[Illustration: _THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI._
Reproduced for our Members through the courtesy of
The Newberry Library, Chicago
This illuminated manuscript represents the work done by French monks
in the early part of the fourteenth century. The border, containing
as it does many grotesque figures scattered through its foliage,
indicates this, as also the style of the faces in the miniature
work. This is taken from one of the many "Book of Hours" and was the
page used for the "Sext Hour," a full description of illuminated
manuscript will be found Part IX, page 101.
"COPYRIGHT BY THE DELPHIAN SOCIETY, CHICAGO"]
THE WORLD'S PROGRESS
WITH ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS FROM MASTERPIECES OF EGYPTIAN, HEBREW,
GREEK, LATIN, MODERN EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
FULLY ILLUSTRATED
EDITORIAL STAFF
VERY REV. J. K. BRENNAN Missouri
GISLE BOTHME, M.A. University of Minnesota
CHAS. H. CAFFIN New York
JAMES A. CRAIG, M.A., B.D., PH.D. University of Michigan
MRS. SARAH PLATT DECKER Colorado
ALCÉE FORTIER, D.LT. Tulane University
ROSWELL FIELD Chicago
BRUCE G. KINGSLEY Royal College of Organists, England
D. D. LUCKENBILL, A.B., PH.D. University of Chicago
KENNETH MCKENZIE, PH.D. Yale University
FRANK B. MARSH, PH.D. University of Texas
DR. HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE New York
W. A. MERRILL, PH.D., L.H.D. University of California
T. M. PARROTT, PH.D. Princeton University
GRANT SHOWERMAN, PH.D. University of Wisconsin
H. C. TOLMAN, PH.D., D.D. Vanderbilt University
I. E. WING, M.A. Michigan
VOL. I
THE DELPHIAN SOCIETY
COPYRIGHT 1913
BY
THE DELPHIAN SOCIETY
CHICAGO
COMPOSITION, ELECTROTYPING, PRINTING
AND BINDING BY THE
W. B. CONKEY COMPANY
HAMMOND, INDIANA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I.
PAGE
The Delphian Course of Reading VIII
Prehistoric Man; Customs and Occupations. Dawn of Civilization XIV
EGYPT.
Prefatory Chapter 13
CHAPTER I.
Its Antiquity; Story of Joseph, Physical Geography, Prehistoric
Egypt 20
CHAPTER II.
Sources of Egyptian History; Herodotus' Account of Egypt 31
CHAPTER III.
Pyramid Age; Early Egyptian Kings; Construction of Pyramids 37
CHAPTER IV.
Age of Darkness; Middle Empire; Reigns of Amenemhet I. and III.;
Description of Labyrinth 43
CHAPTER V.
Egypt under the Shepherd Kings; Beginning of the New Empire;
Conquests of Thutmose I. 51
CHAPTER VI.
First Egyptian Queen; Temple of Hatshepsut; Expedition to Punt 57
CHAPTER VII.
Military Kings; Hymn of Victory; Worship of the Solar Disk;
Temple of Karnak 64
CHAPTER VIII.
Nineteenth Dynasty; Egypt under Ramses the Great; Twentieth
Dynasty; Priest Rule; Ethiopian Kings 72
CHAPTER IX.
Social Life in Egypt; Houses, Dress, Family Life 85
CHAPTER X.
Sports and Recreations 96
CHAPTER XI.
Agriculture and Cattle Raising; Arts and Crafts; Egyptian Markets;
Military Affairs 100
CHAPTER XII.
Schools and Education; Egyptian Literature 112
CHAPTER XIII.
Religion of Ancient Egypt; Hymn to the Nile; Egyptian Temples and
Ceremonies 119
CHAPTER XIV.
Art and Decoration 133
CHAPTER XV.
Tombs and Burial Customs 138
CHAPTER XVI.
Excavations in Egypt; Discoveries of W. M. Flinders Petrie 144
_Descriptions of Egypt._
Description of the Nile 153
Feast of Neith 155
Karnak 159
Memphis 161
Hymn to the God Ra 163
_Egyptian Literature._
An Old Kingdom Book of Proverbs 164
The Voyage of the Soul 168
The Adventures of the Exile Sanehat 171
The Song of the Harper 179
_Present Day Egypt._
Alexandria 181
Cairo 182
Egyptian Museum 185
Suez Canal 187
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
Prefatory Chapter 193
CHAPTER I.
Early Civilization of Asia; Recovery of Forgotten Cities 201
CHAPTER II.
Sources of Babylonian and Assyrian History; Physical Geography 211
CHAPTER III.
Prehistoric Chaldea; Charms and Talismans; Semitic Invasion 218
CHAPTER IV.
City-States Before the Rise of Babylon; Hymn to the Moon-God 227
CHAPTER V.
Dominance of Babylon 232
CHAPTER VI.
Beginnings of Assyrian Empire; Conquest of Asshurnatsirpal 237
CHAPTER VII.
Assyria a Powerful Empire; Hebrew Account of the War with Assyria 245
CHAPTER VIII.
Last Years of Assyrian Dominance 256
CHAPTER IX.
Chaldean Empire in Babylonia 264
CHAPTER X.
Social Life in Mesopotamia. The Babylonian and Assyrian Compared;
Their Houses and Family Life 270
CHAPTER XI.
Morality of the Ancient Babylonians 276
CHAPTER XII.
Literature and Learning; Deluge Story 283
CHAPTER XIII.
Clothing Worn by Assyrians and Babylonians; Their Food 293
CHAPTER XIV.
Architecture and Decoration 300
CHAPTER XV.
Religious Customs 307
CHAPTER XVI.
The Laboring Classes; Professions 317
CHAPTER XVII.
The Medes 328
CHAPTER XVIII.
Condition of Persia Before the Age of Cyrus; Cyrus the Great and
the Persian Empire 332
CHAPTER XIX.
War with Greece 340
CHAPTER XX.
Manners and Customs of the Persians; Their Religion 346
CHAPTER XXI.
Contributions of Babylonia, Assyria and Persia to Modern
Civilization 357
_Assyrian Literature._
Chaldean Account of the Deluge 361
Descent of Ishtar to Hades 367
Gyges and Assurbanipal 371_a_
Purity 371_c_
Zoroaster's Prayer 371_d_
THE HEBREWS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS.
CHAPTER I.
Syria 372
CHAPTER II.
The Land of Phoenicia; Reign of Hiram; Invasion of Asshurbanipal 378
CHAPTER III.
Phoenician Colonies and Commerce 390
CHAPTER IV.
Occupations and Industries; Literature and Learning; Religion 399
CHAPTER V.
Physical Geography of Palestine; Climate and Productivity 408
CHAPTER VI.
Effects of Geographical Conditions upon the Hebrews 418
CHAPTER VII.
Sources of Hebrew History 426
CHAPTER VIII.
Condition of the Hebrews Prior to Their Occupation of Canaan 434
CHAPTER IX.
Era of the Judges 441
CHAPTER X.
Morality of the Early Hebrews 448
CHAPTER XI.
Causes Leading to the Establishment of the Kingdom. David's
Lament; His Reign. Solomon Rules; King Solomon and the Bees 453
CHAPTER XII.
After the Division of the Kingdom; End of Israel 469
Description of Illustrations 483
[Illustration: MAP OF ANCIENT EGYPT]
FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
PART I.
PAGE
ILLUMINATED MISSAL Frontispiece
DISTANT VIEW OF THE PYRAMIDS 44
NEAR VIEW OF PYRAMIDS AND SPHINX 68
TOURISTS SCALING THE GREAT PYRAMID 92
COLUMN AND PYLON OF KARNAK 124
BEAUTIFUL ISLAND OF PHILEA 148
WINDOWS OF A HAREM 172
SHIP OF THE DESERT (Photogravure) 192
WINGED LION 236
MUSICIANS AND ATTENDANTS IN THE GARDEN OF ASSHURBANIPAL 284
SWORD-MAKER OF DAMASCUS 348
THE RIVER JORDAN 392
JAPPA HARBOR 432
ROSES OF SHARON 464
MAP OF ANCIENT EGYPT VI
THE DELPHIAN COURSE OF READING
Two thousand years before the sight of a new world burst upon the view
of the Genoese mariner, there existed in north-central Greece a
sanctuary famous in three continents. Located in mountainous Phocis, in
a natural amphitheater, overhung by frowning rocks and reached only
through mysterious caves, was the Oracle of Delphi. Here in remote times
Apollo was believed to reveal his wishes to men through the medium of a
priestess, speaking under the influence of vaporous breath which rose
from a yawning fissure. Her utterances were not always coherent and were
interpreted to those seeking guidance by Apollo's priests.
As its fame spread, the number of visitors to Delphi increased. More
priests were needed to counsel and advise. Although the first blind
faith in earlier deities lessened, the prestige of Delphi was
nevertheless preserved. Apollo's priests became better versed in the
affairs of Greece and the surrounding countries; their assistants became
familiar with all vital issues, and thus intelligent replies were given
to unceasing inquiries. In time the Greek divinities were almost
forgotten and Christianity became the state religion, yet the Oracle of
Delphi continued to draw men unto it until the fifth Christian century.
Ancient writers have left us abundant accounts of journeyings made
thither by potentates and kings, and have described at length the rich
offerings left by them in gratitude. The humble were seldom mentioned by
early writers and it remained for the last few years to bring to light
little leaden tablets--valueless from the standpoint of plunderers,
earth-covered and revealed only by the excavator's spade--silent
testimonials of appeals made to the oracle by the common people.
It is difficult for us today to understand the powerful influence which
the Delphian Oracle exercised for a thousand years in Greece. This might
fittingly be compared to that wielded by the Church in the Middle Ages.
Here questions of international importance were brought, policies
determined, and the balance delicately turned for peace or war. Nor were
questions of the humblest slighted. Any interference on the part of one
state designed to deny citizens of another free access to Delphi
precipitated serious trouble.
There is no doubt but that implicit faith directed the first visitors to
Delphi and beyond question this faith to some extent survived. The
peasant accepted literally the presence of deity as many a worshipper
today regards the statue, not as a symbol, but as the very Christ.
However, there have been in all ages the discerning who have
distinguished between the symbol and that symbolized, and certainly the
keen, alert Greeks did not remain blind adherents of antiquated
conceptions. The wisdom of the Delphian priests was revered and their
judgments accepted much in the same way as were those of the seers who
taught the children of Israel at the city gates. The Oracle of Delphi
became potent--a name with which to conjure.
We know full well today that no priestess upon a tripod can reveal to us
the secrets of the future. A thorough understanding of the past must be
the safest guide for coming years. No vapor can inspire sudden
revelations--the result only of faithful effort and earnest thought. Yet
the story of the ancient oracle charms us still and when a name was
sought for a national organization, that had for its avowed purpose the
promotion of educational interests in a continent, none was deemed more
suitable than that which for so many years cast its gracious spell from
one sea to another.
Each new decade brings new needs, and the conditions of fifty years ago
were wholly different from those confronting us today. Ours is an age
characterized by intensity, strenuous effort and tireless exertion.
Leisure seems to have disappeared from our national life and to be
remembered only when reviewing pleasant stories of other times.
Educators complain that we are neglecting the wisdom of the past--that
the enduring thoughts of men as preserved to us in their writings have
ceased to be familiar. The thoughtful deplore the loss of culture,
courtesy and old-time chivalry. Frequently the critics fail to look
beneath the surface for reasons leading to the very evident result. The
truth is that in no previous age have the hearts of people been more
sensitive to injustice, more united for fair dealing between man and
man, more eager for the best the world can offer. But we are living in a
transition period; social and industrial conditions have not yet
crystallized in their new forms sufficiently to permit the wider
opportunity for cultivation and reflection which must necessarily
overtake us in time.
At present people accumulate fine libraries and rarely read them; for
their shelves they seek the best--for their diversion the lightest and
most transient literature. Few are there who do not dream of a happy
time when it shall be their delight to browse among their books and find
companionship in them. Still the years fly by relentlessly and many who
are not mere theorists are sounding a warning: This time so fondly
anticipated will never come to many of the present generation; seize
today; snatch a brief moment for the consideration of enduring thoughts;
do not merely provide for the temporal wants and leave the soul
famishing. Dr. Eliot, late president of Harvard, in repeated lectures
and addresses has voiced this crying need.
"From the total training during childhood there should result in the
child a taste for interesting and improving reading, which should direct
and inspire its subsequent intellectual life. That schooling which
results in this taste for good reading, however unsystematic or
eccentric the schooling may have been, has achieved a main end of
elementary education; and that schooling which does not result in
implanting this permanent taste has failed. Guided and animated by this
impulse to acquire knowledge, and exercise his imagination through
reading, the individual will continue to educate himself all through
life. Without that deep-rooted impulsion he will soon cease to draw on
the accumulated wisdom of the past and the new resources of the present,
and, as he grows older, he will live in a mental atmosphere which is
always growing thinner and emptier. Do we not all know many people who
seem to live in a mental vacuum--to whom, indeed, we have great
difficulty in attributing immortality, because they apparently have so
little life except that of the body? _Fifteen minutes a day of good
reading would have given any one of this multitude a really human
life._"[1]
To meet this condition, which prevails throughout the length and breadth
of our land, to stimulate a deeper interest, quicken a latent
appreciation and facilitate the use of brief periods of freedom for
self-improvement, the Delphian Society was organized and the Delphian
Course of Reading made possible.
Believing that only a comprehensive course could meet the requirements
of the day and prove acceptable to a large number of people, the
Delphian Society has included those subjects which are now offered in
the curriculums of our leading colleges and universities--history,
literature, philosophy, poetry, fiction, drama, art, ethics, music.
Mathematics, being in its higher forms essential to few, has been
omitted; languages, requiring the aid of a teacher, and such sciences as
make laboratories necessary, are not included. None of these subjects
possess purely cultural qualities. Technical information has no place
whatever in such a scheme. The branches of human interest which remain
are those of vital importance to everyone.
Not only is the list of subjects widely inclusive, but the method of
treatment has been carefully considered. Finding the beginnings of most
modern activities in antiquity, the Delphian Course presents the gradual
unfoldment of each subject from earliest times to our own. The distance
between an imitation of the hunt, as found among the diversions of
primitive people, and a modern play is great, and yet no complete idea
of the latter can be acquired without some conception of dramatic
origins. The crude picture drawn upon the sooty hide which formed a hut
in early times and the crowning masterpiece of a Raphael present
extremes, and yet he who would follow the gradual growth of painting
realizes that each has its place in the progress of art. Only in
comparatively recent times has the value of each link which form the
long chain of development been understood. No amount of heterogenous
reading can compare with the systematic tracing of one subject from its
early manifestations to its present forms.
Correlation of topics presents wonderful possibilities. If we become
interested, for example, in society as portrayed in the earliest English
novels, how much more shall we then appreciate the canvases of Hogarth,
which depict the same social conditions. If the age of idealism in
literature be under consideration, the productions of contemporaneous
artists grow to have for us a new significance.
It is a mistake to imagine that relaxation and diversion are obtainable
only from reading matter of the day. Oscar Kuhms calls attention to the
fact that "to spend hours over illustrated magazines, Sunday newspapers,
and the majority of popular novels, has very little to do with the art
of reading in its larger sense." To a far greater extent than is
generally imagined, the inordinate reading of magazines accounts for the
host of superficial readers of our generation. To see how temporary is
their interest one needs only to examine journals three or four years
old.
The pleasures of travel may be greatly enhanced by definite knowledge of
countries visited--their recorded past, the manner of life of those who
dwelt within them and those now populating them; ruins, old temples,
surviving art, make slight appeal to those wholly unfamiliar with the
ages that produced them. The enjoyment of a play is more poignant for
the one who has in mind the changes which plays and playhouses have
witnessed. There is something impressive in the thought that for ages
audiences have been thus held spellbound. Four centuries before the
Christian era imposing dramas and keenly satirical comedies were given
before larger assemblies than modern theatres could accommodate. Only in
modern times has a curtain separated the players and spectators.
Formerly the favored sat upon the stage itself; in the Elizabethan
playhouse the majority stood throughout an entire performance. Sentences
in Shakespeare's plays are meaningless without taking these facts into
account. Some extended acquaintance with pictures would put an end to
comments made not infrequently by critics that the spectacle of groups
of people today in attendance upon an art exhibit supplies an
astonishing sight. The majority--so it has been stated--find a number
in their catalogues, search frantically about for a picture so
designated, and when they discover it, sigh with satisfaction and begin
the search for another--"for all the world as though they were indulging
in a simple hunting game!" Why Raphael painted so many Madonnas, why
Watteau seems to have known only the gay and carefree--these are simple
questions which many might find perplexing to adequately explain.
The traveler whose time in a foreign land is limited does not seek the
commonplace and unattractive; he does not try to compass all a city
might have to show in the brief period he can spend there; rather, he
obtains the guidance of those more familiar with the locality, and gives
his attention to the best it has to offer. So if our time for reading
and self-improvement must be brief, we shall find small satisfaction in
wasting it blindly searching for what may satisfy. Educators are usually
less pressed by insidious cares and more free to give their devotion to
favorite subjects.
It is a mistake to suppose one reads chiefly for information. We read to
develop our insight into the mystery of life; to gain an individual
viewpoint; to establish our standards of conduct and modify our standard
of judgment. Reading which is mere diversion can never bestow this
power.
If those adopting the Delphian Course as the basis of their reading find
that with its aid they are enabled to accomplish more satisfying
results; if they finally discover that with its guidance one can make
more intelligent use of his own library; if a love for things worth
while--the lasting and enduring thoughts and sentiments of
men--increases, and the desire for wider knowledge is aroused--the hopes
and ambitions of the Delphian Society shall have been largely realized.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Eliot: Educational Reform.
[Illustration: PRIMITIVE DRAWING OF MAN.]
PREHISTORIC MAN
The word _prehistoric_ means, literally, _before history begins_, and by
prehistoric man we mean those human beings who lived upon the earth
before records were kept. History, properly so called, does not begin
until civilization is reached. The roaming of savage people over land in
search of food has little or no importance for the student of history,
although knowledge of a people in its savage state may throw some light
upon its future development. While prehistoric ages are the concern of
the archaeologist rather than the historian, we shall find that historic
ages owe a great debt to prehistoric ages, and with this aspect of the
matter the historian has deep interest.
The science of geology teaches us that the earth has not always
possessed its present familiar appearance. On the contrary, countless
years were consumed in molding it to its present shape, and even yet it
is undergoing constant change. It is supposed that in the beginning all
was a chaotic heap of Matter. In the words of a familiar story: "The
earth was not solid, the sea was not liquid, nor the air transparent.
All lay in confusion."
In some mysterious way,--that nobody understands--Motion was started in
this chaotic whole. Gradually the mass became more and more compact; at
the same time it became very hot. Revolving on an imaginary axis, the
mass grew rounder and rounder, flattening slightly at the poles, or the
ends of the axis. Gradually the surface of the mass cooled, and cooling,
formed the earth's crust. Because it did not cool evenly, but shrunk to
fit the still molten mass, this surface or crust was left with deep
crevasses and high ridges. This marked irregularity was further
increased by mighty upheavals caused by pressure of heat from within.
Thus were many of the mountains formed.
This process, so slightly indicated here, extended over a vast period of
time. It is supposed that later, for a protracted period, rain fell.
When the age of rain had passed, the deep depressions in the earth's
surface were left filled with water--our present oceans and some of the
seas. It would be impossible for us to review rapidly all the stages
through which the earth passed in its making. Suffice it to say that
conditions upon it were not always favorable to life as we know it. In
course of long geological ages--perhaps millions and millions of
years--forests of trees, plants, shrubs and flowers sprang up and
covered the bare earth. Last of all, probably, _man_ appeared. How all
these things came about no one understands, but it is generally accepted
that they occurred in an order similar to that just given. It would be
useless for us to inquire into all the reasons that have led to these
conclusions, but the most important one has been _evidences within the
earth itself_.
Men who work deep down in mines know that as they descend lower and
lower, the temperature rises, until there is a noticeable difference
between the temperature at the entrance of a mine and at its lowest
point. Moreover, not infrequently volcanoes pour forth streaming lava,
smoke and fire accompanying the eruption. While such evidences lead to
the conclusion that the temperature of its interior is very high, still
there are many reasons for believing that the earth is a solid mass.
From the examination of the various earth strata, their composition and
the evidences each bears of the conditions under which it was formed, we
learn of periods of rain, heat and cold prevailing. All these facts
belong to the realm of geology however, and concern us here only as they
have concerned the progress of mankind. These same earth layers or
strata which preserve eloquent testimony regarding the earth's
development, contain also remains of prehistoric men--men who lived in
the far away time before records were made and of which the rocks alone
give testimony.
Of the beginnings of the human race we know nothing. Many scientists,
notably Darwin and his followers, have sought to show that man evolved
from some lower animal life, in a way similar to that in which we find
some plant or flower perfected from inferior origin. Whether the theory
of man's evolution from some lower animal will ever be shown to be true
the future alone can tell. Nevertheless the scholarly world today has
generally accepted the evolutionary view of life and the world.
Buried within the earth along river-beds, around cliffs, in mounds and
many other places, have been found remains of primitive man. While the
beginnings of the human race, as has been said, are utterly unknown, the
earliest stage of which we have knowledge has been called the
Paleolithic Age,--the age of the River-drift Man.
Whether we accept the theory of man's evolution from the lower animal
kingdom or not, we must admit that the earliest Paleolithic people of
whom we have knowledge differed but little from the wild beasts. They
lived in caves along rivers,--natural retreats where wild animals might
have taken refuge. They lived on berries, roots, fish and such small
game as they could kill by blows. They did not cook their food, but
devoured raw meat much as did the wild beasts. They did not even bury
their dead. From the stones accessible to them they selected their
weapons, chipping them roughly. The crude weapons of this period have
given it the name of the Rough Stone Age.
The Paleolithic man, or man of the Rough Stone age, did not try to tame
the beasts he encountered. He stood in great fear of those with whose
strength he was not able to combat. He feared especially strange beings
like himself, and with his family dwelt apart from others so far as
possible. He did not plant nor gather stores for the future; thus when
food failed in his vicinity, he was obliged to roam on until he came
upon a fresh supply of acorns, berries, roots and small animals. Any
cave served for his dwelling. He protected himself from cold by a
covering made from the skin of the beast he had slain. He had few
belongings and these were scarcely valued, being easily replaced.
It is not difficult to see why the man of the Rough Stone Age preferred
to live by the side of some river. In early times, before paths were
worn through the forests, travel was easiest along the river bed. Food
was more abundant here, for fish inhabited the streams and thither also
animals came to drink, and in the reeds by the river's side, birds and
wild fowl breeded. Moreover, man was a timid creature and feared to
venture far inland.
From all this we see that man in his primitive state gave little
promise of his future development. For how long a time he continued in
this stage, we cannot estimate. Yet we find a decided improvement in the
latter part of this Paleolithic Age, for fire and its uses became known.
This brought about a wonderful change.
The man of the Paleolithic or Rough Stone Age was followed by the man of
the Neolithic Age--the cliff dweller. He exchanged a home by the river
for one higher up; secure in some elevated cliff, the Neolithic man
lived, away from molesting beasts. Again, the stone weapons were greatly
improved. No longer were they rough; on the contrary, they were now
polished smooth. Ingenious from the beginning, man found that sharp
edges of stone were more useful than blunt ones, that smooth handles
were more convenient than irregular stones with no handles at all. For
this reason, this period has been called the Smooth Stone Age. Other
improvements no less momentous had been wrought. Food was now cooked,
and as a result, man grew a little less ferocious. He had less fear of
the wild beasts than before, and domesticated some of them. No longer
was he wholly dependent upon such food as nature provided, for he had
learned how to sow grain and gather it. He had learned how to fashion
bowls and other receptacles of clay. He now buried his dead with weapons
and other useful articles, proving that he believed that the dead still
had need of such things. We must not, however, suppose that he believed
in immortality, for the evidence shows that his conception of a
hereafter was very vague. In most cases the care for and fear of the
dead ceased a few years after their burial. Before the close of this
period men had journeyed far from abject savagery.
Finally we come to the Metal--sometimes called the Bronze--Age. The
discovery of metal proved the greatest boon, for now it was possible to
make sharp tools and weapons. Hitherto the mere cutting down of a tree
had taken a prodigious time. With a bronze ax, it could be quickly
accomplished. Progress made rapid strides after this invaluable
discovery. Nor this alone. Having learned to domesticate the beasts, men
passed from a purely hunting into a pastoral stage. Having learned to
reap and sow, it became convenient to have a fixed habitation. Instead
of dwelling apart, it proved safest to settle in hamlets or villages. In
other words, man had become _civilized_, and with the dawn of
civilization we find the dawn of history.
From this cursory view of the three important stages in prehistoric
times, it is possible to derive mistaken notions. For example, there was
never a time when stone was the only material available to man. Wood,
ivory and shell were probably always known and frequently procurable.
Neither is it to be supposed that each of these periods broke off
abruptly or that they extended over all lands simultaneously. Quite on
the contrary, stages in human development are never abrupt, and changes
come about unnoticed. In nature results are slowly attained and there
are no sharp distinctions between them. The three divisions of Rough and
Smooth Stone and Metal Ages refer to conditions of progress--not to
periods of time. The Egyptians had passed through all three stages
before the dawn of history; the American Indians were in the Smooth
Stone Age when Columbus discovered America; and in Central Australia
there are tribes today just emerging from the Smooth Stone period. The
rapidity with which a tribe passes from one to another of these stages
depends upon the natural conditions of the country, contact with outside
peoples and many other factors.
When written records enable us to weigh the true and the false, to sift
out fact from fiction and legend from verified event, several nations
had come into possession of a very fair degree of civilization. They had
settled homes in towns and villages, recognized some form of government,
understood the uses of fire, planted crops and garnered them, spun, wove
and made pottery; they had attained considerable skill in the working of
metals, had domestic animals and cultivated plants; they possessed a
spoken, and sometimes a written, language and had attained no little
skill in decorative art. A rich legacy was this for historic ages.
Surely there is interest for the historian in this remote time that lies
clouded still by much uncertainty. Let us consider some of these more
important attainments and try to see how naturally men grew to master
them and how in obscure ages the human race travelled so far on the high
road to progress.
DISCOVERY OF FIRE.
We have already noted that there was a time when fire was unknown. How
then could the Paleolithic man, thrown wholly upon his own observation
and resources, come upon this discovery, which was to work such changes
for the future? Only from his observance of natural phenomena. When
storms swept over desert and plain, vivid lightning flashed, and
occasionally some tree was struck by the bolt and flamed up, greatly to
the astonishment and alarm of the unknowing mind. At other times,
volcanic eruptions occurred, and dry leaves and forests caught on fire
from flying cinders. In the natural course of events, men soon found
that the warmth of burning wood was agreeable, that fire at night
allowed them to keep watch over possible invaders--whether man or wild
beasts--and that the interior of a tree's trunk could be more easily
removed by burning than by laborious scraping out with stone implements.
Having once tasted roasted flesh, a desire for cooked food was probably
developed. Such a valued possession as fire proved, needed to be
carefully tended, and when it was exhausted, human ingenuity set to work
to create it anew. It is not unlikely that sparks occasionally struck
out from flint when it was being chipped into shape for a weapon or
implement. Necessity and desire have always worked wonders, and
primitive man learned shortly to produce the vital spark, both by
friction and by drilling.
Having mastered the art of fire-making, many innovations were consequent
upon it. Some fixed habitation was necessary if the coals were to be
kept covered from day to day, and from meal to meal. Cooked foods
gradually took the place of raw ones; in cold weather the family grew to
gather around the fire, where meals were prepared and warmth was to be
found. When the family, clan or tribe removed to a new home, coals were
carried to kindle the fire upon the new hearth. When men journeyed
abroad in the night, they carried torches to guide them; when they
labored at home, fire grew indispensable for baking their clay pottery,
smelting their ore, and manifold purposes.
While fire became one of man's aids, it wrought a decided change in the
position of woman. Before its discovery, man and woman had probably gone
side by side, sharing alike dangers and hardships. With its acquisition,
some one was required to stay to watch lest it go out, and thus was
developed the fireside and the home. "The fire has made the home. We
have heard much in these later days about woman's position. We are
assured that she has not all her rights. Now, there can be little doubt
that the primitive woman had all her rights. It is probable that she was
as free as her husband to kill the wild beasts, catch fish, fight her
savage neighbors, eat the raw meat which she tore by main strength from
the carcass of the lately slain beast. The beginning of woman's slavery
was the discovery of the fire. The value of fire known and the need of
feeding it recognized, it became necessary that someone should stay by
it to tend it. Notwithstanding the fact that woman had all her rights
and was free to come and go as she would, it was still true that, on
account of children and certain physical peculiarities, the woman was
more naturally the one who would remain behind to care for the feeding
of the flame. Before that, men and women wandered from place to place,
thoughtless of the night. After that, a place was fixed to which man
returned after the day's hunt. It was the beginning of the home."[1]
THE HOUSE.
The man of the Paleolithic Age crept into any cave that offered shelter
from the storm and molesting beasts. Such caves were plentiful along the
river's bank. Here today, elsewhere tomorrow, little heed was given to
the particular shelter in which he took refuge. With the possession of
fire, a fixed home became desirable. Even so, caves still remain the
homes of men for a long period of time.
The Neolithic man sought an abode farther away from the main
highway--the river. In cliffs towering above the river bed--sometimes
away from streams altogether, he scooped out a cave similar to the ones
occupied by his ancestors. Thus in many countries remains are found of a
race of cliff-dwellers. In ancient Greece, for example, have been found
evidences of people living thus, and Indians in Mexico and Arizona three
thousand years later were discovered in similar dwellings.
With a settled life, and cultivation of the soil, man frequently was
forced to provide a home for himself. The material from which he made it
depended upon the resources of the locality. In Egypt and Babylonia,
sun-baked mud huts afforded the simplest, least expensive structures,
both in point of time and labor. Among pastoral tribes, tents formed of
animal skins sewed together were easiest to provide. This was the usual
shelter also of the American Indians and other hunting tribes. The
Laplander found cakes of ice suited for his home, while man in the
tropics quickly constructed a shelter from the huge palm leaves,
available on every hand.
"Of all places for studying construction of huts, Africa is the very
best. There one may see samples of everything that can be thought of in
the way of circular houses; built of straw, sticks, leaves, matting; of
one room or of many; large or small; crude or wonderfully artistic and
carefully made. They may be permanent constructions to be occupied for
years or temporary shelter for a single night; they may consist of
frameworks made of light poles over which are thrown mats or sheets of
various materials and which after using can be taken apart, packed away,
and transported."[2]
From lightly built, temporary dwellings, it was but a short step to the
more substantial, more enduring ones. Stone houses, dwellings made of
timber and of brick, as the country afforded, replaced the earlier
homes, and when written records bring the full light of knowledge upon
the life of nations, in the matters of constructing dwelling places,
several peoples had become proficient.
FOOD.
It would be difficult to discover any plant or animal life which had not
served at some period for food. Primitive man knew nothing about harmful
plants, and only by long experience did he learn to avoid such as worked
him woe. No insect or animal is so repulsive but that it has been
appropriated by the food-hunter in some age and country, and things
today which we would refuse in time of distress were used as a matter of
course by earlier people.
Nature supplied acorns, berries, roots, fruits, fish and plenty of game.
All these articles were at first eaten in their native state. When fire
became well known, cooked foods grew in favor. It is supposed that these
were at first roasted. To suspend meat over a fire or make a large
opening in the ground, cover the floor with stones, heat these very
hot, then remove the fire and bake the food, these are the most
primitive--as well, perhaps, as the most satisfactory--ways known to us.
Boiling was probably a later method, and this was not done as we boil
food today. Rather, stones were heated very hot and tossed into kettles
of water. In this way the water was brought to a boiling point and the
food cooked.
CULTIVATED PLANTS.
Before men learned to cultivate plants and to domesticate animals,
subsistence was always an uncertain matter. They roamed about in one
vicinity until nature could no longer supply their needs, then left the
exhausted land to recover itself while new territory afforded means for
satisfying hunger. After fire became such a potent factor, as we have
seen, a fixed abode was desirable. It fell to the lot of women to stay
and tend the hearth. Shut off from the long expeditions undertaken by
men, they soon learned to make as much as possible of the space around
about their homes. Sticks were sometimes placed around plants or bushes
to protect them from the careless step until their fruits matured.
Occasionally plants were dug up and replanted nearer the hut. The garden
and grain field were but natural results of this spirit of husbanding
the stores provided by mother earth.
While women were the first to domesticate plants in the simple way just
indicated, not much came of it until men adopted the idea and carried it
further. With sharp sticks they scratched the soil and with the help of
animals they trod in the seeds. Irrigation was sometimes needed--as in
Egypt--to insure good crops. Thus from slight beginnings developed the
agriculture of the world. With reasonable labor and painstaking, the
tiller of the soil could be sure of a living for himself and his family,
and before historic records illumine the life of several nations,
farming was well understood. Indeed it is safe to say that until very
recent times methods followed by tillers of the soil in quite a number
of countries advanced very little upon those of the prehistoric man.
It is interesting to trace the history of present day foods, grains,
vegetables and fruits, with the attempt to ascertain where each was
native. All have been greatly improved by cultivation and not alone our
varieties, but even distinct fruits and plants have resulted from man's
propagation. Often the original species have been vastly improved. For
example, the potato was a native of Chili. Found there in the sixteenth
century of our era, it was described as "watery, insipid, but with no
bad taste when cooked." It is supposed that it was taken from some
Spanish ship to Virginia, and in the latter part of the same century
carried to Europe. Its cultivation has spread over many countries, and
from a small, watery tuber it has been brought to large size, mealiness
and taste agreeable to the palate. Even today it flourishes in its wild
state in Chili and Peru.
The cabbage was once a weed, growing on rocks by the seashore. By man's
care it has been developed to the vegetable widely used today; moreover,
its blossom has been exaggerated until a wholly new vegetable in the
form of the cauliflower is the result.
"When we visit a vegetable garden or see fresh, attractive fruits
offered in market or inspect the wonders shown upon the tables of county
fairs and agricultural shows, we seldom realize how truly they are all
the work of man....
"One of the most wonderful illustrations of what man can do in changing
nature is seen in the case of the peach. Some time, long ago, perhaps in
Western Asia, grew a wild tree which bore fruits, at the center of which
were the hardest of hard pits, containing the bitterest of kernels; over
this hard stone was a thin layer of flesh--bitter, stringy, with almost
no juice, and which, as it ripened, separated, exposing to view the
contained seed; such was nature's gift. Man taking it found that it
contained two parts which might by proper treatment be made of use for
food--the thin external pulp and the bitter inner pit. He has improved
both. Today we eat the luscious peaches with their thick, soft,
richly-flavored juicy flesh--they are _one_ product of man's patient
ingenuity. Or we take the soft shelled almond with its sweet kernel; it
is the old pit improved and changed by man: in the almond, as it is
raised at present, we care nothing for the pulp and it has almost
vanished. The peach and almond are the same in nature; the differences
they now betray are due to man."[3]
Many of the grains were known and grown by prehistoric man. Millet,
wheat and barley were known in earliest recorded times in Egypt; these
grains were also cultivated before historic times. Oats and rye were
early plant products. Corn was native to America and unknown to the
antiquity of the Old World. Several of our vegetables, such as the
radish, carrot, turnip, beet and onion, were early grown for food. The
lemon, orange, fig and olive were all native to Asia. Many flowers are
mentioned by early writers and they too were unquestionably carefully
tended in remote times. It is a subject for pleasant investigation to
find out where flowers, cultivated in some countries, grow wild in
others.
DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS.
Desiring to provide food for time of want, primitive man learned to keep
a wounded animal instead of at once killing it. Quite naturally it might
come about that such a creature would grow less wild and become a pet.
Realizing the advantage of confining animals, enclosures were probably
thrown around herds of goats, deer or sheep. Ingenious man soon seized
upon these half tamed beasts to help him in his work. Their use being
proven, he would not rest until he had tamed them to his hand. The dog
was the first dumb friend of men, accompanying them upon the hunt and
aiding in bringing game to bay. The oldest friend, the dog, has also
proven the most faithful of the animal kingdom. When history dawned, the
dog, cow, sheep, goat, donkey, and pig were already domesticated. The
horse was less commonly known in remote times. All these animals were
originally small and not to be compared with their present day
descendants.
DRESS IN PREHISTORIC TIMES.
Among primitive people dress is invariably a simple matter. In warm
countries little clothing is needed, and even in colder lands, ornaments
are valued above mere protection from the elements. It has been well
established that love of decoration has been a powerful factor with
primitive tribes, and that to this passion the habit of wearing clothing
can largely be traced. Skins of wild beasts were often used by early men
as protection from the cold, but it will be remembered that the Indians
found by early discoverers in America were very scantily clad, although
furs were available on every hand. Yet the Indian, who braved the
winter's blast unclad, was eager to barter his all for glass beads,
scarlet cloth, or little trinkets with which he could ornament himself.
The habits of different tribes and peoples have differed considerably;
some have adopted clothing earlier than others; some still go unclad.
Generally speaking, we may note that during the hunting stage, if men
have worn clothing except for ornamentation, it has been the skins of
animals; as spinning and weaving have become known, coarse, home-made
stuffs have come into use. In Egypt, linens were early woven; in
northern countries, woolen stuffs were made. Feathers, furs, fabrics
woven of grasses or reeds, leaves, shells, teeth, tusks and metal
ornaments have held varying favor for decorative purposes.
ART.
At first thought it seems surprising that art can be ultimately traced
back to the self-ornamentation of the savage; yet this is probably true.
The earliest people of whom we know loved to paint their bodies; the
American Indians made ready for feast or war by painting their bodies in
startling colors, and the tribes lowest today in the social
scale--tribes of Central Australia--have a similar practice. Dark
skinned tribes have frequently painted themselves with white; fair
skinned tribes with dark colors. The use of colors among primitive
peoples is an interesting study, and it is significant to note that red
has always been a favorite.
"Red--and particularly yellowish red--is the favorite color of the
primitive as it is the favorite color of nearly all peoples. We need
only observe our children to satisfy ourselves how little taste on this
point has changed. In every box of water colors the saucer that contains
the cinnabar red is the first one emptied; and 'if a child expresses a
particular liking for a color, it is nearly always a bright dazzling
red. Even adults, notwithstanding the modern impoverishment and blunting
of the color sense, still, as a rule, feel the charm of red.'... It may
be questioned whether the strong effect of red is called out by the
direct impression of the color, or by certain associations. Many
animals have a feeling for red similar to that of man. Every child knows
that the sight of a red cloth drives oxen and turkeys into the most
passionate excitement.... As to the primitive peoples, one circumstance
is here significant above all others. Red is the color of blood, and men
see it, as a rule, precisely when their emotional excitement is
greatest--in the heat of the chase and of the battle. In the second
place, all the ideas that are associated with the use of the red color
come strongly into play--recollections of the excitement of the dance
and combat. Notwithstanding all these considerations, painting with red
would hardly have been so generally diffused in the lowest stages of
civilization if the red coloring material had not been everywhere so
easily and so abundantly procurable. Probably the first red with which
the primitive man painted himself was nothing else than the blood of the
wild beast or the enemy he had slain. At present most of the decoration
is done with a red ochre, which is very abundant nearly everywhere, and
is commonly obtained through exchange by those tribes in whose territory
it is wanting."[4]
The difficulty found in this means of decoration is that it is not
lasting. However skillfully the savage covers himself with solid
coloring or design, a short time only and his labor is effaced. To
overcome this trouble, tattooing was devised. By this means the color
was placed beneath the skin and thus not subject to change. Very
elaborate patterns were sometimes worked out and the man so ornamented
was far more attractive in the eyes of his fellowmen.
Next to the personal adornment of primitive peoples comes the decoration
of their weapons and implements and the patterns in their handicrafts,
such as basketry and mattings. Generally speaking those are in imitation
of nature, and more, imitation of human and animal forms. Heretofore it
has not been unusual to dismiss these as merely geometrical designs.
Surely they were never such in the mind of the ancient worker. He copied
things that he saw around him--copied them awkwardly no doubt, but
nevertheless certainly. Some of these patterns we can recognize; others
defy us. For example, the waving line has been interpreted to represent
the course of the serpent; the herring bone pattern originated as a
copy of the feather. Sometimes the patterns copy the skin markings of
some animal or serpent; sometimes they imitate the scales of a fish.
Very seldom have these early artists attempted to copy plants or
flowers. Sometimes the bone knife bears an excellent drawing of a bird
or fish; occasionally the whole object has been given the form of some
living creature, as, for example, bone needle cases have come to us
which have the form of fish or birds. Shields, knives, bows and arrows,
and weapons of whatever sort often bore some picture, more or less
decorative. Such a picture upon an arrow enabled the savage to identify
as his game some animal that died some distance from where it was
wounded. Clubs and throw-sticks remain whereupon is scratched the
picture of some familiar animal--a kangaroo, a snake, or a fish. But the
pictures painted by primeval man were not limited to those which adorned
their weapons and implements. The _hide_ pictures, or pictures painted
or scratched upon hides are very interesting. Generally the hide used
for this purpose was a portion of the hut. During times when inclement
weather forced the early tribesman to remain inside for shelter, it may
be, merely for diversion he occupied himself by scratching some picture
upon the soot-covered skin that formed his hut. A tooth or bit of flint
furnished him with a tool. Or again, a piece of charcoal, snatched from
the hearth, furnished him means of picturing some scene upon a fresh
skin. Figures of men and animals, drawn in outline, make up the picture.
Now a battle, now a hunting scene may be delineated. The Eskimo brings
into his picture some of the round snow huts, with the animals which he
hunts--bears, walruses, and the like. In detail and accuracy of outline
the tribes still in the hunting stage greatly excel those which have
developed into a settled farming people. Nor is this difficult to
understand. The success of the hunter depends in no small degree upon
his ability to follow the faint foot-prints of the game. He must be
susceptible to many indications wholly unseen by the casual eye. The
keen vision of the uncivilized hunter is well recognized. When he no
longer needs this wonderful sight to accomplish his daily tasks, it
disappears. For this reason we find a fidelity to nature in the pictures
of the early hunting peoples which is missed in the productions of more
highly developed peoples.
Finally we may gather these conclusions from the facts known of
primitive art--or of art among primitive peoples. While no great
masterpieces remain as models for future generations, it is among
prehistoric men that art had its beginnings. Nor is it possible to sweep
aside the art of this remote period, relegating it to the realm of the
curious alone. Recent scholarly investigators in this field have reached
far different conclusions, finding here the indications of man's
artistic possibilities and the promise for the future.
"The agreement between the artistic works of the rudest and of the most
cultivated peoples is not only in breadth but also in depth. Strange and
inartistic as the primitive forms of art sometimes appear at the first
sight, as soon as we examine them more closely, we find that they are
formed according to the same laws as govern the highest creations of
art.... The emotions represented in primitive art are narrow and rude,
its materials are scanty, its forms are poor and coarse, but in its
essential motives, means, and aims, the art of the earliest times is at
one with the art of all times."[5]
RELIGION OF PREHISTORIC MEN.
We have found that men of earliest times had no belief in a future life.
They did not even bury their dead. The man of the Smooth Stone Age had
advanced greatly in this respect. He buried his dead with weapons and
implements which he imagined would be as useful in the next world as
they had proven during the earthly life. The question arises
consequently, how did the idea of a future existence, of a soul apart
from the body, have its origin among men? The answer is, through dreams
and visions. We understand today that dreams frequently result from
physical derangement. In early times, under the unwholesome conditions
that prevailed, men dreamed more constantly and vividly than they do
now. Having feasted immoderately, the man lay down to sleep. While he
slept, he dreamed--dreamed perchance of a hunt that seemed very real to
him. When he awakened, he related his experiences, but his companions
insisted that he had not been absent. He had to explain the matter in
some way, so he fancied that he was not one, but _two_, and that it was
his _other self_ that had been fortunate in the chase. Again, he would
dream of one of his dead relatives. Not understanding the stuff that
dreams are made of, or that dreams were less real than life, he inferred
that his dead relative had returned to him for the time being, and that
he still lived in some way. We can understand his condition the better
if we think of the child who has dreamed and has been either pleased or
terrified with his dream. The idea of another existence awakened,
ancestor worship was a natural result.
The early man who had developed a religious sense, worshipped two
different kinds of forces; the forces of nature, and his ancestors. The
savage bowed down to the stick that tripped him in the forest. He could
not understand how such a small object could possess power to throw him
and since it apparently did possess it, he worshipped it. The sun
brought light and warmth. By its presence man was benefited. Therefore,
primeval man worshipped the sun.
Ancestor worship was inspired by quite different motives. If it were
true that the dead lived on, then it must be possible for them to work
one's weal or woe. If the dead were cared for and ministered unto, they
would be appeased and would have no desire to bring trouble or
misfortune upon the survivor.
The taboo held an important place in early religious beliefs and
practices. A taboo is a prohibition laid upon some object or some
performance, with the superstitious idea that injury will follow if the
object be used or the performance done. Some of the tribes of Central
Australia, today in the Smooth Stone stage of development, hold the idea
that the meat of the emu may be eaten only by the elders of the tribe.
For women, therefore, there is a taboo on this meat, and its use by them
would be regarded as a great sacrilege. The early Hebrews had a similar
taboo, recorded in the earliest set of commandments preserved by them.
It was "Thou shalt not seethe the kid in its mother's milk." This does
not mean one of many foolish meanings worked into it, but rather that
the early Hebrews for some reason had placed this taboo on kid cooked in
milk. The use of beans was similarly tabooed by Pythagoras and forbidden
to his followers. A study of the taboo is interesting indeed.
The _totem_ was important to the primitive man. A totem is an animal or
species of animal from which a social circle derives its origin. One
clan owed its being to a black hawk, another to an eagle, and so on. No
one of a clan would kill its totem, or in other words, there was a taboo
placed upon the totem. Of course this taboo affected only the one clan.
Early religion consisted for the most part in certain observances--not
so much in formulated beliefs. To be sure, the primeval man believed
that harm would overtake him if he failed to perform certain ceremonies,
but it was the performance or the refraining from the performance that
was important.
Among the earliest people associated into tribes there were distinct
moral requirements. There were some people who were not to be killed,
except upon due provocation, while to kill those of other tribes brought
great glory. Again, it was not right to lie to those of one's own tribe,
but to others one might lie at all times. "An eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth," was the primitive way of viewing injury, and yet
when history sheds its light upon certain nations of antiquity, some of
them had already come into the transition state, where damages might be
given if satisfactory to the injured. The Babylonians afford an
excellent example of this condition.
CONCLUSION.
Each individual passes through many of the stages through which the race
has come. A child may pass in a week or a month through a stage covering
centuries in the development of the race, but nevertheless he
experiences it clearly for the time being. The savage personified
everything around him. If he struck himself against a tree, he was angry
with the tree that had hurt him, and he tried to hurt the tree in
revenge. The child today falls against a chair and hits the chair that
hurt him. Now just as the child by such experiences, scarcely noted by
others, realized far less by himself, comes into the clear vision of
manhood, so by similar experiences the whole race has come to its
present development. We are too prone to smile at the conceptions of the
primitive world, and, grown wise with the flight of centuries, cast
aside the beliefs of early ages when men adjusted themselves to life.
