{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_64705/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_64705","id":"gutenberg_64705","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64705","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Ancient","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Egypt -- History -- To 332 B.C."],"text":"Transcriber\u2019s Notes:\n\n  Underscores \u201c_\u201d before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_\n    in the original text.\n  Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals.\n  Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs.\n  Typographical errors have been silently corrected.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.\n\nTAI-TI, QUEEN OF AMENHOTEP III.]\n\n\n\n\n                     THE PHARAOHS AND THEIR PEOPLE\n\n               _SCENES OF OLD EGYPTIAN LIFE AND HISTORY_\n\n                                  BY\n                              E. BERKLEY\n\n               AUTHOR OF \u2018A HISTORY OF ROME,\u2019 ETC. ETC.\n\n                     _With Numerous Illustrations_\n\n                      SEELEY, JACKSON & HALLIDAY,\n                   FLEET STREET LONDON, MDCCCLXXXIV\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThe growing interest that is felt in all that concerns Egypt and its\npast has led me to hope that there may be many who will be glad of a\nbook containing, in a concise and easily accessible form, the chief\nresults of modern research and discovery in the valley of the Nile.\n\nThe Manuscript of this work was submitted to Dr. Lushington, formerly\nProfessor of Greek at Glasgow University, and he has very kindly\npermitted the publication of the following opinion:\u2014\n\n        \u2018It appears to me very carefully and accurately\n    written, with diligent consultation of the most\n    trustworthy sources. The illustrative quotations\n    interspersed seem well calculated to inspire and\n    maintain interest in the reader as well as the\n    descriptive sketches.\n\n        The subject well deserves, and is already beginning\n    to command, more general interest than a few years ago\n    it would have been possible to anticipate.\u2019\n\nThe translations I have given are selected and freely rendered from\nthose that have appeared in _Records of the Past_, after comparison\nwith any others that were available. I am also much indebted throughout\nto Dr. Brugsch\u2019s valuable _History of Egypt_; and I wish especially to\nmention my obligation to Mr. Villiers Stuart\u2019s _Nile Gleanings_, with\nits many interesting illustrations and accompanying descriptions\u2014more\nparticularly those relating to the tombs of the third and fourth\ndynasties, to the curious episode of Khu-en-aten\u2019s reign, and to the\nstirring times of Rameses the Great.\n\nMy obligations to other authors are acknowledged in the respective\nplaces.\n\nThe hieroglyphs above the Table of Contents read, _em rek suteniu\ntepau_, _i.e._ \u2018in the time of former kings,\u2019 and the cartouche at the\nend of the line is that of \u2018Pharaoh,\u2019 to be read _Per-aa_, _i.e._ \u2018the\nGreat House.\u2019 The hawk is symbolic of divine protection, and the seal\nit holds is the emblem of renewed and endless life.\n\n    E. BERKLEY.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                              CHAPTER I.                        PAGE\n    Reign of the gods\u2014Osiris, Isis, and Horus Myth\u2014Ancient\n    Cities and early Kings,                                        1\n\n                              CHAPTER II.\n    The Pyramid Builders,                                         17\n\n                             CHAPTER III.\n    The Pyramid Builders\u2014_continued_,                             29\n\n                              CHAPTER IV.\n    Civil War and Break-up of the Kingdom\u2014Reunion and Recovery,   41\n\n                              CHAPTER V.\n    Twelfth Dynasty\u2014\u2018Instructions\u2019 of Amenemhat I.\u2014\n          Story of Saneha,                                        49\n\n                              CHAPTER VI.\n    Successors of Amenemhat I.\u2014Two Provinces added to Egypt,      64\n\n                             CHAPTER VII.\n    Invasion and Rule of the Hyksos\u2014War of Liberation.\n          (_Circa_ 2100-1600 B.C.),                               79\n\n                             CHAPTER VIII.\n    The Eighteenth Dynasty\u2014Queen Hatasu and Thothmes III.\n          (_Circa_ 1600-1400 B.C.),                               88\n\n                              CHAPTER IX.\n    The Eighteenth Dynasty\u2014_continued_.\n          (_Circa_ 1600-1400 B.C.),                              125\n\n                              CHAPTER X.\n    The Nineteenth Dynasty (_circa_ 1400-1200 B.C.)\u2014\n          Rameses the Great,                                     142\n\n                              CHAPTER XI.\n    Thebes; its People, Temples, and Tombs\u2014Close of the\n          Nineteenth Dynasty,                                    175\n\n                             CHAPTER XII.\n    Twentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties\u2014The Ramessid\u00e6 and the\n          Priest-Kings. (_Circa_ 1200-970 B.C.),                 212\n\n                             CHAPTER XIII.\n    Shishak I. and the Twenty-second (Bubastite)\n          Dynasty\u2014The Ethiopian Kings\u2014The Assyrians in\n          Egypt\u2014Sack of Thebes. (_Circa_ 970-666 B.C.),          237\n\n                             CHAPTER XIV.\n    Psammetichus and the Saite Dynasty\u2014The Persian Conquest\u2014\n          Last Independent Dynasties. (666-340 B.C.),            263\n\n    APPENDIX I.\u2014Table of Dynasties,                              288\n\n    APPENDIX II.\u2014Decipherment of the Hieroglyphs,                290\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\n    TAI-TI, QUEEN OF AMENHOTEP III.,    _Frontispiece_\n    WINGED FIGURE,\u2014ISIS OR NEPHTHYS,           PAGE  2\n    ISIS SUCKLING HORUS,                             4\n    THE SPHINX,                                     18\n    THE PYRAMIDS,                                   23\n    NETTING BIRDS,                                  31\n    CARESSING A GAZELLE,                            63\n    BOATMEN AND CATTLE DRIVERS,                     68\n    PAINTING A STATUE,                              72\n    CARVING A STATUE,                               73\n    ASIATIC IMMIGRANTS,                             76\n    AMENHOTEP PRESENTED TO AMEN-RA BY HORUS,       118\n    AMENHOTEP II. ON THE LAP OF A GODDESS,         122\n    AMENHOTEP III.,                                128\n    THE COLOSSI AT THEBES,                         129\n    RAMESES II.,                                   162\n    HALL IN THE GREAT TEMPLE OF ABU-SIMBEL,        166\n    DISCOVERY OF MUMMIES AT DEIR EL BAHARI,        173\n    TEMPLE AND GARDEN,                             177\n    THE SACRED ARK,                                181\n    PLAYING AT DRAUGHTS,                           184\n    THE WEIGHING OF ACTIONS,                       193\n    MUMMY AND MUMMY-CASE OF THE PRIEST NEBSENI,    231\n    MUMMY OF A GAZELLE,                            235\n    THE WORSHIP OF APIS,                           244\n    SPHINX WITH HUMAN HANDS,                       287\n\n[Illustration: ANCIENT EGYPT.]\n\n\n\n\nTHE PHARAOHS AND THEIR PEOPLE.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nReign of the gods\u2014Osiris, Isis, and Horus Myth\u2014Ancient cities and early\nkings.\n\n\nThe first royal name that meets us on the monuments of Egypt, which was\ninscribed there during the lifetime of the king who bore it, is that of\nSenefru (predecessor of Khufu who built the Great Pyramid), and belongs\nto a remote antiquity.[1] And yet we must look back through the dimness\nof many more centuries still before we come to the name of Mena, first\nKing of Egypt\u2014a name that seems to twinkle faintly from beyond the\nabyss of long past ages like a far-off star on the horizon from beyond\nthe wide waste of waters.\n\nMena, founder of Memphis, and his successors, we know, at least, by\nname; but of the \u2018old time before them\u2019 the traditions of Egypt only\nsaid that the gods governed the land. According to one ancient record,\nPtah, the \u2018Hidden Being,\u2019 the \u2018Former of all,\u2019 ruled in the beginning;\nRa, the bright Sun-god, Seb, the ancient Earth-god, followed; and later\nstill Osiris reigned, the \u2018Good Being\u2019 and \u2018Lord of life.\u2019 After having\nconferred manifold blessings and benefits on the land, he was slain by\nhis brother and rival Set. Set concealed the body, but Isis, the \u2018great\ndivine Mother,\u2019 sister and wife of Osiris, sought after it. An ancient\nhymn says, \u2018No word of hers fails; good is she, and kind in will and\nspeech. It is Isis, the exalted one, the avenger of her brother: she\nwent up and down the world lamenting him.\u2019\n\n[Illustration: Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.\n\nWINGED FIGURE, ISIS OR NEPHTHYS.]\n\nThe _Lamentations of Isis_ was one of the most revered of the sacred\nwritings:\u2014\u2018My heart is full of bitterness for thee,\u2019 she cries; \u2018how\nlong will it be ere I see thee whom to behold is bliss! Come to her\nthat loveth thee\u2014none hath loved thee more than I.... Heaven and earth\nare mourning after thee. O mighty one, our lord,[2] speak, and dispel\nthe anguish of our souls! To behold thy face is life, and the joy of\nour spirits is to gaze on thee!\u2019\n\nNevertheless in bodily form Osiris appeared not on earth again; but\nIsis ceased not from her search until she had found the remains, all\ntorn and mangled as they were by the malice of Set. \u2018She made light\nwith her feathers,\u2019 says the old hymn, \u2018and wind with her wings; at his\nburial she poured forth her prayers.\u2019\n\n\u2018She gave birth to a child; secretly and alone she nursed the infant\u2014no\nman knows where that was done.\n\n\u2018Now has the arm of that child become strong within the ancient\ndwelling of Seb.\u2019[3]\n\nThe child of Isis, the beautiful and radiant Horus, was the avenger\nof Osiris; he cast down the terrible Set, and destroyed his power;\nthen, on appearing resplendent from his triumph, he was hailed with\nacclamation by gods and men, and reigned over the land, Osiris,\nnew-born\u2014the Morning Sun which, having conquered night and darkness,\nascends the sky and rules from heaven; the Sun of to-day, which, if\nanother, is yet the same as that which sank down yesterday into the\nbosom of the night.\n\n[Illustration: Isis suckling Horus.\u2014From a statuette in the British\nMuseum.]\n\nThe reign of Horus was welcomed with rapture and with song. \u2018He\nreceives the title of his father and rules the world; he governs both\nthe men of Egypt and the northern barbarians. Every one glorifies his\ngoodness; mild is his love towards us; his tenderness embraceth every\nheart; great is his love in all our bosoms. His foe falls under his\nfury; the end of the evil-doer is at hand. The son of Isis, the avenger\nof his father, appears. The worlds are at rest; evil flies, and earth\nbrings forth abundantly, and is at peace beneath her lord.\u2019\n\nBut Osiris was not dead. In the unseen world he lived anew, and there\nhe ruled in righteousness, as Horus ruled on earth. Osiris, the divine\nbeing who had died, was judge of the dead. Before him each departed\nspirit must appear in the judgment-hall of Truth. There the heart is\nweighed and the life is judged unerringly. He who passes that ordeal\nbecomes himself Osiris, and is henceforth called by his name. The new\nOsiris lives again, and passes victoriously through every peril, until\nhe is at length admitted amongst the bright and blessed spirits who\naccompany Ra for ever, and who \u2018live, as he liveth, in Truth.\u2019\n\nHorus was the last of the divine race of kings. After him, some\ntraditions said that dynasties of demigods and of manes ruled before\nKing Mena ascended the throne, but the name by which the Egyptians\nalways distinguished the inhabitants of the land in prehistoric times\nwas _Horshesu_\u2014followers of Horus.\n\nThere were certain cities also in Egypt whose foundation was assigned\nto those prehistoric times. The twin cities Thinis-Abydos were, so far\nas we know, the most ancient in the land. Thinis was the cradle of\nthe Egyptian monarchy: the first Egyptian dynasties were Thinite, and\nMena went from thence to found his new capital. But Abydos was revered\nas the burial-place and shrine of Osiris himself, and many devout\nEgyptians in following ages directed their own tombs to be prepared and\ntheir bodies laid in this consecrated spot.\n\nThe origin of Pa-Ra,[4] the City of the Sun, is also lost in remote\nantiquity. It stood not far from Memphis, and is better known to us by\nthe name of On. It was the centre of the worship of Ra, as Abydos was\nof the worship of Osiris, but there was no jealousy or rivalry between\nthe two. They were, in fact, essentially one, and the same individual\nmight be priest or priestess of both sanctuaries.\n\nOn was famous from time immemorial as a seat of learning, and its\npriesthood was held in high repute. The city itself was of small\ndimensions. \u2018The walls may yet be traced,\u2019 says Mr. Reginald Stuart\nPoole, \u2018enclosing an irregular square of about half a mile in the\nmeasure of each of its sides.\u2019 And of this limited space the great\ntemple of Ra must have occupied about half. The population, one would\nthink, must have been mainly composed of scholars, as the priests\u2019\ndwellings would be within the temple precincts. Hither came the young\nmen of Egypt\u2014who shall say how many thousand years ago!\u2014to learn all\nthat the priests could teach at this, the most ancient university of\nthe world. Nor were the priests, who carefully cultivated and taught\nthe various branches of learning, by any means an exclusive caste.\nThey had family ties, mixed in social life, and could hold other than\npriestly dignities. A royal prince was often priest of a temple, and\na priest might be a warrior, an architect, or a court official. So\nfar as we can gather, the teaching at an Egyptian university would\ncomprise a knowledge of the sacred books, besides general teaching in\nmorality. The study of the language itself must have been a somewhat\narduous undertaking even for a native-born Egyptian, and to write\nthe hieroglyphic characters, required considerable skill, and even\nart.[5] Many branches of science must have been pursued\u2014medicine,\nlaw, geometry, astronomy, and chemistry, whilst in mechanics a quite\nmarvellous proficiency was attained. Music too was highly prized and\ncarefully taught, and it is not unlikely that architects and sculptors\nalso received their training in these schools.\n\nLong ages afterwards, when Greek and Roman travellers visited Egypt,\nand sought to learn her wisdom, they heard an ancient tale concerning\nthe mysterious Ph\u0153nix, that came once in five hundred years from the\nfar-off land of spices and perfume to the sacred City of the Sun, where\nhe constructed for himself a funeral pile and perished in the flames,\nbut only to rise again in renewed life and splendour; then, spreading\nhis radiant wings, he took his flight to the distant land from whence\nhe came. What special truth this allegory veiled in the minds of those\nwho told it we can only guess; at the same time it may serve us well\nas a type of the old \u2018wisdom\u2019 itself,[6] which did not perish with\nits primeval seat, but sprang into renewed and glorious existence in\nwhat, to us, is \u2018ancient\u2019 Greece\u2014then, lost again when Greece was lost,\nrevived once more in our latter days.\n\nBut Pa-Ra had a special claim to the veneration of the Egyptians as the\nbirthplace of their sacred literature. Here were written, or, as the\npriests called it, \u2018found,\u2019 the original chapters of the most sacred of\nthe sacred writings, the \u2018_Book of the coming forth into the Day_,\u2019[7]\nwhich tells of the conflicts and triumphs of the life after death.\n\nTo secure that triumph, a knowledge of the holy book was required.\nPortions of it are found written on coffin lids and on the walls of\ntombs; every Egyptian desired to have it buried with him, and whilst\nthe rich would often have an entire copy laid in his tomb, the poor man\ncoveted at least a fragment.\n\nMemphis was founded by the first King of Egypt, but Abydos and On were\nlinked by tradition to the gods.\n\nOne beautiful obelisk of red granite stands solitary among the green\nfields to mark where stood the City of the Sun, and the wild bees store\ntheir honey in its deep-cut hieroglyphs.\n\nIf any remains at all exist of Abydos, they have long since been\nburied deep beneath the piled up heaps of sand and mud amongst which\nhas been built a little Arab village named \u2018Arabat the Buried.\u2019 Whilst\nexploring these mounds the famous discoverer Mariette found two\ntemples erected by well-known kings of far later date, Seti I. and\nRameses the Great, and dedicated by them to Osiris. Not far off there\narises amid the desolation a conical hillock sixty feet high, which is\ncalled by the Arabs Kom-es-Sultan, the \u2018Mound of the King.\u2019 It is just\nmade up of tombs \u2018packed together as closely as they can be wedged,\u2019\nabove a rock which was believed to have been the sepulchre of Osiris.\nHere it was that so many during many generations desired to be laid;\nthrough the excavations of explorers may be seen countless numbers of\nthe tombs where they hoped to rest in peace. But the mummy cases have\nbeen rudely dragged to light, despoiled, and rifled of aught they might\nhave contained of commercial value, while the poor mummies themselves\nare left, often broken into fragments, exposed to the careless gaze of\nevery passer-by and to the \u2018full glare of the noon-day sun.\u2019 Pits sunk\nin the neighbourhood disclose nothing but tombs, \u2018arches upon arches of\nbrick, each an Egyptian grave.\u2019[8]\n\nMena founded his new capital 360 miles north of Thinis. The Nahsi\nor Negroes, in the south, were troublesome rather than dangerous\nneighbours, and the whole length of the Nile valley was protected by\nthe natural defences of the Libyan hills on the west and the Arabian on\nthe east, but the Delta had no such shelter, and through its plains the\nway to the rich luxuriant valley lay open to an invading force, whether\nof the fair-haired Libyans from the west or the warlike tribes of the\nAmu and the Herusha from the east. Memphis was built some miles south\nof the point where the narrow valley of the Nile opens out into the\nbroad plains of the Delta.[9] Here the river ran near the Libyan hills;\nso, by Mena\u2019s orders, its course was turned aside to gain a wider space\nfor the new city\u2014Mennefer, he called it\u2014the \u2018secure and beautiful.\u2019\nHe first of all erected a magnificent temple, which he dedicated to\nPtah, \u2018Father of the beginning\u2019 and \u2018Creator of the world,\u2019 of whose\nworship Memphis continued to be the centre. It was well fortified and\nguarded against inroads from the north, and protected the entrance to\nthe Nile valley, of which its rulers held the key. And it was fair to\nlook upon, lying along the banks of the great river\u2014with artificial\nlakes glittering in the cloudless sunshine, and stately temples and\npalaces embosomed amongst groves of palm, sycamore, and date trees.\nThousands of years passed by, and in later days the ruthless tide of\nwar ebbed and flowed around its walls; siege, storm, and havoc did\ntheir work\u2014but in spite of all, so late as the 13th century A.D., an\nArabian physician who visited the ruins of Memphis tells us that they\nextended a half-day\u2019s journey every way, and he declares that the\nwonders he beheld were sufficient to confound the mind; no eloquence\ncould describe them. Every new glance, he says, was a new cause of\ndelight. But the work of ruin was not ended in his day\u2014Mahometan\nfanaticism spares nothing, however time-honoured or beautiful; besides\nwhich, the ruins of Memphis proved a convenient quarry for the\nbuilding of modern Cairo. Thus the \u2018secure and beautiful\u2019 city of King\nMena has disappeared at length as utterly as Babylon has done. A few\ninsignificant fragments and blocks are strewn confusedly about, and\nserve to mark the site. One mighty statue lies prostrate\u2014a colossal\nfigure of Rameses II., erected by himself in front of the temple of\nPtah. It is lying on its face in a broad ditch, deserted and alone,\nsave when some wandering Arab passes by, or cattle come to drink of the\nwater which, for most part of the year, fills the trench and submerges\nthe gigantic figure\u2014\n\n                          Round the decay\n    Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,\n    The lone and level sands stretch far away.\n\nOf historic details relating to the earliest dynasties next to nothing\nhas been preserved; the kings appear to have been able and enlightened\nrulers, and encouragers of art and learning. In their days the system\nof hieroglyphic writing existed, and we are told of works on the\nhealing arts, some of which were composed by the successor of Mena\nhimself, for \u2018he was a physician.\u2019 The earliest chapters of the sacred\nbooks were extant, and the art of embalming was already practised,\nthough in a comparatively rude fashion. We are also informed that by a\ndecree of King Bai-en-neter of the second dynasty, women were declared\ncapable of succeeding to the crown\u2014a statement which is only in harmony\nwith all that we know of the position of women in ancient Egypt.[10]\n\nOne remarkable monument of these early dynasties remains.\n\nThe Libyan hills, running from north to south, form the western\nboundary of the Nile valley. Along their base there is a rocky\nplatform of considerable breadth, at a height of some 90 or 100 feet\nabove the plain. This vast platform was used as the necropolis of\nMemphis\u2014_Ank-ta_, \u2018Land of life,\u2019 they called it. For the space of\ntwenty miles in the neighbourhood of the city, it was covered with\ngroups of pyramids and tombs. In the centre of the most ancient of\nthese stands the pyramid of Sakkara, known as the \u2018stepped pyramid,\u2019 or\n\u2018pyramid of degrees,\u2019 which is considered as the burial-place of Ata,\nfourth King of Egypt. In that case, it is the oldest known sepulchre in\nthe world. It is of grand and rugged aspect, about 200 feet in height,\nand flattened at the summit. The exterior is formed of six rough\ngigantic steps composed of stones, and nine or ten feet in thickness.\n\nThe forms of King Mena and his successors may well appear dreamlike\nin the dim light by which we discern them; but we seem to perceive\nthat Mena was, at any rate, the first who wore the \u2018double crown,\u2019\nwhich bespoke sovereignty over the whole land; the white upper crown\nrepresenting dominion over Upper, the red lower one dominion over Lower\nEgypt. His successors were strong enough to repel invaders, to maintain\nintact the power they inherited, and thus to transmit to following\ndynasties the double crown they had received from Mena, the \u2018Firm\u2019 or\n\u2018Constant.\u2019\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] The date that has been assigned to the Great Pyramid varies by at\nleast a thousand years, and is generally placed from about 3000 to 4000\nB.C. The present tendency is certainly rather in favour of the remoter\ndates, as agreeing best with the requirements of historic data, and\nharmonising with the results of recent discovery and research.\n\n[2] Isis is joined in her lamentations by her sister Nephthys, who was\nwife of Set, but never shared his evil repute.\n\n[3] _i.e._ The Earth. Seb, the Earth-god, was father of Osiris; Nut,\nthe Heaven above, was his mother in Egyptian mythology.\n\n[4] In Greek _Heliopolis_, which bears the same meaning as Pa-Ra\u2014\u2018City\nof the Sun.\u2019\n\n[5] So much was this the case, that at a later period simpler forms of\nwriting, known as the hieratic and demotic were adopted for general\npurposes; but the ancient hieroglyphic characters continued to be\nemployed on monuments and in the temples.\n\n[6] This comparison of the ancient \u2018wisdom\u2019 to the ph\u0153nix is taken\nfrom Reginald Stuart Poole\u2019s _Cities of Egypt_,\u2014an interesting and\nsuggestive book, to which I have been more than once indebted, and\nespecially in the above description of On.\n\n[7] Generally known as the \u2018Book\u2019 or \u2018Ritual of the Dead,\u2019 but it was\nnever known to the Egyptians by any name of the kind.\n\n[8] Loftie\u2019s _Ride in Egypt_.\n\n[9] The length of the Nile, from the spot where the Blue and White\nNile unite, down to the Mediterranean, is 1800 miles. The valley of\nthe Nile bounded east by the Arabian, west by the Libyan hills, varies\nin breadth from fourteen to thirty-two miles, but the breadth of the\narable land does not exceed nine or ten miles.\u2014Erasmus Wilson\u2019s _Egypt\nof the Past_.\n\n[10] That position was in remarkable contrast to the subjection and\nseclusion of the Asiatic harem, and was superior to that assigned to\nwomen in the domestic and social life of Greece itself. The Egyptian\nwas the husband of one wife, and she was regarded as the honoured\nmistress of the household; the companion, not the slave or inferior, of\nthe man. In sculptures and paintings she is constantly seen sitting by\nhis side; she joins him in receiving and welcoming guests, and freely\ntakes her part in the occupations and enjoyments of social life. In the\ntombs and memorial chambers of the dead, husband and wife are still\nrepresented side by side.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nThe Pyramid Builders.\n\n\nThere is no longer any need to trust to the scanty notices of these\nearly times that occur in writings of later date. Egyptian inscriptions\nnow tell their own story; the monuments begin to speak. In the valley\nof Wady Maghara, in the peninsula of Sinai, carved upon the rocky\nprecipice, is to be seen King Senefru himself, in the act of striking\ndown an enemy; the accompanying inscription gives the name and titles\nof the sovereign, and designates him the conqueror of the Mentu, the\n\u2018foreigners of the East.\u2019\n\nIn these rocky valleys rich mineral treasures had been discovered,\nvaluable copper ore, besides the blue and green precious stones so much\nprized in Egypt. These mines were explored and worked by labourers sent\nfrom Egypt, and the district gradually passed into possession of its\nkings.\n\nFortresses were erected and soldiers stationed there to protect the\nworkmen, and temples were erected that all might be carried on under\nthe protection of the gods. This treasure-yielding district was\njealously watched and guarded by the Egyptians, who were thus often\nbrought into collision with neighbouring tribes. Nor is Senefru\u2019s\ntablet by any means the sole record of battle and of conquest, for\nhis successors left many such memorials there. It is not, however, by\nthese alone, or by these principally, that their name and fame has been\npreserved to modern days.\n\n[Illustration: THE SPHINX.]\n\nThe rocky platform at the foot of the Libyan hills is of unequal\nbreadth; at one spot, near Memphis, it widens considerably, and forms\na sort of promontory jutting out into the plain. It was here that the\npyramids of Ghizeh rose in their stupendous majesty. Not far off a huge\nblock of limestone rock, bearing probably some accidental resemblance\nto an animal at rest,[11] was transformed by the skill of the royal\narchitect into the colossal image of a mysterious being\u2014a lion with\nthe head of a man wearing the crown and insignia of an Egyptian\nmonarch\u2014symbol of strength, intellect, and royal dignity. He lay in\nsolemn repose, gazing ever towards the east, where arose each morning\nHorus of the horizon (Hor-em-khu), the bright deity he represented. To\nthe south of the Sphinx (as the Greeks afterwards called the mystic\ncreature), Khufu, successor of Senefru, erected a temple to Isis,\n\u2018Queen of the Pyramids,\u2019 and to the north a temple to Osiris, \u2018Lord of\nthe unseen world,\u2019\u2014thus consecrating the whole of that vast city of the\ndead to the threefold guardianship of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, names so\nnearly associated in the Egyptian mind with death, the unseen world,\nand life triumphant and immortal.\n\nWhilst the great image of Horus was being shaped, and the temples\nof Osiris and Isis were building, Khufu was by no means unmindful of\nhis own sepulchral monument. The colossal pile,\u2014which he named \u2018Khut\u2019\n(Splendour of Light),\u2014is known to us by the name of the \u2018Great Pyramid.\u2019\n\nThe building of these royal tombs, the pyramids, was the work of a\nlifetime. A square was first formed, the corners of which were exactly\nnorth, south, east, and west; course upon course was added as the years\nwent by, but it could be finished off at any given moment. The angles\nwere then filled in with granite or limestone, fitted with absolute\nexactness, and the whole sloping surface was beautifully polished. As\nKing Khufu reigned for fifty-seven years, it is no wonder that his\nsepulchral monument should have attained such gigantic proportions. To\nform any idea of what the pyramids must once have been, we must restore\nthese polished casing-stones which are now all but gone, and have\nprobably been used in the building of Cairo. Now, \u2018their stripped sides\npresent a rude, disjointed appearance,\u2019 but then, the first and second\nwere of \u2018brilliant white or yellow limestone, the third all glowing\nwith the red granite from the First Cataract,\u2019 five hundred miles away.\n\u2018Then you must build up or uncover the massive tombs, now broken or\nchoked up with sand, so as to restore the aspect of vast streets of\ntombs, out of which the Great Pyramid would arise like a cathedral\nabove smaller churches. Lastly, you must enclose two other pyramids\nwith stone precincts and gigantic doorways; and, above all, you must\nrestore the Sphinx as he was in the days of his glory.\u2019[12]\n\nNarrow passages lead into the heart of the mighty mass of Khufu\u2019s\npyramid, which rises on a base of 764 feet to the height of 480 feet.\nWhen the traveller has climbed, or crept, to the centre he finds\nhimself in a chamber, the walls of which are composed of polished red\ngranite. Nothing is left there now to tell of the royal builder but\nhis empty sarcophagus, and his name and titles, amongst other scrawls,\nwritten by the masons in red ochre on the walls.\n\nKhafra, the successor of Khufu, is made very real to us by the\nwonderful statue of him which was found uninjured amongst a number\nof other broken ones of the same monarch, in a deep well near his\nburial-place. It is of a bright greenish stone, and admirably executed.\nThe king\u2019s features are life-like and benign. A hawk, symbol of Ra, not\nseen in our illustration, stands behind, and embraces his head with\nits wings, as if sheltering and protecting the sovereign, who was \u2018Son\nof the Sun.\u2019\n\nKhafra\u2019s pyramid, called by him Ur, or the Great, is second in\nsize only to that of Khufu. On the upper part of it the original\ncasing-stone still remains.\n\nThe third of the pyramids of Ghizeh, that of Menkaura, though only\nabout half the size of the other two, exceeded them both in costliness\nand splendour; it was cased from top to bottom in brilliant red\ngranite, exquisitely finished.\n\nThese ancient pyramids have long ago been rifled for the sake of\nanything they contained of value, but in the red pyramid a sarcophagus\nwas discovered made of black basalt, beautifully wrought. It was\nshipped for England, but lost off Gibraltar. Only the wooden case\nreached London, and was deposited in the British Museum, together with\nthe bones that had been gathered out of poor Menkaura\u2019s resting-place,\nand which doubtless formed part of his skeleton.[13]\n\n[Illustration: The Pyramids of Khufu and Khafra.]\n\nOf the monarchs of the succeeding dynasties there is little to be said.\nThe names of many of them are found recorded in the valleys of Sinai as\n\u2018conquerors of the Mentu,\u2019 and they were each and all pyramid builders.\nThe names of their pyramids are known, but only a few of them have been\nidentified.\n\nRecent investigation of the pyramids of Sakkara has brought to light\nthe sepulchres of the last king of the fifth dynasty\u2014Unas\u2014and of Pepi\nand Merienra of the sixth dynasty, together with their shrivelled\nremains. From the corpse of the last-named king not only the ornaments,\nbut the coverings and bandages, had been torn away.\n\nSome rays of light are thrown upon the times of Pepi and Merienra\nby an inscription that was found at Abydos, in the tomb of one Una,\nwho was Governor of the South. In the reign of Teta, first king of\nthe sixth dynasty, Una, then a young man, had been already intrusted\nwith important offices. He was crown-bearer, superintendent of the\nstorehouse, and registrar of the docks. Under Pepi he rose to yet\nhigher dignity and influence. \u2018His Majesty gave me the rank of \u201cKing\u2019s\nfriend;\u201d I was royal scribe and chief over the treasury, and priest\nof the royal pyramid. No secret was withheld from me; he allowed me\nto hear all that was said. By his orders I brought a white stone\nsarcophagus from the land of Ruau. It was embarked safely and brought,\ntogether with the doors, cover, and pedestal, in a great boat belonging\nto the palace.\n\n\u2018But now His Majesty was summoned to drive back the Amu and the\nHerusha,[14] who were threatening the land. He levied soldiers from\nbeyond the southern frontier, and recruited negroes from very many\nplaces. He placed me at the head of these troops. I summoned captains\nand rulers from every part that they might train and drill the negro\nforces. I was the representative of the king; everything fell upon me\nalone, for there was no man above me but Pharaoh himself. To the utmost\nof my power I laboured; I wore out my sandals in going hither and\nthither. Never was any army better officered or disciplined. It marched\nwithout let or hindrance until it arrived at the land of the Herusha.\nIt laid waste the country, burning the villages, and cutting down vine\nand fig-trees; many thousands of the foe were taken prisoners.\n\n\u2018Five times was I sent to subdue revolts among the Herusha until the\nland was completely conquered. King Merienra made me Governor of the\nSouth, and bestowed high dignity upon me in his household.\n\n\u2018I was charged to bring the sarcophagus and statue for the pyramid of\nMerienra, and I transported them in boats. I also quarried a great slab\nof alabaster for the king in seventeen days. I constructed a boat of\n100 feet in length, and 50 in breadth. But there was not water enough\nto tow it in safety. Therefore I excavated four docks in the land of\nthe south, and next year at the time of the inundation I disembarked\nin safety both the alabaster slab and all the granite required for the\npyramid Kha-nefer[15] of Merienra. Then for those docks I erected a\nbuilding in which the spirits of the king might be invoked, even of the\nking Merienra, by whose command all had been done that was done.\n\n\u2018The beloved of his father, the praised of his mother, the delight of\nhis brethren, the chief, the Governor of the South, the truly devoted\nto Osiris\u2014Una.\u2019\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[11] The face of the Sphinx is 30 feet long and 14 wide. Its body 140,\nand its front paws 50 feet long. Between the paws was a small sanctuary.\n\n[12] Stanley\u2019s _Sinai and Palestine_.\n\n[13] On the coffin-lid is a hieroglyphic inscription, which is\ninteresting as showing at how early a period the departed spirit was\nregarded as one with Osiris. It runs thus: \u2018O Osiris, King of Egypt,\nMenkaura, living for ever! born of Heaven, offspring of Seb. May thy\nMother Nut (Heaven) stretch herself over thee, and cover thee in her\nName of Heavenly Mystery. May she render thee divine, destroying all\nthine enemies, O King Menkaura, living for ever!\u2019\n\n[14] Tribes inhabiting the desert beyond the north-east frontier of\nEgypt.\n\n[15] The Beautiful Rising.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nThe Pyramid Builders\u2014_Continued_.\n\n\nThe warlike expeditions described by Una, the Governor of the South,\nform the exception rather than the rule in this early history. Fearing\nno rivals at home, and almost entirely free from enemies abroad, these\npowerful monarchs devoted their thoughts and care to the building of\ntemples and of those gigantic funeral piles that have immortalised\ntheir names.\n\nIt is certain that the pyramids could not have been erected without a\nvery considerable amount of scientific knowledge, whilst as records\nof engineering skill they are simply marvellous. Immense blocks were\nbrought from a distance of 500 miles up the river, were polished like\nglass, and fitted into their places with such exactness that the\njoints could hardly be detected. \u2018Nothing can be more wonderful,\u2019 says\nFergusson, \u2018than the extraordinary amount of knowledge and perfect\nprecision of execution displayed in the construction of the interior\nchambers and galleries; nothing more perfect mechanically has ever been\nexecuted since.\u2019\n\nA curious calculation has been made that the stone used in the\nconstruction of Khufu\u2019s pyramid would make a wall of six feet high and\nhalf a yard broad, that would reach across the Atlantic from Liverpool\nto Newfoundland.\n\nIn the tombs which cluster round the royal pyramids have been\ndiscovered records and relics of deeper and more human interest than\nthe pyramids themselves. At Meidoom were buried the great men of\nSenefru\u2019s time. Their tombs were formed of immense blocks of stone,\nand have been long hidden from sight by the accumulation of soil above\nthem. The entrance passages are covered with figures and inscriptions.\nThe figures are wrought in a kind of mosaic work. Little square\nholes were made, and filled with hard cement of various colours. The\nbrightness of the tints is wonderful, as if they had been laid on\nyesterday; and in some places there can be discerned upon the sand,\nmarks of the footprints left there by the bearers of the coffin.\n\n[Illustration: Netting Birds.]\n\nHere we seem brought face to face with a very remote past. All is so\nstrangely distant and unlike, but at the same time all is strangely\nnear and like ourselves and our own life to-day. Here, _e.g._, is the\nentrance-passage to the tomb of Nefer-mat, a high officer of state and\n\u2018friend of the king,\u2019 who married Atet, a royal princess. On one side\nof the passage we see Nefer-mat, with his wife clinging to his arm; on\nthe other he is represented with his little son at his feet. In front\nof us the husband and wife are again delineated; her long hair falls\nloosely over her shoulders, and she places her hand upon her heart in\ntoken of devoted affection.\n\nAtet appears to have survived her husband, and her own tomb is close at\nhand. Amongst the scenes depicted there is one in which Nefer-mat is\nemployed in netting fowl; the wife is seated near, watching the sport,\nand servants are bringing her the game. The hieroglyphic inscription\nsays: \u2018Princess Atet receives with pleasure the game caught by the\nchief noble, Nefer-mat.\u2019\n\nIn another of these tombs were discovered the wonderful statues of\nRa-hotep and his beautiful wife Nefert, which are now in the museum\nat Boulak. Ra-hotep was a prince, very likely a son of Senefru, who\ndied young; he was a captain in the army, and chief priest of Ra, at\nOn. These, the most ancient known statues in the world, are \u2018marvels\nof life-like reality.\u2019 The Egyptians always excelled in portrait\nsculpture; the figures may be stiff and ill-drawn, but the faces are\nbeyond doubt truthful and characteristic likenesses. Men of learning\nwere held in honour at the court of these early Pharaohs, as well as\narchitects and sculptors. But the literature of those days may be said\nto have perished. Portions of it, enshrined in the sacred writings,\nhave survived, and there is, besides, one venerable manuscript of the\ntime of the fifth dynasty, which has come down to us. It is called\nthe _Maxims of Ptah-hotep_ and is the oldest manuscript known. The\nwriter was a prince by birth, and a governor; he lived to be more than\na hundred years old, and after a long and varied experience of life,\nwhen the infirmities of old age had come upon him, he recorded, for\nthe use and benefit of all, the teaching of that serene and simple\nwisdom which is never new and never old\u2014such as the following:\u2014\n\n      \u2018A good son is the gift of God.\u2019\n\n      \u2018If thou art a wise man, bring up thy son in the love\n    of God.\u2019\n\n      \u2018If any one bears himself proudly, he will be humbled\n    by God, who gave his strength.\u2019\n\n      \u2018If thou hast become great after having been lowly,\n    and art the first in thy town; if thou art known for\n    thy wealth, and art become a great lord\u2014let not thy\n    heart grow proud because of thy riches, for it is\n    God who was the author of them for thee. Despise not\n    another who may be as thou once wast; be towards him as\n    towards thine equal.\u2019\n\n      \u2018With the courage that knowledge gives, discuss with\n    the ignorant as with the learned. Good words shine more\n    than the emerald, which the hand of the slave finds on\n    the pebbles.\u2019\n\n      \u2018He who obeys not does really nothing; he sees\n    knowledge in ignorance, virtue in vices; he commits\n    daily and boldly all sort of crimes, and lives as if he\n    was dead. What others know to be death, is his daily\n    life.\u2019\n\n      \u2018God lives through all that is good and pure.\u2019\n\nAnd he concludes:\u2014\n\n      \u2018Thus shalt thou obtain health of body and the favour\n    of the king, and pass the years of thy life without\n    falsehood. I am become one of the ancients of the\n    earth. I have passed 110 years of life\u2014fulfilling my\n    duty to the king, and I have continued to stand in his\n    favour.