EGYPT mmR THE PHAIUOIIS VOL. 1. !,<)>; DON : riilNTKl) BY 8POTTlSWi;<)l)K AND ( (). . M'.W-.STRF.KT .SyUAllK AND I'AULJAilKNT STUKET Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/historyofegyptun01brug A HISTOBY OF EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAOHS DERIVED ENTIRELY FROM THE MONUMENTS BY HENEY BEUGSCH-BEY Hemrich Kc^rl Brugscln TK AX SLATED FROM THE GERMAN By the LATE HENKY DANBY SEYMOUK, F.K.G.S. COMPLETED AND EDITED By PHILIP SMITH, B.A. AUTHOR Oli- ' THE STL'DEN'T's ANCIENT HI.STOKY OF THE KAfeT ' TO WHICH IS ADDED A MEMOIR ON THE EXODUS OF THE ISRAELITES AND THE EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS IN TWO VOLUMES— VOL. L WITH COLOURED PLATES AND MAPS LONDON JOHN MUKRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1879 All ri,jl,l.< r>x.rr,i-esent state of Egyptian interpretation, but will show him how much it needs a wider and deeper knowledge of the whole subject, beyond the mere rendering of the word?. xii THE editor's preface. Editor has had neither time nor opportunity to refer to all the English translations of the texts, which it might be interesting to compare with those of Dr. Brugsch ; but he has in every case given references to those contained in the excellent and convenient collection entitled ' Eecords of the Past.' ^ Dr. Brugsch's pamphlet of ' Additions and Cor- rections * was not received till after the First Volume was nearly all printed. From that point they have been incorporated with the text ; and the rest are placed at the end of the First Volume. Dr. Brugsch 's 'Discourse on the Exodus of the Israelites and the Egyptian Monuments ' is now appended to his ' History,' not merely on account of the striking and original views propounded in it, and the powerful arguments by which they are sustained, but because it gathers into a focus certain statements made in various parts of the ' History ' in such a manner as to form almost a necessary complement to the work. * Of this series, published under the auspices of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, and edited by Dr. Samuel Birch, ten volumes have appeared up to the present time, the odd ones (vols, i., iii., &c.) conta,ining the translations of Assyrian and Chaldsean texts, the even ones (vols, ii., iv., vi., viii., and x.) those from the Egyptian. AUTHOE'S PEEFACE. It is now twenty years since I ventured on the attempt to lay before the friends and admirers of Egyptian antiquity, in the French language, a History of Egypt under the Pharaohs according to the evi- dence of the Monuments, in so far as they have been preserved from the earliest times down to our own age. The time seemed to me even then to have come, to turn to account, for the profit of historical enquiry, the written information of the monuments, now in- terpreted, in opposition to the fabulous and less trust- worthy accounts of classical antiquity, and to lay open to professed historians the chief sources, at least, to which science is and will ever remain indebted for a knowledge of the oldest races of men upon the earth. The quick sale with which the whole edition of my modest work was favoured soon after its appearance, in spite of its faults, could not but prove to me that I had met a sensible want in this province of enquiry, by having laboured, to the best of my knowledge and ability, to satisfy the desire generally expressed for an xiv THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. insight into the rich abundance and the ample contents of the extant monuments and their inscriptions. During the time which has since elapsed, the Avhole compass of our knowledge of the monuments has been enlarged beyond anticipation by new excavations and discoveries, and by the advances made in decyphering the inscriptions through the labours of gifted students of the science. Meanwhile the most important remains of Egyptian antiquity have been won from the bosom of the earth, and the most searching investigations have almost completely overcome the last remaining difficulties, which lay as hindrances in the way of understanding the Holy Scriptures. Under such altered circumstances I could easily understand the wish generally expressed to me on the part of friends and scholars, that I should undertake anew the task of bringing together in one complete picture the historical records of the Pharaonic times, by the help of the latest acquisitions in the scientific knowledge of the monuments ; in order also to afford to those admirers of Egyptian antiquity, who are less conversant with these studies, the opportunity of form- ing their own judgment on the value and the signifi- cance of the stone records of the oldest human history. My well-founded hesitation — on the ground that a work so comprehensive, based above all on the ex- planation and understanding of the superabundant number of texts, would need long years for its com- THE AUTHORS PREFACE. XV pletion — was at last overcome by the urgent request of my publisher, who reminded me of old engagements, and pleaded the constant enquiries for copies of the work, which had been long since exhausted. Such has been the origin — in the midst of the official labours imposed upon me, almost without in- termission, by my duties in the service of that enlight- ened oriental prince, the present ruler of Egypt — of this first German edition of the History of Egypt under the Pharaohs. Within the space of five years, m Europe, Africa, and America, I have arranged the work on a new plan and carried it to completion, snatching by force every moment of that leisure which the scholar enjoys in his quiet study, yet always inspired with enthusiasm for the time long since passed away,' which seemed to me the more attractive the further it is removed from our present life. In my treatment of the subject, I have given my fullest and almost exclusive attention to the testimony of the monuments ; and herein, according to my own view, lies the whole centre of gravity of my work. Claiming neither the vocation nor the ability of a professed historian, I am fain to content myself with the modest and subordinate merit of being a consci- entious interpreter of the words of a past age, after having exhausted all means for the right determination of the evidence drawn from the primitive records, which frequent journeys to Upper Egypt have given XVI THE AUTIIOirS PREFACE. me the opportunity of thoroughly examining on the very spot where each is extant. If, as I fear, my exhibition and embodiment of the pecuharly rich ma- terials at my command is affected by the imperfection incident to the task of writing the history of Egypt under the Pharaohs from the beginning to the end, the reader may still find some compensation in acquiring the knowledge of a wealth of primeval records, whose tone and phraseology I have taken pains to render with the greatest possible fidehty. The language of the monuments is simple and unadorned ; but there breathes through it the fresh and vigorous air of a high antiquity. My esteemed colleagues in these studies will not fail to observe that certain views, which I have put forth in the most important portions of my work, are in the most decided opposition to the opinions held by eminent authorities in the province of ancient Egyptian research, and hitherto accepted as incontrovertible facts. For example, I regard the idea, which has hitherto found so much favour, of a Pelasgo-Italian confederacy of nations in the times of Minepthah I. and Eamses HI., as a dangerous error, which has been unfortunately introduced into our science, and has already struck its parasitical roots into handbooks of the history of Greece and Italy. In like manner, I regard Ilium, and the Dardanians, Mysians, and Lycians, as powers unknown to the Egyptians of THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xvii the fourteenth century, and I have, on the con- trary, placed the peoples whose names correspond to these in the highlands about the upper course of the Euphrates. In this province of research, if anyv\^here, the most careftil circumspection is required. The proofs in support of my rectifications of these and similar assumptions and hypotheses I intend speedily to lay before my colleagues, in all their force and complete- ness, in a separate scientific treatise, which is already prepared for the press. I commend to my fellow-students, as noteworthy and deserving of thorough examination, the fact which has never before been recognized or established, that the Egyptian monuments of the date of B.C. 1000 and onwards bear witness, for the first time, to a knowledge of the names of Assyrian kings in the Egyptian form of writing, and attest the presence of Assyrian satraps in the Nile valley. Pai^rshns (Parrash-nes, Pallash- nes, Pallash-nisu), Shashanq, Nimrod, Tiglath, Sargon, &c., are real Assyrian persons, who appear hencefor- ward in the closest connection with the history of Egypt. The numerous translations, which, as I have said, form the special foundation of this work, have been written with the monuments before me, and repeatedly compared with the original texts. In the cases in which I have had to cite former translations and copies, I have not omitted to mention the fact in the text itself VOL. I. a xviii THE AUTHOR'S PEEFACE. or in a note. A very few sucli — as, for example, the translation of the long inscription of Piankhi by the late master of our science, E. de Eouge — have been accessible to me only since the completion of my book ; but I have found no occasion to regret my own differ- ences from them in the interpretation and translation of the documents. So much the more do I regret, on the other hand, that the splendid edition of the Harris Papyrus, No. 1 — by the pubhcation of which Dr. Birch has again earned for himself and the Trustees of the British Museum the greatest credit for the enrichment of ancient Egyptian learning — only came into my hands, as a present alike costly and valuable for its contents, after this book was printed. For all future time this document, the most important parts of which had only been known to me in extracts, will form the most valuable contribution to the history of the third Eamses. In conclusion, I esteem it a special obhgation of gratitude not to pass over in silence the names of the deserving scholars who, whether by the publication of the monuments, or by the explanation and decyphering of the historical inscriptions, have conferred a lasting service on science, and have thereby contributed in no small measure to lighten the labour of my work. I would especially mention the names of Birch, Chabas, E. and J. de Eouge, Deveria, Diimichen, Ebers, Good- win, Leemans, Le Page Eenouf, Lepsius, Lieblein, THE author's preface. xix Marietta, Maspero, Naville, Pierret, Pleyte. If, in discussing the historical researches or the translations of texts, for which the learned world is indebted to these scholars, I have expressed a different opinion about some details, I have assuredly not been influenced by the spirit of contradiction, but by the conviction that I may have come nearer the truth. I may here quote the Arabic proverb : ' Honour to the beginner, even though the follower does better/ To the chronological part of this work I have, of the most dehberate purpose, given a very subordinate attention. In my opinion, everything still remains to be done in this province, so far as relates to the time preceding the twenty-sixth dynasty. On the assumption of Manetho's epitome of the lists of the ancient Egyptian kings as the foundation for determining the numbers, Lepsius has done all that is possible in his Chronology, and has completely exhausted the materials at his com- mand, with astonishing acuteness and great knowledge of the original authorities. But the monuments are now beginning more and more to discredit the numbers of Manetho : compare, for example, his statement of 12 -[-26=: 38 years for the reign of Thutmes III., with the 53 years 11 months and 1 day assigned to that king by the monuments. Unless we choose, without any warrant, to strain the indefinitely elastic lists of Manetho at our -pleasure, there remains no other course than to wait till some fortunate discovery relieves us a2 XX THE author's preface. from this dangerous experiment. It appeared to me, therefore, more advisable to refrain from any attempt at exact chronological determinations, and, for the present, to prefer those general methods, about the principle of which I have spoken at the proper place. I now commit my work to the public, not indeed with the assurance that I have reached the mark for which I strove, but yet in the calm hope of obtaining indulgent and unprejudiced readers, not so much for myself as for the sake of the words repeated from the very lips of the ancient Egyptians, who already, at the distance of forty centuries before our time, esteemed remembrance to be the real life of men. H. BEUGSCH. GoTTiNGEN, Bee. 9, 1876. CONTENTS OF THE FIEST VOLUME.^ PAGE Editor's Preface v Author's Preface xi Introduction xxxix CHAPTER I. origin of the ancient EGYPTIANS. — THEIR NEIGHBOURS. The Type of the Race unchanged 1 Language akin both to Aryan and Semitic 2 Origin from Inner Asia 2 Theory of Ethiopic Origin erroneous 3 Civilization went up the Nile 4 The Nubian Monuments later and inferior 4 The Egyptians claimed to be Aborigines 4 Neighbours on the West : the Ribu or Libu (Libyans) ... 6 On the South : the Nahasu (Negroes) . . . . . • 6 The Kar or Kal (Gallas) furthest South 6 On the East: the Amu — Meaning of the name 7 Generic Types of the Semitic race: the Kheta; Elhar or Khal; Ruten or Luten ; in North Palestine and Syria . . . . 8 Amu in the Delta very early 8 Monumental Records of Foreign Wars 8 Trophies in Mesopotamia and Ethiopia 8 Foreign Conquest fatal to Egypt 9 * In drawing up this Analytical Table of Contents, the Editor has not scrupled to make some minor deviations from the text for the sake of preferable orthography and the correction of small errors. XXll CONTENTS OF CHAPTER II. DIVISION OF THE COUNTRY. MENTAL PECULIARITIES OF THE EGYPTIANS. PAGE Native name of Egypt, Khem, the * black ground' ... 10 Arabian Desert, Keslier, the ' red land ' 11 Other significant and metaphorical names 11 Tamera, the inundation especially for Lo'w-er Egypt . . . . 11 Asiatic names, Mizraim, Muzur, Mudraya, unexplained . . . 12 Applied only to East part of the Delta 12 Two Chief Divisions, North and South, Upper and Lower . . . 12 Not arbitrary — Difierence of speech, manners, »&;c 13 The ' double country ' and two crowns 13 Physical Character of the land . 14 The River and two ranges of Hills 14 Name of the Nile, Nahar or Nahal, Semitic 14 Its seven arms — The Delta — The Canals 14 The Libyan and Arabian Deserts . . . . . . .15 Very ancient division into Nomes 15 Their capitals, governors, temples, &c. ...... 15 Boundary stones and land surveying 16 Rivalry of the Nomes 16 Three capitals, Memphis, Heliopolis, Thebes 17 Agriculture a'nd navigation . 17 Mild manners and peaceful life 18 Mental gifts and moral character 18 Work of the lowest classes— Manufactures 20 Servants, prisoners, hostages, and slaves 21 The nobility and administration . 22 Education, religion, justice, laws ....... 23 Faults and vices ; oppression ; the P^nramids 24 CHAPTER III. PREHISTORIC EGYPT. No ' A ges of Stone, Bronze, and Iron/ in Egypt ... 26 Its history and civilization the oldest in the world . . . . 25 Its prehistoric period filled up with mythical inventions . . . 26 Dynasties of Gods, Demigods, and Manes 26 Chronology based on astronomical reckoning 27 The divine dynasties — how composed .27 Different systems of Memphis and Thebes 27 Patah, Ra, Shu, Seb, Osiiis, Set, Hor 28 THE FIRST VOLUME. xxiii PAGE Significance of their names and powers 28 Set, the prince of darkness 31 Thut, the scribe of the gods 31 Ten dynasties of Demigods and Manes ... . , 62 The sacred animals- ■ -Apis andMnevis 32 The Hor-she-su, or successors of Horns 32 The prehistoric age a preparation for the historic state . . . 29 CHAPTEH IV. CHRONOLOGY OF THE PHARAONIC HISTORY. Different Calculations — Date of Mena 30 Calculations based on Manetho 31 His figures often disproved by the monuments . . . .32 Contemporary and collateral Dynasties 32 Real chronology begins with Dynasty XXVI 32 New light from genealogies 33 Numbers of the Table of Abydus 33 Attempts by astronomical calculation 35 Fragments of the Turin papyrus 36 Insuperable difficulties at present . . . . .. . . 36 The author's Chronological Table 36 CHAPTER V. MENA AND THE ANCIENT EMPIRE. This near Abydus : its ancient importance 38 Mena, ' the constant,' the first king 39 Classical accounts ; curse of Tnephachthus . . . . 39 Mena's ordinances and works 40 Memphis : its names, temples, and necropolis 41 Worship of Patah, Sokar (Osiris) and Sokhet .... 42 Ruins of Memphis at Mit-Rahineh 4 Medieval accounts of the ruins 4 Destroyed for building Cairo 4 Importance of Memphiau high-priests ... . . 4 The Necropolis — tombs and pyramids 4 Importance of the Royal architects 4 The ' prophets of Pharaoh's pyramid ' 4 Their names give the succession of the kings 4 Information from the Tombs on the king and court . . . . 4 The king, Perao, i.e., ' of the great house ' 4 His wife and daughters, harem and children 4 Nobles and servants : chiefe and scribes 6' xxiv CONTENTS OF PAGE Officials — Treasury and Exchequer — Royal Domain ... 50 Buildings and quarries ; overseers and the stick 51 Prefects and judges — Army and officers 51 Men of literature and science — Scribes 52 Lower servants and vs'orkmen — Artists 53 Libyan campaign and fate of Mena 53 CHAPTER VI. THE SUCCESSORS OF MENA. Table of Dynasties I., II., HI 54 Manetho compared with the monuments . . . . . . 54 Names unlike the later Pharaonic ,55 Principles of their formation .56 The Thinites reigned at Memphis 56 They were teachers of arts, laws, science, and religion . . . 57 Athothis : builder, physician, and writer 57 His medical writings : the Memphian papyrus 58 Uenephes : famine ; pyramid of the ^ black bull ' . . . .59 Tombs of the Apis bulls at Saqqarah . . . . . , 59 The ' pyramid of degrees ' their sepulchre 69 Semempses : miracles and plague 60 Dynasty II. : Boethos, earthquake 60 Kaiechos : worship of Apis and Mnevis 60 Binothris : law of female succession 60 Nephercheres and Sesochris ....... 61-62 Dynasty III. : Necherophes : Libyan revolt 62 Tosorthos : physician and mason : hieroglyphic writing , , . 62 Senoferu : first light from the monuments ..... 63 His royal cartouche, names and titles : his pyramid . . . . 63 Mines in the peninsula of Sinai — Inscription at Wady-Magharah . 66 Pyramid of Meidoum, the tomb of Senoferu . . . . . 66 The oldest picture in the world . 66 Sonoferu recorded as a good king ,67 Table of Kings who cotnposed the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties , . 67 CHAPTER VII. THE FOURTH AND FIFTH DYNASTIES. Authorities for Succession of Kings 68 Beginning of Greek accounts of Egypt 69 King Khufu or Cheops (Khembes, Suphis) 69 The Pyramids of Gizeh — Their construction 70 Belief in a future state . . . 70 THE FIRST VOLUME. XXV PAGE Origin of the word ^pyramid' 72 Each pyramid had its special name 73 Materials of the pyramids of Gizeh 73 Quarries of Troja in Mount Mokattam 73 Greek fables about Cheops 75 His tablets of victories at Wady Magharah . . . . . 76 Tombs of contemporary princes and nobles 76 Ratatef, his successor, little known 76 Khafra (Kefren or Chabryes) — Second pyramid .... 76 Mysterious building near the Sphinx 77 Remarkable absence of inscriptions 77 Discovery of statues of Khafra 78 Wonderful technical art of this age 79 The Sphinx and its temple of Thutmes IV 79 Inscriptions, showing the age of the Sphinx . . . • . 80 The Sphinx an emblem of Hormakhu 81 Error of Herodotus — Discoveries of De Roug^ .... 82 Men-kau-ra, Mencheres, Mycerinus 83 Third pyramid — Coffin-lid and inscription 83 His character : deification ; not unique 84 His studies in sacred literature 84 Shepsekaf — Inscriptions at Saqqarah 85 Kissing the ground before Pharaoh 86 Dynasty V. : Userches or Uskaf 87 Sahura : his pyramid and effigy ....... 88 Kofer-ar-ka-ra, Nephercheres ; his officers 88 Ranuser, Rathures ; his names and pyramid 89 The first who used a second cartouche 89 Memorials at Abousir and Wady Magharah .... 89-90 Tomb of Ti : pictures and inscriptions 91 Men-kau-hor, Mencheres ; memorials 91 Tat-ka-ra or Assa : mining works at Wady Magharah . . . 91 Tombs of courtiers at Saqqarah and Gizeh 91 Papyrus of his son, Patah-hotep, the most ancient MS. known . . 