The interior and exterior of the walls of this little temple are

covered with sculpture and hieroglyphics; but, unfortunately, in some

parts, rather defaced. Over the entrance, the king is represented

on his knees making offerings to Kneph. The original sculpture of

part of the façade of the temple has been defaced to make room

for a more modern work, and for a long tablet of hieroglyphics,

which I copied. The sculpture, from its style, is certainly Roman;

the figures not well drawn, and the hieroglyphics wretchedly executed:

the subject represents a woman, with a lotus flower, making offerings

to a divinity with the head-dress of the horns and two feathers. The

hieroglyphics and sculpture of every other part of the temple are in a

good style. The name and titles of Thothmes III., Sun, Establisher of

the World, is executed in intaglio on the column and square pillars,

and the same name in basso relievo is every where visible on the

walls. In the interior of the temple the same subject is repeated

four times, but in only one instance is very distinguishable. (See

Plate LI.) The king, Thothmes III., is represented making offerings

to his ancestor Osirtesen, seated as a divinity in the boat of the

sun, with the crook and lash of Osiris in his hands.

Before Osirtesen are four standards, one with a representation

of the ibis, emblematical, no doubt, of Thoth: the others are not

visible. These standards are supported by arms emanating from the

cross of life, and the sceptres of the divinities; emblematical, I

conceive, of their being the standards of the gods, perhaps of the

divinities of Amenti, Thoth, Horus, and Anubis. One is of Thoth,

evidently, from the ibis; the others are defaced. The reader will

observe how different this style of sculpture (see Plate LI.),

which is the best Egyptian, is to the Ethiopian (see Plate X.). They

have evidently had a common origin; but there is a marked difference

in the execution. On the western side of the exterior of the temple

the king is represented making offerings to different divinities,

principally Kneph. I copied all the hieroglyphic inscriptions. The

hieroglyphics on the columns and pillars are merely the names of

Thothmes. The column which I have stated as polygonal has a base

and a square slab for its capital.

[Illustration: Pl. 51.

_From a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr._

_Printed by C. Hullmandel._

SCULPTURE IN THE TEMPLE OF SEMNEH.

_Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835._]

In the interior of the temple is the fragment of a statue of

Osiris, badly executed: the head is wanting, and on the breast is

the crook and lash. I conceive the style to be Egyptian Roman. It

is very probable that this temple, originally dedicated to Kneph,

was afterwards, in the more corrupt Roman age, appropriated to the

peculiar worship of Osiris. This edifice (see Plan) is in a large

irregular brick inclosure, the walls of which are generally seven to

eight feet thick: this is not of Egyptian, but apparently of Roman,

construction. In some parts masses of brick project from the wall,

perhaps to support them; their ruined state makes it impossible to

decide certainly, but I am inclined to believe them to be entrances.

[Illustration: PLAN OF RUINS.]

I went to examine the pass or cataract of Semneh, which I had some

difficulty in reaching, having to climb for a considerable space over

the granite rocks. The latter are generally rose-coloured, extremely

hard; but there are some rocks of basalt shining like black lead, and

I observed light thin strata of quartz. The width of this channel,

the only one the Nile passes through, when it is low, I found to

be a stone-cast. The river rushes through with great rapidity, so

that I could not cross here from the number of vortices caused by

the excessive force and velocity of the current.

_June_ 14. Wishing to pass over the river to the temple on the

opposite side, I commissioned the sheakh to collect the inhabitants,

and make me some kind of boat. This morning, at eleven o’clock,

he came to inform me that a raft was ready, and men to steer it. My

Arabs having taken the camels and dromedaries to pasture at a distance

from the temple, I was obliged to set out on foot, and, after walking

three quarters of an hour, amid severe heat, I arrived at the place

where they intended to cross, fully two miles south of the pass or

cataract. The river in this part is about a third of a mile wide,

and, except in one or two places, where the current is rather strong,

it was scarcely ruffled. The peasants had constructed two rafts, one

for ourselves, the other for the servants. They were simply trunks

of the acacia lashed together, on which they placed dourah for us

to sit on. All the inhabitants of the country were collected to see

the expedition. Ten or twelve men, some on geerbahs (water-skins),

others on pieces of wood, supported and conducted each raft, two

or three on each side, and four behind, pushing it along. Doubting

the security of the boat, I had taken the precaution to take off

my clothes, and fasten them on my head, like the Arabs. This was

fortunate; for the dourah straw was soon saturated with water.

Nothing could be more picturesque than the boats and their

conductors. The Arabs had all their clothes tied on their heads,

and they carried their charms, arms, knives, swords and spears,

fastened in the same manner. Shouting and singing, they pushed us

across very cleverly: the only difficulty was in passing the parts

where the current was strong. We had also some little fear of the

crocodiles. Three Turks shot two in this very place only two months

ago, and yesterday we saw one on the shore. The peasants at first

refused to take us across for this reason, but the promise of a few

piastres more, and the use of my firman, silenced their fears. I

did not myself conceive that there was the slightest real danger on

this account, as I have observed that the crocodile invariably flies

from boats or any number of persons together. After landing we had

another three quarters of an hour of fatiguing walk to the temple on

the eastern side, which (see General View) is almost exactly opposite

the other. Some parts of our road was over low burning sand-hills,

in which we sunk at each step up to our ankles; the heat excessive

under a directly vertical sun.

[Illustration: TEMPLE OF SEMNEH.]

_Temple at Semneh. East side of the river._—In the first chamber

of this temple the door-posts of the entrance remain, and also

two polygonal columns without their capitals, and two square

pillars. (See vignette.) The lateral walls seem to have joined the

latter; both the square pillars and columns were ornamented with

hieroglyphics, of which the names of Thothmes III. are now only

distinguishable. The names, however, of Amunoph III. and Thothmes

II. occur in this temple. The entrance into the next room is filled

with rubbish up to the architrave; the latter is ornamented with

the winged globe, and a dedicatory tablet of hieroglyphics. There is

also another door to the right of this, leading into the interior,

with a similar tablet on the architrave. The walls were decorated

with sculpture in a good style, but now much defaced. In one place I

distinguished the head of Kneph, and elsewhere the same god receiving

splendid offerings of vases, fruits, &c. from the King Thothmes,

sun, establisher of the world. In another part, the king, with the

head-dress of the small globe, two feathers, and horns, is receiving

the cross of life from a divinity with a beard and no head-dress,

perhaps Amun Ra. Behind this latter figure is the god Kneph again,

with his usual attributes of the ram’s head and horns.

[Illustration: PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF SEMNEH.]

These two entrances lead into a long gallery full of sand and

rubbish. I excavated below the level of the centre doorway into the

gallery, but it is singular that I could discover no entrance into the

sanctuary of the temple corresponding with it. The only one I found

is on the right side. There are three other rooms, one containing

a column. I believe they are marked accurately in the above Plan;

but, to ascertain very correctly how they are connected, would have

required more extensive excavations than my time permitted, nor did

I think it worth any sacrifice, for the plan is evidently bad. The

sculpture of these rooms is almost buried in the sand. There are

slight traces of colour remaining. At a short distance south-east

of the temple, on the granite rocks, are some hieroglyphical

inscriptions, but very rudely executed. I copied five that were

legible; they contain the names of Thothmes III. and Amunoph III.

These rocks are interesting as the last hiding-place of the Arab

robber, Isah; and it was in this neighbourhood that daring brigand

finally met his fate. Isah was a sheakh of the Karareesh tribe. A

katshef, near his residence, having threatened him with the bastinado,

unless he submitted to some exorbitant demand, he preferred abandoning

his domestic happiness, and the peace and quiet of agricultural life,

to such galling and vexatious tyranny. He fled into the fastnesses

of the desert, and there, with a few chosen followers, bade defiance

to the Pasha’s power. He infested the caravan road from Korosko

to Abouhammed; and the Dilet el Doum, or the Valley of the Shade of

the Doums, was his favourite resort. He was the terror of all the

caravans, like the lion of the desert; only allowing them to pass

when they had satisfied his demand: but it was against the government

that he was most active, plundering their caravans laden with grain

and other produce received as taxes, and seizing the numerous herds

of cattle which are sent down to Cairo every year, the spoil of the

war on the Bahr el Abiad and the Azruk. He sometimes also succeeded

in seizing the supplies of ammunition and arms from Cairo; but, what

was very annoying to the Turkish governors, he frequently seized the

caravans bringing them supplies of tobacco, coffee, sugar, and other

luxuries. For five years this daring outlaw eluded every attempt to

seize him. The governors made the most strenuous efforts to obtain

his head, and the Pasha engaged the Ababde to hunt him from the

great Nubian desert. His troop generally consisted of about twenty;

and when, for any important expedition, he required a greater force,

Arabs were never wanting to plunder the Turkish caravans. Most of the

sheakhs have an immense number of relations; often every individual

in their village is a connection; and when their chief is in peril,

or requires their services, they consider themselves bound to rally

around his standard, at whatever sacrifice or hazard. His wife,

like Rob Roy’s, shared her husband’s dangers; and his daughter,

Enour, is said to have had as stout a heart as her father, and as

much address in throwing the lance as any Arab of her tribe. For

five years they shared the perils of this bold brigand; but at

last Isah, driven out of the Ababde desert, was betrayed by an Arab

sheakh of this neighbourhood, who professed to be his friend. This

man, either from fear of the Pasha’s anger, or in the hope of

obtaining additional power and wealth by such an essential service,

conducted a company of soldiers to the valley where he was secreted,

and Isah, while sleeping under the shade of a rock, was shot dead. His

death was instantaneous, for it is said that twenty bullets entered

his body. His followers fled; but the fidelity of one of them was

ultimately rewarded with the hand of his daughter, Enour.

I returned to the ruin on the western bank by the same route, but

having passed the river, I fortunately found a donkey, which, though

a poor one, afforded me some assistance in ascending to the temple.

These edifices are not remarkable for their architecture; but

nothing can be finer than their situation. They are in sight of,

and almost opposite to, each other, on eminences commanding one of

the finest views in the Batn el Hadjar. This view has been compared

by some travellers to Tivoli; but, besides other dissimilarities,

there is here no ugly, ill-built, dirty, modern town, that detracts

from the beautiful situation of the antiquities. The prospects

near the western temple are very magnificent; Signor B.’s view,

Plate XLV., will give a just idea of the country: but the magical

effect of the desert, contrasted with the surrounding scenery,

can be but imperfectly conveyed to the reader’s mind, without a

view coloured, as this was, on the spot, exhibiting faithfully the

different tints. I regret not being able to publish the numerous

views as they were coloured on the spot by Signor B.

[Illustration: Pl. 45.

_On stone by W. P. Sherlock from a Drawing by L. Bandoni._

_Printed by C. Hullmandel._

RUINS OF SEMNEH, on the East & West Sides of the River.

_Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835._]

The peasants here are of a dark-brown complexion, and wear their

hair bushy, but less so than the Ababde. They are poor, but have

the character of being honest. Some of them understand and speak

the Arabic, but the language of the country is the Nubian.

_June_ 15. We started for Wady Halfah, and, after six hours, halted

for the night in the desert. The rocks are of serpentine and granite:

this desert consists of immense plains covered with sand-hills,

and is quite different from the last we passed over, not being so

wild and dreary.

_June_ 16. We started three hours before day, and pushing on our

dromedaries, arrived at sunrise at the second cataract. According to

the practice of almost every traveller who visits the valley of the

Nile, I had made this the limit of my first journey, performed in

1832; but I was not then half so much astonished at the peculiarity

and magnificence of this scene. I did not see it at so favourable a

season, and, perhaps, I appreciate it the more from the delight I feel

that, although I have still a voyage of nearly 1000 miles before I

reach Alexandria, my fatigues may now be considered nearly finished,

as this day I change the slow and tiresome pace of the caravan for

the comparatively luxurious cangia. The effect of the rising sun on

the black shining basaltic rocks which project into the river, forming

innumerable islands, is very striking, and the picturesque beauty of

some of these is heightened by the curious contrast with the stripes

of light yellow sand which are mixed with them. These little rocky

islands, impeding and compressing the current, increase tenfold its

force; and the white foaming river, dashing over the rocks, makes

the colour of the dark shining basalt still more remarkable, while

the roar of its waters animates the scene. There is also a striking

contrast of the black basalt with the white calcareous rock, tinted

with red and other hues, which forms the foreground. The beauty of

the scene, although peculiar, is not diminished by this contrast,

any more than the often lovely form of the dark Abyssinian girl is

disfigured by the snow-white veil which covers her.

