Lie ElEY RY UNlVtt^SlTY OF CALIFORNIA KNTHROPOLOGY LIBRAKY BRITISH MUSEUM. A GUIDE TO THE EGYPTIAN COLLECTIONS IN THE BRITI;)] VillSEUM. ^^^ IIITH S3 PLATES A A TIONS IN THE TEXT. PRINTED BY THE TRUSTEES. -LINQ. OF THE UNIVERSITY Of'cAUI'OPINIA. AFFILIATED COLLEGES, SAN FRAH«ISCt. 1 I Pl GUIDE TO THE EGYPTIAN COLLECTIONS BRITISH MUSEUM. / I BRITISH MUSEUM. .^^ f] £^.yf^> A GUIDE TO THE EGYPTIAN COLLECTIONS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. H77'// ,-? PLATES AND iSo ILLUSTRATIONS LN THE TEXT. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES. 1909. PRICE ONE SHILLING. HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTV, ST. martin's lane, LONDON. Ze6 09^ J, HiTlfflOPOLOGY UBRARY PREFACE. The Collection of Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum comprises nearly fifty thousand objects, and many of its sections are unrivalled in completeness. It illustrates, in a more or less comprehensive manner, the history and civiliza- tion of the Egyptians from the time when their country was passing out of the Predynastic Period under a settled form of government, about B.C. 4500, to the time of the downfall of the power of the Queens Candace at Meroe, in the Egyptian Sudan, in the .second or third century after Christ. The monuments of Christian Egypt also form a very important series, and illustrate Coptic funerary sculpture and art between the sixth and eleventh centuries A.D. The present Guide ^as been prepared with the view 01 providing the visitor to the British Museum with information of a more general character than can be conveniently given in the Guides to the several Galleries and Rooms of the Department. An attempt has here been made to present a sketch of the origin, the manners and customs, the language, the writing, the literature, the religion, and the ^ burial rites of the peoples of Egypt, and of their history ^ under the successive dynasties ; embodying references to the ' several objects of the Collection which illustrate the different 9 branches of the subject. The te.xt is supplemented by an abundant selection of cuts and plates of the most important ^ of the antiquities. ^ E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. Department ok Egyptian and Assvrian Antiquities, British Museum, September 29, 1908. Z^^o3f A4 CONTENTS PREFACE .......... LIST OF PLATES ......... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT ..... CHAPTER I. THE COUNTRY OF EGYPT .... ,, II. ETHNOGRAPHY. LANGUAGE. FORMS OF WRITING. DECIPHERMENT OF EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS, ALPHABET, AND \YRITING. NATIONAL CHARACTER „ III. — EGYPTIAN LITERATURE, SACRED AND PRO- FANE „ IV. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. MARRIAGE. EDUCATION. DRESS. FOOD. AMUSE- MENTS. CATTLE BREEDING. TRADE. HANDICRAFTS .... „ V. ARCHITECTURE. PAINTING. SCULPTURE „ VI. THE KING AND HIS SUBJECTS. MILITARY SERVICE .... „ VII. EGYPTIAN RELIGION „ VIII. — EMBALMING. THE EGYPTIAN TOMB „ IX. NUMBERS. DIVISIONS OF TIME. CHRONOLOGY „ X. HISTORY OF EGYPT. ANCIENT EMPIRE „ XI. — HISTORY OF EGYPT. „ XII. HISTORY OF EGYPT. ,, XIII. — -HISTORY OF EGYPT. HISTORY OF EGYPT. HISTORY OF EGYPT. A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL KINGS OF EGYPT CARTOUCHES OF THE PRINCIPAL KINGS OF EGYPT INDEX ........ MIDDLE EMPIRE NEW EMPIRE PTOLEMAIC PERIOD ROMAN PERIOD ARAB PERIOD PAGE V ix xi I 58 76 103 116 122 180 188 213 228 268 282 286 290 3°3 LIST OF PLATES Plate I. Vignette from the papyrus of Queen Netchemet ...... „ II. Text and vignettes from the sarcophagus of King Nekht-Heru-hebt „ III. False door from the tomb of Shesha „. IV. Sepulchral tablet of Thetha „ V. Sepulchral tablet of Sebek-hetep „ VI. Sepulchral tablet of Pai-nehsi ,, VII. Sepulchral tablet of Bak-en-Amen „ VIII. Sepulchral tablet of Nes-Heru „ IX. Painted relief from the tomb of Ur-ari-en Ptah „ X. Painted sepulchral tablet of Kahu „ XI. Columns in the temple of Seti I ,, XII. Head of a priestess . „ XIII. Seated figures of Kha-em-Uast and his wife ...... „ XIV. False door from the tomb of A.sa-ankh „ XV. View of a painted chamber in the tomb of Nekht „ XVI. Wall painting from a tomb „ XVII. General view of the sarcophagus of Nekht Heru-hebt ..... „ XVIII. General view of the sarcophagus of Nes Qetiu „ XIX. Sepulchral tablet of Ban-aa ,, XX. The Great Pyramid and Sphinx XXI. The " Shekh al-Balad " . XXII. Tablet of Antef XXIII. Tablet of Sebek-aa . . „ XXIV. Tablet and figure of Sa-Hathor SEE PAGE 6i 66 68 68 68 68 68 68 8t 8i 107 fi5 115 167 175 175 177 177 177 196 203 210 21 1 215 LIST OF PLATES. Plate XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. XXXIV. XXXV. XXXVI. XXXVII. xxxAaii. XXXIX. XL. XLI. XLII. XLIII. XLIV. XLV. XLVI. XLVII. XLVI II. XLIX. L. LI. LII. LIII. Statue of Usertsen III . Head of Amen-em-hat III Statue of Sekhem-uatch-taui-Ra Stele of the reign of Sekhem-ka-Ra Memorial cone of Sebek-hetep . The Hall of Columns at Karnak Head of a colossal statue of Thothmes HI Statue of Amen-hetep III The Colossi of Amen-hetep HI Letter of Amen-hetep HI Letter of Tushratta, king of Mitani, to Amen-hetep III . Lion of Tut-ankh-Amen . Statues of a priest and his wife The temple of Abii Simbel Head of a colossal statue of Rameses II Sepulchral stele of Qaha . Vignettes from the papyrus of Queen Netchemet ..... Hathor-headed capital Relief of Queen Ankhnes-neferab-Ra The goddess Nut .... Statue of Uah-ab-Ra Obelisk dedicated to Thoth, Twice-great Vignettes and text from the sarcophagus of Nekht-Heru-heb ReUef of Ptolemy II The temple of Edfu . Granite shrine from Philae Tablet of Tiberius . Tablet of Tiberius . Tablet of Apa Pahomo . LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. Map of Egypt The Delta of Egypt The Entrance to the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes .... The Nile-gods and their cavern The Nile-god in his cavern . The Nile-god bearing offerings The Nile-gods of the South and North The Nile from sea to source Statue of Hapi the Nile-god Egyptian hunters of the Archaic Period, Nos. i-6 Ivory figure of a king .... Bone figure of a dwarf Bone figure of a woman carrying a child Bone figure of a woman with inlaid eyes Figure of Betchmes Figure of Nefer-hi Fox playing the double pipes Mouse seated on a chair Cat herding geese Lion and unicorn playing draughts The spearing of Apep . A page of writing from the Great Harris Papyrus Demotic writing . Coptic inscription The Rosetta Stone Two wooden writing palettes Slab of limestone inscribed in hieratic PAGE 2 3 5 9 9 II 12 23 24 24 25 25 26 26 27 28 29 30 31 36 38 41 43 54 56 Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. Vignette and text from the papyrus of Ani Vignette and text from the papyrus of Nu Vignette and text from the papyrus of Heru-em-heb Text from the Book " May my name flourish " The ceremony of " Opening the mouth " Marble sun-dial . Head of a priestess Relief, with a hippopotamus Green schist bear Egyptian house . Egyptian hut Ivory head-rest The Bull Apis . The Bull Mnevis . Flint cow's head . Jewellers drilling and polishing beads Pylon and court of the temple of Edfu Gateway to the temple of Rameses III (lateway of Ptolemy IX at Karnak Granite obelisks at Karnak Pillars at Philae . Statue of An-kheft-ka . Figure of a priest . Head of a statue of Neb-hap-Ra Statue of Sebek-nekht . Figure of a king . Queen Teta-Khart Head of Amen-hetep HI Statue of Isis I'igurc of ()en-nefer Statues of Mahu and Sebta The principal gods and goddesses of Egypt (57 tig Khnemu fashioning a man on a potter's wheel Osiris rising from the sarcophagus Osiris in his shrine Thoth weighing the heart LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. Xlll Maat weighing the heart Osiris on his Judgment Throne Ra at sunrise Ra at sunset Flint amulets (4 figures) The step pyramid at Sakkarah A group of mastaba tombs . Tablet for offerings An Egyptian tomb The soul visiting the body Section of the Second Pyramid Entrance to the tomb of Khnemu-hetep Entrance to a royal tomb Plan and section of the tomb of Seti I ( Wall painting from a tomb . Coffin of Hes-Petan-Ast Figures of Ka-tep and Hetep-heres King Semti dancing before a god . Relief from the tomb of Sherd Relief from the tomb of Suten-abu King Khufu .... Section of the Great Pyramid King Khaf-Ra . King Menkau-Ra Section of the Third Pyramid King Usr-en-Ra An Shrine of Pa-suten-sa . Stele of Tatiankef Lion of Khian Statue of Amen-hetep I The Temple of Luxor . Scarabs of Amen-hetep III (2 cuts) Kneeling statue of Rameses II Facade of the Ramesseum Statues of Rameses II (2 cuts) Statue of Kha-em-Uast . 2 cuts) PAGE 140 141 143 143 148 166 167 168 168 168 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 19b 192 194 196 197 199 200 202 204 219 220 225 229 233 235 241 243 244 246 XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT Statue of Seti II . Statue of Ankh-renp-nefer Head of Psammetichus II Stele of Ptolemy II Head of a statue of a Ptolem Limestone window " Pharaoh's Bed " Coptic sepulchral tablet Tablet of Pleinos . Tablet of David . Tablet of Abraam Tablet of Rachel . >■ PAGE 247 269 271 273 276 279 281 281 284 284 + ■- c» r .5, INTRODUCTION TO THK EGYPTIAN COLLFXTIONS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. CHAPTER I. The Country of Egypt and its Limits. The Delta. Oases. Lakes. The Nile. Inundation. Nile Festivals. Famines. Ancient and Modern Divisions of Egypt and the Sudan. The Land of Egypt is situated in the north-east shoulder of the continent of Africa, and in the earhest times it con- sisted of that portion of the Nile Valley which lay between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern end of the First Cataract ; the Lsland of Abu, or Elephantine, and the town of Sunnu, or Sunt, the Syene of classical writers and the Seweneh of the Bible (Ezekiel xxix, lo), forming the southern boundary of the country. The northern limit of Egypt has, in historic times, always been the Mediterranean Sea, but its southern limit varied considerably at different periods. Under the Vth dynasty, about B.C. 3600, it was marked by Elephantine and Syene. Under the Xllth dynasty, about B.C. 2500, it was extended to Semnah and Kummah, about 250 miles to the south of Syene. Under the XVIIIth dynasty, about B.C. 1600, the southern frontier town was probably Napata, the modern Merawi, about 600 miles, by river, from Syene. A century later the Egyptians took possession of the Island of Meroe, and they appear to have built a town at a place about 930 miles from Syene, by river, to mark their southern frontier. Between B.C. 1200 and 600 the frontier was withdrawn to Syene, where it remained practically for several centuries. Under the Arabs, the 2.36 09f MAP OF EGYPT FROM THE SEA TO LVCOPOLIS. MAP OF EGYPT FROM AKHMIM TO SEMNAH. r.,^3 4 INTRODUCTION TO THK EGYPTIAN COLLECTIONS. southern frontier was fixed at Dongola (a.d. 1275), the old Nubian capital, which lay about 570 miles from Syene. In 1873, Sir Samuel Baker extended it to Gondokoro, about 2,823 miles, by river, from Cairo. In 1895, the frontier town of Egypt in the south was Wadi Halfah, and it continued to be so until the capture of Umm Darman (Omdurman) in 1898. At the present time, the southern limit of Egypt is marked by the 22nd parallel of N. latitude, which crosses the Nile at Gebel Sahaba, about eight miles north of the Camp at Wadi Halfah, and its northern limit is the northernmost point of the Delta. The distance, by river, from the Camp to the Mediterranean Sea, is about 960 miles. The boundary of Egypt on the east is marked by a line drawn from Ar-Rafah, which lies a little to the east of Al-Arish, the Rhinocolura of classical writers, to Tabah, at the head of the Gulf of Akabah, by the eastern coast of the Peninsula of Sinai,^ and by the Red Sea. On the west, the boundary is marked by a line drawn from the Gulf of Solum due south to a point a little to the south-west of the Oasis of Siwah, and then proceeding in a south-easterly direction to the 22nd parallel of N. latitude, near Wadi Halfah. The name " Egypt," which has come to us through the Latin "Aegyptus"' and the Greek " Aiguptos," is derived from one of the ancient Egyptian names of Memphis, viz., " Het-ka-Ptah," meaning " Temple of the Ka, or Double, of Ptah " Q ^ V ° I ^ > or I VSlI^ • The common name for Egypt among the Egyptians was " Oem," or '' Oemt," i.e., the " Black Land," ^ i , in allusion to the brownish-black ® mud of which the soil chiefl}' consists. Another name of frequent occurrence in the literature is " Ta-Mera," the " Land of the Inundation," ■'"'=3Lil]©- The soil of Egypt is formed of a layer of sedimentary deposits, which has been laid down by the Nile, and varies in depth from about 40 to 1 10 feet ; the rate at which this layer is being added to at the present time in the bed of the river is said to be about four inches in a century. In prehistoric times the sea ran up as far as Esna, and deposited thick layers of sand and gravel ; upon these the rivers and streams flowing from the south spread the mud and stonj- matter ' The Peninsula of Sinai has been a province of Egypt for about 6,000 years. DELTA, OASES, LAKES. 5 MEDITERRANEAN Sf -4 ^"^ •^?-^ I 7^ ^ Port ^rT ]^- \ ,3a id ^ i^ X^ 2I / z:;^ % U3% ■°1 ^-^ / -z- L^^ y c \. f^ Z' ^X^Q / ■33» S)CAIRO zl r-| rnl The Delta of Egypt. which they brought down with them, and thus the soil of Egypt was gradually built up. Near Esna begins the layer of sandstone, which extends southward, and covers nearly the whole of Nubia, and rests ultimately on crystalline rock. The part of Egypt which lies to the north of the point where the Nile divides itself into two branches resembles in shape a lotus flower, or a triangle standing on its apex, and because of its similarity to the fourth letter of their alphabet, the Greeks called it Delta, f\ . The Delta is formed of a deep layer of mud and sand, which rests upon the yellow quartz sands, and gravels and stiff clay, which were laid down by the sea in prehistoric times. The area of the Delta is about 14,500 square miles. The Oases of Egypt are seven in number, and all are situated in the Western Desert. Their names are: i. Oasis of Siwah or Jupiter Ammon ; 2. Oasis of Bahariyah, i.e., the Northern Oasis ; 3. The Oasis of Farafrah, the Ta-ahet of the Egyptians ; 4. The Oasis of Dakhlah, i.e., tlie "Inner" Oasis, the Tchesti of the Egyptians; 5. The Oasis of Khargah, i.e., the " Outer Oasis," the Uaht-rest or " Southern Oasis " of the Egyptians ; 6. The Oasis of Dailah, to the west of Farafrah ; 7. The Oasis of Kurkur, to the west of Aswan. The principal Lakes of Egypt are: i. Birkat al-Kurun, a long, narrow lake lying to the north-west of the Province of the Fayyum, and formerly believed to be a part of the Lake Moeris described by Herodotus ; 2. The Natron Lakes, which lie in the Natron Valley, to the north- west of Cairo ; from these the Egyptians obtained salt and various forms of soda, which were used for making incense, and in embalming the dead ; 3. Lake Menzalah, Lake Burlus, Lake Edku, Lake Abukir, now almost reclaimed, and Lake Mareotis ; all these are in the Delta. Lake Timsah {i.e., Crocodile Lake) and the Bitter Lakes, which were originally mere swamps, came into existence with the making of the Suez Canal. 6 THE FAVVUM AXD LAKE MOERIS. The Fa3ryum which was in ancient times regarded as one of the Oases, is nothing more than a deep depression scooped out of the Hmestone, on which are layers of loams and marls covered over by Nile mud. The district was called by the Egyptians " Ta-she," or " Land of the Lake " ; at the present time it has an area of about 850 square miles, and is watered by a branch of the Nile called the " Bahr Yusuf," which flows into it through an opening in the mountains on the west bank of the Nile. The Bahr Yusuf, or " River of Joseph," is not called after the name of the Tlic EiUiance to the Valley of the Touilis of ihe Kings at Thebes. patriarch Joseph, but that oi some Muhammadan ruler. It is not a canal as was once supposed, but an arm of the Nile, which, however, needs clearing out periodicalh'. In the Fayyum lay the large bod\' of water to which Herodotus gave the name of Lake Moeris. He believed that this Lake had been constructed artificially, but modern irrigation authorities in Egypt have come to the conclusion that the mass of water which he saw and thought was a lake was merely the result of the Nile flood, or inundation, and that there never was a Lake Moeris. Deserts, On each side of the Valle\- of the Nile lies a vast desert. That on the east is called the Arabian Desert, THE NILE. 7 or Red Sea Desert, and that on the west the Libyan Desert. The influence of the latter on the cHmate of Egypt is very great, as for six months of the year the prevailing wind blows from the west. At many places in the Eastern and Western Deserts there are long stretches of sand scores of miles in length, and immense tracts covered with layers of loose pebbles and stone, and the general effect is desolate in the extreme. The hills which skirt the deserts along the Valley of the Nile are usually quite low, but at certain points they rise to the height of a few hundred feet. Nothing grows on them, and more bare and inhospitable places cannot be imagined. The accompanying illustration gives a good idea of the general appearance of the stone hills on the Nile. In the fore-ground are masses of broken stone, sand, rocks, etc., and these stretch back to a gap in the range of hills just below the letter A, whence, between steep rocks, a rough road winds in and out along the dreary valley which contains the sepul- chres of the great kings of the XVIIIth, XlXth and later dynasties. Under the light of a full moon the Valley is full of weird beauty, but in the day-time the heat in it resembles that of a furnace. The chief characteristic of Egypt is the great river Nile, which has in all ages been the source of the life and prosperity of its inhabitants, and the principal highway of the country. The Egyptians of the early Dynastic Period had no exact knowledge about the true source of the river. In their hymns to the Nile-god they described him as the " hidden one," and " unseen," and his "secret places " are said to be "unknown." The river over which he presided formed a part of the great celestial river, or ocean, upon which sailed the boats of the Sun-god daily. This river surrounded the whole earth, from which, however, it was separated by a range of mountains. On one portion of this river was placed the throne of Osiris, according to a legend, and close by was the opening in the range of mountains through which an arm of the celestial river flowed into the earth. The place where the Nile appeared on earth was believed to be situated in the First Cataract, and in late times the Nile was said to rise there, between two mountains which were near the Island of Ele- phantine and the Island of Philae. Herodotus gives the names of these mountains as " Krophi " and " Mophi," and their originals have probably been found in the old Egyptian "Oer-Hapi" and "Mu-Hapi"; these names mean "Cavern of Hapi " and " Water of Hapi " respectively. The underground caverns, or " storehouses of the Nile," THE NILES OF THE SOUTH AND NORTH. from which the river welled up, are depicted in the illustra- tions here given. In the first the cavern is guarded by a hippopotamus-headed goddess, who is armed with a large knife and wears a feather on her head. Above are seated two The two Nile-gods and their Cavern, and the hippopotamus goddess, who is armed with a huge knife, their protectress. The Nile-god in his cavern, under the rocks at Philae, pouring out the waters which formed the two Niles. gods, one wearing a cluster of papyrus plants on his head, and the other a cluster of lotus flowers ; the former represents the Nile of the South, and the other the Nile of the North. Each god holds water-plants in one hand. In the second illustration the god is depicted kneeling in his cavern, which HYMNS TO THE NH.E-GOD. is enclosed b}' the bod)' of a serpent ; he wears a cluster of water-plants on his head, and is pouring out from two vases the streams of water which became the South and North Niles. The Egyptians called both their river and the river-god " Hap " or " Hapi " | ""^ , | ^~^ ^^ ^ , a name of which the meaning is unknown ; in very early dynastic times the god was called " Hep-ur" y^ ^ ^r* ' ^•^'•. the "great Hep." The name "Nile," by which the "River of Egypt" is generally known, is not of Egyptian origin, but is probably derived from the Semitic word nakJial "river"; this the Greeks turned into " Neilos," and the Latins into " Nilus," The Nile-god bearing offerings of bread, wine, fruit, flowers, etc. Tlie Nile-gods of the South and North tying the stems of a lily and a papyrus plant round the symbol of " union," symbolizing the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. whence comes the common form " Nile." The river appears in the form of a man wearing a cluster of water-plants on his head, and his fertility is indicated by a large pendent breast. In the accompanying illustration the gods of the South and North Niles are seen t}Mng stems of the lotus and papyrus plants round the symbol of "union"; the scene ^represents the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. The ideas held by the Egyptians concerning the power of the Nile-god are well illustrated by a lengthy Hymn to the Nile preserved on papyrus in the British Museum (Sallier H, No. 10,182). " Homage to thee, O Hapi, thou appearest in this " land, and thou comest in peace to make Egypt to live. Thou " waterest the fields which Ra hath created, thou givest life I" M 10 HYMNS TO THE NH.E-GOD. " unto all animals, and as thou descendest on thy way from " heaven thou makest the land to drink without ceasing. Thou " art the friend of bread and drink, thou givest strength to the " grain and makest it to increase, and thou fillest every place " of work with work . . . Thou art the lord of fish . . . thou art " the creator of barley, and thou makest the temj:)les to endure " for millions of years . . . Thou art the lord of the poor and " needy. If thou wert overthrown in the heavens, the gods " would fall upon their faces, and men would perish. When " thou appearest upon the earth, shouts of joy rise up and all " people are glad ; every man of might receiveth food, and " every tooth is provided with meat . . . Thou fillest the store- " houses, thou makest the granaries to overflow, and thou " hast regard to the condition of the poor and needy. Thou " makest herbs and grain to grow that the desires of all " may be satisfied, and thou art not impoverished thereby. " Thou makest thy strength to be a shield for man." Else- where he is called the " father of the gods of the company of " the gods who dwell in the celestial ocean," and he was declared to be self-begotten, and " One," and in nature in- .scrutable. In another passage of the same hymn it is said that the god is not sculptured in stone, that images of him are not seen, " he is not to be seen in inscribed shrines, there is no " habitation large enough to contain him, and thou canst not " make images of him in thy heart." These statements sug- gest that statues or figures of the Nile-god were not commonl)' made, and it is a fact that figures of the god, large or small, are rare. In the fine collection of figures of Egyjjtian gods exhibited in the Third Egyptian Room, which is certainly one of the largest in the world, there is only one figure of Hapi (No. io8. Wall-case 125). In this the god wears on his head a cluster of papj'rus plants W, before which is the Utchat, or Eye of Horus, "^p^, and he holds an altar from which he pours out water. The only other figure of the god in the British Museum collection is the fine quartzite sand- stone statue (Southern Egyptian Gallery, No. 766) which was dedicated to Amen-Ra by Shashanq, the son of Uasarken and his queen Maat-ka-Ra. Here the god bears on his oul -stretched hands an altar, from which hang down bunches of grain, green herbs, flowers, waterfowl, etc. The statue was dedicated to Amen-Ra, who included the attributes of Hapi among his own. THE COURSE OF THE NILE. M The true source of the Nile is Victoria Nyanza, or Lake Victoria, which Hes between the parallels of latitude o° 20' N. and 3; S., and the meridians of 31" 40' and 35 E. of Green- wich ; the lake is 250 miles in length and 200 in breadth, and was discovered in modern times by Speke, on August 3rd, 1858. Other contributory sources are Albert Nyanza, or Lake Albert, discovered by Sir Samuel Baker on March i6th, 1864, and Lake Albert Edward, discovered by Sir H. M. Stanley in 1875 ; the connecting channel between these lakes is the Semliki River. The portion of the Nile between Lake Victoria and Lake Albert is called the "Victoria Nile" (or the " Somerset River"); that between Lake Albert and Lake No is called the " Bahr al-Gebel " or " Upper Nile "; and that be- tween Lake No and Khartum is called " Bahr al-Abyad," or "White Nile." The total length of these three portions of the Nile is about 1,560 miles. At Khartum the White Nile is joined by the " Blue Nile " (or Abai, the Astapos of Strabo, which rises in Lake Sana and is about 1,000 miles long), and their united streams form that portion of the river which is commonly known as the " Nile." The distance from Khartum to the Mediterranean Sea is about 1,913 miles, and thus the total length of the Niles is about 3,473 miles. Between Khartum and the sea the Nile receives but one tributary, viz., the _ce::Cf^ / The NILE I Momphisf^T^ to SOURCE 12 INTRODUCTION TO THE EGYPTIAN COLLECTIONS. Statue of Ijapi ihc Nile-gi)d. [No. 766.] THE NILE FLOOD OR INUNDATION. 