[Illustration: GREAT HALL OF COLUMNS AT KARNAK (RESTORED. )]

ANCIENT EGYPT

BY

GEORGE RAWLINSON, M. A. 

CAMDEN PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD ANDCORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF TURIN; AUTHOR OF "THE FIVEGREAT MONARCHIES OF THE ANCIENT EASTERN WORLD. " ETC. , ETC. 

_WITH THE COLLABORATION OF_

ARTHUR GILMAN, M. A. AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF ROME, " ETC. 

_TENTH EDITION_

LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN

PATERNOSTER SQUARE, E. C. 

COPYRIGHT BY T. FISHER UNWIN, 1886 (For Great Britain)

 TO REGINALD STUART POOLE, KEEPER OF COINS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, AND CORRESPONDENT OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MUCH HELP AND MUCH PLEASURE DERIVED FROM HIS EGYPTIAN LABOURS. 

CONTENTS. 

I. 

THE LAND OF EGYPT 1-22

General shape of Egypt, 1--Chief divisions: twofold division, 2;threefold division, 3--The Egypt of the maps unreal, 4--Egypt, "the giftof the river, " in what sense, 5, 6--The Fayoum, 7--- Egyptianspeculations concerning the Nile, 7, 8--The Nile not beautiful, 8--Sizeof Egypt, 9--Fertility, 10--Geographical situation, 11, 12--The Nile, asa means of communication, 12, 13, Phenomena of the inundation, 13, 14--Climate of Egypt. 14--Geology, 15--Flora and Fauna, 16, 17--Generalmonotony, 19--Exceptions, 20-22. 

II. 

THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT 23-45

Origin of the Egyptians, 23--Phenomena of their language and type, 24--Two marked varieties of physique. 25--Two types of character: themelancholic, 25, 27: the gay, 27-29--Character of the Egyptian religion:polytheism, 30, 31--Animal worship, 31-33--Worship of the monarch, 33--Osirid saga, 34, 35--Evil gods, 36--Local cults, 37--Esotericreligion, 38; how reconciled with the popular belief, 39--Conviction ofa life after death, 40, 41--Moral code, 41-43--Actual state of morals, 43--Ranks of society, 44, 45. 

III. 

THE DAWN OF HISTORY 45-64

Early Egyptian myths: the Seb and Thoth legends, 46, 47--The destructionof mankind by Ra, 48--Traditions concerning M'na, or Menes, 48--Site ofMemphis, 49--Great Temple of Phthah at Memphis, 50, 51--Names ofMemphis, 51--Question of the existence of M'na, 52, 53--Supposedsuccessors of M'na, 54--First historical Egyptian, Sneferu, 55--TheEgypt of his time, 56--Hieroglyphics, 57--Tombs, 58--Incipient pyramids, 59, 60--Social condition of the people, 60--Manners, 61--Position ofwomen, 62-64. 

IV. 

THE PYRAMID BUILDERS 65-94

Difficult to realize the conception of a great pyramid, 65--Egyptianidea of one, 66--Number of pyramids in Egypt: the Principal Three, 67--Description of the "Third Pyramid, " 67-71; of the "Second Pyramid, "72; of the "First" or "Great Pyramid, " 75-81--The traditional builders, Khufu, Shafra, and Menkaura, 82; the pyramids their tombs, 82--Grandeurof Khufu's conception, 83--Cruelty involved in it, 84, 85--The builders'hopes not realized, 85, 86--Skill displayed in the construction, 86--Magnificence of the architectural effect, 89--Inferiority of the"Third Pyramid, " 90--Continuance of the pyramid period, 91-94. 

V. 

THE RISE OF THEBES TO POWER, AND THE EARLY THEBAN KINGS 95-119

Shift of the seat of power--site of Thebes, 95--Origin of the name ofThebes, 96--Earliest known Theban king, Antef I. , 97--His successors, Mentu-hotep I. And "Antef the Great, " 98--Other Antefs and Mentu-hoteps, 98, 99--Sankh-ka-ra and his fleet, 99, 100--Dynasty of Usurtasens andAmenemhats: spirit of their civilization, 100, 101--Reign of AmenemhatI. , 102--His wars and hunting expeditions, 103, 104--Usurtasen I. : hiswars, 105--His sculptures and architectural works, 106--His obelisk, 107, 109--Reign of Amenemhat II. : tablet belonging to his time, 109, 110--Usurtasen II. And his conquests, 111, 112. 

VI. 

THE GOOD AMENEMHAT AND HIS WORKS 113-123

Dangers connected with the inundation of the Nile, twofold, 113--Anexcessive inundation, 114; a defective one, 115--Sufferings from thesecauses under Amenemhat III. , 115, 116--Possible storage of water, 117--Amenemhat's reservoir, the "Lake Mœris, " 118--Doubts as to itsdimensions, 119, 120--Amenemhat's "Labyrinth, " 121--His pyramid, andname of Ra-n-mat, 122, 123. 

VII. 

ABRAHAM IN EGYPT 124-131

Wanderings of the Patriarch, 124--Necessity which drove him into Egypt, 125--Passage of the Desert, 126--A dread anxiety unfaithfully met, 127--Reception on the frontier, and removal of Sarah to the court, 128--Abraham's material well-being, 129--The Pharaoh restores Sarah, 130--Probable date of the visit, 130--Other immigrants, 131. 

VIII. 

THE GREAT INVASION--THE HYKSOS OR SHEPHERD KINGS--JOSEPH AND APEPI132-146

Exemption of Egypt hitherto from foreign attack, 132--Threateningmovements among the populations of Asia, 133--Manetho's tale of the"Shepherd" invasion, 134--The probable reality, 135, 136--Upper Egyptnot overrun, 137--The first Hyksos king, Set, or Saites, 138--Durationof the rule, doubtful, 139--Character of the rule improves with time, 140--Apepi's great works at Tanis, 144--Apepi and Ra-sekenen, 145--Apepiand Joseph, 146. 

IX. 

HOW THE HYKSOS WERE EXPELLED FROM EGYPT 147-169

Rapid deterioration of conquering races generally, 147, 148--Recovery ofthe Egyptians from the ill effects of the invasion, 149--Second rise ofThebes to greatness, 150--War of Apepi with Ra-sekenen III. , 151--Succession of Aahmes; war continues, 152--The Hyksos quit Egypt, 153--Aahmes perhaps assisted by the Ethiopians, 153-157. 

X. 

THE FIRST GREAT WARRIOR KING, THOTHMES I. 158-169

Early wars of Thothmes in Ethiopia and Nubia, 158-160--His desire toavenge the Hyksos invasion, 161--Condition of Western Asia at thisperiod, 162, 163--Geographical sketch of the countries to be attacked, 164, 165--Probable information of Thothmes on these matters, 167--Hisgreat expedition into Syria and Mesopotamia, 167--His buildings, 168--His greatness insufficiently appreciated, 169. 

XI. 

QUEEN HATASU AND HER MERCHANT FLEET 170-188

High estimation of women in Egypt, 170--Early position of Hatasu asjoint ruler with Thothmes II. , 173--Her buildings at this period, 173--Her assumption of male attire and titles, 174-177--Her nominalregency for Thothmes III. , and real sovereignty, 177, 178--Constructionand voyage of her fleet, 178, 183--Return of the expedition to Thebes, 184--Construction of a temple to commemorate it, 185--Joint reign ofHatasu with Thothmes III. --Her obelisks, 186--Her name obliterated byThothmes, 187. 

XII. 

THOTHMES THE THIRD AND AMENHOTEP THE SECOND 189-207

First expedition of Thothmes III. Into Asia, 189-191--His second andsubsequent campaigns, 191, 192--Great expedition of his thirty-thirdyear, 192, 193--Adventure with an elephant, 194--Further expeditions:amount of plunder and tribute, 195--Interest in natural history, 196--Employment of a navy, 197--Song of victory on the walls of theTemple of Karnak, 198-199--Architectural works, 199-201--Their presentwide diffusion, 202--Thothmes compared with Alexander, 203--Descriptionof his person, 204--Position of the Israelites under Thothmes III. , 205--Short reign of Amenhotep II. , 206. 

XIII. 

AMEN-HOTEP III. AND HIS GREAT WORKS--THE VOCAL MEMNON 208-222

The "Twin Colossi" of Thebes: their impressiveness, 208-211--The accountgiven of them by their sculptor, 212--The Eastern Colossus, why called"The Vocal Memnon, " 213, 214--Earliest testimony to its being "vocal, "214--Rational account of the phenomenon, 215-217--Amenhotep's temple atLuxor, 217, 218--His other buildings, 219--His wars and expeditions, 219, 220--His lion hunts; his physiognomy and character, 221, 222. 

XIV. 

KHUENATEN AND THE DISK-WORSHIPPERS 223-230

Obscure nature of the heresy of the Disk-worshippers, 223-225--Possibleconnection of Disk-worship with the Israelites, 226--Hostility of theDisk-worshippers to the old Egyptian religion, 227--The introduction ofthe "heresy" traced to Queen Taia, 228--Great development of the"heresy" under her son, Amenhotep IV. , or Khuenaten, 229--Other changesintroduced by him, 230. 

XV. 

BEGINNING OF THE DECLINE OF EGYPT 231-252

Advance of the Hittite power in Syria, 231--War of Saplal with RamessesI. , 231--War of Seti I. With Maut-enar, 232--Great Syrian campaign ofSeti, followed by a treaty, 233, 235--Seti's other wars, 236--His greatwall, 237--Hittite war of Ramesses II. , 238, 240--Poem of Pentaour, 241--Results of the battle of Kadesh, a new treaty and aninter-marriage, 242, 243--Military decline of Egypt, 244--Egyptian artreaches its highest point: Great Hall of Columns at Karnak, 245--Tomb ofSeti, 246, 247--Colossi of Ramesses II. , 248--Ramesses II. The greatoppressor of the Israelites, 249--- Physiognomies of Seti I. AndRamesses II, 250-252. 

XVI. 

MENEPHTHAH I. , THE PHARAOH OF THE EXODUS 253-268

Good prospect of peace on Menephthah's accession, 253--General sketch ofhis reign, 254--Invasion of the Maxyes, 255--Their Mediterranean allies, 256, 257--Repulse of the invasion, 258-261--Israelite troubles, 262-264--Loss of the Egyptian chariot force in the Red Sea, 265--Internal revolts and difficulties, 265--General review of thecivilization of the period, 266-268. 

XVII. 

THE DECLINE OF EGYPT UNDER THE LATER RAMESSIDES 269-287

Temporary disintegration of Egypt, 269--Reign of Setnekht, 270--Reign ofRamesses III. , 271--General restlessness of the nations in his time272, --Libyan invasion of Egypt, 273, 274--Great invasion of the Tekaru, Tanauna, and others, 275, 276--First naval battle on record, 277, 278--Part taken by Ramesses in the fight, 278-281--Campaign of revenge, 282--Later years of Ramesses peaceful, 283--General decline of Egypt, 284--Insignificance of the later Ramessides, 284, 285--Deterioration inart, literature, and morals, 285, 287. 

XVIII. 

THE PRIEST-KINGS--PINETEM AND SOLOMON 288-297

Influence of the priests in Egypt, 288--Ordinary relations between themand the kings, 289--High-priesthood of Ammon becomes hereditary; Herhor, 290--Reign of Pinetem I. , 293--Reign of Men-khepr-ra, 294--Rise of thekingdom of the Israelites, 295--Friendly relations established betweenPinetem II. And Solomon, 296--Effect on Hebrew art and architecture, 297. 

XIX. 

SHISHAK AND HIS DYNASTY 298-313

Shishak's family Semitic, but not Assyrian or Babylonian, 298--Connectedby marriage with the priest-kings, 299, 300--Reception of Jeroboam byShishak, 301--Shishak's expedition against Rehoboam, 302--Aid lent toJeroboam in his own kingdom, 303--Arab conquests, 304--Karnakinscription, 305--Shishak's successors, 306--War of Zerah (Osorkon II. ?)with Asa, 307--Effect of Zerah's defeat, 309--Decline of the dynasty, 310--Disintegration of Egypt, 310, 311--Further deterioration inliterature and art, 311-313. 

XX. 

THE LAND SHADOWING WITH WINGS--EGYPT UNDER THE ETHIOPIANS 314-330

Vague use of the term Ethiopia, 314--Ethiopian kingdom of Napata, 315--Wealth of Napata, 316--Piankhi's rise to power, 317--Hisprotectorate of Egypt, 318--Revolt of Tafnekht and others, 318--Suppression of the revolt, 319-323--Death of Piankhi, and revolt ofBek-en-ranf, 323--Power of Shabak established over Egypt, 324--Generalcharacter of the Ethiopian rule, 325--Advance of Assyria towards theEgyptian border, 325--Collision between Sargon and Shabak, 326--Reign ofShabatok--Sennacherib threatens Egypt, 327--Reign of Tehrak, 328-330. 

XXI. 

THE FIGHT OVER THE CARCASE--ETHIOPIA _v_. ASSYRIA 331-341

Egypt attacked by Esarhaddon, 331, 332--Great battle near Memphis, 333--Memphis taken, and flight of Tehrak to Napata, 334--Egypt split upinto small states by Esarhaddon, 334, 335--Tehrak renews the struggle, 336--Tehrak driven out by Asshur-bani-pal, 337--His last effort, 337--Attempt made by Rut-Ammon fails, 338--Temporary success ofMi-Ammon-nut, 339--Egypt becomes once more an Assyrian dependency, 340--Her wretched condition, 341. 

XXII. 

THE CORPSE COMES TO LIFE AGAIN--PSAMATIK I. AND HIS SON, NECO 342-359

Foreign help needed to save a sinking state, 342--Libyan origin ofPsamatik I. , 344--His revolt connected with the decline of Assyria, 345--Assistance rendered him by Gyges, 345--His struggle with the pettyprinces, 346--Reign of Psamatik: place assigned by him to themercenaries, 347--His measures for restoring Egypt to her formerprosperity, 348, 349--He encourages intercourse between Egypt andGreece, 350-352--Egypt restored to life: character of the new life, 353--Later years of Psamatik: conquest of Ashdod, 354--Reign of Neco:his two fleets, 355--His circumnavigation of Africa, 356--His conquestof Syria, 357--Jeremiah on the battle of Carchemish, 358--Neco's dreamof empire terminates, 359. 

XXIII

THE LATER SAÏTE KINGS--PSAMATIK II. , APRIES, AND AMASIS 360-367

The Saïtic revival in art and architecture, 360--Some recovery ofmilitary strength, 361--Expedition of Psamatik II. Into Ethiopia, 362--Part taken by Apries in the war between Nebuchadnezzar andZedekiah, 363--His Phœnician conquests, 364--His expedition againstCyrene, 364--Invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, 365--Quiet reign ofAmasis, 366--The Saïtic revival not the recovery of true national life, 367. 

XXIV. 

THE PERSIAN CONQUEST 368-380

Patient acquiescence of Amasis in his position of tributary to Babylon, 368--Rise of the Persian power under Cyrus, and appeal made by Crœsus toAmasis, League of Egypt, Lydia, and Babylon, 369, 370--Precipitancy ofCrœsus, 371--Fall of Babylon, 371--Later wars of Cyrus, 372--Preparations made against Egypt by Cambyses, 373, 374--Great battleof Pelusium, 375--Psamatik III, besieged in Memphis, 376--Fall ofMemphis, and cruel treatment of the Egyptians by Cambyses, 377, 378--Hisiconoclasm checked by some considerations of policy, 379--Conciliatorymeasures of Darius Hystaspis, 379, 380. 

XXV. 

THREE DESPERATE REVOLTS 380-386

First revolt, under Khabash, easily suppressed by Xerxes, 381, 382--Second revolt under Inarus and Amyrtæus, assisted by Athens, 382, 383--Suppressed by Megabyzus, 384--Herodotus in Egypt, 385--Thirdrevolt, under Nefaa-rut, attains a certain success; a native monarchyre-established, 386. 

XXVI. 

NECTANEBO I. --A LAST GLEAM OF SUNSHINE 387-392

Unquiet time under the earlier successors of Nefaa-rut, 387--Preparations of Nectanebo (Nekht Hor-heb) for the better protectionof Egypt against the Persians, 388--Invasion of Egypt by Pharnabazus andIphicrates, 389--Failure of the expedition, 390--A faint revival of artand architecture, 391. 

XXVII. 

THE LIGHT GOES OUT IN DARKNESS 393-402

Reign of Te-her (Tacho), 393--Reign of Nectanebo II. (Nekht-nebf), 394--Revolt of Sidon, and great expedition of Ochus, 394, 395--Sidonbetrayed by Tennes and Memnon of Rhodes, 396--March upon Egypt:disposition of the Persian forces, 397--Skirmish at Pelusium, andretreat of Nekht-nebf to Memphis, 398, 399--Capture of Pelusium, 399--Surrender of Bubastis, 400--Nehkt-nebf flies to Ethiopia, 401--General reflections, 402. 

INDEX 403

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PILLARED HALL OF SETI I _Frontispiece_

DOM AND DATE PALM TREES 17

FIGURES OF TAOURT 36

FIGURE OF BES 37

TABLET OF SNEFERU AT WADY-MAGHARAH 55

PYRAMID OF MEYDOUM 59

GREAT PYRAMID OF SACCARAH 61

SECTION OF THE SAME 61

GROUP OF STATUARY--HUSBAND AND WIFE 63

SECTION OF THE THIRD PYRAMID 69

TOMB CHAMBER IN THE SAME 69

SARCOPHAGUS OF MYCERINUS 73

SECTION OF THE SECOND PYRAMID 73

SECTION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID 76

KING'S CHAMBER AND CHAMBERS OF CONSTRUCTION IN THE GREAT PYRAMID 77

THE GREAT GALLERY IN THE SAME 79

VIEW OF THE FIRST AND SECOND PYRAMID 87

SPEARING THE CROCODILE 103

OBELISK OF USURTASEN I. ON THE SITE OF HELIOPOLIS 107

BUST OF A SHEPHERD KING 141

HEAD OF NEFERTARI-AAHMES 155

BUST OF THOTHMES I 159

HEAD OF THOTHMES II 171

HEAD OF QUEEN HATASU 171

GROUND-PLAN OF TEMPLE AT MEDINET-ABOU 175

EGYPTIAN SHIP IN THE TIME OF HATASU 183

HOUSE BUILT ON PILES IN THE LAND OF PUNT 181

THE QUEEN OF PUNT AT THE COURT OF HATASU 183

SECTION OF THE PILLARED HALL OF THOTHMES III. AT KARNAC 201

BUST OF THOTHMES III 205

TWIN COLOSSI OF AMENHOTEP III. AT THEBES 209

BUST OF AMENHOTEP III 221

KHUENATEN WORSHIPPING THE SOLAR DISK 225

HEAD OF AMENHOTEP IV. OR KHUENATEN 229

HEAD OF SETI I. 250

BUST OF RAMESSES II. 251

HEAD OF MENEPHTHAH 255

SEA-FIGHT IN THE TIME OF RAMESSES III. 279

CARICATURE OF THE TIME OF THE SAME 286

HEAD OF HER-HOR 291

FIGURE RECORDING THE CONQUEST OF JUDÆA BY SHISHAK 305

HEAD OF SHISHAK 307

PIANKHI RECEIVING THE SUBMISSION OF TAFNEKHT AND OTHERS 320

HEAD OF SHABAK 325

SEAL OF SHABAK 327

HEAD OF TIRHAKAH 329

FIGURE OF ESAR-HADDON AT THE NAHR-EL-KELB 335

HEAD OF PSAMATIK I 344

BAS-RELIEFS OF THE TIME OF PSAMATIK 351

HEAD OF NECO 355

THE STORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 

I. 

THE LAND OF EGYPT. 

In shape Egypt is like a lily with a crooked stem. A broad blossomterminates it at its upper end; a button of a bud projects from thestalk a little below the blossom, on the left-hand side. The broadblossom is the Delta, extending from Aboosir to Tineh, a direct distanceof a hundred and eighty miles, which the projection of the coast--thegraceful swell of the petals--enlarges to two hundred and thirty. Thebud is the Fayoum, a natural depression in the hills that shut in theNile valley on the west, which has been rendered cultivable for manythousands of years by the introduction into it of the Nile water, through a canal known as the "Bahr Yousouf. " The long stalk of the lilyis the Nile valley itself, which is a ravine scooped in the rocky soilfor seven hundred miles from the First Cataract to the apex of theDelta, sometimes not more than a mile broad, never more than eight orten miles. No other country in the world is so strangely shaped, solong compared to its width, so straggling, so hard to govern from asingle centre. 

At the first glance, the country seems to divide itself into twostrongly contrasted regions; and this was the original impression whichit made upon its inhabitants. The natives from a very early timedesignated their land as "the two lands, " and represented it by ahieroglyph in which the form used to express "land" was doubled. Thekings were called "chiefs of the Two Lands, " and wore two crowns, asbeing kings of two countries. The Hebrews caught up the idea, and thoughthey sometimes called Egypt "Mazor" in the singular number, preferredcommonly to designate it by the dual form "Mizraim, " which means "thetwo Mazors. " These "two Mazors, " "two Egypts, " or "two lands, " were, ofcourse, the blossom and the stalk, the broad tract upon theMediterranean known as "Lower Egypt, " or "the Delta, " and the longnarrow valley that lies, like a green snake, to the south, which bearsthe name of "Upper Egypt, " or "the Said. " Nothing is more striking thanthe contrast between these two regions. Entering Egypt from theMediterranean, or from Asia by the caravan route, the traveller seesstretching before him an apparently boundless plain, wholly unbroken bynatural elevations, generally green with crops or with marshy plants, and canopied by a cloudless sky, which rests everywhere on a distantflat horizon. An absolute monotony surrounds him. No alternation ofplain and highland, meadow and forest, no slopes of hills, or hangingwoods, or dells, or gorges, or cascades, or rushing streams, or babblingrills, meet his gaze on any side; look which way he will, all issameness, one vast smooth expanse of rich alluvial soil, varying only inbeing cultivated or else allowed to lie waste. Turning his back withsomething of weariness on the dull uniformity of this featureless plain, the wayfarer proceeds southwards, and enters, at the distance of ahundred miles from the coast, on an entirely new scene. Instead of anillimitable prospect meeting him on every side, he finds himself in acomparatively narrow vale, up and down which the eye still commands anextensive view, but where the prospect on either side is blocked at thedistance of a few miles by rocky ranges of hills, white or yellow ortawny, sometimes drawing so near as to threaten an obstruction of theriver course, sometimes receding so far as to leave some miles ofcultivable soil on either side of the stream. The rocky ranges, as heapproaches them, have a stern and forbidding aspect. They rise for themost part, abruptly in bare grandeur; on their craggy sides growsneither moss nor heather; no trees clothe their steep heights. They seemintended, like the mountains that enclosed the abode of Rasselas, tokeep in the inhabitants of the vale within their narrow limits, and barthem out from any commerce or acquaintance with the regions beyond. 

Such is the twofold division of the country which impresses the observerstrongly at the first. On a longer sojourn and a more intimatefamiliarity, the twofold division gives place to one which is threefold. The lower differs from the upper valley, it is a sort of debatableregion, half plain, half vale; the cultivable surface spreads itself outmore widely, the enclosing hills recede into the distance; above all, to the middle tract belongs the open space of the Fayoum nearly fiftymiles across in its greatest diameter, and containing an area of fourhundred square miles. Hence, with some of the occupants of Egypt atriple division has been preferred to a twofold one, the Greeksinterposing the "Heptanomis" between the Thebais and the Delta, and theArabs the "Vostani" between the Said and the Bahari, or "country of thesea. "

It may be objected to this description, that the Egypt which it presentsto the reader is not the Egypt of the maps. Undoubtedly it is not. Themaps give the name of Egypt to a broad rectangular space which they markout in the north-eastern corner of Africa, bounded on two sides by theMediterranean and the Red Sea, and on the two others by two imaginarylines which the map-makers kindly draw for us across the sands of thedesert. But "this Egypt, " as has been well observed, "is a fiction ofthe geographers, as untrue to fact as the island Atlantis of Greeklegend, or the Lyonnesse of mediæval romance, both sunk beneath theocean to explain their disappearance. The true Egypt of the oldmonuments, of the Hebrews, of the Greeks and Romans, of the Arabs, andof its own people in this day, is a mere fraction of this vast area ofthe maps, nothing more than the valley and plain watered by the Nile, for nearly seven hundred miles by the river's course from theMediterranean southwards. "[1] The great wastes on either side of theNile valley are in no sense Egypt, neither the undulating sandy desertto the west, nor the rocky and gravelly highland to the east, whichrises in terrace after terrace to a height, in some places, of sixthousand feet. Both are sparsely inhabited, and by tribes of a differentrace from the Egyptian--tribes whose allegiance to the rulers of Egyptis in the best times nominal, and who for the most part spurn the veryidea of submission to authority. 

If, then, the true Egypt be the tract that we have described--the Nilevalley, with the Fayoum and the Delta--the lily stalk, the bud, and theblossom--we can well understand how it came to be said of old, that"Egypt was the gift of the river. " Not that the lively Greek, who firstused the expression, divined exactly the scientific truth of the matter. The fancy of Herodotus saw Africa, originally, _doubly_ severed fromAsia by two parallel _fjords_, one running inland northwards from theIndian Ocean, as the Red Sea does to this day, and the other penetratinginland southwards from the Mediterranean to an equal or greaterdistance! The Nile, he said, pouring itself into this latter _fjord_, had by degrees filled it up, and had then gone on and by furtherdeposits turned into land a large piece of the "sea of the Greeks, " aswas evident from the projection of the shore of the Delta beyond thegeneral coast-line of Africa eastward and westward; and, he added, "I amconvinced, for my own part, that if the Nile should please to divert hiswaters from their present bed into the Red Sea, he would fill it up andturn it into dry land in the space of twenty thousand years, or maybe inhalf that time--for he is a mighty river and a most energetic one. "Here, in this last expression, he is thoroughly right, though the methodof the Nile's energy has been other than he supposed. The Nile, workingfrom its immense reservoirs in the equatorial regions, has graduallyscooped itself out a deep bed in the sand and rock of the desert, whichmust have originally extended across the whole of northern Africa fromthe Atlantic to the Red Sea. Having scooped itself out this bed to adepth, in places, of three hundred feet from the desert level, it hasthen proceeded partially to fill it up with its own deposits. Occupying, when it is at its height, the entire bed, and presenting at that timethe appearance of a vast lake, or succession of lakes, it deposes everyday a portion of sediment over the whole space which it covers: then, contracting gradually, it leaves at the base of the hills, on bothsides, or at any rate on one, a strip of land fresh dressed with mud, which gets wider daily as the waters still recede, until yards grow intofurlongs, and furlongs into miles, and at last the shrunk stream iscontent with a narrow channel a few hundred yards in width, and leavesthe rest of its bed to the embraces of sun and air, and, if he so wills, to the industry of man. The land thus left exposed is Egypt--Egypt isthe temporarily uncovered bed of the Nile, which it reclaims andrecovers during a portion of each year, when Egypt disappears from view, save where human labour has by mounds and embankments formed artificialislands that raise their heads above the waste of waters, for the mostpart crowned with buildings. 

There is one exception to this broad and sweeping statement. The Fayoumis no part of the natural bed of the Nile, and has not been scooped outby its energy. It is a natural depression in the western desert, separated off from the Nile valley by a range of limestone hills fromtwo hundred to five hundred feet in height, and, apart from the activityof man, would have been arid, treeless, and waterless. Still, it derivesfrom the Nile all its value, all its richness, all its fertility. Humanenergy at some remote period introduced into the depressed tract throughan artificial channel from the Nile, cut in some places through therock, the life-giving fluid; and this fluid, bearing the precious Nilesediment, has sufficed to spread fertility over the entire region, andto make the desert blossom like a garden. 

The Egyptians were not unaware of the source of their blessings. From aremote date they speculated on their mysterious river. They deified itunder the name of Hapi, "the Hidden, " they declared that "his abode wasnot known;" that he was an inscrutable god, that none could tell hisorigin: they acknowledged him as the giver of all good things, andespecially of the fruits of the earth. They said--

 "Hail to thee, O Nile! Thou showest thyself in this land, Coming in peace, giving life to Egypt; O Ammon, thou leadest night unto day, A leading that rejoices the heart! Overflowing the gardens created by Ra; Giving life to all animals; Watering the land without ceasing: The way of heaven descending: Lover of food, bestower of corn, Giving life to every home, O Phthah!. .. 

 O inundation of Nile, offerings are made to thee; Oxen are slain to thee; Great festivals are kept for thee; Fowls are sacrificed to thee; Beasts of the field are caught for thee; Pure flames are offered to thee; Offerings are made to every god, As they are made unto Nile. Incense ascends unto heaven, Oxen, bulls, fowls are burnt! Nile makes for himself chasms in the Thebaid; Unknown is his name in heaven, He doth not manifest his forms! Vain are all representations!

 Mortals extol him, and the cycle of gods! Awe is felt by the terrible ones; His son is made Lord of all, To enlighten all Egypt. Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile! shine forth! Giving life to men by his omen: Giving life to his oxen by the pastures! Shine forth in glory, O Nile!"[2]

Though thus useful, beneficent, and indeed essential to the existence ofEgypt, the Nile can scarcely be said to add much to the variety of thelandscape or to the beauty of the scenery. It is something, no doubt, tohave the sight of water in a land where the sun beats down all day longwith unremitting force till the earth is like a furnace of iron beneatha sky of molten brass. But the Nile is never clear. During theinundation it is deeply stained with the red argillaceous soil broughtdown from the Abyssinian highlands. At other seasons it is always moreor less tinged with the vegetable matter which it absorbs on its passagefrom Lake Victoria to Khartoum; and this vegetable matter, combinedwith Its depth and volume, gives it a dull deep hue, which prevents itfrom having the attractiveness of purer and more translucent streams. The Greek name, Neilos, and the Hebrew, Sichor, are thought to embodythis attribute of the mighty river, and to mean "dark blue" or"blue-black, " terms sufficiently expressive of the stream's ordinarycolour. Moreover, the Nile is too wide to be picturesque. It is seldomless than a mile broad from the point where it enters Egypt, and runninggenerally between flat shores it scarcely reflects anything, unless itbe the grey-blue sky overhead, or the sails of a passing pleasure boat. 

The size of Egypt, within the limits which have been here assigned toit, is about eleven thousand four hundred square miles, or less thanthat of any European State, except Belgium, Saxony, and Servia. Magnitude is, however, but an insignificant element in the greatness ofStates--witness Athens, Sparta, Rhodes, Genoa, Florence, Venice. Egyptis the richest and most productive land in the whole world. In its mostflourishing age we are told that it contained twenty thousand cities. Itdeserved to be called, more (probably) than even Belgium, "one greattown. " But its area was undoubtedly small. Still, as little men haveoften taken the highest rank among warriors, so little States havefilled a most important place in the world's history. Palestine wasabout the size of Wales; the entire Peloponnese was no larger than NewHampshire; Attica had nearly the same area as Cornwall. Thus the case ofEgypt does not stand by itself, but is merely one out of many exceptionsto what may perhaps be called the general rule. 

If stinted for space, Egypt was happy in her soil and in her situation. The rich alluvium, continually growing deeper and deeper, andtop-dressed each year by nature's bountiful hand, was of aninexhaustible fertility, and bore readily year after year a threefoldharvest--first a grain crop, and then two crops of grasses or esculentvegetables. The wheat sown returned a hundredfold to the husbandman, andwas gathered at harvest-time in prodigal abundance--"as the sand of thesea, very much, "--till men "left numbering" (Gen. Xli. 49). Flax anddoora were largely cultivated, and enormous quantities were produced ofthe most nutritive vegetables, such as lentils, garlic, leeks, onions, endive, radishes, melons, cucumbers, lettuces, and the like, whichformed a most important element in the food of the people. The vine wasalso grown in many places, as along the flanks of the hills betweenThebes and Memphis, in the basin of the Fayoum, at Anthylla in theMareotis at Sebennytus (now Semnood), and at Plisthiné, on the shore ofthe Mediterranean. The date-palm, springing naturally from the soil inclumps, or groves, or planted in avenues, everywhere offered its goldenclusters to the wayfarer, dropping its fruit into his lap. Wheat, however, was throughout antiquity the chief product of Egypt, which wasreckoned the granary of the world, the refuge and resource of all theneighbouring nations in time of dearth, and on which in the laterrepublican, and in the imperial times, Rome almost wholly depended forher sustenance. 

If the soil was thus all that could be wished, still more advantageouswas the situation. Egypt was the only nation of the ancient world whichhad ready access to two seas, the Northern Sea, or "Sea of the Greeks, "and the Eastern Sea, or "Sea of the Arabians and the Indians. " Phœniciamight carry her traffic by the painful travel of caravans across fifteendegrees of desert from her cities on the Levantine coast to the innerrecess of the Persian Gulf, and thus get a share in the trade of theEast at a vast expenditure of time and trouble. Assyria and Babyloniamight for a time, when at the height of their dominion, obtain atemporary hold on lands which were not their own, and boast that theystretched from the "sea of the rising" to "that of the settingsun"--from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean; but Egypt, at alltimes and under all circumstances, commands by her geographic positionan access both to the Mediterranean and to the Indian Ocean by way ofthe Red Sea, whereof nothing can deprive her. Suez must always be hers, for the Isthmus is her natural boundary, and her water-system has beenconnected with the head of the Arabian Gulf for more than three thousandyears; and, in the absence of any strong State in Arabia or Abyssinia, the entire western coast of the Red Sea falls naturally under herinfluence with its important roadsteads and harbours. Thus Egypt had twogreat outlets for her productions, and two great inlets by which shereceived the productions of other countries. Her ships could issue fromthe Nilotic ports and trade with Phœnicia, or Carthage, or Italy, orGreece, exchanging her corn and wine and glass and furniture and worksin metallurgy for Etruscan vases, or Grecian statues, or purple Tynanrobes, or tin brought by Carthaginian merchantmen from the Scillyislands and from Cornwall; or they could start from Heroopolis, or MyosHormus, or some port further to the southward, and pass by way of theRed Sea to the spice-region of "Araby the Blest, " or to the Abyssiniantimber-region, or to the shores of Zanzibar and Mozambique, or roundArabia to Teredon on the Persian Gulf, or possibly to Ceylon or India. The products of the distant east, even of "far Cathay, " certainly flowedinto the land, for they have been dug out of the ancient tombs; butwhether they were obtained by direct or by indirect commerce must beadmitted to be doubtful. 

The possession of the Nile was of extraordinary advantage to Egypt, notmerely as the source of fertility, but as a means of rapidcommunication. One of the greatest impediments to progress andcivilization which Nature offers to man in regions which he has not yetsubdued to his will, is the difficulty of locomotion and of transport. Mountains, forests, torrents, marshes, jungles, are the curses of "newcountries, " forming, until they have been cut through, bridged over, ortunnelled under, insurmountable barriers, hindering commerce and causinghatreds through isolation. Egypt had from the first a broad road driventhrough it from end to end--a road seven hundred miles long, and seldommuch less than a mile wide--which allowed of ready and rapidcommunication between the remotest parts of the kingdom. Rivers, indeed, are of no use as arteries of commerce or vehicles for locomotion untilmen have invented ships or boats, or at least rafts, to descend andascend them; but the Egyptians were acquainted with the use of boats andrafts from a very remote period, and took to the water like a brood ofducks or a parcel of South Sea Islanders. Thirty-two centuries ago anEgyptian king built a temple on the confines of the Mediterraneanentirely of stone which he floated down the Nile for six hundred andfifty miles from the quarries of Assouan (Syêné); and the passage up theriver is for a considerable portion of the year as easy as the passagedown. Northerly winds--the famous "Etesian gales"--prevail in Egyptduring the whole of the summer and autumn, and by hoisting a sail it isalmost always possible to ascend the stream at a good pace. If the sailbe dropped, the current will at all times take a vessel down-stream; andthus boats, and even vessels of a large size, pass up and down thewater-way with equal facility. 

Egypt is at all seasons a strange country, but presents the mostastonishing appearance at the period of the inundation. At that time notonly is the lengthy valley from Assouan to Cairo laid under water, butthe Delta itself becomes one vast lake, interspersed with islands, whichstud its surface here and there at intervals, and which remindedHerodotus of "the islands of the Ægean. " The elevations, which are thework of man, are crowned for the most part with the white walls of townsand villages sparkling in the sunlight, and sometimes glassed in theflood beneath them. The palms and sycamores stand up out of the expanseof waters shortened by some five or six feet of their height. Everywhere, when the inundation begins, the inhabitants are seenhurrying their cattle to the shelter provided in the villages, and, ifthe rise of the water is more rapid than usual, numbers rescue theirbeasts with difficulty, causing them to wade or swim, or even savingthem by means of boats. An excessive inundation brings not only animal, but human life into peril, endangering the villages themselves, whichmay be submerged and swept away if the water rises above a certainheight. A deficient inundation, on the other hand, brings no immediatedanger, but by limiting production may create a dearth that causesincalculable suffering. 

Nature's operations are, however, so uniform that these calamitiesrarely arise. Egypt rejoices, more than almost any other country, in anequable climate, an equable temperature, and an equable productiveness. The summers, no doubt, are hot, especially in the south, and anoccasional sirocco produces intense discomfort while it lasts. But thecool Etesian wind, blowing from the north through nearly all thesummer-time, tempers the ardour of the sun's rays even in the hottestseason of the year; and during the remaining months, from October toApril, the climate is simply delightful. Egypt has been said to have buttwo seasons, spring and summer. Spring reigns from October intoMay--crops spring up, flowers bloom, soft zephyrs fan the cheek, when itis mid-winter in Europe; by February the fruit-trees are in fullblossom; the crops begin to ripen in March, and are reaped by the end ofApril; snow and frost are wholly unknown at any time; storm, fog, andeven rain are rare. A bright, lucid atmosphere rests upon the entirescene. There is no moisture in the air, no cloud in the sky; no mistveils the distance. One day follows another, each the counterpart of thepreceding; until at length spring retires to make room for summer, and afiercer light, a hotter sun, a longer day, show that the most enjoyablepart of the year is gone by. 

The geology of Egypt is simple. The entire flat country is alluvial. Thehills on either side are, in the north, limestone, in the central regionsandstone, and in the south granite and syenite. The granitic formationbegins between the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth parallels, butoccasional masses of primitive rock are intruded into the secondaryregions, and these extend northward as far as lat. 27°10'. Above therocks are, in many places, deposits of gravel and sand, the former hard, the latter loose and shifting. A portion of the eastern desert ismetalliferous. Gold is found even at the present day in smallquantities, and seems anciently to have been more abundant. Copper, iron, and lead have been also met with in modern times, and one ironmine shows signs of having been anciently worked. Emeralds abound in theregion about Mount Zabara, and the eastern desert further yieldsjaspers, carnelians, breccia verde, agates, chalcedonies, androck-crystal. 

The flora of the country is not particularly interesting. Dom and datepalms are the principal trees, the latter having a single tapering stem, the former dividing into branches. The sycamore (_Ficus sycamorus_) isalso tolerably common, as are several species of acacia. The acaciaseyal, which furnishes the gum arable of commerce, is "a gnarled andthorny tree, somewhat like a solitary hawthorn in its habit and mannerof growth, but much larger. " Its height, when full grown, is fromfifteen to twenty feet. The _persea_, a sacred plant among the ancientEgyptians, is a bushy tree or shrub, which attains the height ofeighteen or twenty feet under favourable circumstances, and bears afruit resembling a date, with a subacid flavour. The bark is whitish, the branches gracefully curved, the foliage of an ashy grey, moreespecially on its under surface. Specially characteristic of Egypt, though not altogether peculiar to it, were the papyrus and thelotus--the _Cyperus papyrus_ and _Nymphæa lotus_ of botanists. Thepapyrus was a tall smooth reed, with a large triangular stalk containinga delicate pith, out of which the Egyptians manufactured their paper. The fabric was excellent, as is shown by its continuance to the presentday, and by the fact that the Greeks and Romans, after long trial, preferred it to parchment. The lotus was a large white water-lily ofexquisite beauty. Kings offered it to the gods; guests wore it atbanquets; architectural forms were modelled upon it; it was employed inthe ornamentation of thrones. Whether its root had the effect on menascribed to it by Homer may be doubted; but no one ever saw it withoutrecognizing it instantly as "a thing of beauty, " and therefore as "a joyfor ever. "

[Illustration: DOM AND DATE PALMS. ]

Nor can Egypt have afforded in ancient times any very exciting amusementto sportsmen. At the present day gazelles are chased with hawk and houndduring the dry season on the broad expanse of the Delta; but ancientlythe thick population scared off the whole antelope tribe, which wasonly to be found in the desert region beyond the limits of the alluvium. Nor can Egypt, in the proper sense of the word, have ever been the homeof red-deer, roes, or fallow-deer, of lions, bears, hyænas, lynxes, orrabbits. Animals of these classes may occasionally have appeared in thealluvial plain, but they would only be rare visitants driven by hungerfrom their true habitat in the Libyan or the Arabian uplands. Thecrocodile, however, and the hippopotamus were actually hunted by theancient Egyptians; and they further indulged their love of sport in thepursuits of fowling and fishing. All kinds of waterfowl are at allseasons abundant in the Nile waters, and especially frequent the poolsleft by the retiring river--pelicans, geese, ducks, ibises, cranes, storks, herons, dotterels, kingfishers, and sea-swallows. Quails alsoarrive in great numbers in the month of March, though there are nopheasants, snipe, wood-cocks, nor partridges. Fish are very plentiful inthe Nile and the canals derived from it; but there are not many kindswhich afford much sport to the fisherman. 

Altogether, Egypt is a land of tranquil monotony. The eye commonlytravels either over a waste of waters, or over a green plain unbroken byelevations. The hills which inclose the Nile valley have level tops, andsides that are bare of trees, or shrubs, or flowers, or even mosses. Thesky is generally cloudless. No fog or mist enwraps the distance inmystery; no rainstorm sweeps across the scene; no rainbow spans theempyrean; no shadows chase each other over the landscape. There is anentire absence of picturesque scenery. A single broad river, unbrokenwithin the limits of Egypt even by a rapid, two flat strips of greenplain at its side, two low lines of straight-topped hills beyond them, and a boundless open space where the river divides itself into half adozen sluggish branches before reaching the sea, constitute Egypt, whichis by nature a southern Holland---"weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. "The monotony is relieved, however, in two ways, and by two causes. Nature herself does something to relieve it Twice a day, in the morningand in the evening, the sky and the landscape are lit up by hues sobright yet so delicate, that the homely features of the prospect are atonce transformed as by magic, and wear an aspect of exquisite beauty. Atdawn long streaks of rosy light stretch themselves across the easternsky, the haze above the western horizon blushes a deep red; a ruddylight diffuses itself around, and makes walls and towers and minaretsand cupolas to glow like fire; the long shadows thrown by each tree andbuilding are purple or violet. A glamour is over the scene, which seemstransfigured by an enchanter's wand; but the enchanter is Nature, andthe wand she wields is composed of sun-rays. Again, at eve, nearly thesame effects are produced as in the morning, only with a heightenedeffect; "the redness of flames" passes into "the redness of roses"--thewavy cloud that fled in the morning comes into sight once more--comesblushing, yet still comes on--comes burning with blushes, and clings tothe Sun-god's side. [3]

Night brings a fresh transfiguration. The olive after-glow gives placeto a deep blue-grey. The yellow moon rises into the vast expanse. Asoftened light diffuses itself over earth and sky. The orb of nightwalks in brightness through a firmament of sapphire; or, if the moon isbelow the horizon, then the purple vault is lit up with many-colouredstars. Silence profound reigns around. A phase of beauty whollydifferent from that of the day-time smites the sense; and the monotonyof feature is forgiven to the changefulness of expression, and to theexperience of a new delight. 

Man has also done his part to overcome the dulness and sameness thatbrood over the "land of Mizraim. " Where nature is most tame andcommonplace, man is tempted to his highest flights of audacity. As inthe level Babylonia he aspired to build a tower that should "reach toheaven" (Gen. Xi. 4), so in Egypt he strove to startle and surprise bygigantic works, enormous undertakings, enterprises that might haveseemed wholly beyond his powers. And these have constituted in all ages, except the very earliest, the great attractiveness of Egypt. Men aredrawn there, not by the mysteriousness of the Nile, or the mild beautiesof orchards and palm-groves, of well-cultivated fields and gardens--no, nor by the loveliness of sunrises and sunsets, of moonlit skies andstars shining with many hues, but by the huge masses of the pyramids, bythe colossal statues, the tall obelisks, the enormous temples, thedeeply-excavated tombs, the mosques, the castles, and the palaces. Thearchitecture of Egypt is its great glory. It began early, and it hascontinued late. But for the great works, strewn thickly over the wholevalley of the Nile, the land of Egypt would have obtained but a smallshare of the world's attention; and it is at least doubtful whether its"story" would ever have been thought necessary to complete "the Story ofthe Nations. "

FOOTNOTES:

[1] R. Stuart Poole, "Cities of Egypt, " p. 4. 

[2] Translation by F. C. Cook. 

[3] Adapted from Mr. Kinglake's "Eothen, " p. 188. 

II. 

THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT. 

Where the Egyptians came from, is a difficult question to answer. Ancient speculators, when they could not derive a people definitely fromany other, took refuge in the statement, or the figment, that they werethe children of the soil which they had always occupied. Moderntheorists may say, if it please them, that they were evolved out of themonkeys that had their primitive abode on that particular portion of theearth's surface. Monkeys, however, are not found everywhere; and we haveno evidence that in Egypt they were ever indigenous, though, as pets, they were very common, the Egyptians delighting in keeping them. Suchevidence as we have reveals to us the man as anterior to the monkey inthe land of Mizraim Thus we are thrown back on the originalquestion--Where did the man, or race of men, that is found in Egypt atthe dawn of history come from?

It is generally answered that they came from Asia; but this is not muchmore than a conjecture. The physical type of the Egyptians is differentfrom that of any known Asiatic nation. The Egyptians had no traditionsthat at all connected them with Asia. Their language, indeed, inhistoric times was partially Semitic, and allied to the Hebrew, thePhœnician, and the Aramaic; but the relationship was remote, and may bepartly accounted for by later intercourse, without involving originalderivation. The fundamental character of the Egyptian in respect ofphysical type, language, and tone of thought, is Nigritic. The Egyptianswere not negroes, but they bore a resemblance to the negro which isindisputable. Their type differs from the Caucasian in exactly thoserespects which when exaggerated produce the negro. They were darker, hadthicker lips, lower foreheads, larger heads, more advancing jaws, aflatter foot, and a more attenuated frame. It is quite conceivable thatthe negro type was produced by a gradual degeneration from that which wefind in Egypt. It is even conceivable that the Egyptian type wasproduced by gradual advance and amelioration from that of the negro. 

Still, whencesoever derived, the Egyptian people, as it existed in theflourishing times of Egyptian history, was beyond all question a mixedrace, showing diverse affinities. Whatever the people was originally, itreceived into it from time to time various foreign elements, and thosein such quantities as seriously to affect its physique--Ethiopians fromthe south, Libyans from the west, Semites from the north-east, whereAfrica adjoined on Asia. There are two quite different types of Egyptianform and feature, blending together in the mass of the nation, butstrongly developed, and (so to speak) accentuated in individuals. One isthat which we see in portraits of Rameses III, and in some of RamesesII. --a moderately high forehead, a large, well-formed aquiline nose, awell-shaped mouth with lips not over full, and a delicately roundedchin. The other is comparatively coarse--forehead low, nose depressedand short, lower part of the face prognathous and sensual-looking, chinheavy, jaw large, lips thick and projecting. The two types of face arenot, however, accompanied by much difference of frame. The Egyptian isalways slight in figure, wanting in muscle, flat in foot, with limbsthat are too long, too thin, too lady-like. Something more ofmuscularity appears, perhaps, in the earlier than in the later forms;but this is perhaps attributable to a modification of the artisticideal. 

As Egypt presents us with two types of physique, so it brings before ustwo strongly different types of character. On the one hand we see, alikein the pictured scenes, in the native literary remains, and in theaccounts which foreigners have left us of the people, a grave anddignified race, full of serious and sober thought, given to speculationand reflection, occupied rather with the interests belonging to anotherworld than with those that attach to this present scene of existence, and inclined to indulge in a gentle and dreamy melancholy. The firstthought of a king, when he began his reign, was to begin his tomb. Thedesire of the grandee was similar. It is a trite tale how at feasts aslave carried round to all the guests the representation of a mummiedcorpse, and showed it to each in turn, with the solemn words--"Look atthis, and so eat and drink; for be sure that one day such as this thoushalt be. " The favourite song of the Egyptians, according to Herodotus, was a dirge. The "Lay of Harper, " which we subjoin, sounds a key-notethat was very familiar, at any rate, to large numbers among theEgyptians. 

 The Great One[4] has gone to his rest, Ended his task and his race; Thus men are aye passing away, And youths are aye taking their place. As Ra rises up every morn, And Turn every evening doth set, So women conceive and bring forth, And men without ceasing beget. Each soul in its turn draweth breath-- Each man born of woman sees Death. 

 Take thy pleasure to-day, Father! Holy One! See, Spices and fragrant oils, Father, we bring to thee. On thy sister's bosom and arms Wreaths of lotus we place; On thy sister, dear to thy heart, Aye sitting before thy face. Sound the song; let music be played And let cares behind thee be laid. 

 Take thy pleasure to-day; Mind thee of joy and delight! Soon life's pilgrimage ends, And we pass to Silence and Night. Patriarch perfect and pure, Nefer-hotep, blessed one! Thou Didst finish thy course upon earth, And art with the blessed ones now. Men pass to the Silent Shore, And their place doth know them no more. 

 They are as they never had been, Since the sun went forth upon high; They sit on the banks of the stream That floweth in stillness by. Thy soul is among them; thou Dost drink of the sacred tide, Having the wish of thy heart-- At peace ever since thou hast died. Give bread to the man who is poor, And thy name shall be blest evermore. 

 * * * * *

 Take thy pleasure to-day, Nefer-hotep, blessed and pure. What availed thee thy other buildings? Of thy tomb alone thou art sure. On the earth thou hast nought beside, Nought of thee else is remaining; And when thou wentest below, Thy last sip of life thou wert draining. Even they who have millions to spend, Find that life comes at last to an end. 

 Let all, then, think of the day Of departure without returning-- 'Twill then be well to have lived, All sin and injustice spurning. For he who has loved the right, In the hour that none can flee, Enters upon the delight Of a glad eternity. Give freely from out thy store, And thou shalt be blest evermore. 

On the other hand, there is evidence of a lightsome, joyous, and evenfrolic spirit as pervading numbers, especially among the lower classesof the Egyptians. "Traverse Egypt, " says a writer who knows more of theancient country than almost any other living person, "examine the scenessculptured or painted on the walls of the chapels attached to tombs, consult the inscriptions graven on the rocks or traced with ink on thepapyrus rolls, and you will be compelled to modify your mistaken notionof the Egyptians being a nation of philosophers. I defy you to findanything more gay, more amusing, more freshly simple, than thisgood-natured Egyptian people, which was fond of life and felt a profoundpleasure in its existence. Far from desiring death, they addressedprayers to the gods to preserve them in life, and to give them a happyold age--an old age that should reach, if possible, to the 'perfect termof no years. ' They gave themselves up to pleasures of every kind; theysang, they drank, they danced, they delighted in making excursions intothe country, where hunting and fishing were occupations reservedespecially for the nobility. In conformity with this inclination towardspleasure, sportive proposals, a pleasantry that was perhaps over-free, witticisms, raillery, and a mocking spirit, were in vogue among thepeople, and fun was allowed entrance even into the tombs. In the largeschools the masters had a difficulty in training the young and keepingdown their passion for amusements. When oral exhortation failed ofsuccess, the cane was used pretty smartly in its place; for the wise menof the land had a saying that 'a boy's ears grow on his back. '"[5]

Herodotus tells us how gaily the Egyptians kept their festivals, thousands of the common people--men, women, and childrentogether--crowding into the boats, which at such times covered the Nile, the men piping, and the women clapping their hands or striking theircastanets, as they passed from town to town along the banks of thestream, stopping at the various landing-places, and challenging theinhabitants to a contest of good-humoured Billingsgate. From themonuments we see how the men sang at their labours--here as they trodthe wine-press or the dough-trough, there as they threshed out the cornby driving the oxen through the golden heaps. In one case the words of aharvest-song have come down to us:

 "Thresh for yourselves, " they sang, "thresh for yourselves, O oxen, thresh for yourselves, for yourselves-- Bushels for yourselves, bushels for your masters!"

Their light-hearted drollery sometimes found vent in caricature. Thegrand sculptures wherewith a king strove to perpetuate the memory of hiswarlike exploits were travestied by satirists, who reproduced the scenesupon papyrus as combats between cats and rats. The amorous follies ofthe monarch were held up to derision by sketches of a harem interior, where the kingly wooer was represented by a lion, and his favourites ofthe softer sex by gazelles. Even in serious scenes depicting the trialof souls in the next world, the sense of humour breaks out, where thebad man, transformed into a pig or a monkey, walks off with a comicalair of surprise and discomfiture. 

It does not, however, help us much towards the true knowledge of apeople to scan their frames or study their facial angle, or even tocontemplate the outer aspect of their daily life. We want to know theirthoughts, their innermost feelings, their hopes, their fears--in a word, their belief. Nothing tells the character of a people so much as theirreligion; and we are only dealing superficially with the outward showsof things until we get down to the root of their being, the conviction, or convictions, held in the recesses of a people's heart. What, then, was the Egyptian religion? What did they worship? What did theyreverence? What future did they look forward to?

Enter the huge courts of an Egyptian temple, or temple-palace, and youwill see portrayed upon its lofty walls row upon row of deities. Herethe king makes his offering to Ammon, Maut, Khons, Neith, Mentu, Shu, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Set, Horus; there he pours a libation to Phthah, Sekhet, Tum, Pasht, Anuka, Thoth, Anubis; elsewhere, it may be, he payshis court to Sati, Khem, Isis, Nephthys, Athor, Harmachis, Nausaas, andNebhept. One monarch erects an altar to Satemi, Tum, Khepra, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Netpe, Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, Horus, and Thoth, mentioning on the same monument Phthah, Num, Sabak, Athor, Pasht, Mentu, Neith, Anubis, Nishem, and Kartak. Another represents himself on asimilar object as offering adoration to Ammon, Khem, Phthah-Sokari, Seb, Nut, Thoth, Khons, Osiris, Isis, Horus, Athor, Uat (Buto), Neith, Sekhet, Anata, Nuneb, Nebhept, and Hapi. All these deities arerepresented by distinct forms, and have distinct attributes. Nor do theyat all exhaust the Pantheon. One modern writer enumerates seventy-threedivinities, and gives their several names and forms. Another has a listof sixty-three "_principal_ deities, " and notes that there were "otherswhich personified the elements, or presided over the operations ofnature, the seasons, and events. " The Egyptians themselves speak notunfrequently of "the _thousand_ gods, " sometimes further qualifyingthem, as "the gods male, the gods female, those which belong to the landof Egypt. " Practically, there were before the eyes of worshippers somescores, if not some hundreds, of deities, who invited their approach andchallenged their affections. 

Nor was this the whole, or the worst. The Egyptian was taught to pay areligious regard to animals. In one place goats, in another sheep, in athird hippopotami, in a fourth crocodiles, in a fifth vultures, in asixth frogs, in a seventh shrew-mice, were sacred creatures, to betreated with respect and honour, and under no circumstances to be slain, under the penalty of death to the slayer. And besides this localanimal-cult, there was a cult which was general. Cows, cats, dogs, ibises, hawks, and cynocephalous apes, were sacred throughout the wholeof Egypt, and woe to the man who injured them! A Roman who accidentallycaused the death of a cat was immediately "lynched" by the populace. Inhabitants of neighbouring villages would attack each other with theutmost fury if the native of one had killed or eaten an animal heldsacred in the other. In any house where a cat or a dog died, the inmateswere expected to mourn for them as for a relation. Both these and theother sacred animals were carefully embalmed after death, and theirbodies were interred in sacred repositories. 

The animal-worship reached its utmost pitch of grossness and absurditywhen certain individual brute beasts were declared to be incarnatedeities, and treated accordingly. At Memphis, the ordinary capital, there was maintained, at any rate from the time of Aahmes I. (about B. C. 1650), a sacred bull, known as Hapi or Apis, which was believed to be anactual incarnation of the god Phthah, and was an object of the highestveneration. The Apis bull dwelt in a temple of his own near the city, had his train of attendant priests, his harem of cows, his meals of thechoicest food, his grooms and currycombers who kept his coat clean andbeautiful, his chamberlains who made his bed, his cup-bearers whobrought him water, &c. , and on fixed days was led in a festiveprocession through the main streets of the town, so that the inhabitantsmight see him, and come forth from their dwellings and make obeisance. When he died he was carefully embalmed, and deposited, together withmagnificent jewels and statuettes and vases, in a polished granitesarcophagus, cut out of a single block, and weighing between sixty andseventy tons! The cost of an Apis funeral amounted sometimes, as we aretold, to as much as £20, 000. To contain the sarcophagi, several longgalleries were cut in the solid rock near Memphis, from which archedlateral chambers went off on either side, each constructed to hold onesarcophagus. The number of Apis bulls buried in the galleries was foundto be sixty-four. 

Nor was this the only incarnate god of which Egypt boasted. Anotherbull, called Mnevis, was maintained in the great temple of the Sun atHeliopolis, and, being regarded as an incarnation of Ra or Tum, was asmuch reverenced by the Heliopolites as Apis by the Memphites, A third, called Bacis or Pacis, was kept at Hermonthis, which was also anincarnation of Ra. And a white cow at Momemphis was reckoned anincarnation of Athor. Who can wonder that foreign nations ridiculed areligion of this kind--one that "turned the glory" of the EternalGodhead "into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay"?

The Egyptians had also a further god incarnate, who was not shut up outof sight like the Apis and Mnevis and Bacis bulls and the Athor cow, butwas continually before their eyes, the centre of the nation's life, theprime object of attention. This was the monarch, who for the time beingoccupied the throne. Each king of Egypt claimed not only to be "son ofthe Sun, " but to be an actual incarnation of the sun--"the livingHorus. " And this claim was, from an early date, received and allowed. "Thy Majesty, " says a courtier under the twelfth dynasty, "is the goodGod . .. The great God, the equal of the Sun-God. . .. I live from thebreath which thou givest" Brought into the king's presence, the courtier"falls on his belly, " amazed and confounded. "I was as one brought outof the dark; my tongue was dumb; my lips failed me; my heart was nolonger in my body to know whether I was alive or dead;" and this, although "the god" had "addressed him mildly. " Another courtierattributes his long life to the king's favour. Ambassadors, whenpresented to the king, "raised their arms in adoration of the good god, "and declared to him--"Thou art like the Sun in all that thou doest: thyheart realizes all its wishes; shouldest thou wish to make it day duringthe night, it is so forthwith. .. . If thou sayest to the water, 'Comefrom the rock, ' it will come in a torrent suddenly at the words of thymouth. The god Ra is like thee in his limbs, the god Khepra in creativeforce. Truly thou art the living image of thy father, Tum. .. . All thywords are accomplished daily. " Some of the kings set up their statues inthe temples by the side of the greatest of the national deities, to bethe objects of a similar worship. 

Amid this wealth of gods, earthly and heavenly, human, animal, anddivine, an Egyptian might well feel puzzled to make a choice. In hishesitation he was apt to turn to that only portion of his religion whichhad the attraction that myth possesses--- the introduction into asupramundane and superhuman world of a quasi-human element. The chiefEgyptian myth was the Osirid saga, which ran somewhat as follows: "Onceupon a time the gods were tired of ruling in the upper sphere, andresolved to take it in turns to reign over Egypt in the likeness of men. So, after four of them had in succession been kings, each for a longterm of years, it happened that Osiris, the son of Seb and Nut, took thethrone, and became monarch of the two regions, the Upper and the Lower. Osiris was of a good and bountiful nature, beneficent in will and words:he set himself to civilize the Egyptians, taught them to till the fieldsand cultivate the vine, gave them law and religion, and instructed themin various useful arts. Unfortunately, he had a wicked brother, calledSet or Sutekh, who hated him for his goodness, and resolved to compasshis death. This he effected after a while, and, having placed the bodyin a coffin, he threw it into the Nile, whence it floated down to thesea. Isis, the sister and widow of Osiris, together with her sisterNephthys, vainly sought for a long time her lord's remains, but at lastfound them on the Syrian shore at Byblus, where they had been cast up bythe waves. She was conveying the corpse for embalmment and interment toMemphis, when Set stole it from her, and cut it up into fourteen pieces, which he concealed in various places. The unhappy queen set forth in alight boat made of the papyrus plant, and searched Egypt from end toend, until she had found all the fragments, and buried them with duehonours. She then called on her son, Horus, to avenge his father, andHorus engaged him in a long war, wherein he was at last victorious andtook Set prisoner. Isis now relented, and released Set, who be itremembered, was her brother; which so enraged Horus that he tore off hercrown, or (according to some) struck off her head, which injury Thothrepaired by giving her a cow's head in place of her own. Horus thenrenewed the war with his uncle, and finally slew him with a long spear, which he drove into his head. " The gods and goddesses of the Osiridlegend, Seb, Nut or Netpe, Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, Set, and Horus orHarmachis, were those which most drew towards them the thoughts of theEgyptians, the greater number being favourite objects of worship, whileSet was held in general detestation. 