I have seen the beauties of the Alps, the Apennines, Arcadia,

and the Pyrenees; I have surveyed the lakes of Bavaria, England,

Italy, Scotland, and Switzerland; I have followed the Rhine from

Schaffhausen to the sea, and sailed on the Danube, the Rhone, and

many other rivers; but I must confess I never was more moved by

any view than this. I mean not to compare it to the landscapes of

Europe for magnificence, or what is generally considered picturesque

effect. This is a view of an extraordinary and peculiar kind;

for, besides the singularities of the landscape already described,

there are associations connected with it which cannot but excite the

traveller. The very solitude of the scene, where no habitation of

man is visible;—the extent of the view beyond the cataract, along

an immense desert of yellow sand, extending over the vast continent

of Africa;—then the river, forcing its passage through the rocks,

that threaten to stop the progress by which it carries to thousands,

and even millions, the means of subsistence;—and shall I say

nothing of the mystery which hangs over it? On its banks, perhaps,

first flourished the arts; its source is hidden in impenetrable

obscurity, as is also the greater part of the historical events

which the bordering countries have witnessed. The effect of the

rising sun gives a magical lustre to the rocks, extremely difficult,

if not impossible, to exhibit in a drawing. I made a camera lucida

outline of it, and Signor B. made a drawing in colours of the peculiar

tints and effects. When the Nile is high, it is more picturesque,

as, of course, there are then more islands.

[Illustration: Pl. 50.

_On stone by C. Hullmandel from a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr._

_Printed by C. Hullmandel._

2D. CATARACT OF THE NILE.

_Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835._]

Numerous names of travellers are engraved on the calcareous rock;

this place being, as I have said, almost always the limit of their

voyage. Some few make an excursion into the Batn el Hadjar; but

fatigued with the first two or three days’ journey on camels,

they seldom proceed beyond Semneh, and still more rarely, if ever,

extend their journey to Solib, one of the most magnificent ruins

in the valley of the Nile. The extreme heat of these climates,

particularly during this season, is certainly trying to European

constitutions. As far as the second cataract, travellers visit the

antiquities, comparatively speaking, without any fatigue; in their

boats they suffer little from the heat, and they have seldom any

distance to walk, as all the ruins are on the banks. I, however,

strongly recommend those who are really fond of antiquities, and

are possessed of a good constitution, to complete their tour of the

Nile. Travellers visit with great fatigue the sites of Sparta, Troy,

and even Carthage, where there are no monuments to recompense the

toil. It is true that the recollections recalled by such scenes must

amply indemnify us; but in the Island of Meroe we have splendid and

most interesting works of art, an infinity of sepulchres, which,

from their number and extremely elegant architecture, could only

have belonged to the metropolis of that ancient kingdom: and what

more thrilling, exciting association could the traveller desire,

than the circumstance that in that region the arts had their origin?

The antiquities of the Island of Meroe, as will have been seen, are

not the only remains to indemnify the traveller for his fatigues. The

interesting site of Gibel el Birkel, with its extensive, picturesque,

and curious monuments; the pyramids of Nouri, the colossal statues

of Argo, and the temples of Solib and Semneh, are all interesting

in the extreme; and, besides the antiquities, the traveller cannot

but be interested in the manners and customs of a people who have

not yet adopted those of their conquerors. A knowledge of the desert

life, and the different tribes of Arabs, is only to be acquired by

a journey of this description through their different districts.

Some of the views of the desert are, to those unaccustomed to them,

somewhat appalling,—boundless oceans of sand; rocks affording little

or no shade to the traveller, and covered, sometimes, with hills of

light sand, which appear to want only a storm to put them in motion;

and it is a dreadful sight to see the road strewed with the bodies

of men and animals, victims of the scorching clime and great fatigue.

Often, when the wind has covered with sand the traces of former

caravans, we have no other beacon than the small piles of stones

which the Arabs occasionally erect on the eminences; but an almost

infallible guide to our steps is afforded by the bones which lie

bleaching on the road. Yet this is the dark side of the picture:

the desert life has its charms, which are only enhanced by these

dangers. We are there independent, perfectly free from the restraints

of the world, and those passions which agitate man in society.

All feel a pleasure in gazing on the ocean, and (when well) in sailing

on its bosom; but the desert life is still more delightful. I feel

it difficult to analyse this sentiment, and yet I strongly feel

it. At sea we are mere passengers; we take no share in avoiding the

dangers which threaten us; our powers are not called into action;

we feel a certain excitement, but, of course, less than the captain

and sailors, on whom all depends: and is not this a reason why the

latter are so attached to that kind of life, notwithstanding the

numerous and severe hardships which they have to undergo?

The traveller in the desert is, to a certain degree, similarly

situated. As head of the caravan, its safety depends mainly on the

prudential measures which he adopts. Appointing a guard in case

of danger, encamping in a judicious situation in case of a storm,

attention to secure a supply of water, and to prevent the Arabs from

consuming, as they would willingly do, two days’ portion in one

day, are cares which keep his mind constantly occupied. A judicious

choice of camels, drivers, and servants; a just distribution of

their labour, and attention to their maintenance, lessen the chance

of being detained by illness.

Well supplied with rice, good biscuit, and meat, the traveller may

live tolerably well, even in the deserts. Since I left Thebes, four

months and a half ago, I have passed two deserts of eight days each,

and many small ones, and generally been in a miserable country, yet

I have only been one day without fresh meat, and that by accident. To

court privations is as great folly as to fear them when they arrive,

and not submit to them cheerfully when requisite. I am certain that

wine and spirituous liquors are injurious in this climate. During the

whole of this journey water has been my only beverage; and, on the

whole, I have enjoyed very tolerable health, considering the excessive

heat, and the many annoyances and delays, still more injurious in

this climate than the fatiguing pace of the camel. The desert life

has also another charm; it is gratifying to see how, when treated

as men, the Arabs become attached to you. If they have any quarrel

between each other, a word from the traveller makes them silent.

At sea, it is a pleasure to observe the colour and motion of

the waters; to see the dolphins playing at the ship’s head;

and sometimes, as in the Mediterranean, the surface of the waters

animated by their singular forms. The Nile has its crocodiles and

hippopotami; every desert also presents something new,—lions,

panthers, hyenas, wolves, serpents, gazelles, antelopes, giraffes,

ostriches, guinea-fowls, wild asses, zebras, &c. The traveller

may have seen all these in menageries in Europe; it is, however,

a great pleasure to see or hear them in their native haunts. The

deserts have also a great charm for the traveller who has any taste

for mineralogy, then each rock, each pebble, each step, I may say,

is interesting. During a sea voyage, we read, and scarcely look at

the water once a day: in the deserts, on the contrary, our attention

is continually occupied by the transition of rocks, their formation,

the minerals which are disseminated on, and mixed with, the sand.

At sea, it is a pleasure to meet another vessel, to hail her, and

demand where she is from, and to what port she is bound; and we often

experience delight at finding the passing crew to be countrymen,

perhaps relations, or friends: but what pen can describe the meeting

of a caravan in the desert? Brothers, who have not seen each other

for months, and even years, often meet thus, by accident. The caravan

never stops; they have, therefore, only a few moments, and they must

part again, and run after their camels. Their hands locked together,

they inquire after each other’s health, and after that of their

friends. Travellers laugh at the repeated “_Taip een salamat, taip

een salamat_,” of the Arabs. “How do you do?—Good morning! How

do you do?—Good morning!” repeated twenty times; and “_Taip een

abouk? taip een ahouk? taip een omek?_” “How is your father? How

is your brother? How is your mother?” &c. always repeating the _taip

een?_ “how is?” to each person that they name. The indifference

with which the Fellaheen, who see each other daily, go through

this ceremony, may seem rather ridiculous; but in the deserts, as I

have seen them sometimes, even with tears starting from their eyes,

affection could not dictate a stronger and more appropriate manner

of inquiring rapidly, but particularly and separately, after each

relation and friend who is dear to them. Frequently have I observed

my Arabs meeting with their friends of other tribes, and even of their

own district or village, and witnessed the pure and natural joy which

illuminated their countenances; friends who have travelled together,

shared the same toils, the same dangers—companions of their youth,

of their early voyages, who have not seen each other for years,

meet in the solitudes of the wilderness, but for a moment only, and

the same period may elapse before they again see each other. Let

it not be supposed that, in the interior of Africa, the natives,

although ignorant and uncultivated, are destitute of honest affection.

It is, however, true, that sometimes in the desert we trace those

violent passions and habits which generally characterise the wandering

tribes of Central Africa. The Bishareen, and others, often plunder

the caravans; and tribes occasionally meet between whom there have

been constant feuds. Under the strong government of the Pasha, they

now seldom make use of their arms; but they exchange no salutes:

their silent manner of passing each other, the knitted brow, and

involuntary firmer grasp of their spears and swords, evince the

deadly hatred which still lurks secretly in their breasts.

CHAPTER XIX.

ON THE HISTORY OF MEROE.

OBSCURITY OF HER ANNALS. — HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS NECESSARY

TO RENDER A COUNTRY INTERESTING. — WORKS OF ART HISTORICAL

DOCUMENTS. — LAPIDARY INSCRIPTIONS. — AMUNOPH III. — MEMNON,

KING OF ETHIOPIA. — EXPEDITION OF SEMIRAMIS, QUEEN OF ASSYRIA,

INTO ETHIOPIA. — ETHIOPIANS IN THE ARMY OF SHISHAK MARCHED TO

JERUSALEM. — THE SUKKIIMS OF SCRIPTURE. — EXPEDITION OF ZERAH,

THE ETHIOPIAN KING OF THE BIBLE, AND HIS DEFEAT BY THE TRIBES OF

JUDAH AND BENJAMIN. — THE ETHIOPIAN DYNASTY OF KINGS WHO REIGNED

OVER EGYPT. — THE TESTIMONY OF THE HISTORIANS PROVED BY LAPIDARY

INSCRIPTIONS. — THE NAME OF TIRHAKA, KING OF ETHIOPIA, WHO

DEFEATED SENNACHERIB, KING OF ASSYRIA, FOUND BOTH ON THE MONUMENTS

OF EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. — THE NAMES AND TITLES OF THIS DYNASTY OF

KINGS. — ACCORDANCE OF THE SCRIPTURAL, MONUMENTAL, AND HISTORICAL

EVIDENCES. — THE SETHOS OF HERODOTUS, THE TIRHAKA OF SCRIPTURE,

AND OF THE MONUMENTS. — THE SUA, KING OF EGYPT OF THE BIBLE,

THE SEVECHUS OF MANETHO, AND THE SHABATOK OF THE MONUMENTS.

The Island of Meroe is a classic region, whose name is familiar to

almost every reader, as the cradle of arts and civilisation. The

Nile was the source of her prosperity, and an object of adoration

to the ancient, and even to the present inhabitants[49]; yet most

of the great events which have given celebrity to the countries on

its banks, are lost in impenetrable obscurity. The names even of the

kings under whom she rose to such a height of greatness and power

are almost wholly unknown. So scanty are the materials which can

be found in the ancient writings and on the monuments, that it is

almost an act of presumption to attempt, in the slightest degree,

to penetrate the veil which envelopes her history.