1 3 Atbara, the Astaboras of Strabo, a torrential stream which brings into the Nile an immense quantity of dirty red water containing valuable deposits of mud. The Cataracts, or series of rapids, on the Nile are six in number : the first is between Aswan and Philae, the second is a little to the south of Wadi Halfah, the third is at Hannek, the fourth is at Adramiya, the fifth is at Wadi al-Hamar, and the sixth is at Shablukah. On the White Nile is a series of cataracts known as the " Fola Falls," and on the Blue Nile there are cataracts from Ruseres southwards for a distance of 40 miles. The most important characteristic of the Nile is its annual flooding or Inundation. By the end of May, in Egypt, the river is at its lowest level. During the month of June the Nile, between Cairo and Aswan, begins to rise, and a quantity of " green water " appears at this time. The cause of the colour is said to be myriads of minute algae, which subse- quently putrefy and disappear. During August the river rises rapidly, and its waters assume a red, muddy colour, which is due to the presence of the rich red earth which is brought into the Nile by the Blue Nile and the Atbara. The rising of the waters continues until the middle of September, when they remain stationary for about a fort- night or three weeks. In October a further slight rise occurs, and then they begin to fall ; the fall continues gradually until, in the May following, they are at their lowest level once more. The cause of the Inundation is, as Aristotle (who lived in the fourth century B.C.) first showed, the spring and early summer rains in the mountains of Ethiopia and the Southern Sudan ; these are brought down in torrents by the great tributaries of the Nile, viz., the Gazelle River, the Sobat (the Astasobas of Strabo), the Giraffe River, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara. The Sobat rises about April 15, the Gazelle River and the Giraffe River about the 15th of May, the Blue Nile at the end of May, and the Atbara a little later. The united waters of these tributaries, with the water of the Upper Nile, reach Egypt about the end of August, and cause the Inundation to reach its highest level. The Nile rises from 21 feet to 28 feet, and deposits a thin layer of fertilizing mud over every part of the country reached by its waters. Formerly, when the rise was about 26 feet, there was sufficient water to cover the whole country ; when it was less, scarcity prevailed ; and when it was more, ruin and misery appeared through over-flooding. In recent years, the British irrigation engineers in Egypt have regulated, by means of the Aswan Dam, the Barrage at Asyut, and the Barrage near Al- 14 FAMINES IN EGYPT. Manashi, a little to the north of Cairo/ the supply of water during the winter, or dry season, with such success, that, in spite of " low " Niles, the principal crops have been saved, and the people protected from want. In connection with the adoration of the Nile, two important festivals were observed. The first of these took place in June and was called the " Night of the Tear," (=^F=i r/ywvv 'w* '^^v [1(1 III! ,^^, Qt:rJi e}i Hatiii, because it was believed that at this time of the year the goddess Isis shed tears in commemoration of her first great lamentation over the dead body of her husband Osiris. Her tears fell into the river, and as they fell they multiplied and filled the river, and in this way caused the Inundation. This belief exists in Egypt, in a modified form, at the present time, and, up to the middle of last century the Muhammadans celebrated, with great solemnity, a festival on the iith day of Paoni (June 17th), which was called the " Night of the Drop," Lclat al-Niiktali. On the night of this day a miraculous drop of water was supposed to fall into the Nile and cause it to rise. The second ancient Nile-festival was observed about the middle of August, and has its equivalent in the modern Muhammadan festival of the " Cutting of the Dam." A dam of earth about 23 feet high was built in the Khalig Canal, and when the level of the Nile nearly reached this height, a party of workmen thinned the upper portion of the dam at sunrise on the day following the "completion of the Nile," and immediately afterwards a boat was rowed against it, and, breaking the dam, passed through it with the current. The history of Egypt shows that in all periods the country has suffered from severe famines, which have been caused by successions of " low " Niles. Thus a terrible seven years' famine began in a.D. 1066, and lasted till 1072. Dogs, cats, horses, mules, vermin fetched extravagant prices, and the people of Cairo killed and ate each other, and human flesh was sold in the public markets. In Genesis xli, we have another example of a seven years' famine, and still an older one is mentioned in an inscription cut upon a rock on the Island of Sahal in the Eirst Cataract. According to the text, this famine took place in the reign of Tcheser, a king of the Ilird dynasty, about B.C. 4000, because there had been no satisfactory inundation of the Nile for seven }'ears. The king says that by reason of this, grain was very scarce, vegetables ' To these must now be added the Barrage at Esna. DIVISIONS OF EGYPT. 1 5 and garden produce of every description could not be obtained, the people had nothing to eat, and men were everywhere robbing their neighbours. Children wailed for food, young men had no strength to move, strong men collapsed for want of sustenance, and the aged lay in despair on the ground waiting for death. The. king wrote to Matar, the Governor of the First Cataract, where the Nile was believed to rise, and asked him to enquire of Khnemu, the god of the Cataract, why such calamities were allowed to fall on the country. Subsequently the king visited Elephantine, and was received by Khnemu, the god of the Cataract, who told him that the Nile had failed to rise because the worship of the gods of the Cataract had been neglected. The king promised to dedicate offerings regularly to their temples in future, and, having kept his promise, the Nile rose and covered the land, and filled the country with prosperity. Egyptian Geography.— From time immemorial Egypt has been divided into two parts, viz., the Land of the South, Ta-Resii, jL © , and the Land of the North, Ta-Me/a, The Land of the South is Upper Egypt, and its northern limit in modern times is Cairo ; the Land of the North is Lower Egypt, i.e., the Delta, and its southern limit is Cairo. The ancient Egyptians divided the Land of the South into twenty-two parts, and the Land of the North into twenty parts ; each such part was called Hesp 9 iii H ' , a word wliich the Greeks rendered b}' nome. Each nome was to all intents and purposes a little complete kingdom. It was governed by a //eq, \ A , or chief man, and it contained a capital town in which was the seat of the god of the nome and the priesthood, and every /leq administered his hesp as he pleased. The number of the nomes given by Greek and Roman writers varies between thirty-six and forty-four. Li late times Egypt was divided into three parts, Upper, Central, and Lower Egypt ; Central Egypt consisted of seven nomes, and was therefore called Heptanomis. The nomes were : i6 THE NOMES AND THEIR CAPITALS. UPPER EGYPT. Nome. I. Ta-Kens. 2_ Tes-Heru 1 J- Ten. 4- Uast. 5- Herui. 6. Aati. 7- Seshesh. 8. Abt. Q. 10. Uatchet. I I. Set. Capital. God or Goddess. Abu.i Elephantine. Khnemu. ■ Teb. Apollinopolis Heru-Behutet. Ma(;na. Ed//}. Nekheb. Eileithyias- Nekhebit. POLis. Al-Kdb. Uast. THEBES(orHERMON- Amen-Ra. this). Luxor, Karnak.^ Kebti. CoPTOS. Kuft. ' Amsu, or Menu. Taenterert. Tentvris. Hathor. Dciiderah. Ha. DiOSPOLIS Parva. Han. Hathor. Teni. This. An-Her. Apu. Panopolis. Ahkuiun. Amsu or Menu. Tebu. Aphroditopolis. Hathor. Shas-hetep. Hypselis. Khnemu. Shiitb. 12. Tu- .... Nut-ent-bak. Hierakon- Horus. polis. 13. Am-f-khent. Saut. Lykupolis. Asyut. Ap-uat. 14. Am-f-peh. Kesi. Kusae. Al-Kustyah. Hathor. 15. Unt. Khemennu. Hermopolis. Thoth. AsliDtuncn. 16. Mahetch. Hebennu. Horus. 17. Anpu (?). Kasa. Kynon polls. Anubis. Al-Kcs. Het-suten. A I- Hi bah. Anubis. Oxyr- Set. lur/iiiassd. Suten-henen. Hi:rakle- Heru-shefit. OPOLis Magna. A/mas. (The Hanes of the Bible.) 21. Am-peh. Smen-Heru. Khnemu. 22. Maten. Tep-Ahet. Aphkodito- Hathor. I'OLis. Atfih. ' Names printed in heavy type are Egyptian ; those in cajiitals are Greek, and those /';/ italics arc the names by which the places are known by the modern Arabs. itS. Sept 19. Bu-t 20. Am-Khent 19. Bu-tchamui. Pa-Matchet. KlIYNCllCS. THE NOMES AND THEIR CAPITALS. 17 Nome. 1. Aneb-hetch. 2. Aa. 3. Ament. 4. Sapi-Rest. 5. Sapi-Meht. 6. Ka-semt. 7. Nefer-Ament. 8. Nefer-Abt. 9. Athi (?). LOWER EGYPT. Capital. God or Goddess. Men-nefert. Memphis. Ptah. Mit-RaJifuah. Sekhem, Letopolis. Heru-ur. Pa-neb-Amt. Apis. Hathor. Tcheka. Amen-Ra. Saut. Sals. Sd. Neith. Khasut. Xois. Amen-Ra. Pa-Ahu-neb-Ament. Hu. Metclis (?). Thekaut (Succoth), Pa- Atem, or Tem (Pithom). Patu- Temu. MOS. Tall al-MaskJifitaJi. Pa-Asar. Busiris. Osiris. Abu-Sh'. 10. Ka-Qam. Het - ta - her - abt. Heru-Khenti- Athribis. Khati. 1 1. Ka-heseb. Hesbet (?), Ka-Hebset (?). Kabasos. I sis, or Sebek 12. Theb- Theb-neter(?). Sebenny- TOS. Sainmaiind. An- Her. 13- Heq-at. Annu (The On of the Bible). 11 ELIOPOLIS. Jllatanvnh. Temu. 14. Khent-abt. Tchal. Tanis. Sdii' Horus. 15- Tehuti. Pa-Tehuti. Hermopolis Minor. Thoth. 16. Hatmehit. Pa-Ba-neb Tet. Mendes. Tiiiai al- A 11 id id. Osiris. I/- Sam-Behutet. Pa - Khen - en - Amen. DiOSPOLIS. Amen-Ra. 18. Am-Khent. Pa-Bast. Pibeseth B U B ASTIS. Tall Bastah. Bast. .19- Ani-peh. Pa-Uatchet. Buto. TJatchet. 20. Sept. Kesem. Phakussa. Fdkiis. Sept. The Sudan was divided into 13 nomes : 1 . Peh-Qennes. The region south of Meroe. 2. Maruat. Meroe. Bagrawir. Amen. 3. Napt. Napata. Amen. 15 1 8 THE PROVINCES OF MODERN EGYPT. Nome. Capital. God or Goddess. 4. Peten-Heru. Pontyris. Horus. 5. Pa-Nebset. Pnups. Thoth. 6. Ta-Uatchet. Autoba (?). 7. Behent. Boon. Wadi Halfah. Horus. 8. Atefthit. Tasitia (?). 9. Nehau. Xoa. 10. Mehit, Meae. Horus. 11. Maamet. Ibrim. Horus. 12. Bekt. Bok. Kubban. Horus. 13. Het-Khent. P-alek. Philae. Bilak. Isis. Under the Ptolemies, the district between Elephantine and Philae was called Dodekaschoinos, because it contained twelve schoinoi, or measures of land, but later this term was applied to the whole region between Elephantine and Hiera Sykaminos. Under the late Roman emperors many of the nomes were subdivided, probably for convenience in levying taxes, and in still later times the governor of a nome, or province, bore the title of Duke (Aov^'j. Modern Egypt is divided into 14 provinces : LOWER EGYPT. Province. Capital. I. Baherah. Damanhur. --> 3- Kalyubi}'ah. Sharkiyah. Benha. Zakazik. 4- Dakhaliyah. Mansurah. ^. Manufi\'ah. Menuf. 6. Gharbiyah. Tanta. UPPER EGYPT. Province. Capital. I. Gi/.ah. Gizah. 2. Beni-Suwef. Beni-Suwef J- 4. 5- Min}'ah. Asyut. Girgah. Minyah. Asyut. Suhak. 6. Ken a. Ken a. 7. Nuba. Aswan. 8. Fa}yum. Madinat al-F PROVINCES OF 'lllE SI' DAN. \g The towns of Cairo, Alexandria, Port Sa'id, Suez, Damietta, etc., are generally governed each by a native ruler. The provinces of the Sudan are as follows : I. Bahr al-Ghazal. 2. Berber. 3. Blue Nile Province. 4. Dongola. 5. Halfah. 6. Kassala. 7. Khartum Province. 8. Kordofan. 9. Mongalla. 10. Red Sea Province. II. Sennaar. 12. Upper Nile Province. 13. White Nile Province. •J J- ?! B 2 20 CHAPTER II. Ethnography. The Land of Punt. National Character. Population. Language. Forms of Writing. Decipherment of Egyptian Hiero- glyphics. Young AND Champollion. Hieroglyphic Alphabet and Writing. Writing M.\terials. The Egyptians. — The evidence of the monuments and the Hterature of Egypt proves that the I{!gyptians were of African origin, and that they were akin to the Hght-skinned peoples who inhabited the north-east portion of the African Continent. Further evidence of this fact is supplied by the " table of nations " preserved in the tenth chapter of Genesis, where it is stated that Cush and Mizraira were the sons of Ham Nov/ this Cush, or Ethiopia, is not the country which we call Abyssinia, but the Northern Sudan, or Nubia ; there- fore the Nubians (Cush) and the Eg}'ptians (Mizraim) were brethren, and they were Hamites, or .Africans. The relation- ship between the Nubians and the Eg}'ptians is also asserted by Diodorus, who declared that the Eg}'ptians were descended from a colony of Ethiopians, i.e., Nubians, who had settled in Egypt. And there is no doubt that from the earliest to the latest times a very close bond existed between the Northern Nubians and the P2gyptians, which manifested itself in the religion and religious ceremonies of both peoples. The Cushites were dark in colour, sometimes actually black, but there is no evidence which proves they were negroes ; and the Egyptians were red, or brown-red, or reddish yellow in colour. On the west of the Nile Valley lived the fair- skinned Libyans ; on the east the remote ancestors of the l^lcmmyes and the modern Bishari tribes, who were of a light brownish colour, and on the south, near the Equator, were negro tribes, which formed part of the great belt of black peoples that extended right across Africa, from sea to sea. The dynastic Egx'ptians appear to have regarded a countr\', or district, called Punt <§■ as their original home, and ihe\- ccrtainl\- preserved down to the latest times THE LAND OF PUNT. , 21 .some of the peculiarities in dress of the primitive inhabitants of that region. That Punt was situated a considerable distance to the south of Egypt is certain, and that it could be reached b}' land, and also by water by way of the Red Sea, is clear from the inscriptions, but there is no evidence available which enables the exact limits of the country to be defined. The despatch of several expeditions to Punt by the Egyptians is recorded, for the purpose of bringing back dnti spice, "^ 'V\ , or m\'rrh, which was used freely for embalming purposes. They started from some point on the Red Sea near the modern town of Ku.ser, and sailed southwards until they reached the river of the port of Punt which was situated on the east coast of Africa, probably in Somaliland. The expedition despatched by Oueen Hatshepet about I5.C. 1550 brought back boomerangs, a huge pile of myrrh, logs of ebony, elephants' tusks, sweet-smelling woods, eye-paint, various kinds of spices, dog-headed apes, monkeys, leopard (or panther) skins, " green " {i.e., pale) gold, and gold rings which are to this day used as currency in East Africa and are known as "ring money." Now, all these things are products of the region which lies between the southern end of the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Valley of the Nile, and it is impossible not to conclude that Punt was situated some- where in it. The Egyptian expeditions probably sailed up a river for a considerable distance, to a point where the products of Punt were brought by trading caravans for export, and there the Egyptians bartered for the myrrh, etc., which they required. The market place must have been inland, for the huts of the natives are represented in the bas- reliefs as standing close to the river. The men of Punt wore a pointed beard and a loin cloth, which was kept in position by a kind of belt, from which hung down behind the tail of an animal. The beard of the Egyptian was also pointed, and gods, kings, and priestly officials on solemn, ceremonial occasions, wore tails. Thus in the Papyrus of Ani (Judgment Scene) the gods Thoth and Anubis wear tails, and the priestly official in the same scene wears the leopard's skin, the tail of which is supposed to be hanging behind him. In two statues of Amen-hetep III (Northern Egyptian Gallery, Nos. 41 2, 41 3), the tail is supposed to be brought forward under the body of the king, and its end is carefully sculptured on the space between his legs. The custom of wearing tails is common in Central Africa 22 EGYPT INVADEIJ HV ASIATICS. at the present day, even the women, in some places, wearing long tails of bast (Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa, I, p. 295) ; and a recent traveller reports that the Gazum people wear tails, about six inches long, for which they dig holes in the ground when they sit down (Boyd Alexander, From the Niger, I, p. 78). Many other points of comparison between the Egyptians and the peoples of Central Africa could be mentioned in proof of the views that the indigenous dynastic Egyptians were connected with the people of Punt, and that Punt was situated in the South-Eastern Sudan. As to the succession of peoples in the Nile Valley, or rather of that portion of it which is called Eg}'pt, many theories have been formulated in recent )-ears. Some of the most competent authorities think that the earliest dwellers in Egypt were black folk, who were driven out or killed off by a race of people who possessed many of the characteristics of the Libyans, and who came from the w^est, or south-west, and took possession of Egypt. It is thought that the next invasions of the country were made by peoples who came from the east, or south-east, and, having settled down on the Nile, mingled with the inhabitants. After these it seems very probable that Egypt was invaded by tribes whose home was some part of Western Asia, probably the country now called Southern Babylonia. Some think that they entered Egypt by the Isthmus of Suez, and others that they crossed from Arabia to Africa by the straits of Bab al-Mandib at the southern end of the Red Sea. Another view is that the invaders entered Egypt by the Wadi Hammamat, and that the}^ arrived on the Nile at some place near the modern town of Kena. Little bv little the invaders conquered the country, and in- troduced into it the arts of agriculture, brick-making, writing, working in metals, etc. Wheat, barley, and the domestic sheep seem to have been brought into Egypt about this time. The manners and customs of the new comers were ver)- different from those of the men they conquered, and their civilization was of a much higher character than that of the primitive Egyptians ; but, among the great bulk of the population, the beliefs, religion, and habits continued to pre- serve unchanged their characteristic African nature. What the physical form of the primitive, pre-d}'nastic Egyptian was cannot be said, but it is probable that he resembled the dynastic Eg)ptians whose pictures are seen by hundreds in the tombs. If this be so, he was tall, slender of body, with long thin legs, small hands, and long feet. His hair was black and curly, but must not be confounded with FA-AVTIAN FIUNTERS OF THE ARCHAIC rERIOD. 2. B 4 24 riivsKUTE OF tup: ecvptjans. the " wool " of the negro, his eyes black and slighth- almond- shaped, his cheek-bones high and often prominent, his nose straight—sometimes aquiline — and inclined to be flesh}- ; his mouth wide, with somewhat full lips, his teeth small and regular and his chin prominent, because his under jaw was thrust slightly forward. The women were yellowish in colour, probably because their bodies were not so much exposed to the rays of the sun as those of the men. The general character of the jjhysique of the Eg\-ptian has remained 7 Bone figure of a dwarf. Ivory figure of a king. 1st dynasty (?) Archaic Period. [No. 197, Tal)le-case L, Third Egyptian [No. 42, Table-case L, Third Egyptian Room.] Room.] practically unchanged to the present day, and no admixture of foreign elements has affected it permanentl}-. The physical features and dress of the primitive d}'nastic Egyptians are well illustrated by the accompan\-ing drawings and photographs. From Xos. 1-6 (page 23) we see that their hair was short and curly, their noses long and pointed, their eyes almond-shaped, their beards pointed, their arms and legs long, their hands large, and their feet long and flat. They w^ear in their hair feathers, probably red feathers from the tails ot parrots, such as are worn at the present day, and their loin cloths EGYPTIANS OF THE ARCHAIC PERIOD. ^5 are fastened round their bodies by belts, from which hang short, bushy tails of jackals (?). No. i bears a hawk-standard, the s)'inbol of the god of the tribe, and is armed with a mace ha\ing a diamond-shaped head. No. 2 bears a hawk-standard and wields a double-headed stone axe. No. 3 is armed with a mace and a bow. No. 4 is shooting a flint-tipped arrow \ ■0 r: M I! Bone figure of a womau carrying a child on her shoulder. Archaic Period. [No. 41, Table-case L, Third Egyptian Room.] P)one figure of a woman, with inlaid lapis-lazuli eyes. Archaic Period. [No. 40, Table-case L, Third Egyptian Room.] from a bow. No. 5 is armed with a boomerang and a spear, and No. 6 with a mace and a boomerang. The above illus- trations are drawn from the green slate shield exhibited in Table-case L in the Third Eg)'ptian Room. To about the same period belongs the ivor}- figure of a king here reproduced (No. 7). He wears the Crowm of the South, and a garment worked with an elaborate diamond pattern. The 26 EARLY PORTRAIT FIGURES. nose is flatter and more flesh}- than in the drawings from the slate shield, and the lips are fuller and firmer. In figures 8-10 we have representations of the women of the Archaic Period, about B.C. 4200. No. 8 is a female dwarf, or perhaps a woman who belonged to one of the pygmy tribes that lived near the Equator. No. 9 is a m.ost interesting figure, for it illustrates the hair-dressing and dress of the period. The features of the child, who is carried partly on the back and partly on the left shoulder, as at the present day, are well preserved. No. 10 Figure of Betchmes, a royal kinsman. [Vestibule, South Wall, No. 3.] Painted liu;^.. .>..,. ■■^,-'- •■' -\--. ■■•• [No. 150, Wall-case 99, Third Egyptian Room.] Portrait Figures of Ofitciai.s of the IIIrd or IVth Uynastv. Ahout B.C. 3700. represents a woman of slim build, \\ith blue ej'es, and wearing an elaborate head-dress, which falls over he.r shoulders. National Character. — Herodotus, \\ho was an acute observer of the manners and customs of the Eg}-ptians, states (ii, 64) that the Egyptians were " be}'ond measure scrupulous " in all matters appertaining to religion," and the monuments prove him to be absolutely correct. The Eg\']jtian worshipped his God, whose chief s\-mbol to him was the sun, dail\' and EGYPTIAN NATIONAL CHARACTER. 2/ regularl)', and prayed to him morning and evening. His attitude towards his Maker was one of absolute resignation. The power of God, as displayed by the Sun, and the River Nile, and other forces of nature filled him with awe, and made him to realize his helplessness. His views as to the dependence of men on the sun are well illustrated by the following extract from a hymn to Aten, the god of the Solar Disk : " When thou settest in the western horizon of heaven, " the earth becometh dark with the darkness of the dead. " Men sleep in their houses, their heads are covered up, their "nostrils are closed, and no man can see his neighbour; " everything which the}^ possess could be stolen from under " their heads without their knowing it. All the lions come " forth from their dens, every creeping thing biteth, the smithy ^y^W^^T ^mmmmmmmmm The fox playing the double pipes for a flock of goats to march to. [From a papyrus in the British Museum, No. io,oi6.] " is in blackness, and all the earth is silent because he who " made them (i.e., all creatures) resteth in his horizon. When " the dawn cometh, and thou risest and shinest from the Disk, " darkness flieth away, thou givest forth thy rays, and the " Two Lands (i.e., Egypt) are in festival. Men rise up, they " stand upon their feet — it is thou who hast raised them — they " wash their bodies, and dress themselves in their clothes, and " they [stretch out] their hands to thee in thanksgiving for thy " rising." To the god of the city, or local deity, he also paid due reverence. He worshipped Osiris, the type and symbol of the resurrection, most truly, for on his help and succour depended his hope of eternal life. The Egyptians, who were men of means, spent largely during their lifetime in making preparations for their death, and they spared neither money 28 THE EClVl'TIAXS A LAW-AHIl )ING PEOPLE. nor pains in their endeavours to secure for themselves Hfe in the Other World. They observed the Religious and Civil Laws most carefully, and any breach they might make in either they thought could be amply atoned for by making offerings or payment. The Egyptian was easy and simple in disposition, and fond of pleasure and of the good things of this world. He loved eatijig and drinking, and he lost no opportunity of enjoying himself The Hterature of all periods is filled with passages in which the living are exhorted to be happ}-; and we ma}' note that in the iamous Dialogue between a man who is weary of life and his soul, the latter tells the man that' A mouse seated on a chair, with a lalileof food before it. A cat is presenting to it a pahn branch, and behind it is a mouse bearing; a fan. etc. [From a pa])yrus in the British Museum, No. io,oi6. ] to remember the grave only brings sorrow to the heart and fills the eyes with tears. And after several observations of the same import, the soul sa}-s : " Hearken unto me, for, " behold, it is good for men to hearken ; follow after pleasure "and forget care." ^ In the Song of the Harper we read: " Bodies {i.e., men) have come into being in order to pass " away since the time of Ra, and }oung men come in their ^S^ ¥M j\ tup: song of the harper. 29 places. Ra placeth himself in the sk}' in the morning, and Temu setteth in the Mountain of Sunset. Men beget children and women bring forth, and every nostril snuffeth the wind of dawn from the time of their birth to the day when they go to the place which is assigned to them. Make [thy] day happy ! Let there be perfumes and sweet odours for thy nostrils, and let there be wreaths of flowers and lilies for the neck and shoulders of thy beloved sister who shall be seated by thy side. Let there be songs and the music of the harp before thee, and setting behind thy back unpleasant things of ever}' kind, remember only pleasure, until the day A cat herding geese. [From a iiapyrus in the British Museum, No. 10,016.] " Cometh wherein thou must travel to the land which loveth " silence." The advice to eat, drink, and be happy, is also given to a high-priest of Memphis by his dead wife That-Lem-hetep on her sepulchral tablet (Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 29, No. 1027). She sa3^s : "Hail, my brother, husband, friend, " .... let ' not th}'- heart cease to drink water, to eat bread, to 30 MORALITY. " drink wine;, to love women, to make a happ)' day, and to " seek thy heart's desire by day and b}- night. And set no " care whatsoever in thy heart : are the years which [we pass] *' upon the earth so many [that we need do this] ? " The morality of the Egyptians was of a high character, and certainly higher than that of Oriental nations in general. Many of the Precepts of Ptah-hetep, Kaqemna, and Khensu- hetep bear comparison with the moral maxims of the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus. The view of the Egyptian as to his duty towards his neighbour is well summed up by Pepi-Nekht, an old feudal lord of Elephantine, who flourished under the Vlth d\-nast\', and said : " I am one who " spoke good and repeated what was liked. Never did I say Tlie linn and the unicorn playing a game of diauglils. [From a papyrus in ihe British Museum, Xo. io,oi6. ] " an evil word of any kind to a chief against anyone, for I " wished it to be well with me before the great god. I gave " bread to the hungr)^ man, and clothes to the naked man. I " never gave judgment in a case between two brothers " whereby a son was deprived of his father's goods. I was " loved by my father, favoured by my mother, and beloved by " my brothers and sisters." Love of parents and home was a strong trait in the character of the Eg3-ptian ; and it was one cause of his hatred of military service and of any occupation which would take him away from his town or village. He prayed, to<3, that in the Other World he might have his parents, wife, children, and relatives, with him on his farm in MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT. 31 the Fields of Peace, and that when his spirit was on the way thither, the spirits of his kinsfolk would come to meet him, staves and weapons, so that they might the attack of hostile spirits. Like all loved music, singing, and dancing, and ceremonials, processions, and display of armed with their protect him from African people he was attracted by every kind ; the satirical papyri (see the illustrations on pages 27-30), and even the wall-paintings in the tombs, show that he possessed a keen sense of humour. The peasant was then, as now, a laborious toiler, and as he was literally the slave of Pharaoh for thousands of years, the ideas of freedom and national independence, as we under- stand them, were wholly unknown to him. All classes were intensely superstitious, and they believed firmly in the existence of spirits, good and bad, witches, and fiends and devils, which they tried to cajole, or wheedle, or placate with gifts, or to vanquish by means of spells, magical names, words of power, amulets of all kinds, etc. The magician was the real priest, to the lower classes at least, as he is to this day in Central Africa, for by the use of magical figures he assured his clients that he could procure for them the death, or sickness, of an enemy, riches, the love of women, dreams wherein the future would be re- vealed to them, and above all, the assistance of the gods. We find that about B.C. 312 a service was regularly performed in the temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes to make the sun rise. In the course of it a figure of the monster Apep, who was supposed to be lying in wait to swallow the Sun-god, was made of wax, then wrapped in new papyrus on which the "accursed name" of the fiend was written in green ink, and solemnly burned in a fire fed by a special kind of herb, whilst the priest spurned it with his left foot and poured out curses on each of the thirty "accursed names" of the evil one. As the wax melted and was consumed, together with the papyrus and the green ink with which his name was written, so the body of Apep was believed to be consumed in the flames of the rising sun in the eastern skv. The spearing of Apep. 32 LUCKY AND UNLUCKY DAYS. From the evidence given at Thebes about B.C. 1200 against certain officials who were impHcated in a case of conspiracy against Rameses III, it appeared that a certain man had stolen a book of magic from the temple library. From this he obtained instructions how to make the wax figures which caused the sickness, quakings of the limbs, and death of those in whose forms they were made. An example of the wax figures which were used in the Ptolemaic period is exhibited in Table-case C in the Third Egyptian Room, No. 198. The core is made of inscribed papyrus, and in front, in the centre, is a piece of hair, presumabl)- that of the person on whom the magician who made the figure sought to exert his influence. Ever}- act of daily life had some magical or religious observance associated with it, and every day, either in whole or in part, was declared to be lucky or unlucky, in accordance with a series of events which were represented by the Calendar of lucky and unlucky days. Superstition played as prominent a part in medicine as in religion. The practice of dismembering the dead in primitive times must have taught the Egyptians some practical anatomy, and the operations connected with mummification in the later period must have added largely to their knowledge of the arrangement of the principal internal organs of the body. The Egyptians were well acquainted with the importance of the heart in the human economy, and they appear to have had some knowledge of the functions of the arteries. A considerable number of medical prescriptions have come down to us, e.g., those which are inscribed on a papyrus in the British Museum (No. 10,059) ^"Q are said to be as old as the time of Khufu (Cheops), a king of the IVth dynasty, and those of the Ebers Papyrus, of the XVIIIth dynasty ; from these it is easy to see that they closely resemble in many particulars the prescriptions given in English medical books printed two or three hundred }-ears ago. Powders and decoctions made from plants and seeds were largely used, and the piths of certain trees, dates, sycamore-figs, and other fruits, salt, magnesia, oil, hone}-, sweet beer, formed the principal ingredients of many prescriptions. With these were often mixed substances of an unpleasant nature, e.g., bone dust, rancid fat, the droppings of animals, etc. In order that certain drugs might have the desired effect it was necessar}' for the physician to recite a magical formula four times (Ebers Papyrus CVTII). Other medicines again owed their efficacy to the belief that they had been actually taken by one or other of the gods whilst MEDICAL PRESCRIPTIONS. 