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Ramses II.

f!itatory of fgypt

= <!Ih,allll'1l. fStJfia. IDahyùtuia. aull àro;yriu Ii

By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civi1 Laws,

and Fe]]ow of Queen's Co]]ege, Oxford; Member of I

the Institute and Professor at the CoHege of France

Edited by A. H, SAYCE, Professor of Assyriologv, Oxford

Translated by M. 1. McCLURE, Member of I

the Committee of the Egypt EÀploration Fund

OJ I

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VOL. J

Containing over Twelve Hundred

Colored Plates and Illustration!

I THE GHOLll',R SOlll-TY Ii

PUBLISHERS 6. 6. 6. LONDON

'JUN 1 2 1953

Printed
v
W,LLIAM CLOW!:S AND SONS, LIMITED
LONDON

EDITOR'S PREFACE

..

PROFESSOR l\IASPERO does not need to be introduced to
us. His name is well known in England and America
as that of one of the chief masters of Egyptian science as
well as of ancient Oriental history a
d archæology. Alike
as a philologist, a historian, and an archæologist, he
occupies a foremost place in the annals of modern know-
ledge and research. He possesses that quick apprehension
and fertility of resource witbout which the decipherment of
ancient texts is impossibJe, and he also possesses a sym-
pathy with the past a.nd a power of realizing it which are
indispensable if we would picture it aright. His intimate
acquaintance with Egypt and its literature, and tbe OppOl'-
tunities of discovery afforded him by his position for several
years as director of the Bulaq :J\lusenm, give him an unique
claim to speak with authority on the history of the valley
of the Nile. In the pl'esent work he has been prodigal of
his abundant stores of learning and knowledge, and it may
therefore be regarded as the most complete account of
ancient Egypt that has ever yet been published.
In the case of Babylonia and Assyria be no Jonger, it is
true, speaks at first hand. But he has thoroughly studied
a

vi

EDITOR'S PREFACE

the latest and best authorities on the subject, and has
weighed their staten1ents with the judgment which comes
from an exhaustive acquaintance with a similar department
of knowledge.
Naturally, in progressive studies like those of Egyptology
and Assyriology, a good many theories and conclusions
must be tentative and provisional only. Discovery crowds
so quickly on discovery, that the truth of to-day is often
apt to be modified or amplified by the truth of to-morrow.
A single fresh fact may throw a wholly new and unexpected
light upon the results \ve have already gained, and cause
them to assnme a somewhat changed aspect. But this is
what must happen in all sciences in which there is a
healthy growth, and archæological science is no exceptio n
to the rule.
The spelling of ancient Egyptian proper names adopted
by Professor l\laspero will perhaps seem strange to many.
But it must be l'emembered that all our attempts to
represent the pronunciation of ancient Egyptian words
can be approximate only; we can never ascertain with
certainty how they were actually sounded. All that
can be done is to determine what pronunciation was
assigned to them in the Greek period, and to work back-
wards from this, so far as it is possIble, to more l'emote
ages. This is what Professor Maspero has done, and it
must be no slight satisfaction to him to find that on the
whole his systern of transliteration is confirmed by the
cuneiform tablets of Tel el-Amarna.
The difficulties attaching to the spelling of Assyrian
names are different from those which beset our attempts

EDITOR'S PREFACE

vii

to reproduce, even approximately, the names of ancient
Egypt. The cuneiform system of writing was syllabic,
each character denoting a syllable, so that we know what
were the vowels in a proper name as ,veIl as the consonants.

loreover, the pronunciation of the consonants resembled
that of the Hebrew consonants, the transliteration of which
has long since become conventional. \Vhen, therefore, an
Assyrian or Babylonian name is written phonetically, its
correct transliteration is not often a rnatter of question.
But, unfortunately, the names are not always written
phonetically. The cuneiform script was an inheritance
from the non-Semitic predecessors of the Semites in Baby-
lonia, and in this script the characters represented words
as well as sounds. Not unfrequently the Semitic Assyrians
continued to write a name in the old Sumerian way instead
of spelling it phonetically, the result being that we do not
know how it was pronounced in their own language. The
name of the Chaldæan N oall, for instance, is written váth
two characters which ideographically signify" the sun" or
" day of life," and of the first of which the Sumerian values
were ut, bavar, khis, tcon, and par, while the second had the
value of zi. \Vere it not that the Chaldæan historian
Bêrôssos writes the name Xisuthl'os, we should have no
clue to its Semitic pronunciation.
Professor l\Iaspero's learning and indefatigable industry
are well known to me, but I confess I was not prepared for
the exhaustive acquaintance he shows with Assyriological
literature. Nothing seems to have escaped his notice.
Papers and books just published, and half-forgotten
articles in obscure periodicals which appeared years ago,

vîii

EDITOR'S PREFACE

have all alike been useà and quoted by him. Naturally,
however, there are some points on which I should be
inclined to differ from the conclusions he draws, or to
which he has been led by other Assyriologists. vVith-
out being an Assyriologist himself, it was impossible for
him to be acquainted with that portion of the evidenûe
on certain disputed questions which is only to be found in
still unpublished or untranslated inscriptions.
There are two points which seem to me of sufficient
importance to justify my expression of dissent from his
views. These are the geographical situation of the land of
Magan, and the historical character of the annals of Sargon
of Accad. The evidence about l\fagan is "Very clear.
Magan is usually associated with the country of l\felu-
khkha, "the salt" desert, and in every text in which its
geographical position is indicated it is placed in the im-
mediate vicinity of Egypt. Thus Assur-bani-pal, after
stating that he bad "gone to the lands of l\Iagan and
l\lelukhkha," goes on to say that be "directed his road
to Egypt and K.ush," and then describes the first of his
Egyptian campaigns. Similar testimony is borne by Esar-
haddon. The latter king tells us that after quitting Egypt
be directed bis road to the land of l\felukhkha, a desert
region in \vhich there were no rivers, and which extended
"to the city of Rapikh" (the modern Rapbia) "at the
edge of the wadi of Egypt" (the present vVadi EI-Arîsh).
After this he received camels from the king of the Arabs,
and made his \vay to the land and city of l\Iagan. The
Tel el-Amarna tablets enable us to carry the record back
to the fifteenth century B.C. In certain of the tablets now

EDITOR'S. PREFACß

ix

at Berlin ('Yinckler and Abel, 42 and 45) the Phænician
governor of the Pharaoh asks that help should be sent hÜn
from 1\íelukhkha and Egypt: "The king should hear the
words of his servant, and send ten men of the country of
11elukhkha and twenty men of the country of Egypt to
defend the city [of Gebal] for the king. " And again, "I
have sent [to] Pharaoh" (literally, "the great house")
(( for a garrison of men from the country of Melukhkha,
and . . . the king has just despatched a garrison [from]
the country of 11elukhkha." At a still earlier date we
have indications tbat l\lelukbkha and Magan denoted the
same l'egion of the ,vorld. In an old Babylonian geo-
graphical list which belongs to the early days of Chaldæan
history, l\Iagan is described as "the country of bronze,"
and l\lelnkhkha as C( the country of the samdu," or " mala..
chite." It was this list which originally led Oppert,
Lenormant, and myself independently to the conviction
that :M
agan was to be looked for in the Sinaitic Peninsula.
l\Iagan included, however, the l\lidian of Scripture, and
the city of l\lagan, called 1fakkan in Semitic Assyrian, is
probably the l\lakna of classical geography, now repre-
sented by the ruins of 11 ukna.
As I have always maintained the historial character of
the annals of Sargon of Accad, long before recent dis-
coveries led Professor Hilprecht and others to adopt the
same view, it is as well to state why I consider them worthy
of credit. In themselves the annals contain nothing
improbable; indeed, what might seem the lllost unlikely
portion of them-that which describes the extension
of Sargon's empire to the shores of the 1\1editerranean

x

EDITOR'S PREFACE

-has been confirmed by the progress of research. AmmÎ-
satana, a king of the first dynasty of Babylon (about
2200 B.C.), calls himself "king of the country of the
AmoI'ites," and the Tel el-Amarna tablets have revealed
to us how deep and long-lasting Babylonian influence
must have been throughout 'Vestern Asia. 1\loreover,
the vase described by Professor 1\laspero in the present
work proves that the expedition of N aram-Sin against
Magan was an historical reality, and such an expedition
was only possible if "the land of the Amorites," the
Syria and Palestine of lateI' days, had been secured in the
rear. But what chiefly led me to the belief that the annals
are a docurnent contemporaneous with the events narrated
in them, are two facts which do not seem to have been
sufficiently considered. On the one side, while the annals
of Sargon are given in full, those of his son N aram-Sin
break off abruptly in the early part of his reign. I see no
explanation of this, except that they were composed while
N aram-Sin was still on the throne. On the other side, the
campaigns of the two monarchs are coupled váth the astro-
logical phenomena on which the snccess of the canlpaigns
was supposed to depend. \Ve know that the Babylonians
were given to the practice and study of astrology from the
earliest days of their history; we know also that even in
the tÜne of the later Assyrian monarchy it was still
customary for the general in the field to be accompanied
by the asip1Æ, or " prophet," the ashslulplt of Dan. ii. 10, on
whose int.erpretation of the signs of heaven the moveInents
of the army depended; and in the infancy of Chaldæan
history we should accordingly expect to find the astrological

EDITOR'S PREFACE

xi

sign recorded along with the event with which it was
bound up. At a subsequent period the sign and the event
wel'e separated from one another in literature, and had the
annals of Sargon been a later compilation, in their case
also the separation would assuredly have been made.
That, on the contrary, the annals have the form which
they could have assumed and ought to have assumed only
at the beginning of contemporaneous Babylonian history,
is to me a strong testimony in favour of their genuineness.
It may be added that Babylonian seal-cylinders have
been found in Cyprus, one of which is of the age of Sargon
of Accad, its style and workmanship being the sanle as
that of the cylinder figured in vol. iii. p. 95, while the
other, though of later date, belonged to a person who
describes bimself as "the servant of the deified N aram-
Sin." Such cylinders may, of course, have been brought
to tbe island in later times; but when we l'emembel' that
a characteristic object of prehistoric Cypriote art is an
imitation of the seal-cylinder of Cbaldæa, tbeir discovery
cannot be wbolly an accident.
Professor Maspero has brought his facts up to so recent
a date that there is very little to add to what he has
written. Since bis manuscript was in type, however, a
few additions bave been made to our Assyriological know-
ledge. A fresh examination of the Babylonian dynastic
tablet bas led Professor Delitzsch to make some alterations
in the publisbed account of ,vhat Professor JYIaspero calls
the ninth dynasty. According to Professor Delitzsch, the
number of kings composing the dynasty is stated on the
tablet to be twenty-one, and not thirty-one as was formerly

:xii

EDITOR'S PREF ACE

read, and the number of lost lines exactly corresponds with
this figure. The first of the kings reigned thirty-six years,
and he had a predecessor belonging to the previous dynasty
whose narne has been lost. There would consequently
have been two Elamite usurpers instead of one.
I w-auld further draw attention to an interesting text,
published by 1\11'. Strong in the Babylonian and Oriental
Record, which I believe to contain the name of a king
who belonged to the legendary dynasties of Chaldæa.
This is Samas-natsir, who is coupled with Sargon of
Acc.ad and other early monarchs in one of the lists. The
legend, if I interpret it rightly, states that" Elam sball
be altogether given to Samas-natsir;" and the sarne prince
is further described as building Nippur and Dur-ilu, as
King of Babylon and as conqueror both of a certain
Baldakha and of Khumba-sitir, "the king of the cedar-
forest." It will be remembered that in the Epic of Gil-
games, l\:humbaba also is stated to bave been the lord of
the" cedar-forest."
But' of new discoveries and facts there is a constant
supply, and it is impossible for the bistorian to keep pace
with them. Even while the sheets of his work are passing
through the press, the excavator, the explorer, and tbe
decipherer are adding to our previous stores of knowledge.
In Egypt, 1\fr. de Morgan's unwearied energy bas raised
as it were out of the ground, at Kom Ombo, a vast and
splendidly preserved temple, of wbose existence we had
hardly dreamed; bas discovered twelfth-dynasty jewellery
at Dabsblu of the rnost exquisite workmanship, and at
Meir and Assiut has foqud iu tombs of the sixth dynasty

EDITOR'S PREFACE

xiii

painted models of the trades and professions of the day,
as well as fighting battalions of soldiers, which, for fresh-
ness and lifelike l'eality, contrast favourably \vith the
models which come from India to-day. In Babylonia, the
American Expedition, under Mr. Haines, has at N iffer
unearthed monuments of older date than those of Sargon
of Accad. N or must I forget to mention the lotiform
column found by 111'. de l\tl01'gan in a tomb of the Old
Emp
re at Abusil', or the interesting discovery made by
:!'vIr. Arthur Evans of seals and other objects from the
prehistoric sites of Krete and other parts of the Ægean,
inscribed with hieroglyphic characters which reveal a new
system of writing that must at one tirne have existed by
the side of the Hittite hieroglyphs, and may have had its
origin in the influence exercised by Egypt on the peoples
of the Mediterranean in the age of the twelfth dynasty.
In volumes IV., V., and VI. we find ourselves in the
full light of an advanced culture. The nations of the
ancient East aloe no longer each pursuing an isolated
existence, and separately developing the seeds of civiliza-
tion and culture on the banks of the Euphrates and the
Nile. Asia and Africa have met in mortal combat. Baby-
lonia has carried its empire to the frontiers of Egypt, and
Egypt itself has been held in bondage by the Hyksôs
strangers from Asia. In retul'n, Egypt has driven back
the wave of invasion to the borders of Mesopotamia, has
substituted an empire of its own in Syria for that of the
Babylonians, and has forced the Babylonian king to treat
with its Pharaoh on equal terms. In the tl'ack of war and
diplomacy have come trade and commerce; Westel'n Asia

XIV

EDITOR'S PREFACE

is covered with roads, along which the merchant and the
courier beavel incessantly, and the whole civilised world
of the Orient is knit together in a common literary culture
and common commercial interests.
The age of isolation has thus been succeeded by an age
of intercourse, partly military and antagonistic, partly
literary and peaceful. Professor Maspero paints for us
this age of intercourse, descl"ibes its rise and character,
its decline and fall. For the unity of Eastern civilization
was again shattered. The Hittites descended from the
ranges of the Taurus upon the Egyptian province of
Northern Syl"Ìa, and cut off the Semites of the west from
those of the east. The Israelites poured over the Jordan
out of Edam and l\loab, and took possession of Canaan,
while Babylonia itself, for so many centuries the ruling
power of the Oriental world, had to make way for its
upstart rival Assyria. The old imperial powers were
exhausted and played out, and it needed time before the
new forces which were to take their place could acquire
sufficient strength for their work.
As usual, Professol' Maspero has been careful to embody
in his history the very latest discovel"Ìes and information.
Notice, it will be found, has been taken even of the stela
of l\leneptah, recently disinterred by Professor Petrie, on
which the name of the Israelites is engraved. At Elephan-
tinê, I found, a short time since, on a granite boulder, an
inscription of Khufuånkh - whose sarcophagus of red
granite is one of the most beautiful objects in the Gizeh
J\luseum-which carries back the history of the island to
the age of the pyramid-builders of the fourth dynasty. The

EDITOR'S PREFACE

xv

boulder was subsequently concealed under the southern
side of the city-wall, and as fragments of inscribed papyrus
coeval with the sixth dynasty have been discovered in
the immediate neighbourhood, on one of which mention
is made of "this domain" of Pepi 11., it would seem that
the town of Elephantinê must have been founded between
the period of the fourth dynasty and that of the sixth.
J\1:anetho is therefore justified in making the fifth and sixth
dynasties of Elephantinê origin.
It is in Babylonia, however, that the most startling
discoveries have been made. At Tello, 1\1. de Sarzec has
found a library of more than thirty thousand tablets, all
neatly arranged, piled in order one on the other, and
belonging to the age of Gudea (B.C. 2700). Many more
tablets of an eady date have been unearthed at Abu-Habba
(Sippara) and Jokha (Isin) by Dr. Scheil, working for the
Turkish government. But the most important finds have
been at N iffer, the ancient Nippur, in Northern Babylonia,
where the American expedition has brought to a close its
long work of systematic excavation. Here Mr. Haynes
has dug down to the very foundations of the great temple
of El-lil, and the chief historical results of his labours have
been published by Professor Hilprecht (in The Babylonian
Eæpedition of the University of Pennsylvania, vol. i. pt. 2,
1896).
About midway between the summit and the bottom of
the mound, Mr. Haynes laid bare a pavement constructed
of huge bricks stamped with the names of Sargon of Akkad
and his son N aram-Sin. He found also the ancient wall
of the city, which had been built by Naram-Sin, 13'75
VUL. I. b

xvi

EDITOR'S PREFACE

metres wide. The dévris of ruined buildings which lies
below the pavement of Sargon is as much as 9.25 metres
in depth, while that above it, the topmost stratum of which
brings us down to the Christian era, is only 11 metres in
height. We may form some idea from this of the
enormous age to which the history of Babylonian culture
and writing reaches back. In fact, Professor Hilprecht
quotes with approval 1\lr. Haynes's words: " vVe must
cease to apply the adjective 'eadiest' to the time of
Sargon, or to any age or epoch within a thousand years
of his advanced civilization." "The golden age of Baby-
lonian history seems to include the reign of Sargon and
of Dr-Gur."
JYlany of the inscriptions which belong to this remote
age of human culture have been published by Professor
Hilprecht. Among them is a long inscription, in 132 lines,
engraved on multitudes of large stone vases presented to
the temple of El-lil by a certain Lugal-zaggisi. Lugal-
zaggisi was the son of Ukus, the patesi or high priest
of the "Land of the Bow," as Mesopotamia, with its
Bedawin inhabitants, was called. He not only conquered
Babylonia, then known as Kengi, "the land of canals and
reeds," but founded an empire which extended from the
Persian Gulf to the JYleditelTanean. This was centuries
before Sargon of Akkad followed in his footsteps. Erech
became the capital of Lugal-zaggisi's empire, and doubt-
less received at this time its Sumerian title of "the city"
par excellence.
For a long while previously there had been war between
Babylonia and the "Land of the Bow," whose rulers seem

EDITOR'S PREFACE

xvii

to have established themselves in the city of Kis. At one
time we find the Babylonian prince En-sag( sag)-ana
capturing Kis and its king; at another time it is a king
of Kis who makes offerings to the god of Nippur, in
gratitude for his victories. To this period belongs the
famous "Stela of the Vultures" found at Tello, on which
is depicted the victory of E-dingir-ana-gin, the King of
Lagas (Tello), over the Semitic hordes of the Land of
the Bow. It may be noted that the recent discoveries
have shown how correct Professor Maspero has been in
assigning the kings of Lagas to a period earlier than that
of Sargon of Akkad.
Professor Hilprecht would place E-dingir-ana-gin after
Lugal-zaggisi, and see in the Stela of the Vultures a
monument of the revenge taken by the Sumerian rulers
of Lagas for the conquest of the country by the inhabitants
of the north. But it is equally possible that it marks the
successful reaction of Chaldæa against the power established
by Lugal-zaggisi. However this may be, the dynasty of
Lagas (to which Professor Hilprecht has added a new king,
En-Khegal) reigned in peace for some time, and belonged
to the same age as the first dynasty of Dr. This was
founded by a certain Lugal-kigubnidudu, whose inscrip-
tions have been found at Niffer. The dynasty which arose
at Dr in later days (cir. B.C. 2700), under Dr-Gur and
Dungi, which has hitherto been known as "the first
dynasty of Dr," is thus dethroned from its position, and
becomes the second. The succeeding dynasty, which also
made Dr its capital, and whose kings, Ine-Sin, Pur-Sin II.,
and Gimil-Sin, were the immediate predecessors of the first

xviii

EDITOR'S PREFACE

dynasty of Babylon (to which I(hammurabi belonged),
must henceforth be tenned the third.
Among the latest acquisitions from Tello are the seals
of the patesi, Lngal-usumgal, which finally remove all
doubt as to the identity of "Sargani, king of the city,"
with the famous Sargon of Akkad. The historical accuracy
of Sargon's annals, moreover, have been fully vindicated.
Not only bave tbe American excavators found the con-
temporary monuments of him and his son N aram-Sin,
but also tablets dated in the years of his campaigns against
"tbe land of the Amorites." In short, Sargon of Akkad,
80 lately spoken of as "a balf-mythical" personage, bas
now emerged into the full glare of authentic bistol"Y.
That the native chronologists bad sufficient material
for reconstructing the past history of their country, is also
now clear. The early Babylonian contract-tablets are
dated by events whicb officially distinguished the several
years of a king's reign, and tablets have been discovered
compiled at tbe close of a reign which give year by year
the events which tbus characterised tbem. One of these
tablets, for example, from tbe excR,vations at Niffer, begins
with tbe words: (1) " The year when Pur-Sin (II.) becomes
king. (2) The year wben Pur-Sin the king conquers
Urbillum," and ends witb "the year wben Gimil-Sin
becomes King of U r, and conquers the land of Zabsali"
in the Lebanon.
Of special interest to tbe biblical student are tbe dis-
coveries made by IVIr. Pinches among some of tbe Babylonian
tablets wbich have recently been acquired by the British
Museum. Four of them relate to no less a personage than

EDI:rOR'S PREFACE

xix

Kudul'-Laghghamar or Chedor-Iaomer, "King of Elam,"
as well as to Eri-Âku or .Al'ioch, King of Larsa, and his
son Dur-makh-ilani; to Tudghula or Tid'al, the son of
Gazza[ niJ, and to their war against Babylon in the time
of Khammu[rabi]. In one of the texts the question is
asked, "Who is the son of a king's daughter who has sat
on the throne of royalty? Dur-makh-ilani, the son of
Eri-Kku, the son of the lady Kur . . . has sat on the
throne of royalty," from which it may perhaps be infel'red
that El'Ï-Âku was the son of Kudur-Laghghamar's daughter;
and in another we read, "Who is Kudur-Laghghamar, the
doer of mischief? He has gathered together the Umrnan
Manda, has devastated the land of Bel (Babylonia), and
[has marched] at their side." The U roman illanda were
the" Barbarian Hordes" of the Kurdish mountains, on
the northern frontier of Elam, and the name corresponds
with that of the Goyyim or "nations" in the fourteenth
chapter of Genesis. We here see Kudur-Laghghamar
acting as their suzel'ain lord. Unfortunately, all four
tablets are in a shockingly broken condition, and it is
therefore difficult to discover in them a continuous sense,
or to determine their precise nature.
They have, however, been supplemented by further
discoveries made by Dr. Scheil at Constantinople. Among
t,he tablets preserved there, he has found letters from
Khammurabi to his vassal Sin-idinnam of Larsa, from
which we learn that Sin-idinnam had been dethl'oned by
the ElaIllites I{udur-l\1abug and Eri.Âku, and had fled for
l'efuge to the court of I{hammurabi at Babylon. In the
war which subsequently broke out between Khammurabi

xx

EDITOR'S PREFACE
.

and Kudur-Laghghamar, the King of Elam (who, it would
seem, exercised suzerainty ove}' Babylonia for seven years),
Sin-idinnam gave material assistance to the Babylonian
monarch, and Khammurabi accordingly bestowed pl'esents
upon him as a "}'ecompense for his valour on the day of
the overthrow of Kudur-Laghghamar."
I must also refer to a fine scarab-found in the rubbish-
mounds of the ancient city of Kom Ombos, in Upper
Egypt-which bears upon it the name of Sutkhu-Apopi.
It shows us that the author of the story of the Expulsion
of the Hyksôs, in calling the king Râ-Apopi, merely, like
an orthodox Egyptian, substituted the name of the god
of Heliopolis for that of the foreign deity. Equally
interesting are the scarabs brought to light by Professor
Flinders Petrie, on which a hitherto unknown Ya'aqob-hal
or J acob-el receives the titles of a Pharaoh
In volumes VII., VIII., and IX., Professor l\laspero
concludes his monumental work on the history of the
ancient East. The overthrow of the Persian empire by
the Greek soldiers of Alexander mal'ks the beginning of
a new era, Europe at last enters upon the stage of history,
and becomes the heir of the culture and civilisation of the
Orient. The culture which had grown up and developed
on the banks of the Euphrates and Nile passes to the
West, and there assumes new features and is inspired
with a new spirit. The East perishes of age and decrepi-
tude; its strength is outworn, its powel' to initiate is past.
The long nges through which it had toiled to build up
the fabric of civilisation are at an end; Íl'esh races are
needed to carryon the work which it had achieved. Greece

EDITOR'S PREFACE

xxi

appears upon the scene, and behind Greece looms the
colossal figure of the Roman Empire.
During the past decade, excavation has gone on apace in
Egypt and Babylonia, and discoveries of a startling and
unexpected nature have followed in the wake of excavation.
Ages that seemed prehistoTic step suddenly forth into the
daydawn of history; personages whom a sceptical criticism
had consigned to the land of myth or fable are clothed once
more with flesh and blood, and events which had been long
forgotten demand to be recorded and described. In Baby-
lonia, for example, the excavations at Niffer and Tello have
shown that Sargon of Akkad, so far from being a creature
of romance, was as much a historical monarch as N ebucha-
drezzar himself; monuments of his reign have been dis-
covered, and we learn from them that the empire he is said
to have founded had a very real existence. Contracts
have been found dated in the years when he was occupied
in conquering Syria and Palestine, and a cadastral survey
that was made for the purposes of taxation mentions a
Canaanite who had been appointed" governor of the land
of the Amorites." Even a postal service had already been
established along the high-roads which knit the several parts
of the empire together, and some of the clay seals which
franked the letters are now in the l\luseum of the Louvre.
At Susa, 1\1. de Morgan, the late director of the Service
of Antiquities in Egypt, has been excavating below the
remains of the Achæmenian period, among the ruins of the
ancient Elamite capital. Here he has founù numberless
historical inscriptions, besides a text in hieroglyphics
which may cast light on the OrIgIn of the cuneiform

xxii

EDITOR'S PREFACE

characters. But the most interesting of his discoveries
are two Baby Ionian monuments that were carried off by
Elamite conquerors from the cities of Babylonia, One of
them is a long inscription of about 1200 lines belonging to
J\fanistusu, one of the early Babylonian kings, whose name
has been met with at Niffer; the other is a monument of
Naram-Sin, the Son of Sargon of Akkad, which it seems
was brought as booty to Susa by Simti-silkhak, the grand-
father, perhaps, of Eriaku or Arioch.
In Armenia, also, equally important inscriptions have
been found by Belck and Lehmann. More than two
hundred new ones have been added to the list of Vannie
texts. It has been discovered from them that the kingdom
of Biainas or Van was founded by Ispuinis and Menuas,
who rebuilt Van itself and the other cities which they had
previously sacked and destroyed. The older name of the
country was Kumussu, ana it may be that the language
spoken in it was allied to that of the Hittites, since a tablet
in hieroglyphics of the Hittite type has been unearthed at
Toprak Kaleh. One of the newly-found inscriptions of
Sarduris III. shows that the name of the Assyrian god,
hitherto read Bamman or Bimmon, was really pronounced
Hadad. It describes a war of the Vannie king against
Assur-nirari, son of Hadad-nirari (A-da-di-ni-ra-ri) of
Assyria, thus revealing not only the true form of the
Assyrian name, but also the parentage of the last king
of the older Assyrian dynasty. From another inscription,
belonging to Rusas II., the son of Argistis, we learn that
.
campaigns were carried on against the Hittites and the
l\tloschi in the latter years of Sennacberib's reign, and

EDITOR'S PREFACE

xxiii

therefore only just before the irruption of the Kimmerians
into the northern regions of Western Asia.
The two German explorers have also discovered the site
and even the ruins of J\luzazir, called Ardinis by the people
of Van. They lie on the hill of Shkenna, near Topsanä, on
the road between Kelishin and Sidek. In the immediate
neighbourhood the travellers succeeded in deciphering a
monument of Rusas 1., partly in Vannie, partly in Assyrian,
from which it appears that the Vannie king did not, after
all, commit suicide when the news of the fall of J\fuzazÌl'
was brought to him, as is stated by Sargon, but that, on
the contrary, he "marched against the mountains of
Assyria" and restored the fallen city itself. Urzana, the
King of J\Iuzazir, had fled to him for shelter, and after the
departure of the Assyrian army he was sent back by Rusas
to his ancestral domains. The whole of the district in
which l\tluzazir was situated was termed Lulu, and was
regarded as the southern province of Ararat. In it was
J\fount Nizir, on whose summit the ark of the Chaldæan
Noah rested, and which is therefore rightly described in
the Book of Genesis as one of "the mountains of Ararat."
It was probably the Rowandiz of to-day.
The discoveries made by Drs, Belck and Lehmann,
however, have not been confined to Vannie texts. At the
sources of the Tigris Dr, Lehmann has found two Assyrian
inscriptions of the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser II., one
dated in his fifteenth and the other in his thirty-first year,
and relating to his campaigns against Aram of Ararat. He
has further found that the two inscriptions previously
known to exist at the same spot, and believed to belong

xxiv

EDITOR'S PREFACE

to Tiglath-Ninip and Assur-nazir-pal, are really those of
Shalrnaneser 1r., and refer to the ,var of his seventh year.
But it is from Egypt that the most revolutionary revela-
tions have come. At Abydos and Rom el-Ahmar, opposite
El-Kab, monuments have been disinterred of the kings of
the first and second dynasties, if not of even earlier princes;
while at N egada, north of Thebes, M. de J\Iorgan has found
a tomb which seems to have been that of Menes himself.
A new world of art has been opened out before us; even
the hieroglyphic system of writing is as yet immature and
strange. But the art is already advanced in many respects;
hard stone was cut into vases and bowls, and even into
statuary of considerable artistic excellence; glazed porce-
lain was already made, and bronze, or rather copper, was
fashioned into weapons and tools. The writing material,
as in Babylonia, was often clay, over which seal-cylinders
of a Babylonian pattern ,vere rolled. Eq ually Babylonian
are the strange and composite animals engraved on some
of the objects of this early age, as well as the structure
of the tombs, which were built, not of stone, but of crudo
brick, with their external walls panelled and pilastered.
Professor Hommers theory, which brings Egyptian civili-
sation from Babylonia along with the ancestors of the
historical Egyptians, has thus been largely verified.
But the historical Egyptians were not the first inhabi-
tants of the valley of the Nile. Not only have palæolithic
implements been found on the plateau of the desert; the
relics of neolithic man have turned up in extraordinary
abundance. When the historical Egyptians arrived with
their copper weapons and their system of writing, the land

EDITOR'S PREPACE

xxv

was already occupied by a pastoral people, who had at-
tained a high level of neolithic culture. Their in1plements
of flint al'e the most beautiful and delicately finished that
have ever been discovered; they wel'e able to carve vases
of great artistic excellence out of the hardest of stone, and
their pottery was of no mean quality. Long after the
country had come into the possession of the historical
dynasties, and had even been united into a single monarchy,
their settlements continued to exist on the outskirts of the
desert, and the neolithic culture that distinguished them
passed only gradually away. By degrees, however, they
intermingled with their conquerors from Asia, arid thus
formed the Egyptian race of a later day. But they had
already made Egypt what it has been throughout the
historical period. Under the direction of the Asiatic
immigrants and of the engineering science whose first
home had been in the alluvial plain of Babylonia, they
accomplished those great works of irrigation which con-
fined the Nile to its present channel, which cleared away
the jungle and the swamp that had formerly bordered the
desert, and turned them into fertile fields. Theirs were
the hands which carried out the plans of their more
intelligent masters, and cultivated the valley when once
it had been reclaimed. The Egypt of history was the
creation of a twofold race: the Egyptians of the monu-
ments supplied the controlling and directing power; the
Egyptians of the neolithic graves bestowed upon it their
labour and their skill.
The period treated of by Professor Maspero in these
volumes is one for which there is an abundance of

xxvi

EDITOR'S PREFACE

materials such as do not exist for the earlier portions of
his history. The evidence of the monuments is supple-
mented by that of the Hebrew and classical writers. But
on this very account it is in some respects more difficult to
deal váth, and the conclusions arrived at by the historian
are rnore open to question and dispute. In some cases
conflicting accounts are given of an event which seem
to rest on equally good authority; in other cases, there
is a sudden failure of materials just where the thread of
the story becomes most complicated. Of this the decline
and fall of the Assyrian empire is a prominent example;
for our knowledge of it, we have still to depend chiefly on
the untrustworthy legends of the Greeks. Our views must
be coloured more or less by our estimate of Herodotos;
those who, like myself, place little or no confidence in
what he tells us about Oriental affairs will naturally fonn
a very different idea of the death-struggle of Assyria from
that formed by writers who still see in hinl the Father of
Oriental History.
Even where the native monUlllents have come to our
aid, they have not unfrequently introduced difficulties and
doubts where none seemed to exist before, and have made
the task of the critical historian harder than ever. Cyrus
and his forefathers, for instance, turn out to have been
kings of Anzan, and not of Persia, thus eXplaining why it
is that the N eo-Susian language appears by the side of the
Persian and the Babylonian as one of the three official
languages of the Persian empire; but we still have to
learn what was the relation of A.nzan to Persia on the
one hand, and to Susa on the other, and when it was that

EDITOR'S PREFACE

xxvii

Cyrus of Anzan became also !(ing of Persia, In the
Annalistic Tablet, he is called "King of Persia" for the
first time in the ninth year of N abonidos.
Similar questions arise as to the position and nationality
of Astyages. He is called in the inscriptions, not a
1ede,
but a l\landa-a name which, as I showed many years ago,
meant for the Babylonian a "barbarian" of Kurdistan.
I have myself little doubt that the Manda over whom
Astyages ruled were the Scythians of classical tradition,
who, as may be gathered from a text published by 1\11'.
Strong, had occupied the ancient kingdom of Ellipi. It is
even possible that in the 1\1adyes of Herodotos, we have a
reminiscence of the
Ianda of the cuneiform inscriptions.
That the Greek writers should have confounded the l\ladâ
or Medes with the l\landa or Barbarians is not surprising;
we find even Berossos descl'ibing one of the early dynasties
of Babylonia as "Median" where Manda, and not Madâ,
must plainly be meant.
These and similar problems, however, will doubtless be
cleared up by the progress of excavation and research.
Perhaps M. de 1\Iorgan's excavations at Susa may throw
some light on them, but it is to the work of the German
expedition, which has recently begun the systematic
exploration of the site of Babylon, that we must chiefly
look for help. The Babylon of N abopolassar and N ebu-
chadrezzar rose on the ruins of Nineveh, and the story of
the downfall of the Assyrian empire must still be lying
buried under its mounds.

A. H. SAYCE.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

..

IN completing the translation of this great work, I have
to than k Professor lVlaspero for kindly permitting me to
appeal to him on various questions which arose while
preparing the translation. His patience and courtesy have
alike been unfailing in every matter submitted for his
decision.
I am indebted to Miss Bradbury for kindly supplying,
in the midst of much other literary work for the Egypt
Exploration Fund, the translation of the chapter on the
gods, and also of the earlier parts of some of the first
chapters. She has, moreover, helped me in my own share
of the work with many suggestions and hints, which her
intimate connection with the late
liss Amelia B. Edwards
fully qualified her to give.
As in the original there is a lack of uniformity in the
transcription and accentuation of Arabic names, I have
ventured to alter them in several cases to the form most
familiar to English readers.
The spelling of the ancient Egyptian words has, at
Professor Maspero's request, been retained throughout,

xxx

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

with the exception that the French au has been invariably
represented by 11, e,g. I{hnoumou by Khn ûmû.
By an act of international courtesy, the director of the
ImprÍ1ner'l
e Nationale bas allowed the beautifully cut hiero-
glyphic and cuneiform type used in the original to be
employed in the English edition, and I take advantage
of this 0 pportunity to express to him our thanks and
appreciation of his graceful act.

M. L. MCCLURE.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

THE NILJ:<.: AND 'GYPT

PAGE

The River and its Influence upon the Formation of the Country - The
Oldest Inhabitants of the Valley and its First Political Organization 3

CHAPTER II.

THE GODS OF EGYPT

Their Number and their Nature - The Feudal Gods, Living and Dead-
The Triads - Temples and Priests - The Cosmogonies of the Delta-
The Enneads of Heliopolis and of Herrnopolis . . 107

CHAPTER III,

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

The Divine Dynasties: Râ, Shft, Osiris, Sît, Horus-Thot, and the Inven-
tion of Sciences and 'Vriting-Menes, and the Three First Human
Dynasties . . 221

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Ramses II. .
The banks of the Kile near Beni-SlIef
A line of laden camels emerges from a hollow of the undulating road
A dainty village looks forth smiling from beneath its palm trees
Gebel Abûfêda, dreaded by the sailors
Part of Gebel Shêkh E-Ierîdi
The hill of Kasr Es-Sayyad
Entrance to the First Cataract
Entrance to Nubia
League beyond league, the hills stretch on in low ignoble outline
The First Cataract: Entrance to the great rapids
Entrance to the Second Cataract
An attempt to represent the Egyptian universe .
The town and neighborhood of Siût in the month of Septernber, during
the inundation
Assiout
Sycamores at the entrance of the .1\Illdîrîyeh of Asyût
The forest of date-palms at Bedreshen
Acacias at the entrance to a garden outside Ekhmîm
She-ass and her foal
The "Cræus of Egypt,
The Ihis of Egypt
The .1\Iormyrus Oxyrhynchus
Ahaka
Two fishermen carrying a latus which they have just caught
The Kile-god
The shrine of the Xile at Biggeh
Kilp-gods from the temple of Seti I., at Abydos, bringing food to every
K orne of Egypt .
Libyan l\louutains
The noble type of Egyptian

vii

PAGE
Prontispif'ce
3
9
9
1fI
11
12
14
15
16
17

20
2:2

31
33
3R
37
40
41
42
4-1
45
46
47
-18
49

51
54
59

viii

LIST OF ILL USTRATIOXS

PAGE
An Egyptian of the ordinary type 60
Head of a Theban mummy 60
Head of a fellah of Upper Egypt 60
A fellah woman with the features of an ancient king 62
Decorated wrappings from a mummy (Thebes Tombs) 61
Negro prisoners wearing the panther's skin as a loin-cloth 66
:Notable wearing the large cloak over the left shoulder 68
Priest wearing the panther's skin across the breast . 68
A dignitary wrapped in his large éloak 70
Costume of Egyptian woman, spinning 72
.:\Ian wearing wig and necklaces. 73
The boomerang and fightillg bow 7-1
Votive axe of Thothmes III, 75
King holding the baton, the white mace, aud the club 76
Fishing in the marshes: Two fish speared at one stroke of the harpoon. 77
Hunting in the marshes: Encountering and spearillg a hippopotamus 78
Hunting in the desert: Bull, lion, and oryx pierced with arrows 79
Pack from the tomb of Ptahhotpou 79
Catching animals with the Lola, 80
A swineherd and his pigs 82
The Egyptian lotus , 8-1
Ploughing . t)7
An Egyptian sakia (well) showing method of procnrillg water for irrigation b8
Boatmen fighting on a canal communicating with the Xile 91
A great Egyptian lord, Ti, and hi8 wife 92
Solemn sacrificial procession of the fatted bull 107
King Seti I. kneeling. 107
The goddess Naprît, Napît. 108
Some fabulous beasts of the Egyptian desert 11:3
:Xûît, the starry one . 11:5
The Goose-god facing the Cat-goddess, the Lady 01 lleaven 116
The cow Hâthor, the Lady of Heaven 117
The twelve stages in the life of the sun, and its twplve forms throughout
the day 118
Egyptian conception of the principal constellations of the northern sky 123
The lunar bark, self-propelled, under the protection of the two eyes 12-1
The Haunch and the female hippopotamus 125
Orion, Sothis, and two Horus-planets standing in their barks . 127
Sahû-Orion 128
Orion and the cow Sothis separated by the Sparro-w-hawk , 129
Amon-Râ, as l\Iînû of Coptos, and invested with his emhlems , 131
Anhûri 133

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIOSS

The hawk-headed Horus
The Horus of Hibonû, on the back of the gazelle
The cat-headed Bast .
The Fennec, supposed prototype of the Typhonian animal
Two Cynocephali in adoration before the rising sun
Kît of Saïs .
Imhotpû
Kofirtûmû ,
Horus, son of Isis
The black shadow coming out into the sunlight
The august souls of Osiris and Horus in adoration before th(' Solar Disk
The king after his coronation receiving the imposition of the Sa
Sacrificing to the dead in the tomb chapel,
Phtah as a mummy .
The sacred bull Hapis or l\Inevis
Open-air offerings to the serpent
The peasants offering to the Sycamore
The sacrifice of the bull- The officiatillg priest lassoing the victim
Shû uplifting the sky,
Shû forcibly separating Sibû and Kûît
The Didû of Osiris
Osiris-Onnophris, whip and crook in hand
Isis, wearing the cow-horn head-dress
Kephthys, as a wailing woman .
The god Sît, fighting .
Horus, the avenger of his father, and Anubis Ûapûaîtû
The sun springing from an opening lotus flower in the form of the child
Horus.
The plain and mounds of Heliopolis fifty years ago .
Harmakhûîti-Harmakhis, the great god
Khopri, the Scarabæus god, in his bark
The twin lions, Shû and Tafnûît
The four funerary genii, Khabsonûf, Tiû1llaûtf, Hâpi, and Amsît
The Ibis Thot
The Cynocephalous Thot .
The Hermopolitan Ogdoad
Amon
The Theban Ennead
Isis, having fled to the marshes, suckles Horus under the protection of
the Gods
Column of the Temple of Denderah .
Klmûmû modelling man upon a potter's table

ix

PAGE
. 134-
. 136
. 138
. 139
. 139
. 141
142
. 143
145
147
148
150
. 161
. 164
. 167
169
171
173
180
182
183
.' 183
187
189
. 189
. 192

. 193
194-
196
198
. 201
204-
. 208
208
. 212
. 213
. 215

221
. 222

. 224-

x

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

At the first hour of the day the sun embarks for his journey through Egypt 2
U
Sokhît, the lioness-headed . 236
Nûît, the cow, sustained above the earth by Shû and the support-Gods . 242
Three of the divine amulets preserved in the Temple of Aît-N obsû at the
Roman period
The Osirian Triad, Horus, Osiris, Isis
Isis-Hâthor, cow-headed
The Osrian Mummy prepared and laid upon the funerary couch by the
Jackal AllUbis
The reception of the Mummy by Anubis at the door of the tomb, and
the opening of the mouth .
Osiris in Hades, accompanied by Isis, Amentît, and Nephthys, receives
the homage of truth .
The deceased climbing the slope of the mountain of the 'Vest .
The Mummy of Sûtimosû clasping his SGul in his arms
Cynocephali drawing the net in which souls are caught
The deceased and his wife seated in front of the Sycamore of Nûît and
receiving the bread and water of the next world
The deceased piercing a serpent with his lance.
The good cow Hâthor carrying the dead man and his soul.
Anubis and Thot weighing the heart of the deceased in the scales of
Truth .
The deceased is brought before the shrine of Osiris the Judge by
Horus . . 269
The occupations of Ani in the Elysian Field!) . . 273
The Manes tilling the ground and reaping in the fields of Ialû . 275
Ûashbîti . 276
The dead man and his wife playing at draughts in the Pavilion . 277
The dead man sailing in his bark along the canals of the fields of Ialû . 278
Boat of a funerary fleet on its way to Abydos . . 279
The Solar bark into which the dead man is about to enter . 280
The Solar bark passing into the mountain of the 'Vest . 282
The soul descending the sepulchral shaft on its way to rejoin the mummy 284
The soul on the edge of the funeral couch with its hands on the heart of
the mummy
The soul going forth into its garden by day
An incident in the wars of Harmakhis and Sît
The Gods fighting for the Magician who has invoked them
The child Horus on the crocodiles
A dead man receiving the breath of life
Thot records the years of the life of Ramses II.

24-4
. 250
. 253

256

251

259
. 260
. 261
262

264
. 266
. 2G7

268

285
. 287
289
. 304-
. 306
310
315

LIST OF ILL"G
TILÂTIOSS

.

xi

PAGE
The table of the kings in the temple of Seti I, at Abydos . . 325
Satît presents the Pharaoh Amenôthes III. to Khûmû . 350
Anûkit . 351
The step-pyramid of Saqqâra . 353
One of the chambers of the step-pyramid, with its wall-covering of glazed
tiles . 356

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THE

NILE

AND

EGYPT

II

THE RIVER AND ITS IXFLUENCE {,PON THE FOR11ATION AND CHARACTER OF
THE COUNTRY-THE OLDEST INHABITANTS OF TIlE LAND-THE FIRST
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE VALLEY.

The Delta: its gradual formation, its structure, its canals-The valley of
Egypt-The two arms nf the river-The Eastern Nile-The appearance of its
banks-The hills-The gorge of Gebel Silsileh-The cataracts: the falls of
Asw(ln-Nubia-The rapids of Wâdy Halfalt-The Takazze-The Blue Nile
and the White Nile,
The s(Jurces of the Nile-The Egyptian cosmography-The four pillars and
the four upholding rnountains - The celestial Nile the source of the terrestrial
Sile-the Southern Sea and the islands of Spiras-The tears of Isis-The rise of
the Nile-The Green Nile and the Red Nile-The opening of the dykes-The
fall of the Nile-The river at its lowest ebb.
The alluvial deposits and the effects of the inundation upon the soil of Egypt
- Paucity of the flora: aquatic plants, the papyrus and the lotus; the sycarnore
and the date-palm, the acacias, the dôm-palms- The fauna: the dornestic and
wild animals; serpents, the uraus; the hippopotamus and the crocodile; birds;
fish, the fahaka.
The Nile god: his form and its varieties- The goddess Mirit-The supposed

VOL. I.

B

( 2 )

sources of the Nile at Elephantiné- The festivals of Gebel Silsileh-Hyrnn to the
Nile frorn papyri in tlte British .L1JIuseurn.
The narnes of the Nile and Egypt: Romitû and Qímit-Antiquity of the
Egyptian people-Their first horizon- The hypothesis of their A.siatic origin-
The probability of their A.frican origin-The language and its Semitic affinities
-The race and its principal types.
Tlw primitive civilization of Egypt-Its survival into historic times - The
wornen of Amon-Marriage-Rights of women and cltildren-Houses-Furni-
ture-Dress-Jewels- Wooden and rnetal arms-Primitive life-Fishing and
hunting-The lasso and" bolas "-The domesticat
'on of animals-Plants useii
for food-The lotlls-Cereals-The hoe and the plough.
The coniJ.uest of the valley-Dykes-Basins-Irrigation-The princes-The
nomes-The first local principalities-Late orgatn"zation of the Delta- Character
of its inhabitants-Grailnal division of the principalities and changes of their
areas- The god of the city.

J
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THE B.\YKS OF TIlE KILE KEAR BLXl-SÚEF}

.

CHAPTER I

THE NILE AND EGYPT

The riyer and its influence upon the formation of the country-The oldest
inhabitants of the valley and its first political organization.

""

1)
\

Å LONG, low, level shore, scarcely rising

above the sea, a chain of vaguely defined

and ever-shifting lakes and marshes,

then the triangular plain beyond,
"
whose apex is thrust thirty leagues
into the land-this, the Delta of

. :." Egypt, has gradually been acquired
:;1" ,/ from the sea, and is as it ,vere the gift
't of the Nile.:.! The J\fediterranean once
-/', "
1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photo-
graph by the Dutch trayeller Insinger, taken in
1884.
2 The same expression has been attributed
to Hecatæus of l\Iiletus. It has often been observed that this phrase
seems Egyptian on the face of it, and it certainly recalls such forms of
expression as the following, taken from a formula frequenlly found on funerary
stelæ: "All things created by heaven, given by earth, brou[Jht b!J the Nile

:\.
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-

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4

THE NILE AND EGYPT

reached to the foot of the sandy plateau on which stand
the Pyramids, and formed a wide gulf where now stretches
plain beyond plain of the Delta. The last undulations of
the Al'abian hills, from Gebel J\Iokattam to Gebel Geneffeh,
were its boundaries on the east, while a sinuous and shallow
channel running between Africa and Asia united the Medi-
terranean to the Red Sea. 'Vestward, the littoral followed
closely the contour of the Libyan plateau; but a long
limestone spur broke away from it at about 31 0 N., and
tenninated in Cape Abûkîr. The alluvial deposits first
fined up the depths of the bay, and then, under the
influence of the currents which swept along its eastern
coasts, accumulated behind that rampart of sand-hills
whose remains are still to be seen near Benha. Thus
was formed a miniature Delta, whose structure pretty
accurately corresponded with that of the great Delta of
to-day. Here the Nile divided into three divergent streams,
roughly coinciding with the southern courses of the Rosetta
and Damietta branches, and with the modern canal of AhÚ
l\1eneggeh. The ceaseless accumulation of mud brought
down by the river soon overpassed the first limits, and
steadily encroached upon the sea until it was carried
beyond the shelter furnished by Cape Ahûkîr. Thence it
was gathered into the great littoral current flowing from
Africa to Asia, and formed an incurvated coast-line ending
in the headland of Casios, on the Syrian frontier. From
that time Egypt made no further increase towards the

from its mysterious sources," Nevertheless, up to the present time, the hiero-
glyphic texts have yielded nothing altogether corresponding to the exact terms
of the Greek histuriau:)-!Jift (úwpOJl) of the Nile, or its natural produrt (ËpyOJl).

THE FOR
lATION OF THE DELTA

5

north, and her coast renlains practically such as it was
thousands of years ago: í the interior alone has suffered
change: having been dried up, hardened, and gradually
raised. Its inhabitants thought they could measure the
exact length of time in ,,-hich this .work of creation had
been accomplished. According to the Egyptians, JUenes,
the first of their mortal kings, had found, so they said, the
valley under water. The sea came in ahnost as far as the
Fayûm, and, excepting the province of Thebes, the whole
country was a pestilential swamp. Hence, the necessary
period for the physical formation of Egypt would cover
some centuries after 1Ienes, This is no longer considered
a sufficient length of time, and some modern geologists
declare that the Nile must have worked at the formation of
its own estuary for at least seventy-four thousand years. 2
This figure is certainly exaggerated, for the alluvium would
gain on the shallo\vs of the ancient gulf far more rapidly
than it gains upon the depths of the J\Iediterranean. But
even though we reduce the period, we must still admit that
the Egyptians little suspected the true age of their country.
N at only did the Delta long precede the coming of J\Ienes,
but its plan was entirely completed before the first arrival
of the Egyptians. The Greeks, full of the Inysterious
1 ÉLIE DE BEAUMO
T, "The great distinction of the Kile Delta lies in ..
the almost uniform persistence of its coast-line. . . . The present sea-coast
of Egypt is little altered from that of three thousand years ago." The
latest observations prove it to be sinking and shrinking near Alexandria to
rise in the neighbourhood of Port Saîd.
2 Others, as for example SCHWEINFURTH, are more moderate in their
views, and think" that it must have taken about twenty thousand years for
that alluvial deposit which now forms the arable soil of Egypt to have
attained to its present depth and fertility."

6

THE NILE AND EGYPT

virtues which they attributed to numbers, discovered that
there were seven principal branches, and seven mouths of
the Nile, and that, as compared with these, the rest were
but false mouths. As a Inatter of fact, there were only
three chief outlets. The Canopic branch flowed westward,

3u

31

32.

/,

30 .0 een"\W1C

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30

TIlE MOUTH OF THE KILE PREVIOUS TO THE }'Olm.\.TIO.N OF THE DELTA.

and fell into the lYlediterranean near Cape Abûkîr, at the
western extremity of the arc described by the coast-line.
The Pelusiac branch followed the length of the Arabian
chain, and flowed forth at the other extremity; and the
Sebennytic stream almost bisected the triangle contained
between the Canopic and Pelusiac channels. Two
thousand years ago, these branches separated from the
main river at the city of Cerkasoros, nearly four miles

THE APPEARANCE OF THE BAKKS

7

north of the site where Cairo now stands. But after the
Pelusiac branch had ceased to exist, the fork of the river
gradually wore away the land from age to age, and is now
some nine miles lower down. 1 These three great .water-
ways are united by a network of artificial rivers and canals,
and by ditûhes-some natural, others dug by the hand of
man, but all ceaselessly shifting. They silt up, close, open
again, replace each other, and ramify in innumerable
branches over the surface of the soil, spreading life and
fertility on all sides. As the land rises towards the south,
this web contracts and is less confused, while black mould
and cultivation alike dwindle, and the fa.wn-coloured line
of the desert comes into sight. The Libyan and Arabian
hills appear above the plain, draw nearer to each other,
and gradually shut in the horizon until it seems as though
they would unite. And there the Delta ends, and Egypt
proper has begun.
It is only a strip of vegetable mould stretching north
and south between regions of drought and desolation, a
prolonged oasis on the banks of the river, lnade by the
Nile, and sustained by the Nile. The whole length of the
land is shut in between two ranges of hills, roughly parallel
at a mean distance of about twelve miles. 2 During the

1 By the end of the Byzantine period, the fork of the river lay at some
distance south of Shetnûfi, the present Shatanflf, which is the spot where it
now is. Th(' Arab geographerR call the head of the Delta Batn-eZ-Bagarah,
the Cow's Belly, AMpÈRE, in his Voyage en Égypte et en Nubie, p. 120, says,
"May it not be that this name, denoting the place where the most fertile
part of Egypt begins, is a reminiscence of the Cow Goddess, of Isis, the
symbol of fecundity, and the personification of Egypt
"
2 DE ROZIÈRE estimated the mean breadth as being only a little over
nine miles.

8

THE KILE AXD EGYPT

earlier ages, the river filled all this intermediate space, and
the sides of the hills, polished, worn, blackened to their
very summits, still bear unmistakable traces of its action.
\Vasted, and shrunken within the deeps of its ancient
bed, the stream now makes a way through its own thick
deposits of mud. The bulk of its waters keeps to the
east, and constitutes the true Xile, the "Great River" of
the hieroglyphic inscriptions. A second arm flows close to
the Libyan desert, here and there formed into canals, else-
where left to follow its own course. From the head of the
Delta to the village of Derùt it is called the Bahr- Y ûsuf ;
beyond Derût-up to Gebel Silsileh-it is the Ibràhimîyeh,
the Sohågiyeh, the Raiàn. But the ancient names are
unknown to us. This \Vestern Kile dries up in winter
throughout all its upper courses: where it continues to flow,
it is by scanty accessions from the main Xile. It also
di vides north of Henassieh, and by the gorge of Illahûn
sends out a branch which passes beyond the hills into the
basin of the Fayúm. The true Nile, the Eastern Nile, is
less a ri\'er than a sinuous lake encumbered with islets and
sandbanks, and its navigable channel winds capriciously
between them, flowing with a strong and steady current
below the steep, black banks cut sheer through the alluvial
earth. There are light groves of the date-palm, groups
of acacia trees and sycamores, square patches of barley
or of wheat, fields of beans or of berslln, l and here and there
a long bank of sand which the least breeze raises into

1 Bersím is a kind of trefoil, the Trifolillm Alexandrinllm of LIX
ÆUS. It
is very common in Egypt, and the only plant of the kind generally cultivated
for fodder,

THE _
PEARA
CE OF THE BA
KS

9

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.A. Lß""E OF L..ll>EX C..uIT.LS
ERGES FRO
A HOLLOW OF THE t:"
ì)tL..\TI5G RO.\1)..

whirling clouds. A.nd over all there broods a great silence,
scarcely broken by the cry of birds, or the song of

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A D.\ISTY YILLAGE LOOK5 FORTH SllILI
G FROll BðEATH ITS PALll TRE}:
.

rowers in a passing boat. Something of human life mar

1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by lnsinger, taken
in 1681.
2 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by lnsinger, taken
in If,8ò.

10

THE NILE AND EGYPT

stir on the banks, but it is softened into poetry by distance.
A half-veiled woman, bearing a bundle of herbs upon her
head, is driving her goats before her. An irregular line
of asses or of laden camels emerges from one hollow of
the undulating road only to disappear within another. A
group of peasants, crouched upon the shore, in the ancient
posture of knees to chin, patiently awaits the return of the
ferry-boat. A clainty village looks forth smiling froln

.7

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-7

L;Y-:-

GEnEL AnûFtD,\, DREADED ny THE SAILORS. 1

beneath its pahll trees. N ear at hand it is all naked
filth and ugliness: a cluster of low grey huts built of n1ud
and laths; two or three taller houses, whitewashed; an
enclosed square shaded by sycamores; a few old men,
each seated peacefully at his own òoor; a confusion of
fowls, children, goats, and sheep; half a òozen boats made
fast ashore. . But, as we pass on, the wretchedness all fades
away; meanness of detail is lost in light, and long before
1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, taken
in 1886.

THE HILLS

11

it disappears at a bend of the river, the village is agaIn
clothed váth gaiety and serene beauty. Day by day, the
landscape repeats itself. The same groups of trees
alternate with the same fields, growing green or dusty
in the suulight according to the season of the year. "\Vith
the same measured flow, the Nile winds beneath its steep
banks and about its scattered islands. One village
succe
ds another, each alike smiling and sordid under

. .

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PART OF GEBEL sní
Kll llEltÎDI. 1

its crown of foliage. The terraces of the Libyan hills,
away beyond the Western Nile, scarcely rise above the
horizon, and lie like a white edging between the green
of the plain and the blue of the sky. The Arabian hills
do not fOrill one unbroken line, but a series of rnoulltain
masses with their spurs, now approaching the river, and
now withdrawing to the desert at almost regular intervals.
At the entrance to the valley, rise Gebel J\Iokattam and

1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Illsinger, taken
in 1882.

12

THE NILE AND EGYPT

Gebel el-Ahmar. Gebel Hemûr-Shemûl and Gebel Shêkh
Embârak next stretch in echelon from north to south, and
are succeeded by Gebel et-Têr, where, according to an old
legend, all the birds of the world are annually assembled. 1
Then fonows Gebel Abûfêda, dreaded by the sailors for

.

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THE IIIU, OF K.-\Sl
ES-S.\ YY .\D. 2

its sudden gusts, Limestone predominates throughout,
white or yellowish, broken by veins of alabaster, or of

1 In :MAKRlzl'S Description of Egypt we read: "Eyery year, upon a
certain day, all the herons (BOUKîR, .Ardea, bubulcus of CUVIER) assemble at
this mountain, One after another, each puts his beak into a cleft of the hill
until the cleft closes upon one of them, And then forthwith all the others
flyaway, But the bird which has been caught struggles until he dies, and
there his body remains until it has fallen into dust." The same tale is told
by other Arab writers, of which a list may be seen in ÉTIENNB QUATRE;\II
:RE,
][émoires ltistoriques et géograpltiques sur l' E'gypte et quelques contrées 'L'oisines,
vol. i, pp, 31-33. It faintly recalls that ancient tradition of the Cleft at
Abydos, whereby souls must pass, as human-headed birds, in order to reach
the other world.
2 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by Insinger, taken
in 1882.

GEBEL ABrFÊDA

13

red and gloey sandstones. Its horizontal strata are so
symmetrically laid one above another as to seem more
like the walls of a town than the side of a mountain. But
time has often dismantled their summits and loosened
their foundations. J\lan has broken into their façades to
cut his quarries and his tombs; while the current is
secretly undermining the base, wherein it has made
many a breacb. As soon as any margin of ITIud has
collected between cliffs and river, halfah and wild plants
take hold upon it, and date-palms grow there-whence
their seed, no one knows. Presently a hamlet rises at
the mouth of the ravine, among clusters of trees and
fields in miniature. Beyond SiÙt, the light becomes
more glowing, the air drier and more vibrating, and the
green of cultivation loses its brightness. The angular
outline of the dðm-palrn mingles more and more with that
of the common palm and of the heavy sycamore, and
the castor-oil plant increasingly abounds. But all these
changes come about so gradually that they are effected
before we notice them. The plain continues to contract.
At Thebes it is still ten miles wide; at the gorge of
Gebelên it has almost disappeared, and at Gebel Silsileh
it has completely vanished. There, it was crossed by a
natural dyke of sandstone, through which the waters have
with difficulty scooped for themselves a passage. From
this point, Egypt is nothing but the bed of the Nile lying
between two escarpments of naked rock.
Further on the cultivable land reappears, but narrowed,
and changed almost beyond recognition. Rins, hewn out
of solid sandstone, succeed each other at distances of about

14:

THE NILE AND EGYPT

two miles, low, crushed, sombre, and formless. Presently
a forest of palm trees, the last on that side, announces
Aswân and Nubia, Five banks of granite, ranged in
lines between latitude 2-!O and 18 0 N., cross Nubia from
east to west, and from north-east to south-west, like so
many ramparts thrown up between the 1Iediterranean
and the heart of Africa. The Nile has attacked them
from behind, and made its way over them one after
another In rapids which have been glorified by the

.."

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ENTRAXCE TO TIlE l'IRST CATARACT,l

name of cataracts. Classic ,vriters were pleased to
describe the river as hurled into the gulfs of Syne with
so great a roar that the people of the neighbourhood
were deafened by it. Even a colony of Persians, sent
thither by Cambyses, could not bear the noise of the
fans, and went forth to seek a quieter situation. The first
cataract is a kind of sloping and sinuous passage six and
a quarter miles in length, descending from the island of
Philæ to the port of Aswân, the aspect of its approach
1 View taken from the hills opposite Elephantinê, by Insinger, in 1884.

THE FALLS UF AS\V ÂN

15

relieved and brightened by the ever green groves of
Elephantinê. Beyond Elephantinê are cliffs and sandy
beaches, chains of blackened "roches moutonnées" mark-
ing out the beds of the currents, and fantastic reefs,
sometimes bare and sometimes veiled by long grasses
and climbing plants, in which thousands of birds have
made their nests. There are islets too, occasionally large
enough to have once supported something of a population,
such as Amerade, Salûg, Sehêl. The granite threshold

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ENTR.\
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UßL\.l

of Nubia, is broken beyond Sehêl, but its débl'is, massed
in disorder against the right bank, still seem to dispute
the passage of the waters, dasbing turbulently and roar-
ing as they flow along through tortuous channels, where
every streamlet is broken up into small cascades.
The channel running by the left bank is always navigable.
During the inundation, the rocks and sandbanks of the
right side are completely under water, and their presence

1 View taken from the southern point of the island of Phi1æ. From a
photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey.

16

THE NILE ÅL
D EGYPT

is only betrayed by eddies. But on the river's reaching
its lowest point a fall of some six feet is established,
and there big boats, hugging the shore, are hauled up
by means of ropes, or easily drift down with the
current. All kinds of granite are found together in this
corner of Africa. There are the pink and red Syenites,
porphyritic granite, yellow granite, grey granite, both black
granite and white, and granites veined with black and
veined with white. As soon as these disappear behind us,
vanous sandstones begin to crop up, allied to the coarsest

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LEAGUE BEYOYD LEAGUE, TIlE HILLS STRETCH OY IN LOW IGKOBLE OUTLINE.l

..

calcaÚ'e grossie'J'. The hill bristle with small split blocks,
with peaks half overturned, with rough and denuded
mounds. League beyond league,. they stretch in low
ignoble outline. Here and there a valley opens sharply
into the desert, revealing an infinite perspective of
summits and escarpments in echelon one behind another
to the furthest plane of the horizon, like motionless
1 From a drawing by Boudier, after a photograph by lnsinger, taken
in 1881.

VOL. I.

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N"CBL\

10

caravans. The now confined. river rushes 011 with a low,
deep murmur, accompanied night and day by the croak-
ing of frogs and the rhythmic creak of the sâkîeb. 1 Jetties
of rough stone-work, made in unknown times by an un-
known people, run out like breakwaters into midstream.
From time to time waves of sand are borne over, and
drown the nan'oW fields of durra and of barley. Scraps
of close, aromatic pasturage, acacias, date-palrns, and
dôm-palms, together with a few shrivelled sycamores, are
scattered along both banks. The ruins of a crumbling
pylon mark the site of some ancient city, and, overhanging
the water, is a vertical wall of rock honeycombed with
tombs. Amid these relics of another age, miserable huts,
scattered hamlets, a town or two surrounded with little
gardens are the only evidence that there is yet life in
Nubia. South of vVâdy Halfah, the second granite bank
is broken through, and the second cataract spreads its
rapids over a length of four leagues: the archipelago
numbers more than 350 islets, of which some sixty have
houses upon them and yield harvests to their inhabitants.
The main characteristics of the first two cataracts are
repeated with slight variations in the cases of the three
which folIow,-at Hannek, at Guerendid, and EI-Hû-mar.
It is Egypt still, but a joyless Egypt bereft of its bright-

1 The sâkîeh is made of a notch-wheel fixed vertically on a horizontal axle,
anù is actuated by various cog-wheels set in continuous motion by oxen or
asses. A long chain of earthenware vessels brings up the water either from
the river itself, or from some little branch canal, and empties it into a
system of troughs and reservoirs, Thence, it flows forth to be distributed
over all the neighbouring laml.

20

TIlE l\'"ILE AND EGYPT

ness; impovel'ished, disfigured, and almost desolate.
There is the same double wall of hills, now closely con-
fining the valley, and again withdrawing from each other
as though to flee into the desert. Everywhere are
moving sheets of sand, steep black banks with their

\.\
J. '
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I - 'III
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EXTRA..
CE TO TIlE SECOXD CATARACT.!

narrow strips of cultivation, villages which are scarcely
visible on account of the lowness of their huts. The
sycamore ceases at Gebel-Barkal, date-palms become
1 View taken from the top of the rocks of Abusîr, after a photograph by
lnsinger, in 1881.

JAUl\l IÔ
lA

21

fewer and finally disappear. The Nile alone has not
changed. And it was at Pbilæ, so it is at Berber.
Here, however, on the right bank, GOO leagues from the
sea, is its first affluent, the Takazze, which intermit-
tently brings to it the waters of Northern Ethiopia.
At Khartûm, the single channel in which the river flowed
divides; and two other streams are opened up in a
southerly direction, each of them apparently equal in
volume to the main stream. 'Vhich is the true Nile?
Is it the Blue Nile, which seems to come down from the
distant mountains? Or is it the White Nile, .which has
traversed the immense plains of equatorial Africa. The
old Egyptians never knew. The river kept the secret of
its source from them as obstinately as it withheld it
from us until a few yøars ago. Vainly did their victori-
ous armies follow the Nile for months together as th ey
pursued the tribes who dwelt upon its banks, only to
find it as wide, as full, as irresistible in its progress
as ever. It was a fresh-water sea, and sea-iaûmâ,
iôma-was the namö by which they called it.
The Egyptians therefore never sought its source. They
imagined the whole universe to be a large box, nearly
rectangular in form, whose greatest dianleter was froin
south to north, and its least from east to west. The
earth, with its alternate continents and seas, fonned the
bottom of the box; it was a narrow, oblong, and slightly
concave floor, 'with Egypt in its centre. The sky stretched
over it like an iron ceiling, flat according to some, vaulted
according to others. Its earthward face was capriciously
sprinkled with lalnps hung froln strong cables, and which,

22

THE NILE AND EGYPT

extinguished or unperceived by day, were lighted, or
becalne visible to our eyes, at night. l Since this ceiling
could not remain in mid-air without support, four columns,

ijllli
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AS ATTE
IPT TO REPRESEXT THE EGYPTIAX UXIVERSE.

or rather fOUl' forked trunks of trees, similar to those which
maintained the primitive house, were supposed to uphold

1 The variants of the sign for night-
, T - are most significant.
The end of the rope to which the star is attached passes over the sky, .....,
and fans free, as though arranged for drawing a lamp up and down when
lighting or extingui
hing it, And furthermore, the name of the stars

lchabi
{-is the same word as that used to designate an ordinary lamp.
2 Section taken at Hermopolis. To the left, is the Lark of the sun on
the celestial ri vcr.