Professor Rosellini, in his extensive and admirable work on the

antiquities of Egypt, has made many valuable observations on the

dynasty of Ethiopian kings who reigned in that country, which have

facilitated my researches; and I gladly testify, that the ruins in

Ethiopia, in many instances, confirm the conclusions which that

learned traveller drew from his examination of the monuments of

Egypt. Availing myself of the inquiries of the learned Italian, I

shall also put together the most important fragments contained in

history, and the valuable lapidary inscriptions I have been able

to copy from the antiquities. A country is always interesting,

to which we feel ourselves indebted for inventions from which we

now derive any important benefit; and as a nation thus rises in

our estimation, we become anxious to form an acquaintance with

its historical records. There is a charm even in its name, when it

recalls to our memory heroic deeds and other important associations.

It is not merely the wonders of art, surprising as they are, which

enchant the traveller at Rome and Athens. It is not the vast pile

of the Coliseum, the triumphal arches and temples in the Forum, the

exquisitely chaste architecture of the Temple of Theseus and of the

edifices on the Acropolis, but the crowd of thrilling recollections

of the heroism, genius, philosophy, and art, by which these scenes

were illustrated, that render them for ever classic and hallowed

in our eyes. Had there been no records of the history of Athens,

we should have wanted no other evidence of her civilisation and

knowledge than the splendid architectural monuments with which her

site is adorned. The Parthenon itself speaks volumes, and the most

eloquent pages of her greatest historians do not bear more conclusive

testimony to her civilisation, than the treasures of Grecian art and

taste in the museums of Europe. Had all the written records of her

valour and patriotism perished, our knowledge of Athens would have

been very nearly what it now is in regard to Ethiopia. The labours

of the historians of her land are lost; the brilliant deeds which

adorned her annals are enveloped in a cloud of mystery. The history

of her neighbours affords only a few scanty gleams, sufficient to

make us deplore the general darkness. So changed is the kingdom of

Meroe from what it must once have been, that I myself should have

almost doubted the short but important passages preserved in the

Greek and Latin authors, were they not triumphantly confirmed by

the monuments existing at Meroe and Gibel el Birkel.

The reader will, I trust, find in this and the following chapters,

that Ethiopia was not unjustly celebrated for civilisation, and as the

birth-place of many arts which now contribute highly to our welfare

and enjoyment; and the few fragments we have been enabled to glean

will prove that she had also her kings and heroes, and that her

history was diversified by the usual vicissitudes of triumphs and

reverses. I am obliged to refrain from publishing, on the present

occasion, all the names of the kings and inscriptions which I found

on the edifices of Meroe, Gibel el Birkel, Solib, Semneh, Toumbos,

and Amarah.

[Illustration: Pl. 53.

_Printed by C. Hullmandel._

GREAT TEMPLE, GIBEL EL BIRKEL.

_Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835._]

[Illustration: Pl. 54.

_Inscriptions at Meroe._

_Inscriptions at Gibel el Birkel._

_Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835._

_Printed by C. Hullmandel._]

For the benefit of the learned, who peculiarly apply themselves to

this study, I give, however, a few of those inscriptions, which,

mutilated and imperfect as some of them are, the initiated in the

recent discoveries in hieroglyphics will immediately perceive to be

of the greatest importance, as the earliest undoubted records of

Ethiopian history. The inscriptions in Plates LII. and LIII., the

hieroglyphics of the Plates X. XI. and XII. of sculpture of Meroe, and

also many I am unable to publish, are curious, not only for the names,

but for the singular titles which they contain, for the mythology,

the variations in the appellations of the divinities, the names of

places, and other valuable historical matter.[50] Many scientific

men have urged me to publish the whole of these inscriptions; and

Signor Rosellini informed me that he should add another volume to his

work from these materials. I hope this able writer will not forget

his promise, and will excuse my employing it as an apology for not

undertaking the interpretation of any portion of them myself; as such

an attempt, on my part, would only be unsatisfactory to the learned,

and tiresome to the general reader.

“Non nostrum tantas componere lites.”

The monuments of Egypt afford historical evidence of the wars between

that country and Ethiopia, during the 18th dynasty; that is, from

about the 13th to the 16th century before Christ. In the topographical

description I stated that the temples of Semneh were built by the

Egyptian king Thothmes III. I have been told that scarabæi have been

found, with the name of this king, opposite Gibel el Birkel.[51]

Amunoph III., the Memnon of the Greeks, has also left, as a monument

of his victories still farther in Ethiopia, the splendid Temple of

Solib. I thought, at first, that this was the Amunoph mentioned by

Josephus, who, at the second invasion of the Shepherds, took refuge

in Ethiopia until he had collected an army, and his son Sethos, or

Rameses, was of a sufficient age to lead it against the insurgents:

but both Eusebius and Africanus agree in calling Sethos the first king

of the 19th dynasty: therefore, as the Temple of Solib bears the name

of Amunoph, with the prænomen of Ⲣⲏ-ⲛⲉⲃ-ⲛⲧⲙⲉ, “Sun, Lord of Truth,” it

is of the eighth king of the 18th dynasty, and not the last: besides,

the representations of the countries conquered by that king are still

preserved, and prove, by some of them having the features of negroes,

that the splendid Temple of Solib was erected as a monument of his

victory and long possession of the country, and not of a mere alliance

with the King of Ethiopia.[52]

The successor of Amunoph III., Amulek, or, perhaps, more correctly,

Horus, as Eusebius and Africanus call him, must, I conceive, from

an inscription I saw at Turin, have also carried his arms into the

interior of Africa; but Herodotus[53] states, that only Rameses

II. (Sesostris) made himself master of Ethiopia; and it is singular,

as I have stated in the account of the ruins of Gibel el Birkel,

that the only fragment of the name of an Egyptian king which I saw,

either there or at Meroe, was half of the name of Rameses II.,

which I found, by accident, in the Arab burial-ground at the former

place. This is an extraordinary corroboration of the testimony of

the historian; for that conqueror must have possessed that Ethiopian

city for a sufficient length of time to erect or restore a temple;

otherwise I should not have found his name.

Diodorus mentions that, when Egypt was suffering under the dominion

of Amasis, a violent, proud, and arrogant man, Aktisanes, king of

Ethiopia, profiting by the discontent of the people, invaded Egypt,

and had little difficulty in overthrowing the tyrant, and taking

possession of the country, as the greater number of his subjects

were weary of his oppression, and rebelled against him. Aktisanes,

he adds, was a great prince, and built a city, called Rhinocolura, on

the confines of Syria and Egypt, and detained there the thieves whom

he had punished with the loss of their noses; from which circumstance

Rhinocolura had its name. Eusebius, Africanus, and Herodotus do not

mention this king. Diodorus’s account is difficult to explain;

for his Amasis cannot be the Amasis of Manetho, the first of the

18th dynasty; as Diodorus places his Amasis several reigns after

Sesostris or Rameses II. As there are no traces of the name of this

king on the monuments either of Ethiopia or Egypt, I see no reason

why we should receive the testimony of Diodorus, to the prejudice

of other historians; and, doubting, as I do, whether such a king

ever reigned in Egypt, I think it unnecessary to enter into any

discussion about the period of his reign.

We have also, about this time, an account of another king, whose name

is familiar to the classical scholar,—Memnon, the son of Aurora,

who killed Antilochus[54] in the Trojan war; and again, in the same

poem[55], he is called the most beautiful of warriors, the brother

of Priam; and Hesiod calls him the son of Aurora, and the king of

the Ethiopians. Monsieur Letronne, in his learned work on the vocal

statue of Memnon, has treated the whole story as a romance; but though

we may refuse our credence to the embellishments of the Greek poets,

tragic writers, and historians, I must confess myself of the opinion

of those who believe in the possibility that the statement of a king

of Ethiopia of that name having gone to the assistance of Troy may,

perhaps, not be without foundation. The distance was certainly very

great; but navigation by the Nile, or the Red Sea, would obviate, in a

great measure, that difficulty; and it is not much more extraordinary

to read of an Ethiopian king going to the relief of Troy in the 13th

century before the Christian era, than, in the tenth century, to read

of a king, called Zerah, who, with a host of a thousand thousand, went

unto Maresha; and, in the 8th century, we find that Tirhaka assisted

the King of Israel against Sennacherib, which event I will presently

relate. History, both ancient and modern, affords many instances of

wars between very distant states, and of expeditions sent against

remote kingdoms, often even from continent to continent. I think,

therefore, that it is not very surprising that the Ethiopian king,

Memnon, should go with his troops from Meroe to Troy, either to

assist his relation, or, at the instigation of some neighbour,

to join in the common defence against the Greek invasion.[56]

In the 11th century before the Christian era, Semiramis, the

celebrated queen of Assyria, fearless of those deserts in which,

according to the fable, she was exposed when an infant, invaded

Ethiopia. Notwithstanding the celebrity of the Assyrian heroine

for cutting through mountains, filling up valleys, and conveying

water, by costly aqueducts, to unfruitful plains and vast deserts,

it does not seem that her success in subduing Ethiopia was very

great. Diodorus only mentions her admiration of a wonderful lake,

160 feet square, of a vermilion colour, which sent forth a delicious

smell, not unlike old wine, and of such wonderful efficacy, that

whoever drank of it acknowledged the sins which he had long since

secretly committed and forgotten. That the kingdom of Meroe was the

part of Ethiopia invaded by her is not improbable. Her mortified

vanity at not having succeeded in her enterprise, the reflections

caused by the dangers and solitudes of the deserts, or the influence

of the religion of Ammon, may have been the monitors that awakened

the guilty conscience of the Assyrian queen.

The next occasion on which we find mention made of an Ethiopian army

is the expedition of Shishak against Jerusalem, in 971 A.C. That

monarch is represented as bringing 1200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen;

and “the people were without number that came with him out of

Egypt; the Lubims, and the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians.”[57]

The Ethiopians and Lubims are called a “huge host, with very many

chariots and horsemen.”[58] These Ethiopians may have come from a

district of their country which was subject to Shishak, as we see,

recorded on the monuments at Thebes, not only the invasion of Judea,

mentioned in the Bible, but also victories achieved by that warlike

king over various other nations. It is not, however, improbable that

the Ethiopians were merely assisting the Egyptians. The Sukkiims are

considered by many to be the ancient Troglodytes, the ancestors,

perhaps, of the present Bishareen; there is certainly a curious

resemblance between the name of the present capital of the latter

tribe, Souakim, and their Scripture title, Sukkiim.

Sixteen years only after this event we have an account of another

invasion of the Ethiopians. “So Abijah slept with his fathers,

and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned

in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years.” “And

Asa had an army of men that bare targets and spears, out of Judah

three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and

drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these were mighty

men of valour. And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian,

with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and

came unto Mareshah. Then Asa went out against him, and they set the

battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. And Asa cried

unto the LORD his God.”[59] “So the LORD smote the Ethiopians

before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the

people that were with him pursued them unto Gerar: and the Ethiopians

were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves.”[60]

I conceive that the army of Zerah, like that of Memnon, and those,

perhaps, who assisted Shishak, may have been transported from their

own country, by the navigation of the Red Sea. It has been objected

by some, that Zerah could not have been king of Ethiopia above

Egypt, without being master of the latter country: but not only was

the way by the Red Sea shorter, and much more convenient, but the

kings of Meroe at that time may have possessed a part of Arabia,

and he may thus have marched his army through the peninsula. We may,

however, reasonably suppose, that he would not have undertaken such an

important war against the people of Judah, if he had apprehended any

impediment to his progress, from such near and powerful neighbours as

the Egyptians and Arabians. I see no more reason to doubt that this

Zerah was a king of Meroe, than that Tirhaka was such, who bears the

same title in Scripture, of king of Ethiopia. The monuments of Egypt

and Ethiopia, fortunately, confirm the correctness of the title of

the latter, and show us that Tirhaka, called king of Ethiopia, in the

Bible, was also king of Meroe; but because no vestiges of edifices

constructed by Zerah have survived the almost complete destruction

of Ethiopian monuments, there is no reason why we should conceive

that the Ethiopia of which he is called king is not the same country

which Tirhaka afterwards ruled.