33 they reigned upon earth, and the authorship of certain prescriptions was ascribed to Ra. Thus according to the Ebers Papyrus (XLVI) Ra suffered from attacks of boils of a most mahgnant kind, and he made up a salve, containing sixteen ingredients, which gave him instant relief, and which was therefore certain to cure ordinary mortals. The following is a characteristic example of a prescription which, as is evident, contains a number of substances which are well known to be good for inflamed eyes, and also some others the special value of which is not clear : — ■ ■ "Another [prescription] for driving inflammation from the eye. n nix o (^1 ^l^Jltn ^m .\\ A ^ I =0= I o Myrrh i '(Ireat Protectors' seed i Oxide of copper i Citron pips i Northern cypress flowers i Antimony i dazelle droppings i Oryx offal i White oil i 34 MEDICAL PRESCRIPTIONS. A a 9" \^Directions for use?\^ ^ "k — e nil ^ " Place in water, let stand for one " night, strain through a cloth, and " smear over [the eye] for four days ; "or, according to another prescription, "paint it on [the e3'e] with a goose- " feather.'' /WvVv/v /NAAAAA The Egyptian physician was called upon not only to heal his patients, but to beautify them, and we find prescriptions for removing scurf from the skin, for changing the colour of the skin, for making the skin smooth, and the following for removing- wrinkles from the face : — rz> Ox "• Another [prescriplion] for driving; awav ^_ 111! I LP 1 J ^ ) wrinkles of the face. Ill ^ o III 1^^"^ o o t\N\N\/\ /N 111 ffiD(^ Kali of incense Wax P>esh oil Cypress berries \I)irectiflns for iise?^ A— a \\\ Ik— a @ I I 111^ " Crush, and rub down and "put in new milk and apply it "to the face for six days. " Take good heed [to this]." -' ' l-"or the hieratic le.xt see Papyrus Ehcrs, Plate 56. - Ibid, Plate 87. EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE. 35 The population of Egypt was, in 1897, 9,734,405 persons, of whom 8,978,775 were Muhammadans, 25,200 Jews, and 730,162 Christians. The last census was taken on the 29th April, 1907, and the entire population of the country consisted of 11,272,000 persons, or nearl}' 16 per cent, more than in 1897. The Egyptian Language is not Semitic, although it possesses many characteristics which resemble those of the Semitic languages, but in a less developed form. Of all the views on the subject which have been held in recent years, the most plausible one is that which makes Egyptian belong to the group of Proto-Semitic languages. The Egyptian and the Semitic languages appear to have sprung from a common stock, from which they separated before their grammars and vocabularies were consolidated. The Egyptian language developed rapidly under circumstances of which nothing is known, and then, apparently, became crystallized ; the Semitic language developed less rapidly, but continued to develope for centuries after the grov/th of the Egyptian language was arrested. To the period when Egyptian separated itself from the parent stock no date can be assigned, but it must have taken place .some thousands of years before Christ. Later, under the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties, B.C. 1550 to 1300, a large number of Semitic words were introduced into the language, and in such compositions as the " Travels of an Egyptian " (see page 70) a great many are transcribed into Egyptian characters. The Egyptian language as known to us appears in four divisions, viz. : — 1. The Egyptian of the Early Empire, which was studied and employed for literary purposes from about li.r. 4400 to about A.D. 200. 2. The Egyptian used in the ordinary business of life and for conversation, from about B.C. 2600 to 650. 3. The popular speech of the countr)-, from about 600 or 500 B.C. to the end of the Roman Period. 4. The ordinary language of the country, after Christianity was introduced into it ; this is called Coptic. It ceased to be used in Egypt as a spoken language, probably about the twelfth century, but the Holy Scriptures and the Services are in several places in Egypt read in Copticon Sundays and Festivals, although very few people understand what is being read. Four dialects of Coptic are distinguished: (i) That of Upper Egypt, called "Sahidic." (2) That of Lower Egypt, called "Boheiric." (3) The dialect of Suhak and its neighbourhood. (4) The 36 WRITING OF PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. dialect of the district of the Fayyum. It is a noteworthy fact that, from the beginning of the second century of our era to the twelfth, the language of ancient Egypt was preserved, in a modified form, chiefly through the translations of the Holy Scriptures, which were made from Greek into Coptic. Egyptian Writing was of three kinds, which are called " Hierogl\-phic," " Hieratic," and " Demotic." The oldest form is the hieroglyphic {i.e., sacred engraved writing), or purely })ictorial, which was employed in inscriptions upon temples, tombs, statues, sepulchral tablets, etc., and for monumental r u " ' , A page of liicralic wriling from the Great Harris Papyrus. purposes generally. At a very earh' period it was found that the hieroglyphic form of writing was cumbrous, and that in cases where it was important to write quick!}- on pap\-rus, the pictorial characters were inconvenient. The scribes, therefore, began first to modify, and secondly to abbre\iate the pictorial characters, and at length the forin of writing called hieratic (/.<'., the priests' writing) was developed. Hieratic was a style of cursive writing much used b\' the priests in cop)'ing literary compositions on papyrus from the IVth or Vth dynasty to the XXV Ith dynasty. This form of writing is well illustrated by the above reproduction of TIIOTH THE IXVKXTOK OK WRITINC. 57 a page from the Great Harris PapYrus in the British Museum (No. 9999), which was written about B.C. 1200. The text is read from right to left, and the following is a transcript into hieroglyphic characters of the first two lines : — AAA/*AA I /V\A^^V\ 1 ® (2 ^^^ /VVXAAA ^^37 lis IS I "^w 7\^ 1 I I s:']^ ^1 ] I ^ I <:^ 111 _^ _^^_M^-^3^ I I 1 _^ Between the end of the XXIInd and the beginning of the XXVIth dynasty the scribes, wishing to simplify hieratic still further, constructed from it a purely conventional system of signs from which most of the prominent characteristics of the hieroglyphic, or pictures, that had been preserved in the hieratic characters, disappeared. This new form of writing was called demotic {i.e., the people's writing), but it was known among some of the early Egyptologists as enchorial {i.e., native writing, or writing of the country). On the Rosetta Stone (Egyptian Gallery, No. 960) the visitor will see an example of the hieroglyphic and demotic forms of writing placed one above the other, and in the text we find that the hieroglyphic portion is called "the writing ot the divine words," or letters. 1 and the demotic " the writing of books," i.e., rolls of pap)'rus, fifl e/'~^^~' i]0 The invention of the art of writing was assigned to the god Thoth, who was the great scribe of the gods, and who is frequently represented holding a writing palette and a reed pen, and the hieroglyphics, or picture signs, were, therefore, called "divine, sacred, or holy." Hieroglyphics were used for monumental purposes until about the end of the third 38 DEMOTIC WRITING. gf.jiT ■tt#»„ .,/'■ If- .' SfirR^ .^ -• "^ , Demotic Writing. COPTIC WRITINC;. 39 century A. I)., but it is tolerably certain that \'ery few people could read thertl or understand them. During the Ptolemaic Period, though Greek was the language of the kings and the upper classes of the country, the temples were covered with inscriptions in hieroglyphics, and the Ptolemies and the Romans adopted old Egyptian titles, and had their names transcribed into hieroglyphics and cut in cartouches like the Pharaohs. In the reigns of Euergetes I (B.C. 267 to 222) and Epiphanes (B.C. 205 to 181) the priests promulgated decrees in honour of their kings which were cut on slabs of basalt in the hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek characters, but on the sepulchral tablets of the period the inscriptions are usually in hieroglj^phics alone, because the natives throughout the country clung to these characters, which had, from time immemorial, been associated with their religious beliefs and ceremonies. In the Southern Egyptian Gallery, however, are exhibited several tablets which are inscribed in demotic as well as in hieroglyphics, and of these may be noted the tablet of Tut-i-em-hetep (No. 1028, Bay 25), who died B.C. 118; the tablet of Kha-em-hra (No. 997, Bay 25); and the tablet of Peta Bast (No. 1030, Bay 27). In the Roman Period we find that the use of demotic sometimes superseded that of hieroglyphics in public documents, and as an example of this may be mentioned the fine sandstone tablet inscribed, wholly in demotic, with a decree recording the dedication of certain properties to the gods who were worshipped at Karnak (Thebes) in the first century of our era (No. 993, Bay 27), This tablet was found at Karnak, in the Hall of Columns, where, no doubt, it was set up originally, and its inscription was cut in demotic, because, at that period, that form of writing was better understood than hieroglyphics. In the Roman Period hieroglyphic inscriptions were sometimes accompanied by renderings into Greek and Latin, e.g., No. 257, Third Egyptian Room, Wall-case No. 109. This is a portion of a statue of a priest bearing a shrine of Osiris. On the back of the plinth is an inscription in hieroglyphics containing an address to Osiris by a priest of the " fourth order," and on one side of the plinth arc cut in Latin and Greek " priest bearing Osiris." Coptic is written with the letters of the Greek alphabet, and seven signs (cLj, q, ^, ^, X, (5^ 'f") derived from demotic characters, the phonetic values of which could not be expressed by Greek letters. A fine collection of sepulchral tablets inscribed in Coptic is exhibited in the Southern Eg)^ptian Gallery (Bay 32), and a long and most instructive 40 THE LORDS TKAVER IN COPTIC. series of drafts of documents on potsherds and slices of lime- stone will be found in Table-case M in the Fourth Egyptian Room. In the cop}' of the Lord's Prayer (St. ^Matthew vi, 9) here appended the reader will find all the signs which are peculiar to Coptic save one ( <^)- The dialect is that of Lower Egypt. The two words marked b}' asterisks are Greek, not Egyptian. nenitwT expert rtif^Honfi JUL^- peqxoT^o Penioi ctkhen nipkt'oni niareftoiibo Our Father who art in the heavens. may be hallowed nxeneKpA.n. JUL^-pecI nxexeKJULeTOTpo. entdie pekran. Maresi ?ntche tek?7iefoi/>-o. thy name. May come thy kingdom. neTe^n^.K JUL^-peqcyuDTii juL4)pH'f ^en T-4>e PeteJinak inarefihopi eniphrcti kkci I ipkc Thy will let it be as in the heaven itejuL ^ixeit nsj<^>2>J- nenojiK Ttxe p^~c'f iiem hitchoi pikahi. Penoik ente rasti so upon the earth. Our bread of to-morrow JULHiq rt^-n JUL4)00T. OTO^ X^ nexeport meif nan enipJiooii. Ouoh kha ne/eron give it to us to-day. And forgive our debts e/>ol emphrcti hon cntenkho ehol ennv, nan to us we also forgive eTecifoit itT^-it epuoox ovo^ .tjLnepcm^en eteoi/on entan those who are our del)tors. e^Q-rrt e nip^.cJULoc.'^' ekhoun c pirasnios, into temptation ; ebolha pipethooii. from that whic:h is c\il. ouoh cnipercnten And bring us not ^.XX^. * rt^,^JULeIt alia nalinicn but deliver us THE ROSETTA STONE. 4I Decipherment of Egyptian Hieroglyphics. — Before the close of the period of Roman rule in Egypt, the hieroglyphic system of writing fell into disuse, and its place was gradually taken by demotic, i.e., a conventional form of the hieratic, or cursive writing. When the Egyptians became converted to Christianity, the\^ adopted the Greek alphabet, adding to it seven signs derived from demotic, to express the sounds peculiar to their language. The priests appear to have prosecuted some study of hieroglyphics until the end of the fifth centur}' A.D., but soon after this the power to read and Coptic inscription on a slice of limestone. [No. 10, Table-case M, Third Egyptian Room.] understand them was lost, and until the beginning of the nineteenth century, no Oriental or European could read or understand a hieroglyphic inscription. During the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries many attempts were made by scholars to read and translate the Egyptian inscriptions, but no real progress was made until after the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. This " Stone " is a portion of a large black basalt stele measuring 3 feet 9 inches by 2 feet 4^ inches, and is inscribed with fourteen lines of hieroglyphics, thirt}^-two 42 THE ROSETTA STONE. IlierotjlN phic Text Demotic Text. THE ROSETTA STONE. 43 Greek Text. 44 THE ROSETTA STONE. lines of demotic, and fifty-four lines of Greek. (See Southern Egyptian Galler\', No. 960.) It was found in 1798 by a French officer of artillery named Boussard, among the ruins of Fort Saint Julien, near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, and \\as removed, in 1799, to the Institut National at Cairo, to be examined b}' the learned ; and Napoleon ordered the inscrip- tion to be engraved and copies of it to be submitted to the scholars and learned societies of Europe. In 1801 it passed into the possession of the British, and it was sent to England in February, 1802. It was exhibited for a few months in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries, and then was finally deposited in the British Aluseum. The first translation of the Greek text was made b\- Du Theil and Weston, in 1801-02, and they rightly declared that the stone was set up as the result of a Decree passed at the General Council of Egyptian priests assembled at Memphis to celebrate the first commemoration of the coronation of Ptolemy V, Epiphanes, king of all Egypt. The young king had been crowned in the eighth year of his reign, therefore the first commemoration took place in the ninth year, in the spring of the year, B.C. 196. The Decree sets forth that, because the king had given corn and money from his private resources to the temples, and had remitted taxes and released prisoners, and had abolished the press- gang and restored the worship of the gods, etc., the priests clecreed that : Additional honours be paid to the king and his ancestors ; an image of the king be set up in every temple ; a statue and shrine be set up in ever\' temple ; a monthh' festival be established on the birthday and coronation day of the king ; this Decree be engraved upon a hard stone stele in the writing of the priests (hieroglyphic), in the writing of books (demotic), and in the writing of the Greeks (Greek), and set up in every temple of the first, second, and third class, b)- the side of the image of the king. In 1802 Akerblad succeeded in making out the general meaning of several lines of the demotic text, and in identifying the equivalents of the names Alexander, Alexandria, Ptolem}', etc. In 1 8 19 Thomas Young publi.shed in the /iz/ar^/*?^^/^? Britannica, vol. 1\', the results of his studies of the texts, and among them was a list of sexeral alphabetic Egyptian characters to which, in most cases, he had assigned correct values. He was the first to grasp the idea of a phonetic principle in the reading of the Eg\-ptian hierogh-phics. and he was the first to apply it to their decipherment. Warburton, De Guignes, Barthelem)' and Zoega all suspected the existence YOUNG AND CHAM ['(n.LlON. 45 of alphabetic hieroglyphics, and the three last-named scholars believed that the oval, or cartoucJic f |, contained a ro)'al name ; but it was Young" who first proved both points and successfull}' deciphered the name of Ptolemy on the Rosetta Stone, and that of Berenice on another monument, and it was Bankes who first identified the name of Cleopatra. The list of alphabetic characters was much enlarged in 1822 by the eminent scholar ChampoUion, who not only correctly deciphered the names and titles of most of the Roman Emperors, but drew up classified lists of the hieroglyphics, and formulated a system of grammar and general decipherment which is the foundation upon which all subsequent Egyptologists have worked. The discovery of the correct alphabetic values of Egyptian signs was most useful for reading names, but, for translating the language, a competent knowledge of Coptic was required. Now Coptic is onh' another name for Egyptian. The Egyptian Christians are called " Copts," and the Holy Scriptures, Liturgies, etc., which they translated from Greek soon after their conversion to Christianity, are said to be written in " Coptic." The knowledge of Coptic has never been lost, and a comparatively large sacred literature has always been available for study by scholars. ChampoUion, quite early in the nineteenth century, realized the great importance of Coptic for the purpose of Egyptian decipherment, and he made himself the greatest Coptic scholar of his time. His knowledge of Coptic was deep and wide, and to this important qualification much ot his success is due. Having once obtained a correct value of man\^ alphabetic and syllabic characters, his knowledge of Coptic helped him to deduce the values of others, and to assign meanings to Egyptian words with marvellous accuracy. The method by which the greater part of the Egyptian alphabet was recovered is this : It was assumed correctly that the cartouche always contained a royal name. The only cartoticJie on the Rosetta Stone was assumed to contain the name Ptolemy. An obelisk brought from Philae about that time contained a hieroglyphic inscription, and a translation of it in Greek, which mentioned two names, Ptolemy and Cleopatra, and one of the cartouches was filled with hieroglyphic characters which were identical with those in the cartouche on the Rosetta Stone. Thus there was good reason to believe that \}:\q cartoiicJie ow the Rosetta Stone contained the name of Ptolemy written in hieroglyphic characters. Here is the cartouche which was assumed to 46 DKCIPHKk.VlENT OF IIIKKOOLVPHICS. represent the name Ptolemaios, or Ptolemy, the hieroolyphics being- numbered (A) — 1 D 2^ gSffl and here is the cartouche which was assumed to represent the name Cleopatra (B; — B 110 Xow in JB, the first sign, A, must represent K ; it is not found in A. No. 2 sign, _S5i&, is identical with No. 4 sign in A. This was assumed to be L. No. 3 sign, |], represents a vowel, and doubled, [jli , is found in A, Xo. 6. Xo. 4 sign, -^ , is identical with X'^o. 3 in A, and it must have the value of O in both A and B. X'^o. 5 sign, D, is identical with No. i in A, and as A contains the name Ptolemy, the first sign, n, must be P. Xo. 6 sign, '^, is wanting in A, but its value must be A, because it is the same sign as Xo. 9, which ends the name Kleopatra. Xo. 7, ,:^:^, does not occur in A, but we see it in o\}:iQ.x cartoucJies taking the place of ^, the second letter in the name of Ptolemaios, and it must therefore be some kind cjf T. Xo. 8, <=>, we assume is R, because it is the last letter but one in the name of Kleopatra. Xos. 10 and ii signs, ^, we find after the names of goddesses ; the first of them is T; and the second is a "determinative." We now insert the alphabetic values in the two cartouches and obtain the followinij" results : A [wyy] B C r'i°pATR..Ag ] In the case of A it is quite clear that Ptol is the first part of the name of Ptolemaios, therefore £=z [|[] |1 must represent the second part of the name, or Maios. \\'e may then say that .=z is M, and the last sign |l is S, and that (|(j repre.sents DECIPHERMENT OF HIEROGLVrillCS. 47 some /-sound, or t'-sound ; in the case of B we are certain of the vakies of all the signs except a, <=^ and O, but it is clear from their positions in the name that the first two must represent K and R. We have seen that the signs ^ are added to the names of goddesses, and as Kleopatra was regarded as a goddess, they are added to her name. They do not affect the name itself. The two royal names may now be taken out of the cartouches, and the values written under the characters thus : A n ^ f[ ^^ .=: [Ifl P P T O L M (I o. E) S K L \ ft ° E(0 O P O Takinir another cartouche { i ^ia ht we already know the signs, ^ .Sa^ |1 [| c=^> <=-, which repre- sent A. L. S= E (?), T. and R. The only Greek name which contains these letters in this order is Alexandres, or Alexander, and we therefore conclude that the last sign, — h — , is S. that '^^zz:^ is K' that \ is A> and that ^aa^vw is N- A common title of the Roman Emperors was ^^^IJLIjI^^^-h— , and as we know all the signs but one {m\ with certainty we write down K-t]f|"S-R-S. which can only be " Kaisaros," or " Caesar." From this we again see that l]l] represents the at in Katcrapos^ and nToA,eyu,a(09, or ae in Caesar. In this way the P^gyptian alphabet was recovered. Now if we look at the last line of the Egyptian text on the Rosetta Stone we shall find that in the cartouche [ -ip I '_ [,1, I ■¥■ ^1 X ■•'^^3:- ( t j there are several signs which have not been explained above, viz., -t" ^^ x "'"^:3l. [I[|. 48 DI-:CIPIIKRMENT OF IIIKROGLYPIIICS. These signs, it is clear, form no part of the name of Ptolem)% and the position in whicli the)' are found suggests that they represent titles. \ reference to the Greek version (line 49) shows that Ptolemy is there called " everliving, beloved of I'htha," and it now remains to see if the hierogh-phics mean an\thing like these words. The sound and meaning of the first sign, •¥", were well known from the statements of Greek writers who said that it was pronounced ancJi, and that it meant " living," or " life." Two of the three characters in the group, X, we know to be P and T, and we are justified in assuming that X represents the name of the god Phtha, or as it is now read Ptah. Now, if ■¥" means " living " or " life," and X means " Ptah," ^1 must mean " for ever," and ""==31 [111 must mean "beloved." Of the first group, XI, we already know the value of the second sign o^, T, and of the second group w^e know that [1(1 has the value of I. Recourse must now be had to Coptic, so that the Coptic {i.e., Egyptian) words for "for ever" and "beloved" may be compared with the hieroglyphic originals. The common word for " for ever," " eternity," etc., is eneh, but there is no n in XI, so this \\\\\ not suit. We do, however, find the word (5^T". djct, which means " an age." " a long undefined period of time," and this agrees well with the sound of X^.and shows that the sound ot ^ was something like DJ, and that =?^v= must have a T sound. The common word in Coptic for "to love" is juuep, mc>\ and we may therefore transcribe ""^^isl [I [^' by iiieri, and assume that it means something like "beloved." xAs the meanings here deduced for -1- X^ ' y"''^:3L[^[^ make good sense in every text in which they occur we are justified in assuming them to be correct. EGYPTIAN ALPHABETIC CHARACTERS. 49 The Eg}'ptian alphabetic characters are as follow : — A The Hebrew akph ^. A D A Pronounced like the Hebrew ^. or \\ I The Hebrew yo(//i 1. or (2 U or W The Hebrew ^ and T It had some- times an ^-sound, like the Hebrew "i. 11 B Hebrew 1- n P „ D- M „ 72- /V^A^^>V^ V N > R and L » "^ ^"d 7. H „ n- X (KH) „ ::, without the Dagesb. Q D or '•^. SH „ tr- „ )/• 52 IIIKROC.LVI'IIIC WRITING, country, hA the skin of an animal, 'rCCCC^ water, ^^:>-^ actions performed with a knife, and ^ a pot of unguent or hquid. 1- The god Khiicmu Metu " to speak " Sat " daughter " Kcsh '" Nubia " PeuttH " mouse " Mail " cat " Qcbh " Hbation " Svia " to slay " Merhet " oil " rrr-i [M^:^ Z/^^^/" " beer " A =0= Hieroglyphs are written in perpendicular or horizontal lines as in A and B. In these examples the words are to be read in the direction in which the birds face, i.e., from left to right. A. 1 > These words mean : " If thou wouldst be a perfect man make thou [thy] son well pleasing to God." PAPYRUS AND PALETTE. B. \^'i-Miiiiir=iiu^'Mm} nr'Zf'k\r^%t¥.