THE FOUR PILLARS AND THE FOUR i\IOUNTAIKS 23

it. l But it was doubtless feared lest some tempest 2 should
overturn them, for they were superseded by four lofty
peaks, rising at the four carùinal points, and connected by
a continuous chain of mountains. The Egyptians knew
little of the northern peak: the J\;lediterranean, the " Very
Green," interposed between it and Egypt, and prevented
their coming near enough to see it. The southern peak
was named Apit-to,3, the Horn of the Earth; that on the
east was called Bâkhû, the 1\1ountain of Birth; and the
western peak was known as l\lanû, sometimes as Onkhit,
the Region of Life. Bâkhû was not a fictitious mountain,
but the highest of those distant summits seen from the
Nile in looking towards the Red Sea. In the same way,

1anû answered to some hill of the Libyan desert, whose

1 Isolated, these pillars are represented under the form y, but they are
often found together as supporting the sky'ñ'ñ'. BRUGSCH, who was the
fit'st to study their function, thought that all four were placed to the north,
and that they denoted to the Egyptians the mountains of Armenia. He
afterwards recognized that they were set up at each of the four cardinal
points, but thought that this conception of their use was not older than
Ptolemaic times, Like all Egyptologists, he afterwards admitted that these
pillars were always placed at the four cardinal points,
2 The words designating hurricanes, storms, or any kind of cataclysm,
are followed by the sign offf+, which represents the sky as detached and
falling from its four supporting pillars. Magicians sometimes threateued to
overthrow the four pillars if the gods would not obey their orders,
3 Compare the expressions, Nórov KÉpaç, <Eu7rÉpov KÉpaç, of the Greek
geographers. BRUGSCH was the first to note that Apit-to is placed at the
southern extremity of the world. He has hypothetically identified the IIorn
of tlte Eartlt with the Jlountains of tlte IJlvon of the Arab geographers. I
believe that the Egyptians of the great 'l'heban period (eighteenth to
twentieth dynasties) indicated by that name the mountain ranges of
Abyssinia. In the course of their raicls along the Blue Nile and its
affiuents, they saw this group of summits from afar, but they never
reached it.

24

THE NILE AKD EGYP'f

summit closed the horizon. When it was discovered that
neither Bâkhû nor Manû were the Jimits of the world, the
notion of upholding the celestial roof was not on that
account given up, It was only necessary to withdraw the
pillars from sight, and imagine fabulous peaks, invested
with familiar names. These were not supposed to form the
actual boundary of the universe; a great river-analogous
to the Ocean-stream of the Greeks-lay between them and
its utmost limits. This river circulated upon a kind of
ledge pI'ojecting along the sides of the box a little below
the continuous mountain chain upon which the starry
heavens were sustained. On the north of the ellipse, the
river was bordered by a steep and abrupt bank, which took
its rise at the peak of l\ianû on the west, and soon rose
high enough to form a screen between the river and
the earth. The narrow valley which it Lid from view
was known as Daït fronl remotest times. Eternal night
enfolded that valley in thick darkness, and filled it with
dense air such as no living thing could breathe. Towards
the east the steep bank rapidly declined, and ceased
altogether a little beyond Bâkhû, while the river flowed
on between low and almost level shores from east to soutL,
and then from south to west. The sun was a disc of fire
placed upon a boat. At the same equable rate, the Úver
carried it round the ramparts of the world. From evening
until morning it disappeared within the gorges of Daït;
its light did not then reach us, and it was night. From
morning until evening its rays, being no longer intercepted
by any obstacle, were freely shed abroad from one end of
the box to the otLer, and it was day. The Nile branched

THE CELESTIAL NILE

23

off from the celestial river at its southern bend; 1 hence the
south was the chief cardinal point to the Egyptians, and
by that they oriented themselves, placing sunrise to their
left, and sunset to their l'ight. Before they passed beyond
the defiles of Gebel Silsileh, they thought that the spot
whence the celestial waters left the sky was situate bet,veell
Elephantinê and Philæ, and that they descended in an
Ï1nll1enSe waterfall whose last leaps were at Syene. It Inay
be that the tales about the first cataract told by classic
writers are but a far-off echo of this tl'adition of a barbarous
age. Conquests carried into the heart of ...\..frica forced the
Egyptians to recognize their error, but did not weaken
their faith in the supernatural origin of the river. They
only placed its source further south, and sUITounded it
with greater marvels. They told how, by going up the
stream, sailors at length l'eached an undetennined conn try,
a kind of borderland between this world and the next, a
" Land of Shades," whose inhabitants were dwarfs, monsters,
or spirits. Thence they passed into a sea sprinkled with
mysterious islands, like those enchanted archipelagoes
which Portuguese and Breton mariners were wont to see
at times when on their voyages, and which vanished at
their approach. These islands were inhabited by serpents
with human voices, sometimes friendly and sometimes cruel
to the shipwrecked. He who went forth from the islands
could never more re-enter them: they ,,,ere resolved into the

1 The classic writers themselves knew that, according to Egyptian belief,
the Nile flowed down from heaven. The legend of the Nile having its source
in the ocean stream was but a Greek transposition of the Egyptian doctrine,
which represent ell it as an arm of the celestial river whereon the sun sailed
round the earth.

26

TIlE NILE AND EGYPT

watel's and lost within the bosom of the waves. A modern
geographer can hardly comprehend such fancies; those of
Greek and Roman times were perfectly familiar with them.
They believed that the Nile communicated with the Red
Sea near Suakin, by means of the Astaboras, and this
was certainly the route which the Egyptians of old had
imagined for their navigators. The supposed comrnunica-
tion was gradually transferred farther and fal,ther south;
and we have only to glance over certain maps of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries, to see clearly drawn
what the Egyptians had imagined-the centre of Africa as
a great lake, whence issued the Congo, the Zambesi, and
the Nile. Arab merchants of the l\liddle Ages believed
that a resolute man could pass from Alexandria or Cairo to
the land of tbe Zindjes and the Indian Ocean by rising
from river to river. l Many of the legends relating to this
subject are lost, while others have been collected and
embellished with fresh features by Jewish and Christian
theologians. The Nile was said to have its source in
Paradise, to traverse burning regions inaccessible to man,
and afterwards to fall into a sea whence it made its way
to Egypt, Sometimes it carried down from its celestial
sources branches and fruits unlike any to be found on
earth. The sea mentioned in all these tales is perhaps a

1 J OINVILLE has given a special chapter to the description of the sources
and wonders of the Nile, in which he believed as firmly as in an article of
his cref'd, As late as the beginning of the se\Tenteenth century, WENDELl NUS
devoted part of his Admi'J'U'ilda Nili to proving that the river did not rise in
the earthly Paradise, At Gûrnah, furty years ago. RHIND picked u}.> a legend
which stated that the Nile flows down from the sky.

'VONDERS OF THE NILE

27

less extravagant invention than we are at first inclined to
think. A lake, nearly as large as the Victoria Nyanza,
once covered the marshy plain where the Bahr el-Abiad

SOl'"TII \FIUC.\ AXD TIlE SOL'RCES OF TilE XILE, BY ODO.\RDO LOPEZ,}

unites with the Sabat, and with the Bahr el-GhazâL Allnvial
deposits have filled up all but its deepest depression, ,,'hich
} Facsimile of the map published by KIRCHER in CEdiplls LEY?lpliaCll8,
vol. i. (IconislnllS II), p, 53.

28

THE XILE A
D EGYPT

is known as Birket N û; but, in ages preceding our era,
it must still have been vast enough to suggest to Egyptian
soldiers and boatmen the idea of an actual sea, opening
into the Indian Ocean. The mountains, whose outline was
vagnely seen far to southward on the further shores, doubt-
less contained within them its mysterious source. There
the inundation was made ready, and there it began upon a
fixed day. The celestial Nile had its periodic rise and fall,
on which those of the earthly Nile depended. Every
year, towards the middle of June, Isis, mourning for Osiris,
let fall into it one of the tears which she shed over her
Lrother, and thereupon the river swelled and descended
upon earth. Isis has had no devotees for centuries, and
her very name is unknown to the descendants of her
vlorshippers; but the tradition of her fertilizing tears has
survived her memOl'Y. Even to this day, everyone in
Egypt, l\Iussulman or Christian, knows that a divine drop
falls from heaven during the night between the 17th and
18th of June, and forthwith brings about the rise of the Nile.
Swollen by the rains which fall in February over the
region of the Great Lakes, the \Vhite Nile rushes north-
ward, sweeping before it the stagnant sheets of water left
by the inundation of the previous year. On the left, the
Bahr el-Ghazâl brings it the overflow of the ill-defined
basin stretching between Darfûr anù the Congo; and the
Sobat pours in on the right a tribute from the rivers which
furrow the southern slopes of the Abyssinian mOllntains.
The first swell passes I\:hartûm by the end of April, and
raises the water-level there by about a foot, then it slowly
makes its way through Nubia, and dies away in Egypt at

THE "G REEX ,. NILE

2

the beginning of June. Its waters, infected by half-putrid
organic matter from the equatorial swamps, are not com-
pletely freed from it even in the course of this long journey,
but keep a greenish tint as far as the Delta. They are
said to be poisonous, and to give severe pains in the bladder
to any who may drink them. I am bound to say that
every June, for five years, I drank this green water frorll
the Nile itself, without taking any other precaution than
the usual one of filtering it through a porous jar. Neither
I, nor the many people living with me, ever felt the
slightest inconvenience from it. Happily, this Green .1Vile
does not last long, bnt generally flows away in three or
four days, and is only the forerunner of the real flood.
The melting of the snows and the excessive spring rains
having suddenly swollen the torrents which rise in the
central plateau of Abyssinia, the Blue Nile, into which
they flo'w, rolls so impetuously towards the plain that,
when its waters reach I{hartûm in the middle of l\lay, they
refuse to mingle with those of the White Nile, and do not
lose their peculiar colour before reaching the neighbour-
hood of Abû Hamed, three hundred miles below. From
that time the height of the Nile increases rapidly day by
day. The river, constantly reinforced by floods follo,ving
one upon another from the Great Lakes and from Abys-
sinia, rises in furious bounds, and would become a devas-
tating torrent were its rage not checked by the Nubian
cataracts. Here six basins, one above another, in which
the water collects, check its course, and permit it to flow
thence only as a partially filtered and moderated stream.
It is signalled at Syene towards the 8th of June, at Cairo

30

THE KILE AND EGYPT

by the 17th to the 20th, and there its birth is officially
celebrated during the "Night of the Drop." Two daYR
later it reaches the Delta, jus.t in time to save the country
from drought and sterility. Egypt, burnt up by the
I(hamsÎn, a west wind blowing continuously for fifty days,
seems nothing more than an extension of the desert. The
trees are covered and choked by a layer of grey dust.
About the villages, meagre and laboriously watered patches
of vegetables struggle for life, while some show of green
still lingers along the canals and in hollows whence all
moisture has not yet evaporated. The plain lies panting
in the sun-naked, dusty, and ashen-scored with inter-
secting cracks as far as eye can see. The Nile is only half
its usual ,vidth, and holds not more than a twentieth of the
volume of water which is borne down in October. It has
at first hard work to l'ecover its fanner bed, and attains it
by such subtle gradations that the rise is scarcely noted.
It is, however, continually gaining ground; here a sand-
bank is covered, there an empty channel is filled. islets are
outlined where there was a continuous beach, a new stream
detaches itself and gains the old shore. The first contact
is disastrous to the banks; their steep sides, disintegrated
and cracked by the heat, no longer offer any resistance to
the current, and fall with a crash, in lengths of a hunJred
yards and more. As the successive floods grow stronger
and are more heavily charged with mud, the whole mass
of water becomes turbid and changes colour. In eight or
ten days it has turned from greyish blue to dark red, occa-
sionally of so intense a colour as to look like ne'wly shed
blood. The" Red Nile" is not unwholesome like the

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THE "BRIDE OF THE KILE"

88

"Green Nile," and the suspended mud to which it owes
its suspicious appearance deprives the water of none of its
freshness and lightness. It reaches its full height towards
the 15th of July; but the dykes which confine it, and
the barriers constructed across the mouths of canals, still
prevent it froln overflowing. The Nile must be considered
high enough to submerge t.he land adequately before it is
set free. The ancient Egyptians measured its height by
cubits of twenty-one and a quarter inches. At fourteen
cubits, tbey pronounced it an excellent Nile; below thir-
teen, or above fifteen, it was accounted insufficient or
excessive, and in either case meant famine, and perhaps
pestilence at hand. To this day the natives watch its
advance with the same anxious eagerness; and from the
3rd of July, public criers, walking the streets of Cairo,
announce each morning what progress it has made since
evening. 110re or less authentic traditions assert that
the prelude to the opening of the canals, in the time of
the Pharaohs, was the solemn casting to the waters of a
'" young girl decked as for her bridal-the" Bride of the
NiJe." Even after the Arab conquest, the irruption of
the river into the bosom of the land was still considered
as an actual mar1"Ïage; the contract was drawn up by a
cadi, and witnesses confirmed its consummation with the
most fantastic formalities of Oriental ceremonial. It is
generally between the 1st and 16th of July that it is
decided to break through the dykes. When that proceed-
ing has been solemnly accomplished in state, the flood still
takes several days to fill the canals, and afterwards spreads
over the low lands, advancing little by little to the very

VOL. I.

D

34

THE NILE AND EGYPT

edge of the desert. Egypt is then one sheet of turbid
water spreading between two lines of rock and sanù, flecked
with green and black spots where there are towns or where
the ground rises, and divided into irregular compartments
by raised roads connecting the villages. In N nbia the
river attains its greatest height towards the end of August;
at Cairo and in the Delta not until three weeks or a lllonth
later. For about eight days it remains stationary, and then
begins to fall imperceptibly. Sometimes there is a new
freshet in October, and the river again increases in height.
But the rise is unsustained; once more it falls as rapidly
as it rose, and by December the river has completely
retired to the limits of its bed. One after another, the
streams which fed it fail or dwindle. The Tacazze is lost.
among the sands before rejoining it, and the Blue Nile,
well-nigh deprived of tributaries, is but scantily maintained
by Abyssinian snows. The White Nile is indebted to the
Great Lakes for the greater persistence of its waters, which
feed the river as far as the 1\1:editerranean, and save the
valley from utter drought in winter. But, even with this
resource, the level of the water falls daily, and its volume
is diminished. Long-hidden sandbanks l'eappear, and are
again linked into continuous line. Islands expand by the
rise of shingly beaches, which gradually l'econnect them
with each other and with the shore. Smaller branches
of the river cease to flow, and form a mere network of
stagnant pools and muddy ponds, which fast dry up. The
main channel itself is only intermittently navigable; after
1\1:arch boats run aground in it, and are forced to await the
return of the inundation for their release. Frorn the middle

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SCA
TIKESS OF TH

EGYPTIAN FLORA 35

of April to the middle of June, Egypt is only half alive,
awaiting the new Nile.
Those ruddy and heavily charged waters, rising and
retiring with almost mathematical regularity, bring and
leave the spoils of the countries they have traversed:
sand from Nubia, whitish clay from the regions of the
Lakes, ferruginous mud, and the various rock-formations
of Abyssinia. These materials are not uniformly dissemi-
nated in the deposits; their precipitation being l'egulated
both by their specific gravity and the velocity of the
current. Flattened stones and rounded pebbles are left
behind at the cataract between Syene and Keneh, while
coarser particles of sand are suspended in the under-
currents and serve to raise the bed of the river, or are
carried out to sea and form the sandbanks which are slowly
rising at the Damietta and Rosetta mouths of the Nile.
The mud and finer particles rise towards the surface, and
are deposited upon the land after the opening of the dykes.
Soil which is entirely dependent on the deposit of a river,
and periodically invaded by it, necessarily maintains but
a scanty flora; and though it is well known that, as
a generall'ule, a flora is rich in proportion to its distance
from the poles and its approach to the equator, it is also
admitted that Egypt offers an exception to this rule. At
the most, she has not more than a thousand species, while,
with equal area, England, for instance, possesses more than
fifteen hundred; and of this thousand, the greater number
al'e Dot indigenous. J\tlany of them have been brought
fronl Central Africa by the river; birds and winds bave
continued the work, and man himself has contributed his

öU

THE KILE AKD EGYPT

part In making it more complete. Frorn Asia he has at
different times brought wheat, barley, the olive, the apple,
the white or pink almond, and some twenty other species
now acclimatized on the banks of the Nile. 1Iarsh plants
predominate in the Delta; but the papyrus, and the three
varieties of blue, white, and pink lotus which once flourished

:'I

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.4 ... ttJt:.
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.
. .""",:,,
....
..
..Jl!'... . -"of

. rI
-
;

". "(.... . ...
, . .' 'Ii':.-_' '; '"1.
'"

J
1'" .. . - - . -'> .
,,"'-
..
' 1í- .
....,.. . . -
.'

-,'" ": ...... "t - - ;"'-- } '

- - _.' ',,r-..,. III
-;'#
À. '. -._- I. . "

-....... .( ...-
--...--
L '.
· 4 L- I;

__.
I. -
-_ j
.
...

-

'L,

·

.f

" .
ÌI .. -:t..-..I.....

ifiliì

.:;'
-

I
-

t

4

'-:-. '- "
- -
"';,:;;; _

':P.

".. . '
, - "'"

...., ..9.'!"""" .,--:;;
. . --
:Þ :

..
.- ;
", ';-lr\,
: \

lie
,.

.'/., .
r ., I

f.

4,:a..
:
;..
...:...----- '
,
YC,\:\lOnES AT THE EXTR.\Xf'E OF TIlE ::\trnÎnÎn::n OF .-\Syf'T. 1

there, being no longer cultivated, bave no\v almost entirely
disappeared, and reverted to their original habitats. The
sycamore and the date-palm, both importations fronl
Central Africa, have better adapted themselves to their
exile, and are now fully naturalized on Egyptian soil. The

1 From a drawing by Boudier, from a photograph Ly lnsinger, taken
in 1881.

]
tc

......
'ê
.

>.
,.I::J

()
j) 0

.g,
rJ C'3

E-< it:
...-: d

-
[7)
<:.>
'"
<:.>

ç;:;
.....

0
o

E-< "2-

S

:i:J 'Z
- .....

Q
'5
....

ct:
Q

..!<I
.g

1:=
Q
;;:

THE DATE-PAL)!

3D

sycamore grows in sand on the edge of the desert as
vigorously as in the midst of a well-watered country. Its
roots go deep in search of water, which infiltrates as far as
the gorges of the hills, and they absorb it freely, even
where drought seems to reign supreme. The heavy, squat,
gnarled trunk occasionally attains to colossal dimensions,
without ever growing very high. Its rounded masses of
compact foliage are so wide-spreading that a single tree
in the distance may give the impression of several grouped
together; and its shade is dense, and impenetrable to the
sun. A striking contrast to the sycamore is presented by
the date-palm, Its round and slender stem rises uninter-
ruptedly to a height of thirteen to sixteen yards; its head
is crowned with a cluster of flexible leaves arranged in two
or three tiers, but so scanty, so pitilessly slit, that they fail
to keep off the light, and cast but a slight and unrefreshing
shadow. Few trees have so elegant an appearance, yet
few are so monotonously elegant. There are palm trees
to be seen on every hand; isolated, clustered by twos and
threes at the mouths of ravines and about the villages,
planted in regular file along the banks of the river like
rows of columns, symmetrically arranged in plantations,
-these are the invariable background against which other
trees are grouped, diversifying the landscape. The feathery
tamarisk 1 and the nabk, the moringa, the carob, or locust

1 The Egyptian name for the tamarisk, asari, Qsri. is identical with that
given to it in Semitic languages, both ancient and modern. This would sug-
gest the question whether the tamarisk did not originally come from Asia.
In that case it must have been brought to Egypt from remote antiquity, for it
figures in the Pyramid texts. Bricks of Nile mwl, and l\[emphite and Theball
tombs, have yielded us leaves, twigs, and even whole branches of the tamarisk.

40

THE XILE AXD EGYPT

tree, several varieties of acacia and InÌtnosa-the sont, the
mimosa habbas, the white acacia, the Acacia Farnesiana
-and the pomegranate tree, increase in number with the
distance from the l\lediterranean. The dry air of the
valley is marvellously suited to them, but makes the tissue
of their foliage hard and fibrous, imparting an aërial aspect,
and such faded tints as are unknown to their growth In

.I."
'r
,;,
.,
"

:'1 <....
[

(.

-
. '1," (i;';
"'r' -.I
[

:' J'
t <
:': "".

'1" ,
,' ..
'.\

'
t

. .
t.. :.f
,"4
.....

r' \.. ",,'
1It
...j
..
'W\;

8(.

..

Q _ .

i ,.
4' ..j
J '

. Y; . """,>#_.,.. .
t.">
.
,.. ... I" . . \

1' . f .P". tf.t
'}'
'-
, :- ..''',.f?-

. ,,. >,' .
'.. .
" ,,- ). .
<Î'J'" .
"1 .

.
..,. " ." r;l .t' r

h. ." v;'....
.
" .' t
.
t ."':;

"'1:-

-:

.

'Ii "'!""'......... .. .

"\ .

. ..

... '

..:.

.*

1

.... .
::."'- . _ - -
.....e. -,--

.}O
.,:'
,;;;-- ...
""!'
i.. -c$.:
_h

'

-... _'
-.-.:.
.. - _ :?;;1\
.. f'
fM..

"}')
:'"

'i4, _ .
"M

. ....... ...Þ-> _ .:.:--

....

.jL,

,"j> :'

; ..
.

t..'

Igt_

r -------
-
..

..;;.z...

ACACIAS AT THE E
TRAX(,F. TO .\. G.\.RDEX OCT
IDE EKIll\lÎ:\I.l

other climates. The greater number of these trees do not
reproduce themselves spontaneously, and tend to disappear
when neglected. The Acacia Beyal, formerly abundant by
the banks of the river, is now almost entirely confined to
certain valleys of the The ban desert, along with a variety

1 From a drawing by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger, taken
in 1884.

FLORA
\XD FAVNA

41

cf the kernelled dôm-palm, of which a poetical description
has come down to us from the ..A.ncient Egyptians. The
common dôm-palm bifurcates at eight or ten yards froin
the ground; these branches are subdivided, an d terminate
in bunches of twenty to thirty palmate and fibrous leaves,
six to eight feet long. .At the beginning of this century
the tree was connnon in Upper Egypt, but it is now
becoming scarce, and we are within measurable distance
of the time when its presence will be an exception north
of the first cataract. \Villows are decreasing in number,
and the persea, one of the sacred trees of Ancient Egypt,
is now only to be found in gardens. N one of the remainin ð
tree species are COlnrnon enough to grow in large clusters;
and Egypt, reduced to her lofty groves of date-palms,
presents the singular spectacle of a country where there is
no lack of trees, but an almost entire absence of shade.
If Egypt is a land of imported flora, it is also a land of
Ünported fauna, and all
its animal species have
been brought from
neigh bouring countries.
Some of theRe-as, for
example, the horse and '
the camel-were only
introduced at a compara-
tively recent period, two
thousand to eighteen
hundred years before our
era; the camel still later. The anÏlnals-such as the long
and short-horned oxen, together with varieties of goats

- .,&\
...

\.

.....

"

\.

I
(

.,

'; It J
II I I
, \,

\l

SHl
-AS:'; .A
D HER FO..\L,

42

THE XILE AKD EGYPT

and dogs-are, like the plants, generally of African origin,
and the ass of Egypt preserves an oI'iginal purity of form
and a vigour to which the European donkey has long been
a stranger. The pig and the wild boar, the long-eared hare,
the hedgehog, the ichneumon, the mouffion, or maned sheep,
innumerable gazelles, including the Egyptian gazelles, and
antelopes with lyre.shaped horns, are as much vVest Asian
as African, like the ca.rniv<?ræ of all sizes, whose prey they
__ :.

are- the wild cat,

the wolf, the jackal,

the striped and

.,
spotted hyenas, the

leopard, the pan-
ther, the hunting
leopard, and the
lion, On the other
hand, most of the
serpents, large and
small, are indi-
genous. Some are
hannless, like the
colubers ; others are
venomous, such as
the scytale, the
cerastes, the haje
VIper, and the asp. The asp was worshipped by the
Egyptians under the name of uræus. It occasionally
attains to a length of six and a haH feet, and when

TIlE rR.Ers OF EGYPT}

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from pI. iii. of the REPTILES-SUPPLÉ1\1ENT to
the Description de l'l;[J!Jpte,

SERPENTS, THE L"RÆUS

43

approached will erect its head and inflate its throat In
readiness for darting forward. The bite is fatal, like that of
the cerastes; birds are literally struck down by the strength
of the poison, while the great mammals, and man himself,
almost invariably succumb to it after a longer or shorter
death-struggle. The uræus is rarely found except in the
desert or in the fields; the scorpion crawls evel"ywhere, in
desert and city alike, and if its sting iò not always followed
by death, it invariably causes terrible pain. Probably there
were once several kinds of gigantic serpent in Egypt, analo-
gous to the pythons of equatorial Africa. They are still to
be seen in representations of funerary scenes, but not else-
where; for, like the elephant, the giraffe, and other animals
which now only thrive far south, they had disappeared at
the beginning of historic times.
rhe hippopotamus long
maintained its ground before returning to those equatorial
regions whence it had been brought by the Nile. Common
under the first dynasties, but afterwards withdrawing to
the marshes of the Delta, it there continued to flourish up
to the thirteenth century of our era. The crocodile, which
came with it, has, like it also, been compelled to beat a
retreat. Lord of the river throughout all ancient times,
worshipped and protected in some provinces, execrated
and proscribed in others, it might still be seen in the
neighbourhood of Cairo towards the beginning of our
century, In 1840, it no longer passed beyond the neigh-
bourhood of Gebel et. Têr, nor beyond that of 1Ianfalût in
184D. Thirty years later, l\Iariette asserted that it was
steadily retreating before the guns of tourists, and the
disturbance which the regular passing of steamboats

44

THE XILE AXD EGYPT

produced In the deep waters. To-day, no one knows of a
single crocodile existing below Aswân, but it continues to
infest Nubia, and the rocks of the first cataract: one of
them is occasionally carried down by the current into
Egypt, where it is speedily despatched by the fellâhîn, or
by some traveller in quest of adventure. The fertility of
the soil, and the vastness of the lakes and marshes,
attract lnany n1Ïgratory birds; passerinæ and palmipedes
flock thither from all parts of the l\1editerranean. Our
European swallows, our quails, our geese and wild ducks,
our herons - to
mention only the
most familiar -
I
' r
. ,/ come here to win-
: f(' tel', sheltered from
4.:','

,"_
' :O e l:t
n e : incle;
e n:
.

, ."'

& '
\i;ié
'

i::" .

\\,
..
.;.
,r.:.,:
""-: . the non-nugratory
........
,...........
.....-
... .) . :-;;

. . birds are really,
'

..::;::::--- . 'I l .
, --- :
..
.5
'L.\
\
fOl' the most part,
I .
strangel's acclima-
tized by long so-
journ. Some of
them-the turtle-

...... -..... I
....
::
...

---. -,-:",::
....
......1,,- .-
...

./

THE IBI
OF EGYPT.!

dove, the magpie,
the lángfisher, the
partridge, and the
European species, while

sparrow-may be classed with our

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, fram OISEAUX, pI. vii. 1, in the Oommission
d' .É'O!Jpte.

BIRD
AXD FISHES

45

others betray their equatorial origin in the brightness of
their colours. White and black ibises, red flamingoes,
pelicans, and cormorants enliven the waters of the river,
and animate the reedy swamps of the Delta in infinite
variety. They are to be seen ranged in long files upon
the sand-banks, fishing and basking in the sun; suddenly
the flock is seized with panic, rises heavily, and settles
away further off. In hollows of the hills, eagle and falcon,
the merlin, the bald-headed vulture, the kestrel, the golden
sparrow-hawk, find inaccessible retreats, whence they

"
' :
'"
. t':

.
",

,

I\,
,

'<'

'" ,,,

øe..-h.i
-ÿg 'v
. -
" , . V"". :1rfÞ..
fj{.tYA 1//,"''1. "

.y

,:,.:*:.
,..,..'"'
,r"',
,. "..

,'"

i"" 'Y
"'",,, ,.'-:

,:-'-,
::'

?:
\:

_:.
..:

;
'

w.{

r.{
VfJ:
,

it*
$)
1:

:.\ ,,

')ij \

'\,

-
- ,.
,,
. , ,'!f"'... ,

!s\"
\.,,\ ,ffÜ.(
..,&' . b!;}.,,', -'=--"
\
"

.:-- ...,.......rc.......q.i).....-.'" J ....

\.lN
'i
'i "1:"?fi},'ttt ,.;::; .. './-
:
--

.
.....
..-'
:.
v -

\
l(
. .

':"I' "A

, ,

.
__ """""-
.Áf/ "'- . 'hZ/I;;-
ý
?
\ '-:
"':Å:
' 'W' :.:....,..
-J;Ø'7 "'';.. 5' "o}." -. ..,:..... .

.

THE l\IOIDIYUrS OXYUHYXí'Ht.:"S,

descend upon the plains like so many pillaging and well-
armed barons. A thousand little chattering birds come
at eventide to perch in flocks upon the frail boughs of
tamarisk and acacia. l\lany sea-fish [nake their way up-
stream to swim in fresh waters-shad, mullet, perch, and
the labrus-and carry their excursions far into the Saïd.
Those species which are not 1Iediterranean came originally,
and still come annually, from the heart of Ethiopia with
the rise of the Nile, including two kinds of Alestes, the
soft-shelled turtle, the Bagrns docmac, and the mormyrus.
Some attain to a gigantic size) the Bagrus bayad and the

4ß

THE NILE AKD EGYPT

turtle to about one yard, the latus to three and a half
yards in length, while others, such as the silurus (cat-
fisl1), are noted for their electric properties. Nature
seems to have made the fahàka (the globe-fish) in a fit
of playfulness. It is a long fish from beyond the cata-
racts, and it is carried by the Nile the more easily on
account of the faculty it has of filling itself with air,
and inflating its body at will. When swelled out im-
moderately, the fahâka overbalances, and drifts along
upside down, its belly to the wind, covered with spikes
", '\\

\.\

.'

--
-
, . '" "'"..'., " ,.
""", ;
- '".....:
;- .r::, '

<
. ,'j.

..
.. .... - ,. _

.

...6.{"/:

?") <
:--. ':.J.

_ _ _:,.,
" . '..8

-
,

. ' '"
""-

'

F

-;,.""

AHAKA.

so that it looks like a hedgehog. During the inundation,
it floats with the current from one canal to another,
and is cast by the retreating waters upon the muddy
fields, where it becomes the prey of birds or of jackals,
or serves as a plaything for children.
Everything is dependent upon the river :-the soil, the
produce of the soil, the species of animals it bears, the
birds which it feeds: and hence it 'vas the Egyptians
placed the river among their gods. They personified it
as a man with regular features, and a vigorous and pOl.t1y
body, such as befits the rich of high lineage. His breasts,
fully developed like those of a woman, though less firm,
hang heavily upon a ,vide bosom where the fat lies

in folds. A narrow girdle, whose ends fall free about the
thighs, supports his spacious abdomen, and his attire is
cOlnpleted by sandals, and a close-fitting head-dress,.
generally surmounted with a crown of water-plants. Some-
times water springs from his breast; sometimes he presents a
frog, or libation vases; or holds a bundle of the cruces ansatæ,
as symbols of life; or bears a flat tray, full of offerings-
bunches of flowers, rI,
ears of corn, heaps of .
fish, and geese tied
together by the feet.
rfhe inscriptions call
him, "HíLpi, father
of the gods, lord
of sustenance, who
maketh food to be,
and covereth the
two lands of Egypt
with his products;
who giveth life,
banisheth want, and filleth the granaries to overflowing."
He is evolved into two personages, one being sometimes
coloured red, and the other blue. The former, who wears
a cluster of lotus-flowers upon bis bead, presides over the
Egypt of the south; the latter has a bunch of papyrus for
his head-dress, and watches over the Delta. 2 Two goddesses,

THE :
aLE-GOD

47

)

.\

1'\1
:..
.
,-.;..
"t
Ü

..

,(
"1V
j
G.\ Y\;

. '.
.-,
,1 "
:\

,'

'
\
'd \." . I ' ,1\' L
" ' \ '
') I' ,

.). \

,- .. J
"
'\' :' I
,
,' il . 1
J
' I

TM'

J' ,.L-

TWO FISHER)IE
C.\RTInXG A L.\.TUS WHICH THEY
II.\.VE JUST CAuGHT.}

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a l\Iedûm painting, PETRIE, ..ZJfedilrn,
pI. xii.
2 '\VILKIXSON was the first who suggested that ihis god, when painted
red, was the Red (that is, the High) Nile, and, when painted blue, was to
De identified with the Low Nile. This opinion has since been generaliy

48

THE KILE AND EGYPT

corresponding to the two Hâpis-11irit Qimâit for Upper,
and 1\lirit 1\libit for Lower Egypt-personified the banks
of the river. rrhey are often represented as standing with
outstretched arms, as though begging for the water which
should make them fertile. The Nile-god had
his chapel in every province, and priests whose
right it was to bury all bodies of men or
beasts cast up by the flver; for the god had

<=>

......

THE GODDESS :\lmIT, BE.\RIXG .\ BUYCH
OF 1'.\PYRGS OY IIER HEAD,

THE KYLE-GOD,l

claimed theIn, and to his servants they belonged. Several

adopted; but to me it does not appear so incontrovertible as it has been con-
sidered, Hf're, as in other cases, the difference in colour is only a means of
making the distinction between two personages obvious to sight,
1 Drawn b Faucher-Gudin, after a statue in the British l\Iuseum. The
dedication of this statue took place about 880 B.C. The giver was Sheshonqû,
high-priest of Arnon in Thebes, afterwards King of Egypt under the name of
Sheshhonqû 11., and he is represented as standing behind the leg of the god,

THE SHRINE AT BIGGEH

49

towns were dedicated to him: Hâthâpi, N Úit-Hâpi, Nilo-
polis. It was told in the Thebaïd how the god dwelt
within a grotto, or shrine 1 .
(tophit), in the island of

Biggeh, whence he issued @ \ \
at the inundation. This
tradition dates from a time
when the cataract was
believed to be at the end
of the world, and to bring
down the heavenly river
upon earth. Two yawn-
ing gulfs (qoTîti), at the
foot of the two granite
cliffs (monîti) between
which it ran, gave access
to this mysterious retreat.
A bas-relief from Philæ
represents blocks of stone
piled one above another,
...-...
t"""
tI
the vulture of the south THE snmXE OF THE NILE AT BIGGEH.1
and the hawk of the north, each perched on a summit,

('1
T
T

wearing a panther skin, with both arms upheld in adoration. The statue is
mutilated: the end of the nose, the beard, and part of the tray have
disappeared, but arc restored in the illustration, The two little birds hang-
ing alongside the geese, together with a bunch of ears of corn, are fat quails.
1 Reproduced from a bas-relief in the small temple of Philæ, built by
Trajan and his successors. The window or door of this temple opened upon
Biggeh, and by comparing the drawing of the Egyptian artist with the view
from the end of the chamber, it is easy to recognize the original of this cliff
silhouette in the piled-up rocks of the island, By a mistake of the modern
copyist's, his drawing faces the wrong way,

VOL. I.

E

50

THE NILE AKD EGYPT

ànd the circular chamLer wherein Hâpi crouches con-
cealed, clasping a libation vase in either hand. A single
coil of a serpent outlines the contour of this chamber,
and leaves a narrow passage between its overlapping
head and tail through which the rising waters may
overflo\v at the time appointed, bringing to Egypt "all
things good, and sweet, and pure," 'whereby gods and
men are fed. Towarùs the summer solstice, at the
very moment when the sacrod water froin the gulfs of
Syene reached Silsileh, the priests of the place, some-
times the reigning sovereign, or one of bis sons, sacrificed
a bull and geese, and then cast into the waters a sealed
roll of papyrus. This was a written order to do all that
might insure to Egypt the benefits of a normal inundation.
\Vhen Pharaoh himself deigned to officiate, the memory
of the event was preserved by a stela engraved upon the
rocks. Even in his absence, the festivals of the Nile
were among the most solemn and joyous of the land.
According to a tradition transmitted from age to age, the
prosperity or adversity of the year was dependent upon
the splendour and fervour with which they were celebrated.
Had the faithful shown the slightest lukewarmness, the
Nile might have refused to obey the command and failed
to spread freely over the surface of the country. Peasants
from a distance, each bringing his own provisions, ate thöir
meals together for days, and lived in a state of brutal
intoxication as long as this kind of fair lasted. On the
great day itself, the priests came forth in procession from the
sanctuary, bearing the statue of the god along the banks,
to the sound of instruments and the chanting of hymns.

FESTIYALS OF THE KILE

51

"I.-Hail to thee, Hâpi I-who appea.rest in the land
and comest-to give life to Egypt ;-thou \"ho dost bide
thy coming in darkness-in this very day whereon thy
coming is sung,- wave, which spreadest over the orchards
created by Ra-to give life to all them that are athirst-
who refusest to give drink unto the desert-of the over-
flow of the waters of heaven; as soon as thou descendest,
-Sibû, the earth-god, is enamoured of bread,-N apri, the
god of grain, presents his offering,-Phtah maketh every
workshop to prosper.
''IT.-Lord of the fish! as soon as he passeth the

-

-----=--
:.. ...- . - :- - -. - '..: -----
- ..... .;...

.

.... --.,.. --:'r""r:I L . .s....... "'----J:"-'. L

l\J:LE-GODS FROM TIlE TEMPLE OF SETI Y. AT ABYDOS BRIXGIKG FOOD TO EVERY
KO:\IE OF EGYPT.l

cataract-the birds no longer descend upon the fields;-
creator of corn, maker of barley,-he prolongeth the
existence of temples.-Do his fingers cease from their
labours, or doth he suffer ?-then are all the millions of
beings in misery ;-doth he wane in heaven? then the
gods-themselves, and all men perish;

1 From a drawing by F:mcher-Guùìn. after a photograph by Béato,

&2

THE NILE AND EGYPT

"IlL-The cattle are driven mad, and all the world-
both, great and small, are in torment !-But if, on the
contrary, the prayers of men are heard at his rising-and
(for theln) he maketh himself Khnûmû,-wLen he ariseth,
then the earth shouts for joy,-then are all bellies joyful,-
each back is shaken with laughter,-and every tooth
grindeth.
" IV.-Bringing food, rich in sustenance,-creator of all
good things,-lord of all seeds of life, pleasant unto his
elect,-if his friendship is secured-he produceth fodder for
the cattle,-and he provideth for the sacrifices of all the
gods,-finer than any other is the incense which cometh
from him ;-he taketh possession of the two lands-and the
granaries are filled, the storehouses are prosperous,-aud
the goods of the poor are multiplied.
" V.-He is at the service of all prayers to answer them,
-withholding nothing. To make boats to be that is his
strength.-Stones are not sculptured for him-nor statues
whereon the double crown is placed ;-he is unseen ;-no
tribute is paid unto him and no offerings are brought unto
him,-he is not charmed by words of mystery;.-the place
of his dwelling is unknown, nor can his shrine be found by
virtue of magic writings;
"Vr.-There is no house large enough for thee,-nor
any who may penetrate within thy heart !-N evertheless,
the generations of thy children rejoice in thee-for thou
dost rule as a king-whose decrees are established for the
whole earth,-who is manifest in presence of the people of
the South and of the N orth,-by whom the tears are
washed from every eye,-and who is lavish of Lis bounties.

HYl\l::V TO THE NILE

53

" VII.- Where sorrow was, there doth break forth joy
-and every heart rejoiceth. Sovkû, the crocodile, the
child of Nît, leaps for gladness; I-for the Nine gods who
accompany thee have ordered all things,-the overflow
giveth drink unto the fields-and maketh all men valiant;
one man taketh to drink of the labour of another,-without
charge being brought against him, 2
"IX.-If thou dost enter in the midst of songs to go
forth in the midst of gladness,-if they dance \vith joy
when thou comest forth out of the unknown,-it is that thy
heaviness is death and corruption.-And when thou art
implored to give the water of the year,-the people of the
Thebaïd and of the North are seen side by side,-each man
with the tools of his trade,-none tarrieth behind his
neighboul' ;-of all those who clothed themselves, no man
clotheth himself (with festive garments)-the children of
Thot, the god of riches, no longer adorn themselves with
jewels,-nor the Nine gods, but they are in the night f-
As soon as thou hast answered by the rising,-each one
anointeth hirnself with perfumes.
"X.-EstabJisher of true riches, desire of men,-here
are seductive words in order that thou mayest reply;-if
thou dost answer mankind by \vaves of the heavenly Ocean,

I The goddess Nit, the heifer born from the midst of the primordial
waters, had two crocodiles as hf'r children, which are sometimes represented
on the monuments as hanging from her bosom. Both the part played by
these animals, a.nd the reason for connecting them with the goddess, are still
imperfectly understood.
2 This is an allusion to the quarrels and lawsuits resulting from the dis-
tribution of the water in years when the Nile was poor or bad. If the inun-
dation is abundant, disputes are at an end.

5-1

TIlE
ILE AND EGYPT

-Napri, the grain-god, presents his offering,-all the gods
adore (thee),-the birds no longer descend upon the hills;
-though that which thy hand formeth were of gold-or in
the !5hape of a brick of silver,-it is not lapis-lazuli that we
eat,-but wheat is of more worth than precious stones.
"XI.-They have begun to sing unto thee upon the
harp,-they sing unto thee keeping time with their hands,
-and the generations of thy childl"en rej oice in thee, and
they have filled thee with salutations of praise ;-for it is the
god of Riches who aùorneth the earth,-who 111aketh barks
to prosper in the sight of man-who rejoiceth the heart of
women with child-who loveth the increase of the flocks.
" XII.- W-hen thou art risen in the city of the Prince,
-then is the rich man filled-the small man (the poor)
disdaineth the lotus,-all is solid and of good quality,-all
herbage is for his children.-Doth he forget to give food?
-prosperity forsaketh the dwellings,-alld earth falleth
into a wasting sickness." .
The word Nile is of uncertain origin. We have it from
the Greeks, and they took it from a people foreign to Egypt,
either from the Phænicians, the Khiti, the Libyans, or from
people of Asia ß1inor. "\V.hCll the Egyptians themselves
did not care to treat their river as the god HÚpi, they
called it the sea, or the great river. They had twenty
terms or more by which to designate the different phases
which it assurned according to the seasons, but they would
not have understood what was meant had one spoken to
them of the Nile. The name Egypt also is part of the
Hellenic tradition; perhaps it was taken from the temple-
name of
rell1phis, Hâikûphtah, which barbarian coast

Libyan MountaulS

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THEIlt N A)IES

5;)

tribes of the Mediterranean Inust long have had ringing ill
their ears as that of the most important and wealthiest town
to be found upon the shores of their sea. The Egyptians
called themselves Romitû, Rotû, and their country Qimit,
the black land. Whence carne they? How far off in tirne
are we to carry back the date of their arrival? The oldest
monurnents hitherto known scarcely transport us fUl,ther
than six thousand years, yet they are of an art so fine, so
well detel'mined in its main outlines, and l'eveal so in-
geniously combined a system of administration, government,
and religion, that we infer a long past of accumulated
centuries behind them. It nlust always be difficult to
estimate exactly the length of time needful for a race as
gifted as were the Ancient Egyptians to rise from barbarism
into a high degree of culture. Nevertheless, I do not think
that we shall be misled in granting them forty or fifty
centuries wherein to bring so complicated an achievement
to a successful issue, and in placing their first appearance
at eight or ten thousand years before our era. Their
earliest horizon was a very limited one. Their gaze might
wander westward over the ravine-furrowed plains of the
Libyan desert without reaching that fabled land of Manû
where the sun set every evening; but looking eastward
frorn the valley, they could Ree the peak of Bâkhû, which
lllarked the limit of regions accessible to man.
Beyond these regions lay the beginnings of To-nûtri,
the land of the gods, and the breezes passing over it were
laden with its perfumes, and sometimes wafted them to
mortals lost in the desert. 1 Northward, the world carne
1 The perfumes and the oduriferous woods of the DirillC Land were

56

THE KILE AN"D EGYPT

to an end to\vards the lagoons of the Delta, whose in-
accessible islands were believed to be the sojourning-place
of souls after death. As regards the south, precise know-
ledge of it scarcely went beyond the defiles of Gebel Sil-
sileh, where the last remains of the granite threshold had
perhaps not altogether disappeared. The district beyond
Gebel Silsileh, the province of Konûsit, was still a foreign
and almost mythic country, directly connected with heaven
by means of the cataract. Long after the Egyptians had
broken through this restricted circle, the names of those
places which had as it were marked out their frontiers,
continued to be associated in their minds with the idea of
the four cardinal points. Bâkbû and ManÚ were still the
most frequent expressions for the extreme East and West.
N ekhabit and Bûto, the most populous towns in the neigh-
bourhoods of Gebel Silsileh and the ponds of the Delta,
were set over against each other to designate South and
North. It was within these nan'ow limits that Egyptian
civilization struck root and ripened, as in a closed vessel.
What were the people by whom it was developed, the
country whence they came, the races to which they be-
longed, is to-day unknown. The majol'ity would place
their cradle-land in Asia,l but cannot agree in determining

celebrated in Egypt. A traveller or hunter, crossing the desert, "could not
but he vivi(Uy impressed by suddenly becoming aware, in the very midst
of the desert, of the penetrating scent of the rnbúl (Pulicharia undltlata,
SCIIWEINF,), which once followed us throughout a day and two nights, in
some places without our being able to distingui:'5h whence it came; as, for
instance, when we were crossing tracts of country without any traces of
vegetation whatever" (GoLENISCIIEFF),
1 The greater number of contemporary Egyptologists, BRUGSCH, EDlms,

PRon
\.RLE AFRICAX ORIGIX OF THE EGYPTIANS 57

the route which was followed in t.he emigration to Africa.
Sam e think that the people took the shortest road across
the Isthmus of Suez, others give them longer peregrinations
and a more complicated itinerary. They would have them
cross the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and then the Abyssinian
mountains, and, spreading northward and keeping along
the Nile, finally settle in the Egypt of to-day. A more
minute examination compels us to recognize that the
hypothesis of an Asiatic origin, however attractive it may
seem, is somewhat difficult to maintain. The bulk of the
Egyptian population presents the characteristics of those
white races which have been found established from all
antiquity on the Mediterranean slope of the Libyan
continent; this population is of African origin, and came
to Egypt from the 'Vest or South-"\Vest. In the valley,
perhaps, it may have met with a black race which it drove
back or destroyed; and there, perhaps, too, it aften
ards
received an accretion of Asiatic elements, introduced by
way of the isthmus and the marshes of the Delta. But
whatever may be the origin of the ancestors of the
Egyptians, they were scarcely settled upon the banks of
the Nile before the country conquered, and assimilated

LAUTH, LIEBLEIN, have rallied to this opinion, in the train of E. DE ROUGÉ,
but the most extreme position has been taken up by HOMMEL, the Assyrio-
logist, who is inclined to derive Egyptian civilization entirely from the
Babylonian. After having summarily announced this thesis in his Gesc7tic1tle
Babyloniens und Assyriens, p. 12, et seq" he has set it forth at length in a
special treatise, Der Babylonische Urs]Jrung dcr iigyptischen Kultur, 1892,
wherein he endeavours to prove that the IIeliopolitan myths, and hence the
whole Egyptian religion, are derived from the cults of Eridû, and would
make the name of the Egyptian city Onû, or Anû, identical with that of
Nûn-ki 1 Nûn 1 which is borne by the Chaldean.

58

THE NILE A
D EGYPT

them to itself, as it has never ceased to do in the case of
strangers who have occupied it. At the time when their
history begins for us, all the inhabitants had long formed
but one people, with but one language.
This language seems to be connected with the Semitic
tongues by many of its roots. It forms its personal
pronouns, whether isolated or suffixed, in a similar \vay.
One of the tenses of the conj ugation, and that the simplest
and most archaic, is formed with identical affixes. Without
insisting upon resemblances which are open to doubt, it
may be almost affirmed that most of the grammatical
processes used in Semitic languages are to be found in
a rudÜnentary condition in Egyptian. One would say that
the language of the people of Egypt and the languages of
the Semitic races, having once belonged to the same group,
had separated very early, at a time when the vocabulary
and the grammatical system of the group had not as yet
taken definite shape. Subject to different influences, the
two families would treat in diverse fashion the elements
common to both. The Semitic dialects continued to
develop for centuries, while the Egyptian language, although
earlier cultivated; stopped short ill its growth. "If it is
obvious that there was an original connexion between the
language of Egypt and that of Asia, this connexion is
nevertheless sufficiently remote to leave to the Egyptian
race a distinct physiognomy." vVe recognize it in sculp-
tured anù painted portraits, as well as in thousands of
mummied bodies out of subterranean tombs. The highest
type of Egyptian was tall and slender, with a proud and
imperious air in the carriage of his head and in his whole

beal'ing. He had wide and full shoulders, well-nlarkeù and
vigorous pectoral 11111scles, muscular anns, a long, fine
hand, slightly developed hips, and sinewy legs. The detail
of the knee-joint and the muscles
"".
of the calf are strongly marked

beneath the skin; the long, thin, [ . '

and low-arched feet are flattened ,: ".<. < ...... '}

out at the extremities owing to L ',. '.,
the custom of going barefoot. \, ." ,

The head is rather short, the \ '\; \ '
face oval, the forehead some- ' , ,.,"

' "
what retreating. The eyes are ,. I
wide and fully opened, the cheek-:

,I'
bones not too markod, the nose i .. '::'.fi II
fairly prominent, aud either I .,..... ..:'"
straight or aquiline. The mouth 1 .
\ J
1J1. ... r ....
is long, the lips full, and lightly , I
I,'

.
ridged along their outline; the II I

teeth small, even, well-set, and
q

I';
remarkably sound; the ears are t
" ,.y
set high on the hGad. At birth
'

J"
".
\.
the skin is ,vhite: but darkens

......

?'::=
_ ,'

t t t t
,}- ..",'UI"
in propor ion 0 i s exposure 0 I, '11;; .1.), ]," " "' "(
"'1111'11 ......, &...C-M.A..C;..).
the sun.
Ien are generally TIlE
UßLE TYl'E OF EGYl'rU
,l
painted red in the pictures,
though, as a matter of fact, there must already have been
all the shades which we see among the present population)
from a most delicate, rose-tinted cOlnplexion to that of

EGYrTI.A
TYPES

59

-I
J

,I

f

1 Statue of Rânofir in the Gîzeh 'Museum (Vlh dynasty), after a photo-
graph by Émil Drugsch-Bcy.

60

THE NILE AND EGYP1'

a smoke-colonred bronze. Women, who were less exposed
to the sun, are generally painted yellow, the tint paler in
proportion as they rise in the social scale. The hair was
inclined to be wavy, and even to curl into little ringlets,

......0....:. _
... ....

'''1,
":di i; I
.
'
_ }
/f _:

; . ,

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."....
';;.-,' '}1 ..

':

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.Al'I EGYPTIA"S OF TilE ORD.lliARY TYl'E,l

.... . .8,.... ..'

,- "-<.

' 't; "'f( ",'
r."
.' ,,', ,
" -' 0;.- "
... ( , ""I" ., -,. 'I
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,
'tr ?', \(;,,/ fIt, .

,

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'
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HEAD OF A THEBAN l\JillU\lY.

).
t
.. ',';
"l
í
, ('14'" .{'i

,...,
.
\,
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If/./ ,
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....

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. r
".ti j': ff.; " 1/
" ,....... '..1 . I}}
../..
'-

;.' :,'.:T" A
:
, . :.... \ "'.
II\" -...
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I j,> \ ,-
:'. 'r t: 'I/i... "., "
\
}Jj '(
:'," " Þef. .
'-\\t ::.' " '

\

'j
""

HE.\l> OF A FELLAH OF UPPElt EGYPT,

but without ever turning into the wool of the negro. The
beard was scanty, thick only upon the chin. Such was the
highest type; the COlnmoner was squat, dumpy, and heavy.
1 Statue of Û siri (ypb dynasty) in the Gîzeh :l\Iuseum, From a pÌlOto-
graph by Émil Brugsch-Bey.

i

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C

EGYPTIAN TYPES

61

Chest and shoulders seem to be enlarged at the expense of
the pelvis and the hips, to such an extent as to make the
want of proportion between the upper and lower parts of
the body startling and ungraceful. The skull is long,
somewhat retreating, and slightly flattened on the top;
the features are coarse, and as though carved in flesh by
great strokes of the blocking-out chisel. Small frænated
eyes, a short nose, flanked by widely distended nostrils,
round cheeks, a square chin, thick, but not curling lips-
this unattractive and ludicrous physiognomy, sometimes
animated by an expression of cunning ,vhich recalls the
shrewd face of an old French peasant, is often lighted up
by gleams of gentleness and of melancholy good-nature.
The external characteristics of these two principal types
in the ancient monuments, in all varieties of modifications,
may still be seen among the living. The profile copied
from a Theban mummy taken at hazal'd from a necropolis
of the XVllp h dynasty, and compared with the likeness of
a modern Luxor peasant, would almost pass for a family
portrait. Wandering Bisharîn have inherited the type of
face of a great noble, the contemporary of Kheops; and
any peasant woman of the Delta may bear upon her
shoulders the head of a twelfth-dynasty king. A citizen
of Cairo, gazing with wonder at the statues of I{hafra or
of Seti 1. in the Gîzeh J\Iuseum, is himself, feature for
feature, the very image of those ancient Pharaohs, though
removed from them by fifty centuries.
Until quite recently nothing, or all but nothing, had been
discovered which could be attributed to the primitive races
of Egypt: even the flint weapons and implements which

62

THE KILE AKD EGYPT

had been found in various places could not be ascribed to
them with D.ny degree of certainty, for the Egyptians con-
tinued to use stone long after metal was known to them.
They made stone arro,vheads, hammers, and knives, not
only in the til11e of the Pharaohs, but under the Romans,

..",

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A FELLAH WO:\IAN WITH THE FEATURES OF AN ANCIENT KIXG.l

and during the whole period of the l\Iiddle Ages, and the
manufacture of them has not yet entirely died out. 2 These

1 The face of the woman here given was taken separately, and was subse-
quently attached to the figure of an Egyptian woman whom N aville had
photographed sitting beside a colossal head. The nose of the statue has
been restored.
2 An entire collection of flint tools-axes, adzes, knives, and sickles-
mostly with wooden handles, were found by Prof, Petrie in the ruins of Kahun,
at the entrance to the Fayûm : these go back to the time of the twelfth dynasty,
more than three thousand years before our era. :l\Iariette had previously
pointed out to the learned world the fact that a Coptic Eeis, Salib of Abydus,
in charge of the excavations, shaved his head with a flint knife, according to

EARLY CIVILIZATION

ß3

objects, and the workshops where they were made, might
therefore be less ancient than the greater part of the in-
scribed monuments. Bnt if so far we had found no examples
of any work belonging to the first ages, we met in historic
times with certain customs which were out of harmony
with the general civilization of the period. A comparison
of these customs with analogous practices of barbarous
nations threw light upon the former, completed their mean-
ing, and showed us at the san1e tirne the successive stages
through which the Egyptian people had to pass before
reaching their highest civilization. vVe knew, for example,
that even as late as tbe Cæsars, girls belonging to noble
families at Thebes were consecrated to the service of Amon,
and were thus licensfd to a life of immorality, which, how-
ever, did not prevent them from making rich marriages
when age obliged them to retire from office. Theban WOlDen
were not the only people in the world to whom such licence
was granted or imposed upon them by law; wherever in a
civilized country we see a similar practice, we may recog-
nize in it an ancient custom which in the course of centuries
has degenerated into a religions observance. The institu-
tion of the women of Amon is a legacy from a time when the
practice ofpoJyandryobtained, and marriage did not yet exist.
Age and maternity relieved them from this obligation, and
preserved them from those incestuous connections of which
we find examples in other races. A union of father and
the custom of his youth (1820-35), I knew the man, who died at over
eighty years of age. in 188ï; he was still faithful to his flint implement,
while his sons and the whole population of EI Kharbeh were using nothing
Lut steel razors. As his scalp was scraped nparly raw by the operation, he
used to cover his head with fresh leaves to cool the inflamed skin.

64

THE NILE AND EGYPT

daughter, however, was perhaps not wholly fOTbidden,t and
that of brother and sister seems to have been regarded as
perfectly right and natural; the words brother and sister
possessing in Egyptian love-songs the same significance as
lo-uer and mistress with us. Paternity was necessarily
doubtful in a community of this kind, and hence the tie
between fathers and children was slight; there being no
family, in the sense in which we understand the word,
except as it centred around the mother. l\faternal descent
was, therefore, the only one openly acknowledged, and the
affiliation of the child was indicated by the name of the
mother alone. 'Vhen the woman ceased to belong to all,
and confined herself to one husband, the man reserved to
himself the privilege of taking as many wives as he wished,
or as he was able to keep, beginning with his own sisters.
All wives did not enjoy identical rights: those born of the
same parents as the man, or those of equal rank with
himself, preserved their independence. If the law pro-
nounced him the master, nibÛ, to whom they owed obedience
and fidelity, they were mistresses of the house, nîbît pir{l,
as well as wives, himitû, and the two words of the title
express their condition. Each of them occupied, in fact,
her own house, pirû, which she had from her parents or
her husband, and of which she was absolute mistress, nîúU.
She lived in it and performed in it without constraint all
a woman's duties; feeding the fire, grinding the corn,
1 E. DE ROUGÉ held that Rameses II. married at least two of his
daughters, Bint Anati and Honittui ; 'V IEDEMANN admits that Psammetichus
I. had in the same way taken to wife Nitocris, who had been born to him by
the Theban princess Shapenuapit, The Achæmenidan kings did the same:
Artaxerxe::; married two of his own dau.ghters.

L\.RRIAGß

6:5

occupying herself in oooking and weaving, making clothing
and perfumes, nursing and teaching her children. When
her husband visited her, he was a guest ,vhom she received
on an equal footing. It appears that at the outset these
various wives were plaoed under the authority of an older
woman, whom they looked on as their mother, and who
defended their rights and interests against the master; but
this custom gradually disappeared, and in histo1'Íc times
we read of it as existing only in the families of the gods.
The female singers conseorated to Amon and other deities,
owed obedienoe to several supe1"Íors, of whom the p1'Ínoipal
(generally the wiùow of a king or high priest) was called
c1âef-sllperi01' of the ladies of the lta1'en
of .Amon. Besides
these wives, there were conoubines, slaves purohased or
born in the house, prisoners of war, Egyptians of inferior
olass, who Wel"e the ohattels of the man and of whom he
could dispose as he wished. All the children of one father
were legitimate, whether their mother were a wife or
merely a ooncubine, but they did not aU enjoy the same
advantages; those among them wbo were born of a brothel'
or sister united in legitimate Inarriage, took preoedence of
those whose mother was a wife of inferior rank or a slave.
In the family tbus constituted, the woman, to all appear-
anoes, played the principal part. Children recognized the
parental relationship in the mother alone. The husband
appears to have entered the house of his wives, rather than
the wives to bave entered his, and this appearance of
inferiority was so marked that the Greeks were deceived by
it. They affirmed that the woman was supreme in Egypt;
the man at the time of marriage promised obedience to ber l
VOL. I. F

66

THE NILE AN"D EGYPT

and entered into a contract not to raise any objection to
her commands.
\Ve had, therefore, good grounds for supposing that
the first Egyptians were semi-savages, like those still living
in Africa. and America, having an analogous organization,
ana similar weapons and tools. A few lived in the desert,
in the oasis of Libya, or in the deep valleys of the Red
Land-.-Doshirit, To Doshiru-between the Nile and the
sea; the poverty of the country fostering their native

-
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KEGlW rI:ISOXEUS WEAUIXG TIlE P.\.XTIlEU'S SKIX AS A LOIX-CLOTII.

savagery. Others, settled on the Black Land, gradually
became civilized, and we have found of late considerable
remains of those of their generations who, if not anterior
to the times of written records, were at least contemporary
with the earliest kings of the fhst historical dynasty.
Their houses were like those of the feHahs of to-day, low
huts of wattle daubed with puddled clay, or of bricks dried
in the sun. They contained one room, either oblong or
square, the door being the only aperture. Those of the
richer class only were large enough to make it needful to

HOC-SES. l
CHXITGRE

ü7

support the roof by lneans of one or more trunks of trees,
which did duty for columns. Earthen pots, turned by
hand, flint knives and other implel11ents, Il1ats of reeds or
plaited straw, two fiat stones for grinding corn, a few pieces
of wooden furniture, stools, and head-rests for use at night,
comprised all the contents. Their ordinary pottery is
heavy and almost devoid of ornament, but SOlne of the
finer kinds have been l110ulùed and baked in wickerwork
baskets, which bave left a quaint trellis-like impression on
the surface of the clay, In many cases the vases are
bicolour, the body being of a fine smooth I'ed, polished
with a stone, while the neck and base are of an intense
black, the surface of ,vhich is even more shining than that
of the red part. Sometimes they are ornamented with
patterns in white of flowers, palms, ostriches, gazelles,
boats with undulated or broken lines, or geollletrical :figures
of a very simple nature.
lore often the ground is coloured
a :fine yellow, alid the decoration has been traced in red
lines, J aI'S, saucers, double vases, flat plates, large cups,
supports for amphoræ, trays raised on a foot-in short,
every kind of form is found in use at that renlote period.
The men went about nearly naked, except the nobles, who
,vore a panther's skin, sometin1es thrown over the shoulders,
sometimes drawn round the waist, and covering the lower
part of the body, the animal's tail touching the heels
behind, as we see later in several representations of the
negroes of the Upper Nile. They smeared their limbs with
grease or oil, and they tattooeù their faces and bodies, at
least in part, but in later times this practice was retained
by the lower classes only. On the other hand, the custom

68

THE
JLE AXD EGYPT

of painting the face was never given up. To complete
their toilet, it was necessary to accentuate the arch of
the eyebrow with a line of kohl (antimony powder). A
similar black line surrounded and prolonged the oval of

:g [1\\\\\\\\\ I
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.

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===-- -==:---

NOT.\BLE WE.\RIXO TIlE L.\RCE CLOAK
OVER TIlE LEFT SHOCI.DElt. 1

l'RIEST WE.\RIXG TIlE l'AXTHER'S
SJd
ACIWSS THE ßREAST. 2

the eye to the middle of the temple, a layer of green
coloured tho under lid, and ochre and carmine enlivened

1 ,V ooden statue in the Gîzeh Museum (IVth dynasty), drawn by Faucher-
Gudin, from a photograph by Béchal'(l.
2 Statue of the second prophet of Amon, Aa-nen, in the Turin Museum
(X VlIIth ùyna
ty).

COSTU:\lE

GO

the tints of the cheeks and lips. The hair, plaited, curled,
oiled, and plastered with grease) formed an erection which
was as complicated in the case of the lllan as in that of
the woman. Should the hair be too short, a black or blue
wig, dressed with much skill, was substituted for it; ostrich
feathers waved on the heads of warriors, and a large lock,
flattened behind the right ear) distinguished the military
or religious chiefs from their subordinates, 'Vhen the art
of ,veaving becanle common, a belt and loin-cloth of white
linen replaced the leathern garment. Fastened round the
waist, but so low as to leave the navel uncovered, the
loin-cloth frequently reached to the knee; the hinder part
was frequently drawn between the legs and attached in
front to the belt, thus forming a kind of drawers. Tails of
anÍ111als and wild beast's skin were henceforth only the
insignia of authority with which priests and princes adorned
themselves on great days and at religious ceremonies.
The skin was sometimes carelessly thrown over the left
shoulder and swayed with the movement of the body;
sometimes it was carefully adjusted over oue shoulder and
under the other, so as to bring the curve of the chest into
prominence. The head of the animal, skilfully prepared
and enlivened by large eyes of enamel, rested on the
shoulder or fell just below the waist of the wearer; the
paws, with the claws attached, hung down over the thighs;
the spots of the skin were manipulated so as to fonn five-
pointed stars. On going ont-of-doors, a large wrap 'was
thrown over all; this covering was either Sillooth or hairy,
similar to that in which the N ubians and Abyssinians of
the present day envelop themselves. It could be draped

70

THE KILE AND EGYPT

in varIOUS w'ays; transversely over the left shoulder like
the fringed shawl of the Chaldeans, or hanging straight
from both shouldeTs like a mantle. 2 In fact, it did duty
as a cloak, sheltering the wearer from the sun or from the
rain, from the heat or from the cold. They never sought
to transform it into a luxurious
garment of state, as was the case in
later tÜlles with the Roman toga,
whose amplitude secured a cer-
tain dignity of carriage, and
whose folds, carefully adjusted
beforehand, fell around the
body with studied grace.
The Egyptian mantle,
when not required, ,vas
thrown aside and folded
up. The material being
fine and soft, it occupied
but a small space, and
was reduced to a long
thin roll; the ends
A DIG
IT.\RY WRAPPED I
I1I
J
ARGE CLO.\K. 1 being then fastened to-

\
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.

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.

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\\,\,
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,

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ii_
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--
i..\\,

I Rtatue of Khiti in the Gîzeh :l\1useum (Xllth and XlIph dynasties),
drawn by Faucher-Gudin.
2 This costume, to which Egyptologists have not given sufficient attention,
is frequently represented on the monuments. Besides the two statues
reproduced above, I may cite those of U ahibri and of Thoth-nofir in the
Louvre, and the Lady N ofrit in the Gîzeh :l\1useum. Thothotpû in his
tomb wears this mantle, Khnumhotpû and several of his workmen are
represented in it at Beni-Hasan, as also one of the princes of Elephantinê in
the recently discovered tombs, besides many Egyptians of all classes in the
tombs of Thebes (a good example is in the tomb of Harmhabi), The

CUSTU3lE

71

gether, it was slung oyer the shoulder and round the body
like a cavalry cloak. 1 Travellers, shepherds, all those whose
occupations called them to the fields, carried it as a
bundle at the ends of their sticks; once arrived at the
scene of their work, they deposited it in a corner with
their provisions until they required it. The women were
at first contented with a loin-cloth like that of the men;
it was enlarged and lengthened till it reached the ankle
below and the bosom above, and became a tightly fitting
garrnent, with two bands over the shoulders, like braces, to
keep it in plaoe. The feet were not always oovered; on
certain oocasions, however, sandals of coarse leather, plaited

rea
on why it does not figure more often is, in the first placC', that the
Egyptian artists experienced actual difficulty in representing the folds of
its drapery, although these were simple compared with the complicated
arrangement of the Roman toga; finally, the wall-paintings mostly portray
either interior scenes, or agricultural labour, or the work of various trades,
or episodes of war, or religious ceremonies, in all of which the mantle plays
no part. Every Egyptian peasant, however, possessed his own, and it was
in constant use in his daily life,
1 .Many draughtsmen, ignorant of what thpy had to represent, have made
incorrect copies of the manner in which this cloak WaS worn; but examples
of it arC' numerous, although until now attention bas not bpen called to them.
The following are a few instances taken at random of the way in which it
was used: Pepi I., fighting against the nomads of Sinai, has the cloak, but
with the two ends passed through the belt of his loin-cloth; at Zawyet el-
l\Iaiyitîn, Khunas, killing birds with tbe boomerang from his bO'1t, wears it,
but simply thrown over the left shoulder, with the two extremities hanging
free, Khnumhotpû at Deni-Hasa.n, the Khrihabi, the overseers, or the
peasants, all have it rolled and slung round them; the Prince of el-Bersheh
wen,rs it like a mantle in folds over the two shoulders, If it is objected
that the material could not be red uced to such small dimensions as those
represented in these drawings of what I believe to be the Egyptian cloak, I
may cite our cavalry capes, when rolled and slung, as an instance of what
good packing will do in reducing volume,

72

THE XILE A"KD EGYPT

straw, split reed, or even painted wood, adorned those
shapely Egyptian feet, whioh, to suit our taste, should be
a little shorter. Both men
and women loved ornaments,
and oovered their neoks,
breasts, arms, 'wrists, and
ankles ,vith many rows of
neoklaoes and bracelets.
The braoelets were made of
elephant ivory, mother-of-
pearl, or even flint, very
oleverly perforated. The
neoklaoes were oomposed of
strings of pieroed shells, 2
interspersed ,vith seeds and
little pebbles, either spark-
ling or of unusual shapes. 3
Subsequently imitations in
terra-cotta replaced the
natural shells, and preoious
stones were substituted
for pebbles, as ,vere
also beads of enamel,

;.
' !
,.