The army of Zerah, which is stated in the Bible at a thousand

thousand, that is, a million of men, may seem enormous; and, perhaps,

this is only a vague expression of an almost innumerable host; but

we must consider, that the tribe of Judah raised an army of 300,000,

and that of Benjamin 280,000, to oppose him. The obligation, still

customary, for every one who could bear arms to join the array of

their king, accounts for the magnitude of their forces. Their duty,

as vassals, would oblige the Ethiopians to join the standards of their

chiefs, and the same cause, joined to the more noble motives of zeal

and devotedness for their country and religion, would draw from their

more peaceful avocations the sons of Judah and Benjamin. The latter

are described as armed with targets, spears, shields, and bows:

such would be precisely the equipment of an army in the centre of

Africa at the present day; but the Ethiopian had also three hundred

chariots, which at once denotes a people to a certain degree advanced

in the art of war. Whatever might be the circumstances which enabled

Zerah to collect together this immense army, we could not have a

more striking proof of the extent and the affluent condition of the

kingdom of Meroe, when we consider that she was able to support

the expense of such a vast and distant expedition, and dispense,

for so long a period, with the services of so many of her sons.

The events hitherto mentioned as connected with the history of Meroe

have been important, as showing her political importance at a very

early period. We have seen her successfully repelling the invasions

of Semiramis, and of her powerful neighbours the Egyptians, and

carrying her arms to the succour of the Trojans, and to attack the

people of Judah.

We come now to that glorious epoch in the annals of Ethiopia, when

her kings reigned not only over their native country, but over the

entire valley of the Nile, including the whole of Egypt. We shall see

that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, felt their power. Their dominion

embraced nations of every variety of colour and character, from

Memphis to the interior of Africa. It is highly satisfactory to know,

that the account of this dynasty of Ethiopian kings who reigned over

Egypt is not only transmitted to us by the joint testimony of sacred

and profane history, but also is amply confirmed by the monuments

of both countries.

The lists of Eusebius and Africanus, extracted from Manetho, agree

perfectly with the names of the three Ethiopian kings who reigned over

Egypt, from 732 to 688 before the Christian era. The following table

shows that they do not exactly correspond, either as to particular

reigns, or the entire length of the dynasty, which Africanus makes

40 years, and Eusebius 44; but the difference is very slight.

Africanus. Eusebius.

Sabbakon 8 Sabbakon 12

Sevechus, his son 14 Sevechus 12

Tarkus 18 Tarakus 20

-- --

40 44

Herodotus says[61], that after Asychis, who erected the brick

pyramid, a certain blind man was said to have reigned in the city of

Anysis. During his sway, a large force of Ethiopians, under Sabachus,

their king, invaded Egypt. The blind king escaped by flight into the

mountains, and the Ethiopian reigned in Egypt fifty years. At the

end of that period, according to Herodotus[62], a vision appeared

to Sabachus, commanding him to assemble the priests together,

and destroy them. Rather than be guilty of such a sacrilege, he

preferred returning into his country, particularly as the fifty years,

which the oracle usually consulted by the Ethiopians had stated

to be the term of their sojourn in Egypt, was expired. Diodorus

gives a narrative of this event, agreeing with that of Herodotus,

except that he does not state the name of the king to whom Sabachus

succeeded. He speaks of a king Bucchoris, of a vile appearance, who

exceeded all his predecessors in talent and prudence, and says this

king reigned some time before Sabachus. Both Eusebius and Africanus

agree that Sabachus ascended the throne, after making prisoner a

king called Bocchoris, or Bonchoris. When we consider the loose

accounts which both Herodotus and Diodorus have, in every instance,

given of the Egyptian kings, it is only extraordinary that the time

assigned by them as the duration of the Ethiopian dominion in Egypt

should differ only by six years from that stated by Eusebius. They

have preserved few names of any of the dynasties, and these so

generally differ from Manetho and the monuments, that it is not

surprising to find them describe the Ethiopian dynasty as the reign

of one monarch. We may consider it fortunate that the name of that

king agrees so exactly with the always more correct orthography in

the lists of Eusebius and Africanus. The accuracy, however, of the

list of Eusebius is confirmed by testimony which cannot be disputed,

namely, the evidence of lapidary inscriptions on the monuments of

Egypt and Ethiopia. I will first mention to the reader the names

and titles of those kings, with the places where they were found

recorded; and will afterwards show him that the third king of this

dynasty is the same Tirhaka whose name is connected with one of the

most interesting historical events narrated in the sacred writings.

[Hieroglyphs]

ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲉⲛ (Ⲣⲏ ⲛⲟϥⲣⲉ (ⲛ̀) ⲕⲁ) ⲥⲓⲣⲏ (Ϣⲃⲕ). “The King (Sun Beneficent of

Oblations), Son of the Sun (_Shabak_).” This is undoubtedly the first

of this list of kings. The name is not found upon any of the monuments

of Ethiopia, but that is not surprising, so few of the temples there

being preserved; but we have undoubted evidence of this king having,

as the historians say, reigned over Egypt, for we find his name upon

a gate of the temple of Karnak, and also the portrait of the king in

his Ethiopian dress, with the same titles, on the interior of the

door of the great propylon of the Temple of Luxor, which he repaired.

Signor Rosellini states, that he found a date of the twelfth year

of his reign; which corroborates the statement of Eusebius, that he

reigned twelve years, and not eight only, according to Africanus. I

saw at Berlin a scarabæus containing the name of this king, with the

uræus on each side, and above the oval a lion couchant: the latter is

curious, as it tallies with the singular title I observed above the

names at Amarah, of “King of Kings,” represented by the reed and half

circle, as king (ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ), and a lion, emblematical of king, with the

sign of the plural number. Signor Rosellini mentions, also, that this

name is on two amulets he purchased for the Museum at Florence, and

on a statue in the Villa Albani at Rome. I think the latter must be

removed, as I could not find it there, nor do I recollect having seen

any other instance of the name of Sciabak or Sabachus, in the splendid

collections of Egyptian antiquities at Turin, Berlin, Paris, London,

Rome, Naples, Vienna, Munich, &c., except in an inscription on an

alabaster Canopian vase at Paris.

[Hieroglyphs]

ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ (Ⲣⲏ.....) ⲡⲓⲕⲁ) ⲥⲓⲣⲏ (Ⲁⲙⲛⲙ (ⲁⲓ) Ϣⲃⲧⲕ), “King (Sun ..... of the

Offerings), Son of the Sun, (the beloved of Amun Shabatok).” This

name is evidently different from the preceding, there being not only

a change in the prænomen, but also in the other oval. Besides the

title of Beloved of Amun, the addition of the third hieroglyphic, the

phonetic sign for T, changes completely the sound. There is as much

difference in the names of Shabako and Shabatok, who therefore are as

clearly two persons, as the Sabbakon and Sevechus of Eusebius. The

Venetian edition of Eusebius calls the latter king Sebichos. When

we consider the remote period, the difference of the dialect, the

errors of copyists, &c., it is not surprising that so much discrepancy

should exist. This name is found on the ruins to the south-east of

the great temple at Carnak; and that the king was an Ethiopian is

evident from his costume. The style is similar to that of Shabak;

but the drawings of Signor Rosellini, which I could have wished to

insert, are clearly the portraits of two different kings. I will

presently state the learned Italian’s reasons for supposing that

both these names allude to the god Seb or Sevek.

[Hieroglyphs]

[Hieroglyphs]

[Hieroglyphs]

ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ (Ⲣⲏ-Ⲁⲧⲙⲟⲩⲛⲟϥⲣⲉ, ⲱϥⲉ ⲥⲓⲣⲏ) (Ⲧϩⲣⲕ), “King Sun Atmou beneficent,

Corrector, Son of the Sun (Tirhaka).” The name of this king is found

on the columns and sides of the temple excavated out of the rock at

Gibel el Birkel: it occurs ten times in the inscriptions which I copied

there. It is also on the small altar in the great temple; but Major

Felix[63] appears to me mistaken in supposing that Tirhaka built that

splendid edifice, for his name occurs in that instance only. Whereas

the name of ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ Ⲡⲓⲱⲛϩⲉⲓ, “King Pionchei (the living),” is on the

large altar, and also a fragment of it on the western wall of the

temple; but the claim even of the latter may be disputed, for Vignette

A. is the prænomen on the only column which is now standing; and

the name on the pillars is usually that of the king who erected the

edifice. We have the authority, then, of the monuments of Ethiopia,

that Tirhaka was king over that country, and his name, fortunately,

still remains on a pylon of a temple at Medenet Abou, and other places

at Thebes, to corroborate the testimony of Manetho, that he was also

King of Egypt. In the latter instance, his name is written exactly

as I have given it, except that the two last hieroglyphics of the

prænomen are represented, figuratively I conceive, by an arm and a

lash in the hand. I found, also the name of his queen, in the first

chamber excavated out of the temple of Gibel el Birkel (Vignette A).

ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀-ϩⲓⲙⲉ Ⲁⲙⲛϯⲕϯϩ,, “royal bride, Amentakatah.” Mr. Wilkinson found

two princesses of this family: the first, B, is ⲧⲛⲣ ⲥⲓⲟⲩ, or ⲧ. ⲧⲏⲣ

Ⲁⲙⲛⲁⲧⲥ, “the Divine Star, or the Divine Amenates;” and C, is ⲧⲏⲣ ϩⲓⲙⲉ

ⲦⲙⲁⲩϢⲛⲓⲛⲟϥⲣⲉ, “the Divine Bride, Mutsheninofra, the Mother, Mistress

of Good.” Signor Rosellini states, that there is a date, at Gibel el

Birkel, of the year XX. of this king’s reign, confirming the accuracy

of Eusebius. I did not perceive it, though, I believe, I copied every

hieroglyphic which remains there.

[Hieroglyphs]

The third king of this dynasty is the Tirhaka of Holy Writ: the

narrative there given, is, I conceive, of sufficient importance to

justify my noticing it somewhat in detail.[64]

In the third year of King Hoshea, the son of Elah, king of Israel,

Hezekiah the son of Ahaz began to reign; and, for his zeal in rooting

out the idolatry of his people, he was described as one who “trusted

in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among

all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.” Hezekiah

rebelled against the Assyrians, and smote the Philistines; and in

the fourth year of his reign, the king of Assyria, Shalmaneser,

besieged Samaria, and, after three years, took it, and carried away

the Israelites prisoners. In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah,

Sennacherib, who had succeeded to Shalmaneser, went up against

all the “fenced cities of Judah, and took them.” Hezekiah

agreed to purchase a peace for three hundred talents of silver

and thirty talents of gold; and gave to him, for that purpose,

all the treasures in the temples and palaces; but Sennacherib,

faithless to this agreement, sent up a great host against Jerusalem,

and the three chiefs of the army of the king of Assyria, Tartan,

Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh, had a conference with three of the officers

of Hezekiah-Eliakim, who was over the household of Judah, Shebni,

the scribe, and Joab the son of Asaph the recorder. Rabshakeh asked

him, “Now, on whom doest thou trust, that thou rebellest against

me?” and taunted them with trusting upon Egypt. “Now, behold,

thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt,

on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it:

so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.” And he

begged them to give pledges to the King of Assyria, and not trust

on Egypt for chariots or for horsemen. Hezekiah was comforted by

the prophet Isaiah, and Rabshakeh returned and told Sennacherib

that Tirhaka, king of Ethiopia, was coming up to fight against

him. The titles which are given to Tirhaka, in these passages, are

most important. In 2 Kings, xix. 9., he is called king of Ethiopia,

and in xviii. 21. and 24., Pharaoh of Egypt, which is exactly saying

that he was ruler over both countries, as we have seen that Manetho

and the monuments prove him to have been.

