which had also not been noticed by the Franco-Tuscan Expedition, made
some commotion. Simultaneously with the more circumstantial account in
the _Preussische Staatszeitung_, a careless English notice appeared, in
which the discovery of a second specimen of the inscription of Rosetta
was spoken of, and the place assigned was Meroe. Later, when M. Ampère
had brought an impression of the inscription to Paris, the Academician,
M. de Saulcy, contrariwise put forth an argument on the opposite side
asserting that the inscription had some resemblance to that of Rosetta,
and referred it to Ptolemæus Philometer. I therefore took occasion to
prove, in two letters to M. Letronne (_Rev. Archéol._ vol. iv. p. 1
sqq. and p. 240 sqq.) as also in an essay in the Transactions of the
German Oriental Society (vol. i. p. 264 sqq.), that the document in
question was prepared in the twenty-first year of Ptolemæus Epiphanes,
and contained a repetition of the Rosetta inscription, the provisions
of which were extended to Queen Cleopatra I., who had come to the
throne in the meantime.
[62] The name Cleopatra, in place of Arsinoe, in the hieroglyphic
inscriptions appears to rest wholly upon an error of the scribe, which
is avoided in the Demotic, for Arsinoe is here correctly mentioned.
The hieroglyphic text of the inscription of Rosetta is less correct
than the Demotic. [If the hieroglyphic be the _text_, then it is
decidedly the Demotic that is in error. The hieroglyphic seems to have
been engraven first, and in that case it would be the text. Probably,
however, at this late period, Greek was the language in which the
inscriptions of the time were composed, thus the question would lie
not between the hieroglyphic and Demotic, _i.e._ the archaico-Egyptian
(but little understood) and the modern, but between the Greek and the
hieroglyphic modes of expression.--K. R. H. M.]
[63] [It is well to remark the structure of the word [Illustration:
Koptic] Ph-iah-uêb “the field of Jah, or Jao,” as the Rev. Charles
Forster reads the Hamyaritic name of God, in the Wady Mokatteb
inscriptions. It serves as a collateral proof of the Koptic origin
of the language of the inscriptions deciphered by that learned
investigator. The form of the letters being similar also proves a
cognate origin.--K. R. H. M.]
[64] Similar designations occur at an earlier period; thus, in Thebes,
an “Ammon of Tuthmosis (III.)” is mentioned; it would seem to infer
a newly-instituted worship of those gods brought about by these
kings. Ramses II. dedicated to the three highest gods of Egypt (see
my essay “On the Primeval Circle of Egyptian Gods,” in the papers
of the Berlin Academy, 1851), Ra, Phtha, and Ammon, three great
rock temples, in Lower Nubia, at Derr, Gerf Hussén, and Sebuâ, and
called the contemporaneously-founded places after these gods, this
in Greek Heliopolis, Hephaistopolis, and Diospolis. A fourth mighty
and fortified residence was founded by the same king in Abusimbel,
and was named after himself, Ramessopolis, or “The Fortification of
Ramessopolis,” as he also founded two cities in the Delta, and called
them after himself. No doubt it is this new worship, in reference to
which the gods honoured there were named Ammon of Ramses, and Phtha of
Ramses. The king was himself adored in those rock temples, particularly
in that of Abusimbel, in common with those deities.
[65] [See Pickering’s Races of Man and their Geographical Distribution,
chap. x. The Ethiopian race, Nubians, and Barabra of the Nile, p.
211-215.--K. R. H. M.]
[66] A grammar and vocabulary of the Nubian language, and a translation
of St. Mark into Nubian, is prepared for publication.
[67] [The following are some of the terms for one hundred among
the African tribes, BIENGGA, Island of Corisco, _’Nkama_,
JEDAH, _Jjeje_; JOBERRA, _Obere_; KANGA
COUNTRY, Sy district, _Mosulu bandi_.--K. R. H. M.]
[68] [Menekle signifies “great ear.”--K.R.H.M.]
[69] [For a character of Ahmed Pasha, see Werne’s White Nile, vol. i.
p. 33. The author was acquainted with him.--K. R. H. M.]