\u2019\n\nThe venerable Ptah-hotep was buried in one of the tombs that are\ngrouped around the ancient pyramid of Sakkara. Near his burial-place\nis the vast tomb of Thi, on which is recorded, in sculptured story,\nthe course of his daily life. Of his own birth and parentage nothing\nis said, but he so distinguished himself that the king gave him\nhis daughter in marriage. Thi was royal scribe, president of royal\nwritings, and conductor of the king\u2019s works. His tomb must indeed have\nbeen the work of a lifetime. We see him there, amidst the scenes of\nrural life, watching over the ingathering of the harvest, or fowling\nin the marshes; one while he is listening to the strains of music,\nanother time he is steering his little vessel on the broad waters\nof the Nile. Servant girls are carrying on their heads and in their\nhands, in baskets or in jars, the produce of his estates\u2014wine, bread,\ngeese, pigeons, fruit, and flowers. Above is depicted a humorous scene,\nsuch as Egyptian artists delighted in. A number of donkeys pass in\nfile, their saddle-cloths are ornamented with fringes, and they are\nladen with panniers of grain. Men walk by the side to steady the heavy\nloads. One load, however, has shifted from its place, and two men are\ntrying to put it back; the animal is restive, and one man has hold of\nhim by the tail while another has grasped his nose. The donkey coming\nimmediately behind has seized the opportunity of the halt to give the\nman in front of him a poke with his nose. Each driver is armed with a\nstout stick, and one of them is just raising his against the unruly\nanimal. It is evident that donkeys were considered troublesome and\nobstinate some four or five thousand years ago, that their humours\namused the Egyptian artists, and that donkey drivers then, as now, were\nready to use their sticks.\n\nIn another drawing Thi is seen in a boat made of reeds, superintending\na hippopotamus hunt. One of his men has succeeded in getting a rope\nround the neck of one savage-looking beast, and is preparing to\ndespatch him with a long club. The river is full of fish, and one of\nthe hippopotami has just seized a little crocodile between his enormous\njaws. In another picture a crocodile hunt is represented, whilst in one\ndrawing we see an angler who is evidently out for a day\u2019s sport in one\nof the small reed boats. He is in the act of drawing a fish out of the\nwater, and by his side he has loaves of bread, a cup, and a bottle.\n\nNowhere is depicted a scene of battle or warlike display, everything\nspeaks of rural and domestic life.\n\nBut we do not see the great men of Pharaoh\u2019s court only in the scenes\nand amusements of life. Funeral rites are also represented. The body\nis seen embalmed and carried to its last resting-place; funeral gifts\nare offered in rich abundance. No obligation was more sacred than that\nof bringing funeral oblations and offering prayer for the departed\nparent or friend. Inscriptions over the tombs called even on the\npasser-by to stay a while and offer up the customary invocation. The\nform of this invocation varied from age to age, but the main burden\nof its petitions was that Osiris would \u2018grant the funeral oblations\nof all good things; that the departed one might not be repulsed at\nthe entrance of the unseen world, but might be glorified amongst the\nblessed ones in presence of the Good Being, that he (or she) might\nbreathe the delicious breezes of the north wind, and drink from the\ndepth of the river.\u2019\n\nIt was customary to build a chamber at the entrance to the tomb, in\nwhich the family and friends of the departed assembled from time to\ntime to offer oblations and prayers, and to realise the actual presence\nof those who were gone. The walls of these rooms were covered with\npictured and sculptured scenes taken from the varied scenes of daily\nlife. They were adorned \u2018as for a home of pleasure and joy\u2019\u2014no thought\nof gloom is even suggested.\n\nThe names given to the pyramids by their royal builders are very\nstriking in this respect. Amongst them we find the \u2018Abode of Life,\u2019 the\n\u2018Refreshing Place,\u2019 the \u2018Good Rising,\u2019 the \u2018Most Holy,\u2019 \u2018Most Lovely,\u2019\nor \u2018Most Abiding Place,\u2019 the \u2018Rising of the Soul.\u2019\n\nThe earliest of the pyramids were unsculptured and unadorned within,\nso there was attached to each of them a small sanctuary or memorial\nchapel; the office of \u2018priest of the royal pyramid\u2019 being held in high\nestimation and conferred on the most illustrious men of the day.\n\nDuring their lifetime the Pharaohs were regarded by their people as\nrepresentatives of the gods, or even as emanations from the Divine\nBeing. After their death their memory was preserved and sacred rites\nwere performed by the priests attached to their respective pyramids.\nDown to the latest days of the Empire, and even in the reign of the\nPtolemies (three or four thousand years after they had been laid to\nrest \u2018each within his own house\u2019), priests were still officiating in\nmemory of Khufu, Khafra, or Senefru\u2014the far-famed pyramid builders.\n\nFor whilst the names of some amongst the later Pharaohs are emblazoned\non the page of history as conquerors of high renown, who founded an\nEgyptian empire and gathered in rich and varied tribute from many\nsubject races\u2014those ancient monarchs are known and will ever be\nremembered as the kings \u2018who built the pyramids.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nCivil War and Break-up of the Kingdom\u2014Reunion and Recovery.\n\n\nThe last sovereign of the sixth dynasty was a queen named Nitocris.\nAfter her death occurs a perfect blank in Egyptian history. Not a\nline of hieroglyphic writing, not a fragment of a ruin has survived\nfrom this period of darkness and silence. Of the seventh dynasty the\nvery names are lost; of the eighth, nothing but the names has been\npreserved. The names, however, are so similar to those of the sixth\ndynasty, that we may conclude that these rulers were of the same royal\nline and descendants of Mena.\n\nIt may be gathered from the bare fact of the accession of a female\nsovereign that the direct male line had failed. Nitocris appears to\nhave left no children, and it is easy to imagine how rival claims and\ndissension would arise; each claimant asserting his right as next of\nkin, to wear the double crown.\n\nBut at the same time the double crown lost much of its splendour.\nOther pretenders started up, ambitious men, claiming no right of\nkinship certainly, but anxious to make their own profit during this\nperiod of discord and weakness in the ruling house. Egypt was divided\ninto forty-two districts or \u2018nomes,\u2019 and each of these possessed\nits own governor (_hak_, or prince, he was called) and each was to\nsome extent a government complete within itself. The office of these\nprince-governors was often hereditary, and there was always a danger\nlest some powerful and popular governor should aim at setting up a\npetty kingdom of his own, in the event of the ruling hand becoming\nenfeebled. During a female reign the controlling power would be\nlessened, whilst the prospect of a disputed succession was awakening\nambitious hopes and schemes. So long as Nitocris lived, the reverence\ndue to a direct representative of the Pharaohs might prove some\nrestraint, but at her death the smouldering ambitions and rivalries of\nscions of the royal house and of powerful provincial governors could\nhardly fail to burst forth, and find vent in fierce flames of discord\nand of civil war.\n\nWould we form to ourselves some idea of the state of Egypt during the\nensuing centuries, we must picture a feeble scion of the ancient line\nruling at Memphis over a territory barely extending beyond the capital;\nfor in the north the foreign races would seize their opportunity for\ninvading and encroaching upon the rich Delta land, thus blocking the\ngreat highway by the river; and farther south a rival dynasty is\nestablished at Heracleopolis, in Middle Egypt, not to reckon the other\npetty kingdoms or principalities into which the country is broken\nup\u2014the whole a scene of ceaseless jealousies and mutual conflict.\n\nAt length in the extreme south certain king-like figures emerge of a\nmore commanding appearance, and seen by a clearer light. The Antefs\nfirst, a family of ancient and illustrious, though not royal descent,\nwho had set up their dominion at a town then insignificant and unknown\nto fame\u2014Thebes. The burial-places of the kings of this family (who\nare sometimes reckoned in the eleventh dynasty) have been discovered\nin Western Thebes. Their tombs are plain, and but little ornamented;\nthere are some brick pyramids of no great size, and some fragments of\nsmall broken obelisks. In one of the memorial chambers is depicted an\nAntef who assumed the title of the \u2018Great;\u2019 he appears to have been\na sportsman, and is to be seen surrounded by his dogs, each of which\nis distinguished by its name. From the days of these kings a literary\nrelic also has come down to us. The \u2018festal dirge\u2019 of the Egyptians\nbears the name of the _Song of the House of King Antef_. Many, many\nages later, Herodotus, travelling in Egypt, told of the custom\nwhich prevailed of carrying round during an entertainment a figure\nrepresenting a mummy, whilst the bearer repeated the words: \u2018Cast your\neyes upon this figure; after death you yourself will resemble it; eat,\ndrink, then, and be happy;\u2019 words plainly recalling the \u2018solemn festal\ndirge\u2019 which dated back to the \u2018House of Antef,\u2019 about 2000 years\nbefore his time, and which was to the following effect:\u2014\n\n      \u2018All hail the good Prince, the worthy man who has\n    passed away! Behold the end! the end of those who\n    possess houses and of those who have them not. I have\n    heard the sayings of the wise:\u2014\u201cWhat is prosperity?\n    All passes as though it had not been\u2014no man returneth\n    thence to tell us what they say or do.\u201d\n\n      \u2018Fulfil, then, thy desire, O man, whilst yet thou\n    livest. Anoint thine head with oil, and clothe thee in\n    fine linen adorned with gold\u2014Make use of God\u2019s good\n    gifts.\n\n      \u2018For the day will come for thee also when voices are\n    heard no more; he who is at rest heareth not the cry of\n    those who mourn. No mourning may deliver him that is\n    within the tomb.\n\n      \u2018Feast, then, in peace\u2014for none can carry away his\n    goods with him, nor can he who goeth hence return\n    again.\u2019\n\nThere are, then, a few scanty records left of the Antef family and\ntheir rule in the south. Still more distinct and commanding are the\nfigures of another family, the brave and warlike Mentuhoteps; who\neventually succeeded in restoring order over a considerable portion\nof the distracted and divided land. This family was of Theban origin,\nand the centre of their government was in that city, then so obscure,\nthough destined to become in after days the crown of ancient cities and\nthe wonder of the ancient world\u2014\u2018hundred-gated Thebes.\u2019\n\nWith wise forethought the Mentuhoteps devoted their attention to the\ndevelopment of trade and industry in the south. The passage of the\ngreat water-way of the Nile was impeded, but there was an outlet for\ncommerce by a route leading eastward from the Nile to the Red Sea.\nKoptos, a town not far north of Thebes, stood at the entrance of\nthe desert rocky valley of Hammamat, through which merchantmen and\ntravellers made a weary and painful eight days\u2019 journey to the Red\nSea. The Mentuhotep kings themselves took up their residence sometimes\nat Koptos, and the gloomy valley of Hammamat gradually became a scene\nof busy industry. Mines of gold and silver ore were worked there, and\nstone was hewn from its quarries for building purposes at Thebes, which\nwas continually growing in extent and in importance. For the benefit of\nthe labourers in the hot valley, and for the refreshment of travellers\nand their beasts, a deep well, ten cubits broad, was sunk by royal\norder. The whole district was placed under the special guardianship of\nthe god Khem, who was known as the \u2018Protecting Lord of the mountain.\u2019\nThe rocks near Koptos are to this day covered with inscriptions\u2014the\ninvocations and prayers of many generations, both of workmen and of\nwayfarers. The development of trade and industry brought an increase\nboth of wealth and power to the Mentuhoteps and their people. During\nthe reign of the last sovereign of the eleventh dynasty, a more distant\nexpedition was undertaken.\n\nThe land of Punt[16] was well known by name and repute to the\nEgyptians; they regarded it as a sacred region (_Ta-neter_, the \u2018holy\nland\u2019), and it was known to be a hilly country, whose shores were\nwashed by the Red Sea, and to be celebrated for many rare and precious\nproducts; for choice and costly woods; for gems and frankincense,\nand fragrant spices; for trees and plants unknown at home; for birds\nof strange plumage, giraffes, monkeys, and leopards. King Sankhkara\ndespatched an expedition thither under the command of a nobleman\nnamed Hanno. Hanno tells us the story himself: \u2018I was sent,\u2019 he\nsays, \u2018to conduct ships to the land of Punt, to fetch for the king\nsweet-smelling spices.\u2019 He started with 3000 men, well armed and\ncarefully provided with water, which was carried in skins on poles.\nThrough the valley of Hammamat he pressed on rapidly to the sea; there\nhe embarked, after offering up rich sacrifices. \u2018I brought back,\u2019 he\nsays, \u2018all kinds of products, and I brought back precious stones for\nthe statues of the temples.\u2019\n\nThe route between Koptos and the Red Sea continued to be a highway for\ncommerce down to the days of the Greeks and Romans.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[16] It is not quite certain whether Punt was on the Arabian or\nAbyssinian shore of the Red Sea, probably the latter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTwelfth Dynasty\u2014\u2018Instructions\u2019 of Amenemhat I.\u2014Story of Saneha.\n\n\nThere was a certain unity in Egyptian worships, but in various\nlocalities the chief deities bore different names, and were regarded\nunder varying aspects. The worship of some of these chief deities,\nhowever, became general, if not universal, at a very early period;\n_e.g._ that of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, the triad of Abydos; that of Ra\nand Turn,[17] chief gods of On, and that of Ptah, the centre of which\nwas Memphis. The Thebaid\u2014_i.e._ the district surrounding Thebes\u2014had its\nown local divinities also. Khem, \u2018Lord of the mountain,\u2019 was adored at\nKoptos; Amen (worshipped in connection with Mut, the \u2018Divine Mother,\u2019\nand Khons) was the chief god of Thebes. He was destined to become,\nunder the name of Amen-Ra, the chief amongst Egyptian gods at a later\nday.\n\nThe name of the first sovereign of the twelfth dynasty, Amenemhat\n(\u2018Amen the leader\u2019), bespeaks its southern origin. This great monarch\nfollowed up the successes of the Mentuhoteps, and finally re-united\nEgypt under one sceptre, although at the cost of many years of severe\nconflict. Then he had to drive back the Kushites, who had encroached\non the south, and the Libyans and the Amu, who troubled the northern\nborders; and after he had restored the ancient boundaries there\nwas still need of perpetual vigilance upon the frontiers. On the\nnorth-east, where lay the greatest danger, he erected fortresses and\nbuilt a strong wall of defence.\n\nBut although Amenemhat I. had been able to restore the ancient\nboundaries of Egypt, and all the country was subject, nominally, to\nhis sway, it is certain that the kinglets and chieftains whom he had\nreduced bore him but little affection, and yielded only a sullen\nand constrained obedience; in fact there is evidence of a hatred so\nvindictive that it did not scruple to resort even to the dagger of\nmidnight assassination. But King Amenemhat did not rest content with\nthe supremacy he had won; he strove, and not without success in the\nend, to win the goodwill and affection of the people, and he bequeathed\nto his successors a legacy of peace and prosperity that lasted for many\ngenerations. In the \u2018Instructions\u2019 which he left for his son Usertesen\n(whom he had associated with him on the throne), we may see both the\nhigh ideal this great and wise sovereign had formed of his own duties,\nand also form some idea of the perils and anxieties amidst which he\nstrove to perform them.\n\n\u2018Now thou art king,\u2019 he says to his son; \u2018strive to excel those who\nhave gone before thee. Keep peace between thy people and thyself,\nlest they should be afraid of thee. Go amongst them, keep not thyself\naloof; do not let it be only great lords and nobles whom thou takest\nto thy heart as brothers; nevertheless, let none come near thee whose\nfriendship thou hast not proved.\n\n\u2018Let thine own heart be strong, for know this, O man, that in the day\nof adversity thy servants\u2019 help will fail thee. As for me, I have given\nto the lowly and I have strengthened the weak. I have breathed courage\ninto hearts where there was none.\n\n\u2018Thee have I exalted from being a subject, and I have upheld thee, that\nmen may fear before thee. I have adorned myself with fine linen, so\nthat I was like the pure water flowers; I anointed myself with fragrant\noil, as though it had been water.\n\n\u2018My remembrance lives in men\u2019s hearts because I caused the sorrow of\nthe afflicted to cease; their cry was no longer heard. The conflicts\nare over, though they had been renewed again and again, for the land\nhad become like a mighty one who is forgetful of the past. Neither the\nignorant nor the learned man was able to endure.[18]\n\n\u2018Once after supper, when the shades of night had fallen, I went to\nseek repose. I lay down and stretched myself upon the carpets of\nmy house; my soul began to seek after sleep. But lo! armed men had\nassembled to attack me; I was helpless as the torpid snake in the\nfield. Then I aroused myself, and collected all my strength, but it was\nto strike at a foe who made no stand. If I encountered an armed rebel I\nmade the coward turn and fly; not even in the darkness was he brave; no\none fought.\n\n\u2018Nor was there ever a time of need that found me unprepared. And when\nthe day of my passing hence came, and I knew it not\u2014I had never given\near to the courtiers who desired me to abdicate in thy favour. I sat\never by thy side, and planned all things for thee.\n\n\u2018I never neglected anything that was for the benefit of my servants. If\nlocusts came arrayed for plunder, if conspiracy assailed me at home, if\nthe Nile was low, and the wells were dry; if my enemies took advantage\nof thyyouth to conspire to do ill,\u2014I never faltered from the day that I\nwas born. Never was the like seen since the days of the heroes.\n\n\u2018My messengers have travelled to the south and to the north. I stood\nupon the frontiers to keep watch, I stationed men armed with scimitars\nupon the boundaries, and I was armed with a scimitar myself.\n\n\u2018I grew abundance of corn, and the god of corn gave me the rising of\nthe Nile over the cultivated land. None was hungry through me, none\nthirsted through me; every one took heed to obey my words. All my\norders increased the affection my people had for me.\n\n\u2018I hunted the lion, and brought home the crocodile. I fought the\nNubians, and took the Libyans captive. I turned my forces against the\nSati; he fawned upon me like a dog.\n\n\u2018I built myself a house[19] adorned with gold; its ceiling was of\nazure, its galleries of stone. It was made for eternity. I possess the\neverlasting powers of the gods. There are many secret passages therein;\nI alone possess the key. None knows the way but thee, O Usertesen. Thou\nenterest, and thou wilt see me with thine eyes amongst the spirits who\ndo thee honour.\n\n\u2018All I have done is for thee. Do thou place upon my statue the double\ncrown and the tokens of divinity; let the seal of friendship unite us.\nIn the boat of Ra am I offering prayers for thee. It was my power that\nraised thee to the throne and upheld thee there.\u2019\n\nThe latter years of Amenemhat\u2019s reign flowed tranquilly by. \u2018The\nland had rest\u2019 from the warfare of centuries; and the sovereigns\napplied themselves to restoring the temples of the gods which had been\nneglected during the troublous times through which Egypt had passed.\nAmenemhat laid the foundation of the Great Temple at Thebes, whose\ncolossal ruins still excite the wonder of the traveller at Karnak.\n\nDuring the joint reign of these two sovereigns peace and confidence\nwere so far restored that it was possible to deal generously with\nfugitives and exiles. A kindly answer was accordingly sent to a\nhumble petition from one of these, Saneha by name, who had fled or\nbeen banished the country many years before. He has left an account\nof his experiences, which has fortunately come down to us. The first\nlines are wanting that would have given the events which led to\nhis hurried flight; but it is not difficult to imagine how a young\nand powerful noble might have become compromised in insurrection or\nconspiracy during the earlier years of Amenemhat\u2019s reign\u2014so gravely\ncompromised that his recall and friendly reception by the kings was\nregarded with suspicion and disapproval by some of the royal family\nthemselves. The narrative opens thus\u2014\u2018When I was about to set out, my\nheart was troubled, my hands trembled, numbness fell on my limbs. I\ndisguised myself as a seller of herbs;[20] twice I started and turned\nback.... I passed the night in a garden; when it was day I arose, and\nby supper-time had arrived at the town.... There I embarked on a barge\nwithout a rudder, and came to Abu; the rest of the journey I made on\nfoot. I came to the fortress which the king built to keep off the\nSakti, and I was received by an old man, a seller of herbs. But I was\nafraid when I beheld the watchmen upon the walls relieving each other\ndaily. In the dawn I proceeded, and went on my journey from place to\nplace. Thirst overtook me, and my throat was parched; it was as the\ntaste of death. But I encouraged myself, and my limbs waxed strong, for\nI heard the pleasant voice of cattle. I saw a Sakti. He spoke to me,\nsaying, \u201cO thou that art from Egypt! whither art thou going?\u201d Then he\ngave me water, and poured out milk for me. He brought me to his people,\nand they conducted me from place to place till we came to Tennu. The\nking said, \u201cRemain with me; here thou wilt hear the language of Egypt.\u201d\nI told him what had happened; he understood my condition, and heard the\nstory of my disgrace. Then he questioned me, saying, \u201cWhy hast thou\ndone these things?... And is it true that the wealth of the house of\nAmenemhat reacheth unto heaven?\u201d And I said, \u201cIt is certain.\u201d\u2019\n\nSaneha then tells the king of his earlier life; he extols the fame\nof king Amenemhat and the martial prowess and great popularity of\nhis son\u2014to which the king answers, \u2018Yea, Egypt is safe\u2014it is well.\nBehold, so long as thou art with me, I will do thee good.\u2019 And he\nkept his word, giving the Egyptian exile lands and possessions and\nmarrying him to his eldest daughter. For many years Saneha dwelt in\nthe strange country, and saw his children grow up around him. Nor was\nhe unmindful of his own past sufferings, but was ever ready to \u2018give\nwater to the thirsty and set the wanderer in the way.\u2019 He aided the\nking also against his enemies, so that, \u2018beholding the valour of his\narm,\u2019 he made him chief amongst his children. Presently Saneha receives\na challenge from a certain strong man, hitherto undisputed champion\nof the Tennu. The prospect of this single combat excited intense\ninterest. All Tennu assembled to behold it, and \u2018every heart was sorry\nfor Saneha,\u2019 who was to encounter so redoubtable a foe. But of course\nSaneha triumphs, and obtains possession of his enemy\u2019s person and\ngoods. \u2018I got great treasure and wealth, I got much cattle.\u2019\n\nIn spite of riches and renown and royal favour, the heart of the\nexile grows sad; old age is at hand, and an irrepressible longing\nafter home and native land seizes upon him. He ventures to approach\nthe all-powerful King of Egypt with a humble petition for pardon and\nrecall. \u2018Let me be buried,\u2019 he says, \u2018in the place where I was born.\u2019\nHis petition was most graciously received. Usertesen sent a messenger\nto the land of the Tennu, laden with many royal gifts and intrusted\nwith a mandate drawn up in his father\u2019s name. \u2018Thou hast passed through\nthe lands,\u2019 writes the king, \u2018going from country to country as thy\nheart bade thee. Behold what thou hast done thou hast done. Thou shalt\nnot be called to account for what thou hast said in the assembly of\nyoung men, nor for the business that thou didst devise. If thou comest\nto Egypt, a house shall be prepared for thee. If thou dost homage to\nPharaoh, thou shalt be numbered amongst the king\u2019s councillors.... Lo,\nthou hast arrived at middle age; thou hast passed the flower of thy\nyouth. Think upon the day of burial, upon the passage to Amenti.[21]\nCedar oil and wrappings shall be given thee\u2014service shall be done to\nthee in the day of thy burial. At the door of thy tomb the poor shall\nmake supplication; invocations shall be made before thee.\u2019 This letter\nreached Saneha as he was in the midst of his people. Overcome with\nemotion he prostrated himself upon the ground. He first caused the\nmandate to be read aloud before his chosen men, and then assembled his\nhousehold to hear the news, \u2018I being myself like one mad.\u2019 Without\ndelay Saneha sent his answer, worded with the profoundest humility\nand gratitude, anxious only that the king\u2019s majesty should not hold\nthe people of Tennu responsible as though they had in any way been\nconcerned in his guilt or had aided his flight.\n\nSaneha immediately arranged everything for his departure; he set his\neldest son in his place, and appointed a director over his workmen.\nThen he bade adieu to the friendly people among whom he had so long\nsojourned, and they assembled in crowds to wish him a good journey and\nhappy arrival at court. When he reached the country he had left by\nstealth, slinking away in disguise like a thief, he was met by princes\nof the royal family, who conducted him forthwith into the presence\nof the king. \u2018I found his majesty in the old place, in the pavilion\nof pure gold. I fell upon my face, as one amazed. The \u201cgod\u201d addressed\nme mildly, but I was as one brought out of the dark; my tongue was\ndumb, my limbs failed me, I knew not whether I was alive or dead. His\nmajesty said to one of the councillors, \u201cLift him up that I may speak\nto him.\u201d His majesty said, \u201cBehold, thou hast gone about the lands\nlike a runaway. Now old age has come upon thee. Thy renown is not\nsmall; be not silent and without words, for thy name is famous.\u201d Saneha\nreplies in broken utterances; \u2018Behold, oh, my lord, how can I answer\nthese things? Is not God\u2019s hand upon me; it is terrible. There is that\nwithin me that causeth pain. I am before thee. Thou art mighty. Let thy\nmajesty do as it pleaseth thee.\u2019 The royal family were now admitted,\nand the king said to the queen, \u2018Behold Saneha; he went away as an Amu;\nhe has become a Sakti.\u2019[22] To add to the confusion and alarm of the\nrepentant exile, there now arises a great cry from some of the princes\nof the royal family itself, who exclaim with one voice\u2014\u2018He is not in\nthe right, O my lord the king!\u2019 But Amenemhat, as we know, was not\none to be thwarted or turned aside from his purpose;[23] and he only\nreplies, \u2018He is in the right,\u2019 and proceeds forthwith to lavish tokens\nof reconciliation and favour upon Saneha. He gives him precedence in\nthe palace, and appoints him one of the king\u2019s intimate councillors.\nHe is clothed in fine linen, the attire of a prince, and is anointed\nwith fragrant oil. A princely habitation is assigned for his use whilst\nthe labourers are busily employed erecting for him a house \u2018befitting\na councillor.\u2019 No sooner is it completed than Saneha\u2019s thoughts turn\nto that other house which he must prepare for himself in the western\nland\u2014to the day of burial and the \u2018passage to Amenti\u2019 of which the\nroyal letter had spoken. He built himself a tomb of stone. The king\nselected the spot, the chief painter designed and the sculptors carved\nit; all the decorations were of hewn stone. The field in which it was\nsituated was made over to him as his own possession, and he adds: \u2018My\nimage was engraved upon the portal in pure gold. His majesty commanded\nit to be done. I was in favour with the king until the day of his death\ncame.\u2019\n\n[Illustration: Caressing a Gazelle.]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[17] Tum, symbolised in the setting, Ra, in the risen sun, appear\nto signify respectively the hidden and the manifested deity\u2014closely\ncorresponding with Osiris\u2014Horus; for there is a unity underlying the\napparently endless varieties of Egyptian worships.\n\n[18] Words very suggestive as to the distractions and warfare of the\npreceding centuries, when the land had indeed seemed to have \u2018forgotten\nthe past.\u2019\n\n[19] I am inclined to think that this \u2018house\u2019 and its secret passages\nmeant his tomb, whither his son would resort to invoke his father\u2019s\nmemory, who, in the \u2018boat of Ra,\u2019 would not forget Usertesen.\n\n[20] Or \u2018I hid among the shrubs.\u2019 There is often considerable\nuncertainty in rendering the phrases of such ancient narratives as the\n\u2018Story of Saneha.\u2019\n\n[21] The unseen or hidden world.\n\n[22] Foreign tribes on north-east frontier. The point is lost for us.\n\n[23] At least he says of himself in his Instructions, \u2018I never faltered\nsince the day I was born.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nSuccessors of Amenemhat I.\u2014Two Provinces added to Egypt.\n\n\nThe stone for the sarcophagus of King Amenemhat I. was hewn in the\nvalley of Hammamat, and he was laid to rest in his pyramid called\n_Kha-nefer_, the \u2018Beautiful Rising,\u2019 leaving behind him an honoured\nname and an inheritance of peaceful days. Usertesen I., his son and\nsuccessor, reigned in profound tranquillity, and turned his attention\nto the temples of the gods, which were neglected and falling into\ndecay. They were, he said, the only monuments that could truly confer\nimmortality on a king. First of all, he called together an assembly of\nthe chief men of the land in that ancient home of Egyptian wisdom and\nlearning, the City of the Sun, to consult about a temple that should\nbe raised, \u2018worthy of the name of Ra.\u2019 Usertesen himself laid the\nfoundation-stone, and gave the directions for the carrying out of the\nwork. The ruins of both temple and city are now buried deep beneath the\nsoil, but of the two stately obelisks of rose-coloured granite, which\nstood at the gateway of the temple, one is still standing in solitary\ngrandeur amid the quiet fields; the hieroglyphs upon its surface\nstill record that \u2018the Ruler of the North and South, Lord of the Two\nCountries, Son of the Sun, Usertesen\u2014beloved of the Gods of On, living\nfor ever, the good god,\u2019 executed this work.\n\nAt the ancient sanctuary of Abydos a temple was erected to Osiris,\nand Memphis was not overlooked. But whilst duly careful for those\ntime-honoured sanctuaries, Usertesen did not neglect the new southern\ncapital, and he carried on the construction of the great temple of\nAmen, which his father Amenemhat had begun.\n\nThe frontiers were vigilantly guarded, and now that quiet times had\ncome back the mines in the Sinaitic peninsula were re-opened and\nworked. A thousand years had passed since they were first explored\nat the command of Senefru, and his name had become venerable in its\nantiquity throughout that region, where he was worshipped as a guardian\ndeity, together with the goddess Hathor, protectress of the district.\n\nOne warlike expedition was undertaken during this reign, for the\npurpose of fixing the boundary to the south and of bringing back gold\nfrom Nubia. The command was intrusted to one Ameni, who has left a\nbrief record of the expedition. The king\u2019s eldest son accompanied\nhim, and his success was certainly remarkable, if his statement is\ntrue, that of the 400 men he took with him not one was missing when\nhe returned with the golden spoil. This Ameni was the head of that\nillustrious family, whose tombs at Beni-Hassan have proved such an\ninvaluable storehouse for the investigator. They were hereditary\ngovernors of the district, or nome, and their power was very great.\nUnder the firm controlling hand of the sovereigns of this great\ndynasty, the power and ambition of the prince-governors, which had\nonce split up and half ruined Egypt, were turned into nobler channels,\nand sought after more peaceful honours. The _Maxims of Amenemhat I._\nseem to awaken a response and to find an echo in the memorials left\nby some of the powerful governors, who were now serving loyally under\nthe crown. Ameni, who gives an account of his warlike doings in the\nsouth, also tells us that he was a \u2018kind master and gentle of heart, a\ngovernor who loved his city.\u2019 He ruled for many years in his district\nof Mah, and he says: \u2018I kept back nothing for myself; no little child\nwas vexed through me; no widow was afflicted. I never interfered with\nthe fisherman or troubled the shepherd. There was neither famine nor\nhunger in my days. I diligently cultivated every field in my district,\nfrom the north to the south, to its utmost extent, so that there was\nfood enough for all. I gave to the widow as to the married woman, and I\nnever showed favour to the great above the lowly.\u2019\n\nKing and noble may alike have fallen short of their ideal, but at any\nrate their standard was high, and their words recall those of the\ndeparted spirit, who had to declare before Osiris in the judgment-hall\nof Truth\u2014\u2018I have not oppressed the miserable; I have not imposed\nwork beyond his power on any officer; I have allowed no master to\nmaltreat his slave; I have caused none to weep or to perish with\nhunger. I have neither blasphemed the king nor my father, nor have I\nmocked or despised God in my heart. I have given bread to the hungry,\nwater to him that was athirst, clothes to the naked, and shelter to\nthe wanderer.\u2019 There is a beautiful eulogy somewhere recorded on an\nEgyptian tomb\u2014\u2018His love was the food of the poor, the blessing of the\nweak, the riches of him who had nothing.\u2019\n\nEgypt was probably never more prosperous, nor her people happier, than\nduring the centuries in which the Amenemhats and Usertesens ruled\nthe land. The only reign in which serious warfare occurred was that\nof Usertesen III. He determined to acquire for Egypt the disputed\nterritory in the south\u2014_Ta-Khent_ (Nubia)\u2014and, with it, its golden\ntreasures. But he did not succeed in finally conquering and driving\nback the dark-hued tribes until after a very fierce and protracted\nstruggle. He erected fortresses on the southern frontier, and an\ninscription on the rock proclaimed: \u2018This is the southern boundary,\nfixed in the eighth year of King Usertesen III. No negro shall be\npermitted to pass it except for the purpose of bringing vessels\nladen with their asses, camels, and goats, or of trading by barter\nin Ta-Khent. To such negroes, on the contrary, every favour shall be\nshown.\u2019\n\n[Illustration: Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.\n\nBOATMEN AND CATTLE DRIVERS.]\n\nIf Usertesen III. secured one new province for Egypt by the ruthless\nforce of war, his successor, Amenemhat III., won another by gentler\nmeans.\n\nEgypt is, no doubt, what Herodotus called it, the \u2018gift\u2019 of the Nile.\nBut for the Nile the burning wastes of Sahara would stretch eastwards\nwithout interruption to the Red Sea. By means of the great river and\nits yearly inundation, the long narrow valley between the Libyan and\nthe Arabian mountains is watered and richly fertilised for the space of\nseveral miles; where the inundation ceases the desert sand begins. This\nlong strip of fertile country, together with the Delta into which it\nexpands, constituted Egypt;[24] _Khemi_ (the black country), its people\ncalled it from the dark colour of its rich soil, which rewarded the\nhusbandman\u2019s toil with two or three crops a year\u2014crops of a luxuriance\ndifficult for us to realise. The name of Egypt was a synonym for rich\nfertility: \u2018Well watered everywhere,\u2019 we read in Genesis, \u2018like the\ngarden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt.\u2019\n\nIn the days when the twelfth dynasty ruled, _i.e._ probably more than\n2000 B.C., the average rise of the Nile was more than twenty feet\nhigher than it is at the present day. At the point where Usertesen\nIII. had erected his frontier fortress, the height attained by the\nriver during many successive inundations is recorded. His successor,\nAmenemhat III., not only carefully noted the annual rise, but turned\nhis attention to the great work of controlling the overflow, for the\ncountry was liable to suffer severely in case either of an excess or a\ndeficiency.\n\nWestward from the Nile, behind the Libyan hills, lies the valley of\nFayoum, about 60 miles distant from Cairo. There the king ordered the\nexcavation of that immense basin or artificial sea known to us as\nLake M\u0153ris, and caused it to be connected by canals with the river.\nLake M\u0153ris was about 30 miles in circumference, and here the surplus\nwaters were stored, to be distributed by irrigation or withheld, as\nmight be best. The rock-encircled and desolate Fayoum thus became a\nsmiling oasis, full of the most luxuriant vegetation, and alive with\nbusy industry. When the Greek Herodotus visited Egypt, some 2000 years\nlater, Lake M\u0153ris was still in existence, as were also the two pyramids\nthat stood either on its banks or in its centre. A still greater wonder\nmet the eye of the inquiring traveller, and excited his profoundest\namazement. This was the vast structure close by Lake M\u0153ris, which\nthe Greeks called the Labyrinth, for what reason it is hard to say.\nHerodotus tells us of this other gigantic work of Amenemhat III.,\nthat it had twelve courts, with gates opposite each other, and that\nit contained 3000 chambers, half of which were above and half below\nground; the courts were adorned with columns, and the walls covered\nwith inscriptions. This colossal edifice covered a space 1150 feet in\nlength, and 850 in breadth; its purpose is not altogether clear, but\nthere seems some reason to think that it may have been intended for a\nvast Hall of Assembly. It is all in ruins now. Lepsius, who in 1844\nvisited the district, which is 25 miles distant from the Nile, states\nthat it had been so arranged that three enormous masses of buildings\nenclosed a square place 600 feet long by 500 broad, and that in this\nsquare once stood the courts and columns mentioned by Herodotus, mighty\nfragments of which the explorer dug up: upon them was carved the name\nof the royal builder, Amenemhat III.\n\n[Illustration: Painting a Statue.]\n\n[Illustration: Carving a Statue.]\n\nAfter this peaceful victory, which won for Egypt so fair a province,\nand adorned it with such marvels of art, there is not much left to\nrecord concerning the twelfth dynasty. Its annals are quiet and\nprosperous throughout, and its art was progressive and beautiful.\nNo man in the kingdom was more honoured than the artist, the man\n\u2018of enlightened spirit and skilfully working hand.\u2019 The office of\n\u2018architect to Pharaoh\u2019[25] was sometimes held by sons and grandsons\nof the sovereign. There is a remarkable account of a great noble,\nMentuhotep, who was a judge and learned in the law, a priest and a\nwarrior. It is recorded of him that, as chief architect of the king, he\npromoted the worship of the gods, and instructed the inhabitants of the\ncountry according to the best of his knowledge, as God had commanded to\nbe done. He protected the unfortunate, and freed him that was in need\nof freedom. \u2018Peace was in the utterances of his mouth, and the learning\nof the wise Thoth[26] was on his tongue. Very skilful in artistic work,\nwith his own hand he carried out his designs as they ought to be done.\u2019\n\nThe beautiful rock-hewn caves of Beni-Hassan bear witness to the rare\nexcellence attained by architecture and sculpture. These tombs and\nmemorial chambers were excavated in a limestone cliff on the east bank\nof the Nile, 160 miles south of Cairo. They were for generations the\nburial-place of the illustrious family of the Khnumhoteps, descendants\nof Ameni (p. 66), and hereditary governors of the district. The roofs\nof these rock tombs are vaulted; at the entrance to the northernmost,\nwhere Ameni, head of the family lay, are columns of great beauty,\nso closely resembling those called Doric 2000 years later that it\nis difficult not to believe that they served as prototypes. At the\nentrance to another tomb are columns still more graceful in design;\nthese are purely Egyptian in style, and are formed of slender reeds\nbound together, and expanding into capitals like papyrus or lotus buds\nor flowers. Here was buried Khnumhotep, grandson of Ameni, a man of\nhigh character and great renown. The walls of the interior are covered\nwith pictorial representations, invaluable for the insight they afford\ninto the daily life of those long past times. Amongst the scenes\ndepicted on the walls of Khnumhotep\u2019s funeral chamber is one of much\nsignificance. A family group, consisting of 37 persons, is ushered into\nthe presence of the great Egyptian lord, who receives them standing and\nsurrounded by his dogs. They are Amu\u2014foreigners of the East\u2014and their\nerrand is to bring from the land of Pitshu (Midian) a certain mineral\nsubstance from which was prepared a paint for the eyes much used in\nEgypt. Their faces are wholly unlike the Egyptians; they have aquiline\nnoses and long black beards. They are evidently immigrants come to\nsettle in the land. The men are armed, the women gaily dressed. They\nbring with them presents\u2014the ibis and gazelle, and the splendid wild\ngoat of the Sinai desert; one of the group is playing on a lyre of\nantique form. The children are carried in panniers, and women walk by\ntheir side; asses laden with baggage bring up the rear.