVIII"' Dynasty, in the Transactions of

the

the Society of Biblical

pp. 306-312).

Harmakhis and

sanctuary in the temple of Edffi.

Sit

is

The

chronicled and depicted at length on the inner walls of the inscriptions and pictures relating to it were copied, trans-

and published for the first time by E. Naville, Textes relatifs au Mythe d'Horus recueillis dans le temple d'Edfu, pis. xii.-xxxi., and pp. 16-25 Brugscli, soon after, brought out in his memoir on Die Sage von der gefliigellen Sonnenscheibe nach altwjyptischen Quellen {Aus den XIV Bande der Abhandlungen der K. Ges. der Wissenschaften zu Gottiugen, 1870), a German translation of them with a commentary, several points of whicli he has corrected in various articles of his Dictionnaire G^ographique. The interpretation of the text here adopted was proposed by Maspero 0tudes de lated,

;

Mythologie

et

d'Arch^ologie J^gyptiennes, vol.

ii.

p. 321, et seq.).

THE CAMPAIGNS OF EARMAKHIS AGAINST predominated,

their partisans

—

at

Zatmit

nutrit to the north-east of Denderah,^

the Gazelle.^

Heracleopolis

last

in the principality of

out

and

Magna, were

the means of driving

;

Hibonu

at

Several bloody

between Oxyrrhynchos

Valley

the Theban noine,^ at Khait-

in

which took place

combats,

finally

and

201

s7t.

of

the

—

>

them Nile

they rallied for the

time in the eastern pro-

vinces of

the Delta,

were

beaten at Zalii/ and giving

up all hope of success on

land,

they embarked at the head of the

Gulf of Suez, in order

return

to

to

Nubian

the

Desert, their habitual refuge

The

times of distress.

in

sea was the special element of Typhon, and upon

it

believed themselves secure. Shaa-hirit,^ routed

a solemn festival.

THE SOUL GOING FORTH INTO

GARDEN BY DAY.*

Horus, however, followed them, overtook them near

them, and on his return to

By

ITS

they

degrees, as he

which owed allegiance to

Sit,

by

Edfii, celebrated his victory

made himself master

of those localities

he took energetic measures to establish in them

the authority of Osiris and of the solar cycle.

by side with the sanctuary of the Typhonian

In

all

of

divinities, a

them he

built, side

temple to himself, in

which he was enthroned under the particular form he was obliged to assume order to vanquish his enemies.

Metamorphosed

into a

hawk

in

at the battle of

' Zatmit (Brugsch, Bid. G^ographique, p. 1006) appears to have been situate at some distance from Bayadiye'h, on the spot where the map published by the Egyptian Commission marks the ruins There was a necropolis of considerable extent there, which furnishes the of a modern village. Luxor dealers with antiquities, many of which belong to the first Theban empire. 2 Khait, or Khaiti-nfitiit (Brugsch, Diet. G^ographique, pp. 269-273), appears to me to be now represented by Nutah, one of the divisions of the township of Denderali. The name Khalt may have been dropped, or confused with the administrative term nahhiil, which is still applied to a part

of the village, Nakhie't-Nutah (Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'Arch^ologie J^gyptiennea, vol. p.

ii.

326).

Hibona (Brugsch,

'

now Minieh (Maspero,

Diet. G^ographique, pp. 490, 491, 1252) is

Notes au

h jour,

§ 14, in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archseological Society, vol. xiii. pp. 506, 507). Zalu, Zara (Brugsch, Diet. G€ographique, pp. 992-997) is the Selle of classical geographers

jour *

;

cf

nomes of the Delta on p. 75 of this work. the map s by Faucher-Gudin from the survey-drawings of the tomb of Anni by Boussac, member Copied The inscription over the arbour gives the list of the of the Mission franfaise in Egypt (1891). various trees in the garden of Anni during his lifetime. of the

^

tlie

Shas-hirit

Bed

is

the Egyptian

name

which the Ptolemies built on and Zeitschri/t, 1884, p. 96).

of one of the towns of Berenice

Sea (Brugsch, Diet. G^agraphique, pp. 792-794, 1335, 1336

;

:

TEE LEGEND ABT HISTORY OF EGYPT.

202

Hibonu, we next see him springing on to the back of Sit under the guise a hippopotamus

;

his

in

shrine

Hibonu he

at

represented

is

as

a

of

hawk

perching on the back of a gazelle, emblem of the nome where the struggle took

place.-^

Near

crowned with the like a knife;

it

was under the form,

not, therefore, for these ;

it

lion,

diadem, and having feet armed with claws which cut

triple

The

in the temple at Zalu.^

fact

he became incarnate as a human-headed

to Zalu

he was worshipped

too, of a lion that

and the

correlation of Sit

celestial

Horus was

Egyptians of more recent times a primitive religious

was the consequence, and so to speak the sanction, of the old hostility

Horus had treated

between the two gods.

enemy

his

in the

that a victorious Pharaoh treated the barbarians conquered

had constructed a

keep

fortress to

his foe in check,

and

by

his priests

same fashion his

arms

:

he

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,

with blood.

The hatred

more than once, Egypt was deluged

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,

the image of their master on the effaced from the geographical

became odious

to the rest of the population

monuments was

lists,

mutilated,* their

they were assailed with insulting epithets,

and to pursue and slay their sacred

animals

was reckoned a pious

Thus originated those skirmishes which developed were continued down to

Roman

names were

times.^

act.

into actual civil wars, and

The adherents

of

Typhon only became

' Naville, Textes relatifs au Mythe d'Eorus recueillis dans le temple d'Ed/u, pi. xiv. 11. 11-13; Brugsch, Die Sage von der geflUgelten Sonnenscheibe, pp. 17, 18. ^ Naville, Textes relatifs au Mythe d^ Horus recueillis dans le temple d'EdfH, pi. xviii. 11. 1-3; Bel'Gsch, Die Sage von der geflUgelten Sonnenscheibe, pp. 31-36. * These foundations, the " Marches of Horus " into Typhonian territory, are what the texts of Edffi (Naville, Textes relatifs au Mythe d' Horus, pi. xvii. 1, 10, et8eq.)call " Masnit." The warriorpriests of Horus, according to an ancient tradition, called themselves *' Masnitift " blacksmiths (Maspero, Etudes de Religion et d'Arch^ologie £gyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 313, et seq.). " Masnit " at first meant the place where the black&miths worked, the forge; it then became the sanctuary of their master at Edfu, and by extension, the sanctuary of the celestial Horus in all those towns of Egypt Brugsch has shown that these where that god received a worship analogous to that of Edr6. "Masnit," or "divine forges," were four in number in Egypt (Dictionnaire G^ographique, pp.

cf.

—

298-306, 371-378, 1211, 1212). * Seti I., in his tomb, everywhere replaced the hieroglyph

name, by that of Osiris

J

;

it

was in

order, as

\

of the

god

ChampoUion remarked, not

Sit,

which forms his

to oflfend the

god of the

dead by the sight of his enemy, and more particularly perhaps to avoid tlie contradiction of a king named Sit being styled Osiris, and of calling him «' the Osiris Seti." The mutilation of the name of Sit upon the monuments does not appear to me to be anterior to the Persian period ; at that time the masters of the country being strangers and of a different religion, the feudal divinities ceased to aspire to the political supremacy, and the oidy common religion that Egypt possessed was that of Osiris, the god of the dead. * Cf. the battle that Juvenal describes in his fifteenth satire, between the people of Denderah and those of the town of Ombi, which latter is not the Ombos situated between Assuan and Gebel Silsileh, but Pa-ntibit, the Pampanis of Roman geographers, the present Negadeh (Dijmichen, Geschichte Mgyptens, pp. 125, 126).

<

SI

3 25

;;^.^'^a:y-
-

'

THE LEGENDARY BISTORT OF EGYPT.

204 more confirmed

overcame their obstinate

The

god

in their veneration for the accursed

;

Christianity alone

fidelity to him.^

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 inter-

minable 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 divine kings

the end of time.

most of the years of their earthly reign

of the second and third to this

end

;

Ennead devoted

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

there in this line of conquerors

few peaceful sovereigns are met with here and

—a

few sages or legislators, of

whom

the most

famous was styled Thot, the doubly great, ruler of Hermopolis and of the Hermopolilan Ennead.

A

minister of Horus, son of Isis

him with the second king

legend of recent origin made him the prime ;

^

a

still

more ancient

tradition would identify

of the second dynasty, the immediate successor

of the divine Horuses, and attributes to

brought to the throne that inventive

him a

spirit

and that creative power which

had characterized him from the time when he was only a feudal Astronomy, divination, magic, medicine, writing, drawing arts

He

reign of 3226 years.^

and sciences emanated from him as from their

first

—

in

deity.

fine, all

source.'*

the

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 limits of the constellations which each night were

lit

up

and the shapes

in the sky.

Most

This incident in the wars of Horus and Sit is drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a bas-relief of the temple of Edfa (Natille, Textes relatifs au Mythe d'Eorus, pi. xv.). Ou the right, Har-Hftditi, 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 HarHuditi hold his chains; behind Horus, Isis and Thot are leading four other captives bound and ;

ready to be sacrificed before Harmakhis. " This is the part he plays in the texts of Edffi published by Naville, and which is confirmed by several passages, where he is called Zaiti, the " count " of Horus (cf. Bergmann, EieroglypMsche Inschri/ten, pi. Ixxxi. 11. 73, 74); according to another tradition, known to the Greeks, he is the minister, or " count " of Osiris (cf. p. 174, and Dumichen, Historische Inschri/ten, vol. ii. pi. xxv.), or, according to Plato, of Thames {Phsedrus, Didot's edition, vol. i. p. 733), according to ^liau (Varia Eistoria, xii. 4 xiv. 34) of Sesostris. ' Royal Papyrus of Turin, in Lepsius, Auswahl der wichtigsten Urkunden, pi. iii. col. ii. 11, 1. 5. Thot, the king, mentioned on the coffer of a queen of the XI"* dynasty, now preserved in the Berlin Museum (No. 1175), is not, according to M. Erman (Eistorische Nachlese, in the Zeitgchrift, vol. XXX. pp. 46, 47), the god Thot, king of the divine dynasties, but a prince of the Theban or Heracleopolitan dynasties (cf. Pietschmann, Eermes Trismegistos, p. 26, Ed. Meyer, GescMchte des AUerthums, vol. i. p. 65). ;

*

The testimony

tiorum, vol.

iii.

and Roman writers on this subject is found in Jablonski, Pantheon JSgypand in Pietschmann, Eermes Trismegistos nach u^gyptischen, Griechischen Ueherlieferungen, p. 28, et seq. Thot is the Hermes Trismegistos of the Greeks. of Greek

p. 159, et seq.,

und Oriental ischen

ASTRONOMY, THE STELLAR TABLES. of the latter either remained, or appeared to

remain immovable, and seemed

never to pass out of the regions accessible to the

^?LI4I^

^rrt

205

cif^((^^f3.'.n^
human

oKfr^fP^SlliSA

Those which

were situate on the extreme

margin of the firmament accomplished movements there analogous

^m'

eye.

those

to

Every year

planets.

of

the

at fixed

times they were seen to sink

'offT^?^;;;^^^

one after another below the horizon,

to

disappear,

and

0£i^^

rising again after an eclipse

"^TSESiiSlS

of greater or less duration, to

iZ-^'l?.

-'^cr^'l,

,1111

5^?sm5n^IS

a-Z^

t?-/A!-zl9^2^

iorf<^^AVan^Q^

regain insensibly their original positions.

The

constellations

were reckoned to be thirtysix in

number, the thirty-six decani *

attributed mysterious powers, and of

was queen

— Sothis transformed into

when Orion (Sahu) became the

whom were whom Sothis

to

the star of

star of Osiris.^

Isis,

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

'^ ^K^rorrrKs

I'vt"'"

to ascertain the existence of a considerable

of stars

our telescopes

;

which we could not see without the help of

they could perceive with the naked eye stars of the

magnitude, and note them upon their catalogues.^ It entailed, training and uninterrupted practice to bring their sight

keenness

;

number

but from very early times

it

up

it is

fifth

true, a long

to its

maximum

was a function of the priestly colleges

Decani " were single stars, or groups of stars, and related to the thirty-sixth or thirtyseventh decades of which the Egyptian y^ar was composed (Maspebo, Hist. Ancienne dea peuples de I'Orient, p. 71).— Trs.] For Orion and Sothis, see pp. 96-98 of this History. ChampoUion first drew attention to the Decani, who were afterwards described by Lepsius (^Einleitung zur Chronologie der Alien Mgypter, pp. 68, 69), but with mistakes which Goodwin {Sur un horoscope grec contenant les noma de plusieurs D^cans, in Chabas, Mdanges Egyptologiques, second series, pp. 294-306) and Brugsch (Thesaurus Inscriptionum j^gypfiacarum, p. 131, et seq. of. Die ^gyptologie, p. 339, et seq.) have corrected by means of fresh documents. * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a copy by Lepsius, Denlcm., iii. 227, 3. ' Biot, however {Sur un calendrier astronomique et astrologique Irouv^ a Thebes en Egypte, p. 15), 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 Antiquite's " can see stars which are usually classed with those of the fifth magnitude [*

The

"

'

;

;

TEE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

206

The

to found and maintain schools of astronomy.

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,

behold the sun face to face

to

— were

in studying the configuration priests of other

judge from their actively

title,

were alone worthy to

employed from the

earliest times

and preparing maps of the heavens.^

gods were quick to follow their example

The

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

were called, " watchers of the night." ^

its

official

astronomers,

or, as

they

In the evening they went up on to

the high terraces above the shrine, or on to the narrow platforms which termi-

nated the pylons, and fixing their eyes continuously on the celestial vault above

them, followed the movements of the constellations and carefully noted down

A

the slightest phenomena which they observed. heavens, as

known

portion of the chart of the

Theban Egypt between the eighteenth and twelfth

to

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

fashion than their subjects. trivial

on earth

details;

more intimate

identified with Osiris in a

They represented the god even

— where,

after

having

played

the

in the

most

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 high priests of Ea styled themselves Oiru-mauu, " the great of One of them sight," the chief of those who see the Sun, those alone who behold him face to face. describes himself on his statue (Maspeko, Rapport sur une mission en Italic, in the Recueil de Travaux, " the reader who Icnows the face of the cf. Brugsch, Die ^gyptologie, p. 320) vol. iii. p. 126, § xi. heavens, the great of sight in the mansion of the Prince of Hermonthis " (cf. pp. 136, 160 of this History). Hermonthis, the Afind of the south, was tlie exact counterpart of Heliopolis, tlie Aunu (On) of the nortli it therefore possessed its mansion of the prince where Montft, the meridional sun, had of old '

I

would

recall the fact that the

:

;

;

resided during his sojourn

upon

earth.

Urshi : this word is also used for the soldiers on watch during the day upon the walls of a fortress (Maspero, Le Papyrus de Berlin, No. 1, 11. 18, 19, in the Melanges d'Arch^ologie Egyptienne et Assyrienne, vol. iii. p. 72). Birch believed he had discovered in the British Museum {Inscriptions in the Hieratic and Demotic Characters, pi. xix.. No, 5635, and p. 8) a catalogue of observations made at Thebes by several astronomers upon a constellation which answered to the Hyades or the Pleiades (Birch, Varia, in the Zeitschrift, 1868, pp. 11, 12); 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. ' The principal representations of the map of the heavens which are at present known to us, are those of the Kameseum on the left bank of the Nile at Thebes, which have been studied by Biot *

by G. Tomlinson (0/t the Astronomical Ceiling of R. Soc. of Literature, vol. iii. pi. ii. pp. 481-499), the Chronologic, 20, by Lepsius {Einleitung zur 21), and lastly by Brugsch (^Thesaurus Inscriptionum pp. Denderah, which have been reproduced in the Description de of Mgyptiacarum,^. 87, et seq.) those further light thrown on them by Brugsch (Theso.urus have had and VEgypte (^Ant., vol. iv. pis. 20, 21), Inscriptionum Mgyptiacarum, p. 1, et seq.); those of the tomb of Seti I., which have been edited by Belzoni (.4 Narrative of the Operations, SuppL, iii.), by Rosellini {Monumenti del Culto, pi. 69), by Lepsius (^Denhmaler, iii. 137), by Lefe'bure (ie Tomheau de S€ti I^, part iv. pi. xxxvi., in the M^moires de la Mission Fran^aise du Caire, vol. ii.), and finally studied by Brugsch in his Thesaurus (p. 64, et seq.). (Sur Vann^e vague des Egyptiens, 1831,118, et

Memnonium

seq.),

at Tliebes, in the Transactions of the

;

TEE YEAR AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS. be born again at daybreak

;

heaven

in

— where

207

they shone with Orion-Sahu

under the guardianship of Sothis, and, year by year, led the procession of the

The maps

stars.

of the

firmament recalled to them, or

them, this part of their duties

:

necessary taught

they there saw the planets and the decani

past in their boats, and the constellations follow one another in con-

sail

The

tinuous succession.

lists

annexed to the charts indicated the positions

occupied each month by the principal heavenly bodies

— their

risings, their

Unfortunately, the workmen employed to

culminations, and their settings.^

much about

execute these pictures either did not understand in

if

the subject

hand, or did not trouble themselves to copy the originals exactly

omitted

make

many

passages, transposed others, and

made

endless mistakes, which

impossible for us to transfer accurately to a modern

it

they

:

map

the infor-

mation 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

had been entrusted

the divine eye which

to

him by Horns, and the

days during which he was engaged in conducting of

its

nocturnal

^

all

the phases

Twelve of these months

were reckoned as a month.

life,

through

it

thirty

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

sank again into

fields,

vicissitudes of the inundation succeeded the

followed the seedtime

:

;

of Shait

months

;

the

1st,

work of cultivation

numbered one

;

to four

;

the

Ist,

2nd, 3rd, and 4th months of Piruit

of Shomii.

birth was heralded

;

to the

;

the harvest

—that of the tlmt of the harvest, Shomu — each com-

Thot made of them the three

that of vegetation, Piruit

prising four months,

channel

these formed three distinct divisions of the year, each

of nearly equal duration. waters, Shait

its

;

The twelve months completed, by the

seasons,

2nd, 3rd, and 4th months

the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th

a

new year began, whose

rising of Sothis in the early days of August.^

The

tombs of Ramses IV. and Ramses IX., had attention first drawn 2nd edit., pp. 239-241) and were published by la Nuhie, pi. cclxxii. bes-celxxii., Text, vol. ii. pp. 547-568), and subsequently by Lepsius (Denhm., in. 227, 228 bis). They have been studied by E. de Rouge' and Biot (Becherches de quelques dates ahsolues qui peuvent se conclure des dates vagues inscrites sur des monu•

These

tables, preserved in the

them by OhampoUion (Lettres him {Monuments de l'£gijpte et de to

Sorites d'JEgypte,

ments Egyptiens, pp. 35-83, and Sur un calendrier astronomique et astrologique trouv^a Thebes en Egypte dans les tombeaux de Ehamses VI et de Rhamses IX) by Lepsius (Einleitung zur Chronologie, p. 110, et seq.); by Gensler (Die Thehanischen Ta/eln stUndlicher Sternaufgdnge) ; hj Lepdge-Henoui (Calendar of Astronomical Observations in Royal Tombs of the Twentieth Dynasty, in the Transactions of the Biblical Archsevlogical Society, vol, iii. pp. 400-421) by Brugsch {Thesaurus Inscriptionum ^gyptiacarum, pp. 185-194); by Bilfinger (D/e Sterntafeln in den Jigyptischen Konigsgrabern von Bibdu el-Moluk); and \

;

by Schack {^gyptische Studten, Pt. II. 1894). of the most common titles of the moon-god Thot is An-uzait, " He who carries, who brings )he painted Eye of the Sun " (E. de Bekgmann, Historische Inschriften, pi. Iii.). ' The order and the nature of the seasous, imperfectly described by ChampoUion in his M^moire

lastly 2

One

P

TEE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

208 first

month

became

of the

Egyptian year thus coincided with the eighth of

patron, and gave

its

special protecting divinity

;

it

name, relegating each of the others to a

his

manner the

in this

Hathor, and was called after her

third

month

of Shait

fell

to

the fourth of Piruit belonged to Ranuit or

;

Ramuit, the lady of harvests, and derived from her Official

Thot

ours.

its

appellation of Pharmuti.^

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 side

by side with

was, however, not

still

used by the Christian inhabitants of Egypt,

Mussulman

the-

deemed

sufficient

:

decani,

and the days themselves were

A

assigned to genii appointed to protect them. set apart for

the

at

new

irregular

year, festivals

for

number

of festivals were

during the course of the year

intervals

month

patron for each

each month was subdivided into three

many

decades, over which presided as

One

appellations.

:

festivals

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

not be performed without a sacrifice or a

festival.

A

life,

that

it

could

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 of the solar year, for deficit,

it

fell

;

short of

it

it

did not correspond with the length

by

five

and a quarter days, and this

accumulating from twelvemonth to twelvemonth, caused such a serious

difference between the calendar reckoning

soon had to be corrected.

They

of each year and before the

and the natural seasons, that

intercalated, therefore, after the twelfth

first

day of the ensuing year,

five

days, which they termed the " five days over and above the year." of Osiris relates that

Thot created them

^

it

month

epagomenal

The legend

in order to permit Nuit to give

les signes employes par les anciens Egyptiens a la notation du temps, have been correctly explained by Brugsch {Nouvelles Eecherches sur la division de I'annee chez les anciens Egyptiens, pp. 1-15, 61, 62). ' For the popular names of the months and tlieir Coptic and Arabic transcriptions, see Brugsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum Mgyptiacarum, p. 472, et seq., and Die Mgyptologie, pp. 359-361 the Egyptian festivals are enumerated and described in this latter work, p. 362, et seq. ^ 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 days (cf. p. 172 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.

sur

;

;

THE DEFECTS OF TEE YEAR.

These days constituted, at the end of the " great

birth to all her children. year," a " little month,"

^

209

which considerably lessened the difference between

the solar and lunar computation, but did not entirely do away with the six hours and

and

a few minutes of which the Egyptians had not taken

count gradually became the source of fresh perplexities.

amounted

it,

They

at

length

whole day, which needed to be added every four years to the

to a

regular three hundred and sixty days, a fact which was unfortunately over-

The

looked.

difficulty, at first

only slight, which this caused in public

increased with time, and ended by disturbing the of the calendar and that of natural

phenomena

:

life,

harmony between the order end of a hundred and

at the

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

Gr?eco-Eoman

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 \Nould come, after three hundred and sixty-five times four in

years,

when the

consequence,

equal

would amount to an entire year, and when,

deficit

hundred

fourteen

and

sixty

hundred and sixty-one incomplete

fourteen

of the two yearSj which had been disturbed

was

re-established

centuries

:

whole years

of itself

after

the opening of the

and

of the astronomical year,

civil

rather

years.

by the

would

exactly

The agreement

force of circumstances,

more than fourteen and

a

half

year became identical with the beginning

this again coincided with the heliacal rising

To the

of Sirius, and therefore with the official date of the inundation.

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

would come when one of their descendants would,

for

knowing that a day once in his

life,

see

both years coincide with mathematical accuracy, and the seasons appear at their

normal times.

loses a definite

The Egyptian year might be compared

number

to calculate a cycle in

of minutes daily.

:

watch which

The owner does not take

which the total of minutes

round to the correct time

to a

lost will

the trouble,

bring the watch

he bears with the irregularity as long as

his affairs

' This is the name still given by the Copts to the five epagonienal days (Stekn, Eoptische Grammatik, p. 137 Bkugsch, Tliesaurua Inscriptionum Mgyptiacarum, p. 479, et seq.). " Krall has shown that the Sothic cycle vras devised and adapted to the ancient history of Egypt under the Antonines (Kball, Studien zur Geschichte des Alten Mgyptens, L p. 76. ;

et seq.).

^

TEE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT,

210 do not suffer by

it

to the right hour,

;

but when

it

and repeats

this operation each time

without being guided by a fixed fell

had

finds it necessary,

In like manner the Egyptian year

until the difference

continually increasing, or the priests

rule.

he

to adjust the two

hands

alters the

with regard to the seasons, the

confusion

hopeless

into

him inconvenience, he

causes

became

discrepancy the king

so great, that

by a process similar to that employed

in the case of the watch.

The

days, moreover, had each their special virtues, which

man

for

perils

know

to

if

he wished to

which they possessed

profit

by the advantages,

it

was necessary

or to escape the

There was not one among them that

for him.

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 disasters

which they had chronicled had as

Ea

;

the victories or the

were stamped them with good

it

or bad luck, and for that reason they remained for ever either auspicious or

the reverse. to

come

It

to him,

was on the 17th of Athyr that Typhon had enticed his brother

and had murdered him in the middle

year, on this day, the tragedy that

of a banquet.^

in the earthly abode of

had taken place

the god seemed to be repeated afresh in the heights of heaven. at the

moment

of the death of Osiris, the

Every

Just as

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 walk by the

to

had attacked

sent by Sit farewell

river-side, a

in

failure.^

crocodile would attack

Osiris.^

If

he

set out

To escape

this fatality,

:

he went out

him, as the crocodile

on a journey,

which he bade to his family and friends

by the way.^

If

it

was a

last

death would meet him

he must shut himself up at home,^ and

and defects of the Egyptian year have given rise to a which much science and ingenuity have been expended, often to no purpose. I have limited myself, in my remarks on the subject, to what seemed to me most probable and in conformity with what we know of Egyptian belief. The Anastasi Papyrus IV. (pi. x. 11. 1-5) has preserved the complaint of an Egyptian of the time of Minephtah or of Seti II., with regard to the troubles suffered by the people owing to the defects of the year (Maspeko, Notes au jour le jour, *

The

questions relating to the divisions

considerable

number

of works, in

§ 4, in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archxological Society, vol. xiii. The date of the 17th of Athyr, given by the Greeks {Be Iside

pjj.

303-410).

Pakthey, by several Pharaonic texts, such as the Sallier Papyrus IV., pi. viii. 11. 4-6. ' The 12th of Paophi, the day on which one of the followers of Osiris joined himself to Sit, "whatsoever thou mayest do on this day, misfortune will come this day" (Sallier Pap. IV., pi. v. "^

et

Osiride, § 13, edit.

pp. 21-23), is confirmed

1.1). *

The 22nd

of Paophi,

day, will be torn in pieces »

The 20th

"do

not bathe in any water on this day whosoever sails on the river this of the divine crocodile " (Sallier Pap. IV., pi. vi. 11. 5, 6). :

by the tongue

of Mechir, " think not to set forth in a boat " (Sallier Pap. IV., pi. xvii.

1.

8).

The

24th, "set not out on this day to descend the river; whosoever approaches the river oq this day loses his life " (id., pi. xviii. 11. 1, 2).

from thy house in any direction on this day" (Sallier Pap. the 5th of Pakhons, " whosoever goes forth 4) from his house on this day will be attacked and die from fevers " (id., pi. xxiii. 11. 8, 9) *

The 4th

IV., pi. iv.

1.

of Paophi,

3),

"go not

forth

neither on the 5th

(id., pi. iv. 11. 3,

;

AUSPICIOUS AND INAUSPICIOUS DAYS.

hours of danger had passed and the sun of the

wait in inaction until the

ensuing day had put the evil

know

these adverse influences;

one to

It

flight.^

was to his interest to

and who would have known them

them out and marked them

not Thot pointed

211

all,

had

One

in his calendars?

of

fragments of which have come down to us, indicated briefly

these, long

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

The

of them.^

ignorant of

details of it are not always intelligible to us, as

many

of the episodes in the life of Osiris.

we

are

still

The Egyptians were

acquainted with the matter from childhood, and were guided with sufiScient

The hours

exactitude by these indications. cious

;

those of the day were divided into three " seasons " of four hours

^

each, of which

"

of the night were all inauspi-

some were lucky, while others were invariably of

The 4th of Tybi

:

Whosoever

be fortunate.

is

than any of his family;

The 5th of Tybi the goddess

when they

:

Whatsoever thou

good, good, good.

ill

seest on this

omen.*

day

will

born on this day, will die more advanced in years

he

to a greater age than

will attain

This

inimical, inimical, inimical.

Sokhit, mistress of the double white

came

raised an insurrection,

forth,

Oflerings of bread to Shu, Phtah, Thot:

is

Whatsoever thou seest on

this

inimical, inimical, inimical.

Do

day

will

not join

father.

the day on which

Palace, burnt the chiefs

and manifested themselves.^

burn incense to Ra, and to the

gods who are his followers, to Phtah, Thot, Hii-Su, on this day.

thou seest on this day will be fortunate.

his

Whatsoever

The 6th of Tybi good, good, good. The 7th of Tybi be fortunate. thyself to a woman in the presence :

:

On

the 20th of Thot no work was to be done, no oxen killed, no stranger received (Sallier PapyOn the 22nd no fish might be eaten, no oil lamp was to be lighted {id., pi. i. rus IV., pi. i. 11. 2, 3). " 11. 8, 9). On the 23rd put no incense on the fire, nor kill big cattle, nor goats, nor ducks eat of no '

;

which has lived" (id., pi. i. 1. 9; pi. ii. 1. 1). On the 26th "do absolutely nothing " on this day (id., pi. ii. 11. 6, 7), and the same advice is found on the 7th of Paophi (id., pi. iv. 1. 6), on the 18th (id., pi. v. 1. 8), on the 26th (id., pi. vi. 1. 9), on the 27th (id., pi. vi. 1. 10), 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 (id., pi. xviii. 11. 7, 8). goose, nor of that

'

The

Sallier Papyrits IV. in the British

Museum, published

in Select Papyri, vol.

i.

pi. cxliv,-

was recognized by Ohampollion (Salvolini, Campagne de Ramses le Grand, p. 121, note 1), and an analysis was made of it by E. de Eouge (M^moire sur quelques ph^nomenes celestes, pp. 85-39 of. Eevue Archeologique, 1st series, vol, ix.) it has been entirely translated by Chabas (Le Calendrier des jours fastes et n€fastes de Vann^e ^gyptienne'). ' Some nights were more inauspicious than others, and furnished a pretext for special advice. On the 9th of Thot " go not out at night" (Sallier Pap. IV., pi. iii. 1. 8), also on the 15th of Khoiak (id., pi. xi. 1. 5) and the 27th (id., pi. xii. 1. 6); on the 5th of Phameuoth, the fourth hour of the clxviii.

Its value

;

;

night only was dangerous

(id., pi. xix.

1.

2).

to

For this division of the day into three seasons—" tori," cf. Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. i. Sunrise and sunset especially had harmful influences, against which it was necessary 30, note 2. pi. xv. 11. 2, 6; pi. xvii. 6; be on one's guard (Sallier Pap. PV., pi. ii. 1. -1; pi. v. 1. 5; pi. vi.

11.

2,

*

p.

.

'

3;

pi. xviii. 11. 6,

This

is

7;

pi. xix.

1.

4;

an allusion to the revolt of

by means of the goddess Sokhit;

cf.

pi. xxiii.

men

11.

2, 3).

against Ka, and to the revenge taken p. 165 of this History,

the account given on

by the god Pharaoh

;

THE LEGENDARY BIS TOBY OF EGYPT.

212 Eye

of the

Beware of

of Horus.

The 8th of Tybi

The 9th of Tybi Bring offerings of

of the gods will grant to thee

not set

:

all his

inimical, inimical, inimical.

:

entered the fiames to strike

enemies, and whosoever draws nigh to them on this day,

well with

him during

his whole

The 12th of Tybi

life.

See that thou beholdest not a rat on

inimical.

rat within thy house

In these cases a a

the sick will recover.

mimical, inimical, inimical.

:

The 11th of Tybi any flame on this day, for Ra

not draw nigh to

seest with thine eye

the day on which the god Sap-hoii

it is

set fire to the land of Buto.^

Do

man on

his

it

:

little

it shall

inimical, inimicaly

:

memory

watchfulness or exercise of

guard against

evil

omens; but

in

death.

occurs, and yet

the

it.

No man

he must accept

;

manner

of his

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.^

23rd perishes by the jaws of a crocodile

by a

all

the fatality of the day

exercises a decisive influence on the

it

^

sufficed to put

many circumstances

can at will place the day of his birth at a favourable time it

any

the day wherein Sokhit gave forth the decrees."

is

would overtake him, without his being able to do ought to avert

as

not be

this day, nor approachest

vigilance in the world would not protect him, and

it

thy house.

cry out for joy at noon this day.

The 10th of Tybi

weeds on this day

fire to

:

is in

and of fresh bread, which rejoice the heart of

festal cakes

the gods and of the manes.

Do

The gods

good, good, good.

:

which

Whatsoever thou

goody good, good.

:

Ennead

this day, the

letting the fire go out

On

serpent.^

^

that of the 27th

the other hand, the fortunate

on the 9th or the 29th respected by

:

The is

child of the

bitten

man whose

and dies

birthday

falls

an extreme old age, and passes away peacefully,

lives to

all.^

Thot, having pointed out the evil to men, gave to them at the same

The magical

time the remedy.

him

arts of

He knew

virtual master of the other gods.''

secret weaknesses, the kind of peril they

subdued them to his

will, the

'

The

them

their mystic names, their

most feared, the ceremonies which

prayers which they could not refuse to grant

His wisdom, transmitted to his wor-

under pain of misfortune or death. shippers, assured to

which he was the repository, made

the same authority which he exercised upon those

is as yet unknown. Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol.

incident in the divine wars to which this passage alludes

Papyrus IV.,

i, pp. 30-35 Chabas, Le Calendrier des jours fastes et ir€fastes, pp. 65-t)9. The decrees of Sokhit were those put forth hy the goddess at the end of the reign of E§, for the destruction of men. ' Sallier Papyrus IV., pi. iv. 1. 3, pp. 4-6. * Id., pi. vi. 1. 6 in the story, this was one of the fates announced to the " Predestined Prince."

"

Sallier

»

Id., pi. vii.

«

Id., pi. iv.

'

For the magic power of Thot, the "correct voice" which he prescribes, and his books of incan-

pi. xiii,

1.

3

;

pi. xiv.

1.

3

;

cf.

;

1. 1.

1.

8; pi.

vii. 11.

1,2.

tation, see pp. 145, 146 of this History.

MAGICAL ARTS, INVOCATIONS, on earth, or in the nether world.

in heaven,

SP:ELLS.

213

The magicians

instructed in his

school had, like the god, control of the words and sounds which, emitted at the

moment with

favourable

the "correct voice," would evoke the most formidable

from beyond the confines of the universe

deities

they could bind and loose

Thot himself; they could send them

at will Osiris, Sit, Anubis, even

and

:

them, or constrain them to work and fight

recall

The extent

them.

for

forth,

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.

putting

it

Many, moreover, made a gain of

who would pay

at the service of the ignorant

their knowledge,

for

THE GODS FIGHTING FOB THE MAGICIAN WHO HAS INVOKED

When

it.

they

THE3I.'

were asked to plague or get rid of an enemy, they had a hundred different

ways of suddenly surrounding him without his

mented him with deceptive or

terrifying

apparitions and mysterious voices

dreams

suspecting

;

^

it:

they tor-

they harassed him with

they gave him as a prey to sicknesses, to

;

wandering spectres, who entered into him and slowly consumed him.^ constrained, even at a distance, the wills of

men

;

they caused

women

They to be

the victims of infatuations, to forsake those they had loved, and to love those

In order to compose an irresistible charm,

they had previously detested.^

they merely required a

were

blood from a person, a few nail-parings, some

scrap of linen which he had worn, and which, from contact with

hair, or a

his skin,

little

had become impregnated with

incorporated

with

the

wax

clothed to resemble their victim

;

of

Portions of these

his personality.

a

doll

thenceforward

which they modelled, and all

the inflictions to which

the image was subjected were experienced by the original

;

he was consumed

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

the tracing by Golenisoheff, Die Metternich-Stele, pi. iii. 14. Most of the magical books contain formularies for "the sending of dreaius;" e.g. Papyrus 3229 in the Louvre (Maspero, Memoire sur quelquea Papyrug du Louvre, pis. i.-viiL, and pp. 113-123), the '

^

Gnostic Papyrus of LeyiJen and the incantations in Greek which accompany i. pis. 1-14, and Papyri Grxci, vol. ii. p. 16, et seq.).

it

(Leemans, Monuments

Ecjyptiens, vol. *

Thus

in the hieroglyphic text (Sharpe, Egyptian Inscriptions, 1st series, pi. xii.

11.

15, 16),

time by Ghabas (De quelques texte.< hi^roglypMques relati/s aux esprits possesseurs, in the Bulletin Arch^ologique de VAth^nxum Frangais, 1856, p. 44): "That no dead man nor woman enter into him, that the shade of no manes haunt him." * Gnostic Papyrus of Leyden, p. xiv. 1. 1, et seq. (in Leemans, Monuments ^gyptiens du Mmee de Leyde, pi. vii.); of. Eevillout, Les Arts iJgyptiens in the Bevue £gyptologique, vol. 1. pp. 169-172.

quoted for the

first

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

214

with fever when his effigy was exposed to the

The Pharaohs themselves had no immunity

the figure was pierced by a knife.

from these

These machinations were wont to be met by others of

spells.^

the same kind, and magic, to annul the

against fate

:

ills

if

invoked at the right moment, was often able It was not indeed all-powerful

which magic had begun.

man

the

born on the 27th of Paophi would die of a snake-bite,

whatever charm he might use to protect himself. were foreordained, at uncertain, and

it

was easy

traced on a papyrus, a

instruments of

events the year in

all

and.

if

which

the day of his death

it

occur was

would

should not

it

formula recited opportunely, a sentence of prayer

little statuette

worn about the person, the smallest

consecrated, put to

Those curious

fate.

But

magician to arrange that

for the

A

take place prematurely.

amulet blessed

he was wounded when

fire,

stelse

flight

the serpents

the

on which we see Horus half naked,

standing on two crocodiles and brandishing in his

many

reputed powers of fascination, were so

who were

fists

creatures which had

protecting talismans

;

set

up

at

the entrance to a room or a house, they kept off the animals represented

and brought the less prevail,

and the moment would come when the fated serpent, eluding

all precautions,

to the years of a

to attain,

At

would succeed in carrying out the sentence of death.

man would have

events the

Sooner or later destiny would doubt-

evil fate to nought.

hundred and

lived,

perhaps to the verge of old age, perhaps

ten, to

and which period no

all

which the wisest of the Egyptians hoped

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

eye,

and the

spells of

also over exorcisms,

man

made

genii, genii still stronger ;

Thot, who was the patron of sortilege, presided

?

and the criminal acts which some committed

could have reparation

protective

deities, the evil

for

them by

were opposed

;

in his

To malicious

others in his name.

to harmful amulets, those

to destructive measures, vitalizing

remedies

the most troublesome part of the magicians' task.

;

and

this

Nobody,

name

which were

was not even

in fact,

among

those delivered by their intervention escaped unhurt from the trials to which

The behind them

he had been subjected.

possessing spirits

generally left

traces of their occupation, in the brain, heart,

lungs, intestines

— in

fact,

in the

when they quitted

whole body.

The

illnesses

to

their victim

which the

Spells were employed against Kamses III. (Chabas, Le Papyrus Magique Harris, pp. 170, 172 Deveria, Le Papyrus judiciaire de Turin, pp. 125, 126, 131), and the evidence in the criminal charge brought against the magicians explicitly mentions the wax figures and the philters used on this •

;

occasion.

See the curious memoir by Goodwin in Chabas, Mdanges jSgyptologiques, 2nd series, pp. 231-237, on the age of a hundred and ten years, and its mention in Pharaonic and Coptic documents. *

;

TBOT AND THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. human

race

were not indeed

prone,

is

all

215

brought about by enchanters

relentlessly persecuting their enemies, but they were all attributed to the

being,

an

of

presence

whether

invisible

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

It was needful,

within him.^

after expelling the intruder,

to re-establish the health of

the sufferer by means of fresh

The

remedies.

of

and other materise

simples mediccG

study

would furnish these

Thot had revealed himself to

man

as the

first

magician,

he became in like manner

them the

for

and the

first

Egypt

vC

is

first

physician

surgeon.^

naturally a very

salubrious country, and the

Egyptians boasted that they were "the healthiest of mortals

;

all

" but they did not

neglect any precautions to

maintain

health.

their

"Every month,

for

three

* THE CHILD HOEUS ON THE CROCODILES.

successive days, they purged

the system by means of emetics or clysters.*

them was divided between 1

«

specialists

;

The study

of medicine with

each physician attending to one kind

Upon this conception of sickness and death, see pp. Ill, 112 of this History. The testimony of classical writers and of the Egyptian monuments to Thot

surgeon has been collected and brought up

as physician

and

to date by Pietschmann, Hermes Trismegistos, p. 20, et

seq., 43, et seq., 57.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Alexandrian stele in the Gizeh Museum (Mariette, Monuments divers, pi. 15 and text, pp. 3, 4). The reason for the "appearance of so many different animals in this stele and in others of the same nature, has been given by Maspeko, Mudes de Mythologie et *

and to pp. 417-419; they were all supposed to possess the evil eye be able to fascinate their victim before striking him. Herod., ii. 77; the testimony of Herodotus in regard to potions and clysters is confirmed by d' Arche'ologie

^gyptiennes, vol.

that of the medical Papyri of

ii.

Egypt (Chabas, Melanges £gyptologiques,

1st series, p. 65, et seq.).

TEE LEGENDARY BISTORT OF EGYPT.

216

Every place possessed several doctors

of illness only.

;

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

^

would make us believe.

It

carried to the extent that Herodotus

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

Sukhit M'ho treated fractures by the intercession of the goddess,

who professed

exorcist phrases.^

The

for

certain

affections,

so considerable as to attract the attention

as well as

but

little of

anatomy.

of strangers,

it

was

was because the

necessitated

Egyptians from cutting open or dissecting,

body which was

in the cause of pure science, the dead

The

of Osiris.

it.

As with the Christian physicians of the Middle Ages,

religious scruples prevented the

in

of these specialists

in

Where ophthalmia and ^ of the intestines raged violently, we necessarily find many oculists doctors for internal maladies. The best instructed, however, knew

character of the country

affections

and magic

who were consulted

number

If the

preference to general practitioners.

climatic

of amulets

virtue

sole

the

professional doctor treated all kinds of maladies, but, as with

there were specialists

us,

by the

to cure

—and

identified with that

processes of embalming, which would have instructed

anatomy, were not intrusted to doctors

;

them

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

him with such violence The knowledge of life.^

task, the assistants assaulted him, throwing stones at

that he had to take to his heels to escape with his

what went on within the body was therefore but vague. Life seemed to be a member to member. little air, a breath which was conveyed by the veins from

"The head

contains twenty-two vessels, which

send them thence to breasts,

Herodotus,

Buch,

parts of the body.

which communicate heat to the lower

for the thighs, 1

all

ii.

two 84,

for the neck,^

two

for

draw the

spirits into it

There are two vessels parts.

for

and the

There are two vessels

the arms, two for the back of the

and the commentary of Wiedemann on these two passages (Uerodots Zweitea

p. 322, et seq., 344, 345).

This division into three categories, indicated by the Ebers Papyrus, pi. xcix. 11. 2, 3, has been confirmed by a curious passage in a Grseco-Egyptian treatise on alchemy (Maspero, Notes au jour le =

501-503). jour, § 13, in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archseological Society, vol. xiii. pp. Das Kapitel iiber die (Ebers, ' Papyrus Affections of the eyes occupy one-fourth of the Ebem der Wissenschaften, Gesells. Augenltranlheiten, in the Abh. der phil.-lnst. Classe der Koiiigl. Sachs. Augenarztes, pp. eines Studien vol. xi. pp. 199-336; cf. J. Hirschberg, Mgtjpten, Geschichtliche 31-71).

DiODORUS SiCULUS, i. 91. These two vessels, not mentioned in the Ebers and the Berlin Papyri through the inadvertence of the copyist, were restored to the text of the general enumeration by H. Sch^fer, Beitrdge zur ErMdrung des Papyrus Ebers (in the Zeitschri/t, vol. xxx. pp. 35-37). *

*

— THE VITAL

SPIRITS.

217

head, two for the forehead, two for the eyes, two

for

the right ear by which enter the breaths of

and two

which in like

manner

by the right

entering ;

admit the

the burning of

" the

ear, are

the sea-breeze which

north "

breaths

life,

death.'X

of

good

the eyelids, two

air.<,

for

for the left ear

The "breaths"

the delicious airs of the

tempers

summer and renews the

strength of man, continually weakened

by the heat and threatened with exThese

haustion.

the veins and arteries by

them

carried

the

ear or

blood,

which

to all parts of the

body;

mingled with

nose,

entering

vital spirits,

the

animal

and were,

so to speak, the cause of its

movement.

they sustained the

The

perpetual mover

heart, the

— collected them and " the

as

hditi

them

redistributed

throughout the body:

it

beginning of

\^

was regarded the

all

mem-

and whatever part of the living

bers,"

body the physician touched, " whether

A DEAD

MAN RECEIVING THE BREATH OF LIFE.^

the head, the nape of the neck, the hands, the breast, the arms, the legs, his hand

he

felt

it

beating under his fingers.^

breaths, the vessels were inflated and evil,

lit

Under the

upon the heart," and influence

worked regularly

;

of the

good

under that of the

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 the vital spirits "withdrew "

with

elasticity.

the

became coagulated, the veins and

At the moment the

soul;

blood,"

of

death,

deprived

of air,

emptied themselves, and the

arteries

creature perished " for want of breaths.^

The majority

of the diseases from which the ancient Egyptians suffered,

are those which still attack their

»

Ehers Papyrus,

Chabas, dessine'a

pi. xcix.

1.

1-c.

1.

i¥^a;igies j^gyptologiques, Ist

sur

les lieux, vol. ii.

successors

;

ophthalmia, affections of the

The Berlin Medical Papyrus, pi. xv. 1. 5, pi. xvi. 1. 3 of. series, pp. 63,64; Brcgsch, Becueil de Monuments £lgyptiens

14

;

;

pp. 114, 115.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Naville, in the jEgyptische Todtenbuch, vol. i. The deceased carries in his hand a sail inflated by the wind, symbolizing the air, and holds pi. Ixix. it to his nostrils that he may inhale the breaths which will fill anew his arteries, and bring life to *

his limbs.

Ehers Papyrus, pi. xcix. 11. 1-4. It has been thought from that passage that the Egyptians had a vague preconception of the circulation of the blood. * Poemander, § x., Paethey's edition, pp. 75, 76. ^

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

218 stomach,*

abdomen, and bladder,^ intestinal worms,^ varicose veins, ulcers

and

in the leg, the Nile pimple,*

finally the " divine

divinus morbus of the Latins, epilepsy.^

mortal malady," the

Anaemia, from which at least one-

fourth of the present population suffers,^ was not less prevalent than at present,

we may judge from the number

if

hsematuria, the principal cause of

number

of remedies

The

it.

which were used against

fertility of

the

women

entailed a

of infirmities or local affections which the doctors attempted to relieve,

The

not always with success.'

and occupied

science of those days treated externals only,

merely with symptoms easily determined by sight or touch

itself

;

never suspected that troubles which showed themselves in two widely

it

remote parts of the body might only be different

and they classed as

effects of the

distinct maladies those indications

be the symptoms of one disease.^

They were

same

illness,

which we now know

to

determine fairly

able, however, to

well the specific characteristics of ordinary affections, and sometimes described

them of the

in a

and graphic

precise

stomach

painful,

clothing oppresses the thirsts.

gum.

His heart

The

the

sick

fashion.

heart burns and

man and

sick, as that of

is

"The abdomen

heavy, the pit

is

palpitates

he can barely support

a

man who

The

violently.

Nocturnal

it.

has eaten of the sycamore

flesh loses its sensitiveness as that of

a

man

seized with illness.

There

If

he seek to satisfy a want of nature he finds no

is

an accumulation of humours in the abdomen, which makes the heart

I will act.' "

This

^

is

relief.

the beginning of gastric fever so

Say to

this,

common

*

sick.

in Egypt,

Designated by the name ro-ahu.

Ro-ahu is also a general term, comprising, besides the stomach, body in the region of the diaphragm of. Maspero in the Revue critique, 1875, vol. i, ]). 237 Ltjking, Die vber die medicinischen Kenninisse der alien JEgypter berichtenden Papyri, pp. 22-2i, 70, et seq. Joachim, Papyrus Ebers, p. xviii. The recipes for the stomach are confined for the most part to the Ebers Papyrus, pis. xxxvi.-xliv. '

all

the internal parts of

tlie

;

;

;

*

Ebers Papyrus, Ebers Papyrus,

pis.

ii.,

xvi., xxiii., xxxvi., etc.

1. 1 ; cf. Lxjeing, Die 1. 15, pi. xxiii. iiber die medicinischen Kenninisse der alien ^gypter berichtenden Papyri, p. 16 ; Joachim, Papyrus Ebers, pp. xvii., xviii. * Medical Papyrus of Berlin, pi. iii. 1. 5, pi. vi. 1. 6, pi. x. 1. 3, et seq.

'

pi.

xvi.

BiiUGSCH, Recueil de Monuments Egyptiens dessin€s sur les lieux, vol. ii. p. 109. Griesinger, Klinische und Anatomische Beobachiungen iiber die Kranliheiien von ^gypten in the Archio fur physiologische Eeilkunde, vol. xiii. p. 556. ' 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 (Medical Papyrus of Berlin, verso pis. i., ii. cf. Csabas, Mdanges Egyptologiques, 1st series, pp. 68-70; Brugsch, Recueil de Monuments, vol. ii. pp. 116, 117); analogous formularies in writers of classical antiquity or of modern times have been cited by Lepage-Renouf, Note on the Medical Papyrus of Berlin (in the Zeitschrift, * *

;

1873, pp. 123-125), by Erman, JSgypten und Mgyptisches Leben im Altertum, p. 486, and by Lijking, iiber die medicinischen Kenninisse der alttn ^gypter berichtenden Papyri, pp. 139-141. * 'I'his is particularly noticeable in the chapters which treat of diseases of the eyes cf. on this Bubject the remarks of Maspero in the Revue critique, 1889, vol. ii. p. 365.

Die

;

Medical Papyrus of Berlin, pi. xiii. 11. 3-6 ; cf. Chabas, Mdanges Egrjptologiques, 1st series, 60; Brugsch, Recueil de Monuments, vol. ii. pp. 112, 113. whole series of diagnoses, worded with much clearness, will be found, in the treatise on diseases of the stomach in the Ebers Papyrus, ^

p.

A

DIAGNOSIS AND BEMEDIES.

219

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.

comprise nearly everything which can in

whether in

Vegetable remedies are

mucilaginous, or liquid form.^

solid,

reckoned by the

The medicaments recommended some way or other be swallowed,

score,

from the most modest herb to the largest

as the sycamore, palm, acacia,

such

and cedar, of which the sawdust and shavings

Among

were supposed to possess both antiseptic and emollient properties.

a score of different kinds of stones for its virtues

—among

if

;

the

sulphate of copper, and " the latter the '* memphite stone

mineral substances are to be noted sea-salt, alum,^

was distinguished

tree,

nitre,

applied to parts of the body which were

acted as an anaesthetic and facilitated the success

lacerated or unhealthy,

it

of surgical operations.

Flesh taken from the living subject, the heart, the

liver,

the

gall,

the blood

horn of stags, were

all

— either

dried or liquid

customarily used in

— of animals,

many

cases

determining their preference above other materise medicss

Many

recipes puzzle us

of the ingredients

their originality

recommended

birth to a boy," the in

by

dung of a

:

often very complicated.

is

unknown

to us.

woman who

has given

a tortoise's brains, an old book boiled

lion,

of these incongruous substances were

It was thought that the healing

by multiplying the curative elements

where the motive

and by the barbaric character

" the milk of a

The medicaments compounded

oil.^

the hair and

;

power was increased

each ingredient acted upon a specific

region of the body, and after absorption, separated itself from the rest to

bring

its

of all the

human

influence

to

bear upon that region.

The physician made use

means which we employ to-day to introduce remedies

into

the

system, whether pills or potions, poultices or ointments, draughts or

clysters.

Not only did he

give the prescriptions, but he

made them

up, thus

xxxvi. 1. 4, xliv. 1. 12; cf. Maspero in the Revue critique^ 1876, vol. 1. pp. 235-237; Joachim, Papyrus Ebers, pp. 39-53. The partial enumeration and identification of the ingredients which enter into the composition of Egyptian medicaments have been made by Chabas {Melanges Egypt ologiques, 1st series, pp. 71-77, and L'E(jyptologie, vol. i. pp. 186, 187); by Bbugsch {Recueil de Monuments, vol. ii. p. 105); by Stern in the Glossary which he has made to the Ebers Papyrus, and more recently by LiiEiNG {Die iiber die pi.