[70] [Bunsen has given these forms and hieroglyphics at the end of the
English translation of his excellent Egypt’s Place, of which it is much
to be regretted that the first volume only has hitherto appeared.--K.
R. H. M.]
[71] [Had Lepsius remembered that, by the determination of this most
important fact, he set at rest the half-witted theories of a race
of Indo-philologic dreamers, he would have rather rejoiced at the
result than have regretted. These men, of whom Higgins, Faber, and
Dupuis are fine specimens, with no accurate knowledge of any of the
languages they so sapiently decided on, will find their favourite Mount
Meru, Meroë, Menu, Manu, &c., &c., &c., here overthrown by an evident
chronological fact. Such investigations are, however, useful for two
reasons:--1. That they collect an immense number of facts, and, in some
degree, classify them, for the benefit of the race of investigators
now arising, of whom Bunsen, Bopp, and others, are fine examples; and
2. They show us what false scents we must avoid in following up so
intricate an inquiry as the Archæological history of the “origenes” of
mankind. Let it be understood, however, that I do not mean to assert
that men like Higgins and Pococke are totally wrong; far from it,
they are often right, but the care which they should bestow on their
researches is continually wanting,--the critical acumen to distinguish
between nonsense and sense,--always. I can only repeat what I have said
in another place, (Buckley’s Great Cities of the Ancient World, p.
314,) in a chapter on Scandinavian and general mythology, viz.:--That
a new era is approaching in historical investigation, and, I may add,
that we must not doubt, or we may never prove. There is plenty of time,
and one fact _established_ is worth many _overthrown_, when there is
nothing to replace them. The great problem is susceptible of solution
if we have only a little faith, at any rate, to preserve, even if only
_provisionally_, what we cannot see in the full clear light, that
yesterday’s occurrences are given in to-day’s _Times_. See, however, p.
226.--K.R.H.M.]
[72] I have since heard of the decease of Herr Bauer, which ensued in
the following year.
[73] [The author refers to the inscription obtained at Tamaniât through
the means of Mohammed Said. See p. 168.--K.R.H.M.]
[74] [Werne, in his excellent work “Expedition to discover the sources
of the White Nile,” vol. i. p, 146, mentions baobàb trees of the above
dimensions, and states that, near Fazoql, there is said to be one 120
feet in circumference. I cannot too strongly call attention to this
most able work, in the portable form in which it has been issued by my
publisher, Mr. Bentley.--K. R. H. M.]
[75] Russegger (Travels, vol. ii. Part II. p. 125,) found one of 95
feet in circumference. He erroneously calls the tree _ganglès_; this is
_homara_, and the fruit _gungulês_.
[76] [See an elaborate essay on the Berbers and their name, by Mr.
Gliddon, in Burke’s Ethnological Journal, No. X. p. 439, as well as a
paper by Mr. Nash on the Egyptian name of Egypt.--K. R. H. M.]
[77] [See Werne’s Expedition, vol. i. p. 194, where he observes:--
“I do not call them _handsome_ trees, because they stand there in the
green wilderness; no, I find them really beautiful, for there is a
peculiar charm in them. They rise like double gigantic flowers upon
slender stalks, gently protruding in the middle, and not like those
defoliated date-palms, which stand meagrely like large cabbage-stalks.
It is impossible that the latter should delight my poor heart, full
of the remembrance of shady trees,--the oaks and the beech trees of
Germany; the palms near Parnassus; the cypress on the Bosphorus, and
the chestnuts on the Asiatic Olympus.” The botany of these regions has
been well treated by Werne.--K. R. H. M.]
[78] [Bunsen in Egypt’s Place in Universal History, vol. i. p. 430,
refers them all to Osiris, and ranges them thus:--1. The Genius with
the Hawkhead, KEBHSEN u.f. signifying “the refresher of his
brothers.” 2. The Jackal-head TUA-MUTF, “the adorer of his
mother.” 3. The Apehead, HEPI (Apis) “Osiris the devoted.” 4.