It was a peculiar feature of the Egyptian religion, that it containeddistinctively evil and malignant gods. Set was not, originally, such adeity; but he became such in course of time, and was to the laterEgyptians the very principle of evil--Evil personified. Another evildeity was Taour or Taourt, who is represented as a hippopotamus standingon its hind-legs, with the skin and tail of a crocodile dependent downits back, and a knife or a pair of shears in one hand. Bes seems also tohave been a divinity of the same class. He was represented as a hideousdwarf, with large outstanding ears, bald, or with a plume of feathers onhis head, and with a lion-skin down his back, often carrying in his twohands two knives. Even more terrible than Bes was Apep, the greatserpent, with its huge and many folds, who helped Set against Osiris, and was the adversary and accuser of souls. Savak, a god with the headof a crocodile, seems also to have belonged to the class of malignantbeings, though he was a favourite deity with some of the Ramessidekings, and a special object of worship in the Fayoum. 

[Illustrations: FIGURES OF TAOURT. ]

The complex polytheism of the monuments and the literature was not, however, the practical religion of many Egyptians. Local cults heldpossession of most of the nomes, and the ordinary Egyptian, instead ofdissipating his religious affections by distributing them among thethousand divinities of the Pantheon, concentrated them on those of hisnome. If he was a Memphite, he worshipped Phthah Sekhet, and Tum; if aTheban, Ammon-Ra, Maut, Khons, and Neith; if a Heliopolite, Tum, Nebhebtand Horus; if a Elephantinite, Kneph, Sati, Anuka, and Hak; and so on. The Egyptian Pantheon was a gradual accretion, the result ofamalgamating the various local cults; but these continued predominant intheir several localities; and practically the only deities that obtainedanything like a general recognition were Osiris, Isis, Horus, and theNile-god, Hapi. 

[Illustration: FIGURE OF BES. ]

Besides the common popular religion, the belief of the masses, there wasanother which prevailed among the priests and among the educated. Theprimary doctrine of this esoteric religion was the real essential unityof the Divine Nature. The sacred texts, known only to the priests and tothe initiated, taught that there was a single Being, "the sole producerof all things both in heaven and earth, himself not produced of any, ""the only true living God, self-originated, " "who exists from thebeginning, " "who has made all things, but has not himself been made. "This Being seems never to have been represented by any material, evensymbolical, form. It is thought that he had no name, or, if he had, thatit must have been unlawful to pronounce or write it. He was a purespirit, perfect in every respect--all-wise, almighty, supremely good. Itis of him that the Egyptian poets use such expressions as the following:"He is not graven in marble; he is not beheld; his abode is not known;no shrine is found with painted figures of him; there is no buildingthat can contain him;" and, again: "Unknown is his name in heaven; hedoth not manifest his forms; vain are all representations;" and yetagain: "His commencement is from the beginning; he is the God who hasexisted from old time; there is no God without him; no mother bore him;no father hath begotten him; he is a god-goddess, created from himself;all gods came into existence when he began. "

The other gods, the gods of the popular mythology were understood inthe esoteric religion to be either personified attributes of the Deity, or parts of the nature which he had created, considered as informed andinspired by him. Num or Kneph represented the creative mind, Phthah thecreative hand, or act of creating; Maut represented matter, Ra the sun, Khons the moon, Seb the earth, Khem the generative power in nature, Nutthe upper hemisphere of the heavens, Athor the lower world or underhemisphere; Thoth personified the Divine Wisdom, Ammon perhaps theDivine mysteriousness or incomprehensibility, Osiris the DivineGoodness. It is difficult in many cases to fix on the exact quality, act, or part of nature intended; but the principle admits of no doubt. No educated Egyptian conceived of the popular gods as really separateand distinct beings. All knew that there was but One God, and understoodthat, when worship was offered to Khem, or Kneph, or Maut, or Thoth, orAmmon, the One God was worshipped under some one of his forms or in someone of his aspects. He was every god, and thus all the gods' names wereinterchangeable, and in one and the same hymn we may find a god, sayAmmon, addressed also as Ra and Khem and Turn and Horus and Khepra; orHapi, the Nile-god, invoked as Ammon and Phthah; or Osiris as Ra andThoth; or, in fact, any god invoked as almost any other. If there be alimit, it is in respect of the evil deities, whose names are not givento the good ones. 

Common to all Egyptians seems to have been a belief, if not, strictlyspeaking, in the immortality of the soul, yet, at any rate, in a lifeafter death, and a judgment of every man according to the deeds whichhe had done in the body while upon earth. It was universally received, that, immediately after death, the soul descended into the Lower World, and was conducted to the "Hall of Truth, " where it was judged in thepresence of Osiris and of the forty-two assessors, the "Lords of Truth"and judges of the dead. Anubis, "the director of the weight, " broughtforth a pair of scales, and, placing in one scale a figure or emblem ofTruth, set in the other a vase containing the good actions of thedeceased; Thoth standing by the while, with a tablet in his hand, whereon to record the result. According to the side on which the balanceinclined, Osiris, the president, delivered sentence. If the good deedspreponderated, the blessed soul was allowed to enter the "boat of theSun, " and was led by good spirits to Aahlu (Elysium), to the "pools ofpeace" and the dwelling-place of Osiris. If, on the contrary, the gooddeeds were insufficient, if the ordeal was not passed, then the unhappysoul was sentenced, according to its deserts, to begin a round oftransmigrations into the bodies of more or less unclean animals, thenumber, nature, and duration of the transmigrations depending on thedegree of the deceased's demerits, and the consequent length andseverity of the punishment which he deserved or the purification whichhe needed. Ultimately, if after many trials purity was not attained, then the wicked and incurable soul underwent a final sentence at thehands of Osiris, Judge of the Dead, and being condemned to annihilation, was destroyed upon the steps of heaven by Shu, the Lord of Light. Thegood soul, having first been completely cleansed of its impurities bypassing through the basin of purgatorial fire guarded by the fourape-faced genii, was made the companion of Osiris for a period of threethousand years; after which it returned from Amenti, re-entered itsformer body, and lived once more a human life upon the earth. Theprocess was repeated till a mystic number of years had gone by, when, finally, the blessed attained the crowning joy of union with God, beingabsorbed into the Divine Essence, from which they had emanated, and thusattaining the true end and full perfection of their being. 

Such a belief as this, if earnest and thorough, should be productive ofa high standard of moral action; and undoubtedly the Egyptians had acode of morality that will compare favourably with that of most ancientnations. It has been said to have contained "three cardinalrequirements--love of God, love of virtue, and love of man. " The hymnssufficiently indicate the first; the second may be allowed, if by"virtue" we understand justice and truth; the third is testified by theconstant claim of men, in their epitaphs, to have been benefactors oftheir species. "I was not an idler, " says one; "I was no listener to thecounsels of sloth; my name was not heard in the place of reproof . .. Allmen respected me; I gave water to the thirsty; I set the wanderer on hispath; I took away the oppressor, and put a stop to violence. " "I myselfwas just and true, " writes another: "without malice, having put God inmy heart, and being quick to discern His will. I have done good uponearth; I have harboured no prejudice; I have not been wicked; I havenot approved of any offence or iniquity; I have taken pleasure inspeaking the truth. .. . Pure is my soul; while living I bore no malice. There are no errors attributable to me; no sins of mine are before thejudges. .. . The men of the future, while they live, will be charmed by myremarkable merits. " And another: "I have not oppressed any widow; noprisoner languished in my days; no one died of hunger. When there wereyears of famine, I had my fields ploughed. I gave food to theinhabitants, so that there was no hungry person. I gave the widow anequal portion with the married; I did not prefer the rich to the poor. "

The moral standard thus set up, though satisfactory, so far as it went, was in many respects deficient. It did not comprise humility; itscarcely seems to have comprised purity. The religious sculptures of theEgyptians were grossly indecent; their religious festivals were kept inan indecent way; phallic orgies were a part of them, and phallic orgiesof a gross kind. The Egyptians tolerated incest, and could defend it bythe example of the gods. Osiris had married his sister; Khem was "theBull of his mother". The Egyptian novelettes are full of indecency andimmorality, and Egyptian travellers describe their amours very much inthe spirit of Ferdinand, Count Fathom; moreover, the complacency withwhich each Egyptian declares himself on his tomb to have possessed everyvirtue, and to have been free from all vices, is most remarkable. "I wasa good man before the king; I saved the population in the dire calamitywhich befell all the land; I shielded the weak against the strong; I didall good things when the time came to do them; I was pious towards myfather, and did the will of my mother; I was kind-hearted towards mybrethren . .. I made a good sarcophagus for him who had no coffin. Whenthe dire calamity befell the land, I made the children to live, Iestablished the houses, I did for them all such good things as a fatherdoes for his sons. "

And, notwithstanding all this braggadocio, performance seems to havelagged sadly behind profession. Kings boast of slaying their unresistingprisoners with their own hand, and represent themselves in the act ofdoing so. They come back from battle with the gory heads of their slainenemies hanging from their chariots. Licentiousness prevailed in thepalace, and members of the royal harem intrigued with those who soughtthe life of the king. A belief in magic was general, and men endeavouredto destroy or injure those whom they hated by wasting their waxeneffigies at a slow fire to the accompaniment of incantations. Thieveswere numerous, and did not scruple even to violate the sanctity of thetomb in order to obtain a satisfactory booty. A famous "thieves'society, " formed for the purpose of opening and plundering the royaltombs, contained among its members persons of the sacerdotal order. 

Social ranks in Egypt were divided somewhat sharply. There was a largeclass of nobles, who were mostly great landed proprietors living ontheir estates, and having under them a vast body of dependents, servants, labourers, artizans &c. There was also a numerous officialclass, partly employed at the court, partly holding government poststhroughout the country, which regarded itself as highly dignified, andlooked down _de haut en has_ on "the people. " Commands in the army seemto have been among the prizes which from time to time fell to the lot ofsuch persons. Further, there was a literary class, which was eminentlyrespectable, and which viewed with contempt those who were engaged intrade or handicrafts. 

Below these three classes, and removed from them by a long interval, wasthe mass of the population--"the multitude" as the Egyptians calledthem. These persons were engaged in manual labour of different kinds. The greater number were employed on the farms of the nobles, in thecultivation of the soil or in the rearing of cattle. A portion wereboatmen, fishermen, or fowlers. Others pursued the various knownhandicrafts. They were weavers, workers in metal, stone-cutters, masons, potters, carpenters, upholsterers, tailors, shoe-makers, glass-blowers, boat-builders, wig-makers, and embalmers. There were also among thempainters and sculptors. But all these employments "stank" in thenostrils of the upper classes, and were regarded as unworthy of any onewho wished to be thought respectable. 

Still, the line of demarcation, decided as it was, might be crossed. Itis an entire mistake to suppose that caste existed in Egypt. Menfrequently bred up their sons to their own trade or profession, as theydo in all countries, but they were not obliged to do so--there wasabsolutely no compulsion in the matter. The "public-schools" of Egyptwere open to all comers, and the son of the artizan sat on the samebench with the son of the noble, enjoyed the same education, and had anequal opportunity of distinguishing himself. If he showed sufficientpromise, he was recommended to adopt the literary life; and the literarylife was the sure passport to State employment. State employment onceentered upon, merit secured advancement; and thus there was, in fact, noobstacle to prevent the son of a labouring man from rising to the veryhighest positions in the administration of the empire. Successfulministers were usually rewarded by large grants of land from the royaldomain; and it follows that a clever youth of the labouring class mightby good conduct and ability make his way even into the ranks of thelanded aristocracy. 

On the other hand, practically, the condition of the labouring classwas, generally speaking, a hard and sad one. The kings were entitled toemploy as many of their subjects as they pleased in forced labours, andmonarchs often sacrificed to their inordinate vanity the lives andhappiness of thousands. Private employers of labour were frequentlycruel and exacting; their overseers used the stick, and it was not easyfor those who suffered to obtain any redress. Moreover, taxation washeavy, and inability to satisfy the collector subjected the defaulter tothe bastinado. Those who have studied the antiquities of Egypt with mostcare, tell us that there was not much to choose between the condition ofthe ancient labourers and that of the unhappy _fellahin_[6] of thepresent day. 

FOOTNOTES:

[4] Nefer-hotep, a deceased king. 

[5] Brugsch, "Histoire d'Egypte, " p. 15. 

[6] A fellah is a peasant, one of the labouring class, just above theslave. 

III. 

THE DAWN OF HISTORY. 

All nations, unless they be colonies, have a prehistoric time--a darkperiod of mist and gloom, before the keen light of history dawns uponthem. This period is the favourite playground of the myth-spirits, wherethey disport themselves freely, or lounge heavily and listlessly, according to their different natures. The Egyptian spirits were of theheavier and duller kind--not light and frolicsome, like the Greek andthe Indo-Iranian. It has been said that Egypt never produced more thanone myth, the Osirid legend; and this is so far true that in no othercase is the story told at any considerable length, or with anyconsiderable number of exciting incidents. There are, however, manyshort legends in the Egyptian remains, which have more or less ofinterest, and show that the people was not altogether devoid ofimagination, though their imagination was far from lively. Seb, forinstance, once upon a time, took the form of a goose, and laid themundane egg, and hatched it. Thoth once wrote a wonderful book, full ofwisdom and science, which told of everything concerning the fowls of theair, and the fishes of the sea, and the four-footed beasts of the earth. He who knew a single page of the book could charm the heaven, theearth, the great abyss, the mountains, and the seas. Thoth took the workand enclosed it in a box of gold, and the box of gold he placed within abox of silver, and the silver box within a box of ivory and ebony, andthat again within a box of bronze; and the bronze box he enclosed withina box of brass, and the brass box within a box of iron; and the box, thus guarded, he threw into the Nile at Coptos. But a priest discoveredthe whereabouts of the book, and sold the knowledge to a young noble fora hundred pieces of silver, and the young noble with great troublefished the book up. But the possession of the book brought him not goodbut evil. He lost his wife; he lost his child; he became entangled in adisgraceful intrigue. He was glad to part with the book. But the nextpossessor was not more fortunate; the book brought him no luck. Thequest after unlawful knowledge involved all who sought it in calamity. 

Another myth had for its subject the proposed destruction of mankind byRa, the Sun-god. Ra had succeeded Phthah as king of Egypt, and hadreigned for a long term of years in peace, contented with his subjectsand they with him. But a time came when they grew headstrong and unruly;they uttered words against Ra; they plotted evil things; they grievouslyoffended him. So Ra called the council of the gods together and askedthem to advise him what he should do. They said mankind must bedestroyed, and committed the task of destruction to Athor and Sekhet, who proceeded to smite the men over the whole land. But now fear cameupon mankind; and the men of Elephantine made haste, and extracted thejuice from the best of their fruits, and mingled it with human blood, and filled seven thousand jars, and brought them as an offering to theoffended god. Ra drank and was content, and ordered the liquor thatremained in the jars to be poured out; and, lo! it was an inundationwhich covered the whole land of Egypt; and when Athor went forth thenext day to destroy, she saw no men in the fields, but only water, whichshe drank, and it pleased her, and she went away satisfied. 

It would require another Euhemerus to find any groundwork of history inthese narratives. We must turn away from the "shadow-land" which theEgyptians called the time of the gods on earth, if we would find traceof the real doings of men in the Nile valley, and put before our readersactual human beings in the place of airy phantoms. The Egyptiansthemselves taught that the first man of whom they had any record was aking called M'na, a name which the Greeks represented by Mên or Menes. M'na was born at Tena (This or Thinis) in Upper Egypt, where hisancestors had borne sway before him. He was the first to master theLower country, and thus to unite under a single sceptre the "twoEgypts"--the long narrow Nile valley and the broad Delta plain. Havingplaced on his head the double crown which thenceforth symbolizeddominion over both tracts, his first thought was that a new capital wasneeded. Egypt could not, he felt, be ruled conveniently from thelatitude of Thebes, or from any site in the Upper country; it required acapital which should abut on both regions, and so command both. Naturepointed out one only fit locality, the junction of the plain with thevale--"the balance of the two regions, " as the Egyptians called it; theplace where the narrow "Upper Country" terminates, and Egypt opens outinto the wide smiling plain that thence spreads itself on every side tothe sea. Hence there would be easy access to both regions; both wouldbe, in a way, commanded; here, too, was a readily defensible position, one assailable only in front. Experience has shown that the instinct ofthe first founder was right, or that his political and strategicforesight was extraordinary. Though circumstances, once and again, transferred the seat of government to Thebes or Alexandria, yet suchremovals were short-lived. The force of geographic fact was too strongto be permanently overcome, and after a few centuries power gravitatedback to the centre pointed out by nature. 

If we may believe the tradition, there was, when the idea of buildingthe new capital arose, a difficulty in obtaining a site in all respectsadvantageous. The Nile, before debouching upon the plain, hugged formany miles the base of the Libyan hills, and was thus on the wrong sideof the valley. It was wanted on the other side, in order to be awater-bulwark against an Asiatic invader. The founder, therefore, beforebuilding his city, undertook a gigantic work. He raised a greatembankment across the natural course of the river; and, forcing it fromits bed, made it enter a new channel and run midway down the valley, or, if anything, rather towards its eastern side. He thus obtained thebulwark against invasion that he required, and he had an ample site forhis capital between the new channel of the stream and the foot of thewestern hills. 

It is undoubtedly strange to hear of such a work being constructed atthe very dawn of history, by a population that was just becoming apeople. But in Egypt precocity is the rule--a Minerva starts full-grownfrom the head of Jove. The pyramids themselves cannot be placed verylong after the supposed reign of Menes; and the engineering skillimplied in the pyramids is simply of a piece with that attributed to thefounder of Memphis. 

In ancient times a city was nothing without a temple; and the capitalcity of the most religious people in the world could not by anypossibility lack that centre of civic life which its chief temple alwayswas to every ancient town. Philosophy must settle the question how itcame to pass that religious ideas were in ancient times so universallyprevalent and so strongly pronounced. History is only bound to note thefact. Coeval, then, with the foundation of the city of Menes was, according to the tradition, the erection of a great temple toPhthah--"the Revealer, " the Divine artificer, by whom the world and manwere created, and the hidden thought of the remote Supreme Being wasmade manifest to His creatures, Phthah's temple lay within the town, andwas originally a _naos_ or "cell, " a single building probably not unlikethat between the Sphinx's paws at Ghizeh, situated within a _temenos_, or "sacred enclosure, " watered from the river, and no doubt planted withtrees. Like the medieval cathedrals, the building grew with the lapseof centuries, great kings continually adding new structures to the mainedifice, and enriching it with statuary and painting. Herodotus saw itin its full glory, and calls it "a vast edifice, very worthy ofcommemoration. " Abd-el-Latif saw it in its decline, and notes the beautyof its remains: "the great monolithic shrine of breccia verde, ninecubits high, eight long, and seven broad, the doors which swung onhinges of stone, the well-carven statues, and the lions terrific intheir aspect. "[7] At the present day scarcely a trace remains. Onebroken colossus of the Great Ramesses, till very recently prostrate, anda few nondescript fragments, alone continue on the spot, to attest tomoderns the position of that antique fane, which the Egyptiansthemselves regarded as the oldest in their land. 

The new city received from its founder the name of Men-nefer--"the GoodAbode. " It was also known as Ei-Ptah--"the House of Phthah. " From theformer name came the prevailing appellations--the "Memphis" of theGreeks and Romans, the "Moph" of the Hebrews, the "Mimpi" of theAssyrians, and the name still given to the ruins, "Tel-Monf. " It wasindeed a "good abode"--watered by an unfailing stream, navigable fromthe sea, which at once brought it supplies and afforded it a strongprotection, surrounded on three sides by the richest and most productivealluvium, close to quarries of excellent stone, warm in winter, fannedby the cool northern breezes in the summer-time, within easy reach ofthe sea, yet not so near as to attract the cupidity of pirates. Fewcapitals have been more favourably placed. It was inevitable that whenthe old town went to ruins, a new one should spring up in its stead. Memphis still exists, in a certain sense, in the glories of the modernCairo, which occupies an adjacent site, and is composed largely of thesame materials. 

The Egyptians knew no more of their first king than that he turned thecourse of the Nile, founded Memphis, built the nucleus of the greattemple of Phthah, and "was devoured by a hippopotamus. " This last factis related with all due gravity by Manetho, notwithstanding that thehippopotamus is a graminivorous animal, one that "eats grass like an ox"(Job xi. 15). Probably the old Egyptian writer whom he followed meantthat M'na at last fell a victim to Taourt, the Goddess of Evil, to whomthe hippopotamus was sacred, and who was herself figured as ahippopotamus erect. This would be merely equivalent to relating that hesuccumbed to death. Manetho gave him a reign of sixty-two years. 

The question is asked by the modern critics, who will take nothing ontrust, "Have we in Menes a real Egyptian, a being of flesh and blood, one who truly lived, breathed, fought, built, ruled, and at last died?Or are we still dealing with a phantom, as much as when we spoke of Seb, and Thoth, and Osiris, and Set, and Horus?" The answer seems to be, thatwe cannot tell. The Egyptians believed in Menes as a man; they placedhim at the head of their dynastic lists; but they had no contemporarymonument to show inscribed with his name. A name like that of Menes isfound at the beginning of things in so many nations, that on thataccount alone the word would be suspicious; in Greece it is Minos, inPhrygia Manis, in Lydia Manes, in India Menu, in Germany Mannus. Andagain, the name of the founder is so like that of the city which hefounded, that another suspicion arises--Have we not here one of the manyinstances of a personal name made out of a local one, as Nin or Ninusfrom Nineveh (Ninua), Romulus from Roma, and the like? Probably we shalldo best to acquiesce in the judgment of Dr. Birch: "Menes must be placedamong those founders of monarchies whose personal existence a severe andenlightened criticism doubts or denies. "

The city was, however, a reality, the embankment was a reality, thetemple of Phthah was a reality, and the founding of a kingdom in Egypt, which included both the Upper and the Lower country some considerabletime before the date of Abraham, was a reality, which the sternestcriticism need not--nay, cannot--doubt. All antiquity attests that thevalley of the Nile was one of the first seats of civilization. Abrahamfound a settled government established there when he visited thecountry, and a consecutive series of monuments carries the date of thefirst civilization at least as far back as B. C. 2700--probably further. 

If the great Menes, then, notwithstanding all that we are told of hisdoings, be a mere shadowy personage, little more than _magni nominisumbra_, what shall we say of his twenty or thirty successors of thefirst, second, and third dynasties? What but that they are shadows ofshadows? The native monuments of the early Ramesside period (about B. C. 1400-1300) assign to this time some twenty-five names of kings; but theydo not agree in their order, nor do they altogether agree in the names. The kings, if they were kings, have left no history--we can only byconjecture attach to them any particular buildings, we can give noaccount of their actions, we can assign no chronology to their reigns. They are of no more importance in the "story of Egypt" than the Albankings in the "story of Rome. " "Non ragionam di loro, ma guarda e passi. "

The first living, breathing, acting, flesh-and-blood personage, whomso-called histories of Egypt present to us, is a certain Sneferu, orSeneferu, whom the Egyptians seem to have regarded as the first monarchof their fourth dynasty. Sneferu--called by Manetho, we know not why, Soris--has left us a representation of himself, and an inscription. Onthe rocks of Wady Magharah, in the Sinaitic peninsula, may be seen tothis day an incised tablet representing the monarch in the act ofsmiting an enemy, whom he holds by the hair of his head, with a mace. The action is apparently emblematic, for at the side we see the words_Ta satu_, "Smiter of the nations;" and it is a fair explanation of thetablet, that its intention was to signify that the Pharaoh in questionhad reduced to subjection the tribes which in his time inhabited theSinaitic regions. The motive of the attack was not mere lust ofconquest, but rather the desire of gain. The Wady Magharah containedmines of copper and of turquoise, which the Egyptians desired to work;and for this purpose it was necessary to hold the country by a set ofmilitary posts, in order that the miners might pursue their labourswithout molestation. Some ruins of the fortifications are still to beseen; and the mines themselves, now exhausted, pierce the sides of therocks, and bear in many places traces of hieroglyphical inscriptions Theremains of temples show that the expatriated colonists were not leftwithout the consolations of religion, while a deep well indicates thecare that was taken to supply their temporal needs. Thousands of stonearrow-heads give evidence of the presence of a strong garrison, and makeus acquainted with the weapon which they found most effectual againsttheir enemies. 

[Illustration: TABLET AT SNEFERU AT WADY-MAGHARAH. ]

Sneferu calls himself _Neter aa_, "the Great God, " and _Neb mat_, "theLord of Justice. " He is also "the Golden Horus, " or "the Conqueror. "_Neb mat_ is not a usual title with Egyptian monarchs; and itsassumption by Sneferu would seem to mark, at any rate, his appreciationof the excellence of justice, and his desire to have the reputation of ajust ruler. Later ages give him the title of "the beneficent king, " sothat he would seem to have been a really unselfish and kindly sovereign. His form, however, only just emerges from the mists of the period to beagain concealed from our view, and we vainly ask ourselves what exactlywere the benefits that he conferred on Egypt, so as to attain his highreputation. 

Still, the monuments of his time are sufficient to tell us something ofthe Egypt of his day, and of the amount and character of thecivilization so early attained by the Egyptian people. Besides his owntablet in the Wady Magharah, there are in the neighbourhood of thepyramids of Ghizeh a number of tombs which belong to the officials ofhis court and the members of his family. These tombs contain bothsculptures and inscriptions, and throw considerable light on thecondition of the country. 

In the first place, it is apparent that the style of writing has beeninvented which is called hieroglyphical, and which has the appearance ofa picture writing, though it is almost as absolutely phonetic as anyother. Setting apart a certain small number of "determinatives, " eachsign stands for a sound--the greater part for those elementary soundswhich we express by letters. An eagle is _a_, a leg and foot _b_, ahorned serpent _f_, a hand _t_, an owl _m_, a chicken _u_, and the like. It is true that there are signs which express a compound sound, a wholeword, even a word of two syllables. A bowl or basin represents the soundof _neb_, a hatchet that of _neter_, a guitar that of _nefer_, acrescent that of _aah_, and so on. Secondly, it is clear that artisticpower is considerable. The animal forms used in the hieroglyphics--thebee, the vulture, the uræus, the hawk, the chicken, the eagle--are welldrawn. In the human forms there is less merit, but still they are fairlywell proportioned and have spirit. No rudeness or want of finishattaches either to the writing or to the drawing of Sneferu's time; theartists do not attempt much, but what they attempt they accomplish. 

Next, we may notice the character of the tombs. Already the tomb wasmore important than the house; and while every habitation constructedfor the living men of the time has utterly perished, scores of thedwellings assigned to the departed still exist, many in an excellentcondition. They are stone buildings resembling small houses, each withits door of entrance, but with no windows, and forming internally asmall chamber generally decorated with sculptures. The walls slope at anangle of seventy-five or eighty degrees externally, but in the interiorare perpendicular. The roof is composed of large flat stones. Strictlyspeaking, the chambers are not actual tombs, but mortuary chapels. Theembalmed body of the deceased, encased in its wooden coffin (Gen. 1. 26), was not deposited in the chamber, but in an excavation under one ofthe walls, which was carefully closed up after the coffin had beenplaced inside it. The chamber was used by the relations for sacredrites, sacrificial feasts, and the like, held in honour of the deceased, especially on the anniversary of his death and entrance into Amenti. Theearly Egyptians indulged, like the Chinese, in a worship of ancestors. The members of a family met from time to time in the sepulchral chamberof their father, or their grandfather, and went through variousceremonies, sang hymns, poured libations, and made offerings, which wereregarded as pleasing to the departed, and which secured their protectionand help to such of their descendants as took part in the piouspractices. 

Sometimes a tomb was more pretentious than those above described. Thereis an edifice at Meydoum, improperly termed a pyramid, which is thoughtto be older than Sneferu, and was probably erected by one of the"shadowy kings" who preceded him on the throne. Situated on a naturalrocky knoll of some considerable height, it rises in three stages at anangle of 74° 10' to an elevation of a hundred and twenty-five feet. Itis built of a compact limestone, which must have been brought from somedistance. The first stage has a height a little short of seventy feet;the next exceeds thirty-two feet; the third is a little over twenty-twofeet. It is possible that originally there were more stages, andprobable that the present highest stage has in part crumbled away; sothat we may fairly reckon the original height to have been between ahundred and forty and a hundred and fifty feet The monument is generallyregarded as a tomb, from its situation in the Memphian necropolis andits remote resemblance to the pyramids; but as yet it has not beenpenetrated, and consequently has not been proved to have beensepulchral. 

[Illustration: PYRAMID OF MEYDOUM. ]

A construction, which has even a greater appearance of antiquity thanthe Meydoum tower, exists at Saccarah. Here the architect carried up amonument to the height of two hundred feet, by constructing it in six orseven sloping stages, having an angle of 73° 30'. The core of hisbuilding was composed of rubble, but this was protected on every side bya thick casing of limestone roughly hewn, and apparently quarried on thespot. The sepulchral intention of the construction is unquestionable. Itcovered a spacious chamber excavated in the rock, whereon the monumentwas built, which, when first discovered, contained a sarcophagus andwas lined with slabs of granite. Carefully concealed passages connectedthe chamber with the outer world, and allowed of its being entered bythose in possession of the "secrets of the prison-house. " In thisstructure we have, no doubt, the tomb of a king more ancient thanSneferu--though for our own part we should hesitate to assign themonument to one king rather than another. 

If we pass from the architecture of the period to its social condition, we remark that grades of society already existed, and were as pronouncedas in later times. The kings were already deities, and treated withsuperstitious regard. The state-officials were a highly privilegedclass, generally more or less connected with the royal family. The landwas partly owned by the king (Gen. Xlvii. 6), who employed his ownlabourers and herdsmen upon it; partly, mainly perhaps, it was in thehands of great landed proprietors--nobles, who lived in country housesupon their estates, maintaining large households, and giving employmentto scores of peasants, herdsmen, artizans, huntsmen, and fishermen. The"lower orders" were of very little account. They were at the beck andcall of the landed aristocracy in the country districts, of thestate-officials in the towns. Above all, the monarch had the right ofimpressing them into his service whenever he pleased, and employing themin the "great works" by which he strove to perpetuate his name. 

[Illustration: GREAT PYRAMID OF SACCARAH (_Present appearance_). ]

[Illustration: SECTION OF THE SAME, SHOWING ORIGINAL CONSTRUCTION. ]

There prevailed, however, a great simplicity of manners. The dress ofthe upper classes was wonderfully plain and unpretending, presentinglittle variety and scarcely any ornament. The grandee wore, indeed, anelaborate wig, it being imperative on all men to shave the head for thesake of cleanliness. But otherwise, his costume was of the simplest andthe scantiest. Ordinarily, when he was employed in the common duties oflife, a short tunic, probably of white linen, reaching from the waistto a little above the knee, was his sole garment. His arms, chest, legs, even his feet, were naked; for sandals, not to speak of stockings orshoes, were unknown. The only decoration which he wore was a chain orriband round the neck, to which was suspended an ornament like alocket--probably an amulet. In his right hand he carried a long staff orwand, either for the purpose of belabouring his inferiors, or else touse it as a walking-stick. On special occasions he made, however, a moreelaborate toilet. Doffing his linen tunic, he clothed himself in asingle, somewhat scanty, robe, which reached from the neck to theankles; and having exchanged his chain and locket for a broad collar, and adorned his wrists with bracelets, he was ready to pay visits or toreceive company. He had no carriage, so far as appears, not even apalanquin; no horse to ride, nor even a mule or a donkey. The great menof the East rode, in later times, on "white asses" (Judges v. 10); theEgyptian of Sneferu's age had to trudge to court, or to make calls uponhis friends, by the sole aid of those means of locomotion which naturehad given him. 

Women, who in most civilized countries claim to themselves far moreelaboration in dress and variety of ornament than men, were content, inthe Egypt of which we are here speaking, with a costume, and a personaldecoration, scarcely less simple than that of their husbands. TheEgyptian _materfamilias_ of the time wore her hair long, and gatheredinto three masses, one behind the head, and the other two in front ofeither shoulder. Like her spouse, she had but a single garment--a shortgown or petticoat reaching from just below the breasts to half way downthe calf of the leg, and supported by two broad straps passed over thetwo shoulders. She exposed her arms and bosom to sight, and her feetwere bare, like her husband's. Her only ornaments were bracelets. 

[Illustration: GROUP OF STATUARY, CONSISTING OF A HUSBAND AND WIFE. ]

There was no seclusion of women at any time among the ancient Egyptians. The figure of the wife on the early monuments constantly accompaniesthat of her husband. She is his associate in all his occupations. Hersubordination is indicated by her representation being on an undulysmaller scale, and by her ordinary position, which is behind the figureof her "lord and master. " In statuary, however, she appears seated withhim on the same seat or chair. There is no appearance of her having beeneither a drudge or a plaything. She was regarded as man's true"helpmate, " shared his thoughts, ruled his family, and during theirearly years had the charge of his children. Polygamy was unknown inEgypt during the primitive period; even the kings had then but one wife. Sneferu's wife was a certain Mertitefs, who bore him a son, Nefer-mat, and after his death became the wife of his successor. Women wereentombed with as much care, and almost with as much pomp, as men. Theirright to ascend the throne is said to have been asserted by one of thekings who preceded Sneferu; and from time to time women actuallyexercised in Egypt the royal authority. 

FOOTNOTES:

[7] R. Stuart Poole, "Cities of Egypt, " pp. 24, 25. 

IV. 

THE PYRAMID BUILDERS. 

It is difficult for a European, or an American, who has not visitedEgypt, to realize the conception of a Great Pyramid. The pyramidal formhas gone entirely out of use as an architectural type of monumentalperfection; nay, even as an architectural embellishment. It maintainedan honourable position in architecture from its first discovery to thetime of the Maccabee kings (1 Mac. Xiii. 28); but, never having beenadopted by either the Greeks or the Romans, it passed into desuetude inthe Old World with the conquest of the East by the West. In the NewWorld it was found existent by the early discoverers, and then held ahigh place in the regards of the native race which had reached thefurthest towards civilization; but Spanish bigotry looked with horror oneverything that stood connected with an idolatrous religion, and thepyramids of Mexico were first wantonly injured, and then allowed to fallinto such a state of decay, that their original form is by somequestioned. A visit to the plains of Teotihuacan will not convey to themind which is a blank on the subject the true conception of a greatpyramid. It requires a pilgrimage to Ghizeh or Saccarah, or a livelyand _well-instructed_ imagination, to enable a man to call up before hismind's eye the true form and appearance and impressiveness of such astructure. 

Lord Houghton endeavoured to give expression to the feelings of one whosees for the first time these wondrous, these incomprehensible creationsin the following lines:

 After the fantasies of many a night, After the deep desires of many a day, Rejoicing as an ancient Eremite Upon the desert's edge at last I lay: Before me rose, in wonderful array, Those works where man has rivalled Nature most, Those Pyramids, that fear no more decay Than waves inflict upon the rockiest coast, Or winds on mountain-steeps, and like endurance boast. 

 Fragments the deluge of old Time has left Behind in its subsidence--long long walls Of cities of their very names bereft, -- Lone columns, remnants of majestic halls, Rich traceried chambers, where the night-dew falls, -- All have I seen with feelings due, I trow, Yet not with such as these memorials Of the great unremembered, that can show The mass and shape they wore four thousand years ago. 

The Egyptian idea of a pyramid was that of a structure on a square base, with four inclining sides, each one of which should be an equilateraltriangle, all meeting in a point at the top. The structure might besolid, and in that case might be either of hewn stone throughout, orconsist of a mass of rubble merely held together by an external casingof stone; or it might contain chambers and passages, in which case theemployment of rubble was scarcely possible. It has been demonstrated byactual excavation, that all the _great_ pyramids of Egypt were of thelatter character that they were built for the express purpose ofcontaining chambers and passages, and of preserving those chambers andpassages intact. They required, therefore, to be, and in most cases are, of a good construction throughout. 

There are from sixty to seventy pyramids in Egypt, chiefly in theneighbourhood of Memphis. Some of them are nearly perfect, some more orless in ruins, but most of them still preserving their ancient shape, when seen from afar. Two of them greatly exceed all the others in theirdimensions, and are appropriately designated as "the Great Pyramid" and"the Second Pyramid. " A third in their immediate vicinity is of veryinferior size, and scarcely deserves the pre-eminence which has beenconceded to it by the designation of "the Third Pyramid. "

Still, the three seem, all of them, to deserve description, and tochallenge a place in "the story of Egypt, " which has never yet been toldwithout some account of the marvels of each of them. The smallest of thethree was a square of three hundred and fifty-four feet each way, andhad a height of two hundred and eighteen feet. It covered an area of twoacres, three roods, and twenty-one poles, or about that of an ordinaryLondon square. The cubic contents amounted to above nine million feet ofsolid masonry, and are calculated to have weighed 702, 460 tons. Theheight was not very impressive. Two hundred and twenty feet is analtitude attained by the towers of many churches, and the "Pyramid ofthe Sun" at Teotihuacan did not fall much short of it; but the mass wasimmense, the masonry was excellent, and the ingenuity shown in theconstruction was great. Sunk in the rock from which the pyramid rose, was a series of sepulchral chambers. One, the largest, almost directlyunder the apex of the pyramid, was empty. In another, which had anarched roof, constructed in the most careful and elaborate way, wasfound the sarcophagus of the king, Men-kau-ra, to whom traditionassigned the building, formed of a single mass of blue-black basalt, exquisitely polished and beautifully carved, externally eight feet long, three feet high, and three feet broad, internally six feet by two. Inthe sarcophagus was the wooden coffin of the monarch, and on the lid ofthe coffin was his name. The chambers were connected by two longpassages with the open air; and another passage had, apparently, beenused for the same purpose before the pyramid attained its ultimate size. The tomb-chamber, though carved in the rock, had been paved and linedwith slabs of solid stone, which were fastened to the native rock byiron cramps. The weight of the sarcophagus which it contained, nowunhappily lost, was three tons. 

[Illustration: SECTION OF THE THIRD PYRAMID, SHOWING PASSAGES. ]

[Illustration: TOMB-CHAMBER OF THE THIRD PYRAMID. ]

The "Second Pyramid, " which stands to the north-east of the Third, atthe distance of about two hundred and seventy yards, was a square ofseven hundred and seven feet each way, and thus covered an area ofalmost eleven acres and a half, or nearly double that of the greatestbuilding which Rome ever produced--the Coliseum. The sides rose at anangle of 52° 10'; and the perpendicular height was four hundred andfifty-four feet, or fifty feet more than that of the spire ofSalisbury Cathedral. The cubic contents are estimated at 71, 670, 000feet; and their weight is calculated at 5, 309, 000 tons. Numbers of thisvast amount convey but little idea of the reality to an ordinary reader, and require to be made intelligible by comparisons. Suppose, then, asolidly built stone house, with walls a foot thick, twenty feet offrontage, and thirty feet of depth from front to back; let the walls betwenty-four feet high and have a foundation of six feet; throw inparty-walls to one-third the extent of the main walls--and the resultwill be a building containing four thousand cubic feet of masonry. Letthere be a town of eighteen thousand such houses, suited to be the abodeof a hundred thousand inhabitants--then pull these houses to pieces, andpile them up into a heap to a height exceeding that of the spire of theCathedral of Vienna, and you will have a rough representation of the"Second Pyramid of Ghizeh. " Or lay down the contents of the structure ina line a foot in breadth and depth--the line would be above 13, 500 mileslong, and would reach more than half-way round the earth at the equator. Again, suppose that a single man can quarry a ton of stone in a week, then it would have required above twenty thousand to be employedconstantly for five years in order to obtain the material for thepyramid; and if the blocks were required to be large, the numberemployed and the time occupied would have had to be greater. 

The internal construction of the "Second Pyramid" is less elaborate thanthat of the Third, but not very different. Two passages lead from theouter air to a sepulchral chamber almost exactly under the apex of thepyramid, and exactly at its base, one of them commencing about fiftyfeet from the base midway in the north side, and the other commencing alittle outside the base, in the pavement at the foot of the pyramid. Thefirst passage was carried through the substance of the pyramid for adistance of a hundred and ten feet at a descending angle of 25° 55', after which it became horizontal, and was tunnelled through the nativerock on which the pyramid was built. The second passage was wholly inthe rock. It began with a descent at an angle of 21° 40', whichcontinued for a hundred feet; it was then horizontal for fifty feet;after which it ascended gently for ninety-six feet, and joined the firstpassage about midway between the sepulchral chamber and the outer air. The sepulchral chamber was carved mainly out of the solid rock below thepyramid, but was roofed in by some of the basement stones, which weresloped at an angle. The chamber measured forty-six feet in length andsixteen feet in breadth; its height in the centre was twenty-two feet. It contained a plain granite sarcophagus, without inscription of anykind, eight feet and a half in length, three feet and a half in breadth, and in depth three feet. There was no coffin in the sarcophagus at thetime of its discovery, and no inscription on any part of the pyramid orof its contents. The tradition, however, which ascribed it to theimmediate predecessor of Men-kau-ra, may be accepted as sufficientevidence of its author. 

[Illustration: SARCOPHAGUS OF MYCERINUS. ]

[Illustration: SECTION OF THE SECOND PYRAMID. ]

Come we now to the "Great Pyramid, " "which is still, " says Lenormant, "at least in respect of its mass, _the most prodigious of all humanconstructions_, " The "Great Pyramid, " or "First Pyramid of Ghizeh, " asit is indifferently termed, is situated almost due north-east of the"Second Pyramid, " at the distance of about two hundred yards. The lengthof each side at the base was originally seven hundred and sixty-fourfeet, or fifty-seven feet more than that of the sides of the "SecondPyramid. " Its original perpendicular height was something over fourhundred and eighty feet, its cubic contents exceeded eighty-nine millionfeet, and the weight of its mass 6, 840, 000 tons. In height it thusexceeded Strasburg Cathedral by above six feet, St. Peter's at Rome byabove thirty feet, St. Stephen's at Vienna by fifty feet St. Paul's, London, by a hundred and twenty feet, and the Capitol at Washington bynearly two hundred feet. Its area was thirteen acres, one rood, andtwenty-two poles, or nearly two acres more than the area of the "SecondPyramid. " which was fourfold that of the "Third Pyramid, " which, as wehave seen, was that of an ordinary London square. Its cubic contentswould build a city of twenty-two thousand such houses as were abovedescribed, and laid in a line of cubic squares would reach a distance ofnearly seventeen thousand miles, or girdle two-thirds of the earth'scircumference at the equator. Herodotus says that its constructionrequired the continuous labour of a hundred thousand men for the spaceof twenty years, and moderns do not regard the estimate as exaggerated. 

The "Great Pyramid" presents, moreover, many other marvels besides itssize. First, there is the massiveness of the blocks of which it iscomposed. The basement stones are in many cases thirty feet long byfive feet high, and four or five wide: they must contain from sixhundred to seven hundred and fifty cubic feet each, and weigh fromforty-six to fifty-seven tons. The granite blocks which roof over theupper sepulchral chamber are nearly nineteen feet long, by two broad andfrom three to four deep. The relieving stones above the same chamber, and those of the entrance passage, are almost equally massive. Generallythe external blocks are of a size with which modern builders scarcelyever venture to deal, though the massiveness diminishes as the pyramidis ascended. The bulk of the interior is, however, of comparativelysmall stones; but even these are carefully hewn and squared, so as tofit together compactly. 

[Illustration: SECTION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. ]

[Illustration: KING'S CHAMBER AND CHAMBERS OF CONSTRUCTION, GREATPYRAMID. ]

Further, there are the passages, the long gallery, the ventilationshafts, and the sepulchral chambers all of them remarkable, and some ofthem simply astonishing. The "Great Pyramid" guards three chambers. Onelies deep in the rock, about a hundred and twenty feet beneath thenatural surface of the ground, and is placed almost directly below theapex of the structure. It measures forty-six feet by twenty-seven, andis eleven feet high. The access to it is by a long and narrow passagewhich commences in the north side of the pyramid, about seventy feetabove the original base, and descends for forty yards through themasonry, and then for seventy more in the same line through the solidrock, when it changes its direction, becoming horizontal for nine yards, and so entering the chamber itself. The two other chambers are reachedby an ascending passage, which branches off from the descending one atthe distance of about thirty yards from the entrance, and mounts upthrough the heart of the pyramid for rather more than forty yards, whenit divides into two. A low horizontal gallery, a hundred and ten feetlong, leads to a chamber which has been called "the Queen's"--a roomabout nineteen feet long by seventeen broad, roofed in with slopingblocks, and having a height of twenty feet in the centre. Another longerand much loftier gallery continues on for a hundred and fifty feet inthe line of the ascending passage, and is then connected by a shorthorizontal passage with the upper-most or "King's Chamber. " Here wasfound a sarcophagus believed to be that of King Khufu, since the name ofKhufu was scrawled in more than one place on the chamber walls. 

[Illustration: GALLERY IN THE GREAT PYRAMID. ]

The construction of this chamber--the very kernel of the wholebuilding--is exceedingly remarkable. It is a room of thirty-four feet inlength, with a width of seventeen feet, and a height of nineteen, composed wholly of granite blocks of great size, beautifully polished, and fitted together with great care. The construction of the roof isparticularly admirable. First, the chamber is covered in with nine hugeblocks, each nearly nineteen feet long and four feet wide, which arelaid side by side upon the walls so as to form a complete ceiling. Thenabove these blocks is a low chamber similarly covered in, and this isrepeated four times; after which there is a fifth opening, triangular, and roofed in by a set of huge sloping blocks, which meet atthe apex and support each other. The object is to relieve the chamberfrom any superincumbent weight, and prevent it from being crushed in bythe mass of material above it; and this object has been so completelyattained that still, at the expiration of above forty centuries, theentire chamber, with its elaborate roof, remains intact, without crackor settlement of any kind. 

Further, from the great chamber are carried two ventilation-shafts, orair-passages, northwards and southwards, which open on the outer surfaceof the pyramid, and are respectively two hundred and thirty-three andone hundred and ninety-four feet long. These passages are square, ornearly so, and have a diameter varying between six and nine inches. Theygive a continual supply of pure air to the chamber, and keep it dry atall seasons. 

The Great Gallery is also of curious construction. Extending for adistance of one hundred and fifty feet, and rising at an angle of 26°18', it has a width of five feet at the base and a height of abovethirty feet. The side walls are formed of seven layers of stone, eachprojecting a few inches over that below it. The gallery thus graduallycontracts towards the top, which has a width of four feet only, and iscovered in with stones that reach across it, and rest on the walls ateither side. The exact object of so lofty a gallery has not beenascertained; but it must have helped to keep the air of the interiorpure and sweet, by increasing the space through which it had tocirculate. 

The "Pyramid Builders, " or kings who constructed the three monumentsthat have now been described, were, according to a unanimous tradition, three consecutive monarchs, whose native names are read as Khufu, Shafra, and Menkaura. These kings belonged to Manetho's fourth dynasty;and Khufu, the first of the three, seems to have been the immediatesuccessor of Sneferu. Theorists have delighted to indulge inspeculations as to the objects which the builders had in view when theyraised such magnificent constructions. One holds that the Great Pyramid, at any rate, was built to embody cosmic discoveries, as the exact lengthof the earth's diameter and circumference, the length of an arc of themeridian, and the true unit of measure. Another believes the great workof Khufu to have been an observatory, and the ventilating passages tohave been designed for "telescopes, " through which observations were tobe made upon the sun and stars; but it has not yet been shown that thereis any valid foundation for these fancies, which have been spun withmuch art out of the delicate fabric of their propounders' brains. Theone hard fact which rests upon abundant evidence is this--the pyramidswere built for tombs, to contain the mummies of deceased Egyptians. Thechambers in their interiors, at the time of their discovery, held withinthem sarcophagi, and in one instance the sarcophagus had within it acoffin. The coffin had an inscription upon it, which showed that it hadonce contained the body of a king. If anything more is necessary, we mayadd that every pyramid in Egypt--and there are, as he have said, morethan sixty of them--was built for the same purpose, and that they alloccupy sites in the great necropolis, or burial-ground opposite Memphis, where the inhabitants are known to have laid their dead. 

The marvel is, how Khufu came suddenly to have so magnificent a thoughtas that of constructing an edifice double the height of any previouslyexisting, covering five times the area, and containing ten times themass. Architecture does not generally proceed by "leaps and bounds;" buthere was a case of a sudden extraordinary advance, such as we shall findit difficult to parallel elsewhere. An attempt has been made to solvethe mystery by the supposition that all pyramids were gradualaccretions, and that their size marks simply the length of a king'sreign, each monarch making his sepulchral chamber, with a small pyramidabove it, in his first year, and as his reign went on, adding each yearan outer coating; so that the number of these coatings tells the lengthof his reign, as the age of a tree is known from the number of itsannual rings. In this case there would have been nothing ideally greatin the conception of Khufu--he would simply have happened to erect thebiggest pyramid because he happened to have the longest reign; but, except in the case of the "Third Pyramid, " there is a unity of design inthe structures which implies that the architect had conceived the wholestructure in his mind from the first. The lengths of the several partsare proportioned one to another. In the "Great Pyramid, " the mainchamber would not have needed the five relieving chambers above itunless it was known that it would have to be pressed down by asuperincumbent mass, such as actually lies upon it. Moreover, how is itpossible to conceive that in the later years of a decrepid monarch, thewhole of an enormous pyramid could be coated over with huge blocks--andthe blocks are largest at the external surface--the work requiring to bepushed each year with more vigour, as becoming each year greater andmore difficult? Again, what shall we say of the external finish? Eachpyramid was finally smoothed down to a uniform sloping surface. Thisalone must have been a work of years. Did a pyramid builder leave it tohis successor to finish his pyramid? It is at least doubtful whether anypyramid at all would ever have been finished had he done so. 

We must hold, therefore, that Khufu did suddenly conceive a designwithout a parallel--did require his architect to construct him a tomb, which should put to shame all previous monuments, and should withdifficulty be surpassed, or even equalled. He must have possessed muchelevation of thought, and an intense ambition, together with inordinateselfishness, an overweening pride, and entire callousness to thesufferings of others, before he could have approved the plan which hismaster-builder set before him. That plan, including the employment ofhuge blocks of stone, their conveyance to the top of a hill a hundredfeet high, and their emplacement, in some cases, at a further elevationof above 450 feet, involved, under the circumstances of the time, suchan amount of human suffering, that no king who had any regard for thehappiness of his subjects could have consented to it. Khufu must haveforced his subjects to labour for a long term of years--twenty, according to Herodotus--at a servile work which was wholly unproductive, and was carried on amid their sighs and groans for no object but his ownglorification, and the supposed safe custody of his remains. Shafra musthave done nearly the same. Hence an evil repute attached to the pyramidbuilders, whose names were handed down to posterity as those ofevil-minded and impious kings, who neglected the service of the gods togratify their own vanity, and, so long as they could exalt themselves, did not care how much they oppressed their people. There was not eventhe poor apology for their conduct that their oppression fell on slaves, or foreigners, or prisoners of war. Egypt was not yet a conqueringpower; prisoners of war were few, slaves not very common. The labourerswhom the pyramid builders employed were their own free subjects whomthey impressed into the heavy service. 

It is by a just Nemesis that the kings have in a great measure failed tosecure the ends at which they aimed, and in hope of which they steeledtheir hearts against their subjects' cries. They have indeed handed downtheir names to a remote age: but it is as tyrants and oppressors. Theyare world-famous, or rather world-infamous. But that preservation oftheir corporeal frame which they especially sought, is exactly what theyhave missed attaining. 

 Let not a monument give you or me hopes, Since not a pinch of dust remains of Cheôps, says the doggerel of the satiric Byron; and it is the absolute factthat while thousands of mummies buried in common graves remain untouchedeven to the present day, the very grandeur of the pyramid builders'tombs attracted attention to them, caused the monuments to be opened, the sarcophagi to be rifled, and the remains inclosed in them to bedispersed to the four winds of heaven. 

Still, whatever gloomy associations attach to the pyramids in respect ofthe sufferings caused by their erection, as monuments they must alwayschallenge a certain amount of admiration. A great authority declares:"No one can possibly examine the interior of the Great Pyramid withoutbeing struck with astonishment at the wonderful mechanical skilldisplayed in its construction. The immense blocks of granite broughtfrom Syene, a distance of five hundred miles, polished like glass, andso fitted that the joints can scarcely be detected! Nothing can be morewonderful than the extraordinary amount of knowledge displayed in theconstruction of the discharging chambers over the roof of the principalapartment, in the alignment of the sloping galleries, in the provisionof the ventilating shafts, and in all the wonderful contrivances of thestructure. All these, too, are carried out with such precision that, notwithstanding the immense superincumbent weight, no settlement in anypart can be detected to an appreciable fraction of an inch. Nothing moreperfect mechanically has ever been erected since that time. "[8]

[Illustration: VIEW OF THE GREAT AND SECOND PYRAMIDS. ]

The architectural effect of the two greatest of the pyramids iscertainly magnificent. They do not greatly impress the beholder atfirst sight, for a pyramid, by the very law of its formation, neverlooks as large as it is--it slopes away from the eye in every direction, and eludes rather than courts observation. But as the spectator gazes, as he prolongs his examination and inspection, the pyramids gain uponhim, their impressiveness increases. By the vastness of their mass, bythe impression of solidity and durability which they produce, partlyalso, perhaps, by the symmetry and harmony of their lines and theirperfect simplicity and freedom from ornament, they convey to thebeholder a sense of grandeur and majesty, they produce within him afeeling of astonishment and awe, such as is scarcely caused by any otherof the erections of man. In all ages travellers have felt and expressedthe warmest admiration for them. They impressed Herodotus as no worksthat he had seen elsewhere, except, perhaps, the Babylonian. Theyastonished Germanicus, familiar as he was with the great constructionsof Rome. They furnished Napoleon with the telling phrase, "Soldiers, forty centuries look down upon you from the top of the pyramids. " Greeceand Rome reckoned them among the Seven Wonders of the world. Modernshave doubted whether they could really be the work of human hands. Ifthey possess only one of the elements of architectural excellence, theypossess that element to so great an extent that in respect of it theyare unsurpassed, and probably unsurpassable. 

These remarks apply especially to the first and second pyramids. The"Third" is not a work of any very extraordinary grandeur. The bulk isnot greater than that of the chief pyramid of Saccarah, which has neverattracted much attention; and the height did not greatly exceed that ofthe chief Mexican temple-mound. Moreover, the stones of which thepyramid was composed are not excessively massive. The monument aimed atbeing beautiful rather than grand. It was coated for half its heightwith blocks of pink granite from Syene, bevelled at the edges, whichremain still in place on two sides of the structure. The entrance to it, on the north side, was conspicuous, and seems to have had a metalornamentation let into the stone. The sepulchral chamber was beautifullylined and roofed, and the sarcophagus was exquisitively carved. Menkaura, the constructor, was not regarded as a tyrant, or anoppressor, but as a mild and religious monarch, whom the gods ill-usedby giving him too short a reign. His religious temper is indicated bythe inscription on the coffin which contained his remains: "O Osiris, "it reads, "King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Menkaura, living eternally, engendered by the Heaven, born of Nut, substance of Seb, thy mother Nutstretches herself over thee in her name of the abyss of heaven. Sherenders thee divine by destroying all thy enemies, O King Menkaura, living eternally. "

The fashion of burying in pyramids continued to the close of Manetho'ssixth dynasty, but no later monarchs rivalled the great works of Khufuand Shafra. The tombs of their successors were monuments of a moderatesize, involving no oppression of the people, but perhaps ratherimproving their condition by causing a rise in the rate of wages. Certainly, the native remains of the period give a cheerfulrepresentation of the condition of all classes. The nation for the mostpart enjoys peace, and applies itself to production. The wealth of thenobles increases, and the position of their dependents is improved. Slaves were few, and there was ample employment for the labouringclasses. We do not see the stick at work upon the backs of the labourersin the sculptures of the time; they seem to accomplish their varioustasks with alacrity and gaiety of heart. They plough, and hoe, and reap;drive cattle or asses; winnow and store corn; gather grapes and treadthem, singing in chorus as they tread; cluster round the winepress orthe threshingfloor, on which the animals tramp out the grain; gatherlotuses; save cattle from the inundation; engage in fowling or fishing;and do all with an apparent readiness and cheerfulness which seemsindicative of real content. There may have been a darker side to thepicture, and undoubtedly was while Khufu and Shafra held the throne; butkings of a morose and cruel temper seem to have been the exception, rather than the rule, in Egypt; and the moral code, which requiredkindness to be shown to dependents, seems, at this period at any rate, to have had a hold upon the consciences, and to have influenced theconduct, of the mass of the people. "Happy the nation that has nohistory!" Egypt during this golden age was neither assailed by anyaggressive power beyond her borders, nor had herself conceived the ideaof distant conquest. An occasional raid upon the negroes of the South, or chastisement of the nomades of the East, secured her interests inthose quarters, and prevented her warlike virtues from dying out throughlack of use. But otherwise tranquillity was undisturbed, and theenergies of the nation were directed to increasing its materialprosperity, and to progress in the arts. 

Among the marvels of Egypt perhaps the Sphinx is second to none. Themysterious being with the head of a man and the body of a lion is not atall uncommon in Egyptian architectural adornment, but the one placedbefore the Second Pyramid (the Pyramid of Shafra), and supposed to becontemporary with it, astonishes the observer by its giganticproportions. It is known to the Arabs as Abul-hôl, the father of terror. It measures more than one hundred feet in length, and was partiallycarved from the rocks of the Lybian hills. Between its out-stretchedfeet there stands a chapel, uncovered in 1816, three walls of which areformed by tablets bearing inscriptions indicative of its use and origin. 

A small temple behind the great Sphinx, probably also built by Shafra, is formed of great blocks of the hardest red granite, brought from theneighbourhood of Syene and fitted to each other with a nicetyastonishing to modern architects, who are unable to imagine what toolscould have proved equal to the difficult achievement. Mysteriouspassages pierce the great Sphinx and connect it with the Second Pyramid, three hundred feet west of it. In the face of this mystery all questionsare vain, and yet every visitor adds new queries to those that othershave asked before him. 

 Since what unnumbered year Hast thou kept watch and ward, And o'er the buried land of fear So grimly held thy guard? No faithless slumber snatching, Still couched in silence brave, Like some fierce hound, long watching Above her master's grave. .. . 

 Dost thou in anguish thus Still brood o'er Œdipus? And weave enigmas to mislead anew, And stultify the blind Dull heads of human-kind, And inly make thy moan, That, mid the hated crew, Whom thou so long couldst vex, Bewilder and perplex, Thou yet couldst find a subtler than thine own?

 Even now; methinks that those Dark, heavy lips which close In such a stern repose, Seem burdened with some thought unsaid, And hoard within their portals dread Some fearful secret there, Which to the listening earth She may not whisper forth. Not even to the air!

 Of awful wonders hid In yonder dread Pyramid, The home of magic fears; Of chambers vast and lonely, Watched by the Genii only, Who tend their masters' long-forgotten biers, And treasures that have shone On cavern walls alone, For thousand, thousand years. 

 Would she but tell. She knows Of the old Pharaohs; Could count the Ptolemies' long line; Each mighty myth's original hath seen, Apis, Anubis, --ghosts that haunt between The bestial and divine, -- (Such he that sleeps in Philæ, --he that stands In gloom unworshipped, 'neath his rock-hewn lane, -- And they who, sitting on Memnonian sands, Cast their long shadows o'er the desert plain:) Hath marked Nitocris pass, And Oxymandyas Deep-versed in many a dark Egyptian wile, -- The Hebrew boy hath eyed Cold to the master's bride; And that Medusan stare hath frozen the smile Of all her love and guile, For whom the Cæsar sighed, And the world-loser died, -- The darling of the Nile. 

FOOTNOTES:

[8] Fergusson, "History of Architecture, " vol. I. Pp. 91, 92. 

V. 

THE RISE OF THEBES TO POWER, AND THE EARLY THEBAN KINGS. 

Hitherto Egypt had been ruled from a site at the junction of the narrowNile valley with the broad plain of the Delta--a site sufficientlyrepresented by the modern Cairo. But now there was a shift of the seatof power. There is reason to believe that something like a disruption ofEgypt into separate kingdoms took place, and that for a while severaldistinct dynasties bore sway in different parts of the country. Disruption was naturally accompanied by weakness and decline. The oldorder ceased, and opportunity was offered for some new order--some newpower--to assert itself. The site on which it arose was one threehundred and fifty miles distant from the ancient capital, or fourhundred and more by the river. Here, about lat. 26°, the usually narrowvalley of the Nile opens into a sort of plain or basin. The mountains oneither side of the river recede, as though by common consent, and leavebetween themselves and the river's bank a broad amphitheatre, which ineach case is a rich green plain--an alluvium of the most productivecharacter--dotted with _dom_ and date palms, sometimes growing single, sometimes collected into clumps or groves. On the western side theLibyan range gathers itself up into a single considerable peak, whichhas an elevation of twelve hundred feet. On the east the desert-wallmaintains its usual level character, but is pierced by valleysconducting to the coast of the Red Sea. The situation was one favourablefor commerce. On the one side was the nearest route through the sandydesert to the Lesser Oasis, which commanded the trade of the Africaninterior; on the other the way led through the valley of Hammamât, richwith _breccia verde_ and other valuable and rare stones, to a districtabounding in mines of gold, silver, and lead, and thence to the Red Seacoast, from which, even in very early times, there was communicationwith the opposite coast of Arabia, the region of gums and spices. 

