THE KING AND HIS CHIEF OFFICERS OF STATE AND SUBJECTS. MILITARY SERVICE.
The =King= of Egypt was absolute master of the country, which had been
given to him by the gods, and of every man, woman, and child, and of
everything in it from one end to the other. He was the son of Ḥeru-ur,
_i.e._, Horus the Great, the oldest of all the gods of Egypt, whose
attributes were, at a later period, usurped by Rā, the Sun-god, and was
declared to be of the very substance and essence of the god. He was
believed to be a god, and was worshipped as a god, and his statues and
figures were placed among the statues of the gods, and with them received
the adoration of men. His word on any subject was final, his authority
limitless, in his person he united the intelligence and strength of all
beings in heaven and on earth; men lived by his grace only, and at a word
from him they were slain. In short, the Egyptians were serfs and bondmen
of the king, the counterpart, image and symbol of the god of heaven.
He possessed =five= great =names= or titles: 1. A =Horus name=, as the
descendant of Horus. 2. A =Nebti name=, as representative of Nekhebit and
Uatchit, the great goddesses of the South and North. 3. A =Horus of gold
name=. The blood of the sun-god was supposed to be made of gold, and as
the divine blood ran in the king’s veins, a “name of gold” was given to
him. 4. A =Suten Bȧt name=, as king of the South (_Suten_) and King of
the North (_Bȧt_). 5. A =Son of Rā name=, or personal name of the king.
Thus, the five names of Usertsen III were:
Horus name, NETER KHEPERU. This was placed in a _serekh_ thus:—
[Illustration: 𓅃𓇴𓋹𓉘𓊹𓆣𓅱𓊂]
The Horus name is sometimes called the “banner name”; the
_serekh_, however, is not a banner, but a representation of a
building of a funerary character.
Nebti name, NETER MESTU 𓅒𓊹𓄠𓅱𓏏.
Horus of gold name, ĀNKH KHEPER 𓅉𓋹𓆣.
Suten Bȧt name, KHĀ-KAU-RĀ 𓆥𓍹𓇳𓈍𓂓𓂓𓂓𓍺.
Son of Rā name, USERTSEN 𓅭𓇳𓍹𓄊𓋴𓂋𓏏𓊃𓈖𓍺.
The oval in which the fourth and fifth names are placed, 𓍷, is called
in Egyptian _Shennu_, and is commonly known as the “cartouche.” It was
originally circular in form, 𓍶, like a signet ring, and Besh, a king of
the IInd dynasty, appears to have been the first to use the cartouche.
Another common title of the king was PER-ĀA 𓉐𓉻, _i.e._, “Great House,”
meaning the “house in which all men live,” or the “Asylum of the
Universe,” “Sublime Porte,” etc., which we find in the Bible under
the form of “Pharaoh.” The king being god never died, and he owed the
property of immortality which he possessed to the “fluid of life” 𓎃𓈖𓋹,
_sa en ānkh_, which he obtained from Rā before his birth, for the god was
believed to become incarnate from time to time, and to consort with queen
after queen, so that his son might always sit on the throne of Egypt.
The statues of Rā, being inhabited by his doubles, were endowed with the
“fluid of life,” and this they transmitted to their human counterpart,
the king, by resting their hands upon his head, or by drawing them over
the back of his head and down his back. The king performed the ceremonies
of the “divine cult” daily, and as a result he drew from the god each day
a new supply of the “fluid of life,” which justified him in adopting the
title “Endowed with life, like Rā, for ever,” 𓏙𓋹𓇳𓏤𓏇𓆓𓏏𓇾.
The =Queen= was called either the “woman of the god,” 𓊹𓈞𓏏, or the “woman
of the king,” 𓇓𓈞𓏏, but she possessed several other titles.
[Illustration: Seated figure of Qen-nefer, a prince and overseer of the
palace, about B.C. 1450.
[Central Saloon, No. 556.]]
The official to whom the king entrusted the administration of the country
was called =Erpā= 𓂋𓊪𓂝, and of almost equal authority was the =Tchat=
𓅷𓏏𓏤, whose equivalent in modern times is the Ḳâḍî, or =Judge=. Other
high offices were =Chief Councillor=, 𓃥𓉪, the =Town Governor=, 𓄓𓊖𓏏𓏤,
the =Chancellor=, 𓆤𓏏𓋩, and, of course, the chiefs of the nomes, the
officers of the Treasury, Army, Works Department, Police and Law Courts,
and Temples, each of whom had his own staff. Titles often bestowed by the
king were =Ḥā= 𓄂𓂝, Prince, and =Smer= 𓋴𓍋, =Smer-uāt= 𓋴𓍋𓌡𓏏𓏤, which
mean something like “friend,” and “only friend.” Picturesque titles
appear occasionally; thus one official calls himself “the eyes of the
king in the South, and his ears in the North,” “the eyes of the king
in Thebes,” etc. In the =priesthood= were the following grades: 1. The
_neter ḥen_, or servant of the god 𓊹𓍛; 2. The _tef neter_, father of the
god 𓊹𓏏𓆑𓀀; 3. The _āb_, libationer 𓃂𓈗𓀀; 4. The _Kher ḥeb_, or “Lector,”
or “precentor” 𓌨𓂋𓎛𓃀𓎱𓀀, etc. There were several kinds of minor priests,
_e.g._, the _ḥen ka_, or priest of the Ka, the _sem_, or _setem_, the
_ȧmm ȧs_, the _ȧmm khent_, and the ministrants in general. The title of
the =high priest of Memphis= was “Ur-kherp-ḥem,” _i.e._, “Great Chief of
the hammer,” in allusion to his being priest of Ptaḥ, the Blacksmith-god
of Memphis; that of the =high priest of Heliopolis= was “Ur-maau,”
_i.e._, “great seer”; and that of the =high priest of Thebes= was “Chief
prophet of Ȧmen-Rā.” Among the civilians the =Scribes= played the most
prominent part in the administration of the country, and in all periods
both “royal scribes” and “scribes” held many high offices, especially
in connection with the Treasury, and with institutions which possessed
large properties, such as the great temples of Heliopolis, Memphis, Saïs,
Bubastis, Abydos and Thebes.