\n\n[Illustration: Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.\n\nASIATIC IMMIGRANTS.]\n\nThis occurred in the sixth year of Usertesen II., and it was a scene\nthat was very likely often-times repeated. Families of foreigners came\nto settle in Egypt, attracted by its luxuriant plenty, and gradually\ndeveloped into colonies. In the Delta more especially, foreigners\nsettled in great numbers. There were colonists bent on peaceful\nindustry, but there were others of a more restless and warlike type. It\nis possible that some may have been established there since the dark\nand troubled days that followed the sixth dynasty, when foreign tribes\nvery probably held possession of part at least of the Delta for a time.\n\nEgypt had often maintained a severe conflict on her southern frontier,\nwhere the boundary line was now marked by grim fortresses; but if\ntrouble should ever overwhelm the land the storm would assuredly\ngather in the north-east. Fortresses had been erected there also,\nand Amenemhat\u2019s wall of defence was still standing, but there was no\nabsolute line of demarcation. The north-east of Egypt was inhabited by\nmany settlers, aliens, who were allied more or less closely in blood to\nrestless and warlike peoples beyond the frontier.\n\nTheir presence was but of ill omen to the land of their adoption.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[24] Egypt is the name given to the country by the Greeks, and is of\nvery uncertain derivation.\n\n[25] Pharaoh is derived from the words _Per-aa_, \u2018Great House,\u2019 and\nanswers pretty nearly to the \u2018Sublime Porte\u2019 at Constantinople. Later\non it is used as the sovereign\u2019s name.\n\n[26] This god, symbolised in the moon, was more especially the god\nof knowledge and science. He was the inventor of all arts, and the\ninspirer of the sacred writings, the lawgiver, and the advocate and\njustifier of the good before the tribunal of Osiris.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nInvasion and Rule of the Hyksos\u2014War of Liberation.\n\n(_Circa_ 2100-1600 B.C.)\n\n\nThe close of the twelfth dynasty was followed at no distant date\nby confusion and disaster. It appears, indeed, that the succeeding\ndynasty held for a time, at least nominally, the supremacy of Egypt;\nbut sooner or later we find there was a rival dynasty (the fourteenth)\nruling at Xois, in the Delta. To the kings composing it is assigned an\naverage length of reign of little over two years, and this has led some\nto suppose that they were not in any sense Kings of Egypt, but were\nruling in the Delta merely as governors\u2014viceroys of foreign invaders.\nBut all details, all records, fail us here, and we have no account\nof the events that led up to the crisis, when the long threatening\nstorm broke over the land at last. A warlike race, known to us as\nthe _Hyksos_,[27] aided no doubt by the wandering tribes beyond the\nfrontier, passed the north-east boundary of Egypt, seized upon the\nDelta, and set up their kingdom at Avaris, and were doubtless welcomed\nby the settlers of kindred blood already dwelling in the district.\nEgypt was weakened by discord; the dissensions of rival dynasties had\nprobably led once more to the breaking up of the kingdom into small\nprincipalities; no united opposition could be offered to the invaders,\nand rival chieftains and kings were forced to acknowledge the supremacy\nof the stranger at the point of the sword.\n\nThe horse is never represented in Egyptian sculptures and drawings\nprevious to this date, and if, as is most probable, the Hyksos invaders\nwere mounted, it would be barely possible for foot soldiery to resist\ntheir progress. Memphis fell into their hands, and the Egyptian\nprinces and governors as far south as Thebes were compelled to become\ntheir vassals and pay tribute. \u2018Under one of our kings,\u2019 says a native\nwriter of later days,[28] in a fragment that has been preserved, \u2018it\ncame to pass that God was angry with us, and men came from the East,\nwho subdued our country by force, though we never ventured on a battle\nwith them. When they had gotten our governors under their power, they\nburnt down our cities and demolished the temples of the gods. Their\nking lived at Memphis, and made the upper and the lower country pay\ntribute, and he left garrisons in fitting places. He strengthened\nAvaris greatly, building walls around it and filling it with armed men.\nThese people and their descendants kept possession of Egypt for 511\nyears.\u2019\n\nThe Egyptians might well have said, to use their favourite phrase,\n\u2018Never had the like been seen since the days of Ra.\u2019 There had been\nwars on the frontiers, and there had been one long dark period of\ndivision and civil war, but during the two or three thousand years\nthat Egypt had been a kingdom no foreign foe had set foot upon her\nsoil. Memphis, the \u2018secure and beautiful\u2019 city, had stood in all her\nsplendour, and had never seen a hostile banner unfurled against her.\nThe royal line of Mena had ruled,[29] the worship of the temples of\nAbydos and of the City of the Sun had prevailed uninterruptedly since\nthe days of the pyramid builders and the \u2018old time before them.\u2019 It\nis a wonderful chapter in the world\u2019s history, and one turns the page\nwith regret. Nor can we be surprised at the burning shame and bitter\nresentment with which the Egyptians of after times looked back upon\nthose days of disgrace and subjection. As far as it was possible\nthey obliterated every trace of the detested Hyksos supremacy; they\nchiselled out the names of their kings, and destroyed their monumental\nrecords. Very few traces survive, but it is plain, nevertheless, that\nthe conquerors soon adopted Egyptian customs and Egyptian civilisation.\nThe Hyksos kings assumed Egyptian titles and erected magnificent\ntemples. And it is more than likely that the feelings of the native\nhistorians, galled and exasperated by the recollection of the harsh\nsupremacy of aliens, considerably exaggerated the tale of the suffering\nand ruin entailed by their presence.\n\nThis period, of about 500 years\u2019 duration, is veiled from us in almost\nimpenetrable darkness. The records left of themselves by the Hyksos\nPharaohs were destroyed, and over the rest of the subject land there\nbrooded the darkness of a long-protracted eclipse. The tribute was\nprobably paid, and external quietude and order prevailed.\n\nAt length a ray of light dispels the darkness for an instant. \u2018It came\nto pass,\u2019 says an ancient papyrus, \u2018that the land of Khemi belonged to\nthe enemy. No one was sovereign lord in the day when that happened.\nThe King Sekenen-Ra ruled in the south, but the enemy ruled in the\ndistrict of the Amu, and Apepi, their king, was in the city of Avaris;\nthe whole land did him homage with the best of its handiwork. King\nApepi took unto him Sutech for lord, refusing to serve any other god in\nthe whole land, and he built for him a temple of enduring workmanship.\nKing Apepi appointed festival days for making sacrifice to Sutech, as\nin the temple of Ra-harmakhu.\u2019 Here there is a break, after which the\nmanuscript goes on to tell how King Apepi, by the advice of his learned\ncouncillors, sent an embassy to the ruler of the south (the tributary\nnative prince, Sekenen-Ra). \u2018The ruler of the south said to the\nmessenger, \u201cWho sent thee hither? Why art thou come? Is it to spy out\nthe land?\u201d\u2019 So far as we can gather from the text (which is here again\ninterrupted) the messenger\u2019s reply related merely to the construction\nof a certain well for cattle, although he adds that \u2018sleep had not\ncome to him by day or by night until he had delivered his message.\u2019\n\u2018The ruler of the south was amazed, and knew not how to reply to the\nmessenger of King Apepi.\u2019 Here another vexatious break occurs in the\nstory.\n\nIt is more than likely that a spirit of independence was awakening\nin the south, under the brave Sekenen-Ra, and even that certain\nsecret preparations for an uprising might have been afoot; so that\nthe Hyksos messenger may, after all, have been neither more nor less\nthan a spy, although apparently charged with nothing but an innocent\nmessage concerning a tank. It is at any rate clear that Sekenen-Ra\u2019s\nheart misgave him. His answer indeed is missing, but we read that \u2018the\nmessenger of King Apepi rose to depart to where his royal master was,\u2019\nand that the Egyptian chief, who evidently felt that the die was cast,\nforthwith \u2018bade summon his mighty chiefs, his captains and expert\nguides.\u2019 He repeated to them the whole story of the \u2018words King Apepi\nhad sent concerning them. But they were silent, all of them in great\ndismay, and wist not what to answer him, good or bad.\u2019 Here the papyrus\nbreaks off suddenly, and darkness closes in again.\n\nWe are left to guess the sequel, but it seems as though we can see how\nthe prince of the south cast off his allegiance and defied the Hyksos\nsovereign.\n\nHis successors bore the same name as himself, and also his family name\nof Taa. They were known as Taa the Great and Taa the Victorious, and\nfollowed up his bold initiative with vigour and success. It was very\nslowly, and only by hard fighting and step by step, that Egypt was won\nback from the stranger. But as these brave chieftains pushed their way\nnorthward, one tributary prince after another would take heart and\njoin in the war of liberation. The horse must by this time have been\nnaturalised and made use of throughout the land, and thus one terrible\nand fatal disadvantage would be removed. Old rivalries and minor\njealousies would melt away under the influence of a common need and a\ncommon hope. Taa the Victorious prepared a flotilla of Nile vessels,\ntwo of which bore the significant names of the \u2018_North_,\u2019 and the\n\u2018_Going up into Memphis_.\u2019 Doubtless it was under him that the ancient\ncapital was regained, after which all was ready for the final attack,\nin view of which he had made ready his little navy,\u2014the attack which\nshould drive the foe from his stronghold in the Delta, where by this\ntime he was standing desperately at bay.\n\nTaa the Victorious married his son Kames to the Princess Aah-hotep, an\nheiress of the ancient line, and it was their son Aahmes who brought\nthe great war of liberation to a triumphant close, and placed upon his\nbrow the double crown of Upper and of Lower Egypt.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[27] Probably _Hak-shasu_, or Princes of the Shasu. The Shasu were\nwandering tribes on the north-east, and it is not unlikely, Brugsch\nthinks, that this name was assigned them in derision of their claim to\nbe considered Kings of Egypt. Kings of Egypt, indeed! No\u2014haks (petty\nprinces) of the Shasu they were. An accidental coincidence of meaning\nbetween Shasu and shepherd led to their being designated in later times\n\u2018Shepherd Kings.\u2019\n\n[28] Manetho, the Egyptian priest, who, in the days of the Ptolemies,\nwrote a history of his country in Greek. It is, unfortunately, lost,\nexcepting his list of kings and dynasties, and a few fragments quoted\nby later writers.\n\n[29] Even during the civil wars some branch of the ancient line was\nruling, and it is probable that the eleventh dynasty was united by\nmarriage to the early kings.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nThe Eighteenth Dynasty\u2014Queen Hatasu and Thothmes III.\n\n(_Circa_ 1600-1400 B.C.)\n\n\nOn the east bank of the river, about 50 miles from Thebes, there stood\nin ancient times a strong fortified city, surrounded by massive walls\nof such thickness, that chariots might have been driven abreast upon\nthem. Of the city itself nothing survives save ruins; but in the valley\nthat lies eastward, behind the hills, are still to be seen long rows of\ntombs and memorial sanctuaries, where were laid to rest the heroes of\nthe great war of liberation.\n\nThe whole district was ruled by native governors, tributaries of the\nHyksos, throughout the whole period of the foreign supremacy, and\nthe daily course of Egyptian life seems to have gone on with but\nlittle interruption. The tombs just mentioned belonged chiefly to one\nfamily, and the walls are adorned as usual with inscriptions and\nrepresentations of scenes and events from daily life. Baba-Abana, head\nof the family, tells us that he was the parent of 52 children, and was\nable to provide abundant food and every necessary comfort for them all.\n\u2018If any one supposes I am jesting,\u2019 he adds, \u2018I invoke the god Munt to\nwitness that I am speaking the truth.\u2019 Baba-Abana was an officer under\nTaa III. (the Victorious), and was no doubt actively engaged in helping\nforward the construction of the Egyptian flotilla. He tells us further\nof a famine that \u2018lasted for many years,\u2019 and that he provided corn for\nhis city each year of the famine. This must have been the same famine\nthat is mentioned in Genesis, when Joseph, at the court of the Hyksos\nPharaoh, was providing corn for the land\u2014the famine which led to the\nestablishment of the Hebrew colony in the Goshen district of the Delta.\nTheir presence there would be welcome, as they were no doubt of kindred\nrace with those who then bore rule.\n\nOne of the numerous family of Baba-Abana, named Aahmes (like the king),\ndid good service in the fleet during all the closing scenes of the\nwar. He has left us an account of his doings, which opens thus:\u2014\u2018The\nChief of the fleet, Aahmes, son of Abana (the Blessed), speaketh to\nyou all, ye people, that you may know the honours that have fallen\nto his lot.\u2019 He was born, he tells us, in the city of Nek-heb (the\nGreek Eileithyia), and as a lad he served King Aahmes on board a ship\ncalled the \u2018_Calf_.\u2019 He married, and set up a house, after which he\nwas promoted, \u2018because of his strength,\u2019 to another vessel called\nthe \u2018_North_.\u2019 And when the king went out in his chariot, it was the\nduty of the young captain to follow him on foot. In the siege of the\nHyksos stronghold, Avaris, he fought bravely on foot in presence of his\nmajesty. During the siege he was further promoted to the vessel called\n\u2018_Going up into Memphis_.\u2019\n\nHard fighting went on around Avaris, and Aahmes tells us of the\ntrophies of the dead[30] he brought in, as well as of his living\nprisoners. One of the latter he had much difficulty in securing, for\nhe had to drag him some distance with a firm grasp through the water\nto avoid the road to the town. His prisoners were assigned to him as\nslaves, and many rewards and golden gifts were presented him for his\nservices. Avaris was taken at length, and the Hyksos driven beyond the\nfrontier, the king pursuing them as far as Sherohan, in Canaan, which\ntown he also captured in the sixth year of his reign.\n\nThis was the final act of the long-protracted struggle in the north,\nbut the mountaineers of Nubia were still in arms. There was sharp\nfighting in the south before the naval captain could record that his\nmajesty \u2018had taken possession of the land, both of the north and of\nthe south.\u2019 Aahmes received a gift of some acres of cultivated land\nin his native district. Later on we find him, as a veteran warrior,\naccompanying the two succeeding sovereigns on campaigns in the south,\nwhere he fought as admiral, at the head of the fleet. His final\nexploits were performed on a more distant field of battle\u2014the \u2018land of\nthe two rivers\u2019\u2014Naharina (Mesopotamia). There he captured a chariot,\nwith its horses and charioteers, for which deed he received for the\nseventh time a gift in gold. He concludes his story thus:\u2014\u2018Now I have\npassed many days, and reached a grey old age. I too shall pass away to\nAmenti, and I shall rest in the tomb which I have prepared for myself.\u2019\nAnd there may still be seen a portrait of the old sailor and of his\nwife. He is a \u2018bluff, resolute-looking man, not handsome; a short\nsnub nose, and low solid brow\u2014a short beard curling upwards from his\nchin.\u2019[31]\n\nThe three monarchs under whom this distinguished officer served in\nsuccession, Aahmes, Amenhotep I., and Thothmes I., were the first three\nkings of the eighteenth dynasty. Aahmes inherited the throne by right\nof his mother\u2019s descent from Mena, but he strengthened his position\nfurther by himself marrying a princess of the royal line, Nefertari,\nwho was greatly revered by succeeding generations, both as heiress in\nher own right, and as mother and ancestress of an illustrious dynasty.\n\nThe first twenty-two years of the reign of Aahmes were passed in\nunremitting warfare. After the capture of Sherohan, he followed his\nfoes no farther, but contented himself with erecting fortresses to\nprotect the frontier. He would not feel his supremacy sufficiently\nassured over the numerous princes and chieftains who had gladly\nfollowed his victorious banner against the common foe, but would not\nhave been quite ready when success had been achieved to resign their\nindependent authority. At length, however, the king was able to lay\naside his sword, and to turn his attention to the much needed work of\nrestoring and renovating the temples of the gods. Again the limestone\nquarries were opened, and there are representations now to be seen in\nthe sculptures of the huge blocks drawn along upon rollers by twelve or\nmore oxen on the way to Memphis.\n\nAahmes left an infant son as heir to the crown, and the royal mother\nacted as regent until he was of age to reign. Amenhotep I. died young,\nand did not accomplish much; we learn, however, that during his reign\nTa-Khent (Nubia) was mastered\u2014\u2018the land in its complete extent lay at\nthe feet of the king.\u2019\n\nIn the great discovery of coffins and royal mummies, made not far from\nThebes in 1881, were brought to light the bodies of Taa the Victorious\n(the last of the brave Sekenen-Ras), of Aahmes, and of his son\nAmenhotep I. The conqueror of the Hyksos is enwreathed in garlands and\nfestoons, his young son is swathed in lotus leaves and flowers\u2014amongst\nthem is a perfectly preserved wasp, that must have been accidentally\nshut in when the coffin-lid was closed more than 3000 years ago. This\ncoffin and its case are in very good preservation; on the lid is an\neffigy of the young king, which is evidently a portrait. The coffin of\nThothmes I. was found, but the mummy was missing.\n\nWhen Thothmes I. became king, the internal dissensions of Egypt had\nquieted down, and, after one campaign in the south, the king proceeded\nto \u2018cool his heart\u2019 by undertaking the war on which the mind of the\nEgyptians was set\u2014a war of retribution and of conquest. In this distant\nexpedition (already alluded to in the memoirs of Aahmes), Thothmes\nrapidly pushed his way as far as Naharina (Mesopotamia), and returned\nhome laden with treasures and spoil, having exacted a promise of\nannual tribute from many tribes in many regions. In the memorial chapel\nof the Thothmes family a sculpture is still remaining to tell of his\ntriumphant home-coming. \u2018The soldiers holding branches in their hands,\nas emblems of peace, step out briskly as they approach their native\nland, and are met by a deputation of citizens, who slay fat oxen and\nsheep to feed them with. In the procession figure a couple of tigers,\nled along by their keepers,\u2019[32] and apparently tame.\n\nThe king employed both his prisoners and his gold in continuing the\nconstruction of the great temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes. Its foundation\nhad been laid by Amenemhat I. many centuries before, but the building\nhad been hindered, or had altogether stopped, during the long years of\nforeign rule.\n\nWhen Thothmes I. died, he left behind him one daughter and two sons,\neach of whom bore the same name as his father, but the younger of the\nbrothers was only a little child. Their sister Hatasu was a proud\nambitious woman, and had already been, to some extent, associated\nwith her father during his reign. When Thothmes II. succeeded, she\nwas formally associated with him in the government. We read but little\nabout this king; his reign was brief, and he was probably outshone by\nthe energetic partner of his throne. Hatasu, in fact, could ill brook\neven the slight restraint imposed by his co-regency, and no sooner\nwas he dead than the proud queen, \u2018throwing aside her womanly veil,\nappeared in all the splendour of a Pharaoh\u2014like a born king.\u2019[33] She\nassumed man\u2019s attire, and was seen on state occasions in the dress and\nregalia of an Egyptian king\u2014even to the plaited beard. She revered her\nfather, and paid homage to his memory, but on the unfortunate Thothmes\nII. she hastened to avenge herself for the wrong he had done her in\nwearing a crown that was his own; she obliterated every trace of his\nexistence to the best of her ability, and, vindictively erasing his\nname, she substituted her own. Hatasu also succeeded in having her name\ninscribed by the priests on the roll of Egyptian sovereigns.\n\nMeantime the boy Thothmes, the rightful king, was sent by order of his\nimperious sister to the almost inaccessible marshes of the Delta, where\nhe was doomed to wear out the years of his dreary boyhood, cherishing,\nthere can be little doubt, the most vindictive feelings towards the\nsister who, having usurped his place, was ruling Egypt with splendour\nand renown.\n\nNo reign was more distinguished than that of Hatasu for art and\narchitecture. She completed the magnificent temple begun during her\njoint reign with her brother. An avenue of sphinxes led up to the gate\ntowers and the obelisks, which were 97 feet in height, and made of red\ngranite capped with gold. The temple itself stood upon four broad and\nstately terraces, which rose one above another until they touched the\ndazzling marble-like limestone cliff against which they rested; the\nterraces were covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions and carvings in\nbas-relief. In the limestone rock above were excavated vast funeral\nchambers, and here were buried the queen\u2019s father and mother, a sister\nwho died young, and Thothmes II. Here also Hatasu herself and Thothmes\nIII. were laid in due time, but none of these royal mummies have been\nsuffered to remain in peace. To avoid violation and plunder, it became\ncustomary some centuries later to examine and to report upon the state\nof royal tombs and coffins from time to time, and to remove them\noccasionally to securer resting-places. Thus it came to pass in the\ngreat discovery of 1881, the empty coffin of Thothmes I. was found,\ntogether with the coffin and mummy of his son and successor, Thothmes\nII.\n\nTo the architect Semnut, who so successfully carried out the grand\nconception of the terraced temple, his royal mistress raised a\nmemorial\u2014a statue in black granite in a sitting attitude of calm\nrepose; on his shoulder is the inscription\u2014\u2018His ancestors were not\nfound in writing,\u2019 _i.e._ they were unknown men, a not unfrequent\nphrase in Egyptian inscriptions. Semnut is represented as saying, \u2018I\nloved _him_, and gained the admiration of the _lord_ of the country.\n_He_ made me great, and I have become first of the first, clerk of\nthe works above all clerks. I lived during the reign of _King_\nMa-Ka-Ra;[34] may _he_ live for ever!\u2019 No doubt it was the general\ncustom thus to flatter the foible of their sovereign, who was, in fact,\ndesignated by a name signifying \u2018Lady-King.\u2019\n\nUnder the queen\u2019s rule, however, there was an entire cessation of\nmilitary enterprises, for Hatasu did not so far assume the character of\na Pharaoh as to put on armour and lead her troops to the battle-field.\nEgypt therefore enjoyed unbroken tranquillity during her peaceful and\nbrilliant reign\u2014a reign not only distinguished for the splendour of its\narchitecture, but memorable also for an expedition to the land of Punt.\nThis expedition is portrayed in curious and interesting detail upon\nthe stages of the terraced temple. Long ago we know that the Egyptian\nimagination had been stirred by the supposed marvels of that \u2018sacred\nland\u2019 of dream and legend. And in the days of Hatasu the expedition\nsent thither by King Sankhkara, centuries before, would not have been\nforgotten. By the queen\u2019s command an embassy was despatched to its\nshores. Princes and lords were intrusted with rich and royal gifts for\nthe purpose of conciliating the people of that land over which the\nLady-King desired to establish a supremacy, although not at the sword\u2019s\npoint.\n\nThe expedition arrived in safety, and found the people inhabiting\nlittle dome-shaped dwellings, supported on piles and approached by\nladders, under the shade of their cocoa-nut and incense-trees. The\nEgyptians, with their strong turn for natural history, were much\ninterested by the novelties they beheld around them, the unfamiliar\nplants and trees, the strange birds and animals not known in Egypt.\nAll went well. Gifts were exchanged, and the natives promised to\nacknowledge the supremacy of Egypt, and to send an annual tribute\nthither. The king of the country appeared on the scene accompanied, say\nthe hieroglyphs, \u2018by his enormously fat wife ... an ass serves the fat\nwife to ride on.\u2019 This lady, the queen of the fairyland of Egyptian\nfancy, is in truth a painful object to behold; not merely fat but\nbloated, and swollen in such an extraordinary manner as to render it\nprobable that, although the \u2018Queen of Punt,\u2019 she \u2018was a leper.\u2019\n\nSoon began the work of packing and of lading the transport vessels\nwith the rare and beautiful products of the land. The busy scene is\ndelineated upon the walls of the temple, and the inscriptions relate\nhow the \u2018ships were laden to the uttermost with all the wonderful\nproducts of the land of Punt, with the precious woods of the divine\nland, with heaps of the resin of incense and fresh incense-trees; with\nebony and objects carved in ivory and inlaid with gold, with sweet\nwoods and paint for the eyes, with dog-headed apes and long-tailed\nmonkeys, with greyhounds and with leopards, besides some of the natives\nand their children.\u2019 The Egyptians, on the voyage home, were evidently\nmuch taken by the antics of the monkeys, as they sprang about amongst\nthe sails, up and down the rigging. The fresh incense-trees, thirty-one\nin number, were carefully planted in tubs, and six men were assigned\nfor the transport of each of them to the vessel which was to carry it\nnorth for transplantation into another soil.\n\nSeveral of the princes and chief men of Punt accompanied the\nexpedition on its return, and were received in state by the queen in\nher male attire. It is a pity we have no records that might convey the\nimpression made by the wonders of Egypt upon the visitors in their\nturn. The rich treasures they had brought were offered by Hatasu to the\ngod Amen-Ra with gladness and national rejoicings. The queen appeared\nin royal pomp; the priests carried in solemn procession \u2018the sacred\nbark\u2019 of the deity, before which the youthful Thothmes offered incense;\nthe warriors of Hatasu\u2019s guard followed, bearing branches in their\nhands as signs of peace, and tumultuous cries of joy rent the air on\nall sides.\n\nThe appearance of Thothmes on the scene proves that the time had come\nwhen his claims could no longer be ignored nor he himself be detained\namid the distant and dreary marshes of the Delta by the jealous fears\nof the queen. The sight of the brave and handsome youth who had been\nKing of Egypt by right for fifteen years could hardly fail to win\nthe people\u2019s hearts, and his imperious sister found herself at last\ncompelled to let him take his place at her side, with what long\nsuppressed feelings of rancour and ill-will may be readily imagined.\n\nThe coronation of Thothmes III. was celebrated with all fitting\nsplendour and state, and, for a short time at any rate, the brother and\nsister ruled jointly. But Hatasu must have felt that her day was over,\nand after a little while her name silently disappears from the historic\nrecords. Of the close of her life we know nothing, but we know that\nThothmes, with vindictive satisfaction, chiselled out her name wherever\nhe could find it, and that he always dated the years of his own reign\nfrom the time of his brother\u2019s death, ignoring Hatasu\u2019s sovereignty as\na usurpation.\n\nThe reign of Thothmes, thus reckoned, was a very long one, close upon\n54 years, and much of it was passed by the warlike sovereign in other\nlands and upon distant battle-fields.\n\nNubia was by this time really an Egyptian province, and was governed by\na viceroy, who was often one of the king\u2019s sons. In the gold-yielding\ndistricts a miserable population\u2014prisoners, slaves, and criminals,\nwere toiling beneath the scorching sun, extracting the gold from the\nstubborn stone; which had first to be hewn out, then crushed, and\nfinally the grains of the precious metals to be washed out. Elsewhere\nthe province was peopled by an active race, grouped around the temples,\nfortresses, and garrison towns, where they found employment, and\nreceived abundant supplies of food for their sustenance from Egypt;\nothers were engaged in the navigation of the dangerous cataracts.\nThe natives had grown accustomed to Egyptian rule, and were rapidly\nadopting Egyptian religion and civilisation. Their chief city Napata\nwas indeed destined to become one day the seat of a strong Egyptian\ndynasty, and a stronghold of the worship of Amen-Ra.\n\nThere was therefore no cause for anxiety concerning the south, and the\neyes of the young sovereign turned eagerly to the regions where his\nfather had made his rapid campaign, and acquired military renown and\nabundant spoil. The policy of \u2018extending the frontiers of Egypt\u2019 was no\ndoubt partly dictated by the desire of rendering the country safe from\nany further invasion, by subduing the neighbouring lands; but it is\ncertain that the vision of establishing an Egyptian empire fascinated\nthe imagination of Thothmes III., and he was able to realise the dream.\n\nThe course of Egyptian history had flowed on century after century,\nfor 2000 or 3000 years, in a sort of majestic solitude, like its own\nmighty river, which for 1800 miles of its course receives no tributary\nstream. The people might be said to have \u2018dwelt alone.\u2019 The position of\nthe land was isolated and secluded, its people had an innate dislike of\nthe sea, and possessed no sea-going ships; they were perfectly content\nwithin the bounds of their own luxuriant domains, and knew and cared\nvery little about the world that lay beyond. The frontiers were well\nguarded and no foe had crossed them, nor had any vision of conquest or\nwide-spread empire arisen to dazzle the imagination of the early kings.\n\nThe coming of the Hyksos had wrought a great change, and had broken\ndown the barriers of isolation. And the mighty wave of national energy,\nwhich, gathering strength as it rose, swept away the foe, did not\nthus spend all its force. A longing arose for retribution, conquest,\nempire; the avenging campaign of Thothmes I. had stimulated rather than\nsatisfied a national craving for glory and for wealth. The Pharaohs\nnow emerge from the seclusion of the valley of the Nile, and enter\nthat blood-stained arena\u2014the battle-field of the nations\u2014the Syrian\nand Mesopotamian lands. But the brilliant successes and far-reaching\nsupremacy of the Egyptian arms ended at last in disaster and decline,\nfrom which there was no power of recovery.\n\nFar enough, however, were any such gloomy forebodings from the thoughts\nof King Thothmes III., when he mounted his war-chariot and assembled\nhis troops upon the field of Zoan. The tributes promised to his father\nby the conquered princes had for a long time ceased to be paid. They\nknew that a female sovereign held the sceptre, and the tribes that\nhad acknowledged the father\u2019s supremacy cast off all fealty to the\ndaughter. The town of Gaza alone had remained faithful to the Egyptian\nallegiance. Here Thothmes took up his quarters for the night on the\ntwenty-third anniversary of his accession (dating _i.e._ from his\nbrother\u2019s death). Next morning he left the city, \u2018full of power and\nstrength, to conquer the miserable enemy, and to extend the frontiers\nof Egypt, as his father Amen-Ra had promised him.\u2019\n\nThe country known to us as Palestine or Syria was then, as at a later\ndate, divided into several petty kingdoms, each with a fortified\ncapital of its own. The general name by which its inhabitants were\nknown to the Egyptians was that of the Rutennu, and at this moment\ntheir various tribes were allied against Egypt under the leadership of\nthe King of Kadesh, and, encamped within and around Megiddo, they were\nwaiting the attack of King Thothmes.\n\nThere was a choice of roads before the invading host. One broad highway\nled along the Mediterranean coast, keeping the sea in sight, until it\nturned in an easterly direction, and opened out finally upon the wide\nplain of Kadesh. Another way led along the banks of the Jordan, but it\nwas a dangerous route, often very narrow and amongst thickets, where a\nfoe might easily lurk unseen. After leaving the Jordan it went through\nthe narrow valley of the Orontes until it also reached the capital of\nthe King of Kadesh. Thothmes addressed his army, and told them of the\ninformation he had just received concerning the position of the enemy,\nwho had said, \u2018I will withstand the King of Egypt at Megiddo.\u2019 \u2018And\nnow,\u2019 said the king, \u2018tell me the way by which we shall go to break\ninto the city.\u2019 The army with one accord entreated to be led by any way\nbut that which wound along by the Jordan. \u2018It has been told us,\u2019 they\nsaid, \u2018that the foe lies there in ambush, and the way is impassable for\na great host; one horse cannot stand there beside another, nor can one\nman find room by another. The army would be blocked, and be helpless\nbefore the enemy. There is a broad way that starts from Aluna, and\nit offers no opportunity for an attack. Whithersoever our victorious\nleader goes we will follow him, only we pray that he will not take\nus by the impassable way.\u2019 Thothmes decided on the broad road, and\nmade the soldiers take an oath that they would not go on in advance\nof the king with any idea of protecting his person, but would let him\ntake the place of danger at their head. Dismounting from his chariot,\nhe advanced on foot in the forefront of the army. \u2018He went forward,\u2019\nsays the story; \u2018his divine father Amen-Ra was before him, and\nHorus-Hormakhu was at his side.\u2019\n\nIn a few days the camp was pitched opposite Megiddo. \u2018Keep yourselves\nready,\u2019 said the king, \u2018look to your arms, for we shall meet the enemy\nin battle early to-morrow morning.\u2019 And they set the watch, saying,\n\u2018Be of good courage; watch, watch\u2014watch over the life in the king\u2019s\ntent.\u2019 Next morning the assault was made, but the Canaanites were\nunable to make a stand against the disciplined valour of the Egyptian\ntroops; they fled at the first onset \u2018with terror on their faces.\u2019 The\ndead \u2018lay on the ground like fishes,\u2019 and the fugitives in their haste\nleft behind them their horses and their chariots of gold and silver,\nand \u2018were drawn up by their clothes as by ropes into the fortress.\u2019\nThe king\u2019s own tent was captured on the field, amidst shouts of joy\nand of thanks to Amen-Ra. Megiddo itself was taken, and the victor\nentrenched himself there to await the submission and the tribute of the\nconfederated princes. Then the chiefs of the land came to do homage to\nthe king, and, though the civilisation of the Canaanitish tribes may\nnot have been high, yet there was no lack, at any rate, of a certain\nsplendour at their kings\u2019 courts. They were graciously received by the\nyoung conqueror, and laid rich gifts at his feet, gold, silver, and\n_lapis lazuli_\u2014wheat, wine, and wool,\u2014besides many suits of brazen\narmour and chariots plated with gold.\n\nThe capture of Megiddo opened the way to the more distant field of\nMesopotamia. In former ages that country had been the seat of civilised\nand highly cultivated states,[35] but these kingdoms had fallen,\nprobably before some foreign conquerors, about the time that the\ntwelfth dynasty was ruling in Egypt. About the period of the Hyksos\nsupremacy there seems to have been an empire established at Babylon\nwhich included Assyria as a province; but this again had passed away,\nand the country was broken up into a number of petty principalities,\nwhich it was no hard task for Thothmes to subdue and reduce to some\nsort of vassalage. Among the Asiatic princes who brought him tribute\nare named those of _Assur_ and of _Babilu_.\n\nThe supremacy of the Egyptian crown may thus be said to have been\nacknowledged in some sort over the \u2018known world;\u2019 for the Egyptian\nhorizon did not extend beyond the Mediterranean Sea, the Euphrates, and\nthe range of Mount Taurus in Armenia. \u2018I have placed the boundaries of\nEgypt at the horizon,\u2019 said Thothmes III., \u2018and I have set Egypt at\nthe head of all nations, because its people are united with me in the\nworship of Amen.\u2019\n\nThese Asiatic campaigns were often renewed during this long reign;\nthirteen or fourteen such are recorded. Each was followed by a longer\nor shorter interval of peace. The principal episodes of the wars were\nsculptured in bas-relief upon the walls of the great temple at Karnak,\nwhere also was inscribed a careful geographical enumeration of the\nconquered peoples, and a record of the tributes they respectively paid.\nFull accounts were also preserved in the libraries attached to the\ntemples; but the Egyptian archives have perished, and Egyptian history\nwith them, except so far as it was carved on the enduring stone, or\nwritten in the few papyri that have survived the general wreck.\n\nThere is an inscription on the tomb of a valiant captain of Thothmes,\nnamed Amenemhib, in which he tells us of the campaigns he was engaged\nin by his master\u2019s side. \u2018I never left him,\u2019 he says; \u2018great was the\nvalour of his arm.\u2019 Then he records his own deeds, and describes the\nrich rewards assigned him. Twice he saved the king\u2019s life when in\nimminent peril. \u2018I saw the lord of the two countries in the land of Ni;\nhe was hunting 120 elephants for the sake of their tusks. The largest\none of the herd rushed upon his majesty, but I cut his trunk, and\nescaped through the water between the rocks.\u2019 Another time the King of\nKadesh had started a wild horse to run upon the king. \u2018I followed him\nas he dashed among the warriors, and I slew him with my sword, and cut\noff his tail, which I presented to the king as a trophy.\u2019 In the siege\nof Kadesh he led the party that stormed the walls. \u2018I broke them open;\nI led all the valiant. None other went before me.\u2019\n\nThe return of the king and his army from these distant expeditions was\na sort of triumphal procession. No presage or foreboding of future\nill troubled the Egyptians as they looked out for the appearance of\ntheir hero king and welcomed him with rapturous acclamations. In his\ntrain came princes and princesses of Canaan, prisoners of war, and\nslaves. Slaves formed a portion of the tribute imposed upon the subject\ncountries. Then came horses (amongst them snow-white and bay), wild\ngoats and asses, zebras or humped buffaloes, together with wilder\nanimals of rarer species\u2014tigers, the cinnamon-coloured bear of Mount\nTaurus, and occasionally a young elephant. The wealth brought home by\nthe conquerors was incalculable. From the fruitful land of Palestine,\ncorn, oil olive, and honey; Ph\u0153nicia sent her merchandise gathered in\nfrom many lands\u2014gold, silver, and gems; turquoise, ruby, and coral;\ncopper and lead, besides cedar and other fragrant woods. Nor were there\nwanting specimens of skilled and splendid artistic workmanship. There\nwere chariots richly adorned with silver and gold, costly stuffs and\nembroidery, and \u2018goodly Babylonish garments;\u2019 gold vases from North\nPalestine are especially mentioned, inlaid with precious stones;\nflowers were carved upon the rim, and the handles made in the shape\nof some animal. In addition there was the tribute that flowed in\nregularly from the South. The friendly inhabitants of Punt sent, in\nrecognition of the Egyptian supremacy, gums and fragrant spices in\nabundance. Kush was now ruled by an Egyptian viceroy, who took care\nthat the contributions should never fail\u2014negro slaves, long-horned\noxen, bloodhounds, apes, panther skins, ostrich eggs, ivory, ebony,\nand rare trees. The last-named item possessed a special interest for\nthe Egyptians, who had a strong love for natural history. An artist\nhas depicted some wonderful plants, cactuses and water-lilies from the\nsouthern lands, and underneath is the inscription:\u2014\n\n\u2018Here are all sorts of plants and flowers from Ta-nuter. The king\nspeaks thus, \u201cI swear by Ra, I call Amen-Ra to witness that everything\nis plain truth. What the splendid soil brings forth I have portrayed,\nto offer it to my father Amen-Ra, in his great temple as a memorial for\nall time.\u201d\u2019 It is also recorded of Thothmes, at the close of one of\nhis campaigns, that four new species of birds that were brought to him\n\u2018pleased the king more than all the rest.