L~p"~eoffiagamE






BEQUEST OF _
IRVING KANE POND -
C.E. 1879, A.M. (HON.) 1911 
ilI............




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Karnak..1 11 
I, ~I


Hypostyle Hall-The Leaning Column.
Plate I.




IN THE TIME OF THE
PHARAOHS
BY
ALEXANI)RE MO RET
SUB-DIRECTOR OF THE MUSEE GUIMET
PROFESSOR OF EGYPTOLOGY IN L'ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES


TRANSLATED BY
MME. MORET
WITH z6 PLA TES AND A MAP
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
Ube 'kntchkerbocker press
1911




COPYRIGHT, 1911
BY
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
tbe tmfcherbocketr pre, flew  orik




A/;> /g / ASf 
PREFACE
THE following articles grouped under the heading In the Time of the Pharaohs are without any
apparent connection. They first appeared in
the well-known French magazine, Revue de
Paris, and were written expressly with the intention of initiating the French public at large into
a branch of history and archeology as yet dealt
with only by a very small number of specialists,
whose researches appear in scholarly publications that are not readily accessible to the layman. Hence the need of presenting the subject in
non-technical language. The Review above mentioned asked the author of this book to give a
popular account of the interesting but complicated
problems in Egypt raised by the discoveries of
the last ten or fifteen years; the task was not an
easy one because there are hardly any subjects
that have as yet reached the point where technical
discussion can be dispensed with and also because
it is difficult as yet to speak with finality. In his
account of prehistoric Egypt, and elsewhere in
111




iv


Preface


the volume, the author has alluded to theories
and views that have already been superseded,
but that are nevertheless interesting, inasmuch as
they exemplify the difficulties scholars have to
face, and give some indication of the amount of
work that remains to be done in Egyptology, a
new science that is greatly in need of students
and that has rewards in store for those who work
conscientiously.
The author's statements are the outcome of
several investigations in Egypt undertaken on
behalf of the French Government, and of an unbiassed study of original documents; he tried to
gather together every scrap of information contributed by later investigations in order to bring
his statements down to date. He hopes that the
following papers will be of service to the everincreasing number of tourists visiting Egypt,
enabling them to form an acquaintance with the
religion and moral ideas of the ancient Egyptians,
and putting them in touch with our present knowledge of Eastern history. It is also hoped that
this book may be useful to students of general
history, and of philosophy, as well as to those
interested in Biblical research. As every source
has been carefully indicated in the footnotes,
this book may also serve as a supplement to the




Preface                 v
various histories of Egypt that are in use at the
present time, for these histories touch upon some
points that require re-examination in the light
of new documents, and do not give any attention
to others.
I gratefully acknowledge the invaluable service
rendered me by my wife in translating this book
and my thanks are due to her also for constant
secretarial assistance.
ALEXANDRE MORET.
PARIS, June x8, i9io.




11




CONTENTS
CHAPTER                                        PAGE
I. THE RESTORATION OF THE EGYPTIAN TEMPLES.  I
II. PHARAONIC DIPLOMACY...      55
III. EGYPT BEFORE THE PYRAMIDS...99
IV. AROUND THE PYRAMIDS.....     66
V. " THE BOOK OF THE DEAD"..            218
VI. MAGIC IN ANCIENT EGYPT.. 268
INDEX...... 305


vii




I




ILLUSTRATIONS


PAGE
PLATE I. KARNAK.                 Frontispiece
Hypostyle Hall-The Leaning Column
PLATE II. KARNAK......22
I. The Shattered Pylons
II. Western Face of the Hypostyle Hall
in 1904
PLATE III. KARNAK......28
I. After the Earthquake of 1899
II. The Taking Down of a Column
PLATE IV. KARNAK......40
I. Inclined Plane Used in Taking Down
the Columns
II. Scaffolding Used in Ancient Times in
Constructing
PLATE V........ i8
I. Prehistoric Ceramics
II. Woman-Shaped Vase. (J. Capart:
Debuts de 'art en Egypte
III. Vase with Human Face.
IV. Bird-Shaped Vase. (J. Capart: Debuts
de P 'art en Egypte.)
ix




x


Illustrations


PLATE VI.
I.
II.


ZAOUIET-EL-ARYAN.
The Incline Used in Descending
The Vat of Granite.


PLATE E


rII. ARCHAIC PYRAMIDS. 
I. The Step Pyramid of Sakkara]
Erected by Zeser.
II. Pyramid of Snefer(f at Meidun.


h f


PLATE VIII. GIZEH..
I. Sphinx and Pyramid of Chephren.
II. Temple of the Sphinx.
PLATE IX. GIZEH..
I. The Great Pyramids of the IVth
Dynasty.
II. The Pyramid of Ounas, Chapel and
Tomb.
PLATE X. GIZEH..
Pyramids of Cheops and Chephren
(northern face)
PLATE XI. IN THE GREAT PYRAMID.
I. Exploration of the Chambers.
II. The Large Ascending Gallery.
From La Description de I 'Egypte.
PLATE XII. GIZEH...
I. West Side of the Great Pyramid.
II. A Mastaba with Two Doors.


PAGE
170
I74
I78
184
186
i88
I96




Illustrations


xi


PAGE
PLATE XIII. IN THE TOMBS AT SAKKARAH.. 200
I. Stela, False Door, Bust, and
Statues.
II. False Door and Statue of the
Double (MerA).
PLATE XIV. SAKKARAH.... 204
Bas-Reliefs of a Funeral Chamber
(Phtahhetep).
PLATE XV. TOMB OF PHTAHNEFER..      224
The Funeral Ceremony.
PLATE XVI...... 236
The Judgment of the Dead (from    a
papyrus).


MAP


AT END








In the
Time of the Pharaohs
CHAPTER I
THE RESTORATION OF THE EGYPTIAN TEMPLES
AT the beginning of the twentieth century,
severalof the" eternal dwellings "of Ancient Egypt
had almost completely crumbled. As they had
withstood for ages the ravages of time, they were
considered indestructible. Their dedications read:
" Temples to endure for millions of years, founded
for ever and ever. " These assurances of eternity,
which were formerly thought to be of magic
power, had survived, though the dogmas of
old had been forgotten and the ancient rites
abolished.
The oldest of these sanctuaries were, however,
in a state of utter ruin. What remained of the
splendid edifice that Ousirniri of the Vth dynasty
I




2


Time of the Pharaohs


had raised in honour of the Sun, or of the temple
in pyramidal form built by a Montouhotpou of
the XIth dynasty?'    Messrs. von Bissing and
Naville, who cleared them, found only bare
terraces, scattered bas-reliefs, and crumbling
colonnades. At Karnak, a national sanctuary
where every Pharaoh, from the chieftains of the
primitive clans to the Roman Cesars, used to
build a temple or a chapel, the visitor versed in
such matters could still make out, quite near the
pylons of Thothmes, marvellous carved blocks,
half buried, which were all that remained of the
effaced halls erected by the Ousirtasens and
Amen6phises. Such ruins could hardly be expected to make a strong impression.
The eye prefers to rest securely on the buildings
of the Ramses, or of the Bubastite kings. There,
at least, the general plan of the Egyptian temple
still stands out distinctly, though many walls
have fallen in and the structure is complicated.
An avenue of sphinxes leads to a high gate, defended by two pylons similar to the towers of our
cathedrals. In front of the gate, are placed two
obelisks, as well as colossal statues in a seated or
standing posture. Crossing the threshold, we
'Fifth dynasty: about 3800 years B.C.; XIth dynasty: about
2500.




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 3


enter a spacious court surrounded by a cloister
of colonnades or caryatids; in the centre, is an
altar where the offerings were burned. Walking
up a gentle incline, we come to what is known as
the "hypostyle" court, where many rows of
enormous columns support at the height of
sixty-three to sixty-six feet a ceiling of ponderous flagstones. At New Year's, on fetle-days of
the seasons, and on days set apart for divine
and royal worship, the crowd of worshippers
had access to this part of the building where
they might view the procession of the gods
or of the king. Before issuing into the court,
ablaze with sunshine and flooded with light, it
was pleasant to linger in the freshness and
semi-obscurity of these high covered halls.
But beyond this point no living being might
venture to go, unless he were of divine race, either
in his own right or by initiation. Only the grand
priest and the king had access to the sanctuary, a central room, low and massive, with no
other opening than the door. There slumbered,
behind the sealed and bolted panels, in complete
darkness, the statue of the god, placed in an ark
or granite naos, waiting for the sacrificer who
was to awaken him by the force of secret rites.
No other temples dating from the new kingdom




4


Time of the Pharaohs


are so well preserved in their main outlines; but
parts of each of them are in good condition.
Gournah, one of the marvels of Egyptian art, has
preserved from the ravages of time only a dismantled hypostyle and a few cult-chambers.
Abydos, built at the same time, has retained a
hypostyle and seven shrines, in white limestone,
of very fine texture, on which have been carved
reliefs of delicate workmanship. In the Rameseum, unique on account of its impressive proportions and the shining splendour of its red
sandstone, only half of the pylons remain, together
with fragments of porticoes and a magnificent
hypostyle whose ceiling is intact. At Luxor,
one of the obelisks has been removed, the colossal
statues are shattered. Of its two courts, the first,
characterised by beautiful porticoes with caryatids, is buried in rubbish, on top of which a mosque
is as it were enthroned. The second court, with
its graceful colonnades set up by Thothmes III,
ispartly destroyed. A few structures, diminutive
models of temples practically complete, are also
seen at Karnak; they belong to Khonsu and
Ramses III. In the great temple of Amon, how-, It is the obelisk standing on Place de la Concorde in Paris.
The other one, also given to France by the Khedive, was never
removed.




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 5


ever, after passing the court where out of ten
gigantic columns only one raises aloft its lotus
flower, we see nothing but the huge roofless hypostyle, and, all around, crumbling pylons, overturned walls, sunken ceilings covering destroyed
shrines, an indescribable chaos, dominated by
L'61an d6mesur6 des aiguilles de pierre.
("The aspiring height of the stone needles.")'
Less damaged by weather and better sheltered
from the injuries of man are the temples of that
period which were sunk in the rock: at Deir-elBahri the underground structure is intact, as
is also the large speos of Abu Simbel, flooded to
its depths by the rising sun, whose entrance is
guarded by four colossi chiselled from the rock.
There are, however, in Egypt some temples
that are practically intact: they are those reconstructed by the Ptolemies and Caesars at Edfu,
Philae, and Denderah. Erected about a thousand
years later than the temples above mentioned,
and maintained with the greatest care down to the
fourth century of our era, they have more stoutly
withstood the encroachments of destruction.
Compared with earlier temples, they present a
more distinct and uniform plan; perhaps the


11J. M. de Hdrd~dia.




6


Time of the Pharaohs


harmonious proportions of Greek art influenced
the last Egyptian architects. Yet it was scarcely
for the best. The largest of the Ptolemaic
structures no longer give that impression of heroic
grandeur which is striking in the case of Karnak
and of the Rameseum; their outlines are stiff
and hard; their dimensions appear meagre even
when they are vast; the decoration is overdone
rather than sumptuous; the reliefs and inscriptions show a compromise between the realistic
modelling of Greek art and the hieratic generalisation of the old national style, and as a result are
seen those sad and monotonous faces that make
a visit to Esneh and to Denderah painful. Putting aside these criticisms, it is but just to praise
the beautiful arrangement in the temple of Edfu,
the graceful floral columns of Phile with their
diversified capitals, finely wrought, and of exquisite colouring that is as yet undimmed; the
hypostyle of Denderah, where at the top of each
column, lost in the dimness of the massive ceiling,
smiles the puzzling face of a goddess with long
eyes, cow-ears, and a head-dress in the form of a
sistrum. The real interest of these monuments
is vested, however, in their practically perfect
state of preservation. As some one has said,
the priests of Horus, could they return to Edfu,




Restoration of Egyptian Temples  7


would require only a few hours to make it ready
for worship. There are lacking only the sacred
pieces of furniture, the statues of the gods, and the
offerings; all the other things are there: the texts
and the pictures composing the ritual, the calendar
of the festivals, the catalogue of the holy books.
In brief, hardly anything remains of the temples
preceding the XVIIIth dynasty except a few
ruins and substructures, valuable only to the
archeologists; the monuments of the following
period have come down to us partly destroyed;
only the temples last constructed seem still to
defy the centuries.
It is necessary to point out these distinctions,
because there is a widespread impression, which
has taken hold even of those who have visited
Egypt, that the Pharaonic achievements in their
entirety are safe from the rude buffetings of time.
So old are these ruins, life has been extinct in
them for so many years, that destruction itself
seems to have lost all power; like mummies, the
dismembered bodies of the temples seem to lie
on the ground, in a state of miraculous and everlasting preservation. But this is a very false
impression. Life has not departed from these
desiccated stones; a slow process of destruction
and transformation is still going on in them, as has




8


Time of the Pharaohs


been made manifest in recent times by accidents,
which might have been irremediable but for the
vigilance of the Egyptian Service des Antiquites.
The causes of destruction are either accidental
and transitory, or fundamental and permanent.
To meet these exigencies, the Service des Antiquites had in some cases to take steps to secure
partial conservation, in other cases to bring about
complete restoration.
Among the comparatively transient causes of
destruction should be mentioned, in the first place,
the utter neglect of all the temples for at least
fifteen hundred years. An edict issued by Theodosius I, about the end of the fourth century,
prohibited every other worship except the Christian; the Pharaonic temples, several of which
were already falling to ruin, were given up to the
injuries of time and of men. They had received
up to that time the most careful attention and had
been kept in good repair. We know indeed, from
the archives preserved in the temples, that these
newer shrines, built in the time of the Ptolemies,
had in their primitive form existed since the
Memphite or Thinite Pharaohs, i.e., about 4000
years earlier. It is easy to understand that they
had required continual restoration.




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 9


To take an instance, Thothmes III, of the
XVIIIth dynasty, rebuilt the temple at Denderah in accordance with the ancient plan, dating
from King Cheops, which had already been made
use of by Pepi I of the VIth dynasty.' Long
before the birth of the builder of the great pyramid, if one can place belief in a tradition which
Chabas found recorded in a papyrus in Berlin,
the temple of Denderah was standing, dating
back to the reign of King Ousaphais of the Ist
dynasty.2 This testimony has been partially confirmed by the discovery, in one of the secret
crypts of the temple, of a bas-relief representing a
statue of King Pepi I worshipped as one of the
founders of the shrine.3 Bearing in mind that the
present temple was reconstructed in the first
century B.C., we may imagine how much effort
was expended in this one locality during four or
five thousand years, in order to preserve the shrine.
It is therefore not to be wondered at that
throughout the history of Egypt it was a constant
endeavour of the Pharaohs to maintain the temples
in good condition, and that is why such munificent
sums were expended in endowing and supporting
' Dumichen, Bauurkunde, P1. XVI.
2 Chabas, "Sur l'antiquit6 de Denderah" (Zeitschrift fur
agyptische Sprache, I865, p. 92).
3 Mariette, Denderah, iii, P1. 71-72.




I0


Time of the Pharaohs


the sacerdotal colleges that were entrusted with
the maintenance of the sacred buildings. At
times the usual income ran short; after the great
invasions-that of the Hyksos, Assyrians, Persians, etc.-which left the temples plundered or
utterly neglected, thorough repairing or even
rebuilding was found necessary. The king had to
incur the expense, whether he was a Pharaoh,
a Ptolemy, or a Caesar; as a son of the gods it
devolved upon him to preserve the ancestral
heritage, the home of his fathers. Here is an
example, among a hundred, of the laudatory
accounts which, after some restoration of the
kind, were engraved on a stela put in a conspicuous
place in the temple. It concerns Thothmes III
and the temple of Phtah at Karnak:
My Majesty ordered this temple of Phtah to be
built at Thebes. Now, as my Majesty had found
this temple-which was built of brick, with its pillars
and doors of wood-toppling into ruin, my Majesty
ordered the work of laying out the temple to be done
over again (in order to fix the limits) and directed
that the temple be built of good, solid white stone,
and its enclosing walls of solid, durable brick; then,
when my Majesty had the doors put in, doors made
of new acacia from the land of the Levant, with
hinges of copper from Asia, when the temple of Phtah
stood, re-created, in the name of my Majesty... I
decorated its shrine with electrum from every country,




Restoration of Egyptian Temples II


and with sacred vases made of gold and of silver, and
of all kinds of precious stones, and with fine, white
linen. When thereupon, my Majesty installed the
god in his place, I had his temple filled with every
good thing, oxen, geese, incense, wine, every provision,
every annual fruit of the earth....
And the usual conclusion-whatever the real
importance of the restoration-is not missing:
"Never had anything like this been done for the
god, never, before the time of my Majesty. " 1
If the temples, after the disappearance of Pharaohs and priests, had only been left to themselves,
they might have held out victoriously for centuries on account of the solidity of their material and
the innocuousness of the climate; but they were
not left undisturbed by men.  After the pagan
priesthood came the Christian monks: with a piety
that was by no means free from barbarism they
hunted out the false gods in their retreats, shattering the statues, defacing the reliefs, hammering out
the inscriptions. At Denderah, the smoke of
their camp-fires blackened the ceiling of the halls;
at Luxor, they converted the ante-chamber of
the sanctuary into a church; even to this day, the
stucco, with which they covered up the scenes of
the Egyptian ritual, dishonours the walls and
Maspero: Comptes rendus de 1' Acade'mie des Inscriptions,
I899.




12


Time of the Pharaohs


conceals the reliefs of Amen6phis III. Elsewhere, they have copied, in red ink, passages
from the Fathers, decrees of the councils, and
entire sermons in Coptic language.
Later, when Egypt changed master and religion,
and Islam, represented successively by the Arabs
and the Turks, was a dominating force, the monuments fared no better. Generations of iconoclasts
devoted themselves to the destruction of the
human face wherever it appeared in statue or
relief, thus completing the execrable work of the
Christians; it was then that the Sphinx was
mutilated, notwithstanding the fact that it was
admired by learned men, such as Abdellatif.
Then, in the Delta especially, the temples served
as quarries: lime was obtained from the blocks of
carved limestone; as for the granite, it gave
a ready supply for the basins of fountains, the
thresholds of mosques, and the walls of palaces.
To see what remains of the old monuments of
Memphis and of Heliopolis, you need only wander
about the streets in Cairo, and notice, as M.
Daressy' has done, the bits of stelae and the
fragments of reliefs imbedded in the masonry of
the mosques and palaces, but discernible here and
there. This systematic destruction has continued
X Annales du Service des Antiquites, iv, p. iox; cf. ii, p. 95.




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 13


until our day: the temple of Erment, the last
relic of the oldest Theban shrine, still existed
at the beginning of the nineteenth century; but it
was pulled down, and the material used for building purposes by sugar-refiners, who have come
into the land along with European civilisation.
To-day all that remains of it is formless debris.
In some cases, it was simply the contact with
modemrn life that brought about a more speedy
destruction of the temples. In many cases, they
were very nearly engulfed by the private houses
surrounding them, just as in the Middle Ages our
cathedrals were crowded in by numerous booths
and tenements. In the course of centuries, these
houses, built of brick and clay, have crumbled
away and have been rebuilt innumerable times;
but, at each new reconstruction, no trouble was
taken to rase the walls to the ground. "The
rubbish was made level and the new house erected
from a foundation a few feet higher than that of
the former house; this is why each town is now on
top of one or several artificial mounds, dominating
the country around."1 Most of the temples in
Upper Egypt were in spite of their high walls
thus buried alive under the rubbish of dead cities,


x G. Maspero, " Premier rapport sur les fouilles ex6cutdes en
Egypte de i88i d 1885" (Biblioth~que Egyptologique, t. i, p. i88).




14


Time of the Pharaohs


or beneath the buildings of prosperous villages.
At Denderah the piled-up rubbish rises higher
than the roof of the small temple; in order to
enter the hypostyle of the great temple, a trench
had to be dug through the mountain of debris.1
The ceiling of the hypostyle hall of Esneh, supported by columns seventy feet high, is now actually
on a level with the ground raised by the continual
elevation of the rubbish; the former level of the
ground is reached by descending a very steep
stairway leading as it were, to a cellar; the sanctuary, next to the hypostyle, is still buried under
modem habitations. In order to clear Edfu, "to
extricate it from its inhabitants, and set it free
in the name of science," it required on the part of
Mariette months and months of tiring interminable work; and it will be seen further on with what
task M. Maspero was confronted, when he undertook the clearing of the temple of Luxor where the
population of a whole village had established itself
for centuries.
Such a neighbourhood is extremely detrimental
to the ancient edifices. Not only do the latter
serve as quarries for building purposes, but the
joists of the houses are made to rest on the reliefs;


z Since my last visit to Denderah (1906), the facade of the
temple has, after considerable labour, been set free.




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 15


the fires soil the sacred ceilings with their resinous
smoke; men and animals defile the ground with
refuse and filth. Gradually the heaps of ancient
bricks and the newer ruins on which are piled
up dung-hills and waste matter are transformed
into earth containing a plentiful admixture of
saltpetre and saltwort, which the natives call
sebakh; whenever the saltpetre comes in contact
with the ancient masonry, it eats away the limestone, destroys the grain of the granite, and
crumbles the sandstone. Thus, even the indifferent contact of man is fatal to the abandoned
temples.
Egyptology itself, at its inception, did some
damage to the Egyptian monuments. The general survey of the ancient monuments, made by
the scholars in the train of Bonaparte, was completed by the archaeological expeditions of Champollion, Lepsius, and Rosellini, who drew up the
plan of every important necropolis and pointed
out the most significant monuments. After them,
there was a rush on temples and tombs by amateurs and dealers in antiquities, who trained the
natives, Copts and Arabs, in plundering, and
gathered together those heterogeneous collections
that now form the stock of our great museums of
Egyptology in Paris, London, Berlin, Florence, and




I6


Time of the Pharaohs


Turin. Even Mariette, the founder of the Egyptian Service des Antiquites, began by pillaging
Egypt, sending to Paris thousands of monuments
found in the Serapeum. Yet one idea kept obtruding itself upon him: how to put an end to the
shameful robbery which threatened to lay waste
the ancient ground of Egypt. "Within four
years," he wrote, "I have seen 700 tombs wiped
out on the plain of Abusir and Sakkarah." On
his return to Cairo in 1857, with the mission of
exploring Upper Egypt and all its ancient sites,
in order to draw up an itinerary for Prince
Napoleon, Mariette succeeded in obtaining from
the Khedive, Said Pasha, the following instructions:
"You will see to the safety of the monuments;
you will say to the moudirs (governors) of all my
provinces that I forbid them to touch one ancient
stone; you will send to prison any fellah who is
caught putting his foot inside a temple." Prince
Napoleon gave up his visit to Egypt, but-what
was more important-Mariette stayed, and he
was appointed, on June I, 1858, Director of the
archeological survey in Egypt.  In the beginning, this Service des Antiquites had no fixed
income, nor any regular staff; Mariette had the
right to enlist the services of the peasants in
digging and in excavating and he demanded credit




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 17


when the circumstances required. During the
first ten years he could not do much in the way
of preserving the old monuments.
To show the necessity of a supervising administration, Mariette wanted to organise a museum in
Cairo; he therefore pillaged, in a methodical manner, the sites of Gizeh, Sakkarah, Abydos, Tanis,
and Sais, in order "to get relics, more and more
relics." The museum once organised and filled
with remarkable works of art, Mariette could
devote himself to more scholarly work. Urged by
the scholars of Europe to excavate in a more systematic manner and to publish detailed information regarding the monuments already brought
to light, Mariette undertook excavations in
several districts, in Edfu, Denderah, Abydos, no
longer with the idea of despoiling the temples
for the benefit of the museum, but of restoring
each site to its ancient condition, for the benefit
of science. Death overtook him, in I88I, when
he had hardly begun the second part of his task,
and before he was able to exercise his powers
to the full. At least he had rendered modern
Egypt an immense service by interesting her in
her marvellous old treasures.'  "Had it not
G. Maspero, Biographie de Mariette (in vol. viii of Biblio.
thegue Egyptologigue).
a




Time of the Pharaohs


been for him, Egypt would have continued for a
long time destroying her monuments and selling
broken pieces of them abroad, without keeping
anything for herself: he prevailed upon her to
keep them. "
From i88i to i886, M. Maspero, who succeeded
Mariette, gave to the direction of the Service des
V;       Antiquites a real scientific aim, and his success
was facilitated by the thorough reorganisation
of the state, which was the result of the English
occupation of Egypt. M. Maspero had the courage
to declare that the work of excavation ought to
be subordinated to more important tasks confronting the Service: its main object should be
to free the base of the monuments, to maintain
them in good condition, and to make them known;
the time had come when it was necessary to substitute for superficial surveying thorough exploration and the publication in detail of information
about the work accomplished. From that day on
there has been an organised attempt to preserve
the Egyptian antiquities.
The clearing of the temples was already well
on the way at such places at Edfu, Denderah, and
Abydos; M. Maspero therefore gave his undivided
attention to one of the best preserved places,
Luxor. His task was not an easy one: the temple




Restoration of Egyptian Temples i9


which the scholars of Bonaparte's expedition and
later Champollion and Lepsius had seen practically free from encroaching houses, "had been
covered with habitations during the last thirty
years. Towards the north, the two towers, on
each side of the entrance gate, the first court, and
the porticoes surrounding it, were more than half
concealed under a mass of mud and straw houses,
that leaned against the columns, clung to the walls,
and crushed the architraves with the weight of
their bricks. The two minarets of the mosque of
Abu'l HaggAg rose as best they could above this
irregular dirty mass. Under the great colonnade
running from the northern court to the sanctuary
in the south, there were two houses, that of the
cadi of Esneh and that of a consul. The western
part of the front, facing the river, was hidden by
various buildings, a police station, a prison, a postoffice, government-magazines, and a French mission house.' Behind the huts there was a waste
plain, disfigured by groups of three or four hovels,
and strewn with rubbish; commons for sheep and
goats occupied the place between the capitals
of the columns, pigeon-houses appeared triumr This house accommodated the expedition sent to Egypt by
the French Government, i836, in order to remove the obelisk,
seen standing to-day on the Place de la Concorde.




20


Time of the Pharaohs


phantly on the remains of the terrace of the
temple..."'
Tiresome formalities had to be entered into
and the payment of large sums for damages was
necessarily entailed in turning out the families
living in the monument;2 but M. Maspero overcame all difficulties and knew how to interest the
European press in his undertaking: a subscription
raised by the Journal des Debats and by the
Times yielded I9,ooo francs. The work, once
begun, was made easy by the co-operation of the
natives, eager to carry away the sebakh with
which they make an excellent manure; after
several interruptions the temple was finally
cleared, about the year I893. The mosque of
Abu'l HaggAg, however, could not be touched, the
law forbidding it; so it was left there, and it still
encumbers the north-east part of the first court.
M. Maspero had been recalled to France in
1887 before the consummation of the work;
but though his successors, Messrs. Grebaut
(I887-I892), de Morgan (I892-I897), and Loret
(I897-I899) devoted their energy to the clearing
' G. Maspero, Premier rapport sur les fouilles executees en
Egypte de i881 a 1885.
2 Similar negotiations are carried on now, in order to turn out
the natives who live in the court and the sanctuary of the temple
of Esneh.




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 21


of other places, it became an established principle
to work exhaustively over one particular site.
M. Daressy, who had already done much for the
clearing of Luxor, spent several seasons in stripping
off the Coptic houses from the splendid buildings
of Medinet Habu: since I897, every part of the
temple is approachable.'
The clearing of Luxor and Medinet Habu could
not be carried out unless a great deal of repairing
was done; here and there it was necessary to
reconstruct a crumbling wall, to put together the
scattered pieces of some bas-relief, to strengthen
a few columns, and, in order that they might not
mar the effect, to hide behind architraves or
lintels the iron bars introduced, according to
M. Legrain's method, to support the stones that
were ready to fall. These were the kind of tasks
that confronted the Service des Antiquites, tasks
which nevertheless, in the case of the majority
of temples in Upper and Lower Egypt, were
accomplished with forethought and care.
Recently it has been necessary to apply preventive measures to the whole group of temples at
Philae; for, since I902, they have been submerged
' M. Daressy has published excellent Notes on the temples
of Luxor and Medinet Habu in the Reports of the Service des
Antiquit6s.




22


Time of the Pharaohs


during six months of the year by the waters
dammed at Assouan. Before allowing the old
sandstone, dried up for so many centuries, to bear
the test of such an inundation, M. Barsanti, a most
experienced superintendent in the Service des
Antiquit6s, was entrusted by M. Maspero with the
task of thoroughly cleaning the temples, of ridding
them of every particle of saltpetre, of filling up
all crevices, and of joining by invisible ligatures
all loose stones. After many other precautions
had been taken, the island of Philae was inundated; and the water forcing its way to the interior
of the edifice, whence it had been banished
since prehistoric times, rushed into the court,
flooded the pavement of the hypostyle and the
sanctuary, and rose to the height of the capitals on
the propylaea of the great temple. The result of
so ruthless a treatment was awaited with anxiety:
as yet nothing has happened, no block has slipped,
and the cement jointures, with which M. Barsanti
had protected the walls, are still intact. It is
hoped that the temple will be able to survive
these inundations a long time, and optimists even
declare that this annual cleansing is salutary.
Several other temples, from Phile down to
Ouadi Halfa, are inundated by the Nile. M.
Maspero estimates that 6oo00,000ooo francs will have




Karnak.


I. The Shattered Pylons.


II. Western Face of the Hypostyle Hall in 1904.
Plate II.


(  * );.   I








Restoration of Egyptian Temples 23


to be expended in order to put them temporarily
in condition to withstand this test. In truth, it
is not known but that the periodic submersion
to which they are subjected may prove fatal to
them in the long run; but for the time being,
Philae is safe from all immediate danger. 
The experience at Philae has demonstrated the
efficacy of the preventive measures adopted by
the Service des Antiquites; as the Department
kept extending its activity to embrace new areas,
it had to take precautions to protect each new
site, in order that its triumphs might be enduring.
The very primitive organisation started by Mariette, was bound to develop into a highly efficient
public service, into a kind of "Ancient Egypt
Office." The heart and soul of this organism
are still in the Museum of Cairo (formerly at
Boulak, later at Gizeh); thither are transported
the rare or fragile pieces, which it would be very
risky to leave on the site where they were found.
For instance, when recently M. Naville found
intact a chapel of the goddess HAthor at Deir-elBahri, an unguarded place in the mountains, it
did not seem advisable to leave the divine cow
in the shrine where she was venerated.  The idol
' G. Maspero, Rapport pour 1po0. Cf. Annaees du Service des
Antiquites, t. iv, v, vii.




24


Time of the Pharaohs


was accordingly put in a case and the shrine
taken apart; both were then sent to Cairo, the
shrine being put together again at the Museum
and the cow replaced in it. I
Yet, the practice of leaving the monuments in
place, whenever this is possible, seems to be
prevailing now. M. Legrain did not despoil the
temple of Phtah of its statues, and the tomb of
Amen6phis II was opened to the public, still
adorned with the funeral furnishings which M.
Loret discovered there. This policy will doubtless be pursued in the future: it is impracticable to
heap up at Cairo all the countless statues and
interesting documents which Egypt still holds
concealed; these monuments will be far more
impressive if left in their place, but it will be
necessary to take rigorous precautionary measures
to guarantee their safety, and means of communication will have to be opened up to make
all of the sites easy of access.
The Service has, therefore, purposely begun
to decentralise: superintendents have been appointed to take charge of the three great regions:
the Said, the Fayuim, and the Delta.2 M. Legrain
and M. Quibell have the supervision of two
'Cf. Maspero, Causeries d'Egypte, p. 3I9.
2 Under the direction of Messrs. Weigall, Lef6bure and Edgar.




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 25


independent districts: Karnak and Sakkarah. k'
Under their direction, hundreds of guardians
(ghafflirs), selected in preference to other natives
on account of their intelligence, watch the tourists
and dealers in antiquities, and every evening lock
up the tombs and temples. It may be imagined
how large are the expenditures necessitated
by the continual increase in the number of employees,2 and how great the disbursements for
enclosing and for restoring the monuments, an
ever growing item.    Besides its regular budget,
the Service often had to have recourse to the
treasury, and since i887 it has levied a tax of
thirty francs3 a person on the tourists visiting
the monuments; besides, independent excavations
by individuals or learned societies cannot be undertaken except upon application to the Service and
upon agreement to share with it the treasures
discovered. In a word, all Egypt is to-day a
museum carefully guarded. Although the theft of
antiquities and clandestine excavations are still
frequent occurrences, the systematic pillage, which
I The work-yard at Karnak has an annual allowance of 50,000
francs, that of Sakkarah, 25,000, for the work of excavation and
of restoration.
2 The Service employed in 1905, 250 permanent and 200 temporary ghaffirs.
3 The tax produced nearly i50,000 francs in i905.




26


Time of the Pharaohs


Mariette so deplored, is no longer possible. Local
justice has taught robbers that every crime committed against Ancient Egypt is paid for, in money,
in blows of the stick, or in years of imprisonment,
the punishment for these deplorable occurrences
being just as severe as that meted out for offences
against modem society.
The work of preservation, however, will not be
complete until generations of scholars have through
publications of a sound scientific character turned
to account the methodical clearing and repairing
of the monuments, a difficult task for which we
are indebted to the Service. It is a great handicap that Egyptologists have at their disposal as
yet only a very incomplete collection of texts
and plates from which dearth of material result
mistakes, erroneous ideas, and ignorance. Owing
to the efforts of the Service several temples are
now accessible in all their parts, but competent
scholars should be commissioned to interpret
them, so that the information about the past
which they convey may be understood. These
interpreters will have to be patient and scrupulous
copyists, will have to have a knowledge as vast as
possible, and will have to be in possession of a
tested method,-a mental equipment possessed
by but few and not more characteristic of Egypto



Restoration of Egyptian Temples 27


logists than of the representatives of other sciences.
The Archaeological Institute, maintained by France
in Cairo,1 has made praiseworthy efforts-sometimes successfully-towards publishing information about the monuments cleared by the Service,
but its resources are by no means sufficient for the
task. The English society, Egypt Exploration
Fund, has done much in that direction; it entrusted the clearing of the temple of Deir-el-Bahri
and the publication of information about it to
M. Naville, who does it in a masterly way.2 For
the drawing up of its general catalogue, the
Museum of Cairo requested the assistance of all
nationalities;3 it is desirable now that in like
manner the "Greater Museum" that Egypt has
become should have its own descriptive catalogue,4
to which in order that the great effort of the Sert Under the direction successively of Messrs. Maspero, Lefebure, Bouriant, and Chassinat.
2 We are glad to point out here the work done by the Americans
in Egypt; excavations of Dr. Reisner on the site of Gizeh, on
behalf of the University of California; private excavations by
Theodore M. Davis, in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes;
exploration of the Egyptian Sudan by J. H. Breasted, for the
University of Chicago; archaeological missions of M. Lythgoe
for the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
3 Under the direction of M. Maspero, assisted throughout by
M. Pierre Lacau.
4 This Catalogue of the monuments of all Egypt was begun
by M. de Morgan, then abandoned for several years and taken
up again by M. Maspero; it now comprises the monuments




28


Time of the Pharaohs


vice may bear fruit rapidly, all scholars should
contribute.
The preservation of monuments is only partand the least difficult at that-of the task assumed to-day by the Service des Antiquites. The
care lavished upon the temples by Mariette and
Maspero has not always saved the tottering monuments which have been going to ruin for two
thousand years. In consequence of sudden catastrophes other methods of treatment had to be
invented; and recently a tremendous problem
had to be solved: how to restore certain edifices
entirely.
At Karnak an accident happened to a part of the
temple that seemed particularly capable of surviving indefinitely, thus thwarting the hope that
had been entertained regarding it. The large
hypostyle hall, the I34 columns of which, ranging
in height from 66 feet along the centre to 40 along
the sides, were erected by Seti I, and Ramses II,
had for a long time been without a ceiling, a condition of things which endangered its stability.
The columns, being no longer wedged in by the
situated between Assouan and K6m-Ombo, inclusively. This
publication is very unsatisfactory, but the Service des Antiquit6s
is preparing a series of monographs dealing with the principal
monuments and reproducing them in extenso. Many years will
be necessary to carry out this great enterprise.




1&iIaIlIaK.


Clich6 of the Service des Antiquit6s.
I. After the Earthquake of I899.


II. The Taking Down of a Column.


Plate III.








Restoration of Egyptian Temples 29


weight of the enormous stones, nor held rigidly
in place, had begun to loosen; some had crumbled,
others gave way gradually under the ponderous
architraves. One of these roused the admiration
of visitors; it was the famous leaning column,'
which cut diagonally the rectangular opening
formed by the smaller columns of the next row
(Plate I). Imagine a pillar, about 40 feet high and
7 in diameter, inclined obliquely in space, and
carrying with it an architrave, i0 feet thick, weighing about 40 tons. The whole kept its balance
by the aid of the disjointed base of the column
and the exterior angle of the architrave: the latter
had lodged against a neighbouring column and
found support on a surface a few inches in extent;
all around was empty space; light could be seen
even between the architrave and the capital, which
it touched at only two points. How could the supporting column bear the weight of this enormous
mass, when it struck it ponderously with its
weight of nearly 200 tons; why did not these loose
stones slip off, and how had they maintained
their adhesiveness? Such miracles of balance
and resistance helped establish a strong confidence in the solidity of these Karnak ruins
(Plate II, 2).
I It was demolished in the course of the restoration.




30


Time of the Pharaohs


Now, in i899, eleven columns of the hypostyle
hall crumbled suddenly; it was only chance that
the rest of the columns did not, like a house of
cards, also collapse.
It was the third of October, about nine o'clock in
the morning; a guard, making his circuit of the surrounding walls, heard a loud noise resembling thunder.
Immediately he ran towards the temple, arriving in
the hypostyle hall just in time to see two columns
thrust against the pylon of Ramses. Another guard
was standing, terrified, at the foot of the obelisk of
Thothmes and would not approach until the noise
had ceased.
Thus, no one witnessed the beginning of
the accident. Monsieur Legrain, from whom I
quote these words, discovered that the original
cause was the accidental falling of one column; the
latter overturned the column in front of it,
dragging down the architraves, which joined
both of them to the adjacent columns in the row.
The architraves and the detached segments behaved like projectiles: seven columns of the same
row fell, each pushing the other down; but in the
parallel row, only three columns tumbled as a
result of the imparted shock, the progress of
destruction being arrested by the unexpected
resistance of the fourth column. All this happened in a few seconds, and there lay upon the




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 31


ground a chaotic mass of enormous segments,
presenting the most picturesque but distressing
aspect.  Several neighbouring columns were
struck on the surface by colossal blocks, weighing
from IO to i5 tons, which made deep incisions;
at the end of the file, the two last columns, with
all their segments disjoined but still superposed,
slanted on the sloping surface of the pylon, which
fraternally upheld them in their fall (P1. II, I,
and III, I).
As a result of this accident at Karnak, Egyptologists were confronted with the perplexing question: should an ancient monument that falls in
ruins be reconstructed? An immediate decision
was necessary; either the hypostyle hall must be
abandoned to its fate, or an inquiry made about
the causes of destruction and a remedy applied
without delay.
The Director of the Service, M. Maspero, had
to assume the responsibility of so grave a decision.
Owing to his thorough acquaintance with the
monuments of Egypt, formed in the course of his
previous management of the Service, owing also to
his ability to meet all scientific or material difficulties with knowledge supplemented by a vast
experience, the question was soon answered: an
edifice should not be allowed to tumble, if the power




32


Time of the Pharaohs


of resistance inherent in it has not yet exhausted itself, and this may be the case even though pieces
of it have become disjoined as a result of the
changing conditions affecting it in the course of
centuries. A fortnight after the catastrophe in
Karnak, a delegation of specialists arrived there,
formed an opinion on the spot, and drew up on
October 28th a statement of the work to be done,
and an estimate of the probable expenses. On
December i ith, M. Legrain opened his work-yard,
and, supplied with instructions by M. Maspero,
undertook one of the most important and perilous works ever conceived or executed by an
archaeologist.
The weak spot in the gigantic building raised
by the Pharaohs is, as a rule, their foundations.
Unless they were building on the rocky ground in
the desert, the architects were confronted by the
difficulty that wherever they dug deep, in the
plain, they would find wet and soft soil, on a level
with the infiltrations of the Nile; in consequence
they had to be satisfied with removing the earth on
the surface and digging foundations in virgin soil.
In the case of the hypostyle hall in Karnak, the
excavation was made about seven feet deep; there
were raised, on a bed of alluvium mixed with sand,
little piles of masonry, composed of large, uneven,




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 33


rough stones, heaped up in irregular layers, a
large part of which were taken from an edifice,
built by the heretic king, Amen6phis IV, but
piously demolished by his orthodox successors.
Sometimes, in place of the rough stones, there is a
filling of earth, bits of stones, and potsherds.
Notice that on these piles "which remind us of
lacustrine heaps rather than of real foundations"
were placed columns weighing in their totality
about 226 tons. Often these piles are smaller in
diameter than the base of the columns, a condition
essentially unfavourable to the stability of the
structure. Besides, the only connecting medium
between the piles supporting the columns is an
embankment of pebbles and earth, covered over
with a thin layer of flagstones.  This shortcoming was certainly owing to ignorance, negligence, or fraud on the part of the architects of the
hypostyle hall.
These foundations, already insecure, were
threatened by two causes of destruction which the
Egyptians could not foresee, namely, sebakh and
the inundation of the Nile. The hypostyle
hall
was not originally intended for habitation and there
was no reason for supposing that saltpetre would be
formed. But from the time of the Christian era
3




34


Time of the Pharaohs


habitations became numerous, and the enormous
amount of sebakh and rubbish of all kinds that had
to be removed in order to bring to light a part of the
ancient floor, shows how numerous the houses must
have been; rubbish rose, indeed, to a height of over
seven feet in the hypostyle hall; there remains still
in the south side a mound, about 25 feet high. The
destructive quality of the earth containing saltpetre has been increased a hundred-fold by the slow
rising, in the course of centuries, of the bed of the
Nile. If the calculations made by Grand-Pasha and
Ventre-Pasha are accurate, the average rising of the
bed of the Nile, owing to the deposit of alluvium,
may be estimated at 3.744 inches in a century.
Now the hypostyle hall was built only 12.84 inches
above the level of the inundations; scarcely two
hundred years after its construction, the foundations
were already reached by the infiltrations; thirteen
hundred years later, about the year 6oo of our era,
the water, at the time of the flood, rose above the
level of the hall and came in contact with the earth,
containing saltpetre in such abundance.'
To conclude: for thirteen hundred years, the
saltpetre, derived from sebakh, and dissolved by
these waters, has broken up the grain of the
porous sandstone and has disjointed the blocks,
up to a height varying now, at the time of
the annual flood, from six to ten feet above the
ground.
1 Reports of Maspero, Legrain, Ventre-Pasha, Grand-Pasha,
and the committee in Karnak after the accident of Oct. 3, I899
(Annakes du Service des Antiquites, t. i and following).




