THE LAND OF THE SPHINX.
I have come to Egypt to learn something of the wisdom of the
Egyptians. Tell me, then, ye tombs, and temples, and pyramids,
about God; tell me about the life to come! But the pyramids
speak not; and the Sphinx still looks toward the East, to watch
for the rising sun, but is voiceless and mute. This valley
of the Nile speaks of nothing but death. From end to end its
rock-ribbed hills are filled with tombs. Yet what do they all
teach the anxious and troubled heart of man? Nothing! All these
hills are silent.--H. M. FIELD.
[Illustration: RUINED TEMPLES.]
Herodotus, the Greek historian, who visited Egypt about 450 B.C., was
struck with the extreme attention which the Egyptians paid to religion.
He says that they were the most religious of all mankind. The passing
stranger was impressed with the pompous ceremonies, the magnificent
festivals, the imposing processions and the many gorgeously-robed
priests. He found large temples, where the walls were covered with
sculptures, paintings and hieroglyphic writings. All Egypt was stamped
with the impress of religion. Every art and science, and all literature
were distinctly connected with religion, and were used in the service
of their deities. They surpassed all nations in the reverence they paid
to the gods. Their religion was by no means an open one. Like most of
the false religions of antiquity, there was a great deal of mystery
about it. Even to-day we find among the monuments traces of the great
attention which the ancient Egyptians paid to the service and adoration
of their gods.
HIDDEN HISTORY.
Formerly the world was accustomed to speak of Egypt as the “land of
ruins;” a better title is now given, the “land of monuments.” The
reason of the change in the title is that it has been found that its
ruins contain the account of the past history of Egypt. Hundreds
of years ago travelers came across these great ruins covered over
with sculptures and paintings, they found traces of the existence
of gigantic structures, they found, in almost perfect preservation,
great structures like the pyramids and the sphinx. Here evidently was
a treasure-house of information, but where was the key to unlock it?
It was like a great pawnbroker’s shop, full of rubbish, but also with
many articles of value locked up within its walls, but with no key
to unlock its doors. It was a land of enigmas, of puzzling problems,
of riddles. The traveler turned from object to object with the tone
of interrogation. Why was this, and this? What was its purpose? How
came it here? What does it all mean? Evidently these great buildings
were not erected, these mysterious sculptures carved, these puzzling
paintings drawn, merely to amuse a passing fancy. There must be some
meaning in them. Scholar after scholar pored over it, beat their brains
about it, and gave it up. Century after century passed away and still
the mystery remained. There was one key which was found, but to use
this key another key was needed. The writing of the Egyptians yet
remained. Undoubtedly, in their sacred books, and in the inscriptions
on the monuments or walls of the temples were descriptions of the
purpose of the great buildings, full accounts of the past and their
lost history of Egypt, and perhaps accounts of arts and science now
lost to the world. A rich reward this, to the scholar who should
succeed in unraveling the mystery.
[Illustration: ROCK TEMPLE OF IBSAMBUL, RESTORED.]
THE HIEROGLYPHICS.
But what was the character of this writing that it should be so
difficult to interpret? The writing was a picture-writing, with
characters or syllables added, more puzzling than the most puzzling
rebus that ever appeared. The Greeks, who often visited Egypt, gave
the name _Hieroglyphics_ to this Egyptian writing. The word means
in the Greek language “sacred sculpture.” Neither the Greeks nor the
Romans, even while they ruled Egypt, ever undertook to learn to read
this writing. It seemed to them an unknowable secret. Thus gradually
the ancient Egyptian language perished. So the knowledge of the reading
of the hieroglyphics passed away entirely. For many centuries every
attempt to read it failed, and it remained a hopeless mystery. Finally,
about fifty years ago, a Frenchman succeeded in lifting the veil. Jean
François Champollion (born 1790, died 1832), made this discovery, one
of the greatest of the nineteenth century. He showed how the writing
was to be read. Now the whole can be read perhaps almost as easily
as Greek or Latin, or the Chinese or Burmese languages. Thus was the
hidden history brought to light.
[Illustration: SONG OF THE THRESHERS.]
As specimens of the hieroglyphics, Wilkinson gives the opposite Song of
the Threshers to the Oxen. His translation of the lines respectively is
as follows: 1. “Thresh for yourselves” (twice repeated). 2. “O oxen.”
3. “Thresh for yourselves” (twice). 4. “Measures for yourselves.” 5.
“Measures for your masters.”
Another specimen of hieroglyphics is added below.
