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HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA

By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen'sCollege, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College ofFrance

Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford

Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the EgyptExploration Fund

CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume V. 

LONDON

THE GROLIER SOCIETY

PUBLISHERS

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THE EIGHTEENTH THEBAN DYNASTY--(continued)

_THÛTMOSIS III. : THE ORGANISATION OF THE SYRIAN PROVINCES--AMENÔTHESIII. : THE WORSHIPPERS OF ATONÛ. _

_Thutmosis III. : the talcing of Qodshâ in the 42nd year of hisreign--The tribute of the south--The triumph-song of Amon. _

_The constitution of the Egyptian empire--The Grown vassals andtheir relations with the Pharaoh--The king's messengers--The alliedstates--Royal presents and marriages; the status of foreigners in theroyal harem--Commerce with Asia, its resources and its risks; protectiongranted to the national industries, and treaties of extradition. _

_Amenôthes II, his campaigns in Syria and Nubia--Thûtmosis IV. ; hisdream under the shadow of the Sphinx and his marriage--Amenôthes III. And his peaceful reign--The great building works--The temples ofNubia: Soleb and his sanctuary built by Amenôthes III, Gebel Barkal, Elephantine--The beautifying of Thebes: the temple of Mat, the templesof Amon at Luxor and at Karnak, the tomb of Amenôthes III, the chapeland the colossi of Memnon. _

_The increasing importance of Anion and his priests: preference shownby Amenôthes III. For the Heliopolitan gods, his marriage with Tii--Theinfluence of Tii over Amenôthes IV. : the decadence of Amon and ofThebes, Atonû and Khûîtniatonû--Change of physiognomy in Khûniaton, hischaracter, his government, his relations with Asia: the tombs of Telel-Amarna and the art of the period--Tutanlchamon, At: the return of thePharaohs to Thebes and the close of the XVIIIth dynasty. _

CHAPTER I--THE EIGHTEENTH THEBAN DYNASTY--(continued)

_Thutmosis III. : the organisation of the Syrian provinces--AmenothesIII. : the royal worshippers of Atonû. _

In the year XXXIV. The Egyptians reappeared in Zahi. The people ofAnaugasa having revolted, two of their towns were taken, a thirdsurrendered, while the chiefs of the Lotanû hastened to meet their lordwith their usual tribute. Advantage was taken of the encampment being atthe foot of the Lebanon to procure wood for building purposes, such asbeams and planks, masts and yards for vessels, which were all shipped bythe Kefâtiu at Byblos for exportation to the Delta. This expedition was, indeed, little more than a military march through the country. It wouldappear that the Syrians soon accustomed themselves to the presence ofthe Egyptians in their midst, and their obedience henceforward could befairly relied on. We are unable to ascertain what were the circumstancesor the intrigues which, in the year XXXV. , led to a sudden outbreakamong the tribes settled on the Euphrates and the Orontes. The Kingof Mitanni rallied round him the princes of Naharaim, and awaited theattack of the Egyptians near Aruna. Thûtmosis displayed great personalcourage, and the victory was at once decisive. We find mention of onlyten prisoners, one hundred and eighty mares, and sixty chariots in thelists of the spoil. Anaugasa again revolted, and was subdued afreshin the year XXXVIII. ; the Shaûsû rebelled in the year XXXIX. , and theLotanû or some of the tribes connected with them two years later. Thecampaign of the year XLII. Proved more serious. Troubles had arisen inthe neighbourhood of Arvad. Thûtmosis, instead of following the usualcaravan route, marched along the coast-road by way of Phoenicia. Hedestroyed Arka in the Lebanon and the surrounding strongholds, whichwere the haunts of robbers who lurked in the mountains; then turning tothe northeast, he took Tunipa and extorted the usual tribute fromthe inhabitants of Naharaim. On the other hand, the Prince of Qodshû, trusting to the strength of his walled city, refused to do homage to thePharaoh, and a deadly struggle took place under the ramparts, in whicheach side availed themselves of all the artifices which the strategicwarfare of the times allowed. On a day when the assailants and besiegedwere about to come to close quarters, the Amorites let loose a mareamong the chariotry of Thûtmosis. The Egyptian horses threatened tobecome unmanageable, and had begun to break through the ranks, whenAmenemhabî, an officer of the guard, leaped to the ground, and, runningup to the creature, disembowelled it with a thrust of his sword; thisdone, he cut off its tail and presented it to the king. The besiegedwere eventually obliged to shut themselves within their newlybuilt walls, hoping by this means to tire out the patience of theirassailants; but a picked body of men, led by the same brave Amenemhabîwho had killed the mare, succeeded in making a breach and forcing anentrance into the town. Even the numerous successful campaigns we havementioned, form but a part, though indeed an important part, of the warsundertaken by Thûtmosis to "fix his frontiers in the ends of theearth. " Scarcely a year elapsed without the viceroy of Ethiopia having aconflict with one or other of the tribes of the Upper Nile; little meritas he might gain in triumphing over such foes, the spoil taken from themformed a considerable adjunct to the treasure collected in Syria, whilethe tributes from the people of Kûsh and the Uaûaîû were paid with asgreat regularity as the taxes levied on the Egyptians themselves. Itcomprised gold both from the mines and from the rivers, feathers, oxenwith curiously trained horns, giraffes, lions, leopards, and slaves ofall ages. The distant regions explored by Hâtshopsîtû continued to paya tribute at intervals. A fleet went to Pûanît to fetch large cargoesof incense, and from time to time some Ilîm chief would feel himselfhonoured by having one of his daughters accepted as an inmate of theharem of the great king. After the year XLII. We have no further recordsof the reign, but there is no reason to suppose that its closing yearswere less eventful or less prosperous than the earlier. Thûtmosis III. , when conscious of failing powers, may have delegated the direction ofhis armies to his sons or to his generals, but it is also quite possiblethat he kept the supreme command in his own hands to the end of hisdays. Even when old age approached and threatened to abate his vigour, he was upheld by the belief that his father Amon was ever at hand toguide him with his counsel and assist him in battle. "I give to thee, declared the god, the rebels that they may fall beneath thy sandals, that thou mayest crush the rebellious, for I grant to thee by decree theearth in its length and breadth. The tribes of the West and those of theEast are under the place of thy countenance, and when thou goest upinto all the strange lands with a joyous heart, there is none whowill withstand Thy Majesty, for I am thy guide when thou treadest themunderfoot. Thou hast crossed the water of the great curve of Naharaim*in thy strength and in thy power, and I have commanded thee to let themhear thy roaring which shall enter their dens, I have deprived theirnostrils of the breath of life, I have granted to thee that thy deedsshall sink into their hearts, that my uraeus which is upon thy head mayburn them, that it may bring prisoners in long files from the peoples ofQodi, that it may consume with its flame those who are in the marshes, **that it may cut off the heads of the Asiatics without one of them beingable to escape from its clutch. I grant to thee that thy conquests mayembrace all lands, that the urseus which shines upon my forehead may bethy vassal, so that in all the compass of the heaven there may not beone to rise against thee, but that the people may come bearing theirtribute on their backs and bending before Thy Majesty according to mybehest; I ordain that all aggressors arising in thy time shall failbefore thee, their heart burning within them, their limbs trembling!"

 * The Euphrates, in the great curve described by it across Naharaim, after issuing from the mountains of Cilicia. 

 ** The meaning is doubtful. The word signifies pools, marshes, the provinces situated beyond Egyptian territory, and consequently the distant parts of the world--those which are nearest the ocean which encircles the earth, and which was considered as fed by the stagnant waters of the celestial Nile, just as the extremities of Egypt were watered by those of the terrestrial Nile. 

[Illustration: 006. Jpg A PROCESSION OF NEGROES]

"I. --I am come that I may grant unto thee to crush the great ones ofZahi, I throw them under thy feet across their mountains, --I grant tothee that they shall see Thy Majesty as a lord of shining splendour whenthou shinest before them in my likeness!

"II. --I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush those of thecountry of Asia, to break the heads of the people of Lotanû, --I grantthee that they may see Thy Majesty, clothed in thy panoply, when thouseizest thy arms, in thy war-chariot. 

"III. --I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the land of theEast, and invade those who dwell in the provinces of Tonûtir, --I grantthat they may see Thy Majesty as the comet which rains down the heat ofits flame and sheds its dew. 

"IV. --I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the land of theWest, so that Kafîti and Cyprus shall be in fear of thee, --I grant thatthey may see Thy Majesty like the young bull, stout of heart, armed withhorns which none may resist. 

"V. --I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush those who are intheir marshes, so that the countries of Mitanni may tremble for fear ofthee, --I grant that they may see Thy Majesty like the crocodile, lord ofterrors, in the midst of the water, which none can approach. 

"VI. --I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush those who are inthe isles, so that the people who live in the midst of the Very-Greenmay be reached by thy roaring, --I grant that they may see Thy Majestylike an avenger who stands on the back of his victim. 

"VII. --I am come, to grant that thou mayest crush the Tihonu, so thatthe isles of the Utanâtiû may be in the power of thy souls, --I grantthat they may see Thy Majesty like a spell-weaving lion, and that thoumayest make corpses of them in the midst of their own valleys. *

"VIII. --I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the ends of theearth, so that the circle which surrounds the ocean may be grasped inthy fist, --I grant that they may see Thy Majesty as the sparrow-hawk, lord of the wing, who sees at a glance all that he desires. 

"IX. --I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the peoples whoare in their "duars, " so that thou mayest bring the Hirû-shâîtû intocaptivity, --I grant that they may see Thy Majesty like the jackal of thesouth, lord of swiftness, the runner who prowls through the two lands. 

"X. --I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the nomads, so thatthe Nubians as far as the land of Pidît are in thy grasp, --I grant thatthey may see Thy Majesty like unto thy two brothers Horus and Sit, whosearms I have joined in order to establish thy power. "

 * The name of the people associated with the Tihonu was read at first Tanau, and identified with the Danai of the Greeks. Chabas was inclined to read Ûtena, and Brugsch, Ûthent, more correctly Utanâtiû, utanâti, the people of Uatanit. The juxtaposition of this name with that of the Libyans compels us to look towards the west for the site of this people: may we assign to them the Ionian Islands, or even those in the western Mediterranean. 

The poem became celebrated. When Seti I. , two centuries later, commandedthe Poet Laureates of his court to celebrate his victories in verse, the latter, despairing of producing anything better, borrowed the fineststrophes from this hymn to Thûtmosis IIL, merely changing the name ofthe hero. The composition, unlike so many other triumphal inscriptions, is not a mere piece of official rhetoric, in which the poverty of thesubject is concealed by a multitude of common-places whether historicalor mythological. Egypt indeed ruled the world, either directly orthrough her vassals, and from the mountains of Abyssinia to thoseof Cilicia her armies held the nations in awe with the threat of thePharaoh. 

The conqueror, as a rule, did not retain any part of their territory. Heconfined himself to the appropriation of the revenue of certain domainsfor the benefit of his gods. * Amon of Karnak thus became possessor ofseven Syrian towns which he owed to the generosity of the victoriousPharaohs. **

 * The seven towns which Amon possessed in Syria are mentioned, in the time of Ramses III. , in the list of the domains and revenues of the god. 

 ** In the year XXIII. , on his return from his first campaign, Thûtmosis III. Provided offerings, guaranteed from the three towns Anaûgasa, Inûâmû, and Hûrnikarû, for his father Amonrâ. 

Certain cities, like Tunipa, even begged for statues of Thûtmosisfor which they built a temple and instituted a cultus. Amon and hisfellow-gods too were adored there, side by side with the sovereign theinhabitants had chosen to represent them here below. * These rites wereat once a sign of servitude, and a proof of gratitude for servicesrendered, or privileges which had been confirmed. The princes ofneighbouring regions repaired annually to these temples to renew theiroaths of allegiance, and to bring their tributes "before the face of theking. " Taking everything into account, the condition of the Pharaoh'ssubjects might have been a pleasant one, had they been able to accepttheir lot without any mental reservation. They retained their own laws, their dynasties, and their frontiers, and paid a tax only in proportionto their resources, while the hostages given were answerable for theirobedience. These hostages were as a rule taken by Thûtmosis from amongthe sons or the brothers of the enemy's chief. They were carried toThebes, where a suitable establishment was assigned to them, ** theyounger members receiving an education which practically made themEgyptians. 

 * The statues of Thûtmosis III. And of the gods of Egypt erected at Tunipa are mentioned in a letter from the inhabitants of that town to Amenôthes III. Later, Ramses II. , speaking of the two towns in the country of the Khâti in which were two statues of His Majesty, mentions Tunipa as one of them. 

 ** The various titles of the lists of Thûtmosis III. At Thebes show us "the children of the Syrian chiefs conducted as prisoners" into the town of Sûhanû, which is elsewhere mentioned as the depot, the prison of the temple of Anion. W. Max Mullcr was the first to remark the historical value of this indication, but without sufficiently insisting on it; the name indicates, perhaps, as he says, a great prison, but a prison like those where the princes of the family of the Ottoman sultans were confined by the reigning monarch-- a palace usually provided with all the comforts of Oriental life. 

As soon as a vacancy occurred in the succession either in Syria or inEthiopia, the Pharaoh would choose from among the members of the familywhom he held in reserve, that prince on whose loyalty he could bestcount, and placed him upon the throne. * The method of procedure was notalways successful, since these princes, whom one would have supposedfrom their training to have been the least likely to have assertedthemselves against the man to whom they owed their elevation, often gavemore trouble than others. The sense of the supreme power of Egypt, whichhad been inculcated in them during their exile, seemed to be weakenedafter their return to their native country, and to give place to asense of their own importance. Their hearts misgave them as the timeapproached for them to send their own children as pledges to theirsuzerain, and also when called upon to transfer a considerable part oftheir revenue to his treasury. They found, moreover, among their owncities and kinsfolk, those who were adverse to the foreign yoke, andsecretly urged their countrymen to revolt, or else competitors for thethrone who took advantage of the popular discontent to pose as championsof national independence, and it was difficult for the vassal prince tocounteract the intrigues of these adversaries without openly declaringhimself hostile to his foreign master. **

 * Among the Tel el-Amarna tablets there is a letter of a petty Syrian king, Adadnirari, whose father was enthroned after a fashion in Nûkhassi by Thûtmosis III. 

 ** Thus, in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence, Zimrida, governor of Sidon, gives information to Amenôthes III. On the intrigues which the notables of the town were concocting against Egyptian authority. Ribaddû relates in one of these despatches that the notables of Byblos and the women of his harem were urging him to revolt; later, a letter of Amûnirâ to the King of Egypt informs us that Ribaddû had been driven from Byblos by his own brother. 

A time quickly came when a vestige of fear alone constrained them toconceal their wish for liberty; the most trivial incident then sufficedto give them the necessary encouragement, and decided them to throwoff the mask, a repulse or the report of a repulse suffered by theEgyptians, the news of a popular rising in some neighbouring state, thepassing visit of a Chaldæan emissary who left behind him the hopeof support and perhaps of subsidies from Babylon, and the unexpectedarrival of a troop of mercenaries whose services might be hired forthe occasion. * A rising of this sort usually brought about the mostdisastrous results. The native prince or the town itself could keep backthe tribute and own allegiance to no one during the few months requiredto convince Pharaoh of their defection and to allow him to prepare thenecessary means of vengeance; the advent of the Egyptians followed, andthe work of repression was systematically set in hand. They destroyedthe harvests, whether green or ready for the sickle, they cut down thepalms and olive trees, they tore up the vines, seized on the flocks, dismantled the strongholds, and took the inhabitants prisoners. **

 * Bûrnabûriash, King of Babylon, speaks of Syrian agents who had come to ask for support from his father, Kûrigalzû, and adds that the latter had counselled submission. In one of the letters preserved in the British Museum, Azîrû defends himself for having received an emissary of the King of the Khâti. 

 ** Cf. The raiding, for instance, of the regions of Arvad and of the Zahi by Thûtmosis III. , described in the Annals, 11. 4, 5. We are still in possession of the threats which the messenger Khâni made against the rebellious chief of a province of the Zahi--possibly Aziru. 

The rebellious prince had to deliver up his silver and gold, thecontents of his palace, even his children, * and when he had finallyobtained peace by means of endless sacrifices, he found himself a vassalas before, but with an empty treasury, a wasted country, and a decimatedpeople. 

 * See, in the accounts of the campaigns of Thûtmosis, the record of the spoils, as well as the mention of the children of the chiefs brought as prisoners into Egypt. 

[Illustration: 015. Jpg A SYRIAN TOWN AND ITS OUTSKIRTS AFTER AN EGYPTIANARMY HAD PASSED THROUGH IT]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gayet. 

In spite of all this, some head-strong native princes never relinquishedthe hope of freedom, and no sooner had they made good the breaches intheir walls as far as they were able, than they entered once moreon this unequal contest, though at the risk of bringing irreparabledisaster on their country. The majority of them, after one suchstruggle, resigned themselves to the inevitable, and fulfilled theirfeudal obligations regularly. They paid their fixed contribution, furnished rations and stores to the army when passing through theirterritory, and informed the ministers at Thebes of any intrigues amongtheir neighbours. * Years elapsed before they could so far forget thefailure of their first attempt to regain independence, as to venture tomake a second, and expose themselves to fresh reverses. 

The administration of so vast an empire entailed but a smallexpenditure on the Egyptians, and required the offices of merely a fewfunctionaries. ** The garrisons which they kept up in foreign provinceslived on the country, and were composed mainly of light troops, archers, a certain proportion of heavy infantry, and a few minor detachments ofchariotry dispersed among the principal fortresses. ***

 * We find in the _Annals_, in addition to the enumeration of the tributes, the mention of the foraging arrangements which the chiefs were compelled to make for the army on its passage. We find among the tablets letters from Aziru denouncing the intrigues of the Khâti; letters also of Ribaddu pointing out the misdeeds of Abdashirti, and other communications of the same nature, which demonstrate the supervision exercised by the petty Syrian princes over each other. 

 ** Under Thûtmosis III. We have among others "Mir, " or "Nasi sîtû mihâtîtû, " "governors of the northern countries, " the Thûtîi who became afterwards a hero of romance. The individuals who bore this title held a middle rank in the Egyptian hierarchy. 

 *** The archers--_pidâtid, pidâti, pidâte_--and the chariotry quartered in Syria are often mentioned in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence. Steindorff has recognised the term -ddû aûîtû, meaning infantry, in the word ûeû, ûiû, of the Tel el-Amarna tablets. 

The officers in command had orders to interfere as little as possiblein local affairs, and to leave the natives to dispute or even to fightamong themselves unhindered, so long as their quarrels did not threatenthe security of the Pharaoh. * It was never part of the policy of Egyptto insist on her foreign subjects keeping an unbroken peace amongthemselves. If, theoretically, she did not recognise the right ofprivate warfare, she at all events tolerated its practice. It matteredlittle to her whether some particular province passed out of thepossession of a certain Eibaddû into that of a certain Azîru, or _viceversa_, so long as both Eibaddû and Azîru remained her faithful slaves. She never sought to repress their incessant quarrelling until such timeas it threatened to take the form of an insurrection against her ownpower. Then alone did she throw off her neutrality; taking the side ofone or other of the dissentients, she would grant him, as a pledge ofhelp, ten, twenty, thirty, or even more archers. **

 * A half at least of the Tel el-Amarna correspondence treats of provincial wars between the kings of towns and countries subject to Egypt--wars of Abdashirti and his son Azîru against the cities of the Phoenician coast, wars of Abdikhiba, or Abdi-Tabba, King of Jerusalem, against the chiefs of the neighbouring cities. 

 ** Abimilki (Abisharri) demands on one occasion from the King of Egypt ten men to defend Tyre, on another occasion twenty; the town of Gula requisitioned thirty or forty to guard it. Delattre thinks that these are rhetorical expressions answering to a general word, just as if we should say "a handful of men"; the difference of value in the figures is to me a proof of their reality. 

No doubt the discipline and personal courage of these veterans exerciseda certain influence on the turn of events, but they were after all amere handful of men, and their individual action in the combat wouldscarcely ever have been sufficient to decide the result; the actualimportance of their support, in spite of their numerical inferiority, lay in the moral weight they brought to the side on which they fought, since they represented the whole army of the Pharaoh which lay behindthem, and their presence in a camp always ensured final success. Thevanquished party had the right of appeal to the sovereign, through whomhe might obtain a mitigation of the lot which his successful adversaryhad prepared for him; it was to the interest of Egypt to keep thebalance of power as evenly as possible between the various states whichlooked to her, and when she prevented one or other of the princes fromcompletely crushing his rivals, she was minimising the danger whichmight soon arise from the vassal whom she had allowed to extend histerritory at the expense of others. 

These relations gave rise to a perpetual exchange of letters andpetitions between the court of Thebes and the northern and southernprovinces, in which all the petty kings of Africa and Asia, of whatevercolour or race, set forth, either openly or covertly, their ambitionsand their fears, imploring a favour or begging for a subsidy, revealingthe real or suspected intrigues of their fellow-chiefs, and while loudlyproclaiming their own loyalty, denouncing the perfidy and the secretprojects of their neighbours. As the Ethiopian peoples did not, apparently, possess an alphabet of their own, half of the correspondencewhich concerned them was carried on in Egyptian, and written on papyrus. In Syria, however, where Babylonian civilization maintained itselfin spite of its conquest by Thûtmosis, cuneiform writing was stillemployed, and tablets of dried clay. * It had, therefore, been foundnecessary to establish in the Pharaoh's palace a department for thisservice, in which the scribes should be competent to decipher theChaldæan character. Dictionaries and easy mythological texts had beenprocured for their instruction, by means of which they had learned themeaning of words and the construction of sentences. Having once masteredthe mechanism of the syllabary, they set to work to translate thedespatches, marking on the back of each the date and the place fromwhence it came, and if necessary making a draft of the reply. ** In thesethe Pharaoh does not appear, as a rule, to have insisted on the endlesstitles which we find so lavishly used in his inscriptions, but theshortened protocol employed shows that the theory of his divinity wasas fully acknowledged by strangers as it was by his own subjects. Theygreet him as their sun, the god before whom they prostrate themselvesseven times seven, while they are his slaves, his dogs, and the dustbeneath his feet. ***

 * A discovery made by the fellahîn, in 1887, at Tel el- Arnarna, in the rums of the palace of Khûniaton, brought to light a portion of the correspondence between Asiatic monarchs, whether vassals or independent of Egypt, with the officers of Amenôthes III. And IV. , and with these Pharaohs themselves. 

 ** Several of these registrations are still to be read on the backs of the tablets at Berlin, London, and Gîzeh. 

 ***The protocols of the letters of Abdashirti may be taken as an example, or those of Abimilki to Pharaoh, sometimes there is a development of the protocol which assumes panegyrical features similar to those met with in Egypt. 

The runners to whom these documents were entrusted, and who deliveredthem with their own hand, were not, as a rule, persons of anyconsideration; but for missions of grave importance "the king'smessengers" were employed, whose functions in time became extended toa remarkable degree. Those who were restricted to a limited sphereof activity were called "the king's messengers for the regions ofthe south, " or "the king's messengers for the regions of the north, "according to their proficiency in the idiom and customs of Africa or ofAsia. Others were deemed capable of undertaking missions wherever theymight be required, and were, therefore, designated by the bold title of"the king's messengers for all lands. " In this case extended powers wereconferred upon them, and they were permitted to cut short the disputesbetween two cities in some province they had to inspect, to excuse fromtribute, to receive presents and hostages, and even princesses destinedfor the harem of the Pharaoh, and also to grant the support of troopsto such as could give adequate reason for seeking it. * Their tasks werealways of a delicate and not infrequently of a perilous nature, andconstantly exposed them to the danger of being robbed by highwaymen ormaltreated by some insubordinate vassal, at times even running the riskof mutilation or assassination by the way. **

 * The Tel el-Amarna correspondence shows the messengers in the time of Amenôthes III. And IV. As receiving tribute, as bringing an army to the succour of a chief in difficulties, as threatening with the anger of the Pharaoh the princes o£ doubtful loyalty, as giving to a faithful vassal compliments and honours from his suzerain, as charged with the conveyance of a gift of slaves, or of escorting a princess to the harem of the Pharaoh. 

 ** A letter of Ribaddu, in the time of Amenôthes III. , represents a royal messenger as blockaded in By bios by the rebels. 

They were obliged to brave the dangers of the forests of Lebanon and ofthe Taurus, the solitudes of Mesopotamia, the marshes of Chaldoa, thevoyages to Pûanît and Asia Minor. Some took their way towards Assyriaand Babylon, while others embarked at Tyre or Sidon for the islands ofthe Ægean Archipelago. * The endurance of all these officers, whethergovernors or messengers, their courage, their tact, the ready wit theywere obliged to summon to help them out of the difficulties into whichtheir calling frequently brought them, all tended to enlist the publicsympathy in their favour. **

 * We hear from the tablets of several messengers to Babylon, and the Mitanni, Rasi, Mani, Khamassi. The royal messenger Thûtîi, who governed the countries of the north, speaks of having satisfied the heart of the king in "the isles which are in the midst of the sea. " This was not, as some think, a case of hyperbole, for the messengers could embark on Phoenician vessels; they had a less distance to cover in order to reach the Ægean than the royal messenger of Queen Hâtshopsîtû had before arriving at the country of the Somalis and the "Ladders of Incense. "

 ** The hero of the _Anastasi Papyrus_, No. 1, with whom Chabas made us acquainted in his _Voyage d'un Égyptien_, is probably a type of the "messenger" or the time of Ramses II. ; in any case, his itinerary and adventures are natural to a "royal messenger" compelled to traverse Syria alone. 

Many of them achieved a reputation, and were made the heroes of popularromance. More than three centuries after it was still related how oneof them, by name Thûtîi, had reduced and humbled Jaffa, whose chief hadrefused to come to terms. Thûtîi set about his task by feigning to throwoff his allegiance to Thûtmosis III. , and withdrew from the Egyptianservice, having first stolen the great magic wand of his lord; he theninvited the rebellious chief into his camp, under pretence of showinghim this formidable talisman, and killed him after they had drunktogether. The cunning envoy then packed five hundred of his soldiersinto jars, and caused them to be carried on the backs of asses beforethe gates of the town, where he made the herald of the murdered princeproclaim that the Egyptians had been defeated, and that the pack trainwhich accompanied him contained the spoil, among which was Thûtîihimself. The officer in charge of the city gate was deceived by thisharangue, the asses were admitted within the walls, where the soldiersquitted their jars, massacred the garrison, and made themselves mastersof the town. The tale is, in the main, the story of Ali Baba and theforty thieves. 

The frontier was continually shifting, and Thûtmosis III. , likeThûtmosis I. , vainly endeavoured to give it a fixed character byerecting stelas along the banks of the Euphrates, at those pointswhere he contended it had run formerly. While Kharu and Phoenicia werecompletely in the hands of the conqueror, his suzerainty became moreuncertain as it extended northwards in the direction of the Taurus. Beyond Qodshû, it could only be maintained by means of constantsupervision, and in Naharaim its duration was coextensive with thesojourn of the conqueror in the locality during his campaign, for itvanished of itself as soon as he had set out on his return to Africa. It will be thus seen that, on the continent of Asia, Egypt possessed anucleus of territories, so far securely under her rule that they mightbe actually reckoned as provinces; beyond this immediate domain therewas a zone of waning influence, whose area varied with each reign, andeven under one king depended largely on the activity which he personallydisplayed. 

This was always the case when the rulers of Egypt attempted to carrytheir supremacy beyond the isthmus; whether under the Ptolemies or thenative kings, the distance to which her influence extended was alwayspractically the same, and the teaching of history enables us to note itslimits on the map with relative accuracy. *

 * The development of the Egyptian navy enabled the Ptolemies to exercise authority over the coasts of Asia Minor and of Thrace, but this extension of their power beyond the indicated limits only hastened the exhaustion of their empire. This instance, like that of Mehemet Ali, thus confirms the position taken up in the text. 

The coast towns, which were in maritime communication with the ports ofthe Delta, submitted to the Egyptian yoke more readily than those of theinterior. But this submission could not be reckoned on beyond Berytus, on the banks of the Lykos, though occasionally it stretched a littlefurther north as far as Byblos and Arvad; even then it did not extendinland, and the curve marking its limits traverses Coele-Syria fromnorth-west to south-east, terminating at Mount Hermon. Damascus, securely entrenched behind Anti-Lebanon, almost always lay outside thislimit. The rulers of Egypt generally succeeded without much difficultyin keeping possession of the countries lying to the south of this line;it demanded merely a slight effort, and this could be furnished forseveral centuries without encroaching seriously on the resources of thecountry, or endangering its prosperity. When, however, some provinceventured to break away from the control of Egypt, the whole mechanismof the government was put into operation to provide soldiers and thenecessary means for an expedition. Each stage of the advance beyond thefrontier demanded a greater expenditure of energy, which, with prolongeddistances, would naturally become exhausted. The expedition wouldscarcely have reached the Taurus or the Euphrates, before the forceof circumstances would bring about its recall homewards, leaving but aslight bond of vassalage between the recently subdued countries and theconqueror, which would speedily be cast off or give place to relationsdictated by interest or courtesy. Thûtmosis III. Had to submit to thissort of necessary law; a further extension of territory had hardlybeen gained when his dominion began to shrink within the frontiers thatappeared to have been prescribed by nature for an empire like thatof Egypt. Kharû and Phoenicia proper paid him their tithes with dueregularity; the cities of the Amurru and of Zahi, of Damascus, Qodshû, Hamath, and even of Tunipa, lying on the outskirts of these two subjectnations, formed an ill-defined borderland, kept in a state of perpetualdisturbance by the secret intrigues or open rebellions of the nativeprinces. The kings of Alasia, Naharaim, and Mitanni preserved theirindependence in spite of repeated reverses, and they treated with theconqueror on equal terms. *

 * The difference of tone between the letters of these kings and those of the other princes, as well as the consequences arising from it, has been clearly defined by Delattre. 

The tone of their letters to the Pharaoh, the polite formulas with whichthey addressed him, the special protocol which the Egyptian ministry haddrawn up for their reply, all differ widely from those which we see inthe despatches coming from commanders of garrisons or actual vassals. Inthe former it is no longer a slave or a feudatory addressing his masterand awaiting his orders, but equals holding courteous communicationwith each other, the brother of Alasia or of Mitanni with his brother ofEgypt. They inform him of their good health, and then, before enteringon business, they express their good wishes for himself, his wives, hissons, the lords of his court, his brave soldiers, and for his horses. They were careful never to forget that with a single word theircorrespondent could let loose upon them a whirlwind of chariots andarchers without number, but the respect they felt for his formidablepower never degenerated into a fear which would humiliate them beforehim with their faces in the dust. 

This interchange of diplomatic compliments was called for by a varietyof exigencies, such as incidents arising on the frontier, secretintrigues, personal alliances, and questions of general politics. Thekings of Mesopotamia and of Northern Syria, even those of Assyria andChaldæa, who were preserved by distance from the dangers of a directinvasion, were in constant fear of an unexpected war, and heartilydesired the downfall of Egypt; they endeavoured meanwhile to occupy thePharaoh so fully at home that he had no leisure to attack them. Even ifthey did not venture to give open encouragement to the disposition inhis subjects to revolt, they at least experienced no scruple in hiringemissaries who secretly fanned the flame of discontent. The Pharaoh, aroused to indignation by such plotting, reminded them of theirformer oaths and treaties. The king in question would thereupon denyeverything, would speak of his tried friendship, and recall the factthat he had refused to help a rebel against his beloved brother. * Theseprotestations of innocence were usually accompanied by presents, andproduced a twofold effect. They soothed the anger of the offended party, and suggested not only a courteous answer, but the sending of still morevaluable gifts. Oriental etiquette, even in those early times, demandedthat the present of a less rich or powerful friend should place therecipient under the obligation of sending back a gift of still greaterworth. Every one, therefore, whether great or little, was obliged toregulate his liberality according to the estimation in which he heldhimself, or to the opinion which others formed of him, and a personageof such opulence as the King of Egypt was constrained by the laws ofcommon civility to display an almost boundless generosity: was he notfree to work the mines of the Divine Land or the diggings of the UpperNile; and as for gold, "was it not as the dust of his country"?**

 * See the letter of Amenôthes III. To Kallimmasin of Babylon, where the King of Egypt complains of the inimical designs which the Babylonian messengers had planned against him, and of the intrigues they had connected on their return to their own country; see also the letter from Burnaburiash to Amenôthes IV. , in which he defends himself from the accusation of having plotted against the King of Egypt at any time, and recalls the circumstance that his father Kurigalzu had refused to encourage the rebellion of one of the Syrian tribes, subjects of Amenôthes III. 

 ** See the letter of Dushratta, King of Mitanni, to the Pharaoh Amenôthes IV. 

He would have desired nothing better than to exhibit such liberality, had not the repeated calls on his purse at last constrained him toparsimony; he would have been ruined, and Egypt with him, had he givenall that was expected of him. Except in a few extraordinary cases, the gifts sent never realised the expectations of the recipients; forinstance, when twenty or thirty pounds of precious metal were lookedfor, the amount despatched would be merely two or three. The indignationof these disappointed beggars and their recriminations were then mostamusing: "From the time when my father and thine entered into friendlyrelations, they loaded each other with presents, and never waited to beasked to exchange amenities;* and now my brother sends me two minas ofgold as a gift! Send me abundance of gold, as much as thy father sent, and even, for so it must be, more than thy father. "** Pretextswere never wanting to give reasonable weight to such demands: onecorrespondent had begun to build a temple or a palace in one of hiscapitals, *** another was reserving his fairest daughter for the Pharaoh, and he gave him to understand that anything he might receive would helpto complete the bride's trousseau. ****

 * Burnaburiash complains that the king's messengers had only brought him on one occasion two minas of gold, on another occasion twenty minas; moreover, that the quality of the metal was so bad that hardly five minas of pure gold could be extracted from it. 

 ** Literally, "and they would never make each other a fair request. " The meaning I propose is doubtful, but it appears to be required by the context. The letter from which this passage was taken is from Burnaburiash, King of Babylon, to Amenôthes IV. 

 *** This is the pretext advanced by Burnaburiash in the letter just cited. 

 **** This seems to have been the motive in a somewhat embarrassing letter which Dushratta, King of Mitanni, wrote to the Pharaoh Amenôthes III. On the occasion of his fixing the dowry of his daughter. 

The princesses thus sent from Babylon or Mitanni to the court of Thebesenjoyed on their arrival a more honourable welcome, and were assigneda more exalted rank than those who came from Kharû and Phoenicia. As amatter of fact, they were not hostages given over to the conqueror to bedisposed of at will, but queens who were united in legal marriage to anally. * Once admitted to the Pharaoh's court, they retained their fullrights as his wife, as well as their own fortune and mode of life. Somewould bring to their betrothed chests of jewels, utensils, and stuffs, the enumeration of which would cover both sides of a large tablet;others would arrive escorted by several hundred slaves or matrons aspersonal attendants. ** A few of them preserved their original name, ***many assumed an Egyptian designation, **** and so far adapted themselvesto the costumes, manners, and language of their adopted country, thatthey dropped all intercourse with their native land, and became regularEgyptians. 

 * The daughter of the King of the Khâti, wife of Ramses IL, was treated, as we see from the monuments, with as much honour as would have been accorded to Egyptian princesses of pure blood. 

 ** Gilukhipa, who was sent to Egypt to become the wife of Amenôthes III. , took with her a company of three hundred and seventy women for her service. She was a daughter of Sutarna, King of Mitanni, and is mentioned several times in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence. 

 *** For example, Gilukhipa, whose name is transcribed Kilagîpa in Egyptian, and another princess of Mitanni, niece of Gilukhipa, called Tadu-khîpa, daughter of Dushratta and wife of Amenôthes IV. 

 **** The prince of the Khâti's daughter who married Ramses II. Is an example; we know her only by her Egyptian name Mâîtnofîrûrî. The wife of Ramses III. Added to the Egyptian name of Isis her original name, Humazarati. 

When, after several years, an ambassador arrived with greetings fromtheir father or brother, he would be puzzled by the changed appearanceof these ladies, and would almost doubt their identity: indeed, thoseonly who had been about them in childhood were in such cases ableto recognise them. * These princesses all adopted the gods of theirhusbands, ** though without necessarily renouncing their own. From timeto time their parents would send them, with much pomp, a statue of oneof their national divinities--Ishtar, for example--which, accompanied bynative priests, would remain for some months at the court. ***

 * This was the case with the daughter of Kallimmasin, King of Babylon, married to Amenôthes III. ; her father's ambassador did not recognise her. 

 ** The daughter of the King of the Khâti, wife of Ramses II. , is represented in an attitude of worship before her deified husband and two Egyptian gods. 

 *** Dushratta of Mitanni, sending a statue of Ishtar to his daughter, wife of Amenôthes III. , reminds her that the same statue had already made the voyage to Egypt in the time of his father Sutarna. 

The children of these queens ranked next in order to those whose mothersbelonged to the solar race, but nothing prevented them marrying theirbrothers or sisters of pure descent, and being eventually raised tothe throne. The members of their families who remained in Asia werenaturally proud of these bonds of close affinity with the Pharaoh, andthey rarely missed an opportunity of reminding him in their letters thatthey stood to him in the relationship of brother-in-law, or one of hisfathers-in-law; their vanity stood them in good stead, since it affordedthem another claim on the favours which they were perpetually asking ofhim. *

 * Dushratta of Mitanni never loses an opportunity of calling Aoienôthes III. , husband of his sister Gilukhîpa, and of one of his daughters, "akhiya, " my brother, and "khatani-ya, " my son-in-law. 

These foreign wives had often to interfere in some of the contentionswhich were bound to arise between two States whose subjects were inconstant intercourse with one another. Invasions or provincial wars mayhave affected or even temporarily suspended the passage to and from ofcaravans between the countries of the Tigris and those of the Nile; butas soon as peace was re-established, even though it were the insecurepeace of those distant ages, the desert traffic was again resumed andcarried on with renewed vigour. The Egyptian traders who penetratedinto regions beyond the Euphrates, carried with them, and almostunconsciously disseminated along the whole extent of their route, thenumberless products of Egyptian industry, hitherto but little knownoutside their own country, and rendered expensive owing to thedifficulty of transmission or the greed of the merchants. The Syriansnow saw for the first time in great quantities, objects which had beenknown to them hitherto merely through the few rare specimens which madetheir way across the frontier: arms, stuffs, metal implements, householdutensils--in fine, all the objects which ministered to daily needs or toluxury. These were now offered to them at reasonable prices, eitherby the hawkers who accompanied the army or by the soldiers themselves, always ready, as soldiers are, to part with their possessions in orderto procure a few extra pleasures in the intervals of fighting. 

[Illustration: 031. Jpg THE LOTANÛ AND THE GOLDSMITHS'WORK CONSTITUTINGTHEIR TRIBUTE]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger. The scene here reproduced occurs in most of the Theban tombs of the XVIIII. Dynasty. 

On the other hand, whole convoys of spoil were despatched to Egyptafter every successful campaign, and their contents were distributed invarying proportions among all classes of society, from the militiamanbelonging to some feudal contingent, who received, as a reward of hisvalour, some half-dozen necklaces or bracelets, to the great lord ofancient family or the Crown Prince, who carried off waggon-loads ofbooty in their train. These distributions must have stimulated a passionfor all Syrian goods, and as the spoil was insufficient to satisfy theincreasing demands of the consumer, the waning commerce which had beencarried on from early times was once more revived and extended, tillevery route, whether by land or water, between Thebes, Memphis, and theAsiatic cities, was thronged by those engaged in its pursuit. It wouldtake too long to enumerate the various objects of merchandise broughtin almost daily to the marts on the Nile by Phoenician vessels or theowners of caravans. They comprised slaves destined for the workshop orthe harem, * Hittite bulls and stallions, horses from Singar, oxen fromAlasia, rare and curious animals such as elephants from Nîi, andbrown bears from the Lebanon, ** smoked and salted fish, live birds ofmany-coloured plumage, goldsmiths'work*** and precious stones, of whichlapis-lazuli was the chief. 

 * Syrian slaves are mentioned along with Ethiopian in the _Anastasi Papyrus_, No. 1, and there is mention in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence of Hittite slaves whom Dushratta of Mitanni brought to Amenôthes III. , and of other presents of the same kind made by the King of Alasia as a testimony of his grateful homage. 

 ** The elephant and the bear are represented on the tomb of liakhmirî among the articles of tribute brought into Egypt. 

 *** The _Annals of Thutmosis III_. Make a record in each campaign of the importation of gold and silver vases, objects in lapis-lazuli and crystal, or of blocks of the same materials; the Theban tombs of this period afford examples of the vases and blocks brought by the Syrians. The Tel el-Amarna letters also mention vessels of gold or blocks of precious stone sent as presents or as objects of exchange to the Pharaoh by the King of Babylon, by the King of Mitanni, by the King of the Hittites, and by other princes. The lapis-lazuli of Babylon, which probably came from Persia, was that which was most prized by the Egyptians on account of the golden sparks in it, which enhanced the blue colour; this is, perhaps, the Uknu of the cuneiform inscriptions, which has been read for a long time as "crystal. "

[Illustration: 032b. Jpg PAINTED TABLETS IN THE HALL OF HARPS]

Wood for building or for ornamental work--pine, cypress, yew, cedar, and oak, * musical instruments, ** helmets, leathern jerkins covered withmetal scales, weapons of bronze and iron, *** chariots, **** dyed andembroidered stuffs, ^ perfumes, ^^ dried cakes, oil, wines of Kharû, liqueurs from Alasia, Khâti, Singar, Naharaim, Amurru, and beer fromQodi.^^^

 * Building and ornamental woods are often mentioned in the inscriptions of Thûtmosis III. A scene at Karnak represents Seti I. Causing building-wood to be cut in the region of the Lebanon. A letter of the King of Alasia speaks of contributions of wood which several of his subjects had to make to the King of Egypt. 

 ** Some stringed instruments of music, and two or three kinds of flutes and flageolets, are designated in Egyptian by names borrowed from some Semitic tongue--a fact which proves that they were imported; the wooden framework of the harp, decorated with sculptured heads of Astartô, figures among the objects coming from Syria in the temple of the Theban Anion. 

 *** Several names of arms borrowed from some Semitic dialect have been noticed in the texts of this period. The objects as well as the words must have been imported into Egypt, e. G. The quiver, the sword and javelins used by the charioteers. Cuirasses and leathern jerkins are mentioned in the inscriptions of Thûtmosis III. 

 **** Chariots plated with gold and silver figure frequently among the spoils of Thûtmosis III. : the Anastasi Papyrus, No. 1, contains a detailed description of Syrian chariots-- Markabûti--with a reference to the localities whore certain parts of them were made;--the country of the Amurru, that of Aûpa, the town of Pahira. The Tel el-Amarna correspondence mentions very frequently chariots sent to the Pharaoh by the King of Babylon, either as presents or to be sold in Egypt; others sent by the King of Alasia and by the King of Mitanni. 

 ^ Some linen, cotton, or woollen stuffs are mentioned in the _Anastasi Papyrus_, No. 4, and elsewhere as coming from Syria. The Egyptian love of white linen always prevented their estimating highly the coloured and brocaded stuffs of Asia; and one sees nowhere, in the representations, any examples of stuffs of such origin, except on furniture or in ships equipped with something of the kind in the form of sails. 

 ^^ The perfumed oils of Syria are mentioned in a general way in the _Anastasi Papyrus_, No. 1; the King of Alasia speaks of essences which he is sending to Amenôthes III. ; the King of Mitanni refers to bottles of oil which he is forwarding to Gilukhîpa and to Tii. 

 ^^^ A list of cakes of Syrian origin is found in the _Anastasi Papyrus_, No. 1; also a reference to balsamic oils from Naharaim, and to various oils which had arrived in the ports of the Delta, to the wines of Syria, to palm wine and various liqueurs manufactured in Alasia, in Singar, among the Khâti, Amorites, and the people of. Tikhisa; finally, to the beer of Qodi. 

[Illustration: 034. Jpg. THE BEAR AND ELEPHANT BROUGHT AS TRIBUTE IN THETOMB OF RAKHMIRI]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph of Prisse d'Avennes' sketch. 

On arriving at the frontier, whether by sea or by land, the majority ofthese objects had to pay the custom dues which were rigorously collectedby the officers of the Pharaoh. This, no doubt, was a reprisal tariff, since independent sovereigns, such as those of Mitanni, Assyria, andBabylon, were accustomed to impose a similar duty on all the productsof Egypt. The latter, indeed, supplied more than she received, for manyarticles which reached her in their raw condition were, by means ofnative industry, worked up and exported as ornaments, vases, and highlydecorated weapons, which, in the course of international traffic, weredispersed to all four corners of the earth. The merchants of Babylon andAssyria had little to fear as long as they kept within the domains oftheir own sovereign or in those of the Pharaoh; but no sooner did theyventure within the borders of those turbulent states which separatedthe two great powers, than they were exposed to dangers at every turn. Safe-conducts were of little use if they had not taken the additionalprecaution of providing a strong escort and carefully guarding theircaravan, for the Shaûsû concealed in the depths of the Lebanon or theneedy sheikhs of Kharû could never resist the temptation to rob thepassing traveller. *

 * The scribe who in the reign of Ramses II. Composed the _Travels of an Egyptian_, speaks in several places of marauding tribes and robbers, who infested the roads followed by the hero. The Tel el-Amarna correspondence contains a letter from the King of Alasia, who exculpates himself from being implicated in the harsh treatment certain Egyptians had received in passing through his territory; and another letter in which the King of Babylon complains that Chaldoan merchants had been robbed at Khinnatun, in Galilee, by the Prince of Akku (Acre) and his accomplices: one of them had his feet cut off, and the other was still a prisoner in Akku, and Burnaburiash demands from Amenôthes IV. The death of the guilty persons. 

The victims complained to their king, who felt no hesitation in passingon their woes to the sovereign under whose rule the pillagers weresupposed to live. He demanded their punishment, but his request was notalways granted, owing to the difficulties of finding out and seizing theoffenders. An indemnity, however, could be obtained which would nearlycompensate the merchants for the loss sustained. In many cases justicehad but little to do with the negotiations, in which self-interest wasthe chief motive; but repeated refusals would have discouraged traders, and by lessening the facilities of transit, have diminished the revenuewhich the state drew from its foreign commerce. 

The question became a more delicate one when it concerned the rights ofsubjects residing out of their native country. Foreigners, as a rule, were well received in Egypt; the whole country was open to them;they could marry, they could acquire houses and lands, they enjoyedpermission to follow their own religion unhindered, they were eligiblefor public honours, and more than one of the officers of the crownwhose tombs we see at Thebes were themselves Syrians, or born of Syrianparents on the banks of the Nile. *

 * In a letter from the King of Alasia, there is question of a merchant who had died in Egypt. Among other monuments proving the presence of Syrians about the Pharaoh, is the stele of Ben-Azana, of the town of Zairabizana, surnamed Ramses-Empirî: he was surrounded with Semites like himself. 

Hence, those who settled in Egypt without any intention of returning totheir own country enjoyed all the advantages possessed by the natives, whereas those who took up a merely temporary abode there were morelimited in their privileges. They were granted the permission to holdproperty in the country, and also the right to buy and sell there, butthey were not allowed to transmit their possessions at will, and if bychance they died on Egyptian soil, their goods lapsed as a forfeit tothe crown. The heirs remaining in the native country of the dead man, who were ruined by this confiscation, sometimes petitioned the king tointerfere in their favour with a view of obtaining restitution. If thePharaoh consented to waive his right of forfeiture, and made overthe confiscated objects or their equivalent to the relatives of thedeceased, it was solely by an act of mercy, and as an example to foreigngovernments to treat Egyptians with a like clemency should they chanceto proffer a similar request. *

 * All this seems to result from a letter in which the King of Alasia demands from Amenôthes III. The restitution of the goods of one of his subjects who had died in Egypt; the tone of the letter is that of one asking a favour, and on the supposition that the King of Egypt had a right to keep the property of a foreigner dying on his territory. 

It is also not improbable that the sovereigns themselves had a personalinterest in more than one commercial undertaking, and that they werethe partners, or, at any rate, interested in the enterprises, of manyof their subjects, so that any loss sustained by one of the latterwould eventually fall upon themselves. They had, in fact, reserved tothemselves the privilege of carrying on several lucrative industries, and of disposing of the products to foreign buyers, either to those whopurchased them out and out, or else through the medium of agents, towhom they intrusted certain quantities of the goods for warehousing. The King of Babylon, taking advantage of the fashion which promptedthe Egyptians to acquire objects of Chaldæan goldsmiths' andcabinet-makers' art, caused ingots of gold to be sent to him by thePharaoh, which he returned worked up into vases, ornaments, householdutensils, and plated chariots. He further fixed the value of allsuch objects, and took a considerable commission for having acted asintermediary in the transaction. * In Alasia, which was the land ofmetals, the king appears to have held a monopoly of the bronze. Whetherhe smelted it in the country, or received it from more distant regionsready prepared, we cannot say, but he claimed and retained for himselfthe payment for all that the Pharaoh deigned to order of him. **

 * Letter of Burnaburiash to Amenôthes IV. 

 ** Letter from the King of Alasia to Amenôthes III. , where, whilst pretending to have nothing else in view than making a present to his royal brother, he proposes to make an exchange of some bronze for the products of Egypt, especially for gold. 

From such instances we can well understand the jealous, watch whichthese sovereigns exercised, lest any individual connected withcorporations of workmen should leave the kingdom and establish himselfin another country without special permission. Any emigrant who openeda workshop and initiated his new compatriots in the technique orprofessional secrets of his craft, was regarded by the authorities asthe most dangerous of all evil-doers. By thus introducing his trade intoa rival state, he deprived his own people of a good customer, and thusrendered himself liable to the penalties inflicted on those who wereguilty of treason. His savings were confiscated, his house razed to theground, and his whole family--parents, wives, and children--treatedas partakers in his crime. As for himself, if justice succeeded inovertaking him, he was punished with death, or at least with mutilation, such as the loss of eyes and ears, or amputation of the feet. Thisseverity did not prevent the frequent occurrence of such cases, andit was found necessary to deal with them by the insertion of a specialextradition clause in treaties of peace and other alliances. The twocontracting parties decided against conceding the right of habitationto skilled workmen who should take refuge with either party on theterritory of the other, and they agreed to seize such workmen forthwith, and mutually restore them, but under the express condition that neitherthey nor any of their belongings should incur any penalty for thedesertion of their country. It would be curious to know if all thearrangements agreed to by the kings of those times were sanctioned, as in the above instance, by properly drawn up agreements. Certainexpressions occur in their correspondence which seem to prove that thiswas the case, and that the relations between them, of which we can catchtraces, resulted not merely from a state of things which, accordingto their ideas, did not necessitate any diplomatic sanction, but fromconventions agreed to after some war, or entered on without any previousstruggle, when there was no question at issue between the two states. *

 * The treaty of Ramses II. With the King of the Khâti, the only one which has come down to us, was a renewal of other treaties effected one after the other between the fathers and grandfathers of the two contracting sovereigns. Some of the Tel el-Amarna letters probably refer to treaties of this kind; e. G. That of Burnaburiash of Babylon, who says that since the time of Karaîndash there had been an exchange of ambassadors and friendship between the sovereigns of Chaldoa and of Egypt, and also that of Dushratta of Mitanni, who reminds Queen Tîi of the secret negotiations which had taken place between him and Amenôthes III. 

When once the Syrian conquest had been effected, Egypt gave permanencyto its results by means of a series of international decrees, whichofficially established the constitution of her empire, and brought abouther concerted action with the Asiatic powers. 

[Illustration: 040. Jpg THE MUMMY OF THUTMOSIS III. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken by Emil Brugsch-Bey. 

She already occupied an important position among them, when ThûtmosisIII. Died, on the last day of Phamenoth, in the IVth year of his reign. *He was buried, probably, at Deîr el-Baharî, in the family tomb whereinthe most illustrious members of his house had been laid to rest sincethe time of Thûtmosis I. His mummy was not securely hidden away, fortowards the close of the XXth dynasty it was torn out of the coffin byrobbers, who stripped it and rifled it of the jewels with which it wascovered, injuring it in their haste to carry away the spoil. It wassubsequently re-interred, and has remained undisturbed until thepresent day; but before re-burial some renovation of the wrappings wasnecessary, and as portions of the body had become loose, the restorers, in order to give the mummy the necessary firmness, compressed it betweenfour oar-shaped slips of wood, painted white, and placed, three insidethe wrappings and one outside, under the bands which confined thewinding-sheet. 

 * Dr. Mahler has, with great precision, fixed the date of the accession of Thûtmosis III, as the 20th of March, 1503, and that of his death as the 14th of February, 1449 b. C. I do not think that the data furnished to Dr. Mahler by Brugsch will admit of such exact conclusions being drawn from them, and I should fix the fifty-four years of the reign of Thûtmosis III. In a less decided manner, between 1550 and 1490 b. C. , allowing, as I have said before, for an error of half a century more or less in the dates which go back to the time of the second Theban empire. 

[Illustration: 041. Jpg HEAD OF THE MUMMY OF THÛTMOSIS III. ]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph lent by M. Grébaut, taken by Emil Brugsch-Bey. 