Let us reflect then upon the attainments of prehistoric man and attempt
to fathom how great a debt historic peoples owe him. In view of his
achievements, we must grant that by his efforts civilization was greatly
aided. The stepping stones on which he rose from abject savagery to
higher things stand out sharply in spite of absence of records and scant
remains. The rough pioneering had been done, in a great measure, and not
alone the rudiments of civilization but evidences of culture were
plainly visible at the dawn of history, properly so-called.
[Illustration: ABORIGINAL ROCK-CARVINGS.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Starr: Some First Steps in Human Progress, p. 28.
[2] Starr: Some First Steps in Human Progress, p. 151.
[3] Starr: Some First Steps in Human Progress, p. 80.
[4] The Beginnings of Art, Grosse, p. 61.
[5] The Beginnings of Art, Grosse, p. 307.
* * * * *
[Illustration]
EGYPTIAN AFTERGLOW.
"'Tis sunset hour on Egypt's arid plains.
Each mighty pyramid, with purpling crest,
Looms dark against the glory in the west.
Swiftly the heaven's beauty dies and wanes,
Till sudden darkness its rich splendor stains.
Then slowly, dawn-like, on the shadows rest
Faint crimsons, violets, tint to tint soft pressed;
They brighten, glow, then fade and darkness reigns."
P. F. CAMP.
EGYPT
PREFATORY CHAPTER
There never was a time when men were so intensely interested in origins
and development as they are today. Our biologists are studying life in
all its forms, from the single cell to the highest mammal. Our
psychologists are studying mind--what consciousness is; how attention,
habit, memory are formed. Our physicists, not content with studying
gravitation, heat, light, electricity, etc., are inquiring into the very
nature of matter itself, and, together with the astronomers and
geologists, are telling us not only how the earth, but also how the
universe came to be. Our anthropologists, ethnologists and sociologists
are just as actively and patiently inquiring into the origins of
customs, institutions, law, religion, society. The historian is no
longer content to rehearse a story because it is interesting; he insists
upon getting at the original documents, at the facts in the case, not at
theories. The savage, when asked why he observes a certain custom or
performs some ceremony whose meaning he does not know, replies that his
ancestors did the same. To inquire beyond this seems to him more than
useless. Until the beginning of our modern scientific age the answer to
similar questions among ourselves--as it still is among the Chinese,
would have been, "it is written," "thus saith the Lord," "Aristotle,
Plato or St. Augustine thought so and so about the matter." But today
all is different. We are no longer content to know what is written, or
what somebody thinks about a subject, we insist upon demonstrating or
having some one demonstrate for us, the proposition put forward. We want
the "facts." Our whole system of education encourages pupils to perform
experiments and thus verify the statements they may find in their
text-books on chemistry, physics and other subjects. It is the
inductive method which gives the pupil the facts and encourages him to
draw his own conclusions.
But what has Egypt to offer the modern man? Does it interest any but
specialists and archaeologists? Apparently it does, for every year sees
an increase of tourists in the Nile valley. It is true many go there
because of the ideal climate or because it has become the fashion to do
so. But if we look at the matter more closely, do we not see other,
deeper reasons? Is it not true that many go because in their youth they
had read about the pyramids and the wonderful temples of Egypt, and
because now when they have the opportunity they desire to see these for
themselves? The architect, the engineer, the contractor, all are
interested in these masses of masonry. Again, when we are beginning to
reclaim the desert areas in our western states, Egypt with its system of
irrigation, older than history, arouses a new interest. The fact is that
in spite of our practical nature, as some would put it, or rather, as we
prefer to have it, because of our intensely practical nature, we are
beginning to feel the necessity of inquiring into the activities of
other peoples, be they past or present, not only because such inquiry
will satisfy our curiosity or enliven our dull moments, but because of
the lasting benefit we derive from it. We insist upon knowing the people
who have achieved, who have accomplished things, and surely the pyramids
alone would demonstrate that the ancient Egyptians belonged to this
class.
_Man attained to civilization for the first time in the Nile valley._ We
study the natives of Australia and Africa for social origins. It is here
we can gather most information about the primitive forms of marriage and
the growth of the family; about the beginnings of dress and ornament;
about primitive warfare, magic, religion and early forms of tribal
government. Just as we pay special attention to the development of the
mind of the child in the study of psychology, so we feel that the best
way to study the complex features of our civilization is to observe the
simpler life of the savage. But the child becomes a man while the savage
has not yet developed a civilization before our eyes. The growth of the
race is slow. It is only when we are able to observe a race through a
period of thousands of years that it is possible to see it grow from
infancy to manhood. We can follow our own ancestors from the time they
had advanced little beyond the stage of savagery, but it is to be
observed that they did not _develop_ but _borrowed_ their civilization.
Of the beginnings of the Greeks and Romans, whose civilization our
ancestors took over, we know but little, but in the case of the
Egyptians matters are different. We are able, by means of
archaeological, monumental and inscriptional remains to follow them as
they developed in the Nile valley, unassisted by any outside
civilization--for none existed, the world's first great civilized state.
"It may appear paradoxical to affirm that it is in arid districts, where
agriculture is most arduous, that agriculture began; yet the affirmation
is not to be gainsaid but rather supported by history, and is
established beyond reasonable doubt by the evidence of desert organisms
and organizations."[1] This lesson drawn from the life of the Papago
Indians might just as well have been drawn from Egyptian life. Egypt is
practically rainless, but the soil of the Nile valley, ever renewed by
the silt deposited by the yearly inundation, yields enormous returns
provided only man uses his energy and ingenuity. Long before our written
records begin the Egyptians had developed an extensive system of
irrigation. Thus by arduous toil, organized and watched over by the
growing state, Egypt developed an enormous agricultural wealth--the
foundation upon which her civilization was built. With Egypt it was not
a question of the "conservation" but of the development of her natural
resources. The Egyptian was forced to keep up a continuous struggle with
nature and as a result he was always practical. Egypt has been called
the mother of the mechanical arts. It is not surprising that the
imaginative Greeks, when they became acquainted with the material
civilization of Egypt, her pyramids and temples, her system of
irrigation, her craftsmanship, conceived an exaggerated opinion of the
wisdom of the Egyptians. Even today we hear surmises of "lost arts"
which were used in the construction of the pyramids. But we know better.
The pyramids were built by the brawn of tens of thousands of serfs,
without the use, it would seem, of even a pulley; not even the roller
seems to have been known. On the other hand, we have only to visit the
museums here and abroad--especially the one in Cairo, to realize the
marvellous skill the Egyptian workman acquired in the carving of wood,
ivory and stone, and in the working of metals. Our architects are
studying the products of the greatest geniuses Egyptian culture
produced, and our students of design may learn many a lesson from the
workmanship of her artisans.
Not long since it was not unusual to see ridicule heaped upon the
theories of the "high-brows" by our farmers, manufacturers and other
"practical" men. Probably our system of education _was_ at fault.
Nevertheless, these same farmers, manufacturers and other practical men
are beginning to realize the importance of the researches and
investigations of the specialists. We cannot hope to compete with the
industries of the Germans which rest upon a scientific basis, as long as
ours are conducted by "rule-of-thumb" methods. There is no better
opportunity offered anywhere for observing the limitations of an
exclusively practical system of education than the study of Egyptian
learning.
The Egyptian regarded learning as a means to an end, and that end was
never the increase of the sum of human knowledge or the advancement of
humankind, but always freedom from manual labor. Next to a few folk
songs, preserved in the decorations of Fifth Dynasty tombs--by mere
accident, for a scribe would never have thought of preserving them, the
oldest literature of the Egyptians which has come down to us consists of
the precepts of Kagemni and Ptah-hotep.[2] This wisdom of the viziers of
the Pharaohs of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties, is similar to that of
the books of instruction from all periods of Egyptian history, and
consists largely of rules of conduct. The sole object of an education
was to obtain a position as scribe or secretary of higher or lower rank
in the government service, and this could only be done by gaining and
keeping the favor of the Pharaoh or of one of his officials. These
scribes never weary of telling of the superiority of their calling over
that of the man who must labor with his hands, who is like a heavily
laden ass driven by the scribes. Of course we too recognize the gulf
fixed between the educated and the unlettered, but we try to bridge it.
It is not probable that many of the laboring classes knew more than the
barest elements of reading and writing. The Egyptian script was
exceedingly cumbrous, and probably few would have seen any use in
mastering it, even if they had had the time, unless they intended to
enter upon a scribal career. Of course many such careers were open, for
the elaborate bureaucratic system of administration demanded the
services of a host of secretaries and overseers. In time these
constituted a distinct middle class, largely recruited, we may be sure,
from the laboring class below. The Egyptian was always ready to
recognize and reward ability, no matter where it was found. Now a word
about the limitations of such a view of education. As already indicated,
the object of an education was to gain a government position. In Egypt,
as elsewhere, the chief end of government, in the eyes of the officials
at least, was the collection of revenues. Taxes were in kind and as a
result the work of the scribe consisted in finding out the amount of the
harvest and deducting the king's share. The extensive mining and
building operations conducted by the Pharaohs required the services of
hundreds of scribes and overseers to superintend the work and distribute
the rations of the armies of workmen employed in these projects. In this
work the scribe developed a remarkable facility with figures. But he
never advanced beyond concrete examples. Multiplication and division in
our sense of the terms were unknown to him, their places were taken by
addition and subtraction. For example: to multiply seven by nine, the
Egyptian scribe would proceed, 1·7=7, 2·7=14, 2·14=28, 2·28=56, etc.
That is he always doubled the last figure. It was nothing but addition.
He wrote his results as follows:
1 7
2 14
4 28
8 56
16 112
and then found which of the numbers of the first column added together
would give the sum 9. These were 8 and 1. He then added the
corresponding numbers in the second column and got the result, 56+7=63.
So 50÷7 would have looked like this: 50-28=22; 22-14=8; 8-7=1. The
result was (4+2+1) sevens with 1 as remainder. The Egyptian scribe
could not handle fractions other than those with one as numerator.
Two-thirds was the only exception. The Egyptian knew that the area of a
rectangle was to be found by multiplying the two adjacent sides
together, and that the area of a right angled triangle was equal to half
the area of a rectangle whose base and altitude were equal respectively
to the sides adjacent to the right angle. When his problem was to find
the area of an isosceles triangle he applied the same rule, that is,
multiplied the base by one of the sides and divided by two. Here theory
might have helped him, had he been able to develop it. He never reached
the conception of base and altitude. His rule for finding the area of a
circle is worth mentioning. He took the diameter, subtracted one-ninth
of it therefrom, and squared the result. In a word, he had not come far
from the correct value of [Greek: pi]. But the Egyptian always dealt
with concrete examples, he never was able to generalize and carry his
mathematics into the theoretical. As a result he never attained
scientific accuracy. Not that he did not set himself difficult problems.
Indeed many of them are so complicated that they required an immense
amount of reckoning, by his methods, to solve. Without giving his
solution, let me add one more of his problems: "A man owns 7 cats; each
cat eats 7 mice daily; each mouse eats 7 ears of grain; each ear
contains 7 grains; each grain gives a sevenfold return in the harvest.
What is the sum of the cats, mice, ears and grains?"
The Egyptians observed the stars. They had names for all of the
principal constellations; knew the circumpolar stars from those which at
times disappeared below the horizon, but they never seem to have noticed
the difference between fixed stars and planets. They invented a calendar
with a year of 365 days as early as 4241 B.C. This was based upon the
heliacal rising of Sirius (Sothis) coincident with the beginning of the
inundation. But they never discovered, or if they did, never bothered
about the fact that their year was one-fourth of a day too short. They
were deeply interested in medicine, and their recipes prescribe
everything that can be swallowed. Many of these were borrowed by the
Greeks and from them have come down into the folk-medicine of modern
Europe. No doubt many of their remedies were helpful, but magic always
played the most important rôle in their medicine, as it does among all
primitive peoples and as it did in our own until the beginning of our
modern scientific age.
The progress made by the Egyptians in the development of a purer
conception of religion will be discussed at length in the body of this
volume, especially on pages 131 and following. The Egyptians were not
far from monotheism.
But the Egyptian culture must be studied as a whole. Time was when the
study of the civilization of Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria, together with
that of the Hebrews, was regarded as a sort of introduction to the study
of history, which began with the Greeks and Romans. Much was said of the
immovable East. It was supposed that progress was exceedingly slow there
as compared with that in the West. But our wider knowledge of the
history and life of these peoples shows how false this conception was.
We can trace Egyptian civilization from its beginnings in the
palaeolithic and neolithic ages; see it develop from many petty states
into an absolute monarchy; follow it as it emerges after a period of
anarchy into a Feudal Age, and as it rises after two centuries of
foreign oppression into a mighty empire pushing its southern frontier
away into Nubia and its northern one to the Euphrates. Meanwhile we are
not neglecting to study the economic and intellectual forces at work.
Society has been developing steadily. A monotheistic religion has been
growing up. But Egypt has reached her zenith and the age of decline sets
in. In time she falls before foreign invasion, because she has used up
her vitality. Her civilization is not to be studied as a preliminary to
anything else, but as the achievement of a gifted race. Of course we are
to compare her progress with that of other peoples, to see the faults
of, but also to appreciate the good in, her culture.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] W. J. McGee, "The Beginning of Agriculture," American
Anthropologist, 8, 375.
[2] See page 164.
EGYPT.
[Illustration: THE SPIRAL DECORATION OF SCARABS.]
CHAPTER I.
ITS ANTIQUITY.
Among Old Testament stories familiar throughout the Christian World, a
general favorite with boys and girls from their earliest years is the
story of Joseph--a seventeen year old lad, the son of his father's later
life, and most loved of all his children. In Genesis we may read how his
brothers became jealous of Joseph because of Jacob's care for him, and
their anger increased when the boy related a dream wherein he had seen
himself exalted to high position while his family and all the world did
honor to him.
His people led a pastoral life, and when the dry season came, the older
brothers went away with the flocks in search of fresh pastures. Soon the
father grew anxious to hear from them, and sent Joseph to locate them
and then return to tell him how they fared. After some searching, Joseph
drew near the flocks and was seen afar by his brothers. They were now
many miles from home, and what they might do was not likely to reach the
ears of those who knew them. So they plotted to kill Joseph and ascribe
the deed to some wild beast. Reuben, more compassionate, urged that they
should not have this awful crime upon their hands, but suggested instead
that they cast him into a pit, from which plight, we are told, Reuben
intended to deliver him. The others yielded to his plea, and Joseph was
cast into the pit. Shortly after, a caravan came in sight, passing on
its way to Egypt. At once a surer way of disposing of Joseph suggested
itself--they would sell him as a slave and free themselves from further
responsibility in the matter. The company of merchantmen drew nearer,
journeying with their spices and their wares. To them Joseph was sold,
and with them he "went down into Egypt."
His varying fortune for the next few years is briefly told. Now we see
him a trusted servant, given responsibility and acquitting himself with
credit; then upon false accusation, he is cast into prison, but even
here he wins the confidence of his jailer. Here too, he establishes a
fame for the interpretation of dreams, which ability is soon noised
abroad. So widely did it become known that when the king's counsellors
were unable to explain his repeated vision, from prison walls Joseph was
summoned to reveal its hidden meaning. He thereupon foretold the seven
years of plenty and the seven years of famine through which the land of
Egypt would soon pass. The king, impressed with his wisdom and
sincerity, chose him steward of the realm.
All know the outcome of the tale--how Joseph soon became second in
importance to the king himself, trusted, depended upon and loved; how he
bought up the heavy yield of grain throughout the realm for seven years
and hoarded it in "store cities," until he ceased to chronicle the
amount, so vast it was. Then when the years of famine came, he sold
again to those who would buy, and when their money was exhausted, he
took their flocks, their lands and their slaves as security--yes, even
the service of citizens was pledged to the king in exchange for food.
It was during these tedious years of want that Joseph learned of his
family, when the same brothers who had done him so much injury came into
Egypt to buy grain, and through his generosity they were united once
more, and at his invitation brought their families to dwell near him.
The king commanded that they be well provided for and they prospered and
increased in number.
Years passed and Jacob died, and at last Joseph himself. Then we are
told there came to the throne a king "who knew not Joseph." He looked
with dismay upon a foreign people growing up within his country, whose
traditions, customs, and religious beliefs were wholly unlike those of
his own nation. Then followed the years of oppression when he sought to
exterminate the race with relentless work and cruel persecution. Within
recent years, one of the "store cities," supposed by some scholars to
have been built by the Hebrews during this period of their life in
Egypt, has been unearthed--verifying the account of their bondage as
preserved to us in the book of Genesis.
It is difficult for us to realize the vast antiquity of Egypt. When
Joseph as a seventeen year old boy came with that band of merchantmen
into its borders more years had passed over its civilization than have
passed since Homer told his stories of gods and heroes to the Hellenes
who gathered around to hear him. The three great pyramids had stood in
their majestic calm under more moons than have risen and set since
Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea; and the Sphinx had watched, for
how many years men cannot tell. When we come to the land of Egypt, we
are appalled by its age. America was discovered about five hundred years
ago; England has been inhabited for more than twenty hundred years, but
Egypt counts its history back for thousands of years and loses itself in
tradition and legendary periods preceding these. The story of Joseph,
told in Genesis, the book of earliest Biblical tradition, records an
incident early in the history of the Hebrews, but the Egyptians had
already been governed by many ruling dynasties and had known the
oppression of invading kings whom they had at last driven from the
throne. They had built colossal structures which were to perpetuate the
memories of their mighty kings as well as to provide their everlasting
tombs, and these stand today the marvel of all who gaze upon their vast
proportions. They had developed a complex religious system, and had
reached some perfection in decorative art. Egypt had long been the
granary of the civilized world and consequently of great importance from
an economic standpoint. The Nile, that wonderful river which caused
Herodotus to exclaim: "Egypt is the gift of the Nile!"--a sentiment
quoted ever since by all who have written about the country or the
river--had cut down its river bed and had already built up a rich soil
in the valley by its deposits, left by the overflow of countless
seasons.
We look today upon the cathedrals of Europe, standing as they have since
the Norman conquest, even, in some instances antedating it, and we
exclaim that the builders of these impressive edifices built for ages to
come. Yet in Egypt the pyramids have stood for almost five thousand
years, and it is safe to say that they will proclaim to many
millenniums more, the wealth and power of the Pharaohs who raised them
for their everlasting abodes. Hundreds of years dwindle in the
contemplation of thousands, and these are ever before the student of
Egyptian history.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF EGYPT.
Egypt is located in the northeastern corner of Africa. To the east lies
the Isthmus of Suez--the pathway to Asia, and the Red Sea--separated by
a range of mountains from the Valley of the Nile. To the south lies
Nubia, and to the west stretches away for hundreds of weary miles the
Sahara, the old bed of an extinct ocean.
Egypt is by no means the country it is sometimes represented to be on
geographical maps. That Egypt someone has called a "geographical
fiction." On the contrary, it has always consisted simply of the Nile
valley and delta. It is about one-half as large again as the state of
Massachusetts, containing approximately 12,000 square miles.
The Nile is unlike any river of our land. It takes its rise in a chain
of lakes near the Equator. These lakes lie in a heavy rain belt and at a
certain season the rainfall is so constant that the river is greatly
swollen. It is joined by tributaries which in turn are overflowing with
the melting snows of mountains wherein they take their rise, and
altogether the main river continues so to increase that it overflows its
channel and spreads out into the valley on either side.
In America we know how disastrous spring floods frequently become, but
here the overflow is violent, tearing down bridges and embankments,
bringing injury rather than benefit to the land. In Egypt the rise of
the Nile is gradual; dwellings are built on elevations of land or on the
outskirts of the valley.
Without the yearly inundation there would be no food to maintain the
dense population of the country.
During the period of high water the Nile is heavily loaded with mud.
When the river recedes, this fertile silt is left upon the surface of
the land. This, and this alone, has made the land of Egypt different
from the deserts on either side of it. And now we see how truly
Herodotus spoke when he exclaimed that Egypt is the gift of the Nile.
Containing about the same number of miles as our state of Maryland, for
numberless years this little country has been the granary for
surrounding lands. Thus may we judge of its remarkable fertility.
Much of the loam which the river has brought down has been spread over
the valley, but a considerable amount has been emptied each year at the
mouth of the stream, forming in course of time a _delta_,--so called by
the Greeks from its resemblance to their letter _delta_. Because of its
long threading valley and this delta, Egypt has sometimes been likened
to a lily; the delta representing the flower and the valley the stem.
After flowing four thousand miles, the waters of the Nile find their way
at last to the Mediterranean Sea, and towards this sea the land
gradually slopes. Passing southward through Egypt from the
Mediterranean, one journeys more than a hundred miles through the delta.
This great plain has been formed entirely of the mud washed down by the
mighty river. Each year for countless ages it has been extended at least
eight feet farther into the sea, and thus its area continues to
increase. This portion of the country, or this delta, is frequently
referred to as Lower Egypt.
Continuing south, one enters the valley. This narrow strip of fertile
land measures about six hundred miles from the apex, or southern
extremity of the delta, to the first cataract. The bed of the Nile is
very irregular in its upper course and falls over ten cataracts in its
downward flow before the southern boundary of Upper Egypt is reached. In
width the valley varies from one to ten miles. This portion of the
country is known as Upper Egypt.
Imagine, if you can, a river flowing through a valley skirted on either
side by deserts whose boundaries are so abruptly marked that one may
stand with one foot in the fertile, life-producing valley, and with the
other in the shifting sands of desert waste. On the east lies the
Arabian desert, while the many colored peaks of a lofty mountain range
form a well nigh impassable barrier between it and the Red Sea, save
where famous mountain passes lead to the waters beyond.
Nubian mountains, to the south, supplied most of the gold and precious
ore used by the ancient Egyptians, and were held in greatest dread by
those taken in captivity, for the work within them was relentless and
none ever returned when once sent to join the hopeless, heartsick throng
of laborers employed by the king to develop the mines.
The Sahara west of the valley is not a flat region, but is made up of
shifting sands, hills and rocks of limestone. It is plain that the
Valley of the Nile was once a part of this desert, but the river, with
its tremendous volume, set to work to cut down its bed. The channel, so
worn down, is the present valley. "Egypt is the temporarily uncovered
bed of the Nile, which it reclaims and recovers during a portion of each
year, when Egypt disappears from view, save where human labor has by
mounds and embankments formed artificial islands that raise their heads
above the waste of waters, for the most part crowned with buildings."[1]
It is plain, as we note the nature of the land through which the great
river flows, that no rich soil would be accumulated from the banks it
washes in its downward course. We must look to the high tablelands where
the two large tributaries, the Blue Nile and the Atbara, have their
beginnings, to find the mountain loam that has given the valley a
fertile soil, thirty feet in depth, and has built up the grain-producing
delta, one hundred miles in length and more in breadth. Again and again
we are forced to remember that Egypt is indeed the gift of the Nile.
YEARLY RISE OF THE NILE.
This brings us back once more to the subject of the inundations. Early
in June the Nile begins to rise below the first cataract. In July it has
become swollen throughout its course.
The highest water mark is reached about September fifteenth. By the
first of November the river begins to recede and is at low water again
by the last of January, although it continues to diminish until the
following June.
Nilometers are used to register the river's rise. These are wells in
which the water can fluctuate freely, with a stone column in the center
marked as a scale. The _ell_ is the unit of measure, being equal to
about twenty-one and one-third inches. At low water the river registers
about seven ells. If during the inundation sixteen ells are reached, all
Egypt is supplied with water and fine crops are assured throughout the
land.
NILOMETERS.
From earliest times the rise of the Nile was closely watched, and
nilometers, which were under the special protection of the State,
constructed. Today these water gauges are under the inspection of
government officials. Taxes have always been apportioned according to
the amount of the inundation, and it has been to the interest of the
government, naturally, that these be as heavy as possible. For this
reason it has often been claimed, both in ancient and modern times, that
the official report of the high water mark greatly exceeded the actual
rise.
There is no rainfall in the valley and little in the delta, so whatever
moisture Egypt receives must come from the Nile. The entire valley is
not of equal elevation but becomes higher as it spreads out on either
side, and so a vast system of irrigation must be maintained to make good
crops possible. Large sums have been expended in the construction of
dams, embankments and canals to contain the water after the river
recedes, allowing the amount thus retained to be drawn off as it is
needed. From canals it is drawn off into trenches for still higher land,
and artificial means of various kinds have always been employed to lift
the water from one level to another. It is estimated that tens of
thousands of men and boys are constantly engaged in this elevation of
water from one level to another, in order that farms throughout the
valley may receive the necessary moisture and fertility. As rapidly as
one crop is harvested, the soil is made ready for another, so that as
many as five crops are frequently harvested in a year on a given
acreage.
INFLUENCE OF TOPOGRAPHY.
With a sea on the north, mountains on the east, cataracts to the south
and a desert on the west, what would be the natural effect upon the
inhabitants of physical conditions such as these prevailing in the land
of Egypt? They determined that the Egyptians would be left to develop
their civilization unmolested for the most part by outside influences.
Such physical features account for the fact that for hundreds of years
that was a land, not of war, but of peace. Think for a moment what
natural boundaries have meant to nations of Europe. England's isolation
has been largely due to her stormy channel, while the independence of
the Swiss is accounted for by their inaccessible mountain home. Austria,
on the other hand, has known the disastrous effects of repeated
invasions, while Poland has lost her identity and has been appropriated
by her neighbors because of unfortunate situation and the lack of
natural defenses.
Not only did the topography of the land surface determine the political
fortunes of the ancient Egyptians in a large degree; it materially
influenced the very temperament of the people. Many civilizations have
developed in lands broken by hills and valleys, plains and plateaus,
dotted with lakes, skirted by forests, bays, inlets and a thousand
irregularities of nature. Few trees grow in Egypt and few wild flowers
are found. Each spot that might have become a tangled thicket was early
appropriated by the practical tiller of the soil. The valley has always
supported too dense a population to permit of wilds and abandoned
corners, and only that remains uncultivated which has proved too marshy
for grain production. Possessing no timber suitable for ship-building,
the Nile dwellers did not become sailors. Their communication from one
part of the country to the other was established by means of small boats
or donkey paths. Rain was scanty and mud huts sufficed to shelter the
people. While constant attention was required to maintain an extensive
system of irrigation, the soil was so fertile and the climate so
favorable that two, three and even more crops per year were possible.
Nature worked with--not against--man. "A serene temper, and a reliance
in nature were fostered. A submissiveness was developed which allowed
the king to turn all into a fighting people, or into a body of forced
laborers." The absence of nearly all that inspires, that stimulates the
energy and quickens the imagination may largely account for the placid
temperament of the ancient Egyptians. Passing their lives in a land of
slightly varying processes, they could imagine nothing more
satisfactory for a hereafter than a shadowy land wherein they might till
the soil as of yore, only water should always reach the needs of the
remotest, and perplexities removed, each should complete his yearly
circuit through eternity.
PREHISTORIC EGYPT.
Long before northern Africa acquired its present land surface, made up
so largely of deserts, it is believed that the portion which we call
Egypt was a fertile country, visited by frequent rains. It is possible
that the Nile did not exist; at least, it had not eroded its present
channel, and the fertility of the soil was due to causes other than
yearly inundations. This, we must remember, was many geological ages ago
and cannot be computed in years at all. Remains of rude flint implements
are scattered over the heights of the desert plateau to the west of the
Nile valley. The people who used these lived in settlements, traces of
many of which have been found; but of their relation to the later
inhabitants of Egypt we know nothing. They belong to the field of
archaeology rather than to history.
Climatic changes took place in Africa. Gradually the country assumed its
present surface of desert and valley. It is supposed that Libyan tribes
came from northwestern Africa and settled in Egypt; these were joined
later by Asiatic hordes who crossed the Isthmus of Suez in search of
better pastures for their flocks, or because of some shifting of the
tribes in their rear. This inference, based upon the Semitic elements in
the grammar and vocabulary of the language of the earliest Egyptian
inscriptions, has been raised almost beyond doubt by the latest
researches. From the mingling of these Asiatic tribes with others
already established in western Africa, sprang, so it is believed, the
early Egyptians. The Egyptians, however, like the ancient Greeks,
regarded themselves as autochthonous.
Roughly speaking, prehistoric events in Egypt include all those
preceding the year 4000 B.C., and our knowledge of them has been
gathered from the disclosures of excavated tombs. While a discussion of
the Egyptian religion will be taken up later on, some slight knowledge
of it is necessary at the start.
The Egyptian of both early and later periods believed firmly in a future
life, but he believed further that the future welfare of the soul
depended wholly upon the preservation of the body. This belief led him
to study how best to preserve the dead body, and to bring embalming to
such an art that tombs opened today, after the flight of five thousand
years, reveal bodies in complete states of preservation. Again, it was
believed that the same needs would be felt in the future life as had
been experienced during the earthly career. For this reason, foods,
vessels of pottery, weapons, and even toilet preparations for personal
adornment, were enclosed in the tomb. From a study of the contents of
these ancient tombs most that is at present known of the ancient
Egyptian has been ascertained.
When many implements furnished with ivory handles are found in these
tombs, together with occasional pictures of elephants scratched on bone
and bits of pottery, even those of us who are neither antiquarians nor
historians might infer that the elephant was contemporaneous with the
prehistoric Egyptian. Pictures of boats, of animals and men, decorating
pieces of pottery, throw light upon this early civilization.
From all remains recovered in tombs antedating the year 4000 B.C. the
following conclusions have been reached: these primitive people reached
considerable skill in the making of pottery and stone receptacles. From
copper they made knives and implements; they built very fair river
boats, wove coarse fabrics, although skins of wild animals usually
constituted their clothing: they hunted and fished and were to some
extent an agricultural people. At this remote time Egypt was not the one
united country it later became. It was composed of nomes, or districts,
of which the late lists give 22 for Upper and 20 for Lower Egypt. Their
number probably varied considerably during the course of Egyptian
history. In early times each nome probably had been the home of an
independent tribe, having its own chief and its own religious customs.
Gradually, however, powerful chieftains conquered other nomes, until
just before our written records begin, the two more or less compact
kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were established. Throughout Egyptian
history each locality held to its peculiar religious beliefs, and
although there was always a state religion and a state god, dearer to
the hearts of men were the deities of their own vicinity; and it is
possible to trace several religions in the one composite system of later
years.
By 4300 B.C. the men of the Delta had divided the year into 365 days,
and again into twelve months of thirty days each, with five extra days
for sacred festival. For six thousand years, then, the calendar which we
use has experienced little change. Take it all in all, the Egyptians of
this age had traveled far from the state of savagery.
[Illustration: ROYAL CROWNS.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Rawlinson; Ancient Egypt, p. 6.
[Illustration: CLEOPATRA.]
CHAPTER II.
SOURCES OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY.
The study of prehistoric man is largely a matter of conjecture and has
little interest for any save the archaeologist and antiquarian. There is
yet so much uncertainty regarding historic periods in Egypt that the
general reader must leave prehistoric ages to others. Reaching authentic
ages, in addition to the remains discovered within old tombs, we are
aided by written records, and these fall into three classes: facts
regarding Egypt as recounted in the Old Testament; writings of the
Greeks; inscriptions of the ancient Egyptians themselves. The light
thrown upon the subject by old Hebrew writers is slight. They chronicled
the history of their own people and mentioned other nations only when in
some way the Hebrews came into contact with them. Hebrew traditions,
customs, and religion differing wholly from those of Egypt, at best
there would have been but little understanding between them. Biblical
comment upon Egyptian life is slight. In connection with the story of
Joseph we find that some facts concerning the land unwittingly creep
into the narrative. Modern discovery has verified such facts as are
recounted, and buried and forgotten cities have been sought and located
from mere mention of them in some Old Testament passage. Thus the Bible
is rightly included with the sources of Egyptian history.
So far as treatment of Egypt by Greek writers is concerned, we can stop
for only the most important. Best known are the works of Herodotus, who
lived about five hundred years before the Christian era. He was the
first to bring forward the historical style of writing and for this
reason he has been called the Father of History.
Herodotus journeyed to Egypt and abode there some little time. He did
not understand the language of the country and depended largely upon
priests who spoke Greek for his information. He apparently believed all
they told him, and likewise accepted the tales with which his guides
entertained him, incorporating all their marvelous stories into his
writings. Consequently much that is found in his works cannot be
credited. Whatever he himself saw and understood he recounted with
simplicity and truth, as recent discoveries have proved. It is easy
today to point out the failings of Herodotus and to wonder that he was
so ready to credit all he heard, but judged by the age in which he
lived, his writings may be the better understood. We are told that
portions of his works were read by him at the Olympian Games, and that
those who listened received his stories with enthusiasm. To the
imaginative Greeks no report was too fanciful to find credence. They
delighted in the unusual and strange, and they made up the audiences for
which Herodotus wrote. It is not surprising, then, that the Father of
History brought back to his countrymen the unique stories he heard
concerning the Egyptians--a people whose life and customs were thought
by foreigners until long years after, to be deeply shrouded in mystery.
More valuable has proved the work of Manetho, an Egyptian priest who
wrote in Greek. He is said to have made a complete list of Egyptian
kings from records preserved in the temples. This list has been lost and
only portions quoted from time to time by later writers have come down
to us. These fragments have been of much service to students of
Egyptology. It was Manetho who divided the history of his country into
three periods: the Old Empire, Middle Empire, and New Empire. He also
treated the past by dynasties rather than years. These general divisions
have been retained by all subsequent historians. Those who are not
specialists in Egyptology are apt to be confused by the widely divergent
systems of chronology found in the different histories of Egypt, or they
reach the conclusion that all is uncertainty in this field. This is not
the place to enter into a discussion of this difficult technical
problem. Suffice it to say that in the opinion of the best scholars,
Eduard Meyer, the great historian of the Ancient Orient, has said the
last word on this subject. Contrary opinions notwithstanding, the
accession of Menes and the beginning of the dynasties cannot be placed
before 3400 B.C., nor can the beginning of the twelfth dynasty have been
earlier than 2000 B.C.*
Coming lastly to monumental inscriptions, we approach the difficulties
of the Egyptian language. Let us try to understand why it proved so
difficult for scholars who read Hebrew, Greek and Latin, together with
some older tongues, to comprehend the language of the Nile dwellers.
In prehistoric times the Egyptians understood one another but it was
long before they had any means of expressing their thoughts in writing.
It may have occurred to them finally that the pictures which they drew
for decorative purposes might be used to convey messages, and thus they
began to express simple meanings, using pictures rather than symbols.
Sometimes to make doubly sure the meaning of several pictures, they
added another which combined the meaning of all into one. These added
pictures have been called determinitives, and the pictures used to
convey meanings in this way are known as hieroglyphics. There was
something very attractive and decorative about this method of writing by
thus picturing out stories, and it was used extensively in tombs and
temples. It became too elaborate, however, for daily use, and gradually
only the _main outlines_ of the original pictures were used to represent
the idea or word. This system of writing was more practical for
constant, everyday needs than the more ornamental hieroglyphics. It is
known as the hieratic writing. Finally, late in the history of Egypt,
these hieratics were very much abbreviated, mere dots and lines being
substituted. This cursory system is known as _demotic_ writing. It was
adopted by the people generally, and might perhaps be compared to modern
shorthand. To make the whole more complicated still, all three methods
were used for different purposes contemporaneously.
Hundreds of years passed; the language of the ancient Egyptians was
forgotten and so, indeed, were the people themselves. In modern times
the learning of ancient peoples was revived and their writings eagerly
read. Quite naturally students wished to know something of the earliest
civilizations, particularly of the civilization of the Nile valley. Here
they were confronted by what seemed baffling indeed. Three forms of
writing used contemporaneously, even interchangeably, defied all effort
to decipher them. Attempts were made to explain certain inscriptions,
but these explanations were found later to have been far astray. In
1799, one of Napoleon's soldiers, while excavating in the mouth of the
Rosetta, came upon a stone which bore a royal decree written in three
ways: in hieroglyphics, in demotic and in Greek. This supplied a key at
last, and scholars set themselves to the task of deciphering ancient
Egyptian writings. Other inscriptions written in two or more languages
were found and verified the conclusions reached earlier in the
translation of the Rosetta Stone.
In recent years a large number of inscriptions from tombs and temples
have been read and many rolls of papyrus have been translated. This has
enabled historians to read back, step by step, into far away ages, and
to carry the thread of Egyptian civilization to its beginnings. Maspero,
Eduard Meyer, Breasted, Petrie and other painstaking students of
Egyptology have given their lives to the task of unraveling the past,
both by deciphering inscriptions and unearthing forgotten cities. From
the tireless efforts of men like these, tombs hidden for centuries have
been recovered, temples and colonnades laid bare of drifting sands,
inscriptions transcribed and translated, and volumes of scholarly
material written for the special student, while at the same time the
general reader may find much of interest concerning the life of a
remarkable people whose works have borne testimony through the ages.
HERODOTUS.
The following lines are taken from the pages of Herodotus wherein he
relates what he saw and heard when he visited Egypt nearly twenty-five
hundred years ago.
"There is no country in all the whole world that hath in it more
marvelous things or greater works of buildings and the like than hath
the land of Egypt. And as the heavens in this land are such as other men
know not--for in the upper parts there falls not rain but once in a
thousand years or more, and in the lower parts not often--and the river
is different from all other rivers in the earth, seeing that it
overflows in the summer and is at its least in the winter, so also do
the manners of the Egyptians differ from the manners of all other men.
For among them the women buy and sell in the market but the men sit at
home and spin. And even in this matter of spinning they do not as
others, for others push the shuttle in the loom from below upward, but
these men push it from above downward. Also the men carry burdens on
their heads, but the women carry them on their shoulders. And the women
pray to none, neither god or goddess, but the men pray to all. And there
is no duty laid on a son to succor father or mother, if it be not his
pleasure to do it, but on a daughter there is laid, whether she will or
no.
"In the matter of mourning for the dead, these folks have a strange
custom, for they let grow the hair upon the head and chin when they
mourn, but are shaven at other times. And whereas other men hold
themselves better than the beasts, the Egyptians have these in great
honor, keeping them in their houses, aye, and worshipping them. Nor do
they eat the food of other men, holding it a shame to be fed on wheat
and barley which others use, and eating the grain of millet only; and
the dough that is made of it this they knead, trampling it with their
feet; but mud and like things they are wont to take up with their
hands....
"Now as to the beasts and the honor in which the Egyptians hold them,
there are many strange things to be told. The crocodile some of the
Egyptians hold to be sacred, but not all. And in every city where they
hold it, as in Thebes and in the cities round the lake Moeris, they keep
one crocodile to which they do special honor. This they train to be tame
to the hand, and they put earrings of glass and gold into his ears, and
bracelets on his forefeet, and give it a portion of food day by day, and
make offerings to it, and when it dies they embalm it and bury it in the
sacred sepulchres. But the people that dwell in the city of Elphantine
count them not to be sacred at all, but slay and eat them....
"The cat the Egyptians hold in great honor. Of this beast there is a
very marvelous thing to be told. When it chanceth that a house is
burning a strange madness cometh upon the cats, for they are very
desirous to leap into the fire. And the Egyptians set guards round the
place if by any means they may keep the cats from their purpose; nor do
they care to quench the fire, if so be that they may do this; but the
cats nevertheless, making their way through them, or leaping over them,
have their will and so perish. Over this the Egyptians make great
lamentation. If a cat die in the course of nature, all that are in that
house shave their eyebrows only, but all dwellers in a house where a dog
dies shave their heads and whole bodies. The cats, when they are dead,
they carry away for burial to the city of Bubastis, but the dogs they
bury each in the city where he dies, only in the holy sepulchres....
"For food the Egyptians have bread made of millet as has been said
before. They have wine made of barley, for the vine groweth not in their
land. Of birds they eat doves and pigeons, and such small kinds as there
are in the country.
"... Such of the Egyptians as dwell in the marshes of the river have
also for food the seed of the water-lilies, which grow abundantly when
the river overfloweth the plains. This seed is like to the seed of a
poppy, and they make of it loaves which they bake with fire, having
first dried it in the sun. Also the root of this water-lily (which they
call the lotus) may be eaten, being round, and of the bigness of an
apple. Other lilies there are growing in the river, like to roses, which
have a fruit very like to a wasp's comb, and in it many seeds of the
bigness of an olive, which the men eat both green and dry. Also these
marsh folk gather the reeds, and use the upper part for other things, as
for the making of paper and the like, but the lower part, as much as a
cubit's length from the ground they eat.
"All the Egyptians worship not the same gods, but Isis and Osiris they
all worship and this Osiris is the same as he whom the Greeks call
Bacchus or Dionysus, and his feast is in all things like to that which
the Greeks keep to their God, only that there is no acting of plays. As
for Isis the Greeks call her Demeter, that is to say, being interpreted,
Mother Earth....
"Let so much then be said about the Egyptians and their customs and
manner of life, and the gods whom they worship."
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN NUMERATION.]
CHAPTER III.
THE PYRAMID AGE.
Menes was the king who succeeded in accomplishing the unification of
Egypt. We are told by Manetho that he was at first chief or governor of
the eighth nome of Upper Egypt, whose capital city was Thinis, and being
ambitious, subdued the surrounding nomes, until at last all Egypt was
brought under his control. No doubt earlier chieftains had begun the
work of conquest and left the completion to Menes, whose personality and
executive strength were sufficient to efface the reigns of his
predecessors.
Having brought the Delta under his control and crowned himself with the
white crown of Upper and the red crown of Lower Egypt, Menes realized
that a capital for such a straggling kingdom as his would best be
centrally located. He therefore fixed upon a site just south of the apex
of the delta and built the city of Memphis. Quite possibly there was a
settlement here before this time.
It happened that the Nile flowed close to the western hills in this
locality. The king knew well that his capital would be safer and the
more easily protected were the river between it and possible Asiatic
invaders on the east. So he undertook what has ever since been regarded
as a bold feat of engineering; he built a high embankment across the
Nile and compelled the stream to seek a new course farther east. Filling
in the old channel, he built a wall around the new city, caused a temple
to be at once erected to Ptah, the ancient deity of the locality, and
shortly a town grew up around it. Thus we see the beginnings of the Old
Empire, so called by Manetho and subsequent historians. For convenience
scholars sometimes group Dynasties I. and II. and Dynasties III. to VI.
together. The first period (3400-2980 B.C.) is called the Thinite age
because the rulers of these two dynasties came from Thinis. The name Old
Kingdom is then limited to Dynasties III. to VI. (2980-2475 B.C.)
It would be useless for us to attempt to become familiar with all these
early kings--some fifty in number--with reigns varying from one to many
years. Should we succeed in collecting the meager facts known of each we
would have little to repay us for our trouble. It is more to the purpose
that we know something about the period as a whole--its general
characteristics and attainments.
During this period hieroglyphic writing became widely used, having been
but rarely known before the age of Menes. A line of forts was built
along the Isthmus of Suez to stay invaders from Asia. Tribes on the
south were brought into subjection and pledged service to Egypt in time
of war. Stone quarries and mines were developed and granite ranges
sought and found. In the sixth dynasty one man-of-war sufficed to
accompany the transports sent to bring granite for the kings' tombs from
the southland--a fact recorded with pride by the pharaohs, since it gave
proof of their far reaching might.
From earliest times the Egyptian kings were builders, particularly of
tombs, which during the Old Empire took the form of pyramids. Of far
greater importance than the earthly abode was thought to be the
tomb--the dwelling place for eternal years, consequently tombs and
temples received the attention of Egypt's kings in early as well as
later times.
In 1897 the tomb of Menes was discovered. It was a brick-lined pit
containing an inner chamber of wood. Around the mummy of the pharaoh had
been placed the bodies of different members of his household. Similar to
this were royal tombs until the Third dynasty, when stone was first
used. To the kings of the Fourth dynasty belong the famous pyramids,
unsurpassed by any subsequently built, and still today the wonder of the
world.
The Egyptians always located their cemeteries toward the west. Into the
west the sun sank at night, and by the same way the soul started upon
its long journey to the realm of Osiris, god of the future world. The
irregularity of the Nile usually made it possible for the city of the
living to grow up on its eastern bank, while across the stream, on the
west shore, lay the City of the Dead. To the west of Memphis lay its
cemetery or Necropolis, and while this remained the capital of Egypt,
the pyramid-shaped tomb remained in favor. Sometimes the pyramid tombs
were small; sometimes they were large. More than sixty have been found,
and large numbers have doubtless disappeared for all time. Three,
however, were made so prodigious in size as to cast into obscurity all
the rest, and these have come to be called the "three Pyramids of
Gizeh," quite as though they were sole examples of their kind. Khufu was
builder of the largest; this is generally called "the Great Pyramid."
His son Khafre built the one next in size, known as the "Second
Pyramid," while the third, much smaller than these, was built by
Menkure. Were we indifferent to the political development of Egypt, we
would still wish to learn about these mammoth structures which are
scaled each season by wondering tourists, and have excited the
admiration and awe of travelers since the time of Herodotus.
It is difficult to realize the vast size of these piles, and we can do
so only by comparing them to things with which we are familiar. The base
of the largest pyramid covers thirteen acres of ground, solid masonry;
it was originally 482 feet high. Since it is almost one solid mass of
stone, it is not difficult to credit the statement of Herodotus that it
took 100,000 men twenty years to build it, an additional ten years being
necessary to quarry the stone and bring it to the chosen site.
"The tradition recorded by Herodotus as to the labor employed, is so
entirely reasonable for the execution of such work, that we cannot
hesitate to accept it. It is said that a hundred thousand men were
levied for three months at a time (i. e. during the three months of the
inundation, when ordinary labor is at a standstill); and on this scale
the pyramid-building lasted twenty years."
How complete must have been the organization of a government which could
promote such an extensive project as this! How entirely were the
resources of the empire at the disposal of the king when free citizens
could be impressed to satisfy the vanity of the proud pharaoh! To have
supported 100,000 non-producing men must of itself have taxed the
treasury. The rulers who built these majestic tombs wished to make their
names immortal, as well as to preserve their bodies from harm and decay.
This first they certainly accomplished, but in light of modern
investigation, when each stone lifted into place has been estimated to
have cost at least one human life, these proud pharaohs elicit less
admiration and commendation than they doubtless thought to win.
Three kinds of stone were used in the construction of these pyramids.
The inner part, or core, was formed of material plentiful near the
building site. This was a spongy limestone that was not durable if
exposed to the elements, but adequate when covered with other stone. The
successive layers, put on in the form of steps, were of stone brought
from across the river, having been quarried in the mountains on the
east. It has been conjectured that a causeway was laid from the
mountains to the side of the pyramid, and that blocks of stone were
dragged by men this distance. Finally, the beautiful granite used for
outer casing was found near the southern border of Egypt, floated down
the stream when the water was high, and having been polished like a
mirror, was fitted over the rougher stone. 2,300,000 blocks, averaging
two and one-half tons each, were used for the construction of the
largest pyramid.