[Illustration: HIEROGLYPHICS.]
SOME EGYPTIAN GODS.
The Egyptian gods are numbered by the hundreds. It is possible for us
to refer to but a few here. The ideas of the gods which prevailed here
were grafted on the simple nature-worship which the people brought to
Egypt from their earlier home.
[Illustration: PASHT, THE CAT-HEADED GOD.]
In every part of Egypt two great gods, Isis and Osiris, were worshiped.
Isis is the wife of Osiris. Ra the sun-god was the greatest of the
gods, he was supposed to be the representative of the Supreme Being.
And yet Osiris was the most popular god. Ra was generally represented
as a hawk-headed man, and usually with a solar disk upon his head. Ra
was generally worshiped in association with some other god, as Amen-Ra,
Num-Ra, etc. In many sculptures he is represented as carrying on a
constant conflict with the evil. Evil is represented in these conflicts
as the great serpent Apap. At Heliopolis were kept two animals sacred
to Ra, the black bull and the phœnix. The phœnix was a bird which the
Egyptians regarded as the emblem of immortality; a bird which never
died, but when it was burned, sprang up again, full-grown, from its
ashes, ready to renew its activities.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE FORMS OF ISIS.]
Osiris was generally represented as a mummy, wearing a royal cap,
containing ostrich feathers. Osiris was regarded as a good being and
was in perpetual warfare with Set, the evil being. They stand to each
other, said the Egyptians, as light and darkness, as day and night,
as the Nile and the deserts, as Egypt and foreign lands. Osiris is
represented in the myths as being vanquished by Set. He is cut in
pieces and thrown into the water. By and by he revives but does not
utterly destroy Set, though he defeats him. This story probably is a
picture of the daily life of the sun, contending with the darkness, yet
at last yielding to it, and then again after an interval re-appearing
at the dawn in renewed splendor. Osiris was also a type of struggling
humanity, suffering now, defeated for a time it may be, yet finally
triumphant. This was the reason of his worship being so popular. Osiris
was the protector of the dead, and he determined their final condition.
It was to Osiris that prayers and offerings for the dead were made, and
writings on the tombs were addressed to him.
Beside these gods, there were Set the evil god, who was represented
with the head of a fabulous animal, having a pointed nose and high
square ears. Isis, the wife of Osiris, was represented as a woman,
bearing on her head her emblem the throne, or the solar disk and cow’s
horns.
[Illustration: CROCODILE GOD.]
Amon (or Amen) the “hidden,” was worshiped at Thebes. Sebek was the
crocodile-headed god. His sacred animal was the crocodile of the
Nile River. Thoth was the chief moon-god. He was the god of letters
and learning. Anubis, the jackel-headed was the god worshiped by the
mummy-makers. Thus gods were multiplied.
ANIMAL WORSHIP.
“If you enter a temple,” says Clement of Alexandria, “a priest advances
with a solemn air, singing a hymn in the Egyptian language; he raises
the veil a little to let you see the god; and what then do you see? A
cat, a crocodile, a snake, or some other noxious animal. The god of
the Egyptian appears. It is but a wild beast, wallowing on a purple
carpet!” This language describes the worship of ancient Egypt as we
learn from the sculptures on the monuments, as well as it characterizes
the worship at the beginning of the Christian era. To exhibit in some
symbol their ideas of their gods was the very essence of Egyptian
religion. This brought about the grossest of superstitious worship.
To set forth in symbol the attributes, qualities and nature of their
gods, the priests chose to use animals. The bull, cow, ram, cat, ape,
crocodile, hippopotamus, hawk, ibis, scarabæus, were all emblems of the
gods. Often the head of one of these animals was joined to the body of
a man in the sculpture. But let it be remembered, that _the Egyptians
never worshiped images or idols. They worshiped living representations
of the gods and not lifeless images of stone or metal._ Their
sculptures were never made for worship. They chose animals which
corresponded as nearly as possible to their ideas of the gods. Each
of these sacred creatures was carefully tended, fed, washed, dressed,
nursed when sick, and petted during its whole life. After death its
body was embalmed. Certain cities were set apart for certain animals,
and apartments of the temples were consecrated to their use. Priests
were appointed to attend them. Not every animal of every kind was
worshiped, only a few of each sacred kind were considered as sacred. A
few of the whole number were supported at the expense of the state, and
were attended by great personages. Certain animals were worshiped in
parts of Egypt and detested in other parts. Thus the hippopotamus was
worshiped in Papæmis alone; while the Thebans worshiped the crocodile;
in other places they were hunted to death.