In this position there had existed, probably from the very beginnings ofEgypt, a provincial city of some repute, called by its inhabitants Apéor Apiu, and, with the feminine article prefixed, Tapé, or Tapiu, whichsome interpret "The city of thrones". To the Greeks the name "Tapé"seemed to resemble their own well-known "Thebai", whence theytransferred the familiar appellation from the Bæotian to theMid-Egyptian town, which has thus come to be known to Englishmen andAnglo-Americans as "Thebes. " Thebes had been from the first the capitalof a "nome". It lay so far from the court that it acquired a characterof its own--a special cast of religion, manners, speech, nomenclature, mode of writing, and the like--which helped to detach it from Lower orNorthern Egypt more even than its isolation. Still, it was not untilthe northern kingdom sank into decay from internal weakness andexhaustion, and disintegration supervened in the Delta and elsewhere, that Thebes resolved to assert herself and claim independentsovereignty. Apparently, she achieved her purpose without havingrecourse to arms. The kingdoms of the north were content to let her go. They recognized their own weakness, and allowed the nascent power todevelop itself unchecked and unhindered. 

The first known Theban monarch is a certain Antef or Enantef, whosecoffin was discovered in the year 1827 by some Arabs near Qurnah, to thewest of Thebes. The mummy bore the royal diadem, and the epigraph on thelid of the coffin declared the body which it contained to be that of"Antef, king of _the two Egypts. _" The phrase implied a claim todominion over the whole country, but a claim as purely nominal as thatof the kings of England from Edward IV. To George III. To be monarchs ofFrance and Navarre. Antef s rule may possibly have reached toElephantine on the one hand, but is not likely to have extended muchbeyond Coptos on the other. He was a local chieftain posing as a greatsovereign, but probably with no intention to deceive either his owncontemporaries or posterity. His name appears in some of the laterEgyptian dynastic lists; but no monument of his time has come down to usexcept the one that has been mentioned. 

Antef I. Is thought to have been succeeded by Mentu-hotep I. , a monarcheven more shadowy, known to us only from the "Table of Karnak. " Thisprince, however, is followed by one who possesses a greater amount ofsubstance--Antef-aa, or "Antef the Great, " grandson, as it would seem, of the first Antef--a sort of Egyptian Nimrod, who delighted above allthings in the chase. Antefaa's sepulchral monument shows him to usstanding in the midst of his dogs, who wear collars, and have theirnames engraved over them. The dogs are four in number, and are ofdistinct types. The first, which is called _Mahut_ or "Antelope, " hasdrooping ears, and long but somewhat heavy legs; it resembles afoxhound, and was no doubt both swift and strong, though it can scarcelyhave been so swift as its namesake. The second was called _Abakaru_, aname of unknown meaning; it has pricked up, pointed ears, a pointednose, and a curly tail. Some have compared it with the German _spitz_dog, but it seems rather to be the original dog of nature, a nearcongener of the jackal, and the type to which all dogs revert whenallowed to run wild and breed indiscriminately. The third, named_Pahats_ or _Kamu, i. E. _ "Blacky, " is a heavy animal, not unlike amastiff; it has a small, rounded, drooping ear, a square, blunt nose, adeep chest, and thick limbs. The late Dr. Birch supposed that it mighthave been employed by Antefaa in "the chase of the lion;" but we shouldrather regard it as a watch-dog, the terror of thieves, and we suspectthat the artist gave it the sitting attitude to indicate that itsbusiness was not to hunt, but to keep watch and ward at its master'sgate. The fourth dog, who bears the name of _Tekal_, and walks betweenhis master's legs, has ears that seem to have been cropped. He has beensaid to resemble "the Dalmatian hound": but this is questionable. Hispeculiarities are not marked; but, on the whole, it seems most probablethat he is "a pet house-dog"[9] of the terrier class, the specialfavourite of his master. Antefaa's dogs had their appointed keeper, themaster of his kennel, who is figured on the sepulchral tablet behind themonarch, and bears the name of Tekenru. 

The hunter king was buried in a tomb marked only by a pyramid of unbakedbrick, very humble in its character, but containing a mortuary chapel inwhich the monument above described was set up. An inscription on thetablet declared that it was erected to the memory of Antef the Great, Son of the Sun, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, in the fiftieth year ofhis reign. 

Other Mentu-hoteps and other Antefs continued on the line of Thebankings, reigning quietly and ingloriously, and leaving no mark upon thescroll of time, yet probably advancing the material prosperity of theircountry, and preparing the way for that rise to greatness which givesThebes, on the whole, the foremost place in Egyptian history. Usefulprojects occupied the attention of these monarchs. One of them sankwells in the valley of Hammamât, to provide water for the caravans whichplied between Coptos and the Red Sea. Another established military postsin the valley to protect the traffic and the Egyptian quarrymen. Lateron, a king called Sankh-ka-ra launched a fleet upon the Red Sea waters, and opened direct communications with the sacred land of Punt, theregion of odoriferous gums and of strange animals, as giraffes, panthers, hunting leopards, cynocephalous apes, and long-tailed monkeys. There is some doubt whether "Punt" was Arabia Felix, or the Somaulicountry. In any case, it lay far down the Gulf, and could only bereached after a voyage of many days. 

The dynasty of the Antefs and Mentu-hoteps, which terminated withSankh-ka-ra, was followed by one in which the prevailing names wereUsurtasen and Amenemhat. This dynasty is Manetho's twelfth, and the timeof its rule has been characterized as "the happiest age of Egyptianhistory?"[10] The second phase of Egyptian civilization now set in--aphase which is regarded by many as outshining the glories of the firstThe first civilization had subordinated the people to the monarch, andhad aimed especially at eternizing the memory and setting forth thepower and greatness of king after king. The second had the benefit andadvantage of the people for its primary object; it was utilitarian, beneficent, appealing less to the eye than to the mind, far-sighted inits aims, and most successful in the results which it effected. The wiserulers of the time devoted their energies and their resources, not, asthe earlier kings, to piling up undying memorials of themselves in theshape of monuments that "reached to heaven, " but to useful works, to theexcavation of wells and reservoirs, the making of roads, theencouragement of commerce, and the development of the vast agriculturalwealth of the country. They also diligently guarded the frontiers, chastised aggressive tribes, and checked invasion by the establishmentof strong fortresses in positions of importance. They patronized art, employing themselves in building temples rather than tombs, and adornedtheir temples not only with reliefs and statues, but also with the novelarchitectural embellishment of the obelisk, a delicate form, and oneespecially suited to the country. 

The founder of the "twelfth dynasty, " Amenemhat I. , deserves a few wordsof description. He found Thebes in a state of anarchy; civil war ragedon every side; all the traditions of the past were forgotten; noblefought against noble; the poor were oppressed; life and property werealike insecure; "there was stability of fortune neither for the ignorantnor for the learned man. " One night, after he had lain down to sleep, hefound himself attacked in his bed-chamber; the clang of arms soundednear at hand. Starting from his couch, he seized his own weapons andstruck out; when lo! his assailants fled; detected in their attempt toassassinate him, they dared not offer any resistance, thus showingthemselves alike treacherous and cowardly. Amenemhat, having once takenarms, did not lay them down till he had defeated every rival, and sofought his way to the crown. Once acknowledged as king, he ruled withmoderation and equity; he "gave to the humble, and made the weak tolive;" he "caused the afflicted to cease from their afflictions, andtheir cries to be heard no more;" he brought it to pass that nonehungered or thirsted in the land; he gave such orders to his servantsas continually increased the love of his people towards him. At the sametime, he was an energetic warrior. He "stood on the boundaries of theland, to keep watch on its borders, " personally leading his soldiers tobattle, armed with the _khopesh_ or falchion. He carried on wars withthe Petti, or bowmen of the Libyan interior, with the Sakti or Asiatics, with the Maxyes or Mazyes of the north-west, and with the Ua-uat andother negro tribes of the south; not, however, as it would seem, withany desire of making conquests, but simply for the protection of his ownfrontier. With the same object he constructed on his north-easternfrontier a wall or fortress "to keep out the Sakti, " who continuallyharassed the people of the Eastern Delta by their incursions. 

The wars of Amenemhat I. Make it evident that by his time Thebes hadadvanced from the position of a petty kingdom situated in a remote partof Egypt, and held in check by two or more rival kingdoms in the lowerNile valley and the Delta, to that of a power which bore sway over thewhole land from Elephantine to the Mediterranean. "I sent my messengersup to Abu (Elephantine) and my couriers down to Athu" (the coast lakes), says the monarch in his "Instructions" to his son--the earliest literaryproduction from a royal pen that has come down to our days; and there isno reason to doubt the truth of his statement. In the Delta alone couldhe come into contact with either the Mazyes or the Sakti, and a king ofThebes could not hold the Delta without being master also of the lowerNile valley from Coptos to Memphis. We must regard Egypt, then, underthe "twelfth dynasty. " as once more consolidated into a single state--astate ruled, however, not from Memphis, but from Thebes, a decidedlyinferior position. 

[Illustration: SPEARING THE CROCODILE. ]

Amenemhat I. Is the only Egyptian king who makes a boast of his huntingprowess. "I hunted the lion, " he says, "and brought back the crocodile aprisoner. " Lions do not at the present time frequent Egypt, and, indeed, are not found lower down the Nile valley than the point where the GreatStream receives its last tributary, the Atbara. But anciently they seemto have haunted the entire desert tracts on either side of the river. The Roman Emperor Hadrian is said to have hunted one near Alexandria, and the monuments represent lions as tamed and used in the chase by theancient inhabitants. Sometimes they even accompanied their masters tothe battlefield. We know nothing of Amenemhat's mode of hunting the kingof beasts, but may assume that it was not very different from thatwhich prevailed at a later date in Assyria. There, dogs and beaters wereemployed to rouse the animals from their lairs, while the king and hisfellow-sportsmen either plied them with flights of arrows, or withstoodtheir onset with swords and spears. The crocodile was certainlysometimes attacked while he was in the water, the hunters using a boat, and endeavouring to spear him at the point where the head joins thespine; but this could not have been the mode adopted by Amenemhat, sinceit would have resulted in instant death, whereas he tells us that he"brought the crocodile home a prisoner. " Possibly, therefore, heemployed the method which Herodotus says was in common use in his day. This was to bait a hook with a joint of pork and throw it into the waterat a point where the current would carry it out into mid-stream; then totake a live pig to the river-side, and belabour him well with a sticktill he set up the squeal familiar to most ears. Any crocodile withinhearing was sure to come to the sound, and falling in with the pork onthe way, would instantly swallow it down. Upon this the hunters hauledat the rope to which the hook was attached, and, notwithstanding hisstruggles, drew "leviathan" to shore. Amenemhat, having thus "made thecrocodile a prisoner, " may have carried his captive in triumph to hiscapital, and exhibited him before the eyes of the people. 

Amenemhat, having reigned as sole king for twenty years, was induced toraise his eldest son, Usurtasen, to the royal dignity, and associate himwith himself in the government of the empire. Usurtasen was a prince ofmuch promise, He "brought prosperity to the affairs of his father. Hewas, as a god, without fears; before him was never one like to him. Mostskilful in affairs, beneficent in his mandates, both in his going outand in his coming in he made Egypt flourish. " His courage and hiswarlike capacity were great. Already, in the lifetime of his father, hehad distinguished himself in combats with the Petti and the Sakti. Whenhe was settled upon the throne, he made war upon the Cushite tribes whobordered Egypt upon the south, employing the services of a general namedAmeni, but also taking a part personally in the campaign. The Cushitesor Ethiopians, who in later times became such dangerous neighbours toEgypt, were at this early period weak and insignificant. After the kinghad made his expedition, Ameni was able with a mere handful of fourhundred troops to penetrate into their country, to "conduct the goldentreasures" which it contained to the presence of his master, and tocapture and carry off a herd of three thousand cattle. 

It was through his sculptures and his architectural works that the firstUsurtasen made himself chiefly conspicuous. Thebes, Abydos, Heliopolisor On, the Fayoum and the Delta, were equally the scenes of hisconstructive activity, and still show traces of his presence. At Thebes, he carried to its completion the cell, or _naos_, of the great temple ofAmmon, in later times the innermost sanctuary of the building, andreckoned so sacred, that when Thothmes III. Rebuilt and enlarged theentire edifice he reproduced the structure of Usurtasen, unchanged inform, and merely turned from limestone into granite. At Abydos andother cities of Middle Egypt, he constructed temples adorned withsculptures, inscriptions, and colossal statues. At Tanis, he set up hisown statue, exhibiting himself as seated upon his throne. In the Fayoumhe erected an obelisk forty-one feet high to the honour of Ammon, Phthah, and Mentu, which now lies prone upon the ground near the Arabvillage of Begig. Indications of his ubiquitous activity are found alsoat the Wady Magharah, in the Sinaitic peninsula, and at Wady Haifa inNubia, a little above the Second Cataract; but his grandest and mostelaborate work was his construction of the great temple of the Sun atHeliopolis, and his best memorial is that tall finger pointing to thesky which greets the traveller approaching Egypt from the east as thefirst sample of its strange and mystic wonders. This temple the kingbegan in his third year. After a consultation with his lords andcounsellors, he issued the solemn decree: "It is determined to executethe work; his majesty chooses to have it made. Let the superintendentcarry it on in the way that is desired; let all those employed upon itbe vigilant; let them see that it is made without weariness; let everydue ceremony be performed; let the beloved place arise. " Then the kingrose up, wearing a diadem, and holding the double pen; and all presentfollowed him. The scribe read the holy book, and extended the measuringcord, and laid the foundations on the spot which the temple was tooccupy. A grand building arose; but it has been wholly demolished by theruthless hand of time and the barbarity of conquerors. Of all itsglories nothing now remains but the one taper obelisk of pinkgranite, which rises into the soft sleepy air above the green cornfieldsof Matariyeh, no longer tipped with gold, but still catching on itssummit the earliest and latest sun-rays, while wild-bees nestle in thecrannies of the weird characters cut into the stone. 

[Illustration: OBELISK OF USURTASEN I. ON THE SITE OF HELIOPOLIS. ]

Usurtasen, after reigning ten years in conjunction with his father andthirty-two years alone, associated his son, Amenemhat II. , who becamesole king about three years later. His reign, though long, wasundistinguished, and need not occupy our attention. He followed theexample of his predecessors in associating a son in the government; andthis son succeeded him, and is known as Usurtasen II. One event ofinterest alone belongs to this time. It is the reception by one of hisgreat officials of a large family or tribe of Semitic immigrants fromAsia, who beg permission to settle permanently in the fertile Egyptunder the protection of its powerful king. Thirty-seven Amu, men, women, and children, present themselves at the court which the great nobleholds near the eastern border, and offer him their homage, while theysolicit a favourable hearing. The men are represented draped in longgarments of various colours, and wearing sandals unlike theEgyptian--more resembling, in fact, open shoes with many straps. Theirarms are bows, arrows, spears, and clubs. One plays on a seven-stringedlyre by means of a plectrum. Four women, wearing fillets round theirheads, with garments reaching below the knee, and wearing anklets but nosandals, accompany them. A boy, armed with a spear, walks at the sideof the women; and two children, seated in a kind of pannier placed onthe back of an ass, ride on in front. Another ass, carrying a spear, ashield, and a pannier, precedes the man who plays on the lyre. The greatofficial, who is named Khnum-hotep, receives the foreigners, accompaniedby an attendant who carries his sandals and a staff, and who is followedby three dogs. A scribe, named Nefer-hotep, unrolls before his master astrip of papyrus, on which are inscribed the words, "The sixth year ofthe reign of King Usurtasen Sha-khepr-ra: account rendered of the Amuwho in the lifetime of the chief, Khnum-hotep, brought to him themineral, _mastemut_, from the country of Pit-shu--they are in allthirty-seven persons. " The mineral _mastemut_ is thought to be a speciesof stibium or antimony, used for dying the skin around the eyes, and soincreasing their beauty. Besides this offering, the head of the tribe, who is entitled _khak_, or "prince, " and named Abusha, presents toKhnum-hotep a magnificent wild-goat, of the kind which at the presentday frequents the rocky mountain tract of Sinai. He wears a richer dressthan his companions, one which is ornamented with a fringe, and has awavy border round the neck. The scene has been generally recognized asstrikingly illustrating the coming of Jacob's family into Egypt (Gen. Xlvi. 28-34), and was at one time thought by some to represent thatoccurrence; but the date of Abusha's coming is long anterior to thearrival in Egypt of Jacob's family, the number is little more than halfthat of the Hebrew immigrants, the names do not accord; and it is nowagreed on all hands, that the interest of the representation isconfined to its illustrative force. 

Usurtasen II. Reigned for nineteen years. He does not seem to haveassociated a son, but was succeeded by another Usurtasen, most probablya nephew. The third Usurtasen was a conquering monarch, and advanced thepower and glory of Egypt far more than any other ruler belonging to theOld Empire. He began his military operations in his eighth year, andstarting from Elephantine in the month Epiphi, or May, moved southward, like another Lord Wolseley, with a fixed intention, which he expressedin writing upon the rocks of the Elephantine island, of permanentlyreducing to subjection "the miserable land of Cush. " His expedition wasso far successful that in the same year he established two forts, one oneither side of the Nile, and set up two pillars with inscriptionswarning the black races that they were not to proceed further northward, except with the object of importing into Egypt cattle, oxen, goats, orasses. The forts are still visible on either bank of the river a littleabove the Second Cataract, and bear the names of Koommeh and Semneh. They are massive constructions, built of numerous squared blocks ofgranite and sandstone, and perched upon two steep rocks which rise upperpendicularly from the river. Usurtasen, having made this beginning, proceeded, from his eighth to his sixteenth year, to carry on the warwith perseverance and ferocity in the district between the Nile and theRed Sea--to kill the men, fire the crops, and carry off the women andchildren, much as recently did the Arab traders whom Baker and Gordonstrove to crush. The memory of his razzias was perpetuated upon stonecolumns set up to record his successes. Later on, in his nineteenth yearhe made a last expedition, to complete the conquest of "the miserableKashi, " and recorded his victory at Abydos. 

The effect of these inroads was to advance the Egyptian frontier onehundred and fifty miles to the south, to carry it, in fact, from theFirst to above the Second Cataract. Usurtasen drew the line betweenEgypt and Ethiopia at this period, very much where the BritishGovernment drew it between Egypt and the Soudan in 1885. The boundary isa somewhat artificial one, as any boundary must be on the course of agreat river; but it is probably as convenient a point as can be foundbetween Assouan (Syene) and Khartoum. The conquest was regarded asredounding greatly to Usurtasen's glory, and made him the hero of theOld Empire. Myths gathered about his name, which, softened intoSesostris, became a favourite One in the mouths of Egyptian minstrelsand minnesingers. Usurtasen grew to be a giant more than seven feethigh, who conquered, not only all Ethiopia, but also Europe and Asia;his columns were said to be found in Palestine, Asia Minor, Scythia, andThrace; he left a colony at Colchis, the city of the golden fleece; hedug all the canals by which Egypt was intersected; he invented geometry;he set up colossi above fifty feet high; he was the greatest monarchthat had ruled Egypt since the days of Osiris!

No doubt these tales were, in the main, imaginary; but they marked thefact that in Usurtasen III. The military glories of the Old Empireculminated. 

FOOTNOTES:

[9] So Mr. A. D. Bartlett, F. Z. S. , in the "Transactions of the Society ofBiblical Archæology, " vol. Iv. P. 195. 

[10] R. Stuart Poole, "Cities of Egypt, " p. 52. 

VI. 

THE GOOD AMENEMHAT AND HIS WORKS. 

The great river to which Egypt owes her being, is at once the source ofall her blessings and her chiefest danger. Swelling with a uniformity, well calculated to call forth man's gratitude and admiration, almostfrom a fixed day in each year, and continuing to rise steadily formonths, it gradually spreads over the lands, covering the entire soilwith a fresh coating of the richest possible alluvium, and thus securingto the country a perpetual and inexhaustible fertility. Nature'smechanism is so perfect, that the rise year after year scarcely varies afoot, and is almost exactly the same now as it was when the firstPharaoh poured his libation to the river-god from the embankment whichhe had made at Memphis; but though this uniformity is great, andremarkable, and astonishing, it is not absolute. There are occasions, once in two or three centuries, when the rainfall in Abyssinia isexcessive. The Blue Nile and the Atbara pour into the deep and steadystream of the White Nile torrents of turbid water for months together. The windows of heaven seem to have been opened, and the rain pours downas if it would never cease. Then the river of the Egyptians assumes athreatening character; faster and faster it rises, and higher andhigher; and further and further it spreads, until it begins to creep upthe sides of the two ranges of hills. Calamitous results ensue. Themounds erected to protect the cities, the villages, and the pasturelands, are surmounted, or undermined, or washed away; the houses, builtoften of mud, and seldom of any better material than crude brick, collapse; cattle are drowned by hundreds; human life is itselfimperilled; the population has to betake itself to boats, and to fly tothe desert regions which enclose the Nile valley to the east and west, regions of frightful sterility, which with difficulty support the fewwandering tribes that are their normal inhabitants. If the excessiverise continues long, thousands or millions starve; if it passes offrapidly, then the inhabitants return to find their homes desolated, their cattle drowned, their household goods washed away, and themselvesdependent on the few rich men who may have stored their corn in stonegranaries which the waters have not been able to penetrate. Disasters ofthis kind are, however, exceedingly rare, though, when they occur, theirresults are terrible to contemplate. 

The more usual form of calamity is of the opposite kind. Once or twicein a century the Abyssinian rainfall is deficient. The rise of the Nileis deferred beyond the proper date. Anxious eyes gaze daily on thesluggish stream, or consult the "Nilometers" which kings and princeshave constructed along its course to measure the increase of the waters. Hopes and fears alternate as good or bad news reaches the inhabitants ofthe lower valley from those who dwell higher up the stream. Each littlerise is expected to herald a greater one, and the agony of suspense isprolonged until the "hundred days, " traditionally assigned to theincrease, have gone by, and there is no longer a doubt that the riverhas begun to fall. Then hope is swallowed up in despair. Only the landslying nearest to the river have been inundated; those at a greaterdistance from it lie parched and arid during the entire summer-time, andfail to produce a single blade of grass or spike of corn. Famine staresthe poorer classes in the face, and unless large supplies of grain havebeen laid up in store previously, or can be readily imported fromabroad, the actual starvation of large numbers is the inevitableconsequence. We have heartrending accounts of such famines. In the year457 of the Hegira (A. D. 1064) a famine began, which lasted seven years, and was so severe that dogs and cats, and even human flesh, were eaten;all the horses of the Caliph but three perished, and his family had tofly into Syria. Another famine in A. D. 1199 is recorded by Abd-el-Latif, an eye-witness, in very similar terms. 

There is reason to believe that, under the twelfth dynasty, somederangement of meteoric or atmospheric conditions passed over Abyssiniaand Upper Egypt, either in both the directions above noticed, or, at anyrate, in the latter and more ordinary one. An official belonging to thelater part of this period, in enumerating his merits upon his tomb, tells us, "There was no poverty in my days, no starvation in my time, even when there were years of famine. I ploughed all the fields of Mahto its southern and northern boundaries; I gave life to itsinhabitants, making its food; no one was starved in it. I gave to thewidow as to the married woman. " As the late Dr. Birch observes, "Egyptwas occasionally subject to famines; and these, at the time of thetwelfth dynasty, were so important, that they attracted great attention, and were considered worthy of record by the princes or hereditary lordswho were buried at Beni-Hassan. Under the twelfth dynasty, also, thetombs of Abydos show the creation of superintendents, or storekeepers ofthe public granaries, a class of functionaries apparently created tomeet the contingency. "[11]

The distress of his subjects under these circumstances seems to havedrawn the thoughts of "the good Amenemhat" to the devising of somesystem which should effectually remedy these evils, by preventing theiroccurrence. In all countries where the supply of water is liable to bedeficient, it is of the utmost importance to utilize to the full thatamount of the life-giving fluid, be it more or be it less, which thebounty of nature furnishes. Rarely, indeed, is nature absolutely aniggard. Mostly she gives far more than is needed, but the improvidenceor the apathy of man allows her gifts to run to waste. Careful andprovident husbanding of her store will generally make it suffice for allman's needs and requirements. Sometimes this has been effected in athirsty land by conducting all the rills and brooks that flow from thehighlands or hills into subterranean conduits, where they are shieldedfrom the sun's rays, and prolonging these ducts for miles upon miles, till every drop of the precious fluid has been utilized for irrigation. Such is the _kareez_ or _kanat_ system of Persia. In other places vastefforts have been made to detain the abundant supply of rain whichnature commonly provides in the spring of the year, to store it, andprevent it from flowing off down the river-courses to the sea, where itis absolutely lost. For this purpose, either huge reservoirs must beconstructed by the hand of man, or else advantage must be taken of somefacility which nature offers for storing the water in convenientsituations. Valleys may be blocked by massive dams, and millions ofgallons thus imprisoned for future use, as is done in many parts of theNorth of England, but for manufacturing and not for irrigation purposes. Or naturally land-locked basins may be found, and the overflow ofstreams at their flood-time turned into them and arrested, to be madeuse of later in the year. 

In Egypt the one and only valley was that of the Nile, and the one andonly stream that which had formed it, and flowed along it, at a lower orhigher level, ceaselessly. It might perhaps have been possible forEgyptian engineering skill to have blocked the valley at Silsilis, or atthe Gebelein, and to have thus turned Upper Egypt into a huge reservoiralways full, and always capable of supplying Lower Egypt with enoughwater to eke out a deficient inundation. But this could only have beendone by an enormous work, very difficult to construct, and at thesacrifice of several hundred square miles of fertile territory, thicklyinhabited, which would have been covered permanently by the artificiallake. Moreover, the Egyptians would have known that such an embankmentcan under no circumstances be absolutely secure, and may have foreseenthat its rupture would spread destruction over the whole of the lowercountry. Amenemhat, at any rate, did not venture to adopt so bold adesign. He sought for a natural depression, and found one in the Libyanrange of hills to the west of the Nile valley, about a degree south ofthe latitude of Memphis--a depression of great depth and of ampleexpanse, fifty miles or more in length by thirty in breadth, andcontaining an area of six or seven hundred square miles. It wasseparated from the Nile valley by a narrow ridge of hills about twohundred feet high, through which ran from south-east to north-west anarrow rocky gorge, giving access to the depression. It is possible thatin very high floods some of the water of the inundation passed naturallyinto the basin through this gorge; but whether this were so or no, itwas plain that by the employment of no very large amount of labour acanal or cutting might be carried along the gorge, and the Nile watergiven free access into the depression, not only in very high floods, butannually when the inundation reached a certain moderate height. This is, accordingly, what Amenemhat did. He dug a canal from the western branchof the Nile--the modern Bahr Yousuf--leaving it at El-Lahoun, carriedhis canal through the gorge, in places cutting deep into its rockybottom, and by a system of sluices and flood-gates retained such anabsolute control over the water that he could either admit or excludethe inundation at his will, as it rose; and when it fell, could eitherallow the water that had flowed in to return, or imprison it and keep itback. Within the gorge he had thus at all times a copious store of theinvaluable fluid, banked up to the height of high Nile, and capable ofbeing applied to purposes of cultivation both within and without thedepression by the opening and shutting of the sluices. 

So much appears to be certain. The exact size and position ofAmenemhat's reservoir within the depression, which a French _savant_ wassupposed to have discovered, are now called in question, and must beadmitted to be still _sub judice_. M. Linant de Bellefonds regarded thereservoir as occupying the south-eastern or upper portion of thedepression only, as extending from north to south a distance of fourteenmiles only, and from east to west a distance varying from six to elevenmiles. He regarded it as artificially confined towards the west andnorth by two long lines of embankment, which he considered that he hadtraced, and gave the area of the lake as four hundred and five millionsof square mêtres, or about four hundred and eighty millions of squareyards. Mr. Cope Whitehouse believes that the water was freely admittedinto the whole of the depression, which it filled, with the exception ofcertain parts, which stood up out of the water as islands, from onehundred and fifty to two hundred feet high. He believes that it was inplaces three hundred feet deep, and that the circuit of its shores wasfrom three hundred to five hundred miles. It is to be hoped that ascientific expedition will ere long set this dispute at rest, and enablethe modern student distinctly to grasp and understand the great work ofAmenemhat. Whatever may be the truth regarding "Lake Mœris, " as thisgreat reservoir was called, it is certain that it furnished the ancientsone of the least explicable of all the many problems that the remarkableland of the Nile presented to them. Herodotus added to the other marvelsof the place a story about two sitting statues based upon pyramids, which stood three hundred feet above the level of the lake, and a famouslabyrinth, of which we shall soon speak. 

Whether the reservoir of Amenemhat had the larger or the smallerdimensions ascribed to it, there can be no doubt that it was a grandconstruction, undertaken mainly for the benefit of his people, andgreatly conducing to their advantage. Even if the reservoir had only thedimensions assigned to it by M. De Bellefonds, it would, according tohis calculations, have contained water sufficient, not only forirrigating the northern and western portions of the Fayoum throughoutthe year, but also for the supply of the whole western bank of the Nilefrom Beni-Souef to the embouchure at Canopus for six months. This alonewould in dry seasons have been a sensible relief to a large portion ofthe population. If the dimensions exceeded those of De Bellefonds, therelief would have been proportionately greater. 

The good king was not, however, content merely to benefit his people byincreasing the productiveness of Egypt and warding off the calamitiesthat occasionally befell the land; he further gave employment to largenumbers, which was not of a severe or oppressive kind, but promotedtheir comfort and welfare. In connection with his hydraulic works inthe Fayoum he constructed a novel species of building, which after agesadmired even above the constructions of the pyramid-builders, andregarded as the most wonderful edifice in all the world. "I visited theplace, " says Herodotus, [12] "and found it to surpass description; for ifall the walls and other great works of the Greeks could be put togetherin one, they would not equal, either for labour or expense, thisLabyrinth; and yet the temple of Ephesus is a building worthy of note, and so is the temple of Samos. The pyramids likewise surpassdescription, and are severally equal to a number of the greatest worksof the Greeks; but the Labyrinth surpasses the pyramids. It has twelvecourts, all of them roofed, with gates exactly opposite one another, sixlooking to the north, and six to the south. A single wall surrounds thewhole building. It contains two different sorts of chambers, half ofthem underground, and half above-ground, the latter built upon theformer; the whole number is three thousand, of each kind fifteenhundred. The upper chambers I myself passed through and saw, and what Isay of them is from my own observation; of the underground chambers Ican only speak from report, for the keepers of the building could not beinduced to show them, since they contained (they said) the sepulchres ofthe kings who built the Labyrinth, and also those of the sacredcrocodiles. Thus it is from hearsay only that I can speak of them; butthe upper chambers I saw with my own eyes, and found them to excel allother human productions; for the passages through the houses, and thevaried windings of the paths across the courts, excited in me infiniteadmiration, as I passed from the courts into chambers, and from thechambers into colonnades, and from the colonnades into fresh houses, andagain from these into courts unseen before. The roof was, throughout, ofstone, like the walls; and the walls were carved all over with figures;every court was surrounded with a colonnade, which was built of whitestones, exquisitely fitted together. At the corner of the Labyrinthstands a pyramid, forty fathoms high, with large figures engraved uponit, which is entered by a subterranean passage. "

The pyramid intended is probably that examined by Perring and Lepsius, which had a base of three hundred feet, and an elevation, probably, ofabout one hundred and eighty-five feet. It was built of crude brickmixed with a good deal of straw, and cased with a white siliciouslimestone. The same material was employed for the greater part of theso-called "Labyrinth, " but many of the columns were of red granite, andsome perhaps of porphyry. Most likely the edifice was intended as amausoleum for the sacred crocodiles, and was gradually enlarged fortheir accommodation--Amenemhat, whose prænomen was found on the pyramid, being merely the first founder. The number of the pillared courts, andtheir similarity, made the edifice confusing to foreigners, and got itthe name of "The Labyrinth"; but it is not likely the designers of thebuilding had any intention to mislead or to confuse. 

Amenemhat's prænomen, or throne-name, assumed (according to ordinarycustom) on his accession, was Ra-n-mat, "Sun of Justice" or "Sun ofRighteousness. " The assumption of the title indicates his desire toleave behind him a character for justice and equity. It is perhapsnoticeable that the name by which the Greeks knew him was Mœris, whichmay mean "the beloved. " With him closes the first period of Thebangreatness. A cloud was impending, and darker days about to follow; butas yet Egypt enjoyed a time of progressive, and in the main peaceful, development. Commerce, art, religion, agriculture, occupied her. She didnot covet other men's lands, nor did other men covet hers. The worldbeyond her borders knew little of her, except that she was a fertile andwell-ordered land, whereto, in time of dearth, the needy of othercountries might resort with confidence. 

FOOTNOTES:

[11] "Records of the Past, " vol. Xii. P. 60. 

[12] Euterpe, ch. 148

VII. 

ABRAHAM IN EGYPT. 

"Now there was a famine in the land of Canaan; and Abram went down intoEgypt to sojourn there" (Gen. Xii. 10). Few events in the history ofmankind are more interesting than the visit which the author of thePentateuch thus places before us in less than a dozen words. The "fatherof the faithful, " the great apostle of Monotheism, the wanderer from thedistant "Ur of the Chaldees, " familiar with Babylonian greatness, andBabylonian dissoluteness, and Babylonian despotism, having quitted hiscity home and adopted the simple habits of a Syrian nomadic sheikh, finds himself forced to make acquaintance with a second form ofcivilization, a second great organized monarchy, and to become for atime a sojourner among the people who had held for centuries the valleyof the Nile. He had obeyed the call which took him from Ur to Haran, from Haran to Damascus, from Damascus to the hills of Canaan; he haddivorced himself from city life and city usages; he had embraced thedelights of that free, wandering existence which has at all times sosingular a charm for many, and had dwelt for we know not how many yearsin different parts of Palestine, the chief of a tribe rich in flocks andherds, moving with them from place to place as the fancy took him. Itwas assuredly with much reluctance that he quitted the open downs andfresh breezes and oak groves of Canaan the land promised to him and tohis seed after him, and took his way through the "desert of the south"to the great kingdom with which he and his race could never hope to beon terms of solid friendship. But the necessity which constrained himwas imperative. When, from the want of the ordinary spring rains, drought and famine set in on the Palestinian uplands, there was inancient times but one resource. Egypt was known as a land of plenty. Whether it were Hebrew nomads, or Hittite warriors, or Phœnician tradersthat suffered, Egypt was the sole refuge, the sole hope. There the rivergave the plenteous sustenance which would be elsewhere sought in vain. There were granaries and storehouses, and an old established systemwhereby corn was laid up as a reserve in case of need, both by privateindividuals of the wealthier classes and by the kings. There among thehighest officers of state was the "steward of the public granary. " whosebusiness it was, when famine pressed, to provide, so far as waspossible, both for natives and foreigners, alleviating the distress ofall, while safeguarding, of course, the king's interests (Gen. Xlvii. 13-26). 

Abraham, therefore, when he found that "the famine was grievous in theland" of Canaan, did the only thing that it was possible for him todo--left Palestine, and wended his way through the desert to theEgyptian frontier. What company he took with him is uncertain. A fewyears later we find him at the head of a body of three hundred andeighteen men capable of bearing arms--"trained servants born in hishouse"--which implies the headship over a tribe of at least twelvehundred persons. He can scarcely have entered Egypt with a much smallernumber. It was before his separation from his nephew, Lot, whosefollowers were not much fewer than his own. And to leave any of hisdependents behind would have been to leave them to starvation. We mustsuppose a numerous caravan organized, with asses and camels to carryprovisions and household stuff, and with the women and the little onesconveyed as we see them in the sculpture representing the arrival ofAbusha from the same quarter, albeit with a smaller _entourage. _ Thedesert journey would be trying, and probably entail much loss, especially of the cattle and beasts; but at length, on the seventh oreighth day, as the water was getting low in the skins and the camelswere beginning to faint and groan with the scant fare and the longtravel, a dark low line would appear upon the edge of the horizon infront, and soon the line would deepen into a delicate fringe, sparklinghere and there as though it were sown with diamonds. [13] Then it wouldbe recognized that there lay before the travellers the fields andgardens and palaces and obelisks of Egypt, the broad flood and richplain of the Nile, and their hearts would leap with joy, and liftthemselves up in thanksgiving to the Most High, who had brought themthrough the great and terrible wilderness to a land of plenty. 

But now a fresh anxiety fell upon the spirit of the chief. Traditiontells us that already in Babylonia he had had experience of the violenceand tyranny of earthly potentates, and had with difficulty escaped froman attempt which the king of Babylon made upon his life. Either memoryrecalled this and similar dangers, or reason suggested what theunbridled licence of irresponsible power might conceive and executeunder the circumstances. The Pharaohs had, it is plain, already departedfrom the simple manners of the earlier times, when each prince wascontented with a single wife, and had substituted for the primitive lawof monogamy that corrupt system of hareem life which has kept its groundin the East from an ancient date to the present day. Abraham was awareof this, and "as he was come near to enter into Egypt, " but was not yetentered, he was seized with a great fear. "Behold, " he said to Sarai hiswife, "Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon;therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, thatthey shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they willsave thee alive, " Under these circumstances Abraham, with a craft notunnatural in an Oriental, but certainly far from commendable, resolvedto dissemble his relationship towards Sarah, and to represent her as nothis wife, but his sister. She was, in point of fact, his half-sister, ashe afterwards pleaded to Abimelech (Gen. Xx. 12), being the daughter ofTerah by a secondary wife, and married to her half-brother "Say, I praythee, " he said, "thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thysake; and my soul shall live because of thee. " Sarah acquiesced; and nodoubt the whole tribe was made acquainted with the resolution come to, so that they might all be in one story. 

The frontier was then approached. We learn from the history of Abusha, as well as from other scattered notices in the papyri, how carefully theeastern border was always guarded, and what precautions were taken toapprise the Court when any considerable body of immigrants arrived. Thechief official upon the frontier, either Khnumhotep or some oneoccupying a similar position, would receive the in-comers, subject themto interrogation, and cause his secretary to draw up a report, whichwould be forwarded by courier to the capital. The royal orders would beawaited, and meantime perhaps fresh reports would be sent by otherofficials of the neighbourhood. In the present instance, we are toldthat several "princes of Pharaoh, " having been struck with the beauty ofSarah, commended her to their royal master, who sent for her and had herbrought into his own house. Abraham himself was well received andtreated with much distinction "for her sake. " According to Eupolemus, heand his were settled in the sacred city of On or Heliopolis; and there, in that seat of learning and religion, the Patriarch, as the sameauthority declares, lived peacefully for many years and taught theEgyptians the sciences of astronomy and arithmetic. The author ofGenesis says nothing of the place of his abode, but simply informs us ofhis well-being. "Pharaoh entreated Abram well for Sarai's sake; and hehad sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels. " The collocation of the clauses implies thatall these were presents from the king. The pleased monarch lavished onhis brother-in-law such gifts of honour as were usual at the time andsuitable to his circumstances. Abraham became "very rich in cattle, insilver, and in gold" (Gen. Xiii. 2). He flourished greatly, whether formonths or for years the scripture does not say. He was separated fromhis wife, and she was an inmate of Pharaoh's hareem; but he kept hissecret, and no one betrayed him. Apparently, he was content. 

Ere long, however, a discovery was made. Calamity came upon the royalhouse in some marked way, probably either in the form of sickness or ofdeath. The king became convinced that he was the object of a Divinechastisement, and cast about for a cause to which his sufferings mightreasonably be attributed. How had he provoked God's anger? Either, asJosephus thinks, the priests had by this time found out the truth, andmade the suggestion to him, that he was being punished for having takenanother man's wife into his seraglio; or possibly, as others havesurmised, Sarah herself divined the source of the calamities, and madeconfession of the truth. At any rate, by some means or other, the factsof the case became known; and the Pharaoh thereupon hastened to setmatters right. Sarah, though an inmate of the hareem, was probably stillin the probationary condition, undergoing the purification necessarybefore the final completion of her nuptials (Esth. Ii. 12), and couldthus be restored intact. The Pharaoh sent for Abraham, reproached himwith his deceit, pointed out the ill consequences which had followed, and, doubtless in some displeasure, required him to take his wife anddepart. The famine was at an end, and there was no reason why he shouldlinger. Beyond reproach, however, Pharaoh inflicted no punishment. He"commanded his men concerning Abraham; and they sent him away, and hiswife, and _all that he had_. "

Such is the account which has come down to us of Abraham's sojourn inEgypt. If it be asked, Why is it inserted into the "story of Egypt" atthis point? the reply must be, because, on a dispassionate considerationof all the circumstances, chronological and other, which attach to thenarrative, it has been generally agreed that the event belongs to_about_ this time. There is no special reign to which it can bedefinitely assigned; but the best critics acquiesce in the judgment ofCanon Cook upon the point, who says: "For my own part, I regard it asall but certain that Abraham visited Egypt in some reign between themiddle of the eleventh and the thirteenth dynasty, and most probablyunder one of the earliest Pharaohs of the twelfth. "[14]

This is not the only entrance of Hebrews or people of Semitic race intoEgypt. Emigrants from less favoured countries had frequently looked withinterest to the fertile Delta of the Nile, hoping that there they mightfind homes free from the vicissitudes of their own. Previous to this, one Amu had entered Egypt, perhaps from Midian, with his family, counting thirty-seven, the little ones riding upon asses, and had soughtthe protection of the reigning sovereign. It was again the experienceof Egypt to receive emigrants from the north-east, from Syria orNorthern Arabia, at a little later period, when the nomads in thoseregions looked over to the south and, by contrast with theirover-peopled country, thought they saw a sort of "fairy-land of wealth, culture, and wisdom, " which they hoped to enjoy by force: and they werenot the last to seek asylum there. We shall soon have to remark on thefamiliar case of the immigration of the sons of Jacob with theirhouseholds. In process of time the Semitic wanderers increased somaterially that the population in the eastern half of the Delta becamehalf Asiatic, prepared to submit readily to Asiatic rule and to worshipSemitic deities; they had already imposed a number of their words uponthe language of Egypt. 

FOOTNOTES:

[13] Adapted from Kinglake's "Eothen, " p. 201. 

[14] See "Speaker's Commentary, " vol. I. P. 447, col. I. 

VIII. 

THE GREAT INVASION--THE HYKSÔS OR SHEPHERD KINGS--JOSEPH AND APEPI. 

The prowess of the Egyptians had not yet been put to any severe proof. They had themselves shown little of an aggressive spirit. Attracted bythe mineral wealth of the Sinaitic peninsula, they had indeed madesettlements in that region, which had involved them in occasional warswith the natives, whom they spoke of as "Mena" or "Menti"; and they hadhad a contest of more importance with the tribes of the south, negro andEthiopic, in which they had shown a decided superiority over those rudebarbarians; but, as yet, they had attempted no important conquest, andhad been subjected to no serious attack. The countries upon theirborders were but sparsely peopled, and from neither the Berber tribes ofthe northern African coast, nor from the Sinaitic nomads, nor even fromthe negroes of the south, with their allies--the "miserableCushites"--was any dangerous invasion to be apprehended. Egypt had beenable to devote herself almost wholly to the cultivation of the arts ofpeace, and had not been subjected to the severe ordeal, which mostnations pass through in their infancy, of a struggle for existence withwarlike and powerful enemies. 

The time was now come for a great change. Movements had begun among thepopulations of Asia which threatened a general disturbance of the peaceof the world. Asshur had had to "go forth" out of the land of Shinar, and to make himself a habitation further to the northward, which musthave pressed painfully upon other races. In Elam an aggressive spirithad sprung up, and military expeditions had been conducted by Elamitickings, which started from the shores of the Persian Gulf and terminatedin Southern Syria and Palestine. The migration of the tribes which movedwith Terah and Abraham from Ur to Haran, and from Haran to Hebron, isbut one of many indications of the restlessness of the period. TheHittites were growing in power, and required an enlarged territory fortheir free expansion. It was now probably that they descended from thehills of Cappadocia upon the region below Taurus and Amanus, where wefind them dominant in later ages. Such a movement on their part woulddisplace a large population in Upper Syria, and force it to migratesouthwards. There are signs of a pressure upon the north-easternfrontier of Egypt on the part of Asiatics needing a home as early as thecommencement of the twelfth dynasty; and it is probable that, while thedynasty lasted, the pressure was continually becoming greater. Asiaticswere from time to time received within the barrier of Amenemhat I. , someto sojourn and some to dwell. The eastern Delta was more or lessAsiaticized; and a large portion of its inhabitants was inclined towelcome a further influx from Asia. 

We have one account only of the circumstances of the great invasion bywhich Egypt fell under a foreign yoke. It purports to come from thenative historian, Manetho; but it is delivered to us directly byJosephus, who, in his reports of what other writers had narrated, is notalways to be implicitly trusted. Manetho, according to him, declared asfollows: "There was once a king of Egypt named Timæus, in whose reignthe gods being offended, for I know not what cause, with our nation, certain men of ignoble race, coming from the eastern regions, had thecourage to invade the country, and falling upon it unawares, conqueredit easily without a battle. After the submission of the princes, theyconducted themselves in a most barbarous fashion towards the whole ofthe inhabitants, slaying some, and reducing to slavery the wives and thechildren of the others. Moreover they savagely set the cities on fire, and demolished the temples of the gods. At last, they took one of theirnumber called Salatis, and made him king over them. Salatis resided atMemphis, where he received tribute both from Upper and Lower Egypt, while at the same time he placed garrisons in all the most suitablesituations. He strongly fortified the frontier, especially on the sideof the east, since he foresaw that the Assyrians, who were thenexceedingly powerful, might desire to make themselves masters of hiskingdom. Having found, moreover, in the Sethroïte nome, to the east ofthe Bubastite branch of the Nile, a city very favourably situated, andcalled, on account of an ancient theological tradition, Avaris, herebuilt it and strengthened it with walls of great thickness, which heguarded with a body of two hundred and forty thousand men. Each summerhe visited the place, to see their supplies of corn measured out for hissoldiers and their pay delivered to them, as well as to superintendtheir military exercises, in order that foreigners might hold them inrespect. "

The king, Timæus, does not appear either in the lists of Manetho or uponthe monuments, nor is it possible to determine the time of the invasionmore precisely than this--that it fell into the interval betweenManetho's twelfth and his eighteenth dynasties. The invaders arecharacterized by the Egyptians as Menti or Sati; but these terms areused so vaguely that nothing definite can be concluded from them. On thewhole, it is perhaps most probable that the invading army, like that ofAttila, consisted of a vast variety of races--"a collection of all thenomadic hordes of Syria and Arabia"--who made common cause against a foeknown to be wealthy, and who all equally desired settlements in a landreputed the most productive in the East. An overwhelming flood of men--aquarter of a million, if we may believe Manetho--poured into the land, impetuous, irresistible. All at once, a danger had come beyond allpossible previous calculation--a danger from which there was no escape. It was as when the northern barbarians swooped down in their countlessthousands on the outlying provinces of the Roman Empire, or as when thehordes of Jingis Khan overran Kashgar and Kharesm--the contest was toounequal for anything that can be called a struggle to be made. Egyptcollapsed before the invader. Manetho says that there was no battle; andwe can readily understand that in the divided condition of the country, with two or three subordinate dynasties ruling in different parts of theDelta, and another dynasty at Thebes, no army could be levied whichcould dare to meet the enemy in the field. The inhabitants fled to theircities, and endeavoured to defend themselves behind walls; but it was invain. The walls of the Egyptian cities were rather banks to keep out theinundation than ramparts to repel an enemy. In a short time thestrongholds that resisted were taken, the male population put to thesword, the women and children enslaved, the houses burnt, the templesruthlessly demolished. An iconoclastic spirit possessed the conquerors. The gods and worship of Egypt were hateful to them. Where-ever the floodpassed, it swept away the existing civilization, deeply impregnated asit was with religion; it covered the ground with the _débris_ of templesand shrines, with the fragments of statues and sphinxes; it crushedexisting religious usages, and for a time, as it would seem, substitutednothing in their place. "A study of the monuments, " says M. FrançoisLenormant, "attests the reality of the frightful devastations which tookplace at the first moment of the invasion. With a solitary exception, all the temples anterior to the event have disappeared, and no tracescan be found of them except scattered ruins which bear the marks of adestructive violence. To say what during these centuries Egypt had toendure in the way of upsetting of her past is impossible. The only factwhich can be stated as certain is, that not a single monument of thisdesolate epoch has come down to our days to show us what became of theancient splendour of Egypt under the Hyksôs. We witness under thefifteenth and sixteenth dynasties a fresh shipwreck of Egyptiancivilization. Vigorous as it had been, the impulse given to it by theUsurtasens suddenly stops; the series of monuments is interrupted, andEgypt informs us by her very silence of the calamities with which shewas smitten. "[15]

It was, fortunately, not the entire country that was overrun. So far asappears, the actual occupation of Egypt by the Hyksôs was confined tothe Delta, to the Lower Nile valley, and to the district of the Fayoum. Elephantine, Thebes, Abydos, escaped the destroyers, and though forcedto certain formal acts of submission, to an acknowledgment of the Hyksôssuzerainty, and to the payment of an annual tribute, retained aqualified independence. The Theban monuments of the eleventh and twelfthdynasties were undisturbed. Even in Lower Egypt there were structuresthat suffered little or nothing at the conqueror's hands, being toohumble to attract his attention or too massive to yield to the means ofdestruction known to him. Thus the pyramids scarcely suffered, though itis possible that at this time their sanctity was first violated andtheir contents rifled. The great obelisk of Usurtasen I. , which stillstands at Heliopolis, was not overthrown. The humbler tombs at Ghizeh, so precious to the antiquary, were for the most part untouched. Amenemhat's buildings in the Fayoum may have been damaged, but they werenot demolished. Though Egyptian civilization received a rude shock fromthe invasion, it was not altogether swallowed up or destroyed; and whenthe deluge had passed it emerged once more, and soon reached, and evensurpassed, its ancient glories. 

The Hyksôs king who led the invasion, or who, at any rate, was broughtto the front in its course, bore, we are told, either the name ofSalatis, or that of Saites. Of these two forms the second is undoubtedlyto be preferred, since the first has in its favour only the singleauthority of Josephus, while the second is supported by Africanus, Eusebius, George the Syncellus, and to a certain extent by themonuments. The "tablet of four hundred years" contains the name ofSut-Aapehti as that of a king of Egypt who must have belonged to theMiddle Empire, and this name may fairly be regarded as represented in anabbreviated form by the Greek "Saïtes. " Saïtes, having made himselfabsolute master of the Lower Country, and forced the king of the UpperCountry to become his tributary, fixed his residence at Memphis, at thesame time strongly fortifying and garrisoning various other towns inimportant positions. Of these the most considerable was the city, calledAuaris, or Avaris, in the Sethroïte nome, which lay east of the Pelusiacbranch of the Nile, and was probably not far from Pelusium itself, ifindeed it was not identical with that city. Another strong fort, bymeans of which the Delta was held and overawed, seems to have been Zanor Tanis, now San, situated on what was called the Tanitic branch of theNile, the next most easterly branch to the Pelusiac. A third was in theFayoum, on the site now called Mit-Fares. A large body of troops mustalso have been maintained at Memphis, if the king, as we are told, ordinarily held his court there. 

How long the Egyptians groaned under the tyranny of the "Shepherds, " itis difficult to say. The epitomists of Manetho are hopelessly atvariance on the subject, and the monuments are silent, or nearly so. Moderns vary in the time, which they assign to the period between twocenturies and five. On the whole, criticism seems to incline towards theshorter term, though why Manetho, or his epitomists, should haveenlarged it, remains an insoluble problem. There is but one dynasty of"Shepherd Kings" that has any distinct historical substance, or to whichwe can assign any names. This is a dynasty of six kings only, whoseunited reigns are not likely to have exceeded two centuries. Nor does itseem possible that, if the duration of the foreign oppression had beenmuch longer, Egypt could have returned, so nearly as she did, to thesame manners and customs, the same religious usages, the same rules ofart, the same system of government, even the very same proper names, atthe end of the period, as had been in use at its beginning. One cannotbut think that the _bouleversement_ which Egypt underwent has beensomewhat exaggerated by the native historian for the sake of rhetoricaleffect, to enhance by contrast the splendour of the New Empire. 

In another respect, too, if he has not misrepresented the rule of the"Shepherd Kings, " he has failed to do it justice. He has painted inlurid colours the advent of the foreign race, the war of exterminationin which they engaged, the cruel usage to which they subjected theconquered people; he has represented the invaders as rude, savage, barbarous, bent on destruction, careless of art, the enemies of progressand civilization. He has neglected to point out, that, as time went on, there was a sensible change. The period of constant bitter hostilitiescame to an end. Peace succeeded to war. In Lower Egypt the "Shepherds"reigned over quiet and unresisting subjects; in Upper Egypt they borerule over submissive tributaries. Under these circumstances aperceptible softening of their manners and general character took place. As the Mongols and the Mandchus in China suffered themselves by degreesto be conquered by the superior civilization of the people whom they hadoverrun and subdued, so the Hyksôs yielded little by little to theinfluences which surrounded them, and insensibly assimilated themselvesto their Egyptian subjects. They adopted the Egyptian dress, titles, official language, art, mode of writing, architecture. In Tanis, especially, temples were built and sculptures set up under the later"Shepherd Kings, " differing little in their general character from thoseof purely Egyptian periods. The foreign monarchs erected their effigiesat this site, which were sculptured by native artists according to thecustomary rules of Egyptian glyptic art, and only differ from those ofthe earlier native Pharaohs in the head-dress, the expression of thecountenance, and a peculiar arrangement of the beard. A friendlyintercourse took place during this period between the kings of theNorth, established at Tanis and Memphis, and those of the South, resident at Thebes; frequent embassies were interchanged; and blocks ofgranite and syenite were continually floated down the Nile, past Thebes, to be employed by the "Shepherds" in their erections at the southerncapitals. 

[Illustration: BUST OF A SHEPHERD KING. ]

The "Shepherds" brought with them into Egypt the worship of a deity, whom they called Sut or Sutekh, and apparently identified with the sun. He was described as "the great ruler of heaven, " and identified withBaal in later times. The kings regarded themselves as especially underhis protection. At the time of the invasion, they do not seem to haveconsidered this deity as having any special connection with any of theEgyptian gods, and they consequently made war indiscriminately againstthe entire Egyptian Pantheon, plundering and demolishing all the templesalike. But when the first burst of savage hostility was gone by, whenmore settled times followed, and the manners and temper of theconquerors grew softened by pacific intercourse with their subjects, alikeness came to be seen between Sutekh, their own ancestral god, andthe "Set" of the Egyptians. Set in the old Egyptian mythology wasrecognized as "the patron of foreigners, the power which swept thechildren of the desert like a sand-storm over the fertile land. " He wasa representative of physical, but not of moral, evil; a strong andpowerful deity, worthy of reverence and worship, but less an object oflove than of fear. The "Shepherds" acknowledged in this god theirSutekh; and as they acquired settled habits, and assimilated themselvesto their subjects, they began to build temples to him, after theEgyptian model, in their principal towns. After the dynasty had bornerule for five reigns, covering the space perhaps of one hundred andfifty years, a king came to the throne named Apepi, who has left severalmonuments, and is the only one of the "Shepherds" that stands out for usin definite historical consistency as a living and breathing person. Apepi built a great temple to Sutekh at Zoan, or Tanis, his principalcapital, composed of blocks of red granite, and adorned it with obelisksand sphinxes. The obelisks are said to have been fourteen in number, andmust have been dispersed about the courts, and not, as usual, placedonly at the entrance. The sphinxes, which differed from the ordinaryEgyptian sphinx in having a mane like a lion and also wings, seem tohave formed an avenue or vista leading up to the temple from the town. They are in diorite, and have the name of Apepi engraved upon them. 

The pacific rule of Apepi and his predecessors allowed Thebes toincrease in power, and her monuments now recommence. Three kings whobore the family name of Taa, and the throne name of Ra-Sekenen, borerule in succession at the southern capital. The third of these, Taa-ken, or "Taa the Victorious, " was contemporary with Apepi, and paid histribute punctually, year by year, to his lawful suzerain. He does notseem to have had any desire to provoke war; but Apepi probably thoughtthat he was becoming too powerful, and would, if unmolested, shortlymake an effort to throw off the Hyksôs yoke. He therefore determined topick a quarrel with him, and proceeded to send to Thebes a succession ofembassies with continually increasing demands. First of all he requiredTaa-ken to relinquish the worship of all the Egyptian gods exceptAmen-Ra, the chief god of Thebes, whom he probably identified with hisown Sutekh. It is not quite clear whether Taa-ken consented to thisdemand, or politely evaded it. At any rate, a second embassy soonfollowed the first, with a fresh requirement; and a third followed thesecond. The policy was successful, and at last Taa-ken took up arms. Itwould seem that he was successful, or was at any rate able to hold hisown; for he maintained the war till his death, and left it to hissuccessor, Aahmes. 

There was an ancient tradition, that the king who made Joseph his primeminister, and committed into his hands the entire administration ofEgypt, was Apepi. George the Syncellus says that the synchronism wasaccepted by all. It is clear that Joseph's arrival did not fall, likeAbraham's, into the period of the Old Empire, since under Joseph horsesand chariots are in use, as well as wagons or carts, all of which wereunknown till after the Hyksôs invasion. It is also more natural thatJoseph, a foreigner, should have been advanced by a foreign king than bya native one, and the favour shown to his brethren, who were shepherds(Gen. Xlvi. 32), is consonant at any rate with the tradition that it wasa "Shepherd King" who held the throne at the time of their arrival. Apriest of Heliopolis, moreover, would scarcely have given Joseph hisdaughter in marriage unless at a time when the priesthood was in a stateof depression. Add to this that the Pharaoh of Joseph is evidentlyresident in Lower Egypt, not at Thebes, which was the seat of governmentfor many hundred years both before and after the Hyksôs rule. 

If, however, we are to place Joseph under one of the "Shepherd Kings, "there can be no reason why we should not accept the tradition whichconnects him with Apepi. Apepi was dominant over the whole of Egypt, asJoseph's Pharaoh seems to have been. He acknowledged a single god, asdid that monarch (Gen. Xli. 38, 39). He was a thoroughly Egyptianizedking. He had a council of learned scribes, a magnificent court, and apeaceful reign until towards its close. His residence was in the Delta, either at Tanis or Auaris. He was a prince of a strong will, firm anddetermined; one who did not shrink from initiating great changes, andwho carried out his resolves in a somewhat arbitrary way. The argumentsin favour of his identity with Joseph's master are, perhaps, not whollyconclusive; but they raise a presumption, which may well incline us, with most modern historians of Egypt, to assign the touching story ofJoseph to the reign of the last of the Shepherds. 

FOOTNOTES:

[15] "Manuel d'Histoire Ancienne de l'Orient, " vol i. P. 360. 

IX. 

HOW THE HYKSÔS WERE EXPELLED FROM EGYPT. 

At first sight it seems strange that the terrible warriors who, underSet or Saïtes, so easily reduced Egypt to subjection, and then stillfurther weakened the population by massacre and oppression, should havebeen got rid of, after two centuries or two centuries and a half, withsuch comparative ease. But the rapid deterioration of conquering racesunder certain circumstances is a fact familiar to the historian. Elamites, Babylonians, Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Greeks, rapidlysucceeded each other as the dominant power in Western Asia, each racegrowing weaker and becoming exhausted, after a longer or a shorterinterval, through nearly the same causes. Nor are the reasons for thedeterioration far to seek. Each race when it sets out upon its career ofconquest is active, energetic, inured to warlike habits, simple in itsmanners, or at any rate simpler than those which it conquers, and, comparatively speaking, poor. It is urged on by the desire of betteringits condition. If it meets with a considerable resistance, if theconquest occupies a long space, and the conquered are with difficultyheld under, rebelling from time to time, and making frantic efforts tothrow off the yoke which galls and frets them, then the warlike habitsof the conquerors are kept up, and their dominion may continue forseveral centuries. Or, if the nation is very energetic and unresting, not content with its earlier conquests, or willing to rest upon itsoars, but continually seeking out fresh enemies upon its borders, andregarding war as the normal state of its existence, then the centuriesmay be prolonged into millennia, and it may be long indeed before anytendency to decline shows itself; but, ordinarily, there is no veryprolonged resistance on the one side, and no very constant and unrestingenergy on the other. A poor and hardy people, having swooped down uponone that is softer and more civilized, easily carries all before it, acquires the wealth and luxury which it desires, and being content withthem, seeks for nothing further, but assimilates itself by degrees tothe character and condition of the people whom it has conquered. Astanding army, disposed in camps and garrisons, may be kept up; but ifthere is a cessation of actual war even for a generation, the severityof military discipline will become relaxed, the use of arms will growunfamiliar, the physical type will decline, the belligerent spirit willdie away, and the conquerors of a century ago will have lost all thequalities which secured them success when they made their attack, andhave sunk to the level of their subjects. When this point is reached, thoughts of rebellion are apt to arise in the hearts of these latter;the old terror which made the conqueror appear irresistible is gone, andis perhaps succeeded by contempt--the subjects feel that they have atleast the advantage of numbers on their side; they have also probablybeen leading harder and more bracing lives; they see that, man for man, they are physically stronger than their conquerors; and at last theyrebel, and are successful. 

