BRARY 
 
 YERSITY OF 
 iLIFORNIA 
 
 N DIEGO 
 
 J
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS 
 
 AND 
 
 EXPLORERS 
 
 AMELIA B. EDWARDS 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 
 1 892
 
 Copyright, 1891, by HARPER & BROTHERS. 
 
 All rights reserved.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE following chapters contain, with large additions, notes, and 
 references, the substance of a course of lectures on ancient Egyptian 
 subjects recently delivered in the United States of America. While 
 necessarily recasting the form of these lectures, I have to some ex- 
 tent preserved the colloquial style in the hope, I confess, of being 
 the better remembered by those who have heard them. 
 
 For permission to reproduce various illustrations from the works 
 of Professor Maspero, MM. Perrot and Chipiez, Sir John Lubbock, 
 and Mr. W. M. F. Petrie, I have to offer my grateful acknowledgments 
 to Messrs. Grevel & Co., Chapman & Hall, Longmans, Williams <fc 
 Norgate, and the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund. 
 
 The reproductions from Mr. W. M. F. Petrie's series of original 
 photographs are executed by special arrangement with Mr. Petrie. 
 
 AMELIA B. EDWARDS. 
 WESTBHRY-OM-TRTM, ENGLAND, 
 March, 1891.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 
 
 Our knowledge of Egypt ever on the increase Continuous march of explo- 
 ration Foundation of the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1883 Egypt an 
 inexhaustible mine of antiquities Funerary customs of the ancient 
 Egyptians Approximate number of mummies embalmed during 4700 
 years Egyptian mounds How these mounds were formed, their 
 growth and decay Story of a typical mound Excavation of a typical 
 mound Objects likely to be found in Egyptian mounds Exploration 
 in Upper Egypt The tomb-pits of Upper Egypt Exploration in Lower 
 Egypt Excavation of Tell Nebesheh in the Eastern Delta Interesting 
 antiquities discovered at Tell Nebesheh Tell Defenneh Hardships in- 
 cidental to the work of exploration in Egypt Necessary qualifications 
 of the explorer Homer in the Fayum Definition of archaeology The 
 explorer "born, not made" Discovery of Naukratis by Mr. Petrie 
 Ruins of the temples of Apollo, Hera, Zeus, and Aphrodite mentioned 
 by Herodotus "The potter's quarter" The house of the scarab- 
 maker The house of the jeweller Evolution of Greek from Egyp- 
 tian art Discovery of Masonic deposits Great historical value of this 
 discovery Ceramic riches of Naukratis Pages 3-36 
 
 II. 
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 Extreme antiquity of the ancient Egyptian monarchy The ITorshesu, or 
 "Followers of Horus "Probable age of the Great Sphinx Wealth of 
 Egypt in building material The ancient Egyptians a nation of builders 
 Destruction of the mounds of the Delta by native laborers Excava- 
 tions conducted by the Egypt Exploration Fund Archaeological survey 
 of Egypt recently undertaken by this society "Pithom and Raam- 
 ses " The Hebrews in the Land of Goshen Tell Abfi Suleiman identi- 
 fied by Lepsius with Pithom and Tell-el-Maskhutah with "Raamses" 
 Excavation of the mound of Maskhutah by M. Naville Tell-el-Mask- 
 hutah proves to be "Pithom of Succoth "Identification of the route
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 of the Exodus Store-chambers of Pithom Bricks of Pithom Mr. Pe- 
 trie's excavations at Tanis (Zoan) The great temple of Tanis The 
 largest colossus ever sculptured by the hand of man House of Bakak- 
 hiu at Tanis Great discovery of papyri and other manuscripts The 
 granite shrine of Saft el-Henneh Daphnse of Pelusium The camps of 
 Psammetichus Occupation of Daphnse by Greek mercenary troops 
 Siege of Jerusalem (B.C. 585) and flight of the daughters of Zedekiah 
 into Egypt Settlement of the Hebrew fugitives at Daphnae The 
 prophecy of Jeremiah Mr. Petrie's excavations at Daphua? (Tell De- 
 fenneh) Palace-fort of Psammetichus I. Masonic deposits of Psam- 
 metichus I. Identification of the palace-fort with "Pharaoh's House 
 in Tahpanhes" Discovery of the brick-work, or pavement, mentioned 
 by Jeremiah Historical testimony of the ruins of the palace-fort of 
 Psammetichus Conflicting testimony of Egyptian and Babylonian in- 
 scriptions Discovery of clay cylinders of Nebuchadnezzar. Pages 37-69 
 
 III. 
 
 PORTRAIT PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 Egyptian sculptures and paintings the oldest in the world The art of 
 drawing more ancient than that of sculpture Prehistoric art Sub- 
 jects of the earliest Egyptian paintings Treatment of the human figure 
 by ancient Egyptian daughtsmen Conventional coloring of ancient 
 Egyptian artists The skill with which Egyptian artists reproduced 
 the ethnic types of foreign nations Errors of ancient Egyptian artists 
 The same errors common to early art in all the nations of antiquity 
 Ancient Greek painting The art of painted vases Ancient criticisms 
 and anecdotes of Polygnotus ; of Xeuxis ; of Apelles Unparalleled 
 luxury of the early Greek painters The Proto - Homeric vases of 
 Athens Pliny on the priority of ancient Egyptian painting Early re- 
 lations between the Pelasgic Greeks and the ancient Egyptians In- 
 scription of Sankhara in the Valley of Hammamat The Greeks in 
 Egypt under the Eighteenth and later dynasties Mr. Petrie's discover- 
 ies at Tell Kahun and Tell Gurob Inscribed potsherds found in these 
 mounds Traces of Foreign settlers at Gurob The Tursha identified 
 by Lenormant with the Etruscans Etruscan alphabetic signs at Tell 
 Gurob Comparative antiquity of the earliest Greek alphabets For- 
 eign captives in Egypt during the Nineteenth and Twentieth dynasties 
 Momentous results of Mr. Petrie's discoveries Special characteristics 
 of the Egyptian School of figure-painting The "four races" of men: 
 the typical Syrian, the typical Egyptian, the typical Libyan, the typi- 
 cal Ethiopian The tomb of Hui The Sardinian in Egyptian art The 
 charioteer of the " pre-Homeric" vases Archaic Greek painted ware of 
 Daphna; Egyptian conventionalities reproduced in early Greek paint- 
 ingFirst appearance of the Sphinx in Greek art The Sphinx-plate of
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 Naukratis The wall-paintings of Etruria ; their relations to ancient 
 Egyptian art The Cervetri tomb of 1889 Etruscan reproduction of 
 the conventionalities of Egyptian art Genealogy of the French eagles 
 Discovery of the laws of chiaroscuro and foreshortening by Apollo- 
 dorus The Labyrinth ; its destruction by the Roman Government 
 Excavations by Mr. Petrie on the site of the Labyrinth Ruins of the 
 Roman town on the Labyrinth platform Mixed character of its ancient 
 population Successive styles of mummification practised by the inhab- 
 itants of this town The evolution of painting on panel from painted 
 cartonnage and painted canvas Painting in Egypt in the time of Ha- 
 drian Reaction of Greek art upon Egytian art Great discovery of 
 panel- portraits in the Fayum Methods employed by the Graeco-Egyp- 
 tian portrait painters of this period The beeswax medium of Egypt 
 not identical with the "encaustic" painting of the Greeks Pigments 
 employed by Grasco-Egyptian painters Various nationalities depicted 
 in these portraits Egyptian names of Greek and Roman settlers Se- 
 ries of portraits of Greeks, Romans, Syrians, and Egyptians Styles of 
 jewelry depicted Diogenes, the flautist The elderly Roman The 
 lotus-bud necklace of Etruria an ancient Egyptian design Antiquity of 
 the " Oxford pattern" frame Inequality of artistic merit in the Fayfim 
 portraits Singularly modern character of the heads Close resemblance 
 of the ancient Greeks and Romans to the people of modern Europe and 
 America Unchanged racial types of Egypt, Nubia, and Palestine 
 Persistence of ancient Egyptian types Pages 70-112 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE, AND THE HISTORY OF THE KA. 
 
 Our interest in the past history of the human race Great value of the art 
 of portraiture as preserved to us in the sculptures of Assyria, Babylon, 
 Susa, Persepolis, and ancient Egypt Ancient Egyptian portraiture the 
 most ancient in the world Funerary portrait-statues of the Ancient 
 Empire Singular custom of immuring these statues Ancient Egyp- 
 tian notions regarding the nature of man The Ka Various definitions 
 of the Ka Portraits for the benefit of the Ka Tablet of Pepi-Na 
 Tablet of Napu Voracious appetite of the Ka Funerary statues and 
 paintings fashioned for the benefit of the Ka The Ka identified with 
 the life The three names of the Pharaohs Sculptured representa- 
 tions of the Ka Remarkable tableaux of Amenhotep III. and his Ka 
 in the Great Temple of Luxor Association of the Kawith the "ankh" 
 Historical sculptures of Seti I. and his Ka on the walls of the Great 
 Temple of Karnak Invariable inscription accompanying royal Kas 
 Concrete mode of thought of the ancient Egyptians Reasons why the 
 Ka needed food and drink offerings Greek conception of life bor- 
 rowed from Egyptian sources The Hebrew notion of the "Khai,"or
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 "life," identical with the Egyptian Ka Extreme truth to nature of 
 Egyptian Ka-statues Egyptian funerary portrait-statues carefully stud- 
 ied from the life The leading schools of Egyptian art Great superior- 
 ity of the earliest Egyptian school of portraiture The oldest historical 
 portrait-statue known Group of Queen Mertetefs, her Ka, and private 
 secretary, at Ley den Semnefer and his wife General Ra-hotep and 
 Princess Nefert The "Wooden Man" of Bfilak Funerary statue of 
 Ti Admirable anatomical development of the "Cross-legged Scribe" 
 The Memphite School represents the finest period of Egyptian por- 
 traiture Erroneous estimate commonly formed of the merits of Egyp- 
 tian sculpture Comparison of the sculptures of ancient Egypt with 
 those of ancient Greece The Twelfth Dynasty school The Hyksos 
 school The colossal sitting statues of Bubastis The Eighteenth Dyn- 
 asty school Colossal head of Queen Hatasu The Nineteenth and 
 Twentieth dynasties register a new phase of Egyptian art Semitic 
 characteristics of this school Remarkable family likeness of the Pha- 
 raohs of the two Ramesside dynasties Art of portraiture in wood, as 
 preserved in the mummy-cases of this time Colossal mummy-case of 
 Queen Ahmes Nefertari Beautiful mask of Rameses II. Probability 
 that this mask may represent Her-Hor Pages 113-157 
 
 V. 
 
 EGYPT THEi BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 
 
 The irresistible fascination of Egyptology Ancient Egyptian civilization 
 the earliest known Extent of the debt of the early Greeks to the an- 
 cient Egyptians First mention of the Greeks upon the monuments of 
 Egypt The "Hanebu" The Danseans in the time of Thothmes III. 
 The earliest portrait of a Greek in the world Greeks of Thrace and 
 Asia Minor, in alliance with the Syrian nations, invade Egypt in the time 
 of Rameses II. Armor of the Achaeans The Greek greave as an Egyp- 
 tian hieroglyph Carian and Ionian Greek troops of Psammetichus I. 
 Daphnse of Pelusium, an early Greek settlement Establishment of 
 Greek traders at Naukratis The aesthetic debt of Greece to Egypt 
 The earliest known examples of Greek architecture, sculpture, and 
 decorative design copied from Egyptian sources Wall and ceiling dec- 
 oration of the rock- cut tombs of Beni-Hasan Spiral ornament of My- 
 cense Spiral of Beni-Hasan The herz-blatt and key patterns of Greece 
 copied from Beni-Hasan designs The ceiling pattern of the treas- 
 ury of Minyas at Orchomenos This pattern reproduces the cornice 
 patterns of Beni-Hasan "Proto Doric" columns of the Beni-Hasan 
 tombs Comparison of these columns with Greek Doric Egyptian ori- 
 gin of the Ionic capital The Ionic capital derived from the lotus of the 
 Nile The lotus in nature and the lotus in art The conventional lotus 
 of Egyptian art The earliest temple known to belong to the Ionic
 
 CONTENTS. xi 
 
 order discovered by Mr. Petrie at Naukratis Egyptian origin of the 
 Anthemion and Palmette Egyptian origin of the ' ' honeysuckle " pat- 
 tern of the Greeks Early Greek painted vases found at Daphnse 
 Florid development of Egyptian lotus pattern by Greek potters The 
 lotus pattern in Greek goldsmith's work Various religious conceptions 
 of the ancient Egyptians borrowed by the Greeks The Egyptian soul, 
 or Ba, transformed into the harpy and syren of Greek art Egyptian 
 character of early Greek statues Pages 158-192 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 Literary activity not a necessary result of the possession of an alphabet- 
 Importance of a material on which to write Pastoral and literary ten- 
 dencies of the ancient Egyptians Great antiquity of papyrus as a writ- 
 ing material "The oldest book in the world "Second dynasty tablet 
 at Oxford Varied character of ancient Egyptian literature Greek and 
 Roman papyri found in Egypt Homer in Egypt No contemporary 
 history of ancient Egypt yet discovered The lost history of Manetho 
 Peculiar characteristics of ancient Egyptian poetry "Chant of Victory" 
 of Thothmes III. The heroic poem of Pentaur This poem composed in 
 commemoration of the victory of Rameses II. over the allied forces of 
 Syria and Asia Minor Stratagem of the Hittites Brilliant feat of arms 
 of Rameses II. The battle of Kadesh Poetic treatment of the facts by 
 Pentaur Introduction of the Deus ex machina Literary style of the 
 poem Its reproduction on the walls of various great temples in Egypt 
 A copy on papyrus in the British Museum Great tableau of the battle 
 of Kadesh at Abu-Simbel Curious incident of the drowning of the 
 Prince of Aleppo The scientific literature of the ancient Egyptians 
 Its value purely archaeological Astronomical observations of the an- 
 cient Egyptians Their knowledge of the movement of the earth Math- 
 ematical papyri Medical papyri The Ebers medical papyrus Un- 
 pleasant character of ancient Egyptian pharmacopaeia The moral 
 philosophy of the ancient Egyptians The maxims of Ptah-hotep The 
 maxims of the scribe Ani Romantic literature of the ancient Egyp- 
 tians Egyptian origin of ^Esop's fables, and of various well-known 
 popular tales The story of Rhodopis The tale of the two brothers 
 The taking of Joppa The doomed prince The shipwrecked mariner 
 Historic characters introduced into ancient Egyptian fiction Popular 
 poetry of the ancient Egyptians A love song Threshing song from 
 the tomb of Pahiri The religion of ancient Egypt Its obscurity and 
 diversity Religions of various periods Was monotheism the funda- 
 mental principle of the ancient Egyptian religion? Theories of M. 
 Pierret and Dr. Brugsch Barbaric origin of the ancient Egyptians 
 The prehistoric Egyptians and the North American Indians The "to-
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 terns "of the North American Indians Importance of a tribal name 
 among barbaric and semi-civilized communities Totemism common 
 to all quarters of the globe Totemism the origin of animal worship 
 Totemism of the prehistoric Egyptians Subsequent evolution of the 
 Egyptian religion Exalted pantheism of Ra-worship Local character 
 of the monotheism of the ancient Egyptians Great local deities identi- 
 fied one with another The ancient Egyptians the first people to recog- 
 nize the immortality of the soul "The negative confession" Ancient 
 Egyptian standard of morality Pages 193-238 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OP THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 
 
 A new definition of the genus homo The infancy of writing and the in- 
 fancy of language Limited vocabulary of prehistoric man Writing a 
 spontaneous growth The beginnings of writing everywhere the same 
 Picture-writing The picture-writing of the Hittites, Babylonians, 
 Assyrians, and Chinese The origin of picture-writing Message of the 
 Scythians to Darius Object-writing the natural predecessor of picture- 
 writing Picture-writing of Mexico The tribute-lists of the Mexican 
 kings General picture-written literature of the Mexicans Picture- 
 writing of the North American Indians A petition of certain Indian 
 chiefs Incised sketches and bone drawings of prehistoric times Pre- 
 historic Egypt The age of the " Horshesu " the probable age of Egyp- 
 tian picture-writing Successive stages of Egyptian writing Ideogra- 
 phy Pictorial phonetism Monosyllabic character of the earliest 
 Egyptian vocabulary Common objects of daily life the origin of hiero- 
 glyphic characters Transition from pictorial phonetism to alphabetism 
 Immense antiquity of the ancient Egyptian alphabet This alphabet 
 the parent stock of all the alphabets of Europe The way in which the 
 alphabet was formed The hieroglyphic alphabet as commonly in use 
 Conservatism of the ancient Egyptians Egyptian spelling Alpha- 
 betism in common with ideography Determinating hieroglyphs De 
 terminatives of sound Determinatives of sense Generic determina- 
 tives The great number and variety of hieroglyphic signs Pictorial 
 character of hieroglyphic signs Their archaeological and scientific value 
 Part played by the human figure in the hieroglyphic system The 
 study of hieroglyphs Its facilities and difficulties Perplexing sim- 
 plicity of ancient Egyptian thought Hieroglyphs relating to the sky, 
 night, day, rain, and the like, with their esoteric meanings The hiero- 
 glyph for " land," and its interpretation Survival of ancient Egyptian 
 words in European languages Ancient name of Egypt in hierogtyphs 
 Hieroglyphic spellings of various words in common use Other 
 scripts in use by the ancient Egyptians Necessity for a cursive writ- 
 ingThe hieratic script an abridgment of the hieroglyphic Charac-
 
 CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 teristics of the hieratic at various periods The demotic script The 
 demotic script an abridgment of the hieratic Great wealth of Euro- 
 pean museums in demotic documents Classification of the three writ- 
 ings of the Egyptians Obscure origin of the Egyptian language 
 The Egyptian language a member of the Khamitic family of tongues 
 The Khamitic and Semitic languages derived from a common pre- 
 historic parent The Egyptian verb as described by Mr. Le Page Re- 
 nou Pages 234-260 
 
 VIII. 
 
 QUEEN HATASU, AND HER EXPEDITION TO THE LAND OP PUNT. 
 
 Queen Hatasu Her birth and parentage Important historical inscriptions 
 at Karnak Accession of Queen Hatasu during her father's lifetime 
 Throne-name of Hatasu Her marriage to Thothmes II. Recent dis- 
 covery by M. Grebaut of the chapel of Prince Uatmes The mothers of 
 Thothmes II. and Thothmes III. Incorrectness of the assumption that 
 Hatasu was a usurper Hatasu as Pharaoh Profound peace during 
 her reign Her works of building and restoration Obelisks of Hatasu 
 at Karnak Great temple of Hatasu on the western bank of the Nile 
 Novelty of its design Sen-Maut the architect Restoration of the tem- 
 ple of Dayr-el-Bahari by M. Brune The chamber of the cow at Dayr- 
 el-Bahari Portrait of Queen Hatasu as a young prince Hatasu de- 
 spatches a maritime expedition to the land of Punt This expedition 
 depicted on the walls of her temple at Dayr-el-Bahari Construction of 
 the vessels built for this expedition Strength of the expedition Prob- 
 able route taken by the exploring squadron The ancient canal in the 
 Wady Tumilat probably constructed by Hatasu Arrival of the squad- 
 ron Gifts of Queen Hatasu to the Prince of Punt The Princess of 
 Punt and her personal peculiarities The odoriferous sycamores of 
 Punt Pliny's description of the myrrh-tree of "the land of the Troglo- 
 dytes "Identity of this tree with the "Ana-sycamore " Landing of the 
 Egyptian ships with sycamore saplings, ivory, ebony, and other prod- 
 ucts of Punt Banquet offered to the Prince of Punt by the royal En- 
 voy Return of the squadron, to Thebes Processional subjects depicted 
 in these tableaux: the procession from the ships, the procession of wel- 
 come, the procession of the Queen, sacrifice in the temple of Amen at 
 Karnak, solemn visit of the naval expedition to the temple of Dayr- 
 el-Bahari Close of the reign of Hatasu wrapped in obscurity Whole- 
 sale forgeries of Thothmes III. Discovery of the tomb of Hatasu by 
 Mr. Rhind Extant relics of Queen Hatasu Throne-chair of Queen 
 Hatasu.. 261-300
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Portrait Miss Amelia B. Edwards Frontispiece 
 
 A Canal in the Delta. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] . 3 
 Wig of Princess Nesikhonsu. [From a photograph.] .... ,5 
 
 Tell Nebesheh. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] ... 15 
 Tell-el-Yahvldieh. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] . . 19 
 Tell Nebireh. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] .... 21 
 
 Archaic Head (Cypriote type). [From a photograph.] 23 
 
 Plan of Naukratis. [From the plan made by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] . . 25 
 Foundation Deposits of Ptolemy Philadelphus (286-274 B.C.), Nau- 
 kratis. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] . . . . .27 
 
 Archaic Statuette, Naukratis. [From a photograph.] 29 
 
 Terra-cotta Head of Aphrodite, Naukratis. [From a photograph.] . . 31 
 
 Votive Bowl, Naukratis. [From a photograph.] 33 
 
 Votive Bowl, Naukratis. [From a photograph.] 34 
 
 Gorgoneia, Naukratis. [From a photograph.] 35 
 
 Village of San (Tanis). [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] . 37 
 
 Plan of Pithom. [From the plan made by M. Naville.] 41 
 
 Tell-el-Masklmtah. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] . . 43 
 The Store-cellars of Pithom. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] 45 
 
 Colossal Statue of Mermashiu. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] 47 
 
 Plan of the Ruins of the Great Temple of Tanis. [From the plan 
 
 made by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] '. . 49 
 
 Shrine of Rameses II. (Tanis). [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] 51 
 
 Toes of Great Colossus. [From a sketch.] 54 
 
 Group of Miscellaneous Objects (Tanis). [From a photograph.] ... 55 
 Objects from the House of Bakakhiu. [From a photograph.] ... 59 
 Ruins of the Sanctuary (Tanis). [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] 61 
 
 Tell Defenneh. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] . . .65 
 Cellar in the House of Bakakhiu. [From a drawing by Mr. Tristram 
 
 Ellis.] : 69 
 
 Ploughing Scene. [From an Egyptian bas-relief.] 70
 
 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Turn 81 
 
 The Typical Syrian of Egyptian Art. [From a photog r iph by Mr. W. 
 
 M. F. Petrie.] . . 82 
 
 The Typical Libyan of Egyptian Art. [From a photograph by Mr. 
 
 W. M. F. Pctrie.] 83 
 
 Procession of Ethiopians. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] 85 
 The Typical Sardinian of Egyptian Art. [From a sketch.] .... 86 
 Greek Charioteer, archaic style. [From a proto-Homeric vase.] . . 87 
 Obsequies of a Greek Hero, archaic style. [From a proto-Homeric 
 
 vase.] '. 88 
 
 Greek Dancing-girl. [From a fragment of Daphniote ware.] ... 89 
 (Edipus and the Sphinx. [From a fragment of Daphuiote ware.] . . 90 
 
 Plate with Winged Sphinx. [From a photograph.] 91 
 
 Group of Etruscan Figures. [From a painted slab found at Cervetri.] 93 
 The Site of the Labyrinth. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] 95 
 
 Panel-portrait, a Young Greek. [From a photograph by Mr. "W. M. 
 
 F. Petrie.] 97 
 
 Panel-portrait,, an Egyptian Boy. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. 
 
 F. Petrie.] 98 
 
 Panel-portrait, a Greek Lady. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] , 99 
 
 Panel-portrait, an Egyptian Lady. [From a photograph by Mr. W. 
 
 M. F. Petrie.] 100 
 
 Panel-portrait, Diogenes the Flautist. [From a photograph by Mr. 
 
 W. M. F. Petrie.] 101 
 
 Panel-portrait, a Roman. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] 102 
 Panel-portrait, a Young Greek. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. 
 
 F. Pietrie.] 103 
 
 Panel-portrait, a Roman Lady. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. 
 
 F. Petrie.] 104 
 
 Panel-portrait, a Romano -Egyptian Lady. [From a photograph by 
 
 Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] 105 
 
 Panel - portrait, a Student. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] 106 
 
 Panel -portrait, a Gladiator. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] 107 
 
 Panel-portrait, a Young Lady. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. 
 
 F. Petrie.] 109 
 
 Panel-portrait, a Young Boy. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] Ill 
 
 The Great Sphinx. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] . . 113 
 
 Funerary Offerings. [From an Egyptian wall-painting.] 121 
 
 Nemhotep. [From Maspei'o's Archeologie Egyptienne.} 132 
 
 Khufu-Ankh and Servants. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] .136
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XVJi 
 
 Semnefer and Hotep-hers, his Wife. [From a photograph by Mr. W. 
 
 M. F. Petrie.] 137 
 
 Ra-hotep and Nefert. [From Edvvards's A Thousand Miles up tlie Nile.] 138 
 Ra-em-ka ("The Wooden Man"). [From a photograph by Bruarsch- 
 
 Bey.] 139 
 
 Ti. [From Maspero's Archeologie Egypiicnne.~\ 141 
 
 The Kneeling Scribe 142 
 
 The Cross-legged Scribe. [From Perrot and Chipiez's Egyptc.~] . . . 143 
 Colossal Head of Amenemhat I. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. 
 
 F. Petrie.] 144 
 
 Colossal Head of a Ilyksos King. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. 
 
 F. Petrie.] 145 
 
 Hyksos Sphinx (profile). [From a photograph by Mr. AV. M. F. Petrie.] 140 
 Hyksos Sphinxes of Tanis. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] 147 
 
 Colossal Head, Queen Hatasu. [From Perrot and Chipiez's Er/ypte.] . 148 
 Head of Rameses II. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] . 149 
 Rameses II. (profile). [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] . 150 
 Seti II. (profile). [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] . .151 
 Siptah (profile). [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] . . .152 
 Rameses III. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] .... 158 
 Mummy-case of Queen Ahmes Nefcrtari. [From a photograph by 
 
 Brugsch-Bey.] 154 
 
 Mask from Mummy -case of Rameses II. [From a photograph by 
 
 Brugsch-Bey.] 156 
 
 Ra-em-ka 157 
 
 Greek Potter modelling a Vase. [From a vase-painting.] 158 
 
 Profile of Hanebu Woman. [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] .161 
 
 Egyptian Hieroglyph for a Greek Greave 104 
 
 Decorated Column, Mycenae. [From Reber's Ancient Art.] .... 169 
 Spiral and Rosette Design. [From Mr. W. H. Goodyear's "The Ionic 
 
 Capital and the Origin of the Anthemion."] 170 
 
 Rosette and Key-pattern. [From Mr. W. H. Goodyear's "The Ionic 
 
 Capital and the Origin of the Anthemion."] 170 
 
 Examples of Herz-blatl Pattern. [From Mr. W. H. Goodyear's "The 
 
 Ionic Capital and the Origin of the Anthemion."] 171 
 
 Rosette, Spiral, and Lotus. [From Mr. W. H. Goodyear's "The Ionic 
 
 Capital and the Origin of the Anthemion."] 172 
 
 Cornice Designs (Beni- Hasan). [From Mr. W. H. Goodyear's "The 
 
 Ionic Capital and the Origin of the Anthemion."] 172 
 
 Proto- Doric Columns (Beni -Hasan). [From Maspero's Archeologie 
 
 Egyptienne.] 178 
 
 Examples of Doric Columns 174 
 
 Temple of Thothmes III. (Karnak). [From Maspero's Archeologie 
 
 Egyptienne.] 175
 
 xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Lotus Leaf Design. [From Marietta's Mastabahs de I'Ancienne Empire.'] 176 
 Natural Lotus. [From Mr. W. H. Goodyear's "The Ionic Capital and 
 
 the Origin of the Anthemion."] 177 
 
 Conventional Lotus of Egyptian Art. [From Mr. W. H. Goodyear's 
 
 "The Ionic Capital and the Origin of the Anthemion."] .... 178 
 Example of Grecian Ionic. [From Ferguson's History of Architecture.] 179 
 Architectural Fragments from Archaic Temple of Apollo (Naukratis). 
 
 [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] 181 
 
 Architectural Fragments from the Second Temple of Apollo (Naukratis). 
 
 [From a drawing by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] 181 
 
 Egyptian Vase with Inverted Lotus Design. [From a drawing by Mr. 
 
 W. M. F. Petrie.] 182 
 
 Archaic Gneco-Egyptian Vase. [From a drawing by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] 182 
 
 Archaic Gra?co Egyptian Vase. [From a drawing by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] 183 
 
 Example of Lotus and Bud (Naukratis). [From a drawing by Mr. W. 
 
 M. F. Petrie.] 184 
 
 Gold Tray -handle (Defenneh). [From a drawing by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] 185 
 
 Mummy and "Ba." [Vignette from an Egyptian Ritual.] .... 187 
 Greek Harpy. [From a fragment of Daphniote painted ware.] . . . 188 
 Greek Harpy. [From a photograph of the Harpy- tomb of Xanthus.] 188 
 
 Odysseus and the Sirens. [From a vase-painting.] 189 
 
 The Archaic Apollo (Thera). [From a photograph.] 190 
 
 The Archaic Apollo of Naukratis. [From a photograph.] .... 191 
 Female Winged Sphinx of Greek Art. [From a drawing by Mr. W. 
 
 M. F. Petrie.] 192 
 
 Head-piece 193 
 
 Camp of Rameses II. [After Rossellini.] 203 
 
 Syrian Spies Arrested and Bastinadoed. [After Rossellini.] .... 204 
 
 Pharaoh's War-chariot. [After Rossellini.] 206 
 
 Rameses Slaughtering the Hittites. [After Rossellini.] 207 
 
 The Battle of Kadesh. [After Rossellini.] 209 
 
 Brigade of Egyptian Infantry on the March. [After Rossellini.] . . 210 
 
 Egyptian Attack on Hittite Chariot. [After Rossellini.] 211 
 
 Fac-simile of the Opening Lines of the Poem of Pentaur 212 
 
 M61ee of Chariots. [After Rossellini.] 213 
 
 War-chariots setting out. [After Rossellini.] 213 
 
 After the Battle. [After Rossellini.] 214 
 
 Rameses Enthroned. [After Rossellini.] 215 
 
 The Prince of Aleppo (Ramesseum). [From a photograph by Mr. W. 
 
 M. F. Petrie.] 216 
 
 Ancient Egyptian Pen -drawing. [From a vignette in a funerary 
 
 papyrus.] 233 
 
 Bas relief Slab of Second Dynasty. [From a photograph.] .... 234
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Indian Petition. [From Sir J. Lubbock's History of Civilization.} . . 238 
 Prehistoric Bone-carving (The Mammoth). [From Sir J. Lubbock's His- 
 tory of Civilisation.] 240 
 
 Ancient Egyptian Hoe, Adze-handle, and Sickle. [After drawings by 
 
 Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.] ".043 
 
 The Hieroglyphic Alphabet 345 
 
 Hieratic Papyrus of Princess Nesikhonsu. [From a photograph by 
 
 Brugsch-Bey.] 257 
 
 Example of Demotic Writing. [From a funerary tablet.] 258 
 
 Thoth, the Egyptian God of Letters. [From an Egyptian bas-relief.] 260 
 
 Head-piece 261 
 
 Sitting Statue of Queen Hatasu. [From a photograph.] 265 
 
 Profile of Hatasu. [From the fallen Obelisk, Karnak.] - 271 
 
 Temple of Hatasu (Dayr-el-Bahari). [From the restoration by M. 
 
 Brune.] 272 
 
 Hathor-head Capital (Dayr-el-Bahari). [From a photograph by Mr. W. 
 
 M. F. Petrie.] 273 
 
 Hatasu and Hathor (the Divine Cow). [From a photograph by Mr. 
 
 W. M. F. Petrie.] 275 
 
 Ancient Egyptian Ship. [From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.] .... 277 
 
 Map of Africa 279 
 
 A Village in Punt. [From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.] 282 
 
 Hatasu's Envoy. [From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.] 283 
 
 The Prince of Punt and his Family. [From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.] 284 
 A Chief of Punt (Karnak). [From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie.] 286 
 
 Transport of "Ana" Saplings. [From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.} . . 287 
 The Prince of Punt presenting Farewell Gifts to the Egyptian Envoy. 
 
 [From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.} 289 
 
 Lading of the Egyptian Ships. [From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.} . . 290 
 Tributaries of Punt Walking in Procession to the Temple of Amen. 
 
 [From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.} 292 
 
 Procession of Hatasu. [From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.} 293 
 
 Hatasu's Throne-chair carried by Twelve Bearers. [From Mariette's 
 
 Deir-el-Bahari.} 293 
 
 Hatasu Receiving her Troops. [From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.} . . 294 
 
 Sacrifice in the Temple of Amen. [From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.} . 294 
 
 Measuring the "Ana" of Punt. [From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.] . . 295 
 Throne-chair of Queen Hatasu. [From a photograph of the original 
 
 in the British Museum.] 298 
 
 Little Cabinet of Queen Hatasu. [From a photograph by Brugsch-Bey.] 300
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS.
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 
 
 IT may be said of some very old places, as 
 of some very old books, that they are des- 
 tined to be -forever new. The nearer we 
 approach them, the more remote they seem ; 
 the more we study them, the more we have 
 yet to learn. Time augments rather than 
 diminishes their everlasting novelty; and to 
 our descendants of a thousand years hence 
 it may safely be predicted that they will be even 
 more fascinating than to ourselves. This is true of 
 many ancient lands, but of no place is it so true as 
 of Egypt. Our knowledge of how men lived and thought in 
 the Valley of the Nile live or six thousand years before the 
 Christian era is ever on the increase. It keeps pace with the 
 march of discovery, and that march extends every year over 
 a wider area. Each season beholds the exploration of new
 
 4 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 sites, and each explorer has some new thing to tell. What 
 Mariette began thirty years ago, Maspero carried on and 
 developed ; and it was to Maspero's wise liberality that the 
 Egypt Exploration Fund was indebted, in 1883, for liberty 
 to pursue its work in the Delta. In that year the society 
 despatched its first agent M. Naville upon its first expedi- 
 tion ; and since 1883 the French in Upper Egypt, the Eng- 
 lish in Lower Egypt, have labored simultaneously to bring 
 to light the buried wealth of the most ancient of nations. 
 Thus the work of discovery goes on apace. Old truths re- 
 ceive unexpected corroboration ; old histories are judged by 
 the light of new readings ; fresh wonders are disclosed wher- 
 ever the spade of the digger strikes new ground. The in- 
 terest never flags the subject never palls upon us the mine 
 is never exhausted. 
 
 I will go yet further, and say that this mine is practi- 
 cally inexhaustible. Consider, for instance, the incredible 
 number and riches of the tombs of ancient Egypt, and the 
 immense population of the Nile Valley in the times of the 
 Pharaohs. That immense population continued during a pe- 
 riod of between four and five thousand years to embalm and 
 secrete their dead, interring with them, according to the 
 customs of successive epochs, funerary statues, vases, weap- 
 ons, amulets, inscribed tablets, jewels, furniture, food, stuffs ; 
 articles of apparel, such as sandals, combs, hair-pins, and even 
 wigs ; implements, and written documents on papyrus, leath- 
 er, and linen. Conceive, then, what must be the number of 
 those sepulchres, of those mummies, of those buried treasures ! 
 The cemeteries of Thebes and Memphis and Abydos have en- 
 riched all the museums of Europe, and are not yet worked 
 out. The unopened mounds of Middle and Lower Egypt, 
 and the unexplored valleys of the Libyan range, undoubt- 
 edly conceal tens of thousands of tombs which yet await the 
 scientific, or unscientific, plunderer. 
 
 The late Dr. Birch a cautious man, and the last man in 
 the world to exaggerate estimated the number of corpses 
 embalmed during two thousand seven hundred years at no
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 5 
 
 less than 420,000,000. But recent discoveries ( ' ) compel us to 
 assign 4700 instead of 2700 years for the observance of this 
 rite ; which, calculated after the same rate, brings us to a 
 gigantic total of 731,000,000 
 of mummies. The majority 
 of these were, of course, 
 mere slaves and peasants, 
 rudely embalmed and buried 
 in common graves ; but even 
 so, we may be very certain 
 that the time can never come 
 when quarried rock and 
 drifted sand shall have yield- 
 ed all the noble and wealthy 
 dead, and all their riches. 
 The Greek, the Koman, the 
 mediaeval Arab, the modern 
 Arab, the Copt, the Turk, 
 and the European archaeolo- 
 gist have ravaged the soil, 
 but the harvest is still un- 
 diminished ; and although 
 " mummy was sold for bal- 
 sam" in Sir Thomas 
 Browne's day, and has been 
 exported for manure in our 
 own,( 2 ) there are probably 
 
 at this moment more ancient Egyptians under the soil of 
 Egypt than there are living men and women above it. 
 
 It has been aptly said that all Egypt is but the facade of 
 an immense sepulchre. This is literally true ; for the ter- 
 raced cliffs that hem in the Nile to east and west, and the 
 rocky bed of the desert beneath our feet, are everywhere 
 honey-combed with tombs. But this is not all. The very 
 towns in which those vanished generations lived their busy 
 lives, the houses in which they dwelt, the temples in which 
 they worshipped, are as much entombed as their former in- 
 
 PRINCESS NESIKHOXSU'S WIG. 
 
 This curious object, now in the National 
 Egyptian Museum at Gliizeh, is one of 
 several similar wigs buried with the 
 mummy of Princess Nesikhonsu, a 
 royal lady of the Twenty-first Dynasty, 
 whose mortal remains and personal 
 adornments were discovered in 1881, 
 in the famous vault of the Priest 
 Kings at Dayr-el-Bahari. Each wig 
 was enclosed in a little hamper of 
 plaited palm-fibre.
 
 t) PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 habitants. What the ancient Egyptians did for their dead, 
 Time has done for their cities. All who run and read have 
 heard of the mounds of Memphis, of Bubastis, of Tanis, and 
 of other famous capitals ; but few have, perhaps, any very 
 distinct idea of how these mounds came to be formed, or even 
 of what they are like. To what shall I compare them ? I can 
 think of nothing which even distantly resembles them unless 
 it be an ant-hill. These giant ant-hills are scattered all over 
 the face of the country, and thickest of all in the Delta. They 
 are the first objects that excite the traveller's curiosity when 
 he turns his back upon Alexandria and his face towards 
 Cairo. He looks out of the window of the railway carriage, 
 and yonder, a mile or so off in the midst of the cotton-fields, 
 he sees a huge, irregular brown tumulus, some fifty or sixty 
 feet in height, perfectly bare of vegetation, which looks as 
 if it might cover fifteen or twenty acres of ground. This 
 strange apparition is no sooner left behind than two or three 
 more, some smaller, some larger, come into sight ; and so on 
 all the way to Cairo. At first he can scarcely believe that 
 each contains the dead bones of an ancient town. When he 
 comes to travel farther and know the country better, he dis- 
 covers^ that these mounds are to be reckoned not by scores 
 but by hundreds. So numerous are they that many a dis- 
 trict of the Delta, if modelled in relief, might be taken for a 
 raised map of some volcanic centre, such as the chain of the 
 Puy de Dome, in Auvergne. 
 
 Some mounds are of great extent. The mounds of Tanis, 
 for instance, cover no less than forty acres ; but then Tanis 
 (better known, perhaps, by its scriptural name, Zoan) was 
 a very important city, and more than once was the chosen 
 capital of the empire. Others are so small that they can 
 scarcely represent anything but hamlets or fortified posts. 
 
 But why, it may be asked, have these places, instead of fall- 
 ing into heaps of ruin, become converted into mounds ? Foi 
 the simple reason that the material of which they were con- 
 structed was mere earth, and so to earth they have returned. 
 Like the Arab fellah of the present day, the Egyptian of
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 7 
 
 five or six thousand years ago built his house of mud bricks 
 mixed with a little chopped straw, and dried in the sun. The 
 houses of the rich built of the same material were plas- 
 tered and stuccoed, the walls and ceilings being decorated 
 with elaborate polychrome designs, and the exterior relieved 
 by light wooden colonnades and balconies. The huts of the 
 poor were much the same as they are now mere beehives 
 of brown clay, which crumble slowly away in dry weather, 
 and melt if it rains. Easily built and easily replaced, they 
 were constantly falling out of repair, being levelled to the 
 ground, trodden down, and rebuilt. Thus, each new house 
 rose upon the ruins of the old one ; and every time the proc- 
 ess was repeated, a higher elevation was obtained for the 
 foundation. In a country subject to annual inundation this 
 in itself was an important advantage ; and so, in the course of 
 ages, what was probably a mere rising ground when first the 
 town was founded, became a lofty hill, visible for miles across 
 the plain. 
 
 Rightly to understand what I will venture to call the geo- 
 logical strata of an Egyptian mound, it is, however, necessary 
 to have some idea of the processes of its growth and decay. 
 These processes were everywhere the same ; and if I attempt 
 to sketch the history of a typical site, it must at the same 
 time be remembered that my description represents no one 
 mound in particular, but that it applies, in a general sense, 
 to all. 
 
 We will suppose our typical mound to be situate in the 
 Delta possibly in the old Land of Goshen and we will in 
 imagination go back to that distant time when as yet the 
 site was a mere barren sand-hill rising some twenty feet 
 above the level of the soil. Thesa sand -hillocks are the 
 last visible vestiges of the old ocean-bed which underlies the 
 whole of the Delta, beginning at Kalyub, about ten miles 
 below Cairo, and widening out like a gigantic fan to Alex- 
 andria on the western coast, to Damietta on the east. Now, 
 the entire Delta is one vast deposit of mud annually brought 
 down by the inundation of the Nile, and in the course of
 
 8 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 ages this mud has driven the sea back inch by inch, foot by 
 foot, for a distance of more than one hundred miles. These 
 sand-hills, which were formerly under the sea, are called by 
 the Arabs " Gezireh," or islands ; and they were naturally 
 resorted to by the earliest nomadic tribes as places of refuge 
 for themselves and their flocks during the season of the 
 inundation. For the same reason, they became the sites of 
 the first settlements. Every ancient ruin, every mound, every 
 modern town and village in the Delta rests on a sandy emi- 
 nence which once upon a time was covered by the blue 
 waters of the Mediterranean. 
 
 Here, then, on an irregular platform of yellow sand sur- 
 rounded by rich pastures in winter and summer, and by tur- 
 bid floods in autumn, a few half-barbarous shepherds erect 
 their primitive huts of wattle and daub ; and here they set 
 up a rude altar, consisting probably of a single upright 
 stone brought with much labor and difficulty from the near- 
 est point of the eastern or western cliffs. By-and-by, they 
 or their descendants enclose that altar in a little mud-built 
 shrine roofed over with palm branches, and wall in a sur- 
 rounding space of holy ground. 
 
 As the centuries roll on, this first rude sanctuary gives 
 place to a more ambitious structure built of stone ; and to 
 this structure successive generations add court-yards, porti- 
 cos, colonnades, gate- ways, obelisks, and statues in such num- 
 ber that by the time of the Nineteenth Dynasty that is to 
 say, about the time of the Oppression and the Exodus the 
 temple covers an area as large as St. Peter's at Rome. In 
 the meanwhile, the level of the inhabited parts of the town 
 has been steadily rising, and the crude -brick dwellings of 
 the townsfolk upraised like a coral-reef by the perpetual 
 deposition of building - rubbish have attained so great an 
 elevation that the temple actually stands in a deep hollow 
 in the middle of the city, as if erected in the crater of an ex- 
 tinct volcano. Such was the condition of the great Temple of 
 Bubastis when visited by Herodotus in the fifth century before 
 Christ ; and such, to this day, is the condition of the magnifi-
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 9 
 
 cent Temple of Edfu, excavated twenty years ago by Mariette. 
 Here the mound has been cut away all round the building, 
 which stands on the paved level of the ancient city, forty feet 
 below the spot from which one first looks down upon it. 
 
 "We have thus far traced the history of our typical mound 
 from its first rude beginnings to the apex of its prosperity. 
 As time goes on, however, and the last native Dynasties ex- 
 pire, the trade of the community languishes, the population 
 dwindles, and the temple falls out of repair. Then comes 
 the prosperous period of Greek rule. Commerce and letters 
 revive, and the Ptolemies repair the temple, or perhaps re- 
 build it. Next comes the Eoman period, closely followed by 
 the introduction of Christianity ; and by-and-by, when the 
 national religion is proscribed, a community of Coptic monks 
 take possession of the grand old building, converting its 
 chambers into cells, and its portico into a Christian church. 
 The town now overflows into what was once the sacred 
 area. Mud huts are plastered between sculptured walls and 
 painted columns, and the ground begins to rise in and 
 about the temple as formerly it had risen outside the en- 
 closure. Ere long the monks, weary of living at the bot- 
 tom of a pit, proceed to erect a new monastery in one of 
 the suburbs. The temple, therefore, is partly pulled down 
 for building material ; and its desecrated ruins, which now 
 constitute the poorest and most crowded quarter of the city, 
 become gradually choked within and without. At last, 
 even the roof is converted into a maze of huts and stables 
 swarming with human beings, poultry, dogs, kine, asses, 
 pigeons, and vermin. Thus, in process of time, the whole 
 building becomes buried, and its very site is forgotten. A 
 few centuries later the town is devastated by some great 
 calamity of plague or war, and, after an existence of perhaps 
 five thousand years, is finally deserted. Then the crude- 
 brick shells of its latest habitations crumble away, and 
 what was once a busy city clustered round a splendid tem- 
 ple, ends by becoming a heap of desolate, unsightly mounds 
 strewn with innumerable potsherds.
 
 10 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Such are the constituent parts of my typical mound ; and 
 all the mounds of Egypt are but variations upon this one 
 original theme. 
 
 A mound is a concrete piece of history ; and, given the 
 date of its first and last chapters, nothing is easier than to 
 predict what may be found in it. Let us now excavate this 
 typical mound, which began with prehistoric Egypt, and 
 ended, probably, about Anno Domini 600. The explorer who 
 should sink a vertical shaft through the heart of the mass 
 would cut through the relics of one hundred and sixty-eight 
 generations of men. It would not be one town which he 
 would lay open ; it would be an immense succession of towns, 
 stratum above stratum, with a semi-barbarian settlement at 
 the bottom and a Christian town at the top. Amid the 
 caked dust and rubbish of that Christian tow r n he would find 
 little terra-cotta lamps of the old classical shape, stamped 
 with the palm or cross. And he would find Koman coins, 
 Gnostic gems, and potsherds scribbled over with Coptic, 
 Greek, and demotic memoranda. Here, too hidden away, 
 perhaps, in an earthen jar, in the evil days of religious per- 
 secution he might hope to find a copy of the earliest 
 Coptic translation of the Scriptures, or a priceless second 
 century codex of the New Testament. 
 
 Next below this, in strata of the Greek period, he would 
 find coins of the Ptolemies, Greek and Egyptian inscriptions, 
 Greek and Egyptian papyri, images of Greek and Egyptian 
 gods, and works of art in the GraBCO - Egyptian and pure 
 Greek styles. Among other possible treasures might be dis- 
 covered a copy of Manetho's History of Egypt, or some of the 
 lost masterpieces of the Greek poets. Still working down- 
 ward, he would come upon evidences of various periods of 
 foreign conquest, in the form of Persian and Assyrian tab- 
 lets ; and below these, in strata of the Saite time, w r ould be 
 found exquisite works of art in bronze, sculpture, and per- 
 sonal ornaments. Even \vhen so low dow r n as the Nineteenth 
 Dynasty the grand epoch of Rameses the Great we are 
 not yet half through our mound. Under the debris of that
 
 THE EXPLORER IM EGYPT. 11 
 
 sumptuous period we may find traces of the Hyksos, or Shep- 
 herd Kings those mysterious inv r aders of Mongolian type 
 who ruled Egypt for five hundred years. Below this again, 
 we come upon relics of the magnificent Twelfth Dynasty ; 
 and so on down to the time of the Pyramid Kings, when we 
 should find scarabs of Pepi, Unas, Khafra, and Khufu, and 
 perhaps even of Mena himself ! Nor must the temple bur- 
 ied in the heart of our mound be forgotten a temple of 
 which, perhaps, no two stones are left standing the one upon 
 the other, but which, nevertheless, is rich in broken statues 
 of Kings and gods, and in fragmentary records of victories 
 and treaties, calendars of feasts, and votive inscriptions. 
 
 This sketch, however, is a mere outline of possibilities. 
 No mound would be likely to yield all these consecutive 
 links of history. Some would be found in one mound, and 
 some in another. There are mounds and mounds. Exca- 
 vation is a lottery, and the prizes vary in number and value. 
 Excepting, of course, the second century codex and the copy 
 of Manetho's History, almost every object which I have 
 named as likely to be discovered in my typical mound has, 
 however, actually been found in different places and at dif- 
 ferent times. I have myself picked up terra - cotta lamps 
 stamped with early Christian emblems on the mounds of 
 Memphis, inscribed potsherds in Nubia, scraps of beautiful 
 blue-glazed ware at Denderah, mummy -bandages in the tombs 
 of Thebes, and fragments of exquisite alabaster cups and 
 bowls in the shadow of the Great Sphinx at Ghizeh. The 
 mountain-slopes of Siut are strewn with cerement wrappings, 
 and the debris of mummies broken up for the sake of their 
 funerary amulets by the predatory Arabs ; and there is not 
 an ancient burial-ground, or mound, or ruined temple in 
 Egypt where the traveller who has patience enough to grub 
 under the soil beneath his feet may not find relics of the 
 dead and gone past. 
 
 The Yalley of the Nile is, in short, one great museum, of 
 which the contents are perhaps one-third or one-fourth part 
 only above ground. The rest is all below the surface, wait-
 
 12 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 ing to be discovered. Whether you go up the great river, 
 or strike off to east or west across the desert, your horizon 
 is always bounded by mounds, or by ruins, or by ranges 
 of mountains honey-combed with tombs. If you but stamp 
 your foot upon the sands, you know that it probably 
 awakens an echo in some dark vault or corridor, untrodden 
 of man for three or four thousand years. The mummied 
 generations are everywhere in the bowels of the mountains, 
 in the faces of the cliffs, in the rock-cut labyrinths which 
 underlie the surface of the desert. Exploration in such a 
 land as this is a kind of chase. You think that you have dis- 
 covered a scent. You follow it ; you lose it ; you find it again. 
 You go through every phase of suspense, excitement, hope, 
 disappointment, exultation. The explorer has need of all 
 his wits, and he learns to use them with the keenness of a 
 ISTorth American Indian. 
 
 Here his quick eye notes a depression in the soil, and be- 
 neath the sandy surface he detects something like the vague 
 outline of a vast chess-board. Do these indicate the founda- 
 tions of a building ? Farther on the ground is strewn with 
 splinters of limestone. Do they mark the wreck of a tomb ? 
 Yonder the mountain-side is seamed with beds of calcareous 
 deposit, layer above layer ; but at one point the cliff is broken 
 clear away, and this escarpment, whether natural or artificial, 
 is marked by a pile of fallen blocks and debris. Is this an 
 accident of nature, or does it mark the entrance to some 
 hitherto undiscovered sepulchre ? Here, again, is a mysteri- 
 ous sign cut on the face of a cliff, and here another, and an- 
 other. What do these figures mean? Do they point the 
 way to some cavern full of treasure hidden away thousands 
 of years ago, and has the rock been " blazed," as the Cana- 
 dian settler blazes the forest-trees, that he may know how to 
 retrace his steps ? 
 
 The slenderest clew may lead to good-fortune, and every 
 inch of the way is full of vague suggestions. 
 
 At last, guided half by experience, half by instinct, the 
 explorer decides on a spot and calls up his workmen. They
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 13 
 
 come perhaps a dozen half-naked Arabs and some fifteen 
 or twenty children the men armed with short picks, the 
 children with baskets in which to carry away the rubbish. 
 A hole is dug, the sand is cleared away, the stony bed of the 
 desert is reached, and there, just below the feet of the dig- 
 gers, a square opening is seen in the rock. There is a shout 
 of rejoicing. More men are called up, and the work begins 
 in earnest. The shaft, however, is choked with sand and 
 mud. A little lower down, and it is filled with a sort of 
 concrete composed of chips of limestone, pebbles, sand, and 
 water, which is almost as compact as the native rock. The 
 men get down to a depth of six, twelve, fifteen, twenty feet. 
 The baskets are now loaded at the bottom and hauled up, 
 generally spilling half their contents by the way. 
 
 At last the sun goes down ; twilight comes up apace ; and 
 the bottom of the square black funnel seems as far off as ever. 
 Then the men trudge off to their homes, followed by the 
 tired children ; and the explorer suddenly finds out that he 
 has had nothing to eat since seven o'clock in the morning, 
 and that he has a furious headache. He goes back, however, 
 at the same hour next morning, and for as many next morn- 
 ings as need be till the end is reached. That may not be 
 for a week or a fortnight. Some tomb-pits are from a hun- 
 dred to a hundred and fifty feet deep ; and some pits lead to 
 a subterraneous passage another hundred or hundred and 
 fifty feet long, which has to be cleared before the sepul- 
 chral chamber can be entered. When that long - looked-for 
 moment comes at last, the explorer trusts himself to the 
 rO p e a flimsy twist of palm fibre, which becomes visibly 
 thinner from the strain and goes down as if into a mine. 
 
 What will he find to reward him for time spent and pa- 
 tience wearied ? Who shall say ? Perhaps a great nobleman 
 of the time of Thothmes III. or of Eameses the Great, lying 
 in state, just as they left him there three thousand years ago, 
 enclosed in three coffins gorgeous with gold and colors ; his 
 carven staff, his damascened battle-axe, his alabaster vases, 
 his libation vessels, and his " funeral baked meats," all un-
 
 14: PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 touched and awaiting his resurrection. For so lie the royal 
 and noble dead of those foregone days : 
 
 "Cased in cedar and wrapped in a sacred gloom; 
 Swathed in linen and precious unguents old ; 
 Painted with cinnabar and rich with gold. 4 
 
 Silent they rest in solemn salvatory, 
 Sealed from the moth and the owl and the flitter- mouse, 
 Each with his name on his breast." 
 
 Or perhaps the explorer may find only a broken coffin, 
 some fragments of mummy-cloth, and a handful of bones. 
 The Arabs or the Romans, the Greeks or the Persians, or 
 perhaps the ancient Egyptians themselves, have been there 
 before him, and all the buried treasures the arms, the jew- 
 els, the amulets, the papyri are gone. 
 
 Yet, even so, there may be an inscription carved on one of 
 the walls or passages which alone is worth all the cost of 
 opening the tomb. It may possibly be a new chapter of 
 "The Book of the Dead"; or a genealogical table of the 
 family of the deceased, restoring some lost link in a royal 
 Dynasty ; or perhaps a few lines scratched by an ancient 
 Greek or Roman tourist who happened to be there when the 
 tomb was plundered in the days of the Ptolemies or the 
 CaBsars. The traveller of olden time was as fond of leaving 
 his autograph on the monuments as any Cook's tourist of 
 to-day, and an ancient traveller's graffito may be of great his- 
 torical interest. The explorer who should find the autograph 
 of Herodotus or Plato would feel that he had made a discov- 
 ery worth at least as much as a papyrus, and more than a 
 good many mummies. 
 
 Such an exploration as I have just described would belong 
 to Upper Egypt, where the ruins are all above ground, and 
 where the explorer's object is mainly to discover subterrane- 
 ous tombs.* In Lower Egypt, his work assumes a quite dif- 
 
 * This description (from page 12 to page 14) of an exploration in Upper 
 Egypt is a free adaptation from a passage in Professor Maspero's address, 
 delivered to the pupils of the Lycee Henri Quatre in August, 1887.
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 
 
 15 
 
 ferent character. There he has to deal chiefly with mounds 
 huge rubbish-heaps from twenty to sixty or seventy feet 
 in height which extend over many acres, and mark the sites 
 of deserted and forgotten cities. The labor here is all above 
 the surface; but it is none the less difficult on that account, 
 and none the less costly. The work of the Egypt Explora- 
 
 TELL NEBESHEH. 
 
 upon its right side, may be detected the seated colossal statue of Rnniese 
 
 attorn, 
 
 Tell Nebesheh is here shown as it appeared at the close of Mr. Petrie's exca\ 
 the spot selected for excavation being the site of the great pylon gate-win 
 vance of the temple ruins. The black granite sphinx (headless) is seen n mid- 
 dle distance to left; and in the centre, on the edge of this group of ruins. Iving 
 
 II. 
 
 tion Fund, for instance, has hitherto been restricted to the 
 Delta, and its excavations have all been excavations of 
 mounds. I know, therefore, only too well what unmanage- 
 able and expensive articles they are, and how heavily they 
 tax the energies and health of the explorer. 
 
 A mound may be situate some fifteen or twenty miles
 
 16 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 from the nearest railway station, market-town, or post-office. 
 It may be in a district so thinly populated that the work- 
 men have to be hired from a distance, and are obliged to 
 camp out in the open desert. Long after the annual inun- 
 dation has subsided south of Cairo a mound in the Delta 
 may be surrounded by unwholesome swamps, and be unap- 
 proachable except by the higher order of amphibia, such as 
 the explorer and his followers. 
 
 When Mr. Petrie and Mr. Griffith went to Tell Nebesheh 
 in the month of February, 1886, they literally landed on an 
 unknown island in the Eastern Delta, far from the Nile, far 
 from the Mediterranean, and farther still from the Gulf of 
 Suez. This statement, if unexplained, might well be received 
 with polite incredulity ; but it is literally true. 
 
 The winter floods were still out ; the marshes were lakes ; 
 the desert was mud ; the roads were under water. Mr. Petrie, 
 coming from the westward by canal-boat, found himself put 
 ashore, with three miles of swamp (including a canal, which 
 he waded) between himself and his destination. Mr. Griffith, 
 coming from the south-east, encountered worse swamps, and 
 a canal both wider and deeper, which he was obliged to 
 swim. To the southward, to the northward, it was all the 
 same water and sand, water and mud, water and marsh. 
 On this dreary island the two explorers lived and labored for 
 some eight or ten weeks, and it was not till the last month of 
 their sojourn that the surrounding country became really dry. 
 Nor could they be said, meanwhile, to have lived in the lap 
 of luxury. They were lodged in a guest-chamber attached 
 to the house of the Sheikh of JSTebesheh, who rode into the 
 room every evening on his donkey and paid them a visit of 
 two hours. This room was of large size, with an earthen 
 floor strongly impregnated with salt, and always damp. An 
 earthen divan, under which the rats burrowed in legions, ran 
 round the walls ; and the ceiling was made of palm trunks, 
 along which the said rats ran upsidedown with alarming 
 activity from sunset till dawn. 
 
 Like many places in Egypt, modern as well as ancient, this
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 17 
 
 mound rejoiced in a variety of names, being known as Tell 
 Nebesheh, alias Tell Bedawi, alias Tell Farun. The first is 
 the name of the modern village; the second means "the 
 mound of the Bedouin " ; the third (perpetuating, perhaps, 
 an echo of old tradition) means "the mound of the Pha- 
 raoh." " The mound of graves " would be a better name 
 than any of these, for the place proved to be a vast and very 
 ancient cemetery, the level of which had been raised from 
 age to age by successive strata of interments. Moreover, it 
 was a large mound ; so large that, besides the above-named 
 cemetery, it contained the remains of two ancient towns and 
 the site of a temple. The temple occupied the eastern ex- 
 tremity of the mound, and was formerly surrounded by a 
 sacred enclosure about six hundred feet square. 
 
 Now this cemetery turned out to be a very curious place, 
 quite unlike the cemeteries of Memphis, Abydos, and Thebes. 
 It consisted of an immense number of small chambers, or 
 isolated groups of chambers, scattered irregularly over a 
 sandy plain. These were built of unbaked brick and roofed 
 with barrel- vaulting. Some of the largest were cased (or lined, 
 if subterranean) with limestone. These tomb-chambers dated 
 from about the period of the Twentieth Dynasty. In later 
 times in the sixth century B.C., and after large blocks of 
 about a dozen chambers became frequent. These tombs had 
 nearly all been pillaged in early times, so that in a hundred 
 only half a dozen bodies were found ; and not only had the 
 chambers fallen to decay, but they had been levelled, and oth- 
 ers built on them, so that three or four successive occupa- 
 tions of the same ground might be traced. In some of these 
 vaults Mr. Petrie found quantities of bones indiscriminately 
 piled, not as if they had been thrown in by spoilers or tomb- 
 breakers, but as if they had been dug up en masse from some 
 other site, and reinterred without ceremony. 
 
 In one of the earlier tombs no fewer than two hun- 
 dred uninscribed funerary statuettes in green-glazed pottery 
 were found ; and in another some thirty thousand beads of 
 glass, silver, and lapis lazuli. Bronze spear-heads, amulets, 
 2
 
 18 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 scarabs, etc., were also turned up in considerable numbers. 
 Last, but in point of interest certainly not least, came the 
 discovery of two sets of masonic deposits under the corners 
 of an unimportant building in the cemetery. These consist- 
 ed of miniature mortars, corn-rubbers, and specimen plaques 
 of materials used in the building, such as glazed-ware, va- 
 rious colored marbles, jasper, and the like. 
 
 A magnificent gray granite sarcophagus inscribed for a 
 prince and priest of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, and part of 
 a limestone statue dedicated to Harpakhrat, the " child Ho- 
 rus," whose legendary birthplace was in these Delta marsh- 
 lands, yielded the Egyptian name of this site, which repre- 
 sented all that remained of the ancient city of Am; while 
 among other valuable monuments exhumed in the course of 
 the excavations were a black granite altar of the reign of 
 Amenemhat II., third Pharaoh of the great Twelfth Dynas- 
 ty ; two thrones in red sandstone, belonging to statues of 
 royal personages of the same line ; a colossal seated statue 
 of Kameses II., in black granite ; and, most interesting of 
 all, a headless black granite sphinx, ( 3 ) upon which successive 
 Pharaohs had engraved their cartouches, or royal ovals, each 
 in turn erasing the names and titles of his predecessors. The 
 description of this granite palimpsest is best given in Mr. 
 Petrie's own words, as written in his weekly report at the 
 time of the discovery : 
 
 " Originally made under the Twelfth Dynasty, to judge 
 by the style, it has erased cartouches on the chest, between 
 the paws, on each shoulder, on the right flank (the left being 
 broken away), and, sixthly, an erased inscription around the 
 base. Besides these, two legible inscriptions remain name- 
 ly, the cartouche of Seti II. on the chest, and the cartouches 
 of Set-nekht [Rameses I.] on the left shoulder." 
 
 If, however, statues and inscriptions and funerary treas- 
 ures are the reward of the explorer, he pays amply for that 
 reward in personal discomfort, and sometimes even in actual 
 privation. At Tell Defenneh, where Mr. Petrie made his cel- 
 ebrated discovery of the ruins of " Pharaoh's House at Tah-
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 
 
 19 
 
 panhes," there were greater hardships to be borne than at 
 Tell Nebesheh. Here the mounds were hemmed in between 
 a barren desert and a brackish lake ; there was no food pur- 
 chasable nearer than Zagazig, some fifteen miles distant, 
 
 TELL-EL-YAHUDIEH. 
 
 This mound, excavated by M. Naville in 1887, gives an excellent idea of a mound 
 which has been cut and caved away by many generations of Arab husbandmen. 
 The whole mound was originally a homogeneous mass of the height of the near- 
 est mass, which is scaled by the small human figures to the left of the picture. 
 
 and the water was barely drinkable. The diggers lived on 
 mere lentils, and in default of any shelter from the burning 
 sun of mid-day and the cold chills of midnight, they dug out 
 burrows for themselves in the sand-hillocks, and roofed them 
 over with tamarisk boughs. Mr. Petrie, of course, had his 
 tent ; but in the matter of food he was not much better off 
 than his Arabs, having only biscuits and tinned vegetables 
 in his scanty larder. 
 
 When Mr. Petrie, Mr. Griffith, and Mr. Ernest Gardner
 
 20 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 were working all three together at Naukratis they divided 
 the work ; one superintending the excavation of the Temple 
 of Aphrodite, another the excavation of the ancient town, 
 and the third the excavation of the cemetery. Then arose a 
 very important question which should undertake the cook- 
 ing, and which should do the washing-up ? JS~ow the work 
 in the town was the heaviest, so he who took the heaviest 
 task could not also be the cook. The cemetery, again, was 
 a long way off, and the cook could not therefore go to and 
 fro between the camp and the cemetery. The temple, though 
 requiring great care and attention, was really the lightest 
 work; so it w r as finally agreed that the town should take 
 life easily when not on duty in the diggings, that the temple 
 should do the cooking, and that the cemetery should do the 
 washing-up. 
 
 The explorer, of all men, must " scorn delights and live 
 laborious days." His day must begin at sunrise, when his 
 workmen are due. First he must go round and assign to each 
 worker his individual task, booking every man's name as he 
 comes in : this takes perhaps one hour and a half. He then 
 goes to his tent and has breakfast, and after breakfast he 
 makes his second round. He now helps, perhaps, to move a 
 huge block or two, stirs up the lazy digger, catches a pilferer 
 in the act and dismisses him, separates gossips, copies inscrip- 
 tions, or takes photographs, with the sun blazing overhead 
 and the thermometer standing at 99 in the shade. In the 
 evening he writes reports, journals, and letters ; classifies and 
 catalogues the objects discovered during the day ; draws plans, 
 makes up his accounts, and so forth. At last he goes to bed, 
 dead tired, and is kept awake half the night by predatory 
 rats, mice, and other " small deer." At Tanis the mice were 
 simply unbearable. Being field-mice, they would not walk 
 into traps like civilized mice, so the explorer's only resource 
 was to burn a night-light and shoot them. Now to lie in 
 bed and shoot mice with a revolver is surely a form of sport 
 exclusively reserved for the explorer in Egypt. Flies, of 
 course, are legion, and the white ant is a perpetual plague of
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 
 
 21 
 
 the first water. Besides a way they have of transporting 
 biscuits, dates, coffee, sugar, and all sorts of portable provi- 
 sions to their own private residences, these horrid insects 
 have an abnormal appetite for paper, and consume reports, 
 correspondence, and even hieroglyphic dictionaries as ea- 
 gerly as young ladies devour novels and romances. 
 
 The great field of archaeological exploration in Egypt is 
 not by any means an easy field to cultivate. The ground 
 has gone to waste for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years, 
 and become sheer wilderness ; and he who would hope to 
 
 TELL NEBIREH. 
 
 Two of the great trenches cut by Mr. Petrie are visible in the illustration, one at 
 the north end, the other at the" south end of the mound. On the highest part to 
 the left is an Arab cemetery. 
 
 reap a harvest from it must clear it, dig it, and put in a 
 
 vast amount of that expensive patent manure called brains. 
 
 Few, very few, probably, of those who " sit at home at 
 
 ease " have any clear notion of the qualifications which go
 
 22 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 to make an explorer of the right sort still less of the kind 
 of life he is wont to lead when engaged in the work of ex- 
 ploration. They know that he goes to Egypt just as our 
 November fogs are coming on, and that he thereby escapes 
 our miserable English winter. They also know that he lives 
 in a tent, and that he spends his time in " discovering things." 
 Now what can be more romantic than life in a tent ? And 
 what can possibly be more charming than "discovering 
 things?" They may not be very clear as to the nature of 
 the " things " in question ; but they, at all events, conceive 
 of his life as a series of delightful surprises, and of himself 
 as the favorite of fortune, having but to dip his hand into a 
 sort of archaeological lottery -box, and take out nothing but 
 prizes. Of the judgment, the patience, the skill which are 
 needed in the mere selection of a site for excavation ; of the 
 vigilance which has to be exercised while the excavations are 
 in progress ; of the firm but good-humored authority requi- 
 site for the control of a large body of Oriental laborers ; of 
 the range of knowledge indispensable for the interpretation 
 and classification of the objects which may be discovered, 
 the outside public has no more conception than I have of 
 the qualities and training necessary for the command of an 
 iron-clad. 
 
 In the first place, the explorer in Egypt must have a fair 
 knowledge of colloquial Arabic, no small share of diplomatic 
 tact, a strong will, an equable temper, and a good consti- 
 tution. It is important that he should be well acquainted 
 with Egyptian, Biblical, Babylonian, Assyrian, Greek, and 
 Roman history ; for the annals of these nations continually 
 overlap, or are dovetailed into one another, and the explorer 
 is at any time likely to come upon cuneiform tablets such as 
 have lately been found in large numbers at Tell el Amarna, 
 in Upper Egypt ; or upon relics of the Hebrews, such as the 
 ancient Jewish cemetery discovered by M. Naville at Tell 
 el Yahudieh, in Lower Egypt, in 1887 ; or upon Greek docu- 
 ments, Greek pottery, and Greek terra-cottas, such as have 
 rewarded the labors of Mr. Petrie, Mr. Griffith, and Mr.
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 
 
 23 
 
 Ernest Gardner at Naukratis, in the Eastern Delta. Frag- 
 ments of Homer, Alcaeus, Sappho, and other Greek poets 
 have been found from time to time in Egypt during the pres- 
 ent century, some scribbled on 
 potsherds and some written on 
 papyrus.( 4 ) It is not three years 
 since Mr. Petrie found a com- 
 plete copy of the Second Book 
 of the " Iliad," written on papy- 
 rus in most beautiful uncial 
 Greek by a scribe of the second 
 century after Christ, and buried 
 under the head of a woman in 
 the GraBCO-Egyptian necropolis 
 of Hawara, in the Fayum. The 
 woman had apparently been 
 young and beautiful. Her teeth 
 were small and regular, and her 
 long, silky black hair had been 
 cut off and laid in a thick coil 
 upon her breast. Was she a 
 
 Greek, or was she an Egyptian lady learned in the language 
 of the schools ? We know not. There was no inscription to 
 tell of her nationality or her name. We only know that she 
 was young and fair, and that she so loved her Homer that it 
 was buried with her in the grave. Her head and her beau- 
 tiful black hair are now in the Ethnographical Department 
 of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, and 
 her precious papyrus is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. 
 
 To appreciate and report upon such a find as this, or upon 
 the inscriptions discovered at Naukratis, the explorer must, 
 of course, be a fairly competent Greek scholar. 
 
 Still more of course must he be sufficiently conversant 
 with the ancient Egyptian language to translate any hiero- 
 glyphic inscriptions which he may discover. A knowledge 
 of trigonometry, though not absolutely indispensable, is of 
 value in surveying sites and determining ancient levels. 
 
 ARCHAIC HEAD OF CYPRIOTE TYPE. 
 
 Found iu the ruins of Naukratis.
 
 M PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 But, above all, the explorer must be a good " all-round " ar- 
 chaeologist. 
 
 Now, does the world meaning thereby the great body of 
 cultivated readers at all realize what it is to be a good " all- 
 round " archa3ologist ? It must be remembered, first of all, 
 what that science is, or rather that aggregate of sciences, 
 which goes by the name of Archaeology. Were I asked 
 to define it, I should reply that archaeology is that science 
 which enables us to register and classify our knowledge of 
 the sum of man's achievement in those arts and handicrafts 
 whereby he has, in time past, signalized his passage from 
 barbarism to civilization. The first chapter of this science 
 takes up the history of the human race at a date coeval with 
 the mammoth and other extinct mammalia; and its last 
 chapter, which must always be in a state of transition, may 
 be said to end for the present with about a hundred or a 
 hundred and fifty years ago. 
 
 Now archaeology in Egypt begins later, and ends earlier, 
 than archaeology in this broad and general sense. We have 
 never yet got far enough behind the first chapters of Egyp- 
 tian history to discover any traces of a stone age.( 5 ) The 
 stone age of the Nile Valley, if it ever existed, underlies 
 such a prodigious stratum of semi-barbaric civilization that 
 the spade of the excavator has not yet reached it. Also, 
 Egyptian archaeology, properly so called, ends with the 
 last chapter of Egyptian history ; that is to say, with the 
 abolition of the ancient religion in the latter half of the 
 fourth century of our era. Hence, our explorer in Egypt is 
 only called upon to be an "all-round" archaeologist within 
 the field of the national history : namely, from the time 
 of Mena, the prototype of Egyptian royalty, who probably 
 reigned about five thousand years before Christ, down to 
 the time of the Emperor Theodosius, Anno Domini 379. 
 Yet even within that limit, he has to know a great deal 
 about a vast number of things. He must be familiar with 
 all the styles and periods of Egyptian architecture, sculpture, 
 and decoration; with the forms, patterns, and glazes of Egyp-
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 
 
 25 
 
 tian pottery ; with the distinctive characteristics of the 
 mummy -cases, sarcophagi, methods of embalmment and 
 styles of bandaging peculiar to interments of various epochs ; 
 and with all phases of the art of writing, hieroglyphic, hie- 
 ratic, and demotic. Kor is this all. He must know by the 
 measurement of a mud brick, by the color of a glass bead, 
 by the modelling of a porcelain statuette, by the pattern of 
 
 PLAN OF NAUKRATIS. 
 
 The plan is reduced from Mr. Petrie's large plate in " Nankratis," Part I., and 
 shows the lines of the ancient streets, and the sites of such temples and public 
 buildings as were discovered in the course of the first season's work, including 
 the Great Temenos (Pan-Hellenion). The temples of Hera and Aphrodite were 
 found the following year. The canal to left follows the course of the ancient 
 canal which formed the famous " port " of the city.
 
 26 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 an ear-ring, to what period each should be assigned. He 
 must be conversant with all the types of all the gods ; and 
 last, not least, he must be able to recognize a forgery at first 
 sight. 
 
 After this, it must I think be admitted that the explorer, 
 like the poet, is " born, not made." The wonder perhaps is 
 that he should ever be born at all. Fortunately, however, 
 for the cause of knowledge, this phenomenal individual does 
 from time to time make his appearance upon earth ; and ac- 
 cording to the form he assumes under his different avatars, 
 he proceeds to excavate Troy, Curium, Halicarnassus, Nin- 
 eveh, Bubastis, or Naukratis. 
 
 The discovery and excavation of the scanty ruins of this 
 last site the famous and long-lost city of Naukratis was 
 due to Mr. Petrie. Former travellers had, for the last fifty 
 years, sought for it in vain, and given up the quest in de- 
 spair. Ebers looked for it at Dessuk, and Mariette at Sal- 
 hadscher, in the neighborhood of Sai's. Mr. Petrie found it, 
 almost by accident, in the course of an archaeological tramp 
 undertaken at the commencement of his working season in 
 188-4. He was tracking the western frontier-line of the Del- 
 ta, and thus came across a large mound some three thousand 
 feet in length by fifteen hundred feet in width, the surface 
 of which was so- thickly strewn with fragments of fine 
 Greek figured ware that it was impossible to walk upon 
 it in any direction without crushing these beautiful pot- 
 sherds at every step. It was, in fact, to quote his own 
 words, "like walking through the smashings of the vase- 
 room of the British Museum." It was to this place that he 
 returned in 1885, when he made one of the most important 
 historical and archaeological discoveries which have ever 
 rewarded the labors of the explorer in Egypt. 
 
 The local name of the mound and of the adjacent village 
 (for which it is vain to look in any guide-book maps) is Ne- 
 bireh. The place lies about equidistant between Alexandria 
 and Cairo, and about six miles west -north -west of Tell el 
 Barud. When Mr. Petrie first found his way thither, he
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 
 
 27 
 
 FOUNDATION DEPOSITS OF PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS, B.C. 286-274. 
 
 The model mortar is the most distant object in the group, which consists of seven 
 ranks. In the second rank are the corn-rubbers, i.e. two pieces of red granite, 
 the one concave, the other convex. Rank 3, two libation vases in green glazed 
 ware. Rank 4, four libation cups in same ware. Rank 5, bronze trowels and 
 chisels, and two pegs of alabaster. Rank 6, bronze hatchet, chisels, sacrificial 
 knife, and two pegs of alabaster. Rank 7, specimens of materials, mud brick; 
 plaque of glazed ware; ingots of gold, silver, lead, copper, and iron; fragments 
 of lapis lazuli, agate, jasper, turquoise, and obsidian. This set of masonic de- 
 posits, as also those discovered by M. Naville at Tell Qarraus, are in the British 
 Museum. 
 
 was the first European traveller who had set foot in that 
 secluded hamlet; and when he applied for permission to 
 excavate the mound, he found the place unknown, even 
 by name, to the official, world at Bulak. The painted pot- 
 sherds with which the place was strewn, literally " thick as 
 leaves in Vallombrosa," proved on examination to be even 
 more beautiful and various than he had at first supposed. 
 Here were cup-handles with men's heads modelled in relief;
 
 28 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 fragments of archaic vases painted in black and crimson on 
 a buff ground with figures of griffins, hogs, and the like; 
 fragments of light brown ware with archaic animals in 
 black and red, the ground parseme with flowers ; others of 
 the finest work, w r ith figures of horses, goddesses, and so 
 forth, left in the brown body on a black ground ; and a 
 great abundance of all the common sorts of red pottery 
 with raised patterns of lines and balls, brown with red fret- 
 work, black on bronze picked out with chocolate and white, 
 and many more varieties than I have space to enumerate. 
 With these he also found fragments of Greek and Cypriote 
 statuettes in limestone and alabaster; pottery and limestone 
 whorls (some notched where worn by the thread) ; stamped 
 amphora-handles, Greek and Egyptian weights, beads, terra- 
 cotta statuettes, and small objects of various kinds in green 
 glazed ware. 
 
 Strangely enough, Mr. Petrie seems to have had no sus- 
 picion of the truth, and when, on the fourth day after his 
 arrival at JNebireh, he discovered a limestone slab engraved 
 with an inscription in honor of one Heliodorus, a citizen of 
 Naukratis, he was utterly taken by surprise. " I almost 
 jumped," he said, " when I read these words :* 
 
 " ' The City of Naukratis [honors] 
 Heliodorus, son of Dorion Philo . . . 
 Priest of Athena for life . . . 
 Keeper of The Records for virtue and good-will.'" 
 
