the queen, the attendance of slaves; and every luxury of Egypt is at
my command. As I said to you, dear mother, in my first letter, I have
yet only seen the Queen of Egypt at a distance, as she was ascending
the steps of her palace, but to-morrow I am formally to be presented
to her, for on that day of the week alone she receives princes and
ambassadors. She had returned four days before to Memphis, from Philæ,
with a great retinue of the lords and officers of her realm, and
yesterday, crossing the Nile in her barge of state, she entered this
sacred city, which she visits for three days every month to perform in
the great temple the sacred rites of her gorgeous religion. Of this
worship I will soon write you more fully. It is an error, however, to
suppose that these enlightened Egyptians worship the sun, or any other
objects, as such, of mere matter. Their fundamental doctrine is the
unity of the deity, whose attributes are represented under positive
and material forms. The common people perhaps never go beyond these
forms, and their minds never are admitted to a knowledge of the truth
of the mysteries; but the priests, and the high in rank, look upon the
sun, and moon, and animals, and the fecund Nile, only as so many
attributes of a one infinite deity. The sun--believed to possess much
of the divine influence in its vivifying power and its various other
effects--is regarded as one of the grandest agents of the one deity.
The moon is another direct manifestation of the invisible author, and
as the regulator of time, say their sacred books, is figured in
painting and sculpture as the ibis-headed Thoth, and the deity who
records, as time flies, the actions of men's lives. Osiris, if I
understand their mythology, is this supreme god (symbolized here by
the sun), who is also the judge of the souls of the dead, rewarding or
punishing hereafter the creatures he has created, according to their
lives. But when I learn more fully their system of religion, I will
explain it to you, dear mother.
Although I have not seen, to speak with her, the august lady who
reigns over Egypt, I have been visited by her son, the lord Prince
Remeses. I have already written of him. He is in his thirty-fourth
year, and the noblest appearing man my eyes ever beheld. Upon his brow
the gods have set the seal and impress of command. I will narrate the
manner of our first intercourse.
I was standing by the window of the stately apartment, which overlooks
one of the squares of the city, interested in watching the toils of
several hundred men, coarsely attired in blue aprons or loin-cloths,
and gray breeches reaching only to the knee, the upper part of their
bodies being naked, who were at work constructing a wall which was to
inclose a new lake before the temple of Apis, in the midst of the
square; for On is a city of alternate lakes (all of great beauty and
adorned with trees), temples, squares, and palaces, interspersed with
dromos of sphinxes connecting court after court, through lofty
pylones; while obelisks, statues, and fountains fill up the
interspaces.
My window not only commanded a view of these laborers with their heavy
burdens of bricks, borne on their shoulders to the top of the wall
they were building, but also, beyond the wall and distant temples, a
glimpse of the yellow expanse of the desert. How mighty, and grand,
and solemn it looked in its loneliness and ocean-like vastness! A
faint dark line that I at length perceived in motion, was, doubtless,
a caravan coming from the haven of the Red Sea, where the galleys from
Farther Ind land their precious freights of untold wealth. This
caravan seeks the port of On, six miles below on the Nile, whence sail
ships, laden with the treasures of the caravan, to all parts of the
known earth. Sesostris, Thothmes, Menes, all planned a canal from the
Nile to this sea; but the camels are the only ships, to this day, that
cross this desert waste. Again my eyes rested upon the laborers,
seeing that they were sorely pressed by cruel taskmasters, who, with
long rods, urged them to their ceaseless toil. I perceived, then, that
they were men with Syrian features, arched eagle noses, long black
beards, and narrow but fine eyes, which seemed to have a strange
expression of tears in them. There were among them noble and manly
men, handsome youths, though pale with toil, and bent forms of aged
men. I marvelled to see so fine a race thus in bondage, as slaves
under taskmasters, for in the day of the Phœnician Pharaohs, there
were no such bondmen in the land of Egypt. From their remarkable
likeness to some natives of Mesopotamia I had seen in Tyre, I judged
that they must be captives of that ancient Orient people, taken in the
wars of Amunoph.
While I was regarding them, and especially an interesting youth, whose
dark eyes, as he staggered under a heavy burden of bricks, were turned
up to me as if seeking sympathy, Acherres entered and said:
"My lord Sesostris, the mighty Prince Remeses is alighting from his
chariot upon the steps of your palace!"
