many isles of the sea, with vessels of bronze, vases, and other
exquisitely painted wares, and boxes inlaid with ivory, jewels, and
ebony. I saw the dark, handsome men of Tarshish and far Gades, with
all kinds of riches of silver, iron, tin, lead, and scales of gold.
Shields from Arvad, beautifully embossed and inlaid; helmets and
shawls from Persia; ivory from Ind, and boxes of precious stones--the
jasper, the sapphire, the sardiüs, the onyx, the beryl, the topaz, the
carbuncle, and the diamond--from the south seas, and those lands under
the sun, where he casts no shadow. There were, also, wild-looking
merchant horsemen from Arabia, with horses and mules to be traded for
the fine linen, and gilt wares, and dyes of Egypt; and proud-looking
shepherd chiefs of Kedar, with flocks of lambs, rams, and goats; while
beyond these, some merchants of Saïs, men of stern aspects, bad bands
of slaves, whose shining black skins and glittering teeth showed them
to be Nubians from Farther Africa, who had been brought from the Upper
Nile to be sold in the mart.
Thus does all the earth lay its riches at the feet of Egypt, even as
she pours them into the lap of Tyre. Meet it is that two nations, so
equal in commerce, should be allied in friendship. May this friendly
alliance, more closely cemented by my visit to this court, never be
broken! I am willing to surrender to Egypt the title, "Mistress of the
World," which I have seen inscribed on the obelisk that Amense is now
erecting, so long as she makes no attempt upon our cherished freedom,
nor asks of us other tribute to her greatness than the jewelled
necklace it was my pleasure to present to her queen, from your hand.
Having crossed this wonderful mart of the world, we issued upon a
broad street, which diverging to the right led towards Jizeh, not far
distant, and to the left towards Memphis, the noble pylon of which was
in full sight. The street was lined with small temples, six on each
side, dedicated to the twelve gods of the months, statues of each of
whom stood upon pedestals before its gateway.
This avenue, which was but a succession of columns and statues, and in
which we met several pleasure-chariots, terminated at an obelisk one
hundred feet in height--a majestic and richly elaborated monument,
erected by Amunophis I., whose name it bears upon a cartouch, to the
honor of his Syrian queen, Ephtha. Upon its surface is recounted, in
exquisitely colored intaglio hieroglyphs, her virtues and the deeds of
his own reign. At each of its four corners crouches a sphinx, with a
dog's head, symbolic of ceaseless vigilance. A noble square surrounds
the obelisk, and on its west side is the propylon of Memphis. The
great wings that inclose the pylon are ninety feet in height, and are
resplendent with colored pictorial designs, done in the most brilliant
style of Egyptian art.
Here we found a guard of soldiers, whose captain received the prince
with marks of the profoundest military respect. We passed in, through
ranks of soldiers, who bent one knee to the ground, and entered the
chief street of Memphis--the second city in Egypt in architectural
magnificence, and the first in religious importance, as the city of
the sacred bull Apis.
A description of this city would be almost a repetition of that of On,
slightly varying the avenues, squares, and forms of temples. You have,
therefore, to imagine, or rather recall, the splendor of the "City of
the _Lord of the Sun_" (for this is its true Egyptian designation),
and apply to Memphis the picture hitherto given of that gorgeous
metropolis of Osiris.
After we had passed a few squares through the thronged and handsome
street, which was exclusively filled with beautiful and tasteful
abodes of priests, adorned with gardens and corridors, we came to a
large open space in the city, where was a great fountain, surrounded
by lions sculptured in gray porphyry stone. On one side of this square
was a lake, bordered with trees; on another, a grove sacred to certain
mysteries; on a third, a temple dedicated to all the sacred animals of
Egypt,--images of which surrounded a vast portico in front. An
enumeration of them will exhibit to you, how the first departure, in
ancient days, from the worship of the One Deity, by personating His
attributes in animal forms, has converted religion into a gross and
sensual superstition. It is not enough that they have fanciful emblems
in all their temples, and on all their sculptured monuments, of Life,
Goodness, Power, Purity, Majesty, and Dominion (as in the crook and
flail of Osiris), of Authority, of Royalty, of Stability; but they
elevate into representatives of the gods, the ape, sacred to Thoth;
the monkey; the fox, dog, wolf, and jackal, all four sacred to Anubis;
the ichneumon and cat, which last is superstitiously reverenced, and
when dead embalmed with divine rites. The ibex, which I once believed
to be sacred, is regarded only as an emblem; and so with the horse,
ass, panther, and leopard, which are not sacred, but merely used in
sculptures as emblems. The hippopotamus is sacred, and also an emblem
of Typhon, dedicated to the god of war. The cow is held eminently
sacred by the Egyptians, and is dedicated to the deity Athor.