:

\ \".. ')1

ClJSTl')1E OF EG YPTL\
Wo:.\[A x, f;prXXIXG. 1

:i. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the spinning-women at the Paris
Exhibition of 1889, 1t was restored from the paintings in the tomb of
Khnumhotpû at Bem-Hasan.
2 The burying-places of Abydos, especially the most ancient, have
furnished us with millions of shells, pierced and threaded as necklaces; they
all belong to the species of cowries used as money in Africa at the present day,
3 Necklaces of seeds have been found in the tombs of Abydos, Thebes,
and Gebelên. Of these Schweinfurth has identified, among others, the

ORN A:\[EXTS

73

either round, pear-shaped, or cylindrical: the necklaces
were terminated and a uniform distance maintained be-
tween the rows of beads, by several slips of wood, bone,
ivory, porcelain, or terra-cotta, pierced with holes, through
which ran the threads. 'Veapons, at least among the
nobility, were an indispensable part of costurne. l\1ost of

:\1 \
WE.\HI
G W((1 A
D
L('KI..\Cr::S.l

them were for hand-to-hand :fighting: sticks, clubs, lances
furnished with a sharpened bone or stone point, axes and

Cassia obsus, L., "a weed of the Soudan whose seeds are sold in the drug
bazaar at Cairo and Alexandria under the name of shis]Wl, as a remedy, which
is in great request among the natives, for ophthalmia," For the necklaces
of pebbles, d. )IAsPERo, GIl'ide du visitellr, pp, 2ïO, 271, No, 4129. A con-
siderable number of these pebbles, particularly those of strange
hape, or
presenting a curious combination of colours, must have been regarded as
amulets or fetishes by their Egyptian owners; analogous cases, among other
peoples, have been pointed out by E. B. TYLOR, Primitive Culture, vol. ii.
p.189.
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a portrait of Pharaoh Seti 1. of the
XIX th dynasty: the lower part of the necklace has been completed.

74

THE XILE AKD EGYPT

daggers of flint/ sabres ana clubs of bone or wood variously
shaped, pointed or rounded at the end, with blunt or sharp

blades,-inoffensive enough to

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TIlE nOü:\H:H.\XG AXD FIGUTIX(; BOW. 2

look at, but, wielded by a
vigorous hand, sufficient
to break an arm, crush in
the ribs, or smash a skull
with all desirable pre-
cision. 3 The plain or triple
curved bow was the ÜLVOUl'-
ite weapon for attack at
a distance,4 but in addi-
tion to this there were
the sling, the javelin, and
a missile almost forgotten
nowadays, the boomerang;
we have no proof, however,
that the Egyptianshandled
the boomeraug 5 with the

1 In several museums, notably at Leyden, we find Egyptian axes of stone,
particularly of serpentine, both rough and polished,
2 Drawn by Faucher-Guclin, from a painting in the tomb of Khnumhotpû
at Beni-Hasan.
3 In primitive times the bone of an animal served as a club. This is
proved by the shape of the object held in the hanù in the sign \o-J: the
hieroglyph
. \.-I. which is the determinative in writing for all ideas .of
violence or brute force, comes down to us from a time when the principal
weapon was the club, or a bone serving as a club,
4 For the two principal shapes of the bow, see LEPsH's, Dcr BO[Jen in iTer
HierotJl!fphik (Zeiischrifi, 1872, pp, 79-88), From the earliest times the sign

portrays the soldier equipped with the bow and humlle of arrows; the
quiver was of Asiatic origin, and was not adopted until much later In the
contemporary texts of the first dynasties, the idea of weapons is eonveyecl by
tbe bow, arrow, and club or axe,
5 The boomerang is still used by certain tribes oI the Nile valley. It is

AlDIS OP \VOOD AND
lETAL

75

skill of the Australians, or that they knew how to throw
it so as to bring it back to its point of departure. 1 Such
was approximately the most ancient equiprnent as far as
'we can ascertain; but at a vel'y early date copper and
iron 'were known in Egypt. 2 Long before historic times,
the majority of the weapons in wood "\vere replaced by

-'"

M"lr

J
1
'
}I

VOTIVE .AXE OF TIIOTIDIES III,3

those
served,
ments.

of metaI,-dagger3, sabres, hatchets, which pre-
however, the shape of the old wooden instru-
Those wooden weapons which were retained, were

portrayed in the most ancient tombs, and every museum possesses examples,
yarying in shape, Besides the ordinary boomerang, the Egyptians used one
which ended in a knob, and another of semicircular shape: this latter, re-
produced in miniature in carnelian or in red jasper, served as an amulet, and
was placed on the mummy to furnish the deceased in the other world with a
fighting or hunting weapon.
1 The Australian boomerang is much larger than the Egyptian one; it is
about a yard in length, two inches in width, and three sixteenths of an inch
in thickness, For the manner of handling it, and what can be done with it,
see LUBBOCK, Prehistoric lJlan, pp, 402, 403,
2
'[etals were introduced into Egypt in very ancient times, since the
class of blacksmiths is associated with the worship of Horus of Edfû, and
appears in the account of the mythical wars of that God. The earliest tools
we possess, in copper or bronze, date from the IV th dynasty: pieces of iroIt
have been found from time to time in the masonry of the Great Pyramid,
l\Ions l\:1ontélius has again and again contested the authenticity of these
discoveries, and he thinks that iron was not known in Egypt ti11 a much
later period.
3 The blade is of bronze, and is attached to the wooden handle by inter-
lacing thongs of leather (Gîzeh l\1useum), Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from
a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey.

76

THE KILE AXD EGYPT

used for hunting, or were only brought out on solemn
occasions \vhen tradition had to be respected. The war-
baton became the commander's wand of authority, and at
last degenerated into the walking-
" 1 stick of tbe rich or noble. ffhe club
at length represented merely the
rank of a chieftain, 1 while tbe crook
and the wooden-bandIed Inace, with
its bead of ivory, dioÚte, granite,
t. or \vhite stone, the favourite \veapons
I
\ of princes, continued to the last the
"
most revered insignia of royalty.2
1" Life was passed in comparative
.\ ease and pleasure. Of tbe ponds
11-' left in the open country by the river
at its fall, some dried U p more or
KIXG IlOLDIXG THE ß.\TO:'\, THE
"IIITE l\L\('E .\XD TIlE CLL"ß,3 less quickly during the "'inter,
leaving on the soil an imrnense quantity of fish, the
possession of which birds and wild beasts disputed with

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1 The wooùen club most commonly representeù f, is the usual insignia
of a nobleman.
everal kinds of clubs, somewhat difficult for us moderns
to distinguish, yet bearing diflèrent names, formed a part of funereal
furniture.
2 The crook I is the sceptre of a prince, a Pharaoh, or a god; the white
mace t has still the value apparently of a weapon in the hands of the king
who brandishes it over a group of prisoners or o\-er an ox which he is
sacrificing to a divinity. l\Iost museums possess specimens of the stone heads
of these maC'ps, but until lately their use was not known. I had several
placed in the TIoulak l\Iuseum, It already possessed a model of one entirely
of wood.
3 Das-relief in the temple of Luxor, from a photograph taken by Insinger
in 1886.

FISHIXG

77

man. l Other pools, however, remained till the returning
inundation, as so many vicaria in which the fish were

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FISIIISG IS THE MAnSllES: TWO FISH SPE.\.RED AT OXE STROKE OF TUE Il.\.JtPOO
.2

preserved for dwellers on the banks. Fishing with the

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.

FBIlIXG IN THE mVER : LlFTIXG A TRAP,3

1 Cf. the description of these pools given by Geoffroy-Saint.-Hilaire in
spf'aking of the faJtaka. Even at the present day the jackals come down
from the mountains in the night, and regale themselves with the fish left on
the ground by the gradual drying up of these ponds,
2 Isolated figure from a great fishing scene in the tomb of Khnumhotpû
at ßeni-Hasan; drawn by Fauchcr-Gudin after ROSELLINI,
3 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from squeezes from the tomb of Ti.

78

THE KILE AXD EGYPT

harpoon, made either of stone or of metal, with the line,
with a net or with traps, were all methods of fishing
known and used by the Egyptians from early times.
"\Vhere the ponds failed, the neighbouring Nile furnished
them with inexhaustible supplies. Standing in light canoes,
or rather supported by a plank on bundles of reeds bound

U

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HUSTI:\G IN THE MARSHES: EKCO[,
TERlXG ASD SI'E.\.RIXG A nIl'I'OI'OTAlIIU:;,l

together, they ventured into mid-stream, in spite of the
danger arising from the ever-present hippopotamus; or they
penetrated up the canals amid a tbicket of aquatic plants,
to bring down with the boolnerang the birùs which founù
covert there. The fowl and fish which could not be eaten

1 Tomb of Ti. Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from DCl\IICIIEN, Ile::;ultate,
vol. ii, pI. x.

HUXTIXG

79

fresh, were dried, salted, or smoked, and kept for a rainy
day. Like the river, the desert had its perils and its
resources. Only too frequently, the lion, the leopard, the

I1LSTI
G I
THE DE::;ERT: nrLL, LION, AND OR1X PIERCED WITH ARROWS. 1

panther, and other large felidæ were met with there. The
nobles, like the Pharaohs of later times, deemed it as

PACK Fno,r THE TmrB OF PTAIIHOTPOU. 2

their privilege or duty to stalk and destroy these animals,
pursuing them even to their dens. The common people

1 Drawn by Paucher-Gudin, from a painting by Beni-Hasan, LEPSIUS,
Dcnlan" ii, 136.
2 Drawn by Fauchcr-Gudin, from a has-relief of Ptabhotpû. The dogs
on the upper level are of hyenoid type, those on the lower are Abyssinian
grey hounds,

o

THE KILE AKD EGYPT

preferred attacking the gazelle, the oryx, the moufìon
sheep, the ibex, the wild ox, and the ostrich, but did not
disdain more humble game, such as the porcupine and
long-eared hare: nondescript packs, in which the jackal
and the hyena ran side by side with the wolf-dog and the
lithe Abyssinian greyhound, scented and retrieved for their
master the prey which he had pierced. with his arrows.
At times a hunter, returning with the dead body of the
mother, 'would be followed by one of her young; or a
gazelle, but slightly wounded, would be taken to the village
and healed of its hurt. Such animals,
by daily contact 'with man, were gradu- ",'
. ,
ally tan1Cd, and . '<.i'
formed about his

L
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d welling a motley" t , . , ! f j --. .,

o:Ckh
ep;l:::

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,
and mostly for
_ /' ,I

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bis profit, and be- ....' ,...' -.---'
coming in case of CATCIlIXG A
DIALS WITH THE BOLA. 1
necessity a ready stock of provisions. 2 Efforts were therefore
rnade to enlarge this flock, and the wish to procure anirnals
without seriously injuring them, caused the Egyptians to
use the net for' birds and the lasso and the bola for

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief of Ptahhotpû, Above are
seen two porcupines, the foremost of which, emerging from his hole, has
seized a grasshopper.
2 In the same way, before the advent of Europeans, the half-civilized
tribes of North America used tu keep about their huts whole flucks of
different animals, which were tame, but not domesticated.

THE LASSO AXD THE BOLA

81

quadrupeds,t-"\veapons less brutal than the arrow and the
javelin. The bola was made by thenl of a single rounded
Rtone, attached to a strap about five yards in length. The
stone once thrown, the cord twisted round the legs, muzzle,
or neck of the animal pursued, and by the attachment thus
made the pursuer, using all his strength, was enabled to
bring the beast do"\vn half strangled. The lasso has no
stone attached to it, but a noose prepared beforehand, and
the skill of the hunter consists in throwing it round the
neck of lÜs victim while running. They caught indif-
ferently, without distinction of size or kind, all that chance
brought within their reach. The daily chase kept up
these half-tan1ed flocks of gazelles, wild goats, water-bucks,
stocks, and ostriches, and their numbers are reckoned by
hundreds on the monuments of the ancient em pire. 2

1 Hunting with the bola is constantly represented in the paintings both
of the l\lemphite and Theban periods. 'Vilkinson has confounded it with
lasso-hunting, and his mistake has been reproduced by other Egyptologists.
Lasso-hunting is seen in LEPSIUS, Denkrn., ii, 96, in DÜlIIICIIEN, Resultate,
vol. i, pI. viii., and particularly in the numerous sacrificial scenes where the
king is supposed to be capturing the bull of the north or south, previous to
offering it to the god.
2 As the tombs of the ancient empire show us numerous flocks of
gazelles, antelopes, and storks, feeding under the care of shepherds, Fr.
Lcnormant conclud
d that tbe Egyptians of eady times had succeeded in
domesticating some species, nowadays rebels to restraint. It is my belief
that the animals represented were tamed, but not domesticated, and were
the result of great hunting expeditions in the desert. The facts which
Lenorrnant brought forward to support his theory may be used against him.
For instance, the fawn of the gazelle nourished by its mother does not prove
tbat it was bred in captivity; the gazelle may have been caught before
calving, or just after the birth of its young. The fashion of keeping flocks of
animals taken from the desert died out between the Xlph and XVIIph
dynasties. At the time of the new empire, t,hey had only onc or two solitary
VOL. I. G

82

THE KYLE AXD EGYPT

Experience alone taught the hunter to distinguish bet\veen
those species from which he could draw profit, and others
whose wildness made them impossible to domesticate. The
subjection of the most useful kinds had not been :finished
when the historic period opened. The ass, the sheep, and
the goat were already domesticated, but the pig was still
out in the marshes in a
.,
..- I; . {rII.. semi-wild state, under the
:1." ...... '"
, í i\'..., care of special herdsmen, 1
, .
and the religious rites pre-
"\

'--:l served the }'emmnbrance
' .::;:...",,:::
f.t ''', " of the tirnes in which the
. . ' J ox was so little tamed,
.' t"^"".."<M ,.-' that in order to capture
A SWI
EHERD A
D HIS rlGs. 2 while grazing the animals
needed for sacrifice or for slaughter, it was necessary to use
the lasso. 3

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animals as pets for women or children, the mummies of which were some-
times buried Ly the side of their mistresses.
1 The hatred of the Egyptians for the pig (HERODOTUS, ii. 47) is attri-
l
-:lted to mythological motives. LIPPERT thinks this antipathy did not exist
in Egypt in primitive times. At the outset the pig would have been the
principal food of the. people; then, like the dog in other regions, it must
have been replaced at the table by animals of a higher order-gazelles, sheep,
goats, oxen-and would have thus fallen into contempt, To the excellent
reasons given by Lippert could be added others drawn from the study of the
Egyptian myths, to prove that the pig has often been highly esteemed.
Thus, Isis is represented, down to late times, under the form of a sow, and a
sow, whether followed or not by her young is one of the amulets placed in
the tomb with the deceased, to secure for him the protection of the
goddess.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painting in a Theban tomb of the
XVIIp h dynasty,
3 l\L\RIET'l'E, Abyd08 (vol. i. pI. 48 b, 53). To prevent the animal from

PLAXTS rSED FOR FOOD

83

Europeans are astonished to meet nowadays whole
peoples who make use of herbs and plants whose flavour
and properties are nauseating to us: these are mostly
so many legacies from a remote past; for example, castor-
oil, with which the Berbers ru b their limbs, and with which
the fellahîn of the Said flavour their bread and vegetables,
was preferred beforo all others by the Egyptians of the
Pharaonic age for anointing the body and for culinary use. 1
They had begun by eating indiscrÜninately every kind of
fruit which the country produced. 1Iany of these, when
their therapeutic virtues had been learnel1 by experience,
were gradually banished as articles of food, and their use
l"estricted to medicine; others fell into disuse, and only
reappeared at sacrifices, or at funeral feasts; several
varieties continue to be eaten to the present time-the
acid fruits of the nabeca and of the carob tree, the astrin-
gent figs of the sycamore, the insipid pulp of the dom-palm,
besides those which are pleasant to our 'Vestern palates,
such as the common fig and the date. The vine flourished,
at least in 1Iiddle and Lower Egypt; from time imme-
morial the art of making wine from it was known, and even
the most ancient monuments enumerate half a dozen
famous brands, red or ,vhite. 2 Vetches, lupins, beans,

evading the lasso and escaping during the sacrifice, its right hind foot was
fastened to its left horn.
1 I have often been obliged, from politeness, when dining with the native
agents appointed by the European powers at Port Saïd, to eat salads and
mayonnaise sauces flavoured with castor-oil; the taste was not so disagree-
able as might be at first imagined.
2 The four kinds of canonical wine, brought respectively from the north,
south, east, and west of the country, formed part of the official repast and of
the wine-cellar of the deceased from remote antiquity.

8-1

THE .NILE A:KD EGYPT

chick-pea
, lentils, onions, fenugreek,t the bamiâ/ the
meloukhia,3 the arum colocasia, all grew wild in the fields,

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TIlE EGYPTIAN LOTUS. t

1 All these species have been found in the tombs and identified by savants
in archæological botany-Kunth, Unger, Schweinfurth (LOP..ET, La Flore
Pltaraonique, pp, 17,40,42,43, Nos. 33, !:I7, 102, 104,105,106),
2 The bamiâ, Hibiscus esculentus, L" is a plant of the family of the
l\Ialvaccæ, having a fruit of five divisions, covered with prickly hairs, and
ûontaining round, white, soft seeds, slightly sweet, but astringent in taste,
and very mucilaginous, It figures on the monuments of Pharaonic times.
3 The meloukhia, Corclwrus Olitorius, L., is a plant belonging to the
Tilliaceæ, which is chopped up and cooked much the same as endive is with
us, but which few Europeans can eat with pleasure, owing to the mucilage
it contains, Theophrastus says it was celebrated for its bitterness; it was
used as food, however, in the Greek town of Alexandria,
4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from the Description de l'E[J!Jptc, HISTOIRE
N ATURELLE, pI. 61.

GR.AI
AXD FRUITS

85

and the river itself supplied its quota of nourishing plants.
Two of the species of lotus which grew in the Nile, the
white and the blue, have seed-vessels similar to those of
the poppy: the capsules contain small gra,ins of the size
of millet-seed. The fruit of the pink lotus "gro\\"s on a
different stalk from that of the flower, and springs directly
from the root; it resembles a honeycolllb in form," or, to
take a more prosaic simile, the rose of a watering-pot. The
upper part has twenty or thirty cavities, "each containing
a seed as big as an olive stone, and pleasant to eat either
fresh or dried." This is what the ancients called the bean
of Egypt. "The yearly shoots of the papyrus are also
gathered. After pulling theln up in the marshes, the points
are cut off and rejected, the part remaining being about a
cubit in length. It is eaten as a delicacy and is solJ in the
markets, but those who are fastidious partake of it only
after baking," Twenty different kinds of grain and fruits,
prepared by crushing between two stones, are kneaded and
baked to furnish cakes or bread; these are often mentioned
in the texts as cakes of nabeca, date cakes, and cakes of
figs. Lily loaves, made from the roots and seeds of the
lotus, were the delight of the gourmand, and appear on the
tables of the kings of the XIXth dynasty; 1 bread and cakes
luade of cereals formed the habitual food of the people.
Durrah is of African origin; it is the" grain of the South"

1 Tiû, which is the most ancient word for bread, appears in e..1.r]y times
to have been used for every kind of paste. whether made with fruits or
grain; the more modern word 'Îqil applies specially to Lread made from
cereals. The lily loaves are mentioneù in the Pap!Jrus Anastasi, No.4, p.
14 A 1. 1.

so

THE NILE AXD EG rPT

of the inscriptions. On the other hand, it is supposed that
wheat and six-rowed barley came frorn the region of the
Euphrates. Egypt was among the first to procure and
cultivate them.! The soil there
" I
is so kind to man, that in
rnany places no agricultural
toil is required. As soon as
tIle ,vater of the Nile retires,
the ground is sown without
previous preparation, and the
\' ' grain, falling straight into the
mud, grows as vigorously as
in the best-ploughed furrows.
Where the earth is hard it is
necessary to break it up, but the extreme simplicity of the
instruments with which this was done shows what a feeble
resistance it offered. For a long tin1e the hoe sufficed.
It was con1posed either of a large stone tied to a wooden
handle, or was made of two pieces of wood of unequal
length, united at one of their extremities, and held together
towards the middle by a slack corù: the plough, when first
invented was but a slightly enlarged boe, drawn by oxen.
The cultivation of cereals, once established on the banks of
the Nile, developed, from earliest times, to such a degree as
to supplant all else: hunting, fishing, the rearing of cattle,

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TIlE E(ìn'TIA
1I0E. 2

1 The position which wheat and barley occupy in the lists of offerings,
proyes the antiquity of their existence in Egypt. :l\Iariette found specimens
of barley in the tombs of the Ancient Empire at Saqqarah,
2 Bas-relief from the tomb of Ti; ùrawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a
photograph Ly Émil Brugsch-Bey.

THE HOE AXD THE PLÜGGH

87

occupied but a secondary place compared ,vith agriculture,
anc1 Egypt became, that which she still remains, a vast
granary of wheat.
The part of the valley first cultivated was from Gebel
Silsileh to the apex of the Delta. 1 Between the Libyan
and Arabian ranges it presents a slightly convex surface,
furrowed lengthways by a depression, in the bottom of
which the Nile is gathered and. enclosed when the inunda-

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PLOUGHl
I1,2

tion is over. In the sumn1er, as soon as the river had risen
higher than the top of its banks, the water rushed by the
force of gravity towards the lower lands, hollowing in its
course long channels, SOl11e of which never completely dried

1 This was the tradition of all the ancients. Herodotus related that,
according to the Egyptians, the whole of I
gypt, with the exception of the
Thehan nome, was a vast swamp previous to the time of l\Ienes. Aristotle
adds that the Red Sea, the "1Ieditcrranean, and the area now occupied hy
the Delta, formed one sea. Cf, pp, 3-5 of this volume, on the formation of
the Del ta.
2 Bas-relief from the tomb of Ti; drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a
photograph by Emil Brug
ch-Bey.

88

THE XILE AXD EGYPT

up, even when the Nile reached its lowest level. 1 Cultiva-
tion was easy in the neighbourhood of these natural reser-
voirs, but everywhere else the mOVeIllents of the river were
rather injurious than advantageous to man. The inundation
scarcely ever covered the higher ground in the valley,
which thereforo remainod unproductive; it flowed rapidly
over the lands of mediuIll elevation, and nloved so sluggishly
in the hollows that they became weedy and stagnant })001s.2
In any year the portion not watered by the river was
invaded by the sand: from the lush vegetation of a hot
country, there was but one step to absolute al'idity. At
the present day an ingeniously estalJIished systenl of in'iga-
tion allows the agriculturist to direct and distribute the
overflow according to his needs. From Gebel Ain to the
sea, the Nile and its principal bTanches are bordered by
long dykes, which closely follow the \'ándings of the l'iver
and furnish sufficiently stable embankments. Numerous
canals lead off to right and left, directed more or less
obliquely towards the confines of the valley; they are
divided at intervals by fresh dykes, starting at the one side
from the river, and ending Oll the other either at tIle BaLl'
Y usuf or at the rising of the desert. Some of these dykes
protect one district only, and consist nlerely of a hank of
earth; others cOllllllalld a large extent of territory, and a
breach in thenl would entail the ruin of an entire proyi ncc.
These latter are sometimes like real ramparts, made of

1 The whole description of tbe damage which can be done by the Nile in
places where the inundation is not regulated, is borrowed from LIXANT. DE
BELLEFONDS, lJlémoire 8llr le8 principaux travaux d'utilité :fílblique, p, 3.
2 Tbis physical configuration of the country ('xplains the existence at a
very early date of those gigantic serpents which I have already mentioned.

An Eg) ptian Sakla ( We]] )

Showing method of procuring water for irrig,ltion

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DYKES, BASINS, IRRIGATION

so

crude brick carefully cemented; a few, as at Qosheish,
have a COI'e of hewn stones, which later generations have
covered with masses of brickwork, and strengthened with
constantly renewed buttresses of earth. They wind across
the plain with lnany unexpected and apparently aimless
turns; on closer examination, however, it may be seen that
this irregularity is not to be attributed to ignorance or
caprice. Experience had taught the Egyptians the art of
picking out, upon the almost imperceptible relief of the soil,
the easiest lines to use against the inundation: of these
they have followed carefully the sinuosities, and if the
course of the dykes appears singular, it is to be ascribed to
the natural configuration of the ground. Subsidiary eIll-
bankments thrown up between the principal ones, and
parallel to the Nile, separate the higher ground bordering
the river from the low lands on the confines of the valley;
they divide the larger basins into smaller divisions of vary-
ing area, in which the irrigation is regulated by means of
special trenches. As long as' the Nile is falling, the dwellers
on its banks leave their canals in free communication with
it; but they dam them up towards the end of the winter,
just before the return of the inundation, and do not reopen
thern till early in August, when the new flood is at its
height. The waters then flowing in by the trenches are
arrested by the nearest transverse dyke and spread over the
fields. \Vhen they have stood there long enough to saturate
the ground, the dyke is pierced, and they pour into the
next basin uutil they are stopped by a second dyke, which
in its turn forces them again to spread out on either side.
This operation is l'enewed from dyke to dyke, till the valley

90

THE NILE AND EGYPT

soon becomes a series of artificial ponds, ranged one above
another, and flowing one into another from Gebel Silsileh
to the apex of the Delta. In autumn, the mouth of each
ditch is daulllied up anew, in order to prevent the mass of
water from flowing back into the strealn. The transverse
dykes, which have been cut in various places, are also
repaired, and the basins become completely landlocked,
separated by narrow causeways. In some places, the \vater
thus Ünprisoned is so shallow that it is soon absorbed by
the soil; in others, it is so deep, that after it has been kept
in for several weeks, it is necessary to let it run off into a
neighbouring depression, or straight into the river itself.
History has left us no account of the vicissitudes of the
struggle in which the Egyptians were engaged with the
Nile, nor of the time expended in bringing it to a successful
issue. Legend attributes the idea of the system and its
partial working out to the god Osiris: then
lenes, the first
rnortal king, is said to have made the dyke of Qosheish, Oll
which depends the prosperity of the Delta and l\liddle
Egypt, and the fabulous
læris is supposed to llave ex-
tended the blessings of the irdgation to the Fayûm. In
reality, the regulation of the inundation and the making of
cultivahle land are the work of unrecorded generations who
peopled the valley. The kings of the historic period had
ouly to maintain and develop certain points of what had
already been done, and Upper Egypt is to this day chequered
by the network of waterways with which its earliest inhabi-
tants covel'ed it. The work must have begun simultaneously
at several points, without previous agreement, and, as it
were, instinctively. A dyke protecting a village, a canal

PERPETUAL STRIFE

ûl

draining or watering some small province, demanded the
efforts of but few individuals; then the dykes would join
one another, the canals would be prolonged till they met
others, and the work undertaken by chance would be im-
proved, and would spread with the concnrrence of an ever-
incl'easing population. What happened at the end of last
century, shows us that the syst61n grew and was developed
at the expense of considerable quarrels and bloodshed.
The inhabitants of each diatrict carried out the part of the
work most conducive to their own interest, seizing the

BOATMEN .FIGHTING O
A CAKAL COM!\1U
ICATI
G WITH THE KILE. 1

supply of ,vater, keeping it and discharging it at pleasure,
without considering whether they were injuring their neigh-
bours by depriving them of their supply or by flooding
them; hence aI.ose perpetual strife and fighting. It became
imperative that the rights of the weaker should be respected,
and that the system of distribution should be co-orclinated,
for the country to accept a beginning at least of social
organization analogous to that which it acquired latel': the

1 Bas-relief from the tomb of Ti; drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a
photograph oy É. Brugsch-Bey.

92

THE KILE _'\XD EGYPT

Nile thus determined the political as well as the physical
constitution of Egypt.
The country was divided among communities, whose
members were supposed to be descended from the same

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A GREAT EGYPTIAN LORD, TI, AKD HIS WIFE}

seed (pâît) and to belong to the same family (pâîtû): the
chiefs of them were called ropáîtzÎ , the guardians, 91' pastors

1 Drawn by Fauchcr-Gudin, from à photograph by DC.l\IICIIE
, Resultate,
vol. ii, pI. "ii.

THE rRI
CES OP THE :K031ES

U3

of the family, and in later times their name became a title
applicable to the nobility in general. Families combined
and formed groups of various importance under the
authority of a head chief-ropâitÛ-lut. They were, in fact,
hereditary lords, dispensing justice, levying taxes in kind
on their subordinates, reserving to themselves the re-
distribution of land, leading their llleu to battle, and
sacrificing to the gods. 1 The territories over which they
exercised authority formed smaIl states, whose boundaries
even now, in some places, can be pointed out with
certainty. rr1he principality of the Terebinth 2 occupied
the very heart of Egypt, where the valley is widest, and
the course of the Nile most advantageously disposed by
nature-a country well suited to be the cradle of an infant
civilization. Siaût (Siût), the capital, is built almost at
the foot of the Libyan range, on a strip of land barely
a mile in width, which separates the river from the hills.
A canal surrounds it on three sides, and makes, as it
were, a natural ditch about its walls j during the inunda-
tion it is connected with the mainland only by narrow
causeways-shaded with mimosas-and looking like a raft
of verdure aground in the cUITent. 3 The site is as happy

1 These prerogatives were still exercised by the princes of the nomes
under the 1Iiddle and New Empires j they only enjoyed them then by the
good will of the reigning sovereign,
2 The Egyptian word for the tree which gives its name to this principality
is atl, iatf, ið(f: it is only by a process of elimination that J ha\-e come to
identify it with the Pistacia TerelJinthus, L., which furnished the Egyptians
with the scented resin snûtir.
3 Boudier's drawing, reproduced on p. 31. and taken from a photograph
by Beato, gi\'es most faithfully the aspect presented Ly the plain and the
modern town of Siout during the inundation.

94

THE .J\'"ILE A.J\'"D EGYPT

as it IS picturesque; not only does the town command
the two arms of the
!'i vel', opening or
closing the water-
way at will, but
from time Imme-
morial the most
frequented of the
routes into Central
Africa has termi-
nated at its gates,
bringing to it the
commerce of the
Soudan. It held
sway, at the outset,
over both banks,
from range to
range, northward
as far as DeyrÚt,
where the true
Bahr Yusuf leaves
the Nile, and south-
ward to the neigh-
bourhood of Gebel
NOMES Sheikh Haridi. The
of extent and original
Scale number of the other
&5 principalities is not
1..Thuilher.de.l\- so easily deter-
mined. The most important, to the north of Siût, ,vere those

THE EARLIEST PRIXCIPALITIES

95

of the Hare and the Oleander. The principality of the Hare
never reached the diInensions of that of its neighbour the
Terebinth, but its chief town was KhmÚnÚ, whose antiquity
was so remote, that a universally accepted tradition made
it the scene of the most important acts of creation. l That
of the Oleander, on the contrary, \vas eyen larger than
that of the Terebinth, and frOln IIininsCt, its chief governor
ruled alike over the nlarshes of the Fayûm and the plains
of Beni-Suef. 2 To the south, ApÚ on the I'ight bank
governed a district so closely shut in between a bend of
the Nile anù two spurs of the range, that its limits have
never varied much since ancient times. Its inhabitants
were divided in their employment between weaving and
the culture of cereals. From early times they possessed
the privilege of furnishing clothing to a large part of
Egypt, and their looms, at the present day, still make
those checked or striped "melayahs" which the fellah
women wear over their long blue tunics. 3 Beyond Apû,
Thinis, the Girgeh of the Arabs, situate on both banks
of the I'iver, rivalled I\:.hmûnû in antiquity and Siût in
wealth: its plains still produce the richest harvests and

1 Khmûnû, the present Ashmûneîn, is the Hermopolis of the Greeks,
the town of the god Thot.
2 Hininsú is the Hcracle()]Jolis ]Iagna of the Greeks, the present Henassieh,
called also Ahnas-el-l\Iedineh. The Egyptian word for the tree which gives
its name to this principality, is Nl\RîT, Loret has shown that this tree,
NárÎt, is the oleander,
3 Apû was the Panopolis or Chelllmis of the Greeks, the town of the
god l\Iîn or ithyphallic Khimû, Its manufactures of linen are mentioned by
Strabo; the majority of the beautiful Coptic woven fabrics and embroideries
which have been brought to Europe lately, come from the necropolis of the
Arab period at Apû.

Oß

THE KILE AXD EGYPT

feed the most numerous herds of sheep and oxen in the
Saïd. As 'we approach the cataract, information becomes
scarcer. Qûbti and AÚllÛ of the South, the Coptos and

(;c.;;iNt (0

ø

NOMES
of'
UPPER EGYPT

..

Sc:.a1e
a s !o lül

L.Thuilliu,dt;.lL

Hermonthis of the Greeks, shared peaceably the plain
occupied later on by Tbebes and its temples, and N ekhabit
and Zobû "watcbed over the safety of Egypt. N ekhabît
soon lost its position as a frontier town, and that portion

DIVISIOXS Ol? THE DELTA

97

of Nubia lying between Gebel Silsileh and the rapids of
Syene formed a kind of border province, of which N ubît-
Ombos was the principal sanctuary and Abû-Elephantine
the fortress: beyond this were the barbarians, and those
inaccessible regions whence the Nile descended upon our
earth.
The organization of the Delta, it would appear, was
more slowly brought about. It must have greatly }'e-
sembled that of the lowlands of Equatorial Africa, towards
the confluence of the Bahr el Abiad and the Babr el
Ghazâl. Great tracts of mud, difficult to describe as
either solid or liquid, marshes dotted here and there ,vith
sandy islets, bristling with papyrus reeds, water-lilies, and
enormous plants through which the arms of the Nile
sluggishly pushed their ever-shifting course, low-lying
wastes intersected with streams and pools, unfit for
cultivation and scarcely available for pasturing cattle.
The population of such districts, engaged in a ceaseless
struggle with nature, always preserved relatively ruder
manners, and a more rugged and savage character,
impatient of all authority. The conquest of this region
began from the outer edge only. A few principalities were
established at the apex of the Delta in localities where
the soil had earliest been won from the river. It appears
that one of these divisions embraced the country south
of and between the bifurcation of the Nile: Aûnû of the
North, the Heliopolis of the Greeks, was its capital. In
very early times the principality was divided, and formed
three new states, independent of each other. Those of
Aûnû and the Haunch were opposite to each other, the
VOL. I. H

98

THE l\'"ILE AKD EGYPT

first on the Arabian, the latter on the Libyan bank of the
Nile. The district of the White Wall marched with that
of the Haunch on the north, and on the south touched
the ten'itory of the Oleander. Further down the river,
between the more important branches, the governors of
Saïs and of Bubastis, of Athribis and of Busiris, shared
among themselves the primitive Delta. Two frontier
provinces of unequal size, the Arabian on the east in the
Wady Tumilat, and the Libyan on the west to the south
of Lake Mareotis, defended the approaches of the country
from the attacks of Asiatic Bedâwins and of African
nomads. The mal'shes of the interior and the dunes of
the littoral, were not conducive to the development of any
great industry or civilization. They only comprised tracts
of thinly populated country, like the principalities of the
Harpoon and of the Cow, and others whose limits varied
from century to century with the changing course of the
rIver. The work of rendering the marshes salubrious and
of digging canals, which had been so successful in the
Nile Valley, was less efficacious in the Delta, and proceeded
more slowly. Here the embankments were not supported
by a mountain chain: they were continued at random
across the marshes, cut at every turn to admit the waters
of a canal or of an arm of the river. The waters left
their usual bed at the least disturbing influence, and made
a fresh course for themselves across country. If the inun-
dation were delayed, the soft and badly drained soil again
became a slough: should it last but a few weeks longer
than usual, the work of several generations was for a long
time undone. The Delta of one epoch rarely presented

DIYISIONS OF THE DELTA

99

the same aspect as that of previous periods, and Northern
Egypt never became as fully mistress of her soil as the
Egypt of the south.
These first principalities, however small they appear to

3

M- E D-:T '.V

E =:A: N

S E

NOMES
OF
LOWER EGYPT

Scale

us, were yet too large to remaIn undivided. In those
times of slow communication, the strong attraction which a
capital exercised over the provinces under its authority did
not extend over a wide radius. That part of the population

100

THE NILE AXD EGYPT

of the Terebinth, living sufficiently near to Siût to come
into the town for a few hours in the morning, returning
in the evening to the villages when business was done,
would not feel any desire to withdraw from the rule of the
prince who governed there. On the other hand, those who
lived outside that restricted circle were forced to seek else-
where some places of assembly to attend the administration
of justice, to sacrifice in common to the national gods, and
to exchange the produce of the fields and of local manu-
factures. Those towns which had the good fortune to
become such rallying-points naturally played the part of
rivals to the capital, and their chiefs, with the district
whose population, so to speak, gravitated around them,
tended to become independent of the prince. When they
succeeded in doing this, they often preserved for the new
state thus created, the old name, slightly modified by the
addition of an epithet. The primitive territory of Siût was
in this way divided into three distinct communities; two,
which remained faithful to the old emblem of the tree-
the Upper Terebinth, with Siût itself in the centre, and the
Lower Terebinth, with Kûsit to the north; the third, in
the south and east, took as their totem the immortal
serpent which dwelt in their mountains, and called them-
selves the Serpent Mountain, whose chief town was that of
the Sparrow Hawk. The ten'itory of the Oleander produced
by its dismemberment the principality of the Upper Oleander,
that of the Lower Oleander, and that of the Knife. The
territory of the Harpoon in the Delta divided itself into
the 'Vestern and Eastern Harpoon. The fission in most
cases could not have been accomplished without struggles;

THE GOD OF THE Kü:\lE

101

but it did take place, and all the principalities having a
domain of any considerable extent had to submit to it,
however they may have striven to avoid it. This parcelling
out was continued as circumstances afforded opportunity,
until the whole of Egypt, except the half desert districts
about the cataract, became but an agglomel'atioll of petty
states nearly equal in power and population. l
The Greeks called them nomes, and we have borrowed
the word from them; the natives named them in several
ways, the most ancient term being" nûît," which may be
translated dOlnain, and the most comrnon appellation in
recent times being " hospû," which signifies district. The
number of the nomes varied considerably in the course
of centuries: the hieroglyphic monuments and classical
authors fixed them sometimes at thil:ty-six, sometimes
at forty, sometimes at forty-four, or even fifty. The
little that we know of their history, up to the present
time, explains the reason of this variation. Ceaselessly
quarrelled over by the princely families who possessed
them, the nomes were alternately humbled and exalted
by civil wars, marriages, and conquest, which caused
them continually to pass into fresh hands, either entire
or divided. The Egyptians, whom we are accustomed
to consider as a people respecting the established order
of things, and conservative of ancient tradition, showed

1 Examples of the subdivision of ancient nomes and the creation of fresh
nomes are met with long after primitive times. We find, for example, the
nome of the Western Harpoon divided under the Greeks and Romans into
two districts-that of the Harpoon proper, of which the chief town was
Sonti-nofir; and that of Ranûfir, with the Onûphis of classical geographers
for its capital.

102

THE NILE AND EGYPT

themselves as restless and as prone to modify or destroy
the work of the past, as the most inconstant of our Inodern
nations. The distance of time which separates them from
us, and the almost complete absence of documents, gives
them an appearance of immobility, by which we are liable
to be unconsciously deceived; when the monuments still
existing shall have been unearthed, their history will present
the same complexity of incidents, the same agitations, the
same instability, which we suspect or know to have been
characteristic of most other Oriental nations. One thing
alone remained stable among them in the midst of so Inany
l'evolutions, and which prevented them from losing their
individuality and from coalescing in a common unity. This
,vas the belief in and the worship of one particular deity.
If the little capitals of the petty states whose origin is lost
in a remote past-Edfû and Denderah, N ekhabît and Bûto,
Siût, Thinis, Khmûnû, Saîs, Bubastis, Athribis-had only
possessed that importance which resulted from the presence
of an ambitious petty prince, or from the wealth of their
inhabitants, they would never have passed safe and sound
through the long centuries of existence which they enjoyed
from the opening to the close of Egyptian history. Fortune
Taised their chiefs, some even to the rank of rulers of the
world, and in turn abased them: side by side with the
earthly ruler, whose glory was but too often eclipsed, there
was enthroned in each nome a divine Tuler, a deity, a
god of the domain, "nûtir nûiti," whose greatness never
perished.
rhe princely families might be exiled or become
extinct, the extent of the territory might diminish or in-
crease, the town might be doubled in size and population

THE GOD OF THE NOME

103

or fall in ruins: the god lived on through all these vicissi-
tudes, and his presence alone preserved intact the rights of
the state over which he reigned as sovereign. If any
disaster befell his worshippers, his temple was the spot
where the survivors of the catastrophe rallied around him,
their religion preventing them from mixing with the in-
habitants of neighbouring towns and from becoming lost
among them. The survivors multiplied with that extra-
ordinary rapidity which is the characteristic of the Egyptian
fellah, and a few years of peace sufficed to repair losses
which apparently were irreparable. Local religion was the
tie which bound together those divers elements of which
each principality ,vas composed, and as long as it remained,
the nomes remained; when it vanished, they disappeared
with it.

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THE

GODS

OF

EGYPT

It

THEIR NUMBER AND NATURE-TilE FEUDAL GODS, LIVING AND DEAD-TRIADS-
TIlE TE
IPLES AND PRIESTIIOOD-THE COSMOGONIES OF THE DELTA-THE
ENNEADS OF I1ELIOPOLIS AND HERl\IOPOJ.IS.

Multiplicity of tlte Egyptian gods: the commonalty of tlte gods, its varieties,
human, animal, an(l intermediate between man and beast; gods of foreign
m"igin, indigenous gods, and the contradictory forms with which they were
invested in accordance witlt various conceptions of their nature.

The Star-gods-The Sun-god as the Eye of tlie Slcy; as a bird, as a ca{f,
and as a man; its barks, voyages round tlte world, and encounters with the
serpent Apopi-The .JJ[oon-god and its enemies-The Star-gods: tlte Haunch of
tlte Ox, tlte Hippopotamus, the Liun, the five Horus-planets; Sothis Sirius, and
Salu1 Orion,

The feudal gods and their classes: tlte Nile-gods, the eartlt-gods, tlte sky-
gods and the Bun-god, the Horus-gods-The equality of feudal gods and

( 106 )

goddesses; their persons, alliances, and marriages: their children-The triads
and their
'arious developments,

Tlte nature of tlte gods: the double, the soul, the body, deatlt of men and
gods, and their fate after deatlt-The necessity for preserving the body, mummifi-
cation-Dead gods the gods of the dead-TIle living gods, their temples and
images-The gods of the people, trees, serpents, family fetiches-The theory of
prayer and sacrijice: the servants of the temples, the property of the gods, the
sacerdotal colleges.

The cosmogonies of the Delta: Sib/l and NÛît, Osiris and Isis, sa anrl
Nepldhys-Heliopolis and its theological schools: Râ, his identification 1viOt
Horus, his dual nature, and the conception of Atûmú-Tlte Heliopolitan
Enneads: formation of the Great Enncad- TltOt and the llermopolitan
Ennearl: creatinn by articulate words and by voice alone-D
ffusion of the
Enneads: their connection 1vith the local triads, the god One and the god
Eight- The one and only gods.

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SOLE11:oí SACRIFICIAL PROCESSIOX OF THE FATTED BULL.t

CH.A.PTER II

THE GODS OF EGYPT

Their number and their nature-The feudal gods, li,'ing and dead-The
Triads-Temples and priests-The cosmogonies of the Delta-The
Enneads of Heliupolis and of Hermopolis.

'\

'''-
(
i

rHE incredible num bel' of religious
scenes to be found among the
representations on the ancient
monuments of Egypt is at first
glance very striking. N early every
illustration in the works of Egypto-
logists brings before us the figure

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1 Bas-relief in the temple of Luxor.
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by
Beato, taken in 1890. The two personages
marching in front, carrying great bouquets,
and each with an uplifted hand, are the
last in a long procession of the sons of
Rameses II.
2 Drawn by Boudier, from a Las-relief
of the temple ûf ALydos.

,\.

KING SETI I, KNEELING,2

108

THE GODS OF EGYPT

of some deity receiving with an impassive countenance"
the prayers and offerings of a worshipper. One would
think that the country had been inhabited for the most
part by gods, and contained just sufficient men and animals
to satisfy the requirements of their worship.
On penetrating into this mysterious world, we are
confronted by an actual rabble of-
gods, each one of whom has always
..,. possessed but a limited and almost
unconscious existence. They sever-
ally represented a function, a moment
in the life of man or of the universe;
thus N aprît was identified with the
l'ipe ear, 01' the grain of wheat; 2
M askhonît appeared by the child's
cradle at the very moment of its
birth; 3 and Raninît presided over

1 The goddess N aprît, N apît ; bas-relief from
the first> chamber of Osiris, on the east side of
the great temple of Denderah. Drawn by
Faucher-Gudin.
2 The word naprít means grain, the grain of
wheat. The grain-god is represented in the
tomb of Seti 1. as a man wearing two full ears
of wheat or barley upon his head. He is men-
tioned in the Hymn to the Nile about the same
date, and in two or three other texts of different
THE GODDESS KAPRÎT. KAPÎT} periods. The goddess Naprît, or Napí.t, to
whom reference is here made, was his duplicate;
her head-dress is a sheaf of corn, as in the illustration.
3 This goddess, whose name expresses and whose form personifies the
brick or stone couch, the child-bed or -chair, upon which women in labour
bowed themselves, is sometimes subdivided into two or four secondary
divinities. She is mentioned along with Shaît, destiny, and Raninît, suckling.

I " .

-"",
..&
-' ...........

VARIOUS ORDERS OF GODS

109

the naming and the nurture of the newly born. 1 Neither
Raninît, the fairy godmother, nor l\laskhonît exercised over
nature as a whole that sovereign authority which we are
accustomed to consider the primary attribute of deity.
Every day of every year was passed by the one in easing
the pangs of women in travail; by the other, in choosing
for each baby a name of an auspicious sound, and one
which would afterwards serve to exorcise the influences
of evil fortune. No sooner were their tasks accomplished
in one place than they hastened to another, where
approaching birth demanded their presence and their
care. From child-bed to child-bed they passed, and if
they fulfilled the single offices in which they were
accounted adepts, the pious asked nothing more of them.
Bands of mysterious cynocephali haunting the Eastern
and the Western mountains concentrated the whole of
their activity on one passing moment of the day. They
danced and chattered in the East for half an hour, to
salute the sun at his rising, even as others in the West
hailed him on his entrance into night. 2 It was the duty

Her part of fairy godmother at the cradle of the new-born child is indicated
in the passage of the Westcar Papyrus giving a detailed account of the births
of three kings of the fifth dynasty. She is represented in human form, and
often wears upon her head two long palm-shoots, curling over at their ends.
1 Raninli presides over the child's suckling, but she also gives him his
name, and hence, his fortune. She is on the whole the nursing goddess.
Sometimes she is represented as a human-headed woman, or as lioness-
headed, most frequently with the head of a serpent; she is also the uræus,
clothed, and wearing two long plumes on her head, and a simple uræus, as
represented in the illustration on p, 169,
2 This is the subject of a vignette in the Book of tlte Dead, ch, xvi.,
where the cynocephali are pla
ed in echelon upon the slopes of the hill on

110

THE GODS OF EGYPT

of certain genii to open gates in Hades, or to keep the
paths daily traversed by the sun. l These genii were always
at their posts, never free to leave them, and possessed no
other faculty than that of punctually fulfilling their
appointed offices. Their existence, generally unpel'ceived,
was suddenly revealed at the very moment when the
specific acts of their lives were on the point of accomplish-
ment. These being completed, the divinities fell back into
their state of inertia, and were, so to speak, reabsorbed by

(

lq

sü:\m F.\ßULOUS EE.\STS OF TIlE }.GYPTI.\.N DESERT,2

their functions until the next occasion. 3 Scarcely visible
even by glimpses, they were not easily depicted; their

thC' horizon, right and left of the radiant solar disk, to which they offer
worship by gesticulations,
I :MAf:PERO, f.'tlldes de }I,[!ft/tnlogie ct d' .Archéologie Ji'!J!/ptiennes, voL ii. pp.
34,35.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from Champollion's copies, made from the
tombs of Beni-Hassan. To the right is the sha, one of the animals of Sît,
and an exact image of tIle god with his stiff and arrow-like taiL Next comes
the sf{{ir, the griffin; and, lastly, we have the serpent-headed saza,
3 The Egyptians employed a still more forcible expression than our word
" absorption" to express this idea. It was said of objects wherein these
genii concealed themselves, and whence they issued in order to re-enter them
immediately, that these forms ale them, or that they ate their own forms.

THE LO'VER ORDER

111

real forms being often unknown, these were approximately
conjectured from their occupations. The character and
costume of an archer, or of a spear-man, were ascribed to
such as roamed through Hades, to pierce the dead with
arrows or with javelins. Those who prowled around souls
to cut their throats and hack them to pieces were repre-
sented as women armed ,vith knives, carvers-donlt-or
else as lacerators-nokît. Some appeared in human form;
others as animals-bulls or lions, Tams or monkeys, serpents,
fish, ibises, hawks; others dwelt in inanimate things, such
as trees, l sistrums, stakes stuck in the ground; 2 and lastly,
many betrayed a mixed origin in their combinations of
human and animal forms. These latter would be regarded
by us as monsters; to the Egyptians, they were beings,
rarer perhaps than the rest, but not the less real, and their
like might be encountered in the neighbourhood of Egypt. 3

1 Thus, the sycamores planted on the edge of the desert were supposed to
be inhabited by Hâthor, Nûît, Selkît, Nìt, or some other goddess. In
vignettes representing the deceased as stopping before one of these trees and
receiving water and loaves of bread, the bust of the goddess generally
appears from amid her sheltering foliage. But occasionally, as on the
sarcophagus of Petosiris, the transformation is complete, and the trunk
from which the branches spread is the actual body of the god or goddess.
Finally, the whole body is often hidden, and only the arm of the goddess to
be seen emerging from the midst of the tree, with an overflowing libation
vase in her hand.
2 The trunk of a tree, disbranched, and then set up in the ground, seems
to me the origin of the Osirian emblem called tat or didû. The symbol was
afterwards so conventionalized as to represent four columns seen in per-
spective, one capital overtopping another; it thus became the image of the
four pillars which uphold the world.
3 The belief in the real existence of fantastic animals was first noted by

IAsPERo, Etudes de Mytlwlo[Jie et d' Archéologie Égyptiennes, vol. i, pp, 117,
118, 132, and yo1. ii. p, 213. Until then, scholars only recognized the

112

THE GODS OF EGYPT

How could men who believed themselves surrounded by
sphinxes and griffins of flesh and blood doubt that there
were bull-headed and hawk-headed divinities with human
busts? The existence of such paradoxical creatures was
proved by much authentic testimony; more than one
hunter had distinctly seen them as they ran along the
furthest planes of the horizon, beyond the herds of gazelles
of which he was in chase; and shepherds dreaded them for
their flocks as truly as they dreaded the lions, or the great
felidæ of the desert. 1
rrhis nation of gods, like nations of men, contained
foreign elements, the origin of which was known to the
Egyptians themselves. They knew that Hâthor, the milch
cow, had taken up her abode in their land from very
ancient times, and they called her the Lady of Pûanît,
after the name of her native country. Bîsû had followed
her in course of time, and claimed his share of honours
and worship along with her. He first appeared as a
leopard; then he became a man clothed in a leopard's
skin, but of strange countenance and ala.rming character,
a big-headed dwarf with high cheek-bones, and a wide
and open mouth, whence hung an enormous tongue; he

Epbinx, and otber Egyptian monsters, as allegorical combinations by wbicb
tbe priestbood claimed to give visible expression in one and tbe same being
to pbysical or moral qualities belonging to several different beings. Tbe
later tbeory has now been adopted by 'V IEDEMANN, and by most contem-
porary Egyptologists.
1 At Beni-Hassan and in Tbebes many of the fantastic animals mentioned
in tbe text, griffins, bierospbinxes, serpent-headed lions, are placed along
with animals which might be encountered by local princes hunting in the
desert.

GODS OF FOREIGX ORIGIX

113

was at once jovial and martial, the friend of the dance
and of battle. 1 In historic times aU nations subjugated by
the Pharaohs transferred some of theÜ' principal divinities
to their conquerors, and the Libyan Shehadidi was
enthroned in the valley of the Nile, in the same way as
the Semitic Baâlû and his retinue of Astartes, Anitis,
Reshephs, and Kadshûs. These divine colonists fared
like all foreigners \vbo have sought to settle on the banks
of the Nile: they were promptly assimilated, wrought,
moulded, and maùe into Egyptian deities scarcely distin-
guishable from those of the old race. This mixed pantheon

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had its grades of nobles, princes, kings, and each of its
members was representative of one of the elements con-
stituting the world, or of one of the forces which regulated
its government. The sky, the earth, the stars, the sun, -
the Nile, were so many breathing and thinking beings
whose lives were daily manifest in the life of the universe.

I Bîsû, pp, 111-184. The tail-piece to the summary of this chapter is a
figure of Bîsû, drawn by Faucher-Gudin from an amulet in blue enamelled
pottery.
2 The hawk-headed monster with flower-tipped tail was called the saga.
VOL. I. I

114

THE GODS OF EGYPT

They were worshipped from one end of the valley to the .,
other, and the ,vhole nation agreed in proclaiming their
sovereign power. But when the people began to name-
them, to define their powers and attributes, to particularize
their forms, or the relationships that subsisted among them,
this unanimity was at an end. Each principality, each
nome, each city, almost every village, conceived and
represented thenI differently. Some said that the sky was
the Great Horus, Haroêris, the sparrow-hawk of mottled
plumage which hovers in highest air, and whose gaze
embraces the whole field of creation. Owing to a punning
assonance between his name and the word !wrû, which
designates the human countenance, the two senses were
combined, and to the idea of the sparrow-hawk there was
added that of a divine face, whose two eyes opened in turn,
the right eye being the sun, to give light by day, and the
left eye the moon, to illumine the night. The face shone
also with a light of its own, the zodiacal light, which
appeared unexpectedly, morning or evening, a little before
sunrise, and a little after sunset. These luminous beams,
radiating from a common centre, hidden in the heights of
the firmament, spread into a wide pyramidal sheet of liquid
blue, whose base rested upon the earth, but whose apex
was slightly inclined towards the zenith. The divine face
was symmetrically framed, and attached to earth by four
thick locks of hair; these were the pillars which upbore
the firmament and prevented its falling into ruin. A no
less ancient tradition disregarded as fabulous all tales told
of the sparrow-hawk, or of the face, and taught that
heaven and earth are wedded gods, Sibû, and N ûît, from

THEIR COXFLICTIXG FOR:\IS

115

whose marriage came forth all that has been, all that is,
and all that shall be. 1\lost people invested them with
human form, and represented
the earth-god Sibû as extended
beneath N ûît the StalTY One;
the goddess stretched out her
arms, stretched out her slender
legs, stretched out her body
above the clouds, and her dis-
hevelled head drooped west-
ward. But there were also
many who believed that Sibû
was concealed under the form
of a colossal gander, ,vhose mate
once laid the Sun Egg, and
perhaps still laid it daily. From
the piercing cries wherewith
he congratulated her, and an-
nounced the good news to all
who cared to hear it-after the
manner of his kind-he had
received the flattering epithet
of Ngagu oîrzl, the Great Cack-
ler. Other versions repudiated
the goose in favour of a vigorous
bull, the father of gods and
men, whose companion was a
cow, a large-eyed Hâtbor, of

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a painted collin of the xxr" t dynasty
in Leyden.

116

THE GODS OF EGYPT

beautiful countenance. The head of the good beast rises
into the heavens, the mysterious waters which cover the
world flow along her spine; the star-covered underside
of her body, which we call the firmament, is visible to
the inhabitants of earth, and her four legs are the four
pillars standing at the four cardinal points of the world.

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TIIK GOOSE-GOD FACING TilE C..U-GODDESS, TIlE LADY OF IIEAVEN. 1

The planets, and especially the sun, varied in fonn
and nature according to the prevailing conception of the
heavens. The fiery disk Atonû, by which the sun revealed-
hinlself to men, was a living god, called Râ, as was also

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a stella in the museum of Gîzeh, This
is not the goose of Sibû, but the goose of Amon, which was nurtured in the
temple of Karnak, and was called Smonû. Facing it is the cat of 1\laût, tile
wife of Amon. Amon, originally an earth-god, was, as we see, confounded
with SiLû, and thus naturally appropriated that deity's form of a goose.

THE LADY OF HE
\. YEN

117

the planet itself. 1 vVhere the sky \vas regarded as Horus,
Râ formed the right eye of the divine face: when Horus
opened his eyelids in the
morning, he made the
dawn and day; when he
closed them in the even-
ing, the dusk and night
were at hand. Where
the sky was looked upon
as the incarnation of a
goddess, Râ was con-
siderod as her son, 2 his

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1 The name of Râ has been
variously explained. The com-
monest etYIIlo
ogy is that deriv-
ing the name from a verb R1, to
[fire, to make to be a person or a
thing, so that Râ would thus be
the great organizer, the author
of all things. LA UTH goes so
far as to say that "notwith.
standing its brevity, Râ is a com-
posite word (R-A, maker-to be)."
As a matter of fact, the word
is simply the name of the planet
applied to the god, It means the sun, and nothing more.
2 Seyeral passages from the Pyramid texts prove that the two eycs were
very anciently considered as belonging to the face of Nûît, and this con-
ception persisted to the last days of Egyptian paganism. Hence, we must not
be surprised if the inscriptions generally represent the god Râ as coming
forth from N ûît under the form of a disc, or a scarabæus, and born of her
even as human children are born,
3 Drawn by Dondier, from a XXXth dynasty statue of green basalt in the
Gîzeh Museum PIASPERO, Guide du, Visiteur, p. 345, No, 5243). The statue
was also published by :\IARIETTE, lJIonuments divers, pi. 96 A-B, and in the
Alburn photo[fralJhique du ..J..1JIusée de Boulaq, pI. x.

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TIlE cow HÂTHOU, THE LADY OF IlE.AVE
.3

118

THE GODS OF EGYPT

father being the earth-god, and 'he was born again with
every new dawn, wearing a sidelock, and with his finger to
his lips as hurnan children were conventionally repre-
sented. He was also that luminous egg, laid and hatched in

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TilE TWELYE STAGES IY TIlE LIFE OF TilE SUN .U,ì) ITS TWELVE FORl\[S
TIIHOUGIlOVT THE DAy,l

the East by the celestial goose, from which the sun breaks
forth to fill the world with its rays. 2 Nevertheless, by an

1 The twelve forms of the sun during the twelve hours of the day, from
the ceiling of the Hall uf the New Year at Edfû, Drawing by Faucher-
G udin.
2 These are the very expressions used in the seventeenth chapter of the

THE SFX .AS .Å l\IAN

110

anomaly not uncommon in religions, the egg did not always
contain the same kind of bird; a lapwing, or a heron, might
come out of it,1 or perhaps, in memory of Horus, one of
the beautiful golden sparrow-hawks of Southern Egypt. A
Sun-Hawk, hovering ill high heaven on outspread wings,
at least presented a bold and poetic image; but what can
be said for a Sun-Calf ? Yet it is unùer the innocent
aspect of a spotted calf, a "sucking calf of pure mouth," 2
that the Egyptians were pleased to describe the Sun-God
when Sibû, the father, was a bull, and Hâthor a heifer.
But the prevalent conception was that in which the life of
the sun was likened to the life of man. The two deities
presiding over the East received the orb upon their hauds
at its birth, just as midwives receive a new-born child, and
cared for it during the first hour of the day and of its life.
1 t soon left them, and proceeded "under the belly of
N ûît," growing and strengthening from minute to Ininute,
until at noon it had become a triumphant hero whose
splendour is shed abroad over all. But as night comes on
his strength forsakes him and his glory is obscured; he is
bent and broken down, and heavily drags himself along
like an old man leaning upon his stick. At length he

Boole of tlte Dcad (NAVILLE'S edition, vol. i. pI. xxv. lines 58-61; LEPSIUS,
Todtenbllch, pI. ix. II. 50, 51).
1 The lapwing or the heron, the Egyptian bonû, is generally the O
;Ìrian
bird. The persistence with which it is associated with ITeliopolis and the
gods of that city shows that in this also we have a secondary form of Râ.
2 The calf is represented in ch. cix. of the Boole of tlip Dp((rl (N A VILLE'S
edition, pI. cxx.), where the text says (lines 10, 11), "I know that this caJf
is Harmakhis the
un, and that it is no other than the :l\Iorning Star, daily
saluting Râ." The expression "sucking calf of pure nwutlt" is taken word
for word from a formula preserved in the Pyramid texts (Ûnas, 1. 20).

120

THE GODS OF EGYPT

passes away beyond the horizon, plunging westward into
the mouth of KÛÎt, and traversing her body by night
to be born anew the next morning, again to follow the
paths along wbich he had travelled on the preceding
day,
A first bark, the sakal, awaited him at his birth, and
caTried him from the Eastern to the Southel'n extremity of
the world. !JläzZt, the second bark, Teceived him at noon,
and bore him into the land of J\lanû, which is at the
entrance into Hades; other barks, \vith \vhich we are less
familiar, conveyed him by night, from his setting until his
rising at Inorn. 1 Sometimes he was supposed to enter the
barks alone, and then they were magic and self-directed,
having neither oars, nor sails, nor helm,2 Sometimes they
were equipped with a full crew, like that of an Egyptian
boat-a pilot at the prow to take soundings in the channel
and forecast the wind, a pilot astern to steer, a quarter-
master in the midst to transmit the orders of the pilot at
the prow to the pilot at the stern, and half a dozen sailors
to handle poles or oars. Peacefully the bark glided along
the celestial river amid the acclamations of the gods who
dwelt upon its shores. But, occasionally, Apôpi, a gigantic
serpent, like that which hides within the earthly Nile and
devours its banks, came forth from the depth of the waters

1 In the formulæ of the BoDle (If Knowing t!tal which is in Hades, the dead
sun remains in the bark Saktît during part of the night, and it is only to
traverse the fourth and fifth hours that he changes into another.
2 Such is the bark of the sun in the other world. Although carrying a
complete crew'of gods, yet for the most part it progresses at its own will,
and without their help. The bark containing the sun alone is represented
in many vignettes of the BoDle of the Dead, and at the head of many stelæ.

THE '
OY AGES OF TIlE SUN

121

and arose in the path of the god. l As soon as they caught
sight of it in the distance, the crew flew to arms, and
entered upon the struggle against him with prayers and
spear-thrusts. J\len in their cities saw the sun faint and
fail, and sought to succour him in his distress; they cried
aloud, they were beside themselves with excitement, beat-
ing their breasts, sounding their instruments of music, and
striking with aU their strength upon every metal vase or
utensil in their possession, that their clam our might rise
to heaven and terrify the monster. After a time of anguish,
Râ emerged from the darkness and again went on his way,
while Apôpi sank back into the abyss/ paralysed by the
ffi:1gic of the gods, and pierced with many a wound. Apart
from these tempol'ary eclipses, which no one could foretell,
the Sun-King steadily followed his course round the world,

1 In Upper Egypt there is a widespread belief in the existence of a
monstrous serpent, who dwells at the bottom of the river, and is the genius
of the Nile, It is he who brings about those falls of earth (batabît) at the
decline of the inundation which often destroy the banks and eat whole fields.
At such times, offerings of durrah, fowls, and dates are made to him, that
his hunger may be appeased, and it is not only the natives who give them-
selves up to these superstitious practices. Part of the grounds belonging
to the Karnak hotel at Luxor having been carried away during the autumn
of 1884, the manager, a Greek, made the customary offerings to the serpent
of the Nile,
'2 The character of Apôpi and of his struggle with the sun was, from the
first, excellently defined by CHAl\IPOLLION as representing the conflict of
darkness with light, Occasionally, but very rarely, Apôpi seems to win,
and his triumph over Râ furnishes one explanation of a solar eclipse, A
similar explanation is common to many races. In one very ancient form of
the Egyptian legend, the sun is represented by a wild ass running round thp
world along the sides of the mountains that uphold the sky, and the serpent
which attacks it is called Haiû.

I ,).)
.......

THE GODS OF EGYPT

according to laws which even his will could not change.
Day after day he made his oblique ascent froIn east to
south, thence to descend obliquely towards the west.
During the summer months the obliquity of his course
diminished, and he came closer to Egypt; during the
winter it increased, and he went farther away. This
double movement recurred with such regularity from
equinox to solstice, and from solstice to equinox, that the
day of the god's departure and the day of Lis return could
be confidently predicted. The Egyptians explained this
phenomenon according to their conceptions of the nature
of the world. The solar bark always kept close to that
bank of the celestial river which was nearest to men; and
when the river overflowed at the annual inundation, the
sun was carried along with it outside the regular bed of
the stream, and brought yet closer to Egypt. As the
inundation abated, the bark descended and receded, its
greatest distance from earth corresponding with the lowest
level of the waters. It was again brought back to us
by the rising strength of the next flood; and, as this
phenomenon was yearly Tepeated, the periodicity of the
sun's oblique movements was regarded as the necessary
consequence of the periodic movements of the celestial
Nile.
The same stream also carried a whole crowd of gods,
whose existence was revealed at night only to the inhabi-
tants of earth. At an interval of twelve hours, and in its
own bark, the pale disk of the moon- Yâûhû Aûhû-followed
the disk of the sun along the ramparts of the world. The
moon, also, appeared in many various forms-here, as a

PRIKCIPAL CONSTELLATIONS

123

man born of N ûît ; 1 there, as a cynocephalus or an ibis; 2
elsewhere, it was the left eye of Horus,3 guarded by the ibis
or cynocephalus. Like Râ, it had its enemies incessantly
upon the watch for it: the crocodile, the hippopotamus,

Aoiñ

ß

EOYPTIA
CO:'ìCEPTfON OF THE PR[
CIP.\L CO:NSTELLATlOXR OF 'fIlE
ORTHEhN SKY,C

and the sow. But it was when at the full, about the 15th
of each month, that the lunar eye was in greatest periJ.

1 He may be seen as a child, or man, bearing the lunar disk upon his
head, and pressing the lunar eye to his breast, Passages from the Pyramid
text of Û nas indicate the relationship subsisting between Thot, Sibû, and
Nûít, making Thot the brother of Isis, Sît, and Nephthys. In later times
he was considered a son of Râ.
2 Even as late as the Græco-Roman period, the temple of Thot at Khmîmû
contained a sacred ibis, which was the incarnation of the god, and said to be
immortal by the local priesthood. The temple sacristans showed it to Apion
the grammarian, who reports the fact, hut is very sceptical in the matter,
3 The texts quoted by Chabas and Lepsius to show that the sun is the
right eye of Horus also prove that his left eye is the moon.
4 Drawn by Faucher-Cudin, from the ceiling of the Ramesseum. On
the right, the female hippopotamus bearing the c1"Ocodilc, and leaning on the
lJlon,Ut; in the middle, the Haunch, here represented by the whole bull; to
the left, S('llcit and the Spa1'ruw-hawk, with the Lion, and the Giant fiffhtinff
the Crocodile.