Upon hearing this news I hastened to the portico, wondering if I were
to be honored with a personal visit from the lord of Egypt, ere the
queen mother should receive me in state.
Upon reaching the circular peristyle hall within the portico, the
ædile of my palace opened the gilded doors, and there stood before me
the Prince of Egypt. I have already described his noble presence and
personal appearance. Upon seeing me he advanced, waving his attendants
to withdraw, and with mingled dignity and sweetness, that at once won
my heart, said:
"I welcome you, noble Prince of Tyre, to Egypt! I have been engaged in
reviewing the army of the Nile, a day's march hence, and heard but
yesterday of your arrival. I hail you, not as a stranger, but as
cousin, dear Sesostris; for are we not allied by blood?"
"You, my lord prince," I said, "are descended from two lines of
kings--the Syrian and Theban--I from but one. But by that one we are
indeed of the same blood. But what is a prince of Tyre, compared with
the heir to the throne of Egypt?"
"We are to be friends and equals," he said, smiling, as he pressed my
hands. I accepted this pledge of friendship with grateful emotion, my
dear mother; and from that moment we became as brothers,--he the
elder, I the younger, and looking up to him with admiration and pride,
as henceforth my model of what a prince should be.
He remained with me three hours. We discoursed of you, of Tyre, of the
beautiful city of Damascus,--my sword of Damascene steel attracting
his notice (for he is a famous soldier), and leading to the mention of
this city. We talked also of Egypt, and her glory, and her power; of
the queen, his mother, and the manners, religion, and policy of the
kingdom.
But, my dear mother, I will here close this letter, and in another
relate to you what passed at our interview, and the most interesting
portion of his conversation.
Your devoted son,
SESOSTRIS.
LETTER III.
THE CITY OF THE SUN.
MY DEAR MOTHER:
The climate of this land of the Sun is so delightful to the senses
that one feels a constant buoyancy of the heart, and experiences in
the consciousness of mere existence, an undefinable and delicious joy;
and herein I discover the key to the cheerful gayety of the Egyptians.
The skies are blue with eternal sunshine. The atmosphere, free from
moisture, is so transparent and crystalline, that distant objects lose
one half their distance to the eye. The sun rises ever with cloudless
splendor, and sets in a sea of golden glory, without a shadow of a
cloud falling upon his fiery disk. The moon sails by night across the
starry ocean of the heavens, with a brilliancy unknown in other lands;
while the stars burn with an increased intensity, and seem enlarged by
means of the purity of the upper air through which we behold them. It
is no marvel that the dwellers in this happy land are wise, and love
art, and delight in forms of beauty, and build palaces for gods! But I
promised in my last letter, dear mother, to describe what particularly
passed in the long and interesting interview which the Prince Remeses
had with me on his first visit to my palace. I have already described
his personal appearance; but, as ladies are always interested in
costume, I will relate to you how he was attired.
The Egyptians, you are aware, always shave the head and beard closely,
save when in mourning. They have nevertheless a plaited lock of hair
on the height of the forehead, which falls down over the ear. Such is
the fashion with which the youthful god Horus is represented in
paintings and statues, though the beautiful locks of this deity are
not so closely removed but that a crest of golden tresses covers the
top of his head like the plume of a helmet. Something in this manner
Prince Remeses wore the lock of jet-black hair which remained. But
upon his head he had a rich cap or kaftan of green silk, the front of
which was shaped like the beak of an eagle, while behind, it fell to
the shoulders in a sort of cape, fashioned like drooping wings--the
whole most becoming and striking. In the eyes of the eagle, blazed
diamonds, and his plumage was studded with precious stones, beryls,
sardine gems, and the onyx-stone. This head-costume, in varied forms,
is worn by all the nobles and men of high rank. With some the ibis or
the vulture, with others the lion or the hawk, form the insignia. I
have seen him since in his chariot, in a close-fitting helmet-cap of
burnished gold, resembling that of the Egyptian god of war, which,
with his martial form and commanding glance, lent to him the aspect of
the god himself!
His vesture was of fine linen, worn in numerous folds about his form;
and a surcoat embroidered with gold in royal devices, left open in
front, displayed a girdle of links of steel and gold, exquisitely and
cunningly woven, to which hung his jewelled sword. About his neck was
fastened, by a pearl of price, a collar of the red-hued gold of Ophir,
massive and large; and upon his manly chest glittered a breastplate,
sparkling with the enamelled _cartouch_ of the god Athothis, the deity
who presided at his birth, and who is the same as our Taut, the
inventor of letters.
