Egypt steeped in Superstition--Power of Magicians--Way
of obtaining Visions--Demons--Deification of Departed
Heroes--Gods and Demi-gods--Altars or Living
Stones--Sacred Animals--Isis searching for
Osiris--Leeks and Onions--Priests were Physicians and
Interpreters of Oracles--Sacrificing Human
Victims--Wax Figures--Magic--Teaching of the Egyptian
Priests--Transmigration--Character of Men judged of
after Death.
Egypt was a country steeped in superstition. The people believed in
sorcery, magic, and enchantments; and there is the fullest evidence in
the sacred pages that the Egyptian magicians were able to perform
dexterous feats that were truly surprising. Astronomy was studied with
a view to success in astrology, as the latter was a science much
esteemed, and very lucrative. Public or state astrologers were
consulted in cases of emergencies. None dared to practise astrology,
magic, sorcery, or any of the various modes of divination unless
authorised by a master in the art, before whom he had "spread the
carpet" for prayer. To procure sublime visions, seers shut themselves
up for a long time, without food or water, in a dark place, and prayed
aloud until they fainted. While in a swoon, strange visions appeared
to them, and revelations made which sometimes filled the nation with
gladness, and at other times spread mourning over the country. In
advanced ages, as well as in early times, men believed there were a
multitude of subordinate spirits, as ministers, to execute the behests
of the supreme sovereign. To these spirits were committed the
superintendence of all the different parts of nature, and their bodies
were imagined to be composed of that particular element in which they
resided. Altars were built in the midst of groves, where the spirits
were supposed to assemble. Gratitude and admiration tended to the
deification of departed heroes and other eminent persons. This
probably gave rise to the belief of national and tutelar gods, as well
as the practice of worshipping gods through the medium of statues cut
into human form. At one time demi-gods gradually rose in the scale of
divinities until they occupied the places of the heavenly bodies.
Thus, following ancient hyperbole, a king, for his beneficence, was
called the sun, and a queen, for her beauty, was styled the moon. As
this adulation advanced into an established worship, the compliment
was reversed by calling planets or luminaries after heroes. And to
render the subject more reconcilable to reason, the Eastern priests
taught that the early founders of states and inventors of arts were
divine intelligences, clothed with human bodies. When celestial
divinities disappeared or were obscured from observation, men had
recourse to symbols of a temporary nature that produced fire. Altars
of stone were built and consecrated in the name of the divinity whom
it was intended to represent. Such altars were called animated or
living stones, from a belief that a portion of divine spirit resided
in them, and the prayers and praises offered up before them were
thought to be as acceptable as if addressed to the gods themselves.
That those altars or stones might be as near as possible to the
objects of worship represented, they were generally placed on the tops
of mountains, or, in flat countries like Egypt, on high structures,
the works of men's hands. Many have attributed the building of the
pyramids to the worship of gods; but whether that was the purpose to
which those majestic structures, that have puzzled learned men, were
devoted, we shall not venture to say. This, however, is certain that,
throughout the East, altars, statues, and pillars were erected for
superstitious purposes upon mountains and other high places.
Herodotus informs us that the ancient Egyptians were the first people
who gave names to their gods. Of Osiris, Isis, and the many other gods
and sacred animals that were worshipped in Egypt, we shall say little
at this part of our subject. The bull, it is well known, was one of
the most sacred animals. The priests affirmed that Apis was of divine
origin, the cow that produced him having been impregnated with holy
fire. Dogs, the Egyptians said, deserved homage because they guided
Isis when she searched for the body of Osiris. She, it may be
remembered, sought for the precious remains with true pertinacity till
she found them. To accomplish her purpose, she found it necessary to
transform herself into a swallow, to dry up the river Ph[oe]drus, and
to kill with her glances the eldest son of a king. Her tears were
supposed to cause the inundation of the Nile. At times she had the
head of a cow, which identified her with the cow of whom the sun was
born. The hawk was deified because one of these birds brought to the
priests of Thebes a book, tied round with a scarlet thread, containing
the rites and ceremonies to be observed in the worship of the gods.
