derangement of meteoric or atmospheric conditions passed over Abyssinia
and Upper Egypt, either in both the directions above noticed, or, at any
rate, in the latter and more ordinary one. An official belonging to the
later part of this period, in enumerating his merits upon his tomb,
tells us, "There was no poverty in my days, no starvation in my time,
even when there were years of famine. I ploughed all the fields of Mah
to its southern and northern boundaries; I gave life to its
inhabitants, making its food; no one was starved in it. I gave to the
widow as to the married woman." As the late Dr. Birch observes, "Egypt
was occasionally subject to famines; and these, at the time of the
twelfth dynasty, were so important, that they attracted great attention,
and were considered worthy of record by the princes or hereditary lords
who were buried at Beni-Hassan. Under the twelfth dynasty, also, the
tombs of Abydos show the creation of superintendents, or storekeepers of
the public granaries, a class of functionaries apparently created to
meet the contingency."[11]
The distress of his subjects under these circumstances seems to have
drawn the thoughts of "the good Amenemhat" to the devising of some
system which should effectually remedy these evils, by preventing their
occurrence. In all countries where the supply of water is liable to be
deficient, it is of the utmost importance to utilize to the full that
amount of the life-giving fluid, be it more or be it less, which the
bounty of nature furnishes. Rarely, indeed, is nature absolutely a
niggard. Mostly she gives far more than is needed, but the improvidence
or the apathy of man allows her gifts to run to waste. Careful and
provident husbanding of her store will generally make it suffice for all
man's needs and requirements. Sometimes this has been effected in a
thirsty land by conducting all the rills and brooks that flow from the
highlands or hills into subterranean conduits, where they are shielded
from the sun's rays, and prolonging these ducts for miles upon miles,
till every drop of the precious fluid has been utilized for irrigation.
Such is the _kareez_ or _kanat_ system of Persia. In other places vast
efforts have been made to detain the abundant supply of rain which
nature commonly provides in the spring of the year, to store it, and
prevent it from flowing off down the river-courses to the sea, where it
is absolutely lost. For this purpose, either huge reservoirs must be
constructed by the hand of man, or else advantage must be taken of some
facility which nature offers for storing the water in convenient
situations. Valleys may be blocked by massive dams, and millions of
gallons thus imprisoned for future use, as is done in many parts of the
North of England, but for manufacturing and not for irrigation purposes.
Or naturally land-locked basins may be found, and the overflow of
streams at their flood-time turned into them and arrested, to be made
use of later in the year.
In Egypt the one and only valley was that of the Nile, and the one and
only stream that which had formed it, and flowed along it, at a lower or
higher level, ceaselessly. It might perhaps have been possible for
Egyptian engineering skill to have blocked the valley at Silsilis, or at
the Gebelein, and to have thus turned Upper Egypt into a huge reservoir
always full, and always capable of supplying Lower Egypt with enough
water to eke out a deficient inundation. But this could only have been
done by an enormous work, very difficult to construct, and at the
sacrifice of several hundred square miles of fertile territory, thickly
inhabited, which would have been covered permanently by the artificial
lake. Moreover, the Egyptians would have known that such an embankment
can under no circumstances be absolutely secure, and may have foreseen
that its rupture would spread destruction over the whole of the lower
country. Amenemhat, at any rate, did not venture to adopt so bold a
design. He sought for a natural depression, and found one in the Libyan
range of hills to the west of the Nile valley, about a degree south of
the latitude of Memphis--a depression of great depth and of ample
expanse, fifty miles or more in length by thirty in breadth, and
containing an area of six or seven hundred square miles. It was
separated from the Nile valley by a narrow ridge of hills about two
hundred feet high, through which ran from south-east to north-west a
narrow rocky gorge, giving access to the depression. It is possible that
in very high floods some of the water of the inundation passed naturally
into the basin through this gorge; but whether this were so or no, it
was plain that by the employment of no very large amount of labour a
canal or cutting might be carried along the gorge, and the Nile water
given free access into the depression, not only in very high floods, but
annually when the inundation reached a certain moderate height. This is,
accordingly, what Amenemhat did. He dug a canal from the western branch
of the Nile--the modern Bahr Yousuf--leaving it at El-Lahoun, carried
his canal through the gorge, in places cutting deep into its rocky
bottom, and by a system of sluices and flood-gates retained such an
absolute control over the water that he could either admit or exclude
the inundation at his will, as it rose; and when it fell, could either
allow the water that had flowed in to return, or imprison it and keep it
back. Within the gorge he had thus at all times a copious store of the
invaluable fluid, banked up to the height of high Nile, and capable of
being applied to purposes of cultivation both within and without the
depression by the opening and shutting of the sluices.