And here let me remark, that writing by letters is scarcely yet known
in Egypt, the hieroglyphic form being still in current use; but
Remeses has cultivated the Phœnician art, and writes with a
character of his own construction, with the facility and beauty of one
of our own men of letters. Ere long, through his influence, this form
of writing will supersede wholly the hieroglyph, which is cumbersome
and difficult to be understood, save by a native-born Egyptian; yet I
have commenced the study of it, and can read already the cartouch of
Mitres, on his obelisk over against the portico of my residence. Of
this obelisk, which is ninety-nine feet high, it is said that when it
was about to be elevated to its position, he employed 20,000 workmen,
and apprehensive that the engineer would not raise it with sufficient
care, he bound the prince his son to the apex while it lay on the
ground, and thus effectually guaranteed the safety of his monument.
This was many centuries ago; but, as I gazed to-day upon the towering
apex, I could not but think, with a tremor of the nerves, of the
hapless young prince as he mounted into the sky, on that slow and
perilous journey!
Have I not been digressing, dear mother? But you must not, in familiar
letters, look for artistic continuity of narrative. I shall digress,
or go from subject to subject, as collateral objects suggest
themselves in passing them; but, nevertheless, I shall not leave your
curiosity unsatisfied upon any matter which I have commenced, but in
due time, from every digression, shall return to it. I will,
therefore, this apology once for all, return to the princely Remeses.
He wore upon his right hand a signet-ring of silver, once belonging to
his ancestor, Amosis, the leader of the XVIIIth dynasty; and also a
large ring of pure gold, set with a chrysoprasus, and bearing the
shield of Osirtasen I., or Sesostris--for he has both names in
history--for whom I am named.
In all respects he was attired with magnificence, and yet with
simplicity, as became a man of taste and a prince. The profuse
ornaments of jewelry, with which I perceive the nobles about the court
load themselves, his good sense disdains. He retains only the insignia
belonging to his high rank.
I have said that his hair is raven-black, and may add that his eyes
are large, expressive, heavily-lidded, and with a peculiar expression
of mingled softness and brilliancy. Unlike the Egyptians, his features
are truly Syriac, with the high arched nose and full red lips of the
inhabitants of the city of Damascus. Do you remember when we last year
visited Damascus, seeing, in the painted chamber of the adytum of the
mausoleum of Eliezer, a representation of the Hebrew prince Abram, of
Syria? To that venerable prince, whose virtues and wisdom tradition
would have preserved, even if he had not erected this tomb to his own
and his master's memory, Eliezer was chamberlain or steward for many
years. Returning to Damascus with great wealth, which Abram had
bestowed upon him, he brought with him from Egypt, where he had once
been, a cunning artist in colors, who decorated the tomb he erected
for himself, in that wonderful manner which has excited the admiration
of all beholders. But, dear mother, beautiful as that is, and well
preserved as it has been for four hundred years, it is not to be
compared with art in Egypt at the present day. You remember you were
struck with the majesty and almost celestial sublimity of the old
shepherd prince's face, which the affection of his steward has
preserved. You spoke of the eagle-like nose, the dark, yet
tearful-looking eyes, with the drooping lid just casting into shadow
the depth of its inner light. You remember the nobly shaped head and
commanding brow. Such a head and profile is that of Remeses, the
Prince of Egypt. My first look at his face recalled the portrait in
the tomb, which its founder has so beautifully and modestly inscribed:
"ELIEZER OF DAMASCUS,
THE STEWARD OF ABRAM,
PRINCE BELOVED OF THE GODS."
After I had received Remeses into my house, I conducted him through a
two-valved door, opened before us by my chief butler, into the superb
apartment allotted for recreation and repose. My mansion consisted of
a court encircled by columns, and from it extended corridors to
various chambers. The court is crossed by avenues of trees, while
fountains and flowering plants refresh the eye in every direction.
The apartment into which Remeses came with me, was divided into tall
panels, upon which were executed, in the most brilliant colors, the
fairest pictures. These panels were intercolumnar, each column adorned
with carvings of leaves and flowers, and terminating in a capital in
imitation of an open lotus. This room was open to the air, but
shielded from the sun by a purple awning that extended to its four
sides, and was a little raised above the walls upon the columns, so
that the breezes, which were wafted over the gardens of flowers, might
freely enter.