^ff. ^^' The writing' materials consisted of papyrus, palette, reed-pens, ink and ink-pot. Papyrus was made from the stem of the papyrus plant i^Cypcrns Papyrus), which grew in the marshes and pools near the Nile ; it is no longer cultivated in Egypt, but is found in the Sudan, where it grows to a height of from 20 to 25 ft., and has very thick stems. The exact meaning and derivation of " papyrus " are unknown, but the word is probably of Egyptian origin.- A sheet of pap}'rus was made in the following way : The stem was cut into thin strips, which were laid side by side perpendicularly, and upon these another series of strips was laid horizontally ; a thin solution of gum, or paste, was run in between them, after which the sheet was pressed and dried. By joining a number of such sheets together rolls of almost any length could be made. The longest papyrus in the Eg}'ptian Collection in the British Museum, No. 9999, is 135 ft. long and I ft. 5 in. wide ; the Papyrus of Ani measures 78 ft. by I ft. 3 in. ; the Papyrus of Nebseni, yG ft. by ?>\ in. ; the Papyrus of Nu, 65 ft. 6 in. by i ft. ih in. ; the Papyrus of Nekht, 46 ft. 7 in. by i ft. li in. The palette, in P^gyptian vicstJiii \]\^^^^, usually consisted of a rectangular piece of wood, from eight to sixteen inches long, and from two to three broad, at one end of which were sunk a number of oval or circular hollows to hold ink or paint. Down the middle was cut a groove, sloping at one end, in which the writing reeds were placed ; these were kept in position by a piece of wood glued across the middle of the palette, or by a sliding cover, which also served to protect the reeds from injury. A very good collection of palettes is exhibited in the Third Egyptian Room, Table-case C. Of special interest are the palettes of Ba-nefer, of the reign of ' These words mean': " I have given bread to the famishing, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, and a boat to him that was shipwrecked." '- A recent view makes " papyrus " to be derived from the conjectural name pa-p-ior " that which is of the river." c 3 54 toos Wooden palelte inscribed with the name of Aahmes I, B.C. 1600. [No. 2, Table-case C, Thiid Egyptian Room.] Wooden palette of Rameri, an ofiicial of Thothmes IV, B.C. 1470. [No. 3, Table-case C, Third Egyptian Room.] WRITINC, REEDS AND INK. 55 Pepi II, B.C. 3200 (No. 12,782); the palette of Aahmes I, the first king of the XVII Ith dynasty, about B.C. 1600 (No. 12,784) ; the palette of the scribe Pa-mer-ahau, who lived in the reign of Amen-hetep III, about B.C. 1450 (No. 5513); and the palettes of Amen-mes (No. 12,778) and a scribe (No. 5514), who lived in the reign of Seti I and Rameses II respectively. The hollows for the ink, or paint, generally black ancl red, are usually two in number, but some palettes have a dozen. The inscriptions on palettes usually contain prayers to the great gods of the Other World for sepulchral offerings ; but sometimes they are dedications to the god Tehuti, or Thoth ^jT.r;/j, to whom the invention of the art of writing is attributed. The writing reed, in ligyptian qcsit ^^ ^ m , which served as a pen, was about 10 inches long, and from y'^th to g^th of an inch in diameter ; the end used for writing was bruised and not cut. After the XXVIth dynasty, an ordinary reed, similar to that used in the East at the present day, was employed, and the end was cut like a quill, or steel pen. The ordinary palette will hold about ten writing reeds easily. The ink was made of mineral or vegetable substances mixed with gum and water. The earths, or ochres, or preparations of copper, were rubbed down on slabs with little mullers, several of which may be seen in the Third Egyptian Room, Table-case C. The ink-pot was called />rs ° Y7, and was usually made of faience or porcelain. The hierogh'ph ri[i] represents the palette, an ink pot, and a reed, united by a cord ; the whole stands for " scribe " and " writing." Besides papyrus, scribes frequently used slices of white limestone of a fine texture, or boards plastered with lime, for writing purposes. On these they wrote drafts of literary compositions, hymns, school exercises, and sketches in outline of the figures of kings, gods, etc., made to scale. As examples may be mentioned No. 22, inscribed with the draft of a legal document which was drawn up in connection with a robbery of weapons from the Royal Arsenal by the Chief of the Treasury, about B.C. 1 100, and No. 41, inscribed in the hieratic character with a draft of a part of a famous work called the " Instruc- tions of Amen-em-hat I," king of Egypt, about B.C. 2500 (Third Egyptian Room, Table-case C). In the Ptolemaic Period pieces of broken earthenware vessels, or potsherds, 56 COPTIC INSCRIPTIONS. commonh' known as ostraka, were much used for writing purposes. The inscriptions on these are chiefly of a business character, receipts or acquittances, etc. ; but certain of them contain extracts from Hterary works, e.g:, a school exercise consisting of Hnes 105-117 and 128-139 of the PJioejiissae of Euripides (No. 88, Third P"g}'ptian Room, Table-case C). After the introduction of Christianity into Egypt, the Copts, or Christian Egyptians, imitated their pagan ancestors, and wrote letters, lists of objects, prayers, extracts from the Scriptures, etc., on slices of white limestone. A fine collection of such Coptic inscriptions is exhibited in the Fourth Egyptian Slab of limestone inscribed with a draft of a deed. Dated in the reign of Heru-em-heb, about B.C. 1400. [No. 22, Table-case C. Third EgAptian Room.] Room, Table-case M ; and of special interest are : Xo. 3. Liturgical fragment. Xo. 5. An undertaking by Abraham to take charge of a camel. X^o. 8. Religious exercise, Coptic and Greek hymns. X"o. 17. Extract from Psalm xcviii, "Sing unto the Lord a new Song," etc. X"o. 19. Part of the Alex- andrian Canon of the Mass, written in corrupt Greek b}' Apa PCihannes. No. 20. Fragment containing part of a Greek h}'mn and a letter in Coptic, conveying the salutation? of Dioskoros to his brother Ounaref and his mother Tnouba. X^o. 26. Letter from the priest Victor and Matthaios. to (lermanos and Isak (Isaac), authorizing them to sow their share of a field, and spccifj'ing the rent. No. 28. Document referring to the sale of a camel. It is dated on the second of the month Pashan.s, and witnessed by three persons ; — Dioskle and COPTIC INSCRIPTIONS. 57 Ouanafrc^ of Pallas, and Gergorios of Remmosh. No. 41. Part of a letter requesting some monks to bless the writers, and to send holy water to them that they might sprinkle their sick beasts with it. No. 53. List of measurements of land, in which Greek arithmetical signs, etc., are employed. No. 57. Receipt for a holokotinos (solidus) paid as tax or rent by Zael for the "camels' field" for the ninth year. No. 60. School exercise in Greek and Coptic grammar ; on the obverse is a portion of a letter addressed to the authorities of a monastery. No. 61. Reading exercise. No. 62. Frag- ment of a school exercise, with rough drawings of animals. No. 65. Acquittance of Mizael Konstantinos for the first instalment of taxes for the year, signed by Severus. No. 66. Writing exercise for the formation of letters. The Copts sometimes covered the outside of an unbroken jar with lists, etc., e.g., the amphora, No. i66f. Fourth Egyptian Room, Wall-case No. 163. On this are written six lists of names of men, with those of their fathers and mothers, and it is probable that the inscriptions were written not later than the eighth century. 1 A form of the old Egyptian n.ime Un NEFER -^S^ I » > M 9 I 58 CHAPTER III. Egvptian Literature, Sacred and Profane. Egyptian Literature. — The literature of Ancient Egypt, written in the hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic characters, is large, and the contents of the principal divisions of it may be thus summari/.ed : — Religious literature : first and foremost is the great compilation of texts, partly magical and parti}- religious, to which was given the name " Per-em-hru," i.e., the " Book of Coming P^orth by Day," or, as it is now generally called, the Book of the Dead. This work is extant in three great Recensions, viz., the Heliopolitan, Theban, and Sa'i'te. The Heliopolitan Recension consists of a series of formulas of a semi-magical character, written in hieroglyphics, which were collected by the priests of An, or Heliopolis, about B.C. 3300. A large number of these formulas were in existence long before this period. The oldest copies of texts of this Recension are found in the P}'ramids of kings Unas, Teta, Pepi L Mehti- em-sa-f, and Pepi II at Sakkarah, but .series of the formulas from it were copied on coffins and sarcophagi down to about I!.C. 200. Among such is the coffin of Amamu in the British Museum (Eirst Eg)'ptian Room, No. 6654). On this mag- nificent coffin are written some hundreds of lines of text in black ink, and a list of canonical offerings, according to the Liturgy of Eunerary Offerings, is appended. The coffin itselt was intended to represent the chamber of a ilhustaba tomb, and on the inside are painted pictures of doors and panels, similar to those which are found in the tombs about B.C. 3500. It is one of the finest of its class, and it was probabh' made before the Xlth dynasty (B.C. 2600). In connection with this must be mentioned the portion of a wooden coffin of Menthuhetep, a king of the Xlth dynasty, on which is in- .scribed a version of a part of the XV^IIth Chapter of the Book of the Dead (Second Eg}'ptian Room, Wall-cases 86-88). The Theban Recension was generalh- written upon papyri in hieroglyj)hics, and was divided into .sections, or chapters, each of which had its distinct title, but no definite place in the series. It was much used during the XVIIIth, XlXth, and XXth dynasties. In the first half of the XVI I Ith dynasty the custom grew up of adding vignettes to certain chapters of this Recension, and before another century had passed so THE BOOK OF THE DEAD. 59 many coloured illustrations were added to the papyri that frequently chapters had to be abbreviated, and the scribes were obliged to omit some of them altogether. This Recension contained about 1 80 chapters, but no extant papyrus contains them all. The chapters represent the theological opinions of the colleges of On (Memphis), Herakleopolis, Abydos, and Thebes, and are of the first importance for the study of the Egj^ptian Religion. In the Rubric to the LXIVth Chapter are mentioned two traditions which are very 1 valuable for the history of the Recension. In the one it is f stated that the chapter was " found " in the reign of Semti, ' a king of the 1st d3'nasty, and in the other that it was " found " in the reign of Menkaura (M}'cerinus), a king of the IVth dynasty, by Heru-tata-f, a prince, the son of King Khufu, or , Cheops. Thus it is certain that in the XVIIIth dynasty it \\ • was believed that the chapter was in existence in the earliest {"J d}'nasties. Now we find from the Papyrus of Nu that there ';.' were two forms of this chapter extant, and that one of these J!: was twice as long as the other. The longer one is entitled t,l " Chapter of Coming Forth by Day," and the shorter, " Chapter "' of Knowing the ' Chapters of Coming Forth by Day' in a ; ', Single Chapter." The rubric to the latter attributes the chapter {' 1 to the 1st dynasty, and thus it seems that even at this remote 1 ) period the " Chapters of Coming Forth by Day " were widely known, and that the priests found it necessary to produce for general use a chapter which contained the essence of them all. The British Museum possesses the finest collection in the ; ; world of papyri containing the Theban Recension, and of these i ' may be specially mentioned : The Papyrus of Nebseni,^ with f | vignettes in black outline (No. 9900); the Papyrus of ' ' Ani, a magnificently coloured papyrus containing texts and vignettes not found elsewhere^ (No. 10,470); the Papyrus of Nu, with coloured vignettes, rubrics, etc., containing a good text throughout, and a large number of chapters not found elsewhere'' (No. 10,477); the Papyrus of Hu-nefer, a scribe who flourished in the reign of Seti I, with a fine series of brilliantly painted vignettes'' (No. 9901); and the Papyrus ' Photographs of this Papyrus have been published by the Trustees of the British Aluseum, ^2 2.f. per set. - A full coloured facsimile has been published by the Trustees of the British Museum, in 37 plates, portfolio, £1 ii.v. 6ti^., half bound ^i 16s. The Egyptian Text is also issued with an English translation, etc., 4to., £i 10^. ■■' Also published by the Trustees of the British Museum ; "Facsimiles of the Papyri of Hunefer, Anhai, Kerasher and Netchemet, with supple^ rnentary text from the Papyrus of Nu,'' fol., £2 los. 6o BOOK OF THE DEAD— TIIEBAN RECENSION XV- I Jk — 4 4 ^~;j UT I Ear IT- 1 o :« m Ml It? I'giliiiififliiMt . ' e^nui■j'>^ | - ' - ' ^!■? l ; ' ^"^y^ X'ignette and text of the Theban Book of llu Dead from the Papyrus of Ani. [Brit. Mus., No. 10,470.] XVIIIth dynasty. Vignette and text of the Thehan Book oft Dead from the Papyrus of Nil. [Brit. Mus., No. 10,477.] XVIIIth dynas Plate I. [See page 6l.) t. -^ ~. BOOK OF THE DEAD— SAITE RECENSION. 6l of Mut-hetep, most valuable because it contains correct copies of early texts (No. 10,010). Out of the Theban Recension grew another Recension, to which no special name has been given. It was written on papyrus both in hieroglyphics and hiera- tic, and its Chapters have no fixed order. It came into existence in the XXth dynasty, probably under the growing influence of the priests of Amen. Fine examples of the papyri of this Recension are the Papyrus of Queen Netchemet (see Plate I), the wife of Her-Heru, the first high priest-king of the XX 1st dynast}' (exhibited in the Southern Egyptian Gallery), and the PapyrusofAnhai, a priestess of Am(in.^ In the latter an entirely new style of decoration is employed, and gold is used in decorating the disk of Ra Harmachis for the first time. Of the history of the Book of the Dead between B.C. 1000 and 650 little is known. Under the influence of the great renais- sance, which took place in the XXVIth dynasty, another Re- cension came into use, called the Sa'ite. In this the chapters had a fixed order, many new ones being inserted. The text was written both in hieroglyphics and hieratic, and it was decorated with a sericsof vignettes, in which all the figures were drawn in ])lack outline. The appearance of papyri of this Recension is monotonous and dull, and both the drawings and the hiero- ' Sec Note » f Vignette and Chapter of tlic I'.onk of llie Dead wiillen in liicialic for 1 leru-em-hel). [Brit. Mus., No. 10,257.] XXVItli dynast)-, or later. 3 on i)age 59. 62 FUNERARY WORKS. glyphics are stiff and spiritless. Good examples of pap\-ri of this Recension are the Papyrus of Heru-em-heb, written in hieratic (No. 10,257), and the Papyrus of Heru, written in hieroglyphics (No. 10,479). The vignettes usually occupy small spaces at the top of the columns of text. The Recension in use in the Ptolemaic Period was the Saite, but before the Roman Period it was customary to write other and newer funerary works on papyri, and little by little the Book of the Dead, as a whole, became obsolete. It seems as if an attempt was made to extract from the old work the texts which were regarded as absolutely necessary for salvation, and as if the older mythology- was unknown to the Eg}'ptians of the period. It is cjuite certain that man}- of the scribes copied texts without understanding them, and that the meanings of many vignettes were lost. About the beginning of the Ptolemaic Period the following works came into general use : I. The Shait EN Sensen I w I i\D ^ I — " X — ■ A ■ I (I (I ^_^_^ ^'•'■^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ -^-Y^ I , or Book of Breathings. Like the great Book of the Dead, this w^ork was declared to have been written b}' Thoth, the scribe of the gods, the " Heart of Ra." It contains a number of prayers for offerings, a series of declarations that the deceased has not committed certain specified sins, a statement that he has neither sin nor evil in him, and a demand that his soul be admitted into the heaven because " he gave food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, " clothes to the naked, and offerings to the Gods, and to the " Khu (beatified spirits)." A fine copy of this work is that written in the hieratic character for Kerashcr on a papyrus in the British Museum (No. 9995). In the first part are copies of vignettes from the Book of^ the Dead, but the details are modified to suit the religious beliefs of the period. Thus Thoth and not Horus introduces the deceased to Osiris, and Anubis and Hathor lead him into the Tudgment Hall instead of Maat. 2. The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys, a work in which these goddesses lamented the sufferings and death of Osiris, and proclaimed his resurrection, and glorified him in the heavens. It was recited by two priestesses, who were ceremonially pure, on the 25th day of the month Choiak (December), and the words in the book were believed to be those which Isis and Nephthys actually said at their first mourning for their brother Osiris. Copies of them were written on papyrus and buried with the dead to ensure their resurrection and future happiness and glory. BOOK OF TRAVERSING ETERNITY. 63 3. The Festival Songs of the Two Tcherti, i.e., of the Two Weepers, Isis and Nephthys, a work similar in character to the preceding. It was recited on five days of the month Choiak (December), during which the great annual festival of Osiris was celebrated. The priestesses who sang the verses of the work wore lambs'- wool crowns on their heads, carried tambourines which they beat from time to time, and bore on their arms bandlets with the names of Isis and Nephthys written upon them. The recital of the work was preceded by an address by the R7ier //ed, or " Lector," and then the two priestesses sang the rhythmic sec- tions of the composi- tions alternately. 4. The Litanies of Seker, a short com- position of about 100 lines, containing two series of addresses to Seker, the god of the Other World. Fine copies of this and the preceding work are given in the Rhine! Papyrus (No. 10,188). 5. The Book of traversing Eternity {S/idii en sebebi lick which of the J O ), a work in the happiness blessed dead is described, and an account given of a journey through the Other World by the deceased, who visits the shrines of the gods, and takes part in the services of praise which are performed there by the spirits and souls A Mf f"-^''- ) i.^1 v^ t«a;^'' tf>t.X : ' ' A copy of a Book of the Dead entitled " May my name flourish ! " [Brit. Mus., No. 10,304.] Roman Period. 64 1500K OF OPENING THE MOUTH. of the righteous, and enjoys the offerings which are made to them b}' the faithful on earth f Pap\-rus No. 29, at Vienna). 6. The Book of May my Name Flourish,^ a work which was very popular in the Roman Period. It is, in reality, a development of a long prayer which is found in the Pyramid Texts of the Vlth dynasty. Its object was to make the name of the deceased permanent in heaven and on earth, for it was a common belief, from the earliest to the latest times, that the man whose name was blotted out had no portion or existence in the other world. A nameless soul possessed no identit}-, and could not be introduced to Ra and the company of the gods. The British Museum possesses several copies of this work, written general!}- on narrow strips of papyrus, in a kind of hieratic, containing man)- demotic characters. (Xos. 10,108, 10,111, 10,112, 10,109, etc.) 7. Another work which obtained some popularit\- in the late period is the so-called Ritual of Embalmment. In this composition is given a large number of the formulas that were recited over the unguents, spices, and swathings during the process of embalming the body. 8. In all periods the burial of the dead was accompanied by the presentation of series of offerings. Up to the end of the Vth dynasty a comparatively small number of names of IP^ s^Cf^;^^^ "fe^^^^-^ ' \ offerings was inscribed /'Vw f^u'^^^c"''-''^"!''^ ^^fe °" ^^"'^ walls of the tombs, and in the presentation of such offerings consisted the ceremony of Opening" the Mouth of the dead. Under the Vlth dynasty a new and enlarged list of offer- ings was drawn up, and a series of formulas was added to it for recital by the priest as object after object was presented to the mumm'y. In many of these formulas there were plays of words upon the names of the offerings, each of which was symbolical of some divine being, or object, or act. Several new ceremonies connected ^i rff The ceremonies of " Opening the Mouth." ?^^i^■ GUIDES TO THE OTHER WORLD. 65 with the purification and censing of the mummy, and the use of instruments in " opening the mouth and eyes " of the mummy were introduced at this time. To this List of Offerings, with its rubrics, the name of Liturgy of Funerary Offerings may be given. Under the XVIIIth dynasty a further development of the List of Offerings took place, and new ceremonies were added, and the work was henceforth known as the Book of Opening the Mouth. The visitor will .see on the west wall of the Second Egyptian Room a large coloured drawing in which the performance of ceremonies connected with the opening of the mouth is represented. One priest is supposed to be touching the mouth of the mummy with the Ur-heka instrument, and is holding other instruments ; the other priest is presenting vases of ■[ water. Behind them is the Kher HEB, or Lector, who is | pouring out water from a libation vase and burning incense. | The object of the Book of Opening the Mouth was: i. To give the deceased a new body in the Other World, and 1 to make him to be divine. 2. To establish communion between the living and the dead. In later days a statue of the deceased took the place of his mummy in the ceremonies, and then the chief object of the ceremonies, formulas, and offerings, was to provide a dwelling place for the Ka or '' double " of the deceased, and to make his soul to take up its abode in the statue. The Book of Opening the Mouth was in general use from the Vth dynasty to the first or second century of our era, that is, for a period of 4,000 years, and copies of it made in the Roman Period are almost identical with those found in the Pyramids of Sakkarah of the Vlth dynasty. 9. An important section of the Religious Literature of PLgypt is formed by works which were intended to be used as Guides to the Other World. The oldest of these is a work in which pictures are given of portions of Restau, in the kingdom of the god Seker, and of several parts of the Sekhet-hetep, or Elysian Fields, and their positions in respect of the celestial Nile are shown. The descriptions of these places and the formulas which were to be recited by the deceased are written in hieratic, and these were to be learned by men on earth so that their souls might recognize the various regions as they came to them, and repeat the sacred words at the right moments. This "Guide" may be called the Book of enabling a man to travel over the ways of the Other World, but recent writers have named it the Book of the Two Ways. The finest and fullest copies of the work, ('- 66 liOOKS OF THE OTHER WORLD. with illustrations in full colour, arc found in the coffins of Kua-tep and Sen, or Sena, the " chief physician," in the lidtish Museum (Nos: 30,841, 30,839}. A second work of this kind istheBookof whatisin theTuat, or Other World, or S/^(U dm Tuat, ^^^^"^ [ — >\ • In this the Other World is divided into Twelve Sections corre- sponding to the Twelve Hours of the Night, and pictures are given of the various gods, demons, and fiends who were supposed to obstruct the way of those who were passing from this world to the kingdoms of Osiris and Ra. The texts contain the speeches of the Sun-god of night, called Afu-Ra, and describe the conditions of the beatified, or the damned, in each section, and give the names of the principal gods. The work is very lengthy, and complete copies of it must have been cumbrous, as well as costly. The priests therefore prepared a Summary of the Book of Am-Tuat, which was supposed to contain all that was absolutely essential for the soul to know that had to travel from this world to the next. The most complete copy of the larger work is given on the walls of the chambers in the tomb of Seti I, at Thebes, but one half of it is cut on the outside of the magnificent sarcophagus of Nekht-Heru-hebt, king of Egypt about B.C. 378 (Southern Egyptian Gallery, No. 923). (See Plate II.) Of portions of the " Summary " there are several copies in the British Mu.seum, both with and without illustrations (Nos. 9975, 9979, 998 1-9985, etc.). The pictures of this work were belie\-ed to be endowed with the same magical powers as the texts. In the Book of Gates, a somewhat similar work, the road from earth to heaven is marked by a series of Gates through which the deceased hoped to pass. The texts, which are fully illustrated, describe the progress of the Boat of the Sun-god to the Kingdom of Osiris, the Judgment in the Hall of Osiris, the life of the beatified in the Elysian Fields, and the punish- ment of the wicked and of the foes of the Sun-god by dismemberment and burning. Following these comes a set of magical texts and pictures which describe and illustrate the ceremonies which were performed daily to make the sun to rise. They show that the Egyptians used to make a model of the sun, and place it in a boat, and then bring to it arrows to represent rays, and disks to represent the hours ; fire was next kindled with the fire-stick and applied to the model, and appropriate formulas having been recited, the body of the sun was believed to be reconstituted. (See page 66.) Plate II. Wi3 S ' — ' "*- o 1^ ^3 :=: 1,'' IIVMNS AND MACSrCAL TFATS. 6/ 10. As an example of Rituals ma}' be mentioned the famous Daily Ritual of the Divine Cult, the texts of which were inscribed upon papyrus and cut on the walls of temples, e.g., Abydos. From this we learn that the king was supposed to perform daily a series of elaborate ceremonies in connection with the statue of Amen, and to present to it unguents, wine, incense, articles of sacred apparel, etc. By means of these he entered into communion with the god, who bestowed upon him his vital power, strength, and spiritual qualities. 11. Hymnology is well represented by the hymns to the gods Ra, Ka-Harmachis, Temu and Osiris, which are found in the great Papyrus of y\ni in the British Museum (No. 10,470), and by the fine Hymn to the Nile, of which two copies are pre- served in the British Museum (Sallier II, No. 10,182, and Anastasi VII, No. 10,222). Of somewhat different character, though equally interesting, are the Hymns to Amen contained in the Anastasi Papyrus II (No. 10,243). Under this head may be grouped the Litany of Osiris in the Papyrus of Ani, and the Addresses of Horus to his father Osiris in the Pap)Tus of Nebseni (No. 9900). 12. Service books are represented by the Book of Over- throwing" Apepi, a work which contains a series of spells and incantations that were recited in the great temple of i\men-Ra at Karnak (Thebes) on certain days of the month. These were directed against Apepi, the great foe of the Sun-god, and enemy of all goodness and truth, who took the form of a monster serpent, and waged war against all the gods daily. The rubrics contained directions for ceremonies, in which wax-figures were burned in the temple fires, whilst the priests recited the spells in the Book. There is a complete copy of the work in the British Museum (No. 10,188), which also con- tains a list of the accursed names of Apepi, and the text of the hymn of praise which was sung when the arch-fiend was overthrown. 