So much appears to be certain. The exact size and position of
Amenemhat's reservoir within the depression, which a French _savant_ was
supposed to have discovered, are now called in question, and must be
admitted to be still _sub judice_. M. Linant de Bellefonds regarded the
reservoir as occupying the south-eastern or upper portion of the
depression only, as extending from north to south a distance of fourteen
miles only, and from east to west a distance varying from six to eleven
miles. He regarded it as artificially confined towards the west and
north by two long lines of embankment, which he considered that he had
traced, and gave the area of the lake as four hundred and five millions
of square mêtres, or about four hundred and eighty millions of square
yards. Mr. Cope Whitehouse believes that the water was freely admitted
into the whole of the depression, which it filled, with the exception of
certain parts, which stood up out of the water as islands, from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred feet high. He believes that it was in
places three hundred feet deep, and that the circuit of its shores was
from three hundred to five hundred miles. It is to be hoped that a
scientific expedition will ere long set this dispute at rest, and enable
the modern student distinctly to grasp and understand the great work of
Amenemhat. Whatever may be the truth regarding "Lake Mœris," as this
great reservoir was called, it is certain that it furnished the ancients
one of the least explicable of all the many problems that the remarkable
land of the Nile presented to them. Herodotus added to the other marvels
of the place a story about two sitting statues based upon pyramids,
which stood three hundred feet above the level of the lake, and a famous
labyrinth, of which we shall soon speak.
Whether the reservoir of Amenemhat had the larger or the smaller
dimensions ascribed to it, there can be no doubt that it was a grand
construction, undertaken mainly for the benefit of his people, and
greatly conducing to their advantage. Even if the reservoir had only the
dimensions assigned to it by M. de Bellefonds, it would, according to
his calculations, have contained water sufficient, not only for
irrigating the northern and western portions of the Fayoum throughout
the year, but also for the supply of the whole western bank of the Nile
from Beni-Souef to the embouchure at Canopus for six months. This alone
would in dry seasons have been a sensible relief to a large portion of
the population. If the dimensions exceeded those of De Bellefonds, the
relief would have been proportionately greater.
The good king was not, however, content merely to benefit his people by
increasing the productiveness of Egypt and warding off the calamities
that occasionally befell the land; he further gave employment to large
numbers, which was not of a severe or oppressive kind, but promoted
their comfort and welfare. In connection with his hydraulic works in
the Fayoum he constructed a novel species of building, which after ages
admired even above the constructions of the pyramid-builders, and
regarded as the most wonderful edifice in all the world. "I visited the
place," says Herodotus,[12] "and found it to surpass description; for if
all the walls and other great works of the Greeks could be put together
in one, they would not equal, either for labour or expense, this
Labyrinth; and yet the temple of Ephesus is a building worthy of note,
and so is the temple of Samos. The pyramids likewise surpass
description, and are severally equal to a number of the greatest works
of the Greeks; but the Labyrinth surpasses the pyramids. It has twelve
courts, all of them roofed, with gates exactly opposite one another, six
looking to the north, and six to the south. A single wall surrounds the
whole building. It contains two different sorts of chambers, half of
them underground, and half above-ground, the latter built upon the
former; the whole number is three thousand, of each kind fifteen
hundred. The upper chambers I myself passed through and saw, and what I
say of them is from my own observation; of the underground chambers I
can only speak from report, for the keepers of the building could not be
induced to show them, since they contained (they said) the sepulchres of
the kings who built the Labyrinth, and also those of the sacred
crocodiles. Thus it is from hearsay only that I can speak of them; but
the upper chambers I saw with my own eyes, and found them to excel all
other human productions; for the passages through the houses, and the
varied windings of the paths across the courts, excited in me infinite
admiration, as I passed from the courts into chambers, and from the
chambers into colonnades, and from the colonnades into fresh houses, and
again from these into courts unseen before. The roof was, throughout, of
stone, like the walls; and the walls were carved all over with figures;
every court was surrounded with a colonnade, which was built of white
stones, exquisitely fitted together. At the corner of the Labyrinth
stands a pyramid, forty fathoms high, with large figures engraved upon
it, which is entered by a subterranean passage."
The pyramid intended is probably that examined by Perring and Lepsius,
which had a base of three hundred feet, and an elevation, probably, of
about one hundred and eighty-five feet. It was built of crude brick
mixed with a good deal of straw, and cased with a white silicious
limestone. The same material was employed for the greater part of the
so-called "Labyrinth," but many of the columns were of red granite, and
some perhaps of porphyry. Most likely the edifice was intended as a
mausoleum for the sacred crocodiles, and was gradually enlarged for
their accommodation--Amenemhat, whose prænomen was found on the pyramid,
being merely the first founder. The number of the pillared courts, and
their similarity, made the edifice confusing to foreigners, and got it
the name of "The Labyrinth"; but it is not likely the designers of the
building had any intention to mislead or to confuse.