This name, according to Signor Rosellini, is written in Hebrew

(תרחקח םלך־כוש) “Tarhaka, Melek Cush,” translated correctly

Θαρακα Βασιλευς Αιθιοπων, “Tarhaka, king of the Ethiopians.” The

perfect resemblance of the name, which neither upon the monuments nor

in the lists is given to any other king of Egypt; the correspondence

of the epoch, and the title of king of Ethiopia, given to a sovereign

of an Ethiopian dynasty, who by force of arms had annexed Egypt to

their paternal kingdom, are circumstances which prove, beyond all

doubt, as the learned Italian[65] says, the identity of the Tarhaka of

the monuments, with the Tirhaka of holy writ. If, according to

Eusebius, we allow 163 years for the 26th dynasty, that is, the one

which succeeded to the Ethiopians in Egypt, that number, added to the

date of the invasion by Cambyses, 525, will make 688, which, added to

the 20 years’ reign of Tirhaka, would make the accession of that king

to the throne to be in 708, nearly the exact time assigned by the

Scripture chronologists for the relief of Hezekiah and Tirhaka; but

Signor Rosellini, principally on the authority of a stela which he

obtained at Alexandria, makes the total of the reigns of that dynasty

150 years, which would cause the accession of Tirhaka to the dominion

of the Nile to happen in 695. Following exactly the chronology of

Scripture, it must have been in the first year of the king’s reign

that the destruction of the Assyrian army took place. “Then the angel

of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred

fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning,

behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria

departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to

pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that

Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword.”[66]

I will here introduce an event related by Herodotus[67], which,

notwithstanding many discrepancies, is evidently the same:—“After

Sabaco, the Ethiopian, returned into the country, and the blind king

Anysis was dead, there reigned,” he says, “a priest of Vulcan,

named Sethos. This king treated with contempt the warriors of Egypt,

despising them, as if he never would have occasion for them; and,

besides other injuries he committed against them, deprived them of the

ground which, under the preceding kings, had been granted to each,

in portions of twelve fields of a hundred cubits. But afterwards

Sennacherib, king of the Arabs and of the Assyrians, having invaded

Egypt with a great host, none of the warriors were willing to

assist him: then the priest, reduced to extremity, entered into the

sanctuary, bewailed before the figure of the divinity the danger to

which he was exposed. Thus weeping, he fell asleep, and the divinity

appeared unto him in a vision, and exhorted him to take courage,

for he would have nothing to dread in going against the army of the

Arabians, since he himself would send assistance. Animated by this

dream, and having assembled those Egyptians who were willing to follow

him, he fixed his camp in Pelusium, since that city forms the entrance

into the country. He was followed by none of the warriors, but only by

merchants, artificers, and labourers. When they were arrived there,

a multitude of field mice were scattered among their adversaries,

ate the bands of their armour, of their bows and shields, so that,

next day, naked and disarmed, they fled, and many perished.”

This Sethos is evidently the Ethiopian Tirhaka. The latter was the

successor of an Ethiopian, as Sethos is represented to have been,

and it was natural that the Ethiopian should despise the soldiers

of Egypt, whom his predecessor had conquered. His depriving them of

their land, and consequently of their political importance, was the

natural policy of a king who reigned over them by right of conquest;

but, as he was a good and beneficent monarch, who had encouraged

the arts and internal prosperity of the country, of which we have a

proof in his restoring and embellishing the temples, the merchants,

artificers, and labourers hastened to his support, being attached to

his person by the advantages they had derived from his government. The

title of priest is not inappropriate to an Ethiopian king, who was

chosen from that order. Diodorus also informs us how much they were

under the influence of their priests, submitting even to death itself

at their command. Besides the coincidence of the time in the list of

Manetho, there is no mention of a king called Sethos, except the first

of the 19th dynasty, which was long previous. These circumstances

alone almost prove that the Sethos of Herodotus and the Ethiopian

Tirhaka are the same; but we have still stronger evidence. The

king against whom both marched was the same Sennacherib, King of

Assyria, and they are both delivered in the same manner; that is, by

a miracle. Herodotus states Pelusium, not Jerusalem, as the scene of

their discomfiture. This circumstance made me at first imagine that

Sennacherib might have been defeated at both places; but I conceive

it more reasonable to attribute these differences of name, place,

and the nature of the miracle to the usual confusion of Herodotus,

who did not compile his work, like Manetho, from the sacred registers

preserved in the temples, but from verbal communications with the

priests; perhaps the story of the mice was invented by Herodotus,

or his informers, or, at all events, arose in the lapse of time,

to explain the manner in which the Deity interfered in their behalf.

The Tirhaka, then, of the monuments and of Manetho, is the Sethos

of Herodotus, and the Tirhaka who assisted Hezekiah against

Sennacherib. From these various accounts, and by separating, in

the narrative of Herodotus, the probable from the marvellous, we

may conclude that the monarch was pious, since he bore the title

of priest, and applied to the divinity for support before he set

out on the expedition; that he was powerful, since he was not only

able to hold in subjection the entire valley of the Nile, but also

to carry his arms to the assistance of his neighbours. He appears,

also, to have been an enlightened and an able legislator, since he

encouraged the arts; and although a foreigner, had so ingratiated

himself with his people, that, strong in their affections, he was

not only able to destroy the military despotism of the soldiery,

but raise another army, to wage war against the powerful king of

Assyria. Eratosthenes (see Strabo[68],) states that this conqueror

proceeded as far as the Pillars of Hercules.

There is another king mentioned in the Bible, as reigning in Egypt

twelve years before the defeat of Sennacherib. It is agreed, almost

by all, that he is the Shabatok or Sevechus of the lists; but this is

so learnedly and ingeniously discussed by Signor Rosellini, that I

make no apology for enriching this chapter with a translation of his

remarks. At the seventeenth chapter of 2 Kings, it is related that

Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, subdued and made tributary Hoshea,

king of Israel. That prince having wished to rebel, and having sent

for aid to So, king of Egypt, Shalmaneser besieged, conquered, and

made him prisoner. The reign of Hoshea over Israel lasted nine years;

so that it appears to have happened in his sixth year, that, to throw

off the Assyrian yoke, he demanded assistance from the king of Egypt.

Therefore, as Shalmaneser besieged and took Samaria in that year, which

was the last of Hoshea, Hezekiah began to reign over Judah in the

third year of Hoshea; and in the 14th year of Hezekiah occurred the

discomfiture of Sennacherib, in which the Pharaoh Tirhaka took part,

as the ally of the king of Judah. The sixth year of Hoshea (in which

he demanded aid of So, king of Egypt,) corresponds to the third year

of the reign of Hezekiah; and since this latter king, in the 14th year

of his reign, made a treaty with Tirhaka, it follows that the Pharaoh,

called So in the Bible, preceded Tirhaka by an interval of not less

than eleven years. But So is called king of Egypt, and Tirhaka was the

same; therefore we ought to seek the Pharaoh So among the kings of

this Ethiopian dynasty. And since he preceded Tirhaka by an interval

of eleven years, we must necessarily recognise him as the immediate

predecessor of Tirhaka, who is called by Manetho Sevechus, or Sebichus,

and, according to Eusebius, reigned twelve years. Not less manifest

than the coincidence of the years is the correspondence of the name

in Manetho and the Bible, if we correct the pronunciation according

to the true sound of the Egyptian language. I have already mentioned,

that the name of Shabatok (so the Sevechus of Manetho is written upon

the monuments) may truly, indeed, be considered as a peculiar word of

the Ethiopian dialect, which corresponds to the Egyptian Sevek. Sevek

is, in the Egyptian mythology, a god, who has attributes relative

to the Nile, and is generally represented under the sacred symbol

of a crocodile. In this form its name is usually written [Symbol] ⲥ

ⲃ ⲕ “Sebek, Sevek;” but when it is represented under a human form,

then it is written simply [Symbol] or [Symbol] ⲥ ⲃ “Seb, Sewe.” The

titles, attributes, and forms of those two names, Sewe and Sebek,

are promiscuous; and we are certain, that, however it is written or

pronounced, it means the same divinity.[69]

Let us take, therefore, from the Hebrew text, the name of the king

of Egypt, to whom Hoshea sent for help. It is written סוא:

disregarding (particularly in a foreign language) the corrupt

pronunciation given to it by Masorete, and the other interpreters,

who read So or Soa, and Sua, let the least learned in the languages of

the East judge, if the natural pronunciation of these Hebrew elements

be not Sewa or Sewe. This is sufficient to show, that the author

of the second book of Kings wrote that name with those characters

which could give the pronunciation of the Egyptian name Sewe. It

is probable that the same name, written upon the monuments in the

Ethiopian manner, Shabatok, was commonly called by the Egyptians,

Sewe; and, perhaps, they pronounced it also, indifferently, Sewek,

since both these words were the designation of the same divinity,

to which that name belongs. In fact, Manetho wrote in his history,

Sevechus, and, cutting off the Greek termination, it remains Sevek,

retaining, from the Ethiopian Shabatok, the pronunciation used in

Egypt. Thus the text of the Bible, also, in relating this Egyptian

name, maintains that possible orthographic exactness which it has

followed in writing all the other Egyptian names. The original

monuments, therefore, and the lists of Manetho concur in attesting

that the dynasty of the Ethiopians was composed of three kings,

whose names I have mentioned, and thus correct the Greek historians

who have assigned it to Sabaco only.

CHAPTER XX.

THE EMIGRATION OF EGYPTIAN SOLDIERS AT THE TIME OF PSAMMITICHUS. —

EXPEDITION OF CAMBYSES. — MANNERS, CUSTOMS, ETC. OF THE MACROBIANS,

ETC. — CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF THE ETHIOPIANS. — ERGAMENES, THE

ETHIOPIAN KING’S, CONQUESTS IN LOWER NUBIA. — ATARRAMON AND SILCO,

ETHIOPIAN KINGS. — EXPEDITION OF PETRONIUS. — QUEEN CANDACE. —

CHRISTIANITY FIRST INTRODUCED INTO ETHIOPIA. — ITS DURATION. —

NAPATA, CAPITAL OF CANDACE. — BLEMMYES AND THE NUBIANS.

Under the reign of Psammitichus, whom Africanus states to have reigned

twenty-one years, Eusebius thirty-three, and Herodotus fifteen, after

the Ethiopian dynasty, the historian of Halicarnassus informs us

(and his account is confirmed by Diodorus), that 240,000 Egyptian

soldiers were in garrison at Elephantine against the Ethiopians,

at Pelusium against the Arabs and Assyrians, and others, in Marea,

opposite Africa. These soldiers having been three years thus in

garrison, without being relieved, resolved to go over together from

Psammitichus into Ethiopia. Regardless of the entreaties of that king,

they engaged themselves to the king of that country, who employed

them in subduing some of his discontented subjects, whose land he

gave them as a reward. It is added, that the Ethiopians became more

civilised, imbibing the customs of Egypt.

Herodotus states[70], that part of these soldiers were in garrison at

Pelusium, against the Assyrians; probably an attack from that nation

was anticipated, in revenge of the defeat of Sennacherib. According

to that author, there were forty days of land journey, and sixteen

of navigation, between Elephantina and Meroe, besides a space

near Taconso. He says, the distance is the same from there to the

country of the Automali, otherwise called Ascami, a term which means

“Assistants at the left hand of the king;” by which, according to

him, the Egyptian warriors are designated. Whether this last fifty-six

days’ journey extends along the Bahr el Abiad, in the direction of

Axum, or on the Bahr el Azruk, cannot, with certainty, be decided; but

I will presently state my reasons for conceiving the former opinion

to be not improbable. The inhabitants of a part of Ethiopia, at such

an immense distance from the metropolis, would naturally become more

civilised by this Egyptian colony. This passage, at all events,

communicates the highly important fact, that the kingdom of Meroe

reached more than fifty-six days’ journey, both north and south,

from the metropolis; or, in other words, that it was altogether

about 1500 miles in length at that period. This accounts for the

great power of the king of Ethiopia, but for which it is evident,

that a body of 240,000 men would not have been satisfied with having

assigned to them a distant and uncivilised portion of his kingdom,

but would have been easily able to take possession of the whole.