In Egypt there was, further, this peculiarity--the conquered peopleoccupied two entirely distinct positions. In the Delta, the Fayoum, andthe northern Nile valley, they were completely reduced, and livedintermixed with their conquerors, a despised class, suffering more orless of oppression. In Upper Egypt the case was different. There thepeople had submitted in a certain sense, acknowledged the Hyksôsmonarchs as their suzerains, and indicated their subjection by thepayment of an annual tribute; but they retained their own nativeprinces, their own administration and government, their own religion, their own laws; they did not live intermixed with the new comers; theywere not subject to daily insult or ill-treatment; the fact that theypaid a tribute did not hinder their preserving their self-respect, andconsequently they suffered neither moral nor physical deterioration. Further, it would seem to have been possible for them to engage in warson their own account with the races living further up the Nile, or withthe wild tribes of the desert, and thus to maintain warlike habits amongthemselves, while the Hyksôs were becoming unaccustomed to them. TheRa-Sekenens of Thebes, who called themselves "great" and "very great, "had probably built up a considerable power in Upper Egypt during thereigns of the later "Shepherd Kings;" had improved their militarysystem by the adoption of the horse and the chariot, which the Hyksôshad introduced; had practised their people in arms, and acquired areputation as warriors. 

More particularly must this have been the case with Ra-Sekenen III. , thecontemporary of Apepi. Ra-Sekenen the Third called himself "the greatvictorious Taa. " He surrounded himself with a council of "mighty chiefs, captains, and expert leaders. " He acquired so much repute, that heprovoked Apepi's jealousy before he had in any way transgressed theduties which he owed him as a feudatory. In the long negotiation betweenthe two, of which the "First Sallier Papyrus" gives an account, it isevident that, while Ra-Sekenen has committed no act whereof Apepi hasany right to complain, he has awoke in him feelings of such hostility, that Apepi will be content with nothing less than either unqualifiedsubmission to every demand that he chooses to make, or war _à outrance_. Never was a subject monarch more goaded and driven into rebellionagainst his inclination by over-bearing conduct on the part of hissuzerain than was Ra-Sekenen by the last "Shepherd King. " Thedisinclination of himself and his court to fight is almost ludicrous:they "are silent and in great dismay; they know not how to answer themessenger sent to them, good of ill. " Ra-Sekenen, powerful as he hadbecome, "victorious" as he may have been against Libyans and negroes, and even Cushites, dreaded exceedingly to engage in a struggle with theredoubted people which, two centuries previously, had shown itself soirresistible. 

It would seem, however, that he was forced to take up arms at last. Wehave, unfortunately, no description of the war which followed, so far asit was conducted by this monarch. But it is evident that Apepi wascompletely disappointed in his hope of crushing the rising native powerbefore it had grown too strong. He had in fact delayed too late. Ra-Sekenen, compelled to defend himself against his aggressive suzerain, raised the standard of national independence, invited aid from all partsof Egypt, and succeeded in bringing a large army into the field. At thefirst he simply held his own against Apepi, but by degrees he was ableto do more. The Hyksôs, who marched against Thebes, found enemies riseup against them in their rear, as first one and then another nativechief declared against them in this or that city; their difficultiescontinually increased; they had to re-descend the Nile valley and toconcentrate their forces nearer home. But each year they lost ground. First the Fayoum was yielded, then Memphis, then Tanis. At last nothingremained to the invaders but their great fortified camp, Uar or Auaris, which they had established at the time of their arrival upon the easternfrontier, and had ever since kept up. In this district, which wasstrongly fortified by walls and moats, and watered by canals derivedfrom the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, they had concentrated themselves, we are told, to the number of 240, 000 men, determined to make there afinal stand against the Egyptians. 

It was when affairs were in this position that Ra-Sekenen died, and wassucceeded by a king of a different family, the first monarch of the"Eighteenth Dynasty, " Aahmes. Aahmes was a prince of great force ofcharacter, brave, active, energetic, liberal, beloved by his subjects. He addressed himself at once to the task of completing the liberation ofhis country by dislodging the Hyksôs from Auaris, and driving thembeyond his borders. With this object he collected a force, which is saidto have amounted to nearly half a million of men, and at the same timeplaced a flotilla of ships upon the Nile, which was of the greatestservice in his later operations. Auaris was not only defended by broadmoats connected with the waters of the Nile, but also bordered upon alake, or perhaps rather a lagoon, of considerable dimensions. Hence itwas necessary that it should be attacked not only by land, but also bywater. Aahmes seems to have commanded the land forces in person, ridingin a war-chariot, the first of which we have distinct mention. Afavourite officer, who bore the same name as his master, accompaniedhim, sometimes marching at his side as he rode in his chariot, sometimestaking his place in one of the war-vessels, and directing the movementsof the fleet. After a time formal siege was laid to Auaris; the fleetwas ordered to attack the walls on the side of the lagoon, while theland force was engaged in battering the defences elsewhere. Assaultswere made day after day with only partial success; but at last thedefenders were wearied out--a panic seized them, and, hastily evacuatingthe place, they retired towards Syria, the quarter from which they hadoriginally come. Aahmes may have been willing that they should escape:since, if they had been completely blocked in and driven to bay, theymight have made a desperate resistance, and caused the Egyptians anenormous loss. He followed, however, upon their footsteps, to make surethat they did not settle anywhere in his neighbourhood, and was notcontent till they had crossed the desert and entered the hill country ofPalestine. Even then he still hung upon their rear, harassing them andcutting off their stragglers; finally, when they made a stand atSharuhen in Southern Palestine, he laid siege to the town, took it, andmade a great slaughter of the hapless defenders. 

The war did not terminate until the fifth year of Aahmes' reign. Itsresult was the complete defeat of the invading hordes which had heldLower and Middle Egypt for so long, and their expulsion from Egypt withsuch ignominy and loss that they made no effort to retaliate or torecover themselves. Vast numbers must have been slain in the battles, orhave perished amid the hardships of the retreat; and many thousandswere, no doubt, made prisoners and carried back into Egypt as slaves. Itis thought that these captives were so numerous as to become animportant element in the population of the eastern Delta, and even tomodify the character of the Egyptian race in that quarter. The livelyimagination of M. François Lenormant sees their descendants in the"strange people, with robust limbs, an elongated face, and a severeexpression, which to this day inhabits the tract bordering on LakeMenzaleh. "[16]

It is probable that Aahmes had for allies in his war with the"Shepherds" the great nation which adjoined Egypt on the south, andwhich was continually growing in power--the Kashi, Cushites, orEthiopians. His wife appears by her features and complexion to have beena Cushite princess, and the marriage is likely to have been less one ofinclination than of policy. The Egyptians admired fair women rather thandark ones, as is plain from the unduly light complexions which theartists, in their desire to flatter, ordinarily assign to women, as wellas from the attractiveness of Sarah, even in advanced age. When a Thebanking contracted marriage with an Ethiopian of ebon blackness, we areentitled to assume a political motive; and the most probable politicalmotive under the circumstances of the time was the desire for militaryassistance. Though in the early wars between the Kashi and the Egyptiansthe prowess of the former is not represented as great, and thedesignation of "miserable Cushites" is evidently used in depreciation oftheir warlike qualities, yet the very use of the epithet implies afeeling of hostility which could scarcely have been provoked by a weakpeople. And the Cushites certainly advanced in prowess and in militaryvigour as time went on. They formed the most important portion of theEgyptian troops for some centuries; at a later period they conqueredEgypt, and were the dominant power for a hundred years; still furtheron, they defied the might of Persia when Egypt succumbed to it. Aahmes, in contracting his marriage with the Ethiopian princess, to whom he gavethe name of Nefertari-Aahmes--or "the good companion of Aahmes"--was, we may be tolerably sure, bent on obtaining a contingent of thosestalwart troops whose modern representatives are either the Blacks ofthe Soudan or the Gallas of the highlands of Abyssinia. The "Shepherds"thus yielded to a combination of the North with the South, of theEgyptians with the Ethiopians, such as in later times, on more than oneoccasion, drove the Assyrians out of the country. 

[Illustration: HEAD OF NEFERTARI-AAHMES. ]

FOOTNOTES:

[16] "Manuel d'Histoire Ancienne de l'Orient, " vol. I. P. 368. 

X. 

THOTHMES I. , THE FIRST GREAT EGYPTIAN CONQUEROR. 

Thothmes I. Was the grandson of the Aahmes who drove out the Hyksôs. Hehad thus hereditary claims to valour and military distinction. TheEthiopian blood which flowed in his veins through his grandmother, Nefertari-Aahmes, may have given him an additional touch of audacity, and certainly showed itself in his countenance, where the shortdepressed nose and the unduly thick lips are of the Cushite rather thanof the Egyptian type. His father, Amen-hotep I. , was a somewhatundistinguished prince; so that here, as so often, where superior talentruns in a family, it seems to have skipped a generation, and to haveleapt from the grand-sire to the grandson. Thothmes began his militarycareer by an invasion of the countries upon the Upper Nile, which werestill in an unsettled state, notwithstanding the campaigns which hadbeen carried on, and the victories which had been gained in them, duringthe two preceding reigns, by King Aahmes, and by the generals ofAmen-hotep. He placed a flotilla of ships upon the Nile above the SecondCataract, and supporting it with his land forces on either side of theriver, advanced from Semneh, the boundary established by Usurtasen III. , which is in lat. 21° 50' to Tombos, in lat. 19°, conquering the tribes, Nubian and Cushite, as he proceeded, and from time to timedistinguishing himself in personal combats with his enemies. On oneoccasion, we are told, "his majesty became more furious than a panther, "and placing an arrow on his bowstring, directed it against the Nubianchief so surely that it struck him, and remained fixed in his knee, whereupon the chief "fell fainting down before the royal diadem. " He wasat once seized and made a prisoner; his followers were defeated anddispersed; and he himself, together with others, was carried off onboard the royal ship, hanging with his head downwards, to the royalpalace at the capital This victory was the precursor of others;everywhere "the Petti of Nubia were hewed in pieces, and scattered allover their lands, " till "their stench filled the valleys. " At last ageneral submission was made, and a large-tract of territory was ceded. The Egyptian terminus was pushed on from the twenty-second parallel tothe nineteenth, and at Tombos, beyond Dongola, an inscription was setup, at once to mark the new frontier, and to hand down to posterity theglory of the conquering monarch. The inscription still remains, and iscouched in inflated terms, which show a departure from the old officialstyle. Thothmes declares that "he has taken tribute from the nations ofthe North, and from the nations of the South, as well as from _those ofthe whole earth_; he has laid hold of the barbarians; he has not let asingle one of them escape his gripe upon their hair; the Petti of Nubiahave fallen beneath his blows; he has made their waters to flowbackwards; he has overflowed their valleys like a deluge, like waterswhich mount and mount. He has resembled Horus, when he took possessionof his eternal kingdom; all the countries included within thecircumference of the entire earth are prostrate under his feet. " Havingeffected his conquest, Thothmes sought to secure it by the appointmentof a new officer, who was to govern the newly-annexed country under thetitle of "Prince of Cush, " and was to have his ordinary residence atSemneh. 

[Illustration: BUST OF THOTHMES I. ]

Flushed with his victories in this quarter, and intoxicated with thedelight of conquest, Thothmes, on his return to Thebes, raised histhoughts to a still grander and more adventurous enterprize. Egypt hada great wrong to avenge, a huge disgrace to wipe out. She had beenInvaded, conquered, plundered, by an enemy whom she had not provoked byany aggression; she had seen her cities laid in ashes, her temples torndown and demolished, the images of her gods broken to pieces, her soildyed with her children's blood; she had been trampled under the ironheel of the conqueror for centuries; she had been exhausted by thepayment of taxes and tribute; she had had to bow the knee, and lick thedust under the conqueror's feet--was not retribution needed for allthis? True, she had at last risen up and expelled her enemy, she haddriven him beyond her borders, and he seemed content to acquiesce in hisdefeat, and to trouble her no more; but was this enough? Did not the lawof eternal justice require something more:

 "Nec lex justior ulla est, Quàm necis artifices arte perire sua. "

Was it not proper, fitting, requisite for the honour of Egypt, thatthere should be retaliation, that the aggressor should suffer what hehad inflicted, should be attacked in his own country, should be made tofeel the grief, the despair, the rage, the shame, that he had forcedEgypt to feel for so many years; should expiate his guilt by a penalty, not only proportioned to the offence, but Its exact counterpart? Suchthoughts, we may be sure, burned in the mind of the young warrior, when, having secured Egypt on the south, he turned his attention to the north, and asked himself the question how he should next employ the power thathe had inherited, and the talents with which nature had endowed him. 

It is uncertain what amount of knowledge the Egyptians of the timepossessed concerning the internal condition, population, and resources, of the continent which adjoined them on the north-east. We cannot saywhether Thothmes and his counsellors could, or could not, bring beforetheir mind's eye a fairly correct view of the general position ofAsiatic affairs, and form a reasonable estimate of the probabilities ofsuccess or discomfiture, if a great expedition were led into the heartof Asia. Whatever may have been their knowledge or ignorance, it will benecessary for the historical student of the present day to have somegeneral ideas on the subject, if he is to form an adequate conceptioneither of the dangers which Thothmes affronted, or of the amount ofcredit due to him for his victories. We propose, therefore, in thepresent place, to glance our eye over the previous history of WesternAsia, and to describe, so far as is possible, its condition at the timewhen Thothmes began to contemplate the invasion which it is his greatglory to have accomplished. 

Western Asia is generally allowed to have been the cradle of the humanrace. Its more fertile portions were thickly peopled at a very earlydate. Monarchy, it is probable, first grew up in Babylonia, towards themouths of the Tigris and Euphrates. But it was not long ere a sisterkingdom established itself in Susiana, or Elam, the fertile tractbetween the Lower Tigris and the Zagros mountains. The ambition ofconquest first showed itself in this latter country, whenceKudur-Nakhunta, about B. C. 2300, made an attack on Erech, andChedor-laomer (about B. C. 2000) established an empire which extendedfrom the Zagros mountains on the one hand to the shores of theMediterranean on the other (Gen. Xiv. 1-4) Shortly after this, a thirdpower, that of the Hittites, grew up towards the north, chiefly perhapsin Asia Minor, but with a tendency to project itself southward into theMesopotamian region. Upper Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine, were atthis time inhabited by weak tribes, each under its own chief, with nocoherence, and no great military spirit. The chief of these tribes, atthe time when Thothmes I. Ascended the Egyptian throne, were the Rutennuin Syria, and the Nahari or Naïri in Upper Mesopotamia. The twomonarchies of the south, Elam and Babylon were not in a flourishingcondition, and exercised no suzerainty beyond their own natural limits. They were, in fact, a check upon each other, constantly engaged in feudsand quarrels, which prevented either from maintaining an extended swayfor more than a few years, Assyria had not yet acquired any greatdistinction, though it was probably independent, and ruled by monarchswho dwelt at Asshur (Kileh-Sherghat). The Hittites, about B. C. 1900, hadreceived a severe check from the Babylonian monarch, Sargon, and hadwithdrawn themselves into their northern fortresses. Thus thecircumstances of the time were, on the whole, favourable to theenterprize of Thothmes. No great organized monarchy was likely to takethe field against him, or to regard itself as concerned to interferewith the execution of his projects, unless they assumed extraordinarydimensions. So long as he did not proceed further north than Taurus, orfurther east than the western Khabour, the great affluent of theEuphrates, he would come into contact with none of the "great powers" ofthe time; he would have, at the worst, to contend with looseconfederacies of tribes, distrustful of each other, unaccustomed to acttogether, and, though brave, possessing no discipline or settledmilitary organization. At the same time, his adversaries must not beregarded as altogether contemptible. The Philistines and Canaanites inPalestine, the Arabs of the Sinaitic and Syrian deserts, the Rutennu ofthe Lebanon and of Upper Syria, the Naïri of the western Mesopotamianregion, were individually brave men, were inured to warfare, had astrong love of independence, and were likely to resist with energy anyattempt to bring them under subjection. They were also, most of them, well acquainted with the value of the horse for military service, andcould bring into the field a number of war-chariots, with riders wellaccustomed to their management Egypt had only recently added the horseto the list of its domesticated animals, and followed the example of theAsiatics by organizing a chariot force. It was open to doubt whetherthis new and almost untried corps would be able to cope with theexperienced chariot-troops of Asia. 

The country also in which military operations were to be carried on wasa difficult one. It consisted mainly of alternate mountain and desert. First, the sandy waste called El Tij--the "Wilderness of theWanderings"--had to be passed, a tract almost wholly without water, where an army must carry Its own supply. Next, the high upland of theNegeb would present itself, a region wherein water may be procured fromwells, and which in some periods of the world's history has been highlycultivated, but which in the time of Thothmes was probably almost asunproductive as the desert itself. Then would come the green roundedhills, the lofty ridges, and the deep gorges of Palestine, untraversedby any road, in places thickly wooded, and offering continually greaterobstacles to the advance of an army, as it stretched further and furthertowards the north. From Palestine the Lebanon region would have to beentered on, where, though the Cœle-Syrian valley presents acomparatively easy line of march to the latitude of Antioch, the countryon either side of the valley is almost untraversable, while the valleyitself contains many points where it can be easily blocked by a smallforce. The Orontes, moreover, and the Litany, are difficult to cross, and in the time of Thothmes I. Would be unbridged, and form nocontemptible obstacles. From the lower valley of the Orontes, firstmountains and then a chalky desert had to be crossed in order to reachthe Euphrates, which could only be passed in boats, or else by swimming. Beyond the Euphrates was another dreary and infertile region, the tractabout Haran, where Crassus lost his army and his life. 

How far Thothmes and his counsellors were aware of these topographicaldifficulties, or of the general condition of Western Asia, it is, asalready observed, impossible to determine. But, on the whole, there arereasons for believing that intercourse between nation and nation was, even in very early times, kept up, and that each important country hadits "intelligence department, " which was not badly served. Merchants, refugees, spies, adventurers desirous of bettering their condition, werecontinually moving, singly or in bodies, from one land to another, andthrough them a considerable acquaintance with mundane affairs generallywas spread abroad. The knowledge was, of course, very inexact. Nosurveys were made, no plans of cities or fortresses, no maps; themilitary force that could be brought into the field by the severalnations was very roughly estimated; but still, ancient conquerors didnot start off on their expeditions wholly in the dark as to the forceswhich they might have to encounter, or the difficulties which werelikely to beset their march. 

Thothmes probably set out on his expedition into Asia in about his sixthor seventh year. He was accompanied by two officers, who had served hisfather and his grandfather, known respectively as "Aahmes, son ofAbana, " and "Aahmes Pennishem. " Both of them had been engaged in the warwhich he had conducted against the Petti of Nubia and their Ethiopianallies, and both had greatly distinguished themselves. Aahmes, the sonof Abana, boasts that he seven times received the prize of valour--acollar of gold--for his conduct in the field; and Aahmes Pennishem givesa list of twenty-nine presents given to him as military rewards by threekings. It does not appear that any resistance was offered to theinvading force as it passed through Palestine; but in Syria Thothmesengaged the Rutennu, and "exacted satisfaction" from them, probably onaccount of the part which they had taken in the Hyksôs struggle; afterwhich he crossed the Euphrates and fell upon the far more powerfulnation of the Naïri. The Naïri, when first attacked by the Assyrians, had twenty-three cities, and as many kings; they were rich in horses andmules, and had so large a chariot force that we hear of a hundred andtwenty chariots being taken from them in a single battle. At this timethe number of the chariots was probably much smaller, for each of thetwo officers named Ahmes takes great credit to himself on account of thecapture of one such vehicle. It is uncertain whether more than a singlebattle was fought. All that we are told is, that "His Majesty, havingarrived in Naharina" (_i. E. _ the Naïri country), "encountered the enemy, and organized an attack. His Majesty made a great slaughter of them; animmense number of live captives was carried off by His Majesty. " Thesewords would apply equally to a single battle and to a series of battles. All that can be said is, that Thothmes returned victorious from hisAsiatic expedition, having defeated the Rutennu and the Naïri, andbrought with him into Egypt a goodly booty, and a vast number of Asiaticprisoners. 

The warlike ambition of Thothmes I. Was satisfied by his Nubian andAsiatic victories. On his return to Egypt at the close of hisMesopotamian campaign, he engaged in the peaceful work of adorning andbeautifying his capital cities. At Thebes he greatly enlarged the templeof Ammon, begun by Amenemhat I. , and continued under his son, the firstUsurtasen, by adding to it the cloistered court in front of the centralcell--a court two hundred and forty feet long by sixty-two broad, surrounded by a colonnade, of which the supports were Osirid pillars, orsquare piers with a statue of Osiris in front. This is the first knownexample of the cloistered court, which became afterwards so common;though it is possible that constructions of a similar character may havebeen made by the "Shepherd Kings" at Tanis, Thothmes also adorned thistemple with obelisks. In front of the main entrance to his court heerected two vast monoliths of granite, each of them seventy-five feet inheight, and bearing dedicatory inscriptions, which indicated his pietyand his devotion to all the chief deities of Egypt. 

Further, at Memphis he built a new royal palace, which he called "TheAbode of Aa-khepr-ka-ra, " a grand building, afterwards converted into amagazine for the storage of grain. 

The greatness of Thothmes I. Has scarcely been sufficiently recognizedby historians. It may be true that he did not effect much; but he brokeground in a new direction; he set an example which led on to grandresults. To him it was due that Egypt ceased to be the isolated, unaggressive power that she had remained for perhaps ten centuries, thatshe came boldly to the front and aspired to bring Asia into subjection. Henceforth she exercised a potent influence beyond her borders--aninfluence which affected, more or less, all the western Asiatic powers. She had forced her way into the comity of the great nations. Henceforthwhether it was for good or for evil, she had to take her place amongthem, to reckon with them, as they reckoned with her, to be a factor inthe problem which the ages had to work out--What should be the generalmarch of events, and what states and nations should most affect thedestiny of the world. 

XI. 

QUEEN HATASU AND HER MERCHANT FLEET. 

Hasheps, or Hatasu, was the daughter of the great warrior king, Thothmesthe First, and, according to some, was, during his later years, associated with him in the government. An inscription is quoted in whichhe assigns to her her throne-name of Ra-ma-ka, and calls her "Queen ofthe South and of the North, " But it was not till after the death of herfather that she came prominently forward, and assumed a position notpreviously held by any female in Egypt, unless it were Net-akret(Nitocris). Women in Egypt had been, it is true, from very early timesheld in high estimation, were their husbands' companions, not theirplaythings or their slaves, appeared freely in public, and enjoyed muchliberty of action. One of the ancient mythical monarchs, of the timebefore Sneferu, is said to have passed a law permitting them to exercisethe sovereign authority. Nitocris of the sixth dynasty of Manetho ruled, apparently, as sole queen; and Sabak-nefru-ra of the twelfth, the wifeof Amenemhat IV. , reigned for some years conjointly with her husband. Hatasu's position was intermediate between these. Her father had leftbehind him two sons, as well as a daughter; and the elder of these, according to Egyptian law, succeeded him. He reigned asThothmes-nefer-shau, and is known to moderns as Thothmes the Second. Hewas, however, a mere youth, of a weak and amiable temper; while Hatasu, his senior by some years, was a woman of great energy and of a masculinemind, clever, enterprizing, vindictive, and unscrupulous. The contrastof their portrait busts is remarkable, and gives a fair indication ofthe character of each of them. Thothmes has the appearance of a soft andyielding boy: he has a languishing eye, a short upper lip, a sensuousmouth and chin. Hatasu looks the Amazon: she holds her head erect, has abold aquiline nose, a firmly-set mouth, and a chin that projectsconsiderably, giving her an indescribable air of vigour and resolution. The effect is increased, no doubt, by her having attached to it the maleappendage of an artificial beard; but even apart from this, her facewould be a strong one, expressive of firmness, pride, and decision. Itis thought that she contracted a marriage with her brother, such unionsbeing admissible by the Egyptian marriage law, and not infrequent amongthe Pharaohs, whether of the earlier or the later dynasties. In anycase, it is certain that she took the direction of affairs under hisreign, reducing him to a cipher, and making her influence paramount inevery department of the government. 

[Illustration: HEAD OF THOTHMES II. ]

[Illustration: HEAD OF HATASU. ]

At this period of her life the ambition of Queen Hatasu was to hand hername down to posterity as a constructor of buildings. She made manyadditions to the old temple of Ammon at Karnak; and she also built atMedinet Abou, in the vicinity of Thebes, a temple of a more elaboratecharacter than any that had preceded it, the remains of which are stillstanding, and have attracted much attention from architects. Egyptiantemple-architecture is here seen tentatively making almost its firstadvances from the simple cell of Usurtasen I. Towards that richness ofcomplication and multiplicity of parts which it ultimately reached. Pylons, courts, corridors supported by columns, pillared apartments, meet us here in their earliest germ; while there are also indications ofconstructive weakness, which show that the builders were aspiring to gobeyond previous models. The temple is cruciform in shape, but the twoarms of the cross are unequal. In front, two pylons of moderatedimensions, not exceeding twenty-four feet in height, and built with theusual sloping sides and strongly projecting cornice, guarded a doorwaywhich gave entrance into a court, sixty feet long by thirty broad. Atthe further end of the court stood a porch, thirty feet long and ninedeep, supported by four square stone piers, emplaced at equal distances. The porch led into the cell, a long, narrow chamber of extremeplainness, about twenty-five feet long by nine wide, with a doorway ateither end. At either side of the cell were corridors, supported, likethe porch, by square piers, and roofed in by blocks of stone from nineto ten feet long. These blocks have in some instances shown signs ofgiving way; and, to counteract the tendency, octagonal pillars have beenintroduced at the weak points, without regard to exact regularity orcorrespondence. Behind the cell are chambers for the officiatingpriests, which are six in number, and on either side of the porch arealso chambers, forming the arms of the cross, but of unequaldimensions. That on the left is nearly square, about fifteen feet bytwelve; that on the right is oblong, twenty-seven feet by fifteen, andhas needed the support of two pillars internally, which seem, however, to have been part of the original design. This chamber is open towardsthe north-east, terminating in a porch of three square piers. 

[Illustration: GROUND-PLAN OF TEMPLE AT MEDINET ABOU. ]

The joint reign of Hatasu and Thothmes II. Did not continue for morethan a few years. It is suspected that she engaged in a conspiracyagainst him in order to rid herself of the small restraint which hisparticipation in the sovereignty exercised upon her, and was privy tohis murder. But there is no sufficient evidence to substantiate thesecharges, which have been somewhat recklessly made. All that distinctlyappears is, that Thothmes II. Died while he was still extremely young, and when he had reigned only a short time, and that after his deathHatasu showed her hostility to his memory by erasing his name whereverit occurred on the monuments, and substituting for it either her ownname or that of her father. She appears also at the same time to havetaken full possession of the throne, and to have been accepted as actualsovereign of the Egyptian people. She calls herself "The living Horus, abounding in divine gifts, the mistress of diadems, rich in years, thegolden Horus, goddess of diadems, Queen of Upper and Lower Egypt, daughter of the Sun, consort of Ammon, living for ever, and daughter ofAmmon, dwelling in his heart. " Nor was she content with attributes whichmade acknowledgment of her sex. She wished to be regarded as a man, assumed male apparel and an artificial beard, and gave herself on manyof her monuments the style and title of a king. Her name of Hatasu shechanged into Hatasu-Khnum-Ammon, thus identifying herself with two ofthe chief Egyptian gods. She often represented herself as crowned withthe tall plumes of Ammon. She took the titles of "_son_ of the sun, ""the good _god_, " "_lord_ of the two lands, " "beloved of Ammon, theprotector of _kings_. " A curious anomaly appears in some of herinscriptions, where masculine and feminine forms are inextricably mixedup; though spoken of consistently as "the king, " and not "the queen, "yet the personal and possessive pronouns which refer to her are femininefor the most part, while sometimes such perplexing expressions occur as"le roi qui est bien _aimée_ par Ammon, " or "His Majesty herself. "

[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SHIP IN THE TIME OF HATASU. ]

The legal position which Hatasu occupied during the sixteen years thatfollowed the death of Thothmes II. Was probably that of regent forThothmes III. , his (and her) younger brother; but practically she wasfull sovereign of Egypt. It was now that she formed her grand schemes offoreign commerce, and had them carried out by her officers. First ofall, she caused to be built, in some harbour on the western coast of theRed Sea, a fleet of ships, certainly not fewer than five, eachconstructed so as to be propelled both by oars and sails, and eachcapable of accommodating some sixty or seventy passengers. Of thesethirty were the rowers, whose long sweeps were to plough the waves, andbring the vessels into port, whether the wind were favourable or no;some ten or twelve formed the crew; and the remainder consisted ofmen-at-arms, whose services, it was felt, might be required, if thenative tribes were not sufficiently impressed with the advantages ofcommercial dealings. An expedition then started from Thebes under theconduct of a royal ambassador, who was well furnished with gifts fordistribution among the barbarian chiefs, and instructed to proceed withhis fleet down the Red Sea to its mouth, or perhaps even further, andopen communications with the land of "Punt, " which was in this quarter. "Punt" has been generally identified with Southern Arabia, and it iscertainly in favour of this view that the chief object of the expeditionwas to procure incense and spices, which Arabia is known to haveproduced anciently in profusion. But among the other products of theland mentioned in the inscriptions of Hatasu, there are several whichArabia could not possibly have furnished; and the conjecture hastherefore been made that Punt, or at any rate the Punt of thisexpedition, was not the Arabian peninsula, or any part of it, but theAfrican tract outside the Gulf, known to moderns as "the Somaulicountry. " However this may have been, it is certain that the fleetweighed anchor, and sailed down the Red Sea, borne by favourable winds, which were ascribed to the gracious majesty of Ammon, and reached theirdestination, the Ta-neter, or "Holy Land"--the "abode of Athor, " andperhaps the original home of Ammon himself--without accident or seriousdifficulty. The natives gave them a good reception. They were simplefolk, living in rounded huts or cabins, which were perched on floorssupported by piles, probably on account of the marshiness of theground, and which had to be entered by means of ladders. Cocoa-nut palmsovershadowed the huts, interspersed with incense trees, while near themflowed a copious stream, in which were a great variety of fishes. Theprincipal chief of the country was a certain Parihu, who was married toa wife of an extraordinary appearance. A dwarf, hunchbacked, with adrawn face and short, deformed legs, she can scarcely, one would think, have been a countrywoman of the Queen of Sheba. She belonged, moreprobably, to one of the dwarfish tribes of which Africa has so many, asDokos, Bosjesmen, and others. The royal couple were delighted with theirvisitors, and with the presents which they received from them; they madea sort of acknowledgment of the suzerainty of the Pharaohs, but at thesame time stipulated that the peace and liberty of the land of Puntshould be respected by the Egyptians. Perfect freedom of trade wasestablished. The Egyptians had permission to enter the incense forests, and either to cut down the trees for the sake of the resin which theyexuded, or to dig them up and convey them to the ships. We see thetrees, or rather bushes, dug up with as much earth as possible abouttheir roots, then slung on poles and carried to the sea-shore, andfinally placed upright upon the ships' decks, and screened from the heatof the sun's rays by an awning. Thirty-one trees were thus embarked, with the object of transplanting them to Egypt, where it was hoped thatthey might grow and flourish. A large quantity of the resin was alsocollected and packed in sacks, which were tied at the mouth and piled upupon the decks. Various other products and commodities were likewisebrought to the beach by the natives, and exchanged for those which theEgyptians had taken care to bring with them in their ships' holds. Themost prized were gold, silver, ivory, ebony and other woods, cassia, kohl or stibium, apes, baboons, dogs, slaves, and leopard skins. Theutmost friendliness prevailed during the whole period of the Egyptians'stay in the country; and at their departure, a number of the natives, oftheir own free-will, accompanied them to Egypt. Among these would seem tohave been the deformed queen and several chiefs. 

[ILLUSTRATION: HOME BUILT ON PILES IN THE LAND OF PUNT. ]

[ILLUSTRATION: THE QUEEN OF PUNT, AS SHE APPEARED AT THE COURT OFHATASU. ]

The return journey to Thebes was effected partly by way of the Nile. Nodoubt the sea-going ships sailed back to the harbour from which they hadstarted; while the incense trees and other commodities were disembarked, and conveyed across the desert tract which borders the Nile valleytowards the east; but instead of being brought to Thebes by land theywere re-shipped on board a number of large Nile boats, and conveyed downthe river to the capital. The day of their arrival was made a grandgala-day. All the city went out to meet the returning travellers. Therewas a grand parade of the household troops, and also of those which hadaccompanied the expedition; the incense trees, the strange animals, themany products of the distant country, were exhibited; a tame leopard, with his negro keeper, followed the soldiers; a band of natives, calledTamahu, engaged in a sort of sham-fight or war-dance. The misshapenqueen and the chiefs of the land of Punt, together with a number ofNubian hunters from the region of Chent-hen-nefer, which lay far up thecourse of the Nile, were conducted to the presence of Hatasu, offeredtheir homage to her as she sat upon her throne, and presented her withvaluable gifts. "Homage to thy countenance, " they said, "O Queen ofEgypt, Sun beaming like the sun-disk, Aten, Arabia's mistress. " Anoffering was then made by Hatasu to the god Ammon; a bull wassacrificed, and two vases of the precious frankincense presented to himby the queen herself. Sacrifice was likewise made and prayers offered toAthor, "Queen of Punt" and "Mistress of Heaven. " The incense trees werefinally planted in ground prepared for them, and the day concluded withgeneral festivity and rejoicing. 

The complete success of so important and difficult an enterprize mightwell please even a great queen. Hatasu, delighted with the result, didher best to prevent it fading away from human remembrance by building anew temple to Ammon, and representing the entire expedition upon itswalls. At Tel-el-Bahiri, in the valley of El-Assasif, near Thebes, shefound a convenient site for her new structure, which she imposed uponfour steps, and covered internally with a series of bas-reliefs, highlycoloured, depicting the chief scenes of the expedition. Here are to beseen, even at the present day, the ships--the most ancientrepresentations of sea-going ships that the world contains--the crews, the incense-trees, the chiefs and queen of Punt, the native dwellings, the trees and fish of the land, the arrival of the expedition at Thebesin twelve large boats, the prostration of the native chiefs beforeHatasu, the festival held on the occasion, and the offerings made to thegods. It is seldom that any single event of ancient history is soprofusely illustrated as this expedition of Queen Hatasu, which isplaced before our eyes in all its various phases from the gathering ofthe fleet on the Red Sea coast to the return of those engaged in it, ingladness and triumph, to Thebes. 

After exercising all the functions of sovereignty for fifteen years, during which she kept her royal brother in a subjection that probablybecame very galling to him, Hatasu found herself under the necessity ofadmitting him to a share in the royal authority, and allowed his name toappear on her monuments in a secondary and subordinate position. Aboutthis time she was especially engaged in the ornamentation of the oldtemple of Ammon at Thebes, begun by Usurtasen I. , and much augmented byher father, Thothmes I. The chief of all her works in this quarter weretwo obelisks of red granite, or syenite, drawn from the quarries ofElephantine, and set up before the entrance, which her father had madein front of Usurtasen's construction. These great works are unexcelled, in form, colour, and beauty of engraving, by any similar productions ofEgyptian art, either earlier or later. They measure nearly a hundredfeet in height, and are covered with the most delicately finishedhieroglyphics. On them Hatasu declares that she "has made two greatobelisks for her father, Ammon, from a heart that is full of love forhim. " They are "of hard granite of the South, each of a single stone, without any joining or division. " The summit of each, or cap of thepyramidion, is "of pure gold, taken from the chiefs of nations, " so thatthey "are seen from a distance of many leagues--Upper and Lower Egyptare bathed in their splendour"(!). 

Hatasu reigned conjointly with Thothmes III. For the space of sevenyears. Their common monuments have been found at Thebes, in the WadyMagharah, and elsewhere. It is not probable that the relations of thebrother and sister during this period were very cordial. Hatasu stillclaimed the chief authority, and placed her name before that of herbrother on all public documents. She was, as she has been called, "abold, ambitious woman, " and evidently admitted with reluctance anypartner of her greatness. Thothmes III. , a man of great ambition and noless ability, is not likely to have acquiesced very willingly in thesecondary position assigned to him. Whether he openly rebelled againstit, broke with Hatasu, and deprived her of the throne, or even put herto death, is wholly uncertain. The monuments hitherto discovered areabsolutely silent as to what became of this great queen. She may havedied a natural death, opportunely for her brother, who must have wishedto find himself unshackled; or she may have been the victim of aconspiracy within the palace walls. All that we know is that shedisappears from history in about her fortieth year, and that her brotherand successor, the third Thothmes, actuated by a strong and settledanimosity, caused her name to be erased, as far as possible, from allher monuments. There is scarcely one on which it remains intact. Thegreatest of Egyptian queens--one of the greatest of Egyptiansovereigns--is indebted for the continuance of her memory among mankindto the accident that the stonemasons employed by Thothmes to carry outhis plan of vengeance were too careless or too idle to effect theactual obliteration of the name, which they everywhere marred with theirchisels. Hatred, for once, though united with absolute power, missed itsaim; and Hatasu's great constructions, together with her "MerchantFleet, " are among the indisputable facts of history which can never beforgotten. 

XII. 

THOTHMES THE THIRD AND AMENHOTEP THE SECOND. 

No sooner had Thothmes III. Burst the leading-strings in which hissister had held him for above twenty years, then he showed the metal ofwhich he was made by at once placing himself at the head of his troops, and marching into Asia. Persuaded that the great god, Ammon, hadpromised him a long career of victory, he lost no time in setting towork to accomplish his glorious destiny. Starting from an Egyptian poston the Eastern frontier, called Garu or Zalu, in the month of February, he took his march along the ordinary coast route, and in a short timereached Gaza, the strong Philistine city, which was already a fortressof repute, and regarded as "the key of Syria. " The day of his arrivalwas the anniversary of his coronation, and according to his reckoningthe first day of his twenty-third year. Gaza made no resistance: itschief was friendly to the Egyptians, and gladly opened his gates to theinvading army. Having rested at Gaza no more than a single night, Thothmes resumed his march, and continuing to skirt the coast, arrivedon the eleventh day at a fortified town called Jaham, probably Jamnia. Here he was met by his scouts, who brought the intelligence that theenemy was collected at Megiddo, on the edge of the great plain ofEsdraelon, the ordinary battle-field of the Palestinian nations. Theyconsisted of "all the people dwelling between the river of Egypt on theone hand and the land of Naharaïn (Mesopotamia) on the other. " At theirhead was the king of Kadesh, a great city on the upper Orontes, whichafterwards became one of the chief seats of the Hittite power, but wasat this time in the possession of the Rutennu (Syrians). They werestrongly posted at the mouth of a narrow pass, behind the ridge of hillswhich connects Carmel with the Samaritan upland, and Thothmes wasadvised by his captains to avoid a direct attack, and march against themby a circuitous route, which was undefended. But the intrepid warriorscorned this prudent counsel. "His generals, " he said, "might take theroundabout road, if they liked; _he_ would follow the straight one. " Theevent justified his determination. Megiddo was reached in a week withoutloss or difficulty, and a great battle was fought in the fertile plainto the north-west of the fortress, in which the Egyptian king wascompletely victorious, and his enemies were scattered like chaff beforehim. The Syrians must have fled precipitately at the first attack; forthey lost in killed no more than eighty-three, and in prisoners no morethan two hundred and forty, or according to another account threehundred and forty, while the chariots taken were nine hundred andtwenty-four, and the captured horses 2, 132. Megiddo was near at hand, and the bulk of the fugitives would reach easily the shelter of itswalls. Others may have dispersed themselves among the mountains. TheSyrian camp was, however, taken, together with vast treasures in silverand gold, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and alabaster; and the son of theking of Kadesh fell into Thothmes' hands. Megiddo itself, soonafterwards, surrendered, as did the towns of Inunam, Anaugas, andHurankal or Herinokol. An immense booty in corn and cattle was alsocarried off. Thothmes returned to Egypt in triumph, and held a prolongedfestival to Ammon-Ra in Thebes, accompanied by numerous sacrifices andofferings. Among the last we find included three of the cities takenfrom the Rutennu, which were assigned to the god in order that theymight "supply a yearly contribution to his sacred food. "

It is a familiar saying, that "increase of appetite doth grow by what itfeeds on. " Thothmes certainly found his appetite for conquest whetted, not satiated, by his Syrian campaign. If we may trust M. Lenormant, hetook the field in the very year that followed his victory of Megiddo, and after traversing the whole of Syria, and ravaging the country aboutAleppo, proceeded to Carchemish, the great Hittite town on the UpperEuphrates, and there crossed the river into Naharaïn, or Mesopotamia, whence he carried off a number of prisoners. Two other campaigns, whichcannot be traced in detail, belong to the period between histwenty-fourth and his twenty-ninth year. Thenceforward to his fortiethyear his military expeditions scarcely knew any cessation. At one timehe would embark his troops on board a fleet, and make descents upon thecoast of Syria, coming as unexpectedly and ravaging as ruthlessly as theNormans of the Middle Ages. He would cut down the fruit trees, carry offthe crops, empty the magazines of grain, lay hands upon all valuablesthat were readily removable, and carry them on board his ships, returning to Egypt with a goodly store of gold and silver, of lapislazuli and other precious stones, of vases in silver and in bronze, ofcorn, wine, incense, balsam, honey, iron, lead, emery, and male andfemale slaves. At another, he would march by land, besiege and take theinland towns, demand and obtain the sons of the chiefs as hostages, exact heavy war contributions, and bring back with him horses andchariots, flocks and herds, strange animals, trees, and plants. 

Of all his expeditions, that undertaken in his thirty-third year wasperhaps the most remarkable. Starting from the country of the Rutennu, he on this occasion directed the main force of his attack upon theMesopotamian region, which he ravaged far and wide, conquering thetowns, and "reducing to a level plain the strong places of the miserableland of Naharaïn, " capturing thirty kings or chiefs, and erecting twotablets in the region, to indicate its subjection. It is possible thathe even crossed the Tigris into Adiabene or the Zab country, since herelates that on his return he passed through the town of Ni or Nini, which many of the best historians of Egypt identify with Nineveh. Nineveh was not now (about B. C. 1500) the capital of Assyria, which waslower down the Tigris, at Asshur or Kileh Sherghat, but was only aprovincial town of some magnitude. Still it was within the dominions ofthe Assyrian monarch of the time, and any attack upon it would have beenan insult and a challenge to the great power of Upper Mesopotamia, whichruled from the alluvium to the mountains. It is certain that the king ofAssyria did not accept the challenge, but preferred to avoid anencounter with the Egyptian troops. Both at this time and subsequentlyhe sent envoys with rich presents to court the favour of Thothmes, whoaccepted the gifts as "tribute, " and counted "the chief of Assuru" amonghis tributaries. Submission was also made to him at the same time by the"prince of Senkara, " a name which still exists in the lower Babylonianmarsh region. Among the gifts which this prince sent was "lapis lazuliof Babylon. " It is an exaggeration to represent the expedition as havingresulted in the conquest of the great empires of Assyria and Babylon;but it is quite true to say that it startled and shook those empires, that it filled them with a great fear of what might be coming, andbrought Egypt into the position of the principal military power of thetime. Assyrian influence especially was checked and curtailed. There isreason to believe, from the Egyptian remains found at Arban on theKhabour, [17] that Thothmes added to the Egyptian empire the entireregion between the Euphrates and its great eastern affluent--a broadtract of valuable territory--and occupied it with permanent garrisons. The Assyrian monarch bought off the further hostility of his dangerousneighbour by an annual embassy which conveyed rich gifts to the courtof the Pharaohs, gifts that were not reciprocated. Among these we findenumerated gold and silver ornaments, lapis lazuli, vases of Assyrianstone (alabaster?), slaves, chariots adorned with gold and silver, silver dishes and silver beaten out into sheets, incense, wine, honey, ivory, cedar and sycomore wood, mulberry trees, vines, and fig trees, buffaloes, bulls, and a gold habergeon with a border of lapis lazuli. 

A curious episode of the expedition is related by Amenemheb, an officerwho accompanied it, and was in personal attendance upon the Egyptianmonarch. It appears that in the time of Thothmes III. The elephanthaunted the woods and jungles of the Mesopotamian region, as he now doesthose of the peninsula of Hindustan. The huge unwieldy beasts wereespecially abundant in the neighbourhood of Ni or Nini, the countrybetween the middle Tigris and the Zagros range. As Amenemhat I. Haddelighted in the chase of the lion and the crocodile, so Thothmes III. No sooner found a number of elephants within his reach than he proceededto hunt and kill them, mainly no doubt for the sport, but partly inorder to obtain their tusks. No fewer than a hundred and twenty are saidto have been killed or taken. On one occasion, however, the monarch rana great risk. He was engaged in the pursuit of a herd, when the "rogue, "or leading elephant, turned and made a rush at the royal sportsman, whowould probably have fallen a victim, gored by a tusk or trampled todeath under the huge beast's feet, had not Amenemheb hastened to therescue, and by wounding the creature's trunk drawn its rage uponhimself. The brute was then, after a short struggle, overpowered andcaptured. 

Further expeditions were led by Thothmes into Asia in his thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth, thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, and forty-secondyears; but in none of them does he seem to have outdone the exploits ofthe great campaign of the year 33. The brunt of his attacks at this timefell upon the Zahi, or Tahai, of northern Phœnicia, and upon the Naïriof the Mesopotamian region, who continually rebelled, and had to bereconquered. The Rutennu seem for the most part to have paid theirtribute without resistance and without much difficulty. This may havebeen partly owing to the judicious system which Thothmes had establishedamong them, whereby each chief was forced to give a son or brother ashostage for his good behaviour, and if the hostage died to send anotherin his place. It was certainly not because the tribute was light, sinceit consisted of a number of slaves, silver vases of the weight of 762pounds, nineteen chariots, 276 head of cattle, 1, 622 goats, severalhundredweight of iron and lead, a number of suits of armour, and "allkinds of good plants. " The Rutennu had also to supply the stations alongthe military road, whereby Thothmes kept up the communications betweenEgypt and Mesopopotamia, with bread, wine, dates, incense, honey, andfigs. 

While thus engaged in enlarging the limits of his empire towards thenorth and the north-east, the careful monarch did not allow the regionsbrought under Egyptian influence by former rulers to escape him. Hetook a tribute of gold, spices, male and female slaves, cattle, ivory, ebony, and panther skins from the land of Punt, of cattle and slavesfrom Cush, and of the same products from the Uauat. Altogether he issaid to have carried off from the subject countries above 11, 000captives, 1, 670 chariots, 3, 639 horses, 4, 491 of the larger cattle, morethan 35, 000 goats, silver to the amount of 3, 940 pounds, and gold to theamount of 9, 054 pounds. He also conveyed to Egypt from the conqueredlands enormous quantities of corn and wine, together with incense, balsam, honey, ivory, ebony and other rare woods, lapis lazuli, furniture, statues, vases, dishes, basins, tent-poles, bows, habergeons, fruit trees, live birds, and monkeys! With a curiosity which wasinsatiable, he noted all that was strange or unusual in the lands whichhe visited, and sought to introduce the various novelties into his ownproper country. Two unknown kinds of birds, and a variety of the goose, which he found in Mesopotamia, and transported from the valley of theKhabour to that of the Nile, are said to have been "dearer to the kingthan anything else. " His artists had instructions to make carefulstudies of the different objects, and to represent them faithfully onhis monuments. We see on these "water-lilies as high as trees, plants ofa growth like cactuses, all sorts of trees and shrubs, leaves, flowers, and fruits, including melons and pomegranates; oxen and calves alsofigure, and among them a wonderful animal with three horns. There arelikewise herons, sparrow-hawks, geese, and doves. All these objectsappear gaily intermixed in the pictures, as suited the simple childlikeconception of the artist. "[18] An inscription tells the intention of themonarch. "Here, " it runs, "are all sorts of plants and all sorts offlowers of the Holy Land, which the king discovered when he went to theland of Ruten to conquer it. Thus says the king--I swear by the sun, andI call to witness my father Ammon, that all is plain truth; there is notrace of deception in that which I relate. What the splendid soil bringsforth in the way of productions, I have had portrayed in these pictures, with the intention of offering them to my father Ammon, as a memorialfor all times. "

Besides his army, Thothmes also maintained a naval force, and used itlargely in his expeditions. According to one writer, he placed a fleeton the Euphrates, and in an action which took place with the Assyrians, defeated and chased the enemy for a distance of between seven and eightmiles. He certainly upon some occasions made his attacks on Syria andPhœnicia from the sea; nor is it improbable that his maritime forcesreduced Cyprus (which was conquered and held in a much less flourishingperiod by Amasis) and plundered the coast of Cilicia; but a judiciouscriticism will scarcely extend the voyages of his fleet, as has beendone by another writer, to Crete, and the islands of the Ægean, thesea-boards of Greece and Asia Minor, the southern coast of Italy, Algeria, and the waters of the Euxine! There is no evidence in thehistorical inscriptions of Thothmes of any such far-reachingexpeditions. The supposed evidence for them is in a song of victory, put into the mouth of the god, Ammon, and inscribed on one of the wallsof the great temple of Karnak. The song is interesting, but it scarcelybears out the deductions that have been drawn from it, as will appearfrom the subjoined translation. 

(AMMON _loquitur_. )

 I came, and thou smotest the princes of Zahi; I scattered them under thy feet over all their lands; I made them regard thy Holiness as the blazing sun; Thou shinest in sight of them in my form. 

 I came, and thou smotest them that dwell in Asia; Thou tookest captive the goat-herds of Ruten; I made them behold thy Holiness in thy royal adornments, As thou graspest thy weapons in the war-chariot. 

 I came, and thou smotest the land of the East; Thou marchedst against the dwellers in the Holy Land; I made them behold thy Holiness as the star Canopus, Which sends forth its heat and disperses the dew. 

 I came, and thou smotest the land of the West; Kefa and Asebi (_i. E. _ Phœnicia and Cyprus) held thee in fear; I made them look upon thy Holiness as a young bull, Courageous, with sharp horns, which none can approach. 

 I came, and thou smotest the subjects of their lords; The land of Mathen trembled for fear of thee; I made them look upon thy Holiness as upon a crocodile, Terrible in the waters, not to be encountered. 

 I came, and thou smotest them that dwelt in the Great Sea; The inhabitants of the isles were afraid of thy war-cry; I made them behold thy Holiness as the Avenger, Who shews himself at the back of his victim. 

 I came, and thou smotest the land of the Tahennu; The people of Uten submitted themselves to thy power; I made them see thy Holiness as a lion, fierce of eye, Who leaves his den and stalks through the valleys. 

 I came, and thou smotest the hinder (_i. E. _ northern) lands; The circuit of the Great Sea is bound in thy grasp; I made them behold thy Holiness as the hovering hawk. Which seizes with his glance whatever pleases him. 

 I came, and thou smotest the lands in front: Those that sat upon the sand thou carriedst away captive; I made them behold thy Holiness like the jackal of the South, Which passes through the lands as a hidden wanderer. 

 I came, and thou smotest the nomad tribes of Nubia, Even to the land of Shut, which thou holdest in thy grasp; I made them behold thy Holiness like thy pair of brothers, Whose hands I have united to give thee power. [19]

It is impossible to conclude this sketch of Thothmes III. Without somenotice of his buildings. He was the greatest of Egyptian conquerors, buthe was also one of the greatest of Egyptian builders and patrons of art. The grand temple of Ammon at Thebes was the especial object of hisfostering care; and he began his career of builder and restorer byrepairs and restorations, which much improved and beautified thatedifice. Before the southern propylæa he re-erected, in the first yearof his independent reign, colossal statues of his father, Thothmes I. , and his grandfather, Amenhotep, which had been thrown down in thetroublous time succeeding Thothmes the First's death. He then proceededto rebuild the central sanctuary, the work of Usurtasen I. , which hadprobably begun to decay, and, recognizing its importance as the very_penetrale_ of the temple, he resolved to reconstruct it in granite, instead of common stone, that he might render it, practically, imperishable. With a reverence and a self-restraint that it might bewished restorers possessed more commonly, he preserved all the lines anddimensions of the ancient building, merely reproducing in a bettermaterial the work of his great predecessor. Having accomplished thispious task, he gave a vent to his constructive ambition by a grandaddition to the temple on its eastern side. Behind the cell, at thedistance of about a hundred and fifty feet, he erected a magnificenthall, or pillared chamber, of dimensions previously unknown in Egypt, orelsewhere in the world at the time--an oblong square, one hundred andforty-three feet long by fifty-three feet wide, or nearly half as largeagain as the nave of Canterbury Cathedral. The whole of the apartmentwas roofed in with slabs of solid stone; it was divided in its longestdirection into five avenues or vistas by means of rows of pillars andpiers, the former being towards the centre, and attaining a height ofthirty feet, with bell capitals, and the latter towards the sides, witha height of twenty feet. This arrangement enabled the building to belighted by means of a clerestory, in the manner shown by theaccompanying woodcut. In connection with this noble hall, on three sidesof it, northwards, eastwards, and southwards, Thothmes further erectedchambers and corridors, partly open, partly supported by pillars, whichmight form convenient store-chambers for the vestments of the priestsand the offerings of the people. 

Thothmes also added propylæa to the temple on the south, and erected infront of the grand entrance which was (as usual) between the pylons ofthe propylæa, two or perhaps four great obelisks, one of which existsto the present day, and is the largest and most magnificent of all suchmonuments now extant. It stands in front of the Church of St. JohnLateran at Rome, and has a height of a hundred and five feet, exclusiveof the base, with a width diminishing from nine feet six inches to eightfeet seven inches. It is estimated to weigh above four hundred and fiftytons, and is covered with well-cut hieroglyphics. No other obeliskapproaches within twelve feet of its elevation, or within fifty tons ofits weight. Yet, if we may believe an inscription of Thothmes, found onthe spot, the pair of obelisks whereof this was one shrank intoinsignificance in comparison with another pair, also placed by himbefore his propylæa, the height of which was one hundred and eightcubits, or one hundred and sixty-two feet, and their weight consequentlyfrom seven hundred to eight hundred tons! As no trace has been found ofthese monsters, and as it seems almost impossible that they should havebeen removed, and highly improbable that they could have been broken upwithout leaving some indication of their existence, perhaps we mayconclude that they were designed rather than executed, and that theinscription was set up in anticipation of an achievement contemplatedbut never effected. 

[Illustration: SECTION OF PILLARED HALL OF THOTHMES III. AT KARNAK. ]

Other erections of the Great Thothmes are the enclosure of the famousTemple of the Sun at Heliopolis, the temple of Phthah at Thebes, thesmall temple at Medinet-Abou, a temple to Kneph adorned with obelisks atElephantine, and a series of temples and monuments erected at Ombos, Esneh, Abydos, Coptos, Denderah, Eileithyia, Hermonthis, and Memphis inEgypt, and at Amada, Corte, Talmis, Pselcis, Semneh, Koummeh, and Napatain Nubia. Extensive ruins of many of these buildings still remain, particularly at Koummeh, Semneh, Napata, Denderah, and Ombos. Altogether, Thothmes III. Is pronounced to have left behind him moremonuments than any other Pharaoh excepting Rameses II. , and thoughoccasionally showing himself, as a builder, somewhat capricious andwhimsical, still, on the whole, to have worked in a pure style andproved that he was not deficient in good taste. [20]

It has happened, moreover, by a curious train of circumstances, thatThothmes III. Is, of all the Pharaohs, the one whose great works aremost widely diffused, and display Egyptian skill and taste to thelargest populations, and in the most important cities, of the modernworld. Rome, as we have seen, possesses his grandest obelisk, which isat the same time the greatest of all extant monoliths. The millions whohave flocked to Rome in all ages have learnt the lesson of Egyptiangreatness from the monument erected before the Church of St. JohnLateran. Constantinople holds an obelisk of Thothmes III. , which isplaced in the middle of the Atmeidan. London has put on its embankment, half-way between St. Paul's and the Palace and Abbey of Westminster, another obelisk of the same monarch, erected originally at Heliopolis, thence removed to Alexandria by Augustus, and now adorning the banks ofthe Thames, nearly in the centre of the most populous city that theworld has ever seen. The companion monument, after having, similarly, stood at Heliopolis for fifteen centuries, and then at Alexandria foreighteen, has crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and now teaches the millionresidents, and the tens of thousands of visitors, of New York what greatthings could be done by the Egyptian engineers and artists of the timeof the eighteenth dynasty. 

Thothmes III. Has been called "the Alexander of Egyptian history. " Thephrase is at once exaggerated and misleading. It is exaggerated asapplied to his military ability; for, though beyond a doubt this monarchwas by far the greatest of Egyptian conquerors, and possessedconsiderable military talent, much personal bravery, and an energy thathas seldom been exceeded, yet, on the other hand, his task was trivialas compared with that of the Macedonian general, and his achievementsinsignificant. Instead of plunging with a small force into the midst ofpopulous countries, and contending with armies ten or twenty times asnumerous as his own, defeating them, and utterly subduing a vast empire, Thothmes marched at the head of a numerous disciplined army into thinlypeopled regions, governed by petty chiefs jealous one of another, fought scarcely a single great battle, and succeeded in conquering tworegions of a moderate size, Syria and Upper Mesopotamia, as far as theKhabour river. Alexander overran and subdued the entire tract betweenthe Ægean and the Sutlej, the Persian Gulf and the Oxus. He conqueredEgypt, and founded a dynasty there which endured for nearly threecenturies. Thothmes subdued not a tenth part of the space, and theempire which he established did not endure for much more than a century. It is thus absurd to compare Thothmes III. To Alexander the Great as aconqueror. 

Alexander was, besides, much more than a conqueror; he was a first-rateadministrator. Had he lived twenty years longer he would probably havebuilt up a universal monarchy, which might have lasted for a millenium. As it was, he so organized the East that it continued for nearly threecenturies mainly under Greek rule, in the hands of the monarchs who areknown as his "successors. " Thothmes III. , on the contrary, organizednothing. He left his conquests in such a condition that they, all ofthem, revolted at his death. His successor had to reconquer all thecountries that had submitted to his father, and to re-establish overthem the Egyptian sovereignty. 

In person the great Egyptian monarch was not remarkable. He had a long, well-shaped, and somewhat delicate nose, which was almost in line withhis forehead, an eye prominent and larger than that of most Egyptians, ashortish upper lip, a resolute mouth with rather over-full lips, and arounded, slightly retreating chin. The expression of his portraitstatues is grave and serious, but lacks strength and determination. Indeed, there is something about the whole countenance that is a littlewomanish, though his character certainly presents no appearance ofeffeminacy. He died after a reign of fifty-four years, according to hisown reckoning, having practically exercised the sovereign power forabout thirty-two of the fifty-four. His age at his death must have beenabout sixty. 

[Illustration: BUST OF THOTHMES III. ]

During these stirring times, what were the children of Israel doing? Wehave supposed that Joseph was minister of the last of the ShepherdKings, under whose reign his people had entered upon the peacefuloccupation of the land of Goshen, where they were received withhospitality by a population of the same simple pastoral habits withthemselves; and it seems probable that, under Thothmes III. , they wereincreasing abundantly and waxing mighty, and that the land between theSebennytic and Pelusiac branches of the Nile was gradually being filledby them. Their period of severe oppression had not yet begun; there hadas yet arisen no sufficient reason for any measures of repression, suchas were pursued by the new king who "knew not Joseph. " The name andrenown of the great minister seems still to have protected his kinsmenin the peaceful enjoyment of their privileges in the land that must bythis time have lost for them most of its strangeness. 

Thothmes III. Was succeeded by his son, Amenhotep, whom historianscommonly term Amenophis the Second. This king was a warrior like hisfather, and succeeded in reducing, without much difficulty, the variousnations that had thrown off the authority of Egypt on receiving the newsof his father's death. He even carried his arms, according to some, asfar as Nineveh, which he claims to have besieged and taken; he does not, however, mention the Assyrians as his opponents. His contests were withthe Naïri, the Rutennu, and the Shasu (Arabs) in Asia, with the Tahennu(Libyans) and Nubians in Africa. On all sides victory crowned his arms;but he stained the fair fame that his victories would have otherwisesecured him by barbarous practices, and cruel and unnecessary bloodshed. He tells us that at Takhisa in northern Syria he killed seven kings withhis own hand, and he represents himself in the act of destroying themwith his war-club, not in the heat of battle, but after they have beentaken prisoners. He further adds that, after killing them, he suspendedtheir bodies from the prow of the vessel In which he returned to Egypt, and brought them, as trophies of victory, to Thebes, where he hung sixof the seven outside the walls of the city, as the Philistines hung thebodies of Saul and Jonathan on the wall of Beth-shan (i Sam. Xxxi. 10, 12); while he had the seventh conveyed to Napata in Nubia, and theresimilarly exposed, to terrify his enemies in that quarter. It has beensaid of the Russians--not perhaps without some justice--"Grattez leRusse et vous trouverez le Tartare;" with far greater reason may we sayof the ancient Egyptians, that, notwithstanding the veneer ofcivilization which they for the most part present to our observation, there was In their nature, even at the best of times, an underlyingingrained barbarism which could not be concealed, but was continuallyshowing itself. 

Amenophis II. Appears to have had a short reign; his seventh year is thelast noted upon his monuments. As a builder he was unenterprizing. Onetemple at Amada, one hall at Thebes, and his tomb at Abd-el-Qurnah, formalmost the whole of his known constructions. None of them is remarkable. Egypt under his sway had a brief rest before she braced herself to freshefforts, military and architectural. 