[Illustration: SCARABÆUS.]
Popularly these animals were regarded as gods, and were really
worshiped. By the priests they were regarded simply as the
representatives of the gods. If a man killed certain of the sacred
animals, by the laws of Egypt he must die; if, however, in regard to
some of them, the killing was accidental, then he might escape by
paying a heavy fine.
A Roman soldier once killed a sacred cat, accidentally. In spite of the
fear of Rome and the interference of the King of Egypt, the enraged mob
instantly killed the soldier. The story is told, that King Cambyses,
when he invaded Egypt, caught a number of sacred animals, and placed
them before his army. The Egyptians offered them no resistance, but
fled away, afraid to fight lest they should injure the sacred animals.
Three animals were regarded as not representations merely, but
incarnations of gods; these were the bull Mnevis, the goat of Mendes
and the bull Apis. Apis was said to be born of a cow, yet also born of
heaven. He was to be black, with a white triangle on his forehead, a
mark like a half-moon on his back, and a mark like a scarabæus under
his tongue. When Apis died, all Egypt mourned. As soon as a new Apis
was found, the Egyptians donned their best clothing and made great
rejoicings. The dead Apis was embalmed and received further worship.
Apis was wrongly supposed to be the god whom the Israelites imitated in
their worship of the golden calf.
MUMMIES.
The Egyptians held it as a central feature of their faith, that “man
was not made to die,” that we were to live a future life, that death
does not end all. Many heathen nations believed that the body, the
flesh, was an evil thing, the seat of all base passions; not so the
Egyptians. The greatest event in a man’s life happened after his death
(to speak in apparent paradoxes). His funeral, and the arrangements for
it, surpassed all other occasions of his life in their elaborateness.
The period of mourning lasted seventy-two days. Perhaps during all
this time, the process of embalming was going on by the use of
peculiar preparations which were forced through his veins as the blood
was withdrawn, and by wrapping the body in linen bands containing
substances which prevented the flesh from decaying. The outermost
bandage was covered with a kind of pasteboard, which represented the
deceased as a workman in the Happy Fields, carrying the tools of
husbandry. This is commonly called the mummy. Before the wrapping in
the linen bandages began, the body had been steeped in a liquid called
_natron_ (carbonate of soda). Herodotus presents a very full
description of the process of embalming. There is no doubt but that all
this was done as a preparation for the return of the soul to the body
in a future world. The mummy was inclosed in a coffin of wood, and this
again, if the person’s friends were rich, in a stone sarcophagus or
coffin. The coffin was placed on a sledge drawn by oxen or men, taken
to the river or lake-side and ferried over to the burial-place on the
sacred boats. The coffin was deposited in the tomb, and prayers were
said, and offerings given in the chapel above the tomb. Offerings to
Osiris were made during an entire year by the family.
[Illustration: SHROUDING OF THE DEAD.]
[Illustration: MUMMY CASE.]
[Illustration: FORMS OF MUMMY CASES.
1, 2, 3, 4. Of wood. 5, 6, 7, 8. Of stone. 9. Of wood
and of early time--before the 18th dynasty. 10. Of burnt
earthenware.]
THE CELEBRATED BOOK OF THE DEAD.
Among many books which the Egyptians once possessed, one still remains
in its entirety. It is somewhat confusing in its style, and yet it is
in the main to be understood. A copy of this Funeral Liturgy or Book
of the Dead was placed in every mummy’s coffin. We give a very full
abstract of it, because of its unusual importance in the religious
history of the world.
The Funeral Ritual is opened with a dialogue taking place at the very
moment of death, when the soul separates from the body. The deceased,
addressing the deity of Hades, enumerates all his titles to his favor,
and asks for admittance into his dominions. The chorus of glorified
souls interposes, as in the Greek tragedy, and supports the prayer of
the deceased. The priest on earth in his turn speaks, and implores also
the divine clemency. Finally Osiris, the god of the lower regions,
answers the deceased, “Fear nothing in making thy prayer to me for
the immortality of thy soul, and that I may give permission for thee
to pass the threshold.” Reassured by the divine word, the soul of the
deceased enters Kar-Neter, the land of the dead, and recommences his
invocations.