'

medicinischen Kenntnisse der alien ^gypter berichfenderi Papyri, pp. 85-120, 143-170). * Alum was called dbenu, oben, in ancient Egyptian (Loret, Le Nam ^gyptien de I'Alun, in the Becueil de Travaux, vol. xv. pp. 199, 200); for the considerable quantity produced, cf. Herodotus, ii.

180,

and Wiedemann's Commentary, Herodots Zweites Buck, pp. 610, 611.

.

—

Ebers Papyrus, pi. Ixxviii. 1. 22— Ixxix. 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 beiug 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

and other worthless waste papers, of which they would manner

of letters, copy-books,

gladly rid themselves in such a profitable

:

THE LEOENDABY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

220

He

combining the art of the physician with that of the dispenser.

prescribed

the ingredients, pounded them either separately or together, he macerated

them

in the proper way, boiled them, reduced

them through

Fat served him as the ordinary vehicle

linen.^

and pure water

them by heating, and

for potions

;

men and

crude or refined,^ even the urine of

animals

with honey, was taken hot, night and morning.^

Egyptians;

:

oil,

'*

ben "

either

oil

the whole, sweetened

The use

of

more than one

became world-wide; the Greeks borrowed them from the

we have piously accepted

contemporaries

for ointments,

but he did not despise other liquids, such as wine,

beer (fermented or unfermented), vinegar, milk, olive

of these remedies

filtered

still

them from the Greeks;

swallow with resignation

many

and our

of the abominable mix-

tures invented on the banks of the Nile, long before the

building of the

Pyramid^ It

was Thot who had taught

men

arithmetic; Thot had revealed to

the mysteries of geometry and mensuration

and promulgated the laws of music and had codified

its

unchanging

;

;

Thot had constructed instruments

Thot had instituted the

rules.^

them

He had been

art of drawing,

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 the advantage of his discoveries.^

It has

to lose

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 dis-

covery to King Thames, whose minister he was, the monarch immediately raised an objection to

it.

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 knowled;j:e without trouble,

would cease to apply themselves, and would neglect

memories.^

Whether Thamos was right

or not, the criticism

know

to exercise their

came too

late

of no description of the methods for making up pharmaceutical preparations but an formed of the minuteness and care ^¥ith which the Egyptians performed these operations, idea can be from the receipts preserved, as at Edffi, for the preparation of the perfumes used in the temples. DuBiiCHEN, Ber Grabpalad des Patuamenemapt, vol. ii. pp. 13-32 Loret, Le Kyphi, parfum mere des anciens Egyptiens, taken from the Journal Asiatique, 8th series, vol. x. pp. 76-132. - The moringa, which supplies the "ben" oil, is the Bikfl of the Egyptian texts (Loret, Eecherches sur plusieurs plantes connues des Anciens J^gyptiens, in the Becueil de Travaux, vol. vii. *

I

;

;

pp. 103-106).

Chabas, Melanges Egyptohgiques, let series, pp. 66, 67, 78, 79; LtJBiNG, Ueher die medicinischen Kenntnisse der alten ^gypter herichtenden Papyri, pp. 165-170. * For these various attributions to Thot, see the passages from Egyptian inscriptions and from *

by Pietschmann, Hermes Trismegistos, p. 13, et seq., 39, et seq. Concerning Thot as the inventor of writing, cf. the Egyptian texts of Pharaonic and Ptolemaic times quoted by Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der Alten JEgypter, p. 446. * Pi/ATO, Phsedrus, § lix., Didot's edition, vol. i. p. 733.

classical authors, collected *

:

TROT, THE INVENTOR OF *'

W BITING.

221

the ingenious art of painting words and of speaking to the eyes " had

once for

been acquired

all

greater part of mankind.

by the Egyptians, and through them by the

was a very complex system, in which were

It

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.^ outset

At the

the use was confined to signs in-

tended to awaken the idea of the object in the less

mind

by the more

of the reader

or

picture of the object itself;

faithful

example, they depicted the sun by a

for

moon by

centred disc ©, the

a crescent

0, a lion by a lion in the act of walking ^J7^,

a

man by

ting attitude

a small figure in a squat-

^

.

As by

this

method

was possible to convey only a very

number

stricted

concepts,

entirely

of

materialistic

course to various artifices in order to

up

for

re-

make

the shortcomings of the ideograms

properly so-called.

The

the whole, the piipil

®

eye

re-

became necessary to have

it

it

-«»-,

part was put for

in place of the whole

the head of the ox

the complete ox

^.

tt

instead of

The Egyptians

sub-

stituted cause for etfect and effect for cause,

the instrument for the work accomplished,

©

and the disc of the sun day; a smoking brazier scribe

^

\

THOT RECORDS THE YEARS OF THE LIFE OF RA3ISES n.*

signitied the

the

fire:

the brush, inkpot, and palette of the

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

supremacy,

command

;

for instance

thus, the foreparts of a lion _jf denoted priority,

the wasp symbolized royalty \|^, and a tadpole

hundreds of thousands.

for

;

They ventured

when they drew the axe

^

stood

finally to use conventionalisms, as

"^ for

a god, or the ostrich-feather

f

for

and the nature of the varioTis elements of which it was composed, have been very skilfully analysed by.FR. Lenobmant, Essai aur la propagation de V alphabet phehicien parmi lea peuples de VAncien Monde, vol. i. pp. 1-52. ^ 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 npon 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. >

The gradual formation

of the hieroglyphic eystem,

TEE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

222 justice

the sign in these cases had only a conventional connection with the

;

concept assigned to

At times two

it.

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

moon '^ denoted a month, a

crescent

J^C;^ indicated

running before the sign

calf

All these artifices combined furnished, however, but

thirst.

When

a very incomplete means of seizing and transmitting thought. writer

for water

had written out twenty or thirty

the

and the ideas which they

of these signs

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

The

as notations of sound.

experiment in phonetics was a species of rebus, where each of

first

the signs, divorced from

its

original sense, served to represent several words,

similar in sound, but differing in

meaning

The same

in the spoken language.

group of articulations, Naufir, Nofir, conveyed in Egyptian the concrete idea of a lute and the abstract idea of beauty lute

and beauty.

The

pronounced hhopiru

:

;

the sign | expressed at once the

beetle was called Khopirru,

the figure of the beetle

^

and the verb " to be " was consequently signified both

the insect and the verb, and by further combining with

it

other signs, the

The

articulation of each corresponding syllable was given in detail. Jchau,

the

mat

pu, pi, the

mouth

©_

,

a triple rebus.

by one

©

-=> ra, ru, gave the formula hhaii-pi-ru,

which was equivalent to the sound of together

sieve

Tchopiru, the

verb " to be " grouped :

they denoted in writing the concept of "to be" by means of

In this system, each syllable of a word could be represented

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.

them became detached, and r in

rii,

h in ha, n in

ni,

left

The

only the remaining consonant

h in

hu

—so

final

—

for

that -=» ru, [^ ha, f-^

vowel in example, ni,

J

hn,

^

IDEOGRAPEIO, SYLLABIC, AND ALPEABETIQ WRITING. eventually stood for

h,

r,

n,

and

This process in the course of

only.

h

223

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

corresponding to one and the same letter were homophones or

signs

" equivalents in sound "

— j^,

-<=,

,

j

are homophones, just

the group to which

because each of them, in

it

m

used to translate to the eye the articulations

led, as

^

be indifferently

One would have

or n.

thought that when the Egyptians had arrived thus been

may

belongs,

i-^ and

as

would have

they

far,

a matter of course, to reject the various characters which they

had used each in

its

turn, in order to retain an

true spirit of invention, of

here as elsewhere

which they had given

proof,

the

abandoned them

the merit of a discovery was often their due, they

if

:

But

alphabet only.

were rarely able to bring their invention to perfection. ideographic and syllabic signs

They kept the

which they had used at the outset, and,

made

with the residue of their successive notations,

for themselves a

most

complicated system, in which syllables and ideograms were mingled with

There

letters properly so called.

is

a

little

of everything in an

phrase, sometimes even in a word; as, for instance, in ear, or

-a*

rii,

j

-a&

;

s,

of the ear

[j]

r,

u,

by the side of the written word

letters represent its

of the

maszir% the

^ ^ Jcherou, the voice there are the syllabics mas, f^ zir, kher, the ordinary letters \ «=» which complete the phonetic I O^

pronunciation, and finally the ideograms, namely,

had

fnP^^

Egyptian

it,

^

and

which proves that the This medley

a term designating an action of the mouth.

advantages; object,

for

which gives the picture

P,

it

enabled the Egyptians to

the sense of words

insufficiently explain.

long years of study

;

which

many

people

tools

by the picture

might

sometimes

memory and never completely mastered it. The serious effort of

we

picturesque appearance of the sentences, in which

men, animals, furniture, weapons, and

clear,

alone

letters

The system demanded a indeed,

make

see representations of

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.

worship, sacrifice, battle, or private

life,

Mingled with scenes of

the inscriptions frame or separate

groups of personages, and occupy the vacant spaces which the sculptor or painter was at a loss to

mental

script.

fill

;

hieroglyphic writing

For the ordinary purposes

is

pre-eminently a monu-

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.

and the unskilfuluess of scribes soon changed both

The its

exigencies of haste

appearance and

Q

its

TEE LEGEND ABY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

224 elements;

when

the characters

contracted, superimposed

and united to one

another with connecting strokes, preserved only the most distant resemblance

writing, which was

somewhat incorrectly termed

It

them

scientific,

hieratic,

was used only

for

correspondence, or for the

public or private documents, for administrative

propagation of literary,

This cursive

which they had originally represented.

to the persons or things

and religious works.

was thus that tradition was pleased to ascribe to the gods, and among to

Thot

which gave

— the doubly great —the Egypt

to

its

invention of all the arts and sciences

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

much above the

raising themselves

level of the brutes.

The

idea that a

human

brain,

made known, could have been spread and developed by the successive generations, appeared to them impossible to accept.

efforts

discovery of importance to the country could have risen in a and, once of

in

They

believed that every art, every trade, had remained unaltered from the outset,

and

if

some novelty

preferred to

The mystic

in

its

imagine a divine writing,

tended to show them their

aspect

inserted

rather

intervention, as

chapter

sixty-four

Bead, and which subsequently was supposed to the future life of

any the

less as

to

being of divine origin.

any one knowing whence

it

It

;

in

be

undeceived.

the Booh

be of decisive

man, was, as they knew, posterior

formulas of which this book was composed it

than

error, they

of the

moment

in date to the other

they did not, however, regard

had been found one day, without

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, Hardidiif,

had discovered

a miraculous object, had brought

it

it

in

his

travels,

to his sovereign.^

to some, was Husaphaiti of the first dynasty, but

be the pious Mykerinos.

and regarding

it

as

This king, according

by others was believed to

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

in the temple of

a priest watching at night before the

Isis at Coptos.

Holy

of Holies

"Although the earth was plunged

into

double origin of chap. Ixiv., see Guieysse, Eituel Funeraire £gyptiev., chap. I have given elsewhere my reasons for regarding this tradition as a 64, pp. 10-12 and pp. 58, 59. proof of the comparatively modern recension of this chapter, tliough this is contrary to the generally received opinion, which would recognize in it an indication of the great antiquity which the Egyptians attributed to the work 0tudes de Myfhologie et d' Arch^ologie ^^gyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 367-369). A tablet of hard stone, the " Pe'roffsky plinth," which bears the text of this chapter, and which is now in the museum of the Hermitage (Goienischeff, Ermitage Imperial. Inventaire de la Collection ^gyptienne. No. 1101, pp. 169, 170), is probably a facsimile of the original discovered •

"With regard to

t'ais

in the temple of Thot.

THE TABLES OF THE KINGS. darkness, the

moon shone upon

wonder

as a great

and enveloped

it

to the holiness of

it

with light.

King Kheops, the

and

this

most vigorous

the

was sent ^

The

became

until they

work of culture was apportioned among the three

The

divine dynasties according to the strength of each. prised

It

just of speech."

men

gods had thus exercised a direct influence upon entirely civilized,

225

had accomplished

divinities,

first,

which com-

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 minutise, the religious constitution of the country.

more demanding supernatural strength

When

all

there was nothing

or intelligence to establish

it,

the gods

returned to heaven, and were succeeded on the throne by mortal men. tradition maintained dogmatically that the it

its

One

human king whose memory

first

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

tradition

would not allow that the contact between the human and divine

series

had been

so close.

in the line of sovereigns.^

Between the Ennead and Menes,

one or more lines of Theban or Thinite kings

;

it

Another

intercalated

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,

the trouble of passing

to

those

who were

possess

to

actually

through

As

Nile valley.

far

From

living,*

an uninterrupted

list

life.^

of the

and had never been subjected

Menes was the his

number

throne, or the length of his

life.^

in order of

time, the Egyptians

claimed

Pharaohs who had ruled over the

back as the XVIII'^ dynasty this

papyrus, and furnished the

first

was written upon

list

of years that each prince occupied the

Extracts from

it

were inscribed in the

Birch, Medical Papyrus with the name of Cheops, in the Zeitschrift, 1871, pp. 61-74. This tradition is related in the Chronicle of Scaliger (Lauth, Manetho und das Turiner Kdnigshuch, pp. 8-11; cf. p. 74, et seq.), and in most of the ancient authors who have used Manetho's extracts (MiJLLER-DiDOT, Fragmenta Eistoricorum Grsecorum, vol. ii. pp. 539, 540). * This tradition occurs in the Armenian version of Eusebius, and, like the preceding one, comes from Manetho (Mlller-Didot, Fragm. Hist. Grsec, vol. ii. pp. 526, 528). One only of these kings, Bytis, is known to us, who perhaps may be identified with the Bitiu of an Egyptian tale. * Manetho (in Mxjller-Didot, Fragm. Hist. Grsec, vol. ii. p. 539) Mero fiKvas tovs vfiiOeovs irpwT-q '

'

:

PaaiKiia KaTaptOfieiTai PacrtXeaiv okto), wf npaiTos M»)rr)s authorities confirm the tradition

(Herod.,

ii.

which IManetho had found

99; Diodorus Siculus,

MtLLER-DiDOT, Fragm.

The only one

©eifi'rrjs

i.

43, 45,

Mist. Griec., vol.

ii.

which we

e^aaiKivffiV

iri)

|;3'.

Blost classical

in the archives of the temples of

94; Josephus, Ant. Jud.,

viii. 6,

2

;

Memphis

Eratosthenes, in

p. 510).

"Turin Royal Papyrus," was bought, nearly 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 ChampoUion saw and drew attention to them in 1824 {Papyrus Fgyptiens historiques du Mus^e royal ^gyptien, p. 7, taken from the Bulletin F^russac, eighth section, 1824, No. 292). Seyffarth carefully collected and arranged them in tht *

intact, at

of these lists

possess, the

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

226

temples, or even in the tombs of private persons

catalogues are

Ramses

II.

extant, two

still

;

and three of these abridged

coming from the temples of

Abydos/ while the other was discovered

at

named

person of rank

Tunari, at Saqqara.^

Seti

in the

They divided

and

I.

tomb

of a

this interminable

succession of often problematical personages into dynasties, following in this

we are ignorant, and which varied

division, rules of whicli

In the time of the Ramessides, names in the

ages.

under the Lagides formed

Manetho

dynasty.^

is

who wrote a

had adopted, on some unknown

—

not, indeed,

on account of

the only complete one which has

inscribed

in

history of

Europe

autliority,

for the use

a division

dynasties from Menes to the Macedonian Conquest, and

system has prevailed it

which subsequently

groups were made to constitute one single

of Sebennytos,

of Alexandrine Greeks, of thirty-one

five

list

in the course of

his

lists

ruled in

its

come down

succession.^

his

excellence, but because

to

us.'*

All the families

The country was no doubt

subsequently Lepsius gave a facsimile of them in 1840, in his Auswahl der wichtigsten Urkunden, pis. i.-vi., but this did not include the verso Champollion-Figeac edited in 1847, in the Bevue Arclieologique, Ist series, vol. vi., the tracings taken by the younger ChampoUion before Seyffarth's arrangement; lastly, Wilkinson published the whole in detail in 1851 {Tlie Fragments of the Hieratic Papyrus at Turin). Since then, the document has been the subject of continuous investigation E. de Rouge has reconstructed, in an almost conclusive manner, the pages containing order in which they

now

are

;

;

:

the

first

six dynasties {Recherches sur les

Mane'thon, pi.

iii.),

and Lauth, with

monuments qu'on peut attrihuer aux six premieres dynasties de which deal with the eight following dynasties

less certainty, tliose

(Manetho und der Turiner Konigapapyrus, pis. iv.-x.)' The first table of Abydos, unfortunately incomplete, was discovered in the temple of Eamses II. by Banks, in 1818; the copy published by Caillaud {Voyage a M^ro^, vol. iii. pp. 305-307, and pi. Ixxii., No. 2) and by Salt {Essay on Dr. Young's and M. Chumpollion's Phonetic System of Hieroglyphics, p. 1, et seq., and frontispiece) served as a foundation for Champollion's first investigations on the history of Egypt (Lettres a M. de Blacas, 2° Lettre, p. 12, ct seq., and pi. vi.). The original, brought to France by Mimaut (Dubois, Description des antiquit^s Egyptiennes, etc., pp. 19-28), 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 publi-shed by Dijmiohen, Die Sethos Tafel von Abydos, in the Zeilschrift, 1864, pp. 81-83. The text of it is to be found iu Makiette, La Nouvelle Table d' Abydos (Revue Arch^ologique, *

The

2nd

series, vol. xiii.),

and Abydos,

vol.

i.

pi. 43.

table of Saqqara, discovered in 1863, has been published

by Mariettk, La Table de Saqqdra

(Revue Arclieologique, 2nd series, vol. x. p. 169, et seq.), and reproduced in the Monuments Divers, pi. 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 (E. DE Rouge, Recherches sur les monuments qu'on peut attribuer aux siy premieres dynasties de Man^thon, pp. 15, 16, 25). In the intervals between the dynasties rubrics are placed, pointing out the changes which took place in the order of direct succession (id., pp. 160, 161). The division of the same group of sovereigns into five dynasties has been preserved to us by Manetho (in MiJLLEK-DiDOT, Fragmenta Historicorum Ch'secorum, vol. ii. pp. 539-554). * The best restoration of the system of Manetho is that by Lepsitjs, Das Konigsbach der Alien 2Egypter, which should be completed and corrected from the memoiis of Lauth, Liebleiii, 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 the royal names which the monuments have revealed, and are still daily revealing to us ; cf. Maspeko, Notes sur quelques points dans le Recueil de Travaux, t. xvii., p. 56 sqq-, 121 sqq. ^ E. de Rouge' triumphantly demonstrateil, in opposition to Bunsen, now nearly fifty years ago, that all Manetho's dynasties are successive (Examen de I'ouvrage de M. le Chevalier de Bunsen, in the all

J

a

».»«.;:

;

—

-^r-^ ^. .

~-.

~~r.

_-_____-

(

^y^^^^Ijti^ll ii@lI"^fl^^li^-^^l^^Si^ |v!^ggj^li5je^^ ^:::lJ^i:^^

^

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"^,

ill'^t.f'^ns;

-fl5^

5| E<5i5l'^l:JigIi^-^:-i IpjiSp^

f

ai

fe^Sh^

'u^t^'^sns&ii-ij

lf

^M;

I

i\^:if~

^'

^^^y5%l!J^

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!

I

;

TEE LEGENDARY BISTORT OF EGYPT.

228

frequently broken up into a dozen or more independent states, each possessing

own kings during

its

several generations

outset discarded these collateral

;

but the annalists had from the

and recognized only one legitimate

lines,

Their theory of legitimacy does

dynasty, of which the rest were but vassals.

not always agree with actual history, and the particular line of princes which

times the only family possessing

they rejected as usurpers represented at true rights to the crown.^

In Egypt, as elsewhere, the

chroniclers

official

were often obliged to accommodate the past to the exigencies of the present,

and

to

manipulate the annals to suit the reigning party

orders the chroniclers deceived posterity, and

we can succeed

in detecting

them

;

while obeying their

only by a rare chance that

it is

in the act of falsification,

and can re-establish

the truth.

The system

of Manetho, in the state in wliich

to us

by epitomizers, has rendered, and continues

if it

is

not the actual history of Egypt,

to warrant our not neglecting

the sequence of events.

it

it

is

it

has been handed down

to render, service to science

a sufficiently faithful substitute

when we wish

to understand

and reconstruct

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 Fayxim to the apex of the Delta, and subsequently the town of Memphis

itself,

remaining nomes, served as an emporium

imposed their sovereigns upon the

for

commerce and national

industries,

About the

and received homage and tribute from neighbouring peoples.

time of the VI'^ dynasty this centre of gravity was displaced, and tended towards the interior

and

dynasties),

X'**

From

henceforth

her rulers.

it

was arrested

a short time at Heracleopolis

and ended by fixing

With the exception

When

for

Thebes became the

families occupying

Theban.

;

of

itself

capital,

the

the throne from the

at

XP^

Thebes (XP^ dynasty).

ami furnished

XIV"" to

Xoite

Egypt with

dynasty,

the XX*^^

last

the

all

dynasty were

the barbarian shepherds invaded Africa from

Thebaid became the

(IX'**

the

Asia,

refuge and bulwark of Egyptian nationality

;

its

Annales de Philosophie chr€tienne, 1846-47, vol. xiii.-xvi.), and the monuments discovered from year to year in Egypt have confirmed his demonstration in every detail. It is enough to give two striking examples of this. The royal lists of the time of the Eamessides suppress, at tlie end of the XVIII"' dynasty, Amenothes IV. and several of liis successors, and give the following sequence Amenothes III.,Harmhabit,Eamses I., witboutany 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, tlie official tradition of the XX"" dynasty gives, between Ramses 11. and Kamses III., the sequence Minephtah, Seti II., 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.

——

—

:

:

TEE GREAT HISTORICAL PERIODS. many

chiefs struggled for

229

centuries against the conquerors before they were

Theban dynasty, the XYIIP'^,

It was a

able to deliver the rest of the valley.

which inaugurated the era of foreign conquest;

but after the XIX*^, a

movement, the reverse of that which had taken place towards the end the

first

country.

north of the

the

back the centre of gravity,

period, brought

From

Sais, disputed the

all,

supremacy with each

by Ethiopian and Assyrian invasions,

The

lost

and soon was nothing more than a

history of

Egypt

dynasty, Thebes

other,

and

political

Those of the

interior, ruined

their influence

and gradually ;

fell

it

into

resort for devotees or travellers.

therefore, divided into three periods, each corre-

is,

sponding to the suzerainty of a town or a principality

Memphite Period,

I.

towards

little,

Thebes became impoverished and depopulated

dwindled away. ruins,

by

Tanis, Bubastis, Mendes, Sebennytos,

:

was concentrated in the maritime provinces.

life

XXP*

the time of the

ceased to hold the position of capital

and above

little

of

:

usually called the " Ancient Empire," from the

I" to the X*^ dynasty: kings of Memphite origin ruled over the whole of

Egypt during the greater part of

Theban Period, from

11.

this epoch.

XX*^

the XI''' to the

dynasty.

It

is

divided

into two parts by the invasion of the Shepherds (XVI*^ dynasty) a.

The

first

XI V^ I.

Theban Empire (Middle Empire), from the XP'*

dynasty.

The new Theban Empire, from the XVII'^ Saite Period, from the

II.

to the

XXP*

to the XX*** dynasty.

XXX'^

to the

dynasty, divided into

two unequal parts by the Persian Conquest a.

The

h.

The second

first

Saite period, from the

XXP*

Saite period, from the

to the

XXVIIP^

The Memphites had created the monarchy.

Egypt

rule of

far

and wide, and made

six centuries she ruled over the

XXVP*^ to the

dynasty.

XXX"^

dynasty.

The Thebans extended the

of her a conquering state

Upper Nile and over Western

:

for nearly

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 monuments have

as yet yielded

to unite the country undei- the rule of

no account of the events which tended

one

feudal principalities had gradually been

man

;

we can only surmise that the

drawn together

into

two groups, each

and New Empire, proposed by Lepsius, has the disadvautage of not taking into account the inUueuce which the removal of the seat of the dynasties exercised on The arrangement which I have here adopted was first put forward in the history of the country. '

The

division into Ancient, Middle,

the Eevue critique, 1873, vol.

i,

pp. 82, 83.

TEE LEGEND ABY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

230

Heliopolis became the chief focus in

of which formed a separate kingdom.

the north, from which civilization radiated over the rich plains and the marshes Its colleges of priests

of the Delta.

had

the principal myths of the local religions

the Ennead to which

;

ception would never have obtained the popularity which it

had, if

its

and arranged

collected, condensed,

we must acknowledge

princes had not exercised, for at least some pericvd, an actual

suzerainty over the neighbouring plains.^

It

kingdom of Lower Egypt was organized Heliopolitan theories

— the protocol

;

was around Heliopolis that the

everything there bore traces of

of the kings, their supposed descent from

The

Ra, and the enthusiastic worship which they offered to the sun.

owing

compact and

to its

gave con-

it

restricted area,

was aptly suited

for

Delta,

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. lotus its

It, too,

^

for its

represented a single kingdom, having the reed

emblems

but

;

its

religion was less systematized,

a political and sacerdotal centre.

who

component parts were more and

it

;

but the influence of

its

and the

loosely united,

lacked a well-placed city to serve as

Hermopolis contained schools of theologians

certainly played an important part in the development of

dogmas

^

myths and

In the south,

rulers was never widely felt.

Siut disputed their supremacy, and Heracleopolis stopped their road to the

These three

north.

of

cities

them ever succeeded

Each

of the two

thwarted and neutralized one another, and not one

kingdoms had

government, which gave

its

and stamped

its latest

days.^

its it,

The kingdom

system of

as it were,

of

Upper

powerful, richer, better populated, and was governed apparently

by more active and enterprising

Menes

own natural advantages and

to it a particular character,

with a distinct personality down to

Egypt was more

Upper Egypt.

in obtaining a lasting authority over

rulers.

It is to

of Thinis, that tradition ascribes the

one of the

latter.

Mini or

honour of having fused the two

Bgypts into a single empire, and of having inaugurated the reign of the

human

dynasties.

of Egyptian cities.

the Nile,

if

Thinis figured in the historic period as one of the least It barely maintained

an existence on the

left

bank

of

not on the exact spot now occupied by Girgeh, at least only a

short distance from

it.^

The

principality of the Osirian Reliquary, of which

is said of Heliopolis, its position and its ruins, on pp. 135, 136, of this volume, on this head, the points which M, Erman has worked out very ably in his ^gijpten, in spite, however, of the opinion which he expresses (p. 128), I believe that the p. 32, et seq. northern kingdom received, in very early times, a political organization as strong and as complete as that of the southern kingdom (Maspero, Etudes J^gyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 244, et seq.). • The site of Thinis is not yet satisfactorily identified. It is neither at Kom-es-Sultan, as Maiiette thought {Notice des principaux Monuments, 1864, p. 285), nor, according to the hypothesis of A. Schmidt, at El-Kherbeh (Die Griechischen Papyrus-Urkunden der Koniglichen Bibliothek zu Brugsch has proposed to fix the site at the village of Tineh (^Geogr. Inschri/ten, Berlin, pp. 69-79).

what

•

C£.

^

See,

;

UNCERTAINTY OF THE BEGINNING: MENES OF

TEINIS.

231

was the metropolis, occupied the valley from one mountain range to the

it

and gradually extended across the desert as

other,

Its inhabitants

Oasis.^

Anhiiri-Shu,

who were speedily amalgamated with the

}

1

solar deities

and became

Anhiiri-Shii, like all the other solar manifesta-

.4*

'«s

s

Theban

worshipped a sky-god, Anhuri, or rather two twin gods,

a warlike personification of Ea.

iVe c r oj) o

far as the G-reat

'%

narosesi

"V^'i't.

N

:=~j

^M''^ le

'

&'^. O

.

p

ojas

Coptic

fe

1

S

y

Convent

%

'

>#^

/^v

.^f^

olis

TOO

zoo

LJhuillierM'-

PLAN OF THE RDINS OF ABYDOS, MADE BY MAKIETTE IN 1865 AND 1875.

came

tious,

— a Sokhit, who took for the Some

head of a

to be associated with a goddess having the form or

lioness

occasion the epithet of Mihit, the northern one.^

of the dead from this city are buried on the other side of the Nile,

near the modern

village

whose steep

here approach somewhat near the river

cliffs

of Mesheikh, at the foot of the

Arabian chain, :

^

the principal

near Berdis, and is followed in this by Diimicben (GescMchte Mgyptens, p. 154). 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 (Mariette-Maspero, Monuments Sayce, Gleanings from the Land of Egypt, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. xiii, divers, text, pp. 26, 27 p. 65); this was also the opinion of Ohampollion and of Nestor L'hote (Recueil de Travaux, vol. xiii. I may mention that, in a frequently quoted passage of p. 72, Letires Sorites d'Egypte, pp. 88, 125). vol.

i.

p. 207),

—

—

;

Hellanicos (fragm. 150, edit. Mtjller-Didot, Fragmenta Eistoricorum Grxcorum, vol. i. p. 66), Zoega ovofj.a into 0?^ Se ol ovofxa, which would once more give us the name of Thinis the mention of this town as being iimTOTa/iiri, " situated on the river," would be a fresh

corrects the reading Jlv^iov :

with Girgeh, the XP'» dynasty, the lords of Abydos and Thinis bear officiallj', at the beginning of their inscriptions, the title of "Masters of the Oasis" (Brugsch, Beise nach der Grossen Case elKhargeh, p. 62). ' Ou Anhfiri-ShG, cf. what is said on pp. 99, 101, 140, 141, of this volume.

reason for '

its identification

From

^ I explored this after Mariette. The majority of the tombs of the XIX"" dynasty which it contains liave been published in part in Mariette's Monuments divers, pi. 78, and pp. 26, 27; several others, dating back to the VI"" dynasty, have been noticed by Nestor L'hote {Recueil de Travaux, vol.

232

TEE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

necropolis was at

some distance

to the east, near the sacred

It would appear that, at the outset, for the entire

Abydos was the

nome bore the same name

town of Abydos.

capital of the country,

and had adopted

as the city,

symbol the representation of the reliquary in which the god reposed.

Abydos

early times

but

The

and narrow strip of land between the canal and the

A

mountains.

and beside

it

In very

into decay, and resigned its political rank to Tiiinis,

fell

religious importance remained unimpaired.

its

for its

brick fortress defended

first

city occupied a long

slopes of the liibyan

from the incursions of the Bedouin,^

it

the temple of the god of the dead reared

its

naked

Here

walls.

Anliuri, having passed from life to death, was worshipped under the

name

of Khontamentit, the chief of that western region whither souls repair on It is impossible to say

quitting this earth.^ or

by what

by what blending of doctrines

combinations this Sun of the Night came to be identified

political

with Osiris of Mendes, since the fusion dates back to a very remote^antiquity it

had become an established

were compiled.

fact long before the

most ancient sacred books

Khontamentit grew rapidly

Osiris

in

popular favour, and his

temple attracted annually an increasing number of pilgrims.

had been considered

this

name clung

to

it

the remembrance of

after it

it,

gorge in the mountain through which the doubles

never ceased to be regarded as one of the gates of

At the time

thither from

parts

of the

of the

New Year

valley

they there awaited the coming of

;

the dying sun, in order to embark with of Khontamentit.'*

and

all

enter safely the dominions

Abydos, even before the historic period, was the only town, all

Egyptians, inspired

of the last few years have brought to light some, at all

events, of the oldest Pharaohs

they placed in their

monuments xiii.

flocked

with an equal devotion.

The excavations

whom

him and

festivals, spirits

god the only god, whose worship, practised by

its

them

was called Uit, the Sepulchre;

had become an actual Egyptian province,^ and

the other world. all

It

dead

ancient purpose survived in the minds of the people,

its

so that the "cleft," or

journeyed towards

The Great Oasis

at first as a sort of mysterious paradise, whither the

went in search of peace and happiness.

;

pp. 71-72)

known

first

to the

human

Egyptian

dynasties

;

annalists,

namely, those

and the locality where the

of these princes were discovered, shows us that these writers were and by Sayce

(^Gleanings

from

the

Land

of Egypt, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol.

xiii.

pp. 62-65). '

It is

the present Kom-es-Sultan, where Mariette hoped to find the tomb of Osiris.

^

Maspeuo, Etudes de Mi/thologie

*

As

et d'ArcMologie £gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 23, 24. Persian epoch, the ancient tradition found its echo in the name " Isles of the passage in the inscription describes Blessed " (Herod., iii. 26) which was given to the Great Oasis. the souls repairing to the Oasis of Zoszes (Brdgsch, Beise nacli der Grossen Oase, p/41, and Did. Geogr., p. 1002), which is a part of the Great Oasis, and is generally considered as a dwelling-place ot the dead (Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie £gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 421-427). * See what is said upon this subject on pp. 196-198 of this work.

late as the

A

A

DYNASTY TOMBS AT ABYBOS.

jsT

23 2

correct in representing Thinis as playing an important part in the history of

If the

the early ages of their country.

we are inclined village of

upon as the

to look

Nagadeh, not

far

first

tomb

which the mysterious

by a

—"the

safe

way the land beyond the

for the

is

sides being bricked.

beams

;

—rectangular had a

in order

The mass

grave.^

from the

site

there

lie

of

serried

in

structures of bricks without mortar rising

The

flat

timber

roof,

chamber occupies the

funeral

partly hollowed out of the

It

—through

most part a rough model ^ of the pyramids of

the level of the plain.

centre of each, and

feet of sand

" Cleft "

among the Fellahin the name The tombs

mother of pots."*

the Memphite period slightly above

—the

at the very foot of

and broken, which has accumulated on this

They present

ranks.

They stand

was reached, and thither the souls flocked

offerings of centuries has obtained for it

Omm-el-Gaab

lies

from Thebes,^ those of his immediate successors are

oasis

that they might enter

—that sovereign whom — near the

official lists

near the entrance to the ravine

hills,

of pottery, whole

Menes

king of the

close to Thinis, in the cemeteries of Abydos.^

the Libyan

of

like a shallow well, the

soil,

covered by a layer of about three

the floor also was of wood, and in several cases the remains of the

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 funeral furniture and

the

little

level,

by a part

of the offerings.

its

The remainder was placed

in

rooms which opened out of the principal vault, sometimes on the same

sometimes on one higlier than

itself; after their contents

had been

within them, the entrance to these rooms was generally walled up.

laid

Human

bodies have been found inside them, probably those of slaves killed at the

•

les

The account

of the discovery

Origines de I'Egypte

:

and

its results

Ethnographie prehistorique

objects found during these excavations are ^

was published by

now

et

in the

J.

de Morgan, Becherchee sur

tomheau royal de N^gadah, pp. 147-202.

The

Gizeh Museum.

The credit of having discovered this important necropolis, and of having brought known monuments of the tirst dynasties, is entirely due to Amelineau. He

earliest

important work there during four years, from 1895 to 1899: unfortunately

its

to light the

carried

on

success was impaired by

new monuments, and by the delay in publishing an account of the objects which remained in his possession. A very good and brief account of the discovery and of the controversies to which it gave rise, has been inserted by Jean Capabt, Noteg mr les Origines de I'Egypte, d'apres les fouilles r^centes, in the Revue de V University de Bruxelles,

the theories which he elaborated with regard to the

1898-1899, November No.), to which I must refer my readers for the details. M. Ame'lineau has published a short account of his excavations, and of the deductions he has drawn from them, in three pamphlets which appeared between 1896 and 1898, under the title of Les nouvelles fouilles d'Abydos, in 8vo. he also published some of the monuments he discovered in two volumes, the first and the second Le lombeau of which is also called Les nouvelles fouilles d'Abydos, 1896-1897 vol. iv.,

:

;

Professor Petrie has continued M. Amelicieau's excavations (1899-1900), and has d'Osiris, 1899. given us the result of his researches in The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, 1900, part i. ' For the " Cleft," cf. supra, pp. 196, 197, 232. in

Two

views of the necropolis of Omm-el-Gaab as it appeared at the end of 1899, Petrie, The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, part i. pi. i. 1, 2. ' This ingenious simile was made by Professor Petrie, op. cit., p. 4. *

may

be found

—

the legendary history of EGYPT.

232b

funeral that they might wait

The

;

of his luminary." sovereign,*

name

bearing the

stelae

Some

^

in his

chambers were mostly

objects placed in these

were coarse

upon the dead

of

beyond the

grave.*

but besides these

offerings,

of a person, and dedicated to " the double

them mention

who accompanied

life

a dwarf

or a favourite

^

his master into the tomb.

dog

of the

Tablets of ivory or

bone skilfully incised furnish us with scenes representing some of the ceremonies

time of his burial

;

^

in rarer instances

sacrifices offered at the

and the

of the deification of the kin:^ in his lifetime

The

they record his exploits.^

themselves were such as we meet with in burials of a subsequent age cakes, meat, and poultry of various sorts

'^

tombs of the

in the lists inscribed in the

—indeed, everything we

name

Besides stuffs and

enormous number

whose use they were sealed.^

of the sovereign for

some

of vases,

mentioned

legible the impression of

still

the furniture comprised

mats,

—bread,

later dynasties, particularly the jars of

wine and liquors, on the clay bungs of which are the signet bearing the

find

offerings

beds,

chairs,

in coarse pottery for

common

stools,

an

use, others in

choice stone such as diorite, granite, or rock crystal very finely worked, on the

fragments of

all of

of the Pharaoh to

which may be read cut

whom

in outline the

names and preamble

The ceremonial

the object belonged.^

of the funerary

offering

and

this can

be gathered by the very nature of the objects buried with the deceased,

'

*

significance was already fully developed at this early period

its

Fii. Petrie, The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, part i. p. Amelineau, Les nouvelles fouilles, etc., pla. xxxv.-xxKvii.

14.

J.

;

Origines de VEgypte, vol.

ii.

pp. 239, 240

;

Fl. Petrie, op.

the same as that found on some of the Theban Theban formulas, this particular one is merely a is

stelae of

cit.,

the

part

i.,

de Moboan, Recherches sur

leg

The formula like many of the

xxxiv.-xxxvi.

pis.

XX-XXP'

dynasties

:

revival of a very ancient one, which dates back to " luminous double " or the "double of his luminary"

the primitive ages of Egyptian history. The doubtless that luminous spectre which haunted the tombs and even the houses of the living during the night, and which I have mentioned, i
is

;

No. 893 Fl. Petrie, op. ct7., part L, pi. xxxv., Nos. 36, 37. Petrie found tlie skeletons of two dwarfs, probably the very two to whom the two stelae (Nos. 36, 37) in the tomb of Semempses were raised (T/te Royal Tombs, vol. i. pp. 13, 27). Was one of these dwarfs one Origines de VEgypte, vol.

ii.

p. 240,

;

Danga of Puanit who were sought after by the Pharaohs of the Memphite dynasties ? Amelineau, op. cit., pi. xxxvi. J. de Morgan, Recherches sur les Origines de VEgypte,

of the *

;

Nos. 800, 801. This was the ceremony called by the Egyptians "

vol.

ii.

p. 240, *

The plaques

The

Festival of the Foundation "

habu sadu.

and of bone on which it was represented, and which refer to King Serpent, to King Semempses, have been published by Petrie, op. cit., pi. x., No. 10 pi. xi.,

of ivory

King Den, and

to

;

No. 5 pi. xiv., Nos. 10-12 pi. xv., Nos. 16-18. ® As in the plaques of King Den, published by Petrie, op. cit., part i., pi. x.. No. 14 pi. xL, No. 8 pi. xiv., Nos. 8, 9; and by Spiegel berg {Ein neues Denkmal ans der Friihzeit der JEgijptischen Kunst, in tiie Zeitsohrift, 1897, vol. xxxv. pp. 7-11). ' J. DE Morgan, Recherches sur les Origines de VEgypte, vol. ii. p. 171 Amelineau, Les nouvelles fouilles d'Abydos, pp. 110, 113, 116; Fl. Petrie, The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, part i. Nos.

3, 4, 5, 6, 14,

15; pi.

xii.,

No.

1

;

pi. xiii..

;

;

;

;

;

p. 15. '

Amelineau,

pp. 164, 170 *

J.

;

op.

cit., pi.

xxi.

;

J.

Fl. Petrie, op. cit, part

DE Morgan,

op. cit, vol.

ii.

de Morgan, Recherches sur i.,

les

Origines de VEgypte, vol.

pis. xii., xviii.-xxix., xxxviii.,

p. 188, et seq.

;

No.

Fl. Petrie, op. cit, part

7. i.,

pi. xxviii.

ii.

THE TOMBS OF THE THINITE KINGS.

232C

by their number, quantity, and by the manner in which they were arranged.

Like their successors

Egypt

in the

of later times, these ancient kings expected

to continue their material existence within the tomb,

that

there

life

and they took precautions

should be as comfortable as circumstances should permit.

Access to the tomb was sometimes gained by a sloping passage or staircase

made

possible to see

it

if

everything within was in a satisfactory condition.

;

this

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

shown merely by a scarcely perceptible and

its site

would sOon have been forgotten,

been marked by two large appellations of the king

upon an

this spot,

rise

stelae

—that

altar placed

tomb was

the position of the

roof,

the

in

if its

of the

soil

necropolis,

easternmost limits had not

on which were carefully engraved one of the

of his double, or his

between the two

Horus name.^

stelae,

It

was on

that the commemorative

ceremonies were celebrated, and the provisions renewed on certain days fixed

by the

Groups of private tombs were scattered around,

religious law.

— 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

inscriptions on these tombs,

titles

have been revealed to us by the

have not by any means been

all classified as yet,

the prevailing custom at that period having beeu to designate them by their

Horus names, but

which figures in the

official lists

few texts, more explicit than the

latter is the only

one

which we possess of the Egyptian kings.

A

rest,

the Usaphais, the Miebis, and the

enable us to identify three of them with

Semempses

and seventh kings of the P' dynasty.^ necropolis

of

Abydos

The

their

of

head^ also a Thinite prince?

Manetho

fact that

apparently justifies the

chroniclers that they were natives of Thinis. at

which

rarely by their proper names,

fifth,

sixth,

they are buried in the

opinion

Is the

—the

of

the

Egyptian

Menes who usually

figures

Several scholars believe that his

For the Horus name of the Pharaohs, see infra, pp. 260, 261. Peteie, 0J3. cit., part i. pp. 3-7, where the author has made a restoration of the aspect presented by these royal tombs on that site in ancient times. * The credit is due to Sethe (Z)te lelteste geachiclltliche Denkmaler der Mgypter, in the Zeilschrift, 1897, pp. 1-6) of having attributed their ordinary names to several of the kings of the P' dynasty with Horus names only which were found by Ame'iiaeau, 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 (TAe Boijal Tombs, etc.. pp. 4-6). The Usaphais, the Miebis, and the Semempses of Manetho are now satisfactorily identified with three of the Pharaohs discovered by Amelineau and by Petrie. For" the readings proposed for these names, *

*

tee Maspero, Eevue critique, 1900, vol. *

la the time of Seti

1.

ii.

and Ramses

p. 1. II.

he heads the

list

of the Table of Abydos.

Under

the legendary history of EGYPT.

232d

ordinary name, Mini,

whose Horus name

is to

be read on an ivory tablet engraved

— Ahauiti, the

warlike

—

is

known

to us

for

a sovereign

from several docu-

ments, and whose tomb also has been discovered, but at Nagadeh.

It

a great

is

rectangular structure of bricks 165 feet long and 84 broad, the external walls of which were originally ornamented

by deep polygonal grooves, resembling

Nagadeh tomb

those which score the fapade of Ohaldsean buildings,-^ but the

has a second brick wall which

up

fills

all

the hollows left in the

The

thus hides the primitive decoration of the monument.

twenty-one chambers,

five of

which

first

and

one,

building contains

in the centre apparently constituted the

dwelling of the deceased, while the others, grouped around these, serve as store-

houses from whence he could draw his provisions at within indeed bear the

name

of Menes,^ and

if

will.^

Did the king buried

such was the ease, how are we to

reconcile the tradition of his Thinite origin with the existence of his far-off

tomb

in the neighbourhood of

have been found at Omm-el-Gaab, and

same age as the sovereigns interred name, there

really his personal tradition,

he

whom

is

it

is

evident that he belonged to the

in this necropolis.

If,

indeed,

Menes was

no reason against his being the Menes of

human

Whether he was

ancestors.

really the

king who reigned over the whole of Egypt, or whether he had been

preceded by other sovereigns whose monuments we unexplored,

still

name

the Pharaohs of the glorious Theban dynasties regarded as

the earliest of their purely first

Objects bearing his Horns

Thebes?

authority in various

parts of the

country

is

find in

some

still

uncertain, but that the

Egyptian historians did not know them, seems to prove that they had written records of their names.

At any

site

That princes had exercised

a matter for conjecture.

is

may

rate, a

Menes

lived

left

no

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

Kamses II. his statue was carried in procession, preceding all the other royal statues (Ohampollion, Monuments de I'Egijpt et de la Nuhie, pi. cxlix. Lepsius, Denkm., iu. 163). Finally, the " Royal Papyrus " of Turin, written in the time of Ramses L, begins the entire series of the human Pharaolis with his name. Of. what is said on this subject on pp. 711, 712. * J. DE Morgan, Recherches sur les Origines de VEgypte, vol. ii. p 97, et seq. Ethnographie prg";

'

;

historique, etc., p. 154, et seq. ^

sur

The les

sign Manu, which appears on the ivory tablet found in this tomb (J. de Morgan, Recherches ii. p. 167, No. 549), has been interpreted as a king's name, and consequently

Origines, vol.

inferred to be Menes, simultaneously by Borchardt (Ein neuer

the Sitzungsheridde of the

Academy

Konigsname der Ersten Dynastie) in 25th November,

of Sciences of Berlin, 1897, se'ance of the

This reading has been disputed pp. 1054, 1058) and Maspero (Revue Critique, 1897, vol. ii. p. 440). on various sides, and latest by Naville {Les plus anciens Monuments Egyptiens, iu the Reeueil de Travaux, 1899, vol. sxi. p. 1^7, et seq.). The point remains, therefore, a contested one until further discovery.

MENES AND THE FOUNDING OF MEMPHIS. The

determining bis date.

Egypt

civilization of the

of his time was ruder

than that with which we have hitlierto been familiar on that early period of

was almost as complete.

it

It

had

233

its soil,

and

industries

its

but even at its

arts,

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

plough

tombs were

;

must have been

showing us the model of what the houses and palaces

the country had

;

nobles, its writiug, wliich

built

and

its

we are accustomed

its

army,

administrators, its priests,

its

system of epigraphy

in later ages, that

Frankly speaking,

difficulty.

the ground was cultivated with hoe and

;

that

all

we know

him by the

surrounded Memphis with dykes.

sandhills for

is

and

practically nil,

tiie

"This Menes, according to the

For the

some distance on the Libyan

with no great

times are mere legends

writers of classical

arranged to suit the fancy of the compiler. priests,

it

at present of the first of the

Pharaohs beyond the mere fact of his existence stories related of

from that to

differs so little

we can decipher

its

river formerly followed the

Menes, having

side.

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

Then Menes, the

between the two mountain ranges.

first

channel dug midway

who was

king, having

enclosed a firm space of ground with dykes, there founded that town which still

called

by the of

Memphis; he then made

a lake round

it,

Memphis, such

as

it

and west, fed

to the north

the city being bounded on the east by the Nile."

river,

The

^

indeed, that at the outset, the site on

which

it

It appears,

subsequently arose was occupied

— which

was dependent on

Phtah possessed a sanctuary.

After the "white

fortress, Anbii-hazii

Heliopolis, and in which

—the

white wall

wall" was separated from the Heliopolitan principality to form a it

itself,

history

can be gathered from the monuments, differs consider-

ably from the tradition current in Egypt at the time of Herodotus.^

by a small

is

assumed a certain importance, and furnished, so

dynasties which succeeded the Thinite.

it

was

nome by said,

the

Its prosperity dates only, however,

from the time when the sovereigns of the Y"^ and VI"^ dynasties fixed on it for

their residence;

for his

tomb.

his

of

"double"

after him, a

Minnofirii,

Memphis, probably '

Heeod.,

ii.

Qosheish, which

99.

now

one of them, Papi

which

I.,

there founded for himself and

new town, which he is

the

signified " the

correct

called

It

from

pronunciation and the origin

good refuge," the haven of the good, made by Meues

evidently that of protects the province of Gizeh, and regulates the inundation iu its noigh-

The dyke supposed

to have been

Ibourhood. 2

Minnofirii,

has been most cleverly disentangled by Ebman, Mgypten, pp. 240-244.

is

-

;

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

234

came

the burying-place where the blessed dead

people soon forgot the true interpretation, or probably

with their taste for romantic

They were

tales.

or cities with which they were familiar took their this,

The Egyptians

one.

did not

it

in

fall

rather disposed, as a rule, to

whom

discover in the beginnings of history individuals from

supplied them with

The

to rest beside Osiris.^

names

the countries

no tradition

if

:

they did not experience any scruple in inventing

of the time of the

Ptolemies,

by the pronunciation

their philological speculations

who were guided

in

vogue around them,

in

attributed the patronship of their city to a Princess Memphis, a daughter of its

founder,

the fabulous Uchoreus

;

^

the

name had become

or "

Menes the Good," the reputed founder

thought to

altered,

the Good, divested of his epithet,

and he owes

this episode in

The legend which

preceding ages

those of find in

Minnofiru a " Mini Nofir,

to a popular attempt

his life

the establishment of the

identifies

construction of the city, must have originated at a time still

and the

the residence of the kings

the end of the Memphite period.

It

Meneb

of the capital of the Delta.

none other than Menes, the

is

befor

first

king,

etymology.

at

kingdom with

tht

when Memphis was

seat of government, at latest about

must have been an old

tradition

the time of the Theban dynasties, since they admitted unhesitatingly

in +

authenticity of the statements which ascribed to the northern city so mari

t^

a superiority over their own country.

When

once this half-mythical Menes was firmly established in his pos.

was

tion, there

him

as

little

difficulty

He

ah ideal sovereign.

statesman

he had

;

begun

the

would portra

inventing a story which

in

was represented as architect, warrior,

temple of Phtah/ written

a.

and

laws

re

gulated the worship of the gods,^ particularly that of Hapis,^ and he h

conducted expeditions against the Libyans.'

When

console

him

—the

"Maneros"

— both

lost

hymn

the flower of his age, the people improvised a

in

he

of

his

only

He

.,

mourning ,

the words and the tune of which

handed down from generation to generation.^

'

v

did not, moreover, disd

.

' The translation made by the Greeks, opp.os dyadcSv, exactly corresponds to the ancient orthogra; Min-nofiru, which has become Min-nofir, Miunufi, the " Haven of the Good," by dropping the plural: mination and then the final r {De Iside et Osiride, § 20, Pakthet's edition, p. 35).' The other transla-

by a Greek author, would derive Memphis from Ma-omphis, M-omphis, in wl the name tJnnofir, given to Osiria, takes the common iovm''OiJ.(pis rh d'enpov ovofia rod 6eo€ rhu "OfK^ €V€pyeTr]v 6 'Ep/xaUs
Tatpos 'OaipiSos, given

:

;

:

here treated as X)sirtasen III. was at Semneh, or as Amenothes III. at Soleb. Herod., ii. 99; cf. Wiedemann, Htrodots Ziveites Buch, pp. 396-398. DioDORUS SicuLXJS, i. 94; he perhaps only promulgated tlie laws originally drawn up by Thot.

a god, and Mini *

* « '

8

is

Mlia^, Hist Animalium, xi. 10 in Manetho, Kakou instituted the worship of Hapis, Manetho, in MIjller-Didot, Fragmenta Historicorum Grxc, vol. ii. pp. 539, 540. ;

Herod.,

ii.

79.

According

to the

De

Iside

et Osiride,>^

cf. p.

>'.

238.

17 (Parthey's editiou, p. 28), the origin of

THE LEGEND OF THE MENES.

235

the luxuries of the table, for he invented the art of serving a dinner, and

mode

the

of eating

his dogs, excited

it

in a

reclining

by something or

One upon him

day, while

posture.^

other, fell

hunting,

He

to devour him.

escaped with difficulty, and, pursued by them, fled to the shore of Lake Moeris,

and was there brought

to them,

to

when a

bay; he was on the point of succumbing

crocodile took

him

and carried him across to the other titude he built a dilopolis,

iile

which had saved him

and a pyramid

it

called

to it the

Other traditions show him

of having,

by

he anger of the gods, and allege that

Croco-

in

famous labyrinth a less favourable

horrible crimes, excited against

him

after a reign of sixty to sixty-two years,

was killed by a hippopotamus which came forth from the

^

In gra-

god the croco-

for its

he then erected close

for his tomb.*

They accuse him

light.