\u2019\n\nAs might be expected, Thothmes did not neglect to immortalise his name\nby erecting or adorning the temples of the gods. His greatest work\nwas the Hall of Columns, which he added to the great Temple of Amen,\nbegun by Amenemhat I., and still incomplete. He appointed \u2018feasts of\nvictory\u2019 to be celebrated on the festivals of Amen, thus linking his\nown name very closely with that of his god, and he enriched the temple\nwith enormous donations, the mere enumeration of which would fill\npages. Neither gold nor silver, cedar wood or precious stones, need\nbe spared now when all that the world could offer of rich and rare\nwas flowing in a constant stream to add to the \u2018treasures in Egypt.\u2019\nSpecial mention is made, amongst countless other gifts, of a beautiful\nharp of silver and gold and precious stones, to sing the praises of\nAmen upon his splendid festival days. We read too of a great barge of\ncedar wood inlaid with gold[36] for the purpose of receiving the god\nwhen conducted in solemn procession down the river. Obelisks were also\nerected by Thothmes, which were \u2018reflected with their splendour on the\nsurface of the sacred lakes like stars upon the bosom of Nut.\u2019 One of\nthem is now standing forlornly on the Thames embankment.\n\nNot only did Thothmes confer these numberless and costly gifts upon\nthe temples, but he endowed them munificently. Gardens and arable\nlands were assigned them, and a fixed system of contributions for\ntheir support was established. He also appointed many of his foreign\nprisoners to the service of the temples and their gardens. Besides\nthese, there were great numbers that he could employ upon the public\nworks, whilst year by year the slaves who formed a part of the annual\ntributes came to add to the multitude of poor captives. The service was\nrigorous, and there can be little doubt that their lives were \u2018made\nbitter.\u2019 There is a representation still existing of a number of these\nbondmen engaged in brick-making. Their faces are of the Asiatic type,\nand the following words are added by way of explanation:\u2014\u2018They work at\nthe building with dexterous fingers; their overseers show themselves\nin sight. They obey the words of the great skilful lord who directs\nthem. They are rewarded with wine, and all kinds of good things. They\nare building a sanctuary for the god. The overseer says thus to the\nlabourers: \u201cThe stick is in my hand: be not idle.\u201d\u2019\n\nSevere oversight, tempered by free access to the \u2018flesh-pots of Egypt\u2019\nwas then, as at a later date, the portion of those to whom the land of\nEgypt was the \u2018house of bondage.\u2019\n\n[Illustration: Amenhotep presented to Amen-Ra by Horus.]\n\nThere can be little doubt that the waste of life upon distant\nbattle-fields, the employment of foreign slave labour, and the luxury\nborn of immense accession of wealth, all combined to produce a\ndemoralisation and a weakening of the Egyptian people in due course\nof time. For the present, however, all was joy and exultation. The\nking was never weary of extolling the gods who had shown him such\ndistinguished favour, and their goodwill and his devotion are depicted\nin every possible way. On one obelisk (the obelisk of the Lateran),\nwe see, _e.g._ the king kneeling and offering wine to Amen-Ra seated\non a throne, or adoring the sacred hawk, symbol of Horus, to which he\noffers flowers, incense, and cakes of white bread. Again, Amen-Ra is\nseen taking him by the hand in token of his favour and protection,\nand at a memorial chapel in Nubia, the goddess Isis is represented as\nabout to kiss the Egyptian monarch, whilst in another picture he is\nseen standing face to face with Sefek, the \u2018Lady of Writings.\u2019[37] It\nis evident, therefore, that it had become customary and familiar to\nrepresent the deities, who are but seldom delineated in the pictures\nand sculptures belonging to the earlier dynasties. They are depicted in\nvarious ways. Sometimes it is in human form with some symbol or emblem\nattached or held in the hand, but very often the head of the deity is\nrepresented by that of the animal which, for some reason or other, was\nhis symbol. Thus Horus is seen with a hawk\u2019s head, Thoth with that of\nan ibis. Isis is delineated not only as a woman, but as a cow, and\nsometimes as a woman with a cow\u2019s head. The Egyptians never appear\nto have even attempted to embody the divine majesty or beauty in any\nstatue or picture. But certain objects, animate and inanimate, were\nregarded as symbolic, and as such were attached to the figures of the\ngods.[38] Of course they were not intended to be in any sense works of\nart, which such strange unnatural objects could never be; nor were they\nregarded as actually representative of the deities, which would have\nbeen simply absurd and profane, but they were emblematic signs of the\ndivine attributes and nature, and were understood and recognised as\nsuch.\n\nIn one tablet at Karnak, Thothmes III. is depicted offering wine and\nincense to his father Amen-Ra, and the accompanying inscription is an\nheroic poem or hymn which must have been composed towards the close of\nhis victorious reign. In it the god himself recounts all that he has\nbrought to pass on behalf of his \u2018son.\u2019\n\n\u2018Come to me,\u2019 he says, \u2018and rejoice in beholding my favour towards\nthee, O my son Men-kheper-Ra,[39] thou who livest for evermore! I\nam glorified by the vows thou renderest; my heart is glad when thou\ndrawest near to my temple; dear unto me is the piety that has set up\nmine image within my sanctuary.\n\n\u2018Lo! I do reward thee\u2014in that I give thee power and victory over all\nnations, for it is through me that the fear of thee resteth upon the\nwhole earth and extendeth unto the pillars of heaven.\n\n\u2018I stretch forth my hand\u2014for thee do I gather together the Annu by tens\nof thousands, and the northern people in myriads. By me have thine\nenemies been overthrown under thy feet. Thou hast penetrated into every\nland, but none has dared to set foot within thy borders, though I have\nprotected thy steps when thou wast within their boundaries. Thou hast\npassed over the broad rivers of Mesopotamia; thy war-cry has re-echoed\nwithin the caverns of their hiding-places. I have bereft their nostrils\nof the breath of life.\n\n\u2018I am come and I have given thee to smite the princes of Tahi (Syria);\nI have made them behold thee like the star that flameth and that\nsendeth down the evening dew.\n\n\u2018I am come, and I have given thee to smite the Western lands; I have\nmade them behold thee like a young bull valiant in his might\u2014he hath\nsharpened his horns\u2014none may resist him.\n\n\u2018I am come, and I have given thee to smite all lands; I have made them\nbehold thee as it were a crocodile: terrible is he exceedingly, and\nlord of the waters\u2014none dare approach him.\n\n\u2018I am come, and I have given thee to smite the Tahennu in their\nislands; I have made them behold thee as a lion in his wrath\u2014he lieth\ndown upon the bodies of his prey and taketh his rest in the valleys.\n\n\u2018I am come, and I have given thee to smite the dwellers by the\nwater-side that they who abide by the great sea may be subdued beneath\nthy feet; I have made them behold thee even like the king of birds who\nmarketh his prey from on high, and seizeth upon whatsoever he listeth.\n\n\u2018I am come, and I have given thee to smite the dwellers in the waste;\nthe Herusha are led captive; I have made them behold thee as it were\nthe jackal of the South\u2014he hunteth throughout the land, and he hideth\nhis path in the darkness.\n\n\n[Illustration: Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.\n\nAMENHOTEP ON THE LAP OF A GODDESS.]\n\n\u2018I am he that hath watched over thee\u2014oh my son beloved! Horus crowned\nin Thebes!\u2019\n\nThothmes III. reigned very nearly 54 years. His faithful attendant\nAmenemhib, whose prowess had saved his master from the elephant and the\nwild horse, lived long enough to record that master\u2019s end.\n\n\u2018So after many years of victory and power,\u2019 he says, \u2018the King ended\nhis course. He took his flight upwards into heaven and was joined unto\nthe company of Ra. When the morning broke and the sky grew bright then\nwas King Amenhotep (may he live for ever!) seated upon his father\u2019s\nthrone; crowned like Horus, son of Isis, he took possession of Khemi.\u2019\n\nThe magnificent terraced temple of Hatasu formed the mausoleum of the\nThothmes family; but, like his predecessors, Thothmes the Great has not\nbeen suffered to remain undisquieted in the tomb. It was not far off\nfrom Hatasu\u2019s temple that his mummy also was discovered. The coffin\nwas much injured, and the mummy itself broken into three pieces\u2014the\nmutilated remains of this mighty Pharaoh are lying in the Museum at\nBoulak.\n\nAfter the death of their conqueror, the kings of Canaan and the princes\nof Mesopotamia threw off the foreign yoke. Amenhotep II. overran the\ncountry and reduced its inhabitants once more to subjection. It is\nrecorded of him that he smote down and slew seven of the Canaanitish\nchiefs with his battle-axe, and brought them back with him to Egypt.\n\u2018Six of these enemies,\u2019 says the story, \u2018were hung upon the walls of\nThebes, and their hands were hung up in the same way;\u2019 the other enemy\nwas brought up the river to Nubia, and hung upon the walls of the town\nof Napata \u2018to show to the people of the land of the negroes for all\ntime the victories of the king over his enemies.\u2019 This is the chief\nevent recorded of the reign of Amenhotep II., who was succeeded by\nThothmes IV.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[30] These were the hands of the slain, which were cut off and counted\nto ascertain the number of the fallen.\n\n[31] See _Nile Gleanings_, by Villiers Stuart.\n\n[32] _Nile Gleanings._\n\n[33] Brugsch, _History of Egypt_.\n\n[34] Honorific or crown name which Hatasu, like other Egyptian\nsovereigns, assumed at her accession, and which was distinct from the\npersonal or family name.\n\n[35] The literature and traditions of these early Chaldean states were\npreserved and highly prized by the Assyrians, who appear to have had\nnone of their own.\n\n[36] This barge was presented in the reign of Thothmes IV.\n\n[37] These two pictures are given in _Nile Gleanings_.\n\n[38] It is comparatively easy to understand the choice of certain\nanimals as symbolic (see on p. 198), but it is impossible to comprehend\nhow an ostrich feather came to be the emblem of Ma, goddess of\ntruth, or a shuttle the sign of Neith, goddess of wisdom. A certain\nresemblance in name seems sometimes to have suggested the symbol.\n\n[39] Honorific or crown name of Thothmes III.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nThe Eighteenth Dynasty\u2014_continued_.\n\n(_Circa_ 1600-1400 B.C.)\n\n\nOf the reign of Thothmes IV. there is very little record left excepting\nthe curious story of his own youth, which was written on a tablet\nsuspended by his order upon the breast of the Sphinx at Ghizeh\u2014to the\nfollowing effect:\u2014\u2018Thothmes had been practising spear-throwing in the\nneighbourhood of Memphis, where he also slung brazen bolts at a target\nand hunted lions in the \u201cvalley of the gazelles.\u201d[40] The prince rode\nin his two-horsed chariot, and his horses were swifter than the wind.\nWith him were two of his servants. No man knew them. The hour came when\nhe gave his servants rest. Thothmes went alone to the little sanctuary\nbetween the outstretched paws of the great image of Horus in the city\nof the dead, to present an offering of the seeds of flowers upon the\nheights, and to pray to the \u201cgreat mother Isis\u201d and to other deities.\nA great enchantment rested on this place since the beginning of time\neven as far as the district of Babylon,[41] the sacred road of the gods\nto the western horizon. To the spot where the prince was standing the\ninhabitants of Memphis and the surrounding country were wont to come,\nto raise their hands in prayer and offer oblations. It so chanced that\non one of these feast days the prince arrived at this spot about the\nhour of mid-day, and he laid himself down to rest in the shade of this\ngreat god until sleep overtook him. The sun was in the zenith when he\ndreamed, and lo! this great god spoke to him with his own mouth as a\nfather speaks to his son. \u201cBehold me, look at me, my son Thothmes! I\nam thy father Hormakhu-Ra. The kingdom shall be given thee; thou shalt\nwear the white crown and the red crown on the throne of the earth god\nSeb. The world shall be thine in its length and its breadth; plenty\nand riches shall be thine, the best from the interior of the land, and\nrich tributes from all nations. Long years shall be granted thee: my\nheart clings to thee.\n\nThe sand of this region in which I dwell has covered me up. Promise\nme that thou wilt do that which my heart desireth; then shall I know\nwhether thou indeed art my helper.\u201d The prince awoke and repeated these\nwords, and understood their meaning; and he laid them up in his heart,\nsaying to himself\u2014\u201cI see how the people of this city honour the god\nwith sacrificial gifts without ever thinking of freeing from sand the\nnoble image of Hormakhu.\u201d\n\nThe tablet here breaks off, but no doubt it recorded the fulfilment by\nThothmes of the god\u2019s request.\n\nAmenhotep III., successor of Thothmes IV., maintained with vigour the\nsupremacy of Egypt both in the north and in the south. He must have\nbeen no ordinary sportsman if he speared, as he is said to have done,\n102 lions with his own hand in the forest lands of Mesopotamia. His\nconquests were principally achieved in the south; for the sake of gold\nquite as much as for increase of territory he carried his arms into the\nSoudan, and subdued the negro peoples who dwelt beneath its burning\nsun. But the chief glory of Amenhotep III. was not won by spearing\nlions in Asia or conquering negroes in Africa; his name is remembered\nchiefly through his architectural achievements at Thebes. He erected\na splendid gate-tower before the great temple at Karnak, and planned\nthe avenue of sphinxes which connected it with another temple which\nhe began at Luxor. To the north and south of the great temple he also\nbuilt two smaller ones. On the western bank he constructed another and\na magnificent temple.\n\n[Illustration: AMENHOTEP III. FROM A SCULPTURE IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.]\n\n[Illustration: The Colossi at Thebes.]\n\nHis architect and namesake, Amenhotep, has left some notices of his own\nlife and labours. \u2018The king appointed me under secretary. I studied the\nholy book and beheld the glories of the god Thoth. I was acquainted\nwith the sacred mysteries, and was a master in the art of speech.\u2019\nAmenhotep was besides intrusted with the charge of the royal household\nand the collection of the revenue, and he was commander-in-chief of the\nking\u2019s forces. All his varied services, however, might have sunk into\noblivion for later ages had it not been that in his capacity of chief\narchitect he devised a scheme for immortalising the memory of his royal\nmaster by the execution of two portrait statues \u2018in noble hard stone\nfor his great building,\u2019 in Western Thebes. These colossal statues were\nabout 60 feet high, and each was cut out of a single block of stone.\nAmenhotep caused eight ships to be built to convey them down the river;\nhe tells us that all the masons under his direction were full of ardour\nin the work, and that the safe arrival and landing of the statues at\nThebes was a \u2018joyful event.\u2019 \u2018Every heart,\u2019 he says, \u2018was filled with\njoy, and the people shouted in praise of the king.\u2019 They were raised in\ntheir appointed place some little distance in front of the new temple\nthe king had founded on the western side of the river. And he tells us\nthat \u2018they made the gate-towers look small. They were wonderful for\nsize and height, and they will last as long as heaven.\u2019\n\nA few scattered ruins only of the temple remain, but these two battered\ngiants sit there still and keep their watch upon the desert plain.\nThese were the statues called by Greek fancy the \u2018statues of Memnon,\u2019\nwho was, they said, the son of Aurora, and came to the aid of the\nGreeks at the siege of Troy. One of them was broken in two during a\nterrible earthquake that wrought great destruction in Egypt in A.D.\n27. The upper part fell to the ground, and it was after this event\nthat the statue became vocal, and emitted every morning at sunrise a\nmusical and melancholy strain. The fact of such a sound being heard was\nattested by an immense number of inscriptions left there by both Greek\nand Roman travellers. Septimius Severus afterwards repaired the statue,\nand from that time the phenomenon ceased, but has ever since been\nsubject of curious speculation.\n\nAs might be supposed from the extent and splendour of his works, the\nreign of Amenhotep III. was not of short duration. We read of one\nthirty years\u2019 jubilee that was celebrated amid national rejoicings.\nSome of the taxpayers brought, it is said, on that occasion \u2018when the\noverseer had spoken but one word, more than the actual amount due, and\nthe king rewarded their devotion by the presentation of golden chains\nand collars\u2014the customary badges of honour.\u2019\n\nThe portraits of Egyptian kings and queens bear every sign of being\ntruthful and characteristic likenesses. The kings of the Thothmes\nfamily are all fine-looking men, their noses straight, their features\nwell formed; those of the second and third Thothmes being particularly\nrefined and delicately cut. And Queen Tai-ti, wife of Amenhotep III.,\nis unquestionably the most beautiful amongst the Egyptian queens\nthat we know. But the monarch who reigned next, or next but one to\nthe last-named sovereign, is of quite peculiar ugliness; he has a\nretreating forehead, a very long aquiline nose, and an extraordinary\nchin, long and pointed. His figure is thin and effeminate, his legs\nfeeble and attenuated, and his expression somewhat idiotic. It is\ndifficult to believe that he could have belonged to the same family, or\neven the same nation as the Thothmes and Amenhoteps, his predecessors,\nand one is inclined to conclude with Mr. Villiers Stuart,[42] that a\nprincess must have unexpectedly succeeded to the throne whose husband\nwas a foreigner. This idea would agree with the fact that the new\nsovereign actually introduced a new form of worship into the country.\n\nThe mysterious god of Thebes was worshipped under the name and figure\nof the sun, but this was regarded as only one of his manifestations,\nwho was a being \u2018of many names, of holy transformations, of mysterious\nforms.\u2019[43] But the new king worshipped Aten or the sun\u2019s disk, and\nrecognised no other god. He also adopted the name of Khu-en-aten\nor \u2018Splendour of the Disk.\u2019 It is hard to understand theological\ncontroversies of so very ancient a date, but it is easy to feel what\nmust have been the indignation among the priests and people at Thebes,\nwhen a royal edict was issued commanding that the names of Amen and\nof Mut should be erased from all the monuments in this, the ancient\nseat of their worship. Royal authority, however, proved sufficient to\naccomplish this outrage upon the national faith, but the king\u2019s further\nscheme of erecting a temple to his god Aten in Thebes itself could not\nbe carried out, the influence of the rich and powerful priesthood and\nthe strength of the national feeling were too great.\n\nKhu-en-aten therefore abandoned Thebes altogether, and migrated with\nhis court to a spot about midway between that city and Memphis. Here he\nbuilt an entirely new city and a splendid temple, with fire altars in\nhonour of Aten. He summoned the masons of all Egypt to his work, and\ncalled together the chief men of the people, most of whom must have\nrendered but a sullen and unwilling obedience. There were courtiers,\nhowever, ready to adopt the royal creed, and to become, some of them\nat least, its zealous advocates. Amongst these the foremost was one\nMeri-ra, who was promoted to the dignity of chief seer. \u2018Be thou chief\nseer of the disk of the sun according to thy wish,\u2019 said the king, \u2018for\nthou wast my servant who wast obedient to the teaching. Thou treasurer\nof the chamber of silver and gold! reward the chief seer of Aten\u2014place\na gold chain around his neck, and join it behind\u2014place gold at his\nfeet, because he was obedient unto the teaching of the king.\u2019\n\nAt Tel-el-Amarna, east of the Nile, are still to be seen the ruins of\nthis great and hastily constructed city, which was about two miles in\nlength, but very narrow in width. Travellers say that the ground-plan\nof the houses may still be traced, and that there are some immense\nmounds covered by the drifting sand, where temples and palaces might\nbe buried. Four miles off are tombs and rock-temples excavated in the\nhill-side, but often entirely blocked up by sand. Wherever the new\nworship was portrayed, the sun\u2019s disk is represented above, with long\nrays reaching downwards, and each ending in a hand\u2014the sign of divine\nprotection; the hand often holds the symbol of life before the king.\n\nThe family life of Khu-en-aten is depicted more than once. In one\ngroup he is seen with his queen Nefer-tai and their young daughters,\ndistributing gifts of honour at some festival. One little boy is there\ntoo, but he is too young to take part in the distribution, and is\ncaressing his mother\u2019s face. Strong affection appears to have united\nthe royal family, who doubtless felt their position a very isolated\none. The prayers and praises, however, that are recorded as forming\npart of the new ritual, are very similar in tone and expression\nto those used in the customary worship. Prayer for the reigning\nsovereigns is frequent; on one festive occasion we read that the king\ngave his city the name of \u2018Delight of the Sun\u2019s disk,\u2019 and offered\nsacrifices with solemn invocation. \u2018Tender love fills my heart for the\nqueen and her young children. Grant long years of life to Nefer-tai,\nthat she may keep the king\u2019s hand. Grant long life to the royal\ndaughters, that they may keep the hand of the queen, their mother,\nfor evermore.\u2019 Nefer-tai appears to have died comparatively young; in\none of the sculptures she is represented \u2018with terrible fidelity,\u2019\nMr. Villiers Stuart says, as apparently in the last stage of wasting\ndisease. Her only son must have died quite in childhood; he is not\nrepresented again, but the daughters, seven in number, are frequently\nseen. As Khu-en-aten died without a male heir, the crown passed to his\ndaughters\u2019 husbands, two if not three of whom reigned in succession.\nThey soon returned to Thebes, and to the worship of Amen-Ra, but none\nof them were ever acknowledged as true-born kings; it is doubtful\nwhether they were crowned at Thebes. Ai was the last of them, and a\nbeautiful rose-coloured sarcophagus of granite found in a tomb to the\nwest of the royal sepulchres bears his cartouche.[44] It is worthy\nof notice that he is styled _prince_, not king. Each of these rulers,\nin fact, occupied the throne only in right of his wife,[45] and were\nthemselves apparently merely officers in high position at Khu-en-aten\u2019s\ncourt\u2014a fact sufficient to account for the coldness with which the\npriests of Amen regarded them, in spite of their official return to the\nnational worship. The government, however, appears to have been well\nadministered by them, and foreign tributes were duly paid. A scene is\nrepresented on the walls of a tomb at Thebes, in which the governor\nof the south (whose tomb it was) is introducing a negro queen into\nthe presence of Tutankh-amen, one of these princes. She has come in\nperson to lay tribute and gifts at his feet. The boats are depicted\nin which the party have travelled and brought with them giraffes and\nleopards from the South, which are now presented to the king with other\nofferings, amongst which is a model of one of the negro dome-shaped\nhuts with palm trees, around the tops of which giraffes are nibbling.\nThe dark-hued princess made use of a sort of chariot drawn by oxen; her\nofferings are by no means devoid of artistic merit, though they cannot\nvie, in this respect, with those presented at the same lev\u00e9e by Asiatic\nprinces of red complexion, and long curling black hair; they bring\ncostly works wrought in gold, silver, and precious stones\u2014the produce\nof skilled Ph\u0153nician art.\n\nNone of these kings apparently left any children. The official lists of\nsovereigns do not include any names between that of Amenhotep III. and\nHorus. It was to Horus that all eyes turned when the direct succession\nfailed. He was then living in retirement at a city called Ha-Suten\nin middle Egypt, but had held high office at court at one time, and\nhad been promoted to the dignity of \u2018guardian,\u2019 and afterwards of\n\u2018Adon\u2019 or \u2018Lord,\u2019 of the land\u2014if indeed he had not been in some way\nrecognised as heir to the throne itself. Horus was esteemed and beloved\nfor the uprightness and gentleness of his character. \u2018He took pleasure\nin justice,\u2019 it is said of him, \u2018which he carried in his heart; he\nfollowed the gods Thoth and Ptah in all their ways, and they were\nhis shield and protectors on earth for evermore.\u2019 He was especially\nacceptable to the priesthood on account of his fervent attachment to\nthe old faith and the national gods\u2014the god Horus being regarded as his\nspecial patron and guardian. To him was ascribed his elevation to the\nroyal dignity. \u2018Horus made his son great, and willed to prolong his\nlife until the day came when he should receive the office destined for\nhim.\u2019 It is doubtful whether he was himself of royal descent, but it is\ncertain that he married a princess of the direct line, and that no one\nelse was thought of for a moment when the throne became vacant. There\nis a long account preserved of his accession, and solemn reception,\nand coronation at Thebes. \u2018Heaven and earth rejoice together\u2014the gods\ninvested him with the double crown. Heaven kept festival, and all the\nland was glad. The deities rejoiced on high, and the people of Egypt\nraised their rapturous songs of praise even unto heaven; great and\nsmall united their voices with one accord. It was as if Horus, son of\nIsis, were once more presenting himself after his triumph over Set.\u2019\n\nThe new king was indeed regarded as, in some sense, an avenger\ntriumphing over evil. One can imagine that even though the previous\nrulers had returned to Thebes and its gods, it would have been hardly\npossible for their wives, who must have shared their sovereignty, to\nindulge in any bitter animosity towards the city in which they had been\nbrought up, towards the worship which their father had established\nthere, or towards the names and memory of their parents. But at the\naccession of Horus, all restraint was removed, and the full tide of\nanimosity let loose against the \u2018city of the delight of the sun\u2019s\ndisk.\u2019 City, temples, and tombs were destroyed, and every vestige and\ntrace of the reign and the religion of Khu-en-aten effaced as far as\npossible. The stone was taken to be employed in the building of Theban\ntemples. Only a few ruins and a few inscriptions have escaped to tell\nthe traveller of this curious episode in Egyptian history.\n\nEqual diligence was shown by this sovereign in rebuilding and\nbeautifying the temples which had long been neglected. The cities of\nthe gods, we are told in decidedly hyperbolical language, \u2018lay as heaps\nof rubbish.\u2019 \u2018He renewed the temples of the sun-god,\u2019 we read, \u2018and Ra\nrejoiced to see that renewed which had been destroyed in former times.\u2019\nThe king also provided for the sacrifices; he appointed holy persons,\nsingers, and bodyguards for the temples, and assigned for their use\nand service arable land, cattle, and all that was required\u2014that \u2018they\nmight sing thus each new morning unto Ra: \u201cThou hast made the kingdom\ngreat for us in thy son the delight of thy heart, King Horus. Grant him\nlength of years and victory in all lands, even as unto Horus, son of\nIsis.\u201d\u2019\n\nHorus reigned for more than twenty years, and his death was followed by\nthe accession of a new dynasty\u2014the nineteenth.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[40] This valley lay west of the pyramids in the Libyan desert, and\nwas a favourite resort of sportsmen for hunting lions and other wild\nanimals.\n\n[41] This district of \u2018Babylon\u2019 was that where Cairo now stands.\n\n[42] See the _Nile Gleanings_, where the portraits of the sovereigns\nare given. If Khu-en-aten\u2019s is a caricature even, it is a caricature\nfounded on a different type of countenance.\n\n[43] From a chapter in the Ritual.\n\n[44] The oval in which the royal names are always inscribed.\n\n[45] And the wives, _in all probability_, inherited only through their\nmother, Khu-en-aten\u2019s wife.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nThe Nineteenth Dynasty (_circa_ 1400-1200 B.C.)\n\nRameses the Great.\n\n\nThe peace of Egypt was not disturbed, although the direct succession\nagain failed at the death of Horus. It is more than doubtful whether\nthe soldier Rameses who now came to the front was of the royal line at\nall. He married his son Seti to a princess of the house of Pharaoh, and\nassociated him with himself in the government. After a brief reign,\nof which next to nothing is recorded, he died, and left the crown to\nSeti. The wife of this sovereign was regarded with reverence as the\ndescendant of the ancient line; and her claim to remembrance in after\ntimes was not so much that she was the wife of Seti, as that she was\nmother of Rameses II., in whose person the direct line was again\nrestored. The child was associated with his father from a very early\nage, so that at any rate the sanction of a true-born Pharaoh might be\ngiven, however nominally, to all that was done.\n\nThe reign of Seti I. was not long, but it was full of stirring events,\nwhich are recorded on a wall of the great temple at Karnak. Egypt had\nbeen absorbed in religious and domestic dissensions, and her claims to\nsupremacy and empire in Asia had been allowed to lapse. Encouraged by\nthis apparent indifference, the wandering Shasu tribes had ventured\nto cross the frontier, and had entered the Delta. Seti was a man of\nwar, and was no doubt glad at heart to veil the obscurity of his birth\nand his doubtful right to the crown in a dazzling cloud of military\ntriumph and renown. He marched against the intruding Shasu, and soon\ndiscomfited them. \u2018The king was against them as a fierce lion; not one\nescaped to tell of his strength to the distant nations,\u2019 it is said.\nNevertheless, we find them soon after able to rally and make a stand\nupon Ph\u0153nician soil with the Ph\u0153nicians as allies. The king, whose\nhorses on this occasion bore the name, \u2018Amen gives him strength,\u2019\nagain attacked and overthrew them; then, turning upon their allies,\nhe defeated them also, the Egyptian chariots meeting the Ph\u0153nician in\nfurious encounter. Afterwards he marched upon the Rutennu (Canaanites),\nand his horses were called \u2018big with victory.\u2019 So rapid was his\nsuccess, that his approach took the great Syrian stronghold of Kadesh\nunawares. Herds and flocks were quietly pasturing under its walls when\nthe Egyptian army appeared in sight. In hot haste herds and herdsmen\nfled within the city walls for shelter; the garrison forthwith made a\nsally, but Seti was too strong for them, and the fortress was stormed\nand captured.\n\nA more formidable enemy remained. Northwards from Syria dwelt the\npowerful nation of the Kheta (or Hittites), who now appear upon the\nscene for the first time. Over their well-ordered hosts likewise Seti\nclaims a victory. \u2018As a jackal,\u2019 say the inscriptions, \u2018he rushes\nthrough the land and seeks after his prey\u2014he is as a fierce lion that\nhaunteth the most hidden paths in every land\u2014as a mighty bull that hath\nwhetted his horns for the strife. He hath smitten down the Asiatics,\nand thrown the Kheta to the ground; their princes hath he slain by the\nsword.\u2019 It is quite plain, nevertheless, that the Egyptian monarch\nwas glad enough to conclude a peace on equal terms with his brave\nopponents, and to return home again. On his way he visited the country\nof Limmanon (Lebanon) to procure cedar trees for the construction of a\nvessel to be used in the processions of Amen-Ra, and for the erection\nof the masts on the gate-towers of the temple. The people of that\nregion received him with every mark of friendliness and respect; they\nare seen in the pictured story busily engaged in cutting down the\ntallest and finest of the trees for the service of the king.\n\nSeti re-entered Egypt in triumph, laden with rich spoil; he was greeted\nwith acclamations, and welcomed with peaceful offerings of fragrant\nflowers, songs of victory, and shouts of exultation. \u2018Thou hast\ntriumphed over thy foes, and hast quenched the fury of thy heart. Ra\nhimself has established thy boundaries. His hand has protected thee\nwhen thy battle-axe was raised aloft above the heads of thine enemies;\ntheir kings fell by thy sword.\u2019\n\nNo doubt in this blaze of glory and glitter of spoil all remaining\nmisgivings as to the \u2018right divine\u2019 were dispelled and forgotten,\nespecially as in a succeeding campaign the boy Rameses accompanied him.\nFrom his very birth this boy had been the object of regard and almost\nof devotion. He is seen in early infancy caressed by his mother and\nthe ladies of the court. Later on he stands by his father\u2019s side doing\nhomage to his ancestors or to the gods in the temple of Abydos. On\nstate occasions he occupied a prominent position, and was the central\npoint of interest\u2014the idol of his parents, and the hope of the nation,\nwho cherished a real and most effective belief in the divine right of\nthe god-descended race of their sovereigns. In a small Nubian temple is\na sculpture, in which the youth is represented as returning from his\nfirst campaign, and receiving a loving welcome from his mother. She has\nnoble features, as became her lineage, and there is a likeness between\nher and her son\u2014so that although she is represented as a goddess, the\nface is no doubt intended as a portrait. The campaign from which she\nwelcomes home her son, was against the Libyans, and, not unlikely, he\nstood by his father\u2019s side when the chariot, drawn by horses called\n\u2018Victorious is Amen,\u2019 fell upon the foe. \u2018He utterly destroyed them,\u2019\nit is said, \u2018as they stood upon the field of battle; they could not\nhold their bows, and they remained hidden in their caves like foxes,\nfor fear of the king.\u2019\n\nSeti again celebrated a triumph, and dedicated his spoil to Amen-Ra,\ntogether with the prisoners, whom he gave to the service of the temple,\nboth as men and women servants. \u2018The kings of the nations that did not\nknow Egypt,\u2019 so they sang on the occasion, \u2018are brought by Pharaoh.\nThey magnify his mighty deeds, saying: \u201cHail to thee, King of Egypt!\nMighty is thy name. Happy is the people that is subject to thy will,\nbut he who oversteppeth thy boundaries shall appear led in chains as a\nprisoner. We did not know Egypt; our fathers had not entered it. Grant\nus freedom out of thy hand.\u201d\u2019\n\nThe events of Seti\u2019s campaigns are sculptured on the north wall of\nhis Hall of Columns at Karnak. He is spoken of there as taking an\nintense and ferocious delight in battle. \u2018Dear to him is the fray! his\ndelight is to dash therein; his heart is satisfied when he beholds\nstreams of blood gush forth, and strikes off the heads of his enemies.\nOne moment of the strife of men is more precious to him than a whole\nday of pleasure. With one stroke he smiteth down the foe and spareth\nnone, and whosoever is left alive he carrieth down into Egypt alive as\na prisoner.\u2019 So keen and savage a delight in bloodshed has confirmed\nsome writers in the idea that Seti came of some alien race, as it\nis out of harmony with the mildness and humanity that characterised\nthe Egyptian character. His name is considered as probably showing a\nclose connection with the Delta, where Set was worshipped, chiefly\nby the foreign settlers; whilst the name of that god was so hateful\nin Egyptian eyes that it was chiselled away from the monuments, both\nduring Seti\u2019s life and after his death, even though it occurred as part\nof the royal name, and the king himself appears frequently to have\nchanged his own objectionable name for that of Osiris. It may also be\nnoted that the type of face of the sovereigns of the nineteenth dynasty\nis different from that of the preceding kings, and is decidedly of a\nmore Semitic cast.\n\nAlthough Seti had reconquered Syria, and possibly the adjacent lands,\nit does not seem that the stream of tribute flowed in such abundance\nas during the reign of Thothmes the Great. Treasure, however, was\nrequired, and the king resolved to have the valley of Hammamat\nthoroughly explored and worked. He went there himself in the ninth\nyear of his reign, for, as the inscription says, \u2018his heart wished\nto see the mines whence the gold is brought.\u2019 Water was, of course,\nthe first necessity as of old in the days of the eleventh dynasty,\nand Seti visited the hills in company with those who knew most about\nthe water-courses. The desolation of the hot waterless valleys struck\nthe king. After a journey of some miles he is said to have halted to\nmeditate quietly, and he \u2018said within himself, \u201cIf the road be without\nwater the wayfarers must perish; they die of parching thirst. Where\nshall I find a place where the burning thirst may be quenched? Vast\nis this region, and far does it extend. He who is here overtaken by\nthirst will cry out, \u2018O this land of perdition!\u2019 Those who come hither\nwill come to perform their obligations towards me; I must do that which\nwill enable them to live. Thus shall my name be venerated throughout\nfuture generations.\u201d\u2019 When the king had said thus within himself he\nwent up into the hills to found there a sanctuary wherein prayer might\nbe offered to the god. After that it pleased him to assemble workmen\nto quarry the stone, and to form a reservoir there amongst the hills\nfor the purpose of sustaining the fainting by giving him fresh water\nin the time of the summer heat. And the water came in great abundance,\nlike the waters of the Nile at Abu. The king spake and said, \u2018The god\nhas heard my prayer; the water has come forth abundantly out of the\nrocks; the road that had no water has been made good under my reign.\nThe shepherds shall have pasture for their flocks.\u2019\n\nA town was afterwards built at this new centre of industry, and a\ntemple erected where Seti offered worship \u2018to his fathers the gods.\u2019\nGuards were appointed to protect the convoyers of the precious metal,\nwhich was largely used by the king in adorning both temples and\nstatues of the gods. Indeed, all the works ascribed to this reign\nare remarkable for their beauty and perfect finish, so that Seti I.\ncan hardly be looked upon, after all, as nothing more than a man of\nblood and a lover of the fray. The chief of his works is a grand\nHall of Columns that he added to the Great Temple at Karnak, founded\nso long before by Amenemhat I. It contained 134 immense columns of\nmassive proportions, but, like his other undertakings, it had to be\nleft incomplete, as his reign was not of long duration. In one of\nthe corridors of his beautiful temple at Abydos was found the famous\n\u2018Tablet,\u2019 so invaluable to students of Egyptian history. It contained\nthe names of 76 royal ancestors of Rameses II., going back to King\nMena himself; and the young Rameses is seen standing by his father and\noffering homage to their memories; on the opposite wall are inscribed\nthe names of the Egyptian gods and goddesses, and a beautifully\nexecuted bas-relief represents the prince, under his father\u2019s\ndirection, pouring out in honour of the deities a libation, which is\nreceived into a vessel full of flowers.\n\nThe strong affection borne by Seti to his young son was fully returned,\nand it was with the most reverent heed that Rameses, on his accession,\ncarried out and completed all that his father had begun. In Western\nThebes Seti had founded a memorial sanctuary to his father\u2019s name,\nwhich he intended as his own burial-place. But \u2018he died,\u2019 says Rameses,\n\u2018and entered the realm of heaven and united himself with Ra, whilst\nthis his house was being built. The gates showed a vacant place; all\nthe works of stone and brick had yet to be raised, and all the writing\nand painting to be done.\u2019 The mummy of the king had, it seems, been\nplaced meanwhile in his temple at Abydos. One morning it happened\nthat, after celebrating a magnificent festival of Amen-Ra at Thebes,\nRameses started at dawn of day for his new and favourite capital in the\nDelta.[46] The royal ships, it is said, threw their brightness on the\nriver. Orders had been given for the journey down the stream, but on\nreaching the canal that led to Abydos the young king gave directions\nto turn aside thither that he might \u2018behold the face of his father\nand offer sacrifice.\u2019 But on arriving, he was much struck by the\ngeneral dilapidation of the tombs, and the marks of careless neglect\non every side. \u2018Nothing had been built up,\u2019 he said, \u2018by the son for\nthe father, though he should have been careful to preserve it according\nto his expectations, since its possessor had taken flight to heaven.\nBut not one son had renewed the memorial of his father who rested in\nthe grave.\u2019 On examining his own father\u2019s temple, he found evidence\nnot only of neglect but of dishonesty. \u2018The revenues had failed, the\nservants of the temple had taken, without exception, whatever had come\nin for themselves.