124

THE UOnR OF EnYPT

The sow fell upon it, tore it out of the face of heaven, and
cast it, streaming with blood and tears, into the celestial
Nile, where it was gradually extinguished, and lost for
days; but its twin, the sun, or its gual'dian, the cyno-
cephalus, immediately set forth to find it and to restore it to
Horus. No sooner was it replaced, than it slowly recovered,

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TIlE LUXAU BARK, SELF-PROPELLED, U
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OF TIlE TWO EYES,

and reneweJ its raJiance; when it 'was weIl-ûzaît-the
sow again attacked and mutilated it, and the gods rescued
and again Tevived it. Each month there was a fortnight
of youth and of gTowing splendour, followed by a fortnight's
agony and ever-increasing pallor. It was bOl'll to die, and
died to be born again twelve times in the year, and each
of these cycles measured a month for the inhabitants of the

THE STAR GODS

125

world. One invariable accident from time to time dis-
turbed the routine of its existence. Pl'ofiting by some
distraction of the guardians, the sow greedily swallowed
it, and then its light 'went out suddenly, instead of fading
gradually. These eclipses, which alarmed mankin
at least
as much as did those of the sun, were scarcely more than
momentary, the gods compelling the monster to cast up
the eye before it had been destroyed. Every evening the
lunar bark issued out of Hades by the door which Rft had

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passed through in the morning, and as it rose on the hori-
zon, the star-lamps scattered over the firmament appeared
one by one, giving light here and there like the camp-fires
of a distant army. However many of them there might
be, there were as_ many Indestructibles-AklâmiÎ Sokû-or
Unchanging Ones-Akhîmû Û1'dû-whose charge it ,vas to
attend upon them and watch over their maintenance. 2

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the rectangular zodiac carved upon the
ceiling of the great temple of Denderah (D-C1tIICIIE
, Resllltate, voL ii, pI.
xxxix, ),
2 The AlchímÛ-SoklÎ and the Akhíml1- ÛrcW have bf'en very variou
ly
detined by different Egyptologists who have studied them. CUAll.\S con-
sidered them to be gods or genii of the constellatiuns of the ecliptic, which

126

THE GODS OF EGYP1.'

They were not scattered at l'andom by the hand which
had suspended them, but their distribution had been
ordered in accordance with a certain plan, and they were
arranged in fixed groups like so many star republics, each
being independent of its neighbours. They represented the
outlines of bodies of men and animals dimly traced out
upon the depths of night, but shining with greater bril-
liancy in certain important places. The seven stars which
we liken to a chariot (Charles's VV ain) suggested to the
Egyptians the haunch of an ox placed on the northern edge
of the horizon. l Two lesser stars connected the haunch
-]'IaskltaZt-with thirteen others, which recalled the sil-
houette of a female hippopotamus-Rir2t-erect upon her

mark the apparent course of the sun through the sky, Following the indica-
tions given by Dévéria, he also thought them to be the sailors of the solar
bark, and perhaps the gods of the twelve hours, divided into two classes:
the A.kltîmÛ-Soka being those who are rowing, and the AkltîmÛ- ÛrdÛ those
who are resting. But texts found and cited by BRUGSCII show that the
A.khîmÛ-SokÛ are the planets accompanying Râ in the northern sky, while
the A.klLÎmÛ- Ùrdû are his escort in the south. The nomenclature of the stars
included in these two classes is furnished by monuments of widely different
epochs, The two names should be translated according to the meaning of
their component words: A.ldtÎmÛ Sokú, those who know not destruction, the
lndestructibles; and A.ldLÎ?nÛ Ûrdil (ÛrzÛ), those who know not the immobility
of death, the Impe?'.islwùles.
1 The forms of the constellations, and the number of stars composing
them in the astronomy of different periods, are known from the astronomical
scenes of tombs and temples. The -identity of the Haunch with the Olta?'iot,
or G?'eat Bear of modern astronomy, was discovered by LEPSIUS and con-
firmed by BlOT. l'tlARIETTE pointed out that the Pyramid Arabs applied the
name of the Haunch (m'-Rigl) to the same gl'oup of stars as that thus
designated by the ancient Egyptians, CHA1\IPOLLIO
had noted the position
of the Haunclt in the northern sky, but had not suggested any identification.
The Haunclt appertained to Sît-Typhon.

THE HORL"S PLAXETS

127

hind legs, 1 and jauntily carrj"ing upon her shoulders a
monstrous crocodile whose jaws opened threateningly aboY'e
her head. Eighteen luminaries of varying size and splen-
dour, forming a group hard by the hippopotamus, indicated

ob
*

h
/3 1 /}15? g'J*-
ùø;(l. z
ry;j
!
& D Xl4
1114
.-J

ORlO
, SOTIIIS, A:KD TWO IIOIWS-PLA:KETS ST.\RDI:KG IN THEIR BARKS.2

the outline of a gigantic lion couchant, with stiffened tail,
its heaJ turned to the right, and facing the Haunch. 3 J\lost

1 The connection of Birít, the female hippopotamus, with the Haunch is
made quite clear in scenes from Philæ and Edfû, representing Isis holding
back Typhon by a chain, that he might do no hurt to Sâhû-Osiris. J OLLOIS
and DEVILLIERS thought that the hippopotamus was the G?'eat Bear. BlOT
contested their conclusions, and while holding that the hippopotamus might at
least in part present our constellation of the Dragon, thought that it was
probably included in the scene only as an ornament, or as an emblem, The
present tendency is to identify the hippopotamus with the Dragon and with
certain stars not included in the constellation
surrounding it.
2 l<"'rom the astronomic ceiling in the tomb of Seti I. (LEl<'Ém;RE, 4th
part, pI. xxxvi,),
3 The Lion, with its eighteen stars, is represente.d on the tomb of Sf>ti
I.; on the ceiling of the Ramesseum; and on the s'].rcophagus of Htari.

of the constellations never left the sky: night after night
they were to be found almost in the same places, and
always shining with the same even light. Others borne by
a slow movement passed annually beyond the
limits of sight for months at a time. Five
at least of our planets were known from all
antiquity, and their characteristic colours and
appearances carefully noted. Sometimes each
was thought to l)e a hawk-headed Horus.
Û apshetatûi, our Jupiter, Kahiri-(Saturn),
Sobkû-(:ßlercury), steered their barks straight
ahead like Iâûhû and Râ; but Mars-Doshiri,
the l'ed, sailed backwards. As a star Bonû,
the bird (Venus) had a dual personality;
in the evening it was Û ati, the lonely star
which is the first to rise, often before night-
fall; in the morning it became Tiûnûtiri, the
god who hails the sun before his rising and
proclaims the dawn of day.
Sahû and Sopdît, Orion and Sirius, were
'
'I'
the rulers of this mysterious world. Sahû
..."".......-.,

I\\
consisted of fifteen stars, seven large and eight

128

,
"I '
' j

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'1.1

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'
',' , I f'
,,\ r,... ;.1 ':,
, ,

,.,

!J
., i{J!/;,

..

sAIIÛ-Olno
.l

THE GODS OP EGYPT

The Lion is sometimes shown as having a crocodile's tail. According to
BlOT the Egyptian Lion has nothing in common with the Greek constellation
of that name, nor yet with our own, but was composed of smaller stars,
belonging to the Greek constellation of the Cup or to the continuation of
the Hydra, so that its head, its body, and its tail would follow the a of the
Hydra, between the cþ' and
of that constellation, or the l' of the Virgin,
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a small bronze in the Gîzeh J\!useurn,
published by J\IARIETTE, in the Album photogmpltique du MU8ée de Boulaq, pl.
9. The legs are a modern re
toration.

ORION" AND SOTHIS

129

slllall, so arranged as to represent a I'unner darting through
space, while the fairest of them shone above his head, and
marked him out from afar to the admiration of mortals.
With his right hand he flourished the crux ansata, and
turning his head towards Sothis as he beckoned her on
with his left, seemed as though inviting her to follow

.:...

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ORIOY AXD THE COW SOTlIlS SEPARATED BY THE SPARROW-HAWK. l

him. The goddess, standing sceptre In hand, and
crowned with a diadem of tall feathers surmounted by
her most l'adiant star, an
wered the can of Sahû with
a gesture, and quietly embarked in pursuit as though in
no anxie
y to overtake him. Sometimes she is repre-
sented as a cow lying down in her bark, with tree stars
along her back, and Sirius flaming from between her

1 Scene from the rectangular zodiac of Denderah, drawn by Faucher-
Gudin, from a photograph taken with magnesium light by DÜMICHEN.

VOL. I.

K

130

THE GODS OF EGYPT

horns. 1 Not content to shine by night only, her bluish
rays, suddenly darted forth in full daylight and without
any warning, often described upon the sky the mystic lines
of the t1'Ìangle which stood for her name. It was then
that she produced those curious phenomena of the zodiacal
light which other legends attributed to Horus himself.
One, and perhaps the most ancient of the innumerable
accounts of this god and goddess, represented Sahû as a
wild hunter. A world as vast as ours rested upon the
other side of the iron firmament; like ours, it was dis-
tributed into seas, and continents divided by rivers and
canals, but peopled by races unknown to men. Sahû
traversed it during the day, surrounded by genii who
presided over the lamps fOI'ming his constellation. At .his
appearing "the stars prepared themselves for battle, the
heavenly archers rushed forward, the bones of the gods
upon the horizon trembled at the sight of hinl," for it
was no common game that he hunted, but the very gods
themselves. One attendant secured the prey with a lasso,
as bulls are caught in the pastures, while another examined
each capture to decide if it were pure and good for food.
This being determined, others bound the divine victim,
cut its throat, disembowelled it, cut up its carcass, cast
the joints into a pot, and sùperintended their cooking.
Sabû did not devour indifferently all that the fortune of
the chase might bring him, but classified his game in

1 The identity of the cow with Sothis was discovered by J OLLOIS and
DEVILLIERS. It is under this animal form that Sothis is represented in
most of the Græco-Roman temples, at Denderah, Edfû, Esneh, Dêr el-
Medîlleh.

ASSI
nLATION OF THE GODS

131

accordance with his wants. He ate the great gods at his
breakfast in the morning, the lesser gods at his dinner
towards noon, and the small ones at his supper; the old
were rendered more tender by roasting. As each god was
assirnilated by Jtim, its most precious virtues were transfused
into himself; by the wisdom of the old was his wisdom

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A
IOX-H.\, AS
IÎ
Û OF COPTOS, AXD I
VESTEn WITH lITS Er.mLE'ys. 1

strengthened, the youth of the young repaired the daily
waste of his own youth, and all their fires, as they pene-
trated his being, served to maintain the perpetual splendour
of his light.

1 Scene on the north wall of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak; drawn by
Bouclier, from a photograph by lnsinger, taken in 1882. The king, Seti I.,
is presenting bouquets of lpaves to Amon-::\Iînû, Behind the god stands Isis
(of Coptos), septre and crux ansata in band,

132

THE GODS OF EGYPT

The nome gods who presided over the destinies of
Egyptian cities, and formed a true feudal system of
divinities, belonged to one or other of these natural
categories. In vain do they present themselves under the
most shifting aspects and the most deceptive attributes;
in vain disguise themselves with the utmost care; a closer
examination generally discloses the principal features of
their original physiognomies. Osiris of the Delta, Khnûmû
of the Cataract, Harshâfitû of Heracleopolis, were each of
them incarnations of the fertilizing and life-sustaining Nile.
Wherever there is some important change in the river,
there they are more especially installed and worshipped:
Khnûmû at the place of its entering into Egypt, and again
at the town of Hâûrít, near the point where a great arm
branches off from the Eastern strealll to flow towards the
Libyan hills and form the Bahr- Y Úsuf: Harshâfitû at
the gorges of the Fayûm, where the Bahr-Yûsuf leaves
the valley; and, finally, Osiris at Mendes and at Busiris,
towards the mouth of the middle branch, which was held
to be the true Nile by the people of the land. Isis of
Bûto denoted the black vegetable mould of the valley,
the distinctive soil of Egypt annually covered and fertilized
by the inundation. 1 But the earth in general, as dis-
tinguished from the sky-the earth with its continents, its
seas, its alternation of barren deserts and fertile lands
-was represented as a man: Phtah at Memphis, Amon

1 In the case of Isis, as in that of Osiris, we must mark the original
character; and note her characteristics as goddess of the Delta before she
had become a multiple and contradictory persona.1ity through being con-
founded with other divinities.

THE HORUS GODS

133

at Thebes, l\Iîn û at Coptos and at Panopolis. Amon
seems rather to have symbolized the productive soil, while
1\fînû reigned over the desert. But these were fine dis-
tinctions, not invariably insisted upon, and his worshippers
often invested Amon with the most
significant attributes of Mînû. The
Sky-gods, like the Earth-gods, were
separated into two groups, the one
consisting of women: Hâthor of
Denàerah, or Nît of Saïs; the other

composed of men identical with Horus,
or derived from him: Anhûri-Shû of
Sebennytos and Thinis; Harmerati,
Horus of the two eyes, at Pharbæthos ;
Har-Sapdi, Horus the source of the
zodiacal light, in the Wâdy Tumilât;
and finally Harhûdîti at
dfû. Râ, the
solar disk, was enthroned at Heliopolis,
and sun-gods were numerous among
the nome deities, but they were sun-
gods closely connected with gods repre-
senting the sky, and resembled Horus
quite as much as Râ. 1Vhether under '
the name of Horus or of Anhûr:i, the -. ..
sky was early identified with its most
" < '" _ i"\J:
brilliant luminary, its solar eye, and AYIIÛRI. 1
its divinity was as it were fused into that of the Sun.
Horus the Sun, and Râ, the Sun-God of Heliopolis, had

I. ,,0;1'
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\
1 -

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, I

, I

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( .

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1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze of the Saïte pet'iod, in my
own possession.

134

THE GODS OF EGYPT

so permeated each other that none could say where the
one began and the other ended. One by one aU the
functions of Râ had
been usurped by Horus,
and all the designa-
tions of Horus had
been appropriated by
Râ. The sun was
styled Harmakh ûîti,
the Horus of the two
mountains - that is,
the Horus who comes
forth from the moun-
tain of the east in the
lllorning, and retires
at evening into the
mountain of the west; I
or Hartimâ, Horus the
Pikeman, that Horus
whose lance spears the
hippopotamus or the
serpent of the celes-
tial river; or Harnûbi,
the Golden Horus,
the great golden

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THE HAWK-HEADED nORUS 2

I From the time of Champollion, Harmakhûîti has been identified with
the Rarmachis of the Greeks, the great
phinx.
2 A bronze of the Saïte period, from the Posno collection, and now in the
Louvre; drawn by Faucher-Gudin, The god is represented as upholding a
libation vase with both hands, and pouring the life-giving water upon the
king, standing, or prostrate, before him, In performing this ceremony, he

EQUALITY OF GODS AXD GODDESSES 135

sparrow-hawk with mottled plumage, who puts all other
birds to flight; and these titles were indifferently applied to
each of the feudal gods who represented the sun. The latter
were numerous. Sometimes, as in the case of Harkhobi,
Horns of I\:hobiû,l a geographical qualification was appended
to the generic term of Horus, while specific names, almost
invariably derived from the parts which they were supposed
to play, were borne by others. The sky -god worshipped at
Thinis in Upper Egypt, at Zarît and at Sebennytos in
Lower Egypt, was called Anh ûri. When he assumed the
attributes of Râ, and took upon himself the solar nature,
his name was interpreted as denoting the conqueror of
the sky. He was essentially combative. Crowned with a
group of upright plumes, his spear raised and ever I'eady
to strike the foe, he advanced along the firmament and
triunlphantly traversed it day by day.2 The sun-god who
at 11edamôt Taûd and Erment had preceùed Amon as ruler
of the Theban plain, was also a warrior, and his nalne of
110ntû had reference to his method of fighting. He was
depicted as brandishing a curved sword and cutting off the
heads of his adversaries. 3

was always assisted by another god, generally by Sît, sometimes by Thot or
Anubis.
1 Harklwbi, HarÛrnklwbiíl is the Horus of the marshes (khobil1) of thE"
Delta, the lesser Horus the son of Isis, who was abo made into the son of
Osiris,
2 The right reading of the name was given as far back as LEPSIUS. The
part played by the god, and the nature of tbe link connecting him witb Shû,
have been eXplained by MASPERO. The Greeks transcribed his name Onouris,
and identified him with Ares.
3 Montû preceded Amon as god of the land between Kûs and Gebelên,
and he recovered his old position in the Græèo-Roman period after the

136

THE GODS OF EGYPT

Each of the feudal gods naturally cherished pretensions
to universal dominion, and proclaimed himself the suzerain,
the father of all the gods, as the local prince was the
suzerain, the father of all men; but the effective suzerainty
of god or prince really ended where that of his peers ruling

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THE HORUS OF IIIBOXÛ, OX THE RACK OF TIlE GAZELLE,

over the adjacent nomes began. The goddesses shared in
the exercise of supreme power, and had the same right of

destruction of Thebes. l\Iost Egyptologists, and fjnally BRUGSCII, made him
into a secondary form of Amon, which is contrary to what we know of the
history of the province. Just as Ûnû of the south (Erment) preceded Thebes
as the most important town in that district, so l\fontû had been its most
honoured god, HERR W IEDE}IANN thinks the name related to that of Amon
and derived from it, with the addition of the final tû.

THE AKI
I.AL GODS

137

inheritance and possession as regards sovereignty that
women had in human law. 1 Isis was entitled lady and
mistress at Bûto, as Hâthor was at Denderah, and as Nit
at Saïs, "the firstborn, when as yet there had been no
birth." They enjoyed in their cities the same honours as
the male gods in theirs; as the latter were kings, so were
they queens, and all bowed down before them. The
animal gods, whether entirely in the form of beasts, or
having human bodies attached to animal heads, shared
omnipotence with those in human form. Horus of Hibonû
swooped down upon the back of a gazelle like a hunting
hawk, Hâthor of Denderah was a cow, Bastit of Bubastis
was a cat or a tigress, while N ekhabit of EI Kab was a
great bald-headed vulture. 2 Hermopolis worshipped the
ibis and cynocephalus of Thot; Oxyrrhynchus the mor-
'ìnyrus fish; 3 and Ombos and the Fayûm a crocodile, under
the name of Sobkû/ sometimes with the epithet of Azaï,

1 In attempts at reconstituting Egyptian religions, no adequate weight
has hitherto been given to the equality of gods and goddesses, a fact to
which attention was first called by l\IAsPERo (Études de Mythologie et
d' Archéologie Egyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 253, et seq.).
2 Kekhabît, the goddess of the south, is the vulture, so often represented
in scenes of war or sacrifice, who hovers over the head of the Pharaohs. She
is also shown as a vulture-headed woman.
3 'Ve have this on the testimony of classic writers, STRABO, book xvii.
p. 812, De Iside et C8iride,
vii" 1872, PARTHEY'S edition, pp, 9, 30, 128;
ÆLIA
L'S, Hist. anim., book x.
46.
· Sobkû, Sovkû is the animal's name, and the exact translation of Sovkû
would be crocodile-god. Its Greek transcription is
ovxoç', On account of
the assonance of the names he was sometimes confounded with SivÛ, Sibû
by the Egyptians themselves, and thus obtained the titles of that god, This
was especially the case at the time when Sit having been proscribed, Sovkû
the crocodile, who was connected with Sit, shared his evil reputation, and
endeavoured to disguise his name or true character as much as possible.

IJS

THE GODS OF EGYPT

the brigand. l We cannot always understand what led the
inhabitants of each nome to affect one animal rather than
another. "\Yhy, towards Græco-Roman times, should they
have worshipped the jackal, or even the dog, at Siût? 2
How came Sît to be incarnate
in a fennec, or in an imaginary
quadruped? 3 Occa.sionally, how-
ever, we can follow the train of
thought that determined their
choice. The habit of certain
monkeys in assembling as it were

J

l

I
\.
"':

"'"'"

.'

.

.

\.\
\

1 Azaï is generally considered to be
the Osiris of the Fayûm, but he was only
transformed into Osiris, and that by the
most daring process of assimilation. His
full name defines him as Osiri Azaï ld lnîít
To-sMt (Osiris Ole Brigand, wlw is
in the FayÛm), that is to say, as
Sovkû identified with Osiris,
2 Û apuaîtû, the guide of tlte
celestial ways, who must not be
confounded with Anubis of the
\ J Cynopolite nome of Upper Egypt,
4'1 ,- was originally the feudal god of
Siût. He guided human souh; to
the paradise of the Oasis, and the
sun upon its southern path by

1

.

, ,t

..

'JIIE CAT-HEADED UAST. 4

day, and its northern 'path by night.
3 Champollion, Rosellini, Lepsius, have held that the Typhonian animal
was a purely imaginary one, and 'Vilkinson says that the Egyptians them-
selves admitted its unreality by representing it along with other fantastic
beasts This would rather tend to show that they believed in its actual
existence (cf. p, 112 of this History), PLEYTE thinks that it may be a
degenerated form of the figure of the ass or oryx.
4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a green enamelled figure in my posses-
sion (Saïte period).

THE TRIADS

139

in full court, and chattering noisily a little before sunrise and
sunset, would almost justify the as yet uncivilized Egyptians

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'l'HE FESNEC, SUPPOSED PROT01'YPF
OF THE TYPHOXIAN AXDrL\L.

in entrusting cynocephali with the charge of hailing the god
morning and evening as he appeared in the east, or passed

TWO CYXOCEPHALI IX .\DOR.\TIOY BEFORE THE RISIYG SUN.)

away 1n the west. If Râ was held to be a grasshopper
under the Old Empire, it was because he flew far up

1 Sculptured and painted scene frOll1 the tympanum of a stela in the
Gîzeh :\Iuseum, Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Émil
Brugsch-Bey.

140

THE GODS OF EGYPT

in the sky like the clouds of locusts driven from Central
Africa which suddenly fall upon the fields and ravage them.
Most of the Nile-gods, Khnûmû, Osiris, Harshafitû, were
incarnate in the form of a ram or of a buck. Does not the
masculine vigour and procreative rage of these animals
naturally point them out as fitting images of the life-giving
Nile and the overflowing of its waters? It is easy to
understand how the neighbourhood of a marsh or of a
rock-encumbered rapid should have suggested the crocodile
as supreme deity to the inhabitants of the Fayûm or of
Ombos. The crocodiles there multiplied so rapidly as to
constitute a serious danger; there they had the mastery,
and could be appeased only by means of prayers and sacri-
fices. When instinctive terror had been superseded by
reflection, and some explanation was offered of the origin
of the various cults, the very nature of the animal seemed
to justify the veneration with which it was regarded. The
crocodile is amphibious; and Sobkû was supposed to be a
crocodile, because before the creation the sovereign god
plunged recklessly into the dark waters and came forth to
form the world, as the crocodile emerges from the river
to lay its eggs upon the bank.
Most of the feudal divinities began their lives in solitary
grandeur, apart from, and often hostile to, their neighbours.
Fan1Ílies were assigned to them later.! Each appropriated

1 The existence of the Egyptian triads was discovered and defined by
CHA
IPOLLIO:N, These triads have long served as the basis upon v.hich
modern writers have sought to establish their systems of the Egyptian
religion. Brugsch was the first who rightly attempted to replace the triad
by the Ennead, in his book Religion und ]fythologie der alten Ægypter, The
process of forming local triads, as here set forth, was first pointed out by

two companions and formed a trinity, or as it is generally
called, a tt"iad. But there were several kinds of triads. In
nomes subject to a god, the local deity was frequently con-
tent with one wife and one son; but often he was united to
two goddesses, who were at once his sisters and his wives
according to the national custom. Thus,
Thot of Hermopolis possessed himself {i

of a harem consisting of Seshait-Safk-
hitâbûi and N ahmâûît. Tûmû divided
the homage of the inhabitants of Helio-
polis with N ebthôtpit and with Iûsasit.
Khnûmû seduced and married the two
fairies of the neighbouring cataract-
Anûkît the constrainer, who compresses
the Nile between its rocks at Philæ and
at Syene, and SatH the archeress, who
shoots forth the current straight and
swift as an arrow. 1 Where a goddess
,
reigned over a nome, the triad was
completed by two male deities, a divine
consort and a divine son. Nit of Saïs had taken for
her husband Osiris of Mendes, and borne him a lion's
whelp, Ari-hos-nofir. 2 Hâthor of Denderah had COffi-

THE TRIADS

141

u\, j II .
a:s:::DCD"

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I'-

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NiT OF BAiB.

MASPERO (Éludes de Mylhologie el d'.Archéologie Égypliennes, vol. ii, p. 269,
et seq.).
1 :ì\lAsPERO, Éludes de Mythologie et d' Arch!ologie Égyptiennes, vol. ii.
p. 273, et seq.
2 Aríhosrwfir means the lion 1rhfJse gaze has a bene.ficent fascination. He
also goes under the name of TÛlû, which seems as though it should be
translated "the bounding,"-a mere epithet characterizing one gait of the
lion-god's.

pleted her household with Haroêris and a younger Horus,
with the epithet of Ahi-he who strikes the sistrum. 1 A
triad containing two goddesses pro-
duced no legitimate offspring, and was
unsatisfactory to a people who regarded
the laek of progeny as a curse from
heaven; one in which the presence of
a son promised to ensure the perpetuity
of the race was more in keeping with
the idea of a blessed and prosperous
family, as that of gods should be.
Triads of the former kind were thero-
fore almost everywhere broken up into
two new triads, each containing a
divine father, a divine mother, and a
divine son. Two fruitful households
: A'..
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with Safkhitâbûi and N ahmâûît: one
composed of That, Safkbîtâbûi, and
Harnûbi, the golden sparrow-hawk; 3 into the other

142

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DlIIOTl'Û .2

THE GODS OF EGYPT

1 Drrur.Sf'H explains the name of Abi as meaning he 'Il.110 Ca7tSiS lâs 'Waters
to risc, and recognizes this personage as being, among other things, a furm uf
the Nile. The interpretation offered by myself is borne out by the many
scenes representing the child of Hâthor playing upon the sistrum and the
nwnâíl. :l\1oreover, alti, ahît is an invariable title of the priests and
priestesses whose office it is, during religious ceremonies, to strike the
sistrum, and that other mystic musical instrument, the sounding whip called
momîít.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze statuette encrusted with gold,
in the Gîzeb 1\1 useum. The seat is alabaster, and of modern manufacture,
3 This somewhat rare triad, noted by WILKn
'soN, is sculptured on the
wan of a chamber in the Tûrah quarries.

N abmâûît and her nursling N ofirborû entered. The persons
united \vith the old feudal divinities in order to form triads
were not all of the same class. Goddesses,
especially, were made to order, and might
often be described as grammatical, so ob-
vious is the linguistic device to which they
owe their being. Froln Râ, ...<\..mon, Horus,
Sobkû, female Râs, Amons, Horuses, and
Sobkûs were derived, by the addition of
the regulal' feminine affix to the prirllitive
masculine names- Râît, Amonît, Horît,
SoLkît. 1 In the same way, detached cog-
nomens of divine fathers were embodied
in divine sons. Imhotpû," be who comes
ill peace," was merely one of the epithets
of Phtah before he became incarnate as
the third melllber of the l\lemphite triad. 2
In other cases, alliances were contracted
between divinities of ancient stock, but
natives of different nomes, as in the case of
Isis of Bûto and the l\fendesian Osiris; of
Haroêris of Edfû and Hâthor of Denderah.

THE TRIADS

143

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1 :MASPERO, Études ilc 1Jlythologic ct d' Arclt1ologif:
Ég!/ptiennes, vol. ii, pp, 7, 8, 256.
:.! Imhotpû, the Imouthes of the Greeks, and by them identified with
Æsculapius, was discovered by SALT, and his name was first translated as
he who comes with o.ffcring. The translation, he who comes in peace, proposed
by E. de Ruugé, is now universally adopted. Imhotpû did not take form
until the time of the New Empire; his great popularity at :Memphis and
throughout Egypt dates from the Saïte and Greek periods,
3 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze statuette incrusted with gold,
in the Gîzeh l\1useum,

KOFIRTÖIÛ.3

144

THE GODS OF EGYPT

In the same manner Sokbît of IJ8topolis and Bastit of
Bubastis were appropriated as wives to Phtah of Memphis,
Nofirtûmû being represented as his son by both unions. l
These improvised connections were generally determined
by considerations of vicinity; the gods of conterminous
principalities were married as the children of kings of two
adjoining kingdoms are married, to form or to consolidate
relations, and to establish bonds of kinship between rival
powers whose unremitting hostility would mean the swift
ruin of entire peoples.
The system of triads, begun in primitive times and con-
tinued unbrokenly up to the last days of Egyptian poly-
theism, far from in any way lowering the prestige of the
feudal gods, was rather the means of enhancing it in the
eyes of the multitude. Powerful lords as the new-comers
might be at home, it was only in the strength of an
auxiliary title that they could enter a strange city, and
then only on condition of submitting to its religious law.
Hâthor, supreme at Denderah, shrank into insignificance
before Haroêris at Edfû, and there retained only the SOIne-
what subordinate part of a wife in the house of her husband. 2
On the other hand, Haroêris when at Denderah descended
from the supreme rank, and was nothing more than the

1 Originally, N ofirtûmû appears to have been the son of cat or lioness-
headed goddesses, Bastît and Sokhît, and from them he may have inherited
the lion's head with which he is often represented. His name shows him to
have been in the first place an incarnation of Atûmû, but he was affiliated
to the god Phtah of Memphis when that god became the husband of his
mothers, and preceded Imhotpû as the third personage in the oldest
Memphite triad,
2 Each year, and at a certain time, the goddess came in high state to
spend a few days in thø great temple of Edfû, with her husband Haroêric;.

almost useless consort of the lady Hàthor. His name came
first in invocations of the triad because of his position
therein as husband and father; but this was simply a
concession to the propriety of etiquette, and even though
named in second place, Hâthor was none
the less the real chief of Denderah and of
its divine family.l Thus, the principal
personage in any triad was always the one
who had been patron of the nome previous
to the introduction of the triad: in some
places the father-god, and in others the
mother-goddess. The son in a divine triad
had of himself but limited authority. When
Isis and Osiris were his parents, he was
generally an infant Horus, naked, or simply
adorned with necklaces and bracelets; a
thick lock of hair depended fl"Om his temple,
HORC'S, so
OF ISIS. 2
and his rnother squatting on her heels, or
else sitting, nursed him upon her knees, offering him

THEIR HlDIAN NATURE

145

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1 The part played by Haroêris at Denderah was so inconsiderable that
the triad containing him is not to be found in the temple, " In all our four
volumes of plates, the triad is not once represented, and this is the more
remarkable since at Thebes, at :Memphis, at Philæ, at the cataracts, at
Elephantinê, at Edfû, among all the data which one looks to find in temples,
the triad is most readily distinguished by the visitor, But we must not
therefore conclude that there was no triad in this case, Tbe triad of Edfû
consists of Hor-Hut, Hâthor, and Hor-Sam-ta-ui, The triad of Denderah
contains Hàthor, Hor-Hut, and Hor-Sam-ta-ui. The difference is obvious.
At Edfû, the male principle, as represented by Hor-Hut, takes the first
place, whereas the first person at Denderah is Hâthor, who represents the
female principle" (MARIETTE, Dendérah, Texte, pp. 80, 81),
2 Drawn hy Faucher-Gudin from a statuette in the Gîzeh :l\Iuseum
(MARIETTE, Album dn Musie de Boulaq, pI. 4).
YOLo I. L

146

THE GODS OF EGYPT

her breast. l Even in triads where the son was sup-
posed to have attained to man's estate, he held the
lowest place, and there was enjoined upon him the same
respectful attitude towards his parents as is observed
by children of human race in the presence of theirs.
He took the lowest place at all solemn receptions, spoke
only with his parents' permission, acted only by their
command and as the agent of their will. Occasionally he
was vouchsafed a character of his own, and filled a definite
position, as at Memphis, where Imhotpû was the patron of
science. 2 But, generally, he was not considered as having
either office or marked individuality; his being was but a
feeble reflection of his father's, and possessed neither life
nor power except as derived from him. Two such con-
tiguous personalities must needs have been confused, and,
as a matter of fact, were so confused as to become at length
nothing more than t,,\;o aspects of the same god, who
united in his own person degrees of relationship mutually
exclusive of each other in a human family. Father,
inasmuch as he was the first member of the triad; son,
by virtue of being its third member; identical with himself
in both capacities, he was at once his own father, his own
Bon, and the husband of his mother.
Gods, like men, might be resolved into at least two

1 For representations of Harpocrates, the child Horus, see LANZONE,
Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, pIs. ccxxvii., ccxxviii., and particularly pJ. cccx,
2, where there is a scene in which the young god, represented as a sparrow-
hawk, is nevertheless sucking the breast of his mother Isis with his beak.
2 Hence he is generally represented as seated, or squatting, and
attentively reading a papyrus roll, which lies open upon his knees; cf. the
illustration on p, 142.

THE SOUL

147

elements, soul and body; 1 but in Egypt, the conception
of the soul varied in different times and in different schools.
It might be an insect-butterfly, bee, or praying mantis; 2
or a bird-the ordinary sparrow-hawk, the human-headed
sparrow-hawk, a heron or a crane-hi, hai-whose wings
enabled it to pass rapidly through space; 3 or the black
shadow-khaîbît-that is attached to every body, but
which death sets free,
and which thenceforwarJ
leads an independent ex-
istence, so that it can
move about at will, and, 1

'L
go out into the open sun-
1
light. Finally, it might
be a kind of light shadow, '.
like a reflection from the
TIlE BLACK SHADOW cmnXG OUT INTO THE
surface of calm water, or SUXLIGHT,.

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1 In one of the Pyramid texts, Sâhû-ûrion, the wild hunter, captures the
gods, slaughters and disembowels them, cooks their joints, their haunches,
their legs, in his burning cauldrons, and feeds on their souls as well as on
their bodies. A god was not limited to a single body and a single soul; we
know from several texts that Râ had seven souls and fourteen doubles.
2 ::\11'. LEPAGE-RE)lOUF supposes that the soul may have been considered
as being a buttf(rfly at times, as in Greece,
I. LEFÉBURE thinks that it
must sometimes have been incarnate as a wasp-I should rather say a bee
or a praying mantis.
3 The simple sparrow-hawk '\t. is chiefly used to denote the soul of a
god; the human-headed sparrow-hawk h, the heron, or the crane
. is
used indifferently for human or divine souls, ,It is from HORAPOLLO that
we learn this symbolic significance of the sparrow-hawk and the pronuncia-
tion of the name of the soul as baï.
4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from NAVILLE'S Dos Tlzebnnische Todtenbuch,
vol. i. pI. civ. Pc.

1-18

THE GODS OF EG YPT

from a polished mirror, the living and coloured projec-
tion of the human figure, a double-ka-reproducing
In minutest detail the complete Image of the object

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THE ACGCST SOLLS OF OSIRIS AXD HORUS I'J ADORATIOY BEFORE THE SOLAR DISK.l

I Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by DÖIICIIEY, of a scene
on the cornice of the front room of Osiris on the terrace of the great tempte
of Denderah. The soul on the left belongs to Horus, that on the right to
Osiris, lord of Amentît, Each bears upon its head the group of tall feathers
which is characteristic of figures of Anhûri (cf, p. 103),

THEIR BODIES

149

or the person to whom it belonged. l The soul, the
sbadow, the douLle of a god, was In no way essentially
different from the soul, shadow, or double of a man; his
body, indeed, was lnoulded out of a more rarefied
substance, and generally invisible, but endowed with the
same qualities, and subject to the same imperfections
as ours. The gods, therefore, on the whole, were more
ethereal, stronger, lllore powerful, better fitted to com-
mand, to enjoy, and to suffer than ordinary men, but they
were still men. They had bones, 2 muscles, flesh, blood;
they were hungry and ate, they were thirsty and drank;
our passions, griefs, joys, infirmities, were also theirs, The
sa, a mysterious fluid, circulated throughout their members,
and carried with it health, vigour, and life. They were not
all equally charged with it; some had more, others less,
their energy being in proportion to the amount which they
contained. The better supplied willingly gave of their
superfluity to those who lacked it, and all could readily
transmit it to mankind, this transfusion being easily
accomplished ill the temples. The king, or any ordinary
man who wished to be thus impregnated, presented himself
before the statue of the god, and squatted at its feet with
his back towards it. The statue then placed its right hand

1 The nature of the double has long been misapprehended by Egyptolo-
gists, who had even made its name into a kind of pronominal form. That
nature was publicly and almost simultaneously announced in 1878, first by

IAsPERo, and directly afterwards by LEPAGE-RE"YOUF.
2 For example, the text of the Ðeslru(,tion nf Men, and other documents,
teach us that the flesh of the aged sun had become gold, and his bones silver,
The hlood of Râ. is mentioned in the Book of tlte Dead, as well as the blood
of Isis and of other divinities.

150

THE GODS OF EGYPT

upon the nape of his neck, and by making passes, caused
the fluid to flow from it, and to accumulate in him as in a
receIver. This rite was of temporary efficacy only, and
required frequent renewal in order that its benefit might be

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THE KIXG AFTER HIS COROYATIOY RECEIYISG THE IMPOSITIOX OF THE SA,l

1 Drawn by Boudier from a photograph by 1\1. Gayet, taken in 1889, of
a scene in the hýpostyle hall at Lûxor. This illustration shows the relative
positions of prince and god. Amon, after having placed the pschent upon
the head of the Pharaoh Amenôthes III., who kneels before him, proceeds to
impose the sa.

THE DEATH OF MEN AND GODS

151

maintained. By using or transmitting it the gods them-
selves exhausted their sa of life; and the less vigorous
replenished themselves from the stronger, while the latter
went to draw fresh fulness from a mysterious pond in
the northern sky, called the" pond of the Sa." 1 Divine
bodies, continually recruited by the influx of this magic
fluid, preserved their vigour far beyond the term allotted to
the bodies of men and beasts. Age, instead of quickly
destroying them, hardened and transformed them into
precious metals. Their bones were changed to silver, their
flesh to gold; their hair, piled up and painted blue, after
the manner of great chiefs, was turned into lapis-lazuli. 2
This transformation of each into an animated statue did
not altogether do away with the ravages of time. Decrepi-
tude was no less irremediable with them than with men,
although it came to them more slowly; when the sun had
grown old "his mouth trembled, his drivelling ran down
to earth, his spittle dropped upon the ground."
N one of the feudal gods had escaped this destiny; for
theIn as for mankind the day came when they must leave

1 It is thus that in the Tale of the Dau(Jhta of the Prince of Bakhtan we
find that one of the statues of the Theban Konsû supplies itself with sa
from another statue representing one of the most powerful forms of the god.
The pond of Sa, whither the gods go to draw the magic fluid, is mentioned
in the Pyramid texts,
2 Cf. the text of the Destruction of ltlen (11. 1, 2) referred to above, where
age produces these transformations in the body of the sun. This changing
of the bodies of the gods into gold, silver, and precious stones, explains why
the alchemists, who were disciples of the Egyptians, often compared the
transmutation of metals to the metamorphosis of a genius or of a divinity:
they thought by their art to hasten at will that which was the slow work
of nature.

152

THE GODS OF EGYPT

the city and go forth to the tornb. 1 The ancients long
refused to believe that death was natural and inevitable.
They thought that life, once begun, might go on
indefinitely: if no accident stopped it short, why should
it cease of itself? And so men did not die in Egypt;
they were assassinated. The murderer often belonged to
this world, and was easily recognized as another man, an
animal, some inanin1ate object such as a stone loosened
from the hillside, a tree which fell upon the passer-by and
crusbed him. But often too the murderer was of the
unseen world, and so was hidden, his presence being
betrayed in his malignant attacks only. He was a god, an
evil spirit, a disembodied soul who slily insinuated itself
into the living man, or fell upon him with irresistible
violence-illness being a struggle between the one possessed
and the power which possessed him. As soon as the
former succumbed he was carried away from his own
people, and his place knew him no more. But had all
ended for him with the mOlnent in which he had ceased
to breathe? As to the body, no one was ignorant of
its natural fate. It quickly fell to decay, and a few
years sufficed to reduce it to a skeleton. And as for
the skeleton, in the lapse of centuries that too was

1 The idea of the ineyitable death of the gods is expressed in other places
as well as in a passage of the eighth chapter of the Book of the Dead
(NAVILLE'S edition), which has not to my knowledge hitherto been noticed:
"I am that Osiris in the 'Vest, and Osiris knoweth his day in which he shall
be no more;" that is to say, the day of his death when he will cease to
exist. All the gods, Atûmû, Horus, Râ, Thot, Phtah, Khnûmû, are
represented under the forms of mummies, and this implies that they are
dead. Moreover, their tombs were pointed out in se\'eral places in Egypt.

THE OLDEST BURIALS

153

disintegrated and became a mere train of dust, to be blown
away by the first breath of wind. The soul might have
a longer career a.nd fuller fortunes, but these ,vere believed
to be dependent upon those of the body, and commensurate
with them. Every advance made in the process of de-
composition robbed the soul of some part of itself; its
consciousness gradually faded until nothing ,vas left but
a vague and hollow form that vanished altogether when
the corpse had entirely disappeared. From an early date
the Egyptians had endeavoured to arrest this gradual
destruction of the human organism, and their first effort
to this end naturally was directed towards the preservation
of the body, since without it the existence of the soul
could not be ensured. It was imperative that during
that last sleep, which for them was fraught with such
terrors, the flesh should neither become decomposed nor
turn to dust, that it should be free from offensive odour
and secnre from predatory worms.
They set to work, therefore, to discover how to preserve
it. The oldest burials which have as yet been found prove
that these early inhabitants were successful in securing the
permanence of the body for a few decades only. When
one of them died, his son, or his nearest relative, care-
fully wasbed the corpse in water impregnated with an
astringent or aromatic substance, such as natron or some
solution of fragrant gums, and then fumigated it with
burning herbs and perfumes which were destined to over-
power, at least temporarily, the odour of death. 1 Having

1 This is to be gathered from the yarious Pyramid texts relating to the
purification by water and to fumigation: the pains taken to secure material

154

THE GODS OF EGYPT

taken these precautions, they placed the body in the grave,
sometimes entirely naked, sometimes partially covered
with its ordinary garments, or sewn up in a closely fitting
gazelle skin. The dead man was placed on his left side,
lying north and south with his face to the east, in some
cases on the bare ground, in others on a mat, a strip of
leather or a fleece, in the position of a child in the fætal
state. The knees were sharply bent at an angle of 45 0
with the thighs, while the latter were either at right
angles with the body, or drawn up so as almost to touch
the elbows. The hands are sometimes extended in front
of the face, sometimes the arms are folded and the hands
joined on the breast or neck. In some instances the
legs are bent upward in such a fashion that they almost
lie parallel with the trunk. The deceased could only be
made to assume this position by a violent effort, and in many
cases the tendons and the flesh had to be cut to facilitate
the operation. The dryness of the ground selected for these
burial-places retarded the corruption .of the flesh for a
long time, it is true, but only retarded it, and so did not
prevent the soul from being finally destroyed. Seeing decay
could not be prevented, it was determined to accelerate
the process, by taking the flesh from the bones before
interment. The bodies thus treated are often incomplete;
the head is missing, or is detached from the neck and
laid in another part of the pit, or, on the other hand,
the body is not there, and the head only is found in

cleanliness, described in these formulas, were primarily directed towards the
preservation of the bodies subjected to these processes, and further to the
perfecting of the souls to which these bodies had been united.

MUTILATIONS

155

the grave, generaJly placed apart on a brick, a heap of
stones, or a layer of cut flints. The forearms and the
hands were subjected to the same treatment as th
head.
In many cases no trace of them appears, in others they
are deposited by the side of the skull or scattered about
haphazard. Other mutilations are frequently met with;
the ribs are divided and piled up behind the body, the
limbs are disjointed or the body is entirely dismembered,
and the fragments arranged upon the ground or enclosed
together in an earthenware cist.
These precautions were satisfactory in so far as they
ensured the better preservation of the more solid pal'ts
of the human frame, but the Egypt.ians felt this result
was obtained at too great a sacrifice. The human organism
thus deprived of all flesh was not only reduced to half
its bulk, bu t what remained had neither unity, consistency,
nor continuity. It was not even a perfect skeleton with
its constituent parts in their relative places, but a mere
mass of bones with no connecting links. This drawback,
it is true, was remedied by the artificial reconstruction in
the tomb of the individual thus completely dismembered
in the course of the funeral ceremonies, The bones were
laid in their natural order; those of the feet at the bottom,
then those of the leg, trunk, and arms, and finally the
skull itself. But the superstitious fear inspired by the
dead man, particularly of one thus harshly handled, and
particularly the apprehension that he might revenge
himself on his relatives for the treatment to which they
had subjected him, often induced them to make this
restoration intentionally incomplete. vVhen they had

156

THE GODS OF EGYPT

reconstructed tLe entire skeleton, they refrained from placing
the head in position, or else they suppressed one or all
of the vertebræ of the spine, so that the deceased should
be unable to rise and go forth to bite and harass the
living. Having taken this precaution, they nevertheless
felt a doubt whether the soul could really enjoy life so
long as one half only of the body remained, and the
other was lost for ever: they therefore sought to discover
the means of preserving the fleshy parts in addition to
the bony framework of the body, I t had been observed
that when a corpse had been buried in the desert, its
skin, speedily desiccated and hardened, changed into a
case of blackish parchment beneath which the flesh
slowly wasted away, 1 and the whole fran1e thus remained
intact, at least in appearance, while its integrity ensured
that of the soul. An attempt was made by artificial means
to reproduce the conservative action of the sand, and,
without mutilating the body, to secure at will that in-
corruptibility without which the persistence of the soul
was but a useless prolongation of the death-agony. It
was the god Anubis-the jackal lord of sepulture-who
was supposed to have made this discovery. He cleansed
the body of the viscera, those parts which most rapidly
decay, saturated it with salts and aromatic substances,
protected it first of all with the bide of a beð,st, and
over this laid thick layers of linen. The victory the god
had thus gained over corruption was, however, far from

1 Such was the appearance of the bodies of Coptic monks of the sixth,
eighth, and ninth centuries, which I found in the convent cemeteries of
Contra-Syene, Taûd, and Akhmîm, right in the midst of the desert,

THEIR MUl\I)IIFICATION

157

being a complete one, The bath in which the dead Inan
was immersed could not entirely preserve the softer parts
of the body: the chief portion of them 'was dissolved,
and what remained after the period of saturation was so
desiccated that its bulk was seriously diminished.
,V hen any human being had been submitted to this
process, he emerged from it a mere skeleton, over which
the skin remained tightly drawn: these shrivelled limbs,
sunken chest, grinning features, yellow and blackened skin
spotted by the efflorescence of the embalmer's salts, were
not the man himself, but rather a caricature of what he
had been. As nevertheless he was secure against im-
mediate destruction, the Egyptians described him as
furnished with his shape; henceforth he had been purged
of all that was evil in him, and be could face with
tolerable security whatever awaited him in the future.
The art of Anubis, transmitted to the embalmers and
employed by them from generation to generation, had, by
almost eliminating the corruptible part of the body without
destroying its outward appearance, arrested decay, if not
for ever, at least for an unlimited period of time. If there
were hills at hand, thither the mummied dead were still
borne, partly from custom, partly because the dryness of
the air and of the soil offered them a further chance of
preservation. In districts of the Delta where the hills
were so distant as to make it very costly to reach them,
advantage was taken of the smallest sandy islet rising
above the marshes, and there a cemetery was founded.
Where this resource failed, the mummy was fearlessly
entrusted to the soil itself, but only after being placed

158

THE GODS OF EGYPT

within a sarcophagus of hard stone, whose lid and trough,
hermetically fastened together with cement, prevented the
penetration of any ITloisture, Reassured on this point,
the soul followed the body to the tomb, and there dwelt
with it as in its eternal house, upon the confines of the
visible and invisible worlds.
Here the soul kept the distinctive character and ap-
pearance wbich pertained to it "upon the earth:" as
it had been a "double" before death, so it remained a
double after it, able to perform all functions of animal
life after its own fasbion. It moved, went, came, spoke,
breathed, accepted pious homage, but without pleasure,
and as it were mechanically, rather from an instinctive
horror of annihilation than from any rational desire for
immortality. Unceasing regret for the bright world
which it had left disturbed its mournful and inert
existence. "0 my brother, withhold not thyself from
drinking and from eating, from drunkenness, from love,
from all enjoyment, from following thy desire by night
and by day; put not sorrow within thy heart, for what
are the years of a man upon earth? The West is a land
of sleep and of beavy shadows, a place wherein its in-
habitants, when once installed, slumber on in their
mummy-forms, never more waking to see their brethren;
never more to recognize their fathers or their mothers,
with hearts forgetful of their wives and children. The
living water, which earth giveth to all who dwell upon
it, is for me but stagnant and dead; that water floweth
to all who are on earth, while for me it is but liquid
putrefaction, this water that is rnine. Since I came into

FATE AFTER DEATH

159

this funereal valley I know not where nor what I am.
Give me to drink of running water! . . . Let me be
placed by the edge of the water with my face to the
North, that the breeze may caress me and my heart be
refreshed from its sorrow." By day the double remained
concealed within the tomb. If it went forth by night,
it was from no capricious or sentimental desire to revisit
the spots where it had led a happier life. Its organs
needed nourishment as formerly did those of its body,
and of itself it possessed nothing "but hunger for food,
thirst for drink." 1 W ant and misery drove it from its
retreat, and flung it back among the living. It prowled
like a marauder about fields and villages, picking up and
greedily devouring whatever it might find on the ground
-broken meats which had been left or forgotten, house
and stable refuse-and, should these meagre resources
fail, even the most revolting dung and excren1ent. 2 This
ravenous sceptre had not the dim and misty form, the
long shroud of floating draperies of our modern phantoms,
but a precise and definite shape, naked, or clothed in

1 Teti, U, 74, 75, "Hateful unto Teti is hunger, and he eateth it not;
hateful unto Teti is thirst, nor hath he drunk it," We see that the
Egyptians made hunger and thirst into two substances or beings, to be
swallowed as food is swallowed, but whose effects were poisonous unless
counteracted by the immediate absorption of more satisfying sustenance,
2 King Teti, when distinguishing his fate from that of the common dead,
stated that he had abundance of food, and hence was not reduced to so
pitiful an extremity. "Abhorrent unto Teti is excrement, Teti rejecteth
urine, and Teti abhorreth that which is abominable in him; abhorrent unto
him is fæcal matter and he eateth it not, hateful unto Teti is liquid filth."
(Teli, n. 68, 69), The same doctrine is found in several places in the Book
of the Dcad,

160

THE GODS OF EGYPT

the garments which it had worn while yet upon earth,
and emitting a pale light, to which it owed the name
of Luminous-!(!zÛ, .KhûLÎ.l The double did not allow
its family to forget it, but used all the means at its
disposal to remind them of its existence. It entered
their houses and their bodies, terrified them waking and
sleeping by its sudden apparitions, struck them down
with disease or madness,2 and would even suck their
blood like the modern vampire. One effectual means
there was, and one only, of escaping or preventing these
visitations, and this lay in taking to the tomb all the
various provisions of which the double stood in need,
and for which it visited their dwellings. Funerary sacri-
fices and the regular cultus of the dead originated in
the need experienced for making provision for the sus-
tenance of the manes after having secured their lasting

1 The name of luminous was at first so explained as to make the light
wherewith souls were clothed, into a portion of the divine light. In my
opinion the idea is a less abstract one, and shows that, as among many other
nations, so with the Egyptians the soul was supposed to appear as a kind of
pale flame, or as emitting a glow analogous to the phosphorescent halo which
is seen by night about a piece of rotten wood, or putrefying fish. This
primitive conception may have subsequently faded, and khÛ the glorious one,
one of the m'lnes, may have become one of those flattering names by which
it Was thought necessary to propitiate the dead; it then came to have that
significance of resplendent with light which is ordinarily attributed to it.
2 The incantations of which the Leyden Papyrus published by PLEYTE is
full are directed against dead men or dead women who entered into one of
the living to give him the migra1'ne, and violent headaches, Another Leyden
Papyrus, briefly analyzed by CHABAS, and translated by 1\!ASPERo, conta.ins
the complaint, or rather the formal act of requif>ition of a husband whom the
luminous of his wife returned to torment in his home, without any just cause
for such conduct.

FOOD FOR THE DEAD

161

existence by the mummification of their bodies. l Gazelles
and oxen were Lrought and sacrificed at the door of the
tomb chapel; the haunches, heart, and breast of each

,.

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SACRIFICIXG TO THE DE,\D IX TilE TOl\m CH_\PEL,2

1 Several chapters of the Book of the Dead consist of directions for
giving food to that part of man which survives his death, e,g, chap. cv.,
"Chapter for prov.iding food for the double" (NAVILLE'S edition, pI. cxvii,),
and chap, cvi" "Chapter for giving daily ab'l.lmdance unto the deceased, in
][emphis" (N AVILLE'S edition, pI. cxviii.).
2 Stela of Antûf I" Prince of Thebes, drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a
photograph taken by Émil Brugsch-Bey. Below, servants and relations are

VOL. I.

!II

162

THE GODS OF EGYPT

victim being presented and heaped together upon the
ground, that there the dead might find them when they
began to be hungry . Vessels of beer or wine, great jars
of fresh water, purified with natron, or perfumed, were
brought to them that they might drink their fill at
pleasure, and by such voluntary tribute men bought
their good will, as in daily life they bought that of
some neighbour too powerful to be opposed.
The gods were spared none of the anguish and none of
the perils which death so plentifully bestows upon rIlen.
Their bodies suffered change and gradually perished until
nothing was left of them. Their souls, like human souls,
were only the representatives of their bodies, and gradually
became extinct if means of arresting the natural tendency
to decay were not found in time. Thus, the same
necessity that forced nlen to seek the kind of sepulture
which gave the longest term of existence tü their souls,
compelled the gods to the same course. At first, they
were buried in the hills, and one of their oldest titles
describes them as those "who are upon the sand," 1 safe

bringing the victims and cutting up the ox at the door of the tomb. In the
middle is the dead man, seated under his pavilion and receiving the sacrifice:
an attendant offers him drink, another brings him the haunch of an ox, a
third a basket and two jars; provisions fill the whole chamber. Behind
Antûf stand two servants, the one fanning his master, and the second
offering him his staff and sandals, The position of the door, whieh is in the
lowest row of the SCf'nes, indicates that what is represented above it takes
place within the tomb.
1 In the Book of Knuwing that which is in Hades, for the fourth and fifth
hours of the night, we have the description of the sandy realm of Sokaris and
of the gods HiriÛ ShâítÛ-senû, who are on their sand. Elsewhere in the
same book we have a cynocephalus upon its sand, and the gods of the eighth

:1\fODES OF EXISTE
CE

163

from putrefaction; afterwards, when the art of embalm-
ing had been discovered, the gods received the benefit
of the new invention and .were mummified. Each nome
possessed the mummy and the tomb of its dead god: at
Thinis there was the mummy and the tomb of Anhûri,
the mummy of Osiris at
lendes, the mummy of Tûmû
at Heliopolis. 1 In some of the nomes the gods did not
change their names in altering the mode of their ex-
istence: the deceased Osiris remained Osiris; Nît
and HâtÌ10r when dead were still Nit and Hâ.thor,
at Saïs and at Denderah. But Phtah of JUemphis
became Sokaris by dying; Ûapûaîtû, the jackal of Siût,
was changed into Anubis; 2 and when his disk had dis-
appeared at evening, Anhûri, the sunlit sky of Thillis,
was I\:bolltamentît, Lord of the \Vest, until the following
day. That bliss which we dream of enjoying in the
world to come was not granted to the gods any more
than to men. Their bodies were nothing but inert larvæ,

hour are also mysterious gods who are on their sand, 'Yherever these
personages are represented in the vignettes, the Egyptian artist has care-
fully drawn the eIlipse painted in yellow and sprinkled with red, which is
the conventional rendering of sand, and sandy districts,
1 The sepulchres of Tûmû, Khopri, Râ, Osiris, and in each of them the
heap of sand hiding the body, are represented in the tomb of Seti I., as also
the four rams in which the souls of the god are incarnate. The tombs of the
gods were known even in Roman times.
2 To my mind, at least, this is an obvious conclusion from the monu-
ments of Siût, in which the jackal god is called Ûapûaîtû, as the living god,
lord of the city, and Anûpû, master of embalming or of the Oasis, lord of
Ra-qrirît, inasmuch as he is god of the dead, Ra-qrirît, the door of the stnne,
was the name which the people of Siût gave to their necropolis and to the
infernal dumain of their god.

104

THE GODS OF EGYPT

"with unmoving heart," 1 weak and shrivelled limbs, un-
able to stand upright were it not that the bandages in
which they were swathed stiffened them into one Tigid
block, Their hands and heads alone were free, and
were of the green or black shades of putrid flesh. Their
doubles, like those of men, both
dreaded and regretted the light.
All sentiment was extinguished
by the hunger from which they
suffered, and gods who "Tere
noted for their compassionate
kindness when alive, became
pitiless and ferocious tyrants in
the tomb. When once men
were bidden to the presence of
Sokarís, Khontamentît, or even
of Osiris, "mortals come terri-
fying their hearts with fear of
the god, and none dareth to
look him in the face either
among gods or men; for him
the great are as the small. He
spareth not those who love him;
he beareth away the child from its mother, and the old
man who walke
h on his way; full of fear, all creatures

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PIIT.\.I1 .\.8 A l\lnnly' 2

1 This is the characteristic epithet for the dead Osiris, ÛrrlÛ-hít, he whose
heart is unmoving, he whose heart no longer beats, and who has therefore
ceased to live.
2 Drawing by Faucher-Gudin of a bronze statuette of the Saïte period,
found in the department of Héra,ult, at the end of a gallery in a!l ancient
mine.

DEAD GODS THE GODS OF THE DEAD 165

make supplication before him, but he turneth not his
face towards them." Only by the unfailing payment of
tribute, and by feeding him as though he were a simple
human double, could living or dead escape the. conse-
quences of his furious temper. The living paid him his
dues in pomps and solemn sacrifices, repeated from year
to year at regular intervals; but the dead bought more
dearly the protection which he deigned to extend to
them. He did not allow them to receive directly the
prayers, sepulchral meals, or offerings of kindred on
feast-days; all that was addressed to them Illust first
pass through his hands. 'Vhen their friends wished to
send them wine, water, bread, Ineat, vegetables, and
fruits, be insisted that these should first be offered and
formally presented to himself; then he was humbly
prayed to transmit them to such or such a double, whose
name and parentage were pointed out to him. He took
possession of them, kept part for his own use, and of
his bounty gave the remainder to its destined recipient.
Thus death made no change in the relative positions of
the feudal god and his worshippers. The worshipper
who called himself the mnakhÛ of the god during life
was the subject and vassal of his mumlnied god even
in the tomb; 1 and the god who, while living, Teigned

1 The word amaldtll is applied to an individual who has freeJy entered
the service of king or baron, and taken him for his lord: amaklill kltir 71iblÎf
means vassal of ltis lord. In the same way, each chose for himseJf a god
who became his patron, and to whom he owed fealty, i.e, to whom he was
amakhl1-vassal. To the god he owed the service of a good vassal-tribute,
sacrifices, offerings; and to his vassal the god owed in return the service of
a suzerain-protection, food, reception into his dominions and access to his

IU6

THE GODS OF EGYPT

over the living, after his death continued to reIgn over
the dead,
He dwelt in the city near the prince and in the
midst of his subjects: Râ living in Heliopolis along with
the prince of Heliopolis; Haroêris in Edfû together with
the prince of Edfn; Nît in Saïs with the prince of Saïs.
Although none of the prinlitive temples have come down
to us, the name given to them in the language of the
time, shows what they originally were. A temple was
considered as the feudal mansion-hâît,-the house-
ptrÛ, pi,-of the god, better cared for, and more respected
than the houses of men, but not otherwise differing from
them. . It ,vas built on a site slightly raised above the
level of the plain, so as to be safe from the inundation,
and where there was no natural mound, the want was
supplied by raising a rectangular platform of earth. A
layer of sand spread uniformly on the sub-soil provided
against settlements or infiltration, and formed a bed for
the foundations of the building.! This was first of all
a single room, circumscribed, gloomy, covered in by a
slightly vaulted roof, and having no opening but the
doorway, which was framed by two tall masts, whence
floated streamers to attract from afar the notice of

person. A man might be absolutely nib amalchít, master of fealty, or,
relatively to a god, amakltll kltir Osiri, the vassal of Osiris, amaklul l-ltir
Plttah-So7cari, the vassal of Phtah-Solmris.
1 This custom lasted into Græco-Roman times, and was part of the ritual
for laying the foundations of a temple. After the king had dug out the soiJ
on the ground where the temple was to stand, he spread over the spot f'and
mixed with pcbLles and precious stones, and upon this he laid the first course
of stone.

THEIR TE
rPLES AXD L\IAGES

107

worshippers; in front of its façade 1 was a court, fenced
in 'with palisading. \Vithin the temple were pieces of
matting, low tables of stone, wood, or metal, a few
utensils for cooking the offerings, a few vessels for
containing the blood, oil, ,vine, and water with which
the god was every day regaled. As provisions for sacrifice
increased, the number of chambers increased with them,

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TIIE'S.\.CRED nULL, IurIS OR l\ISEVIS,2

and rooms for flowers, perfumes, stuffs, precious vessels,
and food were grouped around the primitive abode; until
that which had once constituted the whole temple became
no more than its sanctuary. There the god dwelt, not

1 No Egyptian temples of the first period have come down to our time,
but HERR ERl\IAN has very justly remarked that we have pictures of them
in several of the signs denoting the word temple in texts of the l\Iemphite
period.
2 A sculptor's model from Tanis, now in the Gîzeh l\fuseum, drawn by
Faucher-Gudin from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey. The sacred marks,
as giyen in the illustration, are copied from those of similar figures on stelæ
of thc Serapeum.

168

THE GODS OF EGYPT

only In spirit but in body,t and the fact that it was
incumbent upon him to live In several cities did not
prevent his being present in all of them at once. He
could divide his double, imparting it to as many separate
bodies as he pleased, and these bodies might be human
or animal, natural objects or things manufactured-such
as statues of stone, metal, or wood. 2 Several of the gods
were incarnate in rams: Osiris at l\fendes, Harshafitû
at Heracleopolis, K.hnûn1û at Elephantinê. Living rams
were kept in their temples, and allowed to gratify any
fancy that came into their animal brains. Other gods
entered into bulls: Râ at Heliopolis, and, subsequently,
Phtah at l\Ien1phis, l\Iinû at Thebes, and l\Iontû at
Hermonthis. They indicated beforehand by certain marks
snch beasts as they intended to animate by their doubles,
and he who had learnt to recognize these signs was at
no loss to find a living god when the time came for
seeking one and presenüng it to the adoration of
worshippers in the temple. 3 And if the statues had not

I
rhus at Denderah, it is said that the soul of Hâthor likes to leave
heaven "in the form of a human-headed sparrow-hawk of lapis-lazuli,
accompanied by her divine cycle, to come and unite herself to the statue,"
"Other instances," adds :l\Iariette, "would seem to ,justify us in thinking
that the Egyptians accorded a certain kind of life to the statues and images
which they made, and ùelieved (especially in connection with tombs) that
the spirit haunted images of itself,"
2 l\IAsPERO, .1.'tucles de Mytltologie ct el' Archr!ologie .A'gyptiennes, vol. i, p, 77,
et seq.; Archéol()[Jie .1,'gyptiC1/nC, pp. 106, 107; English edition, pp. 105, 106,
This notion of actuated statues seemed so strange and so un worthy of the
wisdom of the Egyptians that Egyptologists of the rank of
I. DE ROUGÉ
have taken in an abstract and metaphorical sense expressions referring
to the automatic movements of divine images,
:3 The bulls of Râ and of Phtah, the Mneyis and the Hapis, are known to

OFFERIKGS TO THE SERPENT

169

the same outward appearance of actual life as the animals,
they none the less concealed beneath their rigid exteriors
an intense energy of life which betrayed itself on occasion
by gestures or by words. They thus indicated, in language
which their servants could understand, the will of the
gods, or their opinion on the events of the day; they
answered questions put to them in accordance with

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OPEX-AIR OFFERIXGS TO TilE SERPEXT.1

prescribed forms, and sometimes they even foretold the
future. Each temple held a fairly large number of statues

us from classic writers. The bull of
Iinû at Thebes may be seen in the
procession of the god as represented on monuments of Ramses II. and
Ramses III. Bâkhû (called Bakis by the Greeks), the bull of Hermonthis,
is somewhat rare, and mainly represented upon a few later stelæ in the
Gîzeh :l\Iuseum; it is chiefly known from the texts. The particular signs
distinguishing each of these sacred animals have been determined both on
the authority of ancient writers, and from examination of the figured
monuments; the arrangement and outlines of some of the black markings of
the Hapis are clearly shown in the illustration on p, 167.
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken in the tomb of
Khopirkerîsonbû, The inscription behind the uræus states that it represents
Ranûît the Angust, lady of the double granary.

170

THE GODS OF EGYPT

representing so many embodiments of the local divinity
and of the members of his triad. These latter shared,
albeit in a lesser degree, all the honours and aU the
l)rerogatives of the master; they accepted sacrifices,
answered prayers, and, if needful, they prophesied. They
occupied either the sanctuary itself, or one of the halls
built about the principal sanctuary, or one of the isolated
chapels which belonged to them, subject to the suzerainty
of the feudal god. The god has his divine court to help
him in the administration of his dominions, just as a
prince is aided by his ministers in the government of his
realm.
This State religion, so complex both in principle and
in its outward manifestations, was nevertheless inadequate
to express the exuberant piety of the populace. There
were casual di vinities in every nome whom the people
did not love any the less because of their inofficial
character; such as an exceptionally high palm tree in
the midst of the desert, a rock of curious outline, a spring
trickling drop by drop from the mountain to which hunters
caIne to slake theil' thirst in the hottest bours of tbe day,
or a great serpent believed to be immortal, which haunted
a field, a grove of trees, a grotto, or a mountain ravine.!
The peasants of the district brought it bread, cakes, fruits,
and thought that they could call down the blessing of
heaven upon their fields by gorging the snake with

1 It was a serpent of this kind which gave its name to the hill of Shêikh
Harîdî, and the adjacent nome of the Serpent :l\Iountain; and though the
serpent has now turned l\Iussulman, he still haunts the mountain and
preserves his faculty of coming to life again every time that he is killed.

TREE AXD SERPEXT 'VORSHIP

171

offerings. Everywhere on the confines of cultivated
ground, and even at some distance from the valley, are
fine single sycamores, flourishing as though by miracle
amid the sand. Their fresh greenness is in sharp contrast
with the surrounding fawn-coloured landscape, and their
thick foliage defies the Inidday sun even in summer. But,
on examInIng the
ground In which
they grow, we soon
find that they drink
from water which
has infiltrated from
the Nile, and whose
existence is in no-
WIse betrayed upon
the surface of the
soil. They stand as
it were with their
feet in the river,
though no one about them suspects it. Egyptians of all
ranks counted them divine and habitually worshipped
them,2 making theIn offerings of figs, grapes, cucumbers,

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TilE PE.-\.S_\.NT'S OFFERIXU TO TIlE SYC.UlORE. 1

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a scene in the tomb of Khopirkerîsonbû.
The sacred sycamore here stands at the end of a field of corn, and would
seem to extend its protection to the harvest.
2 :MASPERO, f;lwles de 1J[yllwlogie ct d' Arch':olog:e Égypliennes,
.ol. ii.
pp, 224-227. They were represented as animated by spirits concealell
within them, but which could manifest themselves on occasion, At such
times the head or whole body of the spirit of a tree would emerge from its
trunk, and when it returned to its hiding-place the trunk reabsorbed it, or
ate it again, according to the Egyptian expression, which I have already had
occasion to quote above; see p. llO, note 3.