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 35


The Service des Antiquites has no means of
defence against the rising level of the Nile and
the subsequent overflow into the temples; all
other causes of destruction it is within man's
power to combat and here is the plan of defence
that was worked out to save Karnak and eventually the other temples that are threatened with
destruction: in the first place, the removal of the
sebakh; in the second place, the taking down,
layer by layer, of broken, loosened, or suspected
columns; in the third place, the entire reconstruction of the foundations, after which the
removed columns are to be replaced; in the fourth
place, moderate irrigation at the time of an
inundation, to cleanse the ground of the saltpetre
brought in with the infiltrations of water charged
with it.
This process, easy at it appears, was fraught
with enormous difficulties in the case of Karnak;
it had to be applied first to the north side of the
hypostyle, where, since the crumbling of the
eleven columns, the ground was strewn with
segments, capitals, pieces of abacuses, and architraves, some blocks of which weighed from 5 to
40 tons. This work requiring great physical
strength had to be done, though those engaged in
it were imperilled, owing to the fact that the






36


Time of the Pharaohs


columns still standing might, at any moment,
fall, several of them being in an uncertain state
of equilibrium, and some unstable to an alarming
degree. The clear and precise instructions of
M. Maspero had to be carried out by a clever man,
who knew all the strong and the weak points of
Karnak, and could, in case of emergency, take an
intelligent and courageous initiative. These qualities were possessed, in an eminent degree, by M.
Georges Legrain, who had held the office of
superintendent in Karnak since i895; thanks to
him, the problem of the reconstruction of Karnak
is solved to-day, at least in its most difficult points.
The work was begun in December, i899. At
the end of the first season, in I 900, the five
columns shaken by the impact of the others were
taken down, segment by segment; the second
season, in i9oi, was given up to the clearing of the
eleven columns that had tumbled, and to the removal of the sebakh. Now that the ground was
clear, it was possible to reach the foundations, the
stones of which were found sound and unaffected
by saltpetre; thus, the principal cause of the
crumbling had been a lack of masonry in the
foundations, rather than the damage done to
the stones by the water. Relying on these facts,
M. Maspero could apply, in I902, a proper method




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 37


of reconstruction: along the row of fallen columns,
a trench was to be dug, larger than the base of the
columns and as deep (about 6 feet) as the ancient
foundations; this trench was to be filled up with a
floor of strong concrete, on which the columns
were to be re-erected; each column of a particular
row was to be joined to the opposite column in the
adjacent row by a link of concrete, so that the
new foundations might be connected with the old.
The plan was executed without delay. On the
twelfth of April, 1902, Lord Cromer laid the first
stone of the new foundations, and, in 1903, the
eleven crumbled columns were re-erected to a
height of i8 feet. The stones above ground, which
the sebakh had decomposed, or which the fall
had partly shattered, were put in place again after
having been patched up in the following manner: a
rough coat of cement, or even a block of sandstone covered the scars, stopped up the holes,
leaving the ancient parts, decorated with reliefs
or inscriptions, to project half an inch from the
modern facing.  "Thus a proper architectural
form was obtained which made it possible to
readily distinguish the ancient parts from the
modem additions."
The new foundations were subjected, in the
summer of I903, to the test of inundation; they




38


Time of the Pharaohs


came out of it uninjured, and M. Legrain was
able, therefore, in 1904 to put in place the upper
part of the shaft of each column, the capital and
the abacus. At that time a serious difficulty
presented itself. The re-erected columns had to
be kept as firm at the top as the new foundations
maintained them at their base. But the stones
composing the ceiling had been missing for centuries; the architraves that still survived had
been broken in their fall, or were of no use. How
were they to be replaced? At first, it was thought
that a network of iron links and rings should be
placed round the necks of the columns, under the
capitals. M. Maspero succeeded in having this
disgraceful scheme rejected. Instead of the rings,
iron beams were introduced so as to extend from
capital to capital, and were concealed by a coat
of cement and concrete, which was shaped like
and had the same dimensions as the ancient
architraves. "This consolidation is to be extended to all the columns of the hall, and it seems
fitting that the flat roof, which formerly covered
the entire hall, be restored." The erection of the
capitals and the architraves occupied the winters
of i905 and i906. At the present writing, the
damage caused by the catastrophe of I899 has
been repaired; it only remains to secure the other




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 39


parts of the hypostyle hall against a similar
accident. Doubtless it is a stupendous task,
but its consummation has become a question only
of patience and of money, for the method and
scheme of work, having been tested and the results
found convincing, are now established.
Yet a no less interesting result of the enterprise
was this: the method adopted was not effective
in all respects until M. Legrain had discovered the
processes of construction of the Egyptian architects, in order to apply them anew. The removal
of the segments of the fallen columns was a piece
of work that required delicate handling, but in
other respects was commonplace enough. When
it was necessary, however, to take down, piece by
piece, the columns still standing, and to remove
from a height of 6o feet masses weighing 50 tons
in order to let them down to the ground, architects
and archeologists were perplexed. Should a
scaffolding be put up, forming as it were a second
hypostyle hall of wood, the ceiling of which would
be supplied with tackles strong enough to raise
and lower the mast-like columns? Such a thing
was considered impossible, on account of the
expense, the lack of material, the inadequacy of
the force of workmen, and the necessity of doing
the work quickly. M. Legrain, who studied




40


Time of the Pharaohs


Karnak, so to speak, stone by stone, found out
how the ancient Egyptians had solved the same
problem, one concerned not with the demolition
of the temple, but with the building of it; not
with the removal of the architraves, but with the
raising of them.
When you enter the great court of Karnak,
at the north-west corner, you notice at once heaps
of earth supported by a curbing of brick, that rise
along the sides of the pylon and bury the columns
of the portico, up to the neck (Plate IV, 2).
Columns and pylons have remained unfinished and
these mounds are as a matter of fact the scaffoldings used for building.' The method of the
Egyptian builders, then, was to keep raising the
ground as the work of construction advanced,
thus making it easy to place each successive
layer of material. Their platforms of earth were
raised progressively with the walls or columns
so that when the ceiling was being made over the
hypostyle, the hall was entirely filled with earth,
and the workmen could put the architraves and
stones of the roof in place as easily as if they
stood on natural ground.
It remains to be explained how the heavy stones
were brought up to these terraces which were
Cf. Choisy, L'Art de bdtir chez kes Egyptiens, Paris, 1904.




Karnak.


I. Inclined Plane Used in Taking Down the Columns.


t 7~5., C~~,~C~, ~~lu:
             ~j 3
%3' t
~r"r:;t;
%.:                                                 "'bl*irr~~ t  3 -P   ~ir'     -r
r r"
II
-r ~ *:
L"' r -J~;:e f- 'j
~,, I,,,
7 iiLq.
t t
J, LLSlf,r"f)u Ir'jLL 7


J rmrrr -a
iii
I..,~.i —~~.~ ~..19 -I


II. Scaffolding Used in Ancient Times in Constructing.
Plate IV.


/           1 
I     I.




i
A




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 4'


continually rising. We see from what remains in
place at Karnak, that the Egyptians employed
two methods. When there was room enough for
the platforms of earth to be enlarged, they arranged an incline, sloping gradually, on which the
blocks, placed on a truck, were drawn up by the
strong arms of a hundred workmen. A basrelief, in a tomb of the XIIth dynasty, at Bersheh,
shows us a procedure of this kind: the feat to be
accomplished in this instance is to haul up a
colossal monolithic statue, about i8 feet high.
The statue, placed on a wooden truck, is drawn
by four lines of 43 men; an overseer regulates their
efforts by clapping his hands rhythmically, and a
boy pours water upon the hardened earth to
lessen the friction and to prevent the pieces of
wood from becoming heated. ' But often the space
on the platform was not sufficient to accommodate
so many workmen or to admit of a gradual incline.
In this case, steps or stairways made of brick
were put up along the side of the structure, on
which wooden elevators (the management of which
has been explained by M. Legrain) were made
to slide. For laying the corner-stone, the Egyptians made use, as we do, of a diminutive implement, of precious material, but in shape exactly
' See the vignette of Maspero, Histoire, i, p. 335.




42


Time of the Pharaohs


like the actual tool. The hammers or trowels of
gold and silver used for such purposes we keep
in museums, but the Egyptians deposited them in
the foundations, where they are still occasionally
found. Among these implements has come to
light "'an object made of wood with a rounded
base, consisting of two bows in segments of a
circle," joined by cross-bars. One may form a
conception of it by comparing it with one of
those rocking blotters that appear on our writing
tables. Now, this object could not represent
the curve of an arch: "some specimens bear
inscriptions that would be upside down if these
objects were supposed to be miniature arches."
M. Legrain and, after him, M. Choisy, have
demonstrated that this apparatus could have been
used only as a truck, or as a hoisting-machine,
swung and operated by a lever; by successive
swings the " elevator, " loaded with rough stones,
mounted the brick stairway found at Karnak.
According to Herodotus,' the Egyptians of the
fifth century used to say that the pyramids had
been built by means of light machines, moving
along the steps formed by superposed courses of
stone. It seems likely that these " light machines" are the swinging elevators just described.
" I, ii, 125. Cf. Diodorus, i, 63.




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 43


Along the platform, which rose gradually to the
ceiling of the hypostyle hall, there was a series of
steps; the larger blocks were hoisted by means
of levers, and the medium-sized stones by the
aid of the swinging elevator. This explains why
no trace is found at Karnak of any wooden scaffolding: the Egyptian monuments were erected
by means of embankments, cleared away after
the completion of the work, and by the aid of
small movable machines which have left no trace.
M. Legrain, who had to undertake immediately
the work of repairing, had no engines at his disposal, and both time and money were lacking to
import them from Europe. Following then the
example of the Egyptians, he raised mounds
maintained by a curbing of brick and on this
elevated ground he placed pulleys and tackles.
When, under the most careful supervision, the
hydraulic screw-jacks had loosened the split
architraves, the latter were heaved by tackles and
placed on the trucks; it was then comparatively
easy to let them down to the ground, by sliding
them along the incline. The removal of an architrave weighing 30 tons, a feat which I witnessed in
January, I904, took scarcely more than one morning. After the columns had been taken down,
the mounds had to be cleared away, so that the




44


Time of the Pharaohs


foundations might be dug; after which the mounds
had to be heaped up again to enable the workmen
to raise the columns. The capitals were put in
their former place by employing the same method
used for taking them down. The ancient process,
supplemented by modem equipment, made it
possible to carry on the work expeditiously, and,
above all, economically and securely (Plates III,
2, and IV, i).
The above description should not convey the
idea that the Service des Antiquites does not make
use of the resources of modern science and engineering. The methods vary according to the
condition of the buildings and the inclination of
the archaeologists. At Edfu, for instance, for a
task of a rather different nature, M. Barsanti
rejected the ancient method. The enclosure wall
of the temple, on the west side, occasioned the
keenest anxiety. The foundations of this gigantic
wall of sandstone,, about 6o feet high, were
unstable; the base was sinking into the ground,
and the entire middle part, forced forward, bulged
out rather dangerously above the passage.  M.
Barsanti accepted the ungrateful task of tearing
down the entire wall and laying it flat- each block
being carefully numbered and marked as to its
place - on the waste land around.  It was a




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 45


strange sight: there, spread out on the ground,
were mythologic scenes of wars fought by Horus
against Set, recorded on thousands of carefully
arranged stones, that were priceless because of
the stories inscribed upon them. The foundations once relaid, M. Barsanti raised the whole
of it anew, stone by stone, and such was his care
that not a fragment was lost! This wall looks
to-day as though it had on no occasion been
touched, since the time of the Ptolemies. But
this was only a beginning. The portico had to be
rebuilt in the west side of the court. M. Barsanti, rejecting the Pharaonic methods, erected
an imposing scaffolding in order to support the
stones of the ceiling, and the architraves, and
also to encircle the columns.'
It is never without a secret misgiving [wrote M.
Maspero, in his Rapport of I905] that I determine
to begin so vast a work, in which the least negligence
of the directors, or foremen of the work-yard, is likely
to cause disasters. Here, however, the urgency was
especially great, because a collapse of the structure,
similar to that which had so badly damaged the
hypostyle hall at Karnak, seemed alarmingly imminent. The long experience of M. Barsanti, his
presence of mind, the perfect training of his workmen
and the absolute confidence they have in him make
'See the report of M. Barsanti in Annales du Service des
Antiquites, t. vii.




46


Time of the Pharaohs


me firmly believe that he will acquit himself of this
task successfully.
As a matter of fact I saw this very arduous work
well on the way, in April, 1906, and not the least
accident had yet happened. A few hours spent in
Edfu are sufficient for realising what self-sacrifice
and perseverance an archaeologist must have, in
order to fulfil so difficult and perilous a task, in
absolute solitude, without any other encouragement than the occasional visits of tourists.
After the completion of these important works,
thankless tasks in connection with other sites
will engage the attention of M. Barsanti and the
other Inspectors. It is the intention to save the
beautiful sanctuary of Goumrnah, the foundations
of which are so unstable. As for the great pylons
of Karnak and of the Rameseum, the facings of
which are cracked, thus allowing the filling to
come out-like a gigantic pie the crust of which
bursts into pieces-they will soon have their ancient mounds remade by workmen, in order that
the fallen stones may be put in place again.
What surprises, in the form of texts and basreliefs, will their immense walls, when once rebuilt,
hold in store for us?
The works undertaken at Luxor, Karnak, Edfu,
and in many other places, give a sufficient in



Restoration of Egyptian Temples 47


dication of the main purpose of the Service des
Antiquites at the present time: "to devote every
resource to bring about the restoration and the
methodical clearing of the temples and the
cemeteries." The Service leaves to wealthy
individuals and scientific societies the task of
adding to the number of Egyptian relics by making fresh excavations, though it excludes such
persons and societies from a few sites where
excavation is inseparable from clearing, as at
Karnak and Sakkarah; it intends to confine its
energy to the preservation of antiquities-so much
neglected up to the present time. A scholar
like M. Maspero, who, it is conceded by every
one, occupies the first place in Egyptology, may
devote his time to a task to all appearances
thankless; but a work requiring patience and
method always brings a recompense, often of unexpected significance. At Karnak, for instance,
the mere necessity of removing the earth, to construct an incline, resulted in the discovery, as
M. Legrain's digging progressed, of more new
monuments than had been discovered since the
heroic times when Mariette brought to light the
Serapeum. Temples rose in their completeness
from the earth or the rubbish: the temple of
Ramses III, the temple of the Theban Phtah, the




48


Time of the Pharaohs


temple of Osiris, lord of eternity; splendid pillars
erected by Ousirtasen III and representing what
remains of the Thebes, of the XIIth dynasty,
until then unknown; a complete structure built
by Amen6phis I, subsequently demolished for
some unknown reason, by Thothmes III, which
was found in the earth, but so well preserved that
it will be possible to re-erect it in its ancient condition; finally, at the bottom of a pond, filled
with stagnant water from the infiltrations of the
Nile, there was discovered the entrance to a
miraculous hiding-place, whence 800 statues (of
all sizes and periods, some of beautiful workmanship, most of them covered with inscriptions of
great historic value) and more than I5,000 pieces
in bronze were brought forth in the space of two
years: I903-I905.
The excavation has not been completed, and
the site still yields its treasures. At Sakkarah,
the clearing of the desert sand enabled M.
Quibell to come upon pyramids built by the kings
of the Heracleopolitan dynasties, unknown to us
until then; farther north M. Barsanti has been
working for years to uncover a superb monument,
' See, for further information about this discovery, Maspero's
Revue de r'Art ancien et moderne, I906. M. Legrain has begun
the publication of an account of these statues in the Catalogue
of the Cairo Museum; the first volume was issued in I9o6.




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 49


which has not yet disclosed its secret, but which
seems more ancient than any other monument discovered up to the present time. Such finds are,
indeed, a compensation for so many days spent
in arduous work, fraught with responsibility.
They explain the joy and patience with which
workmen and engineers, masons' servers and
Egyptologists are working away, in order to
disinter a prehistoric Sakkarah, or a new
Thebes, coming out of its ruins to eclipse rival
cities, as in the time of the glory of the god
Amon.
The work undertaken by M. Maspero and his
active assistants has, moreover, a scientific
importance that extends far beyond the valley
of the Nile. The archaeologists of all countries
may profit by the experiments made in Egypt,
though the learned men who are conducting them
work in silence, without publicity, and are hardly
known, until their task is achieved. No problem
has been more discussed than that of restoring
ancient monuments. There are as many solutions
as cases. Account must be taken of the state of
preservation of the monuments, of their power of
resistance, and an important question to decide
is also whether their value is of an essentially
4




50


Time of the Pharaohs


artistic nature, or whether they are precious only
to the historian and to the archaeologist.
From a practical point of view, there is no doubt
that the abandonment of half-ruined edifices is
fatal to the preservation of their fragments.
Whenever it is possible to raise a wall or a colonnade, by using a sufficient number of ancient
stones, a restoration should be undertaken. In
that connection, M. Maspero found parallel cases
that engaged the attention of archaeologists in
other countries.  Delegated in 1905 by the
Khedive to the Archeological Congress in Athens,
he used his time to good advantage in making
a brief investigation of the methods employed
in Greece in clearing monuments and in keeping
them in repair.
I went to Delphi [he wrote], where M. Homolle.
showed me the methods employed by the French
mission, then to Olympia, the site of German excavations. The aspect of these two sites convinced me
that we were right in rebuilding the remains and
reconstructing the edifices whenever we could do so
without using anything but the old material. Fragments of architectural or sculptural work soon go to
ruin if left where they are found, exposed to the
weather, whereas similar fragments restored to their
former place have proved firm and durable. At
Olympia, a certain temple, or part of a temple, the
existence of which would have been considerably




Restoration of Egyptian Temples Si


prolonged had the edifice been rebuilt at the time of
discovery, is now certain to go to waste in a short
time because it was left in contact with the ground
too long. On the other hand, the Treasury of the
Athenians, and of the portions of the other buildings
which M. Homolle reconstructed at Delphi, will
survive for many centuries against the action of the
weather. This example was an encouragement to
me to persevere in the task undertaken, and to reerect or to complete the construction of those monuments, a sufficient quantity of the old building
material of which is available, and the proper place
of the constituent parts of which can with certainty
be determined.'
Nevertheless, it must be confessed, something
is sacrificed when a temple is restored: the melancholy of the abandoned ruins, the dream that
called forth the image of the dead cities. In our
passion for knowledge, are we not laying impious
hands upon these lifeless temples? Is it a true
work of civilization to endeavour to check the
inevitable ruin of what was great and splendid,
but will never be so again?... Will the hypostyle hall, with its rebuilt columns bearing but a
few scars of time, with its architraves, in part
false, impress the mind with its majesty of
yore? And when the magnificent debris of the
pylons has been converted into regular walls,
I Rapport de z905.




52


Time of the Pharaohs


shall we feel that we really enter the house of the
great god Amon? Is not the real Thebes the
Thebes in ruins, where death is in its place,
and not the city restored, where the pulse of life
will beat nevermore?
These distressing questions obtrude themselves
upon our minds when we see modern activity
struggling with the mystery of ancient ruins. I
remember one day watching the descent, along
an incline, of a venerable architrave. The enormous stone was strewn with palm-leaves, covered
with flags, in order to ward off any bad omen; the
fellahs pulled at the ropes and responded in a
ringing voice to the shouts of an overseer, in
unison applying their energy to the task as he
addressed successively his invocations to Allah.
While the stone was sliding, I imagined a like
scene in the same place three thousand years
ago, when the block, brought from the quarries of
Silsileh, was drawn up the slope, towed along in
the same manner to the sound of similar songs.
Then also, the stone was perhaps venerated and
adorned like a saint; perhaps the same story was
related about it, as about many another stone.
We may decipher in the quarry of Ouady-HammamAt the following:
Miracle... that came to pass in those days...




Restoration of Egyptian Temples 53


as the workmen descended the mountain, lo! a
marvellous gazelle appeared; she walked in front,
leading our people, who followed with their eyes fixed
upon her. Never turned she her head until she
reached this stone, in the sacred mountain....
Then she brought forth her little fawn on this stone,
before the eyes of the whole army; her neck was cut,
she was burnt upon the stone with incense, and the
block arrived safely in Egypt....
Nowadays, it is in the name of Mahomet
that the stones descend or are raised, submissive
though touched by the hands of the unbelievers.
It was in vain that the gazelle shed her blood,
and that the ancient workmen applied their hard
labour! The work to which so many thousands
of beings devoted their lives for centuries, could
not escape ultimate ruin; yet a monument loses
something of its mystery and lofty beauty when
engineers and archaeologists come to test its weaknesses, clear its ruins, or raise its walls.
The work carried on in Egypt is not, however,
prompted by curiosity. The restoration of the
temples is a necessary evil for thus greater disasters are averted. The purpose is not to gratify
the visitor's eye by presenting to his view unbroken lines and structures in their entirety.
I Erman, Wunderzeichen in Hammamdt, ap. Zeitschrift fur
acgyptische Sprache, xxix, p. 60,




54


Time of the Pharaohs


Beauty of outline is not the only attractive feature
of the Egyptian temples: it would perhaps be
betterpolicy to leave to their fate these picturesque
ruins, if it were the artists only who took an interest in them. But these monuments and walls are
covered with figures and texts of unique interest
in connection with the history of ideas and of men:
to rescue from destruction these remaining annals
of mankind, these fragments of rituals and of
theogonies, is to preserve for humanity its familypapers or title-deeds, and its inheritance from the
dim ages. That is why it is useful and necessary
to rebuild hypostyle halls and pylons. Artists
and those with delicate sensibilities may rest assured that those are pious hands that touch the
sacred stones!




CHAPTER II


PHARAONIC DIPLOMACY
TOWARD the end of the summer of 1887, in a
rarely frequented district of Middle Egypt, at
a spot near the village of Haggi-Kandil, which is
inhabited by the Beduins of El-Amarna, some
fellahs, in search of building material furnished
by the old temples, which are their inexhaustible
quarries, were unconcernedly pulling down portions of the walls forming the appendage of a
large building now identified as a palace of
Amen6phis IV (fifteenth century before our era).
Amen6phis IV was the son of Amen6phis III
and of that Queen Tii whose seals have been found
in the Mycenaean palaces of Crete and Greece.
Egypt was at that time the ruler of the East,
over which it had held sway ever since the Pharaohs of the XVIIIth dynasty had established
their sovereignty over the Eastern Mediterranean,
the Red Sea, and hither Asia. In order to be
nearer the Delta and Syria, Amen6phis IV had
55




56


Time of the Pharaohs


abandoned Thebes, the capital of his fathers; north
of Siut, in Middle Egypt, he built his new city of
Khounatonou. These were the ruins which our
fellahs were pillaging.
In clearing the rubbish from the ground, they
hit at once on something much better than they
had expected: fine bricks, some baked, some unbaked; some square, others oblong; the grain of
these bricks was very fine and their colour varied
from black to yellow and red. They were excellent materials for our masons; did one of them try
to wipe off the secular dust or was it a puff of
wind that blew away the sand lodged in the pores
of the ancient clay? Suddenly it was noticed
that there were curious signs upon the tablets,
which seemed to have been scratched upon them
with a stylus and which were accurately divided
by regular lines. Every peasant in Egypt knows
that his soil conceals treasures: consequently the
bricks and clay tablets bearing inscriptions were
treated with respect. After further digging,
two hiding-places in the form of wells soon appeared which were filled with engraved tablets.
The treasures were heaped up in baskets fastened
to the backs of donkeys, and, a few days later, the
dealers in antiquities at Akhmi, Luxor, and Cairo
had on sale part of the inscriptions.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


57


The first scholars informed of the find were
M. Bouriant, then Director of the French School
in Cairo, and M. Grebaut, then Director of the
Service des Antiquit6s; they bought a few specimens, and, much amazed to find in Egypt a
stock of Babylonian tablets, written in cuneiform, they sent the inscribed tablets to the most
important Assyriologists: M. Oppert, professor at
the College de France, and Mr. Sayce of London.
The surprise was so great that the tablets were
at first suspected of being spurious and were discarded by the specialists. But when the rumour
was spread that there existed hundreds-some
said thousands-of tablets bearing inscriptions,
it became improbable that the forger had manufactured so many.
The museums in London, Paris, Vienna, and
Berlin, made a few timid purchases; the majority of
the tablets passed into the hands of Daninos-Pasha
of Alexandria, and of the collector Graf, who sold
them to the Museum of Berlin. After the month
of April, i886, not a vestige of doubt remained;
Mr. Sayce in London deciphered the names of
Babylonian kings and Syrian dynasts; the great
Egyptologist in Berlin, Mr. Adolf Erman, read the
cartouches of the Pharaohs, Amen6phis III, and
Amen6phis IV, written in cuneiform; it was soon




58


Time of the Pharaohs


discovered that these tablets were missives of
marvellous interest, exchanged, in the time of the
Egyptian hegemony in Asia, between the princes
of Syria and of kingdoms adjacent to it, and their
overlords, the Pharaohs. It was the oldest diplomatic correspondence known dating thirty-four
centuries back-that the donkeys had carried in
their baskets, raised for once to the dignity of a
diplomatic mail-bag.
Is it not sad to have to confess that, on this
occasion, the critical acumen of the scholars was
more injurious to the tablets than the ignorance
of the fellahs? Of course, more than one tablet
was crumbled by the pick of the excavators, or
broken in pieces while being conveyed on the
back of a donkey. An accident of the same kind
happened to the royal papyrus now preserved at
Turin but irreparably mutilated. It was found
intact, and put in a jar to be transported on the
back of a donkey, but when the jar was uncovered,
the papyrus was found in bits; its pieces, pasted
together, are still the most precious chronological
document of the history of Egypt. The tablets
of El-Amarna, disdained by merchants, refused
by scholars, suffered irreparable damage in the
course of their wanderings. There remain hardly
three hundred of them; perhaps there were twice




Pharaonic Diplomacy


59


as many in the beginning. At least, those that
remain to us are to-day valued at their proper
worth, as they are considered a priceless acquisition. The Assyriologists of every country
-in England, Sayce and Budge; in Germany,
Bezold and Winckler; in France, Halevy, Delattre,
and Scheil-have translated and commented upon
these texts, and as a result of their searching
labours the meaning of these tablets has become a
matter of common knowledge.
As soon as the first deciphering of all these tablets enabled one to get a hint of their meaning,
it was obvious that the pieces of this diplomatic
correspondence had been classified in series; there
were six letters of a king of Babylon, nine of the
king of Alasia, four of the king of Mitanni,-all
of them dealing with particular cases and accounting for long-pursued negotiations. A certain man,
Rib-Addi, had sent forty-six missives; others, such
as Arad-Hiba of Jerusalem, and Azirou, governor of
a Syrian city, had written from five to ten letters;
and about a hundred other correspondents are
represented by one or two letters. We have thus
to do with notes and reports of an official character;
on one of the tablets mention is made of the
"repository for archives in the royal palace"; one




6o


Time of the Pharaohs


letter, quoted below, invites the Pharaoh to refer
to the notes filed in his offices. The two rooms
in ruins, still to be seen in El-Amarna, were
perhaps a kind of repository for the archives of
the Pharaonic Foreign Office.
This repository was scarcely more than a
store-house where the tablets were piled up, like
old papers in the storerooms of our public buildings. A short inscription, in Egyptian characters,
written in the margin of a cuneiform despatch,
informs us that the repository was originally at
Thebes, the seat of the Pharaohs of the XVIIIth
dynasty; when Amen6phis IV left Thebes for
Khounatonou (El-Amarna), in order to found a
new religious and political capital, he took with
him his civil service, and the diplomatic archives
were placed in a modest annex of his palace.
Some information has come down to us regarding the staff of officials attached to the archives:
a seal has been found, engraved with the name of
"Tetou-nou, the man of Shamas-niki. "  Tetounou, as his name indicates, was an Egyptian; his
office seems to have been that of scribe in the
service of Shamas-niki, who was certainly a Babylonian. Professor Flinders Petrie, who, in 1891,
excavated thoroughly that part of El-Amarna, has
deciphered a new name, that of a functionary,




Pharaonic Diplomacy


6i


written in ink on a block: "the royal scribe
Ra-Apii." He believes, not without foundation,
that he was the Egyptian director of this service,
and had under his command the Babylonian
Shamas-niki, who was in turn assisted by the
Egyptian Tetou-nou. I
The presence of a foreigner, of a Babylonian, in
this Pharaonic ministry is explained by the fact
that all the diplomatic documents are written in
cuneiform characters, that is, characters foreign
to Egypt. The use of this writing at the Pharaonic court was an absolute innovation; no previous
document shows any trace of it; yet we ought not
to be astonished that a foreigner was appointed
to this Foreign Office. Egyptian hieroglyphics
represent letters, syllabic sounds, and ideas, by
means of men, animals, plants, and diverse other
things reproduced with the most scrupulous
accuracy; the signs are very easy to recognise,
and to Egyptologists the reading of them at sight
is a fascinating occupation that presents little
difficulty. The characters of the Babylonians, on
the contrary, which originally comprised figures
similar to the Egyptian hieroglyphics, soon deteriorated into stiff conventional figures, no longer
bearing resemblance to the object represented.
ISayce ap. F. Petrie, El-Amarna, p. 23.




62


Time of the Pharaohs


The use of clay tablets, instead of papyrus, and
of a style for inscribing the signs led the scribes of
the Euphrates to replace the sinuous outlines
of a human figure, or of an animal, or the shape
of an object by a series of rigid strokes, to which
the style gave the appearance of a nail or wedge
(whence the name cuneiform, from the Latin
cuneus, wedge). Little by little, a star, the head
of an animal, a human hand, became merely a
succession of scratches arranged along vertical
or horizontal lines; to-day, the inexperienced eye
no longer recognises in them the figures which
they were intended to represent, any more than in
the case of the Chinese signs, which are, likewise,
silhouettes of beings and things, though conventionalised beyond recognition.
On the other hand, if the cuneiform writing is
not attractive to the eye, it has the advantage
of being clean-cut and easy to trace. That is
why-as the tablets of El-Amarna teach usit was adopted in all Western Asia, having been
in use probably since the almost legendary time
of the conquest of Syria and Mesopotamia by
Sargon, the elder, King of Babylonia (3500
years B.C.).
The system of writing in these letters [M. Halevy
tells us] is the Babylonian cursive; the language is the




Pharaonic Diplomacy


63


ordinary Babylonian, which was then the language
used for literary purposes, not only by Semitic people
of the North, but by all the peoples of the Taurus and
Amanus who had some degree of civilisation. Along
the upper part of the Euphrates, the Babylonian
system of writing had been adjusted to the nonSemitic dialects used in these countries.
It is this last verv curious circumstance that
accounts for the fact that two letters, found
among the El-Amarna collection, were written
in cuneiform signs, but in a language still unknown: that of Mitanni. We can read the
sounds, but not the sense of these letters! A few
Indo-European peoples of hither Asia had also
adopted the Babylonian cuneiform as a vehicle
of their language; Mus6e Guimet, for instance,
possesses several texts of an Indo-European
language, written in cuneiform, which were
collected by M. Chantre in Cappadocia.
Though Egypt was, owing to its propinquity,
in touch with Babylonian civilisation, which
was disseminated through writings, the Egyptian
officials, appointed to the office of international
correspondence, needed a long initiation in order
to fill properly their duties of translators and
scribes. The foreign language and writing were
not easy to acquire and had to be learned from
a specially prepared vocabulary, some fragments




64


Time of the Pharaohs


of which Professor Petrie found. These are
bricks carefully divided into three columns; in the
first is written the sign of the writing, or ideogram; in the second, its transcription into the
syllabic equivalents of the Semitic-Babylonian
dialect in use among the various peoples of
Western Asia; in the third, the pronunciation of
this sign in Sumerian, that is to say, in the original
Babylonian language. One of these treatises
contains the statement that the vocabulary was
drawn up "by order of the king of Egypt."
The Pharaoh certainly placed much importance
on a thorough study of the foreign language, for a
knowledge of the Sumerian transcription was not
really necessary, except for those who wished to
master the cuneiform completely.'
The attention paid to this foreign language is,
however, explicable, when one takes into consideration that not only the messages of Asiatic
princes or chiefs were composed in it, but that it
was used also by the Pharaohs themselves. A
long letter from Amen6phis III to a king of
Babylon is composed in the same dialect as the
message to which it is a reply;2 one of the royal
princes of Egypt wrote to his royal father in cuneiPetrie, El-Amarna, PI. XXXII, 5.
2 Revue S6mitique, i893, p. 49.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


65


form; the Egyptian governors corresponded with
the offices of the metropolis in the Babylonian
language and not in Egyptian hieroglyphics.',
The fact that no other language than this was
employed for diplomatic correspondence is in
itself of great importance, especially if one wants
to compare the stages of culture which Chaldea
and Egypt had reached in the fifteenth century
before our era. From an historic point of view,
however, this evidence is also of great interest.
It justifies us in reaching the conclusion that the
Pharaohs showed, in the administration of their
Asiatic provinces, an adaptability and a political
spirit that was, to say the least, unexpected. A
more detailed study of their rule would surprise
those who believe that the government of tributary lands and the exercise of diplomacy at long
range are modem arts, unknown to antiquity.
Egypt never considered herself safe, face to
face with Asia, unless she kept control of the
Syrian route, along which Asiatic invaders repeatedly found their way into the Delta through
Thabor, Jaffa, and Gaza. Therefore, after the
Pharaohs of the XVIIth dynasty had driven
back the invaders called Shepherds, or Hyksos,
Journal Asiatique, i89i, i, p. 213, 215.
S




66


Time of the Pharaohs


beyond the Isthmus of Suez, all their successors
of the XVIIIth dynasty (about I500 B.C.), the
Thothmes and the Amen6phis, occupied the
towns along the coast: Gaza, Ascalon, Tyre,
Sidon, Arad; from there, they proceeded to the
gorge of Mageddo, the key to Palestine, and to the
passes of Qodshou, the entrance of the valley of
the Orontes and of the upper Euphrates.
The coast and the nearest Syrian plateaux were
under the direct influence of the Pharaohs. On
the coast flourished already those republics having a Semitic language and an oligarchic constitution, that the Greeks later called Phoenicians;
the inland, especially Jerusalem and Canaan, was
occupied by other Semites. These were not the
Hebrews of Moses's day: the Exodus had not
perhaps as yet been undertaken; at any rate,
had not been completed. The Hebrews were still
in Egypt, where they wandered in the deserts of
Sinai and the plains beyond the Jordan. Beyond,
in Northern Asia, there extended up to the Persian
Gulf empires both of recent and of ancient origin:
the kingdom of Alasia on the lower Orontes, the
kingdom of Mitanni on the east of the Euphrates,
the kingdom of Assur on the middle Tiger, the
kingdom of.Kardounyash, which had inherited
the power of Babylon, on the lower Euphrates.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


It was the petty princes of the coast and the
upland as well as the kings of the surrounding
states, who exchanged the letters discovered at
El-Amarna with the Pharaohs, Amen6phis III
and Amen6phis IV. The former were vassals; the
latter, allies.
The letters' emanating from the cities along
the Syrian coast, from Palestine and the valley
of the Orontes, in a word, from the Egyptian
province of Syria, prove that the Pharaohs were
not represented in any of these cities, either by
resident Egyptian officials, or by a standing army.
At Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Jerusalem, we find
"adherents of the king" called khazani; "their
cities belong to them; their subjects bow their
heads in submission to them." These were not
Egyptians. Their names give evidence that they
were natives of the country; often they were
descended from families of long standing in the
region; they might bear the title of kings; sometimes the khazani were the successors of the kings.
At any rate, the Egyptian policy seems to have
favoured a divided oligarchy, to prevent the
establishment among the strange peoples of a
' Quoted from M. J. Hal6vy, Journal Asiatique, 1890o-2, and
Revue Semitique, 1893-4. I have also made use of the suggestive
articles by P. Delattre (Revue des Questions historiques, li-Ix,
1892-1896) and the authoritative Histoire of G. Maspero.




68


Time of the Pharaohs


monarchy more dangerous in its influence. In
certain cities, Arad and Tounipou, for instance,
there were neither kings nor khazani, for these
cities were little republics: accordingly, instead
of an individual correspondent, in such cases it
was the council of the Ancients, the "children of
the city of Tounipou," or the "inhabitants of
the city of Irgeta" who sent missives direct to
Pharaoh.    At any rate, these places enjoyed selfgovernment and sent their applications to the
Egyptian chancery without an intermediary.
These local powers expressed their subordination
in terms that are amusing because of their excessive humility: "To the king, my lord, my
god, my sun, king my lord, this is said: I, khazanou
of the city... thy servant, dust of thy feet,
and ground on which thou treadest, the seat
of thy chair, stool for thy feet,2 hoof of thy
horses, I roll on my stomach and on my back
seven times in the dust, at the feet of my
king, of my lord, sun of heaven."       The   essential function of the khazani, their raison
d'etre and distinguishing virtue are thus defined: "I am the servant of the king, the dog
1 Revue Semitique, 1894, p. I6.
2 Compare with the psalm: Donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


69


of his house, I guard all the country of... for
the king, my lord. "'1
In ordinary times, the correspondence may be
summed up in a few phrases: the country is quiet,
the orders of the king are obeyed, the tributes are
despatched regularly to the Egyptian treasury.
Thus the governor of Sidon writes:
The king, my lord, is informed that the city of
Sidon, the slave he has entrusted to me, is quiet. On
reading the order of the king, my lord, my heart
leaped with joy, I raised my head; my face and my
eyes were beaming when I transmitted to my people
the order of the king, my lord,... thus: thy servant
sends thee a hundred oxen and also female slaves.
News for the king, my lord, sun of the heaven.2
Whenever the Pharaoh sent a messenger, a convoy, or a troop of archers, the khazanou had to
escort them, provide for their safety, and, according to the case, furnish their food and maintenance: "The king, my lord, sun of heaven, has
sent the messenger Hamya to me; thus: I have
listened to the order of the king with the greatest
attention; I, with my troops and my chariots,
with my brothers and my soldiers, we have
been to meet thy troops of archers at the place
1 Journal Asiatique, 1892, i, p. 272; Revue Semitique, 1894, p.
I 10.
2 Journal Asiatique, 1891, ii, p. 170.




70


Time of the Pharaohs


assigned by my king. " When the king himself
visits his Syrian province, the faithful servant
has to provide food for him and his troops: "The
king, my lord, with his many troops, returns
to his lands; there I have sent cattle and a quantity of oil for the great army of the king, my lord. "
In some impoverished district in the mountains,
the khazanou might not be able to perform his
duty and furnish supplies; in such a case he excused himself humbly: "May it please the king,
my lord, to send for the oil; I have neither horses
nor carriages to meet the king, and I have sent my
son into the country of the king, my lord. " '
To supervise the perfect execution of his orders,
Pharaoh had his messengers, " the eyes and ears of
the king in a foreign land," to use the language
of the Egyptian protocol. They had precedence
of all the native governors; they were, therefore,
with few exceptions, Egyptians and high functionaries of the Pharaonic court. Their investigations were greatly feared: "May the king, my
lord, ask all his messengers how faithful a servant
of the king I am; may the king ask such and such a
one; he will see that it is true. " These inspectors
held, perhaps, a permanent office, but they seem
' Revue Smnitique, i893, p. 304-314; Journal Asiatique, 1892,
i, p. 297, 3i8, 325.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


7'


not to have had any fixed residence. They took
an active part in difficult cases, but always were
obliged to refer these to the Pharaoh.
Difficult cases were frequent. After reading
these letters of El-Amarna the Egyptian province
of Syria appears to us to be cut up into little
independent territories, perpetually torn apart
by rival factions. From khazani to khazani,
conflicts incessantly arose; but these disturbances
seemed not to displease the Pharaoh, who found
in the situation the secret of his power, bestowed
here favour, there meted out displeasure, imposing everywhere his will, as the last resort.
His help was constantly applied for: here, against
highwaymen pillaging a city, there against some
khazanou unseating his neighbour, or boldly
seizing upon the territories of the nearest city:
"Take cognisance, oh king, that the robbers have
prompted these cities to rebel against me...;
I am like a bird in a cage or a net.... Send me
some archers of Egypt." The number of defenders requested was not excessive: the governor of
Mageddo asked to have two arches sent; the
governor of Tyre asked for twenty; the governor
of Byblos requested four, together with twenty
chariots (Egyptian chariots were at this time the
most potent factor on the battle-field, and it is




72


Time of the Pharaohs


from Egypt that the Homeric warriors later
borrowed their chariots); even in arduous cases
the number of Egyptian soldiers needed did not
exceed two hundred.' These figures show that
the Pharaoh did not maintain permanent garrisons in Syria. The governors employed their
own troops; but they wanted Egyptian soldiers,
probably as instructors and to act as a staff of
officers for the native troops, much in the same
way as we organise our colonial armies at the
present day.
Among the numerous subjects considered in
the correspondence of El-Amama there are two
which are intelligible throughout, or nearly so,
and which afford us a vivid picture of the policy
pursued by Egypt in Syria. These affairs concern Azirou and Arab-Hiba. The information
that follows is derived from researches made by
Messrs. Halevy and P. Delattre.
In a district of Northern Phoenicia, called the
land of Amouri, the khazanou Azirou was accused before Pharaoh by his colleague Rabimour,
from Byblos.2   Azirou, in spite of the protestations of obedience which he sent to the Egyptian
x Journal Asiatique, 1891, i, p. 244, 252; 1892, i, p. 310.
2 P. Delattre, Azirou, ap. Proceedings of the Society of Biblical
Archeology, xiii, p. 215.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


73


deputy Doudou, was accused formally of having
killed three kings of neighbouring cities and all the
elders of the country, in order to appropriate their
territories. Azirou cleared himself by writing
to the king that he did so only in self-defence:
"The elders of the city of Soumouri did not
leave me in peace, and I have in this case committed no crime against the king my master."
Then a man intervened in this correspondence,
writing dryly: "In the name of the king, thy
lord, to the governor of the city of Soumouri."
This man was without doubt an Egyptian deputy,
who communicated the Pharaoh's reply to the
charges brought by Rabimour:
Surely, thou art not with the king, thy lord. If
thou wilt be submissive to the king, what will not the
king grant thee, as a recompense? But, if thou
wishest to act thus, rebellion is in thy heart and thou
shalt die, as well as all thy family. Submit to the
king, thy lord, and thou shalt live.... I say to thee:
leave the summit of that mountain [where Azirou
had taken refuge] and come to the king, thy lord; or
send thy son to the king. Hast thou no descendant
who might go? Know that the king is as powerful as
the sun in heaven, and that his troops and chariots
are numerous in the upper country and in the lower
country, from the east to the west.....
Summoned to give an account of himself at
' Cf. J. Haldvy, Journal Asiatique, I891, ii, p. I76.




74


Time of the Pharaohs


the Egyptian court, Azirou did not dare to refuse
outright: he accordingly wrote to different people,
to the deputies Doudou and Khai, and to Pharaoh
himself, that he would start with his son, that
he is starting, that he has started... but he
stayed. At the same time that he announced
his departure, he mentioned an attack of the king
of the Kheta against the city of Tounipou: who
would defend this city if he, Azirou, did not stay
at his post?
"My son and I are good servants of the king;
then we shall start immediately...; may my
master know that I obey. But the king has
ordered me to defend his territory, and now the
king of the Kheta is in the country of Noukhassi,
in the city of Tounipou,... I fear for the territory of my master."
Did Azirou go to Egypt? The records stop
just at this critical moment. Judging from what
precedes, Azirou probably managed to avoid
appearing in person, or sending his son, as a
hostage, to Pharaoh.
The second affair, concerning Arad-Hiba, is
more intricate still; it has to do with personal
frictions between officials, and raises a rather delicate question of diplomatic immunity.   AradJ. Haldvy. Un gouverneur de Jerusalem vers la fin du xve siachke




Pharaonic Diplomacy


75


Hiba was a governor of Jerusalem. The name of
Israel does not appear anywhere in his letters;
the first mention of this name that we know of
is on an Egyptian stela of Pharaoh Merneptah
(about 1250 B.C.), who boasts of having destroyed
Israel in Syria, at a time when, according to tradition, the Israelites were still in Egypt. Nevertheless, Arad-Hiba, as is evidenced by his name, was
a Semite. He was opposed in his government
by Milkili and Shumardata, native agents of the
Egyptian court. These men accused him of
having participated with certain robber bands,
acting under the instigation of the king of Babylon,
Bournabouryash, in the pillage of Palestine.
Now, if these mercenaries of the Babylonian
king broke the alliance of their master with the
king of Egypt, it was because Bournabouryash
had been seriously offended. He explained, in a
letter addressed to Amen6phis IV, that he had
sent an embassy laden with presents to Egypt:
My agents, who had so far travelled in safety, were
stopped suddenly and met with violent death, in
Palestine. They had left me, thy good brother, to
go to thee, when, upon their arrival in the city of
Acre, those who escorted them (sent by the Pharaoh)
killed my messengers and took possession of the


av J. C., ap. Revue Semitique, 1893, p. 13. Cf. Journal Asiatique,
1891, ii, p. 514.




76


Time of the Pharaohs


presents.... It is Shumardata who cut off the
feet of my men and pulled out their fingers; as for
the other, he encouraged the aggressor to stamp on
their heads..... Question these men, make investigations, gather information, and thou wilt hear the
truth. The country of Palestine is thy country, and
its kings are thy vassals; it is in thy country that
damage has been done to me; make inquiry, have
restored the gold that has been taken, have put to
death those who have killed my men, and let the
blood which they have shed flow back upon them.
If thou dost not put these people to death, my generals shall go and kill all the men and messengers, so
that henceforth all friendship between us shall cease,
and their soldiers shall treat thee as an enemy.'
These threats were carried out. Shumardata,
however, accused Arad-Hiba of favouring the
devices of the Babylonians, and the question of
the murder of messengers was lost sight of as the
personal rivalry of the agents of the Egyptian
king came to the fore. Arad-Hiba sends to the
king vehement protestations:
" Who has cast doubt upon my actions by
slandering me before the king, my lord, saying:
'Arad-Hiba has betrayed his lord'? Behold: it is
neither my father's nor my mother's people who
have secured this place for me; it is the arm of the
powerful king that has enabled me to enter the


I Journal Asiatique, I899, ii, p. 325.