"If we had so much stone, what could one do with it?" is asked in The
Boy Travelers in Egypt. And it is answered: "You could build a wall four
feet high and two feet thick--a good wall for a farm or a garden--all
the way from New York to Salt Lake City, and were New York in danger of
an attack and desired to surround the whole of Manhattan Island--21
miles--with a wall forty feet high and twenty feet thick, here would be
material to do it." Rawlinson tries to bring its size home to us by
comparing it to structures with which we are familiar. He says: "In
height it exceeds the capitol at Washington by nearly 200 feet, and its
cubic contents would provide a city of 22,000 houses solidly built of
stone having walls a foot thick, twenty feet frontage and thirty feet
deep, thirty feet high, allowing one-third for dividing walls."
For several hundred years the Mohammedans have occupied Egypt and they
have taken away quantities of stone from the lesser pyramids, from
temples and other ancient structures of Memphis, to be used in their
mosques and buildings in Cairo, near-by. The outer casing of the Great
Pyramid, beautiful granite as hard as iron, was removed to build the
large mosque of this comparatively modern city. The removal of this
casing has left the under layers bare, and these, step-like in
appearance, are annually scaled by tourists. With the help of Arab
guides, one may ascend to the very top of the huge pile, gaining thence
a splendid view of the surrounding country.
Even the pyramids left cased in granite are no longer smooth. The
weathering of ages has roughened their sides and dulled their polish.
They are of a tawny orange color and gleam by certain lights like
gigantic piles of gold.
Within the pyramids were chambers for the remains of kings and their
families and chambers for friends to gather for worship--for after his
death, an Egyptian king was worshipped as a god. Even a spacious gallery
was provided near the top of the Great Pyramid, in order that air might
circulate freely and thus keep the tomb dry.
The ambitious, short-sighted Fourth dynasty kings exhausted the
resources of their realm. During the Fifth and Sixth dynasties the
pyramids became smaller. Even the long-suffering land of the Nile could
no longer muster vast forces to provide huge abiding places for the
pharaohs. Marvelous temples would still be erected, and wonderful feats
of architecture accomplished, but the passion for tremendous tombs had
in a measure spent itself.
"The essential feeling of all the earliest work is a rivalry with
nature. In other times buildings have been placed either before a
background of hills, so as to provide a natural setting to them, or
crowning some natural height. But the Egyptian consented to no such tame
co-operation with natural features. He selected a range of desert hills
over a hundred feet high, and then subdued it entirely, making of it a
mere pedestal for pyramids, which were more than thrice as high as the
native hill on which they stood. There was no shrinking from a
comparison with the work of nature; but, on the contrary, an artificial
hill was formed which shrunk its natural basis by comparison, until it
seemed a mere platform for the work of man.
"This same grandeur of idea is seen in the vast masses used in
construction. Man did not then regard his work as a piling together of
stones, but as the erection of masses that rivalled those of nature. If
a cell or chamber was required, each side was formed of one single
stone.... If a building was set up, it was an artificial hill in which
chambers were carved out after it was piled together....
"The sculptor's work, and the painter's, show the same sentiment. They
did not make a work of art to please the taste as such; but they
rivalled nature as closely as possible. The form, the expression, the
colouring, the glittering transparent eye, the grave smile, all are
copied as if to make an artificial man. The painter mixed his half-tints
and his delicate shades, and dappled over the animals, or figured the
feathers of birds, in a manner never attempted in the later ages. The
embalmer built up the semblance of the man in resins and cloth over his
shrunken corpse, to make him as nearly as possible what he was when
alive.
"In each direction man then set himself to supplement, to imitate, to
rival or to exceed, the works of nature. Art, as the gratification of an
artificial taste and standard, was scarcely in existence; but the
simplicity, the vastness, the perfection, and the beauty of the earliest
works place them on a different level to all the workers of art and
man's device in later ages. They are unique in their splendid power,
which no self-conscious civilization has ever rivalled, nor can hope to
rival; and in their enduring greatness they may last till all the
feebler works of man have perished."[1]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Petrie; History of Egypt, Vol. I, p. 66.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IV.
THE AGE OF DARKNESS.
With the close of the Sixth dynasty, records practically cease, and few
indeed are the facts established regarding those kings whom Manetho
included in his Seventh and Eighth dynasties.
From earliest times each nome had been the seat of some noble
family--the descendants of chieftains, possibly, or perhaps the
recipients of royal land grants. Certain it is that each nome had its
noble family of wide estate, from whose number the governor was usually
chosen, as was also the high priest of the local temple. By the end of
the Sixth dynasty, the claimants to the throne were not strong enough to
hold together the land they aspired to rule; they maintained their
capital at Memphis, but neither the Delta or Upper Egypt recognized
their sway. On the contrary, each prince in his own nome tried to
increase his individual strength at the expense of the general
government. Asiatic invaders seem to have strengthened themselves in the
Delta, while to the south Theban princes came into prominence.
During the period which Manetho accorded to the Ninth and Tenth
dynasties, a prince often bought the favor and assistance of as many
nobles as he was able, and with his united forces established himself in
his own vicinity.
The vast resources which had been so completely at the command of the
Fourth dynasty kings were now divided among many petty nobles, each
seeking to aggrandize himself. Naturally, no costly tombs could be
constructed to perpetuate the memories of these who now aspired to
Egypt's throne; the tombs which had to satisfy were less enduring, and
this no doubt explains why so few remains of the period have come to
light in recent years. The thread of history is almost lost during the
age of darkness which included the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth
dynasties. Shut off from the disclosures of tombs, Egyptologists have
turned to the mines and quarries. All kings of importance have there
left traces of their operations, but the mines contain no tablets, no
decrees, no records of quarrying undertaken in these years, save here
and there an inscription indicating that some noble carried on work
within them on his own behalf.
It is probable that the land passed through a most trying experience in
the time intervening between the Old and the beginning of the Middle
Empire, when neither property, possessions, nor life itself were safe
throughout the land, but anarchy, strife and turmoil were everywhere
rife. The kings maintained their capital at Heracleopolis, but they were
in continual struggle with the princes of Thebes. How great had been the
confusion we may judge when one of the Tenth dynasty rulers takes pride
in recording the fact that order had characterized his reign. "Every
official was at his post, there was no fighting, nor any shooting an
arrow. The child was not smitten beside his mother, nor the citizen
beside his wife. There was no evil-doer nor any one doing violence
against his house. When night came, he who slept on the road gave me
praise, for he was like a man in his house; the fear of my soldiers was
his protection."[1]
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE.[2]
Order and prosperity returned to Egypt after years of darkness and
confusion. Thebes superseded Memphis as the center of political life.
Great material development characterized the beginning of what Manetho
designated as the Middle Empire. Before taking up the work of the early
Theban kings, let us learn something of the locality wherein they dwelt.
[Illustration: DISTANT VIEW OF THE PYRAMIDS.]
Memphis, as has been shown, was located conveniently to both Upper and
Lower Egypt, while the Nile protected the city from sudden Asiatic
attacks. What then were the points of advantage for Thebes, lying 400
miles farther south?
"Here the usually narrow valley of the Nile opens into a sort of plain
or basin.
"The mountains on either side of the river recede, as though by common
consent, and leave between themselves and the river's bank a broad
amphitheater, which in each case is a rich green plain--a soil of the
most productive character--dotted with doom and date palms, sometimes
growing single, sometimes collected into clumps or groves. On the
western side the Libyan range gathers itself up into a single
considerable peak, which has an elevation of 1,200 feet On the east the
desert-wall maintains its usual level character, but is pierced by
valleys conducting to the coast of the Red Sea. The situation was one
favorable for commerce. On the one side was the nearest route through
the sandy desert to the Lesser Oasis, which commanded the trade of the
African interior; on the other the way led through the valley of
Hammamat, rich with ... valuable and rare stones, to a district
abounding in mines of gold, silver and lead, and thence to the Red Sea
coast, from which, even in very early times, there was communication
with the opposite coast of Arabia, the region of gums and spices."[3]
Such being the location of Thebes, we shall see that it grew until in
time it became the mightiest city of the ancient world.
With the establishment of the Eleventh dynasty (_Ca._ 2160-2000 B.C.),
the work of reuniting and re-establishing a centralized government
began. The Delta had to be reclaimed from invaders who had gained the
upper hand while the land was divided against itself. Unity being at
last secured, rulers were free to launch out upon other enterprises. One
of the later kings had a deep well provided for those who served in the
quarries; another sent an expedition of 3,000 men to bring back stone
for his tomb. These men were also instructed to go beyond the
quarries--to Punt, which must have lain on the Somali coast of East
Africa, and bring back products of that region. The expedition set out
under the leadership of a nobleman whose report has fortunately come
down to us. It states that his men built stations and made wells along
their route, to the lasting benefit of those who might journey thence.
Part of the detachment was left to quarry stone, while the rest
proceeded to Punt and procured spices, gums, precious woods, and rare
animals. After noting their safe return, the prince adds: "Never was
brought down the like thereof for the king's court; never was done the
like of this by any king's confidant sent out since the time of the
god. I did this for the majesty of my lord because he so much loved
me."[4]
The Twelfth dynasty (2000-1788 B.C.) brought forth some of Egypt's
ablest kings. Their creative ability was perhaps not excelled by
subsequent pharaohs. Amenemhet I. (2000-1970 B.C.) proved himself strong
enough to curb the power of the feudal princes. These hereditary nobles
had probably received gifts of land from earlier kings in recognition of
loyal service. The estates passed from father to son, and while the
central government had been weak, the princes became more and more
aggressive. They fortified themselves, each in his nome, retained large
retinues of officials, servants, militia and realized vast incomes from
extensive tracts of arable land. It was neither possible nor prudent to
remodel the entire system, but Amenemhet I. undertook to modify it.
Whenever one of these landed princes died, the king himself chose from
the heirs the one who should succeed him. Naturally, he selected one
whose loyalty to himself and to the government was unquestioned. Again,
the boundaries of the nomes had never been officially determined, and
during the years of confusion, strong nobles had infringed upon the
possessions of weaker ones. The king made a tour through the country,
heard all complaints of such encroachments, and decided the limits of
all disputed boundaries. This did much to restrict the strength of
ambitious princes.
His son, coming to the throne, subdued the Nubians on the south and
extended the empire to the second cataract; but it was left for
Sesostris III. to make this conquest sure, and then to post his decree
along the river.
"This is the southern frontier; fixed in the eighth year of the reign of
his majesty. Usurtasen [Sesostris], ever living. Let it not be permitted
to any negro to pass this boundary northward, either on foot or by boat;
nor any sort of cattle, oxen, goats, or sheep belonging to the negroes.
Except when any negro comes to trade in the land of Aken, or on any
business, let him be well treated. But without allowing boats of the
negroes to pass Heh northward forever."[5]
In gratitude to the king for thus securing to them safety by repulsing
the negroes, the Egyptians sang extravagant hymns to Sostostris. Some of
these have been rendered into English, and are regarded as excellent
specimens of Egyptian poetry. The following is one of these songs:
"Twice joyful are the gods,
Thou hast established their offerings.
Twice joyful are thy princes,
Thou hast formed their boundaries.
Twice joyful are thy ancestors before thee,
Thou hast increased their portions.
Twice joyful is Egypt at thy strong arm,
Thou hast guarded the ancient order.
Twice joyful are the aged with thy administration,
Thou hast widened their possessions.
Twice joyful are the two regions with thy valor,
Thou hast caused them to flourish.
Twice joyful are thy young men of support,
Thou hast caused them to flourish.
Twice joyful are thy veterans,
Thou hast caused them to be vigorous.
Twice joyful are the two lands in thy might,
Thou hast guarded their walls.
Twice joyful be thou, O Horus! widening thy boundary,
Mayest thou renew an eternity of life."[6]
AMENEMHET III.
The greatest name of the Twelfth dynasty is that of Amenemhet III.
(1849-1801 B.C.). He directed his attention to internal improvements.
Realizing the dire effects upon Egypt when the Nile failed to supply
sufficient water or when too much water was forthcoming, he studied
various ways of controlling the river. Once or twice in a century the
rainfall, always heavy in the Abyssinian highlands, is yet greater; the
river rises rapidly to unexpected heights and works general havoc. Or
sometimes the supply may be less than usual. Having watched the stream
with anxious eyes for many a week, the people behold it recede,
although only the adjacent plains have been refreshed and upper portions
of the valley lie parched and lifeless, while famine stares Egypt in the
face.
Amenemhet III. believed that a vast reservoir might regulate the supply,
receiving the water when it was at high flood and giving it out once
more when the stream was low. He looked about for a natural depression
and found it to the west of Memphis, beyond a narrow range of hills.
Canals were made leading into this basin and Lake Moeris was the result.
Some hundreds of square miles were gained by this new means of
irrigation and the tract thus made arable, became royal domain. The
district is known as the Fayoum. Near its entrance Amenemhet III. built
his pyramid. It differed from earlier tombs in that the chamber destined
to receive his mummy was reached by passages even more secret and
winding than ordinary. False doors were placed here and there to mislead
any who might attempt to molest the body.
Under his direction, a wonderful building was constructed. It was called
the Labyrinth. Being about 800 feet wide and 1,000 feet long, it
contained 1,500 rooms above the ground and as many more below it. There
were many courts with numerous doors leading from them and Strabo, a
Greek geographer, who saw it long after Amenemhet had taken his journey
to the realm of Osiris, said that the ceilings and sides of the rooms
were made from single stones! It is believed that the king planned this
structure to serve as a great capitol for his kingdom, and that there
were suites of halls for every nome, with chapels for their gods. A vast
number of chambers would naturally be required for this, and probably
there was no thought of making the building baffling or bewildering, as
the name labyrinth now signifies. This was counted among the wonders of
the ancient world, but, like the city built around it, disappeared ages
ago. Herodotus has left us a description of the huge building, written
to inform his countrymen of a structure more remarkable than anything
they could boast. When he saw it, almost five hundred years before the
time of Christ, it was still in perfect condition.
"I visited the place," he says, "and found it to surpass description;
for if all the walls and other great works of the Greeks could be put
together into one, they would not equal this Labyrinth. 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 under ground, 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 contain, 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 these 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 stone, 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."
In comparison with the Old Empire kings, those of the Middle Empire seem
to us much more modern in spirit. Instead of merging the whole
population into instruments to work out the pharaoh's fancy, instead of
squandering the riches of the land and the lives of subjects to provide
mammoth tombs which should eternalize the ruler's memory and flame forth
his power and greatness unto succeeding generations, the farsighted
Twelfth dynasty kings devoted their time and resources to the
improvement of their kingdom. Wells were dug; roads constructed; public
buildings erected; fortifications strengthened; frontiers extended. The
attention of the monarch was directed to the commercial prosperity of
the realm, to the agricultural conditions and their improvement--in
short, the best years of the Middle Empire were years of material gain
for the Nile dwellers, wherein men developed the arts of peace, and the
valley testified to wise administration. Through a second period of
depression a nation was to look back upon the age of its material
progress with longing eyes, and still better, to retain even under
adverse conditions standards of government and life which would later be
recovered. After the death of the great king, called Amenemhet the Good
by his grateful subjects, none appeared able to adequately fill his
place, and his glorious reign was overshadowed by a second period of
darkness.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Trans. by Breasted, Hist. Egypt, 149. The approximate dates of this
period are: Dynasties VII. and VIII. _Ca._ 2475-2445 B.C.; Dynasties XI.
and X. _Ca._ 2475-2160 B.C.
[2] Dynasties XI. and XII. 2160-1788 B.C.
[3] Rawlinson, Ancient Egypt, 95.
[4] Trans. by Breasted, Ancient Records, I, §483.
[5] Petrie, Hist. of Egypt, Vol. I, 181.
[6] Petrie, Hist. of Egypt, Vol. I, 182.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER V.
THE SHEPHERD KINGS.[1]
The Thirteenth dynasty kings were not sufficiently strong to hold intact
the kingdom which passed into their hands. Soon again the feudal princes
of nome and city were contending with one another for additional power.
The Fourteenth dynasty rulers had their capital in Xois, a Delta city.
Both dynasties lasted but a brief time, filled with unrest and
contention. We can imagine into what state Egypt fell when a negro of
Nubia, of a race despised by the Egyptians, set himself up as their
king. Several princes ruled at the same time in various portions of the
realm. Sources of information for these chaotic years are scanty; no
monuments have come down to us, the inference being that the resources
and energies of the land were required for more immediate needs than the
erection of costly tombs for rulers of disputed right.
The whole country must have suffered greatly. The system of irrigation
set in order by Amenemhet III. required both national supervision and
national funds for its maintenance. As neither could have been
forthcoming, the food production must have been materially diminished.
Engaged in civil war, Egypt soon fell a prey to foreign invaders.
For hundreds of years it had been not unusual for Syrian bands to ask
permission to settle within Egyptian borders. In the tomb of a
provincial governor of Upper Egypt has been found a painting which
portrays a company of seventeen Bedouins bringing presents to the
nobleman and asking that they be allowed to locate in his dominion. In
Genesis we read concerning Abram: "And Abram journeyed, going still
toward the south. And there was a famine in the land of Canaan; and
Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous
in the land." Since Abram was rich in cattle and in gold, he undoubtedly
brought many of his family and followers to dwell with him in the land
of plenty. Similar incidents were common. If the rainfall was short in
Canaan, in the territory of the Hittites or even in Arabia, Egypt was
ever regarded as a last resort. The Nile never failed to supply water
for the flocks; here, too, it was customary to store grain in royal
store-cities, in order that in time of need Egypt could sell
advantageously to her neighbors. In a pastoral age, such favorable
conditions as these were highly prized.
The Pharaohs diligently fortified their frontiers, and it must not be
supposed that in times of peace foreigners were allowed to come at will
into the land. There were, on the contrary, officers stationed along the
boundaries to apprehend any who wished to enter, to receive their
requests and forward them to the governor of the nome. Until he was
heard from, strangers were detained on the border. It seems to have been
usual, however, to admit such petitioners unless it was thought that
they might become a menace to the state. It naturally came about,
therefore, that the tribes on the east looked with envious eyes upon the
rich valley of the Nile, and when Egypt was disrupted, her resources and
soldiers no longer at the command of one ruler but divided among several
contending nobles--each of whom valued his personal interests above
those of his country--while anarchy and disorder infested the coveted
land, an overwhelming host of Semitic hordes poured into the Delta,
spreading thence into the valley. Before them Egypt was helpless.
Asia and Egypt as well were inhabited in early times by many wandering
or nomadic tribes. A tribe dwelt in one locality while pasturage was
good, and when it was exhausted, would move on to new fields. Sometimes
the tribe in possession of one district would learn that other tribes
were drawing near, and in an age when strangers were considered enemies,
this would furnish sufficient pretext for starting out on the march
again. Periods of unrest sometimes swept over vast areas; in such a time
as this, perhaps, Asiatic tribes poured into Egypt. In her pitiable
plight, the country lay an easy prey to such invaders, who Manetho tells
us numbered a quarter of a million. It is said that they took possession
without a battle. Just who they were or where they came from is not
known. We now know that the Hittites invaded Babylonia during the reign
of Samsu-ditana, the last king of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and that
this was the indirect cause of the fall of this dynasty (about 1750
B.C.). Scholars are beginning to suspect that the invasion of Egypt at
this time was either led by the Hittites or due to Hittite pressure
back of the tribes in Syria-Palestine. Their kings were called Hyksos,
and from a doubtful etymology of this name they are still styled the
"Shepherd kings."
The invading conquerors put many of the Egyptians to death, taking their
wives and children into slavery. Worshipping gods of their own, they
hated the gods of the Egyptians and destroyed many temples and
monuments. Generally speaking, they remained in the Delta and the
Fayoum, the Theban princes ruling in the south as their vassals.
Gradually these fierce Asiatics took on the civilization of the land
they had invaded. They donned Egyptian dress, spoke and wrote as the
Egyptians, and built temples much like theirs. The country rallied from
its recent disaster and life became not unlike that of earlier times.
In time the Theban nobles increased in power; the Hyksos--or their
descendants in the Delta--grew alarmed lest the native princes might
become powerful enough to force them from the throne they had usurped.
Determined to check any threatening strength on the part of the
Egyptians, the foreigners tried to bring about open conflict, sure
themselves of victory. At first the Theban princes sought to avert war,
but the demands of the Hyksos grew heavier. There was a folk-story to
the effect that the usurping king in the Delta sent word to the Theban
prince that the noise of the sacred hippopotami in the pools and canals
allowed him rest neither by night or day, and must be disposed of.
However simple this appears, it may easily signify that the final break
came because of religious difficulties.
Roused at last, the Egyptians determined to drive the invaders from
their land. This occurred during the Seventeenth dynasty--for Manetho
continues his list of Egyptian kings throughout the period of foreign
rule. The Asiatics were driven north, and the first pharaoh of the
Eighteenth Dynasty, King Ahmose (1580-1350 B.C.), gathered a vast army
and forced them beyond his borders. Five years were consumed in
accomplishing this, and in the end many of the foreigners were reduced
to slavery.
Summing up the results of the invasion of the Hyksos, we may note that
Egypt learned much during her period of oppression Before the invasion,
her fighting had been confined to the defense of her frontiers. Asiatic
and African, and the tribes with which she had waged war had been her
inferiors. In the Asiatic tribes she had at last met a people more
skillful in military affairs than she. They used horses and chariots,
and their mode of warfare was superior to the clumsy, undisciplined
efforts of the Nile-dwellers. It was by adopting their methods that
Egypt finally succeeded in expelling them from the land. Hereafter we
find the horse and chariot used extensively in Egyptian wars.
Another important result was the elimination of the feudal lords. They
had opposed both the Hyksos and the successful king Ahmose, and fighting
for personal interests alone, had most of them perished in the conflict.
The vast areas which had been their portion reverted to the crown and
became royal domain.
It has been thought that Joseph served under one of the foreign kings,
and that the conditions spoken of at the close of his career--when all
Egypt was subdued and at the command of the Pharaoh--coincide with the
situation shortly after the feudal lords had disappeared as a political
factor. All this is, however, doubtful.
In marked contrast with the gloom of long years under foreign oppression
shines the splendor of the New Empire.
THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW EMPIRE.[2]
The wide differences which we have noted concerning dates accepted by
various Egyptologists disappear as we approach the Christian era, and
there is general agreement that the sixteenth century before Christ saw
the dawn of the New Empire which had its beginning when the independence
of Egypt was established and Hyksos rule thrown off. Petrie calls this
the most glorious page in Egyptian history.
Ahmose had much to do before the safety of the government was assured.
While he pursued the Hyksos into Asia, crippling their allies, the
Ethiopians infringed upon his southern border. Three different
expeditions had to be sent against them before they were reduced to
submission. Then only did the king find opportunity to direct his
attention to the domestic concerns of the kingdom. Thebes, the capital,
was given first consideration in the matter of building and adornment.
The foundations for the famous temple of Karnak, of which we shall hear
more at length, were begun.
Ahmose's son succeeded him, but aside from putting down an uprising of
the troublesome Ethiopians, little of importance attached to his
administration.
It was left for Ahmose's grandson, Thutmose[3] I., to give Egypt the
position she was to occupy among the nations for many years. Thutmose I.
was instinctively a soldier. Coming to the throne when a mere boy, the
Ethiopians made war directly, thinking they could easily overcome so
inexperienced a king. Thutmose at once gave indication of his capacity
by marching immediately into their territory and defeating them with
tremendous slaughter. To prevent further annoyance from these people the
king divided their country into districts and over each he placed an
Egyptian official. Thus the land of Kush became an Egyptian province.
Having now a well organized army, Thutmose pressed into Asia--for the
experience of Ahmose had shown that rich plunder there awaited the
victor. Some tribes yielded voluntarily to Egypt; others were forced to
yield.
Although the king penetrated some distance east of the Euphrates, these
districts were not permanently won for Egypt. On the contrary, we shall
find that subsequent pharaohs did over and over again what this king
attempted, and for this reason: each time a nation was conquered,
Thutmose withdrew his soldiers from it, imposing tribute and asking
hostages. So long as the tribute was forthcoming, the tribe was left
undisturbed. This gave wide opportunity for the conquered peoples to
unite among themselves and make attempts to shake off control whenever a
new ruler succeeded to the throne of Egypt. This proved eventually a
most extravagant policy for Thutmose to have followed.
Henceforth Egypt had to take her place as a military power, and with her
every new aspiring nation had to reckon. When we recall the peaceful
Egyptians of early times, secluded in their quiet valley, disliking
foreigners and having as little intercourse with them as possible, we
realize what a change had been wrought in them by their contact with the
Hyksos during the years of their oppression.
Egypt's future was largely marked out by Thutmose I., as later reigns
demonstrated. Perhaps his greatness has not been wholly appreciated.
"The greatness of Thutmose[3] I. has scarcely been sufficiently
recognized by historians. It may be true that he did not effect much;
but he broke ground in a new direction; he set an example which led on
to grand results. To him it was due that Egypt ceased to be the
isolated, unaggressive power that she had remained for perhaps ten
centuries, that she came boldly to the front and aspired to bring Asia
into subjection. Henceforth she exercised a potent influence beyond her
borders--an influence which affected, more or less, all the western
Asiatic powers. She had forced her way into the comity of the great
nations. Henceforth whether it was for good or for evil, she had to take
her place among them, to reckon with them, as they reckoned with her, to
be a factor in the problem which the ages had to work out--what should
be the general march of events, and what states and nations should most
affect the destiny of the world."[4]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Dynasties XIII to XVIII, including the Hyksos, 1788-1580 B.C.
[2] Dynasties XVIII to XX, 1580-1090 B.C.
[3] Usually written Thothmes. The form Thutmose is, however, nearer the
original.
[4] Rawlinson, Ancient Egypt, 168.
CHAPTER VI.
THE EARLIEST QUEEN IN HISTORY.
We now come upon a story in Egyptian history. It might easily begin with
"Once upon a time," and better still, it is true. Of course we all know
that when people live hundreds and thousands of years in a country and
reach a high degree of civilization, when they build noble structures,
become proficient in art, write books, and have developed a high degree
of culture, their lives have been full of absorbing experiences, just as
ours are today, and we may be sure that these Egyptians, who sometimes
seem a bit monotonous in the light of recorded history, would be
interesting enough did we know more about their daily lives.
In many families it has been customary to keep a family record--in the
Bible often, sometimes in special record books. The habit is less
prevalent than it once was, but we have doubtless all seen such records
and recall that they generally include births, marriages and deaths
occurring in the family. From them, however, one could get no idea in
years to come of the happy holiday gatherings, social pleasures, and
family celebrations frequently enjoyed.
It is somewhat the same with nations. They leave momentous events in
their history carved in marble, painted on canvas or written in whatever
fashion they have known; but it is left largely to us to weave in the
rest of the story as best we may--and too often this part is neglected.
People long since vanished seem too often like unreal creatures, who
fought in wars, established dynasties, enjoyed periods of peace and
suffered in times of tumult, and these events appear to be fitted
together like the pieces of a puzzle. Had historians keener imaginations
they might bring these ancient people before us as distinctly human, so
that, like the characters of Dickens and Scott, they would abide in our
memories. But then you see, someone would suggest that this was no
longer history.
However, the world has seen a few queens who have apparently determined
to relegate dullness and monotony to kings--as for themselves they
would have none of it. Such was Good Queen Bess of England, and such
also was Queen Hatshepsut of long-forgotten Egypt.
Thutmose I. had been a great warrior; he had subdued the Nubians and
Ethiopians in Africa, and then, roused to a spirit of conquest, he had
pushed into Asia, revenged the indignities inflicted upon his people by
the Hyksos, and had made his power felt far beyond the Euphrates. When
no longer able to rule, he left the widest empire the world had yet seen
to his daughter Hatshepsut, aged twenty-four, and to his seventeen year
old son. Hatshepsut had inherited her father's great ability and
tireless energy; the son was weak and purposeless. His untimely death
gave occasion for many both then and since to wonder if his vindictive
sister did all she could to save him. Certain it is that Queen
Hatshepsut rallied sufficiently from the shock of his death to reign for
many years.
It was very disconcerting to a nation so strongly held by tradition and
veneration for established customs as was Egypt, to have a woman on the
throne of the Pharaohs. This is amusingly shown in temples where her
loyal supporters sought to lessen prejudices felt because she was a
woman by portraying pictures designed to show that her birth had been
attended by special marks of favor and of prophecy on the part of the
gods. In these, however, she is often represented as a _boy_. She seems
to have regretted not having been a man, and no doubt the matter was
constantly thrust before her and she was forced to feel how greatly this
placed her at a disadvantage among her subjects. She seems to have made
heroic efforts to modify the differences in sex as much as possible by
assuming a beard and by having herself represented in art in a king's
official dress. Furthermore, a bewildering use of pronouns seem to have
been employed concerning her, and such phrases as: "his majesty
herself," and others similar have come down to us.
Great benefits came to Egypt when the ruler's attention was directed
from conquest to internal improvements, and these last occupied the
energy of this capable queen throughout her reign. Instead of erecting
pyramids or tombs, she at once began to build a temple in which she
might be worshipped after death--for in Egypt a ruler was worshipped as
a god after his death. Nor would Hatshepsut have her temple like those
around her. Rather, a site was chosen out of Thebes, where the hills
rose to quite an elevation. A series of four terraces, each having its
beautiful colonnade, led to the temple itself, which was hewn out of the
rocky hill.
The young queen wished to build such a temple as she fancied might have
been sacred to Amon--the ancient deity of Thebes--in his own land of
Punt, on the East African coast. It was a myth of the Egyptians that
long before they existed, the gods abode in the land of Punt, called by
them the Holyland, or God's land. Tradition held that in this land the
myrrh tree was sacred to Amon, and so one day Queen Hatshepsut announced
to her ministers that the god Amon had revealed to her his desire that
here in Thebes, before the new temple, his favorite myrrh tree should
grow.
Now myrrh incense for offerings had been procured from merchantmen who
brought their spices into Egypt, and the tree itself grew only in Punt,
which lay to the furthermost corner of the ancient world. However, the
queen was determined to satisfy the god--and incidentally, perhaps, her
own fancy. So, nothing daunted, her subjects set to work to construct a
fleet suitable for the journey necessary for procuring the
incense-bearing tree.
It is supposed that some canal connected the river with the Red Sea;
whether or not this was the case, the ships were built at Thebes, and
there is no record of their having been carried over land to the port.
They were fitted out with both sails and oars, so that the expedition
might not be hindered by calm weather. Beside the oarsmen and the crew,
soldiers accompanied the fleet to give protection should it be needed.
After many days the ships came at last to the Holy Land, or Punt.
Messengers were dispatched to the native king with presents from Queen
Hatshepsut and a request that he acknowledge the sovereignty of Egypt,
and allow her subjects to bring back products from his land--especially
the coveted incense-tree. The king was delighted with the gifts and made
up a procession to go down to the shore and meet the Egyptians. He had a
funny little dwarf wife, belonging, it is supposed, to one of the dwarf
tribes of interior Africa. She on her donkey, her three children, the
king and several of his chiefs, proceeded to the shore to greet the
strangers. They were led to the native houses--curious round huts built
on piles and entered only by ladders, while palm and incense trees
sheltered their occupants from the hot rays of the tropical sun. The
travelers were treated royally throughout their sojourn in the land of
Punt, and were allowed to exchange the products they had brought from
the valley of the Nile for the native products--such as ebony, ivory,
incense, leopard skins, metals, and the much desired myrrh trees.
At length the Egyptians were ready to set sail for the home land, and
now some of the natives, the dwarf queen, some of the chief men and
others decided to return with them and see the queen of great renown; so
with these for passengers, the ships cleared port.
Upon arrival, their return was the occasion for a gala-day at the
capital. The state troops were out on parade, the veterans of the
expedition formed in procession with the thirty-one myrrh trees which
had been carefully packed and shielded under awning from the sun's rays;
the strange animals from Punt--dogs, baboons, monkeys, a tame leopard
with his keeper, natives who gave their war dance, the dwarf queen of
Punt, who with her chief men brought gifts to Hatshepsut--all these made
up a great spectacle sufficiently absorbing to the throngs who filled
the streets of Thebes. All went to the temple where Queen Hatshepsut
made offerings to Amon, and then the myrrh trees were planted before his
temple. It would be interesting to know how many of these thirty-one
trees withstood the radical change, but probably trees which had
occasioned such a national outlay had no choice but to flourish.
Queen Hatshepsut felt a natural pride in the result of her expedition
which had the effect of establishing lasting trade between the two
countries, to the benefit of both. She did not wish it to be forgotten,
and so had the whole story depicted on the walls of her temple by
artists who probably accompanied the fleet. There some of the pictures
may still be seen. The first portrays the embarking of the Egyptian
fleet. An inscription before it reads: "These are the ships which the
wind brought along with it. The voyage on the sea, the attainment of the
longed-for aim in the Holy Land, the happy arrival of the Egyptian
soldiers in the land of Punt, according to the arrangement of Amon,
King of the gods, Lord of the terrestrial thrones in Thebes, in order to
bring to him the treasures of the whole land in such quantities as will
satisfy him. This was done by the Queen of Egypt, the daughter of the
Sun, never has anything similar been done in the times of a former king
in this country."[1]
The second scene shows the reception in Punt; the third, the traffic;
the fourth picture, the loading of ships for the return. Men are seen
bringing trees and other products of Punt on board. This inscription
reads: "The loading of the ships of transport with a great quantity of
the magnificent products of Arabia,[2] with all kinds of precious woods
of the Holy Land, with heaps of incense, resin, with verdant incense
trees, with ebony, with pure ivory, with gold, and silver from the land
of Amon, with tesep-wood and the cassia bark, incense, hounds, skins of
leopards, apes, monkeys, with women and children. Never has a coming
been made like this by any king since the creation of the world."
The fifth is the "Return to Thebes." The accompanying inscription:
"Excursion completed satisfactorily; happy arrival at Thebes to the joy
of the Egyptian soldiers. The princes of Punt after arrival in this
country, bringing with them costly things of the Arabian[2] land, such
as never had yet been brought by any Egyptian king, for the Supreme
Majesty of the god Amon-Ra, Lord of the terrestrial thrones."
The sixth scene represents the presentation of the tribute of Punt to
the Queen, while princes of that land kneeling before her ask for peace.
"Homage to thy countenance,
O Queen of Egypt, Sun,
Beaming like the sun-disk
After your mistress, who is
Arabia's[2] mistress."
In the seventh painting the Queen offers gifts to Amon; the eighth shows
the weighing of the incense; the ninth, the formal announcement of the
successful expedition before Amon, and the tenth and last, the formal
announcement of the happy issue before the Egyptian court.
Other paintings which adorn the walls of this temple, depicting the
birth of the Queen and the guardianship exercised over her by the
goddess Hathor, while less famous are quite as indelible and interesting
from a social standpoint.
This temple in its architectural conception was a departure from
Egyptian models. It impresses us with its fine proportion and the
skillful use of the colonnade.
It has not long been accessible to visitors, having been uncovered only
in the last few years.
Other building enterprises were undertaken by Queen Hatshepsut, notably
the erection of two obelisks of polished granite in honor of Amon.
Possessing some tributary territory in Asia and Punt and maintaining a
policy of peace, the national revenue was much increased. The proud
queen left a record of her kingdom's prosperity chronicled in stone: "My
southern boundary is as far as Punt; my eastern boundary as far as the
marshes of Asia, and the Asiatics are in my grasp; my western boundary
is as far as the mountain of Manu (or the sunset); my fame is among the
Sand dwellers altogether. The myrrh of Punt has been brought to me, all
the luxurious marvels of this country were brought to my palace in one
collection. They have brought me the choicest products, of cedar, of
juniper, and of meru-wood; all the goodly sweet woods of God's-land. I
brought the tribute of Libya, consisting of ivory and seven hundred
tusks which were there, numerous panther skins of five cubits along the
back and four cubits wide."[3]
In addition to new structures, Queen Hatshepsut repaired temples fallen
in decay. In one of these temples she caused to be written: "I have
restored that which was in ruins, I have raised up that which was
unfinished since the Asiatics were in the midst of the Northland, and
the barbarians in the midst of them, overthrowing that which had been
made while they ruled in ignorance of Ra."[4]
Thutmose III., a younger brother--a mere child at the death of his
father--grew restless at being held so long from the throne by his
ambitious sister. The sudden death of the queen again raised the
question as to whether the sovereign had died as a result of court
intrigue. Certain it is that Thutmose III. retaliated for the restraint
the queen had exercised over him by commanding that her name be stricken
from all the monuments she had erected, his own to be substituted.
Fortunately his workmen followed his instructions so badly that it has
been possible to read the original name in many cases, and thus possible
to trace the career of the world's earliest recorded queen. Thus have
later ages been able to realize how well Queen Hatshepsut met the
requirements of her day, and to appreciate her courage in overcoming the
prejudices which as a woman on the throne of the Pharaohs she is sure to
have encountered.
[Illustration: QUEEN HATSHEPSUT.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] These inscriptions are translated in Records of the Past, ed. by
Sayce, Vol. X.
[2] The translation is to be corrected to Punt.
[3] Trans. by Breasted, History of Egypt, 280.
[4] Ibid.
CHAPTER VII.
GREAT MILITARY KINGS.
The accession of a new king was the signal for Asiatic nations, long
held in tribute, to revolt from a servitude that had always been galling
to their pride. Thutmose III. at once established his reputation as a
king of prompt decision and strength by marching immediately into the
revolting territories and defeating the league formed against him.
During his reign of some fifty years he is reputed to have carried on
nineteen campaigns. The wealth of Egypt was materially increased by
these expeditions which were frequently marauding excursions rather than
open-battle victories.
"Altogether Thothmes [Thutmose] III. is said to have carried off from
the subject countries about 11,000 captives, 1,670 chariots, 3,639
horses, 4,491 of the larger cattle, more than 35,000 goats, silver to
the amount of 3,940 pounds, and gold to the amount of 9,954 pounds. He
also conveyed to Egypt from the conquered lands enormous quantities of
corn and wines, together with incense, balsam, honey, ivory, ebony, and
other rare woods, lapis lazuli, furniture, statues, vases, dishes,
basins, tent-poles, bows, habergeons, fruit-trees, live birds, and
monkeys! With a curiosity which was insatiable, he noted all that was
strange or unusual in the lands which he visited, and sought to
introduce the various novelties into his own proper country. Two unknown
kinds of birds, and a variety of the goose, which he found in
Mesopotamia, and transported from the valley of the Khabour to that of
the Nile, are said to have been 'dearer to the king than anything else.'
His artists had instructions to make careful studies of the different
objects, and to represent them faithfully on his monuments. We see on
these 'water-lilies as high as trees, plants of a growth like cactuses,
all sort of trees and shrubs, leaves, flowers, and fruits, including
melons and pomegranates; oxen and calves also figure, and among them a
wonderful animal with three horns. There are likewise herons,
sparrow-hawks, geese and doves.' All these appear gaily intermixed in
the pictures, as suited the simple childlike conception of the artist.
An inscription tells the intention of the monarch. 'Here,' it runs, 'are
all sorts of plants and all sorts of flowers of the Holy Land, which the
king discovered when he went to the land of Ruten to conquer it. Thus
says the king--I swear by the sun, and I call to witness my father Amon,
that all is plain truth; there is no trace of deception in that which I
relate. What the splendid soil brings forth in the way of production I
have portrayed in these pictures, with the intention of offering them to
my father Amon, as a memorial for all times.'"[1]
Egypt had now become so powerful that many of the Phoenician cities
voluntarily came under her protection, thinking in this way they could
best secure safety for their extensive commerce on the seas. The
Phoenicians were the middle-men for antiquity and desired above all to
keep their triremes safe from sea pirates. Seeking the protection of the
greatest world power, in this age they turned to Egypt.
A vast amount of Asiatic plunder found its way to the temples as
offerings to the gods who were supposed to have made victory possible.
This accumulation of wealth within the temples proved a most important
factor in strengthening the priesthood--a power with which the future
had to reckon.
A song of victory, composed in honor of Thutmose III., is preserved in
the temple of Karnak. The god Amon is supposed to be speaking. We may be
sure that it was not wholly the flattery of priests, written to appease
the ruler, but that it embodied the general opinion as to the power
bestowed by the god upon the king, who was his representative upon
earth.
HYMN OF VICTORY.[2] (_Amon speaking._)
I have come, causing thee to smite the princes of Zahi;
I have hurled them beneath thy feet among their highlands.
I have caused them to see thy majesty as lord of radiance,
So that thou hast shone in their faces like my image.
I have come, causing thee to smite the Asiatics,
Thou hast made captive the heads of the Asiatics of Retenu.
I have caused them to see thy majesty equipped with thy adornment
When thou takest the weapons of war in the chariot.
I have come, causing thee to smite the eastern land,
Thou hast trampled those who are in the districts of God's-Land.
I have caused them to see thy majesty like a circling star,
When it scatters its flame in fire, and gives forth its dew.
I have come, causing thee to smite the western land,
Keftyew and Cyprus are in terror.
I have caused them to see thy majesty as a young bull,
Firm of heart, ready-horned, irresistible.
I have come, causing thee to smite those who are in their marshes,
The lands of Mitanni tremble under fear of thee.
I have caused them to see thy majesty as a crocodile,
Lord of fear in the water, unapproachable.
I have come, causing thee to smite those who are in their isles;
Those who are in the midst of the Great Green (sea) hear thy roarings.
I have caused them to see thy majesty as an avenger,
Who rises upon the back of his slain victim....
I have come, causing thee to smite the uttermost ends of the lands,
The circuit of the Great Circle (Okeanos) is included in thy grasp.
I have caused them to see thy majesty as a lord of wing (hawk),
Who seizeth upon that which he seeth, as much as he desires.
I have come, causing thee to smite the Nubian Troglodytes,
As far as Shat (they) are in thy grasp.
I have caused them to see thy majesty as thy two brothers.[3]
I have united their two arms for thee in victory.
Thy two sisters,[4] I have set them as protection behind thee,
The arms of my majesty are above, warding off evil.
I have caused thee to reign, my beloved son,
Horus, Mighty Bull, Shining in Thebes, whom I have begotten in
uprightness of heart.
Thutmose, living forever, who hast done for me all that my ka desired;
Thou hast erected my dwelling as an everlasting work,
Enlarging and extending it more than the past which has been.
Thou hast fêted the beauty of Amon-Re,
Thy monuments are greater than those of any king who has been.
When I commanded thee to do it, I was satisfied therewith;
I established thee upon the Horus-throne of millions of years.
Thutmose III. left his individuality strongly stamped upon the empire
his military skill had welded together. Tribute poured into his coffers
from all the petty nations throughout western Asia, from the tribes of
the Sahara, and lands south of Egypt. He was probably without question
the greatest military leader the country ever produced, and he was a
tireless builder. The great temple of Amon in the city of Thebes was his
pride and many other temples were built and restored by him. He was
succeeded by his son, but no very important event claims our attention
until the accession of his great grandson, Amenhotep IV.
The beautiful Queen Tiy was the mother of this monarch. There is no
foundation for the oft repeated assertion that she was of foreign,
probably Asiatic, origin. Maspero's belief that she was of Egyptian
(perhaps obscure) origin is most probable. We may well believe that she
exercised considerable power over her son, but we have no evidence for
asserting that it was from her that he received the new religion which
he attempted to force upon the country, as a result of which the whole
land was thrown into a tumult.
We have already seen that Egypt was originally composed of many little
states, each independent of the rest and each having its own religious
system and customs. As the many states were assimilated into one, a
state religion resulted, into which the main elements of each local cult
were combined. Although the people throughout the land worshipped the
state god, the local gods were always more particularly endeared to the
masses. Now had Amenhotep IV. desired to change the state god, the
official deity, the people would have accepted the change readily, but
when he attempted to sweep away the entire religious system of his realm
and substitute an utterly new system, the masses could not understand
such a radical change. They were enraged at what they considered an
indignity put upon their gods and the gods of their fathers.
Realizing how impossible it would be to accomplish his reform in the
ancient city of Thebes, the king determined to change his capital.
Thebes had long been the religious as well as the political center, and
the worship of Amon was fundamentally associated with the city. In order
to set up the worship of one deity, Aton--the Solar Disk--in place of
Amon, with the complex system of deities, Amenhotep IV. went north of
Thebes and began the construction of a new capital[5] which was never
completed. Its name signified "The Horizon of the Solar Disk." Within
this new capital the new religion was to be firmly established and
thence spread throughout the realm. Just what teachings this religion
embodied is not now understood. While the sun was worshipped in a new
form as Aton, this may have been merely symbolic of one God--one Spirit,
felt to be one and alone. Acceptance of the Solar Disk religion
necessitated an abandoning of all earlier deities, especially the
powerful Amon, and his name was commanded to be stricken from all
monuments throughout the land.
The result of this religious crusade was a total failure. Amenhotep IV.
realized how great was the innovation he sought to make, but he
underestimated the strength of the priests of Amon, the treasures of
whose temple at Thebes were loaded with the spoil of Asia. This
"reform" while in line with the theology, was utterly at variance with
the popular religion of the day. Angered beyond measure by the injury to
their faith, the people rose up against the new teaching. The old-time
worship was reinstated, the former deities elevated to their former
dignity, and the Eighteenth dynasty which had begun so auspiciously came
to an end in confusion and disorder.
[Illustration: GREAT PYRAMID, SPHINX AND TEMPLE OF ARMACHIS.]
KARNAK.
The temple of Karnak belongs to both the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
dynasties. Thutmose III., Amenhotep II. and Amenhotep III. each added
rooms to the great structure, although it was left for Seti I. to build
the crowning Hall of Pillars. Three centuries witnessed its erection and
many kings contributed to its greatness. Most famous of all Theban
architecture, it is still mighty in its ruins.
Karnak is the name of one of the four districts into which the irregular
Nile divided the city of Thebes. From this district, or ward, the great
temple dedicated to Amon--ancient deity of Thebes--took its name.
In some ways, perhaps, the temples of Egypt corresponded to the temples
of the Greeks, or even to modern churches, yet there were material
differences. Indeed, the similarity is slight. Modern churches are
supposedly places of worship; Greek temples were erected in honor of
Greek gods and thither offerings were brought by a trusting people.
Egyptian temples were built by rulers in honor of some god whose help
and protection they believed had enabled them to put down their enemies
and given their country its victories and prosperity. While a temple was
erected especially in honor of some particular deity, as Karnak was
dedicated to Amon, other deities might have shrines within it. While it
did honor to the god whose protection had allowed the ruler to rise
triumphantly above all obstacles, yet it was the glory of the king that
the temple exalted--his pictures adorned the walls, his deeds were set
forth in minute detail, his courage in war and relentless energy in
times of peace,--these were carved in stone and written in hieroglyphics
until it was difficult to find a section of wall, a column, a stone
ceiling unadorned. Hymns of victory were inscribed in the temples;
songs of praise and fulsome flattery not infrequently were composed by
the priests. Sometimes the god who presided over the temple seems to
have been well nigh lost sight of, yet even so, honor was accorded him,
since the king was his representative on earth. Because Karnak received
the particular care of many kings, it is one of the most interesting
temples to study, apart from its beauty, its stupendous size and
proportions.