The next important event I shall allude to is the celebrated

expedition of the first king of the Persian dynasty in Egypt.

Cambyses determined to make war upon three different powers,—the

Carthaginians, the Ammonians, and the Egyptian Macrobians. But,

before commencing the expedition into Ethiopia, he resolved to send

spies into the country, and, for this purpose, sent to the island

of Elephantine for some of the Ichthyophagi, who were acquainted

with the Ethiopian language. Cambyses, having instructed these

ambassadors what they should say, gave them, as presents for the

king, a robe of purple, necklaces and bracelets of gold, an alabaster

vase of ointment, and another vase of palm wine. The Ichthyophagi

having arrived, and having been introduced to the king, presented

their offerings, and addressed him thus:—“Cambyses, King of the

Persians, desirous of being your friend and ally, sent us to you

with these gifts, in the use of which he takes great delight.”[71]

The Ethiopian king, knowing well that they came as spies,

answered,—“It is not that the King of the Persians esteems so

much my friendship, that he has sent you to me with gifts; neither do

you speak truly, for you have come to spy out my kingdom. Neither is

he a just man, for if he were just, he would not covet the country

of another, nor wish to make slaves of those who have in no way

offended him. Present to him this bow, and tell him that the King of

the Ethiopians gives this advice to the King of the Persians. When

he is able to manage such large bows with as much facility as I do,

then let him conduct an army against the Egyptian Macrobians, but

one superior to them in number. In the mean time, thank the gods for

not putting it into the mind of the Egyptians to usurp the states

of others.”

Having said this, he unbent the bow, and gave it to them, and having

taken the vest of purple into his hand, he asked them what it was,

and how it was made? The Ichthyophagi having told him the truth

of the purple and the colouring, he said that they were deceivers,

and their garments deceitful. Having inquired about the necklace and

bracelets of gold, and the Ichthyophagi having answered that they

were ornaments, he laughed, conceiving them to be chains, and said,

that he had much stronger ones. Lastly, inquiring of the ointment,

and being shown how it should be worked with the hand, and used,

he said of it the same as he had done of the vest. He then learned

how the wine was made, and its use; and being much pleased with the

trial he made of it, he asked on what things they lived, and what

was the longest period of the life of a Persian? They answered,

that the King lived on bread, explaining to him the nature of corn,

and told him that the space of eighty years was the greatest length

of the life of a Persian. The Ethiopian answered, that he was not

surprised that, subsisting on mud, they should live so few years; that

neither would they live so long, was it not for the wine, and added,

“for in this only are the Persians superior to the Ethiopians.”

The Ichthyophagi having, in their turn, inquired of the King about

his people’s food, and manner of life, he answered, that they lived

on meat and milk; that the greatest part of them lived to the age

of 120 years, and some even longer. The ambassadors having expressed

their surprise at this, the King conducted them to a fountain, after

washing in which they became more vigorous, and shining, as with oil;

and it sent forth an odour as of violet. And the Ichthyophagi said

that this water was so light, that neither wood, nor even lighter

substances, would swim on the surface; but that every thing went to

the bottom; and that the constant use of this water was the reason

why the Ethiopians lived so long.

Cambyses, enraged at this reception of the Ethiopians, set out

without preparing any store of provisions, and without reflecting

that it was the extremity of the world to which he was carrying

his arms. Before he had marched a fifth part of the route from

Thebes, the want of provisions was felt; yet he madly determined to

proceed. The soldiers fed on grass as long as any could be found;

at length, when they arrived in the deserts, they were obliged to

cast lots, to eat one in ten; which finally induced Cambyses to

return to Thebes with the remains of his army.—The defeat of this

monarch is also mentioned by Diodorus.

If this account be at all correct, the country of the Macrobians must

have been at some distance from Meroe, otherwise they could not have

been ignorant of the use of necklaces and bracelets, since the figures

on the walls of the sepulchres of that metropolis are represented with

those ornaments. The fountain mentioned by the Ichthyophagi is almost

as wonderful as the lake which Diodorus reports as seen by Semiramis;

but, discarding what bears the stamp of fiction in this narrative, we

can easily recognise, in this account of the Macrobians, a powerful

nomad tribe, in possession of the gold country which was the great

attraction to Cambyses. Their degree of strength and longevity,

probably exaggerated, might be gained by the habits of frugality and

temperance usual among the nomad tribes. Their food (meat and milk)

is exactly that of the Bishareen and other tribes of the desert at

the present day. Their not understanding the nature of the ointment,

may have been from its being very superior to their own; all that is

probable in the description of the fountain is, that it consisted of

oil. The Arab tribes are now in the habit of anointing their bodies,

conceiving this custom to be in the highest degree salubrious, and

indeed necessary, to mitigate the parching effects of a vertical sun

and the hot winds of the desert. I tried this custom, and found it

very beneficial; and am persuaded I should have suffered less from

the heat had I used it more frequently; but the smell of the ointment

they now use is not like the violet, as the Ichthyophagi describe

that of the Macrobians. It is not, therefore, surprising that a

powerful tribe, doubtless less barbarous than at the present day,

being in connection with states then more civilised, should have a

bath of prepared oil, suited to the pressing wants of the country. A

nomad tribe might, very probably, be ignorant how the purple colour

was produced; for, with the exception of some shawls worn by the

chiefs, none of the Arabs of the present day use any thing but

white cotton and linen cloths. The Melek Nazr e’ Deen (see Plate

III.), is almost the only exception I have met with. Sheakh Sayd,

the chief of all the Ababdes, did not know how the indigo plant

(which his country produces) was made into a dye, till he went with

me through the manufactory at Berber. I suspect that the account of

their contempt for gold, is an embellishment of the Greek historian,

or an exaggeration of the ambassadors; for they must have learnt

its value by exchanging it with their more civilised neighbours. It

is not, however, impossible that they may have used it for chains,

as they might not have possessed other metals, or if they did, might

not have had skill to work them into chains so easily as they could

gold; or, from their greater rarity, they might have been equally

as valuable.[72]

Herodotus calls them Egyptian Macrobians, and afterwards Egyptians. I

am almost inclined to believe that they may have been a nomad race,

blended with the 240,000 soldiers, who, according to Herodotus,

deserted from Psammitichus, and had a territory assigned to them,

among a people about sixty days’ journey distant from Meroe. It

is certain that the Egyptians would marry native wives. They might,

as Herodotus says, have improved the manners of the people; but,

being warriors, and not mechanics or artificers, and accustomed

to a rigid distinction of castes, they might not have introduced

a knowledge of the arts, and even what they taught might, in a

century and a half, be forgotten by a tribe whose habits would

give them little taste for such acquirements. I cannot agree with

those who consider the country of the Macrobians to be on or near

the Arabian Gulf, in the territory of the present Soumalies, or,

as Professor Heeren[73] has placed them, beyond Cape Guardefui;

for, mad as Cambyses is represented to have been, he surely could

not have been so infatuated as to have attempted to penetrate to so

vast a distance, across the immense deserts and inhospitable regions

of the interior, the whole population of which would be hostile to

his progress, particularly when a far shorter and easier way was

open to him by the Arabian Gulf and the Straits of Babelmandel. It

may be stated that the Persians were, perhaps, unskilled and averse

to navigation; but even if not navigators themselves, they might

easily have procured transports. I think the Macrobians should be

placed more in the interior; probably on the Bahr el Abiad. Pausanias

(lib. iv.) says, that Meroe and the Ethiopian plains are inhabited by

the Macrobians, the most just people of the earth: but that they have

not in the country any sea, nor any other river but the Nile. This

statement, which merits attention, being from one so deeply versed in

Egyptian subjects, proves what I have stated,—that the Macrobians

did not occupy the territory of the present Soumalies, near the sea;

but at the same time brings them nearer to Meroe than we can admit

from their state of civilisation, or the testimony of Herodotus,

who describes them as being on the southern side of Africa.

I have now to mention an historical fact, connected with some curious

Ethiopian customs, which might have been rejected as a fable, but

for the evidence of a lapidary inscription, which records the name of

the king connected with it. This gives to it an authentic character,

and affords another proof of the general accuracy of the Sicilian

historian’s account of the Ethiopians.

“The Ethiopians,” says Diodorus[74], “have many laws differing

from those of other nations, particularly as regards the choice of

their kings. The priests choose the most respectable of their order,

and form them into a circle; and he who by chance is taken hold of

by the priest, who enters into the circle, walking and leaping like

a satyr, is declared king upon the spot; and all the people worship

him, as a man charged with the government by Divine Providence. The

king lives after the manner prescribed to him by the law. In all

things he follows the customs of the country, neither punishing nor

recompensing but according to the laws established since the origin

of the nation. It is not permitted to the king to cause any of

his subjects to be executed, even when they shall have been judged

worthy of death; but he sends to the guilty person an officer, who

carries to him the signal of death; and immediately the criminal

shuts himself in his house, and executes justice on himself. It is

not permitted to him to fly into a neighbouring kingdom, and change

the pain of death into banishment, as they do in Greece. They relate

that a certain man, having received an order of death, which had

been sent to him by the king, thought of flying out of Ethiopia. His

mother, who suspected his design, passed her girdle around his neck,

without his attempting to defend himself, and strangled him, lest,

as she said, her son should bring increased disgrace upon his family

by his flight.”

We perceive, by these passages, that the Ethiopians had regular laws,

to which not only the people but the king submitted. The kings,

it seems, were chosen from the priests, and therefore it is not

extraordinary that they were so completely under their power as

we shall shortly see; for probably, like the cardinals at Rome,

they did not select always the most talented, but often the most

manageable, as their chief. The satyr-like gambols of the priest,

which were the cause of his being elected, remind me somewhat of

the impositions, or, rather, workings of the spirit, which the Arab

fakeers and sheakhs sometimes exhibit.[75]

[Hieroglyphs]

“The death of the kings,” says Diodorus, “is still more extraordinary.

The priests at Meroe have acquired great power. When they form the

resolution, they send a courier to the king, with an order for him to

die. They tell him that the gods (or oracles) had thus decreed, and

that he would be guilty of a crime if he violated an order from them.

They added many other reasons, which would easily influence a simple

man, aware of the ancient custom, and who had not strength of mind

sufficient to resist such an unjust command. The first kings submitted

to this cruel sentence. Ergamenes, who reigned at the time of the

second Ptolemy, and who was instructed in the philosophy of Greece, was

the first who dared to throw off this ridiculous yoke. He went with his

army to the place difficult to get to, or (εἰς τὸ ἄβατον) fortress,

where was formerly the temple of gold of the Ethiopians, and caused all

the priests to be massacred, and instituted himself a new religion.”

Signor Rosellini found the name of this king on the door of the

sanctuary of Dacker. ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ (Ⲁⲙⲛⲧⲟⲧ ⲱⲛϩ, Ⲣⲏ-ⲱⲧⲡ) ⲥⲓⲣⲏ (Ⲉⲣⲕⲁⲙⲛ ⲱⲛϩ ϫⲧⲧ,

Ⲓⲥⲏⲙⲁⲓ). “King Amentot (hand of Amun), the living, devoted to Phre (Son

of the Sun), Erkamon, always living, beloved of Isis.”—Vol. ii. 321.

The discovery of the name is of the greatest importance; as the

evidence of this lapidary inscription, that there was a king called

Ergamenes, or, to give him his proper name, Erkamenes, is strongly

corroborative of the whole narrative of Diodorus. He could not have

been an Egyptian king, for there is no mention in any of the lists

of a king of that name. We may, therefore, with certainty conclude,

that it is the Ethiopian monarch Erkamenes. Philæ was generally

considered the boundary of Egypt, but we have the indubitable

testimony of a long train of splendid monuments, from that island to

Solib, that the rulers of Egypt, from the Pharaohs of the eighteenth

dynasty until the time of the Cæsars, possessed at all events,

at different intervals, that part of Ethiopia.