Pharaonic Diplomacy            77
house of my father. Why should I be guilty of
infidelity and disloyalty to the king?"1
Arad-Hiba would have liked to justify himself,
personally: "I said to myself: I shall go to the
king, and I shall see the cities of the king, but I
have a strong enemy opposed to me, and I cannot
come before the king."
But, desirous of leaving nothing untried in
order to attain his end, he added to three of his
despatches a postscript addressed to the scribe
of the king:
"To the scribe of my lord, the king, this is said:
I, Arad-Hiba, thy servant, I throw myself at
the feet of my lord. I am thy servant. Speak
favourably of me to my lord, the king. I am the
servant of the king and also thine. n 2
It is evident that as far back as the XVIIIth
dynasty, the approbation of an influential officeholder was instrumental in bringing about a happy
issue of affairs. The word of commendation was,
however, in this case of no avail. It seems that
Amen6phis IV paid heed rather to Shumardata
and Milkili and ordered them to subdue AradHiba. For a long time, Palestine was devastated
by robbers and mercenary troops, paid by the


x Journal Asiatique, 1891, ii, p. 519.
'Ibid., 1891, ii, p. 524, 527, 529.




78


Time of the Pharaohs


rival governors. Arad-Hiba left Jerusalem to
make war in Palestine and delivered his office
into the hands of a lady, Belitneshi, who wrote
twice in his favour to the Pharaoh.' It is not
known how the struggle ended. Bournabouryash
and Amen6phis IV were reconciled; as forAradHiba, in all probability he finally succumbed in
the conflict of rival ambitions
In the course of these disturbances, which
transformed the rich province of Syria into a
battle-field, the Pharaohs often showed an indifference that would appear inexplicable, had it not
been intentional. We know from the lamentations of their vassals, that their replies to denunciations or complaints were slow in coming if they
came at all. Read this letter from the little
republic of Tounipou, expressing doubt whether
the Pharaoh is its protector or not:
The city of Tounipou, thy servant, asks: Who
was it that formerly showed favour to the city of
Tounipou? Was it not Amen6phis III, who honoured
her? Since then, the gods and the statue of the king
of Egypt, our lord, have remained in the city of
Tounipou. Our lord may refer to the archives of the
time, if there is any doubt about our belonging to our
lord, the king of Egypt?... We have already sent
twenty letters to the king, our lord, and our messenx Journal Asiatique, I892, i, p. 302-304.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


79


gers have stayed with our lord.... Now the city of
Tounipou, thy city, weeps, its tears flow, and there
is nobody to help us.... We have already sent
twenty letters to the king of Egypt, and not a single
reply has come to us from our lord.!
More than a hundred such letters exist among
the records of El-Amarna. Shall we accuse the
Foreign Office of Egypt of inveterate negligence?
It seems more just to admit that the oriental
policy of procrastination, of prudence, of studied
inertia, was already in favour in the Pharaonic
diplomacy! The king of Egypt probably knew
how to apportion his efforts according to the
importance of the case in dispute; in many
instances, to gain time, to let things run their
course, and to wait until the decisive moment
for interfering arrived, was the best means for
putting an end to the petty strife that had become
almost chronic in the protectorate country.
Besides, intestine discords were necessary for
the maintenance of a foreign hegemony: to
create division among his subjects in order to
keep any faction from becoming too powerful, this
policy successfully pursued accounts for the power
of the Pharaoh in a country where he deigned
to leave the images of his gods and of his own
I Revue Simitique, i894, p. i6.




8o


Time of the Pharaohs


divine personage,' but where he kept no longer
any garrisons, where he had only a body of
diplomats and a staff of officers.
In dealing with the great kingdoms of the
Taurus and the Euphrates: Alasia, Mitanni,
Assyria, Kardouniash (Babylon) a different method of procedure was in force. The aim of the
Pharaohs was to form all around their Syrian
provinces a border of buffer-states, in order to
check the collisions between the restless populations of Asia Minor, the most threatening of
which were the Kheta, and the populations of
Canaan.   This r6le of buffer-states could be
filled by the old kingdoms of Assur and of Babylon,
fallen from their former splendour, but still
mighty and influential, and also by the new
barbarian kingdoms, like Alasia and Mitanni,
ruled by upstarts whom the Pharaoh sometimes raised to the dignity of allies.
But here, the relationship was no longer that
existing between a sovereign and his vassals:
the Pharaoh allowed himself to be treated as an
equal by each of these barbarians.
"To the king of Egypt, my brother, be it said:
I, the king of Alasia, thy brother, am well, and
x Revue Semitique, 1893, p. 316.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


may it be well with thee, with thy kinship, thy
house, thy children, thy wives; I heartily congratulate thee upon the number of chariots and
horses thou hast and send my good wishes for
thy country of Egypt. "'
The king of Assyria, of whom one letter only
has been preserved, wrote more dryly:
"To Amenophis IV, my brother, be it said:
Assourouballit, King of Assyria, the prince,
thy brother: Peace to thee, thy kin, thy
country. "2
The tone is more affectionate when the sovereigns are relatives:
"To Amenophis III, great king of the country
of Egypt, my brother, my son-in-law, who loves
me and whom I love, be it said:-I, Dushratta,
the great king of the country of Mitanni, thy
brother, thy father-in-law, who loves thee, I am
well, and I send my greetings to thee, my brother
and son-in-law to thy kin, thy wives, thy sons,
thy chief men."3
In his turn, Amen6phis III, writing to the king
of Kardounyash, expresses himself in exactly
the same terms.4 We may infer from       these
extracts that a diplomatic protocol prevailed
1 Journal Asiatique, I890, ii, p. 335.  2 Ibid., p. 33I.
3 Ibid., I890, ii, p. 348.  4 Revue Semitique, I893, p. 49.
6




82


Time of the Pharaohs


already at that time and that the exchanged
correspondence was shaped in accordance with
an established epistolary formula that admitted
of little latitude in the expression of mutual
regard.
After the exchange of the usual salutations, the
sovereigns informed each other of the state of
their health. A letter from Bournabouryash to
Amen6phis IV shows in this respect a susceptibility, rather amusing:
Since the day when the messenger of my brother
came, I have not been well. During my ailment, my
brother did not comfort me. I felt angry with my
brother, saying: "Has my brother not heard that I
am ill? Why does he not send his messenger, and
why does he not interest himself in me?" The messenger of my brother replied: "Thy country is not
near enough for thy brother to have known about thy
illness, and to have sent a messenger to learn news
about thee."...Indeed, when I thereupon asked
my own messenger, he said to me: "It is a very
long journey." Since then, I have been no more
angry with my brother... I
Dushratta, the king of Mitanni, gives expression
to violent grief when he hears of the death of
Amen6phis III, and he writes to the new king
thus:


x Journal Asiatique, I890, ii, p. 321.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


83


"When thy father was about to die,... that
day, I wept, and I became quite ill, and was
ready to die... [but I knew the accession] of
the eldest son of AmenAphis and of Tii... and
I said: 'Amendphis is not dead.'..."' This
letter is badly mutilated, but these tokens of
keen sympathy survive in its fragments.
After the exchange of compliments serious
affairs were dealt with: political alliances, matrimonial negotiations, international trading. From
the time when Thothmes III conquered the land
of Canaan, the Egyptian court tried to make
these conquests enduring by means of alliances.
Amen6phis IV is reminded of this policy by each
of his correspondents, as soon as he ascends the
throne:
"My king, now that thou hast ascended the
throne of thy father, let us establish between us
the same relation of amity that existed between
thy father and myself, who were agreed to exchange presents. And this my vow, that I made
to thy father, accept it and let us make it mutually
binding. "e 2
It was indispensable for the security of the
Pharaoh in Syria that the rebellious cities,
negligible if unaided from without, should find no
I Journal Asiatique, p. 423.    2 Ibid., p. 344.




84


Time of the Pharaohs


support in Babylon or in Nineveh. On the other
hand, if the Pharaoh favoured some of his neighbours by making an alliance with them, it was
tantamount to raising them above their rivals
and assuring their power in Asia. The reciprocal
interest, that the Egyptian and the Babylonian
kings found in such a policy, is shown very clearly
in a letter from Bournabouryash, reproaching
Amen6phis IV for his indifference:
In the time of my father Kourigalzou, a king of
Canaan sent him a message: "Let us enter the city
of Karmishat, let us march against Pharaoh together." My father sent in reply this message:
"Renounce any understanding with me; if thou wilt
treat the king of Egypt as an enemy, look for another
ally; I shall not go, I shall not plunder his country,
for he is my ally." It is thus that my father, on
account of his love of thine, refused to listen to him.'
This said, Bournabouryash takes up the subject
that lies near his heart:
"To-day, the Assyrian king is my vassal; I
do not need to tell thee why he came to solicit thy
friendship; if thou lovest me, let no treaty be
made [between you]; drive him far away. "
But the interest of the Pharaoh was to keep an
equal balance among all the other kings; a letter
I Journal Asiatique, p. 328.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


85


from the king of Assyria informs us that Egyptian
messengers were sent to him and that the same
traditional alliance still existed between Thebes
and Nineveh, as between Thebes and Babylon.'
Ties of blood were necessary to maintain and
facilitate diplomatic relationships; matrimonial
negotiations were, as in our day, one of the important tasks entrusted to the Asiatic or Egyptian
ambassadors. We have full information regarding their dealings with the kings of Mitanni
and of Babylon, concerning such matrimonial
alliances.
We see, from the letters of Dushratta, king
of Mitanni, with what persistence the Pharaohs
tried to obtain the hand of the barbarian
princesses whose presence in the Theban harem
insured the fidelity of their fathers to Egyptian
politics. Sitatama, grandfather of Dushratta,
did not dispose of the hand of his daughter until
seven messages had been sent by Thothmes IV;
Amen6phis III had to ask six times for the sister of
Dushratta, and when the latter was asked to give
't None of these treaties of alliance have come down to us, but
the walls of the Theban temples have preserved the copy of a
treaty made, a century later, between Ramses II and the king
of the Kheta. The original was engraved on a silver tablet and
faithfully reproduced the clauses of a former treaty. There is no
doubt that contracts of the same form were exchanged even from
the time of the Amen6phis.




86


Time of the Pharaohs


his own daughter, Tadouhipa, to Amen6phis IV,
he gave proof of a most unusual goodwill in
replying immediately: "I give my daughter to
thee." This is how the negotiation was conducted., Amen6phis IV, then merely a royal
prince, sent an ambassador extraordinary, named
Mane, laden with presents and with a letter from
Amen6phis III, thus worded:
"What I send thee at present is nothing,...
but if thou grantest me the wife whom I desire,
the presents will come [in plenty]."
Dushratta's messengers were shown a heap of
gold, countless presents intended for the father
of the future queen. Dushratta received the
Egyptian ambassador and, having accepted the
presents, sent this word to the royal suitor:
"A strong friendship united thy father and me;
now I shall have still more affection for thee, my
son."2 This magnanimity did not hinder Dushratta from protesting bitterly later on that he had
been defrauded of a part of the presents promised,
which were never delivered.
The negotiation of matrimonial affairs with the
Babylonian court was occasionally beset with
I Journal Asiatique, p. 421. Cf. Revue Semitique, 1893, p. 124,
and Zeitschrift fuir xgyptische Sprache, i890, p. 114.
2 Ibid., p. 408-409.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


87


difficulties. Amen6phis III married the sister
of Kallima-Sin, king of Kardounyash; a few years
later he claimed, as a new wife, the daughter of
Kallima-Sin. The latter refused. His objection
to the match was not influenced by the thought
that his daughter, Zouharti, would find her own
aunt among the number of her rivals, but was
based on the fact that, since his sister had entered
the harem of the Pharaoh, none of the Babylonian
messengers had ever seen her, or had heard any
news about her. What does Pharaoh do with
his foreign wives? Before giving up his daughter,
Kallima-Sin would like to be informed. The
incident was doubtless thought to be of some consequence, for Amen6phis III gives a detailed account of the circumstances in the only letter of
his that has been preserved.'
"I have knowledge," he writes to Kallima-Sin,
"of the word thou didst address to me: 'How
canst thou ask for my daughter in marriage while
my sister, whom my father gave thee, is in thy
keeping, though no one has seen her; tell me, is
she living or is she dead?"'
It is not known whether anything happened to
the Babylonian princess or not; Amen6phis replied only in vague terms; he quoted other comI Revue Semitique, 1893, p. 49.




88


Time of the Pharaohs


plaints addressed to him by his correspondent.
Kallima-Sin had related how, one day, his messenger had been led into the harem, when all
Pharaoh's wives were assembled, and had been
told: " Here is thy lady before thee. " The messenger did not recognise her and could not find out
which of these wives was the sister of his king.
Regarding that, Pharaoh replied to Kallima-Sin:
"Thou didst not send a noble man, one who,
having known thy sister [formerly] and having
talked to her would have been able to recognise
her and carry on a conversation with her. The
messengers whom thou sendest are men of low
condition; for example, Zargara is a common
drover of cattle; there is not one [of thy messengers]
who ever approached thy father."
But Kallima-Sin replies:
"It might have been any noble girl my messengers saw at thy house; the question is, who
could assure them [it was my sister] "
Then, another reply from Pharaoh:
"If thy sister had died, what would have been
the object in withholding the truth from thee? "
The scene is very odd, and can be explained
without recourse to the theory that a crime was
committed; the boor, promoted to the rank of an
ambassador by Kallima-Sin, may have been, upon




Pharaonic Diplomacy


89


entering the harem of Pharaoh, so abashed that
he lost the power of sizing up beings and things.
We may imagine that he made a sad figure,
this poor Asiatic fellow, ill clad and without
manners, when he found himself suddenly, amid
a hum of voices, in the presence of an ironic
Pharaoh and a hundred laughing, mocking queens,
sparkling with jewels, and bare beneath their
transparent veils.  A passage from the Aventures de Sinouhit' affords us a glimpse of what
may well have happened:
Sinouhit, the hero of this tale, lived for a long
time exiled in Asia; recalled by royal clemency, he
was taken before Pharaoh, in the presence of the
queens and of the court. Sinouhit felt his legs
quiver beneath him and lost consciousness, when
the King said to the Queen: "There is Sinouhit
returning, rigged out like an Asiatic!"  Whereupon the Queen burst out laughing, and all the
royal children joined in the laugh. Now, Sinouhit
was a great Egyptian lord; how much more
ridiculous in appearance must have been the
messenger of Kallima-Sin?
The solicitudeof the Babylonian king is certainly
touching. It may not have been a very enviable
1A tale of the XIIth dynasty. Cf. Maspero, Les Contes popul4ires de l'Egypt ancienne, 3d edition, p. 78.




90


Time of the Pharaohs


lot, that which awaited these princesses, transplanted from barbarian courts, from the countries
of Mitanni, or of the Kheta, or even from the
refined court of Babylon, into this Egyptian
society, where manners, habits, speech, ideas were
so different! In truth, the future queens took with
them a retinue of women and servants, several
hundreds sometimes, 1 who composed their own
"house" or " chapel," and occupied much the
same position as did the Florentines who accompanied to France the princesses of the Medicis
family, or the Frenchmen who escorted Queen
Henrietta to London. Sometimes even, the ElAmarna letters inform us, a statue of Our-LadyIshtar-Astarte was sent from Asia to comfort
them.2 But, at the end of a few months, the
good goddess returned to her native country, and
with her departure was severed the last link binding the queens to the days of their childhood.
Another point is made manifest to us by these
letters. The Pharaohs did not reciprocate willingly, but generally refused their daughters or
their sisters to their Asiatic allies. The daughters
t A legend engraved on an Egyptian scarab tells us that 317
women accompanied to Egypt the princess Kilagipa of Mitanni,
who was to be married to Amen6phis III. Cf. Zeitschrift fiur
acgyptische Sprache, i880, p. 8i; 1890, p. 112,
Revue Semitique, I893, p. 124,




Pharaonic Diplomacy


9I


of the "divine blood" were not for these rough
soldiers; the Egyptian Marie-Louises were not
to be given up to the Napoleons of Mitanni or
of Kardounyash! Indignant at this attitude a
king of Babylon makes a haughty reply:
When I asked for thy daughter's hand, thou hast
replied to me saying: "The daughter of the king
of Egypt has never been given to anybody....
When these words were brought to me, I sent the following reply:  If thou sendest her to me unwillingly,
I prefer that thou dost not send her at all. Thou
dost not show me the kindness of a brother. When
thou madest known to me thy intention of consolidating our alliance by a marriage, I replied with all the
kindness of a brother... and now, my brother
when I express the desire of cementing our relation
by marriage, why dost thou refuse me thy daughter?
Why dost thou not give her to me? If I had refused
thee anything, there would be some explanation for
thy conduct, but my daughters were at thy disposal;
I refused thee nothing.'
The Pharaohs, on the other hand, understood
how to come to terms with their Asiatic allies.
If they refused to send them wives, they sent
them gold; this was the secret of their invincible
influence, and the balm for all humiliation.
"Send me gold,... I am going to send for thy
gold;... formerly thy father sent to my father
' Journal Asiatique, I890, ii, p. 3I0.




92


Time of the Pharaohs


much gold.... Thou shouldst send me the
same quantity of gold that thy father sent...." 
Demands of that kind repeatedly occur in the
El-Amarna letters; there is perhaps not a single
one in which is not expressed this desire for gold,
which was paid out unstintingly by the Pharaohs
and was greedily pocketed by the covetous Asiatics. The Pharaohs indeed were extremely rich;
Abyssinia, the mines of Etbaye and Sinai supplied
them profusely with washed gold, native gold, and
precious stones; and there was a proverb, often
alluded to by the kings of Asia, that "in Egypt,
Pharaoh has gold as plentiful as dust, in lavish
supply"... "the dust of roads is in that
country pure gold...2
It was not only avarice that urged the Asiatic
allies to ask for gold: they demanded it on the
ground that the payments were provided for in
the treaties of commerce duly attached to the
treaties confirmed by blood alliance. All these
Semitic kings appear to be cunning merchants,
clever manufacturers, who encouraged, as best
they could, the working of metals, already flourishing in their countries. In the bas-reliefs of, Journal Asiatique, p. 311, 317, 322, 328, 341. Cf. Revue
Semitique, 1893, p. 121.
2 Ibid., 1890, ii, p. 331, 353, 425.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


93


Egyptian temples, or in the paintings of the Theban tombs, we can see, in the hands of tributebearers, the curious products of the Syrian and
Chaldean craftsmen: vessels of gold, silver, or
bronze; vases for the table, decorated with flowers
or animals borrowed from the Asiatic surroundings;
elaborately chiselled weapons; elephants' teeth;
furniture; stuffs; jewels of finest workmanship.
But it seems that the raw materials of the
finest quality had to be imported for use in this
industry: Egypt alone could furnish them, and
cheaply, provided Pharaoh was willing. Therefore, every good service rendered to him in political matters was appraised at its proper value and
was paid for in precious metal; Pharaoh's allies
were determined to claim their due and not to be
deceived in the quality of the goods received.
Numerous are the claims of that kind:
"The messenger whom      you   sent," writes
Bournabouryash to Amen6phis IV, "brought
twenty minas of imperfect gold which, put in the
melting-pot, did not yield so much as five minas
of pure gold... "; or: "The wedges of gold,
that my brother had not examined, when I sent
them to the melting-pot to be melted, were not
accepted, but sent back to me...."I
X Journ.Asiatique, p. 428, and 1891, i, p.202. According to the




94


Time of the Pharaohs


It must be added that the Asiatic kings knew
how to give as well as to receive presents, and their
letters often announce the sending of weapons,
ivory, and jewels. From this point of view, the lists
of articles forming the dowry of the princesses
of Mitanni and of Babylon are very significant:
hundreds of lines are required for the enumeration
of the necklaces, rings, bracelets, ornaments of all
kinds, furniture, linen, and stuffs that were sent to
Egypt by caravans, too often plundered on the
way. To determine exactly what all these objects were and the material they were made of is
unfortunately not possible, in the present state of
oriental philology. Those passages, however, that
lend themselves to interpretation are sufficient to
give a satisfactory idea of Asiatic industry at
that time; it seems then quite natural that the
treaty between Ramses II and the Kheta should
include a clause relative to the artistic crafts:
the exalted parties to the contract mutually
agreeing not to entice away the artisans belonging
to the other or to attempt to extort the secrets of
their industry.


Assyriologist, Father Delattre, several kings in Asia sent to
Egypt for ore that was transformed, in their countries, into works
of art. These works of art were in turn, upon payment of a commission, returned to Pharaoh.




Pharaonic Diplomacy


95


It is due to this diplomacy, which to secure
its ends resorted to political negotiations, matrimonial alliances, and business transactions, that
the Pharaohs were able to maintain for one hundred and fifty years -until the inroad of a formidable migratory horde the protectorate of
Syria, without the burden of an administrative
machinery brought from Egypt, and without
necessitating a military occupation. However
mutilated may be the letters of El-Amarna, they
furnish the proof that diplomacy does not date
from the sixteenth century, as we are told with
too much assurance by modern historians. The
more secrets antiquity, and especially the antiquity of the East, discloses, the more shall we
recognise that human ideas and customs are as
old as the material world, and that every innovation is scarcely more than a renovation.
It would be interesting to know the Machiavels,
Talleyrands, and Metternichs who were responsible for the policy of the Egyptian Foreign Office;
but few names have come down to us from the
ancient history of the East; what the documents
reveal is rather the collective work of generations.
Yet, to make up for official records, we have
popular literature: the tales of ancient Egypt
prove that there were in that country as every



96


Time of the Pharaohs


where in the world, great intriguers, diplomats in
the guise of adventurers to whom the delicate
and perilous' negotiations, from which proceed
love or hatred, peace or war, prosperity or economic decadence, assured glory and renown.
In this light appears to us the messenger, whose
adventures are told in The Journey of an Egyptian.
The scribe who wrote this story predicts that his
hero will experience dangers, glory, and deeds of
love:
I will show thee the way that goes past Mageddo.
There thou art, on the brink of a gulf, two thousand
cubits deep, strewn with rocks and pebbles, and thou
goest along, holding the bow and brandishing thy
sword in thy left hand; thou showest it to the chiefs,
and thou compellest them to lower their eyes before
thy hand. Thou, however, goest alone, without a
guide, and thou findest no mountaineer to show thee
the direction thou shouldst follow; soon, anguish
overcomes thee, thy hair rises on thy head, for the
road is not marked out, the abyss is on one side and
the abrupt mountain on the other. Finally, entering
Jaffa, thou findest there an orchard, blossoming in
its season, thou makest a hole in the hedge in order
to go in to eat; thou findest there the pretty maid
who guards the orchard; she accepts thee for her
2 Cf. Maspero, Les Contes populaires de l'Egypte ancienne, 3d
edition, p. I99. In the account of the legendary voyage made by
Ounamonou, the messenger, to Syria, the prince of Byblos
boasts of having held as prisoners for seventeen years the messengers of Pharaoh and of having finally put them to death.


b




Pharaonic Diplomacy


97


lover and gives thee her breast in blossom. Thou
art discovered, thou declarest who thou art, and all
agree that thou art a hero!..
The famous Thoutii-who was said to have
subdued the rebel city of Jaffa, by introducing his
soldiers there, hidden in huge vases, and by brandishing the great stick of Thothmes III-is also
a legendary prototype of those Egyptian messengers who shaped the destinies of cities and of
kings. Again, in the story of the Predestined
Prince we find a messenger informing the Prince
that it is in the far land of Naharima that he
shall meet the princess who can free him of his
three evil fates. On the shores of Alasia, there
is a priest, Ounamonou, who is likewise a merchant and a diplomat; he manages to foil all the
tricks of the wily, petty kings of Syria. The
gods of Egypt themselves are well versed in diplomacy: the treaty signed by Ramses II with the
king of the Kheta contains a clause stating that
one thousand gods stand security for Pharaoh;
later on a legend relates that the gods once sent
one of them, Khonsu the Theban, as an ambassador, to exorcise the daughter of the prince of
Bakhtan.
Thus the poetic cycle has sketched for us in
broad outlines a certain type of adventurer




98        Time of the Pharaohs
who is bold and cunning, a lover of ladies, and a
magician. Such a combination of gifts is hardly
attainable by mortal man, but it may well be
that it represented for the Egyptian the beauideal that a "man of career" ought to strive to
attain.




CHAPTER III


EGYPT BEFORE THE PYRAMIDS
SUCCESSFUL excavations undertaken during the
last fifteen years have allowed us a glimpse of the
origin of Egyptian civilisation. Until our knowledge was thus widened, the history of Egypt
began for our purposes virtually about one century
before the IVth dynasty, which erected the
great pyramids, that is about 4000 B.C.  The
period antedating this dynasty offered only uncertain traditions: according to Manetho (who
wrote in the third century B.C. a Greek history
of Egypt, of which we have nothing left but chronological summaries), the first two dynasties
sprang from Thinis (near the site of Abydos);
the third resided at Memphis and probably
founded the Memphite kingdom, the pyramids
and other monuments of which have come to us.
Of the first kings of Egypt, Manetho has preserved for us only legends; he has, at least, transcribed their names and classified them, according
99




I00


Time of the Pharaohs


to families or dynasties. Many of these names are
recognisable, in spite of the divergencies between
the hieroglyphic characters and the Greek transcription, in the lists of kings that the Pharaohs
of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties had engraved in the temples of Karnak and Abydos.
The papyrus known under the designation of
" Royal Canon " of Turin, written at the same time,
has preserved for us another more complete list,
indicating the length of the reign of each king and
the total number of years during which each great
royal family occupied the throne; but this papyrus
is in bits to-day, and many of its precious pieces
have been destroyed.
This is the more to be regretted because the
document claimed to trace back the Egyptian
monarchy to its origin, before even the Ist
dynasty. The human kings-according to this
record-were preceded by a fabulous number of
gods, demi-gods, and "dead" (or "shades"),
whose names are mentioned reverentially together
with the years of their reign, varying in length
from three hundred to three thousand years and
more. Manetho has preserved for us a similar
nomenclature, and Diodorus of Sicily later
repeated this tradition:
The Egyptian priests, reckoning the time that has




Egypt before the Pyramids


I0I


elapsed from the reign of the Sun down to the expedition of Alexander, make it about twenty-three thousand years. They say, and this is evidently a fable,
that of the gods who reigned upon earth, the most
ancient held the sceptre each for twelve hundred
years, and their descendants not less than three
hundred. The Egyptians say also that besides
heavenly gods there were others, called earthly gods,
who were born mortals, but who acquired immortality
by their great intelligence, and the services they
rendered to the human race. Several of them reigned
in Egypt. The Sun was the first king of the Egyptians... then Saturn reigned, and gave birth to
Osiris and Isis, who, having themselves attained
royalty, ameliorated social life by their beneficence."
The Egyptian priests possessed the authentic
archives of these fabulous times; they have given
us edifying accounts of the reign of the king Ra,
of his sons Shu and Seb, of the misfortunes of
Osiris, persecuted by his brother Set, avenged by
his son Horus and by the "followers of Horus."
But a historical document, even if it were only a
fragment, would better answer our purpose! Until
the present time, the most ancient records known
were the false door of a tomb, bearing the names of
Sondou and Perabsen, of the lid dynasty, and
a stela with the name of King Zeser of the hId
dynasty engraved on a rock in Sinai. As for the
I Diodorus I, xxvi, 13.




I02


Time of the Pharaohs


kings of the preceding dynasties, we did not
possess any monument that dated from their time.
In the absence of texts and figured monuments,
could we find in Egypt itself any indications that
there was a prehistoric civilisation corresponding
to the periods studied elsewhere under the name
of the " stone age " or " bronze age "? Until recent
years, Egyptologists paid little attention to flints
and polished stones, for, after the unexpected
and unhoped for decipherment of hieroglyphics,
the essential task before them had been to collect
and translate texts, or to clear temples and tombs:
even to-day, this colossal task is scarcely more
than begun. But geologists and naturalists came
to Egypt, and they attempted the solution of
problems to which epigraphists and archeologists
had remained somewhat indifferent.
When the Suez Canal was inaugurated, in i869,
the Khedive, Ismail, generously invited not only
rulers but also scholars to come to Egypt. Among
those invited were the geologist, Arcelin, the
naturalists, Hamy and F. Lenormant, who became
interested in the pebbles along the road of the
King's Valley, which the Egyptologists had
scarcely taken notice of: it was found that they
were hatchets, points, and flint knives, resembling




Egypt before the Pyramids


103


the instruments of the neolithic period. Unfortunately, no animal bones, no determined geological
layer enabled the scientists to date these flints
strewn over the desert. Mariette, the first Director of the Service des Antiquites, pointed out
the fact that no evidence warranted the assigning
of these flints to the prehistoric period, more
especially as the Egyptians had continued to use
stone weapons throughout their civilisation.
The first Egyptologists, indeed, were reluctant
to give up the idea that Egypt had not known the
stone age; from the very beginning, those men
of unknown origin, who had settled in Egypt,
seem to have enjoyed a superior culture.  The
alluring conception that there were dynasties of
divine beings deluded others besides the ancient
Egyptians!   Mariette, however, perceived the
pertinence of these new researches, and awaited
their results: "In order to find evidences of a
stone age in Egypt, new excavations must be
undertaken, under such conditions that the monuments brought to light may readily be proved to
be of human workmanship and may be dated
geologically from a period preceding all known
history. "1 These excavations Mariette hoped to
be able to undertake, but he never had the leisure
1 Mariette, De l'dge de la pierre en Egypte (1870).




I04


Time of the Pharaohs


for them. His successor, M. Maspero, had to
face an enormous task, yet he bore in mind
Mariette's expectations: before he laid down his
work as Director of the Service des Antiquit~s,
in i886, he re-edited Mariette's memoir on the
stone age in Egypt, in order to stimulate researches
urgently needed.
An English archeologist, Professor Flinders
Petrie, was the first to carry out this work, of his
own accord. Engaged to execute excavations for
the Egyptian Exploration Fund and the Egyptian
Research Account, he applied to the task qualities
which he possessed in an eminent degree, method
and observation. M. Petrie was not, at that time,
a professional Egyptologist: his interest in archaology was not limited to written memorials,
or to "beautiful pieces"; he gave equal attention
to small objects, and found pleasure and profit
in classifying fragments of pottery and stones to
which he devoted as much care as to scarabs
and stele. He demonstrated by his persevering
investigations what can be gathered from the
minute study of little objects, to enable one to put
any monument found in their vicinity, even though
it bear no date or inscription, into the place
where it belongs in an archeological or historical
series,




Egypt before the Pyramids


105


But even Flinders Petrie, when he began his
excavations, hardly believed in a prehistoric
Egypt. On the site of Kahun, at the entrance
of the Fayum, he cleared, in 1889, a city of the
XIIth dynasty; near by, he found a repository
in which were hatchets, scrapers, flint knives, and
rough pottery. A little farther north, at Meidun,
near the pyramid of the King Sneferu (IIId
dynasty) and the tombs of the first historic
Egyptians, he discovered (during the years 1890
to 1892), objects in flint placed side by side with
others in bronze. This could be explained up to
this point by the fact, widely recognised, that
stone implements continued to be used throughout
the entire Egyptian civilisation. But during the
winter of 1894-1895, Messrs. Petrie and Quibell
found that the sites of Ballas and Toukh (north of
Thebes) contained extensive cemeteries of the
same type as the isolated specimens found at
Meidun: tombs, where skeletons, not mummified,
appeared surrounded with flints, pottery, and vases
of a style unknown to classic Egypt. When at work
in Meidun, Petrie had already had the intuition
that he was in the presence of a primitive, ancient,
native race; but theory generally outweighs experience; the stone age in Egypt was contrary to
theory; and in consequence his private impression




io6


Time of the Pharaohs


had been temporarily suppressed. It was admitted that tombs of so curious a type were those
of a new race, non-Egyptian, rather Libyan according to appearances, who, either by invasion or by
slow infiltration, had come into Egypt after the
VIth dynasty, during the much disturbed period
that followed the Memphite epoch; this race was
supposed to have kept itself for several centuries
distinct from the Pharaonic civilisation, retaining
its customs and its industry, until it was absorbed
by the native population, towards the XIIth
dynasty.
This new race theory did not survive any length
of time. Scarcely had it given to Egyptologists a
very plausible, at least a very convenient explanation of the problems that had arisen at Meidun
and Ballas, when it was renounced, even by its
propounders, in consequence of the illuminating
discoveries of Messrs. de Morgan and Am6lineau.
M. de Morgan, who became Director of the
Service des Antiquites in i892, was not an Egyptologist, and had not become imbued with anytheory.
His personal studies and excavations in Caucasus
had made him familiar with the problems of the
origins of peoples, and with the methods of solving them. Upon arrival in Egypt, he took up
the prehistoric question just at the point where




Egypt before the Pyramids


I07


Mariette, and his predecessors, Hamy and Lenormant, had left it:
I gathered [he wrote in 1895] all the scattered
documents, made researches in many places, bought
up the flint implements that the merchants had. I
was thus gradually led to think that, if some flints
belong to the historic period, yet most of them date
from a period much more remote, and that there are
in the valley of the Nile more abundant evidences'
of the neolithic age than is generally believed.'
The result of his investigations, actively participated in by Messrs. Legrain, Daressy, and Jequier,
was embodied in a volume entitled l'Age de la
pierre et les metaux en Egypte, in which numerous
important documents were faithfully reproduced.
It became difficult, from that time, to avoid
admitting that prehistoric man existed in Egypt.
Now the book was still in the printer's hands,
when excavations conducted by M. Am6lineau at
Abydos and new researches made by M. de
Morgan at Negadeh brought the disputed question
to a close.
On the site of Abydos, M. Aml6ineau found, in
the centre of a necropolis attributed to the
new race, large tombs of a very different type,
' J. de Morgan, Recherches sur les origines de 1' lgypte, i, p. 54.
1896. Cf. also: Ethnographie prehistorique et tombeau royal de
Negadah, I897.




io8


Time of the Pharaohs


containing stela with royal names. Some of
these names, deciphered in I897, certified that
these new monuments belonged to the Ist and
IId historic dynasties. The same year, M. de
Morgan cleared, at Negadeh, a tomb of the same
type, which appeared to be that of Menes, the
first king on the official lists. The constructors of
Abydos and of Negadeh were, then, Pharaohs of
the first dynasties; the new race people buried
near them, of a less advanced civilisation, were
their predecessors or their subjects.
The question of the origins of Egypt may be
put to-day in the following terms: a race, called
native or indigenous, having attained the highest
stage of neolithic civilisation, occupied the valley
of the Nile; a foreign race, more civilised, of unexplained origin, displaced the first and founded
around Abydos a kingdom which we call Thinite,
to use the term of Manetho again.
The native' race which occupied Egypt in prehistoric times, has left traces all along the valley
of the Nile; the landmarks of the stone age have
been pointed out by M. de Morgan, so that it is
possible to draw up a map of neolithic Egypt with
' The term, new race, which was used to designate this division
of the people before one knew their proper place in history, is
no longer used.




Egypt before the Pyramids


o109


its centres of culture: Abd-Roash in the north;
Kawamil, Abydos, El-Amrah, Ballas,andToukh, in
the centre of the valley; El-KAb, Hierakonpolis,
and Silsileh, in the south. Dr. Schweinfurth and M.
Legrain have discovered important stations in the
Arabic and Libyan deserts; the exploration of
the oasis of Khargieh, undertaken by M. Legrain,
was also very fruitful; these investigations have
shown that prehistoric men are traceable by means
of the necropolises and the flint-cutter's workshops found in the Nile valley, usually at the
opening of the roads of the desert; in the desert
itself, along the roads leading to the oases, to the
springs, still used to-day as halting-places, are
found flints, rough or cut, by the thousands.
Flint weapons or implements are, in Egypt as
elsewhere, all that has come down to us from this
earlier race. Flint, a kind of silica condensed in
knots or layers in chalky limestone, is easily
separated from the chalk, and forms then a round
or elongated mass, from which primitive implements can be fashioned. Sometimes, in the
desert, flinty stones split as a result of the action of
the sun: thus furnishing, without necessitating
any labour, clubs, hatchets, and points with sharp
edges.' In the majority of cases, however, man
'J. de Morgan, Recherches sur les origines de 1' Egypte, I, p. 57.




IIO


Time of the Pharaohs


aided nature; securing rough flint in order to make
weapons of defence or tools to work with, he cut
them rudely without attempting to give them an
artistic finish. The age in which the first traces
of human industry appear to us is that of the
V  ', ~     "cut stone," or "ancient stone age" (palwolithic
age); man existed in this period, which extends
back, according to geologists, over several hundred
thousand years.
A new era begins when man knows how to cut
and polish flint: this is the "polished stone age,"
or new stone age (neolithic). Man has already
made prodigious progress; he is able to work all
kinds of materials: wood, bones, ivory, soft or
hard stone; he makes crude furniture, vases of
stone, vessels of baked or of unbaked clay. The
neolithic age did not precede our own age by
more than ten or twenty thousand years; we
possess the skeletons of men; their graves are
equipped with various objects that throw light on
their ideas relative to a life beyond the tomb.
These elementary classifications will enable the
reader to understand how it has been possible to
trace men of the palkolithic and neolithic ages
in Egypt. There are no written documents, or
inscribed monuments of great size to tell us the
story; but a flint pebble picked up on the sand,




Egypt before the Pyramids


III


if one knows how to interpret its flaking or polish,
will speak of the past; so does a bone, a fragment
of ivory, a bit of rude or decorated pottery, a
chip of a stone vase, a ledge of rock bearing graffiti,
or a tomb dug out of the sand, containing a skeleton still surrounded with mortuary vases.
The flint workshops are the only vestiges of the
most ancient population, that of the palaeolithic
age: in the sand or on the surface of the desert,
are scattered over several miles, thousands of
mace-heads, axe-heads, scrapers, or knives of
yellow flint, rudely flaked. The inexperienced
traveller would mistake them for ordinary stones;
the geologist recognises in them the work of the
first men. How are these flakes to be dated?
It is easy to determine the age of beds of cut
flint found in the alluvium of our rivers (such as
the Somme and the Oise, in the north of France).
At Chelles (near Paris), for instance, flint is dated
by the deposit of alluvium in which it lies and by
the bones of animals found near it. In Egypt,
flints are found in the desert, on the superficial
gravel of the diluvium, but no bones are with them;
the only clue to their age is that they resemble
strongly the Chellean specimens. ' It is legitimate,
' That is why they are often called, even in Egypt, Chellean
flints.




112


Time of the Pharaohs


therefore, to conclude that they are implements
used by the first men who lived in Egypt, but
inasmuch as they cannot be identified by means
of the Egyptian fauna of the same period, it
is rash to attempt to fix the date of their
making. 
At least, it is safe to say that these flakes belong
to an earlier age than the weapons and tools of
carefully worked and polished stone that are
found in the cemeteries of the neolithic period.
Since 1890, at the points where the roads of the
desert open into the valley of the Nile, Petrie, De
Morgan, Quibell, and Amelineau have discovered
many tombs with skeletons, tools, and mortuary
furnishings, belonging to a race which had already
attained an interesting stage of civilisation. We
may, by the first historic monuments immediately
following this period, fix the end of this neolithic
period approximately at 5000 B.C. But how
many centuries elapsed before the paleolithic
period passed over into the age of cut and polished stone?
Let us consider a typical tomb of the neolithic
period: a few feet below the sand, there is an oval
ditch, without walls or ceiling, just a pit dug in the
shingly ground. A skeleton appears, lying on the
X Cf. Salomon Reinach, L'anthropologie, 1897, p. 327.




Egypt before the Pyramids


I 13


left side, in the position called " crouched " or
" contracted, " the limbs bent, the knees drawn up
on a level with the chest, the hands raised to the
face. All around the body are the household
articles necessary to establish a home, the last
dwelling of the deceased: spheric or oval vessels
made of pottery or of hard stone, plates, dishes,
and cups, wherein funeral offerings were laid. Within reach of the hand are placed flint weapons and
tools, amulets and rudely carved jewels; near the
face, or sometimes between the hands pressed
together, a slate or limestone palette, the religious
and artistic importance of which is great. The
body shows no trace of mummification as yet;
often it was wrapped in the skin of a gazelle fastened together, or in a mat of rushes. "I sometimes found, " writes M. de Morgan, "these
wrappings in a perfect state of preservation, but
they rapidly fell into dust upon contact with the
air. "
The skeletons are of tall stature, of fine and
slender proportions, the skin is white, and the hair
smooth and often fair. Judging from the little
figures in ivory or earthenware, the men had
straight or slightly arched noses, large almondshaped eyes, oval faces, lengthened still more by a
pointed beard and a conical head-dress. An
8




114


Time of the Pharaohs


earthen figure, found in G~bel-Tarif, representing
a kneeling man with his arms stretched close
along the body, and his head with a projecting
nose, and chin thrown back, gives us a very
realistic image of a man of low estate, in an attitude
of prayer or submission, while, on the contrary, a
few heads, in ivory, discovered at Hierakonpolis,
exemplify the finer, clean-cut faces of chieftains
of clans. Here is a dancing woman with raised
arms; she is thin at the waist but has broad hips;
others are standing, quite naked, in a hieratic
attitude. The forms are dainty, in spite of the
rudeness of the work; the artist tried to curve
the broad hips harmoniously between the long
waist and tapering legs. Side by side with these
aristocratic beauties, we have the woman of the
lower class, who walks, clothed in a garment open
at the breast. With her left hand she holds
against her shoulder a child, which leans over to
grasp the heavy breast. Another figure is that
of a servant standing in a jar, in which she is
stamping something under her feet: her left
hand rests firmly upon her hip, the right hand
has a tight grip on the edge of the jar; the
whole is expressive, though crude. Elsewhere,
we see grotesque dwarfs and Hottentot Venuses
of the ultracallipygian type. The ethnographic




Egypt before the Pyramids


"I5


value of such realistic representations will be
seen later. '
The human body not only serves as a model for
the artist; it is responsible for the beginnings
of art. The primitive inhabitants of Egypt, like
all savage races, tattooed their bodies: certain
statuettes of women, in the Petrie collection,
still bear a layer of green paint; the dancing girl
of Toukh has her entire body ornamented with
zigzag lines composing floral and animal designs,
traced in black on a greyish background. That is
the reason why there are so often found in prehistoric tombs colouring materials, such as red
and yellow ochre and malachite. In the classic
period, Egyptians always painted men red, and
women yellow; they also maintained the custom of
surrounding the eye with a band of paint, which
still appears distinctly green on ancient statues,
such as those of Sepa and Nesa in the Louvre.
This decoration of the human body is to be explained by hygienic reasons and mystic beliefs:
the paint for the eyes, consisting chiefly of sulphur
of antimony, was applied to prevent ophthalmia;
the paintings of talismans and talismanic designs
were considered efficacious against bad luck.
I The plates of these figures are in J. Capart's remarkable
book: Les debuts de lart en Egypte.