;

side.^

new town, which he

and assigned to

back

his

Nile.^

They

related that the Sa'ite Tafnakhti, returning from an expedition against

*

during which he had been obliged to renounce the

pomp and

had solemnly cursed him, and had caused be inscribed upon a stele set up in the temple of Araon

his impre-

^ e Arabs,

usuries of royal tions to

life,

at Thebes.^

e Maneros is traced back to Isis lamenting the death of Osiris. The questions raised by this hymn have sen discussed by two Egyptologists— Brugsch, Die AdonisMage und das Linodied, 1852 and Lauth, ler den ^gyptischen Maneros (in the Sitzungsherichte of the Academy of Munich, 1869, pp. 163-194). ;

DiDORUS SicuLUS, i. 45 cf. I)e Iside et Osiride, § 8 (Parthey's edition, pp. 12, 13). Drawn by Faucher-Gudin after Prisse d'Avennes, Monuments Egyptiens, pi. xlvii. 2, and pp. 8, 9. gold medallions engraved with the name of Menes are ancient, and perhaps go hack to the XX"'

'

^

;

"

sty

('

:

entirely modern, with the exception of the three oblong pendants of cornelian. episode from the legend of Osiris at Philse, in the little building of the Antonines,

the setting

is

Tliis is an be seen a representation of a crocodile crossing the Nile, carrying on his back the mummy of god. The same episode is also found in the tale of Onfis el-Ujiid and of Uard f'il-Ikmam, where crocodile leads the hero to his beautiful prisoner in the Island of Philte. Ebers, I'Egypte, :

a i?

ii. pp. 415, 416, has shown how this episode in the Arab story must have been by the bas-relief at Philse and by the scene which it portrays the temple is still called asr," and the island " Geziret Onus el-UjQd." ^ DiOD. SicuLus, i. 89 several commentators, without any reason, would transfer this legend to king of the XIl"" dynasty, Amenemh§,it III. We have no cause to suspect that Diodorus, or the storian from whom he took his information, did not copy correctly a romance of which Menes was le hero (Unger, Manetho, pp. 82, 130, 131) if traditions relating to other kings have become mixed with this one, it need not astonish us, since we know this is of frequent occurrence in the comp

nch

trans., vol.

ired

:

;

:

isition of

Eijyptian tales.

Manetho,

in MIjller-Didot, Fragmenta Hist. Grsec, vol. ii.-pp. 539, 540. In popular romances, was the usual end of criminals of every kind (Maspero, Les Contes populaires de I'Egypte ancienne, !ud edit., pp. 59-62); we shall see that another king, Akhthoes the founder of the IX"' dynasty, ifter committing horrible misdeeds, was killed, in the same way as Menes, by a hippopotamus. * De Iside et Osiride, § 8 (Paethey's edition, pp. 12, 13); Diodorus, i. 45; Alexis, in Athen^us, *

Jis

X. p.

418

e.

R

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

236

Nevertheless, in the

memory

good outweighed the

evil.

Phtah and Eamses

II.

He his

;

his cult continued till the

Egypt preserved

that

of its first Pharaoh, the

was worshipped in Memphis side by side with

name

head of the royal

figured at the

lists,

and

time of the Ptolemies.

His immediate successors had an actual existence, and their tombs are there in proof of

We

it.

know where Usaphais,

Miebis,

and Semempses

more than a dozen other princes whose

laid to rest, besides

whose position in the

official

lists

are

still

were

names and

real

The order

uncertain.

^

of their

was often a matter of doubt to the Egyptians themselves, but

succession

perhaps the discoveries of the next few years settle definitely

enable us to clear up and

will

matters which were shrouded in mystery in the time of the

Theban Pharaohs.

As a

handed down to us by

fact,

the forms of such of their names as have been

and rugged, indicative of an

later tradition, are curt

early state of society, and harmonizing with the

more primitive

civilization to

which they belong: Ati the Wrestler, Teti the Eunner, Qenqoni the Crusher, are suitable rulers for a people, the followers into battle,

of the fight.^

and

Some

first

duty of whose chief was to lead his

to strike harder

of the

man

than any other

monuments they have

left us,

in the thickest

seem

to

show that

much devoted to war as tliose of the later Pharaohs. The king whose Horus name was Narumir, is seen on a contemporary object which

their reigns were as

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 several thousands of his enemies, leaders.^

That the

foes

with

and was inspecting the execution of their

whom

these early kings contended were in

most cases Egyptian princes of the nomes,

names which are nature,

some important engagement,

is

proved by the

inscribed on the fragments of another

and we gather from tliem

tliat

Dobu

document

On

this

fragment King

*

Flinders Petrie, The Royal Tombs of

*

The Egyptians were accustomed

Den

is

of the

same

successively

taken

represented standing over a

the First Dynasty, vol.

to explaia the

of city

(Edfu), Hasutonu (Cynopolis),

Habonu (Hipponon), Hakau (Memphis) and others were and dismantled.*

list

i.

p. 56.

meaning of the names

of their kings to strangers,

and the Canon

of Eratosthenes has preserved sever.d of their derivations, of which a certain number, as, for instance, that of Menes from alwyios, the " lasting," are tolerably correct. M. Krall iDie Compo-

und die Schicksale des Manethonischen Geschichtswerkes, pp. 16-19) 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

sition

aynastie.s. ^

Palette discovered and published by Qdibell, Slate Palette from Hieraconpolis, in the Zeitschrift,

1898, pp. 81-84, pis. xii., xiii. * Palette resembling the preceding one,

and with it deposited in the Gizeh Museum; reproduced by Steindobff, Eine neue Art xgyptixche Ktmst, iu the Mgyptiaca (dedicated to Ebers), p. 180, and

237

THE FIRST TWO TEINITE DYNASTIES. him with

prostrate chief of the Bedouin, striking

Sondi,

his mace.^

who

end of

classed in the IP*^ dynasty, received a continuous worship towards the

the Iir'^ dynasty.^ the

lists,

But did

really exist as

all

he did

?

and

or followed his on

names preceded

those whose

they existed, to what extent do the order

if

and the relation assigned to them agree with the actual truth

do not contain the same names in the same positions

lists

Kenkenes and Ouenephes, the tables of the time of 11°'^

Ata; Manetho reckons nine kings to the

The monuments,

five.3

whom

princes

associate with Sondi a Pirsenii,

who

is

must, therefore, take the record of

what

is

it

—namely,

of various artifices

of a

better,

from a

hitherto

has

it

the

A

J.

a system invented

and combinations

—

DE Morgan, Recherches sur

stork,

this

a

at

dynasty, while they register

classify

obeyed

:

for

opening period of history

much

it

later

date,

had

dynasties,

in

like

this

direct

in

default

which descent

hero himself, only

legends in the place of

appeared

ii.

pi. iii.

for

by means

that excessive confidence

Origines de I'Egypte, vol.

les

in the past

be partially accepted

furnish,

which

give us Ati and

We

romantic tales and miraculous

double-headed

I.

inscribes

not mentioned in the annals.

to

The two Thinite

received.

certain Pharaohs

;

they

to

without according to

human king Meues,

first

of

tissue

tory.

by

but

all

different

instance,

unable

were

her annalists

Seti

show us that Egypt

indeed,

The

?

Where Manetho

are added or suppressed without appreciable reason.

only

is

in

the

The names

first

his-

year

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 himThe names of the towns self, identified with these gods, is making a breach in the wall with a pick-axe. have not been satisfactorily identified Hat-kau, for instance, may not be Memphis, but it appears Cf. Satce, The Beginnings of the Egyptian Monarchy that there is no doubt with regard to Habonu. ;

:

in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archasological Society, 1898, vol. xx. pp. 99-101. *

The ivory plaque, which doubtless came from the king's tomb at Abydos, is in the collection McGregor.— Ed. His priest Shiri is known to us by a stele in the form of a door, in the Gizeh Museum

of Mr. *

(Mariette, ^o^tce des prinoipaux Monuments, 1876, p. 296, No. 996; Maspero, Guide du visiteur, pp. 31, 32, 213, No. 993); the son and grandson of Shiri, Ankaf and Aasen, are mentioned on a monument in the museum at Ais, exercising the same priestly oifice as Shiri (Gibert-Deveria, Le Musge d'Aix, pp. 7, 8, Nos. 1, 2; cf. Wiedemann, On a monument of the First Dynasties, in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archxologioal Society, vol. ix. pp. 180, 181).

A part of Shiri's monument is at

ix.), another part at Florence Oxford {Marmora Oxoniensia, 2nd part, pi. i. A notice of his tomb occurs in (ScHiAPARELLi, Musco Archeologico di Firenze, pp. 230-232). Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 92, et seq. A Sai'te bronze, which passed from the Posno Collection (Catalogue, Paris, 1883, No. 53, p. 14) into the possession of the Berlin Museum, is supposed to The worship of this prince lasted down to, or was restored under, the Ptolemies represent Sondi. ;

DE Rouge, Recherches sur

Lepsius, Ausmahl,

pi.

monuments, p. 31). names of the Greek with those of the Pharaonio lists has been admitted by most of the savants who have discussed the matter Mariette {La Nouvelle Table d'Abydos, p. 5, et seq.), E. de Rouge {Recherches sur les monuments, p. 18, et seq.), Lieblein (E.

'

The

les

impossibility of reconciling the

—

{Recherches sur la Chronologie Egyptienne,

one of the king.

lists

p. 12, et seq.),

Wiedemann (.^^yjo
Geschichte, pp. 162,

most of them explain the differences by the supposition that, in many cases, gives the cartouche name, and the other the cartouche prenomen of the same

163, 166, 167, etc.)

;

;

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

238

of Teti, son of Menes,

had foreshadowed

Egypt a long prosperity/ but

to

a

famine under Ouenephes,^ and a terrible plague under Semempses, had depopulated the country

:

^

mitted, and revolts

the laws had been relaxed, great crimes had been com-

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

days in the time of Nephereheres,^ and

for fifteen

A

Sesochris was supposed to have been a giant in stature.®

mixed up with these

royal edifices were

of the great palace of Memphis,'

few details about

Teti had laid the foundation

prodigies.

Ouenephes had built the pyramids of Ko-kome

Several of the ancient Pharaohs had published

near Saqqara.^

theology, or had written treatises on

laws which lasted

down

anatomy and medicine

;

several

^

had made

One

to the beginning of the Christian era.

was called Kakou, the male of males, or the bull of

books on

of

them

They explained

bulls.

his

name by the statement

that he had concerned himself about the sacred animals

he had proclaimed as

gocls,

goat of Mendes.'^"

upon a

all

After him, Binothris had conferred the right of succession

women

the

Hapis of Memphis, Mnevis of Heliopolis, and the

of the blood-royal."

Memphite one according

character of this history.

the two armies were

to

who recognized

The Libyans had

without fighting.^^

first

change the miraculous

revolted against Necherophes, and

encamped before each

in this

accession of the IIP*^ dynasty,

Manetho, did not at

moon became immeasurably

the

The

other,

when one night the disk

of

enlarged, to the great alarm of the rebels,

phenomenon

.

a sign' of the anger of heaven, and yielded

Tosorthros, the successor of Necherophes, brought

hieroglyphs and the art of stone- cutting to perfection. Teti did, books of medicine, a fact which caused

him

He

the

composed, as

to be identified with the

Apion, frag. 11, in Muller-Didot, Fragmenta Historicorum Grascorum, vol. iii. p. 512. ^liau {Hist. Anim., xi. 40), who has transmitted this fragment to us, calls the son of Menes, Oiuis, Kara rov OiwSa, which Buusen, without reason, corrects into ko.t'' 'Ar^eiSa (JEgyptens Stelle, vol. ii. p. 46, '

note 15). ^ » * *

Manetho, in Mijller-Didot, Frag. Hist. Grsec, vol. ii. pp. 539, 540. Manetho, in MiJLLER-DiDOT, Frag. Hist. Grxc, vol. ii. pp. 539, 540. Manetho, in Mtjller-Didot, Frag. Hist. Graso., vol. iL pp. 542, 543. Manetho, in Mulleb-Didot, Frag. Hist. Grmc, vol. ii. pp. 542,

whose authority

is

John of Antioch, on

543.

not known, places this miracle under Binothris (Mxjlleb-Didot, op.

cit.,

vol. iv.

p. 539). ^ ' '

Manetho, Manetho, Manetho,

in MtJLLEK-DiDOT, Frag. Hist. in MijLleb-Didot, Frag. Hist.

Grxc, Grxc,

vol.

ii.

vol.

ii.

in MiJLLER-DiDOT, Frag. Hist. Grsec, vol.

ii.

pp. 542, 543. pp. 539, 540. pp. 539, 540.

Teti wrote books on anatomy (Manetho, in Mijller-Didot, Frag. Hist. Grxc, vol. ii. pp. 539, 540), and a recipe for causing the hair to grow, is ascribed to his mother. Queen Shishit (Ebers Papyrus, pi. Ixvi. 1. 5). Tosorthros, of the Iir'' dynasty, was said to have composed a treatise on *

medicine (Manetho, in Mvjller-Didot, op. cit., vol. ii. p. 544). >» Manetho, in MOller-Didot, Frag. Hist. Grsec, vol. ii. pp. 542, 543 position und Scldchsale des Manethonischen Geschichtswerkes, p. 4. " Manetho, iu Mullee-Didot, Frag. Hist. Gnec, vol. ii. pp. 542, .543.

" Manetho,

in

Muller-Didot, Frag.

Hist.

Grxc,

vol.

ii.

pp. 544, 545.

;

cf.

Keali,, Die Com-

:

ORIGIN OF LEGENDS ABOUT THE FIRST THREE DYNASTIES. The

healing god Imhotpu.^

Greek

writers took

them down from

offered to everything

What

priests related these things seriously,

their lips with the respect

239

and the

which they

emanating from the wise men of Egypt.

they related of the

human kings was not more

detailed, as

we

see,

than

accounts of the gods.

their

Whether the legends with

kings,

or

deities

we know took

that

dealt all

its origin,

not in popular imagination,

but

dogma

sacerdotal

in

they were invented long after the times they in the

with,

dealt

recesses of the tem-

with an intention and

ples,

a method of which we are

enabled

detect

to

flagrant

instances on the monuments.^

Towards the middle of the third century before our era,

Greek troops stationed

the

on the southern frontier, in the forts at the

first

cataract,

developed a particular veneration

for

Isis

of

Philse.

Their devotion spread to the

who came

superior officers

inspect them,

then to

to

the

whole population of the Thebaid,

and

court

of

kings.

away by

finally

reached the

the

Macedonian

The

latter,

SATIT PKESENTS THE PHARAOH AMENOTHES HI. TO KHXCmC'

carried

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 Saite

in Muller-Didot, Fragmenta Historicorum Grxc, vol. ii. pp. 5t4, 545. possessed, or suppp. 169-171 of this history, I have given a resume of the iaforuiation posed to be possessed, by the chronicler of the legend of Ait-nobsfi, concerning tlie benefits which Ra, Shu, and Sibu had conferred upon ihe tanctuary of the nome during their terrestrial *

Manetho,

"

On

reigns. ^

Drawn by Faucher-Gu lin, from one

{Description de vijgypte, Antiquite's, vol.

i.

of the bas-reliefs of the temple of Khnumii, at Elephantine This bas-relief is now destroyed. pi. 36, 1).

— THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

240

period which had hitherto sufficed for the worship of cost the temple

which

still

remains almost

constructed at great

Tsis,

and assigned

intact,

to it considerable

possessions in Nubia, which, in addition to gifts from private individuals,

the goddess the richest landowner in Southern Egypt. wives,

Anukit and

Satit,

who, before

Isis,

Khnumu and

made

his two

had been the undisputed

suzerains of the cataract, perceived with jealousy their neighbour's

prosperity

the civil wars and invasions of the centuries

:

diately preceding had ruined their temples,

and

their poverty con-

trasted painfully with the riches of the new-comer.

him the

The

services which they had rendered

continued to render to Egypt, and above

all

priests

King Ptolemy,

resolved to lay this sad state of affairs before

represent to

imme-

and

to

still

remind him of the

to

generosity of the ancient Pharaohs, whose example, owing to the

poverty of the times, the recent Pharaohs had been unable to follow. 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 IIP'^ dynasty.

a vague reputation

This sovereign had

As

for greatness.

Usirtasen III. had claimed

him

early as the XII"* dynasty

as "his father"

and had erected a statue to him

ANUKIT,

;

^

behind him

left

—

his ancestor

knew

the priests

The

invoking him, they had a chance of obtaining a hearing. inscription

which they fabricated,

of Zosiri's

reign he

these terms

couched

in

and

those

for

who

to

eat:

*'

I

,

is

The

men

are

in

earth, they fold their

that

despair, their

hands

was in them has

am, during

and

the

wise one, upon Imhotpii, son

my heart in my time,

young man

rich

wares

call

of of

are

My

now spirit

The mutilated base

the

throne,

and

afflicted

is

for the space of is

is

uneasy, the hearts

filled

also,

;

the

only with

air,

mindful of the

upon the Saviour who was here where the

gods,

upon

Thot-Ibis,

Phtah of Memphis.

of this statue is now preserved in the Egyptian ^gyptischen AUertUmer und Gipsahgiisse, p. 34, No. 94:'^). Verzeiclmiss der '

for

limbs are bent, they crouch on the

disappeared.

centuries

sorrow

the courtiers have no further resources

;

beginning of things, seeks to I

with

his neighbours for help, they take

weeps, the

child

eighteenth year

the

a lack of herbage, and nothing

is

upon

calls

shops formerly furnished with all

palace,

there

scarce,

in

Madir, lord of Elephantine, a message

am overcome the

in

when any one

pains not to go. of the old

reside

Corn

eight years.

:

to

that

forth

because the Nile has not risen

suffers greatly

left

had sent

set

by

that,

Where Museum

that is

great

the place

at Berlin

(Erman,

TEE FAMINE STELE.

*c_;

241

in

•

which the Nile

Who

born

is

?

the god or goddess

is

What

concealed there?

The

is

of

Ele-

phantine brought his reply in person.

He

likeness?"

his

who was evidently

described to the king, ignorant

of

it,

lord

the situation of the island

and the rocks of the cataract, the pheno-

mena

of

presided relieve

THE STEP-PYRAMID OF SAQQSrA.'

eyes,

over

it,

the

who

and

Egypt from her

who

gods alone

disastrous

could plight.

Zosiri repaired to the temple of the

and offered the prescribed

cipality

inundation,

the

panted and cried aloud, "I

sacrifices

;

prin-

the god arose, opened his

am Khnumu who

created

thee!" and

promised him a speedy return of a high Nile and the cessation of the

Pharaoh was touched bv the benevolence which

famine.

had shown him temple a

his

all

radius

of

;

his divine father

he forthwith made a decree by which he ceded to the of suzerainty

rights

twenty miles.

over the neighbouring nomes within

Henceforward

the

entire

population,

tillers

and vinedressers, fishermen and hunters, had to yield the tithe of their incomes

to

consent of coffers,

had

to

and

the

priests;

Khnumu, and

not be

worked without

the

the payment of a suitable indemnity into his

metals and precious woods shipped thence for Egypt

finally, all

submit to a

the quarries could

toll

on behalf of the temple.^

Did the Ptolemies

admit the claims which the local priests attempted to deduce from this '

Drawn by Boudier, from

*

This

Die

is

a photograph by Deveria (1864) ; in the foreground, the tomb of Ti. the inscription discovered at Sehel by Mr. Wilbour in 1890, and published by Bkdgsch,

Jahre der Hunqersnoth ; and by Pleyte, Schenkingsoorkonde van Scheie uit het van Koning Tosertasis (taken from the Report of thu Academy of Sciences at Amsterdam, 3rd series, vol. viii.); cf, Maspero, in the Revue Critique, 1891, vol. ii. p. 1-19, et seq. The correct reading of the royal name was pointed out, almost immediately after the discovery, by Steindorff, in Biblisclien sieben

IS*^ Jaar

the Zeitschrift, vol. xxviii. pp. Ill, 112.

242

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT.

.

romantic tale ? and did the god regain possession of the domains and dues

which they declared had been his right the scribes could forge the necessity upon

official

them

it

;

The

?

shows us with what ease

stele

documents, when the exigencies of daily teaches us at the same time

Every prodigy, every

document analogous

The

to the

fact related

forced

how that fabulous

chronicle was elaborated, whose remains have been preserved for us writers.

life

by

classical

by Manetho, was taken from some

supposed inscription of

Zosiri.^

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.

had survived in

and grouped of

in a regular

any exact

own

Many names, apparently of the memory of the people; manner

powerful and illustrious princes, these were collected, classified,

into dynasties, but the people were ignorant

connected with the names, and the historians, on their

facts

account, were reduced to collect apocryphal traditions for their sacred

The monuments

archives.

entirely disappeared

:

of these

remote ages, however,

they exist in places where we have not as yet thought

of applying the pick, and chance excavations will

bring

them

;

to light. :

^

Gizeh

of

;

;

and

Wady Maghara, which of Khnumu in the Greek

a short inscription on the rocks of the

represents Zosiri (the

period

some day most certainly

The few which we do possess barely go back beyond dynasty namely, the hypogenm of Shiri, priest of Sondi and possibly the tomb of Khuithotpu at Saqqara ^ the Great Sphinx

the IIP'^

Pirsenu

have

cannot

made

same king

of

whom

the priests

a precedent) working the turquoise or copper mines of Sinai

finally the

Step-Pyramid where this same Pharaoh

rests.^

* ;

It forms a

' The legend of the yawning gulf at Bubastis must be connected with the gifts supposed to have been oifered 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 tlenephes might have shown their gratitude in the same way as Zosiri. The tradition of the successive restorations of Denderah (DiJMicHEN, Bauurhunde der Tempelanlagen von Dendera, pi. xvi. a-b, and pp. 15, 18, 19) accounts for the constructions attributed to Teti I. and to Tosorthros finally, the pretended discoveries of sacred books, dealt with elsewhere (pp. 22i, 225), show how Manetho was enabled to attribute to his Pharaohs the authorship of works on medicine or theology. * Mariette, Les Mastahas de VAncien Empire, pp. 92-94, and the fragments mentioned above, ;

p. 236.

Mariette, Les Mastdbas de VAncien Empire, pp. 68-70. Mariette ascribes the construction of the tomb of Khabidsokari to the 1^' dynasty (p. 73) I am inclined to think it is not earlier than ^

;

the

III^'^. *

This

years ago '

The

which only the Horus-name is given to the king, was copied by Be'ne'dite four the most ancient of all the Egyptian historical inscriptions. stele of Sehel has enabled us to verify the fact that the preamble [a string of titles] to the text, in

;

it is

King Zosiri it was, monument as his tomb (Brugsch, Ver Konig Hise.r, in the Zettschrift, vol. xxviii. pp. 110, 111). The Step-Pyramid of Saqqara was opened in 1819, at the expense of the Prussian General Minutoli, who was the first to inscription of the king, buried in the Step-Pyramid, is identical with that of therefore, Zosiri

who

constructed, or arranged for the construction of this

:

243

TEE STEP-PYBAMID OF SAQQARA.

rectangular mass, incorrectly orientated, with a variation from the true north 4° 35', 393 ft. 8 in. long from east to west, and 352 ft. deep, with a of

height of 159

ft.

9

in.

each being about 13 the ground

to

ft.

It

composed of

is

less in

measures 37

ft.

six

cubes, with sloping sides,

width than the one below 8

in.

in

height, and

it;

that nearest

the uppermost one

ONE OF THE CHAMBERS OF THE STEP-PYBAMID, WITH ITS WALL-COVERING OF GLAZED

29

ft.

2

in.

mountains.

It

was entirely constructed of limestone from the neighbouring

The blocks

concave to offer a of earthquake.

TILES.*

are small, and badly cut, the stone courses being

better resistance

When

to

downward thrust and

breaches in the masonry are examined,

seen that the external surface of the steps has, as

it

to

shocks

it

can be

were, a double stone

give a brief description of the interior, illustrated by plans and drawings {Reise Jupiter Amnion, pp. 295-299, and Atlas, pis. xxvi.-xxviii.),

zum Tempel

de»

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the coloured sketch by Segato. M. Stern (Die Eandbemerkungen zu dem manethonischen Konigscanon, in the Zeitschrift, 1885, p. 90, note 1) attributes the decoration of glazed pottery to the XXVI"" dynasty, which opinion is shared by Boechardt, Die Thiir '

aus der Stufenpyrarnide bet SaJikara (in the Zeitschrift, v. xxx. pp. 83-87). The yellow and green glazed tiles bearing the cartouche of Papi I., show that the Egyptians of the J\Iemphite dynasties used glazed facings at that early date we may, tlierefoie, 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 receut date. The chamber has been drawn and reproduced in black and white by Minutoli (Reise zum Tempel des Jupiter Ammon, pi. xxviii.), and in colour by Segato in Valeriani, Nuova lllustrazione istorico-monumentale del Basso e dell' Alto Egitto, pi. C; cf. Perrot-Chipiez, Histoire de I' Art, ;

vol.

i.

pp. 823, 824.

THE LEGENDARY BISTORT OF EGYPT.

244

each facing being carefully dressed.

facing, solid,

the

chambers being

the

cut in

The body

of the

pyramid

chambers

These

rock beneath.

is

have been often enlarged, restored, and reworked in the course of centuries,

and the passages which connect them form a perfect labyrinth into which dangerous to venture without a guide.

it is

and

had contrived a hiding-place, destined, no doubt,

more precious

century, the vault had preserved

slightly

wall

surface

convex on the outer

original lining of glazed pottery.

its

covered with green

were

but

side,

jection pierced with a hole, served to fix

by means

line

of

of flexible

the doors are

wooden

inscribed

with

contain the

to

Until the beginning of this

objects of the funerary furniture.

quarters of the

galleries

a sort of enormous shaft, at the bottom of which the

halls, all lead to

architect

The columned porch, the

rods.

the

flat

oblong and

tiles,

on the inner:

Three

a sqnare pro-

them at the back in a horizontal The three bands which frame one

titles

of

the

Pharaoh

:

the hiero-

glyphs 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,

Kitig Khasakhimu, of whose constructions some traces exist at Hieraconpolis,

opposite to El-Kab, or

King Khasakhmui, who preceded by a few

Pharaohs of the IV"' dynasty

— but

the

monuments which they

years the

raised to be

witnesses of their power or piety to future generations, have, in the course of ao"es,

disappeared under the tramplings and before the triumphal blasts of

many invading of the historic

hosts

:

the pyramid alone has survived, and the most ancient

monuments

of

Egypt

is

a tomb.

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT. THE KIXG, QUEEN, AND ROYAL THE

PRINCES

THE

EGYPTIAN" PRIESTHOOD,

— PHARAONIC ADMINISTRATION—FEUDALISM AND MILITARY — THE CITIZENS AND THE COUNTRY-

PEOPLE.

The cemeteries of Oizeh and Saqqdra its

:

the Cfreat

Sphinx

decoration, the statues of the double, the sepulchral va/ult

and

texts

the mastabas, their chapel

;

—Importance of the wall-paintings

of the mastabas in determining the history of the Memphite dynasties.

The king and

the royal

family

—Double

nature and

titles

of the sovereign

names, and the progressive formation of the Pharaonic Protocol divine worship

;

the

insignia

and prophetic

between the gods and his subjects tions, his cares

children

:

—His

harem

their position in

death of their father

The royal jesters,

city

dwarfs,

:

;

:

the

—Pharcu>h

women,

the State

;

statues

— The

offices, the

life

;

his

the queen, her origin,

rivalry

— Royal

his

:

etiquette

amusements,

Horus-

an actual

of Pharaoh, Pharaoh the

in family

mediator

his

occupa-

her duties to the king

among them during

the old

age and

— His

at

the

succession to the throne, consequent revolutions.

the palace

and

its

occupants

— The royal household and

and magicians— TJie royal domain and

establishments which provided for its service: taxes

and

scribe, his education, his

the

buildings

chances of promotion

value of his personal property at his death.

the

:

slaves,

and

its officers

the

Pharaoh's

treasury

places for

the career of

:

the

Amten,

and receipt

the

of

his successive

:

246

(

Egyptian feudalism

the

:

obligations to the sovereign

mortmain ;

The people of corporations: life

— The

;

the

of

and

their

lords,

influence of the gods

the priesthood, its hierarchy,

foreign mercenaries

family

status

)

the

:

their

rights,

gifts to the temples,

method of recruiting

its

amusements,

and

ranks

their

possessions in

—The military

native militia, their privileges, their training.

toions

the

— The

misery of handicraftsmen

— Festivals

:

periodic

men

slaves,

—Aspect

without a master of the toions:

bazaars

markets,

:

commerce

— Workmen

and artisans;

houses, furniture,

by

barter,

the

women

in

weighing of

precious metals.

The country people the

bastinado,

taxes

;

and

their lords

;

— The the

villages

corvee

;

serfs,

—Administration

misery of the peasantry

improvidence; their indifference

;

—Bural

free peasantry

domains ;

the

survey,

of justice, the relations between peasants

their resignation

to political revolutions.

and natural

cheerfulness

;

their

THE SPHINX AND THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. SEEN AT

CHAPTER

SDNSBT.^

IV.

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT. The

—

—

king, the queen, and the royal princes Administration under the Pharaohs Feudalism and the Egyptian priesthood, the military The citizens and country people.

!-^

T)ETWEEN

—

Fayum and

the

the apex of the Delta, the

Lybian range expands and forms a vast and slightly undulating table-land, which runs parallel to the Nile for \

The Great Sphinx Harmakhis has

nearly thirty leagues.

mounted guard over

its

northern extremity ever since

the time of the Followers of Horus. solid rock

plateau,

at

the

the

to raise his

line of the lion

has

head in order that he

to behold across the valley the

first

rising of his father the Sun.

worn body.

out of the

extreme margin of the mountain-

he seems

may be

Hewn

Only the general out-

can now be traced in his weather-

The lower portion

fallen, so that

of the head-dress

the neck appears too slender to

support the weight of the head.

The cannon-shot

of

the fanatical Mamelukes has injured both the nose

and beard, and the red colouring which gave animation to his features But in spite of this, even in its has now almost entirely disappeared. '

also

Drawn by Boudier, from La Description de V£gypte, A., vol. by Boudier, represents a man bewailing the dead, in the

v. pi. 7.

attitude

The vignette, which is adopted at funerals by

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT,

248 decay,

it

bears a

still

The eyes look the lips

The

still

commanding

into the far-off distance with smile, the whole

art that could conceive

side,

was an art in

How many

its

and hew

is

an intensity of deep thought,

pervaded with calmness and power.

this gigantic statue out of the mountain-

maturity, master of itself and sure of

centuries were needed to bring

and perfection

it to this

its

effects.

degree of development

In later times, a chapel of alabaster and rose granite was

!

erected alongside the god; accessible

face

strength and dignity.

expression of

places,

temples were built here and there in the more

and round these were grouped the tombs of the whole

l-m^Sffi^E^^S^ THE MASTABA OP KHOMTINI IN THE NECK0P0LI8 OP

country.

The bodies

of the

common

GIZEH.*

people, usually naked and

uncofiSned,

were thrust under the sand, at a depth of barely three feet from the surface.

Those of a better

class rested in

mean rectangular chambers,

yellow bricks, and roofed with pointed vaulting.

No

gladdened the deceased in his miserable resting-place of coarse

;

hastily built of

ornaments or treasures a few vessels, however,

pottery contained the provisions left to nourish

him during

the

period of his second existence.^

Some side

;

of the wealthy class

had their tombs cut out of the mountain-

but the majority preferred an isolated tomb, a " mastaba," ^ comprising

a cbapel above ground, a shaft, and some subterranean vaults.

From

a

professional mourners of both sexea; the right fist resting on the ground, while the left hand scatters on the hair the dust which he has just gathered up. The statue is in the Gizeh Museum

(Mariette, Album plwtographique du mus^e de Boulaq, pi. 20). Drawn by Fauoher-Gudin, from a sketch by Lepsius (Denhm., ii. 26) The corner-stone at the top of the mastaba, at the extreme left of the hieroglyphic frieze, had been loosened and thrown to the ground by some explorer the artist has restored it to its original position. 2 Mariette, Sur les tombes de VAncien Empire que Von trouve a Saqqdra, pp. 2, 3 (Eev. Arch., 2nd series, vol. xix. pp. 8, 9), and Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, pp. 17, 18, ' " The Arabic word mastaba,' plur. ' masatib,' denotes the stone bench or platform seen in the streets of Egyptian towns in front of each shop. A carpet is spread on the mastaba,' and the customer sits upon it to transact his business, usually side by side with the seller. In the necropolis of SaqqS.ra, there is a temple of gigantic proportions in the shape of a ' ma&taba.' The inhabitants of the neighbourhood call it Mastabat-el-Faraoun,' the seat of Pharaoh, in the belief that anciently one of the Pharaohs sat there to dispense justice. The Memphite tombs of the Ancient Empire, which thickly cover the Saqqdra plateau, are more or less miniature copies of the Mastabat-el'

;

'

'

'

'

THE CEMETERIES OF GIZEH AND SAQQABA.

249

distance these chapels have the appearance of truncated pyramids, varying in size according to the fortune or taste of the

measure 30 to 40

ft.

in

height, with a fapade

from back to front of some 80 10

ft.

upon a base of 16

owner

ft.

ft.,

160

;

there are

ft.

some which

long, and a depth

while others attain only a height of some

square.^

The

another, and usually have a smooth surface

walls slope uniformly towards one ;

sometimes, however, their courses

i..>..r^:

THE GEEAT SPHINX OF GIZEH PAKTIALLY UNCOVERED, AND THE PYRAMID OF KHEPUREN.'

are set back one above the other almost like steps.

The brick mastabas

were carefully cemented externally, and the layers bound together internally

by

fine sand

poured into the

Stone mastabas, on the contrary,

interstices.

present a regularity in the decoration of their facings alone

out of ten the core

is

built of

;

in nine cases

rough stone blocks, rudely cut into squares,

cemented with gravel and dried mud, or thrown together pell-mell without mortar of

any kind.

The whole building should have been

orientated

according to rule, the four sides to the four cardinal points, the greatest axis directed north Faraoun.'

;

but the masons seldom troubled themselves

Hence the name

the necropolis of Saqqara >

and south

The mastaba

of mastabas, which has always been given to this kind of tomb, in " (Mariette, Les Mastabas de I'Ancien Empire, pp. 22, 23).

of Sabft is 175

ft.

9 in. long, by about 87

ft.

9

in.

deep, but two of

its

sides have

3 in. by (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 143) the other On hand, the 84 ft. 6 in. on the south front, and 100 ft. on the north front (id., p. 222). mastaba of Papft is only 19 ft. 4 in. by 29 ft. long (id., p. 391), and that of Khabiaphtah (id., p. 294) 42 ft. 4 in. by 21 ft. 8 in. - Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey, taken in the course of the excavations begun in 1886, with the funds furnished by a public subscription opened by the

lost their facing

Journal des D^bata.

;

that of Eauimait measures 171

ft.

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

250

to find the true north,

and the orientation

is

usually incorrect.^

face east, sometimes north or south, but never west.

One

The doors

of these

is

but

the semblance of a door, a high narrow niche, contrived so as to face east,

and decorated with grooves framing a carefully walled-

up entrance;

this

was

for

the use of the dead, and

it

was believed that the ghost entered or

The door

left it

at will.

the

for

use of

the living, sometimes pre-

by

ceded

was

a portico,

almost always characterized

by great it

is

a

simplicity.

Over

cylindrical

tym-

panum, or a smooth bearing

stone,

merely the

flag-

sometimes

name

of

the

dead person, sometimes his titles

TETINIONKHU, SITTING BEFORE THE FUNERAL REPAST.'

and descent, some-

times a prayer for his wel-

and an enumeration of the days during which he was entitled to receive the worship due to ancestors. They invoked on his behalf, and almost fare,

always precisely in the same words, the " Great God," the Osiris of Mendes, or else Anubis,

dwelling

in

Divine Palace,^ that

the

burial

might

be

granted to him in Amentit, the land of the West, the very great and very good, to him the vassal of the Great God; that he might walk in the ways in which

it is

good to walk, he the vassal of the Great God

he might have offerings of bread, cakes, and drink, at the at the feast of Thot, on the first

New

day of the year, on the

at the great fire festival, at the procession of the

;

that

Year's Feast,

feast of Uagait,*

god Minu,

at the feast

of offerings, at the monthly and half-monthly festivals, and every day.^

Thus the

tomb of Pirsenft is 17° east of the magnetic north (Makiettjd, Les In some cases the divergence is only 1° or 2°, more often it is 6°, 7°, 8°, or 9°, as can be easily ascertained by consulting the work of Mariette. ^ Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the original monument which is preserved in the "

axis of the

Mastahas,

p. 299).

Liverpool

Museum

;

cf.

Gatty, Catalogue of

the

Mayer

Collection

;

I.

Egyptian Antiquities, No. 294,

p. 45. *

The

" Divine Palace "

is the palace of Osiris. Anubis performed for it the duties of uslier, hid protection was deemed necessary for those who wished to be admitted into the presence of the " Great God " (cf. p. 197, et seq., of this volume).

and

*

tlagait was the festival of the dead, celebrated during the first days of the year. See p. 321. Mariette, Notice des principaux monuments exposes dans les galeries provisoires du Musee

THE MASTABA CHAPELS. The chapel the

of

is

building.^

usually It

small,

and

is

generally consists

almost lost in the

far end,

and

THE FACADE AND THE STELE OF THE TOMB OF PHTAHSHOPSISU AT

western wall,^ the

is

a

huge quadrangular

table of offerings,

made

stele, at

d'Antiqui(^s Egyptiennes, 1864, pp. 20-22;

Sur

les

set

chamber,

back into the

SAQQARA.**

the foot of which

of alabaster, granite

upon the ground, and sometimes two

great extent

merely of an oblong

At the

approached by a rather short passage.^

251

is

or limestone placed

little obelisks or

two

altars,

seen flat

hollowed

tomhes de I'Ancien Empire que Von trouve a Saqqdra,

Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, pp. 21-33. For ii more complete and technical description of the mastabas of the Memphite period, see Perrot-Chipiez, Histoire de I' Art dans V Antiquity, vol. i. pp. 169-178, and Maspero, Arch^ologie Egyptienne, pp. 109-133. ' Thus the chapel of the mastaba of Sabft is only 14 ft. 4 in. long, by about 3 ft. 3 in. deep (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 143), and that of the tomb of Phtahshopsisii 10 ft, 4 in. by 3 ft. 7 in. pp. 3-8 (Kev. Aboh.,

2nd

series, xix. pp.

9-14)

;

Cid., p. 131). ^

The mastaba

of Tinti has four chambers (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 149), as has also that but these are exceptions, as may be ascertained by consulting the work

of Assi-6nkh
Most of those which contain several rooms are ancient one-roomed mastabas, which have been subsequently altered or enlarged; this is the case with the mastabas of Shopsi (id., p. 206) and of Ankhaftuka (id., p. 304). A few, however, were constructed from the outset with all their apartments— that of Eaonkhdmai, with sis chambers and several niches (id., p. 280); that of Khabiuphtah, with three chambers, niches, and doorway ornamented with two pillars (id., p. 294); that of Ti, with two chambers, a court surrounded with pillars, a doorway, and long inscribed passages (id., pp. 332, 333) and that of Phtahhotpfi, with seven chambers, besides niches (id., p. 351). ^ Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by DiJanoHEN, BesuUate, vol. i. pi. 2. * Mariette, Sur les tombes de VAncien Empire, p. 8; Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, pp. 35, 36,

of Mariette.

;

where "west" should be read for "east" in the published text. The rule is not as invariable aa Mariette believed it to be, and I have pointed out a few examples of stelsB facing north or south. S

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

252

at the top to receive the gifts

mentioned in the inscription on the exterior of

The general appearance

the tomb.

that of a rather low, narrow doorway, too

is

The

small to be a practicable entrance.^ left

empty

recess thus formed

is

almost always

sometimes, however, the piety of relatives placed within

;

it

a statue

of the deceased.

Standing there, with shoulders thrown back, head

and smiling

the statue seems to step forth to lead the double from

face,

dark lodging where

its

embalmed,

lies

it

he dwelt in freedom during

earthly

his

those glowing plains

to life

erect,

where

another moment, crossing

:

the threshold, he must descend the few steps leading into the public hall.

On

festivals

and days of

when the

offering,

the banquet with the customary

rites, this

priest

and family presented

great painted figure, in the act of

seen by the light of flickering torches or smoking lamps,

advancing, and

might well appear endued with

It was as if the

life.

dead ancestor himself

stepped out of the wall and mysteriously stood before his descendants to

The

claim their homage.

name and rank

of the dead.

Faithful portraits of

him and

end represents him seated tranquilly

of the feast carefully

water

is

The

for ablution, to that

exhausted, he has but to return satisfaction.

The

generations

who

it

when,

all

dwelling, in

moment when

first

culinary skill being a

its

its

being walled up

for

mortal might cross

its

threshold.

The

in-

;

surface was not a

was that reposed beneath.

genealogy of the deceased, and gave him a

mere epitaph informing future It perpetuated the civil

like

a living

man

without a name, was reckoned

Nor was

this the only use of the stele; the pictures

upon

acted as so

it

of the ancestor,

therein

invoked, whether

of sacrifices

which he

;

the nameless

as

non-existing.

and prayers inscribed

many talismans for ensuring the continuous whose memory they recalled. They compelled Osiris

or the jackal Anubis, to

between the living and the departed

ment

name and

status, without

could not have preserved his personality in the world beyond dead,

of beatified

state

the fact of

deceased

ever showing that no living

which covered

his

;

live,

existence

the god

act as mediator

they granted to the god the enjoy-

and those good things abundantly offered

and by which they

scene

represented to the visitor the door leading to the

stele

private apartments of the

scription

to

little

at table, with the details

recorded at his side, from the

brought to him

members

of other

of his family figure in the bas-reliefs on the door-posts. at the far

more the

inscription on the lintel repeats once

to

the deities,

on condition that a share of them might

first

be

The Btele of Shiri, priest of the Pharaohs Sondi and Pirsenfi, and one of the most ancient monuments known, offers a good example of these door-shaped stelse cf. p. 237 of this volume, and Maspero, Guide du Visiteur au Muse'e de Boulaq, pp. 31, 32, where the stele of Kh§,biusokari is reproduced, and where the signification of stelae of this particular type was first pointed out. '

;

;

TEE STELE AND ITS FUNEREAL SIGNIFICANCE. set aside for the deceased.

By

253

the divine favour, the soul or rather the

doubles of the bread, meat, and beverages

passed into

the other

world.

STELE IN THE FORM OF A DOOR, AND THE STATCE OF THE TOMB OF MIRrCkA.'

and there refreshed the human double.

It

was not, however, necessary

that the offering should have a material existence, in order to be effective '

Drawn by Boudier, from

a photograph of the

tomb of Mirrfika, taken by M. de Morgan.

;

THE POLITWAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

254 the

first

comer who should repeat aloud the name and the formulas inscribed

upon the

stone, secured for the

immediate possession of

The cases

all

unknown occupant, by

alone, the

the things which he enumerated.^

stele constitutes the essential part of the chapel

it

means

this

was the only inscribed portion,

In

many

alone being necessary to ensure

it

the identity and continuous existence of the dead

''^^&JsjjJz^J'CiJ^\r

and tomb.

man

often, however, the

;

^'"^^

A EEPEESENTATION OF THE DOMAINS OF THE LORD

TI,

BRINOrNG TO HTM THEIR OFFERINGS

IN PKOCESSION.'

sides of the

wealth

of

chamber and passage were not the

owner

permitted,

they

were

writing, expressing at greater length the ideas

and inscriptions of the

stele.

moment was permitted

the

bare.

left

When

covered

with

who

of the

in

perpetuity.

figures

to guide the artist in the choice of his subjects

double, of inspectors, scribes, and

agreement with the

and

Neither pictorial effect nor the caprice of

Every individual

built for himself an "eternal house," either attached

priests

scenes

summarized by the

that he drew, pictures or words, had a magical purpose.

all

time or the

priests of

slaves,

to it a staff of

or

made an

else

a neighbouring temple to serve the chapel

Lands taken from

his

patrimony, which thus became the

Maspeeo, £tudes de Mythohgie et d'ArcMologie ^gyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 1-34 Guide du Visiteur au Mus^e de Boulaq, p. 31, et seq. and Arch^ologie £jgyptienne, p. 155, et seq. * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a "squeeze" taken from the tomb of Ti. The domains are represented as women. The name is written before each figure, with the designation of the landowner—" the nebbek [locust tree ?] of Ti," " the two sycamores of Ti," " the wine of Ti " cf. p. .329 '

;

;

;

of this volume.

;

THE DECOBATION OF THE FUNERAL CHAPEL. *'

Domains

of the

supplied them sacrifice.^

until the

Eternal House,"

rewarded them

with meats, vegetables,

fruits,

for

their

liquors, linen

255 and

trouble,

and

vessels

for

In theory, these " liturgies " were perpetuated from year to year,

end of time

;

but in practice, after three or four generations, the

THE BEPRESENTATIOX OF THE LOKD

TI ASSISTING

AT THE PRELUIINAKIES OP THE

BACEIPICE AJTD OFFERING.*

older ancestors were forsaken for those

who had died more

recently.

Not-

withstanding the imprecations and threats of the donor against the priests

who should

neglect their duty, or

against those

funeral endowments,^ sooner or later there all,

came a time when, forsaken by

the double was in danger of perishing for want of sustenance.

ensure that

to

who should usurp the

the

promised

gifts,

offered

in

substance

on

the

In order

day of

Maspero, iJtudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie j^gyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 53-75, where a contract between a Prince of SIM and the priests of the god tTapaaitu, is explained at length of. Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 313 E. and J. de Eouge, Inscriptions hie'roghjjjhiques, vol. i. pi. 1. * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by DiJMiCHEX, Besidtate, vol. i. pi. 13. ' The mutilated text of the tomb of Sonuionkhu offers an example of these menaces in the period with which we are dealing (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 313; cf. E. and J. de Rouge, Inscriptions hi^roglyphiques, vol, i. pi. 1). Shorter formulas are found in the tombs of Hotpiiliiklifiit (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 34:2), of Khona {id., p. 185), and of Ninki (Piehl, Inscriptions provenant d'un Mastaba de la VP Dynastic, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archxology, >

of this kind,

;

vol. xiii. pp.

121-126).

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

256

should be

burial,

maintained throughout the centuries, the relatives

not

only depicted them upon the chapel walls, but represented in addition the

On

production.

one side we see ploughing, sowing, reaping, the carrying

corn, the

of the

them, and the labour which contributed to their

produced

lands which

of the

storing

the driving of the cattle.

A

grain,

the

further on,

little

of

the poultry, and

workmen

of all description

fattening

shoemakers ply the awl, glassmakers

are engaged in their several trades:

blow through their tubes, metal founders watch over their smelting-pots, carpenters

hew down

trees

and build a ship; groups of women weave

spin under the eye of a frowning taskmaster, chatter.

Did the double

in his

who seems impatient

He might

hunger desire meat?

or

of their

choose from

on the wall the animal that pleased him best, whether kid,

the pictures

ox, or gazelle;

he might follow the course of

the

meadows

his

hunger with

to

slaughter-house and

the

flesh.

its

the

its

from

life,

kitchen, and

its

birth in

might

The double saw himself represented

satisfy

the

in

paintings as hunting, and to the hunt he went; he was painted eating and

drinking with his wife, and

he ate and

drank with her;

the pictured

ploughing, harvesting, and gathering into barns, thus became to realities.

In

fine, this

the wall was quickened by the same

whom

it all

depended

:

men and

painted world of life

him

actual

things represented upon

which animated the double, upon

the picture of a meal or of a slave was perhaps that

which best suited the shade of guest or of master,^

Even

to-day,

when we enter one

death scarcely presents

some old-world house,

itself:

of these decorated chapels, the idea of

we have rather the impression walls, followed

surrounded by everything which made his earthly

by

life

his servants,

enjoyable.

in

We

which the master may at any moment return.

to

him portrayed everywhere upon the

see

of being

and

One

or

two statues of him stand at the end of the room, in constant readiness to Should undergo the "Opening of the Mouth" and to receive offerings.^ these be accidentally removed, others, secreted in a

little

the masonry, are there to replace them.^

in the thickness of

chambers have rarely any external

outlet,

hand being passed through

it.

These inner

though occasionally they are con-

nected with the chapel by a small opening, so narrow that of a

chamber hidden

Those who came

it

will hardly

to repeat prayers

were received by the dead in person.

burn incense at

this aperture

statues were not

mere images, devoid

admit

of consciousness.

and

The

Just as the double

Maspeeo, £tudes de Mythologie et d' Arcli€ologie iliiyptienne, vol. i. pp. 1-34; cf. Etudes Guide du Visiteur, pp. 205-207; Archg-ologie JlJJgyptienne,^p. 117-120. J^gyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 193, 194 2 Cf. what is said about the " Openiiig of the Mouth " on p. 180 of this volume. 3 This is the " serdab," or " passage " of Arab diggers cf. Mariette, Notice des principaux monuments, 1864, pp. 23, 24 Sur les tomhes de I'Ancieii Empire, pp. 8, 9 Les Mastahas, pp. 41, 42. '

;

;

;

;

THE STATUES OF TEE DOUBLE to an idol

of a god could be linked

transform

it

into a prophetic being,

when the double

of a

man was

— THE

SEPULCHRAL VAULT.

257

temple sanctuary in order to

in the

capable of speech and movement/ so

attached to the effigy of his earthly body,

whether in stone, metal, or wood, a real living person was created and was

So strong was this conviction that the belief

introduced into the tomb.

The

has lived on through two changes of religion until the present day.

double

As

still

haunts the statues with which he was associated in the past.

in former times, he yet strikes with

disturb his repose

the

moment

double

is

;

and one can only be protected from him by breaking, at

weakened or killed by the mutilation

disfigured as

more correct idea

of the deceased than his

was by the work of the embalmers

number

The

of these his sustainers.^

and any number could be made at

less easily destroyed,

the really incredible

it

The

which the vault contains.

of discovery, the perfect statues

statues furnish in their modelling a

mummy,

madness or death any who dare to

they were also

;

will.

away

of statues sometimes hidden

Hence

arose

in the

same

These sustainers or imperishable bodies of the double were multiplied

tomb.^

so as to insure for

him a

practical immortality

;

and the care with which

they were shut into a secure hiding-place, increased their chances of preAll the same, no precaution was neglected that could save a

servation.^

mummy

The

from destruction.

depth of forty to

hundred

feet.

prevent a

man

fifty

feet,

Kunning

shaft

but sometimes

hewn out

it,

it

descended to a mean

reached, and even exceeded, a

it

from

horizontally

standing upright in

properly so called,

leading to

it

is

a passage so low as to

which leads to the sepulchral chamber

of the solid rock

and devoid of

all

ornament

;

the

sarcophagus, whether of fine limestone, rose-granite, or black basalt, does not

always bear the

name and

the body in

placed beside

it

titles of it

The

the deceased.

on the dusty

servants

who deposited

floor the quarters

of the

ox,

previously slaughtered in the chapel, as well as phials of perfume, and large vases

of

red pottery containing

up the entrance

to the passage

muddy and

intermingled with earth and gravel.

water

filled

;

after

which

they walled

the shaft with chips of stone

The whole, being

well watered, soon

See what has been said on the subject of prophetic statues on pp. 119, 120 of this History still current about the pyramids of Gizeh furnish some good examples of this kind of superstition. " The guardian of the Eastern pyramid was an idol who had both eyes open, and was seated on a throne, having a sort of halberd near it, on whicb, if any one fixed his eye, he heard a fearful noise, which struck terror to his lieart, and caused the death of the hearer. There was a spirit appointed to wait on each guardian, who departed not from before him." The keeping of the other two pyramids was in like manner entrusted to a statue, assisted by a spirit {L'£cjypte de Mourtadi, fils du Gaphiphe, from the translation of M. PrEERE Vattier, Paris, 1666, I have collected a certain number of tales resembling that of Moiurtadi in the Etudes pp. 46-61). de Mythologie et d^ArcMologie ^gyptiennes, vol. i. p. 77, et seq. ' Eighteen or nineteen were found in the serdab of Kahotpii only at Saqqara (Mariette, Notice des principaux Monuments, 1864, pp. 62, 182, 202 Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, p. 157). * Maspeko, iltudes de Mythologie et vol. i. pp. 7-9, 47-49, etc Egyptiennes, d'Arch^ologie '

-

The legends

.

;

.

.

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

258

hardened into a compact mass, which protected the vault and

its

master

from desecration.^

During the course of centuries, the ever-increasing number of tombs formed an almost uninterrupted chain of burying-places on the

at length

At Gizeh they

table-land.

follow a symmetrical plan, and line the sides of

regular roads ;^ at Saqqara they are scattered about on the surface of

ground, in some places

Everywhere the

sparsely,

in

others huddled

tombs are rich

in

inscriptions,

the

confusedly together.^

and painted or

statues,

sculptured scenes, each revealing some characteristic custom, or some detail

From

of contemporary civilization.

the in

Egypt

of the

Nobles and

—the whole nation

lives

and although in places the drawing

He

all else.

may

anew before us

;

is

and reappears

and

priests, scribes

each with his manners, It is a perfect picture,

defaced and the colour dimmed, yet these

fact,

in the foreground,

and his

tall

figure towers over

so completely transcends his surroundings, that

well ask

matter of

if

he

" the great god,"

is

a god to his subjects.