172

THE GODS OF EGYPT

vegetables, and water in porous Jars daily replenished
by good and charitable people. Passers-by drank of
the water, and requited the unexpected benefit with
a short prayer. There were several such trees in the
JYlemphite nome, and in the Letopolite nome from Dashûr
to Gîzeh, inhabited, as everyone knew, by detached
doubles of N ûît and Hâthor. These combined districts
were known as the "Land of the Sycamore," a name
afterwards extended to the city of l\1:emphis; and their
sacred trees are worshipped at the present day both by
lVlussuhnan and Christian fellahîn. 1 The most famous
among them all, the Sycamore of the South-nûllÎt 'J'îsit-
was regarded as the living body of Hâthor on earth.
Side by side with its hUlllan gods and prophetic statues,
each nome proudly advanced one or more sacred animals,
one or more magic trees. Each family, and ahnost every
individual, also possessed gods and fetishes, which had
been pointed out for their worship by some fortuitous
meeting with an animal 'or an object; by a dream, or
by sudden intuition. They had a place in some corner of
the house, or a niche in its walls; lamps were continually
kept burning before them, and small daily offerings were
made to them, over and above what fell to their share
on solemn feast-days. In return, they became the pro-
tectors of the household, its guardians and its counsellors.
Appeal was made to them in every exigency of daily life,
and their decisions were no less scrupulously carried out

1 The tree at :Matarîeh, commonly called the Tree of the Virgin, seems to
me to be the successor of a sacred tree of Heliopolis in which a goddess,
perhaps Hâthor, was worshipped.

SACRIFICE OF THE BULL

173

by their little circle of worshippers, than was the will of
the feudal god by the inhabitants of his principality.
The prince 'was the great high priest. The whole
religion of the nome rested upon him, and originally he
himself perfol'lued its ceremonies. Of these, the chief
was sacrifice,-that is to say, a banquet which it was his
duty to prepare and lay before the god with his own
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hands. He went out into the fields to lasso the half-wild
bull; bound it, cut its throat, skinned it, burnt part of
the carcase in front of his idol and distributed the rest
among his assistants, together with plenty of cakes, fruits,

1 Bas-relief from the temple of Seti I. at Abydos; drawn by Boudier,
from a photograph by 1\1. Daniel Héron. Seti r., second king of the XIX th
dynasty, is throwing the lasso; his son, Ramses 11., who is still the crown
prince, holds the bull by the tail to prevent its escaping from the slip-
knot.

171

THE GODS OF EGYPT

vegetables, and ,vine. l On the occasion, the god was
present both in body and double, suffering himself to be
clothed and perfumed, eating and drinking of the best
that was set on the table before him, and putting aside
some of the provisions for future use. This ,vas the time
to prefer requests to him} while he was gladdened and
disposed to benevolence by good cheer. He was not
without suspicion as to the reason ,vhy he was so feasted,
but he had laid down his conditions beforehand, and if
they were faithfully observed he willingly yielded to the
means of seduction brought to bear upon him. 1Ioreover,
he himself had arranged the ceremonial in a kind of
contract formerly made with his worshippers and gradually
perfected from age to age by the piety of new generations. 2
Above all things, he insisted on physical cleanliness. The
officiating priest must carefully wash-Ûâúû-his face,
mouth, hands, and body; and so necessary was this
preliminary purification considered, that from it the pro-
fessional priest derived his name of ûîúÛ, the washed, the
clean. 3 His costume was the archaic dress, modified

1 This appears from the sacrificial ritual employed in the temples up to
the last days of Egyptian paganism; cf., for instance, the illustration on
p. 173, where the king is represented as lassoing the bull, That which in
historic times was but an image, had originally been a reality.
2 The most striking example of the divine institution of religious services
is furnished by the inscription relating the history of the destruction of men
in the reign of Râ, where the god, as he is about to make his final ascension
into heaven, substitutes animal for human sacrifices.
3 The idea of physical cleaIÙiness comes out in such variants as Ûíbû
tot/li, "clean of both hands," found on stelæ instead of the simple title ÛílJl1.
We also know, on the evidence of ancient writers, the scrupulous daily care
which Ef.,'Yptian priests took of their bodies. It was only as a secondary
matter that the idea of moral purity entered into the conception of a priest.

THEORY OF PRAYER A:\fD SACRIFICE 175

according to circumstances. D ul'Ïng certain services, or
at certain points in the sacrifices, it ,vas incumbent upon
him to wear sandals, the panther-skin over his shoulder,
and the thick lock of hair falling over his right ear; at
other times he must gird himself with the loin-cloth
having a jackal's tail, and take the shoes from off his
feet before proceeding with his office, or attach a false
beard to his chin. The species, hair, and age of the
victim, the way in which it was to be brought and bound,
the manner and details of its slaughter, the order to be
followed in opening its body and cutting it up, were all
minutely and unchangeably decreed. And these were
but the least of the divine exactions, and those most
easily satisfied. The formulas accompanying each act of
the sacrificial priest contained a certain number of words
whose due sequence and harmonies might not suffer the
slightest modification whatever, even from the god himself,
under penalty of losing their efficacy. They were always
recited with the same rhythm, according to a system of
chaunting in which every tone had its virtue, combined
with movements ,vhich confirmed the sense and worked
with irresistible effect: one false note, a single discord
between the succession of gestures and the utterance of
the sacramental words, any hesitation, any awkwardness
in the accomplishment of a rite, and the sacrifice was
vaIn.
VV orship as thus conceived became a legal transaction,

The Purification Ritual for officiating priests is contained in a papyrus of
the Bf'rlin "Museum, whose analysis and table of chapters has been published
by HERR OSCAR VON LE1Dl, Das Rifllalùllclt des AlIl1llo1lsdicnstes, p. 4, et seq.

176

THE GODS OF EGYPT

in the course of which the god gave up his liberty in ex-
change for certain compensations whose kind and value were
fixed by law. By a solemn deed of transfer the worshipper
handed over to the legal representatives of the contracting
divinity such personal or real property as s.eemed to him
fitting payment for the favour which he asked, or suitable
atonement for the wrong which he had done. If man
scrupulously observed the innumerable conditions with
which the transfer was surrounded, the god could not
escape the obligation of fulfilling his petition; 1 but should
he omit the least of them, the offering remained with the
temple and went to increase the endowments in mortmain,
while the god was pledged to nothing in exchange. Hence
the officiating priest assumed a formidable responsibility
as regarded his fellows: a slip of memory, the slightest
accidental impurity, rnade him a bad priest, injurious to
himself and harmful to those 'worshippers who had
entrusted him with their interests before the gods.
Since it was vain to expect ritualistic perfections from a
prince constantly troubled with affairs of state, the custom
was established of associating professional priests with him,
personages who devoted all their lives to the study and
practice of the thousand formalities whose sum constituted

1 This obligation is evident from texts where, as in the poem of
Pentaûirj.t; a king who is in danger demands from his favourite god the
equivalent in protection of the sacrifices which he has ofièred to that divinity,
and the gifts wherewith he has enriched him. "Have I not made unto thee
many offerings
" says Ramses II. to Amon. "I have filled thy temple with
my prisoners, I have built thee a mansion for millions of years. . . . Ah, if
evil is the lot of them who insult thee, good are thy purposes towards those
who honour thee, 0 Amon! .,

THE SERVAXTS AXD PROPEHTY OF TE:\IPLES 177

the local religion. Each temple had its service of priests,
independent of those belonging to neighbouring temples,
whose members, bound to keep their hands always clean
and their voices true, were ranked according to the degrees
of a' learned hierarchy. At their head was a sovereign
pontiff to direct them in the exercise of their functions.
In some places he ,vas called the first prophet, or rather
the first servant of the god-lwn-nÛtir topi; at Thebes he
'was the first prophet of Amon, at Thinis be \vas the first
prophet of Änbûri. 1 But generaIJy he bore a title appro-
priate to the nature of the god whose servant he was.
The chief priest of Râ at Heliopolis, and in all the cities
which adopted the Heliopolitan form of worship, was called
O'iriì maû, the master of visions, and he alone besides the
sovereign of the nome, or of Egypt, enjoyed the privilege
of penetrating into the sanctuary, of " entering into heaven
and there beholding the god" face to face. In the same
'way, the high priest of Anhûri at Sebennytos was entitled
the wise and pure warrior-aldâti saû u,{bu-because Lis
god went armed with a pike, ana a soldier god required for
his service a pontiff who should be a soldier like himself.
These great personages did not always strictly seclude
themselves within the limits of the religious dOluain. The
gods accepted, and even sometimes solicited, from their
worshippers, houses, fields, vineyards, orchards, slaves, and

1 This title of .first lJJ"opltCt belongs to priests of the less important towns,
and to secondary divinities, If we find it emploYf'd in connection with the
Thcban worship, it is because Amon was originally a provincial god, amI only
rose into the first rank with the rise of Thebes and the great conquests of
the XVlllth and XIXth dynasties.
VOL. I. N

178

THE uODS OF EGYPT

fishponds, the produce of which assured their livelihood
and the support of their temples. rrhere was no Egyptian
who did not cherish the ambition of leaving some such
legacy to the patron god of his city, "for a monument to
himself," and as an endowment for the priests to institute
prayers and perpetual sacrifices on his behalf. l In course of
time these accumulated gifts at length formed real sacred
fiefs-hopû-nÛtir-analogous to the WctkfS of l\Iussulman
Egypt. 2 They were adn1Ïnistered by the high priest, who,
if necessary, defended them by force against the greed of
princes or kings. Two, three, or even four classes of
prophets or hieroduli under his orders assisted him in
performing the offices of worship, in giving religious
instruction, and in the conc1uct of affairs. Women did not
hold equal rank with men in the temples of male deities;
they there formed a kind of harem whence the god took his
mystic spouses, his concubines, his maidservants, the
female musicians and dancing women whose duty it was to
divert him and to enliven his feasts. But in temples of
goddesses they held the chief rank, and 'we1'e called
lâerodules, or priestesses, hierodllles of Nit, ltieJ'odltles of
Hâthor, hicrodules of Pakhît. 3 The lower offices in thë

1 As regards the Saïte period, we are beginning to accumulate many
stelæ recording gifts to a god of land or houses, made either by the king or
by private individuals,

'Ve know from the Great Harris Papyrzts to what the fortune of Amon
amounted at the end of the reign of Ramses III.; its details may be found
in BRUGSCII, Die Ægyptologie, pp. 271-274, Cf. in N A VILLE, Bubastis,
EigMlt Memoir of the E[J!/ptian E.rploration Fund, p. 61, a calculation as to the
quantities of precious metals belonging to one of the least of the temples of
Bubastis; its gold and silver were counted by thousand.s of pounds,
:; :l\Iariette remarks that priests play but a subordinate part in the

UNITY OF THE N031E GOD

179

households of the gods, as in princely households, were
held by a troop of servants and artisans: butchers to cut
the throats of the victims, cooks and pastrycooks, con-
fectioners, weavers, shoemakers, florists, cellarers, water-
carriers and milk-carriers. In fact, it was a state within a
state, and the prince took care to keep its government in
his own hands, either by investing one of bis children with
tho titles and functions of chief pontiff, or by arrogating
them to himself. In that case, he provided against
mistakes which would have annulled the sacrifice by
associating with himself several masters of the ceremonies,
who directed bim in the orthodox evolutions beforo tùe god
and about the victim, indicated the due order of gestures
and the necessary changes of costume, and prompted birn
with the words of each invocation from a book or tablet
which they held in their hands. l
In addition to its rites and special hierarchy, each of
the sacerdotal colleges thns constituted had a theology in
accordance with the nature and attributes of its god. Its
fundalnental doglna aflh'med the unity of the nOlne god,
bis greatness, his supremacy over all the gods of Egypt

temple of H:tthor, This fact, which snrprised him, is adequa.tely explained
by remembering that Hâthor being a goddess, women take precedence over
mel1 in a temple dedicated to her. At SaÏs, the chief priest was a man, the
ldwrp-lcaíltl; but the persi
tence with which women of the highest rank, and
even queens themselves, took the title of prophetess of .Kit from the times of
the Ancient Empire shows that in this city the priestess of the goddess was
of equal, if not superior, rank to the priest,
1 The title of such a personage was ldtri-ltabi, the man with the roll or
tablet, because of the papyrus roll, or wooden tablet containing the ritual,
w hidl he held in his hand.

and of foreign lands I-whose existence was nevertheless
admitted, and none dreamed of denying their reality or
contesting their power. The latter also boasted of their
unity, their greatness, their supremacy; but whatever they
,vere, the god of the nome was Inaster of them all-their
prince, their ruler, their king. It was he alone who
governed the world, he alone kept it in good order, he
alone bad created it. K at that be
bad evoked it out of nothing; there
was as yet no concept of nothingness,
and even to the most subtle and re-
fined of primitive theologians creation
was only a bringing of pre-existent
elements into play. The latent germs
of things had always existed, but they
had slept for ages and ages in the
bosom of the N û, of the dark waters.
In fulness of time the god of each
nome drew them forth, classified them,
SIIÛ LTLIn'IXG TIlE SKy'2 marshalled them according to the bent
of his particular nature, and made his
universe out of them by methods peculiarly his own. Nît
of Saïs, ,vho was a weaver, had made the world of warp and
woof, as the mother of a family 'weaves her children's linen.

180

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THE GODS OF EGYPT

I In the inscriptions all local gods bear the titles of Nii.tir 11((, only god;
Bilton ntltiríi, SúntirÛ,
ov()
p, king of the gods; of NÛtir âa nib pít, the great
god, lord of heaven, which show their pretensions to the sovereignty and to
the position of creator of the universe.
2 Drawing by Faucher-Gudin of a green enamelled statuette in my
possession, It was from Shû that the Greeks derived their rcprebentations,
and perhaps their myth of Atlas.

^
THE UPLIFTIXGS OF SHU

181

Khnûmû, the Nile-God of the cataracts, had gathered up
the mud of his waters and therewith moulded his creatures
upon a potter's table. In the eastern cities of the Delta
these procedures were not so simple. There it was
admitted that in the beginning earth and sky were two
lovers lost in the Nû, fast locked in each other's embrace,
the god lying beneath the goddess. On the da.y of creation
a new god, Shû, came forth from the primæval 'waters,
slipped between the two, and seizing Nûît with both hanùs,
lifted her above his bead with outstretched arms. l Though
the starry body of the goddess extended in space-her
head being to the west and her loins to the east-her feet
and hands hung down to the earth. These were the four
pinal's of the firmament under another form, and four gods
of four adjacent principalities were in charge of theine
Osiris, or Horus the sparrow-hawk, presided oyer the
southern, and Sît over the northern pillar; Thot over
that of tbe west, and Sapdi, the author of the zodiacal
light, over that of the east, They had divided the world
among themselves into four regions, or rather into four
" houses," bounded by those lllountains which surround it,
alid by the diameters intersecting between the pillars.
Each of these houses belonged to one, and to one only;
none of the other three, nor even the sun himself, might
enter it, dwell there, or even pass through it without
baving obtained its n1aster's permission. Sibû had not

1 This was what the Egyptians called tlte upbftingß of Sltll. The eyent
first took place at Hermopolis, and certain }pgends added that in order to
get high enough the god had been obliged to make use of a staircase or
mound situate in this city, and which was famous throughout Egypt.

182

TIlE GODS OF EGYPT

been satisfied to meet the irruption of Shû by mere passive
resistance. He had tried to struggle, and he is drawn in
the posture of a man who has just a'wakened out of sleep,
and is half turning 011 his couch before getting up. One of
his legs is stretched out, the other is bent and partly drawn
up as III the act of rising. 'rbe lower part of the body is

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still unmoved, but he is raising hirnself with difficulty on
his left elbow, while his head droops and his right ann is
lifted towards the sky. His effort was suddenly arrested.
Rendered powÐl'less by a stroke of the creator, Sibû
remained as if petrified in this position, the obvious
irregularities of the earth"s surface being due to the painful

1 Drawn by Fauchçr-Gudin, from a painting on the mummy-case of
BÚtehamon in the Turin :l\1useum. " ShÚ, the great god, lord of heaven,"
receives the adoration of two ram-headed souls placed upon his right and
left.

attitude in which he was stricken. His sides have since
been clothed with verdure, generations of men and animals
have succeeded each other upon his back, but without
bringing any I'elief to Lis pain; he suffers evermore from
the violent separation of which he was the victÏ1n when
:Kûìt was torn from him, anÜ his complaint
continues to rise to heaven night and day.
The aspect of the in-
undated plains of the
Delta, of the river by
"which they are furrowed
and fertilized, and of the
desert sands by which
they aloe threatened, had
suggested to the theo-
logians of l\lendes and
Bûto an explanation of
the nlystery of creation,
in which the feudal di-
vinities of these cities
TIlE DIDÛ OF O SI R IS . ! TIlE DIDÛ DI ' ESSI " D 2
and of several others in' .. ,
their neighbourhood, Osiris, Sìt, and Isis, played the
principal parts. Osiris first represented the wild and
fickle Nile of primitive times; afterwanls, as those who
dwelt upon his banks learned to l'egulate his course,

OSIRIS AXD ISIS

,

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1.

183

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a specimen in blue enamelled pottery,
now in my possession.
2 Drawn by Fauchcr-Gudin from a figul'e fl'cquently found in Thehan
mummy-cases of XXpt and XXllu,l dynasties ("ILKIN
O
, lI[a,nners ancI
Customs. 2nù edit" YO!. iii. pI. xxv" No 5).

184

THE GODS OF EGYPT

they emphasized the kindlier side of his character and
soon transformed him into a benefactor of humanity,
^
the supremely good being, Unnofriû, Onnophris. 1 He
,vas lord of the principality of Diùû, which lay along
the Sebeunytic branch of the river between the coast
marshes and the entrance to the "\Vâdy rrûmilât, but his
domain had been divided; and the two nomes thus formed,
namely, the ninth and sixteenth nomes of the Delta in the
Pharaonic lists, remained faithful to hin1, and here he
reigned without Tival, at Busiris as at l\lendes. His most
famous idol-form was the Dic1û, whether naked or clothed,
the fetish, formed of four supel'in1posed columns, which had
given its name to the principality.2 They ascribed life to
this Didû, and represented it with a somewhat grotesque
face, big cheeks, thick lips, a necklace round its throat,
a long flowing dress .which hid the base of the colulllns
beneath its folds, and two arms bent across the breast,
the hands grasping one a whip and the other a crook,
symbols of sovereign authority. This, perhaps, was the

1 It has long been a dogma with Egyptologists that Osiris came from
Abydos. ]UASPERO has shown that from his very titles he is obviously a
native of the Delta, and more especially of Busiris and l\Iendes.
2 The Did.û has been very variously interprf'ted. It has been taken for
a kind of nilometer, for a sculptor's or moùeller's stand, or a painter's easel,
for an altar with four superimposed taùles, or a
ort of pedestal bearing four
door-lintels, for a series of four columns placed one behiml another, of which
the capitals only are visible, one above the other, etc. Thf' explanation
given in the text is that of REL'TENS, who recognized the Didû as a symbolic
representation of the four regions of the world; and of J\IAsPERo, J
?lltiles de
lJlytlwlogie et d' Arcltéologie Ji?gyptiennes, vol. ii. p. 3!)D, note 3, According
to Egyptian theologians, it represented the spine of Osiris, preserved as a
relic ill the town bearing the nallle of DÙ1Û, Diclit.

OSIRIS-O
XOPHRIS

185

most ancient form of Osiris; but they also l'epresented him
as a man, and supposed him to assume the shapes of rams

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OPlIRIS, WHIP .\XD CROOK IY H.\XD. 1

I Drawn by Boudier from a statue in green basalt found at Sakkarab,
and now in the Gîzeh l\Iwscum.

186

THE GODS OF EGYPT

and bulls/ or even those of water-birds, such as lapwings,
herons, and cranes, which disported themselves about the
lakes of that district. 2 The goddess whom we are accustomed
to regard as inseparable froin bim, Isis the cow, or woman
with cow's horns, bad not always belonged to hÜn. Originally
she was an independent deity, dwelling at Bûto in the midst
of the ponds of Adhû. She bad neither husband nor lover,
but had spontaneously conceived and given birth to a son,
whom she suckled among the l'eeds-a lesser Horus who
was called Harsiîsît, Horus the SOIl of Isis, to distinguish
him from Haroêris. At an early pel'iod she .was married to
her neighbour Osiris, and no marriage could have been
better suited to her nature, For she personified the earth
-not the earth in general, like Sibu, .with its unequal
distribution of seas and mountains, deserts and cultivated
land; but the black and luxuriant plain of the Delta, where
races of men, plants, and animals increase and multiply in
ever-succeeding generations. To whom did she owe this
inexhaustible productive energy if not to her neighbour
Osiris, to the Nile? The Nile l'ises, overflows, lingers
upon the soil; every year it is wedded to the earth, and the
earth comes forth green and fruitful from its embraces.

1 The ram of :l\Iendes is sometimes Osiris, and sometimes the soul of
Osiris, The ancients took it for a he-goat, and to them we are indebted
for the record of its exploits. According to 1\Ianetho, the worship of
the sacred ram is not older than the time of King Kaiekhos of the second
dynasty. A Ptolemaic necropolis of sacred rams was discoyered by
l\Iariette at Tmai el-Amdid, in the ruins of Thmûis, and some of their
sarcophagi are now in the Gîzeh 1\Iuseum,
2 The BOllÛ, the chief among these birds, is not the phænix, as has so often
been asserted. It is a kind of heron, either the A.rclea cinerea, which is
common in Egypt, or else some similar species.

THE CO'V-HORN HEAD-DRESS

187

The lIJarriage of the two elements suggested that of the
two divinities; Osiris ,,"edùeù Isis anù adopted the young
Horus.

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, t

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.. \'-í'.

ISIS, WI:AlUXG TIlE COW-IlOnX IlE,\D-DUESS. l

1 Drawn by Boudier from a green basalt statue in the Gîzeh :i\luseum.
From a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey.

188

THE GODS OF EGYPT

But this prolific and gentle pair were not representative
of all the phenomena of nature. The eastern part of the
Delta borders upon the solitudes of Aloabia, and although it
contains several rich and fertile provinces, yet most of these
owe their existence to the arduous labour of the inhabitants,
their fertility being dependent on the daily care of man,
and on his regular distribution of the water. The moment
he suspends the struggle or relaxes his watchfulness, the
desert reclaims them and overwhelms them with sterility.
Sît was the spirit of the mountain, stone and sand, the red
and arid ground as distinguished from the moist black soil
of the valley. On the body of a lion or of a dog he bore a
fantastic head with a slender curved snout, upright and
square-cut ears; his cloven tail rose stiffiy behind him,
springing from Lis loins like a fork. He also assumed a
human form, or retained the animal head only upon a man's
shoulders. He was felt to be cruel and treacherous, always
ready to shrivel up the harvest with 11Ïs burning breath,
and to smother Egypt beneath a shroud of shifting sand.
The contrast between this evil being and the beneficent
couple, Osiris and Isis, was striking. Nevertheless, the
theologians of the Delta soon assigned a common origin to
these rival divinities of Nile and desert, red land and black.
Sibû had begotten them, Nûît had given birth to them Olie
after another when the demiurge had separated her from
her husband; and the days of their birth were the days of
creation. 1 At first each of them had kept to bis own half

1 According to one legend which is comparatively old in origin, the four
children of Nûît, anò Horus her grandson, were born one after another, each
on one of the intercalary days of the year. This legend was still current in
the Greek period.

^
SIT AXD NEPHTHYS

189

of the world. l\Ioreover Sît, ,vho had begun by living
alone, had married, in order that he might be inferior to
Osiris in nothing. As a matter
of fact, his companion, N ephthys,
did not manifest any great
activity, and was scarcely more

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TIlE GOD SÎT, FIGHTI
G,2

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a painted wooden statuette III my
possession, from a funeral couch found at
\klllnîm, On her head the
goddess bears the hieroglyph for hf'r name; she is knceling at the foot of the
funeral couch of OÛris aud weeps for the dead god.
2 Bronze statuette of the XXlh dynasty, encrust cd with gold, from the
Hoffmann collection: drawn by J'""aucher-Gudin from a photograph taken by

100

THE GODS OF EGYPT

than an artificial counterpart of the wife of Osiris, a
second Isis \vIlo bore no children to her husband; I for the
sterile desert brought barrenness to her as to all that

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1'L.\.X OF TIlE nCIXS OF IIELIOI'OLIS. 2

it touched. Yet she had lost neither the wish nor the
power to bring forth, and sought fertilization from another

Legrain in 18
1. About the time when the worship of Sît was proscribed,
one of the Egyptian owners of this little monument had endeavoured to alter
its character, and to transform it into a statuette of the god Khnûmû, He
took out the upright ears, replacing- them with ram's horns, but made no other
change. In the drawing I have had the later addition of the curved horns
removed, and restored the upright ears, whose marks may still be seen upon
the sides of the head-dress.
1 The impersonal character of Nephthys, her artificial origin, and her
derivation from Isis, have been pointed out hy l\IAsPERo (f;tlldes de 1Ilytlwlogic
et d'ArcltéuloJie J;'g'!Jpticrmcs, vol. ii. pp, 36
-3(4), The very name of the
goddess, which means the lady (nibÎ.l) of the mansion (hâU), confirms this
view.
2 Drawn by Thuillier, from the Descr11Jtion de l'l;gypte (Atlas, Ant., vol.
v. pI. 26, 1),

HELIOPOLIS AXD ITS SCHOOLS OF THEOLOGY 191

source. Tradition had it that she had made Osiris drunken,
drawn him to her arms without his knowledge, and borne
him a son; the child of this furtive union was the jackal
Anubis. Thus 'when a higher Nile overflows lands not
usually covered by the inundation, and lying unproductive
for lack of moisture, the soil eagerly absorbs the water, and
the germs which lay concealed in the ground burst forth
into life. The gradual invasion of the domain of Sît by
Osiris marks the beginning of the strife. Sît rebels against
the wrong of which he is the victim, involuntary though it
was; he surprises and treacherously slays his brother,
drives Isis into temporary banishment among her marshes,
and reigns over the kingdom of Osiris as well as over his
own. But his triumph is short-lived. Horus, having
grown up, takes arms against him, defeats him in many
encounters, and banishes him in his turn. The creation of
the world had brought the destroying and the Jife-sustain-
ing gods face to face: the history of the world is but the
story of their rivalries and warfare.
N one of these conceptions alone sufficed to explain the
whole mechanism of creation, nor the part which the
various gods took in it. r.rhe priests of Heliopolis appro-
priat
d them all, modified some of their details and elimi-
nated others, added several new personages, and thus finally
constructed a complete cosmogony, the elements of which
were learnedly combined so as to correspond severally with
the different operations by which the world had been
evoked out of chaos and gradually brought to its present
state. Heliopolis was never directly involved in the great
revolutions of political history; but no city ever originated

102

TIIg GODS OP EGYPT

so many mystic ideas and consequently exercised so great
an influence upon the developlllent of civilization. l It was
a smal1 town built on the plain not far from the Nile at the

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HORUS, THE AYEXGEH OF HIS F.\.TIlER, k
m A

ßIS û.\.rû.\.ÎTû. 2

apex of the Delta, and surrounded by a high ,vall of mud
bricks whose remains could still be seen at the beginning

1 Dy its inhahitants it was accounted older than :my other city of
Egypt,
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Béato of a bas-relief
in the temple of Sf'ti I, at Abydos, The two gods are conducting King
Ramses II., here identified with Osiris, towards the godùess Hâthor.

CITY OF
TIlE SUN

of the century, but which have now alrnost completely dis-
appeared. One obelisk standing In the midst of the open
plain, a few waste mounds
of débris, scattered
blocks, and two or three
lengths of crumbling
wall, alone rnark the place
where once the city stood.
Râ was worshipped there,
and the Greek name of
Heliopolis IS but the
translation of that which
was given to it by tile
priests-Pi-Tâ, City of
the Sun. Its principal
temple, the " l\fansion of
the Prince," rose from
about the middle of the
enclosure, and sheltered,
together with the god
himself, those animals
in which he became in-
carnate : the bulll\lnevis,
and sometimes the
PLænix. According to
TIlE srx SPRIXGlXG FRü:l1 AX OPEXIXG LOTl"S-
an old legend, this FLOWER IN THE FOR:\I OF THE CIIILD IlOHl'"S.l

103

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1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, The open lotus-flower, with a bud on either
side, stands upon the usual sign for any water-basin, Here the sign represents
the Nû, that dark watery abyss from which the lotus sprang on the morning
of creation, and whereon it is still supposed to bloom.

VOL, I.

o

10-:1

THE GODS OI
' EGYPT

wondrous bird appeared in Egypt only once in five hundred
years. It is born and lives in the depths of Arabia, but
when its father dies it covers the body with a layer of
myrrh, and flies at utmost speed to the telllple of Helio-
polis, there to bury it. l In the beginning, Râ was the sun

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TIlI
PL.\IX .\XD :!IIOUXDS OF IIELIOl'OLIS FIFTí YEARS AGO. 2

1 The Phænix is not the BonÛ (cf. p, 186, note 2), but a fabulous bird
derived from the golden sparrow-hawk, which was primal'i1y a form of
Haroêris, and of the sun-gods in second place only. On the authority of his
Heliopolitan guides, Herodotus tells us (ii, 83) that in shape and size the
phænix resembled the eagle, and this statement alone should have sufficed
to prevent any attempt at identifying it with the BonÛ, which is either a
heron or a lapwing.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a water-colour published by LEPSIUS,
Denkm., i. 56. The view is taken from the midst of the ruins at the foot of
the obelisk of Û sirtasen. A little stream runs in the foreground, and passes

RÂ, HIS IDEXTIFICATIOX \VITH HORUS 105

itself, whose fires appear to be lighted every morning in
the east and to be extinguished at evening in the west;
and to the people such he always remained. Among the
theologians there was considerable difference of opinion on
the point. Some held the disk of the sun to be the body
which the god assumes when presenting himself for the
adoration of his worshippers. Others affirmed that it rather
represented his active and radiant soul. Finally, there
were m
ny who defined it as one of his forms of being-
klwpTiÛ-one of his self-manifestations, without presuming
to decide whether it was his body or his soul which he
deigned to reveal to human eyes; but whether soul or
body, all agreed that the sun's disk had existed in the N û
before creation. But how could it have lain beneath the
primordial ocean without either drying up the waters or
being extinguished by them? At this stage the identifica-
tion of Râ with Horus and his right eye served the purpose
of the theologians admirably: the god needed only to have
closed his eyelid in order to prevent his :fires from coming
in contact with the water. l He was also said to have shut
up his disk within a lotus-bud, whose folded petals had
safely protected it. The flower had opened on the morning
of the :first day, and from it the god had sprung suddenly as
a child wearing the solar disk upon his head. But all

through a muddy pool; to right and left are mounds of ruins, which were
then considerable, but have since been partially razed. In the distance
Cairo rises against the south-west.
1 This is clearly implied in the expression so often used by the sacred
writers of Ancient Egypt in reference to the appearance of the sun and his
first act at the time of creation: "Thou openest the two eyes, and earth is
100ded with rays of light."

lü6

THE GODS OF EGYPT

theories led the theologians to distinguish two periods, and
as it were two beings in the existence of suprenle deity: a
pre-mundane sun lying inert within the bosom of the dark
waters, and our living and life-giving sun.
One division of the Heliopolitan school retained the USÐ
of traditional terms and images in reference to these Sun-

t

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II A IC\I.\.KU(; ÎTI-I LUC\L\.KIlIS, 'fIlE GREAT GOD,1

gods. To the first it left the human form, and the title of
Râ, with the abstract sense of creator, deriving the name
from the verb râ, which means to give. For the second it
kept the form of the sparrow-hawk and the name of Harma-
khÙîti-Hol'US in the two horizons-which clearly denoted

1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by lnsinger of an outer wall of
the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak. Harmakhis grants years and festivals to
the Pharaoh Seti I., who kneels before him, and is presented hy th

lioness-heaùed goddess Sokhît, here dm;cribed as a magician-Ol'rît hikaû.

^ ^
ATU
lU

197

his function; 1 and it summed up the idea of the sun as a
whole in the single name of Râ-Harmakhûîti, and In a
single image in which the hawk-head of Horus was grafted
upon the human body of Râ. The other divisions of the
school invented new names for new conceptions. The sun
existing before the world they called Creator-TûmÛ,
AtÛmû 2-and our earthly sun they called I{lwpri-He who
is. Tûmû was a man crowned and clothed with the in-
signia of supreme power, a true king of gods, majestic and
impassive as the Pharaohs who succeeded each other upon
the throne of Egypt. The conception of Khopri as a disk
enclosing a scarabæus, or a man with a scarabæus upon his
head, or a scarabæus-headed mummy, was suggested by the
accidental alliteration of his name and that of ]{lwpirrû,
the scarabæus. The difference between the possible forms
of the god was so slight as to be. eventually lost altogether.
His names were grouped by twos and threes in every

1 Harmakhûîti is Horus, the sky of the two horizons; i.e. the sky of the
r}aytime, and the night sky. 'Vhen the celestial Horus was confounder} wit.h
Hâ, and became the sun (cf. p. 133), he naturally also became the sun of the
two horizons, the sun by day, and the sun by night.
2 E, DE ROUGÉ, .1.:tudr:s Bllr le RitLtel funéraire, p. 76: "His name may be
connected with two radicals, Tern is a negation; it may be taken to mean
the Inapproachable One, tlle U1l1mown (as in Thebes, where Arnall means
mystery), Atûm is, in fact, described as ' existing alone in the abyss,' before
the appearance of light, It was in this time of darkness that Atûm per-
formed the first act of creation, and this allows of our also connecting his
name with the Coptic TA
I10, creaTe. Atûm was also the prototype of man
(in Coptic T.ME, homo), and becomes a perfect 'tIlrn' after his resurrection."
DRUGSCII would rather explain Tll1nû as meaning tlle Perfect One, tlle
Couplcte. E. DE ROUGÉ's philological derivations are no longer admissihle ;
but his explanation of the name corresponds so wen with the part played by
the god that I fail to see how that can be challenged.

198

THE GODS OF EGYPT

conceivable way, and the scarabæus of I{hopri took its place
upon the head of Râ, while the hawk headpiece was trans-
ferred from the shoulders of HarmakhfÜti to those of Tûmû.
The complex beings resulting from these combinations, Râ-
Tûmû, AtÜmû-Râ, Râ-TÜmû-Khopri, Râ-Harmakhûiti-Tûmû,
Tûm-Harmakhûiti-Khopri, never attained to any pro-
nounced individuality. They were as a rule simple dupli-

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cates of the feudaì god, names rather than persons, and
though hardly taken for one another indiscriminately, the
distinctions between them had reference to mere details of
their functions and attributes. Hence arose the idea of
making these gods into embodiments of the main phases in
the life of the sun during the day and throughout the year.
Râ symbolized the sun of springtime and before sunrise,
Harmakhûîti the summer and the morning sun, Atûmû the

HELIOPOLITAN VERSIOX OF THE CHEATIOX 199

sun of autumn and of afternoon, I\:hopri that of 'winter and
of night. The people of Heliopolis accepted the new
names and the new forms presented for their worship, but
always subordinated them to their beloved Râ. For them
Râ never ceased to be the god of the nome; while Atûmû
remained the god of the theologians, and was invoked by
them, the people preferred Râ. At Thinis and at 8eben-
nytos Anhûri incurred the same fate as befell Hâ at Helio-
polis. After he had been identified with the sun, the
similar identification of Shû inevitably followed. Of old,
Anhûri and 8h û were twin gods, incarnations of sky and
earth. They were soon but one god in two persons-the
god Anhûri-8hû, of which the one half under the title of
Anhûri represented, like Atûmû, the primordial being;
and Shû, the other half, became, as his name indicates,
the creative sun-god who upholds (slul) the sky.
Tûrnû then, rather than Râ, was placed by the Helio-
politan priests at the head of their cosmogony as supreme
creator and governor. Several versions were current as to
how he had passed from inertia into action, from the
personage of Tûmû into. that of Râ. According to the
version most widely received, he had suddenly cried across
the waters, "Come unto me!" 1 and immediately the mys-
terious lotus had unfolded its petals, and Râ had appeared
at the edge of its open cup as a disk, a newborn child, or
a disk-crowned sparrow-hawk; this was probably a refined
fonn of a ruder and earlier tradition, according to w Ì1ich it
was upon Râ himself that the office had devolved of

1 It was on this account that the Egyptians named the first day of the
year the Lay of Come-unto-me I

200

THE GODS OF EGYPT

separating Sibû from N ûît, for the purpose of constructing
the heavens and the earth. But it was doubtless felt that
so unseemly an act of intervention was beneath the dignity
even of an inferior form of the suzerain god; 8b û was
therefore borrowed for the purpose from the kinch'ed cult of
Anhûri, and at Heliopolis, as at 8ebennytos, the office was
entrusted to him of seizing the sky-goddess and raising her
with outstretched arms. The violence suffered by K ûît at
the hands of 8h û led to a connexion of the Osirian dogma
of Mendes with the solar dogilla of 8ebennytos, and thus
the tradition describing the creation of the world was com-
pleted by another, explaining its division into deserts and
fertile lands. 8îbû, hitherto concealed beneath the body 'of
his wife, was now exposed to the sun; Osiris and 8ît, Isis
and N ephthys, were born, and, falling from the sky, their
mother, on to the earth, their father, they shared the sur-
face of the latter among themselves. Thus the Heliopolitan
doctrine recognized three principal events in the creation
of the universe: the dualization of the supreme god and
the breaking forth of light, the raising of the sky and the
laying bare of the eartb, the birth of the Nile and the allot-
ment of the soil of Egypt, all expressed as the manifesta-
tions of successive deities. Of these deities, the latter ones
already constituted a family of father, mother, and children,
like hun1an families. Learned theologians availed them-
selves of this example to effect analogous relationships
between the rest of the gods, combining them all into one
line of descent. As Atûmû-Râ could have no fellow, he
stood apart in the first rank, and it was decided that 8hû
should be his SOll, whorll he had formed out of himself

THE T"'VI
LIOXS

201

alone, on the :first day of creation, by the simple intensity
of his o"wn virile energy. Shû, reduced to the position of
divine son, had in his turn begotten Sibû and Kûît, the two
deities which he separated. Until then he had not been
supposed to have any wife, and he also might have himself
brought his own progeny into being; but lest a power of
spontaneous generation equal to that of the demiurge
should be ascribed to him, he was married, and the wife
found for him was Tafnûît, his twin sister, born in the same

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TilE TWIX UOXS, SIIÛ AXD T.\FX-CÎT.I

way as he was born. rrhis goddess, invented for the occa-
sion, was never fully alive, and remained, like N ephthys, a
theological entity rather than a real person. The texts
describe her as the pale reflex of her husband. Together
with him sbe upholds the sky, and every lnorning receives

i Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a vignette in the papyrus of Ani in the
British l\f useUll1, published by LEPAGE-RENOUI" in the Proceedings of tlte
Soei",!! ()f Bi1Jlieal Arcltæology, vol. xi., 1889-90, pp,
6-28, The inscription

bove the lion all the right reads 8afû, "ye::òterday;" the other, dúaiÎ, " this
morning."

202

THE GODS OF EGYPT

the newborn sun as it emerges from the mountain of the
east; she is a lioness when Shû is a lion, a woman when
he is a man, a lioness-headed woman if he is a lion-headed
man; she is angry when he is angry, appeased when he is
appeased; she has no sanctuary wherein he is not ,vor-
shipped. In short, the pair made one being in two bodies,
or, to use the Egyptian expression, "one soul in its two
twin bodies."
Hence we see that the Heliopolitans proclaimed the
creation to be the work of the sun-god, Atûmû-Bâ, and of
the four pairs of Jeities who were descended from him. It
was really a learned variant of the old doctrine that the
universe was composed of a sky-god, Horus, supported by
his four children and their four pillars: in fact, the four
sons of the Heliopolitan cosmogony, Shû and Sibû, Osiris
and sa, were occasionally substituted for the four older
gods of the "houses" of the world. This being premised,
attention must be given to the impol'tant differences
between the two systems. At the outset, instead of
appmLring contemporaneously upon the scene, like the four
children of Horus, the four Heliopolitan gods were deduced
one from another, and succeeded each other in the order of
their birth. They had not that uniform attribute of
supporter, associating them always with one definite
function, but each of them felt himself endowed with
faculties and armed with special powers required by his
conditiou. Ultimately they took to themselves goddesses,
and thus the total number of beings working in different
ways at the organization of the universe was brought up
to nIne. Hence they were called by the collective name

THE IIELIOPOLITA
EXSEADS

203

of the Ennead, the Nine gods-pa'Ûit nÛtirÛ, I-and the god
at their head was entitled PaÛiti, the god of the Ennead.
'Vhen creation was completed, its continued existence was
ensured by countless agencies with whose operation the
persons of the Ennead were not at leisure to concern them-
selves, but had ordained auxiliaries to preside over each
of the functions essential to the regular and continued
working of all things. The theologians of H
liopolis
selected eighteen from among the inumerable divinities
of the feudal cults of Egypt, and of these they formed two
secondary Enneads, who were regarded as the offspring of
the Ennead of the creation. The first of the two
secondary Enneads, generally known as the
linor Ennead,
recognized as chief Harsiesis, the son of Osiris. I-Iarsiesis
was originally an earth-god who had avenged the assassina-
tion of his father and the banishment of his mother by Sît ;
that is, he had restored fulness to the Nile and fertility to
the Delta. When Harsiesis was incorporated into the solar
religions of Heliopolis, his filiation was left undisturbed as
being a natural link between the two Enneads, but his

] The first Egyptologists confoundf>d the sign used in writing paÛlt with
the sign ldt, and the word !chef, other. E, de Rougé was the first to deter

mine its phonetic value: "it should be read Paíl, and designates a boùy of
gods." Shortly afterwards BRCGSCH proved that" the group of gods invoked
by E. de Rougé must have consisted of nine "-of an Ennead. This expla-
nation was not at first admitted either by LEPSICS or by l\IARlETTE, who had
proposed a mystic interpretation of the word in his ]}Iénwire sur la 11U
re
tl'Apis, or by E. DE ROUGÉ, or by CHADAS, The interpretation a Sine, an
Ennead, \Va,> not frankly adopted until later, and more especially after the
discovery of the Pyramid texts; to-day, it is the only meaning admitted, Of
course the Egyptian Ennead has no other connection than that of name with
the Enneads of the N eo-Platonists.

204

THE GODS OF EGYPT

personality was brought into conforlnity with the new
surroundings into which he was transplanted. He was
identified with Hâ through the intervention of the older
Horus, Haroêris-Harmakhis, and the l\Iinor Ennead, like
the Great Ennead, began 'with a sun-god. This assimila-
tion \vas not pushed so far as to invest the younger Horns
with the same powers as his fictitious ancestor: he was the
sun of earth, the everyday sun, while Atûmû-Râ was still
the sun pre-mundane and eternal. Our knowledge of the

TIJ"'
FOUR Fl-XF.R.\RY GEXII, KIJAßSOXÛF, TJÛ)IA(;TF, Il,tPI, AXD A:\ISÎT. 1

eight other deities of the l\linor Ennead is very in1perfect.
We see only that these were the gods \vho chiefly protected
the sun-god against its ene111ies and helped it to follow its
regular course. Thus Harhûditi, the Horus of Edfû, spear
in hand, pursues the hippopotami or serpents which haunt
the celestial waters and menace the god. The progress of
the Sun-bark is controlled by the incantations of Thot,
while U apûaítû, the dual jackal-god of Siût, guides, and
occasionally tows it along the sky from south to north.
The third Ennead would seem to have included among its

1 Drawn by Fauchrr-Gudin, from 'YILKINsON'S lJIanners and ClIStúIIlS, 2nd
edit" vul. iii, p,
21, pI. xlviii.

THE IIELIOPOLITAX EXKEADS

205

members Annbis the jackal, anù the four funerary genii, the
children of Horus-Hapi, Amsît, Tiûmaûtf, Kabhsonûf; it
further appears as though its office was the care and
defence of the dead sun, the sun by night, as the second
Ennead had charge of the living sun. Its functions were
so obscure and apparently so insignificant as compared
'with those exercised by the other Enneads, that the
theologians did not take the trouble either to represent it
or to enumerate its persons. They invoked it as a whole,
after the two others, in those formulas in which they called
into play all the creative and preservative forces of the
universe; but this was rather as a matter of conscience and
from love of precision than out of any true deference. At
the initial impulse of the lord of Heliopolis, the three
combined Enneads started the world and kept it going, and
gods whom they had not incorporated were either enemies
to be fought with, or mere attendants.
The doctrine of the Heliopolitan Ennead acquired an
immediate and a lasting popularity. It presented such a
clear scheme of creation, and one whose organization was
so thoroughly in accordance ,vith the spirit of tradition,
that the various sacerdotal colleges adopted it one after
another, accommodating it to the exigencies of local
patriotism. Each placed its own nome-god at the head
of the Ennead as "god of the Nine," "god of the :first
time," creator of heaven and earth, sovereign ruler of men,
and lord of all action. As there was the Ennead of Atûmû
at Heliopolis, so there was that of Anhûri at Thinis and at
Sebennytos; that of Minû at Coptos and at Panopolis;
that of Haroêris at Edfû; that of SobkbÙ at Ombos; and,

206

THE GODS OF EGYPT

later, that of Phtah at l\Ielllphis and of Amon at Thebes.
N omes which worshipped a goddess had no scruples
whatever in ascribing to her the part played by Atûmû,
and in crediting her with the spontaneous maternity of
Shû and Tafnûît. Nît was the source and ruler of the

:>calo

.Kwc.s

(} lJID

I'L.\.Y OF TIlE H{;I
S OF I1ER:\10rOLIS l\L\.GXA. 1

Ennead of Saïs, Isis of that of Bûto, and Hâthor of that of
Denderah. 2 Few of the sacerdotal colleges went beyond

1 Plan drawn by Thuillier, from the Description de l' Égypte, Ant" vol. iv,
pI. 50,
2 On the Ennead of Hâthor at Denderah, see MARlETTE, Dcndcrah, p. 80,

THOT AXD rrHE HER310POLITAN EXNEAD 2C1

the substitution of their own feudal gods for Atûmû.
Provided that the god of each nome held the rank of
supreme lord, the rest mattered little, and the local
theologians made no change in the order of the other
agents of creation, their vanity being unhurt even by the
lower offices assigned by the Heliopolitan tradition to such
powers as Osiris, Sibû, and Sît, who were known and
worshipped throughout the whole country. The theo-
logians of Hermopolis alone declined to borrow the ne,v
system just as it stood, and in all its parts. Hermopolis
had always been one of the ruling cities of l\liddle Egypt.
Standing alone in the midst of the land lying between
the Eastern and \Vestern Niles, it had established upon
each of the two great arms of the riyer a port and a
custom-house, where all boats travelling either up or do'wn
stream paid toll on passing. Not only the corn and natural
products of the valley and of the Delta, but also goods from
distant parts of Africa brought to Siût by Soudanese
caravans, helped to :fill the treasury of Hermopolis. Thot,
the god of the city, represented as ibis or baboon, was
essentially a moon-god, who measured time, counted the
days, numbered the months, and recorded the years.
Lunar divinities, as we know, are everywhere supposed to
exercise the most varied powers: they command the
mysterious forces of the universe; they know the sounds,

et seq" of the text, The fact that Nit, Isis, and, generally speaking, all the
feudal goddesses, were the chiefs of their local Enneads, is proved by the
epithets applied to them, which represent them as having independent
creative power by virtue of their own unaided force and energy, like the god
at the head of the Heliopolitan Ennead.

208

THE GODS OF EGYPT

,vords, anù gestures by \vhich those forces are put in
motion, and not content with using them for their own
benefit, they also teach to their worshippers the art of
employing them. Thot fornled no
exception to this rule. He was
lord of the voice, master of ,vords
and of books, possessor or inventor
of those lllagic writings which

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nothing in heaven, on earth, or in Hades can withstand. 3

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from an enamelled pottery figure from Coptos,
now in my possession, Neck, feet, and tail are in blue enamel, the rest is
in green. The little personage represented as squatting beneath the beak is
l\Iâit, the goddess of truth, and the ally of Thot. The ibis was furnished
with a ring for suspending it; this has been broken off, but traces of it may
still be seen at the back of the head.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a green enameIIed pottery figure in my
possession (Saïte period).
3 Cf. in the tale of Satni (l\IAsPERo, Conies populm'res de l' Ancien'lu' Égypte,
2nd edit" p. 175) the description of "the book which Thot has himself written
with his own hand," and which makes its possessor the equal of the gods.
"The two formulas which are written therein, if thou recitest the first thou
shalt charm heaven, earth, Hades, the mountains, the waters; thou shalt
know the birds of the sky and the reptiles, how many soever they be; thou
shalt see the fish of the deep, for a divine power will cause them to rise to
the surface of the water. If thou readest the second formula, even although

THE CREATION BY WORD A
D BY YOICE 209

He had discovered the incantations which evoke and
control the gods; he had transcribed the texts and noted
the melodies of these incantations; he recited them with
that true intonation-mâ kltrôll-which renders them all...
powerful, and everyone, whether god or man, to whom he
imparted them, and whose voice he made true-sJJul khTÔÛ
-became like himself master of the universe. He had
accomplished the creation not by muscular effort to which
the rest of the cosmogonical gods primarily owed their
birth, but by means of formulas, or even of the voice alone,
"the first time" when he awoke in the N û. In fact,
the articulate word and the voice were believed to be
the most potent of creative forces, not remaining im-
material on issuing from the lips, but condensing, so to
speak, into tangible substances; into bodies which were
themselves animated by creative life and energy; into
gods and goddesses who lived or who created in their turn.
By a very short phrase Tûmû had called forth the gods
who order all things; for his "Come unto me!" uttered
with a loud voice upon the day of creation, had evoked
the sun from within the lotus. Thot had opened his lips,
and the voice which proceeded from him had become
an entity; sound had solidified into matter, anù by a
simple emission of voice the four gods who preside over
the four houses of the world had come forth alive from
his mouth without bodily effort on his part, and without
spoken evocation. Creation by the voice is almost as

thou shouldest be in the tomb, thou shalt again take the form which was
thine upon earth; thou shalt even see the sun rising in heaven, and his cycle
of gods, and the moon in the form wherein it appeareth.

VOL. 1.

p

210

THE GODS OF EGYPT

great a refinement of thought as the substitution of
creation by the word for creation by muscular effort.
In fact, sound bears the same relation to words that the
whistle of a quartermaster bears to orders for the naviga-
tion of a ship transmitted by a speaking trumpet; it
simplifies speech, reducing it as it were to a pure ab-
straction. At first it was believed that the creator had
made the wodd with a word, then that he Lad made it
by sound; but the further conception of his having made
it by thought does not SeeIll to have occurred to the
theologians. It was narrated at Hermopolis, and the
legend was ultimately universally accepted, even by the
Heliopolitans, that the separation of N ûît and SibÜ had
taken place at a certain spot on the site of the city where
Sibû had ascended the mound on which the feudal temple
was afterwards built, in order that he might better sustain
the goddess and uphold the sky at the proper height.
The conception of a Creative Council of five gods had so
far prevailed at Hermopolis that from this fact the city bad
received in remote antiquity the name of the" House of
the Five; " its temple was called the " Abode of the Five"
down to a late period in Egyptian history, and its prince,
who was the hereditary high priest of Thot, reckoned as
the first of his official titles that of "Great One of the
House of the Five."
The four couples who had helped Atûmû were identified
with the four auxiliary gods of Thot, and changed the
council of Five into a Great Hermopolitan Ennead, but at
the cost of strange metamorphoses. However artificially
they had been grouped about Atûmû, they had all

AUXILiARY GODS OF HER
IOPOLiS 211

preserved such distinctive characteristics as prevented their
being confounded one with another. When the universe
which they had helped to build up was finally seen to be
the result of various operations demanding a considerable
manifestation of physical energy, each god was required to
preserve the individuality necessary for the production of
such effects as were expected of him. They could not have
existed and carried on their work without conforming to
the ordinary conditions of humanity; being born one of
another, they were bound to have paired with living
goddesses as capable of bringing forth their children as
they were of begetting them. On the other hand, the four
auxiliary gods of Herrnopolis exercised but one means of
action-the voice. Having t
emselves come forth from
the lnaster's mouth, it was by voice that they created and
perpetuated the world. Apparently they could have done
without goddesses had marriage not been imposed upon
them by their identification with the corresponding gods
of the Heliopolitan Ennead; at any rate, their wives had

ut a show of life, almost destitute of reality. As these
four gods worked after the manner of their master,
Thot, so they also bore his form and reigned along
with him as so many baboons. When associated with
the lord of Hermopolis, the eight divinities of Heliopolis
assumed the character and the appearance of the four
Hermopolitall gods in whom they were merged. They
were often represented as eight baboons sun'ounding the
supreme baboon, or as four pairs of gods and goddesses
without either characteristic attributes or features; or,
finally, as four pairs of gods and goddesses, the gods being

212

THE GODS OF EGYPT

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THE DIFFUSIO
011' THE EXXEADS 213

frog-headed men, and the goddesses,serpent-headed women.
1\Iorning and evening do they sing; and the mysterious
hymns wherewith they salute the rising and the setting sun
ensure the continuity of his course. Their names did not
survive their metamorphoses; each pair
had no longer more than a single name, the
termination of each name varying accord-
ing as a god or a goddess was intended:
-Nû and Nûît, Hehû and Hehît, Kakû
and Kakît, Ninû and Ninît. As far as we
are able to judge, the couple Nû-Nûît
answers to Shû-Tafnûît; Hahû-Hehît to
Sibû and N ûît; Kakû-Kakît to Osiris and
Isis; Ninû-Ninît to Sît and Nephthys.
There was seldom any occasion to invoke
them sepal'ately; they were addressed col-
lectively as the Eight-Kllm,ûnû-and it
was on their account that Hermopolis was
named Khn
ûnû, the City of the Eight.
Ultimately they were deprived of the little
individual life still left to them, and were
fused into a single being to whom the
texts refer as Khomnin û, the god
Eight. By degrees the Ennead of
Thot was thus reduced to two terms:

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take part in the adoration of the king. According to a custom common
towards the Græco-Roman period, the sculptor has made the feet of his
gods like jackals' heads; it is a way of realizing the well-known metaphor
which compares a rapid runner to the jackal roaming around Egypt.
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a bronze statuette found at Thebes, and
now in my possession.

214

TH]
LiODS OF EGYPT

the god One and the god Eight, the l\!Ionad and the
Ogdoad. The latter had scarcely more than a theoretical
existence, and ,vas generally absorbed into the person of
the former. Thus the theologians of Hermopolis gradually
disengaged the unity of their feudal god from the multi-
plicity of the cosmogonic deities.
As the sacerdotal colleges had adopted the Heliopolitan
doctrine, so they now generally adopted that of Hermo-
polis: Amon, for instance, being made to preside indif-
ferently over the eight baboons and over the four inde-
pendent couples of the primitive Ennead. In both cases the
process of adaptation was absolutely identical, and would
have been attended by no difficulty whatever, had the
divinities to whom it was applied only been without family;
in that case, the one needful change for each city would
bave been that of a single name in the Heliopolitan list,
thus leaving the number of the Ennead unaltered. But
since these deities had been turned into triads they could
no longer be primarily regarded as simple units, to be com-
Lined with the elements of some one or other of the Enneads
without preliminary arrangement. The two companions
whom each had chosen had to be adopted also, and the
single Thot, or single Atûmû, replaced by the three
patrons of the nome, thus changing the traditional nine
into eleven. Happily, the constitution of the triad lent
itself to all these adaptations. We have seen that the
father and the son becan1e one and the same personage,
whenever it was thought desirable. We also know that
one of the two parents always so far predominated as
almost to eiface the other. SometÜnes it was the goddess

GODS "aXE AKD OXL Y"

213

who disappeared behind her husband; sometimes it was the
goc1 whose existence merely served to account for the off-
spring of the goddess, and whose only title to his position
consisted in the fact that he was her husband. Two
personages thus closely connected ,vere not long in blending
into one, and were soon defined as being two faces, the
masculine and feminine aspects of a single being. On the
one hand, the father was one with the son, and on the
other be was one with the mother. Hence the mother was
one with the son as with the father, and the three gods of

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THE THEßA
EXXE.-\D.l

the triad were resolved in to one god In three persons.
Thanks to this subterfuge, to put a triad at the head of an
Ennead was nothing more than a roundabout way of placing
a single god there: the three persons only <?ounted as one,
and the eleven names only amounted to the nine canonical
divinities. Thus, the Theban Ennead of Amon- Maut-
I{hollSû, Shû, Tafnûît, Sibû, N ûît, Osiris, Isis, Sît, and
N ephthys, is, in spite of its apparent irregularity, as correct
as the typical Ennead itself. In such Enneads Isis is
duplicated by goddesses of like nature, such as Hâthor,

1 This Ennead consists of fourteen members-l\Iontû, duplicating Atûmû ;
the four usual couples; then Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, together with
his associate deities, Hâthor, Tauu, and Anît.

210

THE GODS OF EGYPT

Selldt, Taninît, and yet remains but one, while Osiris brings
in his son Horus, who gathers about himself all such gods
as play the part of divine son in other triads. The
theologians had various methods of procedure for keeping
the number of persons in an Ennead at nine, no matter
how many they might choose to embrace in it. Super-
numeraries were thrown in like the" shadows" at Roman
suppers, whom guests would bring without warning to their
host, and whose presence made not the slightest difference
either in the provision for the feast, or in the arrangements
for those who had been formally invited.
Thus remodelled at all points, the Ennead of Heliopolis
was readily adjustable to sacerdotal caprices, and even
profited by the facilities which the triad afforded for its
natural expansion. In time the Heliopolitan version of
the origin of Shû-TafnÙît must have appeared too primitively
barbarous. Allowing for the licence of the Egyptians
during Pharaonic times, the concept of the spontaneous
emission whereby Atûmû had produced his twin children
was characterized by a superfluity of coarseness which it
was at least unnecessary to employ, since by placing the
goc1 in a triad, this double birth could be duly explained in
conformity with the ordinary laws of life, The solitary
AtûmÙ of the 1110re ancient dogma gave place to Atûmû the
husbanc1 and father. Ha. had, indeed, two wives, Iûsâsît
and N ebthotpît, but their individualities were so feebly
markec1 that no one took the trouble to choose between
them; each passed as the mother of Shû and Tafnûît.
This systern of combination, so puerile in its ingenuity,
was fraught with the gr':1vest consequences to the history

GODS "OXE _\.XD OXL Y "

217

of Egyptian religions. Shû having been transformed into
the divine son of the Heliopolitan triad, coulc1 henceforth
be assimilated with the divine sons of all those triads
which took the place of Tûmû at the heads of provincial
Enneads. Thus we find that Horus the son of Isis at Bûto,
Arihosnofir the son of Nît at Saïs, I(hnûmû the son of
Hâthor at Esneh, were each in turn identified with Shû the
son of Atûmû, and lost their individualities in his. Sooner
or later this was bound to result in bringing all the triads
closer together, and in their absorption into one another.
Through constant reiteration of the statement that the
divine sons of the triads were identical with Shû, as being
in the second rank of the Ennead, the idea arose that this
was also the case in triads unconnected with Enneads; in
other terms, that the third person in any family of gods
was everywhere and always Sbû under a different name. It
having been finally admitted in the sacerdotal colleges that
Tûmû and Shû, father and son, were one, all the divine
sons were, therefore, identical with Tûmû, the father of
Sbû, and as each divine son was one with his parents, it
inevitably followed that these parents themselves were
identical with Tûmû. Reasoning in this way, the Egyptians
naturally tended towards that conception of the divine
oneness to which the theory of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad
was already leading them. In fact, they reached it, and
the monuments show us that in comparatively early times
the theologians wore busy uniting in a single person the
prerogatives which their ancestors had ascl'ibed to many
different beings. But this conception of deity towards
which their ideas were converging has nothing in common

218

TIlE GODS OJ.;" EGYPT

with the conception of the God of our modern religions and
philosophies. No god of the Egyptians was ever spoken of
simply as God. Tûmû was the "one and only god "-
nÜtÙ' ûâiì 'Ûåiti-at Heliopolis; Anhûri-Shû was also the
"one and only god" at Sebennytos and at Thinis. The
unity of Atûmû did not interfere with that of Anhûri-Shû,
but each of these gods, although the "sole" deity in his
own domain, ceased to be so in the domain of the other.
The feudal spirit, always alert and jealous, prevented the
higher dogma which was dimly apprehended in the temples
from triumphing over local religions and extending over the
whole land. Egypt had as many " sole" deities as she had
large cities, or even important temples; she never accepted
the idea of the sole God, "beside ,vhom there is none
other. "

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THE
LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

--

THE DIVI
E DYNASTIES: Rl, SIIÛ, OSIRIS, SÎT, HORUS-THOT, AND THE
I
VENTION OF SCIE
CES A
D WRI1'ING-:\lE
ES, AND THE THREE FIRST
I1U)IAN DY
ASTIES.

Tlte Egyptians claim to be the most ancient of peoples: traditions concerning
the creation of 'man and of animals-The Heliopolitan Enneads the framewor1r.
(If the dirine dynasties-Râ, the first King of Egypt, and !tis fabldous history:
he allows himself to be duped and robbed by Isis, destroys rebellious men, and
ascends into heaven.

The legend of S1uî and Sibû- The reign, of Osiris Onnopla-is and of Isis:
they civilize Egypt and the world-Osiris, slain by SU, is entombed by Isis and
arenged by Horus-The wars of Typhon and of Horus: peace, and the divi.r
ion
of E:Jypt between the two gods,

TIle Osirian embalmment: the kingdom of Osiris opened to the followers of
Horus-The Book of the Dead-T1te iourneying of the soul -in search of the

( 220 )

fields of IalLÎ-Tlte iudgment of the soul, the negative confession-The privileges
and duties of Osirian souls-Oonfusion bptween Osirian and Solar ideas as to
the state of the dead: tlu; dead in the bark of the Sun-The going forth by day
- The campaigns of Harmakltis against Sit.

Thot, the inventor: he reveals all sciences to men-AstrorlOmy, stelln.r tables;
the year, its subdÜ,isions, its defects, influence of t7te heavenly bodies and the
days upon human destiny-lJlagic arts; incantations, amulets-lJledicine: the
'l:italizing spirits, diagnosis, treatment - Writing: ideographic, syllabic,
alphabetic.

Thr> history of Eg!/pt as handed down by traifition: Manctho, the royal lists,
main divi
ions of Egyptian history-Tlte beginnings of its early history vague
and uncertain: lJIencs, and the legend of Mempltis - The first three lwman
dynastics, the two Tltinite and the lJlemplâte-Olwracter and origin of the
legends concerning them-The famine stela-TILe earliest monuments: the step
pyramid of Saqqârah.

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OF TIlE GODS. 1

CHAprrEll III
THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

The divine dynasties: Ril, Shû, Osiris, Sît, Horus-Thot, and the inyention
of sciences and writing-
Ienes, and the three first human dynasties.

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THE building up and diffusion of the
doctrine of the Ennead, like the for-
mation of the land of Egypt, demanded
centuries of sustained effort, centuries
of which the inhabitants themselves
knew neither the number nor the
authentic history. \Vhen questioned
as to the remote past of their I'ace,
t hey proclaimed themselves the most
ancient of mankind, in comparison
with whom all other races were but a
mob of young children; and they

1 Bas-relief at Philæ; drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by
Béato. The vignette, also drawn by Faucher-Gudin, represents an ichneumon,

222 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

looked upon nations which denied their pretensions with
such indulgence and pity as we feel for those who doubt a
well-known truth. Their forefathers had appeared upon the
banks of the Nile even before the creator had completed
his work, so eager were the gods to behold their birth.
No Egyptian disputed the reality of this right of the
firstborn, which ennobled the whole race; but if they were
asked the name of their divine father, then the harmony
was broken, and each advanced the claims of a different
personage. l Phtah had modelled man with his own hands; 2
Khnûmû bad formed him on a potter's table. 3 Râ at his
first rising, seeing the earth desert and bare, had flooded

or Pharaoh's rat, sitting up on its haunches, with paws uplifted in aùoration.
It has been variously interpreted. I take it to be the image of an animal
spontaneously generated out of the mud, and giving thanks to Râ at the
very moment of its creation. The original is of bronze, and in the Gîzeh
:1\1 useum,
1 'Ye know the words which Plato puts into the mouth of an Egyptian
priest: "0 Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, and there is no old
man who is a Greek! You are all young in mind; there is no opinion or
tradition of knowledge among you which is white with age," Other nations
disputed their priority-the Phrygians, the :l\leùes, or rather the tribe of the
Magi among the :I\!eùes, the Ethiopians, the Scythians. A cycle of legends
had gathered about this subject, giving an account of the experiments
instituted by Psamtik, or other sovereigns, to find out which were right,
Egyptians or foreigners.
2 At Philro and at Denderah, Phtah is represented as piling upon his
potter's table the plastic clay from which he is about to make a human body,
and which is somewhat wrongly called the egg of the world. It is really the
lump of earth from which man came forth at his creation.
3 At Philæ, Khnûmû calls himself "the potter who fashions men, the
modeller of the gods." He there moulds the members of Osiris, the
husband of the local Isis, as at Erment he forms the body of Harsamtaûi, or
rather that of Ptolemy Cæsarion, the son of Julius Cresar and the celebrated
Cleopatra, identified with Harsamtaûi.

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THE CREATIO
OF MAN AKD _'\..KL.\1ALS 223

it with his rays as with a flood of tears; all living things,
vegetable and animal, and man bÜnself, had sprung pell-
mell froln his eyes, and were scattered abroad with the
light over the surface of the world. 1 Sometimes the facts
were presented under a less poetic aspect. The mud of the
Nile, heated to excess by the burning sun, fermented and
brought forth the various races of men and animals by
spontaneous generation, having moulded itself into a
thousand living forms. Then its procreative power became
weakened to the verge of exhaustion. Yet on the banks of
the river, in the height of summer, smaller animals might
still be found whose condition showed ,vhat had once taken
place in the case of the larger kinds. SOine appeared as
already fully formed, and struggling to free thelnselves from
the oppressive mud; others, as yet Ï1nperfect, feebly stirred
their heads and fore feet, while their hind quarters were
completing their articulation and taking shape within the
matrix of earth. 2 It was not Râ alone whose tears were

1 With reference to the substances which proceeded frum the eye of Râ,
see the remarks of BIRCH, Sur un paj)yrus 'fnaf/ique du lJlusée Britanniqne. By
his tears (romítû) Horus, or his eye as identified with the sun, had given
birth to all men, Egyptians (romítû, roUì), Libyans, and Asiatics, excepting
only the negroes. The latter were born from another part of his body by
the same means as those employed by Atûmû in the creation of Shû and
Tafnûît.
2 The same story is told, but with reference to rats only, by PLINY, by
DIODOHUS, by ÆLIANUS, by 1\IACROßIUS, and by other Greek or Latin
writers. Even in later times, and in Europe, this pretended phenomenon
met with a certain degree of belief, as may be seen from the curious work of
1\[ARCUS FREDERIC US ,,-rENDELINUS, Arclti-palatinus, AcZrniranda Nili, Franco-
furti, MDCXXIII" cap. xxi. pp. 157-183. In Egypt all the fellahîn believe in
the spontaneous generation of rats as in an article of their creed, They have
spoken to me of it at Thebes, at Denderah, and on the plain of Abydos; and

224 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY O}1' EGYPT

endowed with vitalizing po,ver. All divinities whether
beneficent or malevolent, Sît as well as Osiris or Isis, could

gl ve life by weeping; and the

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w'ork of their eyes, when
once it bad fallen upon
earth, flourished and
multiplied as vigorous-
ly as that which came
frOln the eyes of Bâ.
The individual charac-
ter of the creator ,vas
not without bearing
u pan the nature of his
creatures. ; good was
the necessary outcome
of the good gods, evil
of the evil ones; and
herein lay the explana-
tion of the mingling of
things excellent and
things execrable, which
IS found everywhere

:l\Iajor Brown has lately noted the same thing in the Fayûm. The variant
which he heard from the lips of the notables is curious, for it professes to
explain why the rats who infest the fields in countless bands during the dry
season, suddenly disappear at the return of the inundation; born of the mud
and putrid water of the preceding year, to mud they return, and as it were
dissolve at the touch of the new waters.
1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gayet. The scene is taken
from bas-reliefs in the temple of Luxor, where the god Khnûmû is seen com-
pleting his modelling of the future King Amenôthes III. and his doubJe, repre-
sented as two chiJdren wearing the side-lock and Jarge necklace. The first
holds his finger to his lips, while the arms of the second swing at his sides,

THE CREATION OF MAN AND A
I1\lALS 22

throughout the world. Voluntarily or involuntarily, Sît
and his partisans were the cause and origin of all that is
harmful. Daily their eyes shed upon the world those juices
by which plants are made poisonous, as well as malign
influences, crime, and madness. Their saliva, the foam
which fell from their mouths during their attacks of I'age,
their sweat, their blood itself, 'were all no less to be feared.
When any drop of it touched the earth, straightway it
germinated, and produced something strange and baleful-
a serpent, a scorpion, a plant of deadly nightshade or of
henbane. But, on the other hand, the sun was all good-
ness, and persons or things which it cast forth into life
infallibly partook of its benignity. "Tine that maketh man
glad, the bee who works for him in the BOWel"S secreting
wax and honey, the meat and herbs which are his food,
the stuffs that clothe him, all useful things which he makes
for himseÍf, not only emanated from the Solar Eye of
Horus, but were indeed nothing more than the Eye of
Horus under different aspects, and in his name they were
presented in sacrifice. The devout generally were of
opinion that the first Egyptians, the sons and flock of Râ,
came into the world happy and perfect; 1 by degrees their
descendants had fallen from that native felicity into their
present state. Some, on the contrary, affirmed that their

1 In the tomb of Seti J" the words flock of the Sun, flock of Râ, are those
by which the god Horus refers to men, Certain expressions used by
Egyptian writers are in themselves sufficient to show that the first genera-
tions of men were supposed to have lived in a
tate of happiness and
perfection, To the Egyptians the times of Râ, the times of the god-that-is to
!';ay, the centuries immediately following on the creation-were the ideal age,
and no good thing had appeared upon earth since then.