There are four sacred bulls in Egypt,--not only sacred, but deified.
In Middle Egypt, Onuphis and Basis are worshipped in superb temples;
and at On, Mnevis, sacred to the Sun. Here in Memphis is Apis, not
only sacred but a god, and type of Osiris, who, in his turn, is the
type of the Sun, which is the type of the Infinite Invisible; at least
this is the formula, so far as I have learned its mysteries. How much
purer the religion, dear mother, which, passing by or overleaping all
these intermediate types and incarnations, prostrates the soul before
the footstool of the Lord of the Sun Himself, the One Spiritual God of
gods!
Of all the sacred animals above named, I beheld images in stone upon
the dromos which bordered the portico. There were also figures of the
sacred birds,--as the ibis, sacred to the god Thoth; the vulture, the
falcon-hawk, sacred to Re, and honored in the city of On, and the
egret, sacred to Osiris. Besides these sacred figures which decorated
this pantheonic portico, at each of the four gates was one of the four
deified bulls in stone, larger than life-size. There are also to be
found, all over Egypt, sculptured sphinxes,--a sort of fabulous
monster, represented either with the head of a man, a hawk, or a ram;
to these may be added a vulture with a serpent's head, and a
tortoise-headed god.
The phœnix, sacred to Osiris, I shall by and by speak of, and the
white and saffron-colored cock, sacred to, and sacrificed in, the
Temple of Anubis. Certain fishes are also held sacred by this
extraordinary people, who convert every thing into gods. The
oxyrhincus, the eel, the lepidotus, and others are sacred, and at
Thebes are embalmed by the priests. The scorpion is an emblem of the
goddess Selk, the frog of Pthah, and the unwieldy crocodile sacred to
the god Savak--a barbarous deity. Serpents having human heads, and
also hawk's and lion's heads, were sculptured along the frieze of this
pantheon, intermingled with figures of nearly all the above sacred
animals. On the abacus of each column was sculptured the
scarabæus--the sacred beetle--consecrated to Pthah, and adopted as an
emblem of the world; also the type of the god Hor-hat, the Good Genius
of Egypt, whose emblem is a sun supported by two winged asps
encircling it. Flies, ichneumons, and bees, with many other insects
and animals, are represented in the sculptures, but are not sacred.
Even vegetables do not escape the service of their religion. The
persea is sacred to Athor; the ivy to Osiris, and much made use of at
his festivals; the feathery tamarisk is also sacred to this deity; and
the peach and papyrus are supposed to be sacred, or at least used, for
religious purposes. Contrary to the opinion I formed when I first came
into Egypt, the onion, leek, and garlic are not sacred. The
pomegranate, vine, and acanthus are used for sacred rites, and the
sycamore-fig is sacred to Netpe. The lotus, the favorite object of
imitation in all temple-sculpture, is sacred to, and the emblem of,
the most ancient god of Egypt, whom the priests call Nofiratmoosis--a
name wholly new to me among the deities;--but it is also clearly a
favorite emblem of Osiris, being found profusely sculptured on all his
temples. Lastly, the palm-branch is a symbol of astrology and type of
the year, and conspicuous among the offerings made to the gods.
Now, my dear mother, can you wonder at Prince Remeses--that a man of
his learning, intellect, sensibility, and sound judgment, should turn
away from these thousand contemptible gods of Egypt, to seek a purer
faith and worship, and that he should wish to give his people a more
elevating and spiritual religion? Divisions and subdivisions have here
reached their climax, and the Egyptians who worship God in every thing
may be said to have ceased to worship him at all!
What was on the fourth side of the great square, of which the lake,
the grove, and the pantheon composed three, was the central and great
Temple of Apis in Lower Egypt. In my next letter I will describe my
visit to it. I am at present a guest of the high-priest of the temple,
and hence the date of my letter at Memphis.