After this grand commencement, which we have epitomized, come many
short chapters, much less important, relative also to the dead and
to the preliminary ceremonies of his funeral. When at last the soul
of the deceased has passed the gates of Kar-Neter, he penetrates
into that subterranean region, and at his entry is dazzled by the
glory of the sun, which he now for the first time sees in this lower
hemisphere. He sings a hymn to the sun under the form of mixed litanies
and invocations. After this hymn, a great vignette, representing the
adoration and glorification of the sun in the heavens, on earth and in
Hades, marks the end of the first part of the Ritual, serving as a sort
of introduction. The second part traces the journeys and migrations of
the soul in the lower region.
Next come a series of prayers to be pronounced during the process
of embalming, while the body is being rolled in its wrappers. These
invocations are addressed to Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes, who, as among
the Greeks, played the part of Psychopompe, or conductor of souls.
They are of the highest interest, for in each allusion is made to the
grand myth of Osiris and his contest with Typhon, of which Plutarch
and Synesius have given us the most recent versions. The deceased,
addressing the god, asks him to render to him again the service he once
rendered on that solemn occasion to Osiris and his son Horus, “avenger
of his father.”
The body once wrapped in its coverings, and the soul well provided with
a store of necessary knowledge, the deceased commences his journey.
But he is still unable to move, he has not yet the use of his limbs;
it is necessary to address the gods, who successively restore all the
faculties he had during his life, so that he can stand upright, walk,
speak, eat and fight. Thus prepared, he starts; he holds his scarabæus
over his heart as a passport, and thus passes the portal of Hades.
From the first step, terrible obstacles present themselves in his way.
Frightful monsters, servants of Typhon, crocodiles on land and in the
water, serpents of all kinds, tortoises and other reptiles, assail the
deceased and attempt to devour him. Then commences a series of combats.
The deceased and the animals against which he contends mutually address
insulting speeches to each other, after the fashion of Homer’s heroes.
Finally, the “Osiris” (the name applied to all the deceased) has
conquered all his enemies; he has subdued the Typhonic monsters, and
forced a passage, and, elated by his victory, sings on the spot a song
of triumph, likening himself to all the gods, whose members are made
those of his own body. “My hair is like that of Nu (the firmament); my
face is like that of Ra (the sun); my eyes like those of Athor (the
Egyptian Venus);” and so on for every part of his body. He has even the
strength of Set, that is, of Typhon, for the strife between the good
and evil principle is but in appearance; in reality they are one and
the same, and equally receive the adorations of the initiated.
After such labors the deceased needs rest; he stays for a time to
recruit his strength and to satisfy his hunger. He has escaped great
dangers, and has not gone astray in the desert where he would have died
of hunger and thirst. From the tree of life the goddess Nu gives him
refreshing waters, which invigorate him and enable him to recommence
his journey in order to reach the first gate of heaven.
Then commences a dialogue between the deceased and the personification
of the divine Light, who instructs him. This dialogue presents some
most remarkable resemblances to the dialogue prefixed to the books
given by the Alexandrian Greeks as translations of the ancient
religious writings of Egypt, between Thoth and the Light, in which the
latter explains to Thoth the most sublime mysteries of nature. This
portion is certainly one of the best and grandest of the Ritual, and
may almost be classed with the invocations to the sun at the close of
the first part.
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN PRIESTESS.]
The deceased, having passed the gate, continues to advance, guided by
this new Light, to whom he addresses his invocations. He then enters
upon a series of transformations, more and more elevated, assuming
the form of and identifying himself with the noblest divine symbols.
He is changed successively into a hawk, an angel or divine messenger;
into a lotus; into the god Ptah; into a heron; into a crane; into a
human-headed bird, the usual emblem of a soul; into a swallow; into a
serpent, and into a crocodile.
Up to this time the soul of the deceased has been making its journeys
alone; it has been merely a sort of image; a mere shade, with the
appearance of that body now stretched on the bier. After these
transformations the soul becomes reunited to its body, which is needed
for the rest of the journey. It was on this account that careful
embalming was so important; it was necessary that the soul should find
the body perfect and well-preserved. “Oh,” cries the body, “that in the
dwelling of the master of life I may be reunited to my glorified soul,
do not order the guardians of heaven to destroy me, so as to send away
my soul from my corpse, and hinder the eye of Horus, who is with thee,
from preparing my way.”