Happily the face, which had been plastered over with pitch at the timeof embalming, did not suffer at all from this rough treatment, andappeared intact when the protecting mask was removed. Its appearancedoes not answer to our ideal of the conqueror. His statues, thoughnot representing him as a type of manly beauty, yet give him refined, intelligent features, but a comparison with the mummy shows that theartists have idealised their model. The forehead is abnormally low, theeyes deeply sunk, the jaw heavy, the lips thick, and the cheek-bonesextremely prominent; the whole recalling the physiognomy of ThûtmosisII. , though with a greater show of energy. Thûtmosis III. Is a fellah ofthe old stock, squat, thickset, vulgar in character and expression, butnot lacking in firmness and vigour. * Amenôthes II. , who succeeded him, must have closely resembled him, if we may trust his official portraits. He was the son of a princess of the blood, Hâtshopsîtû II. , daughter ofthe great Hâtshopsîtû, ** and consequently he came into his inheritancewith stronger claims to it than any other Pharaoh since the time ofAmenôthes I. Possibly his father may have associated him with himself onthe throne as soon as the young prince attained his majority;*** at anyrate, his accession aroused no appreciable opposition in the country, and if any difficulties were made, they must have come from outside. 

 * The restored remains allow us to estimate the height at about 5 ft. 3 in. 

 ** His parentage is proved by the pictures preserved in the tomb of his foster-father, where he is represented in company with the _royal mother_, Marîtrî. Hâtshopsîtû. 

 *** It is thus that Wiedemann explains his presence by the side of Thûtmosis III. On certain bas-reliefs in the temple of Amada. 

It is always a dangerous moment in the existence of a newly formedempire when its founder having passed away, and the conquered peoplenot having yet become accustomed to a subject condition, they are calledupon to submit to a successor of whom they know little or nothing. Itis always problematical whether the new sovereign will display as greatactivity and be as successful as the old one; whether he will be capableof turning to good account the armies which his predecessor commandedwith such skill, and led so bravely against the enemy; whether, again, he will have sufficient tact to estimate correctly the burden oftaxation which each province is capable of bearing, and to lighten itwhen there is a risk of its becoming too heavy. If he does not show fromthe first that it is his purpose to maintain his patrimony intact at allcosts, or if his officers, no longer controlled by a strong hand, betrayany indecision in command, his subjects will become unruly, and thechange of monarch will soon furnish a pretext for widespread rebellion. The beginning of the reign of Amenôthes II. Was marked by a revolt ofthe Libyans inhabiting the Theban Oasis, but this rising was soonput down by that Amenemhabî who had so distinguished himself underThûtmosis. * Soon after, fresh troubles broke out in different parts ofSyria, in Galilee, in the country of the Amurru, and among the peoplesof Naharaim. The king's prompt action, however, prevented theirresulting in a general war. ** He marched in person against themalcontents, reduced the town of Shamshiaduma, fell upon the Lamnaniu, and attacked their chief, slaying him with his own hand, and carryingoff numbers of captives. 

 * Brugsch and Wiedemann place this expedition at the time when Amenôthes IL was either hereditary prince or associated with his father the inscription of Amenemhabî places it explicitly after the death of Thûtmosis III. , and this evidence outweighs every other consideration until further discoveries are made. 

 ** The campaigns of Amenôthes II. Were related on a granite stele, which was placed against the second of the southern pylons at Karnak. The date of this monument is almost certainly the year II. ; there is strong evidence in favour of this, if it is compared with the inscription of Amada, where Amenôthes II. Relates that in the year III. He sacrificed the prisoners whom he had taken in the country of Tikhisa. 

[Illustration: 044. Jpg AMENÔTHES II. , FROM THE STATUE AT TURIN]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. 

He crossed the Orontes on the 26th of Pachons, in the year II. , andseeing some mounted troops in the distance, rushed upon them andoverthrew them; they proved to be the advanced guard of the enemy'sforce, which he encountered shortly afterwards and routed, collectingin the pursuit considerable booty. He finally reached Naharaim, where heexperienced in the main but a feeble resistance. Nîi surrendered withoutresistance on the 10th of Epiphi, and its inhabitants, both menand women, with censers in their hands, assembled on the walls andprostrated themselves before the conqueror. At Akaîti, where thepartisans of the Egyptian government had suffered persecution from aconsiderable section of the natives, order was at once reestablished assoon as the king's approach was made known. No doubt the rapidity ofhis marches and the vigour of his attacks, while putting an end tothe hostile attitude of the smaller vassal states, were effectual ininducing the sovereigns of Alasia, of Mitanni, * and of the Hittites torenew with Amenôthes the friendly relations which they had establishedwith his father. **

 * Amenôthes II. Mentions tribute from Mitanni on one of the columns which he decorated at Karnak, in the Hall of the Caryatides, close to the pillars finished by his predecessors. 

 ** The cartouches on the pedestal of the throne of Amenôthes IL, in the tomb of one of his officers at Sheîkh-Abd-el- Qûrneh, represent--together with the inhabitants of the Oasis, Libya, and Kush--the Kefatiû, the people of Naharaim, and the Upper Lotanû, that is to say, the entire dominion of Thûtmosis III. , besides the people of Manûs, probably Mallos, in the Cilician plain. 

This one campaign, which lasted three or four months, secured a lastingpeace in the north, but in the south a disturbance again broke out amongthe Barbarians of the Upper Nile. Amenôthes suppressed it, and, in orderto prevent a repetition of it, was guilty of an act of cruel severityquite in accordance with the manners of the time. He had taken prisonerseven chiefs in the country of Tikhisa, and had brought them, chained, in triumph to Thebes, on the forecastle of his ship. He sacrificed sixof them himself before Amon, and exposed their heads and hands on thefaçade of the temple of Karnak; the seventh was subjected to a similarfate at Napata at the beginning of his third year, and thenceforththe sheîkhs of Kush thought twice before defying the authority of thePharaoh. *

 * In an inscription in the temple of Amada, it is there said that the king offered this sacrifice on his return from his first expedition into Asia, and for this reason I have connected the facts thus related with those known to us through the stele of Karnak. 

Amenôthes'reign was a short one, lasting ten years at most, and the endof it seems to have been darkened by the open or secret rivalries whichthe question of the succession usually stirred up among the kings' sons. The king had daughters only by his marriage with one of his fullsisters, who like himself possessed all the rights of sovereignty; thoseof his sons who did not die young were the children of princesses ofinferior rank or of concubines, and it was a subject of anxiety amongthese princes which of them would be chosen to inherit the crown and beunited in marriage with the king's heiresses, Khûît and Mûtemûaû. 

[Illustration: 046. Jpg THE GREAT SPHINX AND THE CHAPEL OF THUTMOSIS IV. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the photograph taken in 1887 by Émil Brugsch-Bey

[Illustration: 047. Jpg THE SIMOOM. SPHINX AND PYRAMIDS AT GIZEH]

One of his sons, named Thûtmosis, who resided at the "White Wall, " wasin the habit of betaking himself frequently to the Libyan desert topractise with the javelin, or to pursue the hunt of lions and gazellesin his chariot. On these occasions it was his pleasure to preserve thestrictest incognito, and he was accompanied by two discreet servantsonly. One day, when chance had brought him into the neighbourhood of theGreat Pyramid, he lay down for his accustomed siesta in the shade castby the Sphinx, the miraculous image of Khopri the most powerful, thegod to whom all men in Memphis and the neighbouring towns raised adoringhands filled with offerings. The gigantic statue was at that time morethan half buried, and its head alone was seen above the sand. As soonas the prince was asleep it spoke gently to him, as a father to hisson: "Behold me, gaze on me, O my son Thûtmosis, for I, thy fatherHarmakhis-Khopri-Tûmû, grant thee sovereignty over the two countries, inboth the South and the North, and thou shalt wear both the white and thered crown on the throne of Sibû, the sovereign, possessing the earth inits length and breadth; the flashing eye of the lord of all shall causeto rain on thee the possessions of Egypt, vast tribute from all foreigncountries, and a long life for, many years as one chosen by the Sun, for my countenance is thine, my heart is thine, no other than thyself ismine! Nor am I covered by the sand of the mountain on which I rest, and have given thee this prize that thou mayest do for me what my heartdesires, for I know that thou art my son, my defender; draw nigh, I amwith thee, I am thy well-beloved father. " The prince understood that thegod promised him the kingdom on condition of his swearing to clear thesand from the statue. He was, in fact, chosen to be the husband of thequeens, and immediately after his accession he fulfilled his oath; heremoved the sand, built a chapel between the paws, and erected againstthe breast of the statue a stele of red granite, on which he relatedhis adventure. His reign was as short as that of Amenôthes, and hiscampaigns both in Asia and Ethiopia were unimportant. *

 * The latest date of his reign at present known is that of the year VII. , on the rocks of Konosso, and on a stele of Sarbût el-Khâdîm. There is an allusion to his wars against the Ethiopians in an inscription of Amada, and to his campaigns against the peoples of the North and South on the stele of Nofirhaît. 

[Illustration: 050. Jpg THE STELE OF THE SPHINX OF GIZER]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey. 

He had succeeded to an empire so firmly established from Naharaim toKari, * that, apparently, no rebellion could disturb its peace. One ofthe two heiress-princesses, Kûît, the daughter, sister, and wife of aking, had no living male offspring, but her companion Mûtemûaû had atleast one son, named Amenôthes. In his case, again, the noble birthof the mother atoned for the defects of the paternal origin. Moreover, according to tradition, Amon-Ka himself had intervened to renew theblood of his descendants: he appeared in the person of Thûtmosis IV. , and under this guise became the father of the heir of the Pharaohs. **

 * The peoples of Naharaim and of Northern Syria are represented bringing him tribute, in a tomb at Sheîkh-Abd- el-Qûrneh. The inscription published by Mariette, speaks of the first expedition of Thûtmosis IV. To the land of [Naharai]na, and of the gifts which he lavished on this occasion on the temple of Anion. 

 ** It was at first thought that Mûtemûaû was an Ethiopian, afterwards that she was a Syrian, who had changed her name on arriving at the court of her husband. The manner in which she is represented at Luxor, and in all the texts where she figures, proves not only that she was of Egyptian race, but that she was the daughter of Amenôthes II. , and born of the marriage of that prince with one of his sisters, who was herself an hereditary princess. 

Like Queen Ahmasis in the bas-reliefs of Deîr el-Baharî, Mûtemûaûis shown on those of Luxor in the arms of her divine lover, andsubsequently greeted by him with the title of mother; in anotherbas-relief we see the queen led to her couch by the goddesses whopreside over the birth of children; her son Amenôthes, on coming intothe world with his double, is placed in the hands of the two Niles, toreceive the nourishment and the education meet for the children of thegods. He profited fully by them, for he remained in power forty years, and his reign was one of the most prosperous ever witnessed by Egyptduring the Theban dynasties. 

[Illustration: 052. Jpg QUEEN MUTEMÛAU. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Daniel Héron. 

Amenôthes III. Had spent but little of his time in war. He hadundertaken the usual raids in the South against the negroes and thetribes of the Upper Nile. In his fifth year, a general defection of thesheikhs obliged him to invade the province of Abhaît, near Semneh, whichhe devastated at the head of the troops collected by Mari-ifi mosû, thePrince of Kûsh; the punishment was salutary, the booty considerable, anda lengthy peace was re-established. The object of his rare expeditionsinto Naharaim was not so much to add new provinces to his empire, as toprevent disturbances in the old ones. The kings of Alasia, of the Khâti, of Mitanni, of Singar, * of Assyria, and of Babylon did not dare toprovoke so powerful a neighbour. **

 * Amenôthes entitles himself on a scarabæus "he who takes prisoner the country of Singar;" no other document has yet been discovered to show whether this is hyperbole, or whether he really reached this distant region. 

 ** The lists of the time of Amenôthes III. Contain the names of Phoenicia, Naharaim, Singar, Qodshu, Tunipa, Patina, Carchomish, and Assur; that is to say, of all the subject or allied nations mentioned in the correspondence of Tel el- Amarna. Certain episodes of these expeditions had been engraved on the exterior face of the pylon constructed by the king for the temple of Amon at Karnak; at the present time they are concealed by the wall at the lower end of the Hypostyle Hall. The tribute of the Lotanû was represented on the tomb of Hûi, at Sheîkh-Abd-el-Qûrneh. 

[Illustration: 052b. Jpg Amenothes III. Colossal Head in the BritishMuseum]

[Illustration: 052b-text. Jpg]

The remembrance of the victories of Thûtmosis III. Was still fresh intheir memories, and, even had their hands been free, would havemade them cautious in dealing with his great-grandson; but they wereincessantly engaged in internecine quarrels, and had recourse toPharaoh merely to enlist his support, or at any rate make sure of hisneutrality, and prevent him from joining their adversaries. 

[Illustration: 053. Jpg AMENOTHES III. FROM THE TOMB OF KHAMHAIT]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Daniel Héron. 

Whatever might have been the nature of their private sentiments, theyprofessed to be anxious to maintain, for their mutual interests, therelations with Egypt entered on half a century before, and as the surestmethod of attaining their object was by a good marriage, they would eachseek an Egyptian wife for himself, or would offer Amenôthes a princessof one of their own royal families. The Egyptian king was, however, firmin refusing to bestow a princess of the solar blood even on the mostpowerful of the foreign kings; his pride rebelled at the thought thatshe might one day be consigned to a place among the inferior wivesor concubines, but he gladly accepted, and even sought for wives forhimself, from among the Syrian and Chaldæan princesses. Kallimmasin ofBabylon gave Amenôthes first his sister, and when age had deprived thisprincess of her beauty, then his daughter Irtabi in marriage. *

 * Letter from Amenôthes III. To Kallimmasin, concerning a sister of the latter, who was married to the King of Egypt, but of whom there are no further records remaining at Babylon, and also one of his daughters whom Amenôthes had demanded in marriage; and letters from Kallimmasin, consenting to bestow his daughter Irtabi on the Pharaoh, and proposing to give to Amenothes whichever one he might choose of the daughters of his house. 

Sutarna of Mitanni had in the same way given the Pharaoh his daughterGilukhîpa; indeed, most of the kings of that period had one or tworelations in the harem at Thebes. This connexion usually proved asupport to Asiatic sovereigns, such alliances being a safeguard againstthe rivalries of their brothers or cousins. At times, however, they werethe means of exposing them to serious dangers. When Sutarna died he wassucceeded by his son Dushratta, but a numerous party put forward anotherprince, named Artassumara, who was probably Gilukhîpa's brother, on themother's side;* a Hittite king of the name of Pirkhi espoused the causeof the pretender, and a civil war broke out. 

 * Her exact relationship is not explicitly expressed, but is implied in the facts, for there seems no reason why Gilukhîpa should have taken the part of one brother rather than another, unless Artassumara had been nearer to her than Dushratta; that is to say, her brother on the mother's side as well as on the father's. 

Dushratta was victorious, and caused his brother to be strangled, butwas not without anxiety as to the consequences which might follow thisexecution should Gilukhîpa desire to avenge the victim, and to this endstir up the anger of the suzerain against him. Dushratta, therefore, wrote a humble epistle, showing that he had received provocation, andthat he had found it necessary to strike a decisive blow to save his ownlife; the tablet was accompanied by various presents to the royal pair, comprising horses, slaves, jewels, and perfumes. Gilukhîpa, however, bore Dushratta no ill-will, and the latter's anxieties were allayed. The so-called expeditions of Amenôthes to the Syrian provincesmust constantly have been merely visits of inspection, during whichamusements, and especially the chase, occupied nearly as importanta place as war and politics. Amenôthes III. Took to heart thatpre-eminently royal duty of ridding the country of wild beasts, andfulfilled it more conscientiously than any of his predecessors. He hadkilled 112 lions during the first ten years of his reign, and as it wasan exploit of which he was remarkably proud, he perpetuated the memoryof it in a special inscription, which he caused to be engraved onnumbers of large scarabs of fine green enamel. Egypt prospered under hispeaceful government, and if the king made no great efforts to extendher frontiers, he spared no pains to enrich the country by developingindustry and agriculture, and also endeavoured to perfect the militaryorganisation which had rendered the conquest of the East so easy amatter. 

A census, undertaken by his minister Amenôthes, the son of Hâpi, ensured a more correct assessment of the taxes, and a regular scheme ofrecruiting for the army. 

[Illustration: 056. Jpg SCARAB OF THE HUNT]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the photograph published in Mariette. 

Whole tribes of slaves were brought into the country by means of theborder raids which were always taking place, and their opportune arrivalhelped to fill up the vacancies which repeated wars had caused amongthe rural and urban population; such a strong impetus to agriculturewas also given by this importation, that when, towards the middle of thereign, the minister Khâmhâîfc presented the tax-gathers at court, hewas able to boast that he had stored in the State granaries a largerquantity of corn than had been gathered in for thirty years. The trafficcarried on between Asia and the Delta by means of both Egyptian andforeign ships was controlled by customhouses erected at the mouths ofthe Nile, the coast being protected by cruising vessels against theattacks of pirates. The fortresses of the isthmus and of the Libyanborder, having been restored or rebuilt, constituted a check on theturbulence of the nomad tribes, while garrisons posted at intervalsat the entrance to the Wadys leading to the desert restrained theplunderers scattered between the Nile and the Red Sea, and between thechain of Oases and the unexplored regions of the Sahara. * Egypt was atonce the most powerful as well as the most prosperous kingdom in theworld, being able to command more labour and more precious metals forthe embellishment of her towns and the construction of her monumentsthan any other. 

 All this information is gathered from the inscription on the statue of Amenôthes, the son of Hâpi. 

Public works had been carried on briskly under Thûtmosis III. And hissuccessors. The taste for building, thwarted at first by the necessityof financial reforms, and then by that of defraying the heavy expensesincurred through the expulsion of the Hyksôs and the earlier foreignwars, had free scope as soon as spoil from the Syrian victories began topour in year by year. While the treasure seized from the enemy providedthe money, the majority of the prisoners were used as workmen, so thattemples, palaces, and citadels began to rise as if by magic from one endof the valley to the other. *

 * For this use of prisoners of war, cf. The picture from the tomb of Rakhmirî on p. 58 of the present work, in which most of the earlier Egyptologists believed they recognised the Hebrews, condemned by Pharaoh to build the cities of Ramses and Pithom in the Delta. 

Nubia, divided into provinces, formed merely an extension of theancient feudal Egypt--at any rate as far as the neighbourhood of theTacazzeh--though the Egyptian religion had here assumed a peculiarcharacter. 

[Illustration: 058. Jpg A GANG Of SYRIAN PRISONERS MAKING BRICK FOR THETEMPLE OF AMON]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the chromolithograph in Lepsius. 

The conquest of Nubia having been almost entirely the work of the Thebandynasties, the Theban triad, Amon, Maût, and Montû, and their immediatefollowers were paramount in this region, while in the north, in witnessof the ancient Elephantinite colonisation, we find Khnûmû of thecataract being worshipped, in connexion with Didûn, father ofthe indigenous Nubians. The worship of Amon had been the means ofintroducing that of Eâ and of Horus, and Osiris as lord of the dead, while Phtah, Sokhît, Atûmû, and the Memphite and Heliopolitan gods wereworshipped only in isolated parts of the province. A being, however, of less exalted rank shared with the lords of heaven the favour of thepeople. This was the Pharaoh, who as the son of Amon was foreordained toreceive divine honours, sometimes figuring, as at Bohani, as the thirdmember of a triad, at other times as head of the Ennead. ÛsirtasenIII. Had had his chapels at Semneh and at Kûmmeh, they were restored byThûtmosis III. , who claimed a share of the worship offered in them, and whose son, Amenôthes II. , also assumed the symbols and functions ofdivinity. 

[Illustration: 059. Jpg ONE OF THE RAMS OF AMENÔTHES III]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Mons. De Mertens. 

Amenôthes I. Was venerated in the province of Kari, and Amenôthes III. , when founding the fortress Hâît-Khâmmâît* in the neighbourhood of aNubian village, on a spot now known as Soleb, built a temple there, ofwhich he himself was the protecting genius. **

 * The name signifies literally "the Citadel of Khâmmâît, " and it is formed, as Lepsius recognised from the first, from the name of the Sparrow-hawk Khâmmâît, "Mait rising as Goddess, " which Amenôthes had assumed on his accession. 

 ** Lepsius recognised the nature of the divinity worshipped in this temple; the deified statue of the king, "his living statue on earth, " which represented the god of the temple, is there named "Nibmâûrî, lord of Nubia. " Thûtmosis III. Had already worked at Soleb. 

The edifice was of considerable size, and the columns and wallsremaining reveal an art as perfect as that shown in the best monumentsat Thebes. It was approached by an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, whilecolossal statues of lions and hawks, the sacred animals of the district, adorned the building. The sovereign condescended to preside in personat its dedication on one of his journeys to the southern part of hisempire, and the mutilated pictures still visible on the façade show theorder and detail of the ceremony observed on this occasion. The king, with the crown upon his head, stood before the centre gate, accompaniedby the queen and his minister Amenôthes, the son of Hâpi, who was betteracquainted than any other man of his time with the mysteries of theritual. *

 * On Amenôthes, the son of Hâpi, see p. 56 of the present volume; it will be seen in the following chapter, in connection with the Egyptian accounts of the Exodus, what tradition made of him. 

The king then struck the door twelve times with his mace of white stone, and when the approach to the first hall was opened, he repeated theoperation at the threshold of the sanctuary previous to entering andplacing his statue there. He deposited it on the painted and gildedwooden platform on which the gods were exhibited on feast-days, and enthroned beside it the other images which were thenceforth toconstitute the local Ennead, after which he kindled the sacred firebefore them. The queen, with the priests and nobles, all bearingtorches, then passed through the halls, stopping from time to timeto perform acts of purification, or to recite formulas to dispel evilspirits and pernicious influences; finally, a triumphal procession wasformed, and the whole _cortege_ returned to the palace, where a banquetbrought the day's festivities to a close. * It was Amenôthes III. Himself, or rather one of his statues animated by his double, whooccupied the chief place in the new building. Indeed, wherever we comeacross a temple in Nubia dedicated to a king, we find the homage of theinhabitants always offered to the image of the founder, which spoke tothem in oracles. All the southern part of the country beyond thesecond cataract is full of traces of Amenôthes, and the evidence ofthe veneration shown to him would lead us to conclude that he played animportant part in the organisation of the country. Sedeinga possesseda small temple under the patronage of his wife Tîi. The ruins of asanctuary which he dedicated to Anion, the Sun-god, have been discoveredat Gebel-Barkal; Amenôthes seems to have been the first to perceive theadvantages offered by the site, and to have endeavoured to transformthe barbarian village of Napata into a large Egyptian city. Some of themonuments with which he adorned Soleb were transported, in later times, to Gebel-Barkal, among them some rams and lions of rare beauty. They lieat rest with their paws crossed, the head erect, and their expressionsuggesting both power and repose. ** As we descend the Nile, traces ofthe work of this king are less frequent, and their place is taken bythose of his predecessors, as at Sai, at Semneh, at Wady Haifa, atAmada, at Ibrîm, and at Dakkeh. Distant traces of Amenôthes againappear in the neighbourhood of the first cataract, and in the island ofElephantine, which he endeavoured to restore to its ancient splendour. 

 * Thus the small temple of Sarrah, to the north of Wady Haifa, is dedicated to "the living statue of Ramses II. In the land of Nubia, " a statue to which his Majesty gave the name of "Usirmârî Zosir-Shâfi. "

 ** One of the rams was removed from Gebel-Barkal by Lepsius, and is now in the Berlin Museum, as well as the pedestal of one of the hawks. Prisse has shown that these two monuments originally adorned the temple of Soleb, and that they were afterwards transported to Napata by an Ethiopian king, who engraved his name on the pedestal of one of them. 

[Illustration: 062. Jpg ONE OF THE LIONS OF GEBEL-BARKAL]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the two lions of Gebel- Barkal in the British Museum

Two of the small buildings which he there dedicated to Khnûmû, the localgod, were still in existence at the beginning of the present century. That least damaged, on the south side of the island, consisted ofa single chamber nearly forty feet in length. The sandstone walls, terminating in a curved cornice, rested on a hollow substructureraised rather more than six feet above the ground, and surrounded bya breast-high parapet. A portico ran round the building, having sevensquare pillars on each of its two sides, while at each end stood twocolumns having lotus-shaped capitals; a flight of ten or twelve stepsbetween two walls of the same height as the basement, projected infront, and afforded access to the cella. The two columns of the façadewere further apart than those at the opposite end of the building, andshowed a glimpse of a richly decorated door, while a second door openedunder the peristyle at the further extremity. The walls were coveredwith the half-brutish profile of the good Khnûmû, and those of histwo companions, Anûkît and Satît, the spirits of stormy waters. Thetreatment of these figures was broad and simple, the style free, light, and graceful, the colouring soft; and the harmonious beauty of the wholeis unsurpassed by anything at Thebes itself. It was, in fact, a kind oforatory, built on a scale to suit the capacities of a decaying town, butthe design was so delicately conceived in its miniature proportions thatnothing more graceful can be imagined. *

 * Amenôthes II. Erected some small obelisks at Elephantine, one of which is at present in England. The two buildings of Amenôthes III. At Elephantine were still in existence at the beginning of the present century. They have been described and drawn by French scholars; between 1822 and 1825 they were destroyed, and the materials used for building barracks and magazines at Syene. 

Ancient Egypt and its feudal cities, Ombos, Edfû, * Nekhabît, Esneh, **Medamôt, *** Coptos, **** Denderah, Abydos, Memphis, ^ and Heliopolis, profited largely by the generosity of the Pharaohs. 

 * The works undertaken by Thûtmosis III. In the temple of Edfû are mentioned in an inscription of the Ptolemaic period; some portions are still to be seen among the ruins of the town. 

 ** An inscription of the Roman period attributes the rebuilding of the great temple of Esneh to Thûtmosis III. Grébaut discovered some fragments of it in the quay of the modern town. 

 *** Amenôthes II. Appears to have built the existing temple. 

 **** The temple of Hâthor was built by Thûtmosis III. Some fragments found in the Ptolemaic masonry bear the cartouche of Thûtmosis IV. 

 ^ Amenôthes II. Certainly carried on works at Memphis, for he opened a new quarry at Tûrah, in the year IV. Amenôthes III. Also worked limestone quarries, and built at Saqqârah the earliest chapels of the Serapeum which are at present known to us. 

Since the close of the XIIth dynasty these cities had depended entirelyon their own resources, and their public buildings were either in ruins, or quite inadequate to the needs of the population, but now gold fromSyria and Kûsh furnished them with the means of restoration. The Deltaitself shared in this architectural revival, but it had suffered tooseverely under the struggle between the Theban kings and the Shepherdsto recover itself as quickly as the remainder of the country. Alleffort was concentrated on those of its nomes which lay on the Easternfrontier, or which were crossed by the Pharaohs in their journeys intoAsia, such as the Bubastite and Athribite nomes; the rest remained sunkin their ancient torpor. *

* Mariette and E. De Rougé, attribute this torpor, at least as far asTanis is concerned, to the aversion felt by the Pharaohs of Egyptianblood for the Hyksôs capital, and for the provinces where the invadershad formerly established themselves in large numbers. 

Beyond the Red Sea the mines were actively worked, and even the oases ofthe Libyan desert took part in the national revival, and buildings rosein their midst of a size proportionate to their slender revenues. Thebesnaturally came in for the largest share of the spoils of war. Althoughher kings had become the rulers of the world, they had not, like thePharaohs of the XIIth and XIIIth dynasties, forsaken her for some moreillustrious city: here they had their ordinary residence as well astheir seat of government, hither they returned after each campaign tocelebrate their victory, and hither they sent the prisoners and thespoil which they had reserved for their own royal use. In the courseof one or two generations Thebes had spread in every direction, and hadenclosed within her circuit the neighbouring villages of Ashîrû, thefief of Maiit, and Apît-rîsîfc, the southern Thebes, which lay at theconfluence of the Nile with one of the largest of the canals whichwatered the plain. The monuments in these two new quarters of the townwere unworthy of the city of which they now formed part, and AmenôthesIII. Consequently bestowed much pains on improving them. He entirelyrebuilt the sanctuary of Maût, enlarged the sacred lake, and collectedwithin one of the courts of the temple several hundred statues in blackgranite of the Memphite divinity, the lioness-headed Sokhît, whom heidentified with his Theban goddess. The statues were crowded together soclosely that they were in actual contact with each other in places, andmust have presented something of the appearance of a regiment drawn upin battle array. The succeeding Pharaohs soon came to look upon thistemple as a kind of storehouse, whence they might provide themselveswith ready-made figures to decorate their buildings either at Thebes orin other royal cities. About a hundred of them, however, still remain, most of them without feet, arms, or head; some over-turned on theground, others considerably out of the perpendicular, from the earthhaving given way beneath them, and a small number only still perfect andin situ. 

[Illustration: 065. Jpg THE TEMPLE AT ELEPHANTINE, AS IT WAS IN 1799]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the _Description de l'Egypte, Ant_. , vol. I p. 35. A good restoration of it, made from the statements in the _Description_, is to be found in Pekrot-Cuipiez, _Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité_, vol. I. Pp. 402, 403. 

[Illustration: 066. Jpg THE GREAT COURT OF THE TEMPLE OF LUXOR DURING THEINUNDATION]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato. 

[Illustration: 067. Jpg PART OF THE AVENUE OF RAMS, BETWEEN THE TEMPLESOF AMON AND MAÛT]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. 

At Luxor Amenôthes demolished the small temple with which the sovereignsof the XIIth and XIIIth dynasties had been satisfied, and replaced it bya structure which is still one of the finest yet remaining of the timesof the Pharaohs. The naos rose sheer above the waters of the Nile, indeed its cornices projected over the river, and a staircase at thesouth side allowed the priests and devotees to embark directly fromthe rear of the building. The sanctuary was a single chamber, with anopening on its side, but so completely shut out from the daylight by thelong dark hall at whose extremity it was placed as to be in perpetualobscurity. It was flanked by narrow, dimly lightly chambers, and wasapproached through a pronaos with four rows of columns, a vast courtsurrounded with porticoes occupying the foreground. At the present timethe thick walls which enclosed the entire building are nearly levelwith the ground, half the ceilings have crumbled away, air and lightpenetrate into every nook, and during the inundation the water flowinginto the courts, transformed them until recently into lakes, whither theflocks and herds of the village resorted in the heat of the day to batheor quench their thirst. Pictures of mysterious events never meant forthe public gaze now display their secrets in the light of the sun, andreveal to the eyes of the profane the supernatural events which precededthe birth of the king. On the northern side an avenue of sphinxes andcrio-sphinxes led to the gates of old Thebes. At present most of thesecreatures are buried under the ruins of the modern town, or covered bythe earth which overlies the ancient road; but a few are still visible, broken and shapeless from barbarous usage, and hardly retaining anytraces of the inscriptions in which Amenôthes claimed them boastingly ashis work. 

[Illustration: 069. Jpg THE PYLONS OF THÛTMOSIS III. AND HARMHABÎ ATKAKNAK]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato. 

Triumphal processions passing along this route from Luxor to Karnakwould at length reach the great court before the temple of Amon, or, byturning a little to the right after passing the temple of Maût, wouldarrive in front of the southern façade, near the two gilded obeliskswhose splendour once rejoiced the heart of the famous Hâtshopsîtû. Thûtmosis III. Was also determined on his part to spare no expense tomake the temple of his god of proportions suitable to the patron ofso vast an empire. Not only did he complete those portions which hispredecessors had merely sketched out, but on the south side towardsAshîrû he also built a long row of pylons, now half ruined, on which heengraved, according to custom, the list of nations and cities which hehad subdued in Asia and Africa. To the east of the temple he rebuiltsome ancient structures, the largest of which served as a halting-placefor processions, and he enclosed the whole with a stone rampart. Theoutline of the sacred lake, on which the mystic boats were launched onthe nights of festivals, was also made more symmetrical, and its marginedged with masonry. 

[Illustration: 070. Jpg SACRED LAKE AKD THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE TEMPLEOF KARNAK. ]

 Drawn by Boucher, from a photograph by Boato: the building near the centre of the picture is the covered walk constructed by Thûtmosis III. 

By these alterations the harmonious proportion between the mainbuildings and the façade had been destroyed, and the exterior wall wasnow too wide for the pylon at the entrance. Amenôthes III. Remedied thisdefect by erecting in front a fourth pylon, which was loftier, larger, and in all respects more worthy to stand before the enlarged temple. Its walls were partially covered with battle-scenes, which informed allbeholders of the glory of the conqueror. *

 * Portions of the military bas-reliefs which covered the exterior face of the pylon are still to be seen through the gaps in the wall at the end of the great Hall of Pillars built by Seti I. And Ramses II. 

Progress had been no less marked on the left bank of the river. As longas Thebes had been merely a small provincial town, its cemeteries hadcovered but a moderate area, including the sandy plain and low moundsopposite Karnak and the valley of Deîr el-Baharî beyond; but now thatthe city had more than doubled its extent, the space required for thedead was proportionately greater. The tombs of private persons began tospread towards the south, and soon reached the slopes of the Assassîf, the hill of Sheikh-Abd-el-Qurnah and the district of Qûrnet-Mûrraî--infact, all that part which the people of the country called the "Brow"of Thebes. On the borders of the cultivated land a row of chapels andmastabas with pyramidal roofs sheltered the remains of the princes andprincesses of the royal family. The Pharaohs themselves were buriedeither separately under their respective brick pyramids or in groups ina temple, as was the case with the first three Thûtmosis and Hâtshopsîtûat Deîr el-Baharî. Amenôthes II. And Thûtmosis IV. Could doubtless havefound room in this crowded necropolis, * although the space was becominglimited, but the pride of the Pharaohs began to rebel against thispromiscuous burial side by side with their subjects. Amenôthes III. Sought for a site, therefore, where he would have ample room to displayhis magnificence, far from the vulgar crowd, and found what he desiredat the farther end of the valley which opens out behind the village ofQurnah. Here, an hour's journey from the bank of the Nile, he cut forhimself a magnificent rock-tomb with galleries, halls, and deep pits, the walls being decorated with representations of the Voyage of the Sunthrough the regions which he traverses during the twelve hours of hisnocturnal course. 

 * The generally received opinion is that these sovereigns of the XVIIIth dynasty were buried in the Bibân el-Molûk, but I have made several examinations of this valley, and cannot think that this was the case. On the contrary, the scattered notices in the fragments of papyrus preserved at Turin seem to me to indicate that Amenôthes II. And Thûtmosis IV. Must have been buried in the neighbourhood of the Assassîf or of Deîr el-Baharî. 

A sarcophagus of red granite received his mummy, and _Ushabti's_ ofextraordinary dimensions and admirable workmanship mounted guard aroundhim, so as to release him from the corvée in the fields of Ialû. The chapel usually attached to such tombs is not to be found in theneighbourhood. As the road to the funeral valley was a difficult one, and as it would be unreasonable to condemn an entire priesthood to livein solitude, the king decided to separate the component parts which hadhitherto been united in every tomb since the Memphite period, andto place the vault for the mummy and the passages leading to it somedistance away in the mountains, while the necessary buildings forthe cultus of the statue and the accommodation of the priests weretransferred to the plain, and were built at the southern extremity ofthe lands which were at that time held by private persons. The divinecharacter of Amenôthes, ascribed to him on account of his solar originand the co-operation of Amon-Râ at his birth, was, owing to thisseparation of the funerary constituents, brought into furtherprominence. When once the body which he had animated while on earthwas removed and hidden from sight, the people soon became accustomedto think only of his Double enthroned in the recesses of the sanctuary:seeing him receive there the same honours as the gods themselves, theycame naturally to regard him as a deity himself. 

[Illustration: 073. Jpg THE TWO COLOSSI OF MEMNON IN THE PLAIN OF THEBES]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. The "Vocal Statue of Memon" is that on the right-hand side of the illustration. 

The arrangement of his temple differed in no way from those in whichAmon, Maût, and Montû were worshipped, while it surpassed in size andsplendour most of the sanctuaries dedicated to the patron gods of thechief towns of the nomes. It contained, moreover, colossal statues, objects which are never found associated with the heavenly gods. Severalof these figures have been broken to pieces, and only a few scatteredfragments of them remain, but two of them still maintain their positionson each side of the entrance, with their faces towards the east. Theyare each formed of a single block of red breccia from Syenê, * and arefifty-three feet high, but the more northerly one was shattered in theearthquake which completed the ruin of Thebes in the year 27 B. C. Theupper part toppled over with the shock, and was dashed to pieces on thefloor of the court, while the lower half remained in its place. Soonafter the disaster it began to be rumoured that sounds like thoseproduced by the breaking of a harp-string proceeded from the pedestal atsunrise, whereupon travellers flocked to witness the miracle, and legendsoon began to take possession of the giant who spoke in this marvellousway. In vain did the Egyptians of the neighbourhood declare that thestatue represented the Pharaoh Amenôthes; the Greeks refused to believethem, and forthwith recognised in the colossus an image of Memnon theEthiopian, son of Tithonus and Aurora, slain by their own Achillesbeneath the walls of Troy--maintaining that the music heard everymorning was the clear and harmonious voice of the hero saluting hismother. 

 * It is often asserted that they are made of rose granite, but Jollois and Devilliers describe them as being of "a species of sandstone breccia, composed of a mass of agate flint, conglomerated together by a remarkably hard cement. This material, being very dense and of a heterogeneous composition, presents to the sculptor perhaps greater difficulties than even granite. "

Towards the middle of the second century of our era, Hadrian undertook ajourney to Upper Egypt, and heard the wonderful song; sixty years later, Septimus Severus restored the statue by the employment of courses ofstones, which were so arranged as to form a rough representation of ahuman head and shoulders. His piety, however, was not rewarded as heexpected, for Memnon became silent, and his oracle fell into oblivion. The temple no longer exists, and a few ridges alone mark the spot whereit rose; but the two colossi remain at their post, in the same conditionin which they were left by the Roman Cæsar: the features are quiteobliterated, and the legs and the supporting female figures on eitherside are scored all over with Greek and Latin inscriptions expressingthe appreciation of ancient tourists. Although the statues tower highabove the fields of corn and _bersîm_ which surround them, our firstview of them, owing to the scale of proportion observed in theirconstruction, so different from that to which we are accustomed, givesus the impression that they are smaller than they really are, and itis only when we stand close to one of them and notice the insignificantappearance of the crowd of sightseers clustered on its pedestal that werealize the immensity of the colossi. 

The descendants of Ahmosis had by their energy won for Thebes not onlythe supremacy over the peoples of Egypt and of the known world, but hadalso secured for the Theban deities pre-eminence over all their rivals. The booty collected both in Syria and Ethiopia went to enrich the godAmon as much as it did the kings themselves; every victory brought himthe tenth part of the spoil gathered on the field of battle, of thetribute levied on vassals, and of the prisoners taken as slaves. WhenThûtmosis IIL, after having reduced Megiddo, organised a systematicplundering of the surrounding country, it was for the benefit of Amon-Eâthat he reaped the fields and sent their harvest into Egypt; if duringhis journeys he collected useful plants or rare animals, it was that hemight dispose of them in the groves or gardens of Amon as well as in hisown, and he never retained for his personal use the whole of what he wonby arms, but always reserved some portion for the sacred treasury. 

[Illustration: 076. Jpg A PARTY OF TOURISTS AT THE FOOT OF THE VOCALSTATUE OF MEMNOK]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger. 

His successors acted in a similar manner, and in the reigns of AmenôthesII. , Thût-mosis IV. , and Amenôthes III. , the patrimony of the Thebanpriesthood continued to increase. The Pharaohs, perpetually called uponas they were to recompense one or other of their servants, were neverable to retain for long their share of the spoils of war. Gold andsilver, lands, jewels, and slaves passed as quickly out of their handsas they had fallen into them, and although then fortune was continuallyhaving additions made to it in every fresh campaign, yet the increasewas rarely in proportion to the trouble expended. The god, on thecontrary, received what he got for all time, and gave back nothing inreturn: fresh accumulations of precious metals were continually beingadded to his store, his meadows were enriched by the addition ofvineyards, and with his palm forests he combined fish-ponds full offish; he added farms and villages to those he already possessed, andeach reign saw the list of his possessions increase. He had his ownlabourers, his own tradespeople, his own fishermen, soldiers, andscribes, and, presiding over all these, a learned hierarchy of divines, priests, and prophets, who administered everything. This immense domain, which was a kind of State within the State, was ruled over by a singlehigh priest, chosen by the sovereign from among the prophets. He was theirresponsible head of it, and his spiritual ambition had increasedstep by step with the extension of his material resources. As the humanPharaoh showed himself entitled to homage from the lords of the earth, the priests came at length to the conclusion that Amon had a rightto the allegiance of the lords of heaven, and that he was the SupremeBeing, in respect of whom the others were of little or no account, andas he was the only god who was everywhere victorious, he came at lengthto be regarded by them as the only god in existence. It was impossiblethat the kings could see this rapid development of sacerdotal powerwithout anxiety, and with all their devotion to the patron of theircity, solicitude for their own authority compelled them to seekelsewhere for another divinity, whose influence might in some degreecounterbalance that of Amon. The only one who could vie with him atThebes, either for the antiquity of his worship or for the rank which heoccupied in the public esteem, was the Sun-lord of Heliopolis, head ofthe first Ennead. Thûtmosis IV. Owed his crown to him, and 'displayedhis gratitude in clearing away the sand from the Sphinx, in whichthe spirit of Harmakhis was considered to dwell; and AmenôthesIII. , although claiming to be the son of Amon himself, inherited thedisposition shown by Thûtmosis in favour of the Heliopolitan religions, but instead of attaching himself to the forms most venerated bytheologians, he bestowed his affection on a more popular deity--Atonû, the fiery disk. He may have been influenced in his choice by privatereasons. Like his predecessors, he had taken, while still very young, wives from among his own family, but neither these reasonable ties, norhis numerous diplomatic alliances with foreign princesses, were enoughfor him. From the very beginning of his reign he had loved a maiden whowas not of the blood of the Pharaohs, Tîi, the daughter of Iûîa and hiswife Tûîa. *

* For the last thirty years Queen Tîi has been the subject of manyhypotheses and of much confusion. The scarabasi engraved under AmenôthesIII. Say explicitly that she was the daughter of two personages, Iûîaand Tûîa, but these names are not accompanied by any of the signs whichare characteristic of foreign names, and were considered Egyptian bycontemporaries. Hincks was the first who seems to have believed herto be a Syrian; he compares her father's name with that of Levi, andattributes the religious revolution which followed to the influence ofher foreign education. This theory has continued to predominate; someprefer a Libyan origin to the Asiatic one, and latterly there hasbeen an attempt to recognise in Tîi one of the princesses of Mitannimentioned in the correspondence of Tel el-Amarna. As long ago as 1877, Ishowed that Tîi was an Egyptian of middle rank, probably of Heliopolitanorigin. 

Connexions of this kind had been frequently formed by his ancestors, but the Egyptian women of inferior rank whom they had brought into theirharems had always remained in the background, and if the sons of theseconcubines were ever fortunate enough to come to the throne, it was indefault of heirs of pure blood. Amenôthes III. Married Tîi, gave herfor her dowry the town of Zâlû in Lower Egypt, and raised her to theposition of queen, in spite of her low extraction. She busied herselfin the affairs of State, took precedence of the princesses of the solarfamily, and appeared at her husband's side in public ceremonies, and wasso figured on the monuments. If, as there is reason to believe, she wasborn near Heliopolis, it is easy to understand how her influence mayhave led Amenôthes to pay special honour to a Heliopolitan divinity. He had built, at an early period of his reign, a sanctuary to Atonû atMemphis, and in the Xth year he constructed for him a chapel at Thebesitself, * to the south of the last pylon of ïhûtmosis III. , and endowedthis deity with property at the expense of Anion. 

 * This temple seems to have been raised on the site of the building which is usually attributed to Amenôthes II. And Amenôthes III. The blocks bearing the name of Amenôthes II. Had been used previously, like most of those which bear the cartouches of Amenôthes III. The temple of Atonû, which was demolished by Harmhabî or one of the Ramses, was subsequently rebuilt with the remains of earlier edifices, and dedicated to Amon. 

[Illustration: 079. Jpg MARRIAGE SCARABÆUS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph of the scarabaeus preserved at Gîzeh. 

He had several sons;* but the one who succeeded him, and who, likehim, was named Amenôthes, was the most paradoxical of all the Egyptiansovereigns of ancient times. **

 * One of them, Thûtmosis, was high priest of Phtah, and we possess several monuments erected by him in the temple of Memphis; another, Tûtonkhamon, subsequently became king. He also had several daughters by Tîi--Sîtamon. 

 ** The absence of any cartouches of Amenôthes IV. Or his successors in the table of Abydos prevented Champollion and Rosellini from classifying these sovereigns with any precision. Nestor L'hôte tried to recognise in the first of them, whom he called _Bakhen-Balchnan_, a king belonging to the very ancient dynasties, perhaps the Hyksôs Apakhnan, but Lepsius and Hincks showed that he must be placed between Amenôthes III. And Harmhabî, that he was first called Amenôthes like his father, but that he afterwards took the name of Baknaten, which is now read Khûnaten or Khûniaton. His singular aspect made it difficult to decide at first whether a man or a woman was represented. Mariette, while pronouncing him to be a man, thought that he had perhaps been taken prisoner in the Sudan and mutilated, which would have explained his effeminate appearance, almost like that of an eunuch. Recent attempts have been made to prove that Amenôthes IV. And Khûniaton were two distinct persons, or that Khûniaton was a queen; but they have hitherto been rejected by Egyptologists. 

He made up for the inferiority of his birth on account of the plebeianorigin of his mother Tîî, * by his marriage with Nofrîtîti, a princessof the pure solar race. ** Tîi, long accustomed to the management ofaffairs, exerted her influence over him even more than she had done overher husband. Without officially assuming the rank, she certainly forseveral years possessed the power, of regent, and gave a definiteOriental impress to her son's religious policy. No outward changes weremade at first; Amenôthes, although showing his preference for Heliopolisby inscribing in his protocol the title of prophet of Harmakhis, which he may, however, have borne before his accession, maintained hisresidence at Thebes, as his father had done before him, continued tosacrifice to the Theban divinities, and to follow the ancient paths andthe conventional practices. ***

 * The filiation of Amenôthes IV. And Tîi has given rise to more than one controversy. The Egyptian texts do not define it explicitly, and the title borne by Tîi has been considered by some to prove that Amenôthes IV. Was her son, and by others that she was the mother of Queen Nofrîtîti. The Tel el-Amarna correspondence solves the question, however, as it gives a letter from Dushratta to Khûniaton, in which Tîi is called "thy mother. "

 ** Nofrîtîti, the wife of Amenôthes IV. , like all the princesses of that time, has been supposed to be of Syrian origin, and to have changed her name on her arrival in Egypt. The place which she holds beside her husband is the same as that which belongs to legitimate queens, like Nofritari, Ahmosis, and Hâtshopsîtû, and the example of these princesses is enough to show us what was her real position; she was most probably a daughter of one of the princesses of the solar blood, perhaps of one of the sisters of Amenôthes III. , and Amenôthes IV. Married her so as to obtain through her the rights which were wanting to him through his mother Tîi. 

 *** The tomb of Ramses, governor of Thebes and priest of Mâît, shows us in one part of it the king, still faithful to his name of Amenôthes, paying homage to the god Amon, lord of Karnak, while everywhere else the worship of Atonû predominates. The cartouches on the tomb of Pari, read by Bouriant Akhopîrûrî, and by Scheil more correctly Nofirkhopîrûrî, seem to me to represent a transitional form of the protocol of Amenôthes IV. , and not the name of a new Pharaoh; the inscription in which they are to be found bears the date of his third year. 

He either built a temple to the Theban god, or enlarged the one whichhis father had constructed at Karnak, and even opened new quarries atSyene and Silsileh for providing granite and sandstone for the adornmentof this monument. His devotion to the invincible Disk, however, soonbegan to assert itself, and rendered more and more irksome to him thereligious observances which he had constrained himself to follow. Therewas nothing and no one to hinder him from giving free course to hisinclinations, and the nobles and priests were too well trained inobedience to venture to censure anything he might do, even were it toresult in putting the whole population into motion, from Elephantine tothe sea-coast, to prepare for the intruded deity a dwelling which shouldeclipse in magnificence the splendour of the great temple. A fewof those around him had become converted of their own accord to hisfavourite worship, but these formed a very small minority. Thebes hadbelonged to Amon so long that the king could never hope to bring itto regard Atonû as anything but a being of inferior rank. Eachcity belonged to some god, to whom was attributed its origin, itsdevelopment, and its prosperity, and whom it could not forsake withoutrenouncing its very existence. If Thebes became separated from Amon itwould be Thebes no longer, and of this Amenôthes was so well aware thathe never attempted to induce it to renounce its patron. His residenceamong surroundings which he detested at length became so intolerable, that he resolved to leave the place and create a new capital elsewhere. The choice of a new abode would have presented no difficulty to him hadhe been able to make up his mind to relegate Atonû to the second rank ofdivinities; Memphis, Heracleopolis, Siût, Khmûnû, and, in fact, all thetowns of the valley would have deemed themselves fortunate in securingthe inheritance of their rival, but not one of them would be false toits convictions or accept the degradation of its own divine founder, whether Phtah, Harshafîtû, Anubis, or Thot. A newly promoted goddemanded a new city; Amenôthes, therefore, made selection of a broadplain extending on the right bank of the Nile, in the eastern part ofthe Hermopolitan nome, to which he removed with all his court about thefourth or fifth year of his reign. *

 * The last date with the name of Amenôthes is that of the year V. , on a papyrus from the Payilm; elsewhere we find from the year VI. The name of Khûniaton, by the side of monuments with the cartouche of Amenôthes; we may conclude from this that the foundation of the town dates from the year IV. Or V. At the latest, when the prince, having renounced the worship of Amon, left Thebes that he might be able to celebrate freely that of Atonû. 

He found here several obscure villages without any historical orreligious traditions, and but thinly populated; Amenôthes chose oneof them, the Et-Tel of the present day, and built there a palacefor himself and a temple for his god. The temple, like that of Eâ atHeliopolis, was named _Haît-Banbonû_, the Mansion of the Obelisk. Itcovered an immense area, of which the sanctuary, however, occupied aninconsiderable part; it was flanked by brick storehouses, and the wholewas surrounded by a thick wall. The remains show that the temple wasbuilt of white limestone, of fine quality, but that it was almostdevoid of ornament, for there was no time to cover it with the usualdecorations. *

 * The opinion of Brugsch, that the arrangement of the various parts differed from that of other temples, and was the effect of foreign influence, has not been borne out by the excavations of Prof. Pétrie, the little which he has brought to light being entirely of Egyptian character. The temple is represented on the tomb of the high priest Mariri. 

[Illustration: 084. Jpg Map]

The palace was built of brick; it was approached by a colossal gateway, and contained vast halls, interspersed with small apartments for theaccommodation of the household, and storehouses for the necessaryprovisions, besides gardens which had been hastily planted with rareshrubs and sycamores. Fragments of furniture and of the roughest of theutensils contained in the different chambers are still unearthed fromamong the heaps of rubbish, and the cellars especially are full ofpotsherds and cracked jars, on which we can still see written anindication of the reign and the year when the wine they once containedwas made. Altars of massive masonry rose in the midst of the courts, on which the king or one of his ministers heaped offerings and burntincense morning, noon, and evening, in honour of the three decisivemoments in the life of Atonû. *

 * Naville discovered at Deîr el-Baharî a similar altar, nearly intact. No other example was before known in any of the ruined towns or temples, and no one had any idea of the dimensions to which these altars, attained. 

A few painted and gilded columns supported the roofs of the principalapartments in which the Pharaoh held his audiences, but elsewhere thewalls and pillars were coated with cream-coloured stucco or whitewash, on which scenes of private life were depicted in colours. The pavement, like the walls, was also decorated. In one of the halls which seems tohave belonged to the harem, there is still to be seen distinctlythe picture of a rectangular piece of water containing fish andlotus-flowers in full bloom; the edge is adorned with water-plants andflowering shrubs, among which birds fly and calves graze and gambol; onthe right and left were depicted rows of stands laden with fruit, whileat each end of the room were seen the grinning faces of a gang of negroand Syrian prisoners, separated from each other by gigantic arches. Thetone of colouring is bright and cheerful, and the animals are treatedwith great freedom and facility. The Pharaoh, had collected about himseveral of the best artists then to be found at Thebes, placingthem under the direction of Baûki, the chief of the corporationof sculptors, * and probably others subsequently joined these fromprovincial studios. 

 * Baûki belonged to a family of artists, and his father Mani had filled before him the post of chief of the sculptors. The part played by these personages was first defined by Brugsch, with perhaps some exaggeration of their artistic merit and originality of talent. 

Work for them was not lacking, for houses had to be built for all thecourtiers and government officials who had been obliged to follow theking, and in a few years a large town had sprung up, which was calledKhûîtatonû, or the "Horizon of the Disk. " It was built on a regularplan, with straight streets and open spaces, and divided into twoseparate quarters, interspersed with orchards and shady trellises. Workmen soon began to flock to the new city--metal-founders, glass-founders, weavers; in fine, all who followed any tradeindispensable to the luxury of a capital. The king appropriated aterritory for it from the ancient nome of the Hare, thus compelling thegod Thot to contribute to the fortune of Atonû; he fixed its limits bymeans of stelæ placed in the mountains, from Gebel-Tûnah to Deshlûît onthe west, and from Sheikh-Said to El-Hauata on the eastern bank;* it wasa new nome improvised for the divine _parvenu_. 