Amenemhat's prænomen, or throne-name, assumed (according to ordinary
custom) on his accession, was Ra-n-mat, "Sun of Justice" or "Sun of
Righteousness." The assumption of the title indicates his desire to
leave behind him a character for justice and equity. It is perhaps
noticeable that the name by which the Greeks knew him was Mœris, which
may mean "the beloved." With him closes the first period of Theban
greatness. A cloud was impending, and darker days about to follow; but
as yet Egypt enjoyed a time of progressive, and in the main peaceful,
development. Commerce, art, religion, agriculture, occupied her. She did
not covet other men's lands, nor did other men covet hers. The world
beyond her borders knew little of her, except that she was a fertile and
well-ordered land, whereto, in time of dearth, the needy of other
countries might resort with confidence.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] "Records of the Past," vol. xii. p. 60.
[12] Euterpe, ch. 148
VII.
ABRAHAM IN EGYPT.
"Now there was a famine in the land of Canaan; and Abram went down into
Egypt to sojourn there" (Gen. xii. 10). Few events in the history of
mankind are more interesting than the visit which the author of the
Pentateuch thus places before us in less than a dozen words. The "father
of the faithful," the great apostle of Monotheism, the wanderer from the
distant "Ur of the Chaldees," familiar with Babylonian greatness, and
Babylonian dissoluteness, and Babylonian despotism, having quitted his
city home and adopted the simple habits of a Syrian nomadic sheikh,
finds himself forced to make acquaintance with a second form of
civilization, a second great organized monarchy, and to become for a
time a sojourner among the people who had held for centuries the valley
of the Nile. He had obeyed the call which took him from Ur to Haran,
from Haran to Damascus, from Damascus to the hills of Canaan; he had
divorced himself from city life and city usages; he had embraced the
delights of that free, wandering existence which has at all times so
singular a charm for many, and had dwelt for we know not how many years
in different parts of Palestine, the chief of a tribe rich in flocks and
herds, moving with them from place to place as the fancy took him. It
was assuredly with much reluctance that he quitted the open downs and
fresh breezes and oak groves of Canaan the land promised to him and to
his seed after him, and took his way through the "desert of the south"
to the great kingdom with which he and his race could never hope to be
on terms of solid friendship. But the necessity which constrained him
was imperative. When, from the want of the ordinary spring rains,
drought and famine set in on the Palestinian uplands, there was in
ancient times but one resource. Egypt was known as a land of plenty.
Whether it were Hebrew nomads, or Hittite warriors, or Phœnician traders
that suffered, Egypt was the sole refuge, the sole hope. There the river
gave the plenteous sustenance which would be elsewhere sought in vain.
There were granaries and storehouses, and an old established system
whereby corn was laid up as a reserve in case of need, both by private
individuals of the wealthier classes and by the kings. There among the
highest officers of state was the "steward of the public granary." whose
business it was, when famine pressed, to provide, so far as was
possible, both for natives and foreigners, alleviating the distress of
all, while safeguarding, of course, the king's interests (Gen. xlvii.
13-26).
Abraham, therefore, when he found that "the famine was grievous in the
land" of Canaan, did the only thing that it was possible for him to
do--left Palestine, and wended his way through the desert to the
Egyptian frontier. What company he took with him is uncertain. A few
years later we find him at the head of a body of three hundred and
eighteen men capable of bearing arms--"trained servants born in his
house"--which implies the headship over a tribe of at least twelve
hundred persons. He can scarcely have entered Egypt with a much smaller
number. It was before his separation from his nephew, Lot, whose
followers were not much fewer than his own. And to leave any of his
dependents behind would have been to leave them to starvation. We must
suppose a numerous caravan organized, with asses and camels to carry
provisions and household stuff, and with the women and the little ones
conveyed as we see them in the sculpture representing the arrival of
Abusha from the same quarter, albeit with a smaller _entourage._ The
desert journey would be trying, and probably entail much loss,
especially of the cattle and beasts; but at length, on the seventh or
eighth day, as the water was getting low in the skins and the camels
were beginning to faint and groan with the scant fare and the long
travel, a dark low line would appear upon the edge of the horizon in
front, and soon the line would deepen into a delicate fringe, sparkling
here and there as though it were sown with diamonds.[13] Then it would
be recognized that there lay before the travellers the fields and
gardens and palaces and obelisks of Egypt, the broad flood and rich
plain of the Nile, and their hearts would leap with joy, and lift
themselves up in thanksgiving to the Most High, who had brought them
through the great and terrible wilderness to a land of plenty.