Lists of dimensions are seldom interesting, and yet, unless we compare
the size of Egyptian structures to others known to us, we fail utterly
to grasp the tremendous scale on which these people built. We have
mentioned the avenue, more than a mile in length, guarded on either side
with sphinxes, which connected this temple with one built by Queen
Hatshepsut. This avenue led finally to a gateway, flanked on both sides
by towers. Either of these towers were themselves spacious enough to
have contained a temple. The temple court was enclosed by a wall 25 feet
thick and varying from 60 to 100 feet in height. Vast wealth was stored
in the temple, and this wall made it possible, in an age before
gunpowder, to protect the place from sudden attacks--always possible
contingencies. The temple itself was 1,180 feet long and 600 feet wide,
and was composed of many rooms and halls built by various kings. We
shall give attention to one alone--the famous Hall of Pillars.
Often has it been said that to describe this hall and do it justice
exceeds the power of mortals. It is on such a vast scale that modern
times have produced no structures with which to compare it.
The Hall of Pillars was originally 329 feet long and 170 feet in width.
Through its center were placed two rows of columns, six in each row.
Excluding pedestal and capital, these measured 60 feet in height and in
circumference were so large that should six men stand with arms
extended, fingers touching, they could scarcely encompass one. Seven
rows of pillars, somewhat smaller, were placed on either side of these;
the ceiling was supported by all these columns and was formed of mammoth
blocks of stone. Finally the entire interior was covered with
sculptures, paintings, and hieroglyphics--all recounting the exploits of
the king who built the hall. In a similar fashion the entire temple was
ornamented.
King succeeded king and each burned with ambition to exceed the skill of
his predecessor. Room after room was added to Karnak and the original
plan greatly expanded. Seti I. however built on such a tremendous plan
that none other eclipsed him, and the Hall of Pillars remains today a
mighty monument to a mighty ruler.
[Illustration: AMMON-RA, THE GREAT GOD OF THEBES.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Rawlinson, Ancient Egypt, 196.
[2] Breasted, Ancient Records, II, §§ 658f.
[3] Horus and Set.
[4] Isis and Nephthys.
[5] On the site of the modern Tell el-Amarna, about a hundred and sixty
miles south of Cairo, on the east bank of the Nile. Here the famous Tell
el-Amarna Letters were discovered in 1887.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY.[1]
Before Seti I., founder of the Nineteenth dynasty, succeeded to the
throne, peace and order had been once more restored to Egypt. One
important change had crept into the military life of the country, which
was to lead to trouble later on. Heretofore, Egypt had depended solely
upon her national troops to protect her borders and maintain her
position as first among the nations. Now her armies were increased by
mercenaries--foreign soldiers hired to do her fighting for her. History
has shown that uniformly when a people ceases to depend upon its own
citizens for the main strength of its army, taking instead hired
soldiers who fight simply for the love of fighting and for gain, serving
one cause today and another tomorrow,--whenever a nation has adopted
this policy of providing its armed forces, its years of strength are
numbered. So it was in Egypt. Troops from Libya, from Nubia and Ethiopia
made up her armies. During times of peace they returned to their kindred
and gave glowing accounts of the vast wealth of the Nile valley. It came
about naturally then, that African, as well as Asiatic, tribes looked
with longing eyes upon the coveted country and stood ready at the first
sign of internal weakness to revolt and share the spoils. Strong rulers
of the Nineteenth dynasty held their possessions intact, and foreign
nations bided the time when the first sign of weakness should be the
signal for action.
The immediate successor of Thutmose III. had little trouble in keeping
Syria in subjection. Taxes regularly reached Thebes. During the reigns
of the Amenhoteps, III. and IV., the Hittites began pushing south from
Asia Minor and organizing the revolt against Egypt. Upon ascending the
throne Seti I. found it expedient to push into western Asia and quell a
vigorous uprising. He was one of Egypt's most capable and farsighted
kings, and being as well a fearless warrior, he carried all before him.
He struck terror to the hearts of his enemies and returned home to find
the Libyans threatening his western borders. After defeating their
chiefs with great slaughter, Seti I. received a large number of their
soldiers into his army as mercenaries. This did very well for the time,
but before four hundred years had passed, their chiefs had become
powerful enough to snatch the throne of Egypt from its rightful
claimants.
Like most Egyptian rulers, Seti I. was a builder. From earliest years in
Egypt, imposing structures had supplied surest means by which a monarch
could leave evidences of his power. The position of chief architect to
the king had been filled by princes, who held it as a post of honor.
Often the king's sons planned temples for the king's construction, and
not infrequently gave personal supervision to their erection.
During the last period of civil disorder, many public monuments and
temples had fallen into decay. These Seti I. caused to be restored. He
invariably adhered to the original ideas of the builder, adding but an
inscription to show that by him they were restored. In this respect his
course differed widely from that of many of the Egyptian kings, notably
Ramses II., who boldly appropriated scores of temples and monuments,
substituting his name for that of the original builder. Frequently his
workmen did their task so badly that the first name has been deciphered.
In other cases, the true builder of the temple is now uncertain.
It was this king who erected the Hall of Pillars, of which we have just
learned. While temples were erected and restored throughout the land,
much of his attention was directed to Thebes--the great and splendid
city so long the capital of Egypt.
Thebes was built on the east side of the river. On this side dwelt the
pharaohs, the wealthy, and the poor. Here too were the shops, the places
of business and amusement. In fact, all the interests of living, pulsing
Thebes were centered here. On this side also, in the district of Karnak,
was the great temple of Amon. South of it rose the palace of the king;
around this were mansions of the wealthy, while in the narrow streets
reaching into the desert lived those of moderate and limited means.
South of Karnak lay the district of Luxor, and along the river between
these two districts stood the mud huts of the poor.
Crossing the Nile to the western bank, one came into radically different
surroundings. Here lay the City of the Dead. This was quite unlike any
cemetery of modern times. Here were temples, tombs of kings and queens,
tombs of the wealthy and the prosperous citizens, and the symbolic lake
of the dead. Here were the unpretentious tombs of the masses. Nor was
this all. We have seen that the Egyptian felt it necessary to supply his
dead with all the necessities of life, such as food, furniture, and
ornaments. Here, then, were the shops where such things might be
obtained. Here were the embalmers, the makers of linen used by them;
here lived the priests who said prayers over each finger and toe of the
deceased and made the body ready for its everlasting home. On the west
bank of the river lay a city in itself very different from the living
one across the water. Funeral processions constantly wended their way to
this City of the Dead; wails and lamentations often mingled in the air
with songs of the priests at their devotions. At sunset the gates
admitting to this portion of Thebes were locked and guarded against
bands of robbers who laid in wait for the riches enclosed in the tombs.
The tombs reached out to the rocky range of hills on the west and were
with difficulty protected.
Ancient Thebes extended some miles in each direction and covered
considerable territory. Little today remains to mark its early splendor.
The ruins at Karnak, the ancient mounds of Luxor, topped by a squalid
Arab village, some tombs opened, some still hidden by the sands, are
left. Much excavating has been done in this so-called "Valley of the
Kings." Strabo and other early writers left some description of the
original city, but aside from such records, little is left today to
indicate the glories of that Thebes which was for hundreds of years the
pride of Egyptian kings.
RAMSES.
Seti I. was followed by his son, the famous Ramses II., or Ramses the
Great. Recent historians claim that this king has been given undue
prominence, and that he was outranked by several Egyptian monarchs,
including his own father. While this is probably true, it would seem
that this pharaoh was as popular as any king who ruled in Egypt. He was
young and handsome when he ascended the throne, and possessed a power of
winning people to himself. That he was filled with self-pride, no one
can deny. He attached his name, as we have seen, to every temple and
monument where it was possible, and scattered statues of himself
broadcast. Yet the only poem that suggests the epic in all Egyptian
literature is the one known as "Pentuar's Poem," in which his bravery at
the battle of Kadesh was sung.
Ramses had penetrated into Asia to bring the revolting tribes back to
submission. During this particular battle, he became separated from his
body guard and suddenly found himself facing 2,500 charioteers alone.
His personal bravery on that occasion was splendid; his soldiers pressed
on to him quickly, but his daring was seen by them and greatly admired.
The poem of Pentuar was written to celebrate the king's courage in this
crisis.
PENTUAR'S POEM.[2]
"Then the King stood forth, and, radiant with courage,
He looked like the Sun-god armed and eager for battle.
The noble steeds that bore him into the struggle--
'Victory to Thebes' was the name of one, and the other
Was called 'contented Nura'--were foaled in the stables
Of him we call 'the elect,' 'the beloved of Amon,'
'Lord of truth,' the chosen vicar of Ra.
Up sprang the king and threw himself on the foe,
The swaying ranks of the contemptible Cheta.
He stood alone--alone, and no man with him.
As thus the king stood forth all eyes were upon him,
And soon he was enmeshed by men and horses,
And by the enemy's chariots, two thousand five hundred,
The foe behind hemmed him in, and enclosed him.
Dense the array of the contemptible Cheta,
Dense the swarm of warriors out of Arad,
Dense the Mysian host, the Pisidian legions.
Every chariot carried three bold warriors,
All his foes, and all allied like brothers.
"'Not a prince is with me, not a captain,
Not an archer, none to guide my horses!
Fled the riders! fled my troops and horse--
By my side not one is now left standing.'
'Great father Amon, I have known thee well,
And can the father thus forget his son?
Have I in any deed forgotten Thee?
Have I done aught without Thy high behest,
Or moved or staid against Thy sovereign will?
Great am I--mighty are the Egyptian kings--
But in the sight of Thy commanding might,
Small as the chieftain of a wandering tribe.
Immortal Lord, crush Thou this unclean people;
Break Thou their necks, annihilate the heathen.
And I--have I not brought Thee many victims,
And filled Thy temple with the captive folk?
And for Thy presence built a dwelling place
That shall endure for countless years to come?
Thy garners overflow with gifts from me.
"'I offer Thee the world to swell Thy glory,
And thirty thousand mighty steers have shed
Their smoking blood on fragrant cedar piles.
Tall gateways, flag-decked masts, I raised to Thee,
And obelisks from Abu I have brought,
And built Thee temples of eternal stone.
For Thee my ships have brought across the sea
The tribute of the nations. This I did--
When were such things done in former time?
For dark the fate of him who would rebel
Against Thee; though Thy sway is just and mild.
My father, Amon--as an earthly son
His earthly father--so I call on Thee.
Look down from heaven on me, beset by foes,
By heathen foes, the folk that know Thee not.
The nations have combined against Thy son;
I stand alone--alone, and no man with me.
My foot and horse are fled, I called aloud
And no one heard--in vain I called to them.
And yet I say: the sheltering care of Amon
Is better succor than a million men,
Or than ten thousand knights, or than a thousand
Brothers and sons though gathered into one.
And yet I say: the bulwarks raised by men
However strong, compared to Thy great works
Are but vain shadows, and no human aid
Avails against the foe--but thy strong hand.
The counsel of Thy lips shall guide my way;
I have obeyed whenever Thou hast ruled;
I call on Thee--and, with my fame, Thy glory
Shall fill the world, from farthest east to west.'
"Yea, his cry rang forth even far as Hermonthis,
And Amon himself appeared at his call; and gave him
His hand and shouted in triumph, saying to the pharaoh
'Help is at hand, O Rameses. I will uphold thee--
I thy father am he who now is thy succor,
Bearing thee in my hands. For stronger and readier
I than a hundred thousand mortal retainers;
I am the Lord of victory loving valor.
I rejoice in the brave and give them good counsel,
And he whom I counsel certainly shall not miscarry.'
"Then like Menth, with his right he scattered the arrows,
And with his left he swung his deadly weapon,
Felling the foe--as his foes are felled by Baal.
The chariots were broken and the drivers scattered,
Then was the foe overthrown before his horses.
None found a hand to fight; they could not shoot,
Nor dared they hurl the spear, but fled at his coming--
Headlong into the river."
Having quelled the disturbances incident to his accession--for a change
of rulers was generally the occasion for tribes held in tribute to seek
their freedom--Ramses was free to devote the remainder of his reign,
some forty years, to internal improvements. New cities, embankments,
fortresses, statues, obelisks and temples absorbed his untiring
interest. He seems to have been especially fond of grotto
temples,--those hewn out of rocky hills or mountain sides. Most
beautiful of these was the temple of Abu Simbel, guarded by four famous
statues of this king. They stand today much as they stood three thousand
years ago. One who has gazed upon the unaltering expression of these
sentinels says of them: "The artists who wrought the statues were ...
daunted by no difficulties of scale. Giants themselves, they summoned
these giants from out the solid rock and endowed them with superhuman
strength and beauty. They sought no quarried blocks of syenite or
granite for their work. They fashioned no models of clay. They took a
mountain and fell upon it like Titans and hollowed and carved it as
though it were a cherry stone; and left it for the feebler men of after
ages to marvel at forever. One great hall and fifteen spacious chambers
they hewed out from the heart of it, then smoothed the rugged precipice
toward the river, and cut four huge statues with their faces to the
sunrise, two to the right and two to the left of the doorway, there to
keep watch to the end of time.
"These tremendous warders sit sixty-six feet high, without the platform
under their feet. They measure across the chest twenty-five feet and
four inches.... If they stood up, they would tower to a height of at
least eighty-three feet, from the soles of their feet to the tops of
their enormous double-crowns."[3]
To estimate the cost of all those tremendous undertakings in human life
would be impossible. It is believed by some that Ramses II. was the
pharaoh of the oppression of the Hebrews. However, during his
administration they were well fed and while their tasks were hard, they
were not harder than those of other workmen similarly employed. It was
left for his son and successor to make their lot so grievous that a
deliverer was raised up to lead them out of bondage.
Regard for human life, compassion for the lowly, and the spirit of
humanity were qualities almost unknown in antiquity. The importance of
the individual has only in modern times come to be acknowledged. At the
period of which we are studying, there was no restraint upon the will of
the sovereign. To satisfy his ambition and to gratify his pride,
hundreds of thousands of slaves, captives, and impressed citizens were
continually sacrificed. Some were driven to the mines: others were
harnessed to huge blocks of stone to draw them from the quarry mountain
to the building site; some were set to work in the brick fields, and
over all were placed overseers to goad the workers on, giving little
rest or respite.
Regarding the Hebrews, it must be remembered that before the Nineteenth
dynasty, they prospered in the land of Egypt. A new king who "knew not
Joseph" looked with disfavor upon these foreign people waxing strong
within his borders. Feeling that they might become a menace to the
country, he determined to exterminate them by dint of excessive work.
One of the "store-cities" built by them under these circumstances has
been unearthed. It was surrounded by a wall thirty feet thick, which
enclosed about twelve acres. Besides a temple, the enclosure contained
subterranean cellars built of sun-dried brick. The bricks themselves
confirm the biblical version of the story. While some are mixed with
straw, as was customary, others were mixed with leaves and
reeds--indicating that straw was no longer supplied. Still others were
made simply of sun-dried mud.
Ramses II. so covered the land with his works and monuments of his
greatness, that his personality has stamped itself everywhere.
It caught the attention of early writers and has ever since impressed
itself upon the traveller, so that this king has been exalted to a
prominent place in Egyptian history. Best known of Egypt's kings, for
that reason, possibly, he has been most popular.
At length Merneptah ruled in his father's stead. Few qualities did he
possess to awaken admiration. When his armies were forced to face an
invasion of African tribes, reinforced by mercenary troops, he remained
in camp while his soldiers won victory for him. The god Ptah, so he
explained, had commanded him to stay inside. This did not deter him from
taking full credit for the successes. Upon his monuments were inscribed
records similar to this: "These people were meditating to do evil to
Egypt. They were as grasshoppers. Lo, I vanquished them; I slaughtered
them, making a spoil of their country."
It is supposed that at this time Moses came to the relief of Israel, and
asked permission for his people to withdraw a few days into the desert
to offer sacrifices to their God. This was the occasion for the king
both to deny the request and to double the tasks meted out to the
brickmakers by withholding straw and requiring the same amount of work
to be accomplished as before. Then, according to the Hebrew version,
grievous plagues were sent upon Egypt, and only when the king's son,
with the other first born, was stricken in the night, did the monarch
concede to the entreaties of his own people and bid the Hebrews depart
from his land. The story is familiar to all--how when he came to think
of the six hundred thousand valued bonds-people of which he was now
bereft, he dispatched the flower of Egyptian charioteers to prevent the
Hebrews crossing the Red Sea and bring them back to do his bidding. To
these despairing people to whom light seemed about to dawn, the fact
that they were able to cross over while the Egyptian horses were
ensnared and drowned, seemed a miracle enacted for their deliverance. It
has since been noted that similar tidal action at this point has
sometimes repeated itself. To the Hebrews, believing firmly in the
inspired mission of Moses, it was regarded later as an example of how
for the dutiful "all things work together for good."
TWENTIETH DYNASTY.[4]
Ramses III. was the first important ruler of the Twentieth dynasty. He
and his immediate successors were able to hold intact the vast empire
won by earlier kings. We hear no more of aggressive wars for conquest.
However, the time had come when Egypt did well when she maintained such
territories as belonged to her.
Men of Crete, other islanders and sea-faring people, made common cause
against the Asiatic shore early in this reign. Ramses watched their
progress until they attacked the Egyptian province of Palestine. Not
willing to lose this, the pharaoh marched against the plundering bands
and utterly routed them, taking many captives. Three other campaigns
were directed by this king, but they were carried on to defend Egyptian
borders and hold together tributary provinces.
Like his father, Ramses III. was a builder. Like him, too, he
appropriated earlier temples and monuments for his own fame and glory.
He built a fleet on the Red Sea, continued the profitable commercial
intercourse with Punt, and caused a large reservoir to be constructed in
Palestine. Another thing he did, which all histories have been careful
to chronicle: he ordered trees and shrubs to be systematically planted
throughout the realm. In a land where for months together the sun pours
its hot rays down on a defenseless people, he tried to bring rest and
cooling shade where both were sorely needed.
We have often noted the growing power of the priesthood in Egypt, and
have seen that a large amount of the booty and tribute which flowed into
the country from Asia found its way to the temples. An inventory of the
resources of the temples during this reign has come down to us in a
statement prepared by Ramses III., known now as the Papyrus Harris. From
this it appears that the temples owned 107,000 slaves--or 2 per cent of
the entire population; they possessed 750,000 acres, or over 15 per cent
of all the arable land in the valley. Some 500,000 head of cattle, over
80 vessels, 53 workshops and shipyards, brought an annual income; and
169 towns in Egypt Kush and Syria were theirs. All this property in a
land of less than 10,000 square miles and possibly 6,000,000 people, was
exempt from taxation.
The lion's share of all this wealth fell to the temples sacred to Amon.
The priests of Amon had charge of it, and as time went on, they came to
be regarded as superior to other priestly orders and their High Priest
became the head of all priesthoods in the realm. Of all the temple
estates, Amon owned two-thirds. In slaves, this god owned seven times as
many as any other; of the cattle, more than four-fifths; of the ships,
all but five; of the workshops, forty-six of the fifty-three were his.
Regarding Amon's coffers, Ramses had inscribed: "I have filled its
treasury with the products of the land of Egypt: gold, silver, every
costly stone by the hundred thousand. Its granary was overflowing with
barley and wheat; its lands, its herds, their multitudes were like the
sands of the shore. I taxed for it the Southland as well as the
Northland; Nubia and Syria came to it, bearing their impost."[5]
In showering all these princely gifts upon Amon, Ramses was but
following the example set by his forefathers. The kings themselves held
the priests somewhat in fear, believing that they had influence with the
gods and could indirectly influence not only their earthly prosperity
but their future welfare.
While this lavish wealth overflowed the coffers of the temples, we find
the workmen in the service of the government, laboring in the City of
the Dead--the Necropolis--having to resort to strikes, or in older
phraseology, "having to lie at home," because their monthly rations were
not forthcoming. The revenue of the government had, apparently, become
the spoils for corrupt officials who sought to increase their personal
incomes at the expense of the public treasury. Repeatedly starving
laborers left their work and started with their families to leave
Thebes, whereupon part of their rations would be given them and they
would be urged to continue at their tasks! Nor was this all. Records
have come down to us of bands of robbers who made a profession of
rifling tombs of the dead. Worse still, cases for trial were frequently
dismissed because officials themselves and priests of lesser position
were sharing in the booty! Some of the Ramessides removed their
ancestors from the original tombs and had all placed in a shaft where
guards could keep watch over them. It was next to impossible to protect
the wide-reaching City of the Dead, but it was worse than useless to
attempt such a thing when those supposed to lend protection were
themselves participating in the robberies.
After the death of Ramses III., his descendants to the number of ten
succeeded him. Then the High Priest of Amon snatched the power from
Ramses XIII., taking the title of king as well as the authority which he
already held. For some time the kings had been practically subservient
to him. For almost a hundred and fifty years priests ruled in Egypt.[6]
Under priestly rule the government was quite as corrupt as it had been
previously. Discontent on the part of the workmen, bold robberies of
tombs, were the order of the day. First Libyan, then Ethiopian chiefs
gained possession of the throne. The country fell apart; the days of
Egypt's glory were gone.
From this time forward her political power was at an end. To be sure,
Ethiopian kings took on Egyptian civilization--as a matter of fact,
their country had long been Egyptianized. They tried to rule as pharaohs
before them had done, worshipping Egyptian gods and keeping temples in
repair. To the average citizen, life was no doubt much as it had been in
former periods. But the old ideas were steadily falling away. The
Assyrians invaded the country, and later, the Persians under Cambyses
conquered it. Now and then a native prince would temporarily get control
and repulse the Libyans and Ethiopians on the west and Asiatic peoples
on the east. Such reactions and returns to the old order were
short-lived, and like the sudden glow of dying embers, bespoke an
approaching end.
Foreign people and foreign influences pushed into the valley. Especially
did they come from Greece. We have seen that rapid change and quick
assimilation were alien to the nature of the Egyptian. While the Greeks
gained much by this contact, their coming served but to make briefer the
remaining years of Egyptian life. Greek learning was taught and Greek
religion spread into the valley. Finally with the conquest of Alexander
in 331 B.C., the prevailing element in the land became Greek and so
remained until Rome extended her sway over all the ancient world.
When we think that each succeeding invasion was the occasion for
destruction; when plunder and fire vied with each other in despoiling
the conquered land; when later the few temples which had withstood these
experiences were robbed of their contents, and obelisks, monuments and
statues were scattered among the nations of the earth, to satisfy
personal gratification, we can no longer wonder that so little remains
of that Egypt we have been studying.
After the period of the priest-kings, the history of Egypt belongs to
the history of Assyria, Babylonia, Greece and Rome, and no longer
concerns us in our attempt to become acquainted with the "earliest
nations."
We feel some way that the end of Egypt's political power should have
been more splendid than it was--more worthy of her former dignity and
strength, and almost regret that the masses of her citizens had not met
their final repulse in some desperate rally to drive invaders from their
borders. But the end had been long drawn out. Generations of alien rule
had accustomed the people to accept this as a natural condition.
Rawlinson puts it well: "As it was, Egypt sank ingloriously at the
last--her art, her literature, her national spirit decayed and almost
extinct--paying, by her early disappearance from among the nations of
the earth, the penalty of her extraordinarily precocious greatness."[7]
Such being a brief survey of her political achievements, we turn now to
the life and customs of her people.
[Illustration: OSIRIS]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] 1350-1205 B.C.
[2] Records of the Past, ed. Dr. Burch. The author is unknown, but the
poem is known by the name of a scribe who once copied the production.
[3] Edwards: A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, 262
[4] 1200-1090 B.C.
[5] Breasted: History of Egypt, 493; trans.
[6] Twenty-first Dynasty, 1090-945 B.C.
[7] Rawlinson: Ancient Egypt, 402.
SOCIAL LIFE IN EGYPT
CHAPTER IX.
INTRODUCTORY.
The social life of ancient peoples has for many greater interest than
their political development. Before the days of Greece self-government
was unknown, and the king embodied in himself the government. Upon his
personal character, his foresight and statesmanship, the weal of the
country depended. For this reason, as we trace the political fortunes of
one nation and another in antiquity, we find that the story consists
largely of the doings of the monarch. When kings were strong and
ambitious, wide activities characterized their reigns; when they were
weak, unprincipled and selfish, their periods were less brilliant. In
any case, one feels how powerless were the masses--how utterly at the
will of the sovereign. To be sure, even in antiquity, it ill behooved a
ruler to disregard his subjects altogether, but conditions had to be
extreme before they would assert themselves against him.
Apart from a nation's political life, however, there is always a greater
life--the life of the people, regardless of their political relations.
One never exists without the other, and one is influenced by the other;
but the social body includes each and every one, whether of low or high
estate, while the political body may include but a portion of a nation's
people. Again, in spite of bad government, the selfishness of kings,
even in spite of invasions of the enemy, the daily life of the great
majority of early people varied but little. They procured food and
clothing, cared for their children, worked at their various callings, as
civilized beings have done in all ages. Certain peculiar customs are to
be found among each nation, and it is these very peculiarities,
probably, that relieves what might otherwise become a monotonous
repetition.
We cannot too often recall that the recorded history of ancient Egypt
extended over three thousand years. The manner of life, dress, customs,
etc., changed considerably in that long period, and just as we divide
the social life of England into various epochs--such as social
conditions under Saxon kings, during Norman rule, in Elizabethan years,
etc.--so, for any protracted investigation of social Egypt, we would
find it necessary to make several divisions of the subject.
The greatest source of knowledge for Egyptian social life is of course
the tombs. From their contents and from the pictures that adorn their
walls much has been ascertained. To be sure, many details are yet
lacking, and Egyptologists seek still for answers to unanswered queries.
Many recovered remains have not yet been classified, and rolls of papyri
lie still untranslated, so undoubtedly the future will make many
contributions to what has already been worked out. Nevertheless, even
now many aspects of the life of the old Nile-dwellers have been
reconstructed with considerable degree of certainty. These recent
conclusions have proven the ancient Egyptian to have been quite a
different creature from what he was long supposed. Until late years it
was believed that he was a solemn, serious individual, overwhelmed with
an ever-present thought of death, for which many of his acts in life
prepared him. This idea was mistaken. The religion of the ancient
Egyptian led him into many curious ways, beyond a doubt, but he was
withal a contented person who found some humor in life. The happenings
of his earthly career were as potent to him as ours are to us. The study
of history should do one thing for us at least: it should teach us to
find strong similarities between the people we see around us today and
those of whom we read and study in antiquity. The normal human being has
in all ages been governed by certain controlling interests, passions and
desires, has pulsed with the vigor of life and its manifold
interests--as we do now and as the Egyptian did, five thousand years
ago.
HOUSES.
In strong contrast with the solid, substantial tombs and temples were
the private dwellings. No need was felt to make these enduring. Rather,
they were constructed in such a way as to allow free circulation of air
and to preserve coolness. The walls were thin, being made of stucco, mud
brick, or wood. The outside of the house was decorated in gay colors,
and was hung with brightly tinted carpets or mattings. Similar coverings
adorned the inner walls.
Many pictures of ancient Egyptian houses have been found in tomb
pictures. It is apparent that the well-to-do citizen desired seclusion
for his home. An outer wall usually surrounded the house and out
buildings. The general plan of houses for people of comfortable means
was this: a gateway, often of cedar, gave entrance into a court. The
gate was kept locked, save when the keeper opened it to allow visitors
to enter or depart. Crossing the court--of varying size--one entered a
vestibule, guarded by a porter. This vestibule led directly to the
dining hall, the largest and most important room in the house. Sleeping
apartments for the family were reached through a second vestibule and
the kitchen, store-rooms, and servants' apartments, though joined on one
side, were separated from the main portion of the house by an inner
court. Often the houses were two stories in height. Generally a stairway
led to the roof, which was used for many purposes when the heat of the
sun was passed.
The wealthy required many buildings. One would be set aside for the
women; another contained reception halls for distinguished guests; a
third, store-rooms and supplies; and besides these there might be
several stables and separate quarters for slaves and servants. Service
was cheap and slaves plentiful, so people of even moderate means had
numerous assistants.
The elaborate estate of the wealthy was exceeded by the magnificence of
the pharaoh, who frequently constructed his own city, as it was called.
Here the king might have plenty of land and surround himself with as
many buildings as he chose, enclosing the whole by a wall. In bitter
contrast to this royal splendor was the squalor of the poor, whose
shelter was a tiny hut built of sun-dried mud.
For those whose incomes permitted, the garden was the favorite spot.
This we would naturally expect in a country where out of door life is
interrupted only in the middle of the day by the intense heat. In the
garden, trees, shrubs, and many kinds of flowers were planted. Its size
depended upon the prosperity of the owner. Sometimes the court, however
tiny, provided all the garden plot he possessed; sometimes extensive
grounds included flower-gardens, date orchards, and sycamore groves,
while summer houses and artificial ponds were scattered over wide areas.
Small wonder was it that the "pious Egyptian hoped his soul, as its
supreme felicity, would return to sit under the trees he had planted, by
the side of the ponds he had dug, there to enjoy the refreshing breeze
from the north."
The Egyptians were passionately fond of flowers. They grew them in their
gardens, filled their houses with the blossoms, used them lavishly at
their feasts and carved them on their tombs and in their temples. They
sought ever to increase their varieties, originally few, and we have
seen that the kings often prized new specimens found in other lands
above their tribute.
"Everywhere on the monuments we meet with flowers; bouquets of flowers
are presented to the gods; the coffins are covered with wreaths of
flowers; flowers form the decoration of the houses, and all the capitals
of the pillars are painted in imitation of their colored petals. The
Egyptian also loved shady trees. He not only prayed that the 'Nile
should bestow every flowering plant in their season' upon his departed
soul, but also that his soul might sit 'on the boughs of the trees that
he had planted, and enjoy the cool air in the shade of his sycamore.'
The arable fields, the shadeless woods of palms, the bare mud soil,
scarcely provided the scenery which he most admired; he therefore tried
to supply the want by landscape gardening. In the oldest periods there
were parks and gardens; and the gentleman of ancient Egypt talked with
pride of his shady trees, his sweet-smelling plants, and his cool tanks.
All the sentiments with which we regard the woods and meadows of nature,
the Egyptian felt towards his well kept garden; to him it was the
dwelling place of love, and his trees were the confidants of lovers.
"On the 'festival day of the garden,' that is on the day when the garden
was in full bloom, the wild fig-tree calls to the maiden to come into
the shade of the fig leaves as a trysting place:
"The little Sycamore,
Which she planted with her hand
She begins to speak,
And her (words are as) drops of honey.
She is charming, her bower is green,
Greener than the (papyrus).
She is laden with fruit,
Redder than the ruby,
The color of her leaves is as glass,
Her stem is as the color of the opal....
It is cool in her shadow.
She sends her letter by a little maiden,
The daughter of her chief gardener
She makes her haste to her beloved:
Come and linger in the (garden) ...
The servants who belong to thee
Come with the dinner things;
They are bringing beer of every (kind),
With all manner of bread,
Flowers of yesterday and of today,
And all kinds of refreshing fruit.
Come, spend this festival day
And tomorrow and the day after tomorrow
Sitting in my shadow.
Thy companion sits at thy right hand,
Thou dost make him drink,
And then thou dost follow what he says....
I am of a silent nature
And I do not tell what I see
I do not chatter."[1]
Having attractive grounds as a setting, the houses of the wealthy
Egyptians were also attractive indoors. The dining room was the
important room of the house. Guests generally sat on stools when dining.
When ladies gathered for a banquet, they frequently sat on costly rugs
spread upon the floor. Servants or slaves served those assembled from a
large table loaded with tempting viands.
The Egyptian seems no longer far away and mummy-like when we learn that
he was fond of good things to eat. Roast goose was a favorite dish;
bread and beer were constantly in demand, quite as they are in Germany
today. In naming over the dishes he hoped to supply his departed, in a
tomb we may read: five kinds of birds, sixteen kinds of bread and cake,
six varieties of wine, and eleven different fruits. The bread, molded
into fancy shapes, was made of barley and wheat. Grapes were generally
grown, and fig trees too. Tame monkeys were trained to go into the high
branches of the fig trees and throw down the fruit.
Many specimens of ancient household furniture have been found in
Egyptian tombs, such as chairs, couches, tables and bedsteads. In the
sleeping apartments, high couches were reached by steps. Wooden
headrests took the place of pillows. These were used in order that the
wigs and elaborate head dresses might not be disturbed while the wearers
slept.
The student who would make an exhaustive study of the Egyptian house and
its contents must go to the museums where discovered articles have been
preserved, or at least to the detailed descriptions of these given by
Maspero and other Egyptologists. We could not well leave a consideration
of the subject however, without giving brief attention to the dwellings
of the poor, who in every age and country have made up a large part of
the population.
The fellah of today lives much as did the peasant of antiquity. His
dwelling was a hut built of mud and roofed with palm leaves. While the
poorest had but one room, those who were more industrious, perhaps,
might have two or three. Once or twice in a century, rain would fall.
Then these huts would dissolve and flow away. When the storm ceased, all
the family would set to work, level off the spot and construct a new
dwelling from sun-dried mud, which after being exposed to the heat of a
few days, would be as good as ever. This leveling of huts, whether
caused by storms, or because it was easier to build a new house than
cleanse the old one, has elevated the land in many parts of Egypt.
Frequently it is the case that peasants have dwelt so long on the sites
of buried cities, that the explorer who today would reach the original
settlement must tunnel down through many layers of sun-dried mud, once
the dwellings of the poor.
FAMILY LIFE.
It is frequently said that the test of a nation's civilization is the
position accorded to woman. Applying this test to Egypt, her
civilization would rank well with nations of modern times as well as
with those contemporaneous with her. From the earliest times of which we
have record, Egyptian women were the companions and trusted counsellors
of their husbands. During the New Empire it was the boast of one of the
Ramessides that any woman might go alone and unveiled as far in any
direction as she wished, confident that she would not be accosted nor
disturbed.
Two customs prevailed in ancient Egypt that are contrary to the moral
standards of our day: one was the practice of a brother marrying his
sister; the second, a husband having more than one wife. Early peoples
did not regard these practices in the light of modern opinion. The
Hebrews, for example, frequently took two or more wives, and the same
habit obtained among the Babylonians and Assyrians. Among pastoral
tribes of the present day this custom survives. In all cases, _one_
woman was regarded as the legitimate wife, and her children were heirs
to their father's estate, while children by his other wives might or
might not be recognized by the father as his heirs, according to his
pleasure. As a rule, only the well-to-do Egyptian could afford the
luxury of two wives, so that polygamy was not common among the lower
classes. There seems to have been little friction in the Egyptian
household between the several wives. Stories have come down to us of
women who cared enough for other wives of their husbands to name
children for them. Certain marks of honor were the right of the first
wife and were conceded as a matter of course.
The marriage of those close of kin was quite usual. The word _sister_ in
Egypt came to be used interchangeably for wife or sister. In this land
it appears to have frequently resulted that a boy and girl, brought up
in the same family, having similar ideas and interests, married and
lived happily together in their married life.
Multifarious were the duties of a wife of the middle class. She cared
for the family, spun and wove, sent the little ones to school and took
them a lunch at mid-day. She drew water at the nearest pool, ground
corn into meal and made the meal into cakes; she drove the cattle to
pasture and collected the fuel. What did not this mother do? It is
little wonder that from lack of care and nourishment, large numbers of
children died before they became ten years of age. Those who lived were
indeed the survival of the fittest, and aside from a disease of the
eye--brought on by the glaring sand and burning sun--they were generally
healthy and equal to any hardship. Marrying young, women were often
grandmothers at thirty. Although they faded early, they did not suffer
in their position in the family on that account. Great respect was shown
them while they lived, and after their death they were worshipped--for
the Egyptian always worshipped his ancestors. Believing that the soul
lived on, it might work harm for the surviving relatives and friends
unless appeased with marked consideration. This desire to escape
possible harm by satisfying the departed appears to have been the strong
motive inducing ancient peoples to worship the dead.
The children were left with the mother until almost four years of age.
Dolls and other toys found buried in the tombs with little ones show
that they, in those far away times, were quite like children who have
lived since. When four, they were sent to an elementary school. If at
ten the son had evinced any special ability that would justify educating
him, he was put into a school maintained by the priests. Here he was
trained for a scribe unless his early promise was borne out by rapid
progress, in which case he was educated for the priesthood. If by the
age of ten he had given no special evidence of ability, he was taught a
trade.
The old idea that caste was strongly marked in Egypt is not only
misleading but untrue. Class distinctions were closely drawn in Egypt,
as they are today, even in America. The average child born in the slums
of a city seldom comes to importance. The son of a day laborer rarely
marries into the wealthy or so-called "old families." The reason for
this is not so much that there is objection in America to the humblest
born rising to any height, but that the opportunities for progress to
one born into such surroundings are few. It was somewhat similar in
Egypt. Chances for rapid advance were by no means as favorable then as
now, but nevertheless, there are many cases on record where men
attained high official position in spite of great social disadvantages.
[Illustration: TOURISTS SCALING THE GREAT PYRAMID.]
The affection of the Egyptians for their children was almost universal.
Large families were desired, even by those in moderate circumstances.
Indeed it was necessary that families be perpetuated, for thus alone
would family tombs be kept up and respect be shown those who had
departed. Among all people who worship ancestors, children are
especially desired and to be bereft of them is the greatest hardship and
affliction.
In spite of all that has been said of the respect paid to women, the
happy domestic relations in Egypt and the affection for children, it is
doubtful whether or not there was much home life as we today understand
the phrase. The importance of the individual is a modern conception. The
will of the king was paramount in Egypt and all citizens were first of
all subservient to his wishes. Less security, less freedom in pursuing
one's own course probably resulted in brief periods of family unity.
Surely such must have been the result of early marriages which took
children from their parents at a tender age.
DRESS.
Suppose for a moment that some unforseen catastrophe should wipe out the
inhabitants of England, and future generations attempted to reconstruct
their history, from the age of King Arthur and his knights to the
peaceful days of Edward the Seventh. After working out an outline of
their political development, suppose it should be asked, But how did
these people dress? Think of the variety of costumes that have been
popular since the Round Table days! Who could describe them all? The
task would be disheartening indeed. And yet, far more years sped over
Egypt than England has yet known.
Living in a warm country, the Egyptian required simpler raiment than the
Englishman. In early times a short, scant skirt was worn by both men and
women--the children were generally not clothed at all. This skirt, which
formed the foundation of all the later, more elaborate dress, changed in
style from one age to another. Sometimes it was scantier than at other
times and it varied in length. During the Sixth dynasty, either by means
of pressing, or by some device, the front of the skirt was made to
assume a stiff, triangular appearance. As pictured on the tombs, it
looks like a three-cornered apron. In the Old Empire, the great lords
threw a panther skin across their shoulders, when, as Erman expresses
it, "they wished to appear in full dress."
In the Middle Empire people of high position wore two skirts, the under
one short and of heavy linen; the outer skirt so sheer that the contour
of the body was quite visible.
By the Eighteenth dynasty it had become customary to clothe the upper
portion of the body. Even now the arms were left free. The king appeared
occasionally in a mantle and the nobles also donned mantles for festival
days.
Working people always clothed in the simplest fashion. All garments were
frequently discarded in the field, as they impeded rapid movement. The
supersensitive modesty of our day which cries out against a low bodice
or lace hose, even raises objection at undraped marble statues, had no
part in the thought of these simple-hearted, pure-minded people; yet
they showed a fitting sense of decorum and dignity.
It was the men in Egypt who delighted in finery and showy costumes,
while the dress of the women was plainer and remained almost wholly
unaltered for centuries together. Their usual garment during the later
periods was a close fitting gown reaching from under the arms to the
ankles, and mistress and maid were dressed much alike. In the New Empire
a cloak was added, but it and the gown beneath were of sheerest linen
procurable. As time went on, garments of both men and women were
elaborately embroidered.
The ancient Egyptian desired to preserve absolute cleanliness. Scenes
characteristic of washing day have been pictured on many a tomb. The
chief washer was assisted by others who beat the clothes, wrung them
out, bleached and dried them. It was the desire to be clean which led
these people to shave their heads and beards. Wigs of curled wool and
others of long hair are constantly seen in the old pictures, although it
sometimes appears that these covered heads already crowned by a natural
growth. While they shaved off the beard as something unclean, the
Egyptians still shared in the idea common to oriental peoples that a
beard gives added dignity, hence the king and men of rank wore
artificial beards on state occasions. Even Queen Hatshepsut assumed one
when she wished to appear regal.
Sandals and foot gear were not popular at any time, although men of the
higher classes wore them when they walked abroad. Men and women alike
donned necklaces and bracelets, while women wore anklets also. Earrings
were introduced by foreigners and rings seem to have been confined to
seal rings. Walking sticks were carried as badges of honor and each
style of stick indicated a degree of social rank.
The Egyptians painted their faces, rouged their lips, blackened their
eyes, and oiled their hair and bodies. At a feast a slave would bring a
ball soaked in oil for each guest, place it on his head, in order that
the oil might gently percolate through the hair of the banqueter during
the meal. The dead were provided with many kinds of oil, perfumes, and
rouges for use of the double, or ka.
Probably many allowed their hair to grow long, for we find physicians
taxed to their utmost to supply concoctions which would produce heavy
growths of hair, strengthen it and prevent it from turning grey. All
these remedies are found in old papyri:
To prevent the hair turning grey: "The blood of a black calf, cooked in
oil--a salve."
Or this: "Two parts of bloods, horn of a black cow, warm it up for a
salve."
When the hair fell out: "Take fat of the lion, of the hippopotamus, the
crocodile, the cat, the snake, and the ibex."
To strengthen the hair: "Anoint it with the tooth of a donkey crushed in
honey."
Or try this: "Boil the hoof of a donkey in oil together with a dog's
foot, and some date kernels."
[Illustration: VIEW OF MANSION, FROM THE TOMB OF ANNA, EIGHTEENTH
DYNASTY.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt, 193.
CHAPTER X.
SPORTS AND RECREATIONS.
The pastimes and diversions of any people fall easily in two divisions;
those which are adapted to the open air, and those enjoyed indoors. The
popular outdoor sports among the Egyptians were hunting, fishing and
boating, while the banquet with its attendant dancing and music, helped
them to pass those hours when Amon, god of the sun, concealed, reigned
over all.
The wealthy Egyptian liked to take his wife or family in his light boat
and wander at will among the reeds and marshy plants abounding in the
little streams and lakes left still undrained. It was fine sport to flit
in and out among the tall papyrus, rouse a flock of birds and bring some
of them down with the boomerang. Fishes were plentiful in the streams,
and the sportsman chose to get them with a two-pointed spear. If he
became expert, he could spear two at once--one on either point. To be
sure, the game dealers, requiring large numbers of fish and fowl, caught
both in a net. Only the noble or the well-to-do had time to indulge in
hunting and fishing for mere diversion. In the tomb pictures, gentlemen
are shown seated in their gardens, on costly rugs, it may be, leisurely
spearing fish in their own artificial ponds. This was too simple a
process for any but the most indolent, and did not appeal to the true
sportsman who loved the natural streams.
Great was the attraction of these marshy lakes. "Much of the country
formerly covered by marshes and tropical forests was already arable
land. At the same time old river beds remained; stretches of marsh and
half-stagnant water, overgrown as of old with papyrus reeds, offered
shelter to the hippopotamus, the crocodile and to numberless
water-birds. This was the happy hunting ground of the great lords of
ancient Egypt, the oft-mentioned 'backwaters,' the 'bird tanks of
pleasure.' They played the same part in Egyptian life as the forest in
German folk lore; the greatest delight perhaps that an Egyptian knew was
to row in a light boat between the beautiful waving tufts of the
papyrus reeds, to pick the lotus flowers, to start the wild birds and
then knock them over with the throw-stick, to spear the great fish of
the Nile and even the hippopotamus, with the harpoon. Pictures of all
periods exist representing these expeditions, and we have but to glance
at them in order to realize how much the Egyptians loved these wild
districts, and how much poetry they found in them."[1]
Danger mingled with sport in capturing the larger game--the hippopotamus
and crocodile. Pictures of crocodile hunts have not been found. Probably
they were not painted, because in certain parts of Egypt these animals
were held sacred to some god, and even those who did not share this
belief might not have cared to record the killing of them in the tomb.
No such feeling existed concerning the hippopotamus and he who was
successful in securing one seldom failed to have the hunt pictured in
his tomb. You will remember that in ancient Egypt, each person built his
own tomb during his life time, and so decided for himself for what he
was to be remembered.
The deserts and mountains on either side offered game to the hunter.
Gazelles, antelopes, foxes, hares, and other small animals, such as
rabbits, abounded. Did one crave greater adventure, he might follow the
leopard and the lion. It was quite the custom for the wealthy man, who
followed the chase for sport, to collect wild animals and add them to
the menagerie usually found on the large estates. Here were elephants
and baboons from Asia, giraffes from the upper Nile, lions, leopards,
hyenas and gazelles from the deserts. Some became quite tame and were
taught tricks. Lions were favorite pets, and kings often took them along
on their campaigns. Monkeys were found in almost every household; and
since hunting was so popular, various kinds of hounds were more numerous
than other species of dogs.
In addition to the small canoe in which he hunted water birds, the
nobleman usually had a large, square-sailed, double-masted boat in which
he would take his family and friends for an evening sail down the river.
His musicians would accompany him, and dispense sweet strains on their
harps and lutes, in harmony with the quiet waters.
Feasting was popular alike with men and women. Music and dancing were
invariably furnished as means of entertainment. Many pictures of the
banquet remain. Sometimes ladies in elaborate toilettes are shown,
partaking of all sorts of dainties, while dancing girls move gracefully
before them, beating time to the music which accompanied them. Sometimes
the dances were intricate; one of them pictured in a tomb seems to
represent papyrus reeds, swaying in the wind. Others were yet more
elaborate.
Music was popular among all classes. Flutes, lutes and harps are shown
in the tomb pictures. Singing often accompanies the harp. Among the
superintendents of "all the most beautiful pleasures of the king" were
superintendents of singing. Thus it seems royalty, at least, did not
trust to inspiration for entertainment, but prudently had it arranged
and rehearsed in advance. At Memphis there is said to have been a school
where music was taught to girls.
Some games of chance were popular in Egypt. Checkers was known and a
picture remains wherein Ramses II. is playing the game with his
daughter.
It remains to speak of certain other customs of the feast. The ladies
would come together to make their toilets, rouging their lips,
blackening their eyes, offering one another their flowers to smell, and
examining each other's jewelry.
"The serving boys and girls go round, offering ointment, wreaths,
perfumes, and bowls of wine. They challenge the guests at the same time
to 'celebrate the joyful day' by the enjoyment of the pleasure of the
present moment; the singers also continually repeat the same as the
refrain to their song. They sing to the guests as they quaff the wine:
'Celebrate the joyful day!