 So, here was ISTaukratis that ancient and famous mart 
 where Greek and Egyptian first dwelt and traded together 
 on equal terms; Naukratis, founded, as it is believed, by 
 Milesian colonists; granted, with special privileges and char- 
 ters, to the Hellenic tribes by Amasis II. of the Twen- 
 
 * H nOAIS H NAYKPAT U . . . 
 HAIOA12 PON AQPI12NO2 $IA9 . . . 
 TON. . . EATH2 A6HNA2 AIABION . . . 
 2YI. . . PA<t>0<f>YAA APET2KA . . . 
 ENEKTH2 EI2 AYTHN ,
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 
 
 29 
 
 ty-sixth Egyptian Dynasty; and renowned in the times of 
 Athenaeus and Herodotus for the skill of its potters and the 
 taste of its florists ! And now discovery followed fast upon 
 discovery, every day's work bringing more and more corrob- 
 orative evidence to light. Inscriptions, coins, sculptures, 
 bronzes, terra-cottas turned up in astonishing profusion, and 
 among other treasures a fine slab engraved with the dedica- 
 tion of a palaestra, or public wrestling-school, for the youth 
 of the city. As the trenching and clearing progressed, yet 
 more important results were obtained. 
 The sites, ruins, and sacred enclosures of 
 two temples dedicated to Apollo the 
 one erected upon the debris of the other 
 were first brought to light. 
 
 The earlier structure was built of lime- 
 stone, and, to judge by the style of col- 
 umns and cornice, dates from about B.C. 
 TOO to B.C. 600. The later (circa B.C. 400) 
 was of white marble, and exquisitely dec- 
 orated. Close outside the temenos-wall 
 of one of these temples Mr. Petrie came 
 upon a great deposit of magnificent liba- 
 tion-bowls, accidentally broken in the 
 service of the temple, and thrown out 
 as useless. Most of them are inscribed 
 with votive dedications by pious Mile- 
 sians, Teans, and others. Later on, the 
 remains of the famous Pan-IIellenion, 
 and the ruins of the temples of Hera, 
 Zeus, and Aphrodite were discovered, all 
 of them mentioned by Herodotus and 
 Athenaeus. These discoveries were the 
 
 WOrk of two Successive Seasons, the first 
 
 ' 
 
 season's explorations being conducted by 
 Mr. Petrie, and the second by Mr. Ernest 
 A. Gardner, now Director of the English 
 
 School of Archaeology at Athens. The Greek department. 
 
 ARCHAIC STATCKTTE 
 OF A HUNTER. 
 
 Fmind in the ming of 
 the Temple of
 
 30 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 lines of the streets of the ancient city were yet traceable ; the 
 "potters' quarter" was identified; and not only were several 
 of the potters' kilns found intact, but also the ruins of a pot- 
 ter's factory. This potter, whomsoever he may have been, 
 did a great trade in scarabs. He made all sorts of things 
 miscellaneous amulets, toys, gods, beads, and so forth but 
 scarabs were his specialty. The Egyptian scarab is now so 
 familiar an object in all museums and private collections 
 that I need hardly describe how these tiny amulets are made 
 in the shape of a beetle the backs exactly imitated from 
 nature, but the undersides engraved, like seals, with an im- 
 mense variety of devices, such as mottoes, sacred emblems, 
 figures of gods and kings, scrolls, animals, fish, flowers, and 
 the like.(') In the ruins of this old artist's workshops Mr. 
 Petrie found hundreds of scarabs, finished and unfinished, 
 hundreds of clay moulds for casting the same, lumps of vari- 
 ous pigments for coloring the scarabs, and other appliances 
 of the trade. The scarab-maker's business came somehow 
 to an untimely end about five hundred and seventy years 
 before Christ ; for the place had evidently been suddenly 
 deserted, all the good man's stock in trade being left behind. 
 As the Greek colonists fought at that time on the side of 
 Apries, the legitimate Pharaoh, when Amasis revolted and 
 usurped the throne, we may fairly conclude that Naukratis 
 suffered for the loyalty of her inhabitants, and that our 
 scarab-maker was ruined with the rest of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 In another part of the town Mr. Petrie came upon the 
 remains of a jeweller's workshop, containing a quantity of 
 lump silver, and a large store of beautiful archaic Greek 
 coins, fresh from the mint of Athens. These coins had nev- 
 er been in circulation, and they were doubtless intended to 
 be made up into necklaces and ear-rings, after a fashion much 
 admired by the fair ladies of Hellas, and recently revived by 
 the jewellers of modern Europe. 
 
 Most important, also, is the evidence here brought to bear 
 upon the origin and growth of the ceramic arts of Greece. 
 Patterns which we had long believed to be purely Greek are
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 
 
 31 
 
 now traced back, step by step, to Egyptian originals. The 
 well - known " Greek honeysuckle " pattern, for instance, is 
 found to be neither Greek nor honeysuckle. The Naukratis 
 pottery furnishes specimens of this design in all its stages. 
 In its most archaic form, it 
 is neither more nor less than 
 the stock "lotus pattern" 
 of the Egyptian potters. (') 
 Taken in hand by the Greek, 
 it becomes expanded, light- 
 ened, and transformed. Yet 
 more important is the light 
 thrown upon the origin and 
 development of Greek art. 
 "We have long known that 
 the early Greek, when emerg- 
 ing from prehistoric barbar- 
 ism, must have gone to school 
 to the Delta and the Valley 
 of the Nile, not only for his 
 first lessons in letters and 
 science, but also for his earli- 
 est notions of architecture 
 and the arts. Now, however, 
 for the first time, we are 
 placed in possession of direct 
 evidence of these facts. We 
 see the process of teaching 
 
 ~on the part of the elder nation, and of learning on the part 
 of the younger. Every link in the chain which connects the 
 ceramic art of Greece with the ceramic art of Egypt is dis- 
 played before our eyes in the potsherds of Naukratis. 
 
 More novel and curious than all, however, was a series of 
 discoveries of ceremonial deposits buried under the four cor- 
 ners of a building adjoining the Pan-Hellenion.( 8 ) 
 
 The enclosure wall of the Pan - Hellenion was fifty feet 
 thick and forty feet high, and it was built about six hun- 
 
 HEAD OF APHRODITE. 
 
 From the ruins of the Temple of Aph- 
 rodite, Nauki-atis. Alexandrian pe- 
 riod. This head is in the British 
 Museum, Greek department.
 
 32 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 dred or six hundred and fifty years before the Christian era. 
 "Within this enclosure were clustered not only the temples 
 of the gods, but the treasury and storehouses of the citi- 
 zens, who were essentially a trading and manufacturing com- 
 munity. In a later age Ptolemy Philadelphus appears to 
 have filled up a breach in this wall with a great building 
 and gate-way, and it was under the four corners of this gate- 
 way that the masonic deposits of the royal builder were 
 found. Under each corner, upon the dark clay of the soil, 
 had been laid a little bed of white sand ; and in this bed of 
 white sand, which Mr. Petrie scraped away with his own 
 hands, he found a whole series of diminutive models laid in 
 a specially prepared hole, upon which sand had afterwards 
 been poured in such wise as completely to cover the objects 
 beneath. 
 
 These objects were of three kinds ; namely, models of tools, 
 models of materials, and models commemorative of the cere- 
 mony performed in laying the foundations. There was, for 
 instance, a model hoe for digging out the ground ; a model 
 rake, such as those used for making mortar ; a model adze ; a 
 model chisel ; a tiny trowel for spreading the mortar ; a model 
 hatchet for shaping the beams ; and four little alabaster pegs 
 models of those used to mark out the four corners of the 
 building. These were the models of tools. 
 
 Then came models of articles used in the masonic cere- 
 mony : a model mortar and pair of corn-rubbers, a pair of 
 model libation-vases, and four model cups in glazed pottery. 
 These, probably, had reference to some rite in which offerings 
 of bread, oil, and wine were made. Also, there was found 
 with them a model sacrificial knife and axe, such as might be 
 used for the slaying of victims. These were the ceremonial 
 objects. 
 
 Finally, there were samples of materials : a model brick of 
 Kile cla} T ; a tiny plaque of glazed-ware ; other plaques of la- 
 pis lazuli, agate, jasper, turquoise, and obsidian ; a Liliputian 
 ingot of iron ; and other ingots of copper, silver, lead, and gold. 
 The largest of these are less than a domino, and the majority
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 33 
 
 are less than half that size. Last of all last and lowest so 
 firmly attached by a bed of rust to the handle of a second min- 
 iature bronze trowel that it could not be removed without dan- 
 ger of breakage, was found a little plaque of oval lapis lazuli 
 in the form of a royal cartouche, engraved with the names and 
 titles of Ptolemy Philadelphus. The model clay brick shows 
 the material of the mass of the building ; the plaque of glazed- 
 ware represents the tile-facings and general surface decora- 
 tion; while the plaques of precious stones show the more 
 costly substances used for inlaying. These objects are now 
 in the British Museum. They are most beautifully wrought, 
 in perfect preservation, and so small, that they would all lie 
 upon a sheet of letter-paper. This was the first discovery of 
 masonic deposits ever made in Egypt, and it marks an en- 
 tirely new departure in the field of exploration. It is impos- 
 sible, indeed, to over-estimate the historical value of a dis- 
 covery which thus places in our hands for future use a key to 
 the age and date of every important building in Egypt. 
 
 This discovery was made five years ago, and it has already 
 borne abundant fruit. Masonic deposits were found by Mr. 
 Petrie in 1886, at Tell Nebesheh, under the substructions of a 
 temple built by Amasis II. in the ancient Egyptian city of 
 
 VOTIVE BOWL 
 
 (mended) discovered in the great trench of the Temple of Aphrodite, Naukratis. 
 British Museum, 
 
 3
 
 34 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS, 
 
 TOTITE BOWL 
 
 (mended) discovered in the great trench of the Temple of Aphrodite, Naukratis. 
 British Museum. 
 
 Am ; and again under the substructions of a ruined temple 
 at Tell Gemayemi, during the same year, by Mr. Griffith. 
 At Tell Qarmus, in 1887, M. Naville also discovered a se- 
 ries of ceremonial deposits of the time of Philip Arrhideus. 
 Explorers, in short, now make systematic search for founda- 
 tion deposits, and up to the present time, with but one ex- 
 ception, they have invariably found them. 
 
 No large works of sculpture were found in the ruins of 
 Naukratis, with the exception of two much-damaged sphinx- 
 es and the remains of a headless colossal ram in white mar- 
 ble. Hands, feet, and other fragments of life-size statues 
 were, however, turned up in the precincts of the various tem- 
 ples, besides a large number of smaller heads -and torsos of 
 marble, limestone, and terra-cotta. Some of these represent
 
 THE EXPLORER IN EGYPT. 
 
 35 
 
 the deities worshipped in these temples, while others are fash- 
 ioned in the likeness of their votaries. Some, again, date 
 from the rude archaic beginnings of the Greek school of 
 Naukratis, and others carry us on to the finest period of 
 Alexandrian art. Very interesting as an example of the 
 earlier school is this statuette of a man carrying a hare over 
 each shoulder, and a knife in his girdle. It has been sup- 
 posed to represent Apollo as the hunter god ; but as it was 
 found in the ruins of the Temple of Aphrodite, it is more 
 probably a votive offering on the part of a sportsman who 
 thus dedicates himself to the service of the goddess. The 
 treatment of the head and hair is distinctly Cypriote in 
 style, while the rigidity of the pose, and the "hieratic" posi- 
 tion of the feet and arms, are as distinctly Egyptian. A 
 much-defaced votive inscription in archaic Greek characters 
 is engraved on the right leg. Found on the same site, but 
 widely separate in date, is the beautiful terra-cotta head of 
 Aphrodite, here reproduced as an example of the high degree 
 of perfection to which the Greek 
 artists of Naukratis had attained 
 before the decadence of the city, 
 when superseded by Alexandria. 
 The excavation of the Temple 
 of Aphrodite proved to be ex- 
 traordinarily rich in fragments of 
 painted and inscribed Greek ware. 
 A huge trench appears to have 
 been dug round the temple plat- 
 form in ancient times, and into 
 this trench must have been thrown 
 an immense store of bowls, vases, 
 cups, and figurines the ceramic 
 treasures of the temple. The clear- 
 ing of this mine of precious frag- 
 ments occupied Mr. Gardner for 
 several weeks, six or seven basket- 
 fuls being the result of each day's 
 
 OORGONEIA. 
 
 (From the cemetery, Naukratis.) 
 The Greeks of the later period 
 at Naukratis were interred for 
 the most part in wooden coffins 
 ornamented with rosettes, gry- 
 phons, and gorgoneia in ter- 
 ra-cotta, painted and gilded. 
 These gorgoneia are moulded 
 in the classic type of the Al- 
 exandrian period.
 
 36 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 work. One week alone the week ending on February 13, 
 18SC yielded no less than thirty-five large basketfuls of 
 these exquisite potsherds, making, at a rough computation, 
 about four hundred and fifty pounds in weight, or a total 
 number of twenty-five thousand fragments. The sorting 
 and classifying of the fragments consumed more than a year 
 of Mr. Gardner's time ; and about twenty or twenty-five 
 vases, bowls, and other objects have been put together more 
 or less completely. Two of these mended bowls, described 
 by Mr. Ernest A. Gardner as among " the most magnificent 
 examples of ancient pottery found at Naukratis," are here 
 reproduced. These bowls have each two triple handles ter- 
 minating in a human face at each end; while midway be- 
 tween the handles on each side is a boss with two faces back 
 to back. A frieze of gazelles browsing on a ground parseme 
 with floral and other emblems, runs round the outside ; the 
 inside being decorated with a central star-shaped ornament 
 surrounded by a frieze of lions, geese, sphinxes, etc.( 9 ) Some 
 of these votive offerings, as shown by the graffiti of the do- 
 nors, were given by citizens of Teos, and others by Milesians. 
 Taken chronologically, these Naukratis fragments for 
 thev are mostly fragments constitute not only a series of 
 valuable finds, -but an " object-lesson" of the highest interest 
 on the history of the ceramic arts of Greece. "We first of all 
 detect the Milesian colonist trying his " 'prentice hand " at 
 scarab-making, and producing at best but a blundering imita- 
 tion of that popular product of his adopted home. Next we 
 find him taking to pottery, properly so called ; and, with the 
 vivacious fancy of his race, adapting, var}nng, and playing 
 with the old stock subjects of Egyptian ornament. Presently 
 he casts aside the trammels of tradition and launches out 
 into a style of his own a style as purely Hellenic, and as 
 original, as if his first lessons had never been learned in an 
 Oriental school.
 
 SAN VILLAGE. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 IF as a rule the busy American, no less than the busy Eng- 
 lishman, knows less about Egypt both ancient and modern 
 than about many less interesting lands, we may assume that 
 his apparent indifference is mainly due to the remoteness of 
 the place and the subject. From the port of New York to 
 the harbor of Alexandria, as the crow flies, may be rough- 
 ly estimated at between five and six thousand miles ; while 
 for those who are not crows the transit, even at high press- 
 ure, would scarcely be accomplished under three weeks. 
 
 But if modern Egypt is so far away that it takes three 
 weeks to get there, ancient Egypt is infinitely more distant. 
 The traveller who would visit the court of Memphis in the 
 days of the earliest Egyptian monarchy must undertake a 
 journey of some six or seven thousand years. He must not 
 only go up the Nile ; he must ascend the great River of Time 
 and trace the stream of History to its source. 
 
 Do we realize how far distant is his goal, or how many 
 familiar landmarks he must leave behind ? We are accus- 
 tomed to think of the days of Plato and Pericles, of Horace 
 and the Caesars, as " ancient times." But Egypt was old and 
 outworn when Athens and Rome were founded ; the great
 
 38 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Assyrian Empire was a creation of yesterday as compared 
 with that of the Pharaohs ; the middle point of Egyptian his- 
 tory was long past when Moses received his education at the 
 court of Eameses II. ; and the Pyramids were already hoary 
 with antiquity when Abraham journeyed into the land of 
 
 Egypt. 
 
 Where, then, it may be asked, are we to place the starting- 
 point of Egyptian history ? That is a very difficult question 
 to answer. The dawn is long past when we catch our first 
 glimpse of that far-distant epoch when Mena, Prince of Thi- 
 nis, became chief of the chieftains of the primitive clans, and 
 founded the first monarchy. That earliest landmark dim- 
 ly seen down the vista of ages carries us back to about five 
 thousand years before the Christian era; and even Mena, 
 who is undoubtedly an historical personage, has a back- 
 ground of tradition behind him. That background of tradi- 
 tion represents prehistoric Egypt; and of prehistoric Egypt 
 we at all events know that it was subdivided into a number 
 of principalities which subsequently became the "Nomes," 
 or Provinces, of United Egypt. 
 
 The rulers of these earliest petty states were remembered 
 by the Egyptians of after ages as the Horshesu, or " Follow- 
 ers of Horus." They occupied, in fact, much the same place 
 in Egyptian history and tradition which the demi-gods oc- 
 cupied in the history and tradition of Hellas ; but with this 
 great difference the demi-gods were purely mythical he- 
 roes, whereas the Horshesu were human rulers, living in a 
 land where political boundaries were already sharply defined. 
 It is possible we may even go so far as to say it is probable 
 that a gigantic work of art belonging to that inconceiva- 
 bly remote age survives to this day in the great Sphinx of 
 Ghizeh.(') Hence it may be seen that even in prehistoric 
 Egypt we are as far as ever from the beginnings of civiliza- 
 tion ; and beyond this, all is impenetrable night. 
 
 The existence of Egypt as a nation begins with Mena, the 
 first king of the First Dynasty, and ends with Cleopatra. 
 These two names are the preface and finis of Egyptian history.
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 39 
 
 Between them lies a space of 4790 years, comprising thirty- 
 three royal dynasties and many hundreds of kings. Those 
 kings were not all native to the soil. Egypt, during the long 
 centuries of her slow decadence, was often ruled by princes 
 of alien blood. But it was not till Cleopatra's galley turned 
 and fled at the fatal sea-fight in which Mark Antony was 
 defeated that the empire of the Pharaohs ceased to be a 
 nation, and became a Eoman province. So fell the most 
 ancient of monarchies, the parent of all our arts and all 
 our sciences, bequeathing to later ages a history so long 
 that, compared with the history of other nations, it is almost 
 like a geological period. 
 
 It was during these 4790 years of national existence that 
 all those temples were erected, all those pyramids, obelisks, 
 and colossal statues, of which the shattered remains are to 
 this day the marvel and admiration of travellers. 
 
 Now, Egypt is unapproachably rich in building material. 
 From Cairo to the first cataract a stretch of five hundred 
 and eighty-two miles the Nile flows between a double range 
 of cliffs which sometimes dip sheer down to the water's edge, 
 and sometimes recede to a considerable distance from the 
 bed of the river. For the first live hundred and fifteen miles 
 that is, from Cairo to Edfu these cliffs are of fine white 
 limestone ; then, for a distance of sixty-five miles, the lime- 
 stone is superseded by a rich yellow sandstone ; and this 
 again is succeeded, some sixty -seven miles higher up, by the 
 red granite and black basalt of Assuan. 
 
 With such resources within easy reach, and with the great 
 river for a means of transport, it is no wonder that the 
 Egyptians became a nation of builders. In no country an- 
 cient or modern were there so many cities, so many temples, 
 so many tombs. The cities have become rubbish -mounds. 
 The tombs have been plundered for ages, and are being plun- 
 dered every day. The temples have been ravaged by the 
 Persian, the Assyrian, and the Mohammedan invader, de- 
 faced by the Christian iconoclast, and smashed up for the 
 limekiln by the modern Arab. Hundreds, probably thou-
 
 40 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 sands, have been utterly destroyed ; and yet we stand amazed 
 before the splendor and number of the wrecks which remain. 
 
 In Upper Egypt, those wrecks are noble ruins open to the 
 cloudless sky, and touched with the gold of dawn and the 
 crimson of sunset ; but in Lower Egypt, and especially in 
 the Delta where there is no desert, but only one vast plain 
 of rich alluvial soil, those ruins are buried under the rubbish 
 of ages, thus forming those gigantic mounds which are so 
 striking a feature of the scenery between Alexandria and 
 Cairo. Nothing in Egypt so excites the curiosity of the 
 newly landed traveller as these gigantic graves, some of 
 which are identified with cities famous in the history of the 
 ancient world, while others are problems only to be solved 
 at the edge of the spade. He sees mounds everywhere ; not 
 only in the Delta, but in Middle Egypt, in Upper Egypt, and 
 even in Nubia. And wherever he sees a mound, there, but 
 too surely, he sees the native husbandmen digging it away 
 piecemeal for brick-dust manure. 
 
 It was in order to rescue at least a part of the historical 
 treasures entombed in these neglected mounds, and espe- 
 cially in the mounds of the Delta and the district of the old 
 Land of Goshen, that the society known as the Egypt Ex- 
 ploration Fund was founded in 1883, under the presidency 
 of the late Sir Erasmus Wilson. An influential committee 
 was formed in London, a subscription list was opened in 
 England and America, and the work of scientific exploration 
 was immediately begun. 
 
 From that time to this, the Egypt Exploration Fund has 
 sent out explorers every season, having sometimes two, and 
 even three, simultaneously at work in different parts of the 
 Delta. Each year has been fruitful in discoveries. Ancient 
 geographical boundaries have been traced; the sites of fa- 
 mous cities have been identified; sculptures, inscriptions, 
 arms, papyri, jewellery, painted pottery, beautiful objects in 
 glass, porcelain, bronze, gold, silver, and even textile fabrics, 
 have been found ; a flood of unexpected light has been cast 
 upon the Biblical history of the Hebrews ; the early stages
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 41 
 
 of the route of the Exodus have been defined ; an important 
 chapter in the history of Greek art and Greek epigraphy has 
 been recovered from oblivion ; and an archaeological survey 
 of the Delta has been made, nearly all the larger mounds 
 having been measured and mapped. This survey is now 
 about to be carried out on a much extended scale, covering 
 the whole of Egypt, and including copies of inscriptions, 
 photographs of monuments, triangulations, careful descrip- 
 tions of the condition of the ruins, etc., etc. For this impor- 
 tant work two specially trained archaeologists will be de- 
 spatched every season by the Fund. 
 
 It was, as I have said, in 1883 that the Egypt Exploration 
 Fund began its labors in the Delta, the first explorer sent out 
 by the society being the eminent Egpytologist, M. Naville, of 
 Geneva. M. Naville selected as the scene of his first excava- 
 tion a celebrated mound in the Wady Tumilat, between Za- 
 gazig and Ismailia ; a mound which Lepsius had conjecturally 
 identified with " Raamses," one of the twin " treasure-cities " 
 built by the forced labor of the Hebrew colonists in the time 
 of the Great Oppression. Of these it is said in the first chap- 
 ter of Exodus that " they built for Pharaoh treasure-cities, 
 Pithom and Raamses " ; by " treasure - cities " meaning for- 
 tified magazines, such as the Egyptians were wont to erect 
 for the safe custody of grain 
 and military stores. 
 
 Now, the South-eastern Delta 
 was for some five hundred years 
 as much the father-land of the 
 descendants of Jacob as modern 
 Egypt is now the father -land 
 of the descendants of Amr's 
 Arab hordes. The pleasant past- 
 ures of Goshen were theirs by 
 right of gift and settlement. 
 There they increased and multi- 
 
 PI.AN OF THE "TREASURE -CITY" 
 
 plied, and there for centuries OF PITHOM. 
 
 they dwelt, a favored and a A, A : Excavated store-chambers.
 
 42 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 prosperous race. All this time, while they were happy, 
 they had no history. It was only when much fighting and 
 building had drained Egypt of men and treasure that the 
 Hebrews began to be oppressed ; and it is with their oppres- 
 sion that their history as a nation may be said to commence. 
 No part of the Bible is more dramatically interesting, or 
 more circumstantially related, than those chapters which 
 tell of their sufferings, their flight, and their escape. Egyp- 
 tologists, Hebraists, geographers, and travellers have exhaust- 
 ed speculation as to the road by which they went out, the 
 places at which they halted, and the point at which they 
 forded the great water. That they must have started by way 
 of Wady Tumilat is admitted by the majority of Exodus 
 theorists. Then, as now, that famous valley was by far the 
 shortest and most direct route from the old Land of Goshe.n 
 to the desert. Then, as now, it was watered by a navigable 
 canal, which in all probability the Hebrew settlers themselves 
 helped to keep in repair, or possibly to excavate, and which 
 may yet be traced for a considerable distance. Forty years 
 ago Lepsius identified Tell Abii Suleiman at the westward 
 mouth of the valley, and Tell-el-Maskhutah near the east- 
 ward end, with the twin treasure-cities built for Pharaoh by 
 the persecuted Israelites ; and so unhesitatingly were his 
 identifications accepted that these two places have ever 
 since been entered in maps and guide-books as "Pithom" 
 and "Raamses." Even the little railway station erected by 
 the French engineers on the line of the Fresh-water Canal in 
 1860 was called " Eamses," and is so called to this day. It is 
 unnecessary to recapitulate the argument upon which Lep- 
 sius based his identification ; but it was, at all events, uni- 
 versally accepted. M. Naville went, therefore, to prove the 
 correctness of this argument ; and it was very much to his 
 own surprise, and to the surprise of all concerned in his ex- 
 pedition, that he discovered it to be erroneous. 
 
 What M. Naville actually found under the mounds of 
 
 Maskhutah was a peribolos wall, the site of a temple, a dro- 
 
 . mos, a camp, some ruins of a city, and a series of most
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT 43 
 
 curious subterraneous structures, entirely unlike any archi- 
 tectural remains ever discovered in Egypt or elsewhere. 
 The peribolos wall, twenty -four feet in thickness, enclosed 
 
 TELL-EL-MASKHUTAH. 
 
 'a quadrangular space of about fifty -five thousand square 
 yards. The temple, which occupied one corner, though 
 small, was originally surrounded by an outer wall of brick- 
 work, the inner walls being of fine Turah limestone. Both 
 temple and city proved to have been founded by Kameses 
 II., the names and titles of that Pharaoh being the ear- 
 liest recorded in the inscriptions discovered. Statues, bas- 
 relief sculptures, and hieroglyphic texts of various kings, 
 priests, and officials of subsequent periods were also found 
 upon the spot. Among these must be especially noted part 
 of a dedicatory tablet of Sheshonk I., the Biblical Shishak, 
 and a broken colossus of Osorkon II., both of the Twenty-sec- 
 ond Dynasty; two statues of functionaries, engraved with
 
 44 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 important inscriptions ; some remains of an admirably sculp- 
 tured and fully gilt wall - screen and pillar of Nectanebo I. 
 (Thirtieth Dynasty); and a magnificent granite stela of Ptol- 
 emy Philadelphus, which is not only the largest Ptolemaic 
 tablet known, but is also historically the most interesting. 
 All the foregoing kings appear to have embellished the tem- 
 ple. Besides readable inscriptions of various periods, an im- 
 mense quantity of minute fragments, some yet showing a 
 hieroglyph or two, were found built into walls or reduced to 
 gravel chips. This barbarism was the work of the Romans, 
 who, being the last occupants of the site, appear to have 
 smashed up any available material in order to level the 
 ground for their camp. Thus the history of the place be- 
 gins with Rameses II., the Pharaoh of the Great Oppres- 
 sion, about 1400 B.C., and ends with a Roman milestone of 
 Galerius Maximian and Severus, about A.D. 306 or 307. 
 
 The temple was dedicated to Turn, (") the god of the set- 
 ting sun ; Turn being the patron deity of the town and the 
 surrounding district. Now, as this place was not only a 
 store-fort but a sanctuary, so also it had a secular name and 
 a sacred name ; like our own venerable English abbey-town 
 of Verulam, which is also called St. Albans. Its secular 
 name proved to be " Thukut " or " Sukut," ( I2 ) and its sacred 
 name " Pa-Turn." These particulars we learn from inscrip- 
 tions found upon the spot. 
 
 Engraved, for instance, on a black granite statue of a de- 
 ceased prince and high-priest named Aak, we find a prayer in 
 which he implores "all the priests who go into the sacred 
 abode of Turn, the great god of Sukut," to pronounce a cer- 
 tain funerary formula for his benefit ; while a fragment of 
 another statue is inscribed with the names and titles of 
 one Pames Isis, who was an " official of Turn of Sukut and 
 governor of the storehouse." In these two inscriptions (to 
 say nothing of several others) three important facts are re- 
 corded : namely, that the place was a " storehouse," that its 
 sacred name was Pa-Turn; and that its secular name, also 
 the name of the surrounding district, was Sukut.
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 45 
 
 Now, " Pa-Turn " means the House, or Abode, of Turn ; 
 " Pa " being the Egyptian word for house, or abode. Thus, 
 the temple gave its name to the city, just as " Pa-Bast " the 
 Abode of Bast gave its name to the city which the Greeks 
 called Bubastis. But as the Greeks, according to the Greek 
 method of transcription, rendered "Pa" by "Bu," and "Bast" 
 by " Bastis," so the Hebrews, according to the Hebrew meth- 
 od of transcription, rendered "Pa" by "Pi," and "Bast" by 
 "Beseth." Thus it is as "Pi-Beseth" that we read of Bubastis 
 in the Bible. And so, in like manner, the Hebrews changed 
 "Pa" into "Pi," and "Turn" into "Thorn," when dealing with 
 " Pa-Turn," of which they made "Pi-Thorn." Accordingly, it 
 is of this very store-fort, " Pa-Turn," that we read in the pas- 
 
 THK STORE-CELLARS OF PITHOM. 
 
 sage which I have already quoted from the first chapter of 
 Exodus : " And they built for Pharaoh treasure - cities, Pi- 
 thorn and Raamses."
 
 46 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 So, although Lepsius was mistaken in identifying Tell-el- 
 Maskhutah with " Raamses," he was not so very far wrong 
 after all. The place was not " Raamses," but it was " Pi- 
 thom." 
 
 But this town had also a secular name Sukut. Now 
 "Pa-Turn of Sukut" had been known to Egyptologists for 
 many years in certain geographical lists of temples and local 
 festivals sculptured on the walls of various temples in Upper 
 Egypt ; and Dr. Brugsch, our greatest authority on ancient 
 Egyptian topography, had long ago identified it with " Pi- 
 thom of Succoth." But till M. Naville excavated Tell-el-Mask- 
 hutah, Pithom of Succoth was but a name and a theory. Now 
 Pithom is a fact, and Sukut is a fact ; and when it is remem- 
 bered that the departing Hebrews "journeyed from Raam- 
 ses to Succoth " on their way to Etham and Pihahiroth, it at 
 once becomes evident that we have not only found one of the 
 " treasure-cities " built by their hands, but that we have iden- 
 tified the district in which that great mixed multitude first 
 halted to rest by the way. Identifying this district, we also 
 identify the route of the Exodus. We know, in fact, that 
 they went out by way of Wady Tumilat in the direction of 
 the modern town of Isma'ilia, a few miles north of the old 
 Bitter Lakes which, according to the majority of geologists, 
 now occupy what was originally the head of the Gulf of 
 Suez. They crossed, in all probability, near Shaliif ; but for 
 clearer insight into this matter we must wait for further ex- 
 plorations and " more light." 
 
 But our " treasure-city " had yet another name a name by 
 which it was known in later times, under the Ptolemies and 
 under the Romans; and this more recent name was Hero- 
 opolis. A rude graffito, scratched apparently by a Roman 
 soldier, on one of the uprights of a limestone door-way, when 
 the place had been converted into a Roman camp, gives us 
 this name under the form of " Ero Castra "; and it is as 
 " Heroopolis " that we read of Pithom in the Septuagint 
 translation, where it is said, in the forty-sixth chapter of 
 Genesis, that Joseph " made ready his chariot,, and went up to
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 47 
 
 FALLEN COLOSSUS OF MEKMASHIU. (THIRTEENTH DYNASTY.) 
 
 This magnificent colossal statue is one of a pair which yet lie prostrate in the ruins 
 of the great Temple of Tanis. It represents a king of whom history has pre- 
 served no record, and who would be unknown but for these twin memorials. The 
 statues, if raised from the ground, would sit twelve feet high without counting 
 the plinths. The modelling and anatomy are admirable, and the polished sur- 
 faces are as lustrous to this day as when first executed. 
 
 Heroopolis to meet Jacob his father." This, however, was a 
 verbal anachronism on the part of the Septuagint ; for there 
 was neither a Pithom nor a Heroopolis in the time of Joseph, 
 but only a " Land of Goshen," as correctly given in the He- 
 brew original. The anachronism is, however, valuable, since 
 it shows that Pithom was already known as Heroopolis in 
 the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus. ('") As for the historical 
 tablet of Ptolemy Philadelphus, it is of great importance.
 
 48 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 It records how this king " rebuilt the Abode of Turn," and 
 how one of his generals " captured elephants for his Majesty " 
 on the east coast of Africa, and brought them hither in trans- 
 port ships by way of the canal. That canal was the ancient 
 Pharaonic canal, the bed of which is yet distinctly traceable, 
 following the same direction as the present Sweet-water 
 Canal in the Wady Tumilat. This tablet also mentions a 
 place called " Pikerehet," beyond Pithom and nearer to the 
 Ked Sea, which seems to be identical with Pihahiroth, where 
 the Israelites encamped between Migdol and the sea. 
 
 The mounds of Maskhutah, as shown in our illustration, 
 may be described as a series of undulating sand hillocks. 
 In the distance is seen the little railway station, now dis- 
 used ; and here and there a dark pit excavated in the mid- 
 dle distance marks one of the store-chambers, or cellars, 
 opened by M. JSTaville. Not only these cellars, but also the 
 great wall of circuit twenty -four feet in thickness, were 
 probably the work of the oppressed Hebrews. 
 
 These subterraneous store-chambers, magazines, granaries, 
 or whatever it may please us to call them, are solidly built 
 square chambers of various sizes, divided by massive parti- 
 tion walls about ten feet in thickness, without doors or any 
 kind of communication, evidently destined to be filled and 
 emptied from the top by means of trap-doors and ladders. 
 Except the corner occupied by the temple, the whole area 
 of the great walled enclosure is honey-combed with these 
 cellars. 
 
 They are, as I have said, well and solidly built. The bricks 
 are large, and are made of Nile mud pressed in a wooden 
 mould and dried in the sun. Also they are bedded in with 
 mortar, which is not common, the ordinary method being to 
 bed them with mud, which dries immediately, and holds al- 
 most as tenaciously as mortar. And this reminds us that 
 Pharaoh's overseers "made the children of Israel to serve 
 with rigor, and made their lives bitter with hard bondage in 
 mortar and in brick." We remember all the details of that 
 pitiful story how the straw became exhausted; how the
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 49 
 
 poor souls were driven forth to gather in stubble for mixino- 
 with their clay; and yet how they were required to give 
 in as large a tale of bricks at the end of each day's work as 
 if the straw had been duly provided. 
 
 Now, it is a very curious and interesting fact that the 
 Pithom bricks are of three qualities. In the lower courses 
 of these massive cellar walls they are mixed with chopped 
 straw ; higher up, when the straw may be supposed to have 
 
 PLAN OF THE RUINS OF THE GREAT TEMPLE OF TANIS. 
 
 The above is reduced from Mr. Petrie's large plan in "Tanis," Part I., showing the 
 position of the ruins within the enclosure wall, the obelisks being figured as they 
 lie. The private houses of Roman date are marked in thicker lines than the ruins 
 of the temple ; and the dotted lines show the course of Mr. Petrie's trenches, 
 which were thirty-five in number, from seven to twenty-four feet in depth, and 
 from fifty to four hundred feet in length. The main entrance-pylon, where a few 
 blocks yet stand in situ, is at the west end of the great enclosure wall, the north 
 gate being a later opening cut in Roman times. The length of the temple was 
 one thousand feet, by seven hundred feet in breadth; and the great enclosure 
 wall added by Pteebkhanu, an obscure king of the Twenty-first Dynasty, is no less 
 than eighty feet thick on the south side. The avenue (necessarily omitted in our 
 illustration) was three hundred and seventy-five feet in length.
 
 50 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 run short, the clay is found to be mixed with reeds the same 
 kind of reeds which grow to this day in the bed of the old 
 Pharaonic canal, and which are translated as "stubble" in 
 the Bible. Finally, when the last reeds were used up, the 
 bricks of the uppermost courses consist of mere Nile mud, 
 with no binding substance whatever. 
 
 So here we have the whole pathetic Bible narrative sur- 
 viving in solid evidence to the present time. "We go down 
 to the bottom of one of these cellars. We see the good bricks 
 for which the straw was provided. Some few feet higher we 
 see those for which the wretched Hebrews had to seek reeds, 
 or stubble. We hear them cry aloud, " Can we make bricks 
 without straw ?" 
 
 Lastly, we see the bricks Avhich they had to make, and did 
 make, without straw, while their hands were bleeding and 
 their hearts were breaking. Shakespeare, in one of his most 
 familiar passages, tells us of " sermons in stones ;" but here 
 we have a sermon in bricks, and not only a sermon, but a 
 practical historical commentary of the highest importance 
 and interest. 
 
 The discovery of Pithom in 1883 was followed in 1884 by 
 Mr. Petrie's excavations at Tanis; again by his discovery 
 of Naukratis in 1885, and of the palace-fort of Daphna3 in 
 1886. Then followed, in 1887, M. Naville's discovery of the 
 Jewish cemetery in which were interred the followers of 
 the high-priest Onias, who fled from Syria, according to Jo- 
 sephus, during the reign of Ptolemy Philometer ; ( u ) and, at 
 the latter end of the same season, came the discovery of the 
 great temple of Bubastis. 
 
 It was, then, in 1884 that Mr. Petrie worked for the Egypt 
 Exploration Fund on the site of that famous city called 
 in Egyptian Ta-an, or Tsan ; transcribed as " Tanis " by the 
 Greeks, and rendered in the Hebrew as " Zoan." It yet pre- 
 serves an echo of these ancient names as the Arab village of 
 " San." This site, historically and Biblically the most inter- 
 esting in Egypt, is the least known to visitors. It enjoys an 
 evil reputation for rain, east winds, and fever ; it is very diffi-
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 51 
 
 cult of access ; and it is entirely without resources for the ac- 
 commodation of travellers. Not many tourists care to encoun- 
 ter a dreary railway trip followed by eight or ten hours in a 
 
 SHHINE OP RAMESES II. IN THE RUINS OF TANIS. (SANDSTONE.) 
 
 The shrine shown in this illustration is one of a pair placed on opposite sides of 
 the great avenue of statues, sphinxes, and obelisks which led to the Temple. 
 These shrines are of quartzite sandstone, each being cut in a single block. The 
 surface is most delicately sculptured with groups of figures and hieroglyphic 
 texts ; while inside, enthroned at the upper end, is a triad of deities. The com- 
 panion shrine to the above has been smashed to pieces. 
 
 small row-boat, with no inn and no prospect of anything but 
 salt fish to eat at the end of the journey. The daring few 
 take tents and provisions with them ; and those few are most- 
 ly sportsmen, attracted less by the antiquities of San-el-IIagar 
 than by the aquatic birds which frequent the adjacent lake. 
 Mr. Petrie went to this desolate spot provided not only with 
 a sufficient store of canned soups, meats, and vegetables, 
 jams, biscuits, and the like, but also with scientific instru-
 
 52 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 ments, carpenters' tools, and a large quantity of iron roofing 
 for the mud-brick dwelling which he had to build for himself 
 and his overseer. The great temple of Tanis-Zoan was one 
 of the largest and most splendid in Egypt. It dated ap- 
 parently from the Pyramid Period, the earliest royal name 
 found in the ruins being that of Pepi Merira of the Sixth Dy- 
 nasty. It was, however, rebuilt by Amenemhat I. and his 
 successors of the Twelfth and Thirteenth dynasties, many of 
 whom have left evidences of their work in the shape of colossal 
 statues, obelisks, and the like. Next came Rameses II., who 
 seems to have pulled the whole temple to pieces, in order to 
 reconstruct it according to the style of the Nineteenth Dy- 
 nasty ; covering its architraves with huge hieroglyphic in- 
 scriptions, and adorning it with a forest of obelisks and an 
 army of colossal portrait statues of himself. It now strews 
 the ground, an utter wreck, covering a space of one thousand 
 feet from end to end. 
 
 Mr. Petrie turned, cleaned, and planned every stone in this 
 immense ruin, and copied every hieroglyphic inscription 
 sculptured upon the surfaces of those fallen blocks, obelisks, 
 cornices, and statues. In the course of this laborious task he 
 brought to light an extraordinary number of reworked stones 
 of all periods, each stone a fragment torn from a page of his- 
 tor} r . Obelisks, statues, and historical tablets prove to have 
 been cut up into lengths, dressed down, and built in with as 
 little ceremony as though they were blocks fresh from the 
 quarry. Some of these destroyed obelisks are palimpsests in 
 stone. They date from the important times of the Eleventh 
 and Twelfth dynasties, and were originally covered from top 
 to bottom on all four sides with inscriptions elaborately en- 
 graved in small hieroglyphs about one inch in length. These 
 inscriptions prove to have been effaced by Rameses II., who 
 re-engraved the surfaces with his own titles and cartouches, 
 cut on a large scale. Finally, some three centuries later, a 
 Sheshonk, or an Osorkon, with a sacrilegious recklessness wor- 
 thy of a Turkish pasha, hewed them in pieces to build a wall 
 and a gate- way. The historical stela3, apparently a uniform
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 53 
 
 series of large size, were found in halves, none of which match, 
 but their legends seem to have been already corroded and illeg- 
 ible when they were thus utilized. The other halves must eith- 
 er have been destroyed or are yet imbedded in the structure. 
 Here also Mr. Petrie discovered the remains of the largest 
 colossus ever sculptured by the hand of man. This huge 
 figure represented Eameses II. in that position known as 
 "the hieratic attitude ;" that is to say, with the arms straight- 
 ened to the sides, and the left foot advanced in the act of 
 walking. It had been cut up by Osorkon II., of the Twenty- 
 second Dynasty, to build a pylon gate-way ; and it was from 
 the fallen blocks of this gate-way that Mr. Petrie recognized 
 what it had originally been. Among these fragments were 
 found an ear, part of a foot, pieces of an arm, part of the pi- 
 laster which supported the statue up the back, and part of 
 the breast, on which are carved the royal ovals. Ex pede 
 Herculem. These fragments (mere chips of a few tons each), 
 although they represent but a very small portion of the 
 whole, enabled Mr. Petrie to measure, describe, and weigh the 
 shattered giant with absolute certainty. He proved to have 
 been the most stupendous colossus known. Those statues 
 which approach nearest to him in size are the colossi of Abii- 
 Simbel, the torso of the Kamesseum, and the colossi of the 
 Plain. These, however, are all seated figures, and, with the 
 exception of the torso, are executed in comparatively soft 
 materials. But the Kameses of Tanis was not only sculpt- 
 ured in the obdurate red granite of Assuan, and designed 
 upon a larger scale than any of these, but he stood erect 
 and crowned, ninety-two feet high from top to toe, or one 
 hundred and twenty-five feet high, including his pedestal. 
 This is nearly fifty feet higher than the obelisk in Central 
 Park, New York, or than its fellow, the British obelisk on 
 the Thames embankment. The minimum weight of the 
 whole mass is calculated by Mr. Petrie at twelve hundred 
 tons, this being three hundred and thirteen tons more than 
 the estimated weight of the colossus of the Ramesseum, when 
 entire. "We ask ourselves with amazement how so huge a
 
 54 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 monolith was extracted unbroken from the quarry ; how it 
 was floated from Assuan to Tanis ; how it was raised into its 
 place when it reached its destination. " The effect," wrote 
 Mr. Flinders Petrie, " when there were no high mounds here, 
 must have been astounding. The temple was probably not 
 more than fifty feet high, and the tallest Tanis obelisks were 
 less than fifty feet high. The statue must, therefore, have 
 towered some sixty -five feet above all its surroundings, and 
 have been visible for many miles across the plain."( 1B ) These 
 measurements are calculated from the foot, one large block 
 having the toes of the right foot nearly complete. 
 We have here an outline of the toes drawn to scale. They 
 
 OUTLINE OP TOES OF COLOSSUS. 
 
 have been cut across the ends of the nails, and shaved up the 
 sides by the saw of the mason. The great toe measured 
 fourteen inches and seven-eighths, the second toe twelve 
 inches and five-eighths, the third toe ten inches and four- 
 eighths, the fourth toe eleven inches and two-eighths, and 
 the little toe eight inches and four-eighths. The whole foot, 
 when perfect, was fifty-seven inches and two-eighths in length. 
 Although it is impossible now to prove that this gigantic 
 statue was cut from a single block, there cannot be any reason- 
 able doubt of the fact. Every known colossal statue in Egypt 
 is monolithic, and it is inconceivable that the great Tanis 
 colossus should have been an exception to this universal rule.
 
 Desert Hare. 
 Kohl Pot. 
 
 Infant Horus. (Bronze.) 
 
 Piece of Porcelain Sceptre 
 
 Alabaster Capital. 
 Apis Amulet. -(Pottery.) 
 Calyx Capital. (Bronze.) 
 
 Isis and Infant Horus. 
 
 Bowl. (Oreenntone-i 
 
 Ta-ur. (Pottery.) 
 
 Ceramic Jar. Calyx Cap!tal.-(Bronze.) Tahutl (Thoth).^-(Greenton-wrf. 
 
 GROUP OF OBJECTS DISCOVERED IN A PRIVATE HOUSE AT TANIS (PERIOD, THIRTIETH DYNASTY).
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 57 
 
 Many very precious things were found by Mr. Petrie in 
 the course of his work at Tanis. In the cellars of some large 
 private mansions which perished in the great conflagration 
 by which the city was destroyed in the time of the Emperor 
 Diocletian, were discovered a mass of very interesting do- 
 mestic relics, such as small household deities in bronze, ala- 
 baster, and glazed ware ; mortars, moulds, works of art in 
 sculpture and terra-cotta, and a great abundance of pottery, 
 both coarse and fine. The house of one Bakakhiu contained 
 a remarkable portrait statuette of himself ; and in that of his 
 next-door neighbor was found a zodiac painted in gold and 
 colors upon a sheet of thin glass, this being the only known 
 example of ancient glass-painting. From this house came 
 the most important discovery of all ; namely, seven ancient 
 waste-paper baskets full of letters, deeds, memoranda, and 
 other MSS. Some were on papyrus, and some on parch- 
 ment ; some were written in Greek, and some in the old 
 Egyptian language, these last being penned in the hiero- 
 glyphic, hieratic, and demotic scripts. These priceless docu- 
 ments were alone worth the whole cost of the expedition. 
 One proves to be a mathematical treatise ; another is an al- 
 manac ; and another is a syllabary. The first is in the hands 
 of Professor Eevillout, of the Louvre, who has offered to 
 translate it. The second has been translated by Mr. Petrie, 
 and the third by Mr. Frank Llewellyn Griffith. The two lat- 
 ter have been quite recently published as an extra volume 
 by the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund ; and the 
 society hopes in time to publish fac-similes and translations 
 of the entire collection. 
 
 Some very interesting work was done by M. Naville in the 
 course of the same season in the Eastern Delta, where, at a 
 place called Saft el-Henneh, he excavated the ruins of a 
 black basalt temple of Kameses II., and discovered the re- 
 mains of a beautiful monolithic shrine erected by Xectanebo 
 II., the last of the native Pharaohs. What the inscription 
 of Heliodorus was to Mr. Petrie at Naukratis, these frag- 
 ments of the granite shrine were to M. Naville at Saft el- 
 4-2
 
 58 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Henneh. For centuries they had lain neglected in an open 
 field, where for half the year they were covered by the wa- 
 ters of the inundation ; yet all this time they held a secret as 
 precious in its way as that of Naukratis the secret of the 
 ancient city buried in the neighboring mound. That city 
 was none other than Goshen, the capital town of that Land 
 of Goshen which was the special home of Israel in Egypt. 
 I may add that, although M. Naville hesitates to positively 
 identify the site of the ancient city of " Kes," or Goshen, 
 with that of " Raamses," there is very strong reason for be- 
 lieving that Rameses II. rebuilt the place, and gave it his 
 own name, and that in " Kes," " Goshen " (now Saft el-Hen- 
 neh), we have the site of that other " treasure-city " built by 
 the Hebrews at the time of the Great Oppression. (") 
 
 The traveller who should turn his back upon Saft el-Hen- 
 neh and journey northward as far as the shores of Lake 
 Menzaleh, would there find himself upon the scene of Mr. 
 Petrie's work in 1886, and at the foot of Tell Defenneh. 
 Now, Tell Defenneh is a large mound, or group of mounds, 
 situate close to Lake Menzaleh, at the extreme north-eastern 
 corner of the Delta ; and the name of this group of mounds, 
 " Defenneh," is a corrupt Arab version of " Daphnse," the 
 " Daphnse of Pelusium " of the Greek historians. The iden- 
 tity of Defenneh and Daphnae has never tyeen questioned 
 by scholars, and the identity of both with the Biblical Tah- 
 panhes has also been admitted by the majority of Bible 
 commentators. 
 
 The history of Daphnae begins with Psammetichus L, 
 Prince of Sa'is and Memphis, who fought his way to the 
 throne by the aid of Carian and Ionian mercenary troops, 
 and founded the Twenty -sixth Egyptian Dynasty. This 
 event dates from about 665 B.C. Here Psammetichus con- 
 structed two large camps for the permanent accommoda- 
 tion of his foreign soldiers, one on each bank of the Pelu- 
 siac branch of the Nile-, and here they founded a large 
 military colony. In course of time, a Greek town sprang 
 up in the neighboring plain. This was the earliest legalized
 
 GROUP OF OBJECTS CHIEFLY FOUND IN THE HOUSE OF DAKAKHIU. 
 
 Portrait statuette of Bakakliiu in Roman costume ; large statuette of Thotli ; group of four smaller gods ; 
 basalt mortar, cups, stone mould, grotesque jar, three Apis .tablets, bas-relief sculpture of winged 
 sphinx with mural crown, emblematic of the city of Tautis, statuete of an unnamed king in Pharaonic 
 costume, etc., etc.
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 61 
 
 settlement of Greeks in Egypt a settlement ninety years 
 earlier than that of Naukratis. 
 
 The foreigners continued to occupy Daphnae for nearly a 
 century, till King Amasis, the fourth successor of Psammeti- 
 
 IRY. (GREAT TKMPLE OF TAXIS.) 
 
 chus, removed them to Memphis. Now, the immediate pre- 
 decessor of Amasis was IJabra, called by the Greek " Apries," 
 and in the Bible " Hophra." It was during the reign of 
 Apries, about 585 B.C., that Jerusalem was besieged by Neb- 
 uchadnezzar, who took King Zedekiah captive, put out his 
 eyes, and bore him away, with the bulk of the Jewish citi- 
 zens, to Babylon. But Zedekiah's daughters were left be- 
 hind in Jerusalem, then occupied by a Chaldean garrison un- 
 der a Chaldean governor. It was a time of plot and strife 
 and disorder ; and finally Johanan, the son of Kareah, act- 
 ing as the guardian and adviser of the forlorn princesses,
 
 62 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 conveyed them for safety to Egypt. Their flight may be 
 described as a later Exodus an Exodus from Syria to Egypt, 
 instead of from Egypt to Syria; for with them went "all 
 the remnant of Judah, and all the captains of the forces ;" 
 a mixed multitude, in fact, consisting mainly of old men, 
 women, and children, and such of the citizens as the sword 
 and chains of the conqueror had spared. Convinced of the 
 impolicy of rousing the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah 
 vehemently opposed the project of Johanan, and prophesied 
 against it, saying : 
 
 " And now therefore hear the word of the Lord, ye rem- 
 nant of Judah ; Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Is- 
 rael ; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and 
 go to sojourn there ; 
 
 "Then shall it come to pass, that the sword, which ye 
 feared, shall overtake' you there in the land of Egypt ; and 
 the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after 
 you there in Egypt ; and there ye shall die. 
 
 " So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go 
 into Egypt to sojourn there ; they shall die by the sword, 
 by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them 
 shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon 
 them."* 
 
 Johanan refused, however, to listen to Jeremiah, who, 
 sorely against his will, threw in his lot with that of his 
 brethren, and went across the frontier. Meanwhile Apries, 
 with royal hospitality, placed his palace of Daphna3 at the 
 disposal of the fugitive princesses, and granted a large tract 
 of land to their followers. But Jeremiah continued to pro- 
 phesy the pursuit of the Babylonian host, and lifted up his 
 warning voice upon the very threshold of the palace of 
 Pharaoh. The whole scene is thus related in the forty-third 
 chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, the seventh, eighth, ninth, 
 tenth, and eleventh verses : 
 
 " So they came into the land of Egypt ; for they obeyed 
 
 f Jeremiah, chap, xlii., verses 15 and 16.
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 63 
 
 not the voice of the Lord. Thus came they, even unto Tah- 
 panhes. 
 
 "Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah in Tah- 
 panhes, saying, 
 
 " Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in mor- 
 tar, in the brickwork which is at the entry of Pharaoh's 
 house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah ; 
 
 " And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the 
 God of Israel ; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar 
 the King of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne 
 upon these stones that I have hid ; and he shall spread his 
 royal pavilion over them. 
 
 " And he shall come, and shall smite the land of Egypt ; 
 such as are for death shall be given to death, and such as are 
 for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to 
 the sword." 
 
 I quote from the Eevised Version ; and it must be particu- 
 larly noted that there is an alternative reading given 'in the 
 margin, where the " brick-work " which is at the entry of 
 Pharaoh's House is rendered as the "pavement " or "square." 
 
 Upon what happened after this, the Bible is silent ; and 
 beyond the scant record of this brief chronicle, we only know 
 that Tahpanhes and Daphnae were one and the same, and that 
 Tell Defenneh marks this interesting meeting-point of Egyp- 
 tian, Greek, Assyrian, and Hebrew history. Mr. Petrie went 
 therefore to Tell Defenneh to prove or disprove an accepted 
 identification. There, in the midst of an arid waste, half 
 marsh, half desert far from roads, villages, or cultivated soil 
 in view of an horizon bounded by the heron-haunted lagoons 
 of Lake Menzaleh and the mud-swamps of the plain of Pelu- 
 sium he found three groups of mounds. These groups lay 
 from half a mile to a mile apart, the intermediate flat being 
 covered with stone chips, potsherds, and the remains of brick 
 foundations. These chips, potsherds, and foundations mark- 
 ed the site of an important city, in which the lines of the 
 streets and the boundaries of two or three large enclosures 
 were yet visible. Two of the mounds were apparently mere
 
 64 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 rubbish-heaps of the ordinary type ; the third being entirely 
 composed of the burned and blackened ruins of a huge pile 
 of brick buildings, visible, like a lesser Birs Nimroud, for a 
 great distance across the plain. Arriving at his destination 
 towards evening, foot-sore and weary, Mr. Petrie beheld this 
 singular object standing high against a lurid sky, and red- 
 dened by a fiery sunset. His Arabs hastened to tell him its 
 local name; and he may be envied the delightful surprise 
 with which he learned that it was known far and near as 
 "El Kasr el Bint el Yahudi" the "Castle of the Jew's 
 Daughter." 
 
 Setting to work with some forty or fifty laborers, he soon 
 discovered that he had to do with the calcined ruins of a 
 structure which was both a fort and a palace. It consisted 
 of one enormous square tower containing sixteen rooms on 
 each floor; while, built up against its outer walls, were a 
 variety of later structures, such as might have been added 
 for guard-rooms, offices, and the accommodation of a court. 
 There was every evidence that the place had been taken by 
 assault, plundered, and burned, the upper stories of the tower 
 having fallen in and buried the basements. Layer by layer, 
 Mr. Petrie cleared away these masses of burned rubbish 
 each layer a chapter in the history of the place. The royal 
 apartments had once been lined with fine limestone slabs 
 exquisitely sculptured and painted ; but these had been lit- 
 erally mashed to pieces before the place was fired, and lay 
 in splintered heaps among the debris of charred beams and 
 blackened bricks. That this stronghold was actually built, 
 as Herodotus states, by Psammetichus I. was proved by 
 the discovery of that king's foundation deposits under the 
 four corners of the building. These deposits consisted of 
 libation vessels, corn -rubbers, specimens of ores, model bricks, 
 the bones of a sacrificial ox and of a small bird, and a series 
 of little tablets in gold, silver, lapis lazuli, porcelain, carnelian, 
 and jasper, engraved with the names and titles of the royal 
 founder. 
 
 Under this mountain of rubbish, the basement chambers,
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 65 
 
 strange to say, were found absolutely uninjured. The kitchen 
 was intact a big room with recesses in the walls which served 
 for dressers, in which fourteen large jars and two large flat 
 dishes were yet standing in their places. Here also were 
 found weights for weighing the meat, spits, knives, plates, 
 cups, and saucers in abundance. Another room contained 
 hundreds of amphora lids and plaster jar - sealings, some 
 stamped with the royal ovals of Psammetichus ; some with 
 those of Neko, his son ; and some with those of Apries. This 
 was the room in which the wine-jars were opened ; in other 
 words, the butler's pantry. In an adjoining chamber were 
 
 TELL DEFENNKH. ("EL KASR EL BINT KL YAHOm.") 
 
 found a vast number of empty wine-jars, some perfect, some 
 broken; while in others of the ground -floor rooms were 
 piled large numbers of early Greek vases ranging in date 
 from 550 B.C. to 600 B.C., some finely painted with scenes of 
 5
 
 66 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 gigantomachia, chimeras, harpies, sphinxes, processions of 
 damsels, dancers, chariots, and the like all broken, it is 
 true, but many in a mendable condition. 
 
 Most curious of all, however, was a little room containing 
 a bench, recesses, and a sink formed of one huge jar with the 
 bottom knocked out. This was the scullery ! The bench 
 was to stand the things on while being washed ; the recesses 
 were to receive them when washed ; and the jar sink, which 
 opened into a drain formed of a succession of bottomless jars 
 going down to the clean sand below the foundation, was 
 found to be filled with potsherds placed on edge these 
 potsherds being coated with organic matter and clogged 
 with fish-bones. All this is doubtless very prosaic ; but to 
 have discovered Pharaoh's kitchen, scullery, and butler's pan- 
 try is really more curious and far more novel, than would 
 have been the discovery of his throne-room. 
 
 A great variety of objects from the royal apartments 
 were found in the fallen rubbish above the level of the 
 servants' offices such as bronze and silver rings, amulets, 
 beads, seals, small brass vessels, draughtmen, a grand sword- 
 handle with a curved guard, and a quantity of burned and 
 rusted scale-armor. The great camp, in the midst of which 
 the palace-fort was built, also yielded a harvest of military 
 relics. This camp (the camp founded by Psammetichus for 
 the Carian and Ionian troops to whose valor he owed his 
 crown) measured 2000 feet in length by 1000 feet in breadth ; 
 and though Mr. Petrie excavated but a corner of it, he found 
 hundreds of objects belonging to these ancient Greek soldiers 
 arrow-heads in bronze and iron, horses' bits, fragments of 
 chain-work, iron bars, blacksmith's tools, and the like. He 
 also excavated part of the Greek town in the plain, where 
 large quantities of beautiful carnelian, onyx, garnet, and 
 other beads were found ; scraps of gold- work, indicating a 
 large trade in articles of personal adornment ; and an im- 
 mense number of very small weights, such as could only be 
 used by jewellers and dealers in precious stones. 
 
 A massive gold handle, apparently the handle of a tray,
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 67 
 
 was also found buried in a corner of the camp, where doubt- 
 less it had been hidden by some plunderer when the place 
 was sacked and burned. This undoubtedly formed part of 
 Hophra's service of gold plate (that sendee of gold plate 
 which he would, of course, have placed at the disposal of his 
 royal Jewish guests), and it is, with one exception, the only 
 piece of gold plate ever found in Egypt. 
 
 To return, however, to Jeremiah and his famous prophe- 
 cyto that day when he took "great stones in his hand, 
 and placed them with mortar in the brick-work which was 
 at the entry of Pharaoh's House in Tahpanhes." In illustra- 
 tion of this passage, I may here quote a few lines from Mr. 
 Petrie's private report addressed to the Honorary Secre- 
 tary and Executive Committee of the Egypt Exploration 
 Fund, during the month of April, 1886 : 
 
 "This ' brickwork, or pavement 1 at the entry of Pharaolrs 
 House has always been a puzzle to translators ; but as soon 
 as we began to uncover the plan of the palace, the exactness 
 of the description was manifest ; for here, outside the build- 
 ings adjoining the central tower, I found by repeated trench- 
 ings an area of continuous brickwork resting on sand, and 
 measuring about 100 feet by 60 feet, facing the entrance to 
 the buildings at the east corner. 
 
 " The roadway ran up a recess between the buildings, and 
 this platform, which has no traces of superstructures, was 
 evidently an open-air place for loading and unloading goods, 
 or sitting out in the air, or transacting business, or convers- 
 ing just such a place, in fact, as is made by the Egyptians 
 to this day in front of their houses, where they drink coffee, 
 and smoke in the cool of the afternoon, and receive their 
 visitors. 
 
 " Such seems to have been the object of this large plat- 
 form, which was evidently a place to meet persons who 
 would not be admitted into the palace or fort ; to assemble 
 guards ; to hold large levees ; to receive tribute and stores ; 
 to unlade goods; and to transact the multifarious business 
 which, in so hot a climate, is done in the open air. This
 
 68 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 platform is therefore, unmistakably, the brickwork, or pave- 
 ment, which is at the ' entry of Pharaoh's House in Tahpan- 
 hes.' The rains have washed away this area and denuded 
 the surface, so that, although it is two or three feet thick 
 near the palace, it is reduced in greater part to a few inches, 
 and is altogether gone at the north-west corner." 
 
 Now, the Arabic name for a platform of this kind is 
 "Balat;" and that we have in this "Balat" the brickwork 
 referred to in the Bible is scarcely to be doubted by the 
 most determined sceptic. And it is to be noted that in the 
 alternative reading above mentioned, " the brickwork which 
 is at the entry of Pharaoh's house" is rendered as "the 
 pavement or square." 
 
 Here, therefore, the ceremony described by Jeremiah must 
 have been performed, and it was upon this spot that Nebu- 
 chadnezzar was to spread his royal pavilion. It will be 
 asked, perhaps, if Mr. Petne actually found the stones which 
 Jeremiah laid with mortar in the thickness of that pave- 
 ment. He looked for them, of course, turning up the brick- 
 work in every part ; and he did find some large stones lying 
 loosely on the surface. But these had probably rolled 
 down from the wreck of the palace. At all events, it was 
 impossible to identify them. 
 
 Meanwhile, we turn in vain to the pages of sacred and 
 secular history for some record of the fate of those hapless 
 princesses the last, the very last of the ancient and noble 
 royal line of Judah, who w r ere recognized as royal. What 
 fate befell them and their followers ? Did the Assyrian pur- 
 sue them with fire and sword? And was the conqueror's 
 pavilion actually spread upon the spot marked out by the 
 prophet ? The Bible tells us no more ; but certain Egyptian 
 inscriptions state that Nebuchadnezzar again invaded Egypt, 
 and was defeated by Apries Pharaoh Hophra ; while on 
 the other hand, certain Babylonian inscriptions give the vic- 
 tory to Nebuchadnezzar. AVhich are we to believe? For 
 my own part, I unhesitatingly accept the impartial evidence 
 of that burned and blackened pile, " The Castle of the Jew's
 
 THE BURIED CITIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 69 
 
 Daughter ;" and I do not doubt that the invincible Assyri- 
 an wrought his uttermost vengeance upon the " remnant of 
 Judah." 
 
 Nor must we forget the additional testimony of three 
 clay cylinders of Nebuchadnezzar, inscribed in cuneiform 
 characters, and now in the National Egyptian Museum. 
 Some seven or eight years ago these cylinders were sold to 
 Professor Maspero by an Arab who found them, as we have 
 every reason to believe, upon this very spot ; and such cylin- 
 ders were precisely the memorials which Nebuchadnezzar 
 would have left buried beneath the spot where he spread 
 his pavilion, and planted his royal standard, in the hour of 
 victory. 
 
 POTTERY IN THE CELLAR OF HOUSE OF BAKAKUIU.
 
 PLOUGHING SCENE. 
 
 III. 
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 THE oldest sculptures and the oldest paintings which have 
 come down to our time are the work of ancient Egyptian ar- 
 tists who lived some four thousand years before the Christian 
 era. This would look as though sculpture and painting were 
 twins twins born of the fruitful Nile, and therefore of par- 
 allel antiquity. But the art of painting implies first the art 
 of drawing ; and the art of drawing is infinitely more ancient 
 than that of sculpture. It is more ancient than the imme- 
 morial civilization of Egypt. It is almost as old as man him- 
 self. 
 
 The child by the sea-shore tracing rude figures of men and 
 animals upon the wet sands, and the cave-dweller in the ages 
 before history outlining the forms of the mammoth and the 
 mastodon on a fragment of polished bone, are obeying the 
 same imitative bent, and that imitative bent is due to one of 
 the primary instincts of our race. An incised outline upon 
 bone is not sculpture. It is drawing drawing with a point. 
 It precedes the attempt to model in clay, or to carve images 
 in wood or stone. In a word, it is the earliest form of fine 
 art in the world. 
 
 From the prehistoric cave-dweller we pass at one step to
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 71 
 
 the ancient Egyptian draughtsman. In the history of art, all 
 is blank between them. We cannot measure the abvss of 
 time which separates the one from the other. We only know 
 that in the meanwhile there had been changes of manv kinds 
 upheavals and subsidences of land and water ; disappear- 
 ances of certain forms of animal and vegetable life ; and the 
 like. We do not know we cannot even guess how long it 
 had taken the ancient Egyptian to Avork his way up from 
 primitive barbarism to that stage of advanced culture at which 
 he had arrived when we first make his acquaintance on his 
 native soil. This is about the time of the building of the 
 Great Pyramid, or nearly six thousand years ago, counting to 
 this year of grace, 1890. Already he was a consummate 
 builder, geometrician, and mathematician. Already he was 
 in possession of a religious literature of great antiquity. He 
 was master of a highly complicated system of writing ; he 
 had carried the art of sculpture, in the most obdurate mate- 
 rials, to as high a degree of perfection as was possible with the 
 tools at his command ; and he drew the human figure better 
 far better than he did in those later days when Herodo- 
 tus and Plato and Strabo visited the Valley of the Nile. 
 
 The earliest Egyptian paintings to which it is possible to 
 assign a date, are executed in tempera upon the walls of cer- 
 tain tombs made for the noble personages who were contempo- 
 rary with King Khufu (better known as Cheops), the builder 
 of the Great Pyramid. In these paintings we see herdsmen 
 driving herds of goats, oxen, and asses ; vintagers working the 
 wine-press ; scenes of ploughing, feasting, dancing, boating, 
 and so forth. There is no attempt at scenery or background. 
 The heads are given in profile, but the eyes are given as if 
 seen frontwise. 
 
 The head being in profile, one would expect to see the 
 body in profile ; but this was not in accordance with ancient 
 Egyptian notions. The artist desired to make as much of 
 his sitter as possible to give him full credit for the breadth 
 of his chest and the width of his shoulders, and to show that 
 he had the customary allowance of arms and legs; so he
 
 72 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 represented the body in front view. But he thus landed him- 
 self in a grave difficulty. To draw a pair of legs and feet in 
 front view is by no means easy. It requires a knowledge of 
 foreshortening, and the Egyptian artist was as ignorant of 
 foreshortening as of perspective. He, however, met this dif- 
 ficulty by boldly returning to the point from which he first 
 started, and drawing the legs and feet in profile, like the 
 face. Nor was this all. Having no idea of perspective, he 
 placed every part of his subject on the same plane ; that is 
 to say, a man walking or standing has the one foot planted 
 so exactly in front of the other that a line drawn from the 
 middle toe of the front foot would precisely intersect the 
 soles of both. I have sometimes wondered whether it ever 
 occurred to an ancient Egyptian artist to try to place him- 
 self in the attitude in which he elected to represent his fel- 
 low-creatures namely, with his body at a right angle to his 
 legs and his profile. He would have found it extremely un- 
 comfortable, not to say impossible. Yet in this preposterous 
 fashion he depicted princes and peasants, priests and kings, 
 and even armies on the march. Strange to say, the effect is 
 neither so ugly nor so ridiculous as it sounds. The outline 
 is drawn with such freedom, and the forms, taken separate- 
 ly, are so graceful that, despite our better judgment, we 
 accept the conventional deformity, and even forget that it is 
 deformity. 
 
 When the ancient Egyptian artist had drawn the face and 
 figure of his sitter, he proceeded to fill up the outline with 
 color. It it were the portrait of a man, he covered the face, 
 body, arms, and legs with a flat wash of dark, reddish-brown ; 
 if it were the portrait of a woman, he substituted a yellow- 
 ish-buff. Not that the men were in reality red-brown or the 
 women yellow, but because these were the conventional tints 
 employed to distinguish the complexions of the two sexes. 
 He next indicated the eyebrow by a black line of uniform 
 thickness ; and for the eye, he painted a black disk on a white 
 ground. The garments and the border-patterns of the gar- 
 ments, the necklaces, the bracelets, the rich belts, the elab-
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 73 
 
 orate head-dresses, were all treated with exquisite minuteness, 
 and in the same flat tints. 
 
 Such being his system of color, it was of course impossible 
 for our Egyptian to represent light and shadow, or the tex- 
 ture of stuffs, or the flow of drapery. His art, in fact, can- 
 not be described as painting, in our sense of the term. He 
 did not paint ; he illuminated. (") Inasmuch, therefore, as he 
 excelled in the methods of illumination, he was a singularly 
 skilful craftsman ; but inasmuch as he has never been surpass- 
 ed for purity and precision and sweep of outline, or for the 
 fidelity with which here produced the racial characteristics 
 of foreign nations, or for the truth and spirit with which he 
 depicted all varieties of animal life, he was undoubtedly and 
 unquestionably an artist. Drawing only in profile, and paint- 
 ing only in flat washes, he could not, and did not, attempt to 
 show the changing expression of the human face in joy or 
 grief or anger. The widow wailing over the mummy of her 
 husband, the Pharaoh slaying his thousands on the field of 
 battle, looks out into space with the smiling serenity of a 
 cherub on a tombstone. But let Rameses return to Thebes 
 after a victorious campaign in Ethiopia or Asia Minor, bring- 
 ing a string of foreign captives bound to his chariot-wheels, 
 and see then what our Egyptian artist can do ! "With noth- 
 ing but his reed-pen and his whole-colored w ashes, he pro- 
 duces a series of portraits of Syrians, Libyans, negroes, and 
 Asiatic Greeks which no English or French or American ar- 
 tist could surpass for living and speaking individuality, and 
 which probably none of them could do half so well if com- 
 pelled to employ the same methods. 
 
 There is, however, one point upon which it is necessary 
 to insist in this connection. Among even those who care 
 much and know much about art, there prevails an impression 
 that the art of the Egyptians was phenomenally rigid and 
 incorrect, and that Egyptian painters committed more glar- 
 ing errors in their treatment of the " human form divine " 
 than the early artists of other nations. This is a grave 
 misconception. The beginnings of pictorial art in all nations,
 
 74 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 at all periods, are curiously alike. The archaic tyro tries his 
 u 'prentice hand " on the same subjects ; he encounters the 
 same difficulties ; he meets those difficulties in the same way ; 
 he commits the same blunders. Egyptian, Assyrian, Etrus- 
 can, Greek, repeat one another. They all draw the face in 
 profile, and the eye as if seen from the front. They all rep- 
 resent the feet planted on precisely the same line. They all 
 color in flat tints, and are alike ignorant of light and shade, 
 of foreshortening and perspective. 
 
 Greek painting the whole body of Greek painting, from 
 its earliest to its latest phase, with the one exception of the 
 art of painted vases is irrecoverably lost. Of the master- 
 pieces of Greek sculpture, some few priceless relics have sur- 
 vived the general wreck ; but of the famous creations of the 
 great Greek painters there remains but an echo in the pages 
 of Pausanias and Pliny. The w^alls enriched with their im- 
 mortal frescos, the panels on which they painted their in- 
 comparable easel pictures, have long since become dust. But, 
 like the glow that streams up from the west after the sun has 
 gone down, the splendor of their fame yet lights the horizon 
 and is reflected on the hills of Athens. 
 
 Strange to say, despite the ruin which has overtaken their 
 works, we know almost as much about those dead and gone 
 painters of between two and three thousand years ago as we 
 know about the artists of our own day. We have elaborate 
 descriptions of their pictures, notes on their methods, criti- 
 cisms on their styles, and abundance of anecdotes of their 
 sayings and doings. We know that Polygnotus, who excelled 
 in battle-pieces, was called the "most ethical of painters;" 
 that Xeuxis carried realism to the point of actual illusion ; 
 that Protogenes (an earlier Albert Diirer) finished his pict- 
 ures with microscopic minuteness ; and that Apelles excelled 
 all the rest in ideal beauty and grace. 
 
 The prices which these artists received for their pictures 
 were by no means contemptible. Nikias, it is said, refused to 
 sell one of his works to Ptolemy Lagus for sixty talents, a sum 
 equivalent to sixty thousand dollars, or twelve, thousand
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 To 
 
 pounds sterling. Aristides, when commissioned to paint a 
 battle-piece containing one hundred figures, bargained for 
 two hundred dollars, or forty pounds sterling, per figure ; and 
 Alexander, for his own portrait in the character of Zeus hurl- 
 ing a thunder-bolt, gave Apelles no less than twenty talents of 
 gold that is to say, fifty thousand pounds sterling, or two 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars. As for the painters who 
 commanded these extraordinary prices, they rivalled each 
 other in ostentation and vanity. They robed themselves in 
 the purple of royalty ; they wore golden wreaths upon their 
 heads and golden clasps upon their sandals ; and they squan- 
 dered their wealth with both hands.( 18 ) 
 
 Yet the art which rose to this height of renown started 
 from beginnings more humble than anything which has come 
 down to us in the shape of ancient Egyptian painting. The 
 paintings of the Greeks, as I have said, are lost, and only 
 their vase-paintings remain. But as the vase-paintings of 
 the finest period reflect the art of the finest period, so the 
 vase-paintings of the archaic period reflect the art of the 
 archaic period ; and they show with what a childish hand the 
 first attempts of the Greek draughtsman were traced. ]S"oth- 
 ing in the way of drawing which has yet been discovered in 
 Egypt is so ludicrously feeble as the drawing upon the so- 
 called Proto- Homeric vases found at Athens. These vases 
 are supposed to date from the tenth century before our era, 
 and are therefore contemporaneous with the Twentieth Egyp- 
 tian Dynasty the dynasty of Kameses III. and his successors. 
 
 But the Twentieth Egyptian Dynasty, if it registers the 
 beginnings of art in the very core of Hellas, marks its old 
 age and decadence in Egypt. Pliny laughed the Egyptians 
 to scorn, when they claimed their priority as painters. 
 
 " Concerning the first origin of the painter's art," he says, 
 " I am not ignorant that the Egyptians do vaunt thereof, 
 avouching that it was devised by them, and practised sixe 
 hundred years before there was any talke or knowledge 
 thereof in Greece, a vaine brag and ostentation of theirs, as 
 all the world may see."(") But the incredulity of Pliny was
 
 76 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 the incredulity of ignorance. Himself living in an age when 
 the Egyptians spoke only Coptic or Greek, and when the 
 secret of the old Egyptian writing was lost, neither he nor 
 his contemporaries, nor the Coptic Egyptians themselves, 
 had any standard left by which to measure the history of 
 the great African province. It Avas not a priority of six 
 hundred years that the Egyptians should have claimed in 
 this controversy, but a priority of more than three thousand. 
 The painted tombs of the Pyramid plateau were already 
 close upon four thousand years old in the time of Pliny. 
 
 But there is yet another fact bearing on this question a 
 fact which none of us suspected till the mysterious records 
 sculptured on stone and written on papyrus were deciphered 
 namely, that the so-called Pelasgic Greeks, the very early 
 Greeks of the Archipelago and the coast of Asia Minor, had 
 been known to the Egyptians, and fought by them, and van- 
 quished by them, and brought as captives to Thebes, as 
 early as the time of King Sankhara of the Eleventh Dynasty. 
 Of this king it is recorded in a contemporary rock-cut in- 
 scription in the Valley of Hamamat, that " he broke down 
 the power of the Hanebu." As I explain in Chapter V. 
 of this volume, " Hanebu ' is the name by which the Greeks 
 were first known to the Egyptians. Later on, in inscriptions 
 of the time of Thothmes III. of the Eighteenth Dynasty, we 
 meet with them as the Danasans ; and later still, under the 
 Pharaohs of the three following dynasties, they appear with 
 their distinctive names as Achseans, Lycians, Dardanians, 
 Mycians, Teucrians, lonians, and Carians. 
 
 It has, however, been supposed up to the present time 
 that these early Greeks knew Egypt only as miserable cap- 
 tives toiling in the mines and quarries, and that the land of 
 the Pharaohs was jealously closed against them until they 
 settled at Daphnse as a military colony under Psammetichus 
 L, and at Naukratis as a trading colony under Amasis II. 
 But so recently as the spring-time of 1889 a strange new 
 light dawned upon the horizon eastward of Hellas. In two 
 little ruined towns situate within a few miles of each other
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 77 
 
 on the borders of the Fayum, Mr. Petrie discovered traces 
 of two separate colonies of foreigners, the one colony dating 
 from the reign of Usertesen II. of the Twelfth Dynasty, 
 about three thousand years before our era ; and the other 
 dating from the reign of Thothmes III. of the Eighteenth 
 Dynasty, about fifteen hundred years later. The earlier 
 mound is locally known as Tell Kahun, and the more recent 
 as Tell Gurob. In both have been found innumerable frag- 
 ments of pottery of Cypriote and archaic Greek styles ; and 
 hundreds of these potsherds are inscribed with characters, 
 some of which may be Phoenician, or that earliest derivative 
 of Phoenician known as Cadmaaan Greek ; while others be- 
 long to the Cypriote, Graeco-Asiatic, and Italic alphabets. 
 Nor is this all. The cemetery belonging to one of these 
 towns has given up its dead, who prove to have been a fair 
 and golden-haired race, like the " Golden-tressed Achaaans " 
 of Homer. 
 