Time of the Pharaohs


Great care was given to the hair: men divided
their hair into many braids, or shaved their heads,
leaving uncut only one long lock which hung
down their back; sometimes beard and hair were
enclosed in bags, possibly for the sake of cleanliness.
Women wore wigs and bands of false hair; pins and
combs, of bone or ivory, carved with dainty silhouettes of birds or gazelles, fastened the natural
or the artificial coiffure; a head-rest was used at
night to save this elaborate arrangement that was
to last several days. The use of false beards and
hanging plaits was not abandoned by the Egyptians of classic times, though they restricted its
use to gods and kings the wearing of wigs, on the
other hand, was granted to all classes.
Jewels assured the human body the same protection as paintings and wigs. On the forehead,
at the neck, along the breast and hips, at the
wrists, ankles, and fingers, the human body either
contracts into narrower surfaces, to which talismans may be fastened, or expands into broader
surfaces, better able to support some magic
armour. At these parts of the body, life is pulsating and almost tangible; it seems as though it
might escape, like a rushing liquid, unless some
band compresses and imprisons it within the body;
hence, the use of bracelets, anklets, necklets, gir



Egypt before the Pyramids


I"7


dies, and breast-pendants. Originally, all these
were simple rings of flint, bone, or ivory, used, not
merely as adornments, but as means of defence.
Later, to increase the magic power of these talismans, figures of birds or Felida were engraved
or cut on the rings, and combs, and bracelets, in
order to protect the person wearing them against
these animals; and this use of ornamentation
enabled artists to exercise their creative faculty.
Clothing at this period was of a very simple
kind. Men and women girded their loins with a
cord, the chief purpose of which seems to have
been, as in the case of the knots at the neck,
wrists, and ankles, to protect the body from accident by magic. The classic Egyptians themselves
sometimes wore nothing but a girdle. By attaching an animal's skin to the girdle or the collar
the flowing cloak was originated; in the classic
period, the panther's skin continued to be the
characteristic adornment of certain priests. To
these vestments should be added the veils worn
by women and possibly by men (as is still to-day
the custom among the Touaregs), and the piece
of woven fabric occasionally worn round the hips,
to which was attached the tail of an animal
depending behind.
These flowing garments necessitated the use of




Ii8


Time of the Pharaohs


hooks or pins; of which there were, indeed, many,
made of bone, ivory, and flint. In some rare
instances there are found in the tombs copper
pins, fastening the mat of reeds, or the animal's
skin in which the body was wrapped. It is certain that, except for these very small objects,
which probably came from a foreign country, the
use of metal was unknown to the people of the
neolithic age.
Flint and hard stones furnished the raw materials for arms and implements, as in the palwolithic
period; but the workmanship is much more
elaborate, and the articles manufactured at that
time are often marvels of art. We can easily
trace the successive steps of the manufacture.
Any flint stone found on the sand, or the kidneyshaped concretion formed sometimes within the
limestone, furnished man with a conical-shaped
piece, ready to be made into an axe-head, a knife,
or an arrowhead. The workman thereupon took
a round shingle, or a boulder of hard stone to be
used as a hammer. With a few hard blows, he
shaped out the implement he wanted; then, by
successive flaking and chipping he sharpened the
edge. This edge, when completed, did not present
a smooth surface, but appeared as a series of
notches much like the teeth of a saw, The axes,




Egypt before the Pyramids


li9


on the other hand, once shaped out, were sharpened
with a single blow of the striker, breaking off a
fragment all along the edge.' The finest workmanship is that of the knives; in no country in
the world were found specimens to be compared
with these. They are large, semi-circular blades
of light yellow, or horny flint, ten to twelve inches
long, one end of which is pointed, the other
rounded off and serving as a handle. The most
ancient specimens are entirely polished; later,
when the workmanship had been perfected, flintchipping became so precise that it resulted in
fluted lines, meeting symmetrically on either side
of the ridge.
These masterpieces are excelled by the flint
bracelets found at Abydos and El-Amrah. Imagine
stone rings as perfect in form and as thin as metal
rings; it seems impossible that, with their primitive tools, men of the neolithic age should have
succeeded in such a difficult operation. M. de
Morgan supposes that the workman loosened a
spherical nodule from the limestone boss, shaped
it into a perfect disk, drilled a conical hole in its
centre, by means of a pointed piece of wood,
' De Morgan, Recherches ii, p. 59. Cf. G. Schweinfurth,
"Recherches sur 'Age de la pierre dans la haute Egypte" (Annales
du Service des Antiquites, vi, p. 9).




120


Time of the Pharaohs


supplemented by quartzite sand used in order to
wear away the flint when rubbed against it.
This conical hole was the starting-point of the chipping, by which the ring was hollowed out, and the
chips were obtained, not by percussion, for direct
blows would inevitably have broken the object, but
by pressure, first on one side, then on the other side
of the chip. This explanation, although satisfactory,
is perhaps not the true one; it shows, however, how
many precautions the operator had to take to obtain
a flint bracelet. Ornaments of that kind were unquestionably of high value. Flint bracelets mark the
acme of the art of flaking and chipping stone, and it
is only in Egypt that they are to be met with.'
Weapons and tools give us information about
the life and customs of the natives. Those
nomads of the desert were not a warlike race;
at least the corpses found show rarely any traces
of wounds; but the struggle against wild beasts,
and hunting and fishing required all their activity.
Certain graffiti, also figures of animals carved in
flint and in ivory, engraved on slate palettes,
mounted in pins or combs, bear witness to man's
encounters with lions, panthers, hyenas, jackals,
gazelles, elephants, hippopotamuses, and all kinds
of birds, reptiles and fish. In the same way,
tilling and farming implements, sickles, hoes,
x De Morgan, Recherches, ii, p. 6o.




Egypt before the Pyramids


121


plough-shares, all made of flint, tell us of the
patient work in the fields, of the reed and mud huts
in which were housed the cattle and beasts of
burden, oxen, moufflons, asses, hogs, sheep, goats,
and countless swans, ducks, and pigeons. The
wandering tribe that originally settled in the
fertile valley of the Nile thus developed gradually
into the prehistoric people whom we see combining with hunting and fishing the more difficult
art of improving a land which was subject to the
caprices of the floods
The weapons, jewels, and little figures of animals
that are found in the tombs were not put there as precious knick-knacks or familiar objects, from which
the deceased did not wish to part. Their purpose
was higher; in Egypt, as elsewhere, they were the
expression of a system of ideas, already formed,
about life beyond the tomb. No man believes
more firmly than the primitive in the survival,
after death, of that indefinable something that
we call the soul; this survival was supposed to be
a repetition of the material life, of course better
than the earthly one, but subject to the same
wants, requiring the same weapons as a protection
against dangers and the same implements for
transmundane labours. Therefore, the dead man




122


Time of the Pharaohs


had within reach his arms and tools; near him,
figures of domestic animals assured him of a
supply of meat; little figures of wild beasts neutralised the harm of the real wild beasts that might
attack him in his tomb: these likenesses being subjected to his will, gave him mastery, as it were,
over lions and hippopotamuses. Such was his
faith in magic.
Likewise, the vases, the first models of an art
that has scarcely advanced since, either as respects their shape or the process of making them,
have a religious significance. In them were placed
the offerings. The bestowal of offerings is an essential element of the earliest known religion:
the funeral cult. At that time, vases answered
all the different needs of life. They constituted
the furnishings, par excellence: the deceased, laid
among his vases, reposed as if in his own comfortable house. Liquid and solid food, seeds, provisions of all kinds, clothing, sometimes even the
corpses themselves were deposited in these vases,
of all shapes and dimensions, and suitable, therefore, for various purposes.
The vases of hard stone, found by the thousands in the tombs, astounded archaeologists. No
one expected to find among a people provided
with such rudimentary tools, cups, plates, goblets,




Egypt before the Pyramids


123


dainty or massive vessels, cut out of sandstone,
granite, marble, diorite, obsidian, crystal, or
alabaster. The materials used by the prehistoric people for their table and toilet were
sumptuous enough to fill one with wonder. The
valley of the Nile has none of the igneous formations that produce these hard stones, except at
the first cataract, between Assouan and the Red
Sea. The places of extraction were there; but
certain blocks came from Sinai; others, such as
obsidian, had to be brought from Asia or even
from the Greek islands. We are then obliged to
admit that an active interchange of trade united,
from the remotest times, the Nile valley and the
eastern Mediterranean countries.
It was thought at first that the artists who
manufactured those splendid table services used
tools of a much higher grade, or at least wheels.
A minute examination of the proportions and a
scrutiny of the fragments, which threw light on
the workmanship of the vases both inside and
out, caused M. de Morgan to change his opinion
on this subject:
A careful study of the rock-crystal vases makes it
easy-thanks to the transparency of this materialto understand the means employed by the craftsman.
The shape of the outside was given by rotating the




124


Time of the Pharaohs


block between two pieces of wood strewn with
quartzite sand; to hollow out the interior, the craftsman made a hole in the centre by means of a stick
and sand; then, to enlarge the cavity below the neck
of the vase, he used coarse quartzite sand that he
stirred around inside the vase with a simple wooden
stick. The two processes were produced separately,
as is proved by the unequal thickness resulting from
the fact that the axial lines outside and inside do not
correspond. 
Many centuries later, the bas-reliefs of the tombs
of the VIth dynasty (for instance that of Mera
at Sakkarah) show us workmen drilling vases by
the same process. Thus this splendid crockery
was patiently fashioned out of hard stone by
friction and wearing away; can we truly realise
the persevering labour necessary to shape such
brittle or hard material as crystal and diorite?
Many of the vases exhibited to-day in Cairo,
London, and in the Musee Guimet represent the
work of a lifetime!
The forms are so varied that they could have
been produced only by patience combined with
extraordinary technical skill. Here are a bowl
and a cup, simple in outline indeed, but of pronounced beauty; another type is the cylindrical
vase, generally of alabaster, decorated with a large
z De Morgan, Recherches, ii, p. I79 and i, p. I65.




Egypt before the Pyramids


125


border and a little cord pattern below the mouth;
finally there are the globular vases, the most
remarkable of all. But aside from these shapes,
which were to become classic, how many other
models and unexpected forms of baffling originality!  Certain vases are shaped like a skin bottle,
a gourd, a goose, a frog, a dog, a hippopotamus,
an elephant. One of the oddest is in the Petrie
collection (University College, London): "On
the body of this vase are carved in relief two
heads. The mouth is indicated by a strong horizontal stroke, and the eyes by two beads inserted
in a hollow of the stone. " ' No words can express
the wretched and diabolical expression of this
face which emerges somewhat indistinctly from
the bowl of the vase; the stare of the round eyes
pierces like a gimlet, the twisted mouth sneers
pitilessly; the vase seems haunted; therein a
fallen soul has long been weeping! (Plate V, 3.)
Earthenware vessels, infinitely easier to manufacture, are more numerous than those in hard
stone; they are found in all the tombs, those of
poor and rich alike, from neolithic times to the
Memphite dynasties. Messrs. de Morgan and
Petrie, by studying the material of which they are
made, their forms, and the process of making them,
IJ. Capart, Les debuts de Part en Egypte, p. 77 ff.




126


Time of the Pharaohs


have been able to establish chronological divisions:
if ceramic types can be classified by localities and
by periods, the tombs, in which these successive
types are found, can also be dated, relatively to
one another.
Prehistoric pottery is red or yellow, smooth or
rough, without any decoration, or with patterns
painted or engraved. The colour depends especially upon the raw material: sedimentary clay, or
mud from the Nile. Clay becomes, when baked,
a vivid red; mud of the Nile, yellowish or reddish,
according to the intensity of the heat applied to
it in baking. It seems that the most ancient
types made of clay must be the smooth, red vases,
decorated, on the upper edge, with a broad band
of black varnish, obtained by mixing in the paste
colouring substances (bioxides of Sinai manganese.) ' Then would follow chronologically the
rough red vases, then the reddish or yellowish
fancy pottery, variously decorated.2
The choice of decoration and of shapes does
credit to the fancy and skill of the potters. The
most ancient vases were cups, bowls, and plates
'De Morgan, Recherches, i, p. 152.
2See Petrie, Diospolis parva, Pi. I. Musde Guimet has a
fine collection of prehistoric vases, especially of the most ancient
type (with blackened top) and of the types found, by M. Amdlineau in the workshop of El-Amrah.




Egypt before the Pyramids


127


with the tops rounded or turned over; later appeared cylinders, bottles, and amphoras. The
bottom was made flat or pointed when the vase was
to be laid or pitched in the sand; handles appeared
only later; certain workshops, like that of ElAmrah, decorated the jar, below the neck, with a
wavy line, at first broken, then encircling it like a
continuous collar. During the period of highest
attainment, spherical vases appeared; sometimes
there were double jars or three joined together,
with or without interior communication. There
were also vases with trivets, pitchers with a
strainer to filter water, a type still in use, as witness the jugs of Keneh. These were the shapes
of the hard-stone vessels; it seems likely that the
art of the potter preceded that of the stone
polisher; yet, the designs that appear on some
pieces of earthenware pottery were made in
imitation of those on the hard-stone vases; this
proves that the two artistic series became at an
early date contemporaries, and were developed
side by side.
The process of making pottery is simple and is
dependent entirely on the trained eye and the
skilled hand. The forms were of very nearly
perfect regularity, yet want of symmetry in the
layers and in the thickness may be detected here




128


Time of the Pharaohs


and there, showing unmistakably that this pottery was shaped by hand. Certain vases, in the
form of amphora, were decorated from top to
bottom with furrows made before the baking
by indenting with the finger. Later, the addition
of carving and painting produced a more elaborate
decoration. On red vases, geometrical designs,
painted in white lines, reproduced plaiting-work
and patterns of baskets dating from the beginnings
of the neolithic civilisation. At the same period
appeared black vases, incised with geometrical
patterns, and filled with a whitish substance; "it
has been stated that they were imported into
Egypt from an unknown manufacturing centre,
the productions of which are to be met with in
all Mediterranean countries." I
The increasing skill of the craftsmen made
possible a greater variety of types. The animalshaped pottery (Plate V, 5), including representations of fishes, ducks, hawks, and hippopotamuses,2
composed table-services of an amusing or hideous
aspect, similar to the brass-wares and French
dinanderie of the Middle Ages. Attempts were
also made to reproduce the human face: a very
ancient amphora, preserved in Oxford, shows
De Morgan, Reckerches, ii, p. 122.
2 J. Capart, Les debuts de 'art en Egypte, p. 126.




I.


II.


A
-us
we
* - _ _


III.                                  IV.
I. Prehistoric Ceramics.   (Clich6 of Morgan.)
II.  Woman-shaped Vase.     (J. Capart: Debuts de 'art en Egypte.)
III. Vase with Human Face.
IV. Bird-shaped Vase.    (J. Capart: Debuts de 'art en Egypte.)
Plate V.








Egypt before the Pyramids


129


crouching captives (?) encircling with their arms
the bowl of, the vase, from which protrude their
woebegone faces, carved in relief. In the same
Museum (Ashmoleum), there is a large vase
with a brilliant black covering, which is an instance
of an attempt to model the feminine form. The
mouth of the vase represents the face; a pinching
of the clay indicates the nose, the ears, and the
hair; the neck of the vase forms the bust and thin
waist, and on it are represented, too, the round
shoulders and drooping breasts, of succinct modelling; then, the bowl bulges out abruptly, in imitation of the fatty development of the Hottentot
Venus. I (Plate V, 2.)
The decoration of the most remarkable vases of
the prehistoric period give us an idea of the views
entertained by these people of the life beyond the
grave. Even the rough jars show, by their contents, now dried up, including water, flour, seeds,
oil, wine, and meat, that offerings ensured the
nourishment of the deceased. Again, to secure
for him a second existence, resembling exactly
the first, the essential episodes of this life had to
be represented in the house of the dead, that is,
the tomb: according to a well-known principle of
primitive magic, like produces like; to represent a
IJ. Capart, Les debuts de l'art en Egypte, p. I24.
9




130


Time of the Pharaohs


scene of life is, therefore, to make it happen again.
It is this idea which gave rise to the practice of
decorating the tomb, a custom responsible for
practically all Egyptian art.
A difficulty arose when it was necessary to
decorate with figures and pictures just such a
tomb as we have described above: a simple pit in
the sand, without floor, walls, or ceiling. One
attempted to overcome it by placing in the tomb
the usual objects, weapons, jewels, tools, when
they were of small size; people and beasts, necessary for the pleasure or the service of the deceased,
were represented by small figures. But this did
not meet all the requirements of the dead: these
separate elements had to be grouped together so as
to reconstitute scenes from life, the perpetuation
of which was desired in the life to come: hence
the invention of decorative pictures, in which
each figure played the r6le of an ideogram, and
expressed a particular moment of existence,
promised to the dweller of the tomb. Women
with raised arms symbolised dancing and public
festivals; a gazelle or an ostrich recalled the pleasures of the hunt; a barge, navigation on the Nile;
trees and flowers gave, in miniature, some landscape of the cultivated valley; a series of rough
triangles represented the ranges of desert uplands




Egypt before the Pyramids


131


over which the nomads were wandering; huts, with
a signal on the top, designated the house or the
village of the deceased with the ensign of his clan.
After choosing their decorative designs, the
artists seem to have been uncertain as to the best
way of presenting them. For instance, there is
a statuette of a woman of Toukh on whose breast,
back, and hips are depicted streams of water,
mountains, and animals. This was, indeed, a
unique way of representing a statue surrounded by
active life in the midst of nature; but such rudimentary devices were later improved upon. The
idea was seized upon of decorating pottery with
scenic representations painted red on a light
background: the corpse, surrounded by vases, as
though by the four walls of his house, could contemplate, on the sides of these vases, the scenes
he desired to have happen in his life beyond the
tomb. Later, when brick was invented and when
the art of construction had been perfected, the
walls were made use of by decorators. A prehistoric tomb, discovered by M. Green at Hierakonpolis, bears in red, upon a limestone coated
background, the same scenes of dancing, hunting,
and navigation as those decorating the vases
made by the potters of Abydos or Negadeh.
t Quibell, Hierakonpolis, ii, P1. 75-79.




132


Time of the Pharaohs


These diminutive pictures, which retrace a few
aspects of social life, fifty or sixty centuries ago,
have aroused the curiosity of the archaeologists.
They are far from agreeing upon the precise
signification of the episodes: one design, especially,
has called forth the most diverse interpretations.
It presents what appears to be two huts, often
connected by a door, and encircled by a double
line curving inward in the form of a boat; vertical
or slanting lines, like a compact row of oars, extend
from one end of the ship to the other. Trees,
gazelles, ostriches, and human silhouettes, scattered capriciously over the whole, increase the
enigmatic aspect of the composition. Messrs.
Petrie and de Morgan-whose opinion is still
shared by the majority of scholars-think the
objects represented are boats furnished with oars
and cabins; Cecil Torr and M. Loret' are of the
opinion that in this case is depicted a village with
a fortified gate, protected by a semicircular entrenchment, itself fortified by a palisade. The
variants furnished by the tomb of Hierakonpolis,
the graffiti of El-Kab, and certain vases, mentioned
by M. von Bissing, lead me to the conclusion that
such figures represent boats, with or without
rowers. There is nothing astonishing in the fact
'Revue Egyptologique, x, p. 87 ff.




Egypt before the Pyramids


I33


that, already in this period, a boat may have
symbolised the human habitation in the Nile
valley; in historic times, we see that the naos of
the gods and of the dead is placed preferably in the
cabin of a barge; the ark was the ideal, moveable
house, always within reach of the water, that
primordial element of African civilisation.
Be they barges, or villages, the objects above
mentioned are decorated with high staffs bearing
an ensign: sometimes it is an animal, a hawk, an
elephant, a scorpion, a fish; sometimes, a feather,
a bucrane, a double arrow, a harpoon; there are
about thirty different ensigns in all. M. Loret
has very cleverly identified them as the ensigns
of the clans of the prehistoric race, of which a
part survived in the classic time as "armorial
bearings" of the Egyptian cities. It is possible
that those ensigns were at the same time gods,
or totems, incarnating the souls of all the men
belonging to the clan.
The figures, decorating the vases, are interesting
from another point of view: they throw light on the
disputed question of the writing in that period.
The prehistoric people seem not to have known
the Egyptian graphic system, which implies
alphabetic or syllabic characters, used along with
ideographic signs. There is no doubt, however,




'34


Time of the Pharaohs


that the hieroglyphic writing of later times
retained a large number of signs which appear on
vases; animals and plants, peculiar to the Egyptian
country, helped to give a real African stamp to
the Pharaonic writing. I am inclined to believe
that the prehistoric people, though they had not
yet mastered the art of writing, could express
themselves by the aid of rebuses, arranged in
some vague system, and that the paintings on the
vases could be read grosso modo about like a
charade in pictures (PI. V, i).
Besides, the vases of that period bear a series of
"trademarks" which assume exactly the appearance of alphabetic signs. It was a great surprise to
identify these signs with those found on the vases
of the Crete-AEgean cemeteries and with the primitive alphabets of Caria and Spain, also with
Libyan signs. These marks, moreover, to all
appearances do not form an alphabet, and are
never grouped according to a regular system, so as
to express fully developed ideas. Nevertheless, it
does seem certain that "there was all along the
Mediterranean, from prehistoric times, some
system of writing, or, at least, of marks, that was
in common use. " I What people brought into
Egypt this compendious graphic system?
x J. Capart, Les origines de Dart en Egypte, p. 142.




Egypt before the Pyramids


135


The reply to this question is involved in the
solution of another problem: what is the probable
origin of the prehistoric race settled in Egypt?
According to Doctor Fouquet, the cephalic indication of the skulls, found in the most ancient
tombs, brings the race of Negadeh into close
relationship with the Hottentots and Kaffirs;
the type of Beit-Allam would be akin to that of
the populations of North India, and the Kawamil
type would bear analogy with the Libyan element. This chequered statement is less disconcerting than it appears to be at first sight. The
influence of a Berber-Libyan race is attested by
the decorated pottery (which exhibits types of
vases still in use to-day among the Kabyls), by
the use of certain implements, such as flint ploughshares, and by the arrangement of stones in a
circle, for forming dolmens.' Besides, the Egyptian
language shows traces of Berber dialects. As for
the steatopygous statuettes, they indicate the
presence of a group of Hottentot origin in the
neolithic race; the black vases with white decoration bear witness to relations with Asia and the
islands. In short, the prehistoric race seems to be
a pretty mixture. One fact is sure: these variegated elements were rather quickly amalgamated,
1 De Morgan, Recherches, i, p. 239.




136


Time of the Pharaohs


after the invasion of a conquering population,
by which they became gradually absorbed.
While Messrs. Petrie and de Morgan were disinterring the prehistoric race, M. Amelineau was
discovering at Abydos dated tombs, by the aid
of which the age of the monuments without inscriptions could be determined.
It was in November, 1895, that M. AmElineau
began his excavations on the site of Abydos' with
the approval of the Service des Antiquites. The
result was not encouraging until his diggers reached,
at the entrance of a gorge leading to the Libyan
desert, the necropolis called Om-el-Gaab. The
name is picturesque and means "the mother of
vases." Five mounds were there, covered with a
great quantity of very coarse red pottery, and
fragments of hard-stone vases, the interest of
which, in 1895, was hardly known.
The first three mounds yielded two hundred
small tombs, dug deep in the subsoil, and walled
up with brick; the skeletons were laid on their
sides, in a contracted posture. M. Amelineau,
who had at first neglected these tombs, heard from
Messrs. Petrie and de Morgan that similar sepul

I E. Amdlineau, Les nouvelles fouilles d'Abydos, three brochures
in 8vo and five volumes in 4to.




Egypt before the Pyramids


'37


chres had been found in Negadeh, and that these
were thought to date from very remote times; so
he began, in March, i896, special excavations at
El-Amrah, where one of the most important prehistoric cemeteries came to light. Beside the
small tombs appeared two large brick tombs,
twenty-seven feet by fifteen; one of the fragments
of alabaster and hard - stone vases found there
bore a hawk perched on a rectangle. This figure
indicated the presence of a royal name, but unfortunately a crack had separated it from the
hieroglyphics. Around the fourth mound, there
were many small brick tombs, the most beautiful
of -which were floored with boards, fastened to one
another by copper wires. An immense archaic
necropolis was there: the principal monuments,
surrounded by a number of smaller tombs, were
to be found in the centre.
Some days after, M. Amelineau discovered a
structure forty-six feet long, twenty-four feet wide,
and eighteen feet high. The brick walls were over
twelve feet thick; a stairway of forty-two steps
led down to the interior, which was paved with
pink granite. On a granite mortar and on clay
stoppers was read the name of the king, Den, the
first archaic king thus brought to light after
thousands of years. Not far away, a second tomb,




138


Time of the Pharaohs


with a wooden flooring from which rose pillars
at intervals, revealed, on a granite stela, the name
of the king Qa. Parallel with this was the tomb,
made of brick and wood, of King Mersekh;
finally, there appeared a fourth structure composed of a central room and little cells, full of
vases and steke, bearing the names of individuals;
in the centre stood a splendid limestone stela,
which, though it had been broken into three pieces,
had preserved unmutilated the name of the king:
a large serpent, which we read as Zet. 
In short, M. Amelineau's investigations during
1895-96 resulted in the discovery of the four tombs
of the kings Den, Qa, Mersekh, and Zet; but on
the fragments of vases, collected here and there,
twelve other royal names appeared, among which
were those of Aha, Narmer, and Merbapen, names
unknown until then. These M. Amelineau could
not make out but they were deciphered and identified two years after the discovery.
"And now, to what period must these curious
monuments be assigned?" said M. Amelineau
before the Academy of Inscriptions and BellesLettres, at the meeting of May 29, 1896. After
' This stela offered for sale, a few years ago, was acquired by
the Louvre, after lively competition with Berlin, for the price of
ioo,ooo francs.




Egypt before the Pyramids


139


having established the fact that the objects discovered were of a very archaic type, he continued:
Our impulse would be to attribute them to the first
dynasties.... But the first two dynasties do not
present a single name resembling the sixteen that we
possess;... consequently we are led back to an epoch
that preceded the first two dynasties. Manetho mentions, previously to the Ist dynasty, the Nekyes,
who reigned over Egypt, and also demi-gods. These
"Dead" or these " Shades" are perhaps not divine
dynasties, as has been believed, but rather the kings
whose names I found in the tombs I explored at
Abydos. 
It is obvious to what this argumentation leads.
According to a tradition recorded on the royal
papyrus of Turin, and confirmed by Manetho and
Diodorus, the Pharaohs were preceded by gods,
demi-gods, and "Shades." Does the legend conceal some historic fact? Did the would-be gods,
demi-gods, and "Shades" really exist, as Diodorus
states, under the form of men whom their successors, through piety or to exalt their dynasty,
promoted to the rank of gods? M. Maspero
rejected this theory.
I am convinced [he declared] that there exist
monuments erected before the time of Menes [the
first king of Egypt, according to Manetho and the
i Am^lineau, Les nouvlles fouilles d'A bydos, I896, in 8vo, p. 23.




140


Time of the Pharaohs


Pharaonic lists].... Yet before admitting that the
discoveries of M. Am6lineau belong to this category,
I should like him to furnish some proof, even just one
tangible piece of evidence, that it is impossible to
attribute them either to the first three dynasties, or
to the VIIth, VIIIth, IXth, and Xth dynasties when
the majority of the kings are still deprived of their Horus
names.
M. Amelineau had, indeed, not considered this
hypothesis: perhaps the names discovered were
mere duplicates of those given by the royal
lists; it might be admitted that the Pharaohs bore
from  the archaic period    a "Horus     name" different from the "royal name."     Thus might be explained the fact that the names found at Abydos
are not found on the official lists: the latter give
the "royal names," while the monuments had
furnished, up to this time, only the "Horus
names."    We know     to-day that this hypothesis
was justified. We have ascertained the use of
two names for the same Pharaoh (in the case of
' The " Horus name " of the Pharaohs is inscribed in a rectangle
decorated at its base with the diagram of a simple or double door,
representing the plan of the palace where resides the corporal
soul, the Double or Genie of the king, i.e., the tomb. That is
why this name is also called the name of the Double. On the
rectangle is perched a hawk, symbolic of the god Horus with
whom the king is identified; whence the expression "Horus name."
As to the "royal name," generally differing from the "Horus
name," it is preceded by the reed and the bee, or by the vulture
and the uraeus; in classic times, it is inscribed in an oval cartouche.




Egypt before the Pyramids


141


many kings) by examining the fragments of vases,
found by M. Amelineau himself or by others, and
we have been able to bring into accord the testimony of the lists and of Manetho and that given
by the monuments.
But, in i896, M. Amelineau persisted in his
opinion on this point; though Manetho points out
that the kings of the first two dynasties were from
Thinis, the scholar who had discovered their
tombs did not wish to admit that they contained
the remains of the earliest Pharaohs. Hence the
preconceived ideas which guided the investigator
in his excavations of 1897-99 and in the interpretation of their results.
The campaign of i896-97, waged around the
fourth mound, yielded an immense tomb, 244
feet long divided into sixty-five rooms abundantly
provided with funeral furnishings. The royal
name stamped upon jar-stoppers presented a new
peculiarity: instead of the hawk, Horus, there
were, facing or following each other, a hawk and a
greyhound. Inside the tomb was a name, which
at first seemed to read Ti, but of which M. Maspero gave the correct reading later: Khasekhemui.
M. Amelineau believed that the two animals
stood for a double name and consequently that
two kings were alluded to. This tomb seemed to




142


Time of the Pharaohs


him still earlier than the preceding four; these two
kings, then, ought, according to this reasoning,
to belong to the dynasty of the gods that preceded
the dynasty of the "Shades."
Nevertheless, he was very much disappointed:
he thought he had found the tomb of the most
popular of those kingly gods, i.e., Osiris, the later
patron of Abydos, "and now the inscriptions
mentioned two gods, notwithstanding the fact
that in order that his hope might be realised, only
one god could be provided for."
The following year (1897-98), the fourth mound
being cleared in its turn yielded a quantity of
debris, of recent times, with dedications to
Osiris: was he then approaching the famous tomb
of Osiris which tradition located at Abydos?
Three conditions, according to M. Amelineau,
would have to be fulfilled before the monument
could be identified with the tomb of Osiris: tradition mentioned in the first place numerous tombs
or stele erected all around it; then a stairway,
equally famous, leading to the coffin; finally, an
illustrious relic, the head of Osiris, that was to be
found there in a shrine. What was found in fact,
in January, 1898, was, in the midst of numerous tombs, a brick structure, thirty-six feet by
thirty-six to which a stairway led. It was full of




Egypt before the Pyramids


143


enormous jars; near the south wall was a funeral
bed of granite, five and a half feet long, on which
was lying Osiris, draped in his shroud, mitred,
and holding in his hand a sceptre and a whip.
Near the right shoulder could be read his name:
"Osiris, the good being, with the creative voice. "
At his head and at his feet, four hawks kept watch:
the gods "Horus who protect their father"; a
fifth bird, Isis (Osiris's wife), rested upon the body
of her husband. All around the bed was an inscription reading "Osiris Khontamenti, the lord
of Abydos." The name of the donor king was
found hammered out and is still illegible, but the
arrangement of the royal protocol and the style
of the monument do not warrant us in dating it
earlier than the first Theban Empire (about 2000
B.C.), and it may be much more recent.
But M. Amelineau did not doubt that this was
Osiris's tomb, and he still refers to this monument
by that name: of course, as he said, the funeral
bed was not of true ancient style, but a later king
might have renewed the original cenotaph. To
clinch the argument, the fragment of only one
skeleton was found, a skull, which "must have
been the skull of Osiris. "
This later proof seemed decisive in identifying
the tomb of the god-king. It carried with it the




144


Time of the Pharaohs


consequence that the monument, discovered in
the preceding year, which mentioned two gods,
must have belonged to Osiris's successors, his
brother Set, who put him to death, and his son
Horus, who avenged him. The royal name, preceded by the greyhound of Set and the hawk of
Horus, represented Set and Horus reconciled and
sharing Egypt, a statement in accordance with
the traditions relating to the divine dynasties.
Thus was established the theory that "caused the
divine dynasties to enter abruptly into history."
To-day this theory has no longer any supporters.
It is admitted that the funeral bed is a commemorative monument, of recent style, renewing
perhaps a more ancient cenotaph. As early as
I898, M. Maspero suggested that the place where
Osiris lay "might have been originally the tomb
of some sovereign of the Thinite dynasties."
The jars found there are, indeed, stamped with the
name of a new Horus: the King Zer, who was
the real owner of the tomb, which became later
the seat of an Osirian chapel. As for the "skull
of Osiris," it was proved, on examination by a
specialist, "not to be the skull of a man." The
double title indicated by the hawk and the greyhound, which represented, according to M. Am6lineau, "Horus and Set," certainly has an historic




Egypt before the Pyramids


'45


explanation. It was one of the developed names
assumed by the Pharaoh, as successor of the divine
dynasties. Formerly, Horus and Set had divided
Egypt among themselves; Pharaoh thus reigned
over the two halves of the country and bore the
names of his two divine ancestors. Sometimes
the queens received the following name, which
explains the whole allegory: "she who sees her
Horus and her Set, " that is to say, the king who
has succeeded them. For historians, Osiris's
tomb is only Zer's tomb; the tomb of "Horus
and Set" that of the King Khasekhemui. The
monuments brought to light by M. Amelineau
have lost nothing of their great interest; on the
contrary, they have acquired a new dignity in
passing from the world of fable into the world of
reality.
Historic ground was finally struck upon by M.
Amelineau himself, in his last excavations. An
edifice was found divided into chambers, that had
still their ceilings of rafters, and stone and copper
vases, stelae, and jar-stoppers. The name stamped
on them was that of the King Perabsen, whose
name had previously been found on a stela preserved at Cairo, where it appears side by side with
that of King Sondou, whom the lists place in
the iHd human dynasty. The fifth mound of
IO




146


Time of the Pharaohs'


Om-el-Gaab yielded nothing of importance, but
the discovery of Perabsen's monument left no
doubt as to what interpretation should be given to
the monuments unearthed by M. Amelineau's
excavations: the kings buried at Abydos ought
to be identified with the Pharaohs of the Thinite
dynasties.
A confirmation of these results was obtained
about the same time in other parts of Egypt.
M. de Morgan had been much interested in the
excavations at Abydos, because they are the link
between the documents of the neolithic age and
the historic period, and he was the first to publish
the royal names found by M. Amelineau. He
himself cleared, in March, I897, near the neolithic
stations of Ballas and Toukh, between Abydos
and Thebes, the remains of a monument that
seemed to him contemporary with the Abydos
edifices. It was a rectangle, 163 feet long by 8x
feet wide, carefully built, containing a central
room, in which were found the fragments of a
calcinated skeleton; and sixteen adjoining rooms,
full of vases and objects of all kinds, the enumeration of which required over four pages in his report.
All these were found on the floor of the rooms,
under a thick bed of ashes; the entire tomb has
been, like several tombs at Abydos, set on fire,




Egypt before the Pyramids


147


and such was the heat that it vitrified vases of
granite, porphyry, and clay, and calcinated brick
walls sixteen inches thick.  The jars, in which
had been placed food and other objects, were
stamped with the name of King Aha, already
known from fragments found at Abydos. These
discoveries, by which the field of ancient history
was so enlarged, were discussed in the meeting
of the Congress of Orientalists in Paris, September,
I897. One of the younger Egyptologists of
Germany, Kurt Sethe (to-day a professor at
G6ttingen), announced on that occasion that he
had been able to decipher on the fragments of
vases published by M. Amelineau, the "royal
names" of three kings of the Ist dynasty, such
as are given by the Pharaonic lists; until then,
these names, corresponding to "Miebais, Ousaphais and Semempses," mentioned by Manetho,
had escaped Egyptologists, because they were
disguised in archaic writing. A few weeks later,
M. Maspero proposed the identification of Menes
with a hieroglyphic sign Men, preceded by royal
titles, and placed next to the Horus name Aha,
on an ivory plate covered with enigmatic figures.'
' This plate was found broken into pieces, and about one third
of it was missing. In I905, M. Garstang, returning to the site
of Negadeh and passing through a sieve all the earth removed,
fortunately found the missing fragment of the plate.




148


Time of the Pharaohs


At the same time, M. Borchardt was giving the
same reading before the Berlin Academy (November 25, I897). This identification has not been
accepted by all Egyptologists, for technical
reasons too long to be explained here. As the
cartouche of Aha appeared at Abydos, it was
assumed that the kings of Abydos were the successors of the king of Negadeh, Aha-Menes, a conclusion which is supported by the identifications
established by M. Sethe. At any rate, by the
end of I897, Messrs. Amelineau and de Morgan
had found, at least, four kings of the Ist dynasty
(Manetho gives eight), and perhaps the fabulous
Menes, the first of the Pharaohs.
These unhoped-for results were completed by
the excavations of M. Quibell on one of the most
ancient sites known in Egypt: Hierakonpolis, the
city of Hawks, half-way between Thebes and
Elephantine.  Under the ruins of a shrine of the
XIIth dynasty, there appeared a group of five
small brick rooms, where lay a large quantity
of votive offerings, belonging to the period of the
first dynasties; most of them bore the name of a
King Narmer, already discovered on fragments
from Abydos. The names of the so-called kings,
Horus-Set and Khasekhemui, adorned splendid
Quibell, Hierakonpolis, i, 1901; ii, 1902.




Egypt before the Pyramids


149


granite door-jambs; two statues bore the cartouche
of a new king, Khasekhem; other objects belonged
to different periods, down to the VIth dynasty.
The collection was of exceptional beauty, being
probably a series of choice pieces, deposited as
"ex-voto" in the temple.
The number of royal names kept on increasing.
M. Petrie added to it when he undertook excavations at Abydos (I899-I900), on the very site
worked over and then abandoned by M. Amelineau. All the earth cleared was passed through
a sieve, the structures were re-examined, the
mounds searched again with painstaking care.
Two new structures appeared; in one lay a large
stela, on which was inscribed the name of a queen
Merit-Neit, probably the wife of Aha; the other
seems to have belonged to the king Anz-Ab. But
M. Petrie's chief acquisitions were jar-stoppers,
ivory plates, and fragments of vases bearing royal
names, not collected by his predecessor. The legends engraved on these documents indicated that
the "Horus names" Den, Anz-Ab, and Mersekh
belonged to the same personages as the "royal
names" already identified by M. Sethe: those of
Miebais, Ousaphais, Semempses. These six names,
Fl. Petrie, The Royal Tombs at Abydos, i, I899; ii, 1901;
Abydos, i-iii, I902-5.




150


Time of the Pharaohs


then, are borne by only three Pharaohs. On the
other hand, many Horus names, unknown until
then, appeared at the same time, so that, after
having deplored the absolute dearth of documents
about the first dynasties, Egyptologists now are
overwhelmed and perplexed by the abundance of
royal names, which outnumber those furnished by
the lists of the classic period.' What conclusion
shall we draw? This seems the most plausible:
that the scribes who drew up the historical lists
either did not know all the names we have found,
or else made a selection among them, without
telling us the reasons for their choice.
Since i900, this rush of discoveries has subsided
into a slow but regular advance. Few are the
names that have since then been brought to
light, but new finds can always be expected. At
any rate another misconception has been dispelled:
it can no longer be maintained that the kings of
the first dynasties were confined to a few restricted
sections of Egypt. The excavations or researches
of Messrs. Maspero and Barsanti have established
the fact that the sites of Memphis and Sakkarah
were occupied by the Thinite kings; the researches
I Professor Petrie proposed to begin with a dynasty called
o (zero) to embrace these additional kings, many of which seem
to have lived before Menes.




Egypt before the Pyramids


'5'


of M. Weill have proved the existence of monuments of King Mersekh in the mines of Sinai, the
working of which dates back to the first dynasty.
The whole of Egypt, therefore, was once under
Thinite rule.
Thinite civilisation differs fundamentally from
the culture of the neolithic age, in that it acquired
a few new elements of the utmost importance:
the use of metal, the art of building, the knowledge
of writing. The indigenous population could not
have contributed the elements of so considerable a
progress; its potters and carvers did not become
the smiths and masons of Abydos and Negadeh.
We are forced to the conclusion that some invasion
brought into Egypt a new race: the Egyptians of
the historic period.
Whence came these invaders? We can rest
assured that their language was completely
formed; it is written by means of signs that we
call hieroglyphics, which, while reproducing the
shape of a particular object, or being, are rarely
ideographic. The writing is no longer in that
primitive stage where the word "lion" was represented, in the manner of the neolithics, by drawing
a "lion"; it has reached that higher stage when
this lion represents merely a sound, a letter, or a




I52


Time of the Pharaohs


syllable. Now, the Egyptian language, in its
essential roots and in its elementary grammatical
forms, the pronouns for example, is a branch of the
Semitic trunk. This is a potent argument in
favour of the Asiatic origin of the invaders.
The style of the monuments confirms this
hypothesis. The use of bricks, even in the vicinity of the quarries of the desert, where beautiful
stones are plentiful, points to the conclusion that
these newcomers came from Chaldea. At Negadeh, the enclosing wall, erected by Aha, presents a
fagade adorned with prismatic grooves, forming a
regular series of projections and recesses. The
same arrangement is carried out in all the royal
palaces; the rectangular cartouche in which the
Horus name is written, and which forms the plan
of a palace always has this decoration, later
applied also to the tombs erected by the kings,
their relatives and courtiers. M. de Morgan has
pointed out the striking similarity between this
method of construction and certain very ancient
schemes in lower Chaldea. The cylinder that
was used to stamp the royal names upon the clay
vases bears witness also of Chaldean influence; it
was destined to go out of use in Egypt quickly and
only in rare instances was it resorted to after the
Thinite period; this foreign fashion was short



Egypt before the Pyramids


I53


lived in the valley of the Nile. Again, it is
surprising to see on several palettes, fantastic
animals with unusually long necks, the like of
which, according to M. Heuzey's researches, are
not to be met with except on Chaldean cylinders.
Finally, the use of copper and of bronze is attested by numerous knives, pins, nails, bodkins,
and spear-heads; gold was beaten into foils and
chiselled; iron was known in its hematite form;
with the exception of gold, all these metals came
from Asia and Sinai. The elements of civilisation
that were to renovate the material and intellectual
conditions of the neolithic, indigenous population
were then, to all appearances, brought from a
cultural centre already highly developed, at a
time when the inhabitants of the Nile valley still
had a rudimentary set of ideas and primitive
implements. 
The Asiatic smiths seem to have entered Egypt,
not by the Isthmus of Suez, but by crossing the
Red Sea; perhaps they reached the Nile by going along the Ouady-Hammamat, from Qoceir to
Coptos. Thus might be explained the presence
of very archaic statues at Coptos, which are,
perhaps, the first monuments of the new race. It
is conceded that Arabia and perhaps also the
I De Morgan, Recherches, i, p. 199.




154


Time of the Pharaohs


country of Pount (the coast of Erythraa and
Somalis) served as way stations, where the migrating peoples, on their way from       Chaldea into
Egypt, lingered for indefinite periods. They
reached Egypt by the centre of the valley, and
the first settlements of the invaders are found,
indeed, at the terminus-point of their route, on
the other side of the river, at Abydos and Negadeh.
The indigenous race fought stubbornly against
the newcomers; it is this race, it seems, that the
first monuments of the invaders, bearing figures
and inscriptions, designate by the name of Temhou
and of Anou, names which, in the later historic
period, we find applied to the Nubians and Libyans. The natives were driven back, some to the
south as far as Nubia, some to the north, into the
Delta; they appear on the votive palettes; bound
and tied up by the victorious Hawk; trampled by
the royal Bull; knocked down or beheaded, according to the ritual, by the Pharaoh; the Palermo
stone, which has preserved the list of the festivals
in the Thinite and Memphite period, mentions as
I In the historic period the only foreign people whom the
Egyptians recognised as bearing some resemblance to themselves
in features and colour, and with whom they never waged war, was
the people inhabiting the country of Pount, "the land of the
gods," whence Horus and HAthor were probably derived. Cf.
V. Loret: HQorw l Faucon,




Egypt before the Pyramids


I55


a special commemoration the day "of striking the
Anou."I
The overthrow of the natives is attributable in
part possibly to the number of their opponents
but more especially to the superior equipment of
the invaders. These newcomers, formidable on
account of the copper, bronze, or iron heads of
their spears, arrows, and axes, gave evidence of a
material and moral superiority that has left a
curious trace in history. The texts and basreliefs of the Ptolemaic temple of Edfu relate at
length the wars waged, under the divine dynasties,
by Horus, the hawk-god, at the time when he
conquered Egypt. The "followers of Horus" are
soldiers armed with javelins and bodkins, and
they are designated as "smiths"; the places where
they reside are called "smithies."  Perhaps, the
legend of Horus conquering Egypt at the head of
the " smiths" is only the distant echo of a primitive
historical fact: "something like the arrival of the
Spaniards among the peoples of the New World,
or the invasion of Egypt by tribes knowing and
making use of iron, having among them a caste of
smiths, and worshipping a warlike god." 2
These "followers of Horus" seem, indeed, to


' Cf. Capart: La fte defrapper les Anou, 1901oi,
* Maspero, Les forgerons d'Horus.