 * We know at present of fourteen of these stelæ. A certain number must still remain to be discovered on both banks of the Nile. 

[Illustration: 082. Jpg THE DECORATED PAVEMENT OF THE PALACE]

Atonû was one of the forms of the Sun, and perhaps the most material oneof all those devised by the Egyptians. He was defined as "the good godwho rejoices in truth, the lord of the solar course, the lord of thedisk, the lord of heaven, the lord of earth, the living disk whichlights up the two worlds, the living Harmakhis who rises on the horizonbearing his name of Shû, which is disk, the eternal infuser of life. "His priests exercised the same functions as those of Heliopolis, and hishigh priest was called "Oîrimaû, " like the high priest of Râ in Aunû. This functionary was a certain Marirl, upon whom the king showered hisfavours, and he was for some time the chief authority in the State afterthe Pharaoh himself. Atonû was represented sometimes by the ordinaryfigure of Horus, * sometimes by the solar disk, but a disk whose rayswere prolonged towards the earth, like so many arms ready to layhold with their little hands of the offerings of the faithful, or todistribute to mortals the _crux ansata_, the symbol of life. The othergods, except Amon, were sharers with humanity in his benefits. Atonûproscribed him, and tolerated him only at Thebes; he required, moreover, that the name of Amon should be effaced wherever it occurred, but herespected Râ and Horus and Harmakhis--all, in fact, but Amon: he wascontent with being regarded as their king, and he strove rather tobecome their chief than their destroyer. **

 * It was probably this form of Horus which had, in the temple at Thebes, the statue called "the red image of Atonû in Paatoml. "

 ** Prisse d'Avennes has found at Karnak, on fragments of the temple, the names of other divinities than Atonû worshipped by Khûniatonû. 

His nature, moreover, had nothing in it of the mysterious or ambiguous;he was the glorious torch which gave light to humanity, and whichwas seen every day to flame in the heavens without ever losing itsbrilliance or becoming weaker. When he hides himself "the world rests indarkness, like those dead who lie in their rock-tombs, with their headsswathed, their nostrils stuffed up, their eyes sightless, and whosewhole property might be stolen from them, even that which they haveunder their head, without their knowing it; the lion issues from hislair, the serpent roams ready to bite, it is as obscure as in a darkroom, the earth is silent whilst he who creates everything dwells in hishorizon. " He has hardly arisen when "Egypt becomes festal, one awakens, one rises on one's feet; when thou hast caused men to clothe themselves, they adore thee with outstretched hands, and the whole earth attendsto its work, the animals betake themselves to their herbage, treesand green crops abound, birds fly to their marshy thickets with wingsoutstretched in adoration of thy double, the cattle skip, all the birdswhich were in their nests shake themselves when thou risest for them;the boats come and go, for every way is open at thy appearance, thefish of the river leap before thee as soon as thy rays descend upon theocean. " It is not without reason that all living things thus rejoice athis advent; all of them owe their existence to him, for "he creates thefemale germ, he gives virility to men, and furnishes life to the infantin its mother's womb; he calms and stills its weeping, he nourishes itin the maternal womb, giving forth the breathings which animate all thathe creates, and when the infant escapes from the womb on the day ofits birth, thou openest his mouth for speech, and thou satisfiest hisnecessities. When the chick is in the egg, a cackle in a stone, thougivest to it air while within to keep it alive; when thou hast causedit to be developed in the egg to the point of being able to break it, itgoes forth proclaiming its existence by its cackling, and walks on itsfeet from the moment of its leaving the egg. " Atonû presides over theuniverse and arranges within it the lot of human beings, both Egyptiansand foreigners. The celestial Nile springs up in Hades far away in thenorth; he makes its current run down to earth, and spreads its watersover the fields during the inundation in order to nourish his creatures. He rules the seasons, winter and summer; he constructed the far-off skyin order to display himself therein, and to look down upon his worksbelow. From the moment that he reveals himself there, "cities, towns, tribes, routes, rivers--all eyes are lifted to him, for he is thedisk of the day upon the earth. "* The sanctuary in which he is invokedcontains only his divine shadow;** for he himself never leaves thefirmament. 

 * These extracts are taken from the hymns of Tel el-Amarna. 

 ** In one of the tombs at Tel el-Amarna the king is depicted leading his mother Tîi to the temple of Atonû in order to see "the Shadow of Râ, " and it was thought with some reason that "the Shadow of Râ" was one of the names of the temple. I think that this designation applied also to the statue or symbol of the god; the _shadow_ of a god was attached to the statue in the same manner as the "double, " and transformed it into an animated body. 

His worship assumes none of the severe and gloomy forms of the Thebancults: songs resound therein, and hymns accompanied by the harp orflute; bread, cakes, vegetables, fruits, and flowers are associatedwith his rites, and only on very rare occasions one of those bloodysacrifices in which the other gods delight. The king made himselfsupreme pontiff of Atonu, and took precedence of the high priest. Hehimself celebrated the rites at the altar of the god, and we see himthere standing erect, his hands outstretched, offering incense andinvoking blessings from on high. * Like the Caliph Hakim of a later age, he formed a school to propagate his new doctrines, and preached thembefore his courtiers: if they wished to please him, they had to accepthis teaching, and show that they had profited by it. The renunciation ofthe traditional religious observances of the solar house involved alsothe rejection of such personal names as implied an ardent devotion tothe banished god; in place of Amenôthes, "he to whom Amon is united, "the king assumed after a time the name of Khûniatonû, "the Glory of theDisk, " and all the members of his family, as well as his adherentsat court, whose appellations involved the name of the same god, soonfollowed his example. The proscription of Amon extended to inscriptions, so that while his name or figure, wherever either could be got at, waschiselled out, the vulture, the emblem of Mût, which expressed the ideaof mother, was also avoided. **

 * The altar on which the king stands upright is one of those cubes of masonry of which Naville discovered such a fine example in the temple of Hâtshopsîtû at Deîr el-Baharî. 

 ** We find, however, some instances where the draughtsman, either from custom or design, had used the vulture to express the word mailt, "the mother, " without troubling himself to think whether it answered to the name of the goddess. 

The king would have nothing about him to suggest to eye or ear theremembrance of the gods or doctrines of Thebes. It would consequentlyhave been fatal to them and their pretensions to the primacy of Egyptif the reign of the young king had continued as long as might naturallyhave been expected. After having been for nearly two centuries almostthe national head of Africa, Amon was degraded by a single blow to thesecondary rank and languishing existence in which he had lived beforethe expulsion of the Hyksôs. He had surrendered his sceptre as king ofheaven and earth, not to any of his rivals who in old times had enjoyedthe highest rank, but to an individual of a lower order, a sort ofdemigod, while he himself had thus become merely a local deity, confinedto the corner of the Said in which he had had his origin. There was noteven left to him the peaceful possession of this restricted domain, for he was obliged to act as host to the enemy who had deposed him:the temple of Atonû was erected at the door of his own sanctuary, andwithout leaving their courts the priests of Amon could hear at the hoursof worship the chants intoned by hundreds of heretics in the temple ofthe Disk. Amon's priests saw, moreover, the royal gifts flowing intoother treasuries, and the gold of Syria and Ethiopia no longer cameinto their hands. Should they stifle their complaints, and bow to thisinsulting oppression, or should they raise a protest against the actionwhich had condemned them to obscurity and a restricted existence? Ifthey had given indications of resistance, they would have been obligedto submit to prompt repression, but we see no sign of this. The bulkof the people--clerical as well as lay--accepted the deposition withcomplacency, and the nobles hastened to offer their adherence to thatwhich afterwards became the official confession of faith of the LordKing. * The lord of Thebes itself, a certain Ramses, bowed his head tothe new cult, and the bas-reliefs of his tomb display to our eyes theproofs of his apostasy: on the right-hand side Amon is the only subjectof his devotion, while on the left he declares himself an adherent ofAtonû. Religious formularies, divine appellations, the representationsof the costume, expression, and demeanour of the figures are at issuewith each other in the scenes on the two sides of the door, and if wewere to trust to appearances only, one would think that the two picturesbelonged to two separate reigns, and were concerned with two individualsstrangers to each other. **

 * The political character of this reaction against the growing power of the high priests and the town of Amon was pointed out for the first time by Masporo in 1878. Ed. Meyer and Tiele blond with the political idea a monotheistic conception which does not seem to me to be fully justified, at least at present, by anything in the materials we possess. 

 ** His tomb was discovered in 1878 by Villiers-Stuart. 

The rupture between the past and the present was so complete, infact, that the sovereign was obliged to change, if not his face andexpression, at least the mode in which they were represented. 

[Illustration: 095. Jpg THE MASK OF KIHÛNIATONÛ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Petrie. Petrie thinks that the monument discovered by him, which is of fine plaster, is a cast of the dead king, executed possibly to enable the sculptors to make _Ushabtu_, "Respondents, " for him. 

The name and personality of an Egyptian were so closely allied thatinterference with one implied interference with the other. Khûniatonûcould not continue to be such as he was when Amenôthes, and, in fact, their respective portraits differ from each other to that degree thatthere is some doubt at moments as to their identity. Amenôthes ishardly to be distinguished from his father: he has the same regular andsomewhat heavy features, the same idealised body and conventional shapeas those which we find in the orthodox Pharaohs. Khûniatonû affects along and narrow head, conical at the top, with a retreating forehead, a large aquiline and pointed nose, a small mouth, an enormous chinprojecting in front, the whole being supported by a long, thin neck. 

His shoulders are narrow, with little display of muscle, but his breastsare so full, his abdomen so prominent, and his hips so large, that onewould think they belonged to a woman. Etiquette required the attendantsupon the king, and those who aspired to his favour, to be portrayed inthe bas-reliefs of temples or tombs in all points, both as regards faceand demeanour, like the king himself. Hence it is that the majority ofhis contemporaries, after having borne the likeness of Amenôthes, came to adopt, without a break, that of Khûniatonû. The scenes at Telel-Amarna contain, therefore, nothing but angular profiles, pointedskulls, ample breasts, flowing figures, and swelling stomachs. Theoutline of these is one that lends itself readily to caricature, and theartists have exaggerated the various details with the intention, itmay be, of rendering the representations grotesque. There was nothingridiculous, however, in the king, their model, and several of hisstatues attribute to him a languid, almost valetudinarian grace, whichis by no means lacking in dignity. 

[Illustration: 096. Jpg AMENÔTHES IV. , FROM THE STATUETTE IN THE LOUVRE. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a drawing by Petrie. 

[Illustration: 097. Jpg Page Image]

He was a good and affectionate man, and was passionately fond of hiswife, Nofrîtîti, associating her with himself in his sovereign acts. Ifhe set out to visit the temple, she followed him in a chariot; if he wasabout to reward one of his faithful subjects, she stood beside him andhelped to distribute the golden necklaces. She joined him in his prayersto the Solar Disk; she ministered to him in domestic life, when, havingbroken away from the worries of his public duties, he sought relaxationin his harem; and their union was so tender, that we find her on oneoccasion, at least, seated in a coaxing attitude on her husband'sknees--a unique instance of such affection among all the representationson the monuments of Egypt. 

[Illustration: 098. Jpg KHÛNIATONÛ AND HIS WIFE REWARDING ONE OF THEGREAT OFFICERS OF THE COURT]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. 

They had six daughters, whom they brought up to live with them onterms of the closest intimacy: they accompanied their father and mothereverywhere, and are exhibited as playing around the throne while theirparents are engaged in performing the duties of their office. Thegentleness and gaiety of the king were reflected in the life of hissubjects: all the scenes which they have left us consist entirely ofprocessions, cavalcades, banquets, and entertainments. Khûniatonû wasprodigal in the gifts of gold and the eulogies which he bestowed onMarirî, the chief priest: the people dance around him while he isreceiving from the king the just recompense of his activity. When Hûîa, who came back from Syria in the XIIth year of the king's reign, broughtsolemnly before him the tribute he had collected, the king, borne inhis jolting palanquin on the shoulders of his officers, proceeded to thetemple to return thanks to his god, to the accompaniment of chants andthe waving of the great fans. When the divine father Aï had married thegoverness of one of the king's daughters, the whole city gave itselfup to enjoyment, and wine flowed freely during the wedding feast. Notwithstanding the frequent festivals, the king found time to watchjealously over the ordinary progress of government and foreign affairs. The architects, too, were not allowed to stand idle, and without takinginto account the repairs of existing buildings, had plenty to do inconstructing edifices in honour of Atonû in the principal towns of theNile valley, at Memphis, Heliopolis, Hermopolis, Hermonthis, and inthe Fayûm. The provinces in Ethiopia remained practically in thesame condition as in the time of Amenôthes III. ;* Kûsh was pacified, notwithstanding the raids which the tribes of the desert were accustomedto make from time to time, only to receive on each occasion rigorouschastisement from the king's viceroy. 

 * The name and the figure of Khûniatonû are met with on the gate of the temple of Soleb, and he received in his XIIth year the tributes of Kûsh, as well as those of Syria. 

The sudden degradation of Amon had not brought about any coldnessbetween the Pharaoh and his princely allies in Asia. The aged Amenôtheshad, towards the end of his reign, asked the hand of Dushratta'sdaughter in marriage, and the Mitannian king, highly flattered by therequest, saw his opportunity and took advantage of it in the interestof his treasury. He discussed the amount of the dowry, demanded aconsiderable sum of gold, and when the affair had been finally arrangedto his satisfaction, he despatched the princess to the banks of theNile. On her arrival she found her affianced husband was dead, or, atall events, dying. Amenôthes IV. , however, stepped into his father'splace, and inherited his bride with his crown. 

[Illustration: 100. Jpg THE DOOR OF A TOMB AT TEL EL-AMARNA]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. 

The new king's relations with other foreign princes were no lessfriendly; the chief of the Khâti (Hittites) complimented him on hisaccession, the King of Alasia wrote to him to express his earnest desirefor a continuance of peace between the two states. Burnaburiash ofBabylon had, it is true, hoped to obtain an Egyptian princess inmarriage for his son, and being disappointed, had endeavoured to pick aquarrel over the value of the presents which had been sent him, togetherwith the notice of the accession of the new sovereign. But his kingdomlay too far away to make his ill-will of much consequence, and hiscomplaints passed unheeded. In Coele-Syria and Phoenicia the situationremained unchanged. The vassal cities were in a perpetual stateof disturbance, though not more so than in the past. Azîru, son ofAbdashirti, chief of the country of the Amorites, had always, evenduring the lifetime of Amenôthes III. , been the most turbulent ofvassals. The smaller states of the Orontes and of the coast about Arvadhad been laid waste by his repeated incursions and troubled by hisintrigues. He had taken and pillaged twenty towns, among which wereSimyra, Sini, Irqata, and Qodshû, and he was already threatening Byblos, Berytus, and Sidon. It was useless to complain of him, for he alwaysmanaged to exculpate himself to the royal messengers. Khaî, Dûdû, Amenemaûpît had in turn all pronounced him innocent. Pharaoh himself, after citing him to appear in Egypt to give an explanation of hisconduct, had allowed himself to be won over by his fair speaking, andhad dismissed him uncondemned. Other princes, who lacked his clevernessand power, tried to imitate him, and from north to south the whole ofSyria could only be compared to some great arena, in which fightingwas continually carried on between one tribe or town and another--Tyreagainst Sidon, Sidon against Byblos, Jerusalem against Lachish. Allof them appealed to Khûniatonû, and endeavoured to enlist him on theirside. Their despatches arrived by scores, and the perusal of them atthe present day would lead us to imagine that Egypt had all but losther supremacy. The Egyptian ministers, however, were entirely unmovedby them, and continued to refuse material support to any of the numerousrivals, except in a few rare cases, where a too prolonged indifferencewould have provoked an open revolt in some part of the country. 

Khûniatonû died young, about the XVIIIth year of his reign. * He wasburied in the depths of a ravine in the mountain-side to the east ofthe town, and his tomb remained unknown till within the last few years. Although one of his daughters who died before her father had beeninterred there, the place seems to have been entirely unprepared for thereception of the king's body. The funeral chamber and the passagesare scarcely even rough-hewn, and the reception halls show a merecommencement of decoration. ** The other tombs of the locality aredivided into two groups, separated by the ravine reserved for theburying-place of the royal house. The noble families possessed eachtheir own tomb on the slopes of the hillside; the common people werelaid to rest in pits lower down, almost on the level of the plain. The cutting and decoration of all these tombs had been entrusted to acompany of contractors, who had executed them according to two or threestereotyped plans, without any variation, except in size. Nearly all thewalls are bare, or present but few inscriptions; those tombs only arecompleted whose occupants died before the Pharaoh. 

 * The length of Khûniatonû's reign was fixed by Griffith with almost absolute certainty by means of the dates written in ink on the jars of wine and preserves found in the ruins of the palace. 

 ** The tomb has been found, as I anticipated, in the ravine which separates the northern after the southern group of burying-places. The Arabs opened it in 1891, and Grébaut has since completely excavated it. The scenes depicted in it are connected with the death and funeral of the Princess Mâqîtatonû. 

[Illustration: 103. Jpg INTERIOR OF A TOMB AT TEL EL-AMARNA]

 Drawn by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger. 

The façades of the tombs are cut in the rock, and contain, for the mostpart, but one door, the jambs of which are covered on both sides byseveral lines of hieroglyphs; and it is just possible to distinguishtraces of the adoration of the radiant Disk on the lintels, togetherwith the cartouches containing the names of the king and god. The chapelis a large rectangular chamber, from one end of which opens the inclinedpassage leading to the coffin. The roof is sometimes supported bycolumns, having capitals decorated with designs of flowers or of geesehung from the abacus by their feet with their heads turned upwards. 

The religious teaching at Tel el-Amarna presents no difference in themain from that which prevailed in other parts of Egypt. * The Doubleof Osiris was supposed to reside in the tomb, or else to take wing toheaven and embark with Atonû, as elsewhere he would embark with Eâ. Thesame funerary furniture is needed for the deceased as in other localcults--ornaments of vitreous paste, amulets, and _Ushabtiu_, or"Respondents, " to labour for the dead man in the fields of Ialû. Thoseof Khûniatonû were, like those of Amenôthes III. , actual statuettes ingranite of admirable workmanship. The dead who reached the divine abode, retained the same rank in life that they had possessed here below, andin order to ensure the enjoyment of it, they related, or caused to bedepicted in their tombs, the events of their earthly career. 

 * The peculiar treatment of the two extremities of the sign for the sky, which surmounts the great scene on the tomb of Ahmosis, shows that there had been no change in the ideas concerning the two horizons or the divine tree found in them: the aspirations for the soul of Marirî, the high priest of Atonû, or for that of the sculptor Baûkû, are the same as those usually found, and the formula on the funerary stelae differs only in the name of the god from that on the ordinary stelae of the same kind. 

A citizen of Khûîtatonû would naturally represent the manners andcustoms of his native town, and this would account for the localcolouring of the scenes in which we see him taking part. 

They bear no resemblance to the traditional pictures of the buildingsand gardens of Thebes with which we are familiar; we have instead thepalaces, colonnades, and pylons of the rising city, its courts plantedwith sycomores, its treasuries, and its storehouses. The sun's diskhovers above and darts its prehensile rays over every object; its handspresent the _crux ansata_ to the nostrils of the various members of thefamily, they touch caressingly the queen and her daughters, they handlethe offerings of bread and cakes, they extend even into the governmentwarehouses to pilfer or to bless. Throughout all these scenes Khûniatonûand the ladies of his harem seem to be ubiquitous: here he visits one ofthe officers, there he repairs to the temple for the dedication of itssanctuary. His chariot, followed at a little distance by that of theprincesses, makes its way peaceably through the streets. The police ofthe city and the soldiers of the guard, whether Egyptians or foreigners, run before him and clear a path among the crowd, the high priest Marirîstands at the gate to receive him, and the ceremony is brought to aclose by a distribution of gold necklaces or rings, while the populacedance with delight before the sovereign. Meantime the slaves havecooked the repast, the dancers and musicians within their chambers haverehearsed for the evening's festival, and the inmates of the house carryon animated dialogues during their meal. The style and the technique ofthese wall-paintings differ in no way from those in the necropolis ofthe preceding period, and there can be no doubt that the artists whodecorated these monuments were trained in the schools of Thebes. Theirdrawing is often very refined, and there is great freedom in theircomposition; the perspective of some of the bas-reliefs almost comesup to our own, and the movement of animated crowds is indicated withperfect accuracy. It is, however, not safe to conclude from theseexamples that the artists who executed them would have developedEgyptian art in a new direction, had not subsequent events caused areaction against the worship of Atonû and his followers. 

[Illustration: 104. Jpg PROFILE OF HEAD OF MUMMY (THEBES TOMBS. )]

[Illustration: 106. Jpg TWO OF THE DAUGHTERS OF KHÛHI ATONÛ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Petrie. 

Although the tombs in which they worked differ from the generalityof Egyptian burying-places, their originality does not arise from anyeffort, either conscious or otherwise, to break through the ordinaryroutine of the art of the time; it is rather the result of theextraordinary appearance of the sovereign whose features they werecalled on to portray, and the novelty of several of the subjects whichthey had to treat. That artist among them who first gave concrete formto the ideas circulated by the priests of Atonû, and drew the modelcartoons, evidently possessed a master-hand, and was endowed withundeniable originality and power. No other Egyptian draughtsman everexpressed a child's grace as he did, and the portraits which he sketchedof the daughters of Khûniatonû playing undressed at their mother's side, are examples of a reserved and delicate grace. But these models, whenonce composed and finished even to the smallest details, were entrustedfor execution to workmen of mediocre powers, who were recruited not onlyfrom Thebes, but from the neighbouring cities of Hermopolis and Siût. These estimable people, with a praiseworthy patience, traced bit by bitthe cartoons confided to them, omitting or adding individuals or groupsaccording to the extent of the wall-space they had to cover, or to thenumber of relatives and servants whom the proprietor of the tomb desiredshould share in his future happiness. The style of these draughtsmenbetrays the influence of the second-rate schools in which they hadlearned their craft, and the clumsiness of their work would often repelus, were it not that the interest of the episodes portrayed redeems itin the eyes of the Egyptologist. 

Khûniatonû left no son to succeed him; two of his sons-in-lawsuccessively occupied the throne--Sâakerî, who had married his eldestdaughter Marîtatonû, and Tûtankhamon, the husband of Ankhnasaton. Thefirst had been associated in the sovereignty by his father-in-law;* heshowed himself a zealous partisan of the "Disk, " and he continued toreside in the new capital during the few years of his sole reign. ** Thesecond son-in-law was a son of Amenôthes III. , probably by a concubine. He returned to the religion of Amon, and his wife, abjuring the creedof her father, changed her name from Ankhnasaton to that of Ankhnasamon. Her husband abandoned Khûitatonû*** at the end of two or three years, and after his departure the town fell into decadence as quickly as ithad arisen. The streets were unfrequented, the palaces and temples stoodempty, the tombs remained unfinished and unoccupied, and its patron godreturned to his former state, and was relegated to the third or fourthrank in the Egyptian Pantheon. 

 * He and his wife are represented by the side of Khûniatonû, with the protocol and the attributes of royalty. Pétrie assigns to this double reign those minor objects on which the king's prenomen Ankhkhopîrûri is followed by the epithet beloved of Uânirâ, which formed part of the name of Khûniatonû. 

 ** Pétrie thinks, on the testimony of the lists of Manetho, which give twelve years to Akenkheres, daughter of Horos, that Sâakerî reigned twelve years, and only two or three years as sole monarch without his father-in-law. I think these two or three years a probable maximum length of his reign, whatever may be the value we should here assign to the lists of Manetho. 

 *** Pétrie, judging from the number of minor objects which he has found in his excavations at Tel el-Amarna, believes that he can fix the length of Tûtankhamon's sojourn at Khûîtatonû at six years, and that of his whole reign at nine years. 

The town struggled for a short time against its adverse fate, whichwas no doubt retarded owing to the various industries founded in it byKhûniatonû, the manufactories of enamel and coloured glass requiring thepresence of many workmen; but the latter emigrated ere long to Thebesor the neighbouring city of Hermopolis, and the "Horizon of Atonû"disappeared from the list of nomes, leaving of what might have been thecapital of the Egyptian empire, merely a mound of crumbling bricks withtwo or three fellahîn villages scattered on the eastern bank of theNile. *

 * Pétrie thinks that the temples and palaces were systematically destroyed by Harmhabî, and the ruins used by him in the buildings which he erected at different places in Egypt. But there is no need for this theory: the beauty of the limestone which Khûniatonû had used sufficiently accounts for the rapid disappearance of the deserted edifices. 

Thebes, whose influence and population had meanwhile never lessened, resumed her supremacy undisturbed. If, out of respect for the past, Tûtankhamon continued the decoration of the temple of Atonû at Karnak, he placed in every other locality the name and figure of Amon; a littlestucco spread over the parts which had been mutilated, enabled theoutlines to be restored to their original purity, and the alteration wasrendered invisible by a few coats of colour. Tûtankhamon was succeededby the divine father Aï, whom Khûniatonû had assigned as husband to oneof his relatives named Tîi, so called after the widow of AmenôthesIII. Aï laboured no less diligently than his predecessor to keep upthe traditions which had been temporarily interrupted. He had beena faithful worshipper of the Disk, and had given orders for theconstruction of two funerary chapels for himself in the mountain-sideabove Tel el-Amarna, the paintings in which indicate a completeadherence to the faith of the reigning king. But on becoming Pharaoh, he was proportionally zealous in his submission to the gods of Thebes, and in order to mark more fully his return to the ancient belief, hechose for his royal burying-place a site close to that in which restedthe body of Amenôthes III. *

 * The first tomb seems to have been dug before his marriage, at the time when he had no definite ambitions; the second was prepared for him and his wife Tîi. 

His sarcophagus, a large oblong of carved rose granite, still lies openand broken on the spot. 

[Illustration: 111. Jpg SARCOPHAGUS OF THE PHARAOH AÎ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after the drawing of Prisse d'Avenues. 

Figures of goddesses stand at the four angles and extend their wingedarms along its sides, as if to embrace the mummy of the sovereign. Tûtankhamon and Aï were obeyed from one end of Egypt to the other, fromNapata to the shores of the Mediterranean. The peoples of Syria raisedno disturbances during their reigns, and paid their accustomed tributeregularly;* if their rule was short, it was at least happy. It wouldappear, however, that after their deaths, troubles arose in the state. The lists of Manetho give two or three princes--Râthôtis, Khebres, andAkherres--whose names are not found on the monuments. ** It is possiblethat we ought not to regard them as historical personages, but merelyas heroes of popular romance, of the same type as those introduced sofreely into the history of the preceding dynasties by the chroniclersof the Saite and Greek periods. They were, perhaps, merely short-livedpretenders who were overthrown one by the other before either hadsucceeded in establishing himself on the seat of Horus. Be that as itmay, the XVIIIth dynasty drew to its close amid strife and quarreling, without our being able to discover the cause of its overthrow, or thename of the last of its sovereigns. ***

 * Tûtankhamon receives the tribute of the Kûshites as well as that of the Syrians; Aï is represented at Shataûi in Nubia as accompanied by Paûîrû, the prince of Kûsh. 

 ** Wiedemann has collected six royal names which, with much hesitation, he places about this time. 

 *** The list of kings who make up the XVIIIth dynasty can be established with certainty, with the exception of the order of the three last sovereigns who succeed Khûniatonû. It is here given in its authentic form, as the monuments have permitted us to reconstruct it, and in its Greek form as it is found in the lists of Manetho:

 [Illustration: 112. Jpg Table]

 Manetho's list, as we have it, is a very ill-made extract, wherein the official kings are mixed up with the legitimate queens, as well as, at least towards the end, with persons of doubtful authenticity. Several kings, between Khûniatonû and Harmhabi, are sometimes added at the end of the list; some of these I think, belonged to previous dynasties, e. G. Teti to the VIth, Râhotpû to the XVIIth; several are heroes of romance, as Mernebphtah or Merkhopirphtah, while the names of the others are either variants from the cartouche names of known princes, or else are nicknames, such as was Sesû, Sestûrî for Ramses II. Dr. Mahler believes that he can fix, within a few days, the date of the kings of whom the list is composed, from Ahmosis I. To Aî. I hold to the approximate date which I have given in vol. Iv. P. 153 of this History, and I give the years 1600 to 1350 as the period of the dynasty, with a possible error of about fifty years, more or less. 

Scarcely half a century had elapsed between the moment when the XVIII'sdynasty reached the height of its power under Amenôthes III. And that ofits downfall. It is impossible to introduce with impunity changes of anykind into the constitution or working of so complicated a machine as anempire founded on conquest. When the parts of the mechanism have beenonce put together and set in motion, and have become accustomed towork harmoniously at a proper pace, interference with it must not beattempted except to replace such parts as are broken or worn out, byothers exactly like them. To make alterations while the machine is inmotion, or to introduce new combinations, however ingenious, into anypart of the original plan, might produce an accident or a breakage ofthe gearing when perhaps it would be least expected. When the devoutKhûniatonû exchanged one city and one god for another, he thoughtthat he was merely transposing equivalents, and that the safety of thecommonwealth was not concerned in the operation. Whether it was Amon orAtonu who presided over the destinies of his people, or whether Thebesor Tel el-Amarna were the centre of impulse, was, in his opinion, merelya question of internal arrangement which could not affect the economyof the whole. But events soon showed that he was mistaken in hiscalculations. It is probable that if, on the expulsion of the Hyksôs, the earlier princes of the dynasty had attempted an alteration in thenational religion, or had moved the capital to any other city they mightselect, the remainder of the kingdom would not have been affected by thechange. But after several centuries of faithful adherence to Amon inhis city of Thebes, the governing power would find it no easy matterto accomplish such a resolution. During three centuries the dynasty hadbecome wedded to the city and to its patron deity, and the locality hadbecome so closely associated with the dynasty, that any blow aimed atthe god could not fail to destroy the dynasty with it; indeed, had theexperiment of Khûniatonû been prolonged beyond a few years, it mighthave entailed the ruin of the whole country. All who came into contactwith Egypt, or were under her rule, whether Asiatics or Africans, were quick to detect any change in her administration, and to remark afalling away from the traditional systems of the times of Thûtmosis III. And Amenothes II. The successors of the heretic king had the sense toperceive at once the first symptoms of disorder, and to refrain frompersevering in his errors; but however quick they were to undo his work, they could not foresee its serious consequences. His immediate followerswere powerless to maintain their dynasty, and their posterity had tomake way for a family who had not incurred the hatred of Amon, or ratherthat of his priests. If those who followed them were able by their tactand energy to set Egypt on her feet again, they were at the same timeunable to restore her former prosperity or her boundless confidence inherself. 

[Illustration: 114. Jpg Tailpiece]

CHAPTER II--THE REACTION AGAINST EGYPT

_THE XIth DYNASTY: HARMHABÎ--THE HITTITE EMPIRE IN SYRIA AND IN ASIAMINOR--SETI I. AND RAMSES II. --THE PEOPLE OF THE SEA: MÎNEPHTAH AND THEISRAELITE EXODUS. _

_The birth and antecedents of Harmhabî, his youth, his enthronement--Thefinal triumph of Amon and his priests--Harmhabî infuses order into thegovernment: his wars against the Ethiopians and Asiatics--The Khâti, their civilization, religion; their political and military constitution;the extension of their empire towards the north--The countries andpopulations of Asia Minor; commercial routes between the Euphrates andthe Ægean Sea--The treaty concluded between Harmhabî and Sapalulu. _

_Ramses I. And the uncertainties as to his origin--Seti I. Andthe campaign against Syria in the 1st year of his reign; there-establishment of the Egyptian empire--Working of the gold-mines atEtaï--The monuments constructed by Seti I. In Nubia, at Karnak, Luxor, and Abydos--The valley of the kings and tomb of Seti I. At Thebes. _

_Ramses II. , his infancy, his association in the Government, his débutin Ethiopia: he builds a residence in the Delta--His campaign againstthe Khâti in the 5th year of his reign--The talcing of Qodshu, thevictory of Ramses II. And the truce established with Khâtusaru: the poemof Pentaûîrît--His treaty with the Khâti in the 21st year of his reign:the balance of power in Syria: the marriage of Ramses II. With a Hittiteprincess--Public works: the Speos at Abu-Simbel; Luxor, Karnak, theEamesseum, the monuments in the Delta--The regency of Khamoîsît andMînephtah, the legend of Sesostris, the coffin and mummy of Ramses II. _

_Minephtah--The kingdom of Libya, the people of the sea--The firstinvasion of Libya: the Egyptian victory at Piriû; the triumph ofMinephtah--Seti II. , Amenmeses, Siphtah-Minephtah--The foreign captivesin Egypt; the Exodus of the Hebrews and their march to Sinai--AnEgyptian romance of the Exodus: Amenophis, son of Pa-apis. _

[Illustration: 117. Jpg Page Image]

CHAPTER II--THE REACTION AGAINST EGYPT

_The XIXth dynasty: Harmhabî--The Hittite empire in Syria and in AsiaMinor--Seti I. And Ramses II. --The people of the sea: Minephtah and theIsraelite Exodus. _

While none of these ephemeral Pharaohs left behind them a, eitherlegitimate or illegitimate, son there was no lack of princesses, any ofwhich, having on her accession to the throne to choose a consort afterher own heart, might thus become the founder of a new dynasty. By such achance alliance Harmhabî, who was himself descended from Thûtmosis III. , was raised to the kingly office. * His mother, Mûtnozmît, was of theroyal line, and one of the most beautiful statues in the Gîzeh Museumprobably represents her. The body is mutilated, but the head is charmingin its intelligent and animated expression, in its full eyes andsomewhat large, but finely modelled, mouth. The material of the statueis a finegrained limestone, and its milky whiteness tends to soften themalign character of her look and smile. It is possible that Mûtnozmîtwas the daughter of Amenôthes III. By his marriage with one ofhis sisters: it was from her, at any rate, and not from hisgreat-grandfather, that Harmhabî derived his indisputable claims toroyalty. **

 * A fragment of an inscription at Karnak calls Thûtmosis III. "the father of his fathers. " Champollion called him Hornemnob, Rosellini, Hôr-hemheb, Hôr-em-hbai, and both identified him with the Hôros of Manetho, hence the custom among Egyptologists for a long time to designate him by the name Horus. Dévéria was the first to show that the name corresponded with the Armais of the lists of Manetho, and, in fact, Armais is the Greek transcription of the group Harmhabî in the bilingual texts of the Ptolemaic period. 

 ** Mûtnozmît was at first considered the daughter and successor of Harmhabî, or his wife. Birch showed that the monuments did not confirm these hypotheses, and he was inclined to think that she was Harmhabî's mother. As far as I can see for the present, it is the only solution which agrees with the evidence on the principal monument which has made known her existence. 

He was born, probably, in the last years of Amenôthes, when Tîi was theexclusive favourite of the sovereign; but it was alleged later on, whenHarmhabî had emerged from obscurity, that Amon, destining him for thethrone, had condescended to become his father by Mûtnozmît--a customaryprocedure with the god when his race on earth threatened to becomedebased. * It was he who had rocked the newly born infant to sleep, and, while Harsiesis was strengthening his limbs with protective amulets, hadspread over the child's skin the freshness and brilliance which are thepeculiar privilege of the immortals. While still in the nursery, thegreat and the insignificant alike prostrated themselves before Harmhabî, making him liberal offerings. Every one recognised in him, even whenstill a lad and incapable of reflection, the carriage and complexionof a god, and Horus of Cynopolis was accustomed to follow his steps, knowing that the time of his advancement was near. After having calledthe attention of the Egyptians to Harmhabî, Amon was anxious, in fact, to hasten the coming of the day when he might confer upon him supremerank, and for this purpose inclined the heart of the reigning Pharaohtowards him. Aï proclaimed him his heir over the whole land. **

 * All that we know of the youth of Harmhabî is contained in the texts on a group preserved in the Turin Museum, and pointed out by Champollion, translated and published subsequently by Birch and by Brugsch. The first lines of the inscription seem to me to contain an account of the union of Amon with the queen, analogous to those at Deîr el-Baharî treating of the birth of Hâtshopsîtû, and to those at Luxor bearing upon Amenôthes III. (cf. Vol. Iv. Pp. 342, 343; and p. 51 of the present volume), and to prove for certain that Harmhabî's mother was a princess of the royal line by right. 

 ** The king is not named in the inscription. It cannot have been Amenôthes IV. , for an individual of the importance of Harmhabî, living alongside this king, would at least have had a tomb begun for him at. Tel el-Amarna. We may hesitate between Aï and Tûtankhamon; but the inscription seems to say definitely that Harmhabî succeeded directly to the king under whom he had held important offices for many years, and this compels us to fix upon Aï, who, as we have said at p. 108, et seq. , of the present volume, was, to all appearances, the last of the so-called heretical sovereigns. 

He never gave cause for any dissatisfaction when called to court, andwhen he was asked questions by the monarch he replied always in fitterms, in such words as were calculated to produce serenity, and thusgained for himself a reputation as the incarnation of wisdom, all hisplans and intentions appearing to have been conceived by Thot theIbis himself. For many years he held a place of confidence with thesovereign. The nobles, from the moment he appeared at the gate of thepalace, bowed their backs before him; the barbaric chiefs from the northor south stretched out their arms as soon as they approached him, andgave him the adoration they would bestow upon a god. His favouriteresidence was Memphis, his preference for it arising from his havingpossibly been born there, or from its having been assigned to him forhis abode. Here he constructed for himself a magnificent tomb, thebas-reliefs of which exhibit him as already king, with the sceptre inhis hand and the uraaus on his brow, while the adjoining cartouche doesnot as yet contain his name. *

 * This part of the account is based upon, a study of a certain number of texts and representations all coming from Harmhabî's tomb at Saqqârah, and now scattered among the various museums--at Gîzeh, Leyden, London, and Alexandria. Birch was the first to assign those monuments to the Pharaoh Harmhabî, supposing at the same time that he had been dethroned by Ramses I. , and had lived at Memphis in an intermediate position between that of a prince and that of a private individual; this opinion was adopted by Ed. Meyer, rejected by Wiedemann and by myself. After full examination, I think the Harmhabî of the tomb at Saqqârah and the Pharaoh Harmhabî are one and the same person; Harmhabî, sufficiently high placed to warrant his wearing the uraius, but not high enough to have his name inscribed in a cartouche, must have had his tomb constructed at Saqqârah, as Aï and possibly Ramses I. Had theirs built for them at Tel el-Amarna. 

He was the mighty of the mighty, the great among the great, the generalof generals, the messenger who ran to convey orders to the people ofAsia and Ethiopia, the indispensable companion in council or on thefield of battle, * at the time when Horus of Cynopolis resolved toseat him upon his eternal throne. Aï no longer occupied it. Horus tookHarmhabî with him to Thebes, escorted him thither amid expressions ofgeneral joy, and led him to Amon in order that the god might bestow uponhim the right to reign. The reception took place in the temple ofLuxor, which served as a kind of private chapel for the descendants ofAmenôthes. Amon rejoiced to see Harmhabî, the heir of the two worlds;he took him with him to the royal palace, introduced him into theapartments of his august daughter, Mûtnozmît; then, after she hadrecognised her child and had pressed him to her bosom, all the godsbroke out into acclamations, and their cries ascended up to heaven. **

 * The fragments of the tomb preserved at Leyden show him leading to the Pharaoh Asiatics and Ethiopians, burthened with tribute. The expressions and titles given above are borrowed from the fragments at Gîzeh. 

 ** Owing to a gap, the text cannot be accurately translated at this point. The reading can be made out that Amon "betook himself to the palace, placing the prince before him, as far as the sanctuary of his (Amon's) daughter, the very august... ; she poured water on his hands, she embraced the beauties (of the prince), she placed herself before him. " It will be seen that the name of the daughter of Amon is wanting, and Birch thought that a terrestrial princess whom Harmhabî had married was in question, Miifcnozmît, according to Brugsch. If the reference is not to a goddess, who along with Amon took part in the ceremonies, but to Mûtnozmît, we must come to the conclusion that she, as heir and queen by birth, must have ceded her rights by some ritual to her son before he could be crowned. 

"Behold, Amon arrives with his son before him, at the palace, in orderto put upon his head the diadem, and to prolong the length of his life!We install him, therefore, in his office, we give to him the insignia ofEâ, we pray Amon for him whom he has brought as our protector: may he asking have the festivals of Eâ and the years of Horus; may he accomplishhis good pleasure in Thebes, in Heliopolis, in Memphis, and may headd to the veneration with which these cities are invested. " Andthey immediately decided that the new Pharaoh should be calledHorus-sturdy-bull, mighty in wise projects, lord of the Vulture and ofthe very marvellous Urseus in Thebes, the conquering Horus who takespleasure in the truth, and who maintains the two lands, the lord of thesouth and north, Sozir Khopîrûrî chosen of Eâ, the offspring of the Sun, Harmhabî Mîamûn, giver of life. The _cortege_ came afterwards to thepalace, the king walking before Amon: there the god embraced his son, placed the diadems upon his head, delivered to him the rule of the wholeworld, over foreign populations as well as those of Egypt, inasmuch ashe possessed this power as the sovereign of the universe. 

This is the customary subject of the records of enthronement. Pharaoh isthe son of a god, chosen by his father, from among all those who mighthave a claim to it, to occupy for a time the throne of Horus; and as hebecame king only by a divine decree, he had publicly to express, at themoment of his elevation, his debt of gratitude to, and his boundlessrespect for, the deity, who had made him what he was. In this case, however, the protocol embodied something more than the traditionalformality, and its hackneyed phrases borrowed a special meaning from thecircumstances of the moment. Amon, who had been insulted and proscribedby Khûniatonû, had not fully recovered his prestige under the rule ofthe immediate successors of his enemy. 

[Illustration: 123. Jpg THE FIRST PYLON OF HARMHABÎ AT KARNAK]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken by Beato. 

They had restored to him his privileges and his worship, they had becomereconciled to him, and avowed themselves his faithful ones, but all thiswas as much an act of political necessity as a matter of religion:they still continued to tolerate, if not to favour, the rival doctrinalsystem, and the temple of the hateful Disk still dishonoured by itsvicinity the sanctuary of Karnak. Harmhabî, on the other hand, wasdevoted to Amon, who had moulded him in embryo, and had trained him fromhis birth to worship none but him. Harmhabî's triumph marked the endof the evil days, and inaugurated a new era, in which Amon sawhimself again master of Thebes and of the world. Immediately after hisenthronement Harmhabî rivalled the first Amen-ôthes in his zeal for theinterests of his divine father: he overturned the obelisks of Atonû andthe building before which they stood; then, that no trace of them mightremain, he worked up the stones into the masonry of two pylons, which heset up upon the site, to the south of the gates of Thûtmosis III. Theyremained concealed in the new fabric for centuries, but in the year27 B. C. A great earthquake brought them abruptly to light. We findeverywhere among the ruins, at the foot of the dislocated gates, or atthe bases of the headless colossal figures, heaps of blocks detachedfrom the structure, on which can be made out remnants of prayersaddressed to the Disk, scenes of worship, and cartouches of AmenôfchesIV. , Aï, and Tûtankhamon. The work begun by Harmhabî at Thebeswas continued with unabated zeal through the length of the wholeriver-valley. "He restored the sanctuaries from the marshes of Athû evento Nubia; he repaired their sculptures so that they were better thanbefore, not to speak of the fine things he did in them, rejoicing theeyes of Râ. That which he had found injured he put into its originalcondition, erecting a hundred statues, carefully formed of valuablestone, for every one which was lacking. He inspected the ruined towns ofthe gods in the land, and made them such as they had been in the timeof the first Ennead, and he allotted to them estates and offeringsfor every day, as well as a set of sacred vessels entirely of gold andsilver; he settled priests in them, bookmen, carefully chosen soldiers, and assigned to them fields, cattle, all the necessary material tomake prayers to Râ every morning. " These measures were inspired byconsideration for the ancient deities; but he added to them others, which tended to secure the welfare of the people and the stability ofthe government. Up to this time the officials and the Egyptian soldiershad displayed a tendency to oppress the fellahîn, without taking intoconsideration the injury to the treasury occasioned by their rapacity. Constant supervision was the only means of restraining them, for eventhe best-served Pharaohs, Thûtmosis, and Amenôthes III. Themselves, wereobliged to have frequent recourse to the rigour of the law to keep thescandalous depredations of the officials within bounds. *

 * Harmhabî refers to the edicts of Thûtmosis III. 

The religious disputes of the preceding years, in enfeebling theauthority of the central power, had given a free hand to theseoppressors. The scribes and tax-collectors were accustomed to exactcontributions for the public service from the ships, whether laden ornot, of those who were in a small way of business, and once they hadlaid their hands upon them, they did not readily let them go. The poorfellow falling into their clutches lost his cargo, and he was at hiswits' end to know how to deliver at the royal storehouses the variouswares with which he calculated to pay his taxes. No sooner had theCourt arrived at some place than the servants scoured the neighbourhood, confiscating the land produce, and seizing upon slaves, under pretencethat they were acting for the king, while they had only their personalends in view. Soldiers appropriated all the hides of animals with theobject, doubtless, of making from them leather jackets and helmets, orof duplicating their shields, with the result that when the treasurymade its claim for leather, none was to be found. It was hardlypossible, moreover, to bring the culprits to justice, for the chief menof the towns and villages, the prophets, and all those who ought tohave looked after the interests of the taxpayer, took money from thecriminals for protecting them from justice, and compelled the innocentvictims also to purchase their protection. Harmhabî, who was continuallylooking for opportunities to put down injustice and to punish deceit, at length decided to pro-mulgate a very severe edict against themagistrates and the double-dealing officials: any of them who was foundto have neglected his duty was to have his nose cut off, and was tobe sent into perpetual exile to Zalu, on the eastern frontier. Hiscommands, faithfully carried out, soon produced a salutary effect, andas he would on no account relax the severity of the sentence, exactionswere no longer heard of, to the advantage of the revenue of the State. On the last day of each month the gates of his palace were open to everyone. 

[Illustration: 127. Jpg AMENOTHES IV. FROM A FRAGMENT USED AGAIN BYHARMHABI]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Prisse d'Avennes. 

Any one on giving his name to the guard could enter the court of honour, where he would find food in abundance to satisfy his hunger while he wasawaiting an audience. The king all the while was seated in the sightof all at the tribune, whence he would throw among his faithful friendsnecklaces and bracelets of gold: he inquired into complaints one afteranother, heard every case, announced his judgments in brief words, anddismissed his subjects, who went away proud and happy at having hadtheir affairs dealt with by the sovereign himself. *

 * All these details are taken from a stele discovered in 1882. The text is so mutilated that it is impossible to give a literal rendering of it in all its parts, but the sense is sufficiently clear to warrant our rilling up the whole with considerable certainty. 

The portraits of Harmhabî which have come down to us give us theimpression of a character at once energetic and agreeable. The mostbeautiful of these is little more than a fragment broken off ablack granite statue. Its mournful expression is not pleasing to thespectator, and at the first view alienates his sympathy. The face, whichis still youthful, breathes an air of melancholy, an expression whichis somewhat rare among the Pharaohs of the best period: the thin andstraight nose is well set on the face, the elongated eyes have somewhatheavy lids; the large, fleshy lips, slightly contracted at the cornersof the mouth, are cut with a sharpness that gives them singular vigour, and the firm and finely modelled chin loses little of its form from thefalse beard depending from it. Every detail is treated with such freedomthat one would think the sculptor must have had some soft material towork upon, rather than a rock almost hard enough to defy the chisel;the command over it is so complete that the difficulty of the work isforgotten in the perfection of the result. The dreamy expression of hisface, however, did not prevent Harmhabî from displaying beyond Egypt, aswithin it, singular activity. 

[Illustration: 128. Jpg HARMHABI]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Autograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. 

Although Egypt had never given up its claims to dominion over the wholeriver-valley, as far as the plains of Sennar, yet since the time ofAmenôthes III. No sovereign had condescended, it would I appear, toconduct in person the expeditions directed against the tribes of! theUpper Nile. Harmhabî was anxious to revive the custom which imposedupon the Pharaohs the obligation to make their first essay in arms inEthiopia, as Horus, son of Isis, had done of yore, and he seized thepretext of the occurrence of certain raids there to lead a body oftroops himself into the heart of the negro country. 

[Illustration: 129. Jpg THE VAULTED PASSAGE OF THE ROCK-TOMB AT GEBELSILSILEH]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. 

He had just ordered at this time the construction of the two southernpylons at Karnak, and there was great activity in the quarries ofSilsileh. A commemorative chapel also was in course of excavation herein the sandstone rock, and he had dedicated it to his father, Amon-Ba ofThebes, coupling with him the local divinities, Hapî the Nile, and Sobkûthe patron of Ombos. The sanctuary is excavated somewhat deeply intothe hillside, and the dark rooms within it are decorated with the usualscenes of worship, but the vaulted approach to them displays upon itswestern wall the victory of the king. We see here a figure receivingfrom Amon the assurance of a long and happy life, and another lettingfly his arrows at a host of fleeing enemies; Ethiopians raise theirheads to him in suppliant gesture; soldiers march past with theircaptives; above one of the doors we see twelve military leaders marchingand carrying the king aloft upon their shoulders, while a group ofpriests and nobles salute him, offering incense. *

 * The significance of the monument was pointed out first by Champollion. The series of races conquered was represented at Karnak on the internal face of one of the pylons built by Harmhabi; it appears to have been "usurped" by Ramses II. 

At this period Egyptian ships were ploughing the Red Sea, and theircaptains were renewing official relations with Pûanît. Somali chiefswere paying visits to the palace, as in the time of Thûtmosis III. Thewars of Amon had, in fact, begun again. The god, having suffered neglectfor half a century, had a greater need than ever of gold and silverto fill his coffers; he required masons for his buildings, slaves andcattle for his farms, perfumed essences and incense for his daily rites. His resources had gradually become exhausted, and his treasury wouldsoon be empty if he did not employ the usual means to replenish it. Heincited Harmhabi to proceed against the countries from which, in oldentimes he had enriched himself--to the south in the first place, andthen, having decreed victory there, and having naturally taken forhimself the greater part of the spoils, he turned his attention to Asia. 

[Illustration: 131. Jpg THE TRIUMPH OP HARMHABÎ IN THE SANCTUARY OF GEBELSILSILEH]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Daniel Heron. The black spots are due to the torches of the fellahîn of the neighbourhood who have visited the rock tomb in bygone years. 

In the latter campaign the Egyptian troops took once more the routethrough Coele-Syria, and if the expedition experienced here moredifficulties than on the banks of the Upper Nile, it was, nevertheless, brought to an equally triumphant conclusion. Those of their adversarieswho had offered an obstinate resistance were transported into otherlands, and the rebel cities were either razed to the ground or given tothe flames: the inhabitants having taken refuge in the mountains, wherethey were in danger of perishing from hunger, made supplications forpeace, which was granted to them on the usual conditions of doing homageand paying tribute. *

 * These details are taken from the fragment of an inscription now in the museum at Vienna; Bergmann, and also Erman, think that we have in this text the indication of an immigration into Egypt of a tribe of the Monâtiu. 

We do not exactly know how far he penetrated into the country; thelist of the towns and nations over which he boasts of having triumphedcontains, along with names unknown to us, some already famous or soon tobecome so--Arvad, Pibukhu, the Khâti, and possibly Alasia. The Haui-Nibuthemselves must have felt the effects of the campaign, for several oftheir chiefs associated, doubtless, with the Phoenicians, presentedthemselves before the Pharaoh at Thebes. Egypt was maintaining, therefore, its ascendency, or at least appearing to maintain it inthose regions where the kings of the XVIIIth dynasty had ruled afterthe campaigns of Thûtmosis I. , Thûtmosis III. , and Amenothes II. Itsinfluence, nevertheless, was not so undisputed as in former days; notthat the Egyptian soldiers were less valiant, but owing to the factthat another power had risen up alongside them whose armies were strongenough to encounter them on the field of battle and to obtain a victoryover them. 

Beyond Naharaim, in the deep recesses of the Amanus and Taurus, therehad lived, for no one knows how many centuries, the rude and warliketribes of the Khâti, related not so, much to the Semites of the Syrianplain as to the populations of doubtful race and language who occupiedthe upper basins of the Halys and Euphrates. * The Chaldæan conquesthad barely touched them; the Egyptian campaign had not more effect, andThûtmosis III. Himself, after having crossed their frontiers and sackedseveral of their towns, made no serious pretence to reckon them amonghis subjects. Their chiefs were accustomed, like their neighbours, touse, for correspondence with other countries, the cuneiform mode ofwriting; they had among them, therefore, for this purpose, a host ofscribes, interpreters, and official registrars of events, such as wefind to have accompanied the sovereigns of Assyria and Babylon. **These chiefs were accustomed to send from time to time a present to thePharaoh, which the latter was pleased to regard as a tribute, *** orthey would offer, perhaps, one of their daughters in marriage to theking at Thebes, and after the marriage show themselves anxious tomaintain good faith with their son-in-law. 