 The ancient settlers who lived and died at Tell Gurob 
 were mummified like the native Egyptians, having apparently 
 adopted the religion of the country ; and on the mummy-case 
 of one, we read that its occupant's name was An-Tursha, and 
 that he was " Governor of the Palace." Now, in its etymolo- 
 gy, An-Tursha is a very remarkable name for the man who 
 bore it must have belonged to a foreign people called the 
 Tursha, who allied themselves with the Libyans and Sardin- 
 ians in an attack upon Egypt (luring the reign of Seti I., 
 and were signally defeated. About a century later, in the reign 
 of Rameses III. of the Twentieth Dynasty, they again vent- 
 ured across the sea in their "hollow ships," allied this time 
 with the Danaaans, Sicilians, Lycians, and others. Descend- 
 ing upon the Egyptian coast near Pelusium, they were en- 
 countered by the whole naval and military force of Kame- 
 ses III., and wellnigh annihilated. Who, then, were these 
 Tursha that come before us first in company with the Sar- 
 dinians, and next with the Sardinians and Sicilians both 
 nations from the northern waters of the Mediterranean? 
 The Tursha are none other than the primitive rulers of
 
 78 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Latium, the mysterious Etruscans, whose identification has 
 been con vincingly established by Francois Lenormant.( 30 ) And 
 it was on the potsherds of Tell Gurob, a settlement which 
 was inhabited by the fair-haired foreigners precisely during 
 the reign of Seti I. and his immediate successors (the settle- 
 ment in which the man An-Tursha lived and died) that 
 those especial signs were found which are unquestionably 
 identical with certain letters of the Etruscan alphabet. With- 
 out venturing to draw any conclusion from these facts, I 
 desire to call attention very particularly to the sequel in 
 which they follow each other. 
 
 About 3000 B.C. Sankhara subdues the tribes of the Greek 
 Archipelago. Some three generations later, in the reign of 
 Usertesen II., a colony of foreign workmen, who were prob- 
 ably employed in transporting the stone of which that 
 Pharaoh's pyramid was built, settle close beside it, on the 
 edge of the desert. They decorate their domestic pottery 
 with patterns unknown to Egyptian potters, and they in- 
 scribe them with characters closely resembling the archaic 
 alphabets of Phoenicia and Cyprus. Is it not allowable to 
 ask whether these foreigners might not be descendants of 
 the captives brought home by Sankhara? 
 
 Fifteen hundred years later, Thothmes III. celebrates his 
 victories over the Dardani Dardani being here used, as by 
 Homer, to designate the Asiatic Greeks generally. And it 
 is in the reign of Thothmes III. that another alien colony is 
 established, perhaps not altogether by chance, within a few 
 miles of the deserted site occupied fifteen centuries before 
 by the earlier settlers. The new town, Tell Gurob, con- 
 tinues to be inhabited for nearly one hundred years, and is 
 then deserted, like its predecessor. In the course of that 
 century Egypt is again and again attacked, not only by the 
 Greeks of Asia Minor and the ^Egean, but by the coast-folk 
 and islanders of the Tyrrhene Sea. It is significant that 
 the signs inscribed on the potsherds of the new colony com- 
 prise letters belonging to the archaic alphabets of those very 
 tribes which hurled themselves in vain against the trained
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 79 
 
 battalions of Seti I. and Barneses II. ; namely, the Leku, or 
 Lycians ; the Aiuna, or lonians ; the Akaiusha, or Achaeans ; 
 and the Tursha or Etruscans.( ai ) It is to this later colony 
 that the man An -Tursha belonged. It is on the pottery of 
 this colony that we find the Etruscan letters ; and it is in 
 the cemetery belonging to this colony that the yellow-haired 
 mummies have been found. 
 
 JSTow, these facts, take them from what point of view we 
 may, are most extraordinary. Mr. Petrie has brought to 
 light the earliest Greek alphabetical signs yet discovered ; 
 for the most ancient specimens of Greek writing previously 
 known are the rock -cut and lava -cut inscriptions found 
 in the very ancient cemeteries of Santorin and Thera, and 
 the famous Greek inscription cut upon the leg of one of the 
 colossi at Abu-Simbel. The Abu-Simbel inscription is 
 contemporaneous with the Forty-seventh Olympiad, and Le- 
 normant attributes the oldest of the Theran inscriptions to 
 the ninth century before Christ. But the potsherds found 
 by Mr. Petrie in the Fayum carry back the history of the 
 alphabet to a period earlier than the date of the Exodus, 
 and six centuries earlier than any Greek inscriptions known. 
 
 But if they throw a new and surprising light upon the 
 history of writing and of language, they throw no less valu- 
 able a light upon the history of art. By revealing the 
 astonishing fact that Egypt contained settlements of early 
 Greek and Italian tribes at a date long anterior to the earli- 
 est date at which those people had any history or monu- 
 ments of their own, they show in what school of art those 
 nations studied. And thus the marked Egyptian character 
 of the archaic painting and sculpture of Greece and Etruria 
 is at once explained. 
 
 It is not, however, to be for one moment supposed that it 
 was the settlers in those two little towns in the Fayum who 
 handed on the arts of Egypt to their barbarian brethren 
 over the sea. The results of the excavation of these sites 
 are samples mere samples of what the minor mounds of 
 Egypt hold in store for the explorer. There are probably
 
 80 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 hundreds of such sites in Egypt sites so insignificant in ap- 
 pearance that no one supposes them to be worth the trouble 
 of excavation. The Pharaohs drafted immense numbers of 
 prisoners into Egypt. They needed men for their gigantic 
 public works, which could only be carried on by means of a 
 reckless sacrifice of human life. It was for this purpose, 
 quite as much as for mere booty, that they made their in- 
 cessant raids upon Ethiopia and Syria. When, therefore, 
 the barbarian hordes of southern Europe and Asia Minor 
 attacked Egypt by land or sea, they rushed, not merely 
 upon defeat and death, but upon slavery. There must have 
 been tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of 
 these foreigners in Egypt during the Nineteenth and Twen- 
 tieth dynasties; for again and again during the reigns of 
 Rameses II. and Rameses III., they came upon the same des- 
 perate errand, and with the same result. Vast numbers 
 were sent to the mines and the quarries, and, like the Chil- 
 dren of Israel, to the brick-fields. But to such as were 
 skilled in handicrafts, a less intolerable lot would be as- 
 signed. These would be employed as artisans rather than 
 as beasts of burden. The Greek characters traced on the 
 backs of certain encaustic tiles found in the ruins of a build- 
 ing erected by Rameses III. at Tell el-Yahudieh may well 
 be the work of some of these prisoners of war. The for- 
 eigners would naturally herd together close against the py- 
 ramid or temple or canal where the taskmasters kept them 
 at work ; and it is in the little nameless, unnoticed mounds 
 scattered up and down the Nile Valley that relics of their 
 presence will be found. 
 
 This discovery of Mr. Petrie's throws an entirely new 
 light upon the synchronous history of Egypt, Cyprus, Asia 
 Minor, and Etruria. It carries back the literary history of 
 these nations to a date hitherto undreamed of by the classic 
 historians or by ourselves, and it promises to clear up a host 
 of very obscure problems concerning the origin and develop- 
 ment of Greek and Etruscan art.( 22 ) 
 
 And now it will be interesting to examine in detail the
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 81 
 
 principles upon which the human figure was drawn by the 
 artists of ancient Egypt ; to note the skill with which they 
 seized upon and delineated the ethnic characteristics of for- 
 eign nations; and to trace the influence of Egypt upon the 
 schools of Assyria, Etruria, and Greece. The accompany in o- 
 illustration represents one of the great 
 gods of Heliopolis the Biblical " On." 
 His name is rendered as Turn, Tumu, 
 or Atmu. He typified the setting sun. 
 The figure is drawn in pure line, and 
 presents all the peculiar characteristics 
 of the Egyptian school. The head and 
 face are shown in profile, and the shoul- 
 ders are set squarely frontwise. But 
 from below the waist, the point of view 
 changes back to profile, the legs and 
 feet being shown sidewise, like the face. 
 The feet are placed in line, the heel of 
 the one foot being exactly in front of 
 the toes of the other. It is an impos- 
 sible position, yet the figure is so boldly 
 and so simply drawn that we do not 
 realize how impossible it is. The eye 
 is shown as if seen in the full face. 
 The hieroglyphic inscription contains 
 the name and titles of the god : Turn, 
 or Tumu, Lord of the Two Lands, i. e,, 
 of Upper and Lower Egypt, ( M ) Great 
 God of On, Ruler of the Gods. In this 
 figure we have an admirable example 
 of ancient Egyptian figure -drawing in 
 pure line. A portrait of a god is, how- 
 ever, necessarily an ideal portrait ; if, therefore, we would 
 form a just notion of the fidelity with which the artists of 
 Pharaonic times painted the portraits of living men and 
 women, we cannot do better than turn to the tomb -paint- 
 ings of the Theban Period, and above all to the famous 
 6 
 
 TTJM. 
 
 Also called Tumu and 
 Atmu. He wears the 
 "pschent," or double 
 crown, signifying his 
 domination over Upper 
 and Lower Egypt. The 
 hieroglyphic inscription 
 recounts his name and ti- 
 tles : " Tumu, Lord of the 
 Two Lands, Great God of 
 On, Divine Ruler of the 
 Substance of the Gods."
 
 82 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 typical groups known as " the four races " in the great 
 rock-cut sepulchres of the kings of the Nineteenth and 
 Twentieth dynasties. These groups represent the conven- 
 
 THE TYPICAL SYRIAN OF EGYPTIAN ART. 
 
 From a photograph by Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie. 
 
 tional " four races " of the ancient world, as classified by the 
 Egyptians ; namely, the Egyptians themselves (arrogantly 
 ranked as "mankind" par excellence), the Asiatics, the Lib- 
 yans, and the Ethiopians ; or, more comprehensively, the 
 browns, the yellows, the whites, and the blacks. 
 
 This spirited head of a Syrian chief was photographed by 
 Mr. Petrie from a wall-painting in the tomb of Kameses III. 
 It dates, therefore, from about 1100 B.C. The wall is dam- 
 aged and the plaster has scaled off in places, but the head is 
 fortunately uninjured. The Asiatic type is admirably caught. 
 This man was probably a Canaanite. He has all the ethnic 
 characteristics of the race. The eye, as usual, is falsely 
 drawn, but it is set at the Semitic angle, and the face has a
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 83 
 
 vivid look that speaks of actual portraiture. He wears a 
 head-gear of some spotted material, bound with the Syrian 
 fillet yet in use. The fringed and patterned robe, the cap and 
 fillet, are all true to the Syrian costume of three thousand 
 years ago.( 24 ) 
 
 Yery different in type is the typical Egyptian as we see 
 him represented in the portraits of Ra-hotep, Khufu-Ankh, 
 Semnefer, and Ra-em-ka.* The flesh-tints of Egyptians are 
 rendered of a reddish-brown, and the hair coal-black. The 
 facial angle is quite different from the facial angle of the 
 Asiatics. It is the facial angle of the European races, and 
 it has therefore a certain affinity with that of the typical 
 
 THE TYPICAL LIBYAN OF KGYPTIAN ART. 
 
 From a photograph by Mr. W. M. Flinders Potrie. 
 
 Libyan. Now, the typical Libyans of ancient Egyptian art 
 were a fair-skinned, red-haired, and blue-eyed race, whose 
 descendants survive to this day eastward of Algeria. We 
 
 * See illustrations to chap. iv.
 
 84 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 find them to be invariably distinguished by the massive side- 
 lock shown in the illustration. A piece of the wall-plaster 
 has unfortunately been knocked out of the cheek, but other- 
 wise the face is perfect. It is a very interesting face, gen- 
 tle and intelligent, and drawn, one would say, from the life. 
 These fair Libyans were doubtless emigrants from Europe 
 or Asia, and were most probably of Pelasgic origin. The 
 side-lock was a fashion peculiar to the Libyans and Mashu- 
 asha outside Egypt ; and it is stated by Herodotus that 
 the Maxyans (who are in all probability identical with the 
 Mashuasha of Egyptian inscriptions), allowed their hair to 
 grow in a long lock on the right side of the head, but shaved 
 it on the left.(") The side-lock was also a special fashion 
 observed by Egyptian princes in childhood and youth, and 
 it is worn to this day by little boys in Egypt and Nubia. 
 
 The " blameless Ethiopian " was a very familiar figure in the 
 land of the Pharaohs, and it is therefore no wonder that 
 Egyptian artists excelled in depicting his homely charac- 
 teristics. The illustration on page 85 is from Mr. Petrie's 
 series of photographs of wall-paintings in the tomb of a The- 
 ban noble named Hui, who was governor of Ethiopia under 
 one of the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The paint- 
 ed tombs of Egypt have suffered deplorably at the hands of 
 tourists and Arabs, and the tomb of Hui has not escaped in- 
 jury. Yet, when it is possible, illustrations direct from dam- 
 aged originals are preferable to copies made fifty or sixty 
 years ago, when the paintings were comparatively perfect. 
 The copy, though more pleasing, may err; but the photograph 
 is a faithful witness. In the present subject, we see a pro- 
 cession of Ethiopian chiefs, one of whom is accompanied 
 by his wife and children. The negro types are admirably 
 given, but it must be admitted that the dark lady who 
 brings up the rear is not beautiful. She wears a richly pat- 
 terned garment of many colors, and she carries her youngest 
 child in a funnel-shaped bag over her shoulder. 
 
 Last in the procession (for which we have not space here, 
 as it covers a large wall-space in the tomb) comes the Ethio-
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 85 
 
 plan queen herself, in a chariot drawn by spotted oxen. Her 
 face is wofully damaged, and the head of the groom-boy who 
 stands before the oxen has been cut out from the wall by 
 some unscrupulous traveller; but her Majesty's charioteer 
 and her attendant chiefs are in excellent preservation. 
 The Queen's arms are loaded with bracelets, and round her 
 neck she wears a splendid necklace, consisting of many rows 
 
 PROCESSION OF NKGROES. 
 
 From a wall-painting in the tomb of Hui at El Kab, reproduced from a photograph 
 .by Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie. 
 
 of beads and pendants. Her head-dress is a stupendous work 
 of art, consisting of a framework decorated with ostrich 
 plumes mounted on a golden crown. Plumed negroes carry- 
 ing trays piled with gold rings and bags of gold dust, and 
 others bearing tribute of elephant tusks, logs of ebony, and 
 other products of the Soudan, bring up the rear.* 
 
 Although the ancient Egyptian artist was naturally most 
 
 * See Mr. Petrie's scries of photographs of "Racial Types."
 
 86 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 familiar with the characteristics of the traditional "four 
 races," he was no less skilful when called upon to deal with 
 the unaccustomed European type. In the heads of the Sar- 
 dinian body-guard of Rameses II., as we see them depicted 
 in the famous battle-subject on the north wall of the Great 
 Temple of Abu-Simbel, we find these fair-skinned, blue-eyed, 
 and small-featured islanders represented with a freshness and 
 vivacity which seem to point to the delight of the draughts- 
 man in a new subject. 
 
 THE SARDINIAN OF EGYPTIAN ART. 
 
 The ethnic characteristics of these ancient Sardinians are 
 very unlike those of the Sardinians of to-day. The type is 
 almost that of the modern Englishman, a resemblance which 
 is heightened by the neatly trimmed whiskers of the royal 
 body-guard. Curiously enough, however, the Sardinian chief- 
 tain represented on the pavilion pylon of Rameses III. at 
 Medinet-Habu is of a distinctly Semitic type. This would 
 look as though Sardinia, in the time of the Twentieth Dy- 
 nasty, had fallen under the rule of foreign conquerors; or as
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 87 
 
 if the native Sardinian troops were officered at that time by 
 Semites. In the foregoing head, as in the heads of all the 
 Sardinian body-guard of Kameses II. in the great Abu-Sim- 
 bel tableau, we have, at all events, a purely European type : 
 and this type, it is to be remem- 
 bered, dates from about eighty 
 years earlier than the sculptures 
 of Medinet-Habii. 
 
 We will now pass on to 
 Greece. As it has already been 
 said, the only specimens of the 
 graphic arts of Greece which 
 time has spared are found on 
 painted vases, the earliest being GREEK CHARIOTEER - 
 
 the so-called pre-Homeric" 
 vases of Athens, which cannot 
 
 be less ancient than 1000 B.C., and may be yet older. The 
 designs are absurdly archaic ; but they at all events show us 
 how barbarous were the beginnings of Greek art when iso- 
 lated from foreign influences. 
 
 Here we have an example of the earliest Greek draughts- 
 manship which has come down to our time. The subject is 
 taken from a " pre-Homeric " vase figured in AVoltmann's 
 History of Painting, vol. i. The subject is a charioteer driv- 
 ing a pair of animals, which may be horses, or giraffes, or 
 both. The early Greek had, of course, no notion of perspec- 
 tive ; therefore the chariot-wheels, though intended to be one 
 on each side of the chariot, are placed in line. ^Neither have 
 the chariot-pole and wheels any connection with the body of 
 the chariot. As for the expressive countenance and classic 
 draperies of the noble Athenian, it need scarcely be point- 
 ed out that they are immeasurably inferior to the poorest 
 known specimens of Egyptian figure-drawing, being paral- 
 leled only by the dot-and-line performances of our childhood. 
 
 The following funerary scene is also from a vase of pre- 
 Homeric type, of which an illustration is given in Collig- 
 non's Archeologie Grecque. In the figure-drawing of this
 
 88 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 fragment there is a marked improvement, which would seem 
 to be traceable to the study of Egyptian models. These per- 
 sonages have faces, or, at all events, noses and chins; also, 
 they have legs which are very substantially developed. As 
 in Egyptian paintings, their bodies, from the waist upward, 
 are shown frontwise, and their legs and faces in profile. 
 The feet also are placed in line. The central object is a 
 bier, upon which lies the body of a dead hero, covered with 
 a pall. Two mourners strew it with palm branches ; the 
 rest clasp their hands above their heads in token of grief. 
 The w r omen sit on the floor beside the bier, in attitudes of 
 lamentation. Of perspective, the artist had not the faintest 
 perception. The bier stands on four stout legs, which are 
 placed in a row like ninepins. The figures stand on a single 
 line. It is a scene from a world of but two dimensions, in 
 which all things have length and breadth, but no thickness. 
 
 OBSEQUIES OF A HERO. 
 
 A fragment of archaic painted ware found by Mr. Petrie 
 in the rums of the palace-fort of Psammetichus I. at Daph- 
 na3, in the Eastern Delta, is decorated with the following 
 figure of a Greek dancing-girl. Kow, Daphne was founded 
 by this Pharaoh for the accommodation of his Carian and 
 Ionian mercenary troops about the middle of the seventh 
 century before our era, and the place was abandoned 
 ninety years later, in the reign of Amasis II. We have
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 89 
 
 therefore a sufficiently accurate date for this design of a 
 dancing-woman ; that is to say, we may take it for granted 
 that the Greek colonists who settled in the neighborhood of 
 the camp would scarcely have built their town, and devel- 
 oped their trades as potters 
 and goldsmiths, until at least 
 a decade had elapsed. Conse- 
 quently, this product of their 
 industry would fall within the 
 strict limit of eighty years. 
 Our Greeks had by this time 
 much improved in their treat- 
 ment of the human figure. But 
 for the old false drawing of 
 the frontwise eye in the pro- 
 file face, the features are nat- 
 urally given. And it is a thor- 
 oughly Greek face, which is 
 very interesting. The fillet, 
 the ear-ring, and the long side- 
 curl are all characteristic of 
 archaic Greek costume. The 
 
 figure has, however, all the Egyptian conventionalities gross- 
 ly exaggerated, the body being shown frontwise to the waist, 
 while the legs and feet are placed sidewise, the breadth of 
 the shoulders and the length of the arms being ludicrously 
 out of proportion. 
 
 On another fragment of the same date and from the 
 same place, we have next a stock subject of the Greek vase- 
 painters ; namely, GEdipus and the Sphinx. It is probably 
 the earliest example of the subject extant. This, again, is 
 better drawn than the last design. But for the portentous 
 length of his hair and the amazing curve of his beard, (Edi- 
 pus is a very respectable-looking personage. The Egyptian 
 element is here unmistakable. The sphinx is a purely Egyp- 
 tian monster and of immemorial antiquity, the Great Sphinx 
 of Ghizeh being probably the oldest monument in Egypt. 
 
 GRKEK DANCING-GIRL. 
 
 From a fragment of an archaic Greek 
 vase found at Daphnse.
 
 90 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 The true Egyptian sphinx, however, has the head of a beard- 
 ed man crowned with the double crown of the Pharaohs. 
 But the Greeks, when they borrowed the sphinx (as they 
 borrowed so much else) from Egypt, added wings to the 
 lion body, and changed the bearded head of the god into 
 the filleted and ringleted head of a Greek woman. In 
 doing thus, they lost sight of the old Egyptian myth which 
 identified the sphinx with Horus in one of his transforma- 
 tions, and they adapted the conception to one of their 
 own national legends. This fragment of painted ware from 
 Daphnae marks, therefore, a starting-point in the history of 
 Greek art. Henceforth the sphinx became one of the most 
 familiar of Greek decorative subjects, not only in painting, 
 but in sculpture and metal - work. Sphinxes were repre- 
 sented as supporting 
 the arms of the throne 
 of Zeus ; and a sphinx- 
 crest surmounted the 
 helmet of Athena. 
 
 A great advance in 
 freedom of drawing 
 characterizes our next 
 subject, a fine painted 
 plate discovered by 
 Mr. Petrie in the ruins 
 of Kaukratis. This is 
 really a plaque - paint- 
 ing, two small holes 
 pierced through the 
 rim of the plate show- 
 ing that it was intend- 
 ed for suspension on the wall. The lotus ornament at the 
 bottom is, like the sphinx, borrowed from Egyptian models. 
 The work of the vase-painter is executed with singular deli- 
 cacy and freedom, only four colors being employed, namely, 
 yellow, brown, purple, and white the typical four colors of 
 the earliest school of Greek painting. These were the four 
 
 (EDIPUS AND THE SPHINX. 
 
 From a fragment of an archaic Greek vase 
 found at Daphnae.
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 91 
 
 colors of the palette of Polygnotus and his contempora- 
 ries; and from the harmony with which they are used in 
 this charming plaque -painting, which has been aptly com- 
 pared (") with the panel-painting of the early Greek artists, 
 we may form some idea of the style and treatment of the 
 earliest masters. As an example of the technique of a lost 
 
 PAINTED PLATE WITH WINGED SPHINX, FOUND AT NAUKRATIS. 
 
 school of art, this Naukratis plate is invaluable. It is cer- 
 tainly not later than 500 B.C., and it is more probably as 
 early as 600 B. c.* 
 
 Having considered these few examples of the dominant 
 Egyptian influence in early Greek painting, we will next 
 observe how that influence affected the arts of Etruria. 
 
 The Etrurians are the most mysterious people of antiquity. 
 
 * See chap. v. on "Egypt the Birthplace of Greek Decorative Art."
 
 92 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 "We meet with them in the sculptured chronicles of ancient 
 Egypt as the Tursha, and in the pages of the earliest Greek 
 writers as the Tyrrhenes, or Turseni.( 37 ) According to an- 
 cient tradition, they came from Lydia in prehistoric times, 
 and colonized Latium. Certain details of their costumes 
 and customs appear to be identical with those of Lydia, 
 and the legend is probably based upon fact. But until 
 the inscriptions of Etruria can be read, we are not likely 
 to solve this problem. The Etruscan characters closely re- 
 semble the archaic alphabets of Asia Minor ; but no schol- 
 ar has yet succeeded in identifying more than proper names . 
 and the names of deities. 
 
 The rock-cut sepulchres of Etruria are singularly Egyp- 
 tian in style, and the wall - paintings with which they are 
 decorated bear the unmistakable impress of Egyptian teach- 
 ing. A very interesting series of Etruscan paintings on 
 terra-cotta slabs, from a tomb discovered at Cervetri, were 
 purchased by the British Museum in 1889. T\vo of these 
 slabs are painted with fantastic sphinxes, winged like those 
 of Daphnse and Naukratis, and purely decorative. These 
 sphinx slabs were placed apparently on either side of the 
 entrance of the tomb. The others contain figures walking, 
 as it would seem, in a funerary procession. Some carry lotus 
 plants with drooping lotus buds, and one bears a kind of cov- 
 ered vase, or perfume-jar. The women wear buskins and the 
 men greaves, and both are long-haired. The eyes are set, as 
 in the Egyptian paintings, frontwise in the profile face ; and 
 the feet, as usual, are placed the one precisely in advance of 
 the other. 
 
 The accompanying example is reproduced from a chromo- 
 lithographed plate in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1890. 
 
 The men are colored red, as in the Egyptian school, and 
 they wear pointed beards, like the (Edipus of the Daphna3 
 potsherd. The flesh-tints of the woman are white. The bull- 
 crested standard borne by the middle figure is purely Egyp- 
 tian, and we have numberless examples of the type in Egyp- 
 tian paintings and bas-reliefs from the Eighteenth Dynasty
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 93 
 
 downward. This Etruscan tomb was evidently the tomb of a 
 hero. The woman carries his spear and wreath of victory ; 
 the first man, Avho wears a white tunic, carries his stand- 
 ard or sceptre ; the second man, who seems to be in the act 
 of declaiming, has a palm branch to lay upon the bier. The 
 Egyptian influence in this whole series of painted slabs is 
 quite unmistakable. 
 
 The Egyptian military standard was generally surmounted 
 by the figure of a lion in gilded bronze, the lion being some- 
 times surmounted by a fan-shaped ornament. Now, if the 
 Etruscans borrowed their military insignia from Egypt, the 
 Romans, we know, borrowed their insignia of triumph and of 
 
 ETRUSCAN PAIXTKD SLAB, FOUND AT CERVKTRI.
 
 94 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 royalty from Etruria, an ivory standard, or long-stemmed 
 sceptre surmounted by an eagle, being invariably carried in 
 their triumphal processions. Thus, the eagles borrowed by 
 the first Napoleon from the classic Caesars, are to this day 
 the lineal representatives of the insignia of Rome, of Etru- 
 ria, and of ancient Egypt. 
 
 "We have now cast a rapid glance at some few examples 
 of the three earliest schools of painting the Egyptian, the 
 Greek, and the Etruscan ; we have traced the influence of 
 Egyptian teaching upon the two younger nations ; and we 
 have seen how the pupils began by reproducing and even ex- 
 aggerating the conventional errors of their masters. Unlike 
 the Egyptians, however, they did not go on perpetuating 
 those errors from age to age, from cycle to cycle. They 
 learned to look at nature with their own eyes, and to paint, 
 not what they had been taught, but what they actually saw. 
 They discovered, for instance, that objects diminish with dis- 
 tance ; that grass in sunshine is not the same color as grass 
 in shadow; that a man's nose, because it projects, catches 
 the light. They discovered that it was possible, merely by 
 imitating the natural effects of light and shadow, to obtain 
 a semblance of relief upon a perfectly flat surface. In a 
 word, they discovered the laAvs of chiaroscuro, and with 
 them the art of foreshortening, which is, in fact, perspective 
 applied to the human figure. 
 
 Greek tradition ascribes these great discoveries to an Athe- 
 nian named Apollodorus,( 28 ) who flourished about four hun- 
 dred and thirty years before our era ; and it is from this date 
 that the true art of painting may be said to begin. How rap- 
 idly the great Greek school developed, and to what a height 
 of splendor it ultimately attained., we have already seen. 
 
 The Egyptians, meanwhile, went on in the old grooves for 
 a few centuries longer. But even the Egyptians were con- 
 verted at last ; and the evidence of their conversion comes, 
 strangely enough, from the cemetery of what was once a 
 fifth-rate town in the Fayum. The town occupied one cor- 
 ner of an immense quadrangular platform artificially raised
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 95 
 
 THE SITE OF THE LABYRINTH. 
 
 From a photograph by Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie. In the foreground is seen the 
 level sand of the desert and the vast platform of chips marking the position of 
 the building. The brick foundations on the surface of the platform show the 
 lines of the streets of the Graeco-Roman town. 
 
 above the level of the desert. This platform, which meas- 
 ures one thousand feet in length by eight hundred in breadth, 
 represents the site of the Labyrinth that famous building 
 of which it was said by Herodotus that it was " larger than 
 all the temples of Greece put together, and more wonderful 
 than the pyramids/' The Labyrinth was utterly destroyed 
 by order of the Homan Government some seventeen or eigh- 
 teen centuries ago, and all that remains of its former magnifi- 
 cence is this platform, heaped six feet deep with thousands 
 and tens of thousands of tons of limestone and granite chips. 
 This tremendous destruction was undoubtedly wrought by 
 order of the Roman Government, and the people who smashed 
 up and quarried out the most splendid building of the ancient 
 world lived in that little town on the south-west corner of
 
 96 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS. AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 the platform. As they went on clearing the site they made 
 use of it for a cemetery ; and so, in course of time, the last 
 vestiges of the Labyrinth disappeared, and the place thereof 
 became a city of the dead. It was this cemetery which Mr. 
 Petrie explored during the seasons of 1887-88 and 1888-89 ; 
 and it was here that he discovered the extraordinary series of 
 portraits, some of which are here reproduced from his origi- 
 nal photographs.( S9 ) 
 
 The town appears to have contained a mixed population 
 consisting of Egyptians, Greeks, Syrians, and Eomans, the 
 Egyptians being for the most part small tradesfolk, artisans, 
 servants, and slaves; whereas the naturalized foreigners- 
 some of whom were resident Roman officials, and others the 
 descendants of Ptolemaic Greeks represented the aristoc- 
 racy of the place. Such, at all events, is the story told by 
 their graves ; the rich mummy-cases covered with gilding be- 
 ing mainly inscribed with Greek and Eoman names, as Arte- 
 midorus, Demetrius, Titus, and the like. 
 
 The town continued to be inhabited, and the cemetery 
 to be used, for several generations, during which time the 
 burial customs of these people underwent many alterations. 
 They seem, in fact, to have changed their fashions for the 
 dead almost as often as we change our fashions for the liv- 
 ing. At one time they wrapped them in elaborate band- 
 ages, and enclosed their heads and feet in a kind of piece- 
 armor of stiffened linen, stuccoed, painted, and gilded. This 
 piece-armor consisted of a head-piece, breastplate, and foot- 
 case, the head-piece having a carefully modelled face repre- 
 senting the features of the deceased. Later on, they gave up 
 gilding the faces and substituted color, at the same time in- 
 serting artificial eyes, and even imitating the hair, as it was 
 black or brown, wavy or curly. When realistic treatment 
 in modelled stucco had been carried as far as it could be car- 
 ried, the fashion changed again, and a portrait painted on 
 flexible canvas was laid over the face of the mummy. A 
 certain degree of actual relief was thus obtained by the prom- 
 inence of the bandaged features beneath.
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 97 
 
 From the flexible canvas it was but one bold, last step to 
 portraiture on a flat panel, the semblance of relief bei no- 
 given by light, shadow, and foreshortening. This bold, last 
 step marks the first appearance of the art of true painting 
 in Egypt. It signalizes the 
 transition from the Eastern ~ - 
 
 to the Western school ; it signs 
 the death -warrant of the old 
 conventional Egyptian system; 
 and it coincides in point of 
 time with the Emperor Ha- 
 drian's visit to Egypt in the 
 year A.D. 130. That visit 
 brought Western culture and 
 Western art to the very gates 
 of Thebes. Thus, three hun- 
 dred years after Apollodorus 
 had, as Pliny said, "opened 
 that door by which all the 
 great Greek painters entered," 
 Egypt better late than never 
 crossed the magic threshold. 
 Fettered as the Egyptians had 
 been by the traditions of their 
 schools, they would scarcely 
 have recognized the properties 
 
 of light and shadow, or the value of color in transition, 
 unless their eyes had been opened b}' teachers from with- 
 out. Greece, however, could well afford to pay this one 
 instalment of her enormous debt to Egypt ; and Egypt 
 could afford to accept this gift from Greece, who owed her 
 all the rest. 
 
 A few specimens of the Greece-Egyptian school of panel- 
 portraiture have been found from time to time within the 
 last quarter of a century, and those few have been classed 
 among the choicest treasures of our European museums; 
 but it was not until 1887 that any considerable number 
 7 
 
 YOUNG ORKEK.
 
 98 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 were brought to light. One series was discovered by Arab 
 diggers at a place called Rubaiyat, in the Fayum. These 
 were purchased by II err Graff, an Austrian gentleman, and 
 have been made the subject of a pamphlet by Dr. Ebers. 
 The other series was discovered about the same time by Mr. 
 Petrie in the cemetery of this Grasco-Roman town on the 
 Labyrinth plateau. 
 
 The mummies adorned by these portraits were enclosed 
 in fine cases solidly stuccoed and brilliantly painted, an 
 oval space being left over the face of the mummy, in which 
 the panel was inserted. In one instance the panel, instead 
 of being laid over the dead face, was found enclosed in a 
 
 frame of the modern " Oxford 
 pattern," and deposited beside 
 the mummy in his tomb. It 
 had evidently hung in his 
 house during the lifetime of 
 the sitter, the cord by which it 
 was anciently suspended being 
 yet knotted round the corners- 
 The heads are painted of 
 life size, on thin cedar panels 
 measuring about seventeen 
 inches by nine inches, and 
 varying from one-sixteenth to 
 a quarter of an inch in thick- 
 ness. In the earliest specimens 
 the panel is found to have been 
 first covered with a thin coat 
 of stucco, on which the por- 
 trait is painted in tempera; 
 but this process was dry and 
 
 brittle, and the color flaked off, which caused it soon to be 
 abandoned in favor of a medium of melted beeswax. The 
 colors, being in powder, mixed readily with the wax, and 
 were laid on with a stiff reed-brush fuzzed out at the end, 
 such as had been used by the old Egyptian painters from 
 
 KOYTTIAN ROY,
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 99 
 
 time immemorial. The panel was first covered with a prim- 
 ing of distemper. Then came the ground color, which was 
 generally laid in of a leaden tint for the background, and 
 of a flesh tint for the face and neck. The next step was to 
 outline the features with the brush this being generally 
 done in a purple hue and the last was to work in the sur- 
 face color, or painting proper, 
 the hot sun of Egypt sufficing to 
 keep the wax in a creamy and 
 manageable condition. This 
 method, as practised in Egypt, 
 cannot have been identical with 
 what is commonly called the 
 "encaustic painting of the an- 
 cients." That was a difficult and 
 laborious process, the colors be- 
 ing fused on the picture by means 
 of a red-hot implement described 
 by Pliny as "a punching-iron." 
 No artificial heat was needed in 
 Egypt, and the colors were un- 
 doubtedly applied with the reed- 
 brush, the fibres of which are 
 clearly traceable in these Fayum 
 
 portraits. Also, the encaustic was a slow process, whereas 
 these bold and sketchy heads evince the utmost rapidity of 
 execution. 
 
 As for the pigments employed, it would have been impos- 
 sible to analyze them without destroying a picture, but for 
 the fortunate discovery of the grave of an artist, whose paint- 
 saucers were laid beside his head six in number, piled one 
 upon the other. They prove to contain : 
 
 1. Dark red, made from oxide of iron, with a small ad- 
 mixture of sand, making a good sienna color. 2. Yellow, 
 made from ochre and oxide of iron, and a little alumina. 
 3. White, made from sulphate of lime and gypsum. 4. Red, 
 made from minium and oxide of lead, and apparently some 
 
 OPKKK LADY.
 
 100 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 alumina. 5. Blue, made of glass colored by copper, and 
 ground to a blue powder. 6. Pink, made with sulphate of 
 lime colored with some organic substance, which is almost 
 certainly madder. 
 
 One question connected with these ancient and remark- 
 able portraits can never be satisfactorily resolved ; namely, 
 to what extent they represent the work of native Egyptian 
 artists. Some, and probably the best, will almost certainly 
 have been executed by Greek and Roman painters settled 
 
 in Egypt; others will be the 
 work of Egyptians who had 
 studied in the Greek schools. 
 We may perhaps, with more or 
 less accuracy, guess which are 
 due to the alien, and which to 
 the native hand ; but such guess- 
 ins 1 is necessarily inconclusive. 
 
 O v 
 
 "With far more certainty is it 
 possible to trace the nationality 
 of these various personages, some 
 of whom are identified by the 
 names inscribed on their ban- 
 dages and mummy-cases, while 
 others, who are anonymous, are 
 as surely identified by their ra- 
 cial characteristics. Some are 
 unmistakably Roman; others are 
 unmistakably Greek ; while in 
 others again we recognize Egyp- 
 tian, Nubian, and Semitic types. 
 Neither is it difficult to clas- 
 sify the paintings in something like chronological order. 
 The costumes, the style of wearing the hair, and even the 
 fashions of the jewellery as depicted in the likenesses of 
 women, afford valuable data for comparison with the por- 
 trait-sculptures of the Romans, and with the wall-paintings 
 of Latium and Campania. Coins have also been occasionally 
 
 KRYPTIAN LADY
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 101 
 
 found with the mummies; and the testimony of coins is in- 
 valuable. Lastly, there is the evidence of technique and ex- 
 ecution, as shown by the rejection of tempera in favor of 
 beeswax, and the progressive mastery of materials and effects 
 on the part of the painters. That 
 so many of the heads should be 
 portraits of Greeks and Romans 
 is no more than we might expect. 
 Egypt had been flooded with 
 Greeks during the two hundred 
 and seventy-four years of Mace- 
 donian rule, and the descendants 
 of these friendly invaders long 
 continued to form a large pro- 
 portion of the population. Mean- 
 while the Romans, as actual ru- 
 lers of the country, administered 
 the civil and military govern- 
 ment, and were everywhere in 
 force from Alexandria to Syene, 
 and from Syene to Ibrim. The 
 inevitable result followed. Ar- 
 tists and artisans, embroiderers, 
 
 jewellers, house-decorators and portrait-painters found their 
 best patrons among these Greek settlers and Roman auto- 
 crats, in whose hands the wealth of the country, as well as 
 the power, was practically vested. It was for them that 
 the richest stuffs were woven, the finest houses built, the 
 costliest ear-rings, necklaces, and fibula designed. It was 
 also for them that the most gorgeous mummy-cases were ex- 
 ecuted. Engrafting upon their own religion certain of the 
 beliefs and rites yet current in the Valley of the Nile, these 
 aristocratic Greeks and Romans embalmed their dead ''after 
 the manner of the Egyptians," and even adopted names com- 
 posed with the names of Egyptian deities. The Lady Isa- 
 rous, whose name is painted in Greek characters on either 
 side of her neck, and whose features are distinctly Greek, 
 
 DIOGENKS THK FI.UTK-PLAYKR.
 
 10'2 
 
 PHARAOHS. FELLAHS. AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 was a votary of Isis, Isarous being a somewhat clumsy tran- 
 scription of /Mi'-an'-ft, or Ast-ari-s a name which is found in 
 its original Egyptian form upon a funerary tablet in the 
 Museum of the Louvre, and which signifies " Isis made her." 
 Another name composed with that of Isis is "Ision;" and 
 another, evidently derived from Ari-n-Amcn ("made by 
 Amen"), is " Ammonarin." " Sarapis " (misspelled, of course, 
 for "Serapis") was written on the breast of one of the finest 
 of these portrait-mummies, both mummy and portrait being 
 now in the national Egyptian collection. It is interesting to 
 
 note how Isis and Amen were 
 always the Egyptian deities 
 most in favor with the Greeks 
 and Romans, and how they 
 identified Apis, under the name 
 of " Serapis," with Zeus and 
 Jupiter. "Ta-Ast," an Egyp- 
 tian name signifying the "gift 
 of Isis," became a favorite 
 Greek and Roman name under 
 the form of " Isidora," and it 
 survives to this day in the 
 French " Isidore." 
 
 Some of the panel portraits 
 found on these Hawara mum- 
 mies are surrounded by a dec- 
 orative border of gilt stucco, 
 representing vine-tendrils and 
 grapes. This bordering, as a 
 rule, is modelled on the panel, 
 though in some instances it is 
 found to be moulded on a can- 
 vas ground and laid round the picture. The portraits thus 
 decorated are among the earliest in date, beginning, that is to 
 say, about 130 B.C. In our two first examples, a young Greek 
 gentleman and a plebeian-looking boy (pp. 97, 98), in whose 
 saucy eyes, open nostrils, thick lips, and swarthy skin I cannot 
 
 ROMAN HEAD.
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 103 
 
 but recognize the prototype of the native Egyptian donkey- 
 boy of our own time,* we have excellent specimens of the 
 Hawara school of portraiture at the beginnino- of its career. 
 The light and shadow in the Greek head is very forcible, and 
 the spirit and character con- 
 veyed in the other are quite 
 remarkable. The Greek wears 
 a white chiton with a purple 
 stripe on the right shoulder, 
 and the boy a yellow chiton 
 with a narrow purple stripe, 
 and a yellow himation over the 
 left shoulder. 
 
 The Greek lady on page 99 is 
 very gayly attired in a scarlet 
 chiton bordered by a broad 
 band of black edged with gold, 
 and she wears a black himation 
 over the left shoulder. Her ear- 
 rings consist of a large ball sus- 
 pended from a smaller ball ; the 
 jewellery being modelled on 
 the panel in stucco, and gilt 
 with gold leaf. These ball ear- 
 rings appear to have been es- 
 pecially fashionable about the time of Hadrian that is to 
 say, during the early period of the Hawara school of por- 
 traiture and the ball or disk covered with small clustered 
 balls, as in this portrait, is but a variation upon a more sim- 
 ple design. This lady is clearly a Greek. The nose and 
 forehead are in one unbroken line, the eyes are well spaced 
 and well opened, and the mouth is prettily drawn. She 
 wears her hair in a style which is familiar to us in Roman 
 
 YOUNG KRKKK WITH GILT OLIVE- 
 WRKATH. 
 
 * Neither of these mummies bore any indication of name or nationality. 
 Mr. Cecil Smith conjecturally describes the boy as Roman, but it seems to 
 rne that his Egyptian type (of the plebeian class) is unmistakable.
 
 lOi 
 
 1'IIARAOIIS, KELLAIIS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 portrait - busts of this age; and the bands of open-work 
 which pass under the bodice of her dress and over each 
 shoulder are very probably of knotted thread, like the caps 
 and head-scarfs found by Mr. Tetrie in many of these Ha 
 warn graves.( 30 ) 
 
 For a lavish display of jewellery, however, and a curious 
 variety of patterns, the native Egyptian lady reproduced 
 on page 100 surpasses all her compeers. On her head, she 
 wears a gold wreath fashioned in imitation of the victor's 
 wreath of laurel leaves ; in her ears, elaborate ear-rings con- 
 sisting of a pearl drop, from 
 which hangs a crossbar of gold 
 with three pendant pearls; and 
 round her neck, two necklaces 
 the upper one a string of alter- 
 nate pearls and garnets, and the 
 lower one a gold chain with a 
 small crescent-shaped pendant. 
 Her features are moulded in the 
 unmistakable Egyptian type. 
 The eyes are long and heavy- 
 lidded, the nostrils wide, the lips 
 full and prominent. The com- 
 plexion is swarthy, with a dull 
 reddish blush under the skin, 
 and the whole expression of the 
 face is that of Oriental languor. 
 We may conclude that this lady 
 belonged to one of the few 
 wealthy native families yet re- 
 maining in the Fayum. Unfor- 
 tunately, there is no record of 
 her name. The portrait is well 
 
 but somewhat coarsely painted, and it looks as though it 
 were a successful likeness. 
 
 Finer by far, as a work of art, is the portrait of a young 
 man named Diogenes (p. 101). He was apparently a pro- 
 
 UOMAX LADY.
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 1Q5 
 
 fessional musician. A small Avooden label found with the 
 mummy-case calls him " Diogenes of the Flute of Arsinoe f 
 while a second inscription, written in ink upon one of 
 the mummy -wrappings, describes him as -Diogenes who 
 abode at the Harp when he was alive." From these it is 
 evident that he was a flautist, born in the city of Arsinoe, 
 and that when he came to live 
 at Hawara, he lodged at the sign 
 of the Harp. The panel, like too 
 many others, is badly cracked ; 
 but the head is so characteristic, 
 and the expression so fine, that 
 not even this blemish mars its 
 effect. There is a set look in 
 the face, as of some solemn pur- 
 pose to be fulfilled ; and the eyes 
 arrest us, like the eyes of a living 
 man. The hair is very thick and 
 curly, and the features are dis- 
 tinctly Jewish in type. That he 
 should be a Jew would be quite 
 in accordance with his profes- 
 sion for the gift of music has 
 ever been an inheritance of the 
 children of Israel. 
 
 Finer than even the Diogenes, 
 though in a different way, is an 
 
 admirable character-study of a shrewd-looking, hard-featured 
 Roman (p. 102). The man is somewhat on the wrong side 
 of fifty. His face is deeply furrowed, probably by business 
 cares, and he looks straight out from the panel with the alert 
 and resolute air of one who is intent on a profitable bargain. 
 The artist has not flattered him. His nose is bent, as if from 
 a blow, and about the lines of the mouth there is a hint of 
 humor, grim and caustic, which has been caught with evi- 
 dent fidelity. Unlike the rest of the portraits, this head is a 
 detached study thrown upon the upper part of the panel, 
 
 UO.MANO-KGYPTIAN LADY.
 
 lUO PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 with no attempt at drapery or finish. When Sir Frederick 
 Burton, Director of the English National Gallery, saw this 
 series of heads on exhibition at the Egyptian Hall, Picca- 
 dillv, in 1888, a few weeks after they had been discovered, 
 he pronounced our elderly "Roman to be " worth all the rest 
 put together" not, of course, as u a thing of beauty," but 
 for force, character, and mastery of the painter's craft. On 
 heal-in"- this verdict, the owner of the picture, who had in- 
 tended it for his private collec- 
 tion, generously presented it, 
 
 with two others, to the Nation- 
 
 > i i A 
 
 al Gallery. 
 
 There is not only individuality 
 but spirit in the head of a young 
 Greek reproduced on page 103. 
 The eyes are bright and trans- 
 lucent ; the nose is well shaped ; 
 the chin is disproportionately 
 long. Dashed off in hot haste, the 
 effect is brilliant but sketchy, as 
 if done at one sitting. The hair is 
 apparently unfinished ; the back- 
 ground is flung upon "the panel 
 with a few strokes of a broad 
 brush, every fibre of which is 
 traceable : and the artist, con- 
 tent to get in the effect of the 
 white chiton, has not even car- 
 ried it down to the bottom of 
 
 the picture. Our young Greek was probably somewhat of 
 a petit-matt/'e, for the olive wreath on his head is gilded. 
 This reminds us of the golden wreaths and golden sandal- 
 clasps of Xeuxis, and other painter-princes of the golden 
 age of Hellenic art, and it is interesting to find this special 
 piece of dandyism surviving down to the time of Hadrian. 
 
 There is no lack of expression in the dejected counte- 
 nance of the Roman lady who follows on page 104. Her 
 
 THE STODKNT
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 107 
 
 features wear the stamp of long. continued ill-health; her 
 complexion is "sicklied o'er" with suffering; and her' eyes 
 are encircled by heavy purple rings. One would say that she 
 knew but too well, while sitting for this portrait, that it 
 would erelong be transferred 
 from the picture-frame to her 
 coffin. She wears her black 
 hair in a curiously modern fash- 
 ion, gathered up in a thick coil 
 at the back, parted down the 
 middle, and laid in plain bands. 
 Her gown is purple, with n, 
 square-cut bodice trimmed \vith 
 a broad black and gold braid ; 
 and over her shoulders is cast a 
 purple himation. The necklace 
 consists of large pale -green 
 opaque stones, cut in the form 
 of oblong parallelograms, con- 
 nected by slender gold w r ires. 
 Mr. Cecil Smith takes them for 
 green beryls ; but they are, I 
 think, more probably intended to 
 represent the so-called "mother- 
 of-emerald," a stone which was 
 popular in Egypt under the Ro- 
 mans, and has frequently been found in graves of this period. 
 In the head of the next lady (p. 105) it is impossible not to 
 recognize a portrait which is not only a portrait but a likeness. 
 She is probably of Romano -Egyptian parentage. The eye- 
 brows and eyelashes are singularly thick and dark ; the eyes 
 long, and of Oriental depth and blackness ; and the swarthi- 
 ness of the complexion is emphasized by the dark down on 
 the upper lip. It is a passionate, intense-looking face the 
 face of a woman with a history. She wears her black hair 
 cut in a short fringe round the brow, and laid in two long 
 roll-curls, like the hair of the Greek. Her ear-rings consist 
 
 THK GLADIATOR,
 
 108 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS. AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 of a single pearl from which is suspended a horizontal bar 
 of gold, while from this bar hang two more pearls, each ter- 
 minated by a pyramidal cluster of three small gold balls. 
 The necklace is particularly interesting, being the only rep- 
 resentation of an elaborate Egyptian collarette in the whole 
 series. It is three rows deep, the two upper rows being 
 apparently of chain- work, while the lowest row consists of lo- 
 tus-bud pendants, colored red to represent carnelian. Neck- 
 laces of these carnelian lotus -bud pendants are frequent- 
 ly found with mummies of the Roman period, and many 
 fine specimens enrich the glass-cases of the principal Euro- 
 pean museums. The design is of remote antiquity, and 
 the lotus pendant in glass and porcelain is found in graves 
 of Pharaonic times in Upper Egypt. The Etruscans copied 
 it at an early date, changing the lotus-bud, either intention- 
 ally or by mistake, into the amphora, which it resembles in 
 form ; and it is this very lotus-bud pendant of Egypt which 
 we find reproduced in the delicate and elegant gold am- 
 phora necklaces of Etruria. Revived by Signor Castellan i 
 of Rome, this exquisite design again became popular during 
 the later half of the present century. 
 
 The young Greek who comes next (p. 106) has a modern 
 type of face, good features, and a grave preoccupied expres- 
 sion, such as might become a student of philosophy or sci- 
 ence. The brows are slightly knitted, as if from habitual 
 meditation; the head is well posed and well balanced; and 
 the hair is remarkably free and well put in. He wears a dull 
 green chiton with a purple stripe on the right shoulder, and 
 a himation of the same color. The panel is slightly cracked 
 in several places. 
 
 In going through this series of paintings, one curious and 
 interesting question inevitably suggests itself ; namely, the 
 immediate object with which these portraits were executed. 
 "Were they painted for the pleasure of the sitter and his fam- 
 ily, and for the adornment of private houses ? Or were they 
 painted expressly for the decoration of mummy-cases, and 
 in commemoration of the dead ? If the former, then they
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 109 
 
 were, of course, done from the life ; if the latter, is it pos- 
 sible that they were painted after death ? 
 
 These are questions which have been discussed by several 
 competent authorities, but which, from their nature, cannot 
 be satisfactorily settled. The 
 fact that one framed portrait was 
 found laid up against the mum- 
 my-case in the grave, and that 
 the cord by which it had once 
 been suspended was yet knotted 
 round the transverse bars at the 
 corners of that frame, gives con- 
 clusive proof that the people of 
 this town loved portraiture for 
 itself, and hung their portraits 
 in their rooms, as \ve do now. 
 Such portraits, as a rule, would 
 probably be copied on smaller 
 panels for funerary purposes, 
 and this would account for their 
 bright and life-like expression. 
 Where no previous portrait ex- 
 isted, it may reasonably be sup- 
 posed that an artist would be 
 summoned, and a sketchy like- 
 ness would be hastily painted on a panel of the required 
 size, immediately after death. If we compare the heads 
 reproduced in these pages, it is not difficult to conjecture 
 which are studies from the life, and which are studies after 
 death. Some of the least expressive faces may very possi- 
 bly owe their passive vacuity to the fact that "life and 
 thought had gone away " before the artist came with his 
 saucers of powdered colors, his reed - brushes, and his pot 
 of melted beeswax, to transfer their pallid features to that 
 narrow panel which was destined to adorn the mummy-case 
 when the prescribed seventy days of embalmment should 
 have expired. In these portraits, and some others, the eyes 
 
 YOUNG t.ADY IN PURPLE CHITON.
 
 110 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 are represented unnaturally large, and with a fixed stare, 
 such as might be given by an artist who had never seen his 
 subject while living, and who added the eyes from his imag- 
 ination. The head of a coarse - featured, plebeian -looking 
 Ivoman (p. 107), who should certainly be a prize-fighter or a 
 gladiator, is a case in point. There is no " speculation" in his 
 eves, which are much too large ; the whole effect being that 
 of a rapid sketch after death. The head of Diogenes the flute- 
 player (p. 101), the young Greek with the meditative brow 
 (p. ( JS), the vivacious youth with the gilt olive wreath (p. 103), 
 the intense-looking Romano-Egyptian dame with the dark 
 eyebrows (p. 105), and one or two others, bear the direct 
 impress of vitality, and cannot possibly be anything but 
 studies, or copies of studies, from the living sitter. 
 
 So, too, I think, is the sweet and gracious portrait of a 
 fair-skinned girl (p. 109), with chestnut hair, and soft brown 
 eyes, and a mouth every curve of which is drawn with ex- 
 quisite delicacy and truth. Was she a Greek? Or was she 
 not, more probably, of Grseco-Asiatic parentage ? Her com- 
 plexion is of that creamy-olive tint which bespeaks a touch 
 of Oriental blood ; and in the crisp waviness of her hair, the 
 languorous tenderness of her eyes, and the arched black 
 eyebrows, I think I detect traces of her Cypriote or Lycian 
 ancestry. Her purple chiton is gathered in classic folds 
 across her bosom, and on her shoulders she wears a mantle 
 of the same color. In her ears are hoop ear-rings, each set 
 with three emeralds, and round her neck she wears two 
 necklaces the upper one of gold beads and emeralds alter- 
 nately, the lower a string of garnets w r ith a centre orna- 
 ment of one large emerald and two pendant pearls. This is 
 a charming portrait, well and carefully painted, and in ex- 
 cellent preservation. Equally well preserved, and perhaps 
 even more interesting, is the beautiful and touching head of 
 a young boy (p. Ill) with which our little port rait -gallery 
 ends. He, too, is of mixed descent probably Graeco-Egyp- 
 tian, or Grseco-Asiatic. The complexion is of a clear dark 
 olive ; the eyes are large, black, luminous, and informed by a
 
 PORTRAIT-PAINTING IN ANCIENT EGYPT. HI 
 
 gentle melancholy, as if he had some presentiment of early 
 death. The hair is black, curling, and abundant, and on the 
 upper hp we note the soft black down of an incipient mus- 
 tache. The mouth repeats the sweet and delicate curves 
 which are so charming in the mouth 
 of the young giri just gone before. 
 There is, in fact, a certain likeness 
 between the two faces. Xot only 
 the mouths are alike, but the eyes, 
 and the peculiar curvature of the 
 dark eyebrows. The names of both 
 are unknown to us, but the resem- 
 blance is just what we might ex- 
 pect to find between a sister and 
 brother. The age of this boy was 
 about twelve or thirteen, and the 
 size of the mummy corresponds 
 with the age indicated by the por- 
 trait both portrait and mummy 
 being now in the British Museum. 
 The mummy is very beautifully 
 and elaborately bandaged, five or 
 six strips of saffron-colored linen 
 being used in successive layers, and 
 so disposed, layer above layer, as 
 to form a diamond-shaped, recessed 
 
 pattern, sunken in the centre, and terminating in a kind of 
 knob, or button, at the bottom. 
 
 These are but a few examples selected from Air. Petrie's 
 splendid series of funerary portraits ; but they suffice to show 
 that there was not only a school of art, but an art-market, in 
 this obscure little provincial town during the second and third 
 centuries of our era. The demand for portraiture being very 
 considerable, the supply naturally varied in quality to suit 
 the means of all comers. Hence the inequality of the paint- 
 er's work. Those who could afford to pay for the best art 
 commanded the best art, while those who were less wealthy, 
 
 YOUNG BOY
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 or more thrifty, patronized the sign-board school. Remem- 
 bering the fabulous prices which Xeuxis and Apelles, and the 
 rest, received for their pictures a few centuries earlier, one 
 would like to know after what rate the Fayum painters were 
 paid ; and it is always possible that among the hundreds of 
 fragmentary papyri found by Mr. Petrie on this spot, some 
 may prove to contain entries of payments made or received 
 on account of one of these very portraits. 
 
 One very striking feature of the Fayum portraits is the 
 modern character of the heads. There is not a face in the 
 whole series which we might not meet any day in the streets 
 of London or New York. There is nothing to surprise us in 
 this fact ; and yet, so accustomed are we to think of the men 
 and women of the far past as the dramatis person, of ancient 
 history, and as belonging to another age, that it is with a 
 shock of something like incredulous astonishment that we 
 find them so precisely like ourselves. The truth probably is 
 that as regards features, stature, and complexion, the ancient 
 Egyptians differed very little, if at all, from the Copts of the 
 present day ; and that the Greeks and Romans of the classic 
 period were actually more like the people of northern Europe 
 than are their modern descendants. Hadrian, Marcus Aure- 
 lius, Lucius Verus, and many another noble Roman who yet 
 lives in marble and bronze, far more nearly resembles the 
 type of the modern Englishman than that of the modern 
 Italian. Seneca, Germanicus, and Julius Cassar might pass 
 for typical Americans. Past or present, we are in truth but 
 members of one great family; and as we look through this 
 ancient and interesting portrait-gallery, we cannot but recog- 
 nize our kinship with these men and women, these youths 
 and maidens, who lived and loved and died nearly two thou- 
 sand years ago. Yet even these are but things of yesterday 
 compared with the Ethiopian subjects in the tomb of Hui at 
 El Kab, or with the paintings of the four races of men in the 
 tombs of the kings at Thebes. And in these we see depicted 
 racial types which survive unchanged to the present day in 
 Nubia and Palestine.
 
 THE GREAT SPHINX. 
 
 IV. 
 THE OEIGIN OF POETEAIT SCULPTURE, 
 
 AND THE HISTORY OF THE "KA." 
 
 IT has been said by a celebrated poet that " the proper 
 study of mankind is man." This sweeping proposition was 
 accepted as an axiom by the contemporaries of the ingenious 
 Mr. Pope; but to our nineteenth century ears it sounds, per- 
 haps, too much like an epigram. We should, I think, prefer 
 to say that the most interesting study of mankind is man. 
 Certain it is, that whatsoever concerned man in the past 
 concerns and'interests ourselves in the present. Hence the 
 eagerness with which we track his footsteps down the patli 
 of the centuries. From that far-distant age when we catch 
 our first glimpse of the prehistoric cave-dweller chipping 
 flint arrow-heads wherewith to wage war against the hyena 
 and the mammoth, down to the pleasant "teacup time" of 
 the day before yesterday, when Adam carried a clouded cane 
 8
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 and Eve wore hoops and patches, we are always eagerly cu- 
 rious to know what our forefathers were like, how they lived, 
 and wherewithal they were clothed. This is why the art of 
 portraiture touches us more nearly than any other. It brings 
 us literally face to face with those who lived and loved and 
 died " in the old time before us." It preserves for us the feat- 
 ures, the expression, the costumes of Pharaohs and Ca?sars 
 discrowned, of orators long silent, of beauties long faded, of 
 heroes whose swords are rust, of poets whose lutes are dust, 
 and who, but for the accidental preservation of a bas-relief, 
 a bust, a coin, or a painting, would have passed away like 
 shadows and been no more seen. 
 
 By the extent of our wealth in the possession of certain 
 portraits we may estimate what our poverty would have 
 been without them. We can scarcely realize, for instance, 
 the difference it would have made to us had we possessed no 
 likeness of Shakespeare. We are as familiar with his honest 
 English face and massive head as if the man himself were 
 yet among the living. But could we have felt the same per- 
 sonal affection for him, or even quite the same personal pride 
 in him, if there had been no bust at Stratford-on-Avon, and 
 no Dreyschout engraving to the folio of 1623 ? Dante, again 
 Chaucer, Albert Diirer, Raphael, Michael Angelo, and a 
 hundred others whom we could name in a breath think 
 what our loss would be if their faces were a blank to us ! 
 As for history, Avhat would history be without the personal- 
 ity of those kings and captains Avho have moulded the desti- 
 nies of nations from Alexander to Wellington ? 
 
 But the interest of portraiture is not merely historical ; 
 it is also ethnographical. The sculptures of Assyria and 
 Babylon, of Susa and Persepolis, record racial characteris- 
 tics, and enable us to trace the origin, and sometimes to track 
 the migrations, of peoples and tribes. 
 
 Lastly, there is the human interest that interest which 
 we take in the counterfeit presentment of our fellow- man 
 simply because he was our fellow-man, and because the por- 
 trait is stamped with his individuality. He may have lived
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. Ho 
 
 fifty or five thousand years ago ; his very name may be un- 
 known to us ; but if the ancient artist was a master of his 
 craft, and if he has handed down to us a face instinct with 
 power or furrowed by thought, that face arrests us and holds 
 us like the face of a living man. So long, indeed, as such a 
 likeness survives, the man, in a sense, retains his hold upon 
 our sympathies and his place among the living. One could 
 almost say that he is not altogether dead. 
 
 All portraiture is in its origin funerary that is to sav, 
 the earliest known specimens of portraiture are found in 
 tombs, and represent the dead. The oldest tombs, I need 
 hardly say, are the tombs of ancient Egypt ; and the oldest 
 known specimens of portraiture, whether in sculpture or 
 painting, represent ancient Egyptians. 
 
 When saying, however, that all portraiture is in its origin 
 funerary, I must not be understood to mean that such por- 
 traiture is of a memorial character. To adorn the last homes 
 of the honored dead with sculptured effigies seems to our- 
 selves a natural expression of respect. We desire that their 
 likenesses as well as their memories shall be handed down to 
 posterity ; and we even derive some consolation from the 
 knowledge that our remote descendants will know them as 
 we have known them. But the ancient Egyptians buried 
 their funerary effigies in the darkness and secrecy of the 
 tomb itself. No people were so lavish of statues, of statu- 
 ettes, of wall-sculptures and wall-paintings, representing the 
 tenant of the tomb, his wife, and his family ; yet no people 
 were ever at such pains to hide those works of art from ev- 
 ery eye. In the oldest time of all that is, in the time of 
 the First Empire, when every king had his pyramid, and 
 every great man his stone-built tomb portrait-statues were 
 invariably buried with the dead. Strange as this custom 
 seems, it is not half so strange as the fact that the Egyptians 
 were wont to bury, not one statue, but several statues, all of 
 the one man and all precisely alike. The average number of 
 portrait-statues found in tombs of the first period is from 
 three to seven ; but as many as twenty duplicate statues of
 
 110 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 heroic size have actually been taken from a single tomb. 
 Our astonishment culminates, however, when we learn that 
 a hiding-place without inlet or outlet was constructed for 
 the accommodation of these statues in the thickness of the 
 wall < f the tomb. Thus they were doubly buried, in a se- 
 pulchre within a sepulchre. 
 
 Here, no matter how admirable they might be as works of 
 art and some are indeed admirable they were immured,, 
 as it was hoped and intended, forever. The National Egyp- 
 tian Museum of Ghizeh, near Cairo, is rich in statues of this 
 class, all found within the last twenty-five years, and all 
 found in hiding-places such as I have described. The tombs 
 which contain these recesses are peculiar to the great burial- 
 fields of Ghizeh, Sakkarah, and Meydum, and they belong to 
 the time of the Pyramid Kings of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth 
 dynasties that is to say, from about four thousand to three 
 thousand five hundred years before our era. They had all 
 been plundered, who shall say how many centuries before 
 Mariette and Maspero explored them? The mummies and 
 their funerary belongings had long since been scattered to 
 the winds ; but the statues, secure and unsuspected, yet stood 
 erect inside their narrow prisons. And they are, to this 
 day, as perfect, and the colors with which they are painted 
 are as fresh, as if they had left the hand of the ancient artist 
 but a month ago.( 3 ') 
 
 But it may be asked, What possessed this people that they 
 should produce elaborate works of art, merely to hide them 
 forever ? "Why not have erected them where they might have 
 been seen by the descendants of those whom they commem- 
 orated ? The answer, however, is that they were not me- 
 morial statues. They were not intended to " commemorate " 
 the dead, as our dead are commemorated in modern churches 
 and cemeteries. The ancient Egyptians were actuated by 
 motives altogether different from our motives by motives 
 arising out of one of the most curious beliefs which ever in- 
 fluenced the mind of man at any period in the history of re- 
 ligious thought.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 117 
 
 If, therefore, we are rightly to apprehend the place which 
 ancient Egyptian portraiture holds in relation to the art of 
 portraiture in other and later civilizations, it is necessary 
 that we should know what that belief was, and in what way 
 it affected the actions of those who entertained it. 
 
 Man, emerging from barbarism, is like an intelligent child, 
 full of curiosity about himself. He is puzzled by the mys- 
 tery of his own existence ; and, according to his limited 
 experience, he seeks to account for that mystery. Now, the 
 ancient inhabitant of the Nile Valley accounted for him- 
 self in a very elaborate and philosophical fashion. He con- 
 ceived of man as a composite being, consisting of at least 
 six parts; namely, a body, "Khat"; a soul, "Ba"; an in- 
 telligence, "Khou"; a shadow, "Kha'ibit"; a name, "Ren"; 
 and another element, called in Egyptian a " Ka." To these 
 six parts, as enumerated by Maspero,* Dr. "Wiedemann adds 
 two more the heart, "Ab," and the " Sahu," which has 
 hitherto been translated as the mummy, but is now defined 
 by Dr. Wiedemann f as "the husk," which is, in fact, the 
 same thing; a mummy from which all the internal organs 
 have been removed, being really only the outer shell of the 
 man. Now, the co-operation of these several parts as one 
 harmonious whole constituted the living man ; but they 
 were dissociated by death, and could only be reunited after 
 a long probation. When so reunited, it was forever. The 
 man attained immortality, and became as one of the gods. 
 Meanwhile, being dead, the Body lay inert in the depths of 
 the tomb ; the Soul performed a perilous pilgrimage through 
 a demon-haunted Valley of Shades ; the Intelligence, freed 
 from mortal encumbrance, wandered through space; the 
 Name, the Shadow, and the Heart awaited the arrival of the 
 
 * See Maspero's "Bulletin Critique de la Religion Hjgyptienne," in the Re- 
 vue de VHistoire des Religions, vol. xiii. f Die UnslerblichkeU der Secle nach 
 altayyptischer Lehre. Von A. Wiedemann. 
 
 [The Sahu, considered as only the "husk, "may from this point of view 
 be regarded as somewhat differing from the Khat, or body, which is the 
 whole corporeal being. A. B. E.]
 
 118 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Soul when its pilgrimage should be accomplished ; and the 
 Ka dwelt with the mummy in the sepulchre. 
 
 Xow, the Ka is a very interesting personage. He is desig- 
 nated in the Egyptian writing by a special hieroglyph L J 
 representing a pair of hands and arms upraised as if in [ 
 adoration. 
 
 Such is the pictorial symbol of which the phonetic read- 
 ing is u /itf ." This name, or rather the conception represented 
 by this name, has been variously interpreted by European 
 Egyptologists. Dr. Brugsch, in his Hieroglyphic Dictionary, 
 explains it as "the person, the individuality, the being." 
 Professor Maspero, recognizing its incorporeal character, 
 calls it " the double." Mr. Le Page Renouf ( 32 ) likens it to the 
 " eidolon " of the Greeks, the " genius " of the Eomans ; and 
 Dr. Wiedemann has lately written an interesting paper to 
 show that it was not the person, but what he calls u the per- 
 sonality " or " individuality " of the deceased meaning there- 
 by that which distinguished him in life from other men ; in 
 other words, the mental impression which was evoked when 
 his name was mentioned. 
 
 Widely as these definitions differ, their authors agree as 
 to the shadowy nature of the Ka itself. They recognize 
 that it was a Spectral Something, apart from the man's 
 body, inseparable from him during life, surviving him after 
 death, and destined to be reunited to him hereafter. So 
 much is proved by a multitude of inscriptions chiefly of a 
 funerary character; for, although the Ka occasionally fig- 
 ures in historical texts, and with reference to living persons, 
 he is invariably met with in memorial inscriptions, from the 
 old Pyramid Period down to the comparatively recent time 
 when the ancient religion was superseded by Christianity. 
 Throughout that long time (namely, from about four thou- 
 sand years before Christ to the reign of the Emperor 
 Theodosius I., three hundred and seventy-nine years after 
 Christ), one special formula, graven on funerary tablets, re- 
 mained almost word for word the same. That formula was 
 neither more nor less than an invocation addressed by the
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 119 
 
 deceased to all who might visit or pass by his tomb, implor- 
 ing them, to offer up a prayer on his account to Osiris, the 
 god of the dead. This sounds curiously modern, remind- 
 ing us of a similar prayer which we have all seen many a 
 time in little village church-yards on the continent of Eu- 
 rope. The resemblance, however, does not go very far. 
 
 Jacques Bonhomrae petitions you to say a Pater-noster for 
 the repose of his soul ; but the ancient Egyptian appealed 
 to passers-by on behalf, not of his Soul, which was perform- 
 ing its pilgrimage in Hades, but of his Ka, which was the 
 companion of his mummy in the tomb. 
 
 And what may we suppose he wanted for his Ka ? Peace, 
 after the battle of life ? Loving remembrance on the part 
 of those who survived him ? 
 
 Not at all. His supplication was of a far more material 
 character. It was literally for the good things of this world 
 in a word, for what is expressively termed " a square meal." 
 Take, for example, the literal translation of one of these 
 post-mortem petitions from the funerary tablet of one Pepi- 
 Na, who lived in the early part of the Sixth Dynasty, some 
 three thousand five hundred years before our era. 
 
 FUNERARY TABLET OF PEPI-NA. ( S3 ) 
 
 (Sixth Dynasty.) 
 
 " O ye who live upon the earth ! 
 Ye who come hither and are servants of the Gods ! 
 
 Oh, say these words : 
 
 " Grant thousands of loaves, thousands of jars of wine, thousands 
 of jars of beer, thousands of beeves, thousands of geese, to the Ka of 
 the Royal Friend Pepi-Na, Superintendent of the Royal Household, 
 and Superior of the Priests of the Pyramid of King Pepi !" 
 
 This is a very early specimen. "We will now take a great 
 leap of nearly three thousand years, to the Sa'ite Period 
 the period of Psammetichus and his dynasty and turn to 
 the tablet of one Napu, a priest of Thebes who lived and 
 died about two thousand four hundred years ago.
 
 120 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 FUNERARY TABLET OF NAPU. (") 
 
 (Twenty -sixth Dynasty.) 
 
 Adoration to Osiris, 
 
 The Great God, 
 
 Lord of Abydos ! 
 
 " May he grant sepulchral meals, beeves, geese, burnt incense, wine, 
 beer, linen vestments, vegetables, and all good, pure, and sweet things 
 to the Ka of the Holy Priest of Maut, Napu, Son of the Holy Priest 
 of Maut, Asi, and of the Lady Mautemhatmest." 
 
 To multiply examples would be easy. Such funerary tab- 
 lets are accumulated by hundreds in European museums. 
 Some are elaborately carved in granite and basalt ; some 
 are painted on panels of acacia-wood. Some are from five to 
 seven feet in height ; others are about the size of an ordina- 
 ry octavo volume. Fe\v travellers come back from Egypt 
 without one of these smaller tablets, and few private collec- 
 tions are without a specimen. But from the earliest to the 
 latest, in the largest as well as in the smallest, the one most 
 remarkable feature of the formula is the voracious appetite 
 of the Ka. He is invariably clamoring for "beeves and 
 geese, wine and beer," fruits, bread, and the like. And the 
 proportions of his bill of fare put the most stupendous of 
 civic banquets to shame. He asks for "thousands" of all 
 these good things. An ox roasted whole would be of no 
 more account to him than a beef -lozenge to an alderman. 
 And it is yet more extraordinary that the Ka actually got 
 what he asked for; though not, perhaps, to the full extent 
 of his demands. The four oxen who dragged the funeral 
 sledge to the tomb on the day of burial were slaughtered 
 and cut up on the spot ; gazelles and geese were also slain ; 
 and these, together with great sheaves of onions and cucum- 
 bers, and basket-loads of bread, corn, dates, nuts, and other 
 eatables, as well as a number of large jars filled with wine, 
 milk, water, and barley beer, were deposited in the sepul- 
 chral chamber, and there walled up with the mummy. 
 
 Now this, it is to be remembered, was not by way of a
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 
 
 121 
 
 sacrifice to the gods, nor yet for the benefit of the mummy. 
 It was for the sustenance of the Ka, The mummy, in fact, 
 is a very secondary personage in comparison with the Ka. 
 The tomb itself is called the "House of the Ka" not the 
 house of the mummy. The food-offerings thus buried were 
 
 FUNERARY OFFERINGS. 
 
 From a tomb of the Fifth Dynasty. 
 
 not supposed, however, to last the Ka for very long. They 
 had to be periodically renewed. This was sometimes done 
 by the descendants of the dead, who at stated dates deposit- 
 ed food and drink in the votive chapel attached to the tomb. 
 But the wealthy Egyptian more commonly provided for the 
 future of his Ka by bequeathing a portion of his estate to 
 the priesthood, in prepayment for sepulchral meals in per- 
 petuity. There are inscriptions in the Museum of Naples, 
 and in the Louvre, which prove that these endowed offerings 
 were kept up for many centuries. 
 
 Supposing, however, that unforeseen circumstances caused 
 the endowment to lapse, the Ka had still a last resource in 
 the piety of strangers. Such was the magical power of the 
 formula engraved upon his funerary tablet that its mere 
 repetition by a passer-by sufficed to insure a supply of ideal 
 beeves and geese, ideal jars of wine and beer, ideal onions 
 and cucumbers for the nourishment of the hungry Ka. By 
 simply reading aloud the invocations of Pepi-lSa and Xapu
 
 122 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 we may therefore at any moment replenish the larders of 
 that worthy pair a piece of good-fortune which has proba- 
 bly not befallen either of them for a considerable time. 
 
 And now a very curious question suggests itself, namely, 
 \vhv should the immaterial Ka stand in need of material 
 meats and drinks ? It may, perhaps, be asked in return what 
 that question has to do with the subject of ancient Egyptian 
 portraiture ? 
 
 It has everything to do with it. It has to do with the 
 portrait-statues immured in the walls of the tomb. It has 
 to do with the portraits sculptured in bas-relief, or painted in 
 distemper, on the inner chambers and passages of the tomb. 
 It lies at the bottom of the whole history of portraiture. 
 
 Those statues and paintings, as it has already been said, 
 were not memorial. When once the tomb was closed, they 
 were never again to be seen by mortal eyes. With what 
 object, then, were they fashioned ? 
 
 They were fashioned for the purpose of providing an ar- 
 tificial body for the Ka. 
 
 Opinions may differ as to the nature of the Ka itself one 
 regarding it as a ghost, another as a double, another as 
 an ''eidolon" or genius ; but no Egyptologist doubts that all 
 forms of portraiture in ancient Egypt were funerary, or 
 that they were Expressly designed for the accommodation 
 of the Ka. 
 
 The Ka and the Body were inseparable till death dis- 
 solved their partnership. Once dead and mummified, the 
 body was exposed to many dangers. The tomb might be 
 broken open ; the mummy might be burned, and scattered 
 to the four winds of heaven ; but so long as the statues re- 
 mained intact in their hiding-places so long as the painted 
 portraits on the walls were not utterly defaced the Ka had 
 still a body to depend upon. Professor Maspero, conceiving 
 of the Ka as a " double," supposed this double to need a ma- 
 terial support on w r hich to extend itself as a glove, for in- 
 stance, is extended on a wooden hand in a glove -maker's 
 shop. But I have recently ventured to suggest another
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 123 
 
 explanation of the nature of the Ka, which seems to me not 
 only more satisfactory from a metaphysical point of view, 
 but which also places in our hands a key to the interpreta- 
 tion of many texts which till now have been hopelessly 
 obscure. 
 
 I believe that the Ka stood, not for the genius or double, 
 but for the life in other words, for the vital principle. I 
 have been led to this conclusion by the evidence of certain 
 sculptures and inscriptions of which the exact sense seems, 
 from my point of view, to have escaped observation. If, 
 however, the nature of this evidence is to be explained, no 
 matter how popularly and briefly, it becomes necessary to 
 enter into a few preliminary details. 
 
 I must first point out that every reigning Pharaoh had 
 three names: (1) his personal, or family name, being the 
 same by which he was known when but a prince; (2) his 
 "throne-name," or "solar-name," assumed on his accession, 
 and indicating his divine descent from the god Ka ; (3) his 
 "banner-name," or "standard-name," so called because en- 
 closed in an upright rectangular frame, like a banner, deco- 
 rated with a margin of vertical strokes at the lower end, 
 somewhat resembling a fringe. Now, Mr. Petrie* has re- 
 cently shown that this misnamed "standard" is neither more 
 nor less than an abridged representation of the " false door" 
 of a tomb such a door as was sculptured, or painted, on the 
 walls of the upper chamber in which funerary food-offerings 
 were deposited. These fictitious doors were supposed to 
 lead to the equally fictitious apartment of the Ka ; and it 
 was through them that he passed to and fro to feed upon 
 the "beeves and geese" and other good things provided for 
 his sustenance, f Mr. Petrie has conclusively demonstrated 
 the accuracy of his interpretation by numerous examples 
 from monuments of all periods, some of these " standards " 
 actually showing the hinges, bolts, and bars of the imitation 
 
 * A Season in. Egypt. By W. M. Flinders Petrie. Chap. iv. 1888. 
 f See Egyptian ArcJueology. By G. Maspero. Chap, iii., p. 125. 1880.
 