This was my reception-room, or _mándara_, as it is termed. A beautiful
cornice surrounds the whole room. The furniture is of the most
tasteful and luxurious description, and of forms and uses unknown to
our severer Syrians. There are tables of Arabian wood, inlaid with
ivory; sofas of ebony and other rare materials, covered with silken
cushions; a chair ornamented with the skin of a leopard; another, of
still more graceful outline, embroidered with silk and threads of
gold; another, the frame of which recedes gradually, terminating at
its summit in a graceful curve, and supported by resting upon the back
of a swan with feathers of ivory. A chair for repose is covered with
gilded leather, and arched by a rich canopy of painted flowers, birds,
and fancy devices. The legs of all these chairs were in imitation of
some wild beast, while the arms represented in ivory or ebony the
beaks of birds,--that of the ibis, sacred as it is, being the
favorite. There are couches, too, which are nothing more nor less than
crouching lions gilded, upon the backs of which the sleeper reposes on
gorgeous housings stuffed with the softest down. The shapes of the
furniture exhaust all forms. There are, in some of my rooms, chairs
shaped like harps, others like leaves of the fig-tree, others like
birds. Tables of ebony are supported on the heads of naked Nubian
slaves two feet high, carved in ebony, while the bronze lamps are
uplifted upon the palm of a dancing girl cast in bronze, who seems to
hold the light for you while you read or write. Carpets and
foot-stools, covered with embroidery, are not wanting; and I have
three round tables--one of metal, one of ivory, one of ebony--polished
like mirrors of steel. These are covered with ornaments of the most
exquisite finish and beauty; and before my window where I write is a
sort of bureau ornamented with hieroglyphics, carved in intaglio,
inlaid with sycamore, tamarisk, and palm woods, and enriched with
bosses of solid gold.
In this apartment I received Remeses. Placing a seat by the window, I
sat near him. For a moment he surveyed me with a close but courteous
scrutiny, such as strangers irresistibly cast upon each other after a
first meeting.
"I hope you are at home here, noble Sesostris," he said. "This is one
of my palaces, but I have more than I can make use of, such is the
bounty and affection of my mother."
"I have every comfort and luxury--more than I desire," I answered. "I
was not prepared to find in Egypt such splendor and magnificence. The
half, my noble prince, has not been told the world."
"And yet you have seen but a small portion of this kingdom," he said,
with a smile of pardonable pride. "Although On is the city of palaces
and temples, for there is a temple to each of the three hundred and
sixty gods of our calendar year, yet Memphis is the true seat of our
empire. We rule Egypt from Memphis: we worship the gods from On."
"But is not the great god Apis the peculiar deity of Memphis?" I
asked; "and is not his worship the most magnificent and imposing on
earth?"
"Yet here in the City of the Sun is the temple of Mnevis, the sacred
ox of On, honored with a worship as profound and universal as that of
Apis."
"But do the more polished Egyptians indeed worship the ox, either here
or in Memphis?" I asked with some hesitation, for, as prince, Remeses
is first priest of the realm, next to the high-priest of Osiris.
"Do not fear to ask freely any questions, my dear Sesostris," he said.
"We do not worship these animals. They are but the embodiment of
attributes. Under both of these gods, at On and at Memphis, Osiris the
great Judge of men is veiled. They are but the living images of
Osiris. The origin of their introduction is unknown save to the
priests, whose office it is to keep the records of all things
appertaining to religion."
"What is revealed concerning the history of Osiris?" I asked; "for I
am at a loss to understand the exact relation a deity known over the
world by name, but of whose worship little is understood, holds to
Egypt and to the other gods. At home, in Syria, I have marvelled how
the Egyptian mythology could stand, when made up of such contradictory
elements,--a part directing the worship of an invisible divinity, and
a part directing the adoration of the hosts of heaven and beasts of
the earth. In Phœnicia we worship the Invisible through the sun, as
his representative. We worship nothing earthly. In Palestine, south of
us, Ashteroth, Belus, and images of stone and brass are adored, but
not with us."
"The Egyptians, through all their forms, and by all their gods, adore
the Supreme Infinite, my Sesostris," said the prince. "The history of
our faith is briefly this, according to common tradition: Osiris was
in the beginning the one lord of worlds; the sun of truth and the
glory of his universe. He came upon earth for the benefit of mankind.