Let sweet odours and oils be placed for thy nostrils,
Wreaths of lotus flowers for the limbs
And for the bosom of thy sister, dwelling in thy heart
Sitting beside thee.
Let song and music be made before thee.
Cast behind thee all cares and mind thee of pleasure,
Till cometh the day when we drew towards the land
That loveth silence.'
or:
'Put myrrh on thy head, array thyself in fine linen,
Anointing thyself with the true wonders of God.
Adorn thyself with all the beauty thou canst.
With a beaming face celebrate the joyful day and rest not therein
For no one can take away his goods with him,
Yea, no one returns again, who has gone hence.'"[2]
The men banqueted alone. Dancing and music diverted them during the
feast. It was customary to pass the image of a mummy around at the
feast, while words similar to these were repeated: "Look upon this and
know, even as it is, so shalt thou be--for all must die." This in no way
dampened the pleasures of the night; rather, each sought to enjoy to its
fullest capacity the fleeting hours.
[Illustration: FACADE OF A HOUSE TOWARD THE STREET. SECOND THEBAN
PERIOD.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt, 235.
[2] Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt, 255.
CHAPTER XI.
AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE RAISING.
Owing to the inexhaustible fertility of the Nile valley, fine crops were
always forthcoming on the land reached by the annual overflow. The rich
mud deposited by the flood left the productive qualities of the soil
restored, and it was never necessary to leave the fields lie fallow.
However, the ground had not only to be merely reached by the river
waters, but to be saturated, for rain seldom fell and whatever humidity
was supplied the growing vegetation, came from the overflow. A system of
irrigation brought the water in trenches as near each farm as possible.
From these trenches, thousands of men and boys, employed throughout the
country, lifted water in buckets to the higher land, that all the crops
might receive sufficient moisture.
As soon as the river receded, all the valley was astir with busy people,
getting the ground ready for the grain and other seed. Implements of the
farm were crude indeed, and crude they are today. A high official in
recent times had a quantity of agricultural implements, such as are used
by the most progressive farmers in America, imported into Egypt and
endeavored to encourage the peasants to use them. Not they. What had
served the needs of seven thousand years in their valley was deemed
sufficient for them, and after some time, the entire outfit had to be
sold for old iron.
Pictures in tombs depict many scenes connected with grain
production--from the plowing of the soil to the storing of the grain
into granaries. From these pictures we are able to outline the daily
life of the peasant.
Their plows were crude, wooden implements, which at best did little more
than scratch over the soil. Coarse clods of earth had to be broken with
a sort of wooden hoe. Then the farmer scattered seed over the mellow
ground, driving flocks of sheep across the fields to tread it in. Aside
from the matter of irrigation, the crops needed little attention until
the time for harvest. Then the grain was cut by a sickle, loaded on to
donkeys and taken to the threshing-floor, located near the village. Here
in early times it was trodden out by donkeys, driven back and forth over
it. Later oxen were in greater favor for threshing. The grain was freed
from chaff by throwing it up into the air rapidly. The grain fell
straight down, while the chaff was blown forward. Now it was ready for
the "scribes of the granary," who measured it and supervised it while
being stored safely away. Sometimes the boats of a nobleman would ply
back and forth for weeks together, bringing his heavy yield of millet
and barley to his granaries.
One word about the "corn" of Egypt. The Indian corn which we call corn
today is a native American product, and was unknown to antiquity. Corn
has been used as a common name for all grain. Wheat, barley and millet
were the leading grains of Egypt.
Taxes were paid in kind--in produce; so naturally, large quantities of
grain were poured yearly into the coffers of the government. This was
stored against times of need which occasionally fell upon Egypt. It was
in one of these years when a famine swept over the east that Joseph's
brothers came down into the valley to buy grain from government
granaries.
Little is known of the vegetables grown in antiquity. Probably many of
those common today were raised. Melons were extensively grown; onions
and cucumbers were probably known and the grape vine was extensively
cultivated.
Cattle raising was carried to some perfection. The Egyptians understood
well the secrets of high breeding and produced especially fine specimens
of cows and oxen. Being fond of all animals, they were partial to the
ox, symbolic of great strength, and to the cow, sacred to Isis. As the
lion, with its strength, has appealed to many people, so the ox was a
favorite with the dwellers on the Nile.
The herders made up a class by themselves. In the summer they drove the
cattle up north, into the marshes, where pasture was good. The average
Egyptian looked upon these men with deepest disgust, for they let their
hair grow, and wore beards. They lived in portable reed huts. Their
lives were quite primitive and they had a general unkempt appearance.
They dressed very little, and their efforts to copy the Egyptian skirt
in their stiff matting, afforded the townsman much amusement. They
spent their idle time weaving papyrus reeds into mats, and wove boats
from the same useful plant.
When the fall came, they returned with their herds from the northern
marshes. When they reached home, officials came to inspect the flocks.
They noted the increase of the stock, all losses and other matters of
interest to the owners. Records show that single proprietors sometimes
owned as many as 1,300 cows, in addition to other cattle.
Large flocks of sheep were kept, and goats were plentiful. Few pictures
of pigs are to be seen, and those only in the New Empire period. The pig
was objected to on religious grounds, as unclean.
Their fondness for animals led the Egyptians to receive as many wild
animals as possible into their flocks. These were fattened with the
cattle. Mention is made of the ibex and antelope being especially valued
when they had been fed for awhile with the herds.
Birds were apparently not extensively domesticated. This was not
necessary, for the bird-catchers could find any number of ducks and
geese in the marshes, fatten them for a time, and supply them without
the trouble of raising them. The goose was the favorite bird. Roast
goose was a favorite dish and was offered as a delicacy to the gods.
Pictures even show geese kept as pets, in the place of dogs or monkeys.
While the whole civilization of Egypt was based on its agriculture and
its cattle raising, the farmer and herder had no social standing. The
tiller of the soil was regarded as an overworked creature who never
became prosperous. The land was generally owned by great noblemen of
wealth, who themselves received the profit.
"The following sad sketch of the lot of the harvestmen was written by
the compiler of a didactic letter, of which many copies are extant, and
implies not only a personal opinion, but the general view of this
matter: The worm has taken half of the food, the hippopotamus the other
half; there were many mice in the fields, the locusts have come down and
the cattle have eaten, and the sparrows have stolen. Poor miserable
agriculturist! What was left on the threshing floor thieves made away
with.... Then the scribe lands on the bank to receive the harvest, his
followers carry sticks and the negroes carry palm rods. They say: 'Give
up the corn'--and there is none there. Then they beat him as he lies
stretched out and bound to the ground, they throw him into the canal and
he sinks down, head under water.... This is, of course, an exaggerated
picture, which is purposely overdrawn by the writer, in order to
emphasize the striking contrast that he draws in his eulogy of the
profession of scribe; in its main features, however, it gives us a very
true idea, for the lot of the ancient peasant very much resembled that
of the modern fellah. The latter labours and toils without enjoying the
results of his own work. He earns a scanty subsistence, and,
notwithstanding all his industry, he gains no great renown amongst his
countrymen of the towns; the best they can say of him is, that he is
worthy to be compared with his own cattle."[1]
ARTISANS AND THEIR CRAFTS.
Countries today can easily import such articles of manufacture as are
not produced within their own boundaries. A single household may possess
silk made in India, porcelain from China, curtains and laces from
Belgium, cutlery from England, and some musical instruments made in
Germany. All this was different in antiquity. Egypt long remained
isolated. She developed a higher civilization than her neighbors, and
what her people required had to be produced for the most part within her
borders. It followed naturally that a wide variety of trades and crafts
grew up in the limited valley of the Nile. To be sure, during her empire
period many lands sent their choicest products as tribute, yet even
then, Egyptians held first place in certain arts and crafts.
There was little native wood in the valley. When the conquests of
Thutmose I. established relations with Syria, woods were imported to
some extent. Mummies have been found encased in the rare cedars of
Lebanon. Generally speaking, however, substitutes had to be found for
timber. Light boats were made from reeds, and for the making of larger
ones, boatmakers became expert in joining together small pieces of wood,
thus forming large boards, strong enough to bear severe strains. For
some purposes, cartonage was substituted. This was composed of several
layers of coarse linen glued together. It was used extensively for the
manufacture of coffins. In veneering rare woods upon less costly
foundations, the Egyptians far surpassed any modern efforts. Wood
carvers reached a high degree of skill in fashioning little statuettes
and images from wood, also in carving, with exquisite detail, tiny
wooden amulets and ornaments. Handles of knives sometimes display the
dexterity of the wood carvers.
Even greater, perhaps, was their success in metal work. Bronze was
commonly used for articles of every day use. Iron was known and was
reserved more especially for weapons of warfare and for some kinds of
knives. For a time, silver was more highly valued than gold, being more
rare. Later it was found in greater quantities, and took rank with gold,
or had even less value. Statues of the gods were made commonly in
bronze, although many were fashioned from gold. The goldsmith was a
person of good social standing. He made statues of the gods to adorn the
temples and he cut and set jewels for royalty. The number of precious
stones was quite extensive in Egypt. Diamonds, rubies and sapphires were
seemingly unknown, but amethysts, emeralds, garnets, agates, jasper and
lapis lazuli were available. The Egyptians, both men and women, were
very fond of personal adornments, and jewelry was worn in profusion by
the wealthy and to some extent by all. Amber, turquoise, coral and
pearls were popular. Every man wore a seal ring--and this not merely as
an ornament. Letters and documents were never signed in these
ages--rather, one affixed his seal. The noble wore a costly ring; the
citizen of humble position, one of slight value, but every one who
expected to transact any business or carry on any correspondence wore a
seal ring of some kind. Women, to the same extent, wore necklaces. Most
elaborate ones have been discovered in the tombs of royalty; very simple
ones adorned the necks of the humbler women, yet none was so poor as to
lack a necklace altogether. Bracelets, anklets, hair combs and
ornaments, amulets, chains, and scarabs were greatly in demand, and the
goldsmiths of ancient Egypt attained great originality, skill and
perfection in his art. So constant being the demand for inexpensive
jewelry, remarkable skill was reached in imitating precious stones in
glass. Indeed, it is difficult for experts today to determine in some
cases whether the stone be real or imitated.
In glass work, the Egyptians preferred colored glass to the clear.
Whatever glass utensils remain are invariably colored. Blue was a
favorite color. Thin layers of glass were used sometimes to decorate
coffins. Blown glass was not made in early times, statements to the
contrary notwithstanding. Pictures once supposed to represent glass
blowers at work are now understood to depict one stage of metal working.
Pottery was never brought to any high mark by the Nile dwellers. Clay
utensils were used for only the most ordinary purposes, and the jars,
bowls, and vases which remain give evidence of poor material having been
used in the first place, indifferent labor in the next place, poor fire
and little skill in ornamentation. These indifferent results were
satisfactory enough for the commonest uses and for anything more,
something in metal appears to have been demanded.
Hunting being a favorite pastime, and cattle raising carried on to such
a wide extent, Egypt became rich in skins. The skins of rarer animals
were never shorn of the natural hair. This was dressed and used for
coverings of couches and chairs--for shields and even garments. Skins of
cattle were made into leather and worked up into sandals, straps and
aprons for workmen. Pictures of boats are shown with leather sails, and
leather was used for manifold purposes.
The extensive use of linen for clothing necessitated a large production
of flax. Those who wove--mostly women, in spite of Herodotus to the
contrary--attained a high skill and dexterity in their work. Linen was
generally kept white, and was frequently made so thin and sheer that the
outlines of the body were visible through it.
Of the condition and life of the average artisan, we know that he was
allowed to hold no office under the government and had no political
rights whatever. Every man was obliged by law to have some calling and
to follow it, nor could he work at trades other than his own. This
insured good work--always exacted by the Egyptians from their workmen
who often received but meager food and no wages. Probably the highly
prized work of the goldsmith was well paid. The Egyptians frequently
paid for their goods in kind.
Large numbers of laborers belonged to the state or the temples, and they
were provided only the bare necessities of life. Some of these men knew
how to chisel the hard granite which almost defies the strong steel of
today; others could decorate tombs with animated scenes which still
today retain their original colors. All these men lived in wretched
poverty, in little mud huts, and often had to besiege their overseers
for bread. It appears to have been customary to give these workmen their
monthly rations at the beginning of the month. Probably the supply was
scanty at best, and the hungry laborers made heavy inroads upon it
during the first few days. Ere twenty days had passed they were often
entirely out of meal for bread, to say nothing of oil and other
necessities. Only a threat to appeal to the king would at times bring
the needed food. The workmen maintained that the officers withheld from
them their dues, only to add it to their own personal stores--a claim
that was no doubt well founded, and needs no better proof than the
granting of more food to those who united and ceased to work until
supplies were forthcoming.
MARKETS.
For an understanding of the old Egyptian market we can do no better than
read the description worked out by Maspero from scenes still existing in
the tombs:
"We ... suddenly emerge into the full sunshine of a noisy little square,
where a market is being held. Sheep, geese, goats, asses, large-horned
oxen, scattered in unequal groups in the center, are awaiting a
purchaser. Peasants, fishermen, small retail dealers, squat several deep
in front of the houses, displaying before them, in great rush baskets or
on low tables, loaves of pastry, fruit, vegetables, fish, meat raw or
cooked, jewels, perfumes, stuffs, all the necessities and all the
superfluities of Egyptian life.
"The customers stroll past and leisurely examine the quality of the
commodities offered for sale; each carries something of his own
manufacture in his hand--a new tool, some shoes, a mat, or a small box
full of rings of copper, silver, even of gold, of the weight of an
_outnou_ (a little over two ounces), which he proposes to barter for the
objects he requires. Two customers stop at the same moment in front of
a fellah, who exhibits onions and wheat in front of a basket. Instead of
money, the first holds two necklets of glass or of many colored
earthenware, the second a round fan with a wooden handle, and one of
those triangular ventilators which the cooks use to quicken the fire.
'Here is a beautiful necklet which will please you, this is what you
want,' cries the former; whilst the latter urges, 'Here is a fan and a
ventilator.' However, the fellah, quite overcome by this double attack,
methodically proceeds to first seize a string of beads for closer
examination. 'Let me see it, that I may fix a price.' The one asks too
much, the other too little; from concession to concession they finally
come to terms, and settle the number of onions or the weight of corn
which the necklet or fan may be worth. Elsewhere it is a question of
bartering a pair of sandals or a row of enamelled beads for some
perfume. 'Here,' urges the buyer, 'is a very strong pair of shoes.' But
the seller does not require shoes for the moment, so he offers one of
his small pots in exchange for a row of beads. 'It is delicious when a
few drops are poured out,' he explains, with a persuasive air. A woman
thrusts under the nose of a kneeling individual two jars, probably
containing some ointment of her own manufacture. 'Here,' she cries, 'it
smells sweet enough to entice thee.' Behind this group two men are
discussing the value of a packet of fish-hooks; a woman, box in hand, is
a vendor of bracelets and necklets; another woman endeavors to obtain a
reduction upon the price of a fish, which is being dressed before her.
"When it is a question of a large animal, or of objects of considerable
value, the accounts become intricate. For instance, Ahmosou sells a bull
for a mat, five measures of honey, eleven measures of oil, and seven
objects of different kinds. Now, imagine the calculations which must
have been made before he succeeded in establishing such a complicated
balance.... The mat was estimated at 25 outnou, the honey at 4, the oil
at 10, and so on, the whole weighing 119 outnou, which is not too dear
for a beast in good condition. This custom of payment by one of the
usual metals is so convenient, and dispenses with so many calculations,
that it has been adopted even for the minor transactions of daily life.
The butcher, the baker, the corn-chandler, all the small tradesmen
prefer exchange for metal, which is of small compass and does not spoil,
to exchange for objects, often bulky in size, which is liable to
deteriorate if kept too long in the house. A pair of ducks is worth a
quarter of an outnou in copper; a fan, a quarter; a bronze razor is
worth a whole outnou; a pickaxe, two; a goat, two; an ox-head, half an
outnou in silver; a leather bottle of fine wine, three outnou of
gold....
"Two or three commercial streets or bazaars open from the other side of
the square, and the crowd hastens towards them when it leaves the
market. Nearly their whole length is filled with stalls and shops, in
which not only Egypt, but the majority of the oriental nations display
their most varied productions. Beautifully ornamented stuffs from Syria,
Phoenician or Hittite jewellery, scented woods and gums from Punt and
the Holy Lands; lapis and embroideries from Babylon; coral, gold, iron,
tin and amber from the far-distant countries beyond the seas, are found
scattered pell-mell amongst the native fine linen, jewels, glass-work
and furniture. The shop is usually independent from the rest of the
house, and is let separately. It is a small, square room, often a simple
shed, widely open in front, and closed every evening by means of wooden
shutters, held in place by cross-bars with one or two mats, one or two
low stools, some shelves fixed to the wall, which hold the goods;
perhaps behind the shop are one or two carefully closed rooms where the
most valuable objects are stored. Most of the tradesmen are also
manufacturers. They have apprentices or workmen who work for them, and
they join them during the intervals between their sales.... Artisans of
the same trade have usually a natural tendency to collect together, to
dwell side by side in the same place--blacksmiths with blacksmiths,
curriers with curriers, goldsmiths with goldsmiths, forming a small city
in which objects of the same kind only are found."[2]
THE BUSINESS OF WAR.
It would be misleading to speak of the profession of war in Egypt, for
the Egyptians were essentially unwarlike. In early times they lived in
their isolated valley, and the nature of the country on either side of
them was not such as to tempt them to reach out to conquer it. When
Nubian and nomadic tribes stole their cattle and otherwise molested
their outlying districts, it was a comparatively simple matter to
repulse them and reduce their number. Such raids were not regular
military campaigns--far from it. They were expeditions of plunder and
pillage. "I have carried off their women and captured their men; for I
marched to their well; I slew their oxen, cut down their corn and set
fire to it." Thus did one pharaoh record his victory on a monument
raised to commemorate it. War with tribes of this strength was not
likely to elevate the military standard of Egypt.
Contact with the Hyksos during the Middle Empire taught the Nile
dwellers more of warfare than they had previously known. By superior use
of arms these Asiatics were able to take possession of the land, which
they held until, from the struggling feudal nobles, a ruler came forth,
strong enough to establish himself and collect an army. By adopting the
method of battle practised by the enemy, the Hyksos were at last driven
from the valley, and were pursued far beyond their former borders.
The New Empire saw a brief period of military successes, but they rested
on a slight foundation. The Egyptians were naturally poor soldiers. A
strong and fearless general was able to rouse them to action, and by
meeting detached tribes, they were able to overcome them. Then with
confidence born of success, they sometimes made a brilliant progress to
the civilization of Mesopotamia. Asiatics had not yet learned the real
nature of those to whom they offered tribute. When once it was learned,
tribute was no longer forthcoming, or indeed, it was sometimes demanded
by the Asiatics of Egypt.
Of the life of a private soldier, we know very little. During times of
peace he was a tiller of the soil, or a common laborer. He thought no
hardship greater than that which compelled him to enter the service of
an army. He regarded war as the greatest evil and was disheartened by
the slightest defeat. This was poor material to convert into effective
soldiers and only when the Egyptian king received a large number of
mercenaries into his ranks was his army particularly efficient.
Many times several thousand soldiers were dispatched to escort workmen
sent to obtain granite for the king's tomb. It is probable that their
duties were less military than civil, for they no doubt were set to
cutting out the granite from the quarry and assisted in transporting it
to the building site.
Of the equipment of the soldiers, it seems that in early times they
carried simply a bow, wearing ostrich feathers on their heads as a token
of victory. Later they carried shields and spears or battle axes. The
order of battle in later times was to place chariots in the front and
rear, with strong detachments of infantry between them. Ramses II.
caused the whole story of his victory over the Hittite king at Kadesh to
be painted in his temple. This is one of the best sources for military
history during the New Empire. "We see how the soldiers of the 'first
army of Amon' pitch their camp; the shields are placed side by side so
as to construct a great four-cornered enclosure. One entrance only is
left, and this is fortified with barricades and is defended by four
divisions of infantry. In the middle of the camp a large square space
indicates the position of the royal tent; the smaller tents of the
officers surround it. The wide space between these tents and the outer
enclosure serves as a camping-ground for the common soldiers and for the
cattle, and here we see a series of life-like scenes, in the
representation of which the Egyptian artist has evidently taken great
delight. In one corner stands the rows of war-chariots; the horses are
unharnessed and paw the ground contentedly, while they receive their
food. Close by are posted the two-wheeled baggage cars; the oxen are
looking round at the food, and do not appear to trouble themselves about
the king's big tame lion, which has lain down near them wearied out. The
most characteristic animal in the camp, however, is the donkey with his
double panniers in which he has to carry the heavy sacks and jars of
provisions. We meet with him here, there, and everywhere, in all manner
of positions; for instance, he drops on his knee indignantly, as if he
could carry his panniers no longer; he prances about when the soldiers
want to lade him with the sacks; he lies down and brays, or he takes his
ease rolling in the dust near his load. The boys, also, whose business
it is to fasten up the donkeys to pegs, contribute to the general
liveliness of the camp; in more than one place they have begun to
quarrel about their work, and in their anger they beat each other with
the pegs. Other boys belonging to the camp have to hang the baggage on
posts, or to bring food for the soldiers, or to fetch the skins of
water. These boys insist upon quarreling too; the skins are thrown down,
and they use their fists freely.
"In contrast to these scenes of daily life in the camp, we have on the
other hand a representation of the wild confusion of battle. Close to
the bank of the Orontes is the royal chariot, in which the king stands
drawn up to his full height; behind and on each side the chariots of the
Cheta[3] surround him; while many more are crossing the stream. The
Egyptian chariots are indeed in the rear of the king, but in order to
come to his help they would have first to force a way through the
chariots of the Cheta. In the meantime, the Pharaoh fights by himself,
and pours down such a frightful rain of arrows on the enemy that they
fly in wild confusion. Hit by the arrows, their horses take fright, dash
the chariots to pieces, and throw out the warriors, or they get loose
and breaking through their own ranks, spread confusion everywhere. The
dead and the wounded Cheta fall one upon another; those who escape the
arrows of the king throw themselves into the Orontes and try to swim
across to Kadesh, which is seen on the opposite bank surrounded by walls
and trenches....
"Whilst the Pharaoh thus slays the Cheta, the prince of the latter
people stands watching the battle from the corner between Kadesh and the
Orontes in the midst of a mighty square of 8,000 foot soldiers of the
elite of his troops; 'he does not come out to fight, because he is
afraid before his Majesty, since he has seen his Majesty.' When he sees
that the battle is lost, he says in admiration: 'He is as Sutech the
glorious, Ba'al lives in his body.'"[4]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt, 415.
[2] Maspero: Ancient Egypt, 18.
[3] That is, the Hittite king.
[4] Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt, 529.
CHAPTER XII.
PRAISING LEARNING.[1]
I have seen violence, I have seen violence, give thy heart after letters.
I have seen one free from labors; consider there is not anything beyond
letters.
Love letters as thy mother. I make its beauty go in thy face.
It is a greater possession than all besides.
He who has commenced to avail himself is from his infancy a counsellor.
He is sent to perform commissions.
He who does not go is in sack-cloth.
I have not seen a blacksmith on a commission, a founder who goes on an
embassy.
I have seen the blacksmith at his work at the mouth of the furnace.
His fingers like things of crocodiles, he smells worse than the eggs
of fishes.
Every carpenter carrying tools,--is he more at rest than the laborer?
I tell you the fisherman suffers more than any employment.
Consider, is he not toiling on the river? he is mixed with the
crocodiles.
Should the clumps of papyrus diminish, then he is crying for help.
If he has not been told that a crocodile is not there, terrors blind him.
Consider, there is not an employment destitute of superior ones
Except the scribe, who is first, for he knows letters; he is greater
than they.
Shouldst thou walk after great men, thou art to proceed with great
knowledge.
Do not say proud words. Be sealed in thyself alone.
SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION.
The Greek loved learning for itself alone. Not so the Egyptian. He, too,
praised learning and considered no calling so worthy as that of the
scribe. It was not because an education lifted one out of a sordid world
to purer heights of knowledge, however, but rather, because the scribe
was exempt from physical exertion, and if ambitious and persevering,
might find all official doors open to him. A citizen wished his son to
receive an education in order that he might occupy a position superior
and less arduous than he could otherwise hope to fill. The lot of the
laborer in Egypt was hard. Working constantly he could but provide
himself and family with their scanty food and scanty clothing. At any
time he might be pressed into public service and here he was fortunate
if he received "one clean garment once a month," in addition to his
monthly rations. Scribes were safe from physical toil. Quite naturally,
it followed that a family would make every possible sacrifice that one
of the children might be fitted for a life more safe and comfortable
than the average. No higher ideal, no loftier motive seems to have
actuated the parent than this: to qualify his son for an easy and
lucrative position in life.
There were elementary schools in Egypt in an early age. These were open
to all children, who probably paid a small fee to the teacher. Gradually
also, there grew up around the temples schools for the training of boys
for the priesthood. As the empire grew and tribute was asked and
received from many tribes and countries, many scribes--copyists and
accountants--were needed in the service of the government, and schools
were opened in connection with the court to educate boys to meet this
new demand.
Having spent a few years in the elementary school, the average boy was
set to work to assist with the cattle, gather fuel, care for the ducks
and geese about his home, and later was put to learn a trade--generally
the trade of his father. However, if a boy showed special aptitude for
learning or seemed more alert and clever than ordinary, he was sent to
the school for scribes. Here the training was vigorous. The scribe would
waken the youth, calling: "The books are already in the hands of thy
companions, take hold of thy clothes and call for thy sandals!"
Discipline was rigid indeed. An old adage held that a boy's ears are
placed on his back--he hears if he is flogged.
You will remember how complex were the Egyptian styles of writing--both
hieroglyphic and demotic. Consequently to be able to read and write was
considered a great accomplishment. Having mastered the art of writing,
the youth was set next to copying. Many of the old copy books still
exist, for it was customary to place them in the tomb with the deceased.
Three pages a day was the usual lesson. "By the age of ten or twelve,"
says Maspero, "the child was ... apprenticed to a scribe in some office,
who would undertake to make him a _learned scribe_. The boy accompanied
his master to the office or work-yard, and there passed entire months
copying letters, circulars, legal documents, or accounts, which he did
not at first understand, but which he faithfully remembered.... The
pupil copied and copied, the master inserted forgotten words, corrected
the faults of spelling, and drew on the margin the signs or groups
unskillfully traced. When the book was finished and the apprentice could
write all the formulas from memory, the master entrusted him with the
composition of a few letters, gradually increasing the number and adding
new difficulties. As soon as he had fairly mastered the ordinary daily
routine his education was ended, and an unimportant post was sought."[2]
The Egyptians never investigated a subject until they reduced it to a
science. A certain knowledge of geometry was necessary to determine
boundaries of land, so valuable along the river that very small areas
were sometimes in dispute. A knowledge sufficient for this purpose the
Egyptians possessed, but they never delved deeper into the matter and
became proficient in it. They studied astronomy and made charts of
portions of the heavens. They studied arithmetic, but never, for
example, wrote a fraction with a numerator larger than 1; instead of
writing 2/3 or 5/8 they wrote: 1/3, 1/3; 1/2, 1/8. It has taken much
patience and some ingenuity to understand problems found already worked
out in the copy books.
The subject of medicine was deemed important, but the ancient Egyptians
knew nothing about it, generally speaking. Magic, drugs, herbs and
incantations were used together. Believing that the welfare of the soul
depended upon the preservation of the body, students never had the
opportunity of dissecting bodies, either animal or human. They had no
idea of the vital organs, and when they were successful in relieving a
patient, it was when, like some old herb woman, they had learned the
properties of healing plants and had watched their effects in many cases
until they became skillful in administering them. When one was ill, it
was thought that an evil spirit had entered his body. By magic words
this must be driven out before recovery could be hoped for. Magic
greatly aided medicine, according to this view. Here is a formula for a
magic mixture: "Take two grains of incense, two fumigations, two jars of
cedar oil, two jars of tas, two jars of wine, two jars of spirits of
wine. Apply it at the place of thy heart. Thou art protected against the
accidents of life; thou art protected against a violent death; thou art
protected against fire; thou are not ruined on earth, and thou escapest
in heaven."
LITERATURE.
Egypt seems to have been lacking in any considerable number of literary
works. Records were kept in the temples; treatises on religion, magic
and medicine have been found. The Book of the Dead was familiar to the
living and indispensable to the departed. Some folk lore, hymns of
worship and of victory, and a few stories, more or less complete,
remain. Vast numbers of papyri have undoubtedly perished, but reference
would probably be made in existing manuscripts to great productions, and
these are lacking. Giving all credit to what has been recovered and
allowing for the destruction of time, the fact remains that in
literature Egypt was not productive.
There are no literary remains antedating the Middle Empire; however, we
have traces of folk songs and of myths which were earlier known. The old
belief that the Egyptians had no secular literature was mistaken. Our
greatest sources of knowledge regarding their literature have been the
tombs and temples, and these were not places in which a people would
have chosen to preserve its lighter literature.
It is probable that just as the workmen sing today, while they work
along the Nile, so too they chanted in earliest times. Under the most
trying conditions in Egypt, laborers sang as they worked. The scribes
did not think it worthy of their dignity to chronicle folk songs.
Probably little thought was ever given to them. Occasionally a few lines
are quoted beneath some tomb pictures to make it more vivid.
"The herdsman wading in the mud as he drives his sheep over the fields
from which the flood has not yet entirely retreated, says to his flock:
'In the water walks your shepherd with the fishes; with the catfish
talketh he; with the fish he changeth greeting.' Another song
accompanied the work equivalent to threshing. The ancient Egyptians,
like the Israelites, did not use flails, but after scattering the corn
on the threshing-floor, they drove oxen over it to tread out the grain.
Then was sung with variations: 'Thresh, oh ye oxen! Thresh for
yourselves! Oh ye oxen thresh for yourselves! Thresh straw for your
fodder, thresh grain for your master. Take ye no rest, cool is the air
this day.'"[3]
Mythological tales grew out of an attempt to explain natural
phenomena--the rising or setting sun, the struggle between light and
darkness. All phenomena which attracted sufficient attention furnished
material for myths. It has been observed for instance, that certain
stars never set, whereas others after performing their courses sank
below the horizon. The Egyptians expressed this by the myth of the
Crocodile of the West, which fed upon the setting stars.
"The sunrise and sunset, alternation of day and night, the solar drama
in all its details, furnished the subject of Egyptian mythology. In
other countries the sun-god rode in a chariot; in Egypt he rode in a
boat. Hence the sky is considered an expanse of water, the Nile being
the earthly representative. Seb is the earth, Nut the heaven. Osiris
their son, is the sun and is wedded to Isis, the dawn. From their union
sprang Horus, the Sun in his full strength. Set the destroyer, is
another child of Seb and Nut. He is darkness and weds Nephthys, the
Sunset. The contest between Seb and Osiris is the constant subject of
mythological story."
Traces of these early folk songs and early myths survived in Egyptian
literature. The literature of the Middle Empire shows an eager interest
in travel. Of the few books that remain from this period several relate
adventures in distant parts.
Most of the remaining literature belongs to the New Empire. Lyrical and
didactic poems, stories, records and documents were then produced in
considerable number. It would appear that the Egyptians never wrote a
history of their country. Accounts, more or less in detail, cover
several reigns, but nothing like a chronological treatise of their
development was apparently undertaken. The New Empire knew far less of
the Old Empire than we know today.
In the realm of religious writing, the Book of the Dead was most
important. Its negative confession to be made before the judges of the
dead would imply a high degree of morality, but the truth was that it
came into being in an early stage when words were thought identical with
the thing itself. We find all peoples passing through a period when
great importance was given the spoken word. "I have not been idle; I
have not been intoxicated; I have not told secrets; I have not told
falsehoods; I have not defrauded; I have not slandered; I have not
caused tears; I have given food to the hungry; drink to the thirsty, and
clothes to the naked." That confession was probably formulated in this
early period when such stress was given to the spoken word. Later, when
people understood the difference between the name and the thing itself
the confession remained the same, because all things pertaining to
religion are last to change.
The _Precepts of Ptah-hotep_, prince of the Fifth dynasty, is one of the
oldest known books in the world. It is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale
at Paris and is made up of what would be equivalent to twenty printed
pages of precepts written to admonish the young. The following indicate
their nature:
"Be not arrogant because of that which thou knowest, no artist being in
possession of the perfection to which he should aspire."
"If thou hast become great after having been little, harden not thy
heart; thou art only the steward of the good things of God."
"Let thy face be cheerful as long as thou livest; hast any one come out
of the coffin after having once entered it?"
Before leaving this brief consideration of Egyptian writing, we should
understand what supplied the writing material of Egypt. The papyrus
reeds have frequently been mentioned with no explanation of their use.
From this word papyrus has been derived our word _paper_.
The reeds grew thick along the sides of streams. Their stems were three
cornered and about three inches wide at the base. By peeling off the
outer tough green covering, a white pith was obtained. Splitting it and
laying strips together, the edges lapping, and upon a surface so formed
placing a second layer running the other way, sprinkling the whole with
the muddy Nile water, and putting it all under a press made up the
process of manufacturing a composition which could be cut into thin
sheets. These afforded all the writing material known until the seventh
century after Christ, when prepared skins, or parchment, were sometimes
substituted.
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SCRIBES]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] From inscription on a tomb; trans. in "Dwellers on the Nile."
[2] Maspero: Ancient Egypt, 9.
[3] Popular Literature of Ancient Egypt. Wiedermann.
CHAPTER XIII.
RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT.
The life of the ancient Egyptians was in a great measure controlled by
their religious beliefs. In prehistoric times, as has already been
explained, each nome, or province, was independent, and was the home of
some tribe or tribes. Just as we find the American Indian worshipping
the stick that was powerful enough to throw him in the forest, so these
primitive people worshipped animals and trees. Each animate object was
conceived as possessing a soul or spirit, and this spirit accounted for
the qualities or characteristics of the object--were they good or ill. A
lion possessed savage tendencies--hence they would worship him and
propitiate his spirit, and their attitude was the same toward the
crocodile, the ram, the elephant, and many other animals. The date-palm
brought them great blessings--therefore they would worship the tree and
insure a continuance of these blessings. As time went on, they grew to
worship gods, and to the gods these trees and animals, worshipped
earlier on their own account, were thought sacred.
Each village and town had its own local deity and special objects of
worship, while the nome as a whole recognized gods of a more general
character. In this way, each province of Upper Egypt--which was older in
civilization than the Delta--and various portions of Lower Egypt,
developed religions complete and independent of one another. After many
hundred years, when all Egypt was united under one government and one
king, the priests attempted to comprise these various beliefs into a
common faith, to recognize the principal gods of all the nomes in the
temples, and to evolve one religious system from the many local systems.
This they never succeeded in fully accomplishing. They included in their
lists some seventy deities, and harmonized some features of worship, but
each locality clung to its ancient deity and several different religions
can be traced throughout Egyptian history.
Like most primitive people, the Egyptians worshipped the sun. This god
revealed himself in many forms, but chiefly as Horus, represented by a
falcon, and Re or Ra, represented by the Scarabaeus.
Osiris ruled in the kingdom of the dead, and he was thought to be just
and good. With his wife, Isis, and his son, Horus, he was worshipped
throughout the land, while everywhere Set was regarded as the principle
of Evil.
Qeb was the god of Earth and Nut, his wife, the queen of the heavens,
which in this connection signifies the skies. Their children were
Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nebthet (Nephthys). Mat was the goddess of truth
and justice.
One finds similarities between some of these divinities and the
divinities of the Greeks--as for example, Nut reminds one of Hera, and
Set was feared as much as Pluto; but it is dangerous to make these
comparisons, for the religious conceptions of the two nations were
fundamentally different.
The Egyptians usually represented their deities with human bodies and
the heads of the animal sacred to each. So, for example, Horus always
has the head of a sparrow-hawk; Thot, that of an Ibis, and so on. The
prominent feature of this religion was the veneration of animals. It was
believed that sometimes the god-spirit took up his abode within certain
animals, and for this reason certain animals were regarded as sacred and
were therefore, objects of worship. Ptah was the god of Memphis. He, it
was believed, took the form of the Apis-bull, hence this bull was
regarded as sacred.
"The Apis bull dwelt in a temple of his own near the city, had his train
of attendant priests, his meals of the choicest food, his grooms and
currycombers who kept his coat clean and beautiful, his chamberlains who
made up his bed, his cup-bearers who brought his water, and on certain
days was led in a festive procession through the main streets of the
town, so that the inhabitants might see him, and come forth from their
dwellings and make obeisance. When he died he was carefully embalmed,
and deposited, together with magnificent jewels and statuettes and
vases, in a polished granite sarcophagus, cut out of a single block, and
weighing between sixty and seventy tons. The cost of an Apis funeral
amounted sometimes, as we are told, to as much as $100,000. Near
Memphis the number of Apis bulls buried in this fashion was found to be
sixty-four."[1]
In another locality the crocodile was the object of adoration, because,
as in the case of the Apis bull, it was believed that some god dwelt
within it.
"The crocodile was principally worshipped about Lake Moeris. A chosen
number of these animals were kept in the temples, where they were given
elegant apartments and treated to every luxury at public expense. Let us
imagine a crocodile, fresh from a warm, sumptuous bath, anointed with
the most precious ointments and perfumed with fragrant odors; its head
and neck glittering with jeweled earrings and necklace, and its feet
with bracelets wallowing on a rich and costly carpet to receive the
worship of intelligent human beings! Its death was mourned as a public
calamity; its body, wrapped in linen, was carried to the embalmers,
attended by a train of people weeping and beating their breasts in
grief; then having been expensively embalmed and bandaged in gaily
colored mummy cloths, amid imposing ceremonies it was laid away in its
rock sepulchre."
For these absurdities the Egyptians were ridiculed by other nations of
their own times. Their adoration of animals led to most degrading
excesses. The cat was considered sacred throughout the land, and
punishment of death was meted out to persons injuring one.
WORSHIP OF THE NILE.
HYMN TO THE NILE.
Hail to thee O Nile!
Thou shewest thyself in this land
Coming in peace, giving life to Egypt;
O Ammon (thou) leadest night into day,
A leading that rejoices the heart!
Overflowing the gardens created by Ra.
Giving life to all animals;
Watering the lands without ceasing,
The way of heaven descending,
Lover of food, bestower of corn,
Giving light to every home, O Ptah!
Bringer of food! Great Lord of provisions,
Creator of all good things!
Lord of terrors and of choicest joys!
All are combined in him.
He produceth grass for the oxen,
Providing victims for every god.
The choice incense is that which he supplies.
Lord in both regions,
He filleth the granaries, enricheth the storehouses,
He careth for the state of the poor.
Thou shinest in the city of the King;
Then the householders are satiated with good things,
The poor man laughs at the lotus.
All things are perfectly ordered.
Every kind of herb for thy children,
If food should fail,
All enjoyment is cast on the ground,
The land falls in weariness.
O inundation of Nile, offerings are made to thee:
Oxen are slain to thee:
Great festivals are kept for thee;
Fowls of the field are caught for thee,
Pure flowers are offered to thee.
Offerings are made to every god
As they are made unto the Nile.
Incense ascends unto heaven,
Oxen, bulls, fowls are burnt!
Nile makes for himself chasms in the South;
Unknown is his name in heaven,
He doth not manifest his forms,
Vain are all representations!
Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile, shine forth
Giving life to his oxen by the pastures,
Giving life to men by his oxen,
Shine forth in glory, O Nile!
More natural seems to us the worship of the Nile. There was a certain
beauty which we today can still appreciate in the festivals celebrated
each year on the banks of the rising water--which alone brought
happiness and prosperity to all. Hapi was the god of the Nile and he was
worshipped alike throughout Upper and Lower Egypt. Hymns were chanted to
him, as it was believed he might be importuned to rise high enough to
insure sufficient water, while if neglected, only a partial flood might
occur. One of these hymns was something like this:
Hail to thee, Hapi
Who descendeth upon earth
And giveth life unto Egypt.
Thou who art hidden in the unknown
Whose waters spread upon the fields
Which the sun-god hath created;
And giveth life to all who are athirst.
Thou, the Creator of corn,
The Maker of barley----
Do thy waters cease to flow,
Then are all mankind in misery;
When thou wanest in heaven
The gods and all living things perish.
It would be useless for us to attempt to become familiar with all the
Egyptian divinities. In the age when people conceived and worshipped
them, the gods of a given locality were often unknown in a neighboring
city, and the animals held to be sacred in one town might be eaten as
food in another.
In addition to all their deities, ancestors were worshipped by the
Egyptians, and an altar was erected to the departed in every home.
It was believed that the soul left the body after death in the form of a
bird (ba), dwelled apart from the body, but would often return to it for
nourishment and earthly comforts. In early days, therefore, food in
great abundance was placed in the tomb, or the priests were paid to
provide daily food for the deceased. Later it was felt that the ka--or
that portion of the dead which required nourishment--was a mere shadow,
a ghost, a phantom, and so pictures of things to eat would satisfy as
well as the articles themselves. Carrying out this idea, the Egyptians
pictured upon tomb walls all stages of growing grain, from the time the
seed dropped upon the mellow soil until the ground flour was served in
loaves for the feast; meat was shown, in all its forms: from the ox,
feeding in the pasture, to the juicy roasts, made ready for the table.
Such scenes as these adorned the interior chambers of the tomb; upon
them, it was believed, the phantom-like ka might look and be appeased.
In a recently excavated tomb, liquid honey was discovered. Meats too,
encased for at least 3,000 years, for the sustenance of the deceased,
were here, while a lengthy menu covered a wall, stating the amount of
food at the disposal of the departed. 5,006 geese, so it read, were at
his command, but the number 5,006 was simply written beneath one
pictured goose!
Beds, chairs, toilet articles, chariots, and countless other objects
were left in the tomb of the well-to-do Egyptian, but were placed apart
from the mummy, which was sealed up in a private apartment by itself,
while a statue or image of the deceased was left near the belongings.
It was believed that at death the ba--or soul--went on a long journey to
the land where Osiris reigned, and so great were the dangers of the way
that many amulets and charms were laid by the departed to assist him in
passing the obstacles of the road he must needs encounter. He who
arrived at last at the land of Peace, where the joys of life abided
without the sorrows of earth, came into the presence of Osiris. Here he
made a negative confession, similar to the following: "Hail unto you, ye
lords of Truth! hail to thee, great god, lord of Truth and Justice! I
have not committed iniquity against men! I have not oppressed the poor!
I have not laid labor upon any free man beyond that which he wrought for
himself! I have not starved any man! I have not caused any to weep!...
There is no crime against me in this land of the Double Truth!"
[Illustration: DROMOS AND SECOND PYLON, TEMPLE OF KARNAK.]
These and many more denials of sin were made and it sometimes happened
that the confession was inscribed on one wall of a tomb while elsewhere
were shown captives taken in war, slaves oppressed by labor, and other
incidents in the earthly career of the departed which lead us to infer
that the gods were supposed to be too mighty to take notice of most
remarkable contradictions.
After the confession of the candidate for admission to the realm of
Osiris, his good and evil deeds were weighed in a balance and if his
virtues outweighed his failings, he was admitted to the land of the
departed, a counterpart of his own Egypt.
A vast priesthood was required to preside over a religious system so
complex as that of Egypt and the priests gained great influence over the
people. The reason for this is apparent when we consider the prevailing
ideas of the country. The body of the dead must be preserved, for upon
its preservation depended the fate of the soul. To this end the body
must be properly embalmed and entombed. The embalmers were under the
control and supervision of the priests. Again, the soul of the departed
must be assisted upon its perilous journey to Osiris by prayers said
over each finger and each portion of the body. These prayers could be
offered only by the priests themselves. Such a condition as this gave
the priesthood of Egypt an opportunity to make itself supreme in the
land, and this opportunity it was quick to seize upon.
TEMPLES.
Many questions concerning Egyptian worship still remain unanswered. What
part did the citizen take in the worship of his national gods? What
effect did the worship of these gods have upon his life? We do not
know--we cannot tell. It appears that his ancestral gods, worshipped at
an altar in his own house, where of first importance. Some understanding
of the temples and temple ceremonies cannot fail to throw light upon
this old religion. Several of the old ruined temples may be seen today,
standing like forest trees which have outlived their neighbors.
There is not in all Egypt a temple perfectly preserved; but by locating
here an avenue of approach, there, a gateway, finding courts in other
places, and halls and chapels, one comes at length to piece the whole
together and to get some conception of the original entirety of the
ancient temple.
In Greece the people built temples to their gods. In Egypt the king
built them. Offerings were brought to the shrines of the Greek gods by
every citizen in the land. In Egypt most of the gifts came from the
king. To be sure there were special offerings made by all on feast days,
but the king and the priests were alone responsible for the Egyptian
temples; and while throngs accompanied processions thither on days of
sacred festival, there is nothing to show that they had any part in the
ceremonies.
The general plan of the temple was this: an avenue of approach--varying
in length, and lined usually on either side by rows of sphinxes--led to
a gateway, guarded by towers. In the Old Empire these towers served for
defense, and seem later to have been preserved for decorative purposes.
The gate admitted one to a court, open to the sky and outlined by
pillars. In direct line with the gateway was the entrance to a large
hall, supported by columns and lighted by small openings under the roof.
Within this hall were celebrated the sacred festivals. At the end of the
hall a small chapel was built which contained an image of the god of the
temple. Sometimes two other chapels were placed, one on each side of
this, and contained images of the god's wife and son, or his wife and
daughter. The images sometimes represented the animal sacred to the god,
or, again, would have a human body and merely the head of the sacred
animal or bird. Later an image of the god himself was attempted. The
tiny room or cell wherein these were kept was called the Holy of Holies.
Before the door were inscribed these words: Four times must he purify
himself who enters here.
Some temples were much more elaborate and complex than the simple one
just described.
The doors of these chapels were always left sealed, and whenever they
were opened, a clay seal was affixed. Having purified himself, the
priest would fill the hall with the smoke of incense, break the seal,
open the door and fall down, offering incense and kissing the ground
before the image. Then a hymn of praise was probably sung.
RISE OF THE NILE.
"King and Father, gift and giver,
God revealed in form of river,
Issuing perfect and sublime,
From the fountain-head of time;
"Whom eternal mystery shroudeth,
Unapproached, untraced, unknown;
Whom the Lord of heaven encloudeth
With the curtains of his throne;
"From the throne of heaven descending,
Glory, power, and goodness blending,
Grant us, ere the daylight dies,
Token of thy rapid rise."
Ha, it cometh! Furrowing, flashing,
Red blood rushing o'er brown breast;
Peaks and ridges, and dome dashing
Foam on foam, crest on crest!
But the time of times for wonder
Is when ruddy sun goes under;
And the dust throws, half afraid,
Silver shuttles of long shade.
Opens then a scene, the fairest
Ever burst on human view;
Once behold, and then comparest
Nothing in the world thereto.