 1-24: PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 door. The so-called " standard " being the abridged repre- 
 sentation of the door supposed to give access to the imagi- 
 nary chamber of the Ka, Mr. Petrie was at once led to the 
 further discovery that the standard-name was in reality the 
 Ka-name of the King. Hence it followed that each sov- 
 ereign, on succeeding to the throne, not only assumed a 
 throne-name, but took also a name for his Ka. The throne- 
 name was enclosed in a royal oval, or cartouche, like the 
 familv-name; but the Ka-name was represented as if in- 
 scribed above the false door-way, just where the name of a 
 deceased person would be inscribed above the actual door 
 of his sepulchre. It may seem strange, perhaps, that a liv- 
 ing Pharaoh should emblazon part of the decoration of his 
 tomb among the insignia of his royalty; but that tomb, it 
 is to be remembered, was the destined abode, not only of 
 his mummy, but of his Ka. Consequently, no better device 
 could be employed by way of substitute for a royal oval than 
 the rectangular framework enclosing a representation of the 
 false door inscribed with the Ka-name. The tomb itself, as 
 already stated, is known in funerary texts as the " House of 
 the Ka"; and as each king on his accession began imme- 
 diately to build his pyramid or excavate his rock-cut sepul- 
 chre, it followed that he was as much interested in providing 
 for the future accommodation of his Ka as in providing for 
 the future accommodation of his mummy. Many texts point, 
 however, to the fact that Ka-houses were erected by the 
 Egyptians for the worship and service of their Kas, inde- 
 pendently of their tombs ;* so that, after all, the false door 
 represented in a royal Ka-name may as probably stand for 
 the false door of a Ka-chamber in a royal votive chapel, 
 as for the false door of a Ka-chamber in the sepulchre. It 
 would seem, from the absence of any record to the contrary, 
 that the Kas of private persons were either nameless, or called 
 by the names of those persons ; and that the King alone was 
 
 * Knumhotep, in the great Bern-Hassan inscription, states that he built 
 chapels for the Ka of his father.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 125 
 
 entitled to a special and separate name for his Ka. Some 
 Pharaohs, indeed, took more than one Ka-name, Amenho- 
 tep III. indulging in no less than seven. 
 
 JSTow, as I have already said, the Ka occasionally figures 
 in historical texts, and with reference to living persons. This 
 is especially true of royal persons, the King or Queen beino- 
 frequently represented as attended by his or her Ka, which 
 is sometimes shown as a duplicate, or alter ego, of the indi- 
 vidual, and sometimes as a male figure with the Ka-arms, 
 and Ka-name on its head. In the Museum of Leyden, for 
 instance, there is a group of three figures, representing Queen 
 Mertetefs,* her Ka, and her secretary, the Queen and her 
 Ka being in all respects duplicate statues. At Dayr el-Ba- 
 hari, on the other hand, Queen Hatasuf is shown in Phar- 
 aonic costume, her Ka standing behind her in the guise of 
 a small bearded man crowned with the Ka-arms and Ka- 
 name of the Queen. He grasps the aiikh and feather of 
 Ma in his right hand, and a human-headed staff in his left. 
 The features of the Ka, and of the head upon his staff, are 
 identical with the features of the Queen. In a very curious 
 series of tableaux sculptured on the walls of one of the inner 
 halls of the Great Temple of Luxor, we find, however, the 
 most interesting and instructive of all these royal Ka sub- 
 jects. They relate to the birth and bringing-up of Amen- 
 hotep III., the founder of the temple, and they date, conse- 
 quently, from the latter half of the Eighteenth Dynasty. In 
 the first of these bas-reliefs we see the Queen-mother Maute- 
 mua kneeling on a kind of dais, having just given birth to 
 the royal infant. Hathor kneels facing her, with the babe 
 in her arms, and a second Ilathor, with a second babe in 
 her arms, kneels behind the first. This second babe is the 
 Ka of the first babe. Over the head of the first (the actual 
 
 * A queen of the Third and Fourth dynasties. She was wife of Sene- 
 feru, the last king of the Third Dynasty, and wife of Khufu (Cheops), the 
 first king of the Fourth Dynasty, builder of the Great Pyramid. 
 
 f See Mariette's Delr el-Bahari. Plate 6. The details of the false door 
 are, however, omitted in Mariette's plate.
 
 126 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Amenhotep) are engraved his two royal ovals, while the 
 space above the head of the infant-Ka is left vacant. Most 
 curious of all, however, is the Ka of the Queen-mother, rep- 
 resented as a kneeling female figure with the Ka-arms on 
 its head; while from each of these Ka-arms is suspended 
 an ankh, or symbol of life. The meaning here is obvious. 
 The child is but just born, and the maternal Ka presides 
 over the lives of both mother and child. Below the dais 
 we see the child Amenhotep and the child-Ka, both in the 
 act of being suckled by Ilathor, in the shape of the divine 
 cow.* 
 
 In the next subject, the two Hathors present the two chil- 
 dren to the goddess Safekh, the patron deity of libraries, 
 who dips her reed-pen in an inkpot, preparatory to record- 
 ing the name of the Ka- infant in the royal archives; the 
 names of the actual prince being already inscribed above his 
 head in two ovals. The Ka- child, meanwhile, carries his 
 name-frame on his head, but the field is vacant, f Lastly, 
 the child -prince and the child-Ka are presented by Ra to 
 Amen-Ra, the great god of Thebes ; while behind Ra stands 
 the god Nilus, also carving the child-prince and the child-Ka, 
 the former with his two royal ovals above his head, and 
 the latter crowned with the Ka-stand and Ka-name. Be- 
 hind this Nilus advances yet another ISTilus, carrying three 
 "ankhs" tied together in his right hand an "ankh," evi- 
 dently, for each of the royal names, i.e., the family-name, 
 throne-name, and Ka-name of the infant Amenhotep.:]; 
 
 Now, in these tableaux it is to be observed that there is a 
 close and significant association of the Ka with the " ankh ;" 
 the " ankh " figured thus, O , being the current hieroglyph 
 for "life." 
 
 If we next turn to the storied walls of the Great Temple 
 of Karnak, and examine some of the famous battle-pieces 
 illustrating the career of Seti L, about a century later, we 
 
 * See Rossellini, Monumenti Storici. Plate xxxviii. 
 t Idem. Plate xxxix. t Idem.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 127 
 
 find this connection between the Ka and the ankh yet more 
 distinctly emphasized. 
 
 In these elaborate chronicles in stone, we see the hero at- 
 tacking fortresses, charging the enemy, trampling the van- 
 quished under his chariot- wheels, and slaughtering all before 
 him. The goddess Maut, in the form of a vulture, and the 
 "hut," or disk of Horus, hover above his head; Avhile be- 
 hind him, floating apparently in mid-air, we see 
 the "ankh" and Ka conjoined, the Ka-arms 
 grasping a lotus-staff surmount- 
 ed by an ostrich feather.* In 
 some scenes, the united "ankh" 
 and Ka become the head and 
 arms of a tiny figure which holds n) 
 
 a parasol or feather -fan out- 
 stretched towards the King.f 
 Now, the " hut " (which is the 
 sun-disk flanked on either side 
 by the uraBi, or royal basilisks) is 
 the emblem of Horus the Victor, 
 and it symbolizes the triumph 
 of the King; while Maut, the 
 
 mother - goddess, protects the royal warrior with her out- 
 spread wings. What, then, is the meaning of the fantastic 
 little figure which waves a feather-fan, or holds a parasol? 
 As I take it, the meaning is very obvious. 
 
 The Ka no longer carries the "ankh," as before, but is 
 identified and made one with it, thus standing for the life of 
 the King. The flabellum or parasol, frequently represented as 
 carried over the King's head in processional subjects, is not 
 only used in religious texts to symbolize the Shade or Shad- 
 ow $ (one of the essential and immortal parts of the man), 
 
 * Rossellini, Monumenti Storici. Plate xlviii. 
 
 f Idem. Plates liv. and Iv. 
 
 \ "On the Shade or Shadow of the Dead." By S. Birch, D.C.L., LL.D., 
 etc. Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. Vol. viii. Part 3. 
 1885.
 
 128 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 but it also signifies protection, defence, shelter, etc.* Held 
 thus in the arms of the Ka, it means protection to his life 
 in the peril of battle such protection as is also symbolized 
 by the out-spread wings of the vulture-goddess above. 
 
 There is yet another class of monuments, connected with 
 neither birth nor peril of death, in which the Ka figures 
 very conspicuously ; namely, in scenes of worship. In these, 
 the Ka appears as if in attendance upon the King, and al- 
 ways with the ' v ankh" in one or both hands. Also and this 
 is a point of great importance he has generally a short in- 
 scription over his head. In this inscription he is expressly 
 designated as " Suten Ka, Ankh Neb Taui ;" *. e., " Eoyal Ka, 
 Life [of the] Lord of the Two Lands" an inscription of 
 which the meaning is absolutely clear, and which is of itself, 
 I venture to think, a positive testimony to the correctness of 
 my interpretation. Thus, in a bas-relief group in the Great 
 Temple of Luxor, f Amenhotep III., followed by his Ka, is 
 depicted in the act of advancing towards the god Khem 
 with a libation-vase in each hand, his Ka standing behind 
 him in human form, with the Ka-name on his head, sur- 
 mounted by the pschent-crowned hawk, emblem of Horus. 
 The Ka-figure carries the "ankh" in one hand, and in the 
 other, the customary staff terminating in a bust of the King. 
 Over his head is graven the above-named formula : " The 
 Royal Ka, Life of the Lord of the Two Lands." So also at 
 Dayr el-Bahari, the Ka-figure standing behind Queen Hat- 
 asu $ bears the Ka-name on his head, the " ankh " in his right 
 hand, and the staff surmounted by the royal bust in his left 
 hand. Above him is engraved the self -same inscription: 
 " The Eoyal Ka, Life of the Lord of the Two Lands." 
 
 In addition to this close and invariable association of the 
 Ka and the " ankh," there is yet another corroborative point 
 to be noted, namely, the persistent recurrence of the bull 
 
 * S. Lcvi, Vocabolario Geroglifico. Vol. vi., p. 141. 
 
 f Rosselliui, Monumenti Storici. Plate cli. 
 
 \ De'lr el-Baliari. Par Mariettc-Bey. Planche 7.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 129 
 
 (also called Ka, and expressive of vital energy) in royal Ka- 
 names, beginning with the Ka-name of Thothmes I., and 
 continuing to be incorporated in the Ka-name of almost ev- 
 ery succeeding Pharaoh of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth 
 dynasties.* 
 
 The evidence is abundant and uniform. The Ka- figure 
 always carries the " ankh ;" the bull (Ka) figures significant- 
 ly in a large number of royal Ka-names ; and the Ka-figure 
 in the titular inscription by which it is invariably accompa- 
 nied, is expressly defined as the "life" of the King. The 
 words of this inscription are of elementary simplicity, and 
 admit of no other interpretation. 
 
 It is for these reasons supported by many more illustra- 
 tions than can be crowded into this volume that I have 
 ventured to define the Ka as the life, or vital principle. In 
 other words, I mean that transmitted energy which must un- 
 doubtedly have descended from the primal source of life to 
 all who live, or have lived, upon earth. 
 
 Seeing how subtly the ancient Egyptians resolved the 
 living man into what may be called his constituent parts, it 
 would be strange if they had omitted that informing princi- 
 ple which alone makes of those constituent parts a co-ordi- 
 nate whole. And if the Ka is not the life, then the Egyp- 
 tians altogether omitted the life from their careful analysis, 
 which is inconceivable. 
 
 * ' ' Life," as the translation of Ka, makes sense of a passage in The Book of 
 the Dead (chap, xxx.), the ohscurity of which was long since pointed out by 
 Mr. Le Page Renouf. The deceased, addressing the heart-scarab, says, " En- 
 tuk Ka em Khat-a," which is currently rendered by, "Thou art a Ka in my 
 body" a phrase devoid of meaning if Ka be translated as "double" or 
 "genius," but which is perfectly intelligible if read as, "Thou art life in 
 my body," the heart being the most essentially vital of organs, and the 
 heart-scarab being placed inside the chest of the mummy as a substitute for 
 the actual heart. This scarab is invariably engraved with a special for- 
 mula (chap, xxx., Book of the Dead) beginning, "Oh, my heart, which 
 came to me from my mother ! my heart, which was mine upon earth," etc. 
 The transmission of the life from mother to child points clearly to the true 
 meaning of the above phrase, "Enluk Ka em Khat-a." 
 9
 
 130 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 It has, however, been said, and with truth, by Dr. Wiede- 
 mann that the ancient Egyptian was incapable of conceiv- 
 ing abstract ideas ; hence it follows that he necessarily con- 
 ceived of vitality as a separate entity. We ourselves speak 
 figuratively of the life as " going out of the body " at the 
 moment of death ; but the Egyptians believed not only that 
 it went out, but that it thenceforth led an independent exist- 
 ence. They knew that the living man nourished his life 
 his Ka with meats and drinks; and they naturally and 
 naively concluded, from their concrete point of view, that 
 meats and drinks were necessary to the existence of the Ka 
 when its partnership with the body should be dissolved. It 
 was, in fact, because the Ka was the life that it required 
 nourishment ; and because it was of divine origin that it sur- 
 vived the death of the body. The starvation of the Ka was 
 therefore a more grievous calamity than the destruction of 
 the body. The body could be replaced by a statue, or even 
 by a painting ; but the extinction of the Ka meant the ex- 
 tinction of the divine spark the annihilation of the dead 
 man's prospects of ultimate reunion with his Ka. In a word, 
 it meant the loss of immortality. 
 
 Translate Ka, then, as " life," and the Ka-statue becomes 
 more intelligible than heretofore. The life needed a body 
 in which to abide, just as it needed bread, meats, fruit, 
 wine, and milk for its sustenance. The Ka informed the 
 statue, dwelt within it, felt through it, just as the life in- 
 forms, dwells in, and feels through the living body. Lack- 
 ing funerary offerings, it suffered all the pangs of starva- 
 tion ; and it was to guard against this dreaded possibility 
 that the Egyptians provided for its material nourishment by 
 means of pious foundations in perpetuity. 
 
 The astonishing way in which these foundations were 
 maintained from age to age, from dynasty to dynasty, is 
 proved by the funerary inscriptions of priestly personages 
 who officiated for kings of by -gone periods. The Muse- 
 um of the Louvre, for instance, contains the tablet of one 
 Psammetichus of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, who flourished
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 131 
 
 about 600 B.C., and held the office of Priest of Khufu, the 
 builder of the Great Pyramid; Khufu having reigned and 
 died at least two thousand six hundred years before. 
 
 Now, it is a most remarkable and interesting truth that 
 the ancient Egyptians were the first, the very first, people 
 of antiquity who believed in the immortality of the soul. 
 That is a cardinal fact which we must never omit to place 
 to their credit. But they believed also in the immortality 
 of the rest of the man in the literal resurrection of the 
 body, and in the ultimate reunion of Body, Soul, Intelli- 
 gence, Name, Shadow, and Ka which last I venture to 
 call the Life. What they conceived the life to be, I can- 
 not say. 
 
 We ourselves, with all our science, have never yet solved 
 the physical problem of vitality. The Greeks conceived of it 
 as a spark of divine fire, stolen by Prometheus from heaven. 
 Probably the Egyptians believed it to be an emanation from 
 Ra, the great solar god, from whom their Pharaohs claimed 
 direct descent. It may be that the Greeks borrowed this 
 " vital spark," as they borrowed so much else, from the Egyp- 
 tians; and I do not doubt that the Hebrews who carried 
 away even more intellectual spoils than spoil of silver and 
 gold and raiment out of the Land of Bondage w r ere indebt- 
 ed to their taskmasters for their doctrine of the "Khai." 
 or life. They in fact borrowed not only the notion but 
 the word, for " Kha " and " Khai " are surely one and the 
 same. 
 
 One of the most solemn judicial oaths which an Egyptian 
 could take was by the Ka of the Pharaoh ; and to take that 
 oath lightly was punishable by death. Seeing that the Ka 
 was the life, and that the King's life was from Ra, the 
 greatest of the solar gods, the tremendous character of this 
 oath is easily understood. It was in this sense, and the 
 more to impress his brethren with the extent of his power, 
 that Joseph twice invoked the life of the King his master ; 
 and for my own part, I have not the slightest doubt that 
 what he actually said was, " By the Ka of Pharaoh, surely
 
 132 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 re are spies !"* If I appear to dwell at too much length upon 
 this sermon on the text of the Ka, I at all events hope to show 
 that it explains much which would otherwise be inexplicable 
 in the origin of the art of portraiture. It explains, for in- 
 stance, the reason why Egyptian portrait sculpture differs in 
 its primary conception from the portrait sculpture of all other 
 nations. Elsewhere, men began by making images of their 
 gods that they might fall down and worship them. The 
 earliest works of Chaldean and Assyrian art represent deities 
 and demons. The archaic sculptors of Phoenicia, Cyprus, 
 and Greece first tried their 'prentice hands on gods, demi- 
 gods and deified heroes. But the fine art of the first pe- 
 riod of Egyptian history 
 the period of the Pyramid 
 Kings is exclusively fune- 
 rary ; and it reproduces, 
 with extraordinary fidelity, 
 the men and women of that 
 age. 
 
 In order that the Ka 
 should feel at home in his 
 new body of stone or wood, 
 the statue was bound to be 
 as exactly like the man as 
 the sculptor's art could make 
 it. If the man was ugly, the 
 statue must also be ugly. 
 If he had any personal de- 
 fect, the statue must faith- 
 fully reproduce it; as, for 
 
 " Send one of you, and let him 
 fetcli your brother, and ye shall be 
 kept in prison, that your words may 
 be proved, whether there be any 
 truth in you: or else by the life of 
 Pharaoh surely ye are spies." 
 Genesis, xlii., 1G. See also verse 15.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 133 
 
 instance, in this funerary statue of Nemhotep, a deformed 
 dwarf who held a high office at court under a Pharaoh of 
 the Sixth Dynasty. The sculptor of a Ka-statue dared not 
 flatter. He might not model the best side of the sitter's 
 face, and then make the other side to match it, like our fash- 
 ionable artists. That is not nature's way of working. Put 
 the loveliest woman in the world before a looking-glass, peep 
 over her shoulder, and you will see that one eye is larger than 
 the other ; or that her nose, or her mouth, is a little to one 
 side. Our powers of observation are, however, so blunted, 
 that without the looking-glass we should not find this out. 
 But those old Egyptian artists lived while the world was yet 
 young. Their eyes were not vitiated by custom, and their 
 sitters (actuated by a motive in which personal vanity had 
 no part) were not anxious to be flattered. The welfare of 
 the Ka was at stake ; and the portrait was destined, not for 
 the annual exhibition of a Memphite Royal Academy, but 
 for the tomb. 
 
 That these early funerary portrait -statues were studied 
 from the life, admits of no doubt. The technical treatment 
 proves that point. And it is this certainty the certainty 
 that the living man sat to the artist for his likeness which 
 makes the unique value of the early Memphite school. 
 Later on, when Asiatic influences were at work in Egypt, an 
 element of Asiatic conventionality makes itself felt in Egyp- 
 tian portraiture. But the singular skill with which Egyp- 
 tian artists of all periods seized upon, and reproduced, the 
 ethnic types of foreign races has never been surpassed. It 
 shows that however they may have been influenced by fash- 
 ion in their treatment of historical portraiture, their power 
 of literal portraiture remained unimpaired. 
 
 The leading schools of Egyptian art are classified under 
 the heads of either dynasties or capitals, a change of dynas- 
 ty generally involving a change of capital. It thus followed 
 that Memphis was at one time the centre of government; 
 at another time Tanis ; at another time Thebes, Bubastis, 
 and so on. Thus we have the Memphite school of art,
 
 134 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 which was the earliest; the Twelfth Dynasty school, the 
 Theban school, the Saite school, and some minor schools of 
 less note. The rise and fall of these various schools mark 
 a succession of decadences and renaissances of art, each 
 renaissance being distinguished by its own special charac- 
 teristics. All these schools, all these renaissances, had, nev- 
 ertheless, one essential principle in common : they were 
 primarily exponents of the religious idea. In the hands of 
 the sculptor and the painter, the gods were made manifest 
 to the eyes of their worshippers ; the terrors of Hades and 
 the delights of Elysium were depicted with curious minute- 
 ness of detail ; and the art of portraiture continued to be, 
 from first to last, the concrete expression of one of the most 
 singular, obscure, and fantastic religious beliefs which was 
 ever inculcated by a priesthood, or by which the mind of a 
 people was influenced. For every sculptured statue, every 
 painted portrait, whether of a living person or of a dead per- 
 son, was regarded as a supplementary body dedicated to the 
 service of the Ka. 
 
 And this strange dogma which we have traced from its 
 earliest known beginnings, four thousand years before the 
 Christian era, retained its hold upon the minds of the Egyp- 
 tians, and continued to be enforced as a cardinal article of 
 faith by the Egyptian priesthood, till the abolition of the 
 ancient national religion by the edict of Theodosius, A.D. 379. 
 
 One of the most surprising facts by which we are con- 
 fronted when beginning the study of ancient Egyptian por- 
 trait sculpture is the immense superiority of the earliest 
 school, when compared with the schools of later periods. It 
 is in this respect that the history of art in the Yalley of the 
 Nile differs most strikingly from the history of art in any 
 other country of the ancient world. When we speak, for 
 instance, of an archaic Greek statue, we mean by implication 
 a stiff figure with a vacant expression of face, eyes set aslant, 
 a meaningless smile, rigid limbs, and muscles abnormally de- 
 veloped. But when we speak of an Egyptian statue of the 
 time of the Ancient Empire that is to say, of the most ar-
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 135 
 
 chaic period known we refer to a figure modelled direct 
 from the life, and treated on ultra -naturalistic lines. We 
 now know why the art of the Memphite school was so essen- 
 tially realistic. "We now know that these statues are, one 
 and all, Ka-statues, and that the sculptors who produced 
 them were governed by the necessity of providing a faith- 
 ful likeness for the benefit of the Ka. But the marvel 
 of their execution remains the same. We in vain ask how 
 long a period of foregone civilization must have elapsed be- 
 fore the art can have attained to this high degree of excel- 
 lence. We only know that the earliest work of Egyptian 
 sculpture to which it is possible to put an approximate date 
 is a funerary tablet in bas-relief belonging to the remote 
 period of the Second Dynasty,* and that it is not inferior to 
 similar works executed under the Fourth Dynasty. It is 
 impossible even to conjecture the length of time during 
 which the Egyptians must have been gradually working 
 their way upward through higher and higher levels of civil- 
 ization, in order to arrive at these results. When we first 
 become acquainted with them as sculptors and builders, they 
 are already adults ; and as yet we have found no relics of 
 their infancy. 
 
 The oldest historical portrait-statue yet discovered is that 
 of Queen Mertetefs,f wife of Seneferu, the last king of the 
 Third Dynasty, and wife, by her second marriage, to Khufu, 
 the first king of the Fourth Dynasty, who was no less fa- 
 mous a personage than the builder of the Great Pyramid. 
 The statue is one of a limestone group of three figures, rep- 
 resenting Queen Mertetefs, her Ka, and a priest named Ken- 
 nu, who was her private secretary. The Queen and her Ka 
 
 * This tablet was found in the Necropolis of Sakkara, brought from 
 Egypt by J. Greaves, an Oxford professor, about the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century, and presented to the Ashmolean Museum in 1683 by the 
 Rev. R. Huntington. It is of the time of Senta, the thirteenth Pharaoh of 
 the Second Dynasty. 
 
 f This statue, or rather the group of which it forms part, is aruong the 
 Egyptian treasures of the Museum of Antiquities at Leyden.
 
 136 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 sit side by side, and are exactly alike, the flesh-tints being 
 painted buff, and the hair black. Queen Mertetefs survived 
 her second husband, and lived to hold three important offices 
 under her nephew Khafra, who was the second king of the 
 
 KHUFU-ANKH AND HIS SERVANTS. 
 
 From a bas-relief sculpture in his tomb at Ghizeh. Photographed by Mr. W. M. 
 
 Flinders Petrie. 
 
 Fourth Dynasty, and builder of the second pyramid of 
 Ghizeh. She was "Administrator of the Great Hall of the 
 Palace, Mistress of the Royal Wardrobe, and Superintend- 
 ent of the Chamber of Wigs and Head-dresses." Her name, 
 Mertetefs, signifies " beloved of her father." 
 
 Contemporary with Queen Mertetefs was Ivhufu-Ankh, a 
 great nobleman of the time of Khufu, whose tomb is in the 
 shadow of the Great Pyramid, and whose magnificent sar- 
 cophagus is preserved in the Museum of Ghizeh. Khufu- 
 Ankh was Keeper of the Royal Seal ; and he is represented 
 in the bas-relief sculptures on the walls of his tomb attended
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 137 
 
 by his servants. Later in point of date, but on the same 
 plane as regards technique, is the example below of bas-relief 
 sculpture from the tomb of one Semnefer, also in the Ne- 
 cropolis of Ghizeh. Semnefer lived about two hundred and 
 fifty years later than Queen Mertetefs ; and we have here the 
 profile portraits of himself and his wife, the Lady Hotep-hers. 
 The heads of all these Fourth Dynasty personages are marked 
 by that child-like simplicity which distinguishes the archaic 
 school, and they place before us with much fidelity the eth- 
 nological type of the earliest Egyptians. There is not a 
 
 SEMSEFER AND HIS WIFE HOTKP-HERS. 
 
 From a bas-relief sculpture in the tomb of Semnefer at Ghizeh. Photographed by 
 Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie. 
 
 i 
 
 drop of negro blood in this race. Their noses are slightly 
 arched ; their lips are full and well turned ; their chins are 
 short ; their jaws are delicate ; their heads high, and well 
 rounded. 
 
 To about the same date belong the statues of General Ra- 
 hotep and his Avife, Princess Nefert, on the following page.
 
 138 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 This old-world couple have been largely popularized of late 
 years in various illustrated books treating of ancient Egyptian 
 art ; but they cannot be spared from any typical series of 
 
 GENERAL BA-HOTEP AND PRIXCESS NEKKP.T. 
 
 Painted limestone statues, life-size, discovered at Meydum, and attributed by Mari- 
 ette to the time of Seneferu, Third Dynasty. Professor Maspero assigns them, 
 however, to a later period. 
 
 the Memphite school. In General Ra-hotep we behold a 
 stalwart, square-cut, sturdy man of the same racial type as 
 Semnefer. The brow is well developed ; the nose is sharply 
 cut and slightly arched ; the cheek-bones are high ; the lips 
 are full ; the chin is small ; the brain-case is of ample size. 
 He was a man, one would say, of strong common-sense and 
 determination of character. 
 
 The features of his wife, Princess Kefert, though cast in 
 a more delicate and aristocratic mould, are marked by the
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 
 
 139 
 
 same physiological traits ; and it is evident, from, these and 
 other examples of the same period, that the Egyptians of the 
 Ancient Empire were a strongly built, massive-headed race, 
 with well-defined noses, high cheek-bones, and full lips. 
 
 These statues are carved in fine limestone, seated, and col- 
 ored. The flesh-tints of Nefert are buff, and those of Ka- 
 hotep reddish-brown; the buff representing the fairer com- 
 plexion of the woman, while the darker hue of the man is 
 intended to convey the results of exposure to the sun. The 
 eyes of both are inserted, the whites being of opaque white 
 quartz, and the iris of transparent crystal. A small silver 
 nail fixed behind the iris re- 
 ceives and reflects the light, 
 thus imitating the shifting 
 light of the living orb. 
 
 The famous statue known 
 as the " Wooden Man of Bii- 
 lak" is about half life-size. 
 It represents a stout, com- 
 monplace, elderly Egyptian 
 named Ra-em-ka, who was 
 an overseer of public works 
 in the time of the Fourth 
 Dynasty. He must have 
 witnessed the building of 
 one or other of the great 
 pyramids of Ghizeh, and he 
 probably superintended the 
 
 workmen at their toil. It is a good-natured, contented face, 
 carefully studied from the life ; and the eyes, like those of 
 Ra-hotep and Nefert, are inserted. 
 
 Long admixture with Asiatic blood has so thinned down 
 the race that a fat native is now one of the rarest of Egyp- 
 tian curiosities; but elderly men of very comfortable pro- 
 portions are frequently represented in the sculptures of the 
 early school. The treatment of this admirable head is so 
 masterly that one scarcely notices how the wood is split 
 
 RA-KM-KA. 
 
 Called " The Wooden Man of Bulak."
 
 140 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 in every direction ; but that it should be thus split is not 
 wonderful if we remember that the tree which was felled 
 to make this statue, and the man who sat for it, flour- 
 ished nearly six thousand years ago. 
 
 In marked contrast to the plebeian type of Ka-em-ka is 
 the limestone statue of one Ti, a courtly gentleman of the 
 Fifth Dynasty. No less than nineteen statues of Ti were 
 found immured in the substance of the walls of his tomb, 
 which is one of the most beautiful in Egypt. The figure 
 stands about seven feet high, the flesh-tints being of a pale 
 brick-dust color, and the wig yellow. The pose of the head 
 is spirited, and the expression of the face is open and life- 
 like. Ti's shoulders are very square, his arms long, his body 
 slender; this being the characteristic type of the well-grow T n 
 fellah of the present day. The muscles of the arms and 
 thorax are excellently rendered. With the statues of the 
 master were frequently buried statues of his servants, that 
 they might continue to wait upon him and work for him in 
 the world beyond the tomb. ( 35 ) These statues generally 
 represent the servant as engaged in his or her daily work 
 making bread, carrying burdens, washing out wine-jars, and 
 the like. Our next example was found in the tomb of a 
 gentleman of the Fifth Dynasty, and it represents a house- 
 hold scribe. This humble dependant kneels with crossed 
 hands, as though awaiting his lord's instructions. His va- 
 cant and deprecating smile expresses the patient resignation 
 of a life of servitude. He has no will, and no opinions of 
 his own. His back is well acquainted with the time-honored 
 "stick," and he is so well trained in the virtues of obedi- 
 ence and submission that he not only takes his punishment 
 without a murmur, but is ready to kiss the hand by which 
 it is administered. 
 
 The " Cross-legged Scribe " (p. 143) belongs to the same 
 class and the same period. He is a man of about forty 
 years of age, plain-featured, intelligent, a little more fleshy 
 and less muscular than one who has lived the life of the fields, 
 yet hardy and active. He is writing to dictation, and he
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 
 
 141 
 
 waits, pen in hand, till the next sentence shall fall from the 
 lips of his employer. The face is instinct with attention. 
 The eyes are inserted. The 
 hands, the knees, the muscles of 
 the arms and body are sculpt- 
 ured with minute anatomical ex- 
 actness. This is one of the most 
 celebrated of ancient Egyptian 
 statues, and r fortunately, the 
 original of our illustration can 
 be seen without a journey to 
 Cairo, for it is in the Museum of 
 the Louvre. 
 
 "With the Memphite school we 
 bid good-bye to the first, and in 
 some respects the finest, period 
 of Egyptian portraiture. It was, 
 par excellence, the one great re- 
 alistic school of the ancient 
 world, and it owed its inspira- 
 tion to that extraordinary dogma 
 which necessitated the making 
 of an artificial body for the Ka. 
 This dogma, as I have said, con- 
 tinued in force as long as the 
 Egyptian religion lasted ; but its 
 influence upon the art of the 
 sculptor is more manifest in the 
 time of the Ancient Empire than 
 at any subsequent period. See- 
 ing how marvellously life-like 
 these earliest Ka-statues are, one 
 would almost be tempted to say 
 that the faith which inspired 
 
 their makers was more vivid than the faith of later times. 
 They are, as it were, informed with something of that vital- 
 ity which they were. supposed to enshrine. When Mariette's 
 
 STATUE OF TI. 
 
 In the Museum of Ghizeh.
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Arabs opened the tomb in which the statues of Nefert and 
 Ra-hotep were discovered, they first drew back ir terror ; 
 and then, believing them to be inhabited by demons, were 
 with difficulty restrained from smashing them. Their alarm 
 was natural enough. Looking into the eyes of this wonder- 
 ful pair, and seeing how the 
 light shifts in their liquid 
 depths, it is difficult not to 
 believe that they look at us, 
 even as we look at them, and 
 that their gaze is not fol- 
 lowing us as we move from 
 group to group in the hall 
 of the museum Avhere they 
 sit enthroned. But how 
 strangely and luridly those 
 eyes of quartz and crystal 
 must have gleamed from the 
 depths of that dark sepul- 
 chre of Meydum into which 
 no ray of daylight had found 
 its way for nearly six thou- 
 sand years ! 
 
 Up to the time when Ma- 
 riette discovered the secret 
 Ka-chambers in the massive 
 walls of the tombs of the 
 Ancient Empire, there had 
 prevailed an entirely errone- 
 ous notion as to the charac- 
 teristics of Egyptian sculpt- 
 ure. It was believed to be 
 wholly conventional, stiff, 
 and unnatural ; and this 
 sweeping condemnation was 
 
 applied without distinction to the art of all periods, It, 
 however, needs but a glance at one of the masterpieces of 
 
 THE KNEELING SCRIBE. 
 
 Limestone statue, Fifth Dynasty. In 
 the Museum of Ghizeh.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 143 
 
 the early Memphite school or even at the foregoing illus- 
 trations to dispel that prejudice. Yet we must be careful 
 not to claim too much for even the sculptors of the " Cross- 
 legged Scribe " or the " Wooden Man." Their skill was in 
 
 THK CROSS LKGGED SCRIBE. 
 
 Limestone statue, colored, half life-size. In the Museum of the Louvre. 
 
 many respects quite marvellous ; but it had its limitations. 
 If I might venture somewhat to paraphrase one of Sir 
 Charles Newton's happiest definitions, (") I would say that 
 the sculptors of ancient Egypt never grappled with some of 
 the most difficult problems which were solved by the sculp- 
 tors of ancient Greece. They lacked that fine insight which 
 enabled a Praxiteles and a Phidias to detect the whole in- 
 ternal organism beneath the bodily surface. They never 
 succeeded, perhaps, in thoroughly expressing the relation be-
 
 144 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 tween those muscles which are the sources of motive power, 
 and the bones which supply leverage. Neither did they at- 
 tempt to represent the texture and elasticity of the skin, 
 which clothes, yet does not hide, the structure beneath the 
 surface. But they did perceive, and they did correctly re- 
 produce, the general effect and proportions of the human 
 form. They indicated with remarkable skill all its most 
 salient features, such as the muscles of the legs, arms, and 
 thorax, and the modelling of the knees ; yet, strange to say, 
 
 AMKXKMHAT I. (TWELFTH DYNASTY.) 
 
 Colossal head in red granite, from the ruins of the Great Temple of Tanis. 
 Photographed by Mr. W. 51. F. Petrie. 
 
 they never attained to even a moderate degree of success 
 in their treatment of the hands and feet. These are always 
 wooden and ill-proportioned. Take them, however, with all
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 145 
 
 their shortcomings, the old Memphite sculptors were of that 
 stuff of which the early Florentine school was made some 
 fifty -five centuries later. As for portraiture, properly so 
 
 COLOSSAL HEAD OF A HYKSOS KINO. 
 
 (Supposed to be Salatis.) Sculptured in blnck granite, and discovered by Mariette 
 at Tell Mokhdam, in the Fayum. 
 
 called, namely, heads, faces, expression, and that indescriba- 
 ble something which indicates character or in other words, 
 the outward modifications wrought upon the features by the 
 workings of the mind no artists of any age have therein 
 excelled the sculptors of the Ancient Empire. 
 
 The next great school of Egyptian portrait sculpture is 
 that of the Middle Empire, which culminated under the 
 Twelfth Dynasty. 
 
 The sculptors of this age excelled in the skill with which 
 
 they cut and polished the hardest stones, such as basalt, 
 
 diorite, and granite. A vast crowd of Twelfth Dynasty 
 
 Pharaohs, their queens and families, carved in these obdu- 
 
 10
 
 146 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 rate materials have been found in the ruins of the great 
 temples of Tanis and Bubastis. Unfortunately, most of 
 them have been usurped by the kings of later periods, who 
 have erased the names of the originals and substituted their 
 
 HYKSOS SPHINX, IN PROFILE. 
 
 From the ruins of the Great Temple of Tanis, and now in the Museum of Ghizeh. 
 Black granite. Photographed by Mr. VV. M. F. Petrie. 
 
 own. These grand statues are chiefly of colossal size, and 
 are almost invariably mutilated. A royal portrait-statue of 
 the Twelfth or Thirteenth Dynasty with its royal nose in- 
 tact is a rara avis. 
 
 During the interval which elapsed bet\veen the Thirteenth 
 and Seventeenth dynasties, Egypt was overrun by a bar- 
 barian host from beyond the Eastern border, and so lost her 
 liberty for nearly five hundred years. This dark interval is 
 known as the Hyksos Period, or the time of the Shepherd 
 Kings. The invaders were a mixed multitude of warlike 
 tribes from Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia, and that vast dis-
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 
 
 147 
 
 trict known in a later age as the two Scythias. These 
 hungry hordes were led by a race of Turanian type who 
 founded the so-called Hyksos dynasties, and portraits of 
 certain of their kings have been preserved to us in Egyp- 
 tian sculptures of that period. They were a race of hard- 
 featured warriors, with wide and high cheek-bones, open 
 nostrils, and mouths curved sternly downward at the cor- 
 ners. 
 
 We have on page 145 a full-face view of a colossal fragment 
 found in the Fayum. It is believed to be a portrait of Sala- 
 tis, the first king of the Hyksos line. His heavy plaited wig 
 is quite unlike the wig worn by the Egyptians, and he wears 
 uncouth ornaments of barbaric style. Battered though it 
 
 HYKS6S SPHINXES (TANIS.) 
 
 The broken fragments of several of these sphinxes yet strew the ruins of the Great 
 Temple of Tanis. They are all duplicates of the one in the Museum of Gizeh. In 
 the above illustration we see the fore part of two, and beyond them the broken 
 halves of a red granite obelisk of Rameses II. Photographed by Mr. W. M. F. 
 Petrie.
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 is, this rugged face is thoroughly representative. The high 
 cheek-bones, the saturnine expression, and the curious mus- 
 cular bosses at the corners of the mouth are especially char- 
 acteristic of the Hyksos race. 
 
 The same racial characteristics are strongly marked in 
 
 this profile of a human- 
 headed sphinx found in the 
 ruins of the Great Temple 
 of Tanis. The type is dis- 
 tinctly Mongolian, and the 
 skill with which the Egyp- 
 tian sculptor has seized 
 upon and reproduced it 
 shows that the portrait 
 sculptors of this period 
 were in nowise inferior to 
 their Memphite predeces- 
 sors. It is probably a por- 
 trait of Apepi, the last 
 and most celebrated of the 
 Hyksos usurpers. 
 
 By far the finest piece 
 of portrait sculpture of the 
 Hyksos school is, however, 
 the colossal sitting statue 
 of a Hyksos king discov- 
 ered in 1888 by M. Na- 
 ville, in the course of his 
 excavations on the site of 
 the Great Temple of Bu- 
 
 bastis. This superb work of ancient art is one of a pair 
 which were placed on either side of the great gate -way 
 through which the Temple was approached; and as the 
 names and titles of Apepi were sculptured on a door-jamb 
 of that gate-way, close by the spot where the broken colossi 
 were found, there would seem to be good reason for the 
 assumption that we have in one or other of these statues, if 
 
 QUEEN HATAStT. 
 
 Colossal head in limestone, discovered in 
 the ruins of the Great Temple of Kar- 
 nak and preserved in the Museum of 
 Ghizeh. From the drawing by Bourgoin 
 in Perrot and Chipiez's Egypte.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 
 
 149 
 
 not in both a portrait of the famous tyrant of the First 
 Sallier Papyrus. ( 37 ) The features of the pair are, however, 
 very different ; the one whose head is reproduced in the 
 illustration on page 146 being the likeness of a man some 
 twenty years the junior of his fellow. Which of the Hyksos 
 usurpers that elder figure may represent we cannot even 
 guess; but the face of the younger is identical with the 
 faces of the human-headed spl^nxes of Tanis ; and to them, 
 
 RAMKSKS II., SURNAMKD "THE GREAT." 
 
 From a group in red granite. Tanis. Photographed by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie. 
 
 as to him, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, 
 we may provisionally assign the name of Apepi.( 8 ") 
 
 The Theban princes rose at last, expelled the alien ty- 
 rants, and restored the descendants of the old Twelfth-Dy-
 
 150 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 nasty Pharaohs. Then followed the glorious days of the 
 Eighteenth Dynasty a line of builder and warrior kings, in 
 whose roll are numbered the great names of Tkothmes III., 
 Amenhotep III., and the renowned Queen Hatasu. In pre- 
 
 KAMKSKS II. 
 
 Bas-relief, from the Great Temple of Karnalt. Photographed by Mr. W. M. F. 
 
 Petrie. 
 
 senting this beautiful head as a portrait of Hatasu, it must 
 be premised that it has already been attributed by Marietta 
 to Queen Tii, the wife of Amenhotep III., and by Maspero 
 to the wife of Iloremheb. 'Seen in profile, however, this 
 face is identical in outline with the profile of Queen Ha- 
 tasu as sculptured upon one of the fragments of her broken 
 obelisk at Karnak. Even the dimple in the chin, which is so 
 conspicuous in the front face, is represented by a slight de- 
 pression in the profile chin of the obelisk portrait.* I have 
 
 * See Profile of Hatasu, chap. viii.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 151 
 
 been furthermore informed that the above fragment was 
 discovered under the debris of a small chamber at the back 
 of one of Hatasu's obelisks in the ruins of the Great Temple 
 of Karnak ; and it is for these reasons that I venture to think 
 that it can represent none other than the great queen her- 
 self. The rest of the statue is lost ; but this precious frag- 
 ment is one of the masterpieces of Egyptian art. The eyes 
 laugh ; the lips all but speak ; and every feature is alive with 
 
 Bas-relief, from his sepulchre in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes. 
 From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie. 
 
 a vivacious charm, which is ever the rarest achievement in 
 sculpture. The size is colossal, and the material a fine, mar- 
 ble-like limestone. 
 
 When we pass from the Eighteenth to the Nineteenth and 
 Twentieth dynasties, we enter upon an entirely new phase 
 of Egyptian art. Rameses I., the founder of the former line,
 
 152 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 was of Semitic birth ; and although his son, Seti L, wedded 
 an Egyptian princess of the old royal line, the Pharaohs of 
 his dynasty retained a marked Semitic type which affected 
 the sculptors and tigure-painters of the time in a very cu- 
 rious manner. Because Seti I. and Rameses II. had long 
 noses, long heads, long bodies, and long legs, the artists of 
 the Nineteenth Dynasty gave long noses, long heads, long 
 bodies, and long legs to all their sitters ; thus falsifying the 
 
 Bas-relief, from his sepulchre in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, Thebes. 
 From a photograph by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie. 
 
 national type, and introducing an element of great monot- 
 ony into the art of the period. 
 
 The history of portraiture, like the history of nations, re- 
 peats itself. In times comparatively recent, court beauties 
 set the fashion in features, and court painters adapted all
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 
 
 fair faces to the prescribed pattern. It was so in the clays 
 of Charles II. and Louis XIV., and it was so in the far-off 
 days of the Pharaohs. 
 
 The hereditary characteristics of the two Ramesside lines 
 
 RAMESKS in. (TWENTIETH DYNASTY). 
 
 From a bas-relief in his sepulchre in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at 
 Thebes. Photographed by Mr.'W. M. F. Petrie. 
 
 are nowhere more strikingly shown than in the numerous 
 bas-relief portraits of royal personages sculptured on the 
 walls of the great temples of Karnak and Medinet-Habu, 
 and in the famous sepulchres of the Valley of the Tombs 
 of the Kings. Of these, a few examples will suffice. 
 
 On page 149 is shown a head of Rameses the Great, from 
 a group in red granite. This fine head (unfortunately mu- 
 tilated) yet lies amid the ruins of Tanis. The nose being 
 gone, Ave lose the Semitic profile, which, however, is well
 
 154 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 seen in our illustration on page 150, taken from a beautiful 
 
 bas-relief sculpture in the Great 
 Temple of Karnak. In the first of 
 these portraits the great Pharaoh 
 wears the khepersch, or war-helmet, 
 adorned in front with the uraeus of 
 royalty. This head-dress is some- 
 times represented in colored bas- 
 reliefs as covered with panther- 
 hide; and sometimes it is shown 
 of a brilliant cobalt-blue, the sur- 
 face studded with small yellow 
 rings. This, perhaps, is intended 
 to reproduce the effect of a copper 
 helmet artificially colored by being 
 plunged, when in a heated condi- 
 tion, into a sulphur spring, thus 
 converting the surface into copper 
 sulphide. This, if covered with an- 
 nulets of gold, would have a beau- 
 tiful effect. It is possible that cop- 
 per thus colored was the Homeric 
 kuanos. 
 
 In the second portrait Rameses 
 wears a wig of close-laid curls, and 
 on his brow the golden uraeus. In 
 both these sculptures the great 
 Pharoah is represented at about 
 eighteen years of age. 
 
 Our illustration on page 151 re- 
 produces the features of Seti II., 
 grandson of Rameses II. , from his 
 tomb in the same valley. This 
 charming profile closely resembles 
 the profile of his grandfather Ra- 
 meses the Great. The reign of this 
 prince was apparently long and un- 
 
 1IUMMY CASK OF QITKEN AHMKS 
 XKKKRT.UU.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 155 
 
 eventful. Several of bis colossal portrait - statues are pre- 
 served in the museums of Europe, and his fine tomb in 
 the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, yet con- 
 tains his granite sarcophagus, carved on the lid with his full- 
 length figure in bas-relief. But by far the most interesting 
 monument of his reign is a fragile papyrus in the British 
 Museum, containing the celebrated " Tale of the Two Broth- 
 ers." This tale consists of two parts of different date, the 
 first half being evidently very ancient, and the second show- 
 ing by unmistakable internal evidence that it was composed 
 under the Nineteenth Dynasty. According to the colophon, 
 this papyrus was written by the hand of the royal librarian 
 by order of the Chief of the Treasury, and it was apparently 
 the King's own copy, being twice endorsed with his name 
 on the back of the document. As the handwriting differs 
 from that of the manuscript, these may be Seti's own auto- 
 graphs. 
 
 The family likeness of the Ramessides is perpetuated in a 
 marked degree in the portrait of Siptah on page 152, a 
 prince whose history is obscure, but who seems to have been 
 a son of Seti II., and great-grandson of Rameses the Great. 
 Siptah and his queen, contrary to the custom of Egyptian 
 royalty, were buried in one grave. 
 
 With Rameses III., we enter upon the Twentieth Dynas- 
 ty. Descended through his father from the Pharaohs of the 
 preceding line, Rameses III. inherited not only the same 
 Semitic type, but the same warlike tastes and the same pas- 
 sion for building. He was the last of the fighting Pharaohs, 
 and with him the glory of Egypt expired. The first naval 
 battle known to history was fought in his reign, and is pict- 
 ured 1 on the walls of his great temple in western Thebes. 
 His tomb is one of the finest in the Valley of the Tombs of 
 the Kings ; his funerary papyrus, ninety feet long, is in the 
 British Museum ; and his mummy is in the National Egyp- 
 tian Museum at Ghizeh. He was succeeded by nine kings 
 of the name of Rameses. Several of these were his sons, 
 and they seem to have followed each other with ominous ra-
 
 15G PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 pidity. The portrait is from the walls of his great temple 
 at Medinet-IIabu. 
 
 There was yet another variety of portrait sculpture which 
 cannot be passed over in silence, and which was peculiarly 
 an Egyptian art: namely, the portrait-masks carved in wood, 
 with which the mummy-cases of this extraordinary people 
 were decorated. Many of the portrait-masks are evidently 
 carefully studied likenesses, and reproduce the features of 
 the deceased with as much fidelity as do the portrait-statues 
 and bas-relief subjects found in his tomb. One of the largest 
 
 MASK FROM MUMMY-CASK OF RAMESES II. 
 
 and most magnificent mummy-cases ever discovered is that 
 of Queen Ahmes Nefertari, now in the Museum of G-hizeh. 
 It is of colossal size, and it represents this celebrated royal 
 lady as holding the "ankh" in each hand, while on her head 
 she wears the helmet and plumes of Amen. The material 
 of the mummy -case is the usual " cartonnage," consisting of
 
 THE ORIGIN OF PORTRAIT SCULPTURE. 
 
 157 
 
 many layers of linen hardened together by glue, and coated 
 outside with stucco. This cartonnage is impressed all over 
 the arms, shoulders and head-dress, with a reticulated sex- 
 agonal pattern, which gives the surface the appearance of 
 being honey-combed. Each little sexagonal hollow is paint- 
 ed blue, the groundwork being of a vivid yellow. The face, 
 hands, and necklace are also painted blue. 
 This mask of Kameses II., from the lid 
 of his wooden sarcophagus, is in the Muse- 
 um of Ghizeh. The head, however, is not 
 a contemporary portrait; neither does it 
 faithfully reproduce the features of Ra- 
 meses II. ; but it is a very beautiful speci- 
 men of portrait sculpture in wood of the 
 time of the Twenty-first Dynasty. The 
 sarcophagus adorned with this wood-sculp- 
 ture appears to have been made to receive 
 the mummy of Rameses II., in the sixth 
 year of the rule of Her-Hor Se-Amen, of 
 the Twenty-first Dynasty, when the tombs 
 of the earlier Pharaohs were visited by 
 Government inspectors, and when (accord- 
 ing to the entries inscribed on their coffins) 
 the "funerary appointments " of Seti I. and 
 Rameses II. were renewed by order of Her- RA-EM-KA. 
 
 Hor, then High-Priest of Amen, and after- 
 wards king.( 39 ) The features of this mask bear, however, 
 a curious resemblance to the features of the little pen-portraits 
 of Her-Hor in the great funerary papyrus of his mother, 
 Queen Notem-Maut ; and this furnishes us, perhaps, with a 
 clue to its unwritten history. To give up his own tomb in 
 favor of another, has ever been 'a distinguished mark of honor 
 among the nations of the East;( 40 ) and it is quite possible 
 that Her-Hor may have given up to his illustrious predeces- 
 sor the beautiful mummy-case made for his own mortal re- 
 mains, when he too should be summoned to traverse the Yal- 
 ley of the Shadow of Death.
 
 V. 
 
 EGYPT THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK 
 DECORATIVE ART. 
 
 A SCHOLAR of no less distinction than the late Sir Richard 
 Burton wrote the other day of Egypt as " the inventor of 
 the alphabet, the cradle of letters, the preacher of animism 
 and metempsychosis, and, generally, the source of all human 
 civilization." This is a broad statement; but it is literally 
 true. Hence the irresistible fascination of Egyptology a 
 fascination which is quite unintelligible to those who are 
 ignorant of the subject. I have sometimes been asked, for 
 instance, how it happens that I erewhile a novelist, and 
 therefore a professed student of men and manners as they 
 are can take so lively an interest in the men and manners 
 of five or six thousand years ago. But it is precisely be- 
 cause these men of five or six thousand years ago had man- 
 ners, a written language, a literature, a school of art, and a 
 settled government that we find them so interesting. Our- 
 selves the creatures of a day, we delight in studies which 
 help us to realize that we stand between the eternity of the 
 past and the eternity of the future. Hence the charm of 
 those sciences which unfold to us, page by page, the un- 
 written records of the world we live in. Hence the eager- 
 ness with which we listen to the Story of Creation as told 
 by the geologist and the paleontologist.
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 15<J 
 
 But the history of Man, and especially of civilized man, 
 concerns us yet more nearly ; and the earliest civilized man 
 of whom we know anything is the ancient Egyptian. 
 
 From the moment when he emerges a shadowy figure 
 from the mists of the dawn of history, he is seen to have a 
 philosophical religion, a hierarchy, and a social system. How 
 many centuries, or tens of centuries, it took him to achieve 
 that result we know not. Of the time when he was yet a 
 savage we detect no trace. His faintest, farthest footprint 
 on the sands of Time bears the impress of a sandal. 
 
 To this nation which first translated sounds into signs, and 
 made use of those signs to transmit the memory of its deeds 
 to future generations, we naturally turn for the earliest in- 
 formation of other races ; nor do we so turn in vain. 
 
 Before they have any writing or any history of their own, 
 we meet with the Ethiopians, the Libyans, the Phoenicians, 
 the Babylonians, the Assyrians, in the hieroglyphic inscrip- 
 tions of ancient Egypt. And in these inscriptions, graven 
 on the storied walls of temples and pylons older by a thou- 
 sand years than the opening chapters of classical history, we 
 also find the first the very first mention of the people of 
 Greece and Italy. 
 
 It Avould be difficult to find a more interesting subject of 
 inquiry than the relations of prehistoric Greece to Egypt, 
 or than to measure, as far as possible, the extent of that debt 
 which the early Greeks owed to the teaching and example of 
 the ancient Egyptians. 
 
 The history of Greece and the Greeks, as told by them- 
 selves, may be said to begin with the first recorded Olym- 
 piad, seven hundred and 'seventy-six years before the Chris- 
 tian era. It is at this point that we begin to draw the line 
 between fable and fact. But the first mention of the Greeks 
 upon the monuments of Egypt goes back some seventeen 
 centuries earlier, to a rock -cut tablet of the time of San- 
 khara, a Theban King of the Eleventh Dynasty who reigned 
 about two thousand five hundred years before Christ. They 
 appear in this memorable inscription as the "Hanebu"-
 
 160 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 that is to say, " the people of all coasts and islands ;" there- 
 by meaning the coast -folk of Greece and Asia Minor, and 
 the islanders of the ^Egean. Now, it is a very interesting 
 fact that " Ilanebu," as a generic name for these same tribes, 
 is exactly paralleled by the Hebrew " iye haggoim" which is 
 used not only by the prophets, but earlier still in the Mosaic 
 books, where it is said of the sons of Yavan,( 41 ) in the tenth 
 chapter of Genesis, " Of these were the isles of the nations 
 divided in their lands." The Kevised Version, here quoted, 
 gives an alternative reading of "coastlands" for islands; 
 " Hanebu " and ; ' lye haggaim " being strictly capable of both 
 interpretations. After this, we hear no more of the early 
 Greeks in Egypt till they reappear as the Danai or Danasans, 
 some twelve or thirteen hundred years later, in the reign 
 of Thothmes III. Now, Thothmes III. was the Alexander 
 of ancient Egyptian history. He conquered the known 
 world of his day ; he carved the names of six hundred and 
 twenty- eight vanquished nations and captured cities on the 
 walls of Karnak ; and he set up a tablet of Victory in the 
 Great Temple. It is in this famous tablet, engraved with 
 the oldest heroic poem known to science, that we find the 
 Greeks mentioned for the second time in Egyptian history. 
 
 " I came !" says the Great God Amen, addressing the King, 
 who is represented at the top of the tablet in an attitude 
 of worship, " I came ! I gave thee might to fell those who 
 dwell in their islands. Those also who live in the midst of 
 the sea hear thy war-cry and tremble ! The isles of the Danai 
 are in the power of thy viill!" 
 
 That they are now called Danai, or descendants of Danaos, 
 the traditional King of Argolis, is a point to be noted ; for it 
 shows that these barbarian Greeks had already a legendary 
 lore of their own. And it does more than this. It shows 
 that in the time of Thothmes III., although we are still dis- 
 tant some eight hundred years from the presumed date of 
 the " Iliad," the name of Dana3ans (like that of AchaBans 
 somewhat later) was already applied in the Homeric sense to 
 the whole Hellenic race. According to no other interpretation
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OP GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 161 
 
 could the Danai, who were originally but a small tribe settled 
 on the mainland in Argolis, be described as " those who dwell 
 in their islands." Danai, however, which is a transcription 
 from the Greek, did not supersede " Hanebu," which is pure 
 Egyptian. We accordingly find " Hanebu " again employed 
 about two hundred years later in a colossal bas-relief group 
 of Pharaoh Horemheb and his prisoners of war, among whom 
 may be seen a gang of captive " Hanebu " men and women 
 with their race-name inscribed against them. The heads of 
 the men are defaced, but the profile of one woman is yet per- 
 fect ; and that profile is 
 the earliest portrait of 
 a Greek in the world. 
 The eye is defaced ; 
 but the delicate out- 
 line of the features is 
 yet uninjured. She 
 wears one long ring- 
 let (presumably one on 
 each side); and this 
 ringlet is a character- 
 istic feature of female 
 heads in archaic Greek 
 art. It may therefore 
 be assumed that it was 
 a national fashion from 
 the earliest period. I 
 may as well add that 
 the word " Hanebu," 
 as a generic term for 
 the Hellenes, whether 
 Asiatic or European, 
 survived till the time 
 
 of the Ptolemies, when the Greeks ruled in Egypt. Native 
 Egyptian scribes of that comparatively modern age used 
 it to denote the governing race, just as their remote fore-fa- 
 thers had used it to denote Greek barbarians taken in battle. 
 11 
 
 HKAD OF IIANKBU WOMAN. 
 
 Bas-relief from the Pylon of Horemheb, at 
 Karnak. From a photograph by Mr. W. M. 
 Flinders Petrie.
 
 102 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 From Horemheb to Barneses II. carries us a hundred years 
 farther along the stream of time. In Barneses II. we are fain 
 to recognize the Pharaoh of the Great Oppression, and in 
 Meneptah, his son and successor, the probable Pharaoh of the 
 Exodus. Under both these kings, and again under Barneses 
 III. some fifty or sixty years later still, the Greeks of the 
 main-land, the Greeks of the islands, the Greeks of Asia 
 Minor, come thronging in quick succession upon the stage of 
 history. 
 
 Leagued with the Hittites under the command of a Hittite 
 
 O 
 
 prince, they invade the Syrian provinces of Egypt in the 
 fifth year of Barneses II. Pharaoh himself goes forth against 
 them, and being cut off from the main body of his forces, is 
 waylaid under the walls of Kadesh, a fortified place on the 
 Orontes. Thus surprised, with only his body-guard to defend 
 him, the hero charges them in his chariot, hews them, down, 
 puts them to flight, and defeats them utterly. Six times, 
 says a contemporary poet, he rushed upon the foe. " Six 
 times he trampled them like straw beneath his horse's hoofs. 
 Six times he dispersed them single-handed, like a god. Two 
 thousand five hundred chariots were there, and he overthrew 
 them ; one hundred thousand armed warriors, and he scat- 
 tered them. Those that he slew not with his hand, he pur- 
 sued unto the water's edge, causing them to leap to destruc- 
 tion as leaps the crocodile !" 
 
 So said Pentaur, the poet-laureate of his day, in an epic 
 which it is no exaggeration to describe as the " Iliad " of an- 
 cient Egyptian literature. It may be that Pentaur's version 
 of the facts is somewhat florid. I fear that we must accept 
 his statistics with some reserve ; but laureates are privileged, 
 and Pentaur scarcely abused that privilege more than Dryden 
 and his successors. 
 
 In this poem, which is sculptured at full length on four 
 great temples and written on a precious papyrus in the Brit- 
 ish Museum, we find a list of the allies of the Hittites. Among 
 them are five Hellenic nations namely, the " Masu" or My- 
 sians ; the "Z<?&w," or Lycians ; the "Akerit" or Carians ; the
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GEEEK DECORATIVE ART. 163 
 
 "Aiuna" or lonians ; the "Dardani " or Dardanians. Four 
 of these the Lycians, Mysians, Carians, and lonians are 
 dwellers on the coast of Asia Minor, and near neighbors of 
 the Hittites. The fifth is from Thrace, on the European 
 main-land, where their name, the Dardanians, survives to 
 this day in the Dardanelles. 
 
 The Greeks disappear for the remainder of the long reign 
 of Rameses II. ; but in the fifth year of his successor, as we 
 learn from an inscription at Karnak, the Libyans, in alliance 
 with a host of barbarians from over the sea, invade Egypt 
 from the westward. The battle-roll of this new coalition is 
 in truth the first page of the first chapter of European histo- 
 ry. The Etruscans, Sardinians, and Sicilians, the Lycians and 
 Achaeans, are in the ranks of the enemy. This event marks 
 the earliest entry of the Achteans upon the world's great 
 stage, as it also marks the entry of the Latin races. They 
 come into momentary contact with Egyptian civilization, and 
 in the record of their defeat receive for the first time a name 
 and a place in the annals of the ancient East. 
 
 Of these new-comers the most interesting to us, by far, are 
 the Acha3ans. That they should have crossed from the Pelo- 
 ponessus to the coast of Libya, shows that they were already 
 skilled to speed their hollow ships along the wine-colored sea. 
 But what of the men themselves ? Were they fair, long- 
 haired, and stalwart, as became the forerunners of the com- 
 rades of Achilles ? We know not ; for the wall on which this 
 inscription is carved is in a ruinous state, and the part which 
 was once occupied by the bas-relief sculptures is unfortu- 
 nately gone. But for this accident, Egypt might have pre- 
 served for us a portrait-group of prehistoric Achasans. We 
 do know, however, that they were clad in brass, like the 
 heroes of Homer ; for in the catalogue of booty seized by 
 the victorious Egyptians, w r e find a list of three thousand 
 one hundred and seventy -five swords, poignards, cuirasses, 
 and even greaves the distinctive armor of "the well-greaved 
 Acha3ans." 
 
 For cuirasses the Egyptian language had a special term,
 
 164 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 'Tarena; but for " greaves," wearing no leg-armor themselves, 
 they had no synonym. They therefore represented the greave 
 pictorially, and made of it an ideographic hieroglyph. (" ) 
 This figure, accurately representing a Greek greave, even 
 to the strap by which it was buckled on the 
 inner side of the knee, is clearly cut in the in- 
 scription. It is followed, moreover, by the hie- 
 roglyph for " copper," and by the generic ideo- 
 graph which stands in Egyptian for "metals;" 
 thus indicating that the Achaean armor was of 
 EGYPTIAN b ril ss, which the scribe probably mistook for 
 
 HIEROGLYPH J 
 
 KOI; A copper. 
 
 And now, for the space of a century there is 
 peace, till again, about twelve hundred years be- 
 fore our era, the barbarian flood pours southward. Fore- 
 most among the foe are the Danasans and the Lycians. 
 First in alliance with the Syrians, next with the Libyans, 
 they attack Egypt by land and sea ; and each time they are 
 signally routed. 
 
 It may be that at last they had learned to look upon the 
 Egyptians as invincible ; or it may be that they found the 
 balmy climate and fertile soil of Southern Europe more at- 
 tractive ; but the tide of invasion, at all events, set henceforth 
 in a north-westerly direction ; nor do we again encounter the 
 Greek on Egyptian soil till some five hundred and thirty-four 
 years later, when Psammetichus, Prince of Sais and Memphis, 
 defeats his colleagues of the Dodecarchy by the aid of an 
 army of Carian and Ionian mercenaries, and founds the 
 Twenty-sixth Egyptian Dynasty. 
 
 Too wise to part from the weapon which his own hand had 
 forged, too politic to irritate his subjects by a display of 
 foreign force, Psammetichus established his Greeks in two 
 large camps, one on each side of the Pelusiac branch of the 
 Nile. There, within a few miles of the Syrian frontier, he 
 granted them lands and a permanent settlement. Here, too, 
 he built a royal stronghold, or " palace-fort," for the occa- 
 sional accommodation of himself and his court. Soon a busy
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 165 
 
 town sprang up in the shelter of the camps and the castle, 
 and more Greek settlers came from over the sea potters 
 and metal-workers, shipwrights, jewellers, and the like. And 
 docks were built ; and the place became a port, and a centre 
 of Greek industry; and it was known far and near as Daph- 
 na3 of Pelusium. This also is the town which in the Bible 
 is called " Tahpanhes ;" and this same palace-fort, founded by 
 Psammetichus six hundred and sixty-six years before Christ, 
 is the royal residence which Hophra, a later Pharaoh of the 
 same dynasty, assigned for a refuge to the daughters of Zed- 
 ekiah, when they fled from Jerusalem into " the land of 
 Egypt." The Egyptian name for that ancient castle is un- 
 known to us ; but we read of it in the forty-third chapter of 
 the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah as " Pharaoh's house at 
 Tahpanhes." 
 
 Now, according to Herodotus, these fortified camps at 
 Daphnae and the town adjoining formed the site of " the first 
 settlement of a foreign-speaking people in Egypt ;" and He- 
 rodotus was probably so far right that Daphnae was the first 
 legally established colony of aliens in conservative Egypt. 
 Mr. Flinders Petrie's explorations in 1889 having, however, 
 brought to light traces of two much earlier Greek settlements, 
 we are fain to rectify, in some degree, this statement of 
 Herodotus.* 
 
 That the Greeks, who were the most active, imitative, 
 quick-witted, and ingenious people of antiquity, did settle in 
 Egypt, no matter how early or how late, is the really impor- 
 tant fact a fact of primary significance in the history of 
 the arts. 
 
 Daphnae of Pelusium was destined to be eventually super- 
 seded by Naukratis. It flourished for about one hundred 
 years, till Amasis, the last of the Sai'te Kings, removed the 
 Greek garrison to Memphis, and made over the city of Nau- 
 kratis to the Greek traders. He thus transferred the Egyp- 
 tian centre of Greek commerce from the Eastern to the 
 
 * See chap. iii. on " Portrait- Painting in Ancient Egypt."
 
 166 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Western Delta. Daphnae from this time seems to have been 
 completely abandoned ; for Herodotus, who writes as if he 
 had seen the place with his own eyes, states that " the docks 
 where the Greek vessels were laid up, and the ruins of the 
 houses in which the Greek citizens of Daphnae once dwelt," 
 were yet visible in his time. 
 
 At Daphnae first, and then at Naukratis, the Greeks thus 
 found a permanent and - recognized footing in Egypt. No 
 longer as undisciplined and semi - civilized hordes hurling 
 themselves in vain against the trained battalions of the 
 Pharaohs, no longer as miserable captives haled through the 
 streets of Thebes behind the chariot wheels of a conqueror 
 do they now come before us ; but as hardy soldiers, as busy 
 citizens, as thriving merchants. The native Egyptians de- 
 spise them, mistrust them, and will neither eat nor wed with 
 them, nor do anything but trade with them. But the stran- 
 gers are quick to learn and skilful to imitate ; and ere long 
 they rival their masters as artists and craftsmen, disputing 
 many a market in which the Egyptians have for ages en- 
 joyed an immemorial monopoly. At Daphnaa, the lonians 
 and Carians, and at Naukratis the Milesians, rapidly become 
 famous as potters, reproducing and improving upon the time- 
 honored designs of Egypt. They even make scarabs, and 
 amulets, and images of the Egyptian gods for the Egyptian 
 bazaars. 
 
 I am drawing no imaginary picture. The sites of Daphnaa 
 and Naukratis have been excavated within the last four years 
 by Mr. Flinders Petrie, and it is not too much to say that 
 the direct and indirect results of these explorations have com- 
 pletely settled that interesting question which has been so 
 often debated and so long unanswered namely, the question 
 of the nature and extent of the aesthetic debt of Greece to 
 Egypt. 
 
 That debt, in so far as it was in their power to estimate it, 
 was freely admitted by the later Greeks themselves. Solon, 
 Thales, Pythagoras, Eudoxus, Eratosthenes, Plato, and a host 
 of others, were proud to sit at the feet of the most ancient of
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 167 
 
 nations ; but they were wholly ignorant of the fact that they 
 owed the first elements of civilization and those greatest of 
 all gifts, the alphabet and the art of writing, to the wisdom 
 of the Egyptians. 
 
 We now know what the Greeks themselves never knew. 
 We know that their prehistoric ancestors ventured their des- 
 perate fortunes against the might of the Pharaohs at a date 
 so remote that they must have beheld the dawn, as well as 
 the splendor, of Thebes ; and, knowing this, we also know 
 what they saw in Egypt, and what they must certainly have 
 learned there. 
 
 It is not, of course, to be supposed that these coastmen and 
 islanders of the ./Egean were without some rudimentary no- 
 tions of art of their own. In the time of Thothmes III., 
 there were already Cypriote settlers making Cypriote pot- 
 tery, and inscribing their pots with Cypriote characters at 
 Tell Gurob. In the time of Meneptah, the Lycians and Ca- 
 rians and Acha3ans were ship-builders and workers in bronze ; 
 and we may take it for granted that they fashioned rude 
 Cyclopean temples, like the primitive temple discovered a few 
 years ago in Delos, with probably an upright stone for a god. 
 But architecture, sculpture, and original decorative art, we 
 may be sure they had none. 
 
 And the proof that they had none is found in the fact 
 that the earliest known vestiges of Greek architecture, Greek 
 sculpture, and Greek decorative art are copied from Egyp- 
 tian sources. 
 
 It is not at all strange that the Greeks should have bor- 
 rowed their first notions of architecture and decoration from 
 Egypt, the parent of the arts ; but that they should have bor- 
 rowed architectural decoration before they borrowed archi- 
 tecture itself, sounds paradoxical enough. Yet such is the 
 fact ; and it is a fact for which it is easy to account. 
 
 The most ancient remains of buildings in Greece are of 
 Cyclopean, or, as some have it, of Pelasgic origin ; and the 
 most famous of these Cyclopean works are two subterraneous 
 structures known as the Treasury of Atreus and the Treas-
 
 168 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 ury of Minyas the former at Mycenas, in Argolis, the latter 
 at Qrchomenos, in Boeotia. Both are built after the one 
 plan, being huge dome-shaped constructions formed of. hori- 
 zontal layers of dressed stones, each layer projecting over 
 the one next below, till the top was closed by a single block. 
 The whole was then covered in with earth, and so buried. 
 Such structures scarcely come under the head of architecture, 
 in the accepted sense of the word. 
 
 Now, whether the Pelasgi were the rude forefathers of 
 the Aryan Hellenes, or whether they were a distinct race of 
 Turanian origin settled in Greece before Hellas began, is a 
 disputed question which I cannot pretend to decide ; but what 
 we do know is, that the prehistoric ruins of Mycenae and Or- 
 chomenos are four hundred, if not five hundred, years older 
 than the oldest remains of the historic school. Of all that 
 happened during the dark interval which separated the pre- 
 historic from the historic, we are absolutely ignorant. 
 
 If, however, the builders of Mycenae and Orchomenos were 
 Pelasgians, and if the builders of the earliest historic temples 
 were Hellenes, it is, at all events, certain that the Pelasgians 
 went to Egypt for their surface decoration, and the Hellenes 
 for their architectural models. Moreover and this is very 
 curious they both appear to have gone to school to the same 
 place. That place is on the confines of Middle and Upper 
 Egypt, about one hundred and seventy miles above Cairo, 
 and its modern name is Beni-Hasan. 
 
 The rock-cut sepulchres of Beni-Hasan are among the fa- 
 mous sights of the Nile. They are excavated in terraces at 
 a great height above the river, and they were made for the 
 great feudal princes who governed this province under the 
 Pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty,. Their walls are covered 
 with paintings of the highest interest ; their ceilings are rich 
 in polychromatic decoration; and many are adorned with 
 pillared porches cut in the solid rock.( 43 ) 
 
 It is to be remembered that the foundation of the Twelfth 
 Egyptian Dynasty the great dynasty of the Usertesens and 
 Amenemhats dates from about 3000 to 2500 vears before
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 169 
 
 Christ. These Beni-Hasan sepulchres are therefore older by 
 many centuries than the so-called " Treasuries" of Qrcho- 
 menos and Mycenaa. 
 
 Now, at Mycenae, near the entrance to the Treasury of 
 Atreus, there stands the base and part of the shaft of a col- 
 umn decorated with a spiral ornament, which here makes its 
 first appearance on Greek 
 soil. This spiral (though it 
 never achieved the univer- 
 sal popularity of the me- 
 ander, or " key pattern," or 
 of the misnamed " honey- 
 suckle pattern") became 
 in historic times a stock 
 motive of Hellenic de- 
 sign; and all three pat- 
 terns the spiral, the me- 
 ander, and the honey- 
 suckle have long been 
 regarded as purely Greek 
 inventions. But they were 
 all painted on the ceilings 
 of the Beni-Hasan tombs 
 full twelve hundred years 
 before a stone of the 
 Treasuries of Mycenae or 
 Orchomenos was cut from 
 the quarry. The spiral, 
 either in its simplest form, 
 or in combination with 
 
 the rosette or the lotus, is an Egyptian design. The rosette 
 is Egyptian ; and the honeysuckle, which Mr. Petrie has iden- 
 tified as a florid variety of the lotus pattern,( 44 ) is also dis- 
 tinctly Egyptian. 
 
 The spiral in combination with the rosette is first found, 
 as a decorative design, on a ceiling in one of the tombs at 
 Beni-Hasan, as in the following illustration ; and in another 
 
 DECORATED COLUMN AT MYCENAE.
 
 170 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 SPIRAL AND ROSETTB DKSIG.V. 
 
 Beni - Hasan ceiling, Twelfth 
 Dynasty. 
 
 ceiling decoration from the same rich mine of early design, 
 we have the key pattern the canonical Greek key pattern 
 combined also with the rosette. 
 
 The identity of these and other Beni-Hasan designs with 
 the classic motives of Greek deco- 
 rative art was first pointed out by 
 Mr.AV. H. Goodyear in his remark- 
 able paper on the " Egyptian Ori- 
 gin of the Ionic Capital and of the 
 Anthemion," contributed to the 
 American Journal of Archaeology 
 in 1888. To the same chain of 
 demonstrations belongs the next 
 illustration, representing, side by 
 side, a specimen of Beni-Hasan 
 decoration and a fragment of pre- 
 historic painted pottery found by 
 Dr. Schliemann in the course of his 
 
 excavations at MycenaB a fragment coeval, apparently, with 
 the Treasury and the pillar. 
 
 This pattern is known as the heart-shaped, or herzWatt, 
 pattern. It has always been ac- 
 cepted as of Greek origin ; but be- 
 side it is given an example of the 
 same design, more ornately treated, 
 from another of the Beni-Hasan ceil- 
 ings. 
 
 The foregoing illustrations of V =E=^ ^^isE^i 
 Greek design being derived from 
 Mycenaean sources, we will next turn 
 to Orchomenos. It was here that 
 Dr. Schliemann, in 1880, discovered 
 in the Treasury of Minyas a small 
 and hitherto unsuspected chamber, 
 which had originally been decorated 
 
 with a stone ceiling consisting of four large slabs elaborately 
 carved.(") These slabs had fallen, and were lying on the 
 
 ROSETTE AND KEY-PATTKRN. 
 
 Beni-Hasan ceiling, Twelfth 
 Dynasty.
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 171 
 
 floor ; and Dr. Schliemann was thus enabled to take paper 
 casts of the design, which consists of an outer border of small 
 squares, an inner border of rosettes, and a centre which he 
 describes as " spirals interwoven with palm-leaves, between 
 which a long bud shoots forth." 
 
 Dr. Schliemann then goes on to say that the same sort of 
 spiral is found at Troy and at Mycenas, and that rosettes 
 (which he designates as " palmettes ") also occur at the lat- 
 ter place ; but he claims that the composition of the Orcho- 
 
 TWO EXAMPLES OF HERZ-BLATT PATTERN. 
 
 1. Potsherd from Mycenae. 2. Beni-IIasan ceiling. 
 
 menos design is " perfectly new." He further adds that 
 Professor Ziller believed this decoration to have been "the 
 motive of a carpet, from which it was copied on the ceiling ; " 
 while, according to Professor Sayce, the rosettes were "orig- 
 inally Babylonian, and passed over into Phoenician art, which 
 they characterize."(") 
 
 But these eminent archa3ologists, when they lent the weight 
 of their authority to these views, were for once in error. The 
 carpet theory is, of course, below criticism. The Pelasgians, 
 or Prehistoric Greeks, may have spread their floors with 
 skins, the spoils of the chase ; but it needs some imagination 
 to conceive of them as weavers of carpets and rugs. The ro- 
 settes were Egyptian before they were ever Babylonian or 
 Phoenician. And as for the composition of the Orchomenos 
 pattern, so far from being " perfectly new," it is found as a
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 EXAMPLE OF ROSETTE BORDER AND CENTRAL 
 DKSIGN OF SPIRAL AND LOTUS. 
 
 From a ceiling pattern at Orchomenos. Pre- 
 historic Greek. 
 
 cornice design at Beni-IIasan, where it decorates tombs older 
 by at least twelve centuries than the Treasury of Minyas. 
 
 The illustration re- 
 produces two cornice 
 patterns from Beni-Ha- 
 san. The first example 
 gives the spiral in com- 
 bination with a fan-like 
 ornament, which is but 
 a simplified variation 
 on the lotus pattern. 
 In the second example 
 the rosette is substitut- 
 ed for the inner curves 
 of the spiral, and the 
 intermediate space is 
 filled in with the true 
 
 lotus motive. The Orchomenos design is palpably an adap- 
 tation from these two Egyptian originals. The spiral is the 
 spiral of No. 1 ; the rosettes are taken out of the spirals of 
 No. 2, and transferred to the bor- 
 der ; while Dr. Schliemann's " long 
 bud" is simply an elongation of 
 the centre petal of the lotus. As 
 for the so-called " palmette," it is 
 neither more nor less than a vari- 
 ation of the lotus. It should be 
 added that all these Beni-Hasan 
 patterns are to be found in Eosel- 
 lini's volume of Monumenti Civili; 
 and that Mr. "W. H. Goodyear's 
 further researches into the Lotus 
 origin of these and other motives 
 of decorative design, not only in 
 
 Greece, but in many other lands of the ancient world, will 
 shortly be given to the public in his forthcoming work, en- 
 titled The Grammar of the Lotus. 
 
 CORNICE PATTERNS FROM BENI- 
 HASAN TOMBS. 
 