VOL. I.

Q

226 THE LEGEKDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

ancestors were born as so many brutes, unprovided with
the most essential arts of gentle life. They knew nothing
of articulate speech, and expressed themselves by cries
only, like other animals, until the day when Thot taught
them both speech and writing.
These tales sufficed for popular edification; they pro-
vided but meagre fare for the intelligence of the learned.
The latter did not confine their ambition to the possession
of a few incomplete and contradictory details concerning
the beginnings of humanity. They wished to know the
history of its consecutive development from the very first;
what manner of life had been led by their fathers; what
chiefs they had obeyed and the names or adventures of
those chiefs; why part of the nations had left the blesseù
banks of the Nile and gone to settle in foreign lands; by
what stages and in what length of time those who had not
emigrated rose out of native barbarism into that degree
..
of culture to which the most ancient monuments bore
testimony. No efforts of imagination were needful for the
satisfaction of their curiosity: the old substratum of in-
digenous traditions was rich enough, did they but take the
trouble to work it out systematically, and to eliminate its
most incongruous elements. The priests of Heliopolis took
this work in hand, as they had already taken in hand
the same task with regard to the myths referring to the
creation; and the Enneads provided them with a ready-
made framework. They changed the gods of the Ennead
into so many kings, determined with minute accuracy the
lengths of their reigns, and cOlllpiled their biographies from
popular tales. The duality of the feudal god supplied an

THE FRA:\lE"\VORK OF THE DIVINE DYNASTIES 227

admirable expedient for connecting the history of the world
with that of chaos. Tûmû was identified with Nû, and
relegated to the primordial Ocean: l1â was retained, and
proclaimed the first king of the world. He had not
established his rule without difficulty. The" Children of
Defeat," beings hostile to orJer and light, engaged hÏ1n in
fierce battles; nor did he succeed in organizing his king-
dom until he had conquered them in nocturnal combat at
Hermopolis, and even at Heliopolis itself, 1 Pierced with
wounds, Apôpi the serpent sank into the depths of Ocean
at the very moment when the new year began. The
secondary members of the Great Ennead, together with
the Sun, formed the first dynasty, which began with the
dawn of the first day, and ended at the coming of Horus,
the son of Isis. The local schools of theology welcollled
this method of writing history as readily as they had
welcomed the principle of the Ennead itself. Some of
them retained the Heliopolital1 demiurge, and hastened to
associate him with their own; others completely eliminated
him in favour of the feudal divillity,--Amoll at Thebes

1 The Ohildren of Defeat, in Egyptian MOBÛ bataslu1, or lJlosÛ batashlt,
are often confounded with the followers of Sît, the enemies of Osiris, From
the first they were distinct, and represented beings and forces hostile to the
sun, with the dragon Apôpi at their head. Their defeat at Hermopolis corre-
sponded to the moment when Shû, raising the sky above the sacred mound
in that city. substituted order and light for chaos and darkness. This defeat
is mentioned in chap, xvii, of the Book of tlte Dead (N A VILLE'S edition, vol. i.
pI. xxiii. 1. 3, et seq,), in which connexion E. DE UOUGB first eXplained its
meaning. In the same chapter of the Book of the Dead (NAVILLE'S edition,
vol. i. pIs, xxiv" XXV., n, 54-58), reference is also made to the battle by
night, in Heliopolis, at the close of which Râ appeared in the form of a cat or
lion, and beheaded the great serpent.

228 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

Thot at Hennopolis, Phtah at l\lempbis,-keeping the rest
of the dynasty absolutely unchanged. l The gods in no
way compromised their prestige by becoming incarnate
and descending to earth. Since they were men of finer
nature, and their qualities, including that of miracle-
working, were human qualities raised to the highest pitch
of intensity, it was not considered derogatory to them
personally to have watched over the infancy and childhood
of primeval man. The raillery in which the Egyptians
occasionally indulged with regard to them, the good-
humoured and even ridiculous rôles ascribed to them in
certain legends, do not prove that they were despised, or
that zeal for them had cooled. The greater the respect of
believers for the objects of their worship, the more easily
do they tolerate the taking of such liberties, and the
condescension of the members of the Ennead, far from
lowering them in the eyes of generations who came too
late to live with them upon familiar terms, only enhanced
the love and reverence in which they were held.
Nothing shows this better than the history of Râ. His
world was ours in the rough; for since Shû was yet non-
existent, and N ûît still reposed in the arms of Sibû, earth
and sky were but one. 2 N evert4eless in this first attempt

1 Thot is the chief of the Hermopolitan Ennead, and the titles ascribed
to him by inscriptions maintaining his supremacy show that he also was con-
sidered to have been the first king. One of the Ptolemies said of himself
that he came "as tbe l\Iajesty of Thot, because he was the equal of Atûrnû,
hence the equal of Kbopri, hence the equal of Uâ." Atûmû-Khopri-Uâ
being the first eartLly king, it follows that the Majesty of TltOt, with whom
Ptolemy identifies himself, compa.ring himself to the three forms of the God
Uâ, is also the first earthly king.
2 This conception of the primitive Egyptian world is clearly implied in

Rl, THE FIRST l{IXG OF EGYPT

220

at a world there was vegetable, animal, and human life.
Egypt was there, all cOlnplete, \vith her two chains of
mountains, her Nile, her cities; the people of her nomes,
and the nomes themselves. Then the soil was more
generons; the harvests, without the labourer's toil, were
higher and more abundant; 1 and when the Egyptians of
Pharaonic times wished to mark their admiration of any
person or thing, they said that the like had never been
known since the time of Râ. It is an illusion common to
all peoples; as their insatiable thirst for happiness is never
assuaged by the present, they fall back upon the remotest
past in search of an age when that supreme felicity \vhich
is only known to them as an ideal was actually enjoyed by
their ancestors. Rtt dwelt in Heliopolis, and the most
ancient portion of the telnple of the city, that known as
the "l\lansion of the Prince "-Hâît SarÛ,-passed for
having been his palace. His court was mainly composed
of gods and goddesses, and they as well as he were visible
to men. It contained also men who filled mindr offices

the very terms employed by the author of Tile Destmction of ][en, Nûît d.oes
not rise tu furm the sky until such time as Râ thinks of bringing his reign
to an end j that is to say, after Egypt had. already been in existence for
many centuries. In chap. xvii. of the Book of tlte Dead (N A VILLE'S edition,
vol. i, pI. xxiii. II. 3-5) it is stated that the reign of Rå began in the times
'wlten tlte upl,ftinfJs ltad not yet taken plare; that is to say, before Shú had
separated Nûît from
ib:1, and forcibly uplifted her above the body of her
husband,
2 This is an ideal in accordance with the picture drawn of the fields of
Ialû in chap. cx, of the Book of tlte Dead (N_WILLE'S edition, vol. i. pIs. cxxi.-
cxxiii,). As with the Paradise of most races, so the place of the Os irian
dead still possessed privileges which the earth had enjoyed during the
first years succeeding the creation; that is to say, under the direct rule of
Râ.

230 THE LEG
XD.ARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

abollt his person, prepared his food, received the offerings
of his subjects, attended to his linen and household affairs.
I t was said that the oîrÛ maû-the high priest of Rit, the
hankistît-his high priestess, and generally speaking all
the servants of the temple of Heliopolis, were either
directly descended from members of this first household

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AT TIlE FIRST HOUR OF TIlE D.\. Y THE SUN EMß.\.UKS FOU IllS JOURXEY TIIRO"GGH
EGYPT. 1

establishlnent of the god, or had succeeded to thE:ir offices
ill unbroken succession. In the morning he went forth
with his divine train, and, amid the acclamations of the
crowd, entered the bark in which he made his accustonled
circuit of the world, returning to his home at the end of
twelve hours after the accomplishment of his journey. He

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the scenes represented upon the
architraves of the pronaos at Edfû (ROSELLlNI, 1lIonumc'llti del Gullo, pI.
xxxviii. No, 1).

RÂ _\XD ISIS

231

visited each province in turn, and in each he tarried for an
bour, to settle all disputed matters, as the final judge of
appeal. He gave audience to both small and great, be
decided their quarrels and adjudged their lawsuits, he
granted investiture of fiefs from the royal domains to those
who had deserved them, and allotted or confirmed to every
family the income needful for their maintenance. He
pitied the sufferings of his people, and did his utmost to
alleviate them; he taught to all comers potent formulas
against reptiles and beasts of prey, charms to cast out evil
spirits, and the best recipes for preventing illness. IIis
incessant bounties left him at length with only one of his
talismans: the name given to him by his father and mother
at his birth, which they had revealed to bim alone, and
which he kept concealed within his bosom lest some sorcerer
should get possession of it to use for the furtherance of
his evil spells.
But old age came on, and infirmities followed; the
body of Râ grew bent, "his nlouth trembled, his slaver
triclded down to earth and his saliva dropped upon the
ground." Isis, who had hitherto been a mere woman-
servant in the household of the Pharaoh, conceiyed the
project of stealing his. secret from him, "that she might
possess the world and make herself a goddess by the
name of the august god." Force would have been unavail-
ing; all enfeebled as he was by reason of his years,
none was strong enough to contend successfully against
him. But Isis "was a woman more knowing in her
m,alice than millions of men, clever among millions of
the gods, equal to millions of spirits, to ,vhom as unto

232 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

Râ nothing ,vas unknown either in heaven or upon
earth." She contrived a most ingenious stratagem.
'Vhen man or god was struck down by illness, the only
chance of curing him lay in knowing his real name,
and thereby adjuring the evil being that tormented
him. Isis determined to cast a terrible malady upon
Râ, concealing its cause from him; then to offer her
services as his nurse, and by means of his ,sufferings to
extract from him the mysterious word indispensable to
the success of the exorcism. ,She gathered up mud
impregnated with the divine saliva, and moulded of it
a sacred serpent which she hid in the dust of the road.
Suddenly bitten as he was setting out upon his daily
round, the god cried out aloud, "his voice ascended into
heaven and his Nine called: 'What is it? what is it?'
and his gods: 'What is the matter? what is the matter?'
but he could make them no answer so much did his lips
tremble, his limbs shake, and the venom take hold upon
his flesh as the Nile seizeth upon the land which it
invadeth." Presently he came to himself, and succeeded
in describing his sensations. "Something painful hath
stung me; my heart percei vetb it, yet my two eyes
see it not; my hand hath not wrought it) nothing that
I have made knoweth it what it is, yet have I never
tasted suffering like unto it, and there is no pain that
may overpass it. . . . Fire it is not, water it is not,
yet is my heart in flames, my flesh trem,bleth, all my
members are full of shiverings born of breaths cf magic.
Behold! let there be brought unto me chilùren of the
gods of beneficent words, who know the power of their

RÂ D-CPED AND ROBBED BY ISIS 233

mouths, and whose science reacheth unto heaven." They
came, these children of the gods, all with their books of
magic. There came Isis with her sorcery, her mouth
full of life-giving breaths, her recipe for the destruction
of pain, her words which pour life into breathless throats,
and she said: "vVhat is it? what is it, 0 father of the
gods? 1\lay it not be that a serpent hath wrought this
suffering in thee; that one of thy children hath lifted
up his head against thee? SUl'ely he shall be over-
thrown by beneficent incantations, and I will make him
to retreat at the sight of thy rays." On learning the
cause of his torment, the Sun-god is terrified, and begins
to lament anew: "I, then, as I went along the ways,
travelling through my double land of Egypt and over
my mountains, that I might look upon that which I
. have made, I was bitten by a serpent that I saw not.
Fire it is not, water it is not, yet am I colder than
water, I burn more than fire, all my members stream
with sweat, I tremble, mine eye is not steady, no longer
can I discern the sky, drops roll from my face as in tho
season of summer." Isis proposes her remedy, and
cautiously asks him his ineffable name, But he divines
her trick, and tries to evade it by an enumeration of his
titles. He takes the universe to witness that he is
called "Khopri in the morning, Râ at noon, Tûrnû in
the evening." The poison did not recede, but steadily
advanced, and the great god was not eased. Then Isis
said to Râ: "Thy name was not spoken in that which
thou hast said. Tell it to me and the poison wiU depart;
for he liveth upon whom a charm is pronounced in his

234 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

own name." The poison glowed like fire, it was strong
as the burning of flame, and the l\lajesty of Bâ said, "I
grant thee leave that thou shouldest search within Ine,
o mother Isis I and that my name pass from Iny bosom
into tLy bosom." In truth, the all-powerful name was
hidden within the body of the god, and could only be
extracted thence by means of a surgical operation similar
to that practised upon a corpse which is about to be
mummified. Isis undertook it, carried it through success-
fully, drove out the poison, and made herself a goddess
by virtue of the name. The cunning of a mere woman
had deprived Râ of his last talisman.
In course of time men perceived his decrepitude.
They took counsel against hinl: " Lo I his l\lajesty
waxeth old, his bones are of silver, his flesh is of gold,
his hair of lapis-lazuli." As soon as his Majesty per-
ceived that which they were saying to each other, his
l\Iajesty said to those who were of his train, "Call
together for me my Divine Eye, Shû, Tafnûît, Sibû, and
N ûît, the father and the mother gods who were with me
when I was in the N û, with the god N û. Let each
bring his cycle along with him; then, when thou shalt
have brought theIU in secret, thou shalt take them to
the great mansion that they may lend me their counsel
and their consent, coming hither from the Nû into this
place where I have manifested myself." So the family
council comes together: the ancestors of Râ, and his
posterity still awaiting amid the primordial waters the
time of their manifestation-his children Shû and Tafnûît,
his grandchildren Sibû and N ûît. They place themselves,

RÂ DESTROYS REBELLIOUS MEN

235

according to etiquette, on either side his tlllone, pros-
trate, with their foreheads to the ground, and thus their
conference begins: "0 Kû, thou the eldest of the gods,
from WhOlll I took my being, and ye the ancestor-
gods, behold! men who are the emanation of mine eye
have taken counsel together against me! Tell me what
ye would do, for I have bidden you here before I slay
them, that I may hear what ye would say thereto."
N û, as the eldest, has the right to speak first, and
demands that the guilty shall be brought to judgment
and formally condemned. "My son Râ, god greater
than the god who made him, older than the gods who
created him, sit thou upon thy throne, and great shall
be the terror when thine eye shall rest upon those who
plot together against thee!" But Râ not unreasonably
fears that when men see the solemn pomp of royal
justice, they may suspect the fate that awaits them,
and "flee into the desert, their hearts terrified at that
which I have to say to them." The desert was even
then hostile to the tutelary gods of Egypt, and offered
an almost inviolable asyluul to their enemies. The con-
clave admits that the apprehensions of Râ are well
founded, and pronounces in favour of summary execu-
tion; the Divine Eye is to be the executioner. "Let
it go forth that it may smite those who have devised
evil against thee, for there is no Eye more to be feared
than thine when it attacketh in the form of Hâthor."
So the Eye takes the form of Hâthor, suddenly falls
upon men, and slays them right and left with great
strokes of the knife. After some bours, Râ, who woulcl

236 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

chasten but not destroy his children, commands her to
cease from her carnage; but the goddess has tasted
blood, and refuses to obey him. "By thy life," she
replies, "when I slaughter men then is my heart right
joyful!" That IS why she was afterwards called Sokhît
the slayer, and represented under
the form of a fierce lioness. Night-
fall stayed her course In the
neighbourhood of Heracleopolis;
all the ,vay from Heliopolis she
had tram pled through blood. As
soon as she had fallen asleep, Râ
hastily took effectual measures to
prevent her from beginning her
work again on the morrow. "He
said: 'Call on my behalf mes-
sengers agile anù swift, who go like
the wind.' When these messengers
were straightway brought to him,
the 1\lajesty of the god said: 'Let
SOKHh, TIlE LIOXESS-IIEADED. 1
them run to Elephantinê and bring
me mandragora in plenty.' 2 When they had brought him
the mandragora, the Majesty of this great god summoned

.c. -.

.. .-
,.,11-

\
,t

"4

..... -

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a bronze statuette of the Saïte period in
the Gîzeh l\1useum (MARIETTE, Album pJwtographique du Musée de Boulaq,
pI. 6).
2 The mandragora of Elephantinê was used in the manufacture of an
intoxicating and narcotic drink employeù either in medicine or in magic.
J n a special article, BRUGSCH has collected particulars preserved by the
texts as to the uses of this plant. It was not as yet credited with the
human form and the peculiar kind of life ascribed to it by western sorcerers.

THE GODDESS APPEASED

237

the miller which is ill Heliopolis that he might bray it;
and the women-servants having crushed grain for the
beer, the lllandragora, and also human blood, were
mingled with the liquor, and thereof was made in all
seven thousand j aI'S of beer. " Râ himself examined
this delectable drink, and :finding it to possess the
wished-for properties: '" It is well,' said he; 'there-
with shaH I save men from the goddess;' then, address-
ing those of his train: 'Take these jars in your arms,
and carry them to the place where she has slaughtered
men.' Râ, the king, caused dawn to break at midnight,
so that this philtre might be poured down upon the
earth; and the :fields were flooded with it to the depth
of four palms, according as it pleøJsed the souls of his
l\Iajesty." In the morning the goddess came, "that
she might return to her carnage, but she found that all
was flooded, and her countenance softened; when she
had drunken, it was her heart that softened; she went
away drunk, without further thought of men." There
was some fear lest her fury might return when the
fumes of drunkenness were past, and to obviate this
danger Râ instituted a rite, partly with the object of
instructing future generations as to the chastisement
which he had inflicted upon the impious, partly to con-
sole Sokhît for her discomfitul'e. He decreed that "on
New Year's Day there should be brewed for her as many
jal's of philtre as there were priestesses of the sun. That
was the origin of all those jars of philtre, in nuulber
equal to that of the priestesses, which, at the feast of
I-Iâthor, all men make from that day forth."

238 THE LEGEKDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

Peace was re-established, but could it last long?
Would not men, as soon as they had recovered from
their terror, betake themselves again to plotting against
the god? Besides, Râ now felt nothing but disgust for
our race. The ingratitude of his children had vvounded
him deeply; he foresaw ever-renewed rebellions as his
feebleness became more marked, and he shrank froln
having to order new massacres in which mankind would
perish altogether. "By my life," says he to the gods
who accompanied hirD, "my heart is too weary for me
to remain with mankind, and slay them until they are
no more: annihilation is not of the gifts that I love to
make." And the gods exclaim in surprise: "Breathe
not a word of thy weariness at a time when thou dost
triumph at thy pleasure." But Râ does not yield to
their representations; he win leave a kingdom wherein
they murmur against him, and turning towards Nû he
says: "1fy limbs are decrepit for the first time; I will
not go to any place where I can be reached." It was
no easy matter to find him an inaccessible retreat owing
to the imperfect state in which the universe had been
left by the first effort of the demiurge. Nû saw no
other way out of the difficulty than that of setting to
work to complete the creation. Ancient tradition had
imagined the separation of earth and sky as an act of
violence exercised by Sbû upon Sibû and Nûît. History
presented facts after a less brutal fashion, and Shû
became a virtnous son who devoted his time and
strength to upholding Nûît, that he might thereby do
his father a service. N ûît, for her part, showed herself

^
RA ASCENDS IXTO HEAVEN

239

to be a devoted daughter whom there was no need to
treat roughly in oI"der to teach her her duty; of herself
she consented to leave her husband, and place her
beloved ancestor beyond reach. "The J\lajesty of Nû
said: 'Son Shû, do as thy father Râ shall say; and
thou, daughter Nûît, place him upon thy back and
hold him suspended above the earth!' 1\ûît said:
'And how then, my father Nû?' Thus spake 1\ ûît,
and she did that which Nû commanded her; she
changed herself into a cow, and placed the 1\Iajesty of
Râ upon her back. \Vhen those men who had not been
slain came to give thanks to Râ, behold! they found
him no longer in his palace; but a cow stood there,
and they perceived him upon the back of the cow."
They found him so resolved to depart that they did
not try to turn him from his purpose, but only desired
to give him such a proof of their repentance as should
assure them of the complete pardon of their crime.
"They said unto him: ' Wait until the morning, 0
Râ! our lord, and we will strike down thine enemies
who have taken counsel against thee.' So his J\lajesty
returned to his mansion, descended from the cow, went
in along with them, and earth was plunged into dark-
ness. But when there was light upon earth the next
morning, the men went forth with their bows and
their arrows, and began to shoot at the enemy. Where-
upon the J\Iajesty of this god said unto them: 'Your
sins are remitted unto you, for sacrifice precludes the
execution of the guilty.' And tbis was the OrJgIIl upon
earth of sacrifices in which blood was shed."

240 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

Thus it was that when on the point of separating for
ever, the god and men came to an understanding as to
the terms of their future relationship. Men offered to
the god the life of those who had offended bim. Human
sacrifice was in their eyes the obligatory sacrifice, the
only one which could completely atone for the wrongs
committed against the godhead; man alone was worthy
to wash away with his blood the sins of men. 1 For this
one time the god accepted the expiation just as it was
offered to him; then the repugnance which he felt to
killing his children overcame him, he substituted beast
for man, and decided that oxen, gazelles, birds, should
henceforth furnish the material for sacrifice. 2 This point
settled, he again mounted the cow, who rose, supported
on her four legs as on so many pillars; and her belly,

1 This legend. which seeks to explain the discontinuance of human
sacrifices among the Egyptians, affords direct proof of their existence in
primitive times, This is confirmed by many facts. 'Ve shall see that
ûashbtti laid in graves were in place of the male or female slaves who were
originally slaughtered at the tombs of the rich and noble that they might go
to serve their masters in the next world, Even in Thebes, under the
XIX th dynasty, certain rock-cut tombs contain scenes which might lead
us to believe that occasionally at least human victims were sent to doubles
of distinction. During this same period, moreover, the most distinguished
hostile chiefs taken in war were still put to death before the gods, In
several towns, as at Eilithyia and at Heliopolis, or before certain gods,
such as Osiris or Kronos-Sibû, human sacrifice lasted until near Roman
times. But generally speaking it was very rare, Almost everywhere
cakes of a particular shape, and called TrÉJLJLUTU, or else animals, had been
suhstituted for man,
2 It was asserted that the partisans of Apôpi antI of Sit, who were the
enemies of Râ, Osiris, and the other gods, had taken refuge in the bodies
of certain animals, Hence, it was really human or divine victims which
were offered when beasts were slaughtered in sacrifice before the altars.

THE LEGEND OF SHÛ AKD SIBÛ

241

stretched out above the earth like a ceiling, formed the
sky. He busied himself with organizing the new \\<-orld
which he found on her back; he peopled it with many
beings, chose two districts in which to establish his abode,
the Field of Reeds-SokllÎt I alÛ-and the Field of Rest
-SokllÎt Hotpît-and suspended the stars which were to
gi ve light by night. All this is related with Inany plays
upon words, intended, according to Oriental custom, as
explanations of the names which the legend assigned to
the different regions of heaven. At sight of a plain whose
situation pleased him, he cried: "The Field rests in the
distanc(J ! "-and that was the origin of the Field of Rest.
He added: "There will I gather plants! "-and from
this the Field of Reeds took its name. \Vhile he gave
himself up to this philological pastime, Nûît, suddenly
transported to unaccustomed heights, grew frightened,
and cried for help: "Fer pity's sake give me supports to
sustain me!" This was the origin of the support-gods.
They came and stationed themselves by each of her four
legs, steadying these with their hands, and keeping
constant watch over them. As this was not enough to
reassure the good beast, "Râ said, 'J\Iy son Shû, place
thyself beneath my daughter N ûît, and keep watch on
both sides over the supports, who live in the twilight;
hold thou her up above thy head, and be her guardian! ' "
Shû obeyed; N ûît cOInposed herself, and the world, now
furnished with the sky which it had hitherto lacked,
assumed its present symmetrical form.
Shû and Sibû succeeded Râ, but did not acqlure so
lasting a popularity as their great ancestor. Nevertheless
VOL. I. R

242 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY 0)1--' EGYPT

they had their annals, fragments of which have come
down to us. Their power also extended over the whole
universe: "The :JHajesty of Shû was the excellent king
of the sky, of the eal.th, of Hades, of the water, of the
winds, of the inundation, of the two chains of mountains,

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of the sea, governing with a true voice according to the
precepts of his father Râ-Harmakhis." Only" the children
of the serpent Apôpi, the impious ones who haunt the
solitary places and the deserts," disavowed his authority.
Like the Bedawîn of later times, they suddenly streaoled

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin.

rO'YER OF THE GODS

243

In by the isthmus routes, went up into Egypt under
cover of night, slew and pillaged, and then hastily re-
turned to their fastnesses with the booty which they had
carried off. From sea to sea Râ had fortified the eastern
frontier" against them. He had surrounded the principal
cities with walls, embellished them with temples, alid
placed within them those mysterious talismans more
powerful for defence than a garrison of men. Thus Aît-
nobsû, near the mouth of the Wady-Tûml1ât, possessed
one of the rods of the Sun-god, also the living uræus of
his crown whose breath consumes all that it touches,
and, finally, a lock of his hair, which, being cast into the
waters of a lake, was changed into a hawk-headed crocodile
to tear the invader in pieces. l The employment of these
talismans was dangerous to those unaccustomed to use
them, even to the gods themselves. Scarcely was Sibû
enthroned as the successor of Shû, who, tired of reigning,
had reascended into heaven in a nine days' tempest, before
he began bis inspection of the eastern nlarches, and caused
the box in which was kept the uræus of Râ to be opened.
"As soon as the living viper had breathed its breath
against the J\lajesty of Sibû there was a great disaster-
great indeed, for those who were in the train of the god
perished, and his l\lajesty himself was burned in that day.
\Vhen his l\lajesty had fled to the north of Aît-nobsû,

1 Egyptians of all periods llf'Ver shrank from such marvels, One of the
tales of the Theban empire tells us of a piece of wax which, on being
thrown into the water, changed into a living crocodile capahle of devouring
a man. The talismans which protected Egypt against invasion are mentioned
by the Pseudo,Callisthenes, who attributes their invention to N ectanebo.
Arab historians often refer to them.

244 THE LEGESD.ARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

pursued by the fire of this magic uræus, behold! when
he came to the fields of henna, the pain of his burn was
not yet assuaged, and the gods who were behind him
said unto him: '0 Sire! let them take the lock of Râ
which is there, when thy J\fajesty shall go to see it and
its mystery, and his l\fajesty shall be healed as soon as
it shall be placed upon thee.' So the Majesty of Sibû

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TIm TE11PLE OF AîT-
OßSÛ AT THE
ROl\L\:N PERIOD,!

caused the magic lock to be brought to Piarît, - the
lock for which was made that great reliquary of hard
stone which is hidden in the secret place of Piarît, in
the district of the divine lock of the Lord Bâ, - and
behold! this fire departed from the members of the
1\lajesty of Sibû, And ma'lY ye
rs afterwards, when this
lock, which had thus belonged to Sibû, was brought back
to Piarît in Aît-nobsû, and cast into the great lake of Piarît

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by GRIFFITIT. The three
talismans hf're represented are two crowns, each in a naos, and the burning
fiery uræus,

^
OSIRIS AXD SIT

245

whose name is Aît-to.',;tes 1 1, the dwelling of waves, that
it might be purified, behold! this lock became a crocodile:
it flew to the water and became Sobl{û, the divine crocodile
of Aît-nobsû." In this 'way the gods of the solar dynasty
frorn generation to generation multiplied talismans and
enriched the sanctuaries of Egypt with relics.
"\Vere there ever duller legends and a more senile
phantasy! They did not spring spontaneously from the
lips of the people, but ,vere composed at leisure by priests
desirous of enhancipg the antiquity of their cult, and
augmenting the veneration of its adherents in order to
increase its importance, Each city wished it to be un-
ùerstood that its feudal sanctuary was founùed upon the
very day of creation, that its privileges had been extended
or confirmed during the course of the first divine dynasty,
and that these pretensions were supported by the presence
of objects in its treasury which had belonged to the oldest
of the king-gods. Such was the origin of tales in which
the personage of the beneficellt Pliaraoh is often depicted
in ridiculous fashion. Did we possess all the sacred
archives, we should frequently find them quoting as
authentic history more than one docun1ent as artificial
as the chronicle of Aît-llObsû, 'Vhen we COlne to the
latel' nlelnbel'S of the Ennead, there is a change in the
character and in the form of these tales. Doubtless Osiris
and Sit did not escape un
cathed out of the hands of the
theologians; but even if sacerdotal interference spoiled
the legend concerning them, it did not altogether disfigure
it. Here and there in it is still noticeable a sincerity
of feeling and liveliness of imagination such as are never

246 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

found in those of Shû and of Sibû. This arises from the fact
that the functions of these gods left them strangers, or all
but strangers, to the current affairs of the world. Shû was
the stay
Sibû the material foundation of the world; and so
long as the one bore the weight of the firmament without
bending, and the other continued to suffer the tread of
human generations upon his back, the devout took no
more thought of them than they themselves took thought
of the devout. The life of Osiris, on the other hand, was
intÜnately mingled with that of the Egyptians, and his
most trivial actions immediately reacted upon theÜ'
fortunes. They followed the movements of his waters;
they noted the turning-points in his struggles against
drought; they registered his yearly decline, yearly com-
pensated by his aggressive returns and his intermittent
victories over Typhon; his proceedings and his character
wel'e the subject of their minute study. If his waters
almost invariably rose upon the appointed day and
extended over the black earth of the valley, this was
no mechanical function of a being to wholTI the con-
sequences of his conduct are indifferent; he acted upon
reflection, and in full consciousness of the service tl1at
he rendered. He knew that by spreading the inundation
he prevented the triumph of the desert; he was life, he
was goodness-Onnofriû-and Isis, as the partner of his
labours, became like him the type of perfect goodness.
But while Osiris developed for the better, Sît was trans-
formed for the worse, and increased in wickedness as
his brother gained in purity and moral elevation. In
proportion as the person of Sit grew 11101'0 defined, and

^^
NUIT'S FIVE CHILDREN

247

stood out more clearly, the evil within him contrasted
l110re markedly with tbe innate goodness of Osiris, and
what had been at first an instinctive struggle between
two beings somewhat vaguely defined - the desert and
the Nile, water and drought--was changed into conscious
and deadly enmity. No longer the conflict of two elements,
it was war between two gods; one labouring to produce
abundance, while the other strove to do away with it;
one being all goodness and life, while the other was evil
and death incarnate.
A very ancient legend narrates that the birth of Osiris
anù his brothers took place during the five additional days
at the end of the year; a subsequent legend explained how
N ûît and Sibû had contracted marriage against the express
wish of Râ, and without his knowledge. When he became
aware of it he fell into a violent rage, and cast a spell over
the goddess to prevent her giving birth to her children in
any nlonth of any year whatever. But Thot took pity
upon her, and playing at draugbts with the moon won from
it in several games one seventy-second part of its fires, out
of which he made five whole days; and as these were not
included in the ordinary calendar, N ûît could then bring
forth her five chilùr n, one after another: Osiris, Haroêris,
Sît, Isis, and N ephthys. Osiris was beautiful of face, but
with a dull and black complexion; his height exceeded five
and a half yards. 1 He was born at Thebes, in the first of

1 As a matter of fact, Osiris is often represented with black or green
hands and face, as is customary for gods of the dead; it was probably this
peculiarity which suggested the popular idea of his black complexion.
A magic papyrus of Ramesside times fixes the stature of the god at seven

248 THE LEGENDAR\ HISTORY OF EGYPT

the additional days, and straightway a mysterious voice
aUllounced that the lord of all-1liúû-T-za1'Û-had appeared.
The good news was hailed with shouts of joy, followed by
tears and larnentations when it became known with what
evils he was lllenaced. 1 The echo reached Bâ in his far-off
dwelling, and his heart rejoiced, notwithstanding the curse
which he had laid upon N ûît. He conunanded the
presence of his great-grandchild in Xoïs, and unhesitatingly
acknowledged him as the heir to his throne. Osiris had
married Lis sister Isis, even, so it was said, while both of
them were still within their mother's womb; 2 and when he
became Idug he made her queen l'egnant and the partner of
all his undertakings. The Egyptians were as yet but half
civilized; they were cannibals, and though occasionally
they lived npon the fruits of the earth, they did not know
how to cultivate them. Osiris taught them the art of
making agricultural implements-the plough and the

cubits, and a phrase in a Ptolemaic inscription places it at eight cubits,
six palms, three fingers.
lOne variant of the legend told that a certain Pamy lis of Thebes
having gone to draw water had heard a voice proceeding from the temple
of Zeus, which ordered him to proclaim aloud to the world the birth of
the great king, the heneficent Osiris. He had rpcei\
ed the child from
the hands of Kronos, brought it up to youth, and to him the Egyptians
had consecrated the feast of Pamylies, which resembled the Phallophoros
festival of the Greeks.
2 De lside el Osiride, LEE)IANS' edition,
12, pp. 20, 21. Haroêris, the
.A pono of the Greeks, 'was supposed to be the issue of a marriage con-
summated hefore the birth of his parents while they were still within the
womb of their mother Rhea-N ûît, This was a way of connecting the
persol1age of Haroêris with the Osirian myths by confounding him \\ ith
the homonymous Harsiêsis, the son of J sis, \\ ho became the son of Osiris
through his mother's marriage with that god.

OSIRIS AKD ISIS

249

hoe,-field labonr, the rotation of crops, the harvesting of
wheat and barley, I and vine culture. Isis weaned them
from cannibalism, healed their diseases by means of
medicine or of magic, united women to men in legitimate
marriage, and showed them how to grind grain between
two fiat stones and to prepare bread for the household.
She invented the loom with the help of her sister
N ephthys, and was the first to weave and bleach linen.
T
ere was no worship of the gods before Osiris established
it, appointed the offerings, regulated the order of cere-
lnonies, and composed the texts and melodies of the
liturgies. He built cities, among them Thebes itself,
according to some; though others declared that be was
born there. As he had been the model of a just and pacific
king, so did he desire to be that of a victorious conqueror
of nations; and, placing the regency in the hands of Isis,
he went forth to war against Asia, accompanied by Thot
the ibis and the jackal Anubis. He made little or no use
of force and arn1S, but he attacked men by gentleness and
persuasion, softened them with songs in which voices were
accompanied by instruments, and taught them also the arts
which he had made known to the Egyptians. No country
escaped his beneficent action, and he did not return to the
banks of the Nile until he bad trayersed and civilized the
world from one horizon to the other.

I DIODORUS even ascribes to him the discovery of barley and of wheat;
this is consequent upon the iù.entification of Isis with Demeter by the
Greeks. According to the historian, Leo of PeBa, the goddess twined
herself a crown of ripe ears and placed it upon her head one ùay when she
was sacrificing to her parents.

250 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

Sît-Typhon was red-haired and white-skinned, of violent,
gloomy, and jealous temper. l Secretly he aspired to the
crown, and nothing but the vigilance of Isis had kept hiIn
from rebellion during the absence of his brother. The
rejoicings which celebrated the king's return to Mernphis
IJrovided Sît with his opportunity for seizing the throne.
He invited Osiris to a banquet along with seventy-two
officers whose support he had
ensured, made a wooden chest
of cunning workmanship and
ordered that it should be
brought in to him, in the
midst of the feast. As aU
admired its beauty, he sport-
ively promised to present it
to anyone among the guests
whom it should exactly fit.
All of them tried it, one after
another, and all unsuccess-
fully; but when Osiris lay
TIlE OSIRUX TRUI> HORUS. OSIRIS, ISIS. 2 down within it, immediately

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1 The colour of his hair was compared with that of a red-haired ass,
and on that account the ass was sacred to him. As to his violent and
jealous disposition, see the opinion of DIODORUS SICULUS, book i,
1, and the
picture drawn hy
Y
ESIUS in his pamphlet Ægyptills, It was tolù how
he tore his mother's bowels at birth, and made his own way into the world
through her side.
2 Drawing by Boudier of the gold group in the Louvre l\Iuseum. The
drawing is made from a photograph which belonged to :\1. de 'Yitte, before
the monument was acquired by E. de Rougé in 1871. The little square pillar
of lapis-lazuli, upon which Osiris squats, is wrongly set up, and the names and
titles of King Osorkoll, the dedicator of the triad, are placed upside down,

^
OSIRIS SLAI
BY SIT

251

the conspirators shut to the lid, nailed it finnly down, sol-
dered it together with melteù lead, and then threw it into
the Tanitic branch of the Nile, which carried it to the sea.
The news of the crime spread terror on all sides. The
goùs friendly to Osiris feared the fate of their master, and
hid themselves within the bodies of animals to escape the
malignity of the new king. Isis cut off her hair, rent her
garments, and set out in search of the chest. She fonnd it
aground near the month of the river 1 under the shadow of a
gigantic acacia, deposited it in a secluded place where no
one ever came, and then took refuge in Bûto, her own
dOlnain anù her native city, whose marshes protected her
from the designs of Typhon even as in historic tirnes they
protected more than one Pharaoh from the attacks of his
enemies. There she gave birth to the young Horus,
nursed and reared him in secret among the reeds, far from
the Inachinations of the wicked one. 2 But it happened that
Sit, when hunting by moonlight, caught sight of the chest,
opened it, and recognizing the corpse, cut it np into

1 At this point the legend of the Saïte and Greek period interpolates
a whole chapter, telling how the chest was carried out to sea and cast upon
the Phænicia.n coa<;t near to ByLlos, The acacia, a kind of heather or
broom in this case, grew up enclosing the chest within its trunk. This
addition to the primitive legend must date from the XVIIph to the XX th
dynasties, wh{'n Egypt had extensive relations with the peoples of Asia.
No trace of it whatever has hitherto been found upon Egyptian monuments
strictly so called; not even on the latest.
2 The opening illustration of this chapter (p, 221) is taken from a
monument at Philæ, and depicts Isis among the reeds, The representation
of the goddess as squatting upon a mat probably gave rise to tbe legend of
the floating isle of Kbemmis, which HECATÆUS OF :J\lILETUS had seen upon
the lake of Bûto, but whose existence was denied by HERODOTUS nutwith-
standing the testimony of Hecatæus.

252 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EOì PT

fourteen pieces, which he scattereù abroad at random.
Once lllore Isis set forth on her woeful pilgrimage. She
recovered all the parts of the body excepting one only,
which the oxyrhynchns had greedily devoured; I and with
the help of her sister N ephtLys, her son Horus, Anubis,
and Thot, she joined together and embalmed them, and
made of this collection of his remains an imperishable
mummy, capable of sustaining for ever the soul of a god.
On Lis coming of age, Horus called together all that were
left of the loyal Egyptians and formed them into an
army.2 His" Followers "-ShosÙû Ilorû- defeated the
"Accomplices of Sît" -Samiú Sit-who were now driven
In their turn to transform thelllselves into gazelles,
crocodiles and serpents,-animals which were henceforth
regarded as unclean and Typhonian. For three days the
two chiefs had fought together under the forms of men and
of hippopotami, when Isis, apprehensive as to the issue of
the duel, determined to bring it to an end. " Lo! she

I This part of the legend was so thoroughly well known, that by the
time of the XIXth dynasty it suggested incidents in popular literature.
\\'hen Bitiû, the hero of The Tale of the Two Brothers, mutilaterl himself
to avoid the suspicion of adultery. he cast his bleeding member into the
water, and the OX!JrltynclLUs devoured it,
2 Towards the Grecian period there was here interpolated an account
of how Osiris had returned frol1l the world uf the dea.d to arm his son and
train him to fight. Accorùing to this tale he had asked Horus which of all
animals seemed tu him most useful in time of war, and Horus chose the
horse rather than the lion, because the lion avails fur the weak or cowardly
in need of help, whereas the horse is used for the pursuit and destructÏrm
of the enemy. Judging frum this reply that Horus was ready to dare aU,
OsÏr'is allowed him to enter upon the war. The mention of the horse affurds
sufficient proof that this episode is of compa.ratiyely late origin (cf, p. 41,
for the date at which the horse was acclimatized in Egypt).

BREAKIXG OF THE FETTERS

253

caused chains to descend upon them, and made them to
drop upon Horus. Thereupon Horus prayed aloud, saying:
'I am thy son Horus!' Then Isis spake unto the fetters,
saying; 'Break, and unloose yourselves from
"
nlY son Horus!' She made other fetters to .
; 1 1 : . (
descend, and let them fall upon her brother

:.
Sît. Forthwith he lifted up his voice and cried

)
out in pain, and she spake unto the fetters .:,..

and said unto them: 'Break! ' Yea, when \\(..:- "
Sît prayed unto her many times, saying: ' ; &. It
. !
'Wilt thou not have pity upon the brother of
thy son's mother?" then her heart was filled /'; t
with compassion, and she cried to the fetters: dr
'Break, for he is my eldest brother!' and the
I
fetters unloosed themselves from him, and the \
two foes again stood face to face like two
men who will not come to terms. "Horus,
furious at seeing his mother deprive hÜn of his
prey, turned upon her like a panther of the
South. She fled before him on that day when
battle was waged with Sît the Violent, and he
cut off her head, But Thot transformed her ISIS-HÂTHon,COW-
by his enchantments and made a cow's head for HEADED,l
her," thereby identifying her with her companion, Hâthor.
The war went on, with all its fluctuating fortunes, till the
gods at length decided to summon both rivals before their
tribunal. According to a very ancient tradition, the

"

Ë'

'ì' \
.' 01'\'
\

1 Drawn by Faw'her-Gudin, from a bronze statuette of Saïte period in
the Gîzeh l\Iuseum (l\1ARlETTE, Album photo[Jrap7lÍque du musIc de Boulaq,
pI. 5, No. 167).

254 THE LEGEXD.ARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

combatants chose the ruler of a neighbouring city, Thot,
lord of Hermopolis Parva, as the arbitrator of their quarrel.
Sît \vas the first to plead, and he Inaintained that Horus
was not the son of Osiris, but a bastard, whom Isis had
conceived after the death of her husband. Horus
triumphantly vindicated the legitimacy of his birth; and
Thot condeIlllled Sit to restore, according to some, the
whole of the inheritance which he had wrongly retained,-
according to others, part of it only. The gods ratified the
sentence, and awarded to the arbitrator the title of
ÛapÙ
altúlzûi: he who judges between two parties. A
legend of more recent origin, and circulated after the
'worship of Osiris had spread over all Egypt, affirmed that
the case had reIllained within the jurisdiction of Sibû, who
was father to the one, and grandfather to the other party.
Sibû, howevel', had pronounced the same judgment as Thot,
and divideù the kingdom into halves-posfUti; Sît retained
the valley from the neighbourhood of
Ienlphis to the first
cataract, while Horus entered into possession of the Delta.
Egypt henceforth consisted of two distinct kingdoms, of
which one, that of the North, recognized Horus, the son of
Isis, as its patron deity; and the other, that of the South,
placed itself under the protection of :::;ît N ûbîti, the god of
Ombos. 1 The moiety of Horus, added to that of Sît, formed

I Another form of the legend gives the 27th Athyr as the date of
the judgment, assigning Egypt to Horus, and to Sit Nubia, or Dos7ârU, the
red land. It must have arisen towards the age of the XVllph dynasty,
at a time when their piety no longer allowed the devout to admit that
the murclf'rer òf Osiris could be the legitimate patron uf half the coun1t'y,
So the half belonging to Sît was then placf'd either in Nubia or in the western
desert, which had, incleecl, been reckoned as his domain from earliest times.

DEATH OF OSIRIS

255

the kingdom which Sibû had inherited; but his children
failed to keep it together, though it was afterwards reunited
under Pharaohs of human race.
The three gods who preceded Osiris upon the throne
had ceased to reign, but not to live. Râ had taken refuge
in heaven, disgusted with his own creatures; Shû bad
disappeared in the midst of a tempest; and Sibû had
quietly retired within his palace when the time of his
sojourning upon earth had been fulfilled. Not that there
was no death, for death, too, together with all other
things and beings, had come into existence in the be-
ginning, but while cruelly persecuting both man and
beast, had for a while respected the gods. Osiris was the
first among them to be struck down, and hence to require
funeral rites. He also was the first for ,vhom family piety
sought to provide a happy life beyond the tomb. Though
he was king of the living and the dead at l\lendes by
virtue of the rights of all the feudal gods in their own
principalities, his sovereignty after death exempted him
no more than the meanest of his subjects from that painful
torpor into which all mortals fell on breathing their last.
But popular imagination could not resign itself to his
remaining in that miserable state for ever. What would
it have profited him to have Isis the great Sorceress for
his wife, the wise Horus for his son, two IDaster-magicians
-Thot the Ibis and the jackal Anubis-for his servants,
if their skill had not availed to ensure him a less gloomy
and less lamentable after-life than that of men. AnuLis
had long before invented the art of murllrnifying, and his
mysterious science had secured the everlasting existence

256 THE LEGEKDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

of the flesh; but at what a price! For the breathing,
warm, fresh-coloured body, spontaneous in movement and

L

"
'i 'l T
' '
" '

î' " '

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J

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TIlE OSIRL\.
1!W}DIY PREPARED A
D LAID UPON TIlE FUNERARY COUCH BY THE
JACKAl. A
ums,l

I Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from ROSELLIXI, lJIonumenti Oivili, pI.
cxxxiv. 2, "
hile Anubis is stretching out his hands to layout the
mummy on its couch, the soul is hovering above its breast, and holding
to its nostrils the sceptre, and the wind-filled sail which is the emblem
of breath anù of the new life,

THE OSIRIAN E
IBALl\L\IEXT

257

function, was substituted an immobile, cold and blackish
mass, a sufficient basis for the mechanical continuity of
the double, but which that double could neither raise nor
guide; whose weight paralysed and whose inertness con-
demned it to vegetate in darkness, without pleasure and
almost without consciousness of existence. That, Isis,
and IIorns applied themselves in the case of Osiris to
ameliorating the discomfort and constraint entailed by the
more primitive embalmment. They did not dispense with

f "

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1
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'till III III If . I'..'i

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.

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'I'IIE I:ECErTIOX OF 'I'IIE l\IG1DIY BY AXUBIS AT TIm DOOR OF 'I'IIE TO:\1ß, AXD TIlE
Ol)ESISG OF TIlE l\IOUTII. 1

the manipulations instituted by Anubis, but endued them
with new power by means of magic. They inscribed the
principal bandages with protective figures and formulas;
they decorated the body with various amulets of specific
efficacy for its different parts; they dre\v numerous scenes
of earthly existence and of the life beyond the tomb upon
the boards of the coffin and upon the walls of the sepulchral
chamber. "\Vhen the body had been made imperishable,

1 Drawn by Faucbf'r-Gudin, from a p
inting in the tomb of a king in
the Thcban necropolis.

VOL. I.

s

258 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

they sought to restore one by one all the faculties of
which their previous operations had deprived it. The
mummy ,vas set up at the entrance to the vault; tbe
statue representing the living person was placed beside it,
and semblance was made of opening the mouth, eyes, and
ears, of loosing the arn1S and legs, of restoring breath to
the throat and movement to the heart. The incantations
by ,,'hich these acts were severally accompanied were so
powerful that the god spoke and ate, lived and heard,
and could use his limbs as freely as though he had never
been steeped in the bath of the embalmer. He n1Ïgbt
have returned to his place aIllong men, and various legends
prove that he did occasionally appear to bis faithful
adherents. But, as his ancestors before him, he preferred
to leave their towns and withdraw into his own domain.
The cemeteries of the inhabitants of Busiris and of Mendes
were called Soklât I alÛ, the 1\Ieado\V of Reeds, and SoldtÎt
IIotpÛ, the J\Ieaùow of Rest. They were secluded amid
the marshes, in small archipelagoes of sandy islets where
the dead bodies, piled together, rested in safety froIll the
inundations. This was the first kingdolll of the dead
Osiris, but it was soon placed elsewhere, as the nature of
the surrounding districts and the geography of the aùjacent
countries became better known; at first perhaps on the
Phænician shore beyond the sea, and then in th e sky, in
the 11ilky \Vay, between the North and the East, but
nearer to the North than to the East. This kingdom
was not gloomy and mournful like that of the other dead
gods, Sokaris or I{hontamentît, but was ligbted by sun
and moon; the heat of the day was tempered by the

THE KIXGDO:\I OF OSIRIS

2i9

steaùy breath of the north wind, and its crops gl'ew and
throve abundantly. Thick walls served as fortifications
against the attacks of Sit and evil genii; a palace like
that of the Pharaohs stood in the miùst of delightful
gardens; and there, among his own people, Osiris led a

-
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osnns IY IL\DES, ACCO:\U'A
IED BY ISIS, ..nm
TÎT, ,\SD XEPHfIIl"S, UECI.I\'ES TilE
II":\I.\GE o
' TUt:TII,l

tranquil existence, enjoying in succession all the pleasures
of earthly life without any of its pains.
The goodness which had gained him the title of
Onnophris while he sojourned here below, inspired him

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Daniel Heron, taken
in 1881 in the temple of Seti I, at Abydos.

200 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY Ol
EGYPT

with the desire and suggested the means of opening the
gates of his paradise to the souls of his former subjects.
Souls did not enter into it unexamined, nor without tria1.
Each of them bad first to prove that during its earthly
life it bad belonged to a friend, or, as the Egyptian texts
have it, to a vassal of Osiris-amaklnî kltir Osiri-one of
-'I"-
>
' those who had served
Horus in his exile and had
rallied to his banner frOIrl
the very beginning of the
Typhonian 'wars. These
were those followers of
.. .. 1, j:
Horus-ShosûÛ IIcl'û-sO
often referred to in the lite-
rature of historic times.!
Horus, their master, hav-
TilE DECEASED CLDmI
G TIlE RLOPE OF 'filE ing loaded them with
MoeXT.\IX OF TIII'; WEST,2
favours dnring life, decided
to extend to them after death the same privileges
which he luu1 conferred upon his father. He convoked
around the corp:,e the gods who had worked with him
at the embalmment of Osiris: Anubis and Thot, Isis
and N ephthys, Rnd his four children-I-Iâpi, Qabhsonûf,

'-
.

L
,.

" O.

';' ,\ ' "
.
.... J. :
.. ,. ,.. . "
,. -
. :.... J,
,.' Ii l '
"'... ".

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..

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"'\ M ì('I

I ..: ....
:
I .
, :. -;
.1 ..
: \

.,
., .

t,

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'-

4.

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1 Cf. p,
32. The Followers of Horus, i.e. those who had followed Horus
during the Typhonian wars, are mentioned in a Turin fragment of the
Canon of the Kings, in which the author summarizes the chronology of
the divine period. Like the reign of Râ, the time in which the followers
of Horus were supposed to have lived was for the Egyptians of classic
times the ultimate point beyond which history did not reach.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from NAVILLE DaB Æ!J!Jplisclte Todtenbnclt,
vol. i. pI. cxxviii, Ai.

Amsît, and Tiûmaûtf -to WhOlll he had entrusted the
charge of the heart and viscera. They all performed
their functions exactly as befol'e, repeated the same
ceremonies, and recited the same formulas at the same
stages of the operations, and so effectively that tbe dead
man became a real
Osiris under their "-"'.
,
hands, having a true
voice, and hence-
forth combining the
name of the god
with his own. lie ·
had been Sakhomka .,,;: i f-
or l\IenkaL1rî; be be-
came the Osiris Sak-
bonIka, or the Osiris
l\Ienkaûrî, true of
voice. Horus and
his companions then 'g ._ . f. ,
.
celebrated the rites '
consecrated to the THE ML":\DlY 01<' sCTI:UUSÛ ('L,\SI'l
U 1.1:; sun l
ras
AIDIs,1
" Opening of the
l\louth and the Eyes: " animated the statue of the deceased,
and placed the mummy in the tomb, where Anubis received
it in his arms, Recalled to life and movement, the double
reassumed, one by one, all the functions of being, canle
and went and took part in the ceremonies of the worsbip

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THE FOLLO'VERS OP HORUS

. '"

I.fÞ::r.f;I/'.

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ftJ.'r.. 'r

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261

I'

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from GUIEYSSE-LEFÉBURE, Le PapJlrus de
Soutimèø, pI. viii, The outlines of the original have unfortunately been
restored and enfeebled by the copyist.

262 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

which was rendered to him in his tomb. There he might
be seen accepting the homage of bis kindred, and clasping
to his breast his soul under the form of a great hurnan-
headed bird with features the counterpart of his own.
After being equipped with the formulas and amulets
wberewith his prototype, Osiris, had been furnished, he
set forth to seek the "Field of Reeds." The way was
long and arduous, strewn with perils to
which be must bave succumbed at the
very first stages
had he not been
carefully warned
beforehand and
armed against
them. A papyrus
placed with the
mummy in its
coffin contained
the needful topo-
graphical direc-
CY
OCErlI.\LI DR.\ WI
G TIlE KET IY WIIICII S01;LS ARE
CACGIlT. 1 tions and pass-
words, in order
that he might neither stray nor perish by the way.
The wiser Egyptians copied out the principal chapters
for themselves, or learned them by heart while yet in life,

" v - , t'"
:,.

i
1" '''', "<]1\" '," l
";'';;..:.'<
.:.. :-; 'c' ,i"':.: .. ,:,
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1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a facsimile by Dévl'ria (E, DE
ROUGÉ, 1:tude8 sur Ie Rilllel Funéraire, pI. iv, No.4). Ignorant souls
fished for by the cynocephali are here represented as fish; but the soul of
Nofirûbnû, instructed in the protective formulas, preserves its human
form.

THE BOOh OF
HE DËAú

263

III order to be prepared for the life beyond. Those who
had not taken this precaution studied after death the
copy with which they were provided; and since few
Egyptians could read, a priest, or relative of the deceased,
preferably his son, recited the prayers in the llilunnlY's
ear, that he might learn them before he was carried away
to the cemetery. If the double obeyed the prescriptions
of the "Book of the Dead" to the Jetter, he reached bis
goal without fai1.! On leaving the tomb he turncd his
back on the valley, and staff in band climbed the hills
which bounded it on the west, plunging boldly into, the
desert, where some bird, or even a kindly insect such as
a praying mantis, a grasshopper, or a butterfly, served
as bis guide. Soon he came to Olie of those sycamores
,vhich grow in tbe sand far away from the Nile, and are
regarded as magic trees by the fellahîn. Out of the foliage
a goddess-Nûît, Hâthor, or Nît-half emerged, and offered
him a dish of fruit, loaves of bread, and a jar of water.

1 l\Ianuscripts of this work represent about nine-tenths of the papyri
hitherto discovered. They are not all equally full; complete copies are
still relatively scarce, and most of those found with mummies contain
nothing but extracts of varying length. The hook itself was studied by
CIlA:\IPOLLIO
, who called it the Funerary Bit/tal; Lepsius afterwards gave
it the less definite name of Book of the Dead, which seems likely to prenlÎl.
It has been chiefly known from the hieroglyphic copy at Turin, which
LEPSIGS traced and had lithographed in 184:1, under the title of Das
Todtcnblt('h der .tEO!lpler. In 1865, E. DU ROUGÉ began to puhlish a
hieratic copy in the Louvre, but since 1886 there has been a critical edition
of manuscripts of the Theban period most carefully collated by E. NAVILLE,
Das ÆOyptis('he Torllpnbnch dcr XVIII bis XX Dynastie, Berlin, 1886,
2 vols, of plates in folio, and 1 vol. of Introduction in 4 to. On this edition
see )IAsPERo, Études de JJlytlwlooie ct d' Archéolo[Jie Éoyptiennes, vol. i.
pp. 325-387.

2ß-! '.rIlE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

By accepting these gifts he becalne the guest of the
goddess, and could never more retrace his steps 1 without
special permission. Beyond the sycalllore were lands of

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TIlE D:CCE.\.SED A
D IllS WIFE RE.\.TED IX }'IWXT OF TIlE SïC.\.:\IORE OF NCîT AXD
RECEIYIXG TIlE BUE.\.D A
D WATER OF TilE NEXT WORLD. 2

1
IASPERo, Étlu7es de lJlytllologie et d' Arcltéologie l/g!/ptiennes, vol. ii.
pp, 224-22ï. It was not in Egypt alone that the fact of accepting food
offered hy a god of the dead constituted a recognition of suzerainty, and
prevented t-be human soul from returning to the world of the living.
Traces of this belief are found everywhere, in modern as in ancient times,
and E, B. TYLOR has collected numerous examples of the. same in Prirnitive
Culture, 2nd edit" vol. ii. pp, 47, 51, 52.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coloured plate in ROSELLINI,
lI.Conurnenti civil;" pI. cxxxiv. 3.

THE JOURXEYINGS OF THE SOUL 205

terror, infested by serpents and ferocious beasts, furrowed
Ly torrents of boiling water, intersected by ponds and
marshes where gigantic monkeys cast their nets. Ignorant
souls, or those ill prepared for the struggle, had no easy
wOl'k before them when they Ünprudently entered upon it.
Those who ,vere not overcome by hunger and thirst at
the outset were bitten by a uræus, or horned viper, hidden
with evil intent below the sand, and perished in convulsions
from the poison; or crocodiles seized as many of them as
they could lay hold of at the fords of rivers; or cynocephali
netted and devoured them indiscrÜninately along with the
fish into which the partisans of Typhon were transforn1ed.
They came safe and sound out of one peril only to fall
into another, and infallibly succumbed before they were
half through their journey. But, on the other hand, the
double who was equipped and instructed, and armed with
the true voice, confronted each foe with the phylactery
and the incantation by which his enemy was held in check.
As soon as he caught sight of one of them he recited
the appropriate chapter from his book, he loudly pro-
claimed himself Râ, Tûmû, Horus, or I{hopri-that god
whose name and attributes were best fitted to repel the
immediate danger-and flames withdrew at his voice,
monsters fled or sank paralysed, the most cruel of genii
drew in their claws and lo,vered their arms before him.
He compelled crocodiles to turn away their heads; he
transfixed serpents with his lance; he supplied himself
at pleasure with all the provisions that he needed, and
gradually ascended the mountains which surround the
'world, sometimes alone, and fighting his way step by step,

2ßû THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

sometirnes escorted by beneficent divinities. Halfway up
the slope was the good cow Hâthor, the lady of the \Vest,
in meadows of tall plants where every evening she received
the sun at his setting. If the dead man knew how to
ask it according to the prescribed rite, she would take
hirn upon her shoulders 1 and carry him across the accursed
cotintries at full speed. Having
reached the N ortb, he paused at
the edge of an immense lake, the
lake of liha, and saw in the far
distance the outline of the Islands
of the Blest. One
.
I tradition, so old as
i to have been almost
,.'
J \ :,:, ' .; 'I' ,,'" ,J I forgotten in Rames-
C' <0," ',
\. :t......-'
".,. , I.
.."." side times, told how
Thot the ibis there
awaited him, and bore
hirn away on his wings; 3 another, no less ancient but
of more lasting popularity, declared that a ferry-boat
plied regularly between the solid earth and the shores

a-..... "

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TIlE UECE.\SED PIERCIXG A SEurEXT WITH IIIS
L.\XCE,2

1 Coffins of the XXIII and XXpt dynasties, with a yeHow ground, often
display this scene. Generally the scene is found beneath the feet of
the dead, at the lower end of the cartonage, and the cow is represented
as carrying off at a gallop the mummy who is lying on her back.
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by NAVILLE (Das Ægyplischc
Todtenbuclt, vol. i, pI. iii. P b). The commonest enemies of the dead were
various kinds of serpents.
3 It is often mentioned in the Pyramid texts, and inspired one of the
most obscure chapters among them (Teti, II. 185-200; cf. Recueil de
Travaux, vol. v. pp. 22, 23). It seems that the ibis had to fight with Sît
for right of passage.

THE JUDG:\IENT OF THE OSIRIAN SOUL 207

of paraùise. The god who directed it questioned the
deaJ, and the bark itself proceeded to examine them
before they were admitted on board; for it was a nlagic
bark. "Tell me my nallle," cried the mast; and the
travellers replied: He who guides the great goddess on
her ,vay is thy name." "Tell lue my nalTIe," repeated
^
the braces. "The Spine of the Jackal U apûaîtû is thy
name." "Tell me my name," proceeded the mast-head.

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L\.
A
D IllS SOUL. 1

"The Neck of Arnsît i::; thy name." "Tell me ill)
name," asked the sail. "Nûît is thy name." Each part
of the hull and of the rigging spoke in' turn and questioned
the applicant regarding its name, this being generally a
mystic phrase by which it was identified either with some
divinity as a whole, or else with some 11art of his body.

1 Ðl'awn by Faucher-Gudin, from a coloured facsimi]e published by
LEE}IA
S, .1JlonU1ncnts É[Jyptien8 du ]}Iu8ée d'Antifjuités des Pays-Bas à Leyden,
part iii. pI. xii.

268 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY 011' EGYPT
vVhen the double bad estaLlished his right of passage by
the correctness of his answers, the bark consented to
receive him and to carry bim to the further shore.
There be was met by the gods and goddesses of the
court of Osiris: by Anubis, by IIâthor the lady of the
cemetery, by Nît, by the two 1\l<'tîts who preside over justice

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Tms AXD THOT WEIGHIXG THE IlE.ART OF TilE DECI.:.\.SED IX TIlE SC.\.LES OF TUCTIl, 1

and truth, and by the four children of Horus stiff-sheathed
in their mummy "Tappings. They forn1ed as it were a
guard of honour to introduce him and his winged guide into
an immense hall, the ceiling of which rested on light grace-
ful columns of painted wood. At the further end of the

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from pJ. cxxxvi. Ag of N A VILLE'S Das
Tltebanische Tvdtenbuch.

THE JUDG:\IEXT OF THE OSIHIAN SOUL 269

hall Osiris was seated in mysterious twilight within a shrine
through whose open doors he might be seen wearing a red
necklace over his close-fitting case of white bandaging,l1Ïs
green face surmounted by the tall white diadem flanked by
two plumes, his slender bands grasping flail and crook, the
emblems of his power. Behind Lim stood Isis and N eph-

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TIlE DECEASl:D IS mWrGIl'r DEFOnE TIlE SnIUXE OF OSImS TIlE Jt"DGE
llY nultc::), THE SOY UF l:SI:S,

tbys watching over hirn with uplifted hands, bare bOSOIl1S,
and bodies straitly cased in linen. Forty-two jurors who
had died and been l'estored to life like their lord, and who
had been chosen, qne froln each of those cities of Egypt
which recognized his authority, squatted right and left, and
motionless, clothed in the wrappings of the dead, silently
waited until tLey 'were addressed. The soul first advanced

270 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

to the foot of the throne, carrying on its outstretched hands
the image of its heart or of its eyes, agents and accomplices
of its sins and virtues. It lnunbly "smelt tbe earth," then
arose, and with uplifted hands recited its profession of faith.
" I-Iail unto you, ye lords of Truth! hail to thee, great god,
lord of Truth and Justice! I have COlne before thee, 1I1Y
master; I have been brought to see thy beauties. For I
know thee, I know thy nan1e, I kno,v the names of thy
forty-two gods who are with thee in the Hall of the Two
Truths, living on the remains of sinners, gorging themselves
with their blood, in that day when account is rendered
before Onnophris, the true of voice. Thy nalne which is
thine is ' the god whose two twins are the ladies of the two
Truths; , and I, I know you, ye lords of the two rrruths, I
bring unto you Truth, I have destroyed sins for yon. I
have not committed iniquity against men! I have not
oppressed the poor! I have not Inade defalcations in the
necropolis! I have not laid labour upon any free Inan
beyond that which he wrought for himself! I have not
transgressed, I have not been weak, I have not Jefanlted, I
have not comlnitted that which is an abolnination to the
gods. I have not caused the slave to be ill-b'eated of his
master! I have not starved any man, I have not made
any to weep, I have not assassinated any man, I have not
caused any man to be treacherously assassinated, and I
have not committed treason against any! I have not in
aught diminished the supplies of tem.rles! I have not
spoiled the shrewbread of the gods J I have not taken
away the loaves and the wrappings of the dead! I have
done ])0 carnal act within the sacred enclosure of the

THE NEGATIVE CO
FESSIO

271

temple! I have not blasphemed! I have in nought cur-
tailed the sacred l"eVenues! I have not pulled down the
scale of the balance! I have not falsified the beam of the
balance! I have not taken away the milk from the mouths
of sucklings! I have not lassoed cattle on their pastures!
I have not taken with nets the birds of the gods! I have
not fished ill their ponds! I have not turned back the
water in its season! I have not cut off a water-channel in
its course! I have not put out the fire in its time! I
have not defrauded the Nine Gods of the choice part of
victims! I have not ejected the oxen of the goùs ! I have
not turned back the god at his coming forth! I am pure!
I am pure! I am pure! I am pure! Pure as this Great
Bonû of Heracleopolis is pure! . . . There is no crime
against me in this land oÎ the Double Truth! Since I
know the nalnes of the gods who are with thee in the Hall
of the Double Truth, save thou me from them!" He then
turned towards the jury and pleaded his cause before theIn.
They had been severally appointed for the cognizance of
particular sins, and the dead man took each of them by
name to witness that he was innocent of the sin which that
one recorded. His plea ended, he l'eturned to the supreme
juùge, and repeated, under what is sometimes a highly
mystic form, the ideas which he had already advanced in
the first part of his address. "Ilail unto you, ye gods who
are in the Great Hall of the Douùle Truth, who have no
falsehood in your bosoms, but who live on Truth in Aûnû,
and feed your hearts upon it before the Lord God wilo
dwelleth in his solar disc! Deliver me from the Typhon
who feedeth on entrails) Q çhi
f
! in this hour of supreme

272 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

judgment ;-grant that the deceased may come unto you,
he who hath not sinned, who hath neither lied, nor done
evil, nor committed any crime, who hath not borne false
witness, who hath done nought against himself, but who
liveth on truth, 'who feedeth on truth. He hath spread joy
on all sides; men speak of that which he hath done, and
the gods rejoice in it. He bath reconciled the god to him
by his love; he hath given bread to the hungry, water to
the thirsty, clothing to the naked; he hath given a boat to
the shipwrecked; he hath offered sacrifices to the gods,
sepulchral meals unto the manes. Deliver him from him-
self, speak not against him before the Lord of the Dead, for
his mouth is pure, and his two hands are puro!" In the
middle of the Hall, however, his acts were being weighed
by the assessors. Like all objects belonging to the gods,
the balance is magic, and the genius which animates it
sometimes shows its fine and delicate little human head on
the top of the upright stand which forms its body. Every-
thing about t.he balance recalls its superhuman ol'igin: a
cynocephalus, emblematic of Thot, sits perched on the up-
right and watches the beam; the cords which suspend the
scales are made of alternate cruces ansatæ and tats. Truth
squats upon one of the scales; Thot, ibis-headed, places
the heart on the other, and always merciful, bears upon the
side of Truth that judgment may be favourably inc]ined.
He affirms that the heart is light of offence, inscribes the
result of the proceeding upon a wooden tablet, and pro-
nounces the verdict aloud. "Thus saith Thot, lord of
divine discourse, scribe of the Great Ennead, to his father
Osiris, lord of eternity, ' Behold the deceased in this Hall

l

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THE KEGATIVE COXFESSION

273

of the Double Truth, his heart hath been weighed in the
balance in the presence of the great genii, the lords of
Hades, and been found trne. No trace of earthly impurity
hath been found ill his heart. Now that he leaveth the
tribunal true of voice, his heart is l'estored to him, as well
as his eyes and the Inaterial cover of his heart, to be put
back in their places each in its own time, his soul ill heaven,
his heart in the other ,vorld, as is the custom of the
"Followers of Horus." Henceforth let his body lie in the
hands of Anubis, who presideth over the tombs; let him
receive offerings at the cemetery in the presence of Onno-
phris; let him be as one of those favourites who follow
thee; let his soul abide where it will in the necropolis of
his city, he whose voice is true before the Great Ennead.' "
In this" Negative Confession," which the worshippers
of Osiris taught to their dead, all is not equally admirable.
The material interests of the temple were too prolninent,
and the crime of killing a sacred goose or stealing a loaf
from the bread offerings was considered as abominable as
calumny or murder. But although it contains traces of
priestly cupidity, yet how many of its precepts are untar-
nished in their purity by any selfish ulterior motive! In it
is all our morality in germ, and with refinements of delicacy
often lacking among peoples of later and more advanced
civilizations. The god does not confine his favour to the
prosperous and the powerful of this world; he bestows it
also upon the poor. His will is that they be fed and
clothed, and exempted from tasks beyond their strength;
that they be not oppressed, and that unnecessary tears be
spared them. If this does not amount to the love of our
VOL. L T

274 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

neighbour as our Tellgions preach it, at least it represents
the careful solicitude due froin a good lord to his vassals.
His pity extends to slaves; not only does he command that
no one should ill-treat them hiInself, but he forbids that
their masters should be led to ill-treat them. This pro-
fession of faith, one of the noblest bequeathed us by the old
world, is of very ancient origin. It may be read in scattered
fragments upon the monuments of the first dynasties, and
the way in which its ideas are treated by the compilers of
these inscriptions proves that it was not then regarded as
new, but as a text so old and so well known that its
fonnulas were current in all mouths, and had their pre-
scribed places in epitaphs. 1 'Vas it composed in
lendes,
the god's own home, or in Heliopolis, when the theologians
of that city appropriated the god of l\lendes and incorporated
hiIn in their Ennead? In conception it certainly belongs
to the Osirian priesthood, but it can only have been diffused
over the whole of Egypt after the general adoption of the
Heliopolitan Ennead throughout the cities.
As soon as he was judged, the dead man entered into
the possession of Lis rights as a pure soul. On high he
received from the Universal Lord all that kings and princes
here belo'w besto'wed upon their followers-rations of food/

1 For instance, one of the formulas found in
Iemphite tombs states that
the deceased had been the friend of his father, the beloved of his mother,
sweet to those who lived with him, gracious to his brethren, loved of his
servants, and that he had never sought wrongful quarrel with any man;
briefly, that he spokc and did that which is right here below.
2 The formula of the pyramid times is: "Thy thousand of oxen, thy
thousand of geese, of roast amI boiled joints from the larder of the gods, of
bread, and plenty of thc good things pl'cscntcLI in the hall of Osiris."