156


Time of the Pharaohs


have been the first of the new race to arrive; the
pyramid texts allude to them as ancestors, who,
though belonging to a dim past, have not yet
gone out of the memory of men. They founded a
capital at Hierakonpolis, in the centre of Upper
Egypt, and another at Buto, in the heart of the
Delta; from that time, the valley was divided into
the White Kingdom of the South and the Red
Kingdom of the North. The two subdivisions of
Egypt did not live in peace; Hierakonpolis, the
monuments of which M. Quibell has discovered,
subdued Buto. The episodes of these wars are
found engraved on the maces of King Narmer;
the unfortunate Northerners appear also, on the
pedestals of King Khasekhem's statues, writhing
in pain, enduring tortures devised with every
refinement of cruelty.' As early as the reign of
Aha-Menes, the overthrow of the Red Kingdom
had been completed. This first king on the
Pharaonic lists founded the monarchy by the
union of the two Egypts. At the boundary of
the Delta, he erected, in order to control the Red
Country, a large wall painted in the colours of
the South, the famous White Wall of Memphis,
the name of which was retained down to the Greek
period, and has been preserved by Herodotus,
' Quibell, Hierakonpolis, i, P1. 39-40.




Egypt before the Pyramids


I57


Thucydides, and Strabo, as an insulting memorial
of the defeat of the North. South of the wall was
erected a sanctuary of Phtah-outside-the-walls
(literally: "south of his wall "); on the inauguration
day, Menes celebrated for the first time the symbolic rites of the union of the papyrus plant
(symbolic of the Northern Kingdom) with the
lotus flower (symbolic of the Southern Kingdom)
tied in one bunch under the throne; he placed on
his head the white mitre and the red crown; he
marched in a procession around the White Hall,
and to the very bounds of Egyptian civilisation.
The Pharaohs, Ptolemies, and Caesars repeated at
their coronation these three ceremonies, in commemoration of the defeat of the North and of the
union of the two Egypts.    Several centuries
elapsed before Egypt subsided into a peaceful
condition. The attainment of this end, still very
imperfectly understood, devolved upon the Thinite
Pharaohs. They bequeathed to the Memphite
kings of the IIId dynasty a united Egypt, in
which we no longer discern any rivalry between
Red and White countries, nor any contention
between Libyans and Asiatics.
If these invaders imposed their rule, the vanquished transmitted to them their customs. The
' Kurt Sethe, Beitrage zur dltesten Geschichte Egyptens, I906.




i58


Time of the Pharaohs


epoch of the Ist dynasty marks the efflorescence
of the arts of the stone age; it is the royal tombs
that supply us with the most remarkable specimens of hard-stone vases, especially those marvellous bowls cut out of porphyry, ornamented with
ribs, shaped and carved by hand, with incredible
skill. The Thinite Pharaohs must have greatly
enjoyed these costly table-services; they fortunately had their names engraved upon the
dishes, vases, cups, and plates, the fragments of
which enable us to trace out or reconstitute the
dynastic  series.'  The flint industry was not
wiped out by the introduction of weapons and
tools of metal, but the large knives, masterpieces
of the prehistoric peoples, became show-pieces
reserved for the Pharaoh, or else votive offerings
for the temples. A splendid specimen found at
El-Amrah has its handle adorned with a gold foil,
engraved with rosettes and coiling serpents; in
another, the massive gold handle, fastened to the
blade by three rivets, is decorated with dancing
women and a barge floating -standards. Diminutive pieces of furniture, used as votive offerings,
were incrusted with ivory plates, on which figures
I Musde Guimet possesses the practically complete series of
the royal names of the Ist dynasty, engraved on fragments of
vases, and also several names of the IId dynasty.




Egypt before the Pyramids


159


of animals were delicately carved; they were made
to rest upon bull's legs of ivory in accordance with
the traditional Chaldean style. The carved palettes, that the prehistoric peoples placed in the
hands of their dead when they buried them in the
sand, were now hung up in the temples, for show.
Such are the palettes of Hierakonpolis, on which
King Narmer has recounted his triumphs over
the peoples of the North. Art tended to assume
an official character; the popular pottery, which
formerly thrived so well, gradually disappeared
or relapsed into the most repulsive coarseness,
towards the end of the Thinite period.
Artists henceforth devoted themselves almost
exclusively to the service of the gods and the kings.
The invaders brought written texts and a religious
literature; their ideas were adopted by the whole
Egyptian society and their rigorous stamp put
upon art. The struggle for life in this world, the
eager desire to survive after death, these thoughts
loomed large in every mind. Then originated,
perhaps successively, perhaps simultaneously, the
views regarding the best way of defeating death: in
some cases the corpse was burned; in others it was
dismembered orcut into pieces; in certain instances,
the skeleton was left in a contracted position; again
in others, mummification was attempted. Of all




z6o


Time of the Pharaohs


these opposing systems, neither the origin nor the
development has as yet been elucidated; but one
idea asserts itself, from the very first written
documents: there is in man a permanent element,
which survives the individual, in which even the
race is incarnated; it is the double, the genie, the
material soul, which fits exactly into the shape of
the body, but is not blended with it. In order to
save the double from destruction, it was necessary
to build a strong tomb and to preserve the corpse
in it; for the corpse might be substituted its
human likeness, engraved on a stela, reproduced
by a statue, or merely recalled by the name. The
masons had to construct solid buildings: these
were first made of brick, on a level with the ground,
like the tombs at Abydos; then, by digging further
into the rocky soil, the funeral vault was sunk
under the earth, while chambers were built above
for the relatives who there practised religious rites.
Thus by successive stages was evolved the type
exemplified by the Memphite tombs, the different
parts of which form a harmonious whole, when
once the ideas concerning the hereafter have
become synthesised.
But the life of the dead was dependent upon the
life of the gods; the first gods, Hor, Set, Shu,
HAthor, Min, passed from Arabia or Pount into




Egypt before the Pyramids


i6i


Egypt, and were imposed upon the living and the
dead by the priests.' Temples, the ruins of which
are still to be seen at Abydos and Hierakonpolis,
were built for them; and because it was believed
that they protected the dead from danger in their
life beyond the tomb, kings and subjects worshipped
them regularly and honoured them with periodic
festivals. Thinite art was, therefore, concerned
with the main aim of existence: survival after
death, to be secured by means of statues in which
the doubles of the gods, the kings, and the dead
might live again. More skilled than formerly and
supplied, as they were, with iron chisels, the
sculptors were able to cut out of ivory, limestone,
or wood the crude statue of Min, the delicate
effigy of Pharaoh Khasekhem, the heavy common
figure of some man or woman of the people, with a
clumsy body but an expressive, lifelike face. The
likeness had to be striking so that the double
might recognise its portrait and inhabit it.
The general ideas by which art was at this time
influenced brought about also the transformation
of social conditions. The invaders brought with
them a political organisation and chiefs: the
"Followers of Horus" seem to have been grouped
into clans, distinguishable, like the indigenous
V. Loret, Revue Egyptologique, xi, and Horus le Faucon, 1904.
zz




i62


Time of the Pharaohs


tribes, by their totems displayed on ensigns. The
Red North and the White South soon became
subdivided into rival clans: the clans called Hawks,
Dog, and Lock of Hair fight for the hawk, Horus;
the Lapwing and the Bow contend for the greyhound, Set.  Their struggles and triumphs are
recorded by engravings on the votive palettes:
here, a Greyhound brings a miserable Lapwing
hung by the neck; elsewhere the Hawk drags
ignominiously a subdued Bow; or the Scorpion and
Lion are seen tearing down, with the pickaxe,
the strongholds of the rival totems., The great
number of mace-heads and monuments decorated
with warlike scenes are another proof of the
many battles fought by the " Followers of Horus, "
in their long struggle against the Northerners,
their Asiatic rivals, and against the rebellious
Libyans.
The reconciliation of the clans and the submission of the natives took place probably at the
time when Menes erected the White Wall to
control the North, and built his "palace of the
double" at Negadeh, a site between Buto and
Hierakonpolis, the centre of Thinite Egypt. Then,
a curious transformation seems to have begun in
the personality of the Pharaoh. Up to this time,
x V. Loret, L'Egypte an temps du totemisme, 1906.




Egypt before the Pyramids


i63


the king, being the chief of a particular clan, chose
as totem a certain animal supposed to take part
in the struggles. The fish, Nar, which stands for
the name, Narmer, of the king of Hierakonpolis,
is not a sign devoid of life; it is sometimes seen
provided with two arms, wielding the mace and
knocking down a Libyan. The name of AhaMenes is composed of a shield and a javelin,
brandished by the claws of the hawk, Horus, whose
wings are open wide in readiness to fly to battle.
After the union of Reds and Whites, the Hawk
became an impartial god, no longer descending
into the arena, but remaining undisturbed upon
his royal perch. Pharaoh no longer treated the
bird as a totem, the chief of the clan and a partaker
in battle; he adored it as the national god of
united Egypt, he assumed its name, and was identified with it, so that the Hawk became the symbol of
his sway, and his first name in the official titulary.
How could the clan of the Hawk and its chief, the
Pharaoh, absorb the other clans and chiefs? Such
a result was not obtained without conflict and
reciprocal concessions. The two ancient kingdoms of Hierakonpolis and Buto secured for their
totems, the Vulture and the Uraeus, the honour
of being chosen, after the Hawk, as official titles
for the king; the Reed of the South and the Bee




164


Time of the Pharaohs


of the North obtained the same privilege. The
Pharaoh thus bought his triumph by adopting, in
addition to the Hawk, four of the ancient rival
totems, which yielded him in return their moral
prestige and material power.   After the lapse
of a few centuries we shall see the theologians of
Heliopolis" setting to work in order to combine
the chequered history of the clans in one system:
they build up the theory of kingship by imagining
divine dynasties, founded by the sun, Ra, consolidated by the hawk, Horus, and continued by their
son, the Pharaoh, the " son of the Sun, who renews
upon earth the duration of the life of Horus."
Thus Egypt, under Thinite rule, foreshadows
the Memphite Kingdom, its monuments, arts, religious beliefs, and political organisation. But how
many points are still lacking in this obscure history
that teaches us nothing about the beginnings of
the indigenous race, the real origin of the foreign
invaders, and very little about the fusion of these
two elements, from which arose those Semitised
Africans whom we call Egyptians!
Many opinions-which I could not sum up here
-have been advanced, as to what the soil still
Cf. G. Maspero, Les Dynasties divines de l'Egypte ancienne,
1895.




Egypt before the Pyramids


i65


conceals or by way of explaining what it has
already yielded. Let us not forget that the great
number of speculations launched to-day, necessarily formed rather too hastily, but indispensable
nevertheless for the progress of science, will be
revised in the near future, in the light of documents
which may then have been unearthed. This,
however, is certain: in the course of the last few
years, the history of mankind has been extended,
far back, into the past. A bit of the veil is now
raised that hides the origin of the Eastern Mediterranean peoples and their first intercourse.
Another point has been gained, thanks to the
monuments discovered: the possibility of tracing
a race, from the stone age to historic times.
This opportunity presents itself in the case of
hardly any other people. But, in Egypt, we are
able to take up the race at its origin, and to
discern the course of civilisation followed by man,
from the caverns or crude tombs in the desert
down to the imposing piles of the pyramids.




CHAPTER IV


AROUND THE PYRAMIDS
ON the left bank of the Nile, between the juncture of the Delta and the oases of the Fayum, the
pyramids of Lower Egypt lift to heaven their
triangular faces, changing from bright to sombre
according to the play of light. Firmly rooted in
the first terrace of the African plateau, their towering masses rise from the sands high above the
cultivated lands.  About forty of them  are
in existence to-day.  With hundreds of tombs
surrounding them, they mark the successive
location of the residences of the Memphite
Pharaohs: Sakkarah, Meidun, Dashur (the sites
of the IIId dynasty); Gizeh (occupied by the
IVth); Abusir and Sakkarah (the seat of the Vth
and VIth). The Old Kingdom of Egypt, dating
from the year 4000 to the year 3500 before our
era, thus survives through its cemeteries, which
still stretch around the ancient capital, Memphis,
though all the monuments of the latter have
i66




Around the Pyramids


disappeared. Even ten years ago, it was believed that the beginnings of Egyptian history
and the most ancient memorials of mankind
were to be found around the pyramids; but the
recent discovery of the prehistoric cemeteries and
royal tombs of Abydos have proved the existence of the two first dynasties and disclosed, in
its broad outlines, the Thinite civilisation. The
royal pyramid-builders have thus been put back
to their proper chronological place, i.e., to the
second period of the history of Egypt. Nevertheless, the pyramid itself has taken on a deeper
significance: to the earlier Thinite period, it was
unknown; under the later Theban dynasties,
it was abandoned, as early as the XIIth dynasty.
the pyramid is thus characteristic of one period,
The Old Kingdom; it is found in one region, the
vicinity of Memphis. It expresses, therefore, a
new artistic and religious ideal.
The architectural conception of the pyramid
was not the chance discovery of some genius,
but rather the outcome of successive improvements made upon the primitive tombs. The
prehistoric inhabitants of Egypt buried their dead
in pits where the body, interred at no great depth
in the earth, was surrounded by the domestic




i68


Time of the Pharaohs


vessels that had been used by the deceased. The
brick buildings appeared later with the influx of
the victorious race from Chaldea, which settled
in the Nile valley and erected for its kings tombs
that were a great improvement upon those of the
native people. The primitive pit was enlarged
and made rectangular, its crumbling sides were
supported by a linting of bricks, and a wooden
roof isolated the body from the earth thrown upon
it; jars and other implements, instead of being
placed around the body, were distributed in
small adjoining compartments, while the central
pit remained the sepulchral chamber. The whole
presented the appearance of a structure low and
elongated, covered with sand; it was approached
by a side stairway of brick.
Such was the royal tomb at the beginning of the
Thinite period. In order to render inviolable
the resting-place for the soul and the body, the
destiny of which becomes of increasing importance
to a people of inquiring mind, the vault was
hollowed out of the very rock. It resembled a
long passage, roofed over by impenetrable rock.
The weak point of it was the unguarded incline
leading to the tomb. The architects sunk several
narrow shafts perpendicular to the rocky roof;
the body once interred, enormous stones were




Around the Pyramids


i69


let down through those shafts, thus blocking the
passage of approach. The shafts opened on a
level with the ground, but were concealed by
heaps of sand and of gravel kept in place by a
stone curbing. So well protected, a tomb was no
longer accessible to the family of the dead; how
could they then administer to the wants of the
deceased in the other world? On the heap of
sand, just above the body, they buried vessels
containing food; then a little chapel was built
at the entrance of the stairway, to which the
relatives might repair to bring offerings and to
say their prayers. This scheme of construction
survived until the plan of the tomb was altered
so as to do away with the sloping approach, which
was deemed insecure. A vertical shaft, passing
down through the superstructure of masonry,
allowed the corpse to be lowered by means of
ropes; after the funeral ceremony, the shaft was
filled and its opening carefully covered up. The
tiny chapel was then transferred to the side
facing the East, and had the appearance of a
narrow passage, ending with a false door, carved
in relief, which was supposed to give access to the
mortuary chamber. I As a result of the many
'J. Gerstang, The Third Egyptian Dynasty, i904, chap. vii;
Plates XX-XXI,




170


Time of the Pharaohs


attempts to perfect it, the Thinite tomb had become, at the beginning of the hId dynasty, a
sort of fortified house, sunk in the rock and built
above the level of the ground, including an inaccessible grave, dumb wells, and a chapel chamber
for the use of the relatives. Seen from a distance,
the structure resembles a stone cube or bench, such
as the Arabs put before their own houses and
which they call " mastaba, " a designation adopted
for the tombs belonging to the Memphite period.
A parallel transformation can be followed up
in the kind of material used for constructing the
tombs. Like the Chaldeans, the Egyptians from
Asia used at first chiefly brick. After they had settled in the Nile valley, the rocky banks of the
desert plateau furnished them with the coarse or
fine limestone from Mokattam or Tourah, sandstone from Silsileh talabaster, granite, and basalt
from Assouan. The newcomers learned the art
of using those materials from the natives, who
were skilled in polishing all hard stones. In their
desire to construct imperishable tombs, the Pharaohs prompted their subjects to erect colossal
structures; out of the primitive craftsmen in
pottery they made stone-carvers and builders. As
far back as the Ist dynasty, King Ousaphais supplanted the usual wooden floor of the tomb by




Zaouiet-el-Aryan.


The Incline Used in Descending.


The Vat of Granite.


Plate VT.




f




Around the Pyramids


'7'


one of granite; a chamber in Khasekhemui's tomb
(IId dynasty) is built of limestone hewn and
fitted and this is the earliest instance known of a
stone structure. The same king furnished the
temple of Horus at Hierakonpolis with splendid
doors of red granite, the posts of which are to-day
in Cairo Museum. Judging from these fragments,
the Egyptians were even as early as this period
most accomplished artisans.
Soon we see them applying themselves to more
ambitious works. The Sphinx of Gizeh (Plate
VIII, I), a gigantic spur of rock, hewn in the
shape of a lion with human head, dates perhaps
from that time; the meditative majesty of that
splendid face, now mutilated, shows what degree
of technical skill and of expressive power the
Egyptian artists had already attained.  Does
the temple adjoining the Sphinx, which bears no
inscription that might indicate its date, belong
to the same period?  Looking at its huge, covered halls, of which the square pillars in red granite
alone remain, its narrow, low sanctuaries, roofed
over by a single stone, its vaulted chambers made
of alabaster, we are tempted to assign the building
to the early age of Egyptian art which is characterised by such sober and massive style, impressive
grandeur and mystery (Plate VIII, 2).




172


Time of the Pharaohs


The same kind of emotion is stirred by a puzzling
structure recently brought to light by M. Barsanti (Service des Antiquites), near Zaouiet-elAryan, half-way between Gizeh and Sakkarah.
It is considered the great curiosity of Memphite
Egypt and as it certainly dates from the end of
the Thinite period, it enables us to assign approximate dates to other structures which exhibit
similar features.
The part remaining of the edifice is seen at the
bottom of a pit in the shape of a T, 328 feet long,
82 feet wide, and 98 feet deep. The limestone plateau was simply hollowed out, but the cross-sections
present as smooth a surface as a roll of butter cut
with a thread. The bottom is reached by an
incline consisting of a central slide, intended
for the descent of building materials, and a
precipitous stairway, with well-worn steps on each
side (Plate VI, i). The pit had been filled with
more than 142,850 cubic feet of rubble and rubbish,
which had to be removed before the pavement,
made of enormous blocks of red granite, could be
revealed.  M. Barsanti hoped that by removing
one of these pavement stones he might disclose
a burial-chamber, for a few fragments found in
the rubbish bore the name of King Nofirka, of
the lid dynasty. But once lifted, this block




Around the Pyramids


I73


showed another block below, and underneath
three layers were superposed, the lowest resting on
the very rock. Where was the burial-vault? In
order to find it, M. Barsanti hired skilled granitecutters, formerly engaged in the dam-works at
Assouan, and had them open a tunnel through the
rock, an achievement worthy of the old Pharaohs.
The tunnel, which I recently visited, with M.
Barsanti as guide, has up to the present given
the indication that the mass is compact; many
Egyptologists think, indeed, that the floor does not
conceal any secret chamber, but was simply
devised as a foundation for structures that were
never built.  M. Barsanti firmly believes that
the floor is a ceiling to an undiscovered tomb.
His conviction seems to be corroborated by a
curious arrangement in the floor. One of the
granite blocks has been hollowed out in an oval
shape; the cavity measures over six feet in length
and three feet in depth; a splendid lid with four
handles covers it, polished like a mirror and as
carefully finished as an exquisite jewel (Plate
VI, 2).
It was >wrote M. Barsanti] with genuine emotion that I lifted the lid; but when the base was
uncovered, it was found completely empty. All
that I noticed was a blackish band, four inches broad,




174


Time of the Pharaohs


running around the inside, probably some slight deposit of a liquid poured into this hollow as an offering or a libation, and which has evaporated in the
course of time.'
It may be, indeed, that a funeral chamber was
dug directly underneath the trough-shaped object,
as such was the procedure in the case of the mastabas, the roofs of which were used as receptacles
for offerings.  In order to solve this problem, M.
Barsanti was duly authorised by the Service des
Antiquites to remove, piece by piece, all the superposed blocks of the four layers; he will not replace
them until the lowest depths of the excavation
have been explored.
Whatever its raison d' etre, the structure of
Nofirka shows us, as does the temple of the
Sphinx, the preference of the Pharaohs of that
time for huge structures built with materials of a
commensurate size.
The impression received at Zaouiet-el-Aryan
[says M. Maspero] is one never to be forgotten.
The form and choice of the materials, the skilled
workmanship evinced in the cut and in the jointures,
the exquisite finish of the granite trough, the boldness
of the lines and height of the walls, all combine to
create an effect that is unmatched to the present day.
It is a most impressive sight and nowhere is the
'Annales du Service des Antiquites de I'Egypte, vii, p. 285.




Archaic Pyramids.


I. The Step Pyramid of Sakkarah,
Erected by Zeser.


II. Pyramid of Sneferfi at Meidun.


Plate VII.








Around the Pyramids


175


power of the ancient Egyptian architects revealed
with such force.I
The increasing boldness of the constructors,
and their tendency to erect structures of greater
height and of greater depth, causing the Egyptian
tomb to unfold new lines, finally culminated
in that magnificent conception, the pyramid.
The first was erected on the site of Sakkarah,
by Zeser, one of the last sovereigns of the IId
dynasty (about 4100 B c.). Zeser is an important
personage in Egyptian history; from Sinai to
Elephantine, monuments have preserved his name,
but the particulars of his doughty deeds are not
known. Even in Hellenic times Zeser was credited
with having introduced the method of fitting
stones for building purposes; at any rate, his
reign marks the extensive use of stone-work and
the supremacy of stone over brick. Like his
predecessors, however, Zeser began by building
his own tomb of brick, on the site of Bet-Khallff,
near Abydos.2 It is a huge mastaba, erected
above several funeral chambers, that are approached by a passage guarded by five plugblocks. The tomb was never used. Perhaps it was
Annales du Service des Antiquites de l'Egypte, vii, p. 259.
2 J. Gerstang, Mahdsna and Bet-Khalldf, I902.




176


Time of the Pharaohs


abandoned at the suggestion of a great courtier,
Imhotep, whose reputation as an architect and
magician has outlived the centuries. Zeser, leaving the Thinite cemeteries, removed his own
residence to the White Hall of Memphis and chose
Sakkarah for his burial-place. There rises his
"terraced" pyramid, which forms a transition
between the massive rectangular mastaba and the
sharp outlines of the triangular pyramid. It is a
four-sided structure, composed of six huge terraces,
about twenty-seven feet high; each one is indented
six feet more than the one below it; the total height
is i8o,5 feet. Apparently six mastabas of decreasing
size have been placed one on the top of the other;
there seems to be nothing new about this, except
a successive superposition of mastabas, the top
of one serving as the base of the next. In reality,
the conception is bolder. First of all, the architects have substituted stone for brick; then,
instead of constructing a terrace as a base, on
which to superimpose five others, they started
from the base to carry the whole mass upward,
forming parallel sides, the slant of which was
interrupted, so as to form gradual steps on the
outside.' We find here no hesitation: the workmen clearly devised a building, rising from the
I Cf. Choisy, L'art de construire chez les Agyptiens.




Around the Pyramids


177


earth, in a towering form, towards the sky. (Plate
VII, i).
In time, the "steps," marking as many interruptions in the ascending line, diminished in size.
One of the successors of Zeser, Snefru, erected on
the site of Meidun,I south of Sakkarah, a pyramid
of similar style; but the width of each step is less
by half, which makes the rise appear more continuous (Plate VII, 2). Later Snefru accentuated
this upward movement still more, in a second
pyramid, which he had built at Dashur. The base
of this structure has about the same slant as the
sides of a mastaba; then, without intermediate
steps, the four edges converge boldly towards the
sky, assuming for the first time pyramidal form.
The successive attempts of Zeser and Snefru
resulted, about 4000 B.C., in the characteristic
conception of a building "emerging from the
ground, i2 projecting its four smooth     surfaces
upward until they form an apex, then letting
them slope to earth again in perfect triangles.
The architectural formula of the pyramid, which
the kings of the IVth dynasty applied, was thus
set down.
1 Cf. Fl. Petrie, Medum, 1892.
'This is the meaning of the hieroglyphics "per m ous,"
whence the Greek word pyramis is derived. Cf. Eisenlohr,
Ein mathematisches Handbuch der alien Agypter, p. 260.
12




178


Time of the Pharaohs


It seems as if Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerinus
had yielded to a kind of rapture when they
applied this formula to dimensions so Titanic as
those of the three pyramids of Gizeh. The one
called "Horizont," built by Cheops, was 48i
feet high and its square base measured 755 feet
on a side; the "Great," built by Chephren, was
452 feet high and its base measured 705 feet on a
side; the " Supreme " built by Mycerinus, was
217 feet high and measured 354 feet on a side.
Building on a colossal scale reached its highest
development at the beginning of the fourth dynasty and, after having produced all the effects
of which it was capable, gradually declined. This
impression is felt at once by the visitor. The
great pyramid appears first at the edge of the
desert; its enormous dimensions bear witness to a
dream of exalted grandeur that could be realised
but once. The second and third pyramids, built
diagonally to the first, rise behind the latter, one
with more slender outlines, the other with decidedly smaller proportions, which restore the mind to
more reasonable and moderate ideas, so that after
the first sensation of amazement, an eager desire
is felt to understand the secret of the construction
and the purpose of these monuments ' (Plate IX, i).
x Nobody has better expressed the impression produced by the




Gizch.


I. Sphinx and Pyramid of (hephren.


II. Temple of the Sphinx.
Plate VIII.








Around the Pyramids


179


The clearing, which M. Maspero has directed
during the last few years, around the pyramid of
Ounas, at Sakkarah, has enabled us to interpret
the plan of any pyramid. It comprises three
parts: inside the mortuary chambers; all around,
the pyramidal core of masonry; outside, the
chapel, where the religious service was held.
The whole was encompassed by a wall, and in the
great pyramids seen at close view than Jomard, in his treatise on
Memphis and the Pyramids (Description de lEgypte, ed. in 8vo,
vol. v, p. 597): " Their tops, seen from a distance, produce the same
effect as summits of high pyramidal mountains, which are outlined against the sky. The nearer one approaches the more this
effect decreases. But when one is only a short distance from
these regular piles, quite a different impression follows: one is
struck with surprise, and climbing the hill one's ideas are changed
quite suddenly. Finally when the foot of the great pyramid is
reached, one is overcome by a powerful emotion, tempered by
a kind of amazement and overwhelming stupor. The top and
angles disappear from view; what is felt is not that kind of
admiration inspired by a masterpiece of art; it is a feeling far
deeper than a mere aesthetic sensation. The effect lies in the
size and the simplicity of form; in the contrast between the stature
of man and the immensity of the work of his hands; the eye can
not embrace it, the mind can scarcely grasp it. It is then that
a real conception is formed of this enormous mass of cut stones,
piled up in order to a prodigious height. There are seen hundreds of courses of stone 200 cubic feet in size and of the weight
of 500 hundredweight, thousands of others similar, and it is
difficult to understand by what means such colossal stones have
been quarried, conveyed, piled up, or to conjecture how many
men were necessary, what time was required, what machinery
employed, in so great a work. The more difficult it is to explain
all these things, the more the power, which so easily triumphed
over such obstacles, is to be admired."




x80


Time of the Pharaohs


pyramid-enclosure are to be found the tombs of
the relatives of the king, or those of courtiers and
friends.
The work was begun by an excavation in the
rocky hill of the desert: the ruined pyramid of
Abc-Roasch, cleared by M. Chassinat, and the
monument of Zaouiet-el-Aryan are good instances
of such substructures on a vast scale. The sepulchral chamber was then cut out in the rock as well
as the stairs leading to it; choice material was
reserved for it, fine limestone from Turah, or
granite from Assouan. Around this nucleus, the
entrance to which was still left open, the pyramidal
mass was erected in courses of limestone blocks,
cut out from the plateau itself, or from the quarries
of the Arabic range. These blocks were easily
floated across the Nile, especially at high water,
when the river washes the cliffs, from Gizeh to
Sakkarah; they were then dragged up the plateau,
along the causeways still visible in many places.
It has been a bone of contention for a long time,
whether the pyramid was constructed with definite dimensions in mind and according to a clear
design, or whether the first nucleus, enclosing
the mortuary chamber, was not, in itself, a small
pyramid, which increased in height and in breadth,
according to the resources and the time that each




Around the Pyramids


king might devote to it. The existence, in certain
pyramids, of passages of approach, actually imbedded in the core of masonry, and also the arrangement of the courses of stone have made prevalent
the theory of Lepsius: every pyramid develops
by enlargement and super-additions around a
nucleus of finished form. At first, it is about i64
feet at the base, and proportionately high; then,
successive coatings raise its dimensions to the
figures that we have at present, the final size thus
being fixed either by the death of the king, or by his
own decision.  The construction presented no
other difficulty than the immensity of the task;
an incline enabled the blocks to be hoisted, step
by step, to the desired height, on little wooden
machines, which Herodotus described and M.
Legrain has recently reconstructed.' After the
narrow top platform was in place, the final process
was to add, from top to base, one smooth casing,
which made of each side one continuous surface.
Between every two of these courses of stone was
fitted a block, the exterior side of which was bevelled, and the workmen, descending step by
step, left above them one smooth, regular slope on
each side of the pyramid (Plate VIII, i, and XII, i).
Inside, are usually found several chambers with
Herodotus, II, I25.




i82


Time of the Pharaohs


as many passages of approach; this multiplicity
may be accounted for by the successive changes
of design, for one sepulchral chamber should practically be sufficient for one Pharaoh. Visitors
who are not afraid of an uncomfortable descent
on very slippery ground, through passages low
and poorly ventilated, where the thermometer
registers 860 F. are well repaid with the peculiar
emotion excited by this pilgrimage to the tomb
of Cheops. On the north side, about forty feet
above ground, is the opening of a steep incline;
the broken outer casing exposes four enormous
limestone beams, every two propping each other
up by their bevelled tops. This buttress reproduces the triangular profile of the pyramid; its
very simple, pure lines confer an indescribable
beauty on this door to the other world (Plate X).
A hinging stone, with trap-door in the roof,'
blocked up the entrance in former times; when
it was swung around, a gallery appeared, seven
hundred feet long and three feet high. The space,
between the polished walls, was just large enough
to make it possible to slide a coffin down the incline but the visitors had to descend in a stooping
I Cf. Strabon, xvii, p. 808: "The pyramid has, on its sides, at
a moderate height, a stone that can be removed; when it is
lifted up, one sees a winding passage leading to the tomb."




Around the Pyramids


i83


posture, their feet being prevented from slipping
by grooves cut in the floor at regular intervals.
A horizontal landing is thus reached, from which
a descending passage leads to a subterranean
chamber, cut out in the rock, thirty-two yards
under ground; it was the primitive sepulchral
chamber, later abandoned. From the same landing, an ascending passage leads to the centre of
the pyramid, but three great portcullises were let
down after the day of burial, to cut off access to
it. From ancient times, treasure-seekers have
overcome the obstacle by running, above the plugblocks, a drift-way, through which visitors may
now pass. Another low passage, thirty-six yards
long, leads to a second landing from which two galleries open out. One, horizontal, and forty-one
yards long, leads to a granite chamber with a
triangular ceiling, which seems to be another
sepulchral chamber, also left unused, in consequence of the enlargement of the structure. The
other passage runs upwards and opens into a very
spacious gallery, twenty-eight feet high, seven
feet wide, and one hundred and sixty-two feet long.
The construction of the grand gallery is very
peculiar. On each side, a sort of bench or footway, twenty-four inches high, diminishes the
width by twenty inches; it has on the upper surface




184


Time of the Pharaohs


notches for the feet, a very useful device, considering the fact that the incline is very steep
and the stone bears a high polish. The coffin
was probably made to slide along on the floor of
the gallery, between these foot-ways, which were
used perhaps as tow-paths.    The roof is not
less curious than the floor; it consists of seven
courses of stone, arranged in corbels.
Owing to an optical illusion [writes Jomard],
the lines appear curved, though the front side of
every layer is vertical, and they seem to form a very
pointed arch. So high is the polish on the stone and
so finished the workmanship that many in my party
were at first inclined to think that the material was
granite or marble. The joints are almost imperceptible; a knife blade could not pass between them. The
whole construction is of exquisite finish, but no less
astonishing is the solidity of the workmanship, which
has insured its perfect preservation, in spite of the
enormous weight upon this false vault. I  (Plate
XI, 2.)
The grand gallery opens into several chambers,
composing the royal sepulchre. Here the number
of obstacles is purposely increased. A threshold,
three feet high, must be stepped over, then a low
passage leads to a vestibule, over nine feet high,


I Description..., v, p. 627. The grand gallery is in reality
built of fine limestone from Mokattam.




Gizeh.


I. The Great Pyramids of the IVth Dynasty.


8         II. The Pyramid of Ounas, Chapel and Tomb.
Plate IX.








Around the Pyramids


i85


where the portcullises were kept.  One is still
in its original place, held up about three feet
above ground by a little notch in the slide; the
other three have disappeared, or were never placed.
Why was the portcullis not lowered after the
burial? This question cannot be answered, but it
is not without anxiety that the visitor crawls along
under that mass of granite, which seems ready to
fall. Finally the funeral chamber is reached; it
is built in the axis of the pyramid, 131 feet above
ground and three hundred feet under the apex.
It is a granite blockhouse thirty-four feet long,
sixteen feet wide, and twenty feet high, built of
enormous stones, very well wrought.
The room is intact and the polish of its walls has
a high finish; the joints of the granite layers, six in
number and uniform in height, are scarcely noticeable; the roof is formed of monolithic pieces, twenty
feet long. The same thing that was noticeable in the
case of the shafts and the galleries, is to be observed
here: there are no cracks, nor can any displacement
be noticed; not one stone has slipped since it was put
in place; everything is well poised and on a level.'
In one corner is the granite sarcophagus, a
rectangular box, without any ornaments or inscriptions; the lid is lacking; the mummy and funeral


' Cf. with opinion of Petrie: A History of Egypt, i, p. 41.




I86


Time of the Pharaohs


equipment have disappeared. Above the King's
chamber, five little rooms with low ceilings have
been built, one above the other, so as to divide the
weight of the roof; they can be reached by means
of a ladder from the grand gallery (Plate XI, i).
On these blocks of masonry above the King's
chamber, the name of King Khufu (Cheops) is
found repeatedly written in red paint in the royal
cartouche. This quarry-mark confirms the traditional attribution of this pyramid to its builder.
The many precautions taken to bar access to
the pyramid prove that, as in the case of the mastabas, no one was allowed to enter after the coffin
had been put in place. The funeral service for
the king had, therefore, to be celebrated in an
exterior chapel, erected on the side of the pyramid
facing the east.  The "Horizont" of Cheops has
retained nothing of this temple, except portions of
a basalt pavement, but on the east side of the
"Great" and of the "Supreme," parts of the
walls still remain; at Sakkarah, the chapel of
Ounas (Plate XI, 2) still presents bas-reliefs and
columns of red granite. It is in the rites celebrated in these funeral temples that the true
"secret" of the pyramids lies. They have been
known to us since M. Maspero discovered in the
little pyramids of Sakkarah (Vth and VIth dynas



Gizeh.


Pyramids of Cheops and Chephrcn (northern face).
Plate X.




I




Around the Pyramids


i87


ties) the texts that are lacking in the splendid
sepulchres of Gizeh.I It is there that the explanation must be sought of these colossal monuments
which have aroused the curiosity of the world.
The pyramids are tombs; but to understand
the meaning attached to this word "tomb" by
the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom we must put
aside every modemrn idea about death, as the latter
is for us necessarily opposed to life. The Egyptians
at the dawn of history, like the non-civilised people
of our times, did not conceive of death as the
contrary of life, or of the tomb as a place of
annihilation; for them, a dead person was in a
particular state, not requiring conditions radically
different from those surrounding him during
his lifetime. Now such conditions are well
explained by primitive people. "The savage,"
writes Frazer, in his admirable book on primitive
beliefs,2 "commonly explains the processes of inanimate nature by supposing that they are produced by living beings working in or behind the
phenomena, so he explains the phenomena of life itself. If an animal lives and moves, it can only be,
' The texts quoted further on are borrowed from Maspero's
remarkable work: Les Inscriptions des pyramides de Sakkarah,
text and translation.
The Golden Bough, 2d ed., 1900, vol. i, p. 247,




i88


Time of the Pharaohs


he thinks, because there is a little animal inside
which moves it. If a man lives and moves, it can
only be because he has a little man or animal inside who moves him. The animal inside the animal,
the man inside the man, is the soul." For many of
the non-civilised, the human soul takes on the shape
and the facial characteristics of the individual,
whom it animates except that it is much smaller
than he. In like manner the Egyptians believed
that everything that lives —gods, men, animals,
trees, stones, and all objects whatsoever-encloses
its own diminutive image, which is its soul. They
called that image or projection of the individual,
Ka; we translate it as Double or Genie; the Ka
is represented as a being somewhat smaller than
the person in whom he is indwelling but in other
respects exactly like him. We must add, that,
similar in this respect to many savages of the
present day, the Egyptians adhered not only to
that conception of the soul, but also had, besides
the Double, which was closely bound up with the
body, the notion of a moving and spiritual soul,
symbolised by the Ba, a human-headed bird;
they also saw in the shadow " and in the " name"
of man other manifestations of the diminutive
soul within him.
As a consequence of this belief it followed that
life was supposed to last as long as each individual




In the Great Pyramid.


From La Description de l'Egypte.
I. Explor,,tion of the           II. The Large Ascending
Chambers.                           Gallery.
Plate XI.


I 
r". 
\"   i







Around the Pyramids


189


enjoyed the union of body and Double; yet,
during sleep, in the course of certain kinds of
illness, accompanied by fainting or unconsciousness,
the Double vanished; after sleep and swoons,
when man regained his consciousness, it was
because he recovered his Double. Now, what we
call death they regarded as but a prolonged swoon,
unconsciousness, apt to cease, whenever the
Double returned. After death, each of the two
component parts of man, body and Double, lived
on, but separately. In order to render death
harmless, it was necessary, therefore, to preserve
the body from decomposition, the dismal consequence of separation. Every effort had to be
made to keep it intact, so that the soul, its Double,
might recognise and inhabit it again on its return.
It was necessary also to provide the wandering
soul with a sheltering place; hence the necessity of funeral rites, the purpose of which was to
preserve the body and secure a safe abode for the
soul.
These notions alone would be sufficient to
explain the transcendent importance of the tomb,
life's abiding-place, according to the Egyptians;
but primitive people are rarely satisfied with such
simple conceptions. Although they dreaded the
temporary absence of the Double, which resulted
in sleep, or its prolonged absence, which resulted




I90


Time of the Pharaohs


in the unconscious life of death, the Egyptians
entertained a belief still held by many savages
at present. The parting of soul and body was
perilous only when it occurred independently,
uncontrolled by the will, but it was on the contrary a wise thing to facilitate the exit of the
Double from the body by offering it a safe abode
and by protecting it from dangers. Some tribes
entrust their souls to an animal, a plant, any
object, which thus becomes a sacred being, a
totem; other men prefer hiding the soul in a
secret place, or a fortified house, which may serve
as a tomb for the body. In Egypt, pyramids and
tombs were but such "castles for the Double,"9
built by the Pharaohs and their subjects during
their lifetime; the Doubles were expected to come
there and inhabit the statues of the living, statues
with bodies that followed a general type but with
faces bearing a resemblance to the original, like a
true portrait. The soul was thus protected against
dangers, from which the body cannot always
escape. As long as the body was living the ordinary life, it made provision for the care of its
Double, in the tomb; great dignitaries of the
court assumed the office of " slaves to the Double "
of the Pharaohs; private people secured similar
services from professional priests, by means of




Around the Pyramids


19l


contracts and endowments. In the prime of their
lives, the Egyptians seem to have been haunted
by the obsession of the tomb. To construct
from early youth the stronghold in which the
body would one day repose; to place securely
therein the statues in which the Double might
abide;! to go there on festive occasions to visit
the tomb and worship one's own Genie;2 and to
secure for this Genie full measure of protection, so
that it might escape the many vicissitudes of
wordly life-such was the ideal of a happy career
in Memphite times. When death occurred, it
was said that the body " passed over to its Double, "
an expression that seems to suggest that the latter
already inhabited the tomb.
The Egyptian tomb was, therefore, above all, the
house where resided what was most vital, most
real, most permanent in an individual. Should
we then be astonished that during a period when
this comforting belief was held by mankind, kings
and subjects wasted their wealth in order to build
imperishable dungeons, fortresses for the soul
and for the body? It was an inordinate love of
life, a desperate struggle for existence which fired
z See, for instance, Maspero's Contes populaires, 3d ed., p. 8i.
2 See Stela of Hossi, Cairo, published in Musee Egyptien, PI.
XXII.




192


Time of the Pharaohs


the minds of the pyramid-builders. In these
"eternal places of abode," where we hunt only
for death, they revelled in the hope of eternal life.
This was possible only if the body could be
revivified after having succumbed to death. If
placed in the tomb in its natural state, a rigid
corpse, subject to decomposition, instead of being
of use it was rather an encumbrance to the Double.
The problem of preserving the body by mummification was solved as early as the Memphite
period. It would be of great interest to follow up
the different stages of the process; the funeral
rites of the Thinite period, it seems, made no
provision for mummification, and are difficult to
interpret. In the very ancient tombs, crouching
and contracted corpses are found; elsewhere,
skeletons are dismembered, the heads separated
from the bodies, the bones broken, as if the deceased had been made a victim of sacrifice; or
the disjointed bones have been carefully heaped
up with the head placed on top, in order to give
a new form to the interred body. These practices,
to which rituals of later time make frequent
allusions, were abandoned at the beginning of the
Memphite Kingdom and supplanted by rites that
assured the preservation of the corpse in its




Around the Pyramids


193


entirety. We do not yet know for certain how
this change, the effects of which were so enduring,
was brought about; when the Egyptians refer to
this new method, they account for it by a divine
revelation, a benefit conferred on them by the
favour of the god Anubis.1 It is he, known as
"the Lord of swathing-bands," who is said to
have taught men the art of preventing decay by
the removal of the entrails, by means of the natron
bath and the aseptic substances, and by the use of
bandages to shield the body from contact with
the air.
The body kept free from putrefaction was but
an inert mummy, blind, deaf, and without conscience. A new revelation had been necessary
to teach men the art of restoring to the mummy
its faculties and recalling the soul that had been
set free. We find these rites established at the
end of the HId     dynasty,2 and attributed to
Osiris, "the benevolent god," "the Redeemer, ".
who benefited mankind by subjecting himself, in
advance of all others, to the test.3 It was related
that Osiris, in the time of the divine dynasties
(which ruled Egypt before the Pharaohs), had been
Maspero, Histoire, i, pp. 112 and 178.
In the tomb of Mten (end of IIId dynasty) the rites of the
Ap-ro are executed.
3 Maspero, Rituel de l'embaumement, and Historic, i, p. i8.
13




194


Time of the Pharaohs


murdered, then dismembered by his brother Set,
and that he was the first of all beings to know
death. By the magic science of his wife, Isis, of
his sister, Nephthys, of his son, Horns, of Anubis
and Thot, his allies, all the pieces of the body of
Osiris were recovered, rendered aseptic, and reconstituted into a perfect mummy. In order to
restore motion and the use of all its other faculties
to this lifeless body, Thot and Horns touched the
mouth, eyes, and ears, and unbound the arms and
legs by means of magic instruments. The soul was
still absent, held prisoner by Set. Horns and
Thot pursued the latter, who in vain entered a
bull, a gazelle, a cow, a goose, in the hope of concealing himself. From the heart of these animals,
captured and sacrificed, the soul of Osiris was
retrieved; Horns restored it to his father and by
a kiss communicated to him the breath of life.
Osiris, thus resuscitated and reunited to his soul,
became the exalted Being, surpassing all others,
because he had crossed victoriously over the
threshold of death and triumphed over the great
terror.  Such a being, able to live the perfect
life, without fearing death, from which he had been
rendered immune, is properly considered a god.1
Osiris's example was henceforth to be followed
Moret, Le Rituel du culte divin en Egypte, 1902, p. 200.