[Illustration: Statues of Māḥu, a director of Works, and Sebta, a
priestess of Hathor, B.C. 1350.
[Central Saloon, No. 637.]]
=Military service.=—The Egyptian was neither a fighting man nor a soldier
by nature, and except for a few comparatively short periods in her
history, Egypt never had an =Army= in the sense in which the word is
used by Western Nations. The Egyptian hated military service, and in any
conflict which resembled war he generally ran away. When a hostile force
threatened the country, the head of each nome collected a number of men
from his district, and armed them as well as he could, and then sent his
contingent to some place appointed by the king. Individual nobles also,
no doubt, sent companies of men more or less armed from their estates to
fight the king’s battles. The peasant, or _fellaḥ_, was then, as now, a
formidable opponent in a fight, when armed with a stout stick, or club,
especially when he could fight under cover or behind a wall; but anything
like organized resistance terrified him, and rendered him useless. On the
other hand, the native of the Sûdân was a very fine fighter, and whenever
it was possible Pharaoh stiffened his troops with regiments of Blacks.
Thus, if we may believe the account of Unȧ, the commander-in-chief of
Pepi, a king of the VIth dynasty, his army contained Blacks from every
great province of the Sûdân, and numbered “many times ten thousand.” In
the Asiatic campaigns, which produced such great spoil for Egypt, the
organizers of these wars, which are better termed “military raids,” and
the finest fighters in them were either Blacks, or of Sûdânî origin.
Egypt had only need of soldiers in the strict sense of the word when
it was necessary to suppress sudden rebellions in the provinces, or to
compel tributary kings to pay what was due from them, or to provide
escorts to Government trading expeditions. In times of peace the troops
of the militia laid down their clubs, bows, daggers, and spears, and
worked at their trades or cultivated the fields. Military exercises,
drillings, manœuvres, etc., there were none.
The Predynastic Egyptian warrior armed himself with a short, stout
stick; later it was weighted at one end with a piece of flint or stone,
and so became a kind of =club=. A flat piece of flint, or stone, with
a roughly-formed cutting edge, bound to a stick by thongs of leather,
served as an =axe=. Double-headed axes were also known, and =knives=,
=spear-heads=, arrow-heads, etc., were commonly used.
The =equipment= of the soldier of the Ancient Empire was simple. He wore
a sort of skull =cap=, of leather(?), with a feather or two stuck in
the top; he fought with a =club= 𓌉, or =mace=, and a =bow= 𓌔, carrying
his =flint-tipped arrows= in a leather quiver slung over his back, and
he caught the blows and arrows of his foe on a large =leathern shield=,
which was sometimes ornamented with the badge of his master or his
family. At a later period he wore a =leathern shirt= to protect his body,
and he added to his arms a long =spear=, a knife, or =dagger=, with a
curved blade 𓌛𓑀, and sometimes a =battle-axe=. The equipment of the
mercenaries of a still later period differed in many details from that
of the native Egyptian. (For examples of bows, arrows, daggers, spears,
etc., see Table-case B in the Third Egyptian Room.)
The =horse= and =chariot= were unused in Egypt before the kings of
the XVIIIth dynasty began to make conquests in Western Asia. At a
comparatively early period the Egyptians began to fortify their towns
with walls and strong gates, and in the XIIth dynasty King Usertsen III
erected a series of =forts= in the Second Cataract to prevent the Nubians
from descending the river and laying Egypt waste. One strong fort was
built near Buhen (Wâdî Ḥalfah), another on the island now called Jazîrat
al-Malik, one at Semnah, and another exactly opposite at Kummah. The
walls were built of mud bricks, many feet thick, and long slopes cased
with stone were built against them. Within each enclosure were series of
chambers for storehouses and barracks, and at one corner a small temple,
dedicated to the chief god of the district. Another series of forts was
built on the frontier between the north-east line of the Delta and Syria,
generally of great strength.
The geographical position of Egypt made it unnecessary for her to
possess a =navy=, and, moreover, the peasants were as little fitted to
become sailors as soldiers. The most important sea-fight in which the
Egyptians took part was the engagement in which Rameses III (B.C. 1200,
or later) vanquished the confederation of Libyan tribes. This king built
war-ships, and manned them with crews from the seafaring peoples of the
Mediterranean, and he succeeded in gaining a signal victory by sea and
land over his enemies.