92 Moral, precepts on the conduct of life 93 Unas ; Onnos : pyramid of Dashur 94 The kings from Mena to Unas probably of one family . . .95 CHAPTER VIII. FROM THE SIXTH TO THE ELEVENTH DYNASTY. New line, in Middle Egypt 96 Tela or Othoes ; the first ' son of the sun ; ' his pyramid . . 97 Uskara ; his relation to Teta 97 Meri-ra Pepi, a very famous king : Memorials ; Mines ; Bas-relief 97-98 xxvi CONTENTS OF PAGE His name on the oldest monument at Tanis 98 His public works over all Egypt 98 His servant Una — Transport of a sarcophagus .... 99 Wars of Pepi — Negroes in his army 99 Devastating campaigns and slave-himtiug 100 Tombs of great personages 101 l^'irst mention of the 80 years' jubilee 102 Its relation to the Egyptian Calendar 102 Pepe's reign of 100 years 103 Tomb of his wife, Merira-ankh-nes 103 Great historical text of Una 103 Merenra — Preparations for his burial 104 Noferkara : pyramid and inscriptions 106 Records of tombs in Middle Egypt 106 Beba— The city of Pepi 106 Dark period : petty kingdoms : civil wars 107 Dynasty XI. — Eanebtaui Mentuhotep 107 Queen Nit-aker, the Nitocris of Herodotus 107 Heconstruction of the 3rd pyramid 108 Difficulties about Dynasties VII.— XI 109 Neb-kher-ra, Mentu-hotep, or Ranebtaui 110 Renewed light from the monuments 110 New line of Theban origin Ill Named alternately Amentef and Mentuhotep . . . . Ill Important discoveries of their coffins '11 Conquests of Mentuhotep Ranebtaui ....... HI Coptos and the quarries of Hammamat 112 Caravan route to the Red Sea 112 Mentuhotep II. — His pyramid .113 Sankh-kara, last king of the list 113 Important inscription at Hammamat 114 The land of Punt (Ophir, Somauli) 114 Ta-nuter, Hhe land of the gods/ or ' holy land ' . . . .115 First expedition to Punt, under Hannu 115 Route from Coptos to Leucos Limeu (Qosseir) . . . .117 Probable knowledge of Yemen and Hydramaut 117 CHAPTER IX. THE PHARAOHS OF THE TWELFTH DYNASTY. Duration of Dynasties XII.— XIX 119 Table of the Twelfth Dynasty 120 Association of sons with fathers . . . . • . .120 The dynasty Theban — Monuments at Karnak 120 THE FIRST VOLUME. XXvii PAGE New beauty of their works 121 Artists of the family of Mertisen 121 Amenemhat I. : his probable descent 122 His record : instructions to his son 122 Dominion extended in negro-land 123 The land of Wawa-t— Other wars in N., S., E, and W. . . . 123 His temples in all parts of Egypt 124 Founder of the Temple of Amon at Thebes 124 He was king of all Egypt — His character 125 The Eastern frontier — Papyrus of Sineh 126 Troubles and attempted assassination 126 Usurtasen I. — Restoration of order 127 Heliopolis (Annu, On) : its obelisks 127 Temple of Tum : royal visits . . , 128 Buildings at Heliopolis — Important inscription .... 130 Obelisk-inscriptions give mere titles 130 Care for the temple and priests at Thebes 132 The tombs at Beni-hassan 134 Historical inscription of Ameni 135 Kush : inscription at Wady-Halfa 138 Southern boundary at the Second Cataract 139 Gold obtained from Nubia 139 Colonists in Sinai — Road from Egypt 139 Memorials of the King at Tanis . . . . . . 140 Inscriptions of Mentuhotep and Meri . . . . 140-4 Amenemhat 11. — Southern border extended 144 Fortresses built against the negroes . . ... 144 Inscription of Sehathor — Land of Hsba 145 Usurtasen 11.^ — Climax of the empire 147 Inscription of Khnumhotep at Benihassan 147 Orderly government and public works . . ... 151 Festivals of the Egyptian calendar 153 Paintings of Egyptian life and work 154 Arrival of the Amu, illustrating, but not representing, that of Jacob 155 Events in the life of Khnumhotep 157 Usurtasen HI. — His high renown . 150 Temples and sanctuaries to him 159 His expeditions in the South 159 Border fortresses of Semne and Kumme 160 Inscriptions on the boundary-stones 160 Nubia called Aken (the Acina of Pliny) 161 Cruel razzias against the negroes 161 Conquests beyond the 2nd cataract: new temples .... 162 Temple of Usurtasen III. built by Thutmes III. . . . . 1 62 Dedicatory inscription and festivals ... . . 163 Memorial inscriptions to king and officials 163 xxviii CONTENTS OF PAGE Quarries of Hammamat. Khem of Coptos 164 Amenemhat III. — construction of Lake Moeris 166 Regulation of the inundation 165 Discovery of the site of lake Moeris 167 The ' labyrinth ' : etymology of the word .... 168, 170 Not mentioned on the monuments ; scanty ruins . . . . 168 Accounts of Herodotus and Strabo 168 The province detested for its worship of Sebek (Set) and the crocodile 169 Papyrus with geography of Moeris 169 Its capital, Pi-besek, Orocodilopolis 170 Inscriptions in the peninsula of Sinai 171 Temple of Osiris at Abydus 172 Inscription of its keeper, Sehotep-ab-ra 173 Amenemhat IV. and his sister-queen, Sebek-nofrura . . . . 173 Summary of the Twelfth Dynasty 174 Extension of the Empire — the South and Sinai . . . . 174 Commerce with Libya, Palestine, &c .174 Immigration of Libyans, Kushites, and Asiatics 175 Egypt the centre of civilization 175 Intellectual life : schools: priestly instruction 175 The country improved : boundaries : registers . . . .175 Temples ; pyramids ; tombs ; sculpture and painting . . . 176 Industries : tools : gold and minerals from Sinai .... 176 Centre of administration in Upper Egypt 176 High perfection of Egyptian art 176 Criticisms of De Roug^ and Lepsius 177-9 Names and families of artists 180 Pedigree of Mertisen 181 CHAPTER X. THE THIRTEENTH DYNASTY. Imperfect accounts : want of monuments 182 Probable arrangement of Dynasties XIII. —XVII 184 Short reigns, revolts, troubles 184 Evidence of the monuments of Tanis 185 Irruption of Hyksos at end of Dynasty XIII. . . . .185 Most kings of Dynasty XIII. named Sebek-hotep, proving a connection with Dynasty XII 186 List from the Turin papyrus 187 Inscription in Nubia— Height of Nile 190 Statues of kings found at Tanis, &c. . . . . . . 191 THE FIRST VOLUME. xxix PAGE Evidence of rule over all Egypt 192 List of kings in the chamber of Karnak 193 Records in the tombs of Lycopolis . . ' 195 Inscriptions at El-Kab (Eileithyiapolis) . . . . . 196 CHAPTER XI. SEMITES AND EGYPTIANS. Troubles and discord — Silence of the monuments .... 198 Dynasty XIV. of 76 Pharaohs at Xois 198 Collateral dynasties probable 198 Notice of the countries in question 199 The Egyptian Lowlands 199 The pure Egyptians bounded on West and East by the Canopic and Pelusiac branches of the Nile 199 Migratory Libyan tribes to the West 199 City of Karba (Karbanit) at the Canopic mouth . . . . 200 Later irruption of these tribes into Egypt 200 Semites in the East on the Tanitic Nile 200 Tanis (Zoan) a foreign name 200 Title of ' governor of the foreign peoples ' 2ol Lakes and waters with Semitic names , 202 Pelusiac nome : Pitum and Sukoth (Succoth) 202 Bedouin herdsmen on Pharaoh's fields 203 The border fortress of Khetham (Etham) 203 Light thrown on the Exodus 203 The Sethroitic nome 204 Hauar, the Avaris of Josephus 204 Maktol (Migdol) a purely Semitic name 206 Anbu (Shur, Gerrhon) on lake Serbonis 207 Entrance to the * road of the Philistines ' 208 Many other Semitic names 208 Evidence of the monuments 209 Semitic element among the Egyptians 210 A Semitic mania under Dynasties XIX. and XX 210 Semitic words introduced into the language 211 Foreign worship of Sutekh Nub 212 Of Baal and Astart^, Reshpu and Anaitis 212 Era of the 400th year of Nub used by Ramses 11 213 All this confirmed by the monuments and papyri . . . .215 The Shasu, Bedouins of Desert, as far as the Euphrates . . . 216 A branch of the Amu, beginning from Tanis, in the land of Aduma (Edom), and Mount Seir — Agreement with SS. . . . 216 These tribes attracted to the Delta in search of pasture . .217 XXX CONTENTS OF PAGE Administration of the Eastern provinces 220 Tanis the seat of government 220 The Hit-pit, Adon, and Ah-en-pirao 220 Offices held hy foreign suhjects 221 Neighbours of the Egyptians in Palestine 221 First traded with them, then immigrated 221 The Khar or Khal, i.e., Phoenicians 221 Great maritime traffic — Slaves 222 The Kefa, sea-faring men of the Delta 222 Zoan (Tanis) their ancient seat 223 Connection with Zor (Tyre) 223 The Khar employed in public offices 223 Their language the chief of the Asiatic group 224 Their descendants still on Lake Menzaleh ..... 225 Their fathers once lords of Egypt 226 Osiris conquered by Set 226 CHAPTER XII. THE TIME OF FOREIGN DOMINION. JOSEPH IN EGYPP. Manetho's domination of the Hyksos .... . 227 Their name is old Egyptian, and is confirmed by the monuments . 227 Story of Josephus, from Manetho 227 The Hyksos of Arab origin . 229 ^ Hyksos ' means King of the Shasu, Arabs, or Shepherds . . 232 Probably a term of contempt . 252 Their connection with the Phoenicians 233 Testimony of the monuments 233 Their name itfew or ilfe?i^t = ^s7ier, i.e., Syria .... 234 Connection with the Rutennu 234 The invasion made by Syrians, with Shasu Arabs as allies, aided by the Semitic settlers in Egypt 235 Points now established about the Hyksos 236 (1) Non-Egyptian kings of the Menti reigned in Egypt . . 2-36 (2) Their capital the Typhonic Avaris 236 (3) Adopted hieroglyphics and the court usages of Egypt . 236 (4) Patrons of art : Egyptian patterns modified . . . 236 (5) Supreme deity Set (or Sutekh) Nub, son of Mut . . 236 His splendid temples at Zoan and Avaris . . . . 237 (6) The new era of Nub, 400 years before Ramses II. . . 237 (7) Taught the Egyptians much knowledge and art . . . 237 THE FIRST V01.UME. xxxi PAGE Their names erased from the monuments 287 Two only preserved : the kings Apopi and Nul^ti . . . . 238 Ra-aa-ab-taui (or rather, Ra-aa-qenen) Apopi or Apopa, the 4th king, the Aphobis, Aphophis, Apophis, of Manetho , . 238 Historical papyrus (Sallier, No. 1) about Apopi and Ra-Sekenen, Hak of the South, sub-king of Thebes 239 Revolt of the native Egyptians . ' 243 Record of Aahmes, in his tomb at El-Kab 244 Genealogy of Aahmes , . 246 Contemporary kings : three named Ra-Sekenen Taa . . . . 245 The seventeenth dynasty of Manetho 245-7 Their tombs at Thebes — The Abbot papyrus .... 245-7 Translation of the Inscription of Aahmes 248 He serves as admiral under King Aahmes (Dynasty XVHI.) . . 248 Siege and capture of Avaris 248 Victories in Syria and Nubia 249 Service under Amenhotep I. and Thutmes I. . . . . , 250 Inscription of another Aahmes, surnamed Pen-nukheb, under Aahmes, Amenhotep I., Thutmes I. and Thutmes II. . . . 251 The Hyksos expelled in the 6th year of Aahmes .... 252 Kames, father of Aahmes, and his queen Aah-hotep . . . . 252 Treasures found in her coffin 252 Obscurity of this period 254 Hatred of the Hyksos confined to the S 254 Theu- oppression and destruction, exaggerated 255 They increased the splendour of Zoan-Tanis 257 Their monuments destroyed by the kings of Dynasty XVIII.. , 257 Chronological relation to the Israelites in Egypt .... 258 Epoch of King Nub, probably about 1750 b.c 269 Immigration of the Israelites about 1730 B.C. . . . . 260 Tradition placing Joseph under Aphophis 260 Confirmed by the inscription of Baba at El-Kab, referring to the Seven Yeari Famine and distribution of corn . . . 261 The SS. story of Joseph corresponds perfectly to the state and manners of Egypt under the Hyksos 264 Also in the Localities, Names, and Titles ..... 265 Meaning of Joseph s title, Zaphnatpaneahh 265 Parallel in the ' Story of the two brothers ' 266 Joseph's office of Adon over all Egypt 269 Epoch between the Middle and Old Empires, b.c. 1700 . . . 270 Beginning of clear history from the monuments : Egypt's glorious time 271 xxxii CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XIII. THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY. B. C. PAGE 1700.^ A'akmes, Amosis ; its founder 272 Divisions due to the foreign yoke 272 Opposition between Upper and Lower Egypt . . . 272 Towns the centres of petty kingdoms 272 Aahmes {' child of the moon ') not of Theban origin . . 273 Worship of Thut and the moon at Khnum (Hermopolis) . . 273 Expulsion and pursuit of the Hyksos 273 The under kings left and made his allies 273 Wars against Phoenicians and Negroes . . . 275-6 Restoration of the temples ; very gradual . . . . 276 Name of Aahmes in the quarries 277 Nofert-ari- Aahmes, the heiress-queen of Aahmes . , . 278 Deified as the ancestress of the Eighteenth Dynasty . . 278 Probable heiress of the Theban kingdom . . . . 280 1666. Amenhotep I. (Amenophis) ; Nofertari his guardian . . 280 Campaign to extend Egypt on the South . . . . 280 War with the Thuhen (Marmarides) on the North- West . 281 Building of the great temple at Thebes 282 1633. Thutmes I., ' Thut's child,' Thotmosis . . . .282 Campaign in the South against Khont-Hon-nofer . . . 283 Designation of lands South of Egypt 283 Napata, at the * holy mountain ' (Barkal) . . . . 283 Kush confined to the present Soudan 283 Mixture and names of southern races 284 List of victories at Kerman, near Tombos .... 284 The ' Governor of Kush ' first named 286 Riches of the South — Working of gold mines . . . 286 Temples and fortresses — Visits of Pharaohs . . . . 288 Song of praise in the grotto of Silsilis .... 289 War of vengeance against Asia, lasting 600 years . . . 289 * On this first introduction of dates, the reader should be especially warned against taking them for definite chronological epochs. They represent only an artificial system of average ajypi'oximatioUj based on genealogies (see the Author's Preface), which is followed consistently even when known to be inapplicable in detail, in order not to disturb the average. Thus, one generation of 33 years is assigned to the very short reign of Thutmes I. (see p. 296), and the same period to the united reigns of his sons, Thutmes II. and Thutmes III. , though the latter alone reigned nearly 64 years. The system only claims to give accurate residts in a long period, and for such its truth is remarkable. THE FIRST VOLUME. xxxiii B.C. PAGE Survey of the scene of these campaigns .... 290 Roads from Eorypt to Syria and the Euphrates . . . 290 "Western limit at the Amanus and Taurus .... 291 Land of Upper Ruthen : its petty kingdoms . . . . 291 Great people of the Khita (the Hethites or Hittites of SS.) 291 Kingdoms of Carchemish, Kadesh and Megiddo . . . 292 The * river-land ' of Naharain, Mesopotamia . . . 292 Assur and Babel named on the tablets 292 Campaign against the Ruthen 293 The booty, evidence of high civilization 29.3 Mutual influence of Egypt and Mesopotamia . . . 294 Efifect on the military system of Egypt . . ' . . 295 First introduction of the horse (sus) and war-chariot, proved from the tomb of Pa-hir, son of Aahmes . . 295 The Tablet of Victory at Thebes 295 Works on the great temple at Karnak .... 296 Short reign of Thutmes 1 206 His sister-wife Aahmes and his three children . . . 296 Pedigree of the Eighteenth Dynasty . . ... . 297 1600. Thutmes II. and his sister-wife Hashop ^ .... 298 His short reign : his name erased from the monuments by the jealousy of Hashop 298 His two campaigns in the South and East . . . . 299 Rock-tablet of his fii-st year at Syene 299 Buildings at Thebes ; at Medinet-Abu and Der-el-bahri . 300 Royal tombs and temple of Hashop at Der-el-bahri, with the great avenue of sphinxes 301 Queen Hashop assumes a hinges dress and masculine st^ie 302 Memorial of her architect, Semnut 303 Her works in the best Egyptian style . . ... 303 The stage-temple of Der-el-bahri, with pictures and in- scriptions recording the Voyage of Discovery to Punt (Ophir) 304 Homage paid to her ambassador 305 Variety of gifts and products 306 Their dedication to Amon of Thebes 310 Hashop's ambition : seclusion of her younger brother Thutmes in Buto 313 Thutmes HI. associated in the kingdom . . . .314 Their joint tablet at Wady Magharah . . . . . 3l4 Determination of their respective dates . . . .314 Hashop's beautiful obelisk of rose-granite . . . . 314 Time occupied in its erection 316 * Called by many Egyptologists Hatam. VOL. 1. b xxxiv CONTENTS OF B.C. PAGE Thutmes III. alone : the Egyptian Alexander . . . 316 His long reign of nearly 64 years ^ 316 Immense number of his monuments 317 Egypt now the centre of history 317-8 Immense riches laid up in the temples, as explained by the priests to Germanicus 317-8 Table of the victories of Thutmes HI. at Karnak . . 318 More than 13 campaigns in 20 years 318 Exaction of neglected tributes 319 Revolutions in Western Asia . . . . . . 319 Chaldeans of Babylon overthrown by Arabs . . . 319 Ruthen, Kalu, &c., independent of Egypt . . . . 319 First campaign against Ruthen and Zahi .... 320 Victory of Megiddo over king of Kadesh . . . . 321 Further record of campaigns and tributes . . . 321 -9 Other records of the king's victories .... 329-44 Registration of the tributes 344 Those of the South : Punt, Ruthen, and Kufa . . . 345 Thanksgivings and buildings at Thebes .... 346 Fortress of Thutmes III. in Mount Lebanon . . . . 346 Institution of three feasts of victory 347 List of forty festivals of the year 347 Towns given to Amon of Thebes 348 Hall of pillars and obelisks at Karnak 348 Memorials of the great first campaign .... 349 Important list of towns at Karnak 349 Catalogues of the peoples of Upper Ruthen . . 349-51 Evidence of a confederacy in Palestine, under the king of Kadesh on the Orontes 352 History of the captain Amenemhib 363 Leading authority for Thutmes IH. and Amenhotep H. . 353 The king's wars in Naharain 357 Analysis of his fourteen campaigns 359 Tributes and treatment of hostile towns . . . , . 860 Articles brought from Palestine and Phoenicia . . . 860 Phoenician and Assyrian commerce 861 From Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Lebanon .... 861 Comparison of ancient and modern names . . . . 863 Pictures of plants and animals at Karnak .... 867 The ' Holy Land ' not Palestine but Arabia . . . . 369 Sinai also called the ' land of the gods ' . . . • 369, n. A poem in praise of the king and Amon 369 ' A Table of the Annals of Thutmes III. is given at the end of this volume, pp. 475-6. THE FIRST VOLUME. XXXV B.C. PAGE Style of this class of compositions 373 Prisoners employed on public works 374 Especially on the temple of Amon at Thebes . . . 374 Architects and overseers ; chief architects . . . . 374 Picture of brick-making at Abd-el-Qurnah .... 375 ^ The stick is in my hand : he not idle ' . . . . . 376 Particulars of the works at Thebes 377 Statues of Amon, being portraits of the king . . . . 377 Obelisks, adorned with metals 378 Domains and servants of the temple 378 Special works — Monolithic shrines 379 Thanksgiving of the priests 380 Meaning of the king's names 382 [lis relations to his sister Hashop 383 Important inscription of his 24th year .... 384 Foundation-stone containing a document 384 Allusion to his sister's hostility 385 The PlaU of Pillars at Karnak 386 The ' Table of Kings ' of Karnak 387 Statues of the Pharaohs and the gods 388 Climax of Eg}'ptian art 388 Statues of Thutmes I. and Amenhotep 1 389 The < Hall of Ancestors ' at Karnak 390 The works of Thutmes IH. and his sister's conti'asted . . 391 Temple at Medinet-Abu restored 392 Monuments all over the land 393 Southern boundary probably at Koloe 393 Works of Thutmes IH. only as far as Semue . . . . 393 Temple there to Usui-tasen HI 394 Temple to Khnum at Kumme 394 Temple at Boohan, opposite Wadi-Halfa .... 394 Rock tombs of Ellesieh — Inscription of 51st year . . . 395 Temple at Elephantine to the local god .... 395 A Sothic epoch specified 395 Knowledge of the ' fixed year ' of 365^ days . . . 396 Other important temples 396 Temple and Tablet at Abydus 397 Seat of Osiris- worship in Upper Egypt 397 Inscription of the priest Neb-aiu 401 Temple of Hathor at Tentyra — Inscription . . . . 402 Finding of king Pepi's plan on leather .... 402 The temple rebuilt by the Ptolemies 402 Temple of Ptah at Memphis, and its endowments . . 403 Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis 403 The architect Amenemant 403 Obelisks of Thutmes III. at Heliopolis . . . 404. 476 b2 xxxvi CONTENTS OF B.C. PAGE His deification in his lifetime 406 Numerous memorials of him on small objects . . . . 406 1566. Amenhotep II., son of Thutmes III 407 Distinguished in his father's lifetime 407 War in the ^ Red Land/ between the Nile and the Red Sea . 407 Revolt in Western Asia — First Campaign . . . . 408 Tablet in the temple at Amada in Nubia .... 409 Fate of the captive kings of Western Asia . . . . 410 Picture and inscription at Abd-el-Qurnah . . . .411 Regions named in the inscriptions 41 1 Temples in Egypt and Nubia 411 Napata, the capital of Kush 411 Contemporaries of Amenhotep 11 41 2 1633. Thutmes IV.— His surnames 413 Inscription of his servant Amenhotep 41 3 His campaigns in North and South, over 22° of latitude . . 413 Only fragmentary accounts in inscriptions .... 413 His memorial-stone in front of the Sphinx . . . . 414 Inscription : his vision of Ilormakhu 415 Important testimony to the early sanding up of tlie statue . 