13. Exegesis is represented by two valuable copies of a work which forms the XVI Ith Chapter of the Book of the Dead in the Pap}-rus of Ani (No. 10,470), and the Papyrus of Nebseni (No. 9900). In it a text treating of the origin of the gods and their relation to Ra, and of the doctrine of the union of Ra and Osiris, etc., is dissected, and each sentence of the work is followed by a statement of the opinions of the various great religious Colleges of Egypt. 14. An example of a rare class of work is found cut on a black stone slab in the Southern Egyptian Gallery (No. 797). The text states that it was copied from an inscribed board 68 BOOKS OF MORAL PRECEPTS. which had become worm-eaten in the reign of Shabaka. king of Egypt, about B.C. 700. From what is legible on the slab we are justified in assuming that the work contained a sort of philosophical statement of the religious beliefs of a priest who was trying to systematize certain of the old traditions of the country, and to evolve a system of belief which should be consonant with the special traditions current at Memphis at that time concerning the god Ptah. 15. Another most important section of religious literature consists of the funerar}' inscriptions cut on sepulchral tablets, or grave-stones, which form so large a portion of the Egyptian collections of the British Museum. In the vestibule and galleries is exhibited a splendid series of such monuments, the oldest dating from the IVth dynasty, about B.C. 3800, and the most recent from the first century A.D. ; thus the series represents a period of about four thousand Acars. The value of these monuments is very great, for the}' not onl}' give the various forms of the prayer to the gods for sepulchral offerings in the different periods of Egyptian histor}-, but they afford a great deal of information about the attributes of the gods, and the}' illustrate the growth and deca}' of man}"- forms of belief, details of ritual, etc. On Plates III-VIII are reproduced good typical examples of sepulchral tablets of the IVth, Xlth, Xllth, XVIIIth, XlXth, and XXX th dynasties. The number of the religious works of the Egyptians was very large, and in each great temple a small chamber was set apart as a librar}^ ; here the papyrus rolls, or books, were kept in boxes, and, in some cases, the names of the works were inscribed on the walls of the chamber. The number of the rolls in a temple library seems to have been comparative!}' small, for the list of books which is cut on the wall of the " House of Books," of the temple of Edfu, only contains the names of thirt\'-scven works. Profane Literature. — Among works of a didactic and moral character ma}' be mentioned the Precepts of Kaqemna and the Precepts of Ptah-hetep. The first of these contains a .short series of admonitions as to general beha\iour, which were written towards the end of the Ilird dynast}', about B.C. 3900, and the second a group of aphorisms of high moral worth, by a high official who flourished in the reign of Assa, a king of the Vth dynast}-, about P..C. 3360. A late cop}' of the latter work is preserved in the British Museum. Other works of this class are The Instructions of Amen-em-hat I, a complete copy of which is given in the First Sallier Papyrus (No. 10,185), and the Maxims of Ani, preserved in the (St'c/>a 0-e 6S.] Plate 111. False door from the tomb of Shesh.i, a royal scribe, who flourished in the reign of Khufu (Cheops), about B.C. 3700. [Vestibule, North Wall, No. 18.] [See page 68.) Plate V. ^i^^'^i.''''" '-^''tll Painted "sepulchral labLi ,,i .-.Lck-hetep, scribe of the wiiir-crlLu . [Northern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 12, No. 513.] XVIIIlh dynasty. {Sri /a^f 6S.) Plate VI. i^.Ar If ■-mi .^- iBy ( iWbj j]j . i;'iJ,:'':':'-;!'^i'iir-i!t-riK',\J-i|.--i ^- 41 .-> % Sepulchral tablet^of Pai-nehsi, the overseer of the storehouse of gold from the Sudan. [Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 7, No. 299.] Xllth dynasty. See page 68.) Plate VII. ij i'- i-c-i ;'| ! ' * J'- ^ -^ i ' '■ ssif'i' r^i-!;!"^,"' "'-"'.-1' '.'...* ^/ ' Sepulchral tablet of Bak-en-Amen, a scribe of the table and wine-cellar. Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 22, No. 751.] XlXth or XXth dynasty. (SW/>ao-e 68.) Plate VIIl. :'''-.— ^A Kvf^ Sepulchral tablet of Nes-Heru, a priest. [Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 26, No. 941.] About B.C. 350. FICTION AND TRAVEL. 6g Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The latter work inculcates the highest standard of practical morality, and contains a lofty idea of the duty of the Egyptian to his god and his neighbour ; many of the counsels embody shrewd common sense and experience, and are similar to portions of the Book of Proverbs and the Book of Ecclesiasticus. The language in which the maxims are written is sometimes very difficult, for many of them are in the form of short, pithy proverbs. A work of a somewhat similar character is the very interest- ing set of "Instructions" given by a high official to his son Pepi, which we know from the Second Sallier Papyrus and the Seventh Anastasi Papyrus in the British Museum (Nos. 10,182, 10,222). The writer entreats his son to adopt the profession of letters, which he points out leads to rich emoluments, ease, comfort, and dignit}% and he begs him to "love letters as thy mother." He then compares the toil and unpleasantness of the life of the blacksmith, carpenter, stone-cutter, barber, waterman, fisherman, farm-labourer, gardener, fish-seller, sandal-maker, laundryman, etc., and urges him to devote himself to his books. This work is commonly known as the Hymn in Praise of Learning ; it was very popular in schools under the XlXth and following dynasties, and portions of it, written on slices of limestone, were set as '" copies " for school-boys. The Egyptians greatly loved works of Fiction and Travel, and the copies of such which have come down to us show- that they were full of marvellous incidents, and that they greatly resembled some of the sections of the "Arabian Nights " of a later period. The Tale of the Two Brothers, in the British Museum (No. 10,1 83J, is one of the best ex- amples of Egyptian Fiction. In the first part of the story we have a faithful de.scription of the life of the peasant farmer in P^gypt. Anpu, the elder brother, lives with his wife on a small farm, and Batau, his )'ounger brother, acts as his com- panion, steward, and servant. The wife of Anpu conceived great affection for Batau. One day, when he returned to the farm on an errand, she told him of her love ; Batau rejected her overtures, left the hou.se, and went about his ordinary work in the fields. When Anpu returned to his house in the evening, he found the rooms in darkness, and, going inside, he discovered his wife lying sick upon the floor and in a state which suggested she had been ill-treated and beaten. In answer to his questions she told him that Batau had attacked her and beaten her, and that she was sure when he next came back to the farm he would kill her ; she did not tell him that she had made herself sick by eating rancid D 70 THE TALE OF THE TWO BROTHERS. grease, and Anpu did not suspect her untruth. Anpu then took a large gras.s-cutting knife and went out to kill his brother when he arrived. As Batau came to the byre to lead his cattle into their stalls, the oxen told him that his brother was waiting behind the door to kill him ; looking under the door he saw Anpu's feet, and then, setting his load on the ground, he fled from the barn as fast as he could, pursued by his brother. Whilst they were running, the Sun-god Shu looked on, and, seeing that Anpu was gaining on Batau, caused a. river full of crocodiles to spring up between them, so that Anpu was on one bank and Batau was on the other. When Batau had explained the truth of the matter to Anpu, he departed to the Valley of the Acacia, and the elder brother went home, murdered his wife, and threw her bod}^ to the dogs. The second part of the story is not so easy to follow. Batau went to the Acacia Valley, and placed his heart on the top of the flower of a tree, and passed some years in hunting the wild animals of the desert. Whilst there the gods made for him a wife, who was, however, subsequently carried off to be the queen of Egypt. By her orders the tree on which was the heart of Batau was cut down, and the heart fell to the ground, where, after some time, it was found by Anpu, who went in search of it. Batau having recovered his life, took the form of a bull, and, after a series of marvellous transformations, became the father of a king of Eg}'pt. The papyrus containing this story was written by the scribe Anna, and it was one of the rolls in the library of Seti II Menephthah. The Story of the Doomed Prince is another good example of Egyptian Fiction, though the unique copy in the British Museum (Harris, No. 50OJ is incomplete at the end. In the story of the Possessed Princess of Bekhten we ha\e a short but interesting account of the driving out of a violent devil from the body of one of the sisters-in-law of the king of Egypt, by means of a statue of the god Khensu. The stele contain- ing the text is in Paris. Travel is well represented b\- the Adventures of Sa-Nehat (pap\rus at Berlin) ; the Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, w ho was cast up on an enchanted island, and conversed with a serpent of fabulous length (papyrus at St. Petersburg) ; the Journey of Unu-Amen, who went to Berut to buy cedar wood for the Boat of Amen-Ra at Thebes, but was robbed on. his way there, and shipwrecked on his way back, being cast up on the Island of C}'i)rus (pap)'rus at St. Petersburg) ; and the Travels of an Egyptian, in a ASTRONOMY, CHRONOLOGY, (JEOMETRY. 7 I papyrus in the British Museum (No. 10,247). In the last work we have an account of the journey of an official who travelled in Syria and Palestine, and of the misfortunes which overtook him. He was robbed, his servants ran away, the pole of his chariot was smashed, and he suffered from heat by day, cold by night, and want of food and drink. For stealing fruit from a garden near the road he was haled before the local magistrate and fined heavily. Stories of Magicians were as popular as books of travel, and of these may be mentioned the group contained in the Westcar Papyrus in Berlin. In one of them we are told of a famous magician who made a figure of a crocodile in wax which, when thrown into the river, became a huge, livine crocodile, and devoured the man who had done the magician an injury. In another the magician cut off a goose's head, and placed it in one part of the room, and the body of the bird in another ; he then recited certain words of power, and the head and body approached each other little by little, and at length the head sprang up on the neck, and the goose cackled. In another story we are told how one of the maidens who was rowing the royal barge on a lake dropped one of her ornaments into the w^ater. A magician having been brought, stood up and recited words of power, whereupon the half of the lake on w^hich was the boat transferred itself above the other half, and remained there whilst the maiden stepped out of the boat and picked up her ornament which was seen lying on a shard. This done, the magician repeated words of power, and the water, which had been standing up like a wall, flowed back into its place. Under the head of Science must be included the inscrip- tions which deal with Astronomy, and contain lists of the Planets, the thirty-six Dekans, the Signs of the Zodiac (see the coffin of Heru-netch-tef-f, First Egyptian Room, No. 6678), etc.; Calendars (Papyrus No. 10,474); Geometry illustrated by the famous Rhind Papyrus in the British Museum (No. 10,057); Geography and Cartography, illustrated by the papyrus at Cairo in which the religious divisions of the Fayyum are described, and by the famous map of the district of the gold mines preserved in the Museum of Turin ; Chronology, as represented by the Turin Papyrus, which, when complete, contained the names of about 300 kings of Egypt, and the lengths of their reigns in years and months, or days. In connection with this branch may be mentioned the King List of Thunurei, found at Sakkarah, and the King Lists of Seti I and Rameses J I found at Abydos (Tablets of Abydos, D Z 72 MEDICINE, ANATOMY, BOTANY. I and 2); the remains of the List made for Rameses II are preserved in the British Museum (Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 6, No. 592). A number of valuable books dealing with Medicine have come down to us, and of these one of the most interesting is the pap}'rus in the British Museum, No. 10,059. It contains copies of a number of prescriptions which date from the reign of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid, about B.C. 3730, and several of the time of Amen-hetep III (B.C. 1450). The largest work on medicine is contained in the Ebers Papyrus at Leipzig, and there are medical papyri in the Museums of Paris, Leyden, Berlin, and California (Hearst Medical Papyrus). Marble Sundial. Ptolemaic Period. [Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 29, No. 976.] In all these \\'e find that magic was considered to be as efficacious as drugs ; man}- of the prescriptions are to all intents and purposes magical formulas, and several suggest charlatanism. Oil, honey, and tinctures or decoctions of simple herbs were largely used, and the long lisjt of names of plants, herbs, seeds, etc., in the Ebers Pap}Tus proves that, though the Egyptians had little idea of scientific Botany, they had a \cr}' wide knowledge of the properties of plants, etc. Anatomy was studied in a practical manner, especially for the purposes of embalming and bone setting, but as no treatises on the subject h^ye gome down to us, it is impossible to say HISTORV AND BIOGRAPHY. y-}^ whether the Egyptians deserved the great reputations which they enjoyed as physicians. It is tolerably certain that they made no experiments in dissection, for the body was sacred to Osiris, and might not be dismembered, at all events in the later times. The commonest diseases among the Egyptians seem to have been ophthalmia, fever, maladies of the stomach, ulcers, " Nile boils," epilepsy and anaemia. Biographical inscriptions form a very important section of the Literature, and they throw much light, not only on the social condition of the people, but also on the history of the country. Thus, the inscription of the official Ptah-shepses-, who was born under the IVth dynasty, besides enumerating the various high offices which he held, proves that he lived through the reigns of eight or nine kings, and thus fixes the order of the succession of several of them (see Egyptian Vestibule, No. 32). The official Antef lived under three kings, whose names he gives, and thus fixes the order of their succession (Bay 4, No. 99). (Plate XXII.) The stele ^ of Erta-Antef-Tatau says that the deceased was " Governor of the South" in the reign of Usertsen I, and thus we know that an Egyptian viceroy governed the Sudan as carl)- as B.C. 2433 (Bay 4, No. 196). The stele of Sa-Menthu describes how he went to the Sudan to bring back gold for the king of Egypt, and tells us that he made men, women, and children to work in digging out the quartz, and in crushing the ore and washing the gold from it (Bay 6, No. 145). From the biographies of the great Egyptian officials much of the history of Egypt can be pieced together. The Egyptians did not write history in the modern sense of the word. Some of the kings, e.g., Thothmes III, inscribed annals on the walls of their temples, and many others set up inscriptions to commemorate great events. Thus Usertsen III set up at Semnah in the sixteenth year of his reign a stele to mark the frontier of Egypt on the south, and to proclaim his conquest of the Northern Sudan. Amen-hetep III, B.C. 1450, set up a stele at Semnah to record his conquest of the country of Abhat, and the slaughter of a number of Blacks (Bay 6, No. 411). Rameses II caused copies of his account of his fight against the Kheta, or Hittites, to be cut on stelae, and set up in various places throughout the kingdom, e.g., at Amarah and Abu-Simbel. Some of the Nubian kine^s also ' The word stele, from the Greek a-rijXr), means literally an upright stone, or pillar, or column, which was set up over a grave, like our tombstone, or in a public place as a memorial of some public event. 74 IlISTORICAI. ROMANCES. caused good detailed accounts of their wars to be cut upon stelae, which were set up in their capital, and in many cases these are the sole authorities for the history of the period. Thus Piankhi (B.C. 740) gives a really fine account of his in\asi(;n and conquest of Egypt, even taking the trouble to describe the militar\' operations connected with the siege of great cities like Memphis, his love for horses, and his devotions at Thebes and Heliopolis. Heru-sa-atef, another Nubian king, gives on his stele a careful summary of his expeditions to various parts of the Sudan, and lists of the tribute which he received. Casts of both monuments are exhibited in the Southern Egyptian Galler\', Ba}- 18, No. 815, and Central Saloon, No. 793. The Stele of Nastasen (B.C. 525) at Berlin is another good example of this class of monument, and the text, which seems to mention Cambyses, is of great interest. Finally ma\' be mentioned the stele of the Decree of Btolemy I (B.C. 325), granting certain properties to the temple of Buto (see the Cast in Bay 28, No. 950). The finest general account of the reign of a king is that given b)- Rameses III (B.C. 1200) in the Harris Papyrus No. i, in the British Museum (No. 9999); but even in this more care is devoted to the glorification of the king than to the facts of history. The inscription of Menephthah (B.C. 1250), which is cut on the back of a stele of Amen-hetep III in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, though containing useful historical indications and mentioning the name of the Israelites iJlJ '' iJ I '^ vT ' (^^"^ 27), cannot be regarded as a serious state- ment of fact, and must be classed with the panegyric written by the court scribe Penta-urt on the exploits of Rameses II. The Historical Romances of the P^g^jjtians are represented by the narrative of the Capture of the town of Joppa (Harris Papyrus, No. 500), and by the Dispute between Seqenen-Ra, King of Thebes, and Apepi, King of Avaris (Sallier Pap}TUs, I, No. 10,185). Books of Magic are numerous, and of these may be mentioned Pap)-rus Salt, No. 825, and Harris Pap)'rus, No. 10,051. Several Mythological Legends are extant, viz., of the Resurrection of Osiris and the birth of Horus (on a stele in Paris) ; of the Creation of the World, Gods, and Men (British Museum Papyrus, No. 10,188) ; of the Wars of Heru-Behutet, or Horus, the War-god of Edfu (on the temple of Edfu ) ; of the Destruction of Mankind (in the tomb of Seti I); of how Unas killed and ate the Gods (in the Pyramid of Unas); of the Poisoning of Ra the Sun-god POETKV AND LOVE SONGS. 75 (papyrus at Turin); of the Death of Horus b}' a scorpion's sting, and his resurrection through Thoth (text on the Metter- nich Stele); and of the Wanderings of Isis, with her son Morus and the Sex'en Scorpion-goddesses, in the Delta (text on the Metternich Stele). The History of Osiris, and of his murder by Set, has not yet been found in Egyptian texts in a complete form, but there are frequent allusions to this history in the inscriptions of all periods, and it is clear that we have a tolerably accurate version of it in the narrative written b\' Plutarch {De hide et Osiride). Among the Legal Documents in the British Museum may be mentioned the papyri containing accounts of the prose- cution of the robbers who broke into and plundered the royal tombs under the XXth dynasty (Papyri Abbott, Nos. 10,221 and 10,052), and the process against a man who was charged with stealing a quantity of silver (Nos. 10,053, 10,054). Songs and Poetry are represented by the Love Songs contained in the Harris Papyrus, No. 500 ; the Song of Antuf, \\hich was sung to the accompaniment of the harp (Harris Papyrus, No. 500); and the Song of the Harper, written on the wall of a tomb at Thebes, in which the hearers are enjoined to be happy, to anoint and scent themselves, and to rejoice with music and song, until the day cometh when they must depart to the land " which loveth silence." The mutability of things, and the fleetingness of the world are also dwelt upon. The works enumerated in the above para- graphs are written in hieroglyphics and hieratic. The litera- ture written in demotic is considerable, and it consists ot books of magic, tales and stories, collections of moral aphorisms, legal documents, marriage contracts, etc. 76 CHAPTER IV. Manners and Customs. Marriage. Polygamy. Honour paid to the Mother. The Child and ITS Name. Toys. Education. Dress. Food. Amusements. Dwelling Houses and Furniture. Agriculture and Cattle Breeding. Trade. Handicraft.s. Manners and Customs. — The views of the Egyptians about marriage closely resemble those held by many African tribes, for they married their sisters and nieces, and sometimes indulged in polygamy. It is probable that the views as to marriage wiiich obtained generall}' in P2g}-pt were less rigid than those of Western nations. According to an ancienf legend Osiris married his sister Isis, who became by him the mother of Horus, and he was also the father of Anubis by his other sister Nephthys. Generall)' speaking, the Egyptian was the husband of one wife, who was the mistress of his house and the mother of his children, whether she was his sister, or his niece, or a stranger. Kings and noblemen married several wives, and became fathers of children by many of the women of their households. The Ptolemies, curiously enough, seeing that they were Greeks, married their sisters and nieces, like the Egyptians. Marriage in Egypt was, ncj doubt, arranged in the way common to the East, i.e., it was practical!}' a business transaction, great care being taken to jjrovide for the maintenance of the woman in the event of misbeha\iour either on her part or that of her husband. Whether any religious ceremony was performed at the marriage is unknown. Girls were married before they were fourteen years of age. The legitimate wife of a man is called " Nebt pa," , /.c, " ladv of the house,'" and she might ofcour.se, be "his beloved sister"; frequentl)-, however, the latter title is a euphemism for " mistress," or " concubine." To divorce or eject the " lad>' of the house " was a very 1 The MuhanuiKidan speaks of his wife as his " house," and the determinative to the Egyptian word shows that the ancient Egyptian held the same idea abovit his wife as the modern Arab. THli WIFE AND MOTHER. "JJ difficult matter, and it was probably the fear of possible pecuniar}^ complications which caused the Egyptian in so many cases to marry his sister or the woman whom he called by that name. Moreover, it was thus easier to keep the property in the husband's family. The legal wife was one of the freest women in the world. She went about the house, and outside it, at will, and, unlike the modern Egyptian women, she wore no veil. If she pleased, she held converse with men in the village or market, and she suffered from none of the restrictions which are placed upon women in the East in modern times. When the wife became a mother her power and influence were greatly increased, and the literature of ancient Egypt contains many passages which illustrate the honour and esteem in which the " mistress of the house " was held by her children, and on scores of stelae in the Eg}'ptian Galleries the name of the mother of the deceased is given, whilst that of his father is not mentioned. The Egyptians, like many African tribes, traced their descent through their mothers, and the views which they held concerning the affec- tion due to the wife from her husband, and the love which a son should give to his mother, are well illustrated by two passages. In the Precepts of Ptah-hetep (B.C. 3200): "If " thou wouldst be a wise man, rule thy house and love thy " wife wholly and constantly. Feed her and clothe her, love "her tenderly, and fulfil her desires as long as thou Hvest, for " she is an estate which conferreth great reward upon her lord. " Be not hard to her, for she will be more easily moved by " persuasion than by force. Observe what she wisheth, and that " on which her mind runneth ; thereby shalt thou make her " to stay in thy house. If thou resistest her will it is ruin." In the Precepts of Khensu-Hetep (b.c. 1500) we read: " When thou art grown up, and art married, and hast a house, " never forget the pains which thou didst cost thy mother, " nor the care which she bestowed upon thee. Never give "her cause to complain of thee, lest she lift up her hands to " God in heaven, and He hearken to her cry [and punish " thee]." The life of the woman in the lower classes was a hard one. She cooked the food for her husband and children, she wove the flax into linen, attended to all matters in the house, and usually managed to have a large family. She was a mother at the age of fifteen, or earlier, and a grandmother at thirty, by which time her body was bent, her forehead wrinkled, and her face withered, Among the upper classes the process of 78 EDUCATION. physical deterioration was, of course, slower, but the results were the same. Soon after a child was born a name was given to it, which usually had reference to some physical characteristic ; thus a boy might be called " Nekht " ^-^-^^ l f\ "Strong," and a girl "Nefert" ?^ "Beautiful," or " Netchemet " |^ "Sweet." Pious folk introduced the name of some god or goddess into the child's name, r.^., " Ra-hetep " a Mt^ " Ra is satis- fled," and loyal folk the name of the reigning king, e.j^., " Pepi-nekht " (I [I ^■^^''^ t-=/] " Pepi the strong one." Several members of a family often bore the same name, but in these cases each was distinguished by some " little name " (i.e., pet- name), x^s a pet-name may be mentioned " Mai-sheraui," i.e., " Little Cat," or " Pussy," Q !]() ^^^^^ (1 .-wrl) • In well-to- do families a special day was set apart for naming a child, and this name-day was usually celebrated with rejoicings. P'or the first three years of its life a child was wholly in its mother's care, and she carried it about on her back or left shoulder (see the ivory figure No. 41 in Table-case L in the Third P^gyptian Room). For the ne.xt three or four }-ears of its life it went about naked, whether boy or girl, gentle or simple ; indeed- a grandson of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid, went to school unclothed. The heads of children were clean-shaven, with the exception of a lock of hair on the right side of the head. Little girls .sometimes wore an amulet on their breast or body in order to avert the "evil eye," and perhaps a cheap bracelet or necklace. They pla\-ed with dolls, numerous examples of which have com.e down to us (see Standard-case C in the P'ourth Egyptian Room). Like all children, Egyptian children loved toys of all kinds. As e.xamples of the.se may be mentioned the cat with a mo\'- able lower jaw, the elephant and his rider, each having movable limbs, the negro being pursued by an animal, the ape drawing a chariot, the cat-headed dwarf, the lion killing its prey, the toy dog, hippopotamus, etc. The balls they pla}-ed with were made of porcelain, papyrus, leather stuffed with chopped straw, etc. (See Standard-case C.) Education. — It is doubtful if the children of peasants and of the lowest classes went to school, or received any education at all ; both boys and girls were probably sent to herd the SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. 