They

call

at

man

he does not represent a god rather than a

first ;

sight

and, as a

him " the good god,"

and connect him with Ra through the intervening kings, the

successors of the gods "

fellahs, soldiers

life,

restored with no great difficulty, and with almost absolute certainty.

The king stands out boldly one

were, of these cemeteries,

round of occupation and pleasures.

his dress, his daily

may be

it

Memphite dynasties gradually takes new

the full daylight of history.

and craftsmen,

the womb, as

Son of Ea," as was

who

also his grandfather,

through

all his ancestors, until

reached

Ra

himself.

series,

the succession of the solar line

pected, or that he

is

is

and

from " son of

his great-grandfather,

Ra

" to

Sometimes an adventurer

abruptly inserted in the

either the intruder

His father before him was

ruled the two worlds.

;

of

" son of

Ra " they

and so at last

unknown antecedents

is

and we might imagine that he would interrupt but on closer examination we always find that

connected with the god by a genealogy hitherto unsus-

even more closely related to him than his predecessors,

inasmuch as Ra, having secretly descended upon the earth, had begotten him by a mortal mother in order to rejuvenate the race.*

If things

marriage with some princess would soon legitimise,

if

came

to the worst, a

not the usurper himself,

* Mariette, Notice des principaux Monuments llgyptiens, 1864, pp. 31, 32 Sur leg iombea de VAncien Empire que Von trouve a Saqqarah, pp. 9-11 Les Mastabas de I'Ancien Empire, pp. 42-46. ^ JOMARD, Description g€n€rale de Memphis et des Pyr amides in the Description de I'J^gypte, voL v. pp. 619, 620 Mariette, Sur les tombes de VAncien Empire que Von trouve a Saqqarah, p. 4. ' Mariette, Sur les tombes de VAncien Empire, The necropolis of p. 6, and Les Mastabas, p. 29. Saqqara is in reality composed of a score of cemeteries, grouijed around, or between the royal pyramids, each having its clientele and particular regulations. ;

;

;

*

A

legend, preserved for us in the Westoar Papyrus (Erman's edition, pi. ix.

et seq.), maintains that the first three kings of the

Y^

11.

5-11, pi. x.

1.

5,

dynasty, XTsirkaf, Sahttri, and Kakia, were children born to Ea, lord of Sakhiba, by Raditdidit, wife of a priest attached to the temple of tliat towu.

THE DOUBLE NATURE AND TEE NAMES OF KINGS.

259

at least his descendants, and thus firmly re-establish the succession.^

The

Pharaohs, therefore, are blood-relations of the Sun-god, some through their father,

through their mother, directly

others

begotten by the God, and their souls

have a super-

as well as their bodies

natural origin

each soul being a double

;

detached from Horus, the successor

and the

Osiris,

This

Egypt.

over

alone

reign

to

first

divine

of

double

is

infused into the royal infant at birth,

the same manner as the ordinary

in

double

is

remained

always

It

seemed

did

destiny

but

reign,

to

full

upon

to

self-con-

who ascended the

sciousness in

those

throne at the

moment

.From that time

and

in those princes

not call

awoke

it

mortals.

concealed,

dormant

to lie

whom

common

incarnate in

to the

of their accession.

hour of their death,

and beyond

it,

of ordinary

humanity was completely

effaced

;

of Ea," the Horus, dwelling

earth, who,

below, renews

son of

that they possessed

they were from henceforth only

"the sons

upon

all

Isis.^

during his sojourn here

the blessings of Horus,

Their complex nature was

revealed at the outset in the form and

arrangement of their names. the Egyptians the choice of a

THE

BIliTH OF

A KING AND

HIS UOLBLE.

Among name was not a matter

men and beasts, but even inanimate may be said that no person or thing

of indifference

;

not only

one or more names, and

did

objects, require

it

in the world could attain to complete

According to the law attributed to Binothris of the 11"*^ dynasty cf. p. 238 of this volume. The expressions designating kingly power in the time of the Ancient Empire were first analysed by E. de Kodge, Becherches sur les monuments qu'on pent attrihuer aux six premieres dynasties de Man^thon, pp. 32, 33 and subsequently by Erman, Mgyptein und ^gyptisches Leben, The explanation which I Lave given above lias already been put forward in a small pp. 89-91. memoir entitled Sur les quatre noms officieh des rois d'ijgypte (J^tudes £gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 273-288 and in the Lectures Historiques, pp. 42-i5). * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Gayet. The king is Amenothes III., whose conception and birth are represented in the temple of Luxor, with the same wealth of details that we should have expected, had he been a son of the god Amon and the goddess Mat cf. ChamPOLLiON, Monuments de I'J^gypte et de la Nuhie, pi. cccxxix., 2-cccxli. ; Rosellini, Monumenti Storici, pi. 38-41 ; Lepsius, Denkm., iii. 74, 75. '

;

*

;

;

:

';

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

260

name had been

existence until the

often only a short word, which denoted Titi the runner,

Mini the

some moral or physical

quality, as

Qonqeni the crusher, Sondi the formidable,

lasting,

They

Uznasit the flowery-tongued.

The most ancient names were

conferred.

consisted also of short sentences, by which

the royal child confessed his faith in the power of the gods, and his partici-

pation in the acts of the Sun's kaiihorvl," the doubles of

god

understood

is

—" Khafri,"

last for

Sometimes the sentence

omnipotent.

is

Horus

life

ever is

"

;

Men-

" Usirkeri," the double of

;

name

shortened, and the

as for instance, " Usirkaf," his

:

Ea

his rising is

double

Ra

of the

omnipotent

is

he has made me good; "Khufui," he has protected me, are put the names "Usirkeri," Ptahsnofrui," ^ " Khnumkhufiii," with the sup-

"Snofrui," for

*'

pression of Ra, Phtah,

taken possession of a

man on

in this world or the next;

moment

at the his

mummy When

his entrance into

life,

once, as

were,

it

never leaves him either

who had been called Onas or Assi this name even after death, so long as

the prince

of his birth, retained

existed,

The name having

and Khnumu,^

and his double was not annihilated.

the Egyptians wished to denote that a person or thing was in a

names within the picture

certain place, they inserted their

Thus the name of Teti

question.

is

of the place in

written inside a picture of Teti's castle,

the result being the compound hieroglyph \^\ \.

Again, when the son of a

king became king in his turn, they enclose his ordinary name in the long flat-bottomed frame CDi which

which

is

over by

we

call

a cartouche

;

the elliptical part CZ) of

a kind of plan of the world, a representation of those regions passed

Ka

in his journey,

Ra, exercises his rule.

and over which Pharaoh, because he

When

is

a son of

the names of Teti or Snofnii, followino- the

Cl^ ^ fl

^

group 1^, " son of the Sun," are placed

in a cartouche,

they are preceded by the words 4=

which respectively express isuvereignty

^

'

(

P

I

Vl

over the two halves of Egypt, the South and the North, the whole expression describing exactly the visible person of Pharaoh during his abode

But

mortals.

man

;

it left

this first

name chosen

received a special

his

of

did not include the whole

without appropriate designation the double of Horus, which was

revealed in the prince at the

the picture

for the child

among

title,

which

moment is

of accession.

The double

therefore

always constructed on a uniform plan

:

first

^ of the hawk-god, who desired to leave to his descendants a portion

soul,

then a simple or compound epithet, specifying that virtue of

Horus which the Pharaoh wished particularly

to possess

—

"

Horu

nib-mait,"

The name Phtahsnofrui

is frequently met with on the stelae of Abydos (Lieblein, Dictionnaire des noms hi^roglyphiques, Nos. 132 and 726, pp. 40 and 241 Mariette, Abydos, vol. ii. pi. xxvii. a, and Catalogue g€n^ral des monuments d' Abydos, pi. clxxvi., No. 660) the name Easnofrai, which one might '

;

:

be tempted to insert here, has not as yet been found upon the monuments of the ancient dynasties. * For the restitution of the omitted elements in these and some other royal names of the same period, cf W. Max Mullee, Bemerlung iiber einige Konigsnamen, in the Eecueil de Travaux, vol. ix. pp. 176, 177.

:

THE HOE OS NAMES IN THE ROYAL PREAMBLE. Horus master of Truth "

Horu

Horu

Horus

miri-toui,"

friend

of both

lands

:

Horu

*' ;

Horus who crushes

maziti,"

The

enemies.

his

"

Horus

nibkhaiiu,"

master of the risings

;

261

part of these terras

variable is

usually

an oblong rect-

written

in

angle,

terminated

at

the

lower end by a number of

I

portraying in a sum-

lines

mary way the fapade monument, which a

of a

in the centre of

may

door

bolted

sometimes be distinguished this is the representation of

the chapel where the double

one day

will

and the

rest,

closed door

is

the tomb.-^

The stereotyped

part of the

which

the portal of

names and

titles,

represented by the

is

figure of the god, is placed

outside the rectangle, some-

times by the side of

times upon in

is,

fact,

and could

top

its

free

:

it,

some-

the

hawk

by nature,

nowhere remain THE ADULT KING ADVANCING, FOLLOWED BY

imprisoned against his

HIS DOUBLE.*

will.

This artless preamble was not enough to satisfy the love of precision which is

When

the essential characteristic of the Egyptians.

the double in his sepulchral chamber, they in his existence during

left

they wished to represent

out of consideration the period

which he had presided over the earthly

sovereign, in order to render

them

destinies of the

similar to those of Horus, from

whom

the

Banner Name " indeed, it was for some time believed that this sign represented a piece of stuff, ornamented at the bottom by embroidery or fringe, and bearing on the upper part the title of a king. "Wilkinson thought thaf this " square title," as he >

This

what

is

is

usually

known

as the "

;

note 14). The real it, represented a house {Extract from several EieroglypMcal Subjects, p. 7, meaning of the expression was determined by Professor Flinders Petrie {Tanis, 1st part, p. 5, note, and A Season in Egypt, 1887, pp. 21, 22, and pi. xx.) and by myself (i?ei;ue Critique, 1888, vol. iL called

Mudea igyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an

pp. 118-120

;

274, 275).

in Abundale-Bo.nomi-Biech's Gallery of thus represented is Thutmosis II. of the XV1II"» dynasty; the spear, surmounted by a man's head, which the double holds in his hand, probably recalls the human victims formerly sacrificed at the burial of a chief (Lefebcke, Rites ^

Antiquities

from

Egyptiens, pp. 5,

the

6).

British Jl/Msewm,

pi. 31.

illustration

The king

^

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

262

They, therefore, withdrew him from the tomb which should

double proceeded.

have been his

lot,

and there was substituted

the ordinary sparrow-hawk one

for

groups which symbolize sovereignty over the two

of those

countries of the Nile

—the

vulture of the South,

j||

f^oiled urasus of

fe,

;

the North, and the

there was then finally added a

second sparrow-hawk, the golden sparrow-hawk,

V

,

the trium-

phant sparrow-hawk which had delivered Egypt Irom Typhon.^

The

soul of Snofriii,

^|i^^^

^

entitled

"

,

which

is

called, as a surviving double,

Horus master of Truth," '•'

j| fe,

,

prince,

moment

received, from the

as a living double,

the Lord of the Vulture and of the

Urseus," master of Truth, and

other hand, the royal

is,

On

Horus triumphant.^

when he put on the diadem,

of his advancement to the highest

rank, such an increase of dignity, that his birth-name

when framed

— was no

and enhanced with

in a cartouche

longer able to fully represent him.

of his person was therefore

he was the living allusion to

ir^,

OR " DOUBLE " tho lattcr

felt for

experieuccd for him,

— even

brilliant epithets

This exaltation

As

designation.

surname always makes

and pro-

in his relations with his father,

claims the love which he THE

marked by a new

flesh of the sun, so his

some point

tlie

the latter, "Miriri," or that

" Mirniri,"

or else

it

indicates

the stability of the doubles of Ra, " Tatkeri," their goodness, "Nofirkeii," or some other of their sovereign virtues.

Several Pharaohs of the

lyth dynasty had already dignified themselves by these surnames; those of the VI"* were the

first

to incorporate

There was some hesitation at occupy, and

it

first

regularly into the royal preamble.

as to the position the

surname ought

was sometimes placed after the birth-name, as in T J

" Papi Nofirkeii," sometimes before '

them

The meaning

of this group,

it,

as in

r©J[T)|

(TTQ

'

^

H

f

o

to

J !J J

,

" ^t>tirkeii Papi."

which has long heen rendered as "the gold sparrow-hawk," "the first time by Brugsch, from a passage

glittering sparrow-hawk," was determined with certainty for the

demotic inscription at Philsa (Bkugsch, Uebereinstimmung einer hieroghjphischen Inschrift von dem griechischen und demotischen Anfangs-Texte des Dekretes von Rosette, pp. 13, 14). Subsequently adopted by E. de Kouge (Mude sur une stele ^gyptienne appartenant a la Bibliotheque Imp^riale, pp. 21, 22), Brugsch's interpretation has since been accepted by all Egyptologists (Brugsch, Die JSgyptologie, p. 202), though, from force of custom, the literal translation of these signs, " tlie golden Horus," is often given. "^W ^ The reading of the group ie not yet determined with certainty (cf. Erman, Der Konigstitel .^5 in the Zeitschrift, vol. xxix. pp. 57, 58 and Piehl, Notes de Philologie ^gjjptienne, § 49, in the in a

Philse mit

^

^S

;

The literal tran1890-91, p. 569). ; " the sense is " Master of crowns," and consequently " Master of the Countries of North and South " (Brugsch, Uebereinstimmung einer hieroglyphischen Inschrift von Philas, pp. 10, 11). Proceedings of the Biblical Archxological Society, vol. scription would be " Master of the Vulture and of the

xiii.,

Uraus

' The Ka, or double name, represented in this illustration is that of the Pharaoh Khe23bren, the builder of the second of the great pyramids at Gizeh it reads " Horu usir-Haiti," Horus powerful of heart. ;

Some good examples

may be found

in the texts of the pyramid of Papi II., where the cartouche of the prenomen is placed once before the cartouche of the name {llecueil de Travaux, vol. xii. p. 56), and almost everywhere else after it (ib., pp. 56, 58, 59, 60, etc.). *

of this indecision

HOYAL ETIQUETTE AN ACTUAL DIVINE WORSHIP. It

was

+

1|^ " King of

finally

decided to place

263

at the beginning, preceded

by the group

Upper and Lower Egypt," which expresses

in its fullest

it

extent the power granted by the gods to the Pharaoh alone; the other, or

birth-name, came after

it,

accompanied by the words

^

"

Son

of the Sun."

There were inscribed, either before or above these two solar names

which are

exclusively applied to the visible and living body of

the master

— the two names of the sparrow-hawk, which

belonged especially to the soul; double

in the

to the

that of the

tomb, and then that of the double while

incarnate.

still

first,

Four terms seemed thus necessary

Egyptians

in order to

define accurately the

Pharaoh, both in time and in eternity.

Long

were needed before this subtle

centuries

analysis of the royal person,

which corresponded

tion of the formulas

transform the

and the learned graduato

it,

could

Nome chief, become by conquest suzerain

over all other chiefs and king of all Egypt, into a living

god here below, the all-powerful son and suc-

cessor of the gods

;

but the divine concept of royalty,

once implanted in the mind, quickly produced

From

inevitable consequences.

Pharaoh became god upon his fathers or his brothers,^

nized

him

the

moment

its

that the

earth, the gods of heaven,

and the goddesses recog-

as their son, and, according to the cere-

monial imposed by custom in such cases, consecrated his

adoption by offering him the breast to suck,

they

as

would

have

done to

their

own

THE GODDESS ADOPTS THE KING BY SUCKLING HIM.^

child.^

Ordinary mortals spoke of him only in symbolic words, designating him by

some periphrasis

:

Pharaoh, " Pirui-Aui," the Double Palace, "

Priiiti,"

the

Sublime Porte,^ His Majesty,^ the Sun of the two lands, Horus master of the 1

The formula

" his fathers the gods " or " his brethren the gods "

is

constantly applied to the

Pharaohs in texts of all periods. 2 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger. The original is in the great speos of Silsilis. The king here represented is Harmhabit of the X VlII"" dynasty cf. Champollion, Monuments de VJ^gypt et de la Nubie, pi. cix., No. 3 Rosellini, Monumenti Storici, pi. xliv. 5 Lepsius, Denkm., iii. 121 h. ' The explanation of the scene, frequently met with, in which we see a goddess of gigantic stature offering her breast to a crowned or helmeted king, who stands before her, was first given by Maspero, Notes au jour lejour, § 23, in the Proceedings of the Biblical Archxological Society, vol. xiv., 1891-92, pp. 308-312. Characteristic examples of this method of adoption by actual or fictitious suckling of the person adopted, are found among other ancient and modern peoples. * The meaning and etymology of the word Pharaoh were discovered by E. de Rouge, Note sur le mot Phnraon, in the Bulletin Arche'ologique deVAthe'nseum Frangais, 1856, pp. 66-68; Mr. Lepage-Renouf has proposed an explanation of it, derived from the Hebrew (T/ie Name of Pharaoh,in the Proceedings ;

;

;

of the Biblical Archmological Society, vol. xv., 1892-93, pp. 421, 422). The value of the title Ruiti, Pruiti, was determined, to the best of my recollection, by Chabas, Le Voyage d'uii £gyptien, p. 305. ' TJie title "HouClf" is translated by the same authors, sometimes as " His Majesty," sometimcfc

;

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

264

palace,^ or, less ceremoniously,

greater

number

of these terms

of which are written after all his titles.^

and " strength," the

He

initiative, swears

accepts

by

his

all this

own

of Ra,^ but he forbids his subjects to imitate

a

sin,

The

^

always accompanied by a wish addressed

is

to the sovereign for his " life," " health,"

even on his own

" One."

by the indeterminate pronoun

initial signs

graciously,

and

life,

or by the favour

him

:^

for

them

it is

punishable in this world and in the next,^ to adjure the

person of the sovereign, except in the case in which a

magistrate requires from them a judicial oath.'

approached, moreover, as a god cast

is

approached, with down-

is

and head or back bent

eyes,

He

;

they "

sniff

the

earth" before him,^ they veil their faces with both

hands to shut out the splendour of his appearance they chant a devout form of adoration before submitting to him a

No

petition. selves,

one

THE cucuPHAHEADED SCEPTRE.'

his ministers

them-

without inaugurating the proceeding by a

state,

solemn service in his honour, and reciting to him at length a

culogy of

Ms

divinity.^"

They did

not, indeed, openly exalt

him

above the other gods, but these were rather too numerous to share ° heaven among them, whilst he alone rules over the " Entire Circuit

of the Sun," and the whole earth, his sandalled feet. as

:

and the great ones of his kingdom, cannot deliberate with

him on matters of sort of

from this obligation

is free

"His Holiness."

its

mountains and plains, are in subjection under

People, no doubt, might be

The

reasons for translating

it

"His

met with who did not obey him, Majesty,'' as

was originally proposed by' all by E. de Rouge

Champollion, and afterwards generally adopted, have been given last of {Chrestomathie ^gyptienne, vol.

ii.

§ 189, p. 60).

Erman, ^gypten und ^gyptisches Leben,

p. 92, where may be found collected several of these king both in official documents and in ordinary speech. ^ This determinate manner of speaking of the sovereign, which we have as yet met with only in the texts of the New Theban Empire, was first pointed out by Maspero, Le Conte des deux Freres, in the Revue des Cours Litt^raires, vol. vii. p. 783, note 2. '

indirect

methods

of designating the

'

This is the group i2i

*

As

*

Chabas, Eehrxo-JEgyptiaca,

i

n6nkha,Gzai,sonb6, usually shortened in French into

occurs in the inscription of Pionkhi §

iii.

Miamun,

11.

24, 65; cf.

t>.s./.,t?ie,8a«
110.

1.

Interdiction des Juremenis, in the Transactions of the Society

cf Biblical Archseology, vol. i. pp. 177-182. ^ In the " Negative Confession," the deceased declares that he has not uttered any malediction against the king {Livre des marts, ch. cxxv., Natille's edition, vol. ii. p. 306). ' For the judicial oath, and the form it took, cf. W. Spiegelberg, Studien und Materialien zum liechtswesen des Pharaonenreiches der Dynastien xviii.-xxi. pp. 71-81. * This is the literal translation of the group " sonH-to," which is usually employed to express the prostration of the faithful before the god or the king, the proscynema of texts of the Greek period. * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the engraving in Prisse d'Atennes, Becherches sur les Urjendes toy ales et I'^poque du regne de Schai ou Scherai, in the Revue Arch^ologique, 1st series, vol. ii. p. -iGl. The original is now preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, to which it was presented by Prisse d'Avennes. It is of glazed earthenware, of very delicate and careful workmanship. "* The fashion was observed in all times, but the best examples of it are found on the monuments of the New Theban Empire. I may refer my readers specially to the commencement of the Stele of the Gold-mines (Prisse d'Avenkes, Monuments £gyptiens, pi. xxi. and Chabas, Les Inscriptions des Mines d'or, p. 13, et seq.) ;

THE INSIGNIA AND PROPHESYING STATUES OF THE KINGS. 265 but these were rebels, adherents of

Sit,

" Children of Euin,"

While hoping that

would be overtaken by punishment.

^

who, sooner or later,

his fictitious claim to

universal dominion would be realized, the king adopted, in addition to the

simple costume of the old long

the

chiefs,

or

short

the jackal's

petticoat,

tail,

the turned-up sandals, and

the insignia of the supreme gods,

—the ankh, the crook,

the

flail,

and

the sceptre

tipped with the head of a jer-

boa or a hare, which we mis-

name the cucupha-headed

He

sceptre.^

put on the

many-coloured

diadems

of

the gods, the head-dresses covered with feathers, the white and the red either

separately

bined

so

The

pshent.

metal

in

to

as

or

crowns

com-

or

form the

viper or

iireeus,

gilded wood,

which rose from his was imbued

head,

mysterious

fore-

with

which made

life,

DIFFERENT POSTCEES FOR APPROACHING THE

a it

plishing his secret purposes.

those

who should dare it

could

resist.*

*

On

a means of executing his vengeance and accomIt

was supposed to vomit flames and to destroy

to attack its master in battle.

communicated to the crown, made

which

p. 159,

Lastly, Pharaoh

note

2,

KING.**

had

it

The supernatural

virtues

an enchanted thing which no one

his temples

where his enthroned

statue,

of this volume, will be found the explanation of the phrase " Mosfl Batashit,'"

which

is usually translated "Children of Eebellion." This identification, suggested by Champollion (Dictionnaire hi^roglyphique, Nos. 384, 385), is, from force of custom, still adhered to, in nearly all works on Egyptology. But we know from ancient evidence that the cucupha was a bird, perhaps a hoopoe (Leemans, HorapolUnis Niloi Hieroglyphica, pp. 279-281) the sceptre of the gods, moreover, is really surmounted by the head of a quadruped having a pointed snout and long retreating ears, and belonging to the greyhound, jackal, or jerboa species (Pbisse d'Avennes, Recherches sur leg Ugendes royales et sur I'epoque du regne de Schai ou *

;

Scherai, in the Revue Arch€ologigue, 1st series, vol.

ii.,

1845, p. 466, et seq.).

The a photograph by Insinger of. Lepsius, Denkm., iii., 76. picture represents Khamhait presenting the superintendents of storehouses to Tiltankhamon, of the ^

Drawn by Fauclier-Gudin, from

XVIir" dynasty. * The mysterious

;

life with which the urseus of the royal crowns was supposed to be imbued, was noticed by E. de Kodge, Etude sur divers monuments du regne de Toutmes III. d€couverts a Thebes par M. Mariette, p. 15. Ooncerning the enchanted crowns, see Maspeuo, Etudes de Mythologie et d' Arch^ologie Egyptiennes, vol, ii. p. 134, where a description of them, and a concise expla-

first

nation of their magical

office,

will be found.

— TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

266

animated by one of his doubles, received worship, prophesied, and the functions of a Divine Being, both during his in the

tomb

who

his ancestors the gods,

life,

and

fulfilled all

he had rejoined

after

him and who now

existed before

reposed impassively within the depths of their pyramids.^ as far as his

body was concerned, and god in virtue of his soul

attributes, the

Pharaoh, in right of this double nature, acted as a

Man, and

its

He

constant mediator between heaven and earth. the prayers of

men

—just

par

excellence of the

gods of

in his

— so

nome the

accompanied their images in solemn processions

;

gods of

priest

par

was Pharaoh the priest

Egypt, who were his special

all

Just as the

'par excellence of the

nome was

as the chief of a

regard to the gods of the nome,

excellence in

to transmit

fit

and his brethren the gods.

to his fathers

head of a family was in his household the priest that family,

alone was

He

deities.

he poured out before them

the wine and mystic milk, recited the formulas in their hearing, seized the bull

who was the victim with a

lasso

and slaughtered

Private

it

individuals

according to the

had recourse

consecrated

by ancient

intercession,

when they asked some favour from on high

impossible celebrating

for

every

priest

tradition.

sacrifice

pass

to

through

to his

however, his

it

hands,

was the

proclaimed at the beginning of each ceremony that

was the king who made the offering to Osiris,

actually

as,

;

rite

Sutni di hotpu

—he

it

and none other,

Phtah, and R^-Harmakhis, so that they might grant to the faithful

who implored them the accepted in lieu of the

on every occasion

object of their desires, and, the declaration being act,

the king was thus regarded as really officiating

He

for his subjects.

thus maintained daily intercourse with

the gods, and they, on their part, did not neglect any occasion of communicating

with him.

him

They appeared

to

him

in

dreams to

foretell his future, to

monument which was threatened with war, to forbid him risking his life in the

to restore a

to set out to

command

ruin, to advise

him

thick of the fight.^

> This method of distinguishing deceased kings is met with as far back as the " Song of the Harpist," which the Egyptians of the Eamesside period attributed to the founder of the XI"" dynasty (Maspero, Etudes J^gyptiennea, vol. i. p. 178, et seq.). The first known instance of a temple raised

by an Egyptian king to his double is that of Amenothes with Prof. Ed. Meyer {GescMclite des Alterthums, vol.

III. at Soleb, in i.

pp. 268, 269,

Nubia, but

I

do not agree

and Geschichle

des alten

Ermau

(^Mgypten, p. 98), who imagine that this was the first instance of the practice, and that it had been introduced into Nubia before its adoption on Egyptian Under the Ancient Empire we meet with more than one functionary who styles himself, in soil.

Mgyptens, pp. 251, 252), or with Prof.

some cases during hia master's lifetime, in others shortly after his death, "Prophet of Horus who lives in the palace" (Maeiette, Les Mastabas, p. 228, tomb of Kai), or "Prophet of Kheops" (ibid., " Prophet of Kheops, pp. 88, 89, tomb of Tinti), " Prophet of Sondi" (ibid., pp. 92, 93, tomb of Shiri), " sovereigns. other Tapumankhi), of or {ibid., pp. 198-200, tomb of of Mykerinos, of tTsirkaf " Among other examples, tlie texts mention the dream in which Thfttmosis IV., while still a royal prince, received from Phra-Harmakhis orders to unearth the Great Sphinx (Vyse, Operations carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh, vol. iii., pi. facing p. 114 ; Lepsids, Denkm., iii. 63), the dream in which Phtiih forbids Minophtah to take part in the battle against the peoples of the sea (E. db Rouge, Extrait d'un memoire sur les attaques, p. 9), that by which Toniiatamon, King of Napata, is persuaded to undertake the conquest of Egypt (Maeiette, Man. divers, pi. vii. Maspero, Essai sur cf. Records of the la stele du Songe, in the Bevue ArcMologique, 2nd series, vol. xviii. pp. 321-332 ;

;

;

PEARAOE IN FAMILY

267

LIFE.

Communication by prophetic dreams was not, however, the method usually they employed as interpreters of their wishes the selected by the gods :

priests

and the statues in the temples. kept, and

statue was

the

and questioned

The king entered the chapel where

performed in

presence

its

upon the subject which occupied

it

the invocatory

mind.

his

The

rites,

priest

replied under direct inspiration from on high, and the dialogue thus entered

upon might

last

Interminable discourses, whose records cover

a long time.

the walls of the Theban temples, inform us what the Pharaoh said on such occasions,

and

what emphatic tones the gods

in

Sometimes the

replied.^

animated statues raised their voices in the darkness of the sanctuary and themselves announced their will it

When

by a gesture.

returned no sign,

it

;

more frequently they were content

to indicate

they were consulted on some particular subject and

was their way of signifying their disapprobation.

If,

on

the other hand, they significantly bowed their head, once or twice, the subject

was an acceptable one, and they approved

it.^

No

without asking their advice, and without their giving

The monuments, which throw the Pharaohs in general,

tell

full light

us but

little

as being less divine

felt

way

or another.

on the supernatural character of

life.

When

by chance we come

with the sovereign, he

is

revealed to us

his impassive expression and

in public.

Not

by the pomp with which

that he ever quite laid aside his grandeur

chamber or his garden, during those hours when himself withdrawn from public gaze, those highest in rank might

even in his home

he

in one

and majestic than we might have been led to believe, had

we judged him only by he was surrounded

moment

it

of the individual disposition of any

king in particular, or of their everyday into closer intimacy for a

state affair was settled

life,

in his

never forget when they approached him that he was a god.

He

showed

himself to be a kind father, a good-natured husband,^ ready to dally with his wives

moved a

and caress them on the cheek as they offered him a piece

upon the draught-board.

waited on him, allowed

them

He

flower, or

took an interest in those who

certain breaches of etiquette

when he was

with them,* and was indulgent to their little failings. Herodotus had already made U3 familiar with Fast, 1st Ser., vol. iv. p. 83).

If they

pleased

had

just

the dreams of Sabaoo (ii

139) and of the high priest Sethos (ii. 112). At Deir el-Bahari, Queen Hatshopsita hears the voice of Amon himself in the depths of the sanctuary, or, in other words, the voice of the priest who received the direct inspiration and words of Amon iu the presence of the statue (Mariette, Deir el-Bahari, pl- x. 1. 2; DiJancHEN, Historische '

voL ii. pl. xs. 11. 4-6). Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie ^gyptiennes, vol. i. p. 81, et seq. ' As a literary example of what the conduct of a king was like in his family circle, we may quote the description of King Minibphtah, iu the story of Satni-Khamois (Maspeeo, Les Contes popuThe pictures of the tombs at Tel-el-Amarua laires de I'ilgypte Ancienne, 2nd edit., p. 165, et seq.). show us the intimate terms on which King Khuniatou lived with his wife and daughters, both big and little (Lepsius, Benkm., iii., pl. 99 b, where the queen has her arms round the king's waist, InscJiriften, ^

104, 108,

etc.).

Pharaoh Shopsiskaf dispenses his son-in-law Shopsisphtah from

sniffing the earth in front of

T

;

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

268

returned from foreign lands, a

little

countrified after a lengthy exile from the

he would break out into pleasantries over their embarrassment and their

court,

unfashionable costume,

—kingly

pleasantries which excited the forced mirth

of the bystanders, but which soon fell

The Pharaoh was fond

outside the palace.^ if

we may believe

him

for

show

evil tongues,

and had no meaning

least,

for those

of laughing and drinking

;

indeed,

he took so much at times as to incapacitate

The chase was not always a

business.^

in the desert, at

flat

pleasure to

him, hunting

where the lions evinced a provoking tendency

to

as little respect for the divinity of the prince as for his mortal subjects

but, like the chiefs of old, he felt it a duty to his people to destroy wild

and he ended by counting the slain in hundreds, however short his

beasts,

A

reign might be.^

considerable part of his time was taken up in war

the east, against the Libyans in the regions of the Oasis

;

in the Nile

Valley

to the south of

Aswan

in the

Peninsula against the Bedouin; frequently also in a

Sinaitic

against the Nubians; on the Isthmus of Suez and

war against some ambitious noble or some turbulent

He

family.

travelled frequently

marked

rocks of Elephantine and of the

cataract,*

first

El-Kab, and he appeared to his vassals as

and

disorder.^

member

civil

of his

own

from south to north, and from north to

south, leaving in every possible place

to repress injustice

— in

He

traces of his visits

Tumu

on those of himself arisen

— on

Silsilis

or

the of

among them

restored or enlarged the monuments,

regulated equitably the assessment of taxes and charges, settled or dismissed

the lawsuits between one town and another concerning the appropriation of the water, or the possession of certain territories, distributed fiefs which

had fallen vacant,

among

his faithful servants,

out of the royal revenues.^

At length he

and granted pensions

re-entered Memphis, or one of his

usual residences, where fresh labours awaited him. him

to be paid

He

gave audience daily

DE KouGE,

RecJierches aur les monuments qu'on pent attrihuer aux six premieres dynasties Makiette, Les Mastabas, pp. 112, 113), and Papi I. grants to tjTni the privilege p. 68; of wearing his sandals in the palace (E. de Kouge, Recherehes sur les monuments, p. 12S; Maeiette, Ahydos, vol. ii, pis. xliv., xlv., 1. 23 ; Erman, Commentar zur Inschri/t des Una, in the Zeitschvift,

(E.

de Man^thon,

1882, p. 20, leaves the passage unexplained).

See in Les Aventures de Sinuhit (Maspero, Les Conies populaires de V^gypt ancienne, pp. 124, 125) an account of the audience granted by AmenemhS,it II. to the hero on his return from a long exile in Asia. 2 E.g. Amasis, in a tale of the Greek period (Maspero, Les Cuntes populaires, 2nd edit., pp. '

299-308).

had killed as many as a hundred and two lions during the first ten years of his du Louvre, in Pierret's Becueil d'inscriptions in€dites du Louvre, vol. i. pp. 87, 88). * Traces of the journey of Mirniri to Asstian are mentioned by Petrie in A Season in Egyx^t, pi. xiii., No. 338 and by Sayce, Gleanings from the Land of Egypt (in the Jteceuil de Travaux, vol, XV. p. 147), and of the journey of Papi 1. to El-Kab by Stern, Die Cultusstdtte der Lucina, in the *

Amenothes

III.

reign {ScaraMe 580

;

Zeitschrift, 1875, pp. 67, 68.

These are the identical expressions used in the Great hiscription of Beni-Hassan, 11. 36-46. These details are not found on the historical monuments, but are furnished to us by the description given in " The Book of Knowledge of what there is in the other world " of the course of the sun across the domain of the hours of night the god is there described as a Pharaoh passing '

'

;

PHARAOH'S OCCUPATIONS AND CARES.

269

?si!^'^RnTi^,MiJ]Ayfli^^'i^|o|f^prfHAiMgi)^rrrpp^¥[^

to

all,

low,

whether high or

who

were, or

lieved that

they

wronged by some and who came to

the

were,

official,

to appeal

justice

master against the injustice of his servant.

be-

the

of

when the

If he quitted the palace

cause had been heard, to take boat or to go to the temple, he was not

left

him by the way.^

In

undisturbed, but petitions and supplications assailed addition to

this,

there were the daily sacrifices, the despatch of current affairs,

the ceremonies which

demanded the presence

of nobles or foreign envoys.

of the Pharaoh, and the reception

One would think

that in the midst of so

occupations he would never feel time hang heavy on his hands. ever, a

He

many

was, how-

prey to that profound ennui which most Oriental monarchs feel so keenly,

and which neither the cares nor the pleasures of ordinary

life

could dispel. Like

the Sultans of the " Arabian Nights," the Pharaohs were accustomed to have

marvellous tales related to them, or they assembled their councillors to ask

them

to suggest

some fresh amusement: a happy thought would sometimes

strike one of them, as in the case of

by recommending him

to

large-meshed network.

by nature were not

him who aroused the

have his boat manned by young

even

it,

little

for

cruel,

A

The Egyptians

and we have very few records either

value in their eyes, that they

a caprice.

girls barely clad in

All his pastimes were not so playful.

or tradition of bloodthirsty Pharaohs; but the life of

was of so

interest of Snofrui

sorcerer

in history

an ordinary individual

never hesitated to

sacrifice

had no sooner boasted before Kheops

of being able to raise the dead, than the king proposed that he should try through his kingdom, and all that he does for his vassals, the dead, is identical with what Pharaoh was accustomed to do for his subjects, the living (Maspero, Mudes de Mythologie et d'Archtfologia Egyptiennes, vol. '

ii.

pp. 44, 45).

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin (Champollion, Monuments

de

I'J^Jgypte et

de la Nubie,

pis.

cxcix.-cc,

cci. 2, 3; EosELLiNi, Momimenti Storici, pi. cxxiii., Nos. 1, 2; Lepsids, Denkm., iii. 208 a-d). * See the Berlin Papyrus n" 2 for the supplications with which a peasant overwhelms the chief steward Miruitensi and King Nibkaniri of the IX* or X'" dynasty (Maspero, Les Contes populaires,

2nd

edit., p. 43, et seq.).

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

270

the experiment on a prisoner whose head was to be forthwith cut

o£f.^

anger of Pharaoh was quickly excited, and once aroused, became an

consuming

fire

;

the Egyptians were wont to say, in describing

"His Majesty became

furious

as

a panther."

as

all-

its intensity,

The wild

^

The

beast often

revealed itself in the half-civilized man.

The

royal family was very numerous.

from the relatives of court

officials of

The women were

principally chosen

high rank, or from the daughters of the

great feudal lords;^ there were, however,

many

strangers

or sisters of petty Libyan, Nubian, or Asiatic kings

;

among them, daughters

they were brought into

Pharaoh's house as hostages for the submission of their respective peoples.

They did not

enjoy the same treatment or consideration, and their original

all

position decided their status in the harem, unless the

amorous caprice of their

Most of them remained merely concubines

master should otherwise decide.

were raised to the rank of " royal spouses," and at least one

for life, others

received the title and

of

privileges

*'

great spouse," or queen.*

This was

rarely accorded to a stranger, but almost always to a princess born in the

a daughter of Ea,

purple,

inheriting in the

if possible

same degree and

a sister of the Pharaoh, and who,

in equal proportion the flesh

and blood of

the Sun-god, had, more than others, the right to share the bed and throne of

She had her own house, and a

her brother.^

large as those of the king

shut

up

;

while the

women

train of servants

of inferior rank were

in the parts of the palace assigned to them, she

pleasure, of official

and followers as

is

less

came and went

and appeared in public with or without her husband. documents in which she

more or

at

The preamble

mentioned, solemnly recognizes her as the

living follower of Horus, the associate of the Lord of the Vulture and the

Urseus, the very gentle, the very praiseworthy, she

Horus and

Sit, face to face.*^

who

sees her Horus, or

Her union with the god-king rendered her a

* Erman, Die Marchen des Papyrus Westcar, pi. viii. 1. 12, and pp. 10, 11; Maspero, Les Contea Of. p. 282 of this History. populaires de I'ilgypte Ancienne, 2nd edit., pp. 42-44 and 73. * Thus in the Pionkhi-Miam^n inscription (11. 23 and 93, E. de Kouge's edition, pp. 20, 52), in

the Conte des deux Freres, the hero, who is a kind of god disguised as a peasant, also becomes "furious," and the author adds, "as a southern panther" (Maspero, Les Contes populaires, 2ad edit., p. 10). * Queen Mirirlonkhnas, wife of Papi I., was the daughter of a person named Khfli, attached to the court, her mother being a princess Nibit (E. de Rouge, Becherches ear les monuments, p. 130,

et seq.

;

cf.

E. and J.

de Rouge,

Inscriptions hie'roglyphiques capites en J^gypte, pi.

cliii.).

The first "great spouse of the king" whose name has come down to usj, is mentioned by tTni; this is Queen Amitsi, wife of Miriri-Papi I. of the VI"» dynasty (E. de Rouge, Becherches sur les monuments, p. 121 cf. Eeman, Commentar zur Inschrift des Una, in the Zeitschrift, 1881, pp. 10, 11). *

;

would seem that Queen Mirisonkhii (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 183; Lepsius, Denhm., ii. 14, 26), wife of Khephren, was the daughter of Kheops, and consequently her husband's tister (E. de Rouge, Becherches sur les monuments quon peut attribuer aux six premieres dynasties de Manelhon, *

It

pp. 61, 62). *

sur

The preamble of the queens of this les

monuments,

pji.

period was settled for the

44, 45, 57-61, 130),

first time by E. de Rouge {Becherches on the authority of the inscriptions of Queen MirLittefsi

— THE

THE ROYAL HAREM goddess, and entailed

owed

to a god.

upon her the fulfilment

They were

varied

QOEEN.

271

of all the duties which a goddess

and important.

The woman,

supposed to combine in herself more completely than a

PHAFAOH GIVES SOLEMN AUDIENCE TO ONE OF

man

indeed, was

the qualities

HIS MINISTERS.*

necessary for the exercise of magic, whether legitimate or otherwise

and heard that which the eyes and ears of

man

could not perceive

;

:

she saw

her voice,

being more flexible and piercing, was heard at greater distances; she was de Eouge, Inscriptions hi^roglyphiques capites en Egypte, pi. Ixii.), of Queen Mirisonkhft (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 183 Lepsius, Denhm., ii. 14), of Queen Khuit (Mariette, Les Mastabas, pp. 207, 208), of a queen whose name is still uncertain (Mariette, Les Madabas, pp. 225), and of Queen Miririonkhnaa (E. and J. de Rouge, Inscriptions hi^roglyphiques capites en Egypte, pi. cliii.). Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Lepsius, Denkm., in. 77. The king is Amenothes III (XVIII"> dynasty).

(E. and J.

;

'

—

:

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EOYPT.

272

by nature mistress of the

art

of

summoning

or banishing invisible beings.

"While Pharaoh was engaged in sacrificing, the queen, by her incantations, protected him from malignant deities,

whose inteiest

attention of the celebrant from holy things

:

it

was to divert the

she put them to flight by the

sound of prayer and sistrum,^ she poured libations and offered perfumes and In processions she walked behind her husband, gave audience with

flowers.

him, governed for him while he was engaged in foreign wars, or during his progresses through his Osiris

kingdom

such was the work of

:

was conquering the world.^

disqualify her.

If she

Widowhood

Isis

while her brother

did not always

entirely

belonged to the solar race, and the new sovereign was a

minor, she acted as regent by hereditary right, and retained the authority for

some years

longer.^

It occasionally

that the child of another

no

woman

happened that she had no

posterity, or

In that case there was

inherited the crown.

law or custom to prevent a young and beautiful widow from wedding

the son, and

thus regaining

her rank as Queen by a marriage with the

successor of her deceased husband.

It was in this

manner

that,

during the

earlier part of the IV^^ dynasty, the Princess Mirtittefsi ingratiated herself suc-

cessively in the favour of Snofriii

and Kheops.^ Such a case did not often arise,

and a queen who had once quitted the throne had but ascending

it.

Her

king, she to

chance of again

her duties, her supremacy over the rest of the family,

titles,

passed to a younger rival

little

formerly she had been the active companion of the

:

now became only the nominal spouse

an end when the god, of

whom

of the god,^

and her

office

came

she had been the goddess, quitting his body,

departed heavenward to rejoin his father the Sun on the far-distant horizon.^ Children swarmed

in

the palace, as in the houses of private individuals

* Tho magical virtues of the sistrum are celebrated by the author of De hide et Osiride, § 63 (Parthey's edition, pp. Ill, 112); frequent mention is made of them in the Dendera inscriptions. ^ The part played by the queen in regard to the king has been clearly defined by the earlier Egyptologists. A statement of the views of the younger ChampoUion on tliis subject will be found in the Egypte ancienne of ChampoUion-Figeac (p. 56, et seq.); as to the part played by Isis, Regent of Egypt, cf. pp. 173-175 of the present work. ^ The best-known of these queen regencies is that whicli occurred during the minority of Thfitmosis III., about the middle of the XVIII"' dynasty. Queen Tuaii also appears to have acted as regent for her son Ramses II. during his first Syrian campai?j:ns (Lepsius, Notice stir deux statues e'gi/ptiennes repre'sentant I'une la mere du roi Bamses-S^sostris, I'autre le roi Amasis, in vol. ix. of the Annales de I'Institut de Correspondance arch€ologique, p. 5, et seq.). * M. de Rouge' was the first to bring this fact to light in his Becherches sur Tes monuments qu'on pent attribuer aux six premieres dynasties de Mane'lhon, pp. 36-38. Mirtittefsi also lived in the harem of Khephren, but the title which connects her with this king Amakhit, the vassal proves that she was then merely a nominal wife; she was probably by that time, as M. de Rouge says, of too advanced an age to remain tiie favourite of a third Pharaoh. * The title of "divine spouse" is not, so far as we know at present, met with prior to the XVIIP'' dynasty. It was given to the wife of a living monarch, and was retained by her after his death the divinity to whom it referred was no other than the king himself. Cf. Ehman, in Schweinfurth's memoir, Alte Baureste und Hieroglyphische Inschriften im Uadi GasHs, p. 17, et seq. (Berlin Academy of Sciences, Philol.- Hist. Ahhandlungen nicht zur Academic gehSr. Gelehrter, 1885, vol. ii.). " These are the identical expressions used in the Egyptian texts in speaking of the death of

—

;

THE ROYAL CHILDREN: THEIR POSITION IN THE STATE. number who died

in spite of the

in

infancy, they were

273

reckoned by tens,

sometimes by the hundred, and more than one Pharaoh must have been puzzled to remember exactly

number and names

the

offspring.^

The

of his

origin and

rank of their mothers greatly influenced

the condition of

No

the children.

doubt the

divine blood which they took

common

from a

them

all

herd,

but

father raised

above the vulgar connected

those

with the solar line on the

maternal side occupied a decidedly

much higher position

than the rest

:

as long as one

of these was living,

none of

his less nobly-born brothers

might aspire to the crown.^ Those princesses who did not attain to the rank of

queen

by marriage, were given early youth to

do

some

relative,^ or to

tier of

well-to-

some cour-

high descent

filled

the queen shakes the sistrcm while the king offers the sacrifice.'

whom

Pharaoh wished to honour they

in

^ ;

the office of priestesses to the goddesses Nit or Hathor,^ and bore

Maspero, Les Premieres Lignes des M^moires de Sinuhit, pp. 3, 10 (Memoires de VInstitut ii.), for the death of Amenemhait I., and Bbers, Thaten und Zeit Tutmes III., in the Zeitschrift, 1873, p. 7, for that of Thatmosis III. ' This was probably so in the case of the Pharaoh Ramses II., more than one hundred and fifty of whose children, boys and girls, are known to us, and who certainly had others besides of whom kings

;

cf.

Egyptien, Tol,

we know nothing. *

Proof of this fact

is

furnished us, in so far as the XVIII*'' dynasty

of the immediate successors of Thutmosis Hatshopsitft,

Queeu Mutnofrit, and

Isis,

I.,

the Pharaohs ThUtmosis

concubine of Thutmosis

II.

is

concerned, by the history

II.,

Thtltmosis

III.,

and mother of Thutmosis

Queen III.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the temple of Ibsambfil Nofritari (cf. LEPsros, Benkm., iii., 189 h) shakes behind Eamses II. two sistra, on which are representations of the head of '

:

Hatlior. •

Thus the Princess Sitmosft was given in marriage to her brother SafkhitabMhotpfi (Lepsius, ii., pi, xxiv. cf. E. de Eouge, Recherclies sur lee monuments, p. 44, but the instance given

Denkm., is

;

not absolutely certain).

* Princess Khamait, eldest daughter of Pharaoh Shopsiskaf, was married to Shopsisphtah in this manner (E. de Rouge, Recherclies sur les monuments qu'on peut attribuer aux six premieres dynasties, p. 67), and Princess Khontkafis to Snozmiihit, surnamed Midi (id., pp. 103, 104 j. ® To give only one instance from among many, Princess Hotpfihirlsit was prophetess of Hathor and of Nit (Maeiette, Les Mastahas, p. 90 E. and J. de Rouge, Inscriptions hi^rogJijphiques, pi. Ixiv.) ;

;

274

TEt:

POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT. which they transmitted to their children, with such

in their households titles

The most favoured

rights to the crown as belonged to them.^

married an heiress rich in

Most

feudal lords.

fiefs,

on her domain, and founded a race of

settled

of the royal sons

of the princes

remained at

court, at first in their father's

service and subsequently in that of their brothers' or nephews'

:

the most diiiicult

and best remunerated functions of the administration were assigned to them, the superintendence of public works, the important

command

of the army.^

friction this sisters,

kings

It

offices of

the priesthood,^ the

could have been no easy matter to manage without

multitude of relations and connections, past and present queens,

concubines, uncles, brothers, cousins, nephews, sons and grandsons of

who crowded

the harem and the palace.

The women contended among

themselves for the affection of the master, on behalf of themselves or their

The children were jealous

children.

union except a

common

hatred for the son

As long

destined to be their ruler.

showed

itself

nearest heirs.

and

its

whom

the chances of birth had

as he was full of vigour

and energy, Pharaoh

but when his advancing years and failing

maintained order in his family; strength betokened an

of one another, and had often no bond of

approaching change in the succession, competition

more openly, and intrigue thickened around him or around

his

Sometimes, indeed, he took precautions to prevent an outbreak

disastrous consequences,

royal power the son he

by solemnly associating with himself in the

had chosen

obey two masters, the younger of royalty, such as progresses

to succeed

whom

him

Egypt

:

in this case

had

to

attended to the more active duties of

through the country, the conducting of military

expeditions, the hunting of wild beasts,

and the administration of justice; while

the other preferred to confine himself to the role of adviser or benevolent counsellor.* disasters.

Even

this

The women

precaution,

however, was

of the seraglio,

insufficient

to

prevent

encouraged from without by their

relations or friends, plotted secretly for the

removal of the irksome sovereign.^

Nibit, married to Khai, transmitted her rights to her daughter Miririonkhnas; this latter would have been the rightful heir to the throne at the beginning of the VI"* dynasty (E. de Rouge, '

Recherches, p. 132, note 1). 2 Mirabtl, son of Kheops,

the works of the king " (Lepsitjs, Denhm., ii. 18, et seq.) Minfi-An was high priest of the Hermopolitan Thot (LEPSiU8,I>enfenj., ii. 24 of. E. de Rouge, Recherches BUT les monuments qu'on peut attrihuer aux six premieres dynasties, p. 62) Kh§,fkh
was " head of

all

;

;

Hapi

son of tlsirtasen I., commanded an army during a campaign in Ethiopia (Champollion, Monuments de VEgypte, vol. ii. p. 42, and pi. cccxv.; Lepsius, Denhm., ii. 132). * This fact was known from the time of Lepsius (Bunsen, Mgyptens Stelle in der Weltgeschichte, vol. ii. p. 228, et seq.; of. E. de Rouge, Examen de I'ouvrage de M. le chevalier de Bunsen, 2nd passage in the art., p. 45, et seq.), in regard to the first lour Pharaohs of the XII"> dynasty. 3

Prince

Amoni (Amenemha.it

II.),

A

M^moires de Sinouhit (Maspeeo, Les Contes populaires, 2nd edit., pp. 101-104) gives a very exact description of the respective parts played by the two kings. * The passage of the tTni inscription, in which mention is made of a lawsuit carried on against Queen Amitsi (Erman, Commentar zur Inschrift des Una, in the Zeitschrift, 1882, pp. 10-12), probably refers The celebrated lawsuit, some details of which are preserved for us in a to some harem conspiracy.

:

TEE ROYAL BESIDENCE. Those

princes

who had been deprived by

their

275 decision

father's

legitimate hope of reigning, concealed their discontent to no purpose

were arrested on the sale

rebellion

it

some independent

Did we but know the

desert of Sinai.^

summary execution was

escaping

of

or by taking refuge with

^

they

;

suspicion of disloyalty, and were massacred whole-

only chance

their

;

first

any

of

tribe of

by

either

Libya or of the

details of the internal history of

Egypt,

would appear to us as stormy and as bloody as that of other Oriental empires

intrigues of the harem, conspiracies in the palace, murders of heirs-apparent, divisions

and rebellions

in

the

royal

family,

the almost

were

inevitable

accompaniment of every accession to the Egyptian throne.