418 1500. Amenhotep IH., son of Queen Mutemua .... 419 His greatness inferred from his monuments . . . . 419 Scarab^ with his name, showing the extent of his empire . 419 His lion hunts in Mesopotamia 419 His great campaigns in Ethiopia 420 First campaign in his fifth year— Inscription at Philae . 420 Progress up the Nile — Tablet at Semne 421 Catalogue of the prisoners 421 Hands of slain enemies cut off as proofs of victory . . . 422 List of tribes ; some not found elsewhere .... 422 Inscription at Soleb in Upper Nubia 422 Wealth from auriferous regions 423 Names of * Kings' sons of Kush,' at the first cataract . . 423 Inscription of Amenhotep, son of Hapu, maker of the colossal statues of the king at Thebes 424 New quarries in the Mokattam hills 427 Memorial-tablet at Medinet Abu 428 The Colossi — the ' Vocal Memnon ' 429 Memorial of the architect Amenhotep 433 His temple Hakak at Der-el-Medineh .... 433 Deified as a god of learning 435 His other works in Egypt and Nubia 436 The temple-fortress at Mount Barkal 436 Tomb of Khamhat ; the 30 years' jubilee .... 437 Rewards to volunteer tax-payers 438 THE FIRST VOLUME. XXXvii B.C. PAGE Thefts on the king's coronation-day 438 Length of his reign ; inscriptions of years 35 and 36 . . 439 His marriage with a foreign queen 440 Family of Amenhotep HI 440 1466. Amenhotep IV., afterwards called Khunaten . . . 441 Illegitimate through his foreign blood 441 Hostility of the Theban priests to him .... 441 His aversion to the worship of Amon 441 New doctrine of the one God of Light, .... 441 symbolised by the sun's disk (Aten) 442 His peculiar features and figure 442 The names of Amon and Mut obliterated . . . . 442 Open rebellion of priests and people 442 The king's new name of Khunaten, i.e.f ' the splendour of the sun's disk ' 443 His new city, Khu-aten, at Tell-el-Amarna .... 443 The architect Bek and his family — His tomb . . . . 444 i Pictures of the sculptor Putha 446 Inscription at the quarries of Silsilis 447 Theban nobles employed on the works .... 447 Merira, chief prophet of the Sun . . • , • • • 448 Prayer of Aahmes to the Sun 449 Zeal of the queen and of the queen-mother . . . . 450 Picture and inscription at Tell-el-Amarna .... 451 Rock-pictures of the king's family 451 His victories over the Syrians and Kushites . . . 455 His death without male issue 455 Royal dignities of his sons-in-law 456 Sa'a-nekht : nothing known of him 456 Tut-'ankh-Amon : his memorial at Thebes .... 456 Oflferings of the South and the Ruthen 457 High style of Phoenician art 458 Excellent workmanship of the negro tributes . . . 459 The ' holy father ' Ai, husband of Khunaten's nurse, restores the worship of Amon 460-1 His tomb in the Biban-el-Moluk 461 His successful wars in the North and South . . . 462 Memorial of Paur, governor of the South, important for the succession of the kings . . . ... 462 Horemhib, Ramses I. and Seti I. probably contemporaries, each with a short reign 462 Horemhib, the Horus of Manetho 463 His relationship to the royal family 462 His retirement at Ha-suten 463 His memorial at Tmin, recounting his early history . . 464 XXXviii CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. B.C. PAGE He is made Adon, like Joseph . . . . . . . 465 Crown-prince and son-in-law of Ai 466 His coronation and titles 466-7 Voyage down the Nile to Thebes 468 Visitation of the whole kingdom 468 Works from Nathu (the Delta). to Nuhia .... 468 The temple and statues restored 468 Silence of the documents about Ai 469 Doubt about the ' heiress-daughter ' 469 Horemhib's coronation in the temple at Thebes . . . 469 Desti'uction of the works of Khunaten 469 The temple of Amon enlarged and beautified . . . 469 Submission of foreign nations 470 Picture and inscription at Silsilis 470 Tomb of an official at Qurnah 472 Tomb of the priest Nofer-hotep at Thebes .... 472 Inscription of his 21st year ; an example of the historical value of private documents 473-4 Chronological Summary of the Reign of Thutmes III. . 475 Note on the obelisks of Thutmes III. at Heliopolis, and 'Cleopatra's Needles' 476 Additions and Corrections to Vol. 1 477 ILLUSTRATIONS. Tribute brought by the Kharu or Rutennii ; from a Tomb at Thebes and presented to the British Museum by H. Danby Seymour, Esq Frontispiece Portrait Head of a Wooden Statue of an Ancient Egyptian, pro- bably of the time of the 4th Dynasty (about 3700 B.C.), found at Saqqarah, and now in the Museum at Boulaq Back of Dedication Map of Upper Egypt At the end THE HISTOEY OF EGYPT. INTE0DUCTI0TS\ The History of Egy]^)t, the names and deeds of its kings and princes, the varied fortunes of the Egyptian race during a course of more than sixty centuries ; such is the comprehensive subject of this work. Our purpose is to collect into one view what the monu- ments and books tell us of the history of this most remarkable land and people on the favoured banks of the Xile, beginning with the first native king ]\Iena, and, if God permit, finishing with the present reign- ing prince of Egypt, the Khedive Ismael Pasha I. In the first portion of our work, we shall endeavour to portray the historical development of the Egyptians under the rule of the Pharaohs. King Mena will form the starting point of our narrative, and Alex- ander the Great, the liberator and saviour of Egypt from the yoke of the Persians, its closing epoch. This part of the work was first published (in French) twenty years ago, when we endeavoured to bring together into one great picture the results of tlie xl INTEODUCTION. examination of the monuments by ourselves as well as others, over the wide field of old Egyptian history. The task, in truth, was not an easy one, and it was certainly beyond our power at a first attempt, especially in a foreign language, not merely to place before enquiring students long lists of kings' names with hfeless numbers attached to them, but, led by the guiding hand of the monuments, to reproduce, if only in a general sketch, yet with the greatest possible truth and likelihood, the life and activity of the old in- habitants of the Nile Valley in the earliest kingdom of the world. To render the task still more diffi- cult, there was added the serious fact, that such monuments as were then known and had been examined by learned men, yielded only a narrow range of information. For the earliest history of the Egyptians does not enjoy the advantage of having been handed down to posterity by tlie so-called classic writers of antiquity in its true outhnes and in a con- nected series of events. On the contrary, the stories of the classic times, intricately confused and transformed into a caricature, have proved rather injurious than serviceable, because they have disseminated false views, and have spread a cloud of fables and tales over Egypt and her history, during a period of more than twenty centuries. Only of late have the monuments, once again brought to light and awakened to new life, torn aside the deceitful veil, revealed the truth, and furnished the evidence that in the times of classic anti- quity the history of the ancient Egyptians was already an uncomprehended book, like that with the seven INTRODUCTION. xli seals. Unliappily the revelation has come almost too late to preserve the vast world of stone, which had been meanwhile destroyed with its countless historical inscriptions. But yet, in spite of all that has perished, never to return, the last twenty years have brought to the light of day an extraordinary and almost un- expected wealth of new discoveries and revelations. A single walk through the rooms of the Egyptian Museum at Boulaq, the port of Cairo, brings us at each step to monuments of the most remote ages, not only of Egyptian history, but of the whole history of mankind. Thanks to the lively interest which the most enhghtened prince of the eastern world has taken in these investigations, we here see an unbroken series of new witnesses of the old time, raised from the bosom of the earth into the light of day, to give us in- formation about the long vanished past, whose starting point can no longer be reached by the remotest stages in the ordinary historical measurement of time. The ' Tables of Kings ' of Saqqarah and Abydus, both containing a selection of Egyptian mon- archs from the first Pharaoh Mena onwards, give us the most authentic evidence, now no longer to be doubted, that the primitive ancestors of the Egyptian dynasties, the Pharaohs of Memphis, must be greeted as real historical personages, and that King Eamses II. (about 1350 B.C.), the Sesostris of the Greek fabulous history of the Egyptians, was pre- ceded by at least seventy-six legitimate sovereigns : that is to say, in other words, there were so many xlii INTRODUCTION. generations of men, who lived during a space of time which is greater than the sum total of the years that have elapsed from Eamses II. down to the present day. Such a comparison of the extent of time between two epochs historically memorable teaches us to form a more impressive estimate of the astounding age of Egyptian history than any positive numbers. It gives us some approximate idea of the value of the monu- ments, preserved through such a space of time, for un- derstanding the development of humanity, whose indestructible boundary stones, at the extremest limit of the political horizon, will be marked for all ages by the pyramids of Memphis. Ought it to cause surprise if the newly-lighted torch of knowledge does not shine deep enough into these remote ages of hoar antiquity ? — if in the dark corridors of primeval history the guiding clue of monumental discovery suddenly breaks off, or reaches its end when least expected ? — or if the attention of the writer dwells fondly upon strange names, and on the deeds of a time full of simple childlike ideas, for which the history of our own day, with its great world- stu'ring aims, has long since lost the standard of com- parison? Though the pampered darling of our busy age may smile as scornfully as he will at the hfe and doings of the ' ancients ' of the Mle Valley, yet by the reflecting man that venerable antiquity, with its genuine striving after the dignity of man, will be viewed in the clear light of the earhest tAvilight dawn of the civiliza- tion and ennobling of his race, and with a simply thankful mind he will devote his full attention to the INTEODUCTION. xliii life and work of these forefathers of mankind, as it is portrayed by their own hands. If, on the one hand, the monuments of this most ancient history have in our day received so remarkable an increase, that they serve to fill up in the most wel- come manner many gaps in the first edition of the Egyp- tian history, to correct many errors, and not seldom to confirm or to contradict conjectures previously made, so meanwhile another advantage has been won for these enquiries, the importance of which for historical re- search may be pronounced immeasurable. The de- cypherment of the old Egyptian texts has, by the united labour of gifted men of science, particularly of late years, reached such great certainty, in consequence of a methodical treatment, that the contents of each inscription can be exactly determined, at least so far that gross errors are no longer possible. A sober and healthy criticism has begun to assert its full right in this province, as in others, by subjecting the course of its researches to the general laws of enquiry into that which is as yet unknown. What conquests the growing knowledge of the old Egyptian language and writing has meanwhile won for historical research, is best shown by the numerous writings of deserving men of science, who have chosen the decyphering of the most important inscriptions of Egyptian antiquity as the object of their studies, the results of which throw such a surprising light on the most important periods of ancient history. The works of real genius by the never-to-be-forgotten Viscount E. de Eouge, (a French scholar too soon lost to science by xliv INTRODUCTION. death,) on the irruption of the Mediterranean people into Egypt in the times of the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties, and the invaluable contributions which M. Chabas, of Chalons, has made towards a knowledge of the same reigns, especially by his acute decyphering of the hieratic rolls of papyrus in the British Museum, form turning points of the highest importance in the w^hole province of Egyptian history, and deserve to be mentioned as real conquests of the first rank. In the presence of these venerable remains of monu- ments, the witnesses of a past world full of riddles and wonders,and considering the important discoveries which the acuteness of the human mind has wrung from the inscriptions in the most recent times, we may perhaps be permitted to indulge the modest hope, that this new edition of the History of the ancient Egyptians may at least in some degree answer the requirements which the reader is entitled to ask for in the treat- ment of an interesting subject, the materials of which have already been prepared by the labours of scholar- ship. For the scholar retires from the stage, and leaves to the historian the delightful but difficult task of exhibiting in one view that whole, whose several parts have been treated separately by the varied re- sources of science, often without divining or anticipat- ing their connection. CHAPTEE I. ORIGIN OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. THEIR NEIGHBOUES. Although, in so long a space of time as sixty cen- turies, events and revolutions of great historical im- portance must of necessity have completely altered the political state of Egypt, yet, notwithstanding all, the old Egyptian race has undergone but little change ; for it still preserves to this day those distinctive features of physiognomy, and those peculiarities of manners and customs, which have been handed down to us, by the united testimony of the monuments and the accounts of the ancient classical writers, as the here- ditary characteristics of this people. Historical researches concerning a race of mankind are inseparably connected with the important and momentous enquiry after their primeval home, the cradle of their historic childhood. Nor does the historian by himself possess the means for a satisfactory solution of this question. The auxiUary sciences of the natural history of the human race and of compara- tive philology must be taken into council, in order to guide us, even though it be but approximately, to the 2 THE HISTOEY OF EGYPT. CHAP. I. origin of nations and the directions in which they have migrated. It is not our intention to occupy ourselves with the details of those researches, on the ground of which the first-named science has laboured to determine the primeval home of the ancient Egyptian race. It may suffice to lay down as a first settled point — although the fact is questioned by the younger school — that this science believes itself to possess positive proofs, as the result of which the forefathers of the Egyptians cannot be reckoned among the African races, properly so called. The form of the skull — so at least the elder school teaches — as well as the proportions of the several parts of the body, as these have been deter- mined from examining a great number of mummies, are held to indicate a connection with the Caucasian family of mankind. The Egyptians, together with some other nations, form, as it would seem, a third branch of that race, namely, the family called Cushite, which is distinguished by special characters from the Pelasgian and the Semitic families. Whatever relations of kin- dred may be found always to exist between these great races of mankind, thus much may be regarded as certain, that the cradle of the Egyptian people must be sought in the interior of the Asiatic quarter of the world. In the earliest ages of humanity, far beyond all historical remembrance, the Egyptians, for reasons unknown to us, left the soil of their primeval home, took their way towards the setting sun, and finally crossed that bridge of nations, the Isthmus of Suez, to find a new fatherland on the favoured banks of the holy Nile. CHAP. I. ORIGIN OF THE EGYPTIANS. 3 Comparative philology, in its tiirn, gives powerful support to this hypothesis. The Egyptian language — which has been preserved on the monuments of the oldest time, as well as in the late-Christian manusgripts of the Copts, the successors of the people of the Pharaohs — shows in no way any trace of a derivation and descent from the African families of speech. On the contrary, the primitive roots and the essential elements of the Egyptian grammar point to such an intimate connection with the Indo-Germaoic and Semitic lan- guages, that it is almost impossible to mistake the close relations which formerly prevailed between the Egyp- tians and the races called Indo-Germanic and Semitic. We will not pass over in silence a Greek account, remarkable because of its origin, according to which the primitive abode of the Egyptian people is to be sought in Ethiopia. According to an opinion strongly advocated by ancient writers, and even subscribed to by some modern historians, httle conversant with the facts of the case, the honour of first founding Egyptian civihzation should be awarded to a society of priests from the city of Meroe. Descending the course of the Nile — so runs the story — they are supposed to have settled on the territory of the later city of Thebes, and there to have founded the first state with a theocratic form of government. Although, on the ground of the ancient tradition, this view has been frequently repeated in the historical works of subsequent times, it is never- theless stamped with the mark of error, as it dispenses with any actual proof. It is not to the Ethiopian priests that the Egyptian empire owes its origin, its 4 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHA.P. I. form of government, and the characteristic stages of its high civihzation ; but much rather was it the Egyp- tians that first ascended the river, to found in Ethiopia temples, cities, and fortified places, and to diffuse the blessings of a civilized state among the rude dark- coloured population. Whichever of the Greek histo- rians concocted the marvellous fiction of the first Ethiopic settlement in Egypt was led into the mistake by a confusion with the influence which Ethiopia ex- ercised on the fortunes of Egypt during a comparatively late period, and by carrying this back, without further consideration, into the prehistoric age. Supposing, for a moment, that Egypt had owed her civil and social development to Ethiopia, nothing should be more probable than the presumption of our finding monuments of the highest antiquity in that primitive home of the Egyptians, while in going down the river we ought to hght only upon monuments of a later age. Strange to say, the whole number of the buildings in stone, as yet known and examined, which were erected on both sides of the river at the bidding of the Egyptian and Ethiopian kings, furnish the in- controvertible proof, that the long series of temples, cities, sepulchres, and monuments in general, exhibit a distinct chronological order, of which the oldest starting-point is found in the Pyramids, at the apex of the Delta, south of the bifurcation of the great river. As, in proceeding southwards, we approach nearer and nearer to the rapids and cataracts of the Upper Nile, right into the heart of the later Ethiopian kingdom, the more does the stamp of antiquity vanish from the CHAP. I. THE LIBYANS AND NEGROES. 