79 geese, to drive the sheep and goats to pasture or to the canal or river to drink, to look after the cows, to collect fuel for the fire, etc. It is unlikely that girls or women generally were taught to read and to write, but little is known about this matter. The boys of the professional and upper classes undoubtedly received a certain amount of instruction, for learning was highly esteemed throughout Egypt ; but speak- ing generally, the learning of the country was in the hands of the scribes. The profession of the scribe was one of great dignity and importance, and the highest offices in the land were open to him. The temples and certain offices of the Government maintained schools in which scribes were trained, and pupils were, of course, promoted according to their proficiency and ability. In the temple-schools boys were trained to copy religious texts both in the hieroglyphic and hieratic characters, and they studied religious literature, exegesis, the legends of the gods, funerary texts, etc. In the schools of the Government Departments the teaching was devised to suit the requirements of the Treasury, the Public Granaries, the Crown Lands' Department, etc., and the pupils studied arithmetic, the keeping of accounts, geometry, mensu- ration, the writing of reports, etc. In all schools boys were taught to be clean, diligent, obedient, respectful and well- behaved. Lessons began early in the morning and lasted till noon, when, as a papyrus in the British Museum says : " the " pupils left the school with cries of joy." The daily allowance of food for a boy was three bread-cakes and two jugs of beer, which were brought to the school-house by his mother every day. Corporal punishment was administered freely, and the back of the lazy boy who would not get up early, and that of the inattentive boy, received many stripes ; in one case a very bad boy was locked up for three whole months in a strong room in one of the temples. School exercises were written on small whitewashed boards, slices of white limestone, and papyrus with a reed, and they usually consisted of extracts from ancient texts, religious or poetical, the contents of which were intended to improve the mind and form the morals and manners of the reader and copyist. (See Standard-case C in the Third Egyptian Room.) The education given in the colleges of the Priests was of a different character. There the young men studied magical and religious texts, several Books of the Dead, the doctrines of the cosmogony, and the histories and legends of the gods. They read the ancient writings with the priests whose duty it was to instruct them. 8o DRESS AND ORNAMENT. and learned by heart their expositions of the traditions accepted in the temples. One would expect the colleges to hav'e possessed glossaries, or dictionaries, and grammars, but it is doubtful if they did, for nothing of the kind has hitherto been discovered. History in the modern sense of the word was unknown, though some of the great kings caused Annals of their reigns to be written ; and recent excavations have shown that even the King Lists which were drawn up under the XVIIIth and XlXth d}-nasties are incomplete, and that Head of a seated figure of a priestess wearing a fuU-pIaited wig, bandlet, etc. [Wall-case 103, Third Egyptian Room.] Wlllth dynasty. they contain the names of some kings wrongl}' spelt. Astronomy was studied with .some success by the priests, and the maps of stars which were compiled by them were undoubtedly used for practical purposes in connexion with the agriculture of the countrw Dress and ornaments. — The garments worn by the Egyptians were made of linen, for wool was regarded as i; ) V, Painted relief with scenes n-pioLiuing ci.uicing, iiu- -ia\igiiui ..i ciiiic, l)reparations for a feast, etc. From the tomb of Ur-ari-en-I'tah. [Assyrian Basement, No. So.] Vlih dynasty. i; ) r L.\ It, j\. {■:>ee page ai. ) Painted scpulcliial tablet of Kalui, a scribe of a storehouse of -Amen. [Northern Egyptian (;allery, Bay 12, No. 514.] NVIIIth dynasty. LOIN CLOTH, GIRDLE AND TAIL. 8 1 unclean. The earliest masculine garment was the loin-cloth, the primitive form of which was preserved for ceremonial pur- poses until a late period. Above it a girdle, or belt, was usually added, and to this a tail, either that of some animal, or an imitation made of leather, was fastened. The tail is worn by many African peoples to this day. As time went en and fashion changed the loin-cloth developed into a sort of skirt, which varied in length, fulness, and folds, or a short kilt projecting in a peak just above the knees. Later both men and women wore a sort of shirt, and over this a loose flowing garment which reached from the neck to the feet. The linen worn by women of the upper classes was of very fine texture, and in the luxurious period of the XVIlIth and XlXth dynasties their apparel was often very voluminous. The dress of men and women under the Vlth dynasty is well illustrated by the scenes from a mastaba tomb (see the Assyrian Saloon) reproduced on Plate IX, and under the XVIIIth dynasty by the figures on the stele of Kahu (Bay 12, No. 514) (Plate X). Both men and women wore wigs, which were sometimes very full and heavy, but women plaited their natural hair. Sandals were made of papyrus and palm-fibre, neatly woven or plaited, and sometimes of goat skin, or gazelle skin, well tanned and stained a pink colour. (See Table-case A in the Third Egyptian Room and Standard-case L in the Fourth Egyptian Room.) The "cone" was worn on the head by men and women, sometimes with a lotus flower or lily attached to it. According to some it contained a ball saturated with oil or pomade of some kind, which ran slowly into the hair, and so spread over the head and shoulders, causing pleasing sensations to him on whose head the ball was. The headdresses of the king and queen were very elaborate, whilst those of ordinary folk consisted of a bandlet, more or less decorated. Men of position always carried a staff or walking stick as a sign of authority, and those whom the king had honoured by the gift of a gold collar wore it on every important occasion. Both men and women wore rings, anklets, bracelets, armlets, necklaces, elaborately ornamented collars, pectorals, pendants, amulets, and earrings, just as they do in Egypt and the Sudan at the present time. Egyptian women stained the nails of their fingers and toes a yellowish red with the juice of the henna plant ; they painted their faces with a sort of rouge, and their eyelids and eyebro\\"s with a preparation of antimony (stibium, or kohl), and they added under the eyes thick lines of paint to make them appear large and full. Both men and women sometimes decorated E 82 DRESS AND TOILET. their bodies with tattoo markings, which originally probably- had a religious, or tribal, import. The burning winds and heat made the use of unguents an absolute necessity, and oils and pomades were very largely used in all periods. Strong scented woods and herbs were pounded and mixed with oil, and rubbed into the body, and scents were in ancient days, as now, in great demand. Often women carried a fan and a mirror. A fine collection of mirrors is exhibited in Wall-cases Nos. 182-187 i" the Fourth Egyptian Room. Food. — The food of the lower classes consisted chiefly of bread and vegetables. The bread was made of a kind of millet, like the modern dhurra, barley, and rarely of wheat. The grains were rolled and crushed on a stone and then both the flour and the bran were mixed with water into a stiff paste ; from this pieces were broken off and flattened out by the hand into cakes of various degrees of thickness, which were baked on hot stones, or in mud-lined ovens. (See the examples in Table-case H in the Third Egyptian Room.) Bread-cakes were made in a variety of shapes, e.g., c^, ^, ^, (^3), ciED, Q=D , 0, Q), (0)' etc. Among vegetables may be mentioned onions, cucumbers of various kinds; beans, peas, lentils, radishes, pumpkins, water-melons, leeks, garlic, roots of the turnip and carrot class, and vegetables belonging to the class of the modern bdmia, bddingdn (egg-plant), ineliikJnyah (spinach), etc. All these grew in great abun- dance, and, in growing, needed little attention, and formed very important items in the food of all classes. (Compare Numbers xi, 4, 5: "And the children of Israel also wept "again, and said. Who shall give us flesh to eat? We " remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely ; the " cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, " and the garlick.") Milk was drunk in large quantities by the living and was offered to the dead, and cheese was everywhere a common article of food. Among fruits may be mentioned figs, dates, mulberries, grapes, and probabh- pomegranates. From both figs and dates syrups and sweetmeats must have been made. Fish wa§ largely eaten by the poorer classes, but from various passages in the texts we learn that the " eaters of fish " were unclean ceremonially. The animal food eaten consisted of the flesh of the sheep, goat, ox, ga/.cllc, ariel, the antelope and other animals of that class, etc. ; domestic animals intended for human food were often fattened artificially. Groups of swine are repre- sented on the rnonvirnent!i occasionally,' but the pig" must haye FOOD, MODE OF EATING. 83 been regarded as an unclean animal. Among the birds eaten were the goose, duck, pigeon, dove, and the several kinds of birds which were found in the marshes all over Egypt in ancient days. Geese also were fattened artificially, and the trade in them must have been very large. (See the wall painting in Standard-case I in the Third Egyptian Room, where the inspection and counting of geese are represented.) Salt was obtained from the lakes on the sea-coast, and rock- salt from several places in the Western Desert. With cooked meats, stews, etc., various kinds of seeds of the spice class were probably eaten, as modern nations eat mustard and pepper. The common drink of the country was beer, //c^jt x , made from barley, and probably flavoured with plants of various kinds which took the place of hops ; in the earliest Liturgy of Funerary Offerings mention is made of three or four kinds of beer. A sweet beer was made from honey. Wine made from grapes was drunk by the upper classes, and the lower classes drank date wine. This was, and still is, made by pouring water on ripe, fleshy dates, and letting it stand for a number of days, according to the strength of the wine re- quired ; after standing for a week or so the liquor becomes an exceedingly strong intoxicant. Mode of eating. — The peasant sat, or squatted, on the ground and dipped his bread-cake into the mess of lentils or boiled vegetables which was in a bowl resting either on the ground or on a poor wooden stand. Well-to-do folk either sat on low stools, or lay on reed mats or cushions, and dipped their hands into the various bowls of boiled grain, meat, and vegetables which were placed on the small low stand that served as a table, round which they were grouped. Water was drunk from earthenware vessels, which were probably like the modern ku/a, or water-bottle, and wine and beer from bowls. The joint was roughly cut or broken into small pieces, probably before it was brought into the eating-chamber, but birds were pulled to pieces by the head of the house and his family or guests as they sat at meat. Fingers were wiped on the thin, flat bread-cakes, but after the meal a member of the hou.sehold brought a jug and basin and poured water over the hands of those who had eaten. The chief meal of the day was eaten about the time of sunset. The Egyptians were careful to inculcate moderation in eatincr and drinking'. Kaqemna, the sage, said : " If thou art sitting in company, " hate the food which thou likest ; restrain thy appetite, for " greediness savoureth of the beasts. Since one cup of water E 2 84 AMUSEMENTS. " will quench the thirst, and a mouthful of \'egetables stablish " the heart, and one kind of good food is as satisfying as " another, and a small quantity [of food] is as good as " a large quantity, the man who permitteth his appetite to " guide him is an abomination." On the other hand, the guest must take what his host gives him, and must eat it, for to leave it uneaten is indeed an unmannerly act. And Ptah- hetcp said: "When thou art seated among the guests of a " great man, accept what he giveth thee gracefully. Look " before thee, nor stare [at the food], nor look at it often ; he " who departeth from this rule is a boorish fellow. And speak " not to the great man more than is necessar\-, for one knoweth Relief with a liippopiMamus. From the temple of Neb-hap-Ra Menlhu-hetep. [Northern Egyptian Clallery, Bay 3, No. no.] Xlth dynasty. " not what word will displease him. Sj:)eak w hen he speakcth, " and thy word shall give pleasure." Amusements. — The children of the poor were emplo\-cd as soon as possible in tending the animals in the field, and they had few toys to play v/ith ; the children' of well-to-do folk had painted wooden dolls, with hair made of strings of mud or porcelain beads, and movable joints, models of animals, etc. The chief amusement of men was hunting", and fishing, and fowling. Fish and water-fowl were usually caught in nets, but as bronze fish hooks have been found (see Table-cases 1^ and J in the Third Egyptian Room) the HUNTING, FISHING, FOWLING. 85 rod and line must also have been used. The Egyptian sportsman set out on the marshes in a shallow boat with low bows and stern, taking with him his short fishing spears, harpoons, boomerangs (see Table-case E in the Third Egyptian Room), nets, his hunting-cat (see the wall-painting in Case I in the Third Egyptian Room), servants, and sometimes a favourite wife or daughter. Nets were cast for fish in certain parts of the marshes, and che boat was poled in among the high reeds and bulrushes where the birds congregated. The skilled boomerang thrower soon brought down many birds, and his efforts were ably seconded by his hunting cat. Among the birds may be mentioned the vulture, eagle, hawk, falcon, buzzard, kite, crow, lark, linnet, sparrow, quail, pelican, ibis, swallow, heron, goose, pigeon, etc. Occasionally the hippopotamus was attacked among the dense papyrus growths, and the animal was usually harpooned to death, as was the custom in the Sudan until recently, for the sake of the flesh. The crocodile was also sometimes caught. No hippopotamus has been seen living in Egypt in a natural state for very many generations, and the crocodile retreated south of Khartum soon after paddle steamers were placed on the Nile. The crocodile was considered to be a sacred animal for thousands of years, and a sacred crocodile was kept and worshipped as the God of the Nile at Khartum so recently as the year 1829. The numerous ivory objects found in Predynastic graves prove that the primitive Egyptians hunted and killed the elephant (see Table-case L in the Third Egyptian Room), and it seems as if a considerable amount of ivory passed into Egypt proper by way of the First Cataract, for the ancient Egyptian name of the old frontier city was Abu f J^^I^J-^^' ^-^-^ " Elephant City " (hence " Elephantine "). At a very early period, however, the elephant must have retreated far to the south, for he plays no part in Egyptian mythology, and figures of the animal are rare. (See the carnelian elephant in Table- case F, in the Fourth Egyptian Room.) The bear also seems to have been hunted. (See page 86.) The deserts on each side of the Nile were hunted in all periods, and if we may trust the paintings in the tombs excellent sport was always to be had. The animals most commonly hunted were the lion, lynx, leopard, panther, wolf, jackal, wild-dog, fox, hyaena, hare, gazelle, oryx, ibex, ariel, and many other animals of that class. In primitive times the E 3 86 HUNTING WEAPONS, DOGS. Egyptians caught many animals with the lasso (see the green slate shield exhibited in Table-case L in the Third Egyptian Room). The rope was thrown over the horns, or round the legs, of the animal, which was then easil}' pulled down. The weapons used in hunting" were clubs, bows, flint- tipped arrows, boomerangs, and doubled-headed axes, all of which are shown in the illustrations on page 23. The indi- genous ance-.tors of the dynastic Egyptians probably hunted the elephant, rhinoceros, and giraffe, but it is unlikely that many of these creatures remained in Egypt in the Historical Period. Dogs were employed largely in hunting, and several species are know n. The most useful and valuable was the large dog, something like the greyhound, with Green schist bear. [Xo. 10, Table-case L, Third Egyptian Room.] Archaic Period. prick ears and a long curling tail, of the same species which is used in Mesopotamia and Persia and the Sudan at the present da\-, and is called Salnki. The boldness of this kind of dog, called in l^g\-ptian theseni ^. AT?' is marvellous, for he will attack panthers and lions, and his fleetness is almost incredible. His speed is compared with that of a flash of light in the Book of the Dead (Chapter XXIV). The kings of the XVHIth dynasty were great hunters, and Amen-hetep HI, who hunted from the Euphrates in the North to the Blue Nile in the South, stages on his scarabs that he killed with his own hand ,1 To fierce lions during the first ten years of his reign. (See Table-case D, Fourth Egyptian Room, Nos. 925-929.) Next to hunting dancing was perhaps the most favourite amusement of the Egyptians, and from Pyramid times the Egyptians delighted in watching men and women perform. MUSIC AND DANCING. 8/ The dances were accompanied sometimes by youths who played a reed pipe or flute, single or double, or twanged the strings of an instrument of the harp, ^#, or lute class. (See the fine examples in Table-case A in the Fourth Egyptian Room.) The kings of the Ancient Empire loved a dance called the "dance of the god" which was danced by the Pygmies in Central Africa ; and two of them, Assa and Pepi, caused a Pygmy to be brought from his remote country to Memphis to dance before them. Dancing women danced and sang to the accompaniment of the tambourine, which was also used, together with the sistrum S , cymbals, and bells, in musical services in the temples. The drum, both the large drum which was beaten with tabs of leather, and the small hand drum, was a very favourite instrument of music, and was largely used in festivities by every class. Tumblers, acrobats, and buffoons afforded amusement to the spectators, and the drawings found on the walls of some of the tombs at Beni Hasan (B.C. 2300) show that many of the tricks exhibited at the present day were performed at that time. The well-to-do Egyptian hired dancers, singers, gymnasts, and musicians, and entertained his guests, both during and after feasts, with their performances. The Egyptian loved to play draughts on earth, in Egyptian sent r-r^^^ dtt^, and he earnestly hoped that he would do the same in heaven. (See Standard-case F in the Third Egyptian Room, where the scribe Ani and his wife are repre- sented playing draughts in the Other World.) How the game was played is not known, bat there must have been several kinds of games, for the draughtboards are not all arranged in the same way. (For examples of them see Standard-cases C and H in the Fourth Egyptian Room.) The top of the box which held the draughtsmen formed the board on which the game was played. The Egyptians played a number of games with counters, but the methods are un- known. Numbers of dice have been found in the tombs, but it is doubtful if the die was known among the Egyptians of the Early Empire. Many of their games were, no doubt, games of chance. The modern equivalent of the draughts and counters of the ancient Egyptians is dominoes. The poor man, it seems from the texts, sometimes betook himself to the house for swilling beer " \ 1 -^^ (J •www :^ ^ 88 DOMESTIC architecturf:. where he got drunk, and babbled about his affairs, and fell about and hurt himself, and was then cast out of the door by his fellow drinkers who said : "out with this swiller,'' ^ (j %> £5:5 ^ "^W fl ^^ (1 ^ ^1 • When his friends came to seek him and upbraid him, they found him Ix'ing on the ground as helpless as a child (Maxims of Khensu- hetep, XIII). During the dark, moonless nights, after long weary days spent in hauling up water from the river, the peasant villager had little to amuse him, except games played Egyptian house, with inner chamber and two liights of steps leading to the roof. [No. 292, Wall-case 107, Third Egyptian Room.] About B.C. 4000. with counters and draughts, and the converse of 'his companions in tlic " bccr-house." Dwelling Houses. — The king usually lived in a palace or large building within the precincts of some temple, or at a very little distance from one. His palace w^as probabl}^ like the large houses of modern times in Egypt, i.e., it had a court- yard with trees in the middle of it, and a large garden round about it. In the garden were fish-ponds and groves of fruit DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. 89 trees, palms, acacias, flowering shrubs with scented blossoms, and a limited number of flowers. There were arbours, too, covered with creepers and vines, and the gardeners watered the ground daily by means of small channels into which water was poured from the shdduf^ or the water wheel. The court- yards were paved, or tiled, or covered with floors made of inlaid painted porcelain work. The walls and ceilings of the rooms were painted with rich and intricate designs, and in a few of the rooms there were openings near the roof which served as windows. The royal furniture was probably richly painted and inlaid with ebony, ivory, porcelain, and, under the New Empire, metal vases of all shapes and sizes would be seen everywhere in the dwelling rooms. Certain large rooms were set apart for receptions and entertainments, and these probably contained large raised benches placed along the walls for the guests. The kitchen, pantr)^, stables, and general servants' quarters were outside the house, but the personal attendants on the king and queen, the steward, the master of the chambers, etc., had their apartments in the palace. The storeys were rarely more than two in number, and the roof, which was flat, was approached by a flight of steps, either from the courtyard or from the roof of the storey on the ground floor. The houses of nobles were built on the same lines as the palace, but with less magnificence, and they seldom consisted of more than two storeys. There was a courtyard, with sets of small rooms built on three sides of it, and a portico on the fourth. On the flat roof were wind shafts by which the north wind was brought into the rooms, and a small amount of light was also admitted into them through openings in the upper parts of the walls, close to the ceiling. Then as now, at certain seasons of the year, some of the members of the family slept on the roof or in the courtyard, the remainder on the upper floor. Near the house were the wine-press, beer- house, stable, byres for cattle, bins for various kinds of grain, etc., and chambers for storing the fruit and vegetables from the estate. The garden contained a small lake, and in the ground round about, which was divided into oblong beds, were fruit trees and flowering shrubs with scented blossoms, vines, etc. The whole was enclosed within a thick mud wall built probably of crude brick. The farmhouse of one storey usually contained one living-room, one bed-room, and a number of small chambers in which grain was stored. On the roof was a small chamber to which the master retired in the cool of the evening ; this was approached by means of a flight ii 90 FURNITURE. of solid mud steps. The corn was ground and the bread baked in the courtyard, where also were kept the large porous earthenware jars, like the modern zh; containing the supply of water which was brought to the house from the Nile each morning and evening. The house and yard were enclosed by a strong mud wall, with one door in it ; in times of danger the cattle of the farm were driven from the fields into the yard. A good model of this kind of house is exhibited in Standard- case C, in the Fourth Egj'ptian Room. Here are seen the master sitting in the chamber on the wall, or roof, with a plate of food before him, and the wife rolling the dough for the bread-cakes of the e\ening meal. The house of the peasant labourer was a mere hut made of mud, the roof of which was Egyptian hut. [No. 293, Wall-case 108, Third Egyptian Room. J About B.C. 4000. formed of layers of palm branches or straw. Small huts were made of reeds or palm trees bound together with twigs, and perhaps daubed with mud in the cold weather, and in the northern districts of mud ; in the summer a shelter of reed mats probabh' sufficed. Furniture. — The Egyptians did not fill their houses with furniture like Western Nations. Their bedsteads were made of wood, which usually came from the Sudan, and consisted of a strong rectangular framework, about 15 or 20 inches high, across which was stretched plaited palm fibre, or rope ; the ankaril) of the Sudan is the modern equivalent. The covering of such beds was formed of thick padded linen sheets, and the TOILET REQUISITES. 91 pillow was a support made of wood, or ivor}', more or less ornamented, w^ith a curved top for the neck to fit into. (See Wall-cases Nos. 97, 98, in the Third Egyptian Room.) Carpets were unknown, but plaited palm leaf or straw mats took their ])lace. Chairs (see Standard-case H in the Fourth Egy[-)tian Room) and tables were found in the houses of the wealthy, but only low stools were known in poor abodes. (For examples of a painted table, chairs inlaid with ivory and ebony, a couch-frame, stools, inlaid box, etc., see Standard- case L in the Fourth Egyptian Room.) Men, women, and children squatted or sat on the floor, or reclined upon mats, and in later days upon cushions made of padded linen. In houses of moderate size there was probably a raised mud bench, covered with mats in the receiving or eating room, for the use of the male members of the house, or their guests. There was also, pro- bably, a raised mud bench built against the outside of one of the walls of the house for the use of friends who sat there in the cool of the evening and for the men of the house to sleep on during hot nights. Niches, or square cavities cut in the walls, served as cupboards, and in one of these the lamp (see Wall-case No. 176 in the Fourth Egyptian Room), usually made of earthenware, stood. The stores of clothing, etc., were kept in a very small room provided with a stout wooden door with a bolt-lock and key of simple pattern. (For examples of bolts and keys, see Wall-cases No.s. 180, 181, in the Fourth Egyptian Room.) The mistress of the house usually possessed a small strong box in which she kept jewellery, ornaments, and amulets, and perhaps also her toilet requisites ; in some cases the latter were kept in a special toilet box, which held eye- paint (stibium, or antimony, kohl), comb, hair-tweezers, pumice-stone, unguents and pomades, both scented and plain. (See Standard-case L in the Fourth Egyptiaji Roam.) Ivory head-rest, or pillow, of Kua-tep. [No. 69, Wall-case 98, Third Egyptian Room.] Xllth dynasty. 