The

dynasties had their origin in the "

earliest

White Wall," but the

Pharaohs hardly ever made this town their residence, and

Memphite

would be

each king chose

incor-

for

himself

or Letopolite nome, between the entrance to the

Fayum

rect to say that they considered

in the

it

it

as their capital

j

and the apex of the Delta, a special residence, where he dwelt with his court,

and from whence he governed Egypt.^

Such a multitude

needed not an ordinary palace, but an entire

city.

as

A brick

formed his court wall,

by battlements, iormed a square or rectangular enclosure around

and height not only

sufficient thickness

surprises of

marauding Bedouin, but

At the extreme end

surmounted

it,

and was of

to defy a popular insurrection or the

to resist for a long time a regular siege.

of one of its facades,

was a single

tall

and narrow opening,

closed by a wooden door supported on bronze hinges, and surmounted with

a row of pointed metal ornaments

;

this

opened into a long narrow passage

between the external wall and a partition wall of equal strength

at the

;

end of the passage in the angle was a second door, sometimes leading into a second passage, but more often opening into a large courtyard, where were somewhat crowded together

the dwelling-houses of

risk

:

assailants

being annihilated in the passage before reaching the

the place.^

The

ran the

centre

royal residence could be immediately distinguished

of

by the

papyrus of Turin (Th. DevJiria, Le Papyrus judiciaire de Turin, vide Journal Asiatique, 1866-68), gives us some information in regard to a conspiracy which was hatched in the harem against Ramses III. 1 passage in the " Instructions of Amenemh§,it " {Sallier Pap. II., pi. i. 1. 9, et seq.) describes in

A

somewhat obscure terms an attack on the palace by

conspirators,

and the wars which followed

their

undertaking. fled from Libya into Idumsea, on the death of Amenemhait I. Lignes (IMaspero, Les Premieres des M€moires de Sinouhit, pp. 17, 18, and Les Contes populaires, 2nd edit., p. 97, et seq.), is an instance of this. ^

The

case of Sinuhit,

when he

bring this important point in early Egyptian history to light (Erman, Mgypten und JEgyptisches Leben im AUertum, pp. 243, 2-14; cf. Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des Alien Mgyptens, pp. 56, 57, and the objections of Wiedemann, The Age of Memphis, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archxology, vol. ix., 1886-87, pp. 184, 190). * No plan or exact drawing of any of the palaces of the Ancient Empire has come down to us, '

Erman was

but, as

the

first to

Erman has very

of

justly pointed out, the sign& found in contemporary inscriptions give

\is

The doors which lead from one pp. 106, 107). the hours of the night to another, in the " Book of the Other World," show us the double

a good general idea of

them (Erman, Mgijpten,

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

276

projecting balconies on

from which, as from a tribune, Pharaoh

watch the evolutions of his guard, the stately approach of foreign

could

envoys, to

fapade,

its

Egyptian nobles seeking audience, or such

reward for their services.

he desired

officials as

They advanced from the

end of the court,

far

stopped before the balcony, and after prostrating themselves stood up, bowed

rhythmical

a

in

his

wrung and

heads,

their

praises,

twisted

manner, and

before receiving

their

now

hands,

rendered worship

now

quickly,

slowly,

master, chanting

to their

the necklaces and jewels of

which

gold

he

presented to them by his chamberlains, or which he himself deigned to fling to them.^

It

arrangements hall of

banquets. with

we

:

Atumu

affairs in

difficult for us to

is

find,

catch a glimpse of the detail of the internal

however, mention

in the heavens,"

of large halls " resembling the

whither the king repaired to deal with state

and sometimes also

council, to dispense justice

Long rows

made

of tall columns, carved

bright colours, supported

the

out of rare woods and painted

of these

roofs

to preside at state

chambers,

which were

entered by doors inlaid with gold and silver, and incrusted with malachite or

The

lapis-lazuli.^

separate, but

harem

of

private apartments,

the

" akhonuiti,"

were

entirely

they communicated with the queen's dwelling and with the

the

wives of inferior

rank.^

The "royal children" occupied a

quarter to themselves, under the care of their tutors

;

they had their own

houses and a train of servants proportionate to their rank, age, and fortune of their mother's family.*

The nobles who had appointments

passage leading to the courtyard (Maspero, iJtudes de Mythologie vol. ii.

pp. 166-168).

of the courtyard on to

The hieroglyph fj^

gives us the

et

name tlosKHiT

which the passage opened, at the end

d' Arch^ologie

(literally, the

the

at court

£gyptiennes,

broad [place])

which the palace and royal judgmentwere situated. • The ceremonial of these receptions is not represented on any monuments with which we are at present acquainted, prior to the XVIII"' dynasty it may be seen in Lepsius, Denlcm., iii. 76, under Amenothes III., and 103-105, under Amenothes IV'., in Diimichen, Hist. Inst., vol. ii. pi. Ix. e, under Harmhabi. The ceremonial during the XII"* dynasty is described in the M^moires de Sinouhit (Maspeeo, Les Contes populaires, 2nd edit., pp. 123-127). I am inclined to believe the "Golden Friends " mentioned in the Uni inscription (1. 17) are those "Friends of the King" who had received the necklace and jewels of gold at one of these solemn audiences. 2 This is the description of the palace of Amon built by Kamses III. (Harris Papyrus, No. 4, pi. iv. Ramses II. was seated in one of these halls, on a throne of gold, when he deliberated with his 11. 11, 12). councillors in regard to the construction of a cistern in the desert for the miners who were going to the gold-mines of Akiti (Pbisse, Monuments, pi. xsi. 1. 8). The room in which the king stopped, after leaving his apartments, for the purpose of putting on his ceremonial dress and receiving the homage of his ministers, appears to me to have been called during the Ancient Empire " Pi-dait " " The House of Adoration " (Mariette, Les Mastabas, pp. 270, 271, 307, 308, etc.), the house in which the king was worshipped, as in temples of the Ptolemaic epoch, was that ia which the statue of the god, on leaving the sanctuary, was dressed and worshipped by the faithful. Siniibit, under the XII"' dynasty, was granted an audience in the "Hall of Electrum" (Maspero, Les Contes populaires, 2nd edit., p. 123). ' The " siiliit " or pavilions formed part of the apartments belonging to the harem. The tomb of Rakhmirl shows us one of these " women's kiosques " belonging to the XVIII* dynasty (Virey, Le Tomheau de Rehhmard, pi. xxxv., in the M^inoires de la mission frangaiee, vol. v.); other pictures of different epochs represent the dead as playing at draughts in them (Maspero, Etudes £gyptiennes, of

beat (or, in the other world, the tribunal of Osiris, the court of the double truth)

;

—

vol.

ii.

p. 220, et seq.).

Sliposiskafankha (Lepsios, Benkm., ii. 50) was " Grovernor of the houses of the Eoyal Children " under Nofiririkeri of the V"" dynasty (E. de Rouge, i?ec?iercAes sur les monuments, p. 73). Sinuhit receive* *

THE KING'S PALACE AND ITS INHABITANTS. and the royal domestics lived different

functionaries,

of their employes,

in

the palace

itself,

but the

277 of

offices

the

the storehouses for their provisions, the dwell ino-s

formed distinct quarters outside the palace, grouped around

narrow courts, and communicating with each other by a labyrinth of lanes or covered passages. less

The

entire buikling was constructed of

or bricks,

frequently of roughly dressed stone, badly built, and wanting in solidity.

The ancient Pharaohs were no more to

wood

inclined than the Sultans of later days

occupy palaces in which their predecessors had lived and died.

Each

king desired to possess a habitation after his own heart, one which would not be haunted by the memory, or perchance the double, of another sovereign.^

These royal vacated and

mansions, hastily erected, hastily fell

with

filled

into ruin with no less rapidity:

occupants, were

they grew old with their

master, or even more rapidly than he, and his disappearance almost always entailed their ruin.

might be

seen,

In the neighbourhood of Memphis

many

which their short-lived masters had built

of these palaces for

eternity, an

eternity which did not last longer than the lives of their builders.^

Nothing could present a greater variety than the population of these ephemeral people

cities

in

the climax of

their

We

splendour.

who immediately surrounded the Pharaoh,^ the

have

first

the

retainers of the palace

and of the harem, whose highly complex degrees of rank are revealed to us on the monuments.*

His person was, as

it

into departments, each requiring its attendants

His

toilet alone

royal barbers,

were,

and

minutely subdivided

their appointed chiefs.

gave employment to a score of different trades.

who had the privilege

of shaving his head

There were

and chin

;

hair-

a " House of a son of the king," in which there were all manner of riches, a tent in which to tak e the air, ornaments worthy of a god, and orders on the treasury, money, garments made from royal stuffs, gums and royal perfumes such as the children of the king delight to have in every house, and lastly, " whole troops of artisaus of all kinds " (Maspero, Les Contes populaires, 2nd edit., p. 127). In regard to other " Governors of the houses of the Royal Children," see Makiette, Les Mastahas de VAncien Empire, pp. 250, 259. * Ebman, JEgypten und JEgyptisches Leben im Altertum, pp. 242-244. ^ The song of the harp-player on the tomb of King Autiif contains an allusion to these ruined paluces: " The gods [kings] who were of yore, and who repose in their tombs, mummies and manes, all buried alike in their pyramids, when castles are built they no longer have a place in them see, thus I have heard the poema in praise of Imhotpu and of Hardidif which are sung it is done with them in the songs, and yet, see, where are their places to-day ? their walls are destroyed, their places no oaore, as though they had never existed " (Maspeeo, Etudes J^gypiiennes, vol. i. pp. 179, 180). ' They are designated by the general terms of Shouitiu, the '• people of the circle," and Qoubltift, the " people of the corner." These words are found in religious inscriptions referring to the staff of the temples, and denote the attendants or court of each god they are used to distinguish the notables of a town or be/rough, the sheikhs, who enjoyed the right to superintend local administration and dispense justice. ;

I

I

;

• The Egyptian scribes had endeavoured to draw up an hierarchical list of these oflSces. At present " we possess the remains of two lists of this description. One of these, preserved in the " Hood Papyrus in the British Museum, has been published and translated by Maspero, in Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii.

pp. 1-66 (cf. Beugsch, Bie JEgyptologie,^]^. 211-227); another and more complete copy, discovered in 1890, is in the possession of M. Gole'nischeff. The other list, also in the British Museum, was pub-

by Prof. Petrie in a memoir of The Egypt Exploration Fund (Two Hieroglyphic Papyri from Tunis, p. 21, et seq.); in this latter the names and titles are intermingled with various other matter. To these two works may be added the lists of professions and trades to be found passim on the

lished

monuments, and which have been commented on by Brugsch {Die JEgyptologie,

p. 228, et seq.).

"

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

278

who made,

dressers

curled, and put on his black or blue

the diadems to them

;

^

who pared and polished

there were manicurists

who prepared the scented

his nails,^ perfumers

wigs and adjusted

oils

and pomades

the

for

anointing of his body, the kohl for blackening his eyelids, the rouge for

spreading on his lips and cheeks.^

His wardrobe required a whole troop

some

of shoemakers,* belt-makers, and tailors,

whom had

of

in the piece, others presided over the body-linen, while

the care of stuffs

others took charge

of his

garments, comprising long or short, transparent or thick petticoats,

fitting

tightly to

flowing

pelisses.^

side with

these

officials,

whose estimation want of cleanliness

in

the

plied

laundresses

dress

in

entailed

religious

Like the fellahin of the present time, they took their linen daily

impurity.

wash

to

by

Side

which was an important one among a people devoted to white,

their trade,

and

the hips or cut with ample fulness, draped mantles and

in

the

river;

they rinsed,

smoothed, and pleated

starched,

it

without intermission to supply the incessant demands of Pharaoh and his

The

family.^

consider the sceptres

of

task of those set over the jewels was no easy one,

enormous variety rich

times

particular

and

necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, and

of

which

workmanship occasions.

when we

costume

ceremonial

The guardianship

approached to the dignity of the priesthood;

ornamented each one, a living goddess? waiting-women, and the same ample

for

of

required

the crowns almost

was not the ureeus, which

The queen required numerous

number

of

attendants

were

encountered in the establishments of the other ladies of the harem. of musicians, singers,

dancers, and

almehs whiled

supplemented by buffoons and dwarfs.'

for

away the tedious

The great Egyptian

to

be

Troops hours,

lords evinced

* Manofir was " inspector of the king's wig-makers " under Tatkeri of the V"* dynasty (Mariette, Les Masiabas, pp. 446, 447), and Phtahnimait discharged the duties of the same office under Nofiririkeri Kh§,fri6nkhfi was "director of the king's wig-makers " under one of the Pharaohs (id., ibid., p. 250). of the IV"' dynasty (B. and J. de Kouge, Inscriptions hi^roglyphiques recueillies en Egypte, p. Ix.). ^ Kaankhfimai was " director of those who dress the king's nails " under a Pharaoh of the V"" dynasty

(Mariette, Les Mastabas, pp. 283, 284) Khibiftphtah combined this office with that of " director of the wig-makers " under Sahfiri and under Nofiririkeri of the V'' dynasty (id., ibid., p. 295). " ' Mihtinofir was inspector for Pharaoh and " director of the perfumed oils of the king and queen (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 298), as also was Phtahnofiriritu (id., ibid., p. 322) these two persons ;

;

also exercised important functions in connection with the royal linen.

" royal bootmakers " are mentioned in the Hood Papyrus (Maspero, Mudes J^gyptiennes, the stelse of Abydos mention several others in the time of the Ramesides. ^ Khonfi was " director of the king's stuffs " (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 185), as was also Ankhaftfika (id., ibid., pp. 307, 308, cf. B. and J. de Rouge, Inscriptions hi^roglyphiques, pi. Ixxxiii.) ; *

vol.

The

ii.

p.

11)

:

Sakhemphtah was "

director of the white linen " (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 252), as also

monkhii

198),

and the two personages Mihtinofir and

Tapd-

mentioned above in note 3. At the beginning of the XII','' dynasty, we find H^pizaafi of Siat installed as " primate of all the dresses of the king" (B. and J. de Rouge, Inscriptions hi^roglyphiques, pi. cclxxxiii.), i.e. grandmaster of the wardrobe, and this title often occurs in the preamble of the princes of Hermopolis. * The " royal laundrymen " and their chiefs are mentioned in the Conte des deux freres under the XIX''' dynasty, as well as their laundries on the banks of the Nile (Maspeko, Les Contes populaires,

2nd

(id., ibid., p.

Phtahnofiriritft,

edit., p. 2).

Rahouem was " directress of the female players on the tabour and of the female singers (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 138, et seq.) SnofrMnofir (E. and J. de Rouge, Inscriptions recueillies '

;

;

—BUFFOONS

2EE SERVANTS OF THE PALACE a curious

liking for

getting together the ugliest

amused themselves by and most deformed creatures. They are often

represented on the tombs beside their masters in

MEN AND WOMEN

SINGERS, FLUTE-PLATERS, HARPISTS,

of them, Khniimhotpu, died

required for

his pet doo-,

in leash, or some-

AND DANCERS, FROM THE TOMB OF TL'

Sometimes the Pharaoh bestowed

ship on his dwarfs and confided to

number.

company with

monkey which they sometimes hold

times are engaged in teasing.^

of servants

279

unfortunate beings, and

these

or a gazelle, or with a

AND DWARFS.

them occupations

in his household.

superintendent of the royal linen.

supplying the table exceeded

It could scarcely be otherwise if

his friend-

all

The

One staff

the others in

we consider that the master had

to provide food, not only for his regular servants,^ but for all those of his en^gypte, pis. iii., iv.) and Eamiriphtali (Makiette, Les Mastahas, pp. 154, 155) were heads of the musicians and organizers of the king's pastimes. ' Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a squeeze taken at Saqqara in 1878 by Mariette. * The figure of a female dwarf appears among the female singers in Lepsids, Denlitn., ii., 36 others on the tombs of Kbnumhotpii and Amenemhait at Beni-Hasan (Champollion, Monuments de I'Egypte, pi. cccxcvii. 4; Griffith-Newbekry, Beni-Hasan, vol. i. pi. xii.), with several male dwarfs of a different type {id., pi. ccclxxsi. ^

Even

after death they

his, 3).

remained inscribed on the registers of the palace, and had rations served

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

280 emploijes

and subjects whose business brought them to the royal residence

even those poor wretches who came to complain to him of some more or

* :

less

imaginary grievance were fed at his expense while awaiting his judicial verdict.^

Head-cooks, butlers, pantlers, butchers, pastrycooks,

fishmongers,

would

game

or

The

be endless.

bread were

to be

not

factured buscuits.

dealers

fruit

—

bakers who

if

of pancakes and dough-nuts

who concocted

preserves ranked higher than

fruit

dryer of dates.^

If one

who manu-

those

took precedence of the cake-bakers, and those delicate

enumerated,

baked the ordinary

confounded with

The makers

all

had held a post

common

the

in the royal house-

hold, however low the occupation, it was sometliing to be of all one's

life,

and

The

proud

death to boast of in one's epitaph.

after

chiefs to

whom

army of

this

servants ren-

dered obedience, at times rose from the ranks

^ ;

on some occasion their master had noticed

them in the crowd, and had transferred them, some by a

single promotion, others

by slow

degrees, to the highest offices of the state.

Many among them,

however, belonged to

old families, and held positions in the

palace which fathers THE DWARF KHNUMHOTPU, SUPERINTENDENT OP THE KOTAL LINEN.* princesses,

more or

less

their

fathers

and grand-

had occupied before them, some were

members

of the provincial nobility, distant

descendants of I'ormer royal princes and

They had

nearly related to the reigning sovereign.^

been sought out to be the companions of his education and of his pastimes, while he was

still

living an obscure life in the "

House

of the Children

;

" he

had

out to them every day as funerary ofiferings (Dumichen, Besultate, vol. i. pi. vii. ; E. and J. ke Rouge, Inscriptions hi^roglyphiques, pi. iii. ; Makiette, Les Mastahas de VAncien Empire, pp. 279, 414).

on this point the Conte de Khoufoui (Maspero, Les Contes populaires, 2ud edit., p. 76) and The register of a queen of the XI"' dynasty (Mariette, Papyrus du (id., p. 128). Musee de Boulaq, vol. ii. pis. xiv.-lv.) contains a list of expenses of this kind (L. Borchardt, Ein Beclmungsbuch des Kdniglichen Ho/es, in the Zeitschrift, vol. xxviii. p. 68, et seq.). Sabii was granted the riglit of replenishing his stores at the royal expense during his travels (E. de Rouge, Becherches sur les monuments, pp. 112, 113). ^ E.g. the peasant whose story is told us in the Berlin Papyrus n" 2 (Maspero, Les Contes populaires, 2nd edit., p. 48) ; the king made him an allowance of a loaf and two pots of beer per day. ' See the list of persons, in hierarchical order, on the second page of the Hood Papyrus (M&sfero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 10, 11, 61, 63; cf. Brugsch, Die ^gyplologie, pp. 219-221). * M. DE Rouge believes this to have been so in the case of Ti, whose tomb is still famous Mihi (id., pp. 103, 104). surnamed Snozmdhlt, of (^Becherches sur les monuments, p. 96), and in the case * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey the original is at Gizeh. * It was the former who, I believe, formed the class of rokhu suton so often mentioned on the monuments. Tliis title is generally supposed to have been a mark of relationship with the royal family (Erman, Mgypten, p. 118). M. de Rouge' proved long ago that this was not so {Becherches, p. 90), and that functionaries might bear this title even though they were not blood relations of the *

Cf.

that of Sinfihlt

;

THE CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. grown up with them and had kept them about and

counsellors.^

He

his person as his " sole friends "

lavished titles and offices upon

ing to the confidence he

felt in their

with which he credited them. of the Secret of the Eoyal

A few House

;

281

them by the

capacity or to the

amount

dozen, accordof faithfulness

of the

most favoured were called " Masters

" they

knew

all

the innermost recesses of

the palace, all the passwords needed in going from one part of

to another,

it

the place where the royal treasures were kept, and the modes of access to Several of

them were

" Masters of the Secret of all the Royal Words," and had

authority over the high courtiers of the palace, which gave

banishing

whom

them the power

they pleased from the person of the sovereign.^

devolved the task of arranging his amusements

;

To

safety.^

Upon

of

others

they rejoiced the heart of his

Majesty by pleasant sougs,* while the chiefs of the

watch over his

it.^

and

sailors

kept

soldiers

these active services were attached honorary privi-

leges which were highly esteemed, such as the right to retain their sandals in

the palace,^ while the general crowd of courtiers could only enter unshod of kissing the knees

and not the

feet of the "

and men

of the king,^ chaplains,

of the roll

that

good god," ' and that of wearing the

Among those who enjoyed these

panther's skin.^

;

distinctions were the physicians

— " khri-habi."

The

latter did not

confine themselves to the task of guiding Pharaoh through the intricacies of ritual,

nor to that of prompting him with the necessary formulae needed to

the sacrifice efficacious

those

who

know

all

see

what

is

;

make

they were styled " Masters of the Secrets of Heaven,"

in the firmament, on the earth

and

in

Hades, those who

the charms of the soothsayers, prophets, or magicians. ^°

The laws

It seems to me to have been used to indicate a class of courtiers whom the king condescended to "know" (jokhu) directly, without the intermediary of a chamberlain, the "persons known by the king " the others were only his " friends " {samiru). ' This was so in the case of Shopsisuphtah (E. de Rougk, Recherches sur les monuments, p. 66) and of Khontem-sete (Erman, ^grjipten, p. 118). Under a king of the X"" dynasty, Khiti, Prince of Siiit, recalled with pride the fact that he had been brought up in the palace, and had learnt to swim with the children of the king (Mariette, Monuments divers, pi. Ixix. d E. and J. de Rouge, Inscriptions hi^roglyphiques, pi. cclxxxix. Griffith, The Inscriptions of SiHt and Der Rifeh, pi. xv. 1. 23). Cf. Lefebure, Sur diffe'rents mots et noms ^gyptiens, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archssology, 1890-91, pp. 466-468. - Api (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 96), and many others. To translate the title as " Royal Secretary " is too literal and too narrow a rendering, as shown by E, de Rouge {Recherches sur les monuments, p. 69). ^ For example, tTsirnutir (Mariette, Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, pp. 173, 174). Aukhilmaka id., pp. 217, 218); Kai combined this title with that of "Director of the Arsenal" (td., pp. 228, 229). * Ramiriphtah (Mariette, Les Mastabas, pp. 154, 155), Ranikad (id., p. 313), Snofrdinofir (id., pp. 395-398), whom I have already had occasion to mention in connection with the lady R^honem, on p. 278, note 7. * Prince Assioukhfi held a command in the infantry and in the flotilla of the Nile (Mariette, Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, p. 191); so did Ji (id., p. 162) and Kamtininit (id., p. 188). ^ This was the favour obtained by tTni from Piiaraoh Miriri-Papi I., according to E. de Rouge (Recherches srir les monuments, p. 128), whose explanation seems to me an excellent one. ' Shopsisfiphtah received this favour (E. de Rouge, Recherches, p. 68). ' This is the meaning which I assign to the somewhat rare title of Oirft biisit, " Grandee of the Panther's Skin," borne, among others, by Zadfitt (Mariette, Les Mastabas, pp. 252-254) and Rakapa (id., pp. 275, 278). See also p. 53, note 8, of this volume. ^ Api (Mariette, Les Mastabas, p. 96) and Sokhituionkhd (id., pp. 202-205) were Pharaoh's

Pharaohs.

;

;

;

physicians. '"

The most complete form

of their title which, up to the present, I have been able to find under

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

282

government of the seasons and the

relating to the

no mysteries

stars presented

to them, neither were they ignorant of the months, days, or hours propitious to the undertakings of everyday life or the starting out on an expedition,

They drew

nor of those times during which any action was dangerous. inspirations from the books of art of interpreting

their

magic written by Thot, which taught them the

dreams or of curing the

sick, or of

invoking and obliging

the gods to assist them, and of arresting or hastening the progress of the sun

Some

on the celestial ocean.^ at their will,

and to cause them

means of a short formula.^ of enchanted wax, was

" Is

it

An image

imbued with

true," said

Kheops

which has been cut off? "

On

him be

a man,

slain."

my

sire

animal will

fine

suffice

:

at

!

"

stories reveal

side,

" Bring

me

Pharaoh

so,

:

"

Nay, nay, not

was brought, "

its

head was cut

a

and the

off

and the head of the goose on the

A

pelican

it,

and,

left side

when both were

united,

was produced, and underwent the

:

^

The

its

the magician recited what he recited from it

what had

fallen

great lords themselves deigned to become initiated into

the occult sciences, and were invested with these formidable powers.

A

prince

practised magic would enjoy amongst us nowadays but small esteem

Egypt

;

His Majesty then caused a bull to be brought forward, and

process.

to the earth."

of

head

a prisoner from prison and

book of magic, the bull at once arose, and he replaced on

who

to us at

he recited what he recited from his book of magic, the goose began

head was smitten to the ground his

them

he could do

at this proposal, exclaimed

A goose

the goose began to cackle.

same

made by them out

command, and became an

their

Popular

hop forward, the head moved on to

to

or animal

do not command that this sin should be committed

;

body was placed on the right of the hall

life

man

his admitting that

The magician,

master

of a

to one of them, " that thou canst replace a

immediately desired to test his power. let

merely by

to return to their natural place,

instrument of their wrath.^

irresistible

work.

are mentioned as being able to divide the waters

:

in

sorcery was not considered incompatible with royalty, and the magicians

Pharaoh often took Pharaoh himself as their

pupil.^

the Ancient Empire, is on the Tomb of Teati (Mariette, Lea Mastabas, p. 149); this personage was " a chief man of the roll Of. superior of the secrets of heaven, who sees the secret of heaven." .

p.

.

.

127 of the present work. See the story of Satni-Kh^mois (Maspero, Les Contes populaires de I'^gypte Ancienne, 2nd edit., 175) for a description of the virtues attributed to one of the books of Thot. ^ The " man of the roll " Zazamonkh, in the story of Khufui (Maspero, Les Contes populaires de '

p.

Vilgypte Ancienne, 2nd edit., p. 67), performs this miracle in order to enable a lady who was in the royal barge to recover a jewel which she had accidentally dropped into the waters of the lake. * The "man of the roll" t)bali- Anir, in the story of Khuf'ui(MASPERO, Les Contes populaires de VJ^gypte

Ancienne, 2nd edit., pp. 60-63), models and calls into life a crocodile who carries off his wife's lover to the bottom of the river. In the story of Satni Kh^mois (id., pp. 180, 181), Satni constructs a vessel and its crew, imbues the latter with life, and sends them off in search of the magic book of Thot.

Eeman, Die Mdrchen des Papyrus Westcar, pi. viii. 11. 12-26 cf. Maspero, Contes populaires, p. 73, We know the reputation, extending even to the classical writers of antiquity, of the Pharaohs Nechepso and Nectanebo for their skill in magic. Arab writers have, moreover, collected a number of traditions concerning the marvels which the sorcerers of Egypt were in the habit of performing as an *

;

^

;

— TEE KING'S DOMAIN AND THE ROYAL SLAVES. Such were the

king's

household, the people about his person, and those

His capital sheltered a

attached to the service of his family. ber of officials and functionaries fortune

—that

is

to say,

283

greater

who were charged with the administration

what he possessed

supposed that the whole of the

still

soil

in Egypt.^

In theory

it

numof his

was always

belonged to him, but that he and His pre-

decessors had diverted and parcelled off such an

amount of

it

for the benefit of

their favourites, or for the hereditary lords, that only half of the actual terri-

He

tory remained under his immediate control.

of the Delta in person

:

^

governed most of the nomes

beyond the Fayum, he merely retained

isolated lands,

enclosed in the middle of feudal principalities and often at considerable distance

The extent

from each other. dynasties,

domain varied with

of the royal

and even from reign to reign

:

too frequently repeated concessions,^

its

sated by the confiscation of certain

fiefs,

sometimes decreased, owing

if it

losses

or

to

were generally amply compen-

by

their lapsing to the

The domain was always

of sufficient extent to oblige the

the larger portion of

to officials of various

it

different

Pharaoh

crown.

to confide

kinds, and to farm merely a

small remainder by means of the " royal slaves

:

"

in the

^

latter case,

he

reserved for himself all the profits, but at the expense of all the annoyance and all the

outlay

dues, the

;

in the former case, he obtained without

amount

the nome.

any

risk the annual

of which was fixed on the spot, according to the resources of

In order to understand the manner in which the government of

Egypt was conducted, we should never of the use of

money, and that gold,

may suppose them common products

forget that the world was

silver,

to

have been, were mere

of

Egyptian

with us, a treasurer

who

soil.

still

ignorant

and copper, however abundant we articles of

exchange, like the most

Pharaoh was not then,

as the State is

calculates the total of his receipts and expenses in

ready money, banks his revenue in specie occupying but

little space,

and

settles

may quote the description given by Makrizi of one of their meetings, which ^s probably taken from some earlier writer (Malan, A Short Story of the Copts and of their Church, pp. 13, 14). They were frequently distinguished from their provincial or manorial colleagues by the addition of the word hhonu to their titles, a term which indicates, in a general manner, the royal residence. instance, I

'

They formed what we should nowadays

call the departmental staff of the public officers, and might be deputed to act, at least temporarily, in the provinces, or in the service of one of the feudal princes, without thereby losing their status as functionaries of the hhonu or central administration. ^ This seems, at any rate, an obvious inference from the almost total absence of feudal titles on the most ancient monuments of the Delta. Erman, who was struck by this fact, attributed it to a different degree of civilization in the two halves of Egypt (^gypten und Mgyptisches Leben im Altertum, p. cf. Ed. Meyee, Geschichte Mgyptens, p. 46) 128 1 attribute it to a difference in government. ;

;

Feudal

naturally predominate in the South, royal administrative

titles in the North. W^e find, at different periods, persons who call themselves masters of new domains or strongholds Pahurnofir, under the IIP'' dynasty (Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 251)) several princes of Hermopolis, under the VI"" and V1I"'(Lepsil's, Denlim., ii. 112 b, c); Khniimhotpa at the beginning of the XII"* {Grande Inscription de B^ni-Hassan, 1. 69). In connection with the last named, we shall have

titles

^

;

show in what manner and with what rapidity one of these great new fiefs was formed. Denkm., ii, 107, where we find the " royal slaves " working at the harvest in conjunction

occasion, later on, to *

Lepsitjs,

with the serfs attached to the tomb of Khunas, prince of the Gazelle nome, under a king of the Vi"* dynasty.

U

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

284 his accounts

from the same source.

in kind that he

mented

His

fiscal receipts

remunerated his servants

common

drinks, oils, stuffs,

were in kind, and

for their labour

or precious metals,

—

'*

:

^

sources,"

— constituted the

tributions,

if

from

the heavens

its

mysterious

coinage in which his subjects paid him their con-

and which he passed on to

a few feet square, and,

was

cattle, cereals, fer-

all that

give, all that the earth produces, all that the Nile brings

it

need

be,

by way of salary.

his vassals

one

would

safe,

One room,

easily contain the entire

revenue of one of our modern empires: the largest of our emporiums would not always have sufficed to hold the mass of incongruous objects which represented

As the products

the returns of a single Egyptian province.

was paid took various forms, special agents

it

in

which the tax

was necessary to have an infinite variety of

and suitable places to receive

it

herdsmen and sheds

;

for the

oxen, measurers and granaries for the grain, butlers and cellarers for the wine> beer,

and

oils.

The product

of the tax, while awaiting redistribution, could

only be kept from deteriorating in value by incessant labour, in which a score

workmen

of different classes of clerks and part, according

to their trades.

led to pasturage, or at times,

were received in oxen,

If the tax

when a murrain threatened

slaughter-house and the currier

and made into bread and pastry folded, to be retailed as

in the service of the treasury all took

if it

;

;

were in corn,

if it

were in

garments or in the

it

it,

was bolted, ground

stuffs, it

to the

to flour,

was washed, ironed, and

The

piece.

to destroy

was

it

royal treasury partook

of the character of the farm, the warehouse, and the manufactory.

Each

of the departments which helped to swell

its

contents, occupied within

the palace enclosure a building, or group of buildings, which was called " house," or, as

we should

say, its storehouse.^

house," where the stuffs and jewels were kept, " Storehouse of the Oxen,"

Preserved Fruits,"

^

the

*'

^

There was the

and

"

White

at times the wine

the " Grold Storehouse,"

^

its

Store;

^

the

the " Storehouse for

Storehouse for Grain," ' the " Storehouse for Liquors,"

^

This was the most usual formula for the offering on the funerary stelae, and sums up more comany other the nature of the tax paid to the gods by the living, and consequently the nature of that paid to the king here, as elsewhere, the domain of the gods is modelled on that of the Pharaohs. ^ Vint, Pi: this is an employment of the word similar to that of Dar, which was in use among the Fatimite Caliphs and the Mameluke Sultans of Egypt in the Middle' Ages. The DIr succeeded without interruption the Pi and the Ait, of which we shall hear more later on (Maspebo, '

pletely than

;

Mudes

Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 126, et seq.)Pi-HAZU, in Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 249, 250. It derived its name from the fact that its exterior was painted white, as is usual with most of the public buildings of modern Egypt. * This is the Pi-eheu, which we meet everywhere from the XII*'' and Xlir*" dynasties onwards. *

Pi-NUBU, in E. DE KouGE, Eecherches, p. 104 cf. Mariettb, Les Mastabas, pp. 254, 355, 502, etc. Pi-ashd6, of which the meaning was recognized by Dumichen, Besultate, vol. i. pi. vii. ; cf. E. and J. de Rouge, Inscriptions Hieroglyphiques recueilles en Egypte, pi. iii. Mariette, Les Mastabas de I'Ancien Empire, pp. 279, 414. ' Pa-habu, Bbcgsch, Diclionnaire Ei^roglyphique et D^motique Supplement, pp. 749, 750, s. v. Art. * Pi-ARPu (?) " The Wine Storehouse," possibly that mentioned by Mariette, Les Mastabas de VAncien, Empire, p. 306. '

;

*

;

TEE GOVERNMENT STOREHOUSES.

285

and ten other storehouses of the application of which we are not always In the " Storehouse of Weapons " (or Armoury) clubs, maces, pikes, daggers, bows,

were ranged thousands of

and bundles of arrows, which Pharaoh

tributed to his recruits whenever a war forced

which

^

sure.'

him

to call out his

dis-

army, and

again

were

warehoused after the

campaign.^

The

" storehouses "

were

subdivided

further into

rooms or

chambers,* served

for

category It

to

store-

each its

re-

own

of

objects.

would be

diflScult

enumerate thenum-

ber of store-chambers

THE PACKIKG OF THE LINES AND

ITS

REMOVAL TO THE WHITE STOREHOUSE.*

the outbuildino^s of the "Storehouse of Provisions"

in

— store-chambers

for

butcher's meat, for fruits, for beer, bread, and wine, in which were deposited as

much

of each article of food as

or at most for a few weeks.

would be required by the court

for

some days,

Tliey were brought there from the larger store-

houses, the wines from vaults,^ the oxen from their stalls,' the corn from the granaries.^

The

latter

were vast brick-built receptacles, ten or more in a row,

circular in shape

and surmounted by cupolas, but having no communication

with each other.

They had only two openings, one

the grain, another on the ground level for drawing outside, often on the shutter *

For example, the Pi-lzd

(?)

at the top for pouring in it

out

;

a notice posted up

which closed the chamber, indicated the character

(Maspkro, Mudes £gyptienneg,

vol.

ii.

pp. 258, 259), possibly the

tallow storehouse. '

Pi-AHut, the Khaznat-ed-dardk of the Egyptian caliphs (E. de Rouge, Becherches sur

les

monu-

ments, pp. 91, 101, 104; Maribtte, Les Mastahas de VAncien Empire, pp. 217, 218, 228, 259, 296, etc.). ' At Medinet-Habft we see the distribution of arms to the soldiers of Eamses III. (Champollion,

Monuments, pi. ccxviii. Kosellini, Mon. Reali, pi. cxxv.) a similar operation seems to be referred to in a passage in the tini inscription which records the raising of au army under the "VI"' dynasty. * Ait, li. Lefe'bure has collected a number of passages in which these storehouses are mentioned, in his notes Sur differents mots et noms Egypiiens (Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archseology, 1890-91, p. 447, et seq.). In many of the cases which he quotes, and in which he recognizes an office of the State, I believe reference to be made to a trade: many of the abx liT-APfi, "people of the store-chambers for meat," were probably butchers; many of the ari liT-HiqiTd, " people of the storechamber for beer," were probably keepers of drink-shops, trading on their own account in tiie town ;

;

Abydos, and not employes attached to the exchequer of Pharaoh or of the ruler of Thinis. * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a chromolithograph in Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 9G. ° Asui, a word whicii was used to denote warehouses (usually vaulted and built in pairs) in which articles of a heterogeneous nature were stored (Mariette, Les Mastahas, pp. 125, 223, 230, 243, etc.). ' The term Ahu, which later on came to be used of horses as well as oxen, has not, so far as I know, yet been met with on any of the monuments of the Ancient Empire. * SflONuiTi, which, in the form " shuneh," has passed into use among the French-speaking peoples of the Levant through the Arabic. For a representation of the storehouses for grain and fruit of the Memphite epoch, see Masfero, Quatre Anne'ts de Fouilles, in the M^moires de la Mission Frangaise, vol. i. pi. iii. of

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

286

and quantity of the cereals within.

For the security and management of

these,

" there were employed troops of porters, store-keepers, accountants, " primates

who superintended the

works,^ record-keepers, and directors.^

Great nobles

coveted the administration of the " storehouses," and even the sons of kings did not think

it

derogatory to

their dignity to

the Granaries," or " Directors of the Armoury." pluralists,

be entitled " Directors of

There was no law against

and more than one of them boasts on

tomb

his

of having held

simultaneously five or six

These like

storehouses

all

the

other

ofiSces.^

participated,

dependencies

of the crown, in that duality which

MEASUBING THE Vt'HEAT AND DEPOSITING IT IN THE GRANARIES.*

characterized the person of the Pharaoh. parlance, the Storehouse or the

They would be

called in

common

Double White Storehouse, the Storehouse or the

Double Gold Storehouse, the Double Warehouse, the Double Granary.

The

large towns, as well as the capital, possessed their double storehouses and their

store-chambers, into which were gathered the products of the neighbourhood,

but where a complete staff of employes was not always required: in such towns

we meet with "

The

temporarily.

by boat

localities "

^

in which

the commodities were housed merely

least perishable part of the provincial

to the royal residence,^

dues was forwarded

The remain-

and swelled the central treasury.

der was used on the spot for paying workman's wages, and for the needs of the *

KhorpuO

;

tbe word " primate "

is a literal translation of the Egyptian term ; for the special used to indicate, of. Maspero, Etudes ^gypiitumes, vol. ii. pp. 181, 182. translated with sufficient exactness by the word "director" (Maspero, jStudes

class of functions *

Mie6

is

^gyptiennes, vol.

which

ii.

it is

pp. 181, 182).

*

To mention only a

*

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a

single instance, Kai combined the oflSce of director of the high court of the palace with that of director of the double granary, of "the double white house," of six large storehouses, and three different vaults (Mariette, Les Mastabaa de VAncien Empire, p. 125).

Monumenti

Civili, pi.

scene on the tomb of

Amoni

at

xxxiv. 2; Griffith-Newberry, Beni-Hasan, vol.

i.

Beni-Hasan pi.

xiu.

cf.

Kosellini,

Outhe

right, near

;

is a heap of grain, from which the measurer fills his measure in order to empty it into the which one of the porters holds open. In the centre is a train of slaves ascending the stairs which sack lead to the loft above the granaries one of them empties his &ack into a hole above the granary in the presence of the overseer. The inscriptions in ink on the outer wall of the receptacles, which have already been filled, indicate the number of measures which each one of them contains. " IsitO we may translate " localities " for want of a better word (Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes^

the door,

;

vol.

ii.

p. 128, et seq.).

The boats employed

and their cemmanders constituted a regularly organized transport corps, who are frequently to be found represented on the monuments of the New Empire, carrying tribute to the residence of tbe king "or of the prince, whose retainers they were. An excellent example may be seen on the tomb of Pihiri, at El-Kab *

for this

purpose formed a

flotilla,

Administration.

administered

DEPOTS FOR THE RECEIPT OF TAXES.

287

We see

who

affairs in

from the inscriptions, that the

staffs of officials

the provinces was similar to that in the

Starting from the top, and going

down

bottom of the

to the

scale,

royal city.

each func-

tionary supervised those beneath him, while, as a body, they were all responsible for their depot.

Any

irregularity in the entries entailed the bastinado

^\

-

w^

PLAK OP A PRINCELY STOFEHOXJSE FOB

PROVISIONS.'

peculators were punished by imprisonment, mutilation, or death, according to

the gravity of the offence.

Those

whom

illness or old

work, were pensioned for the remainder of their

The

writer,^ or, as

we

call

age rendered

unfit for

life.^

him, the scribe, was the mainspring of

all this

(Champollion, Monuments de VEgypte et de la Nubie, pi. cxli. Eosellini, Monumenti Civili, pi. ex. 1, 2; Lepsius, Denkm., iii. 11 a). > Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius, Denkm., iii. 95. The illustration is taken from one ot the tombs at Tel el-Amarna. The storehouse consists of four blocks, isolated by two avenues planted with trees, which intersect each other in the form of a cross. Behind the entrance gate, in a small courtyard, is a kiosque, in which the master sat for the purpose of receiving the stores or of superintending their distribution two of the arms of the cross are lined by porticoes, under which are the entrances to the " chambers " {dit) for the stores, which are filled with jars of wine, linenchests, dried fish, and other articles. * For an instance of an empto?/^ pensioned off on account of infirmities, see the Anasiasi Papyrug, No. iv., under the XIX"" dynasty (Maspeeo, Notes au jour le jour, § 8, in the Proceedings, 1890-91, ;

;

pp. 423-426).

Sashai was the common title of the ordinary scribe In© seems to have been used only of any rate under the Memphite empire, if we are to credit E. de Bouge ;

ecribes of high rank, at

•

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

288

We

machinery.

come

across

him

Thus the

title of scribe

:

an insignificant

Double White Storehouse, ragged, humble, and

registrar of oxen, a clerk of the

badly paid, was a scribe just as

in all grades of the staff

much

as the noble, the priest, or the king's son.^

was of no value in

might naturally think, a savant educated

itself,

and did not designate, as one

in a school of

high culture, or a man

of the world, versed in the sciences and the literature of his time

was a scribe who knew how to read,

write,

and cipher, was

;

^

every one

fairly proficient in

wording the administrative formulas, and could easily apply the elementary

There was no public school in which the scribe could

rules of book-keeping.

be prepared for his future career

;

but as soon as a child had acquired the

first

rudiments of letters with some old pedagogue, his father took him with him to his office, or entrusted tion.

him

to

some friend who agreed

to undertake his educa-

The apprentice observed what went on around him, imitated the mode

of procedure of the employes, copied in his spare time old papers, letters, bills,

flowerily-worded petitions, reports, complimentary addresses to his superiors or to the

Pharaoh,

margin

all of

letters or

which

his patron

examined and corrected, noting on the

words imperfectly written, improving the

or completing the incorrect expressions.^ certain

draw up

number bills,

treasury, his

As soon

style,

as he could put together a

of sentences or figures without a mistake, he

or to have the sole superintendence of

sufficiently

was allowed to

some department

work being gradually increased in amount and

he was considered to be

and recasting

difficulty

au courant with the ordinary

;

of the

when

business, his

education was declared to be finished, and a situation was found for him either in the place

where he had begun

his probation, or in

some neighbouring

office.*

{Cours du College de France, 1869); later on this distinction was less observed, and the word dnu disappeared before sakhu {sakh derived from sashai). ' The three sons of Kafrionkhu, grandchildren of the king, are represented exercising their functions as scribes in the presence of their father, their tablets in the left hand, the reed behind the ear (Lepsius, Denhm., ii. 11): similarly the eldest son of Ankhaftiika, "friend, commanding the palace" under the first kings of the V"" dynasty (Mariette, Les Mastahas, pp. 305-309); so, too the brother of Tapdmonkhfi (id., p. 193), and several of the eons of Sakhemphtah (id., p. 253), about the same period.

This is the type which we find most frequently represented in modern works on Egypt, in the romance of G. Ebers, for instance, e.g. the Pentaur and the Nefersekhet of Uarda; it is also the type most easily realized from a study of the literary papyri of the XIX"" and XX"" dynasties, in which the profession of scribe is exalted at the expense of other professions (cf., the panegyric of the scribe in the Anastasi Papyrus, No. i., pis. i.-xiii. Chabas, Le Voyage d'un £gyptieii, pp. 31-47). ^ We still possess school exercises of the XIX"» and XX"' dynasties, e.g. the Papyrus Anastasin" IV., and the Anastasi Papyrus n" V., in which wo find a whole string of pieces of every possible style and description business letters, requests for leave of absence, complimentary verses addressed to a superior, all probably a collection of exercises compiled by some professor, and copied by his pupils in order to complete their education as scribes the master's corrections are made at the top and bottom of the pages in a bold and skilful hand, very dift'erent from that of the pupil, though the writing of the latter is generally more legible to our modern eyes (Select Papyri, vol. i. pis. Ixxxiii.'

;

—

;

exxi,).

Evidence of this state of things seems

be furnished by all the biographies of scribes with which moreover, what took place regularly throughout the whole of Egypt, down to the latest times, and what probably still occurs in those parts of the country where European ideas have not yet made any deep impression (Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 123-12G). *

wo are acquainted, e.g. that of Amten;

it is,

to

TEE SCBIBE, EIS EDUCATION, EIS PBOSPECTS OF PBOMOTION. 289 Thus equipped, the young man ended usually by succeeding his father or his patron in most of the government administrations, we find whole dynasties of :

whose members inherited the same post

scribes on a small scale,

position was an insignificant one,

and the salary poor, but the

of existence were assured, the occupant was

exempted from forced labour

centuries.'^

means

The

for several

and from military

service,

and he exercised a certain authority in the narrow

^^ST^^^^^^^^^^

X~M'!XS'i::

THE STAFF OF A GOVERNMENT OFFICER IN THE TIME OF THE MEMFHITE DYNASTlEi."

world in which he lived in fact to be so.

"

:

it

One has only

scribe takes the lead of all." officials,

more

above the

make him think

sufficed to

himself happy, and

to be a scribe," said the wise

man, "

for the

Sometimes, however, one of these contented

^

intelligent or ambitious than his fellows, succeeded in rising

common

mediocrity

:

his fine handwriting, the

sentences, his activity, his obliging discreet dishonesty

manner, his honesty

—attracted the attention of The son

of his promotion.

happy choice

of a peasant or of

—perhaps

his superiors

of his

also his

and were the cause

some poor wretch, who had begun

Tins statement may be easily verified by a reference to Mariette's Catalogue g^Mral des Monuments d'Abydos. The number of instances would be still larger, had not Mariette, in order to keep the size of his book within limits, suppressed the titles and functions of the majority of the persons who are mentioned by the dozen on the votive stelae in the Gizeh Museum. * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a wall-painting on the tomb of Khfinas (cf. Eosellini, Mo7iumenti Civili, pi. xxxv. 4 Lepsius, D&nkm., IL 107). Two scribes are writing on tablets. Before tbe scribe in the upper part of the picture we see a palette, with two saucers, on a vessel which serves as an ink-bottle, and a packet of tablets tied together, the whole supported by a bundle of archives. The scribe in the lower part rests his tablet against an ink-bottle, a box for archives being placed before him. Behind them a nahht-lthrdu announces the delivery of a tablet covered with figures '

;

which the third scribe This

•

the

is

is

presenting to the master.

the refrain which occurs constantly in

New Empire

(Maspeeo,

Du

all

the exercises for style given to scholars under

Genre Epistolaire, pp. 28, 35, 38, 40, 49, 50, 66, 72,

etc.).

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

290 life

by keeping a register of the bread and vegetables in some provincial

government career

office,

had been often known

by exercising a kind

granaries

overflowed with

fine stuffs,

and precious

THE

CIRLER

long and successful

his

corn,

his

were always

storehouses

full

His

of gold,

vases, his stalls " multiplied the backs " of his

now become

Amten whose tomb was removed

oxen

^ ;

in turn his proteges, did

him except with bowed head and bended

not venture to approach

doubt the

crown

of vice-regency over the half of Egypt.

the sons of his early patrons, having

No

to

to Berlin

knee.

by Lepsius, and

ANNOUNCES THE ARRIVAL OF FIVE REGISTRARS OF THE TEMPLE OF KING fiSIRNIRi, OF THE V* DYNASTY.''-

put together piece by piece in the museum, was a parvenu of this kind.^

He

was born rather more than four thousand years before our

one of the of the

last

first

the

Nome

His

father,

kings of the IIP'* dynasty, and he lived

of the Bull,

if

not from Xois

made himself

income, house,

or oxen."* '

*

but

the reign

probably came from

in the heart of the Delta.

his

office, several

mother, Nibsouit, who

to give her child

an education.

entirely responsible for the necessary expenses,

the necessities of

barley,

;

under

have been merely a concubine, had no personal fortune, and

would have been unable even

all

itself,

until

the scribe Anupumonkhii, held, in addition to his

landed estates, producing large returns appears to

He

king of the lY^^ dynasty, Snofrui.

era,

As

life,

at a time

men

or

when he had not

women

servants,

soon as he was in a condition

or

Anupumonkhii " giving

as yet either corn,

troops of asses,

pigs,

to provide for himself, his

The expression is borrowed from one of the letters in the Anastasi Papyrus, No. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a picture in the tomb of Shopsisftri (Lepsius,

The

him

iv., pi. ix.

Denhrn.,

1.

1.

ii. 6.3).

nakht-hhrou, the crier, is on the spectator's left four registrars of the funerary temple of tTsirniri advance in a crawling posture towards the master, the fifth has just risen and holds himself in a stooping attitude, while an usher introduces him and transmits to him an order to send in his accounts. ^ It has been published in Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 4-7. Its texts have been analysed in a more or less summary fashion by E. de Rouge, Becherches sur les monuments, pp. 39, 40 by Birch, in Bunsen, Egypt's Place, vol. v. pp. 723, 724; by Pierret, Explication des Monuments de VEgypte, pp. 9-11 by Erman, Mgypten, pp. 126-128 ; they have been translated and commented on by Maspero, La Carriere administrative de deux hauts /onctionnaires ^gyptiens, in the Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. It is from this last source that I have borrowed, in a condensed form, the principal pp. 113-272. features in the biography of Amten. * Lepsius, Denhm., ii. cf. Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. iL p. 120, et seq. 5, 1. 1 ;

;

;

;

THE CABEER OF AMTEN. father obtained for him, in his native

Nome, the post

291 of chief scribe attached

THE FTJNERAL STELE OF THE TOMB OF AMTEN.' to one of the " localities "

On >

which belonged

behalf of the Pharaoh, the young Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

in the recess and

Lepsitjs,

to the

man

Benkm.,

Administration of Provisions.

received, registered, ii.

3.

Amten

is

and distributed

portrayed standing upright to right and left he

on the doorposts of the false door, as well as on the wall

;

bears a mace and a long staff in his hands ; on the right a slave serves the funeral banquet on the left a jerboa, a hare, a porcupine, a weasel, and another quadruped of undecided shape represent the ;

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

292 the meat, cakes, his

own

and fresh vegetables which constituted the taxes,

fruits,

responsibility, except that

" Director of the Storehouse "

all oi»

he had to give an account of them to the

who was

long he remained in this occupation

we

;

We

nearest to him.

are not told

see merely that he was raised suc-

The

cessively to posts of an analogous kind, but of increasing importance.

provincial

ojBfices

same

ofiScials

house

;

:

comprised a small staff of employes, consisting always of the

—a

whose ordinary function was " Director of the Store-

chief,

" a few scribes to

keep the accounts, one or two of

ordinary calling that of keeper of the archives clients, and, ;

" director

need

if

how

to his

paid ushers to introduce

;

them summarily

be, to bastinado

whom added

" lastly, the " strong of voice," the criers,

the order of the

at

who superintended the

incomings and outgoings, and proclaimed the account of them to the scribes

A

be noted down forthwith.^

to

of great

number

He

value.

and

vigilant

obliged the taxpayer not only to

of measures prescribed as

his

was a

honest crier

man

the exact

deliver

him

quota, but also compelled

to

deliver good measure in each case; a dishonest crier, on the contrary, could easily favour cheating,

at once

" crier "

and " taxer of the

nome

the Xoite

of

provided that he shared in the colonists "

to the

spoil.

Amten was

civil

administrator

he announced the names of the

:

peasants and the

payments they made, then estimated the amount of the each, according to his

He

income, had to pay.

tax which

local

distinguished

himself so

pre-eminently in these delicate duties, that the civil administrator of Xois

made him one

He became "Chief

of his subordinates.

Ushers,"

of the

afterwards " Master Crier," then " Director of all the King's flax " in the Xoiite

nome

—an

cutting,

which entailed on him

office

and general preparation of

carried on

in

Pharaoh's

flax

own domain.

in the Provincial Administration,

the

supervision the

for

It

of

the

culture,

manufacture which was

was one of the highest

offices

and Amten must have congratulated himself

on his appointment.