Your affectionate son,
SESOSTRIS.
LETTER XIV.
THE PALACE OF THE PRIEST OF APIS.
MY DEAR MOTHER:
I will now describe to you my visit, with the prince, to the most
remarkable shrine in Egypt. While the worship of Osiris, at On, is a
series of splendid pageantries, but little differing from the gorgeous
sun-worship which you witnessed some years ago at Baalbec, the rites
of Apis are as solemn and severe as the temple in which they are
celebrated is grand and majestic.
The temple itself is a massive and imposing edifice, of reddish
Elephantine stone. It is of vast proportions, and the effect produced
is that of a mountain of rock hewn into a temple, as travellers say
temples are cut out of the face of cliffs in Idumea-Arabia. Its
expression is majesty and grandeur. It occupies the whole of one side
of the vast square described by me in my last letter.
As we were about to ascend to the gate, I was startled by a loud and
menacing cry from many voices, and, looking around, perceived a Tyrian
mariner, recognized by me as such by his dress, who was flying across
the square with wings of fear. A crowd, which momentarily increased,
pursued him swiftly with execrations and cries of vengeance! As he
drew near, I noticed that he was as pale as a corpse. Seeing that he
was a Phœnician, I felt interested in him, and by a gesture drew
him towards me. He fell at my feet, crying--"Save me, O my prince!"
"What hast thou done?" I demanded.
"Only killed one of their cats, my lord!"
The throng came rushing on, like a stormy wave, uttering fearful
cries.
"May I try and protect him, O Remeses," I asked, for I knew that, if
taken, he would be slain for destroying one of their sacred animals.
"I will see if I can; but I fear my interposition will not be heeded
in a case like this," he replied. At the same time he deprecatingly
waved his hand to the infuriated populace, which had in a few moments
increased to a thousand people.
"No, not even for the prince! He has killed a sacred animal. By our
laws he also must die. We will sacrifice him to the gods!"
In vain I entreated, and Remeses interposed. The wretched man was torn
from our presence by as many hands as could seize him, thrown down the
steps of the temple, and trampled upon by the furious crowd, until
nothing like a human shape remained. The formless mass was then
divided into pieces, and carried to a temple where numerous sacred
cats are kept, in order to be given to them to devour. Such is the
terrible death they inflict upon one who by accident kills a cat or an
ibis!
"The power of the State is weak when contending with the mad strength
of superstition," remarked Remeses, as we entered the temple between
two statues of brazen bulls. Entering through a majestic doorway, we
came into an avenue of vast columns, the size of which impressed me
with awe. The temple was originally erected to Pthah, anciently the
chief deity of Memphis, and dedicated in the present reign to the
sacred bull, whose apartment is the original adytum of the temple.
The worship of Apis and Mnevis, the bulls consecrated to Osiris,
exhibits the highest point to which the worship of animals in Egypt
has reached, and it was with no little interest I felt myself
advancing into the presence of this deified animal. We were met, at
the entrance of the avenue of columns, by two priests in white linen
robes, over which was a crimson scarf, the sacred color of Apis. They
had tall caps on their heads, and each carried a sort of crook. They
received the prince with prostrations. Going one before and one behind
us, they escorted us along the gloomy and solemn avenue of sculptured
columns, until we came to a brazen door. A priest opened it, and we
entered a magnificent peristyle court supported by caryatides twelve
cubits in height, representing the forms of Egyptian women. We
remained in this grand hall a few moments, when a door on the opposite
side opened and the sacred bull appeared. He was conducted by a
priest, who led him by a gold chain fastened to his horns, which were
garlanded with flowers. The animal was large, noble-looking, and
jet-black in color, with the exception of a square spot of white upon
his forehead. Upon his shoulder was the resemblance of a vulture, and
the hairs were double in his tail! These being the sacred marks of
Apis, I observed them particularly: there should be also the mark of a
scarabæeus on his tongue.
The deity stalked proudly forth, slowly heaving up and down his huge
head and thick neck,--a look of barbaric power and grandeur glancing
from his eye.