92 AGRICULTURE. Kitchen utensils were comparatively few in number. Fresh and sour milk (or curds), soft cheese, sheep-fat, etc., were kept in earthenware pots, some of which were undoubtedly glazed ; bowls made of earthenware or gourds were common, as were large open saucers. The cooking pots were usually of earthenware, or, among well-to-do people, of metal. Knives made of flint, stone, or metal, were common, and rough flesh forks ; in the later period spoons were used. Plates, in the modern sense of the w^ord, were unknown ; the thick bread- cake served as a plate for those who squatted round the bowl of cooked vegetables with pieces of meat on the top, and the thin flat cake was frequently used as a napkin. A stone corn-grinder and a kneading-stone were found in every house. The stock of grain for the family was kept in large earthen- ware jars, or in a kind of bin made of mud. Every house contained a figure of the god under whose protection the family lived, and to this adoration was offered at regular intervals ; it took part in the family councils, its lot was bound up with that of the famil}-, and it prevented wandering spirits of evil disposition from entering the house. There being no chimney to the house, the fire was lit wherever it was most convenient, and the smoke went out through the roof and the aperture in the wall which served as a window. The fuel was animal dung, and such refuse from the straw as could not be eaten by the cow or goat of the house, and, occasionally, pieces of wood. As matches were unknown, care was taken to keep a small amount of fuel smouldering under the ashes, so that whenever it was necessary to boil lentils, etc., the fire could be revived ; if the fire was out, recourse was had to the striking of flints, or to some neighbour, or to the temple fire. In primitive times the Egyptians seem to have used a fire-sticky like some of the tribes of Central Africa. Agriculture and Cattle-breeding. — By far the larger part of the population of Eg"\-pt and the Eg}'ptian Sudan has been for many thousands of years past connected with the cultivation of the soil and the rearing of cattle, and on the success of the farmer and the cattle-breeder the prosperity of the whole country has always depended. In remote ages, before the estuary of the Kile was filled up by the mud which came down in flood-time from the mountains of Ethiopia and Nubia, and while still the sea flowed up the Nile as far as Esna, the primitive Egyptians were shepherds and herdsmen. The great cattle-breeding district was situated in the neighbourhood of the country now called Par Fur, or the " Home of the Furs," and even to the CATTLE-BREEDINC. 93 present day the exportation of the beautiful cattle of the district forms a very important item of Sudan trade. The natives who lived by breeding cattle were called by the Egyptians " Menti," i.e., " cattle-men," and their modern descendants are called " Bakkarah," which also means " cattle- men." In all times thcv have been a wild and lawless folk, The bull Hap (.A.pis), with ihe triangular blaze on his forehead, and the scarabs, etc., on his back. [Table-case H, Third Egyptian Room.] ferocious, blood-thirsty, and cruel. The early cattle-men worshipped the bull, and this animal played a prominent part in later Egyptian mythology. Several kinds of bulls were worshipped in Egypt: Apis at Memphis, Mnevis at Heliopolis, and Bachis at Hermonthis, and one of the greatest of the titles of Osiris was " Bull of Amentet," or " Bull of the 94 OXEN AND COWS. Other World." The cow also was worshipped under the name of Hathor, and a flint cow-head in the British Museum (Table- case M in the Third Egyptian Room) proves that her cult dates from the latter part of the Neolithic Period. The paintings on the walls of early tombs show that several kinds of cattle were known to the Egyptians, and the inscriptions make it clear that the old feudal lords and gentry of Egypt devoted much attention to cattle-breeding, and that ThcSbiill Mer-ur:(Mnevis). [Table-case II, Third Eg3'ptian Room.] they made a regular trade of it. (See the models of cows in the Wall-cases on the Landing of the North-West Staircase, No. 140, and the wall painting in Standard-case I in ' the Third Egyptian Room.) Oxen and cows were fattened like the smaller animals and geese, and, before they were turned out for the season into the deserts to browse upon the growth which followed the rains, they were branded, or marked in some way with their owner's name. CAMEL, SHEEP, GOAT, HORSE, PIG 95 The camel was certainly known in the Predynastic Period, for the head of an earthenware figure of one was found at Abydos a few years ago ; but this animal cannot have been used for transport purposes, or bred by the early Dynastic Egyptians, for otherwise we should find pictures of him on the walls of the tombs. One of the earliest mentions of the camel is contained in the " Travels of an Egyptian " (Brit. Mus. Papyrus No. 10,247), where we find the Semitic word for camel under the form kamadl The camel plays no part in Egyptian mythology. The commonest beast of burden was the ass, which was bred in large numbers, and was employed like oxen for treading out the corn and for riding. One of the desert caravans of Her-Khuf, an old feudal lord of PZlephantine under the Vlth dynasty, contained 300 asses. The ass was ad- mired for his strength, endurance, and virility, and he appears in Egyptian mythology as a form of the Sun-god. Sheep and goats were always bred in large numbers. The horse may have been known in Egypt in the Xllth dynasty, but he was not bred there until the experience gained by the Egyptians in their Asiatic campaigns showed them his value in military operations. Horses must have been plentiful in Egypt under the XXIInd dynasty, " for Solomon had horses " brought out of Egypt," and " a chariot " came up and went out of Egypt, for " of silver, and an horse for an hundred X, 28, 29). Excellent representations of horses are seen in the wall-painting in Standard-ca^e D in the Third Egyptian Room, and in the battle-scene of Rameses II on the South Wall of the Fourth Egyptian Room, above the cases. The pig is not often represented on the monuments, but a painting in a tomb at Thebes shows that swine were used on farms for treading out the corn. From a very early period the god of evil. Set, was believed to have appeared in the form Flint Cow's head. [\o. 86, Table-case M, Third Egyptian Room.] six hundred shekels and fifty " (1 Kings of a " black pig " "^^H^^ , when he smote the Eye of Horus {i.e., the Sun). The gods then decreed that pigs 96 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. should be sacrificed to Horus, with bulls, sheep, and goats In one form of the Judgment Scene the pig is the emblem of evil, and also in the Book of the Dead (see Chapters XXXVI and CXI I). On the other hand, the sow was an animal sacred to Isis, and small figures of sows were worn as amulets attached to necklaces. (See the figures of sacred animals in Wall-case No. 121 in the Third Egyptian Room.) Under the early dynasties a species of ram, which became the symbol of the god Khnemu j|, with flat horns projecting at right angles from the sides of his head ^^, was common in Nubia, but it appears to have died out before the end of the Xllth dynasty. Another kind of ram /yj^, apparently indigenous to Nubia, became the symbol of the god Amen of the Siu^an. The principal instrument used in farming was the plough ""^^v^, the share of which was made of a piece of wood tied to a long pole; at the other end of the pole was fixed. a bar, which was made fast to the horns of the cows which drew the plough. This primitive instrument was little more than a stout stake tied to a pole which was drawn over the ground, and made a very shallow furrow. The stiff Nile mud was further broken up by the hoe V, of which examples may be seen in the Wall-case No. 102 in the Third Egyptian Room (No. 281, etc.). As soon as the fields were ready to receive the seed, the sowing took place, and when the seed had been cast into the furrows it was trodden in by the animals on the farm being driven over it. The sowing was done by hand, and no drill appears to have been used. The fields were watered either by allowing the water to flow from a large basin or reservoir on to them, or by machines which lifted the water from the canal to their level, or from the Nile itself. The commonest water-raising machine resembled the modern shaduf, which was worked by one or two men. Two stout stakes were driven firmly into the ground at the edge of the stream, and between them was tied a long pole, heavily weighted with a mass of mud or stone at one end. To the end of the longer half of the pole a rope and a leather bucket were tied. The labourer drew the pole down until the bucket entered the stream, and the weight of the counterpoise at the other end helped him to raise the water to the surface of the field, where he poured it into the channel leading to the growing crop. TRADE, EXPORTS, IMPORTS, 97 At the harvest the crops were cut with the small sickle ^ (see Table-case K in Third Egyptian Room, Nos, 1-4), which in primitive times was made of flint or a series of flints set in a wooden frame _ J>', and in later times of iron or bronze. The wheat or barley was tied up into small bundles by the reapers, and carried to the threshing floor, where the grain was trodden out by animals — donkeys, swine, etc. The thresh- ing floor, as we may see from the wall paintings and pictures on papyri, was circular in form, and its edges were raised, n^ — ^1 , thus preventing the animals, as they ran round and round in it, from scattering the grain with their feet. The operations of ploughing, reaping, and treading out the corn are well illustrated by the Vignette No. 35, from the Ani Papyrus. (See Standard-case G in the Third Egyptian Room.) When the grain had been trodden out, it was thrown up by hand into heaps, the wind blowing away the chaff whilst it was in the air. It was next carried in baskets, or bags, to the store or granary, which was usually near the house. Here it was either piled up in heaps on mud stands with raised edges \sP\/\ , or poured into large bins built in the walls along. a rectangular courtyard. (See the models of granaries in Standard-case C in the Fourth Egyptian Room.) Trade. — The trade of Egypt appears to have been chiefly in the hands of the seafaring folk of the Delta, who probably worked the imports and exports of the country in connection with the Semitic merchants who traded in the seaports of Phoenicia and the Mediterranean generally. The chief export of Egypt was corn, which was carried all over the Mediterranean, and we know from Genesis, xii, xli-xliii, that when grain was scarce in other countries, the merchants were in the habit of going to Egypt to supply their wants. At intervals, however, serious famines cam.e upon Egypt (Genesis xli, 55, 56), and when corn could not be imported, the mortality among the people was very great. In the reign of Ptolemy III (B.C. 247) there was a famine in Egypt, and the King expended much gold in purchasing grain at a high price to save the lives of the people of Egypt, and he caused corn to be brought to Egypt from Eastern Syria, and Phoenicia, and Cyprus. Next in importance came the linen of Egypt, which, in the form of byssus, was famous throughout Western Asia. Under the XVIIIth dynasty considerable quantities of gold were exported from Egypt to Northern Syria, Assyria and Babylonia. The gold came 98 HANDICRAFTS. from the Eastern Sudan and Punt, where at that time (B.C. 1500) it was produced in such large quantities that Tushratta writing to Amen-hetep III says : " Send me so much '• gold that it cannot be measured, more gold than that thou " didst send to my father; for in my brother's land ;/>., Eg)-pt), "gold is as common as dust" ! (Tell al-Amarna tablet, Xo. 8.) According to Diodorus (ed. Didot, p. 41) Rameses II received from his gold and silver mines in one year metal to the value of 32,000,000 minas, or iJ"8o,ooo,000 sterling. Another article of export was paper manufactured from papyrus. Among the imports may be mentioned copper and tin from Cyprus and Northern Syria, cedar wood from the Lebanon Mountains, lapis-lazuli paste from Babylonia, myrrh and spices for embalming, skins, cattle, ebony, ostrich feathers, bows, pillows, chairs, couches, fans, mats, shields, etc., from the Sudan ; and a number of the products of India and Arabia must have found their way into Egypt by means of the caravans which crossed the desert to some place near the modern Suez or Kantarah, and some sea-borne goods entered Egypt by the route from the Red Sea to the Nile, 7'zV? Kuser and Kena. The importance of Egypt as a trading centre, and as the natural market half-way between the East and the West, was not fully recognized until the Ptolemaic Period, about B.C. 250. Business was carried on chiefly by barter, so much wheat, barley, or millet being the value of a sheep, bull, cow, or goat, linen, etc. The Egyptians used weights and measures, e.g., the royal cubit of 7 palms or 28 fingers, the little cubit of 6 palms or 24 fingers, the palm of 4 fingers, the hand of 5 fingers, the fist of 6 fingers, and the finger ; of dry measure, the hen, the tenat, the apt, etc. ; of weight, the teben ( = 3-5 ounces), the ket = J^th of a teben, etc. The u.sc of the scales was well known, but there is no evidence that the steelyard was employed before the Roman Period. Stamped money was unknown am.ong the Egyptians, but they appear to have used a currency which consisted of pieces of wire made of copper, iron, or gold, and gold-dust. Ring-money, made of gold, is represented in the painting on the south wall of the Fourth l^lgyptian Room ; and also the little bags containing gold dust. Ring-money in gold is in use at the present day along the east coast of Africa, and in certain parts of the Sudan copper wire still possesses great purcliasing powers. Handicrafts. — The Egyptian of all periods was a skilled potter. In the earliest times the potter's wheel was unknown, and every ves.sel was shaped by the potter's hand or foot. BASKET AND LINEN WEAVING. 99 V^essels of all sorts, shapes, and sizes were made with great skill, and in later periods were decorated with linear and other designs. The art of the potter throve until the advent of the conquerors from Asia, when it began to languish ; and in a few centuries earthenware vessels were superseded by stone. Good examples of Predynastic and Archaic pottery will be found in the cases on the Landing of the North- VVcst Staircase, and of the pottery of the later periods in the Fourth Egyptian Room. The Basket-weaver wove rush matting, plaited mats and sandals, and made ropes and baskets of all kinds. Specimens of his vv^ork will be seen in Table-case A in the Third Egyptian Room, arid in Wall- ffi1!!?^-i: Jewellers drilling and polishing beads, etc. [Northern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 12, No. 518.] XVIIUh dynasty. cases 182-187 in the Fourth Egyptian Room. Owing to the abundance of flax in Egypt the trade of the linen-weaver was in all periods most flourishing, and the " fine linen of Egypt " was famous throughout Western Asia and the seaports of the Mediterranean. A staff of linen weavers appears to have been attached to each temple, and the sale of their work produced a large revenue ; a portion was paid to the king, and the re.st \yas kept by the priests. The citygof Apu 100 HANDICRAFTS. (Panopolis, the modern Akhmim) was one of the chief seats of the linen industry, and to this day the dyed curtains of Akhmim are used throughout Egypt. The craft of the jeweller was very important, for, in addition to the rings, bracelets, necklaces, pendants, earrings, etc., which he made in gold and silver, he cut the amulets and ornaments in amethyst, garnet, agate, onyx, chalcedony, carnelian, jasper, mother-of-emerald, lapis-lazuli, turquoise, rock-crystal, basalt, porphyry, haematite, obsidian, coral, mother-of-pearl, etc. (See Table-cases F, J.) The finest work of the jeweller iDclongs to the Xllth dynasty, and the workmen of that period brought the art of inlaying precious stones and metals to a very high pitch of perfection. Some think that the Eg}'ptians understood the art of enamelling, but authorities are not agreed on this point. The glass-maker's craft is a very old one in Egypt, and it is probable that the Phoenicians borrowed it from that country. Fine specimens of it in the British Museum are the turquoise - blue opaque glass jar of Thothmes III (Table-case H, No. 50, Third Egyptian Room), a blue glass bowl, and a variegated glass bowl from the tomb of Amcn-hetep II (Nos. 57, 59, in the same case), and an opaque glass stibium pot with a gold rim (Wall- ca.ses 182-187, No. 29). The porcelain maker produced the little figures, amulets, bowls, vases, ushabtiu-figures, tiles, beads, pendants, etc., in the beautiful blue, green, purple, violet, and brown glazed ware to which the name Egyptian porcelain is usually given. An exceedingly fine collection of objects in this material is exhibited in Wall-cases Nos. 151- 1 56 in the Fourth Egj-ptian Room. The leather worker pre- pared parchments forwriting materials, and madethe harness for horses and trappings for chariots, soldiers' belts (Table-case B, No. IQ3), sheaths for daggers (No. '^j), nets of fine meshes (Wall-case No. 187, Fourth Egyptian Room), seats for chairs (No. 5 Standard-case L, same room), bags in which barbers carried their razors, etc. (Wall-case No. 184, Fourth Egyptian Room.) Examples of the tools of the carpenter, blacksmith and coppersmith, stonemason, house-painter and decorator, etc., will be found in Table-case K and Wall-case 10.3 in the Third Egyptian Room. Of the brickmaker's work specimens belonging to the reigns of Amen-hetcp III, Thothmes I, Thothmes III, and Rameses II are exhibited in Wall-case 175, Fourth Egyptian Room. Examples of the craft of the furniture maker in the form of tables, chairs, stools^ couches, toilet JEWELLERS, METAL-WORKERS, ETC. 10 1 boxes, altar-stands, etc., are seen in Standard-case L and Wall-case No. 190 in the Fourth Egyptian Room. The work of the ivory carver went hand in hand with that of the carpenter as regards the inlaying of chair frames, jewel-boxes, etc. (see Nos. 13 and 16 in Standard-case L). Specimens of the highest form of his skill are seen in the chair-legs, human figures, spoons, etc., in Table-case A in the Fourth Egyptian Room. The caster-in-metal produced the splendid series of figures of the gods in Wall-cases 1 19-132 and Table-case H in the Third Egyptian Room ; fine examples are the silver figure of Amen-Ra (No. 42), gold figures of Thoth, Ptah and Rfi (Nos. 21, 25, 26), and the gold figure of Osiris (No. 34), The wood-carver made the models of men, boats, animals, etc., which were placed in the tombs (see Wall-case Nos. 192, 193, Fourth Egyptian Room), and dolls and children's toys (see Standard-case C, Fourth Egyptian Room). The dyer produced the salmon-coloured linen coverings for mummies (see Case L, First Egyptian Room), the brown mummy-swathings (see Wall-cases 93-96, Third Egyptian Room), and coloured wearing apparel (see Table-case E, Third Egyptian Room), etc. The baker and confectioner found constant employment in every town and village in Egypt, for the Egyptians loved cakes made with honey, and fruit of all kinds, and bread and buns made into fanciful shapes. A great business was done in bread and pastr}' which were intended to serve as funerary offerings. Specimens of the bread and the stands on which the flat loaves were placed, will be found in Table-case H, Third Egyptian Room. The terra- cotta cones A which are exhibited in large numbers in Wall- cases 1 10, III, are supposed by some to represent the loaves, of a pyramidal shape, seen in the hands of kings and others who are represented offering to the gods. The barber also found constant employment, for many had their whole heads and bodies shaved every two or three days. He also dressed the hair of ladies on ceremonial occasions, and made wigs (see the fine example in Wall -case H, Third Egyptian Room). The barber often united to his trade the profession of physician, just as was the case in Europe in the Middle Ages. The craft of the boat-builder was very important in a country where a river was the chief highway. Flat-bottomed boats and punts used in fishing in the canals, or fowling on the marshes, were made of bundles of I02 BOATS, BARGES, RAFTS. reeds, or papyrus, tied together, like the modern tof in the Sudan. Boats for carrying merchandize on the river were made of planks of wood pegged together, which were some- times kept in position by being nailed on to ribs, and others were merely tied round with ropes made of papyrus. One of the earliest known pictures of an Egyptian boat is seen on vase No. 1 60, in Wall-case No. 5, on the landing of the North- West Staircase. i\lodels of funeral boats, and barges and war boats are exhibited on the upper shelf of Wall-cases Nos. 99-110, in the Third Egyptian Room. The Egyptians were skilful boat builders, and they made rafts capable of carrying enormous blocks of stone, e.g., the obelisks which Queen Hatshepset set up at Karnak. They had equivalents of the modern broad ferry-boat, barge, lighter, etc., which they worked with oars or "sweeps "and sails, or towed, when going upstream, and when there was no wind. 103 CHAPTER V. Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, etc. Architecture. — The history of the earhest form of Egyptian architecture cannot be written because, with the exception of the ruined tombs of the Archaic Period, aU the remains of the earliest temples have been destroyed or have perished. The oldest form of the house was, no doubt, a hut built of reeds, the roof of which was supported by a pole, i.e., a tree trunk, or poles ; its shape was round or oblong. The cold winds of winter prompted the Egyptian to make the walls of his abode of Nile mud ; this he mixed with water until it acquired the consistence of stiff paste, and then piled it up with his hands until the walls were as thick and high as he wanted them to be. All the walls inclined inwards, and so each helped to support the other; the roof was made of a layer of mud which rested on a number of pieces of palm trunks or small trees. The door probably faced the south, and an aperture, which served as a window, was cut high up in the north wall. (Sec the model of an early house, No. 174, North- West Staircase Landing.) Before the house was a small yard enclosed by thick walls made of mud, which inclined inwards, and a flight of solid mud steps led up to the roof. (See the models of early houses in Wall-cases Nos. 105-108 in the Third Egyptian Room.) Walls made of mud in this way are unsatisfactory, for they sag or bulge, and soon fall down. The invention ot the brick marked agreat improvement in the stability of buildings; and its use in the construction of houses, granaries, government buildings, forts, etc., became universal. A theory has been recently put forward that brickmaking was introduced into Egypt from Mesopotamia, but there is no reason why, in a land where all the soil is mud, which when well sun-dried becomes exceedingly hard, the idea of making bricks should not have been indigenous. Few things in the East last as long as a well-made brick, especially if it has been carefully baked ; and buildings, even when made of crude bricks, last for several hundreds of years, unless they are destroyed by the hand of man. The invention of the brick permitted the Egyptians to build the elliptical arch, 104 THE HOUSE AND TEMPLE. which is frequently found in brick-built buildings ; the know- ledge of the arch is of ancient standing in Egypt. The early mud or brick house of the man of means was provided with a portico (the modern rakdbah), which was supported on palm trunks ; this portico suggested the colonnade of later days, and the palm trunks the stone pillars with palm-leaf capitals. The " house of the god," or temple, was at first built of mud, but what such a building was like is not known. Under the Ancient Empire the Egyptians built their temples of stone, and the oldest known example is that called the " Temple of the Sphinx" at Gizah. It is built on a simple plan, and con- ]\\'lon and court of the Temple of Edfu. Ptolemaic Period. sists practically of a large hall, in the form y , containing 1 6 pillars, each about 16 feet high ; the materials used were granite and limestone. It had neither formal door, nor windows, and such light as entered must ha\'c made its way in through oblique slits in the roof It has no inscriptions, or bas-reliefs, or paintings, and even in its present state its massiveness, dignity, and solidity greatly impress the beholder. Of the temples of the Xllth dynasty nothing is known, but of the New Empire several temples exist, and their general characteristics may be thus summarized. A broad path brought the worshipper to the gateway in the wall which OBELISKS AND SPHINXES. 105 enclosed the temple precincts ; on each side of the path was a row of sphinxes, or rams, which symboHzed the guardian spirits of the place. Passing through the gateway he soon reached the main pylon, which consisted of a massive door- way and two towers. During festivals long painted poles, flying coloured streamers, were attached to the face of the pylon at regular intervals. On each side of the gateway was a colossal statue of the king,?and statues of the king were Gateway in the Temple of Rameses III, at Madinat Habu, in Western Thebes. About B.C. 1200. often arranged at intervals along the front of the pylon. Before the pylon stood a pair of obelisks, and sometimes a pair of sphinxes, or sacred animals. The original significa- tion of the obelisks is unknown ; it is probable that they were connected with a solar, or even phallic cult, but as the texts afford no explanation of their meaning it is useless to theorize. Beyond the great pylon was an open court, with a colonnade, io6 THE PVLOX AND HALL OF COLUMNS. which was used as a sort of bazaar where holy objects, amulets, and things for offerings could be bought by the public. Here, too, the sick were laid that alms might be given to them, and here beggars of all kinds congregated, as they do in a modern mosque. Passing through a second pylon, thehypostyle hall, or hall of columns, was entered, and here the priests made their processions, and receiv^ed the offerings of the. faithful. Beyond the hall, or halls of columns, the laity werelnot per- ( Gateway of Ptoleni)- IX at Kaniak. mitted to penetrate. The other chambrrs of the temple formed the sanctuary of the god, and contained his shrine. The little rooms round about the shrine contained the temple library, and the dresses, jewellery, and other sacred properties of the god, or gods, worshipped in the temple. At the extreme end of the temple was the shrine of the god, which was entered by no one except the king and the priests ; in it were kept a sacred boat, or ark, and a figure, or symbol, ot tbe god, or animal sacred to him. Plate XL (Seepage 107.) TEMPLES. 107 The temples of Egypt from the XVIIIth dynasty to the Roman Period vary greatly in detail, but the general plan is always the same. The great temples of Karnak (see Plate XXX), Luxor, Abydos (see Plate XI), etc., awe the spectator by their size and majestic dignity ; the smaller temples of the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods are less grand, but are much more graceful buildings. The severity of the interiors of the older buildings is moderated by the reliefs and Granile obelisks at Kaniak. That, on the right bears the name of (.