Around the Pyramids


'95


by all who live in heaven and on earth and who
some day must die. No one in heaven or on
earth is exempted from the common fate, but the
example of Osiris and the funeral rites instituted
by Horus and Thot were welcomed as a means of
attaining eternal life. Each of the gods chose to
experience death, that they might be revivified
for ever; it was their earthly son, the Pharaoh,.
who played for them the part of the "beloved
son, " opening the mouth of his father and kissing
him, to call back the soul. Every mortal might
hope, in the same way, to become a god. On the
day of the funeral, the eldest son of the family
would say that he was Horus or Thot, and would
repeat for his father the rites of the great mystery,
by virtue of which the deceased became an Osiris.
These rites are known to us, in their most
ancient form, by the texts found in the pyramids
of Sakkarah and inside the mastabas. They were
celebrated in the pyramid-chapels, which have
since fallen down, and in the mastabas, of which
thousands have been cleared (Plate XII, 2). An
important part of the funeral chamber was the
false door, out of which grew the stela. It was
supposed to lead to the other world, the residence
of the Double. Behind its solid panels, a passage
(serdab) was concealed, in which the statues of




196


Time of the Pharaohs


the Double were secluded; below the door, deep
under ground, was the sepulchral vault, into which
the mummy was to be let down. On the day of
burial, the body, wrapped in bandages, and embalmed according to the processes of Anubis, was
brought before the false door, or door-shaped
stela. All around were the chief mourners. The
wife and the sister of the deceased, acting as if
they were Isis and Nephthys, came to weep over
and take care of Osiris. The eldest son went
forth: he had purified and clothed himself in the
skin of a panther, he offered the lighted incense,
which " makes divine, " and wielded the bent iron,
which Horus used of old to open the mouth of
Osiris. Near the son stood the official priest, a
papyrus scroll in his hand, ready to prompt the
ritual words and gestures, if memory should fail
the child of the deceased (Plate XV). There were
other people officiating, and the relatives and
clients assembled, forming a kind of chorus,
intensified the effect of the words and gestures by
repeating them. Meanwhile, the sacrificers, having slain the bull, the gazelle, and the goose, moved
forward bearing the thigh, the heart, and the
head.
Then began the most important rites. Ablutions and fumigations of incense rendered the




Gizeh.


*.... l  --.   l-~?-; -:+ 411.A4t..       4


I.  West Side of the Great Pyramid.


II. A Mastaba with Two Doors.
Plate XII.








Around the Pyramids


197


body free from all physical and moral impurities:
" all that should not remain in it falls to the
ground." Then, Horus, the beloved son, pretended to open the mouth, the eyes, the ears of
his father with magic instruments; he rubbed
them with his little finger; he touched them with
the heart and the thigh of the victims, while he
chanted a psalm: "Arise, father, arise, Osiris, for
I, thy son, I, Horus, have come to thee to wash
thee, to purify thee, to restore thee to life, to
embrace thy bones, to gather together thy frame,
to embrace thy fragments; for I am Horus, remodelling his father. 1... Horus has opened thy
eye, that thou mayest see with thy eye, 2... thy
mouth has been opened, and it is Horus with his
little finger, with which he opened the mouth of
his father Osiris;3 thy eyes have been given thee
that thou mayest see, thy ears that thou mayest
hear that which goes forth from thy mouth as
words, thy legs that thou mayest walk and thy
arms that thou mayest use them. "4 And the son
embraced, with both arms, the corpse of his father,
he drew his own face to the mummified face, so
that, during this embrace, the magic vital fluid
1 Pyramide de Mirinri, 446.  2 Pyramide de Teti, 264.
3 Pyramide de Pepi, i, 590.
4 Formula of the Middle Kingdom (El-Kab).




198


Time of the Pharaohs


might pass from the living body into the corpse,
the breath of life be transmitted from mouth to
mouth. The chorus then chanted: " Horus comes,
he embraces thee, Osiris.... Thy son Horus
has struck Set, plucked out his eye with his own
hand, and he has given it to thee with thy soul,
which is enclosed in it, and thy shape, which is
likewise enclosed in it. " I
The body was now revivified and provided with
a soul. Provision had to be made to secure food
and drink for his eternal life. A table was set for
the mummy; round plates were left there, containing meat, bread, fruit, wine, beer, liquors, and
water, a copious meal, the menu of which was
inscribed at length on the walls of the tomb. A
few choice morsels were burned upon the altar
before the mummy, who was supposed to feed on
the smoke; the rest supplied the table at which
relatives and friends took their places. The feast
was accompanied by dances and songs, with the
music of flutes and harps. Words of good omen
were addressed to the new god: "Hunger, do not
attack that Osiris2... hunger is his horror, and
he does not eat it;3 thirst is his horror, and he
does not drink it. 0 gods, you have taken this
1 See texts given by A. Moret, Rituel du culte divin, p. 88.
Pyramide de Titi, 54.     3 Pyramide d'Ounas, 109.




Around the Pyramids


199


Osiris among your company; he eats of what you
eat, he lives on the things you live on... in
this land to which he repairs, he will never again
have hunger nor thirst. " 
After the repast, the mummy was once more
purified with water and incense. Now it was
left in charge of those who slid it along the low
passages, down to the deepest recess of the pyramid, or to the bottom of the mastaba. After the
plug-blocks had been lowered, the shafts filled,
this corpse was to be ever remembered by the
living. On appointed days, rather frequently,
relatives and priests met before the false door and
repeated the rites that had vivifying properties.
The mummy was no longer there, but on the
false door shaped like a stela was seen the portrait
of the deceased. Sometimes, in the recess of the
false door, is seen the upright figure of the defunct,
with the left leg advanced as if ready to descend
the flight of steps that leads to the place for
mortals; 2 sometimes half the body or the face alone
is seen emerging above the lintel;3 it seems as if
the deceased wished to look out and enjoy a talk
with his children. Very often, a narrow channel,
I Pyramide d'Ounas, 488.
2 Tomb of Mera, Sakkarah; Plate XIII, 2.
3 Tomb discovered by M. Loret at Sakkarah, Plate XIII, I.




200       Time of the Pharaohs
a slit, a few inches wide, connected the cultus
chamber with the serdab where the statues of the
Double were concealed; through this opening
passed the perfume of the incense and the smoke
of the altar, as well as the Doubles of the offerings,
which made their way to the divine dead man and
thus created about him a half ideal, half real world,
in which, henceforth, he was to spend his life
eternal.
Such were the formule and essential proceedings of that "Ap-ro" (opening of the mouth) the
first perhaps, of redemptory rituals that humanity
has known. The pyramids and mastabas became
sacred places, in which every dead man was to be
revivified as an Osiris, a living god. There for
many centuries was sung the old song, that still
consoles man: "No, thou departest not dead!
Living, thou goest to sit on the throne of the
gods. " '
The life of the Double in the pyramid or in
any other tomb, was, the Egyptians believed,
quite in line with that led before the tomb. It
was the comfortable existence enjoyed by wealthy
men on earth, but without the contingencies of
misfortune and unhappiness, inseparable from
' Pyramide d'Ounas, 206.




In the Tombs at Sakkarah.


I.  Stela, False Door, Bust, and Statues.


II. False Door and Statue of the Double (Mera).
Plate XIII.




I




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201


human destiny. The decorators of the tomb
represented the deceased seated at the table of
offerings; his wife sits or stands, with her arm
thrown round his shoulder; at his feet, his children
play with a dog or monkey. Every one is represented at a happy moment of his existence; henceforward the Double was to know life only at
its best. All around, the servants are depicted
bringing food, clothing, furniture; the manufacture
or production of each offering furnished a theme
to the decorator. To explain the presentation
of the ox's thigh, he set forth animals at pasture,
the bull leaping the cow, the calf new born, and
varied scenes of husbandry, up to the sacrifice
of the animal; the offering of bread is accompanied
by processes of ploughing, harvesting, and baking;
the offering of wine gave an opportunity to reproduce the vineyards and the vintage; if the
offering consisted of game, whether beast or bird,
hunting-scenes in the desert were depicted; if
of fish, the artist introduced fishermen with hook
and nets (Plate XIV). Every piece of the funeral
equipment, naos, coffin, vases, clothing, jewels,
might bring about the description of the manufacturing processes; carpenters, founders, weavers,
jewellers, etc.,I are seen at their work. Even the
'Maspero, Etudes egyptiennes, i, p. 80.




202


Time of the Pharaohs


purchasing of provisions at market and household
accounts led to a decorative commentary. The
soul and the body of the deceased were supposed
to be active participants in the actuality of the
depicted scenes; the acts engraved on the wall
might become real; every figure representing a
being or an object might recruit its Double and
become alive, at the wish of the god, who resided
in the tomb.
This ideal of existence satisfied the Egyptians
for several centuries, then lost its interest for
them and seemed unsatisfactory. We can follow
this evolution of ideas by reading the formula,
changing from age to age, on the funeral stele.
At the beginning of the IVth dynasty "goodly
offerings and a goodly burial-place in the West"
were the only requests addressed to the gods
Anubis and Osiris, the patrons of the dead. But
soon, a longing for the outside world overcame
the entombed being.   The Osirian rites had
made a god of the dead man, and gods live
in heaven.   The good sepulchre, offered by
the pyramid or mastaba, was expected to ensure to the soul, not only an impenetrable shelter, but also a starting-point for the journey
to those celestial regions which we call Paradise.
The texts of the pyramids of Sakkarah show




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203


that significant evolution already at its termination. Through what stages has the soul passed
in travelling from the necropolis to heaven?
The funeral stell  furnish us an answer as
yet incomplete.
As soon as we read that the defunct wishes
"to wander on the lovely paths of the West,'
where the liegemen of Osiris are wandering," it.
becomes evident that the soul is weary of its
sepulchral seclusion. The paths of the West led
to mysterious countries, where the beautiful goddess Amentit (the West) welcomed the Double
with an offering of bread and water; if he ate and
drank, he became the friend of the gods and went
on with them. Then the defunct "traverses the
fine paths accompanied by its Double; the god
takes him by the hand and leads him along upon
the sublime ways. " Now he arrived at the frontier of heaven. Towards the East, there was a
ladder; the gods held it firmly; the soul climbed
up unafraid and found at the very top Horus and
Set, who drew it into heaven.2 If there was no
ladder, a ship appeared, which was to conduct
the soul to the celestial banks, where an obliging
I This quotation and the following are taken from stela of the
Vth and VIth dynasties.
2Pyramide d'Ounas, 493; de Pipi, i, i9i; de Pepi, ii, 974.




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Time of the Pharaohs


god facilitated the landing. 1 A third way of
teaching the desired goal is exemplified when
the bird-soul flies to heaven,2 or when the ibis,
Thot, takes the soul on his wings and bears it to
heaven. As soon as the soul had safely arrived,
the gods gave it welcome: "Open the gates of
heaven," they said eagerly, "accept this Osiris
among you, that he may have eternal life."3
In heaven, various destinies were accorded to
the Double made divine. Each destiny brings
to mind a conception of Paradise, held in former
times by people of this or that town, which was
later more generally applied and made acceptable
to all Egyptians. The most cherished was that
the soul inhabited a fertile country, located by the
theologians of former times on the path followed
by the sun during the night. Fields, lakes,
islands, villages, and summer-houses were found
there; strong gates and an iron wall guarded it.
It was something like the laeta arva of the Eneid,
"an idealised Egypt with its Nile, its lakes, its
luxuriant vegetation and over all plentiful harvests."4 It was called Sekhet Ialu, "land of the
I Pyramide de Pepi, 650.    2 Pyramide d' Ounas, 571.
3 Pryamide de Pepi, i, 196.
4 Cf. Lef6bure, " Le paradis 6gyptien," in the Review, Sphinx,
ii, p. 195, where are quoted the pyramidal texts relating to these
conceptions of Paradise.,




Sakkarah.


AcssA-; _s.i lV     -I
Bas-Reliefs of a Funeral Chamber (Phtahhetep).
Plate XIV.




I




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205


reeds," in imitation of a certain region of the
Delta, towards Peluze, in the ancient kingdom of
Buto. At no great distance extended another
Paradise, "the country of the offerings" (Sekhet
hotpu). There destiny was still more propitious.
In the fields of Ialu, the soul was to cultivate its
garden; in the fields of the offerings, it found the
table all set; this was due to the Doubles of the
earthly offerings, which also took the heavenly
road, provided they were burned or broken, thus
insuring their liberation. Offerings reached the
Sekhet hotpu, either along with the deceased, or in
the boat which carried the Sun around the world.
To sail in the solar barge, encircling with Ra the
daily and nightly heaven, while managing the
oars or the rigging, to be one of the crew, composed of the stellar gods, this was the most enviaable, glorious, immaterial destiny. The soul to
which it was accorded, left the earth joyfully,
steered across the sky, like a Luminous Spirit,
(Khou), among the circumpolar constellations of
the North, those   called  the "Imperishable"
(Akhemou sekou), because they never disappear
from the visible sky. The Egyptians observed
them to determine the hours, especially Ursa
Major; it was said of the soul that it dwelt in the
land of the hours (Ounit), that it "governed the




206


Time of the Pharaohs


night and guided the hours," thus ruling over
space and time.'
In the following ages, these ideas furnished
the Egyptians the material for subtle metaphysics and were copiously expounded in theological
treatises, such as The Book of the Dead and The
Book of what there is in Hlades. At the time of the
pyramids, however, their aspect was incomplete
and rather material. What was the best, most
desirable Paradise had not yet been settled: the
soul preferred testing them, one after the other.
That is why the wish could be formulated that
the deceased might enjoy these different manifestations of Paradise, in succession or simultaneously:
His heart has been given back to this Osiris, and
when he gets to heaven, Anubis comes to meet him,
Seb extends his hand to him. Thou arisest, thou perfumest thyself with incense in the lake of Hades, thou
purifiest thyself with offerings in the Fields of Ialu,
thou sailest in the heavens, and thou lingerest daily
in the Field of Offerings, among the gods. Sit down
on my throne of iron, for thou hast taken thy white
mace, and thy flail, thou givest laws to the gods...
then thou takest thy course, thou sailest about thy
lake, like Ra along the banks of heaven. Arise,
and pass on, Luminous Spirit.2
I Pyramide d'Ounas, i, 643. Cf. Lef6bure, "Le pays des
heures," Sphinx, iv, p. 8.
a Pyramide de Ppi, i, 1145 and following.




Around the Pyramids


207


Within the course of a few centuries, the human
soul had moved onward, from the humble ditch
dug in the sand of the desert to the starred fields
of heaven. "The soul in heaven, the body to the
earth, " such was the expression for life beyond the
tomb, at the time of the pyramids. Yet the soul,
impelled to celestial joys, retained the privilege
of descending to earth, to its own tomb so propitious to material joys. In its bird-like form
it flew back to the sepulchre, perched upon the
trees of its domains, passed through the dumb
wells leading to the coffin; now, resting on the
heart of the mummy,' it seemed to contemplate
its former earthly shape, reminding it of a time
when it knew nothing as yet about sublime dwellings and the heavenly life of the gods.2
It has been noticed that the dead man made
divine found in heaven a fraternal welcome: the
gods stretched out their hands to the man coming
forward; moreover, he took his seat on a throne,
wielded mace and sceptre, and announced his
imperative will to the gods; admitted as a brother,
he played the part of master. This point is most
' The bird is represented with a human head and two hands
lying on the mummy's heart.
2 After the pictures on funeral papyri.




208


Time of the Pharaohs


characteristic of the religious conceptions prevalent at. the time of the pyramids: man did not
want to " deserve " heaven, he entered it by
cunning and stayed there by force.
What gave man this might, equal or even
superior to that of the celestial beings? It was
the powerful art of magic. Memphite Egypt was
still at that stage of civilisation where man did not
thoroughly differentiate his own nature from that
of beings superior to himself, whom he located
in heaven. In the other world, as in this one,
every being possessed a body, a soul, a Double,
submitted to the same good or ill luck, sensitive
to the same influences; of course, the inhabitants
of heaven were of more enduring essence, yet
they had first to experience death in order to
become bona fide gods; they realised eternal life
only after Osiris had revealed to them the means
of attaining it. Now man could also have the
benefit of the Osirian rites; he considered himself,
therefore, equal to those superior beings, who
escaped annihilation only by virtue of the same
rites; the texts of the pyramids repeat over and
over again that the deceased acts and lives like a
god.
Of what use was it, then, to pray to the gods?
The texts of the Old Kingdom do not contain any




Around the Pyramids           209
prayer; man did not implore the gods; he asked
them kindly for their help and friendly aid; having become an Osiris, he considered himself of the
same blood and wanted to be received as a brother.
In case the gods proved hostile, man possessed
the means of destroying their resistance. Magic
had taught him the secret relations of beings and
of things; its laws were applicable in heaven, as
well as on earth, since gods and men were of the
same nature and subject to the same needs.
Therefore, that Osiris with whom man identified
himself, owed his resurrection to magic; ever since
his mouth and eyes had been opened, he possessed
the creating power of the Word and the fascinating
power of the eyes. Similar to the Demiurges, who
created the universe by seeing beings and by
naming things, the sound of his voice called into existence all that he desired and annihilated
all that he hated.  When, therefore, the deceased arrived in heaven, he could boast to all
comers that his power was equal or even superior to the power of any other god. By way of
precaution, the priest officiating on the day of
the funeral used to read an incantation, in
which the deceased accosted the inhabitants of
heaven and bragged that he could subdue them
by terrifying threats:
I4




:10


Time of the Pharaohs


The heavens melt into water, the stars are waging
war, Sagittarius goes his round, the bones of Akerou
[constellations] tremble when they see Ounas eating
men and feeding on gods.... The genii have bound
the gods for Ounas, they have fettered them, they
have cut their throats, emptied their entrails and
cooked them in their burning kettles. It is Ounas
who devours their magic and eats their spirits, and
the great among them are for Ounas's repast in the
morning, the medium among them are for his roast,
the small among them are for Ounas's evening meal,
the old among them, gods as well as goddesses, are
for his furnace.... For Ounas is mighty among
the powerful; what he finds along the road, he eats
greedily,... he has eaten the wisdom of every god. '
What god would resist this all-ravaging ogre?
This formidable power each man believed resident
within himself, provided the rites had been faultlessly executed, and he boasted of it in his epitaphs:
"I am a Luminous Spirit, initiated and well
equipped, a magician who knows [the power of]
his mouth!" 2 This megalomania went so far that
the deceased, on meeting the supreme god, Ra,
cried out: "When Pepi went to heaven, he found
Ra in front of him... and Ra knows that Pepi
is greater than he, for Pepi is more luminous than
the most Luminous, more initiated than the
x Pyramide d'Ounas, 496 and following.
2 Inscription of Hirkouf, VIth dynasty (Elephantine).




Around the Pyramids


211I


Initiates. "'1 Thus the god bore the reputation of
being susceptible to the terror inspired by the suggestions of a rival who "bluffed" without shame.
One may readily believe that the gods were on
their guard against the dead, and implacably
repulsed or even sent to the block2 those who
arrived in heaven with inadequate knowledge of
magic. Woe unto the man who had not at his
command the dreaded formulae: "When men
receive their burial with quantities of bread, and
thousands of mugs of beer, on the table of Khontamenti, the flesh is miserable which has no script
[no scroll].... The script of Ounas is sealed with
the great seal, and verily his script is not under
the little seal."3 On the other hand, "He who
knows this chapter of Ra and executes those
magic formulae of Horus, is acceptable to Ra,
he is the friend of Horus." 4 Man had no illusions.
He knew that entrance into heaven would be due
neither to his own merit, nor to the benevolence
of the gods. "0 Pepi, if thy soul is among the
Luminous Spirits, it is because the fear of thee
agitates their hearts5... it is because of [the
power of] thy book over their hearts."  Any trick
x Pyramide de Pepi, i, 91.  2Pyramide de Teti, 234.
3 Pyramide d'Ounas, 582.  4Pyramide de Pepi, ii, 658.
s Pyramide de Pepi, i, 20.




212


Times of the Pharaohs


against the gods was considered fair; at the beginning of the VIth dynasty, there was brought to
the court a dancing dwarf of the Danga race,
settled in the region of the upper Nile. This
dwarf had created such a sensation among the
Pharaohs that the gods in heaven were expected
to be no less curious to see him, nor less kind in
their welcome. That is why King Pepi does not
hesitate to cheat the credulous genii, who ferry
his soul over the lake of heaven: "Let me pass,
says he, I am the Danga who dances before the
god and rejoices the heart of Osiris." Owing to
this stratagem, the soul of the king gained admission at once.'
This Paradise, entered by force and cunning,
had, however, become after centuries, the abiding
place of truth and justice, to which access was
obtained after the soul had victoriously stood the
well-known Judgment before Osiris. The change
may be noticed even at the time of the pyramids.
In the very same texts, in which the power of
magic is credited with so many brutal triumphs
the idea was germinating that eternal life should
be achieved not by force or wile but by merit.
The human soul has always been intricate and
'Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie, ii, p. 429 (Pyramide de Pipi,
i, 400; de Mirinri, 570).




Around the Pyramids


213


divided in its aspirations. At the same time that
Osiris taught men the invincible power of magic,
he made manifest to them moral conscience; he
himself represented not only the lucky vanquisher
of death, one who accidentally escaped it, he was
likewise " the god who loves justice. "
In the beginning, Osiris acted as judge for a
very practical reason. Those who ensured, at
great cost, a perpetual service of offerings to their
Doubles took care to prevent robbery by calling
possible robbers before the bench of the priests of
Osiris, " patron of cemeteries. " " If somebody
should enter this tomb for an evil purpose, that is,
to rob like a bird of plunder, he will be brought
to judgment by the great god, master of heaven,
in the place where justice is given. " Beforehand,
the deceased justified himself against reproaches,
by making his own panegyric serve as a testimony
of mortality. "I am," he said, "the beloved of
my father, the darling of my mother, a man devoted to his brothers and servants; I have given
food to the starving, clothes to the naked; I have
been a father to the orphan, a husband to the
widow, a support to the aged, I have enshrouded
him who had no son. Never have I given cause
for complaint to any one."' Such assertions are
' Texts of the IVth and VIth dynasties.




214


Time of the Pharaohs


especially interesting from a moral point of view,
but they assume here the form of an anticipated
pleading before a tribunal of this world. This justification is inspired by a more generally accepted
sentiment and is of deeper significance when we
come across such expressions as: "I have told
every day the truth the god loves. " I The progressive development of this idea led to the conclusion
that Osiris preferred the righteous and just man;
the defunct would, therefore, point out that his
conduct was in keeping with Osiris, for he would
be the more assured of enjoying eternal life if
he had lived in accordance with the dictates of
justice.
To ascertain whether the defunct was the
righteous man he professes to be, an inquest was
necessary, and only after he had successfully
passed this test was he to obtain access to Paradise.  Thus originated the idea of a Judgment
of the dead, conducted by the gods of the Osiride family. Messrs. Erman and Lefebure2 have
pointed out the distinctive interest attached to
certain very short texts, found in the pyramids,
where the idea of judgment is merely mentioned
but not yet developed. " Ounas possesses creative
' Lepsius, Denkmaler, ii, 8I.
2 AEgyptische Zeitschrift, i893, p. 75.




Around the Pyramids


215


power commensurate with his doings.' Tefen
and Tefnouit examine him; Mait (the truth)
listens to him; Shu stands as witness; Mait decrees
that he may wander all over the world and go
where he likes.... Ounas comes forth to-day as
a living soul. Justice is what he takes along with
him. "2 Thus the magic power of the creating
Word was made dependent in Ounas's case on the
merit of his actions. Of course it must always
be remembered that a magic formula, appropriately introduced, could affect the balance of the
scales of justice in favour of the defunct, should
his conscience prove too heavy for him to be
admitted to the other world. It is true, nevertheless, that from that time truth held a higher
place in the estimation of the Egyptians. In the
Theban period are found, in the liturgic books,
the following words of a truly Biblical character
in reference to men called to live in Paradise:
"Those who have practised justice when on earth
are called to the abode of the Joy of the World,
the palace where one lives by Justice. "
Why should we be surprised that the men who
were first confronted with religious problems
should have entertained such contradictory ideas


11 Sphinx, viii, P. 34.


2 Pyramide d'Ounas, 453,




216


Time of the Pharaohs


about Ethics and Magic, about will and conscience?
After thousands of years, men are still divided
on the same questions. Similar antimonies draw
us nearer to the contemporaries of the Pharaohs,
instead of separating us from them.
Such general ideas about the meaning of life,
the purpose of the universe and of man were in
process of formation in Egypt during the fourth
millennium before our era. We may apply to
Egypt what Fustel de Coulanges said after his
study of primitive civilisations among the IndoEuropean people: "Perhaps it was at the sight
of death that man conceived, for the first time,
the idea of the supernatural, and entertained the
hope that there might be something beyond that
which was visible. Death was the first mystery
and opened to him the way to the other mysteries.
Death raised his thought from the visible to the
invisible, from what is transitory to what is eternal,
from the human to the divine. "' 
Such men as Cheops and Pepi knew how to
give to the conceptions of their contemporaries a
tangible and everlasting form, in erecting the
pyramids, or citadels, which, with all their mighty
weight, protected the bodies, and with their formidable height aspired to reach the sky. Herodo14 La CWit4 antique, chap. ii.




Around the Pyramids


2I7


tus speaks of these kings as tyrants who crushed  /
their people in order to build vainglorious tombs,
monuments of pride and egoism. Such a view-        J
point is not supported by fact. In the eyes of their
contemporaries, the Pharaohs were rather bene- h
factors, who put great ideas into tangible form
and enabled a whole nation to conquer Paradise.
They could not have carried on their labours
during several centuries and achieved such colossal
results had they not been supported by popular
enthusiasm, similar to that, which, less than nine
centuries ago, promoted the construction of the
European cathedrals. The beautiful lines of
Sully Prudhomme describe a mason who died,
despised, while building the pyramid and crying
out in vain:
Il monte, il va, cherchant les dieux et la justice..
(" He climbs, he mounts, seeking gods and
justice....")
Yet, this is not the complaint of a victim, it is
the clamour of a whole primitive nation, a cry
of hope, of fear, of will, rejoicing that a way to
heaven has been forced open by the triangular
apex of the pyramid.




CHAPTER V


"THE BOOK OF THE DEAD"
IN the time of the pyramids (4000 B.C.), the
Pharaohs in Memphis had already a complete
system of philosophy relative to the hereafter;
but only the members of their family and their
favourites shared with them the privilege of
immortality; it was necessary to be a "friend of
the King" to enjoy a tomb consecrated by those
mortuary rites which assured life everlasting.
After a few centuries, however, we see the redemptive doctrines extended from the narrow circle of
the court to the entire Egyptian society. Such
funeral texts as had been used exclusively for the
kings of the VIth dynasty (three thousand years
before our era), were more generally applied and
are found engraved in the tombs or on the coffins
of ordinary citizens.
A paradise which all might attain, bestowed so
unexpectedly, gave rise to anxieties unknown
before. The honour of obtaining divine life, of
2I8




"The Book of the Dead"


219


being identified with Osiris, the god of life and
death, was rather dangerous. The Osirian deceased partook of the peril as well as the glory
of the Good Being; he was confronted by the
attacks of all the enemies of Osiris and was beset
by the wiles of the wicked. It became necessary
to protect him, to shield his body, and endow his
soul with magic defence; hence the mummification
of innumerable corpses and the countless papyrusscrolls, called The Book of the Dead, laid near them
for their protection, in every Egyptian necropolis.
The problem of preserving the body from decomposition had been easily solved by the embalmers; Herodotus' describes them at work thus:
First, they draw the brains through the nostrils,
partly by means of a bent iron, partly by means of
drugs introduced in their heads. Next, they make
an incision in the stomach with a sharp Ethiopian
stone; through this opening they draw the intestines,
clean them and pass them through palm-wine, then
again through aromatic substances; next, they fill
the stomach with myrrh, cinnamon and other perfumes, then sew it up again. This done, they put the
corpse in salt, and cover it with natron for seventy
days. At the end of this period, they wash the body
and swathe it in linen bandages.
An examination of the mummies shows that the
HII., 86.




220


Time of the Pharaohs


many swathing-bands were, indeed, a kind of
protective armour. After the body had been
anointed with holy oil, the cavities of stomach and
abdomen were filled not only with aromatic substances but also with statuettes and amulets. A
wax plate, stamped with a symbolic eye, was
used to protect the wound in the side. The face
and fingers were gilded, so that the virtue of the
indestructible metal might enter the body. On
the breast, a heart-shaped figure marked the seat
of the soul; scarab, hawk, and ureus were meant
to protect the trunk and forehead; all over and
along the body little figures were stationed, like
vigilant sentinels. Linen pads were then placed
over the body to give symmetry to the contours,
and a second wrapping, loose or tight, fashioned
the head, bust, and legs. A large shroud, fastened
with a piece of linen, bound the forehead, and,
crossing over the chest, was adorned with a figure
of Osiris worshipped by the deceased.
This equipment, however, afforded no protection until the priests had recited certain formule.
There is a "ritual of embalming" telling us about
the name, use, and prophylactic properties of every
bandage and of every statuette. Properly interpreted these various articles are not linen, statues,
or spices: they are living gods, Isis, Nephthys,




"The Book of the Dead"


221


Horus, Thot, who, under the appearance of oil,
swathing, and amulets, surround the mummy with
their arms, defend it with their bodies and with
all their supernatural strength.
As a means of defence, this corpse, inhabited by
the gods, had the formulae engraved on the walls
or along the sides of the sarcophagus; the lines
of inscriptions were arranged so that the eyes of
the mummy might read them easily. During the
era of the New Theban Kingdom (about 1500 B.C.),
when the coffins, being adapted exactly to the
contours of the mummy, took on the " anthropoid "
shape, the decorator no longer found a space
suitable for inscribing the verses of the ritual.
There was, therefore, slipped into the cardboard
sarcophagus a roll of papyrus containing a more
or less complete collection of the necessary texts.
The substitution in turn of the coffin for the tomb,
then of the papyrus for the coffin thus afforded
rich and poor alike, the benefit of the formulae
of salvation. This Book of the Dead is found by
the thousands deposited near the mummies.
Now, in the course of the three thousand years
which separated the Theban coffins from the
Ptolemaic papyri, the make-up of such collections varied just as much as their outward form.
The first collection known, that of the pyramids,




222


Time of the Pharaohs


comprises four hundred and fifty-three chapters.
Only a few of them were transcribed in the Theban
period, and, out of the newer texts written on the
coffins, many enjoyed but a passing vogue and are
not to be met again in the papyri. About the
time of the Psamteks (600 B.C.), the Egyptians
perceived the necessity of arranging these sacred
texts in some definite order; a choice was made of
one hundred and sixty-five chapters, classified in an
arbitrary manner, which was followed, nevertheless, by the later copyists. The best copy of this
revised edition is a papyrus, twenty-one yards
long, preserved in the Museum of Turin and
published by Lepsius. The chapters are arranged
in vertical lines with headings carefully indicated
in red ink, and with delicately traced ornamentations in black or coloured outlines, serving as a
commentary on the text.
Such a book could not be dispensed with as the
dead had to recite it in order to obtain eternal
life. The undertakers had it for sale, in complete
or abridged copies, with or without the ornamental
vignettes, ready for use; as the name of the dead
had to be repeated in each chapter, a blank space
was left for its insertion by the purchaser. Most
of these cheap editions are quite incorrect: the
words are badly spelled or have been carelessly




" The Book of the Dead "


223


transcribed; some sentences have been omitted,
others are repeated; there is a want of precision.
These blunders prove that the copyist did not
understand this very ancient ritual. The sacred
books, indeed, teem with allusions to mythical
events, with names that are unusual and figures
that need quite a commentary to be properly
interpreted. These enigmas puzzled the theologians of the Theban period as much as they
puzzled us. They added to the text annotations,
often contradictory, which the scribes copied
haphazardly. It is interesting for us to see the
priests thus at work in an attempt to interpret
the texts of a hoary age, texts which were already
corrupted.
The texts in the pyramids teach the rites that
redeem man from death and ensure his continuance of life in the grave and in heaven. They
do not give directions how to find the right way
to paradise, how to overcome foes and obstacles,
and how to stand the test of the Last Judgment.
Sage advice and practical information about this
matter was to be gathered from the different
chapters of The Book. The man who knew the
formule, when in the flesh, had nothing to dread
after death. "He who sayeth this chapter and
who hath been purified in water of natron, he




224


Tirne of the Pharaohs


shall come forth by day, after his burial; he shall
accomplish all the transformations his heart suggests to him, he shall come forth from every fire,
in sooth."  But the placing of the salvation text
on the mummy was sufficient: "Chapter to be
written, with sticky ink and in colour, on a roll
of royal papyrus, to be suspended about the
mummy on the day of burial. With this talisman round his neck, the defunct is among the
gods... he is a god for ever."' 2 As a rule the
defunct himself was supposed to speak, to recite
the text, and to fight against his enemies. Yet
it was considered sufficient to insure the mummy
from running any risk whatever if the priest read,
at the time of the funeral, from a copy of The
Book. Woe unto the unwise man who was buried
without The Book! "He who knoweth not this
chapter cannot come forth by day."3
The Book of the Dead is divided into four parts.
The last is a hodge-podge of all sorts of magical
prescriptions; the first three parts guide the
defunct from earth to heaven, by various ways
and by means of diverse doctrines. As a compilation of that sort must necessarily be incoherent,
there was placed at the beginning of the three
'Chap. XX.   2Chap. CI.    3 Chap. LXXXVI.




Tomb of Phtahnefer.


Cliche of E. Brugsch.
The Funeral Ceremony.
Plate XV.








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225


divisions a synthetic chapter, the Ist, XVIIth, and
LXIVth, where is found a symbolic explanation
of the destinies of the soul and, as it were, a
summary of The Book.
First Part.
Above the chapters from I to XVI, the vignettes depict the funeral. Priests and mourningwomen are represented with appropriate gestures
around the sarcophagus; the procession, ready to
cross the Nile, is getting into the bark pell-mell
with the offerings, the animals which are to be
sacrificed, and the mummy. When all have
arrived before the tomb, the mummy is set up on
a heap of sand and the bull is cut up; a priest,
wearing as a mask a dog's head, plays the part of
Anubis, and opens the mouth of the defunct, while
repeating the rites which will make of him a living
god. On the other side of the coffin, the deceased
is now seen resuscitated, freed from his wrappings;
he bends his knee before Ra and gets into the
celestial bark.
The heading of Chapter I implies, indeed, that it
was to be recited on the day of the funeral. To
be well received by Osiris, the defunct declared
boldly that he was Thot, Horus, or one of those
who had fought for the god, when his body torn
IS




226


Time of the Pharaohs


to pieces had to be snatched from the typhons.
The defunct also asserted that he filled different
priestly offices: he had gone through all the
degrees of initiation; his purity and holiness were
evident; on the day of judgment "'no sin of his
was found in the balance"; he will, therefore,
enter the gates of paradise and sit at the table of
the gods. In these texts, as in those of the
pyramids, the defunct tried to abuse the gods
with impudent declarations. The recital of the
following chapters enabled the defunct to live
after death; to travel over the earth, the region
of cemeteries (the Amenti), and heaven, without
being stopped by his enemies; as for the serpent,
Apophis, its cunning could be baffled by the spell
of a wax figure, and it was finally stamped under
the feet of the victorious soul. As a conclusion,
the soul intoned a hymn to Ra: "I have come
unto the land of Eternity;... I steer my way
across the sky.... Hail to thee, Father of the
gods, may thy radiant face be favourable unto
me!"
Second Part.
Now we are at the gates of the other world.
Chapter XVII, the most important of the whole
collection, introduces the second part. The vignette shows us the defunct in company with the




" The Book of the Dead "


227


great gods. The text assumes the ambitious
task of "resuscitating the spirits." Speaking,
himself, as he does in Chapter I, the defunct
boasts that he is the Creator of the Universe
under his manifold aspects; he reveals to us the
origin of the world, also man's destiny, leading
him from earth towards heaven, provided that
the good and the right triumph in him on the day
of the Last Judgment. Each sentence in this
chapter is first presented in a concise, summarised
form. In some coffins of the XIth dynasty, such
condensed formulae are given without any further
development; but even in this remote period, the
literal meaning of the words was beyond the
intelligence of the common people; the theologians had to append to each clause of the sentence
a commentary, in the form of questions and
answers. This glossary was sometimes found
obscure, and required a second and even a third
explanation; it is in this triple equipment of
critical commentary that the Saite Recension has
kept for us the XVIIth chapter.
The deceased, now informed about the mysteries, musters all his energy for future combats
and for the great test of judgment. He entreats
Thot to grant him the magic voice that sounds
right, speaks true, and destroys error; this power




228


Time of the Pharaohs


shall be his own if "the crown of creative voice"
is placed upon his head. Meanwhile, the gods
open his mouth with the sacred implement of iron,
by which Osiris's eyes and mouth were forced
open; one by one, magic charms, conscience, will,
and heart are given him. A battle must be fought
immediately against the typhonic animals, crocodiles, serpents, tortoises, and red asses, which
seek to devour the "magic" of the deceased, in
order to overcome and annihilate him; but he
brandishes his spear and thrusts it at the crocodiles, which pitifully turn away their heads. He
nails tortoises and serpents to the ground and
pierces the reptiles even when they have taken
refuge on the back of the ass. To fight against the
monsters he uses deceit; for instance, he shouts
to the crocodile: "Get thee back, crocodile, for
I live by reason of the magical words which I have
by me; that which thou hatest is in my belly; I
have eaten Osiris's neck; I am Set." Elsewhere,
he must assert just the contrary: " I am Ra, I am
Osiris," and he also boasts that each part of his
body is a living god, able to defend himself:
" There is not one of his limbs that is not a
god... he cannot be seized by the arm, nor
held back by the hands; neither men nor gods,
nor shades, nor the dead, no one can do him




"The Book of the Dead"


229


violence. " ' He escapes, also, from those who
attempt to cut off his head or to poison him with
filth: "That which is an abomination unto me,
I do not eat; the abomination is filth; I do not
eat filth; I live upon bread and beer."2
Now the end of the ordeal approaches: Toum
appears, carrying in his hand the inflated sail,
symbolic of the breath of life; Nouit, the fair
goddess of the sycamore, comes forth from the
tree to offer him bread and water: " 0 thou,
sycamore tree of Noult," cries out the deceased,
"grant me the water which dwelleth in thee," and
after receiving his libation, he says: "I open the
gates of heaven, I have passed through the doors
of the earth."
Third Part.
Chapter LXIV, at the beginning of the third
part, claims to give "in a single chapter the
rites of coming forth by day"; it is an attempt
at synthesis, probably recent. There are found,
in more obscure form and without explanatory
commnent, the general ideas already expounded in
Chapter XVII: the origin of the Universe; the
destiny of man. "Stretch out your arms unto me,
ye gods, who have proceeded from my mouth,"


I Chap. XLIL.


2 Chap. LIL.




230


Time of the Pharaohs


cries out the deceased; " I rise again whole; I soar
to the sky, I hover above the earth.... I have
entered the sanctuary, I come forth a Luminary, I
shall look upon the forms of men for ever. He
who knoweth this chapter, he possesseth the
creative voice upon earth and in the other world;
he taketh on all the forms of the living. This
chapter was found in Hermopolis upon a block of
iron and of alabaster inscribed in letters of lapis,
under the feet of the god (Thot), in the time of
King Mycerinus, by the royal prince Hordidiff,
when he was journeying about to make an inspection of the temples; it contained a hymn that put
the prince in ecstasy. He brought it to the King
with rapture, as soon as he had knowledge of this
great mystery...
The thing that Thot revealed to men through
the agency of a holy man in rapture was the
possibility of "coming forth by day," i.e., of
living again, after death, all the forms of life.
The gates of heaven and earth were opened to
the deceased; we see him proceeding on his way
and, with a gold walking-stick in his hand, wandering among gods and men. A series of very old
chapters ' has preserved for us the names of a cycle
of popular divinities whose forms the deceased
t Chaps. LXXVI-LXXXVIII.




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231


liked to assume. Such divinities were typified by
animals, the hawk, the phenix, the heron, the
swallow, the goose, the serpent, and the crocodile;
also by plants, like the lotus flower. To live again
under these forms was tantamount to identifying
oneself with the local gods; the latter, indeed,
filled the place once occupied by the totemic
animals of primitive Egypt. Possibly we have
here a conception of the remotest antiquity,
antedating by many years, the solar and Osirian
theories;' the future life, according to this conception, is still nothing more than a metempsychosis, a migration of the soul into beings and
things.  But soon The Book brings us back to
divinities of more recent time.
In addressing the gods of Heliopolis and
Abydos, the deceased no longer conceives of the
future life as a migration into a divine form: he
reverts to the more human ideal of paradise, to
the conception of a life lived in the rich, luxuriant
meadows of the Elysian Fields. Owing to the
help of Thot and Anubis, he does not mistake his
way; now, we see him on the bank of the infernal
river: he finds there a boat ready to take him
over; yet the Egyptian Charon, sitting at the
' Cf. Wiedeman, " Quelques remarques sur le culte des animaux
en Egypte," ap. Museon, 1905 p. 123.




232


Time of the Pharaohs


rudder, and the boat itself ask him questions;
if he can tell the names of the god and of each part
of the skiff, he will prove by his answers that he
knows the formulae necessary for his salvation:
"0 thou guardian of the mysterious boat, I
hasten, I hasten, I come to see my father Osiris."
"Tell me my name," saith the Hull.
"Darkness is thy name."
"Tell me my name," saith the Mast.
" He who leadeth the great goddess on her way
is thy name."
"Tell me my name," saith the Sail.
" Nouit (the heaven) is thy name..
" He who knows this chapter, he shall enter the
Elysian Fields; bread and beverages shall be
given unto him, and he shall eat of the barley and
wheat, seven cubits high, which the servants of
Horus shall reap for him... and he shall come
forth from the Elysian Fields in any form he
pleaseth." I
After an invocation to the Spirits of the East
and of the West, the deceased enters paradise;
the vignettes show us its fertile fields, still unploughed or covered with huge crops; a river is
winding through them and sunlight and water,
spreading over them, effectually fertilise the soil.2


I Chap. XCIX.


2 Chap. CX.




" The Book of the Dead"


233


There is no longer any reptile there, nor any dangerous fish, nor anything to be dreaded. The
chosen ones "were sitting down peacefully on
the bank of the water, in the shade of the tall,
evergreen trees, and they breathed the cool
breeze of the North. They fished with the line
among the lotus flowers, they got in a boat
and had their servants tow them along; or,
sometimes, they deigned to paddle themselves
and they drifted about, slowly, on the canals;
they hunted the birds in the thickets, or retired
under their painted kiosks to read stories, or
play draughts, or meet their wives ever young
and ever fair.",
According to the oldest beliefs, the dead gave
some of his leisure to work: he would hold the
arms of the plough drawn by two oxen, cut the
wheat with the scythe, and pluck the stalks of flax
by handfuls. But soon, a formula of The Book
rendered it unnecessary for him to do any task;
it had to be placed on one of those statuettes of
wood or glazed earth that are found by the
thousands in every necropolis. They represent a
man standing, his body compressed in a mummy
sheath, his hands placed against his breast.
t Maspero, Histoire, i, p. 194, according to the vignettes in
The Book of the Dead.