Every skiff a big ship seemeth,
Every bush with tall wings clad;
Every man his good brain deemeth
The only brain that is not mad.
'Tis the signal Thebes hath waited,
Libyan Thebes, the hundred-gated;
Rouse and robe thee, River-priest
For thy dedication feast!
--Blackmore: Florilla.
RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.
The Egyptian believed that his god had needs similar to those he himself
experienced. Consequently each day the god needed to be clothed and fed.
"The priest laid his hands on him (the image of the god), he took off
the old rouge and his former clothes, all of course with the necessary
formulae. He then dressed the god in the robe called the Nems, saying:
'Come white dress! come white dress! come white eye of Horus, which
proceeds from the town of Nechebt. The gods dress themselves with thee
in thy name _Dress_, and the gods adorn themselves with thee in thy name
_Adornment_.' The priest then dressed the god in the _great dress_,
rouged him, and presented him with his insignia: the sceptre, the staff
of ruler, and the whip, the bracelets and anklets, as well as the two
feathers which he wore on his head, because 'he has triumphed over his
enemies, and is more splendid than gods or spirits.' The god required
further a collarette and an amulet, two red, two green, and two white
bands; when these had been presented to him the priest might then leave
the chapel."[2]
Food and drink must needs be placed daily on his table. Lists of
offerings made by the Ramesides have come down to us. One records
offerings in the temple as follows: each day were received 3,220 loaves
of bread, 24 cakes, 144 jugs of beer, 32 geese, besides honey, flowers
and incense. This food was probably used to feed the corps of assistants
around the temple--the priests, servants and laborers. On feast days the
people sent offerings. A large number of loaves of bread are recorded on
certain days; these probably came from the poorer people. Again, an
overwhelming number of cakes and jugs of wine would indicate offerings
from the wealthy.
On feast days the king would himself perform part of the ceremonies, and
as a king he would worship himself as a god. It sometimes seems as
though the offerings and the ceremonies were made more to do honor to
the king than to the god. When Ramses called for plans for a new grotto
temple and heard the reports of his architects, an inscription tells us
that he answered them after this fashion: "The temple we have in mind
already lies hidden by the gods in yonder mountain. You have but to
clear away the waste material and your work is done. See to it, however,
that the deities Ra and Isis and Ptah and I are all represented in
becoming size on the facade as guardians--two on each side of the pylon.
And mark you: see that no god has choice of position over the king; let
the likeness and the form of them all be mine. Osiris must man the eight
piers which support the roof, and we four be seated in the sanctuary,
side by side."
Many buildings surrounded the temple, and the whole was enclosed by a
wall. Various buildings were needed in order that all the functions of
the temple could be performed. On one side was a court where the animals
and birds intended for sacrifice were prepared. To the rear was a
kitchen. The priests often received private revenues for providing food
for the departed. This food as a rule was prepared in the kitchens of
the temple. Dwellings for the priests, and the servants, store houses,
granaries, the treasure house, gardens and an artificial lake lay within
the temple wall. In the sacred lake the priests bathed, and in it they
washed the vessels pertaining to the sanctuary.
The priestly duties were manifold. Certain priests poured out drink
offerings; others recited from holy books; others kept the annals of the
temples. Their incomes were paid in kind--like all other obligations of
the time. So many loaves of bread, so many jugs of wine, beer and cakes
made up their annual revenue.
While we may gain some feeble idea of these places of worship, built to
do honor to the god--and to the king,--any description of them must
necessarily be inadequate. "We may agree that neither the boldest
imagination nor the most exact study, can enable us to form an adequate
conception of the splendors of an Egyptian temple in its perfect state.
The vast space it occupied; its lofty gateways; the long avenues of
sphinxes; the glittering obelisks and the lifelike expressions of the
monstrous statues, form a combination of the most imposing architectural
grandeur. The æsthetic qualities of these structures cannot briefly be
summed up. As we ponder them we shall be willing to acknowledge, for we
shall discover, the exceptional constructive power of the ancient
architects; we shall see how closely they followed Nature, and at times
drew as well upon foreign art, though always preserving their own
principles of form. There is always one grand imaginative vein running
through all their work--which expresses the principal idea of their
faith--_imperishability_.
"The ancient Egyptians copied no one. Their art sprang from their
surroundings. What they have left continues to baffle us in many ways.
We may understand perspective better than they did; we are their
superiors in the use of light and shadow. We dare to build higher, and
we are willing to trust thousands of lives to walls which would be
wrecked if a single Egyptian column should fall against them; but we do
not yet understand how they lifted their great masses to such lofty
places, nor do we know where their architects studied art."[3]
Little has thus far been said of the sphinxes which ordinarily flanked
the avenues leading up to these temples. These imaginary creatures were
carved in stone, and having the body of a lion, had either the head of a
ram or a human head. When the _Sphinx_ is mentioned reference is usually
made to the huge stone monument lying near the Great Pyramid. This was a
natural rock, to which was given, more or less accurately, the external
appearance of that mythological animal. The head was sculptured; the
body was sculptured; the body was formed of the rock itself, filled out
where necessary, by rather clumsy masonry of limestone. The total height
of the Sphinx is 65 feet. The ear measures 6 feet 5 inches; the nose, 5
feet 10 inches; the mouth, 7 feet 8 inches. Its ponderous human face,
grave in its eternal repose, rising in the midst of desert wastes, has
been a great puzzle to people for thousands of years. It was probably
hewn out of the rock as a symbol of the power of some Pharaoh of the
Pyramid-age. The sphinxes which lined approaches to the temples were of
course much smaller than this, and were carved merely for decorative
purposes. An Egyptian god was given the image of the sphinx, and whether
it was in honor of him, or merely because the symbol was a favorite
one, that so many of these mystic animals were used, is not known.
A final word regarding the faith which prompted the building of the
Egyptian temples should perhaps be added. We hear much about the absurd
and corrupt side of the Egyptian religion, but few have taken the
trouble to acquaint themselves with its brighter side. Our ideas on the
subject have been determined largely by the writings of the Greeks and
Romans who knew only the last decadent period of Egyptian history. The
decipherment of the hieroglyphs has enabled us to study the contemporary
documents and inscriptions, and as a result the religious ideas
developed by the Egyptians have not only aroused our deepest interest,
but are commanding our admiration.
Like all other peoples in the same stage of culture, the primitive
Egyptians feared and tried to render harmless, and perchance useful, the
powers of nature, always mysterious because not understood. Thus arose
the worship of natural phenomena, plants, animals and the dead. If we
remember that among our own ignorant masses many of the religious ideas
of our primitive forefathers survive in what we call superstition, we
will not judge the common people of Egypt for holding fast to the
beliefs of their ancestors, for it is true that they did so all through
Egypt's long history. Hence the ridicule of the Greeks.
But there is another side to the picture. No people has ever developed a
culture like that of the Egyptians without also reaching a purer
conception of God. Way back in the Fifth dynasty we find the beginnings
of a monotheistic tendency in the religion of Egypt. Indeed even earlier
the priests of Heliopolis had taught the idea of the unity of the deity
who manifested himself in the creative energy of the Sun. The Pharaohs
of the Fifth dynasty took up the cult of Re (or Ra) as this god was
called, raising mighty obelisks on the edge of the desert back of
Memphis, before which stood altars of alabaster under the open sky: for
this god could not be represented by any image and consequently needed
no temple, no house of god.
As time went on this idea of the unity of the deity--largely, it is
true, as a "mystery" understood only by the priests and other
"initiated" ones, spread over the whole of Egypt. As a result the local
deities, no matter what their origin, came to be regarded as
manifestations of the one god Re, whose name was added to those of the
local gods. We are all familiar with Amon of Thebes. This god, whose
origin is very obscure, was of course a local deity, and when Thebes
became the capital of the Empire, was raised to the kingship of all the
gods. But it will be observed that to do this, the priests felt it
necessary to identify him with Re and to speak of him henceforth not as
Amon, but as Amon-Re.
But this was not a step forward. The priests of Re had taught that god
is one and might be worshiped anywhere. It was not even necessary to
have temples. When, however, such a local divinity as Amon of Thebes was
identified with Re, as one of this god's manifestations, he received all
the attributes of the one god, but at the same time remained god of
Thebes and the priests never raised any theological objections when the
Pharaohs erected the mighty temples of that city for the glory of their
god and the perpetuation of their own deeds. Indeed the Pharaohs
regarded themselves as his viceroys on earth. The attempted "reform" of
Amen-hotep IV., which, as we saw, was so disastrous for his line, was
largely an attempt to restore the purer worship of the Sun-god, not as
Re but as Aton. But the priests of Amon-Re, who had already looked with
disfavor, which they dared not express, upon the claims of the earlier
Pharaohs of the Eighteenth dynasty--Amen-hotep III. during his lifetime
had gone so far as to build a temple in which he worshipped his own
_ka_, broke with Amen-hotep IV., were persecuted by him after he had
removed to his new city, but in the end were able to overthrow the
dynasty and place upon the throne kings who would recognize them as the
intermediaries between god and man. In the end they themselves seized
the throne--and it was not long before Egyptian history was at an end.
"God is the Eternal One. He is eternal and infinite; and endureth
forever and ever. He hath endured for countless ages and He shall
endure to all eternity.
"No man knoweth how to know Him. His name remaineth hidden. His
name, is a mystery unto His children. His names are innumerable;
they are manifold and none knoweth their number."
--_Trans. from Brugsch; quoted in Budge, Egyptian Religion._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Mariette's Monuments of Upper Egypt.
[2] Ancient Egypt, 274.
[3] Edward Wilson, Scribner, Oct. '88.
CHAPTER XIV.
ART AND DECORATION.
During the Old Empire certain rules regulating drawing were invented
which were adhered to throughout the history of Egypt. The stiff,
unnatural appearance of all Egyptian figures was due to strict
observance of these rules, which became binding upon artists and
prevented any perfection of art in the valley of the Nile.
Egyptian painting consisted of mere outline sketching. The human body
was first entirely drawn; then clothing was added. The artists knew no
more of anatomy than did the physicians. They did not even follow each
his own ideas, but there was _one_ established way of drawing the head,
the arms, the limbs, and all felt obliged to hold to this conventional
method. The extended arms show no elbows, the fingers no joints. An
endeavor to draw the body in profile resulted in portions of it facing
the spectator, other parts in profile, and still other sharing the
characteristics of both positions. For many years the human figure,
animals and birds could only extend the foot or arm--in case of a
person--farthest away from the spectator, and each figure must be shown
with the right side to the front. In course of time artists drew people
of the lower classes with more freedom, but it would have been deemed
disrespectful to have portrayed those of high rank in any but the
conventional positions. Thus, in a picture of a noble being served by a
slave, the latter might be drawn in a natural pose, while the noble
still retained the stiff, grotesque position of early times. Again, the
king was given colossal proportions, to indicate his power and strength,
while children may be distinguished only by their tiny forms.
Side by side with this conventional school of art there developed a
realistic school that exercised greater freedom with the human body.
Tomb pictures remain wherein persons are shown with their backs to the
spectator, and in many positions not permissible according to
established rules. However, these paintings are invariably in the tombs
of the lower classes. It would not have been deemed fitting that such
freedom be used in decorating the tombs of nobles, or of persons of high
social standing. Artists of this school seem to have been in disfavor in
ancient Egypt. To be sure, in the matter of portraying scenes where
captives, slaves or the humble people were gathered, artists of the
conventional school drew these with considerable degree of freedom and
ease. In the same picture the king, or noble, or high official was
represented according to the established custom.
All Egyptian drawing of human figures, birds and animals is plain, and
it is possible for any one today to read the stories of long series of
tomb pictures--studying them out, one by one. However, when it came to
representing a temple, a house, or a garden, the desire to show every
portion of it resulted in some confusion. The artist was in doubt as to
how to portray it all. "In treating such an important and complex object
he wished if possible to show every part of it; he therefore did not
draw the house from the front nor from the side, but made a picture of
both sides together, and when the house had an upper story with three
chambers, he put these three rooms close by also. He considered his duty
accomplished when he had placed all the details before the spectator,
but he did not care whether the spectator understood how these details
fitted together.
"We have to face another difficulty in order to comprehend these
pictures; the Egyptian artist has no sense of proportion between the
different parts of the representation. If, for instance, the king is
standing in one of the rooms of the building in question, our artist
would, regardless of truth, draw that room ten times as large as all the
others together, and even in one picture he frequently changes his
standard of measurement."[1]
All pictures were painted, some only in outline, some entirely. The
interiors of tombs were made to assume a gay appearance since tomb
colors were always bright. Red, the color of the sun, and blue, the sky
reflected in the Nile, were thought to be sacred.
Sculpture served two needs: it furnished statues of the dead for
relatives to worship, and statues of the kings and gods, with the
animals sacred to each, for the ornamentation of the temples. Thus the
scope of the sculptor was limited in the beginning. Furthermore, the
proportion, form, color and expression of every statue was fixed by laws
prescribed by the priests. The aim of the artist was in every case to
show absolute repose.
When we realize that many of the surviving monuments were chiseled from
granite as hard as iron, upon which the artist could work with only a
small metal chisel, we view them as monuments of the artist's untiring
patience, as well as of kingly greatness and statues of the gods. These
artists also knew how to make good use of poor material. In soft
limestone their task was easier; scenes were frequently cut in this,
covered with stucco and then painted. Inexpensive statues were often
made in this way.
Art seems at first to have taken rapid strides in Egypt, but after
reaching a certain point, it was prevented by established laws, enforced
by the priesthood, from going farther. So it deteriorated. Unfortunately
we know little of the artists who wrought these works and nothing of the
training they received.
Decorative art, as developed by the dwellers on the Nile, has perhaps
greater interest for the modern artist than their paintings or statuary.
The modern conventional school of decorative art finds much to copy and
adapt from patterns which survive in Egypt. In the first place, the
hieroglyphics were in themselves decorative. They were often used as
friezes, and never do we find them cut across figures, as was the case
in Assyria. Among designs commonly called geometrical, but in the
beginning the representation of something familiar, the zigzag line was
popular. A double zigzag formed little squares, and by various
arrangements, many combinations were possible. The scroll was also a
favorite decoration. There was an old legend to the effect that the
spiral represented the wanderings of the soul, but just what connection
existed between the two--if indeed there had ever been one--was lost in
distant ages.
Coils, hooks, links and endless scrolls were used, and the fret patterns
were but modifications of the spiral. The checkered design was
originally worked out by the shepherds and herdsmen who wove baskets and
mats of rushes. The source of one of the earliest imitations was the
feather, with its variety of forms. Only a few flowers were copied. The
lotus, papyrus, daisy, convolvulus, vine and palm were the only ones
used to any great extent. By far the most popular of these was the
lotus. This water lily has been worshipped in many countries. The
Egyptians did not regard it as a national flower--by no means. It was
considered the emblem of immortality.
"The lotus is the symbol of 'life,' ... of resurrection. Bouquets of it
were presented to guests at funerals. It was sometimes called the symbol
of the Sun. 'The solar significance of the lotus is elementary and most
important. A text reads: The Sun, which was from the beginning, rises
like a hawk from the midst of its lotus bed. When the doors of its
leaves open in sapphire-colored brilliancy, it has divided the night
from the day.'
"A confessional chapter of the Book of the Dead closes with the words: I
am a pure lotus, issue of the field of the Sun.... The Egyptian idea of
the resurrection and of a future life was connected with a worship of
the creative and reproductive forces of nature, which were conceived and
worshipped as solar in character and origin. It is the supposed passage
of the sun at night through a lower world, during its return to the dawn
of a following day which makes Osiris--the Sun at night--the God of the
lower world and of the dead, hence himself represented as a mummy. As
the God of the resurrection, his special and emphatic character, he
represents the creative energy of the Sun-god. Hence, the lotus as
attribute of Osiris is at once a symbol of the sun, of the resurrection,
and of creative forces and power. Since the doctrine of a future life
and a belief in a spirit world were ever present to the Egyptian mind,
we cannot too strongly insist on the funeral symbolism of the lotus."[2]
This brief explanation of the lotus' significance given by one who has
made a detailed study of this particular Egyptian symbol, helps us to
understand its universal use. It was pictured with the gods, given as
offerings to them, employed as capitals for columns, and had many
significant uses. It has been suggested that the bright yellow ovary
stigmas of this water-lily, with its rayed appearance, might have been
thought a symbol of the sun. As time went on, the flower developed into
a monstrosity, and became so conventionalized that it has been difficult
in many cases to determine what the artist intended to represent.
The grape vine, with its fruit, was a popular decoration. Ceilings were
often painted golden yellow, with vine leaves and bunches of grapes
hanging down. In glazed work grapes, convolvulus and thistle were used.
Golden stars on a blue-black background found favor as a ceiling
decoration.
In prehistoric times, ideas of ornamentation were often gained in
curious ways. Jars of pottery were sometimes tied with a string to
support them while drying. The string naturally left an impression in
the clay. This suggested the notion of twisting the string and so
obtaining not only an impression but a pattern. From this very
illustration we may realize how completely many origins of decoration
have been lost in obscurity.
[Illustration: CEILING DECORATION.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Erman: Life in Ancient Egypt, 174.
[2] Goodyear: Grammar of the Lotus.
CHAPTER XV.
TOMBS AND BURIAL CUSTOMS.
We have seen in a former chapter that the Egyptians believed one to be
composed of three parts: his earthly body, his soul, or ba, and his ka,
the ghostlike phantom that grew up with him in life and after death
experienced the same needs that he had known while living. All three
parts were essential to the existence of any one of them. On this
account the Egyptians made every effort to perpetuate the body and to
provide necessities for the ka, lest the soul should wither up and be no
more. Granting the truth of these beliefs, all that the Nile dwellers
did in consequence of a faith in them was logical and natural.
When an Egyptian was ill, a physician and one skilled in magic were
summoned. They did what they could to restore him. When their efforts
failed, they usually discovered that from his birth it had been decreed
that he would meet with an early death, and in this ingenious way they
maintained their influence unimpaired.
Upon the death of a relative, all the women of the house rushed into the
street with disheveled hair, shouting loud lamentations. In this way
their loss was made public. Then they returned and the body was sent to
the embalmer.
Three methods of embalming were commonly employed. The most costly
method involved seventy days and absorbed perhaps the total income of
the year, unless the family was wealthy. The second was less costly and
required less time; finally there was a comparatively inexpensive method
which had to satisfy the poor.
The vital organs and those parts of the body hardest to preserve were
removed. This was strictly necessary according to later Egyptian ideas,
yet so dreadful did they regard any mutilation of the body that the men
who performed this task were intensely hated and considered as unclean.
They were not allowed to mingle with other classes, nor could one rise
out of his class. When they had done their work, they were stoned away
from the house.
The body was now put into a bath of chemicals to remain for many days.
When at last it was taken out, it was filled with linen and sweet
smelling powders and made to look as lifelike as possible. Then it was
wrapped in linen bands, the quality of the linen used depending upon the
purse of the family.
"Each separate limb of the deceased was dedicated to a particular
divinity by the aid of holy oils, charms and sentences; a specially
prepared cloth was wrapped round each muscle, every drug and bandage
owed its origin to some divinity, and the confusion of sounds, of
disguised figures, and of various perfumes, had a stupefying effect on
those who visited this chamber. It need not be said that the whole
embalming establishment and its neighborhood was enveloped in a cloud of
powerful resinous fumes, of sweet attar, of lasting musk, and of pungent
spices."
Prayers and magical charms were said, scarabs and amulets enclosed, and
finally the body was placed in a coffin so constructed that it would
stand upright, as though the person were standing erect. It was then
taken home, and lamentations were made for some days. These finally gave
way to festivals. Banquets were held in honor of the mummy, which was
placed near the table and offered portions of food. Sometimes mummies
were kept in the home for a long time, and were worshipped with the
household gods. When at length the day for burial came, the family and
friends accompanied the body across the Nile to the Necropolis. They
took offerings with them,--food, furniture, toilet articles, and some
literature--certainly some pages from the Book of the Dead. All the way
across the river, the women wept. That the exhibition of grief might be
sufficient, wailing women were hired to increase the lamentations.
Seeing the sun which they worshipped disappear each night in the west,
the Egyptians grew to think that it went to a mysterious country, the
land of Osiris. In course of time they located the land of the Blest in
the west, and where-ever possible, placed their tombs facing the
west--the direction which the departed took for his long journey. All
through the river ride the women cried: "To the West; to the West!"
Upon reaching the place of burial, the priest performed certain
ceremonies. Then the mummy in its coffin, and the jars containing the
vital organs, were sealed up in the chamber prepared to receive them.
There were always three essential parts to an Egyptian tomb: the chapel,
or room used by the relatives to worship the deceased and bring him
offerings; the sepulchral chamber which contained the mummy; and the
serdab, or secret cell, where images of the deceased were sealed up for
the ka to look upon, since the features of the earthly body were now
changed by death. This secret chamber was connected by a small aperture
with the chapel, in order that the smoke of burning incense and
proffered prayers might be the more easily experienced by the Ka. On the
west wall of the tomb was the stela, or a false door, upon which was
engraved the name of the deceased, his parentage, titles, and a record
of the offerings made to his ka. In early times offerings alone were
made with no record of them, but as the people grew more enlightened,
they realized that a time must come when even the best known would be
forgotten and neglected. Therefore they conceived the notion of
enumerating the articles of food contributed, believing that the ka
would look upon the record and be satiated through the ages.
Compared to the earthly abode, which was temporary, the tomb was
eternal; hence the care that was lavished upon the tomb by the
Egyptians. While yet young, a man began to build his final resting
place. If he died before it was completed, some relative supervised its
completion, but in most cases tombs left thus unfinished show signs of
hasty conclusion. The survivor was chiefly interested in his own tomb,
and could give but passing attention to that of the departed.
In the Old Empire, tombs were constructed of brick masonry. The mummy
was placed some distance below the brick work which was elevated a few
feet above the ground. During the Middle Empire, grotto tombs came into
favor. These were hewed out of the living rock. A large excavation was
made and chambers were sometimes formed by masonry, sometimes hollowed
from the rock itself. It was during this period that pictures of food
offerings were made in addition to the food formerly offered alone.
During the New Empire tombs were generally cut in rocks, and now it
became customary to have the heart removed from the deceased and placed
in a jar. The idea of reward and punishment was emphasized. "From the
calm assurance of purely material happiness which the earliest Egyptian
loved to dwell on, there developed a keener sense of the trials through
which the soul must pass, together with a higher ideal of the future
life, a strong conviction of the moral qualities and acts essential to
the justification of the individual. Later this spiritual degenerated
into a reliance upon ritual and formulas in a merely magical sense."[1]
The nature of the burial depended upon the means of the family. The
middle class interment was less pretentious than that of the noble, and
the poor appropriated some old, neglected tomb, or paid for space in a
public tomb. Even in such cases, some offerings were made. The burial of
royalty was splendid, as tombs recently discovered in the Valley of the
Kings have attested. Furniture, receptacles, toilet articles--even a
boat and a chariot were in some cases provided.
In the tombs of the wealthy were enclosed little images of servants, or
"answerers." To the unimaginative Egyptian, the future world could only
be a place, like his own Egypt, where he would sow and reap, under
conditions most favorable. Water would be plentiful, and work would be
so easy that it would be a joy to perform it. This satisfied the masses,
who knew only how to reap and sow. But the wealthy had not been
accustomed to cultivate the soil in this life and were not pleased with
the prospect of doing so through countless ages. Lest such menial tasks
be required of them in the realm of Osiris, they had with them these
images of servants--these answerers--who might respond when they were
called upon: "Here am I, thy servant." Thus the noble would have his
work performed by others, as it had always been.
Amulets and scarabs were also deposited with the mummy. The amulets were
charms supposed to bring good luck, and the scarabs had a deeper
significance. The word _scarab_ means _beetle_. A certain kind of
beetle deposited its eggs in the sand. From the earth, in course of
time, a fully developed beetle would come forth. The Egyptians, who knew
nothing of insect life, believed the beetle, long since dead, had the
power of restoring itself to life anew. Hence the scarab was an emblem
of the resurrection and immortality. Just as the cross is a symbol dear
to the hearts of Christians, so, to the followers of the Egyptian
religion, the scarab was significant. It was made of various kinds of
stone, variously colored, and was worn by the Egyptian during life, and
buried with him at death. During periods when religious revivals were
strong, large numbers of these emblems were produced; during ages when
greater indifference to religious matters were shown, fewer seem to have
been made. As little Greek vases have been found in all lands where
Greek merchantmen went, so the Egyptian trade of antiquity can be traced
by the little scarabs. Large collections of them have been made in
recent years, and many are exhibited today in museums.
In the New Empire, when it became necessary to remove the heart of the
deceased, a sacred scarab was substituted in its place. The idea
prompting such action was that the heart was sinful, and if removed,
might not be able to testify against its owner. The scarab, being a
symbol of faith, might be of some assistance.
A copy of the Book of the Dead was supplied the deceased because it
contained a list of the dangers his soul would have to meet in
journeying to the abode of Osiris. The topography of the future world
was included and all invocations to be uttered at different stages of
the progress were given. Only with a perfect knowledge of all these
things could the soul hope to reach the land of the blest. Advice was
given him about meeting the forty-two judges of the western world, who
judged him for forty-two sins. If his good deeds outweighed his
shortcomings, he remained forever with Osiris; otherwise he was
transformed into some unclean animal, and never knew the joys of eternal
life.
It has been estimated that some 200,000,000 people died in Upper Egypt
during its active history and found a resting place in the favorite
strip of desert less than 450 miles in length. Of course only the most
substantial of the tombs are preserved. The dryness of the country has
helped to preserve ancient monuments.
It is small wonder that to the very poor, whose huts have always been in
the Necropolis--the wealth concealed in tombs has always been a strong
temptation. Records reach through the Middle and New Empires testifying
that robbers pillaged tombs for jewelry and gold, and today the Arab
traffics constantly in the spoils of the tombs--above which, in many
cases, he lives.
[Illustration: THE FUNERAL PROCESSION: THE WEAPONS AND JEWELS.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Blimmer: Essays on History, Religion and Art of Ancient Egypt.
CHAPTER XVI.
EXCAVATIONS IN EGYPT.
We have spoken frequently of recent discoveries in Egypt, and of objects
found within old tombs. The question naturally arises: Who makes these
discoveries, and under what circumstances are the secrets of the tombs
revealed?
Modern excavations in Egypt are of recent date. In 1798 the military
expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte drew attention to Egyptian monuments.
One of his soldiers, excavating for some fortifications in the delta,
discovered a stone covered with an inscription, and this was preserved.
Being found near the mouth of the Rosetta river, it was called the
Rosetta stone. The stone had been inscribed during the reign of Ptolemy
III., a Greek king. Because some of his subjects in Egypt were Greeks
and some Egyptians, he had caused the decree to be inscribed (1) in
Greek, (2) in hieroglyphics, (3) in demotic. The Greek sentences were
easily read, and since it seemed probable that the other writing simply
repeated the decree, scholars set to work to decipher it. By 1832 they
had prepared an Egyptian grammar and vocabulary.
The earliest attempt at systematic investigation was begun in 1822, when
the government of Tuscany sent a number of scholars into Egypt to study
inscriptions. Champollian and Rosellini were among them. In 1840 Germany
sent out an expedition under the leadership of Lepsius. This party began
work at Memphis, among the pyramids. In course of time the Tuscan
expedition supplied volumes of copied inscriptions and explanatory
material.
August Marietta went to Egypt in 1850 and was active there until 1880.
He made the first great discovery when he came upon the burial place of
the Apis bulls in Memphis. Sixty-four tombs were found, together with
amulets and funeral ornaments. In 1857 he was made director of a new
museum, which was founded at Cairo. He received the monopoly of the
right to excavate in the vicinity of Thebes, and while he allowed others
to study what was unearthed under his direction, he would not permit
them to do any excavating. Maspero succeeded him as curator of the Cairo
Museum. Into this museum has been placed all the great finds of recent
years and here one who would make detailed study of ancient Egypt must
go.
As a result of his explorations in the valley of the Nile, and of his
personal knowledge of all gifts made to the Cairo Museum, Maspero has
prepared many books pertaining to the life of the ancient Egyptians. His
conclusions are drawn entirely from the revelations of old monuments and
remains, and are of first importance.
Means have been provided by the Egyptian Exploration Fund and by the
Egyptian Research Account to make it possible for young students to
undertake explorations in behalf of public museums. Nothing found by
those thus engaged can be sold, whether publicly or privately, but must
be presented to some museum where people generally can have an
opportunity to see and examine such objects. Reports of all discoveries
are published at the earliest possible moment. In marked contrast to
such generous principles have been the undertakings carried on by many
who have used recovered objects for their personal profit, or have
withheld knowledge of them indefinitely.
W. M. Flinders Petrie, professor of Egyptology in University College,
London, took charge of the expedition sent out by the Egypt Exploration
Fund in 1884. Later he organized the Egyptian Research Account, in order
to give young students an opportunity to do active work themselves. In
late years Petrie has carried on his efforts alone. On the basis of his
observations, discoveries and knowledge, he has prepared a history of
Egypt, recently published. This is a chronological account of royal
tombs unearthed by him, rather than a complete history of Egypt's
development.
Gardner, Griffith and Naville have been sent out at different times by
the Egypt Exploration Fund, and have each prepared reports of their
finds.
The Tell el Amarna Letters should be mentioned with the great finds in
Egypt. In 1887-8, Arabs, who were carrying off bricks for their houses,
came upon a record chamber, containing many hundred letters inscribed on
bricks. They were shown to experts who did not appreciate their value.
They were put in sacks and carried around, from one place to another,
with the hope of making something from their sale. When many of them had
been ground to powder and others were hopelessly ruined, they were
bought up by museums at London, Berlin, St. Petersburg and Cairo. They
have since been translated and it appears that they belonged to the
record chamber of the capital built by Amenhotep IV., and called by him
the Horizon of the Solar Disk. As now translated, they are found to be
letters written during the peaceful reign of Amenhotep III. and early in
the reign of Amenhotep IV.; others recount the North Syrian war, and
certain others, the Palestine war. They reveal the condition of the
empire during the reign of the fanatical king who attempted to bring
about a religious revolution at home, while hostile tribes assailed his
empire on the east. The Tell el Amarna letters have done much to clear
up a portion of Egyptian history, previously not understood. Their
revelations have been supplemented by two wonderful discoveries made
within the last two years: the discovered tomb of the parents of Queen
Tiy--mother of Amenhotep IV., in 1905, and early in 1907, the tomb of
Queen Tiy herself. These finds are so remarkable that we may well give
them brief consideration.
In recent years, Theodore M. Davis has undertaken systematic excavations
in the Valley of the Kings--the great Necropolis west of Thebes--for the
benefit of the Cairo Museum. This work has been directed by
Archaeologist Quibell, maintained by the present Egyptian government.
Quoting from one who was present at the exciting moment when the tomb of
Queen Tiy's parents was opened:
"Squeezing their way between the wall and rock ceiling, M. Maspero and
Mr. Davis were soon in the midst of such a medley of tomb furniture
that, in the glare of their lighted candles, the first effect was one of
bewilderment. Gradually, however, one object after another detached
itself from the shimmering mass, shining through the cool air, dust-free
and golden. Against the wall to the left stood a chair, and beyond it a
gilded coffin-cover lay upside down. In it was a conventional mask that
gleamed golden through dark veiling; and the mummy whose head this mask
had covered lay farther off, its body partly incased in gilded
openwork. Against the wall to the right leaned two 'Osiris beds,' flat
surfaces on which seed had been sown, which in sprouting, had outlined
the figure of the god. Not far off, along the wall opposite the door,
stood a row of sentry-boxes, each containing a statuette. In front of
these rose the outermost case for a mummy. To the left stood a bed.
Nearer again lay a silvered mummy case; and on this, and on a mummy
beyond it, the second in the tomb, a shaft of cold blue light struck
down from the outer day.
"By day-light then, mingled with the light of flickering candle flames,
the discoverers examined the second mummy. By candle light alone they
searched the first. Both had been plundered by the thief of long ago.
Throwing the mummy cases hither and yon, he had taken from both mummies
everything of intrinsic value except a plate of gold closing the
aperture through which the heart of one had been removed by the
embalmers. Not a jewel, and only part of one necklace, remained of all
those with which the dead must once have been bedecked. But if such
trophies were lacking, others of surpassing splendor and significance
still packed the tomb-chamber, from wall to wall. In the bottom of a
mummy-case, from which the thief had removed the cover, he had left a
cushion and a graceful alabaster vase. In another mummy-case he had
neglected an alabaster jar and the cover of an embroidery-box which he
must have carried across the chamber to a second bed, on which it now
lay beside a superb gilded chair. Near by, where the floor suddenly fell
one deep step to a lower level, he had thrown, among a multitude of
sealed jars, half of the gilded openwork casing which had encircled one
of the mummies. Near these jars again he had propped a coffin-cover
against one corner of the tomb. Here, too, he had left a third bed and
one of the most important finds in the tomb, a chariot, the curving
front and wheel-rims of which shone through the darkness golden and
scarlet.
"Except for its broken pole and the partly bare spokes of its gilded
wheels, this chariot was in perfect condition; with the yoke already
found in the corridor and a whip soon to be discovered, it lacked
nothing to be complete.
"Maspero studied the hieroglyphics on their gleaming mummy-cases.
'Tioua,' he read after a time; and after further study he went on,
'Ioua, hereditary prince, chief friend among the friends of the
sovereign.' There were the names of the dead in the tomb; and these
dead, as Maspero therefore knew, had been the parents of Tiy, a queen of
the eighteenth dynasty, whose changing of the national religion had once
caused such uproar and violence that the burial of her parents in the
sacred Valley of the Kings would have had to be hasty and secret.
"The probable history of the tomb, accordingly, was clear. During a
period of unrest Queen Tiy, who wished a royal burial for her father and
mother, either chose an old tomb on which the work had been abandoned or
stopped work on one which was being hewn out. In it she had placed the
mummies, with their funeral offerings, till the tomb could be reopened
and finished, or its contents transferred to a fitter resting place.
Quiet times had perhaps never returned during her reign; and however
that may be, the tomb had been reopened, not by Queen Tiy, but first by
a robber, and now at last, by modern archaeologists."[1]
[Illustration: BEAUTIFUL ISLAND OF PHILAE AND THE NILE.]
Even more gratifying than the discovery just recounted was the finding
of Queen Tiy herself. Again we can get into the spirit of the discovery
best by reading the description of an eye-witness:
"The excitement of entering a newly opened tomb is naturally
considerable; but when the first inscriptions to be seen revealed the
fact that the tomb of Queen Tiy, which had been so long sought for, had
been found, a glamour was added to the moment which will not easily be
forgotten by any of the party. Inside the tomb chamber the gold covered
coffin and outer coffin, gleaming in the light of the electric lamps,
formed a sight of surprising richness.... The mummy of the queen
protruded from beneath the lip of the beautiful coffin, which was made
in human form. A vulture-headed diadem of gold could just be seen
passing around her head, and one could see here and there the shining
sheets of gold in which the body was wrapped. There must have been
thousands of dollars worth of gold-foil and leaf in the chamber, and the
post-Akhnaton officials seem to have carried away many of the
portable gold ornaments, probably amounting to many times that value. In
a recess cut in the wall of the chamber stood four fine canopic vases of
alabastrum, containing the queen's heart and intestines; and in one
corner of the room there were several charming little pots and toilet
utensils of blue glazed ware. One of these, in the form of a graceful
girl carrying a pot upon her shoulder, is perhaps the most perfect
specimen of miniature figure-molding known in Egypt....
"After the tomb had been opened for a few hours, the air, of course,
became very much better, but its bad effects on the antiquities was at
once discernible. Even before the first quick record had been finished,
some of the scenes on the gold showed signs of dropping to pieces....
"It is to be hoped that most of the antiquities will be able to travel
to Cairo, though their fragile condition makes it difficult to deal with
them. Probably much of the rotten wood work, and even some of the fine
reliefs on the gold-leaf, will have to be left in the tomb, which will
be closed with Portland cement."[2]
Greatest care has to be exercised to protect finds from the Arabs. In
spite of the vigilance of the government, pilfering of the old
Necropolis is constantly carried on. Every fragment or curio which might
bring profit is snatched up by those in the employ of speculators.
DIFFICULTIES CONFRONTING THE EXPLORER.
Petrie has given in detail many of the difficulties which have
confronted him in his excavations among ancient Egyptian tombs. On one
occasion, in preference to living in an Arabian village, he hunted out
an old tomb, occupied the three chambers above, where the deceased had
been fed and worshipped, and with his guide as a guard in an adjoining
tomb, found the place secure and comfortable.
A little account of his experience in the summer of 1888, while
excavating in the Fayoum, will give us some notion of the perplexities
that often beset the archaeologist. Whenever possible, quotation is made
from Petrie's own report. The district he selected--the Fayoum--calls to
mind Amenemhet III., who first irrigated the region and thus added
materially to the arable land of his country. To this particular section
Petrie was drawn, because, as he explains: "The exploration of the
pyramids of this district was my main object, as their arrangement,
their dates, and their builders were yet unknown."[3]
"So soon as we began to turn over the soil we found chips of sandstone
colossi; the second day the gigantic nose of a colossus was found, as
broad as a man's body; then pieces of carved thrones, and a fragment of
inscription of Amenemhet III. It was evident that the two piles of stone
had been the pedestals of colossal seated monolithic statues, carved in
hard quartzite sandstone, and brilliantly polished. These statues faced
northward, and around each was a courtyard wall with sloping outer face
and red granite gateway in the north front The total height of the
colossi was about 60 feet from the ground. The description of Herodotus,
therefore, is accounted for; and it shows that he actually saw the
figures, though from a distance, as any person who visited them closely
would not have described them in such a manner."[4]
Petrie took his corps of native workmen next to Hawara, for the pyramids
there had not been opened in modern times. Finding no trace of an
entrance, they tunneled for many weeks in the solid tomb. Finally a
small opening was effected into the old chamber of the tomb, and there,
by the flickering light of a candle, could be seen two empty sarcophagi.
A modern canal has saturated this part of the land and the explorer was
obliged to wade through mud to the tombs.
Quoting from his description of what was found: "The pyramid had been
elaborately arranged so as to deceive and weary the spoilers, and it had
apparently occupied a great amount of labor to force an entrance." After
explaining a dozen ways they had tried and failed, he says: "At last the
way had been forced by breaking away a hole in the edge of the
glassy-hard sandstone roofing block, and thus reaching the chamber and
its sarcophagi. By a little widening of the spoilers' hole I succeeded
in getting through it into the chamber. The water was up to the middle
of my body, and so the exploration was difficult; but the floor was
covered with rubbish and chips, which might contain parts of the funeral
vessels, and therefore needed searching. The first day I got the coveted
prize, a piece of alabaster vessel with the name of Amenemhet III.,
proving finally to whom the pyramid belonged. Still there was a puzzle
as to the second sarcophagus, which had been built up between the great
central one and the chamber side. On clearing in the chamber which led
to the sepulchre, however, a beautiful altar of offerings in alabaster
was found, covered with figures of the offerings all named, over a
hundred, and dedicated to the king's daughter, Neferuptah.... The
chamber itself is a marvellous work; nearly the whole height of it is
carved out of a single block of hard quartzite sandstone, forming a huge
tank in which the sarcophagus was placed. No trace of inscription exists
on either the walls or the sarcophagi; and but for the funeral
furniture, even the very name would not have been recovered."[5]
Next they located what had in all probability been the old Labyrinth. No
trace of the building itself could be discovered, but the vast extent
showed it to have been larger than any temple known in Egypt. Pliny, a
Roman historian, has told us that for centuries this Labyrinth served as
a quarry for this section of the country, and that a small town of
quarrymen lived near by.
In the cemetery of Hawara, Petrie made some explorations. He succeeded
in finding one tomb, which had been missed by the spoilers--this
naturally was the coveted find. It belonged to the twenty-sixth dynasty,
a period of the decline of Egyptian power. It was the tomb of a great
noble, Horuta. Standing deep under water, it was more difficult to
manage than usual.
"But the sarcophagus itself was most difficult to open. The lid block
was nearly two feet thick, and almost under water. It was too heavy for
us to move entire, so some weeks were spent in cutting it in two. One
piece was then raised, but it proved to be the foot end; and though I
spent a day struggling with the inner coffins, sitting in the
sarcophagus up to my nose in water, I yet could not draw them out from
under the rest of the stone lid. So after some days the men raised
that, enough to get one's head in between the under side of it and the
water; and then I spent another gruesome day, sitting astride of the
inner coffin, unable to turn my head under the lid without tasting the
bitter brine in which I sat." At last the coffin was recovered.
"Anxiously opening it, we found a slight inner coffin, and then the body
of Horuta himself, wrapped in a network of beads of lazuli, beryl, and
silver, this last decomposed.... Then came the last and longed-for
scene, for which our months of toil had whetted our appetites--the
unwrapping of Horuta. Bit by bit the layers of pitch and cloth were
loosened, and row after row of magnificent amulets were disclosed, just
as they were laid on in the distant past. The gold ring on the finger
which bore his name and titles, the exquisitely inlaid gold birds, the
chased gold figures, the lazuli statuettes delicately wrought, the
polished lazuli and beryl and carnelian amulets finally engraved, all
the wealth of talismanic armory, rewarded our eyes with a sight which
has never been surpassed to archaeological gaze. No such complete and
rich a series of amulets has been seen intact before; and as one by one
they were removed all their positions were recorded, and they may now be
seen lying in their original order in the Ghizeh Museum."[6]
We have noted repeatedly the various articles found within the tombs,
such as funeral furniture, vases, food, and amulets. Some rather unusual
disclosures were brought to light in this old cemetery in the Fayoum.
Children's toys, and their personal belongings were found entombed with
their mummies. One tomb of a much later date than yet mentioned--of
Roman Egypt indeed--contained one of the books of the Iliad. More
valuable than any of these were wreaths of flowers with which the dead
had been adorned. These were perfectly dried and from them and accounts
given us by Pliny, the ancient flora of Egypt has been worked out by the
patience and painstaking of noted botanists.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Century, Nov., '05.
[2] Century, Sept., '07.
[3] Petrie: Ten Years' Digging in Egypt, 81.
[4] Ibid. 82.
[5] Petrie: Ten Years' Digging in Egypt, 86.
[6] Petrie: Ten Years' Digging in Egypt, 93, ff.
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT.
I.
The Nile had overflowed its bed. The luxuriant corn fields and blooming
gardens on its shores were lost beneath a boundless waste of waters; and
only the gigantic temples and palaces of its cities (protected from the
force of the water by dikes), and the tops of the tall palm-trees and
acacias could be seen above its surface. The branches of the sycamores
and plane-trees drooped and floated on the waves, but the boughs of the
tall silver poplars strained upward, as if anxious to avoid the watery
world beneath. The full moon had risen; her soft light fell on the
Libyan range of mountains vanishing on the western horizon, and in the
north the shimmer of the Mediterranean could faintly be discerned. Blue
and white lotus flowers floated on the clear water, bats of all kinds
darted softly through the still air, heavy with the scent of
acacia-blossom and jasmine; the wild pigeons and other birds were at
roost in the tops of the trees, while the pelicans, storks and cranes
squatted in groups on the shore under the shelter of the papyrus reeds,
and Nile-beans. The pelicans and storks remained motionless, their long
bills hidden beneath their wings, but the cranes were startled by the
mere beat of an oar, stretching their necks, and peering anxiously into
distance, if they heard but the song of the boatmen. The air was
perfectly motionless, and the unbroken reflection of the moon, lying
like a silver shield on the surface of the water, proved that, wildly as
the Nile leaps over cataracts, and rushes past the gigantic temples of
Upper Egypt, yet on approaching the sea by different arms, he can
abandon his impetuous course, and flow along in sober tranquility.
On this moonlight night in the year 528 B.C. a bark was crossing the
almost currentless canopic mouth of the Nile. On the raised deck at the
stern of this boat an Egyptian was sitting to guide the long
pole-rudder, and the half naked boatmen within were singing as they
rowed....
As Phanes uttered these words they landed at the garden wall, washed by
the Nile.... The garden of Rhodopis was as full of sound, and scent and
blossom as a night in fairy land. It was one labyrinth of acanthus
shrubs, yellow mimosa, the snowy gueldres rose, jasmine and lilac, red
roses and laburnums, overshadowed by tall palm-trees, acacias and
balsam-trees. Large bats hovered softly on their delicate wings over the
whole, and sounds of mirth and song echoed from the river.
This garden had been laid out by an Egyptian, and the builders of the
Pyramids had already been celebrated for ages for their skill in
horticulture. They well understood how to mark out neat flower-beds,
plant groups of trees and shrubs in regular order, water the whole by
aqueducts and fountains, arrange arbors and summer-houses, and even
inclose the walks with artistically clipped hedges and breed gold-fish
in stone basins....
At noon on the following day the same boat, which, the evening before,
had carried the Athenian and the Spartan, stopped once more before
Rhodopis' garden. The sun was shining so brightly, so warmly and
genially in the dark blue Egyptian sky, the air was so pure and light,
the beetles were humming so merrily, the boatmen singing so lustily and
happily, the shores of the Nile bloomed in such gay, variegated beauty,
and were so thickly peopled, the palm-trees, sycamores, bananas and
acacias were so luxuriant in foliage and blossom, and over the whole
landscape the rarest and most glorious gifts seemed to have been poured
out with such divine munificence that a passerby must have pronounced it
the very home of joy and gladness, a place from which sadness and sorrow
had been forever banished.
--_An Egyptian Princess._
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. II.
The feast of Neith, called in Egyptian "the lamp-burning," was
celebrated by a universal illumination, which began at the rising of the
moon. The shores of the Nile looked like two long lines of fire. Every
temple, house, and hut was ornamented with lamps, according to the means
of its possessors. The porches of the country houses and the little
towers on the larger buildings were all lighted up by brilliant flames,
burning in pans of pitch and sending up clouds of smoke, in which the
flags and pennons waved gently backward and forward. The palm-trees and
sycamores were silvered by the moonlight and threw strange fantastic
reflections onto the red waters of the Nile--red from the fiery glow of
the houses on their shores. But, strong and glowing as was the light of
the illumination, its rays had not power to reach the middle of the
giant river where the boat was making its course and the pleasure party
felt as if they were sailing in dark night between two brilliant days.
Now and then a brightly lighted boat would come swiftly across the river
and seem as it neared the shore to be cutting its way through a glowing
stream of molten iron.
Lotus-blossoms, white as snow, lay on the surface of the river, rising
and falling with the waves and looking like eyes in the water. Not a
sound could be heard from either shore. The echoes were carried away by
the north wind and the measured stroke of the oars and the monotonous
song of the rowers were the only sounds that broke the stillness of this
strange night--a night robbed of its darkness....
The pyramids lay on the left bank of the Nile, in the silver moonshine,
massive and awful, as if bruising the earth beneath them with their
weight; the giant graves of mighty rulers. They seemed examples of man's
creative power and at the same time warnings of the vanity and
mutability of earthly greatness. For where was Chufu[1] now--the king
who had cemented that mountain of stone with the sweat of his subjects?