THE PRIVILEGES OF OSInL\.
SOULS 275

and a house, gardens, and fields to be held subject to the
usual conditions of tenure in Egypt, i.e. taxation, military
service, and the c07'l'ée. If the islauù was attacked by the
partisans of Sît, the Osi1'Ían doubles hastened in a body to
repulse theIn, and fought bravely in its defence. Of the
revenues sent to him by his kindred on certain days an'1
by means of sacrifices, each gave tithes to the heavenly
storehouses. Yat this was but the least part of tho
burdens laid upon him by the laws of the country, which

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TIlE :\L\XL:S TILLIXG TilE GnOCXD _\.XD RE.\.PIXG I
TIm FIr-LDS OF I,\.LÛ,l

did not suffer, him to become enervated by idlenf\ss, but
obliged him to labour as in the days when he still dwelt
in Egypt. He looked after the lnaintellance of canals and
dykes, he tilled the ground, he so"\yed, he reaped, he
garnered the grain for his lord and for himself. Yet to
those upon whom they were incumbent, these posthumous
obligations, the sequel and continuation of feudal service,
at length seemed too heavy, and theologians exercised
their ingenuity to find lllcans of lightening the burden.
They authorized the lnanes to look to their servånts for the

1 Drawn hy Fauchcr-Gudin, from a vignette in the funerary papyrus of
N eLhopît in Turin.

276 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

discharge of all manual labour which they ought to have
perforn1ed themsel \'es. Rarely did a dead man, no matter
how poor, arrive unaccompanieJ at the eternal cities; he
brought \'vitL. hiln a following proportionate to bis rank and
fortune upon earth. At first they were real doubles, those

of slaves or vassals killed at the tonlb, and
.< \ .
'

who had departed along with the double of
. I"
-ol J:t -',
.
the master to serve hirrl beyond the grave
as they had served him here. A number
of statues and images, magically endued
with activity and intelligence, 'was after-
wards substituted for this retinue of victims.
Originally of so large a size that only the
rich or noble coulJ afford them, they were
reduced little by little to the height of a
few inches. Some were carved out of
alabaster, granite, diorite, fine limestone,
or n10ulded out of fine clay and delicately
moùelleù; others had scarcely any human
resemblance. They were endowed with life
by lneans of a formula recited over them
at the t.ime of their manufacture, and afterwards traced
upon their legs. All were possessed of the same faculties.
\Vhen the god who called the Osirians to tho corl'ée pro-
nounced the name of the dead lnan to ,vholn the figures
belonged, they arose and answered for him; hence their
^
designation of "Respondents" - UasltbUi. Equipped for
agricultural labour, each grasping a hoe and carrying a

r,: ",,:.'

lJASIlBÎTI. 1

1 Drawn Ly Faucher-Gudill from a painted limestone statuette from the
tomb of SOILllozmú at TheLes, dating from the end of the XXl h dynasty.

FACULTIES OF THE GODS

277

seed-bag on his shoulder, they set out to work in their
appointed places, contributing the l'equired number of days
of forced labour. Up to a certain point they thus compen-
sated for those inequalities of condition which death itself
did not efface among the vassals of Osiris; for the figures
were sold so chef/ply that even the poorest could always

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TIlE Dl'
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.\XD I1IS WIFE PL.\YIXU .n DR.\L"GIITS I
'fIlE P.\YILIOY.I

afford some for themselves, or bestow a few upon their
l'elations: and in the Islands of the Blest, fellah, artisan,
and slave were indebted to the Ûasltúiti for release from
their old routine of labour and unending toil. 'Vhile the

1 Drawn hy Faucher-Gudin, from a vignette in No, 4 Papyrus, Dublin
(N.-\VILLE, Das Ægyptische Tudte:il)Uch, vol. i, pI. xxvii. Da). The name of
drallg]tls is not altogether accurate j a description of the game may be found
in F ALKSER, Garncs Ancient and Oriental and ]toW to play them, pp, 9-101.

278 THE LEGEKDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

little peasants of stone or glazed ware dutifully toiled and
tilled and so",red, their masters 'were enjoying all the
delights of the Egyptian l)aradise in perfect idleness.
They sat at ease by the water-side, inhaling the fresh
north breeze, under the shadow of trees which were always
green. They fished with lines among the lotus-plants;
they embarked in their boats, and ,vere towed along by
their servants, or they ,,
ould sometimps deign to padùle
themselves slowly about the canals. They "yent fowling

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TIlE DE.\D l\L\X S.\ILIXG IX IllS B.\UK ALOSG THE C.\X.\LS OF TIlE FIELDS OF L\LlT,l

among the reed-beds, or retired within their painted
pavilions to read tales, to play at draughts, to return to
their wives who were for ever young and beautifu1. 2 It
was but an ameliorated earthly life, divested of all suffering

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the Papyrus of N ebhopît, in Turin.
This drawing is from part of the same scene as the illustration on p, 273.
2 Gymnastic exerc
ses, hunting, fishing, sailing, are all pictured in
Theban tombs, The game of draughts is mentioned in the title of chap. xvii.
of the Boole of the Dead (N A VILLE'S edition, vol. i, pI. xxiii. 1. 2), and the
women's pavilion is represented in the tomb of Rakhmirî. That the dead
were supposed to read tales is proved from the fact that broken ostraca
bearing long fragments of literary works are found in tombs; they were
broken to kill them and to send on their doubles to the ùead man in the
next world.

COXFGSIO
OF OSIRIA
A
D SOLAR IDEAS 279

under the rule and by the favour of the true-voiced
Onnopbris.
The feudal gods promptly adopted this new mode of life.
Each of their dead bodies, mummified, and afterwards
reanimated in accordH,nce with the Osirian mytb, became

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BO.\.T OF A FL'"XERAI:Y FLEET ox ITS W.\.Y TO .\nrDoS,1

In Osiris as did that of any ordinaloy person. Sarno carried
the assimilation so far as to absorb the god of l\lendes, or

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey.
The origina.l was found in the course of 1\1. de ::l\Iorgan's excavations at l\Iêir,
and is now at Gîzeh, The dead man is sitting in the cabin, wrapped in his
cloak. As far as I know, this is the only boat which has preserved its
origi'ml rigginf{. It dates from thp Xlth Q1' XIP" dynasty,

280 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

to be absorbed in him. At 1Iemphis Phtah-Sokaris became
Phtah-Sokar-Osil'is, and at Thinis Khontamentît became
Osiris Khontamentît. The sun-god lent himself to this
process with comparative ease because his life is more like
a man's life, and hence also more like that of Osiris, which
is the counterpart of a man's life. Born in the morning,
he ages as the day de-
clines, and gently passes
away at evening. From
]. I the time of his entering
"&
_ 3 the sky to that of his
\t Uf{îiñ
I' . Þ
t;; .'
leaving it, he reigns
above as he reigned here
below in the beginning;
THE SOL.\U ß.\UK IXTO WHICII TIlE DE.\.D l\L\.
but when he has left
IS ATIOUT TO EXTEU,I
the sky and sinks into
Hades, he becomes as one of the dead, and is, as they
are, subjected to Osirian embalmment. The same dangers
that menace their hur.-lan souls threaten his soul also; and
when he has vanquished them, not in his own strength, but
by the power of amulets and magical formulas, he enters
into the fields of Ialû, and ought to dwell there for ever
under the rule of Onnophris. He did nothing of the kind,
however, for daily the sun was to be seen reappearing in
the east twelve hours after it had sunk into the darkness
of the west. Was it a new orb each time, or did the same
sun shine every day? In either case the result was pre-
cisely the same; the god came forth from death and

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1 Drawn by :Faucher-Gudin, from a vignette in the Papyrus of N ebqadû,
in Paris,

THE DEAD IN THE BARK OF THE SUN 281

re-entered into life. Having identified the course of the
sun-god with that of man, and Râ with Osiris for a first day
and a first night, it was hard not to push the matter
further, and identify them for" all succeeding days and
nights, affirming that man and Osiris might, if they so
wished, be born again in the morning, as Râ \vas, and
together with him. If the Egyptians had found the
prospect of quitting the darkness of the tomb for the
bright meadows of Ialû a sensible alleviation of their lot,
with what joy must they have been filled by the concep-
tion which allowed them to substitute the whole realm of
the sun for a little archipelago in an out-of-the-way corner
of the universe. Their first consideration was to obtain
entrance into the divine bark, and this was the object of
all the various practices and prayers, whose text, together
with that which already contained the Osirian formulas,
ensured the unfailing protection of Râ to their possessor.
The soul desirous of making use of therll went straight
from his tomb to the very spot where the god left earth
to descend into Hades. This was somewhere in the
immediate neighbourhood of Abydos, and was reached
through a narrow gorge or "cleft" in the Libyan range,
whose "mouth" opened in front of the temple of Osiris
Khontamentît, a little to the north-west of the city. The
soul was supposed to be carried thither by a small flotilla
of boats, manned by figures representing friends or priests.,
and laden with food, furniture, and statues. This flotilla
was placed within the vault on the day of the funeral, and
was set in motion by means of incantations recited over
it during one of the first nights of the year, at the annual

282 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

feast of the dead. The bird or insect which had previously
served as guide to the soul upon its journey now took the
helm to show the fleet the fight way, and under this
command the boats left Abydos and mysteriously passed
through the "cleft" into that western sea which is
inaccessible to the living, there to await the daily coming
of the dying sun-god. As soon as his bark appeared at

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TIlE SOL.\U n.\IK P.\SSISG IXTO TIlE :\IOUXT.\IX OF TIlE WEST.'

the last bend of the celestial Nile, the cynocephali, who
guarded the entrance into night, began to dance and
gesticulate upon the banks as they intoned their accus-
tomed hymn. The gods of Abydos mingled their shouts
of joy. with the chant of the sacred baboons, the bark
lingered for a moment upon the frontiers of day, and

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a very small photograph published in
the Catalogue of the l\Iinutoli Sale,

THE GOIXG FORTH OF SOULS BY DAY 283

initiated souls seized the occasion to secure their recogni-
tion and their reception on board of it. l Once admitted,
they took their share in the management of the boat, and
in the battles with hostile deities; but they were not all
endowed with the courage or equipment needful to with-
stand the perils and terrors of the voyage. :i\lany stopped
short by the way ill one of the regions which it traversed,
either in the realrn of I(hontamentît, or in that of Sokaris,
or in those islands where the good Osiris '\velcolned them
as though they had duly arrived in the felT)T-boat, or upon
the .wing of That. There they dwelt in colonies under the
suzerainty of local gods, rich, and in need of nothing, but
cOlldelnned to live in darkness, excepting for the one brief
hour in which the solar bark passed through their midst,
irradiating them with beams of light. 2 rfhe few persevered,
feeling that they had courage to accompany the sun
throughout, and these were indemnified for their sufferings
by the most brilliant fate ever dreamed of by Egyptian
souls. Born anew with the sun-god and appearing with
him at the gates of the east, they were assimilated to him,
and shared his privilege of gro'wing old and dying, only to
be ceaselessly l'ejuvenated and to live again 'with ever-
renewed splendour. They disembarked where they

1 This description of the embarkation and voyage of the soul is composed
from indications given in one of the vignettes of chap, xvi. of the Boole of tlte
Dcad (NAVILLI
'S edition, vol. i. pI. xxii,), combined with the text of a
formula "hich became common from t.he t.imes of the Xlth and Xlltb
dynasties (
L\.SPERO, Étllncs de Mytlwlogie et d' Arcltiologie .E'gyptienncs, vol. i.
pro 14-18, and .E'tluTes Égyptic'mtf!s, vol. i. pp. 122, 123),
2 l\IASPEIW, f;tudcs de lJ[ytlwloJie ct if'Arl'lt.'ologie l'gypticlIncs, voJ. ii, pp.
44, 45.

284 THE LEGE
DARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

pleased, and returned at will into the world. If now and
then thoy felt a wish to revisit all that was left of their
earthly bodies, the human-headed sparrow-
hawk descended the shaft in full flight, alighted
upon the fnnel'al couch, and, with hands softly
laiù upon the spot where the heart had been
wont to beat, gazed upwards at the impassive
mask of the mummr. This was but for a
monlent, since nothing compelled these perfect
souls to be imprisoned within the tomb like
the doubles of earlier times, because they
feared the light. They" went forth by day,"
and dwelt in those places where they bad
Ii ved; they walked in their gardens by their
ponds of running water; they perched like
so many birds on the branches of the trees
which they had planted, or enjoyed the fresh
aIr under i he
=1.
<lkA ,:;:-1 shade of their
,'t " sycamores; they
t,:
;
t. ate and drank at
pleasure; they
travelled by hin
and dale; they
embarked in the
boat of Eâ, and
TIlE SOUL DESCEXDIXU TIm SEPeLCIIR.\L SIL\Fr ox ITS d i s e ill bar ked
W.\. Y TO REJOIX TilE )l("':'L\Iy' l
without wearl-
ness, and without distaste for the same perpetual rounù.

';':' 1 ' ê " I
.
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.,. - i
.... ;'!r. - 1
j
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1 Drawn by Fauchcr-Gudin, from DÉVÈRIA.

THE Sü-cL BACK UPO:
EARTH

285

This conception, 'which was developed somewhat late,
brought the Egyptians back to the point from which they
had started when first they began to speculate on the
Efe to C01ne. The soul, after having left the place of its
incarnation to which in the beginning it clung, after
having ascended into heaven and there sought congenial
asylum In vain, forsook al1 havens which it had found

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THE :;Ol:L O
THE EDGE OF TIlE IT-XEIUL COC"CH, WITH ITS lL\SDS o.x TilE
IIE.\RT OF 'fHE l\lC\DIy. 1

aboye, and unhesitatingly fell back upon earth, there to
lead a peaceful, free, and happy life in the full light of
day, and with the ,vhole valley of Egypt for a paradise.
The connection, always increasingly intimate between
Osiris and Râ, gradually brought about a blending of the
previously separate myths and beliefs concerning each.

1 Drawn by Faucher-GUllin, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey,
reproducing the miniature sarcophagus of the scribe Râ Ç\lASPEIW, Guide du
ri:;ileur, pp, 130, 131, 1.\0. 1621).

286 THE LEGE
D
\..RY HISTORY OF EGYPT

The friends and enemies of the one becalne the friends
and enemies of the other, and from a mixture of the
original conceptions of the two deities, arose new per-
sonalities, in ,vhich contradictory elements were blelJt
together, often without true fusion. The celestial I-Ioruses
one by one were identified with I-Iorus, son of Isis, and
their attributes 'v ere given to hin1, as his in the sallie way
became theirs. Apopi and the monsters - the hilJPO-
potamus, the crocodile, the wild boar-who lay in wait
for Râ as he sailed the heavenly ocean, became one with
Sît and his accon1plices. Sît still possessed his half of
Egypt, and his primitive brotherly relation to the celestial
I-Iorus remained unbroken, either on account of their
sharing one temple, as at N ûbît, or because they were
worshipped as one in two neighbouring l101l1CS, as, for
example, at Oxyrrhynchos and at IIeracleopulis l\lagna.
The repulsion with which the slayer of Osiris was re-
garded did not everywhere dissociate these two cults:
certain small districta persisted in this double worship
dowll to the latest times of paganism. It was, after all,
a Inark of fidelity to the oldest traditions of the race,
but the bulk of the Egyptians, who had forgotten these,
invented reasons taken from the history of the divine
dynasties to explain the fact. The judgment of Thot or
of Sibû had not put an eud to the 111achinations of Sît:
as soon as Horus had left tho earth, Sît resull1ed them,
and pursued them, with varying fortune, under the divine
kings of the second Ennead. N ow, in the year 3ß3 of
Harlllakhis, the Typhollialls reoponed the campaign.
Beaten at first near Edfù, they l'etreated precipitately

G..\..)IP
\..IGXS 0)1-' IL\..R)L'\..KHIS AGAIXST SÎT 287

northwards, stopping to give battle wherever their
partisans predominated,-at Z3.tl1lÎt in the Theban nome,l
at K.haîtnûtrît to the north-east of Denderah, and at
Hibonû in the principality of the Gazelle. Several bloody
combats, which took place between Oxyrrhynchos and

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TIlE SOLL GOI
m FOHTII IXTO ITS G_\RDE
BY D.\ Y ,2

Heracleopolis 3Iagna, were the means of driving them
finally out of the Nile Valley; they rallied for the last

1 Zatmît appears to have been situate at some distance from Bayadîyéh,
on the spot where the map published by the Egyptian Commission marks the
ruins of a modern ,.ilJage, There was a necropolis of considerable extent
there, which furnishes the Luxor dealers with antiquities, many of which
belong to the first Theban empire.
2 Copied by Faueher-Gudin from the survey-drawings of the tomb of
Anni by Boussac, member of the .J.1Iission françaisc in Egypt (I8!)!). The
inscription over the arlJour gives the li:st of the various trees in the garùeu
of Anni during his lifetime.

288 THE LEGEKDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

time in the eastern provinces of the Delta, were beaten
at Zalû, and giving up all hope of success on land, they
elnbarked at the head of the Gulf of Suez, in order to
return to the Nubian Desert, their habitual refuge in
times of distress. The sea was the special element of
'
ryphon, and upon it they believed themselves secure.
Horus, however, followed them, overtook them near Shas-
hirît, ronted them, and on his return to Edfû, celebrated
his victory by a solemn festival. By degrees, as he made
himself master of those localities which owed allegiance
to Sît, he took energetic measures to establish in them
the authority of Osiris and of the solar cycle. In all of
them he built, side by side with the sanctuary of the
rryphonian divinities, a temple to himself, in which he
was enthroned under the particular form he was obliged
to assume in order to vanquish his enemies. J\Ieta-
morphosed into a hawk at the battle of Hibonû, we next
see him springing on to the back of Sît u.nder the guise
of a hippopotalnus; in his shrine at Hibonû he is re-
presented as a hawk perching on the back of a gazelle,
ernblem of the nome where the struggle took place.
N ear to Zalû he became incarnate as a human-headed
lion, crowned with the triple diadem, and having feet
armed with claws which cut like a knife; it was unùer the
form, too, of a lion that he was worshipped in the temple
at Zalû. The correlation of Sît and the celestial Horus
was not, therefore, for these Egyptians of more recent
times a primitive religious fact; it was the consequence,
and so to speak the sanction, of the old hostility between
the two gods. Horus had treated his enemy in the same

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HATRED OF THE FOLLO"....ERS OF OSIRIS 201

fashion that a victorious Pharaoh treated the barba1'Íans
conquered by his arms: be had constructed a fortress to
keep his foe in check, and his priests fonned a sort of
garrison as a precaution against the revolt of the rival
priesthood and the followers of the rival deity. In this
Inanner the battles of the gods were changed into hunlall
struggles, in which, more than once, Egypt was deluged
"dtll blooù. The hatred of the followers of Osiris to tbose
of Typhon 'was perpetuateù with such implacability, that
the nonles which haù persisted ill adhering to the worship
of Sît, became odious to the rest of the IJopulation: the
image of their master on the monUlnents was mutilated,
their nalnes were effaced from the geographical lists, they
were assailed with insulting epithets, and to pursue anù
slay their sacred anirnals was l'eckoned a pious act. Thus
originated those skirmishes which developed into actual
civil wars, and were continued do\yn to ROlnan tÍlnes.
The adherents of 'Typhon only became more confirmeù in
their veneration for the accursed god; Christianity alone
overcan1e their obstinate fidelity to him. l
The history of the 'world for Egypt was therefore ouly
the history of the struggle between the adherents of
Osiris and the follo\vers of Sît; an interlllinable warfare

1 This incident in the wars of Horus and Sìt is drawn by Faucher-Gudin
from a. has-relief of the temple of EdfÙ. On the right, Har-IIûdìti, stanrling
up in the solar bark, pierC'ps with his lance the head of a crocodile, a partisa.n
of
ìt, lying in the water below; IIarmâkhis, standing- behin(l him, is present at
the execution. :Facing this divine pair, is the youn.
Horus, who kills a man,
anuther partisan of Hìt, while Isis and Hal'-Hûtlìti hold his chains; behind
Horus, Isi!-5 and Thot are If'aJing four other captivps 1Jound and l'pady to be
sacrificed I,eforc Harlliâkhis.

292 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

in which sOluetitnes one and sometimes the other of the
rival parties obtained a passing advantage, without ever
gaining a decisive victory till the end of till1e. The
di vine kings of the secona anù third Enneaù ùevoteù
most of the years of their earthly l'eigll to this end; they
were portrayed under the fonn of the great ".. arri 0 l'
Pharaohs, ,,,ho, frolD the eighteenth to the twelfth century
beîore our era, extended their rule frolll the plains of
the Euphrates to the marshes of Ethiopia. A few
peaceful sovereigns are met with here anù there ill this
lille of conquerors-a few sageg or legislators, of whom
the nlost faluous ,,"as styled Thot, the doubly great, ruler
of Hermopolis and of the Hennopolitan Enneaù. A
legend of recent origin Inad.e him the prÌ1ne minister of
Horus, son of Isis; a still l110re ancient traùition \Vould
identify hÌ1n with the secona king of the seconù dynasty,
the ill1l11eùiate successor of the divine Hornses, and
attributes to him a reign of 322ß years. He brought
to the throne that inventi ,-'e spirit and that creative power
,vhich had characterized hill1 fron1 the tilHe when he was
ouly a feuùal deity. Astronomy, divination, 111agic, Ine<1i-
cine, writing, drawing-in fine, all the arts anJ sciences
elnånated from hill1 as frOll1 their first source. He had
taught lnankind the methodical observation of the heavens
anc1 of the changes that took })lace in theIn, the slow
revolutions of the sun, the rapill phases of the moon,
the intersecting InOyell1ents of the five planets, and the
shapes and limits of the constellations which each night
were lit up in the sky. J\Iost of the latter either remained,
or appeared to reillain in1ll10vable, and seemed never to

ASTB.OXO
IY
THE STELLAR TABLES 203

pass out of the regions accessible to the human eye.
Those which were situate on the extrelue Inargin of the
firmament accomp1isbed movements there analogous to
those of the plan
ts. Every year at fixed times they
were seen to sink
one after another
below the horizon,
to disappear, and
rising again after
an eclipse of
greater or less du-
ration, to regain
insensibly their
original 11ositiol1s.
The constellations
,yere reckoned to
be thirty-six ill nUlnber, the thirty-
six dcc((ni to whom 'were attributed
mysterious powers, and of wholn
Sothis was queen - t;oLl1Ís trans-
formed into the star of Isis, when
Orioll (SâhÚ, becalne the star of
Osiris.
rho llights are so clear and
tho atnlosphere so transparent in
OXE Ot' Tim ASTROXO:\IlC.\L
T,\BLES OF THE Tmm OF Egypt, that the eye can }'eadily
RDlðI.:S IV. 1 penetrate the depths of space, and
distinctly see points of light which would be invisible in
our foggy climate. The Egyptians did not therefore
need special instruments to ascertain the existence of a

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, ----'"III 00

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7
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1 Di'awn by Fauch
r-Gudin, from a copy by LEP
IU
, Deftl.:m., iii. 227, 3.

20-:1: THE LEGEXD.ARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

considerable number of stars 'which 'we could not see with-
out the help of our telescopes; tbey could perceive with
the naked eye stars of the fifth magnitude, and note theln
upon their catalogues. 1 It entailed, it is true, a long
training and uninterrnptetl practice to bring their sight
up to its maximum keenness; but from vel'y early times it
was a function of the priestly colleges to found and
maintain schools of astronomy. The first observatories
established on the banks of the Nile seem to have
belonged to the temples of the sun; the high priests of
TIâ-who, to judge from their title, were alone worthy to
behold the sun face to face-were actively en1ployed froln
the earliest times in studying the configuration and pre-
paring maps of the heavens. The priests of other gods
"'ere quick to follow their example: at the opening of
the historic perioù, there 'was not a single temple, froIll
one end of the valley to the other, that did not possess
its official astronomers, or, as they were called, "watchers
of the night." 2 III the evening they went up on to the
high terraces above the shrine, or on to the narrow
platfonns which tenninated the pylons, and fixing their

1 Diot, howe\-er, states that stars of the third and fuurth magnitude
" are the smallest which can be seen with the naked eye." I believe I am
right in affirming that several of the fel1ahìn and Beda,wîn attached to the
"seryice des Antiquités" can see stars which are mmally classed with thuse
of thC' fifth magnitude,
2 lTrsltn: this word is also used for the sohliers on watch during the day
upon the walls of a fortress. Birch Ldieved he had discovered in the British

luseum a catalogue of observations made at Thebes by several astronomers
upon a constellation which answered to the Hyades or the Pleiades; it was
merely a question in this text of the quantity of water supplied regularly to
the astronomers of a Theban temple fvr their domestic purposes,

"'VATCHERS OF THE NIGHT"

295

eyes continuously on tho celestial vault above them,
followed the movements of the constellations and care-
fully noted down the slightest phenomena which they
observed. A portion of the chart of the heavens, as
known to Theban Egypt between the eighteenth and
twelfth centuries before our era, has survived to the
present time; parts of it were carved by the decorators
on the ceilings of temples, and especially on royal tombs.
The deceased Pharaohs were identified with Osiris in a
more intimate fashion than their subjects. They repre-
sented the god even in tho most trivial details; on earth
-where, after having played the part of the beneficent
Onnophris of priInitive ages, they underwent the most
complete and elaborate embalming, like Osiris of the
lower world; in Hades-where they embarked side by
side with the Sun-Osiris to cross the night and to be
born again at daybreak; in heaven-where they shone
with Orion-SfLhll under the guardianship of Sothis, and,
year by year, led the procession of the stars. The maps
of the firmament recalled to them, or if necessary taught
thern, this part of their duties: they there saw the planets
and the decctni sail past ill their boats, and the constella-
tions follow one another in continuous succession. The
lists annexed to the charts indicated the positions occupied
each month by the principal heavenly bodies-their risings,
their culminations, and their settings. Unfortunately,
the workmen employed to execute these pictures either
did not understand much about the subject in hand, or
did not trouble themselves to copy the originals exactly:
they omitted many passages, transposed others, and made

206 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

endless mistakes, which made it impossible for us to
transfer accurately to a moùern map the information
possessed by the ancients.
In directing their eyes to the celestial sphere, That had
at the same time revealed to men the art of measuring time,
and the knowledge of the future. As he was the Inoon-god
pa1
excellence, he watched with jealous care over the divine
eye which had been entrusted to him by Horus, and the
thirty days during which he was engaged in conducting it
through all the phases of its nocturnal life, were reckoned
as a month. Twelve of these months fanned the year, a
year of three hundred and sixty days, during which the
earth witnessed the gradual beginning and ending of the
circle of the seasons. The Nile l'ose, sllread over the fields,
sank again into its channel; to the vicissitudes of the
inundation succeeded the work of cultivation; the harv-est
followed the seedtime: these formed three distinct divisions
of the year, each of nearly equal duration. Thot made of
them the three seasons,-that of the waters, Shait; that
of vegetation, Pirûît; that of the harvest, ShÔlll Û -each
comprising four months, numbered one to four; the 1st,
2nd, 3rd, and 4th months of Shaît; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and
4th months of PirÎlît; the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 1110nths
of Shômû. The twelve months completed, a new year
began, whose birth was heralded by the 1'Ïsing of Sothis in
the early days of August. The first month of the Egyptian
year thus coincided with the eighth of ours. Thot became
its patron, and gave it his name, relegating each of the
others to a special protecting divinity; in this Inanner the
third month of Shaít fell to Hathor, and was called after

THE YE
\.R AXD ITS SLBDIVISIOXS 207

bel'; the fourth of Pirûît belonged to RanÚît or RamÙît,
the lady of harvests, and derived from her its appellation
of Pharmûti. Official documents always designated the
months by the ordinal number attached to thenl in each
season, but the people gave them by preference the names
of their tutelary deities, and these names, transcribed into
Greek, and then into Arabic, are still used by the Christian
inhabitants of Egypt, side by side 'with the
I ussulman
appellations. One patron for each month was, however,
not deemed sufficient: each lllonth was subdivided into
three decades, over which presided as many decani, and
the days themselves were assigned to genii appointed to
protect them. A nUlllber of festivals ,vere set apart at
irregular int
rvals during the course of the year: festivals
for the new year, festivals for the beginning of the seasons,
months and \.lecac1es, festivals for the dead, for the supreme
gods, and for local divinities. Every act of ch-il life was
so closely allied to the J'eligious life, that it could not be
rerformed without a ßacrifice or a festival. A festival
celebrated the cutting of the dykes, another the opening
of the canals, a third the reaping of the first sheaf, or the
carrying of the grain; a crop gathered or stored without
a festival to implore the blessing of the gods, would have
been an act of sacrilege and fraught with ùisaster. The first
year of three hundred and sixty days, regulated by the
revolutions of the rnoon, diel not long meet the needs of
the Egyptian people; it did not correspond with the length
of the solar year, for it fell short of it by five and a quarter
da
rs, and this deficit, accumulating fronl twelvemonth to
twelvemonth, caused such a serious difference betwee:J. the

208 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

calendar reckoning and the natural seasons, that it soon
had to be corrected. They intercalated, therefore, after
the twelfth month of each year and before the first day of
the ensuing year, fi vo epagolnenal days, \vhich they termed
the" five days over and above the year." 1 The legend of
Osiris relates that Thot created them in order to 11ermit
N ûît to give birth to all her children. These days consti-
tuted, at the end of the "great year," a "little month,"
which considerably lessened the difference between the
solar and lunar computation, but did not entirely do away
with it, and the six hours and a few minutes of which the
Egyptians had not taken count gradually became the source
of fresh perplexities. They at length amounted to a whole
day, \vhich needed to be added every four years to the
regular three hundred and sixty days, a fact which was
unfortunately overlooked. The difficulty, at first only
slight, which this caused in public life, increased with
time, and ended by disturbing the harmony between the
order of the calendar and that of natural phenomena:
at the end of a hundred and twenty years, the legal year
had gained a whole 1l101lth on the actual year, and the 1st
of Thot anticipated the heliacal rising of Sothis by thirty

1 There appears to he a tendency among Egyptologists now to doubt the
e>..istence, under the Ancient Empire, of the five epagomenal days, and as a
fact they are nowhere to be found expressly mentioned; but we know that
the five gods of the Osirian cycle were born during the epagomenal day (cf,
p. 2 i 7 of this Hi
tory), and the allusions to the Osirian legend which are
met with in the Pyramid texts, prove that the days were ad(led long before
the time when those inscriptions were cut. As' the wording of thi texts
often comes down from prehistoric times, it is most likely that the invention
of the epagomenal days is anterior to the first Thinite and
Iemphite
dynasties.

THE DEFECTS OF THE YEAR

200

days, instead of coinciding 'with it as it ought. The
astronomers of the Græco-RoIllan period, after a l'etro-
spective examination of all the past history of their
country, discovered a very ingenious theory for obviating
this unfortunate discrepancy. If the omission of six hours
annually entailed the loss of one day every four years, the
time would come, after three hundred and sixty-five times
four yeal's, 'when the deficit ,vou1d amount to an entire
year, and when, in consequence, fourteen hundred and
sixty whole years woulù exactly equal fourteen hundred
and sixty-one incolnplete years. The agreement of the
two years, which had been disturbed by the force of
circlullstances, was re-establisheù of itself after rather
more than fourteen and a half centuries: the opening of
the civil JTear became identical with the beginning of the
astronomical year, and this again coinciJed váth the
heliacal l'Ïsing of Sirius, and therefore with the official
date of the inundation. To the Egyptians of Pharaonic
times
this simple and eminently practical method was
unlnlown: by 111eanS of it hundl'eds of generations, who
suffered eudless troubles from the recurring difference
between an uncertain and a fixeù year, lnight have
consoled themselves with the satisfaction of knowing that
a day would come when one of their descendants would,
for once in his life, see Loth years coincide with mathe-
Inatical accuracy, and the seasons appear at their nornlal
tinlCs. The Egyptian year might be compared to a watch
which loses a definite number of minutes daily. The owner
does not take the trouble to calculate a cycle in which the
total of minutes lost will bring the watch round to the

300 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

correct time: he bears with the irregularity as long as his
affairs do not suffer by it; but when it causes hÏ1n in-
convenience, he alters the hands to the right hour, and
repeats this operation each time he fiuds it necessary,
without beiug guided by a fixed rule. In like manner the
Egyptian year fell into hopeless confusion with regard to
the seasons, the discrepancy continually increasing, until
the difference became so great, that the king or the priests
had to adjust the two by a process similar to that employed
in the case of the watch.
The days, moreover, had each their Rpecial virtues,
which it was necessary for man to ]inow jf he wished to
profit by the advantages, or to escape the perils which
they possessed for him. There ,vas not one among theln
that did not recall some incident of the divine wars, and
had not witnessed a battle between the partisans of Sît
and those of Osiris or TIft; the victories or the disasters
,,'hich they had chronicled had as it were stêunped theln
with good or bad luck, and for that reason they rernained
for ever auspicious or the reverse. It was Oll the 17th of
.A,thyr that Typhon had enticed his brother to CaIne to hÜn,
and had nnudered him in tho lnidùle of a banquet. Every
year, on this day, the tragedy that had taken place in the
earthly ahode of the god seemed to be repeated afresh in
the heights of heaven. Just as at the monlünt of the death
of Osiris, the powers of good were at their weakest, and
the sovereignty of evil everywhere prevailed, so the whole
of Nature, abandoned to the powers of darkness, became
inimical to man. vVhatever he undertook on that day
issued in failure. If he went out to walk by the river-side,

ArSPICIOUS AXD INAUSPICIOUS DAYS 301

a crocodile would attack bim, as the crocodile sent by Sît
had attacked Osiris. If he set out all a journey, it was
a last farewell which be bade to his fanÜly and friends:
death would meet him Ly the \vay. To escape this fatality,
he must shut hilnself np at home, and wait in inaction until
the hours of danger bad passed and the sun of the ensuing
day had put the evil one to flight. l It ,vas to his interest
to know these adverse influences; and who would have
known them all, had not r.rLot pointed thelli out and
marked them in his calendars? One of these, long
fraglllents of which have COllIe down to us, indicat
d briefly
the character of each day, the gods who pl'esided over it,
the perils which accompanied their patronage, or the good
fortune which might be expected of theln. The (
etails of
it are not always intelligible to us, as we are still ignorant
of many of the episodes in the life of Osiris. The Egyptians
,vere acquainted with the matter from childhood, and were
guided \vith suflìcient exactitude by these indications. The
hours of the night were all inauspicious; those of the day
were divided into three "seasons" of four hours each, of
which SOllIe were lucky, while others were invariably of ill
omen. "rfHE 4TH OF TïBI: !}ood, good, flood. 'Vhatsoever
thou seest on this day will Le fortunate. 'Vhosoever IS

1 On the 20th of Thot no work was to hp done, no oxpn kill{'d, no
stranger received. o.n the 2
nd no fish might be eatpn, no oil lamp was to
be light('(1. On the 23rd " put no incense on thp fire, nor kill big cattle, nor
goats, nor ducks; eat of no goosP, nor of that which has lived." On the
2Gth "do ahsolutely nothing on this day," and the same ad,.ice is fuund on
the 7th of Paophi, on thp 18th, on the
Gth, on the 2itb, and more than thirty
times in the remaindpl' uf the
aIIiel' Calendar, On the 30th of )lechir it is
forbidden to speak aloud to anyone,

302 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

born on this day, will die more advanced in years than any
of bis family; he "will attain to a greater age than his
father. THE 5TH OF TYBI: inimical, inimical, inimical. This
is the day on which the goddess Sokhît, mistress of the
double white Palace, burnt the cbiefs when they raised
an insurrection, came forth, and Inanifested themselves.
Offerings of bread to ShÚ, Phtah, That: burn incense to
R:1, and to the gods who are his followers, to Phtah, Thot,
HCt-Sû, on this day. \Vhatsoevel' thou seest on this day
will be fortunate. THE 6TH OF TYBI: good, good, .(fOod.
\Vhatsoever thou seest on this day will be fortunate. THE
7TH OF TYBI: 1'nÙm'cal, inimic({l, inim1.caZ. Do not join
thyself to a "Toman in the presence of the Eye of Horus.
Beware of letting the fire go out which is in thy house.
THE 8TH OF rl'YBI: gooll, good, good. vVhatsoever thou seest
with thine eye this day, the Ennead of the gods will gnlnt
to thee: the sick will recover. THE 9TH OF TYBI: gooú.,
good, good. The gods cry out for joy at noon this day.
Bring offerings of festal cakes and of fresh bread, which
rejoice the heart of the gods ana of the manes. rrHE 10TH
OF TYBI: iuimical, in Ùnical, inimical. Do not set fire to
w'eeds on this day: it is the day on which the god Sap-hôCl
set fire to the land of Bûto. THE 11TH OF TYBI: Ùâmical,
Ùânâcal, inirnical. Do not {lraw nigh to any flan1e on this
day, for Rft entered the RaInes to strike all his enemies,
and whosoever draws nigh to thetn on this day, it shall not
be well with hÌ1n during his whole life. THE 12TH OF
TYBI: illÍ1nicaZ, ininâcal, inÍ1nical. See that thou beholae
t
not a rat all this day, nor approachest any rat withiu thy
house: it is the day wherein Sokhît gave forth the

l\L\.GICAL ARTS

303

decrees." In these cases a little watchfulness or exercise
of 111enlory sufficed to put a man on his guard against evil
omens; but in Illany circumstances all the vigilance in the
wodd would not protect Lilll, and the fatality of the day
would overtake him, without bis being able to do ought to
avert it. No man can at will place the day of his birth at a
favourable time; he must accept it as it occurs, and yet it
exercises a decisive influence on the Inanner of his death.
Accorùing as he enters the world on the 4th, 5th, or 6th
of PaopLi, he either dies of marsh fever, of love, or of
drunkenness. The child of the 23rù perishes by the jaws
of a crocodile: that of the 27th is bitten and dies by a
serpent. On the other hand, the fortunate 11lan 'whose
birthday falls on the 9th or the 29th lives to an extreme
olù age, and passes away }Jeacefully, respected by all.
Thot, having pointed out the evil to men, gave to
them at the same time the remedy. The magical arts
of which he was the repository, made him vÜ'tual master
of the other gods. He knew their mystic names, their
secret weaknesses, the kind of peril they Illost feared,
the ceremonies which subdued them to bis will, the
prayers which they could not refuse to grant under
pain of misfortune or death. IIis 'wisdom, transmitted
to his worsbippel's, assured to them the same authority
,vhich he exercised upon those in heaven, on earth, o

in the nether world. The magicians instructed in his
school haù, like the gael, control of the words and
sounds which, emitted at the favourable monlent váth
the "correct voice," would evoke the most formiùable
deities froln Leyond the confines of the universe: they

304 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY 01;' EGYPT

could bind and loose at will Osiris, Sît, Anubis, even
Thot himself; they could send them forth, and recaU
them, or constrain thenl to ,york and fight for thein.
The extent of their power exposed the nlagicians to
terrible telnptations; they were often led to use it to
the detriment of others, to satisfy their Rpite, or
to gratify their grosser appetites. l\Iany, moreover, made
a gain of their knowledge, putting it at the service of
the ignorant who 'would pay for it. 'Yhen they were
asked to plague or get riel of an enemy, they had a
hundred different ways of RuJdenly surrounding him

'
] . "
'
r
l- U í<:-" . [
;f"

Ì : 'r
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tl ,
)ÎZ!:
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- ' \. L\ ) J 0 , \i t.

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-
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TIlE GODS FIGIlTlXU FOlt TIII
)L\UlCL\X WHU lIAS IXYUKED THE:\l.l

without his suspecting it: they tormented him 'with
deceptive or terrifying dreams; they harassed him 'with
apparitions and mysterious voices; they gave hÏ111 as a
prey to sicknesses, to ,vandering Rpectres, who entered
into hilll anù slo,,']y cOllsulnec1 hiIn. They constrained,
even at a distance, the will
of men; they caused
wonlen to be the victÜlls of infatuations, to forsake
those they had loved, and to love those they had
previously detested. In order to COillpose an irresistible
eharln, they lnerely required a little blood froln a person,

1 ])rawn by Fauchet.-Gudin, from the tr:tcing by GOL("I::JCHI
FF, Die
1IIetfl'r1l:ch,S:elc, pI. iii, IJ.

IXYOCATIOXS ....\
D SPELLS

305

a few nail-parings, some hair, or a scrap of linen which
he had 'worn, and which, Í!'om contact with his skin,
had become impregnated with his personality. Portions
of these were incorporated with the wax of a doll which
they modelled, and clothed to l'esemble their victim;
thenceforward all the inflictions to which the image was
subjected were experienced by the original; he was con-
sumed with fever when his effigy was exposed to the
fire, he was wounded when the figure was pierced by a
knife. The Pharaohs themselves had no immunity from
these spells. l These machinations were wont to be met
by others of the same kind, and magic, if invoked at
the right moment, was often able to annul the ills which
magic had begun. It 'was not indeed all-powerful against
fate: the man born on the 27th of Paophi would die
of a snake-bite, whatever charm he might use to protect
himself. But if the day of his death were foreordained,
at all events the year in which it would occur was un-
certain, and it was easy for the magician to arrange
that it should not take place prematurely. A formula
recited opportunely, a sentence of prayer traced on a
papyrus, a little statuette worn about the person, the
smallest amulet blessed and consecrated, put to flight
the serpents who were the instruments of fate. Those
curious stelæ on which we see Horus half naked, standing
on two crocodiles and brandishing in his fists creatures
which had reputed powers of fascination, were so many

1 Spells were employed against Ramses II!., and the evidence in the
criminal charge brought against the magicians explicitly ment.ions the wax
figures and the philters used on this occasion.

VOL. I.

x

306 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

protecting talismans; set up at the enþrance to a room
or a house, they kept off the animals represented and

";"' \c

!
", .
( ,
.....1
'-

::-"
"I.',

!

,Ii
....;:

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-

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ICiJ

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þ

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r

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.

41!

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r

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-,\-
. ...." -

- , ,:-, r-
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.'

.
....
;..:
..- \

;1"-1--
_
;.c::-

..
- -,

TIlE CHILD HORLS OX TIlE CROCODILES. 1

1 Drawn by Fauchpr-Gudin, from an Alex:mdrian stele in the Gîzeh
J\luseum, The reason for the appearance of so many different animals in
this stele and in others of the same nature, has been given by MASPERO,

PROTECTIXG TALIS)IAKS

307

brought the evil fate to nought. Sooner or later destiny
would doubtless prevail, and the moment would come
when the fated serpent, eluding all precautions, would
succeed in carrying out the sentence of death. At all
events the man would have lived, perhaps to the verge
of old age, perhaps to the years of a hundred and ten,
to which the wisest of the Egyptians hoped to attain,
and which period no man born of mortal mother might
exceed. If the arts of magic could thus suspend the
law of destiny, how much more efficacious were they
when combating the influences of secondary deities, the
evil eye, and the spells of man? Thot, who was the
patron of sortilege, presided also over exorcisms, and
the criminal acts which sorne cornmitted in his nanle
could have reparation made for them by others in his
name. To malicious geniî, genii still stronger were
opposed; to harmful amulets, those which were pro-
tective; to destructive measures, vitalizing remedies;
and this was not even the most troublesome part of
the magicians' task. Nobody, in fact, among those
delivered by their intervention escaped unhurt fro In the
trials to which he had been subjected. The possessing
spirits when they quitted their victim generally left
behind them traces of their occupation, in the brain,
heart, lungs, intestines-in fact, in the whole body.
The illnesses to which the human race is prone, were
not indeed all brought about by enchanters relentlessly

.Eludes de Mythologie et d' Arclléolngie Égyptien'fles, vol. ii. pp, 417-419 ; they
were all supposed to possess the evil pye and to be able to fascinate their
yictim before striking him.

308 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

persecuting their enemies, but they were all attributed
to the presence of an invisible being, whether spectre
or demon, who by some supernatural means had been
made to enter the patient, or who, unbidden, had by
malice or necessity taken up his abode within him. It
\vas needful, after expelling the intruder, to re-establish
the health of the sufferer by means of fresh remedies.
The study of simples and other rnateriæ '1Jwdicæ would
furnish these; Thot had revealed himself to man as
the first magician, he became in like manner for them
the first physician and the first surgeon.
Egypt is naturally a very salubrious country, and the
Egyptians boasted that they were "the healthiest of all
mortals;" but they did not neglect any precautions to
maintain their health. "Every month, for three suc-
cessh"e days, they purged the system by means of
emetics or clysters. The study of medicine with them
was divided between specialists; each physician attend-
ing to one kind of illness only. Every place possessed
several doctors; some for diseases of the eyes, others
for the head, or the teeth, or the stomach, or for in-
ternal diseases." But the subdivision was not carried
to the extent that Herodotus would make us believe.
It was the custom to make a distinction only between
the physician trained in the priestly schools, and further
instructed by daily practice and the study of books,-
the bone-setter attached to the worship of Sokhit who
treated fractures by the intercession of the goddess,-
and the exorcist who professed to cure by the sole
virtue of amulets and magic phrases. The professional

THE PRACTICE OF l\lEDICINE

309

doctor treated all kinds of maladies, but, as with us,
there ,vere specialists for certain affections, who were
consulted in preference to general practitioners. If the
number of these specialists was so considerable as to
attract the attention of strangers, it was because the
climatic character of the country necessitated it. Where
ophthalmia and affections of the intestines raged violently,
we necessarily find many oculists 1 as well as doctors for
internal maladies. The best instructed, however, knew
but little of anatomy. As with the Christian physicians
of the l\liddle Ages, religious scruples prevented the
Egyptians from cutting open or dissecting, in the cause
of pure science, the dead body which was identified with
that of Osiris. The processes of embalming, which would
have instructed them in anatomy, were not intrusted
to doctors; the horror was so great with which any
one was regarded who mutilated the human form, that
the "paraschite," on whom devolved the duty of making
the necessary incisions in the dead, became the object
of universal execration: as soon as he had finished his
task, the assistants assaulted him, throwing stones at
him with such violence that he had to take to his heels
to escape with his life. 2 The knowledge of what went
on within the body was therefore but vague. Life
seemed to be a little air, a breath which was conveyed
by the veins from mem ber to member. "The head
contains twenty-two vessels, which draw the spirits
into it and send them thence to all parts of the body.

1 Affections of the eyes occupy one-fourth of the Eúers Papyrus.
2 DIODORGS SICI:'LU'S, i. 91.

310 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

There are two vessels for the breasts, which communi-
cate heat to the lower parts. There are two vessels for
the thighs, two for. the neck, two for the arms, two for
the back of the head, two for the forehead, two for the
eyes, two for the eyelids, two for the right ear by
which enter the breaths of life, and two for the left
ear which in like Inanner admit the breaths of death."
The "breaths" entering by
the right ear, are" the good
airs, the delicious airs of
the north;" the sea-breeze
'.r
which tempers the burning
'''h
"". of summer and l'enews the
strength of man, continuaHy
weakened by the heat and
threatened with exhaustion.
These vital spirits, entering
the veins and arteries by the
ear or nose, mingled wi th
the blood, which carried
A DE.ill )L\S nECEIV1
G THE BREATH OF them to all parts of the
LIFE,1
body; tbey sustained the
animal, and were, so to speak, the cause of its movement.
The heart, the perpetual mover-lu1iti-collected them and
redistributed them throughout the body: it was l'egarded
as "the beginning of al1 the members," and whatever part

'.p;

'

:t:

,'.

cd

.../ r?-"

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by NAVILLE, in the Ægyptisclie
Todtenbuclt, vol. i, pI. lxix, The deceased carries in this hand a sail inflated
by the wind, symbolizing the air, and holds it to his nostrils that he may
inhale the breaths which wiH fill anew his arteries, and bring life to his
limLs.

THE VITAL SPIRITS

311

of the living body the physician touched, "whether the
head, the nape of the neck, the hands, the breast, the
arms, the legs, his hand lit upon the heart," and he
felt it beating under his fingers. Under the influence
of the good breaths, the vessels were inflated and worked
regularly; under that of the evil, they became inflamed,
were obstructed, were hardened, or gave way, and the
physician had to l'emove the obstruction, allay the in-
flammation, and re-establish their vigour and elasticity.
At the moment of death, the vital spirits "withdrew
with the soul; the blood," deprived of air, "became
coagulated, the veins and arteries emptied themselves,
and the creature perished " for want of breaths.
The majority of the diseases from which the ancien't
Egyptians suffered, are those which still attack their suc-
cessors; ophthalmia, affections of the stomach, abdomen,
and bladder, intestinal worms, varicose veins, ulcers in the
leg, the Nile pimple, and finally the "divine mortal
malady," the divinus 'morbus of the Latins, epilepsy.
Anæmia, from which at least one-fourth of the present
population suffers, was not less prevalent than at present,
if we may judge from the numbe
' of remedies which were
used against hæmaturia, the principal cause of it. The
fertility of the women entailed a number of infirmities or
local affections which the doctors attempted to relieve, not
always with success. l The science of those days treated

1 'Vith regard to the diseases of women, cf. Ebers Papyrus, pIs. xciii"
xcviii., etc. Several of the recipes are devoted to the solution of a problem
which appears to have greatly exercised the mind of the ancients, viz. the
determination of the sex of a child before its birth.

312 THE LEGE
DARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

externals only, and occupied itself merely with symptoms
easily determined by sight or touch; it never suspected
that troubles which showed themselves in two widely
remote parts of the body might only be different effects of
the same illness, and they classed as distinct maladies those
indications which we now know to be the symptoms of one
disease. They were able, however, to determine fairly well
the specific characteristics of ordinary affections, and some-
times described them in a precise and graphic fashion.
"The abdomen is heavy, the pit of the stomach painful,
the heart burns and palpitates violently. The clothing
oppresses the sick lllan and he can barely support it. N oc-
turnal thirsts. His heart is sick, as that of a man who has
eaten of the sycamore gum. The flesh loses its sensitive-
ness as that of a man seized with illness. If he seek to
satisfy a want of nature he finds no relief. Say to this,
'There is an accumulation of humours in the abdomen,
which makes the heart sick. I will act.'" This is the
beginning of gastric fever so COlllmon in Egypt, and a
modern physician could not bettel' diagnose such a case;
the phraseology would be less flowery, but the analysis of
the symptoms would not differ from that given us by the
ancient practitioner. The medicaments recommended com-
prise nearly everything which can in some way or other be
swallowed, whether in solid, mucilaginous, or liquid form.
Vegetable l'emedies are reckoned by the score, from the
most modest herb to the largest tree, such as the sycamore,
palm, acacia, and cedar, of which the sawdust and shavings
were supposed to possess both antiseptic and emollient
properties. Among the mineral substances are to be noted

DIAGXOSIS AXD RE:\IEDIES

313

sea-salt, alum, nitre, sulphate of copper, and a score of
different kinds of stones-among the latter the" memphite
stone" was distinguished for its virtues; if applied to parts
of the body which were lacerated or unhealthy, it acted as
an anæsthetic and facilitated the success of surgicalopera-
tions. Flesh taken from the living subject, the heart, the
liver, the gall, the blood-either dried or liquid-of animals,
the hair and horn of stags, were all customarily used in
many cases where the motive determining their preference
above other materiæ 1nedicæ is unknown to us. l\iany
recipes puzzle us by their originality and by the barbaric
character of the ingredients recommended: "the milk of a
woman who has given birth to a boy," the dung of a lion,
a tortoise's brains, an old book boiled in oil. l The medica-
ments compounded of these incongruous substances were
often very complicated. It was thought that the healing
power was increased by multiplying the curative elements;
each ingredient acted upon a specific region of the body,
and after absorption, separated itself from the rest to bring
its influence to bear upon that region. The physician made
use of all the means which we employ to-day to introduce
remedies into the human system, whether pills or potions,

1 Ebers Papyrus, pI. lxxvüi. 1. 22-lxxix, 1. 1: "To relieve a child who
is constipated.-An old book. Boil it in oil, and apply half to the stomach,
to provoke evacuation." It must not be forgotten that, the writings being
on papyrus, the old book in question, once boiled, would have an effect
analogous to that of our linseed-meal poultices. If the physician recom-
mended taking an old one, it was for economical reasons merely; the
Egyptians of the middle classes would always have in their possession a
number of letters, copy-books, and other worthless waste papers, of which
they would gladly rid themselves in such a profitable manner.

314 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

poultices, or ointments, draughts or clysters. Not only did
he give the prescriptions, but he made them up, thus com-
bining the art of the physicia.n with that of the dispenser.
He prescribed the ingredients, pounded them eitber sepa-
ratelyor together, he macerated them in tbe proper way,
boiled them, reduced tbem by heating, and filtered them
through linen. Fat served him as the ordinary vehicle for
ointments, and pure water for potions; but he did not
despise other liquids, such as wine, beer (fermented or un-
fermented), vinegar, milk, olive oil, "ben" oil either crude
or refined, even the urine of men and animals: the whole,
sweetened \vith honey, was taken hot, night and morning.
The use of more than one of these remedies became world-
wide; the Greeks borrowed them from tho Egyytians; we
have piously accepted them from the Greeks; and our con-
temporaries still swallow with resignation many of the
abominable mixtures invented on the banks of the Nile,
long before the building of the Pyramids.
It was Thot who had taught men arithmetic; Thot
had revealed to them the mysteries of geometry and men-
suration; Thot had constructed instruments and promul-
gated the laws of music; Thot had instituted the art of
drawing, and had codified its unchanging rules. He had
been the inventor or patron of all that was useful or beauti-
ful in the Nile valley, and the climax of his beneficence was
roached by bis invention of the principles of writing, with-
out which humanity would have been liable to forget his
teaching, and to lose the advantage of bis discoveries. It
has been sometimes questioned whether writing, instead of
having been a benefit to the Egyptians, did not rather

THOT, THE IKVEXTOR OF WRITIKG 315

injure them. An old legend relates that when the god
unfolded his discovery to I{ing Thamos, 'whose minis tel'
he was, the monarch immediately raised an objection to it.
Children and young people, who had hitherto been forced
to apply themselves diligently
to learn and retain whatever
was taught them, now that
they possessed a means of
storing up knowledge without
trouble, would cease to apply
themselves, and would neglect
to exercise their memories.
'Vhether Thamos was l'ight or
not, the criticism came too
late: "the ingenious art of
painting words and of
peakil1g
to the eyes" had once for
all been acquired by the
Egyptians, and through them
by the greater part of man-
kind. I t was a very com plex
system, in which were united
lTIOst of the methods fitted for TIlOT UECORDS TIlE YE.\RS OF THE LIFE
giving expression to thought, OF RA:\ISES II.I
namely: those which were limited to the presentment of

.,- J ï
ll
fÃi-'
1
f "J /l}' I _..:
5 [
\1 C
c: j t, cr 4

,
,....... I ...J: I ..-, '

';f'" 1=

!': '. r.

I r. ..d......,
1 1 t .' r Jj
't b' , "
J: j!_-:_
1
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,-:- "\ 1.
ú)J -' -.
'} .. "d
. )l I.
I ..: 'I I ':'
--
. I cr
,kJ.I"
, I [ hlr
i,
......ç
\i,('-t
t .

rrl,' I
. -'1-
(
-\ { o,
:ut J I 'I '
t,-> e fl..

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'-
(
fi I-ì

I
J .
J l
1.1 t. - '11

.r .1'

: I

"

I
l
1_ I'

;

1 Bas-relief of the temple of Seti I. at Abydos, drawn by Boudicr, from a.
photograph by Beato, The god is marking with his reed-pen upon the
notches of a long frond of palm, the duration in millions of years of the
reign of Pharaoh upon this earth, in accordance with the decree of tbe
gods.

316 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

the idea, and those which were intended to suggest sounds.
At the outset the use 'was confined to signs intended to
awaken the idea of the o"Qject in the mind of the reader by
the more or less faithful picture of the object itself; for
example, they depicted the sun by a centred disc 0, the
moon by a crescent 0, a lion by a lion in the act of walk-
ing b., a man by a small figure in a squatting attitude
.
As by this method it was possible to convey only a very
restricted number of entirely materialistic concepts, it
became necessary to have recourse to various artifices in
order to make up for the shortcomings of the ideograms
properly so-called. The part was put for the whole, the
pupil @ in place of the whole eye
, the head of the ox
)I instead of the complete ox ""'. The Egyptians sub-
stituted cause for effect and effect for cause, the instrument
for the work accomplished, and the disc of the sun 0 signi-
fied the day; a smoking brazier
the fire: the brush,
inkpot, and palette of the scribe t=íì denoted writing or
written documents. They conceived the idea of employing
some object which presented an actual or supposed re-
semblance to the notion to be conveyed; thus, the foreparts
of a lion J denoted priority, supremacy, command; _ the
wasp symbolized royalty !K, and a tadpole , stood for
hundreds of thousands. They ventured finally to use con-
ventionalisms, as for instance when they drew the axe 1
for a god, or the ostrich-feather t for justice; the sign in
these cases had only a conventional connection with the
concept assigned to it. At times two or three of these
symbols were associated in order to express conjointly an
idea ,vhich would have been inadequately rendered by one

IDEOGRAPHIC AXD SYLLABIC SIGNS 317

of them alone: a five-pointed star placed under an inverted
crescent moon ';" denoted a month, a calf I'unning before
the sign for 'water ,,= indicated thirst. AU these arti-
fices combined furnished, however, but a very incomplete
means of seizing and transmitting thought. \Vhen the
writer had written out twenty or thirty of these signs and
the ideas which they were supposed to embody, he had
before him only the skeleton of a sentence, from which the
flesh and sinews had disappeared.; the tone and rhythm of
the words were wanting, as were also the indications of
gender, number, person, and inflection, which distinguish
the different parts of speech and determine the varying
relations between them. Besides this, in order to under-
stand for himself and to guess the meaning of the author,
the reader was obliged to translate the symbols which he
deciphered, by means of words which represented in the
spoken language the pronunciation of each symbol. \Vhen-
ever he looked at them, they suggested to him both the
idea and the word for the idea, and consequently a sound
or group of sounds; when each of them had thus acquired
three or four invariable associations of sound, he forgot
their purely ideographic value and accustomed himself to
consider them merely as notations of sound.
The first experiment in phonetics was a species of rebus,
where each of the signs, divorced from its original sense,
served to represent several words, similar in sound, but
differing in meaning in the spoken language. The same
group of a:t:ticulations, Naû.fir, Nofir, conveyed in Egyptian
the concrete idea of a lute and the abstract idea of beauty;
the sIgn
expressed at once the lute and beauty.