234


Time of the Pharaohs


Taking the posture of a soldier with his piece at
port arms, he holds the hoe, the spade, and bag of
seeds, that are the invariable accompaniments of
field-labour. These statuettes were supposed to
represent the servants that any man, even the
poorest, might summon in the next world; they
were called " answerers " (oushaibtiou) because
they answered the biddings of the deceased: "0
thou, answerer, if thou be called in the service
of the Osiris N..., to do any task connected
with the labours which are to be undertaken in the
underworld, such as tilling the fields, filling the
water-courses, bringing the sand from the East
to the West, (answer): 'I am here, I am here. ' "'
In former times, during the Memphite period,
access to paradise and all its material joys was
granted to any one, good or bad, who knew the
formulae. Later, the destiny of man was made
dependent upon his morality. Therefore, in the
following chapters, the deceased proceeds towards
Abydos, knocking at the door of the realm of
Justice, and coming before the assessors of Osiris
to confess the purity of his conscience: "I have
come, as a perfect shade, to cause Justice to rise
toward him who loves it." 2 He then enters "the
Hall of Double Justice, where man separates him' Chap. VI.           2 Chap. CXXIV,




"The Book of the Dead "


235


self from his sins, that he may behold the faces of
the gods."
Such is the heading of the well-known Chapter
CXXV, which like Chapter XVII is of transcendent importance. In it the destiny of men is
directed towards paradise or hell, in accordance
with their merits. The deceased kisses the earth
at the threshold of the Judgment Hall. At the end
of the Hall, Osiris, the Good Being, the Redeemer
and Redresser, seated in a shrine guarded by a
frieze of uraei, awaits his son "who comes from
the earth." In the centre stands a great balance;
close by stands Mait, the Lady of Right and
Truth, who is ready to weigh the heart of the
deceased. Not far away a hideous beast, half
crocodile and half hippopotamus, Amait, the
Eater, turns its jaws toward Osiris, as if to ask
permission to devour the newcomer. All around
the Hall, crouching on their heels in Oriental
fashion, are forty-two divinities, draped in their
shrouds. It is a jury representing the forty-two
provinces of Egypt, chosen to judge the deceased.
The latter presents a humble petition: he comes
to justify himself of the forty-two canonical sins;
each member of the jury deals with one sin and
typifies the chastisement of it. "Hail to ye,
Masters of Justice, hail to thee, Great God,




236


Time of the Pharaohs


Master of Right and Truth! I have come to
thee, my Lord, I am brought before thee to view
thy beauty! For I know thee, I know thy name,
I know the names of all the forty-two divinities
who are with thee in the Hall of the Two Truths,
living upon the torn bodies of sinners, revelling
in their blood, on the day when account is rendered
of the lives of men before the Good Being. I am
bringing Truth and I have destroyed my sins for
you.~
There follows an enumeration of the sins which
the deceased denies having committed; this
"Negative Confession" represents a code of
morals. The deceased makes first a general and
impersonal sketch of the situation; then justifies
himself before each Judge:
I have not done ill; I have perpetrated no violence;
I have not committed theft; I have not caused a
man to be slain deceitfully; I have not purloined the
offerings (of the gods); I have not uttered a falsehood; I have not made (any man) weep; I have not
been impure; I have not slain the sacred animals;
I have not damaged lands which were ploughed; I
have not been a slanderer; I have not been given to
outbursts of anger; I have not committed adultery;
I have not turned a deaf ear to words of truth; I have
not practised magic against the king or against my
father; I have not defiled the water; I have not
caused the slave to be ill-treated by his master; I




Cliche of E. Brugsch
The Judgment of the Dead (from a papyrus).
Plate XVI.








" The Book of the Dead"


237


have not sworn (in vain); I have not made false the
beam of the balance; I have not taken away the milk
from the mouth of children; I have not snared the
birds of the gods; I have not forced back the water
in its time (when it should flow); I have not cut off
a channel (in its course); I have not extinguished a
fire, in its time (when it should burn); I have not
scorned God in my heart. I am pure, I am pure,
I am pure!
The case was decided, for Thot and Anubis had
tested the balance, putting in one of the scales the
heart of the deceased, in the other a figure of
Truth; the poise of the two pans vouched for the
sincerity of the confession. Thot wrote on his
tablets the result of the weighing and said to
Osiris: "The deceased has been weighed in the
balance; there is no wrong in him; his heart is in
accordance with Truth, the balance is exact;
there is no doubt, all his members are perfect."
Osiris pronounced his sentence; the latter is
sometimes found in the tombs, transcribed on
tablets as an authentic document: " The deceased
may retire triumphantly, to go wheresoever he
pleaseth, by the spirits and the gods. He shall
not be repulsed by the guardians of the gates of
the West" (Plate XVI).
He will not suffer punishment "who possesseth
this chapter inscribed on a brick of pure clay,




238


Time of the Pharaohs


taken from a field upon which no team has trodden." Yet, the next chapter brings the deceased,
thus justified, before a lake of fire, guarded by
four dog-headed apes: "0 those four apes, who
judge the poor as well as the rich, and who feed on
truth, destroy every fault in me, annihilate my
sins. " " We destroy thy faults, we annihilate
thy sins," answer the guardians of the fire.  Is
this lake of fire a kind of purgatory, an antechamber to the abode of the just?
Having stood the test victoriously, the deceased
has become the equal of the gods of Abydos or
Heliopolis; his voice prevails wherever he be,
for it utters the Truth; "order is given that
he may undergo his transformations.", Therefore, he "passes through the gates of heaven, of
earth and of the underworld, like the soul of Ra."
He may at will choose his destiny; he may go
into the solar barge, where he becomes Ra incarnated, "for the double of the god has been joined
to him whom he loves."2  He may also take his
place in the Osirian paradise. He has to learn the
names of all the gods, his brothers (Osiris alone possessed about a hundred names which people recited in litanies), also the names of the seven halls
of paradise, of the fourteen gates, of the fourteen


I Chap. CXXVIII.


2 Chap. CXXXIII.




"The Book of the Dead"


239


dwellings, as well as the names of their guardians.
He who knows the names of things and of beings
possesses their secret and has control over them.
Having now the key to the supreme mysteries,
the deceased has knowledge of everything that
a god should know; he feels himself to be one of
the divine family: "the gods surround him and
appreciate him, for he is like one of them."'
Now that we have given a brief outline of The
Book, let us try to penetrate into the mysteries
which the Egyptian priests were so proud of
teaching, and the knowledge of which made
man like unto the gods. "Your eyes shall be
opened," says the serpent in Genesis, "ye shall
be like unto the gods, knowing good and evil."
The Book of the Dead is not, according to the
usual definition, merely a guide for the traveller to
the next world, or a manual of the perfect dead;
its purpose is to give the key to the essential
problems, concerning gods and men, and to meet
the wishes of the devout souls who "hunger for
religious belief, are curious about their origin, and
full of anxiety concerning their own destiny.2
Whence does man come and whither does he go?this is the fundamental question that The Book
'Chap. CXLVIII.
2De Roug6: Etudes sur le Rituel fungraire, I86o.


Ii
I
i
i
i
i
1
1




240


Time of the Pharaohs


attempts to answer; in this respect, the two most
important parts of The Book are Chapters XVII
and CXXV; the one is the Genesis, the other the
Gospel of the Egyptian Holy Scriptures. They
contained secrets not to be revealed; they were
transmitted from father to son as rites of the
family cult, but with what precaution! " Thou shalt
not allow these chapters to be seen by any man
except thyself, thy father or thy son..."' "Let
this be known by no one, except thyself.. "2
"This is a real mystery known by no man, in any
place..."3 "This book is the greatest of mysteries. Thou shalt not allow any man to see it.
It is an abomination to make it known;4...
take good heed that it be not seen, except by
thyself for him who taught it thee."s
How was the Universe created? This question
soon finds its way to the lips of children, and it
framed itself upon the lips of men in the childhood of the race.  "This book shall let thee
know what happened at the beginning."6
At the beginning of the world, nothing existed
but the abyss of primordial Water, the Nu. In
that time, according to the texts in the pyramids,
' Chap. CXXXIII.
2Chaps. CXXVI, CXLIV, CLXVIII.
3 Chap. CLXI.  4 Chap. LXII.  s Chap. XLVIII.
6Chap. CXLVIII.




i


"The Book of the Dead"          241
"there were as yet, no heaven, no earth, no men;
the gods were not yet born, there was as yet
no death."' In the water floated the Spirit of
the primeval god, Toum; he bore within him the
power of generating things and beings. Toum
passed from inertia to action by emitting the one
phrase: "Come tome; 2 then Toun created the
sun, Ra, out of himself, and sent him forth from
him. Are then Toum and Ra father and son?
No; the two together form one person; "for the
god is an indivisible monad, bearing within itself
the power of generating its own existence."3
In brief, at the dawn of time, there sounded the
creative Word, and there was Light. The theologians agreed upon the basis of this doctrine, but
the name of the Creator was in dispute: it is to
Osiris that the priests of Abydos attributed the
"Come to me," prelude of creation; the priesthood of Heliopolis boasted that it was Toum who
uttered it. For the common folk, the difficulty
was to understand how Light could have existed
in an inert state, in the water of Nu, without
being extinguished by the water. This difficulty
was overcome by means of allegories: Ra in the
I Pyramide de Pipi, i, 663.
2In The Book of the Dead, the day of creation is called
"Day of come to me."
3fBrugsch, Religion und Mythologie.




242


Time of the Pharaohs


Nu was a hawk, with both eyes closed; when he
opened them the sun shone; or, he was a child
hidden in a lotus flower; when the flower came
out, the sun rose from it.
Toum-Ra organised Chaos; he sent forth from
himself, without feminine co-operation, two elements, air and fire, under the form of a couple
of different sex, Shou and Tafnouit. Another
couple, Seb and Nouit, personified earth and
heaven, placed one above the other; the air, Shou,
slipping between them, separated the goddess,
Heaven, from her husband, Earth. Cruel parting:
if heaven surrounds earth on all sides, it is because
the arms and legs of the goddess still touch earth;
Shou persists in holding up the starry body, in
the position later assumed by Atlas bearing
heaven. If earth shows a distorted surface, it is
because Seb tries to struggle against Shou; he
raises himself on one elbow and bends one knee,
but remains petrified in this attitude. From
heaven and earth were born Osiris and Isis
(water and fecundated earth), Set and Nephthys,
(the barren ground of the desert); the antagonism
between fertile earth and desert found its expression in the myth of Osiris and Set struggling
against each other, like good and evil. Those
first four couples, who begat the other gods,




" The Book of the Dead '"


243


formed, with Toum, " the great Eunead, or Nine
(gods), which is in Heliopolis"; The Book sums
up this theory by saying that Toum-Ra "transformed the inert into eight gods," by drawing out
of Chaos eight elements, until that time inactive
and confused. ' Now, the great mystery revealed
to the dead is this: man is also a divine substance; he is, like the gods, an emanation from
Ra; at the time of creation, he flowed, as a tear,
from the eyes of the Creator, whereas the gods
went forth from mouth. Along with man, all
matter was emitted from the divine eye, proceeding, as it were, from Light. Nothing existed
in the Universe until the Creator saw beings and
things and named them. 0 thou who didst
reveal thyself for the first time, when no god
existed, when the name of no thing was as yet
known.... When thou didst open thy two eyes
and didst see with them, there was Light for
everybody.... 0 god, thou who begettest gods,
men and things!"
The whole world is part of the divinity: "Thou
art the heaven, the earth, the water, the air and
they who dwell therein." The world is but the
form of the divine spirit: "Ra coming forth
I The Book of the Dead, Chap. XVII, Naville's interpretation.




244


Time of the Pharaohs


from the Nu, it is the god-soul creating matter,
that is to say, its own body."'
If the Universe is but the body of the divine
soul, the deceased, to whom this secret is revealed,
becomes aware of his real nature. A particle of
the divine whole, endowed with soul and body, in
the image of his Creator, he sums up in himself all
that exists. The past hides nothing, the future
promises nothing that is not already in him. It
is not a mere lesson in theology that the initiated
reads in Chapter XVII of The Book; he lifts with
enthusiasm the veil of appearances and proclaims
the revelation of his true nature.
I am Toum, he who existed alone in the Nu; I
am Ra, when he rises in the beginning to govern what
he has created.... I am the Great God, who gave
shape to himself, that is to say, the Nu, the father of
the gods.
Who is that?
(Comment): That is Ra, the maker of his own
limbs, that become the gods in the retinue of Ra.
I am Yesterday and I know To-morrow.
What is that?
(Comment): Yesterday is Osiris (death); To-morrow is Ra (the future).
I am this great Bennon (Heron), who is in Heliopolis; I am the law of the existence and of the beings.
Who is that?
(Comment): The Bennon is Osiris in Heliopolis.
I The Book of the Dead, Chap. XVII, papyrus of Soutimes.




"The Book of the Dead"


245


The law of the existence and of the beings is his body;
or in other words, it is the infinite duration of time
and eternity. The infinite duration of time is the
daytime, eternity is the night.
What proportion of these symbols did the
ordinary Egyptian understand? If the initiated
alone were capable of realising the pantheistic
explanation of the Universe (divine matter produced of itself, and divine throughout), the
ignorant, at least, knew that man descended from
the gods; his divine origin ruled his destiny.
To live upon earth, then to die in order to
become a god again-suchwas the present condition of all the beings emanating from the
Creator. This destiny implies so many sorrows
that common people could not be expected to
understand why the descendants of Toum were
doomed, by some caprice of their father, to
undergo that unfortunate experience, an earthly
life. The priests, who receive the divine revelations, taught their brethren that the earth, in its
prime, "in the time of god Ra," was an Eden of
perfect happiness. Man, whose name in Egyptian is Tem, was made in the image of Toum, who
is always represented in human form. Toum,
also called Atoum, is, therefore, man par excellence,




246


Time of the Pharaohs


These circumstances recall those pertinent to the
Biblical Adam, whose name also means the first
man, as well as man in general. I How, then, could
the living image of the Creator be condemned to a
life full of affliction? Oriental lore found a satisfactory explanation: man, intoxicated with his
liberty and eager for knowledge, revolted against
his Father; he was urged by the serpent and the
woman.
A similar tradition can be traced in Egypt.
M. Lefebure, who made eminent contributions
to this subject, has pointed out the similarity
between the story of Adam in paradise and a
scene from the underworld reproduced in the
tomb of Ramses VI, (about 1200 B.C.), and on a
Saite coffin in the Louvre. "A virile personage is
standing before a serpent, with two legs and two
arms, who offers him a red fruit, or at least a
little, round thing, painted red."2 The tree of
life and knowledge is well known in Egypt; in one
of the oldest chapters of The Book, the chapter
"giving to the dead divine knowledge," the
' Lefebure, "Le Chamn et 1'Adam egyptiens;" ap. Proceedings of
Society of Biblical Archeology, 1893.
2Ed. Naville: "La destruction des hommes par Ra;" ap.
Transactions of Society of Biblical Archeology, iv, p. I. The
figures have been reproduced by Lanzone in his Dizionario di
Mfitologia Egizia, PI. CLXXII.




" The Book of the Dead "


247


deceased is invited to rest like a bird upon the
beautiful sycamore tree, bearing the fruit of life:
"whosoever standeth under the tree is a god."
In either case, the relation between the above
facts and the revolt of man against his Creator is
not explained; but the revolt was for the Egyptians an indisputable fact. An account of it
has come down to us in the tombs of the Theban
kings (1500-I200 B.C.). It was about the end
of the reign of Ra; the god called into council his
first-born, Shou and Tafnouit, Seb and Nouit, and
said to them: "Behold, the men who were born
of me, speak evil words against me. Tell me
what you will do in this matter. I have waited
and I have not killed them before hearing you."
The council approved of destroying all the living;
Ra entrusted his daughter, Hathor, with this
duty; for several days she slaughtered men and
stamped in their blood; drunk with carnage, she
would have exterminated everything living, when
the god, overcome with pity, interfered by means
of a stratagem. Seven thousand jars were filled
with mandrake, macerated in the blood of men;
the liquor was spread over the fields and turned
the goddess from her intent; "she drank to
satiety and no longer perceived the men." A
few survivors of mankind came then to the




248


Time of the Pharaohs


Creator, offering to fight the surviving rebels who
were the last victims that fell. Ra formed an
alliance with men and forgave them in the following terms: "Your sins are remitted to you; the
murder (of the rebels) is accepted in lieu of the
murder (of all men); hence the virtue of sacrifices." M. Naville, who first translated this text,
has clearly shown its interest: "The idea which
led to the institution of sacrifice is the same as that
found among the Hebrews and the Greeks."'
The death of the culprit, for whom an animal
victim was later substituted, was intended to
ward off punishment from the rest of mankind:
through a sacrifice, mankind may be redeemed.
There is no other analogy between the destruction of men by Ra and that recorded in
Genesis. The Book of the Dead has retained, however, an account of the punishment of men by
water. It is a dialogue between the deceased and
several divinities, Toum among them. To a
question put by the deceased, Toum replies in
these words: "I shall undo what I have done.
This earth shall be flooded and become water, as
it was in the beginning. I shall remain alone
with Osiris."2
' Naville, Religion des anciens Egyptiens, 1905, p. 183.
2 Ibid., p. 190.
A,




",The Book of the Dead"


249


Texts of this kind are scarce and not as yet
perfectly intelligible; it may, nevertheless, be
inferred from them that in Egypt also "it repented
the Lord that he had made man on earth, and it
grieved him at his heart,... and he said: I
will destroy him." What part did the woman
play, through cunning or seduction, in the initial
revolt of man? No answer is found in Egyptian
texts; but a papyrus commented upon by M.
Lef~bure, presents an episode of a strife between
the Creator on the one hand and the woman and
serpent on the other. " Isis was a woman clever
in speech; her heart was weary of the society of
men, she preferred the society of gods, she valued
highly the world of spirits. Could she not be
like unto Ra, in heaven and on earth, possess the
earth and be a goddess, through the Name of
the august god? " " Now, Ra used to come every
day, with his train of ferrymen, to take his seat
upon the throne of the double horizon. The god
had become old; his mouth was watering and his
spittle trickled down upon the earth. Isis kneaded
this in her hand; with earth and what was upon it
she moulded a sacred serpent. And the sacred
serpent bit Ra: the god opened his mouth and his
cry rose to heaven. Forthwith, his divine cycle
exclaimed: 'What is the matter?' and his gods,




250


Time of the Pharaohs


forthwith, exclaimed: 'What is this?'... He
could not answer; his jaws cracked, he was trembling in all his limbs, the poison was spreading
through his body." Magicians were sent for in
haste; Isis came with her charms; she said: " What,
divine father! a serpent has worked evil in
thee?... One of thy creatures hath risen against
thee?" If he wanted to be cured, she stipulated
that he reveal his Name to her, that is to say, the
secret of his omnipotence. The god, conquered
by feminine cunning, gave up his Name. "Isis,"
M. Lefebure says, "is a kind of Eve, trying to
obtain divinity by snatching away supreme
knowledge."' This revolt was one of the things
that brought about the punishment of men; the
text analysed above contains also Ra's reprimand
of Seb (the earth) "because of the serpents who
are in him," and which made the god fear for his
existence.
It seems to me that such is the explanation given
by the Egyptians of the sad destiny of man.
After revolt and punishment, mankind bears the
weight of an original sin, of which life is the
expiation. This point brings us back to the ideas
expounded in The Book of the Dead. Most of the
important chapters, especially those aiming at a
I Lefebure, Un chapitre de la chronique solaire (i883).




"The Book of the Dead"


251


synthesis of human life, lay stress upon a sin that
has left its stain on man. How grandiloquent is
the profession of faith in Chapter XVII, where the
deceased affirms his divine nature! But it thrills
our hearts to see how, soon afterwards, the tone
changes, because man has fallen from the heights
to which he was raised, down to the level of
human misery:
Chapter XVJI.-I am of the earth, I come from my
city. I have put away my uncleanness, I have made
an end of my guilt.
What is that?
(Comment): It is the cutting off of the shame of
the Osiris N.... All my stains are driven out.
What is that?
(Comment): I have been purified on the day of my
birth, in the great lake of Natron, where abide Ra and
Justice.... All the stains that are mine...
What is that?
(Comment): It is all that the Osiris N has committed against the gods since he came forth from his
mother's womb.
Chapter LXIV.-I come unto the god. There is no
longer in me any uncleanness from my mother.
Does this uncleanness, inherited from the
mother, this stain, consequent upon birth, mean
anything else than an original sin? Do not also
the above quoted verses suggest two remedies?
For my part (agreeing on that point with M. de




252


Time of the Pharaohs


Rouge), I see in those texts a direct allusion to
circumcision and baptism. In fact, there is a
Memphite tomb dating from the Vth dynasty
which shows us a picture of the surgical operation;
only, we don't know if such an operation was the
common custom. As for baptism, evidence of it
is given in Deir-el-Bahri and Luxor where are
pictures representing the purifications performed
in the birth chamber, when a royal child comes
into the world.
Yet, such purifying rites were not considered
sufficient to liberate man from the consequences
of sin. In chapters XVII and CXXV of The Book,
it is stated that a judgment before Osiris is the
inevitable consequence of earthly existence. Life
must, therefore, be directed along the way of
Right and Truth, according to the example of the
gods, and paradise must be the reward of merit.
This is expressed in the following verse of Chapter
XVII:
I walk along the way I know, my face (turned)
towards the Lake of Double Justice.
What is that?
(Comment): It is the way followed by Toum,
when he passes over to the Elysian Fields. The
Lake of Double Justice is at Abydos (near Osiris).


We have explained elsewhere how the idea of the




" The Book of the Dead"        253
Last Judgment was worked out during the Memphite Kingdom. Since the Theban dynasties,
about I500 B.C., the scene of the sitting tribunal
has come to the foreground, and forms an essential
part of The Book of the Dead. Whereas the texts
in the pyramids give only a brief definition of it,
The Book devotes its longest chapter to the subject.
The "Negative Confession," quoted above, has
enabled us to appreciate the standard of Egyptian
ethics; let us now follow the different stages of
development that the conception of morality
underwent.
Many sins are concerned with attacks upon the
gods or their property: failure or neglect to perform rituals, theft of the offerings, slaughter of the
sacred animals, etc. Such acts were presumably
the first denounced as crimes by the priests.
At a later period we see the justice of Osiris
extended to cover the relations of men to one
another. Then appear sins committed against
one's neighbour: "to drive back his water, to
cut off running water, to extinguish a fire." The
sins which last of all were recognised as evil were
those of a personal nature, those offending only
moral dignity. Among them are almost all
" capital" sins, falsehood, pride, vice, anger,
cruelty, selfishness, as many faults as the deceased




254


Time of the Pharaohs


has to defend himself against before the tribunal
of Osiris. Thus, the gods are no longer satisfied
with avenging the wrongs done to them; they
become the avengers of any wrong done to mankind or to the moral ideal.
Along with this change of attitude, a transformation took place in the tribunal itself. The
oldest versions of Judgment represent each sin
typified by a special god. The deceased has to
ingratiate himself with each god by his confession;
but to win him over he also uses entreaties or
threats; should religion fail, magic can help him
out. Now, if the deceased knows the name of
each god in the jury-and it is his boast that he
does-how can the god resist a call upon his
own name, a summons, an incantation directed
against him personally?..
In later versions, the confession is no longer
addressed to these gods only. Other divinities
are present at the weighing of the soul, those of
Heliopolis; before these the deceased has to
justify himself, not with individual arguments,
but in the name of morals in general. This is
the outcome of more advanced ethics.2
I To know the name of a god is to get mastery, power, over
him.
2Naville, Todtenbuch, Texte, p. i64 and plate CXXXVI, Ag.




"The Book of the Dead"


255


A parallel transformation can be traced in the
method of punishment. In olden times, the fortytwo jurors avenged themselves upon the
culprit by devouring him. Later appeared a
hybrid monster, crocodile-lion-hippopotamus, the
"Eater of the Dead," or Amait, entrusted with
the general chastisement. In a still later period,
mention is made of a Lake of Fire, where the
reprobates are annihilated. Shall we conclude
that punishment has ceased to be the personal
function of certain gods, who avenged certain
crimes concerning them separately? In that case,
punishment is not dependent in some way upon
the individual caprices of the jurors, it is meted
out by a kind of executioner at the service of the
whole tribunal,' or a destructive element, such
as fire. Here again, ideal Justice gains ground
by ceasing to be individual.
Finally, we see in the editions of The Book of
the Dead, dating from the New Kingdom, that man
has awakened to the consciousness of his guilt.
When he comes before the tribunal, he does not
try to deny his sins; rather, he entreats the gods
to destroy every wrong in him.2 Chapter XXX
I Cf. Chap. XVII of Todtenbuch, where the executioner is
sometimes Set, sometimes Horus or Thot.
2 Todtenbuch, Chap. XVII, ed. Budge, p. 38, I, 85-86; cf. De
Rouge, ap. Revue Archeologique, I86o, p. 218.




256


Time of the Pharaohs


shows how scrupulous his conscience has become.
The thing that strikes the deceased with terror
on the Day of Judgment is not the assembly of
the gods; the direst experience for him is to see his
own heart, his own conscience put in one pan of
the scales, counterbalancing Truth: "My heart,
my mother, heart of my mother, heart of my
birth, heart, the dweller in my body on earth, do
not oppose me before the sovereign powers, do
not weigh against me... do not say: 'That is
what he hath done, in sooth, he hath done so.
let there not rise against me what is wrong in me
before the great god of the West."
Thus, "the most implacable accuser of man is
he whose assertions cannot be contested, he himself, his own heart, which is fully aware that often
he violated the moral law that he knew perfectly." 1 
That moral law, the accomplishment of which
will redeem man from original sin, can be summed
up in one precept: "Practice the Right, observe
Truth." The mission of man on earth is to prevent the effects of the original sin; he will succeed
if, bearing in mind his celestial origin, he performs
his deeds in harmony with divine activity. " The
god," say the liturgical texts, "creates Truth,
lives upon Truth, is nothing but Truth." Man
I Ed. Naville, La religion des anciens Agyptiens, p. 183.




"I The Book of the Dead "


257


must, therefore, observe the laws of nature and of
conscience; to do otherwise, to commit deeds of
selfishness, violence, injustice is to act contrary to
the pre-established harmony between men and
things, to renounce the domain of reality and to
falsify the work of the Creator. The wicked man
forgets that he is but a particle of the divine in
the divine whole; he disturbs the order of the
Universe, he "is not in the Truth." The righteous man furthers the intent of the Creator; by
practising charity, fraternity, justice, he helps
maintain the general order and contributes to the
universal harmony; after death, his lot shall be
to enjoy Truth without obstacle: "Those who
have practised justice when on earth, and who
have fought for their gods, are called to the abode
of the Joy of the World, the land where one lives
by justice. Their just actions are taken into
account in the presence of the great god, the
Destroyer of Iniquity, and Osiris saith unto them:
'To ye, Justice, be united, 0 ye Just, to what ye
have done, in the condition of those who are in
my train, in the palace of the Holy Spirit. Live
upon the same nutriment they partake of; drink
of your Lake: it is filled to the brim with justice.' " '
The Day of Judgment was, therefore, the great
ILefebure, Sphinx, viii, 39. Cf. Plato's Gorgias.
I7




258


Time of the Pharaohs


day of human destiny: Dies irce, dies illal
"Then shall be brought the book which contains
everything useful for the judgment of the world,
and nothing shall be left unpunished."  The
just were, therefore, to live on, but the guilty were
delivered up to devouring monsters, or to eternal
flames and were annihilated. Chabas was right
to point out, a long time ago, the striking analogy
between this Egyptian idea of hell and the tradition recorded in the Gospel.
"The Egyptian hell," he says, "had burning
regions, fiery abysses, flaming waters, the only
drink offered to quench the thirst of the perverse.
The demons, tormentors of the damned, lived in
halls, the floors of which were water, the ceilings
fire, and the sides live snakes; there were gridirons and caldrons for the torture of the sinners."
Yet, fully to appreciate the standard of Egyptian
ethics, a parallel may best be drawn between the
requirements made of the just, in formulas,
already used at the time of the pyramids, and the
following passage from the Gospel of Saint Matthew:
When the Son of man shall come in his glory,..
He shall separate them one from the other, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.... Then shall
x Dies irac




"The Book of the Dead"


259


the King say unto them on his right hand: Come,
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. For I was
an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and
ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me
in; naked, and ye clothed me... Then shall he say
also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me,
ye cursed, into everlasting fire....
Compare with it this text from a papyrus:
"Amon-Ra, the Redresser of Wrongs, does not
receive the presents of the violent men; he
judges the guilty; the guilty are for the caldron,
the righteous for his right hand." Or the following
passage from Chapter CXXV: "The righteous
man lives upon truth, he feeds upon truth. He
has spread joy everywhere; what he hath done, men
speak of, and the gods rejoice over. He hath
conciliated the god by his love, he hath given
bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes
to the naked...." 
However lofty this moral ideal, it was marred
by a serious blemish. We have pointed out that
in the time of the pyramids magic prevailed over
religion and that the just man fared no better
than the wicked, armed with effectual formulae.
The Book of the Dead itself, even in the latest
I Chabas, "L'Enfer egyptien," ap. Melanges egyptologiques, iii, 2.
p. I68.




260       Time of the Pharaohs
Egyptian versions, emphasises in each chapter
the supreme power of rites and words. What
avails the moral elevation of Chapter CXXV if its
contents may be made to act mechanically, in the
way of an exorcism, whether the deceased has
lived justly or not? True it is that The Book was
considered by the majority of believers as a mere
collection of magic formula; yet, the consciousness of wrong-doing and the concern about Judgment are put forth too often and too forcibly for
us to imagine that cultivated minds relied solely
on the assistance of sorcery. On the contrary,
each sentence in The Book is ringing, as it were,
with the echo of the Dies irce: "What shall I,
unfortunate one, then answer? What shall I
beseech to intercede for me, when even the
righteous shall doubt their safety?" One thing
is certain: with the lapse of years the Egyptians
had become more and more scrupulous and
anxious; but in what religion has the awakening
of conscience ever done away with the belief in
indulgences?  Cannot the doctrine of salvation
by grace be reconciled with faith in salvation
through well-doing?
A recent discovery has confirmed the impression
that the conscience of the Egyptians tended to become nicer and their moral ideal purer. On the




"' The Book of the Dead "


26i


recto of a papyrus, dating from the first years
of our era, a didactic story has come down to us,
in which the idea of Judgment shows a significant
development. Senosiris, a child-prodigy, born a
magician, leads his father, Satmi, into the underworld, and shows him the seven great halls of
Osiris's dwellings. Before entering, they meet
the funeral procession of a rich man, about to be
buried in the most sumptuous manner, and also
the corpse of a poor wretch, rolled in a sordid mat
and accompanied by no one. In the sixth Hall of
Hades, our heroes now admire Osiris, Thot, Anubis,
the other judges, and the scales in which sins and
virtues are weighed: "He, whose misdeeds outweigh his good deeds, is given up to Amait, the
bitch of the ruler of the West; they (the gods) destroy his soul and body, and do not let him breathe
again; as for him whose merits are found more
numerous than his sins, they take him among the
gods, and his soul goes to heaven; he whose
virtues counterbalance his sins is placed among
the shades, who serve Sokar-Osiris (inside the
earth). And behold! Satmi noticed a personage
of distinction, clothed in fine linen and standing
near the place where Osiris was, in foremost rank.
'My father Satmi,' said Senosiris, 'dost thou not
see this high personage? The poor man, whom




262


Time of the Pharaohs


thou sawest brought out from Memphis, without
anyone following him, and who was rolled in a
mat, it is he! He was taken to Hades, his misdeeds were weighed against his merits and found
light in comparison. His happiness on earth was
not commensurate to the length of his life; hence
it was ordered by Osiris that the funeral equipment of the rich man, whom thou sawest coming
from Memphis in great pomp, should be transferred to this poor man, and that he should be put
near Osiris. The sins of the rich man were found
to outweigh his good deeds; it was ordered he
should be rewarded in Hades and thou hast seen
him, at the entrance of Hades, the hinge of the
door thrust into his right eye, turning on that
eye both for opening and shutting the door, while
his mouth utters hideous cries.... He who has
done good on earth is repaid with good here; but
he who does wrong is repaid with wrong. These
things thou seest in the Hades of Memphis have
been established for ever and shall never change,
and they come to pass in the forty-two nomes
where reside the gods of Osiris's council.' "I
How much improved in its final stage is the
conception of the reward of virtue and vice!
I Maspero, Les Contes populaires de l'Agypte ancienne, 3d ed.,
p. 134-8.




" The Book of the Dead"


263


There has been devised a purgatory, the earthly
underworld, called Sokar-Osiris, as an intermediate
place for the men whose merits only balance their
faults. As for the just, not only are they admitted
to eternal life, but Osiris rewards them in proportion to their merit, so that the future life makes
reparation for the discrepancies and iniquities of
earthly life. In the Gospel, according to St.
Luke, a similar parable relates the fate of the
rich man burning in hell, while Lazarus reposes
after death in Abraham's bosom. "Son, remember," says Abraham to the rich man, "that thou
in thy lifetime didst receive thy good things, and
likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and thou art tormented...
The true recompense for the just consisted, then,
in being liberated from the human condition.
Having escaped the contingencies and the errors
of earthly life, they ended their destiny by being
absorbed in the Divine that knows and realises
nothing but Right and Truth. It seems to me that
such is the deep meaning of that enigmatic expression "to come forth by day," "to become manifest in the day," per m harou, which is the title of
The Book of the Dead, and sums it up. The soul
of the just might now dwell in the tomb, or the




264


Time of the Pharaohs


different paradises opened to it, or leave them at
will. It might return to the earth, mingle again
with the living, sail across the heaven in the barge
of the gods, visit the stars, under the outward
appearance of a man, god, animbal, plant or any
object whatever. It tested life in all its aspects,
because life was identical with the vast Universe.
The just man returned to the bosom of the Creator, from whom everything emanates, to whom
returns every being who through his own fault
does not deviate from his prescribed destiny:
" I am Yesterday and To-morrow, I am the sum
of beings and of things."
The obvious objection to this explanation is
that it requires a strong intellectual culture to
accept without apprehension the conclusion of
pantheism: the absorption in the Divine. Many
an Egyptian was rather struck with fear at the
thought of finally vanishing into the Divine, and
it is a melancholy kind of resignation that pervades the official songs, chanted to the harpaccompaniment at the funerals of the kings:
This greatness upon earth, what is it? Why the
annihilation in the tomb? (To die) is to be formed
in the image of Eternity, the land of Right, where
there is no strife and where violence is abhorred,
where nobody wrongs his neighbour, where nobody,




"The Book of the Dead "


265


of all the generations therein, ever revolts. To all,
when they are on this earth, from the moment they
come into life, it is said: " Go in prosperity, health
and safety, so as to arrive at the tomb, always thinking in thy heart of the day when thou must lie on a
funeral bed. Such is thy lot: to be reunited to the
rulers of Eternity. Thou shalt never pass; thou art
accomplished and perfect in the great divine forms,
thou endurest the periods of eternity and thy annals
are continually renewed, because thou hast been made
perfect and raised unto thy true nature."'
One of the consequences of this melancholy is
the keen feeling that the joys of this perishable
world are not renewed elsewhere; we musty
therefore, enjoy human life, take everything good
it offers before death:
Make thy day happy! let there be always perfumes and essences for thy nostrils, garlands and
lotus-flowers for the shoulders and the breast of thy
beloved sister-spouse! Let there be songs and music
before thee, and, neglecting all evil, think only of
pleasures, until the day when thou must land on the
shore of the goddess who loves silence.... Always
bear in mind that day when thou shalt be led to the
country where men are mingled: whither no one
ever took his wealth with him and whence no one
ever returned.2
Appeal was made to philosophy in order to


'Translated by G. Maspero, Histoire, ii, p. 523.
2Ibid., ii, p. 524.




266


Time of the Pharaohs


soothe the rebellion of the flesh. A certain
papyrus, four thousand years old, has retained
for us a dialogue between an Egyptian and his
soul,' in which all the motives for loving death
are set forth, in regular sequence, not without
poetical beauty. Life is bad; every man knows it:
"To whom shall I speak to-day? Our neighbour
is mischievous and the friends of to-day love no
one. Hearts are violent and every one robs his
neighbour; the weak perish and the strong
triumph; there are no just, and the earth belongs
to sinners." Let us quote, by way of antithesis,
this praise of death: "Death seems to me now
the cure for illness, the escape into the open, after
fever!... Death seems to me now like the
perfume of the lotus flower, like repose on the
shore of a land of enchantment, like the return
home of a sailor! Death seems to me now like
the desire felt by a man, after many years of
captivity, to see his home again."
Death is the means of returning into the divine
fatherland, whence man was exiled during his
sojourn on earth. Such is the conclusion of
The Book of the Dead. In spite of its many
obscurities, The Book will be intelligible to us if


1 Translated by Erman, Gesprdch eines Lebensmiiden mit seiner
Seele, 1896, and Maspero, Causeries d'Egypte, p. 125.




"The Book of the Dead "


267


we try to trace in it the development of the theme
cherished by moralists and theologians of all
times: "Everything is vain in man, if it is considered in respect to mortal life, but everything is
precious, is important, if we view the final aim of
that life and the account we must give of it."I
The same ideas still govern mankind. Poetical
feeling draws upon the same sources, when it
promises the wretched human creature deliverance into the great Whole. Is it Isis, or is it
Isolde who, before expiring, sings over a corpse:
"0 joy! to be lost, absorbed, unconscious, in
the infinite breath of the universal soul"?2
Bossuet, Oraison funebre d'Henriette d'Angleterre.
' Wagner: Tristan und Isolde:
"In des Welt-athems wehen dem All
Ertrinken,
Versinken,
Unbewusst,
Hochste Lust."




CHAPTER VI


MAGIC IN ANCIENT EGYPT
IN Ancient Egypt, as everywhere in the world,
man has been discontented with his destiny and
has tried to improve it. Not only did he exert,
for this purpose, the natural powers of his body
and mind, but he also had recourse to the supernatural powers that religion and magic seemed to
offer him. The difference between the two is well
known. Like religion, magic sets before itself
the task of modifying the usual and regular order
of things by miracles; but whereas the priest
repeats prayers and makes offerings, in order to
conciliate superior beings called gods, the magician
makes use of force and craft. The priest implores, the magician commands, and as experience
proves that force is more effectual than prayer, it
follows that among the primitive peoples the
wizard has more authority than the priestunless the priest, as is often the case in Egypt,
is himself a magician, who sometimes deigns to
mingle prayers with his objurgations.
268




Magic in Ancient Egypt            269
In a society in which the belief in magic has
taken hold, it is universally held that every being,
every thing is animated with a Spirit, similar to
that which dwells in the human body. Nothing
in nature is inactive, deprived of will or consciousness; every being or thing may act for or against
man, and reciprocally the magician may put in
action any being or thing that he wants to influence. Thus, in Egypt, gods and men are said to
possess a " Genie" which animates them during
their existence and, provided certain precautions
are taken, is assured a life after death. It is the
Ka, a word for which there is no adequate foreign
equivalent; the translation given is " Double" but
the meaning of the Egyptian term would perhaps be
better expressed by the word " Genie."  Animals
are possessed of a Ka, and even things, in which
there is no apparent life, hide an invisible spirit.
Hence can be explained the custom, at different
periods of history, of obliterating in the inscriptions the hieroglyphic signs which represented
animals, and also of breaking up, in order to kill
them and allow them to pass into the other world,
I The idea of " generation " in its meaning of " procreation " and
"species" is indisputably associated with the root Ka, which
helps to form words like " person, " " bull, " " male. " That is why
the word Ka recalls to mind the similar Latin word genius.
(Also cf. Lef6bure, Sphinx, i, io8.)




270


Time of the Pharaohs


the jars, pieces of furniture, and fragments of
stones inscribed with texts and deposited in the
tombs: these very signs of writing, or the objects
mentioned, are endowed with a soul and, therefore,
animated with a Genie that may be useful to the
deceased, or do him harm. It is not yet clear what
the Egyptians called that "spirit" in animals and
things; but there is no doubt that, for them, the
whole Universe was peopled with active and conscious forces, among which man was sure to meet
adversaries or allies.
Over things and beings endowed with a Genie,
he alone has power who knows, either by tradition
or personal observation, the general rules governing the sensuous and spiritual world. Such a
man is the "Wise" par excellence, rekh khetou,
"he who knows things." He knows the natural
affinities, the "sympathies" or "antipathies"
which in the Universe unite or divide matter, as
well as living beings. He may bring into a determined state such being or thing by using
the means of attraction or repulsion fatally
exercised on it by another being or thing; in
other words, by using the method of sympathetic
I As M. Maspero has rightly pointed out, the Egyptians often
gave a surname to things and manufactured objects, thus conferring on them a real personality (cf. Les Contes populaires de
l'Egypte ancienne, 3 ed., p. 95, n. 3).




Magic in Ancient Egypt           271
magic. I On the other hand, the learned or " wise "
man has observed the laws of " imitation " and those
of " cause and effect. " If a being or thing, placed
under certain conditions, has acted or reacted in a
certain way, it will do the same when placed under
similar conditions; moreover, this result may be
obtained by merely "imitating" a certain act, the
effects of which are definitely known. Thus the
magician boasts of bringing about a repetition of
the effects, by repeating or imitating the causes
which have already acted once: in other words, he
uses the method of imitative magic. The master of
such secrets, the magician, can dispense with prayers
and command at will the reciprocal influences, the
fatal actions and reactions of things and beings.2
To make each point clearer, we shall first analyse
the processes of sympathetic magic, then those of
imitative magic; first the methods employed to
obtain protection against dangers of all kinds, then
those used to gain active power over beings and
things.
The magician protects his own life and that of
others from fortuitous dangers through talismans
and formulae; he foresees future dangers through
his knowledge of the future.
I Cf. Frazer, The Golden Bough, 2d ed., i9oo, i, pp. 9ff.
2Ibid. pp. ioff.




272


Time of the Pharaohs


In the cases of our museums are exhibited by
the thousands little objects of diverse shapes
and materials, called Egyptian amulets. They
are found strewn among the sand in the chambers
of the tombs, or buried with the mummies; they
are made of glazed earth, or glass paste, or more
or less precious stones; generally they were so
cheap that it was possible to throw a quantity of
them in the sarcophagus, so as to increase their
influence by their number. But, in theory, the
amulet had to be of choice material and of a
definite shape in order to possess its full power.
In Egypt, as in other countries, the shape of
the amulets was dependent upon the special ideas
held by the primitive peoples about human life.
Life seemed a spirit, a breath, a being having its
own separate existence, that might, therefore,
escape from the body, and had to be carefully
kept bound to that body. Hence, amulets take the
shape of knots and bands, because they tie life
to certain parts of the body where it is most exposed and can be detected by the beating of the
pulse: the neck, the wrist, the ankles. In Egypt,
such knots are bracelets, periscelides, necklaces,
either narrow or broad. The texts say that the
necklace was a shield for the breast of gods and
dead alike; it came to be itself considered as a




Magic in Ancient Egypt


273


god whose arms protected the part of the body
in contact with them.' Bracelets and necklaces
often consisted of separate little knots, strung
together so as to make up a jewel of magic purport; very often, also, such knots are placed
separately on the body of the living and of the
dead: they hold in life at these places, and prevent
it from leaving the body. Hence the etymological
meaning of "protection, guard" preserved by
those signs in the Egyptian language.
Other talismans were derived from hieroglyphic
signs to which a symbolical meaning was attached:.r ankh, life;  j   ouza, health;      ouser,
strength; f dad, stability; I hez, vigour and
freshness of body and spirit. When first devised, these signs acted by virtue of their specific
form: I was perhaps the representation of a
man with arms and legs stretched out (the lower
part of the sign in the archaic period had two
legs); | a sceptre, the insignia of strength;
T   the image of four pillars seen in perspective,
the symbol of stability; I a column in the form
of the lotus flower, a hardy plant. In course of
time, more importance was given to the idea
attached to such or such a sign by the conventional writing: thus:  "beauty, goodness";
' A. Moret, Rituel du Culte divin, p. 243.




274


Time of the Pharaohs


" stability";     "favour";    "health" etc.,
became as many symbols transformed into amulets capable of magic power. The Egyptian
hieroglyphics, by giving a conventional meaning
to material objects, greatly encouraged the symbolic attribution of a certain virtue to a particular
object. In most cases, the magic power ascribed
to knots, jewels, amulets, comes under the definition of imitative magic: one imitated and therefore conferred life with?; stability with  7;
enclosure and protection with  1u6.
The substance of which such objects were made
also exercised a special influence. More efficacious
than any others were the amulets made of gold,
a metal symbolic of duration, indestructibility;
gold being the king of metals, a solidified ray of
sunshine was the substance of which were made
the bodies of imperishable beings: kings, gods,
divine dead (because the dead, made divine,
became gods themselves). That is why theR I, i,
bracelets, necklaces, weapons, had to be made
of gold or at least of gilded wood.' Colours,
as well, exercised a specific influence: the green
column2 j  ensured greenness, freshness, strength,
provided it was made of green glazed earth; the


1 A. Moret, Le titre d'Horus d'or dans le protocole pharaonique.
2 Book of the Dead, Chap. CL.




Magic in Ancient Egypt


275


knot, the pillar  I, called forth the idea of
Isis's blood, provided they were made of carnelian;1 green, red, yellow, and white swathing-bands
conferred on the dead and on the gods the qualities of freshness, brilliancy, and purity with which
they were endowed. There were a series of
supernatural actions in which the properties and
"spirit" of each object acted through a kind of
material infiltration:2 the gold communicated
its indestructibility, the green its hardiness, the
white its candour; in other words, an object
acted  "sympathetically" upon him      who was
clothed in it.
Talismans possess a stronger power if they are
accompanied by formulae. Of such formulae,
the Egyptians had a remarkable supply: hikaou
means "magic formulae;"      saou, " exorcisms ";
shenitou, "bands, charms";    i 7.   hesiou, "incantations."  The use of such formulae is probably
posterior to that of the material talismans. They
were invented to increase, by the magic effect of
voice and articulated language, the power of the
object formerly residing only in its shape and
substance; a more refined spiritual element combined now with the purely material charm.
I Book of the Dead, chap. CLV; Maspero, Papyrus du Louvre,
p. 2 and following.
2 A. Moret, Rituel du Culte divin, p. 178.