FOOTNOTES:

[17] Layard, "Nineveh and Babylon, " pp. 280-282. 

[18] Brugsch, "History of Egypt, " vol. 1. Pp. 367, 368. 

[19] Brugsch, "History of Egypt" (first ed. , 1879), vol. 1. Pp. 371, 372. 

[20] Wilkinson in Rawlinson's "Herodotus, " vol. Ii. P. 302. 

XIII. 

AMENHOTEP III. AND HIS GREAT WORKS--THE VOCAL MEMNON. 

The fame of Amen-hotep the Third, the grandson of the great Thothmes, rests especially upon his Twin Colossi, the grandest, if not actuallythe largest, that the world has ever beheld. Imagine sitting figures, formed of a single solid block of sandstone, which have sat on for abovethree thousand years, mouldering gradually away under the influence oftime and weather changes, yet which are still more than sixty feet high, and must originally, when they wore the tall crown of an Egyptian king, have reached very nearly the height of seventy feet! We think a statuevast, colossal, of magnificent dimensions, if it be as much as ten ortwenty feet high--as Chantrey's statue of Pitt, or Phidias'schryselephantine statue of Jupiter. What, then, must these be, which areof a size so vastly greater? Let us hear how they impress an eye-witnessof world-wide experience. "There they sit, " says Harriet Martineau, "together, yet apart, in the midst of the plain, serene and vigilant, still keeping their untired watch over the lapse of ages and the eclipseof Europe. I can never believe that anything else so majestic as thispair has been conceived of by the imagination of art. Nothingcertainly, even in nature, ever affected me so unspeakably; nothunderstorms in my childhood, nor any aspect of Niagara, or the greatlakes of America, or the Alps, or the Desert, in my later years. .. . Thepair, sitting alone amid the expanse of verdure, with islands of ruinsbehind them, grew more striking to us every day. To-day, for the firsttime, we looked up to them from their base. The impression of sublimetranquillity which they convey when seen from distant points, isconfirmed by a nearer approach. There they sit, keeping watch--hands onknees, gazing straight forward; seeming, though so much of the face isgone, to be looking over to the monumental piles on the other side ofthe river, which became gorgeous temples, after these throne-seats wereplaced here--the most immovable thrones that have ever been establishedon this earth!"[21]

[Illustration: THE TWIN COLOSSI OF AMENHOTEP III, AT THEBES. ]

The design of erecting two such colossi must be attributed to themonarch himself, and we must estimate, from the magnificence of thedesign, the grandeur of his thoughts and the wonderful depth of hisartistic imagination; but the skill to execute, the genius to express instone such dignity, majesty, and repose as the statues possess, belongsto the first-rate sculptor, who turned the rough blocks of stone, hewnby the masons in a distant quarry, into the glorious statues that havelooked down upon the plain for so many ages. The sculptors of Egyptianworks are, in general, unknown; but, by good fortune, in this particularcase, the name of the artist has remained on record, and he has himselfgiven us an account of the feelings with which he saw them set up in theplaces where they still remain. The sculptor, who bore the same name ashis royal master, _i. E. _ Amenhotep or Amen-hept, declares in theexultation of his heart: "I immortalized the name of the king, and noone has done the like of me in my works. I executed two portrait-statuesof the king, astonishing for their breadth and height; their completedform dwarfed the temple tower--forty cubits was their measure; they werecut in the splendid sandstone mountain on either side, the eastern andthe western. I caused to be built eight ships, whereon the statues werecarried up the river; they were emplaced in their sublime temple; theywill last as long as heaven. A joyful event was it when they were landedat Thebes and raised up in their place. "

A peculiar and curious interest attaches to one--the more eastern--ofthe two statues. It was known to the Romans of the early empire as "TheVocal Memnon, " and formed one of the chief attractions which drewtravellers to Egypt, from the fact, which is quite indisputable, that atthat time, for two centuries or perhaps more, it emitted in the earlymorning a musical sound, which was regarded as a sort of standingmiracle. The fact is mentioned by Strabo, Pliny the elder, Pausanias, Tacitus, Juvenal, Lucian, Philostratus, and others, and is recorded by anumber of ear-witnesses on the lower part of the colossus itself ininscriptions which may be seen at the present day. Amenhotep, identifiedby the idle fancy of some Greek or Roman scholar with the Memnon ofHomer, son of Tithonus and _The Dawn_, who led an army of Ethiopians tothe assistance of Priam of Troy against the Greeks, was regarded as agod, and to hear the sound was not only to witness a miracle, but toreceive an assurance of the god's favourable regard. For the statue didnot emit a sound--the god did not speak--every day. Sometimes travellershad to depart disappointed altogether, sometimes they had to make asecond, a third, or a fourth visit before hearing the desired voice. Butstill it was a frequent phenomenon; and a common soldier has recordedthe fact on the base of the statue, that he heard it no fewer thanthirteen times. The origin of the sound, the time when it began to beheard, and the circumstances under which it ceased, are all more or lessdoubtful. Some of those exceedingly clever persons who find priest-crafteverywhere, think that the musical sound was the effect of humancontrivance, and explain the whole matter to their entire satisfactionby "the jugglery of the priests. " The priests either found a naturallyvocal piece of rock, and intentionally made the statue out of it; orthey cunningly introduced a pipe into the interior of the figure, bywhich they could make musical notes issue from the mouth at theirpleasure. It is against this view that in the palmy days of the Egyptianhierarchy, the vocal character of the statue was entirely unknown; wehave no evidence of the sound having been heard earlier than the time ofStrabo (B. C. 25-10), when Egypt was in the possession of the Romans, andthe priests had little influence. Moreover, the theory is disproved bythe fact that, during the two centuries of the continuance of themarvel, there were occasions when Memnon was obstinately silent, thoughthe priests must have been most anxious that he should speak, whilethere were others when he spoke freely, though they must have beenperfectly indifferent. The wife of a prefect of Egypt made two visits tothe spot to no purpose; and the Empress Sabina, wife of the EmperorHadrian, was, on her first visit, also disappointed, so that "hervenerable features were inflamed with anger. " On the other hand, asalready mentioned, a common Roman soldier heard the sound thirteentimes. 

With respect to the time when, and the circumstances under which, thephenomenon first showed itself, all that can be said is, that theearliest literary witness to the fact is Strabo (about B. C. 25); thatthe earliest of the inscriptions on the base that can be dated belongsto the reign of Nero, and that it is at least questionable whether thesound ever issued from the stone before B. C. 27. In that year there wasan earthquake which wrought great havoc at Thebes; and it is an acutesuggestion, that it was this earthquake which at once shattered theupper part of the colossus, and so affected the remainder of the blockof stone that it became vocal then for the first time. For centuries thefigure remained a _torso_, and it was while a _torso_ that it emittedthe musical tone--

 "_Dimidio_ magicæ resonabant Memnone chordæ. "

After a long interval of years, probably about A. D. 174, thatrestoration of the monument took place which is to be seen to thepresent day. Five blocks of stone, rudely shaped into a form like thatof the unharmed colossus, were emplaced upon the _torso_, which was thusreconstructed. The intention was to do Memnon honour; but the effect wasto strike him dumb. The peculiar condition of the stone, which theearthquake had superinduced, and which made it vocal, being changed bythe new arrangement, the sound ceased, and has been heard no more. 

It is a fact well known to scientific persons at the present day, thatmusical sounds are often given forth both by natural rocks and byquarried masses of stone, in consequence of a sudden change oftemperature. Baron Humboldt, writing on the banks of the Oronooko, says:"The granite rock on which we lay is one of those where travellers haveheard from time to time, towards sunrise, subterraneous sounds, resembling those of the organ. The missionaries call these stones _loxasde musica_. 'It is witchcraft, ' said our young Indian pilot. .. . But theexistence of a phenomenon that seems to depend on a certain state of theatmosphere cannot be denied. The shelves of rock are full of very narrowand deep crevices. They are heated during the day to about 50°. I oftenfound their temperature during the night at 39°. It may easily beconceived that the difference of temperature between the subterraneousand the external air would attain its _maximum_ about sunrise. "Analogous phenomena occur among the sandstone rocks of El Nakous, inArabia Petræa, near Mount Maladetta in the Pyrenees, and (perhaps) inthe desert between Palestine and Egypt. "On the fifth day of myjourney, " says the accomplished author of 'Eothen. ' "the sun growingfiercer and fiercer, . .. As I drooped my head under his fire, and closedmy eyes against the glare that surrounded me, I slowly fell asleep--forhow many minutes or moments I cannot tell--but after a while I wasgently awakened by a peal of church bells--my native bells--the innocentbells of Marlen that never before sent forth their music beyond theBlagdon hills! My first idea naturally was that I still remained fastunder the power of a dream. I roused myself, and drew aside the silkthat covered my eyes, and plunged my bare face into the light. Then atleast I was well enough awakened, _but still those old Marlen bells rangon_, not ringing for joy, but properly, prosily, steadily, merrilyringing 'for church. ' _After a while the sound died away slowly_; ithappened that neither I nor any of my party had a watch to measure theexact time of its lasting; but it seemed to me that about ten minuteshad passed before the bells ceased. "[22] The gifted writer proceeds togive a metaphysical explanation of the phenomena; but it may bequestioned whether he did not hear actual musical sounds, emitted by therocks that lay beneath the sands over which he was moving. 

And similar sounds have been heard when the stones that sent them forthwere quarried blocks, no longer in a state of nature, but shaped byhuman tools, and employed in architecture. Three members of the FrenchExpedition, MM. Jomard, Jollois, and Devilliers, were together in thegranite cell which forms the centre of the palace-temple of Karnak, when, according to their own account, they "heard a sound, resemblingthat of a chord breaking, issue from the blocks at sunrise. " Exactly thesame comparison is employed by Pausanias to describe the sound thatissued from "the vocal Memnon. "

On the whole, we may conclude that the musical qualities of hisremarkable colossus were unknown alike to the artist who sculptured themonument and to the king whom it represented. To them, in its purposeand object, it belonged, not to Music, but wholly to the sister art ofArchitecture. "The Pair" sat at one extremity of an avenue leading toone of the great palace-temples reared by Amenhotep III. --apalace-temple which is now a mere heap of sandstone, "a little roughnessin the plain. " The design of the king was, that this grand edificeshould be approached by a _dromos_ or paved way, eleven hundred feetlong, which should be flanked on either side by nine similar statues, placed at regular intervals along the road, and all representinghimself. The egotism of the monarch may perhaps be excused on account ofthe grandeur of his idea, which we nowhere else find repeated, avenuesof sphinxes being common in Egypt, and avenues of sitting human_life-size_ figures not unknown to Greece, but the history of artcontaining no other instance of an avenue of colossi. 

Another of Amenhotep's palace-temples has been less unkindly treated byfortune than the one just mentioned. The temple of Luxor, or El-Uksur, on the eastern bank of the river, about a mile and a half to the southof the great temple of Karnak, is a magnificent edifice to this day; andthough some portions of it, and some of its most remarkable features, must be assigned to Rameses II. , yet still it is, in the main, aconstruction of Amenhotep's, and must be regarded as being, even if itstood alone, sufficient proof of his eminence as a builder. The lengthof the entire building is about eight hundred feet, the breadth varyingfrom about one hundred feet to two hundred. Its general arrangementcomprised, first, a great court, at a different angle from the rest, being turned so as to face Karnak. In front of this stood two colossalstatues of the founder, together with two obelisks, one of which hasbeen removed to France, and now adorns the centre of the Place de laConcorde at Paris. Behind this was a great pillared hall, of which onlythe two central ranges of columns are now standing. Still further backwere smaller halls and numerous apartments, evidently meant for theking's residence, rather than for a temple or place exclusively devotedto worship. The building is remarkable for its marked affectation ofirregularity. "Not only is there a considerable angle in the directionof the axis of the building, but the angles of the courtyards are hardlyever right angles; the pillars are variously spaced, and pains seem tohave been gratuitously taken to make it as irregular as possible innearly every respect. "[23]

Besides this grand edifice, Amenhotep built two temples at Karnak toAmmon and Maut, embellished the old temple of Ammon there with a newpropylon, raised temples to Kneph, or Khnum, at Elephantine and built ashrine to contain his own image at Soleb in Nubia, another shrine atNapata, and a third at Sedinga. He left traces of himself at Semneh, inthe island of Konosso, on the rocks between Philæ and Assouan, atEl-Kaab, at Toora near Memphis, at Silsilis, and at Sarabit-el-Khadim inthe Sinaitic peninsula. He was, as M. Lenormant remarks, "un princeessentiellement batisseur. " The scale and number of his works are suchas to indicate unremitting attention to sculpture and building duringthe entire duration of his long reign of thirty-six years. 

On the other hand, as a general he gained little distinction. Hemaintained, indeed, the dominion over Syria and Western Mesopotamia, which had been established by Thothmes III. , and his cartouche has beenfound at Arban on the Khabour; but there is no appearance of his havingmade any additional conquests in this quarter. The subjected peoplesbrought their tribute regularly, and the neighbouring nations, whetherHittites, Assyrians, or Babylonians, gave him no trouble. The dominionof Egypt over Western Asia had become "an accomplished fact, " and wasgenerally recognized by the old native kingdoms. It did not extend, however, beyond Taurus and Niphates towards the north, or beyond theKhabour eastward or southward, but remained fixed within the limitswhich it had attained under the Third Thothmes. 

The only quarter in which Amenhotep warred was towards Ethiopia. Heconducted in person several expeditions up the valley of the Nile, against the negro tribes of the Soudan. But these attacks were not somuch wars as raids, or razzias. They were not made with the object ofadvancing the Egyptian frontier, or even of extending Egyptianinfluence, but partly for the glorification of the monarch, who thusobtained at a cheap rate the credit of military successes, andpartly--probably mainly--for the material gain which resulted from themthrough the capture of highly valuable slaves. The black races havealways been especially sought for this purpose, and were in great demandin the Egyptian slave-market: ladies of rank were pleased to have fortheir attendants negro boys, whom they dressed in a fanciful manner; andthe court probably indulged in a similar taste. Amenhotep's aim wascertainly rather to capture than to kill. In one of his most successfulraids the slain were only three hundred and twelve, while the captivesconsisted of two hundred and five men, two hundred and fifty women, andtwo hundred and eighty-five children, or a total of seven hundred andforty; and the proportion in the others was similar. The trade of slavehunting was so lucrative that even a Great King could not resist thetemptation of having a share in its profits. 

When Amenhotep was not engaged in hunting men his favourite recreationwas to indulge in the chase of the lion. On one of his scarabæi hestates that between his first and his tenth year he slew with his ownhand one hundred and ten of these ferocious beasts. Later on in hisreign he presented to the priests who had the charge of the ancienttemple of Karnak a number of live lions, which he had probably caught intraps. The lion was an emblem both of Horus and of Turn, and may, whentamed, have been assigned a part in religious processions. It isuncertain what was Amenhotep's hunting-ground; but the large number ofhis victims makes it probable that the scene of his exploits wasMesopotamia rather than any tract bordering on Egypt: since lions havealways been scarce animals in North-Eastern Africa, but abounded inMesopotamia even much later than the time of Amenhotep, and are "notuncommon" there even at the present day. We may suppose that he had ahunting pavilion at Arban, where one of his scarabs has been found, andfrom that centre beat the reed-beds and jungles of the Khabour. 

[Illustration: BUST OF AMENHOTEP III. ]

In person, Amenhotep III. Was not remarkable. His features were good, except that his nose was somewhat too much rounded at the end; hisexpression was pensive, but resolute; his forehead high, his upper lipshort, his chin a little too prominent. He left behind him a characterfor affectionateness, kindliness, and generosity. Some historians havereproached him with being too much under female influence; and certainlyin the earlier portion of his reign he deferred greatly to his mother, Mutemua, and in the latter portion to his wife, Tii or Taia; but thereis no evidence that any evil result followed, or that these princessesdid not influence him for good. It is too much taken for granted by manywriters that female influence is corrupting. No doubt it is so in somecases; but it should not be forgotten that there are women whom to haveknown is "a liberal education. " Mutemua and Tii may have been of thenumber. 

FOOTNOTES:

[21] "Eastern Life, " vol. I. Pp. 84, 289. 

[22] Kinglake, "Eothen, " pp. 188, 189. 

[23] Fergusson, "Handbook of Architecture, " vol. I. P. 234. 

XIV. 

KHUENATEN AND THE DISK-WORSHIPPERS. 

On the death of Amenhotep III. , his son, Amenhotep IV. , mounted thethrone. Left by Amenhotep III to the guardianship of his mother, Tii, who was of some entirely foreign race, he embraced a new form ofreligion, which she appears to have introduced, and shocked theEgyptians by substituting, so far as he found to be possible, this newcreed for the old polytheism of the country. The heresy of Amenhotep IVhas been called "Disk-worship;" and he, and the next two or three kings, are known in Egyptian history as "the Disk-worshippers. " It is difficultto discover what exactly was the belief professed. Externally, itconsisted, primarily, in a marked preference of a single one of theEgyptian gods over all the others, and a certain hatred or contempt forthe great bulk of the deities composing the old Pantheon. Thus far itresembled the religion which Apepi, the last "Shepherd King, " hadendeavoured to introduce; but the new differed from the old reformationin the matter of the god selected for special honour. Apepi had soughtto turn the Egyptians away from all other worships except the worship ofSet; Amenhotep desired their universal adhesion to the worship of Aten. Aten, in Egyptian theology, had hitherto represented a particular aspector character of Ra, "the sun"--that aspect which is expressed by thephrase, "the solar disk. " How it was possible to keep Aten distinct fromthe other sun-gods, Ra, Khepra, Turn, Shu, Mentu, Osiris, and Horus orHarmachis, is a puzzle to moderns; but it seems to have been adifficulty practically overcome by the Egyptians, to whom it did notperhaps even present itself as a difficulty at all. Disk-worshipconsisted then, primarily, in an undue exaltation of this god, who wasmade to take the place of Ammon-Ra in the Pantheon, and was ordinarilyrepresented by a circle with rays proceeding from it, the rays mostlyterminating in hands, which frequently presented the symbols of life andhealth and strength to the worshipper. 

What was the inward essence of the religion? Was it simplesun-worship--the adoration of the visible material sun--considered asthe ruling and vivifying power in the universe, whence heat and light, and so life, proceeded? Of all the forms of nature worship this was themost natural, and in the old world it was widely spread. Men adored theorb of day as the grandest object which nature presented to them, as thegreat quickener of all things upon the earth, the cause of germinationand growth, of fruitage and harvest, the dispenser to man of tenthousand blessings, the sustainer of his life and health and happiness. With some the worship was purely and wholly material--the sun was viewedas a huge mass of fiery matter, uninformed by any animate life, unintelligent, impersonal; but with others, sun-worship was somethinghigher than this: the orb of day was regarded as informed by a good, wise, bright, beneficent Spirit, which lived in it, and worked throughit, and was the true benefactor of mankind and sustainer of life and ofthe universe. Sun-worship of this latter kind was no mean form ofnatural religion. If not purged from the debasing element ofmaterialism, if not incompatible with a certain kind of polytheism, itis yet consistent with the firmest belief in the absolute supremacy ofone God over all others, with the conception of that God as all-wise, all-powerful, pure, holy, kind, loving, and with the entire devotion ofthe worshipper to Him exclusively. And this latter form of sun-worshipwas, quite conceivably, the religion of the "Disk worshippers. " "Aten"is probably the same as "Adon, " the root of Adonis and Adonai, and hasthe signification of "Lord"--a term implying personality, and when usedspecially of one Being, implying absolute mastery and lordship, anexclusive right to worship, homage, and devotion. It is not unlikelythat the "Disk-worshippers" were drawn on towards their monotheisticcreed by the presence in Egypt at the time of a large monotheisticpopulation, the descendants of Joseph and his brethren, who by this timehad multiplied greatly, and must have attracted attention, from theirnumbers and from the peculiarity of their tenets. A historian of Egyptremarks that "curious parallels might be drawn between the externalforms of the worship of the Israelites in the desert and those set up bythe Disk-worshippers at Tel-el-Amarna; portions of the sacred furniture, as the 'table of shewbread, ' described in the Book of Exodus as placedwithin the Tabernacle, are repeated among the objects belonging to theworship of Aten, and do not occur among the representations of any otherepoch. " He further notes that the commencement of the persecution of theIsraelites in Egypt coincides nearly with the downfall of the"Disk-worshippers" and the return of the Egyptians to their old creed, as if the captive race had been involved in the discredit and the odiumwhich attached to Amenhotep and his immediate successors on account oftheir religious reformation. 

[Illustration: KHUENATEN WORSHIPPING THE SOLAR DISK. ]

The aversion of the "Disk-worshippers" to the old Egyptian religion wasshown (1) in the change of his own name which the new monarch made soonafter his accession, from Amenhotep to Khu-en-Aten, whereby he clearedhimself from any connection with the old discarded head of the Pantheon, and associated himself with the new supreme god, Aten; (2) in theobliteration of the name of Ammon from monuments; and (3) in the removalof the seat of government from the site polluted by Ammon-worship andpolytheism to a new site at Tel-el-Amarna, where Aten alone wasworshipped and alone represented in the temples. The enmity, however, was not indiscriminate. Amenhotep took for one of his titles theepithet, "Mi-Harmakhu, " or "beloved by Harmachis, " probably because hecould look on Harmachis, a purely sun-god, as a form of Aten; and tothis god he erected an obelisk at Silsilis. His monumental war upon theold religion seems also not to have been general, but narrowlycircumscribed, being, in fact, confined to the erasure of Ammon's name, especially at Thebes, and the mutilation of his form in a few instances;but there does not appear to have been any such general iconoclasmpractised by the "Disk-worshippers" as by the "Shepherd Kings, " or anysuch absolute requirement that "one god alone should be worshipped inall the land" as was put forth by Apepi. The "Disk-worshippers" did notso much attempt to change the religion of Egypt as to establish forthemselves a peculiar court-religion of a pure and elevated character. 

It has been remarked above that the motive power which brought aboutthe religious revolution is probably to be found in the powerfulinfluence and the peculiar views of the queen mother, Tii or Taia. Thisprincess was of foreign origin; her complexion was fair, her eyes blue, her hair flaxen, her cheeks rosy; she probably brought her"disk-worship" with her from her own country, whether it were Syria, orArabia, or any other. Already in the lifetime of her husband, AmenhotepIII. , she had prevailed on him, as his wives prevailed on Solomon (iKings xi. 4-8), to allow her the free exercise of her own religion, andto provide her with the means of carrying it on with all proper pomp andceremony. At her instance, Amenhotep III. Constructed a great lake orbasin, more than a mile long and a thousand feet broad, to be made useof for religious purposes on the queen's special festival day. It wasproper on that festival day that "the barge of the most beautiful Disk"should perform a voyage on a sheet of water in the presence of hisworshippers--a voyage probably representing the course of the sunthrough the heavens during the year. There is evidence that thisfestival was kept on the sixteenth day of the month Athor, in theeleventh year of Amenhotep III. , and that the king himself took part init. 

So far, Queen Taia succeeded in introducing her religion into Egyptwhile her husband was alive. At his death she found herself regent forher son, or, at any rate, associated with him upon the throne, and sawthat a fresh opportunity for pushing her religious views offered itself. Amenhotep IV. Was of a most extraordinary _physique_ and physiognomy. His appearance was rather that of a woman than of a man; he had aslanting forehead, a long aquiline nose, a flexible projecting mouth, and a strongly developed chin. His neck, which is represented as mostunusually long, seems scarcely equal to the support of his head; and hisspindle shanks seem ill adapted to sustain the weight of hisover-corpulent frame. He readily yielded himself to his mother'sinfluence, and completed her work in the manner which has been alreadydescribed. As Thebes opposed itself to his reforms, he deserted it, withdrew his court to Tel-el-Amarna, and there raised the temples, palaces, and other monuments, in a "very advanced" style of art, whichmay be seen at the present day. 

[Illustration: HEAD OF AMENHOTEP IV. (KHUENATEN). ]

Amenhotep also introduced certain changes into the court ceremonial. Hesurrounded himself with officials of foreign race, probably kinsmen ofhis mother, and required from them an open display of submission andservility which Egyptian courts had not witnessed previously. An abjectprostration was enforced on all, while the king posed before hiscourtiers as a benevolent god, who showered down his gifts upon themfrom a superior sphere, since his greatness did not permit a closercontact. He was himself the "Light of the Solar Disk, " an _apaugasma_, or "Light proceeding from Light;" it behoved him to imitate the Sun-god, and perpetually bestow his gifts on men, but it behoved them to veiltheir faces from his radiance and receive his bounty prostrate in thedust beneath him. 

The peculiar views of Khuen-Aten, or Amenhotep IV. , were maintained bythe two or three succeeding kings, who had short and disturbed reigns. After them there arose a king called Horus, or Har-em-hebi, who utterlyswept away the "Disk-worshippers, " ruined their new city, obliteratedtheir names, mutilated their monuments, and restored the ancientreligion of the Egyptians to its former place as the religion, not onlyof the people, but of the court. Henceforth, what was called "heresy"ceased to show itself in the land. 

XV. 

BEGINNING OF THE DECLINE OF EGYPT. 

The internal troubles connected with the "Disk-worship" had for aboutforty years distracted the attention of the Egyptians from their Asiaticpossessions; and this circumstance had favoured the development of ahighly important power in Western Asia. The Hittites, whose motto was"reculer pour mieux sauter, " having withdrawn themselves from Syriaduring the time of the Egyptian attacks, retaining, perhaps, their holdon Carchemish (Jerabus), but not seeking to extend themselves furthersouthward, took heart of grace when the Egyptian expeditions ceased, anddescending from their mountain fastnesses to the Syrian plains andvales, rapidly established their dominion over the regions recentlyconquered by Thothmes I. And Thothmes III. Without absorbing the oldnative races, they reduced them under their sway, and reigned as lordsparamount over the entire region between the Middle Euphrates and theMediterranean, the Taurus range and the borders of Egypt. The chief ofthe subject races were the Kharu, in the tract bordering upon Egypt; theRutennu, in Central and Northern Palestine; and in Southern Cœlesyria, the Amairu or Amorites. The Hittites themselves occupied the lowerCœlesyrian valley, and the tract reaching thence to the Euphrates. Theywere at this period so far centralized into a nation as to have placedthemselves under a single monarch; and about the time when Egypt hadrecovered from the troubles caused by the "Disk-worshippers, " and wasagain at liberty to look abroad, Saplal, Grand-Duke of Khita, a greatand puissant sovereign, sat upon the Hittite throne. 

Saplal's power, and his threatening attitude on the north-eastern borderof Egypt, drew upon him the jealousy of Ramesses I. , father of the greatSeti, and (according to the prevalent tradition) founder of the"nineteenth dynasty. " To defend oneself it is often best to attack, andRamesses, taking this view, in his first or second year plunged into theenemy's dominions. He had the plea that Palestine and Syria, and evenWestern Mesopotamia, belonged of right to Egypt, which had conqueredthem by a long series of victories, and had never lost them by anydefeat or disaster. His invasion was a challenge to Saplal either tofight for his ill-gotten gains, or to give them up. The Hittite kingaccepted the challenge, and a short struggle followed with an indecisiveresult. At its close peace was made, and a formal treaty of alliancedrawn out. Its terms are unknown; but it was probably engraved on asilver plate in the languages of the two powers--the Egyptianhieroglyphics, and the now well-known Hittite picture-writing--and setup in duplicate at Carchemish and Thebes. 

A brief pause followed the conclusion of the first act of the drama. Onthe opening of the second act we find the _dramatis personæ_ changed. Saplal and Ramesses have alike descended into the grave, and theirthrones are occupied respectively by the son of the one and the grandsonof the other. In Egypt, Seti-Menephthah I. , the Sethos of Manetho, hassucceeded his father, Ramesses I. ; in the Hittite kingdom, Saplal hasleft his sceptre to his grandson Mautenar, the son of Marasar, who hadprobably died before his father. Two young and inexperienced princesconfront one the other in the two neighbour lands, each distrustful ofhis rival, each covetous of glory, each hopeful of success if war shouldbreak out. True, by treaty the two kings were friends and allies--bytreaty the two nations were bound to abstain from all aggression by theone upon the other: but such bonds are like the "green withes" thatbound Samson, when the desire to burst them seizes those upon whom theyhave been placed. Seti and Mautenar were at war before the latter hadbeen on the throne a year, and their swords were at one another'sthroats. Seti was, apparently, the aggressor. We find him at the head ofa large army in the heart of Syria before we could have supposed that hehad had time to settle himself comfortably in his father's seat. 

Mautenar was taken unawares. He had not expected so prompt an attack. Hehad perhaps been weak enough to count on his adversary's good faith, or, at any rate on his regard for appearances. But Seti, as a god uponearth, could of course do no wrong, and did not allow himself to betrammelled by the moral laws that were binding upon ordinary mortals. He boldly rushed into war at the first possible moment, crossed thefrontier, and having chastised the Shasu, who had recently made aninvasion of his territory, fell upon the Kharu, or Southern Syrians, andgave them a severe defeat near Jamnia in the Philistine country. He thenpressed forward into the country of the Rutennu, overcame them inseveral pitched battles, and, assisted by a son who fought constantly athis side, slaughtered them almost to extermination. His victoriousprogress brought him, after a time, to the vicinity of Kadesh, theimportant city on the Orontes which, a century earlier, had beenbesieged and taken by the Great Thothmes. Kadesh was at this time inpossession of the Amorites, who were tributary to the Khita (Hittites)and held the great city as their subject allies. Seti, having carefullyconcealed his advance, came upon the stronghold suddenly, and took itsdefenders by surprise. Outside the city peaceful herdsmen were pasturingtheir cattle under the shade of the trees, when they were startled bythe appearance of the Egyptian monarch, mounted on his war-chariot drawnby two prancing steeds. At once all was confusion: every one sought tosave himself; the herds with their keepers fled in wild panic, while theEgyptians plied them with their arrows. But the garrison of the townresisted bravely: a portion sallied from the gates and met Seti in theopen field, but were defeated with great slaughter; the others defendedthemselves behind the walls. But all was in vain. The disciplined troopsof Egypt stormed the key of Northern Syria, and the whole Orontes valleylay open to the conqueror. 

Hitherto the Hittites had not been engaged in the struggle. Attacked ata disadvantage, unprepared, they had left their subject allies to makesuch resistance as they might find possible, and had reserved themselvesfor the defence of their own country. Mautenar had, no doubt, made thebest preparations of which circumstances admitted--he had organized hisforces in three bodies, "on foot, on horseback, and in chariots. " At thehead of them, he gave battle to the invaders so soon as they attackedhim in his own proper country, and a desperate fight followed, in whichthe Egyptians, however, prevailed at last. The Hittites received a"great overthrow. " The song of triumph composed for Seti on the occasiondeclared: "Pharaoh is a jackal which rushes leaping through the Hittiteland; he is a grim lion exploring the hidden ways of all regions; he isa powerful bull with a pair of sharpened horns. He has struck down theAsiatics; he has thrown to the ground the Khita; he has slain theirprinces; he has overwhelmed them in their own blood; he has passed amongthem as a flame of fire; he has brought them to nought. "

The victory thus gained was followed by a treaty of peace. Mautenar andSeti agreed to be henceforth friends and allies, Southern Syria beingrestored to Egypt, and Northern Syria remaining under the dominion ofthe Hittites, probably as far as the sources of the Orontes river. Aline of communication must, however, have been left open between Egyptand Mesopotamia, for Seti still exercised authority over the Naïri, andreceived tribute from their chiefs. He was also, by the terms of thetreaty, at liberty to make war on the nations of the Upper Syriancoast, for we find him reducing the Tahai, who bordered on Cilicia, without any disturbance of his relations with Mautenar. The second actin the war between the Egyptians and the Hittites thus terminated withan advantage to the Egyptians, who recovered most of their Asiaticpossessions, and had, besides, the prestige of a great victory. 

The third act was deferred for a space of some thirty-five years, andfell into the reign of Ramesses II. , Seti's son and successor. Beforegiving an account of it, we must briefly touch the other wars of Seti, to show how great a warrior he was, and mention one further fact in hiswarlike policy indicative of the commencement of Egypt's decline as amilitary power. Seti, then, had no sooner concluded his peace with thegreat power of the North, than he turned his arms against the West andSouth, invading, first of all, "the blue-eyed, fair-skinned nation ofthe Tahennu, " who inhabited the North African coast from the borders ofEgypt to about Cyrene, and engaging in a sharp contest with them. TheTahennu were a wild, uncivilized people, dwelling in caves, and havingno other arms besides bows and arrows. For dress they wore a long cloakor tunic, open in front; and they are distinguished on the Egyptianmonuments by wearing two ostrich feathers and having all their hairshaved excepting one large lock, which is plaited and hangs down on theright side of the head. This unfortunate people could make only a poorresistance to the Egyptian trained infantry and powerful chariot force. They were completely defeated in a pitched battle; numbers of thechiefs were made prisoners, while the people generally fled to theircaves, where they remained hidden, "like jackals, through fear of theking's majesty. " Seti, having struck terror into their hearts, passed ontowards the south, and fiercely chastised the Cushites on the UpperNile, who during the war with the Hittites had given trouble, and showedthemselves inclined to shake off the Egyptian yoke. Here again he wassuccessful; the negroes and Cushites submitted after a short struggle;and the Great King returned to his capital victorious on all sides--"onthe south to the arms of the Winds, and on the north to the Great Sea. "

Seti was not dazzled with his military successes. Notwithstanding histriumphs in Syria, he recognized the fact that Egypt had much to fearfrom her Asiatic neighbours, and could not hope to maintain for long heraggressive attitude in that quarter. Without withdrawing from any of theconquered countries, while still claiming their obedience and enforcingthe payment of their tributes, he began to made preparation for thechanged circumstances which he anticipated by commencing theconstruction of a long wall on his north-eastern frontier, as a securityagainst invasion from Asia. This wall began at Pelusium, and was carriedacross the isthmus in a south-westerly direction by Migdol to Pithom, orHeroopolis, where the long line of lagoons began, which were connectedwith the upper end of the Red Sea. It recalls to the mind of thehistorical student the many ramparts raised by nations, in theirdecline, against aggressive foes--as the Great Wall of China, built tokeep off the Tartars; the Roman wall between the Rhine and Danube, intended to restrain the advance of the German tribes; and the threeRoman ramparts in Great Britain, built to protect the Roman provincefrom its savage northern neighbours. Walls of this kind are always signsof weakness; and when Seti began, and Ramesses II. Completed, therampart of Egypt, it was a confession that the palmy days of the empirewere past, and that henceforth she must look forward to having to stand, in the main, on the defensive. 

Before acquiescing wholly in this conclusion, Ramesses II. , who, afterreigning conjointly with his father for several years, was now soleking, resolved on a desperate and prolonged effort to re-assert forEgypt that dominant position in Western Asia which she had held andobtained under the third Thothmes. Mautenar, the adversary of Seti, appears to have died, and his place to have been taken by his brother, Khita-sir, a brave and enterprizing monarch. Khita-sir, despite theterms of alliance on which the Hittites stood with Egypt, had commenceda series of intrigues with the nations bordering on Upper Syria, andformed a confederacy which had for its object to resist the furtherprogress of the Egyptians, and, if possible, to drive them from Asia. This confederacy embraced the Naïri, or people of Western Mesopotamia, reckoned by the Egyptians among their subjects; the Airatu or people ofAradus; the Masu or inhabitants of the Mous Masius; the Leka, perhapsLycians; the inhabitants of Carchemish, of Kadesh on the Orontes, ofAleppo, Anaukasa, Akarita, &c. --all warlike races, and accustomed to theuse of chariots. Khitasir's proceedings, having become known toRamesses, afforded ample grounds for a rupture, and quite justified himin pouring his troops into Syria, and doing his best to meet andovercome the danger which threatened him. Unaware at what point hisenemy would elect to meet him, he marched forward cautiously, havingarranged his troops in four divisions, which might mutually support eachother. Entering the Cœlesyrian valley from the south, he had proceededas far as the lake of Hems, and neighbourhood of Kadesh, before hereceived any tidings of the position taken up by the confederate army. There his troops captured two of the enemy's scouts, and on questioningthem were told that the Hittite army had been at Kadesh, but had retiredon learning the Egyptian's advance and taken up a position near Aleppo, distant nearly a hundred miles to the north-east. Had Ramesses believedthe scouts, and marched forward carelessly, he would have fallen into atrap, and probably suffered defeat; for the whole confederate army wasmassed just beyond the lake, and there lay concealed by the embankmentwhich blocks the lake at its lower end. But the Egyptian king was toowary for his adversary. He ordered the scouts to be examined byscourging, to see if they would persist in their tale, whereupon theybroke down and revealed the true position of the army. The battle hadthus the character of a regular pitched engagement, without surprise orother accident on either side. Khitasir, finding himself foiled, quittedhis ambush, and marched openly against the Egyptians, with his troopsmarshalled in exact and orderly array, the Hittite chariots in frontwith their lines carefully dressed, and the auxiliaries and irregularson the flanks and rear. Of the four divisions of the Egyptian army, oneseems to have been absent, probably acting as a rear-guard; Ramesses, with one, marched down the left bank of the stream, while the tworemaining divisions proceeded along the right bank, a slight intervalseparating them. Khitasir commenced the fight by a flank movement to theleft, which brought him into collision with the extreme Egyptian right, "the brigade of Ra, " as it was called, and enabled him to engage thatdivision separately. His assault was irresistible. "Foot and horse ofKing Ramesses, " we are told, "gave way before him, " the "brigade of Ra"was utterly routed, and either cut to pieces or driven from the field. Ramesses, informed of this disaster, endeavoured to cross the river tothe assistance of his beaten troops; but, before he could effect hispurpose, the enemy had anticipated him, had charged through the Orontesin two lines, and was upon him. The adverse hosts met. The chariot ofRamesses, skilfully guided by his squire, Menna, seems to have brokenthrough the front line of the Hittite chariot force; but his brethren inarms were less fortunate, and Ramesses found himself separated from hisarmy, behind the front line and confronted by the second line of thehostile chariots, in a position of the greatest possible danger. Thenbegan that Homeric combat, which the Egyptians were never tired ofcelebrating, between a single warrior on the one hand, and the host ofthe Hittites, reckoned at two thousand five hundred chariots, on theother, in which Ramesses, like Diomed or Achilles, carried death anddestruction whithersoever he turned himself. "I became like the godMentu, " he is made to say; "I hurled the dart with my right hand, Ifought with my left hand; I was like Baal in his fury against them. Ihad come upon two thousand five hundred pairs of horses; I was in themidst of them; but they were dashed in pieces before my steeds. Not oneof them raised his hand to fight; their heart shrank within them; theirlimbs gave way, they could not hurl the dart, nor had they strength tothrust with the spear. As crocodiles fall into the water, so I made themfall; they tumbled headlong one over another. I killed them at mypleasure, so that not one of them looked back behind him, nor did anyturn round. Each fell, and none raised himself up again. "

The temporary isolation of the monarch, which is the main point of theheroic poem of Pentaour, and which Ramesses himself recorded over andover again upon the walls of his magnificent constructions, must nodoubt be regarded as a fact; but it is not likely to have continued formore than a few minutes. The minutes may have seemed as hours to theking; and there may have been time for him to perform several exploits. But we may be sure that, when his companions found that he was lost totheir sight, they at once made frantic efforts to recover him, dead oralive; they forced openings in the first Hittite chariot line, and spedto the rescue of their sovereign. He had, perhaps, already emptied manychariots of the second line, which was paralysed by his audacity; andhis companions found it easy to complete the work which he had begun. The broken second line turned and fled; the confusion became general; aheadlong flight carried the entire host to the banks of the Orontes, into which some precipitated themselves, while others were forced intothe water by their pursuers. The king of Khirabu (Aleppo) was amongthese, and was with great difficulty drawn out by his friends, exhaustedand half dead, when he reached the eastern shore. But the great bulk ofthe Hittite army perished, either in the battle or in the river. Amongthe killed and wounded were Grabatasa, the charioteer of Khitasir;Tarakennas, the commander of the cavalry; Rabsuna, another general;Khirapusar, a royal secretary; and Matsurama, a brother of the Hittiteking. 

On the next day the battle was renewed; but, after a short time, Khitasir retired, and sent a humble embassy to the camp of his adversaryto implore for peace. Ramesses held a council of war with his generals, and by their advice agreed to accept the submission made to him, and, without entering into any formal engagement, to withdraw his army andreturn to Egypt. It seems probable that his victory had cost him dear, and that he was not in a condition to venture further from hisresources, or to affront new dangers in a difficult, and to him unknown, region. 

Experience tells us that it is one thing to gain a battle, quite anotherto be successful in the result of a long war. Whatever glory Ramessesobtained by the battle of Kadesh, and the other victories which heclaims to have won in the Syrian campaigns of several succeeding years, it is certain that he completely failed to break the power of theHittites, and that he was led in course of time to confess his failure, and to adopt a policy of conciliation towards the people which he foundhimself unable to subdue. Sixteen years after the battle of Kadesh heconcluded a solemn treaty with Khitasir, which was engraved on silverand placed under the most sacred sanctions, whereby an exact equalitywas established between the high contracting powers. Each nation bounditself under no circumstances to attack the other; each promised to giveaid to the other, if requested, in case of its ally being attacked; eachpledged itself to the extradition both of criminals flying from justiceand of any other subjects wishing to change their allegiance; eachstipulated for an amnesty of offences in the case of all persons thussurrendered. Thirteen years after the conclusion of the treaty the closealliance between the two powers was further cemented by a marriage, which, by giving the two dynasties common interests, greatlystrengthened the previously existing bond. Ramesses requested andreceived in marriage a daughter of Khitasir in the thirty-fourth year ofhis sole reign, when he had borne the royal title for forty-six years. He thus became the son-in-law of his former adversary, whose daughterwas thenceforth recognized as his sole legitimate queen. 

A considerable change in the relations of Egypt to her still remainingAsiatic dependencies accompanied this alteration in the footing uponwhich she stood with the Hittites. "The bonds of their subjectionbecame much less strict than they had been under Thothmes III. ;prudential motives constrained the Egyptians to be content with verymuch less--with such acknowledgments, in fact, as satisfied theirvanity, rather than with the exercise of any real power. " From and afterthe conclusion of peace and alliance between Ramesses and Khitasir, Egyptian influence in Asia grew vague, shadowy, and discontinuous. Atlong intervals monarchs of more enterprize than the ordinary runasserted it, and a brief success generally crowned their efforts; but, speaking broadly, we may say that her Asiatic dominion was lost, andthat Egypt became once more an African power, confined within nearly herancient limits. 

If, from a military point of view, the decline of Egypt is to be datedfrom the reigns, partly joint reigns, of Seti I. And Ramesses II. , fromthe stand-point of art the period must be pronounced the very apogee ofEgyptian greatness. The architectural works of these two monarchstranscend most decidedly all those of all other Pharaohs, either earlieror later. No single work, indeed, of either king equals _in mass_ eitherthe First or the Second Pyramid; but in number, in variety, in beauty, in all that constitutes artistic excellence, the constructions of Setiand Ramesses are unequalled, not only among Egyptian monuments, butamong those of all other nations. Greece is, of course, unapproachablein the matter of sculpture, whether in the way of statuary, or of highor low relief; but, apart from this, Egypt in her architectural workswill challenge comparison with any country that ever existed, or anypeople that ever gave itself to the embodiment of artistic conceptionsin stone or marble. And Egyptian architecture culminated under Seti andhis son Ramesses. The greatest of all Seti's works was his pillared hallat Karnak, the most splendid single chamber that has ever been built byany architect, and, even in its ruins, one of the grandest sights thatthe world contains. Seti's hall is three hundred and thirty feet long, by one hundred and seventy feet broad, having thus an internal area offifty-six thousand square feet, and covers, together with its walls andpylons, an area of eighty-eight thousand such feet, or a larger spacethan that covered by the Dom of Cologne, the largest of all thecathedrals north of the Alps. It was supported by one hundred andsixty-four massive stone columns, which were divided into threegroups--twelve central ones, each sixty-six feet high and thirty-threefeet in circumference, formed the main avenue down its midst; while oneither side, two groups of sixty-one columns, each forty-two feet highand twenty-seven round, supported the huge wings of the chamber, arranged in seven rows of seven each, and two rows of six. The whole wasroofed over with solid blocks of stone, the lighting being, as in thefar smaller hall of Thothmes III. , by means of a clerestory. The roofand pillars and walls were everywhere covered with painted bas-reliefsand hieroglyphics, giving great richness of effect, and constituting thewhole building the most magnificent on which the eye of man has everrested. Fergusson, the best modern authority on architecture, says ofit: "No language can convey an idea of its beauty, and no artist has yetbeen able to reproduce its form so as to convey to those who have notseen it an idea of its grandeur. The mass of its central piers, illumined by a flood of light from the clerestory, and the smallerpillars of the wings gradually fading into obscurity, are so arrangedand lighted as to convey an idea of infinite space; at the same time thebeauty and massiveness of the forms, and the brilliancy of theircoloured decorations, all combine to stamp this as _the greatest ofman's architectural works_, but such a one as it would be impossible toreproduce, except in such a climate, and in that individual style, inwhich and for which it was created. "[24]

As Seti constructed the most wonderful of all the palatial buildingswhich Egypt produced, so he also constructed what is, on the whole, themost wonderful of the tombs. The pyramids impose upon us by theirenormity, and astonish by the engineering skill shown in theirexecution; but they embody a single simple idea; they have nocomplication of parts, no elaboration of ornament; they are taken in ata glance; they do not gradually unfold themselves, or furnish asuccession of surprises. But it is otherwise with the rock-tombs, whereof Seti's is the most magnificent The rock-tombs are "gorgeouspalaces, hewn out of the rock, and painted with all the decorations thatcould have been seen in palaces. " They contain a succession of passages, chambers, corridors, staircases, and pillared halls, each furtherremoved from the entrance than the last, and all covered with aninfinite variety of the most finished and brilliant paintings. The tombof Seti contains three pillared halls, respectively twenty-seven feetby twenty-five, twenty-eight feet by twenty-seven, and forty-three feetby seventeen and a half; a large saloon with an arched roof, thirty feetby twenty-seven; six smaller chambers of different sizes; threestaircases, and two long corridors. The whole series of apartments, fromend to end of the tomb, is continuously ornamented with paintedbas-reliefs. "The idea is that of conducting the king to the world ofdeath. The further you advance into the tomb, the deeper you becomeinvolved in endless processions of jackal-headed gods, and monstrousforms of genii, good and evil; and the goddess of Justice, with hersingle ostrich feather; and barges carrying mummies, raised aloft overthe sacred lake; and mummies themselves; and, more than all, everlastingconvolutions of serpents in every possible form andattitude--human-legged, human-headed, crowned, entwining mummies, enwreathing or embraced by processions, extending down whole galleries, so that meeting the head of a serpent at the top of a staircase, youhave to descend to its very end before you reach his tail. At last youarrive at the close of all--the vaulted hall, in the centre of whichlies the immense alabaster sarcophagus, which ought to contain the bodyof the king. Here the processions, above, below, and around, reach theirhighest pitch--meandering round and round--white, and black, and red, and blue--legs and arms and wings spreading in enormous forms over theceilings; and below lies the sarcophagus itself. "[25]

The greatest of the works of Ramesses are of a different description, and are indicative of that inordinate vanity which is the leadingfeature of his character. They are colossal images of himself. Four ofthese, each seventy feet in height, form the façade of the marvellousrock-temple of Ipsambul--"the finest of its class known to existanywhere"--and constitute one of the most impressive sights which theworld has to offer. There stands the Great King, four times repeated, silent, majestic, superhuman--with features marked by profound reposeand tranquillity, touched perhaps with a little scorn, looking outeternally on the grey-white Nubian waste, which stretches far away to adim and distant horizon. Here, as you sit on the deep pure sand, youseem to see the monarch, who did so much, who reigned so long, whocovered, not only Egypt, but Nubia and Ethiopia with his memorials. "Youcan look at his features inch by inch, see them not only magnified totenfold their original size, so that ear and mouth and nose, and everylink of his collar, and every line of his skin, sinks into you with theweight of a mountain; but those features are repeated exactly the samethree times over--four times they once were, but the upper part of thefourth statue is gone. Look at them as they emerge--the two northernfigures--from the sand which reaches up to their throats; thesouthernmost, as he sits unbroken, and revealed from the top of hisroyal helmet to the toe of his enormous foot"[26] Look at them, andremember that you have here portrait-statues of one of the greatest ofthe kings of the Old World, of the world that was "old" when Greece andRome were either unborn or in their swaddling clothes; portrait-statues, moreover, of the king who, if either tradition or chronology can bedepended on, was the actual great oppressor of Israel--the king whosought the life of Moses--the king from whom Moses fled, and until whosedeath he did not dare to return out of the land of Midian. 

According to the almost unanimous voice of those most conversant withEgyptian antiquities, the "great oppressor" of the Hebrews was thisRamesses. Seti may have been the originator of the scheme for crushingthem by hard usage, but, as the oppression lasted close upon eightyyears (Ex. Ii, I; vii. 7), it must have covered at least two reigns, sothat, if it began under Seti, it must have continued under his son andsuccessor. The bricks found at Tel-el-Maskoutah show Ramesses as themain builder of Pithom (Pa-Tum), and the very name indicates that he wasthe main builder of Raamses (Pa-Ramessu). We must thus ascribe to him, at any rate, the great bulk of that severe and cruel affliction, whichprovoked Moses (Ex. Ii, 12), which made Israel "sigh" and "groan" (ib. 23, 24), and on which God looked down with compassion (ib. Iii. 7). Itwas he especially who "made their lives bitter in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field"--service which was "withrigour. " Ramesses was a builder on the most extensive scale. Withoutproducing any single edifice so perfect as the "Pillared Hall of Seti, "he was indefatigable in his constructive efforts, and no Egyptian kingcame up to him in this respect. The monuments show that he erected hisbuildings chiefly by forced labour, and that those employed on them werechiefly foreigners. Some have thought that the Hebrews are distinctlymentioned as employed by him on his constructions under the term"Aperu, " or "Aperiu"; but this view is not generally accepted. Still, "the name is so often used for foreign bondsmen engaged in the very workof the Hebrews, and especially during the oppression, that it is hardnot to believe it to be a general term in which they are included, though it does not actually describe them. "[27]

[Illustration: HEAD OF SETI]

[Illustration: BUST OF RAMESSES II. ]

The physiognomies of Seti I. And Ramesses II. , as represented on thesculptures, [28] offer a curious contrast Seti's face is thoroughlyAfrican, strong, fierce, prognathous, with depressed nose, thick lips, and a heavy chin. The face of Ramesses is Asiatic. He has a goodforehead, a large, well-formed, slightly aquiline nose, a well-shapedmouth, with lips that are not too full, a small delicate chin, and aneye that is thoughtful and pensive. We may conclude that Seti was of thetrue Egyptian race, with perhaps an admixture of more southern blood;while Ramesses, born of a Semitic mother, inherited through her Asiaticcharacteristics, and, though possessing less energy and strength ofcharacter than his father, had a more sensitive temperament, a widerrange of taste, and a greater inclination towards peace andtranquillity. His important wars were all concluded within the limit ofhis twenty-first year, while his entire reign was one of sixty-sevenyears, during fifty of which he held the sole sovereignty. Though heleft the fame of a great warrior behind him, his chief and truesttriumphs seem to have been those of peace--the Great Wall for theprotection of Egypt towards the east, with its strong fortresses and"store-cities, " the canal which united the Nile with the Red Sea, andthe countless buildings, excavations, obelisks, colossal statues, andother great works, with which he adorned Egypt from one end to theother. 

FOOTNOTES:

[24] "History of Architecture, " vol. I. Pp. 119, 120. 

[25] Adapted from Dean Stanley's "Sinai and Palestine, " Introduction, p. Xl. 

[26] Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine, " p. Xlvii. 

[27] Stuart Poole, "Cities of Egypt, " p. 105

[28] The mummy of Seti I. Has been recently uncovered. It was in goodcondition, and is said to have revealed a face very closely resemblingthat of Ramesses II. , with fine delicate features, and altogether of anelevated type. "The nose, mouth, chin, in short all the features, " saysM. Maspero, "are the same; but in the father they are more refined, moreintelligent, more spiritual, than when reproduced in the son. Seti I. Is, as it were, the idealized type of Ramesses II. " (Letter of M. Maspero in _The Times_ of July 23, 1886. ) It may perhaps be doubtedwhether the shrunken mummy, 3300 years old, is better evidence of theliving reality than the contemporary sculptures. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

MENEPHTHAH I. , THE PHARAOH OF THE EXODUS. 

Menephthah, the thirteenth son and immediate successor of Ramesses II. , came to the throne under circumstances which might at first sight haveseemed favourable. Egypt was on every side at peace with her neighbours. The wail of Ramesses, and his treaty with the Hittites, cemented as ithad been by a marriage, secured the eastern frontier. No formidableattack had ever yet fallen upon Egypt from the west or from the south, and so no danger could well be apprehended from those quarters. Internaltranquillity might not be altogether assured, so long as there waswithin the limits of Egypt a large subject population, sufferingoppression and bitterly discontented with its lot. But this populationwas quite unwarlike, and had hitherto passively submitted itself to thewill of its rulers, without giving any indication that it might becomeactively hostile. Menephthah, who was perhaps not more than five andtwenty, may have been justified in looking forward to a long, quiet, anduneventful reign, during which he might indulge the natural apathy ofhis temper, or dream away life, like his fabled neighbours, theLotus-Eaters. 

Menephthah's features were soft and womanly. He had a full but sleepyeye, a slightly aquiline nose an extremely short upper-lip, a broadcheek, and a rounded chin. In character he was weak, irresolute, wantingin physical courage, yet, as so often happens with weak characters, harsh, oppressive, and treacherous. The monuments depict him as neithera soldier nor an administrator, but as "one whose mind was turned almostexclusively towards the chimeras of sorcery and magic, " which heregarded as of the utmost importance. Still, had the times been quiet, had the prospect of tranquillity which seemed to lie before him on hisaccession been realized, he might perhaps have so conducted affairs asto bring neither discredit nor injury upon his country. But thecircumstances of the period were against him. The unclouded prospect ofhis early years gave place, after a brief interval, to storm and tempestof the most fearful kind; a terrible invasion carried fire and swordinto the heart of his dominions; and he had scarcely escaped this dangerby meeting it in a way not very honourable to himself, when internaltroubles broke out: a subject race, highly valued for services which itwas compelled to render, insisted on quitting the land; a great loss wasincurred in an attempt to compel it to remain; then open rebellion brokeout in the weakened state; and the reign, which had commenced under suchfair auspices, terminated in calamity and confusion. Menephthah wasquite incompetent to deal with the difficulties and complicationswherewith he found himself surrounded; he hesitated, temporized, madeconcessions, retracted them, and finally conducted Egypt to acatastrophe from which she did not recover for a generation. 

[Illustration: HEAD OF MENEPHTHAH. ]

The first great trouble which disturbed the tranquillity of his reignwas an invasion of his territories from the north-west. Hitherto, thoughno serious danger had ever threatened from this quarter, there had beenfrequent raids into Egypt on the part of the native Africans, and mostof the more warlike of the Egyptian monarchs had regarded it asincumbent on them to lead from time to time expeditions into the region, for the purpose of weakening the wild tribes, Tahennu, Maxyes, andothers, and inspiring them with a wholesome dread of the Egyptian power. Ramesses II. Had on one occasion warred in this quarter, as alreadyrelated, and had met with a certain amount of success. But since thattime many years had passed. A new generation had grown up, which theEgyptians had allowed to remain unmolested, and which felt no fear ofits quiet, peaceful, and industrious neighbours. Population had probablymultiplied in the region, and the tribes began to feel stinted for room. Above all, new relations had been contracted between the old inhabitantsof the tract and some other races, now for the first time heard of inauthentic history, who had been brought into contact with them. A leagueof nations had become possible; and the force of the united league musthave been considerable. Might not an actual conquest be effected, andthe half-starved nomads of Marmarica and the Cyrenaica become the lordsand masters of the rich plain, so long coveted, which adjoined upontheir eastern frontier?

The leading spirit of the combination was a native African prince, Marmaiu, the son of Deid. Having determined on a serious invasion ofEgypt, for the purpose of conquest, not of plunder, he first of allcollected his native forces, Lubu, Tahennu, Mashuash, Kahaka, to thenumber of twenty-five or thirty thousand, and then purchased theservices of a number of auxiliaries, who raised his force probably to atotal of thirty-five or forty thousand men. A peculiar interest attachesto these auxiliaries. They consisted of contingents from five nations, whose names are read as Akausha, Luku, Tursha, Shartana or Shardana, andSheklusha, and whom most modern historians of Egypt identify with theAchæans Laconians, Tyrsenians, Sardinians, and Sicilians. If theseidentifications are accepted--- and they are at least plausible--weshall have to suppose that, as early as the fourteenth century B. C. , thenations of Southern Europe were so far advanced as to launch fleets uponthe Mediterranean, to enter into a regular league with an Africanprince, and in conjunction with him to make an attack on one of thechief civilized monarchies of the world, the old kingdom of thePharaohs. We shall have to imagine the Achæans of the Peloponnese, acentury before the time of Agamemnon, braving the perils of the Levantin their cockle-shells of ships, and not merely plundering the coasts, but landing large bodies of men on the North African shore to take partin a regular campaign. We shall have to picture to ourselves theLaconians--the people of Menelaüs--about the time of his grandfather, Atreus, or his great-grandfather, Pelops, similarly employed, andcontending with the Pharaoh of the Exodus on the soil of the Delta. Nay, we shall have to antedate the rise of the Tyrsenians to naval greatnessby about seven hundred years, and to suppose that the Sicels and Sardi, whom the Greeks and Romans found living the life of savages in Sicilyand Sardinia, when they first visited their shores, about B. C. 750-600, were flourishing peoples and skilful navigators half a millenniumearlier. The picture which we thus obtain of the ancient world is verysurprising, and quite unlike anything that could be gathered from theliterature of the Greeks; but it is not to be regarded as beyond therange of possibility, since nations are quite as apt to lapse fromcivilization into barbarism as to emerge out of barbarism intocivilization. It is quite conceivable that the nations of South-EasternEurope were more advanced in civilization and the arts of life aboutB. C. 1400-1300 than they are found to have been six centuries later, thefalse dawn having been succeeded by a time of darkness before the truedawn came. 

However this may have been, it is certain that Menephthah, in the fifthyear of his reign, had to meet a formidable, and apparently unprovoked, attack from a combination of nations, the like of which we do not againmeet with in Egyptian history, either earlier or later. Marmaiu, son ofDeid, led against him a confederate army, consisting of three principaltribes of the Tahennu--- the Lubu (Libyans), the Mashuash (Maxyes), andthe Kahaka--together with auxiliaries from five other tribes or peoples, the Akausha, the Luku, the Tursha, the Shartana, and the Sheklusha. Theentire number of the army, as already stated, was probably not less thanforty thousand; they had numerous chariots, and were armed with bows andarrows, cuirasses, and bronze or copper swords. They had skin tents, andbrought with them their wives and children, with the intention ofsettling in Egypt, as the Hyksôs had done five hundred years earlier. They had also with them a considerable number of cattle, as bulls, oxen, and goats. The chiefs came provided with thrones, and both they andtheir officers had numerous drinking vessels of bronze, of silver, andof gold. 

The attack was made on the western side of Egypt, towards the apex ofthe Delta. It was at first completely successful. The small frontiertowns were taken by assault, and "turned Into heaps of rubbish;" theDelta was entered upon, and a position taken up In the nome ofPaari-sheps, or Prosopis, which lay between the Canobic and Sebennyticbranches of the Nile, commencing at the point of their separation. Fromthis position Memphis and Heliopolis were alike menaced. Menephthahhastily fortified these cities, or rather, we must suppose, strengthenedtheir existing defences. Meanwhile the Libyans and their allies ravagedthe open country. "The like had not been seen, " as the native scribeobserves, "even in the times of the kings of Lower Egypt, when theplague (_i. E. _ the Hyksôs power) was in the land, and the kings of UpperEgypt were unable to drive it out. " Egypt was desolated; its people"trembled like geese;" the fertile lands were overrun and wasted; thecities were pillaged; even the harbours were in some cases ruined anddestroyed. Menephthah for a time remained on the defensive, shut upwithin the walls of Memphis, whose god Phthah he viewed as his specialprotector. He made, however, strenuous efforts to gather together apowerful force; his captains collected the native troops from thevarious provinces of Egypt, while he sent a number of emissaries IntoAsia, who were instructed to raise a large body of mercenaries in thatquarter. At last all was ready, and Menephthah appointed the fourteenthday as that on which he would place himself at the head of his army andlead them in person against the enemy; but, before the day came, hiscourage failed him. He "saw in a dream"--at least so he himselfdeclares--"as it were a figure of the god Phthah, standing so as toprevent his advance;" and the figure said to him, "Stay where thou art, and let thy troops proceed against the enemy. " So the pious king, inobedience to this convenient vision, remained secure behind the walls ofMemphis, and sent his forces, native and mercenary, into the nome ofProsopis against the Libyans. The two armies joined battle on the 3rd ofEpiphi (May 18), and a desperate engagement took place, in which, aftersix hours of hard fighting, the Egyptians were victorious, and theconfederates suffered a severe defeat. Menephthah charges the Libyanchief with cowardice, but only because, after the battle was lost, heprecipitately quitted the field, leaving behind him, not only hiscamp-equipage, but his throne, the ornaments of his wives, his bow, hisquiver, and his sandals. The reproaches uttered recoil upon himself. Whose conduct is the more cowardly, that of the man who fights at thehead of his troops for six hours against an enemy, probably morenumerous, certainly better armed and better disciplined, and only quitsthe field when his forces are utterly overthrown and put to flight; orthat of one who avoids exposing himself to danger, and lurks behind thewalls of a fortress while his soldiers are affronting wounds and deathin the battlefield? There is no evidence that Marmaiu, son of Deid, inthe battle of Prosopis, conducted himself otherwise than as became aprince and a general; there is abundant evidence that Menephthah, son ofRamesses, who declined to be present at the engagement, showed the whitefeather. 