 * Halévy asserts that the Khâti were Semites, and bases his assertion on materials of the Assyrian period. Thés Khâti, absorbed in Syria by the Semites, with whom they were blended, appear to have been by origin a non-Semitic people. 

 ** A letter from the King of the Khâti to the Pharaoh Amenothes IV. Is written in cuneiform writing and in a Semitic language. It has been thought that other documents, drawn up in a non-Semitic language and coming from Mitanni and Arzapi, contain a dialect of the Hittite speech or that language itself. A "writer of books, " attached to the person of the Hittite King Khatusaru, is named amongst the dead found on the field of battle at Qodshû. 

 *** It is thus perhaps we must understand the mention of tribute from the Khâti in the _Annals of Thûtmosis III. _, 1. 26, in the year XXXIII. , also in the year XL. One of the Tel el-Amarna letters refers to presents of this kind, which the King of Khâti addresses to Amenôthes IV. To celebrate his enthronement, and to ask him to maintain with himself the traditional good relations of their two families. 

They had, moreover, commercial relations with Egypt, and furnished itwith cattle, chariots, and those splendid Cappadocian horses whose breedwas celebrated down to the Greek period. * They were already, indeed, people of consideration; their territory was so extensive that thecontemporaries of Thutmosis III. Called them the Greater Khâti; and theepithet "vile, " which the chancellors of the Pharaohs added to theirname, only shows by its virulence the impression which they had producedupon the mind of their adversaries. **

 * The horses of the Khâti were called _abarî_, strong, vigorous, as also their bulls. The King of Alasia, while offering to Amenôthes III. A profitable speculation, advises him to have nothing to do with the King of the Khâti or with the King of Sangar, and thus furnishes proof that the Egyptians held constant commercial relations with the Khâti. 

 ** M. De Rougé suggested that Khâti "the Little" was the name of the Hittites of Hebron. The expression, "Khâti the Great, " has been compared with that of Khanirabbat, "Khani the Great, " which in the Assyrian texts would seem to designate a part of Cappadocia, in which the province of Miliddi occurs, and the identification of the two has found an ardent defender in W. Max Millier. Until further light is thrown upon it, the most probable reading of the word is not Khani-_ra_bat, but Khani-_gal_bat. The name Khani-Galbat is possibly preserved in Julbat, which the Arab geographers applied in the Middle Ages to a province situated in Lesser Armenia. 

Their type of face distinguishes them clearly from the nationsconterminous with them on the south. The Egyptian draughtsmenrepresented them as squat and short in stature, though vigorous, strong-limbed, and with broad and full shoulders in youth, but asinclined frequently to obesity in old age. The head is long and heavy, the forehead flattened, the chin moderate in size, the nose prominent, the eyebrows and cheeks projecting, the eyes small, oblique, anddeep-set, the mouth fleshy, and usually framed in by two deep wrinkles;the flesh colour is a yellowish or reddish white, but clearer than thatof the Phoenicians or the Amurru. 

[Illustration: 135. Jpg THREE HEADS OF HITTITE SOLDIERS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. 

Their ordinary costume consisted, sometimes of a shirt with shortsleeves, sometimes of a sort of loin-cloth, more or less ample accordingto the rank of the individual wearing it, and bound round the waist bya belt. To these they added a scanty mantle, red or blue, fringed likethat of the Chaldæans, which they passed over the left shoulder andbrought back under the right, so as to leave the latter exposed. Theywore shoes with thick soles, turning up distinctly at the toes, * andthey encased their hands in gloves, reaching halfway up the arm. 

 * This characteristic is found on the majority of the monuments which the peoples of Asia Minor have left to us, and it is one of the most striking indications of the northern origin of the Khâti. The Egyptian artists and modern draughtsmen have often neglected it, and the majority of them have represented the Khâti without shoes. 

They shaved off both moustache and beard, but gave free growth to theirhair, which they divided into two or three locks, and allowed tofall upon their backs and breasts. The king's head-dress, which wasdistinctive of royalty, was a tall pointed hat, resembling to someextent the white crown of the Pharaohs. The dress of the people, takenall together, was of better and thicker material than that of theSyrians or Egyptians. The mountains and elevated plateaus which theyinhabited were subject to extraordinary vicissitudes of heat and cold. If the summer burnt up everything, the winter reigned here with anextreme rigour, and dragged on for months: clothing and footgear hadto be seen to, if the snow and the icy winds of December were to beresisted. The character of their towns, and the domestic life of theirnobles and the common people, can only be guessed at. Some, at least, of the peasants must have sheltered themselves in villages halfunderground, similar to those which are still to be found in thisregion. The town-folk and the nobles had adopted for the most part theChaldæan or Egyptian manners and customs in use among the Semites ofSyria. As to their religion, they reverenced a number of secondarydeities who had their abode in the tempest, in the clouds, the sea, therivers, the springs, the mountains, and the forests. Above this crowdthere were several sovereign divinities of the thunder or the air, sun-gods and moon-gods, of which the chief was called Khâti, and wasconsidered to be the father of the nation. They ascribed to all theirdeities a warlike and savage character. The Egyptians pictured some ofthem as a kind of Râ, * others as representing Sit, or rather Sûtkhû, that patron of the Hyksôs which was identified by them with Sit: everytown had its tutelary heroes, of whom they were accustomed to speak asif of its Sûtkhû--Sûtkhû of Paliqa, Sûtkhû of Khissapa, Sûtkhû of Sarsu, Sûtkhû of Salpina. The goddesses in their eyes also became Astartés, andthis one fact suggests that these deities were, like their Phoenicianand Canaanite sisters, of a double nature--in one aspect chaste, fierce, and warlike, and in another lascivious and pacific. One god was calledMauru, another Targu, others Qaui and Khepa. **

 * The Cilician inscriptions of the Græco-Roman period reveal the existence in this region of a god, Rho, Rhos. Did this god exist among the Khâti, and did the similarity of the pronunciation of it to that of the god Râ suggest to the Egyptians the existence of a similar god among these people, or did they simply translate into their language the name of the Hittite god representing the sun?

 ** The names Mauru and Qaui are deduced from the forms Maurusaru and Qauisaru, which were borne by the Khâti: Qaui was probably the eponymous hero of the Qui people, as Khâti was of the Khâti. Tarku and Tisubu appear to me to be contained in the names Targanunasa, Targazatas, and Tartisubu; Tisubu is probably the Têssupas mentioned in the letter from Dushratta written in Mitannian, and identical with the Tushupu of another letter from the same king, and in a despatch from Tarkondaraush. Targu, Targa, Targanu, resemble the god Tarkhu, which is known to us from the proper names of these regions preserved in attributes covered by each of these divine names, and as to the forms with which they were invested. 

[Illustration: 138. Jpg A HITTITE KING. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a picture in Lepsius. Khatusaru, King of the Khâti, who was for thirty years a contemporary of Ramses II. 

Tishubu, the Rammân of the Assyrians, was doubtless lord of the tempestand of the atmosphere; Shausbe answered to Shala and to Ishtar the queenof love;* but we are frequently in ignorance as to the Assyrian andGreek inscriptions. Kheba, Khepa, Khîpa, is said to be a denominationof Rammân; we find it in the names of the princesses Tadu-khîpa, Gilu-khîpa, Puu-khîpa. 

The majority of them, both male and female, were of gigantic stature, and were arrayed in the vesture of earthly kings and queens: theybrandished their arms, displayed the insignia of their authority, suchas a flower or bunch of grapes, and while receiving the offerings ofthe people were seated on a chair before an altar, or stood each onthe animal representing him--such as a lion, a stag, or wild goat. Thetemples of their towns have disappeared, but they could never have been, it would seem, either-large or magnificent: the favourite places ofworship were the tops of mountains, in the vicinity of springs, or thedepths of mysterious grottoes, where the deity revealed himself to hispriests, and received the faithful at the solemn festivals celebratedseveral times a year. *

 * The association of Tushupu, Tessupas, Tisubu, with Rammânu is made out from an Assyrian tablet published by Bezold: it was reserved for Say ce and Jensen to determine the nature of the god. Shausbe has been identified with Ishtar or Shala by Jensen. 

We know as little about their political organisation as about theirreligion. * We may believe, however, that it was feudal in character, andthat every clan had its hereditary chief and its proper gods: theclans collectively rendered obedience to a common king, whose effectiveauthority depended upon his character and age. **

 * The religious cities and the festivals of the Greek epoch are described by Strabo; these festivals were very ancient, and their institution, if not the method of celebrating them, may go back to the time of the Hittite empire. 

 ** The description of the battle of Qodshû in the time of Ramses II. Shows us the King of the Khâti surrounded by his vassals. The evidence of the existence of a similar feudal organisation from the time of the XVIIIth dynasty is furnished by a letter of Dushratta, King of Mitanni, where he relates to Amenôthes IV. The revolt of his brother Artassumara, and speaks of the help which one of the neighbouring chiefs, Pirkhi, and all the Khâti had given to the rebel. 

The various contingents which the sovereign could collect together andlead would, if he were an incapable general, be of little avail againstthe well-officered and veteran troops of Egypt. Still they were not tobe despised, and contained the elements of an excellent army, superiorboth in quality and quantity to any which Syria had ever been ableto put into the field. The infantry consisted of a limited number ofarchers or slingers. They had usually neither shield nor cuirass, butmerely, in the way of protective armour, a padded head-dress, ornamentedwith a tuft. The bulk of the army carried short lances and broad-bladedchoppers, or more generally, short thin-handled swords with flattwo-edged blades, very broad at the base and terminating in a point. 

[Illustration: 140. Jpg A HITTITE CHARIOT WITH ITS THREE OCCUPANTS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Champollion. 

Their mode of attack was in close phalanxes, whose shock must havebeen hard to bear, for the soldiers forming them were in part at leastrecruited from among the strong and hardy mountaineers of the Taurus. The chariotry comprised the nobles and the _élite_ of the army, but itwas differently constituted from that of the Egyptians, and employedother tactics. 

The Hittite chariots were heavier, and the framework, instead of being amere skeleton, was pannelled on the sides, the contour at the top beingsometimes quite square, at other times rudely curved. It was boundtogether in the front by two disks of metal, and strengthened by stripsof copper or bronze, which were sometimes plated with silver or gold. There were no quiver-cases as in Egyptian chariots, for the Hittitecharioteers rarely resorted to the bow and arrow. The occupants ofa chariot were three in number--the driver; the shield-bearer, whoseoffice it was to protect his companions by means of a shield, sometimesof a round form, with a segment taken out on each side, and sometimessquare; and finally, the warrior, with his sword and lance. The Hittiteprinces whom fortune had brought into relations with Thûtmosîs III. AndAmenôthes II. Were not able to avail themselves properly of the latentforces around them. It was owing probably to the feebleness of theircharacter or to the turbulence of their barons that we must ascribe thepoor part they played in the revolutions of the Eastern world at thistime. The establishment of a strong military power on their southernfrontier was certain, moreover, to be anything but pleasing to them; ifthey preferred not to risk everything by entering into a great strugglewith the invaders, they could, without compromising themselves toomuch, harass them with sudden attacks, and intrigue in an underhand wayagainst them to their own profit. Pharaoh's generals were accustomedto punish, one after the other, these bands of invading tribes, and thesculptors duly recorded their names on a pylon at Thebes among thoseof the conquered nations, but these disasters had little effect inrestraining the Hittites. They continued, in spite of them, to marchsouthward, and the letters from the Egyptian governors record theirprogress year after year. They had a hand in all the plots which werebeing hatched among the Syrians, and all the disaffected who wishedto be free from foreign oppression--such as Abdashirti and his sonAzîru--addressed themselves to them for help in the way of chariots andmen. *

 * Azîru defends himself in one of his letters against the accusation of having received four messengers from the King of the Khâti, while he refused to receive those from Egypt. The complicity of Aziru with the Khâti is denounced in an appeal from the inhabitants of Tunipa. In a mutilated letter, an unknown person calls attention to the negotiations which a petty-Syrian prince had entered into with the King of the Khâti. 

Even inthe time of Amenôfches III. They had endeavoured to reap profitfrom the discords of Mitanni, and had asserted their supremacy over it. Dushratta, however, was able to defeat one of their chiefs. Repulsed onthis side, they fell back upon that part of Naharaim lying between theEuphrates and Orontes, and made themselves masters of one town afteranother in spite of the despairing appeals of the conquered to theTheban king. From the accession of Khûniatonû, they set to work to annexthe countries of Nukhassi, Nîi, Tunipa, and Zinzauru: they looked withcovetous eyes upon Phoenicia, and were already menacing Coele-Syria. Thereligious confusion in Egypt under Tûtankhamon and Aî left them a freefield for their ambitions, and when Harmhabî ventured to cross to theeast of the isthmus, he found them definitely installed in the regionstretching from the Mediterranean and the Lebanon to the Euphrates. Their then reigning prince, Sapalulu, appeared to have been the founderof a new dynasty: he united the forces of the country in a solid body, and was within a little of making a single state out of all NorthernSyria. *

* Sapalulu has the same name as that wo meet with later on in thecountry of Patin, in the time of Salmanasar III. , viz. Sapalulme. It isknown to us only from a treaty with the Khâti, which makes him coevalwith Ramses I. : it was with him probably that Harmhabî had to dealin his Syrian campaigns. The limit of his empire towards the south isgathered in a measure from what we know of the wars of Seti I. With theKhâti. 

All Naharaim had submitted to him: Zahi, Alasia, and the Amurru hadpassed under his government from that of the Pharaohs; Carchemish, Tunipa, Nîi, Hamath, figured among his royal cities, and Qodshû was thedefence of his southern frontier. His progress towards the east wasnot less considerable. Mitanni, Arzapi, and the principalities of theEuphrates as far as the Balikh, possibly even to the Khabur, * paid himhomage: beyond this, Assyria and Chaldæa barred his way. Here, as onhis other frontiers, fortune brought him face to face with the mostformidable powers of the Asiatic world. 

 * The text of the poem of Pentaûîrît mentions, among the countries confederate with the Khâti, all Naharaim; that is to say, the country on either side of the Euphrates, embracing Mitanni and the principalities named in the Amarna correspondence, and in addition some provinces whose sites have not yet been discovered, but which may be placed without much risk of error to the north of the Taurus. 

The latter prince was obliged to capture Qodshû, and to conquer thepeople of the Lebanon. Had he sufficient forces at his disposal totriumph over them, or only enough to hold his ground? Both hypothesescould have been answered in the affirmative if each one of these greatpowers, confiding in its own resources, had attacked him separately. The Amorites, the people of Zahi, Alasia, and Naharaim, together withrecruits from Hittite tribes, would then have put him in a positionto resist, and even to carry off victory with a high hand in the finalstruggle. But an alliance between Assyria or Babylon and Thebes wasalways possible. There had been such things before, in the time ofThut-mosis IV. And in that of Amenôthes III. , but they were lukewarmagreements, and their effect was not much to boast of, for the twoparties to the covenant had then no common enemy to deal with, and theirmutual interests were not, therefore, bound up with their united action. The circumstances were very different now. The rapid growth of a nascentkingdom, the restless spirit of its people, its trespasses on domains inwhich the older powers had been accustomed to hold the upper hand, --didnot all this tend to transform the convention, more commercial thanmilitary, with which up to this time they had been content, into anoffensive and defensive treaty? If they decided to act in concert, howcould Sapalulu or his successors, seeing that he was obliged to defendhimself on two frontiers at the same moment, muster sufficient resourcesto withstand the double assault? The Hittites, as we know them moreespecially from the hieroglyphic inscriptions, might be regarded as thelords only of Northern Syria, and their power be measured merely by theextent of territory which they occupied to the south of the Taurus andon the two banks of the Middle Euphrates. But this does not by any meansrepresent the real facts. This was but the half of their empire; therest extended to the westward and northward, beyond the mountains intothat region, known afterwards as Asia Minor, in which Egyptian traditionhad from ancient times confused some twenty nations under the commonvague epithet of Haûî-nîbû. Official language still employed it as aconvenient and comprehensive term, but the voyages of the Phoeniciansand the travels of the "Royal Messengers, " as well as, probably, themaritime commerce of the merchants of the Delta, had taught the scribesfor more than a century and a half to make distinctions among thesenations which they had previously summed up in one. The Lufeu* were tobe found there, as well as the Danauna, ** the Shardana, *** and othersbesides, who lay behind one another on the coast. Of the second line ofpopulations behind the region of the coast tribes, we have up tothe present no means of knowing anything with certainty. Asia Minor, furthermore, is divided into two regions, so distinctly separated bynature as well as by races that one would be almost inclined to regardthem as two countries foreign to each other. 

 * The Luku, Luka, are mentioned in the Amarna correspondence under the form Lukki as pirates and highway robbers. The identity of these people with the Lycians I hold as well established. 

 ** The Danauna are mentioned along with the Luku in the Amarna correspondence. The termination, _-auna, -ana_ of this word appears to be the ending in -aon found in Asiatic names like Lykaôn by the side of Lykos, Kataôn by the side of Kêtis and Kat-patuka; while the form of the name Danaos is preserved in Greek legend, Danaôn is found only on Oriental monuments. The Danauna came "from their islands, " that is to say, from the coasts of Asia Minor, or from Greece, the term not being pressed too literally, as the Egyptians were inclined to call all distant lands situated to the north beyond the Mediterranean Sea "islands. "

 *** E. De Rougé and Chabas were inclined to identify the Shardana with the Sardes and the island of Sardinia. Unger made them out to be the Khartanoi of Libya, and was followed by Brugsch. W. Max Müller revived the hypotheses of De Rougé and Chabas, and saw in them bands from the Italian island. I am still persuaded, as I was twenty-five years ago, that they were Asiatics--the Mæonian tribe which gave its name to Sardis. The Serdani or Shardana are mentioned as serving in the Egyptian Army in the Tel el-Amarna tablets. 

In its centre it consists of a well-defined undulating plain, having agentle slope towards the Black Sea, and of the shape of a kind of convextrapezium, clearly bounded towards the north by the highlands of Pontus, and on the south by the tortuous chain of the Taurus. A line of lowhills fringes the country on the west, from the Olympus of Mysia to theTaurus of Pisidia. Towards the east it is bounded by broken chains ofmountains of unequal height, to which the name Anti-Taurus is not veryappropriately applied. An immense volcanic cone, Mount Argseus, looksdown from a height of some 13, 000 feet over the wide isthmus whichconnects the country with the lands of the Euphrates. This volcanois now extinct, but it still preserved in old days something of itslanguishing energy, throwing out flames at intervals above the sacredforests which clothed its slopes. The rivers having their sources in theregion just described, have not all succeeded in piercing the obstacleswhich separate them from the sea, but the Pyramus and the Sarus findtheir way into the Mediterranean and the Iris, Halys and Sangarios intothe Euxine. The others flow into the lowlands, forming meres, marshes, and lakes of fluctuating extent. The largest of these lakes, calledTatta, is salt, and its superficial extent varies with the season. Inbrief, the plateau of this region is nothing but an extension of thehighlands of Central Asia, and has the same vegetation, fauna, andclimate, the same extremes of temperature, the same aridity, and thesame wretched and poverty-stricken character as the latter. The maritimeportions are of an entirely different aspect. 

[Illustration: 146. Jpg Map]

The western coast which stretches into the Ægean is furrowed by deepvalleys, opening out as they reach the sea, and the rivers--the Caicus, the Hermos, the Cayster, and Meander--which flow through them areeffective makers of soil, bringing down with them, as they do, acontinual supply of alluvium, which, deposited at their mouths, causesthe land to encroach there upon the sea. The littoral is penetrated hereand there by deep creeks, and is fringed with beautiful islands--Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Cos, Rhodes--of which the majority are near enough to thecontinent to act as defences of the seaboard, and to guard the mouths ofthe rivers, while they are far enough away to be secure from the effectsof any violent disturbances which might arise in the mainland. TheCyclades, distributed in two lines, are scattered, as it were, at hazardbetween Asia and Europe, like great blocks which have fallen around thepiers of a broken bridge. The passage from one to the other is an easymatter, and owing to them, the sea rather serves to bring together thetwo continents than to divide them. Two groups of heights, imperfectlyconnected with the central plateau, tower above the Ægean slope--woodedIda on the north, veiled in cloud, rich in the flocks and herds uponits sides, and in the metals within its bosom; and on the south, thevolcanic bastions of Lycia, where tradition was wont to place thefire-breathing Chimaera. A rocky and irregularly broken coast stretchesto the west of Lycia, in a line almost parallel with the Taurus, throughwhich, at intervals, torrents leaping from the heights make their wayinto the sea. At the extreme eastern point of the coast, almost at theangle where the Cilician littoral meets that of Syria, the Pyramus andthe Sarus have brought down between them sufficient material to form analluvial plain, which the classical geographers designated by the nameof the Level Cilicia, to distinguish it from the rough region of theinterior, Gilicia Trachea. 

The populations dwelling in this peninsula belong to very varied races. On the south and south-west certain Semites had found an abode--themysterious inhabitants of Solyma, and especially the Phoenicians intheir scattered trading-stations. On the north-east, beside the Khâti, distributed throughout the valleys of the Anti-Taurus, betweenthe Euphrates and Mount Argseus, there were tribes allied to theKhâti*--possibly at this time the Tabal and the Mushkâ--and, on theshores of the Black Sea, those workers in metal, which, following theGreeks, we may call, for want of a better designation, the Chalybes. 

 * A certain number of these tribes or of their towns are to be found in the list contained in the treaty of Ramses II. With the Khâti. 

We are at a loss to know the distribution of tribes in the centre andin the north-west, but the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, we may restassured, never formed an ethnographical frontier. The continents oneither side of them appear at this point to form the banks of a river, or the two slopes of a single valley, whose bottom lies buried beneaththe waters. The barbarians of the Balkans had forced their way across atseveral points. Dardanians were to be encountered in the neighbourhoodof Mount Ida, as well as on the banks of the Axios, from early times, and the Kebrenes of Macedonia had colonised a district of the Troad nearIlion, while the great nation of the Mysians had issued, like them, from the European populations of the Hebrus and the Strymon. The heroDardanos, according to legend, had at first founded, under the auspicesof the Idasan Zeus, the town of Dardania; and afterwards a portionof his progeny followed the course of the Scamander, and entrenchedthemselves upon a precipitous hill, from the top of which they couldlook far and wide over the plain and sea. The most ancient Ilion, atfirst a village, abandoned on more than one occasion in the course ofcenturies, was rebuilt and transformed, earlier than the XVth centurybefore Christ, into an important citadel, the capital of a warlikeand prosperous kingdom. The ruins on the spot prove the existence ofa primitive civilization analogous to that of the islands of theArchipelago before the arrival of the Phoenician navigators. We findthat among both, at the outset, flint and bone, clay, baked and unbaked, formed the only materials for their utensils and furniture; metals wereafterwards introduced, and we can trace their progressive employmentto the gradual exclusion of the older implements. These ancient Trojansused copper, and we encounter only rarely a kind of bronze, in which theproportion of tin was too slight to give the requisite hardness to thealloy, and we find still fewer examples of iron and lead. They werefairly adroit workers in silver, electrum, and especially in gold. Theamulets, cups, necklaces, and jewellery discovered in their tombs or inthe ruins of their houses, are sometimes of a not ungraceful form. Theirpottery was made by hand, and was not painted or varnished, but theyoften gave to it a fine lustre by means of a stone-polisher. Otherpeoples of uncertain origin, but who had attained a civilization asadvanced as that of the Trojans, were the Maeonians, the Leleges, andthe Carians who had their abode to the south of Troy and of the Mysians. The Maeonians held sway in the fertile valleys of the Hermos, Cayster, and Maaander. They were divided into several branches, such as theLydians, the Tyrseni, the Torrhebi, and the Shardana, but their mostancient traditions looked back with pride to a flourishing state towhich, as they alleged, they had all belonged long ago on the slopes ofMount Sipylos, between the valley of the Hermos and the Gulf of Smyrna. The traditional capital of this kingdom was Magnesia, the most ancientof cities, the residence of Tantalus, the father of Niobe and thePelopidae. The Leleges rise up before us from many points at the sametime, but always connected with the most ancient memories of Greece andAsia. The majority of the strongholds on the Trojan coast belonged tothem--such as Antandros and Gargara--and Pedasos on the Satniois boastedof having been one of their colonies, while several other towns of thesame name, but very distant from each other, enable us to form some ideaof the extent of their migrations. *

 * According to the scholiast on Nicander, the word "Pedasos" signified "mountain, " probably in the language of the Leleges. We know up to the present of four Pedasi, or Pedasa: the first in Messenia, which later on took the name of Methône; the second in the Troad, on the banks of the Satniois; the third in the neighbourhood of Cyzicus; and the fourth in Caria. 

In the time of Strabo, ruined tombs and deserted sites of cities wereshown in Caria which the natives regarded as Lelegia--that is, abodeof the Leleges. The Carians were dominant in the southern angle of thepeninsula and in the Ægean Islands; and the Lycians lay next them on theeast, and were sometimes confounded with them. One of the most powerfultribes of the Carians, the Tremilse, were in the eyes of the Greekshardly to be separated from the mountainous district which they knewas Lycia proper; while other tribes extended as far as the Halys. Adistrict of the Troad, to the south of Mount Ida, was called Lycia, andthere was a Lycaonia on both sides of the Middle Taurus; while Atticahad its Lycia, and Crete its Lycians. These three nations--the Lycians, Carians, and Leleges--were so entangled together from their origin, thatno one would venture now to trace the lines of demarcation betweenthem, and we are often obliged to apply to them collectively what can beappropriately ascribed to only one. 

How far the Hittite power extended in the first years of its expansionwe have now hardly the means of knowing. It would appear that ittook within its scope, on the south-west, the Cilician plain, and theundulating region bordering on it--that of Qodi: the prince of thelatter district, if not his vassal, was at least the colleague of theKing of the Khâti, and he acted in concert with him in peace as well asin war. *

 * The country of Qidi, Qadi, Qodi, has been connected by Chabas with Galilee, and Brugsch adopted the identification. W. Max Müller identified it with Phoenicia. I think the name served to designate the Cilician coast and plain from the mouth of the Orontes, and the country which was known in the Græco-Roman period by the name Kêtis and Kataonia. 

It embraced also the upper basin of the Pyramos and its affluents, aswell as the regions situated between the Euphrates and the Halys, butits frontier in this direction was continually fluctuating, and ourresearches fail to follow it. It is somewhat probable that it extendedconsiderably towards the west and north-west in the direction of theÆgean Sea. The forests and escarpments of Lycaonia, and the desolatesteppes of the central plateau, have always presented a barrierdifficult to surmount by any invader from the east. If the Khâti at thatperiod attacked it in front, or by a flank movement, the assault mustrather have been of the nature of a hurried reconnaissance, or of araid, than of a methodically conducted campaign. *

 * The idea of a Hittite empire extending over almost all Asia Minor was advanced by Sayce. 

They must have preferred to obtain possession of the valleys of theThermodon and the Iris, which were rich in mineral wealth, and fromwhich they could have secured an inexhaustible revenue. The extractionand working of metals in this region had attracted thither from timeimmemorial merchants from neighbouring and distant countries--at firstfrom the south to supply the needs of Syria, Chaldæa, and Egypt, thenfrom the west for the necessities of the countries on the Ægean. Theroads, which, starting from the archipelago on the one hand, or theEuphrates on the other, met at this point, fell naturally into one, andthus formed a continuous route, along which the caravans of commerce, aswell as warlike expeditions, might henceforward pass. Starting from thecultivated regions of Mæonia, the road proceeded up the valley of theHermos from west to east; then, scaling the heights of the centralplateau and taking a direction more and more to the north-east, itreached the fords of the Halys. Crossing this river twice--for the firsttime at a point about two-thirds the length of its course, and forthe second at a short distance from its source--it made an abrupt turntowards the Taurus, and joined, at Melitene, the routes leading to theUpper Tigris, to Nisibis, to Singara, and to Old Assur, and connectingfurther down beyond the mountainous region, under the walls ofCarchemish, with the roads which led to the Nile and to the river-sidecities on the Persian Gulf. *

 * The very early existence of this road, which partly coincides with the royal route of the Persian Achemenids, was proved by Kiepert. 

There were other and shorter routes, if we think only of the number ofmiles, from the Hermos in Pisidia or Lycaonia, across the centralsteppe and through the Cilician Gates, to the meeting of the ways atCarchemish; but they led through wretched regions, without industries, almost without tillage, and inhospitable alike to man and beast, andthey were ventured on only by those who aimed at trafficking among thepopulations who lived in their neighbourhood. The Khâti, from the timeeven when they were enclosed among the fastnesses of the Taurus, hadwithin their control the most important section of the great land routewhich served to maintain regular relations between the ancient kingdomsof the east and the rising states of the Ægean, and whosoever would passthrough their country had to pay them toll. The conquest of Naharaim, ingiving them control of a new section, placed almost at their discretionthe whole traffic between Chaldæa and Egypt. From the time of ThûtmosisIII. Caravans employed in this traffic accomplished the greater partof their journey in territories depending upon Babylon, Assyria, orMemphis, and enjoyed thus a relative security; the terror of the Pharaohprotected the travellers even when they were no longer in his domains, and he saved them from the flagrant exactions made upon them by princeswho called themselves his brothers, or were actually his vassals. Butthe time had now come when merchants had to encounter, between Qodshuand the banks of the Khabur, a sovereign owing no allegiance to any one, and who would tolerate no foreign interference in his territory. Fromthe outbreak of hostilities with the Khâti, Egypt could communicatewith the cities of the Lower Euphrates only by the Wadys of the ArabianDesert, which were always dangerous and difficult for large convoys; andits commercial relations with Chaldæa were practically brought thus to astandstill, and, as a consequence, the manufactures which fed this tradebeing reduced to a limited production, the fiscal receipts arising fromit experienced a sensible diminution. When peace was restored, mattersfell again into their old groove, with certain reservations to the Khâtiof some common privileges: Egypt, which had formerly possessed these toher own advantage, now bore the burden of them, and the indirect tributewhich she paid in this manner to her rivals furnished them with armsto fight her in case she should endeavour to free herself from theimposition. All the semi-barbaric peoples of the peninsula of Asia Minorwere of an adventurous and warlike temperament. They were always willingto set out on an expedition, under the leadership of some chief of noblefamily or renowned for valour; sometimes by sea in their light craft, which would bring them unexpectedly to the nearest point of the Syriancoast, sometimes by land in companies of foot-soldiers and charioteers. They were frequently fortunate enough to secure plenty of booty, andreturn with it to their homes safe and sound; but as frequently theywould meet with reverses by falling into some ambuscade: in such a casetheir conqueror would not put them to the sword or sell them as slaves, but would promptly incorporate them into his army, thus making hiscaptives into his soldiers. The King of the Khâti was able to make useof them without difficulty, for his empire was conterminous on thewest and north with some of their native lands, and he had often wholeregiments of them in his army--Mysians, Lycians, people of Augarît, * ofIlion, ** and of Pedasos. ***

 * The country of Augarît, Ugarît, is mentioned on several occasions in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence. The name has been wrongly associated with Caria; it has been placed by W. Max Miiller well within Naharaim, to the east of the Orontes, between Khalybôn (Aleppo) and Apamoea, the writer confusing it with Akaiti, named in the campaign of Amenôthes II. I am not sure about the site, but its association in the Amarna letters with Gugu and Khanigalbat inclines me to place it beyond the northern slopes of the Taurus, possibly on the banks of the Halys or of the Upper Euphrates. 

 ** The name of this people was read Eiûna by Champollion, who identified it with the Ionians; this reading and identification were adopted by Lenormant and by W. Max Müller. Chabas hesitates between Eiûna and Maiûna, Ionia and Moonia and Brugsch read it Malunna. The reading Iriûna, Iliûna, seems to me the only possible one, and the identification with Ilion as well. 

 *** Owing to its association with the Dardanians, Mysians, and Ilion, I think it answers to the Pedasos on the Satniois near Troy. 

The revenue of the provinces taken from Egypt, and the products of histolls, furnished him with abundance of means for obtaining recruits fromamong them. *

All these things contributed to make the power of the Khâti soconsiderable, that Harmhabî, when he had once tested it, judged itprudent not to join issues with them. He concluded with Sapalulua treaty of peace and friendship, which, leaving the two powers inpossession respectively of the territory each then occupied, gave legalsanction to the extension of the sphere of the Khâti at the expenseof Egypt. ** Syria continued to consist of two almost equal parts, stretching from Byblos to the sources of the Jordan and Damascus:the northern portion, formerly tributary to Egypt, became a Hittitepossession; while the southern, consisting of Phoenicia and Canaan, ***which the Pharaoh had held for a long time with a more effectiveauthority, and had more fully occupied, was retained for Egypt. 

 * E. De Rougé and the Egyptologists who followed him thought at first that the troops designated in the Egyptian texts as Lycians, Mysians, Dardanians, were the national armies of these nations, each one commanded by its king, who had hastened from Asia Minor to succour their ally the King of the Khâti. I now think that those were bands of adventurers, consisting of soldiers belonging to these nations, who came to put themselves at the service of civilized monarchs, as the Oarians, Ionians, and the Greeks of various cities did later on: the individuals whom the texts mention as their princes were not the kings of these nations, but the warrior chiefs to which each band gave obedience. 

 ** It is not certain that Harmhabî was the Pharaoh with whom Sapalulu entered into treaty, and it might be insisted with some reason that Ramses I. Was the party to it on the side of Egypt; but this hypothesis is rendered less probable by the fact of the extremely short reign of the latter Pharaoh. I am inclined to think, as W. Max Miiller has supposed, that the passage in the _Treaty of Ramses II. With the Prince of the Khâti, _ which speaks of a treaty concluded with Sapalulu, looks back to the time of Ramses II. 's predecessor, Harmhabî. 

 *** This follows from the situation of the two empires, as indicated in the account of the campaign of Seti I. In his first year. The king, after having defeated the nomads of the Arabian desert, passed on without further fighting into the country of the Amûrrû and the regions of the Lebanon, which fact seems to imply the submission of Kharû. W. Max Miiller was the first to* discern clearly this part of the history of Egyptian conquest; he appears, however, to have circumscribed somewhat too strictly the dominion of Harmhabî in assigning Carmel as its limit. The list of the nations of the north who yielded, or are alleged to have yielded, submission to Harmhabî, were traced on the first pylon of this monarch at Karnak, and on its adjoining walls. Among others, the names of the Khâti and of Arvad are to be read there. 

This could have been but a provisional arrangement: if Thebes hadnot altogether renounced the hope of repossessing some day the lostconquests of Thûtmosis III. , the Khâti, drawn by the same instinct whichhad urged them to cross their frontiers towards the south, were notlikely to be content with less than the expulsion of the Egyptiansfrom Syria, and the absorption of the whole country into the Hittitedominion. Peace was maintained during Harmhabî's lifetime. We knownothing of Egyptian affairs during the last years of his reign. His rulemay have come to an end owing to some court intrigue, or he may have hadno male heir to follow him. * Ramses, who succeeded him, did not belongto the royal line, or was only remotely connected with it. **

 * It would appear, from an Ostracon in the British Museum, that the year XXI. Follows after the year VII. Of Harmhabî's reign; it is possible that the year XXI. May belong to one of Harmhabî's successors, Seti I. Or Ramses II. , for example. 

 ** The efforts to connect Ramses I. With a family of Semitic origin, possibly the Shepherd-kings themselves, have not been successful. Everything goes to prove that the Ramses family was, and considered itself to be, of Egyptian origin. Brugsch and Ed. Meyer were inclined to see in Ramses I. A younger brother of Harmhabî. This hypothesis has nothing either for Or against it up to the present. 

He was already an old man when he ascended the throne, and we oughtperhaps to identify him with one or other of the Ramses who flourishedunder the last Pharaohs of the XVIIIth dynasty, perhaps the one whogoverned Thebes under Khûniatonû, or another, who began but neverfinished his tomb in the hillside above Tel el-Amarna, in theburying-place of the worshippers of the Disk. 

[Illustration: 160. Jpg RAMSES I. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch in Rosellini. 

He had held important offices under Harmhabî, * and had obtained inmarriage for his son Seti the hand of Tuîa, who, of all the royalfamily, possessed the strongest rights to the crown. **

 * This Tel el-Amarna Ramses is, perhaps, identical with the Theban one: he may have followed his master to his new capital, and have had a tomb dug for himself there, which he subsequently abandoned, on the death of Khûniatonû, in order to return to Thebes with Tûtankhamon and Aï. 

 ** The fact that the marriage was celebrated under the auspices of Harmhabî, and that, consequently, Ramses must have occupied an important position at the court of that prince, is proved by the appearance of Ramses II. , son of Tuîa, as early as the first year of Seti, among the ranks of the combatants in the war carried on by that prince against the Tihonû; even granting that he was then ten years old, we are forced to admit that he must have been born before his grandfather came to the throne. There is in the Vatican a statue of Tuîa; other statues have been discovered at San. 

Ramses reigned only six or seven years, and associated Seti with himselfin the government from his second year. He undertook a short militaryexpedition into Ethiopia, and perhaps a raid into Syria; and we findremains of his monuments in Nubia, at Bohani near Wady Haifa, and atThebes, in the temple of Amon. *

 * He began the great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak; E. De Rougé thinks that the idea of building this was first conceived under the XVIIIth dynasty. 

He displayed little activity, his advanced age preventing him fromentering on any serious undertaking: but his accession neverthelessmarks an important date in the history of Egypt. Although Harmhabî wasdistantly connected with the line of the Ahmessides, it is difficultat the present day to know what position to assign him in the Pharaoniclists: while some regard him as the last of the XVIIIth dynasty, othersprefer to place him at the head of the XIXth. No such hesitation, however, exists with regard to Ramses I. , who was undoubtedly thefounder of a new family. The old familiar names of Thûtmosis andAmenôthes henceforward disappear from the royal lists, and are replacedby others, such as Seti, Mînephtah, and, especially, Ramses, which nowfigure in them for the first time. The princes who bore these namesshowed themselves worthy successors of those who had raised Egypt to thezenith of her power; like them they were successful on the battle-field, and like them they devoted the best of the spoil to building innumerablemonuments. No sooner had Seti celebrated his father's obsequies, than heassembled his army and set out for war. 

It would appear that Southern Syria was then in open revolt. "Word hadbeen brought to His Majesty: 'The vile Shaûsû have plotted rebellion;the chiefs of their tribes, assembled in one place on the confines ofKharû, have been smitten with blindness and with the spirit of violence;every one cutteth his neighbour's throat. "* It was imperative to sendsuccour to the few tribes who remained faithful, to prevent them fromsuccumbing to the repeated attacks of the insurgents. Seti crossed thefrontier at Zalu, but instead of pursuing his way along the coast, hemarched due east in order to attack the Shaûsû in the very heart of thedesert. The road ran through wide wadys, tolerably well suppliedwith water, and the length of the stages necessarily depended on thedistances between the wells. This route was one frequented in earlytimes, and its security was ensured by a number of fortresses andisolated towers built along it, such as "The House of the Lion "--_taait pa maû_--near the pool of the same name, the Migdol of the springsof Huzîna, the fortress of Uazît, the Tower of the Brave, and the Migdolof Seti at the pools of Absakaba. The Bedawîn, disconcerted by therapidity of this movement, offered no serious resistance. Their flockswere carried off, their trees cut down, their harvests destroyed, andthey surrendered their strongholds at discretion. Pushing on fromone halting-place to another, the conqueror soon reached Babbîti, andfinally Pakanâna. **

 * The pictures of this campaign and the inscriptions which explain them were engraved by Seti I. , on the outside of the north wall of the great hypostyle hall at Karnak. 

 ** The site of Pakanâna has, with much probability, been fixed at El-Kenân or Khurbet-Kanâan, to the south of Hebron. Brugsch had previously taken this name to indicate the country of Canaan, but Chabas rightly contested this view. W. Max Millier took up the matter afresh: he perceived that we have here an allusion to the first town encountered by Seti I. In the country of Canaan to the south-west of Raphia, the name of which is not mentioned by the Egyptian sculptor; it seems to me that this name should be Pakanâna, and that the town bore the same name as the country. 

The latter town occupied a splendid position on the slope of a rockyhill, close to a small lake, and defended the approaches to the valeof Hebron. It surrendered at the first attack, and by its fall theEgyptians became possessed of one of the richest provinces in thesouthern part of Kharû. This result having been achieved, Seti tookthe caravan road to his left, on the further side of Gaza, and pushedforward at full speed towards the Hittite frontier. 

[Illustration: 163. Jpg THE RETURN OF THE NORTH WALL OF THE HYPOSTYLEHALL AT KARNAK, WHERE SETI I. REPRESENTS SOME EPISODES IN HIS FIRSTCAMPAIGN]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph, by Émil Brugsch-Bey. 

It was probably unprotected by any troops, and the Hittite king wasabsent in some other part of his empire. Seti pillaged the Amurru, seized Ianuâmu and Qodshû by a sudden attack, marched in an obliquedirection towards the Mediterranean, forcing the inhabitants of theLebanon to cut timber from their mountains for the additions which hewas premeditating in the temple of the Theban Amon, and finally returnedby the coast road, receiving, as he passed through their territory, thehomage of the Phoenicians. His entry into Egypt was celebrated by solemnfestivities. The nobles, priests, and princes of both south and northhastened to meet him at the bridge of Zalû, and welcomed, with theirchants, both the king and the troops of captives whom he was bringingback for the service of his father Amon at Karnak. The delight of hissubjects was but natural, since for many years the Egyptians bad notwitnessed such a triumph, and they no doubt believed that the prosperousera of Thûtmosis III. Was about to return, and that the wealth ofNaharaim would once more flow into Thebes as of old. Their illusionwas short-lived, for this initial victory was followed by no other. Maurusaru, King of the Khâti, and subsequently his son Mautallu, withstood the Pharaoh with such resolution that he was forced to treatwith them. A new alliance was concluded on the same conditions as theold one, and the boundaries of the two kingdoms remained the same asunder Harmhabî, a proof that neither sovereign had gained any advantageover his rival. Hence the campaign did not in any way restore Egyptiansupremacy, as had been hoped at the moment; it merely served tostrengthen her authority in those provinces which the Khâti had failedto take from Egypt. The Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon had too manycommercial interests on the banks of the Nile to dream of breakingthe slender tie which held them to the Pharaoh, since independence, or submission to another sovereign, might have ruined their trade. TheKharû and the Bedawîn, vanquished wherever they had ventured to opposethe Pharaoh's troops, were less than ever capable of throwing off theEgyptian yoke. Syria fell back into its former state. The local princesonce more resumed their intrigues and quarrels, varied at intervals byappeals to their suzerain for justice or succour. The "Royal Messengers"appeared from time to time with their escorts of archers and chariotsto claim tribute, levy taxes, to make peace between quarrelsome vassals, or, if the case required it, to supersede some insubordinate chief by agovernor of undoubted loyalty; in fine, the entire administration of theempire was a continuation of that of the preceding century. The peoplesof Kûsh meanwhile had remained quiet during the campaign in Syria, andon the western frontier the Tihonû had suffered so severe a defeat thatthey were not likely to recover from it for some time. * The bands ofpirates, Shardana and others, who infested the Delta, were hunted down, and the prisoners taken from among them were incorporated into the royalguard. **

 * This war is represented at Karnak, and Ramses II. Figures there among the children of Seti I. 

 ** We gather this from passages in the inscriptions from the year V. Onwards, in which Ramses II. Boasts that he has a number of Shardana prisoners in his guard; Rouge was, perhaps, mistaken in magnifying these piratical raids into a war of invasion. 

[Illustration: 166. Jpg REPRESENTATION OF SETI I. VANQUISHING THE LIBYANSAND ASIATICS ON THE WALLS, KARNAK]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Ernil Brugsch-Bey. 

Seti, however, does not appear to have had a confirmed taste for war. He showed energy when occasion required it, and he knew how to lead hissoldiers, as the expedition of his first year amply proved; but when thenecessity was over, he remained on the defensive, and made no furtherattempt at conquest. By his own choice he was "the jackal who prowlsabout the country to protect it, " rather than "the wizard lion maraudingabroad by hidden paths, "* and Egypt enjoyed a profound peace inconsequence of his ceaseless vigilance. 

 * These phrases are taken direct from the inscriptions of Seti I. 

A peaceful policy of this kind did not, of course, produce the amountof spoil and the endless relays of captives which had enabled hispredecessors to raise temples and live in great luxury withoutoverburdening their subjects with taxes. Seti was, therefore, the moreanxious to do all in his power to develop the internal wealth of thecountry. The mining colonies of the Sinaitic Peninsula had never ceasedworking since operations had been resumed there under Hâtshopsîtû andThûtmosis III. , but the output had lessened during the troubles underthe heretic kings. Seti sent inspectors thither, and endeavoured tostimulate the workmen to their former activity, but apparently with nogreat success. We are not able to ascertain if he continued the revivalof trade with Pûanît inaugurated by Harmhabî; but at any rate heconcentrated his attention on the regions bordering the Red Sea and thegold-mines which they contained. Those of Btbaï, which had been workedas early as the XIIth dynasty, did not yield as much as they had doneformerly; not that they were exhausted, but owing to the lack of waterin their neighbourhood and along the routes leading to them, they werenearly deserted. It was well known that they contained great wealth, but operations could not be carried on, as the workmen were in dangerof dying of thirst. Seti despatched engineers to the spot to explore thesurrounding wadys, to clear the ancient cisterns or cut others, andto establish victualling stations at regular intervals for the use ofmerchants supplying the gangs of miners with commodities. These stationsgenerally consisted of square or rectangular enclosures, built ofstones without mortar, and capable of resisting a prolonged attack. Theentrance was by a narrow doorway of stone slabs, and in the interiorwere a few huts and one or two reservoirs for catching rain or storingthe water of neighbouring springs. Sometimes a chapel was built close athand, consecrated to the divinities of the desert, or to their compeers, Mînû of Coptos, Horus, Maut, or Isis. One of these, founded by Seti, still exists near the modern town of Redesieh, at the entrance to one ofthe valleys which furrow this gold region. 

[Illustration: 168. Jpg A FORTIFIED STATION ON THE ROUTE BETWEEN THE NILEAND THE RED SEA. 

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by M. De Bock

It is built against, and partly excavated in, a wall of rock, theface of which has been roughly squared, and it is entered through afour-columned portico, giving access to two dark chambers, whose wallsare covered with scenes of adoration and a lengthy inscription. In thislatter the sovereign relates how, in the IXth year of his reign, hewas moved to inspect the roads of the desert; he completed the work inhonour of Amon-Râ, of Phtah of Memphis, and of Harmakhis, and he statesthat travellers were at a loss to express their gratitude and thanks forwhat he had done. "They repeated from mouth to mouth: 'May Amon give himan endless existence, and may he prolong for him the length of eternity!O ye gods of fountains, attribute to him your life, for he has renderedback to us accessible roads, and he has opened that which was closed tous. Henceforth we can take our way in peace, and reach our destinationalive; now that the difficult paths are open and the road has becomegood, gold can be brought back, as our lord and master has commanded. '"Plans were drawn on papyrus of the configuration of the district, of thebeds of precious metal, and of the position of the stations. 

[Illustration: 169. Jpg THE TEMPLE OF SETI I. AT REDESIEH]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Golénischeff. 

One of these plans has come down to us, in which the districts arecoloured bright red, the mountains dull ochre, the roads dottedover with footmarks to show the direction to be taken, while thesuperscriptions give the local names, and inform us that the maprepresents the Bukhni mountain and a fortress and stele of Seti. Thewhole thing is executed in a rough and naive manner, with an almostchildish minuteness which provokes a smile; we should, however, notdespise it, for it is the oldest map in the world. 

[Illustration: 170. Jpg FRAGMENT OF THE MAP OF THE GOLD-MINES]

 Facsimile by Faucher-Gudin of coloured chalk-drawing by Chabas. 

The gold extracted from these regions, together with that broughtfrom Ethiopia, and, better still, the regular payment of taxes andcustom-house duties, went to make up for the lack of foreign spoil allthe more opportunely, for, although the sovereign did not share themilitary enthusiasm of Thûtmosis III. , he had inherited from him thepassion for expensive temple-building. 

[Illustration: 171. Jpg THE THREE STANDING COLUMNS OF THE TEMPLE OFSESEBI]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger. 

He did not neglect Nubia in this respect, but repaired several ofthe monuments at which the XVIIIth dynasty had worked--among others, Kalabsheh, Dakkeh, and Amada, besides founding a temple at Sesebi, ofwhich three columns are still standing. *

 * In Lepsius's time there were still four columns standing; Insinger shows us only three. 

The outline of these columns is not graceful, and the decoration of themis very poor, for art degenerated rapidly in these distant provinces ofthe empire, and only succeeded in maintaining its vigour and spirit inthe immediate neighbourhood of the Pharaoh, as at Abydos, Memphis, andabove all at Thebes. Seti's predecessor Ramses, desirous of obliteratingall traces of the misfortunes lately brought about by the changeseffected by the heretic kings, had contemplated building at Karnak, in front of the pylon of Amenôthes III. , an enormous hall for theceremonies connected with the cult of Amon, where the immense numbers ofpriests and worshippers at festival times could be accommodated withoutinconvenience. It devolved on Seti to carry out what had been merely anambitious dream of his father's. *

 * The great hypostyle hall was cleared and the columns were strengthened in the winter of 1895-6, as far, at least, as it was possible to carry out the work of restoration without imperilling the stability of the whole. 

We long to know who was the architect possessed of such confidence inhis powers that he ventured to design, and was able to carry out, thisalmost superhuman undertaking. His name would be held up to almostuniversal admiration beside those of the greatest masters that we arefamiliar with, for no one in Greece or Italy has left us any work whichsurpasses it, or which with such simple means could produce a similarimpression of boldness and immensity. It is almost impossible to conveyby words to those who have not seen it, the impression which it makes onthe spectator. Failing description, the dimensions speak for themselves. The hall measures one hundred and sixty-two feet in length, by threehundred and twenty-five in breadth. A row of twelve columns, the largestever placed inside a building, runs up the centre, having capitals inthe form of inverted bells. 

[Illustration: 173 AN AVENUE OF ONE OF THE AISLES OF THE HYPOSTYLE HALLAT KARNAK]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. 

One hundred and twenty-two columns with lotiform capitals fillthe aisles, in rows of nine each. The roof of the central bay isseventy-four feet above the ground, and the cornice of the two towersrises sixty-three feet higher. The building was dimly lighted from theroof of the central colonnade by means of stone gratings, throughwhich the air and the sun's rays entered sparingly. The daylight, as itpenetrated into the hall, was rendered more and more obscure by the rowsof columns; indeed, at the further end a perpetual twilight must havereigned, pierced by narrow shafts of light falling from the ventilationholes which were placed at intervals in the roof. 

[Illustration: 174. Jpg THE GRATINGS OF THE CENTRAL COLONNADE IN THEHYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. In the background, on the right, may be seen a column which for several centuries has been retained in a half-fallen position by the weight of its architrave. 

The whole building now lies open to the sky, and the sunshine whichfloods it, pitilessly reveals the mutilations which it has suffered inthe course of ages; but the general effect, though less mysterious, isnone the less overwhelming. It is the only monument in which the first_coup d'oil_ surpasses the expectations of the spectator instead ofdisappointing him. The size is immense, and we realise its immensity themore fully as we search our memory in vain to find anything with whichto compare it. Seti may have entertained the project of building a_replica_ of this hall in Southern Thebes. Amenôthes III. Had left histemple at Luxor unfinished. The sanctuary and its surrounding buildingswere used for purposes of worship, but the court of the customary pylonwas wanting, and merely a thin wall concealed the mysteries from thesight of the vulgar. Seti resolved to extend the building in a northerlydirection, without interfering with the thin screen which had satisfiedhis predecessors. Starting from the entrance in this wall, he planned anavenue of giant columns rivalling those of Karnak, which he destined tobecome the central colonnade of a hypostyle hall as vast as that ofthe sister temple. Either money or time was lacking to carry out hisintention. He died before the aisles on either side were even begun. AtAbydos, however, he was more successful. We do not know the reasonof Seti's particular affection for this town; it is possible that hisfamily held some fief there, or it may be that he desired to show thepeculiar estimation in which he held its local god, and intended, by thehomage that he lavished on him, to cause the fact to be forgotten thathe bore the name of Sit the accursed. 

[Illustration: 176. Jpg ONE OF THE COLONNADES OF THE HYPOSTYLE HALL INTHE TEMPLE OF SETI I. AT ABYDOS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. 

The king selected a favourable site for his temple to the south of thetown, on the slope of a sandhill bordering the canal, and he markedout in the hardened soil a ground plan of considerable originality. Thebuilding was approached through two pylons, the remains of which are nowhidden under the houses of Aarabat el-Madfuneh. 