\u2019 Consequently the columns were not raised on their\nbases, the statues lay prostrate on the ground. Rameses forthwith\ncalled together the princes, the captains and the architects, and after\ntheir prostrations and flattering speeches were ended he addressed\nthem. After speaking of the state of things he had found at Abydos, he\nwent on to say: \u2018The most beautiful thing to behold, the best thing\nto hear, is a child with a thankful breast, whose heart beats for his\nfather. When I was but a little boy I attained to the supremacy. The\nlord of all himself nourished and brought me up; he gave over to me\nthe land. I sat on his lap as a child, and he presented me publicly to\nthe people, saying, \u201cI will have him crowned king, for my desire is to\nbehold his glory whilst I am yet alive. Place the royal diadem upon his\nbrow. May he restore order and set up again that which has fallen into\nruin. May he care for the people, the inhabitants of the land.\u201d Thus\ngraciously did he speak out of his tender love towards me. Therefore\nwill I do what is fitting and good for Seti Menephtah.[47] I will renew\nhis memory. I will not neglect his tomb, as children are accustomed to\ndo who do not remember their parents. I will complete it because I am\nlord of the country. I will take care of it because it is right and\nseemly.\u2019 He is answered with profuse flatteries, and is assured that\nnone but he and Horus, son of Isis, imagine and perform such things.\nThe king then appoints the following song for his own honour and in his\nfather\u2019s memory:\u2014\n\n      \u2018Awake, lift up thy face towards heaven; behold\n    the sun, O my father, thou who hast become like God.\n    Here am I who will make thy name to live. I myself, I\n    myself am come here to build thy temple near to that of\n    Unnefer,[48] the eternal king.\u2019\n\nRameses proceeds to tell of all his gifts and rich endowments, and then\naddresses his father thus:\u2014\n\n      \u2018Thou hast entered into the realm of heaven. Thou art\n    in the company of Ra. Thou art united with the moon and\n    stars. Thou restest in the deep like those who dwell\n    with Unnefer the eternal king. When the sun ariseth\n    thou dost behold its splendour: when he sinketh down\n    to rest, thou art in his train. Thou enterest within\n    the secret house, and remainest in the company of the\n    gods. Speak thou to Ra and to Unnefer with a heart\n    full of love, that he may grant long years and feasts\n    of jubilee unto King Rameses. Well will it be for thee\n    that I should reign for a long time, for thou wilt be\n    honoured by a good son who remembers his father.\u2019\n\nIn answer to this invocation Seti appears and promises all that the\nheart of a king could desire, and more especially the length of days\nentreated by his son.\n\nLong life was certainly appointed to King Rameses, who reigned for 67\nyears. Whilst still a youth he was summoned to serious conflict. Not\nonly had the Syrian princes again risen, but the powerful and civilised\nnation of the Kheta had prepared to put forth all its strength against\nits mighty rival. Their country lay north of Syria, and their dominion\nextended eastward over a part of Mesopotamia, and westward to the coast\nof Asia Minor. Seti had encountered them, but although he claimed a\ngreat victory, he had found it advisable immediately afterwards to\nconclude a treaty and to return home. Khetasir, king of the Kheta,\nencouraged perhaps by the extreme youth of Seti\u2019s successor, had\nformed a strong confederacy against Egypt, and placed himself at its\nhead. Besides his Syrian and Ph\u0153nician allies, he had called together\nthe inhabitants of Mesopotamia on the east, and of the towns on the\nsea-coast, including, some have imagined, a contingent from Ilium,[49]\nas yet unbesieged of Greek, and unknown in song. The Egyptian forces\nreached Kadesh and pitched their camp in its neighbourhood.\n\nThe scenes of this campaign are made very real and living to us, being\npainted and sculptured in full detail on the walls of the Theban\ntemples, and its chief episode is immortalised in the heroic poem of\nPentaur. We see the Egyptian camp in the form of a square, with a\ntemporary wall of enclosure, formed by piled up shields; servants are\nresting, asses are wandering about; there too is the lion of Rameses,\nthe famous beast who accompanied him in his campaigns, and whose name\nwas Semem-kheftu-ef: \u2018Tearer to pieces of his enemies.\u2019 The king\u2019s tent\nis seen, and near it is the shrine of the god. An inscription duly\ninforms us: \u2018This is the first legion of Amen, who bestows victory on\nKing Rameses. Pharaoh is with it. It is pitching its camp.\u2019\n\nAnother picture gives us an important episode. The inscription tell\nus: \u2018This is the arrival of the spies of Pharaoh. They are bringing\ntwo spies of the Kheta before the king. They are beating them to make\nthem declare where the king of the Kheta is.\u2019 For the plain fact was\nthat the Egyptians were very much at a loss. Not long before two men\nhad come into the camp, professing themselves to be leaders of the\nShasu, who were wishing to desert the cause of the Kheta and to join\nthe Egyptian army; for the king of the Kheta was far away, and was\nremaining in the country of the Khilibu for fear of the Egyptians.\nRameses, it is not unlikely, was flattered by this tribute to the\nterror inspired by his very name; at any rate he believed their story\ntoo easily, and set out at once with slender forces in a north-westerly\ndirection, leaving the main body to follow more leisurely. But at this\njuncture the two spies mentioned in the inscription were captured,\nand from them was extorted the confession that the Kheta were not\nby any means far off, but were at that moment lying in ambush close\nat hand, had horses and riders in great number, and all implements\nof war, and were \u2018more in number than the sands of the sea.\u2019 Anger\nswelled high in the breast of the young king; he called together the\nleaders and captains, and bitterly upbraided them for their neglect and\ncarelessness. \u2018You have been telling me every day that the enemy are\nfar away in the country of the Khilibu, and now, hear what these men\nsay. Bring up our forces to the attack\u2014they are close at our side.\u2019 But\nmeanwhile the king of the Kheta had fallen suddenly upon the main body\nof the Egyptian army, who were following the advanced guard slowly and\nin careless security, and had taken them completely by surprise. They\ngave way and fell back upon the road that led to the place where the\nking was stationed with his advanced guard. But \u2018when Pharaoh saw this\nhe was wroth; he seized his armour and appeared like unto the god of\nwar in his hour. He mounted his chariot and rushed forth alone. None\nwas with him. He rushed upon the foe and cast them down, and subdued\nthe people before him. Then did the king of the Kheta lift up his hands\nin supplication.\u2019\n\nThe scene is a favourite one, and is depicted more than once. We see\nthe orderly masses of the Kheta in contrast to their less regular and\nless warlike allies. We see the heroic onslaught of the king, and the\ndesperate encounter of the chariots on the plain of the Orontes. The\nKhetan chariots are beheld overthrown and hurled into the river, where\nthe horsemen are confusedly struggling. One prince is being dragged out\nand held with his head hanging down, and we learn \u2018This is the King of\nKhilibu; his warriors are raising him up after Pharaoh has thrown him\ninto the water.\u2019\n\nSuch was the battle of Kadesh, in which it is evident that the Egyptian\narmy, after having been brought by bad generalship to the brink of\ndestruction, was saved from ruin by the desperate valour and personal\nprowess of Rameses himself. It is this exploit that is celebrated by\nthe poet Pentaur two years later in such glowing poetic hyperbole:\u2014\n\n      \u2018He arose like unto Mentu, the god of war, and put\n    speed to his horses, and urged on his steeds,\u2014named\n    \u201cTriumph in Thebes,\u201d and \u201cMut[50] is content.\u201d None\n    dared follow his headlong assault. He was alone and\n    none other with him. And lo! he was encircled by\n    the Khetan host; 2500 chariots were around him, and\n    countless hosts cut off the way behind. On each chariot\n    three men stood, and all were massed together man to\n    man.\u2019\n\nThe king now speaks:\u2014\n\n      \u2018Not a prince, not a captain was by me. My chiefs and\n    knights had failed. No man was there to take my part\n    against the foe. O Amen, my father, I know thee; where\n    art thou? Has ever a father forgotten his son? Thy\n    precepts, thy will have I ever denied? has ought I have\n    done been apart from thee? These hosts of the foe,\n    what are they to thee! Amen can humble the imperious\n    and proud. To thee I built temples and offered rich\n    gifts. The wealth of the nations I laid at thy feet.\n    Lo! I am alone, and none other is with me. I called on\n    my soldiers, and none heard my cry. More to me is thy\n    power than myriads of men\u2014than thousand times thousand\n    arrayed for the war. On thee, father Amen, on thee do I\n    call!\n\n      \u2018In far-off Hermonthis my prayer was heard. He stood\n    by my side. \u201cLo! I am come! Rameses Meri-amen,[51] thy\n    prayer has been heard. I _am_ more to thee than\n    thousand times thousand. And the brave heart I\n    love\u2014my blessing is his. Nor can ought that I will of\n    accomplishment fail.\u201d\n\n      \u2018Then I rose up like Mentu and smote down the foe. A\n    terror seized them and none dared fight. No man could\n    shoot nor grasp the spear. Headlong they plunged into\n    the stream like the crocodile. Still stood the King of\n    Kheta to behold King Rameses, for\u2014\u201cHe was alone, none\n    other with him.\u201d Once more did he attack with all his\n    power, but I rushed upon them like a flame of fire and\n    slew them where they stood. Each man cried unto his\n    fellow, saying: \u201cNo mortal man is he who is against\n    us. It is Set the mighty\u2014\u2018tis the god of war. Whoso\n    draws near him his hand drops, nor can he grasp the\n    bow or spear.\u201d I called upon my foot and horse: \u201cTake\n    heart\u2014be firm\u2014behold my victory.\u201d I was alone, but\n    Amen was beside me.\u2019\n\nThe whole poem is too long to be given here, but we learn that when at\nlength the terror-stricken forces rallied upon seeing the victory of\nthe king and beholding the multitude of corpses, they approached with\nadulation and flattery, extolling the hero to the skies. No wonder that\nhis reply is stern:\u2014\n\n      \u2018The king spake and said: \u201cO my captains and soldiers\n    who have _not_ fought! of what profit is all your\n    devotion? Which of you has done his duty before his\n    king? Who ever did for you what I did? and now have ye\n    altogether failed me; none stood by to help me in the\n    battle. Shame upon my horse and foot! shame more than\n    words can say! As for my horses, they indeed were with\n    me, and upheld me when I was alone amid the raging foe.\n    Henceforth shall they eat food before me in my palace\n    for ever.\u201d\u2019\n\nNext day the battle was resumed with fury, and at the close the Kheta\nsued for peace, which Rameses, apparently, was glad enough to grant.\nAccepting their submission he returned to Egypt \u2018joyful and glad at\nheart.\u2019\n\n[Illustration: RAMESES THE GREAT.\n\nFROM A SCULPTURE IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.]\n\nA hearty welcome was accorded to the conqueror throughout Egypt, but\nnowhere was he so warmly received as in his favourite seat San-Tanis,\nbetter known to us as Zoan. In the early days of the monarchy this\nhad been an important city and an emporium of trade. It stood on one\nof the arms of the Nile, and was not far from the eastern frontier of\nthe Delta. The Hyksos kings had occupied it soon after their invasion;\nthey often resided there, and under them it attained great splendour\nand importance. After their expulsion it was neglected, nor did it come\nagain into prominence until the days of Rameses, who almost rebuilt\nit, and under whom it became one of the most magnificent of the great\ncities of Egypt. It was known as Pa-Ramessu, the \u2018city of Rameses,\u2019\nand we are fortunate in possessing a description of it by an Egyptian\nwriter, written apparently in prospect of the king\u2019s triumphal entry:\n\u2018I came to the city of Rameses Meri-amen. Beautiful is she exceedingly.\nThebes itself is not comparable unto her\u2014the secret of happiness is\nhere. Her meadows are full of all things fair and good, daily producing\nabundance of food; the pools are full of fish, and the lakes swarm\nwith waterfowl; the fields are green with verdure; the melons are\nsweet as honey. The barns and threshing-floors are full of wheat and\nbarley, heaped up even unto heaven; herbs of all kinds abound in the\ngardens; there the apple-tree blooms, the vine, the citron, and the\nfig-tree. Sweet is the wine like honey. The canal yields salt, the lake\nof Paher, natron (soda). The ships come and go daily, and there is\nplenty without stint. Gladness dwells in Pa-Ramessu, and happy is he\nwhose habitation is therein. The lowly ones are like unto the great.\nThey all unite to say: \u201cCome and let us celebrate the heavenly and the\nearthly festivals!\u201d The people of the marsh land bring lilies, and from\nPshenhor come the crimson-tinted flowers of the pools. The maidens\nof the \u201cconqueror\u2019s city\u201d are adorned as for a day of festivity.\nThey stand at the doors, and their hands are filled with flowers and\ngarlands on the morning of the day when King Rameses Meri-amen, the\nwar-god upon earth, makes his entry. All flock together, neighbour with\nneighbour; each man bringing his petition.\n\n\u2018Sweet is the wine of the conqueror\u2019s city. Cider and delicious drinks\nabound. Sweet song by the women of the school of Memphis resounds; joy\nis in every heart. All are as one to celebrate the praises of this\ngod\u2014even of King Rameses Meri-amen, the war-god of the world.\u2019\n\nIn the early part of his reign, Rameses was engaged in more than one\nwarlike enterprise, but none ever created so much excitement, or so\nfascinated the popular imagination as that of the first campaign by\nthe Orontes at Kadesh, which was celebrated with such true poetic\nlicence in Pentaur\u2019s epic song. Never, indeed, were the records of any\nsovereign\u2019s life and victories so blazoned abroad as those of King\nRameses; the walls of the temples in Egypt and in Nubia are covered\nwith inscriptions, paintings, and sculptures belonging to this reign.\nOne while we see him in what appears most inglorious warfare\u2014trampling\ndown a crowd of negroes, who are represented as pigmies, and over whom\nhe is driving his chariot of war. Some have escaped, and are flying\nin hot haste towards their homes, represented by the little huts like\nbee-hives, such as are still common in Africa. A little child rushes\nforward to greet them, but the mother stands still, holding up her\nhands in an attitude of despair; a little farther off another negress\nis seen with a pot over the fire, which she is carefully watching that\nit may be ready for the returning soldier. She does not yet see the\nboy who is even at that moment running up to bring the fatal news.\nAt another time the king is seen seated upon his throne in state\nreceiving the negro tribute\u2014giraffes, oxen, ostriches, and several\nmonkeys appear in the drawing. Or he is receiving prisoners brought in\nby his generals, whilst Semem-kheftu-ef, the \u2018Tearer to pieces of his\nenemies,\u2019 is lying quietly at the foot of the throne.\n\nOn the walls of the colossal temple of Abu-simbel in Nubia, is a whole\nseries of tableaux pertaining to the life of Rameses II. There is one\nstriking bas-relief representing three of his sons following him in\na headlong charge upon the battle-field. The three princes speed on,\neach in his chariot, side by side, and each of them is attended by a\ncharioteer, who carries a large shield for their defence. But Rameses\nhimself is alone, in the forefront. Not even a charioteer stands beside\nhim. The reins are fastened round his waist, whilst he bends the bow\nfirmly with his hands. Above his head flies the hawk, the bird of\nRa, ensign of the protection of the god. In another bas-relief, he\nis pausing for a moment, and checking his steeds. Semem-kheftu-ef is\nrunning by his side like a dog.\n\n[Illustration: Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.\n\nHALL IN THE GREAT TEMPLE AT IPSAMBUL.]\n\nThese are only two illustrations out of the multitude carved with\nspirit and fidelity upon the interior of the great temple hewn in\nthe sandstone rock at Abu-simbel, in Nubia, which, even in its\npresent condition, excites a wonder that is akin to awe. In front\nof the entrance stand four colossal statues of the king seated on\nhis throne, each of which is 66 feet in height. The face is grandly\nrepresented; a calm, haughty repose marks the features, and the placid,\nif not scornful, smile so characteristic of the king rests upon his\nlips\u2014accustomed to speak in accents of command from early childhood\nand on to extreme old age. Close by is a smaller temple erected by\nqueen Nefertari, the loved wife of his early manhood, in honour of her\nlord. Within its walls we may see family groups sculptured\u2014the king\nin the prime of manhood, his beautiful young wife, and her children.\nAn inscription tells us that\u2014\u2018To the sovereign of the two lands, son\nof the Sun, lord of crowns, Rameses Meri-amen, his loving lady, queen,\nand princess Nefertari, has built a temple at Abu by the waters. Grant\nhim life for evermore!\u2019 In the great temple, Nefertari is only once\ndepicted; here the children are grown up, and the sons follow their\nfather to the battle. Rameses himself is older, the glow and ardour of\nearly years have given way to the placidity and repose of later life,\nwhen his wars and his victories were over; for, though renowned as\na conqueror, the greater part of his long reign passed by in peace.\nNefertari herself does not seem to have lived long, and Rameses\napparently was married two or three times; his last wife (so far as\nwe can gather) was a foreign princess, whose hand was the pledge of\nlasting friendship and alliance between the two leading nations of the\nday.[52]\n\nThe proposal came from Khetasir, king of the Kheta. A tacit respect\nfor each other seems to have prevented a renewal of the war which had\nopened with the battle of Kadesh, but Khetasir wished to go further.\nBetween the two great and civilised nations lay the seething and\nrestless masses of the Canaanitish tribes. Powerful kings had ruled\nere this in Elam and in Mesopotamia, and might rule there again. No\nworse policy could be conceived than that of mutual rivalry and strife\nbetween Egypt and Kheta. An envoy brought to King Rameses a copy of\nthe proposed treaty written on a silver tablet, and on its acceptance\nKhetasir himself came to Egypt and was received in all state by Rameses\nat the city of Zoan, where the treaty was duly ratified, and the King\nof Egypt received the hand of the Khetan princess in token of lasting\namity and goodwill. \u2018Peace and good brotherhood shall be between us for\never,\u2019 so runs the treaty; \u2018he shall be at peace with me and I with\nhim for ever. The children\u2019s children of the King of Kheta shall be\nin good brotherhood and peace with the children\u2019s children of Rameses\nMeri-amen, the great ruler of Egypt. The King of Kheta shall not\ninvade Egypt, nor the great ruler of Egypt invade Kheta, to carry away\nanything from it. If any enemy shall come against the land of Rameses\nhe shall send to the ruler of Kheta, who shall help him to smite the\nenemy.\u2019 All the gods of both countries are solemnly called upon to\nwitness to this treaty, and to visit with dire penalties any infraction\nof its provisions. A further clause of \u2018extradition\u2019 is added, but it\nis humanely stipulated that any refugees given up in fulfilment of its\ndemands shall not be punished with severity in any way. The treaty thus\nmade was well and truly kept. The marriage of Rameses with the daughter\nof his ally is recorded in the rock-temple of Abu-simbel. \u2018The Prince\nof Kheta, clad in the dress of his country, himself conducted the bride\nto his son-in-law. After the marriage had taken place the young wife,\nas queen, received the Egyptian name of Urma-Neferura.\u2019 Not only did\nall hostilities cease henceforth between the two great empires, but a\ncalm ensued throughout Syria, where the tribal kings could no longer\nlook for support to their powerful neighbours. It seems as if Rameses\nquietly allowed his claims to supremacy in Mesopotamia to lapse; and\nthe Ph\u0153nicians were not a warlike race, but, as a rule, were ready to\nacknowledge the supremacy of a stronger nation so long as they could\npursue their commerce and gain wealth at their ease.\n\nIt is possible, then, that thirty or forty years of peace may have\nremained for King Rameses, and his time and energies were devoted to\narchitectural, instead of warlike, achievements. He lived to be at\nleast eighty years of age, and survived twelve of his sons, being\nsucceeded by the thirteenth, Menephtah.\n\nBehind the Libyan hills, which encircle the plain of Western Thebes, is\na wild and desolate valley. At its entrance stood a beautiful temple,\nbegun by Seti I. in memory of his father, and completed by Rameses.\nIn the hills surrounding this lonely valley (called by the Arabs\n_Biban-el-Moluk_, Tombs of the Kings) were the burial-places of the\nnineteenth and twentieth dynasties. In another and an equally dreary\nvalley were the tombs of the queens and princesses of the royal house.\nTheir fate has been a sad one, for the graves have been ruthlessly\nsearched and the mummies torn to pieces in hopes of plunder, and when\nall of value had been taken, the dishonoured remains of the queens and\nprincesses appear to have been replaced, without care or ceremony, in\ntheir rock-hewn tombs, and burned in heaps. The fire thus kindled has\ncalcined the walls of the tombs and sorely damaged the paintings and\ninscriptions. A few only have escaped; amongst them is a very perfectly\npreserved portrait of Tai-ti, the beautiful wife of Amenhotep III.[53]\n\nThe care taken in inspecting, and from time to time removing, the\nbodies of the kings prevented such wholesale destruction; but little\ncould Thothmes or Rameses have dreamt of the destiny that should befall\nthem. Discovered at last in their final hiding-place, their mummies,\ntogether with others of earlier and later date, were conveyed down\nthe sacred stream, and, by a strange irony of fate, are now exhibited\namongst other curiosities in a museum.\n\n[Illustration: Discovery of Mummies at Deir el Bahari, near Thebes.]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[46] See on p. 162.\n\n[47] Or Meri-en-Ptah, Seti\u2019s crown name, meaning \u2018Beloved of Ptah.\u2019\n\n[48] The Good Being, _i.e._ Osiris.\n\n[49] The identification of the name is but doubtful.\n\n[50] The \u2018Divine Mother,\u2019\u2014worshipped at Thebes with Amen-Ra.\n\n[51] Crown name, meaning \u2018beloved of Amen.\u2019\n\n[52] For the substance of this and of the foregoing paragraphs, I have\nbeen much indebted to _Nile Gleanings_ and to its very interesting\nillustrations.\n\n[53] See _Nile Gleanings_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nThebes; its People, Temples, and Tombs\u2014Close of the Nineteenth Dynasty.\n\n\nIn an inscription on the walls of the rock-temple at Abu-simbel,\nRameses is represented as saying to the god Ptah, \u2018I have cared for the\nland to create for thee a new Egypt, such as it existed in the olden\ntimes,\u2019 and he specially mentions the splendid sanctuary he had built\nfor that deity in Memphis. And not at Memphis alone, but everywhere\nthroughout the land, from the city of Rameses in the north to the\nwonderful rock-temples of the south, we can see the magnificent traces\nleft by the hand of this mighty sovereign. In Thebes itself, he added\na grand court to the temple of Luxor founded by Amenhotep III. of the\npreceding dynasty. This temple was connected by an avenue of sphinxes\nwith the still more magnificent \u2018great Temple of Amen,\u2019 the foundation\nof which had been laid by Amenemhat I., not long after the close of the\ncivil wars, and before the Hyksos invasion.\n\n[Illustration: Temple and Garden.]\n\nHowever the Egyptian temples might differ in size or splendour, the\nidea and plan were alike\u2014so that it has been said, \u2018If you have seen\none temple, you have seen all.\u2019 A wall of enclosure surrounded the\nprecincts, which were adorned with trees, flowers, and artificial\nlakes. The temple itself was approached by an avenue of sphinxes.\nBefore the entrance stood obelisks and colossal statues. On either side\nof the gateway rose the pylons\u2014massive towers, broader at the base\nthan at the summit; they were covered with pictorial and sculptured\nrepresentations of the great events of the day, and above them rose\nthe tall masts of cedar wood, whence floated the gay streamers on\ndays of festival and rejoicing. Passing through between the pylons,\na vast court was entered, surrounded by columns and open to the sky.\nBeyond were halls, the roofs supported on pillars, and in these the\nlight glimmered but faintly amidst the forest of majestic columns.\nEach hall or court was of less size than the one before it, and the\ninnermost sanctuary was small, dark, and mysterious in its solemn\nobscurity. Here was the sacred shrine (containing some hidden emblem\nor image of the god), which on solemn occasions was brought out and\ncarried in procession through the city or down the river. These\nshrines or arks are seen depicted in brightly coloured tints on the\nbas-reliefs. The sacred bark is standing on an altar, which is covered\nby a red cloth. On two lesser altars stand flowers and vessels for\nlibation or for incense. In the centre of the boat is the ark itself,\na sort of chest partially veiled, in which is for ever hidden the\nmystic symbol of the god. In the bark are small images of men kneeling\nin adoration, and immense artificial lotus and papyrus flowers. Tall\nbanners or sun-screens stand behind, ready to be carried in solemn\nstate in the processions. On the prow of the boat is the sacred hawk,\nand behind it a sphinx, emblem of the king. Underneath are the shafts\non which it rests when it is taken from the altar and borne on the\nshoulders of the priests. Not only the mystic shrine itself, but\nstatues or images of the gods were frequently carried in procession\nwith music, song, and universal rejoicings\u2014queens and princesses\ndeeming it an honour to take part, carrying the sistrum or musical\ninstrument used in the service of the gods. As a rule the people\nprobably were allowed only to enter the vast outer court, kings and\npriests alone penetrating to the interior recesses, where sacrifices\nwere offered and incense ascended in clouds. Sublimity and mystery were\nthe ideas expressed in these Egyptian temples,[54] with their vast\nhalls and shrouded recesses. Comparatively little thought and care were\nexpended on private residences, which were simple and unpretending.\nThe poor were content if they had shelter from the heat and a place of\nstorage for their goods. In the construction of the houses belonging to\nthe richer classes the leading idea was still protection from the heat,\nso that the windows were small, and had wooden shutters. The walls\ninside were decorated with paintings, and even the outside was gaily\ntinted by this colour-loving people, who coloured everything that\nwould admit of it. On the flat roofs of the houses much time was spent,\nas also in the beautiful gardens watered by small canals in the absence\nof rain, and adorned with fish-ponds, trees, and abundance of flowers.\nA late Greek writer goes so far as to say that \u2018flowers of every sort\ngrew all the year round, and that roses and violets especially grew at\nall seasons.\u2019 Be that as it may, the love of the Egyptians for flowers\nwas very great. Flowers are used on all occasions\u2014in social banquets\nthey are in profusion, and they are never wanting in the funeral\nsolemnities; they furnish both decorations for the rooms and houses and\noblations for the gods.\n\n[Illustration: The Sacred Ark.]\n\nThe house was generally built round a court-yard planted with trees\nand refreshed by a fountain. In the country the farm-yards and sheds\nwere at some distance from the dwelling-house; the cattle were tied\nup at feeding-time to rings placed in rows, and were often fed by the\nhand. Around the country-houses were orchards of fig-trees, together\nwith sycamore, peach, pomegranate, date, olive, and almond trees,\nbesides others of names and kinds unknown. Monkeys were sometimes\nemployed in gathering the fruit, and we see from the pictures that\nthey did not fail to help themselves at the same time. Our museums\nshow us the tables and chairs of all sorts that were used by the\nEgyptians\u2014common chairs, camp-stools, and arm-chairs of elegant\nworkmanship, sometimes of ebony inlaid with ivory. There are the double\nchairs where the master and mistress of the house sat when receiving\ntheir guests\u2014couches, footstools, carpets which served as bedding, and\nthe wooden rests on which the head was placed at night. Children\u2019s toys\nof all kinds may be seen, and a variety of musical instruments; for\nmusic was much studied, and was employed not only in the service of the\ntemples, but in the social gatherings of the people, which seem to have\nbeen frequent. But both music and dancing on such occasions appear to\nhave been performed for the amusement of the guests, who are themselves\nonly lookers-on. Buffoons also exhibited, who seem generally to have\nbeen negroes; they are oddly dressed in a bit of bullock\u2019s hide, with\nthe tail attached and tags hanging like beads from their elbows.\nThe chase was a most popular amusement, and besides stags, hares,\netc., there was the exciting sport of hunting wilder beasts, wolves,\njackals, and lions in the desert lands. Fowling and fishing were common\npastimes. We do not meet with the least trace of anything approaching\nto gladiatorial shows; such scenes would have been abhorrent to the\nEgyptian nature. Amongst indoor games we see odd and even\u2014_mora_ (a\nguessing game), draughts, and others unknown to us. Athletic games\nand outdoor exercises were encouraged amongst children, and there was\na great fondness for playing ball, especially amongst the girls, who\nattained great skill in the exercise, sometimes catching two or three\nballs at a time. There was great freedom in social intercourse, and\nwomen mixed in society quite as freely as men.[55]\n\n[Illustration: Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.\n\nPLAYING AT DRAUGHTS.]\n\nThe Egyptians have, in fact, painted their social life for us\nthemselves in fullest detail, whether it is the king standing proudly\nin his war-chariot and striking down his foe, or the potter patiently\nturning his wheel; the priest officiating in the temple rites, or the\nfisherman directing his tiny craft upon the river. We see the baker\nkneading the dough with his feet, and the flat loaves being carried\nround to the customers; the shoemaker, sitting on his three-legged\nstool, is busy fashioning the leather sandal; spinning-wheel and loom\nare producing the \u2018fine linen\u2019 of Egypt, and the needle is skilful in\nbeautiful embroidered work. The pottery is of varied and graceful form,\nthe jewellery of exquisite workmanship. Glass is fashioned, and so is\nbrightly tinted porcelain ware; veneering too is practised with much\nskill.\n\nWe may picture to ourselves the active life and gay animation that\nreigned in the streets of the mighty city that had grown up around\nthe great temples of Amen, or, on the broad waters of the stream, the\nscene of constant traffic, where boats laden with merchandise, fishing\nvessels, and gay-looking pleasure-boats went to and fro in ceaseless\nmotion. The Nile valley is of unusual breadth on both sides of the\nriver here, and forms a sort of amphitheatre closed in by mountain\nranges of varied outlines. It seemed hidden away out of the invader\u2019s\ntrack, the \u2018great city\u2019 in all her imperial beauty, _Apu_, the \u2018city of\nthrones,\u2019 or _Nu_, \u2018the city,\u2019 as her people called her of old. The sky\nis of a deeper blue than in the northern part of the country; and in\nspite of ceaseless sunshine the fields are clothed in richest verdure.\nHere, as everywhere, light and colour reign, the shadows themselves\nare luminous, so radiant is the light, and the colour harmonies of the\nsunset are thus described:\u2014\n\n\u2018The western horizon is a furnace of molten gold, the stems and foliage\nof the palm trees are likewise gold, and through this dazzling glow\nthe purple tints of the hills can just be perceived. The sky and the\nNile become in turn rose-coloured and violet, like the colour of an\namethyst; then the light dies away.\u2019[56]\n\nLet us follow the western sun, and cross the stream, leaving behind us\nthe life and animation of the great city. Here, too, is a city\u2014Western\nThebes[57]\u2014and its streets contain a population vaster far than that\nupon the other side. But all is silent here; no man buys or sells\nor joins in festive mirth. It is the City of the Dead. Here lie in\ncountless numbers the embalmed bodies of those who have passed away\ngeneration after generation: kings and priests\u2014men, women, children\u2014the\nfreeman and the slave. The hills encircling the plain are pierced and\nhoneycombed in all directions with passages and tombs. Here are the\n\u2018eternal dwellings\u2019 of those who on the other side inhabit \u2018hostelries\u2019\nas strangers of a day. And far more thought and care are bestowed upon\nthose than upon these.[58] There are large common tombs, in which the\nbodies of the poor lie ranged side by side. And there are the funeral\nchambers of the rich, with their sculptured fa\u00e7ades, whence winding\ngalleries lead into the heart of the rock. Shafts are sunk, false\npassages that lead nowhere are constructed. Everything is done that\nhuman ingenuity can suggest, if only the body hidden there might never\nbe seen or handled again.[59] Nor is the silent city of the dead\nwithout its stately palaces and temples. The two colossal twin statues\nof Amenhotep III. sit there upon the plain, and behind them is his\nmagnificent temple. A little farther is the Ramesseum, a great temple\nerected by Rameses \u2018to his name,\u2019 and to the memory of his ancestors,\nmarvellous for size and splendour. In the face of the limestone cliff\nto the north-west arises the stately terraced temple of Queen Hatasu,\nand not far off is the narrow gorge leading to the desolate valley of\nthe \u2018tombs of the kings.\u2019\n\nThe priests attached to the service of these temples must have lived in\nthe neighbourhood and kept up intercourse with the world outside, and\nin Western Thebes were the dwellings of all those whose business was\nwith the bodies of the dead,\u2014of those who first opened the corpse, who\nwere reckoned ceremonially unclean, and of those who skilfully embalmed\nand bandaged it afterwards. Not a day could have passed on which some\ncompany of mourners, rich or poor, did not land\u2014their \u2018dark freight,\na vanished life;\u2019 whilst now and again a gorgeous funeral procession\nwound its way through the narrow defile, bearing beneath a funeral tent\nof exquisite workmanship the body of some prince or princess of the\nPharaoh\u2019s house to its last long home in the western hills.\n\nOne day in the year (as we should say, on All Souls\u2019 Day) the family\nand friends of the departed assembled amidst the dead. On that day the\nsilent city was alive and Eastern Thebes deserted. All day long boats\nof every sort plied to and fro, and the western plain was covered with\nvast crowds bringing flowers and garlands and funeral gifts. Within\nthe funeral chambers, richly and brightly adorned with paintings and\nsculptures, the family groups assembled, the scenes around awakening\nvivid associations of the past. The sound of human talk was heard, and\nthe voice of minstrelsy and song. The feast is spread, and here, says\na modern writer[60] who has vividly described the whole scene, the\nassembled family in their social union \u2018remembered their departed ones\nas if they were travellers who had found happiness in a distant land,\nand whom they might hope to see once again sooner or later.\u2019 In fact,\nat the feast thus spread the dead were always looked upon as guests,\nalthough unseen, and were addressed in the festive songs. One of these\nsongs, known as the \u2018Lay of the Harper,\u2019 has been preserved. It is in\nmemory of a priest of Amen named Neferhotep; part is to the following\neffect:\u2014\n\n      \u2018Truly is he now at rest, faithfully his work\n    fulfilled. Men go hence since days of Ra. Youths arise\n    to take their place.\u2019\n\n      \u2018Holy prophet,[61] keep the feast-day! Fragrant oil,\n    delicious balsam, lo, we bring, and flowery wreaths\n    twine we round her breast and arms: Her thy sister\n    dearly loved, resting ever by thy side.\u2019\n\n      \u2018Lift the song and strike the chords, in the presence\n    chamber here! Leave all idle cares behind, and be\n    mindful, Man, of joy, till thy day for going hence,\n    when the traveller findeth rest, in the silence-loving\n    land.\u2019\n\n      \u2018Holy prophet, keep the feast-day! Perfect thou and\n    pure of heart. They who lived have passed away\u2014are\n    as though they had not been. Thy soul dwells amongst\n    them there, by the sacred river\u2019s side, drinking of the\n    crystal stream.\u2019\n\n      \u2018Holy prophet, keep the feast-day! Neferhotep, pure\n    of heart.... Nought might all his works avail, to add\n    one moment to his years....\u2019\n\n      \u2018Mind thee of the day, O man, when thou too must take\n    thy way to the land whence none return. Good for thee\n    then an honest life. For he who loveth Right is blest.\u2019\n\n      \u2018Brave nor coward flee the grave. Proud and humble\n    meet one fate. Give, then, freely, as \u2019tis meet. Isis\n    will bless the good. Happy shall thine old age prove.\u2019\n\nThe memorial chambers in which these feasts were celebrated were\nadorned with pictures and carving representing the familiar scenes\nof daily life, but in the gloomy recesses beyond mystic and awful\nscenes are depicted. The representations of the gods, not often met\nwith in earlier times, had now become common and familiar; and so\ndoes Amenti itself cease to be the \u2018hidden\u2019 world, and the scenes and\nevents of the life after death appear in visible though mystic shape.\nThe Egyptian from of old believed in the judgment before Osiris, but\nnow it was depicted. The heart is seen weighed in the balance; Osiris\nis enthroned as judge; Thoth records the result.[62] The trials that\nawait the spirit take bodily form as foul and hideous monsters that\nmust be encountered and overcome; good and guardian powers appear as\nstar-crowned genii of light; and for the impure spirit the furnace of\npurifying fire is kindled, behind which stands a figure holding in his\nhand the emblem of the purity that must be won.\n\n[Illustration: The Weighing of Actions.]\n\nNor is it the conflicts and triumphs of the human spirit alone that\nare portrayed, but the conflicts and triumphs of the gods themselves.\nWe read in a very ancient chapter of the sacred book: \u2018I am Ra in his\nfirst supremacy\u2014the great god, self-existing. There was a battle-field\nof the gods prepared when I spake.\u2019 Later on a more tangible shape and\nform is given to this great battle. In the tomb of Seti I. we may see\nit all in allegory and mystic symbol. Here is depicted in a series of\ntableaux the \u2018passage of the Sun through the hours of the day and of\nthe night,\u2019 _i.e._ of the visible and invisible world, beholding and\nruling all, both mortal and immortal. Ra in his bark, the \u2018ancient and\nunknown One in his mystery,\u2019 accompanied by gods and spirits, finds\nthe \u2018field of battle prepared.\u2019 The serpent of evil, Apepi, lies in\nwait, hidden beneath the waves of the celestial rivers\u2014the ether.\nAfter a hard struggle he is drawn out and destroyed, and the heavenly\nbark disappears in peace behind the western horizon, received by the\nmother goddess Nut.[63] A hymn addressed to Ra, \u2018Lord of the horizon,\u2019\ncelebrates his triumph: \u2018Thou awakenest, triumphant and blessed One,\nthou who comest in radiance and travellest in thy disk! Thy divine\nbark[64] speeds on, blest by thy mother Nut each day; thy foes fall\nas thou turnest thy face to the western heaven. Glad are the mariners\nof thy bark; Ra hath quelled his impious foe, he striketh down the\nevil one, thou breakest his strength, casting him into the fire that\nencircleth in its season the children of wickedness.\u2019\n\nAn eminent writer who has devoted himself to the study of ancient\nreligions says:\u2014\u2018In spite of the abundance of materials, in spite\nof the ruins of temples and numberless statues and half-deciphered\npapyri\u2014I must confess that we have not yet come very near the beatings\nof the heart that gave life to all this strange and mysterious\ngrandeur.\u2019[65] This is only what might be expected; for the symbolism\nof any religion is apt to assume an unmeaning and often a grotesque\nappearance in the eyes of men professing another faith, and no religion\nwas ever so pervaded by symbolism as that of ancient Egypt. Symbols are\nnot, in any sense, works of art; they are never chosen for intrinsic\nworth or beauty,[66] and are valueless, excepting for the sake of some\nassociation of idea, which led to their selection. They are intended\nto represent, but not seldom also to veil, thoughts and mysteries that\ncannot be uttered in language, or _expressed_ in any form or image. But\nin all religions there is a tendency to separate the symbol from the\nthought, and this, carried to its fullest extent, ends in idolatry;\nthe mere symbol seems to the ignorant and superstitious to be endowed\nwith power and divine attributes, and becomes itself a god. That which\ngave the Egyptian religion an especially strange and even absurd\naspect, in the eyes of Greek and Roman travellers of a later day, was\nits use of living symbols, _i.e._ of the sacred animals, which was then\nso excessive as to have become its prominent feature on first sight,\nand which led to idolatry of the most base and degraded kind.