From there being there no Ethiopian edifices, but all Egyptian

temples, from the first to the second cataract, it is probable that

the Egyptians were generally in possession of that part of the valley

of the Nile; but the name of this Ethiopian king having been found

on this Ptolemaic edifice, can only be accounted for by his having

been in possession of the country. The style of the architecture

and sculpture of the temple of Dacker is certainly like that of the

Ptolemies. I therefore do not conceive that the temple was built by

Erkamenes, but perhaps that conqueror celebrated his victories by

religious functions, a representation of which he had sculptured on

the temple at the limit of his conquests.

[Hieroglyphs]

Besides Erkamenes, we have accounts of another Ethiopian monarch,

whose name Signor Rosellini found on the temple of Deboud, in Lower

Nubia, and which he conceives (I think very correctly), to be also of

an Ethiopian king of about the same period. ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ (Ⲣⲏ ⲛ̀ ⲱⲧⲡ, ⲥⲱⲧⲛ̀

ⲛ̀ⲛⲓⲧⲏⲣ) ⲥⲓⲣⲏ (Ⲁⲧⲣⲣⲁⲙⲛ, ⲱⲡϩ ϫⲧⲧ) “King (Son of Perfection, approved by

the gods), Son of the Sun (Atarramon, always living.)” This, therefore,

is an Ethiopian king, whose conquests extended to within a few miles of

Philæ.

A Greek inscription at Kalabshy mentions the victories of Silco,

king of all the Ethiopians, over the Blemmyes. No other Ethiopian

names are found in Lower Nubia, except some prisoners represented

on the walls of the temple of Rameses at Kalabshy.

Strabo[76] gives us a highly important narrative of an event that

took place in his time. It is peculiarly interesting, as it accounts

for the ruin of the towns and temples which once adorned that part

of the valley of the Nile. “The Ethiopians,” says he, “taking

advantage of Ælius Gallus having taken away the garrison of Syene,

to prosecute his expedition into Arabia, by a sudden and unforeseen

attack took possession of Syene, Elephanta, and Philæ; made the

inhabitants prisoners, overthrew the statues of Cæsar Augustus;

but Petronius, with 10,000 foot and 800 cavalry, attacked their

army, composed of 30,000 men, and forced them to fly to Pselchis,

an Ethiopian city: he sent ambassadors to them there, to demand

what they had taken, and to know what reason they had to complain of

the governors. They required three days to consider, and as, after

that time, Petronius did not obtain satisfaction, he attacked them,

forced them to give battle, and had no difficulty in putting to

flight men ill disciplined and ill armed, having only large shields

of unmanufactured ox-hide, hatchets, spears, and sabres. Some threw

themselves into the town, others fled into the desert. Some gained

a neighbouring town by swimming across the river; among the number

were the generals of Candace, who reigned over the Ethiopians. This

queen, whose courage was beyond her sex, was deprived of one eye.

“Petronius crossed the river upon rafts and boats, and made

prisoners all those who were in the island, and sent them immediately

to Alexandria; afterwards they attacked Pselchis, and took it by

assault. From Pselchis, Petronius, crossing the downs of sand

where the army of Cambyses had been swallowed up by the winds,

reached Premnis, a town in a strong situation, gained it at the

first attack, and advanced afterwards on Napata, the capital of

the kingdom of Candace, where her son was then residing. Candace

occupied a neighbouring place, whence she sent to demand peace,

offering to restore the prisoners who had been brought from Syene,

and the statues which they had carried off; but Petronius, regardless

of these propositions, attacked Napata, which the queen and her son

had abandoned, razed the town, and led away the inhabitants captive.

“He returned with his booty, judging the road beyond to be too

difficult. He took, however, the precaution to fortify Premnis

better, leaving there a garrison of 400 men, with provisions for two

years. Candace advanced, with a considerable force, against Premnis,

but Petronius came to its relief, and succeeded in throwing himself

into the town before the arrival of the queen, and provided various

means of defence for the safety of the place. Candace sent ambassadors

to Petronius, who ordered them to go to Cæsar (Augustus); and as

they pretended not to know who Cæsar was, and which way they must

go, he gave them an escort. These ambassadors arrived at Samos,

where Cæsar then was. He granted all that they desired, and even

freed them from the tribute which he had imposed upon them.”

We perceive from this account the superiority of the Roman

arms. The discipline of those celebrated troops would have made

them irresistible, whatever might have been the inferiority of

their number, against such wretched soldiers as Strabo represents

the Ethiopians: but Petronius, when at Napata, would scarcely have

refrained from proceeding to Meroe, nor eventually would he have

shut himself up in Premnis, whatever might have been the force of

Candace, had it consisted of the undisciplined, ill-armed people

he describes. Augustus does not seem to have despised them, since

he concluded a peace on their own terms. In my account of the arts

of Meroe, I will mention the probable effects of this destructive

invasion of Petronius. Pliny also mentions this expedition[77], and

states that, after Pselchis and Premnis, he took also the cities of

Aboccis, Phthuris, Cambusis, Attenan, and Stadisis, and afterwards

Napata; but he adds, it was not only the Roman arms which made

a wilderness of this part of Ethiopia, but the wars with Egypt,

alternately ruling over, and subject to, that country.

The year of the expedition of Petronius has never been exactly

ascertained[78], but according to Dion Cassius (lxiv. s. 7.),

Augustus went into the East in the year of Rome 734. Therefore,

as the ambassadors of the Ethiopians found him at Samos, on his way

into Syria, the expedition of Petronius can only have taken place

a very short time before that period, that is, about twenty years

before Christ.

An event of the greatest importance is recorded in the Gospel, as

having taken place A.D. 33. An eunuch, a man of great authority under

Candace, who had the charge of all her treasure, was converted by

Philip.[79] The time at which Philip met the eunuch was subsequent to

that of Ergamenes, when, as we have seen, a taste for Greek literature

was spread in Ethiopia; therefore, the Greek language was, without

doubt, sufficiently known to enable them to read the Old Testament,

which was then translated into that language. It is not extraordinary,

that a man who may be supposed to have raised himself to his high

station of chief eunuch, by superior talent, should have perceived

the superiority of the Jewish religion to that of Amun, nor is it

unreasonable to presume that many of the Jews visited Ethiopia, and

contributed to his conversion. We find him, therefore, as a believer

in the Jewish religion, undertaking a journey of nearly 2000 miles

to worship at the holy temple of Jerusalem, and engaged, when Philip

met him, in studying the promises held out to the chosen people. We

have no reason, I think, to assume that, because the sacred writings

have only recorded this solitary instance, there were not other

Ethiopians who had embraced the Jewish religion. It is well known

that, in the East, through every age, the chief eunuch has always

been one of the most powerful officers at the court; and it is not

unreasonable, I think, to presume that his influence, joined to the

persuasive truth of the doctrines of Christianity, may have induced

many to forsake the ancient worship of the country, which had then,

perhaps, degenerated, as in Egypt, into gross polytheism. Unless we

assign a reign of more than fifty years to the Candace of the Gospel,

she cannot be the sovereign who reigned at the time of the expedition

of Petronius; but Pliny informs us that several queens who reigned in

Ethiopia assumed this appellation. Philip met the eunuch, riding in

his chariot, on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is a desert

tract. Those deserts, which the traveller is now obliged to cross

on the fatiguing camel, exposed to the hot sun and parching winds,

the eunuch, it seems, rode over comfortably in his chariot. About

the year 330, when Athanasius was Patriarch of Alexandria, according

to Ludolf[80], Christianity was introduced into Abyssinia, by two

youths, Frumentius and Ædisius, who were shipwrecked on the coast

of the Red Sea; but it was not until the time of Theodosius that

the Nubians were converted; and, according to the Arab writer,

Sheref el Edrese, A.D. 1153, they were still Christians.

I shall not attempt the laborious, and almost useless, task, of

endeavouring to trace the history of this country from the time of

the Romans until the present day. My object has been to lay before

the reader the most important fragments of history connected with

the kingdom of Meroe. The capital of Candace was Napata, and not

Meroe. The latter celebrated metropolis seems to have existed

until the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus; and at the time of Nero,

Pliny describes Napata as of no importance. _Oppidum id parvum

inter prædicta solum_. After this sad decline of the glory of the

Ethiopians, we find the wild tribes, whose power was formerly absorbed

in the superior greatness of Meroe, now acting the principal part. The

wars of the Blemmyes and the Nubians with each other, and against the

Roman power, are the most important events afterwards transmitted to

us; but, as these tribes have left no monuments of their civilisation,

their names, victories, and defeats, have little connection with the

history of Meroe. It might be interesting to trace the wasting away

of that lamp of civilisation which had shone once so bright; but such

an inquiry would exceed my limits, as well as the object prescribed to

myself, which was, to show the once great political importance of the

Ethiopians of Meroe. I have said, in my topographical description,

that my examination of the existing monuments led me to adopt the

opinion of those who believe the statement of Diodorus, that Meroe

was the cradle of the arts. I shall, in the following chapters,

bring forward additional arguments to prove that statement. The

establishment of this fact will give an additional interest to that

classical land, which we have seen to be the country of Memnon, Zerah,

Tirhaka, Ergamenes, &c., and against which the efforts of Semiramis,

Cambyses, and the Egyptian Pharaohs[81], were vainly directed.

CHAPTER XXI.

REQUISITES FOR A STATE ENJOYING EXTENSIVE COMMERCE. — ADVANTAGEOUS

POSITION OF MEROE. — PROBABLE EXTENT OF HER COMMERCE. — THE

FACILITY AFFORDED TO ITS EXTENSION BY MEANS OF THE CAMEL. —

COMMERCE OF ARABIA AND INDIA. — ABUNDANCE OF GOLD. — IRON AND

GUM. — ETHIOPIAN TRIBUTE TO EGYPT. — DESCRIPTION OF A SPLENDID

ETHIOPIAN PROCESSION AT THEBES. — COMMERCE OF THE INTERIOR. —

CAUSES OF THE DECLINE OF MEROE. — DIMINUTION OF HER AGRICULTURAL

RESOURCES. — EXHAUSTION OF MINES. — RIVALRY OF EGYPT. — WARS

WITH EGYPT. — ARAB CONQUEST. — PRESENT COMMERCE.

_Commerce of Meroe._—The history of nations, and particularly of

cities, clearly evinces the extraordinary effects of commerce. Those

countries which have attained to any high degree of power and

prosperity have been, in a great measure, indebted for them to that

source of wealth. A wise government, anxious for the welfare of its

subjects, always affords the utmost encouragement and protection to

commerce, guarding it against those accidents which endanger its

security, and when, from unavoidable circumstances, one branch is

closed, seeks to open other channels to its successful activity. In

order that a state may carry on extensive commerce, it ought to

possess an advantageous position, contiguous to other rich countries,

with the opportunity of becoming an emporium for their commodities,

and of supplying them with those in which they are deficient. She

ought also to enjoy abundant internal resources, derived from

agriculture, manufactures, and mines.

A slight examination of the map of this part of Africa will satisfy us

that there could not have been a situation, on that immense continent,

more admirably adapted for commercial intercourse than Meroe. Placed

at a short distance only from the conflux of the Astaboras and the

Nile, she was connected, by the former, with that part of Ethiopia

now called Abyssinia; and, by the latter, now denominated the Bahr el

Azruk, or Blue River, with the provinces of Sennaar, Fazoukl, and,

perhaps, with regions still further to the south. It is also highly

probable that, by the Bahr el Abiad, or White River, the true Nile,

she communicated extensively with vast districts in the interior

of Africa. The distance from these rivers, particularly from the

Astaboras, to the present ports of Massoua (the ancient Adule)

and Souakim, on the Red Sea, whence she received, perhaps, the

productions of Arabia and the Indies, was by no means great. Nature

seems to have facilitated the intercourse by providing her with the

ship of the desert—the camel. By its means, probably, the commerce

of Meroe may have been widely diffused into the centre of Africa;

to the countries now called Kordofan and Darfour, which are only at

a short distance from the Nile; nor is it improbable that a powerful

and enterprising nation, such as the Ethiopians then appear to have

been, may have extended their caravan trade to the kingdoms of Soudan,

Bornou, &c., and possibly even to the now impervious Timbuctoo.