AMSET, God, “Osiris the devoted.” The different arrangement
of Lepsius is caused by his counting from right to left, while Bunsen
begins from left to right.--K. R. H. M.]
[79] The poems contain many unusual forms and expressions, and have
been composed in very free and, it seems to me, incorrect forms.
[80] [Compare Herodotus, Euterpe, c. 85, for the ancient Egyptian mode
of mourning, which is, however, not very similar to this.--K. R. H. M.]
[81] [The first Cartouche is as follows:--K (the bowl with a handle),
Alphabetic No. 1, (Bunsen, vol. i. p. 561); N (the water,) Alphabetic
No. 1, (p. 564); TA (bag and reed), Alphabetic No. 5, (p. 568);
K = KNTAK. The reeds, Alphabetic No. 3, (p. 556,) occurs in the
“Todtenbuch” (xxii. 63, 3,) as the sign for a noble, (Bunsen, p. 454),
the heaven (p. 555) is the mark of the feminine gender, and the egg
(Determinative No. 85, p. 545,) rank; = a Queen. The second Cartouche
is the same, with the exception of the variant:--the sign of festivals
(Determinative No. 110 p. 547,) HBI = KNTAHBI.--K. R. H. M.]
[82] [A superstition exists among the Moravian Jews to this effect.
At new moon a branch is held in its light, and the name of any person
pronounced. His face will appear between the horns of the moon, and
should he be destined to die, the leaves will fade. This is mentioned,
as well as I can remember, in Beaumont’s Demonology.--K. R. H. M.]
[83] [Compare Colonel Rawlinson’s Outline of Assyrian History, p. 23,
where Sennacherib’s invasion of Meroe is mentioned.--K. R. H. M.]
[84] [See Pickering’s Races of Man, p. 214, on the Ethiopian Race, and
pp. 368 sqq., for further remarks on Egypt. This excellent work is well
worthy the serious attention of the ethnologist in every way.--K. R. H.
M.]
[85] [I may here mention that an excellent term for the red-skinned
race has been invented, though I forget by whom, though the person was
an American archeologist, viz. cinnamon-coloured, applicable enough
both to the red Mexican and the red Egyptian. In the picture chronicles
of Mexican social life and history we also find that the women are
painted yellow, a coincidence perhaps worthy of notice.--K. R. H. M.]
[86] [Pickering states that he first met with a mixed race of Barâbra
at Kenneh, thirty miles below the site of ancient Thebes, but he
considers the boundary of the races to be at Silsilis. P. 212.--K. R.
H. M.]
[87] [Now standing for many years at the entrance of the Egyptian
saloon in the British Museum.--K. R. H. M.]
[88] All these monuments are now erected in the Egyptian Museum.
See the Ram and the Sparrow-hawk in the “Monuments from Egypt and
Ethiopia,” Part III. plate 90.
[89] From the pods and their contents Dr. Klotzsch recognised the
_Moringa arabica Persoon_ (_Hyperanthera peregrina Forskăl_). It seems
that this tree was only previously known from Arabia, and is natural
there. The single trees near Barkal, which are not mentioned by former
travellers, might have been first introduced from Arabia. This is the
more probable as the immigration of those tribes of the Shaiqîeh Arabs
from the Hegâz is now testified by manuscript authorities. [This tree
must therefore be added to the botanical list of Pickering, who, in his
Races of Man, has collected all the introduced animals and plants of
Egypt, India, America, Polynesia, Southern Arabia, &c., and though the
lists want classification, they are well worthy of attention.--K. R. H.
M.]
[90] The literal expression is, that he has built the temple
[Illustration: hieroglyphics] “to his image, Ra-neb-ma, living on
the earth.” The word _chent_ no longer exists in Koptic, but it is
always translated εἰκών on the Rosetta stone. The temple and the place
belonging to it was also named after the king, but according to his
Horus-name, “Dwelling-place of Sha-em-ma;” this led to the recognition
of the original position of the ram of Barkal and the lions in the
British Museum.