5 whole body of extant monuments ; the more evident is the dedine of art, of taste, and of beauty. In short, the Ethiopian style of art — so far as the monuments still preserved allow us to form a judgment — is desti- tute of all independent character. The first view of the Ethiopian monuments at once carries the convic- tion, that we can recognise no special quality beyond the rudest conception and the most imperfect execution of a style of art originally Egyptian. The most clumsy imitation of Egyptian attainments in all that relates to science and the arts, appears as the acme of the intellectual progress and the artistic development of Ethiopia. According to the accounts of the Greek and Eoman writers who had occasion to visit Egypt and to have close intercourse with the people of the country, the Egyptians themselves held the belief, that they were the original inhabitants of the land. The fertile valley of the Nile, according to their opinion, formed the heart and centre of the whole world. To the West of it dwelt the groups of tribes, which bore the general name of Eibu or Libu, the ancestors of those Libyans who are so often mentioned in the historical works and geographical descriptions of the ancients. Inhabiting the north coasts of Africa, they extended their abodes eastward as far as the districts along the Canopic branch of the Nile, now called that of Eosetta or Eashid. From the evidence of the monuments, they belonged to a light-coloured race, with blue eyes and blond or red hair. According to the very remarkable researches of the French general Faidherbe, they may VOL. L *B 6 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. T. have been the earliest representatives of that race (perhaps of Celts?) who migrated from the north of Europe to Africa, making their way through the three Mediterranean peninsulas, and gradually taking posses- sion of the Libyan coasts. It is a noteworthy pheno- menon that, as early as the remote times of the Fourth Dynasty of Egyptian sovereigns, some people belonging to this race (men, women, and children) wandered into Egypt to display their dexterity as dancers, combatants, and gymnasts, in the public games which delighted young and old ; just as at the present day the Egyptians still amuse themselves with the buffooneries and skilful tricks of wandering Moghrabios. The Libyans, how- ever, who appear on the walls of tlie sepulchres from the fourth to the twelfth Dynasty, are distinguished from the reddish-brown Egyptians by their light-grey or light-brown complexion, suggesting the probability, that they may not have had a very close relationship to the white Libyans of later times. The great mixture of tribes in many branches, who had their primeval homes in the wide regions and marshy districts of the Upper Nile, from the Egyptian frontier at the first cataract (close to the city of Syene), have on the monuments the common name of Nahasu. In the coloured representations they appear of a black or dark-brown complexion, with unmistak- able Negro features, and with a thoroughly primitive and simple dress. There can be no doubt that we have to recognise in them the ancestors of the Negro race of the present day. In the most ancient times, their northern tribes dwelt in immediate proximity to the CUAP. I. THE SEMITIC AMU. 7 Egyptian frontier ; while the Kar or Kal, often men- tioned by the ancient Egyptians about the seventeenth century B.C. — probably the ancestors of the modern Galla — formed the southernmost branch, then known, of the great groups of nations of inner Africa. These dark-coloured neighbours often molested the Egyptian subjects of the southern regions ; and the kings had to resort to arms in order to drive back the untamed hordes, and to fix a barrier against their inroads by strong garrisons and well-built forts. Turning our eyes to the East, across the narrow Isthmus of Suez, we meet on the ancient soil the people of that great nation, which the Egyptians desig- nated by the name of Amu. Whether we prefer to explain this name by the help of the Semitic languages, in which it has the general significance of ' people,' or whether we resort to the Egyptian vocabulary, in which aine (more usually amen) has the meaning of ' herds- man,'— in either case, this one thing is certain, that the Egyptians of the Pharaonic age used the term in a somewhat contemptuous sense. These Amu were the Pagans, the Kaffirs, or ' infidels ' of their time. In tlie coloured representations they are distinguished chiefly by their yellow or yellowish-bro^vn complexion, while their dress has sometimes a great simpHcity, but some- times shows a taste for splendoUr and richness in the choiceness of the cut and the coloured designs woven into the fabric. In these Amu scientific research has long since perceived the representatives of the great Semitic family of nations, though, in our own opinion, the same name includes also many peoples and families, who B 2 8 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. cfap. i. appear to have but a slight relationship with the pure Semitic race. The most remarkable nations among the Amu, who appear in the course of Egyptian history as command- ing respect by their character and their deeds, are the Kheta, the Khar (or Khal), and the Euten (or Luten). But moreover it is to be especially remarked, as a fact estabhshed beyond dispute, that even in the most glorious times of the Egyptian monarchy the Amu were settled as permanent inhabitants in the neighbourhood of the present lake Menzaleh. A great number of towns and villages, canals and pools, in that region, formerly bore names unmistakably Semitic, as we shall hereafter prove in fuller detail. The most conspicuous part of Egyptian history, so far as it has been made known by the monuments as yet discovered and by the inscriptions on them, consists — besides the changes of the Dynasties — of conflicts within and without, and of victorious campaigns which the Pharaohs undertook at the head of their warriors against the nations who were their nearest neighbours. In such expeditions the kings sought to open new roads to all parts of the then known world, in order to extend the power and the territories of the Egyptian empire to the utmost bounds of the earth known to them. In the most glorious times of Egyptian history, inscribed pillars of stone, set up on the great plains of Mesopotamia as well as in the almost inaccessible regions of Inner Africa, served as speaking witnesses to the fame of the Egyptian arms and to the exploits of the Theban kings of Upper Egypt. Although the CHAP. I. EGYPTIAN CONQUESTS. 9 ravages of time, in the long course of the world's history, have made them disappear without leaving a trace behind, yet the memory of these exploits is clearly preserved in some monuments of victory. Like the rest of mankind, the Egyptians at last found their spirits cramped in their own proper home, and their restlessness found ample satisfaction in the warhke expeditions which opened to them the wide world and led them to covet the possession of the rich and fruitful territories of Asia and Africa beyond their own bor- ders. The agricultural became a conquering people, regardless of the curse which is as old as the history of the world. For their foreign possessions, hard to win, but still harder to keep, became a thorn in their own flesh, which at length brought the great body poHtic of Egypt to a miserable end. 10 THE mSTORY OF EGYPT. CUAP. II. CHAPTEE II. DIVISION OF THE COUNTRY. MENTAL PECULIARITIES OF THE EGYPTIANS. Egypt is designated in the old inscriptions, as well as in the books of the later Christian Egyptians, by a word which signifies ' the black land.' and which is read in the Egyptian language Kem or Kami. The ancients had early remarked that the cultivable land of Egypt was distinguished by its dark and almost black colour, and certainly this peculiar colour of their soil sug- gested to the old Egyptians the name of the black land. This name and its derivation receive a further corroboration from the fact, that the neighbouring region of the Arabian desert bore the name of Tesher, or ' the red land,' in contradistinction to the black land (the A'in of the monuments, ^an in Pliny, an appellation of the nome afterwards called the Heroo- politan). On countless occasions the king is mentioned in the inscriptions as 'the lord of the black country and of the red country,' in order to show that his rule extended over cultivated and uncultivated Egypt in the wider sense of the word. We must take this op- portunity of stating that the Egyptians designated themselves simply as the people of the black land, and that the inscriptions, so far as we know, have handed CHAP. II. VARIOUS NAMES OF EGYPT. 11 down to us no other appellation as the distinctive name of the Egyptian people. On the other hand, the monuments make us ac- quainted with a number of other names, which served to designate this same land of Egypt in a special manner. Among the oldest is unquestionably the name Tamera, which seems to have meant the country of the inundation, and was applied more particularly to Lower Egypt. Other inscriptions belonging to the later age designated Egypt by appellations conceived for the most part in a poetical spirit. Among the most frequent expressions of this class are the follow- ing : The land of the sycomore, the land of the olive, the land of the Holy Eye, the land of the sixth day of the moon (intercalary day). The explanation of these and other designations can only be sought in those writings of the ancient Egyptians which relate to the doctrine of divine things and to the legends of the gods and divine beings, for it is a well-known fact that the Egyptians, precisely in the same manner as the Hebrews, believed that they found in the name of a person or place reference to certain events or to remarkable circumstances, whence the mere similarity of sound often gave occasion for incredibly bold identifications. The derivation of words accord- ing to fixed laws, corresponding to the natural state of things, was quite unknown to the ancients, and it must often make the hair of a modern philologer stand on end, to see the forced and violent comparison of words indulged in by the ancients in their explana- tions of significant proper names. 12 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAT. 11. A real enigma is proposed to us in the derivation and meaning of the curious proper name, by which the foreign peoples of Asia, each in its own dialect, were accustomed to designate Egypt. The Hebrews gave the land the name of Mizraim ; the Assyrians, Muzur ; the Persians, Mudraya. We may feel assured that at the basis of all these designations there lies an original form which consisted of the three letters M — z — r, all explanations of which have as yet been unsuccessful. Although I intend hereafter to consider more particu- larly the derivation of this puzzling name, which is still preserved at the present day in the Arabic appella- tion Misr, I will here premise the remark, that this name was originally applied only to a certain defi- nite part of Egypt, in the east of the Delta, which, according to the indications of the monuments, was covered and defended by many ' zor,' or fortresses, and was hence called in Egyptian Mazor (that is, fortified). Ancient Egypt, most commonly mentioned in general as ' the double land,' consisted of two great divisions, which, after their situation, were called in contrast with each other the land of the South and the land of the North, as is attested by the inscriptions. The first corresponds to that part of Egypt which, following the Greek name, we now know as Upper Egypt, and which the Arabs of the present day call by the appellation of Said. The land of Upper Egypt began on the south at the ivory-island-city of Elephantine, which lay oppo- site to Syene(the modern trading town of Assouan) on the right bank of the river ; and its northern boundary reached to the neighbourhood of the Meraphian district caAP. n. UPPER AND LOWER EGYPT. 13 on the left bank of the holy river. Northern Egypt comprehended the remaining part of the land, called the Low country, the land of Behereh of the Arabs, the Delta of the Greek writers. This division, which exists just as much in our own day as it did in the most ancient times, is neither accidental nor arbitrary ; for it is founded not only on a local difference in the re- spective dialects of the inhabitants, but on the marked distinction of habits, manners, and customs, which divides the Egyptians in the North and the South from one another. Already in the thirteenth century before our era, this difference of speech is proved by docu- mentary evidence. In a manuscript which goes back to that date the learned author takes occasion to con- trast the speech of a man of Upper Egypt with the speech of one of Lower Egypt, for the purpose of characterising most strikingly the obscurity and unin- telligibihty of a literary work. (See Vol. II. p. 109). This chief division of Egypt, which according to the sacred traditions of the Egyptian priests was referred back to the time of the god-kings, explains not only the name of ' double country,' especially in the con- stantly recurring title of the kings, as ' the lords of the double country,' but it enables us to see clearly the grounds of the opposition by which, according to the myth, the sovereignty of the South was specially com- mitted to the god Set, that of the North to the god Hor, the son of Osiris. It was a perpetual custom of the Egyptians that, after the old traditional manner, every king, on the day of his solemn coronation — which was distinct from the day of his receiving the 14 THE HISTOEY OF EGYPT. CHAP. II. kingdom in his father's hfetime or on tlie death of his predecessor — received as his chief insignia two crowns, of which the white upper one symbohsed his sove- reignty over the South, the red lower one, on the con- trary, his dominion over the North, of the Egyptian kingdom. The land of Egypt resembles a small narrow girdle, divided in the midst by a stream of water, and hemmed in on both sides by long chains of mountains. On the right side of the stream, to the East, the chain of hills called Arabian accompany the river for its whole length ; on the opposite, the Western side, the low hills of the Libyan desert extend in the same direction with the river from South to North up to the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The river itself was designated by the Greeks and Eomans by the name of Neilos or Nilus. Although this word is still retained in the Arabic language as Nil, with the special meaning of ' inun- dation,' yet its origin is not to be sought in the old Egyptian language ; but, as lias been lately suggested with great probability, it is to be derived from the Semitic word Nahar or Nahal, which has the general signification of ' river.' From its bifurcation south of the ancient city of Memphis, the river divided itself into three great arms, which watered the Lower Egyptian flat lands which spread out in the shape of the Greek letter A (Delta), and with four smaller arms formed the seven famous mouths of the Nile. The Egyptian districts, called by the Greeks Nomes (Nojoioi), which in the upper land lay on both sides of the river, comprehended in the inner part of the Delta CHAP. II. THE XOMES OF EGTPT. 15 larger circuits, which were surrounded Hke islands by the arms of the Nile and their canals. Beyond these island nomes other districts extended on the Arabian and Libyan sides of the Lower Egyptian region of the stream. They are called in the lists the Western and Eastern nomes ; and they correspond to the modern provinces of Gharhieh and SharJcieh^ names which have the same meaning. This special division of the upper and lower countries into the districts called Nomes is of the highest antiquity, since we already find on the monuments of the fourth dynasty some nomes men- tioned by their names, as well as some towns with the nomes to which they belonged. Thirty centuries later the same nomes appear on the monuments of the Ptole- maic and Eoman times, arranged in regular and very detailed tables, which separate the upper and the lower country by a clear distinction. Upper Egypt contained 22 nomes, Lower Egypt 20, so that there was a total for all Egypt of 42 nomes, which the native language designated sometimes by the word Sep or Hesep, sometimes by the word Tash. According to the account given in a papyrus, the division into 36 districts rests on a particular view, which connected the terrestrial division into nomes with the 36 ruling houses of the heavens (in astrology). In the celestial Egypt, as in the terrestrial, the first nome — in this case that of the first ruler — was dedicated to the goddess of the star Sothis (Sirius). Each district had its own capital, which was at the same time the seat of the captain for the time being, whose office and dignity passed by inheritance, ac- 16 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAF. ir. cording to the old Egyptian laws, from the father to the eldest grandson on the mother's side. The capital formed likewise the central point of the par- ticular divine worship of the district which belonged to it. The sacred Hsts of the nomes have handed down to us the names of the temple of the chief deity, of the priests and priestesses, of the holy trees, and also the names of the town-harbour of the holy canal, the cultivated land and the land which was only fruit- ful during the inundation, and much other information, in such completeness that we are in a position, from the indications contained in these lists, to form the most exact picture of each Egyptian nome in all its details, almost without any gaps. Finally, we must not omit to remark that the several districts were separated from each other by boundary stones, and that the Egyptian authorities took the greatest pains in at- tending to the measurement of all the lands, for the making of canals and the inspection of the dams. Egyptian history, so far as the monuments pre- served from eternal oblivion throw light on the matter, furnishes proof that each nome formed in a certain degree a government complete in itself. It happened very often, that the inhabitants of one district threat- ened an attack on the occupants of another on account of some dispute about divine or human questions. The hostile feelings of the opponents not unfrequently broke out into a hard struggle, and it required the whole armed power of the king to extinguish at its first outburst the flaming torch of war, kindled by domineering chiefs of nomes or ambitious priests. CHAP. 11. EGYPTIAN AGRICULTUEE. 17 The disastrous results of such feuds sometimes affected even the whole dynasty. The reigning family had to descend from the throne and give up the country and crown to the victorious prince of a nome. Hence not unfrequently arose the changes of dynasty, and the different names of the capitals of nomes in the Book of Kings handed down to us from Manetho. There are, however, three districts, above all others, which in the course of Egyptian history maintained the brilliant reputation of being the seats of government for the land : in Lower Egypt the nomes of Memphis and Hehopolis (On), and in Upper Egypt that of Thebes. The old inhabitants of Egypt, like their descendants of to-day who inhabit the ' black country,' obtained nourishment and increase from their favoured soil. The wealth and prosperity of the country and its inhabi- tants were founded on agriculture and the breeding of cattle. Tillage, favoured by the proverbial fertility of the soil, had its fixed seasons regulated by the annual inundations. The special care already bestowed in the remotest antiquity on that important part of agri- cultural industry, the breeding and tending of cattle, is set in the clearest light by the evidence of the monuments. The walls of the sepulchral chapels are covered with thousands of bas-reliefs and their expla- natory inscriptions, which preserve for us the most abundant disclosures respecting the labours of the field and the rearing of cattle, as practised by the old Egyptians. In them, also, navigation plays an im- portant part, as the sole means of transport for long 18 THE HISTOEY OF EGYPT. CITAP. II. distances. In ancient times, as in our own day, com- merce and travelling were carried on upon the Nile and its canals. On the chief festivals of the Egyptian year the Pharaohs themselves did not disdain to sail along the sacred river in the gorgeous royal ship, in order to perform mystic rites in special honour of agriculture. The priests regarded the plough as a most sacred implement, and their faith held that the highest happiness of man, after the completion of his pilgrimage here below, would consist in tilling the Elysian fields of the subterranean god Osiris, in feeding and tending his cattle, and navigating the breezy water of the other world in slender skiffs. The husbandman, the shepherd, and the boatman, were in fact the first founders of the gentle manners — the honoured authors of that most ancient peaceful life — of the people who flourished in the blessed valley of the Nile. We cannot close this chapter w^ithout still taking an enquiring look at the peculiar mental endow- ments of the ancient Egyptians, about which the in- formation of the monuments will be of course our faithful guides. There are not wanting very learned and intelligent persons — not excepting some who have won an illustrious name in historical enquiries — who teach us to regard the Egyptians as a people reflective, serious, and reserved, very religious, occupied only with the other world, and caring nothing or very little about this lower life ; just as if they had been the Trappists of antiquity. But could it have been pos- sible— we ask with wonder and bewilderment — that the fertile and bounteous land, that the noble river CHAP. II. CHARACTER OF THE EGYPTIANS. 