From

Up

that

moment

to that time he

more active

his career

became a great

had been confined

in offices

The Pharaohs, extremely

service.

one, and he advanced quickly. ;

he now

left

them

jealous of their

own

to perform autliority,

usually avoided placing at the head of the nomes in their domain, a single animala which he was wont to pursue in the Libyan desert in his capacity of Grand Huntsman. In the upper part of the picture he is seated, and once more partakes of the funeral repast. The lengthy inscription in short columns, which occupies the upper part of the wall, enumerates his principal titles,

his estates in the Delta,

and mentions some of the houours conferred on him by

his sovereign

in the course of his long career. '

With regard

to these criers

—called

in

Egyptian nahht-khrou

— see

Maspero, Etudes ^gyptiennes,

Representations of Oifices will be found in the tomb of Shopsisurft, at SaqqS,ra pp. 135, 139. (Lepsius, Denlcm., ii., 62, 63, 64), in the tomb of Phtahhotpft (id., pi. 103 a), and in several others

vol.

ii.

(id., pi.

p.

71 a, 74, etc.)

;

cf.

an administrative

289 of the present work.

office

in the

nome

of the Gazelle, under the VI"" dynasty,

AMTEN'S SUCCESSIVE APPOINTMENTS. ruler,

who would have appeared too much

like a prince

;

they preferred having

in each centre of civil administration, governors of the as well as military

commanders who were jealous

293

town or province,

of one another, supervised

one another, counterbalanced one another, and did not remain long enough office

in

most of the nomes situated

His

first

Amten

become dangerous.

in

to

in the centre

these

all

posts

or to the west

successively

of the Delta.

appointment was to the government of the village

of Pidosu, an unimportant post in entitled

held

him

to a staff of office,

itself,

but one which

and in consequence pro-

cured for him one of the greatest indulgences of vanity that an Egyptian could enjoy .^

The

staff was, in fact, a

symbol of command which only the nobles, and the officials

with

associated

nobility, could

the

without transgressing custom

;

carry

the assumption of

it,

as that of the sword with us, showed every one that

the bearer was a

Amten was no began

member

of a privileged class.

sooner ennobled, than his functions

to extend

;

villages were rapidly

added

to villages, then towns to towns, including

such an important one as

Biito,

and

finally

the nomes of the Harpoon, of the Bull, of

the Silurus, the western half of the Saite

nome, the nome of the Haunch, and a part of the Fayiim

The western

came within

his jurisdiction.

half of the Saite nome, where

he long resided, corresponded with what

was called

later the

Libyan nome.

It

STATUE OP

AilTZif,

FOUND

IN HIS TOMB.^

reached nearly from the apex of the Delta to the sea,

and was bounded on one side by the Canopic branch of the Nile,

on the other by the Libyan range fell

under

its rule.

It included

;

a part of the desert as well as the Oases

among

its

population, as did

provinces of Upper Egypt, regiments composed of

compelled to

metamorphosed

pay their tribute into

Chief

in

living

nomad

or dead

Huntsman, scoured

the

many

hunters,

game.

of the

who were

Amten was

mountains

with

his

men, and thereupon became one of the most important personages in the defence of the country.

The Pharaohs had

from time to time constructed walls at the valley *

«

—

at Syene, at Coptos,

built fortified stations,

certaiii points

where the roads entered

and at the entrance to the

Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 165, 166. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 120 a

;

and had

the original

is

Wady

Tiimilat.

in the Berlin

Museum.

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

294

Amten having been proclaimed

'*

Primate of the Western Gate," that

is,

governor of the Libyan marclies, undertook to protect the frontier against the wandering Bedouin from the other side of Lake Mareotis.

His duties

Huntsman had been the best preparation he could have had for this They had forced him to make incessant expeditions among arduous task.

as Chief

the mountains, to explore the gorges and ravines, to be acquainted with the routes marked out by wells which the marauders were obliged to follow their incursions,

in

descend into the plain of the Delta

had gained

all

the

active

the

of

When

of Egypt. life,

passes

by which they could

running the game to earth, he

in

;

knowledge needful

repulsing the

for

enemy.^

Such

made Amten the most important noble in this age at last prevented him from leading an

a combination of capabilities part

and

and the pathways

old

he accepted, by way of a pension, the governorship of the nome

Haunch

:

with

civil

authority,

command,

military

local

functions, and honorary distinctions, he lacked only one thing to

priestly

make him

the equal of the nobles of ancient family, and that was permission to bequeath

without restriction his towns and

offices to his children.

His private fortune was not as great

He

as

we might be

led

to

think.

inherited from his father only one estate,^ but had acquired twelve others

in the

nomes of the Delta whither

—namely,

in the

Saite, Xoite,

his successive

Queen Hapunimait.^ suitably.

two hundred portions of cultivated

He

first

took advantage of

;

this

windfall for,

provision to

endow

thanks

to

of of his

the

he had begun his administrative career by holding

the same post of scribe, in addition his father

upon the funeral

charge

His only son was already provided

munificence of Pharaoh

which

received subse-

numerous peasants, both male and female, and an income

one hundred loaves daily, a

family

He

and Letopolite nomes.^

quently, as a reward for his services, land, with

appointments had led him

to

the office

of provision

registrar,

had held, and over and above these he received by royal

grant, four portions of cornland with their

population and stock.^

gave twelve portions to his other children and

by means of which she

lived

fifty to

comfortably in her

annuity for maintaining worship at her tomb.^

He

of the land a magnificent villa, of which he has

his

old

built

Amten

mother Nibsonit, age,

and

left

an

upon the remainder

considerately left us the

Maspeeo, J^tedes J^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 177-181, 188-191. Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 7 a, 1. 5; cf. Maspeko, Mudes J^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 238-241. ' Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 6, 1. 4; cf. Maspero, Etudes jSgyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 217-219. * Lepsius, Denkm., ii. cf. Maspebo, Etudes J^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 220, 226. 6, 11. 5, 6 Queen Hapfiuimait seems to have been the mother of Snofifii, the iirst Pharaoh of the IV' dynasty of Manetho. * Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 6, 1. 2; cf. Maspeeo, Etudes iJgyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 213-217. « Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 3, 11. 13-18 cf. Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 22G-230. The area of these portions of land is given, but the interpretation of the measures is still open to dispute. '

*

;

;

TEE VALVE OF AMTEN'S FROPERTY AT BIS DEATH. The boundary

description.

wall formed a square of 350 feet on each face, and

consequently contained a superficies of 122,500 square dwelling-house, completely

295

with

furnished

all

surrounded by ornamental and fruit-bearing

The

feet.

well-built

the necessities of

trees,

— the

common

was

life,

palm, the

PLAN OP THE VILLA OF A GKEAT EGYPTIAN NOBLE.'

uebbek,

fig trees,

and acacias

afforded a habitat for

;

several ponds, neatly bordered with greenery,

aquatic birds

;

trellised

vines, according

ran in front of the house, and two plots of ground, planted full

bearing,

there,

mind.

amply supplied the owner with wine every

doubtless,

that

Amten ended

his

days in

peace

The tableland whereon the Sphinx has watched

was then crowned by no pyramids, but mastabas of '

This plan

I'ilgypte et de la

is

edit.,

us of his

villa.

left *

with vines in year.^

It

was

many

of

centuries

white stone rose

taken from a Theban tomb of the XVIII"" dynasty (Champollion, Monuments de pi. cclxi. Eosellini, Monumenti Storiei, pi. Ixix. Wilkinson, Manners and vol. i. p. 877); but it corresponds exactly with the description which Amten las

Nuhie,

Customs, 2nd

custom,

and quietude

for so fine

to

Lepsics, Dtnkm.,

;

;

ii.

7 b

; cf.

Maspero, Etudes ^gyptienws, voL

ii.

pp. 2^0-238.

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT

296

here and there from out of the sand

was to be enclosed was situated not

far

mummy

of

Amten

from the modern village of

Abiisir,

that in which the

:

on the conjSnes of the nome of the Haunch, and almost in sight of the

mansion in which his declining years were spent.^

The number

of persons of obscure origin,

of Pharaoh,

must

have

in this

been

fief,

risen

Their descendants

considerable.

followed in their fathers' footsteps, until the day

them the

or an advantageous marriage secured

manner had

and died governors of provinces or

in a few years to the highest honours,

ministers

who

came when

royal favour

possession of an hereditary

and transformed the son or grandson of a prosperous scribe into a

feudal

lord.

It

was from people of this

class,

the Pharaoh, that the nobility was mostly recruited.

authority of the of the

nobility

and from the children of In the Delta, where the

Pharaoh was almost everywhere directly was weakened and

much

gained ground, and became stronger

curtailed;

in

felt,

the power

Middle Egypt

and stronger in proportion

as

it

one

The nobles held the principalities of the Gazelle,^ of the Hare,^ of the Serpent Mountain,* of Akhmim,^ of Thinis,^ of Qasr-esSayad,' of El-Kab,^ of Aswan,^ and doubtless others of which we shall some

advanced southward.

day discover the monuments.

They accepted without

difficulty

the fiction

according to which Pharaoh claimed to be absolute master of the

ceded to his subjects only the usufruct of their

fiefs;

soil,

and

but apart from the

admission of the principle, each lord proclaimed himself sovereign in his own ' The site of Amten's manorial mansion is nowhere mentioned in the inscriptions; but the custom of the Egyptians to construct their tombs as near as possible to the places where they resided, leads me to consider it as almost certain that we ought to look for its site in the Memphite plain, in the vicinity of the town of Abiisir, but in a northern direction, so as to keep within the territory of the Letopolite nome, where Amten governed in the name of the king. * Tomb of Khfinas, prince of the Gazelle nome, at Zawyet-el-Meiyetin (Champollion, MonumenU de V^gypt et de la Nuhie, vol. ii. pp. 441-454; Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 105, 106); we find in the same locality, and at Sheikh-Said, the semi-ruinous tombs of other princes of this same nome, contemporaries for the most part of the ¥1"" and VHP'' dynasties (Lkpsius, Denkm., ii. 110, 111). ' Tombs of the princes of the Hare at Sheikh-Said and at Bersbeh (Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 112, 113). * Tomb of Za.iL I., prince of Thinis and of the Serpent Mountain, in Sayce, Gleanings from the Land of Egypt (Becueil de Travaux, vol. xiii. pp. 65-67) cf. for an interpretation of the text published by Sayce, Maspero, Sur I' inscription de Zdou, in the Eecueil de Travaux, vol. xiii. pp. 68-71. * Tombs of the princes of Akhmim, in Mabiette, Monuments divers, pi. xxi, 6, p. 6, of the text, and in E. Schiapakelli, Chemmis-Achmim e la sua antica necropoli (in the Etudes ArcMologiques d^diges a M. le Dr. G. Leemans, pp. 85-88). ® Tombs of the princes of Thinis at Mesheikh, opposite Girgeh (Sayce, Gleanings from the Land of Egypt,in the Recueilde Travaux, vol. xiii. pp. 63,64; Nestor L'hotk, in the Recueil, vol. xiii. pp. 71,72); many others may be met with further north, towards Beni-Mohammed-el-Kfifar (Sayce, ibid., p. 67). ' Tombs of the princes of Qasr-es-Sayad, partly copied by Nestor L'hote, incompletely published Lepsius, in Denfem., ii. 113, 114,andinViLLiERs-STUART,iVt7e Gleamngs,pp. 305-307,pls. xxxvi.-xxxviii. * Several princes of El-Kab are mentioned in the graffiti collected and published by L. Stern, Die CuUusstatte der Lucina, in the Zeitschrift, 1875, p. 65, et seq. ' The tombs of the princes of Asw^n, excavated between 1886 and 1892, have been published by U. Bouriant (Les Tombeaux d' Assouan, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. x. p. 182, et seq.) and by Budge (Ex;

cavations

made at Aswan, in

the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archxology, 1887-88, p.

4, et seq.).

STATUS OF TEE FEUDAL LORDS. domain, and exercised in

it,

on a small

scale,

297

complete royal authority.

thing within the limits of this petty state belonged to him fields,

even the desert-sand

:

^

after the

who had gained

example of Pharaoh,

also,

confidence or

his

he was a

canals,

example of the Pharaoh, he farmed a

part himself, and let out the remainder, either in farms or as his followers

— woods,

Every-

his

to those of

fiefs,

After the

friendship.

and exercised priestly fimctions

priest,

HCNTIXG 'WITH THK BOOMERANG AND FISHING WITH THE DOUBLE HARPOON IN A MARSH OK POOL. in relation to all the

of the nome.

the

He

complaints of

gods—that

is,

not of

was an administrator of his

vassals

and

serfs

against his decisions there was no appeal.

on

his

estate

a

hereditary right.

small

He

which

army, of inhabited

a

Egypt, but of

all

and criminal law, received

civil

at

the gate

He he

fortified

the deities

all

of

kept up a was

his

palace,

flotilla,

and raised

commander-in-chief

mansion, situated

and

by

sometimes

Grande Inscription de Beni-Hassnn, 11. 46-53. The extent of the feudal power and organization uomes were defined for the first time by Maspero in La Grande Inscription de Beni-Hassan Ed. Meyer, Geschichte Mgyptens, {Becueil, vol. i. pp. 179-181 ; of. Ekman, Mgypten, p. 135, et seq. •

of the

;

p. 156, et seq.). *

in

Drawn

liy

Fauf-her-Grudin, from a photograph by Gayet; cf Maspero, Le Tombeau de Nakhli, les Membres de la Mission frangaise du Caire, vol. v. p. 480.

the Me'moires publics par

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

298 within the

capital

of the

principality

itself,

sometimes in

neighbour-

its

hood, and in which the arrangements of the royal city^ were reproduced

on a smaller where role

the

scale.

legitimate

often

a

princess

of

solar

departments were crowded into the

various

governors,

directors,

wife,

rank,

surrounded by concubines, dancers, and slaves.

of queen,

of the

Side by side with the reception halls was the harem,

scribes

of

all

ranks,

played the

The

enclosure,

custodians,

and

oflSces

with their

workmen, who

PRINCE API, BOKNE IN A PALANQUIN, INSPECTS HIS FCNEEAEY DOMAIN.*

bore the same the State

:

titles as

their

the corresponding

White Storehouse,

their

emjjiloyes

in

the

Gold Storehouse,

departments of their

Granary,

were at times called the Double White Storehouse, the Double Gold Storehouse, the Double Granary, as were those of the Pharaoh.

Amusements

at

the court of the vassal did not differ from those at that of the sovereign:

hunting in the desert and the marshes,

fishing, inspection

of agricultural

works, military exercises, games, songs, dancing, doubtless the recital of long stories, '

and exhibitions of magic, even down to the contortions of the court

Maspero, Sur

Archxology, vol.

xii.,

sens des mots Nouit 1889-90, p. 252, et seq.

le

et

Edit, in the Proceedings of the Society

of Biblical

Drawa by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. The tomb of Api was disIt had been pulled down in ancient times, and a new tomb built on its ruins about the time of the XII"' dynasty all that remains of it is now in the museum at Gizeh. *

covered at Saqqara in 1884.

;

TEE AMUSEMENTS OF THE FEUDAL LORDS. buffoon and the grimaces of the dwarfs. of these

It

amused the prince

to see one

wretched favourites leading to him by the paw a cynocephalus

larger than himself, while a mischievous

monkey

slyly pulled a

A DWARF PLAYING WITH GYNOCEPHALI AND A TAME stately ibis

by the

inspect

domain:

chair,

299

his

tail.

From time

to

tame and

IBIS.*

time the great lord proceeded to

on these occasions he travelled in a kind of sedan

supported by two

mules

yoked

together;

or

he was borne in a

palanquin by some thirty men, while fanned by large flabella

IN

or possibly

;

A NILE BOAT.

he went up the Nile and the canals in his beautiful painted barge. life

of

the Egyptian lords

an exact reproduction of the

may

life

be aptly described

as in

every

The

respect

of the Pharaoh on a smaller scale.^

Inheritance in a direct or indirect line was the rule, but in every case of transmission the *

new

lord

had

to receive the investiture of the sovereign either

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a chromolithograph in Flinders Petrie's Medum, pi. xxiv. The tombs of Beni-Hassan, which belong to the latter end of the XI"* and early part of

the

XII"' dynasties, furnish us with the most complete picture of this feudal life (Champollion. Monuments de VEgypte et de la Nuhie, vol. ii. pp. 334-436; Lepsius, Denlcm., ii. 123, et seq.). All the features of which it was composed, are to be found singly on monuments of the Memphite epoch

X

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

300 by

The

letter or in person.^

duties enforced

In the

to have been onerous.

first

by the feudal

place, there

state

was the regular payment of

a tribute, proportionate to the extent and resources of the

was military service

place, there

:

was not obligatory

of Pharaoh,

whom he

himself commanded, unless he

we

:

notice, however,

and there are numerous examples of

many

porary residence in the palace,

as, for instance,

nobles about the person

princes, with

are familiar, filling offices which appear to have

When

In the next

a reasonable excuse such as illness or senile incapacity.^ Attendance

ofl'er

at court

fief.

the vassal agreed to supply, when called

upon, a fixed number of armed men, could

do not appear

demanded

whose

lives

we

at least a tem-

the charge of the royal wardrobe.^

the king travelled, the great vassals were compelled to entertain liim and

On

and to escort him to the frontier of their domain.^

his suite,

of such visits, the king would often take

brought up with his own children

:

away with him one

the occasion

of their sons to be

an act which they on their part considered

a great honour, while the king on his had a guarantee of their fidelity in the

Such of these young people as returned

person of these hostages.^ fathers' roof

their education was finished, were usually most loyal to the

when

They

reigning dynasty.

the purple,

often brought back with

who consented

them some maiden born

in

to share their little provincial sovereignty,^ while

exchange one or more of their

in

to their

sisters entered

the harem of the Pharaoh.

Marriages made and marred in their turn the fortunes of the great feudal

Whether she were a

houses.'

dowry a portion of state

;

territory,

princess or not, each

woman

received as her

and enlarged by that amount her husband's

little

but the property she brought might, in a few years, be taken by her

daughters as portions and enrich other houses. against such

dismemberment

;

it fell

The

fief

seldom could bear up

away piecemeal, and by the third

or fourth

For instance, this was so in the case of the princes of the Gazelle nome, as is shown by various passages in the Great Inscription of Beni-Hasan, 11. 13-24, 24-36, 54-62, 71-79. ' Prince Amoni, of the Gazelle nome, led a body of four hundred men and another body of six hundred, levied in his principality, into Ethiopia under these conditions the first time that he served in the royal army, was as a substitute for his father, who had grown too old (Maspero, La Grande Similarly, under the XVIII"" Inscription de £eni-Has»an, in the Eecueil, vol. i. pp. 171-173). 1

;

Denhm., 12

a,

The

11. 5, 6).

commanded the

war-ship, the Calf, in place of his father (Lepsius, tTni inscription furnishes us with an instance of a general levy of the

dynasty, Ahmosis of El-Kab

feudal contingents in the time of the VI"" dynasty (1. 14, et seq.). ^ E.g. Thothotpfl, prince of the Hare nome, under the XII"' dynasty (Lepsius, Denkm., ii. pi. 135), and Papinakhti, lord of Abydos, towards the end of theVI"*(MARiETTE, Catalogue g^Mral, p. 191, No. 531).

An indication of this fact is furnished by the texts referring to the course of the dead sun in Hades (Maspeeo, Etudes de Mythologie et d'ArcMologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 44, 45). " * Khiti I., prince of Sifit, was taken when quite young and brought up with the " royal children at the court of an Heracleopolitan Pharaoh of the X"> dynasty (Maspeko, in the Bevue Critique, *

1889, vol.

ii.

pp. 414, 415).

Prince Zaftti of Qasr-es-Sayad had married a princess of the Papi family (Yilliees-Stuart, Nile Gleanings, pi. xxxviii.) so, too, had a prince of Girgeh (Nestor L'hote, in the Eecueil, vol. xiii. p. 72), ' The history of the Gazelle nome furnishes us with a striking example of the rapid growth of a principality through the marriages of its ruiers (Maspero, La Grande Inscription de Beni-Hassan, in the *

;

Recueil, vol.

i.

p. 170, et seq.).

I shall

have occasion

to tell it in detail in

Chap. VI. of the present work.

DUTIES OF THE NOBLES TO THEIR SUZERAIN. generation had disappeared. in this matrimonial

Sometimes, however,

game, and extended

it

gained more than

borders

its

301

they encroached on

till

neighbouring nomes or else completely absorbed them.

lost

it

There were always in

the course of each reign several great principalities formed, or in the process of formation, whose chiefs might be said to hold in their hands the destinies of

Pharaoh himself was obliged

the country.

to treat

them with

deference, and

he purchased their allegiance by renewed and ever-increasing concessions. Their ambition was never satisfied

;

when they were loaded with

favours, and

did not venture to ask for more for themselves, they impudently

them

for such

of their

demanded

children as they thought were poorly provided

Their eldest son " knew not the high favours which came from the king. princes were his privy counsellers, his chosen friends, or foremost friends

!

" he had no share in all this.^

petition presented so estates

humbly

on the son in question

to that of his father.

it,

:

;

among

Pharaoh took good care not to

he proceeded to lavish appointments, necessity required

if

it,

Other his

reject a

titles,

and

he would even seek out

who might give him, together with her hand, a property equal

a wife for him,

the crown

:

for.

The majority

of these great vassals secretly aspired to

they frequently had reason to believe that they had some right to

either through their

mother or one of their

Had

ancestors.

they combined

against the reigning house, they could easily have gained the upper hand, but their

mutual jealousies prevented

they owed so

much

this,

and the overthrow of a dynasty

would, for the most part, have profited them but

to

which

little

:

as

soon as one of them revolted, the remainder took arms in Pharaoh's defence, led his armies

and fought

If at times their ambition

his battles.^

and greed

harassed their suzerain, at least their power was at his service, and their interested allegiance was often the

Two

means

increase their authority

military organization which enabled forces at the first signal.

own;

it

had

its

The

empires and

its

— the

them

celestial

which corresponded to that of the it

of delaying the downfall of his house.

things were specially needful both for

to maintain or

self-

to

them and

for

Pharaoh in order

protection of the gods, and a

mobilize the whole of their

world was the faithful image of our

feudal

organization, the arrangement of

terrestrial world.^

The gods who inhabited

were dependent npon the gifts of mortals, and the

resources of each

* La Grande Inscription de Bent-Hassan, 11. 148-160. These are the identical words used by Khnftmhotpfl, lord of the Gazelle nome, when trying to obtain an oflSce or a grant of land on behalf of his son Nakhti. We learn from the context that CTsirtasen II. at once granted his request. 2 Tefabi, Prince of Siut, and his immediate successors, did so on behalf of the Pharaohs of the X**" Heracleopolitan dynasty, against the first Theban Pharaohs of the Antftf family (Maspebo, in

the Revue Critique, 1889, vol. ii. pp. 415-419). On the other hand, it appears that the neighbouring family of Khniimhotpfl, in the nome of the Gazelle, took the part of the Thebans, and owned their subsequent greatness to them. *

Of. p. 98 of the present

system of the Egyptian gods.

work, for what has been said on the nature and origin of the feudal

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

302

individual deity, and consequently his power, depended on the wealth and

number

of his worshippers

anything influencing one had an immediate

The gods dispensed

on the other.

who made them large their

;

offerings

own weapons, and

their enemies.^

happiness, health, and vigour

inspired

them with needful strength to assist in battle,

encounter of armies involved an invisible struggle

among

gcds of the side which was victorious shared with

to those

to

lent

overcome

and every great

the immortals,^

The

the triumph, and

it in

the gods of the

received a tithe of the spoil as the price of their help;

much

^

and instituted pious foundations, they

They even came down

vanquished were so

;

effect

the poorer, their priests and their statues were

reduced to slavery, and the destruction of their people entailed their own downfall.

It was, therefore, to the special interest of every one in Egypt, from

the Pharaoh to the humblest of his vassals, to maintain the good will and

power of the gods, so that their protection might be effectively ensured Pains were taken to embellish their temples with

in the hour of danger. obelisks, colossi, altars,

and

new buildings were added

bas-reliefs;

to the old;

the parts threatened with ruin were restored or entirely rebuilt; daily gifts

were brought of every kind

—animals which were

sacrificed

on the

spot, bread,

flowers, fruit, drinks, as well as perfumes, stuffs, vases, jewels, bricks or bars of

gold, silver, lapis-lazuli, recesses of the crypts.*

remembrance of

which were

heaped up

all

permission "

^

high rank wished to perpetuate the

If a dignitary of

his honours or his services,

his double the benefit of endless prayers

in the treasury within the

and at the same time to procure

and

sacrifices,

for

he placed " by special

a statue of himself on a votive stele in the part of the temple

reserved for this purpose,

—in

a courtyard, chamber, encircling passage, as at

Karnak,*' or on the staircase of Osiris as in that leading

up

to the terrace in the

* I may here remind my readers of the numberless bas-reliefs and stelae on which the king is represented as making an offering to a god, who replies in some such formula as the following " I give thee health and strength ; " or, " I give thee joy and life for millions of years." 2 See, for instance, at Medinet-Haba, Amon and other gods handing to Kamses III. the great curved sword, the " khopshfi " (Dijmichen, Historische Inschriften, vol. i. pis. vii., xi., xii., xiii., xvi., xvii.). :

In the " Poem of PentaMrit," Amon comes from Hermonthis in the Thebaid to Qodsbfi in the heart of Syria, in order to help Kamses IL in battle, and rescue him from the peril into which he had been plunged by the desertion of his supporters (E. and J. de RocgEi Le Poeme de Pentaour^ »

in the

Eevue £gyptologique,

vol. v. pp. 158, 159). (E. and J. de Pentaiiiiit" of

Eodge, in the Bevue Plgyptologique, vol. v. p. 15> imperative appeal to Amon for help " Have I Ramses II. bases his et seq.) for the grounds on which thy temple with my prisoners. I have built thee not made thee numerous offerings? I have filled an everlasting temple, and have not spared my wealth in endowing it for thee I lay the whole world *

See the

"Poem

:

;

under contribution in order to stock thy domain. ... I have built thee whole pylons in stone, and have myself reared the flagstaffs which adorn them I have brought thee obelisks from Elephantine." » The majority of the votive statues were lodged in a temple "by special favour of a king"— EM HOslTt NTi KHiR sCton— as a recompense for services rendered (Mariette, Catalogue des principaux monuments du Mus^e de Boulaq, 1864, p. 65 and Karnak, text, p. 42, et seq.). Some only of the stelie bear an inscription to the above effect (Mariette, Catalogue des principaux monuments, temple. 1864, p. 65); no authorization from the king was required for the consecration of a stele in a XII"" the kings of the * It was in the encircling passage of the limestone built by temple ;

;

GIFTS TO TEE TEMPLES AND POSSESSIONS IN MORTMAIN. sanctuary of Abydos

which the

latter

;

he then sealed a formal agreement with the

^

303

priests,

engaged to perform a service in his name, in front of

this

by

com-

memorative monument, a stated number of times in the year, on the days fixed

by universal observance or by

them annuities if

For

custom .^

he assigned to

this purpose

some

in kind, charges on his patrimonial estates, or in

he were a great

on the revenues of his

lord,

and drinks

of loaves

local

fief,^

— such as a fixed

each of the celebrants, a fourth part of the

for

cases,

quantity sacrificial

victim, a garment, frequently also lands with their cattle, serfs, existing buildings,

farming implements and produce, along with the conditions of service with

These

which the lands were burdened. it

by agreements analogous

appears, effected

mortmain

in

gifts to

modern Egypt ;

in

each

the god

— " nutir hotpuii "—were,

to those dealing with property in

noma they

constituted, in addition to the

original temporalities of the temple, a considerable domain, constantly enlarged

by

fresh

sons

The gods had no daughters

endowments.

among whom

theirs for ever,

with terrible

to divide their inheritance

and

ills,

in the contracts

in this world

smallest portion from them.*

;

all

whom

to provide, nor

fell to

them remained

for

that

were inserted imprecations threatening

and the next, those who should abstract the

Such menaces did not always prevent the king

or the lords from laying hands on the temple revenues:

had

this not

been

the case, Egypt would soon have become a sacerdotal country from one end to the other.

Even when reduced by

gods formed, at

all periods,

Its administration

periodic usurpations, the

domain of the

about one-third of the whole country.^

was not vested in a single body of

Priests, representing

dynasty, and now completely destroyed, that all the Karnak votive statues were discovered (Mariette, Karnak, text, p. 42, et seq.). Some of them still rest on the stone ledge on which they were placed by the priests of the god at the moment of consecration. ' The majority of the stelae collected in the temple of Osiris at Abydos were supposed to have come from " the staircase of the great god." In reference to this staircase, the tomb of Osiris to which it led, and the fruitless efforts made by Mariette to discover it, see Maspero's remarks in the Bevue Critique, 1881, vol. i. p. 83, and Etudes Egyptiennes, \ol. i. pp. 128, 129. See p. 508 of this vol. * The great Siftt inscription, translated by Maspero {Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archeologie Egyptiennes, vol. i. pp. 53-75) and by Erman {Zehn Vertrdge aus dem mittleren Reich, in the Zeitschrift, 1882, pp. 159-184), has preserved for us in its entirety one of these contracts between a prince and the priest of tiapftaittt. * This is proved by the passages in the Siat inscription (11. 24, 28, 41, 43, 53), in which Hfi.pizafifi draws a distinction between the revenues which he assigns to the priests "on the house of his father," i.e. on his patrimonial estates, and those revenues which he grants "on the house of the prince " or on his princely fief. * The foundation stele of the temple at Deir-el-Medineh is half filled with imprecations of this kind (S. Birch, Sur une Stele Ei^ratique, in Chabas* Melanges Egyptologiques, 2nd series, pp. 324-343, and Inscriptions in the Hieratic and Demotic Character, pi. xxix.). We possess two fragments of similar inscriptions belonging to the time of the Ancient Empire, but in such a mutilated state as to defy translation (Mariette, Lea Mastabas de VAncien Empire, p. 318 E. and J. de Rouge, Inscriptions hi^roglyphiques, pi. i). ;

The

handed down by Diodorus (i. § 21) tells us that the goddess Isis assigned a third the whole of Egypt is said to have been divided into three equal parts, the first of which belonged to the priests, the second to the kings, and the third to the warrior class (ib., § 73). "When we read, in the great Harris Papyrus, the list of the property possessed by the temple of the Theban Amon alone, all over Egypt, under Ramses III., we can readily believe that the tradition of the Greek epoch in no way exaggerated matters. *

tradition

of the country to the priests

;

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

304

the whole of Egypt and recruited or ruled everywhere in the same fashion.

There were as many bodies of priests as there were temples, and every temple preserved

its

independent constitution with which the clergy of the neighbouring

temples had nothing to do: the only master they acknowledged was the lord of the territory on which the temple was built, either Pharaoh or one of his nobles.

The

tradition which

made Pharaoh

the head of the different worships in

Egypt

prevailed everywhere, but Pharaoh soared too far above this world, to confine

himself to the functions of any one particular order of priests

:

^

he

officiated

before all the gods without being specially the minister of any, 9Jid only exerted

supremacy in order to make appointments to important sacerdotal posts

his

his domain.^

of

Ra

most

He reserved the

high priesthood of the Memphite Phtah and that

of Heliopolis either for the princes of his faithful servants

whom he

;

^

in

own family

or

more olten

they were the docile instruments of his

will,

for his

through

exerted the influence of the gods, and disposed of their property without

having the trouble of administrating

it.

The

feudal lords, less removed from

mortal affairs than the Pharaoh, did not disdain to combine the priesthood of the temples dependent on

them with the general supervision

worships practised on their lands. bore the

title of "

The princes

of the different

of the Gazelle nome, for instance,

Directors of the Prophets of all the Gods," but were, correctly

speaking, prophets of Horus, of

Khnumu

tress of the Specs- Artemidos.*

The

complement of their

civil

religious suzerainty of such princes was the

and military power, and their ordinary income was

augmented by some portion at

main furnished annually.

master of Haoiiit, and of Pakhit mis-

least of the revenues

The subordinate

which the lands in mort-

sacerdotal functions were filled

by

whose status varied according to the gods they served and exception to this rule was in the case of the Theban kings of the XXP* dynasty,

professional priests *

The only

and even here the exception is more apparent than real. As a matter of fact, these kings, Hrihor and Pinozmfl, began by being high priests of Amon before ascending the throne they were Possibly we ought to pontiffs who became Pharaohs, not Pharaohs who created themselves pontiffs. place Smonkhari of the XIV^ dynasty in the same category, if, as Bmgsch assures us (GeschicMe ^gyptens, p. 181, et seq. cf. Wiedemann, Mgyptische Geschiclite, p. 267), his name, Mir-mashafl, is identical with the title of the high priest of Osiris at Mendes, thus proving that he was pontiff of Osiris in that town before, he became king. ;

;

^ Among other instances, we have that of the king of the XXP' Tanite dynasty, who appointed Mankhopirri, high priest of the Theban Amon (Brugsch, Eecueil de monuments, vol. i. pi. xxii., the stele is now in the Louvre), and that of the last king of the same dynasty, Psusennes II., who conferred the same office on prince AftpUti, son of Sheshonqft (Maspero, Les Momies royales de D^irel-Bahari, in the M^moires de la Mission da Gaire, vol. i. p. 730, et seq.). The king's right of nomination harmonized very well with the hereditary transmission of the priestly office through members of the same family, as we shall have occasion to show later on.

A

' list, as yet very incomplete, of the high priests of Phtah at Memphis, was drawn up by E. Schiaparelll in his Catalogue of the Egyptian Museum at Florence (pp. 201-203). One of them, Shopsisfiphtah I., married the eldest daughter of Pharaoh Shopsiskaf of the IV"* dynasty (E. de Rouge, Eecherches sur les monuments qu'on pent attribuer aux six premieres dynasties de Mane'thon,

pp. 67-71)

;

Khamoisit, one of the favourite sons of Eamses

Phtah during the greater part of

II.,

was

also

high

priest of the

Memphite

his father's reign.

* See their titles collected in Maspero's La Grande Inscription de Beni-Hassan (_Becueil de Travaux, vcl. i. pp. 179, 180); the sacerdotal titles borne by the princes and princesses of Thebes under the XX"' dynasty will be found in Maspero, Les Mamies royales de D^ir-el-Bahari.

TEE PRIESTHOOD, AND TEE METHOD OF BECRUITINO ITS RANKS. 305 the provinces in which they were located.^

Although between the mere

priest

and the chief prophet there were a number of grades to which the majority never attained,

still

the temples attracted

many

people from divers sources, who, once

not only never

established in this calling of

life,

they had introduced into

the members of their families.

filled

it

left it,

but never rested until

The

offices

they

were not necessarily hereditary, but the children, born and bred in the

shelter of the sanctuary, almost always succeeded to the positions of their fathers,

and certain families thus continuing in the same occupation at last

came

supplied

to be established as a sort of sacerdotal nobility.^

them with

daily

with their lodging, and

its

;

The

sacrifices

the temple buildings provided

them

revenues furnished them with a salary proportionate

They were exempted from the ordinary

to their position. service,

meat and drink

for generations,

and from forced labour

;

it is

taxes, from militarv

not surprising, therefore, that those who

were not actually members of the priestly families strove to have at least a share in their advantages.

The

servitors, the

workmen and the

employes

who congre-

gated about them and constituted the temple corporation,^ the scribes attached to the administration of the domains,

facto

if

and

to the receipt of offerings, shared de

not de jure in the immunity of the priesthood

;

as a

body they formed

a separate religious society, side by side, but distinct from, the civil population,,

and freed from most of the burdens which weighed so heavily on the

The

soldiers were far in

Perhaps originally in historic

from possessing the wealth and influence of the clergy.

Egypt was not universally compulsory, but rather the and privilege of a special class of whose origin but little is known.^

Military service profession

latter,^

times

it

it

comprised only the descendants of the conquering race, but

was not exclusively confined to the

latter,

and recruits were

* The only hierarchy of which we have any knowledge is that of the Thebau Amon, at Karnak, thanks to the inscription in which Boktinikhonsii has told us of the advance in his career under Seti I. and Eamses I. from the rank of priest to that of " First Prophet," i.e. of High Priest of Amon (Th. Dkveeia, ie Monument biographique de BaJcenkhonsou, pp. 12-14; of. A. Baillet, De V Election du Grand Pretre d' Amnion, in the Revue Arch^ulogique, 2nd series, 1862, vol. iii.), * We possess the coiBns of the priests of the Theban Moutii for nearly thirty generations, viz. from the XXV'' dynasty to the time of the Ptolemies. The inscriptions give us their genealogies, as well as their intermarriages, and show us that they belonged almost exclusively to two or three important families who intermarried with one another or took their ve ives from the families of the priests of Amon. ^ These were the Qonbdtiu, who are so frequently mentioned in the great inscription of Silit (Maspero, Egyptian Documents, in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archmology, vol. yii. we have already seen Qonbdtiu as forming part of the entourage of kings (see p. 277, note 3). p. 14) * We know what the organization of the temples during the Ptolemaic epoch was, and its main features are set forth summarily in Lumbroso's Economic politique de VEgypte sous les Lagides, study of the information which we glean here and there from the monuments of pp. 270-274. a previous epoch, shows us that it was very nearly identical with the organization of the Pharaonic temples ; the only difference being that there was more regularity and precision in the distribution ;

A

of the priests into classes. ' Tills class was called Monfitu in Ancient Egypt (Masteho^ Etudes £gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 35, 36 ef. Brogsch, Die Mgyptologie, pp. 232, 238). The Greek historians, from the time of Herodotus onwards, generally designated them by the term /xdxi/J.ot (Herodotus, ii. 164, 168 ; Diodorus Siculus, i 28, 73, 74 cf. Papyrus No. LXIII. du Louvre, in Letronke, Les Papyrus Grecs du Louvre, p. 360, et seq.). ;

:

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

306

raised everywhere

among

the fellahs/ the Bedouin of the neighbourhood, the

negroes,^ the Nubians,^ and even from

from beyond the

sea.*

among the

prisoners of war, or adventurers

This motley collection of foreign mercenaries composed

ordinarily the body-guard of the king or of his barons, the permanent nucleus

round which in times of war the levies of native recruits were

Egyptian

soldier received

from the chief to

whom he

land for the maintenance of himself and his family.

was attached, a holding of In the

fifth

century

twelve arurse of arable land was estimated as ample pay for each tradition attributes to the fabulous Sesostris

The

this rate.

soldiers were not taxed,

^

Every

rallied.

B.C.

man/ and

the law which fixed the pay at

and were exempt from forced labour

during the time that they were away from

home on

active service

;

with this

exception they were liable to the same charges as the rest of the population.

Many among them the fellah,

—

possessed no other income, and lived the precarious

tilling, reaping,

drawing water, and pasturing their

interval between two musters.''

cattle,

life

of

— in the

Others possessed of private fortunes let their

holdings out at a moderate rental, which formed an addition to their patrimonial

Lest they should forget the conditions upon which they possessed this

income.^ *

This

is

shown, infer aZia, by the real or supposititious letters in which the master-scribe endeavours

40-44 ; cf. Ekman, to deter his pupil from adopting a military career (Maspebo, Du Genre ^Jpistoluire, pp. recommending that of a scribe in preference. Altertum, 721, 722), Leben im pp. JEgyptisches JEgypten und " tJni, under PapiL, recruited his army from among the inhabitants of the whole of Egypt, from Elephantine to Letopolis at the mouth of the Delta, and as far as the Mediterranean, from among the Bedouin of Libya and of the Isthmus, and even from the six negro races of Nubia (Inscription d'Ouni, 11. 14-19). * The Nubian tribe of the Mi,zaift, afterwards known as the Libyan tribe of the Mashaftasha, furnished troops to the Egyptian kings and princes for centuries; indeed, the Mazaifi formed such

an integral part of the Egyptian armies that their name came to be used in Coptic as a synonym for soldier, under the form " matoi." * Later on we shall come across the Shardana of the Eoyal Guard under Ramses II. (E. de Rolge, Extrait d'un m€moire sur Us attaques, p. 5) later still, the lonians, Oarians, and Greek mercenaries ;

will be found to play a decisive part in the history of the Saite dynasties. * Herodotus, ii. 168. The arura being equal to 2782 ares [an are

= 100 square metres], the according to F. L. Gbiffitu, was "arura," [The military fief contained 27-82 X 12 = or square metres (Proceedings of the 2600 a square of 100 Egyptian cubits, making about j of an acre, with Mohammed-Ali, created by Society of Biblical Archmology, vols, xiv., xv.).— Tes.] The chifliks oflered to labourer who allotted each to a view to bringing the abandoned districts into cultivation, 4200-83 metres square to feddans, from i.e. reclaim it, a plot of land varying from one to three (Ghelu, family 12602-49 square metres, according to the nature of the soil and the necessities of each 333-84 ares.

Le

Nil,

le

Soudan, VEgypte,

The

p. 210).

military

fiefs

of ancient

Egypt were,

therefore, nearly three

to times as great in extent as these abadiyehs, which were considered, in modem Egypt, sufficient supply the wants of a whole family of peasants; they must, therefore, have secured not merely

a bare subsistence, but ample provision for their proprietors. 6 DiODORUS SicuLUS, i. 54, 73, 93 No Egyptian monument contains cf. Aristotle, PoHL, vii. 9. " Poem of Pentauiiit," which has the in passage The a law. such of passing the any reference to ;

been quoted in this connection (Revilloct, La Caste Militaire organis€e par Ramses 11. d'apres Diodore de Sidle et le Poeme de Fentaour, in the Bevue Egyptologique, vol. iii. pp. 101-104), does not contain any statement to this effect. It merely makes a general allusion to the favours with which the king loaded his generals and soldiers. ' This follows from the expressions used in Papyrus No, LXIII. du Louvre, and from the recommendations addressed by tlie ministers of the Ptolemies to the royal administrators in regard to soldiers who had sunk into pauperism. » Diodorus Siculus says in so many words (i. 74) that "the farmers spent their life in cultivating lands which had been let to them at a moderate rent by the king, by the priests, and by the warriors."

FOREIGN MERCENABIES AND TEE NATIVE MILITIA.

307

military holding, and should regard themselves as absolute masters of

were seldom

left

long in possession of the same place

their allotments were taken It is difficult to say if this rate, it did

:

they

it,

Herodotus asserts that

away yearly and replaced by others of equal

law of perpetual change was always in force

extent.^ at

;

any

not prevent the soldiers from forming themselves in time into a kind

of aristocracy, which even kings and barons of highest rank could not ignore.

They were enrolled

in special registers, with the indication of the holding

which

SOME OF THE MTLITABT ATHLETIC EXERCISES.*

was temporarily assigned royal

nome

to

or principality.

them.

He

A military scribe kept this register in every

superintended the redistribution of the lands,

the registration of privileges, and in addition to his administrative functions, he

had

in time of

war the

command

of the troops furnished by his

own

district

;

in

which case he was assisted by a " lieutenant," who as opportunity offered acted as his substitute in the office or on the battle-field.^ hereditary, but its advantages, however trifling they in the eyes

engaged in

of the fellahs so great, that for the it

had their children

Military service was not

may

us,

seemed

most part those who were

While

also enrolled.

appear to

still

young the

latter

were taken to the barracks, where they were taught not only the use of the bow, the battle-axe, the mace, the lance, and the shield, but were

such exercises as rendered the body supple, and

in

all

prepared

instructed

them

for

manoeuvring, regimental marching, running, jumping, and wrestling either with closed or open hand.*

They prepared themselves

for battle

by a regular

war-dance, pirouetting, leaping, and brandishing their bows and quivers in the '

Herodotus, ii. 168 cf. Wiedemakn, Eerodot$ Zweitea Buck, pp. 578-580. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a scene in the tomb of Amoni-Amenemhalt ;

at Beni-Hasan Griffith and Newberry, Beni-Hasan, vol. i. pi. xvi.). ' This organization was first defined by G. Maspebo, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 34, et seq. While the name of the class liable to be called on for military service was Monfitvi, later auu, the soldiers collected into troops, the men on active service were called mdshaA, the "marchers" or *

(cf.

" foot soldiers."

Papyrus HI. and Anastasi IV. (pi. ix. 1. 4, et seq.), translated in Maspeeo's Du Genre EpistoThe laire, pp. 40-44; cf. Erman, Mgypten und JEgyptisches Leben im Altertum, pp 721, 722. exercises are represented on several tombs at Beni-Hasan (Champolliok, Monuments de VEgypt« Rosellini, Monumenii ciuili, yi. cxi. et de la Nubie, pi. ccclxiv., and Texte, vol. ii. p. 348. et seq. *

See, on the subject of military education, the curious passages in the Anastagi

(pi. V.

1.

5, pi. vi.),

;

et seq).

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

308

Their training being finished, they were incorporated into local companies,

air.

and invested with

When

their privileges.

or the whole of the class was mustered

;

they were required for service, part

arms kept

among them, and they were conveyed

tributed

the arsenal were dis-

in

in boats to the scene of action.

The Egyptians were not martial by temperament

;

they became soldiers rather

from interest than inclination.^

The power

of

Pharaoh and

the priests and the soldiers

;

lais

barons rested entirely upon these two classes,

the remainder, the commonalty and the peasantry,

were, in their hands, merely an inert mass, to be taxed and subjected to forced

labour at

will.

The

slaves were probably regarded as of little importance

;

the

bulk of the people consisted of free families who were at liberty to dispose of themselves and their goods.

Every

fellah

and townsman in the service of the

king, or of one of his great nobles, could leave his work and his village pleased, could pass from the

domain

in

which he was born into a different one,

and could traverse the country from one end to the of to-day

still do.^

when he

His absence entailed neither

other, as the

loss of goods,

Egyptians

nor persecution

of the relatives he left behind, and he himself had punishment to fear only

when he

left

the Nile Valley without permission, to reside for some time in a

foreign land.*

But although

this

independence and liberty were

in

accordance

with the laws and customs of the land, yet they gave rise to inconveniences

from which

it

was

King excepted, was

difficult to

escape in practical

obliged, in order to get on in

powerful than himself,

whom he

called his master.

Every Egyptian, the

life.

life,

to

The

depend on one more

feudal lord was proud

With regard

to the unwarlike character of the Egyptians, Bee what Strabo says, lib. xvii. § 53, DioDORUS SiCDLDS, i. 73, expressly states that fiefs were given to the fightiag-men " in order that the possession of this landed property might render them more zealous in risking their lives on '

p. 819.

behalf 6f their country." * In the " Instructions of Khiti, son of Dftaftf, to his son Papi " (Maspero, Bu Style ^pistolaire, Latjth, Die altdgyptische Hochschule zu Chennu, in the Sitzungsberichte of the Academy p. 48, et seq. of Munich, 1872, i. p. 37, et seq.), the scribe shows us the working classes as being always on the move first of all the boatman (§ vii.), then the husbandman (§ xii.), the armourer (§ xiv.), the courier ;

;

I

(§ XV.).

may mention

here those wandering priests of Isis or Osiris, who, in the second century of

hawked about their tabernacles and catch-penny oracles all over the provinces of tlie Koman Empire, and whose traces are found even so far afield as the remote parts of the Island of Britain. * The treaty between Eamses and the Prince of Khiti contains a formal extradition clause in reference to Egyptians or Hittites, who had quitted their native country, of course without the permission of their sovereign (E. de Rouge, Traits entre Ramses 11. et le prince de Khet, in the

our era,

Bevue Archeologique, 2nd series, vol. iv. p. 268, and in Eggek, Etudes sur les traiUs publics, pp. 243, 252 ; Chabas, Le Voyage d'un Egyptien, p. 332, et seq.). The two contracting parties expressly stipulate that persons extradited on one side or the other shall not be punished for having emigrated, that their property flight

(11.

is not to be confiscated, nor are their families to be held responsible for their 22-36, in the edition of Bouriant's Becueil de Travaux, vol. xiii. pp. 156-158, and vol. xiv.

pp. 68, 69). From this clause it follows that in ordinary times uaauthorized emigration brought upon the culprit corporal punishment and the confiscation of his goods, as well as various penalties on

The way in which Sinfihit makes excuses for his flight, the fact of his asking pardon Egypt (Maspeeo, Les Contes populaires, 2nd edit., p. 109, et seq.), the very terms letter in which the king recalls him and assures him of impunity, show us that the laws

his family.

before returning to of the

against emigration were in full force under the XII"" dynasty.

PEOPLE OF TEE TOWNS: SLAVES, MEN WITHOUT A MASTER. to recognize

and

Pharaoh as

priests in his

scale every free

and he himself was master of the

his master,

own petty

From

state.^

soldiers

the top to the bottom of the social

who secured to him justice and obedience and fealty. The moment an Egyp-

man acknowledged

protection in exchange for his

309

a master,

tian tried to withdraw himself from this subjection, the peace of his life was at

an end

he became a man without a master, and therefore without a recognized

;

Any one might

protector.^

him on the way,

stop

or property on the most trivial pretext,

and

if

steal his cattle, merchandise,

he attempted to

protest,

might

WAE-DANCE PERFORMED BY EGYPTIAN SOLDIERS BEFORE A BATTLE.'

him with almost

beat

was to

sit at

lord or the

certain impunity.

The only

resource of the victim

the gate of the palace, waiting to appeal for justice If by chance, after

king should appear.

petition were granted, it

many

rebuJBfs, his

was only the beginning of fresh

troubles.

till

the

humble

Even

if

the justice of the cause were indisputable, the fact that he was a

man

home

and delayed

or master inspired his judges with an obstinate mistrust,

In vain he followed his judges with his com-

the satisfaction of his claims. plaints

and

flatteries,

chanting their virtues in every key

father of the unfortunate, the

ness,

of

Good

"

Thou

art the

:

enable

lord,

me

to proclaim

thy name as a law

guide without caprice, great without

little-

thou who destroyest falsehood and causest truth to be, come at the words

my mouth

;

I speak, listen

and do

justice.

my

trouble

the generous, destroy the cause of ^

:

husband of the widow, the brother of the orphan,

the clothing of the motherless

throughout the land.

without

The

generous one, generous of ;

here I am, uplift

me judge ;

expressions which bear witness to this fact are very numerous: MiBi nibuf = " He who " Aat hIIti ni NistF = " He who enters into the heart of his master,'' etc. They ;

loves his master

recur so frequently in the texts in the case of persons of all ranks, that it was thought no importance ought to be attached to them. But the constant repetition of the word NIB, " master," shows that we must alter this view, and give these phrases their full meaning. * The expression, "a man without a master," occurs several times in the Berlin Papyrus, No. ii. For instance, the peasant who is the hero of the story, says of the lord Miifiiteusi, that he is

"the rudder of heaven, the guide of the earth, tbe balance- which carries the offerings, the buttress which falls, the great master who takes whoever is without a master to lavish on him the goods of his house, a jug of beer and three loaves" each day (11. 90-95). Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the tomb of Khiti at Beni-Hasau (Chamfollion, Monuments, KosELLiNi, Monumenti civili, pi. cxvii. 2). These are soldiers of the nome of the Gazelle. tc«lxiv. 2

of tottering walls, the support of that

;

;

TEE FOLITJOAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

310 me,

for

me

behold

a suppliant before thee."

and the judge were inclined to

made no

The

progress,

religious law,

he was willingly heard, but

listen,

his cause

and delays, counted on by his adversary, effected his no doubt, prescribed equitable treatment

condemned the

of Osiris, and

If he were an eloquent speaker

^

ruin.

for all devotees

slightest departure from justice as one of the

gravest sins, even in the case of a great noble, or in that of the king himself

how could

but

impartiality be

shown when the one was the recognized

^ ;

protector,

the " master " of the culprit, while the plaintiff was a vagabond, attached to

no one, " a

man

without a master "

The population

^ !

of the towns included

many

privileged persons other than

the soldiers, priests, or those engaged in the service of the temples.

employed

in royal or feudal administration,

Those

from the " superintendent of the

storehouse " to the humblest scribe, though perhaps not entirely exempt from forced labour, had but a small part of

it

These employes constituted

to bear.*

a middle class of several grades, and enjoyed a fixed income and regular

employment

they were

:

fairly

well educated, very self-satisfied,

and always

ready to declare loudly their superiority over any who were obliged to gain their living

by manual labour.

more

— the

chiefs,

Each

class

of

workmen recognized one

shoemakers, their master-shoemakers, the masons, their

master-masons, the blacksmiths, their master-blacksmiths, their interests said

or

and represented them before the

among the Greeks,

— who

looked after

authorities.^

local

It

was

that even robbers were united in a corporation like

the others, and maintained an accredited superior as their representative

with the police, to discuss the somewhat delicate questions which the practice of their trade

gave occasion

to.