[91] [For the straw huts down the Nile, and particularly beyond
Chartûm, see Werne’s White Nile, chapter i. vol. i. p. 28.--K. R. H. M.]
[92] [See Bunsen’s Egypt’s Place, vol. i. p. 624.--K. R. H. M.]
[93] Monuments, Part II. Plates 245, 246.
[94] Monuments, Part II. plate 1.
[95] Salamât “the greetings” are they called by earlier travellers.
The proper pronunciation and meaning was first remarked to me by our
intelligent old guide, Ἀuad. The Arabs are for confounding them, as
[Illustration: Arabic] _salâm_, _salus_, is pronounced with the dental
_sin_, [Illustration: Arabic] _s’anam_, _idolum_, with the lingual
_sâd_. The plural, which is usually [Illustration: Arabic] _as’nam_,
here takes the feminine form [Illustration: Arabic] _s’anamât_. That
they were male figures had long since been indistinguishable from
the battered heads. The stone of which the statues are formed is a
peculiarly hard quartz brittle sandstone conglomerate, looking glazed,
and with innumerable cracks. The frequent bursting of little particles
of stone at sunrise, when the changes of temperature are most sudden,
caused, according to my idea, the celebrated Memnon sounds, which were
compared with the breaking of a violin string.
[96] [Herodotus II. c.c. 121-122.--K.R.H.M.]
[97] This King Ai was formerly a private individual, and took his
sacerdotal title into his royal cartouche at a later period. He appears
with his wife in the tombs of Amarna, not unfrequently as a noble and
peculiarly honoured officer of King Amenophis IV., that puritanical
sun-worshipper, who changed his name into that of Bech-en-aten.
[98] The above dimensions are here taken from Wilkinson’s Modern Egypt
and Thebes, vol. ii. p. 220.
[99] [For an excellent description of such retreats, _vide_ Floss,
_Quæstiones Criticæ de Macaris_, cap. i. § 1. _Coloniæ, Heberle_,
MDCCCL.--K.R.H.M.]
[100] Apuleii Asclepius, dialogue Hermetis Trismegisti, c. 24.
[101] When I wrote the above, I did not think that the crime would be
so soon avenged. See Letter XXXV. p. 372.
[102] I have since learnt (_Rev. Arch._, vol. iv. p. 32,) that M.
Ampère had been expressly sent to Egypt, by the Paris Academy, to copy
the bilingual inscription at Philae, to which I had turned attention
in my Letters. See Letter XV. p. 120, and note. Of the impression
brought back to Paris, in which, however, the beginnings of the Demotic
lines, and the date of the decree are wanting, the very diminished
representation of Demotic text is taken, which M. de Saulcy has
published in the _Revue Archéologique_.
[103] [In Bunsen’s list of Determinatives, No. 5. I quote his
description “Disk diffusing rays of light; light, as _sti_, a sunbeam,
(sun’s ray); _ht_, daylight; _ubn_, to illuminate; _mau_, to gleam;
_ui_, brilliancy; _hai_, light; _am_, a beam.” Bunsen’s Egypt’s
Place, vol. i. p. 537.--Since writing the foregoing note in the first
edition, I have read the Rev. Charles Forster’s Monuments of Egypt,
and I find that he attempts to identify this royal sign with a grain
of millet, “with its stamina and antheræ developed,” assigning for
its pronunciation the word “pschent.” I forbear criticism upon this
“discovery,” only referring the reader to p. 54 of the second part of
the Primæval Language.--K. R. H. M.]
[104] [Dr. Lepsius alludes to Herr Maximilian Weidenbach.--K. R. H. M.]
[105] These places were first accurately and instructively described by
Wilkinson, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. ii. pp. 28
sqq.
[106] These are the actual words of my journal as they are understood
also by Ritter, p. 578. According to the printed report, p. 8, it might
appear as if Robinson had given up the attempt to climb the whole of
this mountain district; this is particularised in the _Bibliotheca
Sacra_ as an inaccuracy. But I only spoke of the top of the mountain
rising in the plain in contradistinction to the higher points lying
toward the side, which Robinson has ascended.