19 which waters its soil, that the pure and smiling heaven, that the beaming sun of Egypt, could have produced a people of living mummies and of sad philo- sophers, a people who only regarded this life as a burden to be thrown off as soon as possible ? No ! Travel through the land of the old Pharaohs ; look at the pictures carved or painted on the walls of the sepulchral chapels ; read the words cut in stone or written with black ink on the fragile papyrus ; and you will soon be obliged to form another judgment on the Egyptian philosophers. No people could be gayer, more hvely, of more childlike simplicity, than those old Egyptians, who loved hfe with all their heart, and found the deepest joy in their very existence. Far from longing for death, they addressed to the host of the holy gods the prayer to preserve and lengthen life, if possible, to the 'most perfect old age of 110 years.' They gave themselves up to the pleasures of a merry life. The song and dance and flowing cup, cheerful excursions to the meadows and the papyrus marshes — to hunt with bow and arrow or sling, or to fish with spear and hook — heightened the enjoyment of life, and were the recreations of the nobler classes after work was done. In connection with this merry disposition, humorous jests and lively sallies of wit, often passing the bounds of decorum, characterised the people from age to age. They were fond of biting jests and smart innuendos ; and free social talk found its way even into the silent chambers of the tomb. But the propensity to pleasure was a dangerous trap for the youth of the old Egyptian schools, and the judicious teachers had much need to 20 THE HISTOPtY OF EGYPT. CHAP. ir. keep a curb on the young people. If admonition utterly failed, the chastising stick came into play, for the sages of the country believed that ' The ears of a youth are on his back.' The lowest classes of the people, ' the mob,' as the inscriptions call them, were occupied with husbandr}^ the breeding of cattle, navigation, fishing, and the dif- ferent branches of the most simple industries. From a very early period stone was wrought according to the rules of an advanced skill ; and metals, namely, gold, silver, copper, iron (at first meteoric iron), were melted and wrought into works of art or tools and im- plements ; wood and leather were formed into a great variety of valuable objects ; glass was cast ; flax was spun and woven into stuffs ; ropes were twisted ; baskets and mats of rushes were plaited ; and on the round potter's wheel great and small vessels were formed by clever artists from the rich clay of the Nile, and baked in the fiery furnace. Sculptors and painters found profitable work among the rich patrons of art at the court of the Pharaohs ; and a whole world of busy artizans worked for daily wages under the bright blue sky of Egypt. But all these, the humble followers of the earliest human art industry, were held ' in bad odour,' and the lowest scribe in the service of a great man looked down with the greatest contempt on the toiling, labouring people. It was esteemed better to be a servant in the house of the Pharaoh, and to bustle about in the service of their masters in the halls of the noble families. Though themselves children of the people, the class of CHAP. II. THE SERVANTS AND FOREIGN SLAVES. 21 servants found help and protection from their lords, and had a share in the honour of the court. Spoilt by the plenty, luxury, and extravagance of splendid life, they knew not the painful lot of the workman. Death itself did not grudge the servants a part with the owners of the gorgeous sepulchres. For in the chambers of the dead, the deep pits of which hid in the place of honour the embalmed bodies of the noble masters, room was reserved by the artist's hand for the memory of the faithful servant. But too obedient to the orders of their lords, the servants held in shght regard the ^ stinking ' masses of the people, and abhorred the society of the ' miserable ' traders and workmen. Eeturning from successful campaigns abroad to the banks of the holy river, the princes and captains of the warriors, in the course of time, brought a great number of prisoners into the country, as booty of war : king's children, nobles, and common people of foreign origin. Some as hostages, others as slaves, inhabited the towns of their Egyptian lords ; those not noble being promoted to the rank of domestic servants, or condemned to work in the fields with the common herd of the people. Dark-coloured inhabitants of the southern regions of the Upper Nile and light-coloured Canaanites, armed with sticks, attended the great men on their journeys as guards of honour, or, in the service of the court, enforced respect in an office like that of the cawasses of our day. The noble class of the Egyptian people had nothing in common with the vulgar ' mob ; ' for they derived VOL. I. "'^'C 22 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. II. their origin, for the most part, from the royal house, the nearest branches of which, the king's children and grandchildren (Sutenrekh), were held in high honour and respect. To them were committed the highest offices of the court, to which they were attached by abundant rewards from the Pharaoh's ever open hand. The nobles held as their hereditary possessions villages and tracts of land, with the people thereto belonging, bands of servants, and numerous herds of cattle. To their memory, after their decease, were dedicated those splendid tombs, the remains of which, on the raised plain of the Libyan desert or in the caverns of the Egyptian hills, are still searched with admiring wonder by later ages, down to our own day. Ambition and arrogant pride form a remarkable feature in the spirit of the old dwellers on the Nile. Workman competed with work- man, husbandman with husbandman, official with offi- cial, to outvie his fellow, and to appropriate the favour and praises of the noble lords. In the schools, where the poor scribe's child sat on the same bench beside the offspring of the rich, to be trained in discipline and wise learning, the masters knew how by timely words to goad on the lagging diligence of the ambitious scholars, by holding out to them the future reward which awaited youths skilled in knowledge and letters. Thus the slumbering spark of self-esteem was stirred to a flame in the youthful breast, and emulation was stimulated among the boys. The clever son of the poor man, too, might hope by his knowledge to climb the ladder of the higher offices, for neither his birth nor posi- tion in life raised any barrier, if only the youth's mental CHAP. n. INSTRUCTION OF THE YOUNG. 23 power justified fair hopes for the future. In this sense, the restraints of caste did not exist, and neither descent nor family hampered the rising career of the clever. Many a monument consecrated to the memory of some nobleman gone to his long home, who during life had held high rank at the court of Pharach, is decorated with the simple but laudatory inscription, 'His an- cestors were unknown people.' It is a satisfaction to avow that the training and in- struction of the young interested the Egyptians in the highest degree. For they fully recognised in this the sole means of elevating their national hfe, and of fulfilling the high civilizing mission which Providence seemed to have placed in their hands. But above all things they regarded justice, and virtue had the highest price in their eyes. The law which ordered them — ' To pray to the gods, to honour the dead, to give bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked' — reveals to us one of the finest qualities of the old Egyptian character, pity towards the unfortunate. The forty-two commandments of the Egyptian rehgion, which are contained in the 125th chapter of the ' Book of the Dead,' are in no way inferior to the precepts of Christianity ; and, in reading the old Egyptian inscriptions concerning morality and the fear of God, we are tempted to believe that the Jewish lawgiver Moses modelled his teachings on the patterns given by the old Egyptian sages. In the course of this history we shall have frequent occasion to return to the noble qualities which dis- tinguished the old Egyptian character. 24 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. II. But the medal has its reverse side. The forefathers of the Egyptians were not free from vices and failings, which we cannot pass over in silence without exposing ourselves to the reproach of flattery at the expense of truth. Hatred, envy, cunning, intrigue, combined with an overweening sentiment of pride, opposition, and per- versity, added to avarice and cruelty — such is the long series of hereditary faults which history reveals to us among the Egyptians by unnumbered examples in the course of centuries. We must especially beware of cherishing the belief that the rule of the Pharaohs opened to the inhabitants of the land the gates of a terrestrial paradise. The people suffered and endured under the blows of their oppressors, and the stick settled the despatch of business between the peasant and the tax- gatherer. We need but glance at the gigantic masses of the Pyramids ; they tell more emphatically than living speech or written words of the tears and the pains, the sufferings and miseries, of a whole popu- lation, which was condemned to erect these everlasting monuments of Pharaonic vanity. Three thousand years were not able to efface the curse resting on their memory. When Herodotus, about the middle of the fifteenth century before Christ, visited the field of the great pyramids of Gizeh, the Egyptians told him of the imprecations wrung from their unhappy forefathers, and they would not from abhorrence so much as utter the names of the kings who constructed the two highest pyramids, whom we now know to have been the Pharaohs Khufu and Khafra. CHAP. in. EAELY CIVIl.IZATIOX IN EGYPT. 25 CHAPTEE III. PEEHISTORIC EGYPT. The scientific students of our day, who trace back the history of mankind to the times when the races of men still lived in the condition of savages, have arranged in order the three ages of stone, of bronze, and of iron, in order to fill up by this regular series the void which exists in all the records of history. Although we will not dispute that history may regard everything as an object for its consideration, yet we must openly acknowledge the fact, that, up to this time at least, Egypt throws scorn upon these assumed periods. So far as the historical record on. the surviving monuments of Egypt reaches back, their beginnings coincide with the first age of the stone period, which the learned men of our time have invented in order to bridge over the historical chasm with a tangible fact. The result is, to speak in other words, that the history of Egypt must be the most ancient in the world — Eg}^pt must appear to us in the light of the first human civilization. There is, therefore, the more reason for us to follow the precious traces of this most ancient past, and to welcome the slightest relics of those times as venerable i 26 THE HISTOEY OF EGYPT. CHAP. III. memorials Avhich the earliest civilized race of men has left us of their actions and their life. The Egyptians, like the ancients in general, were assuredly as inquisitive as ourselves of knowledge about the prehistoric times ; but with this difference, that for them primeval history was concerned very little with the people and much more with the fame of the kings. Their enquiries were directed to the names and genea- logies of the princes who ruled the land before the first legitimate king, Mena. The ancients cared httle for those profound re- searches which our modern age, prompted by a burning thirst for knowledge, is accustomed to set on foot in order to penetrate the darkness which envelops the origin of the nations. At the point where historical information ceased, where Clio laid down her pen, and all further search for the lost sources of the great stream of history was wasted labour, the myth began to claim its rights, imagination replaced facts, and inven- tion scorned the test of criticism. As the Egyptians could not discover in the records of their monuments the primeval history of their land before the Pharaoh Mena mounted the throne, their imagination supposed three ages which followed one another, till Mena placed the double crown upon his head. During the first age a dynasty of the gods reigned in the land ; this was followed by the age of the demigods ; and the dynasty of the mysterious Manes closed the prehistoric time. It seems very likely that these dynasties contain some remembrance of the CHAP. nr. DYNASTY OF THE GODS. 27 ages of gold and silver of the poetic fictions of the Greeks. The theology of the Egyptian priests did not fail to furnish materials for fiUing up these three ages with heavenly persons and names. The calculations of the courses of the stars, based on the cycle of the risings of Sothis (the Dog-star), gave the numbers which were added as regnal years to the names of these prehistoric sovereigns. As the sacred guilds of the priests at Memphis, Thebes, and other cities of Egypt, were not of one opinion, but differed from one another in their various doctrines about the nature of the gods and their connection with earthly things, we need not be surprised if the list of the three prehistoric dynasties contained different names and numbers, according to their respective origin. To give but one example, we subjoin the names of the divine kings of the First Age (leaving out the numbers of years assigned to them), first in the Theban order, and then according to the arrangement of the Memphian priests ; adding to the names of the Egyp- tian deities the corresponding classical appellations. THE DYNASTY OF THE GODS. I. According to the Theban Doctrine. 1. Amon-ra, ' the King of the Gods ' . . Jnpiter. 2. Mont, his son ...... Mars. 3. Shu, son of Ra Agathodsemon. 4. Scb, or Qeb, son of Shu . . . . Saturn. 5. Osiris, son of Seb Bacchus. 6. Horus, son of Osiris Apollo. 28 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. III. II. According to the Memphian Doctrine. 1. Patah, ' the Father of the Gods,' (the Architect of the World.) Yulcan. 2. Ra, son of Patah, (Fire — Existent Being— the Present) Sol (the Sun). 3. Shu, his son, (the Air) Agathodsemon. 4. Seb, his son, (the Earth) .... Saturn. 5. Osiris, his son, (Water — Being that has existed — the Past) Bacchus. 6. Set, son of Seb, (the Annihilation of Being) . Typhon. 7. Horus, son of Osiris, (the Coming into Being, the Future) Apollo. A student who is initiated into the teachings and views of the priests about the being and nature of the deities — so far as we can learn them from the monu- ments— will find in the names of these heavenly kings, and in their order of succession, the matter and opportunit)^ for very remarkable conjectures. Thus the god Patah of Memphis, whom the in- scriptions honour with the title of ' father of the gods,' is the Architect, in the highest sense of the word. This is at once indicated by his name, for Patah, in the Egyptian language, signifies ' architect, former, construc- tor.' On the other hand, there are not wanting very significant inscriptions, which throw a clear light on the sacred attributes of this Architect of the Universe. The following words, which may be read on the walls of the temple of Denderah, call the god expressly ' the chief of the society of the gods, who created all Being. All things came into existence after he existed. He is the lord of truth and king of the gods.' On the walls of the Temple of Isis, at Philge, it is said of the same god, CHAP. ni. PATAH, HA, AND SHU. 29 that it is ' he who created all Being, who formed men and gods with his own hands.' Another inscription at the same place speaks of the being of Patah in the fol- lowing terms : ' He is the father of beginnings, who created the egg of the sun and of the moon ; ' while a third text at Philse more briefly but not less clearly calls him ' the father of all the gods, the first existing.' These examples are sufficient to prove the supreme place of the divine architect at the head of the god- kings. He is God the Creator, who existed before the creation of the universe, his own exclusive work. The god Ea, the Sun, his successor, according to the Memphian doctrine, is invoked in several sacred hymns as ' the son of Patah.' According to the various doctrines in different parts of the country, this god bears the double names of Khnum-Ea, Amon-Ea, Sebek-Ea, Khem-Ea, Hor-Ea, etc., all of which are only different local denominations of the same divinity. Ea is the sun, and in this character the representative of Light and Fire in the series of the four elements of the world. In another deeply mystic sense he is the divine form of existence in the most comprehensive sense of the word ; he is ' that which is to-day, the present.' His son and successor, Shu, recals by his name the idea of emptiness or dryness. As an element, this divinity is identical with the wind or Air. The divine Seb, who, in the great calendar-inscription of the temple of Esneh, is called ' son of Shu,' appears in the documents and monuments of priestly origin as the personified image of the earth, and in this character as 30 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. m. the natural representative of the third element, the Earth. Yet it is a striking fact that the etymological sense of the word Seb, which in old Egyptian denotes both ' star ' and ' time,' is in manifest opposition to the character attributed to him as the earth-god. That there is no error or self-deception here, is made clear to us from the comparison which passed over into classical antiquity between the Egyptian Seb and the Greek Kronos, the son of Uranus and GiBa, under whose reign the golden age flourished upon earth. To his son Osiris — the divinity adored in all parts of the land, with the exception of three nomes, and in whose forty-two temples of the dead, or Serapeums (the most celebrated of which were those of Abydos and Busiris), great sacrifices were offered in memory of the dead — the Egyptian priests assigned the parti- cular meaning of the fourth and last element, that of Water. According to a deeper conception, they be- lieved that they recognised in the god Osiris the symbol of existence completed, for the god is ' that which was yesterday, the past.' We will not here dwell upon the hostile divinity of his brother Set, to whom we intend hereafter to give full consideration. Next to him comes under our notice the god of light, Hor (Horus, Apollo), the son of Osiris and of his divine wife Isis. According to the doctrine of the Egyptian sages, the form of the beau- tiful Hor symbolises the return of a completed exist- tence, ' the new hfe, that which will be to-morrow, the future ; ' in a word, the being born again in the eternal cycle of earthly phenomena. Such is Hor, the CHAP, in. OSIRIS, SET, AND HOR. 31 primeval form and the type of every royal successor of the Pharaohs, just as Ea represented the reigning Pharaoh, and Osiris the deceased king. A long drawn out myth about Hor, whom Isis by her mysterious magical arts awakens to hfe from the dead Osiris in the form of a child, tells of the combat of the youth and his companions with Set, the brother and mur- derer of his father, of the final victory of the god of light over Set, the prince of darkness and of eternal conflict and annihilation, and of the exalta- tion of the young king Hor on the undivided throne of his father Osiris. According to the testimony of the monuments, the duty was imposed upon each earthly Pharaoh, as the successor of Hor — on receiving the royal dignity — to accomplish a certain number of festive ceremonies, which were distinctly prescribed by a law, and were regulated in detail by the holy legend of Hor's enthronisation. Of the royal gods, of whom we have spoken above, frequent mention is made in the old Egyptian records of every period ; and the fact is noteworthy, that they are referred to as kings, who actually reigned ages before, with the addition -of their respective regnal years. Besides the name of their dynasty, they have a second name of honour, and, just Hke the Pharaohs, they bear respectively the authentic title under which the god Thut, the holy scribe of the gods, registered each of them in the Book of the Kings, at the command of the Sun-god, Ea. They have their individual his- tory, which the holy scribes wrote down in the books of the temples ; they married royal brides, and begat 32 THE HISTOEY OF EGYPT. CFAP. III. a very numerous posterity. In reality, all these poetical fables have not the slightest historical founda- tion, nor do they throw any light on the epoch which preceded and introduced the rule of Mena ; but yet they serve as trustworthy evidence of the historical sentiment possessed by the ancient Egyptians, and of their earnest desire to hand down in the mythical form to future gene- rations the remembrance of the oldest prehistoric past. The monuments preserve for us little information about the two fabulous dynasties which followed those of the god-kings, and which, in the extracts preserved in Greek from the lost Book of Kings by the Egyptian Manetho, are designated as the dynasties of the Demi- gods and of the Manes. It is to be regretted that the fragments of the Turin papyrus (once containing the most complete list of the kings of Egypt in their chronological order) have preserved not the slightest intelligible information about those fabulous successors of the god-kings. A single shred allows us to make out with tolerable certainty the names of sacred ani- mals, such as the Apis of Memphis and the Mnevis of Heliopolis, so that it would appear as if these also had contributed to the number of the prehistoric rulers of Egypt. Science has not yet solved the problem, whether the fabulous personages of the dynasties in question are the same who, in the Turin papyrus and in other primitive records of Egyptian antiquity, are included under tlie general name of Hor-shesu, that is ' suc- cessors of Horus.' The inscriptions very often make allusion to thera when they wish to speak of time beyond all memory. CHAP. ni. EGYPT'S PREHISTORIC AGE. [29*] Without occupying ourselves further with these imaginary beings, we must, as has been remarked before, at all events grant the inference, that Egypt had really a life before the historic age, but that the monuments — apart from the fictitious stories of the myths — contain nothing about the condition of the land in those far distant primeval times. All that we are allowed to suppose on this subject is confined to the assumption, that Egypt's prehistoric age must of necessity corre- spond to the time of the first development of arts and handicrafts and of human science, as well as to the time of the division and estabhshment of the higher and lower strata of society. [30*] THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. IV. CHAPTER IV. THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE PHARAONIC HISTORY. If the reader's curiosity leads him to an enquiry con- cerning the epochs of time already fixed in the history of the Pharaohs, and to a critical examination of the chronological tables thus far composed by scholars, he must be strangely impressed by the conflict of most diverse views in the computations of the most modern school. As to the era, for example, when the first Pharaoh, Mena, mounted the throne, the German Egyptologers have attempted to fix it at the following epochs : - B.C. B.C. Boeckh . . 