\n\nThere are a few traces of the existence of animal worship under the\nearly dynasties; they are but few, however, and, so far as I am aware,\nno notice of sacred animals occurs between the age of Khufu and the\nreign of Rameses II. Nor are the gods depicted in the memorial chambers\nof the departed before the times of the eighteenth dynasty. Under\nThothmes III., their figures are constantly met with, often with the\nhead of the symbolic creature that was their emblem (see p. 119). The\nreason for the selection is often plain. The bull or the ram might\ndenote undaunted strength and the protection of the weak, the hawk\nunerring sight, the crocodile terror, the scarab\u00e6us tender foresight\nand unwearied care for its offspring. And not only were the gods\nrepresented under the form of these and other objects, but the living\nanimals themselves were symbolic and sacred. Each district had its own\nsacred animal, fed and tended with the devoutest care. Certain of them,\nhowever, attained to far greater celebrity than the rest\u2014the Ram of\nMendes; Mnevis, the bull sacred to Ra, at Heliopolis; and, above all,\nApis, the bull sacred to Ptah, at Memphis. The eldest son of Rameses,\nnamed Khamus, who was governor of Memphis, was also high priest of\nPtah, and more especially under his form or manifestation as Apis.\nIt requires very little knowledge of human nature, and very little\nacquaintance with history, to feel assured that the crowds who gathered\nround these symbolic creatures would regard them with superstitious\nreverence, and that to not a few the animal would be no longer a symbol\nbut a god.\n\nAnimal worship grew and developed immensely after the days of Rameses.\nAt a later period we find Greek and Roman travellers noticing it with\ncuriosity or contempt. Herodotus and Strabo saw the sacred crocodiles\nin the Fayoum, adorned with golden ornaments, and fed with the flesh\nof the sacrifices. Diodorus tells us of the furious wrath of Egyptian\nvillagers against a Roman soldier who had killed a cat. The comic\nwriters of Greece and the satirists of Rome made merry over these\npeculiar deities.\n\n\u2018You are never done laughing every day of your lives at the Egyptians,\u2019\nsays an early Christian writer to his heathen contemporaries. Philo,\nthe Jewish philosopher of Alexandria, tells us that foreigners coming\nto Egypt knew not what to do for laughter at the divine animals, but\nthat in the end they were themselves overpowered by the superstition.\nThere were not wanting those who, acknowledging that the animals were\nto be regarded merely as symbolic, based their arguments against the\ncustom on that very ground.[67] The days of foreign criticism were,\nhowever, as yet in the distant future when the kings of the nineteenth\ndynasty were on the throne.\n\nThe growth of animal worship seems to speak of degradation in the\nnational religion, and there are not wanting at the same time evidences\nboth of a decay in the national morality and of a decline in art. When\nart is required to work by the acre its productions are not likely\nto be distinguished by high excellence or exquisite finish. In the\ndrawings of the time of Rameses the heads indeed are still good and the\nportraits characteristic, but the figures are ill-drawn in the extreme,\nand often most hastily finished off. Egyptian art suffered severely\nunder the influence of certain fixed rules concerning the drawing and\nthe proportion of figures. Under the earlier dynasties there are signs\nof greater freedom of treatment than prevailed at a later period, when\nthe conventional rules, which no one ventured to infringe, had checked\nthe progress of all true art by putting a stop to its free exercise.\nThis following of a stereotyped pattern, combined with the absence\nof perspective, gives the Egyptian drawings a very odd and stiff\nappearance. The portraiture remained excellent, and much spirit was\noften shown in the drawing of animals and in humorous scenes; indeed,\nthe manner in which, in hieroglyphic writing, the individual character\nof an animal or bird is given in a few minute lines is quite wonderful.\nThe graceful outline of their pottery, the exquisite workmanship of\ntheir jewellery, show how much true artistic power was there, had\nit only been allowed free scope. But there never was a nation that\nclung so tenaciously to fixed laws and forms. Their monarchy, their\nreligion, lasted unchanged as no other has yet done;[68] the very\nfashion of their dress varied but little with the centuries, and their\nmagnificent temples were built and rebuilt on the same scheme. But\nalready, under the nineteenth dynasty, other influences were strongly\nat work. The Delta was full of foreign settlers, and the names of\nsome of its cities were Semitic. Literature was affected, and the\nyounger writers of the day were given to introducing Semitic words and\nphrases\u2014just as an English or German author does with French. Whole\nbodies of mercenary troops were employed in the army under a special\ncommander; others were used in the naval service, which was never very\npopular in Egypt, but which was becoming of more and more importance.\nOthers again, not judged fit for these branches, were reduced to\nserfage, being employed in the service of the kings and of the temples,\nor in still harder bondage on the public buildings, in the quarries, or\nthe mines. Many of these, we learn, were branded with the name of the\ngod or master to whom they were assigned, and here we see at once the\narising of that distrust and fear which always beset the ease of the\nowners of the slave. Slavery was universal in the ancient world, but in\nEgypt it had always worn a milder aspect than it ever assumed in any\nother country, unless it were Greece, much of whose early civilisation\ncame from the land of the Nile. Even in the days of harsher servitude\nat which we have now arrived, there were no such hideous cruelties as\nwe meet with in the blood-stained pages of Roman, Carthaginian, or\nAmerican slavery. The Egyptian slave was well fed, and by the moral and\nreligious code maltreatment of a slave was an offence. We do not know\nthe legal code on this subject, but the moral tone is clearly shown in\nthe confession every ruler had to make before Osiris: \u2018I have allowed\nno master to maltreat his slave.\u2019 But moral feeling can grow blunt, and\nmaltreatment was not wanting in the days of Rameses II.\n\nThe Hebrew colony in Goshen, so warmly welcomed by the Hyksos kings,\nmust have been regarded with distrust on the accession of the native\ndynasty, which \u2018knew not Joseph,\u2019 and had the utmost aversion for aught\nthat was connected with the rulers he had served. Under Rameses, or one\nof his predecessors, the Hebrews had been reduced to cruel bondage;\n\u2018they built for Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom and Raamses.\u2019[69]\nTheir future deliverer, rescued from death by a princess of the royal\nhouse,[70] must have spent many years at Zoan, the favourite residence\nof Rameses, which was close to the district of Goshen, and there he\nwould have the opportunity at any moment of \u2018going out to his brethren\nand looking upon their burdens.\u2019\n\nMoses did not return from his exile during the lifetime of Rameses,\nbut \u2018in _process of time_\u2019 that sovereign died.[71] On the accession\nof Menephtah the hardships of the people were intensified, but their\ndeliverance was close at hand. There is no need to relate the familiar\nstory of their marvellous escape, and of the pursuit, in which so many\nof the chosen chariots and horses of Menephtah perished.\n\nNo inscriptions or records have, as yet, been found relating to the\nlong sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, to the oppression, or to the\nexodus, though there can be little doubt that some of the highest\ninterest might be brought to light were the exploration of the historic\nsites of the Delta undertaken in earnest.[72] The chief event recorded\nof the reign of Menephtah is connected with the western boundary. On\nthe north-east the frontier district bristled with fortresses, where\nsentinels kept their daily and nightly watch. The great military route\nthat started thence was well guarded, and a regular communication\nkept up with the Egyptian garrisons, which were still maintained in\nsome parts of Syria. By the same road there was a constant commercial\nintercourse with Ph\u0153nicia, and probably also to some extent with\nthe distant Khetan allies;\u2014we find, at any rate, from an incidental\nallusion, that during a famine in that land, the lives of the people\nwere saved by corn sent from Egypt at Menephtah\u2019s direction. But on\nthe western frontier, the limits were not so definite. There was less\nanxiety and less watchfulness. Whilst the utmost thought and vigilance\nhad been exerted in the north-east, the west had been left practically\nundefended. Whole districts had long been harassed by the inroads\nof the Libyan tribes, and cultivation had ceased. The invaders had\neven gained a firm footing in some places, and had ventured to settle\nthemselves in the neighbourhood of the towns, whilst the fortifications\nof Memphis itself had been suffered to fall into neglect. The Libyan\npeople apparently regarded these settlements as a sort of advanced\nposts, and in the fifth year of Menephtah they were followed up by\nthe further advance upon Egypt of an immense host, composed of the\nLibyans, their mercenary troops, and allies drawn from every part of\nNorth Africa, and possibly from more distant regions still. Tidings\nwere brought the king that Marmaiu, the Libyan king, had \u2018sought out\nthe best of all the combatants and of all the quick runners, and had\nbrought his wife and children with him\u2019\u2014being apparently sure of\nsuccess, and intent on finding a new home in the rich Egyptian land.\nNo little alarm was excited throughout the country and even in the\narmy itself, for we are told that the king addressed his troops \u2018with\nflashing eyes,\u2019 and upbraided them with trembling like geese, and not\nknowing what to do or how to meet the enemy. \u2018The pillagers,\u2019 he said,\n\u2018are devastating the country; they have come, following their chief,\nthat they may gain cultivated lands, and fill their mouths with food\ndaily. Fain would they establish themselves in Khemi.... Behold, I am\nyour shepherd. Who is like me to keep life in his children? Should\nthey be anxious and frightened like birds?\u2019 These remonstrances were\nreceived in silence. Then the king proceeded to declare that he would\nnot \u2018await the enemy\u2019s approach, so that the land should be wasted\nby the advance of the foreign peoples. Their king is like a dog;\nhe brags with his mouth, but his courage is naught.\u2019 Pharaoh\u2019s own\nheart, however, may not have been quite at ease, in spite of his brave\nspeeches, when he retired to rest that night\u2014but his confidence was\nrevived by a dream. The god Ptah appeared to him, and put a scimitar\ninto his hand, exhorting him to \u2018put away dejection and desponding\nthoughts.\u2019 \u2018What am I to do?\u2019 inquired the king. Ptah, in reply,\ndirected him to proceed with all his forces, and join battle with the\nfoe at Pi-ari-sheps (Prosopis). Accordingly, he there attacked the\nconfederates, and gained a complete victory. The brunt of the battle,\nhowever, seems to have been borne by the mercenary troops. \u2018For six\nhours,\u2019 says the narrative, \u2018the foreign mercenaries of his majesty\nhewed down the foe. The sword gave no mercy, and the land was full of\ncorpses.\u2019 The fugitives, amongst whom was the Libyan king himself, were\npursued by the horsemen. All the goods and ornaments of the hostile\nprince were captured, and the skin tents of the Libyans burnt upon the\nfield of battle. More than 14,000 were reckoned amongst the slain,\nand over 9000 were made prisoners. The battle of Prosopis secured\ntranquillity upon the frontier for a considerable time.\n\nThe reign of Seti Menephtah II. affords very little worthy of notice.\nIt was quiet and uneventful, but was followed by a period of confusion\nand civil war. The names of rival kings are preserved, but the details\nof the history are very obscure. A good general impression, however,\nof the disastrous scenes amidst which the nineteenth dynasty closed\nis given by Rameses III., first king of the succeeding dynasty. \u2018The\nland,\u2019 he tells us, \u2018had fallen into confusion; each man did as he\nchose; there was no sovereign master. The princes of the nomes bore\nsway, and men slaughtered each other through fear and jealousy. The end\nof these years of calamity was that Aarsu, a Syrian by birth, gained\nthe chief supremacy, and the whole land did him homage. The gods fared\nno better than men; their images were overthrown, and no oblations were\nbrought to the temples.\n\n\u2018Then was Setnekht, the beloved of Amen, raised up by the gods. He was\nlike Set in the day of his wrath, and terrible like the god of war.\nHe took command of the whole country, and destroyed the evil-doers\nwho had wasted Lower Egypt; he purified the great throne of Khemi,\nand restored that which had been disturbed. Each man saw and knew\nhis brother again, from whom he had been separated as by a wall. The\nsacrifices were reinstated for the gods. He made me heir of the throne\nof Seb, and ruler of the lands of Khemi. Then he sought repose among\nthe gods; the royal bark crossed the river, and he entered his eternal\ndwelling-place in Western Thebes.\u2019\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[54] In one hall, forming only a _part_ of the temple in which it\nstands, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, at Paris, could stand without\ntouching the walls!\n\n[55] For the foregoing particulars and some of the following, see Sir\nJ. Gardner Wilkinson\u2019s _Ancient Egyptians_.\n\n[56] Amp\u00e8re, _Voyage en Egypte et Nubie_.\n\n[57] Thebes was indeed always considered as two cities. Homer makes it\nplural, and it has ever since been so\u2014_Theb\u00e6_.\n\n[58] The Greek writer Diodorus Siculus says: \u2018The Egyptians call their\nhouses hostelries, since they can enjoy them for a brief space only;\nwhereas their tombs are the eternal dwelling-places of the future.\u2019\n\n[59] For some parts of the description of the cities of Thebes, see\nKarl Oppel\u2019s _Land der Pyramiden_.\n\n[60] Ebers, in his Egyptian novel of the time of Rameses II., _Uarda_.\n\n[61] Addressed to the departed seer.\n\n[62] I am not sure at how early a date the judgment scene is depicted\nin any existing funeral papyri; but I believe there is no doubt that\nneither that nor any \u2018other world\u2019 scene occurs in the tombs of the\nearlier dynasties, so far as they are yet known.\n\n[63] Notice the similarity of thought underlying this myth and that of\nOsiris and Set.\n\n[64] This idea of a sacred bark appears also in the form assigned to\nthe sacred shrine, p. 177.\n\n[65] Max M\u00fcller, _Science of Religion_.\n\n[66] Take in illustration the symbols on any national flag. There is\nno intrinsic beauty in three coloured stripes, or in the grotesque\nfigures of lions rampant. Yet for the sake of the nation of which they\nhave become symbolic, men will die sooner than surrender the banners\non which they are depicted. It is the same with the symbols of rival\nreligions. How fierce the conflict waged by Saracen and Christian\nbeneath the respective symbols of the Crescent and the Cross!\n\n[67] The biographer of Apollonius of Tyana records the following\nconversation. \u2018The beasts and birds,\u2019 says Apollonius, \u2018may derive\ndignity from such representations, but the gods will lose theirs.\u2019 \u2018I\nthink,\u2019 says his opponent, \u2018you slight our mode of worship before you\nhave given it a fair examination. For surely what we are speaking of is\nwise, if anything Egyptian is so; the Egyptians do not venture to give\nany form to their deities, they only give them in symbols which have an\noccult meaning, that renders them venerable.\u2019 Apollonius, however, is\nnot convinced: he admits that the mind forms to itself an idea which it\npictures better than any art can do, but he complains that the Egyptian\ncustom takes from the gods the very power of appearing beautiful\neither to the eye or to the mind. Porphyry also regards the worship as\nsymbolic; he says that \u2018under the semblance of animals the Egyptians\nworship the universal power which the gods have revealed in the various\nforms of living nature.\u2019 These quotations and those in the text are\ntaken from Le Page Renout\u2019s _Hibbert Lectures_.\n\n[68] We may, perhaps, except the Chinese.\n\n[69] Recent investigation has identified Tel-el-Maschuta, a spot not\nfar from the modern Ismailia, as the site of both the Pithom and the\nSuccoth of the Old Testament; the former was the sacred, the latter the\ncivil name of the city, which is thus shown to have been one of the\nstore-cities built by the Israelites (Ex. i. II), and also the first\nstage reached by them on their journey (Ex. xii. 37; xiii. 20). The\nword _Ar_, meaning storehouse, occurs in the inscription by which M.\nNaville first identified Pithom-Succoth.\n\n[70] Generally supposed to have been a daughter of Rameses, but if\nMoses was eighty when he stood before the successor of that monarch,\nthat would have been impossible.\n\n[71] Ex. ii. 23. How well this incidental allusion coincides with the\nsixty-seven years\u2019 reign of Rameses II.!\n\n[72] Such an investigation has been recently undertaken by the _Egypt\nExploration Fund_. The extent to which it may be carried depends\nentirely on the means placed at its disposal.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nTwentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties\u2014The Ramessid\u00e6 and the Priest-Kings.\n\n(_Circa_ 1200-970 B.C.)\n\n\nIt may be doubtful whether Rameses III., son of the Setnekht who\npacified Egypt and restored order, was connected by blood with the\npreceding dynasties. He bore the name of an illustrious predecessor,\nhowever, and throughout his reign he appears to have made it his aim\nto emulate the great Rameses. His first task was to reorganise the\npublic service, which had fallen into great disorder; to appoint and\nto regulate the station and office of the prince-governors, of the\nsoldiers of the army and their foreign auxiliaries, of the inferior\nservants and the bondsmen. The earliest years of his reign were\ndisturbed by invasion both from east and west. The Shashu and the\nLibyans, ever hanging on the confines, were always ready to cross the\nborder of the Delta when opportunity served, and during the tumults,\namidst which the nineteenth dynasty closed, such an opportunity\ncertainly presented itself. After assailing the invaders and driving\nthem back, Rameses transplanted his prisoners into large fortified\nplaces, where they were kept under guard, and a certain quantity of\nwoven stuff and corn was yearly exacted from them, for the service\nof the temples. But a more dangerous foe remained to be assailed. A\ncertain tribe, known as the Mashausha, had penetrated the land south\nof Memphis, had entered the oasis of the Fayoum, and had not only\ngradually crept south, but had advanced eastwards from the Fayoum\nto the Nile itself. Of certain towns these foreigners had even held\npossession for years. In the fifth year of his reign, Rameses III.\nattacked the Mashausha, and, after a fearful slaughter, drove them out\nof the land. The prisoners appear to have been employed as mercenaries\nin the army and navy, whilst their wives and children were removed to\nfortified places, and their flocks and herds confiscated to the service\nof the temple of Amen-Ra.\n\nAt the head of the Red Sea the king constructed a well, carefully\nguarded by fortifications, and re-opened trade with Punt by way of\nKoptos and the sea. He also renewed the working of the _mafek_[73] and\ncopper mines. Then he tells us he planted trees and shrubs throughout\nthe land, that the people might sit under the shade, and he says\nfurther, that the country was so safe that the weakest woman might\ntravel alone without fear of molestation. \u2018The soldiers of the horse\nand foot,\u2019 continues his account, \u2018live at ease; the Sardinian and\nLibyan auxiliaries stretch themselves full length upon their backs.\nThey are not on the watch, for the enemy have ceased to invade. Their\nbows and arrows lie useless. They eat and drink with their wives and\nchildren, and make themselves merry. I am among them as a protector\nready to defend.\u2019\n\nBut soon another dark cloud, gathering in the distance, rapidly\napproached, and broke in a torrent of invasion upon the northern shore.\nThe foe came this time from the distant regions of Asia Minor.\n\nThe old claims of Egypt to supremacy in Asia had long been suffered to\nlapse, and the course of time brought many changes.\n\nIn the earliest ages, strong and civilised kingdoms (perhaps coeval\nwith the pyramids) had existed at Ur, Larsa, and other cities of\nChaldea. But they had fallen and passed away when Thothmes III. entered\nMesopotamia. The country was then divided into petty principalities,\nwhich were subdued with little difficulty. By the time Rameses II. was\non the throne (the fourteenth century B.C.), Nineveh and Babylon had\nbecome the capitals of strong and important states, and were constantly\nengaged in mortal conflict for supremacy. They were absorbed in this\nmutual strife and in warding off the hostile assaults of the Elamites\nand other neighbouring nations; neither state was as yet thinking of\nfar-extended conquest and dominion. The Israelites entered Canaan and\ncarried on a war of extermination against its inhabitants, but they\nonly succeeded in establishing themselves in parts of the country,\ngenerally in the more hilly districts, as the Canaanites, possessing\nchariots and horses, were able to maintain possession of the plains.\nThe Egyptians probably viewed this fierce conflict with indifference,\ncareful only that the great military road should not be interfered\nwith, and the Israelites, maintaining their hold of the \u2018promised land\u2019\nwith much difficulty, were by no means prepared for any such attempt.\nNorth of Syria the power of the Kheta had greatly diminished, and was\nstill further weakened by the assault of a mighty host of confederated\ntribes, which, emerging at this juncture from the hills and coast lands\nof Asia Minor, poured in a resistless stream towards the south. With\nthem may have been allied, in hope of plunder, Etruscans, pirates from\nof old, and not unlikely roving Greeks from the isles and shores of the\nMediterranean, probably little better than pirates themselves. For this\nformidable onslaught was made by sea and land simultaneously. The land\nforces defeated the Kheta, occupied Kadi (Galilee), and pitched their\ncamp for a while in the land of the Amorites, ravaging and plundering\nas they went. The sequel may be described in the graphic narrative\nof Rameses III.: \u2018They came leaping from their coasts and islands,\nand spread themselves at once over all lands; no people stood before\ntheir arms. Their nostrils snuffed the air of the southern lands;\ntheir desire was to breathe a balmy atmosphere. On they came against\nthe Egyptian land. But there was in readiness a fiery furnace before\ntheir faces on the side of Egypt. Their hearts were full of confidence,\ntheir minds of plans. But an ambush was prepared for them, and they\nwere taken in the snare like birds. They who reached the boundaries\nof my land never reaped harvest more. Their soul and spirit passed\naway for ever. A mighty firebrand was lighted before those who were\nassembled on the great sea in front of the mouths of the river. A wall\nof iron shut them in on the lake. They were caught like birds in a\nnet, and were made prisoners; their ships and all they possessed lay\nstrewn on the mirror of the water. Those who came by the way of the\nland, Amen-Ra pursued and annihilated them. Thus have I taken from\nthe nations the desire to direct their thoughts against Egypt.\u2019 This\naccount of the great battle of Migdol, which secured a long period of\nrepose from hostile attack, is inscribed upon the walls of the great\ntemple which Rameses III. erected not far from the colossi of Amenhotep\nIII. in Western Thebes. Here are also pictorial representations of the\nscene where naval warfare is for the first time depicted. No doubt the\nservices of the mercenaries, so largely employed in the fleet, stood\nthe Egyptians in good stead at this crisis, the naval service never\nbeing popular with the native population.\n\nThe great temple of Rameses III. at Medinet Habou (to which, for the\nfirst time, so far as we know, a palace was annexed) was enriched with\nvast donations by the king; he also conferred immense gifts on other\ntemples, which are detailed in almost endless lists. For Rameses III.,\nat some period, undertook wars of retribution, and won victories, and\nacquired rich spoil, both on the mainland and in the Mediterranean\nisles, more especially in Cilicia and in Cyprus. Fabulous stories were\ncurrent in after times concerning King Rampsinitus (as the Greeks\ncalled this monarch) and his wonderful treasure-house. Herodotus heard\nsome of these sensational narratives, and recorded them at full length\nin his writings.\n\nIn the construction of this temple, Rameses III. did not scruple to\nemploy materials taken from those of his predecessors. Bricks with\nthe names of Seti I. and Rameses II. were freely used to build up its\nwalls. Nor was this all he borrowed, for, as if he had not acquired\nsufficient renown on his own account, he adopted an inscription in\nhonour of Rameses the Great as his own. It is a long panegyric in the\nmost grandiloquent language, and not only abounds in general phrases of\nmuch high-flown glorification of the king, but especially commemorates\nhis building up of the city of Zoan and his first meeting with the\nPrincess of Kheta. Rameses III. had the whole panegyric copied, with a\nfew slight necessary changes. He, however, let it appear as if he had\nbeen the builder of Zoan, only stopping short of claiming the Khetan\nprincess as his bride. It is curious that, after all, these attempts of\nthe third Rameses to associate and almost to identify himself with the\nsecond Rameses may be said to have so far succeeded that they were in\nfact often confused with each other by foreign historians, and it is\ndoubtful to this day which of the two was meant by the Sesostris of the\nGreeks\u2014the probability being that he was a personage created out the\nconfused traditions of both the Egyptian conquerors.\n\nIn spite of riches and renown, the throne of the third Rameses was not\ntoo securely based. It may have been that he was not of the ancient\nrace, so long venerated and deified by the people, or it may have been\nthat there was a general decay in Egyptian loyalty, but the fact is\ncertain that a conspiracy of the most alarming extent was discovered,\noriginating in the royal household itself. The conspirators were\ndetected in time, and the record of their trial has been preserved.\nMany officers of high rank and many ladies in the palace were\nimplicated. The first page of the papyrus is unfortunately defaced, so\nthat the precise object and nature of the plot must remain uncertain.\nThe royal commission to the judges is in the following terms:\u2014\u2018Those\nwho are accused by the country I give them into your charge. As to\nthe talk of men I know nothing about it. Go ye and judge. Let what\nthey have done be upon their own heads.\u2019 Sentence of death[74] was\npronounced on most of the criminals, others were condemned to have\ntheir noses and ears cut off, the women appear to have been sentenced\nto a sort of penal servitude.\n\nAmongst the means resorted to by the conspirators magic and sorcery\nplayed a conspicuous part. One Penhi, superintendent of the herds, is\nreported to have said:\u2014\u2018If only I possessed a writing that would give\nme power and strength!\u2019 Having succeeded in procuring such a writing,\nan \u2018enchantment fell upon him so that he gained admittance to the\nwomen\u2019s house and to the deep and secret place. He made human figures\nin wax for the purpose of alienating the mind of one of the maidens and\nof bewitching another, inciting them to all kinds of wickedness and\nvillainy by his writings.\u2019\n\nThere is good evidence that the practice of sorcery and magical arts\nof all sorts was greatly on the increase. The very tales that have\nbeen preserved belonging to this period are of wonder and enchantment;\nsuperstition was rife on all hands. The god especially honoured under\nthe twentieth dynasty was the oracle-giving Khons;[75] the chapters of\nthe ritual assigned to this date are full of elaborate ceremonial, and\nthe use of certain portions as a spell or talisman is more and more\ninsisted on. Great virtue was also assigned to the mere repetition of\nlong and apparently meaningless names. Omens of all kinds were much\nregarded, and so were lucky and unlucky days in the calendar.[76]\nNevertheless, alongside of these superstitious notions and practices\nthere existed a higher and a nobler life; no hymns preserved to us are\nmore lofty and beautiful in tone than some that are assigned to this\nperiod. In one addressed to Amen-Ra, we read:\u2014\n\n      \u2018O Ra, adored in Thebes! Thy love pervades the earth.\n    Thou makest grass for the cattle and fruit-bearing\n    trees for men. He causeth fish to live in the river,\n    and giveth food to the birds upon the wing, food to the\n    mice in their holes, and to the flying creatures on the\n    trees.\n\n      \u2018Hail to thee! say all creatures, from the height of\n    heaven to the breadth of the earth, and to the deep\n    places of the sea\u2014Adoration unto thee who hast created\n    us!\n\n      \u2018The spirits thou hast made bow down before thee; the\n    gods adore thy majesty. We, the creatures of thy hand,\n    praise thee for our being, we give thanks to thee for\n    thy mercy towards us,\u2014whose name is hidden from his\n    creatures\u2014in his Name which is AMEN.\u2019[77]\n\nThe hymn to the Nile, which is ascribed to the preceding dynasty, is\nvery remarkable from the twofold aspect it presents us. At first we\nseem to behold only the river or some local deity impersonated in the\nriver:\u2014\n\n    \u2018Hail to thee, O Nile!\n    Coming in peace, giving life to Khemi,\n    Watering the land unceasingly,\n    He maketh the fields ready for the plough;\n    Every creature receiveth food.\u2019\n\nAfter the song has proceeded for some time in this strain, all on a\nsudden the Nile disappears from view, and the worshipper is in the\npresence of the divine and unutterable, though with no apparent change\nof person:\u2014\n\n    \u2018He is not graven in marble,\n    No eye of man can behold him;\n    He hath no ministers nor offerings!\n    He is not adored in sanctuaries,\n    His dwelling is not known;\n    No shrine is found, nor pictured words,\n    No building may contain him!\u2019\n\nBut then the loftier strain subsides again, and the hymn closes with\nthe words:\u2014\n\n    \u2018Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile!\n    Giving life to men by his oxen,\n    Life to his oxen by his meadow land\u2014\n    Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile!\u2019\n\nRameses III. constructed for himself in the \u2018valley of the kings,\u2019 a\ntomb which contained eight or ten chambers adorned with pictures of\nscenes taken from both the present and the future life. Amongst them\noccurs one evidently intended as an allegoric representation of the\nhope of life after death\u2014\u2018The horizon of heaven supported by a female\nfigure, and the sun just rising above it; this is so placed that a ray\nof light can penetrate from the entrance of the tomb, 350 feet off,\nand pass over the sarcophagus and illuminate this emblem of eternal\nhope.\u2019[78]\n\nThe thirteen succeeding sovereigns all bore the name of Rameses, but\nhardly any record is left of their reigns. There are inscriptions\nextant which belong to this period, lofty and bombastic in the extreme,\nand exceeding in the pompous assumption of their style those of their\npredecessors, if possible. They are mere empty phrases, which produce\nonly an impression of absurdity when applied to the Ramessid\u00e6 as they\npass across the stage in monotonous succession, and leave behind no\nachievements or triumphs either of peace or of war. The fourth, sixth,\nand seventh of these kings were sons of Rameses III.; the fifth of the\nname was a usurper, so it is not likely that the reigns of all the four\ntogether occupied any considerable period. One or two of the Ramessid\u00e6\nconstructed tombs for themselves in the \u2018valley of the kings;\u2019 they\nwere given to carving their names and inscriptions on the monuments of\ntheir predecessors, but all of them in succession did not quite achieve\nthe completion of the small oracle-temple of Khons, which was the\nfamily sanctuary of their house. The chief event which is recorded of\nthese dull times is, however, significant, as showing how the profound\nsense of veneration for the \u2018eternal dwelling-places\u2019 of the departed\nmust have been deadened, if not lost. In the reign of Rameses IX., it\nwas discovered that there was an organised scheme for breaking open\nand plundering the tombs supposed most likely to contain treasure; the\nresting-places of the sovereigns themselves were not respected. The\naccused were brought to trial, and a careful investigation of the tombs\nwas instituted. It was found that in many cases the difficult task of\nreaching the carefully concealed sarcophagus had been successfully\naccomplished; the mummies had been dragged out, and the funeral gifts,\nand aught else of value, carried off. Under the twentieth dynasty\nthe throne was no longer safe from conspiracy and domestic treason;\nthe very sanctity of the grave was violated, and the mummies of the\ndeparted were not secure from outrage and plunder.\n\nThe oracle-temple of Khons was consulted on every important occasion,\nand its fame seems to have spread far beyond the limits of Egypt\nitself. A curious episode belonging to the reign of Rameses XII. has\nbeen preserved, in a story written on the walls of this temple. It\nrelates that the king had married a princess of the land of Bakhten,\nand that on a certain festival day there came a messenger from that\ncountry bringing presents for the king, accompanied by a request from\nthe King of Bakhten. His daughter, the younger sister of the Queen\nof Egypt, had become possessed by a strange malady, and his majesty\nimplored that a learned man acquainted with such things might be sent\nfrom Egypt to see her. Rameses XII. accordingly sent a learned man\nthither, who found the princess \u2018in the state of one possessed with\nspirits,\u2019 but the spirit was hostile, nor could the learned man prevail\nover him. A second message came from the troubled father, entreating\nthat an Egyptian god might be sent to Bakhten. Pharaoh was standing\nbefore the shrine of the oracle-giving Khons, who was especially noted\nfor power over such maladies. On inquiring whether the god would be\nwilling to undertake the journey, the king received a favourable\nanswer. Accordingly the shrine of Khons was borne upon the shoulders\nof twelve priests the whole way from Egypt to Bakhten, a journey of\none year and five months, attended by chariots and horsemen on the\nright hand and on the left. The king and the princes came forth to\nmeet and to welcome the ark, and prostrated themselves on the ground\nbefore it, and the god proceeded to the palace where the princess was,\nand speedily effected a cure. The expelled spirit thereupon made a\nhumble submission to the god as his slave, and expressed his readiness\nto return whence he came\u2014only, he asked that, first of all, a great\nsacrifice might be made in his honour. His request was granted, and,\nsays the story, \u2018the spirit went in peace wherever he chose by order\nof Khons, the giver of oracles. The prince of the land of Bakhten was\nvery much delighted, and so was every one in the land. He said: \u201cI\nwill not let this god go back to Egypt; he shall stay in my country.\u201d\nThree years, four months, five weeks, and one day did the god remain\nin Bakhten. Then it happened that the king saw in a dream the god come\nout of his shrine in the likeness of a hawk of gold; he spread forth\nhis wings and flew on high towards the land of Khemi. When the king\nawoke he was troubled in his mind, and he called the prophet of Khons\nand said to him: \u201cThis god is hostile to us, let us send him back to\nEgypt.\u201d And he gave him many presents, besides troops and very many\nhorsemen. They reached Egypt in peace, and the presents were offered\nto the god. So Khons re-entered his house in peace in the thirty-third\nyear of the king\u2019s reign.\u2019\n\nThe custom now so prevalent of consulting the oracle, and of acting\naccording to its dictates, is one amongst other significant signs of\nthe increasing power and influence of the priesthood and of the part\nthey were gradually assuming in the government of the country. Under\nRameses IX. the positions of king and priest seem already reversed. In\nformer days the kings recorded the story of the magnificent buildings\nthey erected in honour of the gods, and the munificent gifts with\nwhich they endowed the temples, received by the priesthood with loyal\ngratitude. But in the reign of Rameses IX. it is a chief priest of\nAmen-Ra who carves upon the temple wall a full account of all _he_\nhas done in rebuilding and adorning the sacred edifice\u2014the \u2018holy house\nof the chief priests of Amen.\u2019 He, however, inscribes upon the work\nthe full name of Pharaoh, and thus dedicates it to the king, who duly\nacknowledges his obligation, and orders rich rewards and honours to be\nbestowed upon the chief priest in token of the royal gratitude.\n\nThe shadowy forms of the Ramessid kings grow more and more indistinct;\nof the three last, whose names are preserved as the fourteenth,\nfifteenth, and sixteenth Rameses, it is quite uncertain whether they\nwere ever crowned in Thebes. The power of the chief priests during\nthe reign of so many feeble monarchs had, on the other hand, steadily\nincreased, until the government of the country was virtually in their\nhands. Their ambition grew with what it fed on, and by repeated\nintermarriages with princesses of the royal house, they might seem to\nacquire a certain legitimate claim to the throne, of which they at last\ntook possession\u2014Her-hor, \u2018chief priest and first prophet of Amen,\u2019\nbeing proclaimed King of Upper and Lower Egypt probably about 1100 B.C.\n\n[Illustration: Mummy and Mummy-case of the Priest Nebseni.]\n\nThe priests of Egypt formed, as we know, no distinct and isolated\ncaste. They were governors of cities, commanders on the battle-field,\nphysicians, architects, scribes; and thus were often seen in secular\nemployments, although they alone could enter within the sacred recesses\nof the temple and officiate in its services. The kings themselves were\nso far regarded as priests, that they were admitted to perform sacred\nrites, and thus the regal and sacerdotal offices had long been in some\nsense blended before Her-hor assumed the crown as the first sovereign\nof the twenty-first dynasty\u2014the dynasty of the priest-kings.\n\nThe sovereigns of this dynasty showed an especial solicitude in\npreserving from injury and outrage the mortal remains of their\npredecessors. They continued the custom, which had prevailed since the\nspoliation of tombs came to light under Rameses IX., of a periodical\ninspection, carried out officially, the results of which were recorded\non the spot by a scribe. Her-hor chose for his own family burial-place\na lonely spot not far from the terraced temple of Queen Hatasu. A mass\nof broken rock almost hid the entrance, whence, by the descent of\na perpendicular shaft, 25 feet deep, by 7 feet wide, a subterranean\ngallery of 200 feet in length was reached. Beyond was the vault, which\nmeasured about 25 feet by 14. There were either six or seven sovereigns\nof the twenty-first dynasty; and the last but one of them foreseeing,\nit is not unlikely, that a time of trouble and danger was at hand,\ngathered into the gloomy unadorned recesses of the gallery and vault\nof his family tomb the coffins of many illustrious predecessors. He\nthen appears to have finally closed the tomb and suffered himself to\nbe buried elsewhere. It was here that the remains of so many Egyptian\nsovereigns, both of the twenty-first and of earlier dynasties, were\nfound in the great discovery of 1881. The little we know concerning\neven the names and succession of the priestly dynasty has been chiefly\nderived from this their family burial-place. We find that four of them\nmarried wives who were princesses in their own right. One of these\nqueens, wife of Pinotem II., fourth king of the dynasty, is buried\nwith her new-born babe by her side. The papyrus, containing portions\nof the ritual, which according to custom was laid in the sarcophagus,\nis in perfect preservation; it is beautifully written, and is full\nof richly-coloured illustrations, of which the tints are as fresh as\nif laid on yesterday. The last sovereign buried in this tomb was the\nwife of the king who finally closed it. With her were found the usual\nfunereal papyrus, vases, and small statues; and besides these there was\nthe rich and beautifully adorned canopy under which her body had been\nconveyed across the river to the city of the dead, and in a hamper\nby her side was the funeral repast of meat and fruits, which, being\ndedicated to her, show her to have been the last occupant of the family\nvault. With the mummy of the deceased queen was interred a mummied\ngazelle, that had probably been a pet with her in her lifetime. Both\nvault and gallery were now full, and the king closed it; his own tomb\nand that of his successor, the last monarch of the dynasty, are unknown.