It may be asked, if the profit which the merchants of Meroe could

derive from such distant expeditions would repay the cost and hazard;

but an examination of the expense of transporting merchandise on

camels will remove that objection. In the estimate which I am about

to make, of the expenses of sea and land carriage, the rates must,

of course, be those of the present day; this, however, will be to the

disadvantage of my argument, as navigation, at that remote period,

was in a much more imperfect state, and consequently more tedious and

expensive, than it now is. I shall select wool, as a bulky article,

and, therefore, more difficult to transport by land. I shall suppose

a vessel, laden with 1000 bags of wool, of 450 lbs. each, and that

its average passage was thirty days, for which the owners received a

freight of 1_d._ per lb., which, I believe, is about the usual rate

for a voyage of that length. Supposing, also, that the average sailing

of the vessel, allowing for detentions from contrary winds, and for

the time occupied in loading and reloading, be fifty miles per day,

making thus 1500 miles. Now, the usual load for a camel is 500 lbs.,

sometimes 600 lbs., so that 450 lbs. is a very moderate calculation;

and at the rate the merchandise of the Pasha is now carried down to

Cairo, not more than sixty days would be necessary to accomplish the

above distance. They charged me eighteen shillings for twenty days,

averaging about twenty-five miles per day; therefore the expense

of the sixty days, at present, would not exceed two pounds fourteen

shillings; about sixteen shillings more than by water.

In ancient times the expense of labour and camels was not likely

to differ materially from what it now is; but that of maritime

conveyance must have been much larger. We know the number of men that

were necessary to impel the boats, and their system of following all

the sinuosities of the coasts. Hence the time taken to accomplish a

voyage of any extent must have been very long. The period required

by Solomon’s vessels to reach the country of Ophir is a proof of

the dilatory, and consequently expensive, navigation in that age. As

I have stated in my account of Dongolah, 2500 loads of gum, of 450

rotols each, are carried down to Cairo, that is, a distance of about

1800 miles, for 2_l._, including all expenses; being thirteen per

cent. on the value.

This calculation proves, that the cost of land carriage, particularly

for the short journeys to the Red Sea, Kordofan, and Darfour, would

be only a slight inconvenience; and even the expense of a regular

trade to Fezzan and Bornou, by the route which the Mamelukes took,

would have been no very heavy burden on the articles. That on which

I have chosen to make this calculation, was, as already observed, one

of the most disadvantageous that could have been selected. The expense

of 18_s._ (and I, as a traveller, of course paid the highest price),

on conveying, for a journey of twenty days, 500 pounds weight of rich

Indian stuffs, or of Arabian spices, must have been quite trifling.

Meroe, therefore, enjoyed the advantage, not only of a direct

water communication by the Nile, Bahr el Abiad, Bahr el Azruk,

and the Astoboras, to an extent of several thousand miles of the

vast continent of Africa, but also, by means of the ship of the

desert, had an intercourse with her ports on the Red Sea, and could

thence open a communication with Arabia, and through it, perhaps,

with India. Thus, also, she could exchange her merchandise or the

rich natural productions of the centre of Africa. The circumstance

mentioned in my topographical description (page 200.), that in

the reign of the fourth caliph after Mahomet, this country was

overrun by a powerful tribe from Yemen, and not from the Hedjas,

as was generally supposed, renders it very probable, that that part

of Arabia in particular had been deeply engaged in the commerce of

Meroe. The knowledge thus obtained of its former wealth and power,

its then entirely decayed condition, and the facilities afforded by

its ports to invaders, were likely to induce a nation, then in full

power, and inflamed by religious zeal, to invade and lay waste that

country to which it was formerly, perhaps, tributary, or even subject.

A glance at the map is sufficient to show, that the commerce of the

Indies must have been much more easily carried on with Meroe than

with Egypt; for, whether the Ethiopians navigated directly to India,

or received the produce of that rich country, by the caravans and

vessels of the Arabians; in either case, she possessed superior

local advantages over Egypt. Her ports on the Red Sea were better,

the distance far shorter, and the dangerous navigation of that sea

in a great measure avoided.

Adule, supposed, by some, to be near the present Arkeko, latitude 15°

30′ N., is called, by Pliny (vi. 29.) the very great emporium of

the Troglodytes and the Ethiopians, and the commerce chiefly consisted

in ivory, horns of the rhinoceros, hides of the hippopotamus, shells

of the tortoise, sphinxes, and slaves.[82] According to Bruce, there

are, at the entrance of the Arabian Gulf, the ruins of a place, from

which, to Arabia Felix, the passage only requires a few hours. The

direct commerce with Arabia, and sale of her manufactures in that

populous peninsula, must also have been very great; but the commerce

of Africa was, doubtless, the principal source of the power of Meroe.

The superfluity of gold, which Herodotus (in his account of the

Ichthyophagi sent as ambassadors, or rather spies, by Cambyses to

the king of Ethiopia), describes as being applied to such common

purposes, that even the prisoners were bound in chains of that metal,

may, perhaps, have been a Greek mode of hyperbolically expressing

its great abundance. I believe the supply of this metal to have

been drawn chiefly from the interior. Diodorus says (lib. i. 29.),

and Strabo repeats the passage, without acknowledging his author,

“that island contains mines of gold, silver, iron, copper, and

great abundance of ebony, and various kinds of precious stone,

και μέταλλα χρυσου τε και αργύρου, &c., but the search of the Pasha

after them has been fruitless. She may have derived a certain portion

from mines in her own territories, and even in the island, which are

now exhausted; but, from the limited traces of such mines hitherto

discovered, I conceive it more probable that she obtained that

abundance of the precious metals, not only from the now exhausted

mines in the Great Nubian desert[83] (see pages 23. and 28.), but

principally from the centre or the south of Africa. The Turkish

governors now, when they make their expeditions into the Habeesh and

the negro countries, frequently amass an immense quantity of gold; it

is said, as much as 2000 or 3000 ounces; and before the conquest of

the Pasha, I am informed that every peasant girl wore gold ornaments

to a large amount. The inhabitants of the countries south of Sennaar

are described to me as still possessing great abundance of gold, which

must, in fact, be the case, for many merchants have told me that there

is always plenty in the markets.

The exclusive commerce which Meroe must have long enjoyed with so

considerable a portion of that vast continent, was quite sufficient

to raise her to a great height of opulence. The countries of the

interior, if not really conquered by her, would, at all events,

gladly exchange their gold, and other natural productions, for

her manufactures and merchandise, which, doubtless, far exceeded

in quality what they made themselves, or could procure elsewhere,

being the production of a people more advanced in civilisation and

the arts; while they, isolated by immense deserts from the rest of

the world, would be little visited, except by the caravans from the

metropolis. Gold was, probably, not the only return these countries

afforded to Meroe. Brown has given an account of the productions

of Darfour, and, as I have said before, 2500 camel loads of gum are

sent yearly from Kordofan to Cairo. Iron mines have been found both

in Kordofan and Darfour. I have specimens of this metal from the

latter country, which is current in the bazaars, like money.[84]

I may here remark, that, not improbably, the Ethiopian stone,

mentioned by Herodotus as employed to make incisions in the bodies,

for the purpose of embalming and forming them into mummies, was iron

procured from that country by the Egyptians, who had no mines of their

own. Ivory is still found abundantly in Abyssinia, and also in the

province of Fazoukl; and elephants are always found in the territory

of the Bugara tribe, behind Kordofan. Probably Meroe received many

other commodities, with which an imperfect knowledge of those remote

regions prevents us from being acquainted; besides others, perhaps,

which are no longer produced.

Herodotus (Thalia, 97.) says,—“The Ethiopians on the confines of Egypt,

whom Cambyses subdued in his expedition, and those who inhabit the

sacred island of Nysa, celebrate festivals to Bacchus. These Ethiopians

and their neighbours bring, according to my memory, two half measures

of pure gold, two hundred (φάλαγγας) long round pieces of ebony, five

Ethiopian children, and twenty-large elephants’ teeth.” This passage

reminds me of that magnificent procession in a tomb at Thebes, of the

time of Thothmes III. Fifty figures are represented, exclusive of the

Egyptians, painted red; six are black, and four of a dark brown, but

apparently of the same country. These people, not having the Egyptian

dress, are doubtless Ethiopian, and most of them are so called by the

hieroglyphics. The splendid presents which they are presenting to the

royal owner of the tomb, almost exactly correspond with the account

just quoted from Herodotus.

They consist of ivory, ebony, a most beautiful collection of vases,

and a variety of animals,—horses, cows, the giraffe, capricorn,

leopards, cynocephali, greyhounds, &c. Among a gorgeous pile of

offerings appear heaps of gold and silver, skins, precious wood,

and indigo. In the same procession are also thirty-seven white

people, with very nearly the features of Jews, although many, from

the hieroglyphics, consider them to be Scythians. Some of the latter

are leading a chariot and horses, an elephant, young children, and one

of them a bear; they are also carrying a variety of elegant vases. I

conceive these presents, with the exception, perhaps, of the bear,

to be chiefly from Ethiopia, and from the richness and elegance of the

form of the vases, the abundance of gold and silver, and the curious

manner in which the latter is wrought into the form of the heads of

animals, we have the very strongest proofs of the exquisite taste,

knowledge, and wealth of the Ethiopians: but as this procession is so

extremely interesting, so intimately connected with Ethiopia, and is,

at the same time, one of the most gorgeous and magnificent paintings

that adorn the walls of Thebes, I have selected it from my Egyptian

portfolio, conceiving that it will give great additional value to

this work to publish it with all the colours, which still exist,

almost quite fresh. The hieroglyphics are unfortunately very much

defaced, but sufficient remain to distinguish in several instances

the names of the people and that of the King, Thothmes III., who

reigned about 1500 B.C.

Parts I. II. III. and IV. form the whole of this procession; they

are drawn to a scale of two inches to a foot, so that the reader

may join them together, if he thinks proper. I will give a detailed

description of them according to the plates. The first figure in Part

I. has in one hand an ornamented vase, containing perhaps dates or

some other dried fruit, in the other, apparently, an ivory club, and

a string of precious stones hanging from his arm. The second figure

has a couple of feathers in one hand, which are evidently those of

the ostrich, from the circumstance of the vase he carries in the

other containing the eggs. The third and fourth in this row bear a

tree. The fifth carries a bowl, apparently of dates, in one hand,

and in the other a couple of ostrich feathers, and a cord to which

a leopard is attached. The sixth man has a gold or gilded vase in

his hand, and has also charge of a monkey. The seventh bears a log

of ebony on his shoulder, and is also leading a capricorn, an animal

which abounds near Mount Sinai, and also, I believe, in the Bahiouda

desert. The eighth has a log of ebony on his shoulder. The ninth,

tenth, and last, are negroes, which may be distinguished from their

colour and features. They have blue skull caps[85] and cinctures,

with blue and red borders around their waists. The two last are

carrying elephants’ teeth, and one of them has a string of precious

stones, and the other the skin of a leopard turned inside out. The

other negro is carrying a log of ebony, and, as will be observed,

the light-coloured veins in that wood are distinctly marked.

[Illustration: From a Drawing by G. A. Hoskins Esqr.

GRAND PROCESSION._PART 1._

From a Tomb at Thebes.

_Published by Longman, Rees & Co. April 6th. 1835._

_Printed in Colours by C. Hullmandel._]