5702 Lauth . . 4157 linger . . 5613 Lepsius . . .3892 Brugsch . . 4455 Bunsen . . . 3623 The difierence between the two extreme points of the series is amazingly great, for its number of years amounts to no less than 2079 ! In order to compre- hend it more fully, let us suppose, for the sake of comparison, that, some sixty centuries after our time, tlie learned world should launch out into a discussion about the date of the reign of the Eoman Emperor Augustus, which began, as we at this day know CHAP. rv. MANETHO'S LIST OF THE KTXGS. [31*] exactly, at the year 30 B.C. Instead then of this correct date, our learned sages would differ so widely in their opinions, that one would propose the year 207 B.C. of our chronology as the highest date, another the year 1872 a.d. of the same chronology as the lowest, for the accession of Augustus. Kevertheless the error has its limits, and we will explain the proof of this. The calculations in question are based on the extracts already often mentioned from a work by the Egyptian priest Manetho on the history of Egypt. That learned man had then at his command the annals of his country's history, which were preserved in the temples, and from them, the best and most accurate sources, he derived the materials for his work, composed in the Greek language, on the history of the ancient Egyptian Dynasties. His book, which is now lost, contained a general review of the kings of the land, divided into Thirty Dynasties, arranged in the order of their names, with the lengths of their reigns, and the total duration of each Dynasty. Though this invaluable work was little known and certainly but little regarded by the historians of the old classical age, large extracts were made from it by some of the ecclesiastical writers. In process of time the copyists, either by error or de- signedly, corrupted the names and the numbers, and thus we only possess at the present day the ruins in- stead of the complete building. The truth of the original, and the authenticity of his sources, was first proved by the deciphering of the Egyptian writing. And thus the Manethonian list of the kings served, and still serves, as a guide for assigning to the royal names [32^ THE HISTOEY OF EGYPT. chap. iv. read on the monuments their place in the Dynasties, as, on the other hand, the monuments have enabled us with certainty to restore to their correct orthography many of the kings' names which have been corrupted in the Manethonian lists. The very thorough investi- gations, to which learned experts have subjected the succession of the Pharaohs and the chronological order of the dynasties, have shown the absolute necessity of supposing in the list of Manetho contemporary and collateral dynasties, and thus of diminishing consider- ably the total duration of the thirty Dynasties. Not- withstanding all these discoveries, the figm^es are in a deplorable state. From the nature of the calculation, based on the exact determination of the regnal years of the kings, every number which is rectified neces- sarily changes the results of the whole series of num- bers. It is only from the beginning of the twenty- sixth dynasty that the chronology is founded on data which leave little to be desired as to their exactitude. h--- The great pedigree of twenty-fi¥e- court architects, to which we have already directed the attention of the learned world in the first edition of our history, and the last scion of which, the architect Khnum-ab-ra, was ahve in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Darius I., has given rise to the new method of fixing the dates of the Pharaohs anterior to the twenty-sixth dynasty, at least approximately, w^ith the help of exist- ing series of genealogies. The credit . is due to a Swedish scholar, Mr. Lieblein, of having turned this new auxiliary to account, in his last work, as an aid to Egyptian chronology. The importance of this touch- CHAP. rv. CHRONOLOGY BY GENEALOGIES. 33 stone for all measurements of time in Egyptian history- is incontestable ; and it is strongly confirmed by the proofe adduced by Mr. Lieblein. Assuming, accord- ing to the well-known calculation of the father of history, Herodotus, the round number of a century for three consecutive human fives, we possess a means of determining approximately the periods of time which have elapsed, on the one hand, from King Mena to the end of the twelfth dynasty, and again from the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty to the end of the twenty-sixth. If the objection be raised, that the series of kings contained in the Table of Abydus (for it is of this that we are speaking) does not exhibit a direct succession from father to son, and that therefore the hypothesis of a continuous genealogical series must utterly fail, we observe in reply, that the table in ques- tion contains only a selection of legitimate kings, and that the Pharaohs who only reigned a short time, as well as all the usurpers, are passed over in silence ; in other words, that the term of 100 years for three con- secutive reigns is rather below than above the truth. The new table of Abydus, discovered eleven years ago in a corridor of the temple of Seti I. at Harabat- el-Madfouneh, gives a succession of sixty-five kings from Mena, the founder of the line, down to the last reign of the twelfth dynasty. To these sovereigns therefore would be assigned a period of x 100 = 2166 years, leaving the fractional remainder out of the account. The kings from the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty, down to the Pharaoh Eamses II. of the niue- VOL. L *D 34 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. IT. teenth dynasty, are twelve in number, according to the same table of Abydus. On the other hand, there were nineteen court-architects, from Nofer-mennu, grandson of the architect Boken-khonsu, who lived in the reign of Seti I., down to his remote descendant Aahmes- sa-nit, father of the above-named Khnum-ab-ra, in the time of Darius I. We obtain therefore, for the second period, 12 + 19 = 31 generations, or y x 100 = 1033 J years. The eighteenth dynasty would thus have begun its rule over Egypt 1033^ years before the year 525 B.C., that is, in the year 1558 B.C. If we compare this number with the computations of recent critics of Manetho's work, which place the be- ginning of the eighteenth dynasty in one of the follow- ing years — 1625 (Bunsen), 1655 (Boeckh), 1684 (Lep- sius) — the result is a difference of about a hundred years. But even this difference is only apparent, for it is eliminated by the undeniable fact, that the archi- tect Bokenkhonsu or Bekenkhonsu, whose pedigree makes him appear as contemporary with one of the later Eamessids of the XXth dynasty (see Table IV.) must be regarded as a second of the same name, in fact as a descendant of his namesake, the architect of Eamses II., who is passed over in the Table. If we were to believe the Table of Abydus alone, the princes of the twelfth dynasty would have had the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty for their immediate successors, without any break or interregnum. This would be in accordance with the fact perceived by the acuteness of Mariette-Bey, that the old Egyptian proper names of the persons of the twelfth, and especially of CHAP. IV. ASTRONOMICAL CHRONOLOGY. 35 the eleventh dynasty, recur in the same forms on the monuments of the commencement of the eighteenth dynasty ; and further, that at these two periods of Egyptian history the form and ornaments of the coffins are so alike as to be undistinguishable. Here we have a remarkable enigma, for the solution of which we do not yet possess the requisite data. If we admit, according to the evidence of the Table of Abydus, the sudden transition from the twelfth to the eighteenth dynasty, the historical beginning of the Egyptian Empire would fall about the year 3724 B.C., namely 2166 years before 1558 B.C. But if, on the other hand, we assume in round numbers 500 years as the intermediate space of time which divides the end of the twelfth from the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty, the result would be that Mena ascended the throne of Horus 500 years before the year 3724, that is, in 4244 B.C. Some men of science believe that they have dis- covered another mode of arriving at the determination of important epochs of Egyptian history in certain accounts of astronomical observations, which they have for this purpose subjected to exact calculation. The opportunity has been given for complicated calcula- tions of such a kind by the reign of a king named Menophres, under wh6m, according to a Greek account, a new Sothic cycle began ; again, by the data con- tained in several royal sepulchres concerning the ris- ings of the star Sothis (our Sirius) under the reigns of contemporary Eamessids ; finally by some miscel- laneous monuments relating to astronomy; — but as to * D 2 36 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. IV. the value or worthlessness of these supposed results scientific criticism has not yet spoken its last word. Instead of growing less, the difficulties in determining the chronological relations of Egyptian history are on the contrary nudtiplied from day to day ; for new problems, the solution of which has still to be waited for, are continually presenting themselves in the pro- vince of investigations about chronology. To mention one example, the question is now very properly raised, whether the old inhabitants of the Nile valley used the same form of calendar at all ages of their historical existence ; — whether they knew the Sothic cycle of the year or any sidereal cycle derived from observa- tion of the stars ; — whether in the tables still extant they recorded the rising and setting of certain stars and constellations merely with the view of fixing their position for a certain epoch of the reign of this or that king : — all questions of the highest importance, but which up to the present time have waited in vain for their solution. Had the Turin papyrus been preserved to us in its entire state ; had we possessed the complete list of the historical kings of the Egyptian empire, we should probably have been in a position to mould into a per- fect shape even the most ancient part of Egyptian his- tory, with the dates belonging to it. But, as the case stands at present, no mortal man possesses the means of removing the difficulties which are inseparable from the attempt to restore the original list of kings from the fragments of the Turin papyrus. For too many of the most necessary elements are wanting to fill up the CHAP. IV. THE TURIN PAPYRUS. 37 lacunas ; and who is able to augment and complete the number of the historical monuments, especially those of the most ancient dynasties, which have survived but too rarely in their last ruins, to give satisfactory an- swers to our questions ? It also appears certain that the long series of the kings, which the Turin papyrus once contained, was arranged by the author according to his own ideas and views. For he gives carefully, besides the names of the Pharaohs, the years, months, and days of their reigns, but he forgets to give also any account of the con- temporary double reign of two kings, which have been proved beyond all doubt by the inscriptions, and which was a veiy usual custom in the succession of a son to his father. The chronological table of the history of the Egyp- tian kingdom, which is given at the end of this work (Appendix A.), is founded on the principles above ex- plained, as far as dates are concerned, and is only presented to the reader with the extremest caution. I would make the general remark, that the numbers of years assigned to the Dynasties and to the individual Pharaohs claim merely the value of an approximation, but nevertheless they do not on the average exceed their actual ages obtained from the monuments. * D 3 38 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. y. CHAPTER V. THE FIRST PHARAOH MENA AND THE ANCIENT EMPIRE. In the eighth nome of Upper Egypt, West of the river in the direction of the Libyan mountains, there stood a small town called by the Egyptians Tini, a name which the Greeks converted, after their manner, into This or Thinis. It was the ancient metropolis of the eighth nome. Lying near to the great city of Abydus, Tini probably formed only a separate quarter of that cele- brated city, as would appear from numerous notices in the old Egyptian records. The town of Tini had chosen for its tutelar deity the warlike god Anhur, whom the Greeks and Eomans identified with their Mars, while at Abydus Osiris was worshipped with the most holy rites of the dead. Both cities have now vanished from the face of the earth ; but their memory is preserved by the vast necropolis, and by the splendid buildings of several sanctuaries which the pious faith of the Egyptians raised on the outermost border of the desert, at the place which the present modern inha- bitants of this country call by the Arabic name of Harabat-el-Madfouneh (Harabat the sunken). Although we have next to nothing to relate of the history of the little town of Tini, which in the time of the CHAP. T. MENA. 39 Romau dominion, was only known for its dyers of purple, it must have enjoyed a very great reputation among the ancient Egyptians. As late as the period of the nineteenth dynasty, the highest functionaries of the blood royal were distinguished by the title of ' princes of Tini,' a mark of honour such as only existed in the following titles, ' princes of Kush and princes of Hi neb ' (the moon town, Eileithyiapolis). The highest glory of this town was undoubtedly founded on the circumstance that the first king of the Egyptians, and his successors who composed the two first dynasties, according to the enumeration of Manetlio, were descended from a family which sprung from this place. The name of this ancestor of all Egyptian kings — whom the classic authors call indifferently Min, Menis, Meines, Meinios,and Meneres — was in the native language Mena, an appellation which will be best translated in English by its original meaning, ' the constant.' All tliat we know of him is hmited to some notices which we owe to classic authors. According to them this pliaraoh was the first legislator of the Egyptians, but they accused him of having perverted the good manners of ancient times, and of having replaced sobriety and a simple manner of living by royal luxury and sumptuous splendour. They related with regard to this that a long time after him a king named Teclmactis, or Tnephachthus, the father of tlie unfortunate king Bocchoris, having experienced, during an expedition against the revolted Arabs, the advantages of a modest repast and a bed of straw, was so much disgusted at the royal mode of life, that he henceforward adopted 40 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. V. tlie most simple frugality. He even ordered the sacerdotal caste to engrave upon a stone a decree con- taining cur-ses pronounced against King Mena, and to place it in the temple of Amon at Thebes. According to another tradition, Mena was the first to lay down rules for the worship of the gods and the service of the temples. It was he who founded the brilliant capital of the ancient empire, the town of Memphis, after having changed the course of the river to increase the ground which was to contain his new residence. By the construction of an enormous dyke, the Nile, which before the reign of this king ran close to the Libyan chain, was carried more to the east ; its ancient bed was filled up, and thus a site was formed for Memphis. This history has nothing very surprising or astonishing. In our own day it has been possible to fill up a branch of the Nile, and to unite the island of Jezireh, opposite the port of Boulak, to the ground on the other side, situated towards the west. M. Linant-Bey, one of the most industrious im- provers of modern Egypt, has declared his opinion, founded on an examination of the formation of the ground, that the great dyke of Cocheiche is probably that which King Mena caused to be constructed 6,000 years ago, to give to the Nile its eastern direction. At the present day this dyke serves to restrain all the waters of inundation which arrive in Egypt. By means of large sluices, constructed in the dyke, the waters are allowed to flow over Lower Egypt or into the Nile as they are required. It is thus that a complement of inundation is produced in the lower basins, or a rise of cn.vr. T. MEXA. 41 height in the level of the river, which in the neigh- bourhood of Cairo sometimes rises as much as three feet. M. Linant-Bey would place the spot at which the Nile diverted towards the east at two miles to the south of Memphis. On this site which had been won from the river Mena constructed the new town, with its houses, its fortifications, and its temples. The Egyptians, like the ancients in general, commenced the foundation of their towns by the construction of a temple, which formed the centre of the town which was to be built. When new temples were erected they became the occasion for creating new quarters, which extended round the centre, with which they formed one town. The names given to these sanctuaries applied also to the colonies in their neighbourhood, and thus several different names are applied to a single town. If we follow the data of the lists of the districts, we arrive at knowing many an obscure designation, and gain a clear understanding of the historical inscriptions which speak of Memphis. For the sake of example, we will mention all about the Memphitic district which the above-mentioned lists tell us. The chief name of the town, as also of the district, viz. Anbu-hat, or the White Wall, was derived from the fortified part of it, the origin of which may be traced into the old empire. The town in general bore the title Men-nofer (the good place), more seldom Cha-nofer (the good appearance), or Macha-ta, ' tlie land o the scales.' The holy appellation of the oldest kingly resi- dence was the most common of all, viz. Ha-ka-patah, 42 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. chap. t. * house of worship of Patah,' derived from the chief god of the district, the holy architect Patah. The whole district, in the middle of which the new town of Mena arose, bore the name of Sochet-Ea, that is, ' the field of the sun,' often confounded with the neighbour- ing appellation of Sha-ament, 'the country of the inundation of the West.' The god Patah was worshipped in the temple Za-Patah or Pi-Patah, ' temple of Patah.' The dead of the Memphitic district rested in ' the land of life,' Anch-ta, of the towns in the stony desert in sight of the town of Memphis. Osiris, the judge of the dead underground, had his special temple — his serapeum, as the Greeks called it — bearing the name Han-ub, ' house of gold.' The holy canal at the place of the harbour was called Chet, or Mu-khet, i.e. ' the waters of the voyage below.' It carried off the floods of the inundation to the low-lying lands behind ' the great cir- cumference,' Shen-ur. We have already spoken of the god Patah ; not seldom he bears the additional appellation Sokar or Sokari, the traces of which still seem to appear in the name of the modern village Sakkarah, in the vicinity of the old town of Memphis. The wife of the god, lion-headed, the goddess with the sun's disc, bore the name Sochet, and their son was Nofer-atum, later I-m-hotep (in Greek Imuthes), the Esculapius of the Egyptian mythology. The monu- ments further inform us that a holy snake, under the name Zotef, was w^orshipped in the temple of the god, and that the acacia and the mulberry, and the persea, were counted among the holy trees in Memphis. The bark of the god bore the name ' ship of the lord of CHAP. V. MEI^IPHIS. 