[Illustration: 176b. Jpg THE FACADE OF THE TEMPLE OF SETI]

A fairly large courtyard, bordered by two crumbling walls, lies betweenthe second pylon and the temple façade, which was composed of a porticoresting on square pillars. Passing between these, we reach two hallssupported by-columns of graceful outline, beyond which are eight chapelsarranged in a line, side by side, in front of two chambers built into the hillside, and destined for the reception of Osiris. The holyof holies in ordinary temples is surrounded by chambers of lesserimportance, but here it is concealed behind them. The building-materialmainly employed here was the white limestone of Tûrah, but of a mostbeautiful quality, which lent itself to the execution of bas-reliefsof great delicacy, perhaps the finest in ancient Egypt. The artists whocarved and painted them belonged to the Theban school, and while theirsubjects betray a remarkable similarity to those of the monumentsdedicated by Amenôthes III. , the execution surpasses them in freedom andperfection of modelling; we can, in fact, trace in them the influence ofthe artists who furnished the drawings for the scenes at Tel el-Amarna. They have represented the gods and goddesses with the same typeof profile as that of the king--a type of face of much purity andgentleness, with its aquiline nose, its decided mouth, almond-shapedeyes, and melancholy smile. When the decoration of the temple wascompleted, Seti regarded the building as too small for its divineinmate, and accordingly added to it a new wing, which he built alongthe whole length of the southern wall; but he was unable to finishit completely. Several parts of it are lined with religiousrepresentations, but in others the subjects have been merely sketchedout in black ink with corrections in red, while elsewhere the wallsare bare, except for a few inscriptions, scribbled over them after aninterval of twenty centuries by the monks who turned the temple chambersinto a convent. This new wing was connected with the second hypostylehall of the original building by a passage, on one of the walls of whichis a list of seventy-five royal names, representing the ancestors of thesovereign traced back to Mini. The whole temple must be regarded as avast funerary chapel, and no one who has studied the religion of Egyptcan entertain a doubt as to its purpose. Abydos was the place where thedead assembled before passing into the other world. It was here, at themouth of the "Cleft, " that they received the provisions and offeringsof their relatives and friends who remained on this earth. As the deadflocked hither from all quarters of the world, they collected round thetomb of Osiris, and there waited till the moment came to embark on theBoat of the Sun. Seti did not wish his soul to associate with those ofthe common crowd of his vassals, and prepared this temple for himself, as a separate resting-place, close to the mouth of Hades. After havingdwelt within it for a short time subsequent to his funeral, his soulcould repair thither whenever it desired, certain of always findingwithin it the incense and the nourishment of which it stood in need. 

Thebes possessed this king's actual tomb. The chapel was at Qurnah, alittle to the north of the group of pyramids in which the Pharaohs ofthe XIth dynasty lay side by side with those of the XIIIth and XVIIth. Ramses had begun to build it, and Seti continued the work, dedicatingit to the cult of his father and of himself. Its pylon has altogetherdisappeared, but the façade with lotus-bud columns is nearly perfect, together with several of the chambers in front of the sanctuary. Thedecoration is as carefully carried out and the execution as delicate asthat in the work at Abydos; we are tempted to believe from one or twoexamples of it that the same hands have worked at both buildings. 

[Illustration: 181. Jpg THE TEMPLE OF QURNAH]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. 

The rock-cut tomb is some distance away up in the mountain, but notin the same ravine as that in which Amenôthes III. , Aï, and probablyTûtankhamon and Harmhabî, are buried. *

 * There are, in fact, close to those of Aï and Amenôthes III. , three other tombs, two at least of which have been decorated with paintings, now completely obliterated, and which may have served as the burying-places of Tûtankhamon and Harmhabî: the earlier Egyptologists believed them to have been dug by the first kings of the XVIIIth dynasty. 

There then existed, behind the rock amphitheatre of Deîr el-Baharî, akind of enclosed basin, which could be reached from the plain only bydangerous paths above the temple of Hâtshopsîtû. This basin is dividedinto two parts, one of which runs in a south-easterly direction, while the other trends to the south-west, and is subdivided into minorbranches. To the east rises a barren peak, the outline of which is notunlike that of the step-pyramid of Saqqâra, reproduced on a colossalscale. No spot could be more appropriate to serve as a cemetery for afamily of kings. The difficulty of reaching it and of conveying thitherthe heavy accessories and of providing for the endless processions ofthe Pharaonic funerals, prevented any attempt being made to cut tombsin it during the Ancient and Middle Empires. About the beginning of theXIXth dynasty, however, some engineers, in search of suitable burialsites, at length noticed that this basin was only separated from thewady issuing to the north of Qurnah by a rocky barrier barely fivehundred cubits in width. This presented no formidable obstacle to suchskilful engineers as the Egyptians. They cut a trench into the livingrock some fifty or sixty cubits in depth, at the bottom of which theytunnelled a narrow passage giving access to the valley. *

 * French scholars recognised from the beginning of this century that the passage in question had been made by human agency. I attribute the execution of this work to Ramses I. , as I believe Harmhabî to have been buried in the eastern valley, near Amenôthes III. 

It is not known whether this herculean work was accomplished during thereign of Harnhabî or in that of Ramses I. The latter was the first ofthe Pharaohs to honour the spot by his presence. His tomb is simple, almost coarse in its workmanship, and comprises a gentle inclinedpassage, a vault and a sarcophagus of rough stone. That of Seti, on thecontrary, is a veritable palace, extending to a distance of 325 feetinto the mountain-side. It is entered by a wide and lofty door, whichopens on to a staircase of twenty-seven steps, leading to an inclinedcorridor; other staircases of shallow steps follow with their landings;then come successively a hypostyle hall, and, at the extreme end, avaulted chamber, all of which are decorated with mysterious scenesand covered with inscriptions. This is, however, but the first storey, containing the antechambers of the dead, but not their living-rooms. Apassage and steps, concealed under a slab to the left of the hall, leadto the real vault, which held the mummy and its funerary furniture. As we penetrate further and further by the light of torches into thissubterranean abode, we see that the walls are covered with pictures andformulae, setting forth the voyages of the soul through the twelve hoursof the night, its trials, its judgment, its reception by the departed, and its apotheosis--all depicted on the rock with the same perfectionas that which characterises the bas-reliefs on the finest slabs of Tûrahstone at Qurnah and Abydos. A gallery leading out of the last ofthese chambers extends a few feet further and then stops abruptly; theengineers had contemplated the excavation of a third storey to the tomb, when the death of their master obliged them to suspend their task. The king's sarcophagus consists of a block of alabaster, hollowedout, polished, and carved with figures and hieroglyphs, with all theminuteness which we associate with the cutting of a gem. 

[Illustration: 184. Jpg ONE OF THE PILLARS OF THE TOMB OF SETI I. ]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger, taken in 1884. 

It contained a wooden coffin, shaped to the human figure and paintedwhite, the features picked out in black, and enamel eyes inserted ina mounting of bronze. The mummy is that of a thin elderly man, wellpreserved; the face was covered by a mask made of linen smeared withpitch, but when this was raised by means of a chisel, the fine kinglyhead was exposed to view. It was a masterpiece of the art of theembalmer, and the expression of the face was that of one who had onlya few hours previously breathed his last. Death had slightly drawnthe nostrils and contracted the lips, the pressure of the bandages hadflattened the nose a little, and the skin was darkened by the pitch; buta calm and gentle smile still played over the mouth, and the half-openedeyelids allowed a glimpse to be seen from under their lashes of anapparently moist and glistening line, --the reflection from the whiteporcelain eyes let in to the orbit at the time of burial. 

Seti had had several children by his wife Tuîa, and the eldest hadalready reached manhood when his father ascended the throne, for he hadaccompanied him on his Syrian campaign. The young prince died, however, soon after his return, and his right to the crown devolved on hisyounger brother, who, like his grandfather, bore the name of Ramses. The prince was still very young, * but Seti did not on that account delayenthroning with great pomp this son who had a better right to the thronethan himself. 

 * The history of the youth and the accession of Ramses II. Is known to us from the narrative given by himself in the temple of Seti I. At Abydos. The bulk of the narrative is confirmed by the evidence of the Kubân inscription, especially as to the extreme youth of Ramses at the time when he was first associated with the crown. 

"From the time that I was in the egg, " Ramses writes later on, "thegreat ones sniffed the earth before me; when I attained to the rank ofeldest son and heir upon the throne of Sibû, I dealt with affairs, Icommanded as chief the foot-soldiers and the chariots. My father havingappeared before the people, when I was but a very little boy in hisarms, said to me: 'I shall have him crowned king, that I may see himin all his splendour while I am still on this earth!' The nobles of thecourt having drawn near to place the pschent upon my head: 'Place thediadem upon his forehead!' said he. " As Ramses increased in years, Seti delighted to confer upon him, one after the other, the principalattributes of power; "while he was still upon this earth, regulatingeverything in the land, defending its frontiers, and watching over thewelfare of its inhabitants, he cried: 'Let him reign!' because of thelove he had for me. " Seti also chose for him wives, beautiful "as arethose of his palace, " and he gave him in marriage his sisters NofrîtariII. Mîmût and Isîtnofrît, who, like Ramses himself, had claims to thethrone. Ramses was allowed to attend the State councils at the ageof ten; he commanded armies, and he administered justice under thedirection of his father and his viziers. Seti, however, although makinguse of his son's youth and activity, did not in any sense retire in hisfavour; if he permitted Ramses to adopt the insignia of royalty--thecartouches, the pschent, the bulbous-shaped helmet, and the varioussceptres--he still remained to the day of his death the principal Stateofficial, and he reckoned all the years of this dual sovereignty asthose of his sole reign. *

 * Brugsoh is wrong in reckoning the reign of Ramses II. From the time of his association in the crown; the great inscription of Abydos, which has been translated by Brugsch himself, dates events which immediately followed the death of Seti I. As belonging to the first year of Ramses II. 

Ramses repulsed the incursions of the Tihonû, and put to the swordsuch of their hordes as had ventured to invade Egyptian territory. He exercised the functions of viceroy of Ethiopia, and had on severaloccasions to chastise the pillaging negroes. We see him at Beît-Wallyand at Abu Simbel charging them in his chariot: in vain they flee inconfusion before him; their flight, however swift, cannot save them fromcaptivity and destruction. 

[Illustration: 187. Jpg RAMSES II. PUTS THE NEGROES TO FLIGHT]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. 

He was engaged in Ethiopia when the death of Seti recalled him toThebes. *

 * We do not know how long Seti I. Reigned; the last date is that of his IXth year at Redesieh and at Aswan, and that of the year XXVII. Sometimes attributed to him belongs to one of the later Ramessides. I had at first supposed his reign to have been a long one, merely on the evidence afforded by Manetho's lists, but the presence of Ramses II. As a stripling, in the campaign of Seti's 1st year, forces us to limit its duration to fifteen or twenty years at most, possibly to only twelve or fifteen. 

He at once returned to the capital, celebrated the king's funeralobsequies with suitable pomp, and after keeping the festival of Amon, set out for the north in order to make his authority felt in that partof his domains. He stopped on his way at Abydos to give the necessaryorders for completing the decoration of the principal chambers of theresting-place built by his father, and chose a site some 320 feet tothe north-west of it for a similar Memnonium for himself. He grantedcultivated fields and meadows in the Thinite name for the maintenanceof these two mausolea, founded a college of priests and soothsayers inconnexion with them, for which he provided endowments, and also assignedthem considerable fiefs in all parts of the valley of the Nile. TheDelta next occupied his attention. The increasing importance of theSyrian provinces in the eyes of Egypt, the growth of the Hittitemonarchy, and the migrations of the peoples of the Mediterranean, had obliged the last princes of the preceding dynasty to reside morefrequently at Memphis than Amenôthes I. Or Thûtmosis III. Had done. Amenôthes III. Had set to work to restore certain cities which had beenabandoned since the days of the Shepherds, and Bubastis, Athribis, andperhaps Tanis, had, thanks to his efforts, revived from their decayedcondition. The Pharaohs, indeed, felt that at Thebes they were too farremoved from the battle-fields of Asia; distance made it difficult forthem to counteract the intrigues in which their vassals in Kharû and thelords of Naharaim were perpetually implicated, and a revolt which mighthave been easily anticipated or crushed had they been advised ofit within a few days, gained time to increase and extend during theinterval occupied by the couriers in travelling to and from the capital. Ramses felt the importance of possessing a town close to the Isthmuswhere he could reside in security, and he therefore built close to Zalû, in a fertile and healthy locality, a stronghold to which he gave his ownname, * and of which the poets of the time have left us an enthusiasticdescription. "It extends, " they say, "between Zahi and Egypt--and isfilled with provisions and victuals. --It resembles Hermonthis, --it isstrong like Memphis, --and the sun rises--and sets in it--so that menquit their villages and establish themselves in its territory. "--"Thedwellers on the coasts bring conger eels and fish in homage, --theypay it the tribute of their marshes. --The inhabitants don their festalgarments every day, --perfumed oil is on their heads and new wigs;--theystand at their doors, their hands full of bunches of flowers, --greenbranches from the village of Pihâthor, --garlands of Pahûrû, --on the daywhen Pharaoh makes his entry. --Joy then reigns and spreads, and nothingcan stay it, --O Usirmarî-sotpûnirî, thou who art Montû in the twolands, --Ramses-Mîamûn, the god. " The town acted as an advance post, from whence the king could keep watch against all intriguingadversaries, --whether on the banks of the Orontes or the coast of theMediterranean. 

 * An allusion to the foundation of this residence occurs in an inscription at Abu Simbel, dated in his XXVth year. 

Nothing appeared for the moment to threaten the peace of the empire. The Asiatic vassals had raised no disturbance on hearing of the king'saccession, and Mautallu continued to observe the conditions ofthe treaty which he had signed with Seti. Two military expeditionsundertaken beyond the isthmus in the IInd and IVth years of the newsovereign were accomplished almost without fighting. He repressed by theway the marauding Shaûsû, and on reaching the Nahr el-Kelb, which thenformed the northern frontier of his empire, he inscribed at the turnof the road, on the rocks which overhang the mouth of the river, twotriumphal stelæ in which he related his successes. * Towards the endof his IVth year a rebellion broke out among the Khâti, which caused arupture of relations between the two kingdoms and led to some irregularfighting. Khâtusaru, a younger brother of Maurusaru, murdered the latterand made himself king in his stead. ** It is not certain whether theEgyptians took up arms against him, or whether he judged it wise tooppose them in order to divert the attention of his subjects from hiscrime. 

 * The stelæ are all in a very bad condition; in the last of them the date is no longer legible. 

 ** In the _Treaty of Harrises II. With the Prince of Khâti_, the writer is content to use a discreet euphemism, and states that Mautallu succumbed "to his destiny. " The name of the Prince of the Khâti is found later on under the form Khatusharu, in that of a chief defeated by Tiglath-pileser I. In the country of Kummukh, though this name has generally been read Khatukhi. 

At all events, he convoked his Syrian vassals and collected hismercenaries; the whole of Naharaim, Khalupu, Carchemish, and Arvad senttheir quota, while bands of Dardanians, Mysians, Trojans, and Lycians, together with the people of Pedasos and Girgasha, * furnished furthercontingents, drawn from an area extending from the most distant coastsof the Mediterranean to the mountains of Cilicia. Ramses, informed ofthe enemy's movement by his generals and the governors of places on thefrontier, resolved to anticipate the attack. He assembled an army almostas incongruous in its component elements as that of his adversary:besides Egyptians of unmixed race, divided into four corps bearingthe names of Amon, Phtah, Harmakhis and Sûtkhû, it contained Ethiopianauxiliaries, Libyans, Mazaiu, and Shardana. **

 * The name of this nation is written Karkisha, Kalkisha, or Kashkisha, by one of those changes of _sh_ into _r-l_ which occur so frequently in Assyro-Chaldæan before a dental; the two different spellings seem to show that the writers of the inscriptions bearing on this war had before them a list of the allies of Khâtusaru, written in cuneiform characters. If we may identify the nation with the Kashki or Kashku of the Assyrian texts, the ancestors of the people of Colchis of classical times, the termination _-isha_ of the Egyptian word would be the inflexion _-ash_ or _-ush_ of the Eastern- Asiatic tongues which we find in so many race-names, e. G. Adaush, Saradaush, Ammaush. Rouge and Brugsch identified them with the Girgashites of the Bible. Brugsch, adopting the spelling Kashki, endeavoured to connect them with Casiotis; later on he identified them with the people of Gergis in Troas. Ramsay recognises in them the Kisldsos of Cilicia. 

 ** In the account of the campaign the Shardana only are mentioned; but we learn from a list in the _Anastasi Papyrus I_, that the army of Ramses II. Included, in ordinary circumstances, in addition to the Shardana, a contingent of Mashauasha, Kahaka, and other Libyan and negro mercenaries. 

When preparations were completed, the force crossed the canal at Zalû, on the 9th of Payni in his Vth year, marched rapidly across Canaan tillthey reached the valley of the Litâny, along which they took their way, and then followed up that of the Orontes. They encamped for a few daysat Shabtuna, to the south-west of Qodshû, * in the midst of the Amoritecountry, sending out scouts and endeavouring to discover the position ofthe enemy, of whose movements they possessed but vague information. 

 * Shabtuna had been placed on the Nahr es-Sebta, on the site now occupied by Kalaat el-Hosn, a conjecture approved by Mariette; it was more probably a town situated in the plain, to the south of Bahr el-Kades, a little to the south-west of Tell Keby Mindoh which represents Qodshû, and close to some forests which at that time covered the slopes of Lebanon, and, extending as they did to the bottom of the valley, concealed the position of the Khâti from the Egyptians. 

Khâtusaru lay concealed in the wooded valleys of the Lebanon; he waskept well posted by his spies, and only waited an opportunity to takethe field; as an occasion did not immediately present itself, he hadrecourse to a ruse with which the generals of the time were familiar. Ramses, at length uneasy at not falling in with the enemy, advanced tothe south of Shabtuna, where he endeavoured to obtain information fromtwo Bedawîn. "Our brethren, " said they, "who are the chiefs ofthe tribes united under the vile Prince of Khâti, send us to giveinformation to your Majesty: We desire to serve the Pharaoh. We aredeserting the vile Prince of the Khâti; he is close to Khalupu (Aleppo), to the north of the city of Tunipa, whither he has rapidly retired fromfear of the Pharaoh. " This story had every appearance of probability;and the distance--Khalupu was at least forty leagues away--explained whythe reconnoitring parties of the Egyptians had not fallen in with any ofthe enemy. The Pharaoh, with this information, could not decide whetherto lay siege to Qodshû and wait until the Hittites were forced tosuccour the town, or to push on towards the Euphrates and there seek theengagement which his adversary seemed anxious to avoid. 

[Illustration: 193. Jpg THE SHARDANA GUARD OF RAMSES II. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. 

He chose the latter of the two alternatives. He sent forward the legionsof Anion, Phrâ, Phtah, and Sutkhu, which constituted the main body ofhis troops, and prepared to follow them with his household chariotry. Atthe very moment when this division was being effected, the Hittites, whohad been represented by the spies as being far distant, were secretlymassing their forces to the north-east of Qodshu, ready to make anattack upon the Pharaoh's flank as soon as he should set out on hismarch towards Khalupu. The enemy had considerable forces at theirdisposal, and on the day of the engagement they placed 18, 000 to 20, 000picked soldiers in the field. * Besides a well-disciplined infantry, theypossessed 2500 to 3000 chariots, containing, as was the Asiatic custom, three men in each. **

 * An army corps is reckoned as containing 9000 men on the wall scenes at Luxor, and 8000 at the Eamesseum; the 3000 chariots were manned by 9000 men. In allowing four to five thousand men for the rest of the soldiers engaged, we are not likely to be far wrong, and shall thus obtain the modest total mentioned in the text, contrary to the opinion current among historians. 

 * The mercenaries are included in these figures, as is shown by the reckoning of the Lycian, Dardanian, and Pedasian chiefs who were in command of the chariots during the charges against Ramses II. 

The Egyptian camp was not entirely broken up, when the scouts broughtin two spies whom they had seized--Asiatics in long blue robes arrangeddiagonally over one shoulder, leaving the other bare. The king, who wasseated on his throne delivering his final commands, ordered them tobe beaten till the truth should be extracted from them. They at lastconfessed that they had been despatched to watch the departure of theEgyptians, and admitted that the enemy was concealed in ambush behindthe town. Ramses hastily called a council of war and laid the situationbefore his generals, not without severely reprimanding them for thebad organisation of the intelligence department. The officers excusedthemselves as best they could, and threw the blame on the provincialgovernors, who had not been able to discover what was going on. The kingcut short these useless recriminations, sent swift messengers to recallthe divisions which had started early that morning, and gave ordersthat all those remaining in camp should hold themselves in readiness toattack. The council were still deliberating when news was brought thatthe Hittites were in sight. 

[Illustration: 195. Jpg TWO HITTITE SPIES BEATEN BY THE EGYPTIANSOLDIERS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the picture in the temple at Abu Simbel. 

Their first onslaught was so violent that they threw down one side ofthe camp wall, and penetrated into the enclosure. Ramses charged them atthe head of his household troops. Eight times he engaged the chariotrywhich threatened to surround him, and each time he broke their ranks. Once he found himself alone with Manna, his shield-bearer, in the midstof a knot of warriors who were bent on his destruction, and he escapedsolely by his coolness and bravery. The tame lion which accompanied himon his expeditions did terrible work by his side, and felled many anAsiatic with his teeth and claws. *

 * The lion is represented and named in the battle-scenes at Abu Simbel, at Dorr, and at Luxor, where we see it in camp on the eve of the battle, with its two front paws tied, and its keeper threatening it. 

[Illustration: 196. Jpg THE EGYPTIAN CAMP AND THE COUNCIL OF WAR ON THEMORNING OF THE BATTLE OF QODSHÛ]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato of the west front of the Eamesseum. 

The soldiers, fired by the king's example, stood their ground resolutelyduring the long hours of the afternoon; at length, as night was drawingon, the legions of Phrâ and Sûtkhû, who had hastily retraced theirsteps, arrived on the scene of action. A large body of Khâfci, who werehemmed in in that part of the camp which they had taken in the morning, were at once killed or made prisoners, not a man of them escaping. Khâtusaru, disconcerted by this sudden reinforcement of the enemy, beata retreat, and nightfall suspended the struggle. It was recommenced atdawn the following morning with unabated fury, and terminated in therout of the confederates. Garbatusa, the shield-bearer of the Hittiteprince, the generals in command of his infantry and chariotry, andKhalupsaru, the "writer of books, " fell during the action. The chariots, driven back to the Orontes, rushed into the river in the hope of fordingit, but in so doing many lives were lost. Mazraîma, the Prince ofKhâti's brother, reached the opposite bank in safety, but the Chief ofTonisa was drowned, and the lord of Khalupu was dragged out of the watermore dead than alive, and had to be held head downwards to disgorge thewater he had swallowed before he could be restored to consciousness. 

[Illustration: 198. Jpg THE GARRISON OF QODSHÛ ISSUING FORTH TO HELP THEPRINCE OF KHÂTI. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Bénédite. 

Khâtusaru himself was on the point of perishing, when the troops whichhad been shut up in Qodshû, together with the inhabitants, made ageneral sortie; the Egyptians were for a moment held in check, andthe fugitives meanwhile were able to enter the town. Either there wasinsufficient provision for so many mouths, or the enemy had lost allheart from the disaster; at any rate, further resistance appeareduseless. The next morning Khâtusaru sent to propose a truce or peace tothe victorious Pharaoh. The Egyptians had probably suffered at leastas much as their adversaries, and perhaps regarded the eventuality ofa siege with no small distaste; Ramses, therefore, accepted the offersmade to him and prepared to return to Egypt. The fame of his exploitshad gone before him, and he himself was not a little proud of the energyhe had displayed on the day of battle. His predecessors had always shownthemselves to be skilful generals and brave soldiers, but none of themhad ever before borne, or all but borne, single-handed the brunt of anattack. Ramses loaded his shield-bearer Manna with rewards for havingstood by him in the hour of danger, and ordered abundant provender andsumptuous harness for the good horses--"Strength-in-Thebaid" and "Nûrîtthe satisfied"--who had drawn his chariot. *

 * A gold ring in the Louvre bears in relief on its bezel two little horses; which are probably "Strength-in-Thebaid"and "Nûrît satisfied. "

He determined that the most characteristic episodes of the campaign--thebeating of the spies, the surprise of the camp, the king's repeatedcharges, the arrival of his veterans, the flight of the Syrians, and thesurrender of Qodshû--should be represented on the walls and pylons ofthe temples. A poem in rhymed strophes in every case accompaniesthese records of his glory, whether at Luxor, at the Eamesseum, at theMemnonium of Abydos, or in the heart of Nubia at Abu Simbel. The authorof the poem must have been present during the campaign, or must have hadthe account of it from the lips of his sovereign, for his work bears notraces of the coldness of official reports, and a warlike strain runsthrough it from one end to the other, so as still to invest it with lifeafter a lapse of more than thirty centuries. *

 * The author is unknown: Pentaûr, or rather Pentaûîrît, to whom E. De Rougé attributed the poem, is merely the transcriber of the copy we possess on papyrus. 

But little pains are bestowed on the introduction, and the poet does notgive free vent to his enthusiasm until the moment when he describeshis hero, left almost alone, charging the enemy in the sight of hisfollowers. The Pharaoh was surrounded by two thousand five hundredchariots, and his retreat was cut off by the warriors of the "perverse"Khâti and of the other nations who accompanied them--the peoples ofArvad, Mysia, and Pedasos; each of their chariots contained three men, and the ranks were so serried that they formed but one dense mass. "Noother prince was with me, no general officers, no one in command of thearchers or chariots. My foot-soldiers deserted me, my charioteersfled before the foe, and not one of them stood firm beside me to fightagainst them. " Then said His Majesty: "Who art thou, then, my fatherAmon? A father who forgets his son? Or have I committed aught againstthee? Have I not marched and halted according to thy command? When hedoes not violate thy orders, the lord of Egypt is indeed great, and heoverthrows the barbarians in his path! What are these Asiatics tothy heart? Amon will humiliate those who know not the god. Have Inot consecrated innumerable offerings to thee? Filling thy holydwelling-place with my prisoners, I build thee a temple for millions ofyears, I lavish all my goods on thy storehouses, I offer thee the wholeworld to enrich thy domains.... A miserable fate indeed awaits him whosets himself against thy will, but happy is he who finds favour withthee by deeds done for thee with a loving heart. I invoke thee, O myfather Amon! Here am I in the midst of people so numerous that it cannotbe known who are the nations joined together against me, and I am aloneamong them, none other is with me. My many soldiers have forsaken me, none of my charioteers looked towards me when I called them, not one ofthem heard my voice when I cried to them. But I find that Amon is moreto me than a million soldiers, than a hundred thousand charioteers, thana myriad of brothers or young sons, joined all together, for the numberof men is as nothing, Amon is greater than all of them. Each time I haveaccomplished these things, Amon, by the counsel of thy mouth, as I donot transgress thy orders, I rendered thee glory even to the ends of theearth. " So calm an invocation in the thick of the battle would appearmisplaced in the mouth of an ordinary man, but Pharaoh was a god, andthe son of a god, and his actions and speeches cannot be measured bythe same standard as that of a common mortal. He was possessed by thereligious spirit in the hour of danger, and while his body continuedto fight, his soul took wing to the throne of Amon. He contemplates thelord of heaven face to face, reminds him of the benefits which he hadreceived from him, and summons him to his aid with an imperiousnesswhich betrays the sense of his own divine origin. The expected help wasnot delayed. "While the voice resounds in Hermonthis, Amon arises at mybehest, he stretches out his hand to me, and I cry out with joy when hehails me from behind: 'Face to face with thee, face to face with thee, Ramses Miamun, I am with thee! It is I, thy father! My hand is withthee, and I am worth more to thee than hundreds of thousands. I am thestrong one who loves valour; I have beheld in thee a courageous heart, and my heart is satisfied; my will is about to be accomplished!' I amlike Montû; from the right I shoot with the dart, from the left I seizethe enemy. I am like Baal in his hour, before them; I have encounteredtwo thousand five hundred chariots, and as soon as I am in their midst, they are overthrown before my mares. Not one of all these people hasfound a hand wherewith to fight; their hearts sink within their breasts, fear paralyses their limbs; they know not how to throw their darts, theyhave no strength to hold their lances. I precipitate them into the waterlike as the crocodile plunges therein; they are prostrate face to theearth, one upon the other, and I slay in the midst of them, for I havewilled that not one should look behind him, nor that one should return;he who falls rises not again. " This sudden descent of the god has, evenat the present day, an effect upon the reader, prepared though he isby his education to consider it as a literary artifice; but on theEgyptian, brought up to regard Amon with boundless reverence, itsinfluence was irresistible. The Prince of the Khâti, repulsed at thevery moment when he was certain of victory, "recoiled with terror. Hesends against the enemy the various chiefs, followed by their chariotsand skilled warriors, --the chiefs of Arvad, Lycia, and Ilion, theleaders of the Lycians and Dardanians, the lords of Carchemish, of theGirgashites, and of Khalupu; these allies of the Khâti, all together, comprised three thousand chariots. " Their efforts, however, were invain. "I fell upon them like Montû, my hand devoured them in the spaceof a moment, in the midst of them I hewed down and slew. They said oneto another: 'This is no man who is amongst us; it is Sûtkhû the greatwarrior, it is Baal incarnate! These are not human actions which heaccomplishes: alone, by himself, he repulses hundreds of thousands, without leaders or men. Up, let us flee before him, let us seek to saveour lives, and let us breathe again!'" When at last, towards evening, the army again rallies round the king, and finds the enemy completelydefeated, the men hang their heads with mingled shame and admiration asthe Pharaoh reproaches them: "What will the whole earth say when it isknown that you left me alone, and without any to succour me? that not aprince, not a charioteer, not a captain of archers, was found to placehis hand in mine? I fought, I repulsed millions of people by myselfalone. 'Victory-in-Thebes' and 'Nûrît satisfied' were my glorioushorses; it was they that I found under my hand when I was alone in themidst of the quaking foe. I myself will cause them to take their foodbefore me, each day, when I shall be in my palace, for I was with themwhen I was in the midst of the enemy, along with the Prince Manna myshield-bearer, and with the officers of my house who accompanied me, andwho are my witnesses for the combat; these are those whom I was with. I have returned after a victorious struggle, and I have smitten with mysword the assembled multitudes. "

The ordeal was a terrible one for the Khâti; but when the first momentof defeat was over, they again took courage and resumed the campaign. This single effort had not exhausted their resources, and they rapidlyfilled up the gaps which had been made in their ranks. The plains ofNaharaim and the mountains of Cilicia supplied them with fresh chariotsand foot-soldiers in the place of those they had lost, and bands ofmercenaries were furnished from the table-lands of Asia Minor, so thatwhen Ramses II. Reappeared in Syria, he found himself confronted by acompletely fresh army. Khâtusaru, having profited by experience, did notagain attempt a general engagement, but contented himself with disputingstep by step the upper valleys of the Litany and Orontes. Meantime hisemissaries spread themselves over Phoenicia and Kharû, sowing the seedsof rebellion, often only too successfully. In the king's VIIIth yearthere was a general rising in Galilee, and its towns--Galaput in thehill-country of Bît-Aniti, Merorn, Shalama, Dapur, and Anamaîm*--had tobe reduced one after another. 

 * Episodes from this war are represented at Karnak. The list of the towns taken, now much mutilated, comprised twenty- four names, which proves the importance of the revolt. 

Dapur was the hardest to carry. It crowned the top of a rocky eminence, and was protected by a double wall, which followed the irregularities ofthe hillside. It formed a rallying-point for a large force, which had tobe overcome in the open country before the investment of the town couldbe attempted. The siege was at last brought to a conclusion, aftera series of skirmishes, and the town taken by scaling, four Egyptianprinces having been employed in conducting the attack. In the Pharaoh'sIXth year a revolt broke out on the Egyptian frontier, in the Shephelah, and the king placed himself at the head of his troops to crush it. Ascalon, in which the peasantry and their families had found, as theyhoped, a safe refuge, opened its gates to the Pharaoh, and its fallbrought about the submission of several neighbouring places. This, itappears, was the first time since the beginning of the conquests inSyria that the inhabitants of these regions attempted to take up arms, and we may well ask what could have induced them thus to renounce theirancient loyalty. Their defection reduced Egypt for the moment almost toher natural frontiers. Peace had scarcely been resumed when war againbroke out with fresh violence in Coele-Syria, and one year it reachedeven to Naharaim, and raged around Tunipa as in the days of ThûtmosisIII. "Pharaoh assembled his foot-soldiers and chariots, and he commandedhis foot-soldiers and his chariots to attack the perverse Khâti who werein the neighbourhood of Tunipa, and he put on his armour and mounted hischariot, and he waged battle against the town of the perverse Khâti atthe head of his foot-soldiers and his chariots, covered with his armour;"the fortress, however, did not yield till the second attack. Ramsescarried his arms still further afield, and with such results, that, to judge merely from the triumphal lists engraved on the walls of thetemple of Karnak, the inhabitants on the banks of the Euphrates, thosein Carchemish, Mitanni, Singar, Assyria, and Mannus found themselvesonce more at the mercy of the Egyptian battalions. These victories, however brilliant, were not decisive; if after any one of them theprinces of Assyria and Singar may have sent presents to the Pharaoh, theHittites, on the other hand, did not consider themselves beaten, and itwas only after fifteen campaigns that they were at length sufficientlysubdued to propose a treaty. At last, in the Egyptian king's XXIst year, on the 21st of the month Tybi, when the Pharaoh, then residing in hisgood town of Anakhîtû, was returning from the temple where he had beenoffering prayers to his father Amon-Eâ, to Harmakhis of Heliopolis, to Phtah, and to Sûtkhû the valiant son of Nûît, Eamses, one of the"messengers" who filled the office of lieutenant for the king in Asia, arrived at the palace and presented to him Tartisubu, who was authorisedto make peace with Egypt in the name of Khâtusaru. * Tartisubu carriedin his hand a tablet of silver, on which his master had prescribed theconditions which appeared to him just and equitable. A short preamblerecalling the alliances made between the ancestors of both parties, wasfollowed by a declaration of friendship, and a reciprocal obligation toavoid in future all grounds of hostility. 

 * The treaty of Ramses II. With the Prince of the Khâti was sculptured at Karnak. 

Not only was a perpetual truce declared between both peoples, but theyagreed to help each other at the first demand. "Should some enemy marchagainst the countries subject to the great King of Egypt, and should hesend to the great Prince of the Khâti, saying: 'Come, bring me forcesagainst them, ' the great Prince of the Khâti shall do as he is asked bythe great King of Egypt, and the great Prince of the Khâti shall destroyhis enemies. And if the great Prince of the Khâti shall prefer not tocome himself, he shall send his archers and his chariots to the greatKing of Egypt to destroy his enemies. " A similar clause ensured aidin return from Ramses to Khâtusaru, "his brother, " while two articlescouched in identical terms made provision against the possibility of anytown or tribe dependent on either of the two sovereigns withdrawing itsallegiance and placing it in the hands of the other party. In this casethe Egyptians as well as the Hittites engaged not to receive, or atleast not to accept, such offers, but to refer them at once to thelegitimate lord. The whole treaty was placed under the guarantee of thegods both, of Egypt and of the Khâti, whose names were given at length:"Whoever shall fail to observe the stipulations, let the thousand godsof Khâti and the thousand gods of Egypt strike his house, his land, andhis servants. But he who shall observe the stipulations engraved on thetablet of silver, whether he belong to the Hittite people or whetherhe belong to the people of Egypt, as he has not neglected them, may thethousand gods of Khâti and the thousand gods of Egypt give him health, and grant that he may prosper, himself, the people of his house, andalso his land and his servants. " The treaty itself ends by a descriptionof the plaque of silver on which it was engraved. It was, in fact, afacsimile in metal of one of those clay tablets on which the Chaldæansinscribed their contracts. The preliminary articles occupied the upperpart in closely written lines of cuneiform characters, while in themiddle, in a space left free for the purpose, was the impress oftwo seals, that of the Prince of the Khâti and of his wife Pûûkhîpa. Khâtusaru was represented on them as standing upright in the arms ofSûtkhû, while around the two figures ran the inscription, "Seal ofSûtkhû, the sovereign of heaven. " Pûûkhîpa leaned on the breast of agod, the patron of her native town of Aranna in Qaauadana, and thelegend stated that this was the seal of the Sun of the town of Àranna, the regent of the earth. The text of the treaty was continued beneath, and probably extended to the other side of the tablet. The originaldraft had terminated after the description of the seals, but, tosatisfy the Pharaoh, certain additional articles were appended for theprotection of the commerce and industry of the two countries, for theprevention of the emigration of artisans, and for ensuring that stepstaken against them should be more effectual and less cruel. Any criminalattempting to evade the laws of his country, and taking refuge in thatof the other party to the agreement, was to be expelled without delayand consigned to the officers of his lord; any fugitive not a criminal, any subject carried off or detained by force, any able artisan quittingeither territory to take up permanent residence in the other, was to beconducted to the frontier, but his act of folly was not to expose himto judicial condemnation. "He who shall thus act, his fault shall notbe brought up against him; his house shall not be touched, nor his wife, nor his children; he shall not have his throat cut, nor shall his eyesbe touched, nor his mouth, nor his feet; no criminal accusation shall bemade against him. "

This treaty is the most ancient of all those of which the text hascome down to us; its principal conditions were--perfect equalityand reciprocity between the contracting sovereigns, an offensive anddefensive alliance, and the extradition of criminals and refugees. Theoriginal was drawn up in Chaldæan script by the scribes of Khâtusaru, probably on the model of former conventions between the Pharaohs andthe Asiatic courts, and to this the Egyptian ministers had added a fewclauses relative to the pardon of emigrants delivered up by one or otherof the contracting parties. When, therefore, Tartisubu arrived in thecity of Eamses, the acceptance of the treaty was merely a matter ofform, and peace was virtually concluded. It did not confer on theconqueror the advantages which we might have expected from hissuccessful campaigns: it enjoined, on the contrary, the definiterenunciation of those countries, Mitanni, Naharaim, Alasia, and Amurru, over which Thûtmosis III. And his immediate successors had formerlyexercised an effective sovereignty. Sixteen years of victories had leftmatters in the same state as they were after the expedition of Harmhabî, and, like his predecessor, Ramses was able to retain merely thoseAsiatic provinces which were within the immediate influence of Egypt, such as the Phoenician coast proper, Kharû, Persea beyond Jordan, theoases of the Arabian desert, and the peninsula of Sinai. *

 * The _Anastasi Papyrus I_. Mentions a place called _Zaru of Sesostris_, in the neighbourhood of Aleppo, in a part of Syria which was not in Egyptian territory: the frontier in this locality must have passed between Arvad and Byblos on the coast, and between Qodshû and Hazor from Merom inland. Egyptian rule on the other side of the Jordan seems to be proved by the monument discovered a few years ago in the Haurân, and known under the name of the "Stone of Job" by the Bedawîn of the neighbourhood. 

This apparently unsatisfactory result, after such supreme efforts, was, however, upon closer examination, not so disappointing. For more thanhalf a century at least, since the Hittite kingdom had been developedand established under the impulse given to it by Sapalulu, everythinghad been in its favour. The campaign of Seti had opposed merely apassing obstacle to its expansion, and had not succeeded in discouragingits ambitions, for its rulers still nursed the hope of being ableone day to conquer Syria as far as the isthmus. The check received atQodshû, the abortive attempts to foment rebellion in Galilee and theShephelah, the obstinate persistence with which Ramses and his armyreturned year after year to the attack, the presence of the enemy atTunipa, on the banks of the Euphrates, and in the provinces then formingthe very centre of the Hittite kingdom--in short, all the incidents ofthis long struggle--at length convinced Khâtusaru that he was powerlessto extend his rule in this direction at the expense of Egypt. Moreover, we have no knowledge of the events which occupied him on the otherfrontiers of his kingdom, where he may have been engaged at the sametime in a conflict with Assyria, or in repelling an incursion of thetribes on the Black Sea. The treaty with Pharaoh, if made in good faithand likely to be lasting, would protect the southern extremities of hiskingdom, and allow of his removing the main body of his forces to thenorth and east in case of attack from either of these quarters. Thesecurity which such an alliance would ensure made it, therefore, worthhis while to sue for peace, even if the Egyptians should construe hisovertures as an acknowledgment of exhausted supplies or of inferiorityof strength. Ramses doubtless took it as such, and openly displayedon the walls at Karnak and in the Eamesseum a copy of the treaty soflattering to his pride, but the indomitable resistance which he hadencountered had doubtless given rise to reflections resembling those ofKhâtusaru, and he had come to realise that it was his own interest notto lightly forego the good will of the Khâti. Egypt had neighboursin Africa who were troublesome though not dangerous: the Timihû, theTihonu, the Mashûasha, the negroes of Kûsh and of Pûanît, might be acontinual source of annoyance and disturbance, even though they wereincapable of disturbing her supremacy. The coast of the Delta, it istrue, was exposed to the piracy of northern nations, but up to that timethis had been merely a local trouble, easy to meet if not to obviatealtogether. The only real danger was on the Asiatic side, arisingfrom empires of ancient constitution like Chaldæa, or from hordes who, arriving at irregular intervals from the north, and carrying all beforethem, threatened, after the example of the Hyksôs, to enter the Delta. The Hittite kingdom acted as a kind of buffer between the Nile valleyand these nations, both civilized and barbarous; it was a strongly armedforce on the route of the invaders, and would henceforth serve as aprotecting barrier, through which if the enemy were able to passit would only be with his strength broken or weakened by a previousencounter. The sovereigns loyally observed the peace which they hadsworn to each other, and in his XXXIVth year the marriage of Ramses withthe eldest daughter of Khâtusaru strengthened their friendly relations. 

[Illustration: 214. Jpg KHÂTUSARU, PRINCE OF KHÂTI, AND HIS DAUGHTER]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the plate in Lepsius; the triad worshipped by Khâtusaru and his daughter is composed of Ramses II. , seated between Amon-Râ and Phtah-Totûnen. 

Pharaoh was not a little proud of this union, and he has left us a naiverecord of the manner in which it came about. The inscription is engravedon the face of the rock at Abu Simbel in Nubia; and Ramses begins byboasting, in a heroic strain, of his own energy and exploits, of thefear with which his victories inspired the whole world, and of theanxiety of the Syrian kinglets to fulfil his least wishes. The Prince ofthe Khâti had sent him sumptuous presents at every opportunity, and, not knowing how further to make himself agreeable to the Pharaoh, hadfinally addressed the great lords of his court, and reminded them howtheir country had formerly been ruined by war, how their master Sûtkhûhad taken part against them, and how they had been delivered from theirills by the clemency of the Sun of Egypt. "Let us therefore take ourgoods, and placing my eldest daughter at the head of them, let usrepair to the domains of the great god, so that the King Sesostris mayrecognise us. " He accordingly did as he had proposed, and the embassyset out with gold and silver, valuable horses, and an escort ofsoldiers, together with cattle and provisions to supply them with foodby the way. When they reached the borders of Khâru, the governor wroteimmediately to the Pharaoh as follows: "Here is the Prince of the Khâti, who brings his eldest daughter with a number of presents of every kind;and now this princess and the chief of the country of the Khâti, afterhaving crossed many mountains and undertaken a difficult journey fromdistant parts, have arrived at the frontiers of His Majesty. May we beinstructed how we ought to act with regard to them. " The king wasthen in residence at Ramses. When the news reached him, he officiallyexpressed his great joy at the event, since it was a thing unheard ofin the annals of the country that so powerful a prince should go to suchpersonal inconvenience in order to marry his daughter to an ally. ThePharaoh, therefore, despatched his nobles and an army to receive them, but he was careful to conceal the anxiety which he felt all the while, and, according to custom, took counsel of his patron god Sûtkhû: "Whoare these people who come with a message at this time to the country ofZahi?" The oracle, however, reassured him as to their intentions, andhe thereupon hastened to prepare for their proper reception. The embassymade a triumphal entry into the city, the princess at its head, escortedby the Egyptian troops told off for the purpose, together with thefoot-soldiers and charioteers of the Khâti, comprising the flower oftheir army and militia. A solemn festival was held in their honour, inwhich food and drink were served without stint, and was concluded by thecelebration of the marriage in the presence of the Egyptian lords and ofthe princes of the whole earth. *

 * The fact of the marriage is known to us by the decree of Phtah Totûnen at Abu Simbel in the XXXVth year of the king's reign. The account of it in the text is taken from the stele at Abu Simbel. The last lines are so mutilated that I have been obliged to paraphrase them. The stele of the Princess of Bakhtan has preserved the romantic version of this marriage, such as was current about the Saite period. The King of the Khâti must have taken advantage of the expedition which the Pharaoh made into Asia to send him presents by an embassy, at the head of which he placed his eldest daughter: the princess found favour with Ramses, who married her. 

Ramses, unwilling to relegate a princess of such noble birth to thecompanionship of his ordinary concubines, granted her the title ofqueen, as if she were of solar blood, and with the cartouche gave herthe new name of Ûirimaûnofîrurî--"She who sees the beauties of the Sun. "She figures henceforth in the ceremonies and on the monuments in theplace usually occupied by women of Egyptian race only, and these unusualhonours may have compensated, in the eyes of the young princess, for thedisproportion in age between herself and a veteran more than sixty yearsold. The friendly relations between the two courts became so intimatethat the Pharaoh invited his father-in-law to visit him in his owncountry. "The great Prince of Khâti informed the Prince of Qodi:'Prepare thyself that we may go down into Egypt. The word of the kinghas gone forth, let us obey Sesostris. He gives the breath of life tothose who love him; hence all the earth loves him, and Khâti forms butone with him. '" They were received with pomp at Ramses-Anakhîtû, andperhaps at Thebes. It was with a mixture of joy and astonishment thatEgypt beheld her bitterest foe become her most faithful ally, "and themen of Qimît having but one heart with the chiefs of the Khâti, a thingwhich had not happened since the ages of Pa. "

The half-century following the conclusion of this alliance was a periodof world-wide prosperity. Syria was once more able to breathe freely, her commerce being under the combined protection of the two powers whoshared her territory. Not only caravans, but isolated travellers, wereable to pass through the country from north to south without incurringany risks beyond those occasioned by an untrustworthy guide or a fewhighwaymen. It became in time a common task in the schools of Thebes todescribe the typical Syrian tour of some soldier or functionary, and westill possess one of these imaginative stories in which the scribe takeshis hero from Qodshû across the Lebanon to Byblos, Berytus, Tyre, andSidon, "the fish" of which latter place "are more numerous than thegrains of sand;" he then makes him cross Galilee and the forest ofoaks to Jaffa, climb the mountains of the Dead Sea, and following themaritime route by Raphia, reach Pelusium. The Egyptian galleys throngedthe Phoenician ports, while those of Phoenicia visited Egypt. The latterdrew so little water that they had no difficulty in coming up the Nile, and the paintings in one of the tombs represent them at the moment oftheir reaching Thebes. The hull of these vessels was similar to thatof the Nile boats, but the bow and stern were terminated by structureswhich rose at right angles, and respectively gave support to a sort ofsmall platform. Upon this the pilot maintained his position by one ofthose wondrous feats of equilibrium of which the Orientals were masters. 

[Illustration: 218. Jpg PHOENICIAN BOATS LANDING AT THEBES]

 Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph published by Daressy. 

An open rail ran round the sides of the vessel, so as to prevent goodsstowed upon the deck from falling into the sea when the vessel lurched. Voyages to Pûanît were undertaken more frequently in quest of incenseand precious metals. The working of the mines of Akiti had been thesource of considerable outlay at the beginning of the reign. Themeasures taken by Seti to render the approaches to them practicable atall seasons had not produced the desired results; as far back as theIIIrd year of Ramses the overseers of the south had been forced toacknowledge that the managers of the convoys could no longer use any ofthe cisterns which had been hewn and built at such great expense. "Halfof them die of thirst, together with their asses, for they have no meansof carrying a sufficient number of skins of water to last during thejourney there and back. " The friends and officers whose advice had beencalled in, did not doubt for a moment that the king would be willing tocomplete the work which his father had merely initiated. "If thou sayestto the water, 'Come upon the mountain, ' the heavenly waters will springout at the word of thy mouth, for thou art Râ incarnate, Khoprivisibly created, thou art the living image of thy father Tûmû, theHeliopolitan. "--"If thou thyself sayest to thy father the Nile, fatherof the gods, " added the Viceroy of Ethiopia, "'Raise the water up to themountain, ' he will do all that thou hast said, for so it has been withall thy projects which have been accomplished in our presence, of whichthe like has never been heard, even in the songs of the poets. " Thecisterns and wells were thereupon put into such a condition that thetransport of gold was rendered easy for years to come. The war with theKhâti had not suspended building and other works of public utility;and now, owing to the establishment of peace, the sovereign was ableto devote himself entirely to them. He deepened the canal at Zalû; herepaired the walls and the fortified places which protected the frontieron the side of the Sinaitic Peninsula, and he built or enlarged thestrongholds along the Nile at those points most frequently threatenedby the incursions of nomad tribes. Ramses was the royal builder _parexcellence_, and we may say without fear of contradiction that, from thesecond cataract to the mouths of the Nile, there is scarcely an edificeon whose ruins we do not find his name. In Nubia, where the desertapproaches close to the Nile, he confined himself to cutting in thesolid rock the monuments which, for want of space, he could not build inthe open. The idea of the cave-temple must have occurred very earlyto the Egyptians; they were accustomed to house their dead in themountain-side, why then should they not house their gods in the samemanner? The oldest forms of speos, those near to Beni-Hasan, at Deîrel-Baharî, at Bl-Kab, and at Gebel Silsileh, however, do not datefurther back than the time of the XVIIIth dynasty. All the forms ofarchitectural plan observed in isolated temples were utilised by Ramsesand applied to rock-cut buildings with more or less modification, according to the nature of the stratum in which he had to work. Wherespace permitted, a part only of the temple was cut in the rock, and theapproaches to it were built in the open air with blocks brought tothe spot, so that the completed speos became only in part a grotto--ahemi-speos of varied construction. It was in this manner that thearchitects of Ramses arranged the court and pylon at Beît-Wally, thehypostyle hall, rectangular court and pylon at Gerf-Hosseîn, and theavenue of sphinxes at Wady es-Sebuah, where the entrance to theavenue was guarded by two statues overlooking the river. The pylonat Gerf-Hosseîn has been demolished, and merely a few traces of thefoundations appear here and there above the soil, but a portion of theportico which surrounded the court is still standing, together with itsmassive architraves and statues, which stand with their backs againstthe pillars. 

[Illustration: 221. Jpg THE PROJECTING COLUMNS OF THE SPEOS OFGERF-HOSSEÎN]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. 

The sanctuary itself comprised an antechamber, supported by two columnsand flanked by two oblong recesses; this led into the Holy of Holies, which was a narrow niche with a low ceiling, placed between two lateralchapels. A hall, nearly square in shape, connected these mysteriouschambers with the propylæa, which were open to the sky and faced withOsiride caryatides. 

[Illustration: 221. Jpg THE CARYATIDES OF GERF-HOSSEÎN]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger and Daniel Héron. 

These appear to keep rigid and solemn watch over the approaches to thetabernacle, and their faces, half hidden in the shadow, stillpresent such a stern appearance that the semi-barbaric Nubians of theneighbouring villages believe them to be possessed by implacable genii. They are supposed to move from their places during the hours of night, and the fire which flashes from their eyes destroys or fascinateswhoever is rash enough to watch them. 

Other kings before Ramses had constructed buildings in these spots, andtheir memory would naturally become associated with his in the future;he wished, therefore, to find a site where he would be without a rival, and to this end he transformed the cliff at Abu Simbel into a monumentof his greatness. The rocks here project into the Nile and forma gigantic conical promontory, the face of which was covered withtriumphal stelæ, on which the sailors or troops going up or down theriver could spell out as they passed the praises of the king and hisexploits. A few feet of shore on the northern side, covered with dry andknotty bushes, affords in winter a landing-place for tourists. At thespot where the beach ends near the point of the promontory, sit fourcolossi, with their feet nearly touching the water, their backs leaningagainst a sloping wall of rock, which takes the likeness of a pylon. Aband of hieroglyphs runs above their heads underneath the usual cornice, over which again is a row of crouching cynocephali looking straightbefore them, their hands resting upon their knees, and above this lineof sacred images rises the steep and naked rock. One of the colossi isbroken, and the bust of the statue, which must have been detached bysome great shock, has fallen to the ground; the others rise to theheight of 63 feet, and appear to look across the Nile as if watching thewadys leading to the gold-mines. 

[Illustration 224. Jpg THE TWO COLOSSI OF ABU SIMBEL TO THE SOUTH OF THEDOORWAY]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger and Daniel Héron. 

The pschent crown surmounts their foreheads, and the two ends of thehead-dress fall behind their ears; their features are of a noble type, calm and serious; the nose slightly aquiline, the under lip projectingabove a square, but rather heavy, chin. Of such a type we may pictureRamses, after the conclusion of the peace with the Khâti, in the fullvigour of his manhood and at the height of his power. 

[Illustration: 225. Jpg THE INTERIOR OF THE SPEOS OF ABU SIMBEL]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger and Daniel Héron. 