\n\n[Illustration: Mummy of a Gazelle.]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[73] Sometimes supposed to have been the turquoise, but it is doubtful\nwhether correctly so.\n\n[74] The wording of the judgment seems to imply a judicial suicide.\n\n[75] Khons was the son of Amen and of Mut, the \u2018divine mother,\u2019 and\nformed with them the sacred triad of Thebes: but his worship never\nassumed a prominent place before this period. In many respects\nresembling Thoth, and, like him, connected with the moon, he was the\nespecial god of the priesthood and giver of oracles.\n\n[76] Tiele, _Hist. of Egyp. Relig._\n\n[77] The Hidden or Unseen.\n\n[78] Villiers Stuart, _Nile Gleanings_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\n    Shishak I. and the Twenty-second (Bubastite)\n       Dynasty\u2014The Ethiopian Kings\u2014The Assyrians in\n       Egypt\u2014Sack of Thebes. (_Circa_ 970-666 B.C.)\n\nIt might seem as though the name of Rameses had power sufficient to\nhold together the fabric of the state so long as the twentieth dynasty\nwas on the throne. With the dethronement and exile of the Ramessid\nkings, all unity was at an end. Her-hor had claimed the sovereignty of\nall Egypt, but his successors ruled over a diminishing territory, and\nthe dominion of the last of the priest-kings did not probably extend\nmuch, if at all, beyond the Thebaid. Whilst they had been reigning\nat Thebes, an independent dynasty (regarded indeed by Manetho as the\ntwenty-first), ruled in the Delta, having its seat at Tanis, _i.e._\nZoan. But the Delta had long been the home of naturalised foreigners\nof different nationalities, and amongst them were settlers bearing\nAssyrian names\u2014warlike and ambitious men, apparently of distinguished\nbirth, who intermarried with princesses of the Ramessid family, and\nsucceeded in founding the twenty-second dynasty. The names of the\nfamily who thus came to the front are clearly not Egyptian,\u2014Nimruth,\nUsarkon, Takelath are the Assyrian Nimrod, Sargon, and Tiglath; but\nwhilst their names point to an Assyrian origin, their religion and\ncustoms had become purely Egyptian, even before they set up their\nthrone at Bubastis.[79] The first sovereign of this dynasty was\nSheshenk (the Shishak of the Old Testament), who gained the ascendency\nover the whole land, and drove the last of the priest-kings to take\nrefuge in Nubia. The city of Napata, standing on the bank of the Nile,\nand near a lofty hill known as the Holy Mountain, became the seat\nof the sacerdotal kings. It was a fertile, prosperous, and peaceful\nregion, and its people, long ago completely Egyptianised, were devoted\nto the worship of Amen-Ra. Here the priest-kings disappeared from\nsight, but not for ever.\n\nIt has been conjectured that the founders of the twenty-second or\nBubastite dynasty may have been fugitives of high birth from Assyria,\nwho had been hospitably received and honourably entertained in Egypt.\nThe fortunes of Assyria were indeed at this time at a very low ebb,\nafter having risen very high. The long-continued struggle between\nAssyria and Babylon already alluded to (p. 215) had ended in the\ncomplete ascendency of the former state. About the middle of the\ntwelfth century, the first Assyrian empire rose, and lasted for about\nseventy years. It was an empire based on mere military ascendency, was\nmaintained by force and cruelty, and rested on no enduring foundation.\nThe Kings of Assyria subdued Babylon, and conquered the Hittites (the\nKheta of Rameses II.) and other neighbouring nations. But in process\nof time the Hittites rose in arms, and were joined by the Babylonians\n(ever restless under the Assyrian supremacy), and the Assyrian empire\nfell before their combined attack. For some time, it would seem, there\nwas not even an independent sovereign reigning at Nineveh.\n\nThe time was propitious for the growth and development of new states.\nAssyria was prostrate, Babylon unaggressive, Egypt inert, the Hittites\ncontent with their newly recovered independence.\n\nThe cities of Ph\u0153nicia, on the coast of Palestine, were engaged, as\nof old, in busy commerce throughout the known world, coming even so\nfar as to the British Isles in quest of tin. They colonised, but did\nnot conquer other lands. Their religion, with its cruel and licentious\nrites, was the same as that of the neighbouring Canaanitish tribes, but\nthe latter were probably greatly inferior in civilisation; they still\nmaintained their ground in certain parts of Palestine.\n\nDuring the times of the Judges there had been no national unity\namongst the Israelites\u2014no central controlling power; they were still\nin the tribal state. The Philistines, a small but strong and warlike\nnationality, settled in the southern towns of the sea-coast, almost\nexpelled them from the land. Disarmed and helpless, they were furtively\nhiding in the caves of the limestone hills, when, under the energetic\nleadership of Saul, they arose to repel the foe. The Philistines were\ndefeated, but the strife continued, and in the end the monarchy of Saul\nwas overthrown. It was reserved for David to subdue these inveterate\nfoes, to capture Jerusalem from the Canaanites, and make it the centre\nof a kingdom which he enlarged by continual wars with the neighbouring\nstates, until he bequeathed to Solomon an Israelitish empire\u2014peaceful,\nwealthy, and magnificent whilst it lasted, but destined scarcely to\noutlast the generation that had seen its foundation. Between the\nsovereign of this new empire and the ancient monarchy of Egypt there\nwas close friendship and alliance, and a \u2018daughter of Pharaoh\u2019[80]\nbecame Queen of Israel. Close commercial intercourse was also kept\nup. Hitherto, the Israelites had been content to employ asses and\nmules, and their troops had consisted of infantry only, but Solomon\nintroduced horses and chariots in great numbers from the land of Egypt,\nboth for domestic use and for military service. It may be possible to\ntrace Egyptian influence in the Israelitish court. It may have kindled\nthe love of Solomon for natural history, or have suggested his first\nexpedition to the land of spices; it may have moulded certain parts of\nthe architecture of temple and of palace, or have left its traces on\nthe literature of the time. All this is possible, though little more\nthan guesswork. Nor did the alliance last long; it was sundered even\nbefore luxury and despotism had undermined and overthrown the empire\nof Solomon. Sheshenk I., the founder of the twenty-second dynasty, was\non the Egyptian throne when the fugitive Jeroboam arrived in Egypt\u2014his\nheart full of his ambitious schemes, and on the death of Solomon it was\nnot with his son, but with his rebellious servant Jeroboam that the\nEgyptian monarchy was in alliance. Shishak marched into Judah, entered\nJerusalem, and carried off thence the treasures both of the temple and\npalace of King Solomon. The Levites, throughout the land, had remained\nfaithful to the house of David and the service of the temple, and\nShishak, it appears, captured and despoiled many of their cities, even\nthose that lay in the kingdom of Israel. The names of all the towns\nsubdued by him in this campaign are recorded on the walls of the temple\nat Karnak.\n\nThe hostility of the Levites to the rule of Jeroboam is easy to\nunderstand, as he set up a rival worship of his own at Dan and Bethel,\nand appointed priests of his own selection. The form assumed by the\nobjects of this worship might very possibly have been adopted by\nJeroboam in remembrance of what he had seen in Egypt, and even as a\npledge of his alliance with its king. Never, indeed, had the worship\nof Apis reached so extravagant a pitch as under this dynasty. In the\nSerapeum, the burial-place of the sacred bulls, are still preserved the\ntablets which tell of their installation, death, and interment. \u2018On\nsuch a day of the month and year,\u2019 say the records, \u2018this great god\nwas carried to his rest in the beautiful region of the west\u2014at rest\nwith the great gods\u2014with Osiris, and with the gods and goddesses of\nthe west. His glory was sought for in all places of Pi-tomih (Lower\nEgypt). He was found after some months in the city of Hashed-abtu,\nafter they had searched through all the lakes and islands. He was\nsolemnly introduced into the temple of Ptah, beside his father Ptah.\u2019\nThe date is carefully given, and the full lifetime of the \u2018god.\u2019 The\nburial of the Apis was on a scale of regal magnificence, and a national\nmourning of seventy days was observed. The finding of a successor[81]\nand his installation was celebrated with the wildest exultation, and\nwith national rejoicing. Little room is left for the idea of symbol or\nsign; the sacred creature is an emanation of the Divine, is a \u2018god,\u2019\nand as such the object of the grossest and most grotesque idolatry.\nAn indescribable national enthusiasm gathered around the Apis\u2014he was\nlodged with sumptuous magnificence, the centre of a crowd of devotees\nand of those who came to learn the secrets of the future.[82] The\nsuccessive deaths and interments of the Apis bulls, form, in fact, very\nnearly all the events recorded during the reigns of the eight kings who\nsucceeded the warlike Shishak. Takelath II., the sixth in succession of\nthis dynasty, sent his son Usarkon, who had been appointed high priest\nof Amen, to Thebes, to examine and to regulate the temple endowments\nthere. The same inscription tells of some celestial portent which\nexcited general attention, and was considered to portend trouble at\nhand.\n\n[Illustration: THE WORSHIP OF APIS.\n\nFROM A STATUETTE IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.]\n\nCelestial omens were hardly needed to tell that dark days were near.\nThe last kings of the twenty-second dynasty had to contend with rival\nprinces who founded dynasties in the Delta, and, in the hopeless\nconfusion arising from the mutual jealousies and struggles for\nsupremacy amongst these contending families, the descendants of the\npriest-kings, closely watching the course of events from their Nubian\nretreat,[83] beheld the long looked-for opportunity arrived. About the\nmiddle of the eighth century B.C., they had already established their\ndominion at Thebes, where they had been warmly welcomed, and they were\nputting forth claims to a supremacy over the whole land. One of the\nwarring princes in the north, Tafnekht, ruler of Sais, had at the same\ntime formed a scheme for reducing the country to his allegiance. He was\ncommander of the mercenary troops, who, in such unsettled times, might\nwell avail to turn the balance in favour of any warlike and ambitious\nleader. Of the conflict that ensued we possess a full and interesting\naccount, recorded in an inscription at Napata by Piankhi-meramen, the\nruler of the south. Disquieting intelligence reached the king in his\nNubian stronghold. Tafnekht \u2018was advancing up the river; multitudes of\nsoldiers followed him, and the chiefs and governors were like dogs at\nhis feet. No fortress was closed to him; the cities had opened their\ngates at his approach.\u2019 Thebes was in consternation, and appealed to\nPiankhi against the invader: \u2018Art thou silent and forgetful of the\nsouthern land as well as of the middle country?\u2019\n\nPiankhi despatched troops without delay; at their setting forth the\npriest-king solemnly enjoined them to perform all due ceremonial rites\nand purifications on entering the city of Thebes. \u2018Lay down your arms\nbefore the Divine Leader; there is no victory gained over men without\nhis knowledge. Glorious deeds hath he wrought by his mighty arm; many\nshall be turned back by a few, one man shall put a thousand to flight.\nProstrate yourselves before him, and say: \u201cCover for us the path of\nwar with the shadow of thy scimitar, grant strength unto the young men\nwhom thou hast appointed, that they may cast down many ten thousands.\u201d\u2018\nThe army of Piankhi encountered the enemy, and defeated them. King\nNimrod,[84] ruler of Hermopolis, one of the confederated princes,\nhearing of their victorious advance, hastened to shut himself up in\nhis city, and prepared to stand a siege. Piankhi\u2018s troops continued to\nbe successful in repeated encounters with the foe, but their king was\nnot content, for Hermopolis was untaken. Priests had been accustomed\nto appear on the battle-field from the days of old, so that there was\nnothing anomalous in Piankhi\u2019s now girding on the sword and appearing\nin person on the scene. \u2018Behold, they have made a stand!\u2019 he cried\nreproachfully to his forces; \u2018you have fought them without courage;\nwill you not complete the pursuit, spreading the fear of my name even\nunto the north of the land of Egypt?\u2019\n\nAnimated by the presence of the king, the troops now pressed the\nsiege with redoubled energy, and the town surrendered \u2018prostrate in\nsupplication before the face of the sovereign.\u2019 Nimrod first sent his\nwife and the princesses to intercede with the conqueror, and afterwards\noffered his own humble submission with many gifts, which Piankhi\ngraciously accepted. He entered Hermopolis, and, on examining the state\nof things in general, was roused to anger by discovering that certain\nhorses there had been left without sufficient food. He expressed the\nbitterest displeasure,\u2014\u2018Vile are they to my heart that have starved my\nhorses; more is this than any other abomination that thou, O Nimrod,\nhast wrought altogether!\u2019\n\nAfter this decisive victory, other princes and governors came in and\noffered their submission; and various towns surrendered to the promised\nclemency of the conqueror. Mertum, indeed, had closed its gates; but\n\u2018his majesty sent to them, saying, \u201cTwo ways are before you; choose as\nyou will\u2014open and live; shut the gates and die. His majesty does not\npass by any closed fort.\u201d And lo! they opened forthwith.\u2019\n\nMeantime Tafnekht had thrown himself into Memphis with 8000 men,\nboth soldiers and marines; he had provisioned it carefully and\nstrengthened the fortifications. King Piankhi, says the story, \u2018found\nthe lofty walls strengthened with new works, and the bulwarks fitted\nup with great strength. There was no way found to assault it.\u2019 But\nTafnekht himself slipped away as soon as the siege began; his troops\n(probably the mercenaries), deprived of the encouragement of their\nleader\u2019s presence, were disheartened, and Memphis yielded to a\ncombined assault by land and water. \u2018The city was taken as by a storm\nof rain; multitudes were slain within it, or brought as captives to\nhis majesty.\u2019 Next day, Piankhi entered, as was his custom in every\ncaptured town, the temples; there he offered sacrifices to Ptah and to\nthe other gods.\n\nPiankhi afterwards visited the ancient and far-famed City of the Sun,\nnot far from Memphis. There he \u2018offered oblations on the waters of\nthe lake of Horns; he purified himself in the heart of the cool lake,\nbathing his face in the stream of the sacred waters, wherein Ra bathes\nhis countenance daily.\u2019 Then on the sandy heights of On he made \u2018a\ngreat sacrifice before the face of Ra at his rising.\u2019 The priest-king\nthen demanded admission into the innermost sanctuary and to the sacred\nshrine of the god.\n\nThe chief priest, possibly somewhat dismayed, offered intercession for\nthe king, duly purified him with incense and sprinkling, and brought\nhim garlands from the temple of the obelisks. He girded on the sacred\nvestments, and, passing through the outer halls, advanced within the\nmost holy place. \u2018The king stood himself, the great one alone; he drew\nthe bolt, he threw back the doors, he saw the face of his father Ra in\nthe temple, and on the sacred bark. Then he closed the doors, and set\nthereon seals of clay marked with the royal signet, and he commanded\nthe priests, saying: \u201cI have set my seal; let no other king whatever\nenter therein.\u201d\u2019[85]\n\nDuring his stay at Memphis the king received the submission and the\ntributary offerings of all the petty governors and kings, but of those\nwho sought to enter the royal presence none were admitted but Nimrod,\nbecause \u2018he was not an eater of fish,[86] a thing forbidden in the\nroyal palace.\u2019\n\nTafnekht did not appear in person from his distant retreat; he sent\nhis submission by an embassy\u2014\u2018Hail to thee! I could not look upon\nthy face nor stand before thy terror. I have reached the islands of\nthe Mediterranean. Behold! thy servant is cleansed from his pride. I\nbeseech thee to take my goods into thy treasury, the gold and all the\nprecious stones. O send a messenger unto me as a reconciler.\u2019 Piankhi,\nafter having received the submission of the confederated opponents,\nreturned to Thebes with great rejoicing and triumph.\n\nIt is very doubtful, however, whether the supremacy, thus triumphantly\nacquired, was maintained even so long as during Piankhi\u2019s own lifetime.\nHis successor, Nutmeramen, was moved by a dream to reconquer it. \u2018His\nmajesty beheld two snakes, one to his right, the other to his left, and\nwhen he awoke he found them no more. He said: \u201cExplain these things to\nme in a moment,\u201d and lo! they explained it to him, saying: \u201cThou wilt\nhave the southern lands, and thou shalt seize upon the northern, and\nboth crowns shall be set upon thy head.\u201d\u2019\n\nThe king, collecting a numerous army, advanced down the stream, and met\nwith no opposition until he reached Memphis. Here he gained a victory,\nwhereupon the \u2018chiefs of the north\u2019 entered their walled towns, so\nthat there was no reaching their retreats. A pause ensued, neither\nparty seeming willing to take further steps. However, the suspense\nended by a voluntary surrender of the northern princes, who came to\nMemphis to offer their homage, and were gladly received and hospitably\nentertained. Being dismissed from the royal presence, they returned to\ntheir respective governments, and the \u2018men of the north\u2019 sailed up to\nthe place where his majesty was, to offer gifts and tribute in token of\nfealty.\n\nThe power of the twenty-fifth or \u2018Ethiopian\u2019 dynasty was gradually\nincreasing and consolidating itself; its supremacy was in the end\nrecognised in some sort throughout the land, although in Lower Egypt it\nwas always uncertain and precarious. The descendants of the \u2018chiefs of\nthe north\u2019 never rendered more than a reluctant and sullen obedience to\nthe rulers from the south. The successors of Piankhi, however, were not\ncontent to rule, as he had done, from their distant seat in Napata, but\nthey set up their throne in the heart of Egypt itself, claiming and, as\nfar as possible, exercising the rights of an over-lord.\n\nStormy times were close at hand, and a strong hand and a resolute will\nwould be wanted at the helm. The Assyrian power, reviving from its\ndeep depression, had gradually gained strength. Tiglath-Pileser II.\n(744-726 B.C.) was the founder of the second Assyrian empire, destined\nto be for more than a century the scourge of every neighbouring nation,\nand the dread of those that were far off. The lesser states that\nhad risen to power on the fall of the first Assyrian empire, instead\nof friendly alliance against a common foe, continued the policy of\nmutual rivalry and bitter antagonism\u2014thus preparing the way for the\nconqueror\u2019s feet. The two kingdoms into which the empire of Solomon had\nbeen split were at enmity with each other, and both were constantly\nat feud with the king of Syria. On the accession of the feeble Ahaz\nto the throne of Judah he was sore pressed by the assaults of the\nEdomites and Philistines, and panic-stricken by the news of a coalition\nformed by the kings of Syria and Israel to dethrone him and set up a\ncreature of their own in his place. \u2018At that time did Ahaz send to the\nkings of Assyria to help him.\u2019 In an evil hour he declared himself the\nvassal of Tiglath-Pileser, and confiscated the treasures of the temple,\nas an offering to his new master. In swift response the Assyrian\nking advanced, took Damascus, carried its people away captive, and\ndestroyed the power of Syria with a blow. With another fell swoop he\ndesolated the Israelitish territory east of the Jordan, and carried\ninto captivity the tribes who dwelt there. His successor, Shalmaneser,\ncrossed the Jordan, and marching upon Samaria, reduced Hoshea, king of\nIsrael, to vassalage. It was not long, however, before Hoshea threw off\nthe Assyrian yoke, ceased to pay tribute, and sought the aid of Shebek\n(or Sabaco, the So of 2 Kings xvii. 4), who had succeeded Piankhi on\nthe throne. But the forces sent by Shebek, or by some of the other\nprinces of the north, were routed, and Hoshea carried prisoner to\nAssyria\u2014\u2018cut off like foam upon the water.\u2019 The siege of Samaria was\nbegun, but Shalmaneser died soon after. It was his successor Sargon,\nwho not only captured Ashdod, after defeating the Egypto-Ethiopian\nforces, who aided in its defence, but brought the siege of Samaria to\na close 721 B.C., and carried the people of the land into captivity.\nEgypt, unable to afford any efficient help, seems to have become an\nasylum of some of the \u2018outcasts of Israel.\u2019[87]\n\nAhaz of Judah appears to have continued submissive and tributary to\nthe end of his days, but his son Hezekiah inaugurated a nobler policy.\nHe cast off the Assyrian yoke, and sought the alliance of Taharak\n(Tirhakah), king of Ethiopia and Egypt. Tirhakah, at the early age of\ntwenty, began his troubled and eventful reign. Many years had to be\nspent in assuring his own sovereignty over the land he claimed to rule.\nThat land was, as he must have known, the prize on which the Assyrian\nkings had \u2018cast their eyes,\u2019 but, whilst his grasp of the central power\nwas so uncertain, inaction and delay appeared the safest policy\u2014\u2018their\nstrength was to sit still\u2019 (Isa. xxx. 7.) The Delta being always in a\nstate of disaffection and disunion, it was no easy task to undertake\nmilitary enterprises beyond the borders\u2014\u2018city\u2019 being ever ready to\n\u2018fight against city, and kingdom against kingdom\u2019 (see Isa. xix. 2).\n\nMeantime the rush of Assyrian invasion had swept over Palestine. Sargon\nhad attacked Ashdod; Sennacherib directed his march upon Lachish; both\nlay on the road that led to Egypt, towards which country the Assyrians\nhad been gradually creeping nearer and nearer across the ruins of\nconquered states.\n\nForty-six fenced cities of Judah, besides many smaller towns, were\ntaken and plundered by the invaders, and Hezekiah was \u2018shut up in\nJerusalem like a bird in his cage.\u2019 The king of Judah delayed no longer\nto send his humble submission, and the arrears of his unpaid tribute,\nto Sennacherib encamped before Lachish. But the submission was hollow\nand the tribute extorted, for Hezekiah was in treaty with Egypt all\nthe while. His messengers made the weary journey through the burning\ndesert, their camels and asses laden with gifts and offerings,[88] to\nimplore the aid of the king, who seems then to have been at Zoan in the\nDelta\u2014preparing at last to march against the foe. Nor was the haughty\nAssyrian monarch unaware of the secret hopes of the king of Judah.\nHe had captured Lachish, with the cruel massacre and torture of the\ncaptives that usually accompanied Assyrian conquests. His attack upon\nLibnah was postponed, for tidings came that Tirhakah, at the head of\nthe Egypto-Ethiopian army, had crossed the frontiers. Aware of the\nsecret understanding between that sovereign and the king of Judah,\nSennacherib vented his bitter indignation and scorn in menaces and\ninsult. He now demanded from Hezekiah nothing less than unconditional\nand absolute surrender, and taunted him with his vain reliance upon\nthat \u2018broken reed,\u2019 the king of Egypt. At this crisis silence falls\nupon the scene, a silence broken only by the exulting cry of the great\nHebrew prophet, as the mighty Assyrian host perishes before an unseen\nfoe.\n\nJudah breathed freely again, and a respite was accorded to Egypt,\nthough not of long duration. Sennacherib, though engaged in many\nwarlike enterprises during the remainder of his reign, left it to his\nsuccessor Esar-haddon (680-668 B.C.), to renew the attempt upon Egypt.\nJudah was unmolested this time, and took no part in the terrible and\ndesolating struggle that ensued.\n\nTirhakah had entered into an alliance with the king of Tyre, against\nthe common foe. Esar-haddon laid siege to Tyre, and then, advancing\nalong the old military road, trodden of old by the armies of Thothmes\nand of Rameses in the opposite direction, he entered Egypt. Tirhakah\nwas defeated, and retreated to the south; the Assyrian king annexed the\nwhole country, portioning it out into twenty districts, over which he\nplaced governors to rule, as vassals in his name. Then, concluding a\ntreaty with Tirhakah, he returned to Nineveh. Soon after he fell sick,\nand associated his son Assur-bani-pal in the government. It is from\nthe records left by the latter that we learn the proceedings both of\nhis father and of himself in Egypt. Tirhakah, probably on hearing of\nthe illness of Esar-haddon, emerged from his retreat, and advancing\nnorth, regardless of his treaty, occupied Memphis, and expelled the\nAssyrian garrisons and governors. They fled to Nineveh, and told what\nhad happened; Assur-bani-pal immediately assembled a large army, and\nentered Egypt. \u2018When Tirhakah had heard in the city of Memphis of the\napproach of my army,\u2019 says the king, \u2018he numbered his hosts, and drew\nthem up in battle array. In a fierce battle he was put to flight. Fear\nseized upon him, and he escaped from Memphis, the city of his honour,\nand fled away in ships to save himself alive. He came to Nia, to the\ngreat city. I sent my servants after him; a journey of one month and\nten days. Then he left Thebes, the city of his empire, and went up the\nriver. My soldiers made a slaughter in that city.\u2019 Assur-ban-ipal then\nreinstated the governors in their respective districts, and returned to\nNineveh with great spoil. But Tirhakah, undaunted by defeat, came forth\nonce more from the Nubian hills, and the vassal governors entered into\na league with him. Many of them were Egyptian by birth, and unwilling\nsubjects of the Assyrian king, and all were for the moment more afraid\nof Tirhakah, who was so near at hand, than of the distant power of\nAssyria. News, however, soon reached Nineveh of what was going on.\nLetters had been intercepted by \u2018judges,\u2019 and the insurgent vassals\nwere sent to Nineveh bound hand and foot in chains. Assur-bani-pal\nonce more took the field, breathing vengeance and slaughter. He found\nit politic, however, to restore Necho,[89] prince of Memphis, chief\nof the rebellious vassals, and to uphold him against Tirhakah. But the\nhand of the Assyrian was heavy on the land. \u2018Memphis, Sais, Mendes,\nand Zoan,\u2019 he says, \u2018and all the cities they had led away with them,\nI took by storm, putting to death both small and great.\u2019 Soon after\nthis the gallant Tirhakah died, after a reign of twenty-six years, and\nhis successor, Urdamaneh, following in his steps, occupied Thebes, and\nonce more attempted to wrest Egypt from the invader. Assur-bani-pal\ntook the field in person, and again compelled his foe to retire to the\nfar south. On Thebes he took dire vengeance. \u2018My warriors attacked the\ncity, and razed it to the ground like a thunderbolt.\u2019 Thebes certainly\nwas not \u2018razed to the ground,\u2019 as the proud conqueror boasts, but\nthe destruction was terrible, and the city never recovered the blow.\n\u2018Gold and silver, the treasures of the land, precious stones, horses,\nmen and women, huge apes from the mountains\u2014my soldiers took out\nof the midst of the city as spoil. They brought it to Nineveh, the\ncity of my dominion, and they kissed my feet.\u2019 Not far from Nineveh\nthere was living at this time an exile from Israel, who may himself\nhave seen the Egyptian prisoners and the spoil of Thebes. In his\nindignant denunciation of Nineveh and her king, he thus addresses the\nmagnificent and cruel city: \u2018Art thou better than No-Amon \u201c(the city of\nAmen\u00a0=\u00a0Thebes),\u201d that was enthroned among the streams, and the floods\nwere round about her; her rampart was upon the river, and the waters\nher defence. Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite;\nPut and Lubim were her helpers. Yet was she carried away and went into\ncaptivity; her young children were dashed in pieces at the top of all\nthe streets: they cast lots for her honourable men, and her great men\nwere bound with chains\u2019 (Nahum iii. 8-10).[90]\n\nIt was little more than half a century later that Nineveh herself fell\nwith a mightier and more overwhelming destruction.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[79] The Egyptian Pa-Bast, or the city of Bast. It was situated in the\neastern portion of the Delta, and was of immemorial antiquity. Under\nthe kings of the twenty-second dynasty, it attained great splendour,\nand the worship of Bast became wide-spread and popular. Herodotus saw\nher magnificent temple, and the festival celebrated in her honour with\nsuch splendour and revelry. Bast was almost identical with Sechet\u2014the\nlioness and the cat were sacred to her. Her worship was exceedingly\npopular under the later dynasties, and this led to the wide-spread\nreverence with which the cat was regarded in those days.\n\n[80] Probably a princess of the dynasty ruling at Tanis; the\npriest-kings, whose seat of power was in the far south, are less likely\nto have connected themselves with the kingdom of Israel.\n\n[81] The Apis must be black, with certain white marks of mystical\nimport.\n\n[82] One mode of consulting the sacred bull was by offering him food.\nGermanicus is said to have thus consulted him; the Apis refused to eat,\nand this unfavourable reception was considered to have foreboded his\nuntimely fate.\n\n[83] The country known as Nubia then formed part of the land of Kush,\n_i.e._ Ethiopia.\n\n[84] A descendant, doubtless, of the twenty-second dynasty kings, of\nAssyrian origin.\n\n[85] This would be meant to apply only to all the rival claimants to\nsovereignty in the north, not to his own successors.\n\n[86] The priests were prohibited from eating fish, which was considered\nas unclean food\u2014at any rate sea fish, of which the more devout and\nscrupulous Egyptians would not partake.\n\n[87] Compare Isa. xi. 11, xxvii. 13; Hosea ix. 6.\n\n[88] Isa. xxx. 4-7.\n\n[89] He was an Egyptian, and son of Tafnekht, who headed the league of\nnorthern chiefs against Piankhi (p. 246).\n\n[90] In this and in other quotations from the Old Testament the\nrenderings of Ewald and Stanley have sometimes been adopted.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nPsammetichus and the Saite Dynasty\u2014The Persian Conquest\u2014Last\nIndependent Dynasties. (666-340 B.C.)\n\n\nAfter the capture and sack of Thebes, the successors of Tirhakah made\nno further attempts to recover their lost dominion. The princes who\nruled in the north, more or less as the vassals of Assyria, were often\nengaged in mutual strife, and the twenty satrapies established there\nby Esar-haddon had dwindled down to twelve\u2014the \u2018Dodecarchy,\u2019 of Greek\nwriters. Bravest and most conspicuous amongst the twelve princes was\nPsamtek (Psammetichus), son of that Necho who had been imprisoned and\nrestored by Assur-bani-pal[91] (p. 260). Banished by the jealousy\nof his rivals, Psammetichus[92] determined on a new and energetic\npolicy. He formed an alliance with the king of Lydia, and obtained\nthe assistance of a large number of Greek mercenaries\u2014chiefly Carians\nand Ionians by birth. He resolved, by their aid, to win back the\nindependence of Egypt by driving out the Assyrians, and to reunite the\ndivided land, by bringing it all under his own sceptre. At Momemphis\nhe defeated the Assyrians in a great battle, and they left Egypt to\nreturn no more. Assur-bani-pal, who had conquered Egypt and devastated\nThebes, was still reigning at Nineveh; and it must have been not a\nlittle humiliating to his pride, to be unable to make another attempt\nto regain what he had lost. But the time had come when Assyria had no\nsoldiers to spare for foreign conquests; they were all wanted at home\nto defend the monarchy. Weakened by the incessant warfare that had won\nso triumphant a military ascendency, she was assailed on every side by\nthe nations to whom she had long been a terror, and by her own subject\nprovinces, ever restlessly eager to cast off the yoke of her tyranny.\n\nMeanwhile Psammetichus successfully achieved the other portion of his\ntask; he re-united the north under his sway, and made peace with the\nrulers of the south. The descendants of the priest-king, of Piankhi and\nof Tirhakah henceforth made Napata the centre of their dominion, and\nabandoned all thought of ruling even in Upper Egypt. The friendship\nthus formed was cemented by the marriage of Psammetichus with a\nprincess of the southern dynasty. She was daughter of a king named\nPiankhi and his beautiful wife Ameniritis: a statue of her has been\npreserved, of which Brugsch says, \u201cSweet peace seems to hover about her\nfeatures; the very flowers in her hand suggest her high mission as the\nreconciler of the long feud.\u201d\u2019\n\nUnder the Saite[93] dynasty, established by Psammetichus, Egypt enjoyed\npeace and prosperity for more than a century. The sun of her former\ngreatness had indeed set, but under Psammetichus and his successors she\nenjoyed a long and brilliant after-glow of light. This period, which\nhas been called the Egyptian _renaissance_, was distinguished by a\nrevival of art, tasteful and refined in character.\n\nPsammetichus never forgot how much he owed to the Greek mercenaries;\nhe gave them land, encouraged them to settle in Egypt, and, in short,\nshowed them so much favour that, Herodotus tells us, the jealousy\nof the native soldiery was aroused; they deserted the camp in large\nnumbers, and took refuge within the Ethiopian dominions, now become\nmore essentially Egyptian than many parts of Egypt proper. Nor was\nthe king content with showing favour to the mercenaries to whom he\nowed his crown; he also threw the country open to foreign commerce of\nevery kind. Greek factories were built, and Greek merchants settled\nin Egypt in large numbers, more especially at Naukratis, which became\nthe emporium of Greek trade. In spite of the favour they showed to\nforeigners neither Psammetichus nor his successors neglected the\nnational religion and the national superstitions. They cared for\nthe temples, and when an Apis died they buried him with lavish and\nextraordinary magnificence. The long reign of Psammetichus (666-612)\nwas distinguished by one military enterprise, the taking of Azotus,\nafter a prolonged siege of twenty-nine years. And it was during his\nreign that the devastating hordes of the Scythians from the far north\npoured over the Assyrian provinces like a countless swarm of locusts,\nleaving ruin and desolation behind. They approached the confines of\nEgypt, but Psammetichus succeeded in buying them off; they may have\nbeen sated with plunder and spoil, or may not have cared to undertake\nthe hard and weary journey through the waterless Sinai desert. They\ndisappeared from sight suddenly as they had come into sight, but their\nterrible onslaught and the havoc they wrought was a fatal blow to\nAssyria\u2019s declining power. It was at the crisis of her fall that Necho\n(612-596) ascended the throne of Egypt.\n\nBabylon, Elam, and Arabia, leagued against Assyria about 650 B.C.,\nhad been successively defeated by King Assur-bani-pal, who took\nBabylon itself 648 B.C. A pause ensued, for it was no light task to\nencounter the Assyrian even in the hour of his decline; but on the\ndeath of Assur-bani-pal there appears to have been a revolt of some\nkind, and Nabopolassar, a general who succeeded in putting it down,\nwas made ruler of Babylon by the king of Nineveh. But the ambitious\nNabopolassar formed an alliance with the king of Media, and their\ncombined attack was the death-blow of the Assyrian monarchy. It was,\nperhaps, through a common understanding with the allied states that\nPsammetichus had besieged Azotus, which lay on the old military road\nby the sea-coast. Necho took a more active part, and led his army as\nfar as the Euphrates. Whilst on the march, Josiah, king of Judah, had\nrashly come out to offer him battle, and had been defeated and slain\nat Megiddo. It must have been at this crisis that Nineveh fell; but\nthough her fall must have shaken the earth no record has come to us\nconcerning it\u2014its precise date is unknown. Only in the exultant cry of\na Hebrew prophet[94] do we hear any echo of the shout of execration and\nthe outburst of triumph that went up as the great city fell:\u2014\n\n      \u2018Nineveh is laid waste! who will bemoan her? Whence\n    shall I seek for comforters for thee?... There is no\n    healing of thy hurt; thy wound is incurable: all that\n    hear of thee shall clap their hands over thee: for upon\n    whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?\u2019\n\nUpon the ruins of Assyria the genius of Nebuchadnezzar, son of\nNabopolassar, raised that mighty Babylonian empire which for about\nseventy years ruled over the conquered nations. Babylon had never\nbefore been distinguished as an ambitious or aggressive state, but the\nforce and energy of this mighty monarch has made her name synonymous\nwith imperial strength, magnificence, and pride. For a brief space\nNecho had occupied the scene of the triumphs of Thothmes and of\nRameses; he deposed the successor of Josiah at Jerusalem, and made\nJehoiakim king of Judah. But if he had been visited by any flattering\nvisions of a revival of Egyptian empire they were soon rudely\ndispelled. The young king of Babylon attacked and routed the Egyptian\narmy, which was encamped at Karchemish, on the Euphrates, and forced\nNecho to retreat within the boundaries of Egypt. The invasion and the\nrepulse of the Egyptian king has been vividly portrayed in the pages of\nJewish prophecy. \u2018Egypt riseth up like the river, his waters are moved\nlike the floods; and he saith, I will go up and will cover the earth;\nI will destroy the city, with the inhabitants thereof.\u2019[95] The horses\nand chariots are arrayed for battle, the well-equipped mercenary troops\nstand in serried ranks; but it was all in vain. \u2018Wherefore have I seen\nthem dismayed and turned back? their mighty ones have fled apace, and\nlook not back.... They said, Arise and let us go again to our own\npeople, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.\u2019[96]\n\nIt was not only by this ambitious enterprise, and by its utter\nfailure, that Necho\u2019s reign was distinguished. He had been compelled\nto abandon the attempt to construct a canal across the isthmus between\nthe Red Sea and the Mediterranean, but a naval expedition that he sent\nout was more successful. The vessels were manned by Ph\u0153nicians, and,\nstarting from the Red Sea, returned to Egypt in three years\u2019 time by\nway of the Mediterranean, having circumnavigated Africa and noted with\namazement that during the first part of their voyage the sun had risen\non their left, but afterwards it had risen to the right. To the Greeks\nof a later day this fact appeared to be on the face of it so incredible\nthat they doubted the truth of the whole story. To us it only affords\nan additional reason for believing it.\n\nPsammetichus II., the successor of Necho, reigned only about five\nyears, and was followed by Uahpra (or Apries, the _Hophra_ of the Old\nTestament). The aid of this king was sought both from east and west.\nAfter the defeat of Necho, and the homeward flight of the Egyptian\narmy, no military expedition had been undertaken. \u2018The king of Egypt\ncame not again any more out of his land; for the king of Babylon\nhad taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that\npertained to the king of Egypt.\u2019[97] For a moment indeed, Apries\nseemed to be moved by the cry for aid that came from Jerusalem. In his\ntriumphal march of successful conquest, Nebuchadnezzar had besieged\nthe city, and carried off its king and many others as prisoners to\nBabylon; he had then placed Zedekiah on the throne, after exacting\nfrom him a solemn oath of fealty. But in an evil moment the vassal\nking rebelled, and, in the hope that is sometimes born of desperation,\nsent ambassadors into Egypt \u2018that they might give him horses and much\npeople\u2019 (see Ezekiel xvii. 11-21). Irritated by the successive acts of\nsubmission and revolt, Nebuchadnezzar now advanced upon the unhappy\nlittle country of Judah, which had come to be the sport, as it were,\nof two mighty states, and resolved to make an end of it altogether.\nThe hope of Zedekiah came to naught; only for a brief interval was the\nsiege suspended, by the news that an Egyptian army was on the march.\nSoon after, however, it was resumed, and, after it had lasted eighteen\nmonths, Jerusalem fell with a sad and terrible destruction\u2014by famine,\nfire, and slaughter (588 B.C.) The only aid actually rendered by Egypt\nwas the shelter given to the fugitives who sought refuge there after\nthe murder of Gedaliah, the governor appointed by the king of Babylon.\nThey dreaded the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar; they were weary of\nsuffering, and said one to another: \u2018We will go into the land of Egypt,\nwhere we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have\nhunger of bread, and there will we dwell.\u2019 And in Egypt they took\nrefuge in spite of the remonstrances of the prophet Jeremiah, whom they\nforced to accompany them.