43 eternity ; ' his high priest was called, in allusion to the highest title of the god, ' foreman,' while the priestess had the flattering appellation, ' the beautifully formed.' On the first day of the months Tybi and Mechir were the chief feasts in Memphis. Mennofer is the most constantly occurring name of this city. The Greeks made of this Memphis, and the Copts Memphi, while in cuneiform the Egyptian name is rendered by Mimpi. The traces of the ancient name are very clearly preserved in the modern name of Tel-Monf, by which the Arabs of the present day designate a heap of ruins on the site of the royal town of the ancient Pharaohs. All that remains of this celebrated city at the present time consists of heaps of fragments of columns and altars, and carvings which once belonged to the temples of Memphis — a far-stretching mass of mounds out of which shine in the clear sunlight the remains of the half- destroyed chambers and halls of ancient houses. Those travellers who visit the remains of Memphis in the hope of recognising some vestiges worthy of its fame, will be little satisfied with the sad prospect which meets the eye. Only in imagination can we see the past greatness of Memphis, and only then can we appreciate a pil- grimage to the grave of this old royal seat, and a town where once the celebrated temple of Patah, the Egyp- tian Hephaistos, rose in all its proud splendour — now a palm grove and a wide plain cultivated by fellahs of the neighbouring Arab village of Mit-Eahineh.^ ^ The name of this village, well known to all travellers to the 44 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT CHAP. V, The temple of the divine creator of the world, the central point of the destroyed city, lay on the south side of the salt-encrusted plain which stretches between the ' Swine's-hill,' Kum-el-Khanzeer, on the east, and the little Arab village of El-Kassarieh on the west. It stretches out in a direction from north to south, and the grand statue of Eamses II., now buried in a giant's grave and already reached by the water of the inun- dation, shows beyond doubt the place where the splendid gate of the temple with its double towers raised its dark masses in the blue expanse of heaven. The existence of the holy lake to the north of the great statue of Eamses is indicated by the inscription on a massive block, which in the middle of the plain Ij^ing on its back, turns upwards its engraved holy writing. In the immediate neighbourhood of the village of El- Kassarieh (strangely enough this name means 'wash- pot '), there show themselves in grim chaos the broken remains and columns of a temple of which the engraved inscriptions name Eamses II. as the founder and builder. This building lay from east to west. Eam- ses n. raised it of beautifully-polished blocks of granite and alabaster, to the honour of the diviue Fatah. It seems that in the Middle Ages the ruins of Mem- phis were still so well preserved that their materials and the manner in which they were worked excited the admiration of the Arab visitors to the place. We possess site of ancient Memphis, is evidently of old Egyptian origin, since it is derived from the common appellation for many places situated on the great canals — Menat-ro-hinnu, ' the port at the mouth of the canal.' CHAP. V. THE RUINS OF MEMPHIS. 45 a poetical description of the ruins and wonders of ancient Memphis in the writings of the Arabian phy- sician Abd-nl-Latif, in the thirteeenth century. He begins his description with the very excellent remarks which I quote from the admirable translation of the Baron Silvestre de Sacy : — ' In spite of the immense extent of this city, and of the high antiquity to which it reaches back ; in spite of all the varied forms of government under the yoke of which it has passed in the course of ages, and although successive nations have done all in their power to raze it to the ground, making its smallest vestiges disappear and obliterating even the least traces of it, while they transported else- where the stones and other materials of which it was constructed, destroyed its edifices and mutilated the statues which adorned them ; in short, not to weary the reader with all the causes of destruction con- tributed by 4,000 years and more, its ruins still offer to the eyes of the spectator a collection of wonderful works which confound the intellect, and to describe which the most eloquent man would labour in vain. The longer we look upon the scene, the higher rises the admiration it inspires ; and every new glance that we cast upon the ruins reveals a new charm. Scarcely have they awakened a distinct idea in the soul of the spectator, than a still more admirable idea suggests itself ; and just as you believe you have gained com- plete knowledge of them, at that very moment the conviction forces itself on the mind, that what you think you know is still very far from the truth.' After this enthusiastic burst of admiration, the learned phy- sician launches out into a description of the celebrated 46 THE HISTOHY OF EGYPT. CHAP. V. green chamber liewn out of a single block of stone, wliich was nine cubits high, eight wide and six long, and was covered with figures of men and animals of extraordinary proportions. The repeated excavations which have been under- taken in our day on the ancient soil of Mempliis, in hope of striking upon monuments of historical value, have given results hardly worth naming. It seems that the immense masses of stone used in the building of the temples were transported to Cairo, to supply the materials needed for the mosques, palaces, and houses of the well-preserved city of the Khalifs. Next to Thebes, the royal capital of Upper Egypt, Memphis is the city about which the speaking stones and the written rolls have the most to tell us. In our special work on the geography of ancient Egypt, we have cited from the monuments the number of temples and sanctuaries which once formed the glory of the city, from the house of the deity Patah to the abode dedicated to the foreign goddess Astarte. The high priests of Patah, like their fellows of Thebes, played an important part at different epochs of the history of Egypt. We find among their number princes of the blood royal. As an example we may name the prince Khamus, a favourite son of Eamses II., who died early, and who gave rich gifts of honour to the temples of the gods, and fulfilled the rules of the holy service. With the decline of the empire the high priests of Memphis also, like those of Thebes, lost their importance, when the two cities ceased to be the famous residences of the Pharaohs. Along the far-stretching margin of the desert, from CHAP. V. KECROPOLIS OF MEMPHIS. 47 Abu-Eoash to Meidum (the ancient city of Mi-tum), lay in silent tranquillity the necropolis of Memphis with its wealth of tombs, overlooked by the stupendous buildings of the pyramids, which rose high above the monuments of the noblest among the noble famihes, who, even after life was done, reposed in deep pits at the feet of their lords and masters. The contemporaries of the third, fourth, and fifth dynasties are here buried ; but their memory has been preserved by pictures and writings on the walls of the sacrificial chambers built over their tombs. From this source flows the stream- of tradition which carries us back to the time and to the soil of the oldest kingdom in the land. If this countless number of tombs had been preserved to us, it would have been an easy task to reconstruct before our eyes, in uninterrupted succession, the genealogy of the kings and of the noble lines related to them. Fate, however, has not granted this ; for their monuments, names, and deeds, are buried and forgotten ; but even the few remaining heaps of ruins enable us to imagine the lost in all its greatness. In that obscure age of antiquity, when the sym- metrical building of the pjn^amids and the well-con- structed rooms of the sepulchral chambers demanded a high intelligence and a skilful hand, the oflSce of architect was the occupation of the noblest men at the king's court. Pharaoh's architects (the Mur-ket), who were often of the number of "the king's sons and grand- sons, were held in high honour, and the favour of their lord gave them his own daughters out of the women's house as wives. For these reasons Pharaoh's architects seem worthy 48 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. Y. of remembrance. The following names of royal archi- tects have survived the destroying hand of time, and are still preserved : — Heka, architect of the Pharaoh Senoferu ; Sem-nofer, married to a king's granddaughter, named Amon- Zefes ; Khufu-hotep, husband of the king's daughter Hontnes ; Khufu-ankh ; Mer-ab, a king's child, son of the Pharaoh Khufu and his wife Setat ; Pirson, husband of Khenshut of the blood royal ; Ti, a man of low extraction, but married to the lady Nofer- hotep from the women's house of the king ; Hapu, architect of the Pharaoh Teta of the sixth dynasty ; Meri-ra-ankh, a celebrated architect under King Pepi of the same dynasty. Besides these may be named Pehen-ka, Ea-ur, Ai, Uah-mer, besides other names which may have escaped our researches among the ruins of that perished world. A higher office, according to the testimony of the speaking stones, belonged to the nobleman who bore the dignity of ' prophet of the Pyramid of Pharaoh.' This officer's duty was to praise the memory of the deceased king, and to devote the god-like image of the sovereign to enduring remembrance. The honour of the office was mentioned in the prophet's own tomb, and was associated with the name of his deified king. Thanks to this ancient usage, the famous names of the ancient Pharaohs were known to us long before the discovery at Abydus of the table of the kings, but without the order of their succession. The eloquent language of the stones, speaking to us from the tombs of the necropolis of Memphis, tells us much concerning the usages of Pharaoh and his court. The king himself is officially desig- CHAP. V. THE ROYAL COURT. 49 nated by the most complete title, ' king of Upper and Lower Egypt/ His liigli dignity is also concealed under other names, as, for instance, Perao — that is, ' of the great house,' well known as Pharaoh in the Bible. For his subjects the pharaoh was a god (nuter) and lord (neb) par excellence. At sight of him they were obliged to prostrate themselves, rubbing the ground with their noses ; sometimes, by the gracious order of the king, they only touched the knee of the omni- potent. In speaking of him, they very often used the words ' his holiness.' ^hey also designated him very ' respectfully by a grammatical construction, which in • • the translation is best rendered by the word ' he ' (the king)?] It is the pharaoh who gives his orders to be executed by his servants, testifying his satisfaction by nominations, presents, and other acts of grace. He distributes decorations (for example, the necklace of gold nub), and makes rich presents of lands and slaves and maidens. His daughters, the princesses, went out of the women's house and married the highest and noblest in the land, and young men of talent and promise were admitted to the society of the children of the king. The wife of the king, as also the remaining bevy of royal ladies, the daughters and granddaughters, were honoured by the titles of ' prophetesses of the god- desses Hathor or Neit,' and are found ' in the house of tlie royal women,' the pharaonic harem, placed under the superintendence of officers who enjoyed the con- fidence of the king. ' The house of the children of the king ' was under the direction of a lord of the court, VOL. L K 50 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. V. on whom fell the responsibihty of the health and education of the pharaonic family. The royal court was composed of the nobility of the country, and of the servants of inferior rank. JSTot only the splendour of their origin gave the nobles dignity in the eyes of the people, but still more their wisdom, manners, and virtues. The persons belonging to the first class of the nobility generally bore the title Erpa, ' hereditary highness ; ' Ha, ' prince ; ' Set, ' the illustrious ; ' Semer-ua-t, ' the intimate friend.' The affairs of the court and of the administration of the country were conducted by ' the chiefs ' or the secretaries, and by a numerous class of scribes. The names of the officials were ' the overseer/ Mur ; * the enhghtener,' Sehat; 'the great,' Ur, or 'the fol- lower ' Emkhet, who were attached to the person of the king himself. A steward had charge of the king's household, another had charge of the wardrobe, another acted as hairdresser, took care of the nails of his holi- ness, and prepared his bath. One was over the singing and playing, and prepared the means for the pharaoh's pleasures and enjoyments. Other nobles were charged with the administration of the magazines of wheat, dates and fruits in general, of the cellar, of the chamber for oil, of the bakery, and the butchering, and the stables. The treasury filled with gold and silver, and the offices for expenses and receipts, had their special super- intendents. The Court of Exchequer was not wanting. The private domains, the farms, the palaces, and even the lakes and canals of the king, were placed under the care of inspectors. By Pharaoh's order skilful persons CHAP. V. THE PEOPLE. 51 of the class of the nobles were appointed to the charge of the buildings and all kinds of work in stone. From the caverns of the rocks of Ta-roou (the Troja of the Greeks and Eomans, the Tura of the present Arabs), in sight of Memphis, they brought the white limestone for building the royal pyramids and the tombs, and for artistic works, as sarcophagi and columns. They also betook themselves to the southern lands, at the op- posite boundary of the country, to loosen the hard granite from the Eed mountain behind the town of Sooan (the Assooan of oiu- day), and construct rafts for the more easy conveyance of the vast masses of stone to the lower country in the favourable time of the high water. The dreaded company of the overseers were set over the wretched people, who were urged to hard work more by the punishment of the stick than words of warning. The population inhabiting the towns, as well as the villages of the country, was governed by the prefects of the pharaoh. The judges watched over the strict obedience to the WTitten law, and administered justice to the oppressed people, whose complaints the attorneys (Anwalte) of the king were bound to hear. A great variety of punishments were administered to an unjust accuser by the provost-marshal. The armed force — which was composed of young foot soldiers armed with clubs, axes, bows and arrows — was placed under the command of experienced officers. A general-in-chief prepared the campaign, organised the masses, made the necessary preparations for military u 2 52 THE HISTOHY OF EGYPT. CHAP. V. expeditions, and gave the orders for battle. Of a more peaceful kind was the much-praised office of the hir- seshta, which literally means ' teacher of the secret/ for they possessed all hidden wisdom in these ancient times. Those learned in the secrets of the heavens looked upwards and explained the ever- changing courses of the brilliant stars. Others are called ' the hir-seshta of all the countries.' If we are not mistaken, by these are meant the geographers of Memphis. Some are found with the title ' the hir-seshta of the depth.' If we are not mistaken these were learned in all which the earth conceals in its depths, and were initiated in the special knowledge of the soil. Important must have been their judgment before they undertook sink- ing their deep wells. We also meet with 'the hir- seshta of the secret words,' literary men and composers of deeply thought out themes, and ' hir-seshta of the sacred language,' the learned grammarians of the pharaonic court. The monuments mention most fre- quently the ' hir-seshta of the pharaoh,' or ' of all the orders of the pharaoh.' These were the learned secre- taries of the king. After them we also find the * hir- seshta who examine the words,' no doubt literary men with an elevated style, composers of the first rank, with- out we prefer to consider them as judges charged with the enquiries m law-suits. The numerous company of scribes were divided into many branches, according to their business and positions. At the court of the king or in the halls of the noble- men, obedient to the orders of their masters, they wrote with the light reed pen the manifold events of domestic CHIP. T. THE SCRIBES. 53 life on the smooth rolls, accurately recorded the income and expenditure of their master, and kept the books in good order. The way was open to any scribe of talent to arrive at the summit of the pharaonic bureaucracy. The lower class of servants and the workmen artists were divided into several ranks, who obeyed their chiefs and executed their orders. Thus the court and the public administration were perfectly organised ; each kept his place according to his dignity ; the affairs fol- lowed their regular course, and the pharaoh was the prime mover of the machine of government. Blind obedience was the oil which caused the harmonious working of the machinery. And all this world, buried for 6,000 years in the sands of the desert, under the ruins of its own gigantic works, opens the mysteries of its public and private life to a posterity which profoundly admires its moral greatness, its perfection of mind, its art and its adminis- tration. But where is the modern hir-seshta to lift the veil which still hides the origin of these men of yore ? We will conclude this section with the king by which we commenced it — with the Pharaoh Mena. The ancients commemorate him so far as to attribute to him a campaign against the Libyan tribes. The end of this ancestor of the Egyptian dynasties was unfortu- nate. He was seized by a crocodile, and became the prey of the savage beast. Such is the story of the ancients. Was the Typhonic Set, the lord of the horrid water-monsters, embittered with envious hatred against the founder of the most ancient state ? 54 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. vr. CHAPTEE VI. THE SUCCESSORS OF MENA. The following is the table of the pharaohs who suc- ceeded Mena. This list is due to the discoveries of the tables of Saqqarah and of Abydos, together with the fragments of the papyrus of Turin, which in its perfect state contained the same names, with the addition of the reign of each king. The names and the figures given in the Manethonian Canon complete our table. The Manethonian Hst of kings answering to those found on the monuments is given for the sake of comparison. First Dynasty, The Monuments. Manetho. 