[107] This report, sent to His Majesty, was printed, while I was still
absent in 1846, under the title “_Reise des Prof. Lepsius von Theben
nach der Halbinsel des Sinai vom 4ten März, bis zum 14ten April,
1845_,” Berlin, with two maps, a general map of the whole peninsula,
and a special map of Serbâl and Wadi Firân, which were drawn by G.
Erbkam after my directions or plans. This pamphlet was not published,
but was given to a few; yet its contents have become better known by a
translation into English by Charles H. Cottrell, (A Tour from Thebes
to the peninsula of Sinai, &c., London, 1846); and into French by T.
Pergameni, (“Voyage dans le Presq’île du Sinai, &c., lu à la Société de
Géographie, séances du 21 Avril et du 21 Mai. Extrait du Bulletin de la
Soc. de Géogr., Juin, 1847, Paris.”)
[108] The Nakb el Haui, “Windsaddle” is an exceedingly wild and narrow
mountain pass, which is impassable from its shelving abysses. The road
had to be made with great art along the western side, and is in many
places hewn out of the rock; on the other side, the loose soil has been
paved with great flat stones. It is not to be doubted, that this daring
path was made after the building of the convent, in order to have a
shorter road to the town of Pharan, which before could only be reached
by the wide circuit through the Wadi e’ Shech.
[109] It seems that this convent has not been visited by any recent
traveller. Burckhardt, who calls it Siggillye, did not descend, but
heard that it was well-built and spacious, and provided with a good
well, (Trav. in Syria, p. 610). More accurate information concerning
this convent in the Serbâl gorge is very desirable, as it belongs
probably to one of the oldest, or, at least, the most considerable
of the peninsula, as the artistic and elaborately prepared rock-road
thence to the town of Pharan amply shows.
[110] [I may here draw the reader’s attention to an interesting work,
(to be more completely alluded to in the sequel,) lately published by
the Rev. Charles Forster. The One Primeval Language. Part I. The Voice
of Israel from the Rocks of Sinai.--K. R. H. M.]
[111] Monuments, Part II., plates 2, 116, 137, 140, 152, III., 28.
[112] [Bunsen, vol. i. p. 400, and see Lepsius, Ueber den Ersten
Aegyptischen Götterkreis, p. 30.--K. R. H. M.]
[113] [From its great length, I have found it necessary to reserve a
note on this passage until the Appendix, Note A., where the reader will
find it.--K. R. H. M.]
[114] On this point I find all the most important voices unanimous.
Robinson, in particular, has the merit of having done away with many
old prejudices of this kind. But Burckhardt had already allowed
himself to be so little influenced in his judgment by the authority of
tradition, that he did not hesitate to find a reason for the erection
of the convent of Sinai on Gebel Mûsa on strategical grounds. (Trav. in
Syr. p. 609.)
[115] The name Firân, formerly Pharan, is certainly the same as the
Biblical Paran; but it is equally sure that this name had shifted its
application in the locality. All other comparisons of names are totally
unsatisfactory.
[116] One of the two wells seems to go back to the time of the building
of the convent; it is the smaller one of the two. The deep, principal
well, which gives the most and the best water, seems to have been first
sunk in 1760, by order of an English Lord. (_Ritter_, p. 610.)
[117] Burckhardt also expressly observes, that there is no good
pasturage in the neighbourhood of the convent, where the rather more
numerous little fountains would almost allow us to consider the soil to
be moisture. See Bartlett’s impression in a subsequent place.
[118] So the Arabs unanimously assured us, see also Burckhardt, p. 625,
and Ritter, p. 769. Lord Lindsay here found “a small wood of tarfa
trees, in which blackbirds were singing, and farther on some palm
plantations.” It was at the same outlet of the valley “where Seetzen
first had the pleasure of gathering much manna off the tarfa bushes and
eating it; here he found the ripe fruits of the wild caper bush, which
were eatable like fruit.”
[119] [Note B, Appendix.--K. R. H. M.]