Before his coming, the ox and all other animals were wild, and of no
service to man. The Nile was a terror to Egypt. Vegetation had
perished. He came as a 'manifester of good and truth,' as saith the
great golden book in the Hall of Books. He entered into all things,
and infused his life, and good, and uses into all. He bound the Nile
to its banks, by breasting its flood and subduing it. His spirit
passed into the bull, and all cattle. He tempered the heat of the sun,
and drew the poison from the moon. The earth became his bride, under
the name of Isis; and brought forth Horus, and the order of equal
times, and thus man was benefited and the earth made habitable. Upon
this, his brother Sethis, who represented 'evil,' as Osiris did
'good,' sought his destruction, and caused him to be hated and put to
death. He was buried, and rose again, and became the judge of the
dead. And this legend or fable is the foundation, noble Sesostris, of
our mythology. The sun, moon, Nile, animals, and vegetables even, are
regarded as sacred, therefore, because the spirit or soul of Osiris
had been infused into them, to change them from evil to good. Thus one
god is worshipped through visible objects, which he has
consecrated,--objects once his temples and abodes; for, says the
sacred record, he had to enter into every thing which he restored to
the use of man."
"The mythology of Egypt," I said, "is at once relieved, O prince, from
the charge of grossness and superstition which has been attached to
it. I can now understand more clearly your system of religion."
"The mysteries of our religion are still unfathomable," answered
Remeses. "It is doubtful if they are fully comprehended by the
priests. In the multiplicity and diversity of objects of worship I am
often confounded, and it is a relief to me to pass by all material
forms of Osiris, and send my mind upward only to himself!"
"That is a noble conception, great prince," I said, admiring the lofty
and almost divine expression with which this pure sentiment lighted up
his fine countenance.
"But the people of Egypt are not able to comprehend Deity except
through visible forms; and, in order to convey an impression of the
abstract notions men form of the attributes of Deity, it will always
be necessary, perhaps, to distinguish them by some fixed
representation; hence the figures of Osiris under the various forms in
which he is worshipped, of Pthah, of Amun, Neith, and other gods and
goddesses, were invented by the ancient priests as the signs of the
various attributes of the Deity. And as the subtlety of speculation
expanded the simple principles of our mythology, the divine nature was
divided and subdivided, until any thing which seemed to bear any
analogy to it was deified, received a figure or form as a god, and was
admitted into the Pantheon of the kingdom, to a share of the worship
of the people."
"And this nicety of philosophical speculation," I said, "must have
given rise to the several grades of deities in Egypt."
"Yes; the gods of the first, second, and third orders: each with its
system of priesthood and rituals."
"In all this, I see you give no divine honors to departed heroes," I
remarked.
"No. Our gods are none of them deified men. They are not like Bacchus,
and Hercules, and other of the ancient and Syriac deities, who were
human heroes. Our mythology is a pure spiritualism: its object,
Divinity, worshipped by emblems, symbols, signs, figures, and
representative attributes."
"It is a pantheism, then, rather than a polytheism," I remarked.
"You speak justly, Sesostris," he said. "The figures of our gods,
which you see hewn in marble, painted on temples, standing colossal
monoliths in the entrance of the city, are but vicarious forms, not
intended to be looked upon as real divine personages. Not a child in
Egypt believes that a being exists, with the head of a bird joined to
the human form--as the statue of Thoth, with the ibis head, in front
of the temple; or under the form of a Cynocephalus, having the horns
of the moon upon his head; or as the goddess Justice, without a head;
or a bird with the head of a woman; or a god with a ram-headed
vulture's head, or that of a hawk, like the deity Horus; or Anubis,
with the head of a dog. Why these unnatural forms were chosen as
emblems of these gods, the priests fancifully explain, and perhaps in
many cases truly. They are all, simply personifications of divine
attributes."
"Abuses," I remarked, when he had thus eloquently spoken, "must
naturally flow from such representations, and these emblems, among the
people, soon assume the importance of the divine personages to which
they appertain. The mass of the population must be idolaters."
"You speak truly. They are. The distinction between the image and the
idea which it represents is too subtle for the ignorant; they lose
sight of the attribute, by filling the whole horizon of their minds
with its image. Thus the Egyptian mind is clearly more and more being
drawn away from its ancient spiritual worship, to a superstitious
veneration for images, which originally were intended only to control
and fix attention, or to represent some religious tradition or idea of
divinity."
"Are not Apis, the sacred bull, at Memphis, and Mnevis at On, regarded
as gods?" I asked.