276


Time of the Pharaohs


Magic formulae are known to us only from texts
of recent discovery; this explains why the first
Egyptologists considered them the outcome of a
deterioration of religion in the decadence of
Egyptian civilisation. But the oldest religious
texts that we know of up to this time, those in the
pyramids of Sakkarah (Vth-VIth dynasty), contain rhythmical formulae against the bites of
snakes, and often allude to magic rites. It is a
proof that magic texts "belong to the most remote antiquity and are an essential part of the
Egyptian religion. "   Formulae are, of course,
weapons of greater precision than simple talismans; they are directed against a definite enemy
and enlarge the field of magic. From the most
remote times, there were incantations especially
concerned with the gods,2 therefore antedating
the periods of elaboration of the first Egyptian
mythology. Almost always the magician alluded
in them to mythological acts well known to him,
but obscure to us; he called upon a god who
formerly overcame the dangers against which the
formula was supposed to be a protection; he
boasted of having power to compel the god to
x Maspero: Les inscriptions des Pyramides de Sakkarah, p. 48.
2 For instance, in the Pyramid of Ounas, 307, "Ra stings the
scorpion"; 332, "Tombe (serpent), flame coming from the
Nu"; 326, mention of Atoum and Sokaris.




Magic in Ancient Egypt


277


renew his victory over the foe once subdued by
him under similar circumstances. He who recited
the formula became like the god on the day of
his triumph and was bound to be victorious like
the god. The animal, on the other hand, was
supposed to have a personality almost divine, and
was combated as such. These proceedings depended upon the laws of "imitation" and of
'cause and effect " mentioned above.
Here are a few examples of an application
of these beliefs. Suppose you were bitten by a
serpent; an appropriate formula declared to your
enemy that you are the god Horus and that you
defy him: " Rise, venom, rise and fall to the earth.
Horus speaketh to thee, annihilates thee, spits
upon thee. Thou dost not rise any more, but
thou fallest, thou art weak and thou art not
strong; thou art blind and thou dost not see;
thy head droops and cannot rise any more; for I
am Horus, the great magician. '"
In dealing with a scorpion, you had to recall
the case of the divine cat, Bast, who was stung
by a scorpion but healed by Ra: "' 0 Ra, come to
thy daughter whom a scorpion has bitten by the
wayside. Her cry riseth toward heaven; the
venom runs throughout her limbs and she puts
I Stela of Metternich, 3.




278


Time of the Pharaohs


her mouth on them (to suck it).' Thereupon Ra
hath said to her: ' Fear not, fear not, my noble
daughter! Behold! I am standing behind thee.
I drive back the venom running in all the limbs
of the cat.' "I He who recited the formula was
certain to be protected by the cat, Bast, that
he called forth.
To ward off the crocodile, in crossing a ford,
mention had to be made of Osiris, who was saved
by the intervention of the gods: "O thou, who
art in the water, behold! it is Osiris who is in the
water, and the eye of Horus and the great scarab
protect him.... Get ye back, beasts of the
waters!  Do not show your face, for Osiris is
floating toward you.... Beasts of the waters,
your mouth is closed by Ra, your throat is closed
by Sechmet, your teeth are broken by Thot,
your eyes blinded by the great magician. Those
four gods protect Osiris and all those who are in
the water. As 2
Against dangerous animals, serpents, crocodiles,
scorpions, lions, oryxes, etc., the magician knew
how to combine the power of amulets with that
of formula; hence the use of talismans inscribed
with texts and figures, the most important of


I Stela of Metternich, 9.
2 Ibid., 38. Cf. Erman, Die agyptische Religion, p. 150.




Magic in Ancient Egypt


279


which are the stelae and magic sticks. The stelae
are of the type of the so-called Metternich stela;
on a plaquette of granite or basalt, generally of
small size, they show on one surface a figure in
relief of the child Horus, naked, with a lock of
hair falling upon his right shoulder; the god
tramples upon crocodiles which turn away their
heads to get out of his sight; with his hands
outstretched he lays hold upon the tails of snakes,
scorpions, lions, oryxes. Above Horus often
appears the head of Bes, the jolly and warlike
god who brings good luck. "Such stelae aimed
at protection not only from the bite or sting of the
animals represented, but from the fascination
exercised by them over their victims before biting
or stinging them."I On the other side of the
stela are engraved divine figures of good omen;
often the gods are represented stretching the bow,
thrusting the spear at the malicious animals,
in a word, fighting for the magician who has
called upon them for help. The legend formulae
quoted above are inscribed in the space left
for the text to be fully developed. Stelae of this
type appear especially at a later period of history;2
1 Maspero, Etudes de Mythologie, ii, 418-419.
2Daressy, "Textes et dessins magiques" (Catalogue of the
Cairo Museum),




280


Time of the Pharaohs


in earlier times, use was made of magic sticks, most
often of ivory, exhibiting figures of real or fantastic animals (the stick often terminates in an
animal's head), or gods with heads of animals
or of men; among others is often seen the god Bes,
holding serpents in the attitude later to be assumed by Horus. Such objects assured to their
owner the magic protection of the figures engraved on them, and this protection was against
animals especially.'
In case of illness, the magic process was the
same, for the ill person was possessed of an
adversary (Kheft), whose inauspicious presence
in his body was responsible for all the evil. The
magician, like the priest and the physician, knew
the art of healing; he obtained his knowledge from
mysterious books granted by the gods to certain
men under miraculous circumstances. So the
Treatise how to destroy abscesses in all parts of the
body was found under the feet of the god Anubis
and brought to King Ousaphais2 (Ist dynasty);
the medical papyrus kept in London "was found
a certain night in the great hall of the temple in
Koptos by a priest of this temple. There was
IF. Legge, "The Magic Ivories of the Middle Empire"
(Proceedings, S. B. A., 1905-6); cf. Capart, Revue de l'Histoire
des religions, I906, p. 327.
2Papyrus Ebers, 103, i, 1-2.




Magic in Ancient Egypt


28i


darkness over all the earth, but the moon shone
upon the book and lighted it with its rays. It
was brought to King Cheops (IVth dynasty)."
As the books on therapeutics were supposed to be
of divine origin it is not surprising that the remedies prescribed in them were of a rather supernatural order. The method employed to drive off
the adversary was the same as that resorted to in
fighting against dangerous animals. By the aid
of a formula, the personality of some god who by
tradition has power over the adversary, the cause
of the illness, is substituted for that of the suffering
man. Against pain in the stomach, for instance,
the magician declared earnestly: "This stomach
is that of Horus speaking to Isis. Horus saith:
'I have eaten some of the fish Abt, that is made of
gold.' Isis answereth: 'If it be so, the gods shall
help thee.' Rub the stomach with honey; wash
the stomach with a liquid kept in a vase on which
are represented the gods of the South and of the
North, Ra, Horus, Thot, Toum, Isis, Nephthys,
three-eyed Ouza, and three uraei. " 1
Here is a case of confinement. The woman in
childbed is assimilated with Isis and claims imperiously the help of the gods: " 0 ye gods, come
to help; here is Isis; she is seated like a pregnant
' Pleyte, Study on a Magic Scroll in Leyde, p. 142.




282


Time of the Pharaohs


woman; if ye remain inactive, 0 gods, there shall
be no more heaven and no more earth;... disasters shall come from the North; there shall rise
cries from the tombs, the sun shall shine no more
at noon, the water of the Nile shall not overflow.
It is not I who am speaking, it is Isis about to
give birth to Horus. " '
This intervention of the gods, bound by magic
formula and compelled to serve those who know
them, is also made clear by a famous monument
in the National Library in Paris: the stela of the
princess of Bakhtan. In the legendary country
of Bakhtan, a princess called Bintrashit, the
sister of one of Pharaoh's wives, was suffering
from a mysterious disease. Neither the physicians
nor the magicians of the country could relieve
her. The prince of Bakhtan asked his brotherin-law, the Pharaoh, to send him a Wiseman, that
is to say, an Egyptian magician. Pharaoh sent
one of the "scribes of the double house of life"
who diagnosed the case as being that of a woman
possessed: "The magician found Bintrashit in
this condition and found out the evil spirit which
possessed her, an enemy dangerous to fight. "
Incapable of driving away the terrible adversary,
the magician called an Egyptian god to his help.
I Pleyte, Study on a Magic Scroll in Leyde, p. I8o.




Magic in Ancient Egypt


283


The god Khonsu set forth for Bakhtan, after
receiving from his elder brother, Khonsw-ofgood-advice, a "fluid of life" and a magic power
sufficient to resist all struggles. "When the god
arrived at Bakhtan, behold! the prince came with
his soldiers and captains to meet Khonsu; he lay
flat upon his belly, saying: 'Thou hast come to
us according to the bidding of Pharaoh.'.
And lo, as soon as the god came before Bintrashit
and made magic passes over her head, she felt
well at once, and the evil spirit that was in her
said to Khonsu: 'Come in peace, thou great god
who drivest away strangers; Bakhtan is thy city,
its people are thy slaves, and I myself am thy
slave. I shall go to the place whence I came,
so as to give satisfaction unto thy heart, in this
case that brought thee here; only let it be ordered
that a festival be celebrated in honour of me and of
the prince of Bakhtan.' The god approved of it,
and after great offerings had been made to Khonsu
and to the evil spirit, the latter departed in peace
to the place he chose to go to according to the
bidding of Khonsu. "'
In this tale, we see a god using his magic power
against an evil spirit, in the service of the Pharaoh.
x Cf. Maspero, Les Contes populaires de l'Egypte ancienne, 3d
edition, p. I6i and following.




284


Time of the Pharaohs


The Pharaoh was, indeed, the head of the magicians in his kingdom and we shall refer later to this
important attribute of kingship in Egypt. But
ordinary citizens also might guard themselves
from the attacks of an evil spirit, provided they
knew an efficacious formula; for instance, the following one preserved for us in a papyrus at Leyde:
If you are attacked by a dead (man) some evening when undressing, place under your head [this
formula]: " The beauties of (so and so) are the beauties of Osiris; his upper lip is that of Isis; his under
lip that of Nephthys, his teeth are like swords, his
arms are like those of the gods, his fingers are like
divine serpents, his back is like the back of Seb....
etc. There is not one of his limbs that is not like those
of a god...." Words to be said on an amulet, in order
to cure and to charm the limbs of a person and his
ills. They must be recited when a dead person, male
or female, attacks a man while undressing, and drags
him away on an evening, in order to torment him.
We again come in contact here with the fraud
which consists of taking on the personality of
some god, vanquisher of his enemies, so as to
cheat the adversary, to put him in such a position
that, if imitative magic be true, he cannot have
the upper hand.
The magician was proficient not only in fighting
against maladies and evils but also in foreseeing




Magic in Ancient Egypt


285


them and he averted destiny and fate by prophecies and horoscopes. In this respect, the
art of the magician rested on his observations
in astronomy. Diodorus writes:
There is perhaps no country in which the order
and movement of the stars are observed with more
accuracy than in Egypt. They have preserved for
an incredible number of years registries of their observations.... There is found information about the
relationship of each planet to the birth of animals
and about the stars whose influence is good or bad.... '
In the tomb of Osymandyas, in Thebes, there was on
the terrace a gold circle having a circumference of
365 cubits, each cubit divided into 365 parts. Each
division corresponded to a day of the year, and by its
side there was recorded the natural rising and setting
of the stars, with the prognostications based thereon
by the Egyptian astrologers.
The method for prognostication was this:
On a certain day, at a certain hour, the stars
occupy a definite position. At some previous
time, when the stars were in a similar position,
a propitious or unpropitious event came to pass;
the same event, or a similar one will probably
happen at the moment when the stars assume
their former place.   The documents that have
come down to us show that the events alluded
1 Diodorus, i, 71.          2Ibid., i, 49.
3 Papyrus Sallier, translated by Chabas, Calendrier des jours
fastes et nefastes.




286


Time of the Pharaohs


to concerned the life of the gods and referred
principally to the daily struggle of Osiris against
Set and to the episodes of their alternate defeat
and victory. On the seventeenth of the month
Athyr, Set killed Osiris; on the ninth of Khoiak,
Thot defeated Set; on the fifth of Tybi, Sokhit
burnt the impious; the first date was therefore
unpropitious, the other two propitious. "Whatsoever thou seest on this day, it shall be favourable." Thus every man had to live again the
life of the gods in his own manner, and could not
escape their influence. The power of the magician
consisted in making these well-known facts from
mythology bear on the actions of human life
in appropriate circumstances, and also in imitating
in the best and most favourable sense, the destiny
of the gods. 
Besides, each year, each month, each day, each
hour was supposed to be under the influence of a
god or of a star;2 the magician knew how to render
them propitious, or, at least, could warn the
people concerned of the lot awaiting them. He
knew the diverse fates allotted to each man
by the fairy goddesses on his birthday,3 because
I Maspero, Les Contes populaires, Introduction, p. xlix.
2Wiedemann, Magie und Zauberei, p. 6.
3 Maspero, Les Contes populaires, Introduction, p. li.




Magic in Ancient Egypt


287


this day was entered on his books under a rubric
of good or ill omen, with the proper amount of
good or bad luck attached to them, and reckoned
minutely. "The ninth of Paophi means felicity
of the gods; men are joyful, for the enemy of
Ra is put down. Whoever is born on that day,
will die of old age." "As for the twenty-seventh
of Paophi, whoever is born on that day, will die,
killed by the crocodile. " 1 Popular literature
has left us a story about a Predestined Prince:2
he strives in vain to ward off three fates which,
from his birth, condemn him to perish by the
serpent, the crocodile, or the dog. The magician
could not always thwart destiny; but, at least,
his client, forwarned and forearmed, tried to
escape his fate by taking useful precautions:
staying at home, avoiding all danger, reciting
the protective formulae.
Protective rites are only a part of the magic
art; its power and prestige are, by far, increased
if the magician knows the rites producing action
at a distance. The Egyptians contrived to exercise magical influence over men, gods, and the
dead for the most varied purposes.
Magic action at a distance, or absent treatI Maspero, Les Contes populaires, Introduction, p. 1.
2 Ibid., p. 168.




288


Time of the Pharaohs


ment, as it were, of any being whatever, was possible for the Egyptian magician only through the
help of gods, or of genii that he had at first to
subdue to his power. The scheme of the process
was this: The magician invoked a god or a
spirit: "Come, venerable spirit... "; then, he
formulated the wish that had to be fulfilled: "Act
for me on such a person,... arouse for me such
a one,... direct his heart towards such a one...."  He declared then: "I call thee up by
thy real name"; then followed a litany of magic
names, composed usually of incomprehensible
syllables. Finally, after a declaration intended
to frighten the god or genius called forth ("for
I am the bull, for I am the lion, I am the head
of the venerable lord of Abydos"), the magician
gave a magical recipe: recite the formula over
an image of Osiris, of Anubis; mix a drink, a
concoction, or a salve with herbs, incense, wheat,
over which is poured blood of the patient himself, or in which are put small pieces of a corpse. I
Sometimes mention was made of a figure;2 the
1 G. Maspero, Memoire sur quelques papyrus du Louvre, p. 155.
Cf. the tabelle devotionis found at Hadrumete, the incantations
in which date from the Roman period, but were almost entirely
borrowed from the Egyptian magic rituals (G. Maspero, jtudes
de Mythologie, ii. p. 296).
2 Papyrus du Louvre, pp. 117, Ii8, 120.




Magic in Ancient Egypt


289


latter, it seems, had to be made in the likeness
of the subject of this absent treatment, and the
formula recited over this figure was supposed to
send to its original dreams of love or of terror,
sleep or insomnia, health or death. Such formula
imply the practice of envoiltement, since they allude
to figures receiving the direct shock of the magic
conjuration. In fact, we know a few cases of
envoitement affecting gods or men. The papyrus
of Nesiamsou contains an incantation intended
to help the god Ra in his daily struggle against
Apophis, the evil spirit. A wax statuette was
made in the name of Apophis and in his crocodile
form. The name of the god was written in green
ink upon this figure, which was then wrapped in
a papyrus on which the silhouette of Apophis
was also sketched. It was necessary to spit
first upon the figure, then to hack it with a crude
stone knife and to fling it to the ground; then the
priest crushed it several times under his left foot,
and burnt it over a pile of plants having magic
properties. The rite had to be repeated three
times a day (probably as a ceremony additional
to the ordinary cult), and also when there came a
storm, the latter being an omen of danger for the
divinities. I
I Budge, Egyptian Magic, p. 77; Frazer, The Golden Bough.




290


Time of the Pharaohs


In Egyptian history, there is also an important
case of envoMtement known to us, which occurred
in the reign of Ramses III. An official in the royal
palace was convicted of crime for the following
deeds: ' he procured a magic script copied from
the secret books of the king, and so succeeded in
fascinating (( p  I s *   sih) the people in the
palace; he also managed to "make wax men and
writs of wishes":
(I                   A          I I I v B'.: a
-?_3)
that is to say, figures over which he recited incantations, in order to attain his desired aim; he
was thus able to bewitch, (hikaou: I t U   j )
the servants in the harem.
Such examples of envoltement can be explained
in the light of one another, so that it becomes
easy to realise what general principles underlie
active magic with the Egyptians. Here, as in
other countries, the magician commanded other
beings by making use of: 1st, their names; 2d,
figures representing them. These two means of
active magic are known to all primitive societies.
"A name," writes M. Hartland, "is considered
inseparable from its possessor, and the savages
take great care to hide from one another the
knowledge of their true name,2 and are satisfied
1 Papyrus Lee, ap. Deveria (Euvres, ii, p. 97.
2 Cf. Lefebure Sphinx, i, p. 98: In a legend preserved in the




Magic in Ancient Egypt


29I


with being addressed and singled out by a surname
or an epithet substituted for it.' The reason is
that knowing the name of another man is to get
mastery over him; it is as if this man himself, or
an essential part of himself, was put in the possession of the person who obtained knowledge of
his name. "2   M. Lefebure, in his very suggestive
treatises on the importance of the name among
the Egyptians, has demonstrated that this general
theory can be applied point by point to Egypt.
This explains the care taken by the magicians,
while reciting magic formula, to pronounce
properly the true name of the god they wished to
call upon; and this name was multiple, or of curious form, but its harmonised sound possessed the
power of acting on the being invoked. " In
reality, the name of a person, or of a thing is not
an algebraic sign, but rather an effective image;
therefore, it becomes, in a sense, an integral
part of the original; it becomes this original
Turin papyri the Sun, Ra, confesses: "My name was spoken
by my father and my mother, then was hidden in my heart by
him who begat me, so as not to allow the enchanter to prevail,
who would enchant me. "
I Called by the Egyptians the "good name."  (Lefdbure,
Sphinx, i, p. 97, and following.)
2 This is what happened to Ra, in the legend related above,
as soon as Isis managed to take from him, i.e., from his body,
his proper name.




292


Time of the Pharaohs


person or object itself, only less material and
more manageable, that is to say, adapted to
the use of the mind in short, it is a mental
substitute for the object."  To pronounce the
name of a being is tantamount to fashioning
his spiritual image; to write a name is equivalent
to sketching the material likeness: this is true
especially in the case of Egypt where, in hieroglyphic writing, names are accompanied by a determinative sketching out, as accurately as possible,
objects and beings. Calling forth a name is a
practice similar to "the rites of witchcraft, in
which the magician fashions the figure of some
man, calls it by his name, and then pierces it
with sharp points of thorns, with the intention of
inflicting suffering and finally death upon the
person represented. " ' Let us conclude that magic
action at a distance, or absent treatment, depended
in Egypt, as elsewhere, on imitative magic and was
effected through the name and the figures of the
treated beings or things.
Besides the amulets, talismans, formulae, and
horoscopes, used to prevent danger, besides magic
envoiAtements and conjurations used for absent
treatment, the practice of magic played an imx Hartland, ap. Lefdbure, loc. cit.




Magic in Ancient Egypt


293


portant part even in Egyptian religion, and in
the cult. The cult of the gods and the dead was
imbued with magic to such a degree that a detailed
study extremely difficult in itself, and which
would be out of place here-would be necessary
to separate what pertains to prayer and sacrifice
to the god, and what belongs to witchcraft and
magic objurgations. Truth to tell, the priest
prostrated himself before the god, implored him,
solicited him; but, at the same time, the god
needed the priest, because the priest protected
him against his enemies, saved him from the
Osirian death, shielded him from evil charms, by
processes identical with genuine magic. Without
the priest, the god had but a latent power; just
like an ill man, or one possessed, he, too, had to
receive the fluid of life from the hands of the priest
and then he was able to drive back his enemies,
the typhonic animals, by the same means as his
human creatures; he derived benefit from the
sacrifice, and the offerings only through the magic
virtue of the voice of the priest officiating.' The
lists of offerings, repeated many times on the
walls of the temple, had no effective value and did
i The theory of creation by voice and sound has been explained
by Maspero (Etudes de Mythologie, ii, p. 372). Cf. A. Moret,
Rituel du culte divin, p. 154 and following.




294


Time of the Pharaohs


not come forth on the altar, except in response to
the voice of the priest;' the real offerings, burning
on the altar, passed over to the god only after
their names were pronounced, and their presentation performed with the proper ritualistic formulae
and intonations. The priest-that is to say,
the king himself-possessed, indeed, the privilege
of gods, creating beings and things by naming
them; he was endowed with the "creative voice"
through which the demiurgi once called forth
the world: he was md khroou.2        The god himself,
whose power at the beginning of the rites seemed
to be annihilated or diminished, became again a
"creator"    and   a  "vanquisher,"     upon   contact
with the priest, and at the sound of his powerful
x Hence the name of offering "that which comes forth at the
sound of the voice," pir khr6ou (Maspero, La Table d'offrandes
des tombeaux egyptiens, p. 30; A. Moret, Rituel du culte divin, p.
156).
a Md khr6ou, "just of voice," according to Maspero; rather
"creator through the voice," according to my opinion; these two
explanations are not contradictory, but rather complete each
other (Rituel du culte divin, p. 163). M. Philippe Virey was the
first who proposed, in I889, the translation of md khr6ou by
"he who realises the word, who realises through speech, whose
voice or demand brings into reality, makes true, causes the
offerings, existing only in painting on the walls of the tomb, to
become real, to exist materially" (Le tombeau de Rekhmard,
p. Ioi, n. 7; p. 149, n. 2. Cf. Rituel, p. I52, n. 2). In my
opinion, the power of the voice, with the officiating priest, is not
limited to the materialisation of the offerings, but is extended
to any act performed by the demiurge.




Magic in Ancient Egypt


295


creative voice. In his turn, he put his now renewed magic force, creative voice, and fluid of
life at the service of the priest.  Thus the cult
appears to us as an exchange of magic forces and
influences, going alternately from the priest over
to the god and back again from the god to the
priest.' This part of the cult has remained
closest to the primitive practices of old in which
magic and witchcraft held a place more important
than mythical belief and prayer. The magician
knew so well that the help of his rites and formulae
could not be dispensed with that he sometimes
threatened the gods by declaring that he would
prevent their cult from being performed.2
This reciprocal blending of cult and magic explains the prominent part played by certain gods,
such as Thot, Horus, Bes, in the magic conjurations mentioned above. The gods themselves,
as we have seen, were magicians; especially Thot,
the scribe of the gods, the "Wise" in heaven, was
worshipped as the "lord of the voice, the master
of words and books, the possessor or inventor of
the magic scripts which nothing can resist in
heaven, on earth, or in Hades."3 The scrolls
'A. Moret, Rituel du culte divin, p. 221, and following; Du
caractere religieux de la royaute' pharaonique, 160.
2 Lef6bure, Sphinx, x, p. 91; viii, p. 27.
3 Maspero, Histoire, i, p. I45.




296


Time of the Pharaohs


chanted by the magicians were the "books of
Thot, that the latter wrote with his own hand."
No wonder then that the rites invented by the
gods were used in their cult for their own safety!
What is true of the cult of the gods is equally
true of the cult of the dead. The transmission
of the " fluid of life " to the mummy, the protection
from typhonic animals, the presentation of real or
fictitious offerings necessitated the use of magic
for the deceased, as well as for the gods. The use
of funeral statuettes (oushaibtiou), or " answerers,"
which placed at the disposal of the deceased a
train of servants or substitutes, commissioned to
perform for him any labour useful for his material
existence after death, is as yet not explainable on
any ground other than that of magic, which converted these figures into living beings for the
service of the deceased in the other world.' But
it is especially in the methods of attaining the
diverse Paradises that the power of magic is
strongly manifested. The deceased appeared for
judgment before the tribunal of Osiris, and was
forced to answer a series of questions at the gateway of the infernal regions. Yet if he knew
the formula of salvation  and the names of
the guardians he had sway over the infernal
z Maspero, Histoire, i, p. I93.




Magic in Ancient Egypt


297


gods.! Whether he was pure or impure mattered
little; provided that he was furnished with the protective talismans, and performed the effectual rites,
he was sure to be considered good: " Pass on, thou
art pure, " say the Osirian judges. Paradise was
to be obtained by the expert magician rather than
by the man in possession of virtue alone. Magic
supplanted righteousness and deceived gods as
well as men.
We touch here upon one of the most important
results of this intermingling of magic with the
cult of the gods and the dead: magic gave an
unstable character to that Egyptian religion
which proclaimed under other circumstances so
lofty a moral ideal of right and truth. It put
falsehood and sincerity on the same level; it
enabled the impure or wicked man, who knew
how to bind the gods by his charms, to act with
impunity.
Popular literature is, therefore, not misleading
when it lays insistence on the prominent position
which magicians held in Egyptian society: they
had the power of life or death, could conjure up
the past, make the present secure, and give protection for the future; all nature obeyed them, and,
' Maspero, Histoire, i, p. i84 and following.




298


Time of the Pharaohs


if they desired and commanded, the world might
be overturned. This is what was said about the
formulae in the book of Thot: "If thou recitest
the first of these formulae, thou wilt charm heaven,
earth, night, mountains, water; thou wilt understand what the birds and reptiles say, thou wilt
see the fishes of the abyss, for a divine power will
bring them to the surface of the water. If thou
recitest the second formula, though thou be in
thy grave, thou shalt assume anew the form thou
hadst on earth. " 
Thus, supernatural wonders are but child's play
for the magician: to divide the water of a river;2
to cut off the head of a man and put it in place
again, without endangering him;3 to give life to
wax-figures representing a furious crocodile,4 a
fish,5 a barge and its rowers;6 to become invisible;7 to read a sealed letter 8-all that the "Wise "
in Egypt knew how to accomplish, at least so it is
related in the stories. Now, several men who
really existed (such as Amen6phis, son of Hapi,
who under the reign of Amen6phis III was adored
during his life and who enjoyed, even in the closing
period of ancient Egypt, the reputation of an
X Maspero, Les contes populaires, p. xlvii, i08, 113.
2 Ibid., p. 30.  3P. 34.  4 P. 25.  5 P. 28.
6P. III.   7P I 53.     8p.P I39




Magic in Ancient Egypt


299


invincible magician I) seem to have possessed,
indeed, a power of suggestion and intuition which
placed them above and beyond humanity.
It is in connection with the Pharaoh that the
most famous magicians appear to us. We see
them, the "scribes of the double house of life,"
repairing to the King's council, laden with their
scrolls, whenever their advice is needed about
things human and divine: here, they have to
divert the king by legerdemain,2 there, they
are sent for to give aid to an allied prince;3 now
some foreign magician comes to defy the scribes
of the Pharaoh4 and to challenge them in the way
described in Exodus.5
This might be the place to ask how in ordinary
life an individual became a magician. Was this
office attained through a supernatural revelation,
teaching the incumbent the art of making use of
talismans and formulae? Was it through initiation received from another magician? The texts
as yet known explain all magic power as dependent
on the possession and knowledge of formulae; but
I Maspero, Histoire, ii, p. 448.
2Conte du roi Khoufoui et des magiciens (Maspero, Contes,
p. 23).
3 Conte de lafille du prince de Bakhtan, p. i6.
4 2e Conte de Satni Khamois, p. 131.
s Exodus, vii.




300


Time of the Pharaohs


it is probable that in Egypt, as elsewhere, this
knowledge had to be accompanied by a state of
particular blessing, resulting from initiation or revelation. Up to the present time, documents are
too few and the interpretations that have been
given them not sufficiently valid to authorise us
to say by whom or by what means the magician
was initiated. It is presumable, on the other
hand, that the power of the magician became
manifest by some material sign. Such a sign, in
Australia, is a substance reputed to be magic: a
piece of rock-crystal, for instance, which the magician is supposed to have absorbed at the time of
his initiation; or, it is the bone of a dead person
which is supposed to protect him. According to
the texts in the pyramids, the magic (hikaou)
of an individual is considered as a material substance that must be eaten or assimilated in some
way, and the presence of which in the body is
necessary to confer magic power on the gods, the
dead, or the magicians, just as the piece of rockcrystal is considered necessary to the endowment
of an Australian sorcerer.'
Magic science and the prestige attached to it
I Cf. the suggestive study of Mauss: L'origine des pouvoirs
magiques dans les sociites australiennes, I904. For the texts in
the Pyramids, cf. Ounas, So6, 5i8; and Lef6bure, Sphinx, vii,
p. 29.




Magic in Ancient Egypt


301


were to be obtained by arduous poring over books
and by leading an exemplary life. The magician
had to avoid the temptations of the flesh; ritual
purity' and chastity 2 were among the conditions
of his power. He lived, therefore, beyond humanity, lost in his dreams, his mind wandering and
obsessed by the formula that give sovereign
power: a certain hero of the popular tales, having
gained the possession of an all-powerful scroll,
"no longer saw nor heard, so constantly did he
recite his pure and holy chapter; he no longer
approached women, no longer ate meat or fish. "
Another one "busied himself 'with nothing else
in the world but his roll of magic formula, that
he unfolded and read before any comer. " 3
Surrounded by these inspired men, the Pharaoh
himself possessed, by intuition, the science which
actuated them. As a son of the gods, endowed
with supernatural blessings, armed with magic
I The text called story of the Destruction of Men gives the following indications about the ritual purity of the magician: "He
who pronounces these words must anoint himself with balm
and pure oil. He must have a censer in his hands, also be
anointed with perfume behind his two ears. His lips must be
purified with natron. He is clothed with two new garments
and he wears wooden shoes. On his tongue is an image of Matt,
painted in fresh colours. Whenever Thot wants to read this
book to Ra, he purifies himself with purifications lasting nine
days. Priest and men must do the same. "
2 G. Maspero, Contes, p. I02.        3 Ibid., p. 120.




302


Time of the Pharaohs


weapons, crowned with animated diadems, in
which goddesses were incarnated, his forehead
bound with the uraeus (the goddess of incantations) ' the king was the first and the most powerful of magicians. If he so desired, he commanded
nature; his shouts, which were like the roaring of
the thunder, called forth the storms; the water
of the desert sprang forth at his command, and
the overflow of the Nile obeyed his decrees. The
Pharaoh thus appears to us gifted with the same
supernatural and magic powers as the king of
the weather, the harvest, the rain, the fire, and
the water, still existing in our day among the
savages.2 It is therefore with reason that an
official text of the XVIth dynasty thus praises
King Ahmes: "The terrors of Thot are beside
him; for the god has given him his knowledge of
things; it is he who guides the scribes in their
doctrines; he is the Great Magician, the master
of charms." 3   In the king was the inexhaustible
source of the "fluid of life" and of the "magic
power"; it was the duty of the "Wise men," asx A. Moret, Du caractere religieux de la royaute pharaonique,
p. 284 and following.
2 Fraser, The Golden Bough, 2d ed., 1900, i, p. 166. Cf. Sphinx,
vii, p. 1 67.
3Inscription of King Ahmes (Annales du Service des Antiguites, iv, p. 28).




Magic in Ancient Egypt


303


sistants of the king, to conduct the course of this
magic.
The conclusion to be drawn from this brief
study is that Ancient Egypt reveals, notwithstanding her very advanced civilisation, a mental
state that, in some respects, was still on a level
with that of savage peoples. The magician
occupied a foremost position because he was the
man who observed, who learned, who knew.
He recognised certain laws, such as that of
cause and effect; he noted certain facts of miraculous aspect which are to-day explained by
magnetism, suggestion, telepathy. Magic science
rests then partly upon accurate observation. The
magician was in error in asserting that he had control over these laws and facts, not only in the case
of experimental facts observed once and repeated
under identical conditions, but also in cases of
remote analogy, coming under the definition
of affinity or imitation: when such an assertion is
accepted as valid, the "science" of the magician
deteriorates into magic. When the magician
observes facts truly, we must consider him in
the light of a physicist, a chemist, an astronomer,
a physician, a psychologist of primitive times;
when he leaves the ground of experimental test,
he becomes a sorcerer and a necromancer. As




304


Time of the Pharaohs


the scientific method in Ancient Egypt had not
as yet advanced very far, the character of the
sorcerer in this dual personality naturally prevailed over that of the physician or the physicist.
To give the weight of authority to his sayings
the magician drew liberally from mythology; he
claimed the patronage of the gods, and, in default
of convincing experiences in real life, he quoted
divine legends, and these, though unverified, are
accepted by popular belief. In a word, we may
apply to Egypt the conclusions of Professor
Frazer: Magic has only the appearance of science.
Yet this is sufficient to explain the strong attraction which magic, like science, has exercised,
at all times, over the human mind. Even to-day,
it not infrequently happens that the investigator,
weary and disappointed, takes refuge in it, as if
it were an elevated place, from which he is shown
the future, far off, in the dazzling light of a dream. 
xFrazer, The Golden Bough, 2d ed., 1900, i, pp. 61-62; iii,
pp. 458-460.


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I




INDEX


A
Abdellatif, mentioned, 12
Abf-Roasch, the centre of
culture at, o09; the pyramid
at, i80
Abu Simbel, the speos of, 5
Abusir, the plain of, I6, I66
Abydos, the site of, 4, 107
L'dge de la pierre et les metaux
en Egypte, 107
Aha, the name of, 138
Aha-Menes, king of Negadeh,
148
Ahmes, King, the praise of,
302
Alasia, the shores of, 97
Amelineau, the discoveries of,
106, 107, I08, 136
Amen6phis I., a structure
built by, 48
Amen6phis II., the tomb of, 24
Amen6phis III., the reliefs of,
12
Amen6phis IV., the heretic
king, 33, 55
Amen6phises, halls erected by
the, 2
Amentit, the goddess, 203
Amon, the god, 49
Amouri, the land of the, 72
Anou, the striking of the, 155
305


Antiquit6s, the Egyptian Service des, 8
Anubis, the god, 193, 194, 206
Anz-ab, 149
Apophis, the evil spirit, 289
"Ap-ro," the redemptory ritual of, 200
Arab-Hiba, 72
Arad-Hiba, the correspondence of, 59
Arcelin, the geologist, 102
Archaeological Institute, the,
in Cairo, 27
Ashmoleum, the, 129
Assouan, granite from, I80
Athyr, 286
Atoum, 245
Aventures de Sinouhit, 89
Aziron, 72
B
Ba, the spiritual soul, 188
Bakhtan, the prince of, 97, 282
Ballas, o09
Barsanti, M., a superintendent
in the Service des Antiquit6s, 22, 66, 172
Bast, the divine cat, 277
Beit-Allam, the type of, 135
Bennon, 244
Bes, 295




306


Index


Bioxides of Sinai manganese,
126
Bissing, von, 2
Book of the Dead, the, 206,
218 ff.
Borchardt, M., 148
Bouriant, M., 57
Bow, the clan of the, 162
Breasted, J. H., the exploration of, 27
Bournabouryash, the king
of Babylon, 75
Buto, the capital at, 156
C
Cairo, the Museum of, 27
Canaan, the land of, 83
Capart, J., the work of, 115
Champollion, the expedition
of, 15
Chantre, M., the collection of,
63
Cheops, King, 9
Cheops, the pyramid, 178
Chephren, the pyramid, 178
Choisy, author of L'Art de
bdtir chez les Egyptiens, 40
Coptos, 153
D
Danga, the dancing dwarf of
the, 212
Daressy, M., author of Annales
du Service des Antiquites, 12,
21
Dashur, the residence of, i66
Davis, Theodore M., the excavations of, 27
Debuts de l'art en ygypte, Les,
"I5


Deir-el-Bahri, the shrine at,
5, 23
Delattre, P., 72
Delta, the region of the, 24
de Morgan, the discoveries of,
1o6
Den, the king, 137
Denderah, the temples at, 5;
the hypostyle of, 6
Dog, the clan of the, 162
Doudou, the Egyptian deputy,
73
Dushratta, the king of Mitanni, 82
E
Edfu, the temples at, 5; the
arrangement of, 6
Egypt Exploration Fund, the
society described as, 27
El-Amarna, the letters of, 65
ff., 90
El-Amrah, I09
El-Kab, Io9
Erman, Adolf, 57
Erment, the temple of, 13
Esneh, the hypostyle hall of, 14
Eunead, the great, 243
F
Faytm, the region of the, 24;
the oases of the, 166
Felidae, the figures of, I 17
Fouquet, Doctor, 137
Frazer, Professor, works by,
302 ff.
G
Gebel-Tarif, 114




Index


307


Ghafirs, the guardians of the
ruins, 25
Gizeh, the residence of, i66
Golden Bough, The, 304
Gournah, the ruins of, 4
Grand-Pasha, the calculations
made by, 34
Gr6bault, Monsieur, the work
of, I892-I897, 20
Green, M., 131
H
Haggag, Abu'l, the mosque of,
I9
Haggi-Kandil, the village of,
55
Hal6vy, M., 62
Hamy, the naturalist, 102
Hapi, 298
Hathor, a chapel of the goddess, 23; the god, I60
Hawks, the clan of the, 162
Heliopolis, the theologians of,
I164; the gods of, 238
Heraclespolitan dynasties, the,
48
Heredia, J. M. de, mentioned,
5
Heuzey, M., the researches of,
I53
Hierakonpolis, the tomb of,
109, 132, I56
Homolle, M., 50
Hor, the god, I60
Hordidiff, the royal prince,
230
Horus, the hawk, 141
Horus, the priests of, 6
Horus, the revenge of, IOI
Hyksos, the invasion of the, Io




I
Ialu, the fields of, 206
Imhotep, the courtier, 176
Ishtar-Astarte, the statue of
Our Lady, 90
Isis, 281
Ismail, the Khedive, 102
J
Journal des Debats, the subscription raised by the, 20.
Journey of an Egyptian, The,
96
K
Ka, the significance of the
word, I88
Kallima-Sin, the daughter of,
87
Kardounyash, the king of, 81
Karnak, the independent district of, 2, 25; the reconstruction of, 40 ff.
Kawamil, I09
Khargieh, the oasis of, IO9
Khasekhem, 149, 156
Khasekhemui, the tomb of,
I41, 171
Kheta, the customs of, go
Khonsu, the Theban, 97
Khonsu, the temples of, 4; the
god, 283
Khounatonou, the city of, 56
Khufu, King, I86
Koptos, the temple of, 280
Kourigalzou, the reign of, 84
L
Lacau, M. Pierre, mentioned,
27




308


Index


Lapwing, the clan of the, 162
Lef6bure, M., deductions of,
249 ff.
Legrain, M. Georges, the
method of support introduced by, 21, 36
Lenormant, F., the naturalist,
102
Lepsius, the expedition of, 15
Lock of Hair, the clan of the,
162
London Times, the subscription raised by the, 20
Loret, Monsieur, the effective
work of, 20
Luxor, the preservation at, 4,
I8
Lythgoe, M., the archaeological missions of, 27
M
Mageddo, 96
Mait, the Lady of Right and
Truth, 235
Mane, the ambassador, 86
Manetho, the history of, 99
Mariette, the work of, I5, i6,
I7; death of, 17
Maspero, G., author of Bibliotheque Egyptologique, 13,
I4, I7, I8 ff.
Medinet Habu, the splendid
buildings of, 21
Meidun, the residence of, I66
Memphite dynasties, the, 125
Menes, the first king of Egypt,
139
Mera, the tombs of, 124
Merbapen, I38


Merit-Neit, the wife of Aha,
149
Mersekh, the king, 138
Miebais, I49
Milkili, 75
Min, the god, 160
Mitanni, the country of, 8I
Montouhotpou, the temple of
a, 2
Morgan, Monsieur de, the
work in preservation of, 20
Mus6e Guimet, the, 124
Mycerinus, the pyramid of,
178
N
Naharima, the land of, 97
Nar, the fish, 163
Narmer, King, the name of,
138, 148
Natron, the lake of, 251
Naville, M., the trophies of,
2, 23
Negadeh, the discoveries at,
108, 131
Nekyes, the reign of the, 139
Nephthys, I94, 242
Nesa, the statue of, 115
Nile, the average rising of the
bed of the, 34
Nofirka, the structure of, 174
Noult, the sycamore tree of,
229, 242
Nu, 240
0
O-mel-Gaab, the necropolis of,
136
Oppert, M., 57
Osiris, the temple of, 48, Ioi




Ind


I


Osiris Khontamenti, 143
Osymandyas, the tomb of, 285
Ouadi Halfa, 22
Ouady-HammamAt, the quarries of, 52, 153
Ounamonou, the priest, 97
Ounas, the pyramid of, 179,
210 ff.
Ousaphais, King, 149, I70, 280
Ousirniri, the edifice of, I
Ousirtasen III., the pillars
erected by, 2, 48
P
Palermo, the stone of, 154
Pepi I., 9, 2Io
Perdbsen, King, 101, 145
Petrie collection, the, 125
Petrie, Prof. Flinders, the
tranlations of, 60, 104, I05
Pharaonic Diplomacy, 55 ff.
Phile, the temples at, 5;
description of, 6, 26
Phtah, the temple of, 10, 157
Pount, the country of, 154
Psamteks, the time of the, 222
Pyramids, around the, 166 ff.
Q
Qa, the king, 138
Qoceir, 153
Quibell, M., the supervision
of, 24, 148
R
Ra, the reign of King, IOI
Rameseum, the perilous condition of the, 4, 46
Ramses II., the temple of, 28
Ramses III., the discovery of
the temple of, 4, 47


lex                     309
Red Kingdom of the North,
156
Reisner, Dr., the excavations
of, 27
Rib-Addi, the correspondence
of, 59
Rosellini, the expedition of, 15
"Royal Canon," the, of Turin,
I00
S
Said, the region of the, 24
Sakkarah, the plain of, i6, 25,
166
Sargon, the elder, king of
Babylonia, 62
Satmi, 261
Schweinfurth, Dr., Io9
Seb, the time of, 101, 206
Sechmet, 278
Sekhet Ialu, the land of the
reeds, 204
Semempses, 149
Senosiris, 261
Sepa, the statue of, 115
Serapeum, the discovery of the,
47
Set, the god, Io1, 160
Sethe, Kurt, I47
Seti I., the temple of, 28
Shamas-niki, the man of, 60
Shou, 242
Shu, the reign of, IoI, I60
Shumardata, 75
Silsileh, the quarries of, 52,
I09
Sinouhit, the embarrassment
of, 89
Sitatama, the daughter of, 85
Sneferd, King, I05, I77




3Io


Index


Sokar-Osiris, 261
Sondou, King, 10, 145
Sphinxes, the avenue of the, 2
T
Tadouhipa, the marriage of, 86
Tafnouit, 242
Temples, the restoration of the
Egyptian, I ff.
Tetou-nou, 6I
Theban Phtah, the temple of,
47
Theodosius I., an edict of, 8
Thinis, the site of, 99
Thinite, the kingdom of, Io8
Thot, I94
Thothmes, the obelisk of, 2,
30
Thothmes III., the court of, 4;
the architectural work of, 9,
48
Thoutii, the fame of, 97
Tii, Queen, 55
Torr, Cecil, 132
Touaregs, the veils worn by
the, II7


Toukh, 109, 13I
Toum, 241
Toum-Ra, 242
Turah, limestone from, I80
U
Uraeus, the totem of, I63
Usephais, King, 9
V
Ventre-Pasha, the calculation
made by, 34
Vulture, the totem of the, 163
W
Weill, M., the researches of,
150
White Kingdom of the South,
I56
z
Zaouiet-el-Aryan, 172, 174 ff.
Zargara, the messenger, 88
Zeser, King, II0, 175
Zet, 138




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