The defeat of Prosopis was decisive. Marmaiu lost in slain between eightthousand and nine thousand of his troops, or, according to anotherestimate, between twelve thousand and thirteen thousand. Above ninethousand were made prisoners. The tents, camp-equipage, and cattle, fellinto the hands of the enemy. The expedition at once broke up anddispersed. Marmaiu returned into his own land with a shattered remnantof his grand army, and devoted himself to peaceful pursuits, or at anyrate abstained from any further collision with the Egyptians. Themercenaries, whatever the races to which they in reality belonged, learned by experience the wisdom of leaving the Libyans to fight theirown battles, and are not again found in alliance with them. The Akaiushaand Luku appear in Egyptian history no more. The Tursha and Sheklusha donot wholly disappear, but receive occasional mention among the raceshostile to Egypt As for the Shartana or Shardana, they were struck withso much admiration of the Egyptian courage and conduct, that theyshortly afterwards entered the Egyptian service, and came to hold aplace among the most trusted of the Egyptian troops. 

Despite his cowardice in absenting himself from the battle of Prosopisunder the transparent device of a divine vision, Menephthah took tohimself the whole credit of the victory, and gloried in it as much as ifhe had really had a hand in bringing about the result. "The Lubu, " hesays, "were meditating to do evil in Egypt; they were as grasshoppers;every road was blocked by their hosts. Then I vowed to lead themcaptive. Lo, I vanquished them; I slaughtered them, making a spoil oftheir country. I made the land of Egypt traversable once more; I gavebreath to those who were in the cities. " Egyptian generals, like Romanpoets, had to content themselves with complaining secretly, "Sic vos nonvobis. "

So far as we can tell, no long period elapsed between the expedition ofMarmaiu, son of Deid, and the second great trouble in which Menephthahwas involved. Moses must have returned to Egypt from his sojourn inMidian within a year or two of the death of Ramesses II. , and cannothave allowed any very long time to elapse before he proffered the demandwhich he was divinely commissioned to make. Still, as he was timid, anda somewhat unwilling messenger, he may have delayed both his return andhis first address to Pharaoh as long as he dared (Ex. Iv. 19); and ifthe invasion of Marmaiu had begun before he had summoned courage toaddress Pharaoh a second time, he would then naturally wait until thedanger was past, and the king could again be approached without manifestimpropriety. In this case, the severe oppression of the Israelites, which followed the first application of Moses (Ex. V. 5-23) may havelasted longer than has generally been supposed; and it may not have beentill Menephthah's sixth or seventh year that the divine messenger becameurgent, and began to press his request, and to show the signs andwonders which alone, as he had been told (Ex. Vii. 2-4), would break thespirit of the king. The signs then followed each other at moderatelyshort intervals, the entire series of the plagues not covering a longerspace than about six months, from October till April. None of theplagues affected the king greatly except the last, through which he losthis own eldest son, a bereavement mentioned in an inscription. Thisloss, combined with the dread power shown in the infliction during onenight of not less than a million of deaths, produced a completerevolution in the mind of the king, and made him as anxious at themoment to get rid of the Israelites out of his country as he hadpreviously been anxious to retain them. So he called for Moses and Aaronby night and said. "Rise up, get you forth from among my people, both yeand the children of Israel, and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; andbless me also" (Ex. Xii. 31, 32). Moses was prepared for the event, andhad prepared his people. All were ready, with their loins girded, theirsandals on their feet, and their staves in their hands; the word wasgiven, and the exodus began. "The children of Israel journeyed fromRameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children; and a mixed multitude went up also with them; andflocks, and herds, even very much cattle. "

Hereupon the king's mind underwent another change. "Unstable as water, "he was certain not to "excel. " Learning that the Israelites, instead ofmarching away into the desert, had after reaching its edge turnedsouthward, and were "entangled" in a corner of his territory, betweenhigh mountains on the one hand, and on the other the Red Sea, whichthen stretched far further to the north than at present, perhaps to LakeTimseh, at any rate as far as the "Bitter Lakes, " he thought he saw anopportunity of following and recovering the fugitives, whose services asbondsmen he highly valued. Rapidly calling together such troops as weretolerably near at hand, he collected a considerable force of infantryand chariots--of the latter more than six hundred--and following uponthe steps of the Hebrews, he caught them on the western shore of the RedSea, encamped "between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-Zephon. "The exact spot cannot be fixed, on account of the alterations in the bedof the Red Sea, and the uncertainty of the ancient geography of Egypt, in which names so often repeat themselves; but it was probably some partof the region that is now dry land, between Suez and the southernextremity of the Bitter Lakes. Here in high tides the sea and the lakescommunicated; but on the evening of Menephthah's arrival, an unusual ebbof the tide, cooperating with a "strong east wind" which held back thewater of the Bitter Lakes, left the bed of the sea bare for a certainspace; and the Israelites were thus able to cross during the night fromone side of the sea to the other. As morning dawned, Menephthah, oncemore carefully guarding his own person, sent his chariots in pursuit. The force entered on the slippery and dangerous ground, and advancedhalf-way; but its progress was slow; the chariot-wheels sank into thesoft ooze, the horses slipped and floundered; all was disorder andconfusion. Before the troops could extricate themselves, the watersreturned on either hand; a high flow of the tide, the necessaryconsequence of a low ebb, brought In the whelming flood from thesouth-east; a strong wind from the Mediterranean, drove down upon themthe pent up waters of the Bitter Lakes from the north-west. The channel, which had lately been dry land, became once more sea, and the entireforce that had entered it in pursuit of the Israelites perished. Safe onthe opposite shore, the Israelites saw the utter destruction of theiradversaries, whose dead bodies, driven before the gale, were cast up inhundreds upon the coast where they sate encamped (Ex. Xiv. 30). 

The disaster paralyzed the monarch, and he made no further effort. Ifthe loss was not great numerically, it affected the most important armof the service, and it was the destruction of the very _élite_ of theEgyptian troops. It was a blow in which the anger of the Egyptian godsmay well have been seen by some, while others may have regarded it as arevelation of the incompetence of the monarch. The blow seems to havebeen followed, within a short time, by revolt. Menephthah's lastmonumental year is his eighth. A pretender to the crown arose in acertain Amon-mes, or Amon-meses, who contested the throne with Seti II. , Menephthah's son, and succeeded in establishing himself as king; but formany years there raged in Egypt, as so often happens when a state issuddenly weakened, civil war, bloodshed, and confusion. 

The two dynasties that have last occupied us constitute the mostbrilliant period of Egyptian architecture; for, as Fergusson, the latesthistorian of architecture, has said, the hall of Seti at Karnak is "thegreatest of man's architectural works, " the building to which it belongsis "the noblest effort of architectural magnificence ever produced bythe hand of man, " and the rock-cut temple of Ipsambul is "the finest ofits class known to exist anywhere. " These works combine enormous massand size with a profusion of elaborate ornamentation. Covering nearly asmuch ground as the greatest of the pyramids, and containing equallyenormous blocks of stone, the Theban palace-temples unite a wealth ofvaried ornamentation almost unparalleled among the edifices erected byman. Here are long avenues of sphinxes and colossi, leading to tall, tapering obelisks which shoot upwards like the pinnacles, towers, andspires of a modern cathedral, while beyond the obelisks are vistas ofgateways and courts, of colonnades and pillared halls, that impress thebeholder with a deep sense of the constructive imagination of thearchitect who could design them, no less than with admiration of theruler whose resources were sufficient to make them realities. 

Truly the Egyptians were, as Mr. Fergusson enthusiastically asserts, "the most essentially a building people of all those we are acquaintedwith, and the most generally successful in all that they attempted inthis way. The Greeks, it is true, surpassed them in refinement andbeauty of detail, and in the class of sculpture with which theyornamented their buildings, while the Gothic architects far excelledthem in constructive cleverness; but with these exceptions, no otherstyles can be put into competition with them. At the same time, neitherGrecian nor Gothic architects understood more perfectly all thegradations of art, and the exact character that should be given to everyform and every detail. .. . They understood also better than any othernation, how to use sculpture In combination with architecture, and tomake their colossi and avenues of sphinxes group themselves into partsof one great design, and at the same time to use historical paintings, fading by insensible degrees into hieroglyphics on the one hand, andinto sculpture on the other, linking the whole together with the highestclass of phonetic utterance. With the most brilliant colouring, theythus harmonized all these arts Into one great whole, unsurpassed byanything the world has seen during the thirty centuries of struggle andaspiration that have elapsed since the brilliant days of the greatkingdom of the Pharaohs. "

Not only did architecture and the glyphic art reach such perfectionduring this period, but the arts of life made considerable progress. Theroyal costumes became suddenly most elaborate; brilliant colours, costlyarmlets and bracelets, many-hued collars, complicated head-dresses, elegant sandals, jewels of price, gay sashes, and wigs with conventionaladornment, came into vogue. Luxury was exhibited in the designs of thedwellings of the wealthy; the grounds were laid out with formal courtsand alleys, palms and vines adorned them, ponds and reservoirs gavefreshness to the summer temperature, irrigation clothed the lawns withverdure. Inside, there was richly carved furniture covered with cushionsof delicate stuffs, and adding the harmony of colour to the luxuriousscene. 

The horse, which had been introduced from Asia, helped in the march ofextravagance and refinement; the chariot took the place of thepalanquin, and there was a new opportunity for adornment in thetrappings, as well as in the construction of light or heavy vehicles. 

At the same time, letters made equal progress; men of wisdom devotedthemselves to the preservation of the knowledge of the past, and to thecomposition of original works in history, divinity, poetry, correspondence, and practical philosophy, for the preservation of whicha public library was established at Thebes under a competent director. The highest perfection thus reached in the arts of peace seems to havebeen coincident with an advance in sensualism; indecency in apparel wascommon, polygamy increased, woman lost her former degree of purity;cruelty and barbarism were more and more common in war; taxation boreheavily and without pity upon the lower orders, and the wretchedfellahin were beaten by the severest of tyrants, the irresponsibletax-gatherer; women as well as men were stripped for the indignity andpain of the terrible bastinado; and even dead enemies were mutilated forthe purpose of preserving evidence of their numbers. 

XVII. 

THE DECLINE OF EGYPT UNDER THE LATER RAMESSIDES. 

The troublous period which followed the death of Menephthah issuedfinally in complete anarchy, Egypt broke up into nomes, or cantons, thechiefs of which acknowledged no superior. It was as though in England, after centuries of centralized rule, the Heptarchy had suddenly returnedand re-established itself. But even this was not the worst. The suicidalfolly of internal division naturally provokes foreign attack; and it wasnot long before Aarsu, a Syrian chieftain, took advantage of the stateof affairs in Egypt to extend his own dominion over one nome afteranother, until he had made almost the whole country subject to him. Then, at last, the spirit of patriotism awoke. Egypt felt the shame ofbeing ruled by a foreigner of a race that she despised; and a prince wasfound after a time, a descendant of the Ramesside line, who unfurled thenational banner, and commenced a war of independence. This prince, whobore the name of Set-nekht, or "Set the victorious, " is thought by someto have been a son of Seti II. , and so a grandson of Menephthah; but theevidence is insufficient to establish any such relationship. There isreason to believe that the blood of the nineteenth dynasty, of Seti I. And Ramesses II. , ran in his veins; but no particular relationship toany former monarch can be made out. And certainly he owed his crown lessto his descent than to his strong arm and his stout heart. It was bydint of severe fighting that he forced his way to the throne, defeatingAarsu, and gradually reducing all Egypt under his power. 

Set-nekht's reign must have been short He set himself to "put the wholeland in order, to execute the abominables, to set up the temples, andre-establish the divine offerings for the service of the gods, as theirstatutes prescribed, " But he was unable to effect very much. He couldnot even discharge properly the main duty of a king towards himself, which was to prepare a fitting receptacle for his remains when he shouldquit the earth. To excavate a rock-tomb in the style fashionable at theday was a task requiring several years for its due accomplishment;Set-nekht felt that he could not look forward to many years--perhaps noteven to many months--of life. In this difficulty, he felt no shame inappropriating to himself a royal tomb recently constructed by a king, named Siphthah, whom he looked upon as a usurper, and therefore asunworthy of consideration. In this sepulchre we see the names ofSiphthah and his queen, Taouris, erased by the chisel from theircartouches, and the name of Set-nekht substituted in their place. By oneand the same act the king punished an unworthy predecessor, and providedhimself with a ready--made tomb befitting his dignity. 

It was also, probably, on account of his advanced age at his accession, that he almost immediately associated in the kingdom his son Ramesses, aprince of much promise, whom he made "Chief of On, " and viceroy overLower Egypt, with Heliopolis (On) for his residence and capital. Ramesses the Third, as he is commonly called, was one of the mostdistinguished of Egyptian monarchs, and the last who acquired any greatglory until we come down to the time of the Ethiopians, Shabak andTirhakah. He reigned as sole monarch for thirty-one years, during theearlier portion of which period he carried on a number of importantwars, while during the later portion he employed himself in theconstruction of those magnificent buildings, which have been chieflyinstrumental in carrying his name down to posterity, and in other worksof utility. Lenormant calls him "the last of the great sovereigns ofEgypt, " and observes with reason, that though he never ceased, duringthe whole time that he occupied the throne, to labour hard tore-establish the integrity of the empire abroad, and the prosperity ofthe country at home, yet his wars and his conquests had a characteressentially defensive; his efforts, like those of the Trajans, theMarcus Aurelius's and the Septimius Severus's of history, were directedto making head against the ever rising flood of barbarians, which hadalready before his time burst the dykes that restrained it, and thoughonce driven back, continued to dash itself on every side against theouter borders of the empire, and to presage its speedy overthrow. Hisefforts were, on the whole, successful; he was able to uphold andpreserve for some considerable time longer the territorial greatnesswhich the nineteenth dynasty had built up a second time. The monumentaltemple of Medinet-Abou, near Thebes, is the Pantheon erected to theglory of this great Pharaoh. Every pylon, every gateway, every chamber, relates to us the exploits which he accomplished. Sculpturedcompositions of large dimensions represent his principal battles. 

There are times in the world's history when a restless spirit appears toseize on the populations of large tracts of country, and, without anyclear cause that can be alleged, uneasy movements begin. Subduedmutterings are heard; a tremor goes through the nations, expectation ofcoming change stalks abroad; the air is rife with rumours; at last therebursts out an eruption of greater or less violence--the destructiveflood overleaps its barriers, and flows forth, carrying devastation andruin in one direction of another, until its energies are exhausted, orits progress stopped by some obstacle that it cannot overcome, and itsubsides reluctantly and perforce. Such a time was that on whichRamesses III. Was cast. Wars threatened him on every side. On hisnorth-eastern frontier the Shasu or Bedouins of the desert ravaged andplundered, at once harrying the Egyptian territory and threatening themining establishments of the Sinaitic region. To the north-west theLibyan tribes, Maxyes, Asbystæ, Auseis, and others, were exercising acontinuous pressure, to which the Egyptians were forced to yield, andgradually a foreign population was "squatting" on the fertile lands, anddriving the former possessors of the soil back upon the more easternportion-of the Delta. "The Lubu and Mashuash, " says Ramesses, "were_seated_ in Egypt; they took the cities on the western side from Memphisas far as Karbana, reaching the Great River along its entire course(from Memphis northwards), and capturing the city of Kaukut For manyyears had they been in Egypt" Ramesses began his warlike operations by acampaign against the Shasu, whose country he invaded and overran, spoiling and destroying their cabins, capturing their cattle, slayingall who resisted him, and carrying back into Egypt a vast number ofprisoners, whom he attached to the various temples as "sacred slaves. "He then turned against the Libyans, and coming upon them unexpectedly inthe tract between the Sebennytic branch of the Nile and the Canopic, hedefeated in a great battle the seven tribes of the Mashuash, Lubu, Merbasat, Kaikasha, Shai, Hasa, and Bakana, slaughtering them with theutmost fury, and driving them before him across the western branch ofthe river. "They trembled before him, " says the native historian, "asthe mountain goats tremble before a bull, who stamps with his foot, strikes with his horns, and makes the mountains shake as he rushes onwhoever opposes him. " The Egyptians gave no quarter that memorable day. Vengeance had free course: the slain Libyans lay in heaps uponheaps--the chariot wheels passed over them--the horses trampled them inthe mire. Hundreds were pushed and forced into the marshes and into theriver itself, and, if they escaped the flight of missiles whichfollowed, found for the most part a watery grave in the strong current. Ramesses portrays this flight and carnage in the most graphic way. Theslain enemy strew the ground, as he advances over them with his prancingsteeds and in his rattling war-car, plying them moreover with his arrowsas they vainly seek to escape. His chariot force and his infantry havetheir share in the pursuit, and with sword, or spear, or javelin, strikedown alike the resisting and the unresisting. No one seeks to take aprisoner. It is a day of vengeance and of down-treading, of fury allowedto do its worst, of a people drunk with passion that has cast off allself-restraint. 

Even passion exhausts itself at last, and the arm grows weary ofslaughtering. Having sufficiently revenged themselves in the greatbattle, and the pursuit that followed it, the Egyptians relaxed somewhatfrom their policy of extreme hostility. They made a large number of theLibyans prisoners, branded them with a hot iron, as the Persians oftendid their prisoners, and forced them to join the naval service and serveas mariners on board the Egyptian fleet. The chiefs of greaterimportance they confined in fortresses. The women and children becamethe slaves of the conquerors; the cattle, "too numerous to count, " waspresented by Ramesses to the Priest-College of Ammon at Thebes. 

So far success had crowned his arms; and it may well be that Ramesseswould have been content with the military glory thus acquired, and haveabstained from further expeditions, had not he been forced within a fewyears to take the field against a powerful combination of new andpartly unheard-of enemies. The uneasy movement among the nations, whichhas been already noticed, had spread further afield, and now agitated atonce the coasts and islands of South-Eastern Europe, and the morewestern portion of Asia Minor. Seven nations banded themselves together, and resolved to unite their forces, both naval and military, againstEgypt, and to attack her both by land and sea, not now on thenorth-western frontier, where some of them had experienced defeatbefore, but in exactly the opposite quarter, by way of Syria andPalestine. Of the seven, three had been among her former adversaries inthe time of Menephthah, namely, the Sheklusha, the Shartana, and theTursha; while four were new antagonists, unknown at any former period. There were, first, the Tânauna, in whom it is usual to see either theDanai of the Peloponnese, so celebrated in Homer, or the Daunii ofsouth-eastern Italy, who bordered on the Iapyges; secondly, the Tekaru, or Teucrians, a well-known people of the Troad; thirdly, the Uashasha, who are identified with the Oscans or Ausones, neighbours of theDaunians; and fourthly, the Purusata, whom some explain as the Pelasgi, and others as the Philistines. The lead in the expedition was taken bythese last. At their summons the islands and shores of the Mediterraneangave forth their piratical hordes--the sea was covered by their lightgalleys and swept by their strong pars--Tânauna, Shartana, Sheklusha, Tursha, and Uashasha combined their squadrons into a powerful fleet, while Purusata and Tekaru advanced in countless numbers along the land. The Purusata were especially bent on effecting a settlement; theymarched into Northern Syria from Asia Minor accompanied by their wivesand children, who were mounted upon carts drawn by oxen, and formed avast unwieldy crowd. The other nations sent their sailors and theirwarriors without any such encumbrances. Bursting through the passes ofTaurus, the combined Purusata and Tekaru spread themselves over NorthernSyria, wasting and plundering the entire country of the Khita, andproceeding eastward as far as Carchemish "by Euphrates, " while the shipsof the remaining confederates coasted along the Syrian shore. Suchresistance as the Hittites and Syrians made was wholly ineffectual. "Nopeople stood before their arms. " Aradus and Kadesh fell. The conquerorspushed on towards Egypt, anticipating an easy victory. But their fondhopes were doomed to disappointment. 

Ramesses had been informed of the designs and approach of the enemy, andhad had ample time to make all needful preparations. He had strengthenedhis frontier, called out all his best-disciplined troops, and placed themouths of the Nile in a state of defence by means of forts, stronggarrisons, and flotillas upon the stream and upon the lakes adjacent. Hehad selected an eligible position for encountering the advancing hordeson the coast route from Gaza to Egypt, about half-way between Raphia andPelusium, where a new fort had been built by his orders. At this pointhe took his stand, and calmly awaited his enemies, not having neglectedthe precaution to set an ambush or two in convenient places. Here, ashe kept his watch, the first enemy to arrive was the land host of thePurusata, encumbered with its long train of slowly moving bullock-carts, heavily laden with women and children. Ramesses instantly attackedthem--his ambushes rose up out of their places of concealment--and theenemy was beset on every side. They made no prolonged resistance. Assaulted by the disciplined and seasoned troops of the Egyptians, theentire confused mass was easily defeated. Twelve thousand five hundredmen were slain in the fight; the camp was taken; the army shattered topieces. Nothing was open to the survivors but an absolute surrender, bywhich life was saved at the cost of perpetual servitude. 

The danger, however, was as yet but half overcome--the snake wasscotched but not killed. For as yet the fleet remained intact, and mightland its thousands on the Egyptian coasts and carry fire and sword overthe broad region of the Delta. The Tânauna and theirconfederates--Sheklusha, Shartana, and Tursha--made rapidly for thenearest mouth of the Nile, which was the Pelusiac, and did their best toeffect a landing. But the precautions taken by Ramesses, before he setforth on his march, proved sufficient to frustrate their efforts. TheEgyptian fleet met the combined squadrons of the enemy in the shallowwaters of the Pelusiac lagoon, and contended with them in a fiercebattle, which Ramesses caused to be represented in his sculptures--theearliest representation of a sea-fight that has come down to us. Bothsides have ships propelled at once by sails and oars, but furl theirsails before engaging. Each ship has a single yard, constructed tocarry a single large square-sail, and hung across the vessel's singlemast at a short distance below the top. The mast is crowned by abell-shaped receptacle, large enough to contain a man, who is generallya slinger or an archer, placed there to gall the enemy with stones orarrows, and so to play the part of our own sharpshooters in themain-tops. The rowers are from sixteen to twenty-two in number, besideswhom each vessel carries a number of fighting men, armed with shields, spears, swords, and bows. The fight is a promiscuous _melée_, the twofleets being intermixed, and each ship engaging that next to it, withouta thought of combined action or of manoeuvres. One of the enemy'svessels is represented as capsized and sinking; the rest continue theengagement. Several are pressing towards the shore of the lagoon, andthe men-at-arms on board them are endeavouring to effect a landing; butthey are met by the land-force under Ramesses himself, who greet themwith such a hail of arrows as renders it impossible for them to carryout their purpose. 

[Illustration: SEA-FIGHT IN THE TIME OF RAMESSES III. ]

It would seem that Ramesses had no sooner defeated and destroyed thearmy of the Purusata and Tekaru than he set off in haste for Pelusium, and marched with such speed as to arrive in time to witness the navalengagement, and even to take a certain part in it. The invading fleetwas so far successful as to force its way through the opposing vesselsof the Egyptians, and to press forward towards the shore; but here itsfurther progress was arrested. "A wall of iron, " says Ramesses, "shutthem in upon the lake, " The best troops of Egypt lined the banks ofthe lagoon, and wherever the invaders attempted to land they werefoiled. Repulsed, dashed to the ground, hewn down or shot down at theedge of the water, they were slain "by hundreds of heaps of corpses. ""The infantry, " says the monarch in his vainglorious inscription, set upin memory of the event, "all the choicest troops of the army of Egypt, stood upon the bank, furious as roaring lions; the chariot force, selected from among the heroes that were quickest in battle, was led byofficers confident in themselves. The war-steeds quivered in all theirlimbs, and burned to trample the nations under their feet. I myself waslike the god Mentu, the warlike; I placed myself at their head, and theysaw the achievements of my hands. I, Ramesses the king, behaved as ahero who knows his worth, and who stretches out his arm over his peoplein the day of combat. The invaders of my territory will gather no moreharvests upon the earth, their life is counted to them as eternity. Those that gained the shore, I caused to fall at the water's edge, theylay slain in heaps; I overturned their vessels; all their goods sank Inthe waves. " After a brief combat, all resistance ceased. The emptyships, floating at random upon the still waters of the lagoon, or stuckfast in the Nile mud, became the prize of the victors, and were found tocontain a rich booty. Thus ended this remarkable struggle, in whichnations widely severed and of various bloods--scarcely, as one wouldhave thought, known to each other, and separated by a diversity ofinterests--united in an attack upon the foremost power of the knownworld, traversed several hundreds of miles of land or sea successfully, neither quarrelling among themselves nor meeting with disaster fromwithout, and reached the country which they had hoped to conquer, butwere there completely defeated and repulsed in two engagements--one byland, the other partly by land and partly by sea--so that "their spiritwas annihilated, their soul was taken from them. " Henceforth no one ofthe nations which took part in the combined attack is found in armsagainst the power that had read them so severe a lesson. 

It was not long after repulsing this attack upon the independence ofEgypt that Ramesses undertook his "campaign of revenge. " Starting with afleet and army along the line that his assailants had followed, hetraversed Palestine and Syria, hunting the lion in the outskirts ofLebanon, and re-establishing for a time the Egyptian dominion over muchof the region which had been formerly held in subjection by the greatmonarchs of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. He claims to havecarried his arms to Aleppo and Carchemish, in which case we must supposethat he defeated the Hittites, or else that they declined to meet him inthe field; and he gives a list of thirty-eight conquered countries ortribes, which are thought to belong to Upper Syria, Southern Asia Minor, and Cyprus. In some of his inscriptions he even speaks of havingrecovered Naharaina, Kush, and Punt; but there is no evidence that hereally visited--much less conquered--these remote regions. 

The later life of Ramesses III. Was, on the whole a time oftranquillity and repose. The wild tribes of North Africa, after onefurther attempt to establish themselves in the western Delta, whichwholly failed, acquiesced in the lot which nature seemed to haveassigned them, and, leaving the Egyptians in peace, contented themselveswith the broad tract over which they were free to rove between theMediterranean and the Sahara Desert. On the south Ethiopia made no sign. In the east the Hittites had enough to do to rebuild the power which hadbeen greatly shattered by the passage of the hordes of Asia Minorthrough their territory, on their way to Egypt and on their return fromit. The Assyrians had not yet commenced their aggressive wars towardsthe north and west, having probably still a difficulty in maintainingtheir independence against the attacks of Babylon. Egypt was leftundisturbed by her neighbours for the space of several generations, andherself refrained from disturbing the peace of the world by foreignexpeditions. Ramesses turned his attention to building, commerce, andthe planting of Egypt with trees. He constructed and ornamented thebeautiful temple of Ammon at Medinet-Abou, built a fleet on the Red Seaand engaged in trade with Punt, dug a great reservoir in the country ofAina (Southern Palestine), and "over the whole land of Egypt plantedtrees and shrubs, to give the inhabitants rest under their cool shade. "

The general decline of Egypt must, however, be regarded as havingcommenced in his reign. His Eastern conquests were more specious thansolid, resulting in a nominal rather than a real subjection of Palestineand Syria to his yoke. His subjects grew unaccustomed to the use ofarms during the last twenty, or five and twenty, years of his life. Above all, luxury, intrigue, and superstition invaded the court, wherethe eunuchs and concubines exercised a pernicious influence. Magic waspractised by some of the chief men in the State, and the belief waswidely spread that it was possible by charms, incantations, and the useof waxen images, to bewitch men, or paralyse their limbs, or even tocause their deaths. Hags were to be found about the court as wicked asCanidia, who were willing to sell their skill in the black art to thehighest bidder. The actual person of the monarch was not sacred from theplottings of this nefarious crew, who planned assassinations and hatchedconspiracies in the very purlieus of the royal palace. Ramesses himselfwould, apparently, have fallen a victim to a plot of the kind, had notthe parties to it been discovered, arrested, tried by a RoyalCommission, and promptly executed. 

The descendants of Ramesses III. Occupied the throne from his death(about B. C. 1280) to B. C. 1100. Ten princes of the name of Ramesses, andone called Meri-Tum, bore sway during this interval, each of themshowing, if possible, greater weakness than the last, and all of themsunk in luxury, idle, effeminate, sensual. Ramesses III. Provokedcaricature by his open exhibition of harem-scenes on the walls of hisMedinet-Abou palace. His descendants, content with harem life, scarcelycared to quit the precincts of the royal abode, desisted from all war, and even devolved the task of government on other shoulders. ThePharaohs of the twentieth dynasty became absolute _fainéants_, anddevolved their duties on the high-priests of the great temple of Ammonat Thebes, who "set themselves to play the same part which at a distantperiod was played by the Mayors of the Palace under the later Frenchkings of the Merovingian line. "

In an absolute monarchy, the royal authority is the mainspring whichcontrols all movements and all actions in every part of the State. Letthis source of energy grow weak, and decline at once shows itselfthroughout the entire body politic. It is as when a fatal malady seizeson the seat of life in an individual--instantly every member, everytissue, falls away, suffers, shrinks, decays, perishes. Egyptianarchitecture is simply non-existent from the death of Ramesses III. Tothe age of Sheshonk; the "grand style" of pictorial art disappears;sculpture in relief becomes a wearisome repetition of the samestereotyped religious groups; statuary deteriorates and is rare; aboveall, literature declines, undergoing an almost complete eclipse. Agalaxy of literary talent had, as we have seen, clustered about thereigns of Ramesses II. And Menephthah, under whose encouragement authorshad devoted themselves to history, divinity, practical philosophy, poetry, epistolary correspondence, novels, travels, legend. From thetime of Ramesses III. --nay, from the time of Seti II. --all is a blank:"the true poetic inspiration appears to have vanished, " literature isalmost dumb; instead of the masterpieces of Pentaour, Kakabu, Nebsenen, Enna, and others, which even moderns can peruse with pleasure, we haveonly documents in which "the dry official tone" prevails--abstracts oftrials, lists of functionaries, tiresome enumerations in the greatestdetail of gifts made to the gods, together with fulsome praises of thekings, written either by themselves or by others, which we are halfinclined to regret the lapse of ages has spared from destruction. At thesame time morals fall off. Sensuality displays itself in high places. Intrigue enters the charmed circle of the palace. The monarch himself issatirized in indecent drawings. Presently, the whole idea of a divinityhedging in the king departs; and a "thieves' society" is formed forrifling the royal tombs, and tearing the jewels, with which they havebeen buried, from the monarchs' persons. The king's life is aimed at byconspirators, who do not scruple to use magical arts; priests and highjudicial functionaries are implicated in the proceedings. Altogether, the old order seems to be changed, the old ideas to be upset; and nonew principles, possessing any vital efficacy, are introduced. Societygradually settles upon its lees; and without some violent application offorce from without, or some strange upheaval from within, the nationseems doomed to fall rapidly into decay and dissolution. 

[Illustration: CARICATURE OF THE TIME OF RAMESSES III. ]

XVIII. 

THE PRIEST-KINGS--PINETEM AND SOLOMON. 

The position of the priests in Egypt was, from the first, one of highdignity and influence. Though not, strictly speaking, a caste, theyformed a very distinct order or class, separated by importantprivileges, and by their habits of life, from the rest of the community, and recruited mainly from among their own sons, and other nearrelatives. Their independence and freedom was secured by a system ofendowments. From a remote antiquity a considerable portion of the landof Egypt--perhaps as much as one-third--was made over to the priestlyclass, large estates being attached to each temple, and held as commonproperty by the "colleges, " which, like the chapters of our cathedrals, directed the worship of each sacred edifice. These priestly estateswere, we are told, exempt from taxation of any kind; and they appear tohave received continual augmentation from the piety or superstition ofthe kings, who constantly made over to their favourite deities fresh"gardens, orchards, vineyards, fields, " and even "cities. "

The kings lived always in a considerable amount of awe of the priests. Though claiming a certain qualified divinity themselves, they yet couldnot but be aware that there were divers flaws and Imperfections intheir own divinity--"little rifts within the lute"--which made it notquite a safe support to trust to, or lean upon, entirely. There wereother greater gods than themselves--gods from whom their own divinitywas derived; and they could not be certain what power or influence thepriests might not have with these superior beings, in whose existenceand ability to benefit and injure men they had the fullest belief. Consequently, the kings are found to occupy a respectful attitudetowards the priests throughout the whole course of Egyptian history, from first to last; and this respectful attitude Is especiallymaintained towards the great personages in whom the hierarchyculminates, the head officials, or chief priests, of the temples whichare the principal centres of the national worship--the temple of Ra, orTum, at Heliopolis, that of Phthah at Memphis, and that of Ammon atThebes. According to the place where the capital was fixed for the timebeing, one or other of these three high-priests had the pre-eminence;and, in the later period of the Ramessides, Thebes having enjoyedmetropolitan dignity for between five and six centuries, the ThebanHigh-Priest of Ammon was recognized as beyond dispute the chief of thesacerdotal order, and the next person in the kingdom after the king. 

It had naturally resulted from this high position, and the weight ofinfluence which it enabled its possessor to exercise, that the officehad become hereditary. As far back as the reign of Ramesses IX. , we findthat the holder of the position has succeeded his father in it, andregards himself as high-priest rather by natural right than by the willof the king. The priest of that time, Amenhotep by name, the son ofRamesses-nekht, undertakes the restoration of the Temple of Ammon atThebes of his own proper motion, "strengthens its walls, builds it anew, makes its columns, inserts in its gates the great folding-doors ofacacia wood. " Formerly, the kings were the builders, and thehigh-priests carried out their directions and then in the name of thegods gave thanks to the kings for their pious munificence. Under theninth Ramesses the order was reversed--"now it is the king who testifieshis gratitude to the High-Priest of Ammon for the care bestowed on histemple by the erection of new buildings and the improvement andmaintenance of the older ones. " The initiative has passed out of theking's hands into those of his subject; he is active, the king ispassive; all the glory is Amenhotep's; the king merely comes in at theclose of all, as an ornamental person, whose presence adds a certaindignity to the final ceremony. 

[Illustration: HEAD OF HER-HOR. ]

Under the last of the Ramessides the High-Priest of Ammon at Thebes wasa certain Her-hor. He was a man of a pleasing countenance, with featuresthat were delicate and good, and an expression that was mild andagreeable. He had the art so to ingratiate himself with his sovereign asto obtain at his hands at least five distinct offices of state besideshis sacred dignity. He was "Chief of Upper and Lower Egypt, " "Royal sonof Gush, " "Fanbearer on the right hand of the King, " "PrincipalArchitect, " and "Administrator of the Granaries, " Some of these officesmay have been honorary; but the duties of others must have beenimportant, and their proper discharge would have required a vast amountof varied ability. It is not likely that Herhor possessed all theneedful qualifications; rather we must presume that he grasped at themultiplicity of appointments in order to accumulate power, so far as waspossible, in his own hands, and thereby to be in a better position toseize the royal authority on the monarch's demise. If Ramesses III. Diedwithout issue, his task must have been facilitated; at any rate, heseems to have had the skill to accomplish it without struggle ordisturbance; and if, as some suppose, he banished the remainingdescendants of Ramesses III. To the Great Oasis, at any rate he did notstain his priestly hands with bloodshed, or force his way to the thronethrough scenes of riot and confusion. Egypt, so far as appears, quietlyacquiesced in his rule, and perhaps rejoiced to find herself once moregoverned by a prince of a strong and energetic nature. 

For some time after he had mounted the throne, Herhor did not abandonhis priestly functions. He bore the title of High-Priest of Ammonregularly on one of his royal escutcheons, while on the other he calledhimself "Her-Hor Si-Ammon, " or "Her-Hor, son of Ammon, " following theexample of former kings, who gave themselves out for sons of Ra, orPhthah, or Mentu, or Horus. But ultimately he surrendered the priestlytitle to his eldest son, Piankh, and no doubt at the same time devolvedupon him the duties which attached to the high-priestly office. Therewas something unseemly in a priest being a soldier, and Herhor wassmitten with the ambition of putting himself at the head of an army, andreasserting the claim of Egypt to a supremacy over Syria. He callshimself "the conqueror of the Ruten, " and there is no reason to doubtthat he was successful in a Syrian campaign, though to what distance hepenetrated must remain uncertain. The Egyptian monarchs are not veryexact in their geographical nomenclature, and Herhor may have spoken ofRuten, when his adversaries were really the Bedouins of the desertbetween Egypt and Palestine. The fact that his expedition is unnoticedin the Hebrew Scriptures renders it tolerably certain that he did noteffect any permanent conquest, even of Palestine. 

Herhor's son, Piankh, who became High-Priest of Ammon on his father'sabdication of the office, does not appear to have succeeded him in thekingdom. Perhaps he did not outlive his father. At any rate, the kinglyoffice seems to have passed from Herhor to his grandson, Pinetem, whowas a monarch of some distinction, and had a reign of at leasttwenty-five years. Pinetem's right to the crown was disputed bydescendants of the Ramesside line of kings; and he thought it worthwhile to strengthen his title by contracting a marriage with a princessof that royal stock, a certain Ramaka, or Rakama, whose name appears onhis monuments. But compromise with treason has rarely a tranquillizingeffect; and Pinetem's concession to the prejudices which formed thestock-in-trade of his opponents only exasperated them and urged them togreater efforts. The focus of the conspiracy passed from the Oasis toThebes, which had grown disaffected because Pinetem had removed the seatof government to Tanis in the Delta, which was the birthplace of hisgrandfather, Herhor. So threatening had become the general aspect ofaffairs, that the king thought it prudent to send his son, Ra-men-khepror Men-khepr-ra, the existing high-priest of the Temple of Ammon atThebes, from Tanis to the southern capital, in order that he should makehimself acquainted with the secret strength, and with the designs of thedisaffected, and see whether he could not either persuade or coercethem. It was a curious part for the Priest of Ammon to play. Ordinarilyan absentee from Thebes and from the duties of his office, he visits theplace as Royal Commissioner, entrusted with plenary powers to punish orforgive offenders at his pleasure. His fellow-townsmen are in the mainhostile to him; but the terror of the king's name is such that they donot dare to offer him any resistance, and he singles out those whoappear to him most guilty for punishment, and has them executed, whilehe grants the royal pardon to others without any let or hindrance on thepart of the civic authorities. Finally, having removed all those whom heregarded as really dangerous, he ventured to conclude his commission bygranting a general amnesty to all persons implicated in the conspiracy, and allowing the political refugees to return from the Oasis to Thebesand to live there unmolested. 

Men-khepr-ra soon afterwards became king. He married a wife namedHesi-em-Kheb, who is thought to have been a descendant of Seti L, andthus gave an additional legitimacy to the dynasty of Priest-Kings. Healso adorned the city of Kheb, the native place of his wife, with publicbuildings; but otherwise nothing is known of the events of his reign. Asa general rule, the priest-kings were no more active or enterprizingthan their predecessors, the Ramessides of the twentieth dynasty. Theywere content to rule Egypt in peace, and enjoy the delights ofsovereignty, without fatiguing themselves either with the constructionof great works or the conduct of military expeditions. If the peoplethat has no history is rightly pronounced happy, Egypt may haveprospered under their rule; but the historian can scarcely be expectedto appreciate a period which supplies him with no materials to workupon. 

The inaction of Egypt was favourable to the growth and spread of otherkingdoms and empires. Towards the close of the Ramesside period Assyriahad greatly increased in power, and extended her authority beyond theEuphrates as far as the Mediterranean. After this, causes that are stillobscure had caused her to decline, and, Syria being left to itself, anew power grew up in it. In the later half of the eleventh century, probably during the reign of Men-khepr-ra in Egypt, David began thatseries of conquests by which he gradually built up an empire, uniting inone all the countries and tribes between the river of Egypt(Wady-el-Arish) and the Euphrates. Egypt made no attempt to interferewith his proceedings; and Assyria, after one defeat (1 Chron. Xix. 16-19), withdrew from the contest. David's empire was inherited bySolomon (1 Kings iv. 21-24); and Solomon's position was such asnaturally brought him into communication with the great powers beyondhis borders, among others with Egypt. A brisk trade was carried onbetween his subjects and the Egyptians, especially in horses andchariots (ib. X. 28, 29): and diplomatic intercourse was no doubtestablished between the courts of Tanis and Jerusalem. It Is a littleuncertain which Egyptian prince was now upon the throne; butEgyptologers incline to Pinetem II. , the second in succession afterMen-khepr-ra, and the last king but one of the dynasty. The Hebrewmonarch having made overtures through his ambassador, this prince, itwould seem, received them favourably; and, soon after his accession (1Kings iii. 1), Solomon took to wife his daughter, an Egyptian princess, receiving with her as a dowry the city and territory of Gezer, whichPinetem had recently taken from its independent Canaanite inhabitants(ib. Ix. 16). The new connection had advantages and disadvantages. Theexcessive polygamy, which had been affected by the Egyptian monarchsever since the time of Ramesses II. , naturally spread into Judea, and"King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter ofPharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, andHittites . .. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and threehundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart" (ib. Xi. 1, 3). On the other hand, commerce was no doubt promoted by the step taken, andmuch was learnt in the way of art from the Egyptian sculptors andarchitects. The burst of architectural vigour which distinguishesSolomon's reign among those of other Hebrew kings, is manifestly thedirect result of ideas brought to Jerusalem from the capital of thePharaohs. The plan of the Temple, with its open court in front, itsporch, its Holy Place, its Holy of Holies, and its chambers, wasmodelled after the Egyptian pattern. The two pillars, Jachin and Boaz, which stood in front of the porch, took the place of the twin obelisks, which in every finished example of an Egyptian temple stood just infront of the principal entrance. The lions on the steps of the royalthrone (ib. X. 20) were imitations of those which in Egypt oftensupported the seat of the monarch on either side; and "the house of theforest of Lebanon" was an attempt to reproduce the effect of one ofEgypt's "pillared halls. " Something in the architecture of Solomon wasclearly learnt from Phœnicia, and a little--a very little--may perhapshave been derived from Assyria; but Egypt gave at once the impulse andthe main bulk of the ideas and forms. 

The line of priest-kings terminated with Hor-pa-seb-en-sha, thesuccessor of Pinetem II. They held the throne for about a century and aquarter; and if they cannot be said to have played a very important partin the "story of Egypt, " or in any way to have increased Egyptiangreatness, yet at least they escape the reproach, which rests upon mostof the more distinguished dynasties, of seeking their own glory in modeswhich caused their subjects untold suffering. [Illustration:Decorative]

XIX. 

SHISHAK AND HIS DYNASTY. 

The rise of the twenty-second resembles in many respects that of thetwenty-first dynasty. In both cases the cause of the revolution Is to befound in the weakness of the royal house, which rapidly loses itspristine vigour, and is impotent to resist the first assault made uponit by a bold aggressor. Perhaps the wonder is rather that Egyptiandynasties continued so long as they did, than that they were notlonger-lived, since there was in almost every instance a rapid decline, alike in the _physique_ and in the mental calibre of the holders ofsovereignty; so that nothing but a little combined strength and audacitywas requisite in order to push them from their pedestals. Shishak was anofficial of a Semitic family long settled in Egypt, which had made thetown of Bubastis its residence. We may suspect, if we like, that thefamily had noble--shall we say royal?--blood in its veins, and couldtrace its descent to dynasties which had ruled at Nineveh or Babylon. The connexion is possible, though scarcely probable, since no _éclat_attended the first arrival of the Shishak family In Egypt, and thefamily names, though Semitic, are decidedly neither Babylonian norAssyrian. It is tempting to adopt the sensational views of writers, who, out of half a dozen names, manufacture an Assyrian conquest ofEgypt, and the establishment on the throne of the Pharaohs of a branchderived from one or other of the royal Mesopotamian houses; but "factsare stubborn things, " and the imagination is scarcely entitled to mouldthem at its will. It is necessary to face the two certain facts--(1)that no one of the dynastic names is the natural representative of anyname known to have been borne by any Assyrian or Babylonian; and (2)that neither Assyria nor Babylonia was at the time in such a position asto effect, or even to contemplate, distant enterprizes. Babylonia didnot attain such a position till the time of Nabopolassar; Assyria hadenjoyed it about B. C. 1150-1100, but had lost it, and did not recover ittill B. C. 890. Moreover, Solomon's empire blocked the way to Egyptagainst both countries, and required to be shattered in pieces beforeeither of the great Mesopotamian powers could have sent a _corpsd'armée_ into the land of the Pharaohs. 

Sober students of history will therefore regard Shishak (Sheshonk)simply as a member of a family which, though of foreign extraction, hadbeen long settled in Egypt, and had worked its way into a high positionunder the priest-kings of Herhor's line, retaining a special connectionwith Bubastis, the place which it had from the first made its home. Sheshonk's grandfather, who bore the same name; had had the honour ofintermarrying into the royal house, having taken to wife Meht-en-hont, aprincess of the blood whose exact parentage is unknown to us. Hisfather Namrut, had held a high military office, being commander of theLibyan mercenaries, who at this time formed the most important part ofthe standing army. Sheshonk himself, thus descended, was naturally inthe front rank of Egyptian court-officials. When we first hear of him heis called "His Highness, " and given the title of "Prince of theprinces, " which is thought to imply that he enjoyed the first rank amongall the chiefs of mercenaries, of whom there were many. Thus he held aposition only second to that occupied by the king, and when his sonbecame a suitor for the hand of a daughter of the reigning sovereign, noone could say that etiquette was infringed, or an ambition displayedthat was excessive and unsuitable. The match was consequently allowed tocome off, and Sheshonk became doubly connected with the royal house, through his daughter-in-law and through his grandmother. When, therefore, on the death of Hor-pa-seb-en-sha, he assumed the title andfunctions of king, no opposition was offered: the crown seemed to havepassed simply from one member of the royal family to another. 

In monarchies like the Egyptian, it is not very difficult for anambitious subject, occupying a certain position, to seize the throne;but it is far from easy for him to retain it Unless there is a generalimpression of the usurper's activity, energy, and vigour, his authorityis liable to be soon disputed, or even set at nought It behoves him togive indications of strength and breadth of character, or of a wise, far-seeing policy, in order to deter rivals from attempting to underminehis power. Sheshonk early let it be seen that he possessed both cautionand far-reaching views by his treatment of a refugee who, shortly afterhis accession, sought his court. This was Jeroboam, one of the highestofficials in the neighbouring kingdom of Israel, whom Solomon, the greatIsraelite monarch, regarded with suspicion and hostility, on account ofa declaration made by a prophet that he was at some future time to beking of Ten Tribes out of the Twelve. To receive Jeroboam with favourwas necessarily to offend Solomon, and thus to reverse the policy of thepreceding dynasty, and pave the way for a rupture with the State whichwas at this time Egypt's most important neighbour. Sheshonk, nevertheless, accorded a gracious reception to Jeroboam; and the favourin which he remained at the Egyptian court was an encouragement to thedisaffected among the Israelites, and distinctly foreshadowed a timewhen an even bolder policy would be adopted, and a strike made forimperial power. The time came at Solomon's demise. Jeroboam was at onceallowed to return to Palestine, and to foment the discontent which itwas foreseen would terminate in separation. The two kings had, no doubt, laid their plans. Jeroboam was first to see what he could effectunaided, and then, if difficulty supervened, his powerful ally was tocome to his assistance. For the Egyptian monarch to have appeared in thefirst instance would have roused Hebrew patriotism against him. Sheshonkwaited till Jeroboam had, to a certain extent, established his kingdom, had set up a new worship blending Hebrew with Egyptian notions, and hadsufficiently tested the affection or disaffection towards his rule ofthe various classes of his subjects. He then marched out to hisassistance. Levying a force of twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousandhorse (? six thousand), and footmen "without number" (2 Chron, xii. 3), chiefly from the Libyan and Ethiopian mercenaries which now formed thestrength of the Egyptian armies, he proceeded into the Holy Land, entering it "in three columns, " and so spreading his troops far and wideover the southern country. Rehoboam, Solomon's son and successor, hadmade such preparation as was possible against the attack. He hadanticipated it from the moment of Jeroboam's return, and he hadcarefully guarded the main routes whereby his country could beapproached from the south, fortifying, among other cities, Shoco, Adullam, Azekah, Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, Tekoa, and Hebron (2 Chron. Xi. 6-10). But the host of Sheshonk was irresistible. Never before had theHebrews met in battle the forces of their powerful southernneighbour--never before had they been confronted with huge masses ofdisciplined troops, armed and trained alike, and soldiers by profession. The Jewish levies were a rude and untaught militia, little accustomed towarfare, or even to the use of arms, after forty years of peace, duringwhich "every man had dwelt safely under the shade of his own vine andhis own fig-tree" (1 Kings iv. 25). They must have trembled before thechariots, and cavalry, and trained footmen of Egypt. Accordingly, thereseems to have been no battle, and no regularly organized resistance. Asthe host of Sheshonk advanced along the chief roads that led to theJewish capital, the cities, fortified with so much care by Rehoboam, either opened their gates to him, or fell after brief sieges (2 Chron. Xii. 4). Sheshonk's march was a triumphal progress, and in an incrediblyshort space of time he appeared before Jerusalem, where Rehoboam and"the princes of Judah" were tremblingly awaiting his arrival. The son ofSolomon surrendered at discretion; and the Egyptian conqueror enteredthe Holy City, stripped the Temple of its most valuable treasures, including the shields of gold which Solomon had made for his body-guard, and plundered the royal palace (2 Chron, xii. 9). The city generallydoes not appear to have been sacked: nor was there any massacre. Rehoboam's submission was accepted; he was maintained in his kingdom;but he had to become Sheshonk's "servant" (2 Chron. Xii. 8), _i. E. , _ hehad to accept the position of a tributary prince, owing fealty andobedience to the Egyptian monarch. 

The objects of Sheshonk's expedition were-not yet half accomplished. Bythe long inscription which he set up on his return to Egypt, we findthat, after having made Judea subject to him, he proceeded with his armyinto the kingdom of Israel, and there also took a number of towns whichwere peculiarly circumstanced. The Levites of the northern kingdom hadfrom the first disapproved of the religious changes effected byJeroboam; and the Levitical cities within his dominions were regardedwith an unfriendly eye by the Israelite monarch, who saw in them hotbedsof rebellion. He had not ventured to make a direct attack upon themhimself, since he would thereby have lighted the torch of civil warwithin his own borders; but, having now an Egyptian army at his beckand call, he used the foreigners as an instrument at once to free himfrom a danger and to execute his vengeance upon those whom he lookedupon as traitors. Sheshonk was directed or encouraged to attack and takethe Levitical cities of Rehob, Gibeon, Mahanaim, Beth-horon, Kedemoth, Bileam or Ibleam, Alemoth, Taanach, Golan, and Anem, to plunder them andcarry off their inhabitants as slaves; while he was also persuaded toreduce a certain number of Canaanite towns, which did not yield Jeroboama very willing obedience. We may trace the march of Sheshonk by Megiddo, Taanach, and Shunem, to Beth-shan, and thence across the Jordan toMahanaim and Aroer; after which, having satisfied his vassal, Jeroboam, he proceeded to make war on his own account with the Arab tribesadjoining on Trans-Jordanic Israel, and subdued the Temanites, theEdomites, and various tribes of the Hagarenes. His dominion was thusestablished from the borders of Egypt to Galilee, and from theMediterranean to the Great Syrian Desert. 

On his return to Egypt from Asia, with his prisoners and his treasures, it seemed to the victorious monarch that he might fitly follow theexample of the old Pharaohs who had made expeditions into Palestine andSyria, and commemorate his achievements by a sculptured record. So wouldhe best impress the mass of the people with his merits, and induce themto put him on a par with the Thothmeses and the Amenhoteps of formerages. On the southern external wall of the great temple of Karnak, hecaused himself to be represented twice--once as holding by the hair oftheir heads thirty-eight captive Asiatics, and threatening them withuplifted mace; and a second time as leading captive one hundred andthirty-three cities or tribes, each specified by name and personified inan individual form, the form, however, being incomplete. Among theserepresentations is one which bears the inscription "Yuteh Malek, " andwhich must be regarded as figuring the captive Judæan kingdom. 

[Illustration: FIGURE RECORDING THE CONQUEST OF JUDÆA BY SHISHAK. ]

Thus, after nearly a century and a half of repose, Egypt appeared oncemore in Western Asia as a conquering power, desirious of establishing anempire. The political edifice raised with so much trouble by David, andwatched over with such care by Solomon, had been shaken to its base bythe rebellion of Jeroboam; it was shattered beyond all hope of recoveryby Shishak. Never more would the fair fabric of an Israelite empire rearitself up before the eyes of men; never more would Jerusalem be thecapital of a State as extensive as Assyria or Babylonia, and as populousas Egypt. After seventy years, or so, of union, Syria was broken up--thecohesion effected by the warlike might of David and the wisdom ofSolomon ceased--the ill-assimilated parts fell asunder; and once morethe broad and fertile tract intervening between Assyria and Egypt becamedivided among a score of petty States, whose weakness invited aconqueror. 

[Illustration: HEAD OF SHISHAK]

Sheshonk did not live many years to enjoy the glory and honour broughthim by his Asiatic successes. He died after a reign of twenty-one years, leaving his crown to his second son, Osorkon, who was married to thePrincess Keramat, a daughter of Sheshonk's predecessor. The dynasty thusfounded continued to occupy the Egyptian throne for the space of abouttwo centuries, but produced no other monarch of any remarkabledistinction. The Asiatic dominion, which Sheshonk had established, seemsto have been maintained for about thirty years, during the reigns ofOsorkon L, Sheshonk's son, and Takelut I. , his grandson; but in thereign of Osorkon II. , the son of Takelut, the Jewish monarch of thetime, Asa, the grandson of Rehoboam, shook off the Egyptian yoke, re-established Judæan independence, and fortified himself against attackby restoring the defences of all those cities which Sheshonk haddismantled, and "making about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars"(2 Chron. Xiv. 7). At the same time he placed under arms the whole malepopulation of his kingdom, which is reckoned by the Jewish historian at580, 000 men. The "men of Judah" bore spears and targets, or small roundshields; the "men of Benjamin" had shields of a larger size, and werearmed with the bow (ib. Ver. 8). "All these, " says the historian, "weremighty men of valour. " It was not to be supposed that Egypt would beartamely this defiance, or submit to the entire loss of her Asiaticdominion, which was necessarily involved in the revolt of Judæa, withoutan effort to retain it. Osorkon II. , or whoever was king at the time, rose to the occasion. If it was to be a contest of numbers, Egypt shouldshow that she was certainly not to be outdone numerically; so moremercenaries than ever before were taken into pay, and an army waslevied, which is reckoned at "a thousand thousand" (ib. Ver. 9), consisting of Cushites or Ethiopians, and of Lubim (ib. Xvi. 8), ornatives of the North African coast-tract, With these was sent a pickedforce of three hundred war-chariots, probably Egyptian; and the entirehost was placed under the command of an Ethiopian general, who is calledZerah. The host set forth from Egypt, confident of victory, andproceeded as far as Mareshah in Southern Judæa, where they were met bythe undaunted Jewish king. What force he had brought with him isuncertain, but the number cannot have been very great. Asa had recourseto prayer, and, in words echoed in later days by the great Maccabee (1Mac. Iii. 18, 19), besought Jehovah to help him against the Egyptian"multitude. " Then the two armies joined battle; and, notwithstanding thedisparity of numbers, Zerah was defeated. "The Ethiopians and the Lubim, a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen" (2 Chron. Xvi. 8)fled before Judah--they were "overthrown that they could not recoverthemselves, and were destroyed before Jehovah and before His host" (ib. Xiv. 13). The Jewish troops pursued them as far as Gerar, smiting themwith a great slaughter, taking their camp? and loading themselves withspoil. What became of Zerah we are not told. Perhaps he fell in thebattle; perhaps he carried the news of his defeat to his Egyptianmaster, and warned him against any further efforts to subdue a peoplewhich could defend itself so effectually. 

The direct effect of the victory of Asa was to put an end, for threecenturies, to those dreams of Asiatic dominion which had so long floatedbefore the eyes of Egyptian kings, and dazzled their imaginations. If asingle one of the petty princes between whose rule Syria was dividedcould defeat and destroy the largest army that Egypt had ever broughtinto the field, what hope was there of victory over twenty or thirty ofsuch chieftains? Henceforth, until the time of the great revolutionbrought about in Western Asia through the destruction of the AssyrianEmpire by the Medes, the eyes of Egypt were averted from Asia, unlesswhen attack threatened her. She shrank from provoking the repetition ofsuch a defeat as Zerah had suffered, and was careful to abstain from allinterference with the affairs of Palestine, except on invitation. Shelearnt to look upon the two Israelite kingdoms as her bulwarks againstattack from the East, and it became an acknowledged part of her policyto support them against Assyrian aggression. If she did not succeed inrendering them any effective assistance, it was not for lack ofgood-will. She was indeed a "bruised reed" to lean upon, but it wasbecause her strength was inferior to that of the great Mesopotamianpower. 

From the time of Osorkon II. , the Sheshonk dynasty rapidly declined inpower. A system of constituting appanages for the princes of thereigning house grew up, and in a short time conducted the country tothe verge of dissolution. "For the purpose of avoiding usurpationsanalogous to that of the High-Priests of Ammon, " says M. Maspero, "Sheshonk and his descendants made a rule to entrust all positions ofimportance, whether civil or military, to the princes of the bloodroyal. A son of the reigning Pharaoh, most commonly his eldest son, heldthe office of High-Priest of Ammon and Governor of Thebes; anothercommanded at Sessoun (Hermopolis); another at Hakhensu, others in allthe large towns of the Delta and of Upper Egypt. Each of them had withhim several battalions of those Libyan soldiers--Matsiou andMashuash--who formed at this time the strength of the Egyptian army, andon whose fidelity it was always safe to count. Ere long these commandsbecame hereditary, and the feudal system, which had anciently prevailedamong the chiefs of nomes or cantons, re-established itself for theadvantage of the members of the reigning house. The Pharaoh of the timecontinued to reside at Memphis, or at Bubastis, to receive the taxes, todirect as far as was possible the central administration, and to presideat the grand ceremonies of religion, such as the enthronement or theburial of an Apis-Bull; but, in point of fact, Egypt found itselfdivided into a certain number of principalities, some of which comprisedonly a few towns, while others extended over several continuous cantons. After a time the chiefs of these principalities were emboldened toreject the sovereignty of the Pharaoh altogether; relying on their bandsof Libyan mercenaries, they usurped, not only the functions of royalty, but even the title of king, while the legitimate dynasty, cooped up in acorner of the Delta, with difficulty preserved a certain remnant ofauthority. "

Upon disintegration followed, as a natural consequence, quarrel anddisturbance. In the reign of Takelut II. , the grandson of Osorkon II. , troubles broke out both in the north and in the south. Takelut's eldestson, Osorkon, who was High-Priest of Ammon, and held the government ofThebes and the other provinces of the south, was only able to maintainthe integrity of the kingdom by means of perpetual civil wars. Under hissuccessors, Sheshonk III. , Pamai, and Sheshonk IV. , the revolts becamemore and more serious. Rival dynasties established themselves at Thebes, Tanis, Memphis, and elsewhere. Ethiopia grew more powerful as Egyptdeclined, and threatened ere long to establish a preponderatinginfluence over the entire Nile valley. But the Egyptian princes were toojealous of each other to appreciate the danger which threatened them. Avery epidemic of decentralization set in; and by the middle of theeighth century, just at the time when Assyria was uniting together andblending into one all the long-divided tribes and nations of WesternAsia, Egypt suicidally broke itself up into no fewer than twentygovernments!

Such a condition of things was, of course, fatal to literature and art. Art, as has been said, "did not so much decline as disappear. " AfterSheshonk I. No monarch of the line left any building or sculpture of theslightest importance. The very tombs became unpretentious, and merelyrepeated antique forms without any of the antique spirit. Each Apis, indeed, had, in his turn, his arched tomb cut for him in the solid rockof the Serapeum at Memphis, and was laid to rest in a stone sarcophagus, formed of a single block. A stela, moreover, was in every case inscribedand set up to his memory: but the stelæ were rude memorials, devoid ofall artistic taste; the tombs were mere reproductions of old models; andthe inscriptions were of the dullest and most prosaic kind. Here is one, as a specimen: "In the year 2, the month Mechir, on the first day of themonth, under the reign of King Pimai, the god Apis was carried to hisrest in the beautiful region of the west, and was laid in the grave, anddeposited in his everlasting house and his eternal abode. He was born inthe year 28, in the time of the deceased king, Sheshonk III. His glorywas sought for in all places of Lower Egypt. He was found after somemonths in the city of Hashedabot. He was solemnly introduced into thetemple of Phthah, beside his father--the Memphian god Phthah of thesouth wall--by the high-priest in the temple of Phthah, the great princeof the Mashuash, Petise, the son of the high-priest of Memphis and greatprince of the Mashuash, Takelut, and of the princess of royal race, Thes-bast-per, in the year 28, in the month of Paophi, on the first dayof the month. The full lifetime of this god amounted to twenty-sixyears. " Such is the historical literature of the period. The only otherkind of literature belonging to it which has come down to us, consistsof what are called "Magical Texts. " These are to the followingeffect:--"When Horns weeps, the water that falls from his eyes growsinto plants producing a sweet perfume. When Typhon lets fall blood fromhis nose, it grows into plants changing to cedars, and producesturpentine instead of the water. When Shu and Tefnut weep much, andwater falls from their eyes, it changes into plants that produceincense. When the Sun weeps a second time, and lets water fall from hiseyes, it is changed into working bees; they work in the flowers of eachkind, and honey and wax are produced instead of the water. When the Sunbecomes weak, he lets fall the perspiration of his members, and thischanges to a liquid. " Or again--"To make a magic mixture: Take twograins of incense, two fumigations, two jars of cedar-oil, two jars of_tas_, two jars of wine, two jars of spirits of wine. Apply it at theplace of thy heart. Thou art protected against the accidents of life;thou art protected against a violent death; thou art protected againstfire; thou art not ruined on earth, and thou escapest in heaven. "

XX. 