When

the

members

of the association

Maspero, Les Contes populaires de l'£gypte Ancienne, 2nd edit., p. 46. See, on this point, the " Negative Confession " in chap. cxxv. of the Book of the Bead, a complete translation of which has been given on pp. 188-191 of the present work. ' The whole of this picture is taken from the " History of the Peasant," which has been preserved to us in the Berlin Papyrus, No. ii. (Chabas, Les Papyrus hi€ratiques de Berlin, p. 5, et seq. Goodwin in Ohabas, Mdanges Egyptologiques, 2nd series, p. 249, et seq.; Maspero, Les Contes The Egyptian writer has placed the time of his story under populaires, 2n'd edit., p. 33, et seq.). a king of the Heracleopolitan dynasties, the IX'" and the X"" but what is true of that epoch ia equally true of the Ancient Empire, as may be proved by comparing what he says with the data which can be gleaned from an examination of the paintings on the Memphite tombs. * This is a fair inference from the indirect testimony of the Letters the writer, in enumerating scribe (i.e. the employ^ in the the liabilities of the various professions, implies by contrast that of them than others. The general) is not subject to them, or is subject to a less onerous share suflBcient to show us the beginning and end of the instructions of Khlti would in themselves be could they derive from advantages which the middle classes under the XII"' dynasty believed adopting the profession of scribe (Maspebo, Du Genre £lpistolaire, pp. 49, 50, 66, et seq.). '

*

;

:

The stelae of Abydos are very useful to those who desire to study the populations of a small town. They give us the names of the head-men of trades of all kinds the head-mason Diditt *

:

(Makiette, Catalogue g^ngral, p. 129, Nos. 593 and 339, No. 947), the master-mason Aa (id., p. 161, No. 640), the master-shoemaker Kahikhonti (Boukiant, Petits Monuments et petits Textes, in tlie Recueil, vol. vii. p. 127, No. 19), the head-smiths tlsirtasen-ttati, Hotptt, Hotpflrekhsfl (Mariette, Catalogue g^u^ral,

p.

287, No. 856), etc.

— WORKMEN AND ARTISANS: CORPORATIONS. had stolen any object of value,

it

was to this superior that the person robbed

resorted, in order to regain possession of it

required for of this sum.^

its

redemption, and returned

was he who fixed the amount

it

:

it

without

Most of the workmen who formed a

or at least all of

them had

direction of their chief.^

311

their stalls, in the

fail,

upon the payment

state corporation, lodged,

same quarter or

street,

Besides the poll and the house tax,^ they were subject

TWO BLACKSMITHS WORKING THE

BELLOWS.*

to a special toll, a trade licence which they paid in products of their

or industry.^

Their

lot

under the

was a hard one,

if

commerce

we are to believe the description

which ancient writers have handed down to us

:

"I have

never seen a black-

—nor a smelter sent on a mission— but what I have seen the metal worker at —at the mouth of the furnace of as rugged the —and stinking more than fish-spawn.

smith on an embassy is

his

his fingers

as

his forge,

toil,

crocodile,

' DiODORUs SiccLUS, i 80 ; cf. AcLUS Gellius, the juriiconsultus Aiisto, haudquaquam indocti viri.

xi. cap. xviii.

According

§ 16, according to the testimony of De Pauw, Eecherches philosopMque$

to

»ur Us Egyptiens et sur les Chinois (Berlin, 1734), vol. ii. pt. 4, p. 93, et seq., the regulations in regard to theft and thieves were merely a treaty concluded with the Bedouin, in order to obtain

from tlicm, on payment of a ransom, the restoration of objects which they had carried

off in the

course of their raids.

A. Baillet, Divisions et Administration d'une Ville ^gyptienne, in the Becueil de Travaux, 34-36 ' These two taxes are expressly mentioned under Amenothes III. (Bkugsch, Die JSgyptologie, pp. 297-299). AUubion is made to it in several inscriptions of the Middle Empire. * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Rosellini, Monumenti Civili, pi. 2 a cf. Virey, Le Tombeau de Rehhmard, in the Memoires de la Mission frangaise du Caire, vol. v. pis. xiii., xiv. * The registers (for the most part unpublished) which are contained in European museums show us that fishermen paid in fish, gardeners in flowers and vegetables, etc., the taxes or tribute which they owed to their lords. For the Greek period, see what Ltjmbroso says in Lis Economie politique de V^gypte, p. 297, et seq. In the great inscription of Abydos (Mariette, Abydos, vol. i. pi. viii 1. 88) the weavers attached to the temple of Seti I. are stated to have paid their tribute in stuilt. *

vol. xi. pp.

;

TUE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

312 The

any kind who handles the

artisan of

movement

who handles the hoe;^

as he

timber, his business

is

the metal,

chisel,

— but

— does

him

for

—and at night

not employ so his

fields

when the other

by working thing

—and

in' all

home by the lamp.

—

he,

—for

at

—The stone-cutter who seeks living — when at he has earned somehe stops — but sunrise he remain his

kinds of durable stone,

two arms are worn

his

are the

is free,

he works with his hands over and above what he has already done, night, he works at

much

last

out,

;

if at

STOKE-CUTTERS FINISHING THE DRESSING OF LIMESTONE BLOCKS.*

sitting,— his legs are tied to his back.^ evening,

—when he

falls to

and

eats, it is

from street to street to seek custom fill

his

belly— as the bee

;

—

—The

barber who shaves

without sitting down

if

he

is

eats in proportion to ?

The

the

— while running

constant [at work] his two arms its

—^how he endures misery —Exposed to without any garment but a belt— and while the mason

^

until

toil- Shall I

all

the

tell

thee of the

winds— while he

bunch of

builds

lotus-fiowers [which

be, « The artisau of all kinds who handles the chisel is more the hoe." Both here, and in several other passages of this little satiric poem, I have been obliged to paraphrase the text in order to render it intelligible to the *

literal translation

motionless than he

modern

would

who handles

reader.

*

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

'

This

Eosellini, Monumenti civili, pi. xlviii. 2. an allusion to the cruel manner in which the Egyptians were accustomed to bind their prisoners, as it were in a bundle, with the legs bent backward along the back and attached to the arms. The working-day commenced then, as now, at sunrise, and lasted till sunset, with a short is

interval of one or *

Literally, "

two hours

He

practice of the trade itself: is

eating.

midday

workmen's dinner and siesta. The metaphor seems to me to be taken from the the barber keeps his elbow raised when shaving and lowers it when he at

for the

places himself on his elbow."

MISERY OF HANDICRAFTSMEN. is

fixed] on the [completed] houses

arms are worn out with work;

amongst

his refuse,

—and exhausted—

for

building,

—he consumes himself,

—a

there

is

reach/

—

two

his

he has no other bread than his

once.

[always] a block [to

block of ten cubits by

fixed] the

for

all at

six,

dragged] in this or that month [as is

far out of his

still

is

his provisions are placed higgledy piggledy

he becomes wearied

fingers

—

313

—He

much and

is

dreadfully

be dragged] in this or that

— there

is

[always] a block [to be

far as the] scaffolding poles [to

bunch of lotus-flowers on the [completed] houses.

which

—When

the

A WORKSHOP OF SHOEMAKERS MAKUFACTOEING 8ANDALS.-

work

quite finished,

is

—

if

he has bread, he returns home,

have been beaten unmercifully [during his absence].' doors chest,

is

worse off there than a

—he does

bound

fast

as

not breathe.

—

If

woman

reeking

the lotuses of the lake

—and

oppressed with fatigue, in cutting out rags

unfortunate;

— he

— squatting,

—he has

moans

weaver within

his knees against his

;

— and

him

it

to see

is

by giving bread

the light.^

their smell is that of fish-spawn

— his

—The

his children

during the day he slackens weaving,

doorkeeper, that the latter permits fingers

;

— and

ceaselessly,

—

—

his

is

the

to

dyer, his

two eyes are

—and, as he spends garments.^— The shoemaker

hand does not a hatred of

;

—The

—he

stop,

his health is the health of the

his time is

very

spawning

* This passage is conjecturally translated. I suppose that the Egyptian masons had a custom analogous to that of our own, and attached a bunch of lotus to the highest part of a building they had just finished : nothing, however, has come to light to confirm this conjecture. * Drawn b,y Faucher-Gudin, from Champollion's Monuments de VEgypte et de la Nubie, pL clxvi. 3 cf. RosELLiNi, Monumenti civili, pi. Ixiv. 1 ; Viret, Le Tumbeau de Bekhmard, in the M^moires public's par les Membres de la Mission du Caire, vol. t. pis. xiii., xv. This picture belongs to the XVIII"* dynasty but the sandals figured in it are, however, quite like those to be seen on more ;

;

ancient monuments. ^ SalUer Papyrus n" II., pi. iv. 1. 6, pi. v. 1. 5 ; cf. Maspero, Du Genre Epistolaire chez le» Anciens J^gyptiens de V^poque pharaonique, pp. 50, 51 ; Lahth, Die Altdgyplische Hoehschule tu Chennu, in the Comptes Bendus of the Academy of Sciences of Munich, 1872, vol. i. p. 37, et seq. * Saltier Papyrus n" II., pi. vi. 11. 1-5; cf. Maspeko, Du Genre Epistolaire, pp. Chabas, Becherches pour servir a VMstoire de la XIX" dynastie ^gyptienne, pp. 144, 145. * Saltier Papyrus n" II., pi. vii. 11. 2, 3.

53, 55,

and

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EQYFT.

314 fish,

— and

loaves

he gnaws the the

to

by the legs flames."^

;

—

fire

if

;

leather.'

— while

he

slips

his

— The

head

baker makes dough,

inside the oven,

is

from the hands of his son,

—his

—he

falls

— subjects

the

son holds

him

there into the

These are the miseries inherent to the trades themselves of the tax

:

the levying

added

to the cata-

logue a long sequel of vexations

and annoyances, which

were renewed several times in the year at regular inter-

Even

vals.

at the

present

day, the fellah does not pay

except

contributions

his

under protest and by compulsion, but the determina-

tion not to

except

meet obligations

beneath

the

stick,

was proverbial from ancient times THE BAKER MAKING HIS BREAD AND PLACING

IT IN

THE OVEN.'

:

before

whoever paid his dues

he had

received

a

merciless beating would be overwhelmed with reproaches by his family, and

The time when the tax

jeered at without pity by his neighbours.*

came upon the nomes For

as a terrible crisis

due,

fell

which affected the whole population.

several days there was nothing to be heard but protestations, threats,

beating, cries of pain from the tax-payers, and

women and

The performance

children.

over,

piercing lamentations

from

calm was re-established, and the

good people, binding up their wounds, resumed their round of daily

life until

the next tax-gathering.

The towns of

this period presented nearly the

same confined and mysterious

They were grouped around one

appearance as those of the present day.^

more temples, each of which was surrounded by

or

wall, with its

enormous gateways

:

its

own brick enclosing

the gods dwelt there in real castles,

Papyrus n" IL, pi. vii. 1. 9, pi. viii. 1. 2. Anadasi Papyrus n" IL, pi. vii. 11. 3-5, with a duplicate of the same passage in the Papyrus n" I., pi. vii. 11. 7-9 cf. Mabpero, du Genre ^pistolaire cliez les Anciens £gyptiens, p. *

or, if

Sallier

*

;

Sallier 35.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

the painted picture in one of the small antechambers of the tomb of Kamses III., at Bab-el-Molfik (Eosellini, Monumenti civili, pi. Ixxxvi. 8). * Ammiantjs Maecellinus, bk. xxii. chap. 16, § 23 " Erubescit apud eos, si quis non infitiando '

:

tributa, plurimas in corpore vibices ostendat

;

"

of.

..Elian, Var. Hist., vii. 18.

For modern times,

read the curious account given by Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, 2nd edit., vol. i. pp. 306, 307. * I have had occasion to make " soundings " or excavations at various points in very ancient towns and villages, at Thebes, Abydos and Mataniyeh, and I give here a r^sumg of my observations. Professor Petrie has brought to light and regularly explored several cities of the XII"» and XVIII"» dynasties, situated at the entrance to the Fayfim. I have borrowed many points in my description from the various works which he has published on the subject, Kahun, Gurob and Eawara, 1890 and lUahun, Kahun and Gurdb, 1891. ;

'

ASPECT OF TEE TOWNS.

315

word appears too ambitious, redouts, in which the population could take

this

refuge in cases of sudden towns, which

had

attack,

and where they could be in

safety.^

The

been

all

by some

built at one period

king or prince, were on a

plan

and

ground

regular

tolerably

the streets were paved

;

fairly wide;

they crossed

each other at right angles,

and

were

bordered

|g

THE HOUSE OP A GREAT EGYPTIAN LOKD."

with

buildings on the same line of froutage.

The

cities of

ancient origin, which had

increased with the chance growth of centuries, presented a totally different aspect.

A

network of lanes and blind

1

the houses,

-Ej-

U

LH

-

^T

^

alleys,

iPj'zrt

-p

-H t~^'t

muddyJ

dark,

"^

^^^^ «^ ^

^^^"^

<^^

thb ancient

TOWN OF KAHUN.3

damp, and

badly

built,

spread

itself

between

^^*

apparently at random:

an arm of a canal,

and there was up, or a i

narrow,

all

here

but dried

^-^^^q ^he cattle ^^^i i

came

to

which the women fetched the

drink, and from

water for their households; then followed an open space of irregular shape,shaded '

For the description of the

castles of princes

and governors of nomas, see Maspero, Sur

le

sen$

des mots Nouit et Edit, p. 13, et seq. (extracted from the Proceedings of the Biblical Archseological Society, 1889-90); for that of the houses, see Arch€ologie J^gyptienne, pp. 13, 14.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a water-colour by BouSi^AC, Le Tomheau d'Anna, in the M^moires de la Mission Fran(;aise. The house was situated at Thebes, and belonged to the XVIII"* dynasty. The remains of the houses brought to light by Marietta at Abydos belong to the same type, and ^

date back to the XII"* dynasty. By means of these, Mariette was enabled to reconstruct an The picture of the tomb of Anna ancient Egyptian house at the Paris Exhibition of 1877. reproduces in most respects, we may therefore assume, the appearance of a nobleman's dwelling at all periods. At the side of the main building we see two corn granaries with conical roofs, and a great storehouse for provisions. •

From a plan made and published by Professor Flinders Petrie, lllahun, Knhun and Guroh, pi

xiv.

;::

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

316

by acacias or sycamores, where the country-folk of the suburbs held their market on certain days, twice or thrice a month; then came waste ground covered with and

filth

refuse, over

which the dogs of the neighbourhood fought with hawks

The residence

and vultures.

of the prince or royal governor,

of rich private persons, covered a considerable area,

and the houses

and generally presented

to the street a long extent of bare walls, crenellated like those of a fortress

the only ornament admitted

on them, consisted of angular grooves, each surmounted by

two open lotus flowers having stems

their

intertwined.

Within these walls domestic was

life

and

as

own

entirely

secluded,

were confined to

it

resources

of watching

;

its

the pleasure

passers-by was

sacrificed to the

advantage of

not being seen from outside.

The entrance alone denoted at times

the importance of

the great

man who concealed

himself within the enclosure.

Two

or three steps led

had a columned portico, orna-

mented with an

air of

importance to the building.

built of brick

;

to

which sometimes

the door, STELE OF SITU, KEPRESENTING THE FUOXT OF A UODSE

up

The houses of the

statues, lending

citizens were small,

and

they contained, however, some half-dozen rooms, either vaulted,

or having

flat roofs,

doorways.

A

and communicating with each other usually by arched

few houses boasted of two or three stories

;

all

possessed a terrace,

on which the Egyptians of old, like those of to-day, passed most of their time, attending to household cares or gossiping with their neighbours over the party wall or across the street.

The hearth was hollowed out

usually against a wall, and the

smoke escaped through a hole

they asses.

made

their fires of sticks,

in the ground,

in the ceiling

wood charcoal, and the dung of oxen and

In the houses of the rich we

meet with

state

apartments, lighted

the centre by a square opening, and supported by rows of wooden columns

in

'

Drawn by

No. 1043).

Brugsch-Bey. The monument Qizeh Museum (Maspero, Guide du Visiteur, pp.

Boudier, from a photograph by Emil

Sita (IV"' dynasty), in the

is

the stele of

33,

208,

114,

;

HOUSES AND THEIR FURNITUBE.

317

the shafts, which were octagonal, measured ten inches in diameter, and were fixed into flat circular stone bases.

A STREET

IN

THE HIGHER QrAKTER OF MODERN

The family crowded themselves together and slept on the roof

in

A HALL WITH COLUMNS

affections of the for

^

IN

air

;

summer,

in

rooms

spite

in winter,

of risk from

the remainder of the dwelling was used

The store-chambers were

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph, taken in Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by

pi. xvi. 3.

in

into two or three

ONE OF THE Xn"" DYNASTY HOUSES AT GUKOB."

stomach and eyes

stables or warehouses.

*

the open

Si5t.'

1884,

often

built

in

pairs

by Bmil Brugsch-Bey.

Professor Petrie, Illahun,

Kahun and

Gurob,

;

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

318

they were of brick, carefully limewashed internally, and usually assumed the form of an elongated cone, in imitation of the Government storehouses.^

For

the valuables which constituted the wealth of each house-

hold

— wedges

ornaments

for

of gold

men

or silver,

women

or

precious stones,

—there were places

of

concealment, in which the possessors attempted to hide

them from robbers But the

lectors.

latter,

or from the tax-col-

accustomed

to the craft of the citizens, evinced

WOODEN HEAn-BEST.=

a peculiar aptitude for ferreting out the hoard

lifted

and pierced the

and often brought

:

they tapped the walls,

dug down

roofs,

PIGEON ON WHEELS.*

into the soil below the foundations,

to light, not only the treasure of the owner,

roundings of the grave and actually the custom, to

bury

in the

human

among the

but

all

the sur-

corruption.

was

It

lower and middle classes,

middle of the house children who had died

The

at the breast.

little

body was placed

in

an old tool or linen box, without any attempt at embalming, and ite

with

its

favour-

playthings and amulets were buried it

:

two or three infants are often

found occupying the same

The

cofiSn.'

playthings were of an artless but very character

varied

;

limestone,

of

dolls

enamelled pottery or wood, with movable arms and pigs,

crocodiles,

wigs of

ducks, and

pigeons on

pottery boats, miniature

wheels,

household furniture, skiu balls

APPARATUS FOR STRIKING A LIGHT.*

'

An

it

may appear, we have

Small boys of anclcnt

Egypt

sets of

filled

with

However

hay, marbles, and stone bowls.

strange

hair

artificial

to fancy the

as playing at

Fl. Petrie, Kahun, Guroh and Hatvara, pp. 23, 24 and lllaimn, Kaliun and Gurdb, pp. 6-8. may be seen to the right of the house of Anna on p. 315 of this ;

instance of twin storehouses

History. ^

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from

dynasty) ^

The *

:

the foot of the head-rest

is

a head-rest in

my

possession obtained at Gebelen (XI""

usually solid, and cut out of a single piece of wood.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Petrie, Eaicara, Biahmu and rough wood, is now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.

Arsinoe, pi.

Fl. Petrie, Kahun, Guroh and Illahun,

p. 24.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch published in Fl. Petrie, Illalmn, Kahun and Guroh, vii. The bow is represented in the centre on the left, at the top, is the nut below it the *

pi.

xiii. 21.

original, of

;

;

WOMEN IN FAMILY

LIFE.

319

bowls like ours, or impudently whipping their tops along the streets without respect for the legs of the passers-by.^

Some

care was

rougb-casting of

however,

it

was

employed upon the decoration of the chambers.

mud

often preserves

limewashed, and

The bed was not on

MUKAL PAINTINGS

IN

original

coloured

with pictures of jars, provisions, and of houses.^

its

the

red

grey colour; or

yellow,

as well

interiors

legs, but consisted of a low

or

The

sometimes, decorated

as the exteriors

framework, like

THE RUINS OF AN ANCIENT HOUSE AT KAHIN.*

the " angarebs " of the modern Nubians, or of mats which were folded up in the

daytime, but upon which they lay in their clothes during the night, the head

being supported by a head-rest of pottery, limestone, or wood articles of

furniture consisted of one or two

:

the remaining

roughly hewn seats of stone,

a few lion-legged chairs or stools, boxes and trunks of varying sizes for linen

and implements,^ kohl, or perfume, pots of alabaster or porcelain,^ and the fire-stick with the

bow by which

lastly,

was set in motion,^ and some roughly

it

which was attached to the end of the stock: at the bottom and right, two piecw with round carbonized holes, which took fire from the friction of the rapidly rotating stick. * Fl. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Illahun, pp. 24, 30, and 31 Haicara, Biahmu and fire-stick,

;

of

wood

Arsinoe.

pp. 11, 12. *

24 and Illahun, Kahun and Gurob, p. 7, and pi. xvi. represented on the lower part, the interior on the upper part of

Fl. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Illahun,

4, 5, 6.

The

front of the house is

p.

;

the picture.

the facsimile in Petrie's Illahun, Kahun and Gurob, pi. xvi. 6. Fl. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara, p. 24 and Illahun, Kahun and Gurob, pp. 8-11, 12, 13. ' Fl. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob arid Haicara, pp. 29, 30. * Fl. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara, p. 29, pi. ix. 6; and Illahun, Kahun and Gurob, p. 12, vii. 24, 25, 26. I found several of these fire-sticks at Thebes, in the ruins of the ancient city. '

*

pi.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudiu, from

;

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

320

made

Men

pots and pans of clay or bronze.^

except to eat and sleep require

them

;

their

employments or handicrafts were such

most part to work

for the

— who

did

hard work

the

all

:

as to

The middle-class

out-of-doors.

families owned, almost always, one or two slaves in the house

their houses

rarely entered

— either

purchased or born

they looked after the

cattle,

watched over the children, acted as cooks, and fetched water from the nearest pool or well.

hold

entirely

fell

out-

Among

the poor the drudgery of the house-

upon the woman.

She spun, wove, cut

and mended garments, fetched fresh water and provisions,

daily

cooked the dinner, and made the

She spread some handfuls

bread.

of grain

upon an oblong slab of

stone,

slightly hollowed on its upper surface,

and proceeded to crush them with a smaller stone like a painter's muller,

which she moistened from time time.

For an hour and more she

laboured with loins, in fact, all

her

arms, shoulders,

her body

different result followed

exertion.

WOMAN GRINDING

to

The

flour,

;

but an in-

from the great

made

to

undergo

GRAIN.*

several grindings in

this rustic

was coarse, uneven, mixed with bran, or whole grains, which

mortar,

had escaped

the pestle, and contaminated with dust and abraded particles of the stone.

She kneaded stale

dough

it

with a

little water,

blended with

it,

as a sort of yeast, a piece of

day before, and made from the mass round cakes, about

of the

half an inch thick and some four inches in diameter, which she placed upon a flat flint,

covering them with hot ashes.

The

bread, imperfectly raised, often

badly cooked, borrowed, from the organic fuel under which special odour, selves.

The

and a

impurities which

chewing, and old

men

was buried, a

which strangers did not readily accustom them-

taste to

to ruin the strongest teeth

it

;

were

it

contained were sufficient in the long run

eating

it

was an action of grinding rather than

not unfrequently met with whose teeth

had

been gradually worn away to the level of the gums, like those of an aged ass or ox.^ '

Fl. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob arid Mawara, pp. 24-26; and llldhun, Earthen pots are more common than those of bronze.

Kahun and

Gurdb, pp. 8-11,

12, 13.

* Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Be'chard (cf. Mariette, Album photograpMque du Musee de Boulaq, pi. 20; Maspero, Guide du Yisiteur, p. 220, Nos. 1012, 1013). ' The description of the \voman grinding grain and kneading dough is founded on statues in the Gizeh Museum (Mariette, Notice des principauz monuments, 1864, p. 202, Nos. 30-35, and Album photograpMque du Mus^e de Boulaq, pi. 20; Maspero, Guide du Visiteur, p. 220, Nod. 1012. 1013).

SOLEMN FESTIVALS. Movement and animation were not lacking

at certain hours of the day,

particularly during the morning, in the markets

the

of

temples

and government buildings:

anywhere else; the

were

streets

silent,

821

and

in the

was

there

neighbourhood

but

little

and the town dull and sleepy.

traffic

It

woke

up completely only three or four times a year, at seasons of solemn assemblies " of

heaven and earth

:

" the

houses were then opened and their inhabitants

TWO AVOMEX WEAVING

streamed forth, the

To begin

crowd

lively

with, there was

New

AT A HORIZONTAL LOOM.'

thronging

the

squares

and

crossways.

Year's Day, quickly followed by the Festival

On

of the Dead, the "Uagait."

LINE.V

the night of the 17th of Thot, the priests

kindled before the statues in the sanctuaries and sepulchral chapels, the for

the use of the gods

and doubles during the twelve

Almost at the same moment the whole country was AH

the European

museums

Notice descriptive des

numerous specimens of the bread

possess

monuments du

lit

Muse'e Egyptien, 1827, p. 97),

ensuing

fire

months.

up from one end

to

(Champollion, which it produces

in question

and the

effect

long run on the teeth of those wlio habitually used it as an article of diet, has been observed of the most important personages (Maspero, Les Mamies royales de D^ir el Bahari, in the M€moires de la Mission Frangaise, vol. i. p. 581). ' Drawn by Fauctier-Giidin, from a picture on the tomb of Khuumhotpd at Beni-Hasan (cf. Champollion, Monuments de VFgijpte et de la Nubie, pi. ccclxxxi. his, 4 Rosellini, Monumenti ia the

in

mummies

;

civiIi,\A. xli. 6; Lepsics, Diiilm.,

ii.

the Parid Exhibition, and which

now

is

126).

This

is

the loom which was reconstructed in 1889 for

to be seen in the galleries of the Trocadero.

:;

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

322

the other: there was scarcely a family, however poor, who did not place ia

new lamp

front of their door a

who

in

which burned an

oil

saturated with salt, and

The

did not spend the whole night in feasting and gossiping.^

festivals

who came not only from the

of the living gods attracted considerable crowds,

nearest nomes, but also from great distances in caravans and in boats laden

with merchandise, for religious sentiment did not exclude commercial interests,

and the pilgrimage ended

For

in a fair.

themselves solely in prayers,

sacrifices,

clad in white, with palms in their "

the priests on their way.

several days the people occupied

and processions,

hands, chanted

The gods

of heaven

in

which the

hymns

as they escorted

exclaim

'

Ah

satisfaction, the inhabitants of the earth are full of gladness, the

their tabors, the great ladies

wave their mystic whips,

faithful,

!

!

'

in

Hathors beat

those

all

ah

who

are

gathered together in the town are drunk with wine and crowned with flowers the tradespeople of the place walk joyously about, their heads scented with

perfumed

oils, all

the children rejoice in honour of the goddess, from the rising

to the setting of the sun."

The

^

hours, they

made up

existence.

The god having

nights were as noisy as the days

energetically for long

:

for a lew

months of torpor and monotonous

re-entered the temple and the pilgrims taken

their departure, the regular routine was

resumed and draiiged on

At an

x course, interrupted only by the weekly market.

its

tedious

early hour on that day,

the peasant folk came in from the surrounding country in an interminable stream, and installed themselves

immemorial

for their use.

The

in

some open

sheep, geese, goats, and large-horned cattle

Market-gardeners, fishermen,

were grouped in the centre, awaiting purchasers. fowlers

and gazelle-hunters,

from time

space, reserved

potters,

and small tradesmen, squatted on the

roadsides or against the houses, and offered their wares for the inspection of their customers,

heaped up in reed

piled on low round tables

baskets, or

vegetables and fruits, loaves or cakes baked during the night,

It

life.

was a good opportunity

either raw

all

the necessities and

for the

workpeople, as well

or cooked in various ways, stuffs, perfumes, ornaments,

luxuries of daily

—

meat

as for the townsfolk, to lay in a store of provisions at a cheaper rate than from

the ordinary shops

The night

;

and they took advantage of Thot

it,

each according to his means.

—

which, according to our computation, would be the night of the be seen from the Great Inscription of Siut (1. 36, et seq.), ajjpoiuted As at the for the ceremony of " lighting the fire " before the statues of the dead and of the gods. " Feast of Lamps " mentioned by Herodotus (ii. 62), the religious ceremony was accompanied by a general illumiuation which lasted all the night; the object of this, probably, was to facilitate the visit which tiie souls of the dead were supposed to pay at this time to the family residence. * DiJMiCHEN, Dendera, pi. xxxviii. 11. 15-19. The people of Deudera crudely enough called '

of tlie 17th

16th to the 17th

— was, as

this the " Feast of

making

may

Drunkenness."

From what we know

this description a general one,

other towns besides Dendera.

and in applying

of the earlier epochs,

it,

as

we

are justified in

I have done here, to the festivals of

—

PERIODIC MARKETS. Business was mostly carried on by barter.^

them some product

of

their toil

pots of unguents or cordials

new

tool,

made of

with,

a pair of shoes, a

mat,

reed

and a small box

be bartered for such things as they needed.^

of

some large animal

When

it

came

be a question

to

or of objects of considerable value, the discussions

and stormy

:

it

full of

copper, silver, or even gold, all destined

to

arose were keen

The purchasers brought

often, too, rows of cowries

;

each weighing a " tabnu,"

rings,

—a

323

•

which

was necessary to be agreed not only as to the

amount, but as to the nature of the payment to be made, and to draw up a sort of invoice, or in fact an inventory, in which beds, sticks, honey,

and garments,

demand

townsfolk stop for a a basket for

equivalents for a bull or a she-ass.^

all figure as

bargains did not

so

moment

The

sale.

oil,

first

many

or

pick-axes,

Smaller retail

Two

such complicated calculations.

who

in front of a fellah

onions and corn in

offers

medium

appears to possess no other circulating

than two necklaces made of glass beads or many-coloured enamelled terracotta

;

the other flourishes about a circular fan with a wooden handle, and one

of those triangular contrivances used is

blowing up the

for

a fine necklace which will suit you," cries the former, "

are wanting lator."

attack, it

by cooks

The

;

" while the other breaks in with fellah,

however, does not

"

Here

just

:

" Grive

to

it

one asks too much, the other

come

to

me

"Here

what you

a fan and a venti-

is

himself be disconcerted by this double

and proceeding methodically, he takes one of the necklaces

at his leisure

last

let

:

it is

fire.

to look at, that I

offers too little

;

after

to

examine

may fix the price." The many concessions, they at

an agreement, and settle on the number of onions or the quantity

of grain which corresponds exactly with the value of the necklace or the fan.

A

little

further on, a customer wishes to get

some perfumes

pair of sandals, and conscientiously praises his wares

strong pair of shoes."

:

But the merchant has no wish

in

exchange

for a

" Here," says he, " is a to

be shod just then,

The scenes of market life here described are borrowed from a tomb at Saqqara (Lepsius, Denhm., 11. 96). Attention was drawn to them In my lectures at the College of France in 1876, and they were reproduced among the pictures of Egyptian customs collected by Mariette for the Paris Exiiibition of 1878 (Makiette, La Galerie de VEgypte ancienne a V Exposition retrospective du Trocad^ro, p. 4rl); I published them about the same time in the Gazette ArcMologique, 1880, p. 97, et seq. M. Chabas had, indeed, recognized in them scenes of market life (RechercJies sur les Raids, Mesures et Monnaies des Anciens Egijptiens, pp. 15, 16), but did not fully understand their detail and composition. - The name deciphered as Htnd, " ten," since the researches of Chabas must now be read tabnu (W. Spiegelberg, Bie Lesung des Gewichtes Tabnu, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. xv. pp. 145, 146). The observations of Chabas {Note sur un Raids e'gyptien de la collection de M. Harris d^ Alexandrie, in the Revue ArcMologique, 1861, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 12, et seq. Deiermiuation m€lrique de deux Mesures €gyptiennes de capacity, 1857; Recherches sur les Raids, Mesures et Moyinaies des Ancie7is Egyptiens, In the Memoires de VAcad^mie des Inscriptions et Relies- Leltres, Savants e'trangers, vol. xxvii.) have established the fact that the average weight of the tabnii varied from 91 to 32 grammes [about 3f ozs. avoirdupois. Trs.] these results have been confirmed with but trifling diftereuces by the tests of Professor Flinders Petrie. ^ Several invoices of this nature will be found translated in Chabas, Recherches sur les Raids, Mesures et Monnaies des Anciens Egyptiens, p. 17, et seq. They are all of the XX"> dynasty, and are In the possession of the British Museum (S. Bircu, Inscriptions in the Hieratic and Demotic Character, pi. ^

;

;

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

324

and demands a row of cowries

for his little pots

few drops of this to see how delicious

it is,"

:

"

You have merely

to take a

A

he urges in a persuasive tone.

seated customer has two jars thrust under his nose by a

woman—they

contain some kind of

unguent

something which smells

Behind

tempt you."

:

probably " Here

good enough

this

group two

is

to

men

are discussing the relative merits of a bracelet

and a bundle of fish-hooks

with a small box in her hand,

argument with a merchant another

woman

for

is

a

woman,

having an

selling necklaces

;

seeks to obtain a reduction

in the price of a fish in front of her.

;

which

is

being scraped

Exchanging commodities

metal necessitated two or three opera-

tions not required in ordinary barter.

rings

or

thin

The

bent strips of metal which

formed the " tabnu " and

its multiples,^

not always contain the regulation

did

amount

of

gold or silver, and were often of light weight.

They had

to be

weighed at every fresh trans-

action in order to estimate their true value,

and the interested parties never missed excellent sion ONE OF THE FORMS OF EGYPTIAN SCALES.'

:

opportunity for a heated

after

having declared

their

way

came

fairly satisfied

discus-

for a quarter of

an hour that the scales were out of order, that

the weighing had been carelessly performed, and that again, they at last

this

to terms,

it

should be done over

exhausted with wrangling, and then went

with one another.^

It

sometimes happened that a

Nos. 5633, 5636). The invoice of the bull (Birch, Inscriptions in the Hieratic and Demotic CharacNo. 5649) has been translated and commented on by Cuabas, in his Melanges Egyptologiques, 3rd series, vol. i. p. 217, et seq. The invoice of the she-ass is preserved on the Berlin ostracon, No. 6241 it has been referred to by P^rman, Mgypten und JEgyptisches Lehen in Altertuin, pp. 657, 658. xvi.,

ter, pi. XV.,

;

The rings of gold in the Museum at Leyden (Leemans, Monuments jSgi/ptiens, vol. ii. pi. xli., No. 296), which were nsed as a basis of exchange (Brandis, Das Miinz- Mass- und Gewichtsicesen in Vorder-Asien, p. 82), are made on the Chaldseo-Babylonian pattern, and belong to the Asiatic system (Fk. Lenormant, La Monnaie dans V Antiquite', vol. i. pp. 103, 104). We must, perhapsi agree with Fr. Lenormant (op cit., pp. 104, 105), in his conclusion that the only kind of national metal of exchange in use in Egypt was a copper wire or i)late bent tlius ^=), being the ', this sign invariably used in the hieroglyphics in writing tlie word tabnu. ^ Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after a sketch by Rosellini, Monumenti civili, pi. Hi. 1. As to the construction of the Egyptian scales, andthe working of their various parts, see Flinders Petrie's remarks in A Season in Egypt, p. 42, and the drawings which he has brought together on pi. xx. of the same work. ' The weighing of rings is often represented on the monuments from the XVIII"> dynasty onwards (Lepsius, Denlcm., iii. 10 a, 39 a, d, etc.). I am not acquainted with any instance of this on the bas-reliefs of the Ancient Empire. The giving of false weight is alluded to in the paragraph in the " Negative Confession," in which the dead man declares that he has not interfered with the beam of the scales (cf. p. 189 of the present work). '

—

<

— ;;

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

326

and unscrupulous dealer would alloy the

clever

precious metal as

of a baser sort as would be possible without danger of

The honest merchant who

detection.

some

much

article,

and mix with the

rings,

thonglit he was receiving in

say eight tabnu of fine gold, and

who had handed

tabmi of some alloy resembling gold, but containing one-third of a single transaction, without suspecting fear of such counterfeits

a long time

among

was instrumental

;

they are almost

The same

realize

all

Egypt

The

tabnu

for

objects.

scarcely ever live in isolated and

some distance from each

state of things existed in ancient times,

modern market towns

like,

have only to

visit

any one of the

stalks, so

standing upright almost touches the roof with his head tall

circular mud-built sheds, in which the

hold

is

carefully stored,

;

man

low that a

courtyards

with

filled

corn and durra for the house-

and wherever we turn, pigeons, ducks, geese, and animals

higgledy-piggledy with the family. class,

:

by the principal people of the place

groups of brick or clay cottages thatched with durra

degree of servitude.

and those who would

scattered at intervals along the valley of the Nile

half a dozen fairly built houses, inhabited

were of the lower

silver, lost in

concentrated in hamlets and villages of

what a village in the past was

all living

him eight

in restraining the use of

considernble extent, divided into quarters often at other.^

for

the people, and restricted the buying and selling in the

present rural population of

scattered farms

to

almost one-third of his goods.

it,

markets to exchange in natural products or manufactured

The

payment

The majority

of the peasantry

but they were not everywhere subjected to the same

The

slaves, properly so called,

came from other

countries

they had been bought from foreign merchants, or they had been seized in a raid

and had

lost their liberty

by the fortune of

war.^

Their master removed them

from place to place, sold them, used them as he pleased, pursued them

if

they

succeeded in escaping, and had the right of recapturing them as soon as he received information of their whereabouts. overseer's orders, receiving their liberty.^ '

Many

for

him under

his

no regular wages, and with no hope of recovering

chose concubines from their own

Maspero, Mudes ^gyptiennes,

The

They worked

vol.

ii.

class, or

intermarried

pp. 164, 172.

war brought back to Egypt, is found iu the biography of tTui The method iu which they were distributed among the oflScers and soldiers is indicated (11. 26, 27). in several inscriptions of the New Empire, in that of Ahmosis Pannekhabit (Lepsius, Ausicald der idclitigden UrJmnden, pi. xiv. a, 11. 5, 7, 10 cf. Peisse d'Avennes, Monuments de V^gypte, jil. ix., and especially Maspeko, Notes sur quelques points de Grammaire et d'Histoire, in the Zeitschri/t, 1883, pp. 77, 78, where a complete text is given), in that of Ahmosis si-Abina (Lepsius, Denkm., iii. 12, where one of the inscriptions contains a list of slaves, some of whom are foreigners), in that of Amenemhabi (Ebers, Zeit und Thaten Tutmes III., in the Zeitschri/t, 1873, pp. 1-9 and 63, et seq.). We may form some idea of the number of slaves in Egypt from the fact that iu thirty years Eamses III. presented 113,433 of them to the temples alone (Brugsch, Die JEgyptologie, pp. 264, 2G5 Erman, JEgypten, p. 406). The "Directors of the Eoyal Slaves," at all periods, occupied an important position at the court of the Pharaohs (Maspero, Etudes jSgyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 8, 39). A scene reproduced by Lepsius {Denkm., ii. 107) &hows us, about the time of the VI"" dynasty, *

first

allusion to prisoners of

;

;

•*

; :

THE VILLAGES, SEEFS, AND FREE PEASANTRY. with the natives and had famifies their descendants

neither

more nor

:

at the

end of two or three generations

became assimilated with the indigenous less

than actual

over or exchanged with

it.-^

serfs

attached to the

The landed

race,

this

proprietors, lords, kings, or gods.

of

a

built for

both houses and people.^

labourer was in

many

the purpose, where everything belonged

The

condition of the free agricultural

respects analogous to that of the

them possessed no other property than a mud

man and

his wife,

APIT.^

population either in the outbuildings belonging to their

residences, or in villages to them,

and were

who were made

soil,

PART OF -THE MODERN VILLAGE OF KARNAK, TO THE WEST OF THE TEMPLE OF

accommodated

327

modern

fellah.

cabin, just large

Some

enough

for

and hired themselves out by the day or the year as farm

the harvest gathered by the "royal slaves" in concert with the tenants of the dead man (Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 86). One of the petty princes defeated by the Ethiopian Pionkhi Miamiin " proclaims tiimself to be " one of the royal slaves who pay tribute in kind to the royal treasury

DE KtrGE, La Stde du roi ^hiopien ndnMi-Meriamen, p. 31, 1. 8). Amten repeatedly mentions slaves of this kind, " siitiu " (Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 168, 1. 13 p. 211, 1. 4). ' They are This is the status of serfs, or miritiu, as shown in the tests of every period. (E.

;

mentioned along with the fields or cattle attached to a temple or belonging to a noble. Ramses II. to the temple of Abydos "an appanage in cultivated lands, in serfs (miritiu), in cattle" (Mariette, Ahydos, vol. i. pi. vli. 1. 72). The scribe Anna sees in his tomb " stalls of bulls, of oxen, of calves, of milch cows, as well as serfs, in the mortmain of Amon " {Brcgsch, Eecueil de MonuPtolemy I. returned to the temple at Bftto " the domains, the ments, vol. i. pi. xxxvi. 2, 11. 1, 2). boroughs, the serfs, the tillage, the water supply, the cattle, the geese, the flocks, all the things" which Xerxes had taken away from Kabbisha (Mariette, Monuments divers, pi. xiii. 11. 13, 14). The expression passed into the language, as a word used to express the condition of a subject lace " I cause," said Thiitmosis III., " Egypt to be a sovereign (liirit) to whom all the earth is a slave (jniritu) (Brugsch, Diet. Hier., pp. 672, 673). ^ Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato, taken in 1886. ' The drritu, so frequently mentioned in the texts, and the pi-habu acted as ergastuli, and included, among others, the slaves of the kings and of the gods (Brugsch, Diet. Ei€r., pp. 749, 750 cf. Maspero, Eludes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 29, 30, and tlie Hypogi'fS royaux de Thebes, p. 26). granted

'

—

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

328

Others were emboldened to lease land from the lord or from a soldier

servants.*

The most

in the neighbourhood.^

fortunate acquired

some domain of which they

were supposed to receive only the product, the freehold of the property remaining primarily in the hands of the Pharaoh, and secondarily in that of lay or religious

who held

feudatories

or sell these lands

of the sovereign

it

:

they could, moreover, bequeath, give,

and buy fresh ones without any opposition.^ They paid, besides

the capitation tax, a ground rent proportionate to the extent of their property,

and to the kind of land of which

it

consisted.*

It

was not without reason

that all the ancients attributed the invention of geometry to the Egyptians.^

The perpetual encroachments the facility with which

it

of the Nile

and the displacements

effaced the boundaries of the

fields,

it

occasioned,

and in one summer

modified the whole face of a nome, had forced them from early times to measure

with the greatest exactitude the ground to which they owed their sustenance.^

The

town and nome was subjected to repeated surveys

territory belonging to each

made and co-ordinated by the Ei)yal Administration, thus enabling Pharaoh to know the exact area of his estates. The unit of measurement was the arura that ;

is

to say, a square of a

A

eight ares.*

hundred

cubits,

comprising in round numbers twenty-

considerable staff of scribes and surveyors was continually occu-

pied in verifying the old measurements or in making fresh ones, and in recording in the State registers '

They

any changes which might have taken

are mentioned in

the Sallier Papyrus no II.

U. 7-9

p. 5,

;

place.' cf,

Each

Maspero, Le

estate Genre

£pistolaire, p. 52. ' DioDORUS, i. 74. As to the letting of royal or other land.s during the Ptolemaic period, see the remarks of Lumbroso, Recherches mr VEconomie politique de VE
pi.

xxxvii.

1.

31).

Hehodotus,

ii. 109 according to Plato {Fhx'hus, § lix., Didot's edition, vol. i. p. 733), Thot have been the inventor of the art of surveying Jamblichus {Life of Pythagoras, 29) traces the discovery back to the time of tlie gods.

*

was supposed §

«

Servius,

;

to

;

Ad

Virgilii Eclog.,

iii.

41

:

"luventa enim haec ars est tempore quo Nilus, plus aequo ad quos innovandos adhibiti sunt philosophi, qui liueis

crescens, confudit terminos possessionum,

diviserunt agros inde geometria dicitur." [* One " are " equals 100 square metres. ;

A

Tb.]

Edfa, published and explained by Lepsius (Ueber eine hieroglyphisr.he Inschrift am Tempel von Edfu, Apollinopolis Magna, in welcher der Besitz dieses Tempels an Ldndereien miter der Regierung Ptolemxus VI Alexander I verzeichnet ist, in the M^moires de VAcad^mie '

series of inscriptions of

des Science de Berlin, 1855, p. 69, et seq.),

and more recently by Brugsch (Thesaurus Inscriptionum .^gyptiacarum, iii. pp. 531-607), shows what these Registers of Surveys must have been like. Some information as to the organization of this department and its staff may be found on p. 592, et seq. of Brugsch'a Thesaurus. We learn from the expresbions employed in the great inscription of Beni-

Hasan

13—58, 131-148) that the cadastral survey had existed from the very earliest times; there it to previous surveys. We find a surveying scene on the tomb of Zosirkerisonbu at Thebes, under the XVIII"' dynasty. Two persons are measuring a field of wheat by means of a cord a third notes down the result of their work (Scheil, Le Tombeau de Raserlmsenb, in the (Ih

are reftrences in

;

Me'moires de la Mixsion Frangaise, vol.

v.).

RURAL DOMAINS— THE SURVEY. had

boundaries marked out by a line of

329

which frequently bore the name of the tenant at the time, and the date when the landmarks its

were

Once

last fixed.^

name which gave

set up, the stele received a

as it were, a living

it,

dependent personality.^ the nature of the characteristic *•

Lake

the " Green Island," ''

^

bore the

under

^

some

remarkable

—the

it

the " Eastern Meadow,"

the " Fisher's Pool,"

the " Sycamore

name

whom

of the

it

Phtahhotpu,"

first

"

;

the

"Meadow-Didifii,"

i^

"

the

and neither

sometimes also

—the

"

^^

the

the " Abundance-Sahuri,"!^

Doubles." to

for

it

^^

Once

centuries,

nor redistributions, nor revo-

The

to be forgotten.^^

scribed

it in

The

it

Nurse-

nor changes of dynasty, could cause

lutions,

'

the

^

the " Vine

^

Verdure-Kheops,"

name clung sales,

^

master or the Pharaoh

Khafri-Great-amoug-the

given,

^

had been erected

1°

in-

situation, or

Willow Plot," the " Vineyard,"

Arbour,"

"

its

which made ^

and

sometimes recorded

It

soil,

of the South,"

stelae

officers of

it

A BOUNDARY

STELE. '^

the survey in-

their books, together with the

name

of the proprietor, those of the

great inscription of Beni-Hasan tells us of the etelse which bounded the principality

North and South (11. 21-24, 32, 33, 47-49), and of those in the plain which marked the northern boundary of the nonie of the Jackal (1. 139); we also possess three other stelae which were used by Amenothes IV. to indicate the extreme limits of his new city of Khutniaton (Prisse d'Avennes, Monuments de V£gypte, pis. xiii.-xv. Lepsius, Denkm., iii. 91 a, 119 b; Daressy, Tombeaux et steles-limitts de E.agi-Kandil, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. xv. pp. of the Gazelle on the

;

36-G2).

In addition to the above

stele,

we

which marked the boundaries of a private other in the text of Monuments divers, p. 30

know

two others belonging to the XII"' dynasty which estate, and are reproduced, one on plate 106, the also the stele of Buhani under Thutmosis IV. (Ckum,

also

of

;

Wady

Haifa, in the Proceedings, vol. xvi., 1893-94. pp. 18, 19). - As to the constitution of these domains, see M.a spero, Sur le sens des mot< Nnuit et Halt, p. 2, et seq. (extracted from the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archxology, 1889-90, vol. xii. p. 236, et seq.). ' Makiette, Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, p. 317, under tlsirkaf, on the tomb of Sannuonkhtt.

Stelx from

Mariettf, Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, p. 300, under Sahuri, on the tomb of Pirsenu. M.-vRitTTE, Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, p. 474, under tjsirkaf, on the tomb of SannuonkhCi. « Mariette, Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, p. 317, on the tomb of Nofirmait at Medum, under Snofrui, about the close of the IIP*^ or beginning of the IV"" Memphite dynasty. JMariltte, Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, pp. 181, 186, on the tombs of Kamri and KhonG. *

on the tomb of Shopsisuri. Mariette, Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, pp. 186, 276, 325. Mariette, Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, p. 353, under Assi, on the tomb of Phtahhotpu. Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 23, under Khephren, on the tomb of Safkhitabuihotpu. Mariette, Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, p. 300, .under Sahuri, in the tomb of Pirsenii. Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 80; Mariette, Les Mastabas de VAncien Empire, p. 306. Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 12, on the tomb of Nibumkhuit, under Khephren.

*

Lkpsius, Denhm.,

ii.

61,

^

Lepsius, Denlan,,

ii.

46, 47;

"> •'

•2

»' '* '*

MASPtRO, Sur

le

sens des mots Nouit et Edit, pp. 11, 12 (in the Proceedings of the Society of xii., 1889-90, pp. 246, 247, from which this nomenclature is taken).

Biblical Archxology of London, vol. '«

The

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph given by Marieite, Monuments stele

marked the boundary

of the estate given fo a priest of the

Thutmosis IV. of the XVIII"' dynasty.

The

original is

now

in the

divers, pi. 47 a.

Theban Amon by Pharaoh

Museum

at

Gizeh.

;

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

330

owners of adjoining lands, and the area and nature of the ground.

They noted

down, to within a few cubits, the extent of the sand, marshland, pools, canals, groups of palms, gardens or orchards, vineyards and cornfields,^ which

The cornland

contained.

whether

to

water,

in its turn

was divided into several

and consequently dependent on a more or

much

All this was so

irrigation.

less costly

according

classes,

was regularly inundated, or situated above the highest

it

it

rise of the

system of

artificial

information of which the scribes took advan-

tage in regulating the assessment of the land-tax.

Everything tends to make us believe that

amount

the gross produce, but the

annual

rise of

exactitude: lessened,

the Nile, and

if

it

this tax represented one-tenth of

of the latter varied.^

followed the course of

much

there were too

it

It

with almost mathematical

or too little water,

it

and might even be reduced to nothing in extreme

his capital

and the great lords

in their fiefs

had

set

depended on the

was immediately

cases.

The king

in

up nilometers, by means of

which, in the critical weeks, the height of the rising or subsiding flood was taken daily.

Messengers carried the news of it over the country

larly informed of

the people, kept regu-

:

what was happening, soon knew what kind of season to expect,

and they could calculate

to-

within very

little

what they would have

amount of land covered

theory, the collecting of the tax was based on the actual

by the water, and the produce of

it

In

to pay.^

was constantly varying.

In practice,

it

was

regulated by taking the average of preceding years, and deducting from that a fixed sura, which was never departed

The year would have ordinary rate

thing from '

its

:

to be a

from except

in extraordinary circumstances.^

very bad one before the authorities would lower the

the State in ancient times was not more willing to deduct any-

revenue than the modern State would

The payment

be.^

See in the great inscription of Beni-Hasan the passage in which are enumerated at

of taxes

full length,

in a legal document, the constituent parts of the principality of the Gazelle, "its watercourses, fields, its trees-, its sands, ^

The

from the river to the mountain of the West "

tithe is referred to in the Philffi inscription (Lepsics,

(11.

Denhm.,

iv.

its

46-53).

27 h) during the Ptolemaic

pp. 266-277), and all the evidence seems to point to its having already been in existence under the earliest Pharaohs (Lumbroso, Recherclies sur I'^conomie

period (Bkugsch, Die

^'grZ/jj/oiof/Ze,

politique, p. 288, et seq.).

DiODORUS SicuLUS, i. 36 Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 817, who mentions the two nilometers of Memphis Elephantine; Heliodorus, Mtliiopica, lib. ix., speaks of the nilometer which had been described by Strabo, but which he places at Syene. On the subject of nilometers, cf. Girard, ^

;

and

Mesures J^Jgyptiennes (in the Description de I'Ugypte, vol. ii. pp. 1-96), and Marcel, M^moire sur le Meqyas de Vile de Roudah (in the Description de r^gypte, vol. xiv. pp. 1-135, 387-582). Every temple had its well which served as a nilometer the well of the temple of Edfu was employed for this purpose.

Me'moire sur

*

We

le

know

Niiometre d'BIfphantiue

tt

leg

that this was so, in so far as the

Roman

period

is

concerned, from a passage in the

Alexander (11. 55, 56). The practice was such a natural one, that I have no hesitation in tracing it back to the time of the Ancient Empire; repeatedly condemned as a piece of bad administration, it reappeared continually. At Beni-Hasan, the nomarch Amoni (1. 21) boasts that, "when there had been abundant Niles, and the owners of wheat and barley crops had thriven, he had not increased the rate of the laud-tax," which seems to indicate that, so far as he was concerned, he had fixed the tax on land at a permanent figure, based on the average of good and bad harvests. The two decrees of Eosetta (11. 12, 13, 28, 29) and of Canopus (11. 13-17), however, mention reductions granted by the Ptolemies after an insufficient rise of the Nile. edict of Tiberius

THE TAX ON LAND AND ON THE CULTIVATORS. in wheat, durra, beans,

was exacted

granaries of the nome.^ of the gross

amount

It

and

field

331

produce, which were stored in the

would seem that the previous deduction of one-tenth

of the harvest could not be a heavy burden, and that the

wretched fellah ought to have been in a position to pay his dues without It

was not

so,

difficulty.

however, and the same writers who have given us such a lamentable

picture of the condition of the

workmen

in the towns,

have painted

for us in

even darker colours the miseries which overwhelmed the country people. " Dost thou not recall the picture of the farmer, when the tenth of his grain

THE LEVYING OF THE TAX

Worms have

:

THE TAXPAYER IN THE

swarms of

SCRIBe'S OFFICE.'

rats in the fields, the grasshoppers alight there, the

cattle devour, the little birds pilfer,

of what remains

upon the ground,

and

it is

the farmer lose sight for an instant

if

carried off

by robbers

;

^

the thongs, more-

which bind the iron and the hoe are worn out, and the team has died at

over,

the plough.