[120] Originally, both these hot springs seem not to have been called
Hammân Faraûn from Pharaoh, but Farân from Pharan. For Edrisi calls the
place Faran Ahrun and Istachri Taran, which should doubtless be Faran
(Cf. Ritter, Asien, Bd. VIII. S. 170 ff.). Macrizi also calls the place
Birkit Faran (Ritter, _Sinaihalbinsel_, p. 64.) Probably the harbour
region of Pharan was called after the city, though it was somewhat
distant; and the legend, so very inapposite here, concerning Pharaoh’s
ruin, only connected itself with Faraûn by a confusion with Faran. It
is curious that the Arab writers, of whom Macrizi was certainly there,
speak of Faran as of a coast town!
[121] The part of the sandy coast, considered by Robinson to be the
desert of Sin, has no tarfa bush, much less manna. Concerning the
regions where manna is found, Cf. Ritter, p. 665 sqq. That Eusebius
also considers the wilderness of Sin to extend to Sinai, is already
mentioned. [Σίν, έρημος ἡ μετάξυ παρατείνουσα τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς Θαλάσσης καὶ
τῆς ἐρήμον Σίυα]
[122] Robinson, vol. i. p. 173, 196. To Wilson’s particular argument
of the extensive prospect from Gebel Mûsa is to be objected, that,
from a point very inconsiderably higher than the plain, many places
can be seen, from which the elevation itself would not appear very
considerable.
[123] See Robinson, vol. i. pp. 118, 196.
[124] Ewald, History of the People of Israel, vol. ii. p. 86, also
considers that Sinai “was already looked upon as an oracular place and
divine seat before Moses.” Ritter considers it insupportable.
[125] This is confirmed at the present day by Rüppell, who considers
Gebel Katharine to be Sinai. He relates in his voyage to Abyssinia,
vol. i. p. 127, the following about his ascent of Mount Serbâl in
1831:--“At the top of Serbâl, the Bedouins have placed little circles
of stones in a circle, and other stones are laid from it down the steep
declivity like steps, to render the ascent more easy; when we came to
that circle _my guide took off his sandals, and approached it with
religious reverence, he then said a prayer inside_, and afterward told
me that he had already sacrificed two sheep here as _thank-offerings_,
the one at the birth of a son, the other on regaining his health. The
mountain of _Serbâl has been held for such superstitions in the highest
respect by the Arabs of the vicinity, from time immemorial_; and it
must once have been somewhat holy to the Christians, as in the valley
to the south-west there lie the ruins of a great convent and many
little hermits’ cells. In any case, the wild, craggy rocks of Serbâl,
and the _isolated position of this mountain is much more remarkable and
grand than any other group of mountains in Arabia Petræa, and it was
peculiarly adapted for the goal of religious pilgrimages_. The highest
point of the mount, or the second rock from the west, and on which the
Arabs usually sacrifice, is, according to my barometrical observation,
6,342 French feet above the level of the sea.”
[126] See the excellent treatise of Tuch (Einundzwanzig Sinaitische
Inschriften, Leipzig, 1849.) This scholar endeavours to prove, by the
deciphered names of the pilgrims, that the authors of the inscriptions
were native pagan Arabs, and went to Serbâl for religious festivals;
according to him, these pilgrimages ended, at latest, in the course
of the third century. Here it may also be mentioned, that the name
itself of Serbâl, which Rödiger, (in Wellsted’s Travels in Arabia, vol.
ii. page the last), doubtlessly correctly derived from [Illustration:
Arabic] _serb_, _palmarum copia_, and Baal, “palm grove (φοινίκων) of
Baal,” points to a heathen origin. [However much M. Tuch may reproduce
the notion of Beer, he cannot set aside its confutation in Forster’s
Primeval Language, Part I. pp. 8-38.--K. R. H. M.]
[127] Vol. i. p. 198.
[128] I thought to be able to conclude this indirectly from his
narrative, (Antiq. III. 2.) It now appears to me that nothing can be
elicited, as to his opinion, from it, for which reason the name should
be omitted above. In itself it is still probable that he held the same
opinion as Eusebius and Jerome.