The doorway of the temple is in the centre of the façade, and risesnearly to a level with the elbows of the colossi; above the lintel, and facing the river, stands a figure of the god Râ, represented with ahuman body and the head of a sparrow-hawk, while two images of the kingin profile, one on each side of the god, offer him a figure of Truth. The first hall, 130 feet long by 58 feet broad, takes the place of thecourt surrounded by a colonnade which in other temples usually followsthe pylon. Her eight Osiride figures, standing against as many squarepillars, appear to support the weight of the superincumbent rock. Theirprofile catches the light as it enters through the open doorway, andin the early morning, when the rising sun casts a ruddy ray over theirfeatures, their faces become marvellously life-like. We are almosttempted to think that a smile plays over their lips as the first beamstouch them. The remaining chambers consist of a hypostyle hall nearlysquare in shape, the sanctuary itself being between two smallerapartments, and of eight subterranean chambers excavated at a lowerlevel than the rest of the temple. The whole measures 178 feet from thethreshold to the far end of the Holy of Holies. The walls are coveredwith bas-reliefs in which the Pharaoh has vividly depicted the warswhich he carried on in the four corners of his kingdom; here we seeraids against the negroes, there the war with the Khâti, and furtheron an encounter with some Libyan tribe. Ramses, flushed by the heat ofvictory, is seen attacking two Timihu chiefs: one has already fallento the ground and is being trodden underfoot; the other, after vainlyletting fly his arrows, is about to perish from a blow of the conqueror. 

[Illustration: 228. Jpg THE FACE OF THE ROCK AT ABU SIMGEL]

His knees give way beneath him, his head falls heavily backwards, andthe features are contracted in his death-agony. Pharaoh with his lefthand has seized him by the arm, while with his right he points hislance against his enemy's breast, and is about to pierce him throughthe heart. As a rule, this type of bas-relief is executed with aconventional grace which leaves the spectator unmoved, and free toconsider the scene merely from its historical point of view, forgetfulof the artist. 

[Illustration: 229. Jpg RAMSES II. PIERCES a Libyan chief with his lance]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Mons. Do Bock. 

An examination of most of the other wall-decorations of the speos willfurnish several examples of this type: we see Ramses with a suitablegesture brandishing his weapon above a group of prisoners, and thecomposition furnishes us with a fair example of official sculpture, correct, conventional, but devoid of interest. Here, on the contrary, the drawing is so full of energy that it carries the imagination hack tothe time and scene of those far-off battles. 

[Illustration: 230. Jpg RAMSES II. STRIKES A GROUP OF PRISONERS]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger. 

The indistinct light in which it is seen helps the illusion, and wealmost forget that it is a picture we are beholding, and not the actionitself as it took place some three thousand years ago. A small speos, situated at some hundred feet further north, is decorated with standingcolossi of smaller size, four of which represent Ramses, and two of themhis wife, Isit Nofrîtari. This speos possesses neither peristylenor crypt, and the chapels are placed at the two extremities of thetransverse passage, instead of being in a parallel line with thesanctuary; on the other hand, the hypostyle hall rests on six pillarswith Hathor-headed capitals of fine proportions. 

[Illustration: 231. Jpg THE FAÇADE OF THE LITTLE SPEOS OF HAUTHOR AT ABUSIMBEL]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the plates in Champollion. 

A third excavated grotto of modest dimensions served as an accessorychamber to the two others. An inexhaustible stream of yellow sandpoured over the great temple from the summit of the cliff, and partiallycovered it every year. No sooner were the efforts to remove it relaxed, than it spreads into the chambers, concealing the feet of the colossi, and slowly creeping upwards to their knees, breasts, and necks; at thebeginning of this century they were entirely hidden. In spite of allthat was done to divert it, it ceaselessly reappeared, and in a fewsummers regained all the ground which had been previously cleared. It would seem as if the desert, powerless to destroy the work of theconqueror, was seeking nevertheless to hide it from the admiration ofposterity. *

 * The English engineers have succeeded in barring out the sand, and have prevented it from pouring over the cliff any more. --Ed. 

Seti had worked indefatigably at Thebes, but the shortness of his reignprevented him from completing the buildings he had begun there. Thereexisted everywhere, at Luxor, at Karnak, and on the left bank of theNile, the remains of his unfinished works; sanctuaries partially roofedin, porticoes incomplete, columns raised to merely half their height, halls as yet imperfect with blank walls, here and there covered withonly the outlines in red and black ink of their future bas-reliefs, and statues hardly blocked out, or awaiting the final touch of thepolisher. *

 * This is the description which Ramses gave of the condition in which he found the Memnonium of Abydos. An examination of the inscriptions existing in the Theban temples which Seti I. Had constructed, shows that it must have applied also to the appearance of certain portions of Qurneh, Luxor, and Karnak in the time of Ramses II. 

Ramses took up the work where his father had relinquished it. At Luxorthere was not enough space to give to the hypostyle hall the extensionwhich the original plans proposed, and the great colonnade has anunfinished appearance. 

[Illustration: 230. Jpg COLUMNS OF TEMPLE AT LUXOR]

The Nile, in one of its capricious floods, had carried away the landupon which the architects had intended to erect the side aisles; and ifthey wished to add to the existing structure a great court and a pylon, without which no temple was considered complete, it was necessary toturn the axis of the building towards the east. 

[Illustration: 233. Jpg THE CHAPEL OF THUTMOSIS III. AND ONE OF THEPYLONS OF RAMSES II. AT LUXOR]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. 

In their operations the architects came upon a beautiful little edificeof rose granite, which had been either erected or restored by ThûtmosisIII. At a time when the town was an independent municipality and wasonly beginning to extend its suburban dwellings to meet those of Karnak. They took care to make no change in this structure, but set to work toincorporate it into their final plans. It still stands at the north-westcorner of the court, and the elegance of its somewhat slender littlecolumns contrasts happily with the heaviness of the structure to whichit is attached. A portion of its portico is hidden by the brickwork ofthe mosque of Abu'l Haggag: the part brought to light in the course ofthe excavations contains between each row of columns a colossal statueof Ramses II. We are accustomed to hear on all sides of the degeneracyof the sculptor's art at this time, and of its having fallen intoirreparable neglect. Nothing can be further from the truth than thissweeping statement. There are doubtless many statues and bas-reliefs ofthis epoch which shock us by their crudity and ugliness, but these owedtheir origin for the most part to provincial workshops which had beenat all times of mediocre repute, and where the artists did not receiveorders enough to enable them to correct by practice the defects of theireducation. We find but few productions of the Theban school exhibitingbad technique, and if we had only this one monument of Luxor from whichto form our opinion of its merits, it would be sufficient to prove thatthe sculptors of Ramses II. Were not a whit behind those of Harmham orSeti I. Adroitness in cutting the granite or hard sandstone had in nowise been lost, and the same may be said of the skill in bringingout the contour and life-like action of the figure, and of the art ofinfusing into the features and demeanour of the Pharaoh something ofthe superhuman majesty with which the Egyptian people were accustomed toinvest their monarchs. If the statues of Ramses II. In the portico arenot perfect models of sculpture, they have many good points, and theirbold treatment makes them effectively decorative. 

[Illustration: 235. Jpg THE COLONNADE OF SETI I. AND THE THREE COLOSSALSTATUES OF RAMSES II. AT LUXOR]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. 

Eight other statues of Ramses are arranged along the base of thefaçade, and two obelisks--one of which has been at Paris for half acentury*--stood on either side of the entrance. 

 * The colonnade and the little temple of Thûtmosis III. Were concealed under the houses of the village; they were first brought to light in the excavations of 1884-86. 

The whole structure lacks unity, and there is nothing corresponding toit in this respect anywhere else in Egypt. The northern half doesnot join on to the southern, but seems to belong to quite a distinctstructure, or the two parts might be regarded as having once formeda single edifice which had become divided by an accident, which thearchitect had endeavoured to unite together again by a line of columnsrunning between two walls. The masonry of the hypostyle hall at Karnakwas squared and dressed, but the walls had been left undecorated, aswas also the case with the majority of the shafts of the columns and thesurface of the architraves. Ramses covered the whole with a series ofsculptured and painted scenes which had a rich ornamental effect; hethen decorated the pylon, and inscribed on the outer wall to the souththe list of cities which he had captured. The temple of Amon thenassumed the aspect which it preserved henceforward for centuries. TheRamessides and their successors occupied themselves in filling it withfurniture, and in taking steps for the repair of any damage that mightaccrue to the hall or pillars; they had their cartouches or inscriptionsplaced in vacant spaces, but they did not dare to modify itsarrangement. It was reserved for the Ethiopian and Greek Pharaohs, inpresence of the hypostyle and pylon of the XIXth dynasty, to conceive ofothers on a still vaster scale. 

[Illustration: 236. Jpg PAINTINGS OF CHAIRS]

Ramses, having completed the funerary chapel of Seti at Qurneh upon theleft bank of the river, then began to think of preparing the edificedestined for the cult of his "double"--that Eamesseum whose majesticruins still stand at a short distance to the north of the giants ofAmenôthes. Did these colossal statues stimulate his spirit of emulationto do something yet more marvellous? He erected here, at any rate, a still more colossal figure. The earthquake which shattered Memnonbrought it to the ground, and fragments of it still strew the soil wherethey fell some nineteen centuries ago. There are so many of them that thespectator would think himself in the middle of a granite quarry. *

 * The ear measures 3 feet 4 inches (feet ?) in length; the statue is 58 feet high from the top of the head to the sole of the foot, and the weight of the whole has been estimated at over a thousand tons. 

[Illustration: 237. Jpg THE REMAINS OF THE COLOSSAL STATUE OF RAMSES II. AT THE RAMESSEUM]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato

The portions forming the breast, arms, and thighs are in detachedpieces, but they are still recognisable where they lie close to eachother. The head has lost nothing of its characteristic expression, andits proportions are so enormous, that a man could sleep crouched upin the hollow of one of its ears as if on a sofa. Behind the courtoverlooked by this colossal statue lay a second court, surrounded by arow of square pillars, each having a figure of Osiris attached to it. The god is represented as a mummy, the swathings throwing the body andlimbs into relief. 

[Illustration: 238. Jpg THE RAMESSEUM]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato; the great blocks in the foreground are the fragments of the colossal statue of Ramses II. 

His hands are freed from the bandages and are crossed on the breast, andhold respectively the flail and crook; the smiling face is surmounted byan enormous head-dress. The sanctuary with the buildings attached toit has perished, but enormous brick structures extend round the ruins, forming an enclosure of storehouses. Here the priests of the "double"were accustomed to dwell with their wives and slaves, and here theystored up the products of their domains--meat, vegetables, corn, fowlsdried or preserved in fat, and wines procured from all the vineyards ofEgypt. 

These were merely the principal monuments put up by Ramses II. At Thebesduring the sixty-seven years of his rule. There would be no end to theenumeration of his works if we were to mention all the other edificeswhich he constructed in the necropolis or among the dwellings of theliving, all those which he restored, or those which he merely repairedor inscribed with his cartouches. These are often cut over the name ofthe original founder, and his usurpations of monuments are so numerousthat he might be justly accused of having striven to blot out the memoryof his predecessors, and of claiming for himself the entire work of thewhole line of Pharaohs. It would seem as if, in his opinion, the gloryof Egypt began with him, or at least with his father, and that novictorious campaigns had been ever heard of before those which heconducted against the Libyans and the Hittites. 

The battle of Qodshû, with its attendant episodes--the flogging of thespies, the assault upon the camp, the charge of the chariots, the flightof the Syrians--is the favourite subject of his inscriptions; and thepoem of Pentaûîrît adds to the bas-reliefs a description worthy of theacts represented. This epic reappears everywhere, in Nubia and in theSaid, at Abu Simbel, at Beît-Wally, at Derr, at Luxor, at Karnak, andon the Eamesseum, and the same battle-scenes, with the same accompanyingtexts, reappear in the Memnonium, whose half-ruined walls still crownthe necropolis of Abydos. 

[Illustration: 240. Jpg THE RUINS OF THE MEMNONIUM OF RAMSES II. ATABYDOS]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey. 

He had decided upon the erection of this latter monument at the verybeginning of his reign, and the artisans who had worked at the similarstructure of Seti I. Were employed to cover its walls with admirablebas-reliefs. Ramses also laid claim to have his own resting-place at"the Cleft;" in this privilege he associated all the Pharaohs, from whomhe imagined himself to be descended, and the same list of their names, which we find engraved in the chapel of his father, appears on hisbuilding also. Some ruins, lying beyond Abydos, are too formless to domore than indicate the site of some of his structures. He enlargedthe temple of Harshafîtû and that of Osiris at Heracleopolis, and, toaccomplish these works the more promptly, his workmen had recoursefor material to the royal towns of the IVth and XIIth dynasties; thepyramids of Usirtasen II. And Snofrûi at Medûm suffered accordingly theloss of the best part of their covering. He finished the mausoleum atMemphis, and dedicated the statue which Seti had merely blocked out;he then set to work to fill the city with buildings of his owndevice--granite and sandstone chambers to the east of the Sacred Lake, *monumental gateways to the south, ** and before one of them a finecolossal figure in granite. *** It lay not long ago at the bottom of ahole among the palm trees, and was covered by the inundation every year;it has now been so raised as to be safe from the waters. Ramses couldhardly infuse new life into all the provinces which had been devastatedyears before by the Shepherd-kings; but Heliopolis, **** Bubastes, Athribis, Patûmû, Mendis, Tell Moqdam, and all the cities of the easterncorner of the Delta, constitute a museum of his monuments, every objectwithin them testifying to his activity. 

 * Partly excavated and published by Mariette, and partly by M. De Morgan. This is probably the temple mentioned in the _Great Inscription of Abu Simbel_. 

 ** These are probably those mentioned by Herodotus, when he says that Sesostris constructed a propylon in the temple of Hephaistos. 

 *** This is Abu-1-hôl of the Arabs. 

 **** Ruins of the temple of Râ bear the cartouche of Ramses II. "Cleopatra's Needle, " transported to Alexandria by one of the Ptolemies, had been set up by Ramses at Heliopolis; it is probably one of the four obelisks which the traditional Sesostris is said to have erected in that city, according to Pliny. 

He colonised these towns with his prisoners, rebuilt them, and set towork to rouse them from the torpor into which they had fallen aftertheir capture by Ahmosis. He made a third capital of Tanis, whichrivalled both Memphis and Thebes. 

[Illustration: 242. Jpg THE COLOSSAL STATUE OF RAMSES II. AT MITRAHINEH]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph brought back by Bénédite. 

Before this it had been little more than a deserted ruin: he clearedout the _débris_, brought a population to the place; rebuilt the temple, enlarging it by aisles which extended its area threefold; and here heenthroned, along with the local divinities, a triad, in which Amonrâ andSûtkhû sat side by side with his own deified "double. " The ruinedwalls, the overturned stelæ, the obelisks recumbent in the dust, andthe statues of his usurped predecessors, all bear his name. His colossalfigure of statuary sandstone, in a sitting attitude like that at theEamesseum, projected from the chief court, and seemed to look down uponthe confused ruin of his works. *

 * The fragments of the colossus were employed in the Græco- Roman period as building material, and used in the masonry of a boundary wall. 

We do not know how many wives he had in his harem, but one of the listsof his children which has come down to us enumerates, although mutilatedat the end, one hundred and eleven sons, while of his daughters we knowof fifty-five. *

 * The list of Abydos enumerates thirty-three of his sons and thirty-two of his daughters, that of Wady-Sebua one hundred and eleven of his sons and fifty-one of his daughters; both lists are mutilated. The remaining lists for the most part record only some of the children living at the time they were drawn up, at Derr, at the Eamesseum, and at Abu Simbel. 

The majority of these were the offspring of mere concubines or foreignprincesses, and possessed but a secondary rank in comparison withhimself; but by his union with his sisters Nofrîtari Marîtmût andIsîtnofrît, he had at least half a dozen sons and daughters who mightaspire to the throne. Death robbed him of several of these beforean opportunity was open to them to succeed him, and among themAmenhikhopshûf, Amenhiunamif, and Ramses, who had distinguishedthemselves in the campaign against the Khâti; and some of hisdaughters--Bitanîti, Marîtamon, Nibîttaûi--by becoming his wives losttheir right to the throne. About the XXXth year of his reign, when hewas close upon sixty, he began to think of an associate, and his choicerested on the eldest surviving son of his queen Isîtnofrît, who wascalled Khâmoîsît. This prince was born before the succession of hisfather, and had exhibited distinguished bravery under the walls ofQodshu and at Ascalon. When he was still very young he had been investedwith the office of high priest of the Memphite Phtah, and thus hadsecured to him the revenues of the possessions of the god, which werethe largest in all Egypt after those of the Theban Anion. He had a greatreputation for his knowledge of abstruse theological questions and ofthe science of magic--a later age attributing to him the composition ofseveral books on magic giving directions for the invocation of spiritsbelonging to this world and the world beyond. He became the hero also offantastic romances, in which it was related of him how, in consequenceof his having stolen from the mummy of an old wizard the books ofThot, he became the victim of possession by a sort of lascivious andsanguinary ghoul. Ramses relieved himself of the cares of state byhanding over to Khâmoîsîfc the government of the country, without, however, conferring upon him the titles and insignia of royalty. Thechief concern of Khâmoîsît was to secure the scrupulous observanceof the divine laws. He celebrated at Silsilis the festivals of theinundation; he presided at the commemoration of his father's apotheosis, and at the funeral rites of the Apis who died in the XXXth year of theking's reign. Before his time each sacred bull had its separate tombin a quarter of the Memphite Necropolis known to the Greeks as theSerapeion. The tomb was a small cone-roofed building erected on a squarebase, and containing only one chamber. Khâmoîsît substituted for this arock-tomb similar to those used by ordinary individuals. He had a tunnelcut in the solid rock to a depth of about a hundred yards, and on eitherside of this a chamber was prepared for each Apis on its death, themasons closing up the wall after the installation of the mummy. Hisregency had lasted for nearly a quarter of a century, when, the burdenof government becoming too much for him, he was succeeded in the LVthyear of Ramses by his younger brother Mînephtah, who was like himselfa son of Isîtnofrît. * Mînephtah acted, during the first twelve years ofhis rule, for his father, who, having now almost attained the age ofa hundred, passed peacefully away at Thebes in the LXVIII year of hisreign, full of days and sated with glory. ** He became the subject oflegend almost before he had closed his eyes upon the world. 

 * Mînephtah was in the order of birth the thirteenth son of Ramses II. 

 ** A passage on a stele of Ramses IV. Formally attributes to him a reign of sixty-seven years. I procured at Koptos a stele of his year LXVI. 

[Illustration: 245. Jpg THE CHAPEL OF THE APIS OF AMEKÔTHES III. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Mariette. 

He had obtained brilliant successes during his life, and the scenesdescribing them were depicted in scores of places. Popular fancybelieved everything which he had related of himself, and added tothis all that it knew of other kings, thus making him the Pharaoh ofPharaohs--the embodiment of all preceding monarchs. Legend preferred torecall him by the name Sesûsû, Sesûstûrî--a designation which had beenapplied to him by his contemporaries, and he thus became better known tomoderns as Sesostris than by his proper name Ramses Mîamûn. *

 * This designation, which is met with at Medinet-Habu and in the Anmtasi Papyrus I. , was shown by E. De Rougé to refer to Ramses II. ; the various readings Sesû, Sesûsû, Sesûstûrî, explain the different forms Sesosis, Sesoosis, Sesostris. Wiedemann saw in this name the mention of a king of the XVIIIth dynasty not yet classified. 

According to tradition, he was at first sent to Ethiopia with a fleetof four hundred ships, by which he succeeded in conquering the coastsof the Red Sea as far as the Indus. In later times several stelæ in thecinnamon country were ascribed to him. He is credited after this withhaving led into the east a great army, with which he conquered Syria, Media, Persia, Bactriana, and India as far as the ocean; and with havingon his return journey through the deserts of Scythia reached the Don[Tanais], where, on the shore of the Masotic Sea, he left a number ofhis soldiers, whose descendants afterwards peopled Colchis. It waseven alleged that he had ventured into Europe, but that the lack ofprovisions and the inclemency of the climate had prevented him fromadvancing further than Thrace. 

[Illustration: 246. Jpg STATUE OF KHAMOISIT]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a statue in the British Museum. 

He returned to Egypt after an absence of nine years, and afterhaving set up on his homeward journey statues and stelæ everywhere incommemoration of his victories. Herodotus asserts that he himself hadseen several of these monuments in his travels in Syria and Ionia. Someof these are of genuine Egyptian manufacture, and are to be attributedto our Ramses; they are to be found near Tyre, and on the banks of theNahr el-Kelb, where they mark the frontier to which his empire extendedin this direction. Others have but little resemblance to Egyptianmonuments, and were really the work of the Asiatic peoples among whomthey were found. The two figures referred to long ago by Herodotus, which have been discovered near Ninfi between Sardis and Smyrna, areinstances of the latter. 

[Illustration: 247. Jpg STELE OF THE NAHR EL-KELB]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph. 

The shoes of the figures are turned up at the toe, and the head-dresshas more resemblance to the high hats of the people of Asia Minorthan to the double crown of Egypt, while the lower garment is stripedhorizontally in place of vertically. The inscription, moreover, is in anAsiatic form of writing, and has nothing Egyptian about it. RamsesII. In his youth was the handsomest man of his time. He was tall andstraight; his figure was well moulded--the shoulders broad, the armsfull and vigorous, the legs muscular; the face was oval, with a firm andsmiling mouth, a thin aquiline nose, and large open eyes. 

[Illustration: 248. Jpg THE BAS-BELIEF OF NINFI]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph. 

[Illustration: 249. Jpg THE COFFIN AND MUMMY OF RAMSES II]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken from the mummy itself, by Emil Brugsch-Bey. 

There may be seen below the cartouche the lines of the official reportof inspection written during the XXIst dynasty. Old age and death didnot succeed in marring the face sufficiently to disfigure it. The coffincontaining his body is not the same as that in which his children placedhim on the day of his obsequies; it is another substituted for it by oneof the Ramessides, and the mask upon it has but a distant resemblanceto the face of the victorious Pharaoh. The mummy is thin, much shrunken, and light; the bones are brittle, and the muscles atrophied, as onewould expect in the case of a man who had attained the age of a hundred;but the figure is still tall and of perfect proportions. *

* Even after the coalescence of the vertebrae and the shrinkage producedby mummification, the body of Ramses II. Still measures over 5 feet 8inches. 

The head, which is bald on the top, is somewhat long, and small inrelation to the bulk of the body; there is but little hair on theforehead, but at the back of the head it is thick, and in smooth stifflocks, still preserving its white colour beneath the yellow balsamsof his last toilet. The forehead is low, the supra-orbital ridgesaccentuated, the eyebrows thick, the eyes small and set close to thenose, the temples hollow, the cheek-bones prominent; the ears, finelymoulded, stand out from the head, and are pierced, like those of awoman, for the usual ornaments pendant from the lobe. A strong jaw andsquare chin, together, with a large thick-lipped mouth, which revealsthrough the black paste within it a few much-worn but sound teeth, makeup the features of the mummied king. His moustache and beard, which wereclosely shaven in his lifetime, had grown somewhat in his last sicknessor after his death; the coarse and thick hairs in them, white like thoseof the head and eyebrows, attain a length of two or three millimetres. The skin shows an ochreous yellow colour under the black bituminousplaster. The mask of the mummy, in fact, gives a fair idea of that ofthe living king; the somewhat unintelligent expression, slightly brutishperhaps, but haughty and firm of purpose, displays itself with an airof royal majesty beneath the sombre materials used by the embalmer. The disappearance of the old hero did not produce many changes in theposition of affairs in Egypt: Mînephtah from this time forth possessedas Pharaoh the power which he had previously wielded as regent. He wasnow no longer young. Born somewhere about the beginning of the reign ofRamses II. , he was now sixty, possibly seventy, years old; thus an oldman succeeded another old man at a moment when Egypt must have neededmore than ever an active and vigorous ruler. The danger to the countrydid not on this occasion rise from the side of Asia, for the relationsof the Pharaoh with his Kharu subjects continued friendly, and, during afamine which desolated Syria, * he sent wheat to his Hittite allies. 

 * A document preserved in the _Anastasi Papyrus III. _ shows how regular the relations with Syria had become. It is the journal of a custom-house officer, or of a scribe placed at one of the frontier posts, who notes from day to day the letters, messengers, officers, and troops which passed from the 15th to the 25th of Pachons, in the IIIrd year of the reign. 

The nations, however, to the north and east, in Libya and in theMediterranean islands, had for some time past been in a restlesscondition, which boded little good to the empires of the old world. TheTirnihû, some of them tributaries from the XIIth, and others from thefirst years of the XVIIIth dynasty, had always been troublesome, butnever really dangerous neighbours. From time to time it was necessaryto send light troops against them, who, sailing along the coast orfollowing the caravan routes, would enter their territory, force themfrom their retreats, destroy their palm groves, carry off their cattle, and place garrisons in the principal oases--even in Sîwah itself. For more than a century, however, it would seem that more active andnumerically stronger populations had entered upon the stage. A currentof invasion, having its origin in the region of the Atlas, or possiblyeven in Europe, was setting towards the Nile, forcing before it thescattered tribes of the Sudan. Who were these invaders? Were theyconnected with the race which had planted its dolmens over the plains ofthe Maghreb? Whatever the answer to this question may be, we know thata certain number of Berber tribes*--the Labû and Mashaûasha--who hadoccupied a middle position between Egypt and the people behind them, and who had only irregular communications with the Nile valley, were nowpushed to the front and forced to descend upon it. **

 * The nationality of these tribes is evidenced by the names of their chiefs, which recall exactly those of the Numidians--Massyla, Massinissa, Massiva. 

 ** The Labû, Laûbû, Lobû, are mentioned for the first time under Ramses II. ; these are the Libyans of classical geographers. The Mashaûasha answer to the Maxycs of Herodotus; they furnished mercenaries to the armies of Ramses II. 

They were men tall of stature and large of limb, with fair skins, lighthair, and blue eyes; everything, in fact, indicating their northernorigin. They took pleasure in tattooing the skin, just as the Tuaregsand Kabyles are now accustomed to do, and some, if not all, of thempractised circumcision, like a portion of the Egyptians and Semites. Inthe arrangement of the hair, a curl fell upon the shoulder, while theremainder was arranged in small frizzled locks. Their chiefs and braveswore on their heads two flowering plumes. A loin-cloth, a wild-beast'sskin thrown over the back, a mantle, or rather a covering of woollenor dyed cloth, fringed and ornamented with many-coloured needlework, falling from the left shoulder with no attachment in front, so as toleave the body unimpeded in walking, --these constituted the ordinarycostume of the people. Their arms were similar to those of theEgyptians, consisting of the lance, the mace, the iron or copper dagger, the boomerang, the bow and arrow, and the sling. 

[Illustration: 253. Jpg A LIBYAN]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph. 

They also employed horses and chariots. Their bravery made them a foenot to be despised, in spite of their ignorance of tactics and theirwant of discipline. When they were afterwards formed into regiments andconducted by experienced generals, they became the best auxiliary troopswhich Egypt could boast of. The Labû from this time forward were themost energetic of the tribes, and their chiefs prided themselves uponpossessing the leadership over all the other clans in this region of theworld. *

 * This was the case in the wars of Mînephtah and Ramses III. , in which the Labû and their kings took the command of the confederate armies assembled against Egypt. 

The Labû might very well have gained the mastery over the otherinhabitants of the desert at this period, who had become enfeebledby the frequent defeats which they had sustained at the hands of theEgyptians. At the moment when Mînephtah ascended the throne, their king, Mâraîû, son of Didi, ruled over the immense territory lying between theFayûm and the two Syrtes: the Timihu, the Kahaka, and the Mashaûasharendered him the same obedience as his own people. A revolution hadthus occurred in Africa similar to that which had taken place a centurypreviously in Naharaim, when Sapalulu founded the Hittite empire. Agreat kingdom rose into being where no state capable of disturbingEgyptian control had existed before. The danger was serious. TheHittites, separated from the Nile by the whole breadth of Kharu, couldnot directly threaten any of the Egyptian cities; but the Libyans, lordsof the desert, were in contact with the Delta, and could in a few daysfall upon any point in the valley they chose. Mînephtah, therefore, hastened to resist the assault of the westerns, as his father hadformerly done that of the easterns, and, strange as it may seem, hefound among the troops of his new enemies some of the adversaries withwhom the Egyptians had fought under the walls of Qodshû sixty yearsbefore. The Shardana, Lycians, and others, having left the coasts of theDelta and the Phoenician seaports owing to the vigilant watch kept bythe Egyptians over their waters, had betaken themselves to the Libyanlittoral, where they met with a favourable reception. Whether they hadsettled in some places, and formed there those colonies of which a Greektradition of a recent age speaks, we cannot say. They certainly followedthe occupation of mercenary soldiers, and many of them hired out theirservices to the native princes, while others were enrolled among thetroops of the King of the Khâti or of the Pharaoh himself. Mâraîûbrought with him Achæans, Shardana, Tûrsha, Shagalasha, * and Lyciansin considerable numbers when he resolved to begin the strife. ** This wasnot one of those conventional little wars which aimed at nothing furtherthan the imposition of the payment of a tribute upon the conquered, orthe conquest of one of their provinces. Mâraîû had nothing less in viewthan the transport of his whole people into the Nile valley, to settlepermanently there as the Hyksôs had done before him. 

 * The Shakalasha, Shagalasha, identified with the Sicilians by E. De Rougé, were a people of Asia Minor whose position there is approximately indicated by the site of the town Sagalassos, named after them. 

 ** The _Inscription of Mînephtah_ distinguishes the Libyans of Mâraîû from "the people of the Sea. "

He set out on his march towards the end of the IVth year of thePharaoh's reign, or the beginning of his Vth, surrounded by the eliteof his troops, "the first choice from among all the soldiers and all theheroes in each land. " The announcement of their approach spread terroramong the Egyptians. The peace which they had enjoyed for fifty yearshad cooled their warlike ardour, and the machinery of their militaryorganisation had become somewhat rusty. The standing army had almostmelted away; the regiments of archers and charioteers were no longereffective, and the neglected fortresses were not strong enough toprotect the frontier. As a consequence, the oases of Farafrah and of theNatron lakes fell into the hands of the enemy at the first attack, andthe eastern provinces of the Delta became the possession of the invaderbefore any steps could be taken for their defence. Memphis, whichrealised the imminent danger, broke out into open murmurs against thenegligent rulers who had given no heed to the country's ramparts, andhad allowed the garrisons of its fortresses to dwindle away. FortunatelySyria remained quiet. The Khâti, in return for the aid afforded themby Mînephtah during the famine, observed a friendly attitude, andthe Pharaoh was thus enabled to withdraw the troops from his Asiaticprovinces. He could with perfect security take the necessary measuresfor ensuring "Heliopolis, the city of Tûmû, " against surprise, "forarming Memphis, the citadel of Phtah-Tonen, and for restoring all thingswhich were in disorder: he fortified Pibalîsît, in the neighbourhood ofthe Shakana canal, on a branch of that of Heliopolis, " and he rapidlyconcentrated his forces behind these quickly organised lines. *

 * Chabas would identify Pibalîsît with Bubastis; I agree with Brugsch in placing it at Belbeîs. 

Mâraîû, however, continued to advance; in the early months of the summerhe had crossed the Canopic branch of the Nile, and was now about toencamp not far from the town of Pirici. When the king heard of this "hebecame furious against them as a lion that fascinates its victim; hecalled his officers together and addressed them: 'I am about to make youhear the words of your master, and to teach you this: I am the sovereignshepherd who feeds you; I pass my days in seeking out that which isuseful for you: I am your father; is there among you a father like mewho makes his children live? You are trembling like geese, you do notknow what is good to do: no one gives an answer to the enemy, andour desolated land is abandoned to the incursions of all nations. Thebarbarians harass the frontier, rebels violate it every day, every onerobs it, enemies devastate our seaports, they penetrate into the fieldsof Egypt; if there is an arm of a river they halt there, they stay fordays, for months; they come as numerous as reptiles, and no one is ableto sweep them back, these wretches who love death and hate life, whosehearts meditate the consummation of our ruin. Behold, they arrive withtheir chief; they pass their time on the land which they attack infilling their stomachs every day; this is the reason why they come tothe land of Egypt, to seek their sustenance, and their intention is toinstall themselves there; mine is to catch them like fish upon theirbellies. Their chief is a dog, a poor devil, a madman; he shall neversit down again in his place. '" He then announced that on the 14th ofEpiphi he would himself conduct the troops against the enemy. 

These were brave words, but we may fancy the figure that this king ofmore than sixty years of age would have presented in a chariot in themiddle of the fray, and his competence to lead an effective chargeagainst the enemy. On the other hand, his absence in such a criticalposition of affairs would have endangered the _morale_ of his soldiersand possibly compromised the issue of the battle. A dream settled thewhole question. *

 * Ed. Meyer sees in this nothing but a customary rhetorical expression, and thinks that the god spoke in order to encourage the king to defend himself vigorously. 

While Mînephtah was asleep one night, he saw a gigantic figure of Phtahstanding before him, and forbidding him to advance. "'Stay, ' criedthe god to him, while handing him the curved khopesh: 'put awaydiscouragement from thee!' His Majesty said to him: 'But what am I to dothen?' And Phtah answered him: 'Despatch thy infantry, and send beforeit numerous chariots to the confines of the territory of Piriû. '"**

 * This name was read Pa-ari by E. De Rougé, Pa-ali by Lauth, and was transcribed Pa-ari-shop by Brugsch, who identified with Prosopitis. The orthography of the text at Athribis shows that we ought to read Piri, Pirû, Piriû; possibly the name is identical with that of larû which is mentioned in the Pyramid-texts. 

The Pharaoh obeyed the command, and did not stir from his position. Mâraîû had, in the mean time, arranged his attack for the 1st of Epiphi, at the rising of the sun: it did not take place, however, until the 3rd. "The archers of His Majesty made havoc of the barbarians for sixhours; they were cut off by the edge of the sword. " When Mâraîû sawthe carnage, "he was afraid, his heart failed him; he betook himselfto flight as fast as his feet could bear him to save his life, sosuccessfully that his bow and arrows remained behind him in hisprecipitation, as well as everything else he had upon him. " Histreasure, his arms, his wife, together with the cattle which he hadbrought with him for his use, became the prey of the conqueror; "he toreout the feathers from his head-dress, and took flight with such of thosewretched Libyans as escaped the massacre, but the officers who had thecare of His Majesty's team of horses followed in their steps" and putmost of them to the sword. Mâraîû succeeded, however, in escaping in thedarkness, and regained his own country without water or provisions, andalmost without escort. The conquering troops returned to the camp ladenwith booty, and driving before them asses carrying, as bloody tokens ofvictory, quantities of hands and phalli cut from the dead bodies of theslain. The bodies of six generals and of 6359 Libyan soldiers were foundupon the field of battle, together with 222 Shagalasha, 724 Tursha, andsome hundreds of Shardana and Achæans: several thousands of prisonerspassed in procession before the Pharaoh, and were distributed among suchof his soldiers as had distinguished themselves. These numbers show thegravity of the danger from which Egypt had escaped: the announcementof the victory filled the country with enthusiasm, all the more sincerebecause of the reality of the panic which had preceded it. The fellahîn, intoxicated with joy, addressed each other: "'Come, and let us go a longdistance on the road, for there is now no fear in the hearts ofmen. 'The fortified posts may at last be left; the citadels are now open;messengers stand at the foot of the walls and wait in the shade for theguard to awake after their siesta, to give them entrance. The militarypolice sleep on their accustomed rounds, and the people of the marshesonce more drive their herds to pasture without fear of raids, for thereare no longer marauders near at hand to cross the river; the cry of thesentinels is heard no more in the night: 'Halt, thou that comest, thouthat comest under a name which is not thine own--sheer off!' and men nolonger exclaim on the following morning: 'Such or such a thing has beenstolen;' but the towns fall once more into their usual daily routine, and he who works in the hope of the harvest, will nourish himself uponthat which he shall have reaped. " The return from Memphis to Thebes wasa triumphal march. 

[Illustration: 260. Jpg STATUE OF MÎNEPHTAH]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Dévéria. 

"He is very strong, Binrî Mînephtah, " sang the court poets, "verywise are his projects--his words have as beneficial effect as those ofThot--everything which he does is completed to the end. --When he is likea guide at the head of his armies--his voice penetrates the fortresswalls. --Very friendly to those who bow their backs--before Mîamun--hisvaliant soldiers spare him who humbles himself--before his courageand before his strength;--they fall upon the Libyans--they consume theSyrian;--the Shardana whom thou hast brought back by thysword--make prisoners of their own tribes. --Very happy thy return toThebes--victorious! Thy chariot is drawn by hand--the conquered chiefsmarch backwards before thee--whilst thou leadest them to thy venerablefather--Amon, husband of his mother. " And the poets amuse themselveswith summoning Mâraîû to appear in Egypt, pursued as he was by his ownpeople and obliged to hide himself from them. "He is nothing any longerbut a beaten man, and has become a proverb among the Labû, and hischiefs repeat to themselves: 'Nothing of the kind has occurred since thetime of Râ. ' The old men say each one to his children: 'Misfortuneto the Labû! it is all over with them! No one can any longer passpeacefully across the country; but the power of going out of ourland has been taken from us in a single day, and the Tihonu have beenwithered up in a single year; Sûtkhû has ceased to be their chief, andhe devastates their "duars;" there is nothing left but to conceal one'sself, and one feels nowhere secure except in a fortress. '" The news ofthe victory was carried throughout Asia, and served to discourage thetendencies to revolt which were beginning to make themselves manifestthere. "The chiefs gave there their salutations of peace, and none amongthe nomads raised his head after the crushing defeat of the Libyans;Khâti is at peace, Canaan is a prisoner as far as the disaffected areconcerned, the inhabitant of Ascalon is led away, Gezer is carried intocaptivity, Ianuâmîm is brought to nothing, the Israîlû are destroyed andhave no longer seed, Kharu is like a widow of the land of Egypt. "*

 * This passage is taken from a stele discovered by Petrie in 1896, on the site of the Amenophium at Thebes. The mention of the Israîlû immediately calls to mind the place-names Yushaph-îlu, Yakob-îlu, on lists of Thûtmosis III. Which have been compared with the names Jacob and Joseph. 

Mînephtah ought to have followed up his opportunity to the end, but hehad no such intention, and his inaction gave Mâraîû time to breathe. Perhaps the effort which he had made had exhausted his resources, perhaps old age prevented him from prosecuting his success; he wascontent, in any case, to station bodies of pickets on the frontier, and to fortify a few new positions to the east of the Delta. The Libyankingdom was now in the same position as that in which the Hittite hadbeen after the campaign of Seti I. : its power had been checked for themoment, but it remained intact on the Egyptian frontier, awaiting itsopportunity. 

Mînephtah lived for some time after this memorable year* and the numberof monuments which belong to this period show that he reigned in peace. We can see that he carried out works in the same places as his fatherbefore him; at Tanis as well as Thebes, in Nubia as well as in theDelta. He worked the sandstone quarries for his building materials, and continued the custom of celebrating the feasts of the inundation atSilsileh. One at least of the stelae which he set up on the occasion ofthese feasts is really a chapel, with its architraves and columns, andstill, excites the admiration of the traveller on account both of itsform and of its picturesque appearance. 

 * The last known year of his reign is the year VIII. The lists of Manetho assign to him a reign of from twenty to forty years; Brugsch makes it out to have been thirty-four years, from 1300 to 1266 B. C. , which is evidently too much, but we may attribute to him without risk of serious error a reign of about twenty years. 

The last years of his life were troubled by the intrigues of princes whoaspired to the throne, and by the ambition of the ministers to whom hewas obliged to delegate his authority. 

[Illustration: 263. Jpg THE CHAPELS OF RAMSES II. AND MINEPHTAH ATSISILEH]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. 

One of the latter, a man of Semite origin, named Ben-Azana, ofZor-bisana, who had assumed the appellation of his first patron, ramsesûpirnirî, appears to have acted for him as regent. Mînephtahwas succeeded, apparently, by one of his sons, called Seti, after hisgreat-grandfather. * Seti II. Had doubtless reached middle age at thetime of his accession, but his portraits represent him, nevertheless, with the face and figure of a young man. ** The expression in these isgentle, refined, haughty, and somewhat melancholic. MU It is the typeof Seti I. And Ramses II. , but enfeebled and, as it were, saddened. Aninscription of his second year attributes to him victories in Asia, ***but others of the same period indicate the existence of disturbancessimilar to those which had troubled the last years of his father. 

 * E. De Rougé introduced Amenmeses and Siphtah between Mînephtah and Seti II. , and I had up to the present followed his example; I have come back to the position of Chabas, making Seti II. The immediate successor of Mînephtah, which is also the view of Brugsch, Wiedemann, and Ed. Meyer. The succession as it is now given does not seem to me to be free from difficulties; the solution generally adopted has only the merit of being preferable to that of E. De Rougé, which I previously supported. 

 ** The last date known of his reign is the year II. Which is found at Silsilis; Chabas was, nevertheless, of the opinion that he reigned a considerable time. 

 *** The expressions employed in this document do not vary much from the usual protocol of all kings of this period. The triumphal chant of Seti II. Preserved in the _Anastasi Papyrus IV_. Is a copy of the triumphal chant of Mînephtah, which is in the same Papyrus. 

[Illustration: 264. Jpg STATUE OF SETI II. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph. 

These were occasioned by a certain Aiari, who was high priest of Phtah, and who had usurped titles belonged ordinarily to the Pharaoh or hiseldest son, in the house of Sibû, "heir and hereditary prince of the twolands. " Seti died, it would seem, without having had time to finish histomb. We do not know whether he left any legitimate children, but twosovereigns succeeded him who were not directly connected with him, butwere probably the grandsons of the Amenmesis and the Siphtah, whom wemeet with among the children of Ramses. The first of these was alsocalled Amenmesis, * and he held sway for several years over the whole ofEgypt, and over its foreign possessions. 

 * Graffiti of this sovereign have been found at the second cataract. Certain expressions have induced E. De Rougé to believe that he, as well as Siphtah, came originally from Khibît in the Aphroditopolite nome. This was an allusion, as Chabas had seen, to the myth of Horus, similar to that relating to Thûtmosis III. , and which we more usually meet with in the cases of those kings who were not marked out from their birth onwards for the throne. 

[Illustration: 265. Jpg SETI II. ]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey. 

The second, who was named Siphtah-Mînephtah, ascended "the throne of hisfather" thanks to the devotion of his minister Baî, * but in a greaterdegree to his marriage with a certain princess called Tausirît. Hemaintained himself in this position for at least six years, during whichhe made an expedition into Ethiopia, and received in audience atThebes messengers from all foreign nations. He kept up so zealously theappearance of universal dominion, that to judge from his inscriptionshe must have been the equal of the most powerful of his predecessors atThebes. 

Egypt, nevertheless, was proceeding at a quick pace towards itsdownfall. No sooner had this monarch disappeared than it began to breakup. ** There were no doubt many claimants for the crown, but none of themsucceeded in disposing of the claims of his rivals, and anarchy reignedsupreme from one end of the Nile valley to the other. The land of Qîmîtbegan to drift away, and the people within it had no longer a sovereign, and this, too, for many years, until other times came; for "the land ofQîmît was in the hands of the princes ruling over the nomes, and theyput each other to death, both great and small. 

 * Baî has left two inscriptions behind him, one at Silsilis and the other at Sehêl, and the titles he assumes on both monuments show the position he occupied at the Theban court during the reign of Siphtah-Mînephtah. Chabas thought that Baî had succeeded in maintaining his rights to the crown against the claims of Amenmesis. 

 ** The little that we know about this period of anarchy has been obtained from the _Harris Papyrus_. 

Other times came afterwards, during years of nothingness, in whichArisu, a Syrian, * was chief among them, and the whole country paidtribute before him; every one plotted with his neighbour to steal thegoods of others, and it was the same with regard to the gods as withregard to men, offerings were no longer made in the temples. "

 * The name of this individual was deciphered by Chabas; Lauth, and after him Krall, were inclined to read it as Ket, Ketesh, in order to identify it with the Ketes of Diodorus Siculus. A form of the name Arisai in the Bible may be its original, or that of Arish which is found in Phoenician, especially Punic, inscriptions. 

This was in truth the revenge of the feudal system upon Pharaoh. Thebarons, kept in check by Ahmosis and Amenôthes I. , restricted by thesuccessors of these sovereigns to the position of simple officers of theking, profited by the general laxity to recover as many as possible oftheir ancient privileges. For half a century and more, fortune had giventhem as masters only aged princes, not capable of maintaining continuousvigilance and firmness. The invasions of the peoples of the sea, therivalry of the claimants to the throne, and the intrigues of ministershad, one after the other, served to break the bonds which fettered them, and in one generation they were able to regain that liberty of actionof which they had been deprived for centuries. To this state ofthings Egypt had been drifting from the earliest times. Unity could bemaintained only by a continuous effort, and once this became relaxed, the ties which bound the whole country together were soon broken. Therewas another danger threatening the country beside that arising fromthe weakening of the hands of the sovereign, and the turbulence of thebarons. For some three centuries the Theban Pharaohs were accustomed tobring into the country after each victorious campaign many thousands ofcaptives. The number of foreigners around them had, therefore, increasedin a striking manner. The majority of these strangers either diedwithout issue, or their posterity became assimilated to the indigenousinhabitants. In many places, however, they had accumulated in suchproportions that they were able to retain among themselves theremembrance of their origin, their religion, and their customs, and withthese the natural desire to leave the country of their exile for theirformer fatherland. As long as a strict watch was kept over them theyremained peaceful subjects, but as soon as this vigilance was relaxedrebellion was likely to break out, especially amongst those who workedin the quarries. Traditions of the Greek period contain certain romanticepisodes in the history of these captives. Some Babylonian prisonersbrought back by Sesostris, these traditions tell us, unable to endureany longer the fatiguing work to which they were condemned, broke outinto open revolt. 

[Illustration: 268. Jpg AMENMESIS]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after a picture in Rosellini. 

They made themselves masters of a position almost opposite Memphis, andcommanding the river, and held their ground there with such obstinacythat it was found necessary to give up to them the province which theyoccupied: they built here a town, which they afterwards called Babylon. A similar legend attributes the building of the neighbouring village ofTroîû to captives from Troy. *

The scattered barbarian tribes of the Delta, whether Hebrews or theremnant of the ïïyksôs, had endured there a miserable lot ever since theaccession of the Ramessides. The rebuilding of the cities which hadbeen destroyed there during the wars with the Hyksôs had restricted theextent of territory on which they could pasture their herds. Ramses II. Treated them as slaves of the treasury, ** and the Hebrews were not longunder his rule before they began to look back with regret on the time ofthe monarchs "who knew Joseph. "**

 * The name Babylon comes probably from _Banbonu, Barbonu, Babonu_--a term which, under the form _Hât-Banbonu, _ served to designate a quarter of Heliopolis, or rather a suburban village of that city. Troja was, as we have seen, the ancient city of Troîû, now Tûrah, celebrated for its quarries of fine limestone. The narratives collected by the historians whom Diodorus consulted were products of the Saite period, and intended to explain to Greeks the existence on Egyptian territory of names recalling those of Babylon in Chaldæa and of Homeric Troy. 

 ** A very ancient tradition identifies Ramses II. With the Pharaoh "who knew not Joseph" (_Exod. _ i. 8). Recent excavations showing that the great works in the east of the Delta began under this king, or under Seti II. At the earliest, confirm in a general way the accuracy of the traditional view: I have, therefore, accepted it in part, and placed the Exodus after the death of Ramses II. Other authorities place it further back, and Lieblein in 1863 was inclined to put it under Amenôthes III. 

The Egyptians set over them taskmasters to afflict them with theirburdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were "grieved because of the children of Israel. "* A secondaryversion of the same narrative gives a more detailed account of theircondition: "They made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortarand in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. "** Theunfortunate slaves awaited only an opportunity to escape from thecruelty of their persecutors. 

 * _Exod_. I. 11, 12. Excavations made by Naville have brought to light near Tel el-Maskhutah the ruins of one of the towns which the Hebrews of the Alexandrine period identified with the cities constructed by their ancestors in Egypt: the town excavated by Naville is Pitûmû, and consequently the Pithom of the Biblical account, and at the same time also the Succoth of Exod. Xii. 37, xiii. 20, the first station of the Bnê-Israel after leaving Ramses. 

 ** _Exod, _ i. 13, 14. 

The national traditions of the Hebrews inform us that the king, indispleasure at seeing them increase so mightily notwithstanding hisrepression, commanded the midwives to strangle henceforward their malechildren at their birth. A woman of the house of Levi, after havingconcealed her infant for three months, put him in an ark of bulrushesand consigned him to the Nile, at a place where the daughter of Pharaohwas accustomed to bathe. The princess on perceiving the child hadcompassion on him, adopted him, called him Moses--saved from thewaters--and had him instructed in all the knowledge of the Egyptians. Moses had already attained forty years of age, when he one dayencountered an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, and slew him in his anger, shortly afterwards fleeing into the land of Midian. Here he found anasylum, and Jethro the priest gave him one of his daughters in marriage. After forty years of exile, God, appearing to him in a burning bush, sent him to deliver His people. The old Pharaoh was dead, but Moses andhis brother Aaron betook themselves to the court of the new Pharaoh, anddemanded from him permission for the Hebrews to sacrifice in the desertof Arabia. They obtained it, as we know, only after the inflictionof the ten plagues, and after the firstborn of the Egyptians had beenstricken. * The emigrants started from Ramses; as they were pursued by abody of troops, the Sea parted its waters to give them passage over thedry ground, and closing up afterwards on the Egyptian hosts, overwhelmedthem to a man. Thereupon Moses and the children of Israel sang this songunto Jahveh, saying: "Jahveh is my strength and song--and He has becomemy salvation. --This is my God, and I will praise Him, --my father's God, and I will exalt Him. --The Lord is a man of war, --and Jahveh is Hisname. --Pharaoh's chariots and his hosts hath He cast into the sea, --and his chosen captains are sunk in the sea of weeds. --The deeps coverthem--they went down into the depths like a stone.... The enemy said: 'Iwill pursue, I will overtake--I will divide the spoil--my lust shallbe satiated upon them--I will draw my sword--my hand shall destroythem. '--Thou didst blow with Thy wind--the sea covered them--they sankas lead in the mighty waters. "**

 * _Exod. _ ii. -xiii. I have limited myself here to a summary of the Biblical narrative, without entering into a criticism of the text, which I leave to others. 

 ** _Exod. _ xv. 1-10 (R. V. )

From this narrative we see that the Hebrews, or at least those of themwho dwelt in the Delta, made their escape from their oppressors, andtook refuge in the solitudes of Arabia. According to the opinion ofaccredited historians, this Exodus took place in the reign of Mînephtah, and the evidence of the triumphal inscription, lately discovered byProf. Petrie, seems to confirm this view, in relating that the people ofIsraîlû were destroyed, and had no longer a seed. The context indicatespretty clearly that these ill-treated Israîlû were then somewhere southof Syria, possibly in the neighbourhood of Ascalon and Glezer. If it isthe Biblical Israelites who are here mentioned for the first time on anEgyptian monument, one might suppose that they had just quitted the landof slavery to begin their wanderings through the desert. Although thepeoples of the sea and the Libyans did not succeed in reaching theirsettlements in the land of Goshen, the Israelites must have profitedboth by the disorder into which the Egyptians were thrown by theinvaders, and by the consequent withdrawal to Memphis of the troopspreviously stationed on the east of the Delta, to break away from theirservitude and cross the frontier. If, on the other hand, the Israîlû ofMînephtah are regarded as a tribe still dwelling among the mountains ofCanaan, while the greater part of the race had emigrated to the banksof the Nile, there is no need to seek long after Mînephtah for a datesuiting the circumstances of the Exodus. The years following the reignof Seti II. Offer favourable conditions for such a dangerous enterprise:the break-up of the monarchy, the discords of the barons, the revoltsamong the captives, and the supremacy of a Semite over the other chiefs, must have minimised the risk. We can readily understand how, in themidst of national disorders, a tribe of foreigners weary of its lotmight escape from its settlements and betake itself towards Asia withoutmeeting with strenous opposition from the Pharaoh, who would naturallybe too much preoccupied with his own pressing necessities to troublehimself much over the escape of a band of serfs. 

Having crossed the Red Sea, the Israelites pursued their course tothe north-east on the usual road leading into Syria, and then turningtowards the south, at length arrived at Sinai. It was a moment whenthe nations of Asia were stirring. To proceed straight to Canaan bythe beaten track would have been to run the risk of encountering theirmoving hordes, or of jostling against the Egyptian troops, who stillgarrisoned the strongholds of the She-phelah. The fugitives had, therefore, to shun the great military roads if they were to avoid cominginto murderous conflict with the barbarians, or running into the teethof Pharaoh's pursuing army. The desert offered an appropriate asylum topeople of nomadic inclinations like themselves; they betook themselvesto it as if by instinct, and spent there a wandering life for severalgenerations. *

 * This explanation of the wanderings of the Israelites has been doubted by most historians: it has a cogency, once we admit the reality of the sojourn in Egypt and the Exodus. 

The traditions collected in their sacred books described at length theirmarches and their halting-places, the great sufferings they endured, andthe striking miracles which God performed on their behalf. *

 * The itinerary of the Hebrew people through the desert contains a very small number of names which were not actually in use. They represent possibly either the stations at which the caravans of the merchants put up, or the localities where the Bedawin and their herds were accustomed to sojourn. The majority of them cannot be identified, but enough can still be made out to give us a general idea of the march of the emigrants. 