The deceased traverses the dwelling of Thoth, who gives him a book
containing instructions for the rest of his way, and fresh lessons of
the knowledge he is soon to require. He arrives on the banks of the
subterranean river separating him from the Elysian Fields, but there
a new danger awaits him. A false boatman, the envoy of the Typhonic
powers, lays wait for him on his way, and endeavors by deceitful words
to get him into his boat, so as to mislead him and take him to the
east instead of to the west, his true destination, and where he ought
to land, and rejoin the sun of the lower world. The deceased again
escapes this new danger; he unmasks the perfidy of the false boatman,
and drives him away, overwhelming him with reproaches. He at last meets
the right boat to conduct him to his destination. But before getting
into it, it is necessary to ascertain if he is really capable of making
the voyage, if he possesses a sufficient amount of the knowledge
necessary to his safety. The divine boatman therefore makes him undergo
an examination, a preliminary initiation, seemingly corresponding to
the lesser Eleusinian mysteries. The deceased passes the examination;
each part of the boat then seems successively to become animated, and
to demand of him its name, and the mystical meaning of the name. _The
stake for anchoring the boat._ Tell me my name! “The Lord of the earth
in thy case,” is thy name. _The rudder._ Tell me my name! “The enemy of
Apis,” is thy name. _The rope._ Tell me my name! “The hair with which
Anubis binds up the folds of the wrappers,” is thy name; and so on for
twenty-three questions and answers.
After having thus victoriously passed through this trial, the deceased
embarks, traverses the subterranean river, and lands on the other bank,
when he soon arrives at the Elysian Fields in the valley of Avura, or
Balot, the position of which the ritual gives in these terms, “The
valley of Balot (abundance), at the east of heaven, is 370 cubits
long, and 140 cubits broad. There is a crocodile lord of Balot in
the east of that valley in his divine dwelling above the inclosure.
There is a serpent at the head of that valley, thirty cubits long, his
body six cubits round. In the south is the lake of sacred principles
(Sharu); the north is formed by the lake of Primordial Matter (Rubu).”
A large picture here shows us this valley, a real subterranean Egypt,
intersected by canals, where we see the “Osiris” occupied in all the
operations of agriculture; preparing the ground, sowing and reaping in
the divine fields an ample provision of that bread of knowledge he is
now to find more necessary than ever. He has, in fact, arrived at the
end of his journey; he has before him only the last, but also the most
terrible of all his trials.
Conducted by Anubis he traverses the labyrinth, and by the aid of the
clew, guiding them through its windings, at last penetrates to the
judgment-hall, where Osiris awaits him, seated on his throne, and
assisted by forty-two terrible assessors. There the decisive sentence
is to be pronounced, either admitting the deceased to happiness or
excluding him forever. Then commences a new interrogatory, much more
solemn than the former. The deceased is obliged to give proof of his
knowledge; he must show that it is great enough to give him the right
to be admitted to share the lot of glorified spirits. Each of the
forty-two judges, bearing a mystical name, questions him in turn; he is
obliged to tell each one his name, and what it means. Nor is this all;
he is obliged to give an account of his whole life.
“I have not blasphemed,” says the deceased; “I have not stolen; I have
not smitten men privily; I have not treated any person with cruelty;
I have not stirred up trouble; I have not been idle; I have not been
intoxicated; I have not made unjust commandments; I have shown no
improper curiosity; I have not allowed my mouth to tell secrets; I have
not wounded any one; I have not let envy gnaw my heart; I have spoken
evil neither of the king, nor my father; I have not falsely accused any
one; I have not withheld milk from the mouths of sucklings; I have not
practiced any shameful crime; I have not calumniated a slave to his
master.”
The deceased does not confine himself to denying any ill conduct;
he speaks of the good he has done in his lifetime. “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.” We may well
on reading these passages be astounded at this high morality, superior
to that of all other ancient people, that the Egyptians had been able
to build up on such a foundation as their religion. Without doubt it
was this clear insight into truth, this tenderness of conscience, which
obtained for the Egyptians the reputation for wisdom, echoed even by
Holy Scripture.
Besides these general precepts, the apology acquaints us with some
police regulations for public order, raised by common interest in
Egypt to the rank of conscientious duties. Thus the deceased denies
ever having intercepted the irrigating canals, or having prevented the
distribution of the waters of the river over the country; he declares
that he has never damaged the stones for mooring vessels on the river.
Crimes against religion are also mentioned; some seem very strange to
us, especially when we find them classed with really moral faults. The
deceased has never altered the prayers or interpolated them. He has
never touched any of the sacred property, such as flocks and herds,
or fished for the sacred fish in the lakes of the temples; he has not
stolen offerings from the altar, nor defiled the sacred waters of the
Nile.