^ueen Hatshepset, and that on the lefL the name of Thothmes I. XVHIth dynasty, B.C. 1550. inscriptions with which walls,-pillars, pilasters, architraves, etc., are covered profusel}', and the bright colours, reds, blues, greens, and yellows, in which many of the painted scenes were executed, added greatly to their general effect. The massive square pillars wore replaced in later times by pillars with io8 THE PILLAR AND PILASTER. eight sides, and the whole character of the simple round column was changed when its shaft was made to resemble a papyrus or lotus stalk, and its upper part was sculptured in the form of the flower of either plant. Both pillars and pilasters were sometimes decorated with figures of Osiris, cut on the front face in high relief, as at Abu-Simbel, and the capitals were often sculptured in the form of the head of Hathor (^the Cow-goddess), surm.ounted by a sistrum. The Pillars with ornamental capitals in the Temple of Isis at Philae. Ptolemaic Period. pillar with the llathor-headed capital was suggested by the pole, or small tree trunk, surmounted by the head of a bull, ox, or cow, which the primitive Egyptians set up o\er the graves of their chiefs, a custom which sur- vives to the present day among certain of the tribes of Central Africa. Every temple had a sacred lake within its precincts, just as every large house possessed PAINTING AND SCULPTURE. 109 lake in it. Each temple a garden with an ornamental also was surrounded by a girdle wall, which was usually made exceedingly strong and was provided with fortified gateways. The space between the temple buildings and this wall was occupied by gar- dens and storehouses for the property of the priests, and also by the dwellings of private folk. Thus the girdle wall of the temple actually enclosed a small city, which in cases of popular panic or invasion became a city of refuge. Painting and sculp- ture. — The Egyptians, from the IVth dynasty downwards, were in the habit of painting the bas- reliefs in their temples and tombs, and also their statues, and they seemed to have relied greatly upon paintings in bright colours to enhance the effect of the work of the sculptor. The earliest wall decoration consists of series of figures of men, animals, etc., traced or cut in outline, or sculp- tured in low relief, on tolerably smooth slabs of limestone ; sometimes the surfaces of the slabs were prepared with a sort of limewash, and the paint- ings painted upon it. The skill of the painter, even in the remote period of the Painted portrait statue of An-kheft-ka, a IVth dynasty, is marvel- Tv.r!^'''""r"\ . , II - 1 IVth dynasty, about B.C. 3700. lous, and the accuracy with [Northern Egyptian Gallery, Bay i. No. 33.] l\ no PAINTED STATUES AND PAPYRI. which he represented every detail and characteristic of animate and inanimate objects is beyond praise. At all periods, how- ever, general scenes are more or less hard, a fact due to want of perspective. The Egyptians loved colour, and they used it wherever it could possibly be employed. A striking instance of this is afforded by the elaborately painted papyri of the Book of the Dead, which when once buried in the tomb were intended to be seen by no other eye than that of the spirit of the deceased ! ,, , . ^ r ■ . . , ., Head of a !>ainU'c] Statue Alabaster figure ol a priest seated on a throne r x- i i t^- ni with steps. "^ Neb-hap- Ka Men- IVth-VIlh dynasty. Xlih d -nast - [No. 1 1;6, Wall-case 99, Third Egyptian Room.] rx' .1 -w ' ,■ ^ V- iV f- ■> ' ^-^ ^'t- J [Northern Egyptian dallery, Bay 3, No. 104.] The wall scul[:)tui'es were of two kinds, the bas-relief and the sunk relief. In the bas-relief the- sculpture is raised a little above the surface of the slab, and in the sunk relief it is a little below. The sunk relief is one of the most characteristic features of Egyptian sculpture. Of the hrst kind there are many examples in the l^gyptian Galleries of the British Museum, especially in the Vestibule at the north end of the Northern Galler}', where the slab from the tomb BAS-RELIEFS. I I I of Ra-hetep at Medum (Egyptian Vestibule, No. 40), of the IVth dynasty may be specially noted. Several portions of fine and delicately painted bas-reliefs from the temple of Neb-hap-Ra Menthu-hetep, of the Xlth dynasty, at Der al-Baiiari, which are exhibited in Bay 2 of the Northern Gallery, are worthy of careful study. The sepulchral tablet of Sebek-aa, of the X Ith dynasty, should be noted (Bay 4, No. 1 20 ; see Plate XXIII). Examples of the sunk relief will be found in the Northern Egyptian Gallery, Bay i. Both paintings Diorite statue of Sebek-nekht. XI Ith dynasty. [Xo. 164, Wall-case lOO, Third Egyptian Room.] and reliefs, however, are unsatisfactory from the modern point of view, for while the head is given in profile, the eye is represented as if the figure were in a full-faced position. A front view is given of the shoulders, but the view of the other portions of the body is a mixture of profile and full face. These facts are calculated to give 3, false impression of the 112 CARICATURES. skill of the painter and sculptor, which, as is admitted on all hands, was very great. The artist was at a ver)^ early period fettered by tradition and conventionality, but sufficient proofs have survived to show Figure of a king. XII Ith dynasty. [No. 178, Wall-case 102, Third Egyptian Room.] that when free to give rein to his fancy he could produce even caricatures and comic pictures of the most amusing character. Thus, in Pap}'rus No. 10,016, we sec the lion and the unicorn STATUES AND PORTRAIT FIGURES. 113 playing a game of draughts, a fox playing a double pipe while animals of the gazelle class strut in front of him, a cat driving geese, and a cat presenting a palm branch to a mouse which is seated on a chair and holding a lotus. Behind the chair is another mouse bearing a fan and a bag with toilet requisites (see pages 27-30). In the reign of Amen-hetep IV, about B.C. 1420, there was a revolt against the conventional forms of painting and sculpture approved by the priests. For about twenty-five years, new designs and new colours were introduced, but they did not find favour among the people generally, and, when the king died, traditionalism promptly re- asserted itself, and the new capital which he founded near the modern village of Tell al-Amarna fell into ruin, and its splendours were forgotten. The sculptured reliefs of the IVth and Vth dynasties, and the statues and portrait figures were in beauty and fidelity rarel}- equalled in later times, and certainly never surpassed. The chief employers of both painter and sculptor in the later dynasties were the priests, who required statues of gods and kings f o r the temples ; massive strength, an ex- pression of impass- ibility, and close adherence to exist- ing models were the traditional characteristics of such works. With private employers the case was different, for they demanded of the sculptor portrait figures which should be representations of their friends at once faithful and pleasing. Among early portrait figures of fine work in the British Museum may be mentioned the ivory figure of a king, wearing a robe of elaborate pattern (Table-case No, 197, in the Third Egyptian Room ; see F C^ueen Teta-Khait, about B.C. 1600. [No. 187, Wall-case 102, Third Egyptian Room.] 114 I'ORTKArT STATUP:S and FKIURES. page 24, Xo. 7; ; the statue of the official Nefer-hi of the 1 1 Ird dynasty (No. 150, Wall-case 99, Third Egyptian Room) ; the statue of Betchmes, of the 1 1 Ird dynasty (No. 3, in the Egyptian Vestibule, see page 1 10), and the statue of An- kheft-ka, of the IVth dynasty, (Bay i, Xo. 33, in the Northern Egyptian Gallery, see page 109). On the second shelf of Wall-cases 99-109 in the Third Head of a colossal >iaiuc ol Ameii-hetcp III, n.c. 1450. [Xorthern Egyptian C>alleiy, Bay 4, No. 416.] Egyptian Room is e.xliibited a typical series of portrait figures in stone which illustrate the work of the period between the II Ird dynasty and the Roman Period. Special attention maybe given to the head of an official Xo. i86) in crystalline limestone ; the figure of Queen Teta-Khart, a wife ot .Aahmes I, U.C. 1600 (Xo. 187, see page 113; ; the porticjn Plate XII. {See page 115.) Head of a stone figure of a priestess of the XVIIIth dynasty. [From the cast, No. 38,430, Wall-case 102, Third Egyptian Room.] Plate XIII. {See page 115.) ' /P- . ^4Skw^H9E^^Rn«^9n[^.S9MV^ Limestone sealed figures of Kha-ein-Uast and his wife. [No. 41,603, Wall-case 105, Third Egj-ptian Room.] XlXth dynasty. THE RENAISSANCE 115 of the head of a figure, the "heretic king," Amen-hetep IV, or Khu-en-Aten, B.C. 1420 (No. 212); the figure of Queen Amenartas, of the XXVth dynasty, B.C. 700 (No. 232); the seated figures of Kha-em-Uast and his wife (Wall-case 105, Third Egyptian Room; see Plate XIII); the seated figure of Harua, one of the officials of Amenartas (No. 234} ; the two figures of officials of the Roman Period (Kos. 269 and 270) ; and the head of a priestess (see Plate XII). In the Northern and Southern Egyptian Galleries among the finest examples of large statues may be mentioned the three grey granite statues of Usertsen III, b.c. 2330, each of which represents the king at a different period of his life (Nos. 158, 159, 160; see Plate XXV) ; the dark granite head of Amen-em-hat III, of the Xllth d>-nast)- (No. 774 ; see Plate XXVI) ; the red granite statue of Sekhem- uatch-taui-Ra, a king of the Xlllth dynasty (No. 276, Plate XXVII) ; the head of Thothmes III, b.c. i 5 5o(No. 360 ; Plate XXXI); the heads of Amen- hetep III, B.C. i45o(Nos. 416, 417) ; the w hite limestone statues of an official and his wife, of very fine work (No. 565) ; and the granite statue of Isis hold- ing a figure of Osiris between her wings (No. 964). The statues and portrait figures of the latter part of the XVIIIth, XLXth and XXth dynasties lack the fidelity to nature of those of the Ancient and Middle hLmpires, and it is clear that about B.C. 1200 both statues and figures were kept in stock by funerary masons, who merely added the names of deceased persons to them after they were sold. Under the Saite kings of the XXVIth dynasty a Renais- sance took place, and for a short time painters, sculptors, and scribes modelled their works on examples drawn chiefly from the monuments of the Ancient Empire. F 2 Statue of Isis, holding a tiyun- of Osir 1 Dedicated by Shashanq, a high official. Ptolemaic Period. [Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 28, No. 964.] ii6 CHAPTER VI. The Kinc; and his Chief Officers of State and Subjects. Military Service. The King" of Egypt was absolute master of the country, which had been given to him by the gods, and of every man, woman, and child, and of everything in it from one end to the other. He was the son of Heru-ur, ic, Horus the Great, the oldest of all the gods of Egypt, whose attributes were, at a later period, usurped b}- Ra, the Sun- god, and was declared to be of the very substance and essence of the god. He was believed to be a god, and was worshipped as a god, and his statues and figures were placed among the statues of the gods, and with them received the adoration of men. His word on any subject was final, his authority limitless, in his person he united the intelligence and strength of all beings in heaven and on earth ; men lived by his grace only, and at a word from him they were slain. In short, the Egyptians were serfs and bondmen of the king, the counterpart, image and symbol of the god of heaven. He possessed five great names or titles: i. A Horus name, as the descendant of Horus. 2. A Nebti name, as representative of Nekhebit and Uatchit, the great goddesses of the South and North. 3. A Horus of gold name. The blood of the sun-god was supposed to be made of gold, and as the divine blood ran in the king's veins, a "name of gold" was given to him. 4. A Suten Bat name, as king of the South {Suten) and King of the North {Bat). 5. A Son of Ra name, or personal name of the king. Thus, the five names of Usertsen 1 1 1 were : Horus name, Neter Kheperu. This was placed ^^t in a scrckJi thus : — The Horus name is sometimes called the " banner name " ; the serekky however, is not a banner, but a representation of a building of a funerar}- character. 1 THE PRIESTHOOD, MILITARY SERVICE. 119 himself "the eyes of the king in the South, and his ears in the North," "the eyes of the king in Thebes," etc. In the priest- hood were the following grades : i. 71ie nctcr hen, or servant of the god I V ; 2. The ^/ ;/tV<'/-, father of the god ^ W^; f ; 4. The Khcr heb, or " Lector," 3. ThecF^, libationer/ J or " precentor " /H etc There were several kinds of minor priests, e.g., the hen ka, or priest of the Ka, the seni, or set em, the dunn lis, the dnun khe7it, and the ministrants in general. The title of the high priest of Memphis was " Ur-Kherp-hem," i.e., " Great Chief of the ham- mer," in allusion to his being priest of Ptah, the Blacksmith-god of Mem- phis ; that of the high priest of Heliopolis was ■' Ur-maau," i.e., " great seer " ; and that of the high priest of Thebes was " Chief prophet of Amen- Ra." Among the civilians the Scribes played the most prominent part in the administration of the Statues of Mahu, a director of Works, and country, and in all periods Sebta, a priestess of Hathor, B.C. 1350. both " royal scribes " and [Central Saloon, No. 637.] " scribes " held many high offices, especially in connection with the Treasury, and with institutions which possessed large properties, such as the great temples of Heliopolis, Memphis, Sais, Bubastis, Abydos and Thebes. Military service.— The Egyptian was neither a fighting man nor a soldier by nature, and except for a {q.\n compara- tively short periods in her history, Egypt never had an Army in the sense in which the word is used by Western Nations. The Egyptian hated military service, and in any conflict which resembled war he Generally ran away. When a hostile force threatened the country, the head of each nome F 4 I20 MILITARY EQUIPMENT. collected a number of men from his district, and armed them as well as he could^ and then sent his contingent to some place appointed by the king. Individual nobles al.^o, no doubt, sent companies of men more or less armed from their estates to fight the king's battles. The peasant, ox fellah, was then, as now, a formidable opponent in a fight, when armed with a stout stick, or club, especially when he could fight under cover or behind a wall ; but anything like organized resistance terrified him, and rendered him useless. On the other hand, the native of the Sudan was a very fine fighter, and whenever it was possible Pharaoh stiffened his troops with regiments of Blacks. Thus, if we may believe the account of Una, the commander-in-chief of Pepi, a king of the Vlth dynasty, his army contained Blacks from every great province of the Sudan, and numbered " many times ten thousand." In the Asiatic campaigns, which produced such great spoil for Egypt, the organizers of these wars, which are better termed " militar}' raids," and the finest fighters in them were either Blacks, or of Sudani origin. Egypt had only need of soldiers in the strict sense of the word when it was necessar}' to suppress sudden rebellions in the provinces, or to compel tributary kings to pay what was due from them, or to provide escorts to Government trading expeditions. In times of peace the troops of the militia laid down their clubs, bows, daggers, and spears, and worked at their trades or cultivated the fields. Military exercises, drillings, manoeuvres, etc., there were none. The Predynastic Eg)'ptian warrior armed himself with a .short, stout stick ; later it was weighted at one end with a piece of flint or stone, and so became a kind of club. A flat piece of flint, or stone, with a roughly-formed cutting edge, bound to a stick by thongs of leather, served as an axe. Double-headed axes were also known, and knives, spear- heads, arrow-heads, etc., were commonly used. The equipment of the soldier of the Ancient Empire was simple. He wore a sort of skull cap, of leather (?\ with a feather or two stuck in the top ; he fought with a club r, or mace, and a bow ^^s^, carrying his flint-tipped arrows in a leather quiver slung over his back, and he caught the blows and arrows of his foe on a large leathern shield, which was sometimes ornamented with the badge of his master or his family. At a later period he wore a leathern shirt to protect his bod}', and he added to his arms a long spear, a knife, or dagger, with a curved blade -»t=<^, and .some- THE HORSE AND CHARIOT. 121 times a battle-axe. The equipment of the mercenaries of a still later period differed in many details from that of the native Egyptian. (For examples of bows, arrows, daggers, spears, etc., see Table-case B in the Third Egyptian Room.) The horse and chariot were unused in Egypt before the kings of the XVIIIth dynasty began to make conquests in Western Asia. At a comparatively early period the Egyptians began to fortify their towns with walls and strong gates, and in the Xllth dynasty King Usertsen III erected a series of forts in the Second Cataract to prevent the Nubians from descending the river and laying Egypt waste. One strong fort was built near Buhen (Wadi Halfah), another on the island now called Jazirat al-Malik, one at Semnah, and another exactly opposite at Kummah. The walls were built of mud bricks, many feet thick, and long slopes cased with stone were built against them. Within each enclosure were series of chambers for storehouses and barracks, and at one I corner a small temple, dedicated to the chief god of the district. Another series of forts was built on the frontier between the north-east line of the Delta and Syria, generally of great strength. The geographical position of Egypt made it unnecessary for her to possess a navy, and, moreover, the peasants were as little fitted to become sailors as soldiers. The most important sea-fight in which the Egyptians took part was the ^. engagement in which Rameses III (B.C. 1200, or later) van- *j quished the confederation of Libyan tribes. This king built ,». j war-ships, and manned them with crews from the seafaring ij « peoples of the Mediterranean, and he succeeded in gaining a P{ signal victory by sea and land over his enemies. '*■ ' I 22 CHAPTER VII. EcYPTiAN Religion. Early belief in Spirits, Fetishes, Companies of Gods. The Word for God and " god." List of gods. Polvtheis.m. Onenlss of God. Legends of the gods. Osiris AND the Resurrection. The Judgment. The Other World. Doctrine of Retribution. Amu- lets. Predynastic Religion. — From the evidence derived from a number of Predynastic graves it is perfectly clear that the Predynastic Egyptians believed in a future life ; for otherwise they never would have .buried with the dead food and flint weapons, etc., for the chase in the Other World. Whether they believed that the future life would be eternal cannot be said; but they certainly hoped that it would resemble the life on this earth. Dynastic. — The religion of the ancient P^gyptians was of African origin, and in the earliest times had much in common with that of many of the peoples and tribes who live in Equatorial Africa at the present day. Earth, air, sea and sky were believed to be filled with spirits, some of whom were occupied in carr}'ing on the works of nature, and others in aiding or injuring man upon earth. Every object, both animate and inanimate, was inhabited b\' a spirit, which could assume any form it pleased, and occupy the body of any man, woman, quadruped, bird, fish, insect, reptile, tree, etc. The incarnations of certain of these spirits became gods at a very early period, e.g., the hippopotamus,^ crocodile, lion, bull, ram, dog-headed ape, dog, wolf, jackal, ichneumon, hawk, vulture, ibis, swallow, dove, and heron, certain kinds of snakes, uraeus, frog, beetle, grasshopper, mantis, and several kinds of fish. All the above were regarded as powers of good from the earliest to the latest times. On the other hand, certain animals, e.g., gazelle, the animal which is the symbol of Set, Tvl , or ^5_J, the hyaena, the lynx, the scorpion, the turtle, were incarnations of powers of evil. The heavenly bodies were regarded as powers of good, probably, in the ' See the flint hippopotami, crocodile, cow's head, fish, etc., in Table- case M (Third Egyptian Room). EARLY BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY. 123 earliest times ; but the scorching heat of the sun, Hghtning, hurricanes, storms, flood, darkness, mist and fog were regarded as manifestations of spirits hostile to man. In addition, the primitive Egyptians fashioned symbols of spirits, much in the same way as the native of Central Africa makes "fetishes."' All these they wor- shipped because they admired some quality or attribute in them, or because they feared them ; and the religion of the earliest period consisted of the performance of rites and ceremonies which had for their object the propitiation of them. Men gave gifts to the incarnations of the spirits to persuade them to withhold the evils which they might inflict upon them, and to protect them from every calamity ; moreover, they appealed to them as possessing the same feelings and passions as human beings. The dead were assumed to enjoy a renewed existence in the Other World, probably with benevolent spirits ; it is quite certain that this belief was current among the primitive Egyptians, at least among those who lived during the latter half of the Neolithic Period. Every district and every large city or town had its own spirit or object of worship, and most of the gods of Egypt of the Dynastic Period were selected from them ; often, no doubt, their names were changed, and their attributes added to. At a very early period an attempt was made to group the gods into families containing husband, wife, and son ; these are usually called triads, examples of v\ hich are : Amen-Ra, Mut and Khensu at Thebes ; Ba-neb-Tet, Hat-mehit and Heru-pa-khart at Mendes ; Ptah, Sekhet and 1-em-hetep at Memphis. Another attempt to group the gods resulted in the Ennead or Company of nine or more gods. Amen-Ra Amset. Anubis. Asar (Osiris) Asar (Osiris). ' The word " fetish " is derived from the Voitugnese /di'fiio, " a charm." 124 FORMS OF GODS AND GODDESSES. Ilapi. Horus. Heru-pa-khart Khepeia. (Harpokrates). Khnemu. Khensu. 17 Menthu-Ra. Nefer-Tem. Ptyh. Ptah-Seker. Qebhsennuf. •Ra-Heru-Khuti Reshpu. Reshpu. (Ra-Harmakhis). ' FORMS OF GODS AND GODDESSES. 125 Seker. Set. Tet. Tehiiti Tuamutef. (Tholh). Het-Heru (Hathor). Het-Heru (Hathor). Qetesh. Maat. Mert, Nebt-het (Nephthys) Nebt-het (Nephthys) Menhet. Nekhebit. 126 THE COMPANIES OF GODS. Sekhet. Serqet. Taurt (Thoueris). Uatchit. Uit-Hekau. 51 At HeliopoHs, the On of the Bible, the priests proclaimed the existence of three Companies of the gods. The first Compan}- was called the "Great"' ] ] | | | | | ' the second the ■•■-^'-■■11111111 r* , and the third had no special title ; these Companies represented the gods of heaven, earth, and the Other World respectiveh'. When all three companies were invoked they were represented thus : imnnnniimmnii- The CTods of the Great Company were : Temu, Shu, Tefnut, St b, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys ; Khenti-Amenti, Ra, Horus, and Uatchit were sometimes added. The gods of -the Little Company were: Ra, Am-Annu, Am-Antchct, Am-Het- Serqet, Am-neter-hct, Am-hetch-paar, Am-Sah, Am-Tep, Am-Het-ur-Ra, Am-Unnu-resu, and Am-Unnu-meht. The common Eg)'ptian word for God and god is netek ^ , which is symbolized by the s ^i()rii. the creator of the universe whose dvvellinor was \u. Tehuti, Thoth, ^^Jf, who created the world and all things in it by a word. KUNEMU f^ ^D\ y (-7)' '^^''^^^ assisted in carr)-ing out the work of creation. Ptah X ^, who assisted Khnemu in the work of creation. Ra ^^ ^, the Sun-god. Seb(Keb) *^^ J, the Earth-god. Shu fi V c^. the god of the air. Het-Heru, Hathor, i^ , a sky-goddess, who existed in seven forms. -, D ^ s;i , , , Nut ^ J], a sky-goddess. Tefnut J'i^^^J^. a rain-goddess. Nekhebit J. 3, the great goddess of the South. UatCHIT li i\l\ J\, the great goddess of the North. Net, Neith, Jj, the self-created goddess of Sais, who existed in four forms. Bast TT J4, the great goddess of Rubastis. Menu, or Amsu ^ip~ r^, god of virility and generation. GODS AND GODDESSES. 129 Be -JP Anqet A O \' ■■^■"'^ Jxv^' Tetun ""^^-^^ J, i-gods of the Sudan. Merul "^ Menruil Temu _Sa>, or w I in human form. , the Man-god, who always appears HXP|A Mestha riy- Qebhsennuf TUAMUTEF 'k '\ The divine sons of Horus, son of Osiris, who assisted their father in performing the ceremonies con- nected with the mummifying and burial of Osiris. Amen jjxm^ , or Amen-Ra n' 1 AA/W\A pfod of Thebes. O I nJn, the great Mux "^ , the female counterpart of Amen-Ra. Khensu 1 V> J], the son of Amen and Mut. Like Horus he had seven forms. Iusaaset , a goddess of Heliopolis. , a deified phy- Q, Q JPl^ 1 Q I-EM-HETEP (Imouthis) sician of Memphis. Seker ^=^ j\, god of the dead of Memphis 130 GODS AND GODDESSES. Nefer-Tem 1 ^y^^-IT "^ ^fl ' ^ ^^^ ^^ Memphis. The lotus was his symbol. Maat ^^ ^ goddess of wisdom, right, truth, law, order, etc. Sesheta T-^J), godde.ss of literature. O Meskhenit roddess of birth. Renenit .www J\, goddess of fertility, the harvest, etc. Meh-URIT <>=«v ft , a ver\' ancient sk\--goddess. Sekhet I Y^l' ^ fire-goddess, the female counterpart of Ptah. Ta-TEXEN ' 4.-1- '^^ M), a very ancient earth -god. I ^-s T T '^^^ 11 Menthu ^^ s= ^ Ji , an ancient war-god. Aten (1 'v^^ , the god of the solar disk. FOREIGN GODS AND GODDESSES. AnthAt ft(l Pn . a godde.ss of Syrian origin. AnthrethA ^^^ ll ^ Pn ' goddess of the Kheta. AsthArethit -^^ l\ \L, Ashtoreth, a goddess of Syrian origin. Qetesh M Jh , goddess of Syrian origin. Kent ^^^^^ J)^ , a goddess of S}rian origin. SACRlil) ANIMALS. I3I Aasith ^ l\\ f\[/n> 3. goddess of the Eastern Desert. BairthA J ^^ I ll y V) ' ^'■''■' ^'^^'^^^' counterpart of Ba'al Sephon. Bar Reshpu □ bolt. , /.<-., " Baal," a Syrian war-god. V'^' S^^ of the lightning and thunder- SUTEKH ■?\ i:^ V\ %||, one of the chief gods of the Kheta and Syrians. ANIMAL-GODS AND GODDESSES, ETC. vu A , the Apis Bull. Hap Mer-ur ^^^ m 5^, the Mnevis Bull. Bakha J ^-=- ^3 , the Bachis Bull. Ba '^--> , the Ram-god. Sebek n jUzz:^.^^, the Crocodile god. Rerit Apj.t Shepuit I^ ^ The Hippopotamus-goddesses. I \t 1 o n (go Ma-HES 5^1 {P-^' the Lion-god; lion-goddesses were numerous, e.^., Sekhet, Pekhth, Tefnut, etc. 1^2 SACRED ANIMALS, BIRDS, ETC. Maftet y ^ c::^> ;3^V' ^he Lviix-goddess. Bast V? -|), the Cat-fjoddess ; the word for "cat" was Man |(j^ Anpu [| p ^^ , the Dog, or Jackal-god. Apuat ^ ^ , the Wolf-god. Khatru the Ichneumon "od. The following birds were sacred : The phoenix, Bcnnu j^\ ^ : the vulture, Ncrdu (1 V\ v\ : the hawk, Bdk (I ^^z::^ V\^ ; the hawk of gold, Bdk en nub JO ''^zi:^ V\^ 'ww«A r^iw'n ; the divine hawk, Bdk netri, A _m o 111 ' the swallow, Ment aa>wsa "^=j ; the goose, i^^ , of which there were several kinds ; etc. The following reptiles and insects were sacred : the turtle, |, or Sneta \\'^^.'> ^'""^ snake, S(X-ta ; the scorpion, Serk \\ ^# ; the ApsJiait beetle, 1 L^^ ; the " pra\-ing mantis," Abit T iMJ ^ "^ ^^ ' ^^^^ grasshopper, Sanelieiiai, '^^ \^ ; KJieprerd the beetle, Scarabaeus sacer^ Apesh n \ s' POLYTHEISM. The following- fish were sacred : The Abtn % ihc Ajit (I -wwvA ^^^ ^ which announced tlie rise of the Nile; the A/ja Q^ ^ ^ ; the At "^