THE LAND SHADOWING WITH WINGS--EGYPT UNDER THE ETHIOPIANS

The name of Ethiopia was applied in ancient times, much as the termSoudan is applied now, vaguely to the East African interior south ofEgypt, from about lat. 24° to about lat. 9°. The tract was for the mostpart sandy or rocky desert, interspersed with oases, but contained alongthe course of the Nile a valuable strip of territory; while, south andsouth-east of the point where the Nile receives the Atbara, it spreadout into a broad fertile region, watered by many streams, diversified bymountains and woodlands, rich in minerals, and of considerablefertility. At no time did the whole of this vast tract--a thousand mileslong by eight or nine hundred broad--form a single state or monarchy. Rather, for the most part, was it divided up among an indefinite numberof states, or rather of tribes, some of them herdsmen, others hunters orfishermen, very jealous of their independence, and frequently at war onewith another. Among the various tribes there was a certain community ofrace, a resemblance of physical type, and a similarity of language. Their neighbours, the Egyptians, included them all under a single ethnicname, speaking of them as Kashi or Kushi--a term manifestly identicalwith the Cush or Cushi of the Hebrews. They were a race cognate with theEgyptians, but darker in complexion and coarser in feature--not by anymeans negroes, but still more nearly allied to the negro than theEgyptians were. Their best representatives in modern times are thepure-bred Abyssinian tribes, the Gallas, Wolaïtzas, and the like, whoare probably their descendants. 

The portion of Ethiopia which lay nearest to Egypt had been from a veryearly date penetrated by Egyptian influence. Wars with "the miserableKashi" began as far back as the time of Usurtasen I. ; and Usurtasen III. Carried his arms beyond the Second Cataract, and attached the northernportion of Ethiopia to Egypt. The great kings of the eighteenth dynasty, Thothmes III. , Amenhotep II. , and Amenhotep III. , proceeded stillfurther southward; and the last of these monarchs built a temple toAmmon at Napata, near the modern Gebel Berkal. The Ethiopians of thisregion, a plastic race, adopted to a considerable extent the Egyptiancivilization, worshipped Egyptian gods in Egyptian shrines, and set upinscriptions in the hieroglyphic character and in the Egyptian tongue. Napata, and the Nile valley both below it and above it, was already halfEgyptianized, when, on the establishment of the Sheshonk dynasty inEgypt, the descendants of Herhor resolved to quit their native country, and remove themselves into Ethiopia, where they had reason to expect awelcome. They were probably already connected by marriage with some ofthe leading chiefs of Napata, and their sacerdotal character gave thema great hold on a peculiarly superstitious people. The "princes of Noph"received them with the greatest favour, and assigned them the highestposition in the state. Retaining their priestly office, they became atonce Ethiopian monarchs, and High-Priests of the Temple of Ammon whichAmenhotep III. Had erected at Napata. Napata, under their government, flourished greatly, and acquired a considerable architecturalmagnificence. Fresh temples were built, in which the worship of Egyptianwas combined with that of Ethiopian deities; avenues of sphinxes adornedthe approaches to these new shrines; the practice of burying the membersof the royal house in pyramids was reverted to; and the necropolis ofNapata recalled the glories of the old necropolis of Memphis. 

Napata was also a place of much wealth. The kingdom, whereof it was thecapital, reached southward as far as the modern Khartoum, and eastwardstretched up to the Abyssinian highlands, including the valleys of theAtbara and its tributaries, together with most of the tract between theAtbara and the Blue Nile. This was a region of great natural wealth, containing many mines of gold, iron, copper, and salt, abundant woods ofdate-palm, almond-trees, and ilex, some excellent pasture-ground, andmuch rich meadow-land suitable for the growth of _doora_ and other sortsof grain. Fish of many kinds, and excellent turtle, abounded in theAtbara and the other streams; while the geographical position wasfavourable for commerce with the tribes of the interior, who were ableto furnish an almost inexhaustible supply of ivory, skins, and ostrichfeathers. 

The first monarch of Napata, whose name has come down to us, is acertain Piankhi, who called himself Mi-Ammon, or Meri-Ammon--that is tosay, "beloved of Ammon. " He is thought to have been a descendant ofHerhor, and to have begun to reign about B. C. 755. At this time Egypthad reached the state of extreme disintegration described in the lastsection. A prince named Tafnekht, probably of Libyan origin, ruled inthe western Delta, and held Saïs and Memphis; an Osorkon was king of theeastern Delta, and held his court at Bubastis; Petesis was king ofAthribis, near the apex of the Delta; and a prince named Aupot, orShupot, ruled in some portion of the same region. In Middle Egypt, thetract immediately above Memphis formed the kingdom of Pefaabast, who hadhis residence in Sutensenen, or Heracleopolis Magna, and held the Fayoumunder his authority; while further south the Nile valley was in thepossession of a certain Namrut, whose capital was Sesennu, orHermopolis. Bek-en-nefi, and a Sheshonk, had also principalities, thoughin what exact position is uncertain; and various towns, includingMendes, were under the government of chiefs of mercenaries, of whom itis reckoned that there were more than a dozen. Thebes and Southern Egyptfrom about the latitude of Hermopolis had already been absorbed into thekingdom of Napata, and were ruled directly by Piankhi. 

Such being the state of affairs when he came to the throne, Piankhicontrived between his first and his twenty-first year (about B. C. 755-734) gradually to extend his authority over the other kings, and toreduce them to the position of tributary princes or feudatories. It isuncertain whether he used force to effect his purpose. Perhaps the fearof the Assyrians, who, under Tiglath-pileser II. , were about this time(B. C. 745-730) making great advances in Syria and Palestine, may havebeen sufficiently strong to induce the princes voluntarily to adopt theprotection of Piankhi, whom they may have regarded as an Egyptian ratherthan a foreigner. At any rate, we do not hear of violence being useduntil revolt broke out. In the twenty-first year of Piankhi, newsreached him that Tafnekht, king of Memphis and Saïs, had rebelled, and, not content with throwing off his allegiance, had commenced a series ofattacks upon the princes that remained faithful to their suzerain, andwas endeavouring to make himself master of the whole country. Alreadyhad he fallen upon Pafaabast, and forced him to surrender at discretion;he was advancing up the river; Namrut had joined him; and he would soonthreaten Thebes, unless a strenuous resistance were offered. Piankhiseems at first to have despised his enemy. He thought it enough to sendtwo generals, at the head of a strong body of troops, down the Nile, with orders to suppress the revolt, and bring the arch-rebel into hispresence. The expedition left Thebes. On its way down the river, it fellin with the advancing fleet of the enemy, and completely defeated it. The rebel chiefs, who now included Petesis, Osorkon, and Aupot, as wellas Tafnekht, Pefaabast, and Namrut, abandoning Hermopolis and theMiddle Nile, fell back upon Sutensenen or Heracleopolis Magna, wherethey concentrated their forces, and awaited a second attack. This wasnot long delayed. Piankhi's fleet and army, having besieged and takenHermopolis, descended the river to Sutensenen, gave the confederates asecond naval defeat, and disembarking, followed up their success withanother great victory on land, completely routing the rebels, anddriving them to take refuge in Lower Egypt, or in the towns on the riverbank below Heracleopolis. But now a strange reverse of fortune befellthem. Namrut, the Hermopolitan monarch, hearing of the occupation of hiscapital by Piankhi's army, resolved on a bold attempt to retake it; and, having collected a number of ships and troops, quitted his confederates, sailed up the Nile, besieged the Ethiopian garrison which had been leftto hold the place, overpowered them, and recovered his city. 

This unexpected blow roused Piankhi from his inaction. Having collecteda fresh army, he quitted Napata in the first month of the year, andreached Thebes in the second, where he stopped awhile to perform anumber of religious ceremonies; at their close, he descended the Nile toHermopolis, invested it, and commenced its siege. Moveable towers werebrought up against the walls, from which machines threw stones andarrows into the city; the defenders suffered terribly, and after a shorttime insisted on a surrender. Namrut made his peace with his offendedsovereign through the intercession of his wife with Piankhi's wives, sisters, and daughters, and was allowed once more to do homage to hislord in the temple of Thoth, leading his war-horse in one hand andholding a sistrum, the instrument wherewith it was usual to approach agod, in the other. Piankhi entered Hermopolis, and examined thetreasury, store-houses, and stables, finding in the last a number ofhorses, which had been reduced almost to starvation by the siege. Eitheron this account, or for some other reason, Piankhi treated theHermopolitan prince with coldness, and did not for some time reinstatehim in his kingdom. 

[Illustration: PIANKHI RECEIVING THE SUBMISSION OF NAMRUT AND OTHERS. ]

Continuing his triumphal march towards the north, Piankhi received thesubmission of Heracleopolis, the capital of Pefaabast, and of variousother cities on either bank of the Nile, and in a short time appearedbefore Memphis and summoned it to surrender; but his summons was set atnought. Tafnekht had recently visited the city, had strengthened itsdefences, augmented its supplies, and reinforced its garrison with anaddition of eight thousand men, thereby greatly inspiriting them. It wasresolved to resist to the uttermost. So the gates were shut, the wallsmanned, and Piankhi challenged to do his worst. "Then was His Majestyfurious against them, like a panther. " Piankhi attacked the cityfiercely, both by land and water. Taking the command of the fleet inperson, he sailed down the Nile, and, bringing his vessels close up tothe walls and towers on the riverside, made use of the masts and yardsas ladders, and so scaled the fortifications; then after slaughteringthousands on the ramparts, he forced an entrance into the town. Memphis, upon this, surrendered. Piankhi entered the town, and sacrificed to thegod Phthah. A number of the princes, including Aupot and Merkaneshu, aleader of mercenaries, came in and made their submission; but two of theprincipal rebels still remained unsubdued--Tafnekht, the leader of therevolt, and Osorkon, king of Bubastis, Piankhi proceeded against thelatter. Advancing first on Heliopolis, instead of resistance he wasreceived with acclamations, the people, priests, and soldiery havinggone over to his side. "Nothing succeeds like success. " Egypt was asprone as other countries to "worship the rising sun;" and Piankhi'svictories had by this time marked him out in the eyes of the Egyptiansas the favourite of Heaven, their predestined monarch and ruler. Accordingly, Heliopolis received him gladly, hailing him as "theindestructible Horus"--he was allowed to bathe in the sacred lake withinthe precincts of the great temple, to offer sacrifice to Ra, and toenter through the folding-doors into the central shrine, where were laidup the sacred boats of Ra and Turn. After this surrender, Osorkonthought it vain to attempt further resistance. He quitted Bubastis, and, seeking the presence of the victorious Piankhi, submitted himselfand renewed his homage. At the same time, Petisis, king of Athribis, made his submission. 

The only prince who still remained unsubdued was Tafnekht, the originalrebel. Tafnekht had fled after the fall of Memphis, and had taken refugeeither in one of the islands of the Delta, or beyond the seas, in Aradusor Cyprus. But he saw that further resistance was vain; and that, if hewas to rule an Egyptian principality, it must be as a secondary monarch. Accordingly he, too, submitted himself, and was restored to his formerkingdom. Piankhi returned up the Nile to his own city of Napata amidsongs and rejoicings--whether sincere or feigned, who shall say? His ownaccount of the matter is the following: "When His Majesty sailed up theriver, his heart was glad; all its banks resounded with music. Theinhabitants of the west and of the east betook themselves to makingmelody at His Majesty's approach. To the notes of the music they sang, 'O king, thou conqueror! O Piankhi, thou conquering king! Thou hast comeand smitten Lower Egypt; thou madest the men as women. The heart of themother rejoices who bare such a son, for he who begat thee dwells in thevale of death. Happiness be to thee, O cow that hast borne the Bull!Thou shalt live for ever in after ages. Thy victory shall endure, O kingand friend of Thebes!'"

This happy condition of things did not, however, continue long. Piankhi, soon after his return to his capital, died without leaving issue; andthe race of Herhor being now extinct, the Ethiopians had to elect a kingfrom the number of their own nobles. Their choice fell on a certainKashta, a man of little energy, who allowed Egypt to throw off theEthiopian sovereignty without making any effort to prevent it. Bek-en-ranf, the son of Tafnekht, was the leader of this successfulrebellion, and is said to have reigned over all Egypt for six years. Hegot a name for wisdom and justice, but he could not alter that conditionof affairs which had been gradually brought about by the slow working ofvarious more or less occult causes, whereby Ethiopia had increased andEgypt diminished in power, their relative strength, as compared withformer times, having become inverted. Ethiopia, being now the stronger, was sure to reassert herself, and did so in Bek-en-ranf's seventh year. Shabak, the son of Kashta, whose character was cast in a far strongermould than that of his father, having mounted the Ethiopian throne, lostno time in swooping down upon Egypt from the upper region, and, carryingall before him, besieged and took Saïs, made Bek-en-ranf a prisoner, andbarbarously burnt him alive for his rebellion. His fierce and sensuousphysiognomy is quite in keeping with this bloody deed, which was wellcalculated to strike terror into the Egyptian nation, and to ensure ageneral submission. 

The rule of the Ethiopians was now for some fifty years firmlyestablished. Shabak founded a dynasty which the Egyptians themselvesadmitted to be legitimate, and which the historian Manetho declared tohave consisted of three kings--Sabacos (or Shabak), Sevechus (orShabatok), and Taracus (or Tehrak), the Hebrew Tirhakah. The extantmonuments confirm the names, and order of succession, of these monarchs. They were of a coarser and ruder fibre than the native Egyptians, butthey did not rule Egypt in any alien or hostile spirit. On the contrary, they were pious worshippers of the old Egyptian gods; they repaired andbeautified the old Egyptian temples; and, instead of ruling Egypt, as aconquered province, from Napata, they resided permanently, or at anyrate occasionally, at the Egyptian capitals, Thebes and Memphis. Thereare certain indications which make it probable that to some extent theypursued the policy of Piankhi, and governed Lower Egypt by means oftributary kings, who held their courts at Saïs, Tanis, and perhapsBubastis. But they kept a jealous watch over their subject princes, andallowed none of them to attain a dangerous pre-eminence. 

[Illustration: HEAD OF SHABAK (SABACO). ]

By a curious coincidence the Ethiopic sway, or extension of influenceover Egypt by the great monarchy of the south, exactly synchronized withthe development of Assyrian power in south-western Asia, which borderedEgypt upon the north; and thus were brought into hostile collision, thetwo greatest military powers of the then known world who fought over theprostrate Egypt, like Achilles and Hector over the corpse of Patroclus. Shabak's conquest of the Lower Nile valley took place about B. C. 725 or724. Exactly at that time Shalmaneser IV. Was proceeding to extremitiesagainst the kingdom of Israel, and was thus threatening to sweep awayone of the last two feeble barriers which had hitherto been interposedbetween the Assyrian territory and the Egyptian. Shabak, entreated byHoshea, the last Israelite monarch, to lend him aid, consented to takethe kingdom of Israel under his protection (2 Kings xvii. 4), actuatedno doubt by an enlightened view of his own interest. But when Samariawas besieged (B. C. 723) and the danger became pressing, he had not thecourage to act up to his engagements. The stout resistance offered bythe Israelite capital for more than two years (2 Kings xvii. 5) drewforth no corresponding effort on the part of the Ethiopic king. Hosheawas left to his own resources, and in B. C. 722 was forced to succumb. His capital was taken by storm, its inhabitants seized and carried offby the conqueror, the whole territory absorbed into that of Assyria, andthe cities occupied by Assyrian colonists (2 Kings xvii. 24). Assyriawas brought one step nearer to Egypt, and it became more than everevident that contact and collision could not be much longer deferred. 

The collision came in B. C. 720. In that year Sargon, the founder of thelast and greatest of the Assyrian dynasties, who had succeededShalmaneser IV. In B. C. 722, having arranged matters in Samaria andtaken Hamath, pressed on against Philistia, the last inhabited countryon the route which led to Egypt. Shabak, having made alliance withHanun, king of Gaza, marched to his aid. The opposing hosts met atRopeh, the Raphia of the Greeks, on the very borders of the desert. Sargon commanded in person on the one side, Shabak and Hanun on theother. A great battle was fought, which was for a long time stoutlycontested; but the strong forms, the superior arms, and the betterdiscipline of the Assyrians, prevailed. Asia proved herself, as she hasgenerally done, stronger than Africa; the Egyptians and Philistines fledaway in disorder; Hanun was made a prisoner; Shabak with difficultyescaped. Negotiations appear to have followed, and a convention to havebeen drawn up, to which the Ethiopian and Assyrian monarchs attachedtheir seals. The lump of clay which received the impressions was foundby Sir A. Layard at Nineveh, and is now in the British Museum. 

Shortly afterwards, about B. C. 712, Shabak died, and was succeeded inEgypt by his son Shabatok, in Ethiopia by a certain Tehrak, who appearsto have been his nephew, Tehrak exercised the paramount authority overthe whole realm, but resided at Napata, while Shabatok held his court atMemphis and ruled Lower Egypt as Tehrak's representative, Assyrianaggression still continued. In B. C. 711 Sargon took Ashdod, andthreatened an invasion of Egypt, which Shabatok averted by sending asubmissive embassy with presents. 

[Illustration: SEAL OF SHABAK. ]

Six years afterwards Sargon died, and his son, Sennacherib, mounted theAssyrian throne. At once south-western Asia was in a ferment. ThePhœnician and Philistine kings recently subjected by Tiglath-Pileser andSargon, broke out in open revolt. Hezekiah, king of Judah, joined themalcontents. The aid of Egypt was implored, and certain promises ofsupport and assistance received, in part from Tehrak, in part fromShabatok and other native rulers of nomes and cities. Sennacherib, inB. C. 701, led his army into Syria to suppress the rebellion, reducedPhœnicia, received the submission of Ashdod, Ammon, Moab, and Edom; tookAscalon, Hazor, and Joppa, and was proceeding against Ekron, when forthe first time he encountered an armed force in the field. A largeEgyptian and Ethiopian contingent had at last reached Philistia, and, having united itself with the Ekronites, stood prepared to give theAssyrians battle near Eltekeh. The force consisted of chariots, horsemen, and footmen, and was so numerous that Sennacherib calls it "amultitude that no man could number. " Once more, however, Africa had tosuccumb. Sennacherib at Eltekeh defeated the combined forces of Egyptand Ethiopia with as much ease and completeness as Sargon at Raphia; themultitudinous host was entirely routed, and fled from the field, leavingin the hands of the victors the greater portion of their war-chariotsand several sons of one of their kings. 

After this defeat, it is not surprising that Tehrak made no furthereffort. Hezekiah, the last rebel unsubdued, was left to defend himselfas he best might. The Egyptians retreated to their own borders, andthere awaited attack. It seemed as if the triumph of Assyria wasassured, and as if her yoke must almost immediately be imposed alikeupon Judea, upon Egypt, and upon the kingdom of Napata; but anextraordinary catastrophe averted the immediate danger, and gave toEgypt and Ethiopia a respite of thirty-four years. Sennacherib's army, of nearly two hundred thousand men, was almost totally destroyed in onenight. "The angel of the Lord went forth, " says the contemporary writer, Isaiah, "and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscoreand five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses" (Isa. Xxxvii. 36). Whatever the agencyemployed in this remarkable destruction--whether it was caused by asimoon, or a pestilence, or by a direct visitation of the Almighty, asdifferent writers have explained it--the event is certain. Its truth iswritten in the undeniable facts of later history, which show us a suddencessation of Assyrian attack in this quarter, the kingdom of Judea savedfrom absorption, and the countries on the banks of the Nile leftabsolutely unobstructed by Assyria for the third part of a century. Asthe destruction happened on their borders, the Egyptians naturallyenough ascribed it to their own gods, and made a boast of it centuriesafter. Everything marks, as one of the most noticeable facts inhistory, this annihilation of so great a portion of the army of thegreatest of all the kings of Assyria. 

[Illustration: HEAD OF TEHRAK (TIRHAKAH). ]

The reign of Tirhakah (Tehrak) during this period appears to have beenglorious. He was regarded by Judea as its protector, and exercised acertain influence over all Syria as far as Taurus, Amanus, and theEuphrates. In Africa, he brought into subjection the native tribes ofthe north coast, carrying his arms, according to some, as far as thePillars of Hercules. He is exhibited at Medinet-Abou in the dress of awarrior, smiting with a mace ten captive foreign princes. He erectedmonuments in the Egyptian style at Thebes, Memphis, and Napata. Of allthe Ethiopian sovereigns of Egypt he was undoubtedly the greatest; buttowards the close of his life reverses befell him, which require to betreated of in another section. 

XXI. 

THE FIGHT OVER THE CARCASE--ETHIOPIA _v_. ASSYRIA. 

The miraculous destruction of his army was accepted by Sennacherib as awarning to desist from all further attempts against the independence ofJudea, and from all further efforts to extend his dominions towards thesouth-west. He survived the destruction during a period of seventeenyears, and was actively engaged in a number of wars towards the east, the north, and the north-west, but abstained carefully from furthercontact with either Palestine or Egypt. His son Esarhaddon succeeded himon the throne in B. C. 681, and at once, to a certain extent, modifiedthis policy. He re-established the Assyrian dominion over Upper Syria, Phœnicia, and even Edom; but during the first nine years of his reignthe memory of his father's disaster caused him to leave Judea and Egyptunattacked. At last, however, in B. C. 672, encouraged by his manymilitary successes, by the troubled state of Judea under the idolatrousManasseh, who "shed innocent blood very much from one end of Jerusalemto the other" (2 Kings xxi. 16), and by the advanced age of Tehrak, which seemed to render him a less formidable antagonist now thanformerly, he resumed the designs on Egypt which his father andgrandfather had entertained, swept Manasseh from his path by seizing himand carrying him off a prisoner to Babylon, marched his troops fromAphek along the coast of Palestine to Raphia, and there made thedispositions which seemed to him best calculated to effect the conquestof the coveted country. As Tirhakah, aware of his intentions, hadcollected all his available force upon his north-east frontier, aboutPelusium and its immediate neighbourhood, the Assyrian monarch took thebold resolution of proceeding southward through the waste tract, knownto the Hebrews as "the desert of Shur, " in such a way as to turn theflank of Tirhakah's army, to reach Pithom (Heroopolis) and to attackMemphis along the line of the Old Canal. The Arab Sheikhs of the desertwere induced to lend him their aid, and facilitate his march byconveying the water necessary for his army on the backs of their camelsin skins. The march was thus made in safety, though the soldiers aresaid to have suffered considerably from fatigue and thirst, and to havebeen greatly alarmed by the sight of numerous serpents. 

Tehrak, on his part, did all that was possible. On learning Esarhaddon'schange of route, he broke up from Pelusium, and, by a hasty march acrossthe eastern Delta succeeded in interposing his army between Memphis andthe host of the Assyrians, which had to follow the line taken by SirGarnet Wolseley in 1884, and encountered the enemy, probably, not farfrom the spot where the British general completely defeated the troopsof Arabi. Here for the third time Asia and Africa stood arrayed the oneagainst the other. Assyria brought into the field a host of probably notfewer than two hundred thousand men, including a strong chariot force, apowerful cavalry, and an infantry variously armed and appointed--somewith huge shields and covered by almost complete panoplies, otherslightly equipped with targe and dart, or even simply with slings. Egyptopposed to her a force, probably, even more numerous, but consistingchiefly of a light-armed infantry, containing a large proportion ofmercenaries whose hearts would not be in the fight, deficient incavalry, and apt to trust mainly to its chariots. In the flat Egyptianplains lightly accoutred troops fight at a great disadvantage againstthose whose equipment is of greater solidity and strength; cavalry arean important arm, since there is nothing to check the impetus of acharge; and personal strength is a most important element in determiningthe result of a conflict. The Assyrians were more strongly made than theEgyptians; they had probably a better training; they certainly wore morearmour, carried larger shields and longer spears, and were betterequipped both for offence and defence. We have, unfortunately, nodescription of the battle; but it is in no way surprising to learn thatthe Assyrians prevailed; Tehrak's forces suffered a complete defeat, were driven from the field in confusion, and hastily dispersedthemselves. 

Memphis was then besieged, taken, and given up to pillage. The statuesof the gods, the gold and silver, the turquoise and lapis lazuli, thevases, censers, jars, goblets, amphorae, the stores of ivory, ebony, cinnamon, frankincense, fine linen, crystal, jasper, alabaster, embroidery, with which the piety of kings had enriched thetemples--especially the Great Temple of Phthah--during fifteen or twentycenturies, were ruthlessly carried off by the conquerors, who destinedthem either for the adornment of the Ninevite shrines or for their ownprivate advantage. Tehrak's wife and concubines, together with severalof his children and numerous officers of his court, left behind inconsequence of his hurried flight, fell into the enemy's hands. Tehrakhimself escaped, and fled first to Thebes, and then to Napata; while thearmy of Esarhaddon, following closely on his footsteps, advanced up thevalley of the Nile, scoured the open country with their cavalry, stormedthe smaller towns, and after a siege of some duration took "populousNo, " or Thebes, "that was situate among the rivers, that had the watersround about it, whose rampart was the great deep" (Nahum iii. 8). AllEgypt was overrun from the Mediterranean to the First Cataract;thousands of prisoners were taken and carried away captive; the Assyrianmonarch was undisputed master of the entire land of Mizraïm from Migdolto Syene and from Pelusium to the City of Crocodiles. 

Upon conquest followed organization. The great Assyrian was not contentmerely to overrun Egypt; he was bent upon holding it. Acting on theRoman principle, "_Divide et impera_, " he broke up the country intotwenty distinct principalities, over each of which he placed a governor, while in the capital of each he put an Assyrian garrison. Of thegovernors, by far the greater number were native Egyptians; but in oneor two instances the command was given to an Assyrian. For the mostpart, the old divisions of the nomes were kept, but sometimes two ormore nomes were thrown together and united under a single governor. Neco, an ancestor of the great Pharaoh who bore the same name (2 Kingsxxiii. 29-35), had Saïs, Memphis, and the nomes that lay between them;Mentu-em-ankh had Thebes and southern Egypt as far as Elephantine. Satisfied with these arrangements, the conqueror returned to Nineveh, having first, however, sculptured on the rocks at the mouth of theNahr-el-Kelb a representation of his person and an account of hisconquests. 

[Illustration: FIGURE OF ESAR-HADDON AT THE NAHR-EL-KELB. ]

Egypt lay at the feet of Assyria for about three or four years (B. C. 672-669). Then the struggle was renewed. Tehrak, who had bided his time, learning that Esarhaddon was seized with a mortal malady, issued (B. C. 669) from his Ethiopian fastnesses, descended the valley of the Nile, expelled the governors whom Esarhaddon had set up, and possessed himselfof the disputed territory. Thebes received him with enthusiasm, as oneattached to the worship of Ammon; and the priests of Phthah opened tohim the gates of Memphis, despite the efforts of Neco and the Assyriangarrison. The religious sympathy between Ethiopia and Egypt was animportant factor in the as yet undecided contest, and helped much tofurther the Ethiopic cause. But in war sentiment can effect but little. Physical force, on the whole, prevails, unless in the rare instanceswhere miracle intervenes, or where patriotic enthusiasm is exalted tosuch a pitch as to strike physical force with impotency. 

In the conflict that was now raging patriotism had little part. Ethiopiaand Assyria were contending, partly for military pre-eminence, partlyfor the prey that lay between them, inviting a master--the rich and nowweak Egyptian kingdom. Tehrak's success, communicated to the AssyrianCourt by the dispossessed governors, drew forth almost immediately acounter effort on the part of Assyria, which did not intend torelinquish without a struggle the important addition that Esarhaddon hadmade to the empire. In B. C. 668, Asshur-bani-pal, the Sardanapalus ofthe Greeks, having succeeded his father Esarhaddon, put the forces ofAssyria once more in motion, and swooping down upon the unhappy Egypt, succeeded in carrying all before him, defeated Tehrak at Karbanit in theDelta, recovered Memphis and Thebes, forced Tehrak to take refuge atNapata, re-established in power the twenty petty kings, and restored thecountry in all respects to the condition into which it had been broughtfour years previously by Esarhaddon. Egypt thus passed under theAssyrians for the second time, Ethiopia relinquishing her hold upon theprey as soon as Assyria firmly grasped it. 

Still the matter was not yet settled, the conflict was not yet ended. The petty kings themselves began now to coquet with Tehrak, and toinvite his co-operation in an attempt, which they promised they wouldmake, to throw off the yoke of the Assyrians. Detected in this intrigue, Neco and two others were arrested by the Assyrian commandants, loadedwith chains, and sent as prisoners to Nineveh. But their arrest did notcheck the movement. On the contrary, the spirit of revolt spread. Thecommandants tried to stop it by measures of extreme severity: theysacked the great cities of the Delta--Saïs, Mendes, and Tanis or Zoan;but all was of no avail. Tehrak once more took the field, descended theNile valley, recovered Thebes, and threatened Memphis. Asshur-bani-palupon this hastily sent Neco from Nineveh at the head of an Assyrian armyto exert his influence on the Assyrian side--which he was content to do, since the Ninevite monarch had made him chief of the petty kings, andconferred the principality of Athribis on his son, Psamatik. Tehrak, inalarm retreated from his bold attempt, evacuated Thebes and returned tohis own dominions, where he shortly afterwards died (B. C. 667). 

It might have been expected that the death of the aged warrior-kingwould have been the signal for Ethiopia to withdraw from the struggle solong maintained, and relinquish Egypt to her rival; but the actualresult was the exact contrary. Tehrak was succeeded at Napata by hisstep-son, Rut-Ammon, a young prince of a bold and warlike temper. Farfrom recoiling from the enterprize which Tehrak had adjudged hopeless, he threw himself into it with the utmost ardour. Once more an Ethiopianarmy descended the Nile valley, occupied Thebes, engaged and defeated acombined Egyptian and Assyrian force near Memphis, took the capital, made its garrison prisoners, and brought under subjection the greaterportion of the Delta. Neco, having fallen into the hands of theEthiopians, was cruelly put to death. His son, Psamatik, saved himselfby a timely flight. 

History now "repeated itself. " In B. C. 666 Asshur-bani-pal made, inperson, a second expedition into Egypt, defeated Rut-Ammon upon thefrontier, recovered Memphis, marched upon Thebes, Rut-Ammon retiring ashe advanced, stormed and sacked the great city, inflicted wanton injuryon its temples, carried off its treasures, and enslaved its population. The triumph of the Assyrian arms was complete. Very shortly allresistance ceased. The subject princes were replaced in theirprincipalities. Asshur-bani-pal's sovereignty was universallyacknowledged, and Ethiopia, apparently, gave up the contest. 

One more effort was, however, made by the southern power. On the deathof Rut-Ammon, Mi-Ammon-Nut, probably a son of Tirhakah's, became king ofEthiopia, and resolved on a renewal of the war. Egyptian disaffectionmight always be counted on, whichever of the two great powers heldtemporary possession of the country; and Mi-Ammon-Nut further courtedthe favour of the Egyptian princes, priests, and people, by anostentatious display of zeal for their religion. Assyria had allowed thetemples to fall into decay; the statues of the gods had in someinstances been cast down, the temple revenues confiscated, the priestsrestrained in their conduct of the religious worship. Mi-Ammon-Nutproclaimed himself the chosen of Ammon, and the champion of the gods ofEgypt. On entering each Egyptian town he was careful to visit its chieftemple, to offer sacrifices and gifts, to honour the images and leadthem in procession, and to pay all due respect to the college ofpriests. This prudent policy met with complete success. As he advanceddown the Nile valley, he was everywhere received with acclamations. "Goonward in the peace of thy name, " they shouted, "go onward in the peaceof thy name. Dispense life throughout all the land--that the temples maybe restored which are hastening to ruin; that the statues of the godsmay be set up after their manner; that their revenues may be given backto the gods and goddesses, and the offerings of the dead to thedeceased; that the priest may be established in his place, and allthings be fulfilled according to the Holy Ritual. " In many places whereit had been intended to oppose his advance in arms, the news of hispious acts produced a complete revulsion of feeling, and "those whoseintention it had been to fight were moved with joy. " No one opposed himuntil he had nearly reached the northern capital, Memphis, which wasdoubtless held in force by the Assyrians, to whom the princes of LowerEgypt were still faithful. A battle, accordingly, was fought before thewalls, and in this Mi-Ammon-Nut was victorious; the Egyptians probablydid not fight with much zeal, and the Assyrians, distrusting theirsubject allies, may well have been dispirited. After the victory, Memphis opened her gates, and soon afterwards the princes of the Deltathought it best to make their submission--the Assyrians, we mustsuppose, retired--Mi-Ammon-Nut's authority was acknowledged, and theprinces, having transferred their allegiance to him, were allowed toretain their governments. 

The consequences of this last Ethiopian invasion of Egypt appear to havebeen transient. Mi-Ammon-Nut did not live very long to enjoy hisconquest, and in Egypt he had no successor. He was not even recognizedby the Egyptians among their legitimate kings. Egypt at his deathreverted to her previous position of dependence upon Assyria, feelingherself still too weak to stand alone, and perhaps not greatly caring, so that she had peace, which of the two great powers she acknowledged asher suzerain. She had now (about B. C. 650) for above twenty years beenfought over by the two chief kingdoms of the earth--each of them hadtraversed with huge armies, as many as five or six times, the Nilevalley from one extremity to the other; the cities had been half ruined, harvest after harvest destroyed, trees cut down, temples rifled, homesteads burnt, villas plundered. Thebes, the Hundred-gated, probablyfor many ages quite the most magnificent city in the world, had become aby-word for desolation (Nahum iii. 8, 9); Memphis, Heliopolis, Tanis, Saïs, Mendes, Bubastis, Heracleopolis, Hermopolis; Crocodilopolis, hadbeen taken and retaken repeatedly; the old buildings and monuments hadbeen allowed to fall into decay; no king had been firmly enoughestablished on his throne to undertake the erection of any butinsignificant new ones. Egypt was "fallen, fallen, fallen--fallen fromher high estate;" an apathy, not unlike the stillness of death, broodedover her; literature was silent, art extinct; hope of recovery canscarcely have lingered in many bosoms. As events proved, the vital sparkwas not actually fled; but the keenest observer would scarcely haveventured to predict, at any time between B. C. 750 and B. C. 650, such arevival as marked the period between B. C. 650 and B. C. 530. 

XXII. 

THE CORPSE COMES TO LIFE AGAIN--PSAMATIK I. AND HIS SON NECO. 

When a country has sunk so gradually, so persistently, and for so long aseries of years as Egypt had now been sinking, if there is a revival, itmust almost necessarily come from without. The corpse cannot risewithout assistance--the expiring patient cannot cure himself. All thevital powers being sapped, all the energies having departed, the Valleyof the Shadow of Death having been entered, nothing can arrestdissolution but some foreign stock, some blood not yet vitiated, some"saviour" sent by Divine providence from outside the nation (Isa. Xix. 20), to recall the expiring life, to revivify the paralyzed frame, toinfuse fresh energy into it, and to make it once more live, breathe, act, think, assert itself. Yet the saviour must not be altogether fromwithout. He must not be a conqueror, for conquest necessarily weakensand depresses; he must not be too remote in blood, or he will lack thepower fully to understand and sympathize with the nation which he is torestore, and without true understanding and true sympathy he can effectnothing; he must not be a stranger to the nation's recent history, orhe will make mistakes that will be irremediable. What is wanted is ascion of a foreign stock, connected by marriage and otherwise with thenation that he is to regenerate, and well acquainted with itscircumstances, character, position, history, virtues, weaknesses. Noentirely new man can answer to these requirements; he must be found, ifhe is to be found at all, among the principal men of the time, whose lothas for some considerable period been cast in with the State which is tobe renovated. 

In Egypt, at the time of which we are speaking, exactly this positionwas occupied by Psamatik, son of Neco. He was, according to allappearance, of Libyan origin; his stock was new; his name and hisfather's name are unheard of hitherto in Egyptian history;etymologically, they are non-Egyptian; and Psamatik has a non-Egyptiancountenance. He was probably of the same family as "Inarus the Libyan, "whose father was a Psamatik. He belonged thus to a Libyan stock, whichhad, however, been crossed, more than once, with the blood of theEgyptians. The family was one of those Libyan families which had longbeen domiciled at Saïs, and had intermarried with the older Saites, whowere predominantly Egyptian. He had also for twenty years or more beenan important unit in the Egyptian political system, having shared thevicissitudes of his father's fortunes from B. C. 672 to B. C. 667, andhaving then been placed at the head of one of the many principalitiesinto which Egypt was divided. In the same, or the next, year he seems tohave succeeded his father; and he had reigned at Saïs for sixteen orseventeen years before he felt himself called upon to take any step thatwas at all abnormal, or attempt in any way to change his position. 

[Illustration: HEAD OF PSAMATIK I. ]

Familiar with the politics and institutions of Egypt, yet, as asemi-Libyan, devoid of Egyptian prejudices, and full of the ambitionwhich naturally inspires young princes of a vigorous stock, Psamatik hadat once the desire to shake off the yoke of Assyria, and reunite Egyptunder his own sway, and also a willingness to adopt any means, howevernew and strange, by which such a result might be accomplished. He hadprobably long watched for a favourable moment at which to give hisambition vent, and found it at last in the circumstances that ushered inthe second half of the seventh century. Assyria was, about B. C. 651, brought into a position of great difficulty, by the revolt of Babylon inalliance with Elam, and was thus quite unable to exercise a strictsurveillance over the more distant parts of the Empire. The garrison bywhich she held Egypt had probably been weakened by the withdrawal oftroops for the defence of Assyria Proper; at any rate, it could not berelieved or strengthened under the existing circumstances. At the sametime a power had grown up in Asia Minor, which was jealous of Assyria, having lately been made to tremble for its independence. Gyges of Lydiahad, in a moment of difficulty, been induced to acknowledge himselfAssyria's subject; but he had emerged triumphant from the perilssurrounding him, had reasserted his independent authority, and wasanxious that the power of Assyria should be, as much as possible, diminished. Psamatik must have been aware of this. Casting his eyesaround the political horizon in search of any ally at once able andwilling to lend him aid, he fixed upon Lydia as likely to be his bestauxiliary, and dispatched an embassy into Asia Minor. Gyges received hisapplication favourably, and sent him a strong Asiatic contingent, chiefly composed of Ionians and Carians. Both races were at this timewarlike, and wore armour of much greater weight and strength than anywhich the Egyptians were accustomed to carry. It was in reliance, mainly, on these foreigners, that Psamatik ventured to proclaim himself"King of the Two Countries, " and to throw out a gage of defiance at onceto his Assyrian suzerain and to his nineteen fellow-princes. 

The gage was not taken up by Assyria. Immersed in her own difficulties, threatened in three quarters, on the south, on the south-east, and onthe east by Babylonia, by Elam, and by Media, she had enough to do athome in guarding her own frontiers, and seeking to keep under herimmediate neighbours, and was therefore in no condition to engage indistant expeditions, or even to care very much what became of a remoteand troublesome dependency. Thus Assyria made no sign. But the pettyprinces took arms at once. To them the matter was one of life or death;they must either crush the usurper or be themselves swept out ofexistence. So they gathered together in full force. Pakrur from Pisabtu, and Petubastes from Tanis, and Sheshonk from Busiris, and Tafnekht fromProsopitis, and Bek-en-nefi from Athribis, and Nakh-he fromHeracleopolis, and Pimai from Mendes, and Lamentu from Hermopolis, andMentu-em-ankh from Thebes, and other princes from other cities, met andformed their several contingents into a single army, and stood at baynear Momemphis, the modern Menouf, in the western Delta, on the bordersof the Libyan Desert. Here a great battle was fought, which was for sometime doubtful; but the valour of the Greco-Carians, and the superiorityof their equipment, prevailed. The victory rested with Psamatik; hisadversaries were defeated and dispersed; following up his first success, he proceeded to attack city after city, forcing all to submit, anddetermined that he would nowhere tolerate even the shadow of a rival. Disintegration had been the curse of Egypt for the space of above acentury; Psamatik put an end to it. No more princes of Bubastis, or ofTanis, or of Saïs, or of Mendes, or of Heracleopolis, or of Thebes! Nomore eikosiarchies, dodecarchies, or heptarchies even! Monarchy pure, the absolute rule of one and one only sovereign over the whole of Egypt, from the cataracts of Syene to the shores of the Mediterranean, and fromPelusium and Migdol to Momemphis and Marea, was established, andhenceforth continued, as long as Egyptian rule endured. The lesson hadbeen learnt at a tremendous cost, but it had now at last been thoroughlylearnt, that only in unity is there strength--that the separate sticksof the faggot are impotent to resist the external force which thecollective bundle might without difficulty have defied and scorned. 

Psamatik had gained the object of his ambition--sovereignty over allEgypt; he had now to consider how it might best be kept. And first, asthat which is won by the sword must be kept by the sword, he madearrangements with the troops sent to his aid by Gyges, that they shouldtake permanent service under his banner, and form the most importantelement in his standing army. His native troops were quartered atElephantine, in the extreme south, and in Marea and Daphnæ, at the twoextremities of the Delta towards the west and east. The new accession tohis military strength he stationed at no great distance from thecapital, settling them in permanent camps on either side of the Pelusiacbranch of the Nile, near the city of Bubastis. We are told that thisexaltation of the new corps to the honourable position of keeping watchupon the capital, greatly offended the native troops, and induced200, 000 of them to quit Egypt and seek service with the Ethiopians. Thefacts have probably been exaggerated, for Ethiopia certainly does notgain, or Egypt lose, in strength, either at or after this period. 

Psamatik, further, for the better securing of his throne againstpretenders, thought it prudent to contract a marriage with thedescendant of a royal stock held in honour by many of his subjects. Theprincess, Shepenput, was the daughter of a Piankhi, who claimed descentfrom the unfortunate Bek-en-ranf, the king burnt alive by Shabak, andwho had also probably some royal Ethiopian blood in his veins. By hisnuptials with this princess, Psamatik assured to his crown thelegitimacy which it had hitherto lacked. Uniting henceforth in his ownperson the rights of the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth dynasties, thoseof the Saïtes and those of the Ethiopians, he became the one and onlylegal king, and no competitor could possibly arise with a title tosovereignty higher or better than his own. 

Being now personally secure, he could turn his attention to therestoration and elevation of the nationality of which he had taken itupon him to assume the direction. He could cast his eyes over theunhappy Egypt--depressed, down-trodden, well-nigh trampled to death--andgive his best consideration to the question what was to be done torestore her to her ancient greatness. There she lay before his eyes in adeplorable state of misery and degradation. All the great cities, herglory and her boast in former days, had suffered more or less in theincessant wars; Memphis had been besieged and pillaged half a dozentimes; Thebes had been sacked and burnt twice; from Syene to Pelusiumthere was not a town which had not been injured in one or other of themany invasions. The canals and roads, carefully repaired by Shabak, hadsince his decease met with entire neglect; the cultivable lands had beendevastated, and the whole population decimated periodically. Out of theruins of the old Egypt, Psamatik had to raise up a new Egypt. He had torevivify the dead corpse, and put a fresh life into the stiff andmotionless limbs. With great energy and determination he set himself toaccomplish the task. Applying himself, first of all, to the restorationof what was decayed and ruined, he re-established the canals and theroads, encouraged agriculture, favoured the development of thepopulation. The ruined towns were gradually repaired and rebuilt, andvast efforts made everywhere to restore, and even to enlarge andbeautify the sacred edifices. At Memphis, Psamatik built the greatsouthern portal which gave completeness to the ancient temple of the godPhthah, and also constructed a grand court for the residence of theApis-Bulls, surrounded by a colonnade, against the piers of which stoodcolossal figures of Osiris, from eighteen to twenty feet in height. AtThebes he re-erected the portions of the temple of Karnak, which hadbeen thrown down by the Assyrians; at Saïs, Mendes, Heliopolis, andPhilæ he undertook extensive works. The entire valley of the Nile becamelittle more than one huge workshop, where stone-cutters and masons, bricklayers and carpenters, laboured incessantly. Under the liberalencouragement of the king and of his chief nobles, the arts recoveredthemselves and began to flourish anew. The engraving and painting of thehieroglyphics were resumed with success, and carried out with aminuteness and accuracy that provokes the admiration of the beholder. Bas-reliefs of extreme beauty and elaboration characterize the period. There rests upon some of them "a gentle and almost feminine tenderness, which has impressed upon the imitations of living creatures the stamp ofan incredible delicacy both of conception and execution. " Statues andstatuettes of merit were at the same time produced in abundance. The"Saïtie art", as that of the revival under the Psamatiks has beencalled, is characterized by an extreme neatness of manipulation in thedrawings and lines, the fineness of which often reminds us of theperformances of a seal-engraver, by grace, softness, tenderness, andelegance. It is not the broad, but somewhat realistic style of theMemphitic period, much less the highly imaginative and vigorous style ofthe Ramesside kings; but it is a style which has quiet merits of itsown, sweet and pure, full of refinement and delicacy. 

[Illustration: BAS-RELIEFS OF THE TIME OF PSAMATIK I. ]

Egypt was thus rendered flourishing at home; her magnificent temples andother edifices put off their look of neglect; her cities were once morebusy seats of industry and traffic; her fields teemed with richharvests; her population increased; her whole aspect changed. But thecircumstances of the time led Psamatik to attempt something more. Hisemployment of Greek and Carian mercenaries naturally led him on into anintimacy with foreigners, and into a regard and consideration for themquite unknown to previous Pharaohs, and in contradiction to ordinaryEgyptian prejudices. Egypt was the China of the Old World, and had forages kept herself as much as possible aloof from foreigners, and lookedupon them with aversion. Foreign vessels were, until the time ofPsamatik, forbidden to enter any of the Nile mouths, or to touch at anEgyptian port. Psamatik saw that the new circumstances required anextensive change. The mercenaries, if they were to be content withtheir position, must be allowed to communicate freely with the citiesand countries from which they came, and intercourse between Greece andEgypt must be encouraged rather than forbidden. Accordingly the Greekswere invited to make settlements in the Delta, and Naucratis, favourablysituated on the Canopic branch of the Nile, was specially assigned tothem as a residence. Most of the more enterprizing among the commercialstates of the time took advantage of the opening, and Miletus, Phocæa, Rhodes, Samos, Chios, Mytilene, Halicarnassus, and Ægina establishedfactories at the locality specified, built temples there to the Greekgods, and sent out a body of colonists. A considerable trade grew upbetween Egypt and Greece. The Egyptians of the higher classes especiallyappreciated the flavour and quality of the Greek wines, which wereconsequently imported into the country in large quantities. Greekpottery and Greek glyptic art also attracted a certain amount of favour. On her side Egypt exported corn, alum, muslin and linen fabrics, and theexcellent paper which she made from the _Cyperus Papyrus_. 

The trade thus established was carried on mainly, if not wholly, inGreek bottoms, the Egyptians having a distaste to the sea, and regardingcommerce with no great favour. Nevertheless, the life and stir whichforeign commerce introduced among them, the familiarity with strangecustoms and manners, engendered by daily intercourse with the Greeks, the acquisition (on the part of some) of the Greek language, the sightof Greek modes of worship, of Greek painting and Greek sculpture, theinsight into Greek habits of thought, which could not but follow, produced no inconsiderable effect upon the national character of theEgyptians, shaking them out of their accustomed groove, and awakeningcuriosity and inquiry. The effect was scarcely beneficial. Egyptiannational life had been eminently conservative and unchanging. Theintroduction of novelty in ten thousand shapes unsettled and disturbedit. The old beliefs were shaken, and a multitude of superstitions rushedin. The corruptions introduced by the Greeks were more easy of adoptionand imitation than the sterling points of their character, theirintelligence, their unwearied energy, their love of truth. Egypt wasawakened to a new life by the novel circumstances of the Psamatikperiod; but it was a fitful life, unquiet, unnatural, feverish. Thecharacter of the men lost in dignity and strength by the discontinuanceof military training consequent upon the substitution for a native armyof an army of mercenaries. The position of the women sank through theadoption of those ideas concerning them which their contact withorientals had engrained into the minds of the Asiatic Greeks. Thenational spirit of the people was sapped by the concentration of theroyal favour on a race of foreigners whose manners and customs wereabhorrent to them, and whom they regarded with envy and dislike. If someimprovement is to be seen on the surface of Egyptian life under thePsamatiks, some greater activity and enterprise, some increasedintellectual stir, some improved methods in art, these ameliorationsscarcely compensate for the indications of decline which lie deeper, andwhich in the sequel determined the fate of the nation. 

The later years of the reign of Psamatik were coincident with a time ofextreme trouble and confusion in Asia, in the course of which theAssyrian Monarchy came to an end, and south-western Asia was partitionedbetween the Medes and the Babylonians. A tempting field was laid openfor an ambitious prince, who might well have dreamt of Syrian or evenMesopotamian conquest, and of recalling the old glories of Seti, Thothmes, and Amenhotep. Psamatik did go so far as to make an attackupon Philistia, but met with so little success that he was induced torestrain any grander aspirations which he may have cherished, and toleave the Asiatic monarchs to settle Asiatic affairs as it pleased them. Ashdod, we are told, resisted the Egyptian arms for twenty-nine years;and though it fell at last, the prospect of half-a-dozen such sieges wasnot encouraging. Psamatik, moreover, was an old man by the time that theAssyrian Empire fell to pieces, and we can understand his shrinking froma distant and dangerous expedition. He left the field open for his son, Neco, having in no way committed him, but having secured for him a readyentrance into Asia by his conquest of the Philistine fortress. 

Neco, the son of Psamatik I. , from the moment that he ascended thethrone, resolved to make the bold stroke for empire from which hisfather had held back. Regarding his mercenary army as a sufficient landforce, he concentrated his energies on the enlargement and improvementof his navy, which was weak in numbers and of antiquated construction. Naval architecture had recently made great strides, first by theinventiveness of the Phœnicians, who introduced the bireme, and then bythe skill of the Greeks, who, improving on the hint furnished them, constructed the trireme. Neco, by the help of Greek artificers, builttwo fleets, both composed of triremes, one in the ports which opened onthe Red Sea, the other in those upon the Mediterranean. He then, withthe object of uniting the two fleets into one, when occasion shouldrequire, made an attempt to re-open the canal between the Nile and theRed Sea, which had been originally constructed by Seti I. And RamessesII. , but had been allowed to fall into disrepair. The Nile mud and thedesert sand had combined to silt it up. Neco commenced excavations on alarge scale, following the line of the old cutting, but greatly wideningit, so that triremes might meet in it and pass each other, withoutshipping their oars. After a time, however, he felt compelled to desist, without effecting his purpose, owing to an extraordinary mortality amongthe labourers. According to Herodotus, 120, 000 of them perished. At anyrate, the suffering and loss of life, probably by epidemics, was such asinduced him to relinquish his project, and to turn his thoughts towardgaining his end in another way. 

[Illustration: HEAD OF NECO. ]

Might not Nature have herself established a water communication betweenthe two seas by which Egypt was washed? It was well known that theMediterranean and the Red Sea both communicated with an open ocean, andit was the universal teaching of the Greek geographers, that the oceanflowed round the whole earth. Neco determined to try whether Africa wasnot circumnavigable. Manning some ships with Phœnician mariners, as theboldest and most experienced, accustomed to brave the terrors of theAtlantic outside the Pillars of Hercules, he dispatched them from a porton the Red Sea, with orders to sail southwards, keeping the coast ofAfrica on their right, and see if they could not return to Egypt by wayof the Mediterranean. The enterprise succeeded. The ships, under theskilful guidance of the Phœnicians, anticipated the feat of Vasco diGama--rounded the Cape of Storms, and returned by way of the Atlantic, the Straits of Gibraltar, and the Mediterranean to the land from whichthey had set out. But they did not reach Egypt _till the third year_. The success obtained was thus of no practical value, so far as thePharaoh's warlike projects were concerned. He had to relinquish theidea of uniting his two fleets in one, owing to the length of the wayand the dangers of the navigation. 

He had, however, no mind to relinquish his warlike projects, Syria, Phœnicia, and Palestine were still in an unsettled state, the yoke ofAssyria being broken, and that of Babylon not yet firmly fixed on them. Josiah was taking advantage of the opportunity to extend his authorityover Samaria. Phœnicia was hesitating whether to submit to Nabopolassaror to assert her freedom. The East generally was In a ferment. Neco inB. C. 608, determined to make his venture. At the head of a large army, consisting mainly of his mercenaries, he took the coast route intoSyria, supported by his Mediterranean fleet along the shore, andproceeding through the low tracts of Philistia and Sharon, prepared tocross the ridge of hills which shuts in on the south the great plain ofEsdraëlon; but here he found his passage barred by an army. Josiah, either because he feared that, if Neco were successful, his own positionwould be imperilled, or because he had entered into engagements withNabopolassar, had resolved to oppose the further progress of theEgyptian army, and had occupied a strong position near Megiddo, on thesouthern verge of the plain. In vain did Neco seek to persuade him toretire, and leave the passage free. Josiah was obstinate, and a battlebecame unavoidable. As was to be expected, the Jewish army sufferedcomplete defeat; Neco swept it from his path, and pursued his way, whileJosiah mortally wounded, was conveyed in his reserve chariot toJerusalem. The triumphant Pharaoh pushed forward into Syria and carriedall before him as far as Carchemish on the Euphrates. The whole countrysubmitted to him. After a campaign which lasted three months, Necoreturned in triumph to his own land, carrying with him Jehoahaz, thesecond son of Josiah, as a prisoner, and leaving Jehoiakim, the eldestson, as tributary monarch, at Jerusalem. 

For three years Egypt enjoyed the sense of triumph, and felt herselfonce more a conquering power, capable of contending on equal terms withany state or kingdom that the world contained. But then Nemesis swoopeddown on her. In B. C. 605 Nabopolassar of Babylon woke up to aconsciousness of his loss of prestige, and determined on an effort toretrieve it. Too old to undertake a distant campaign in person, heplaced his son, Nebuchadnezzar, at the head of his troops, and sent himinto Syria to recover the lost provinces. Neco met him on the Euphrates. A great battle was fought at Carchemish between the forces of Egypt andBabylon, in which the former suffered a terrible defeat. We have nohistorical account of it, but may gratefully accept, instead, theprophetic description of Jeremiah:--

 "Order ye the buckler and the shield, and draw ye near to battle; Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; Furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines. Wherefore have I seen them dismayed, and turned away backward? And their mighty ones are beaten down, and fled apace, and look not behind them; For fear is round about, saith Jehovah. Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty men escape; They shall stumble and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates. Who is this that cometh up as a flood [like the Nile], whose waters are moved as the rivers? Egypt rises up as a flood [like the Nile], and his waters are moved as the rivers; And he saith, I will go up, and I will cover the earth; I will destroy the city, with its inhabitants. Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; Cush and Phut, that handle the shield, and Lud that handles and bends the bow. For this is the day of the Lord, the Lord of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may smite his foes; And the sword shall devour, and be made satiate and drunk with blood; For the Lord, the Lord of Hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country, by the river Euphrates. Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! In vain shalt thou use many medicines; to thee no cure shall come. The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled the land; For the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, and both are fallen together. "[29]

The disaster was utter, complete, not to be remedied--the only thing tobe done was to "fly apace, " to put the desert and the Nile between thevanquished and the victors, and to deprecate the conqueror's anger bysubmission. Neco gave up the contest, evacuated Syria and Palestine, andhastily sought the shelter of his own land, whither Nebuchadnezzar wouldprobably have speedily followed him, had not news arrived of hisfather's, Nabopolassar's, death. To secure the succession, he had toreturn, as quickly as he could, to Babylon, and to allow the Egyptianmonarch, at any rate, a breathing space. 

Thus ended the dream of the recovery of an Asiatic Empire, whichPsamatik may have cherished, and of which Neco attempted therealization. The defeat of Carchemish shattered the unsubstantial fabricinto atoms, and gave a death-blow to hopes which no Pharaoh everentertained afterwards. 

FOOTNOTES:

[29] Jeremiah xlvi. 3-12. 

XXIII. 

THE LATER SAÏTE KINGS. --PSAMATIK II. , APRIES, AND AMASIS. 

The Saïtic revival in art and architecture, in commercial and generalprosperity, which Psamatik the First inaugurated, continued under hissuccessors. To the short reign of Psamatik II. Belong a considerablenumber of inscriptions, some good bas-reliefs at Abydos and Philæ, and alarge number of statues. One of these, in the collection of the Vatican, is remarkable for its beauty. Apries erected numerous _stelæ_, and atleast one pair of obelisks, wherewith he adorned the Temple of Neith atSaïs. Amasis afforded great encouragement to art and architecture. Headded a court of entrance to the above temple, with propylæa of unusualdimensions, adorned the dromos conducting to it with numerousandro-sphinxes, erected colossal statues within the temple precincts, and conveyed thither from Elephantine a monolithic shrine or chamber ofextraordinary dimensions. Traces of his architectural activity are alsofound at Memphis, Thebes, Abydos, Bubastis, and Thmuïs or Leontopolis. Statuary flourished during his reign. Even portrait-painting wasattempted; and Amasis sent a likeness of himself, painted on panel, asa present to the people of Cyrene. It was maintained by the Egyptians ofa century later that the reign of Amasis was the most prosperous timewhich Egypt had ever seen, the land being more productive, the citiesmore numerous, and the entire people more happy than either previouslyor subsequently. Amasis certainly gave a fresh impulse to commerce, since he held frequent communication with the Greek states of AsiaMinor, as well as with the settlers at Cyrene, and gave increasedprivileges to the trading community of Naucratis. 

Even in a military point of view, there was to some extent a recoveryfrom the disaster of Carchemish. The Babylonian empire was notsufficiently established or consolidated at the accession ofNebuchadnezzar for that monarch to form at once extensive schemes ofconquest. There was much to be done in Elam, in Asia Minor, in Phœnicia, and in Palestine, before his hands could be free to occupy themselves inthe subjugation of more distant regions. Within three years after thebattle of Carchemish Judæa threw off the yoke of Babylon, and a fewyears later Phœnicia rebelled under the hegemony of Tyre. Nebuchadnezzarhad not much difficulty in crushing the Jewish outbreak; but Tyreresisted his arms with extreme obstinacy, and it was not till thirteenyears after the revolt took place that Phœnicia was re-conquered. Eventhen the position of Judæa was insecure: she was known to be thoroughlydisaffected, and only waiting an opportunity to rebel a second time. Thus Nebuchadnezzar was fully occupied with troubles within his owndominions, and left Egypt undisturbed to repair her losses, and recoverher military prestige, as she best might. 

Neco outlived his defeat about eight or nine years, during which henursed his strength, and abstained from all warlike enterprises. Hisson, Psamatik II. , who succeeded him B. C. 596, made an attack on theEthiopians, and seems to have penetrated deep into Nubia, where amonument was set up by two of his generals, Apollonius, a Greek, andAmasis, an Egyptian, which may still be seen on the rocks of Abu-Simbel, and is the earliest known Greek inscription. The following is afacsimile, only reduced in size:--

[Illustration: Greek inscription]

Apries, the son of Neco, brought this war to an end in the first year ofhis reign (B. C. 590) by the arms of one of his generals; and, findingthat Nebuchadnezzar was still unable to reduce Phœnicia to subjection, he ventured, in B. C. 588, to conclude a treaty with Zedekiah, king ofJudah, and to promise him assistance, if he would join him against theBabylonians. This Zedekiah consented to do, and the war followed whichterminated in the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, and the transferof the Jewish people to Babylonia. 

It is uncertain what exact part Apries took in this war. We know that hecalled out the full force of the empire, and marched into Palestine, with the object of relieving Zedekiah. As soon as he knew that thatmonarch's safety was threatened. We know that he marched towardsJerusalem, and took up such a threatening attitude that Nebuchadnezzarat one time actually raised the siege (Jer. Xxxvii. 5). We do not knowwhat followed. Whether Apries, on finding that the whole Chaldæan forcehad broken up from before Jerusalem and was marching against himself, took fright at the danger which he had affronted, and made a suddeninglorious retreat; or whether he boldly met the Babylonian host andcontended with them in a pitched battle, wherein he was worsted, andfrom which he was forced to fly into his own land, is uncertain. Josephus positively declares that he took the braver and more honourablecourse: the silence of Scripture as to any battle is thought to implythat he showed the white feather. In either case, the result was thesame. Egypt recoiled before Babylon; Palestine was evacuated; andZedekiah was left to himself. In B. C. 586 Jerusalem fell; Zedekiah wasmade a prisoner and cruelly deprived of sight; the Temple and city wereburnt, and the bulk of the people carried into captivity. Babylonrounded off her dominion in this quarter by the absorption of the laststate upon her south-western border that had maintained the shadow ofindependence: and the two great powers of these parts, hithertoprevented from coming into contact by the intervention of a sort ofpolitical "buffer, " became conterminous, and were thus brought into aposition in which it was not possible that a collision should for anyconsiderable time be avoided. 