 1. Spiral and Lotus. 2. Spiral, 
 Lotus, and Rosette.
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 173 
 
 The identity of these patterns being demonstrated, and 
 the priority of the Egyptian originals being beyond dis- 
 pute, it remains to be asked whether it is possible to regard 
 the Greek reproductions as mere fortuitous coincidences. 
 
 Let us for a moment suppose that we know nothing of 
 the presence of prehistoric Greeks in Egypt. Let us grant 
 that the triumphal chant of Thothmes III., and the epic 
 of Pentaur, and the annals of Meneptah and Rameses III. 
 had never been translated. Could we, even so, have gone 
 through this series of designs without recognizing that some 
 must be originals and others copies? We might not, it is 
 true, have known whether the Greek sat at the feet of the 
 Egyptian, or the Egyptian at the feet of the Greek ; but we 
 
 FAADE OF TOMB AT BENI-HASAN. 
 
 should surely have seen that one must be the pupil, and the 
 other the master. 
 
 The historic school of Greek architecture begins at Corinth 
 with the remains of a Doric temple dating from about 650
 
 174 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 B.C.; and this ruin is believed to be the oldest in Greece. In 
 its extreme simplicity of style and the inelegant strength of 
 its proportions, it is impossible not to recognize a close but 
 clumsy relationship to Egyptian models. Ferguson boldly 
 
 asserts, indeed, that this struct- 
 ure is " indubitably copied " 
 from the pillared porches of 
 Beni-Hasan.( 47 ) 
 
 The columns of these pil- 
 lared porches have sixteen flut- 
 ings, a plain abacus, and no 
 plinth. They also support a 
 plain entablature. This is the 
 " proto - Doric " type about 
 which archa3ologists have dis- 
 puted so long and so hotly. 
 
 It is important to compare 
 this so - called " proto - Doric " 
 with the Greek Doric, of which 
 we here have three examples, 
 showing the development of 
 the order at three periods. 
 
 The first is from the early 
 temple at Corinth ; the second 
 is from the Parthenon, dat- 
 ing, therefore, from the age of 
 
 Pericles ; the third and latest is from a temple at Delos, of 
 the time of Philip of Macedon. 
 
 The column of the Corinth temple is identical in design 
 and proportions with the columns of Beni- Hasan; the Par- 
 thenon column is loftier, and of admirable grace ; while in 
 the Delian example we have jet more height, no gradation, 
 and no grace. 
 
 But whether loftier or lower, plain or decorated, the essen- 
 tial principle of the Doric order is Egyptian to the last. 
 
 The Corinth column, however, was not necessarily copied 
 from Beni-Hasan. It may, with equal probability, have been 
 
 EXAMPLES OF DORIC COLUMNS. 
 
 1. From Corinth. 2. From the Par- 
 thenon 3. From
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 175 
 
 studied from the Temple of Thothmes III. at Karnak the 
 finest example of this style in Egypt. 
 
 M. Perrot in the first volume of his Histoire de VArt dans 
 VAntiquite, has urged, among other objections, that this style 
 was already archaic in Egypt when the Corinth temple was 
 built ; and that, " not being archaeologists" the Greeks, had 
 they borrowed from Egypt, would surely have borrowed from 
 the more ornate and modern school. But this is a fallacious 
 
 TEMPLE OF THOTHMES III. AT KARNAK. 
 
 Eighteenth Dyuasty. 
 
 argument. Younger nations, when they borrow from older 
 civilizations, invariably take those things which suit their spe- 
 cial needs ; and in the proto - Doric column of Egypt, the 
 Greek instinctively recognized not only the easiest model upon 
 which to try his '"prentice hand," but that which especially 
 embodied those principles of simplicity and grace which were 
 most in harmony with his taste and his climate. 
 
 From the Egyptian origin of the Doric order, we pass on
 
 176 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 to the Egyptian origin of the Ionic. In order to prove this 
 point, I must draw upon Mr. W. H. Goody ear's essay in the 
 American Journal of Archaeology, already referred to, and 
 briefly sketch the part played by the lotus in Egyptian art 
 a part much more considerable than has hitherto been 
 suspected. 
 
 To the modern traveller who ascends the Nile from Cairo 
 to Assuan without seeing a single specimen of this famous 
 lily, it would almost seem as if the lotus had become extinct 
 with the people who in olden time associated it with all the 
 pleasures of their social life, and with all the ceremonies of 
 their religion. This, however, is not the case. Of the three 
 varieties which flourished abundantly in the time of Herodo- 
 tus the white, the blue, and the rose 
 lotus only the last (the Nelumbium spe- 
 ciosd) has disappeared. The white and 
 the blue Nenuphar* yet star the unfre- 
 quented water-ways of the Delta, and 
 grow with rank luxuriance in the ditches 
 and stagnant pools which abound in the 
 neighborhood of Rosetta and Damietta. 
 Here the children of the fellaheen still 
 pluck the pods and eat the seeds, as the 
 Egyptians plucked and ate them in the 
 days of the Pharaohs. Beautiful as it 
 was, the rose lotus was not the dominant 
 lotus of Egyptian decorative art. The 
 architect, the potter, the bronze-worker 
 turned rather to the blue or white variety, 
 preferring the flat and floating leaf of 
 these species to the bell-shaped leaf of 
 the Nelumbium speciosa. This floating 
 leaf slightly curved at the edge and di- 
 vided at its point of junction with the 
 stem, furnished the architects of the Ancient Empire with a 
 
 LOTUS LEAF DESIGN. 
 
 From a tomb of the 
 Ancient Empire, 
 Sakkarah. From a 
 sketch by Mariette- 
 Pasha, in Les Mas- 
 tahaliK de Vancienne 
 Empire. 
 
 * The NympJuza Alba and the Nympluza Ccerulea.
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 177 
 
 noble and simple model for decorative purposes. Very slight- 
 ly conventionalized, it enriches the severe facades of tombs 
 of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth dynasties, which thus pre- 
 serve for us one of the earliest motives of symmetrical de- 
 sign in the history of ornament. 
 
 In the next illustration* we have the blossom and leaf of 
 
 NATURAL LOTUS IN BUD, BLOSSOM, AND SEED-POD. 
 
 the blue lotus, and two seed-pods of the pink lotus. The 
 blossom is full-blown, and the calyx-leaves, which closely 
 
 * Abridged from an illustration to Mr. W. H. Goodyear's article in the 
 American Journal of Arclwzology . Vol. iii. 
 12
 
 178 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 enfold it in its earlier stages, separate from the fully-opened 
 flower. Thus separating, they droop over, and assume a 
 variety of graceful curves. These drooping calyx-leaves play 
 a very important part in the history of architecture; for 
 from these and these only were derived the volutes of the 
 Ionic capital. 
 
 We now pass from the lotus in nature to the lotus in art. 
 Of the Egyptian treatment of the lotus in decoration, we 
 next have three examples. 
 
 1. First in order comes the conventional lotus of the Egyp- 
 tian school of flower-painting that lotus with upright calyx- 
 leaves and ordered petals which we know so well from the 
 illustrations to Wilkinson and Ebers. As an offering upon 
 the altar, as an oblation to the manes of the dead, wreathed 
 as a chaplet, strung as a necklace, carried as a bouquet, we 
 meet with it at every turn in the tombs and temples of 
 Egypt. 
 
 THREE EXAMPLES OF CONVENTIONALIZED LOTUS. 
 
 1. From a wall-painting. 2. Wooden capital, from a wall-painting. 3. Bas-relief 
 on square limestone column. 
 
 2. The next example, from a Theban wall-painting, repre- 
 sents the capital of a wooden column. Here we have three 
 lotus lilies, one large blossom and two smaller blossoms, issu-
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 179 
 
 ing from a conventionalized base of drooping calyx-leaves. 
 A bud on each side of the calyx repeats the symmetrical ar- 
 rangement of the smaller lotuses above. Fantastic though 
 it is, and overcharged with detail, this capital gives a good 
 example of the curvature of the calyx- leaf in architectural 
 design. 
 
 3. The third example reproduces a bas-relief decoration 
 upon a square granite column of Thothmes III. at Karnak. 
 Here we have the calyx without the flower ; and at this stage 
 of the design we are but one remove from the Ionic capital. 
 Suppose a flat stone to be placed on the top of those curved 
 calyx-leaves, let the weight of the stone press them down- 
 wards and outwards, and we have the Ionic capital of Greece. 
 
 Of the earliest known ex- 
 ample of true Ionic it is not 
 possible to give an illustra- 
 tion; yet that earliest ex- 
 ample was in existence only 
 six years ago. It belonged 
 to the archaic Temple of 
 Apollo, at Naukratis. 
 
 It was in 1885 that Mr. 
 Petrie identified the site of 
 that long -lost city with a 
 large mound situate about 
 half - way between Alexan- 
 dria and Cairo, in the West- 
 ern Delta. The modern Arab 
 
 EXAMPtK OF GRECIAN IONIC. 
 
 name for this mound is Tell 
 Nebireh. It is rather more 
 
 than half a mile in length by a quarter of a mile in breadth ; 
 and the canal along which, in olden days, the Greek mer- 
 chant-galleys sailed to and fro between Naukratis and the sea 
 yet skirts one side of the mound. Now, Herodotus says of 
 Naukratis that Amasis assigned it to the Greek traders, and 
 therewith granted them special privileges ; hence it has al- 
 ways been taken for granted that they then first settled in
 
 ISO PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 that place. But Mr. Petrie's excavations show them to have 
 been in possession of the city from a much earlier period > 
 earlier, perhaps, than the dynasty to which Amasis belonged. 
 What Amasis actually did for the Greeks of Naukratis must, 
 therefore, have been to confirm them in their occupation of 
 that site, and to grant them an exclusive charter whereby 
 they should be entitled to hold it in perpetuity. 
 
 The beginnings of Naukratis seem to have been humble 
 enough, the earliest town having been built of wood and 
 burned to the ground, we know not when nor by whom. Its 
 ashes underlie the ruins of the second town, which dates from 
 about the time of Psammetichus I., the founder of Daphna3.* 
 
 To this period that is, from about 666 B.C. to 640 B.C. 
 belong the remains of that first temple to Apollo which is 
 the very earliest of which it can be said with certainty that 
 it belonged to the Ionic order. 
 
 It was a primitive little structure built of mud-bricks faced 
 with stucco, and finished with decorations and columns of 
 limestone. All that remained of it when discovered were a 
 few fragments of sculptured decoration, the piece of fluted col- 
 umn figured on the following page, and a single volute. That 
 volute the oldest Ionic volute known was seen by Mr. 
 Petrie at the moment when it was turned up by the spade of 
 the digger. He hastened to fetch his camera that he might 
 photograph the fragments as they lay ; but before he could 
 return to the spot, the volute had been smashed up and car- 
 ried to the nearest lime-kiln. The rest of the fragments are 
 now in the British Museum. 
 
 Like the Beni-Hasan columns, the flutings on this frag- 
 ment of shaft are sixteen in number, and meet edge to edge, 
 without any flat between. 
 
 The first Temple of Apollo seems to have been destroyed 
 about 440 B.C., to make way for a second and a larger struct- 
 ure, adorned with columns and architraves of fine white 
 marble, 
 
 *See chap, i., "The Buried Cities of Ancient Egypt."
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 181 
 
 FRAGMENTS OF SHAFT, ETC., FROM THE ARCHAIC 
 TEMPLE OF APOLLO, NAUKRATIS. 
 
 The only relics of this second temple are here reproduced 
 from a photograph by Mr. Petrie. Scant though they are, 
 they at all events show 
 to what skill the 
 Greeks of Naukratis 
 had by this time at- 
 tained in the art of 
 decorative sculpture. 
 Among these frag- 
 ments we note an an- 
 themion, some bits of 
 the so-called Oriental 
 palmette, and a few 
 scraps of lotus pattern, 
 natural! stically treated. 
 That the anthemion 
 and the palmette are 
 
 lotus motives conventionally treated has been conclusively 
 demonstrated by Mr. "W. H. Goodyear in a series of exam- 
 ples from Egyptian, Cypriote, Greek, and Grreco-Koman 
 
 monuments, which 
 trace the evolution 
 of these forms step 
 by step, and leave no 
 room for debate.( 48 ) 
 It is impossible in 
 the course of a few 
 pages to do more 
 than touch upon 
 some of the more 
 striking instances of 
 the influence of the 
 lotus upon Greek 
 decorative art. The 
 subject, as a whole, is too complicated and too extensive for 
 summary treatment. It will, however, be interesting to glance 
 at two or three more examples of lotus designs, beginning 
 
 FRAGMENTS FROM THE SECOND TEMPLE OF APOLLO, 
 NACKRATIS.
 
 1S2 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 EGYPTIAN VASE WITH INVERTED LOTUS 
 DESIGN. 
 
 From a drawing by Mr. W. M. F. Petvie. 
 
 with the conventional 
 treatment of Egypt, and 
 leading up to what is er- 
 roneously called the "hon- 
 eysuckle pattern of the 
 Greeks." 
 
 In this illustration we 
 have an alabaster vase of 
 pure Egyptian style and 
 workmanship, found by Mr. 
 Petrie at Tell Nebesheh 
 in a tomb of the time of 
 the Twentieth Dynasty. 
 The lotus design engraved 
 on the shoulder of this vase 
 is identical in treatment 
 with the conventional lo- 
 tus of the Egyptian flower- 
 painters, as shown in the previous illustration. This is easily 
 demonstrable by reversing the page, and looking at the vase 
 upsidedown. 
 
 This next vase is more 
 modern by six hundred 
 years. It was found at 
 Tell Defenneh (Daphnae 
 of Pelusium) in the ruins 
 of the palace-fort of Psam- 
 metichus I. As an exam- 
 ple of very early Greek 
 painted ware, reproducing 
 the stock motives of Egyp- 
 tian decoration and dom- 
 inated by Egyptian influ- 
 ences, this beautiful vase 
 is most instructive. The 
 
 friezes of birds and ani- ARCHAIC G^CO-EGYPTIAN VASE. 
 
 (Tell Defenneh.) 
 mals are Greek, and re- From a drawing by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 183 
 
 mind us of the Rhodian and Cypriote schools. The enriched 
 " key pattern " between the two friezes, and the simpler " key 
 pattern " below, are Egyptian. We have already seen them 
 in the Beni-Hasan designs ; while the floral subjects in the 
 two lower bands mark the first appearance of the mis- 
 named " honeysuckle " pattern, which is neither more nor 
 less than a Greek variation upon the old familiar lotus and 
 scroll of the Beni-Hasan cornice patterns. The form of the 
 vase is restored in dotted lines where broken. 
 
 The vase next reproduced from a drawing by Mr. Petrie is 
 also from Tell Defenneh. The lotus and scroll are treated 
 with yet more playful freedom and grace, and the artist has 
 even ventured to combine 
 some dancing figures with 
 his design. In the lowest 
 register we observe, how- 
 ever, a return to the old 
 conventional forms a se- 
 verely simplified lotus of 
 the Egyptian type alternat- 
 ing with an upright bud. 
 
 This simplified lotus-and- 
 bud pattern, which is much 
 more nearly related to the 
 Egyptian school of design 
 than to the Greek, was by 
 no means monopolized by 
 the potters of Daphnae. It 
 speedily became the com- 
 mon property of both archi- 
 tects and vase - painters in 
 all the schools of Hellas. It 
 
 appears for the first time as an architectural decoration in a 
 fragment of sculptured necking from the archaic Temple of 
 
 ARCHAIC GR^CO-EGYPTIAN VASE. 
 
 (Tell Defenneh.) 
 From a drawing by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie.* 
 
 *For these three illustrations of vases, see Plates i.,xxvii., and xxviii., 
 Tanis, Part II., by W. M. Flinders Petrie, Trubner, 1887.
 
 184 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Apollo at Naukratis, which is dated by Mr. Petrie at 666 B.C. 
 to 640 B.C. 
 
 In this piece of necking, which belonged to one of the lime- 
 stone columns, we at 
 once recognize the lotus- 
 and-bud pattern of the 
 second Defenneh vase, 
 which may be ascribed 
 to about 650 B.C. or 640 
 B.C. The vase and the 
 temple, if not actually 
 contemporaneous, fall, 
 therefore, within about 
 ten years of the same 
 date ; and both are dec- 
 orated with a design di- 
 rectly borrowed from 
 the lotus pattern of 
 Egyptian art. This de- 
 sign is none other than 
 the so-called "egg-and- 
 dart" pattern of Greek 
 architecture. 
 
 I will cite but one 
 more instance of the uses 
 to which Greek crafts- 
 men adapted this well-worn subject. At Daphnse there 
 would seem to have been a busy trade in jewellery as well 
 as in pottery, and the jewellers were no less ready than 
 the potters to seize upon the national flower-subject. In- 
 numerable scraps of fine goldsmiths' work, such as amu- 
 lets and parts of ear-rings, chains, and the like, were found 
 by Mr. Petrie's Arabs in the ruins of the town ; but by far 
 the most striking object of this class was discovered in a 
 corner of the great camp, where it had probably been buried 
 when the palace -fort was sacked and burned. This very 
 precious and beautiful relic is a tray-handle in solid gold, 
 
 SKETCH OF LOTUS-AND-BtJD PATTERN 
 
 (i. e. "Egg-and-Dart"), from a fragment of 
 necking from archaic Temple of Apollo, 
 Naukratis.
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 185 
 
 showing a new variety of lotus pattern, the petals being ar- 
 ranged in an elongated form, 
 issuing from voluted calyx- 
 leaves. Here we identify the 
 original of the supposed " pal- 
 mette " motive. It is also im- 
 portant to note the identity 
 of these voluted calyx -leaves 
 with the bas-relief calyx cap- 
 itals from Karnak which gave 
 the derivation of the Ionic vo- 
 lute.* This exquisite handle 
 was originally inlaid with col- 
 ored glass, or stones ; the body 
 of the lotus being cast, and the 
 dividing ribs for holding the 
 inlaying being soldered on. 
 
 This very brief and inade- 
 quate sketch may serve to con- 
 vey a general idea of the im- 
 portant part played by the 
 Egyptian lotus in Greek deco- 
 rative art, from its first ap- 
 pearance on the Orchomenos 
 
 GOLD HANDLE OF A TRAY. 
 
 ceiling down to the time when 
 the Greeks obtained a perma- 
 nent footing in the Delta. 
 Thenceforth, whether issuing 
 from the workshops of Naukra- 
 tis or multiplied in the studios 
 of Hellas, the time-honored lily 
 
 of the Nile not only continued to be the stock, motive of all 
 floral decoration upon Greek vases, but held its place as a 
 leading motive for architectural ornament. It was repro- 
 
 Found in the ruins of the Greek camp 
 at Tell Defenneh. The two pendant 
 straps, which passed under the tray, 
 are also of solid gold. From the 
 three bands out of which the calyx 
 springs to the top of the handle 
 measures 2.95 inches (.075 metres). 
 
 * See third example in illustration of " The Conventional Lotus in Egyp- 
 tian Art."
 
 186 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 duced in the painted vases of Khodes and Cyprus ; it blos- 
 somed in ordered beauty along the entablature of the Erec- 
 theum ; as an anthemion, it crowned the pediment of the 
 Parthenon ; and it enriched the prize vases awarded to vic- 
 tors in the Panathenaic games. Professor Alan Marquand, 
 whose voice in matters of Greek archeology is second in au- 
 thority to none, is even of opinion that the Corinthian capi- 
 tal is of lotus derivation. 
 
 As regards the exclusive employment of the lotus motive 
 in Greek ceramic art, we marvel at the ingenuity with which 
 the Hellenic vase -painter varied, played with, and adapted 
 this one subject ; but far more extraordinary is the poverty 
 of invention which allowed him to remain forever content to 
 execute only variations, however ingenious, upon the one in- 
 variable theme. 
 
 The Greeks borrowed many things from Egypt besides 
 the lotus. From the Fields of "AaMu" in the realm of Osi- 
 ris, where the pure-souled Egyptian steered his papyrus bark 
 amid the sunny islands of a waveless sea, the Greeks bor- 
 rowed their Elysian Fields and their Islands of the Blest. 
 
 The child-god Horus, son of Osiris and Isis, depicted as an 
 infant with his finger in his mouth, became the Greek God 
 of Silence, with his finger on his lip ; and " Hor-pa-Mroti" 
 " Hor-the-child," was transformed into Harpocrates. 
 
 It would be easy to multiply such instances, were it not 
 that my present inquiry is directed to the sources of Greek 
 art, and not to the sources of Greek religious thought. 
 Sometimes, however, the one conception involves the other ; 
 and when this is the case, the Greek, as a rule, entirely mis- 
 understands the Egyptian idea. 
 
 According to old Egyptian belief, for instance, the living 
 man consisted of a Body, a Soul, an Intelligence, a Name, a 
 Shadow, and a Ka, which last I have elsewhere ventured to 
 interpret as the Yital Principle.* He died, and each of these 
 
 * See chap. iv.,"The Origin of Portrait Sculpture and the History of 
 the Ka."
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 187 
 
 component parts fulfilled a different destiny. The Body was 
 embalmed ; the Ka dwelt with the mummy in the sepul- 
 chre; the Intelligence fled back to the immortal source of 
 light and life ; the Name and the Shadow awaited reunion 
 with the Body in a state of final immortality ; and the Soul, 
 or "a" represented as a human-headed hawk, fluttered to 
 and fro between this world and the next, occasionally visit- 
 ing and comforting the mummy in its tomb. These visits of 
 the Soul to the Body are frequently represented in Egyptian 
 tomb-paintings, and in il- 
 lustrations to the Book of 
 the Dead', as, for example, 
 in this vignette to the 
 eighty - ninth chapter of 
 that famous collection of 
 prayers and invocations 
 which has been called 
 not too correctly the an- 
 cient Egyptian Bible. 
 
 The mummy lies on the 
 bier, attended by Anubis, 
 the jackal-headed god of 
 embalmment. The Soul, 
 grasping in one hand a 
 little sail, the emblem of 
 breath, in the other hand 
 
 THE MUMMY AND THE " BA." 
 
 From a vignette in " The Book of the 
 Dead." 
 
 the "araM," or emblem of 
 
 Life, hovers over the face of the corpse. Now this Soul, this 
 " Ba" is a loving visitant to the dead man. It brings a 
 breath of the sweet north wind, and the cheering hope of 
 immortality in the sunny Fields of Aahlu. The Greeks, how- 
 ever, misapprehending its nature and functions, conceived of 
 it as a malevolent emissary of the gods, and converted it into 
 the Harpy. We have next the Greek conception of a Harpy, 
 from a fragment of early Greek painted ware found at 
 Daphnae. But we have a still finer example in the illustra- 
 tion reproduced from the famous Harpy-Tomb in the British
 
 188 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 GREEK HARPY. 
 
 From a fragment of painted ware. Tell 
 Defenneh. 650 B.C. 
 
 Museum. The Harpy is car- 
 rying off one of the daugh- 
 ters of Pandarus. She wears 
 a fillet and pendant curls, 
 and besides the claws of a 
 bird, she has human arms 
 like the Egyptian " Ba," 
 wherewith to clasp her prey. 
 The monument from which 
 this group is copied was dis- 
 covered by Sir Charles Fel- 
 lows at Xanthus, in Lycia, 
 and it dates from about five 
 hundred and forty years be- 
 fore our era. It is more re- 
 cent, that is to say, by about 
 
 a century, than the painted potsherd of the preceding illus- 
 tration. 
 
 Not less interesting than 
 the self-evident connection 
 between the Greek Harpy 
 and the Egyptian " Ba " is 
 the fact that this Harpy- 
 tomb is the work of Lycian 
 artists ; for the Lycians, or 
 "Leku," as we have already 
 seen, had been brought into 
 close contact with Egypt 
 as early as the time of the 
 Nineteenth Dynasty, hav- 
 ing been among those very 
 nations which allied them- 
 selves with the Hittites 
 against Kameses II. and 
 with the Libyans against 
 Meneptah. HARPT 
 
 Content to Convert From the Harpy-Tomb of Xantbus.
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 189 
 
 the gentle bird-soul of the Egyptians into a Harpy, the later 
 Greeks went yet further, and transformed it into a Siren. 
 
 The illustration is from a vase in the British Museum, and it 
 may be about one hundred, or one hundred and twenty years 
 later than the Xanthian tomb. The scene shows Odysseus 
 
 ODYSSEUS AND THE SIRENS. 
 
 From a vase in the British Museum. 
 
 passing the Sirens. He is bound to the mast of his galley, 
 which glides between two rocks, on each of which perches a 
 Siren. A third Siren hovers over the rowers. All three 
 wear the fillet and pendant curl of the Harpy of the Lycian 
 tomb that same pendant curl which is worn by the " Hane- 
 bu " woman, sculptured nearly a thousand years before on 
 the pylon of Pharaoh Horemheb at Karnak.* 
 
 The question of archaic Greek figure-sculpture, and its 
 unquestioned derivation from Egyptian sources, is so wide 
 and far-reaching that it would demand, not a chapter, but a 
 volume. It is far too complex for a rapid survey. The 
 Egyptian character of all very early Greek statuary may, 
 
 * See Page 161.
 
 190 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 however, be at once recognized by any observant visitor 
 
 to the British Mu- 
 seum, the Louvre, the 
 Berlin Museum, or 
 the Glyptotheca of 
 Munich. He needs 
 but to walk from 
 the galleries contain- 
 ing the Egyptian col- 
 lections into the gal- 
 leries assigned to the 
 archaic Greek mar- 
 bles, and the evidence 
 will be before his 
 eyes. In the Muse- 
 um of Athens he wi\\ 
 see the archaic Apol- 
 lo of Thera ; in the 
 British Museum, the 
 Strangford Apollo, 
 and in the Glypto- 
 theca of Munich the 
 Apollo of Tenea, to 
 say nothing of other 
 examples in which 
 the general propor- 
 tions and treatment 
 are distinctly Egyp- 
 tian. The Strangford 
 Apollo, the Apollo of 
 Thera, and the Apol- 
 lo of Tenea, are even 
 represented in the 
 canonical, or "hier- 
 atic" attitude, with 
 
 clenched hands, and arms straightened to the sides, which 
 
 stamps all Egyptian figure-sculpture in stone. 
 
 THE ARCHAIC APOLLO OF THERA. 
 
 In the National Museum, Athens.
 
 THE BIRTHPLACE OF GREEK DECORATIVE ART. 191 
 
 I should add that, among the numerous fragments of vot- 
 ive sculpture discovered by Mr. Petrie in the ruins of the 
 second temple of Apollo at Naukratis, there was found a 
 well-executed torso of an archaic Apollo * in this attitude ; 
 thus demonstrating the starting-point of Grseco-Egyptian 
 figure-sculpture on Egyptian soil. 
 
 We have now followed the footsteps of our prehistoric 
 Greek from the moment when he first 
 emerges from primeval darkness, to the 
 hour of his entry upon the stage of his- 
 tory. That is to say, from a period some 
 seventeen centuries earlier than the ac- 
 cepted date of the "Iliad," to a time 
 when that immortal poem had been cur- 
 rent for more than a hundred and fifty 
 years. We have traced the Dardaneans 
 to the reign of Thothmes III., thus prov- 
 ing the existence of at least one impor- 
 tant Hellenic tradition at an epoch eight 
 hundred years earlier than its first ap- 
 pearance in Homer. And, further, we 
 have identified those " shining savages," 
 the well-greaved Achaeans, with the armored warriors of the 
 West who fought and fell with the Libyan host but a few years, 
 probably, before the Children of Israel went forth out of the 
 House of Bondage. Thus far, our facts are drawn from 
 Egyptian sources. Passing on thence to Greek sources, and 
 to the tangible results of recent explorations, we have beheld 
 the colonization of Daphnae and Kaukratis, and followed the 
 evolution of Greek from Egyptian art. We have traced the 
 Doric shaft, and the elaborate ceiling pattern of Orchomenos 
 to the tombs of Beni-Hasan ; and we have indentified the 
 Ionic capital, the familiar honeysuckle pattern, and all the 
 
 * This important fragmeut is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 
 United States of America.and its close relationship to the Strangford.Tenean, 
 and Tlieran Apollos, has been recognized by Mr. Robinson (curator), in his 
 very interesting and able report to the Trustees for the year 1889. 
 
 THE ARCHAIC APOLLO OF 
 NAUKRATIS.
 
 192 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 floral decorative motives of Greek ceramic art with the lotus 
 of the Nile. 
 
 It is such results as these which unite the Orientalist and 
 the Classical scholar in a bond of brotherhood which had 
 not even begun to exist a few years ago, and which I believe 
 and hope will never, and can never, be dissolved. 
 
 FEMALE WINGED SPHINX OF GREEK ART. 
 
 (From a fragment of Daplmaean pottery.)
 
 YI. 
 
 THE LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF 
 ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
 THAT the first people who possessed letters in the literal 
 sense should also be the first people to possess letters in the 
 literary sense, is no more than we should expect. Not, in- 
 deed, that the possession of an alphabet necessarily implies 
 literary activity on the part of those who possess it. The 
 Romans engraved their codes on tablets of stone and brass, 
 and sculptured inscriptions on their public buildings, for cen- 
 turies before they wrote histories and dramas, odes and sa- 
 tires. The Oscans, the Etruscans, and other early nations of 
 Italy, never, so far as we know, got beyond mere inscriptions. 
 Even the Greeks of the ^Egean, as we are now just begin- 
 ning to find out, were in possession of the Cadmaean alpha- 
 bet some five or six centuries before the time of Homer ; and 
 yet we have no evidence that the Iliad was committed to 
 writing earlier than some four hundred years after the death 
 of the poet. Literature is, in fact, the fruit of leisure. Na- 
 tions which are going through the struggle for existence call 
 for soldiers, not scribes. The bard, the rhapsodist, the ex- 
 temporaneous singer of war -chants and dirges, is the only 
 representative of literature at that early stage in the history 
 of a people; and it is not till the arts of peace have taken 
 their place side by side with the arts of Avar, that poems are 
 written, not sung that histories are recorded with the pen, 
 
 not carved out by the sword. 
 13
 
 194 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 But when we are dealing with the origin and evolution of 
 national literatures, there is yet another factor to be taken 
 into the account ; namely, the possession of a cheap and con- 
 venient material upon which to write. This is a very com- 
 monplace and vulgar necessity ; yet it is one of paramount 
 importance. So long as stone and metal are the only availa- 
 ble substances, so long will they be used for inscriptions and 
 state documents only. It is not till papyrus, and parchment, 
 and finally paper, become current articles of commerce, that 
 writing as a career or a recreation is even possible. Without 
 papyrus or parchment, we should never have had a literature 
 of Egypt, Greece, or Rome. Without paper, we could never 
 have had the magnificent literary efflorescence of the Renais- 
 sance. Fancy Anacreon and Sappho, Martial and Horace, 
 laboriously scratching their poems on tablets of limestone, or 
 plates of bronze ! How the perfume of the roses and the 
 sting of the epigrams and the aroma of the Sabine wine 
 would have evaporated under such a process ! 
 
 So far as we know, the people of ancient Egypt had to 
 make no struggle for existence at the outset of their career. 
 Hemmed in between two vast and pathless deserts, their fer- 
 tile valley was so strongly fortified by nature herself that 
 they had little cause to fear danger from without. It is not, in 
 fact, till thirteen royal dynasties, comprising about two hun- 
 dred kings, have passed in shadowy succession across the stage 
 of Egyptian history, that we hear of the Hyksos invasion. 
 
 The Egyptians of the first twelve dynasties, and, indeed, 
 the bulk of the nation at all times, were a pastoral and 
 peaceful people, well content with their lot in this life, and 
 much occupied with preparations for the next. They were 
 naturally averse to soldiering, and the armies of the great 
 military Pharaohs of the Nineteenth and Twentieth dynas- 
 ties were largely composed of foreign auxiliaries. What the 
 native-born Egyptian most dearly loved was to cultivate his 
 paternal acres, to meditate on morals and religion, and to 
 prepare a splendid tomb for his mummy when the inevitable 
 summons should come.
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 195 
 
 And he not only loved meditation, but he loved to record 
 his meditations in writing, for the benefit of posterity. 
 
 How early the Egyptians began to cut and press the stalks 
 of the papyrus plant in order to make a material for the use 
 of the scribe, it is impossible to say. But we know that ma- 
 terial to have been already employed for literary purposes in 
 the time of the Third Dynasty ; that is to say, some three 
 thousand eight hundred years before the Christian era. 
 There is at this present time, in the archives of the Biblio- 
 theque Nationale of Paris, a papyrus written by a scribe of 
 the Eleventh Dynasty, which contains copies of two much 
 more ancient documents, one dating from the Third, and 
 one from the Sixth Dynasty. This most precious document 
 (known as the Prisse Papyrus) is the only Eleventh Dynasty 
 papyrus yet discovered. It has been well styled " the old- 
 est book in the world ;"( 49 ) and it is, at all events, the oldest 
 papyrus known. 
 
 When I say that it is the oldest papyrus known, it is not 
 to be inferred that the Prisse Papyrus is the oldest specimen 
 of Egyptian writing yet discovered. If we turn to inscrip- 
 tions cut in stone as, for instance, to the Fourth Dynasty 
 tombs of Ghizeh, which are contemporary with the Great 
 Pyramid, or to the famous Second Dynasty tablet of the 
 Ashmolean Museum in Oxford we can point to inscriptions 
 dating from 4000 B.C. and 4200 B.C. But stone - cut inscrip- 
 tions, even when they run to a considerable length, are not 
 what we naturally classify under the head of literature. 
 "When we speak of the literature of a nation, we are not 
 thinking of inscriptions graven on obelisks and triumphal 
 arches. We mean such literature as may be stored in a li- 
 brary and possessed by individuals. In a word, we mean 
 books books, whether in the form of clay cylinders, of pa- 
 pyrus rolls, or any other portable material. 
 
 The Egyptians were the first people of the ancient world 
 who had a literature of this kind : who wrote books, and read 
 books ; who possessed books, and loved them. And their 
 literature, which grew, and flourished, and decayed with
 
 10G PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 the language in which it was written, was of the most va- 
 ried character, scientific, secular, and religious. It comprised 
 moral and educational treatises ; state-papers ; works on ge- 
 ometrv, medicine, astronomy, and magic ; travels, tales, fables, 
 heroic poems, love-songs, and essays in the form of letters ; 
 ,hymns, dirges, rituals ; and last, not least, that extraordinary 
 collection of prayers, invocations, and religious formulae 
 known as The Book of the Dead. Some of these writings 
 are older than the pyramids ; some are as recent as the time 
 when Egypt had fallen from her high estate and become a 
 Roman province. Between these two extremes lie more than 
 five thousand years. Of this immense body of literature we 
 possess only the scattered wrecks mere "flotsam and jet- 
 sam," left stranded on the shores of Time. Even these dis- 
 jecta membra, though they represent so small a proportion 
 of the whole, far exceed in mere bulk all that remains to us 
 of the literature of the Greeks. Every year, moreover, adds 
 to our wealth. No less than a dozen papyri of the remote 
 Twelfth Dynasty period were found by Mr. Petrie in the 
 season of 1888-1889 among the ruins of an obscure little 
 town in the Fayum. How precious these documents are 
 may be judged from the fact that only three or four papyri 
 of that period were previously known ; and that Abraham's 
 visit to Egypt is believed to have taken place during the 
 reign of a Pharaoh of this line. In the course of the same 
 season, and of the previous season, Mr. Petrie discovered at 
 least as many papyri of later dynasties, besides hundreds of 
 fragments of Greek papyri of Ptolemaic and Roman times. 
 These consist chiefly of accounts, deeds, royal edicts, and the 
 like, not forgetting a magnificent fragment containing near- 
 ly the whole of the Second Book of the Iliad. Nor is 
 this the first time that Homer has been found in Egypt. 
 The three oldest Homeric texts previously known come from 
 the land of the Pharaohs. To those three Mr. Petrie has 
 now added a fourth.( M ) Other papyri found within the pres- 
 ent century contain fragments of Sappho, Anacreon, Thespis, 
 Pindar, Alcaeus, and Timotheus ; and all, without exception,
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 197 
 
 come from graves. The great Homer Papyrus of 1889 was 
 rolled up as a pillow for the head of its former owner ; and 
 its former owner was a young and apparently a beautiful 
 woman, with little ivory teeth, and long, silky black hair. 
 The inscription on her coffin was illegible, and we are alike ig- 
 norant of her name, her nationality, and her history. She may 
 have been an Egyptian, but she was more probably a Greek. 
 We only know that she was young and fair, and she so loved 
 her Homer that those who laid her in her last resting-place 
 buried her precious papyrus in her grave. That papyrus is now 
 among the treasures of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and 
 all that is preserved of its possessor her skull and her lovely 
 hair are now in the South Kensington Museum, London. 
 
 But we are not now concerned with the transcripts of for- 
 eign classics which have been found on Egyptian soil. Our 
 subject is the native literature of that ancient and wonderful 
 people whose immemorial home was the Valley of the Nile. 
 
 The two most important subjects in the literature of a na- 
 tion are, undoubtedly, its history and its religion ; and up to 
 the present time nothing in the shape of an Egyptian history 
 of Egypt has been found. We have historical tablets, histori- 
 cal poems, chronicles of campaigns, lists of conquered cities, 
 and records of public works sculptured on stelae, written on 
 papyrus, and carved on the walls of temples and tombs. But 
 these are the materials of history the bricks and blocks 
 and beams with which the historian builds up his structure. 
 Brugsch, in his Geschichte Aegyptens Unter Den Pharaonen, 
 has brought together all such documents as were known at the 
 time when he wrote it ; but no one can read that excellent 
 work without perceiving that it is but a collection of inscrip- 
 tions, and not a consecutive narrative. Whole reigns are some- 
 times represented by only a name or a date ; whole dynasties 
 are occasionally blank. This is no fault of the learned author. 
 It simply means that no monuments of those times have 
 been discovered. Yet we cannot doubt that histories of 
 Egypt were written at various periods by qualified scholars. 
 We know of one only the work of Manetho, who was High
 
 198 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Priest of Ra, and Keeper of the Archives in the Great 
 Temple of Heliopolis, in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphia, 
 some two hundred and fifty years before our era. Manetho, 
 though a true-born Egyptian, wrote his history in Greek, 
 which was the native tongue of the Ptolemies and the lan- 
 guage of the court. He wrote it, moreover, by the royal 
 command. Now, the Sacred College of Heliopolis was the 
 most ancient home of learning in Egypt. Its foundation 
 dated back to the ages before history ; the oldest fragments 
 embedded in The Book of the Dead being of Heliopolitan- ori- 
 gin. Manetho had, therefore, the most venerable, and prob- 
 ably the largest, library in Egypt at his command ; and what- 
 ever histories may have been written before his time, we may 
 be very certain that his was the latest and the best. But of 
 that precious work, not a single copy has come down to our 
 time. A few invaluable fragments are preserved in the form 
 of quotations by later writers by Josephus, for instance, in 
 his Antiquities of the Jews, by George the Syncellus, by Eu- 
 sebius and by various chronologers ; but the work itself 
 has perished with the libraries in which it was treasured 
 and the scholars by whom it was studied. 
 
 Still, there is always room for hope in Egypt ; and it may 
 yet be reserved for some fortunate explorer to discover the 
 grave of a long -forgotten scribe whose head shall be pil- 
 lowed, not on a transcript of Homer, but upon a copy of the 
 lost History of Manetho. 
 
 Of the numerous historic documents which remain to us, 
 the three most interesting are perhaps the celebrated " Chant 
 of Victory" of King Thothmes III., the "Epic of Pentaur," 
 and the great international treaty between Rameses II. and 
 the allied Princes of Syria. 
 
 The first of these is engraved on a large black granite 
 tablet found in the Great Temple of Karnak, at Thebes. It 
 records the conquests of Thothmes III.; and Thothmes III. 
 was the Alexander of ancient Egypt. He was possessed by 
 the same insatiable thirst for conquest, by the same storm- 
 driven restlessness. Ever on the march and ever victorious,
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 199 
 
 he conquered the known world of his time. It was his mag- 
 nificent boast that he planted the frontiers of Egypt where 
 he pleased ; and he did so. Southward as far, apparently, as 
 the great equatorial lakes which have been rediscovered in 
 our time ; northward to the islands of the ^Egean and the 
 upper waters of the Euphrates ; over Syria and Sinai, Meso- 
 potamia and Arabia in the east ; over Libya and the North 
 African coast as far as Scherschell in Algeria on the west, he 
 carried fire and sword, and the terror of the Egyptian name. 
 He was by far the greatest warrior-king of Egyptian history, 
 and his " Chant of Victory," though rhapsodical and Oriental 
 in style, does not exaggerate the facts. This chant, written 
 by the laureate of the day, is one of the finest example ex- 
 tant of the poetry of ancient Egypt. For the Egyptians, not- 
 withstanding the poverty of their grammar and the cum- 
 brous structure of their language, had poetry, and poetry of 
 a very high order. It was not like our poetry. It had 
 neither rhyme nor metre; but it had rhythm. Like the 
 chants of the Troubadours and Trouveres, it was largely al- 
 literative, cadenced, symmetrical. It abounded in imagery, 
 in antithesis, in parallelisms. The same word, or the same 
 phrase, was repeated at measured intervals. In short, it had 
 style and music ; and although the old Egyptian language is 
 far more literally dead than the languages of Greece and 
 Home, that music is still faintly audible to the ears of such 
 as care to listen to its distant echo. 
 
 A two-fold bas-relief group at the top of the tablet of 
 Thothmes III. represents the King in adoration before Amen- 
 Ra ; and the context shows the poem to have been composed 
 in commemoration of the opening of the Hall of Columns 
 added by this Pharaoh to the Temple of Amen at Karnak. 
 It is the god who speaks. He begins with a few lines of 
 prose ; thus : 
 
 THE DISCOURSE OF AMEN-RA, 
 LORD OF THRONES. 
 
 " Come unto me ! Tremble thou with joy, Oh my Son,
 
 200 PHAROAHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 my avenger, Ra-men-Kheper, endowed with life everlasting ! 
 I am resplendent through thy love, and my heart is dilated 
 on beholding thy joyous entrance into my Temple. My 
 hands have endowed thy limbs with living strength ; thy 
 perfections are pleasant in my sight. I am established ia 
 my Abode. I give thee victory and power over all the na- 
 tions. I have spread the fear of thee throughout all lands, 
 and thy terror unto the limits of the four props of heaven. 
 It is I who magnify the dread of thy name, and the echo of 
 thy war-cry in the breasts of the outer barbarians. I stretch 
 forth my arm, and I seize the people of Nubia in myriads, 
 and the nations of the North in millions, and I bind them 
 for thee in sheaves ! I have cast thine enemies under thy 
 sandals, and thou hast trampled their chiefs under thine heel. 
 By my command, the world in its length and its breadth, 
 from East to "West is thy throne! Joyful of heart, thou 
 dost traverse the lands of all the nations, none daring to op- 
 pose thee. Thou hast sailed the waters of the great sea,* 
 and thou hast scoured Mesopotamia in victory and power. 
 I have made the nations to hear thy war-cry in the depths 
 of their caves, and I have cut off the breath of life from their 
 nostrils. I made their hearts to turn back before thy vic- 
 tories. My glory was on thy brow, dazzling them, leading 
 them captive, burning them to ashes in their settlements. 
 Thou hast struck off the heads of the Asiatics, and their chil- 
 dren cannot escape from thee. Every land illuminated by 
 thy diadem is encircled by thy might ; and in all the zone 
 of the heavens there is not a rebel to rise up against thee. 
 The enemy bring in their tribute on their backs, prostrating 
 themselves before thee, their limbs trembling and their hearts 
 burned up within them." 
 
 And now the god breaks suddenly into rhythmic verse : 
 " 1. I came ! I gave thee might to fell the princes of Taha.f 
 
 * Literally " the great circuit " i.e., the Mediterranean basin, 
 f Tafia; i. e., Gaza, according to Birch; but, according to De Rouge, the 
 coast-land of Syria between Lebanon and the sea.
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 201 
 
 I cast them beneath thy feet, marching across their territo- 
 ries. I made them to behold thy Majesty as a Lord of Light, 
 shining in their faces, even in my own likeness ! 
 
 " 2. I came ! I gave thee might to fell the nations of Asia. 
 Thou hast reduced to captivity the chiefs of the Rotennu.* 
 I made them to behold thy Majesty in the splendor of thy 
 panoply of Avar, wielding thy weapons and combating in thy 
 war-chariot. 
 
 " 3. I came ! I gave thee might to fell the people of the 
 far East ! Thou hast traversed the provinces of the Land of 
 the Gods, f I made them to behold thee like unto the Star 
 of Morning, shedding radiance and showering dew ! 
 
 " 4. I came ! I gave thee might to fell the nations of the 
 West ! Phoenicia and Cyprus have thee in terror. I made 
 them to behold thy Majesty even as a young Bull, bold of 
 heart, horned, and unconquerable ! 
 
 " 5. I came ! I gave thee might to fell the dwellers in the 
 harbors of the coast-lands ! The shores of Maten $ tremble 
 before thee. I made them to behold thy Majesty even as 
 the Crocodile, the Lord of Terror of the water, whom none 
 dare to encounter. 
 
 " 6. I came ! I gave thee might to fell those who dwell in 
 their islands ! Those who live in the midst of the great deep 
 hear thy war-cry and tremble. I made them to behold thy 
 Majesty as an avenger who bestrides the back of his victim. 
 
 " 7. I came ! I gave thee might to fell the people of 
 Libya! The isles of the Danasans are under the power of 
 thy will. I made them to behold thy Majesty as a furious 
 Lion, crouching over their corpses and stalking through their 
 valleys. 
 
 " 8. I came ! I gave thee might to fell those beyond the 
 limits of the sea! The circuit of the great waters lies within 
 
 * Rotennu, a powerful nation of North Syria. 
 
 f The Land of the Gods (Tanuter); a district identical, or conterminous, 
 with Punt, on the east coast of Africa. 
 \ Maten, identified by Maspero with Cilicia.and by Lenormant with Midian.
 
 202 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 thy grasp. I made them to behold thy Majesty as the Hawk 
 which hovers on high, beholding all things at his pleasure. 
 
 " 9. I came ! I gave thee might to fell the tribes of the 
 marsh-lands,* and to bind in captivity the Herusha,f lords 
 of the desert sands. I made them to behold thy Majesty as 
 the Jackal of the South, Lord of Swiftness, who scours the 
 plains of the upper and lower country. 
 
 "10. I came ! I gave thee might to fell the nations of Nu- 
 bia, even to the barbarians of Pat ! I made them to behold 
 thy Majesty like unto thy two brothers, Horus and Set, whose 
 arms I have united to give thee power and strength." 
 
 The poem concludes with a few lines of peroration in meas- 
 ured prose, in which the god approves the additions which 
 Thothmes had made to his temple. " Longer is it and wider," 
 he says, " than it has ever been till now. Great is its gate- 
 way. I bade thee make it, and thou hast made it. I am 
 content." 
 
 Marietta wrote of this ancient Hymn of Praise as being 
 " redolent with the perfume of Oriental poetry ;" while 
 Brugsch ranks it with the heroic poem of Pentaur and a few 
 other similar compositions, as destined for ever to remain one 
 of the representative specimens of ancient Egyptian litera- 
 ture at its finest period. 
 
 The poem of Pentaur, which is sometimes called the Egyp- 
 tian Iliad, is in a quite different style. It is much longer 
 than the chant of Thothmes. It is full of incident and dia- 
 logue, and it recites, not a mere catalogue of victories, but 
 the events of a single campaign and the deeds of a single 
 hero. That hero is Rameses II., and the campaign thus cele- 
 brated was undertaken in the fifth year of his reign, against 
 the allied forces of Syria and Asia Min6r. The coalition thus 
 formed included the vassal princes of Karkhemish, Kadesh, 
 
 * By the marsh-lands is meant the swampy regions of the Eastern Delta, 
 lying between the Phatnitic and Pelusiac mouths of the Nile. 
 f The Hermha; i. e., the desert tribes.
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 203 
 
 Aradus, and Kati, all tributaries of Egypt, headed by the 
 prince of the Kheta, or Hittites, with a large Hittite army, 
 and an immense following of the predatory and warlike 
 Gra3co - Asiatic tribes of Mysia, Lydia, Pedasos, and the 
 Troad. 
 
 Rameses took the field in person with the flower of the 
 Egyptian army, traversing the Land of Canaan, which still 
 remained loyal, and establishing his Syrian headquarters at 
 Shabtun, a fortified town in a small valley a short distance 
 to the south-west of Kadesh. Here he remained stationary 
 for a few days, reconnoitring the surrounding country, and 
 
 CAMP OF RAMESES II. AT SHABTUN. 
 
 From the Great Tableau in the Temple of Abu-Simbel. 
 
 The rectangular space enclosed on three sides by a row of shields represents 
 the royal camp. The oblong structure to the right of the centre is the pavil- 
 ion of Rameses; five attendants kneel before the entrance to an inner apart- 
 ment, surmounted by a royal oval watched over by winged genii. This represents 
 the sleeping-place of the King. The pavilion appears to be a movable structure 
 raised on arches; it was probably of wood, and was constructed in such wise as to 
 be easily taken to pieces and put together again. To the left, the horses of the 
 charioteers are feeding in mangers and attended by grooms. Bags of fodder lie on 
 the ground. A blacksmith with his brazier prepares to shoe a horse near the mid- 
 dle of the camp. Elsewhere we see charioteers dragging away empty chariots, a 
 soldier mending a hoe, a man carrying a pair of water-buckets suspended at each 
 end of a pole across his shoulders; infantry and charioteers arriving in camp; sol- 
 diers squatting round a bowl at their supper; officers chastising lazy or recalcitrant 
 subordinates, and the like. Close above atid behind the royal pavilion there is a 
 brawl among the king's officers, one of whom is in the act of being stabbed. Just 
 below this group a horse prepares to lie down, bending its fore-legs with a remark- 
 ably natural action ; while in the foreground to the right, we see the two Syrian 
 spies being soundly bastinadoed, in order to force the truth from them. All the 
 busy life of a great camp i.s depicted in this wonderful section of the largest battle- 
 subject in the history of art.
 
 204 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 endeavoring, but without success, to learn, the whereabouts 
 of the enemy. The latter, meanwhile, had their spies out in 
 all directions, and knew every movement of the Egyptian 
 host. T\vo of these spies, being previously instructed, allowed 
 themselves to be taken by the King's scouts. Introduced into 
 the royal presence, they prostrated themselves before Pha- 
 raoh, declaring that they were messengers from certain of 
 the Syrian chiefs, their brothers, who desired to break their 
 pact with the Kheta, and to serve the great King of Egypt. 
 They further added that the Khetan host, dreading the ap- 
 proach of the Egyptian army, had retreated to beyond Alep- 
 po, forty leagues to the northward. Kameses, believing their 
 story, then pushed confidently onward, escorted only by his 
 body-guard. The bulk of his forces, consisting of the bri- 
 gade of Amen, the brigade of Ptah, and the brigade of Ra, 
 followed at some little distance ; the brigade of Sutekh, which 
 apparently formed the reserve, lingering far behind on the 
 Amorite frontier. 
 
 Meanwhile two more spies were seized, and the suspicions 
 of the Egyptian officers were aroused. Being well bastina- 
 doed, the Syrians confessed to the near neighborhood of the 
 
 SYRIAN SPIES BASTINADOED BY EGYPTIAN OFFICERS. 
 
 From the Great Tableau in the Temple of Abu-Simbel. 
 
 allied armies, and Barneses, summoning a hasty council of 
 war, despatched a messenger to hurry up the brigade of 
 Amen. At this critical juncture the enemy emerged from 
 his ambush, and by a well-executed flank movement inter- 
 posed between Pharaoh and his army. Thus surrounded,
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 205 
 
 Rameses, with right royal and desperate valor, charged the 
 Hittite war - chariots. Six times, with only his household 
 troops at his back, he broke their lines, spreading disorder 
 and terror and driving many into the river. Then, just at 
 the right moment, one of his tardy brigades came hurrying 
 up, and forced the enemy to retreat. A pitched battle was 
 fought the next day, which the Egyptians claimed for a great 
 victory. 
 
 Such would appear to be the plain, unvarnished facts. The 
 poet, however, takes some liberties with the facts, as poets 
 are apt to do even now. He abolishes the household troops, 
 and leaves Rameses to fight the whole field single-handed. 
 JSTor is the Deus ex machina wanting that stock device 
 which the Greek dramatists borrowed from Egpytian mod- 
 els. Amen himself comes to the aid of Pharaoh, just as the 
 gods of Olympus do battle for their favorite heroes on the 
 field of Troy. 
 
 This poem is certainly the most celebrated masterpiece of 
 Egyptian literature; I therefore make no apology for quoting 
 at some length from the original. We will take up the nar- 
 rative at that critical point where the Hittites are about to 
 execute their flank movement, and so isolate Rameses from 
 his army. 
 
 " Now had the vile Prince of Kheta, and the many nations 
 which were leagued with him, hidden themselves at the 
 north-west of the city of Kadesh. His Majesty was alone ; 
 none else was beside him. The brigade of Amen was ad- 
 vancing behind. The brigade of Ra followed the water- 
 course which lies to the west of the town of Shabtun. The 
 brigade of Ptah marched m the centre, and the brigade of 
 Sutekh took the way bordering on the land of the Amorites.* 
 
 " Then the vile Prince of Kheta sent forth his bowmen and 
 his horsemen and his chariots, and they were as many as the 
 
 * The translated extracts here given are in part from the French of De 
 Rouge and Maspero, and in part from the English version of Professor 
 Lushington.
 
 206 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 grains of sand on the sea-shore. Three men were they on 
 each chariot; and with them were all the bravest of the 
 fighting-men of the Kheta, well armed with all weapons for 
 the combat. 
 
 " They marched out on the side of the south of Kadesh, 
 and they charged the brigade of Ra ; and foot and horse of 
 King Rameses gav r e way before them. 
 
 " Then came messengers to his Majesty with tidings of de- 
 feat. And the King arose, and grasped his weapons and 
 donned his armor, like unto Baal, the war-god, in his hour of 
 wrath. And the great horses of his Majesty came forth from 
 their stables, and he put them to their speed, and he rushed 
 upon the ranks of the Kheta. 
 
 THE ROYAL CHARIOT AND GREAT HORSES OF RAMESES ARE BROUGHT ROUND FROM 
 
 THE STABLES. 
 
 Four of the King's spearsmen and two of his Sardinian body-guard await his ap- 
 proach. From the Great Temple of Abu-Simbel. 
 
 " Alone he went none other was beside him. And lo ! he 
 was surrounded by two thousand five hundred chariots ; his 
 retreat cut off by all the fighting-men of Aradus, of Mysia, 
 of Aleppo, of Caria, of Kadesh, and of Lycia. They were 
 three on each chariot, and massed in one solid phalanx." 
 
 Here the form changes, and Rameses breaks forth into an 
 impassioned appeal to Amen. 
 
 " None of my princes are with me," he cries. " Not one 
 of my generals not one of my captains of bowmen or char- 
 iots. My soldiers have abandoned me my horsemen have
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 207 
 
 fled there are none to combat beside me ! "Where art thou, 
 oh Amen, my father ? Hath the father forgotten his son ? 
 Behold ! have I done aught without thee ? Have I not 
 walked in thy ways, and waited on thy words? Have I 
 not built thee temples of enduring stone ? Have I not dedi- 
 cated to thee sacrifices of tens of thousands of oxen, and of 
 every rare and sweet-scented wood ? Have I not given thee 
 the whole world in tribute ? I call upon thee, oh Amen, my 
 father ! I invoke thee ! Behold, I am alone, and all the na- 
 tions of the earth are leagued against me ! My foot-soldiers 
 and my chariot-men have abandoned me ! I call, and none 
 hear my voice ! But Amen is more than millions of archers 
 more than hundreds of thousands of cavalry ! The might 
 of men is as nothing Amen is greater than all !" 
 
 Then, suddenly, Rameses becomes aware that Amen has 
 heard his cry is near him is leading him to victory. 
 
 RAMESES II. SLAYING THE ASIATICS BEFORE RA, THE TUTELARY DEITY OF THE 
 GREAT TEMPLE OF ABU-SIMBEL.
 
 208 PHA.BA.OHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 "Lo! my voice hath resounded as far as Hermonthis! 
 Amen comes to my call. He gives me his hand I shout 
 aloud for joy, hearing his voice behind meS" 
 
 And no\v the god speaks. 
 
 " Oh, Kameses, I am here ! It is I, thy father ! My hand 
 is with thee, and I am more to thee than hundreds of thou- 
 sands. I am the Lord of Might, who loves valor. I know 
 thy dauntless heart, and I am content with thee. Now, be 
 my will accomplished." 
 
 Then Kameses, inspired with the strength of a god, bends 
 his terrible bow and rushes upon the enemy. His appeal for 
 divine aid is changed to a shout of triumph. 
 
 " Like Menthu, I let fly my arrows to right and left, and 
 mine enemies go down ! I am as Baal in his wrath ! The 
 two thousand five hundred chariots which encompass me 
 are dashed to pieces under the hoofs of my horses. Not one 
 of their warriors has raised his hand to smite me. Their 
 hearts die in their breasts their limbs fail they can nei- 
 ther hurl the javelin, nor wield the spear. Headlong I drive 
 them to the water's edge ! Headlong they plunge, as plunges 
 the crocodile! They fall upon their faces, one above the 
 other, and I slay them in the mass! ~No time have they to 
 turn back no time to look behind them ! He who falls, 
 falls never to rise again !" 
 
 Then the Kheta, and the Kadeshites, and the warriors 
 of Karkhemish and Aleppo, and the princes of Mysia, and 
 Ilion,and Lycia, and Dardania turned and fled, crying 
 aloud : 
 
 " It is no man who is in the midst of us ! It is Sutekh the 
 glorious ! It is Baal in the flesh ! Alone alone, he slays 
 hundreds of thousands ! Let us fly for our lives !" 
 
 " And they fled ; and the King pursued them, as he were 
 a flame of fire !" 
 
 The rest of the poem is necessarily somewhat of an ante- 
 climax. It tells how the Egyptian brigades come up towards 
 evening, and are filled with wonder as they wade through 
 the blood of the slain, and behold the field strewn with dead
 
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 210 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 and dying. They exalt the prowess of the King, who over- 
 whelms them with reproaches. 
 
 " What will the whole world say," he asks, " when it is 
 known that you left your King alone, with none to second 
 him? that not a prince, not a charioteer, not a bowman was 
 there to join his hand with mine ? I fought alone ! Alone, 
 I overthrew millions! It was only my good horses who 
 obeyed my hand, when I found myself alone in the midst of 
 the foe. Yerily, they shall henceforth eat their corn before 
 
 BRIGADE OF INFANTRY ON THE MARCH, PROTECTKD BY CAVALRY. 
 
 From the great Abu-Simbel Tableau. 
 
 me daily in my royal palace, for they alone were with me in 
 the hour of danger." 
 
 The next day at sunrise Eameses assembles his forces, and, 
 according to the chronicler, achieves a signal victory, fol-
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 211 
 
 lowed by the submission of the Prince of Kbeta and the con- 
 clusion of a treaty of peace. This treaty was shortly con- 
 firmed by the marriage of Rameses with a Khetan princess ; 
 and the friendship thus cemented continued unbroken through- 
 out the rest of his long reign. 
 
 The foregoing passages are much abridged, but they fairly 
 represent the fervent diction and the dramatic action of this 
 celebrated poem. The style is singularly capricious, narra- 
 tive and dialogue succeeding each other according to the ex- 
 igencies of the situation. These changes are unmarked by 
 any of those devices whereby the modern writer assists his 
 reader; they must therefore have been emphasized by the 
 reciter. 
 
 To use a very modern word in connection with a very an- 
 cient composition, one might say that Rameses " published " 
 this poem in a most costly manner, with magnificent illustra- 
 
 EGYPTIAN ATTACK ON HITTITE CHARIOT. 
 
 From the great Abu-Simbel Tableau. 
 
 tions. And he did so upon a scale which puts our modern 
 publishing houses to shame. His imperial edition was issued 
 on sculptured stone, and illustrated with bas-relief subjects 
 gorgeously colored by hand. Four more or less perfect cop- 
 ies of this edition have survived the wreck of ages, and we 
 know not how many have perished. These four are carved 
 on the pylon walls of the Great Temples of Luxor and the 
 Ramesseum at Thebes, on a wall of the Great Temple of Aby- 
 dos, and in the main hall of the great rock-cut Temple of 
 Abu-Simbel in Nubia. One of the tableaux in this hall is 
 fifty feet in length by about forty feet in height, and it con- 
 tains many thousands of figures. A fifth copy is also graven
 
 212 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 without illustrations on a side- wall of the Great Temple of 
 Karnak ; and some remains of a great battle-scene with de- 
 faced inscriptions appear to belong to another copy, on one 
 of the Avails of the Temple of Derr, in Nubia. In these 
 temple-copies, the poem is sculptured in hieroglyphs. 
 
 But there were also popular editions of this immortal poem 
 copies written on papyrus by professional scribes ; and one 
 of these copies is in the British Museum, a fragment of the 
 beginning of the same copy being in the Museum of the 
 Louvre. The British Museum document contains one hun- 
 dred and twelve lines of very fine hieratic writing, and the 
 last page ends with a formal statement that it was " written 
 in the year VII., the month Payni, in the reign of King Ra- 
 meses Mer-Amen, Giver of Life eternal like unto Ra, his fa- 
 ther. For the chief librarian of the royal archives ... by the 
 Iloyal Scribe, Pentaur." 
 
 Whether this Pentaur was, as it is generally supposed, the 
 
 FAC-SIMILK OF THE OPENING LINES OF THE POEM OF PENTACR. 
 
 From the original Hieratic papyrus in the British Museum.
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 213 
 
 author of the poem, or but a copyist in the employment of 
 the King's principal librarian, is perhaps an open question. 
 As, however, the colophon is unmistakably clear as to date, 
 and as that date is but two years subsequent to the events 
 narrated in the poem, 
 we may at least as- 
 sume that the papy- 
 rus is a contemporary 
 document. ( 61 ) 
 
 It is from the huge 
 battle-piece sculpt- 
 ured on the north wall 
 of the great hall at 
 Abu-Simbel that we 
 derive many minor 
 details not recorded 
 by the poet. In this 
 elaborate composition 
 the events of the first 
 and second engage- 
 ments are combined 
 in a single subject. In 
 one -place we see Ra- 
 meses, single-handed, 
 
 rushing upon the foe in his chariot, and driving them head- 
 long into the river ; in another we behold the pitched battle 
 of the following morning. Every circumstance of that mo- 
 mentous fight is shown with the most painstaking fidelity. 
 The chariots start first, an officer of bowmen leading the 
 way on foot. 
 
 THK MELI^E OF CHARIOTS. 
 
 From the great Abu-Simbel Tableau. 
 
 WAR-CHARIOTS SETTINO OUT. 
 
 From the great Abu-Simbel Tableau.
 
 214: 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Next follow the infantry, marching in a solid square, and 
 protected, van, flank, and rear, by a force of chariots. The 
 infantry are armed with only spear and shield. This is a very 
 interesting section of the great tableau, as it shows us the 
 Egyptian order of battle. 
 
 Next comes the encounter with the enemy the shock of 
 chariots the overthrow of the Hittite warriors. Part of this 
 h'ght is arbitrarily introduced into that section of the subject 
 where liameses is performing his great feat of arms on the 
 
 AFTER THE BATTLE. 
 
 From the great Abu-Simbel Tableau. In this section of the great tableau theEgvp- 
 tian artist depicts the incidents of the battle-field after the victory is won. We 
 seethe charioteers and infantry returning in order, and the enemy's cattle being 
 driven to the camp. Long files of prisoners are brought along, some tied to- 
 gether by the neck, others with their arms bound behind their backs. In the 
 lowest register a captain of archers brings in a string of eight captives, and is 
 greeted by his comrades with acclamations. In the second register, to the right, 
 Rameses sits in his chariot with his back to the horses and witnesses the count- 
 ing of the hands of the slain, while three scribes enter the numbers on their tab- 
 lets. 
 
 preceding day ; but merely to fill the spaces with figures. In 
 some of these minor episodes we see the Egyptian warriors 
 descending from their chariots and attacking the enemy on 
 foot. The Hittite chariots are clumsily built, the wheels 
 being cut from a solid block of wood, like millstones, and 
 working on a central pivot. The Khetan soldiers wear a 
 scalp-lock, and are three in a chariot.
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 215 
 
 Finally, the field is 
 King, seated in his 
 chariot with his back 
 to the horses, wit- 
 nesses the bringing in 
 of the prisoners and 
 the counting of the 
 hands of the slain. 
 Three officers cast 
 the severed hands in 
 a heap before the feet 
 of the conqueror, 
 while the captives, 
 strung together by 
 the neck, are brought 
 into his presence 
 with their arras fast 
 bound behind their 
 backs. 
 
 In the last scene of 
 all, Raineses, depict- 
 ed of colossal size, 
 sits enthroned, and 
 receives the congrat- 
 ulations of his great 
 officers of state. His 
 fan - bearer and his 
 bow-bearer stand be- 
 hind his chair, and 
 his chariot and horses 
 are taken back with 
 honor to the royal 
 stables. 
 
 It is evident that 
 the artists who de- 
 signed the sculptured 
 illustrations at Abu- 
 
 fought the battle is won; and the
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Simbel and Thebes were not dependent on only the text of 
 the poem for the .subject-matter of their battle- scenes. They 
 were familiar with incidents of which the poet takes no note, 
 and of which we could know nothing had they not been re- 
 corded by the chisel of the sculptor and the brush of the 
 painter. In that spirited scene where Kam6ses, Phoebus- 
 like, stands erect in his chariot, bending his great bow and 
 
 TIIK PRINCE OF ALEPPO HKLD UPSIDEDOVVN AFTER DROWNING. 
 
 From tlie Pylon of the Ramesseum, Thebes. Photographed by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie. 
 
 chasing the enemy into the water (page 209), we see, for in- 
 stance, a half-drowned chieftain being dragged to land by 
 one of the Hittite garrison, and we learn that he was no less 
 a personage than the Prince of Aleppo. A hieroglyphic in- 
 scription engraved over the head of the rescued man in the 
 Abu-Simbel tableau runs thus : " The Great of Aleppo. His 
 warriors lift him up after the King has flung him into the 
 water." Now, it is certain that this is no merely fanciful
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 217 
 
 episode designed by the artist in order to heighten the effect 
 of his tableau, for the same incident is depicted in the version 
 sculptured on the great pylon of the Ramesseum at Thebes. 
 The artist of the Ramesseum, however, chooses a later phase 
 of the catastrophe, when the unlucky prince has been drag- 
 ged ashore, and is held up head downwards, in order to 
 let the water run out of his mouth a method by no 
 means to be recommended under the circumstances. The 
 color is yet preserved on this part of the subject, and it 
 shows the Prince of Aleppo to have been of the race of 
 fair Syrians, his eyes being painted blue, and his hair and 
 beard light red. We also learn from one of these battle- 
 subjects that " the writer of books of the vile Hittite " (that 
 is to say, the official scribe of the Hittite leader) accompanied 
 the Syrian host. Rameses, without doubt, had also his fol- 
 lowing of royal scribes, and one of them was in all proba- 
 bility the author of this poem. How highly it gratified the 
 vanity of Rameses may be gathered from the frequency with 
 which he caused it to be reproduced upon the walls of tem- 
 ples and pylons during his long reign. ( 62 ) 
 
 The scientific literature of the Egyptians is extremely in- 
 teresting, inasmuch as it illustrates that eager spirit of in- 
 quiry which is the mainspring of intellectual effort, and with- 
 out which there can be no intellectual progress. But its value 
 to us is, of course, purely archasological. "We have nothing 
 to learn from these earliest pioneers of astronomy, of mathe- 
 matics, of medicine. We smile at their childlike and fanciful 
 speculations; but we are sometimes amazed to find how near 
 they were to grasping many truths which we have been wont 
 to regard as the hard-won prizes of modern research. 
 
 This is especially true of ancient Egyptian astronomy. 
 Their observations were singularly exact. They understood 
 perfectly well the difference between the fixed stars and the 
 planets ; the first being " the genii which never move," and 
 the last " the genii which never rest." They even knew that 
 our own earth forms part of the planetary system, and is sub- 
 ject to the same law of motion. In a hieratic inscription of
 
 218 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 the Pyramid Period, for instance, it is said that " the earth 
 navigates the celestial ocean in like manner with the sun and 
 
 O 
 
 the stars." ( M ) Again, in a remarkable passage of the Great 
 Harris Papyrus, we read how Ptah, the primordial god, 
 " moulded man, created the gods, made the sky, and formed 
 the earth revolving in space" Unhappily, no papyrus treat- 
 ing of astronomy has yet been discovered ; but zodiacs, cal- 
 endars, and astronomical tables, showing the divisions of the 
 year, the phases of the moon, and the dates and hours of the 
 rising and setting of certain planets, abound on the walls of 
 temples and tombs. 
 
 Two mathematical papyri have been found. One was dis- 
 covered by Mr. Petrie in the ruins of a buried house in Tanis. 
 This papyrus is the property of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 
 and Prof. Eugene Revillout, of the Egyptian Department 
 of the Louvre, has undertaken to translate it. The other 
 mathematical papyrus was found by Mr. Rhind at Thebes. 
 It belongs to the British Museum, and has been translated 
 by Dr. August Eisenlohr, of Heidelberg. This curious docu- 
 ment treats of plane trigonometry and the measurement of 
 solids; and it contains not only a system of reckoning by 
 decimals, but a series of problems for solution by the student. 
 Of the practical geometry of the Egyptians, we have a mag- 
 nificent example in the Pyramids, which could never have 
 been erected by builders who were not thoroughly conver- 
 sant with the art of measuring surfaces and calculating the 
 bulk and weight of materials. 
 
 Works on medicine abounded in Egypt from the remotest 
 times, and the great medical library of Memphis, which was 
 of immemorial antiquity, was yet in existence in the second 
 century before our era, when Galen visited the Valley of the 
 Nile. The Egyptians seem, indeed, to have especially prided 
 themselves on their skill as physicians, and the art of heal- 
 ing was held in such high esteem that even kings made 
 it their study. Ateta, third king of the First Dynasty, is the 
 reputed author of a treatise on anatomy. He also covered 
 himself with glory by the invention of an infallible hair-wash,
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 219 
 
 which, like a dutiful son, he is said to have prepared espe- 
 cially for the benefit of his mother. 
 
 No less than five medical papyri have come down to our 
 time, the finest being the celebrated Ebers papyrus, bought 
 at Thebes by Dr. Ebers in 1874. This papyrus contains one 
 hundred and ten pages, each page consisting of about twen- 
 ty-two lines of bold hieratic writing. It may be described 
 as an Encyclopaedia of Medicine as known and practised by 
 the Egyptians of the Eighteenth Dynasty ; and it contains 
 prescriptions for all kinds of diseases some borrowed from 
 Syrian medical lore, and some of such great antiquity that 
 they are ascribed to the mythologic ages, when the gods yet 
 reigned personally upon earth. Among others, we are given 
 the recipe for an application whereby Osiris cured Ra of the 
 headache. 
 
 The Egyptians attached great importance to these ancient 
 medical works, which were regarded as final. The physi- 
 cian who faithfully followed their rules of treatment might 
 kill or cure with impunity ; but if he ventured to treat the 
 patient according to his own notions, and if that patient 
 died, he paid for the experiment with his life. Seeing, how- 
 ever, what the canonical remedies were, the marvel is that 
 anybody ever recovered from anything. Raw meat ; horri- 
 ble mixtures of nitre, beer, milk, and blood, boiled up and 
 swallowed hot ; the bile of certain fishes ; and the bones, fat, 
 and skins of all kinds of unsavory creatures, such as vultures, 
 bats, lizards, and crocodiles, were among their choicest reme- 
 dies. What we suffer at the hands of the faculty in this 
 nineteenth century is bad enough ; but we may rejoice that 
 we have escaped the learned practitioners of Memphis and 
 Thebes. 
 
 The moral philosophy of the ancient Egyptians is pecul- 
 iarly interesting to us of a later age. It is not a profound 
 philosophy. On the contrary, it is simple, practical, and 
 very much to the point. We have several papyri contain- 
 ing collections of moral precepts, and most of them are 
 written in the form of aphorisms on the conduct of life,
 
 220 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 addressed by a father to his son. Such are the Maxims of 
 the Scribe Ani, the Maxims of Ptah-hotep, and others. The 
 Maxims of Ptah-hotep are contained in the famous Prisse 
 Papyrus, which has been styled " The Oldest Book in the 
 World." This papyrus dates from the Twelfth Dynasty, 
 and is copied from a yet more ancient document of the Fifth 
 Dynasty, written some three thousand eight hundred years 
 before our era. It is one of the treasures of the Biblio- 
 theque Rationale, in Paris. 
 
 " Be not proud because of thy learning," saith Ptah-hotep. 
 "Converse with the ignorant as freely as with the scholar, 
 for the gates of knowledge should never oe closed" 
 
 " If thou art exalted after having been low, if thou art 
 rich after having been needy, harden not thy heart because 
 of thy elevation. Thou hast but become a steward of the 
 good things belonging to the gods." 
 
 " If thou wouldst be of good conduct and dwell apart from 
 evil, beware of bad temper ; for it contains the germs of all 
 wickedness. When a man takes Justice for his guide and 
 walks in her ways, there is no room in his soul for bad temper." 
 
 " If thou art a leader doing those things which are ac- 
 cording to thy will, do for the best, which shall be remem- 
 bered in time to come, so that the word which flatters, or feeds 
 pride, or makes for vainglory, shall not weigh with thee." 
 
 " Treat well thy people, as it behooves thee ; this is the 
 duty of those whom the gods favor." 
 
 " Do not disturb a great man ; do not distract the atten- 
 tion of the busy man. His care is to accomplish his task. 
 Love for the work they have to do brings men nearer to the 
 gods." 
 
 " Do not repeat the violent words [of others]. Do not lis- 
 ten to them. They have escaped a heated soul. If they are 
 repeated in thy hearing, look on the ground and be silent." 
 
 " Take care of those w r ho are faithful to thee, even when 
 thine own estate is in evil case. So shall thy merit be great- 
 er than the honors which are done to thee." ( 54 ) 
 
 These, taken at random, are some of the wise words writ-
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 221 
 
 ten by Ptah-hotep when, as he himself tells us, he had reached 
 the patriarchal age of one hundred and ten years. 
 
 The Scribe Ani, who lived about one thousand years later, 
 preaches the same just and gentle gospel. He says: 
 
 u Beware of giving pain by the words of thy mouth, and 
 make not thyself to be feared." 
 
 " He who speaks evil, reaps evil." 
 
 "Work for thyself. Do not count upon the wealth of 
 others ; it will not enter thy dwelling-place." 
 
 " Do not eat bread in the presence of one who stands and 
 waits, without putting forth thine hand towards the loaf for 
 him." 
 
 " Enter not into a crowd if thou art there in the begin- 
 nings of a quarrel." 
 
 Good manners are the minor morality of life, and Ani 
 was not only a sage but a man of the world. He has some- 
 thing to say on the subject of etiquette : 
 
 " Be not discourteous to the stranger who is in thy house. 
 He is thy guest." 
 
 " Do not remain sitting when thy elder, or thy superior, is 
 standing." 
 
 " If a deaf man is present, do not multiply words ; it is 
 better thou keep silent." 
 
 A demotic papyrus ( 55 ) of comparatively recent date (in 
 the Louvre collection) contains a series of maxims of much 
 the same character as those propounded by Ptah-hotep in the 
 time of the Ancient Empire, and by the Scribe Ani under the 
 New Empire ; thus proving that the moral code of the Egyp- 
 tians remained in all essential points the same, from the ear- 
 liest to the latest chapter of their national history. 
 
 " Associate not thyself with the evil-doer," says this last 
 moralist. 
 
 " Ill-treat not thine inferior ; respect the aged." 
 
 " Ill-treat not thy wife, whose strength is less than thine. 
 Be thou her protector." 
 
 " Save not thine own life at the expense of the life of an- 
 other."
 
 222 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 It is such brief and simple sayings as these which bring us 
 nearest to the hearts of the old Egyptian people. We see 
 them " as in a glass," and we see them at their best : a gen- 
 tle, kindly, law-abiding race, anxious to cultivate peace and 
 good -will, and to inculcate those rules of good conduct 
 whereby their own lives had been guided. Their philoso- 
 phy was not profound. They were not tormented by " the 
 burden and the mystery of all this unintelligible world." 
 They made no attempt to formulate or to solve those deeper 
 problems which have perplexed the students of humanity 
 since their time. To live happily, to live long, to deserve 
 the favor of their superiors, to train their children in sane 
 thinking and right -doing, to be respected in life and hon- 
 orably remembered by posterity, represented the sum of 
 their desires. It is a philosophy of utility and good-will, in 
 which the ideal has no part. 
 
 The ancient Egyptians would have been unlike all other 
 Orientals if they had not loved stories and songs; yet it 
 was not till the first ancient Egyptian romance was discov- 
 ered that any one dreamed of a popular literature of the 
 days of the Pharaohs. We had, I suppose, been so accus- 
 tomed to think of the ancient Egyptians as mummies that 
 we scarcely remembered they were men. Those mummies, 
 it is true, had once been alive in a solemn, leathery, un- 
 sympathetic way, as became a people who were destined 
 to be spiced, bandaged, and ultimately consigned to glass- 
 cases in modern museums. But as for an ancient Egyptian 
 in love, chanting a sonnet to his mistress's eyebrow and ac- 
 companying himself on the lute we should have blushed to 
 think of him in connection with so trivial an occupation ! 
 