1. Mena . . . • .1. Menes 62 ^rs. 2. Tota 2. Athothis 57 „ 3. Atot . . . . .3. Kenkenes 31 „ 4. Ata 4. Uenephesl. 23 „ 5. UenephesH. 42 „ 5. Sapti 6. Usaphaidos 20 „ 6. Mirbapen (Mi-ba) . . . 7. >Iiebidos 26 „ 7. (name very difficult to read) . 8. Semempses 18 „ 8. Qebeh 9. Bieneches 26 Second Dynasty, 9. Butau . . . .1. Boethos 38 „ 10. Kakau 2. Kaiechos 39 „ CHAP. YI. SUCCESSORS OF 3^IENA. 55 Second Dynasty (continued). 1 1 T^ainmitpr . ^ . 3. Binothris 47 yrs 12. Utnas . • 4. Tlas 17 13. Senta . • . • 5. Setbenes 41 >) 6. Chaires 17 14. Noferka (-ra) . 7. Nepbercheres 25 » 15. Noferka- Sokari, 8 y. 3 ra. 4d. 8. Sesocbris 48 16. Hutefa . . 8 m. 4d. 9. Cbeneres 30 >> Third Dynasty. 17. Bubui orTaTai,27y. 2 m. Id. 1. Necberopbes 28 )> 18. Nebka . 19 y. . 2. Tosortbros 29 J) 19. Toser-(sa) 3. Tyreis 7 J) 20. (Toser)-tota 4. Mesocbris 17 )) 21. Setes . 5. Soopbis 16 ») 22. Nebkara . 6. Tosertasis 19 )) 23. Noferkara 24. Huni .... 7. Aclies 42 »> 25. Senoferu • • 8. Sepbouri3 30 j> 9. Kerpberea 26 )> The reliable lists of tlie stone monuments show that the Greek list must be of very old origin ; but, on the other hand, it will be well observed in what a wretched state, owing to the hands of ignorant copyists, the work of the Egyptian priest Manetho has reached us. Even a cursory examination of the names be- longing to the above-mentioned kings suggests a curious remark, namely, that these names, with the exception of two or three which only appear towards the end, do not at all resemble the pharaonic names of succeeding epochs. They have something common, plebeian about them, if we may use such an expression, which contrasts singularly with the splendour and 56 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. TI. grandeur contained in the appellations of the j^haraohs who succeeded. Besides this the sign 0 of the God Ea, the sun, a most essential element in the composition of pharaonic names, onl}^ begins to show itself with the 22nd king of the monumental list. For the most part these names conceal a sense which very clearly recalls the ideas of force and terror inherent in men who first gained dominion over the masses. Mena means ' the constant,' or ' the firm,' he who resists ; Tota, * he who beats ; ' Kakau, the ' bull of bulls,' also the ' most manly ; ' Senta, * the terrible ; ' Huni, ' he who strikes,' &c. It is only later that the worship of the local gods enters into the composition of the proper names. Then the dynasts like to adopt appellations which recall the principal divinity of their house. The names of Amon, Sebek,' Thut, Anhour, and other divinities whom they specially venerated, appear in the cartouches of the kings ; while Ea, the king of the universe and the father of gods and men, occupies a place of honour at the head of the cartouches of all the pharaohs. The name of the 15th king of the fist, Noferka- Sokari (perfect tlirough Sokari), is the only one which is composed with the name of a god. As we have already shown, Sokari is a particular denomination of the god of Memphis. But then how is the fact to be explained that a king of Thinis, in Upper Egypt, preferred a title recalhng the worship of the divine Sokari, of the capital of Lower Egypt? One thing is certain, that the so-called Thinites must have reigned at Memphis. The tradition is strong that Mena laid out the ground of the CHAP. TI. SUCCESSORS OF MEXA. 57 future capital, and that the later descendants of his house kept court in Mennofer, not in Tini. Unfortunately the information from the monuments about these most ancient rulers of the empire of Egypt begins only with the last pharaohs which were above mentioned in the long list taken from the stone tables of the kings. The Greek accounts give meagre food to those hungry for knowledge in doubtful traditions « about the doings of the royal predecessors of the last pharaohs. It is, however, necessary here also to test the faith to be placed in the Manethonian sources, by the information of the monuments. As in the book of books, Cain's grandson, and grandson's children, were the first men in which want and necessity aroused an inventive genius, leading them to build houses, to raise cattle, and serve as teachers in brass and iron work to later generations, so was it, according to the traditional knowledge of the priest Manetho, borrowed from the well-preserved trea- sures of the holy books, the peculiar business of the first kings of Egypt to teach the arts, to draw out rules, to lay down the first foundations of knowledge for the use and piety of all then living, and who were to come after ; to clothe justice in the form of laws, and in every way to encourage invention. Mena's son and heir was called Athothis, in the Manethonian description (in this name are included three kings, Tota, Atot, and Ata, according to the stone table of Abydos). He built the king's tower in Memphis, and wrote, wonderful to say, a work on anatomy, ' for he was a physician.' The information 58 ' THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. chap. vr. of the monuments is silent about a physician of the name of Tota, Atot, or Ata ; mention is only made of a roll of a very ancient book bought in Thebes by Mr. Ebers, which, when Teta sat on the throne, was prized as a means for making the hair grow. More important than this information, interesting at most to hair-dressers, is the fact that the writings of the pharaohs on medical subjects reach back as far as the first dynasty of the Thinites. As an example we will allude to the great medical papyrus discovered in the necropolis of Memphis, which was added to the collection of the museum of Berlin, about fifty years ago. As we have elsewhere shown, this precious document contains a quantity of receipts for the cure of a certain number of maladies of the nature of leprosy, and many other diseases. In a simple, childish exposition of the construction and mechanism of the body, the writing explained the number and use of the numerous ' tubes.' This manu- script was composed in the reign of Eamses II., but there is a passage in it which throws back the origin of one part of the work to the fifth king of the table of Abydos. This is what the text says on this subject. ' This is the beginning of the collection of receipts for curing leprosy. It was discovered in a very ancient papyrus enclosed in a writing-case, under the feet (of a statue) of the god Anoobis, in the town of Sochem,'^at the time of the reign of his majesty the defunct king Sapti. After his death it was brought to the majesty of the defunct king Senta, on account of its wonderful value. CHAP. VI. SUCCESSORS OF MENA. 59 ' And behold the book was placed again at the feet and well seciu-ed by the scribe of the temple and the great physician, the wise Noferhotep. And when this happened to the book at the going down of the sun, he consecrated a meat and drink and incense offering to Isis, the lady, to Hor of Athribis, and the god Khonsoo-Thut of Amkhit.' What further the priest Manetho was able to tell us of those old times out of his book of kings, appears in meagre extracts in later authors, who have shown their own poverty of inteUigence by the miserably ignorant use they have made of this copious document of antiquity. We hear and are astounded at how much there was of importance in the book of the priest. When King Uenephes (I. 4) ascended the throne the land of Egypt suffered from a great famine. In spite of the hunger and necessity it pleased the ruler to employ his people in the building of a pyramid on the site ' black bull,' Kakami. The Greeks called this city of the dead of Memphis by the very little altered name of Kochome. Here the bodies of the holy Apis bulls reposed in the sera- peum in the desert. The place is near the modern vil- lage of Saqqarah, but was situated on the steep heights of the desert, and it is probable that the building with steps, the so-called step pyramid of Saqqarah, w^hose hollow body concealed the bleached bones of bulls and inscriptions chiselled in the stone relating to the royal name, of Apis, was a common grave of the holy bulls which in days gone by King Uenephes consecrated in pious faith to these animals. 60 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. VI. Under the reign of King Semempses (I. 8) a number of miracles were observed, and a violent plague gave the black death all around. When Butau (Boethos II. 1) ascended the throne, the earth opened at Bubastus and swallowed up many people. There is more of interest in the traditions which the same annalist cites of the time of Kaiechos (in Egyptian ka-kau, ' the bull of bulls '), the successor of the preceding king. Under his reign, he says, was established the worship of the sacred bulls of Hapi (Apis) in the town of Menofer (Memphis), and of Merur or Men, Mnevis, at On, Heliopolis. Pure men served the holy animals, whose departure from the light of the sun was deeply lamented ; their corpses, adorned w^ith decorations and coverings, were exposed on high biers. Their name also enters into the composition of the proper names of many distinguished persons. With regard to the laws of the empire we must pay particular attention to wliat was ordained by Pharaoh Bainuter (Binothris II. 3) on a particular occa- sion. As apparently he had no son to succeed to his father's crown on his death, the usage was erected into a standing law for ever by him that the tender sex of the women should share the power of inheriting the throne. The working of this new usage was important for the fate of many a dynasty, as when the queen, after the demise of her husband, took the reins of government or stepped into the place of her youthful son, or when the heiress left by the dead pharaoh, who had not the good fortune to be lamented by a com- CHAP. VI. NEPHERCHERES. 61 pany of sons, gave her hand to a foreign husband. So far as the monuments which have been carefully ex- amined seem to show, according to the ancient manner and usage, tlie mother's pedigree had a high value in inheriting, because it gave an unconditional feudal claim to the son as the true heir of ' the father of his mother.' The husband of a princess heiress from her pha- raonic blood had not the least rights under the title of husband, and it was the son issue of this marriage, who, on account of his maternal descent, was regarded as pharaoh by right and by birth. If, on the contrary, a king married a lady of a noble family, either Egyptian or foreign, the children, as appears from certain monu- mental indications, did not entirely possess a legitimate right to the crown. The father of the new king was distinguished by the title of ' atef nuter,' ' the father of the divine one,' while the mother is called ' mut suten,' ' the mother of the king.' The succession of the dynas- ties is founded in the greater number of cases on aUiance with princesses heiresses, whether the Inis- band was of pharaonic descent or not. Tlius are explained all the difficulties of succession in the royal house. To mix poetry with prose, the annalist remarks that the government of King Nephercheres (II. 7) was dis- tinguished by a very curious phenomenon, namely, that for eleven days the water of the Nile had the taste of honey. Akhough the old texts may perhaps liave mentioned such a miracle, yet we moderns can feel 62 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP, TI. no more sympathy witli such a fable than we can for the newly- discovered hair ointment of King Teta. The account of King Sesochris (II. 8) by Manetho is not less fabulous. Confounding him with the Sesostris, the sculptured effigies of whom of immense height were well known to the Greeks visiting Asia, he gave him a height of more than five cubits and a breadth of three cubits. In spite of his size he performed nothing which was judged worthy of being transmitted to posterity. Under the reign of the first king of the third dynasty, JSTecherophes (this name is completely dis- figured, and unlike the old real name), the Libyans revolted against their Egyptian masters. The king succeeded in subduing them by the aid of the fear which an immense increase of the moon caused among his enemies. The successor of this pharaoh, Tosorthros, was distinguished by his knowledge of medicine, which gained for him among the Egyptians the honorary name of the physician-god. He also invented a mode of constructing edifices with carved stone. He also introduced improvements in -tke painting s£ the writing'- Here ends, according to the Manethonian writing, the information — half fable, half true — of the first rulers of Egypt, and the strange account of their doings. It teaches us little. We are still waiting for the door of the chamber of the ancestors of the most ancient king- dom to be opened to us. Near to the door now closed to us stands the vener- able and historically true figure of King Senoferu. His name, the meaning of which is ' he who makes good,' CHAP. YI. SENOFEEU. 63 is justified by the fact, that lie completed what was wanting in those before him. It is he who gives us the first morning greeting from the most distant ages, for from his time the monuments commence to shed their hght and to unroll before our eyes the most ancient epoch of the world. What the wisdom of the Greeks did not disclose, what appeared as a secret to antiquity thirsting after the piure streams of truth, that lies clear before our eyes ; for now the eloquent mouth of the dead stones begins to tell us the deeds of hoar antiquity. With Senoferu begins first the practice, ordained by law, of adding to the name of the ruler on the throne of the pharaohs, which his parents gave him, the cartouche of honour of his lioly name, and also to place before the double cartouche of the kings three carefully- chosen sounding titles. The first title always began with a sign which signified the god ' the sun Hor,' who dispenses light and life, blessing and pro- sperity. His sparrow-hawk adorned with the kingly double crown, serves as tlie ancient representation of the pharaoh, the lord of the upper and the lower country. The of the other titles pubhshed in the same manner the honours of each king, ' the lord of both kingly diadems.' The image of honour * of the golden Hor,' the conqueror of his opponent, stood at the head of the third title. The pharaoh was praised and exalted as a warrior in pompous, stilted words. The holy name of the king framed in a cartouche is easily re- cognised by the words placed before it : * the king of 64 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. VI. Upper and Lower Egypt.' In the last place, with the fullest writing of all the titles of honour, the especial name of the ruler was placed, which was given him by his father w^hen a child, surrounded, like the holy name, wdth a cartouche. Before Vv^as the standing title ' son of Ea,' that is, the sun- god. [The custom in old times required that behind each king's name, as if to remind, the fine sounding name of the pyramid was placed for the better determining of the prince.^ It was a praise- worthy and pious custom, as often as the king's name or even a great noble's name was mentioned, immedi- ately afterwards to add ' May he live ! ' ' May he be well ! ' ' Good health to him ! ' So far as we are acquainted with the monuments. King Senoferu is the first ruler who had four titles of honour. Three name him commonly without difference * the lord of truth ;' the fourth is the name Senoferu, by which he was known to his father and his people. On the steep rock of Wady-Magharah, where ancient caverns have been formed by the hand of man, and the traces of the miners are easily discovered, Senoferu appears as a warrior, who strikes to the ground a van- quished enemy with a mighty club. The inscription, engraved by the side of the picture, mentions him clearly by name and with the title of ' vanquisher of foreign peoples ' who in his time inhabited the cavernous valleys of the mountains round Sinai. The land, produc- tive of a copper ore, with blue and green precious stones, seems in all ancient history to have been a much coveted possession by tlie rulers of ' Kemi,' and it was without doubt Senoferu who by the edge of the sword CHAP. vr. SENOFEKU. 65 gained possession of this mountainous peninsula and its foreign people. The soldiers of the king and the troops of miners with the steward and overseer reached the valley of the mines to extract the stone either by a short sea passage from Egypt or by a longer journey on the backs of asses. Even at this day the pilgrim, whom the desire of knowledge brings to these parts, and whose foot treads hurriedly the gloomy, barren valleys of Sinai, sees traces of the old works in the caverns dating from the spring-time of the world's his- tory. He sees and reads on the half-worn stone a vast number of pictures and writings. Standing on the high rock, which boldly commands the entrance to Wady-Magharah, his eye discovers without trouble the last ruins of a strong fortress, whose stout walls once contained huts near a deep well, and protected the Egyptian troops from hostile attack. There was also no waiLt of temples, in which the wanderer raised his hands and eyes in prayer to the divine rulers of the land. Before all others was the sublime Hathor, queen of heaven and earth and the dark depths below, whom the Egyptians worshipped as the protectress of the land of Maikat, and beside her the sparrow-hawk of Supt, * the lord of the East,' to whom the same honours were offered. The princes of the fourth and fifth dynasties main- tained with powerful arm what Senoferu had won for them. The mines were permanently worked, the enemy conquered, and the small number of the gods worshipped. Senoferu thought in time of raising to himself a VOL. I. F 66 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT. CHAP. ^T. worthy monument. The proud buildmg of the pyramid near Meidoum shining in the plain, which green as an emerald stretches eastward to the holy stream, contains, we doubt not, well hidden within it, the body of Senoferu. The name of the building is in good Egyptian Kha, a word which in the old lan- guage meant ' the rising,' sometimes ' the festival,' sometimes ' the crown.' Here it was, in close prox- imity to the pyramid of Meidoum, that some curious natives recently, either by accident or intentionally, dis- covered the entrance to the tombs of the old time and brought from the night of the grave to the light of day a double picture, a marvel of art, venerable from its antiquity, and exquisite in its workmanship. A long row of pictures and writings, executed with a master's hand in variegated mosaic of most effective colours, gave us clear information of Senoferu and the ancient times. The double picture, a little smaller than the natural size, shows a man and his wife in a dignified attitude sitting by the side of one another in a chair of the form of a die. The briUiancy of the eye — imitated in shining crystal and white ivory, and dark ore, in a masterly manner — had all the appearance of life. This picture is the one of the earliest known date, and will so remain until an older one is found. The man on the right, according to the words on the inscription, once when he enjoyed the hghtof day, bore the name Eaho- tep. He was the son of a king (it does not say of what king), and had filled many important offices during his life. He led the warriors in the service of the king, and in On, the town of the god Ea, he executed the CHAP. YT. SEXOFEEU. holy office of chief of the priests. His wife, well- known as ^^ofert (' the beautiful ' or ' the good '), was a granddaughter of a king not named. We now take leave of the time of Senoferu, who, in the written records, had the name of a o'ood king. The old rolls of books which De Prisse obtained possession of in Thebes, and the value of which we shall have to notice hereafter, speak thus of the Pharaoh Senoferu : — ' Then died the holiness of King Huni. Then w^as raised up the holiness of King Senoferu as a good kinor over the whole country. Then was Kakem appointed governor of the city.' Table of Kings wlvo composed the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. Turin Papyrus ilanetho Table of Abydus 1 Table of Saqqarah 1 Fourth Dynasty. Years Years 1 . 19 1 Soris . . 29 2 . 6 2 Suphis . 63 21 Khufuf 17 Khufu 22 Ratatf 18 RatHtf 3 ....zaf . 6 3 Suphis . 66 23 Khafra 19 Khalra 4 . 24 4 Mencheres . 63 24 Menkara 20 . . . 5 . 24 5 Rathoises . 25 21 . . . 6 . 23 6 Bicheres . 22 22 . . . 7 . 8 7 Sebercheres . 7 25 Shepseskaf 23 . . . 8 . X 24 . . . 9 . X 8 Thamphthis 9 Fifth Dynasty. 10 (2)8 1 Usercheres . 28 26 Uskaf 25 Userl