It is

to levy the tithe,

then that the scribe steps out of the boat at the landing-place

and there come the keepers of the doors of the granary with

cudgels and the negroes with ribs of palm-leaves, !

There

'

is

who come crying

The

:

'

Come

now,

none, and they throw the cultivator full length upon the ground

bound, dragged to the canal, they fling him in head '

levied ?

destroyed half of the wheat, and the hippopotami have eaten the

rest; there are

corn

is

first

;

*

his wife

is

inscription of Rosetta represents the tax as beingpaid in wheat, in linen, or in

;

bound with wine

(II.

11, 14,

28-31), even in the time of the Ptolemies, when the use of money had become general in Egypt. See in Wilcken {Die GriecMschen Ostraha*, in the Jahrhuch des Vereitis von A Itertumsfreunden in Eheinland, 15,

vol. Ixxxvi. pp. *

240-245) receipts of the

Roman

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a

Beni-Hasan

it

is

(cf.

Rosellini, Monumenti civili, pi. cxxiv. a). ; represent a census in the principality of the Gazelle under the XII*'' dynasty as well as the

cccxc. 4, cccxci. 1

follow

paid in wheat and barley. Chamfolliov, Monuments, This picture and those whicli

period in which the tax

picture at

collection of a tax, '

This

last

danger survives even

the night in their fields

;

if

to the present day.

they did not see to

it,

During part of the year the fellahin spend would not hesitate to come and

their neighbours

cut their wheat before the harvest, or root up their vegetables while still immature. * The same kind of torture is mentioned in the decree of Harmiiabi {Recueil de Travaux,vo\. vi. 1. 44, in which p. the lawless soldiery are represented as " running from house to house, dealing 26),

blows right and left with their sticks, ducking the fellahin head downwards in the water, and not This treatment was leaving one of them with a whole skin " (Brugsch, Die Mgyidologie, p. 87). still resorted to in Egypt not long ago, in order to extract money from those taxpayers whom beatings had failed to bring to reason.

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EOYPT.

332

him, his children are put into chains

and

fly to

mean

the neighbours, in the

time, leave

him

One might be tempted to declare that the picture is did one not know from other sources of the brutal ways

save their grain."

too dark a one to be true,

;

^

of filling the treasury which

Egypt has retained even

to the present day.^

In

the same way as in the town, the stick facilitated the operations of the tax-collector in the country to the

:

it

quickly opened the granaries of the rich,

poor of which he had been ignorant, and

LEVyiNO THE TAX

who had

:

to

revealed resources

only failed in the case of those

THE TAXPAYER IN THE HANDS OP THE EXACTORS

•"

Those who were insolvent were not

really nothing to give.

when they had been more than half prison,

it

it

killed

:

let off

even

they and their families were sent

to

and they had to work out in forced labour the amount which they had failed

pay in current merchandise.* The collection of the taxes was usually terminated

The

by a rapid revision of the survey.

scribe once

more recorded the dimensions

and character of the domain lands in order to determine afresh the amount of the tax which should be imposed upon them. to

some freak

of the Nile, a tract of ground

happened, indeed, that, owing

It often

which had been

fertile

enough the pre-

ceding year would be buried under a gravel bed, or transformed into a marsh. The owners who thus suffered were allowed an equivalent deduction; asfor the farmers, case, but a tract equalling in

no deductions of the burden were permitted in their

value that of the part they had lost was granted to seignorial domain,

them out

and their property was thus made up to

of the royal or

its original

worth.^

Papyrus n° I, pi. vi. 11. 2-8 Anastasi Papyrus v., pi. xv. 1. 8, xvii. 1. 2 cf. GoodwinChabas, Sur les Papyrus hieratiques (2n(i article), pp. 10-19 Maspero, Du Genre l^pistolaire chez Bkugsch, Bie yEgyptulogie, p. 86. les Anciens £gyptiens, pp. 38-40; Erman, Mgijpten, pp. 590, 591 ^ See the picture, drawu by Charles-Edmond, Z^phyrin Cazavan en £gypte, p. 395, et seq., of the collection of taxes in Egypt forty years ago, under Abbas-Pasha, whicli, though appareutly fictitious, '

Sallier

;

;

;

;

is

really a sober relation of facts. '

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a

picture on the

tomb

of Khiti at

Beui-Hasan

(cf.

Cham-

POLLiON, Monuments de I'^gypte, pi. cccxc. 4 ; Kosellini, Mouumenti civili, pi. cxxiv. b). ' This is evident from a passage in the Sallier Papyrus n° I, quoted above, in which we see the taxpayer in fetter-, dragged out to clean the canals, his whole family, wile aud children, accom-

pauying him in bonds. Herodotds, ii. 109, who attributes the establishment of =•

legendary Sesostris.

this

regulation

to the

inevitable,

—

TBE BASTINADO. What

333

the collection of the taxes had begun was almost always brought to a

climax by the

However numerous the

corvees.

have been, they were insufficient

for

royal and seignorial slaves might

the cultivation of all the lands of the domains,

and a part of Egypt must always have

lain fallow,

had not the number of workers

been augmented by the addition of those who were in the position of freemen. This excess of cultivable land was subdivided into portions of equal dimensions,

which were distributed among the inhabitants of neighbouring villages by the officers of

a " regent

"

nominated

for that purpose.^

Those dispensed from agri-

LEVTING THE TAX: THE BASTINADO.*

cultural service w^re

—the

destitute, soldiers on service

and their families, certain

employes of the public works, and servitors of the temple;^ all other country-folk

without exception had to submit to

it,

each, according to his capabilities.*

together, themselves, their servants

watch in the

fields

interests.^

Orders issued at fixed periods called them

and their beasts of burden,

to dig, sow,

keep

while the harvest was proceeding, to cut and to carry the crops,

the whole work being done at their

own

and one or more portions were allotted to

As a

own expense and

to the detriment of their

sort of indemnity, a few allotments were left uncultivated

These lots are the AHuiT, so often mentioned in the texts, and the persons requisitioned to work them are the ahuitiu, a name applied by extension to noti-proprietary farmers. The "regents" hiqu ahuitiu are frequently referred to on the monuments of the Ancient Empire, and Amten, whose history I have already recounted (cf. pp. 290-296 of the present work), was " regent " or, to use the almost equivalent language of Arabian Egypt, " multezim " of royal lands cultivated by enforced labour (Maspero, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 173-177). * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a picture on the tomb of Khiti at Beni-Hasan (cf. Chami'OLLION, Monuments de I'Egypte, pi. cccxc. 4 RobELLlNl, Monumenti civili, pi. cxxiv. a-b). ' That the scribes, i.e. the employes of the royal or princely government, were exempt from enforced labour, is manifest from the contrast drawn by the letter- writers of the Sallier and Anastasi Papyri between themselves and the peasants, or persons belonging to other professions who were liable to it. The circular of Dorion defines the classes of toldiers who were either temporarily or permanently exempt under the Greek kings (Lumbroso, Del Papiro Greco LXIII del Louvre sulla Seminutura delle terre regie in Egitto, p. 10, et seq. Extract from the Atti of the Academy of *

—

;

;

Sciences of Turin, vol.

v.,

1869).

Several fragments of the Turin papyri contain memoranda of enforced labour performed on very complete behalf of the temples, and of lists of persons liable to be called on for such labour. *

A

list is

3rd

to be

found in a papyrus of the XX"" dynasty, translated by Chabas, Melanges Egyptologiques.

series, vol. *

AU

ii.

pp. 131-137.

these details are set forth in the Ptolemaic period, in the letter to Dorion which

refer.t

ti>

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

334 for their benefit

:

^

to these they sent their flocks after the subsidence of the

inundation, for the pasturage on

them was

productive in wool and offspring.^

so rich that the sheep were doubly

This was a mere apology for a wage

forced labour for the irrigation brought

them no compensation.

which separate the basins, and the network of canals

The men employed

work pass whole days standing in the water, scraping up the fill

The dykes

every year some need

:

strengthening, others re-excavating or cleaning out.

hands in order to

mud

:

in

with both

the baskets of platted leaves, which boys and girls

on to their heads and carry to the top of the bank

the

for distributing the water

and irrigating the land, demand continual attention

this

:

lift

the semi-liquid contents

ooze through the basket, trickle over their faces and soon coat their bodies

with a black shining mess, disgusting even to look over the work, and urge

workmen had for a siesta in the

it

on with abuse and blows.^

toiled all day, with only an interval of

Sheikhs preside

at.

When

two hours about noon

and a meagre pittance of food, the poor wretches slept on the

open

air,

huddled one against another and but

rags from the chilly nights.

The task was

ill

it

;

it

hands that the free peasantry were scarcely ever exempt.*

protected by their

wore out so

many an

irregular one

king or

lord.

Was

any established

came and surprised them

midst of their work, and forced them to abandon

all

many

Having returned

to their homes, they were not called until the next year to or periodic corvee, but

spot,

so hard a one, that malefactors,

bankrupts, and prisoners of war were condemned to

affairs of

the gangs of

in the

else to attend to the

a new chamber to be added to some neighbouring

temple, were materials wanted to strengthen or rebuild some piece of wall

which had been undermined by the inundation, orders were issued

to the

engineers to go and fetch a stated quantity of limestone or sandstone, and the peasants were

commanded

to assemble at the nearest quarry to cut the blocks

a royal edict. As Signor Lumbroso has well remarked {op. cit., p. 4, et seq., and Recherches sur VEconomie 'politique, p. 75, et seq.), the Ptolemies merely copied exactly the misdeeds of the old native governments. Indeed, we come across frequent allusions to the enforced labour of men and beasts iu inscriptions of the Middle Empire at Beni- Hasan or at Sidt; many of the pictures on the Memphite tombs show bands of such labourers at work in the fields of the great landowners or of the king. ' Louvre Papyrus B, 11. 170-172, where I follow the explanation of the passage suggested by Signor Lumbroso (7i papiro LXTII del Louvre, p. 18 a, and Becherches sur I'ijconomie politique,

p. 93). '

DioDORus SicuLUS,

The

i.

36.

Ptolemaic period were superintended by old men, ol npeies of the works (Maspeko, Etudes Egyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 44, 45). The shawishes (exactors) of our time are the rabdophori or rahdisti of the Greek period {Louvre Papyrus 66, 1. 19 ScHOW, Charta papyracea, § 4, 11. 11, 12), whose duty it was to stimulate the workmen with blows. * In the papyrus published by Schow, we notice, side by side with the slaves, peasants (1. 7, 1. l^, 11, 1. 18), cowherds, and shepherds (3, 1. 16, 5, 11. 1, 2), ass-drivers (2, 1. 16), and workmen belonging to various trades— potters (6, 11. 21, 22), mat-makers (11, 1. 8), fullers (7, 1. 26), masons (10, ]. 4), barbers (3, 1. 26). '

corve'es of the

;

a
"5,

a o

o >

Ed

(S

o

o H

^ ft

O

O s

CQ

S

o

5 o

<

o

05 tn

O J O O a

c

s

o I

o 3

^>»

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

336 from

it,

and

if

needful to ship and convey

them

Or

to their destination.*

perhaps the sovereign had caused a gigantic statue of himself to be carved,

and a few hundred men were requisitioned to haul wished

The undertaking ended

to be set up.^

it

and drink

in a distribution of food

to the place

it

We were

may ask

illegal,

time they had if all

the unfortunate creatures who had been

:

whom

they

fell

Justice, in

amongst

Egypt and

to the study of law,

others,

whose duty

from any other calling

— but

in

the

magistrates were

Professional

representatives.^

it

if

some of them

could not have found the means

world, necessarily emanates from political authority, of the administration

Even

?

rejoicing.

have demanded legal reparation

to escape from them, nor could he

injury which they caused him.

compensated

felt fitly

by one day of drunkenness and

lost,

these corvees were equally legal

the peasant on

and doubtless

in a gala,

got together to execute the work could not always have for the precious

where he

the

in the whole Oriental

and

is

only one branch

hands of the lord and his

unknown

—men

brought up

was to ensure the observance of

the same

for

men who commanded

it,

apart

armies, offered

and assessed or received taxes, investigated the disputes of ordinary

sacrifices,

citizens, or settled the differences

which arose between them and the repre-

sentatives of the lords or of the Pharaoh.

In every town and village, those

birth or favour the position of governor were ex-ofiScio invested

who held by

with the right of administering justice.

For a certain number of days

in the

month, they sat at the gate of the town or of the building which served as their residence,

and

all

those in the town or neighbourhood possessed of any

who had

position, or property, the superior priesthood of the temples, scribes

advanced or grown old in

those in

office,

command

title,

of the militia or the police,

the heads of divisions or corporations, the "qonbitiu," the "people of the angle," might

if

they thought

to decide ordinary lawsuits.*

fit

take their place beside them, and help them

The

police were mostly recruited from foreigners

This was the course adopted by King Smendes of the XXP' dynasty, in order to promptly restore a portion of the temple of Karnak, which had been sapped by water and cheaply and fall into ruins (G. Daressy, Les Carrieres de G^bdein et le roi, Smendes, in the Becueil to threatened x. pp. 133-138; and Maspero, A Stele of King Smendes, in the Records of the Past, vol. de Travaux, *

2nd

series, vol. v. pp. 17-24).

(Wilkinson, A Popular Account of the Ancient and G. Rawlinson, Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 151 Lepsius, 103-119 Chabas, Melanges Maspero, cf. vol. ii. pi. cxxxiv. ; Egyptologiques, series, 3rd Denkm., ii. pp. Brugsch, Die Mgyptologie, Etudes de MythoJogie et d' Arch€ologie Jj^gyptiennesj vol. i. pp. 55-61 *

Jig. in the

tomb of Thothhotpft

Egyptians, 1854, frontispiece of vol.

at el-Bersheh

ii.

;

;

;

;

pp. 293, 294).

such as Sotmu dushu ni isit mdit and Sahu, in which cf. Maspero, Rapport a M. Jules Ferry, Ministre de some I'Instruction publique sur une Mission en Italic, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. ii. pp. 159-166; and Mudes J^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 143-148; cf. Brugsch, Die Mgyptologie, p. 301, et seq. W. Spiegelberg, Studien und Materialien zum Rechtswesen ae& Pharaonenreiches, pp. 60-63). * The name of these personages, at first read tail, taitu, rather at haphazard, has been deciphered *

As

to

the actual nature of certain

offices,

writers seek to recagnize judicial functions,

;

;

RELATIONS BETWEEN PEASANTS AND THEIR LORDS. and negroes, or from Bedouin belonging to the Nubian

The

litigants

837

tribe of the Mazaiii.

appeared at the tribunal, and waited under the superintendence

of the police until their turn

came

to speak

the majority of the questions

:

were decided in a few minutes by a judgment from which there was no appeal only the more serious cases necessitated a cross-examination and prolonged

was carried on before this patriarchal jury as

discussion.

All

own

of justice, except that the inevitable

courts

the truth

else

and cut short discussions

stick

in

our

too often elucidated

the depositions of the witnesses, the

:

speeches on both sides, the examination of the documents, could not proceed

without the frequent taking of oaths " by the

life of

the king " or " by the

favour of the gods," in which the truth often suffered severely.^

somewhat

varied

—the

Penalties were

bastinado, imprisonment, additional days of work for

the corvee, and, for grave offences, forced labour in the Ethiopian mines,^ the nose and ears,^ and finally, death by strangulation, by beheading,* by

loss of

empalement,^ and at the stake.^

Criminals of high rank obtained permission

to carry out on themselves the sentence passed

by suicide the shame of public execution.' the fellah who

had

little

him, or

came

Before tribunals thus constituted,

to appeal against the exactions of

which he was the victim

chance of obtaining a hearing: had not the scribe who had overtaxed

who had imposed a

Judges to

upon them, and thus avoided

whom he

fresh corvee

upon him, the right

addressed himself ?

to

appear among the

Nothing, indeed, prevented him from

appealing from the latter to his feudal lord, and from him to Pharaoh, but

such an appeal would be for him a mere delusion.

and presented

village

his petition,^

When

he had

left

his

he had many delays to encounter before

by Griffith, The Qnbt (in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archseology, vol. xiii., whose conclusions have been endorsed l)y Spiegelberg, Studieu und Materialien, Their name, " people of the corner," is probably due to a metaphor analogous to p. 13, et seq. that which gave rise to the title of Omdah, or "columns " of the administration, which was bestowed on the notables of Egyptian towns. As to the judicial oath, see W. Spiegelbekq, Studien und Materialen, p. 71, et seq. * Cf. the instances collected by W. Spiegelberg, Studien und Materialen, pp. 69-71, 75, 76, which confirm the remarks of Agatharchides {De Mart Erythrseo, § 24-29, iu MiJLLER-DiDOT, Fragm. Geogr. Grieo,, vol. i. pp. 124-129) and of Diodorus Siculus (iii. 12-14) in regard to the gold-mines of

correctly

1890-91,

p. 140),

'

Ethiopia.

Diodorus Siculus, i. 60, 78 (cf. Herodotus, ii. 212); Dev^ria, Le Papyrus judiciaire de Turin, Maspero, Une enquete judiciaire, p. 86; W. Spiegelberg, Studien,pp. 67, 68. * The only known instance of an execution by hanging is that of Pharaoh's chief baker, in Gen. xl. 19, 22, xli. 13; but in a tomb at Thebes we see two human victims executed by strangulation {Maspero, Le Tombeau de Montuhikhopshuf, in the M^moires de la Mission Frangaise, vol. v. p. 452, et seq.). The Egyptian hell contains men who have been decapitated {Description de I'Egypte, Ant., vol. ii. pi. Ixxxvi,), and the block on which the damned were beheaded is frequently mentioned iu ^

pp. 64, 65, 116-121

;

the texts. '

So Erman conjectures {Beilrdge zur Eenntniss des agyplischen

aelirift, * '

1879, p. 83, note 1

;

cf.

the objections of

Gerichtsver/ahren'f in the Zeit-

W. Spiegelberg,

Studien, pp. 76-78, 125, 126). edit., p. 63; cf. Herodotus, ii. 111).

For adulteresses (Maspero, Les Cuntes populaires, 2nd The Turin Papyrus mentions these suicides (W. Spiegelberg, Hudien, pp.

Beitrage zur Kenntniss des dgyptischen Gerichtsver/ahrens, in the Zeitschrijt, 1879, '

Like the peasant whose story

is

told us iu the Berlin

Papyrus n"

II.

67, 121;

p. 77,

note

Erman, 1).

(Masiero, Les Conies

:

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

338

A solution could be arrived at court, or could

even

it

if

and

;

command any

if

the adverse party were at

all in

favour at

would confirm,

influence, the sovereign decision

In the

did not aggravate, the sentence of the previous judges.

peasants' land remained uncultivated, his wife and children

mean while the

bewailed their wretchedness, and the last resources of the family were consumed in proceedings

and delays

it

:

would have been better

for

have made up his mind to submit without resistance to a

him

at the outset to

fate

from which he

could not escape.

In spite of taxes, requisitions, and forced labour, the fellahin came off fairly well,

when the chief

to

did not add the exactions of his inscriptions

many

they belonged proved a kind master, and

whom own

which princes caused to be devoted to their own

glorification, are so

and kindness

enthusiastic panegyrics dealing only with their uprightness

Every one of them represents himself

towards the poor and lowly.

The

personal caprice to those of the State.

as faultless

" the staff of support to the aged, the foster father of the children, the counsellor

who

the unfortunate, the refuge in wliich those

of

Thebes may warm themselves, the bread of the the city of the South."

have driven away no

tiller of

the

soil

my

vated

boundaries,

causing

When

time.

the lands of the

all

nome

became rich

upon the

fields." ^

them

out, enlarged

fertility

;

I have despoiled no

I have taken no

widow

;

workmen away from

years of scarcity arose, as

had

I

culti-

and creating provisions, none

there, for I gave to the

made no

widow

as well as to the

distinction between high

and low

on the contrary, there were high Niles, the possessors

If,

of lands

failed in

of the Gazelle to its northern and southern

a husband, and I

in all that I gave.

;

mourn

inhabitants to live,

its

who were hungry were found

woman who had

which never

none have been unfortunate about me,

their foreman for the public works;

nor starving in

afllicted

Their solicitude embraced everybody and everything:

^

" I have caused no child of tender age to I

from the cold in

suffer

in

The

all things, for 1

did not raise the rate of the tax

canals engrossed all the prince's attention

;

he cleaned

them, and dug fresh ones, which were the means of bringing

and plenty into the most remote corners of

his property.

His

serfs

had a constant supply of clean water at their door, and were no longer content with such food as durra; they ate wheaten bread daily.^

His vigilance and

severity were such that the brigands dared no longer appear within reach of

populaires de VJ^gi/pte ancienne, 2nd edit., pp. 43, et seq.) without a master " on pp. 309, 310 of the present work.

;

see

what has been said about

"

men

• Stele C 1 du Louvre, published by Maspero, Un Gouverneur de Thebes sous la XII" dynastie, in the Mimoires du Congres International des Orientalistes de Paris, vol. ii. pp. 53-55. * Maspero, La Grande Inscription de B^ni-Hassan, in the Becueil de Travaux, vol. i. pp. 173, 174.

'

pp

Griffith, The Inscriptions of

414, 415.

Siiit, pi.

xv.

11.

3-7

;

cf.

Maspero, Eevue

Critique, 1889, vol.

ii.

— MISERY OF THE PEASANTRY. soldiers kept strict discipline

and his

his arm,

slept

by the roadside blessed me, and was

house

;

as in the stable

upon the

fell

my

the fear of ;

whoever

fell,

man

in his

own

the thief was as the abomination of the god, and he no more

no more complained, but paid exactly

of epitaphs varied

who had procured

for

him

this

This theme might be pursued at length, for the composers

care.^

zeal

night

[in safety] as a

the dues of his domain, for love " of the master

The very

When

police protected him, the cattle remained in the fields

vassal, so that the latter

freedom from

"

;

339

it

with remarkable cleverness and versatility of imagination.

which they display in describing the

lord's virtues betrays

how

There was nothing to hinder the

precarious was the condition of his subjects.

unjust prince or the prevaricating officer from ruining and ill-treating as he

chose the people

and the corvee

who were under

fell

He had

his authority.

upon the proprietors of a

only to give an order,

village, carried off their slaves

obliged them to leave their lands uncultivated

;

and

should they declare that they

were incapable of paying the contributions laid on them, the prison opened for

them and

their families.

nome was deprived

the

If a

dyke were

of water

:

^

cut, or the course of a

channel altered,

prompt and inevitable ruin came upon the

unfortunate inhabitants, and their property, confiscated by the treasury in payof the tax, passed for a small consideration into the hands of the scribe

ment

or of the dishonest administrator.

enough

Two

system of irrigation

to destroy a

or three years of neglect were almost :

the canals became filled with mud,

the banks crumbled, the inundation either failed to reach the ground, or spread

over

too quickly and lay

it

attendant sicknesses

:

^

upon

men and

He

we have

contrasted their calling with his.

hastening at the tax,

—

all

first

it

its

was the

and complained at times,

it,

when with

He had

to toil

hard as that of the

selfish

complacency they

the whole year round,

working the shadouf from morning to night requisition to the corvee, paying

for

weeks,

a heavy and cruel

without even the certainty of enjoying what remained to him in

peace, or of seeing his wife '

seen, as

himself felt the bitterness of

or rather the scribes complained for him,

digging, sowing,

followed with

to restore prosperity to the district.

lot of the fellah of old was, as

fellah of to-day.

Famine soon

too long.

animals died by the hundred, and

work of nearly a whole generation

The

it

and children

Griffith, The Inscriptions of Siut,

pi. 11,

11.

profit

7-12;

cf.

by

it.

So

great, however, was

Maspeko, Bevue

Critique, 1889, vol.

ii.

p. 417.

cut off or divert a watercourse was one of the transgressions provided for in the "Negative Confession" in chap. cxxv. of the Book of the Dead (Naville's edition, vol. i. pi. cxxxiii. 1. 19); cf ^

p.

To

189 of the present work.

the Egyptian monuments, at Beni-Hasan (Maspeeo, La Grande Inscription de Be'ni- Hassan, in the Recueil de Travaux, vol. i. p. 174), at El-Kab (Buugsch, ^gyptische Geschichte, p. 246), at Elephantine (Bkugsch, Die Bihlischen siehen Jahre der Muiujeris^

Mention of famines

fioth, p.

131, et seq.).

is

made on

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

340

the elasticity of his temperament that his misery was not sufficient to depress

him

monuments upon which

those

:

represent

him

as

his life is portrayed in all its minuti»,

animated with inexhaustible cheerfulness.

months ended, the ground again becomes bed, the time of sowing

river retires into its

hand: the peasant takes his team and

at

is

visible, the

The summer

implements with him and goes

In

off to the fields.*

many

places, the soil,

softened by the water, offers no resistance, and the hoe easily turns

elsewhere

it

hard, and only yields to the plough.

is

servants, almost bent double, leans his

them by

his songs

:

soil, his

While one

up;

it

of the farm-

whole weight on the handles to force

TWO FELLAhIn work the 8HAD0UF the ploughshare deep into the

his

IN

A GARDEN.*

comrade drives the oxen and encourages

these are only two or three

short

an

sentences, set to

unvarying chant, and with the time beaten on the back of the nearest animal.^

Now and

again

" Lean hard

" !

he turns round towards his comrade and encourages him

—" Hold

fast

of grain into the furrow

:

!

"

The sower

follows behind

and throws handfuls

a flock of sheep or goats brings up the rear, and as

The herdsmen crack

they walk, they tread the seed into the ground.

whips and sing some country song at the top of their voices,

— based

complaint of some fellah seized by the corvee to clean out a canal. digger

is

in the water with the fish,

greetings with the oxyrrhynchus

West '

!

"

*

:

:

—he

— West

talks to the silurus, !

your digger

is

et d'Histoire,

on the "

The

and exchanges

a digger from the

All this takes place under the vigilant eye of the master

Maspero, Notes sur quelques points de Grammaire

their

:

as soon

in the Zeitschri/t, 1879, p. 58,

et seq.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, fi cm a photograph (cf. Scheil, Le Tombeau de Zozirkerisonhou, in the M^moires de la Mission Frangaise, vol. v.). ^ Maspero, Ftudes Fgyptiennes, vol. ii. cf. the woodcut on p. 192 of the present work pp. 74-78 * The text of this couplet is given in Brugsch, Die Mgyptische GrdberweU, pi. i. 35, 36 the translation in Beugsch, Did. Ei^r., p. 59; in Erman, Mgypten, p. 515; and in Maspero, FtuJes ^

;

;

The silurus is the electrical fish of the Nile {Description de VFgypte, The text ironically hints that the digger, up to his waist in water, engaged in dredging the dykes or repairing a bank swept away by an inundation, is liable at any moment to salute, i.e. to meet with a silurus or an oxyrrhynchus ready to attack him he is doomed to death, and this fact the couplet expresses by the words, "West your digger is a digger from the West." The West was the region of the tombs; and the digger, owing to the dangers of his calling, was on his way thither. Fgyptiennes, vol

vol. xxiv. p.

ii.

pp. 73, 74.

299, et seq.).

;

I

"

342

TEE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EOYPT.

as his attention

and

of idleness

theft

One

their team.

work slackens, quarrels

relaxed, the

is

of

They run

there."

saw the

sickle, cut or rather

The

stalks, a handful at a time.

marking the rhythm by clapping

is

over, can say

of

you but

it

A

^

"

I

idlers

!

'

who wish

answers politely

"

:

say

it,

What

for

among " Is

it.

and

to thee

armed with a short

As they advance

:

An

*

in

joins in with his voice

you,

my

to

pass,

now and

when the season

comrades, you are

all

active lad for the job

am

the gang with a tall jar of beer, offering not good

it

" 'Tis true, the

:

among

lad

— Who among you can say

servant moves

to those

!

who

'It is I

:

man

not

is

The weeks

his hands, the foreman throwing in

then a few words of exhortation

'

fellahin,

a flute-player plays them captivating tunes, a

line,

!

quick, while the farmer

the risk of a beating for a potful of milk.^

the corn has ripened, the harvest begins.

spirit

of the cows, the other holds the

"Be

animal and impatiently awaits his turn:

and the

Two men have unharnessed

gains the ascendency.

them quickly milks one

arise,

!

" says he

master's

beer

;

is

and the one who drinks better

than a cake of

The sheaves once bound, are carried to the singing of fresh songs addressed to the donkeys who bear them " Those who quit the ranks will be tied, those who roll on the ground will be beaten, Geeho then." And thus

durra "

^

:

—

Even when a

threatened, the ass trots forward.^ scene,

and the bastinado

spirit of the

A

comedy.

his legs, to

keep him

him

man

for

And

to the

fell

to insinuate a vein of

some misdeed,

for

in the proper position.

with the stick

than an actual punishment

aim and

manages

lies flat

upon

two friends take hold of his arms, and two others

:

as a fact, the bastinado was

their

lives,

condemned

peasant, summarily

the ground with bared back

tragic element enters the

represented, the sculptor, catching the bantering

is

among whom he

people

!

:

His wife or his son intercedes

" For mercy's sake strike on the ground

:

commonly

!

rather a mere form of chastisement

the blows, dealt with apparent ferocity, missed

upon the earth

;

^

the culprit howled loudly, but was let off

with only a few bruises.

An Arab

writer of the Middle

Ages remarks, not without

irony, that the

Egyptians were perhaps the only people in the world who never kept any stores of provisions

by them, but each one went daily to the market to buy

represented on the tomb of Ti (Maspero, Etudes ^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 78-80). v., 165-168; and Dumichen, Resultate, tlgyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 81-84. interpretation in Maspero, the Mudes and 15 14, X., pi. i. pp. vol. 3 Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 9 Mariette, Les Mastahas, p. 347 Maspero, Mudes jSgyptiennes, vol. ii. '

«

The The

scene

is

text is in IJkcgsch, Die JEgyptische Graberwelt, pi. ;

;

;

pp. 84, 85. *

Brlgsch, Die Mgyptische Graberwelt,

pi. v.

162

;

DiJMiCHEN, Die Besultate,

vol.

i.

pi. x.

;

Mas-

The song will be found above the train of asses. pp. 87-90. * The scene is to be found in the tomb of Bafikit at Beni-Hasan (Chamfollion, Monumenti, Eosellini, Monumenti civili, pi. cxxii. B, and Text, pi. ccclxxxi. 1, and Text, vol. ii. pp. 371-373 2nd edit., vol. i. p. 305). Wilkinson, and Customs, Manners 271-273 iii. vol. pp.

pero, iJtudes J^gyptiennes, vol.

ii.

;

;

CEEEBFULNESS AND IMPROVIDENCE OF THE PEASANTRY.

The improvidence which he laments over

the pittance for his family.^ his contemporaries

Workmen, rejoicing

of the

had been handed down from

of

from hand to mouth

Pay-days were almost everywhere days of

the Pharaohs.

and extra eating: no one spared either the

treasury,

anvthing was

and copious feasting

left

in

most remote ancestors.

their

fellahin, employes, small townsfolk, all lived

Egypt

in the

343

As

of their wages.

oil,

unsparingly, as

continued their

grain,

or

beer

long as

were almost always

resources

exhausted before the day of distribution once more came round, beggary

A FLOCK OF GOATS AND THE SONG OF A GOATHERD.*

succeeded to fulness of living, and a part of

the population was literally

This almost constant alternation of abundance and

starving for several days.

dearth had a reactionary influence on daily work seignorial workshops or undertakings

month on account

:

there were scarcely any

which did not come to a

standstill every

of the exhaustion of the workmen, and help

provided for the starving

in

order

to

avoid

popular

had

seditions.^

to be

Their

improvidence, like their cheerfulness, was perhaps an innate trait in the national character: of

it

was certainly fostered and developed by the system

government adopted by Egypt from the

there for a future,

man

earliest times.

of the people to calculate his resources

when he knew that

What

and

left

for the

any moment,

He

was born, he

lands or houses which his

him, were his merely on sufferance, and he enjoyed them only

by permission of

his lord.

Those which he acquired by his own labour

went to swell his master's domain. servants for the master from the

'

The

and he died in the possession of a master.

had

up

off at

without his having the right or the power to resent it?

father

to lay

his wife, his children, his cattle, his goods, all that

belonged to him, and himself to boot, might be carried

lived,

incentive was

In Makkizi, Hittat,

vol.

i.

pp. 49, 50,

If he married

and had sous, they were but

moment they were brought Boulak

into the world.

edition.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. The picture is taken from the tomb of Ti cf. Maspeho, Mudes ^gyptiennes, vol. ii. pp. 81-84. ' The only documents we possess on this subject belong to the Kamesside period further on I *

;

;

shall

have

to

give the history of these stoppages of work and

of the strikes

which accompanied them.

THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT.

344

Whatever he might enjoy

Even

to-morrow?

security or liberty

bidding

;

in the world

life

he only entered

:

he existed in

he found there no

it

rest or

" respondents " and

to-day, would his master allow

beyond did not

Memphite

or

charmed

He

statuettes.

lord of one town,

Theban

throne of Horus.

dynasties,

The

him much more and

to

do his

freedom unless he provided himself abundantly with

to

him

:

anticipating and providing for the future.

now the

it

on tolerance, as he had lived upon this earth, and

the only thing which belonged to

;

offer

possession of

in his master's service

it

and energies on the present moment,

changed

him

now

therefore concentrated his

make the most he

left

of

mind

as of almost

it

to his master the task of

In truth, his masters were often

that of another

now a stranger

;

installed

now a Pharaoh

of the

by chance upon the

condition of the people never changed

;

the burden

which crushed them was never lightened, and whatever hand happened to hold the stick,

it

never

fell

the less heavily upon their bucks.

THE MEMPHITE EMPIRE. THE ROYAL PYRAMID BUILDERS

AND ART

— EXTENSION

KHEOPS, KHEPHREN, MYKERINOS

;

— MEMPHITE

LITERATURK

OF EGYPT TOWARDS THE SOUTH, AND THE CONQUEST OF NUBIA

BY THE PHARAOHS.

SnofrM

— The

desert

which separates Africa from Asia:

inhabitants, their i7icursions into Egypt,

of Sinai

:

the turquoise

of SnofrHi

the

:

and

and copper mines,

pyramid and

the

physical

its

their relations with the

mining works of

the

the

configuration,

its

— The peninsula Pharaohs — The two tombs Egyptians

mastabas of Meddm, the statues of RaliotpA and his

wife Nofrit.

Cheat Pyramid:

Kheops, Kliephren, and Mykervnos—Tlie

—The pyramids of Khephren and Mykerinos;

arrangements the royal the

brick

Turah

;

pyramid

builders

:

the plans, the

— The

worship of

materials

the royal

construction

them

the rifling of

Kheops and Khephren,

the impiety of

pyramid of Asychis

its

and

internal

— Legend

the piety of

about

Mykerinos

;

employed in building, and the quarries of

" double

;

" the

Arab

legends about the guardian

genii of the pyramids.

The kings of

— The

dynasty:

the fifth

Usirkaf,

Sahiiri,_

Kakid, and

advent

relations of the Delta to the peoples of the

commerce of

the

dwarfs and tecture,

the

statuary

—Nubia and

Egyptians

Danga and

its

— Egyptian

its tribes

:

the

North:

romance about

the shipping

UaHaiH and

literature: the Proverbs of

the

their

and maritime

the Mazai-d, PHanit, the

PhtahhotpH

chief examples, bas-reliefs, painting, industrial art.

— The arts:

archi-

(

346

The development of Eijyptian feudalism, and Teti

— Papi

I.

and

his minister

Uni

:

power in

Nubia— The

Metes-dphis the Second lords,

and fall of

the

I.

lords of Elephantini ;

prepared by their explorations,

—Nitokris

the

and

the advent of the sixth dynasty

the affair of

ShditH and the country of Tiba—MetesHphis

)

and

Queen Amitsi; the second

Hirl-hHf,

occupation of the

the

:

Ati, LnhotpA,

wars against

Papi : progress of

PapinakMti Oases

—

Tlie

:

the

way

the

the

HirH-

Egyptian

for conquest

pyramids of Saqqdra:

the legend concerning lier— Preponderance of the feudal

Memphitc dynasty.

^;<««W5?^^>»^

—

:

TUE PYRAMUi OF SNUFRUI AT JIEDUM.'

CHAPTEE

V.

THE MEMPHITE EMPIRE. The

royal pyramid builders Kheops, Khephren, Mykerinos— Memphite literature and art Extension of Egypt towards the South, and the conquest of Nubia by the Pharaohs. :

T

A

that time

^

" the Majesty of

the Majesty of reign that

King

King Huni

of

him

and

Suofnii arose to be a sove-

benefactor over this whole

we know

died,

is

earth."

^

All

contained in one sentence

he fought against the nomads of

Sinai, con-

structed fortresses to jDrotect the eastern frontier of the Delta,

and made

for himself a

tomb

in

the form of a pyramid.

The almost uninhabited country which nects Africa with Asia

is

con-

flanked towards the

south by two chains of hills which unite at right angles, and together form the so-called Gebel et-

Tih.

This country

is

a table-land, gently

inclined

from south to north, bare, sombre, covered with flint-shingle, and siliceous Drawn by Boudier, from the chromolithograph in Lepsius, Benkm., i. pi. 45. The vignette, by Boudier, represents Eahotpu, a dignitary of Medum, of whom mention is made further on (cf. p. 363 of this History) the drawing is made from a photograph by Eniil Brugsch-Bey. * About B.C. 4100, with the possibility of an error of several centuries more or less. ^ Prisse Papyrus, pi. ii. 11. 7, 8 (Vieey's edition, p. 24). The fragments of the Royal Canon of Turin appear to attribute to Huni and Snofrai reigns of equal length, namely, of twenty-four years (E. DE Rouge, Eecherches sur les monuments qu'oii pent attrihuer auz six premieres dynasties de '

also

;

ManeVion,

p. 154,

note 2).

2 A

TEE MEMFHITE EMPIRE.

348 rocks,

and breaking out at frequent intervals into long low chalky

seamed with

others

the

all

which

Avadys, the largest of

into

of El-Arish

—having

drained

opens into the Mediterranean halfway between

itself,

Pelusium and Gaza.^

— that

Torrents of rain are not infrequent in winter and spring,

but the small quantity of water which they furnish

is

quickly evaporated, and

barely keeps alive the meagre vegetation in the bottom of the valleys. times, after

hills,

Some-

months of absolute drought, a tempest breaks over the more elevated

The wind rises suddenly in squall-like blasts

parts of the desert.^

thick clouds,

;

borne one knows not whence, are riven by lightning to the incessant accom-

paniment of thunder

would seem as

it

;

down upon the mountains.

crashing

the heavens

if

had broken up and were

In a few moments streams

of

muddy

water rushing down the ravines, through the gulleys and along the slightest depressions, hurry to the low grounds,

follow the fall of the land

and the other

and

irresistible force. falls,

of supply

began.

is

is

the

exhausted

In a short time nothing remains of

its

its

but some shallow pools scattered

It is in

shines overhead

;

The

flanks of the hills, their torn and corroded bases, the left

by the

eddies, the long lines of rocks and

everywhere of

by experience, avoid a sojourn

once occurred.

vain that the sky

is

in places

its

The

power.

in-

where tempests have

serene above

them and the sun

they always fear that at the moment in which danger seems

least likely to threaten

may be on

it

it

acquired velocity, continues to descend towards

route and bear evidence

habitants, taught

off,

clear,

and there small streamlets which rapidly dry up.

The devastated

mark

becomes

the inundation comes to an end almost as quickly as

;

accumulated masses of shingle sand,

of eight or ten hours the air

the rain ceases; the hastily formed river dwindles, and for lack

however, accelerated by

sea.

foaming concourse,

a few minutes later, and the space between one hill-

At the end

in the hollows, or here flood,

in a

occupied by a deep river, flowing with terrible velocity

side

the wind

;

and meeting there

its

them, the torrent, taking

its

origin

headlong way to surprise them.

suddenly and so violently that nothing in beasts, before there is

time to

fly,

its

some twenty leagues

And, indeed,

course can escape

often even before they are aware of

it

it :

its

comes so

men and approach,

' Our acquaintance with Sinai and the neighbouring countries is due to the work of the English commission. Ordnance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai, 3 vols. fol. of photographs, 1 vol. of maps and plans, 1 vol. of text. It has been popularized by E. H. Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus, 2 vols, octavo, 1871; and by H. Sp. Palmer, Sinai, from the IV"' Egyptian Dynasty to the present day,

18mo, 1878. ' In chap. viii. of the Account of the Survey, pp. 226-228, Mr. Holland describes a sudden rainstorm or "sell" on December 3, 1867, which drowned thirty persons, destroyed droves of camels and asses, flocks of sheep and goats, and swept away, in the Wady Feiran, a thousand palm trees and a grove of tamarisks, two miles in length. Towards 4.30 in the afternoon, a few drops of rain began to fall, but the storm did not break till 5 p.m. At 5.15 it was at its height, and it was not over till 9.30. The torrent, which at 8 p.m. was 10 feet deep, and was about 1000 feet in width, was, at 6 a.m. the next day, reduced to a small streamlet.

THE DESERT WHICH SEPARATES AFRICA FROM ASIA. are swept

away and

pitilessly destroyed.

The Egyptians applied

349

to the entire

country the characteristic epithet of To-Shiiit, the land of Emptiness, the land

of Aridity.^

They divided

it

into various districts

— the upper and lower Tonu,^

vol. ii. pi. ix. h E. and J. de Rouge, Inscripiions et Notices Brugsch, Eiu GeograpMsches Unicuni, in the Zeitschrift, 1865, pp. 28, 29, and Die Altdgyptische Volhertafel, in the Abhandlungen des IVtes Orientalisten-Congresses, Afrikanische Sektion, p. 75. This text, which had already been interpreted by J. de Rouge' (Textes g^ographiqiies du temple d' Edfou, pp. 15, 16), identifies the " Barbarians of the land of Shui " with the Shatisii. the Bedouin of the desert between Syria and Egypt. The gloss, " they live on the water of the Nile and of the streams," shows that they were spread even to the extreme frontiers of Egypt. '

DiJMiCHEN, Eistorische Inschriften,

recueillies a

The "

pi.

cxv. 7

To-Sh
;

tomb

;

cf.

of

Khnumhotpii (Champollion, Monuments de

I'^^gypte et de la Nubie,

Lepsius, De^ifcm., ii. 138; Gkiffith and Newberry, Beni-Hasan, vol. i. pi. xxxviii. 2) identical with the country of these " Barbarians ; " it is, as W. Max Miiller has translated it, " the

pi. ccclxii. is

Edfou,

;

dry country," the desert {Asien und Europa nacli Altdgyptisclien Denkmdlern, p. 16). ^ Upper Tona is mentioned only in the Berliii Papyrus n" L 1. 31, along with Tonfl, taken generally (11. 100, 109, 129, etc.). Chabas (Les Papyrus hi^ratiques de Berlin, p. 87) placed this country beyond Edom, either in Judsea or in the countries situated to the east of the Dead Sea. Subsequently he thought that there must have been access to it by sea; this led him to identify it with the maritime part of Palestine (^Etudes sur V Antiquity historique, 2nd edit., pp. 100, 102). Mr. Max Miiller (Asien und Europa, p. 47) believes that Tonti is a scribe's error for RotenCi, and, with Chabas, decides in favour

;

THE MEMPHITE EMPIBE.

350 They

Aia/ Kaduma.2 Sands

;

called its inhabitants Hiru-Shaitu, the lords of the

Nomiu-Shaitii, the rovers of the Sands

with the

Amu — that

to say, with a race which

is

;

^

and they associated them

we recognize

as Semitic*

The

type of these barbarians, indeed, reminds one of the Semitic massive head, aquiline nose, retreating forehead, long beard, thick and not infrequently crisp

They went

hair.^

barefoot,

and the monuments represent them as

a short kilt, though they also wore the dbayali.

used by the Egyptians

They

—the

girt with

Their arms were those commonly

bow, lance, club, knife, battle-axe, and shield.^

possessed great flocks of goats or sheep,' but the horse and camel were

unknown

to them, as well as to their African neighbours.

upon the milk

of theii* flocks,

them

soil

tilled

the

:

settled

and the

They

lived chiefly

A

fruit of the date-palm.

around springs or

wells,

section of

they managed by indus-

trious labour to cultivate moderately sized but fertile fields, flourishing orchards,

groups of palms,

fig

and olive

trees,

and

vines.^

In spite of

this their

all

resources were insufiicient, and their position would have been precarious

if

they had not been able to supplement their stock of provisions from Egypt or

Southern Syria.

They bartered

at the frontier

manna, and small quantities of charcoal,

for

markets their honey, wool, gums

the products of local manufacture,

Ton
of Palestine.

Ancienne, 2nd

edit., p. 94).

Berlin Papyrus n"

'

I.,

1.

81,

where a description of the country will be found

;

cf. p.

471 of

this History. ^ Tills name had been read Adima, Aduma, and identified with that of Edom and Chabas (Les Papyrus hi^ratiques de Berlin, pp. 40, 75), an identification which was adopted by all Egyptologists. Messrs. Ed. Meyer {Geschichte ^gyptens, p. 182, note 3) and Erman (^gypten und Mgyptisches Lehen in Altertum, p. 495), followed by Mr. Max Miiller (Asien und Europa, pp. 46, 47), read it " Kadfinia " possibly the Hebrew " Kedem " Mr. Max Midler places this country of " Kaduma-

—

;

Kedem " to the south-east or east of ' The Hiru-Shaitii were pointed

the

Dead

Sea.

first time by Birch {On a new historical Tablet of the taten from the Archxologia, vol. xxxviii.) as being probably the inhabitants of the desert. This sense, adopted and expanded by E. de Eouge (Recherches sur les monuments, pp. 122, 127) and by Chabas (Etudes sur rAntiquit^ historique, 2nd edit., pp. 114-119), is now admitted to be correct by all Egyptologists. The variant "Nomiu-Sbaitu" occurs only, to my Z, 1. 73, and in Makiette, Karnak, pi. xxxvii. 1. 33 (cf. E. knowledge, in the Berlin Papyrus and J. DE Rouge, Inscriptions recueillies en Egypte, pi. xxvi. 1. 14), in a text of the second Theban Empire. * The Inscription of Papinahldti, which will be nlentioned later on, pp; 434,435 of this History, in connection with the journeys undertaken by the princes of Elephantine, says that the Hirii-SIjaitu

reign of Thothmes

out for the

III., pp. 9, 10,

w

were Amu.

The pictures of the Monitu, in Lepsius, Denim., ii. 39 a, 116 a, 152 a (cf p. 351 of this History), give an idea of the appearance of the Hiru-Shaitfi, with whom they are often confounded. ^

A

description of a Tonu warrior, prepared for war, occurs in the Berlin Papyrus n° I., 11. 127-129, 134, 135 (Masfero, Les Contes populaires, 2ud edit., p. 108 cf. p. 472 of this History). ' Berlin Papyrus n° I., 11. 112, 117-128, where the hero includes cats in the enumeration of his cattle, probably tame cats, which were carried from Egypt into Asiatic countries. ^

;

Papyrus n° I., 11. 79-92 (Maspero, Les Contes popuPetkie, Egyptian Tales, vol. i. pp. 105-107 cf. p. 471 of this History). The narrative given by tlni of his campaigns against the Hirii-Shaitu, under Papi I. (1. 23, et seq. cf. pp. 419-421), is a confirmation of the picture traced by Sinuhit of the country, and shows that the conditions of it had not changed between the Memphites and the XII"" dynasty, *

Cf. the description of Aia, in the Berlin

laires,

2nd

edit., pp.

104-108

;

;

THE INHABITANTS OF THE ARABIAN DESERT. but especially for wheat' or the cereals of which they stood in need.^

351 The

sight

of the riches gathered together in the eastern plain, from Tanis to Bubastis,

excited their pillaging instincts, and awoke in them an irrepressible covetous-

The Egyptian annals make mention

ness.

mencement

of their incursions at the very

com-

and they

of history,

maintained that even the gods

had to

take

The

them.

from

themselves

protect

to

steps

Gulf of Suez and the mountainous rampart of Gebel Geneffeh in the south,

and the marshes

of Pelusium on the north, pro-

completely the

almost

tected

eastern boundary of the Delta

but the

Wady Tumilat laid

;

open

the heart of the country to the

The Pharaohs

invaders.

divine dynasties

^

the

in

and then those

place,

human

dynasties,

had

first

of the fortified

some say

this natural opening,

by a continuous

of the

wall, others

by

a line of military posts, flanked

on the one side by the waters of A BAEBAKIAN MONITI FUOII

the gulf.^

constructed several for a

SINAI.'

Snofrui restored or castles

in

this

district,

which

perpetuated his name

These had the square or rectangular form

long time after his death.°

with scarcely any difl'ereuce, the products which the Bedouin of those parts used to bring regularly to the Egyptian frontier at the beginning of our century (J. M. J. Coctelle, Observa*

(io)is

These

are,

sur la topographie de la presqiCile

du

Sinai, in the Description de l'£gijpte, vol. xvi.

pp 185-187).

information on the forts built by the god Ra, on the east of the Delta. The existence of the wall, or of the line of military posts, is of very ancient date, for the name Kim-Oirit is already followed by the hieroglyph of the wall {Fapi I., 1. 27; Mirniri, 1. 38; Teti, The expression 1. 274), or by that of a fortified enclosure {Mirniri, 1. 142) in the texts of the Pyramids. -

See p. 170 of this History

for

^

Kim-Oirit, " the very black," is applied to the northern part of the Red Sea, in contradistinction to Caz-Oiiit, Cazit-Oirit, " the very green," the Mediterranean (Erman, Zur Erk drung der Pyramideniexte, in the ZeitscJtrift, vol. xxix. pp. 44, 45 of. Max Mvllee, Asien und Eur.opa nach Alidgyptischen ;

Denkmdlern, p. 40, et seq.) a town, probably built at a short distance from the village of Maghfar, had taken its name from the gulf on which it was situated, and was also called Kim-Oirit. * Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Petrie. The original is of the time of Nectanebo, and is at Karuak I have chosen it for reproduction in preference to the heads of the time of the Ancient Empire, which are more injured, and of which this is only the traditional copy. ' Berlin Fapyrus n° I., 11. 16, 17 (cf. Chaba?, Les Papyrus hie'ratiques de Berlin, pp. 38, 39), and St. Peteriihurg Papyrus n" I., quoted and analysed by GolenischelT in the Zeitschrift, 1876, Inscription of Uni, 1. 21. p. 110 In the latter text Snofrui is designated only by his name of Horus, ;

;

;

"Horn

nib mait"

(cf.

Setiie,

Ein neuer Horusname,

in the Zeitschrift, vol. xxx. p. G2).

TEE MEMPHITE EMPIRE.

352 of the towers, whose

ruins

are

to be

still

seen on the banks of the Nile.

Standing night and day upon the battlements, the sentinels kept a

strict look-

out over the desert, ready to give alarm at the slightest suspicious movement. of any inequality in the ground to approach

The marauders took advantage

unperceived, and they were often successful in getting through the lines

;

^

they

Bcattered themselves over the country, surprised a village or two, bore off such

women and

children as they could lay their hands on, took possession of herds

of animals, and, without carrying their depredations further, hastened to regain their solitudes before

information of their exploits could have reached the

TWO REFUGE TOWERS OP THE

WADY

Bl.VR.-'

became numerous, the general of the Eastern

If their expeditions

garrison.

HIKU-SHAITU, IX THE

Marches, or the Pharaoh himself, at the head of a small army, started on a

campaign of

reprisals against them.

The marauders did not

attacked, but betook themselves to refuges constructed certain points in their territory.

some steep

hill,

They

wait to be

by them beforehand

at

erected here and there, on the crest of

or at the confluence of several wadys, stone towers put together

many

without mortar, and rounded at the top like so

groups of three, ten, or thirty

;

beehives, in unequal

here they massed themselves as well as they could,

and defended the position with the greatest obstinacy, in the hope that their assailants,

from the lack of water and provisions, would soon be forced to

Elsewhere they possessed

We

fortified " duars,"

retreat.^

where not only their families but

(Maspero, Les Conies populaires, 2nd edit., Peteie, Egyptian Tales, vol. i. pp. 100, 101), the description of one of these forts, and the p. 99 manner in which Sin