 And yet, within the last five-and-thirty years, no less than 
 fifteen or sixteen romantic stories, and almost as many love- 
 songs, have been brought to light. ( 56 ) Some had been lying 
 undeciphered in the learned dust of various museums. Oth- 
 ers were found in graves buried, strange to say, with the 
 mummies of their former owners. Some are as old as the 
 Twelfth Dynasty ; others are as recent as the time of Alex-
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 223 
 
 ander and the Ptolemies. In some we recognize stories 
 familiar to us from childhood as old nursery tales, and as 
 stories first read in the Arabian Nights Entertainments / in 
 others we discover the originals of legends which Herodo- 
 tus, with a credulity peculiar to the learned, accepted for 
 history. Even some of the fables attributed to ^Esop are 
 drawn from Egyptian sources older by eight hundred years 
 than the famous dwarf who is supposed to have invented 
 them. The fable of " The Lion and the Mouse " was discov- 
 ered by Dr. Brugsch in an Egyptian papyrus a few years 
 ago. " The Dispute of the Stomach and the Members " has 
 yet more recently been identified by Professor Maspero 
 with an ancient Egyptian original. (") When we remember, 
 however, that tradition associates the name of ./Esop with 
 that of Rhodopis, who lived at Naukratis in the time of 
 Amasis, we seem to be within touch of the actual connection 
 between ^Esop and Egypt. 
 
 Of this same Rhodopis it is said, in an ancient Egyptian 
 story repeated by Herodotus, that an eagle flew away with 
 her sandal while she was bathing, and dropped it at the feet 
 of the Egyptian King, at Memphis. Struck by its beauty, 
 he sent out his messengers in all directions to find the own- 
 er of this little sandal ; and when they had found her, he 
 made her his queen. In another Egyptian story, called 
 " The Tale of the Two Brothers," a lock of hair from the 
 head of a beautiful damsel is carried to Egypt by the river, 
 and its perfume is so ravishing that the King despatches his 
 scouts throughout the length and breadth of the land, that 
 they may bring to him the owner of this lock of hair. She 
 is found, of course, and she becomes his bride. In these tales 
 we have apparently the germ of Cinderella. 
 
 In another story, called "The Taking of Joppa," we meet 
 with what is unquestionably the original source of the lead- 
 ing incident in the familiar story of " Ali Baba and the For- 
 ty Thieves." One Tahuti, a general of Thothmes III., who 
 is sent to lay siege to the city of Joppa, conceals two hun- 
 dred of his soldiers in two hundred big jars, fills three hun-
 
 224: PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 dred other jars with cords and fetters, loads live hundred 
 other soldiers with these five hundred jars, and sends them 
 into the city in the character of captives. Once inside the 
 gates, the bearers liberate and arm their comrades, take the 
 place, and make all the inhabitants prisoners. Now, al- 
 though the King and the General are both historical per- 
 sonages, and although Joppa figures in the lists of cities con- 
 quered by Thothmes III., the story itself is evidently pure 
 romance. As. for the big jars with their human cargoes, 
 they are clearly the forefathers of the jars which housed 
 the " Forty Thieves." 
 
 We turn to another story, called " The Doomed Prince," 
 and we are at once reminded of the story of "Prince Agib and 
 the Lodestone Mountain." After years of hope deferred, a 
 king and queen are blessed with a beautiful son. The seven 
 Hathors, who play the part of fairy godmothers in these old 
 Egyptian stories, predict that the prince will die from the 
 bite of a crocodile, a serpent, or a dog. The King according- 
 ly builds a castle on the top of a lofty mountain, and there 
 makes a state-prisoner of his son. His precautions are, of 
 course, in vain. The young man escapes from durance vile, 
 and becomes the husband of a lovely princess and the master 
 of a faithful dog. The princess kills the serpent ; the dog 
 kills the crocodile ; and, although the end of the story is un- 
 fortunately lost, it is evident that the dog, by some fatal ac- 
 cident, will fulfil his master's doom, just as the doom of Agib 
 is fulfilled by his friend. 
 
 Another tale of extreme antiquity, entitled " The Ship- 
 wrecked Mariner," tells of a seaman cast on the shores of a 
 desolate island abounding in delicious fruits, and inhabited 
 by a limited population of seventy -five amiable and intelli- 
 gent serpents. The head of this charming family was thirty 
 cubits long. His body was incrusted with gold and lapis 
 lazuli, and nature had adorned him with a magnificent beard. 
 He talks like a book ; treats the seaman with distinguished 
 hospitality ; and when a ship comes that way, dismisses his 
 guest with gifts of perfumes, incense, rare woods, elephant-
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 225 
 
 tusks, baboons, and all kinds of precious things. Here is 
 probably the starting-point of our dear old friend, *' Sind- 
 bad the Sailor," who was also cast among a population of 
 serpents. 
 
 In others of these ancient fictions, King Khufu, the builder 
 of the Great Pyramid ; Prince Kha-em-uas, the favorite son 
 of Rameses the Great ; King Amasis, who gave Naukratis to 
 the Greeks; and even the great Alexander himself, figure 
 among the dramatis personce. 
 
 Of the popular poetry of those far-off times we will take 
 but two specimens, the one a love-song, from a papyrus in 
 the British Museum ; the other a rustic ditty, supposed to be 
 sung by the driver of a pair of oxen, while they tread out the 
 corn on the threshing-floor. 
 
 The love-song is sung by a girl to her lover. Each strophe 
 begins with an invocation to a flower, thus curiously resem- 
 bling the stornelli of the Tuscan peasantry, of which every 
 verse begins and ends with a similar invocation to some 
 familiar blossom or tree : 
 
 " Oh, flower of henna ! 
 My heart stands still in thy presence. 
 I have made mine eyes brilliant for thee with kohl. 
 When I behold thee, I fly to thee, oh my Beloved ! 
 Oh, Lord of my heart, sweet is this hour. An hour passed with 
 thee is worth an hour of eternity ! 
 
 " Oh, flower of marjoram ! 
 
 Fain would I be to thee as the garden in which I have planted 
 flowers and sweet -smelling shrubs! the garden watered by 
 pleasant runlets, and refreshed by the north breeze ! 
 
 Here let us walk, oh my Beloved, hand in hand, our hearts filled 
 with joy ! 
 
 Better than food, better than drink, is it to behold thee. 
 
 To behold thee, and to behold thee again !" 
 
 This is literally " the old, old story ;" and the story this 
 time is yet older than the song.(") 
 
 15
 
 226 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Our thresh ing -song dates from about 1650 B.C. It is 
 carved on the walls of the tomb of one Pahiri, at El Kab in 
 Upper Egypt, and it belongs to the early years of the Eigh- 
 teenth Dynasty. In the wall-painting which illustrates the 
 text, we see the oxen at work, just as in the Egypt of to-day, 
 treading in a measured circle, with the driver seated on his 
 revolving stool in the middle. 
 
 It is a simple chant of but four lines many times repeat- 
 ed^ M ) We know not the air to which it was sung; but no 
 one who has listened to the monotonous songs of the Egyp- 
 tian laborers as they ply the shaduf or the water-wheel, can 
 fail to be struck by their evident antiquity. Doubtless, the 
 cadenced chant intoned of old by Pahiri's laborers survives to 
 this day among those so often heard by the modern traveller, 
 as his boat glides along the broad waters of the sacred river. 
 These are the words : 
 
 " Thresh the corn, oh ye oxen ! 
 Thresh for yourselves, oh oxen ! 
 The fodder for eating, 
 The grain for your master !" 
 
 It has been thus paraphrased by Mr. Gliddon : 
 
 " Hie along oxen, 
 Tread the corn faster ! 
 The straw for yourselves; 
 The grain for your master !" 
 
 The Religion of ancient Egypt is still very imperfectly 
 understood. Every year, almost every day, we find our- 
 selves compelled to abandon some long-established theory 
 which, up to that moment, we had believed to be as self- 
 evident as the pyramids, and as well understood as the law 
 of gravitation. The opening of a tomb, the discovery of a 
 papyrus, may at any moment put us in possession of religious 
 texts older than the oldest yet known, and subversive, per- 
 haps, of our best-founded assumptions.
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 227 
 
 This is precisely what happened when the pyramids of 
 Unas, Teta, and other very early kings were excavated in 
 1881 and 1882. Because the Great Pyramids of Ghizeh are 
 destitute of inscriptions, it had been rashly concluded that 
 all pyramids must be blank. Great, therefore, was the stu- 
 pefaction of those who pinned their faith upon that theory, 
 when the sepulchral chambers and passages of this group 
 were found to be lined with graven prayers and invocations, 
 some of which are more ancient than any religious texts pre- 
 viously known. Again, it had been laid down as one of the 
 fundamental facts of the Egyptian religion that certain gods, 
 whose renown was great at a later period, were as yet un- 
 born, so to speak, in the time of the Pyramid Kings. Thebes 
 was not founded till the beginning of the Eleventh Dynasty, 
 and Amen was the Great God of Thebes. Consequently, 
 Amen had no existence when the pyramids of Unas, Teta, 
 and Pepi, of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties, were built. But 
 when those pyramids were laid open, Amen was found there 
 as a member of the cycle of great deities. 
 
 We cannot, in fact, exercise too much caution in formulat- 
 ing general rules, or in making use of elastic definitions. We 
 speak, for instance, of " the Egyptian religion ;" but there can 
 hardly be a much more misleading phrase. Just as Professor 
 Revillout has said of the Egyptian language that " it is not 
 one language, but a whole family of languages," so I would 
 say of the Egyptian religion, that it is not one religion, but a 
 whole family of religions. This family springs, it is true, 
 from one very ancient stock ; but it branches out into innu- 
 merable varieties. It is not too much to say that there was 
 in Egypt a Eeligion of the Pyramid Period, a Eeligion of the 
 Theban Period, a Religion of Sai's, a Ileligion of the Ptole- 
 maic age, a Popular Religion, a Sacerdotal Religion, a Relig- 
 ion of Polytheism, a Religion of Pantheism, a Religion of 
 Monotheism, and a Religion of Platonic Philosophy. And 
 these religions were not revolutionary. The new did not 
 drive out the old, as the bud pushes off the dead leaf in au- 
 tumn. On the contrary, the Egyptians, who were nothing
 
 228 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 if not conservative, clung with the strictest fidelity to the 
 old, even while ardently embracing the new. It did not mat- 
 ter in the least, if the dogmas of one school were diametri- 
 cally opposed to the dogmas of half a dozen other schools ; 
 they continued to believe them all.() 
 
 The one great and crucial question the question which we 
 are most keenly concerned to resolve is whether the ancient 
 Egyptians believed in one God, or in many gods. In Ra, the 
 supreme solar deity, are we to recognize the Egyptian syno- 
 nym for "Almighty God, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of 
 all that in them is ?" Are the other deities of the Egyptian 
 Pantheon mere personifications of his divine attributes ? Does 
 Knum represent his creative power ? Does Amen, the Hid- 
 den One, signify his unsearchable mystery ? Does Thoth, the 
 ibis - headed god of letters, typify his wisdom, and the bull 
 Apis his strength, and the jackal Anubis his swiftness ? Are 
 these animal-headed and bird-headed and reptile-headed forms 
 mere hieroglyphs, of which the secret meaning is the unity 
 and omnipresence of God ? 
 
 This theory was elaborated in the first instance by M. 
 Pierret, in his Essai sur la Mythologie Egyptienne / and it has 
 been still further developed by Dr. Brugsch in his recent 
 work on The Religion and Mythology of the Ancient Egyp- 
 tians. As it is the most attractive exposition of the Egyp- 
 tian Pantheon, so it is undoubtedly the most popular, and I 
 therefore doubly regret that I am unable to follow M. Pier- 
 ret and Dr. Brugsch in their proposed solution of this deeply 
 interesting problem. This solution is founded on the assump- 
 tion that the religion of the Egyptians was, from first to last, 
 absolutely homogeneous ; and that in all its complex devel- 
 opments it merely presented varying aspects of one simple, 
 fundamental, and God-given truth. In this sense, all the 
 gods of Egypt are one and the same, the name merely 
 changing with the seat of worship. Animal worship be- 
 comes mere symbolism; and Knum, Sebek, Horus, Thoth, 
 Anubis, and the rest, are but reflections of an omnipresent 
 Deity.
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 22i) 
 
 The Egyptians were, unquestionably, the most wonderful 
 people of antiquity; but they would have been infinitely 
 more wonderful had they started in life with notions so just, 
 so philosophic, so exalted, as these. The earliest Egyptian 
 monuments to which we can assign a date are the monuments 
 of a people already highly civilized, and in the possession of 
 an alphabetic system of writing, a grammar, a government, 
 and a religion. It must have taken them long ages to arrive at 
 this advanced stage of their national development ; and of 
 those ages a few vague traditions and the names of three dy- 
 nasties of kings have alone survived. Yet there must have 
 been a time when these people were mere unlettered barbari- 
 ans, like the forefathers of other nations. They did not spring 
 fully civilized from the nmd of the inundation, like Athena 
 from the head of Zeus. As a matter of fact, the barbarian 
 origin of the Egyptians is more distinctly traceable than the 
 barbarian origin of any other highly civilized nation of an- 
 tiquity. It is traceable in their laws, in their customs, and 
 even in their costumes. Above all, it is traceable in their re- 
 ligion. 
 
 We have but to turn our eyes to the far West of America 
 in order to discover the living solution of some of our most 
 puzzling Egyptian problems. Just as the northern half of 
 that great continent was originally possessed by tribes of 
 Indians, so the land of Egypt, in the ages before history, was 
 divided into many small territories, each territory peopled 
 by an independent clan. The red man had, and has, his 
 "totems," or clan crests; these "totems" being sometimes 
 animals, as the bear, the wolf, the beaver, the deer; and 
 sometimes birds, as the snipe, the hawk, the heron. So, in 
 like manner, the prehistoric tribes of ancient Eygpt will 
 have had their "totems," taken from the familiar beasts, 
 birds, and reptiles of the Nile Valley the jackal, the croco- 
 dile, the ibis, and so forth. 
 
 Now, a distinctive appellation is one of the first necessities 
 of life, whether savage or civilized; and in an age when 
 proper names, and the occupations from which proper names
 
 230 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 are largely derived, are yet unknown, the tribal name is of 
 extreme importance. For this tribal name, the savage natu- 
 rally adopts that of some creature whose strength, subtlety, 
 swiftness, or fearlessness may symbolize such qualities in 
 himself. These facts are true of barbarian and semi-civilized 
 races in all parts of the world. The Bechuanas of South 
 Africa, the Kols of Khota Nagpar in Asia, the Yakats of 
 Siberia in Northern Europe, the aborigines of Australia, are 
 all divided into clans, each clan being affiliated to some beast, 
 bird, fish, or reptile. They all regard the " totem " animal 
 as sacred. They forbear to eat it ; and if compelled in self- 
 defence to kill it, they ask its pardon for the act. 
 
 Here, then, we have the origin of animal worship animal 
 worship being the direct outcome of totemism. 
 
 Now, what is true of these American, South African, Asi- 
 atic, European, and Australian tribes, must surely be true 
 also of the prehistoric Egyptians. They began with totem- 
 ism the Bull-clan at Memphis, the Crocodile-clan in the 
 Fay urn, the Ibis-clan at Hermopolis, and so forth.( 61 ) As time 
 went on and civilization progressed, they explained away the 
 grosser features of this creed by representing the totem ani- 
 mal as the symbol, or incarnation, of an unseen deity ; and 
 there is no clearer proof of the extreme antiquity of their 
 civilization than the fact that they had already reached this 
 point in their spiritual career when Mena, the first king of 
 the First Dynasty, laid the foundation-stone of the Temple 
 of Ptah, at Memphis. 
 
 But, having started from totemism, animal worship, and 
 polytheism, did they not rise at last to higher things to 
 monotheism, pure and simple ? 
 
 Yes ; they did rise to monotheism ; but not, I think, to 
 monotheism pure and simple. Their monotheism was not 
 exactly our monotheism : it was a monotheism based upon, 
 and evolved from, the polytheism of earlier ages. Could we 
 question a high-priest of Thebes of the time of the Nineteenth 
 or Twentieth Dynasty on the subject of his faith, we should 
 be startled by the breadth and grandeur of his views touch-
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 231 
 
 ing the Godhead. He would tell us that Ra was the Great 
 All ; that by his word alone he called all things into exist- 
 ence ; that all things are therefore but reflections of himself 
 and his will; that he is the creator of day and night,'of the 
 heavenly spheres, of infinite space ; that he is the eternal es- 
 sence, invisible, omnipresent, omniscient ; in a word, that he 
 is God Almighty. 
 
 If, after this, we could put the same questions to a high- 
 priest of Memphis, we should receive a very similar answer, 
 only we should now be told that this great divinity was Ptah. 
 And if we could make the tour of Egypt, visiting every great 
 city, and questioning the priests of every great temple in turn, 
 we should find that each claimed these attributes of unity 
 and universality for his own local god. All, nevertheless, 
 would admit the identity of these various deities. They 
 would admit that he whom they worshipped at Pleliopolis 
 as Ra was the same as he whom they worshipped at Mem- 
 phis as Ptah, and at Thebes as Amen. "We have proof of 
 their catholicity in this respect. Ptah and Apis were, of 
 course, one and the same ; but Apis was also recognized as 
 " The Soul of Osiris, and the Life of Turn." Again, Amen 
 and Knum and Sebek were made one with Ra, and became 
 Amen-Ra, Knum-Ra, and Sebek-Ra. This, however, was but 
 a compromise, and they never got beyond it. That individ- 
 ual theologians rose to the height of pure monotheism can- 
 not be doubted. Those who conceived and formulated the 
 exalted pantheism of Ra-worship cannot have failed to go 
 that one step further ; but that one step further would be 
 heresy, and heresy was not likely to leave records for future 
 historians in a land where the governing classes were all 
 members of the priesthood. In a word, it is certain abso- 
 lutely certain that every great local deity was worshipped as 
 the " one God " of his own city or province ; and it is also 
 certain that, to whatever extent these gods were identified 
 one with another, the Egyptians never agreed to abolish 
 their Pantheon in favor of one, and only one, supreme de-
 
 232 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 There is, however, one central fact which must never be over- 
 looked in any discussion of the religion of the old Egyptian 
 people. They were the first in the history of the world who 
 recognized, and held fast by, the doctrine of the immortality 
 of the soul. Look back as far as we will into the darkness 
 of their past, question as closely as we may the earliest of 
 their monuments, and we yet find them looking forward to 
 an eternal future. 
 
 Their notions of Man, the microcosm, were more complex 
 than ours. They conceived him to consist of a Body, a Soul, 
 a Spirit, a Name, a Shadow, and a Ka that Ka which I have 
 ventured to interpret as the Life ;* and they held that the 
 perfect reunion of all these parts w r as a necessary condition 
 of the life to come. Hence the care with which they em- 
 balmed the Body ; hence the food and drink offerings with 
 which they nourished the Ka ; hence the funerary texts with 
 which they lined the tomb, and the funerary papyri which 
 they buried with the mummy for the instruction of the Soul. 
 But none of these precautions availed, unless the man had 
 lived a pure and holy life in this world, and came before the 
 judgment-seat of Osiris with clean hands, a clean heart, and 
 a clean conscience. 
 
 " Glory to thee, O thou Great God, thou Lord of truth and 
 justice !" says the dead man, when brought into the presence 
 of the eternal Judge. " Lo ! I have defrauded no man of his 
 dues. I have not oppressed the widow. I have not borne 
 false witness. I have not been slothful. I have broken faith 
 with no man. I have starved no man. I have slain no man. 
 I have not enriched myself by unlawful gains. I have not 
 given short measure of corn. I have not tampered with the 
 scales. I have not encroached upon my neighbor's field. I 
 have not cut off the running water from its lawful channel. 
 I have not turned- away the food from the mouths of the 
 fatherless. Lo ! I am pure ! I am pure !" 
 
 This is from the Negative Confession in the 125th chapter 
 
 * See chap. iii.
 
 LITERATURE AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 233 
 
 of the most famous religious book of the ancient Egyptians 
 The Book of the Dead. It gives the measure of their stand- 
 ard of morality. The teachers who established that standard, 
 and the people who endeavored faithfully to live up to it, 
 may have had very childish and fantastic notions on many 
 points; they may in one place have put gold rings in the 
 ears of their sacred crocodiles ; they may have shaved their 
 eyebrows when their cats died ; but as regards uprightness, 
 charity, justice, and mercy, they would not, I think, have 
 much to learn from us, if they were living to this day beside 
 the pleasant waters of the Nile. 
 
 VIGNETTE FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
 
 BAS-UKLIEF SLAB FROM THE TOMB OF A ROYAL SCRIBE OF THE SECOND DYNASTY, 
 IN THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD. 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF THE ANCIENT 
 EGYPTIANS. 
 
 A CELEBRATED definition of the genus homo classifies man 
 as " a cooking animal." It is not a bad definition. Cooking 
 implies the knowledge and use of fire ; and not even the most 
 intelligent of monkeys has yet been known to evoke sparks 
 from a stick and a block. I should prefer, however, to de- 
 fine man as " a writing animal ;" for writing implies lan- 
 guage as its starting-point, and literature as its goal. Given 
 the first barbarian attempt at transmitting intelligence by 
 means of signs scratched on rocks or graven on the bark of 
 trees, it is but a step a long step, I admit from the drift- 
 man to Shakespeare. 
 
 The infancy of writing has much in common with the in- 
 fancy of language. Of the actual beginnings of language
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 235 
 
 we have no positive knowledge beyond such evidence as is 
 furnished by the syllabic particles known as "roots;" but it 
 is quite certain that all speech was at first extremely simple 
 that words were monosyllabic, and that prehistoric man 
 eked out his limited vocabulary with gestures. He was, in 
 fact, a natural and involuntary pantomimist ; and pantomime 
 is picture-action. 
 
 Now, the immortal Dogberry, when he said that reading 
 and writing came by nature, told quite half the truth. 
 Writing is a spontaneous growth, like speech ; and, like 
 speech, it is the offspring of necessity. Man needs to com- 
 municate with his fellow-man ; and when distance, or any 
 other cause, makes viva voce intercourse impossible, he sets 
 his brains to work to find a substitute for spoken words. 
 No matter in what country, in what age, or under what cir- 
 cumstances, this problem is invariably solved in the same 
 manner. 
 
 Just as prehistoric man supplements his lack of words 
 with what I have ventured to call " picture-action," so, at a 
 later stage of his career, he inevitably invents " picture-writ- 
 ing." This is true of every ancient script of which we have 
 any knowledge. The writing of the Egyptians undoubtedly 
 began as a picture-writing, pure and simple ; and notwith- 
 standing the many phases through which it passed in the 
 course of thousands of years, a picture-writing, to some ex- 
 tent, it continued to the end of the chapter. The writing of 
 the Hittites was a picture-writing ; and even the arrow-head 
 writing of the Babylonians and Assyrians, and the contorted 
 characters of the Chinese, are abridged picture-writings in 
 which the pictorial forms are yet in some instances discerni- 
 ble. But even the rudest stage of picture-writing must have 
 been preceded by some yet more primitive effort, and the di- 
 rection taken by that primitive effort may probably be traced 
 in a curious story told by Herodotus. He relates how Da- 
 rius, when he invaded Scythia, was led on continually by the 
 retreating foe, till he and his army were outwearied by gue- 
 rilla warfare without being able to bring the Scythians to a
 
 236 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 pitched battle. At last, the Scythian princes despatched a 
 herald to the Persian camp with gifts for the great King of 
 Kings. These consisted of a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five 
 arrows. In vain the Persians interrogated the herald. He 
 but made answer that, if they were wise, they would find out 
 the meaning of these things for themselves. Then Darius, 
 the self-confident, proclaimed that the Scythian gifts signi- 
 fied that they gave up land and water, the bird for swift 
 flight, the mouse for land, the frog for water, the arrows as 
 a surrender of arms. But one Gobryas, wiser than Darius, 
 interpreted the message thus : 
 
 ''Unless, O Persians, ye can turn yourselves into birds 
 and fly through the air, or become mice and burrow under 
 the ground, or be as frogs and take refuge in the fens, ye 
 shall never escape from this land, but die pierced by our 
 arrows." ( 63 ) And this interpretation was the true one. 
 
 Now, in what way were these objects conveyed to Darius ? 
 
 Were they strung in a leash, like game; or carried as a 
 horseman might be supposed to carry them, in a saddle-bag? 
 
 I do not think so. I believe that they were pinned down 
 upon a piece of board, so forming a high-relief group com- 
 posed of natural objects. 
 
 Now, we may be very certain that this message of the 
 Scythian generals was no isolated instance. It was the cus- 
 tomary style of polite letter -writing in Scythia at that pe- 
 riod, the Scythians being in just that stage of barbarism 
 which the Persians, the Egyptians, and the other great na- 
 tions of the East had left behind and forgotten. I imagine 
 that all those nations had once upon a time invented the 
 very same method. To pin objects on a board would al- 
 ways have been easier than to draw them ; and our prehis- 
 toric man, of whatever race or climate, would assuredly "have 
 recourse to symbolism by means of things before he dreamed 
 of symbolism by means of signs. Thus, " object - writing " 
 would naturally precede " picture-writing." 
 
 The earliest writing of which we have any historic exam- 
 ple is the hieroglyphic writing of the ancient Egyptians;
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 237 
 
 and the earliest of early hieroglyphs are carved in relief. I 
 cannot help thinking that this fact is profoundly significant 
 significant of the origin of those hieroglyphs, a long way 
 back, as " object-writing." The oldest Egyptian inscriptions 
 are older than the Great Pyramid. The earliest date from 
 the Second Dynasty, and carry us back to full four thousand 
 three hundred years before the Christian era. But they tes- 
 tify to a foregone time, the extent of which it is impossible to 
 estimate. For, although they are the oldest extant, the lan- 
 guage they embody has already passed through its first 
 stages of evolution. Its grammar is formed ; its rules are 
 fixed ; the foundations of style are laid. As for the writing, 
 it is already systematized, and the methods are fully devel- 
 oped by which sense and sound are expressed. 
 
 Some day, perhaps, as the work of exploration goes on, 
 our labors may be rewarded by the discovery of yet earlier 
 records. We have reason to believe that the most ancient 
 necropolis of all the necropolis of the kings of the First 
 and Second dynasties lies buried under a hundred feet of 
 sand round about the base of the Great Sphinx. This huge 
 amphitheatre is in course of excavation ; and it is quite pos- 
 sible possible and probable that inscriptions in the earliest 
 stages of the hieroglyphic writing may there be discovered. 
 
 Till then, if we desire to realize what the first attempts at 
 writing were like in the East, we must turn for light to the 
 West. We must go to America for specimens of the earliest 
 picture-writing of Mexico, and for the picture-writing of the 
 red Indians. In these we behold groups of what are called 
 in Egyptology " ideographs ;" that is to say, pictures of ob- 
 jects arranged for the purpose of conveying sequences of 
 ideas, but without any of those connecting links which lan- 
 guage supplies. The tribute-lists of the Mexican kings con- 
 sist of long catalogues, in which there are signs for numerals, 
 but nothing resembling a word. Thus, one hundred strings 
 of beads, two hundred pitchers of honey, sixteen hundred 
 cacao-nuts, and eight hundred loads of feather mantles are 
 represented by a string of beads, a pitcher, a basket of nuts,
 
 238 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 and a feather mantle neatly drawn and colored, with numer- 
 al signs to show how many of each were received. This is 
 the merest picture-writing ; yet, as a system of exact book- 
 keeping, it leaves nothing to be desired. 
 
 Other Mexican documents of the same period contain ac- 
 counts of battles, executions, sacrifices, and even family his- 
 tories, in which every fact is a picture. We see a youth bid- 
 ding good-bye to his father; starting upon a journey ; sitting 
 at the feet of the sage by whom he is to be educated ; serving 
 his apprenticeship as a woodman ; sending an old woman to 
 treat with the parents of the girl whom he desires to wed ; 
 and, finally, the marriage ceremony, where bride and bride- 
 groom are bound together by a scarf. This is neither more 
 nor less than a " nutshell novel," and it is written in pictures 
 only. 
 
 But the picture-writing of the North American Indian, 
 though less graphic, is often more ingenious than the picture- 
 writing of the Mexicans. I will take, for example, a petition 
 addressed by certain Indian chiefs to one of the Presidents 
 of the United States, reclaiming possession of a chain of lakes 
 in the neighborhood of Lake Superior. 
 
 In this curious document, the head man of each tribe is 
 figured by the " totem," or symbolic animal, of his clan ; as 
 
 INDIAN PETITION
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 230 
 
 the Crane, the Marten, the Sloth Bear, the Catfish, and so on. 
 These creatures are represented as walking in procession, the 
 Crane taking the lead, and the Catfish bringing up the rear. 
 The eye and the heart of each is carefully indicated, the 
 heart being just such a heart as we absurdly depict on our 
 playing-cards and valentines. Beneath their feet is seen a 
 sheet of water probably intended for Lake Superior and 
 this sheet of water communicates by a tributary stream with 
 the little lakes for which our Indians are making their peti- 
 tion. Now, from the eye of the Crane is drawn one line 
 leading round to the coveted lake district, and another line 
 going off into space, and supposed to lead to the eye of the 
 President. Then, from the eyes of the Martens, the Sloth 
 Bear, and the rest are drawn similar lines leading to the 
 eye of the Crane, thus indicating that their views and his are 
 the same. A line is also drawn from the heart of each creat- 
 ure to the heart of the Crane, showing that the heart's de- 
 sire of all is identical. For combined simplicity and subtlety 
 this is the best example of pure picture-writing with which 
 I am acquainted. 
 
 And here let me say a word about the parallel so fre- 
 quently drawn between the savage and prehistoric man, and 
 about what is erroneously called the "picture-writing" of 
 prehistoric times. A few fragments of bone scratched with 
 spirited outlines of the cave-bear, the mammoth, and other 
 extinct animals a few specimens of delicate bone-carvings 
 a few rude attempts at depicting boats, men, and animals, 
 cut here and there upon the face of a cliff in Scandinavia or 
 Siberia, or the Maritime Alps, have come down to us from 
 the ages before history. The immense antiquity of these is 
 self-proven, since they can only have been executed by men 
 who were contemporary with the animals they depicted. 
 Those men were the cave-dwellers of the paleolithic period 
 that far-distant time when the hairy rhinoceros, the mam- 
 moth, the reindeer, and the hyena ranged the forests of 
 France and Belgium; when there was as yet no English 
 Channel ; when the Thames was a tributary of the Rhine ;
 
 240 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 and when the bed of the German Ocean was one vast plain 
 over which great herds of these formidable beasts migrated 
 from north to south, or from south to north, as summer 
 was succeeded by winter, and winter by summer. There are 
 few things in this world more interesting than these pathetic 
 relics of our remotest ancestors. They bring very near to 
 us the life of the cave-man that life which was a daily war- 
 fare with beasts of prey ; and they are certainly the most 
 ancient specimens of tine art in the world. 
 
 PREHISTORIC INCISED OUTLINE REPRESENTING THE MAMMOTH ON A FRAGMENT OF BONE, 
 
 From Sir J. Lubbock's History of Civilization. 
 
 But they are not picture-writings. They are sketches 
 sketches done with a flint point by an artist clad in skins, 
 who fashioned his own stone hatchets, chipped his own ar- 
 row-heads, and lived in an age when there was neither socie- 
 ty nor government. 
 
 This cave-man was not, strictly speaking, a savage ; nor is 
 the argument either just or scientific which likens him to 
 the red man, or the bush-man, or any other race of untam- 
 able aborigines. He was simply a man whose foot was on 
 the lowest step of the ladder, but who was steadily working 
 his way upward to civilization. 
 
 The historic age in Egypt begins with Mena, the first king
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 241 
 
 of the First Dynasty ; but, as there was a prehistoric age in 
 Europe, so there was also a prehistoric age in Egypt the 
 age of the " Horshesu."( 64 ) 
 
 The land was divided at this time into petty principalities 
 governed by hereditary chieftains. That was, in all probabil- 
 ity, the era of mere picture-writing. How long it took the 
 ancient Egyptians to emerge from this first stage of the art, 
 it is impossible even to guess. Perhaps they had already 
 emerged from it when Mena reduced the primitive chieftains 
 to a state of vassalage, and converted their territories into 
 the provinces of his new Empire. Be this as it may, we do 
 know quite exactly, step by step, how the art and mystery 
 of the scribe's craft was developed in the Valley of the 
 Nile ; and if we are unable to put a date to those successive 
 stages, we can at all events trace them with unerring 
 certainty. 
 
 The first stage is " ideography," or mere picture - writing, 
 in which a man stands for a man, a ship for a ship, a camel 
 for a camel, and so forth. But to construct a sentence by 
 means of pure ideography is impossible. Tenses, parts of 
 speech, and all those grammatical contrivances whereby we 
 connect or separate ideas are wanting. The very pictures 
 are liable to misinterpretation. Even now, the helpless tour- 
 ist in a foreign land is sometimes reduced to picture-writing 
 to express his modest requirements ; but the result is seldom 
 satisfactory. The Englishman who sketched a mushroom 
 on the margin of the bill of fare at a. Paris restaurant, was 
 naturally disappointed when the waiter brought him an um- 
 brella. 
 
 A long course of umbrellas, so to speak, and the confusion 
 to which it must have led, paved the way for another kind 
 of picture-writing, in which sounds were expressed instead 
 of things namely, pictorial phonetism ; and pictorial phonet- 
 ism registers the second stage in the art of writing. Now, 
 in pictorial phonetism each figure stands for the sound of the 
 word denoting the object represented, that word being gen- 
 erally, though not necessarily, used in a far-fetched sense. 
 
 16
 
 212 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 The illustration gives us an example in our own language; 
 an eye, a can, a sail, a round, and a globe. 
 
 If we but look at these figures, they 
 have neither sense nor sequence. They 
 are intelligible only when pronounced : 
 " I can sail round the globe." 
 
 This is pictorial phonetism; and pic- 
 torial phonetism is, in fact, pictorial 
 punning, of the sort commonly known 
 as the rebus, or charade. 
 
 From picture-writing to pictorial phonetism was an enor- 
 mous stride; but as we know nothing of the condition of 
 the Egyptian vocabulary at that remote time, we cannot pos- 
 sibly estimate to what extent pictorial phonetism supplied a 
 means of coherent communication between man and man. 
 That the language contained a very large number of mono- 
 syllabic words is, however, certain; and as phonetism is nec- 
 essarily syllabic, we may assume that the earliest Eg} T ptian 
 scribes had a rich mine of syllabic forms to draw upon. 
 These syllabic forms represent the common objects of daily 
 life, the names of which belonged to the earliest period of 
 the language, when all words were monosyllabic ; as : mer, 
 a hoe ; ma, a sickle ; neb, a bowl, and so forth. These, and 
 
 such as these, were readily 
 ^r adapted for phonetic syl- 
 lables, and had the ad- 
 
 MKK. MA. NEB. ,. , . 
 
 vantage of being so well 
 
 known that a summary representation in outline was at 
 once recognizable. In the autumn of 1889, and again in the 
 autumn of 1890, I had the pleasure of examining Mr. Pe-
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 243 
 
 trie's most interesting collection of domestic objects discov- 
 ered in the ruins of Kahun a site of which I have already 
 had occasion to say something in Chapter IV. of this volume 
 and I well remember the thrill with which I saw and 
 handled some of these very objects. There was a hoe, for 
 instance, exactly like the hoe of the hieroglyphs a simple 
 implement enough, of old brown wood, with the ancient 
 cord of palm-fibre yet in its place. 
 
 There, too, was the handle of an adze a very familiar 
 hieroglyph, signifying sotep, .. which often occurs in royal 
 names ; and, above all, there was .one perfect sickle, the han- 
 
 dle and blade of wood, with three little flint saws cemented 
 into the inner side of the curve a most interesting imple- 
 ment, and the first of its kind yet discovered. All these 
 tools and implements were of the extremely ancient period 
 of the Twelfth Dynasty, about two thousand eight hundred 
 years before the Christian era. That is to say, they were close 
 upon five thousand years old. But that sickle carried with 
 it a yet older history. It carried on the traditions of a time 
 when the use of metals was unknown ; and it pointed back, 
 as with Time's own finger, to that far-off prehistoric age 
 from which its shape and make had been handed down with- 
 out alteration.
 
 '244 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Just as pictorial phonetisra was evolved from ideography, 
 or picture-writing, so was alphabetism evolved from pictorial 
 phonetism. Now, when writing has reached the alphabetic 
 stage, it enters upon the last, and by far the most important, 
 phase of its development. Every real obstacle to the free 
 transmission of thought is overcome. The foundations of 
 history and science are laid. The instrument of literature is 
 found. And it was the ancient Egyptians who found and 
 fashioned that instrument. To them we owe the invention 
 of the first alphabet the most precious and momentous in- 
 vention of all time. And they invented it so inconceivably 
 long ago that they were in the full possession of vowels and 
 consonants, and of the art of spelling words by means of let- 
 ters instead of syllables, when they carved the oldest inscrip- 
 tions in existence. 
 
 Other ancient writings passed through, the same three 
 stages of development picture-writing, pictorial phonetism, 
 and alphabetic writing ; but the oldest alphabets of other na- 
 tions are modern when compared with that of the Egyptians. 
 The cuneiform writing of Babylonia and Assyria, after crys- 
 tallizing for ages as a syllabic script, ended by becoming an 
 alphabetic writing in the hands of the Medes and Persians ; 
 but by that time the Egyptians had been using their alpha- 
 bet for some three thousand five hundred years. Again, the 
 cuneiform never overleaped the great mountain range which 
 divides Asia Minor from Asia; whereas that other alphabet 
 whose origin lies so far back in the darkness before dawn 
 that we cannot discern its beginning the alphabet of the 
 ancient Egyptians was the parent stock of the Phoenician, 
 of the Greek, and of all the alphabets of Europe, including, 
 of course, our own. 
 
 But how was the Egyptian alphabet constructed ? Upon 
 Avhat principle was it founded ? 
 
 These are questions upon which Egyptologists differ; for 
 even Egyptologists (who are by far the most amiable people 
 on the face of the globe) do sometimes, like doctors, disa- 
 gree. According, however, to the theory most commonly
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 245 
 
 accepted, the process was effected in this way. A monosyl- 
 labic word was selected, as, for instance, bu, the Egyptian 
 for " leg," represented in simple picture-writing by a 
 
 leg, thus : II To convert bu into b, it was but necessa- 
 ry to drop the final vowel, and let the leg stand for I 
 only. The same with ro, the mouth, represented thus 
 in the picture-writing. The vowel sound being 
 dropped, they obtained the letter /'. A reed of the sort 
 which grows abundantly in the Delta was called aak. 
 It was conventionally represented thus. M By preserv- 
 ing only the initial sound they obtained thevowel. 
 In this way, a certain number of vowels and consonants 
 were detached from the old phonetic words, some being 
 dropped from the beginning, and some from the end, of a 
 familiar monosyllable. They were thus formed into a regu- 
 lar alphabet the parent alphabet of all our European series. 
 
 But the parent was, in some respects, very unlike its chil- 
 dren. It contained no letter e, no g, no d, no z; but it made 
 up for these deficiencies by extreme liberality in other ways. 
 It contained no less than three forms of a, three forms of t, 
 and two forms each for i, u, m, n, k, and s. After this, it is 
 some relief to know that they had but one b, one p, and one/*. 
 
 Here is the hieroglyphic alphabet as it was commonly in 
 use : 
 
 Vowels. . . fl a, <\ , - -* , (m or \\ /, tK or (5 ?/. 
 i j!n> 11 -r 
 
 Labials . . . Jj b, Dp, ^ _ f. 
 
 Liquids . . Y^ or ^=rr m, *~~* or / n, <r> or 
 Palatals . . ffi k, ^=^s k, & q. 
 Gutturals. h, [~[] h, x- 
 
 Sibilants . . P or H *, r^-i s ( = English sti). 
 
 o.^ 
 
 Dentals . . . c^a t, Ok t, ~> 0, "^ t'.
 
 2-1:6 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 All these letters must have stood originally for monosylla- 
 bic words belonging to the earliest stage of the language; 
 but it is no longer possible to identify the source of every 
 letter, owing, doubtless, to the fact that many of the oldest 
 words had become obsolete by the time when the alphabet 
 had reached that point of development at which our knowl- 
 edge of it begins. 
 
 And now it will naturally be concluded that our Egyp- 
 tians threw aside their old childish picture-writing, their 
 clumsy phonetic picture -punning, and all the swaddling- 
 clothes in which their infant literature had till then been 
 smothered. Not in the least. The Egyptians were, of all 
 nations, the most conservative. A custom, a belief, a meth- 
 od once adopted was never wholly relinquished. Being in 
 possession of an alphabet, they proceeded, of course, to write 
 words as we do, spelling them letter by letter ; but they still 
 clung to the old ideographs, tacking them on at the end, so 
 as to make quite sure that there should be no mistake about 
 the meaning like those sign-board artists who take the wise 
 precaution of adding, " This is a lion," or " This is a cow." 
 
 Thus, in writing the word hetra, which is the Egyptian for 
 
 " horse," they began by spelling it letter by 
 
 ^ <Z> (] letter, omitting only the vowel e, which did 
 
 not exist in their alphabet. 
 
 The word being now spelled, they next 
 added the figure of the horse a distinct 
 survival of the old picture-writing. Finally, not being con- 
 tent with the word and the ideo- 
 graph, they added Q o* <l> M toft O the determina- 
 tive sign representing a hide, a hide 
 being the conventional symbol for all four-footed animals. 
 
 We will take another example. Ab, " thirst," is h II 
 spelled a-b. Now ab, spelled in the same way, also i -^ 
 signifies a kid. We would therefore expect to see the figure 
 of the kid placed after the word when used in this sense, but 
 we would not expect to see it if the word were used in the 
 sense of " thirst." It was retained, however, all the same.
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 247 
 
 merely to express its original syllabic value ; that is to say, 
 the figure of the kid is added to emphasize the 
 
 pronunciation of the word ab. ft JJ |SSf Next, to show that 
 the kid has nothing to do with ^* the sense of the 
 
 word, but that ab stands for " thirst," they added the hiero- 
 glyphic sign for " water." Even this was 
 not enough. To clinch the sense of the 
 whole, they finally added the figure of a man 
 with his hand to his mouth, indicating 
 his desire to drink. Thus, to a monosyl- fl 1 jSNj ^ /& 
 labic noun of two letters only, we have " A 
 
 three determinatives : a determinative of sound namely, the 
 kid, signifying ab ; a determinative of sense namely, water; 
 and the generic determinative commonly in use to denote 
 actions performed by the mouth, such as speaking, eating, 
 and drinking. A more cumbrous system could not be con- 
 ceived ; yet in so far as we are concerned, its complexity is 
 its greatest recommendation. Had the Egyptians been less 
 conservative, had they rejected their early methods when 
 they invented the alphabet, we could not have traced the 
 stratification of the language or the writing. In such an 
 example as the last we clearly read the history of both. 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the hieroglyphic 
 writing is the extraordinary number and variety of the signs. 
 Of these characters there are about 3000, including 20 alpha- 
 betic letters, 140 phonetic signs, and upward of 200 deter- 
 minatives. This strikes us as an embarrassment of riches. 
 It is certainly not the sort of writing which advertisers un- 
 dertake to teach in twelve lessons. At the same time the 
 study of hieroglyphs is much more fascinating, and much less 
 difficult, than might be imagined. 
 
 The signs, we" must remember, are not mere arbitrary and 
 meaningless figures. They are more or less pictorial ; and 
 they represent an immense number of interesting objects of 
 all kinds tools, weapons, plants, and the like. The amount 
 of information locked up in these little figures is quite incal- 
 culable. They show us with what kind of plough the ancient
 
 24:8 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Egyptian husbandman tilled the soil ; the sickle with which 
 he reaped his harvest ; the wine-press in which he crushed his 
 grapes. There, too, we see the drill and auger and chisel 
 of the carpenter ; the spear and shield of the soldier ; the 
 crown and sceptre of the Pharaoh ; the harp and lute of the 
 minstrel ; the ink-bottle and pen-case of the scribe. And 
 there, also, are the lotus lily and papyrus plant ; the croco- 
 dile, the hippopotamus, and the fishes of the Nile ; the jackal 
 and hare of the desert ; the hawk, the pelican, the crane, the 
 ibis, the vulture, and every other bird that haunts the banks 
 of the great river. The sacred beetle, the hooded cobra, the 
 eared cerastes, the scorpion, the lizard, and all creatures that 
 burrow in the sands or lurk in rocks and caves, have like- 
 wise their place in this wonderful picture-gallery for that is 
 just what it is. A hieroglyphic dictionary, or a list of hiero- 
 glyphic characters, is in fact a pictorial encyclopedia of all 
 the objects, natural or artificial, animate or inanimate, which 
 were known to the Egyptians. 
 
 The human figure plays a conspicuous part in the hiero- 
 glyphic system, being employed as a determinative sign in 
 many different ways. 
 
 It continually occurs, for instance, as a determinative of 
 gender. After such words as " youth," " slave," 
 " father," " scribe," there follows the figure of a man ^ 
 sitting. 
 
 After "wife," "queen," "daughter," "sister," "maiden," 
 and the like, \ve find the figure of a seated woman. 
 These are generic determinatives. 
 
 But there are also special determinatives. Say that 
 an inscription refers to some high official, that official's name 
 is followed by the figure of a man walking with a staff; 
 the staff being the emblem, of authority, as, indeed, it 
 is in Egypt to this day. Or say that an old man is in 
 
 question, then his name is followed by a stooping fig- 
 ure, leaning heavily upon a stick ; this being the de- 
 terminative for age or infirmity. An act of worship 
 is recorded, and straightway the scribe adds a figure in
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 249 
 
 the attitude of adoration. ^ A man standing with his 
 arms flung up above his jl head signifies joy or exul- 
 tation. ' A man with his hands and arms in the po- 
 sition }T of repelling means dissuasion, turning back, 
 repudi- ation. It is a question of eating, drinking, 
 or speaking, and we have a squatting figure with the 
 hand to the mouth. Or it is a question of singing or 
 declaiming, and the Q7j determinative figure at once 
 assumes a parlia- mentary attitude. 4r 
 
 Now, there is a special and peculiar interest at- "** taching 
 to these determinatives, which are of extreme antiquity, 
 and belong to the earliest known stage of the writing. 
 They are evident reminiscences of the old "gesture lan- 
 guage " that " picture action " to which I have referred as 
 coeval with the beginnings of human speech. In this fash- 
 ion our " rude forefathers " supplemented their scanty vocab- 
 ulary. The gestures first employed as a necessity were con- 
 tinued at a later period as a matter of habit ; and thus, when 
 primitive man had so far advanced upon the path of civiliza- 
 tion as to attempt picture-writing, he naturally had re- 
 course to the representation of picture action in order to 
 indicate emotions and conditions of being for which, in the 
 absence of an alphabet, he had no other means of expression. 
 
 In addition to hieroglyphs of the whole figure, there is 
 a considerable series representing only parts of the fig- 
 ure. 
 
 A nose, jz^ for instance, was the determinative for 
 smelling or breathing; an ear stood for hear- 
 
 ing ; a head for command, prece- ^ dence, superior- 
 
 ity. Any reference to ^ walk- ing or travel- 
 
 ling was followed by a pair of legs ; ^ and if it 
 
 were a question of returning, the legs were re- versed. 
 
 Thus, when it is said in The Book of the Dead that the 
 virtuous Soul is privileged to go in and out of Hades, the 
 sentence concludes with both determinatives. 
 
 And this reminds me of a similar device in 
 
 the Mexican picture-writing, where the act of going to and
 
 250 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 fro is indicated by footprints such footprints as are made 
 
 by a bare foot upon the sands. 
 
 A, It may be objected that these are not in the least 
 
 like footprints, for that is an observation frequent- 
 A l ly made ; but it only shows how seldom we see the 
 
 (. print of a bare foot, and how little we cultivate 
 
 * our powers of observation. For the Mexican ide- 
 ogram is, in truth, strictly correct. We do not 
 fc ' 
 
 t touch the ground with the inner side of the sole of 
 
 ' the foot; consequently that side leaves no mark. 
 
 Neither does the little toe make any sensible im- 
 pression. It is, therefore, only the four first toes, 
 the fiat "tread" beneath them, and the outer side 
 of the sole which are printed off at each step. 
 
 But to return to our Egyptians. Here is a sign com- 
 posed of two p. arms, with the hands open and the 
 palms turned downward. This is the determi- 
 
 native sign for denial. Here we have a palpable sur- 
 vival of the " gesture language." It is precisely the action 
 of the modern conjurer who assures his audience that he 
 has nothing whatever in his hands ; and it distinctly points 
 to an age when force was the law of the strong, and theft 
 was the resource of the weak, and every man's hand was 
 against his neighbor. Such an example is a piece of fossil- 
 ized history. 
 
 To those who know anything (though never so little) about 
 this curious and interesting subject, it sometimes happens to 
 be asked whether the study of hieroglyphs is not, in truth, 
 of extraordinary difficulty. To this question it may be re- 
 plied that the study of hieroglyphs is sufficiently easy up to 
 a certain point, after which it becomes more, and increasing- 
 ly more, difficult. It needs but a very little perseverance to en- 
 able the student to master so much knowledge as may suffice 
 for the translation of the ordinary run of funerary or dedi- 
 catory inscriptions ; but it is when he comes to deal with 
 the archaic forms of the earliest periods, or the corrupt and 
 complicated forms of the latest periods, that his troubles may
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 251 
 
 be said to begin. Apart, however, from archaisms and cor- 
 ruptions, there is, as it seems to me, another and a very real 
 difficulty which we moderns have to encounter when we be- 
 gin to study the language and writing of the ancient Egyp- 
 tians. It is not that the grammar is abstruse ; on the con- 
 trary, the grammar is singularly elementary. It is not that 
 the hieroglyphs are puzzling, or hard to remember. Being 
 pictorial, they tell their own story, and are as easy to remem- 
 ber as the objects they represent. It is not even the alarm- 
 ing fact that there are 3000 of them; for of those 3000, 
 only a limited number were in common use. It is for none 
 of these reasons. Our real stumbling-block is the amazing 
 and utterly childlike simplicity of the whole thing. It is a 
 simplicity which belongs to the time "when all the world 
 was young;" and now that all the world is old, we do not 
 know what to make of it. We are born with nineteenth 
 century brains ; and we cannot put our brains back, as if they 
 were the hands of a clock. Yet it is only by putting our 
 brains back that we can possibly contrive to get behind the 
 simplicity of ancient Egyptian thought. That simplicity of 
 thought, joined to admirable powers of observation, a specu- 
 lative turn of mind, and a curiously literal method of reason- 
 ing, led this singular people to construct a theory of the uni- 
 verse and an elaborate system of religion which so strongly 
 affected their arts, their literature, and even their hiero- 
 glyphs, that unless one knows what they thought and be- 
 lieved on a great many subjects, it is impossible to grasp 
 the meaning of many an ordinary looking character. 
 
 Here, for instance, is the ideograph for pet, the 
 
 " sky." It represents a ceiling, or, rather, a cross- 
 
 beam supporting a ceiling. This looks like a metaphor; but 
 it is nothing of the kind. The Egyptians conceived the sky 
 to be a ceiling, or overhead platform of iron, along which 
 flowed the waters of the heavenly ocean. Daily, from east 
 to west, this heavenly ocean was traversed by Ra, the sun- 
 god, in his golden bark. But at night the iron ceiling was 
 lighted by lamps, each star in the firmament being a lamp
 
 252 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 watched over by an attendant god. We add a star sus- 
 pended by a string (the loose end of the string p 
 hangs down at the other side of the beam), and this 
 sign the sign pet with the star added is the determina- 
 tive hieroglyph signifying "night," "darkness," "gloom," 
 and all such notions. These suspended lamps were the fixed 
 stars, and the gods of the fixed stars were stationary ; but 
 the planets were lamps carried on the heads of wandering 
 gods who sailed the heavens as earthly mariners sail the 
 seas, steering their barks by the divine chart, and follow- 
 ing fixed courses according to the seasons.* In the mean 
 while the iron ceiling, which formed the bed of the great 
 upper ocean, was supported at the four corners by the four 
 sons of Horus the gods of the four cardinal points. 
 They upheld it by means of four props shaped thus : Y 
 forked boughs, in fact, such as were used to support 
 the roof of the primitive house. When it rained, the rain 
 was taken to be an overflow from the superincumbent ocean ; 
 and if it rained heavily (which is very unusual in every 
 part of Egypt except the Delta), then every one was terri- 
 fied lest the props should be giving way, and the ceiling 
 and the ocean should both be coming down together. 
 
 Here we have the hieroglyph for rain, consisting of 
 
 the ceiling and the four props. The I TTTT J props should, 
 of course, stand at the four corners of the heavenly 
 
 platform; but the Egyptians were hopelessly ignorant of 
 perspective, so they placed them in a row. These props, it 
 will be observed, support nothing, because the ceiling is in 
 the act of descending, in order to convey the notion of rain. 
 To express a heavy storm (shena), the ceiling is shown as 
 half-way down. We ourselves are wont to say, when it 
 rains very heavily, that " the sky is coming down." The 
 Egyptians believed that it was literally doing so. 
 
 Now, they had also a word for "clear," -\ K 
 " light," " crystalline," " shining," and the like fl (] 
 the word taken. They spelled this word < '* 0] 
 * See chap. vi.
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 253 
 
 alphabetically, but they required, as usual, a determina- 
 tive of the sense, and for that purpose they had 
 
 recourse to another |YT| hieroglyph, which represents 
 the iron ceiling safe- ly supported on its four props. 
 
 This represents the clear sky of Egypt, when all is bright 
 overhead. 
 
 It remains to be told how there came to be an overhead 
 ocean. At the dawn of creation those waters covered the 
 face of the earth, so that there were no living things except 
 such as peopled the sea. Then came the god Shu, and he 
 separated the waters from the earth, and uplifted them by 
 main strength, " as a great god can ;" and behold, the gods 
 of the cardinal points stepped in with their four props and 
 fixed it up forever. Thus we see how a whole chapter in 
 the history of human thought may be preserved, like a fly 
 in amber, in two or three little hieroglyphs. Here we have 
 the Egyptian cosmogony, the Egyptian theory of the fixed 
 stars and the planetary system, and their explanation of the 
 familiar phenomenon of rain. 
 
 We will now turn to to, the hieroglyph for " land." This 
 sign is not of such far-reaching meaning as the last; 
 but it is a very interesting sign, and I believe that it 
 has not been analyzed till now. Here we see the level 
 plain the surface of the earth. The lower signs indicate 
 what is below the surface. The object shaped as an acute 
 angle is a cutting instrument a wedge ; it indicates min- 
 ing. The three small balls stand for metals. The verti- 
 cal line means a sunk shaft the boring, perhaps, for an 
 artesian - well. So here we have the earth and its riches, 
 metals and water, and the little implement which sym- 
 bolizes the enterprise and industry of man. 
 
 This is the ideograph for a city, ~ used also as a deter- 
 minative sign after the name of any special city. This 
 object is described in hieroglyphic dictionaries as a "cake," 
 and it certainly does resemble a kind of hot cross-bun fre- 
 quently represented in pictures of offerings ; but the sign 
 (pronounced nu) is really intended for a walled town, with
 
 254 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 its two main streets crossing at right angles. At Benha, 
 the site of the ancient city of Athribis, the lines of these 
 two main streets are yet clearly distinguishable, as doubtless 
 they are in other places. 
 
 Strange as the statement may seem, it is nevertheless true 
 that we are all, quite unconsciously, using many and many 
 an ancient Egyptian word to this day, like Moliere's Monsieur 
 Jourdain, Avho had been talking prose all his life without 
 knowing it. For instance, the land of Egypt was known by 
 many names to its ancient people as Ta-meri, the " Be- 
 loved Land ;" Ne-hi, the " Land of the Sycamore ;" Khem or 
 Khemit, the " Black Land," meaning the rich, dark soil an- 
 nually deposited by the inundation ; and so on. In the same 
 way, Ireland, Erin, Hibernia, and the Emerald Isle, mean one 
 and the same. Now, this word khem, khem-t, khemit, or khemi, 
 has many applications. It is the name of a god, Khein,( 6& ) 
 the deity who presided over productiveness and " the kindly 
 fruits of the earth." In this sense, he was also the god of 
 curative herbs and simples, and so became associated in the 
 popular mind with the arts of healing. ' Hence, from kkem, 
 our chemist and chemistry. But Mem also meant " black," 
 and in this connection it survives in " alchemy," the " black 
 art." Here we have the hieroglyphic group 
 for Khem-t, Egypt. The first sign is a syl- 
 labic hieroglyph standing for khem " black." 
 The owl, m, confirms the final consonant; 
 and the half sphere, t, is the feminine determinative a 
 country, a province, a city, being feminine in Egyptian, as 
 in many other tongues, both ancient and modern. The first 
 sign has never been satisfactorily explained, but I venture to 
 think that its meaning is not far to seek. In the square 
 marked off by two diagonals, I recognize an ideograph for 
 territory ; and in these parallel lines the levels at which the 
 dark alluvial mud is freshly deposited every year. The up- 
 permost line is the shortest, because the Nile begins to sub- 
 side again as soon as it has touched its highest point ; and 
 the lowest line is the longest, because it represents the nor-
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 255 
 
 mal level of the river. These words have come to us by a 
 somewhat circuitous route, through the Arabic ; the original 
 word Tehem having first been picked up by the Arab con- 
 querors of Egypt, and by them handed on to the Barbary 
 Moors, who carried it to Spain, whence it has spread through 
 Europe. 
 
 The word "camel" is 
 
 Egyptian. It is spelled -xro; i JT I 
 
 , 7 rrn &' & tnd, O, Cl I 
 
 thus: K-a-ma-a-a-a-l. Ihe 
 
 a was evidently very broad, for it is repeated four times, 
 the whole ending with the generic determinative of a hide, 
 as in the word hetra, or " horse." 
 
 Although the cocoa-palm is not native to the soil, the name 
 of the cocoa-nut, strange to say, is of Egyptian descent. A 
 well-known text mentions a palm sixty cubits high, the fruit 
 of which contained nuts in which there was water ; and these 
 nuts are called ku-ku. The little circle is 
 
 the ideograph of the ,, t^ r, "^\ O nut, and the three 
 vertical strokes signi- fy plurality. 
 
 The Egyptian for "knife "is 
 
 kat ; whence our "cut." And here is the name of 
 a precious wood which often figures as tribute brought by 
 Ethiopian vassals, and which is invariably painted black. 
 Here we have a phonetic syllable 
 
 pronounced Ila; the leg, I; the pg /wwvs NX A 
 
 zigzag line, n the two slanting Ha b n i * 
 lines for the vowel *, pronounced 
 
 " e ;" and finally the conventional determinative of a tree. 
 The whole spells hdbni, Avhich is " ebony." So here again 
 is a word in which every stage of the hieroglyphic writ- 
 ing is present the old picture-writing, preserved in the 
 determinative tree ; the punning phonetic syllable, of which 
 the actual meaning is "house;" and the alphabetic spelling 
 in 5, n, and i. 
 
 Another coveted Ethiopian product was kami, a substance 
 imported from the Somali coast and from the Soudan. This 
 word passed into the Greek as kommi; thence into the Latin
 
 256 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 as gummi, and now it is " gum." This is the gum which 
 we call "gum-arabic;" and it continues to be an article of 
 commerce, exported from the Soudan through Egypt, to 
 this day. At Assuan, on the frontier of Nubia, we may 
 see the swarthy Soudanese traders camping out, surrounded 
 by great bales of this gum sewn up in buffalo hides, waiting 
 for the cargo-boats which shall carry their goods to Cairo, 
 just as in ancient days they journeyed with the self-same ar- 
 ticle of tribute or commerce to Thebes and Memphis. 
 
 This brief sketch of the origin and development of the 
 hieroglyphic writing has already run to so great a length 
 that I must pass but lightly over much else on which I would 
 fain have dwelt longer. Nothing has yet been said about 
 the cursive writings of the Egyptians ; but they had two cur- 
 sive writings namely, the " hieratic," and .the " demotic." 
 For, as time went on, and the requirements of social and po- 
 litical life became more complex, there inevitably arose the 
 demand for a popular script. It would have been impossible 
 for literature to flourish, as it did flourish in Egypt from the 
 Eleventh Dynasty onward, had the scribes, the poets, the let- 
 ter-writers, and the professional copyists been fettered by a 
 system so complicated and so cumbrous as the hieroglyphic. 
 They were bound to discover some way of abridging it of 
 rendering it more flexible, more rapid, more simple. At what 
 time they made their first efforts in this direction we know 
 not* But we do know that by the time of the Eleventh Dy- 
 nasty they were already in possession of a bold cursive writ- 
 ing, and of a material upon which to employ it. That writing 
 bears the same relation to the hieroglyphic writing as our 
 running-hand bears to printed matter. It is known as the 
 hieratic script ; and the material invented for the use of the 
 scribe was papyrus. 
 
 Just as our own systems of cursive writing have undergone 
 many changes in the course of centuries, so the hieratic 
 writing of the Egyptians varied from age to age, the ten- 
 dency of these variations being persistently in the direction 
 of economy. It was massive and square-cut under the Elev-
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 257 
 
 enth and Twelfth dynasties ; that is to say, from about two 
 thousand eight hundred to two thousand five hundred years 
 before our era. Under the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dy- 
 nasties it lost something in the way of force, and gained 
 something in the way of elegance. Later still it became 
 small and cramped, and, if I may be permitted the use of a 
 word so unacademic, " niggling." 
 
 fa^ 
 
 HIERATIC PAPYRUS OF PRINCESS NESIKHONSU. 
 
 Twenty-first Dynasty. 
 
 But even the hieratic itself an abridgment ceased by- 
 and-by to satisfy the demand for increased simplicity and 
 speed, and a third form of writing, which was an abridg- 
 ment of the hieratic, came into use. This abridgment of 
 an abridgment which stands to hieratic as our short-hand 
 stands to ordinary running-hand is called the "demotic." 
 It makes its first appearance as a fully developed system 
 about the time of the Twenty -fifth Dynasty, some seven 
 
 17
 
 258 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 hundred years before our era. By this time the Egyptians 
 had become a highly commercial, and an extremely litigious, 
 people. They bought and sold, borrowed, mortgaged, and 
 lent with feverish activity, and were so perpetually quarrel- 
 ling over their bargains, their leases, their securities, their 
 marriage-settlements, and their inheritances, that a writing 
 better adapted to legal and commercial purposes than the 
 literary hieratic was urgently needed. As usual, the demand 
 
 DEMOTIC WRITING. 
 
 From a funerary inscription written with the reed pen upon a wooden tablet. 
 
 created the supply, and demotic became the ordinary script 
 of the people. In the mean while neither the hieroglyphic 
 nor the hieratic writings had wholly died out. The hiero- 
 glyphic continued in use for stone-cut inscriptions as long as 
 the ancient language endured ; that is to say, it is found 
 on monuments of the later Roman period, the names of 
 all the Caesars, from Augustus to Deems, being transliter- 
 ated into Egyptian, carved in hieroglyphic characters, and 
 enclosed in the royal ovals of the Pharaohs, on temples and 
 tablets dating from the twenty-seventh to the two hundred 
 and fiftieth year of the Christian era. 
 
 The hieratic writing was more short-lived than the hiero- 
 glyphic. Beginning from the time of the Eleventh Dynasty, 
 it continued to be employed for literary purposes down to 
 the period of the Twenty-fourth or Twenty-fifth Dynasty, 
 when it was finally superseded by the demotic. Our muse- 
 ums contain thousands of hieratic papyri, consisting chiefly 
 of extracts from The Book of the Dead, besides works on 
 medicine and mathematics, tales, poems, essays, hymns, mag-
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 259 
 
 ical formulas, correspondence, State-papers, and the like ;* and 
 it is not too much to say that there are tens of thousands of 
 demotic documents in the museums of Turin, Berlin, Vienna, 
 Paris, Leyden, and London. These are chiefly law-deeds, ac- 
 counts, letters, and the miscellaneous memoranda of a tradino- 
 population. The hieratic documents are principally written 
 on papyrus. The demotic documents are scrawled on all 
 kinds of materials on papyrus, parchment, flakes of lime- 
 stone, potsherds, and the like. 
 
 Just as I have compared the three writings of the Egyp- 
 tians with type, running - hand, and short -hand, so I may 
 roughly classify them as the monumental, literary, and com- 
 mercial scripts of that ancient people. 
 
 Of the language itself, and of the laws by which it was 
 governed, a few words must be said. The actual source of 
 the Egyptian language is wrapped in obscurity. Some great 
 authorities make it of Aryan origin, while others class it with 
 the Semitic tongues. In all probability, neither classification 
 is strictly correct. The Egyptian belongs, however, to what 
 is called the " Khamitic " family of tongues a group which 
 includes the Ethiopian, Libyan, Berber, and other African 
 languages. In all these the feminine takes the letter t either 
 as a prefix or a suffix; and they all conjugate the verb by 
 agglutination. The one and only really certain fact is that 
 the Khamitic and Semitic languages are derived from a com- 
 mon source. Their grammatical system is, in certain essential 
 points, the same. Many of their roots are identical; their 
 plural forms are closely related ; and in all the feminine de- 
 terminative is alike. But these two linguistic families off- 
 shoots from one parent stem separated in the ages before his- 
 tory, that parent being itself but a prehistoric idiom of very 
 limited range and unknown antiquity. Whether its home 
 were in the Hindoo Kush, or the plains of Mesopotamia, or 
 the highlands of Scandinavia, may perhaps forever remain an 
 open question. 
 
 The Egyptian grammar is of most elementary barren- 
 
 * See chap. vi.
 
 260 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 ness. Its structure, as compared Avith the grammar of oth- 
 er languages, is like the structure of the polyp as com- 
 pared with the complex organism of the higher animals. 
 Some parts of speech are altogether lacking. In the series 
 of personal pronouns, for example, there is no first person 
 plural. It exists as a suffix to the verb, but not as a word. 
 Among the conjunctions there is no equivalent for "and." 
 If an Egyptian needed to say " and " he used " with ;" so 
 that instead of saying " you and I," he would say " you with 
 me." As a rule, however, he omitted the conjunction in this 
 sense. As for the Egyptian verb, it has been concisely de^ 
 scribed by Mr. Le Page Eenouf as " expressing being or ac- 
 tion without any reference to time, or to the conception of the 
 speaker," and as having " neither tenses, moods, voices, nor 
 conjugations." The stock of prepositions and of compound 
 prepositions was, however, very considerable, consisting of 
 some sixteen or seventeen simple forms, and over thirty com- 
 pound forms, many of which appear to us quite superfluous. 
 
 It must not be supposed for a moment that the rudimen- 
 tary character of the Egyptian grammar helps to make it 
 one jot easier. On the contrary, it would be a great deal 
 easier if it were a little more difficult. 
 
 THOTH. 
 
 The Egyptian god of writing.
 
 VIII. 
 QUEEN HATASU, 
 
 AND HER EXPEDITION TO THE LAND OF PUNT. 
 
 QUEEN HATASU has been happily described as the Queen 
 Elizabeth of Egyptian history; and she was undoubtedly one 
 of the most extraordinary women in the annals of the an- 
 cient East. A daughter of Thothmes L, third Pharaoh of 
 the Eighteenth Dynasty, and of his wife, Queen Ahmes j^e- 
 fertari, she inherited sovereign rights in virtue of her mater- 
 nal descent from the old Twelfth Dynasty line. ( 66 ) 
 
 It has pleased historians to rank Thothmes II. as the im- 
 mediate successor of Thothmes I., and to place the reign 
 of Queen Hatasu between the reigns of her two brothers, 
 Thothmes II. and Thothmes III. By some she is described 
 as Queen Consort during the reign of Thothmes II., and as 
 Queen-regent during the earlier years of the reign of Thoth- 
 mes III. By others, and most emphatically by Dr. Brugsch, 
 she is stigmatized as a usurper. As a matter of fact, how- 
 ever, Hatasu was actually Queen, and Queen-regnant, during 
 the lifetime of her father. Her accession, therefore, dates 
 from a time long preceding that of her brother, Thothmes II. 
 An important historical inscription sculptured on one of the 
 pylons of the Great Temple of Karnak records this event in 
 eighteen columns of hieroglyphic text, which were copied 
 and translated by the late Vicornte E. de liougc in 1872.
 
 262 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 The inscription is preceded by a bas-relief sculpture repre- 
 senting Thothmes I. in adoration before the Theban triad, 
 
 O * 
 
 Amen, Maut, and Khonsu. The bas-relief and the upper 
 part of the inscription are still in fair preservation, but the 
 lower part of the text is unfortunately much mutilated. 
 When perfect this inscription would seem to have contained 
 a detailed history of the King's life and reign up to the time 
 at which it was executed. It records his birth, and relates 
 that he put down various rebellions which had broken out in 
 Lower Egypt and in the foreign provinces. Suddenly, in the 
 eleventh column of the text, the narrative form is dropped, 
 and Thothmes I. addresses the god Amen face to face. 
 
 " Behold," he says, " I make offerings unto thee ; I pros- 
 trate myself before thee; I bestow the Black Land and the 
 Red Land ( 67 ) upon my daughter, the Queen of Lower and 
 Upper Egypt, Makara, living eternally. As thou hast done 
 for me." 
 
 Further on, in the seventeenth and eighteenth columns, 
 Thothmes reverts to the throne-name of Hatasu, saying that 
 it is given to her by the decree of Amen himself, to which 
 he adds : " Thou hast transmitted the world into her power ; 
 thou hast chosen her as King." 
 
 In these passages there is more than meets the eye at first 
 sight. A " throne-name," sometimes called a " solar-name," 
 inasmuch as it affirms the direct descent of the reigning mon- 
 arch from Ra, the greatest of the solar deities, was never 
 assumed by a mere regent, but marked the actual accession 
 of a sovereign. It was equivalent to the act of coronation, 
 and probably was in general accompanied by some such 
 ceremony. De Rouge, in translating this very significant 
 text, remarks that Thothmes L, actuated, no doubt, by some 
 reason of State policy, had " during his lifetime presented his 
 daughter as Queen to the god Amen, and had given her a 
 solar cartouche or throne-name ;" that is to say, he had in- 
 vested her with all the insignia of actual royalty, not mak- 
 ing her a mere regent or coadjutor. Hence it would seem 
 that De Rouge recognized in this act of Thothmes I. a
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 263 
 
 solemn transfer of the regal power;( 68 ) and this transfer was 
 evidently made before the altar of the god in the Great 
 Temple of Amen. It is not, perhaps, difficult to guess what 
 those "reasons of State policy" may have been by which 
 Thothmes I. was actuated in taking this strange and im- 
 portant step. It may well have been that Queen Ahmes 
 ISTefertari, his wife, was dead, and that his own position was 
 therefore less stable, hers being the direct legitimate right 
 in the female line. By placing his and her daughter upon 
 the throne, he thus re-established the continuity of that line 
 and strengthened his own hands, which probably none the 
 less continued to hold the reins of government. 
 
 The title assumed by Hatasu on the occasion of her proc- 
 lamation affords a good example of the principle upon which 
 these throne or solar names were framed. It is composed of 
 three hieroglyphic signs MA, represented by the sitting fig- 
 ure of the Goddess of Truth, Law, and Justice ; KA, repre- 
 sented by the hieroglyph of the uplifted arms, and signifying 
 Life ;* and the sun-disk, representing RA, the supreme solar 
 god of the universe. This combination of hieroglyphs, though 
 apparently so simple, is capable of several interpretations. 
 By some it would be translated as " Ma, the Image of Ea ;" 
 by others as " Ma, the Soul of Ra ;" by others, again, as 
 "Ma, the Double of Ra;" but the interpretation which most 
 commends itself to me is " Ra, the Life of Ma," with the 
 meaning that Truth, Law, and Justice are the vital mani- 
 festations of Ra. The main point as regards the solar car- 
 touches is, however, as I have already said, the direct affilia- 
 tion of the sovereign to the visible source of Light and Life. 
 And this, be it observed, was in no mere symbolic sense. The 
 Pharaohs claimed to be literally and lineally descended from 
 Ra ; and, which is yet more strange, their subjects appear to 
 have believed in this amazing dogma. 
 
 Whether the marriage of Ilatasu took place before or 
 after her proclamation in the Temple of Amen we do not 
 
 * See Lecture IV., on "The Origin of Portrait Sculpture."
 
 264 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 know ; but she was, at all events, wedded while yet quite 
 young to her eldest brother, Prince Thothraes, afterwards 
 Thothmes II. A recent discovery has for the first time re- 
 vealed the exact relationship which subsisted between this 
 prince and Hatasu. A funerary chapel dedicated to the 
 memory of Prince Uatmes, a deceased son of Thothmes I., 
 as well as to some other members of that king's family, was 
 discovered in 1887 by M. Grebaut, a little to the northward 
 of the Ramesseum at Thebes. ( 69 ) Many interesting histor- 
 ical stelae and other monuments were found in the course of 
 the excavation of this chapel, the most important being a 
 life-sized sitting statue of a certain Queen Mautnefer, hitherto 
 unknown to history. This Mautnefer proves, according to 
 the inscription on her statue, to have been a wife of Thoth- 
 mes I., and mother of Thothmes II., by whom her effigy was 
 erected in the chapel of Uatmes. It would thus appear that 
 Thothmes I. had two legitimate wives namely, Ahmes Ne- 
 fertari, the royally descended mother of Hatasu, and Maut- 
 nefer, a lady evidently of inferior lineage, the mother of the 
 elder Prince Thothmes. As for the younger Thothmes, af- 
 terwards Thothmes III., he was of quite humble descent 
 maternally, being a son of Thothmes I. by a Lady As-t, whose 
 name was discovered ten years ago upon the inscribed wind- 
 ing-sheet of Thothmes III., now preserved in the Museum 
 of Ghizeh.(') This lady is therein entitled Suten Maut 
 (Royal Mother), but not also Suten Hem-t (Royal Wife), as 
 would have been the case with an actual queen; thus in- 
 dicating that she was merely a lady of the royal hareem. 
 The elucidation of this piece of family genealogy is very valu- 
 able, inasmuch as it shows Hatasu to have been but half- 
 sister to her two brothers, while it at the same time empha- 
 sizes the inferior rank of the elder prince, and the vastly 
 inferior rank of the younger. Hatasu, in short, was not 
 only "Heiress -Princess" in right of her maternal descent, 
 but she was also the only surviving offspring of Queen 
 Ahmes Nefertari ; and this, in any case, would have fur- 
 nished an important reason for her marriage with Thothmes
 
 SITTING STATUE OK HATASD. 
 
 In the Berlin Museum.
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 267 
 
 II., whose succession must otherwise have lacked the pres- 
 tige of old historic descent. 
 
 Hatasu appears to have been the mother of only two 
 children, both daughters Hatasu-Meri and Keferu-Ra. The 
 latter died in infancy, whereas Hatasu-Meri inherited the 
 legitimate rights of her royal mother and became "Heiress- 
 Princess," thus excluding the younger Thothmes from the 
 order of succession. Hereupon, having regard to the inter- 
 ests of the empire and to the further consolidation of family 
 ties, Hatasu wedded her little daughter to the younger of 
 her two half-brothers. This marriage took place during the 
 lifetime of Thothmes II., and it would even seem as though 
 tne juvenile couple were nominally associated with their 
 elders upon the throne of Egypt, since it is not possible 
 otherwise to account for the fact that the cartouches of 
 Thothmes II. and Thothmes III. are found in conjunction 
 upon certain monuments of this period. We thus see how 
 carefully Hatasu protected the interests of that younger 
 brother whose throne she is supposed to have usurped. 
 
 After a reign of about a dozen years, Thothmes II. died, 
 and was buried with his fathers. Then, for fifteen years, 
 Hatasu seems to have resumed her full hereditary rights, and 
 to have reigned alone. From this time forth, she assumed the 
 style and title of a Pharaoh ; and it is literally as a Pharaoh 
 that we find her represented on monuments of this period. 
 In contemporary wall-paintings and bas-relief sculptures, we 
 see Queen Hatasu in male attire, wearing the short kilt and 
 sandals, and crowned with the Kepersh, or war-helmet, habit- 
 ually worn by the Pharaohs on the field of battle. Some- 
 times we see her adorned with a false beard; but this is 
 perhaps a touch of delicate flattery on the part of the artist. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Queen's younger brother, who had been 
 brought up in the Great Temple of Amen and dedicated to 
 the service of the Chief God of Thebes, took, apparently, no 
 share in the government of the country. It is not, in fact, 
 till the sixteenth year after the deatli of Thothmes II. that 
 we find the name of Thothmes III. occurring in conjunction
 
 268 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 with that of Hatasu upon a rock-cut tablet in Sinai. Four 
 years later still, in the twentieth year of his nominal reign, 
 when it is probable that the great Queen either died or abdi- 
 cated we know not which Thothmes III. began that ex- 
 traordinary military career which carried the fame of his 
 arms into the farthest corners of the known world of his 
 time. How long Hatasu continued to hold the reins of gov- 
 ernment it is impossible to say, as we have no record of the 
 exact length of her reign. 
 
 Throughout the years of Hatasu's sole reign the land of 
 Egypt appears to have enjoyed an interval of profound 
 peace, during which she taxed the resources of her empire 
 by repairing those shrines and temples which had gone to 
 ruin during the period of Hyksos rule ; by embellishing 
 and enriching Karnak; and by erecting a sumptuous tem- 
 ple in Western Thebes. In those works she proved herself 
 to be one of the most magnificent builder - sovereigns of 
 Egypt. Of the victories of Thothmes 111., there remain only 
 the long lists of conquered nations and captive cities which 
 he caused to be sculptured on the pylons of Karnak ; but the 
 Temple of Dayr-el-Bahari and the two great obelisks of Kar- 
 nak, much as they have suffered at the hands of Time the 
 Destroyer, are to this day permanent records of the tranquil 
 reign of Hatasu. 
 