Recognizing the certainty of the impending collision, Apries sought tostrengthen his power for resistance by attaching to his own empire thePhœnician towns of the Syrian coast, whose adhesion to his side wouldsecure him, at any rate, the maritime superiority. He made an expeditionagainst Tyre and Sidon both by land and sea, defeated the combined fleetof Phœnicia and Cyprus in a great engagement, besieged Sidon, and aftera time compelled it to surrender. He then endeavoured further tostrengthen himself on the land side by bringing under subjection theGreek city of Cyrene, which had now become a flourishing community; buthere his good fortune forsook him; the Cyrenæan forces defeated the armywhich he sent against them, with great slaughter; and the event broughtApries into disfavour with his subjects, who imagined that he had, ofmalice prepense, sent his troops into the jaws of destruction. Accordingto Herodotus, the immediate result was a revolt, which cost Apries histhrone, and, within a short time, his life; but the entire narrative ofHerodotus is in the highest degree improbable, and some recentdiscoveries suggest a wholly different termination to the reign of thisremarkable king. 

It is certain that in B. C. 568 Nebuchadnezzar made an expedition intoEgypt According to all accounts this date fell into the lifetime ofApries. Amasis, however, the successor of Apries, appears to have beenNebuchadnezzar's direct antagonist, and to have resisted him in thefield, while Apries remained in the palace at Saïs. The two were jointkings from B. C. 571 to B. C. 565. Nebuchadnezzar, at first, neglectedSaïs, and proceeded, by way of Heliopolis and Bubastis (Ezek. Xxx. 17), against the old capitals, Memphis and Thebes. Having taken these, and"destroyed the idols and made the images to cease, " he advanced up theNile valley to Elephantine, which he took, and then endeavoured topenetrate into Nubia. A check, however, was inflicted on his army byNes-Hor, the Governor of the South, whereupon he gave up his idea ofNubian conquest. Returning down the valley, he completed that ravage ofEgypt which is described by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It is probable that inB. C. 565, three years after his first invasion, he took Saïs and put theaged Apries to death. [30] Amasis he allowed still to reign, but only asa tributary king, and thus Egypt became "a base kingdom" (Ezek. Xxix. 14), "the basest of the kingdoms" (ibid. Verse 15), if its formerexaltation were taken into account. 

The "base kingdom" was, however, materially, as flourishing as ever. Thesense of security from foreign attack was a great encouragement toprivate industry and commercial enterprise. The discontinuances oflavish expenditure on military expeditions improved the state finances, and enabled those at the head of the government to employ the money, that would otherwise have been wasted, in reproductive undertakings. Theagricultural system of Egypt was never better organized or bettermanaged than under Amasis. Nature seemed to conspire with man to makethe time one of joy and delight, for the inundation was scarcely everbefore so regularly abundant, nor were the crops ever before soplentiful. The "twenty thousand cities, " which Herodotus assigns to thetime, may be a myth; but, beyond all doubt, the tradition which told ofthem was based upon the fact of a period of unexampled prosperity. Amasis's law, that each Egyptian should appear once each year before thegovernor of his canton, and show the means by which he was getting anhonest living, may have done something towards making industry general;but his example, his active habits, and his encouragement of art andarchitecture, probably did more. His architectural works must have givenconstant employment to large numbers of persons as quarrymen, boatmen, bricklayers, plasterers, masons, carpenters, and master builders; hispatronage of art not only gave direct occupation to a multitude ofartists, but set a fashion to the more wealthy among his subjects bywhich the demand for objects of art was multiplied a hundredfold. Sculptors and painters had a happy time under a king who was alwaysbuilding temples, erecting colossi, or sending statues or paintings ofhimself as presents to foreign states or foreign shrines. 

The external aspect of Egypt under the reign of Amasis is thus as brightand flourishing as that which she ever wore at any former time; but, asM. Lenormant observes, this apparent prosperity did but ill conceal thedecay of patriotism and the decline of all the institutions of thenation. The kings of the Saïte dynasty had thought to re-vivify Egypt, and infuse a little new blood into the old monarchy founded by Menes, byallowing the great stream of liberal ideas, whereof Greece had alreadymade herself the propagator, to expand itself in her midst. Withoutknowing it, they had by these means introduced on the banks of the Nilea new element of decline. Constructed exclusively for continuance, forpreserving its own traditions in defiance of the flight of centuries, the civilization of Egypt could only maintain itself by remainingunmoved. From the day on which it found itself in contact with thespirit of progress, personified in the Grecian civilization and in theGreek race, it was under the absolute necessity of perishing. It couldneither launch itself upon a wholly new path, one which was the directnegation of its own genius, nor continue on without change its ownexistence. Thus, as soon as it began to be penetrated by Greekinfluence, it fell at once into complete dissolution, and sank into astate of decrepitude, that already resembled death. We shall see, in thenext section, how suddenly and completely the Egyptian power collapsedwhen the moment of trial came, and how little support the surfaceprosperity which marked the reign of Amasis was able to render to theEmpire in the hour of need and distress. 

FOOTNOTES:

[30] Josephus, _Ant. Jud_. X. 9, 97. 

XXIV. 

THE PERSIAN CONQUEST. 

The subjection of Egypt to Babylon, which commenced in B. C. 565, was ofthat light and almost nominal character, which a nation that is not verysensitive, or very jealous of its honour, does not care to shake off. Asmall tribute was probably paid by the subject state to her suzerain, but otherwise the yoke was unfelt There was no interference with theinternal government, or the religion of the Egyptians; no appointment ofBabylonian satraps, or tax-collectors; not even, so far as appears, anydemands for contingents of troops. Thus, although Nebuchadnezzar diedwithin seven years of his conquest of Egypt, and though a time ofdisturbance and confusion followed his death, four kings occupying theBabylonian throne within little more than six years, two of whom metwith a violent end, yet Amasis seems to have continued quiescent andcontented, in the enjoyment of a life somewhat more merry and amusingthan that of most monarchs, without making any effort to throw off theBabylonian supremacy or reassert the independence of his country. It wasnot till his self-indulgent apathy was intruded upon from without, andhe received an appeal from a foreign nation, to which he was compelledto return an answer, that he looked the situation in the face, and cameto the conclusion that he might declare himself independent without muchrisk. He had at this time patiently borne his subject position for thespace of above twenty years, though he might easily have reassertedhimself at the end of seven. 

The circumstances under which the appeal was made were the following. Anew power had suddenly risen up in Asia. About B. C. 558, ten years afterNebuchadnezzar's subjection of Egypt, Cyrus, son of Cambyses, thetributary monarch of Persia under the Medes, assumed an independentposition and began a career of conquest. Having made himself master of alarge portion of the country of Elam, he assumed the title of "King ofAnsan, " and engaged in a long war with Astyages (Istivegu), his formersuzerain, which terminated (in B. C. 549) in his taking the Medianmonarch prisoner and succeeding to his dominions. It was at oncerecognized through Asia that a new peril had arisen. The Medes, amountain people of great physical strength and remarkable bravery, hadfor about a century been regarded as the most powerful people of WesternAsia. They had now been overthrown and conquered by a still morepowerful mountain race. That race had at its head an energetic andenterprising prince, who was in the full vigour of youth, and firedevidently with a high ambition. His position was naturally felt as adirect menace by the neighbouring states of Babylon and Lydia, whoseroyal families were interconnected. Crœsus of Lydia was the first totake alarm and to devise measures for his own security. He formed theconception of a grand league between the principal powers whom the riseof Persia threatened, for mutual defence against the common enemy; and, in furtherance of this design, sent, in B. C. 547, an embassy to Egypt, and another to Babylon, proposing a close alliance between the threecountries. Amasis had to determine whether he would maintain hissubjection to Babylon and refuse the offer; or, by accepting it, declarehimself a wholly independent monarch. He learnt by the embassy, if hedid not know it before that Nabonadius, the Babylonian monarch, was indifficulties, and could not resent his action. He might probably thinkthat, under the circumstances, Nabonadius would regard his joining theleague as a friendly, rather than an unfriendly, proceeding. At anyrate, the balance of advantage seemed to him on the side of complyingwith the request of Crœsus. Crœsus was lord of Asia Minor, and it wasonly by his permission that the Ionian and Carian mercenaries, on whomthe throne of the Pharaohs now mainly depended, could be recruited andmaintained at their proper strength. It would not do to offend soimportant a personage; and accordingly Amasis came into the proposedalliance, and pledged himself to send assistance to whichever of his twoconfederates should be first attacked. Conversely, they no doubt pledgedthemselves to him; but the remote position of Egypt rendered itextremely improbable that they would be called upon to redeem theirpledges. 

Nor was even Amasis called upon actually to redeem the pledges which hehad given. In B. C. 546, Crœsus, without summoning any contingents fromhis allies, precipitated the war with Persia by crossing the riverHalys, and invading Cappadocia, which was included in the dominions ofCyrus. Having suffered a severe defeat at Pteria, a Cappadocian city, hereturned to his capital and hastily sent messengers to Egypt andelsewhere, begging for immediate assistance. What steps Amasis took uponthis, or intended to take, is uncertain; but it must have been beforeany troops could have been dispatched, that news reached Egypt whichrendered it useless to send out an expedition. Crœsus had scarcelyreached his capital when he found himself attacked by Cyrus in his turn;his army suffered a second defeat in the plain before Sardis; the citywas besieged, stormed, and taken within fourteen days. Crœsus fell, alive, into the hands of his enemy, and was kindly treated; but hiskingdom had passed away. It was evidently too late for Amasis to attemptto send him succour. The tripartite alliance had, by the force ofcircumstances, come to an end, and Amasis was an independent monarch, nolonger bound by any engagements. 

Shortly afterwards, in B. C. 538, the conquering monarchy of Persiaabsorbed another victim. Nabonadius was attacked, Babylon taken, and theChaldæan monarchy, which had lasted nearly two thousand years, broughtto an end. The contest had been prolonged, and in the course of it somedisintegration of the empire had taken place. Phœnicia had asserted herindependence; and Cyprus, which was to a large extent Phœnician, hadfollowed the example of the mother-country. Under these circumstances, Amasis thought he saw an opportunity of gaining some cheap laurels, andaccordingly made a naval expedition against the unfortunate islanders, who were taken unawares and forced to become his tributaries. It wasunwise of the Egyptian monarch to remind Cyrus that he had still an openenemy unchastised, one who had entered into a league against him tenyears previously, and was now anxious to prevent him from reaping thefull benefit of his conquests. We may be sure that the Persian monarchnoted and resented the interference with territories which he had someright to consider his own; whether he took any steps to revenge himselfis doubtful. According to some, he required Amasis to send him one ofhis daughters as a concubine, an insult which the Egyptian king escapedby _finesse_ while he appeared to submit to it. 

It can only have been on account of the other wars which pressed uponhim and occupied him during his remaining years, that Cyrus did notmarch in person against Amasis. First, the conquest of the nationsbetween the Caspian and the Indian Ocean detained him; and after this, adanger showed itself on his north-eastern frontier which required allhis attention, and in meeting which he lost his life. The independenttribes beyond the Oxus and the Jaxartes have through all history been anannoyance and a peril to the power which rules over the Iranian plateau, and it was in repelling an attack in this quarter that Cyrus fell. Amasis, perhaps, congratulated himself on the defeat and death of thegreat warrior king; but Egypt would, perhaps, have suffered less had theinvasion, which was sure to come, been conducted by the noble, magnanimous, and merciful Cyrus, than she actually endured at the handsof the impulsive tyrannical, and half-mad Cambyses. 

The first step taken by Cambyses, who succeeded his father Cyrus in B. C. 529, was to reduce Phœnicia under his power. The support of a fleet wasof immense importance to an army about to attack Egypt, both for thepurpose of conveying water and stores, and of giving command over themouths of the Nile, so that the great cities, Pelusium, Tanis, Saïs, Bubastis, Memphis, might be blockaded both by land and water. Persia, upto the accession of Cambyses, had (so to speak) no fleet. Cambyses, bythreatening the Phœnician cities on the land side, succeeded in inducingthem to submit to him; he then, with their aid, detached Cyprus from herEgyptian masters, and obtained the further assistance of a Cypriotesquadron. Some Greek ships also gave their services, and the result wasthat he had the entire command of the sea, and was able to holdpossession of all the Nile mouths, and to bring his fleet up the riverto the very walls of Memphis. 

Still, there were difficulties to overcome in respect of the passage ofan army. Egypt is separated from Palestine by a considerable tract ofwaterless desert and it was necessary to convey by sea, or on the backsof camels, all the water required for the troops, for thecamp-followers, and for the baggage animals. A numerous camel corps wasindispensable for the conveyance, and the Persians, though employingcamels on their expeditions, are not likely to have possessed any veryconsiderable number of these beasts. At any rate, it was extremelyconvenient to find a fresh and abundant supply of camels on the spot, together with abundant water-skins. This good fortune befell the Persianmonarch, who was able to make an alliance with the sheikh of the mostpowerful Bedouin tribe of the region, who undertook the entireresponsibility of the water supply. He thus crossed the desert withoutdisaster or suffering, and brought his entire force intact to thePelusiac branch of the Nile, near the point where it poured its watersinto the Mediterranean Sea. 

At this point he found a mixed Egyptian and Græco-Carian army preparedto resist his further progress. Amasis had died about six monthspreviously, leaving his throne to his son, Psamatik the Third. Thisyoung prince, notwithstanding his inexperience, had taken all themeasures that were possible to protect his kingdom from the invader. Hehad gathered together his Greek and Carian mercenaries, and having alsolevied a large native army, had posted the entire force not far fromPelusium, in an advantageous position. On his Greeks and Carians hecould thoroughly depend, though they had lately seen but little service;his native levies, on the contrary, were of scarcely any value; theywere jealous of the mercenaries, who had superseded them as the ordinaryland force, and they had had little practice in warfare for the lastforty years. At no time, probably, would an Egyptian army composed ofnative troops have been a match for such soldiers as Cambyses broughtwith him into Egypt--Persians, Medes, Hyrcanians, Mardians, Greeks--trained in the school of Cyrus, inured to arms, and confident ofvictory. But the native soldiery of the time of Psamatik III. Fell farbelow the average Egyptian type; it had little patriotism, it had noexperience, it was smarting under a sense of injury and ill-treatment atthe hands of the Saïte kings. The engagement between the two armies atPelusium was thus not so much a battle as a carnage. No doubt themercenaries made a stout resistance, but they were vastly outnumbered, and were not much better troops than their adversaries. The Egyptiansmust have been slaughtered like sheep. According to Ctesias, fiftythousand of them fell, whereas the entire loss on the Persian side wasonly six thousand. After a short struggle, the troops of Psamatik fled, and in a little time the retreat became a complete rout. The fugitivesdid not stop till they reached Memphis, where they shut themselves upwithin the walls. 

It is the lot of Egypt to have its fate decided by a single battle. Thecountry offers no strong positions, that are strategically moredefensible than others. The whole Delta is one alluvial flat, with noelevation that has not been raised by man. The valley of the Nile is sowide as to furnish everywhere an ample plain, wherein the largest armiesmay contend without having their movements cramped or hindered. An armythat takes to the hills on either side of the valley is not worthfollowing: it is self-destroyed, since it can find no sustenance and nowater. Thus the sole question, when a foreign host invades Egypt, isthis: Can it, or can it not, defeat the full force of Egypt in an openbattle? If it gains one battle, there is no reason why it should notgain fifty; and this is so evident, and so well known, that on Egyptiansoil one defeat has almost always been accepted as decisive of themilitary supremacy. A beaten army may, of course, protract itsresistance behind walls, and honour, fame, patriotism, may seemsometimes to require such a line of conduct; but, unless there is areasonable expectation of relief arriving from without, protractedresistance is useless, and, from a military point of view, indefensible. Defeated commanders have not, however, always seen this, or, seeing it, they have allowed prudence to be overpowered by other considerations. Psamatik, like many another ruler of Egypt, though defeated in thefield, determined to defend his capital to the best of his power. Hethrew himself, with the remnant of his beaten army, into Memphis, andthere stood at bay, awaiting the further attack of his adversary. 

It was not long before the Persian army drew up under the walls, andinvested the city by land, while the fleet blockaded the river. A singleGreek vessel, having received orders to summon the defenders of theplace to surrender it, had the boldness to enter the town, whereupon itwas set upon by the Egyptians, captured, and destroyed. Contrarily tothe law of nations, which protects ambassadors and their escort, thecrew was torn limb from limb, and an outrage thus committed whichCambyses was justified in punishing with extreme severity. Upon the fallof the city, which followed soon after its investment, the offendedmonarch avenged the crime which had been committed by publicly executingtwo thousand of the principal citizens, including (it is said) a son ofthe fallen king. The king himself was at first spared, and might perhapshave been allowed to rule Egypt as a tributary monarch, had he not beendetected in a design to rebel and renew the war. For this offence he, too, was condemned to death, and executed by Cambyses' order. 

The defeat had been foretold by the prophet Ezekiel, who had said:--

 "Woe worth the day! For the day is near, Even the day of the Lord is near, a day of clouds; It shall be the time of the heathen. And a sword shall come upon Egypt, and anguish shall be in Ethiopia; When the slain shall fall in Egypt; and they shall take away her multitude, And her foundations shall be broken down. Ethiopia and Phut and Lud, and all the mingled people, and Chub, And the children of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword. .. . I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. And I will make Pathros desolate, And will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No. .. . Sin [Pelusium] shall be in great anguish, And No shall be broken up, and Noph shall have adversaries in the daytime. The young men of Aven and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword: And these cities shall go into captivity. At Tehaphnehes also the day shall withdraw itself, When I shall break there the yokes of Egypt; And the pride of her power shall cease. "[31]

According to Herodotus, Cambyses was not content with theabove-mentioned severities, which were perhaps justifiable under thecircumstances, but proceeded further to exercise his rights as conquerorin a most violent and tyrannical way. He tore from its tomb the mummy ofthe late king, Amasis, and subjected it to the grossest indignities. Hestabbed in the thigh an Apis-Bull, recently inaugurated at the capitalwith joyful ceremonies, suspecting that the occasion was feigned, andthat the rejoicings were really over the ill-success of expeditionscarried out by his orders against the oasis of Ammon, and againstEthiopia. He exhumed numerous mummies for the mere purpose of examiningthem. He entered the grand temple of Phthah at Memphis, and made sportof the image. He burnt the statues of the Cabeiri, which he found inanother temple. He scourged the priests of Apis, and massacred in thestreets those Egyptians who were keeping the festival. Altogether, hisobject was, if the informants of Herodotus are to be believed, to pourcontempt and contumely on the Egyptian religion, and to insult thereligious feelings of the entire people. 

On the other hand, we learn from a contemporary inscription, thatCambyses so far conformed to Egyptian usages as to take a "throne-name, "after the pattern of the ancient Pharaohs; that he cleared the temple ofNeith at Saïs of the foreigners who had taken possession of it; that heentrusted the care of the temple to an Egyptian officer of highstanding; and that he was actually himself initiated into the mysteriesof the goddess. Perhaps we ought not to be greatly surprised at thesecontradictions. Cambyses had the iconoclastic spirit strong in him, and, under excitement, took a pleasure in showing his abhorrence of Egyptiansuperstitions. But he was not always under excitement--he enjoyed lucidintervals, during which he was actuated by the spirit of anadministrator and a statesman. Having in many ways greatly exasperatedthe Egyptians against his rule, he thought it prudent, ere he quittedthe country, to soothe the feelings which he had so deeply wounded, andconciliate the priest-class, to which he had given such dire offence. Hence his politic concessions to public feeling at Saïs, his Initiationinto the mysteries of Neith, his assumption of a throne-name, and hisrestoration of the temple of Saïs to religious uses. And the policy ofconciliation, which he thus inaugurated, was continued by his successor, Darius. Darius built, or repaired, the temple of Ammon, in the oasis ofEl Khargeh, and made many acknowledgments of the deities of Egypt; whenan Apis-Bull died early in his reign, he offered a reward of a hundredtalents for the discovery of a new Apis; and he proposed to adorn thetemple of Ammon at Thebes with a new obelisk. At the same time, in hisadministration he carefully considered the interests of Egypt, which heentrusted to a certain Aryandes as satrap; he re-opened the canalbetween the Nile and the Red Sea, for the encouragement of Egyptiancommerce; he kept up the numbers of the Egyptian fleet; in hisarrangement of the satrapies, he placed no greater burthen on Egypt thanit was well able to bear; and he seems to have honoured Egypt by hisoccasional presence. He failed, however, to allay the discontent, andeven hatred, which the outrages of Cambyses had aroused; they stillremained indelibly impressed on the Egyptian mind; the Persian rule wasdetested; and in sullen dissatisfaction the entire nation awaited anopportunity of reclaiming its independence and flinging off the accursedyoke. 

FOOTNOTES:

[31] Ezekiel xxx. 3-18. 

XXV. 

THREE DESPERATE REVOLTS. 

The first revolt of the Egyptians against their conquerors, appears tohave been provoked by the news of the battle of Marathon. Egypt heard, in B. C. 490, that the arms of the oppressor, as she ever determined toconsider Darius, had met with a reverse in European Greece, where200, 000 Medes and Persians had been completely defeated by 20, 000Athenians and Platæns. Darius, it was understood, had taken greatly toheart this reverse, and was bent on avenging it. The strength of thePersian Empire was about to be employed towards the West, and anexcellent opportunity seemed to have arisen for a defection on theSouth. Accordingly Egypt, after making secret preparations for threeyears, in B. C. 487 broke out in open revolt. She probably overpoweredand massacred the Persian garrison in Memphis, which is said to havenumbered 120, 000 men, and, proclaiming herself independent, set up anative sovereign. 

The Egyptian monuments suggest that this monarch bore theforeign-sounding name of Khabash. He fortified the coast of Egyptagainst attempts which might be made upon it by the Persian fleet, anddoubtless prepared himself also to resist an invasion by land. But hewas quite unable to do anything effectual. Though Darius died in theyear after the revolt, B. C. 486, yet its suppression was immediatelyundertaken by his son and successor, Xerxes, who invaded Egypt in thenext year, easily crushed all resistance, and placed the province undera severer rule than any that it had previously experienced. Achæmenes, his brother, was made satrap. 

Twenty-five years of tranquillity followed, during which the Egyptianswere submissive subjects of the Persian crown, and even showedremarkable courage and skill in the Persian military expeditions. Egyptfurnished as many as two hundred triremes to the fleet which was broughtagainst Greece by Xerxes, and the squadron particularly distinguisheditself in the sea-fights off Artemisium, where they actually capturedfive Grecian vessels with their crews. Mardonius, moreover, set so higha value on the marines who fought on board the Egyptian ships, that heretained them as land-troops when the Persian fleet returned to Asiaafter Salamis. 

No further defection took place during the reign of Xerxes; but in B. C. 460, after the throne had been occupied for about five years by Xerxes'son, Artaxerxes, a second rebellion broke out, which led to a long andterrible struggle. A certain Inarus, who bore rule over some of theAfrican tribes on the western border of Egypt, and who may have been adescendant of the Psamatiks, headed the insurrection, and in conjunctionwith an Egyptian, named Amyrtæus, suddenly attacked the Persian garrisonstationed in Egypt, the ordinary strength of which was 120, 000 men. Agreat battle was fought at Papremis, in the Delta, wherein the Persianswere completely defeated, and their leader, Achæmenes, perished by thehand of Inarus himself. Memphis, however, the capital, still resisted, and the struggle thus remained doubtful. Inarus and Amyrtæus imploredthe assistance of Athens, which had the most powerful navy of the time, and could lend most important aid by taking possession of the river. Athens, which was under the influence of the farsighted Pericles, cheerfully responded to the call, and sent two hundred triremes, mannedby at least forty thousand men, to assist the rebels, and to do as muchinjury as possible to the Persians. On sailing up the Nile, the Athenianfleet found a Persian squadron already moored in the Nile waters, but itswept this obstacle from its path without any difficulty. Memphis wasthen blockaded both by land and water; the city was taken, and only thecitadel. Leucon-Teichos, or "the White Fortress, " held out. A formalsiege of the citadel was commenced, and the allies lay before it formonths, but without result. Meanwhile, Artaxerxes was not idle. Havingcollected an army of 300, 000 men, he gave the command of it toMegabyzus, one of his best generals, and sent him to Egypt against therebels. Megabyzus marched upon Memphis, defeated the Egyptians and theirallies in a great battle under the walls of the town, relieved thePersian garrison which held the citadel, and recovered possession of theplace. The Athenians retreated to the tract called Prosopitis, a sort ofisland in the Delta, surrounded by two of the branch streams of theNile, which they held with their ships. Here Megabyzus besieged themwithout success for eighteen months; but at last he bethought himself ofa stratagem like that whereby Cyrus is said to have captured Babylon, and adapted it to his purpose. Having blocked the course of one of thebranch streams, and diverted its waters into a new channel, he laid barethe river-bed, captured the triremes that were stuck fast in the softooze, marched his men into the island, and overwhelmed the unhappyGreeks by sheer force of numbers. A few only escaped, and made their wayto Cyrene. The entire fleet of two hundred vessels fell into the handsof the conqueror; and fifty others, sent as a reinforcement, having soonafterwards entered the river, were attacked unawares and defeated, withthe loss of more than half their number. Inarus, the Libyan monarch, became a fugitive, but was betrayed by some of his followers, surrendered, and crucified. Amyrtæus, who had been recognized as king ofEgypt during the six years that the struggle lasted, took refuge in theNile marshes, where he dragged out a miserable existence for anotherterm of six years. The Egyptians offered no further resistance; andEgypt became once more a Persian satrapy (B. C. 455). 

It was at about this time that Herodotus, the earliest Greek historian, the Father of History, as he has been called, visited Egypt in pursuanceof his plan of gathering information for his great work. He was a youngman, probably not far from thirty years of age (for he was born betweenthe dates of the battles of Marathon and Thermopylæ). He travelledthrough the land as far as Elephantine, viewing with his observant eyesthe wonders with which the "Story of Egypt" has been so much occupied;and he described them with the enthusiasm that we have occasionallynoted. He saw the battle-field on which Inarus had just beendefeated--the ground strewn with the skulls and other bones of theslain; he made his longest stay at Memphis, then at the acme of itsgreatness; he visited the quarries on the east of the Nile whence thestone had been dug for the pyramids, and he gazed upon the greatmonuments themselves, on the opposite side of the stream. We have seenthat he visited Lake Mœris, and examined the famous Labyrinth, which hethought even more wonderful than the pyramids themselves. Finally, hesailed away for Tyre, and Egypt was again closed to travellers fromGreece. 

A second period of tranquillity followed, which covered the space ofabout half a century. Nothing is known of Egypt during this interval;and it might have been thought that she had grown contented with herlot, and that her aspirations after independence were over. For fiftyyears she had made no sign. Even the troubled time between the death ofArtaxerxes I. And the accession of Darius II. Had not tempted her tostrike a blow for freedom. But still she was, in reality, irreconcilable. She was biding her time, and preparing herself for alast desperate effort. 

In B. C. 406 or 405, towards the close of the reign of Darius Nothus, thethird rebellion of Egypt against Persia broke out. A native of Mendes, by name Nepheritis, or more properly Nefaa-rut, raised the banner ofindependence, and commenced a war, which must have lasted for someyears, but which terminated in the expulsion of the Persian garrison, and the reestablishment of the throne of the Pharaohs. It is unfortunatethat no ancient authority gives any account of the struggle. We onlyknow that, after a time, the power of Nefaa-rut was established; thatPersia left him in undisturbed possession of Egypt, and that he reignedquietly for the space of six years, employing himself in the repair andrestoration of the temple of Ammon at Karnak. Nothing that can be calleda revival, or _renaissance_, distinguished his reign; and we must viewhis success rather as the result of Persian weakness, than of his ownenergy. His revolt, however, inaugurated a period of independence, whichlasted about sixty years, and which threw over the last years of thedoomed monarchy a gleam of sunshine, that for a brief space recalled theglories of earlier and happier ages. 

XXVI. 

A LAST GLEAM OF SUNSHINE--NECTANEBO I. 

A troubled time followed the reign of Nefaa-rut. The Greek mercenarysoldiery, on whom the monarchs depended, were fickle in theirtemperament, and easily took offence, if their inclinations were in anyway thwarted. Their displeasure commonly led to the dethronement of theking who had provoked it; and we have thus, at this period of thehistory, five reigns in twenty-five years. No monarch had time todistinguish himself by a re-organization of the kingdom, or even byundertaking buildings on a large scale--each was forced to live fromhand to mouth, meeting as he best might the immediate difficulties ofhis position, without providing for a future, which he might never liveto see. Fear of re-conquest was also perpetual; and the monarchs hadtherefore constantly to be courting alliances with foreign states, andsubjecting themselves thereby to risks which it might have been moreprudent to have avoided. 

With the accession of Nectanebo I. (Nekht-Horheb), about B. C. 385, animprovement in the state of affairs set in. Nekht-hor-heb was a vigorousprince, who held the mercenaries well under control, and, having raiseda considerable Egyptian army, set himself to place Egypt in such astate of defence, that she might confidently rely on her own strength, and be under no need of entangling herself with foreign alliances. Hestrongly fortified all the seven mouths of the Nile, guarding each bytwo forts, one on either side of each stream, and establishing aconnection between each pair of forts by a bridge. At Pelusium, wherethe danger of hostile attack was always the greatest, he multiplied hisprecautions, guarding it on the side of the east by a deep ditch, andcarefully obstructing all the approaches to the town, whether by land orsea, by forts and dykes and embankments, and contrivances for laying theneighbouring territory under water. No doubt these precautions weretaken with special reference to an expected attack on the part ofPersia, which was preparing, about B. C. 376, to make a great effort tobring Egypt once more into subjection. 

The expected attack came in the next year. Having obtained the servicesof the Athenian general, Iphicrates, and hired Greek mercenaries to thenumber of twenty thousand, Artaxerxes Mnemon, in B. C. 375, sent a hugearmament against Egypt, consisting of 220, 000 men, 500 ships of war, anda countless number of other vessels carrying stores and provisions. Pharnabazus commanded the Persian soldiery, Iphicrates the mercenaries. Having rendezvoused at Acre in the spring of the year, they set outearly in the summer, and proceeded in a leisurely manner throughPhilistia and the desert, the fleet accompanying them along the coast. This route brought them to Pelusium, which they found so stronglyfortified that they despaired of being able to force the defences andfelt it necessary to make a complete change in their plan of attack. Putting to sea with a portion of the fleet, and with troops to thenumber of three thousand, and sailing northward till they could nolonger be seen from the shore, they then, probably at nightfall, changedtheir course, and steering south-west, made for the Mendesian mouth ofthe Nile, which was only guarded by the twin forts with their connectingbridge. Here they landed without opposition, and proceeded toreconnoitre the forts. The garrison gave them battle outside the walls, but was defeated with great loss; and the forts themselves were taken. The remainder of the force conveyed by the ships, was then landedwithout difficulty; and the invaders, having the complete mastery of oneof the Nile mouths, had it in their power to direct their attack to anypoint that might seem to them at once most important and mostvulnerable. 

Under these circumstances the Athenian general, Iphicrates, stronglyrecommended a dash at Memphis. The main strength of the Egyptian armyhad been concentrated at Pelusium. Strong detachments held the othermouths of the Nile. Memphis, he felt sure, must be denuded of troops, and could probably be carried by a _coup de main_; but the advice of therapid Greek was little to the taste of the slow-moving and cautiousPersian. Pharnabazus declined to sanction any rash enterprise--he wouldproceed according to the rules of art. He had the advantage ofnumbers--why was he to throw it away? No, a thousand times no. He wouldwait till his army was once more collected together, and would thenmarch on Memphis, without exposing himself or his troops to any danger. The city would be sure to fall, and the object of the expedition wouldbe accomplished. In vain did Iphicrates offer to run the whole riskhimself--to take no troops with him besides his own mercenaries, andattack the city with them. As the Greek grew more hot and reckless, thePersian became more cool and wary. What might not be behind thisfoolhardiness? Might it not be possible that the Greek was looking tohis own interests, and designing, if he got possession of Memphis, toset himself up as king of Egypt? There was no knowing what his intentionmight be; and at any rate it was safest to wait the arrival of thetroops. So Pharnabazus once more coolly declined his subordinate'soffer. 

Nectanebo, on his side, having thrown a strong garrison into Memphis, moved his army across the Delta from the Pelusiac to the Mendesianbranch of the Nile, and having concentrated it in the neighbourhood ofthe captured forts, proceeded to operate against the invaders. Histroops harassed the enemy in a number of petty engagements, and in thecourse of time inflicted on them considerable loss. In this waymidsummer was reached--the Etesian winds began to blow, and the Nile torise. Gradually the abounding stream spread itself over the broad Delta;roads were overflowed, river-courses obliterated; the season formilitary operations was clearly past. There was no possible course butto return to Asia. Iphicrates and Pharnabazus took their departure amidmutual recriminations, each accusing the other of having caused theexpedition to be a complete failure. 

The repulse of this huge host was felt by the Egyptians almost as therepulse of the host of Xerxes was felt by the Greeks. Nectanebo waslooked upon as a hero and a demigod; his throne was assured; it was feltthat he had redeemed all the failures of the past, and had restoredEgypt to the full possession of all her ancient dignity and glory. Nectanebo continued to rule over "the Two Lands" for nine years longerin uninterrupted peace, honour, and prosperity. During this time heapplied himself, with considerable success, to the revival of Egyptianart and architecture. At Thebes he made additions to the great temple ofKarnak, restored the temple of Khonsu, and adorned with reliefs a shrineoriginally erected by Ramesses XII. At Memphis he was extraordinarilyactive: he built a small temple in the neighbourhood of the Serapeum, set up inscriptions in the Apis repository in honour of the sacredbulls, erected two small obelisks in black granite, and left his nameinscribed more than once in the quarries of Toora. Traces of hisactivity are also found at Edfu, at Abydos, at Bubastis, at Rosetta inthe Delta, and at Tel-el-Maskoutah. The art of his time is said to haveall the elegance of that produced under the twenty-sixth (Psamatik)dynasty, but to have been somewhat more florid. The two black obelisksabove-mentioned, which are now in the British Museum, show the admirablefinish which prevailed at this period. The sarcophagus which Nectaneboprepared for himself, which adorns the same collection, is also of greatbeauty. 

We cannot be surprised to find that Nectanebo was worshipped after hisdeath as a divine being. A priesthood was constituted in his honour, which handed down his cult to later times, and bore witness to theimpression made on the Egyptian mind by his character and his successes. 

XXVII. 

THE LIGHT GOES OUT IN DARKNESS. 

Nectanebo's successors had neither his foresight nor his energy. Te-her, the Tachos or Teos of the Greeks, who followed him on the throne in B. C. 366, went out of his way to provoke the Persians by fomenting the war ofthe satraps against Artaxerxes Mnemon, and, having obtained the servicesof Agesilaüs and Chabrias, even ventured to invade Phœnicia and attemptits reduction. His own hold upon Egypt was, however, far too weak tojustify so bold a proceeding. Scarcely had he reached Syria, when revoltbroke out behind him. The Regent, to whom he had entrusted the directionof affairs during his absence, proved unfaithful, and incited his son, Nekht-nebf, to become a candidate for the crown, and to take up armsagainst his father. The young prince was seduced by the offers made him, and Egypt became plunged in a civil war. But for the courage and conductof Agesilaüs, which were conspicuously displayed, Tacho would haveyielded to despair and have given up the contest. In two decisivebattles the Spartan general completely defeated the army of the rebels, which far outnumbered that of Tacho, and replaced the king on histottering throne. 

However, it was not long before the party of the rebels recovered fromtheir defeats. Agesilaüs either joined them, or withdrew from thestruggle, and removing to Cyrene died there at an advanced age. Tacho, deserted by his followers, quitted Egypt and fled to Sidon, whence hemade his way across the desert to the court of the Great King. Ochus, who had by this time succeeded Mnemon, received him favourably, andprofessed an intention of embracing his cause; but nothing came of thisexpression of good-will. Tacho lived a considerable time at the court ofOchus, without any steps being taken to restore him to his formerposition. At last a dysentery carried him off, and legitimated theposition of the usurper who had driven him into exile. 

The end now drew nigh. Nekht-nebf, whom the Greeks called Nectanebo II. , having after a time established himself firmly upon the throne, and gotrid of pretenders, resumed the ambitious policy of his predecessor, andentered into an alliance with the people of Sidon and their neighbours, who were in revolt against Persia. He had the excuse that Ochus, sometime previously, had sent an expedition against Egypt, which he hadrepulsed by the assistance of two Greek generals, Diophantus of Athensand Lamius of Sparta. But this expedition was a thing of the past; ithad inflicted no injury on Egypt, and it demanded no revenge. Nekht-nebfwas in no way called upon to join the rebel confederacy, which (in B. C. 346) raised the flag of revolt from Persia, and sought to enrol in itsranks as many allies as possible. But he rashly gave in his name, andsent to Sidon as his contingent towards the army that was being raised, four thousand of his Greek mercenaries, under the command of Mentor ofRhodes. With their aid, Tennes, the Sidonian king, completely defeatedthe troops which Ochus had sent against him, and drove the Persians outof Phœnicia. 

The success, however, which was thus gained by the rebels onlyexasperated the Persian king, and made him resolve all the more on adesperate effort. The time had gone by, he felt, for committing wars tosatraps, or sending out generals, with a few thousand troops, to putdown this or that troublesome chieftain. The conjuncture called formeasures of no ordinary character. The Great King must conduct anexpedition in person. Every sort of preparation must be made; arms andprovisions and stores of all kinds must be accumulated; the best troopsmust be collected from all parts of the empire; a sufficient fleet mustbe manned; and such an armament must go forth under the royal banner aswould crush all opposition. Ochus succeeded in gathering together fromthe nations under his direct rule 300, 000 foot, 30, 000 horse, 300triremes, and 500 transports or provision-ships. He then directed hisefforts towards obtaining efficient assistance from the Greeks. Thoughrefused aid by Athens and Sparta, he succeeded in obtaining a thousandTheban heavy-armed under Lacrates, three thousand Argives underNicostratus, and six thousand Æolians, Ionians, and Dorians from theGreek cities of Asia Minor. The assistance thus secured was numericallysmall, amounting to no more than ten thousand men--not a thirtieth partof his native force; but it formed, together with the Greek mercenariesfrom Egypt--who went over to him afterwards--the force on which heplaced his chief reliance, and to which the ultimate success of hisexpedition was mainly due. 

The overwhelming strength of the armament which Ochus had brought withhim into Syria alarmed the chiefs of the rebel confederacy. Tennes, especially, the Sidonian monarch, despaired of a successful resistance, and made up his mind that his only chance of safety lay in his appeasingthe anger of Ochus by the betrayal of his confederates and followers. Heopened his designs to Mentor of Rhodes, the commander of the Greekmercenaries furnished by Egypt, and found him quite ready to come intohis plans. The two in conjunction betrayed Sidon into the hands ofPersia, by the admission of a detachment within the walls; after whichthe defence became impracticable. The Sidonians, having experienced theunrelenting temper and sanguinary spirit of the Persian king, who hadtransfixed with javelins six hundred of their principal citizens, cameto the desperate resolution of setting fire to their houses, and sodestroying themselves with their town. One is glad to learn that thecowardly traitor, Tennes, who had brought about these terriblecalamities, did not derive any profit from them, but was executed by thecommand of Ochus, as soon as Sidon had fallen. 

The reduction of Sidon was followed closely by the invasion of Egypt. Ochus, besides his 330, 000 Asiatics, had now a force of 14, 000 Greeks, the mercenaries under Mentor having joined him. Marshalling his army infour divisions, he proceeded to the attack. The first, second, andthird divisions contained, each of them, a contingent of Greeks and acontingent of Asiatics, commanded respectively by a Greek and a Persianleader. The Greeks of the first division, consisting mainly of Bœotians, were under the orders of Lacrates, a Theban of enormous strength, whoregarded himself as a second Hercules, and adopted the traditionalcostume of that hero, a lion's skin and a club. His Persian colleaguewas Rhosaces, satrap of Ionia and Lydia, who claimed descent from one of"the Seven" that put down the conspiracy of the Magi. In the seconddivision, where the Argive mercenaries served, the Greek leader wasNicostratus, the Persian Aristazanes, a court usher, and one of the mosttrusted friends of the king. Mentor and the eunuch Bagoas, Ochus's chiefminister in his later years, were at the head of the third division, Mentor commanding his own mercenaries, and Bagoas the Greeks whom Ochushad levied in his own dominions, together with a large body of Asiatics. The king himself was sole commander of the fourth division, as well ascommander-in-chief of the entire host. Nekht-nebf, on his side, was onlyable to oppose to this vast array an army less than one-third of thesize. He had enrolled as many as sixty thousand of the Egyptian warriorclass, and had the services of twenty thousand Greek mercenaries, and ofabout the same number of Libyan troops. 

Pelusium, as usual, was the first point of attack. Nekht-nebf had takenadvantage of the long delay of Ochus in Syria to see that the defencesof Egypt were in good order; he had made preparations for resistance atall the seven mouths of the Nile, and had guarded Pelusium with especialcare. Ochus, as he had expected, advanced along the coast route whichled to this place. Part of his army traversed the narrow spit of landwhich separated the Lake Serbonis from the Mediterranean, and in doingso met with a disaster. A strong wind setting in from the north, as thetroops were passing, brought the waters of the Mediterranean over thelow strip of sand which is ordinarily dry, and confounding sea and shoreand lake together, caused the destruction of a large detachment; but themain army, which had probably kept Lake Serbonis on the right, reachedits destination intact. A skirmish followed between the Theban troops ofthe first division under Lacrates and the garrison of Pelusium underPhilophron; but this first engagement was without definite result. 

The two armies lay now for a while on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, which was well protected by forts, fortified towns, and a network ofcanals on either side of it. There was every reason to expect thatNekht-nebf, by warily guarding his frontier, and making full use of hisresources, might baffle for a considerable time, if not whollyfrustrate, the Persian attack. But his combined self-conceit andtimidity ruined his cause. Taking the direction of affairs wholly uponhimself and asking no advice from his Greek captains, he failed to showany of the qualities of a great commander, and was speedily involved indifficulties with which he was quite incapable of dealing. Having hadhis first line of defence partially forced by a bold movement on thepart of the Argives under Nicostratus, instead of trying to redeem themisfortune by a counter-movement, or a concentration of troops, hehastily abandoned to his generals the task of continuing the resistanceon this outer line, and retiring to Memphis, concentrated all hisefforts on making preparations to resist a siege. 

Meantime, the Persians were advancing. Lacrates the Theban set himselfto reduce Pelusium, and, having drained dry one of the ditches, broughthis military engines up to the walls of the place. In vain, however, didhe batter down a portion of the wall--the garrison had erected anotherwall behind it; in vain did he advance his towers--they had movabletowers ready prepared to resist him. No progress had been made by thebesiegers, when on a sudden the resistance of the besieged slackened. Intelligence had reached them of Nekht-nebf's hasty retreat. If the kinggave up hope, why should they pour out their blood to no purpose?Accordingly they made overtures to Lacrates for a surrender upon terms, and it was agreed that they should be allowed to evacuate the place andreturn to Greece, with all the goods and chattels that they could carrywith them. Bagoas demurred to the terms; but Ochus confirmed them, andPelusium passed into the possession of the Persians without furtherfighting. 

About the same time Mentor had proceeded southwards and laid siege toBubastis. Having invested the town, he caused intelligence to reach thebesieged that Ochus had determined to spare all who should surrendertheir cities to him without resistance, and to treat with the utmostseverity all who should fight strenuously in their defence. By thesemeans he introduced dissension within the walls of the towns, since thenative Egyptians and their Greek allies naturally distrusted andsuspected each other. At Bubastis the Egyptians were the first to move. The siege had only just begun when they sent an envoy to Mentor'scolleague, Bagoas, to offer to surrender the town to him. But thisproceeding did not suit the Greeks, who caught the messenger, extractedfrom him his message, and then attacked the Egyptian portion of thegarrison and slew great numbers of them. The Egyptians, however, thoughbeaten, persisted, established communication with Bagoas, and fixed aday on which they would receive his forces into the town. Mentor, whowished to secure to himself the credit of the surrender, hereuponexhorted his Greek friends to be on the watch, and, when the time came, to resist the movement. This they did with such success that they notonly frustrated the attempt, but captured Bagoas himself, who hadventured within the walls. Bagoas had to implore the interference of hiscolleague on his behalf, and was obliged to promise that henceforth hewould attempt nothing without Mentor's knowledge and consent. Mentorgained his ends, had the credit of being the person to whom the townsurrendered itself, and at the same time established his ascendancy overBagoas. It is clear that had the Egyptians possessed an active and ablecommander, advantage might have been taken of the jealousies whichdivided the Persian generals from their Greek colleagues, to bring theexpedition into difficulties. 

Unfortunately, the Egyptian monarch, alike pusillanimous and incapable, was so far from making any offensive effort, that he was not preparedeven to defend his capital against the invaders. When he found thatPelusium and Bubastis had both fallen, and that the way lay open for thePersians to march upon Memphis and invest it, he left the city with allthe wealth on which he could lay his hands, and fled away into Ethiopia. Ochus did not pursue him. He was content to have regained a valuableprovince, which for above fifty years had been lost to the Persiancrown, without even having had to fight a single pitched battle, or toengage in one difficult siege. According to the Greek writers, he showedhis contempt of the Egyptian religion after his conquest by stabbing anApis-Bull, and violating the sanctity of a number of the most holyshrines; but the story of the Apis-Bull is probably a fiction, and itwas to obtain the plunder of the temples, not to insult the Egyptiangods, that he violated the shrines. There is no trace of his havingtreated the conquered people with cruelty, or even with severity. Prudence induced him to destroy the walls and other fortifications ofthe chief Egyptian towns; and cupidity led him to carry off into Persiaall the treasures that Nekht-nebf had left behind. Even the sacredbooks, of which he is said to have robbed the temples, may have beentaken on account of their value. We do not hear of his having draggedoff any prisoners, or inflicted any punishment on the country for itsrebellion. Even the tribute is not said to have been increased. 

There is nothing surprising in the fact that, when once Persia tookresolutely in hand the subjugation of the revolted province, a fewmonths sufficed for its accomplishment. The resources of Persia were outof all comparison with those of Egypt; alike in respect of men and ofmoney, there was an extreme disparity. What had protected Egypt so longwas the multiplicity of Persia's enemies, the large number of wars thatwere continually being waged and the want of a bold, energetic, andwarlike monarch. As soon as the full power of the vast empire of theAchæmenidæ was directed against the little country which had detacheditself, and pretended to a separate existence, the result was certain. Egypt could no more maintain a struggle against Persia in full forcethan a lynx could contend with a lion. But while all this is indubitablytrue, the end of Egypt might have been more dignified and morehonourable than it was. Nekht-nebf, the last king, was a poor specimenof the Pharaonic type of monarch. He had none of the qualities of agreat king. He did not even know how to fall with dignity. Had hegathered together all the troops that he could anyhow muster, and metOchus in the open field, and fallen fighting for his crown, or had heeven defended Memphis to the last, and only yielded himself when hecould resist no longer, a certain halo of glory would have surroundedhim. As it was, Egypt sank ingloriously at the last--her art, herliterature, her national spirit decayed and almost extinct--paying, byher early disappearance from among the nations of the earth, the penaltyof her extraordinarily precocious greatness. 

[Illustration: MAP OF THE FAYOUM SHOWING THE BIRKET-EL-KEROUN AND THEARTIFICIAL LAKE 'MŒRIS'. 

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN. PATERNOSTER SQUARE. E. C. ]

INDEX. 

A

Aahmes I. , 152"Aa-khepr-ka-ra, Abode of, " 168"Abode of Aa-khepr-ka-ra, " 168Abraham, deceit of, 127, 129Abraham in Egypt, 125Abyssinia, rainfall in, 113Alliance with Babylon and Lydia, 371Amasis, prosperity under, 367Amenemhat I. , 101Amenemhat I. , hunting prowess of, 103Amenemhat III. , 109"Amenemhat the Good, " 116Amenemhat's Labyrinth, 121Amenemhat's Reservoir, 118Amenhotep II. , conquests of, 206Amenhotep II. , cruelty of, 207Amenhotep III. , colossi of, 208Amenhotep III. , lion-hunting of, 220Amenhotep III. , personal appearance of, 222Amenhotep III. , wars of, 219Amenhotep IV. , accession of, 223Ammon, High Priest of, 289Ammon, restoration of temple of, 290Ammon, temple of, 105, 167, 173, 186Amon-mes, or Amomneses, pretender to crown, 265Animal worship, 31Animals, sacred, 31Antef I. , 97Antef II. 's dogs, 98Antiquities of Egypt, 45Apé, or Apiu, city of, 56Apepi and Joseph, 145Apepi, rule of, 144Apis, sacred bull, 32Apries offends Nebuchadnezzar, 363Architecture, 21, 245, 267Art and literature, decline of, 285, 311Art and literature, revival of, 350Asa, Judæa revolts under, 307Asa, victory of, 309Asia, invasion of, 167, 195Asshur-bani-pal, accession of, 336Asshur-bani-pal, death of, 338Asshur-bani-pal, defeat of Tehrak by, 336Assyria, IIAssyrian gifts to Thothmes III. , 194Athor cow, 33Auaris, siege of, 152

B

Babylon, revolt of, 345Bacis, sacred bull, 32Bahr Yousouf, 1Bastinado, 45Bek-en-ranf, burning of, 323Builders, the Pyramid, 82Buildings of Thothmes III. , 199, 201Bulls, sacred, 32

C

Cairo. , Modern, 52, 95Cambyses, indignities by, 378Campaigns of Thothmes III. , 191Chaldean Monarchy, end of, 371Character, Egyptian, 24Character, types of, 27Colossi of Amenhotep III. , 208Condition, social, 60Corrupting influences, 353Costume, early, 60Costume of Women, 62Crocodile, mode of hunting, 104Crœsus, 370Cushites, the, 154Cyprus, 197Cyrene, death of, 394Cyrus, death of, 372

D

Darius, death of, 382Darius, revolt against, 381David and Solomon, empire of, 295Decline, 244, 269, 283Decline of art and literature, 285, 311Decline of morals, 286Defeat, double, of invaders, 277Defeat of Neco by Nebuchadnezzar, 358Deities, Egyptian, 30Deities, evil, 36, 37Delta, the, 1, 95, 102Disaster of the Red Sea, 264Disintegration, 311, 317Disk worship, 223, 225, 230, 231Drollery, Egyptian, 29Dynasties, rival, established, 311

E

Egypt, monotony of, 19Egypt, seasons of, 14Egypt, shape of, 1Egypt, situation of, 11Egypt, size of, 9Egypt, soil of, 10Egyptian history, happiest age of, 100Egyptian independence re-established, 389Egyptian myths, 47Egyptian physique, 25Egyptians, nature of, 28Elephant hunting, 194El-Uksur, temple of, 217Empire of David and Solomon, 295Esarhaddon, accession of, 331Esarhaddon's defeat of Tehrak, 333Ethiopia and Syria, struggles between, 337Ethiopia, Egyptian influence in, 315Ethiopia, last efforts of, 339Ethiopian rule firmly established, 323Ethiopians, cruelty of, 338Evil deities, 36, 37Expeditions into Asia, 167, 195

F

Famines through deficient inundation, 115Fayoum, obelisk at, 106Fayoum, the, 4, 7Fellahin, explanation of, 45First sea-fight, 277Fleet of Hatasu, 178Flora of Egypt, 15Foreigners, encouragement of, 351Forests, incense, 183Free Trade in Punt, 183

G

Geology of Egypt, 15Great Pyramid, 72Greece, trade with, 352Ghizeh, three Pyramids at, 67Ghizeh, tombs at, 56, 137Gyges and Psamatik, 345

H

Hall at Karnak, 266Hall of Seti, 245Handicrafts, Egyptian, 44Hapi, 32Hapi, merchant fleet of, 178Hapi regarded as a male, 178Hapi regent for Thothmes II. , 173Hapi, Thothmes III. 's animosity against, 187Hatasu actual queen, 177Hatasu's fleet, return of 184Hebrew art, Egyptian influence in, 297Heliopolis, temple at, 106Her-hor, first high-priest king, 290Herodotus, 384Hittites, peace with, 242Hittites, treaty with, 243Hittites, war with, 233Hosea, Shabak's dealings with, 325Hostage, Thothmes III. 's system of, 195Hyksôs conquered, 151Hyksôs, religion of, 143Hyksôs rule, 139

I

Immigrants, Semitic, 109, 130Immortality of the soul, belief in, 39Inarus, death of, 384Inarus, revolt of, 383Incense forests, 183Industries, revival of, 350Influences, corrupting, 353Inundation, 13Inundation, deficient, famines through, 115Invasion, 396Invasion by land and sea, 275Invasion, Libyan, 235Invasion, the great, 134Israel's oppressor, 249

J

Jeroboam at Shishak's court, 301Jerusalem, destruction of, 362Joseph and Apepi, 145Josiah, defeat of, by Nico, 357Judæa insecure, 361Judæa's conquest, record of, 305

K

Kadesh, battle of, 239Karnak, hall at, 266Karnak, temple at, 173, 198, 200, 304, 349, 386Khabash, accession of, 381Khartoum, 8Khu-en-Aten, 227Khu-en-Aten, personal appearance of, 229Khufu, King, 82, 90King, supposed first, 49Kings in awe of priests, 288

L

Labouring class, condition of, 45Labyrinth, Amenemhat's, 121Legend of Osiris, 34Libyan desert, battle in, 346Libyan invasion, 255Libyans, defeat of, 274Libyans, slaughter of, Literature and art, decline of, 311Lower Egypt, 96Lower orders, condition of, 45Luxor, temple of, 217

M

Medes, the, 369Medinet-Abou, temple at, 272Megiddo, capture of, 191Memphis, 51Memphis, blockade and fall of, 377, 383Memphis taken by Esarhaddon, 333Menephthah I. , accession of, 253Menes, King, 50, 52Men-kau-ra, King, 68, 82, 90Men-khepr-ra, King, accession, of, 294Mentu-hotep I. , 97Mertitefs, wife of Sneferu, 64Meydoum, pyramid of, 58Mi-Ammon-Nut, accession of, 338Mi-Ammon-Nut, death of, 340Mi-Ammon-Nut, Submission to, 340Mnevis, sacred bull, 32Mœris, lake, 120Monuments, objects on, 196Moral standard, 42Morality, Egyptian, 41Morals, decline of, 286Myth, chief Egyptian, 34Myths, Egyptian, 47

N

Naïri, war on the, 167Napatra, Necropolis at, 316Natural History of Egypt, 16Naval power of Thothmes, 111Navy of Nero, 354Nebuchadnezzar and Neco, 358Nebuchadnezzar overruns Egypt, 365Neco, accession of, 354Neco defeats Josiah, 357Neco, navy of, 354Neco, victories of, 358Nectanebo I. , accession of, 387Nectanebo I. , sarcophagus of, 391Nefer-mat, son of Sneferu, 64Nekht-nebf, accession of, 394Nile, navigation on, 13Nile, rising of the, 113Nile valley, 1, 95, 102, 117Nineveh, 192

O

Obelisk of Usurtasen I. , 137Objects on monuments, 196Ochus, expedition of, 394Osiris, legend of, 34Osorkon I. , accession of, 306

P

Pacis, sacred bull, 32Parihu, king of Punt, 182Payment of tribute, 149Pelusium, surrender of, 399Persia, third rebellion against, 385Persian conquest, 368Persian power, rise of, 369Persians, revolt against, 382Pharnabazus, attack by, 388Pharnabazus, repulse of, 390Phœnicia, 11Phthah, temple of, 51, 349Piankhi, king of Napatra, 317Piankhi, rebellion against, 318Piankhi, submission of petty princes to, 320Pinetum I. , accession of, 293Plagues of Egypt, the, 262Polytheism, 31Priest, High, of Ammon, 289Priest-kings, last of the, 297Priests, kings in awe of, 288Prosopis, battle of, 260Prosperity under Amasis, 367Psamatik I. And Gyges, 345Psamatik I. , origin of, 343Psamatik I. , sole king, 347Psamatik I. , marriage of, 348Psamatik I. , victory of, 346Psamatik II. , architectural activity of, 361Psamatik III. , accession of, 374Psamatik III. , death of, 377Psamatik III. , defeat of, 375Public schools, 45Punt, free trade in, 183Punt's, Queen of, visit to Hatasu, 182Pyramid builders, Egypt under the, 91Pyramid builders, the, 82Pyramid, great, 72Pyramid of Meydoum, 58Pyramid of Saccarah, 59Pyramids, Egyptian idea of, 66Pyramids, three, at Ghizeh, 67

R

Ra-Sekenen III. , Apepi's jealousy of, 150Ra-Sekenen III. , war forced upon, 151Ramesses I. , 232Ramesses II. , Hittite war of, 239Ramesses II. , Israel's oppressor, 249Ramesses III. , accession of, 271Ramesses III. , closing years of, 283Ramesses III. , plot to kill, 284Ramesses III. , temple of, 272Red Sea, disaster of, 264Rehoboam, submission of, 303Religion, 35-41Reservoir, Amenemhat's, 118Revival of Arts and Industries, 350Revolt against Darius, 381Revolt against the Persians, 382Rival dynasties, 311Rut-Ammon, accession and death of, 338

S

Saccarah, Great Pyramid of, 59Sacred animals, 31Sacred bulls, 32St. John Lateran, monument of, 202Sankh-ka-ra, King, 99Saplal, Hittite king, 232Sargon, death of, 327Sargon, founder of last Assyrian dynasty, 326Schools, public, 45Sea-fight, first, 277Second cataract, 106, 111Semetic immigrants, 130Sennacherib, accession of, 327Sennacherib, victories of, 328Sennacherib's army, destruction of, 329, 331Set, Egyptian deity, 143Set the victorious, 269Seti the Great, victories of, 234Seti the Great, wars of, 236Seti the Great, long wall of, 237Seti the Great, Pillared Hall, 245Seti the Great, tomb of, 246Seti I. , head of, 250Seti I. , images of, 248Seti I. , mummy of, 251Shabak bums Bek-en-ranf, 323Shabak, death of, 327Shabak's conquest of Lower Nile, 324Shabak's dealings with Hosea, 325Shabatok, accession of, 327Shafra, King, 82, 90, 92Shasu, campaign against the, 273Shepherds, Egypt under, 139Sheshonk dynasty, defeat of, 309Shishak, accession of, 300Shishak, dominion of, 304Shishak, foreign origin of, 298Shishak invades Judæa, 303Shishak's reception of Jeroboam, 301Sidon, capture of, 396Siege of Memphis, 376Signs on tombs, 57Slave-hunting lucrative, 220Sneferu, first certain king, 54Social condition, 60Social ranks, 43Society, divisions of, 43Song of Egyptians, 26Song of victory, 198Soul, belief in immortality of, 39Sphinx, the, 92Standard, moral, 42Suez, Isthmus of, 11Syria and Ethiopia, struggle between, 337Syria evacuated by Neco, 359

T

Tachos, accession of, 393Taxation, heavy, 45Tehrak, death of, 337Tehrak defeated by Asshur-bani-pal, 336Tehrak defeated by Esarhaddon, 333Tel-el-Bahiri, 185Tel-Mouf, 51Temple of Ammon, 167, 173, 186, 290Temple of Karnak, 198, 200, 304, 349, 386Temple of Medinet-Abou, 272Temple of Phthah, 349Temple of Tel-el-Bahiri, 185Theban kings, 99Thothmes I. , accession of, 158Thothmes I. , greatness of, 168Thothmes I. , victories of, 159Thothmes II. , death of, 177Thothmes III. , animosity against Hatasu, 187Thothmes III. , buildings of, 199, 201Thothmes III. , campaigns of, 191Thothmes III. , conquests of, 204Thothmes III. , lost obelisks of, 201Thothmes III. , naval power of, 197Thothmes III. , personal appearance of, 204Thothmes III. 's system of tribute, 195Thothmes III. , tributes of, 196Tinæus, King, 135Tombs at Ghizeh, 56, 137Tombs, description of, 57Tombs, signs on, 57Trade with Greece, 352Trade with the Jews, 295Transport, difficulty of, 12Treaty with the Hittites, 243Tribute, payment of, 149

U

Usurtasen I. , obelisk of, 137Usurtasen I. , son of Amenemhat, 104Usurtasen I. , statue of, 105Usurtasen II. , 109Usurtasen III. , conquest of, 111

V

Victoria, lake, 8Victory, song of, 198Vocal Memnon, the, 212

W

Wady Haifa, 106Wady Magharah, 54, 106Water, modes of storing, 117Western Asia, history of, 162Western Asia, topography of, 155"Wilderness of the Wanderings, " 164Women, costume of, 62Women held in high estimation, 170Worship, animal, 31

Z

Zabara, Mount, 15Zerah, defeat of, 308

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