The curator of the sacred animal led him once around the hall, the
Egyptians prostrating themselves as he passed them, and even Remeses,
instinctively, from custom, bending his head. When he stopped, the
prince advanced to him, and taking a jewelled collar from a casket
which he brought with him, he said to the high-priest--who, with a
censer of incense, prepared to invoke the god--
"My lord priest of Apis: I, Remeses the prince, as a token of my
gratitude to the god, of whom the sacred bull is the emblem, for the
restoration of my mother, the queen, do make to the temple an offering
of this jewelled collar for the sacred bull."
"His sacred majesty, my lord prince, accepts, with condescension and
grace, your offering," answered the gorgeously attired high-priest. He
then passed the necklace through the cloud of incense thrice, and
going up to the bull, fastened the costly gift about his neck, already
decorated with the price of a kingdom, while his forehead glittered
like a mass of diamonds. A cool draft of wind passing through the open
hall, a priest (at least two hundred attendant priests were assembled
there to witness the prince's offering) brought a covering or housing
of silver and gold tissue, magnificently embroidered, and threw it
over the god.
The prince now, at the request of the queen, proceeded to obtain an
omen as to the success of his army. He therefore approached and
offered the bull a peculiar cake, of which he is very fond, which the
animal took from his palm and ate. At this good omen there was a
murmur of satisfaction; for a refusal to eat is accounted a bad omen.
Remeses smiled as if gratified. Could it be that he had faith in the
omen? I know not. Much must be allowed to the customs of a lifetime!
Trained to all these rituals from a child, had the philosophy of his
later years wholly destroyed in him _all_ faith and confidence in the
gods of his mother and his country? The priest now asked a question
aloud, addressed to the god:
"Will the Prince of Egypt, O sacred Apis, be a successful king, when
he shall come to the throne?"
The reply to the question was to be found in the first words Remeses
should hear spoken by any one when he left the temple. He immediately
departed from the peristyle, and we returned through the solemn avenue
to the portico. As we descended the steps, a seller of small images of
the bull called out, in reply to something said by another--
"He will never get there!"
"Mark those words, Sesostris!" he said, not unimpressed by them; "my
mother is to outlive me, or Mœris will seize the throne from me!"
"Do you put faith in this omen?"
"I know not what to answer you, my Sesostris. You have, no doubt," he
added, "after all I have said, marvelled at my offering to Apis. But
it is hard to destroy early impressions, even with philosophy,
especially if the mind has no certain revelation to cling to, when it
casts off its superstitions. But here I must leave you, at the door of
the hierarch's palace. This noble priest is head of the priesthood of
Pthah, a part of whose temple, as you have seen, is devoted to
Apis,--or rather the two temples subsist side by side. You saw him
last week at our palace. He has asked you to be his guest while here.
Honor his invitation, and he will not only teach you much that you
desire to know, but will visit with you the great pyramidal temple of
Cheops."
Having entered the palace, and placed me under the hospitality of the
noble Egyptian hierarch therein, the prince took leave of me. I would
like to describe to you the taste and elegance of this abode, my dear
mother; its gardens, fountains, flower-courts, paintings, and rich
furniture. But I must first say a little more about the god Apis, who
holds so prominent a place in the mythology of Egypt. In the
hieroglyphic legends he is called Hapi, and his figurative sign on the
monuments is a bull with a globe of the sun upon his head, and the
hieroglyphic cruciform emblem of Life drawn near it. Numerous bronze
figures of this bull are cast, whereupon they are consecrated,
distributed over Egypt, and placed in the tombs of the priests. The
time to which the sacred books limit the life of Apis is twenty-five
years, which is a mystic number here; and if his representative does
not die a natural death by that time, he is driven to the great
fountain of the temple, where the priests were accustomed to bathe him
(for he is fed and tended with the greatest delicacy, luxury, and
servility by his priestly curators), and there, with hymns chanted and
incense burning, they drown him amid many rites and ceremonies, all of
which are written in the forty-two books of papyrus kept in the sacred
archives of the oldest temple.