Where was the long-lived Chafra[2] who had despised the gods, and,
defiant in the consciousness of his own strength, was said to have
closed the gates of the temples in order to make himself and his name
immortal by building a tomb of superhuman dimensions? Their empty
sarcophagi are, perhaps, tokens that the judges of the dead found them
unworthy of rest in the grave, unworthy of the resurrection, whereas,
the builder of the third and most beautiful pyramid, Menkera,[3] who
contented himself with a smaller monument, and reopened the gates of the
temples, was allowed to rest in peace in his coffin of blue basalt.
[1] Khufu.
[2] Khafre.
[3] Menkure.
There they lay in the quiet night, these mighty pyramids, shone on by
the bright stars, guarded by the watchmen of the desert--the gigantic
sphinx--and overlooking the barren rocks of the Libyan stony mountains.
At their feet slept the mummies of their faithful subjects....
But their boat sped on before the north wind; they left the city of the
dead behind them and passed the enormous dikes built to protect the city
of Menes from the violence of the floods; the city of the Pharaohs came
in sight, dazzlingly bright with the myriads of flames which had been
kindled in honor of the goddess Neith, and when at last the gigantic
temple of Ptah appeared, the most ancient building of the most ancient
land, the spell broke, their tongues were loosed, and they burst out
into loud exclamations of delight.
It was illuminated by thousands of lamps; a hundred fires burned on its
pylons, its battlemented walls and roofs. Burning torches flared between
the rows of sphinxes which connected the various gates with the main
building, and the now empty house of the god Apis was so surrounded by
colored fires that it gleamed like a white limestone rock in a tropical
sunset. Pennons, flags and garlands waved above the brilliant picture;
music and loud songs could be heard from below.
--_Egyptian Princess._
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. III.
By the walls of Thebes--the old city of a hundred gates--the Nile
spreads to a broad river; the heights, which follow the stream on both
sides, here take a more decided outline; solitary, almost cone-shaped
peaks stand out sharply from the level background of the many-colored
limestone hills, on which no palm-tree flourishes and in which no humble
desert-plant can strike root. Rocky crevasses and gorges cut more or
less deeply into the mountain range, and up to its ridge extends the
desert, destructive of all life, with sand and stones, with rocky cliffs
and reef-like, desert hills.
Behind the eastern range the desert spreads to the Red Sea; behind the
western it stretches without limit, into infinity. In the belief of the
Egyptians beyond it lay the region of the dead....
In the fourteenth century before Christ--for to so remote a date we
must direct the thoughts of the reader--impassable limits had been set
by the hand of man, in many places in Thebes, to the inroads of the
water; high dykes of stone and embankments protected the streets and
squares, the temples and the palaces, from the overflow.
Canals that could be tightly closed up led from the dykes to the land
within, and smaller branch-cuttings to the gardens of Thebes.
On the right, the eastern bank of the Nile, rose the buildings of the
far-famed residence of the Pharaohs. Close by the river stood the
immense and gaudy temples of the city of Amon; behind these and at a
short distance from the Eastern hills--indeed at their very foot and
partly even on the soil of the desert--were the palaces of the king and
nobles, and the shady streets in which the high narrow houses of the
citizens stood in close rows.
Life was gay and busy in the streets of the capital of the Pharaohs. The
western shore of the Nile showed quite a different scene. Here too there
was no lack of stately buildings or thronging men; but while on the
further side of the river there was a compact mass of houses, and the
citizens went cheerfully and openly about their day's work, on this side
there were solitary splendid structures, round which little houses and
huts seemed to cling as children cling to the protection of a mother.
And these buildings lay in detached groups....
And even more dissimilar were the slow-moving, solemn groups in the
road-ways on this side, and the cheerful, confused throng yonder. There,
on the eastern shore, all were in eager pursuit of labor or recreation,
stirred by pleasure or by grief, active in deed and speech: here, in the
west, little was spoken, a spell seemed to check the footsteps of the
wanderer, a pale hand to sadden the bright glance of every eye, and to
banish the smile from every lip.
And yet many a gayly-dressed bark stopped at the shore, there was no
lack of minstrel bands, grand processions passed on to the western
heights; but the Nile boats bore the dead, the songs sung here were
songs of lamentation, and the processions consisted of mourners
following the sarcophagus. We are standing on the soil of the City of
the Dead of Thebes.
Nevertheless even here nothing is wanting for return and revival, for
to the Egyptian his dead died not. He closed his eyes, he bore him to
the Necropolis, to the house of the embalmer, or Kolchytes, and then to
the grave; but he knew that the souls of the departed lived on; that the
justified absorbed into Osiris floated over the Heavens in the vessel of
the Sun; that they appeared on earth in the form they chose to take upon
them, and that they might exert influence on the current of the lives of
the survivors. So he took care to give a worthy interment to his dead,
above all to have the body embalmed so as to endure long; and had fixed
times to bring fresh offerings for the dead, of flesh and fowl, with
drink-offerings and sweet-smelling essences, and vegetables and flowers.
Neither at the obsequies nor at the offerings might the ministers of the
gods be absent, and the silent City of the Dead was regarded as a
favored sanctuary in which to establish schools and dwellings for the
learned.
So it came to pass that in the temples and on the site of the
Necropolis, large communities of priests dwelt together, and close to
the extensive embalming houses lived numerous Kolchytes, who handed down
the secrets of their art from father to son.
Besides these there were other manufactories and shops. In the former,
sarcophagi of stone and of wood, linen bands for enveloping mummies, and
amulets for decorating them, were made; in the latter, merchants kept
spices and essences, flowers, fruits, vegetables and pastry for sale.
Calves, gazelles, goats, geese, and other fowl were fed on inclosed
meadow-plats, and the mourners betook themselves thither to select what
they needed from among the beasts pronounced by the priests to be clean
for sacrifice, and to have them sealed with the sacred seal. Many bought
only a part of a victim at the shambles--the poor could not even do
this. They bought only colored cakes in the shape of beasts, which
symbolically took the place of the calves and geese which their means
were unable to procure. In the handsomest shops sat servants of the
priests, who received forms written on rolls of papyrus which were
filled up in the writing room of the temple with those sacred verses
which the departed spirit must know and repeat to ward off the evil
genius of the deep, to open the gate of the under-world, and to be held
righteous before Osiris and the forty-two assessors of the subterranean
court of justice.
What took place within the temples was concealed from view, for each was
surrounded by a high inclosing wall with lofty, carefully closed
portals, which were only opened when a chorus of priests came out to
sing a pious hymn, in the morning to Horus the rising god, and in the
evening to Turn the descending god. As soon as the evening hymn of the
priests was heard, the Necropolis was deserted, for the mourners and
those who were visiting the graves were required by this time to return
to their boats, and to quit the City of the Dead. Crowds of men who had
marched in the processions of the west bank hastened in disorder to the
shore, driven on by the body of watchmen who took it in turns to do this
duty and to protect the graves against robbers. The merchants closed
their booths, then embalmers and workmen ended their day's work and
retired to their houses, the priests returned to the temples, and the
inns were filled with guests, who had come hither on long pilgrimages
from a distance, and who preferred passing the night in the vicinity of
the dead whom they had come to visit, to going across to the bustling
noisy city on the further shore.
The voices of the singers and of the wailing women were hushed, even the
song of the sailors on the numberless ferryboats from the western shore
of Thebes died away, its faint echo was now and then borne across on the
evening air, and at last all was still.
_Uarda._
KARNAK.
"I am Karnak, and a thousand million men have lived and died
Since open have my gates been thrown for kings through them to ride:
My massive walls have echoed to the tread of Egypt's hosts,
But now they are a skulking place for goblins and for ghosts."
"I stand once more among those mighty columns, which radiate into
avenues from whatever point one takes them. I see them swathed in coiled
shadows and broad bands of light. I see them sculptured and painted with
shapes of gods and kings, with blazonings of royal names, with
sacrificial altars and forms of sacred beasts, and emblems of wisdom and
truth. The shafts of these columns are enormous. I stand at the foot of
one--or of what seems to be the foot; for the original pavement lies
buried seven feet below.... It casts a shadow twelve feet in
breadth--such a shadow as might be cast by a tower. The capital that
juts out so high above my head looks as if it might have been placed
there to support the heavens. It is carved in the semblance of a
full-blown lotus, and glows with undying colors--colors that are still
fresh, though laid on by hands that have been dust these three thousand
years and more. It would take not six men, but a dozen, to measure round
the curved lip of that stupendous lily.
"Such are the twelve central columns. The rest (one hundred and
twenty-two in number) are gigantic, too, but smaller. Of the roof they
once supported, only the beams remain. Those beams are stone ... carved
and painted, bridging the space from pillar to pillar, and patterning
the trodden soil with bands of shadow.
"Looking up and down the central avenue, we see at the one end a
flame-like obelisk; at the other, a solitary palm against a back-ground
of glowing mountain. To right, to left, showing transversely through
long files of columns, we catch glimpses of colossal bas-reliefs lining
the roofless walls in every direction. The king, as usual, figures in
every group, and performs the customary acts of worship. The gods
receive and approve him. Half in light, half in shadow, these slender,
fantastic forms stand out sharp and clear and colorless; each figure
some eighteen or twenty feet in height. They could scarcely have looked
more weird when the great roof was in its place and perpetual twilight
reigned. But it is difficult to imagine the roof on and the sky shut
out. It all looks right as it is; and one feels, somehow, that such
columns should have nothing between them and the infinite blue depths of
heaven....
"How often has it been written, and how often must it be repeated, that
the great hall at Karnak is the noblest architectural work ever designed
and executed by human hands? One writer tells us that it covers four
times the area occupied by the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Another
measures it against St. Peter's. All admit their inability to describe
it; yet all attempt the description. To convey a concrete image of the
place to one who has never seen it, is, however, as I have said,
impossible. If it could be likened to this place or that, the task would
not be so difficult; but there is, in truth, no building in the wide
world to compare with it. The pyramids are more stupendous. The
colosseum covers more ground. The parthenon is more beautiful. Yet in
nobility of conception, in vastness of detail, in majesty of the highest
order, the hall of pillars exceeds them every one. This doorway, these
columns, are the wonder of the world. How was that lintel-stone raised?
How were these capitals lifted? Entering among those mighty pillars,
says a recent observer, 'you feel that you have shrunk to the dimensions
and feebleness of a fly.' But I think you feel more than that. You are
stupefied by the thought of the mighty men who made them. You say to
yourself: 'There were indeed giants in those days.'
"It may be that the traveler who finds himself for the first time in the
midst of a grove of _Wellingtonia gigantea_ feels something of the same
overwhelming sense of awe and wonder; but the great trees, though they
have taken three thousand years to grow, lack the pathos and the mystery
that comes of human labor. They do not strike their roots through six
thousand years of history. They have not been watered with the blood and
tears of millions. Their leaves know no sounds less musical than the
singing of the birds, or the moaning of the night-wind as it sweeps over
the highlands of Calaveras. But every breath that wanders down the
painted aisles of Karnak seems to echo back the sighs of those who
perished in the quarry, at the oar, and under the chariot-wheels of the
conqueror."
MEMPHIS.
"And this is all that remains of Memphis, eldest of cities--a few huge
rubbish-heaps, a dozen or so of broken statues, and a name! One looks
round and tries in vain to realize the lost splendors of the place.
Where is the Memphis that King Mena[1] came from Thinis to found--the
Memphis of Chufu[2] and Chafra,[3] and all the early kings who built
their pyramid-tombs in the adjacent desert? Where is the Memphis of
Herodotus and Strabo? Where are those stately ruins which, even in the
middle ages, extended over a space estimated at half a day's journey in
every direction? One can hardly believe that a great city ever
flourished on this spot, or understand how it should have been effaced
so utterly. Yet here it stood--here where the grass is green, and the
palms are growing, and the Arabs build their hovels on the verge of the
inundation. The great colossus marks the site of the main entrance to
the Temple of Ptah. It lies where it fell, and no man has moved it. That
tranquil sheet of palm-fringed back-water, beyond which we catch a
distant glimpse of the pyramids of Gizeh, occupies the basin of a vast
artificial lake excavated by Mena.
[1] Menes.
[2] Khufu.
[3] Khafre.
"No capital in the world dates so far back as this or kept its place in
history so long. Founded four thousand years before our era, it beheld
the rise and fall of thirty-one dynasties; it survived the rule of the
Persians, the Greek and the Roman; it was, even in its decadence, second
only to Alexandria in population and extent; and it continued to be
inhabited up to the time of the Arab invasion. It then became the quarry
from which old Cairo was built; and as the new city rose on the eastern
bank the people of Memphis quickly abandoned their ancient capital to
desolation and decay....
"Memphis is a place to read about, and think about, and remember; but it
is a disappointing place to see. To miss it, however, would be to miss
the first link in the whole chain of monumental history which unites the
Egypt of antiquity with the world of today. Those melancholy mounds and
that heron-haunted lake must be seen, if only that they may take their
due place in the picture gallery of one's memory."
--_A Thousand Miles Up the Nile._
A HYMN TO THE GOD RA.
Incline thine ear towards me, thou rising Sun,
Thou who dost enlighten the two lands with beauty;
Thou sunshine of mankind, chasing darkness from Egypt!
Thy form is as that of thy father Ra rising in the heavens,
Thy rays penetrate to the farthest lands.
When thou art resting in thy palace,
Thou hearest the words of all countries;
For indeed thou hast millions of ears;
Thine eye is clearer than the stars of heaven;
Thou seest farther than the Sun.
If I speak afar off, thine ear hears;
If I do a hidden deed, thine eye sees it.
O Ra, richest of beings, chosen of Ra,
Thou king of beauty, giving breath to all.
[Illustration]
AN OLD KINGDOM BOOK OF PROVERBS.
There is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, a
papyrus roll, which was discovered at Thebes by M. Prisse, and is
now distinguished by his name. It was first described in 1857 by M.
Chabas. The papyrus dates from the beginning of the Middle Kingdom
(_Ca._ 2100 B.C.), and belongs to the rather extensive didactic
literature of the Egyptians. According to the Egyptian custom, the
words of the book were put into the mouth of a sage of the olden
time, Ptah-hotep by name, who was said to have lived in the time
of King Assa of the Fifth Dynasty (_Ca._ 2600 B.C.). There is no
reason for doubting the correctness of the tradition. Of course
it is not to be supposed that all of the proverbs really go back
to Ptah-hotep. The author is stated to have been 110 years old,
and his book opens with a remarkable description of old age. It
proceeds in a style which recalls the Proverbs of Solomon, the
Greek didactic poems, and even the homely "Poor Richard." It
inculcates obedience, diligence, patience, and other virtues
belonging to an official or servant. The Papyrus Prisse also
contains the Proverbs of Kagemni, vizier of King Snefru (_Ca._
2900 B.C.) of the Fourth Dynasty.
PRECEPTS OF PTAH-HOTEP.
The words of the Lord Prefect Ptah-Hotep, who lived in the reign of
Assa, King of Northern and Southern Egypt, who liveth forever.
Thus saith the Lord Ptah-Hotep: O Lord Osiris, whose feet are upon the
crocodiles!
A man waxeth old, his strength decayeth, he getteth in years, his
youth fadeth away:
Day by day the heart of an old man fainteth and is troubled:
His eyes see not, his ears hear not, his power is lessened and abated:
Behold, his mouth speaketh not as of yore, his mind is feeble, and
remembereth not the deeds of yesterday:
Yea, his whole body is afflicted, good is to him as evil, his tongue
savoreth no longer.
Alas, the old age of a man is full of misery, his nostrils drink not
the breath of heaven, his lungs wax feeble, he delighteth neither to
stand nor to be seated.
Who shall give unto my tongue authority to utter unto the young men
the counsels from of old? or who vouchsafeth unto me to declare the
counsels received from on high?
O Lord Osiris, let thy favor be poured out upon thy servant, and
suffer that these evils be removed from those who are unenlightened.
Then answered the Lord Osiris and said: Instruct them in the counsels
from of old; for verily, wisdom from of old maketh the weak strong;
knowledge giveth freedom to him that heareth; wisdom cries aloud, and
the ear is not satisfied with hearing.
Here beginneth the book of the wise sayings of the Lord Prefect
Ptah-Hotep, the first-born, the son of the King, the well-beloved of
the Lord:
That the ignorant and the foolish may be instructed in the
understanding of wisdom.
Whoso giveth ear, to him shall these words be as riches;
To him who heedeth them not, to the same shall come emptiness forever.
Thus speaketh he, giving counsel unto his son.
Be not thou puffed up with thy learning; honor the wise, neither
withhold thou honor from the simple.
The gates of art are closed unto none; whoso entereth thereat, though
he seeketh perfection, yet shall he not find it.
But the words of wisdom are hid, even as the emerald is hid in the
earth, and adamant in the rock, which the slave diggeth up.
Yield unto him whose strength is more than thine, who falleth upon
thee in anger: be not thou inflamed, neither lay thy hands upon him;
so shalt thou escape calamity.
He is froward, it shall not profit thee to contend against him; be
contained, and when he rageth against thee, oppose him not; so in the
end shalt thou prevail over him.
If one rail against thee, and flout thee, answer him not again, but be
as one who cannot be moved; even so shalt thou overcome him. For the
bystanders shall declare that he who, being provoked, holdeth his
tongue, is greater than he who provoketh; and thou shalt be honored of
those who have understanding.
If thou do evil, being thereto commanded by one having authority over
thee, the gods shall not condemn thee.
Know the master, and the slave: be not froward: obey and reverence him
to whom is given dominion over thee:
None may know adversity, when it cometh, nor prosperity, when it shall
relieve him, for the will of fate is hid from all:
But he that abuseth his servant shall be confounded, and God who gave
him authority shall suddenly take it away; and great shall be his
overthrow.
Be diligent, and do more than thy master commandeth thee; for the
slothful servant shall be discomfited, and he that is idle shall be
chidden.
See thou neglect not thy household; if thou find opportunity to
increase thy wealth improve it; business begetteth business, but
poverty is the lot of the slothful.
The wise traineth his child to walk devoutly and to serve the Lord; he
maketh him obey his law, and do that which is bidden; so shall the
love of the father be justified.
The son of a man is flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone; let not
thy heart be cold towards him. But if he be froward, and transgress
thy law, and, being tempted of evil, turn himself from thy
instruction, then do thou smite the mouth that smote thee.
Delay not to bring the erring to obedience, and to chastise the
rebellious; so shall he not stray from the path of righteousness, nor
stumble among pitfalls.
Hide not thy path, let not thy way be hidden; though thou stand in the
council of thy master, declare the truth that is in thee.
Be not as those who go backward, who eat the words of their own mouth,
lest peradventure they offend:
Be not like unto them; feigners, answering, He that perceiveth the
error of others, the same is wise: when the wise man uplifteth his
voice against error, deny him not, but keep silence; for surely none
but the wise have understanding.
If thou be wise guard thy house: honor thy wife, and love her
exceedingly: feed her belly and clothe her back, for this is the duty
of a husband.
Give her abundance of ointment, fail not each day to caress her, let
the desire of her heart be fulfilled: for verily he that is kind to
his wife and honoreth her, the same honoreth himself.
Withhold thy hand from violence, and thy heart from cruelty; softly
entreat her and win her to thy way; consider her desires, and deny not
the wish of her heart.
Thus shalt thou keep her heart from wandering; but if thou harden
thyself against her, she will turn from thee. Speak to her, yield her
thy love, she will have respect unto thee; open thy arms, she will
come unto thee.
Blessed is the son who gives ear to the instruction of his father, for
he shall escape error.
Train thou thy son to obedience; his wisdom shall be pleasing unto the
great.
Let his mouth have respect to thy sayings; by obedience shall his
wisdom be established. Day by day shall his walk be perfect; but error
shall be the destruction of fools. The ignorant and the froward shall
be overthrown, but knowledge shall uplift the wise.
He that lacketh prudence and inclineth not his ear to instruction, the
same worketh no good. He thinketh to discover knowledge in ignorance,
and gain in that which profiteth nothing; he runneth to mischief, and
wandereth in error, choosing those things which are rejected of the
prudent; so subsisteth he on that which perisheth, and filleth his
belly with the words of evil. Yea, he is brought to shame, seeking to
be nourished with whatsoever the wise hold in abomination, shunning
profitable things, led astray by much foolishness.
[Illustration]
THE VOYAGE OF THE SOUL.
In the 15th chapter of "The Book of the Dead" we find an account
of the passage of the soul in a boat across the firmament, to the
abode of the blessed.
This fable reappears in the religious writings of other nations,
as, for instance, in, the Greek story of Charon, ferrying departed
spirits across the Styx, and in the traditions of the ancient
Mexicans. The soul is called by the Egyptians Osiris, in connection
with the proper name of the individual (_N_), to indicate that the
latter already partakes of the divine nature. Ra is the sun-god,
approaching the west. The following translation is by P. Le Page
Renouf:
Here is the Osiris _N_.
Come forth into Heaven, sail across the firmament and enter into
brotherhood with the stars, let salutation be made to thee in the
bark, let invocation be made to thee in the morning bark. Contemplate
Ra within his Ark, and do thou propitiate his orb daily. See the fish
in its birth from the emerald stream, and see the tortoise and its
rotations. Let the offender (the dragon) fall prostrate, when he
meditates destruction for me, by blows on his backbone.
Ra springs forth with a fair wind; the evening bark speeds on and
reaches the Haven. The crew of Ra are in exultation when they look
upon him; the Mistress of Life, her heart is delighted at the
overthrow of the adversary of her Lord.
See thou Horus at the look-out at the bow, and at his sides Thoth and
Maat. All the gods are in exultation when they behold Ra coming in
peace to give new life to the hearts of the Chu, and here is the
Osiris _N_ along with them.
[_Litany._]
Adored be Ra, as he setteth in the land of Life.
Hail to thee, who hast come as Tmu, and hast been the creator of the
cycle of the gods,
_Give thou delicious breezes of the north wind to the Osiris N._
Hail to thee, who hast come as the Soul of souls, revered in Amenta,
Hail to thee, who art above the gods, and who lightenest up Tuat with
thy glories,
Hail to thee, who comest in splendor, and goest around in thine orb,
Hail to thee, who art mightier than the gods, who art crowned in
Heaven and King in Tuat,
Hail to thee, who openest the Tuat and disposest of all its doors,
Hail to thee, supreme among the gods, and weigher of words in the
nether world,
Hail to thee, who art in thy Nest, and stirrest the Tuat with thy
glory,
Hail to thee, the great, the mighty, whose enemies are laid prostrate
at their blocks,
Hail to thee, who slaughterest the Sebau and annihilatest Apepi (the
dragon).
[After each invocation, the italicized line is repeated.]
Horus openeth: the Great, the Mighty, who divideth the earths, the
Great One who resteth in the Mountain of the West, and brighteneth up
the Tuat with his glories and the Souls in their hidden abode, by
shining into their sepulchres.
By hurling harm against the foe thou hast utterly destroyed all the
adversaries of the Osiris _N_.
THE SOUL'S DECLARATION OF INNOCENCE.
This declaration was to be made by the soul in the Judgment Hall of
Osiris in the presence of the council of forty-two gods. The heart
being weighed against the symbol of truth and found correct was
then restored to the deceased who entered upon the life of the
blessed.
"O ye Lords of Truth! I have brought you truth.
I have not privily done evil against mankind.
I have not afflicted the miserable.
I have not told falsehoods.
I have had no acquaintance with sin.
I have not made the laboring man do more than his daily task.
I have not been idle.
I have not been intoxicated.
I have not been immoral.
I have not calumniated a slave to his master.
I have not caused hunger.
I have not made to weep.
I have not murdered.
I have not defrauded.
"I have not eaten the sacred bread in the temples.
I have not cheated in the weight of the balance.
I have not withheld milk from the mouths of sucklings.
I have not slandered any one.
I have not netted sacred birds.
I have not caught the fish which typify them.
I have not stopped running water.
I have not robbed the gods of their offered haunches.
I have not stopped a god from his manifestation.
I have made to the gods the offerings that were their due.
I have given food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and clothes to
the naked.
I am pure! I am pure!"
[Illustration: WEIGHING THE HEART IN THE JUDGMENT HALL OF OSIRIS.]
THE ADVENTURES OF THE EXILE SANEHAT.[1]
(2000 B.C.)
The fact that three copies of this tale have been found indicates
that it was popular. Sanehat was a high official, and probably a
member of the royal family; but on the death of King Amenemhet, the
founder of the twelfth dynasty, Sanehat, fearing for his life, fled
to Syria and lived there many years. In his old age he desired to
return, that he might die in his native land. The narrative was
probably prepared for inscription on the wall of his tomb. The
translation is from W. M. Flinders Petrie's "Egyptian Tales."
In the thirtieth year, the month Paophi, the seventh day, the god
entered his horizon, the King Sehotepabra flew up to heaven and joined
the sun's disc, the follower of the god met his maker. The palace was
silenced, and in mourning, the great gates were closed, the courtiers
crouching on the ground, the people in hushed mourning.
[Illustration]
His majesty had sent a great army with the nobles to the land of the
Temehu (Libya), his son and heir, the good god, King Usertesen,[2] as
their leader. Now he was returning, and had brought away living
captives and all kinds of cattle without end. The councillors of the
palace had sent to the West to let the king know the matter that had
come to pass in the inner hall. The messenger was to meet him on the
road, and reach him at the time of evening: the matter was urgent. "A
hawk had soared with his followers." Thus said he, not to let the army
know of it. Even if the royal sons who commanded in that army sent a
message, he was not to speak to a single one of them.
But I was standing near, and heard his voice while he was speaking. I
fled far away, my heart beating, my arms failing, trembling had
fallen on all my limbs. I turned about in running to seek a place to
hide me, and I threw myself between two bushes, to wait while they
should pass by. Then I turned me toward the south, not wishing to come
into this palace--for I knew not if war was declared--nor even
thinking a wish to live after this sovereign. I turned my back to the
sycamore, I reached Shi-Seneferu, and rested on the open field. In the
morning I went on and overtook a man, who passed by the edge of the
road. He asked of me mercy, for he feared me. By the evening I drew
near to Kher-ahau (Cairo) and I crossed the river on a raft without a
rudder. Carried by the west wind, I passed over to the east to the
quarries of Aku and the land of the goddess Herit, mistress of the red
mountain. Then I fled on foot, northward, and reached the walls of the
prince, built to repel the Sati. I crouched in a bush for fear of
being seen by the guards, changed each day, who watch on the top of
the fortress. I took my way by night, and at the lighting of the day I
reached Peten, and turned me toward the valley of Kemur. Then thirst
hasted me on; I dried up, and my throat narrowed, and I said, "This is
the taste of death."
When I lifted up my heart and gathered strength, I heard a voice and
the lowing of cattle. I saw men of the Sati, and one of them--a friend
unto Egypt--knew me. He gave me water and boiled milk, and I went with
him to his camp; they did me good, and one tribe passed me on to
another. I passed on to Sun, and reached the land of Adim (Edom).
[Illustration: HAREM WINDOW AND COURT.
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.]
When I had dwelt there half a year Amu-an-shi--who is the prince of
the Upper Tenu--sent for me and said: "Dwell thou with me that thou
mayest hear the speech of Egypt." He said thus for that he knew of my
excellence, and had heard tell of my worth, for men of Egypt who were
there with him bore witness of me. Behold he said to me, "For what
cause hast thou come hither? Has a matter come to pass in the palace?
Has the king of the two lands, Sehetepabra, gone to heaven? What has
happened about this is not known." But I answered with concealment,
and said, "When I came from the land of the Temehu, and my desires
were there changed in me, if I fled away it was not by reason of
remorse that I took the way of a fugitive; I have not failed in my
duty, my mouth has not said any bitter words, I have not heard any
evil counsel, my name has not come into the mouth of a magistrate. I
know not by what I have been led into this land." And Amu-an-shi said,
"This is by the will of the god (King of Egypt), for what is a land
like, if it know not that excellent god, of whom the dread is upon the
lands of strangers, as they dread Sekhet in a year of pestilence?" I
spake to him, and replied, "Forgive me, his son now enters the palace,
and has received the heritage of his father. He is a god who has none
like him, and there is none before him. He is a master of wisdom,
prudent in his designs, excellent in his decrees, with good-will to
him who goes or who comes; he subdued the land of strangers while his
father yet lived in his palace, and he rendered account of that which
his father destined him to perform. A king, he has ruled from his
birth; he, from his birth, has increased births, a sole being, a
divine essence, by whom this land rejoices to be governed. He enlarges
the borders of the South; but he covets not the lands of the North; he
does not smite the Sati, nor crush the Nemau-shau. If he descends
here, let him know thy name, by the homage which thou wilt pay to his
majesty. For he refuses not to bless the land which obeys him."
And he replied to me, "Egypt is indeed happy and well settled; behold
thou art far from it, but whilst thou art with me I will do good unto
thee." And he placed me before his children, he married his eldest
daughter to me, and gave me the choice of all his land, even among the
best of that which he had on the border of the next land. It is a
goodly land; Iaa is its name. There are figs and grapes; there is wine
commoner than water; abundant is the honey, many are its olives; and
all fruits are upon its trees; there is barley and wheat, and cattle
of kinds without end. This was truly a great thing that he granted me,
when the prince came to invest me, and establish me as prince of a
tribe in the best of his land. I had my continual portion of bread and
of wine each day, of cooked meat, of roasted fowl, as well as the wild
game which I took, or which was brought to me, besides what my dogs
captured. They made me much butter, and prepared milk of all kinds. I
passed many years, the children that I had became great, each ruling
his tribe. When a messenger went or came to the palace, he turned
aside from the way to come to me; for I helped every man. I gave water
to the thirsty, I set on his way him who went astray, and I rescued
the robbed. The Sati who went far, to strike and turn back the princes
of other lands, I ordained their goings; for the Prince of the Tenu
for many years appointed me to be general of his soldiers. In every
land which I attacked I played the champion, I took the cattle, I led
away the vassals, I carried off the slaves, I slew the people, by my
sword, my bow, my marches and my good devices. I was excellent to the
heart of my prince; he loved me when he knew my power, and set me over
his children when he saw the strength of my arms.
A champion of the Tenu came to defy me in my tent: a bold man without
equal, for he had vanquished the whole country. He said, "Let Sanehat
fight with me;" for he desired to overthrow me, he thought to take my
cattle for his tribe. The prince counseled with me. I said, "I know
him not. I certainly am not of his degree, I hold me far from his
place. Have I ever opened his door, or leaped over his fence? It is
some envious jealousy from seeing me; does he think that I am like
some steer among the cows, whom the bull overthrows? If this is a
wretch who thinks to enrich himself at my cost, not a Bedawi fit for
fight, then let us put the matter to judgment. Verily a true bull
loves battle, but a vain-glorious bull turns his back for fear of
contest; if he has a heart for combat, let him speak what he pleases.
Will God forget what he has ordained, and how shall that be known?" I
lay down; and when I had rested I strung my bow, I made ready my
arrows, I loosened my dagger, I furbished my arms.
At dawn the land of the Tenu came together; it had gathered its tribes
and called all the neighboring people; it spake of nothing but the
fight. Each heart burnt for me, men and women crying out; for each
heart was troubled for me, and they said, "Is there another strong one
who would fight with him? Behold the adversary has a buckler, a
battle-axe, and an armful of javelins." Then I drew him to the
attack; I turned aside his arrows, and they struck the ground in vain.
One drew near to the other, and he fell on me, and then I shot him. My
arrow fastened in his neck, he cried out, and fell on his face: I
drove his lance into him, and raised my shout of victory on his back.
Whilst all the men of the land rejoiced, I, and his vassals whom he
had oppressed, gave thanks unto Mentu (the god of war). This prince,
Amu-an-shi, embraced me. Then I carried off his goods and took his
cattle, that which he had wished to do to me, I did even so unto him;
I seized that which was in his tent, I spoiled his dwelling. As time
went on I increased the richness of my treasures and the number of my
cattle....
[But at last the exile desired to return to his native land, and sent
a petition to the King of Egypt, asking permission.]
Then the majesty of King Kheper-ka-ra, the blessed, spake upon this my
desire that I had made to him. His majesty sent unto me with presents
from the king, that he might enlarge the heart of his servant, like
unto the province of any strange land; and the royal sons who are in
the palace addressed themselves unto me.
_Copy of the decree which was brought to lead me back into Egypt._
"The Horus, life of births, lord of the two crowns, King of Upper
and Lower Egypt, Kheper-ka-ra, son of the Sun, Amen-em-hat, ever
living unto eternity. Order for the follower Sanehat. Behold this
order of the king is sent to thee to instruct thee of his will.
"Now, although them hast gone through strange lands from Adim to
Tenu, and passed from one country to another at the wish of thy
heart--behold, what hast thou done, or what has been done against
thee, that is amiss? Moreover, thou reviledst not; but if thy word
was denied, thou didst not speak again in the assembly of the
nobles, even if thou wast desired. Now, therefore, that thou hast
thought on this matter which has come to thy mind, let thy heart
not change again; for this thy Heaven (queen), who is in the palace
is fixed, she is flourishing, she is enjoying the best in the
kingdom of the land, and her children are in the chambers of the
palace.
"Leave all the riches that thou hast, and that are with thee,
altogether. When thou shalt come into Egypt behold the palace, and
when thou shalt enter the palace, bow thy face to the ground before
the Great House; thou shalt be chief among the companions. And day
by day behold thou growest old; thy vigor is lost, and thou
thinkest on the day of burial. Thou shalt see thyself come to the
blessed state, they shall give thee the bandages from the hand of
Tait, the night of applying the oil of embalming. They shall follow
thy funeral, and visit the tomb on the day of burial, which shall
be in a gilded case, the head painted with blue, a canopy of
cypress wood above thee, and oxen shall draw thee, the singers
going before thee, and they shall dance the funeral dance. The
weepers crouching at the door of thy tomb shall cry aloud the
prayers for offerings: they shall slay victims for thee at the door
of thy pit; and thy pyramid shall be carved in white stone, in the
company of the royal children. Thus thou shalt not die in a strange
land, nor be buried by the Amu; thou shalt not be laid in a
sheep-skin when thou art buried; all people shall beat the earth,
and lament on thy body when thou goest to the tomb."
When this order came to me, I was in the midst of my tribe. When it
was read unto me, I threw me on the dust, I threw dust in my hair; I
went around my tent rejoicing and saying, "How may it be that such a
thing is done to the servant, who with a rebellious heart has fled to
strange lands? Now with an excellent deliverance, and mercy delivering
me from death, thou shalt cause me to end my days in the palace."
I made a feast in Iaa, to pass over my goods to my children. My eldest
son was leading my tribe, all my goods passed to him, and I gave him
my corn and all my cattle, my fruit, and all my pleasant trees. When I
had taken my road to the south, and arrived at the roads of Horus, the
officer who was over the garrison sent a messenger to the palace to
give notice. His majesty sent the good overseer of the peasants of the
king's domains, and boats laden with presents from the king for the
Sati who had come to conduct me to the roads of Horus. I spoke to each
one by his name, and I gave the presents to each as was intended. I
received and I returned the salutation and I continued thus until I
reached the city of Thetu (Thebes).
When the land was brightened, and the new day began, four men came
with a summons for me; and the four men went to lead me to the palace.
I saluted with both my hands on the ground; the royal children stood
at the courtyard to conduct me: the courtiers who were to lead me to
the hall brought me on the way to the royal chamber.
I found his majesty on the great throne in the hall of pale gold. Then
I threw myself on the ground; this god, in whose presence I was, knew
me not. He questioned me graciously, but I was as one seized with
blindness, my spirit fainted, my limbs failed, my heart was no longer
in my bosom, and I knew the difference between life and death. His
majesty said to one of the companions, "Lift him up, let him speak to
me."
The royal children were brought in, and his majesty said to the queen,
"Behold, Sanehat has come as an Amu, whom the Sati have produced."
She cried aloud, and the royal children spake with one voice, saying
before his majesty, "Verily it is not so, O king, my lord." Said his
majesty, "It is verily he." Then they brought their collars, and their
wands, and their sistra[A] in their hands, and displayed them before
his majesty; and they sang--
"May thy hands prosper, O king;
May the ornaments of the Lady of Heaven continue.
May the goddess Nub give life to thy nostril;
May the mistress of the stars favor thee, when thou sailest south and
north.
All wisdom is in the mouth of thy majesty;
Thy uræus[B] is on thy forehead, thou drivest away the miserable.
Thou art pacified, O Ra, lord of the lands;
They call on thee as on the mistress of all.
Strong is thy horn. Thou lettest fly thine arrow.
Grant the breath to him who is without it;
Grant good things to this traveller, Sanehat the Pedti, born in the
land of Egypt,
Who fled away from fear of thee,
And fled this land from thy terrors.
Does not the face grow pale, of him who beholds thy countenance;
Does not the eye fear, which looks upon thee?"
[A] The sistrum was a musical rattle, usually consisting of a thin
oval metal band, crossed with metal rods and having a handle.
See cut. p. 39.
[B] The serpent, with raised, projecting head, which was an emblem
of sovereignty.
Said his majesty, "Let him not fear, let him be freed from terror. He
shall be a Royal Friend amongst the nobles; he shall be put within the
circle of the courtiers. Go ye to the chamber of praise to seek wealth
for him."
When I went out from the palace, the royal children offered their
hands to me; we walked afterwards to the Great Gates.
Years were removed from my limbs: I was shaved, and polled my locks of
hair; the foulness was cast to the desert with the garments of the
Nemau-shau. I clothed me in fine linen, and anointed myself with the
fine oil of Egypt; I laid me on a bed. I gave up the sand to those who
lie on it; the oil of wood to him who would anoint himself therewith.
There was given to me the mansion of a lord of serfs, which had
belonged to a royal friend. There many excellent things were in its
buildings; all its wood was renewed. There were brought to me portions
from the palace, thrice and four times each day; besides the gifts of
the royal children, always, without ceasing. There was built for me a
pyramid of stone amongst the pyramids. The overseer of the architects
measured its ground; the chief treasurer wrote it; the sacred masons
cut the well; the chief of the laborers on the tombs brought the
bricks; all things used to make strong a building were there used.
There were given to me peasants; there was made for me a garden, and
fields were in it before my mansion, as is done for the chief royal
friend. My statue was inlaid with gold, its girdle of pale gold; his
majesty caused it to be made. Such honor is not done to a man of low
degree.
May I be in the favor of the king until the day shall come of my
death.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] More correctly rendered as Sinuhe.
[2] Sesostris.
[Illustration]
THE SONG OF THE HARPER.
(Sixteenth century B.C.)
The Song of the Harper was found in the tomb of the priest
Neferhotep, near Thebes. It was designed to be sung on the
anniversary of his death. He is shown sitting with his wife, son
and daughter, while the harper chants. Other copies of this song
have come down to us. _Ra_ or _Re_ is the general appellation of
the Sun-god; _Tum_ or _Tmu_ denotes the Sun setting; _Shu_ is the
light of the Sun in its life-giving function.
Neferhotep, great and blessed, sleepeth; we protect his sleep.
Since the day when Ra began his race, and Tum hastened to its ending,
fathers have gone down to death, and children have arisen in
their place.
Even as Ra has his birth in the morning, fathers beget sons;
Even as Tum begetteth night, mothers conceive and bring forth;
The breath of the morning is in a man's nostrils;
Man that is born of a woman vanisheth when his race is run.
Holy Father, vouchsafe that the day return with blessing;
Smell thou the fragrant oils that we pour on thy altars, receive the
flowers that we bring for an offering.
Lo, thy sister dwelleth in thy heart as in a temple;
Give these lotus flowers into her arms, place them in her bosom;
Lo, she sitteth at thy right hand; let the harp and the sound of
singing be pleasing unto thee, and drive sorrow away.
Rejoice even unto the day when we, pilgrims, enter Amenti, welcomed
by him who went before us.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, that the day come quickly;
Pure of heart and deed was he whom we loved:
The life of earth passeth away, even so passed he away;
Behold, he was, and he is not, and no man knoweth his place.
So hath it been, since Ra went forth, O Man, and so shall it be
forever.
The eyes of a man are opened, and are quickly closed again.
His soul drinketh of the sacred waters, he drinketh with them that are
gone of the waters of the River of Life.
Give unto the poor, who cry to thee when the harvest faileth; so shall
thy name be magnified forever.
And to the feast of thy sacrifice multitudes shall come, worshipping;
And the priest, clothed with a panther's skin, shall pour out wine unto
thee;
And shall offer cakes, and sing songs before thy altars,
In that day when thy servants stand before Ra, the Sun-god.
Shu shall bring forth the harvest in its season,
And glory shall be thine, but destruction shall overtake the wicked.
Return quickly, O Neferhotep, let the day of thy honor return:
Lo, the works which thou didst upon earth, thou didst leave them in the
day of thy going;
Rich wast thou, but of thy riches only these ashes are left.
In the day of thy going thou tarriedst not, nothing didst thou save in
that day:
Yea, though a man have much grain, yet the day of his poverty shall
come;
Death regardeth not his riches; Death heedeth not the pride of a man.
Friends, the day of your going shall come; let your hearts have
understanding.
Whither ye go, thence shall ye not return forever.
The upright man shall prosper, but the transgressor shall perish.
Be ye just, for the just man shall be blessed.
But neither the brave man, nor he that feareth, nor he that hath
friends, nor the forsaken one,
None shall escape the grave, no man small prevail against Death.
Vouchsafe unto us, therefore, of thine abundance, and be thou blessed
forever of Isis.
PRESENT-DAY EGYPT
ALEXANDRIA.
Where East and West Meet.
Alexandria is the great commercial center of the southern
Mediterranean. Approached from the sea, the coast is so level that the
city is not visible until the harbor is almost reached. Modern docks
and warehouses are crowded along the shore.
In spite of its modern appearance, Alexandria is an old city, founded
by Alexander the Great, in 332 B.C. He evinced his usual insight and
good judgment in the site chosen, it being sufficiently far west to
escape the deposits brought down by the Nile and carried to sea by its
various outlets. The only important city of all those founded by the
great conqueror, Alexandria became a center of culture and education.
Scholars and men of genius were encouraged to come here by the
Ptolomies, who were determined to make the place a second Athens. A
museum was founded and a library established, some 900,000 rolls of
manuscript being accumulated. This we may feel sure embraced the
wealth of ancient learning.
When the city was besieged by the Romans in the time of Cæsar, this
priceless collection of books was destroyed. The loss to the future
was irreparable. However, an earnest effort was put forth to replace
as many as possible of the writings, and for years scribes copied
precious rolls sent them from other educational centers and from
private collections. Indeed, it was plainly hinted by those best
informed that the originals were never returned to rightful owners,
but that copies were invariably returned and the original kept to
grace the public library. When Omar overcame Egypt in the seventh
century, he proclaimed the Koran sufficient for all, saying that it
included whatever wisdom men needed. Whereupon he commanded the
destruction of this second library. It is recorded that the contents
were distributed among four thousand public baths of Alexandria and
that fires were kept burning for six months before the books were
consumed. Lovers of antiquity can never cease to regret these two
wanton wastes of ancient literature.
Pompey's Pillar[A] may be seen towering high above the city as one
draws near. While its significance is not absolutely proved,
nevertheless it is thought to have been erected in honor of Diocletian
in the third century. It is made of red granite and was originally
crowned by a statue. Aside from it and the catacombs, there is little
to suggest the venerable age of the place. The catacombs were used
here, as in Rome, by early Christians for interment.
[A] The shaft is erroneously associated with Pompey.
In many respects Alexandria is like certain European cities. Its
streets are well paved, it has broad avenues in its newer sections,
and the local activities center around a great public square, named
after Mohammet Ali, who loved the place and did much to beautify it.
Except for the ruinous policy of Saïd and Ismail, who involved their
country in heavy debt, Alexandria would be a very wealthy metropolis,
for its yearly shipment of cotton alone is nearly one million bales.
Nevertheless, while as conspicuous a commercial center as Liverpool,
its commerce is slight compared to what it was before shipping
interests were diverted around the Cape of Good Hope.
In no other locality can one see such a meeting of the nations. All
languages are heard in a general babel around the harbor and in the
streets. Numbering about three hundred and forty thousand people, its
population includes Asiatics and Europeans of every description, who
offer a striking contradiction to Kipling's couplet:
"For East is East, and West is West,
And never the twain shall meet."
CAIRO.
The ride from Alexandria to Cairo leads across the level plains of the
delta. Fields of grain, occasional palms, scattering villages of mud
huts, and the ever-evident canals make up the landscape. As one draws
near the city a sight of the Pyramids is gained; then the suburbs of
Cairo appear.
Unlike Alexandria, Cairo is a comparatively modern city. The seaport
was twelve hundred years old before a stone of Cairo had been set in
place. Now having a population of about six hundred thousand, it, too,
shows great diversity of people. While the Arabs make up the bulk of
the inhabitants, representatives of all countries and climes are seen.
The domed mosques stand on every hand, monuments to the teachings of
Mohammed.
Much as Venice attracts artists by its lavish display of color, Cairo
also offers visions for one who is skillful with the brush. Its
sapphire skies, gorgeous sunsets with their marvellous after-glow, the
gleaming sands of the desert and Pyramids turned to gold in the
setting sun, are intoxicating. It is the land of Arabian Nights, and
slight imagination is required to make the visitor fancy himself back
in story land. Strange and unfamiliar sights greet him everywhere;
even the odor of the oriental city, incapable of description, is
present when darkness has eliminated many of the scenes, and slumber
has lessened many of the sounds.
Although few spend much time in Alexandria, all visitors to Egypt
devote as many days or weeks as may be possible to Cairo. From there
one may visit the great Pyramids, going by train if limited in point
of time; going by donkey or camel if fond of following historic
customs. Here, too, one starts upon the trip up the Nile, without
which any visit to Egypt would be incomplete. The bazaars afford much
entertainment for the sojourner in Cairo. Even those who for some
reason have made this city their abode for a protracted time never
tire of the street scenes or the bazaars. Unlike our shops, each
bazaar displays in a series of booths one commodity; rugs and carpets
have a bazaar given up to them alone; jewels and ornaments are
displayed at another, and so on. It would seem as if each article was
priced according to the purse of the customer. It is impossible in
oriental lands to shop expeditiously, as in western countries. The
oriental makes bargains with his customers; he names a price
considerably larger than he expects to receive; the would-be customer
names another considerably less than he expects to pay; and sometimes
for hours the bickering is continued, each satisfied in the end and
probably far better pleased than if the matter had been speedily
adjusted.
Many festivals are observed in Egypt. The year is lunar: if New Year's
Day be ascertained, it is very easy to account for the months, each
being twenty-eight days in length. Within a period of thirty-three
years a complete circuit is made and another begun. The fact that a
given holiday was celebrated last year in one month proves immediately
that this year it will fall at another time. Mohammedan feasts and
fasts are strictly observed. The month of Ramadan is the holy month,
corresponding in some measure to our Lent. None of the faithful will
allow a morsel of food or a drop of water to pass their lips during
that month from sunrise to sunset. But the moment the golden orb has
fallen below the horizon the feasting begins, often to last throughout
the night. When this month of daily fasting falls in the hot
summer-time, the mortality is very great, not only because of
immoderate indulgence through the night, but because of the suffering
for lack of water through the day.