The wolf was adored because Osiris arose in the shape of that animal
from the infernal regions, and assisted Isis and her son Horus to
battle against Typhon. The cat was revered as an emblem of the moon,
for its various spots, fruitfulness, and activity in the night. The
goat (which, by the by, is said to be absent from the earth and
present with Satan a part of every twenty-four hours of the day, and
can never be seen from sunrise to sunrise without being lost sight of
for a longer or shorter time) was honoured as the representation of
manhood in full vigour, and was worshipped, from gratitude to the
gods, for multiplying the people of the country. The crocodile was
also advanced to the dignity of a god. If one killed any of the sacred
animals designedly, he was put to death,--if involuntarily, his
punishment was referred to the priests; but if a man killed a hawk, a
cat, or an ibis, whether designedly or not, he died without mercy.
During a severe famine, when the Egyptians became cannibals, not one
of them was known to have tasted the sacred animals.
All revered animals were kept at great expense, and when they died
costly funerals took place. When the Apis died at Memphis, in the
reign of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, his funeral cost not less than
L13,000 sterling. When a cat died, the family it belonged to expressed
great grief, and prayed and fasted several days. In cases of fire,
more care was taken to preserve the feline animals than the most
valuable property in the house. Dead cats, which were almost
invariably embalmed, were sometimes carried from remote parts to be
interred in the city of Bubastis, and hawks and moles were buried with
great solemnity at Butos, even though they should have died in foreign
countries. Juvenal mentions that leeks and onions were objects of
worship, and others say that the lotus was also sacred in various
parts of the East. The priests were both physicians and interpreters
of oracles; they carefully observed the phenomena of nature, and
registered every uncommon occurrence. From such observations, they
calculated the results of other events of similar nature. Hence arose
the practice of divination, and afterwards that of dispensing oracles.
Oracles were erected in every part of Egypt. Even the sacred animals
had their several oracles. The Apis was consulted by observing into
which of his chambers he entered. By a certain principle understood,
the omen was regarded as foretelling good or evil.
The barbarous custom of sacrificing human victims was long in force in
Egypt, and prevailed down to the reign of Amasis, by whom it was
abolished. Not to give too severe a shock to the superstitious
feelings of the people, wax figures, representing human beings, were
permitted to be substituted for the living mortals. These customs
were, no doubt, what sorcerers and witches imitated at their midnight
feasts in after ages, and which led old women to imagine that, by
making wax images of those whom they intended to injure, and sticking
sharp instruments into them at one time, and at another time exposing
them to a scorching heat before a fire, they would wreak their
vengeance upon the individuals whom the figures represented. We have
it from more than one learned writer, that the cruel and gloomy
worship of Egypt arose from a belief that Typhon was labouring
incessantly to counteract the happiness of mankind. He was considered
to be greedy and voracious, and that it was necessary to glut his
altars with blood in order to appease his anger.
Magic was a science in which the Egyptians excelled. Its attainment
was esteemed the highest exertion of human intellect. Some imagined
that the invention of magic exceeded human invention, and they
pretended that the angel who fell in love with the antediluvian women
taught it, and that the principles thereof were preserved by Ham after
the Deluge, and that he communicated them to his son Mizraim; but
others ascribed the invention to Hermes. Without either admitting or
denying these assertions, we can have no hesitation in stating that
much of our superstition may be traced back to Egyptian religion and
customs, and that the singular belief of the Egyptians was general,
and long anterior to the time Jacob and his sons went down to that
country.
The Egyptian priests, taking advantage of the people's credulity,
taught that the sun, moon, and whole host of heaven were endowed with
intelligence, and exerted an influence over the destinies of men; and
they (the priests) pretended to work miracles, and obtain oracles and
omens. They also laid claim to the power of interpreting dreams.
The Egyptians believed that the souls of men went into other bodies at
death,--such as had been virtuous going into exalted bodies, but the
vicious passing into mean reptiles and other contemptible creatures.
After remaining in a state of punishment for a certain number of
years, they were supposed to pass into more exalted beings. Praise was
not bestowed indiscriminately upon every person who died, however
exalted his position. Characters were given by judges, after inquiry
into the life and conduct of the deceased. The judges sat on the
opposite side of a lake; and while they crossed the lake, he who sat
at the helm was called Charon, which gave rise to the fable among the
Greeks, that Charon conducted the souls of deceased persons into the
infernal regions.