No sooner does the god expire, than certain priests, who are selected
for the purpose, go in search of some other bull; for they believe
that the soul of Osiris has migrated into another body of one of these
animals, or "Lords of Egypt," as I have heard them called. This belief
of the constant transfer of himself by Osiris from the body of one
bull to another, is but the expression of a popular notion here, that
souls of men transmigrate from body to body; and my opinion is
confirmed by a scene depicted in the judgment-hall of Osiris, where
the god is represented as sending a soul, whose evil deeds outweighed
his good ones, back to earth, and condemning it to enter the body of a
hog, and so begin anew, from the lowest animal condition, to rise by
successive transmigrations through other beasts, higher and higher;
until he became man again, when, if he had acquired virtue in his
probation, he was admitted to the houses of the gods and became
immortal.
The prince assures me that the belief in the transmigration of souls
is almost universal in the Thebaïd, as well as among the lower orders
in the northern nomes; and that the universal reverence for animals
is, without doubt, in a great measure to be traced to this sentiment.
A monstrous doctrine of the perpetual incarnation of deity in the
form, not of man, but of the brute, seems to be the groundwork of all
religious faith in Egypt. This idea is the key to the mysteries,
inconsistencies, and grossness of their outward worship; the
interpreter of their animal Pantheon.
"There is a tradition," said to me, to-day, the prince-priest Misrai,
with whom I am now remaining, "that when Osiris came down to earth, in
order to benefit the human race by teaching them the wisdom of the
gods, evil men, the sons of Typhon, pursued to destroy him, when he
took refuge in the body of a bull, who protected and concealed him.
After his return to the heavens, he ordained that divine honors should
be paid to the bull forever."
This account, my dear mother, is a more satisfactory myth than any
other, if any can be so; and recognizes incarnation as the principle
of the worship of Apis. This universal idea in the minds of men, that
the Creator once dwelt in the body of a creature, would lead one to
believe, that in ages past the Infinite had descended from heaven for
the good of men, and dwelt in a body; or that, responding to this
universal idea, he may yet do it. Perhaps, dear mother, the worship of
Osiris under the form of Apis, may be the foreshadowing and type of
what is yet really to come--a dispensation, preparing men for the
actual coming of the Invisible in a visible form. What a day of glory
and splendor for earth, should this prove true! The conception, dear
mother, is not my own; it is a thought of the great, and wise, and
good Remeses, who, if ever men are deified, deserves a place, after
death, among the gods. His vast and earnest mind, enriched with all
the stores of knowledge that man can compass, seems as if it derived
inspiration from the heavens. His conversation is deeper than the
sacred books; the ideas of his soul more wonderful than the mysteries
of the temple!
The priests who seek another bull, discover him by certain signs
mentioned in their sacred books. These I have already described. In
the mean while, a public lamentation is performed, as if Osiris, that
is, "the Lord of Heaven," had died, and the mourning lasts until the
new Apis is found. This information is proclaimed by swift messengers
in all the cities, and is hailed with the wildest rejoicings. The
scribes who have found the young calf which is to be the new god, keep
it with its mother in a small temple facing the rising sun, and feed
it with milk for four months. When that term is expired, a grand
procession of priests, scribes, prophets, and interpreters of omens,
headed by the high-priest, and often by the king, as hereditary priest
of his realm, proceed to the temple or house of the sacred calf, at
the time of the new moon--the slender and delicate horns of which
symbolize those of the juvenile Apis. With chants and musical
instruments playing, they escort him to a gorgeously decorated _baris_
or barge, rowed by twelve oars, and place him in a gilded cabin on
costly mats. They then convey him in great pomp and with loud
rejoicings to Memphis. Here the whole city receives him with trumpets
blowing and shouts of welcome; garlands are cast upon his neck by
young girls, and flowers strewed before him by the virgins of the
temple.
Thus escorted, the "Living Soul of Osiris" is conducted to the temple
provided for him, which is now, as I have before observed, an
appendage to the Temple of Pthah or Vulcan, an edifice remarkable for
its architectural beauty, its extent, and the richness of its
decorations; indeed, the most magnificent temple in the city. A
festival of many days succeeds, and the young deity is then led in
solemn procession throughout the city, that all the people may see
him. These come out of their houses to welcome him, with gifts, as he
passes. Mothers press their children forward towards the sacred animal
that they may receive his breath which, they believe, conveys the
power to them of predicting future events. Returned to his sacred
adytum, he henceforth reigns as a god, daintily fed, and reverently
served. Pleasure-gardens and rooms for recreation are provided for him
when he would exercise.