The yearly departure of the caravan for Mecca is a remarkable sight.
Every true Mohammedan hopes to some day make a pilgrimage to
Mecca--the sacred city of his prophet. Each year those who are able
set out upon their journey. A carpet which has been woven for this
purpose is sent to the sacred shrine, to take the place of the one
placed there the previous year. The procession of pilgrims winds
through the streets of Cairo, witnessed by the entire population, who
throng the streets to catch sight of the carpet and, if possible, to
touch it Reaching Mecca, the carpet which has absorbed holiness during
the past year is torn up, the pieces being distributed among the
pilgrims, who treasure them as their dearest possessions.
Upon his return home, each pilgrim is looked upon with envy and honor
by his Mohammedan brethren. He and all who behold him know that his
entrance into Paradise is secure; henceforward he is distinguished for
his piety, and those less fortunate can but dream of the day when
they, too, may be able to follow his worthy example.
THE EGYPTIAN MUSEUM.
Only in comparatively recent years have antiquities been adequately
prized or cared for. Early in the nineteenth century Lord Elgin, then
on diplomatic service to Turkey, was so dismayed by the spectacle of
Parthenon fragments lying about unprotected on the Acropolis at
Athens, that he succeeded in obtaining permission from the Sublime
Porte to remove them to England. Subsequently the British Museum
purchased them from him for much less than had been the expense
incurred in removing and exporting them from Greece. Similarly,
valuable recoveries in Egypt were left for private individuals to take
away as they saw fit; sometimes they were finally collected by
national museums, but quite as often they became the possessions of
the favored few, or in some cases were even wholly lost.
In 1863 Mariette obtained the exclusive right to excavate in Egypt He
also awakened the government to the need of placing all recoveries
under its exclusive control. Since the time of Napoleon scarcely a
vessel had left Alexandria without carrying some priceless treasure to
be added to the collections of the Louvre or the British Museum. In
1878 Mariette founded the Egyptian Museum at Balak, and for a long
time it was known as the Balak Museum.
Although small and without the slightest protection against fire, it
nevertheless provided a place for antiques; some were merely stored in
sheds, for lack of room, and others remained unclassified because
there was no opportunity to display them. In 1889 the need for another
building was keenly felt. Egypt could not build at this time, but the
Palace of Gizeh was placed at the disposal of the collection. While
somewhat larger than Balak, it was neither commodious nor safe.
On the first day of April, 1897, the corner stone of a national museum
was laid in Cairo by the Khedive. This substantial and fireproof
building, constructed at a cost of almost $900,000, was completed
November 15, 1902, and is now the repository of the largest and most
valuable collection of Egyptian antiquities in the world.
This museum has been fortunate in its curators--all men of scholarly
attainments and well versed in Egyptian history. Mariette was
succeeded by M. Maspero, whose voluminous work upon Egyptian history
is well known to many. Later he resigned this position to resume his
literary work in Europe, only to return by a fortunate circumstance in
1899, in time to supervise the transfer of the many priceless
treasures to their present abode.
Leaving the busy streets of Cairo, one turns from Mohammedan to
ancient Egypt. On every hand the past looms up; pharaohs and beings of
a period far remote populate this little world, and so far as life can
express itself in material things, these are available for examination
and study. The plan followed in the arrangement is the chronological
one used also in the earlier buildings. The heavier objects have been
given place on the ground floor; the lighter and smaller articles on
the floor above. The first six rooms on the ground floor are devoted
to the remains of the Old Empire--particularly of the fourth, fifth
and sixth dynasties. The diorite statue of Khafra, so often shown in
prints, is here; also the squatting statue of a scribe, second only in
beauty to the one in the Louvre. The next series of rooms are given
over to the remains of the Middle Empire. The statue of Amenemhet III,
of the twelfth dynasty, is worthy of special mention. Moreover,
statues and sphinxes of the Hyksos period are also found here.
The New Empire left evidences of regal splendor, eclipsing all earlier
periods; gilded chairs, chariots, dishes of gold and silver, as well
as statues of the kings themselves attract attention. Other rooms
record Egypt's decay--when Ethiopians ruled the land; the period of
Egyptian Renaissance, productive of wonderful sculpture; the coming of
Alexander and Greek supremacy; the period of Roman rule; and finally
Byzantine Egypt.
The second floor is the treasure house for the more varied remains.
One may see the mummies of the priests of Ammon, funerary furniture,
dolls and other toys, alabaster vases, domestic furniture, funerary
barks, terra-cottas of the Græco-Roman period, statues of the gods,
amulets and "answerers" and, most imposing of all perhaps, the royal
mummies.
In one of the rooms is an example of the finest surviving Egyptian
painting: a picture of geese feeding. This, like other paintings of
ancient Egypt, was found in an old tomb.
The _Galerie des Bijoux_ is also on this upper floor. Some of its
wonderful treasures rival the workmanship of Tiffany; others are even
more perfect. The stones most frequently used were lapis lazuli,
carnelian, jasper and garnets. The favorite ornaments were rings,
collars, chains, amulets and bracelets.
One might spend months in this museum and fail to exhaust its marvels.
Few can do this, and for those whose visit to Cairo must be brief, it
is better to see only a little and see it well than to attempt to
hurriedly pass through all the rooms. The British Museum, the Louvre
and the Metropolitan Museum in New York all have departments of
Egyptian antiquities.
Since the work of excavation and discovery still goes on, it may
reasonably be expected that further light will be thrown upon the past
by the labor of the next few years. For this reason only recent
publications regarding the Nile dwellers have any great value.
THE SUEZ CANAL.
The Suez Canal has been the cause of Egypt's late international
importance. It exemplifies several striking paradoxes. Opposed
bitterly by England at first, it is now largely under her control;
made possible by the heavy investments of the viceroy of Egypt, this
country has no shipping today to profit by the canal nor does it
receive any benefit whatever because of it. On the contrary, it has
been the real cause of Egypt's loss of independence. Before the
building of the canal began Egypt had no debt; while the viceroy
acknowledged the suzerainty of the Sultan of Turkey, in a large
measure he was free to conduct all internal affairs, and hoped in time
to gain full sovereignty. The enormous amounts supplied by Viceroy
Saïd for the canal with the idle hope of dazzling the eyes of Europe
were the first of a long series of extravagances which so burdened his
country with debt that progress finally ceased and activities became
paralyzed. To protect their subjects, who had loaned money at a rate
of interest prohibited in their own lands, European countries stepped
in and assumed control of Egyptian finances. Today it is impossible
to foresee how Egypt can regain the independence she has lost.
In ancient times canals provided Egyptians access to the Red Sea. When
the expedition was made to Punt during the early years of the New
Empire, it is probable that ships built at Thebes were dispatched
directly to the sea by means of some constructed water way. Again, we
know that a canal was built two or three hundred years before the
Christian Era and that Cleopatra tried to save the remnant of her
fleet after the battle of Actium by means of it; but owing to its
impaired condition and the low water at that season, her attempt
failed.
When Egypt became a Roman province a water way connecting the Red and
Mediterranean seas was projected but not constructed. Napoleon was
quick to see its opportunities during his Egyptian campaign and set
his engineers to work upon the plan, which was abandoned upon his
withdrawal from Africa. The idea prevailed that the two seas were of
different levels. In 1847 England, France and Austria sent out a
commission to ascertain the facts, and their surveys proved that the
levels were the same. However, nothing was done and the matter was
forgotten save by a French engineer by the name of De Lesseps, who
continued to brood over the undertaking. In 1856, having unusual
opportunities to cultivate the acquaintance of Viceroy Saïd, De
Lesseps obtained from him a concession for the construction of a canal
to join the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, it being distinctly stated
that this should cost Egypt nothing, that fifteen per cent of the
profits should fall to her share, and that in ninety-nine years, upon
payment of the actual improvements made by the canal company along the
banks, the canal should revert to Egypt. To prevent the importation of
vast hordes of laborers, Saïd agreed to supply peasant labor at a
nominal price, De Lesseps and his associates to provide them with
adequate food and care; likewise to bring fresh water to the scene of
action for their use. The concession was made conditional to the
approval of the Sultan of Turkey, suzerain of Egypt, whose consent was
to be obtained by De Lesseps without mediation of the viceroy.
When it came to procuring capital sufficient to promote the
enterprise, De Lesseps found it far more difficult than he had
imagined. England had completed a railroad from Alexandria to Suez in
1858 and vigorously opposed the canal project; private funds might
have been forthcoming from Englishmen but for the fact that the
government disapproved so heartily; French capital was needed largely
at home. The canal company issued 400,000 shares, which for some time
went begging. De Lesseps finally persuaded Saïd to take 177,662
shares, which marked the beginning of Egypt's enslavement and at the
same time the beginning of De Lesseps' success. Stock was readily sold
now, and in 1859 the digging began.
In 1863 Saïd died and Ismail became viceroy of Egypt. He fell into the
mistake of his predecessor and became a willing victim for the canal
company. The work upon the canal was but one-fourth completed;
twenty-five thousand peasants had been impressed every three months,
but their insufficient food and cruel treatment had resulted in the
death of thousands. Protests were made by civilized countries
everywhere--particularly did the English government take a stand for
humane conditions, "her philanthropy and political interests being
roused to simultaneous action."
It is amusing to review articles written during the years when the
canal was first discussed as a possibility, then as an actual
undertaking. The following lines have been taken from a magazine
published in 1860:
"We have once more to advert to the monster folly of the nineteenth
century. It is now understood that our government perceives the wisdom
of leaving a project so insane to the fate and ridicule which
inevitably await it. It was their opposition alone that gave it any
importance, and by exciting the national prejudices of France, enabled
the projectors to raise funds which they never could have got without
it....
"The project is to cut a ship canal three hundred feet wide and thirty
feet deep over ninety miles of flat sand. As the level of the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea are the same, the canal will be near
thirty feet below the level of both, and hence it will be a stagnant
and in all likelihood a pestilential ditch....
"The Suez Canal will be begun but never completed nor half completed.
Its wreck, as useless as the Pyramids, but far less interesting, will
like to be exhibited to posterity probably under the name of the
'French Folly.'"[A]
[A] Living Age, December, 1860.
England's appeal to the Sublime Porte to have the work upon the canal
stopped brought to light the fact that the Sultan's sanction to the
undertaking had never been procured. The work done so far had followed
very primitive methods, peasants digging the sand up by handsful,
putting it in palm-leaf baskets and carrying these up the steep bank
to empty. France made great effort to obtain the Sultan's approval,
for the situation was critical. His reply was that he confirmed the
concession granted by Viceroy Saïd, but that the work henceforth
should not be done by impressed peasants. The company's treasury was
again empty; it chose to hold the viceroy responsible for the
predicament caused by the withdrawal of the peasants and brought him a
bill for damages. The claims made could not have been substantiated in
any court, for there was no contract, and the concession distinctly
stated that the canal was to cost Egypt nothing. However, the viceroy
was peculiarly situated; he was dreaming of a day when he might shake
off the suzerainty of Turkey and be recognized by the powers as a
monarch of independent might. Moreover, he valued the friendship of
France--which was to cost him dear. He had been educated in Paris and
hoped to make Cairo the Paris of Egypt. Refusing to pay the damages
asked, De Lesseps prevailed upon him to submit the matter for
arbitration and--strange as it may seem--the emperor of France was
agreed upon, his judgment to be final. Napoleon III ruled that the
clause wherein the viceroy had agreed to provide peasant labor
amounted to a contract; that by the decree of the Sultan this labor
was now unavailable; hence the company had suffered severe loss. The
fact that the water was already filtering in from the sea,
necessitating the use of dredges, was not brought to light. Not only
sustaining the company's claim, he added other injuries which they had
overlooked. The result was that the viceroy paid a large amount, which
added to Egypt's rapidly increasing debt, and at the same time enabled
the canal company to continue operations.
In 1869 the canal was finished, and its completion was celebrated by
sumptuous festivities. The Empress of France, Emperor of Austria,
Crown Prince of Prussia, Prince of Wales, and many other important
members of royalty were present. Forty-eight ships were required to
convey the guests thither; the celebration lasted one month--the
entire cost defrayed by the viceroy, or the Egyptian government. It
amounted to about $21,000,000. It was for this occasion that Verdi
wrote his opera Aïda, the great Egyptologist Mariette Bey studying
ancient costumes and settings to give added interest and reality,
while the Egyptian Museum supplied jewels for the gifted musicians
brought from various parts of Europe to present the opera.
A few years later it was found that the debt of Egypt amounted to over
$450,000,000. Securities for this vast amount were held by English,
French and German subjects. Even the stipulated fifteen per cent of
the canal profits had been used as security; the Nile valley suffered
from insufficient water supply, and the inflated price of cotton,
obtaining during the Civil War in the United States, fell. In the face
of impending ruin, something had to be done. At the clamorous demands
of Europe, the Sultan deposed Ismail, whose reckless policy, together
with that of Saïd, had brought this overwhelming trouble upon his
country. The British government bought the stock held by the
viceroy--177,662 shares--for $20,000,000, thus obtaining a controlling
voice in the company. France and England established what was known as
the "dual control" in Egypt, which continued until the revolt of 1882,
at which time France refused to go to the extreme of bombarding
Alexandria and withdrew--thus ending her control in Egyptian affairs.
Since 1882 English "occupation" has continued and bids fair to
continue for an indefinite time. It is even now evident that if the
canal reverts to the Egyptian government upon the expiration of
ninety-nine years, this may be a very different government from that
which gave the original concession.
From the standpoint of commercial history, few events have been more
signal than the completion of the Suez Canal. Heretofore vessels have
saved little except time by making use of it, for the tolls exacted
have been equal to the expense of about three thousand miles ocean
travel. One dollar and ninety cents per vessel tonnage and two dollars
per passenger, crews excepted, have been required, thus making the
cost of large vessels passing through amount sometimes to $10,000;
$400 has been charged for a small yacht. However, it is now
contemplated to make the tolls for both Panama and Suez canals
uniform--one dollar and twenty cents per vessel tonnage and no charge
for passengers being the proposed change. The distance has been
greatly reduced by means of the canal; from England to Bombay lessened
from 10,860 to 4,620 miles; from New York to Bombay from 11,520 to
7,920 miles.
The Suez Canal is one hundred miles in length, four hundred twenty
feet wide surface measure, and one hundred eight feet on the bottom;
it was originally twenty-seven feet nine inches deep but has been
since dredged to a depth of thirty-one feet, lakes making it deeper in
some places. It takes about fifteen hours and forty minutes to pass
through, electricity making night passage possible.
The majority of ships passing through fly under the English flag; next
in number are those sailing under the French flag; fewer still
belonging to Germany. Except for passenger vessels and men of war, few
United States crafts have been seen in these waters. However, in view
of the opening of Panama, the shipping of this country may be expected
to rapidly increase.
[Illustration: _A "SHIP OF THE DESERT."_
Here one sees ladies of modern Cairo out taking the
air--"smelling the air," as they call it. Since one of them
has removed her veil, it is safe to conclude that they do
not belong to the upper class. Brides are usually transported
in such a conveyance as this upon their wedding day, and the
tinkling bells and smart trappings of the camel add to the
pleasure of the occasion.]
* * * * *
BABYLONIA AND HER NEIGHBORS
PREFATORY CHAPTER
"_Aus den fruehesten Anfaengen erklaeren sich die spaetesten
Erscheinungen."--Heine._
If the German poet was justified in writing the words just quoted much
more are we in repeating them. The interpretation of the present is to
be sought in the light of the past. _Ex oriente lux_ is an old and
familiar saying. In the last century there flashed from this quarter a
light that astonished the world, and like the wise men of old, it came
from the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. The consequent increase in
our knowledge has revolutionized much of the thought of the past, and so
quietly has this been done that none but those who have been more
particularly interested in the new discoveries are aware of the
importance and extent of the changes made. Our views of ancient history,
literature, life, religion have been greatly altered and enlarged.
Europe and America have been for almost two millennia under the potent
spell and inspiration of a little people who lived at the eastern end of
the Mediterranean. Prophets and teachers arose among them who lifted the
world off its hinges, set Greece, the home of intellect, to thinking
anew, and uttered their messages through the successors of the Caesars.
A wonderful people, indeed! How are they to be explained? Most certainly
we must seek for their explanation in the light of their antecedents and
racial affinities. It was, and is, no more possible to understand them
and correctly interpret their literary remains, the Bible, apart from a
knowledge of the great family of which they formed numerically only an
insignificant part than it would be to understand the spirit and thought
of the people of the United States if the early relations to Great
Britain were unknown or ignored. The Old Testament, in its late written
traditions, records that the ancestors of the Hebrews emigrated from Ur
of the Chaldees, an ancient city, even in the days of Abraham, of
southern Babylonia and a principal seat of the worship of the moon-god,
Sin. But of the great family of the Semites--the Arabians, Babylonians,
Assyrians, Canaanites, Aramaeans, Syrians, etc., little was known a
century ago. Practically all scholarly interest in this group until the
middle of the nineteenth century was confined to the literature and
civilization of the Arabs since the Mohammedan era.
No better evidence of the universal ignorance of this past, extending
down to modern times, can be found than in Sir Isaac Newton's
"Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended," published in 1728. This
foremost scholar of his day writes, page 268: "However we must allow
that Nimrod founded a kingdom at Babylon, and perhaps extended it into
Assyria; but this kingdom was but of small extent, if compared with the
empires that rose up afterwards; being only within the fertile plains of
Chaldea, Chalonitis, and Assyria, watered by the Tigris and Euphrates;
and if it had been greater, yet it was but of short continuance, it
being the custom in those early ages for every father to divide his
territories amongst his sons. So Noah was king of all the world, and
Cham was king of all Afric, and Japhet of all Europe and Asia Minor."
Nimrod, Noah, Ham and Japhet were all as truly historical persons to the
great scientist Newton and his age as were David, Isaiah and the apostle
Paul.
More than a century and a half have passed since this famous son of a
Lincolnshire farmer wrote his Chronology, but the limitations under
which he wrote were destined to remain for succeeding historians until
quite recently. Even trained historians have found it difficult within
the last two or three decades to adjust themselves to the new
discoveries. Not long ago serious writers contended that the world was
created 4004 B.C., in six days of twenty-four hours each, and anathemas
were in store for those that questioned it. Writing in 1855, Professor
Lewis in his "Six Days of Creation," declares that the Biblical story of
the Creation was given "by inspiration to the earliest times, and to the
earliest men, and in the earliest language that was spoken on the
globe."--Hebrew! Less than twenty-five years ago one of the present
writers' colleagues in a theological seminary, was teaching his students
that the use of the plural name for God in Hebrew, and the thrice
repeated "Holy, holy, holy," furnished collateral evidence in support
of the doctrine of The Trinity. He was quite unaware that the
polytheistic Assyrians used the same thrice repeated _ashru, ashru,
ashru_, in praise of their gods.
Today scholars are agreed that the first twelve chapters of Genesis are
largely a _refacimento_ of mythical deposit found among the Semites and
genetically closely related to the Babylonian cosmologies and epic
stories. The Hebrew writers purged the old myths of their polytheism,
breathed into them a new spirit, and made them the bearers of higher
religious truth. But Adam and Eve are as genuinely semitic mythical
creations as _Adapa_, or _Eabani_ and Ukhat, the spouse of the latter,
who, like Adam, was created out of clay. When we read in the 10th
chapter of Joshua the account of Joshua's miraculous victory over the
combined forces of the five Amoritic kings we can now parallel it with
like marvels in Assyria: "And it came to pass as they fled before
Israel ... that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them
unto Azekah, and they died: there were more who died with the
hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword."
In the same way, the enemies of Esarhaddon are to be slain by the
goddess of war, Ishtar.
Owing to the political relations into which the people of Israel and
Judah were brought to the empires of the Tigris and Euphrates valley,
the compilers of the historical books of The O. T., and the prophets
have given us incidental, valuable, but not always unprejudiced notices
of their kinsmen to the East. The II. Book of Kings touches upon some
noteworthy events from the time of Tiglathpileser II. including the fall
of Israel and Judah. Characteristic of these notices is the complete
omission of Sargon's name except in Isaiah 20:1, where until the
discovery of the inscriptions it was thought to be an official title,
although he was the one who completed the conquest of the northern
kingdom, the "House of Omri," as he calls it, and deported its
inhabitants. It is difficult indeed for an Assyriologist to imagine an
Assyrian _rabshak_ speaking to the messengers of Hezekiah as that
officer is reported to have done in II. Kings 18:25f.: "Am I now come up
without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said unto
me, Go up against this land and destroy it." This Yahwe (Lord) Isaiah
declares the Assyrian blasphemed, an act, which, to say the least, was
more in accord with his usual temper. Yahwe was no more in the
estimation of Sennacherib than the gods of the petty principalities of
Hamath and Arpad. The truth seems to be that the writer in the book of
Kings makes the _rabshak_ speak as he is alleged to have spoken just as
the babylonian priests declared that Cyrus had been called to the
conquest of Babylon by the Babylonian god Marduk.
The books, especially of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nahum and Ezekiel, contain
some interesting material upon the cultus of Babylonia. It is, however,
the darker features that the prophets delight to draw, and the picture
they present to us does not in all points resemble the one we find in
the palaces of the kings. The animus displayed toward the enemy is far
removed from the precept which enjoins that he shall be loved. The
fourteenth chapter of Isaiah is a standing witness to the correctness of
this observation. It is a magnificent paean of prophetic feeling, but it
is necessary to observe that the fate of Nabonidus, the last king of
Babylon, was not so wretched as here described. When Cyrus conquered the
city he made Nabonidus governor. It may, however, be that this perfervid
and vengeful utterance of irrepressible joy related originally to Sargon
II., king of Assyria, conqueror of Samaria, who, as his successor
Sennacherib tells us "was not buried in his house," and that after the
fall of Babylon the latter name was interpolated. At all events this
king, unlike "the kings of the nations," did not "sleep in his own
house" (vss. 18-19), and the introductory verses are obviously late.
Optimistic and pessimistic patriots who writhed under the domination of
a foreign power, religious zealots conscious of their possession of a
purer and practically religious faith, it is little wonder they
portrayed only the harsher features of their spoilers and conquerors.
The apocalyptic book of Daniel, so long interpreted as a sober recital
of historic events, is distinctly and admittedly at variance on some
points with the monumental records of Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus, and
Cyrus. It would, however, be an unjustifiable inference were any one to
conclude from the foregoing that the records of the Old Testament had
all, or in great measure, been relegated to the hazy region of myth and
fiction by the revelations of the contemporary records of the monuments.
The historical presentation of events from the age of Saul onwards have
on the whole received welcome corroboration. The inscriptions on stone
and clay have confirmed the story of the parchment rolls, completing,
amending, elucidating it and always enabling us to interpret it more
accurately.
Sufficient has been said in the foregoing to suggest the far-reaching
importance of Babylonian and Assyrian archaeology and literature for the
understanding of the Old Testament. We are able now not only to bring
new material in contemporary documents to aid us in its study, we are
able also to interpret the life and thought of its people in the light
of the larger history, political, institutional, social, moral, legal
and religious, of the great family to which Israel belonged. The life of
the various members of the ancient semitic stock has been illuminated by
the discoveries which began with Botta and Layard. The conditions
existing in Canaan prior to the conquest, for example, became clear only
with the discovery of the Tell-Amarna tablets in 1887. They were found
in the palace of Amenophis on the bank of the Nile about 180 miles south
of Cairo and they cast an unexpected light upon the period of the
Exodus. Israel, her history, her conquests, her captivities and her
religion no longer stand as things apart in which the supernatural has
been imminent and active in a manner nowhere else discoverable in the
history of the race. A "Thus saith Jehovah," however spiritual the
content, can no longer be interpreted as essentially different from a
divine communication from the gods of Israel's neighbors and kinsmen.
While the Old Testament gave us some information about Babylonia and
Assyria prior to the discoveries of their own monuments, a brief account
of which is given in the following pages, it must be admitted that it
has gained by these discoveries incomparably more than it gave. But we
have learned not only about Israel and the Bible, we have learned also
much about the earlier Amoritic inhabitants of Palestine who had entered
there and spread into Egypt and Babylonia as early as the second half of
the third millennium B.C. Much has been won from these records about
Egypt and Ethiopia, about the peoples of Arabia, the Hittites, the
Aramaeans, Armenians, Elamites, Medes and Persians as well as the early
inhabitants of Babylonia, the Sumerians, the original inventors of the
cuneiform writing, which was a later development of pictographic
symbols. We have learned with astonishment of the advances made in
Babylonia in early times in the arts and architecture. Deprived by the
nature of their country, in which wood and stone were not to be found,
we read of Gudea (Circa 3000 B.C.) bringing diorite from Magan, West
Arabia, for his sculptures, some of which are now to be seen in the
Louvre collection. The skill of the lapidarist in connection with the
cunningly engraved cylinder seals is today the admiration of the best
workers in the art of engraving, and the wounded lioness from the palace
of Ashurbanipal in the seventh century B.C. is the best portrayal of
animal life that has come to us from ancient times. As Professor Sayce
has recently shown, the lamp in use in Greece in the historical age, and
not before, and later borrowed by the Romans, and after the Greek
conquest, by the Egyptians, was Babylonian in origin and a common
utensil in Mesopotamia prior to the fourteenth century B.C. The
composite symbols of Babylonia were adopted by the people of Western
Asia. The eagle of the southern city-kingdom of Lagash (Telloh) was
transported to the Hittites. The eagle symbol, wherever found,
double-headed or single, is a bird from the land of Paradise. The winged
horse is found upon Hittite seals, and from Asia passed over the
Hellespont and became the Greek Pegasos. The native fetish deities of
Asia Minor were replaced by gods in human form, and the idea of a
trinity, or triad of deities, followed in the wake of Babylonian
culture. In architecture the Babylonians invented the arch. This
achievement had always been attributed to the Etruscans on the basis of
the statements of the classical writers. But it was used by the
Babylonians, as we now know, three thousand years before there is any
evidence of its use on classical soil. Columnar construction dates back
to the same period. Both the arch and the column were found in the
buildings unearthed a few years ago at Nippur by the expeditions from
the University of Pennsylvania. Owing to the dearth of wood and stone
these pioneers in the arts of civilization were forced to have recourse
to clay, the only material available. They therefore invented the pillar
made of brick. Babylonia was the land _par excellence_ of brick
buildings. Their land abounded in asphaltum and this they used instead
of mortar, as the Hebrew writer tells us they did when they built the
tower of Babel, "the temple with the lofty tower," in Babylon. "Their
technical skill rested on scientific principles no less unattainable in
modern architecture than the Grecian idea of beauty in the plastic art.
The buildings which they constructed with brick must have been built
according to rules and laws unknown to modern architecture, which views
many of these ancient works with the same astonishment as is evoked by
the pyramids of Egypt." Babylonia can at least claim to have made early
advances in astronomical observations. The movements of the heavenly
bodies were carefully watched from the earliest times and records made
of them. Even in the late Roman period the Chaldeans were still looked
upon as the founders of astronomy. It is true that Egypt had also at a
very early age successfully cultivated this science and had introduced a
practical calendar which began the year on the day when Sirius was first
observed on the eastern horizon at sunrise 4200 years before the
Christian era. Some Egyptologists hold that this calendar was the
precursor of the Julian, which in turn was modified by Pope Gregory in
1582, thus giving us the Gregorian calendar which was adopted in England
by the Calendar Amendment Act of 1751. But it is more probable that we
are indebted to the Babylonians for our calendrical system, Greece and
Rome borrowing from them. The naming of the days of the week after the
sun and moon gods and the five planets known to them seems beyond
dispute. It was they who divided the circle into 360 degrees in
connection with their sexagesimal system of numerals, the day into 24
hours, and the hour into 60 minutes. The faces of our watches bear daily
and hourly witness to our obligations to this old people of the land of
Shinar. There are 24 hours in the day, but our time-pieces divide them
into two periods of 12 hours each, just as the Babylonian day was
reckoned as 12 _double_ hours. By what routes and means these transfers
of scientific achievements were made from the mother-land of science to
the peoples of Europe we are not yet able to decide. Further
discoveries, however, will doubtless reveal still more clearly the
historic connections of modern culture with the people of the Tigris and
Euphrates valley who themselves speak of their cities as "ancient"
before the deluge.
All of this increase of knowledge hinted at in the preceding paragraphs,
and all too briefly sketched in this work, is the acquisition of our
own times. The Greeks, who in haughty disdain regarded all others as
"barbarians," knew little of this ancient of days--nothing whatever of
the great ruler Sargon I. or Hammurabi, imperialist and great law-giver
fifteen hundred years before the enactment of the laws of Draco and
Solon at Athens.
Among the Greek writers Herodotus is the only one that can be considered
as a direct source. He may have visited Babylon about the middle of the
fifth century B.C. Much of what he has written, however, is clearly a
matter of hearsay or romancing. The judgment passed on him by his
contemporaries and successors was certainly not without foundation. His
critics accused him, as the Arabian historians did Ibn Ishaq, the
biographer of Mohammed, of direct falsification, and even a superficial
study of his writings is sufficient to prove that the accusation was not
without apparent warrant. One seeks in vain, for example, in the
Babylonian literature for evidence of the custom, which he describes as
one of the most beautiful and wisest of the Babylonians, of putting the
marriageable girls once a year upon the market to be sold to the highest
bidders! Naively he adds that this was an earlier custom that was no
longer practised in his time. Of the history of Babylon he knew
little--of its latest rulers and even of the great Nebuchadnezzar he had
not an inkling as Tiele, the Dutch historian, has said. Ctesias, the
Carian physician who lived for seventeen years at the Persian court of
Artaxerxes Mnemon in the fourth century, did not know that Babylon had
an independent existence. Those who followed were for the most part
merely excerptors from those who preceded them. In view of the paucity
and unreliability of the sources an impenetrable veil was drawn between
us and the ancient orient. At last it has been lifted, and in the
language of the old poets of Babylon, "brother again sees brother."
[Illustration: CLAY JARS OF CHALDEA.]
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
CHAPTER I.
EARLY CIVILIZATION OF ASIA.
In studying the history of Babylonia and Assyria, our attention is drawn
to one of the earliest inhabited portions of the globe--so far as is now
known: to the valley of the Euphrates. Biblical tradition favored the
view that this was the Cradle of the Human Race. Here the Yahvistic
writer placed the fabled Garden of Eden, the best explanation he could
devise for the origin of mankind. The valley was a regular thoroughfare
for early tribes journeying to and from Arabia, and reaching out to the
east, west, or north for new homes, often remaining for long succeeding
generations in the fertile region itself. It was a land where men of
various tongues and dialects met, only to again diverge. The effort of
the Hebrew to explain how so many languages had come into being resulted
in the story of the Tower of Babel. Before the beginnings of the Hebrew
race as distinct from the general Semitic family, an old civilization
had developed here in Chaldea. In connection with his worship, the
Chaldean built high ziqqurats--temple-towers of from three to seven
platforms, rising one above the other, each platform smaller than the
one below. The story handed down from one generation of the Hebrews to
another was that the Chaldeans had once tried to build a tower to reach
the very heavens. Alarmed at their presumption, God confounded their
speech so they could no longer understand one another. Thus was man
punished and thus the various speeches originated.
In following the history of the mixed race known as the Babylonians, and
of those who pressed north of the home-country to found the state of
Assyria, we shall become acquainted with the only great nation of
antiquity whose civilization may have been older than that of the
Egyptians. We have up reliable record of the Chinese until late in the
third millennium, and their civilization, if more ancient still, was
isolated at least, and affected no other people. When Thutmose I.
penetrated to the valley of the Euphrates, some years after the
expulsion of the Hyksos, he came upon a nation, of whose culture,
script, and language, as the recently discovered Tell-el-Amarna tablets
indicate, were already familiar to his own people.
The recorded life of Egypt reaches back more than 6,000 years;
civilization in Mesopotamia may have been more ancient. Many monuments
have been unearthed in the sites of ancient cities which throw light
upon great antiquity. In Egypt visible monuments have borne witness
through long succeeding centuries of early strength; in Babylonia and
Assyria the very site of cities was forgotten, and men no longer
remembered where these two influential powers of antiquity had
developed. Though in the last century only anything like a complete
history of Egypt has been possible, yet evidences of a nation long since
extinct, were preserved in temples and tombs, and hieroglyphics covering
walls and columns indicated that whoever should discover their meaning
would learn of their mighty builders. Far different was the case of
Babylonia and Assyria. They too had once been proud and wealthy nations,
taking foremost rank; their cities filled the valleys of the Euphrates
and Tigris, and their fertile fields yielded even more abundantly than
the rich Nile valley. Their palaces rose to the glory of their kings,
and their commerce penetrated to every corner of the ancient world. Then
changes came upon the life of antiquity. New peoples pushed to the
front; the tide of commerce shifted into other channels. These nations
were conquered by their yet stronger neighbors, and their temples and
palaces, built not of enduring stone but of perishable brick, fell into
heaps of nameless mounds. When the waters of the mighty rivers were no
longer guided through canals to irrigate the land, the soil ceased to
be productive. Desert sands spread over the desolate region and
reclaimed wide areas which became the tenting ground for nomadic tribes.
The very words of the late writer in the Book of Isaiah concerning these
nations rang true through the ages:
"And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It
shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from
generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent
there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild
beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be
full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs
shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in
their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; and
her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
"Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man;
and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him; but he shall
flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited. And he
shall pass over to his stronghold for fear, and his princes shall
be afraid of the ensign."[1]
Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, disappeared suddenly. In Alexander's
day its site was unknown. Babylon, however, was not destroyed by Cyrus,
but continued its importance until the rise of its rival Seleucia, and
was still inhabited in the Middle Ages. But the two nations were
forgotten in the west for hundreds of years. Then with the dawn of peace
and order in Europe during the later Middle Ages, came the desire to
know about the past. Monks who made pilgrimages to the Holy Land, during
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, sometimes pressed farther east,
and made mention of strange mounds seen in the valleys of these ancient
rivers. Travelers told of curious inscriptions found among the ruins
there. In rare cases, they even went to the length of copying one or
two, with greater or less accuracy. It was left finally for the
eighteenth century to locate the old sites of Babylonian cities, and for
the nineteenth century to discover the hidden meaning of the
wedge-shaped letters inscribed upon their ruins.
To the patient efforts of the men who persisted in their difficult and
often disheartening task of unearthing ruins, and to the scholars who
toiled year after year to read the forgotten language these ruins
brought to light, we owe most that is now known regarding the early
inhabitants of the Euphrates valley. These nations, so long destroyed,
their cities, so long abandoned, we shall try to bring before us as they
have been reconstructed by historians in more pretentious volumes.
Naturally, any account of the Babylonians and Assyrians will involve
some consideration of their neighbors, whose civilizations developed by
their side, and whose fortunes frequently mingled with theirs.
THE RECOVERY OF FORGOTTEN CITIES.
Were we to proceed at once to the development of the Babylonian and
Assyrian states without first pausing to note what far-reaching efforts
have been made to read their early civilization from their remains,
entombed within the earth, we would deprive ourselves of one of the most
interesting pages in modern historical research.
Since the middle of the twelfth century we find references made to the
ruins of Babylon and Nineveh, by monks and travellers who greatly
confused the ancient cities, repeatedly mistaking Baghdad for Babylon.
In 1613 there was published by an English nobleman an account of his
distant travels. "Sir Anthony Sherley; His Relation of His Travels into
Persia." This is what he wrote of these ancient capitals: "I will
speak ... of Babylon; not to the intent to tell stories, either of the
huge ruins of the first Towne or the splendour of the second, but
because nothing doth impose anything in man's nature more than
example--to shew the truth of God's word, whose vengeances, threatened
by His Prophets, are truely succeeded in all those parts....
"All the ground on which Babylon was spred is left now desolate; nothing
standing in that Peninsula between the Euphrates and the Tigris, but
only part, and that a small part, of the greate Tower, which God hath
suffered to stand (if man may speake so confidently of His greate
impenetrable counsels) for an eternal testimony of His work in the
confusion of Man's pride, and that Arke of Nebuchadnezzar for as
perpetual a memory of his greate idolatry and condigne punishment....
"Nineve, that which God himself called That greate Citie, hath not one
stone standing which may give memory of the being of a towne. One
English mile from it is a place called Mosul, a small thing, rather to
be a witness of the other's mightinesse and God's judgment than of any
fashion of magnificence in it selfe."[2]
These words struck the note which was to lead to extensive labors for
discovery. Europe was at the time passing through a period of deep
religious fervor, which was felt in many classes of society and walks of
life, and people who cared not at all for the history of ancient nations
were roused by the possibility offered to verify statements found in the
Old Testament and prove its inspiration by showing the fulfillment of
its prophecies. Although nothing of importance was accomplished at this
time, the religious motive survived.
The first systematic investigation was made by Claudius James Rich,
appointed in 1811 as resident of the East India Company at Baghdad. He
made a thorough examination of all the large mounds in that particular
locality and prepared a survey of the most important ones. This proved
very useful to those who came later to the field. He had besides made a
small collection of finds at Hillah and Mosul--a box only three feet
square--which were sent with his charts to the British Museum. These
later furnished the inspiration to further exploration.
In 1842 the French government sent Paul Emil Botta to Mosul as consular
agent, and his name was destined to be connected with all discoveries
made in Assyria during the early part of the nineteenth century.
Stimulated by Julius Mohl, who had examined Rich's meagre but suggestive
finds, he was the first to actually dig into the mounds of ruins. After
coming upon nothing noteworthy during three months' excavation in
Kujundjik, a peasant told him that strange objects had been found at
Khorsabad, about four hours to the northeast, and thither Botta sent his
workmen.
The poor Arabian laborers of this region are ignorant Mohammedans, and
they suspected that Botta was digging for gold, while they conceived the
unique idea that the fragments bearing inscriptions, now and then
brought to light, were charms which in some way guided him on to hidden
treasure. The Turkish Pasha put all possible obstacles in his way, but
the very first shaft Botta sank came upon the walls of an old palace--a
find especially valuable at a time when only the most enthusiastic
scholars had faith in the undertaking, and people generally regarded the
project as misguided. No less than 209 rooms were laid bare by Botta and
his successor, Victor Place.
Austen Henry Layard, an English boy of Huguenot descent, had devoured
all available books of travel and adventure. He came to the work of
Assyrian exploration as an enthusiastic young man about the time of
Botta's widely noised discovery. On November 9, 1845, Mr. Layard began
to excavate at Nimrud, some distance south of Nineveh, and before the
first day's work was done he had the promise, and, in part, the
satisfaction of realizing his "visions of palaces under ground." He had
discovered the North-West palace of Nimrud, built by Ashurnatsirpal,
884-861 B.C., upon the foundations of one laid by Shalmeneser, 1300 B.C.
After a little more than a year and a half he returned to England having
discovered no less than three palaces. The funds necessary for his work
were obtained from Sir Stratford Canning, the English ambassador at
Constantinople.
In 1849 excavations were begun again with the assistance of Hormuzd
Rassam at the expense of the British Museum. "The excavations carried on
under these auspices, and with the powers Layard then possessed, were
successful beyond his wildest dream. As the trenches followed round the
walls of room after room they uncovered great slabs of alabaster, with
which the chamber walls were wainscoted, and these were found to be
richly carved in relief with scenes of hunting, of war, and of solemn
ceremony. The very life of palace, camp and field in Assyrian days came
back again before the astonished eyes of the explorer, while these
received an addition to their verisimilitude by the discovery in some
of the ruins of pieces of iron which had once formed parts of the same
kind of armor as that portrayed on the reliefs, together with iron and
bronze helmets, while in others were found vases and ornamentally carved
pieces of ivory. Here were the pictures and there were the objects which
they represented. As the trenches were dug deeper or longer, monuments
carved or inscribed were found daily."[3]
Whatever objects could be transported were sent to the British Museum in
London, and went far to arouse interest and thus secure funds to enable
Layard to continue his operations. During this expedition the palace of
Sennacherib, the walls of which had been partly laid bare during the
first period, was still further explored, and in addition to the
valuable bas-reliefs an ancient library, consisting of thousands of clay
tablets, was found in two of the rooms, and this was greatly increased
by Rassam's discovery of the North-West palace in 1854.
In 1850 William K. Loftus began his labors in this field, but none of
his discoveries proved so valuable as his descriptions of various
mounds, used as guides to this day. Concerning the appearance of the
mounds he wrote: "I know of nothing more exciting or impressive than the
first sight of one of these great Chaldean piles looming in solitary
grandeur from the surrounding plains and marshes. A thousand thoughts
and surmises concerning its past eventful history and origin--its
gradual rise and rapid fall--naturally present themselves to the mind of
the spectator. The hazy atmosphere of early morning is peculiarly
favorable to considerations and impressions of this character, and the
gray mist intervening between the gazer and the object of his
reflections imparts to it a dreamy existence. This fairylike effect is
heightened by mirage, which strangely and fantastically magnifies its
form, elevating it from the ground, and causing it to dance and quiver
in the rarefied air. No wonder, therefore, that the beholder is lost in
pleasing doubt as to the actual reality of the apparition before
him."[4]
Of all the Assyrian discoveries which were crowded into the last
century, unquestionably the most important was made by Rassam in 1852
and 1853 when he laid bare the magnificent palace of Assurbanipal, in
which was found the royal library. Here the king had caused to be
collected tablets embodying the literature of both Babylonia and
Assyria, and numberless royal inscriptions of both states, from the
earliest time. Owing to the circumstance of their having been inscribed
upon tablets of clay, many had been destroyed as the building in which
they were kept fell in ruins. Many were found in an almost perfect state
of preservation and thousands of others have since been joined by the
patient labors of scholars. At this point Assyrian excavations largely
ceased, for it was felt that unless some understanding of these tablets
could be gained, it was scarcely worth while to amass more of them at
such great outlays. Archæologists realized that the inscriptions must be
deciphered before funds would be forthcoming for fresh undertakings.
We have seen how difficult a task Egyptologists had in discovering the
meaning of the hieroglyphics, and how the Rosetta stone, giving one
decree in three different languages, at last led to an understanding of
the whole. The Babylonians and Assyrians used a series of wedge-shaped
letters or symbols, which has given the name _cuneiform_ to their
written language. These wedge-shaped signs were impressed on the clay by
a stylus, and several of them are united to form a _syllabic_ character.
There are about 400 of these complex syllabic signs in the syllabary,
instead of 26 letters as in English. Where the writing on the tablets is
very close, as it frequently is, it is often very difficult to read the
signs correctly. In the earlier Babylonian period, moreover, the form
differs from that of the later Babylonian and Assyrian period. To make
the reading still more puzzling they are polyphonic, _i. e._, have
several syllabic values, and are also used ideagraphically, _i. e._, may
be used for entire words. If we should read _b_ either b, p, m, d, etc.,
and also for break, run, beside with only the context to guide us we
would have a parallel case. There was no Rosetta stone to help this
time, and the tablets long remained sealed books. We have only to look
at a page of the characters to wonder that their meaning at last dawned
upon the tireless workers.
Prominent among linguists engaged upon Assyrian inscriptions were Sir
Henry Rawlinson, Fox Talbot, Jules Oppert, and a talented Irish scholar
by the name of Hincks. At last translations of certain inscriptions were
offered by these men, but critics looked at the apparently meaningless
signs and questioned the versions rendered. At least, they insisted,
there was no way to prove that a meaning had not been worked into them,
rather than out of them.
Finally it was suggested that a single inscription, hitherto unread, be
sent to the four scholars just mentioned, and that they be asked to
return their renderings sealed, to a committee appointed to examine
them. To the amazement of the world, the translations made were almost
identical, differences occurring in those portions which the translators
themselves had marked as uncertain. This was, indeed, a triumph for
students of the Assyrian language, and compelled a general agreement
that the cuneiform tongue had at last been mastered. Rapid advances were
made after this test, which was made in 1857. The translation of
numerous tablets was at once eagerly begun.
George Smith, a young man engaged to copy inscriptions required by
Rawlinson for some material he was about to publish, was not content to
copy meaningless signs, but set to work to understand them. So rapidly
did he advance in mastering the language that he became most helpful in
classifying the tablets stored in the British Museum. In connection with
his work there one incident deserves notice.
The clay tablets had been removed as carefully as possible from the
ruins of the library at Nineveh, and had been brought to the London
Museum with as little mishap as could be expected. Some were perfect,
some partly missing, some in fragments. One day George Smith came upon a
deluge story which so strongly resembled the version given in the Old
Testament that he was struck by the similarity. Now recent years have
disclosed that the flood legend has been common among all Semitic
peoples, but the fact was not established in the middle part of the last
century. Finding many portions of the story lacking, Smith felt that he
would like to go in search of them. The whole affair was widely
published, and Edwin Arnold, then editor of the Daily Telegraph of
London, became interested in it. Through his influence the Telegraph
offered five thousand guineas to pay the expenses of an expedition to
Nineveh, under the direction of George Smith, to recover, if possible,
the missing portions of the story. In 1872, accordingly, Smith started
out upon his search for the "Deluge Fragments," under contract to
telegraph his experiences and discoveries to the London paper. When he
actually came upon a fragment of the deluge epic, it was regarded in
England as a great and unexpected triumph. Two other fragments were
found, and then the Telegraph, probably thinking it had been
sufficiently advertised, decided that its venture had succeeded, and
Smith was recalled. Returning in 1873, he died in Assyria three years
later of a fever contracted in the marshy, fever-breeding country.
In recent years, excavations have been carried on in the valley of the
Euphrates under auspices of the University of Pennsylvania. Most of this
work has been done at Nippur, and accounts of the discoveries have been
published. An agreement was made with the Turkish government to the
effect that all remains uncovered be turned over to the Imperial Museum
at Constantinople. So generous did the leaders of this college band
prove in aiding the Turks to classify objects found, accepting no
remuneration for their services, that the Sultan was pleased to present
a large number of them to the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania,
where they are today exhibited.
[Illustration: TRANSPORT OF TIMBER FOR SARGON'S PALACE.
(The God Ea, represented in the lower left-hand corner as half man, half
fish, escorts the fleet.)]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Isaiah 13, 19-22; 31, 8-9. NOTE.--This is the A. V. version. It
should read:
The Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not a man's,
And a sword, not a human one, shall devour him.
[And he shall flee from the face of the sword,
And his brave ones shall become tributary,
And his rock he will run by in terror,
And his princes in fright shall abandon their flag.]
The destruction is to be _supernatural_, according to Isaiah. The lines
in brackets are probably a later addition.--(CRAIG.)
[2] Sherley: His Relation of His Travels Into Persia.
[3] Rogers: Hist. of Babylonia and Assyria, 154.
[4] Loftus: Travels and Researches in Chaldea and Susiana.