The Osiris is now fully satisfied; his heart has been weighed in the
balance with truth, and not been found wanting; the forty-two assessors
have pronounced that he possesses the necessary knowledge. The great
Osiris pronounces his sentence, and Thoth, as recorder to the tribunal,
having inscribed it in his book, the deceased at last enters into bliss.
Here commences the third part of the Ritual, more mystical and obscure
than the others. We see the Osiris, henceforth identified with the sun,
traversing with him, and as him, the various houses of heaven, and the
lake of fire, the source of all light. Afterwards the Ritual rises to
a higher poetical flight, even contemplating the identification of the
deceased with a symbolical figure comprising all the attributes of the
deities of the Egyptian Pantheon. This representation ends the work.
EGYPTIAN WORSHIP.
The gods of Egypt were worshiped in temples and tombs. Every town had
at least one temple. The services were conducted by the priests, and
on special occasions the king and scribes joined. The common people
had but little to do with the worship. The most important worship took
place in the innermost chambers, where only the priests were at all
permitted to go.
[Illustration: AVENUE OF SPHINXES LEADING TO A TEMPLE.]
[Illustration: GATEWAY OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TEMPLE OF
KARNAK.]
The sacrifices were of animals and vegetables with the pouring out of
wine and the burning of incense. The temples were gigantic structures
grouped together. They were generally approached by avenues of
sphinxes. The great temples are almost all found in Upper Egypt, while
the pyramids are in Lower Egypt. The inhabitants of Egypt were once the
greatest nation of earth, and they built temples corresponding to their
greatness.
Thebes, in Upper Egypt, was once a greater city than Babylon, or
Rome, or London. It was built on both sides of the River Nile. To it
all the surrounding nations flocked. The temples of Thebes have, in
magnificent grandeur and majestic beauty, probably never been surpassed
in any later age. Of these temples, Luxor and Karnak were the greatest.
Between these two stretched in avenue of 140 gigantic columns, each
twelve feet in diameter, their massive sides covered with sculptures.
The columns were so great that we cannot understand how they could
be cut out of the quarries and brought the 140 miles that they must
pass over to get to Thebes. Karnak was the work of generations. It
was 2,500 years in building. Abraham must have seen Karnak when he
journeyed to Egypt. Moses must have been familiar with its courts. The
messengers of Israel, who in after ages sought alliance with powerful
Egypt, must have looked upon its columns and walls. Karnak was a
cluster of temples. The central one was 1,108 feet long and 300 feet
broad. The circuit of its walls, says a Roman historian who saw it in
all its glory, was a mile and a half. Near Thebes are the statues of
Memnon, which were said to sing when the rays of the rising sun touched
their lips. Possibly the breeze of the early morning struck upon some
concealed musical contrivance in the statue and produced the sound.
[Illustration: THE SINGING MEMNON.]
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE SPLENDID TEMPLES OF THEBES.]
[Illustration: THE SPHINX AND THE PYRAMIDS.]
The most imposing monuments of Egypt are the pyramids of El Gizeh. The
largest of these is the pyramid of Cheops. This is 480 feet high, and
contains more than ten millions of cubic yards of stone. The pyramid
is so placed that its four sides exactly face the four points of the
compass. The pyramids were probably great tombs. At the foot of the
pyramids is the great Sphinx. This is a monument of a man-headed
lion, nearly ninety feet long and seventy-four feet high. Its face
is twenty-six feet long. It is carved out of solid rock. This great
Sphinx is said to be the image of the god Har-ma-chu, the setting sun.
Between the two front paws of the Sphinx was placed a small chapel,
consecrated to the god. As Ampére says: “This huge, mutilated figure
has an astonishing effect; it seems like an eternal spectre. The stone
phantom seems attentive; one would say that it hears and sees. Its
great ear appears to collect the sounds of the past; its eye, directed
to the east, gazes as it were into the future; its aspect has a depth,
a truth of expression, irresistibly fascinating to the spectator. In
this figure, half statue, half mountain, we see a wonderful majesty, a
grand serenity, and even a sort of sweetness of expression.”
There was much of majestic beauty about the Egyptian religion and
worship, but there was mixed with it a mass of debasing superstition.
When King Cambyses of Persia conquered Egypt, and the supremacy of
the world passed out of Egypt’s hands, the downfall of its religion
commenced. The religion of the conquerors was mingled with their
own. After some hundreds of years, Christianity was spread over all
north Africa and up the Nile. Then in the year 639, after Christ,
Mohammedanism conquered Egypt. This religion continues to predominate
in Egypt.