Moses conducted them through all these experiences, continually troubledby their murmurings and seditions, but always ready to help them out ofthe difficulties into which they were led, on every occasion, by theirwant of faith. He taught them, under God's direction, how to correct thebitterness of brackish waters by applying to them the wood of a certaintree. * When they began to look back with regret to the "flesh-potsof Egypt" and the abundance of food there, another signal miracle wasperformed for them. "At even the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay round about the host; and when the dewthat lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there laya small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And whenthe children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, 'What is it?'for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, 'It is thebread which the Lord hath given you to eat. '"**

 * _Exod. _ xv. 23-25. The station Marah, "the bitter waters, " is identified by modern tradition with Ain Howarah. There is a similar way of rendering waters potable still in use among the Bedawin of these regions. 

 ** _Exod. _ xvi. 13-15. 

"And the house of Israel called the name thereof 'manna: 'and it waslike coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers madewith honey. "* "And the children of Israel did eat the manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat the manna until theycame unto the borders of the land of Canaan. "** Further on, at Eephidim, the water failed: Moses struck the rocks at Horeb, and a spring gushedout. *** The Amalekites, in the meantime, began to oppose theirpassage; and one might naturally doubt the power of a rabble of slaves, unaccustomed to war, to break through such an obstacle. Joshua was madetheir general, "and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of thehill: and it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israelprevailed, and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. ButMoses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, andhe sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on theone side, and the other on the other side, and his hands were steadyuntil the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and hispeople with the edge of the sword. "****

 * _Exod. _ xvi. 31. Prom early times the manna of the Hebrews had been identified with the mann-es-sama, "the gift of heaven, " of the Arabs, which exudes in small quantities from the leaves of the tamarisk after being pricked by insects: the question, however, is still under discussion whether another species of vegetable manna may not be meant. 

 ** _Exod. _ xvi. 35. 

 *** _Exod. _ xvii. 1-7. There is a general agreement as to the identification of Rephidim with the Wady Peîrân, the village of Pharan of the Græco-Roman geographers. 

 **** Exod. Xvii. 8-13. 

Three months after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt theyencamped at the foot of Sinai, and "the Lord called unto Moses out ofthe mountain, saying, 'Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, andtell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself. Nowtherefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, thenye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me from among all peoples: for allthe earth is Mine: and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and anholy nation. ' The people answered together and said, 'All that the Lordhath spoken we will do. ' And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Lo, I come untothee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and may also believe thee for ever. '" "On the third day, when it wasmorning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon themount, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud; and all the peoplethat were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the peopleout of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the nether part of themountain. And Mount Sinai was altogether on smoke, because the Lorddescended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smokeof a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice ofthe trumpet waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered himby a voice. "*

 * _Exod. _ xix. 3-6, 9, 16-19. 

Then followed the giving of the supreme law, the conditions of thecovenant which the Lord Himself deigned to promulgate directly to Hispeople. It was engraved on two tables of stone, and contained, in tenconcise statements, the commandments which the Creator of the Universeimposed upon the people of His choice. 

"I. I am Jahveh, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Thou shalthave none other gods before Me. 

II. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, etc. 

III. Thou shalt not take the name of Jahveh thy God in vain. 

IV. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. 

V. Honour thy father and thy mother. 

VI. Thou shalt do no murder. 

VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

VIII. Thou shalt not steal. 

IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 

X. Thou shalt not covet. "*

 * We have two forms of the Decalogue--one in _Exod. _ xx. 2- 17, and the other in _Deut. _ v. 6-18. 

"And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and thevoice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people sawit, they trembled, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, 'Speakthou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lestwe die. '"* God gave His commandments to Moses in instalments as thecircumstances required them: on one occasion the rites of sacrifice, the details of the sacerdotal vestments, the mode of consecrating thepriests, the composition of the oil and the incense for the altar; lateron, the observance of the three annual festivals, and the orders as toabsolute rest on the seventh day, as to the distinctions between cleanand unclean animals, as to drink, as to the purification of women, andlawful and unlawful marriages. **

 * _Exod. _ xx. 18, 19. 

 ** This legislation and the history of the circumstances on which it was promulgated are contained in four of the books of the Pentateuch, viz. _Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy_. Any one of the numerous text-books published in Germany will be found to contain an analysis of these books, and the prevalent opinions as to the date of the documents which it [the Hexateuch] contains. I confine myself here and afterwards only to such results as may fitly be used in a general history. 

The people waited from week to week until Jahveh had completed therevelation of His commands, and in their impatience broke the new lawmore than once. On one occasion, when "Moses delayed to come out of themount, " they believed themselves abandoned by heaven, and obliged Aaron, the high priest, to make for them a golden calf, before which theyoffered burnt offerings. The sojourn of the people at the foot of Sinailasted eleven months. At the end of this period they set out once moreon their slow marches to the Promised Land, guided during the day bya cloud, and during the night by a pillar of fire, which moved beforethem. This is a general summary of what we find in the sacred writings. 

The Israelites, when they set out from Egypt, were not yet a nation. They were but a confused horde, flying with their herds from theirpursuers; with no resources, badly armed, and unfit to sustain theattack of regular troops. After leaving Sinai, they wandered for sometime among the solitudes of Arabia Petraea in search of some uninhabitedcountry where they could fix their tents, and at length settled onthe borders of Idumaea, in the mountainous region surroundingKadesh-Barnea. * Kadesh had from ancient times a reputation for sanctityamong the Bedawin of the neighbourhood: it rejoiced in the possessionof a wonderful well--the Well of Judgment--to which visits were madefor the purpose of worship, and for obtaining the "judgment" of God. Thecountry is a poor one, arid and burnt up, but it contains wells whichnever fail, and wadys suitable for the culture of wheat and for therearing of cattle. The tribe which became possessed of a region inwhich there was a perennial supply of water was fortunate indeed, anda fragment of the psalmody of Israel at the time of their sojourn herestill echoes in a measure the transports of joy which the people gaveway to at the discovery of a new spring: "Spring up, O well; sing yeunto it: the well which the princes digged, which the nobles of thepeople delved with the sceptre and with their staves. "**

 * The site of Kadesh-Barnea appears to have been fixed with certainty at Ain-Qadis by C. Trumbull. 

 ** _Numb. _ xxi. 17, 18. The context makes it certain that this song was sung at Beer, beyond the Arnon, in the land of Moab. It has long been recognised that it had a special reference, and that it refers to an incident in the wanderings of the people through the desert. 

The wanderers took possession of this region after some successfulbrushes with the enemy, and settled there, without being furthertroubled by their neighbours or by their former masters. The Egyptians, indeed, absorbed in their civil discords, or in wars with foreignnations, soon forgot their escaped slaves, and never troubled themselvesfor centuries over what had become of the poor wretches, until in thereign of the Ptolemies, when they had learned from the Bible somethingof the people of God, they began to seek in their own annals for tracesof their sojourn in Egypt and of their departure from the country. Anew version of the Exodus was the result, in which Hebrew tradition wasclumsily blended with the materials of a semi-historical romance, ofwhich Amenôthes III. Was the hero. His minister and namesake, Amenôthes, son of Hâpû, left ineffaceable impressions on the minds of theinhabitants of Thebes: he not only erected the colossal figures in theAmenophium, but he constructed the chapel at Deîr el-Medineh, which wasafterwards restored in Ptolemaic times, and where he continued to beworshipped as long as the Egyptian religion lasted. Profound knowledgeof the mysteries of magic were attributed to him, as in later times toPrince Khâmoîsît, son of Ramses II. On this subject he wrote certainworks which maintained their reputation for more than a thousand yearsafter his death, * and all that was known about him marked him out forthe important part he came to play in those romantic stories so popularamong the Egyptians. 

 * One of these books, which is mentioned in several religious texts, is preserved in the _Louvre Papyrus_. 

The Pharaoh in whose good graces he lived had a desire, we are informed, to behold the gods, after the example of his ancestor Horus. The son ofHâpû, or Pa-Apis, informed him that he could not succeed in his designuntil he had expelled from the country all the lepers and uncleanpersons who contaminated it. Acting on this information, he broughttogether all those who suffered from physical defects, and confinedthem, to the number of eighty thousand, in the quarries of Tûrah. Therewere priests among them, and the gods became wrathful at the treatmentto which their servants were exposed; the soothsayer, therefore, fearingthe divine anger, predicted that certain people would shortly arise who, forming an alliance with the Unclean, would, together with them, holdsway in Egypt for thirteen years. He then committed suicide, but theking nevertheless had compassion on the outcasts, and granted to them, for their exclusive use, the town of Avaris, which had been desertedsince the time of Ahmosis. The outcasts formed themselves into a nationunder the rule of a Heliopolitan priest called Osarsyph, or Moses, who gave them laws, mobilised them, and joined his forces with thedescendants of the Shepherds at Jerusalem. The Pharaoh Amenôphis, takenby surprise at this revolt, and remembering the words of his ministerAmenôthes, took flight into Ethiopia. The shepherds, in league with theUnclean, burned the towns, sacked the temples, and broke in pieces thestatues of the gods: they forced the Egyptian priests to slaughter eventheir sacred animals, to cut them up and cook them for their foes, whoate them derisively in their accustomed feasts. Amenôphis returned fromEthiopia, together with his son Ramses, at the end of thirteen years, defeated the enemy, driving them back into Syria, where the remainder ofthem became later on the Jewish nation. *

 * A list of the Pharaohs after Aï, as far as it is possible to make them out, is here given:

[Illustration: 281. Jpg Table]

This is but a romance, in which a very little history is mingled with agreat deal of fable: the scribes as well as the people were acquaintedwith the fact that Egypt had been in danger of dissolution at the timewhen the Hebrews left the banks of the Nile, but they were ignorantof the details, of the precise date and of the name of the reigningPharaoh. A certain similarity in sound suggested to them the ideaof assimilating the prince whom the Chroniclers called Menepthes orAmenepthes with Amen-ôthes, i. E. Amenophis III. ; and they gave to thePharaoh of the XIXth dynasty the minister who had served under a king ofthe XVIIIth: they metamorphosed at the same time the Hebrews into lepersallied with the Shepherds. From this strange combination there resulteda narrative which at once fell in with the tastes of the lovers of themarvellous, and was a sufficient substitute for the truth which hadlong since been forgotten. As in the case of the Egyptians of the Greekperiod, we can see only through a fog what took place after the deathsof Mînephtah and Seti II. We know only for certain that the chiefs ofthe nomes were in perpetual strife with each other, and that a foreignpower was dominant in the country as in the time of Apôphis. The days ofthe empire would have Harmhabî himself belonged to the XVIIIth dynasty, for he modelled the form of his cartouches on those of the AhmessidePharaohs: the XIXth dynasty began only, in all probability, with RamsesI. , but the course of the history has compelled me to separate Harmhabîfrom his predecessors. Not knowing the length of the reigns, we cannotdetermine the total duration of the dynasty: we shall not, however, befar wrong in assigning to it a length of 130 years or thereabouts, i. E. From 1350 to somewhere near 1220 B. C. Been numbered if a deliverer hadnot promptly made his appearance. The direct line of Ramses II. Wasextinct, but his innumerable sons by innumerable concubines had left aposterity out of which some at least might have the requisite abilityand zeal, if not to save the empire, at least to lengthen its duration, and once more give to Thebes days of glorious prosperity. Egypt had setout some five centuries before this for the conquest of the world, andfortune had at first smiled upon her enterprise. Thûtmosis I. , ThûtmosisIII. , and the several Pharaohs bearing the name of Amenôthes had marchedwith their armies from the upper waters of the Nile to the banks of theEuphrates, and no power had been able to withstand them. New nations, however, soon rose up to oppose her, and the Hittites in Asia and theLibyans of the Sudan together curbed her ambition. Neither the triumphsof Ramses II. Nor the victory of Mînephtah had been able to restore herprestige, or the lands of which her rivals had robbed her beyond herancient frontier. Now her own territory itself was threatened, and herown well-being was in question; she was compelled to consider, nothow to rule other tribes, great or small, but how to keep her ownpossessions intact and independent: in short, her very existence was atstake. 

CHAPTER III--THE CLOSE OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE

_RAMSES III. --THE THEBAN CITY UNDER THE RAMESSIDES--MANNERS ANDCUSTOMS. _

_Nalthtâsît and Ramses III. : the decline of the military spirit inEgypt--The reorganisation of the army and fleet by Ramses--The secondLibyan invasion--The Asiatic peoples, the Pulasati, the Zakleala, andthe Tyrseni: their incursions into Syria and their defeat--The campaignof the year XL and the fall of the Libyan kingdom--Cruising on the RedSea--The buildings at Medinet-Habû--The conspiracy of Pentaûîrît--Themummy of Ramses III. _

_The sons and immediate successors of Ramses III. --Thebes and theEgyptian population: the transformation of the people and of the greatlords: the feudal system from being military becomes religious--Thewealth of precious metals, jewellery, furniture, costume--Literaryeducation, and the influence of the Semitic language on the Egyptian:romantic stories, the historical novel, fables, caricatures and satires, collections of maxims and moral dialogues, love-poems. _

[Illustration: 287. Jpg Page Image]

CHAPTER III--THE CLOSE OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE

_Ramses III. --The Theban city under the Ramessides--Manners andcustoms. _

As in a former crisis, Egypt once more owed her salvation to a scionof the old Theban race. A descendant of Seti I. Or Ramses II. , namedNakhtûsît, rallied round him the forces of the southern nomes, andsucceeded, though not without difficulty, in dispossessing the SyrianArisû. "When he arose, he was like Sûtkhû, providing for all thenecessities of the country which, for feebleness, could not stand, killing the rebels which were in the Delta, purifying the great throneof Egypt; he was regent of the two lands in the place of Tûmû, settinghimself to reorganise that which had been overthrown, to such goodpurpose, that each one recognised as brethren those who had beenseparated from him as by a wall for so long a time, strengtheningthe temples by pious gifts, so that the traditional rites could becelebrated at the divine cycles. "*

 * The exact relationship between Nakhtûsît and Ramses II. Is not known; he was probably the grandson or great-grandson of that sovereign, though Ed. Meyer thinks he was perhaps the son of Seti II. The name should be read either Nakhîtsît, with the singular of the first word composing it, or Nakhîtûsît, Nakhtûsît, with the plural, as in the analogous name of the king of the XXXth dynasty, Nectanebo. 

Many were the difficulties that he had to encounter before he couldrestore to his country that peace and wealth which she had enjoyed underthe long reign of Sesostris. It seems probable that his advancing yearsmade him feel unequal to the task, or that he desired to guard againstthe possibility of disturbances in the event of his sudden death; atall events, he associated with himself on the throne his eldest sonRamses--not, however, as a Pharaoh who had full rights to the crown, like the coadjutors of the Amenemhâîts and Usirtasens, but as a princeinvested with extraordinary powers, after the example of the sons of thePharaohs Thûtmosis and Seti I. Ramses recalls with pride, towards theclose of his life, how his father "had promoted him to the dignity ofheir-presumptive to the throne of Sibû, " and how he had been acclaimedas "the supreme head of Qimît for the administration of the whole earthunited together. "* This constituted the rise of a new dynasty on theruins of the old--the last, however, which was able to retain thesupremacy of Egypt over the Oriental world. We are unable to ascertainhow long this double reign lasted. 

 * The only certain monument that we as yet possess of this double reign is a large stele cut on the rock behind Medinet-Habû. 

[Illustration: 289. Jpg NAKHTÛSÎT. ]

Nakhtûsît, fully occupied by enemies within the country, had no leisureeither to build or to restore any monuments;* on his death, as no tombhad been prepared for him, his mummy was buried in that of the usurperSiphtah and the Queen Tausirît. 

 * Wiedemann attributes to him the construction of one of the doors of the temple of Mût at Karnak; it would appear that there is a confusion in his notes between the prenomen of this sovereign and that of Seti II. , who actually did decorate one of the doorways of that temple. Nakhûsît must have also worked on the temple of Phtah at Memphis. His cartouche is met with on a statue originally dedicated by a Pharaoh of the XIIth dynasty, discovered at Tell-Nebêsheh. 

He was soon forgotten, and but few traces of his services survived him;his name was subsequently removed from the official list of the kings, while others not so deserving as he--as, for instance, Siphtah-Minephtahand Amenmesis--were honourably inscribed in it. The memory of his sonovershadowed his own, and the series of the legitimate kings who formedthe XXth dynasty did not include him. Ramses III. Took for his hero hisnamesake, Ramses the Great, and endeavoured to rival him in everything. This spirit of imitation was at times the means of leading him to commitsomewhat puerile acts, as, for example, when he copied certaintriumphal inscriptions word for word, merely changing the dates andthe cartouches, * or when he assumed the prenomen of Usirmârî, anddistributed among his male children the names and dignities of the sonsof Sesostris. We see, moreover, at his court another high priest ofPhtah at Memphis bearing the name of Khâmoîsît, and Marîtûmû, anothersupreme pontiff of Râ in Heliopolis. However, this ambition to resemblehis ancestor at once instigated him to noble deeds, and gave him thenecessary determination to accomplish them. 

 * Thus the great decree of Phtah-Totûnen, carved by Ramses II. In the year XXXV. On the rocks of Abu Simbel, was copied by Ramses III. At Medinet-Habû in the year XII. 

He began by restoring order in the administration of affairs; "heestablished truth, crushed error, purified the temple from all crime, "and made his authority felt not only in the length and breadth of theNile valley, but in what was still left of the Asiatic provinces. The disturbances of the preceding years had weakened the prestige ofAmon-Râ, and the king's supremacy would have been seriously endangered, had any one arisen in Syria of sufficient energy to take advantage ofthe existing state of affairs. But since the death of Khâtusaru, thepower of the Khâti had considerably declined, and they retained theirposition merely through their former prestige; they were in as much needof peace, or even more so, than the Egyptians, for the same discordswhich had harassed the reigns of Seti II. And his successors haddoubtless brought trouble to their own sovereigns. They had made noserious efforts to extend their dominion over any of those countrieswhich had been the objects of the cupidity of their forefathers, whilethe peoples of Kharu and Phoenicia, thrown back on their own resources, had not ventured to take up arms against the Pharaoh. The yoke laylightly upon them, and in no way hampered their internal liberty; theygoverned as they liked, they exchanged one prince or chief for another, they waged petty wars as of old, without, as a rule, exposing themselvesto interference from the Egyptian troops occupying the country, or fromthe "royal messengers. " These vassal provinces had probably ceased topay tribute, or had done so irregularly, during the years of anarchyfollowing the death of Siphtah, but they had taken no concerted action, nor attempted any revolt, so that when Ramses III. Ascended the thronehe was spared the trouble of reconquering them. He had merely to claimallegiance to have it at once rendered him--an allegiance which includedthe populations in the neighbourhood of Qodshû and on the banks of theNahr el-Kelb. The empire, which had threatened to fall to pieces amidthe civil wars, and which would indeed have succumbed had they continueda few years longer, again revived now that an energetic prince had beenfound to resume the direction of affairs, and to weld together thoseelements which had been on the point of disintegration. 

One state alone appeared to regret the revival of the Imperial power;this was the kingdom of Libya. It had continued to increase in sizesince the days of Mînephtah, and its population had been swelled by theannexation of several strange tribes inhabiting the vast area of theSahara. One of these, the Mashaûasha, acquired the ascendency amongthese desert races owing to their numbers and valour, and together withthe other tribes--the Sabati, the Kaiakasha, the Shaîû, the Hasa, theBikana, and the Qahaka*--formed a confederacy, which now threatenedEgypt on the west. This federation was conducted by Didi, Mashaknû, and Mâraîû, all children of that Mâraîû who had led the first Libyaninvasion, and also by Zamarû and Zaûtmarû, two princes of less importanttribes. ** Their combined forces had attacked Egypt for the second timeduring the years of anarchy, and had gained possession one after anotherof all the towns in the west of the Delta, from the neighbourhood ofMemphis to the town of Qarbîna: the Canopic branch of the Nile nowformed the limit of their dominion, and they often crossed it todevastate the central provinces. ***

 * This enumeration is furnished by the summary of the campaigns of Ramses III. In _The Great Harris Papyrus_. The Sabati of this text are probably identical with the people of the Sapudiu or Spudi (Asbytse), mentioned on one of the pylons of Medinet-Habû. 

 ** The relationship is nowhere stated, but it is thought to be probable from the names of Didi and Mâraîû, repeated in both series of inscriptions. 

 *** The town of Qarbîna has been identified with the Canopus of the Greeks, and also with the modern Korbani; and the district of Gautu, which adjoined it, with the territory of the modern town of Edkô. Spiegel-berg throws doubt on the identification of Qarbu or Qarbîna, with Canopus. Révillout prefers to connect Qarbîna with Heracleopolis Parva in Lower Egypt. 

Nakhtûsîti had been unable to drive them out, and Ramses had notventured on the task immediately after his accession. The militaryinstitutions of the country had become totally disorganised after thedeath of Mînephtah, and that part of the community responsible forfurnishing the army with recruits had been so weakened by the latetroubles, that they were in a worse condition than before the firstLibyan invasion. The losses they had suffered since Egypt began itsforeign conquests had not been repaired by the introduction of freshelements, and the hope of spoil was now insufficient to induce membersof the upper classes to enter the army. There was no difficulty infilling the ranks from the fellahîn, but the middle class and thearistocracy, accustomed to ease and wealth, no longer came forward inlarge numbers, and disdained the military profession. It was the fashionin the schools to contrast the calling of a scribe with that of afoot-soldier or a charioteer, and to make as merry over the discomfortsof a military occupation as it had formerly been the fashion to extolits glory and profitableness. These scholastic exercises represented thefuture officer dragged as a child to the barracks, "the side-lock overhis ear. --He is beaten and his sides are covered with scars, --he isbeaten and his two eyebrows are marked with wounds, --he is beaten andhis head is broken by a badly aimed blow; he is stretched on the ground"for the slightest fault, "and blows fall on him as on a papyrus, --andhe is broken by the stick. " His education finished, he is sent away toa distance, to Syria or Ethiopia, and fresh troubles overtake him. "Hisvictuals and his supply of water are about his neck like the burden ofan ass, --and his neck and throat suffer like those of an ass, --so thatthe joints of his spine are broken. --He drinks putrid water, keepingperpetual guard the while. " His fatigues soon tell upon his healthand vigour: "Should he reach the enemy, --he is like a bird whichtrembles. --Should he return to Egypt, --he is like a piece of oldworm-eaten wood. --He is sick and must lie down, he is carried on anass, --while thieves steal his linen, --and his slaves escape. " Thecharioteer is not spared either. He, doubtless, has a moment ofvain-glory and of flattered vanity when he receives, according toregulations, a new chariot and two horses, with which he drives at agallop before his parents and his fellow-villagers; but once havingjoined his regiment, he is perhaps worse off than the foot-soldier. "He is thrown to the ground among thorns:--a scorpion wounds him inthe foot, and his heel is pierced by its sting. --When his kit isexamined, --his misery is at its height. " No sooner has the fact beennotified that his arms are in a bad condition, or that some article hasdisappeared, than "he is stretched on the ground--and overpowered withblows from a stick. " This decline of the warlike spirit in all classesof society had entailed serious modifications in the organisation ofboth army and navy. The native element no longer predominated in mostbattalions and on the majority of vessels, as it had done under theXVIIIth dynasty; it still furnished those formidable companies ofarchers--the terror of both Africans and Asiatics--and also the mostimportant part, if not the whole, of the chariotry, but the main bodyof the infantry was composed almost exclusively of mercenaries, particularly of the Shardana and the Qahaka. Ramses began his reformsby rebuilding the fleet, which, in a country like Egypt, was alwaysan artificial creation, liable to fall into decay, unless a strongand persistent effort were made to keep it in an efficient condition. Shipbuilding had made considerable progress in the last few centuries, perhaps from the impulse received through Phoenicia, and the vesselsturned out of the dockyards were far superior to those constructed underHâtshopsîtû. The general outlines of the hull remained the same, butthe stem and stern were finer, and not so high out of the water; thebow ended, moreover, in a lion's head of metal, which rose abovethe cut-water. A wooden structure running between the forecastle andquarter-deck protected the rowers during the fight, their heads alonebeing exposed. The mast had only one curved yard, to which the sail wasfastened; this was run up from the deck by halyards when the sailorswanted to make sail, and thus differed from the Egyptian arrangement, where the sail was fastened to a fixed upper yard. At least half of thecrews consisted of Libyan prisoners, who were branded with a hot ironlike cattle, to prevent desertion; the remaining half was drawn fromthe Syrian or Asiatic coast, or else were natives of Egypt. In orderto bring the army into better condition, Ramses revived the system ofclasses, which empowered him to compel all Egyptians of unmixed race totake personal service, while he hired mercenaries from Libya, Phoenicia, Asia Minor, and wherever he could get them, and divided them intoregular regiments, according to their extraction and the arms that theybore. In the field, the archers always headed the column, to meet theadvance of the foe with their arrows; they were followed by the Egyptianlancers--the Shardana and the Tyrseni with their short spears and heavybronze swords--while a corps of veterans, armed with heavy maces, brought up the rear. * In an engagement, these various troops formedthree lines of infantry disposed one behind the other--the light brigadein front to engage the adversary, the swordsmen and lancers who were tocome into close quarters with the foe, and the mace-bearers in reserve, ready to advance on any threatened point, or to await the criticalmoment when their intervention would decide the victory: as in the timesof Thûtmosis and Ramses II. The chariotry covered the two wings. 

 * This is the order of march represented during the Syrian campaign, as gathered from the arrangement observed in the pictures at Medinet-Habu. 

It was well for Ramses that on ascending the throne he had devotedhimself to the task of recruiting the Egyptian army, and of personallyand carefully superintending the instruction and equipment of his men;for it was thanks to these precautions that, when the confederatedLibyans attacked the country about the Vth year of his reign, he wasenabled to repulse them with complete success. "Didi, Mashaknû, Maraîû, together with Zamarû and Zaûtmarû, had strongly urged them toattack Egypt and to carry fire before them from one end of it to theother. "--"Their warriors confided to each other in their counsels, and their hearts were full: 'We will be drunk!' and their princes saidwithin their breasts: 'We will fill our hearts with violence!' But theirplans were overthrown, thwarted, broken against the heart of the god, and the prayer of their chief, which their lips repeated, wasnot granted by the god. " They met the Egyptians at a place called"Kamsisû-Khasfi-Timihû" ("Ramses repulses the Timihû"), but their attackwas broken by the latter, who were ably led and displayed considerablevalour. "They bleated like goats surprised by a bull who stamps itsfoot, who pushes forward its horn and shakes the mountains, chargingwhoever seeks to annoy it. " They fled afar, howling with fear, andmany of them, in endeavouring to escape their pursuers, perished in thecanals. "It is, " said they, "the breaking of our spines which threatensus in the land of Egypt, and its lord destroys our souls for ever andever. Woe be upon them! for they have seen their dances changed intocarnage, Sokhît is behind them, fear weighs upon them. We march nolonger upon roads where we can walk, but we run across fields, all thefields! And their soldiers did not even need to measure arms with us inthe struggle! Pharaoh alone was our destruction, a fire against us everytime that he willed it, and no sooner did we approach than the flamecurled round us, and no water could quench it on us. " The victory was abrilliant one; the victors counted 12, 535 of the enemy killed, * andmany more who surrendered at discretion. The latter were formed intoa brigade, and were distributed throughout the valley of the Nile inmilitary settlements. They submitted to their fate with that resignationwhich we know to have been a characteristic of the vanquished at thatdate. 

 * The number of the dead is calculated from that of the hands and phalli brought in by the soldiers after the victory, the heaps of which are represented at Medinet-Habu. 

They regarded their defeat as a judgment from God against which therewas no appeal; when their fate had been once pronounced, nothingremained to the condemned except to submit to it humbly, and toaccommodate themselves to the master to whom they were now bound by adecree from on high. The prisoners of one day became on the next thedevoted soldiers of the prince against whom they had formerly foughtresolutely, and they were employed against their own tribes, theiremployers having no fear of their deserting to the other side duringthe engagement. They were lodged in the barracks at Thebes, or in theprovinces under the feudal lords and governors of the Pharaoh, andwere encouraged to retain their savage customs and warlike spirit. Theyintermarried either with the fellahîn or with women of their own tribes, and were reinforced at intervals by fresh prisoners or volunteers. Drafted principally into the Delta and the cities of Middle Egypt, theythus ended by constituting a semi-foreign population, destined by natureand training to the calling of arms, and forming a sort of warriorcaste, differing widely from the militia of former times, and known formany generations by their national name of Mashaûasha. As early as theXIIth dynasty, the Pharaohs had, in a similar way, imported the Mazaîûfrom Nubia, and had used them as a military police; Ramses III. Nowresolved to naturalise the Libyans for much the same purpose. Hisvictory did not bear the immediate fruits that we might have expectedfrom his own account of it; the memory of the exploits of Ramses II. Haunted him, and, stimulated by the example of his ancestor at Qodshû, he doubtless desired to have the sole credit of the victory over theLibyans. He certainly did overcome their kings, and arrested theirinvasion; we may go so far as to allow that he wrested from them theprovinces which they had occupied on the left bank of the Canopicbranch, from Marea to the Natron Lakes, but he did not conquer them, and their power still remained as formidable as ever. He had gained arespite at the point of the sword, but he had not delivered Egypt fromtheir future attacks. 

[Illustration: 299. Jpg one of the Libyan chiefs VANQUISHED BY RAMSESIII. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Champollion. 

He might perhaps have been tempted to follow up his success and assumethe offensive, had not affairs in Asia at this juncture demanded thewhole of his attention. The movement of great masses of European tribesin a southerly and easterly direction was beginning to be felt by theinhabitants of the Balkans, who were forced to set out in a doublestream of emigration--one crossing the Bosphorus and the Propontistowards the centre of Asia Minor, while the other made for what waslater known as Greece Proper, by way of the passes over Olympus andPindus. The nations who had hitherto inhabited these regions, now foundthemselves thrust forward by the pressure of invading hordes, and wereconstrained to move towards the south and east by every avenue whichpresented itself. It was probably the irruption of the Phrygians intothe high table-land which gave rise to the general exodus of thesevarious nations--the Pulasati, the Zakkala, the Shagalasha, the Danauna, and the Uashasha--some of whom had already made their way into Syria andtaken part in campaigns there, while others had as yet never measuredstrength with the Egyptians. The main body of these migrating tribeschose the overland route, keeping within easy distance of the coast, from Pamphylia as far as the confines of Naharaim. 

[Illustration: 300. Jpg THE WAGGONS OF THE PULASATI AND THEIRCONFEDERATES]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Champollion. 

They were accompanied by their families, who must have been mercilesslyjolted in the ox-drawn square waggons with solid wheels in which theytravelled. The body of the vehicle was built either of roughly squaredplanks, or else of something resembling wicker-work. The round axletreewas kept in its place by means of a rude pin, and four oxen wereharnessed abreast to the whole structure. The children wore no clothes, and had, for the most part, their hair tied into a tuft on the top oftheir heads; the women affected a closely fitting cap, and were wrappedin large blue or red garments drawn close to the body. * The men's attirevaried according to the tribe to which they belonged. The Pulasatiundoubtedly held the chief place; they were both soldiers and sailors, and we must recognise in them the foremost of those tribes known to theGreeks of classical times as the Oarians, who infested the coasts ofAsia Minor as well as those of Greece and the Ægean islands. **

 * These details are taken from the battle-scenes at Medinet- Habu. 

 ** The Pulasati have been connected with the Philistines by Champollion, and subsequently by the early English Egyptologists, who thought they recognised in them the inhabitants of the Shephelah. Chabas was the first to identify them with the Pelasgi; Unger and Brugsch prefer to attribute to them a Libyan origin, but the latter finally returns to the Pelasgic and Philistine hypothesis. They were without doubt the Philistines, but in their migratory state, before they settled on the coast of Palestine. 

[Illustration: 301. Jpg PULASATI]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. 

Crete was at this time the seat of a maritime empire, whose chiefs wereperpetually cruising the seas and harassing the civilized states ofthe Eastern Mediterranean. These sea-rovers had grown wealthy throughpiracy, and contact with the merchants of Syria and Egypt had awakenedin them a taste for a certain luxury and refinement, of which we findno traces in the remains of their civilization anterior to this period. Some of the symbols in the inscriptions found on their monuments recallcertain of the Egyptian characters, while others present an originalaspect and seem to be of Ægean origin. We find in them, arranged injuxtaposition, signs representing flowers, birds, fish, quadrupedsof various kinds, members of the human body, and boats and householdimplements. From the little which is known of this script we areinclined to derive it from a similar source to that which has furnishedthose we meet with in several parts of Asia Minor and Northern Syria. It would appear that in ancient times, somewhere in the centre of thePeninsula--but under what influence or during what period we know not--asyllabary was developed, of which varieties were handed on from tribeto tribe, spreading on the one side to the Hittites, Cilicians, andthe peoples on the borders of Syria and Egypt, and on the other to theTrojans, to the people of the Cyclades, and into Crete and Greece. Itis easy to distinguish the Pulasati by the felt helmet which they worefastened under the chin by two straps and surmounted by a crest offeathers. The upper part of their bodies was covered by bands of leatheror some thick material, below which hung a simple loin-cloth, whiletheir feet were bare or shod with short sandals. They carried each around buckler with two handles, and the stout bronze sword common tothe northern races, suspended by a cross belt passing over the leftshoulder, and were further armed with two daggers and two javelins. They hurled the latter from a short distance while attacking, and thendrawing their sword or daggers, fell upon the enemy; we find among thema few chariots of the Hittite type, each manned by a driver and twofighting men. The Tyrseni appear to have been the most numerous afterthe Pulasati, next to whom came the Zakkala. The latter are thought tohave been a branch of the Siculo-Pelasgi whom Greek tradition representsas scattered at this period among the Cyclades and along the coast ofthe Hellespont;* they wore a casque surmounted with plumes like thatof the Pulasati. The Tyrseni may be distinguished by their featheredhead-dress, but the Shaga-lasha affected a long ample woollen capfalling on the neck behind, an article of apparel which is still worn bythe sailors of the Archipelago; otherwise they were equipped in much thesame manner as their allies. The other members of the confederation, the Shardana, the Danauna, and the Nashasha, each furnished aninconsiderable contingent, and, taken all together, formed but a smallitem of the united force. **

 * The Zakkara, or Zakkala, have been identified with the Teucrians by Lauth, Chabas, and Fr. Lenormant, with the Zygritse of Libya by linger and Brugsch, who subsequently returned to the Teucrian hypothesis; W. Max Millier regards them as an Asiatic nation probably of the Lydian family. The identification with the Siculo-Pelasgi of the Ægean Sea was proposed by Maspero. 

 ** The form of the word shows that it is of Asiatic origin, Uasasos, Uassos, which refers us to Caria or Lycia. 

Their fleet sailed along the coast and kept within sight of the force onland. The squadrons depicted on the monuments are without doubt those ofthe two peoples, the Pulasati and Zakkala. Their ships resembled in manyrespects those of Egypt, except in the fact that they had no cut-water. The bow and stern rose up straight like the neck of a goose or swan; twostructures for fighting purposes were erected above the dock, while arail running round the sides of the vessel protected the bodies of therowers. An upper yard curved in shape hung from the single mast, whichterminated in a top for the look-out during a battle. The upper yard wasnot made to lower, and the top-men managed the sail in the same manneras the Egyptian sailors. The resemblance between this fleet and thatof Ramses is easily explained. The dwellers on the Ægean, owing tothe knowledge they had acquired of the Phoenician galleys, whichwere accustomed to cruise annually in their waters, became experts inshipbuilding. 

[Illustration: 304. Jpg A SIHAGALASHA CHIEF]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Petrie. 

They copied the lines of the Phoenician craft, imitated the rigging, andlearned to manoeuvre their vessels so well, both on ordinary occasionsand in a battle, that they could now oppose to the skilled easternnavigators ships as well fitted out and commanded by captains asexperienced as those of Egypt or Asia. 

There had been a general movement among all these peoples at the verytime when Ramses was repelling the attack of the Libyans; "the isles hadquivered, and had vomited forth their people at once. "*

 * This campaign is mentioned in the inscription of Medinet- Habu. We find some information about the war in the _Great Harris Papyrus_, also in the inscription of Medinet-Habu which describes the campaign of the year V. , and in other shorter texts of the same temple. 

They were subjected to one of those irresistible impulses such as haddriven the Shepherds into Egypt; or again, in later times, had carriedaway the Cimmerians and the Scyths to the pillage of Asia Minor: "nocountry could hold out against their arms, neither Khâti, nor Qodi, norCarchemish, nor Arvad, nor Alasia, without being brought to nothing. "The ancient kingdoms of Sapalulu and Khâtusaru, already tottering, crumbled to pieces under the shock, and were broken up into theirprimitive elements. The barbarians, unable to carry the towns byassault, and too impatient to resort to a lengthened siege, spreadover the valley of the Orontes, burning and devastating the countryeverywhere. Having reached the frontiers of the empire, in the countryof the Amorites, they came to a halt, and constructing an entrenchedcamp, installed within it their women and the booty they had acquired. Some of their predatory bands, having ravaged the Bekâa, ended byattacking the subjects of the Pharaoh himself, and their chiefs dreamedof an invasion of Egypt. Ramses, informed of their design by thedespatches of his officers and vassals, resolved to prevent itsaccomplishment. He summoned his troops together, both indigenousand mercenary, in his own person looked after their armament andcommissariat, and in the VIIIth year of his reign crossed the frontiernear Zalu. He advanced by forced marches to meet the enemy, whomhe encountered somewhere in Southern Syria, on the borders of theShephelah, * and after a stubbornly contested campaign obtained thevictory. He carried off from the field, in addition to the treasures ofthe confederate tribes, some of the chariots which had been used for thetransport of their families. The survivors made their way hastily to thenorth-west, in the direction of the sea, in order to receive the supportof their navy, but the king followed them step by step. 

 * No site is given for these battles. E. De Rougé placed the theatre of war in Syria, and his opinion was accepted by Brugsch. Chabas referred it to the mouth of the Nile near Pelusium, and his authority has prevailed up to the present. The remarks of W. Max Müller have brought me back to the opinion of the earlier Egyptologists; but I differ from him in looking for the locality further south, and not to the mouth of Nahr el-Kelb as the site of the naval battle. It seems to me that the fact that the Zakkala were prisoners at Dor, and the Pulasati in the Shephelah, is enough to assign the campaign to the regions I have mentioned in the text. 

It is recorded that he occupied himself with lion-hunting _en route_after the example of the victors of the XVIIIth dynasty, and that hekilled three of these animals in the long grass on one occasion on thebanks of some river. He rejoined his ships, probably at Jaffa, and madestraight for the enemy. The latter were encamped on the level shore, atthe head of a bay wide enough to offer to their ships a commodiousspace for naval evolutions--possibly the mouth of the Belos, in theneighbourhood of Magadîl. The king drove their foot-soldiers into thewater at the same moment that his admirals attacked the combined fleetof the Pulasati and Zakkala. 

[Illustration: 307. Jpg THE ARMY OP RAMSES III. ON THE MARCH, AND THELION-HUNT]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. 

Some of the Ægean galleys were capsized and sank when the Egyptianvessels rammed them with their sharp stems, and the crews, inendeavouring to escape to land by swimming, were picked off by thearrows of the archers of the guard who were commanded by Ramses and hissons; they perished in the waves, or only escaped through the compassionof the victors. "I had fortified, " said the Pharaoh, "my frontier atZahi; I had drawn up before these people my generals, my provincialgovernors, the vassal princes, and the best of my soldiers. The mouthsof the river seemed to be a mighty rampart of galleys, barques, andvessels of all kinds, equipped from the bow to the stern with valiantarmed men. The infantry, the flower of Egypt, were as lions roaringon the mountains; the charioteers, selected from among the most rapidwarriors, had for their captains only officers confident in themselves;the horses quivered in all their limbs, and were burning to trample thenations underfoot. As for me, I was like the warlike Montû: I stood upbefore them and they saw the vigour of my arms. I, King Ramses, I was asa hero who is conscious of his valour, and who stretches his hands overthe people in the day of battle. Those who have violated my frontierwill never more garner harvests from this earth: the period of theirsoul has been fixed for ever. My forces were drawn up before them onthe 'Very Green, ' a devouring flame approached them at the river mouth, annihilation embraced them on every side. Those who were on the strandI laid low on the seashore, slaughtered like victims of the butcher. I made their vessels to capsize, and their riches fell into the sea. "Those who had not fallen in the fight were caught, as it were, inthe cast of a net. A rapid cruiser of the fleet carried the Egyptianstandard along the coast as far as the regions of the Orontes andSaros. The land troops, on the other hand, following on the heels of thedefeated enemy, pushed through Coele-Syria, and in their first burst ofzeal succeeded in reaching the plains of the Euphrates. A century hadelapsed since a Pharaoh had planted his standard in this region, and thecountry must have seemed as novel to the soldiers of Ramses III. As tothose of his predecessor Thûtmosis. 

[Illustration: 308. Jpg THE DEFEAT OF THE PEOPLES OF THE SEA]

The Khâti were still its masters; and all enfeebled as they were bythe ravages of the invading barbarians, were nevertheless not slow inpreparing to resist their ancient enemies. The majority of the citadelsshut their gates in the face of Ramses, who, wishing to lose no time, did not attempt to besiege them: he treated their territory with theusual severity, devastating their open towns, destroying their harvests, breaking down their fruit trees, and cutting away their forests. He wasable, moreover, without arresting his march, to carry by assault severalof their fortified towns, Alaza among the number, the destruction ofwhich is represented in the scenes of his victories. The spoils wereconsiderable, and came very opportunely to reward the soldiers or toprovide funds for the erection of monuments. The last battalion oftroops, however, had hardly recrossed the isthmus when Lotanû becameagain its own master, and Egyptian rule was once more limited to itstraditional provinces of Kharû and Phoenicia. The King of the Khâtiappears among the prisoners whom the Pharaoh is represented as bringingto his father Amon; Carchemish, Tunipa, Khalabu, Katna, Pabukhu, Arvad, Mitanni, Mannus, Asi, and a score of other famous towns of this periodappear in the list of the subjugated nations, recalling the triumphsof Thûtmosis III. And Amenothes II. Ramses did not allow himself tobe deceived into thinking that his success was final. He accepted theprotestations of obedience which were spontaneously offered him, but heundertook no further expedition of importance either to restrain or toprovoke his enemies: the restricted rule which satisfied his exemplarRamses II. Ought, he thought, to be sufficient for his own ambition. 

Egypt breathed freely once more on the announcement of the victory;henceforward she was "as a bed without anguish. " "Let each woman now goto and fro according to her will, " cried the sovereign, in describingthe campaign, "her ornaments upon her, and directing her steps to anyplace she likes!" And in order to provide still further guarantees ofpublic security, he converted his Asiatic captives, as he previouslyhad his African prisoners, into a bulwark against the barbarians, anda safeguard of the frontier. The war must, doubtless, have decimatedSouthern Syria; and he planted along its coast what remained of thedefeated tribes--the Philistines in the Shephelah, and the Zakkala onthe borders of the great oak forest stretching from Oarmel to Dor. *

 * It is in this region that we find henceforward the Hebrews in contact with the Philistines: at the end of the XXIst Egyptian dynasty a scribe makes Dor a town of the Zakkala. 

Watch-towers were erected for the supervision of this region, and forrallying-points in case of internal revolts or attacks from without. Oneof these, the Migdol of Ramses III. , was erected, not far from the sceneof the decisive battle, on the spot where the spoils had been divided. This living barrier, so to speak, stood between the Nile valley and thedangers which threatened it from Asia, and it was not long beforeits value was put to the proof. The Libyans, who had been saved fromdestruction by the diversion created in their favour on the eastern sideof the empire, having now recovered their courage, set about collectingtheir hordes together for a fresh invasion. They returned to the attackin the XIth year of Ramses, under the leadership of Kapur, a prince ofthe Mashauasha. *

 * The second campaign against the Libyans is known to us from the inscriptions of the year XI. At Medinet-Habu. 

[Illustration: 313. Jpg THE CAPTIVE CHIEFS OF RAMSES III. ATMEDINET-IHABU]

 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato. The first prisoner on the left is the Prince of the Khâti (cf. The cut on p. 318 of the present work), the second is the Prince of the Amâuru [Amoritos], the third the Prince of the Zakkala, the fourth that of the Shardana, the fifth that of the Shakalasha (see the cut on p. 304 of this work), and the sixth that of the Tursha [Tyrseni]. 

Their soul had said to them for the second time that "they would endtheir lives in the nomes of Egypt, that they would till its valleys andits plains as their own land. " The issue did not correspond with theirintentions. "Death fell upon them within Egypt, for they had hastenedwith their feet to the furnace which consumes corruption, under thefire of the valour of the king who rages like Baal from the heights ofheaven. All his limbs are invested with victorious strength; with hisright hand he lays hold of the multitudes, his left extends to those whoare against him, like a cloud of arrows directed upon them to destroythem, and his sword cuts like that of Montû. Kapur, who had come todemand homage, blind with fear, threw down his arms, and his troops didthe same. He sent up to heaven a suppliant cry, and his son [Mashashalu]arrested his foot and his hand; for, behold, there rises beside him thegod who knows what he has in his heart: His Majesty falls upon theirheads as a mountain of granite and crushes them, the earth drinks uptheir blood as if it had been water... ; their army was slaughtered, slaughtered their soldiers, " near a fortress situated on the bordersof the desert called the "Castle of Usirmarî-Miamon. " They were seized, "they were stricken, their arms bound, like geese piled up in the bottomof a boat, under the feet of His Majesty. "* The fugitives were pursuedat the sword's point from the _Castle of Usirmarî-Miamon_ to the _Castleof the Sands_, a distance of over thirty miles. **

 * The name of the son of Kapur, Mashashalu, Masesyla, which is wanting in this inscription, is supplied from a parallel inscription. 

 * The Castle of Usirmarî-Miamon was "on the mountain of the horn of the world, " which induces me to believe that we must seek its site on the borders of the Libyan desert. The royal title entering into its name being liable to change with every reign, it is possible that we have an earlier reference to this stronghold in a mutilated passage of the Athribis Stele, which relates to the campaigns of Mînephtah; it must have commanded one of the most frequented routes leading to the oasis of Amon. 

[Illustration: 314. Jpg RAMSES III. BINDS THE CHIEFS OF THE LIBYANS]

 From a photograph by Beato. 

Two thousand and seventy-five Libyans were left upon the ground thatday, two thousand and fifty-two perished in other engagements, whiletwo thousand and thirty-two, both male and female, were made prisoners. These were almost irreparable losses for a people of necessarily smallnumbers, and if we add the number of those who had succumbed in thedisaster of six years before, we can readily realise how discouragedthe invaders must have been, and how little likely they were to try thefortune of war once more. Their power dwindled and vanished almost asquickly as it had arisen; the provisional cohesion given to their forcesby a few ambitious chiefs broke up after their repeated defeats, andthe rudiments of an empire which had struck terror into the Pharaohs, resolved itself into its primitive elements, a number of tribesscattered over the desert. They were driven back beyond the Libyanmountains; fortresses* guarded the routes they had previously followed, and they were obliged henceforward to renounce any hope of an invasion_en masse_, and to content themselves with a few raiding expeditionsinto the fertile plain of the Delta, where they had formerly found atransitory halting-place. Counter-raids organised by the local troopsor by the mercenaries who garrisoned the principal towns in theneighbourhood of Memphis--Hermopolis and Thinisl--inflicted punishmentupon them when they became too audacious. Their tribes, henceforward, as far as Egypt was concerned, formed a kind of reserve from which thePharaoh could raise soldiers every year, and draw sufficient materialsto bring his army up to fighting strength when internal revolt or aninvasion from without called for military activity. 

 * _The Great Harris Papyrus_ speaks of fortifications erected in the towns of Anhûri-Shû, possibly Thinis, and of Thot, possibly Hermopolis, in order to repel the tribes of the Tihonu who were ceaselessly harassing the frontier. 

[Illustration: 318. Jpg THE PRINCE OF THE KHATI]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken at Medinet- Habu. 

The campaign of the XIth year brought to an end the great militaryexpeditions of Ramses III. Henceforward he never took the lead in anymore serious military enterprise than that of repressing the Bedawin ofSeîr for acts of brigandage, * or the Ethiopians for some similarreason. He confined his attention to the maintenance of commercial andindustrial relations with manufacturing countries, and with themarkets of Asia and Africa. He strengthened the garrisons of Sinai, andencouraged the working of the ancient mines in that region. He sent acolony of quarry-men and of smelters to the land of Atika, in order towork the veins of silver which were alleged to exist there. **

 *The Sâîrû of the Egyptian texts have been identified with the Bedawin of Seîr. 

 ** This is the Gebel-Ataka of our day. All this district is imperfectly explored, but we know that it contains mines and quarries some of which were worked as late as in the time of the Mameluk Sultans. 

He launched a fleet on the Red Sea, and sent it to the countries offragrant spices. "The captains of the sailors were there, together withthe chiefs of the _corvée_ and accountants, to provide provision" forthe people of the Divine Lands "from the innumerable products of Egypt;and these products were counted by myriads. Sailing through the greatsea of Qodi, they arrived at Pûântt without mishap, and there collectedcargoes for their galleys and ships, consisting of all the unknownmarvels of Tonûtir, as well as considerable quantities of the perfumesof Pûâtîn, which they stowed on board by tens of thousands withoutnumber. The sons of the princes of Tonûtir came themselves into Qîmitwith their tributes. They reached the region of Coptos safe and sound, and disembarked there in peace with their riches. " It was somewhereabout Sau and Tuau that the merchants and royal officers landed, following the example of the expeditions of the XIIth and XVIIIthdynasties. Here they organised caravans of asses and slaves, whichtaking the shortest route across the mountain--that of the valley ofRahanû--carried the precious commodities to Coptos, whence they weretransferred to boats and distributed along the river. The erectionof public buildings, which had been interrupted since the time ofMînephtah, began again with renewed activity. The captives in the recentvictories furnished the requisite labour, while the mines, the voyagesto the Somali coast, and the tributes of vassals provided the necessarymoney. Syria was not lost sight of in this resumption of peacefuloccupations. The overthrow of the Khâti secured Egyptian rule in thisregion, and promised a long tranquillity within its borders. One templeat least was erected in the country--that of Pa-kanâna--where theprinces of Kharu were to assemble to offer worship to the Pharaoh, andto pay each one his quota of the general tribute. The Pulasati wereemployed to protect the caravan routes, and a vast reservoir waserected near Aîna to provide a store of water for the irrigation of theneighbouring country. The Delta absorbed the greater part of the royalsubsidies; it had suffered so much from the Libyan incursions, that themajority of the towns within it had fallen into a condition asmiserable as that in which they were at the time of the expulsion of theShepherds. Heliopolis, Bubastis, Thmuis, Amû, and Tanis still preservedsome remains of the buildings which had already been erected in themby Ramses; he constructed also, at the place at present called Telel-Yahûdîyeh, a royal palace of limestone, granite, and alabaster, ofwhich the type is unique amongst all the structures hitherto discovered. Its walls and columns were not ornamented with the usual sculpturesincised in stone, but the whole of the decorations--scenes as wellas inscriptions--consisted of plaques of enamelled terra-cotta setin cement. The forms of men and animals and the lines of hieroglyphs, standing out in slight relief from a glazed and warm-colouredbackground, constitute an immense mosaic-work of many hues. The fewremains of the work show great purity of design and an extraordinarydelicacy of tone. 

[Illustration: 320. Jpg SIGNS, ARMS AND INSTRUMENTS]

All the knowledge of the Egyptian painters, and all the technical skillof their artificers in ceramic, must have been employed to compose suchharmoniously balanced decorations, with their free handling of line andcolour, and their thousands of rosettes, squares, stars, and buttons ofvaricoloured pastes. *

 * This temple has been known since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the Louvre is in possession of some fragments from it which came from Salt's collection; it was rediscovered in 1870, and some portions of it were transferred by Mariette to the Boulaq Museum. The remainder was destroyed by the fellahîn, at the instigation of the enlightened amateurs of Cairo, and fragments of it have passed into various private collections. The decoration has been attributed to Chaldoan influence, but it is a work purely Egyptian, both in style and in technique. 

[Illustration: 321. Jpg THE COLOSSAL OSIRIAN FIGURES in THE FIRST COURTAT MEDINET-HABU]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato. 

The difficulties to overcome were so appalling, that when the marvellouswork was once accomplished, no subsequent attempt was made to constructa second like it: all the remaining structures of Ramses III. , whetherat Memphis, in the neighbourhood of Abydos, or at Karnak, were in theconventional style of the Pharaohs. He determined, nevertheless, to giveto the exterior of the Memnonium, which he built near Medinet-Habu forthe worship of himself, the proportions and appearance of an Asiatic"Migdol, " influenced probably by his remembrance of similar structureswhich he had seen during his Syrian campaign. The chapel itself is ofthe ordinary type, with its gigantic pylons, its courts surrounded bycolumns--each supporting a colossal Osirian statue--its hypostylehall, and its mysterious cells for the deposit of spoils taken from thepeoples of the sea and the cities of Asia. His tomb was concealed at adistant spot in the Biban-el-Moluk, and we see depicted on its walls thesame scenes that we find in the last resting-place of Seti I. Or RamsesII. , and in addition to them, in a series of supplementary chambers, thearms of the sovereign, his standards, his treasure, his kitchen, and thepreparation of offerings which were to be made to him. His sarcophagus, cut out of an enormous block of granite, was brought for sale to Europeat the beginning of this century, and Cambridge obtained possession ofits cover, while the Louvre secured the receptacle itself. 