 Numerous and stately as were the obelisks erected in 
 Egypt from the period of the Twelfth Dynasty down to the 
 time of Roman rule, those set up by Hatasu in advance of 
 the fourth pylon of the Great Temple of Karnak are the lof- 
 tiest, the most admirably engraved, and the best propor- 
 tioned. One has fallen ; the other stands alone, one hundred 
 and nine feet high in the shaft, cut from a single flawless 
 block of red granite. An inscription engraved on the plinth 
 of the one yet erect states that : 
 
 "Amen Khnum Hatasu, the Golden Horus, Lord of the 
 two Lands, hath dedicated to her father Amen of Thebes, 
 two obelisks of Mahet stone [red granite], hewn from the 
 quarries of the South. Their summits [pyramidions] were
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 269 
 
 sheathed with pure gold, taken from the chiefs of all na- 
 tions. 
 
 " His Majesty gave these two gilded obelisks to her father 
 Amen, that her name should live forever in this temple. 
 
 " Each is one single shaft of red Mahet stone, without joint 
 or rivet. They are seen from both banks of the Nile, and 
 when Ra arises betwixt them as he journeys upward from 
 the heavenly horizon, they flood the two Egypts with the 
 glory of their brightness. 
 
 " His Majesty began this work in the fifteenth year of her 
 reign, the first day of the month of Mechir, and finished it 
 on the last day of the month of Mesore, in her sixteenth 
 year."( 7! ) 
 
 The shaft of this obelisk bears on its western and south- 
 ern sides long dedicatory inscriptions in the name of Hatasu 
 only ; whereas on the eastern side we find, to the right and 
 left of the central column of hieroglyphs, two outer columns 
 in which Hatasu and Thothmes III. are represented togeth- 
 er in adoration before various manifestations of Amen-Ea. 
 The fact that the name of Thothmes III. here appears with 
 that of his sister in the sixteenth year of her reign acquires 
 an especial interest when it is remembered that this is the 
 same date at which we meet with it on the before-mentioned 
 tablet of Sinai. It seems, therefore, to mark the precise 
 time at which he was finally recognized. 
 
 With regard to the dates recorded in the inscription on 
 the plinth, they show that these magnificent monoliths were 
 extracted from the quarries of Syene, thence conveyed to 
 Thebes (a journey of one hundred and thirty -three miles), 
 engraved, and placed in position within the amazingly short 
 period of seven months Mechir being the sixth month of 
 the Egyptian year, and Mesore the twelfth ; which is just as 
 though we were to say that some great public work was 
 begun on the first of June, and finished on the thirty-first 
 of December. It is, however, only when we consider the 
 enormous size and weight of these obelisks that the magni- 
 tude of that task can be fully appreciated, each of them
 
 270 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 measuring one hundred and nine feet in the shaft, without 
 counting the plinth. The one yet standing is, in fact, the 
 highest in the world ; the great obelisk brought from Egypt 
 to Rome in the reign of the Emperor Constantine, and now 
 standing in front of the Church of Saint John Lateran, meas- 
 uring only one hundred and six feet. 
 
 One startling peculiarity in the inscriptions of Hatasu, 
 not only upon her obelisks at Karnak, but upon the walls 
 of her temple at Dayr-el-Bahari, consists in the employment 
 of masculine titles with feminine pronouns. As hereditary 
 sovereign of Egypt, she was Pharaoh and King, head alike 
 of the sacerdotal and military castes. Hence, in one and 
 the same sentence, she appears as Hon-f (His Majesty), 
 while the suffixes used in the grammatical construction are 
 feminine. 
 
 The broken obelisk differs from its fellow in no longer 
 bearing the name of Hatasu ; Thothmes III. having, during 
 his own sole reign, erased her cartouches and substituted 
 his own. Yet, despite his usurpation, these sculptured frag- 
 ments are still the property of Hatasu. In the bas-relief 
 groups wherein she is represented as performing acts of 
 worship before Amen, her spirited and characteristic profile 
 is preserved. The name may be the name of Thothmes, but 
 the face is the face of Hatasu. If we turn back to the full- 
 face portrait of this queen, given in Lecture IV., and com- 
 pare it, feature by feature, with this profile, their identity 
 is at once recognizable. Even the little dimple in the chin, 
 which is so strongly marked in the front face, is carefully 
 indicated by a depression in the chin of the outline profile. 
 
 The most magnificent historic monument of the reign of 
 this great queen was, however, the temple which she con- 
 structed on the western bank of the Kile, nearly opposite 
 the Great Temple of Karnak. This superb structure is archi- 
 tecturally unlike any other temple in Egypt. It stands at 
 the far end of a deep bay, or natural amphitheatre, formed 
 by the steep limestone cliffs which divide the Valley of the 
 Tombs of the Kings from the Valley of the Nile. Ap-
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 
 
 271 
 
 proached by a pair of obelisks, a pylon gate-way, and a long 
 avenue of two hundred sphinxes, the temple consisted of a 
 succession of terraces and flights of steps, rising one above 
 the other, and ending in a maze of colonnades and court- 
 yards uplifted high against the 
 mountain -side. The Sanctu- 
 ary, or Holy of Holies, to which 
 all the, rest was but as an ave- 
 nue, is excavated in the face 
 of the cliff, some five hundred 
 feet above the level of the Nile. 
 The novelty of the plan is so 
 great that one cannot help 
 wondering whether it was sug- 
 gested to the architect by the 
 nature of the ground, or wheth- 
 er it was in any degree a rem- 
 iniscence of strange edifices 
 seen in far distant lands. It 
 bears, at all events, a certain 
 resemblance to the terraced 
 temples of Chaldasa. 
 
 As the statue of Bak-en-Khonsu in the Glyptotheca of 
 Munich preserves for us the name of the architect of the 
 Ramesseum, so the obelisks of Hatasu at Karnak immortal- 
 ize the name of Sen-Maut, the architect of her temple at 
 Dayr-el-Bahari. His tomb has not been discovered, and his 
 personal history is unknown; but enough remains of his 
 work in this unique temple to show that he was not only 
 possessed of consummate taste and ability, but that he also 
 originated a new departure in his art, which, had it been 
 followed, might have revolutionized the architecture of an- 
 cient Egypt. 
 
 Few of the great buildings erected by the Pharaohs of 
 the later Theban line have suffered more deplorably at the 
 hand of the destroyer than this temple, which is now only 
 known by its Arabic name of " Dayr-el-Bahari." Dayr-el- 
 
 PROFILE PORTRAIT AXD KOYAL OVALS 
 OF QUKEN HATASU. 
 
 From the pyramidion of her fallen 
 obelisk at Karnak. She wears the 
 Jfepersh, or war -helmet worn by 
 the Pharaohs in battle, with the 
 golden " uraeus," or so-called " basi- 
 lisk," on the brow.
 
 272 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 Bahari signifies the Convent of the North, and the ruins of 
 the old Coptic monastery which give it this name still en- 
 cumber part of the site. ( " ) Of its two hundred sphinxes, 
 though nearly the whole of them were prostrate on the 
 ground when the French Commission visited Egypt in 1798, 
 not one is now left. (") The long and stately flights of 
 steps are represented by a steep hill strewn with rubble and 
 fragments of limestone. Of the pillared colonnades, only a 
 few columns are yet standing in the shelter of the cliff-side ; 
 and the ruin of the whole' is so complete that the casual 
 visitor can with difficulty recognize the plan on which it 
 was built. By means, however, of close and patient study 
 on the spot, M. Brune, a distinguished French architect, has 
 
 TEMPLE OF HATASU AT DAYR-EL-BAHAUI. 
 
 (Restoration from a design by M. Brune.) 
 
 succeeded in making a restored elevation of this beautiful 
 temple, as it appeared in the days of its splendor. ( 74 ) 
 
 The dromos of approach, the long avenue of sphinxes, the 
 obelisks, and the pylons, are necessarily omitted from M.
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 
 
 273 
 
 Brune's design. But we here see two great flights of steps 
 leading from terrace to terrace, each step guarded by two 
 couchant sphinxes ; the two colossal statues of Hatasu seat- 
 ed on either side of the steps which rise from the second 
 
 HATHOR-HEAD CAPITAL. 
 
 From one of the fallen columns at Dayr-el-Babari. (From a photograph by Mr. 
 W. M. Flinders Petrie.) 
 
 terrace ; and the pillared portico in the centre of the third 
 terrace, marking the entrance to the rock-cut sanctuary be- 
 yond. The columns which supported that third terrace were 
 surmounted by Hathor-headed capitals, and of these columns 
 only a few shattered shafts and two or three fallen capitals 
 now strew the ground. The color on those capitals is still 
 brilliant. ( 75 ) The long wall facing the spectator at the upper 
 end of the temple where it adjoins the mountain-side, and 
 another wall bounding the second terrace on the left of the 
 picture, are covered with bas-relief sculptures, whicli in the 
 18
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 illustration are of necessity but slightly indicated. These 
 bas-relief tableaux, or rather what remains of them, are most 
 delicately sculptured and vividly colored ; but full two-thirds 
 of the upper part of the walls are gone. 
 
 The traveller who now visits the wreck of this temple can 
 with difficulty identify its wide-spread ruins with M. Brune's 
 elegant restoration. That part, however, which is best pre- 
 served does not appear at all in our illustration namely, 
 the rock-cut chamber, commonly called " The Chamber of the 
 Cow," which is entered from the third terrace. Hewn out 
 of the solid cliff-side and lined with blocks of the finest lime- 
 stone, this little specs contains two bas-relief subjects repre- 
 senting Queen Hatasu, in the costume of a royal prince, 
 kneeling beside the Goddess Hathor, who is represented as 
 a large red cow. The Queen, with a naivete peculiar to 
 Egyptian art, is shown as in the act of sucking the milk of 
 the Divine Cow, thus signif}nng that she was the very foster- 
 child of the goddess. One leg and hoof and part of the 
 body of the cow are seen in our next illustration. The 
 figure of the Queen is excellently proportioned, and her face, 
 although it differs from her other portraits in being more 
 conventionally rendered, is historically valuable. On her 
 brow she wears the Uraeus of royalty, and on her head the 
 wig of close -laid rows of curls usually worn by youthful 
 princes. Her cartouche is sculptured in the space between 
 her right arm and left knee, but the hieroglyphic characters 
 have been erased, and it is no longer legible. 
 
 By some authorities, the Temple of Dayr-el-Bahari is 
 supposed to have been begun during the lifetime of Thoth- 
 mes II., and by others it is believed to be the work of 
 Ilatasu, during her sole reign. The cartouches of Thothmes 
 II. appear, it is true, in some of the inscriptions. Whether 
 Thothmes II. had, or had not, any share in the founding of 
 the temple, it is at all events certain that the bulk of the 
 building, and its decoration, was due to Hatasu. The car- 
 touches of Thothmes III. also appear in many of the in- 
 scriptions, and notably on that of the red granite gate-way
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 275 
 
 leading to the rock-cut chambers on the uppermost terrace. 
 But these are usurpations, and date from some period subse- 
 quent to the reign of Hatasu ; her successor, Thothmes III., 
 having caused the names of his sister to be obliterated and 
 his own to be engraved in their place. The building is dedi- 
 cated in part to Amen, the Great God of Thebes, and in part 
 
 HATASU AND THE DITISE COW. 
 
 Bas-relief sculpture representing Hatasu in the costume of a youthful Prince, suck- 
 ing milk from the Divine Cow (emblematic of Hathor), from the south wall of 
 the rock-cut sanctuary of her temple at Dayr-el-Baliari. (From a photograph by 
 Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie.) 
 
 to Hathor, the Lady of the West, the nurse of Horus, and 
 the presiding deity of the far-distant Land of Punt. It was 
 under this last aspect that Hathor was especially reverenced 
 in the Temple of Dayr-el-Bahari. 
 
 It is in the sculptured and painted tableaux upon the walls 
 of the two uppermost terraces of Hatasu's temple that we 
 find depicted every incident of the most remarkable event
 
 276 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 of her reign. That event was the building of a fleet of sea- 
 going ships, and the despatch of an exploring squadron to 
 the Land of Punt; a region identified by Maspero and 
 Mariette with that part of the Somali country which is sit- 
 uate on the eastern coast of Africa, bordering the Gulf of 
 Aden. This region, rich in incense - bearing trees, in costly 
 gums and resins, in myrrh and amber, gold, lapis-lazuli, ivory, 
 and precious woods, is the Cinnamomifera regio, sometimes 
 called the aromatifera regio of the ancients. ( 76 ) 
 
 At this time, the province of Yemen, on the south-west 
 coast of Arabia, was the great general meeting-place of Ind- 
 ian and Asiatic commerce. Thence the Phoenicians, the 
 Arabs, and the Arameans carried the merchandise of the 
 great trading nations of the East by sea and land to Meso- 
 potamia, to Syria, to Egypt, and to the coasts of Asia Minor. 
 Here, too, the mysterious products of the Land of Punt found 
 their market ; and, being transported from the east coast of 
 Africa to the west coast of Arabia, were brought back to 
 Africa by a circuitous route to the great Egyptian port of 
 Touaou (the modern Kosseir), whence the merchants of Cop- 
 tos conveyed them to Thebes. 
 
 Inspired, as one of the temple inscriptions states, by the 
 direct command of Amen himself, Hatasu resolved no longer 
 to be dependent upon the uncertain trade of Arabia for the 
 valuable products from which the incense used in the serv- 
 ice of the temples was made. She therefore resolved her- 
 self to despatch an expedition to the Somali coast ; and for 
 this purpose she built and fitted out five ships, the largest 
 and the best equipped yet built on the banks of the Nile. 
 
 These ships were built with a narrow keel, the stern and 
 prow rising high above the water. Their length was about 
 seventy feet, and they were evidently without any sort of 
 cabin accommodation. A raised platform with a balustrade, 
 erected at both prow and poop, served for a lookout fore and 
 aft; and under these platforms there was probably some kind 
 of shelter for the officers. These vessels had no decks, the 
 hull being fitted up with seats for the rowers. The ends of
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 
 
 277 
 
 the planks which formed the seats were fixed through the 
 ribs of the ship, as may be seen in our illustration. There 
 was probably some kind of hold for the storage of provisions, 
 ballast, etc., under the feet of the rowers ; but this, of course 
 would be below the water-line. There is but one mast, hewn 
 from a massive palm -trunk, and measuring about twenty- 
 seven feet in height. This is fixed in the middle of the ship, 
 and lashed strongly to the deck. Each vessel mounts but a 
 single sail, and has two spars, the top one straight and the 
 
 FIRST SHIP OF OUTGOING SQUADRON BOUND FOR PUNT. 
 
 (From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari, plate 12.) 
 
 lower one curved. The helm is made of two very large oars, 
 firmly bound to a kind of bracket in front of the rear plat- 
 form, and worked by a long curved stick. The crew con- 
 sists of thirty rowers, fifteen on each side, four reefers, two 
 steersmen, a pilot, an overseer of the rowers, and a captain. 
 A small detachment of military, numbering about eight or 
 ten soldiers and an officer, accompanied the expedition. 
 These served as a guard of honor to the envoy sent by 
 Queen Hatasu to the Prince of Punt. Soldiers and sailors 
 all counted, the expedition consisted of about two hundred 
 and ten men to the five ships. 
 
 Our illustration shows the departure of the leader of the
 
 278 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 squadron. Each rower is in his place. Their overseer, stand- 
 ing with his back to the platform at the prow, directs the 
 rise and fall of their oars, probably, as at the present day, 
 by leading a chant in which all join. The steersman is sta- 
 tioned at the stern, and holds in his hand the long curved 
 handle by which the helm is worked. The captain, baton in 
 hand, stands on the platform at the prow, looking forward 
 in the direction that the ship is going. A brief hieroglyphic 
 inscription above the carved lotus which decorates the stern 
 states that they " make head for the large " in other words, 
 for the " open." The great sail is spread, and is evidently 
 filled by a favorable wind, and all promises well for the suc- 
 cess of the voyage. 
 
 Every part of the vessel shown in our illustration is elabo- 
 rately rendered, down to the minutest detail. We see how 
 the spars are spliced, and where the reef -bands are tied; and 
 we also see the great cable passing over the heads of the 
 rowers, to which, doubtless, the anchor was attached. Some 
 allowance must, perforce, be made for the conventionalities 
 of Egyptian art. The sail, which here appears as though 
 parallel with the length of the vessel, should, of course, be 
 set at an angle to it ; but the naval draughtsman of Hatasu's 
 time was as anxious to display every part of his subject as 
 was his compatriot the figure -painter, who represented a 
 front -wise body in conjunction with profile legs and head. 
 The water through which our gallant vessel is ploughing its 
 way is, as usual, represented by zigzag lines. Those in the 
 original are painted of a light blue, and represent the Nile; 
 blue being the color symbolical of fresh -water. The fishes, 
 too, are the fishes of the Nile. The admirable accuracy 
 with which these fish are drawn compensates for the incon- 
 gruity of their proportions as compared with those of the 
 crew of the vessel. There is not one of them who could 
 not swallow a couple of sailors whole without the smallest 
 inconvenience. 
 
 The original wall - sculpture from which our illustration is 
 taken shows the whole squadron in full sail, and is accom-
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 
 
 279 
 
 panied by a few columns of explanatory text, which read as 
 follows : 
 
 "Departure of the soldiers of the Lord of the Two 
 Worlds traversing the Great Sea on the Good Way to the 
 Land of the Gods, in obedience to the will of the King of 
 the Gods, Amen of Thebes. He commanded that there 
 should be brought to him the marvellous products of the 
 Land of Punt, for that he loves the Queen Hatasu above all 
 other kings that have ruled this land." 
 
 Before we go farther on our way towards the Land of 
 Punt, it will be well to consider by what route the squadron 
 reached its destination. This is a very interesting question. 
 Many of the upper courses of these sculptured and painted 
 walls are so hopelessly mutilated as to break the continuity 
 of the narrative. Thus, although it is distinctly stated that 
 the ships returned to Thebes and there disembarked their 
 cargo at the close of the expedition, the inscription which 
 should inform us as to the point of their departure is lost. 
 Seeing, however, that they returned to Thebes, it may be 
 taken for granted that they sailed from the same port, and 
 this supposition is confirmed by the blue color of the water 
 and the presence therein of the fishes of the Nile. But what 
 course did they take when they had turned their backs upon 
 " hundred-gated Thebes ?" 
 
 That the squadron should 
 have descended the Nile, 
 sailed westward through the 
 Strait of Gibraltar, skirted 
 the west coast of Africa, 
 doubled the Cape of Good 
 Hope, and reached the So- 
 mali shores by way of the 
 Mozambique Channel and 
 the coast of Zanzibar is ab- 
 solutely incredible. 
 
 Such an achievement at so 
 early a stage of naval history,
 
 280 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 would be far more wonderful than the building of all the 
 pyramids or temples of Egypt. It would, in fact, imply that 
 Queen Hatasu's squadron twice made the almost complete 
 circuit of the African continent. We are compelled to reject 
 this hypothesis. Rejecting it, we must fall back upon the 
 only alternative possibility, which is that they went out by 
 some ancient water-way connecting the Nile with the Red Sea. 
 
 Now, the surveys recently made by Lieutenant - colonel 
 Ardagh, Major Spaight, and Lieutenant Burton, of the 
 Royal Engineers, have rendered it certain that the Wady 
 Tumilat was at some very distant time traversed by a 
 branch of the Nile which discharged its waters into the Red 
 Sea the majority of geographers being now of opinion that 
 the head of the Gulf of Suez formerly extended as far 
 northward as the modern town of Ismailia. Whether that 
 branch of the Nile was ever navigable, we know not ; but 
 we do know that it was already canalized in the reign of 
 Seti I., second Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty, and 
 father of Rameses II. 
 
 This ancient canal started, like the present Sweet water 
 Canal, from the neighborhood of Bubastis, the modern Zaga- 
 zig ; threaded the Wady Tumilat ; and emptied itself into 
 that basin which is now known as Lake Timsah. When M. 
 de Lesseps laid down the line of the Sweetwater Canal, he, 
 in fact, followed the course of the old canal of the Pharaohs, 
 the bed of which is yet traceable. When I last saw it, sev- 
 eral blocks of the masonry of the old embankment were yet 
 in situ, among the reeds and weeds by which that ancient 
 water-way is now choked. 
 
 This canal is represented in one of the most celebrated 
 wall-sculptures of the Great Temple of Karnak, (") and it is 
 there called Ta-Tena, or " the cutting ;" and because King 
 Seti is shown to be returning to Eg}^pt from one of his Syrian 
 campaigns by way of a bridge over this same canal, it has 
 been universally taken for granted that he was the author of 
 that important engineering work. There is, however, no 
 kind of evidence to justify the assumption. As reasonably
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 281 
 
 might it be supposed that Napoleon the First was the build- 
 er of the Pyramids, because in Gerome's great picture he is 
 represented as seated on horseback, and contemplating them 
 from a distance. The canal may have existed, arid in all 
 probability did exist, long before the time of Seti I. It would 
 seem, indeed, as if the great woman-Pharaoh who first con- 
 ceived the daring project of launching her ships upon an un- 
 known sea, was by far the most likely person to canalize that 
 channel by which alone, so far as we can see, it would have 
 been possible for them to go forth. For my own part, I have 
 not the slightest doubt that Queen Hatasu was the scientific 
 ancestress of M. de Lesseps ; and that it was to the genius 
 and energy of this extraordinary woman that Egypt owed 
 that great work of canalization which first united the Nile 
 with the Red Sea. 
 
 Tn the sculptured tableau from which our illustration of 
 the ship is taken, four other vessels are shown : the first, as 
 we have seen, leads the way with a swelling sail ; the last 
 is not yet fully laden, but lies at anchor, waiting for a small 
 boat into which some sailors are conveying large jars. 
 
 In the next tableau, the expedition has reached its des- 
 tination. The voyage being omitted, the ships are once 
 more seen at anchor, and the ancient draughtsman, in one 
 of the very few known examples of Egyptian landscape 
 art, has carefully depicted for us the characteristic scenery 
 of the unknown country to which the squadron has made its 
 way. The ground is flat and thickly wooded, the conical 
 huts of the inhabitants being built on piles and approached 
 by ladders. A cow reposes peacefully in the shade of a tree 
 to the right, and a bird, known by its characteristic tail-feath- 
 ers as the Cinnyris metallica, wings its flight towards the 
 left. Of the five trees here represented, two are conventional 
 renderings of the date - palm. The trunks and branches of 
 the other three are most carefully drawn. An enclosing line 
 carried round each indicates the outline of the foliage, the 
 details of which are left to the imagination. It has been 
 supposed that this landscape represented some spot on the
 
 282 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 shores of the Red Sea ; but M. Maspero has pointed out vari- 
 ous reasons to show that we are here on the banks of a riv- 
 The three last-named trees, for instance, precisely re- 
 
 er. 
 
 produce the structure of the odoriferous sycamore, which 
 
 V1EXV OF A TILLAGE IN PUNT. 
 
 (From Marietta's Dei.r-el-ahari, plate 5.) The huts of the natives are built on piles 
 and approached by ladders, and, according to Diimichen, closely resemble the 
 Toquls of the modern Soudanese. The trees are two date-palms in fruit, and 
 three myrrh-trees (odoriferous sycamore), the foliage of the latter being indicated 
 by a line bounding the tops of the branches. The bird flying to left is identified 
 with the Ginnyris metallica, a native of the Somali country, having two long tail- 
 feathers, of which only one has been given by the ancient Egyptian artist. 
 
 does not grow by the sea-side, but on the borders of rivers ; 
 and he concludes that the Egyptian squadron, after sailing 
 down the Red Sea and rounding the headland called Ras-el- 
 Fil, had made its way up the mouth of the Elephant Riv- 
 er. The water in the original is painted green, which may 
 be taken to indicate a tidal river; green being the Egyptian 
 color for sea-water, and blue for fresh-water. The fishes, it 
 is to be observed, are not the fishes of Egypt, while among 
 them is seen a fine turtle, a cetacean unknown to the waters 
 of the Nile. O 
 
 The royal envoy having landed, accompanied by his milita- 
 ry escort, arranges on a table, or stand, the gifts which he has 
 brought for presentation to the Prince of Punt. These gifts 
 consist of bead necklaces, bracelets, collars, a hatchet, and a 
 dagger of state. "We may suppose the beads to be of that 
 beautiful variegated glass, in the manufacture of which the
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 
 
 283 
 
 Egyptians of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties par- 
 ticularly excelled. The collars and bracelets are painted yel- 
 low, to represent gold, the former being torque-shaped and 
 closely resembling the "toqs" worn by the Egyptian women 
 of the present day. The envoy is in civil dress, and leans 
 upon his staff of command. The soldiers are armed with 
 spear and hatchet, 
 and carry a large 
 shield rounded at the 
 top the ordinary 
 equipment of infan- 
 try of the line. Their 
 captain carries no 
 shield, but is armed 
 with a bow, in addi- 
 tion to the spear and 
 hatchet of his fol- 
 lowers. The inscrip- 
 tion states that these 
 are "all the good 
 things of His Maj- 
 esty, to whom be 
 Life, Health, and 
 
 Strength, destined for Hathor, Lady of Punt." This is a 
 circuitous manner of stating that the said good things are 
 intended, not for the goddess, but as a means of exchange 
 for the coveted products of Punt. 
 
 "We next see the approach of the native chief, accompanied 
 by his family and followers. They advance with uplifted 
 hands, this being the accepted attitude of deprecation and 
 homage. The chief wears a collar of large beads, a small 
 dagger in his belt, and a shenti, or loin-cloth, of the same fash- 
 ion as that worn by the Egyptians. Unlike them, however, 
 he wears a beard ; and this beard is curved slightly upward, 
 like those with which the Egyptians represented their gods 
 and deceased Pharaohs. The inscription engraved in front 
 of his body states that he is " The Great of Punt, Parihu;" a 
 
 THE ROYAL ENVOY, ATTKXnKJ) BY HIS BODY - GUARD, 
 DISPLAYS THE GIFTS SKNT BY HATASU TO THE PRINCE 
 OF PUNT. 
 
 (From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahan, plate 5.)
 
 284: 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 name apparently derived from an Arabic root. He is fol- 
 lowed by his wife, his two sons, and his daughter, to each of 
 whom is attached a short inscription. The two youths are 
 simply described as " his sons," and the young girl as " his 
 daughter." His spouse, a very singular and unbeautif ul per- 
 son, is described as " his wife, Ati." She wears a yellow 
 
 PROCESSION OF THE PRINCE OP PUNT, 
 
 accompanied by his wife, family, and followers. (From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari, 
 
 plate 5.) 
 
 dress, bracelets on her wrists, anklets on her ankles, and a 
 necklace of alternate bead and chain work round her throat. 
 Her hair, like that of her daughter, is bound with a fillet on 
 the brow. Her features are repulsive, and her cheek is dis- 
 figured by two lines of tattooing on either side of the mouth. 
 She is hideously obese, her limbs and body being weighed 
 down by rolls of fat. Her daughter, though evidently quite 
 young, already shows a tendency towards the same kind of 
 . deformity. 
 
 This strange portrait of the Princess Ati has been the sub- 
 ject of much discussion, it being a doubtful point whether
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 285 
 
 she is to be considered as a diseased monstrosity, or as a par- 
 agon of beauty. It is the opinion of some authorities that 
 she must have been the living realization of the highest type 
 of female loveliness, according to the taste of the natives of 
 certain parts of Central Africa. Chabas compares her with 
 Speke's description of the favorite wife of the brother of the 
 King of Karagoue, whose fat hung in large puddings about 
 her arms, and whose weight was too great to allow of her 
 standing upright. Beauty of this class was formerly sup- 
 posed to belong exclusively to the fair ladies of the Hottentot 
 race ; but Schweinfurth, in his " Heart of Africa," describes 
 the Bongo women in words that would almost seem to have 
 been suggested by the subject of our illustration. Maspero 
 suggests that the Princess Ati may be suffering from ele- 
 phantiasis j but Mariette is of opinion that the Egyptian 
 artist has here represented not merely the wife of the chief, 
 but the most admired type of the women of the Somali 
 race. The complexions of the whole family are painted 
 of a brick red, and their hair black, thus showing that they 
 are not of negro race. The superimposed hieroglyphic in- 
 scription, which extends to some length beyond that of our 
 illustration, states that "Hither come the Great [ones] of 
 Punt, their backs bent, their heads bowed, to receive the sol- 
 diers of His Majesty." Then follow the words which are sup- 
 posed to come out of their mouths: "How have you ar- 
 rived at this land unknown to the men of Egypt ?( 79 ) Have 
 you come down from the roads of the Heavens? Or have 
 you navigated the sea of Ta-nuter \ * You must have fol- 
 lowed the path of the sun. As for the King of Egypt, 
 there is no road which is inaccessible to His Majesty ; we live 
 by the breath he grants to us." 
 
 An ass, saddled with a thick cushion, and three attendants 
 carrying short staves, bring up the rear of the procession. 
 Over the ears of this beast of heavy burden is engraved in 
 hieroglyphic characters, " The great ass that carries his wife;" 
 
 * The Land of the Gods.
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 the great ass, if the ancient artist is to be relied upon in his 
 scale of proportion, bearing about the same relation to 
 Princess Ati as FalstafFs half-pennyworth of bread to his 
 " intolerable deal of sack." The men who guide and follow 
 the ass wear the upcurved beard everywhere characteristic 
 of the natives of Punt in Egyptian art. On the sculptured 
 pylon of Horemheb, at Karnak, we find a Prince of Punt of 
 
 one hundred and six- 
 ty years later, with 
 features closely re- 
 sembling those of 
 Parihu. He wears 
 the same curved 
 beard, and even the 
 close-fitting cap, 
 which was apparent- 
 ly the distinguishing 
 badge of the chief- 
 dom.( 80 ) 
 
 The gifts sent by 
 Hatasu having been 
 presented by the en- 
 voy and accepted by 
 the Prince of Punt, 
 the latter proceeds to 
 
 offer in return five ship-loads of the special products of his 
 country. The inscription states that the Chief of Punt piles 
 his tribute by the water-side. 
 
 From this point, the sculptured tableaux form a continu- 
 ous scene, those in the lower register being almost perfect, 
 whereas those in the upper register are unfortunately so 
 much broken away that in many places there remain only 
 the feet of the figures and the water lines of the river. In 
 several of the best preserved, we see the Egyptian sailors 
 carrying half -grown saplings which have been taken up 
 with a ball of earth about the roots, and are being trans- 
 ported in baskets slung upon poles, each pole carried by 
 
 CHIEF OF PUNT. 
 
 From the Pylon of Horeraheb, at Karnak. This fine 
 head of a chief of Punt is photographed from a 
 cast taken by Mr. W. M. F. Petrie from the group 
 of foreign tributaries sculptured on the Pylon of 
 Horemheb, at Karnak.
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 287 
 
 four men. These, as they wend their way towards the ships, 
 are accompanied by natives of Punt, some carrying large lo-s 
 of ebony, others leading apes, and one a giraffe. In one place 
 where there is a great gap in the wall, the remains of the in- 
 scription show that an elephant and a horse were among the 
 animals embarked from Punt for the gratification of Ilatasu. 
 This Queen doubtless shared in that lively interest which, as 
 
 11KN CARRYING SAPLINGS OF THE "ANA - SYCAMORE " IN BASKETS, FROM THE SHORE TO 
 
 THE SHIPS. 
 
 (From Marietta's Deir-el-Bakari, plate 5.) 
 
 it is well known, her brother Thothmes III. entertained for 
 all kinds of foreign birds, beasts, and plants.( "' ) A running 
 commentary o short inscriptions is interspersed here and 
 there between the figures, " Stand steady on your legs, 
 Bohu !" says one of the bearers. " You throw too much 
 weight upon my shoulders," retorts Bohu. 
 
 Over the saplings which are being carried in baskets, is 
 inscribed Neliet Ana; that is to say, the Sycamore of Ana. 
 Elsewhere we see the full-grown trees. The trunk is mas- 
 sive ; the leaf is a sharp-pointed oval ; and at the junction 
 of the trunk and the larger branches are seen little copper- 
 colored lumps of irregular form, representing the resinous 
 gum which has exuded through the bark. A passage in 
 Pliny, to which Mariette especially refers in his memoir on 
 Deir-el-Bahari, shows that this tree, the odoriferous syca- 
 more, can be none other than the myrrh-tree, whose gum
 
 288 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 was brought by the ancients from the so-called " land of the 
 Troglodytes." According to the old naturalist, the myrrh- 
 tree is found 
 
 "... in many quarters of Arabia ; also there is very good 
 myrrhe brought out of the Islands ; and the Sabeans passe 
 the seas and travell as far as to the Troglodites countrey for 
 it. ... The plant groweth ordinarily five cubits high, but 
 not all that length is it smooth and without prickes : the 
 bodie and trunke is hard and wry then ; it is greatest toward 
 the root, and so ariseth smaller and smaller, taper -wise. 
 Some say that the barke is smooth and even, like unto that 
 of the Arbute Tree : others againe affirme that it is prickly, 
 and full of thornes. It hath a leafe like to the Olive, but 
 more crisped and curled, and withall it is in the end sharpe- 
 pointed like a needle. . . . The myrrhe trees are twice cut 
 and launced in one year; the slit reacheth from the very 
 root up to the boughes, if they may beare and abide it." 
 
 Further on, he says that, of all the wild kinds of myrrh- 
 trees, " the first is that which groweth in the Troglodites 
 countrey ;" and this, " the Trogloditike myrrhe, they chuse 
 by the fattinesse thereof, and for that it seemeth to the eie 
 greener. . . . The best myrrhe is known by little peeces 
 which are not round ; and when they grow together, they 
 yeeld a certain whitish liquour which issueth and resolveth 
 from them, and if a man breake them into morsels, it hath 
 white veines resembling men's nails, and in tast is somewhat 
 bitter." ( 8 ' J ) 
 
 That the Ana was undoubtedly the resinous gum of the 
 myrrh-tree is still further confirmed by the above passage 
 from Pliny, which describes it as of a green color ; the 
 "green Ana" being constantly named in Egyptian inscrip- 
 tions as the most precious and desirable kind. 
 
 One very interesting tableau, which is yet happily in good 
 preservation, represents a group of three large trees of this 
 species, i. e., the Nehet Ana, or odoriferous sycamore. On 
 the ground, in the shade of their boughs, are piles of pan- 
 ther-skins and elephant-tusks, logs of ebony in stacks, and
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 
 
 289 
 
 rings and ingots of precious metal. Above the tops of the 
 trees is shown a row of sycamore saplings in tubs, with an 
 inscription stating that "thirty and one growing trees of 
 the Ana were taken as marvels of Punt to the holiness of 
 this God [Amen]. Never was there seen the like since the 
 world began." 
 
 And now, while the Egyptian sailors, assisted by the na- 
 tives of Punt, are busily engaged in loading the ships, Hata- 
 su's envoy offers an official reception to Prince Parihu, his 
 wife and family. This parting interview is conducted with 
 great ceremony on both sides. A huge heap of myrrh, two 
 trays of massive gold rings, and a pile of elephant-tusks are 
 brought by Parihu, probably as a farewell bakhshish to the 
 envoy himself. The Lady Ati is apparelled as before, but 
 the right leg of Parihu is covered from the ankle to above 
 the knee with a close succession of metal rings resembling 
 
 GIFTS PRESENTED TO THK ROYAL ENVOY BY THE PRINCE OF PUXT. 
 
 (From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari, plate 5.) 
 
 the dangdbor of the Bongo people, as shown in an illustra- 
 tion to Schweinfurth's Heart of Africa. ( 63 ) The sons of 
 Parihu, one of them carrying a bowl of gold-dust ; an attend- 
 ant bearing a large jar on his shoulder ; and the ass, which 
 has again enjoyed the unenviable privilege of carrying the 
 Lady Ati, bring up the rear. The pile of Ana is here repre- 
 sented in a very summary fashion by a mere outline, but 
 in some of the other subjects the little irregularly shaped 
 lumps of the precious gum are all elaborately defined. The 
 envoy stands in front of his pavilion omitted in our illus- 
 19
 
 290 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 tration and is apparently in the act of inviting his guests 
 to partake of the banquet which, by order of Hatasu, he has 
 prepared for them. This consisted, according to the accom- 
 panying inscription, of " bread, beer, wines, meat, vegetables, 
 and all, good things of Egypt, by command of His Majesty, 
 to whom be Life, Health, Strength." 
 
 In the very interesting subject now before us, we see the 
 Egyptian sailors, some carrying the saplings in baskets slung 
 
 SHIPS OF THE EGYPTIAN SQUADRON BEING LADEN WITH THE PRODUCTS OF PUNT. 
 
 (From Marietta's Deir-el-Bahari, plate 6.) 
 
 from poles, as before ; others laden with big jars ; and all hur- 
 rying on board along inclined planks reaching presumably 
 from the shore, which, however, is not shown in the picture. 
 The decks are already piled high with their precious cargo, 
 among which may be observed three large apes, who make 
 themselves perfectly at home. Slung to the main-mast of the 
 nearest vessel, a harp is depicted, of a shape which may even 
 now be seen in the hands of native musicians in Cairo and 
 other large towns. The captain stands on the platform at 
 the prow, issuing his commands ; and, small as is the scale, 
 the very natural action of the man in front of him, who 
 shouts the order with his hand to his mouth, must not be 
 overlooked. The long inscription engraved in vertical col- 
 umns at either corner of the picture reads as follows :
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 291 
 
 " Very great lading of the ships with the marvels of the 
 Land of Punt, and with all the good woods of Ta-nuter; 
 with heaps of kami of Ana, with trees producing green ana 
 with ebony and pure ivory; with gold, and green agates 
 found in the Land of the Amu ; with blocks of the wood 
 tascheps ; with ahem perfumes ; with tasem dogs ; and with 
 hides of the panthers of the South ; and with natives of the 
 country, their women and children. Never since the beo-in- 
 ning of the world have the like wonders been brought bv any 
 
 While these last two vessels are receiving their cargoes, 
 the other three have already weighed anchor, and are seen 
 with their sails set and filled by a favorable wind. A short 
 inscription states that this is " the peaceful and prosperous 
 voyage of the soldiers of his Majesty returning to Thebes, 
 bringing with them the men of Punt.. They bring such mar- 
 vels of the Land of Punt as have never been brought bv any 
 King of Egypt, on account of the greatness of the King of 
 the Gods, Amen, Lord of Thebes." 
 
 The return voyage, like the outward voyage, is passed over; 
 and the next incidents of this curious panorama in stone take 
 place in Thebes. We are shown nothing of the arrival of the 
 squadron, nor of the unlading of the ships ; the rest of the 
 tableaux consisting mainly of processions of priests, soldiers, 
 and sailors. The order in which these processions meet and 
 succeed each other is somewhat confusing. The hieroglyphic 
 inscriptions in this part of the building are also greatly mu- 
 tilated, so that the subjects in many instances have to be 
 taken as their own interpreters. It seems possible that they 
 do not all represent the return of the expedition from Punt, 
 but that some may have reference to the ceremonies which 
 accompanied the opening of the temple. The unity of 
 the composition as an historic whole is moreover impaired 
 by the introduction of other foreign* tributaries besides 
 those brought from Punt ; whence it may be concluded 
 that the artist, in order to produce a more brilliant ef- 
 fect, introduced the representatives of various nations who
 
 292 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 on other occasions, had laid their tribute at the feet of 
 Hatasu. 
 
 In one tableau we see the Sacred Bark of Amen, carried by 
 twenty -five priests and preceded by libation-bearers, divine 
 standard-bearers, and priests carrying bunches of lotus-lilies. 
 In another, the sailors of the expedition march in single file, 
 armed with hatchets, and carrying green boughs in their 
 hands probably of the Ana sycamore. A drummer goes be- 
 fore, and the inscription says that " the sailors of the royal 
 squadron shout for joy. They cry aloud ; the heavens rejoice. 
 May Amen grant long life to his daughter, the Builder of his 
 Temple." 
 
 Following the sailors, comes the deputation from Punt, the 
 
 native Somalis distin- 
 guished by their curved 
 beards. Some of these 
 bring trays of the Ana 
 gum; others carry 
 large jars, probably 
 filled with gold-dust; 
 others, again, lead apes 
 of the two species in- 
 digenous to Pant, i.e., 
 the Oynocephalus Ha- 
 madryas, and the Cy- 
 nocephalus Babuinus, 
 called in the inscrip- 
 tion the Ani ape, and 
 the Kafoo monkey. To 
 
 this part of the procession belong the figures of men lead- 
 ing the horse, the giraffe, and the elephant, which, as before- 
 mentioned, are unfortunately almost destroyed. Last of all 
 come more sailors, carrying the sycamore saplings in bas- 
 kets as before. 
 
 Marching in the contrary direction, as if coming to meet 
 and welcome the sailors on landing, we are shown a body of 
 young soldiers, representing no less than three different regi- 
 
 TRIBCTARIES OF PUNT WALKING IN THE PROCES- 
 SION TO THE TEMPLE OF AMEN. 
 
 (From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.)
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 
 
 293 
 
 ments. They are armed with axe, bow, and shield ; while 
 some, belonging apparently to a Nubian corps, brandish the 
 boomerang. All carry green boughs in token of festivity. 
 Besides this procession, which may be called the Proces- 
 sion of Welcome, there is another and a very interesting cor- 
 tege which may be distinguished as the Procession of the 
 Queen. 
 
 First come the troops of the royal household, designated 
 in the inscription as the soldiers of the Per-aa, or palace. ( eb ) 
 
 PROCESSION OF THK QUEEN. 
 
 Her Majesty's fan-bearers, quiver-bearer, sandal-bearer, and grooms with hunting 
 leopards. (From Mariette's Deir-el-Bahari.} 
 
 Her Majesty's throne-chair carried by twelve bearers. (From Mariette's Deir-el- 
 
 Bahari.} 
 
 Next follow the Queen's fan-bearers, carrying long-handled 
 flabellae of conventionally rendered ostrich-feathers. After 
 these come the Queen's quiver-bearer and sandal-bearer, and 
 two grooms leading her Majesty's hunting leopards. Her 
 throne-chair, carried by twelve bearers, brings up the rear.
 
 294 
 
 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 The chair, with its footstool, stands on a portable platform, 
 
 and is evidently used as a chaise- 
 a-porteurs, and not as a mere em- 
 blem of royalty. The inscription 
 beneath the chair describes the 
 Queen as "this good God," and 
 enumerates her titles as " Lord of 
 the Two Lands," etc. 
 
 Hatasu has presumably been 
 carried to the Temple of Amen, 
 where she is seen in the next 
 tableau standing, staff in hand, in 
 the full costume of a Pharaoh, 
 face to face with Amen enthroned. 
 The inscription which fills the 
 space between these two figures 
 is cast into the form of a dialogue 
 between the god and the Queen. 
 Hatasu, reverting to the origin 
 of the expedition, proclaims her 
 intention of exploring the ways 
 of Punt, that there may be 
 
 Ana in abundance for the service of the temple. The god, 
 
 THE QUEEN RECEIVING HER TROOPS. 
 
 CEREMONY SUPPOSED TO TAKE PLACE IN THE TEMPLE OF AMEN AT KARNAK. 
 
 (From Mariette's Deir-el-Bakari, plate 11.) 
 
 in reply, congratulates her on the success of her expedition, 
 and states that he himself, together with Hathor, the Lady
 
 QUEEN 1IATASU. 
 
 295 
 
 of Punt, and Urtheku, Yice-Regent of the Gods, guided the 
 Egyptian explorers to the land of the myrrh-trees. ( 86 ) 
 
 An ox is then sacrificed to Amen, the sacrificial act being 
 depicted in a bas-relief, from which, unfortunately, the next 
 block is missing, thus carrying away one corner of the sub- 
 ject. Here we see the altar of the god loaded with offer- 
 ings, among which may be noted a haunch, a goose, and 
 various kinds of cakes. Four priests uplift their hands in 
 adoration; another carries a small stand; while two more cut 
 the slaughtered ox limb from limb. 
 
 After this the tribute of Punt is formally transferred to 
 
 MEASURING THE PRECIOUS GUM. 
 
 (From Marietta's Deir - el - Bahari.} 
 
 the treasury of the temple ; the Ana gum (specified in the 
 inscription as "green Ana") is measured and registered by 
 the temple servants ; while the bags of gold-dust, the bricks 
 of electrum, the ingots of pure gold, and the ivory tusks, are, 
 by a conventional fiction, being weighed in the presence of 
 Horus by no less a sacred scribe than Thoth himself.
 
 296 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 The ceremony at the Temple of Amen being concluded, 
 the expedition is rowed across the Nile in a flotilla of State 
 galleys, and proceeds to render homage to Hathor in that 
 part of the temple at Dayr-el-Bahari over which she espe- 
 cially presides. They are accompanied by a detachment of 
 troops composed of the flo\ver of the Egyptian army. 
 
 And thus, to the sound of trumpets and drums, with wav- 
 ing of green boughs and shouts of triumph, the great proces- 
 sion lands on the opposite bank of the Nile, and, followed 
 by an ever-gathering crowd, takes its way between avenues 
 of sphinxes, past obelisks and pylons, and up one magnifi- 
 cent flight of steps after another, till the topmost terrace of 
 the Great Temple is reached, where the Queen herself wel- 
 comes them to the presence of Hathor the Beautiful, the 
 Lady of the Western Mountain, the Goddess-Regent of the 
 Land of Punt. 
 
 Such is the story told in the sculptured decorations of 
 this most interesting and beautiful ruin. Until it was par- 
 tially excavated by Mariette, only a few of the less inter- 
 esting sculptures were visible above the sand and debris in 
 which it was entombed. Even now, a systematically con- 
 ducted excavation would probably bring to light more 
 inscriptions, and possibly more sculptures, than could be 
 discovered by Mariette with the limited means at his com- 
 mand. In the slight but interesting work in which he has 
 commemorated the results of his labor at Dayr-el-Baha- 
 ri, he expresses his regret that he never had the oppor- 
 tunity there to conduct any properly organized work, such 
 as his excavations of the temples of Karnak, Denderah, and 
 Edfu. 
 
 Beyond the fact that Hatasu rebuilt and restored many 
 ruined shrines and temples in various parts of her kingdom, 
 and that the celebrated Speos Artemidos ( "' ) was her work, 
 and not, as is generally supposed, the work of Thothmes 
 III., we know little or nothing more of the events of her 
 reign. Seventeen years after the death of Thothmes II., her 
 name, as already said, disappears from the monumental rec-
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 297 
 
 ords, and we may assume that she had either ceased to live 
 or ceased to reign. 
 
 However this may be, her successor, Thothmes III., en- 
 deavored systematically to efface her memory from the 
 minds of the Egyptians and her cartouches from the public 
 monuments on which they had been emblazoned. It is her 
 name which underlies the names and titles of Thothmes III. 
 not only in the Speos Artemidos, but in hundreds of cases at 
 Dayr-el-Bahari. Only in one single instance has the royal 
 oval containing her family name escaped the chisel of the 
 mason ; and her solar name, though traceable under the 
 chipped surface, is almost invariably erased. The mere 
 grammatical construction of the texts bears witness, how- 
 ever, to the wholesale forgery committed by Thothmes III. ; 
 for, combined with the Pharaonic style in which the inscrip- 
 tions are couched, the feminine suffixes which are so curi- 
 ously appended to masculine nouns everywhere remain to 
 show in whose honor these innumerable columns of hiero- 
 glyphs were engraved. 
 
 The tomb of Queen Hatasu was discovered by Mr. Rhind, 
 in 1341, excavated in the cliff -side, in the near vicinity 
 of her temple ; but its identity appears since then to have 
 been forgotten. ( ee ) Although the mummies of her father, 
 Thothmes I., of her husband and half -brother, Thothmes 
 II., and of her half-brother and successor, Thothmes III., 
 were discovered in 1881, in the famous tomb of the Priest- 
 Kings, within a stone's -throw of her temple at Dayr-el- 
 Bahari, the mortal remains of Hatasu were missing from 
 the ranks of the illustrious dead with which that sepulchre 
 was crowded. A small wooden cabinet, inlaid with ivory 
 and carved with both her cartouches, was found among the 
 minor objects there concealed. It contains, strange to say, 
 a dessicated human liver probably hers. This would look 
 as if at one time the mummy of Hatasu had there been de- 
 posited, in company with the mummies of her kindred. 
 
 A few scarabaei dispersed through various public and pri- 
 vate collections ; a draughtsman of red jasper, in the form of
 
 298 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 a lion's head engraved with her two cartouches, which was 
 found at Karnak, and is now in the Museum of Ghizeh ; her 
 signet-ring, engraved on turquoise and mounted in gold, in 
 the possession of an English gentleman ; and a funerary stat- 
 uette, or Ushabti, inscribed with her name and titles, in the 
 Museum of the Hague, are, with one exception, the only 
 authentic mementos of Hatasu which have come down to 
 our time. 
 
 The exception is a splendid one, and of great historic and 
 archaeological value, being an object of no less importance 
 than the throne-chair of this great Queen. It was discovered 
 by some Arabs in 1885 or 1886 ; brought to England in 1887, 
 and exhibited at the Jubilee Exhibition in Manchester that 
 year. At the close of the exhibition it was presented by 
 Mr. Jesse Ha worth to the British Museum, where it now oc- 
 cupies a conspicuous place in the upper Egyptian gallery. 
 
 THRONE-CHAIR OF QUEEN HATASU. 
 
 (From a photograph from the original in the British Museum.) 
 
 Specimens of ancient Egyptian stools and chairs, some 
 beautifully inlaid with marqueterie of ivory and various 
 woods, may be seen in several European museums ; but in 
 none do we find a Pharaonic throne such as this, plated with
 
 QUEEN HATASU. 299 
 
 gold and silver, and adorned with the emblems of Egyptian 
 sovereignty. It is not absolutely intact. The seat and back 
 (which may have been made of plaited palm-fibre or bands 
 of leather) have perished ; but all that remains of the original 
 piece of furniture is magnificent. The wood is very hard and 
 heavy, and of a rich dark color resembling rosewood. The 
 four legs are carved in the shape of the legs of some hoofed 
 animal, probably a bull, the front of each leg being decorated 
 with two royal basilisks in gold. These basilisks are erect, 
 face to face, their tails forming a continuous coil down to the 
 rise of the hoof. Kound each fetlock runs a silver band, and 
 under each hoof there was originally a plate of silver, of 
 which only a few fragments remain. The cross-rail in front 
 of the seat is also plated with silver. The arms (or what 
 would be the arms if placed in position) are very curious, 
 consisting of two flat pieces of wood joined at right angles, 
 so as to form an upright affixed to the framework of the 
 back and a horizontal support for the arm of the sitter. 
 These are of the same dark wood as the legs and rails, hav- 
 ing a border-line at each side ; while down the middle, with 
 head erect at the top of the upright limb, and tail undulating 
 downward to the finish of the arm-rest, is a basilisk carved 
 in some lighter colored wood, and incrusted with hundreds 
 of minute silver annulets, to represent the markings of the 
 reptile. The nails connecting the various parts are round- 
 headed and plated with gold, thus closely resembling the or- 
 namental brass-headed nails in use at the present day. The 
 gold and silver are both of the purest quality. 
 
 Of the royal ovals which formerly adorned this beautiful 
 chair of state, only one longitudinal fragment remains. This 
 fragment, which measures some nine or ten inches in length, 
 is carved on both sides, and contains about one-fourth part of 
 what may be called the field of the cartouche. Enough, how- 
 ever, remains to identify on one side the throne -name, and 
 on the other side the family name, of Queen Hatasu. The 
 carving is admirable, every detail even to the form of the 
 nails and the creases of the finger-joints in part of a hiero-
 
 300 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 glyph representing a hand being rendered with the most 
 perfect truth and delicacy. The throne-name, " Ka-ma-ka," 
 is surrounded by a palm -frond bordering, and the family 
 name, " Amen-Knum Hatasu," by a border of concentric spi- 
 rals. The wood of this cartouche is the same as that of the 
 basilisks upon the arms, being very hard and close-grained, 
 and of a tawny, yellow hue, like boxwood. Some gorgeously 
 colored throne-chairs depicted on the walls of a side-chamber 
 in the tomb of Rameses III. at Thebes show exactly into 
 what parts of the framework these royal insignia were in- 
 serted, and might serve as models for the complete restora- 
 tion of this most valuable and interesting relic. 
 
 It is a significant fact that the dark wood of the chair and 
 the lighter wood of the basilisks are of growths unknown to 
 Egyptian soil ; and it may well be that both originally form- 
 ed part of that very cargo which the exploring squadron of 
 Queen Hatasu brought home to Thebes, some three thousand 
 five hundred years ago, from the far distant shores of the 
 Land of Punt. 
 
 LITTLE CABINET OF HATASU.
 
 ]STOTES. 
 
 NOTE 1, page 5. Dr. Birch's calculation was based upon the supposition, then 
 universally accepted, that embalmment was not practised in ancient Egypt till 
 after 2000 B.C., no earlier specimens of embalmed and bandaged mummies having 
 been discovered at the time when he wrote. See Birch's Guide to the First and 
 Second Egyptian Rooms of the Britisli Museum, 1878. When, however, the Pyra- 
 mid of King Pepi (Sixth Dynasty, circa 3500 B.C.) was opened in 1880, the mum- 
 ruled remains of that very ancient king were not only found to be impressed by 
 bandages, but portions of these actual bandages were found strewn on the floor of 
 the sepulchral chamber. "On a mis au jour les sepultures du dernier roi de la 
 yme Dynastie, Ounas, et de plusieurs rois de la Vl me , Teti, Pepi I er , Merenra, Pepi 
 II. La momic de Merenra a ete trouvee depouillee de ses bandelettes, qui avaient 
 etc' arrachees a une epoque ancienne; mais la trace de ces bandelettes, imprimee 
 en relief sur la peau, est restee parfaitement visible et prouve que les proce'de's d'etn- 
 baumement deja constates pour les 6poques poste'rieures, e'taient en usage des la 
 Vjme Dynastie." See M. Maspero's paper on Egyptian Exploration, addressed to 
 the Academic des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, in the Revue de V Histoire des Reli- 
 gions, vol. iv., No. 4, 1881. See also " Lying in State in Cairo," by Amelia B. Ed- 
 wards, Harper's Monthly Magazine, July, 1882. 
 
 NOTE 2, page 5. For some particulars respecting the shipping of mummies for 
 manure during the reign of the Khedive Ismail, see MacCoan's Egypt an It h, chap, 
 viii., p. 168. 
 
 NOTE 3, page 18. The colossal seated statue of Rameses II. in black granite, 
 and the remarkable headless sphinx here referred to, are now in the Museum of 
 Fine Arts at Boston, U. S. A. 
 
 NOTE 4, page 23. Many of these interesting fragments are preserved in the Mu- 
 seum of the Louvre. 
 
 NOTE 5, page 24. Ancient Egyptian flint weapons and implements have been 
 found in large numbers in various parts of Egypt, but they do not indicate what is 
 understood as a Stone Age, since they all belong to historic times. Flint saws, flint 
 fruit-scoops, etc., have recently been found in large numbers by Mr. Petrie, in the 
 Twelfth Dynasty town of Kahun. Flint chisels are also found in large quantities 
 in the turquoise mines of Wady Maghara, dating apparently from the earliest to the 
 latest time at which these mines were worked, thus showing that flint was not su- 
 perseded by bronze where flint was equally effectual. See Chabas's L'Antiquite 
 Historique, chap. v. ; also Lord's Penimtila of Sinai, p. 433, et seq. 
 
 NOTE 6, page 30. By such as desire to become better acquainted with the styles 
 and devices of these fascinating amulets, Mr. Petrie's illustrated Hand-book of His- 
 torical Scarabs will be thoroughly appreciated. 
 
 NOTE?, page 31. For illustrations of the various stages of the lotus pattern on 
 the potsherds of Naukratis, see the plates to Naukratis, Part I., by Mr. Petrie. and 
 the plates to Naukratis. Part II., by Mr. Ernest A. Gardner. See also Prof. \V. H. 
 Goodyear's paper on " The Origin of the Ionic Capital and the Anthemion in Greek 
 Art,"" published in the American Journal of A rcli ecology, vol. iii. (1888); also Mr. 
 Goodyear's important forthcoming work, entitled The Grammar oft/* Lotus.
 
 302 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 NOTE 8, page 81. " Amasis was partial to the Greeks, and, among other favors 
 which he granted them, gave to such as liked to settle in Egypt the city of Naukra- 
 tis for their residence. To those who only wished to trade upon the coast, and did 
 not want to fix their abode in the country, he grunted certain lands where they 
 might set up altars and erect temples to the Gods. Of these temples the grandest 
 and most famous, which is also the most frequented, is called ' The Hellenium.' 
 It was built conjointly by the lonians, Dorians, and JSolians, the following cities 
 taking part in the work : the Ionian States of Chios, Teos, Phocaea, and Klazomenae ; 
 Rhodes, Cnidus, Halicarnassus, Phuselis of the Dorians, and Mytilene of the Jioli- 
 ans. These are the States to whom the temple belongs, and they have a right of 
 appointing the governors of the factory ; the other cities which claim a share in 
 the building claim what in no sense belongs to them. Three nations, however, 
 consecrated for themselves separate temples the Eginetans one to Zeus, the Sami- 
 ans to Hera, and the Milesians to Apollo." Herodotus, Book II., chap, clxxviii. 
 
 NOTE 9, page 36. See Naukratis, Part II., by Ernest A. Gardner. 
 
 NOTE 10, page 38. The Great Sphinx is attributed by Mariette to the mythic 
 ages before the advent of Mena, the first king of the First Dynasty ; and Maspero 
 considers it to be, if not actually prehistoric, at all events the oldest monument in 
 Egypt. The Sphinx has been several times cleared from the ever-drifting sands of 
 the desert. The first occasion of which we have any record was in the time of 
 Thothmes IV., that king having celebrated the fact by a votive tablet placed 
 against the breast of the Sphinx, and which yet remains in situ. He therein relates 
 that, having been upon one of his hunting expeditions, he lay down to rest in the 
 shadow of the huge image. He there fell asleep and dreamed a dream wherein 
 the Sphinx conjured him to clear away the sand in which it was nearly buried. 
 After this it was cleared again in the time of Pisebkhanu, a king of the Twenty- 
 first Dynasty, who has also left a tablet on the spot ; and it must have been cleared 
 again in Roman times, when the paws and breast were repaired with slabs of lime- 
 stone. From that time till the opening of the Suez Canal, the sand continued to 
 accumulate without being disturbed ; but it was once again cleared down to the 
 paws in honor of the visit of the Emperor and Empress of the French in 1869. 
 
 NOTE 11, page 44. Turn, or Atum, the God of the Setting Sun, was also wor- 
 shipped at Heliopolis. He is represented as a man walking, with a head-dress 
 composed of the lotus, with drooping calyx leaves, surmounted by two straight 
 feathers. 
 
 NOTE 12, page 44. The hieroglyphic spelling of " Thukut," or "Sukut," has 
 given rise to much discussion among Egyptologists, the initial hieroglyph of this 
 name being capable of a twofold reading. M. Naville has, however, shown by anal- 
 ogy that this sign must have been used to express the sibilant S as well as the 
 diphthong Th ; as, notably, in the Greek transcription of the Egyptian name of the 
 city of Thebnuter, which must have had the sibilant pronunciation, as it was tran- 
 scribed Sebennytiis by the Greeks. See The Store-City of Pithom and the Route of 
 the Exodus, Sd'edition (1888), by E. Naville. 
 
 NOTE 13, page 47. The Septuagint was the official and authoritative Bible of 
 Hellenistic Jews, accepted by the Jewish high-priest at Alexandria, and author- 
 ized by the high-priest at Jerusalem and the seventy elders. These latter were, 
 in fact, responsible for the work, and are accredited with the performance of the 
 task of selection and translation. According to a well-founded tradition, the Sep- 
 tuagint was undertaken by order of Ptolemy Philadelphia (286-24*7 B.C.), and be- 
 gun, if not completed, at Alexandria, the law being the part first translated. We 
 quote the following from the author of the article " Septuagint," in the Encyclo- 
 pedia Britannica, 1886: "From Ecclesiasticus it appears that about 130 B.C. not 
 only the law but the 'prophets and other books' were extant in Greek. With this 
 it agrees that the most ancient relics of Jewish-Greek literature all show acquaint- 
 ance with the Septuagint. The later translations of prophets and other books 
 were private enterprises, as appears from the prologue to Ecclesiasticus and the 
 Colophon to Esther. It appears also that it was long before the whole Septuagint 
 was finished and treated as a complete work. The work of translation was grad-
 
 NOTES. 303 
 
 Aus, and the New Testament w 
 NOTE 14, page 60. See Josephus's Antiquities of the Jeicx, xiii., 3. 
 
 ual, and not uniform. Philo, Josephus, and the New Testament writers use the 
 Sepuiagint." 
 
 Naville. 
 
 NOTE 17, page 73. For an admirable account of the methods of ancient Esvp. 
 tian painting, see Maspero's Egyptian Ardueology, chap, iv., pp. 164-201. 
 
 NOTE 18, page 75. See Pliny's Historia Xatnralis, Boole XXXV., chap. iii. See 
 also Woltmann's History of Painting, chap. i. 
 
 NOTE 19, page 75. See Plinie's Natnrall Historic, translated by Philemon Hol- 
 land, Book XXXV., chap, iii., London, 1601. 
 
 NOTE 20, page 78. See Les Origines de VHistorie d'apres la Bible, chap. xiii. 
 Fran9ois Lenormant. See also Note 27. 
 
 NOTE 21, page 79. See "Les Attaques dirigees contre 1'Egypte," Revue Arche- 
 oloffique, nouvelle ser, Vol. XVI., by E. de Rouge. 
 
 NOTE 22, page 80. For a full account of these discoveries, and fac-similes of the 
 archaic alphabetic signs scratched on the potsherds of Kahun and Gurob, see 
 Mr. Petrie's new volume, entitled Kahun, Gurob, and Hawura ; Triibner & Co 
 1890. 
 
 NOTE 23, page 81. Mr. Lepage Renouf has recently cast grave doubts upon the 
 usually accepted significance of the papyrus and lotus groups, which he maintains 
 in nowise stand for Upper and Lower Egypt. It has also been suggested by M. 
 Grebaut that another well-known group of hieroglyphs, signifying "the two lands," 
 may refer not to Upper and Lower Egypt, but to the right and left banks of the 
 Nile. 
 
 NOTE 24, page 83. From the earliest date at which we have any knowledge of 
 the manners and customs of the ancient people of Syria, we find them delighting 
 in rich and picturesque raiment, after the fashion of the garments worn by the 
 typical Syrian in our illustration. Joseph's coat of many colors was, we may be 
 sure, a fringed and embroidered garment such as these ; and that this kind of 
 embroidery was carried to a point of great perfection at a later period is shown 
 by the enumeration of the booty taken from Sisera in the " Song of Deborah," where 
 we read of "a prey of divers colours of needle-work on both sides meet for the 
 necks of them that take the spoil." Judges, chap, v., verse 30. See also Psalm 
 xlv., verses 13 and 14: "The King's daughter is all glorious within : her clothing is 
 of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needle-work." 
 See also the descriptions of the hangings of the tabernacle and the garments of 
 the priests in the books of Exodus and Leviticus. 
 
 NOTE 25, page 84. The Libyan tribe, called the Maatsaiu (thus spelled phonetic- 
 ally in the hieroglyphs), are represented by the Maa/ehs of the present day. They 
 were employed by the Pharaohs as gendarmes, or armed police. See " La Car- 
 riere administrative de deux hauts fonctionnaires Egyptiens," Journal Axiatiqne, 
 Avril-Juin, 1890, by Professor Maspero. 
 
 NOTIO 26, page 91. Mr. Ernest Gardner, referring to this beautiful Sphinx plate 
 in Naukratis, Part II., writes as follows: "This is a plaque-painting rather than 
 a vase design. It is executed with the utmost delicacy and ease in four colours 
 yellow, brown, purple or red, and white ; these are the typical four colours of early 
 painting, and we can hardly doubt that they were the four that characterized the 
 technique of Polygnotus and other early masters. Here, then, we have nn example 
 closely approaching to a panel picture, showing us exactly how these colours were 
 used. Perhaps the most remarkable thing of all is the use of touches of white to 
 bring out the high lights. Unfortunately it is hardly possible to see this now ; but 
 when the plate was first taken out of the ground such touches were distinctly vis- 
 ible in some places, especially on the front of the fore-legs and paws. The use of 
 the other colours may be pretty clearly seen on the plate. The outlines are drawn 
 in brown with a brush, but incised lines are also used, especially to indicate the
 
 304 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 plumage on the breast. Above the head of the sphinx two small holes were bored 
 through the rim of the. plate, clearly indicating that it was intended to be hung up, 
 in all probability as a picture to decorate the wall of the tjmple. If so, we may 
 with yet more certainty regard this plaque as affording us invaluable information 
 as to the style prevalent in the free paintings of the period if, indeed, any existed 
 in the sixth century which were not purely decorative in their subject and treat- 
 ment." See Naukrati*, Part II., chap, v., p. 45, by Ernest A. Gardner. 
 
 NOTE 27, page 92. According to Herodotw, Book I., chap, xciv., there was a 
 great famine in Lydia in the time of Atys, son of Menes, wherefore the King di- 
 vided the nation in two halves, and it was decided by casting lots which half should 
 remain in Lydia, and which should go into exile. The lots being drawn, he gave 
 his son Tyrsenos to the emigrants for their leader, and they built ships, ami put 
 out to sea in search of some fertile place in which to settle. Having touched at 
 the ports of many nations, they at last colonized Umbria, and there founded cities 
 which they still continued to inhabit in the historian's own time. He further goes 
 on to say that they ceased to call themselves Lydians, and, taking the name of 
 their early leader, called themselves Tyrsenes. This is the same people whom we 
 meet with in the Egyptian hieroglyphic chronicles as the Tursha. And here, again, 
 we find them evidently in search of a new home in which to establish themselves 
 as a settled colony. During the reign of Meneptah Egypt was invaded by the 
 Libyans, in' alliance with the Achaeans, the Tursha, and other tribes from the coast- 
 lands of Asia Minor. In this coalition the Tursha appear as emigrants under arms, 
 rather than as mere invaders in search of plunder; for it is expressly said in the 
 great inscription which records the defeat of the invaders that " the Tursha took 
 the lead in this war, all the warriors from that country having brought their wives 
 and their children." If, however, the Tursha, or Tyrsenes, were in search of a new 
 country in the time of Meneptah, they seem to have found a home by the time of 
 Rameses III., some sixty years later; for, in the great invasion of Egypt by the 
 Graeco-Asiatic and European tribes, which took place during the reign of that Pha- 
 raoh, the Tursha occupy but a secondary place, and send only a small contingent 
 to the war. Tins, as Lenormant observes, points to the fact that the bulk of the 
 nation had by this time found their long-sought place of settlement in Central Italy. 
 According to this authority, it was towards the fifteenth or fourteenth century, B.C., 
 that the Tursha, or Tyrsenes, who up to that time had inhabited the western coast 
 of Asia and the islands of the ^Egean, emigrated en masse in a westward direction, 
 and settled in Central Italy. See Les Oriffines de VHixtoire d'apre* la Bible, chap, 
 xiii., by Fran9ois Lenormant. 
 
 NOTE 28, page 94. It was Apollodortis who first combined landscape and figures, 
 and who first abandoned the old system of monochrome background. He was also 
 the first of the Greek painters who mastered the difficulties of light and shadow. 
 "Apollodorus was the first to give his pictures a natural and definite background 
 in true perspective; he was the first, it is emphatically stated, who rightly managed 
 chiaroscuro and the fusion of colors. Hence he earned the title of Ski.agraphofi, or 
 shadow painter. He will also have been the first to soften off the outlines of his 
 figures, and thus no longer to draw and tint merely, but, in the true sense of the 
 word, to paint with his brush. For this reason we may, with Brunn, in a certain 
 sense call Apollodorus the first true painter." Woltmann's History of Painting, 
 chap, ii., p. 46. 
 
 NOTE 29, page 96. For a more detailed account of these portraits and their dis- 
 covery, see Biahmu, Hawara, and Arsinoe, by W. M. Flinders Petrie, chaps, iii., vi. 
 
 NOTE 80, page 104. In the Graco-Roman cemetery at Hawara, in which these 
 portraits were discovered, Mr. Petrie found a large number of mummies inwrapped 
 in garments both woven and embroidered in rich colors and elegant designs, many 
 in extraordinary preservation. Woollen socks, various kinds of shoes and sandals 
 in leather and palm-leaf, as well as a number of head-scarfs and hair-nets in deli- 
 cate netted thread-work and woollen-work were also found. Specimens of these 
 hair-nets and netted head-dresses are to be seen at the South Kensington Museum, 
 London. These very curious relics of wearing apparel, etc, date from. 200 A.D. to
 
 NOTES. 305 
 
 300 A.D. ; they are therefore of later origin than the portraits, and belong to sub- 
 sequent interments. The manufacture of netting for trimming purposes, etc., may 
 however, have been common long before. 
 
 NOTE 31, page 116. For full particulars of these early tombs and their contents, 
 see Les Mastabas de Vancien Empire, by A. Mariette Bey. 
 
 NOTE 32, page 118. See Mr. Lepage Renoufs volume of Hibbert Lectures, 1879. 
 Lecture IV., p. 147 et seq. 
 
 NOTE 33, page 119. The tablet of Pepi-Na is in the Museum of Ghizeh. 
 
 NOTE 34, page 1 20. The tablet of Napu is in the possession of Jesse Haworth 
 Esq. 
 
 NOTE 35, page 140. The presence of these statues of servants in tombs of the 
 ancient empire may very possibly point to a far distant prehistoric time, when the 
 servants were themselves sacrificed and buried in the tombs of their masters. 
 
 NOTE 36, page 143. See Sir Charles Newton's description of the treatment of 
 the human figure by Greek sculptors, Essays on Archfeoloyy, chap, viii., p. 360 (1 880). 
 
 NOTE 37, page 149. The first Sullier Papyrus (British Museum), after having 
 been long regarded as an historical document, has been shown bv Professor Mas- 
 pero to be a popular story, based probably upon fact, but indebted for some of its 
 incidents to the common stock of Oriental folk-lore. Of this king, Apepi, we only 
 know that he repaired and embellished the Great Temple of Tanis, that he built 
 a temple to Sutekh, a Semitic deity, and that it was in his time that the Tlieban 
 princes, headed by Sekenen-Ra-Ta-a, commenced that war of independence which 
 resulted in the expulsion of the Ilyksos. The first Sallier Papyrus, which is un- 
 fortunately much mutilated, begins by describing how " the whole land did homage 
 to King Apepi, and how the King took unto himself Sutekh for lord, refusing to 
 serve any other God in the whole land." It then goes on to say how he called his 
 counsellors and magicians together, to assist him in framing a fantastic message to 
 Sekenen-Ra-Ta-a, in which he desired that prince to hunt down the hippopotamuses 
 of Upper Egypt, because they prevented his sleep by day and by night. Sekenen- 
 Ra-Ta-a received this message with dismay, and summoned his captains and gen- 
 erals to advise him as to its meaning, whereupon they were all struck with silence 
 and terror. Here the manuscript breaks off abruptly, and we are left with the 
 enigma unsolved. It is evident, however, that Apepi imposed an impossible task 
 upon the Theban prince, in order to compel his acceptance of some unwelcome al- 
 ternative, such as the abjuration of his national faith, and his conversion to the 
 worship of Sutekh. What the historic kernel of this story may have been it is 
 impossible to say, but it seems probable that Apepi endeavored to abolish the wor- 
 ship of the Gods of Egypt, in order to impose upon his subjects the exclusive worship 
 of Sutekh. Such a proposal, if addressed to the tributary princes of Thebes, who 
 were the direct descendants of the great Twelfth Dynasty Pharaohs, would have 
 been sufficient to precipitate that great rising which was already inevitable. The 
 first Sallier Papyrus has been translated into English by E. L. Lushington, in Rec- 
 ords of the Past, vol. viii. ; into German by Brugsch, in his Geshichte ^Kgyptens 
 unter 'den Pharaonen ; and into French by Professor Maspero, in his Conies Popu- 
 lairex de tEyypte Ancienne. There are also translations by Ebers, Chabas, and 
 others. 
 
 NOTE 38, page 149. See M. Naville's Bubastis, being the Eighth Annual Memoir 
 published by the Egypt Exploration Fund. 
 
 NOTE 39, page 157. See "Lying in State in Cairo," in Harper's Montldy Maga- 
 zine for July, 1882. 
 
 NOTK 40, page 157. The highest honor which an Oriental can bestow upon a 
 stranger or a friend is to abnegate in his favor the tomb prepared for his own mor- 
 tal remains. It was thus that Joseph of Arimnthea gave up his own sepulchre, as 
 related in Matthew xxvii., 57-60; Mark xv., 43-46; and Luke xxiii., 60-53. An 
 interesting modern instance of how the modern Arab still prepares his tomb during 
 his own lifetime, and how, when influenced by friendship, he offers to dedicate it 
 not only to the remains of a stranger, but to a stranger who is a woman and au in- 
 fidel, is recorded in the experiences of Lady Duff Gordon. 
 20
 
 306 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 NOTE 41, page 160. "'Yavan' is the Hebrew rendering of 'Ionia,' and is em- 
 ployed in the Bible in a generic sense, designating the Greek nationalities collect- 
 ively." See Lenorinant, Lts Origincs de VHistoire d'apres la Bible, chap. xiii. 
 
 NOTE 42, page 164. See " Memoire sur les Attaques dirigees contre 1'Egypte," 
 Revue Arckeologigue, 1867, by De Roug6. . 
 
 NOTE 43, page 168. The wall-paintings and inscriptions of these extremely in- 
 teresting tombs have just been exhaustively copied by means of photographs and 
 colored tracings' by Messrs. Newberry, Fraser, and Blackden, agents of the Egypt 
 Exploration Fund, this being the first series of monuments undertaken for the 
 great Archaeological Survey of Egypt. 
 
 NOTE 44, page 169. See Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie's Lecture on Naukratis, de- 
 livered at the Annual General Meeting of the Egypt Exploration Fund, October 28, 
 1885. Printed in the Third Annual Report of the Society, pp. 14-32. 
 
 NOTE 45, page 170. For the Orchomenos ceiling, see Schliemann's Orchomenos; 
 Leipzig, 1881, PI. I. 
 
 NOTE 46, page 171. See Dr. Schliemann's Orckomeno.t. 
 
 NOTE 47, page 174. "The age of the Doric temple at Corinth is not, it is true, 
 satisfactorily determined ; but the balance of evidence would lead us to believe 
 that it belongs to the age of Cypselus, or about 650 B.C. The pillars are less than 
 four diameters in height, and the architrave the only part of the superstructure 
 that now remains is proportionately heavy. It is, indeed, one of the most massive 
 specimens of architecture existing, more so than even its rock-cut prototype at 
 Beni-Hassan, from which it is most indubitably copied. As a work of art, it fails 
 from excess of strength, a fault common to most of the efforts of a rude people, 
 ignorant of their own resources, and striving, by the expression of physical 
 strength alone, to obtain all the objects of their art." History of Architecture, 
 vol. i., Book III., chap, ii., p. 220, by Fergusson. 
 
 NOTE 48, page 181. See American Journal of Archaeology, vol. iii., Nos. 8 and 4. 
 
 NOTE 49, page 195. An excellent translation of this papyrus, published, with 
 commentary, in the Bibliotheca Sacra, 1888, has been made by Professor Howard 
 Osgood, of Rochester, N. Y. 
 
 NOTE 50, page 196. Mr. Petrie has more recently found at Gurob fragments of 
 the Phaedo of Plato and the Antigone of Euripides certain portions of the latter 
 part of the play being hitherto unknown. 
 
 NOTE 51, page 213. It was the opinion of De Rouge that this papyrus is a later 
 copy, and that the date and signature are mere transcriptions from an earlier docu- 
 ment. Errnan, basing his opinion upon the fact that a well-known scribe named 
 Pentaur lived some 70 years later during the reign of Meneptah, doubts not only 
 that the copy was made in the 7th year of Rameses II. but that Pentaur was the 
 author. It is, however, quite possible that the Pentaur of Meneptah's time was a 
 son of the original Pentaur, inheriting his profession and his office. In any case, 
 the name of Pentaur was not uncommon ; and the fact that there was a Pentaur in 
 the time of Meneptah is really no reason for dismissing as mythical the Pentaur of the 
 preceding reign. In the mean while the colophon can only be accepted as it stands. 
 
 NOTE 52, page 217. Besides the better known transcriptions of this poem on the 
 pylon-walls of Luxor and the Ramesseum, and in the great hall at Abu-Simbel, there 
 are some remains of other transcriptions in the Temples of Rameses II. at Abydos 
 in Upper Egypt, and Derr in Nubia. 
 
 NOTE 53, page 218. See Chabas, in Zeitschrift fur ^Egypt: Sprache, 1864. Also 
 Lieblein, in a paper entitled " Les Anciens Egyptiens Connaissaient-ils le Mouve- 
 ment de la Terre ?" Transactions of the Cougres Provincial des Orientalistes Fraii- 
 9ais, 1 Bulletins, vol. ii. 
 
 NOTE 54, page 220. The Prisse Papyrus has of late been admirably translated 
 into French from the original Egyptian by M. Philippe Virey (1887). 
 
 NOTE 55, page 221. Translated by M. Pierret, Recueil des Travaux, 1870. 
 
 NOTE 56, page 222. These sixteen tales, some of which are fragments only, are 
 all to be found in the latest edition of M. Maspero's delightful little volume of Conies 
 Egyptiennes, 1889.
 
 NOTES. 307 
 
 NOTE 57, page 223. See Etudes Egyptiennes, G. Maspero, Tome I, Fascicule 3, 1883. 
 
 NOTE 58, page 225. The flowers mentioned in this love-song are identified by 
 Professor Maspero with " Sweet Marjorum," Purslane, and Mugwort, all sweet-smell- 
 ing herbs. In adapting my translation to the English language, I have ventured to 
 substitute Henna, one of the Lythracea, for the less poetical original. 
 