\n\nThe Egyptian army, whose advance had momentarily raised the siege of\nJerusalem appears to have taken Gaza, but to have retired without\nencountering the Babylonians. Another expedition was despatched to the\nwest in aid of the Libyans. The Greek colony at Cyrene had received a\nlarge number of new settlers, and they had established themselves by\ndispossessing the natives of their lands. Apries sent an army composed\nof native Egyptians[98] against Cyrene, but they were defeated, and\nthis defeat was followed by a military revolt. The mutineers complained\nthat they had been selected for the expedition in order that the loss\nmight fall on them, rather than on the Greek mercenaries. The king\nsent an officer, named Amasis, to the camp, who was popular with the\nsoldiery, and they immediately saluted him as king. Apries then sent a\ngeneral, named Patahbeni, with orders to bring Amasis back a prisoner,\nbut Amasis replied: \u2018Tell the king that I will myself lead the army\nto his very feet.\u2019 Apries was so enraged at the ill success of his\nmessenger, that he ordered the unfortunate man\u2019s nose and ears to be\ncut off (a punishment intended for the lowest traitors). This brutal\nact only incensed the soldiery still further, and the whole army\njoined in the revolt. Apries, with his Greek mercenaries, met them\nat Momemphis, but was defeated, and fell into the hands of Amasis,\nwho at first treated him with kindness and respect, but the people\nmurmured at this leniency, and Amasis yielded. Apries was strangled,\nbut his body was buried with due ceremonial in his own sepulchre. Such\nis the narrative of Greek writers, but there seem some grounds for\nassuming that the real story was somewhat different; that the king of\nBabylon himself was at that time in Egypt, and that it was his hand\nthat deposed and slew king Apries and placed Amasis on the throne\n(572 B.C.). The new king showed even greater favour to the Greeks\nthan his predecessors had done. He gave them possession of the town\nof Naukratis, with all rights of local self-government and religious\nworship. Four Greek temples were erected there by different Grecian\nnationalities. Amasis also sent gifts to Delphi and other Grecian\nshrines, and he married Ladice of Cyrene, a Greek by birth. He formed\nalliances with Cr\u0153sus of Lydia, and Polycrates of Samos, and his own\nbody-guard was composed of Greek mercenaries.\n\nWhether or not Amasis had ascended the throne as a vassal of Babylon,\nhe certainly reigned as an independent monarch. Nebuchadnezzar, after\nspending more than thirty years in warfare and in conquest, passed\nthe concluding years of his reign in splendid luxury in the city\nwhich he had raised to be the head of the nations, and the glory and\nwonder of the world. \u2018Is not this great Babylon which I have built? I\nhave made completely strong the defences of Babylon; may it last for\never!\u2019 It was only three years after his death that Cyrus resolved\nto free Persia from the dominion of Media; he accomplished this task\nafter a hard struggle, and then embarked upon that career of conquest\nwhich only paused after the eventful night when Babylon, given up to\ncareless revelry, was taken by a foe who could \u2018show no mercy\u2019 (539\nB.C.). Surprise was mingled with exultation as, at the cry, \u2018Babylon\nis taken,\u2019 \u2018the earth trembled, and the sound was heard amongst the\nnations.\u2019 \u2018How is the praise of the whole earth surprised! How is\nBabylon become an astonishment\u2014a desolation among the nations!\u2019\n\nBut the nations were not free although the empire of Nebuchadnezzar\nhad fallen; they had but exchanged masters. The ambition of the\nconqueror was not sated; the enthusiasm excited by his genius and his\ntriumphs amongst his hardy, warlike, and uncultured followers, did not\nebb when Babylon had fallen. There is little doubt that Cyrus planned\nthe invasion of Egypt which was carried out by his son Cambyses[99]\n(527 B.C.).\n\nAmasis, who had been raised to the throne by so unexpected a stroke\nof fortune, was a genial and pleasure-loving man\u2014fond of the wine-cup\nand the merry jest, but he governed Egypt well and prudently during\na reign of more than forty years. When he died he bequeathed to his\nson Psammetichus III. \u2018the inheritance of a lost kingdom.\u2019[100]\nThe Persians entered Egypt, and in a desperate battle at Pelusium\nthe Egyptians were defeated; Memphis was then captured with great\nslaughter. The unfortunate Psammetichus, who had only reigned six\nmonths, was taken prisoner; it is said that he was put to death later\non upon a charge of conspiracy. Cambyses assumed an Egyptian title, and\nreigned over the land as the first monarch of the twenty-seventh, or\nPersian dynasty. He appears at first to have treated his new subjects\nwith forbearance; he visited the celebrated temple at Sais, inquired\ninto the rites and mysteries of the worship of Neith, and redressed\ncertain grievances of which the priests complained.[101] But to the\npassionate ambition of Cambyses, the possession of Egypt was only a\nstepping-stone to the accomplishment of other and far-reaching schemes.\nHe designed to march westward against the rising city of Carthage;\nto occupy the oasis of Amen, and to conquer the kingdom of Ethiopia.\nBut his Ph\u0153nician mercenaries refused to be led against their kinsmen\nat Carthage; the army, 50,000 strong, which he despatched across the\ndesert, was lost in the burning sands, and the forces which he himself\nled against Ethiopia were repulsed, and suffered terribly on the\nretreat from the ravages of famine. The survivors appear to have vented\nsome of their ill-will upon the monuments and statues of Thebes as\nthey passed through on the way to Memphis. The mood in which Cambyses\nentered that city may be imagined; mortified and exasperated as he\nwas, he found the whole city given up to festivities and rejoicings,\nand concluded that they must be celebrating his disastrous defeat.\nThereupon his fury turned to madness; and when he heard that the\npeople were celebrating the finding of an Apis, he ordered the priests\nto be scourged, and the chief men of the city to be slain. Then he\nordered the sacred bull to be brought into his presence, and stabbed\nhim with his own dagger. There can be little doubt that in an excess of\nmadness, Cambyses wrought terrible havoc on the temples and monuments\nof the land, though he may not have been guilty of all that was laid\nto his charge by a people who execrated his memory, and regarded his\nmadness as the just visitation of Heaven. But suddenly there came news\nof an insurrection in Persia, and Cambyses instantly started for his\ncapital. At Ecbatana, as he was mounting his horse, he stabbed himself\n(voluntarily or accidentally) with his own dagger\u2014with the same weapon\nwith which he had killed the Apis, the awe-struck Egyptians told\nHerodotus, and in the very same part of the body.\n\nThe short but terrible tyranny of Cambyses was over, and Darius, who\nsucceeded in 522 B.C., proved a mild and forbearing ruler. But after\nhis defeat by the Athenians at Marathon, the Egyptians rose in revolt;\nXerxes had to put down this insurrection before he too went against\nGreece.\n\nDuring the two centuries when hostilities were so often renewed\nbetween Persians and Greeks, there was friendship between Egypt and\nGreece, and not unfrequently alliance against the Persian kings. The\nrelations between these two countries had long been of a friendly\ncharacter. Egypt representing all that was wisest and greatest in\nthe long \u00e6on that was closing, Greece representing all that was\nbrightest and fairest in the era that was opening. Homer already\nknew, concerning Egypt, that it was a fertile and a wealthy land\u2014a\nland especially famed for the skill of its physicians; he tells of\nits \u2018god-descended stream,\u2019 and of the Isle of Pharos, with the safe\nanchorage by it afforded to storm-tossed mariners. Nor was he ignorant\nof Thebes in the far south, and her imperial magnificence\u2014Egyptian\nThebes, the \u2018treasure-house of countless wealth, who boasts her hundred\ngates\u2014through each of which with horse and car two hundred warriors\nmarch.\u2019[102]\n\nTo the Egyptians of Homer\u2019s time, the Greeks were probably known\nas roving pirates of the Mediterranean; afterwards, by a natural\ntransition, as mercenary troops\u2014later on, as busy and successful\nmerchants. Greeks, however, visited Egypt on nobler errands than the\nmere pursuit of wealth. In the reign of Amasis, Solon, the Athenian\nlawgiver, resided for a while both at the \u2018city of the Sun,\u2019 the most\nancient seat of Egyptian learning, and at Sais, the sanctuary of the\ngoddess of wisdom. To him it was that an old Egyptian priest, who was\nhis friend, addressed the memorable words\u2014\u2018O Solon! Solon! you Greeks\nare ever children; having no ancient opinion nor any discipline of long\nstanding.\u2019 The earliest Greek philosophers, Pythagoras of Samos, and\nThales of Miletus, were believed to have visited Egypt, and no doubt\ntheir eager restless inquiries also seemed to the Egyptians like those\nof \u2018children,\u2019 who can so easily ask more than the wisest man can ever\nanswer.\n\nNothing could be more natural, or indeed inevitable, than that the\nawakening intellectual and artistic life of Greece should be strongly\nattracted towards the ancient wisdom and civilisation of Egypt.[103]\nGeometric and other scientific ideas they certainly carried home from\nthe Land of the Pyramids, and the rudiments of their own civilisation\nand learning were always said by the Greeks to have come from Egypt.\n\nPersia had conquered Egypt, and was threatening Greece, but the\ninvasion of Xerxes was triumphantly repulsed, and the Athenians\nsubsequently sent aid to the Egyptians in their renewed attempt to cast\noff the yoke of the common foe.\n\nThe revolt was at first successful, but on the arrival of Persian\nreinforcements the Athenians were driven from Memphis, and forced to\nretire to an island on the Nile. Here they were blockaded for eighteen\nmonths; the foe then, diverting the river from its course, took the\nAthenian camp by storm, and a fleet of fifty Athenian ships, which\nentered the Nile in ignorance of the disastrous turn of events, fell\ninto the hands of the Persians. Amyrt\u00e6us, who had been proclaimed king,\ntook flight, and sought refuge in the inaccessible marshes of the Delta.\n\nThus Egypt passed once more under the Persian yoke, but the Persian\npower itself was declining, and Amyrt\u00e6us of Sais (the grandson of the\nAmyrt\u00e6us who fled to the marshes) made himself King of Egypt. His reign\nof six years constitutes the twenty-eighth dynasty.\n\nThis was succeeded by the twenty-ninth (of Mendes), and the thirtieth\n(of Sebennytus). Under these, her last native dynasties, Egypt\nmaintained her recovered independence for sixty years, during which\nperiod she sent aid both to the Laced\u00e6monians and to the king of\nCyprus, in the long-protracted conflict with Persia. Art also revived\nonce more, and was distinguished by a grace and finish that seem to\nspeak of Grecian influences.\n\nUnder one of the kings of the thirtieth dynasty, Agesilaus of Sparta\nwas invited to command the Egyptian army. It is said that on his\narrival the Egyptians were taken by surprise to find so renowned a\nking and warrior \u2018a little deformed old man, clad in mean attire, and\nregardless of show and luxury,\u2019 who \u2018would sit carelessly upon the\ngrass amongst his soldiers.\u2019[104] At any rate they only intrusted him\nwith the command of the mercenaries. Angry at the affront, the Spartan\nking supported a rival prince, who displaced Takos, the reigning\nsovereign, and assumed his place. This king, Nectanebus (361 B.C.), was\nthe last of the long line of kings that opens with king Mena.\n\nOchus, a cruel but energetic sovereign, succeeded Artaxerxes II. on\nthe Persian throne; the energies of Greece were concentrated in the\nstruggle against Philip of Macedon. Ochus invaded Egypt with an immense\narmy (ten thousand of whom were Greek mercenaries!). Nectanebus was an\nincompetent general, but, confident of his own ability, he commanded in\nperson the army of Egyptians and Greek mercenaries, who encountered the\nPersians at Pelusium. He was defeated, and instantly fled to Memphis;\non hearing of the further progress of the enemy, he quitted Memphis\nand fled southward, until he reached the safe shelter of the Ethiopian\nland. With this hurried and ignominious retreat, the ancient monarchy\nof Egypt ceased to be. Deprived of their king and leader, the people at\nonce submitted (about 340 B.C.).\n\nBut the Persian conquerors only ruled for twelve years longer\u2014years of\ndanger and distress for their country. Greece had been subjugated by\nMacedon, and Alexander, son of Philip, rapidly conquered the Persian\nprovinces. Egypt alone remained; in 332 B.C., he entered that country,\nwhere he met with no resistance, but was rather hailed as a deliverer.\nHe went to Memphis, where he offered sacrifice to the Apis. Alexander\nalso visited the temple of Amen (of Zeus Ammon, the Greeks called it),\nin the oasis, twelve days\u2019 journey from Memphis, and in the heart of\nthe desert. This temple was of great renown in antiquity, and its\noracle was consulted far and wide. The conqueror was received by the\npriests with the most flattering assurances. He was the \u2018son of Zeus,\u2019\nthey told him, and should \u2018pursue his career of victory until he was\ntaken to the gods.\u2019\n\nBefore quitting Egypt, Alexander planned the foundation of the city\nthat was destined to be so famed in after times both as an emporium of\ntrade and as a school of learning and philosophy\u2014Alexandria.\n\nThe battle of Arbela decided the fate of the Persian monarchy. But\nAlexander did not live to rule long over the empire he had won; on his\ndeath his dominions were divided amongst his successors. Egypt fell to\nthe Ptolemies, and remained under their rule for three hundred years,\nuntil 30 B.C., when it became a Roman province.\n\n[Illustration: Sphinx.]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[91] And thus a descendant of Tafnekht, the ambitious prince of Sais,\ndefeated by Piankhi (p. 246).\n\n[92] The story told by Herodotus is that an oracle had declared that\nthat prince who should make libation out of a brazen goblet should\nreign over all Egypt. One day all the princes appeared to offer\nsacrifice, but the high priest by mistake brought only eleven golden\nvessels, whereupon Psammetichus took off his helmet and used it for\nthe libation. When it was observed that the oracle had thus, though\ninadvertently, been fulfilled, it was thought a prudent measure\nto depose and banish Psammetichus. He consulted the oracle, which\nannounced that vengeance would come by brazen men, showing themselves\nfrom seaward. When he heard of pirates clad in brazen armour who had\nshowed themselves in the Delta, he perceived the meaning of the oracle.\nBy enlisting the Greek mercenaries in their panoplies of brass, he\naccordingly triumphed over his rivals, expelled the Assyrians, and\nbecame king of all Egypt.\n\n[93] Sais, in the Delta, was a magnificent city, and the temple of\nthe goddess Neith, who was worshipped there, was celebrated for its\nsplendour. The worship of Neith goes back to the earliest times, but\nunder the dynasty which had its seat at Sais it attained very great\nprominence. Neith was a nature-goddess, and was called the \u2018mother\nof the sun.\u2019 She represents the hidden and mysterious ground of all\nthings, and hence was naturally regarded as the goddess of wisdom.\nLike Athena, to whom the Greeks compared her, she was at the same time\ngoddess of war. Over her temple was the inscription: \u2018I am what is,\nwhat shall be, and what has been, and no man hath lifted my veil; I am\nthe great mother of Ra.\u2019\n\n[94] Nahum iii. 7, 19; \u2018No spark of pity mingles with the prophet\u2019s\ndelight.\u2019\u2014Stanley, _Jewish Church_.\n\n[95] Jer. xlvi. 8, 9.\n\n[96] Jer. xlvi. 5, 16.\n\n[97] 2 Kings xxiv. 7.\n\n[98] It was natural not to send Greeks against their fellow-countrymen,\nthough the action was otherwise interpreted.\n\n[99] The story of Herodotus is that an Egyptian oculist had been sent\nto Persia to cure the king, who was suffering from some complaint of\nthe eyes. Cambyses heard so much from him of the beauty of the daughter\nof Amasis, that he desired to have her for his wife. Amasis, unwilling\nto send his own daughter, substituted the daughter of his predecessor\nApries. Cambyses, on discovering the fraud, was so enraged that he\nundertook the invasion of Egypt to punish the perfidy of its king.\nCambyses certainly was not the man to wait for a pretext, whether the\nstory be true or not. The narratives of Herodotus are by no means to be\nrelied on; all that he relates as an eye-witness is of the utmost value.\n\n[100] Brugsch, _History of Egypt_.\n\n[101] It was Uah-hor-penres, priest of Neith, of whom Cambyses\ninquired, and who seems to have won great respect from the king. Sais\nappears, through his influence and good offices, to have been \u2018saved in\nthe great calamity that fell upon the land.\u2019\n\n[102] Lord Derby\u2019s translation.\n\n[103] \u2018All intellectual Greeks,\u2019 says Grote, \u2018were naturally attracted\nto go and visit the wonders on the banks of the Nile.\u2019\n\n[104] Grote.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX I.\n\nTABLE OF DYNASTIES.\n\n\n    DYNASTY I.\u2014THINITE.\n    Mena.             Hesepti.\n    Teta.             Merbap.\n    Atet.             Sememptah.\n    Ata.              Kebeh.\n\n    DYNASTY II.\u2014THINITE.\n    Betau.            Uatnes.\n    Kakau.            Senta.\n    Bai-en-neter.\n\n    DYNASTY III.\u2014MEMPHITE.\n    Tati.             Teta I.\n    Bebi.             Setes.\n    Nebka.            Neferkara.\n    Sersa.            Senefru.\n\n    DYNASTY IV.\u2014MEMPHITE.\n    Khufu.            Menkaura.\n    Tetefra.          Aseskaf.\n    Khafra.\n\n    DYNASTY V.\u2014MEMPHITE.\n    Userkaf.          Userenra.\n    Sehura.           Menkauhor.\n    Kaka.             Tetkara.\n    Neferarkara.      Unas.\n\n    DYNASTY VI.\u2014ELEPHANTINE.\n    Teta II.          Merienra II.\n    Userkara.         Neterkara.\n    Pepi Meri-ra.     Menkara.\n    Merienra I.       Netakerti\n    Neferkara I.         (Nitocris).\n\n    DYNASTY VII.\u2014MEMPHITE.\n      No records or names preserved.\n\n    DYNASTY VIII.\u2014MEMPHITE.\n    Neferkara II.     Neferkahor.\n    Neferkara Nebi.   Neferkara V.\n    Tetkara.          Seneferka Annu.\n    Neferkara III.    ... Kaura.\n    Merenhor.         Neferkaura.\n    Seneferka.        Neferkauhor.\n    Enkara.           Neferarkara.\n    Neferkara IV.\n\n    DYNASTIES IX. AND X.\n    (HERACLEOPOLIS.)\n    Probably contemporary with foregoing.\n         Names unknown.\n\n    DYNASTY XI.\u2014THEBAN.\n      Ten kings\u2014amongst them the Antefs\n         and Mentuhoteps. Egypt\n         re-united under last two kings\n         of this dynasty:\n    Nebtaura.      Sankhkara.\n\n    DYNASTY XII.\u2014THEBAN.\n    Amenemhat I.      Amenemhat III.\n    Usertesen I.      Amenemhat IV.\n    Amenemhat II.     Sebeknefrura\n    Usertesen II.         (Queen).\n    Usertesen III.\n\n    DYNASTY XIII.\u2014THEBAN.\n    Sebekhotep I.\n    Six successors bearing same name.\n\n    DYNASTY XIV.\u2014XOITE.\n    Seventy-six kings ruling in 184 years.\n\n    DYNASTIES XV. AND XVI.\n    The Hyksos Kings.\n\n    DYNASTY XVII.\u2014THEBAN.\n    Native rulers in the south\u2014at\n    first tributary to Hyksos Kings.\n       War of liberation by\u2014\n    Sekenenra.  Taa-aa.  Taa-ken.\n\n    DYNASTY XVIII.\u2014THEBAN.\n    Aahmes.           Amenhotep III.\n    Amenhotep I.      Amenhotep IV.\n    Thothmes I.       Khu-en-aten.\n    Thothmes II.      Saanekht.\n    Hatasu.           Tutankh-amen.\n    Thothmes III.     Ai.\n    Amenhotep II.     Horus.\n    Thothmes IV.\n\n    DYNASTY XIX.\u2014THEBAN.\n    Rameses I.        Seti Menephtah II.\n    Seti I.           Amenmeses.\n    Rameses II.       Siptah.\n    Menephtah I.      Setnekht.\n\n    DYNASTY XX.\u2014THEBAN.\n    Rameses III.\n    Ten or more successors\n       of the same name.\n\n    DYNASTY XXI.\u2014PRIEST-KINGS.\n    Her-hor.          Pinotem II.\n    Piankhi.          Menkheperra.\n    Pinotem I.        Pinotem III.\n\n    DYNASTY XXII.\u2014BUBASTITE.\n    Sheshenk I.       Sheshenk II.\n        (Shishak.)    Takeleth II.\n    Usarken I.        Sheskenk III.\n    Takeleth I.       Pimai.\n    Usarken II.       Sheshenk IV.\n\n    DYNASTY XXIII.\u2014TANITE.\n    Petubast.  Usarken III.  Psemaut.\n\n    DYNASTY XXIV.\u2014SAITE.\n          Bakenrenef.\n    Petty rulers in Delta.\n\n    DYNASTY XXV.\u2014ETHIOPIAN.\n    Shebek            Taharak\n      (Sabaco).          (Tirhakah).\n    Piankhi.          Rutamen.\n    Nutmeramen.\n\n    DYNASTY XXVI.\u2014SAITE.\n    Psemtek I. (Psammetichus).\n    Nekau (Necho).\n    Psemtek II.\n    Uahabra (Apries).\n    Aahmes II. (Amasis).\n    Psemtek III.\n\n    DYNASTY XXVII.\u2014PERSIAN.\n    Cambyses and six successors.\n\n    DYNASTY XXVIII.\u2014SAITE.\n         Amyrt\u00e6us.\n\n    DYNASTY XXIX.\u2014MENDESIAN.\n    Naifaaret I.      Psemant.\n    Haker.            Naifaaret II.\n\n    DYNASTY XXX.\u2014SEBENNYTE.\n    Nekhthorheb (Nectanebo).\n    Tether.\n    Nekhtnebef.\n\n    _This list, with some slight variations, follows\n       that given by Sir Erasmus Wilson as an appendix\n       to_ \u2018EGYPT OF THE PAST.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX II.\n\nDECIPHERMENT OF THE HIEROGLYPHS.\n\n\nThe idea long prevailed that the hieroglyphic characters were\nideographic\u2014_i.e._ that they represented ideas, not sounds; and any\nattempt at decipherment was hopeless. Before the end of last century,\nhowever, a hint had been thrown out that the characters might prove to\nbe phonetic\u2014_i.e._ representing sounds like the letters of our ordinary\nalphabets. And a further suggestion had been offered that the words\nenclosed within ovals might be the names of royal personages. But\nunless some means existed of comparing those names with the same names\nwritten in a known language, not a single hieroglyph could be read. The\ndiscovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799 supplied the means required.\nOn that stone was engraved an inscription in three characters\u2014the\nhieroglyphic, the demotic or popular Egyptian, and the Greek. Scholars,\nhowever, turned their attention at first rather to the comparison\nof the demotic and the Greek, as the idea still prevailed that the\nhieroglyphs were not phonetic. It happened, also, that the beginning\nof the hieroglyphic and the end of the Greek inscription were wanting,\nwhich added greatly to the difficulty of comparing the texts. Thus \u2018the\nseals of the mysterious book were still unclosed\u2019 when Champollion\nbegan his labours. He succeeded in identifying the names of Ptolemy and\nCleopatra, and by comparing them with each other and with their Greek\ncounterparts he identified ten letters which were clearly phonetic.\nThe first and second characters in the king\u2019s name were found in their\nright places in that of the queen, and the initial letter of Cleopatra\ndid not occur in the name of Ptolemy, etc. By the examination and\ncomparison of other proper names other letters were determined, and a\nphonetic alphabet gradually acquired. But the formidable task remained\nof examining, reducing to order, and deciphering the vast mass of\ncharacters that were still unread.\n\nThe fact is that in the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, hundreds of\ncharacters are employed as well as the letters of the alphabet; these\ncharacters represent syllables, words, or ideas, and could be used\ninstead of the letters, almost at the pleasure of the writer. This\ngradually became apparent to Champollion, and as, fortunately, there\nare a very great number of copies extant of the same MSS., he was able,\nby laborious and persevering collation of those MSS., to determine\nthe phonetic value of a great number of characters. To use a familiar\nillustration, it is as though two copies of an English sentence were\ncompared by a foreigner who was acquainted only with the alphabet; in\none of them occurred the word _three_ and the word _and_, whilst in\nthe other copy, in the places occupied by those words, appeared the\ncharacter 3 and the character &; or in an astronomical treatise, he\nwould find the words _sun_ and _Taurus_ interchangeable with the signs\n\u2609 and \u2649. It would clearly be possible for him to read the four signs\ninto the words for which they respectively stand, by a comparison of\ncopies. The only difference is that the use of signs, whether for\nsyllables, words, or ideas, is carried to such an immense extent in the\nold Egyptian writing, that their decipherment was a work of the most\narduous kind. Champollion, nevertheless, succeeded in recovering and\nreading the old Egyptian language to a great extent, and his work has\nbeen ardently carried forward by his successors. The language, however,\neven when deciphered and read, must have remained unintelligible, if\nmodern Coptic (the descendant of the ancient tongue) had not afforded\nthe key to its translation.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\n\n    Aahmes, conqueror of the Hyksos, 87, 93.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 his mummy discovered, 94.\n    Aahmes, admiral of the fleet, exploits of, 90 _seq_.\n    Aah-hotep, queen, 87.\n    Aarsu, the Syrian, 210.\n    Abydos, shrine of Osiris, 6.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 ruins of, 10, 11.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 tablet of, 151.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 visit of Rameses II. to, 152 _seq_.\n    Abu-simbel, rock-temples and colossal statues at, 166, 167.\n    Agesilaus of Sparta in Egypt, 284.\n    Alexander the Great in Egypt, 286.\n    Alexandria founded, 286.\n    Amasis, King; his policy and character, 275, 277.\n    Amen, god of Thebes, 49, 132, 223.\n    Amen-Ra, hymn to, 222, 223.\n    Amen, great temple of, at Thebes, (Karnak), 55, 65, 95, 128, 151.\n    Amenemhat I., instructions of, 51 _seq_.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 conspiracy against, 52, 53.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 pyramid of, 64.\n    Amenemhat III. notes rise of Nile, 70.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 constructs Lake M\u0153ris and the Labyrinth, 71, _seq_.\n    Amenemhib, inscription of, 112, 123.\n    Amenhotep I., 93, 94.\n    Amenhotep II., 124.\n    Amenhotep III., his campaigns in the South, 128.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 his buildings at Thebes, 128.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 colossi of, 129 _seq_.\n    Amenhotep, architect, 128 _seq_.\n    Ameni, inscription of, 66, 67.\n    Amenritis, queen of Ethiopia, 265.\n    Amenti, scenes in, depicted, 192 _seq_.\n    Amu, the, 26, 76.\n    Amyrt\u00e6us, 283.\n    Animal worship, 198 _seq_.\n    Antef, the family, 43,\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 festal dirge of house of, 44, 45.\n    Apepi, serpent of evil, 195, 196.\n    Apepi, Hyksos king; his embassy to the ruler of the South, 83.\n    Apis, sacred bull of Memphis, 199.\n    Apis-worship, development of, 243, 244.\n    Apollonius of Tyana on animal worship, 200 _note_.\n    Apries, King (Hophra), 272 _seq_.\n    Ark, the sacred, 179.\n    Art, excellence and defects of, 201, 202.\n    Assyrian empire, first, 239.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 second, rise of, 253.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 \u2014\u2014\u2014    fall of, 269.\n    Assyrians first enter Egypt, 259.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 finally expelled, 264.\n    Assur-bani-pal, king of Assyria, 259 _seq_.\n    Ata, King, 16.\n    Aten the Disk, worship of, 133 _seq_.\n    Atet, Princess, tomb of, 33.\n    Avaris, fortified by the Hyksos, 81.\n            siege and capture of, 90, 91.\n    Azotus, siege of, 267.\n\n    Baba-Abana, inscription of, 89.\n    Babylon, conflicts with Assyria, 215, 239.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 empire of, 269.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 fall of, 276.\n    Bai-en-neter, decree of King, 15.\n    Bast or Pasht, the goddess, 238 _note_.\n    Beni-Hassan, rock tombs of, 75.\n    Biban-el-Moluk; tombs of the kings, 171.\n    Book of the \u2018Manifestation\u2019 or \u2018Coming forth into Day\u2019;\n            commonly called \u2018Book\u2019 or \u2018Ritual of the Dead,\u2019 10.\n    Bubastis, city of, 238.\n\n    Cambyses invades and conquers Egypt, 277.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 his disaster, cruelty and madness, 279.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 his end, 280.\n    Chaldea, early civilisation of, 215.\n    Columns, Hall of, at Karnak, 151.\n    Confession, the Negative, 67, 68.\n    Crown, double, of Egypt, 16.\n    Cyrene, Greek colony of, 273.\n    Cyrus, King, 276.\n\n    Darius, king of Persia, 280.\n    Dodecarchy, the, 263.\n\n    Esar-haddon, king of Assyria, 259.\n\n    Famine, many years of, 89.\n    Fayoum, oasis of, 70.\n    Funeral celebrations, 39, 190, 191.\n\n    Ghizeh, pyramids of, 18 _seq._\n    Gods, representation of, 119,192 _seq._\n    Greece, early, as known to the Egyptians, 281.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 influence of Egypt on, 282.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 alliances between Egypt and, 280, 283, 284.\n    Greek mercenaries, 264, 266.\n    Greek merchants and colonists, 267, 273.\n\n    Hammamat, valley of, 46, 149.\n    Hanno, expedition of, 47.\n    Harper, Lay of the, 191, 192.\n    Hatasu, Queen; her pride and ambition, 96.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 splendid temple of, 97.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 her expedition to Punt, 99 _seq_.\n    Hebrew colonists in Goshen, 89.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 reduced to bondage, 204.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 exodus of, 205.\n    Herodotus, the historian, 44, 69, 71, 200, 218, 263, 266, 277.\n    Her-hor, priest-king, his family vault, 230, 234.\n    Herusha, the, 26, 27.\n    Hezekiah, alliance with Tirhakah, 256, 257.\n    Homer, his acquaintance with Egypt, 281.\n    Hophra, _see_ Apries.\n    Horse, first appearance of, 80.\n    Horus, the god, son of Isis, 3 _seq_.\n    Horus, King, 139.\n    Houses and gardens, 180 _seq_.\n    Hyksos, invasion of, 80.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 rule and expulsion of, 81 _seq_.\n\n    Immigrants, Asiatic, 76, 77.\n    Invocation, customary funeral, 39.\n    Isis, the goddess, 2 _seq_.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 Lamentations of, 2 _seq_.\n    Israelites in Canaan, 215.\n    Israelitish empire, 241.\n\n    Jeremiah in Egypt, 273.\n    Jerusalem, siege and destruction of, 273.\n    Jeroboam in Egypt, 242.\n    Joseph in Egypt, 89.\n    Josiah, King, 268.\n\n    Kadesh, battle of, 159.\n    Kames, Prince, 86.\n    Karchemish, battle of, 270.\n    Khafra, pyramid and statue of, 23.\n    Khamus, Prince, priest of Apis, 199.\n    Khem, \u2018lord of the mountain,\u2019 49.\n    Khemi, a name of Egypt, 69.\n    Kheta (Hittites), campaign of Seti I. against, 144.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 war of Rameses II. with, 156 _seq_.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 treaty of Rameses with, 169 _seq_.\n    Khetasir, king of Kheta, 156, 168, 169.\n    Khnumhotep, family and tomb of, 75.\n    Khons, the god, 49, 222 _note_.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 oracle-temple of, 222, 225.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 visit of, to Bakhten, 227, _seq_.\n    Khufu, great pyramid of, 22, 23.\n    Khu-en-aten, new religion of, 133.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 family life of, 135, 136.\n    Kom-es-Sultan, mound of, 11.\n    Koptos, town of, 46, 214.\n\n    Labyrinth, The, 71.\n    Lebanon, visit of Seti I. to, 145.\n    Libyan invasion of Egypt, 207 _seq_.\n    Luxor, temple of, 128, 175.\n\n    Magic, practice of, 221, 222.\n    Manetho, the historian, 81 _note_.\n    Marmaiu, Libyan king, 207.\n    Mashuasha, defeat of, 213.\n    Medinet Habou, temple of, 218.\n    Megiddo, battle of, 109.\n    Meidoom, early tombs at, 30.\n    Memnon, statues of, 130.\n    Memphis, founded by Mena, 12.\n    Mena, first king of Egypt, 1, 12.\n    Mendes, ram of, 199.\n    Menephtah I. defeats the Libyans, 209 _seq_.\n    Menkaura, his pyramid and sarcophagus, 24.\n    Mentuhoteps, princely family of, 46.\n    Mentuhotep, a great noble, 74, 75.\n    Mercenary troops, 209, 246, 264.\n    Merienra, King; sepulchre and mummy of, 25.\n    Mesopotamia, campaigns in, 94, 110.\n    Migdol, battle of, 217.\n    Mines of copper and _mafek_, 17, 65, 214.\n    Mnevis, sacred bull of Heliopolis, 199.\n    M\u0153ris, Lake, 71.\n    Momemphis, battle of, 264.\n    Morality, standard of, 67, 68.\n    Moses, 205.\n    Mut, the Divine Mother, 49.\n\n    Naharina, _see_ Mesopotamia.\n    Nahum, the prophet, 262, 269.\n    Napata, city of, 238, 265.\n    Necho, Assyrian viceroy at Memphis, 260.\n    Necho, King, defeated at Karchemish, 270.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 his naval expedition, 271.\n    Necropolis of Memphis, 15.\n    Nectanebus, last native king, 284, 285.\n    Nefert, Princess, statue of, 34.\n    Nefe-rmat, tomb of, 33.\n    Nefer-tai, wife of Khu-en-aten, 136.\n    Nefertari, wife of Rameses II., 167.\n    Neith, the goddess, 265, 266 _note_.\n    Negroes (or Nahsi), 12, 69, 128, 165.\n    Negro queen, visit of, 137.\n    Nile, Egypt the gift of, 69.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 rise of, recorded, 70.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 Hymn to the, 223, 224.\n    Nineveh, fall of, 269.\n    Nitocris, Queen, 41.\n    Nomes, Egypt divided into, 42.\n    Nubia, added to Egypt, 68.\n    Nut\u2014the Heaven\u2014mother of Osiris, 3 _note_, 25 _note_, 196.\n    Nutmeramen, King; dream of, 252.\n\n    Oasis of Amen, 278, 286.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 Fayoum, 70.\n    Obelisks of Heliopolis, 10, 64, 65.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 of Hatasu, 97.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 of Thothmes III., 116.\n    Ochus, King of Persia, 285.\n    Oracle-temple of Khons, 222, 225.\n    On (Heliopolis), ancient city of, 7 _seq._, 64, 250.\n    Osiris, myth of, and Isis, 2 _seq_.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 judgment of the spirit before, 5, 67, 192.\n\n    Palestine or Canaan, land of, 107, 113, 124, 144, 215.\n    Pa-Ra, City of the Sun, 6, 64, 250.\n    Pa-Ramessu, city of Rameses, poetical description of, 163, 164.\n    Pasht or Basht, the goddess, 238 _note_.\n    Pelusium, battle of, 277.\n    Pentaur, heroic poem of, 160 _seq_.\n    Pepi, King; sepulchre and mummy of, 25.\n    Persian empire, rise of, 276.\n    Persians first enter Egypt, 277.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 final conquest by, 285.\n    Philistines, nation of, 240, 241.\n    Ph\u0153nicians, the, 113, 143, 156, 170, 240.\n    Ph\u0153nix, story of the, 9.\n    Philo of Alexandria on the sacred animals, 200.\n    Piankhi, the Ethiopian king, 246.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 inscription of, 247 _seq_.\n    Pinotem II., his wife and child, 234.\n    Pithom, store-city, 205.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 site of, identified, 205 _note_.\n    Priesthood of Egypt, 8.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 growth of power at Thebes, 229.\n    Priest-kings, 230 _seq_.\n    Priest-kings, their family tomb, 233.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 discovery of mummies there, 234 _seq_.\n    Princess, the possessed, of Bakhten, 226 _seq_.\n    Prosopis, battle of, 209.\n    Psamtek (Psammetichus) I., 263.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 II., 271.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 III., 277.\n    Ptah, the god, 2, 12, 208.\n    Ptah-hotep, maxims of, 34, 35.\n    Punt; expedition of Sankhkara, 47.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 \u2014\u2014\u2014 of Hatasu, 99, _seq_.\n    Pyramid builders, 17 _seq_.\n    Pyramid of Sakkara, 16.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 the Great, 22, 23.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 of Khafra, 23.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 of Menkaura, 24.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 of Amenemhat I., 64.\n    Pyramids, construction of, 22, 29, 30.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 names of, 39.\n\n    Ra, worship of, at On, 2, 49.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 his triumph over Apepi, 196.\n    Raamses, store-city, 205.\n    Ra-hotep, statue of Prince, 34.\n    Rameses I., 142.\n    Rameses II., childhood of, 146.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 visit to Abydos, 152 _seq_.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 invocation of his father, 155.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 war with the Kheta, 156 _seq_.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 danger and prowess of, 159.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 campaigns and exploits, 165 _seq_.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 architectural achievements, 163, 167, 175.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 colossal statues of, 14, 167.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 fate of his mummy, 172.\n    Rameses III., drives back invading tribes, 213.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 repels great invasion of confederates, 217.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 victories and spoils, 218.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 conspiracy against, 220 _seq_.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 tomb of, 224.\n    Ramessid\u00e6, successors of Rameses III., 225 _seq_.\n    Rameses IX., violation of tombs discovered under, 226.\n    Rameses XII., the god Khons sent to Bakhten by, 226 _seq_.\n    Ramesseum, the, 189.\n    Rampsinitus, Rameses III. so called by the Greeks, 218.\n    Rome, Egypt a province of, 287.\n\n    Sais, city of, 265.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 visit of Cambyses to, 278.\n    Sakkara, pyramids of, 16.\n    Samaria taken by Sargon, 255.\n    Saneha, story of, 55 _seq_.\n    San-Tanis or Zoan, 162 _seq_.\n    Scythians, the, in Asia, 267.\n    Seb, Earth-god, father of Osiris, 2, 3 _note_.\n    Sechet, the goddess, _see_ Pasht.\n    Sefek, \u2018Lady of Writings,\u2019 119.\n    Sekenen-Ra, a patriot, 85.\n    Semem-kheftu-ef, tame lion of Rameses, 157, 166, 167.\n    Semnut, architect of Hatasu, 98.\n    Senefru, King, 17.\n    Serapeum, the, 243.\n    Sesostris, of the Greeks, 220.\n    Set, brother and foe of Osiris, story of, 2, 3.\n    Seti I., his campaign in Palestine, 144.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 against the Kheta, 144 _seq_.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 triumph of, 145, 147.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 his Hall of Columns and his temple at Abydos, 151.\n    Seti Menephtah II., 209.\n    Setnekht, founder of Dynasty XX., 210, 211.\n    Shebek, King, (So or Sabaco), 255.\n    Sheshenk I., (Shishak), 242.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 his campaign in Jud\u00e6a, 242, 243.\n    Slavery in Egypt, 116, 117, 203, 204.\n    Solomon, king of Israel, 241.\n    Solon in Egypt, 281, 282.\n    Sphinx, the Great, 21.\n    Superstition, growth of, 222.\n    Symbolism in religion, 197.\n    Symbols, animals as, 198, 199.\n\n    Taa, the family of, 86 _seq_.\n    Tafnekht, a prince of the north, 24 _seq_.\n    Tai-ti, Queen, 132, 172.\n    Ta-khent or Nubia, 68.\n    Ta-neter, the \u2018divine land,\u2019 47.\n    Tel-el-Amarna, site of city of Khu-en-aten, 134.\n    Temples, Egyptian, 176 _seq_.\n    Thebes, first mention of, 43.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 in her magnificence, 186, 187.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 Western, the City of the Dead, 187 _seq_.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 sack of, by Assur-bani-pal, 261, 262.\n    Thi, tomb of, 36, 38.\n    Thinis-Abydos, twin cities of, 6.\n    Thoth, the god, 75 _note_, 192.\n    Thothmes I., campaign in Mesopotamia, 94.\n    Thothmes II., 96.\n    Thothmes III., his boyhood, 97.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 coronation of, 103.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 enters Palestine, 107.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 his victorious campaigns in Asia; extent of empire, 109-111.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 his wealth, and gifts to the temples, 113-115.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 heroic song in honour of, 120, 121.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 fate of his mummy, 123, 124.\n    Thothmes IV., dream of, 125 _seq_.\n    Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, 253.\n    Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia and Egypt;\n              his long conflict with Assyria, 259 _seq_.\n    Trade, manufactures, and amusements of the people, 182-186.\n    Tum, the god, worship of, 49 _and note_.\n    Tutankh-amen, King, 137.\n\n    Uahpra, _see_ Apries.\n    Uah-hor-penres, priest of Neith, 278 _note_.\n    Una, inscription of, 26.\n    Unas, King, 25.\n    University, ancient, of On, 8.\n    Usertesen I. associated with his father, 51.\n    \u2014\u2014\u2014 his obelisk and other buildings, 64, 65.\n    Usertesen III., conquers Nubia, 68, 69.\n\n    Wady Maghara, mines in the valley of, 17, 65.\n\n    Zedekiah, king of Judah, 272.\n    Zoan, city of, 162 _seq_., 169, 237, 257.\n\nPRINTED BY T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY, AT THE\nEDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS.","title":"The Pharaohs and Their People: Scenes of old Egyptian life and history","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":55015}