These were years of profound tranquillity. The Pharaoh intended thatabsolute order should reign throughout his realm, and that justiceshould be dispensed impartially within it. 

[Illustration: 322. Jpg THE FIRST PYLON OF THE TEMPLE]

There were to be no more exactions, no more crying iniquities: whoeverwas discovered oppressing the people, no matter whether he were courtofficial or feudal lord--was instantly deprived of his functions, and replaced by an administrator of tried integrity. Ramses boasts, moreover, in an idyllic manner, of having planted trees everywhere, andof having built arbours wherein the people might sit in the shade in theopen air; while women might go to and fro where they would in security, no one daring to insult them on the way. The Shardanian and Libyanmercenaries were restricted to the castles which they garrisoned, andwere subjected to such a severe discipline that no one had any cause ofcomplaint against these armed barbarians settled in the heart of Egypt. "I have, " continues the king, "lifted up every miserable one out of hismisfortune, I have granted life to him, I have saved him from the mightywho were oppressing him, and have secured rest for every one in his owntown. " The details of the description are exaggerated, but the generalimport of it is true. Egypt had recovered the peace and prosperity ofwhich it had been deprived for at least half a century, that is, sincethe death of Mînephtah. The king, however, was not in such a happycondition as his people, and court intrigues embittered the later yearsof his life. One of his sons, whose name is unknown to us, but who isdesignated in the official records by the nickname of Pentaûîrît, formeda conspiracy against him. His mother, Tîi, who was a woman of secondaryrank, took it into her head to secure the crown for him, to thedetriment of the children of Queen Isît. An extensive plot was hatchedin which scribes, officers of the guard, priests, and officials inhigh place, both natives and foreigners, were involved. A resort tothe supernatural was at first attempted, and the superintendent of theHerds, a certain Panhûibaûnû, who was deeply versed in magic, undertookto cast a spell upon the Pharaoh, if he could only procure certainconjuring books of which he was not possessed. These were found to bein the royal library. He managed to introduce himself under cover of thenight into the harem, where he manufactured certain waxen figures, ofwhich some were to excite the hate of his wives against their husband, while others would cause him to waste away and finally perish. A traitorbetrayed several of the conspirators, who, being subjected to thetorture, informed upon others, and these at length brought the matterhome to Pentaûîrît and his immediate accomplices. All were broughtbefore a commission of twelve members, summoned expressly to try thecase, and the result was the condemnation and execution of six women andsome forty men. The extreme penalty of the Egyptian code was reservedfor Pentaûîrît, and for the most culpable, --"they died of themselves, "and the meaning of this phrase is indicated, I believe, by theappearance of one of the mummies disinterred at Deîr el-Baharî. * Thecoffin in which it was placed was very plain, painted white and withoutinscription; the customary removal of entrails had not been effected, but the body was covered with a thick layer of natron, which was appliedeven to the skin itself and secured by wrappings. 

 * The translations by Dévéria, Lepage-Renouf, and Erman agree in making it a case of judicial suicide: there was left to the condemned a choice of his mode of death, in order to avoid the scandal of a public execution. It is also possible to make it a condemnation to death in person, which did not allow of the substitution of a proxy willing, for a payment to his family, to undergo death in place of the condemned; but, unfortunately, no other text is to be found supporting the existence of such a practice in Egypt. 

It makes one's flesh creep to look at it: the hands and feet are tiedby strong bands, and are curled up as if under an intolerable pain;the abdomen is drawn up, the stomach projects like a ball, the chest iscontracted, the head is thrown back, the face is contorted in a hideousgrimace, the retracted lips expose the teeth, and the mouth is open asif to give utterance to a last despairing cry. The conviction isborne in upon us that the man was invested while still alive with thewrappings of the dead. Is this the mummy of Pentaûîrît, or of someother prince as culpable as he was, and condemned to this frightfulpunishment? In order to prevent the recurrence of such wicked plots, Pharaoh resolved to share his throne with that one of his sons who hadmost right to it. In the XXXIInd year of his reign he called togetherhis military and civil chiefs, the generals of the foreign mercenaries, the Shardana, the priests, and the nobles of the court, and presentedto them, according to custom, his heir-designate, who was also calledRamses. He placed the double crown upon his brow, and seated him besidehimself upon the throne of Horus. This was an occasion for the Pharaohto bring to remembrance all the great exploits he had performed duringhis reign--his triumphs over the Libyans and over the peoples of thesea, and the riches he had lavished upon the gods: at the end of theenumeration he exhorted those who were present to observe the samefidelity towards the son which they had observed towards the father, andto serve the new sovereign as valiantly as they had served himself. 

[Illustration: 327. Jpg THE MUMMY OF RAMSES III. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a, photograph by Emil Brugsch- Bey. 

The joint reign lasted for only four years. Ramses III. Was notmuch over sixty years of age when he died. He was still vigorous andmuscular, but he had become stout and heavy. The fatty matter of thebody having been dissolved by the natron in the process of embalming, the skin distended during life has gathered up into enormous loosefolds, especially about the nape of the neck, under the chin, on thehips, and at the articulations of the limbs. The closely shaven head andcheeks present no trace of hair or beard. The forehead, although neitherbroad nor high, is better proportioned than that of Ramses II. ; thesupra-orbital ridges are less accentuated than his, the cheek-bones notso prominent, the nose not so arched, and the chin and jaw less massive. The eyes were perhaps larger, but no opinion can be offered on thispoint, for the eyelids have been cut away, and the cleared-out cavitieshave been filled with rags. The ears do not stand out so far from thehead as those of Ramses II. , but they have been pierced for ear-rings. The mouth, large by nature, has been still further widened in theprocess of embalming, owing to the awkwardness of the operator, whohas cut into the cheeks at the side. The thin lips allow the white andregular teeth to be seen; the first molar on the right has been eitherbroken in half, or has worn away more rapidly than the rest. Ramses III. Seems, on the whole, to have been a sort of reduced copy, a littlemore delicate in make, of Ramses II. ; his face shows more subtletyof expression and intelligence, though less nobility than that of thelatter, while his figure is not so upright, his shoulders not sobroad, and his general muscular vigour less. What has been said ofhis personality may be extended to his reign; it was evidently anddesignedly an imitation of the reign of Ramses IL, but fell short of itsmodel owing to the insufficiency of his resources in men and money. IfRamses III. Did not succeed in becoming one of the most powerful of theTheban Pharaohs, it was not for lack of energy or ability; the depressedcondition of Egypt at the time limited the success of his endeavours andcaused them to fall short of his intentions. The work accomplished byhim was not on this account less glorious. At his accession Egypt wasin a wretched state, invaded on the west, threatened by a floodof barbarians on the east, without an army or a fleet, and with noresources in the treasury. In fifteen years he had disposed of hisinconvenient neighbours, organised an army, constructed a fleet, re-established his authority abroad, and settled the administrationat home on so firm a basis, that the country owed the peace which itenjoyed for several centuries to the institutions and prestige whichhe had given it. His associate in the government, Ramses IV. , barelysurvived him. Then followed a series of _rois fainéants_ bearing thename of Ramses, but in an order not yet clearly determined. It isgenerally assumed that Ramses V. , brother of Ramses III. , succeededRamses IV. By supplanting his nephews--who, however, appear to havesoon re-established their claim to the throne, and to have followed eachother in rapid succession as Ramses VI. , Ramses VIL, Ramses VIII. , andMaritûmû. * Others endeavour to make out that Ramses V. Was the son ofRamses IV. , and that the prince called Ramses VI. Never succeeded to thethrone at all. At any rate, his son, who is styled Ramses VIL, but whois asserted by some to have been a son of Ramses III. , is considered tohave succeeded Ramses V. , and to have become the ancestor from whom thelater Ramessides traced their descent. **

 * The order of the Ramessides was first made out by Champollion the younger and by Rosellini. Bunsen and Lepsius reckon in it thirteen kings; E. De Rougé puts the number at fifteen or sixteen; Maspero makes the number to be twelve, which was reduced still further by Setho. Erman thinks that Ramses IX. And Ramses X. Were also possibly sons of Ramses III. ; he consequently declines to recognise King Maritûmû as a son of that sovereign, as Brugsch would make out. 

 * The monuments of these later Ramessides are so rare and so doubtful that I cannot yet see my way to a solution of the questions which they raise. 

The short reigns of these Pharaohs were marked by no events which wouldcast lustre on their names; one might say that they had nothing else todo than to enjoy peacefully the riches accumulated by their forefather. Ramses IV. Was anxious to profit by the commercial relations whichhad been again established between Egypt and Puanît, and, in order tofacilitate the transit between Coptos and Kosseir, founded a station, and a temple dedicated to Isis, in the mountain of Bakhni; by thisroute, we learn, more than eight thousand men had passed under theauspices of the high priest of Amon, Nakh-tû-ramses. This is the onlyundertaking of public utility which we can attribute to any of thesekings. As we see them in their statues and portraits, they are heavyand squat and without refinement, with protruding eyes, thick lips, flattened and commonplace noses, round and expressionless faces. Theirwork was confined to the engraving of their cartouches on the blankspaces of the temples at Karnak and Medinet-Habu, and the addition of afew stones to the buildings at Memphis, Abydos, and Heliopolis. Whateverenergy and means they possessed were expended on the construction oftheir magnificent tombs. 

[Illustration: 331. Jpg A RAMSES OF THE XXth DYNASTY]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch- Bey. This is the Ramses VI. Of the series now generally adopted. 

These may still be seen in the Biban el-Moluk, and no visitor canrefrain from admiring them for their magnitude and decoration. As tofunerary chapels, owing to the shortness of the reigns of these kings, there was not time to construct them, and they therefore made up forthis want by appropriating the chapel of their father, which was atMedinet-Habu, and it was here consequently that their worship wasmaintained. The last of the sons of Ramses III. Was succeeded by anotherand equally ephemeral Ramses; after whom came Ramses X. And Ramses XI. , who re-established the tradition of more lasting reigns. There wasnow no need of expeditions against Kharu or Libya, for these enfeebledcountries no longer disputed, from the force of custom, the authority ofEgypt. From time to time an embassy from these countries would arrive atThebes, bringing presents, which were pompously recorded as representingso much tribute. * If it is true that a people which has no historyis happy, then Egypt ought to be reckoned as more fortunate under thefeebler descendants of Ramses III. Than it had ever been under the mostfamous Pharaohs. 

 * The mention of a tribute, for instance, in the time of Ramses IV. From the Lotanu. 

Thebes continued to be the favourite royal residence. Here in its templethe kings were crowned, and in its palaces they passed the greater partof their lives, and here in its valley of sepulchres they were laidto rest when their reigns and lives were ended. The small city of thebeginning of the XVIIIth dynasty had long encroached upon the plain, andwas now transformed into an immense town, with magnificent monuments, and a motley population, having absorbed in its extension the villagesof Ashirû, * and Madit, and even the southern Apît, which we now callLuxor. But their walls could still be seen, rising up in the middle ofmodern constructions, a memorial of the heroic ages, when the power ofthe Theban princes was trembling in the balance, and when conflicts withthe neighbouring barons or with the legitimate king were on the point ofbreaking out at every moment. **

 * The village of Ashirû was situated to the south of the temple of Karnak, close to the temple of Mût. Its ruins, containing the statues of Sokhît collected by Amenôthes III. , extend around the remains marked X in Mariette's plan. 

 * These are the walls which are generally regarded as marking the sacred enclosure of the temples: an examination of the ruins of Thebes shows us that, during the XXth and XXIst dynasties, brick-built houses lay against these walls both on the inner and outer sides, so that they must have been half hidden by buildings, as are the ancient walls of Paris at the present day. 

The inhabitants of Apît retained their walls, which coincided almostexactly with the boundary of Nsîttauî, the great sanctuary of Amon;Ashirû sheltered behind its ramparts the temple of Mût, while Apît-rîsîtclustered around a building consecrated by Amenôthes III. To his divinefather, the lord of Thebes. Within the boundary walls of Thebes extendedwhole suburbs, more or less densely populated and prosperous, throughwhich ran avenues of sphinxes connecting together the three chiefboroughs of which the sovereign city was composed. On every side mighthave been seen the same collections of low grey huts, separated fromeach other by some muddy pool where the cattle were wont to drinkand the women to draw water; long streets lined with high houses, irregularly shaped open spaces, bazaars, gardens, courtyards, andshabby-looking palaces which, while presenting a plain and unadornedexterior, contained within them the refinements of luxury and thecomforts of wealth. The population did not exceed a hundred thousandsouls, * reckoning a large proportion of foreigners attracted hither bycommerce or held as slaves. 

 * Letronne, after having shown that we have no authentic ancient document giving us the population, fixes it at 200, 000 souls. My estimate, which is, if anything, exaggerated, is based on the comparison of the area of ancient Thebes and that of such modern towns as Shit, Girgeh and Qina, whose populations are known for the last fifty years from the census. 

[Illustration: 334. Jpg MAP: THEBES IN THE XXTH DYNASTY]

The court of the Pharaoh drew to the city numerous provincials, who, coming thither to seek their fortune, took up their abode there, planting in the capital of Southern Egypt types from the north andthe centre of the country, as well as from Nubia and the Oases; such acontinuous infusion of foreign material into the ancient Theban stockgave rise to families of a highly mixed character, in which all thevarious races of Egypt were blended in the most capricious fashion. Inevery twenty officers, and in the same number of ordinary officials, about half would be either Syrians, or recently naturalised Nubians, orthe descendants of both, and among the citizens such names as Pakharithe Syrian, Palamnanî the native of the Lebanon, Pinahsî the negro, Palasiaî the Alasian, preserved the indications of foreign origin. *A similar mixture of races was found in other cities, and Memphis, Bubastis, Tanis, and Siût must have presented as striking an aspectin this respect as Thebes. ** At Memphis there were regular colonies ofPhoenician, Canaanite, and Amorite merchants sufficiently prosperousto have temples there to their national gods, and influential enough togain adherents to their religion from the indigenous inhabitants. Theyworshipped Baal, Anîti. Baal-Zaphuna, and Ashtoreth, side by side withPhtah, Nofîrtûmû, and Sokhit, *** and this condition of things at Memphiswas possibly paralleled elsewhere--as at Tanis and Bubastis. 

 * Among the forty-three individuals compromised in the conspiracy against Ramses III. Whose names have been examined by Dévéria, nine are foreigners, chiefly Semites, and were so recognised by the Egyptians themselves--Adiram, Balmahara, Garapusa, lunîni the Libyan, Paiarisalama, possibly the Jerusalemite, Nanaiu, possibly the Ninevite, Palulca the Lycian, Qadendena, and Uarana or Naramu. 

 ** An examination of the stelæ of Abydos shows the extent of foreign influence in this city in the middle of the XVIIIth dynasty. 

 *** These gods are mentioned in the preamble of a letter written on the _verso_ of the _Sallier Papyrus_. From the mode in which they are introduced we may rightly infer that they had, like the Egyptian gods who are mentioned with them, their chapels at Memphis. A place in Memphis is called "the district called the district of the Khâtiû" is an inscription of the IIIth year of Aï, and shows that Hittites were there by the side of Canaanites. 

This blending of races was probably not so extensive in the countrydistricts, except in places where mercenaries were employed asgarrisons; but Sudanese or Hittite slaves, brought back by the soldiersof the ranks, had introduced Ethiopian and Asiatic elements into many afamily of the fellahîn. *

 * One of the letters in the Great Bologna Papyrus treats of a Syrian slave, employed as a cultivator at Hermopolis, who had run away from his master. 

We have only to examine in any of our museums the statues of theMemphite and Theban periods respectively, to see the contrast betweenthe individuals represented in them as far as regards stature andappearance. Some members of the courts of the Ramessides stand out asgenuine Semites notwithstanding the disguise of their Egyptian names;and in the times of Kheops and Ûsirtasen they would have been regardedas barbarians. Many of them exhibit on their faces a blending of thedistinctive features of one or other of the predominant Oriental racesof the time. Additional evidence of a mixture of races is forthcomingwhen we examine with an unbiased mind the mummies of the period, andthe complexity of the new elements introduced among the people by thepolitical movements of the later centuries is thus strongly confirmed. The new-comers had all been absorbed and assimilated by the country, butthe generations which arose from this continual cross-breeding, whilerepresenting externally the Egyptians of older epochs, in manners, language, and religion, were at bottom something different, andthe difference became the more accentuated as the foreign elementsincreased. The people were thus gradually divested of the characterwhich had distinguished them before the conquest of Syria; thedispositions and defects imported from without counteracted to suchan extent their own native dispositions and defects that all marks ofindividuality were effaced and nullified. The race tended to become moreand more what it long continued to be afterwards, --a lifeless and inertmass, without individual energy--endowed, it is true, with patience, endurance, cheerfulness of temperament, and good nature, but with littlepower of self-government, and thus forced to submit to foreign masterswho made use of it and oppressed it without pity. 

The upper classes had degenerated as much as the masses. The feudalnobles who had expelled the Shepherds, and carried the frontiers ofthe empire to the banks of the Euphrates, seemed to have expended theirenergies in the effort, and to have almost ceased to exist. As long asEgypt was restricted to the Nile valley, there was no such disproportionbetween the power of the Pharaoh and that of his feudatories as toprevent the latter from maintaining their privileges beside, and, whenoccasion arose, even against the monarch. The conquest of Asia, while itcompelled them either to take up arms themselves or to send theirtroops to a distance, accustomed them and their soldiers to a passiveobedience. The maintenance of a strict discipline in the army was thefirst condition of successful campaigning at great distances from themother country and in the midst of hostile people, and the unquestioningrespect which they had to pay to the orders of their general preparedthem for abject submission to the will of their sovereign. To theirbravery, moveover, they owed not only money and slaves, but alsonecklaces and bracelets of honour, and distinctions and offices inthe Pharaonic administration. The king, in addition, neglected noopportunity for securing their devotion to himself. He gave to themin marriage his sisters, his daughters, his cousins, and any of theprincesses whom he was not compelled by law to make his own wives. Heselected from their harems nursing-mothers for his own sons, and thischoice established between him and them a foster relationship, whichwas as binding among the Egyptians and other Oriental peoples as one ofblood. It was not even necessary for the establishment of this relationthat the foster-mother's connexion with the Pharaoh's son should bedurable or even effective: the woman had only to offer her breast tothe child for a moment, and this symbol was quite enough to make her hisnurse--his true _monâît_. This fictitious fosterage was carried so far, that it was even made use of in the case of youths and persons of matureage. When an Egyptian woman wished to adopt an adult, the law prescribedthat she should offer him the breast, and from that moment he became herson. A similar ceremony was prescribed in the case of men who wished toassume the quality of male nurse--_monâî_--or even, indeed, of femalenurse--_monâît_--like that of their wives; according to which they wereto place, it would seem, the end of one of their fingers in the mouthof the child. * Once this affinity was established, the fidelity of thesefeudal lords was established beyond question; and their official dutiesto the sovereign were not considered as accomplished when they hadfulfilled their military obligations, for they continued to serve him inthe palace as they had served him on the field. Wherever the necessitiesof the government called them--at Memphis, at Ramses, or elsewhere--theyassembled around the Pharaoh; like him they had their palaces at Thebes, and when they died they were anxious to be buried there beside him. **

 * These symbolical modes of adoption were first pointed out by Maspero. Legend has given examples of them: as, for instance, where Isis fosters the child of Malkander, King of Byblos, by inserting the tip of her finger in its mouth. 

 ** The tomb of a prince of Tobûî, the lesser Aphroditopolis, was discovered at Thebes by Maspero. The rock-out tombs of two Thinite princes were noted in the same necropolis. These two were of the time of Thûtmosis III. I have remarked in tombs not yet made public the mention of princes of El-Kab, who played an important part about the person of the Pharaohs down to the beginning of the XXth dynasty. 

Many of the old houses had become extinct, while others, owing tomarriages, were absorbed into the royal family; the fiefs conceded tothe relations or favourites of the Pharaoh continued to exist, indeed, as of old, but the ancient distrustful and turbulent feudality had givenplace to an aristocracy of courtiers, who lived oftener in attendance onthe monarch than on their own estates, and whose authority continued todiminish to the profit of the absolute rule of the king. There wouldbe nothing astonishing in the "count" becoming nothing more than agovernor, hereditary or otherwise, in Thebes itself; he could hardly beanything higher in the capital of the empire. * But the same restrictionof authority was evidenced in all the provinces: the recruiting ofsoldiers, the receipt of taxes, most of the offices associated with thecivil or military administration, became more and more affairs of theState, and passed from the hands of the feudal lord into those of thefunctionaries of the Crown. The few barons who still lived on theirestates, while they were thus dispossessed of the greater part of theirprerogatives, obtained some compensation, on the other hand, on the sideof religion. From early times they had been by birth the heads of thelocal cults, and their protocol had contained, together with thosetitles which justified their possession of the temporalities of thenome, others which attributed to them spiritual supremacy. The sacredcharacter with which they were invested became more and more prominentin proportion as their political influence became curtailed, and we findscions of the old warlike families or representatives of a new lineageat Thinis, at Akhmîm, ** in the nome of Baalû, at Hierâconpolis, ***at El-Kab, **** and in every place where we have information from themonuments as to their position, bestowing more concern upon theirsacerdotal than on their other duties. 

 * Rakhmirî and his son Manakhpirsonbû were both "counts "of Thebes under Thûtmosis III. , and there is nothing to show that there was any other person among them invested with the same functions and belonging to a different family. 

 ** For example, the tomb of Anhûrimôsû, high priest of Anhuri-Shû and prince of Thinis, under Mînephtah, where the sacerdotal character is almost exclusively prominent. The same is the case with the tombs of the princes of Akhmîm in the time of Khûniatonû and his successors: the few still existing in 1884-5 have not been published. The stelæ belonging to them are at Paris and Berlin. 

 *** Horimôsû, Prince of Hierâconpolis under Thûtmosis III. , is, above everything else, a prophet of the local Horus. 

 **** The princes of El-Kab during the XIXth and XXth dynasties were, before everything, priests of Nekhabit, as appears from an examination of their tombs, which, lying in a side valley, far away from the tomb of Pihirî, are rarely visited. 

This transfiguration of the functions of the barons, which had beencompleted under the XIXth and XXth dynasties, corresponded with amore general movement by which the Pharaohs themselves were driven toaccentuate their official position as high priests, and to assign totheir sons sacerdotal functions in relation to the principal deities. This rekindling of religious fervour would not, doubtless, haverestrained military zeal in case of war;* but if it did not tend tosuppress entirely individual bravery, it discouraged the taste for armsand for the bold adventures which had characterised the old feudality. 

 * The sons of Ramses II. , Khâmoîsît and Marîtùmû, were bravo warriors in spite of their being high priests of Phtah at Memphis, and of Râ at Heliopolis. 

The duties of sacrificing, of offering prayer, of celebrating the sacredrites according to the prescribed forms, and rendering due homage to thegods in the manner they demanded, were of such an exactingly scrupulousand complex character that the Pharaohs and the lords of earlier timeshad to assign them to men specially fitted for, and appointed to, thetask; now that they had assumed these absorbing functions themselves, they were obliged to delegate to others an increasingly greaterproportion of their civil and military duties. Thus, while the kingand his great vassals were devoutly occupying themselves in matters ofworship and theology, generals by profession were relieving them ofthe care of commanding their armies; and as these individuals werefrequently the chiefs of Ethiopian, Asiatic, and especially of Libyanbands, military authority, and, with it, predominant influence in theState were quickly passing into the hands of the barbarians. A sort ofaristocracy of veterans, notably of Shardana or Mashauasha, entirelydevoted to arms, grew up and increased gradually side by side with theancient noble families, now by preference devoted to the priesthood. *

 * This military aristocracy was fully developed in the XXIst and XXIInd dynasties, but it began to take shape after Ramses III. Had planted the Shardana and Qahaka in certain towns as garrisons. 

The barons, whether of ancient or modern lineage, were possessed ofimmense wealth, especially those of priestly families. The tribute andspoil of Asia and Africa, when once it had reached Egypt, hardly everleft it: they were distributed among the population in proportion to theposition occupied by the recipients in the social scale. The commandersof the troops, the attendants on the king, the administrators of thepalace and temples, absorbed the greater part, but the distributionwas carried down to the private soldier and his relations in town orcountry, who received some of the crumbs. When we remember for a momentthe four centuries and more during which Egypt had been reaping thefruits of her foreign conquest, we cannot think without amazement ofthe quantities of gold and other precious metals which must have beenbrought in divers forms into the valley of the Nile. * Every freshexpedition made additions to these riches, and one is at a loss to knowwhence in the intervals between two defeats the conquered could procureso much wealth, and why the sources were never exhausted nor becameimpoverished. This flow of metals had an influence upon commercialtransactions, for although trade was still mainly carried on by barter, the mode of operation was becoming changed appreciably. In exchangingcommodities, frequent use was now made of rings and ingots of a certainprescribed weight in _tabonû_; and it became more and more the customto pay for goods by a certain number of _tabonû_ of gold, silver, orcopper, rather than by other commodities: it was the practice evento note down in invoices or in the official receipts, alongside theproducts or manufactured articles with which payments were made, thevalue of the same in weighed metal. **

 * The quantity of gold in ingots or rings, mentioned in the _Annals of Tkutmosis III. _, represents altogether a weight of nearly a ton and a quarter, or in value some £140, 000 of our money. And this is far from being the whole of the metal obtained from the enemy, for a large portion of the inscription has disappeared, and the unrecorded amount might be taken, without much risk of error, at as much as that of which we have evidence--say, some two and a half tons, which Thûtmosis had received or brought back between the years XXIII. And XLII. Of his reign--an estimation rather under than over the reality. These figures, moreover, take no account of the vessels and statues, or of the furniture and arms plated with gold. Silver was not received in such large quantities, but it was of great value, and the like may be said of copper and lead. 

 * The facts justifying this position were observed and put together for the first time by Chabas: a translation is given in his memoir of a register of the XXth or XXIst dynasty, which gives the price of butcher's meat, both in gold and silver, at this date. Fresh examples have been since collected by Spiegelberg, who has succeeded in drawing up a kind of tariff for the period between the XVIIIth and XXth dynasties. 

This custom, although not yet widely extended, placed at the disposalof trade enormous masses of metal, which were preserved in the form ofingots or bricks, except the portion which went to the manufacture ofrings, jewellery, or valuable vessels. *

 * There are depicted on the monuments bags or heaps of gold dust, ingots in the shape of bricks, rings, and vases, arranged alongside each other. 

The general prosperity encouraged a passion for goldsmith's work, andthe use of bracelets, necklaces, and chains became common among classesof the people who were not previously accustomed to wear them. There washenceforward no scribe or merchant, however poor he might be, who hadnot his seal made of gold or silver, or at any rate of copper gilt. Thestone was sometimes fixed, but frequently arranged so as to turn roundon a pivot; while among people of superior rank it had some emblemor device upon it, such as a scorpion, a sparrow-hawk, a lion, ora cynocephalous monkey. Chains occupied the same position among theornaments of Egyptian women as rings among men; they were indispensabledecorations. Examples of silver chains are known of some five feetin length, while others do not exceed two to three inches. There arespecimens in gold of all sizes, single, double, and triple, with largeor small links, some thick and heavy, while others are as slight andflexible as the finest Venetian lace. The poorest peasant woman, alikewith the lady of the court, could boast of the possession of a chain, and she must have been in dire poverty who had not some other ornamentin her jewel-case. The jewellery of Queen Âhhotpû shows to what degreeof excellence the work of the Egyptian goldsmiths had attained at thetime of the expulsion of the Nyksôs: they had not only preserved thegood traditions of the best workmen of the XIIth dynasty, but they hadperfected the technical details, and had learned to combine form andcolour with a greater skill. The pectorals of Prince Khâmoîsît and theLord Psaru, now in the Louvre, but which were originally placed in thetomb of the Apis in the time of Ramses II. , are splendid examples. 

[Illustration: 345. Jpg PECTORAL OF RAMSES II. ]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the jewel in the Louvre. 

The most common form of these represents in miniature the front of atemple with a moulded or flat border, surmounted by a curved cornice. In one of them, which was doubtless a present from the king himself, thecartouche, containing the first name of the Pharaoh-Usirmari, appearsjust below the frieze, and serves as a centre for the design within theframe. The wings of the ram-headed sparrow-hawk, the emblem of Amonrâ, are so displayed as to support it, while a large urseus and a vulturebeneath embracing both the sparrow-hawk and the cartouche with outspreadwings give the idea of divine protection. Two _didû_, each of themfilling one of the lower corners, symbolise duration. The framework ofthe design is made up of divisions marked out in gold, and filled eitherwith coloured enamels or pieces of polished stone. The general effect isone of elegance, refinement, and harmony, the three principal elementsof the design becoming enlarged from the top downwards in a deftlyadjusted gradation. The dead-gold of the cartouche in the upper centreis set off below by the brightly variegated and slightly undulating bandof colours of the sparrow-hawk, while the urseus and vulture, associatedtogether with one pair of wings, envelope the upper portions in ahalf-circle of enamels, of which the shades pass from red throughgreen to a dull blue, with a freedom of handling and a skill in themanipulation of colour which do honour to the artist. It was not hisfault if there is still an element of stiffness in the appearance of thepectoral as a whole, for the form which religious tradition had imposedupon the jewel was so rigid that no artifice could completely get overthis defect. It is a type which arose out of the same mental conceptsas had given birth to Egyptian architecture and sculpture--monumental incharacter, and appearing often as if designed for colossal rather thanordinary beings. The dimensions, too overpowering for the decoration ofnormal men or women, would find an appropriate place only on the breastsof gigantic statues: the enormous size of the stone figures to whichalone they are adapted would relieve them, and show them in their properproportions. The artists of the second Theban empire tried all theycould, however, to get rid of the square framework in which the sacredbird is enclosed, and we find examples among the pectorals in the Louvreof the sparrow-hawk only with curved wings, or of the ram-headed hawkwith the wings extended; but in both of them there is displayed the samebrilliancy, the same purity of line, as in the square-shaped jewels, while the design, freed from the trammels of the hampering enamelledframe, takes on a more graceful form, and becomes more suitable forpersonal decoration. 

[Illustration: 347. Jpg THE RAM-HEADED SPARROW-HAWK IN THE LOUVRE]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a jewel in the Louvre. 

The ram's head in the second case excels in the beauty of itsworkmanship anything to be found elsewhere in the museums of Europe orEgypt. It is of the finest gold, but its value does not depend upon theprecious material: the ancient engraver knew how to model it with a boldand free hand, and he has managed to invest it with as much dignityas if he had been carving his subject in heroic size out of a block ofgranite or limestone. It is not an example of pure industrial art, butof an art for which a designation is lacking. Other examples, althoughmore carefully executed and of more costly materials, do not approach itin value: such, for instance, are the earrings of Ramses XII. AtGîzeh, which are made up of an ostentatious combination of disks, filigree-work, chains, beads, and hanging figures of the urseus. 

To get an idea of the character of the plate on the royal sideboards, wemust have recourse to the sculptures in the temples, or to the paintingson the tombs: the engraved gold or silver centrepieces, dishes, bowls, cups, and amphoras, if valued by weight only, were too precious toescape the avarice of the impoverished generations which followed theera of Theban prosperity. In the fabrication of these we can traceforeign influences, but not to the extent of a predominance over nativeart: even if the subject to be dealt with by the artist happened to be aPhoenician god or an Asiatic prisoner, he was not content with slavishlycopying his model; he translated it and interpreted it, so as to give itan Egyptian character. 

The household furniture was in keeping with these precious objects. Beds and armchairs in valuable woods, inlaid with ivory, carved, gilt, painted in subdued and bright colours, upholstered with mattressesand cushions of many-hued Asiatic stuffs, or of home-made materials, fashioned after Chaldæan patterns, were in use among the well-to-do, while people of moderate means had to be content with old-fashionedfurniture of the ancient regime. 

[Illustration: 348. Jpg DECORATED ARMCHAIR]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of these objects in the tomb of Ramses III. 

The Theban dwelling-house was indeed more sumptuously furnished than theearliest Memphite, but we find the same general arrangements in both, which provided, in addition to quarters for the masters, a similarnumber of rooms intended for the slaves, for granaries, storehouses, andstables. While the outward decoration of life was subject to change, the inward element remained unaltered. Costume was a more complexmatter than in former times: the dresses and lower garments were moregauffered, had more embroidery and stripes; the wigs were larger andlonger, and rose up in capricious arrangements of curls and plaits. 

[Illustration: 349. Jpg EGYPTIAN WIG]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by M. De Mertens. 

The use of the chariot had now become a matter of daily custom, andthe number of domestics, already formidable, was increased by freshadditions in the shape of coachmen, grooms, and _saises_, who ran beforetheir master to clear a way for the horses through the crowded streetsof the city. *

 * The pictures at Tel el-Amarna exhibit the king, queen, and princesses driving in their chariots with escorts of soldiers and runners. We often find in the tomb-paintings the chariot and coachman of some dignitary, waiting while their master inspects a field or a workshop, or while he is making a visit to the palace for some reward. 

As material, existence became more complex, intellectual life partook ofthe same movement, and, without deviating much from the lines prescribedfor it by the learned and the scribes of the Memphite age, literaturehad become in the mean time larger, more complicated, more exacting, and more difficult to grapple with and to master. It had its classicalauthors, whose writings were committed to memory and taught in theschools. These were truly masterpieces, for if some felt that theyunderstood and enjoyed them, others found them almost beyond theircomprehension, and complained bitterly of their obscurity. The laterwriters followed them pretty closely, in taking pains, on the one handto express fresh ideas in the forms consecrated by approved and ancientusage, or when they failed to find adequate vehicles to convey newthoughts, resorting in their lack of imagination to the foreigner for therequisite expressions. The necessity of knowing at least superficially, something of the dialect and writings of Asia compelled the Egyptianscribes to study to some degree the literature of Phonecia and ofChaldæa. 

[Illustration: 350. Jpg Page Image with Furniture]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from photographs of the objects in the Museums of Berlin and Gîzeh. 

From these sources they had borrowed certain formulae and incantation, medical recipes, and devout legends, in which the deities of Assyriaand especially Astartê played the chief part. They appropriated inthis manner a certain number of words and phrases with which they wereaccustomed to interlard their discourses and writings. They thought itpolite to call a door no longer by the word _ro_, but the term _tira_, and to accompany themselves no longer with the harp _bordt_, but withthe same instrument under its new name _kinnôr_, and to make the _salâm_in saluting the sovereign in place of crying before him, _aaû_. Theywere thorough-going Semiticisers; but one is less offended by theiraffectation when one considers that the number of captives in thecountry, and the intermarriages with Canaanite women, had familiarised aportion of the community from childhood with the sounds and ideas of thelanguages from which the scribes were accustomed to borrow unblushingly. This artifice, if it served to infuse an appearance of originality intotheir writings, had no influence upon their method of composition. Theirpoetical ideal remained what it had been in the time of their ancestors, but seeing that we are now unable to determine the characteristiccadence of sentences or the mental attitude which marked each generationof literary men, it is often difficult for us to find out the qualitiesin their writings which gave them popularity. A complete library of oneof the learned in the Ramesside period must have contained a strangemixture of works, embracing, in addition to books of devotion, whichwere indispensable to those who were solicitous about their souls, *collections of hymns, romances, war and love songs, moral andphilosophical treatises, letters, and legal documents. 

 * There are found in the rubrics of many religious books, for example that dealing with the unseen world, promises of health and prosperity to the soul which, "while still on earth, " had read and learned them. A similar formula appears at the end of several important chapters of the _Book of the Dead. _

It would have been similar in character to the literary-possessions ofan Egyptian of the Memphite period, * but the language in which it waswritten would not have been so stiff and dry, but would have flowed moreeasily, and been more sustained and better balanced. 

 * The composition of these libraries may be gathered from the collections of papyri which have turned up from time to time, and have been sold by the Arabs to Europeans buyers; e. G. The Sallier Collection, the Anastasi Collections, and that of Harris. They have found their way eventually into the British Museum or the Museum at Leyden, and have been published in the _Select Papyri_ of the former, or in the _Monuments Égyptiens_ of the latter. 

The great odes to the deities which we find in the Theban _papyri_ arebetter fitted, perhaps, than the profane compositions of the period, to give us an idea of the advance which Egyptian genius had made in thewidth and richness of its modes of expression, while still maintainingalmost the same dead-level of idea which had characterised it from theoutset. Among these, one dedicated to Harmakhis, the sovereign sun, isno longer restricted to a bare enumeration of the acts and virtues ofthe "Disk, " but ventures to treat of his daily course and his finaltriumphs in terms which might have been used in describing thevictorious campaigns or the apotheosis of a Pharaoh. It begins with hisawakening, at the moment when he has torn himself away from the embracesof night. Standing upright in the cabin of the divine bark, "the fairboat of millions of years, " with the coils of the serpent Mihni aroundhim, he glides in silence on the eternal current of the celestialwaters, guided and protected by those battalions of secondary deitieswith whose odd forms the monuments have made us familiar. "Heaven isin delight, the earth is in joy, gods and men are making festival, torender glory to Phrâ-Harmakhis, when they see him arise in his bark, having overturned his enemies in his own time!" They accompany him fromhour to hour, they fight the good fight with him against Apopi, theyshout aloud as he inflicts each fresh wound upon the monster: theydo not even abandon him when the west has swallowed him up in itsdarkness. * Some parts of the hymn remind us, in the definiteness ofthe imagery and in the abundance of detail, of a portion of the poemof Pentaûîrît, or one of those inscriptions of Ramses III. Wherein hecelebrates the defeat of hordes of Asiatics or Libyans. 

 * The remains of Egyptian romantic literature have been collected and translated into French by Maspero, and subsequently into English by Flinders Petrie. 

The Egyptians took a delight in listening to stories. They preferredtales which dealt with the marvellous and excited their imagination, introducing speaking animals, gods in disguise, ghosts and magic. Oneof them tells of a king who was distressed because he had no heir, andhad no sooner obtained the favour he desired from the gods, than theSeven Hathors, the mistresses of Fate, destroyed his happiness bypredicting that the child would meet with his death by a serpent, a dog, or a crocodile. Efforts were made to provide against such a fatality byshutting him up in a tower; but no sooner had he grown to man's estate, than he procured himself a dog, went off to wander through the world, and married the daughter of the Prince of Naharaim. His fate meets himfirst under the form of a serpent, which is killed by his wife; he isnext assailed by a crocodile, and the dog kills the crocodile, but asthe oracles must be fulfilled, the brute turns and despatches his masterwithout further consideration. Another story describes two brothers, Anûpû and Bitiû, who live happily together on their farm till the wifeof the elder falls in love with the younger, and on his repulsing heradvances, she accuses him to her husband of having offered her violence. The virtue of the younger brother would not have availed him much, had not his animals warned him of danger, and had not Phrâ-Harmakhissurrounded him at the critical moment with a stream teeming withcrocodiles. He mutilates himself to prove his innocence, and announcesthat henceforth he will lead a mysterious existence far from mankind; hewill retire to the Valley of the Acacia, place his heart on the topmostflower of the tree, and no one will be able with impunity to steal itfrom him. The gods, however, who frequent this earth take pity on hisloneliness, and create for him a wife of such beauty that the Nile fallsin love with her, and steals a lock of her hair, which is carried by itswaters down into Egypt. Pharaoh finds the lock, and, intoxicated byits scent, commands his people to go in quest of the owner. Havingdiscovered the lady, Pharaoh marries her, and ascertaining from herwho she is, he sends men to cut down the Acacia, but no sooner has theflower touched the earth, than Bitiû droops and dies. The elder brotheris made immediately acquainted with the fact by means of variousprodigies. The wine poured out to him becomes troubled, his beer leavesa deposit. He seizes his shoes and staff and sets out to find the heart. 

After a search of seven years he discovers it, and reviving it in a vaseof water, he puts it into the mouth of the corpse, which at once returnsto life. Bitiû, from this moment, seeks only to be revenged. He changeshimself into the bull Apis, and, on being led to court, he reproachesthe queen with the crime she has committed against him. The queen causeshis throat to be cut; two drops of his blood fall in front of the gateof the palace, and produce in the night two splendid "Persea" trees, which renew the accusation in a loud voice. The queen has them cut down, but a chip from one of them flies into her mouth, and ere long she givesbirth to a child who is none other than a reincarnation of Bitiû. Whenthe child succeeds to the Pharaoh, he assembles his council, revealshimself to them, and punishes with death her who was first his wifeand subsequently his mother. The hero moves throughout the tale withoutexhibiting any surprise at the strange incidents in which he takespart, and, as a matter of fact, they did not seriously outrage theprobabilities of contemporary life. In every town sorcerers could befound who knew how to transform themselves into animals or raisethe dead to life: we have seen how the accomplices of Pentaûîrît hadrecourse to spells in order to gain admission to the royal palace whenthey desired to rid themselves of Ramses III. The most extravagantromances differed from real life merely in collecting within a dozenpages more miracles than were customarily supposed to take place in thesame number of years; it was merely the multiplicity of events, andnot the events themselves, that gave to the narrative its romantic andimprobable character. The rank of the heroes alone raised the taleout of the region of ordinary life; they are always the sons of kings, Syrian princes, or Pharaohs; sometimes we come across a vague andundefined Pharaoh, who figures under the title of Pîrûîâûi or Prûîti, but more often it is a well-known and illustrious Pharaoh who ismentioned by name. It is related how, one day, Kheops, suffering from_ennui_ within his palace, assembled his sons in the hope of learningfrom them something which he did not already know. They described to himone after another the prodigies performed by celebrated magicians underKanibri and Snofrûi; and at length Mykerinos assured him that therewas a certain Didi, living then not far from Meîdum, who was capable ofrepeating all the marvels done by former wizards. Most of the Egyptiansovereigns were, in the same way, subjects of more or less wonderfullegends--Sesostris, Amenôthes III. , Thûfcmosis III. , Amenemhâît I. , Khîti, Sahûrî, Usirkaf, and Kakiû. These stories were put into literaryshape by the learned, recited by public story-tellers, and received bythe people as authentic history; they finally filtered into the writingsof the chroniclers, who, in introducing them into the annals, filledup with their extraordinary details the lacunæ of authentic tradition. Sometimes the narrative assumed a briefer form, and became an apologue. In one of them the members of the body were supposed to have combinedagainst the head, and disputed its supremacy before a jury; the partiesall pleaded their cause in turn, and judgment was given in due form. *

 * This version of the _Fable of the Members and the Stomach_ was discovered upon a schoolboy's tablet at Turin. 

Animals also had their place in this universal comedy. The passions orthe weaknesses of humanity were attributed to them, and the narratormakes the lion, rat, or jackal to utter sentiments from which he drawssome short practical moral. La Fontaine had predecessors on the banks ofthe Nile of whose existence he little dreamed. 

[Illustration: 357. Jpg THE CAT AND THE JACKAL GO OFF TO THE FIELDS WITHTHEIR FLOCKS]Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius. 

As La Fontaine found an illustrator in Granville, so, too, in Egyptthe draughtsman brought his reed to the aid of the fabulist, and by hiscleverly executed sketches gave greater point to the sarcasm of storythan mere words could have conveyed. Where the author had brieflymentioned that the jackal and the cat had cunningly forced theirservices on the animals whom they wished to devour at their leisure, theartist would depict the jackal and the cat equipped as peasants, withwallets on their backs, and sticks over their shoulders, marching behinda troup of gazelles or a flock of fat geese: it was easy to foretell thefate of their unfortunate charges. Elsewhere it is an ox who bringsup before his master a cat who has cheated him, and his proverbialstupidity would incline us to think that he will end by being punishedhimself for the misdeeds of which he had accused the other. Puss's slyand artful expression, the ass-headed and important-looking judge, withthe wand and costume of a high and mighty dignitary, give pungency tothe story, and recall the daily scenes at the judgment-seat of the lordof Thebes. In another place we see a donkey, a lion, a crocodile, and amonkey giving an instrumental and vocal concert. 

[Illustration: 358. Jpg THE CAT BEFORE ITS JUDGE]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius. 

A lion and a gazelle play a game of chess. A cat of fashion, with aflower in her hair, has a disagreement with a goose: they have come toblows, and the excitable puss, who fears she will come off worst in thestruggle, falls backwards in a fright. The draughtsmen having once foundvent for their satire, stopped at nothing, and even royalty itself didnot escape their attacks. While the writers of the day made fun of themilitary calling, both in prose and verse, the caricaturists parodiedthe combats and triumphal scenes of the Ramses or Thutmosis of theday depicted on the walls of the pylons. The Pharaoh of all the rats, perched upon a chariot drawn by dogs, bravely charges an army of cats;standing in the heroic attitude of a conqueror, he pierces them withhis darts, while his horses tread the fallen underfoot; his legionsmeanwhile in advance of him attack a fort defended by tomcats, with thesame ardour that the Egyptian battalions would display in assaulting aSyrian stronghold. 

[Illustration: 359. Jpg A CONCERT OF ANIMALS DEVOTED TO MUSIC]

 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Lepsius. 

This treatment of ethics did not prevent the Egyptian writers fromgiving way to their natural inclinations, and composing large volumeson this subject after the manner of Kaqîmni or Phtahhotpû. One of theirbooks, in which the aged Ani inscribes his Instructions to his son, Khonshotpû, is compiled in the form of a dialogue, and contains theusual commonplaces upon virtue, temperance, piety, the respect due toparents from children, or to the great ones of this world fromtheir inferiors. The language in which it is written is ingenious, picturesque, and at times eloquent; the work explains much that isobscure in Egyptian life, and upon which the monuments have thrown nolight. "Beware of the woman who goes out surreptitiously in her town, donot follow her or any like her, do not expose thyself to the experienceof what it costs a man to face an Ocean of which the bounds areunknown. * The wife whose husband is far from home sends thee letters, and invites thee to come to her daily when she has no witnesses; ifshe succeeds in entangling thee in her net, it is a crime which ispunishable by death as soon as it is known, even if no wicked act hastaken place, for men will commit every sort of crime when under thistemptation alone. "

 * I have been obliged to paraphrase the sentence considerably to render it intelligible to the modern reader. The Egyptian text says briefly: "Do not know the man who braves the water of the Ocean whose bounds are unknown. "_To know the man_ means here _know the state of the man_ who does an action. 

"Be not quarrelsome in breweries, for fear that thou mayest be denouncedforthwith for words which have proceeded from thy mouth, and of havingspoken that of which thou art no longer conscious. Thou fallest, thy members helpless, and no one holds out a hand to thee, but thyboon-companions around thee say: 'Away with the drunkard!' Thou artwanted for some business, and thou art found rolling on the ground likean infant. " In speaking of what a man owes to his mother, Ani waxeseloquent: "When she bore thee as all have to bear, she had in thee aheavy burden without being able to call on thee to share it. When thouwert born, after thy months were fulfilled, she placed herself under ayoke in earnest, her breast was in thy mouth for three years; in spiteof the increasing dirtiness of thy habits, her heart felt no disgust, and she never said: 'What is that I do here?' When thou didst go toschool to be instructed in writing, she followed thee every day withbread and beer from thy house. Now thou art a full-grown man, thou hasttaken a wife, thou hast provided thyself with a house; bear always inmind the pains of thy birth and the care for thy education that thymother lavished on thee, that her anger may not rise up against thee, and that she lift not her hands to God, for he will hear her complaint!"The whole of the book does not rise to this level, but we find in itseveral maxims which appear to be popular proverbs, as for instance: "Hewho hates idleness will come without being called;" "A good walker comesto his journey's end without needing to hasten;" or, "The ox whichgoes at the head of the flock and leads the others to pasture is but ananimal like his fellows. " Towards the end, the son Khonshotpû, weary ofsuch a lengthy exhortation to wisdom, interrupts his father roughly:"Do not everlastingly speak of thy merits, I have heard enough of thydeeds;" whereupon Ani resignedly restrains himself from further speech, and a final parable gives us the motive of his resignation: "This is thelikeness of the man who knows the strength of his arm. The nursling whois in the arms of his mother cares only for being suckled; but no soonerhas he found his mouth than he cries: 'Give me bread!'"

It is, perhaps, difficult for us to imagine an Egyptian in loverepeating madrigals to his mistress, * for we cannot easily realise thatthe hard and blackened bodies we see in our museums have once been menand women loving and beloved in their own day. 

 * The remains of Egyptian amatory literature have been collected, translated, and commentated on by Maspero. They have been preserved in two papyri, one of which is at Turin, the other in the British Museum. The first of these appears to be a sort of dialogue in which the trees of a garden boast one after another of the beauty of a woman, and discourse of the love-scenes which took place under their shadow. 

The feeling which they entertained one for another had none of thereticence or delicacy of our love: they went straight to the point, andthe language in which, they expressed themselves is sometimes too coarsefor our taste. The manners and customs of daily life among the Egyptianstended to blunt in them the feelings of modesty and refinement to whichour civilization has accustomed us. Their children went about withoutclothes, or, at any rate, wore none until the age of puberty. Owing tothe climate, both men and women left the upper part of the body more orless uncovered, or wore fabrics of a transparent nature. In the towns, the servants who moved about their masters or his guests had merelya narrow loin-cloth tied round their hips; while in the country, thepeasants dispensed with even this covering, and the women tucked uptheir garments when at work so as to move more freely. The religiousteaching and the ceremonies connected with their worship drew theattention of the faithful to the unveiled human form of their gods, andthe hieroglyphs themselves contained pictures which shock our sense ofpropriety. Hence it came about that the young girl who was demanded inmarriage had no idea, like the maiden of to-day, of the vague delightsof an ideal union. The physical side was impressed upon her mind, and she was well aware of the full meaning of her consent. Her lover, separated from her by her disapproving parents, thus expresses the griefwhich overwhelms him: "I desire to lie down in my chamber, --for I amsick on thy account, --and the neighbours come to visit me. --Ah! if mysister but came with them, --she would show the physicians what ailedme, --for she knows my sickness!" Even while he thus complains, he seesher in his imagination, and his spirit visits the places she frequents:"The villa of my sister, --(a pool is before the house), --the door openssuddenly, --and my sister passes out in wrath. --Ah! why am I not theporter, --that she might give me her orders!--I should at least hearher voice, even were she angry, --and I, like a little boy, full of fearbefore her!" Meantime the young girl sighs in vain for "her brother, thebeloved of her heart, " and all that charmed her before has now ceased toplease her. "I went to prepare my snare, my cage and the covert formy trap--for all the birds of Puânît alight upon Egypt, redolent withperfume;--he who flies foremost of the flock is attracted by my worm, bringing odours from Puânît, --its claws full of incense. --But my heartis with thee, and desires that we should trap them together, --I withthee, alone, and that thou shouldest be able to hear the sad cry ofmy perfumed bird, --there near to me, close to me, I will make readymy trap, --O my beautiful friend, thou who goest to the field of thewell-beloved!" The latter, however, is slow to appear, the day passesaway, the evening comes on: "The cry of the goose resounds--which iscaught by the worm-bait, --but thy love removes me far from the bird, andI am unable to deliver myself from it; I will carry off my net, and whatshall I say to my mother, --when I shall have returned to her?--Every dayI come back laden with spoil, --but to-day I have not been able to setmy trap, --for thy love makes me its prisoner!" "The goose flies away, alights, --it has greeted the barns with its cry;--the flock of birdsincreases on the river, but I leave them alone and think only of thylove, --for my heart is bound to thy heart--and I cannot tear myselfaway from thy beauty. " Her mother probably gave her a scolding, but shehardly minds it, and in the retirement of her chamber never weariesof thinking of her brother, and of passionately crying for him: "O mybeautiful friend! I yearn to be with thee as thy wife--and that thoushouldest go whither thou wishest with thine arm upon my arm, --for thenI will repeat to my heart, which is in thy breast, my supplications. --Ifmy great brother does not come to-night, --I am as those who lie in thetomb--for thou, art thou not health and life, --he who transfers the joysof thy health to my heart which seeks thee?" The hours pass away andhe does not come, and already "the voice of the turtle-dove speaks, --itsays: 'Behold, the dawn is here, alas! what is to become of me?' Thou, thou art the bird, thou callest me, --and I find my brother in hischamber, --and my heart is rejoiced to see him!--I will never go awayagain, my hand will remain in thy hand, --and when I wander forth, I willgo with thee into the most beautiful places, --happy in that he makes methe foremost of women--and that he does not break my heart. " We shouldlike to quote the whole of it, but the text is mutilated, and we areunable to fill in the blanks. It is, nevertheless, one of those productsof the Egyptian mind which it would have been easy for us to appreciatefrom beginning to end, without effort and almost without explanation. The passion in it finds expression in such sincere and simple languageas to render rhetorical ornament needless, and one can trace in it, therefore, nothing of the artificial colouring which would limit it toa particular place or time. It translates a universal sentiment into thecommon language of humanity, and the hieroglyphic groups need only to beput into the corresponding words of any modern tongue to bring hometo the reader their full force and intensity. We might compare it withthose popular songs which are now being collected in our provincesbefore the peasantry have forgotten them altogether: the artlessness ofsome of the expressions, the boldness of the imagery, the awkwardnessand somewhat abrupt character of some of the passages, communicate toboth that wild charm which we miss in the most perfect specimens of ourmodern love-poets. 

END OF VOL. V.