 NOTE 59, page 226. We may even know how the words of this song actually 
 sounded in the mouths of the men who sang them 3540 years ago. The old 
 tongue is strange enough to our modern ears, but thanks to its close relation to the 
 Coptic, and to the researches of modern Egyptologists, we are enabled to call back 
 its far-off echoes. 
 
 I- 2. 
 
 HI ten enten, Hi-ten enten! Hi-ten enten ! 
 
 Hi-ten enten, Teheu en amu! 
 
 Aha-u! Aha-u ! Shesu en Nebuten, Shesu en Nebuten, 
 
 Aha-u! Aha-u! 
 
 NOTE 60, page 228. See, for many important papers on the religion and my- 
 thology of the ancient Egyptians, Professor Maspero's contributions to the Revue 
 de V Histoire des Religions during the past ten years. 
 
 NOTE 61, page 230. See Tyler's Primitive Culture, the chapter on Totemism. 
 
 NOTE 62, page 231. Bulletin de la Religion d'Egypte in Revue de V Histoire des 
 Religions, 1st year, vol. i., No. 1. 
 
 NOTE 63, page 236. See Herodotus, Book IV., chap, cxxxi-cxxxii. 
 
 NOTE 64, page 241. For an account of the Horshesu, see chap, ii., " The Buried 
 Cities of Ancient Egypt." 
 
 NOTE 65, page 254. The God Khem, also by some Egyptologists called Min and 
 Am. He was identified by the Greeks with Pan, and by the Romans with Priapus. 
 
 NOTE 66, page 261. That Hatasu was not their only daughter is shown by a 
 funerary bas-relief sculpture representing Thothmes I. and Ahmes-Nefertari with 
 their daughter, the princess Neferu Kheb, who died in infancy. Whether Hatasu 
 was the elder or the second daughter we do not know ; but in either case, as the 
 survivor, she was heiress to the throne. 
 
 NOTE 67, page 262. " The Black Land and the Red Land " signifies Lower and 
 Upper Egypt; the Black Land being the dark mud of Lower Egypt, and the Red 
 Land the sandy deserts of Upper Egypt. 
 
 NOTE 68, page 263. See "Etudes des Monuments du Massif de Karnak," by E. 
 de Rouge, in the Melanges d' Archeologie, vol i., page 50. 
 
 NOTE 69, page 264. See Le Masee Egt/ptien, by E. Grebaut, Part I. ; see also an 
 article by G. Maspero, in the Revue Critique, No. 49, December, 1890. 
 
 NOTE 70, page 264. For a description of the winding-sheet of Thothmes III., see 
 Les Momies Royales de De'ir-el-Bahari, Part I., p. 548. 
 
 NOTE 71, pnge 269. Compare various translations of this inscription in Records 
 of the Past, in Cleopatra's Needle, by Sir Erasmus Wilson, and in The Egypt of the 
 Past, by the same author. 
 
 NOTE 72, page 272. The lofty tower which is yet standing of this ruined convent 
 has been the temporary abode of Lepsius, Champollion, Rosselini, and Sir Gardner 
 Wilkinson, while they were prosecuting their researches. 
 
 NOTE 73, page 272. One whole sphinx, and part of another are in Berlin. 
 
 NOTE 74, page 272. See De'ir-el-Bahan, by Auguste Marietta, folio, 1877. 
 
 NOTE 75, page 273. In 1874 two of these" prostrate Hathor-head capitals were 
 in admirable preservation, the hair being colored yellow, the eye-halls white, with 
 a black disk for the iris; and the necklace, if I remember rightly, black, green, 
 and red. By this time, probably, they are scored over with travellers' names, or 
 chipped to pieces by relic-hunters. 
 
 NOTE 76, page 276. See De'ir-el-Baharl. Mariette, p. 81. 
 
 NOTE 77, page 280. This celebrated subject forms one of the great historic 
 series relating to the reign of Seti I. sculptured in bas-relief on the north outer 
 wall of the Hy post vie Hall at Karnak. The canal is represented by two vertical 
 lines enclosing a narrow space of water, conventionally rendered by zigzags, the
 
 308 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS. 
 
 banks being each planted with a row of trees. The only bridge known to be rep- 
 resented in ancient Egyptian art is here shown as crossing the canal in front of the 
 fortified gates of a strong frontier fortress, named El Khetam, or " The Key." For 
 an exact reproduction of this important sculpture, see Rosselini, Monumenti Storici. 
 A part of the subject is also given in Eber's Egypt, vol. ii. 
 
 NOTE 78, page 282. Dr. Doenitz, in his remarks on the fishes, contributed to Dr. 
 Diimichen's work, Die Flotte einer ^Egyptischen Konigin, writes of these turtles 
 as tortoises, and classifies the crawfish as the Palinums penicillatus of the Red Sea. 
 He remarks, however, that the Egyptian artist has here and there mixed up the 
 fishes of the Nile and the Red Sea in a curiously arbitrary manner, having more 
 than once introduced the sacred oxyrhinchus of the Nile among the fishes of Punt. 
 
 NOTE 79, page 285. The speech which the Egyptian lapidary scribe has here put 
 into the mouth of Parihu gives to Hatasu the glory of being the first ruler of Egypt 
 whose representatives visited the Land of Punt; the tablet of Sankhara (Eleventh 
 Dynasty) in the Wady Maghara refers, however, to an expedition, despatched by this 
 Pharaoh to the Land of Punt in quest of the " green ana." The tablet states that 
 the King's explorers started from Coptos and crossed the Arabian desert by the old 
 trade route to a port on the Red Sea, the site, no doubt, of the more modern city of 
 Berenice. Here they built and launched the vessels which conveyed them to the 
 coast of the Somali country. See the Wady Maghara Tablet in Lepsius' Denkmaler. 
 
 NOTE 80, page 286. The Egyptians entertained an extreme reverence in the ab- 
 stract for the Land of Punt, which apparently formed part of a larger district 
 known generally as Ta-nuter, or the Land of the Gods. Hathor and Bes, two of 
 the principal deities worshipped by the Egyptians had their divine origin in Punt, 
 and Hathor was adored under a special form as " The Lady of Punt." Bes, in his 
 grotesque features and general characteristics, is clearly a barbaric divinity, and is 
 occasionally represented as nursing or devouring the large cynocephalus apes de- 
 picted in the wall-sculptures of Dayr-el-Bahari as indigenous to the Land of Punt. 
 The Egyptians appear to have cherished a vague tradition of their own origin as 
 natives of Ta-nuter at some extremely remote period ; and it is interesting to note 
 that the curved beard characteristic of these natives of the Land of the Gods is a 
 special attribute of divinities as well as of deified personages in Egyptian art. 
 
 NOTE 81, page 287. An inscription at Karnak, which gives a long list of the 
 booty brought to Egypt after -a victorious campaign of Thothmes III., especially 
 mentions a certain curious bird "which delighted the heart of his Majesty more than 
 all other things." The architraves of this Pharaoh's Hall of Pillars, also at Kar- 
 nak, are covered with elaborate representations of foreign flowers, trees, aud plants 
 brought by that king from Syria for planting out in the great botanic garden at- 
 tached to the Temple of Amen at Thebes. A wood-cut in Maspero's Egyptian Ar- 
 chaeology admirably reproduces some of these very curious designs. (See English 
 translation, 2d edition, p. 89, fig. 100.) 
 
 NOTE 82, page 288. See Plinie's Natural Historie, translated by Philemon Hol- 
 land, 1691, Book XII., chaps, xv. and xvi. 
 
 NOTK 83, page 289. See Schweinfurth's Heart of Africa, vol. i., p. 271. 
 
 NOTE 84, page 291. See Chabas, Antiquites Historiques, chap. iii. 
 
 NOTE 85, page 293. The Egyptian word Pera, signifying literally " Great House," 
 is the invariable name for a royal palace. It is also used as a synonym for the King 
 himself, and gives us the origin of that title which is transliterated in the Hebrew 
 Bible by " Pharaoh." This employment of the name of the palace as a synonym 
 for the name of the King is exactly paralleled at the present day by our own use 
 of the term " Sublime Porte," or " Great Gate-way " for the title of the Sultan of 
 Turkey. 
 
 NOTE 86, page 295. Urtheku, or " Great Charmer," is a Goddess of Magic but 
 rarely met with in the inscriptions. 
 
 NOTE 87, page 296. A somewhat similar inscription on the face of the cliff 
 above the entrance to the celebrated Speos Artemidos in the province of Minieh, 
 which is in part effaced, has recently been copied and deciphered by M. Goleni- 
 scheff. This sanctuary had hitherto been attributed to Thothmes III. ; but M. Go-
 
 NOTES. 309 
 
 lenischeff has discovered that the royal ovals of this king are resculptured over 
 those of some earlier sovereign, who, to judge by the mention of Hathor of Punt, 
 and the products of the Land of Punt, can have been none other than Hatasu. 
 In the course of the same inscription it is said that she had restored the temples 
 of the Gods in various parts of Egypt where they had been ravaged and overthrown 
 by the enemy, whom we may presume to have been the Hyksos. 
 NOTE 88, page 297. See Rhind's Thebes, its Tombs and their Tenants.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 AAHLU, Fields of, idea, borrowed by 
 
 Greeks, 186. 
 Ab, 117. 
 
 Abode of Turn, 48. 
 Abraham, 38, 196. 
 Abu-Simbel, 53, 79; battle-piece, with 
 
 RamesesII., 213-217; portraits at, 86, 
 
 87. 
 Abydos, 17. 
 
 Great Temple of, 211. 
 
 Lord of, 120. 
 Acliseans, 76, 160, 167, 191. 
 
 first appearance of the, 163. 
 
 or Akaiusha, 79. 
 
 pictures of, 163. 
 Achilles, 163. 
 
 jEgean, Islands of the, 199. 
 
 J5sop,indebtednessof, to Egypt for "Lion 
 and Mouse," etc. ; Brugsch and Maspero 
 on, 223. 
 
 "Agib, Prince, and Lodestone Mountain," 
 224. 
 
 Ahmes Nefertari, Queen, 263, 264 ; moth- 
 er of Hatasu, 261 ; portrait described, 
 156. 
 
 Aiuna (the lonians), 79. 
 
 Akaiusha (the Achaeans), 79. 
 
 Akerit (the Carians), 162. 
 
 Alcacus, 23, 196. 
 
 Aleppo, 204,206,208; portrait described, 
 216,217. 
 
 Alexander, 75, 114, 222; Thothmes III. 
 the Alexander of ancient Egyptian his- 
 tory, 160. 
 
 Alexandria, 6, 7, 26, 37, 40, 101, 179 ; art 
 at, 35. 
 
 Algeria, 84, 199. 
 
 Alphabet, hieroglyphic, given, 245. 
 
 Am, City of, 18, 34. 
 
 Amasis, 30, 61, 179, 180, 223. 
 
 as a hero of fable, 225. 
 
 II., 28, 33,76, 88. 
 
 last of the Sai'te kings, 165. 
 
 Amasis, Xaukratis and the Greeks, 180, 
 
 225. 
 Amen, 102, 156, 206-208, 2C2, 270. 
 
 address of the Great God, 160 ; bri- 
 gade of, 204, 216 ; coming to aid in 
 battle ; idea borrowed by Greeks, 205. 
 
 Great God of Thebes, date of existence, 
 227. 
 
 Great Temple of, 262, 267, 294, 296. 
 
 High-Priest of, 157. 
 
 Lord of Thebes, 291. 
 
 of Thebes, 279. 
 
 one with Ra, 231. 
 
 oxen sacrificed to, 295. 
 
 Sacred Book of, 292. 
 
 speculations about, 228. 
 Amenemhat I., 52. 
 
 II., 18. 
 
 Amenemhats, dynasty of, 168. 
 Amenhotep III.", 125,' 126, 128, 150. 
 Amen-Knum Hatasu, 300. 
 Amen-Ra, 126, 199,269. 
 American Journal of Archeology, 170. 
 Amorites, 205. 
 
 frontier of the, 204. 
 Amr, 41. 
 
 Amu, Land of the, 291. 
 
 Amulets, 4. 
 
 Anacreon, 194, 196. 
 
 Ana sycamore. See Nehet Ana. 
 
 Ani, ape, 292. 
 
 scribe, maxims quoted, 221. 
 Ankh, 127, 128, 156. 
 
 as Father of Ma, 125. 
 
 associated with Ka, 126. 
 
 as symbol of life, 12(>, 187. 
 
 identified with Ka, 127, 128, 129. 
 
 with King, 128. 
 
 An-Tursha, 77-79. 
 
 Anubis, 187,228. 
 
 speculations about, 228. 
 Apelles, 74, 75, 112. 
 Apepi, face identified, 148.
 
 312 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Aphrodite, Temple of, at Naukratis, 20, 
 
 29, 35. 
 
 Apis (Ptah) as Greek Serapis; identified 
 with Zeus, 102. 
 
 as Soul of Osiris and Life of Turn, 231. 
 
 speculations about, 228. 
 Apollo, 35. 
 
 at Naukratis, 191. 
 
 at Tenea, 190. 
 
 at Thera,190. 
 
 Strangford, the, 190. 
 
 temple to, 29. 
 Apollodorus, 94, 97. 
 Arabia, 146, 199, 288, 298. 
 
 Arabs, 5, 6, 8, 11, 13. 14,39,41,64,68,69, 
 84, 255, 276. 
 
 at tombs, 98, 142. 
 Aradus, 203, 206. 
 Arameans, 276. 
 Archaeology defined, 24. 
 
 Egyptian, period of, 24. 
 
 requirements for study of, 24-26. 
 
 school of, at Athens, 29. 
 Archipelago, 78. 
 
 Ardagh, Lieutenant-colonel, survey of, 
 
 280. 
 
 Argolis, 160, 161. 
 Ari-n-Amen (Arnmonarin), 102. 
 Aristides, 75. 
 Arsinoe, City of, 105. 
 Art, Alexandrian, 35. 
 
 Assyrian. See Assyrian. 
 
 decorative designs. See Decorative 
 designs. 
 
 early examples, 132. 
 
 Egyptian. See Egyptians. 
 
 Greek. See Greeks. 
 Artemidorus, 96. 
 Aryan Hellenes, 168. 
 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 195. 
 Asi, 120. 
 
 Asia Minor, 73, 202. 
 
 light on history of, 80. 
 
 tribes of, 80. 
 
 Asiatic Greeks, 73. 
 Asiatics, 200. 
 
 influence of the, on Egyptian art, 133. 
 
 types of, on tombs, 82. 
 Assuan, 53, 54, 176,256. 
 Assyrians, 68, 69, 159. 
 
 art of the, 74, 132. 
 
 influenced by Egypt, 81. 
 
 early works in sculpture of the, 132. 
 
 empire of the, 38. 
 
 sculpture of the, 114. 
 
 writing of the, 244. 
 
 As-t (Lady), mother of Tliothmes III., 
 264. 
 
 Astronomy, 217,218. 
 
 Ateta, King, author of anatomy, inventor 
 
 of hair- wash, 218. 
 Athena, 90, 229. 
 Athenacus, 29. 
 Athens, 30, 37, 74, 75. 
 Athribis, City of, 254. 
 Ati (wife of Prince of Punt), 284, 289. 
 
 Chabas on, 285. 
 
 Maspero and Mariette on, as type, 285. 
 Atrnu (Turn, Tumu), 81. 
 
 Augustus, 258. 
 
 Australia, aborigines of, 230. 
 
 Auvergne, 6. 
 
 BA (Egyptian, soul), 117. 
 
 Greek misinterpretation into harpy, 
 187, 188; into siren, 189. 
 
 representation and office of, 187, 188. 
 Baal, 206, 208. 
 
 Babylon, 61, 63. 
 Babylonians, 62, 159. 
 
 designs borrowed, 171. 
 
 inscriptions of the, 68. 
 
 writing of the, 244. 
 Bakakhiu, 57. 
 Bak-en-Khonsu, 271. 
 Balat (brickwork), 68. 
 Bechuanas of South Africa, 230. 
 Bedouin, Mound of the (Tell Bedawi), 17. 
 Benha (site of Athribis), 254. 
 Beni-Hasan, 168, 169, 172, 174, 191. 
 
 columns of, 180. 
 
 decorative designs at, 170, 172. 
 Berlin, Museum of, 190, 259. 
 Bible, the, 42, 50, 58, 63. 
 
 its account of Pharaoh's house veri- 
 fied, 68. 
 
 its history of the Hebrews verified, 40. 
 Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, 195, 220. 
 Birch, Dr., 4. 
 
 Bitter Lakes, 46. 
 Bodleian Librarv T 23. 
 Book, of the Dead, The, 14, 187, 196, 198, 
 233, 249, 258. 
 
 its "Negative Confession" quoted, 232. 
 British Museum, 33, 92, 111, 155, 162, 
 
 180, 189, 190, 212, 225, 298. 
 Browne, Sir Thomas, 5. 
 Brugsch, Dr., 46, 118, 197. 
 
 finding fable, "Lion and Mouse," etc., 
 223. 
 
 on Hatasu, 261. 
 
 theory about Egyptian religion, 228. 
 Brune, M., at Karnak, 274 ; restorations 
 
 at Dayr-el-Bahari, 272, 273. 
 Bubastis (modern Zagazig), 6, 26, 45, 50, 
 133, 146, 280.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 313 
 
 Bubastis, Temple of, 8, 148. 
 Bulak, 27. 
 
 "Wooden Man of," Ra-em-ka, 139 
 140. 
 
 Bull-clan of Memphis, 230. 
 Burton, Lieutenant, survey of, 280. 
 
 Sir Frederick, 158. 
 on panel portraits, 106. 
 
 CADMEAN Greek inscriptions, 77. 
 
 Caesars, 14, 37, 114. 
 
 Cairo, 6, 7, 16, 26, 39, 40, 116, 141, 168, 
 176, 179, 256. 
 
 Canaanite, A, 82. 
 
 Canal, branch of Nile existing in Nine- 
 teenth Dynasty; Author believes it was 
 built by Hatasu, 281. 
 
 course of, described, 280. 
 
 represented as Ta-Tena, walls of Kar- 
 nak temple, 280, 281. 
 
 Caria, 206. 
 Carians, 58, 76, 167. 
 
 as the Akerit, 162. 
 
 troops of the, 66, 88, 164. 
 Castellani, Signor, 108. 
 
 " Castle of the Jew's Daughter," 64, 68. 
 Central Africa, 285. 
 Ceremonial deposits, 31, 32. 
 
 time of Philip Arrhideus, 34. 
 
 Cervetri, 92. 
 
 Chabas, on Princess Ati, 285. 
 
 Chaldea, 271. 
 
 art of, 132. 
 Chaldean governor, 61. 
 "Chant of Victory," 198, 199. 
 
 Mariette on the, 202. 
 
 ranked with Pentaur by Brugsch, 202. 
 
 recording conquests of Thothmes III., 
 198. 
 
 text given, 199-202. 
 
 where found, 198. 
 Charles II., 153. 
 Chaucer, 114. 
 Cheops, 71. 
 
 Children of Israel, 80, 105, 191. 
 Christianity, introduction of, 9. 
 Cinderella, Egyptian origin of story, 223. 
 Cinnamomifera reffio, sometimes aroma- 
 
 tifera reffio, 276. 
 Cinnyris me(allica, the, 281. 
 Clans, Bull, Crocodile, 230. 
 Cleopatra, 38, 39. 
 
 Collignon's Archeologie Grecque, 87. 
 Colossi of the Plains, 53. 
 Colossus of Rameses II. ; described, 53, 54. 
 Combs, 4. 
 Coptic monasteries, 272. 
 
 memoranda, 10. 
 
 Coptic monks, 9. 
 Coptos, 276. 
 Copts, the, 5, 112. 
 Corinthian capitals, 186. 
 
 compared to Egyptian, 174. 
 
 Crocodile-clan, Fayum," 230. 
 Cross-legged scribe, 140, 143. 
 Cuirasses, Egyptian Tarena, 163, 164. 
 Curium, 26. 
 
 Cyclopean temples, 167. 
 Cynoccphalus Babuinus, 292. 
 
 Hamadryas, 292. 
 
 Cypriote alphabet, 77, 78 ; ancestry, 110; 
 art, 35 ; pottery, 77; relics, 28 ; schools 
 in decorative designs, 183 ; sculpture, 
 early examples of, 132; settlers, 167. 
 
 Cyprus, 80, 186, 201. 
 
 DAMIETTA, 7, 176. 
 
 Danai, or Danasans (descendants of Da- 
 naos), 76, 77, 201. 
 
 first appearance as Greeks under 
 Thothmes III., 76, 160. 
 
 history of name, 160, 161. 
 Daphnse/50, 61, 62, 76, 90, 92, 180, 184 
 
 187. 
 
 colonization of, by Greeks, 191. 
 
 founded by Psammetichus I. for Ca- 
 rian troops, 88. 
 
 Greek, Daphnjc of Pelusium ; Arab, 
 Tell Defenneh, 58. 
 
 history of, 58-63, 165, 166. 
 
 identified as the Biblical Tahpanhes, 
 58, 63, 165, 166. 
 
 Jeremiah quoted, 65-67. 
 
 lotus design by potters of, 1 83. 
 
 Petrie's discoveries at, 63-69. 
 Dardanelles, 163. 
 
 Dardani (Dardanians), 163. 
 
 as Asiatic Greeks by Thothmes III. and 
 Homer, 78. 
 
 Dardania, 208. 
 Dardanians, 76, 163. 
 
 history and laws of, 3, 191. 
 
 Darius and Scvthians, Herodotus on, 
 235, 236. 
 
 Dayr-el-Bahari Arabic, signifying Con- 
 vent of the North, Coptic moniiPterr, 
 271, 272 ; illustrations from, 277, 293 ; 
 Mariette at, 296; restorations by Brunt', 
 272-274; Temple of Karnak at, 271, 
 274, 275, 297. 
 
 Deems, 258. 
 
 Decorative designs, 169-171. 
 
 comparison of Greek and Egyp- 
 tian, 170-172. 
 
 Egyptian, Egg -and -dart pattern, 
 184.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Decorative designs, Egyptian. Goodyear 
 on (The Grammar of the Lotux), 172. 
 
 Greek, as affected by lotus (ex- 
 amples), 181, 182. 
 
 honeysuckle-pattern, 169; first ap- 
 pearance of, 183. 
 
 identity of Greek with Egyptian, 
 173. 
 
 key pattern, 160, 170, 183. 
 
 lotus (see flower also), 172, 181, 
 183; discussed and described, 176, 179. 
 
 Orchomenos, 172. 
 
 palmette, 171, 172, 185 ; the royal, 
 
 181. 
 
 Petrie on, 169. 
 
 Petrie's discoveries at Tell Defen- 
 
 neh, 182. 
 
 Rhodian type, 182, 183. 
 
 rosette, 169, 171, 172. 
 
 Schliemann quoted, "on long bud," 
 
 172. 
 
 spiral, 169, 172. 
 Defenneh vase, 184. 
 Deir-el-Bahari, Mariette on, 287. 
 De Lesseps, M., 280. 
 
 following in canal-course of Hatasu, 
 281. 
 
 Delos, 167, 174, 
 
 Delta, 4, 6-8, 15, 16, 26, 31. 40, 41, 58, 
 176, 185, 245, 252. 
 
 Eastern, 57, 88. 
 
 history and resources of the, 41, 42. 
 
 marsh canals, 18. 
 
 Western, 166, 179. 
 Demetrius, 96. 
 Denderah, 11, 296. 
 Dessuk 26. 
 Diocletian, 57. 
 Diogenes (artist), 104. 
 
 Flute of Arsinoe, 105. 
 Dodecarchy, the, 164. 
 
 Doric columns, development of shaft in 
 Egypt, 191. 
 
 Ferguson quoted on, 173, 174. 
 Diirer, Albert, 114. 
 
 Dynasty I., 38, 218, 230, 237, 241. 
 
 - IF., 186, 195, 237 ; tablets of, at Ox- 
 ford, 135. 
 
 - III., 135, 195. 
 
 IV., 116, 135, 136, 139, 177; Tombs 
 of, 195. 
 
 V., 116, 140, 177. 
 
 VI., 52, 116, 177, 195. 
 
 - XL, 52, 76, 159, 195, 227, 256, 258. 
 
 XII., 11, 18, 52, 77, 145, 148, 168, 
 220, 222, 242, 257, 261 ; date of found- 
 ing, 168; School of sculpture, 145. 
 
 XIII., 52, 146. 
 
 Dynasty XVII., 146. 
 
 XVIII., 76, 77, 84, 92, 125, 129, 150, 
 151, 256, 257, 261 ; poetry of, 226. 
 
 XIX., 8, 10, 52, 80, 151, 152, 155, 179, 
 188, 230, 257, 283 ; Pharaohs of, 194 ; 
 sepulchres of, 82. 
 
 XX., 17, 53, 75, 77, 80, 82. 86, 151, 
 182, 194, 230; sepulchres of, 82. 
 
 XXI., 157. 
 
 XXII., 43. 
 
 XXIV., 258. 
 
 XXV., 257, 258. 
 
 XXVI., 18,29,58, 130. 
 
 XXX., 44. 
 
 EBERS, DR.,26, 98, 178. 
 Edfu, 39, 296 ; Temple of, 9. 
 Egypt, 3-5, 10, 11, 15, 16, 20, 22, 23, 33, 
 37, 42, 43, 62, 63, 67. 
 
 ancient names of Tamari,Nehi,etc.; as 
 Ta-meri, Neri, Khem or Khemit, 254. 
 
 comparative history of, 37, 38. 
 
 divisions of, 40. 
 
 historic age of Horshesu, 241. 
 
 history as a nation, 38, 39, 63. 
 
 topography of, 39-41. 
 
 under Hatasu, 268. 
 
 Egyptian artists, 70-72, 100; methods, 
 73 ; with new types, 86. 
 
 Exploration Fund, 15, 50, 57, 67, 218. 
 history and place of, 40. 
 
 Hall (Piccadilly), 106. 
 
 manuscripts, 57. 
 
 panel portraits with process, 98-101. 
 
 pigments, etc., 99. 
 Egyptians, 14, 67, 96. 
 
 art of the, compared to Greek, Assyrian, 
 etc., 74. 
 
 early examples of the, 71, 132. 
 
 effected by Hadrian, 97. 
 
 emancipated from old traditions, 
 
 94. 
 
 exponent of religious beliefs, 134. 
 
 influence on Greeks, etc., 81, 87-91. 
 
 influenced by Asiatics, 133. 
 
 light thrown by Greek inscriptions 
 
 on the, 79. 
 
 manner and methods, 71-73. 
 
 painting, 75, 97. 
 
 Petrie's discoveries of the, 79. 
 
 potters, 78. 
 
 relation to Ka, 134. 
 
 religious origin of the, discussed, 
 
 115, 134. 
 schools classified Memphite,Saite, 
 
 etc., 133, 134, 139-141. 
 sculpturecomparedwiththeGreeks, 
 
 134, 135.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 315 
 
 Egyptians, art of the, summary, 94. 
 
 superiority of early schools, 134. 
 
 Theban period, 81. 
 
 belief of (parts of man, destiny after 
 death), 186. 
 
 character of the, discussed, 222. 
 
 early, 6, 194, 229. 
 
 love of meditation, 195 ; of songs and 
 stories, 222. 
 
 on tombs, 82. 
 
 types of, 100. 
 Eisenlohr, Dr. August, 218. 
 El Defenneh, 64-66. 
 Elephant River, 282. 
 Elizabeth (Queen), 261. 
 
 Hatasu as the Elizabeth of Egyptian 
 history, 261. 
 
 El Kab/112, 226. 
 
 El Kasr el Bint el Yahudl (the " Castle of 
 
 the Jew's Daughters "), 64. 
 Erastosthenes, 166. 
 Erectheum, 186. 
 Ero Castra, 46. 
 Etham, 46. 
 Ethiopia, 73, 80. 
 Ethiopians, 84, 154. 
 
 on tombs, 82. 
 
 portraits described, 85. 
 Ethnological Department, South Kensing- 
 ton, 23. 
 
 Etruscans, 78 ; Egyptian Tursha, 79, 92 ; 
 Greek Tyrrhenes or Turseni, 92. 
 
 alphabet of, 78, 79. 
 
 art of, 74, 80. 
 
 affected by Greeks, 91 ; by Egyp- 
 tians, 81. 
 
 compared to Egyptian, 92. 
 
 history of, 91, 92, 163, 193. 
 
 necklaces, 108. 
 
 painting on tombs, 92, 93, 95. 
 
 sculpture, 79. 
 
 standards, 93, 94 ; summary, 94. 
 
 Eudoxus, 166. 
 
 Euphrates, 1 99. 
 
 Eusebius, 198. 
 
 Exodus, the, 8,41,42,45,79. 
 
 later, the, 62. 
 
 route identified, 46. 
 
 Explorers, requirements for and trials of, 
 20-26. 
 
 FAF.STAFF, 286. 
 
 Fayiitn, 23, 77, 79, 94, 98, 99, 104, 147. 
 
 described, 96. 
 
 mummies at, 96. 
 
 panel- portraits at, 102-104, 112. 
 
 Petrie at, 77. 
 
 site of Labyrinth at, 95, 96. 
 
 Fellows, Sir Charles, 188. 
 
 Fields of Aahlu, 186, 187. 
 
 First empire, 115. 
 
 Food, 4. 
 
 Fresh-water Canal, 42. 
 
 Funerary tablets, etc., 4, 119, 120. 
 
 GALKN, 218. 
 
 Galerius Maximian, 44. 
 
 Gardner, Ernest A., 19, 23, 29, 35, 36. 
 
 Genesis, 46. 
 
 Germanicus, 112. 
 
 Gerome, 281. 
 
 Geschichte Aegyptens nntcr den Pharao- 
 
 nen, 197. 
 Gezireh, 8. 
 Glii/eh, 116. 
 
 Great Pyramid of, 71, 131, 136, 227, 
 237. 
 
 museum at, 136, 155, 264, 298. 
 
 necropolis of, 137. 
 
 sphinx of, 11,88. 
 
 tombs of, 156, 195. 
 Gibraltar, Strait of, 279. 
 
 Gliddon, M., paraphrasing poem, 226. 
 
 Glyptotheca of Munich, 190,271. 
 
 Gnostic gems, 10. 
 
 Gobryas, 236. 
 
 Goodyear, W. H., 170, 181. 
 
 Egyptian origin of Ionic column, 170. 
 
 Lotus, origin of, 172. 
 
 Goshen (modern Saft el-IIenneh), 58; 
 
 identified with Kes, 58 ; land of, 58. 
 Grseco-Asiatic alphabet, 77. 
 Grasco-Egyptian panel-painting, 97. 
 Graff, Hei-r, 98. 
 
 Grammar of the Lotus, The. See Lotus. 
 Great Oppression, the, 58. 
 Great Pyramid, 71, 131, 136, 227, 237. 
 Grebaut, M., 264. 
 Greece, 97. 
 Greeks, the, 5, 9, 14, 96. 
 
 alliance with Hittites, 162 ; disappear- 
 ance under Rameses and second al- 
 liance (first chapter European history), 
 162, 163. 
 
 alphabet of the, 79, 80. 
 
 architecture of the, 1 73 ; columns 
 compared to Egyptian, 173-175; Fer- 
 guson on, 174 ; indebtedness to Egypt, 
 186 (see also designs); Ionic dis- 
 cussed, 176, 179, 180; Perrot on, 
 175. 
 
 nt Daphmr, 165, 166. 
 
 at Naukratis, 165, 166, 181. 
 
 early colonies, 30, 7i>, 77. 
 
 first appearance in Egypt, 159. 
 
 gems of, 10.
 
 316 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Greeks, gentleman and lady (costume), 
 102, 103. 
 
 in Egypt as Danai or Danaea, 160, 161; 
 as the Hanebu, the Hebrew iye hag- 
 goiin, 159, 160. 
 
 invasion under Psammetichus and 
 founding of Daphnae of Pelusiuin 
 (Biblical Tahpanhes), 164, 165. 
 
 language of, 199. 
 
 manuscripts of, 67. 
 
 meeting point of, 63. 
 
 of Asia Minor, 78. 
 
 of the yEgean, 78, 193. 
 
 of the Archipelago, 76. 
 
 papyrus of (Ptolemaic times), 196. 
 
 Petrie on evidence, 78 
 
 Petrie's discoveries as evidence in art, 
 79. 
 
 prehistoric, 191. 
 
 relics of (coins, etc.), 22, 28, 30, 35, 65, 
 66, 77. 
 
 towns of, 58, 61. 
 
 transcriptions of, 45. 
 
 art of the, 36, 80. 
 
 adaptation and alteration of 
 
 Sphinx, 90. 
 
 ceramic history of, 30, 31, 36. 
 
 compared to Egyptian, 75. 
 
 decorative designs : affected by lo- 
 tus, 181; history of, 31; identity with 
 Egyptian established, 173; indebted- 
 ness to Egypt, 169-172, 181 ; summary 
 of evidence, 185. 
 
 early specimens, 87, 89. 
 
 evidence quoted, 190. 
 
 indebtedness to Egypt, 81, 88, 89, 
 
 167, 189. 
 
 painters of portraits, 41, 74, 75, 
 
 100, 101. 
 
 sculpture, 79, 132. 
 
 summary, 94. 
 
 work of Apollodorus, '94. 
 
 Griffiths, F.Llewellyn, 57. 
 
 Mr., 16, 22, 34; explorations de- 
 scribed, 19, 20. 
 
 HADRIAN, 97, 103, 112. 
 Hair-pins, 4. 
 Halicarnassus, 26. 
 Hall of Columns, 199. 
 Hanebn (Egyptians as Greek Hellenes), 
 76. 161, 189. 
 
 (Hebrew ive haggoim) as Greeks in 
 Egypt, 159-161. 
 
 Harpakhrat, 18. 
 
 Harpy, Greek misinterpretation of Ba, 
 187-189. 
 
 tomb of, at British Museum, 187, 188. 
 
 Hatasu, Queen, 125, 261. 
 
 as builder, Temple of Karnak, 270. 
 
 as Pharaoh, 267. 
 
 conjectures of Mariette on, 150. 
 
 daughters of, Hatasu - Meri, Neferu- 
 Ra, and marriage of one daughter with 
 Thothmes III., 267. 
 
 Egypt under, 268. 
 
 expedition to Land of Punt, explana- 
 tory text quoted, and speculations 
 about route, 276, 279, 280; pictures 
 of, explained, 281, 296. 
 
 fame destroyed by Thothmes III., 297. 
 
 history, genealogy, and marriage with 
 Thothmes II., 263-268. 
 
 identity established, 262, 263; 
 
 obelisks of, with inscriptions quoted, 
 151, 268-270, 271. 
 
 only relics of, 279, 298. 
 
 portrait described, 150, 151. 
 
 " Procession of the Queen," 293. 
 
 Rouge', Dr., on 262. 
 
 royal oval of, 297, 299. 
 
 scientific ancestor, De Lesseps as 
 builder of the great canal, 281. 
 
 ships of, 276-278. 
 
 Speos, Artemidos, 296. 
 
 statue of, 273 ; with cow, 274. 
 
 throne-chair, 298. 
 
 tomb of, 297. 
 
 Hathor, the beautiful goddess, 125, 126, 
 224, 274, 296. 
 
 as Lady of Punt, 283, 294. 
 
 Karnak dedicated to, as Lady of the 
 West, deity of Punt, etc., 275. 
 
 Hawara, graves at, 23, 105. 
 
 Petrie and panel-portraits of, 102-1 12. 
 Haworth, Jesse, 298. 
 
 relics, 22. 
 Hebrew settlers, 42. 
 
 transcriptions, 45. 
 Hebrews, 40, 42, 48, 58, 131. 
 
 history of the, 63 ; light on, 40. 
 Heidelberg, 218. 
 
 Heliodorus, 28, 57. 
 
 Heliopolis, Great Temple and Sacred Col- 
 lege of, 198. 
 
 Hellas, 30, 38, 75, 76, 168. 
 Hellenic tribes, 28. 
 Hera, 29. 
 
 Her-Hor, High-Priest of Amen, 157. 
 Hermonthis, 208. 
 Herodotus, 8, 14, 29, 84, 166, 176. 
 
 credulity of, 222. 
 
 on Daphnse, 165. 
 
 on Naukratis, 179. 
 
 on Tel Defenneh, 64. 
 
 quoted on Labyrinth, 95.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 317 
 
 Herodotus, story of Darius and the 
 Scythians, 235. 
 
 story of Rhodopis and the sandal, 223. 
 Heroopolis, 47. 
 
 Herusha, 202. 
 
 Hindoo Kush, 259. 
 
 History, none of Egyptian, Manetho in 
 
 Greek, 197, 198. 
 Hittites, 188,208,216,217. 
 
 against Rameses, 205. 
 
 allied with Lycians, Mysians, Carians, 
 lonians, and Dardanians, 162, 163. 
 
 battle-piece of Abu-Simbel, 214. 
 
 leagued with Greeks in Egyptian wars, 
 162. 
 
 war-chariots, 205. 
 Homer, 23, 77, 191. 
 
 Papyrus found under a woman's head, 
 now in British Museum, 197. 
 
 Homeric vases, 87. 
 
 Hophra, refuge of daughters of Zedekiah 
 in Egypt, 165. 
 
 service of gold, 67. 
 Horace, 37, 194. 
 
 Horemheb (Pharaoh), 150, 152, 161, 189. 
 
 inscription on Pylon, 286. 
 Hor-pa-khroti (Hor-the-child), borrowed 
 
 by Greeks as Harpocrates, 186. 
 Horshesu, 38. 
 Horus, 90, 127, 128, 202, 252, 295. 
 
 child of, 80. 
 
 followers of, 38. 
 
 Greeks borrowed as God of Silence, 
 182. 
 
 the Victor "hut" as an emblem, 127. 
 Hotep-hers, Lady, 137. 
 
 Hottentot, 285. " 
 
 Houses, decoration of, described, 7. 
 
 Hui, 84, 112. 
 
 Huts of mud described, 8, 9. 
 
 Hyksos (Shepherd Kings), 147-149 
 
 invasion of the, 194. 
 
 kings, history of the, 146-150. 
 
 race of, 148. 
 
 rule of the, 268. 
 
 school of sculpture, 146 ; finest speci- 
 mens of, 148. 
 
 IBIS-CLAN, Hermopolis, 230. 
 
 Ibrem, 101. 
 
 Iliad, 160, 191,202. 
 
 buried with lady, 23. 
 
 Second Book of the, 23 ; found by Pe- 
 trie, 196. 
 
 Ilion, 208. 
 
 Images, Greek and Egyptian, 10. 
 Immortality believed by Egyptians, 131. 
 Indians, Red, picture-writing of, 237, 238. 
 
 Inscriptions describing Prince of Punt, 
 291. 
 
 early examples of, 77. 
 
 of Maskhutah, 42-44. 
 lonians, the (Aiuna), 76, 79, 163. 
 
 columns of, discussed, 179; earliest 
 examples of, 180. 
 
 decorative designs identified with lo- 
 tus. See Decorative Designs. 
 
 of Daphnae, 166. 
 
 troops of, 58, 66, 88, 164. 
 
 volute, 185. 
 Ireland, Erin, etc., 254. 
 Isarous, Lady, 101, 102. 
 Isi-ari-s or Ast-ari-s, 102. 
 Isidora (Isadore), 102. 
 Isis (Ision), 102. 
 Ismailia, 41,46,280. 
 Israel, 62. 
 
 children of, 48, 80, 105, 191. 
 
 in Egypt, 58. 
 
 Israelites, 42, 48. 
 
 Italy, Alps of, 77; an early nation, 193; 
 tribes of, 79. 
 
 JACOB, 41, 47. 
 Jeremiah, 62, 67, 68, 165. 
 
 prophecy of, quoted, 62, 63. 
 Jerusalem, 61. 
 
 Jewellers, 30. 
 
 workshop of the, 30. 
 Jewels, 4. 
 
 Jewish guests, 67. 
 
 types, 105. 
 
 Jews, antiquities of the, 198. 
 Johanan, 61, 62. 
 
 Joppa, taking of, like Ali Baba, 223. 
 Joseph, 46, 47. 
 
 oath of, 131. 
 Josephus, 50, 198. 
 
 Journal of Hellenic Studies, 92. 
 Judah, 62, 63. 
 
 royal line of, 68, 69. 
 Julius Cfesar, 112. 
 Jupiter, 102. 
 
 KA, 186, 187. 
 
 and the "Ankh," 126-130. 
 
 as life, 131, 232, 263; summary of 
 argument about the, 130-132. 
 
 as Oath of Pharaoh Joseph, 131. 
 
 association with the "Ankh," 126-130. 
 
 as Suten-ka (Ankh Neb Taui), Life of, 
 Lord of Two Lands, Royal Ku, 128. 
 
 Brugsch, definition of the, 118. 
 
 chambers, 142. 
 
 different interpretations of, 122. 
 
 discussion of the, 117-119.
 
 318 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Kn, dogma of the, 128-134. 
 
 fidelity of likeness in Ka statues, 132, 
 133. 
 
 Greeks and the Kha and Khai, 131. 
 
 hieroglyphic for the, 118. 
 Muspero defines the, 118. 
 
 relation to portrait statues explained, 
 122, 132. 
 
 Renouf, Le Page, defines, 118, 120. 
 
 statues, 141. 
 
 supplication tablets, etc., 119, 121. 
 
 theory of author on the, 123-130; of 
 Maspero, 122. 
 
 relating to the, 124-130. 
 
 Wiedemann defines the, 118. 
 Kadesh, 162, 202-206. 
 Kadeshites, the, 208. 
 Kafoo (monkey), 292. 
 Kahun relics described by Petrie, 243. 
 Kalyub, 7. 
 Kami, Greek kommi, 255. 
 
 Latin gummi, 256. 
 Kareah, 61. 
 Karkhemish, 202, 208. 
 
 Karnak, 153, 163, 185, 199, 268, 270, 
 296, 298. 
 
 built by Hatasu, 270, 271. 
 
 column and Temple of Thothmes III., 
 175, 179. 
 
 dedicated to Amen, Great God of 
 Thebes, and to Hathor, Lady of Punt, 
 275. 
 
 Great Temple of, 28, 151, 154, 160, 
 198, 212,261,268. 
 
 pictures and sculptures of canal and 
 great expedition on walls, 280-296. 
 
 present aspect of, 272-274. 
 
 pylon of Pharaoh (Horemheb), 189. 
 
 restored by Brune, 272. 
 
 speculations as to building, 274. 
 Kati, 203. 
 
 Ken-mi, 135. 
 
 Kes, 58. See Goshen. 
 
 Kha-em-uas, Prince, hero of fable, son of 
 Rameses II., 225. 
 
 Khafra, 11, 136. 
 
 Khaibit, 117. 
 
 Kha, Khai, 131. 
 
 Khamatic family of languages, including 
 Syrians, Ethiopians, etc., 259. 
 
 Khem, or Khem-t, Khemet, Khemi, an- 
 cient hieroglyphic name of Egypt, 254. 
 
 god of productiveness, 254. 
 
 survival in chemistry, and carried by 
 Arabians to Moors and Europe, 254, 
 255. 
 
 Khepersh, war-helmets, 154, 267. 
 Kheta, or Hittites, 203, 204, 208. 
 
 Kheta, prince and people of ; princess of, 
 wife of Hameses II., 205, 211. 
 
 soldiers of, 213. 
 Khonsu, 262. 
 Khou, 117. 
 Khufu, 11, 135, 136. 
 
 "Ankh," 83, 136. See Ka. 
 
 king of, as builder of Great Pyramid 
 and hero of fable, 71, 225. 
 
 priest of, 131. 
 King of Karagone, 281. 
 Kings, Pyramid, 11. 
 
 Shepherd. See Shepherd Kings. 
 Kitchen of Pharaoh at Tell Defenneh, 65, 
 
 66. 
 Knum, speculations about, 228. 
 
 with Ra, 231. 
 
 Kols of Khota Nagpar, in Asia, 230. 
 
 LABYRINTH, The, at Fayuin, 95, 96. 
 
 destroyed by Romans, 95. 
 
 Petrie at, and portraits from, 69. 
 
 plateau of, 98. 
 
 Land of Canaan, 7, 40, 41, 42, 47, 203. 
 
 of Punt. See Punt. 
 Language, Grammar of the, 259. 
 
 Semitic and Khamatic one source, 
 259. 
 
 theories as to origin of the, 259. 
 Latium, 78, 92, 100. 
 
 Leather, 4. 
 
 Leku (Lycians), 79, 188. 
 
 Lenorinant, Frai^ois, 78, 79. 
 
 Lepsius, 41,42, 46. 
 
 Leyden, 259. 
 
 Libyan Range, 4. 
 
 Libyans, 73, 77, 159. 
 
 Life, Egyptian and Greek theory of, 131. 
 
 Linen, 4. 
 
 " Lion and the Mouse." See ^Esop. 
 
 Brugsch on, 223. 
 
 Literature, Egyptians first in field of, 195. 
 
 "Chant of' Victory," 199. 
 
 "Cinderella" borrowed from, 223. 
 
 comments on growth of, 191-193. 
 
 compared to Greek, 196. 
 
 difference between writing and, 195. 
 
 Ebers's discoveries, 219. 
 
 fables borrowed from, 223. See JSsop. 
 
 indebtedness of ^Esop to, 223. 
 
 inscriptions of 4200 B. c. on stone, 
 195. 
 
 London, in, 259. 
 
 love songs and romances, 222 ; "The 
 Doomed Prince," 224; "Tale of Two 
 P.rothers;" "Taking of Joppa;" "Ship- 
 wrecked Mariner," all borrowed by 
 Greeks, 222-224.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 319 
 
 Literature, mathematical papyri found at 
 Tanis and Thebes, 218. 
 
 medical books, 218. 
 
 moral philosophy, 219; maxims quoted, 
 220. 
 
 necessity for convenient writing ma- 
 terial, 194. 
 
 no history (Manetho's in Greek), 198. 
 
 Papyrus of Homer, where found, 197. 
 
 Pentaur, poem of, 205. 
 
 Petrie's discoveries, 196. 
 
 poetry examples quoted: Prisse 
 Papyrus (oldest book in the world), 
 195. 
 
 scientific, remarks on, 217; astronomi- 
 cal, 217, 218. 
 
 subjects always historical and relig- 
 ious, 197. 
 
 Lord of Abydos, 120. 
 Lotus: as a flower, 176, 177. 
 
 as designs affecting Greek decorative 
 art, with examples, 181-183, 186. 
 
 Defenneh vases, 184. 
 
 first appearance in architecture, 184. 
 
 Grammar of the Lot-its, The, 172. 
 
 Marquand, Prof. Alan, on, 186. 
 
 Petrie's discoveries, 179. 
 Louis XIV, 153. 
 
 Louvre, Museum of the, 57, 190; Egyp- 
 tian Department of the, 218. 
 Lower Egypt, 4, 14. 
 Lucius Verus, 112. 
 Luxor, Great Temple of, 211. 
 Lybia, 163, 199, 201. 
 Lybians, 163, 188. 
 
 on tombs, 82. 
 
 types described, 83, 84. 
 Lycia, 76, 77, 188, 206, 208. 
 
 Lycians (the Leku), 79, 92, 162, 163, 167 
 
 'first alliance, 163 ; amnesty, 211. 
 Lydia, 203. 
 
 MA. 125. 
 
 Goddess of Justice, 263. 
 Macedonian rule, 101. 
 Makara, 262. 
 
 Man, definition of, 234. 
 Manetho, High -Priest of Ra, wrote his 
 tory of Egypt in Greek, 11, 197, 198. 
 Marcus Aurelius, 112. 
 Mariette, 4, 26, 116. 
 
 at Meydum, 142. 
 
 . at tomb of Nefert, 142. 
 
 conjectures about Hatasu, 150. 
 
 excavations at Dayr-el-Bahari, 296. 
 
 on " Chant of Victory," 202. 
 
 on Land of Punt, 276. 
 
 on sycamore, 287. 
 
 lark Antony, 39. 
 larquand, Prof. Alan, 186. 
 Martial, 194. 
 lashuasha, 84. 
 Maskhutah, Tell-el-, 42. 
 described, 48. 
 Masonic deposits, 18; at Tell Xebesheh, 
 
 33 ; where found, 32. See Petrie. 
 Maspero, Professor, 4, 69, 1 16, 1 1 8 ; find- 
 ing fable of "Stomach and Members," 
 223; identifying Land of Punt, 276; 
 on the Ka, 122; speculations about ca- 
 nal, 282. 
 
 klaten, located, 201. 
 Maut, 120, 127, 162. 
 tfautemhatmest, 120. 
 tfautemua (Queen-mother), 125. 
 tfautnefer, Queen, wife of Thothmes I., 
 
 mother of Thothmes II., 264. 
 Maxims on demotic papyrus (Lowe), 221 ; 
 of Ptah-hotep in Prisse Papyrus, 220 ; 
 of Scribe Ani, quoted, 220, 221. 
 Maxyans, 84. 
 
 Medes, writing of the, 244. 
 Medinet-Habu, 86, 87, 133. 
 
 temple of, 156. 
 Medit, 16. 
 Mediterranean, 8, 77. 
 
 Memphis, 4, 17, 37, 58, 61, 133, 164, 165, 
 219,223,256. 
 
 medical library, 218. 
 
 mounds of, 6, 11. 
 
 school of, typical series, 138. 
 Memphite school, 145. 
 
 compared to Florentine, 145. 
 
 compared to Greek, 143. 
 
 school of sculpture, 133, 134, 141 ; its 
 character drawn, 141. 
 
 school summarized, 143-145. 
 
 statues as bodies for Ka, 134. 
 Memphites, the, 148. 
 
 Mena, Prince of Thebes, 24, 38, 230, 241. 
 
 history begins with, 240. 
 Meneptah (Pharaoh of Exodus), 162, 167, 
 
 173, 188. 
 Menthu, 208. 
 Menzaleh, Lake, 58, 63. 
 Mertetefs, Queen, 125, 135-137. 
 Mesopotamia, 140, 199, 200, 259. 
 Mexico, picture-writing, 249. 
 
 described, 237, 238.' 
 Meydum, 116, 142. 
 Michael Angelo, 114. 
 Middle Egypt, 4, 40. 
 Migdol, 48. 
 Milesians, 29. 
 
 at Naukratis, 166. 
 
 colonists, 28, 36.
 
 320 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Models, ceremonial and industrial, buried 
 
 at Naukratis, 32, 83. 
 Mohammedan invader, 30. 
 Monasteries, Coptic, 272. 
 Mongolian types, 11, 148. 
 Mosaic books, 1(50. 
 Mo?es, 38. 
 Mounds, 11,12. 
 
 contents of, described, 4, 6, 17, 18. 
 
 estimates of, 5. 
 
 excavating of, described, 10-14. 
 
 growth of, and geological strata, 7-9. 
 
 of Bedouins, 17. 
 
 of Bubastis, 6. 
 
 of Lower Egypt, 40. 
 
 of Maskhutali, 48-50. 
 
 of Memphis, 6. 
 
 of Nebireh (city of Naukratis), 26. 
 
 of Tanis, 6. 
 
 of Tell Defenneh, 63. 
 
 of Twenty-sixth Dynasty, 18. 
 
 of Wady Turn i 1 at, 4 1 . 
 
 situations of, 15, 16. 
 
 with temples, 11. 
 Mozambique Channel, 279. 
 Mummies, 4. 
 
 at Fayum Labyrinth, 96, 98. 
 
 bandages of, 11. 
 
 of Roman and Pharaonic period, 108. 
 
 statistics about, 5. 
 Museum: Athens, 190. 
 
 Bernli, 190, 259. 
 
 BibliothequeNationale, Paris, 195,220. 
 
 Ghizeh, 136, 155, 264, 298. 
 
 Glyptotheca of Munich, 190, 271. 
 
 Hague, the, 298. 
 
 Leyden, 125. 
 
 Louvre, the, 102, 141, 212. 
 
 Naples, 121. 
 
 Oxford, 195. 
 
 Paris, 259. 
 
 South Kensington, 197. 
 
 Vienna, 259. 
 Mycena?, 168, 169, 111. 
 Mvcians, the, 76. 
 Mysia, 206, 208. 
 
 tribes of, 203. 
 Mysians, the "Masu," 162. 
 
 NAPOLEON THE FIRST, 281. 
 Napu, 119, 121. 
 
 funerary tablets of, 120. 
 
 National Egyptian Museum (Ghizeh), 69, 
 
 115, 116. 
 Naukratis, 20, 23, 30-35, 36, 50, 57, 58, 
 
 61, 76, 92, 165, 181, 184, 185, 223. 
 
 colonized by Greeks, 191. 
 
 description of, 26-31. 
 
 Naukratis, fragments at, 36. 
 
 Herodotus on, 179. 
 
 history of, 28, 180. 
 
 locality of, 26. 
 
 mounds of, 26, 28. 
 
 plate described, 90, 91. 
 
 pottery of, 31. 
 
 sculpture found at, 34. 
 
 Sheikh of, 16. 
 
 Naville M., 4, 22, 34, 41, 42, 46, 48, 57. 
 
 discoveries in Saft-el-Henneh, 57. 
 
 discovery of Hyksos portraits, 148. 
 Jewish cemetery, 50. 
 
 Nebireh, 26, 28. See'uty of Naukratis. 
 Nebuchadnezzar, 61-63/68, 69. 
 Necropolis, 2, 3, 7. 
 Nectanebo I., 44. 
 
 II. (monolithic shrine of), 57. 
 Nefert, statue of, described, 142. 
 
 Princess, portraits of, described, 137- 
 139. 
 
 Nehet Ana (sycamore of Ana), 287, 288, 
 292-295. 
 
 as gifts, 288-291. 
 
 Mariette on, 287. 
 
 Pliny quoted on, 287, 288. 
 Nehi (ancient Egypt), 254. 
 Neko, 65. 
 
 Nelumbium speciosa (rose lotus), 176. 
 
 Nemhotep, 132, 133. 
 
 Nenuphar, 176. See white and blue lotus. 
 
 New Testament, 10. 
 
 Newton, Sir Charles, paraphrase quoted, 
 
 143. 
 
 Nikias, 74. 
 Nile, 5, 7, 16, 37, 39, 70, 164, 176, 269, 
 
 280, 296. 
 
 branch of canalized in Nineteenth Dy- 
 nasty, 280. 
 
 Nile Valley, 3, 4, 9, 11, 31, 71, 101, 197, 
 218, 229, 241. 
 
 relics of the, 80. 
 
 stone age of the, 24. 
 Nilus, 126. 
 
 Nineveh, 26. 
 
 " Nomes " (provinces), 38. 
 Notem-Maut, Queen, 157. 
 Nubia, 11,40, 112,200,256 
 
 types of, 100. 
 Nubian corps, 293. 
 
 fashions in hair, 84. 
 
 OBELISK, 8. 
 
 at Rome, 270. 
 
 in Central Park, 53. 
 
 of Tanis, 54. 
 
 on Thames Embankment, 53. 
 Odysseus and the Sirens, 189.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 321 
 
 (Edipus of the Daphnae, 92. 
 
 and the Sphinx, 89. 
 Olympiad, the, 79, 159. 
 Olympus, 205. 
 
 Onias, 50. 
 
 Orchomenos treasury and ceiling, 168, 
 
 170-172, 185, 191 ; decorative designs, 
 
 172. 
 
 Orontes, 162. 
 Oscano, the, 193. 
 Osiris, 119, 120, 186, 219, 232. 
 Osorkon II., 43, 52, 53. 
 Ovals, royal, of Hatasu, 297, 299. 
 
 PA-BAST, defined, 45. 
 
 Pahiri, at El-Kab, songs in stone, 226. 
 
 Palestine, 112. 
 
 Palmetto, Oriental, 181. 
 
 Pames Isis, 44. 
 
 Pandarus, 188. 
 
 Panel-portraits, 97-111. 
 
 comments 'on, 112. 
 
 Egyptian lady, 104. 
 
 speculations about, 108, 111, 112. 
 
 Pan-Hellenian, 29, 31. 
 
 Papyrus : first knowledge of use of, 195. 
 
 found by Petrie, Twelfth Dynasty, 196. 
 
 Great Harris, creation of Ptah, 218. 
 
 Greek and Roman, 10. 
 
 necessity for, 194. 
 
 oldest papyrus (Prisse), 195. 
 Parihu, the Great, of Punt, 283, 289. 
 Pa-Turn, 44. 
 
 meaning of, defined, 45. 
 
 of Sukut, 46. 
 Pausanias, 74. 
 Payni month, 212. 
 Pedasos, 203. 
 
 Pelasgi, the, 171 ; speculations as to ori- 
 gin of, 84, 168. 
 Pelasgic Greeks, 76. 
 Peloponnesus, 163. 
 Pelusiac, bank of the Nile, 58. 
 Pelusium, 63, 77. 
 Pentaur: edition in papyrus, 212. 
 
 Epic of (The Great Iliad), with contents 
 described, 173, 202. 
 
 Greek and Hittite invasion, 162. 
 
 identity of man, 212. 
 
 poem quoted, 205, 210. 
 
 where found, 212. 
 Pepi Merira, 52. 
 
 Pepi-Xa, funerary tablet of, 119-121. 
 Pyramid, 11, 227. 
 
 Pericles, 37, 174. 
 
 Perrot on Corinthian architecture, 175. 
 Persepolis, sculptures of, 114. 
 Persians, the, 14, 236. 
 21 
 
 Persians, the, as invaders, 39. 
 
 tablets of, 10. 
 
 writing of, 244. 
 
 Petrie, M., 16, 17, 22, 29, 30, 32 53 64 
 66-68. 
 
 at Daphnae, 166, 184. 
 
 at Fayum, with value of discoveries, 
 77, 79, 80. 
 
 at Lake Menzaleh, 58. 
 
 at Naukratis, 26, 166, 179-181. 
 
 at Tanis (Zoan), 51, 57. 
 
 at Tell Defenneh, 63, 64. 
 
 at Tell Nebireh, 80, 179. 
 
 contradicting Herodotus, 165. 
 
 dates of Temple of Apollo, 184. 
 
 discoveries of, 50 ; of Greek alphabet 
 signs, 79. 
 
 explorations and excavations described, 
 19, 166. 
 
 finding Lady of Iliad, 23. 
 
 Masonic deposits, 32, 33. 
 
 on designs, lotus, etc., 169, 182, 183. 
 
 on standards, in relation to false doors 
 and Ka, 123, 124. 
 
 panel portraits and pictures on tombs, 
 82,84,88,90,96,98, 111, 112. 
 
 papyrus, mathematical, 218; Twelfth 
 Dynasty at Fayum, 196. 
 
 Rameses II. colossus, 63. 
 
 relics of Kahun, 243. 
 Pharaoh III., 18. 
 
 Hophra, 68. 
 
 Usertesen II., 73, 78. 
 
 Pharaohs, the, 4, 38,48, 76, 80, 114, 131, 
 157, 167,258. 
 
 costumes of, 294. 
 
 crown and sceptre of, 90. 248. 
 
 days of, 4, 153. 
 
 house of, in Tahpanlies, 19, 63, 67, 68. 
 
 kitchen at Tell Defenneh, 66. 
 
 land of, 84. 
 
 last of, 57. 
 
 of Twelfth Dynasty, 145, 168; dates 
 given, 169. 
 
 of Twentieth Dynasty, 152, 194. 
 
 prisoners of, 80. 
 
 three names of each, 123. 
 
 verifying Bible accounts of, 68. 
 Pharaonic canal, 48, 50. 
 Phidias. 143. 
 
 Philadelphia, 44. 
 
 Philip Arrhideus, ceremonial deposits of 
 the time of, 34. 
 
 of Macedon, 174. 
 Phoenicia, 201. 
 Phoenicians, the, 159, 171, 276. 
 
 alphabet of, 78. 
 
 sculpture of, 77, 132.
 
 322 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Piccadilly, 106. 
 
 Pierret, theory about religion, 228. 
 
 Pigments in panel-portraits, 99. 
 
 Pihaiiiroth, 46, 48. 
 
 Pikeheret, 48. 
 
 Pindar, 196. 
 
 Pithoni (treasure-city), 41, 42, 45, 48. 
 
 bricks of, 49. 
 
 identified with Bible account, 50. 
 
 of Succoth, 46. 
 Plato, 14, 37, 71, 166. 
 Pliny, 74, 77, 79. 
 
 historical views justified, 76, 77. 
 
 on art of Greeks, 97: of Egyptians, 75. 
 
 on Sycamore Ana, 287, 288. 
 
 reasons for prejudice, 77. 
 Polygnotus, 74,91. 
 
 Portrait sculpture, at Fayum, 98, 99. 
 
 oldest examples of, 135. 
 
 Potters, 31. 
 
 factory at Naukratis, 30. 
 Praxiteles, 143. 
 
 Prince of Punt. See Punt, Prince of. 
 Prisse Papyrus (oldest book in the world), 
 
 220. 
 
 Prometheus, 131. 
 Protogenes, 74. 
 Proto-Homeric vases, 75 
 Psammetichus I., 61, 64-66, 76, 88. 
 
 dynasty of, 119, 130. 
 
 founder of Daphnae of Pelusium (Bib- 
 lical Tahpanhes), 164, 165, 180. 
 
 founder of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, 
 164. 
 
 palace-fort of, 182. 
 Ptah, 218. 
 
 brigade of, 204, 205. 
 
 the Memphis, the Ra of Heliopolis, 
 231. 
 
 Ptah-hotep, 221. 
 
 maxims of, 220. 
 Ptolemaic Greeks, 96. 
 Ptolemies, the, 9, 10, 14, 46, 223. 
 
 time of, 161. 
 Ptolemy Lagus, 74. 
 
 - Philadelphia, 32, 33,47, 50, 198. 
 Punt, as Parihu, 823. 
 
 Land of, 276, 279, 300. 
 
 later prince of, 286. 
 
 located, 201 ; by Maspero and Mari- 
 ette as Somali, 276. 
 
 presents to Hatasu, 291. 
 
 Prince of, 277, 287. 
 
 tableau of expedition described, 281- 
 296. 
 
 wife of, 284. 
 
 Pyramid Kings, the, 11, 116, 132, 227. 
 
 Period, 118, 166, 218. 
 
 Pyramids, the, 38, 76, 218. 
 Pythagoras, 166. 
 
 RA, 123, 126, 131, 212, 219, 251, 262, 
 269. 
 
 as Amen-Ra, Knum-Ra, Sebek-Ra, the 
 Great All, 231. 
 
 brigade of, 204, 205. 
 
 speculations about, 228. 
 
 worship of, 231. 
 Raamses (treasure-city), 41, 45. 
 Ra-em-ka, "Wooden Man of Bulak ;" por- 
 trait described, 83, 139, 140. 
 
 Ra-hotep, General, 137, 142. 
 
 portraits described, 83, 139, 142. 
 Ra-ma-ka (throne-name), 300. 
 Ra-men-Kheper, 200. 
 
 Rameses I., 18, 151. 
 
 history of, 11,51, 52. 
 
 II., The Great, 10, 13, 18, 38, 43,44, 
 52, 79, 80, 86, 87, 152, 155, 163, 188, 
 204, 205, 225. 
 
 as hero of Pentaur, 202-205 ; Pentaur 
 quoted, 205-210. 
 
 as Pharaoh of the Great Oppression, 
 162. 
 
 at Tanis, 52. 
 
 exploits given in battle - piece, Abu- 
 Sim bel, 213-217. 
 
 portraits and statues, 53, 153, 154. 
 - Temple of, 57. 
 
 where buried, 155. 
 
 wooden mask of, 157. 
 
 III., 75, 77, 80, 86, 173, 300. 
 
 and the Greeks, 162. 
 
 history of, and Twentieth Dvnasty, 
 155. 
 
 tomb of, 82. 
 
 Mer-Amen, 212. 
 
 of Tanis (colossus), 53, 54. 
 Ramesseum at Thebes, 53, 211, 217, 264, 
 
 271. 
 
 Ram?es, 42. 
 
 Ras-el-Fil, 282. 
 
 Red Sea, the, 48, 280, 282. 
 
 Religion (Egyptian), first to recognize im- 
 mortality, "231. 
 
 idea of the Ka, 232. 
 
 identity of Rah, Ptah, Amen, 231. 
 
 in relation to sculpture, 117. 
 
 of man divided the body into Khat, 
 Ba, Khon, Kha'ibit, Ren, Ka, Ab, Sahu, 
 117. 
 
 microcosm of man, 232. 
 
 morality, standard of, 233. 
 
 polytheism and monotheism, with spec- 
 ulations about Ra, etc., 228, 281. 
 
 Ra as Great All, 231.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 323 
 
 Religion (Egyptian), theories of Brugsch 
 
 and Pierret, 228. 
 the author on, 227, 229-231. 
 
 Totemism, 228, 230, 231. 
 
 unsettled present knowledge of, 227. 
 Ren, 117. 
 
 Renouf, Le Page, 118. 
 
 on Egyptian verbs, 260. 
 
 on the Ka, 129. 
 
 Revillout, Prof. Eugene, 57, 218, 227. 
 Rliind, tomb of Hatasu, 297. 
 Rhodes, 186. 
 Rhodiau school, Greek only in Greek art, 
 
 183. 
 
 Rhodopis, 223. 
 Romans, the, 5, 14, 44, 96, 107. 
 
 coins of, 10. 
 
 growth of period, 9. 
 
 language of, 199. 
 
 rule of, 46. 
 Rome, 8, 37. 
 Rosetta, 176. 
 Rotennu, 201. 
 
 Rouge, Vicomte de, 261. 
 Rubaiyat, 98. 
 
 SABKANS, 288. 
 
 Sufekh, 126. 
 
 Saft el-Henneli, 57, 58. 
 
 Sahu, 117. 
 
 Sailors, Egyptian, 290. 
 
 Sais, 26, 58, 164. 
 
 Saite Kings, 165; Period, 10,119. 
 
 Sakkarah, 78, 116. 
 
 Salatis, 147. 
 
 Salhadscher, 20. 
 
 Sallier Papyrus, 149. 
 
 Sandals, 4. 
 
 San, description of, 50. 
 
 San-el-Hagar, 61. 
 
 Sankhara, King, 76, 159. 
 
 Santorin, ancient cemetery of, 79. 
 
 Sappho, 23, 194, 196. 
 
 Sara pis (wrong for Serapis), 102. 
 
 Sardinia, under foreign rule, 86. 
 
 Sardinians, 77. 
 
 chieftains of the, 86. 
 
 first alliance of the, 163. 
 Sayce, Professor, 171. 
 Scandinavia, 239. 
 Scarabs, 11, 166. 
 
 described, 30. 
 
 makers of, 30. 
 Scherschell, 199. 
 
 Schliemann, Dr., on decorative designs, 
 
 170, 171. 
 
 Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa, 289. 
 on Bongo women, 285. 
 
 Sculpture, Egyptian, compared with 
 Greek, 134, 135. 
 
 Hyksos school of, 146. 
 
 Middle Empire school of, 145. 
 
 of Prince of Punt expedition, 281-296 
 
 relation to the Ka of sculpture por- 
 traits, 134. 
 
 religious origin of portraits, 115. 
 
 Theban school of, 151. 
 
 wooden portrait-masks, 156. 
 Scythias, 147. 
 
 Sebek, with Ra, 231. 
 Semites, the, 87. 
 
 types of, 100, 152. 
 Semnefer, 83, 137. 
 Seneca, 112. 
 
 Seneferu, last king of Third Dynasty, 138. 
 
 Sen-Maut, architect, Dayr-el-Bahari, 271. 
 
 Septuagint, 46, 47. 
 
 Sepulchres, Twentieth Dynasty, 82. 
 
 Set, 202. 
 
 Seti I. (father of Rameses II.), 77-79, 
 
 126,152, 157,280,281. 
 Seti II., 18 ; portrait described, 154, 155. 
 Set-nekht (Rameses I.), 18. 
 Severus, 44. 
 Shabtun, 203, 205. 
 Shakespeare, 114, 234. 
 Shaluf, 46. 
 Shepherd Kings (Hyksos), 11. 
 
 history of the, 146. 
 Sheshonk I., 43 ; Slieshonk, 52. 
 
 " Shipwrecked Mariner" likened to "Sind- 
 
 bad the Sailor," 225. 
 Shishak, 43. 
 Sicilians, the, 77. 
 
 first alliance of, 163. 
 Sinai, 199,268. 
 
 " Sindbad the Sailor," 225. 
 
 Siptah, 155. 
 
 Siren (Greek misunderstanding of Ba), 
 
 189.' 
 Suit, 11. 
 
 Smith, Cecil, 107. 
 Solon, 166. 
 Somali, 255. 
 
 Soudan, the, 85, 255, 256. 
 Spaight, Major (survey of), 280. 
 Speke, description of, wife of Karagon6, 
 
 285. 
 
 Speos Artemidos, 296, 297. 
 Sphinx, the, at Gliizeh, 11, 38, 89, 239. 
 
 headless, 18. 
 
 type described, and Greek alteration 
 of, 90. 
 
 St. Albans, 44. 
 
 Standards, military, Egyptian, Roman, 
 etc., 93, 94.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Statues, 8. 
 
 " Stomach and Members " (.<Esop), Mas- 
 
 pero on, 223. 
 St. Peter's, 8. 
 Strabo, 71. 
 
 Stratford-on-Avon, 114. 
 Stuffs, 4. 
 
 Suez. Gulf of, 16, 280. 
 Sukut, 44, 46. 
 Susa, sculptures of, 114. 
 Sutekh, 204, 208. 
 
 brigades of, 205. 
 Sweetwater Canal, 48, 280. 
 Syene, 101. 
 
 Syria, 60, 62, 80, 199, 200, 202. 
 
 provinces of, 162. 
 Syrians, tlie, 73, 96, 204, 217. 
 
 chiefs, 204. 
 
 costumes of, 83. 
 
 medical lore of, 219. 
 
 TA-AN (Tsan). See Tunis. 
 
 Ta.-a.rt (gift of Isis), Isidora, 102. 
 
 Talia (Gaza), location of, 200. 
 
 Tahpanhes identified, 58, 63. See Dapbnae 
 and Defenneh. 
 
 Tabuti (general to Thotbmes III.), 223. 
 
 Taking of Joppa. See Joppa. 
 
 "Tale of Two Brothers," the foundation 
 of "Cinderella," 155,223. 
 
 Ta-meri (ancient name of Egypt), 254. 
 
 Tanis (Ta-an or Tsan, Hebrew Zoan, mod- 
 ern San), Great Temple of, 146. 
 
 history, site, remains, etc., 20, 50-57, 
 133,153. 
 
 mathematical papyrus at, 218. 
 
 mounds of, 6. 
 
 sphinx at, 149. 
 
 Tanuter, Land of the Gods, 285, 291. 
 
 location of, 201. 
 
 Tarena, Egyptian for cuirasses, 153, 164. 
 Ta-Tena, 280. See Canal also. 
 Teans, 29. 
 
 Tell Abu Suleiman, 42. 
 Tell Bedawi, 17. 
 
 Tell Defenneh (ancient Daphnac), 18, 58, 
 68, 182. 
 
 as a meeting-point in history, 63. 
 Petrie at, 58, 63, 64. 
 
 Tell el Amarna, 22. 
 
 Tell el Barud, 26. 
 
 Tell el-Maskhutah (site, relics, etc.), 42, 43. 
 
 Tell el-Yahudieh, 80. 
 
 Tell Farun, 17. 
 
 Tell Gemayemi, 34. 
 
 Tell Gurob, 77, 78, 167. 
 
 Tell Kahun, 77. 
 
 Tell Xebireh (Arab, Naukratis), 179 
 
 Tell Qnarmus, 34. 
 
 Temple of Abu-Simbel (Xubia), 211. 
 
 Cyclopean, 167. 
 
 of Abydos, 8, 211. 
 
 of Amen, 263, 267, 294, 296. 
 
 of Aphrodite, 22. 
 
 of Apollo, 179, 180, 184, 199. 
 
 of Bubastis, 8, 
 
 of Dayr-el-Bahari, 268. 
 
 of Derr (Xubia), 212. 
 
 of Edfii, 9. 
 
 of Karnak, 126. See Karnak also. 
 
 of Luxor, 125, 128. 
 Temples as places of worship, 5. 
 
 in mounds, 11. 
 
 sites, 78. 
 Teucrians, the, 76. 
 Thales, 166. 
 
 Theban triad, Amen, Maut, Khonsu, 262. 
 Thebes, 4, 11, 17,73,76,97,112,119,126, 
 
 133, 155, 166, 167, 198, 219, 230, 256, 
 
 260, 291, 300. 
 
 founded in the Eleventh Dynasty, 227. 
 
 kings of, 159. 
 
 nobles and tombs, 84. 
 
 paintings on tombs, 81 ; on walls, 178. 
 
 period in Egyptian art, 81. 
 
 princes of, 149. 
 
 sculptured illustrations at, 216. 
 Theodosius I., 24, 118. 
 
 abolishing of religion by, 134. 
 Thera, 79. 
 
 inscriptions at, 79. 
 Thespis, 196. 
 
 Thinis, Prince of Mena, 38. 
 Thoth (scribe), 228, 295. 
 Thothmes I, 129, 261, 263. 
 
 marriages of, 297 ; wives of, 264. 
 Thothmes II., 261, 264, 296. 
 
 marriage with Hatasu, 264. 
 
 mummy of, 297. 
 
 reigning with Hatasu, 269. 
 
 Temple of, at Karnak, 274. 
 
 III. (Alexander of Egyptian history), 
 13, 76, 78, 150, 160, 167, 173, 179, 191, 
 202, 223, 224, 270. 
 
 as brother of Hatasu, 266. 
 
 as husband of Hatasu's daughter, 267. 
 
 character and conquests of, 198, 199, 
 268. 
 
 effacing records of Hatasu. 296, 297. 
 
 Great Temple at Karnak, 175, 274,275. 
 
 mummy of, 297. 
 
 son of Thothmes I. and Lady As-t, 264. 
 Thrace, 163. 
 
 Ti (gentleman of the Fifth Dynasty), 140. 
 
 Tii (Queen), wife of Amenhotep III. ; Ma- 
 
 riette, wife of Horernheb, Maspero, 150.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 325 
 
 Timotheus, 196. 
 Timsah, Lake, 280. 
 Titus, 96. . 
 Tombs, 4, 12, 84. 
 
 of Priest-Kings, 297. 
 
 painting of Theban times, 81. 
 Totemism, Bull-clan, Crocodile-elan, etc., 
 
 230. See Religion. 
 Touaou (modern Kosseir) 276. 
 Treasuries of Athens, Mycenae, Argolis, 
 
 Minyas, etc., 167-170. See, also, Raam- 
 
 ses and Pi thorn. 
 Troad, 203. 
 Troglodytes, 288. 
 Troy, 26, 171, 205. 
 Tsan (Ta-an), Greek Tanis, Hebrew Zoan, 
 
 Petrie at, 60. 
 Turn, 44. 
 
 as Tumu, Atmu, description of, 81. 
 Turanians, 168. 
 
 types of, 147. 
 Turin, 259. 
 Turks, 5. 
 
 Tursha (Egyptian Etruscans), 77, 79, 92. 
 
 identity of the, 77. 
 Tuscan poetry, 225. 
 Tyrrhene Sea, 78. 
 
 Tyrrhenes, Turseni (Greek Etrurians), 92. 
 
 UABRA, 61. 
 
 Uatmes, chapel of, 264. 
 
 Prince, son of Thothmes I., 264. 
 Unas II., 227. 
 
 Upper Egypt, 4, 14, 40, 46. 
 Urtheku, 295. 
 Usertesen II., 77, 78, 168. 
 Ushabti, funerary statuettes at, 298. 
 
 VALLEYS of the Hamamat, 76. 
 
 the Nile. See Nile. 
 
 the Tombs of the Kings, 153, 155, 
 270. 
 
 Vases, 4. 
 Verulam, 44. 
 
 Victory, Chant of. See " Chant of Vic- 
 tory." 
 
 WADY T^MILAT, 42, 46, 48. 
 
 located, 280. 
 
 mound of, 41. 
 Weapons, 4. 
 
 Wellington, 114. 
 Wiedemann, Dr., 117. 
 
 on Egyptian ideas, 130. 
 Wigs, 4. " 
 
 Wilkinson, 178. 
 Wilson, Sir Erasmus, 40. 
 Woltmann's History of Painting, 87. 
 "Wooden Man of Bulak." 139,' 143. 
 Writing, Demotic, 256, 258. 
 
 compared with Mexican, 249. 
 
 earliest examples in relief, 237. 
 
 examples given, 243, 247, 25 1-253, 255. 
 
 explained as gesture language, 24.9. 
 
 first alphabet invented by Egyptians, 
 244. 
 
 general development amongEgyptians, 
 Hiuites, etc.; Herodotus quoted, 234, 
 235. 
 
 generic determinatives illustrated, 248, 
 249. 
 
 Hieroglyphic, alphabet given, 245. 
 
 history of, 256-258. 
 
 ideography, 241. 
 
 indebtedness of Greeks, 244. 
 
 its simplicity its stumbling-block, 250, 
 251. 
 
 of Mexico, 237, 238. 
 
 of Paleolithic period, Europe, 239, 240. 
 
 of the Phoenicians, 244. 
 
 papyrus for, 256. 
 
 subjects and materials, 258, 259. 
 
 theories about origin of, 236, 245-247. 
 
 XAXTHEAN tombs, 189. 
 Xanthus, 188. 
 Xeuxis,74, 106, 112. 
 
 YAKDTS of Siberia, 230. 
 
 Yavan, 160. 
 
 Yemen as a centre of commerce, 276. 
 
 on coast of Arabia, 276. 
 
 ZAGAZIG, 19, 41. 
 
 ancient Bubastis, 280. 
 Zanzibar, 279. 
 Zedekiah, 61. 
 
 daughters of, history given, 61-69, 
 165. 
 
 Zeller, Professor, 171. 
 Zeus, 29, 75, 90, 102, 229. 
 Zoan, 6, 50.
 
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