But now a fresh anxiety fell upon the spirit of the chief. Tradition
tells us that already in Babylonia he had had experience of the violence
and tyranny of earthly potentates, and had with difficulty escaped from
an attempt which the king of Babylon made upon his life. Either memory
recalled this and similar dangers, or reason suggested what the
unbridled licence of irresponsible power might conceive and execute
under the circumstances. The Pharaohs had, it is plain, already departed
from the simple manners of the earlier times, when each prince was
contented with a single wife, and had substituted for the primitive law
of monogamy that corrupt system of hareem life which has kept its ground
in the East from an ancient date to the present day. Abraham was aware
of this, and "as he was come near to enter into Egypt," but was not yet
entered, he was seized with a great fear. "Behold," he said to Sarai his
wife, "Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon;
therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that
they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will
save thee alive," Under these circumstances Abraham, with a craft not
unnatural in an Oriental, but certainly far from commendable, resolved
to dissemble his relationship towards Sarah, and to represent her as not
his wife, but his sister. She was, in point of fact, his half-sister, as
he afterwards pleaded to Abimelech (Gen. xx. 12), being the daughter of
Terah by a secondary wife, and married to her half-brother "Say, I pray
thee," he said, "thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thy
sake; and my soul shall live because of thee." Sarah acquiesced; and no
doubt the whole tribe was made acquainted with the resolution come to,
so that they might all be in one story.
The frontier was then approached. We learn from the history of Abusha,
as well as from other scattered notices in the papyri, how carefully the
eastern border was always guarded, and what precautions were taken to
apprise the Court when any considerable body of immigrants arrived. The
chief official upon the frontier, either Khnumhotep or some one
occupying a similar position, would receive the in-comers, subject them
to interrogation, and cause his secretary to draw up a report, which
would be forwarded by courier to the capital. The royal orders would be
awaited, and meantime perhaps fresh reports would be sent by other
officials of the neighbourhood. In the present instance, we are told
that several "princes of Pharaoh," having been struck with the beauty of
Sarah, commended her to their royal master, who sent for her and had her
brought into his own house. Abraham himself was well received and
treated with much distinction "for her sake." According to Eupolemus, he
and his were settled in the sacred city of On or Heliopolis; and there,
in that seat of learning and religion, the Patriarch, as the same
authority declares, lived peacefully for many years and taught the
Egyptians the sciences of astronomy and arithmetic. The author of
Genesis says nothing of the place of his abode, but simply informs us of
his well-being. "Pharaoh entreated Abram well for Sarai's sake; and he
had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants,
and she-asses, and camels." The collocation of the clauses implies that
all these were presents from the king. The pleased monarch lavished on
his brother-in-law such gifts of honour as were usual at the time and
suitable to his circumstances. Abraham became "very rich in cattle, in
silver, and in gold" (Gen. xiii. 2). He flourished greatly, whether for
months or for years the scripture does not say. He was separated from
his wife, and she was an inmate of Pharaoh's hareem; but he kept his
secret, and no one betrayed him. Apparently, he was content.
Ere long, however, a discovery was made. Calamity came upon the royal
house in some marked way, probably either in the form of sickness or of
death. The king became convinced that he was the object of a Divine
chastisement, and cast about for a cause to which his sufferings might
reasonably be attributed. How had he provoked God's anger? Either, as
Josephus thinks, the priests had by this time found out the truth, and
made the suggestion to him, that he was being punished for having taken
another man's wife into his seraglio; or possibly, as others have
surmised, Sarah herself divined the source of the calamities, and made
confession of the truth. At any rate, by some means or other, the facts
of the case became known; and the Pharaoh thereupon hastened to set
matters right. Sarah, though an inmate of the hareem, was probably still
in the probationary condition, undergoing the purification necessary
before the final completion of her nuptials (Esth. ii. 12), and could
thus be restored intact. The Pharaoh sent for Abraham, reproached him
with his deceit, pointed out the ill consequences which had followed,
and, doubtless in some displeasure, required him to take his wife and
depart. The famine was at an end, and there was no reason why he should
linger. Beyond reproach, however, Pharaoh inflicted no punishment. He
"commanded his men concerning Abraham; and they sent him away, and his
wife, and _all that he had_."
Such is the account which has come down to us of Abraham's sojourn in
Egypt. If it be asked, Why is it inserted into the "story of Egypt" at
this point? the reply must be, because, on a dispassionate consideration
of all the circumstances, chronological and other, which attach to the
narrative, it has been generally agreed that the event belongs to
_about_ this time. There is no special reign to which it can be
definitely assigned; but the best critics acquiesce in the judgment of
Canon Cook upon the point, who says: "For my own part, I regard it as
all but certain that Abraham visited Egypt in some reign between the
middle of the eleventh and the thirteenth dynasty, and most probably
under one of the earliest Pharaohs of the twelfth."[14]