318 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

The beetle was called [{lwpirrÛ, and the verb "to be " was
pronounced khopirÛ: the figure of the beetle r<< conse-
quently signified both the insect and the verb, and by
further conlbining with it other signs, the articulation of
each corresponding syllable was given in detail. The sieve
G kltaû, the mat · pÛ, pi, the mouth c::::> ra, rû, gave the
formula kltaû-pi-rû, which was equivalent to the sound of
klwpirÛ, the verb" to be:" grouped together
, they de-
noted in writing the concept of "to be" by means of a
triple rebus. In this system, each syllable of a word could
be represented by one of several signs, all sounding alike.
One-half of these" syllabics " stood for open, the other half
for closeù syllables, and the use of the fonner soon brought
about the formatiòn of a true alphabet. The final vowel in
them became detached, and left only the remaining con-
sonant-for example, II' in 'J'lt, h in Ita, n in ni, b in bû-so
that c=> rû, riJ Ita, ".....,. ni, 1 bû, eventually stood for r, h, n,
and b only. This process in the course of time having been
applied to a certain number of syllables, furnished a fairly
large alphabet, in which several letters represented each of
the twenty-two chief articulations, which the scribes con-
sidered sufficient for their purposes. The signs correspond-
ing to one and the same letter were homophones or
" equivalents in sound"-
, ..c:::, T, are homophones, just
as
and 'f/, because each of them, in the group to which
it belongs, may be indifferently used to translate to the eye
the articulations n
or n. One would have thought that
when the Egyptians had arrived thus far, they :vould have
been led, as a matter of COUI'se, to reject the various cha-
racters which they had used each in its turn, in order to

IDEOGRAPHIC AXD SYLLABIC SIGNS 319

retain an alphabet only. But the true spirit of invention,
of which they had given proof, abandoned them here as
elsewhere: if the merit of a discovery was often their due,
they were rarely able to bring their invention to perfection.
They kept the ideographic and syllabic signs which they
had used at the outset, and, with the residue of their snc-
cessive notations, made for themselves a most complicated
system, in which syllables and ideograms were mingled
with letters properly so called. There is a little of every-
thing in an Egyptian phrase, sometimes even in a word;
as, for instance, in mr.!.., 1naszír'û, the ear, or
I
}

klw1'ôÛ, the voice; there are the syllabics m l1W8, _ zir, ...s.a
1'Û,
kiter, the ordinary letters p 8, ,} Û, c::> r, which com-
plete the phonetic pronunciation, and finally the ideograms,
namely, I, which gives the picture of the ear by the side of
the written word for it, and
which proves that the
letters represent a term designating an action of the mouth.
This medley had its advantages; it enabled the Egyptians
to make clear, by the picture of the object, the sense of
words which letters alone might sometimes insufficiently
explain. The system demanded a serious effort of memory
and long years of study; indeed, many people never com-
pletely mastered it. The picturesque appearance of the
sentences, in which we see representations of men, animals,
furniture, weapons, and tools grouped together in successive
little pictures, rendered hieroglyphic w1'Îting specially suit-
able for the decoration of the temples of the gods or the
palaces of kings. J\Iingled with scenes of worship, sacrifice,
battle, or private life, the inscriptions frame or separate
groups of personages, and occupy the vacant spaces which

820 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

the sculptor or painter was at a loss to fill; hieroglyphio
writing is pre-eminently a monumental script. For the
ordinary purposes of life it was traced in black or red ink
on fragments of limestone or pottery, or on wooden tablets
covered with stucco, and specially on the fibres of papyrus.
The exigencies of haste and the unskilfulness of scribes
soon changed both its appearance and its elements; the
characters when contracted, superimposed and united to
one another with connecting strokes, preserved only the
most distant resemblance to the persons or things which
they had originally represented. This cursive writing,
which was somewhat incorrectly termed hieratic, was used
only for public or private documents, for administrative
correspondence, or for the propagation of literary, scientific,
and religious works.
It was thus that tradition was pleased to ascribe to
the gods, and among them to Thot-the doubly great-
the invention of all the arts and sciences which gave to
Egypt its glory and prosperity. It was clear, not only
to the vulgar, but to the wisest of the nation, that, had
their ancestors been left merely to their own resources,
they would never have succeeded in raising themselves
much above the level of the brutes. The idea that a
discovery of importance to the country could have risen
in a human brain, and, once made known, could have
been spread and developed by the efforts of successive
generations, appeared to them impossible to accept.
They believed that every art, every trade, had remained
unaltered from the outset, and if some novelty in its
aspect tended to show them their error, they preferred to

THE TABLES OF THE KIXGS

321

imagine a divine intervention, rather than be undeceived.
The mystic writing, inserted as chapter sixty-four in the
Book oj' tlte Dead, and which subsequently was supposed
to be of decisive moment to the future life of man, was,
as they knew, posterior in date to the other formulas of
which this book was composed; they did not, however,
regard it any the less as being of divine origin. It had
been found one day, without anyone knowing 'whence it
came, traced in blue characters on a plaque of alabaster,
at the foot of the statue of Thot, in the sanctuary of
Hermopolis. A prince, Hardidûf, had discovered it in his
travels, and regarding it as a miraculous object, had
brought it to his sovereign. 'rhis king, according to
some, was Hûsaphaîti of the first dynasty, but by others
was believed to be the pious l\Iykerinos. In the same
way, the book on medicine, dealing with the diseases of
women, was held not to be the work of a practitioner;
it had revealed itseJf to a priest watching at night before
the Holy of Holies in the temple of Isis at Coptos.
"Although the earth was plunged into darkness, the
moon shone upon it and enveloped it with light. It was
sent as a great ,yonder to the holiness of King Kheops,
the just of speech. " The gods had thus exercised a
direct influence upon men until they became entirely
civilized, and this work of culture was appol,tioned among
the three divine dynasties according to the strength of
each. The first, which comprised the most vigorous
divinities, had accomplished tho more difficult task of
esta,blishing the world on a solid basis; the second had
carried on the education of the Egyptians; and the third

VOL. I.

y

322 THE LEGEXD.ARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

had regulated, in all its minutiæ, the religious constitution
of the country. When there was nothing more demand-
ing supernatural strength or intelligence to establish it,
the gods returned to heaven, and were succeeded on the
throne by mortal men. One tradition maintained dog-
matically that the first human king whose memory it
preserved, followed immediately after the last of the
gods, who, in quitting the palace, had made over the
crown to man as his heir, and that the change of nature
had not entailed any interruption in the line of sovereigns.
Another tradition would not allow that the contact between
the human and divine series had been so close. Between
the Ennead and l\Ienes, it intercalated one or more lines
of Theban or Thinite kings; but these were of so formless,
shadowy, and undefined an aspect, that they were called
l\Ianes, and there was attributed to them at most only
a passive existence, as of persons who had always been
in the condition of the dead, and had never been subjected
to the trouble of passing through life. l\Ienes was the
first in order of those who were actually living. From
his time, the Egyptians claimed to possess an uninter-
rupted list of the Pharaohs who had ruled over the Nile
valley, As far back as the XVllltb dynasty this list was
written upon papyrus, and furnished the number of years
that each prince occupied the throne, or the length of
his life. l Extracts from it were inscribed in the temples,

1 The only one of" these lists which we possess, the "Turin Royal
Papyrus," waS bought., nearly intact, at Thebes, by Drovetti, about 181R,
but was accidentally injured by him in bringing home. The fragments of it
were acquired, together with the rest of the collection, by the Pieùmontese
Government in 1820, and placed in the Turin :l\Iuseum, where Champollion

THE TABLES OF THE KIXGS

323

or even in the tombs of private persons; and three of
these abridged catalogues are still extant, two coming
from the temples of Seti I. and Ramses II. at Abydos,l
while the other was discovered in the tomb of a person
of rank named Tunari, at Saqqâra. 2 They divided this
intermiuable succession of often problematical personages
into dynasties, following in this division, rules of which
we are ignorant, and which varied in the course of ages.
In the time of the Ramessides, names in the list which
subsequently under the Lagides formed five groups were
made to constitute one single dynasty.3
Ianetho of

saw and drew attention to them in 1824:. Seyffarth carefully collected and
arranged them in the order in which they now are; subsequently Lepsius
gave a facsimile of them in 1840, in his Ausulaltl der wichtigsten Urkunden,
pIs, i.-vi., but this did not include the verso; Champollion-Figeac edited in
1817, in the ReVlw Arcltéologiqne, 1st series, vol. vi., the tracings taken by
the younger Champollion before Seyffarth's arrangement; lastly, 'Vilkinson
published the whole in detail in 1851. Since then, the document has been
the subject of continuous investigation: E. de Rougé has reconstructed, in
an almost conclusive manner, the pages containing the first six dynasties,
and Lauth, with less certainty, those which deal with the eight following
dynasties.
1 The first table of Abydos, unfortunately incomplete, was discovered in
the temple of Ramses II, by Banks, in 1818; the copy published by CailIaud
and by Salt served as a foundation for Champollion's first investigations on
the history of Egypt. The original, brought to France by l\Iimaut, was
acquired by England, and is now in the British :l\Iuseum. The second
table, which is complete, all but a few signs, was brought to light by
:l\Iariette in 18G4, in the excavations at Abydos, and was immediately
noticed and published hy Dtmcll

. The text of it is to be found in
l\IAumTTE, La NOll1xlle Table tl' Ab!Jdos (Revue Arc7ufologiqlw, 2nd series, vol.
xiii,), and Ab!Jdos, vol. i. pI. 43.
:.I The table of Saqqâra, discovered in 1863, has been published by
MARIETTE, La Table de Sa'l'l,Îra (Revue Arcltéologiqlle, 2nd series, vol. x. p.
169, et seq,), and reproduced in the Monuments Divers, pI. 58.
a The Royal Canon of Turin, which dates from the Ramesside period,

324 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

Sebennytos, who wrote a history of Europe for the use
of Alexandrine Greeks, had
dopted, on some unknown
authority, a division of thirty-one dynasties from 1\lenes
to the 1YIacedonian Conquest, and his system has pre-
vailed-not, indeed, on account of its excellence, but
because it is the only complete one which has come down
to us. l All the families inscribed in his lists ruled in
succession. 2 The country was no doubt frequently broken
up into a dozen or more independent states, each
possessing its own kings during several generations; but
the annalists had from the outset discarded these collateral
lines, and recognized only ope legitimate dynasty, of
which the rest were but vassals. Their theory of legi-
timacy does not always agree with actual history, and
the particular line of princes which they rejected as

gives, indeed, the names of these early kings without a break, until the list
reaches Unas; at this point it sums up the number of Pharaohs and the
aggregate years of their reigns, thus indicating the end of a dynasty. In
the intervals between the dynasties rubrics are placed, pointing out the
changes which took place in the oreler of direct succession. The division of
the same group of sovereigns into five dynasties has been preserved to us by
lYlanetho,
1 The best restoration of the system of l\Ianetho is that by LEPsIUs, Das
Künigsbllch dcr Allen Ægypter, which should be completed and corrected
from the memoirs of Lauth, Lieblein, Krall, and Unger. A common fault
attaches to all these memoirs, so remarkable in many respects. They regard
the work of lYlanetho, not as representing a more or less ingenious system
applied to Egyptian history, but as furnishing an authentic scheme of this
history, in which it is necessary to enclose all the royal names which the
monuments have ren'aled, and are still daily revealing to us.
2 E. de Rougé triumphantly demonstrated, in opposition to Bunsen,
now nearly fifty years ago, that alll\lanetho's dynasties are successive, and
the monuments discovered from year to year in Egypt have confirmed his
demonstration in every detail.

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CHRO
ICLERS OF THE PAST

327

usurpers represented at times the only family possessing
true l'ights to the crown. l In Egypt, as elsewhere, the
official chroniclers were often obliged to accommodate
the past to the exigencies of the present, and to manipulate
the annals to suit the reigning pal'ty; while obeying their
orders the chroniclers deceived posterity, and it is only
by a rare chance that we can succeed in detecting them
in the act of falsification, and can re-establish the truth.
The system of 1Uanetho, in the state in which it has
been handed down to us by epitomizers, has rendered,
and continues to render, sel'vice to science; if it is not
the actual history of Egypt, it is a sufficiently faithful
substitute to warrant our not neglecting it when we
wish to understand and reconstruct the sequence of
events. His dynasties furnish the necessary framework
for most of the events and revolutions, of which the
monuments have preserved us a record. At the outset,
the centre to which the affairs of the country gravitated
was in the extreme north of the valley. The principality
which extended from the entrance of the Fayûm to the

1 It is enough to give two striking examples of this. The royal lists of
the time of the Ramessides suppress, at the end of the XYlllth dynasty,
Amenôthes IV. and several of his successors, and give the following sequence
-Amenôthes 111., Harmhabit, Ramses 1., without any apparent hiatus;
::\Ianetho, on the contrary, replaces the kings who were omitted, and keeps
approximately to the real order between Horos (Amenôthes III.) and
Armaïs (Harmhabît), Again, the official tradition of the XXth dynasty
gives, between Ramses II. and Ramses III., the sequence-l\Iìnephtah,
eti
I r " N akht-Seti; 1\Ianetho, on the other hand, gives Amenemes followed by
Thûôris, who appear to correspond to the Amenmeses and Siphtab of con-
temporary monuments, but, after .Mînephtah, he omits Seti II. and Xakhîtou-
Seti, the father of Ramses III.

328 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT
apex of the Delta, and subsequently the town of ßlemphis
itself. iU1posed their sovereigns upon the remaining nomes,
served as an emporium for commerce and national in-
dustries, and received homage and tribute from neigh-
bouring peoples. About the time of the Vlth dynasty
this centre of gravity 'vas displaced, and tended to,varùs
the interior; it was arrested for a short time at Heracleo-
polis (IX th and Xth dynasties), and ended by fixing itself
at Thebes (X ph dynasty). Fl'om henceforth Thebes
became the capital, and furnished Egypt with her rulers.
'Vith the exception of the XIVth Xoïte dynasty, all the
fall1Ïlies occupying the throne from the XJth to the XXth
dynasty 'were Theban. When the barbarian shepherds
invaded Africa fronl Asia, the Thebaïd became the last
refuge and bulwark of Egyptian nationality; its chiefs
struggled for many centuries against the conquerors before
they were able to deliver the I'est of the .valley. It
was a Theban dynasty, the XVlllt\ which inaugurated
the era of foreign conquest; but after the XIX t \ a move-
ment, the reverse of that which had taken place towards
the end of the first period, brought back the centre of
gravity, little by little, towards the north of the, country.
From the time of the XXpt dynasty, Thebes ceased to
hold the position of capital: Tanis, Bubastis, 1\Iendes,
Sebennytos, and above all, Sais, disputed the supremacy
with each other, and political life was concentrated in
the maritime provinces. Those of the interior, ruined
by Ethiopian and Assyrian invasions, lost their influence
and gradually dwindled away. Thebes became im-
poverished and depopulated; it fell into ruins, and soon

THE GREAT HISTORICAL PERIODS 329

was nothing more than a l"e80rt for devotees or travellers.
The history of Egypt is, therefore, divided into three
perioas, each corresponding to the suzerainty of a town
or a principality :-

I.-JUEMPHITE PERIOD, usually called the "Ancient
Empire," from the pt to the Xth dynasty: kings of

lemphite origin ruled over the ,vhole of Egypt during
the greater part of this epoch.
IL-THEBAN PERIOD, from the XPh to the XXth dynasty.
It is divided into two parts by the invasion of the
Shepherds (XVIth dynasty) :
a. The first Theban Empire (fi1iddle Empire), from
the XIth to the Xlyth dynasty.
b. The ne,v Theban Empire, from the X'YIl th to the
XX th dynasty.
IIL-SAtTE PERIOD, from the XXpt to the XXX th
dynasty, divided into two unequal parts by the Persian
Conquest:
a. The first Saïte period, from the XXIst to the
XXyp h dynasty.
b, The second Saïte period, from the XXVIlp h to
the XXXth dynasty.

The
Iemphites had created the monarchy. The
Thebans extended the rule of Egypt far and wide, and
made of her a conquering state: for nearly six centuries
she l"uled over the Upper Nile and over Western Asia.
Under the Saïtes she l"etired gradually "within her natural
frontiers, and from having been aggressive became assailed,

330 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT
and suffered herself to be crushed in turn by all the
nations she had once oppressed. 1
The monuments bave as yet yielded no account of
the events which tended to unite the country under the
I'ule of one man; we can only surmise that the feudal
principalities had gradualIy been drawn together into
two gronps, each of which formed a separate kingdom.
Heliopolis became the chief focus in the north, from
which civilization radiated over the rich plains and the
marshes of the Delta. Its colleges of priests had colIected,
condensed, and an'anged the principal myths of the
local religions; the Ennead to which it gave conception
would never have obtained the popularity which ,ve must
acknowledge it had, if its princf\s had not exercised, for
at least some period, an actual suzerainty over the neigh-
bouring plains. It was around Heliopolis that the
kingdom of Lower Egypt was organized; everything
there bore traces of Heliopolitan theories-the protocol
of the kings, their supposed descent from Râ, and the
enthusiastic worship which they offered to the sun.
Tbe Delta, owing to its compact and restricted area,
was aptly suited for goveI'nment from one centre; the
Nile valley proper, narrow, tortuous, and stretching like
a thin strip on either bank of the river, did not lend
itself to so complete a unity. It, too, represented a

1 The di,'ision into Ancient, :\Iiddle, and New Empire, proposed by
Lepsius, has the disadvantage of not taking into account the influence
which the removal of the seat of the dynasties exercised on the history ùf
the country. The arrangement which I have here adopted was first put
forward in the Rez:ue critique, 1873, vol. i. pp. 82, 83.

l\lEXES OF THIXIS

331

single kingdom, having the reed :J.= and the lotus t
for its emblems; but its component parts were more
loosely united, its religion was less systematized, and
it lacked a well-placed city to serve as a political and
sacerdotal centre. Hermopolis contained schools of
theologians who certainly played an important part in
the development of myths and dogmas; but the influence
of its rulers was never widely felt. In the south, Siút
disputed their supremacy, and Heracleopolis stopped
their road to the north. These three cities thwarted
and neutralized one another, and not one of them ever
succeeded in obtaining a lasting authority over Upper
Egypt. Each of the two killgdoms had its own natural
advantages and its system of government, 'which gave
to it a particular character, and stamped it, as it 'were,
with a distinct personality do\vn to its latest days. The
kingdom of Upper Egypt was more powerful, richer,
better populated, and was governed apparently by more
active and enterp1'Ïsing rulers. It is to one of the latter,

1îni or l\Ienes of 1'hinis, that tradition ascribes the
honour of having fused the two Egypts into a single
empire, and of having inaugurated the reign of the
human dynasties. Thinis figured in the historic period
as one of the least of Egyptian cities. It barely main-
tained an existence on the left bank of the Nile, if not
on the exact spot now occupied by Girgeh, at least only
a short distance from it. l The principality of the Osirian

1 The site of Thinis is not yet satisfactorily identified. It is neither at
Kom-es-Sultân, as :l\Iariette thought, nor, according to the hypothesis of A.
Schmidt, at EI-Kherbeh. Brugsch has proposed to fix the site at the village

332 THE LEGE
DARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

Reliqual-Y, of which it was the metropolis, occupied the
valley from one mountain range to the other, and gradually
extend.ed across the desert as far as the GI'eat Theban
Oasis. Its inhabitants worshipped a sky-god, Anhûri,
or rather two twin gods, Anbûri-Shû, who were speedily

.
Coptic
Convent

.::u:tl

Scale

300 Metres,

PL..L.
OF TIlE ULINS OF ABYDOS, 1'IIADE BY J\L\IUETTE IX 18G5 AXD 1875.

amalgamated with the solar deities and became a war-
like personification of Râ. Anhûri..Shû, like all the other

of Tineh, near Berdis, and is followed in this by Dümichen, The present
tendency is to identify it either with Girgeh itself, or with one of the small
neighbouring towns- for example, Birbeh-where there are some ancient
ruins; this was also the opinion of Champollion and of Nester L'hôte. I
may mention that, in a frequently quoted passage of Hellanicos, Zoëga
corrects the reading Tí-VDW-V ó-vop.u into 0íV D
0;' ó-vop.a, which would once more
give us the name of Thinis: the mention of this town as being È7rL7rOTUP.{1J,
" situated on the river/' would be a fresh reason for its identification with
Girgeh.

JRT DYNASTY TO:
lBS AT ABYDOS 333

solar manifestations, came to be associated with a goddess
baving the form or head of a lioness-a Sokhît, who took
for the occasion the epithet of 1Iîhît, the northern one.
Some of the dead from this city are buried on the other
side of the Nile, near the modern village of 11esheikh,
at the foot of the Arabian chain, whose steep cliffs here
approach somewhat near the river: the principal necropolis
was at some distance to the east, near the sacred town
of Abydos. It would appear that, at the outset, Abydos
was the capital of the country, for the entire nome bore
the same name as the city, and had adopted for its
symbol the representation of the reliquary in which the
god reposed. In very early times Abydos fell into decay,
and resigned its political rank to Thinis, but its religious
importance remained unimpaired. The city occupied a
long and narrow strip of land between the canal and the
first slopes of the Libyan mountains. A bl"ick fortress
defended it from the incursions of the Bedouin, and
beside it the temple of the god of the dead reared its
naked walls. Here, Anhûri, having passed from life to
death, was worshipped under the name of I{hontamentit,
the chief of that western region whither souls repair on
quitting this earth. It is impossible to say by what
blending of doctrines or by what political combinations
this Sun of the Night came to be identified with Osiris
of 1lendes, since the fusion dates back to a very remote
antiquity; it had beCOlne an established fact long before
the most ancient sacred books were compiled. Osiris
Khontamentît grew rapidly In popular favour, and his
temple attracted annually an increasing number of

334 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

pilgrims. The Great Oasis had been considered at first
as a sort of mysterious paradise, whither the dead went
in search of peace and happiness. It was called Uît,
the Sepulchre; this name clung to it after it had
become an actual Egyptian province, and the remem-
brance of its ancient purpose survived in the minds of
the people, so that the" cleft," or gorge in the mountain
through which the doubles journeyed towards it, never
ceased to be regarded as one of the gates of the other
world. At the time of the N ew Year festivals, spirits
flocked thither from all parts of the valley; they there
awaited the coming of the dying snn, in order to embark
with him and enter safely the dominions of Khontamentît.
Abydos, even before the historic period, was the only
town, and its god the only god, 'whose worship, practised
by all Egyptians, inspired thelll all with an equal devotion.
The excavations of the last few years have bronght to
light some, at all events, of the oldest Pharaohs known
to the Egyptian annalists, namely, those whom they
placed in their fil'St human dynasties; and the locality
where the monuments of these princes were discovered,
shows us that these writers were correct in representing
Thinis as playing an important part in the history of
the early ages of their country. If the tonlb of l\1enes-
that sovereign whom we are inclined to look upon as
the first king of the official lists-lies near the village of
N agadeh, not far from Thebes, 1 those of his immediate
successors arc close to Thinis, in the cemeteries of

1 The objects found during these excavations are now in the Gizeh
l\Iuseulll,

pr DYKASTY TO)lBS AT ABYDOS

335

Abydos. 1 They stand at the very foot of the Libyan
hills, near the entrance to the ravine-the "Cleft"-
through which the mysterious oasis was reached, and
thither the souls flocked in order that they might enter
by a safe way the land beyond the grave. 2 The mass
of pottery, whole and broken, which has accumulated
on this site fro In the offerings of centuries has obtained
for it alnong the Fellahin the name of OmIn-el-Gaâb-
"the mother of pots." The tombs there lie in serried
ranks. They present for the most part a rough model
of the pyramids of the 1Iemphite period-rectangular
structures of bricks without mortar rising slightly above
the level of the plain. The funeral chamber occupies
the centre of each, and is partly hollowed out of the
soil, like a shallow well, the sides being bricked. It
had a flat tiInber roof, covered by a layer of about three
feet of sanù; the floor also ,vas of wood, and in several
cases the reInains of the bealns of both ceiling and pave-
ment have been brought to light. The body of the
l'oyal inInate was laid in the middle of the charnber,
surrounded by its funeral furniture and by a part of the
offerings. The reInainder was placed in the little rOOlns
which opened out of the pl'incipal vault, sOlnetimes on

1 The credit of having discovered this important necropolis, and of having
brought to light the earliest known monuments of the fiest dynasties, is
entirely due to Amlqineau, He canied on important work there during
four years, fl'om 1893 to 1899: unfOl,tunately it::) !:;uccess was impaired by
the theories which he elaborated with regard to the new monuments, and
by the delay in publishing an account of the objects which remained in his
possession.
2 For the" Cleft:' cf. slpra, pp. 281, 282, 334.

336 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

the same level, sOInetiInes on one higher than itself;
after their contents had been laid within theIn, the
entrance to these rOOlns was generally walled up. HUInan
bodies have been found inside theIn, probably those of
slaves killed at the funeral that they might wait upon
the dead in his life beyond the grave.) The objects
placed in these chaInbers were mostly offerings, but
besides these were coarse stelæ bearing the name of a
person, and dictated to "the double of his luminary." 2
SOlne of theln mention a dwarf 3 or a favourite dog of the
sovereign, who accoInpanied his master into the tomb.
Tablets of ivory or bone skilfully incised furnish us
with scenes representing some of the ceremonies of the
deification of the king in his lifetime and the sacrifices
offered at the time of his burial; 4 in rarer instances
they record his exploits. The offerings theInselves 'were
such as we meet with in burials of a subsequent age-
bread, cakes, meat, and poultry of various sorts-indeed,
evel'ything 'we find mentioned in the lists inscribed in
the tombs of the later dynasties, p
rticularly the jars
of wine and liquors, on the clay bungs of which are still
legible the impression of the signet bearing the name of

1 FL, PETRIE, TltC Royal Tombs of tltC First Dynasty, part i. p. 14,
2 The" luminous double" or the" double of his luminary" is doubtless
that luminous spectre which haunted the tombs and even the houses of the
living during the night, and which I have mentioned, supra, p. 160.
3 Petrie found the skeletons of two dwarfs, probably the very two to
whom the two stelæ (Nos, 36, 37) in the tomb of Semempses were raised,
,,- as one of these d wads one of the Danga of Puanit who were sought after
by the Pharaohs of the l\lemphite dynasties

4 This was the ceremony called by the Egyptians "The Festival of the
Foundation "-/tabu 8UJ.l'.

THE TO:\IBS OF THE THINITE KIXGS. 337

the sovereign for whose use they were sealed. Besides
stuffs and mats, the furniture comprised chairs, beds,
stools, an enormous number of vases, some in coarse
pottery for common use, others in choice stone such
as diorite, granite, or rock crystal very finely worked,
on the fragments of all of which may be read cut in
outline the names and preamble of the Pharaoh to whom
the object belonged. The ceremonial of the funerary
offel'ing and its significance 'wás already fully developed
at this early period; this can be gathered by the very
nature of the objects buried with the deceased, by their
number, quantity, and by the manner in which they
were arranged. Like their successors in the Egypt of
later times, these ancient kings expected to continue
their material existence within the tomb, and they took
precautions that life there should be as comfortable as
circumstances should permit. Access to the tomb 'was
sometimes gained by a sloping passage or staircase; this
made it possible to see if everything within was in a
satisfactory condition. After the dead had been enclosed
in his chamber, and five or six feet of sand had been
spread over the beams which formed its roof, the
position of the tomb ,vas shown merely by a scarcely
perceptible rise in the soil of the necropolis, and its
site 'would soon have been forgotten, if its easternmost
limits bad not been marked by two large stelæ on which
were carefully engraved one of the appellations of the
king-that of his double, or his Horus name.! It was
on this spot, upon an altar placed between the two

J For the Horus name of the Pharauhs, see vol. Ii" pp. 23-25.
VOL. I. z

338 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

ste1æ, that the commemorative ceremonies were cele-
brated, and the provisions renewed on certain days fixed
by the l'eligious law. Groups of private tombs were
scattered al'ound,-the resting-places of the chief officers
of the sovereign, the departed Pharaoh being thus sur-
l'ounded in death by the same courtiers as those who
had attended him during his earthly existence.
The pI'inces, whose names and titles have been revealed
to us by the inscriptions on these tombs, have not by any
means been all classified as yet, the prevailing custOIll at
that period having been to designate them by their Horus
names, but rarely by their proper names, which latter is
the only one which :figures in the official lists which ,ve
possess of the Egyptian kings. A few texts, more explicit
than the rest, enable us to identify thl'ee of them with
the U saphais, the l\Iiebis, and the Semempses of l\Ianetho
-the fifth, sixth, and seventh kings of the let dynasty.l
The fact that they are bul'Îed in the necropolis of Abyùos
appal'ently justifies the opinion of the Egyptiau chroniclers
that they ,vere natives of Thinis. Is the Menes who
usually figures at their head 2 also a Tbinite prince?

1 The credit is due to SETIIE of having attributed their ordinary names
to several of the kings of the I,t dynasty with Horus names only which were
found by Amélineau, and these identifications have been accepted by all
Egyptologists. Petrie discovered quite recently on some fragments of vases
the Horus names of these same princes, together with their ordinary names.
The U saphais, the l\1iebis, and the Semempses of l\lanetho are now satis-
factorily identified with three of the Pharaohs discovered by Amé]ineau and
by Petrie. ----=-=-=
2 In the time of Seti I. and Ramses II. he heads the list of the Tal)]e of
Abydos. Under Ramses II. his statue was carried in procession, preceding
all the other royal statues. Finally, the "Hoyal Papyrus" of Turin,

THE NAGADEH TO)lB

339

Several scholars believe that his ordinary name, l\Iînî,
is to be read on an ivory tablet engraved for a sovereign
whose Horus name-Ahauîti, the warlike-is known to
us froln several documents, and whose tomb also has
been discovered, but at N agadeh. It is a great rectangular
structure of bricks IG5 feet long and 84 broad, the
external walls of which were originally ornamented by
deep polygonal grooves, resembling those which score
the façade of Chaldæan buildings, but the N agadeh tomb
has a second brick wall which fills up all the hollows
left in the first one, and thus hides the primitive decora-
tion of the monument. The building contains twenty-
one chalnbers, five of which in the centre apparently
constituted the dwelling of the deceased, while the others,
grouped around these, serve as storehouses fl'om whence
he could draw his provisions at will. Did tho king buried
within indeed bear the name of I\lenes, l and if such was
the case, how are we to reconcile the tradition of bis
Thinite origin with the existence of his far-off tomb in
the neigbbourhood of Thebes? Objects bearing his
Horus name have been found at Omm-el-Gaftb, and it
is evident that he belonged to the same age as the
sovereigns interred in this necropolis. If, indeed, l\Ienes
'was really his personal name, there is no reason against
his being the l\Ienes of tradition, he 'whom the Pharaohs

written in the time of Ramses I" begins the entire serie
of the human
Pharaohs with his name.
1 The sign :blanu, "hich appears on the ivory tablet found in this tomb,
has been interpreted as a king's name, and consequently inferred to be
l\fcnes. This reading has been disputed on various sides, and the point
remains, therefore, a contested one until further discovery.

840 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

of the glorious Theban dynasties regarded as the earliest
of their purely human ancestors. Whether he was really
the first king who reigned over the whole of Egypt, or
whether he had been preceded by other sovereigns whose
monuments we may find in some site still unexplored,
is a matter for conjecture. That princes had exercised
authol'ity in various parts of the country is still uncel'tain,
but that the Egyptian historians did not know them,
seems to prove that they had left no written records of
their names. .At any rate, a
lenes lived who reigned
at the outset of histol'y, and doubtless before long the
Nile valley, when more carefully explored, will yield us
monuments recording his actions and determining his
date. The civilization of the Egypt of his time was
ruder than that with ,vhich we have hitherto been familiar
on its soil, but even at that early period it ,vas almost as
complete. It had its industries and its arts, of which
the cemeteries furnish us daily with the most varied
examples: weaving, modelling in clay, wood-carving, the
incising of ivory, gold, and the harùest stone were all
carried on; the ground was cultivated with hoe and
plough; tombs were built showing us the model of what
the houses and palaces l11ust have been; the countI'y
had its army, its administrators, its priests, its nobles,
its writing, and its system of epigraphy differs so little
from that to which we are accustomed in later ages, that
we can decipher it ,vith no great difficulty. Frankly
speaking, all that we know at pI'esent of the first of the
Pharaohs beyond the mere fact of his existence is practi-
cally nil, anù the stories related of him by the 'writers

lEXES _tXD THE FOUXDIXG OP :\lE31PHIS 3:11

of classical times are mere legends arranged to suit the
fancy of the compiler. "This J\Ienes, according to the
priests, surrounded J\lemphis with dykes. For the river
formerly followed the sandhills for some distance on the
Libyan side. J\Ienes, having dammed up the reach about
a hundred stadia to the south of J\fenJpbis, caused the
old bed to dry up, and conveyed the river through an
artificial channel dug midway between the two mountain
ranges. Then l\Ienes, the first who was king, having
enclosed a firm space of ground with dykes, thel'e founùeù
that town 'wlJich is still called J\lemphis; he then Inade
a lake round it, to tho north and west, fed by the river,
the city being bounded on the east by tho Nile." 1 The
history of l\lemphis, such as it can he gathered from
the monuruents, differs considerably froln the tradition
current in Egypt at the time of Herodotus. It appears,
indeed, that at the outset, the site on which it subsequently
arose ,vas occupied by a small fortress, Ânbû-hazû - the
white ,vall-which was dependent on Heliopolis, and in
which Phtah possessed a sanctuary. After the "white
wall" was separated from the Heliopolitan principality
to form a nome by itself, it assumed a certain importance,
and furnished, so it was said, the dynasties which succeeded
the Thinite. Its prosperity dates only, however, from the
time when the sovereigns of the V th and Vlth dynasties
fixed on it for their residence; one of theIn, Papi I.,
there founded for himself and for his "double" after

1 The dyke supposed to have been made by J\lenes is evidently that
of Qosheîsh, which now protects the province of Gîzeh, and regulates the
i:mndation in its neighLourhood.

342 THE LEGEXD.,.\.RY HISTORY OP EGYPT

hirn, a new town, which he called l\-linnofîni, from his
tomb. J\linnofîrû, which is the correct pronunciation and
the origin of J\lemphis, probably signified "the' good
l o efuge," the haven of the good, the burying-place where
the blessed dead came to rest beside Osiris. The people
soon forgot the true interpretation, or probably it did not
fall in 'with their taste for romantic tales. They were
rather disposed, as a rule, to discover in the beginnings
of history individuals from whom the countries or cities
with which they were falniliar took their names: if no
tradition supplied them with this, they did not experience
any scruple in inventing one. The Egyptians of the tÜne
of the Ptolenlies, who were guided in their philological
speculations by the pronunciation in vogue around them,
attributed the patronship of their city to a Princess
J\Iemphis, a daughter of its founder, the fabulous
U choreus ; those of preceding ages before the nalue
bad become altered, thought to find in J\linnofîrû a " 1\íîni
N ofir," or "J\lenes the Good," the reputed founder of
the capital of the Delta. J\Ienes the Good, divested of
his epithet, is none other than J\lenes, the first king,
and he owes this episode in his life to a popular attOlnpt at
etymology. The legend which identifies the establish-
ment of the kingdom with the construction of the city,
must have originated at the time when J\lemphis was
still the Joesidence of the kings and the seat of govern-
rnent, at latest about the end of the J\lemphite period.
It must have been an old tradition in the time of the
Theban dynasties, since they admitted unhesitatingly the
authenticity of the statements which ascribed to the

THE LEGEXD Ol
THE l\IEXES

3:1:3

northern city so marked a superiority over their own
country.
"\Vhen once this half-mythical J\Ienes was firmly es-
tablished in his position, there was little difficulty in
inventing a story which 'would portray him as an ideal
sovereign. He was represented as architect, warrior, and
statesman; he had begun the temple of Phtah, written
laws and regulated the worship of the gods, particularly
that of Hâpis, and he had conducted expeditions against

the Libyans. When ho lost ..-
his only son in the flower of .'
,
his age, the people impl'ovised a . :

hymn of mourning to console him-the " J\laneros "-both
the words and the tune of which were handed down from
generation to generation. He did not, moreover, disdain
the luxuries of the table, for he invented the al't of serving
a diuner, and the mode of eating it in a reclining posture.
One day, while hunting, his dogs, excited by something
or other, fell upon him to devour him. He escaped with
difficulty, and, pursued by them, fled to the shore of
Lake J\Iæris, and was there brought to bay; he was on

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin after FmssE D'AvEXNES. The gold medal-
lions engraved with the name of J\Ienes are ancient, and perhaps go back to
the XX th dynasty; the setting is entirely modern, with the exception of the
three oblong pendants of cornelian.

344 THE LEGEKD
\..HY HISTORY OF EGYPT

the point of succumbing to them, when a cl'ocodile took
him on his back and carried him across to the other side. 1
In gratitude he built a ne\v town, which he called
CrocodilopoIis, and assigned to it for its god the crocodile
which had saved him; he then erected close to it the
falnous labyrinth and a pyramid for his tomb. Other
traditions show him in a less favourable light. They
accuse hÏ1n of having, by horrible criInes, excited against
him the anger of the gods, and allege that after a reign
of sixty to sixty-two years, he was killed by a hippopotamus
'which came forth from the Nile. 2 rTheyalso related that
the Saïte Tafnakhti, returning from an expedition against
the Al'abs, during ,vhich he had be on obliged to renounce
the pomp and luxuries of royal life, had solemnly cursed
hiIn, and had caused his iInprecations to be inscribed
upon a stele set up in the temple of Amon at Thebes.
Nevertheless, in the memory that Egypt preserved of
its first Pharaoh, the good outweighed the evil. He
,vas worshipped in l\Iemphis side by sido ,,,ith Phtah and

1 This is an episode from the legend of Osiris: at Philæ, in the little
huilding of the Antonines, may be seen a representation of a crocodilt{
crossing the Nile, carrying on his hack the mummy of the god. The same
episode is also found in the tale of Onûs cl-UjÜd and of Uarel f'il-Ikmflln,
where the crocodile leads the hero to his beautiful pl'isoner in the Island of
Philæ. EBERS, l' E[J!Jpte, li
rench trans., vol. ii, pp, 415, 416, has shown how
this episode in the Arab story must have been inspired by the has-relief at
Philæ and by the scene which it portrays: the temple is still called" Rasr,"
and the island" Geziret Onûs cl-Ujûd."
2 In popular romances, this was the usual end of criminals of every kind;
we shall see that another king, Akhthoes the founder of the IX th dynasty,
after committing horrible misdeeds, was killed, in the same way as l\Ienes,
by a hippopotamus.

,V ARLIKE RULERS

3-13

Ramses II.; his name figured at the head of the royal
lists, and his cult continued till the time of the ptolemies.
His immediate successors had an actual existence, and
their tombs are there in proof of it. We know where
U saphais,
Iiebis, and Semempses 1, were laid to rest,
besides more than a dozen other princes whose real names
and whose position in the official lists are still uncertain.
The order of their succession ,vas often a matter of doubt
to the Egyptians themselves, but perhaps the discoveries
of the next few years will enable us to clear up and settle
definitely Illatters ,vhich were shrouded in mystery in the
time of the Theban Pharaohs. As a fact, the forms of such
of their names as have been handed down to us by later
tradition, are curt and rugged, indicative of an early state
of society, and harmonizing with the more primitive
civilization to ,vhich they belong: Ati the \Vrestler, Teti
the R,unner, Qenqoni the Crusher, are suitable rulers for
a people, the first duty of whose chief was to lead his
followers into battle, and to strike harder than any other
man in the thickest of the fight. 2 Some of the monuments
they have left us, seem to show that their reigns were as
much devoted to war as those of the later Pharaohs. The

1 FLINDERS PETRIE, TIt'J I1.nyal Tombs of llt1 First Dynasty, vol. i, p, 56,
2 The Egyptians were accustomed to explain the meaning of the names
of their kings to strangers, and the Canon of Eratosthenes has preserved
several of their derivations, of which a certain number, as, for instance, that
of
Ienes from aiwvwl;, the" lasting," are toleraLly correct. I\I, Krall is, to
my knowledge, the only Egyptologist who has attempted to glean from the
meaning of these names indications of the methods by which the national
historians of Egypt endeavoured to make up the lists of the earliest
dynasties.

346 THE LEGEXDL\.RY HISTORY OF EGYPT

king whose Horns name was Nârulnîr, is seen on a con-
temporary object which has come down to us, standing
before a heap of beheaded foes; the bodies are all stretched
out on the ground, each with his head placed neatly
between his legs: the king had overcome, apparently in
some important engagement, several thousands of his
enemies, and was inspecting the execution of their leaders.
That the foes with whom these early kings contended were
in most cases Egyptian princes of the nomes, is proved by
the list of city names which are inscribed on the fragments
of another document of the same nature, and we gather
froin them that Dobu (Edfn), Hasutonu (Cynopolis),
Habonu (Hipponon), .Hakau (1\IeIIlphis) and others were
successively taken and dismantled,l On this fragment
l{ing Den is represented standing over a prostrate chief of
the Bedouin, striking him with his mace. Sandi, who is
classed in the IInd dynasty, received a continuous worship
towards the end of the IIIrd dynasty. But did all those
whose names preceded or followed his on the lists, really
exist as he did? and if they existed, to what extent do the

] Palette resembling the preceding one, amI with it deposited in the
Gizeh Museum; r('produced by STEINDORFF, and by J. DE MORG.\N. The
names of the towns were enclosed within the embattled line which was used
later on to designate foreign countries, The animals which surmount them
represent the gods of Egypt, the king's protectors; and the king himsc1f,
identified with these gods, is making a breach in tlw wall with a pick-axe.
The names of the towns have not been satisfactorily identified: Hat-kau,
for instance, may not be Memphis, but it appears t.hat there is no doubt
with regard to Habonu. Cf, SAYCE, The Beginnings of the Egyptian iJlonarclty
in the Proceedings of tlte Biblical .Arcltæological Society, 1898, Y01. xx. pp.
99-101.

The ivory plaque, which doubtless came from the king's tomb at Abydos,
is in the coHcction of 1\11'.
IcGrcgor.-ED.

THE FIRST T\YO THIXITE DYNASTIES 347

order and the relation assigned to them agree with the
actual truth? The different lists do not contain the same
names in the same positions; certain Phal'aohs are added
or suppressed without appreciable reason. Where 1\fanetho
inscribes l{enkenes and Ouenephes, the tables of the time
of Seti I. gave us Ati and Ata; 1\lanetho l'eckons nine
kings to the IInd dynasty, while they register only five. 1
The monuments, indeed, show us that Egypt in the past
obeyed princes whom her annalists were unable to classify:
for instance, they associate with Sondi a Pirsenû, who is
not mentioned in the annals. 'Ve must, therefore, take
the record of all this opening period of history for what
it is-namely, a system invented at a much later date,
by means of various artifices and combinations-to be
partially accepted in default of a better, but without
according to it that excessive confidence which it has
hitherto received. The two Thinite dynasties, in direct
descent from the first human king 1\fenes, furnish, like this
hero bimself, only a tissue of romantic tales and rniraculous
legends in the place of history. A double-beaded stork,
which had appeared in tbe first year of Teti, son of 1\Ienes,
had foreshadowed to Egypt a long prosperity, but a famine
under Ouenephes, and a terrible plague under Semempses,
had depopulated the country: the laws had been relaxed,
great crimes had been committed, and revolts had broken

1 The impossihility of reconciling the names of ",he Greek with those of
the Pharaonic lists has been a.dmitted by most of the savants who have
discussed the matter, viz. :l\Jariette, E. de Rougé, Lieblein, 'Viedemann;
most of them explain the differences by the supposition that, in many cases,
one of the lists gives the cartouche name, and the other the cartouche
prenomen of the same king,

348 THE LEGE
DARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

out. During the reign of Boêthos, a gulf had opened near
Bubastis, and swallowed up many people, then the Nile
had flowed with honey for fifteen days in the time of
N ephercheres, and Sesochris was supposed to have been
a giant in stature. A few details about royal edifices were
mixed up with these prodigies. Teti had laid the founda-
tion of the great palace of l\femphis, Ouenephes had built
the pyramids of Ko-komè near Saqqâra. Soveral of the
ancient Pharaohs had published books on theology, or had
written treatises on anatomy and medicine; several had
made laws which lasted down to the beginning of the
Christian era. One of them was called Kakôû, the male
of males, or the bull of bulls. They explained his name
by the stateluent that he had concerned himself about tbe
sacred animals; he had proclaimed as gods, Eâpis of
l\Iemphis, l\lnevis of Heliopolis, and the goat of l\fendes.
After hinI, Binôthris had conferred the rigbt of succession
upon all the women of the blood-royal. The accession of
the IIpd dynasty, a l\lemphite one according to l\Ianetbo,
diJ not at first change the miraculous character of this
history. rrhe Libyans had revolted against N echerophes,
and the two armies were encamped before each other, when
one night the disk of the moon became immeasurably
enlarged, to the great alarm of tbe rebels, who recognized
in this phenomenon a sign of the anger of heaven, and
yielded without figbting. Tosorthros, the successor of
N echerophes, brought the hieroglyphs and tbe art of stone-
cutting to perfection. He composed, as Teti did, books of
medicine, a fact which caused him to be identified with the
healing god Imhotpû. The priests related these things

ORIGIX OF LEGEXDS

349

seriously, and the Greek 'writers took them down from their
lips with the respect which they offered to everything
emanating from the wise men of Egypt.
What they related of the human kings was not more
detailed, as we see, than their accounts of the gods.
\Vhether the legends dealt with deities or kings, all
that we know took its origin, not in popular imagina-
tion, but in sacerdotal dogma: they 'were invented
long' after the times they dealt with, in the recesses
of the temples, with an intention and a method of
which we are enabled to detect flagrant instances on the
lnonuments. Towards the middle of the third century
before our era, the Greek troops stationed on the southern
frontier, in the forts at the first cataract, developed a
particular veneration for Isis of Philæ. Their devotion
spread to the superior officers who caIne to inspect them,
then to the whole population of the Thebäid, and finally
reached the court of the l\Iacedonian kings. The latter,
carried away by force of example, gave every encouragement
to a movement which attracted worshippers to a common
sanctuary, and united in one cult the two races over which
they ruled. They pulled down the meagre building of the
Saïte period which had hitherto sufficed for the worship
of Isis, constructed at great cost the temple which still
remains almost intact, and assigned to it considerable
possessions in Nubia, which, in addition to gifts from
private individuals, made the goddess the richest land-
owner In Southern Egypt. Khnûm û and his two
wives, Anûkit and Satît, who, before Isis, had been the
undisputed suzerains of the cataract, perceived with

330 THE LEGEXDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

jealousy their neighbour's prosperity: the civil wars and
invasions of the centuries immediately preceding had

, - ---'-'-"'"
;)
J
j

r I'
Li'" L".._.._,

. r
- -_- ''-,"f<''"' ....-....J ., -......-

.1
-,c,': j

,r --..,"-.....
__ ..: _..:
:...,...:.-' . "I n
..'1
_...:;n ,I l"'fI

,

I- ,,"1- L.. - .a."',fIo Y '''''' "...,1., t..........
.
...n:;1
...-.,. ."'''.
...r:'IU 'I h-1.. ... "......"'

SATÎT PRESEXT:'; TilE PIlAR \011 .\:\IEXÛTHE!II III. TO KII
e)(Û.l

ruined their tenlples, and their poverty contrasted pain-
fully with the riches of the new-comer. The priests

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the temple of
Kbnûmû, at Elephantinê, This bas-relief is now ùestroyed.

resolved to lay this sad state of affairs before King Ptolemy,
to represent to him the services which they had rendered
and still continued to render to Egypt, and above all to
remind him of the generosity of the ancient Pharaohs,
whose example, owing to the poverty of the times, the
recent Pharaohs had been unable to follo,v. Doubtless
authentic documents were wanting in their
archives to support their pretensions: they
therefore inscribed upon a rock, in the
island of Sehel, a long inscription which
they attributed to Zosiri of the IIpd
dynasty. This sovereign had left behind
him a vague reputation for greatness. As
early as the Xlp h dynasty U sirtasen III.
had claimed hirn as "his father" -his
ancestor-and had erected a statue to ,
him; the priests knew that, by invoking
him, they had a chance of obtaining a

hearing. The inscription which they fabri-
cated, set forth that in the eighteenth year
of Zosiri's reign he had sent to
ladîr, AXCKIT. ' ....-
lord of Elephantinê, a message couched in
these terms: "I am overcome with sorrow for the throne,
and for those who reside in the palace, and my heart is
affiicted anù suffers greatly because the Nile has not risen
in my time, for the space of eight years. Corn is scarce,
there is a lack of herbage, and nothing is left to eat: when
anyone calls upon his neighbours for help, they take pains
not to go. The child weeps, the young man is uneasy, the
hearts of the old men are in despair, their limbs are bent,

THE RE1G
OF ZOSIRI

3::>1

"
.'.....

l\

,v

352 THE LEGE
DARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

they crouch on the earth, they fold their hands; the
courtiers have no further reSOU1'ces; the shops formerly
furnished with rich wares are now filled only with air, all
that was in them has disappeared. l\fy spirit also, mindful
of the beginning of things, seeks to call upon the Saviour who
was here where I am, during the centuries of the gods, upon
Thot- Ibis, that great wise one, upon Imhotpû, son of Phtah
of l\femphis. vVhere is the place in which the Nile is born?
\Vho is the god or goddess concealed there? \Vhat is his
likeness?" The lord of Elephantinê brought his reply in
person. He described to the king, who was evidently
ignorant of it, the situation of the island and the rocks of
the cataract, the phenomena of the inundation, the gods
who presided over it, and who alone could relieve Egypt
from her disastrous plight. Zosiri repaired to the temple
of the p1'incipality and offered the prescribed sacrifices; the
god arose, opened his eyes, panted and cried aloud, "I am
Khnûmû who created thee!" and prolnised him a speedy
return of a high Nile and the cessation of the famine.
Pharaoh was touched by the benevolence which his divine
father had shown him; he forthwith made a decree by
which he ceded to the temple all his rights of suzerainty
over the neighbouring nomes within a radius of twenty
miles. Henceforward the entire population, tillers and
vinedressers, fishermen and hunters, had to yield the tithe
of their incomes to the priests; the quarries could not be
worked without the consent of Khnûmû, and the payment
of a suitable indemnity into his coffers, and finally, all
metals and precious woods shipped thence for Egypt had
to subn1it to a toll on behalf of the temple. Did the

THE FAMINE STELE

353

Ptolemies admit
the claims which
the local priests at-
tempted to deduce from this
romantic tale? and did the god
regain possession of the domains
and dues which they declared
had been his right? The stele
shows us with what ease the
scribes could forge official docu-
THE STEP-r\R.UlID OF SAQQÂRA. 1
lllents, when the exigencies of
daily life forced the necessity upon them; it tea" hes us at
the same time how that fabulous chronicle was elaborated,
whose remains have been preserved for us by classical
writers. Every prodigy, every fact related by l\Ianetho,
was taken fronl some document analogous to the supposed
inscription of Zosiri. 2

'
: .

<: ..:T_
? :.._

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.. ..
___ __

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___ -
.Þ

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. .":
.-'.:
: --:--i';
.

--

,

. -

';"_ ' _" ... - ....:;:.--.&,..._-..1

.4"'- -- -
.... -;'''
- ,.
.:

,::....?

;Úti::.,;;:-:;;.'-;Yt..

-:.....

.
..!
" :.. i--;::
:-

.
-

T<-
. _ _,," __' _ .
,. ' .'
, " __, ,,"II , ...; - ,,'
" 1'::

; ............. f
';:.,..:' ':;;'..?i ...... .
! f
,.\ ......
'

.
... . .

. -
}.'-' ""'"'
--=-- r ".J
to. "..: :, :.; .;..
,
-;:.j
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..,

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:
': -

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.-
.-
c.,..Þ,-::-'

1 Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Dévèria (1864); in the fore-
ground, the tomb of Ti.
2 The legend of the yawning gulf at Bubastis must be connected with
the gifts supposed to haye been offered by King Boêthos to the temple of
VOL. I. 2 A

3:5-1 TH
L
G
XDARY llISTOHY OF EGYPT

The real history of the early centuries, therefore, eludes
our researches, and no contemporary record traces for us
those vicissitudes which Egypt passed through before being
consolidated into a single kingdom, under the rule of one
man. Many nanles, apparently of powerful and illustrious
princes, had survived in the memory of the people; these
were collected, classified, and grouped in a regular manner
into dynasties, but the people were ignorant of any exact
facts connected with the names, and the historians, on
their own account, were reduced to collect apocryphal
traditions for their sacred archives. The monuments of
these remote ages, however, cannot have entirely dis-
appeared: they exist in places where we have not as yet
thought of applying the pick, and chance excavations will
some day most certainly bring them to light. The few
.vhich we do possess barely go back beyond the IIpd
dynasty: namely, the hypogeum of Shiri, priest of Sondi
and Pirsenû; possibly the tomb of KhÚîthotpÚ at Saqqâra;
the Great Sphinx of Gîzeh; a short inscription on the
rocks of the Wady l\Iaghâra, 'which represents Zosiri (the
same king of whom the priests of !(hnûwû in the Greek
period made a precedent) working the turquoise or copper
mines of Sinai; and finally the Step-Pyramid where this

that town, to repair the losses sustained by the goddess on that occasion;
the legend of the pestilence and famine is traceable to some relief given by
a local god, and for which Semempses and Ûenephes might have shown
their gratitude in the same way as Zosiri. The tradition of the successive
restorations of Denderah accounts for the constructions attributed to Teti 1.
and to Tosorthros; finally, the pretended discoveries of sacred hooks, dealt
with elsewh('re, show how JUanetho was enabled to attribute to his Pharaohs
the authorship of works on medicine or theology.

^
THE STEP-PYRA1\I1D OF SAQQARA

355

same Pharaoh rests. l It forms a rectangular mass, In-
correctly orientated, with a variation fro In the true nOloth
of 4 0 35', 393 ft. 8 in. long from east to west, and 352 ft.
deep, with a height of 159 ft. 9 ill. It is conlposed of six
cubes, with sloping sides, each being about 13 ft. less in
width than the one below it; that nearest to the ground
measures 37 ft. 8 in. in height, and the uppermost one
29 ft. 9 ill. It was entirely constructed of lÏIllestone from
the neighbouring mountains. The blocks are small, and
badly cut, the stone courses being concave to offer a better
resistance to ùownwal'd thrust and to shocks of earthquake.
When breaches in the lnasonry are examined, it can be
seen that the external surface of the steps has, as it were, a
double stone facing, each facing being carefully dressed.
The body of the pyramid is solid, the chambers being cut
in the l'ock beneath. These chambers have been often
enlarged, restored, and reworked in the course of centuries,
and the passages which connect them form a perfect laby-
rinth into which it is dangerous to venture without a guide.
The columned porch, the galleries and halls, all lead to a
sort of enormous shaft, at the bottom of which the architect
had contrived a hiding-place, destined, no doubt, to contain
the more precious objects of the funerary furniture. Until
the beginning of this century, the vault had preserved its

1 The stele of Sehêl has enabled us to verify the fact that the preamble
[a string of titles] to the inscription of the king, buried in the
tep-Pyramid,
is identical with that of King Zosiri: it was, therefore, Zosiri who con-
structed, or arranged for the construction of this monument as hi
tomb.
The Step-Pyramid of Saqqâra was opened in 1819, at the expense uf the
Prussian General l\Iinuto1i, who was the first tu give a brief description of
the interior, illustrated by plans and drawings,

356 THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OP EGYPT

original lining of glazed pottery. Three quarters of the
wall surface were covered with green tiles, oblong and
slightly convex on the outer side, but flat on the inner: a

',
t

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, _-

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OYE OF 'Hm CH.UIBERS OF THE STEP-P\'IU::\IID, WITH ITS WALL-COYERIXQ OF
GLAZED TILES,l

square projection pierced with a hole, sel'ved to fix them at
the back in a horizontal line by means of flexible wooden

1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the coloured sketch by Segato. 1\1.
Stern attributes the decoration of glazed pottery to .the XXVph dynasty,
which opinion is shared by BORCHARDT, The yellow and green glazed tiles
bearing the cartouche of Papi I., show that the Egyptians uf the l\femphite
dynasties used glazed facings at that early date; we may, therefore, believe,
if the tiles of the vault of Zosiri are really of the Saïte period, that they
replaced a decoration of the same kind, which belonged to the time of its
construction, and, of which some fragments still exist among the tiles of
more recent date,

^
THE STEP-PYRAJlID OF SAQQARA 357

rods. The three bands which frame one of the doors are
inscribed with the titles of the Pharaoh: the hieroglyphs
are raised in either blue, red, green, or yellow, on a fawn-
coloured ground. Other kings had built temples, palaces,
and towns,-as, for instance, I(ing Khâsakhimu, of whose
constructions some traces exist at Hieracônpolis, opposite
to EI-Kab, 01' King Khâsakhmui, who preceded by a few
years the Pharaohs of the IV th dynasty-but the monuments
which they raised to be witnesses of their power or piety to
future generations, have, in the course of ages, disappeared
under the tramplings and before the triumphal blasts of
Inany invading hosts: the pyramid alone has survived, and
the most ancient of the historic monuments of Egypt is
a tomb.

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END OF VOL. I.

IXDEX

A

Abydos, 281, 282, 323, 3:33
Agriculture in Egypt, 86-91, 98, 248
Ahi, 142
Aît-nobsú, 243, 245
Akhîmû Sokû (or ûrdú), 12.:)
Akhmîm (Panopolis, - EkhlllÎlll), 40
Amakhú, 165
Amon, 116, 133, 135, In, 206, 213, 227
.Amon-1Iaut-KhollSÚ, 215
Amsit, 204, 205, 261, 207
Anbú-haz-ú, 341
Anhúri-Shú, 133, 135, 148, 163, 199, 200,
205, 218, 332, 3:J:3
Anît, 215
Ankht, See Onkhit
Anubis, 138, 15ü, lü3, 191, 249, 252, 2;)5,
2GO, 261, 268, 278, 304
Anúkît (Anuke), 141, 349
Anúpú, Hi3
Apit-to, 23
Apollinopolis )lagna. See Edfú
Apôpi, 120, 121, 227, 242, 2t:/j
A pú, 95
Ari-hos-nofir (or Tútú), 141, 217
Ashlllúnein. See Khmúnú
Asp, The, 42
Astronomy, Ancient Egyptian, 292, et
seq., 2!m
Aswall (
yene), 14
Ata, 347
Athribis, 102
Ati, 34,"), 347
Atonú, 116
Atúmú (see also Túmú), 144, 152, 197,
198, 200, 200, 210, 214, 216, 22:

Aúnú of the Korth (Heliopolis), 97, 271
Axes, Ancient, 75
Azaï, 137, 138

B

Bahr el-Abiacl. 27
Rahr el-lì-hazâl, 27
Bahr- Yúsuf, 8
Bâkhú, 23, 50

Bamiâ, The, 84
llastît, 137, 144
Batn-el-Bagarah, 7
Bennu, See Bonú
Bersîm, 8
Bes. See Bîsú
Binôthris, 348
Birds of Egypt, 44
Birds, Legend of the (Gebel et-Têr), 12
Birket-Xú, 2

llîsú (Bes), 112
Boêthos, 348, 353
Bonú (Bellnu), 128, 186, Hl4. 2il
"Book of the Dead," 2{j3, 28:3, 321
" Bride of the Kile," 3:J
Bubastis, 102, 137, 3,:)3
Burial, Ancient Egyptian modes of, 15:

Búto, 56, 102, 132, 137, 251

C

Calendar, The Egyptian, 295, et seq,
Camel, The, 41
Canopic branch of Kile, 6
Cataracts, The, 14, 19
Cereals of Egypt, 8;)
Cerkasoros, 6
Charms and spells, Ancient, 303
" Children of Defeat" (or Hebellion), 227
Clubs and maces. Ancient, 73, 74
Colocasia, The,
4
Costumes of the Egyptians, Un-iS, et seg.
Creation, Traditions of the, 209, 2:!2, et
seq.
Crocodile, The, 43, 344
Cultivation, See Agriculture

D

Daït, 24
"Daughter of the Prince of Bakhtan,
Tale of," 151
Decani, The (Genii), 293, 297
Delta,
Age of, 4, 5
Formation of, 3. 97, 98, 186
Delta Deities, The, 47, 48. 180, 2.:)4

"'"

Denderah, 102, 129
,. Destruction of Men," The, 149
Didû of Osiris, The, 183
Domestic implements, 67
Domestic life of Egyptians, 64
Dom-palm (Egyptian Nama), 41
.. Double Truth," The, 271
Dynasties of Egypt, The, 321, 322, et seq.

E
Edfû (Apollinopolis .Magna), (Tbû), 102,
130, 2tiO
Egyptian language, The, 58
Egyptians,
Costumes of ancient, 68, 72
Customs of ancient, 63
Early civilization, 60
Origin of the, 56, 57
Types and characteristics of, 58-63
\Veapons of ancient, 73-70
Ekhmím. See Akhmím
Embalming, Process of, 1,")3, 309
Enneaùs, The, 203, et seq., 213, 215, 226,
272,273
ElJagomenal days, The five, 298
Eratosthenes, Canon of, 345
Erment, 1:35
Esneh (Latopolis), 130
F

Fauna of Egypt, 41, 42
Fennec, The, 139
Festivals Ancient Egyptian, 297, 300
Feudal g
ds of Egypt, 1-10, 1;)1, 183, 203
Fish of the Rile, 44, 43
., Five, House of the," 210
Flora of Egypt, 35, 36, 39, 40
Food-plants, 83, .
Funeral rites, AncIent, 160, 2é>7
Funerary gods, The, 204

G

Gebel Abûfêda, 12
Gebel el-Ahmar, 12
Gebel et-Têr, 12
Gebell\Iokattam, 11
Gebelên, 13
Giro-eh, See Cerkasoros
Gíz
h, 3;)4
Gods of Egypt, 107, 132, 146, 162
Gods, Endowment of, 177
Granites of Egypt, 15, 16

H
Hades, The EllYptian, 280, 282, 295
Hahû-Hehit, 213

INDEX

Hâikûphtah (Hakûphtah), 54
Hâpi, 47, 48, ,')1, 54, 2U5, 260
Hâpi, Hymn to, 51
Hâpis (Apis), 343, 348
Hardidûf, 321
Hare, Kome of the, 9;)
Harhûditi (Hor-hud), ]33, 204, 201
Harkhobi, 135
Harmâkhis, 286
Harmakhûíti, 134, lOG, 198
Harmerati, 13;

Haruûbi, 134, 14

Haroêris (Horus), 114, 117, 123, 124, 130,
133, 134, 137, 142-1-13, 152, lüû,
U2-
205, 2W, 217, 2:!.:), 227, 252, 253, 205,
28G, :W2
Harpoon, Nome of the, 98, 100
Har-Sapdi (Hor-Sopd), 13:

Harshâfitû (Her-shafui), 132, 140, 168
Harsiesis, 203
Harsiisit, 186
Hartimâ, 134
Hâthor, 112, 115, 117, 119, 133,137, 141,
144, 16:3, 172, 206, 215, 235, 233, 263,
2G6, 2G8, 296
Haunch constellation, The, 125-127
Haunch, Nome of the, 97
Hâûrit, 132
Heliopolis (see also Aûnû of the Korth),
163, lüG, HlO, un, 274, 330, 341
Hermopolis
Iagna, See Khmûllû
Hibollû pIinieh), 287, 288
Hierodules, 1i8
Hieroglyphs, The, 315-319
Hininsû, 95
Hor-hud, See Harhûditi
Horse, The, 41
Hor-Sopd. See Har-Sapdi
Horns (Haroêris). 114, 117, 123, 124, 130,
133, 134, 137, 142-14;), 152, 202-206,
21.:), 2Hi, 225, 227, 252, 253, 2G5, 28G,
98
'>lI2 ':>05
Hl
ntï'n;: À
cient methods of, 76-82
Hüsaphaíti, 321
Hû-Sû, 302

Ialü. See" Reeds, Field of'
Iâûhû, 128
Ibis, The, 44
Ibrâhimiyeh, 8
Ichneumon, The, 42
Imhotep, See Imhotpû
Imhotpû, 143, 146, 348, 352
Incantations, etc., 303, 304
Irrigation, See Agriculture in Egypt
Isis 28 119 132 143, 145, 183, 186. 187,
2.10, 206, 215, '221, 231, 232, 246, 249,
252, 2;)5, 260, 269, 349

"Islands of the Blest," 266, 277-283
Iûsasit, 141, 216

K

Kabhsonûf (Kabhsnuf), 205
I\:ahiri (planet Saturn), 128
I\:akôû, 348
Kakû-Kakît, 213
Kasr-es-Sayad, 12
I\:enkenes, ;347
Kerkesoura. See Cerkasoros
I\.ha, Lake of, 266
I\:hait-nûtrît, 287
Khamsîn, The, 30
l\:hartum, 21
I\:heops, 321
I\.heper. See Khopri
Kluuûnû (Hermopolis Magna), 95, 102,
.vn, 181, 207, 211, 214, 331
Khnûmû (god of Elephantinê), 52, 132,
140, 152, 168, 181, 217, 22
, 349, 352
I\.homninû, 213
Khonsû, 151
Khontamentît (Khent-Amenti), 163, 164,
258, 280, 281, 333
Khopri (Kheper), 163, 197, 198, 233, 265
Khû (Khûfl), 160
Khflfûi (see also Kheops)
Khûihotep. See Khûîthotpfl
Khûîthotpû, 354
I\:ings, Tables of, 322, et seq,
Ko-komè, Pyramids of, 348

L

" Land of Shades," 25
Letopolis (
okhem). 144
Life, Ancient Egyptian theory of, 309
Lotus, The, 36, 47, 84, 85, 193, 195

M

Madîr, 351
:Magicians, 303
Magicians, The king's, 3] 1
Mâit, 208, 268
" l\Ianeros," The, 343
Manes, 322
Manû, 23, 56, 120
Marriage amongst Egyptians, 63, 64
Mars-Doshiri, 128
Maskhaît, 126
Maskhonît, 108
l\Iathematical calculations, Early, 314
Mâzît, 120
")Ieadow of Reeds." See "R e e d s ,
Field of"
" Meadow of Rest. " See " Res t ,
Fietd of"
Medamôt Tafld, 135

IKDEX

l\Iedicine, Early practice of, 308,311,312
" l\Ielayahs, " 95
l\Ieloukhia, The, 84
l\Iemphis (Minnofîrû), 328, 341, 34

l\Iemphite period, The, 328, 321:1
Mendes, 16J, 168, 200
l\Ienes, 5, 90, 322, 333-343, 347
l\Ienkaûri. See l\IJ" kerinos
Mihît, 333
Min (God of Koptos). See
1inû
l\Iinnofirû, See Memphis
l\Iinß., 133, 168, 2U5
!\Iiriri Papi I. See Papi I.
Mirit
Iihit, 48
Mirit Qimâit, 48
Mnevis, IH3, 348
l\Iæris, I{ing, 90
Mæris, Lake (Birket-Kerun), 343
Monad, The, 214
Monâît, 123, 142
Montu (Mentu), god of Hermonthis, 135,
168, 215, 228
Moon, Ancient traditions of the, 123
Music, Invention of, 314
l\Iykerinos (Menkaûrî), 321

N

Nahmâûit, 141, 142
Napri, 51, 54
Naprît, 108
Nebthôtpît, 141, 216
Nekhabit (Eileithyapolis, EI-Kab), 56, 96,
102
Nekhabit, the vulture goddess, 13;
Nephercheres, 348
Nephthys, 189, 200, 201, 215, 247, 249,
252, 260, 269
N O"aO"u oîrû 115
" NiO"h t of the Drop "28 30
Nile,ð "
Bl ue, 2D
Festivals of the, 50
Green, 29
Inundations of the, 29, 50, 53, 89
Mouths of the, 6
Red, 3U
Rise of the, 30, 50, 53, 89

ource of the, 25, 26
Valley of the, 6
White, 34
Nile-gods, The (Hâpi and his two god-
desses, l\Iirit Qimâit and l\lirit l\Iihit ;
also Khnûmû, Osiris, Harshâfiû), 46-
48, 132, 140, 168, 181
Ninû-Ninit, 213
Nit, 53, 133, 137, 141, 163, 166, 180, 206,
26:
, 2fi

Nofir-horû, 141

:Xofir-tumu, 144
:Kome-gods, 132, 163, 183, 184, 205
K omes of Egypt, The, fli-103
Kû, or Nûn, 180, 209, 2ii, z34-239
:Xûbît, Ombos, 28G
Kûít (Kut), 115, 120, 123, 1i2, 181, 182,
188, H)tI, 200, 210, 215, 228, 238-242,
247. 2ü3
Nû-Nftît, 213
Kut, See Nûît

o

Oasis, The Great (Uit, Uhat), (Oasis of
EI-Khargeh), 834
(Edipus Egyptiacus (I\:ircher), Map from,
27
Ogdoad, The, 212, 217
Oîrû maû (Dr-ma), 1 i7, 230
Oleander (Narû), Nome of, 95, 100
Ombos (Nûbît), 137
Omens and auspicious days, 301, 302
On, See Aûnû of the North
Onkhit (Ankht), 23
Ounophris (Osiris), 184, 259, 270, 273,
279, 280, 295
Onouris, 135
" Opening of the l\Iouth," 257
Oracles, Egyptian, 168, 169
Orion-Sâhû, See Sâhû
Osiris, 90, 132, 140, 141-145, 152, 163,
164, 168, 181-191, 200, 215, 245-2ü2,
268, 273-291, 2H5, 300-304, 309, 333
Osiris Khontamentît, 280, 281
Ouenephes, 347, 348
Oxyrrhynchos (Pi-mâzit, Bahnasa), 286,
287
Oxyrrhynchus (mormyrus fish), 137, 252

P

Panopolis (Apû). See Akhmim
Paophi, 303
Papi I" 341
Papyrus, The, 47, 85
Paradise, The Egyptian idea of, 284. See
also Hades
Pasht. See Bastît
Paûîti, 203
Pelusiac branch of Nile, 6
Pepi. See Papi
Pharaoh, 352
Pharmûti, 297
Phænix, The, 193
Phtah, 51, 132, 143, 152, 163, 168, 206,
222, 228, 302, 341, 344, 3:)2
Phtah-Sokar-Osiris, 280
Piarît, 244, z45
Pi-rd.. &e Heliopolis
Pirûit. it/G, :W7

IXDEX

Priesthood, The Egyptian, 173-177
Princes and nobility, 92, 93
Ptolemy, King, 351
Pûauît, 112
Punt, See Pûauit
Pyramid, The Step-, 354

Qabhsonûf, 260
Qasr-es-Sayad, 12
Qellqoni, 345
Qimit, 55
Qosheish, 89, 90
Qû bti, Uü

Q

R

Ra, 51, 114-128, 133, 139, 152, 166, 168,
Hl4-H I 9, 222-247, 255, 265, 281, 28.j
294, 300, 330
Râ-Harmakhis, 242
Hâ-Harmakhûîti, 197
Raiâu, 8
Hamses II., 323, 340, 345
Haninît, 109
Ranûit (Ramûit), 297
Ra-qrirít, 163
,. Heeds, Field of," 241, 258, 262, 280
Religious rites and ceremonies, 174
Remedies, Egyptian. See )ledicine
Hert. See Rirít
" Hespondents," 2i6
"Rest l<'ield of "241 258
Hirít (Ì
ert), 126 '
ROlllitû (RoW), 55

S

" Sa," The, 151
Sanr, 110
f:->âhû, 128, 12f), 293, 295
Sahu-Orion, 2U5
Saíd (Arabic name of Upper Egypt), 45,
9G
Saïs, 102
Saïte period, The, 329
Sâkíeh, The, 19
Saktît, The, 120
Samiû Sit, 25:2
Sapdi, ] 81
Sap-hôû, 302
Saqqâra, 328, 348, 354
Satít (Sati), 141, 349
"Satui Tale of " 208
Saza, 1io '
Seb. See Sibû
Sebek. See Sovkû (or Sobkhû)
Sebennytic branch of
ile, Ö
Sehel, 15
Sehêl stele, The, 355
Selkît, 216
Semempses, 347

Serpent-worship, 170
Sesochris, 348

eti I., tn, 323, 341
Sha, 110

haît
U(j 298
Shas-hirît: Berenicê, 288
Shehadidi, 113
Sheshaît-Rafkhîtâbûi, 141, 142

heshonqû II., 48, note 1
Shômû, :!9ö
Shosûû Horû (Rhesu Hor), 252, 260
Shû, 180-182, W9-206, 21;),216,228,238-
241), 25:), 302
Sibû (
eb), 51, 115, 119, 181, 182, 188,
200-210,213,228,238-246,254,255,286
Silsileh, Khenû, 50, 5()
Sît, 181, 182, 189, un, 200, 207, 215, 246,
2;)1-254, 259,
ï5, 286, 288, 291, 301,
304
Sît-Xûbîti, 254
Sît- Typhon, 250
Siût (Siaût), Ü3, 100, 102, ]38
Sobat, The, 27
Sohâgîyeh, 8
Sokaris, 163, 164, 258, 280, 283
Sokhît, 144, Hì6, 236, 237,302, 333
Sondi, 345, 346

opdît (Sopd), Sirius, or Sothis, 128
Sothis, 129, 293, 295, 298
Soul, Ancient traditions of the, 158, 260,
et seq.
Sovkû, Sobkû (Sebek), 53, 137, 140, 143,
245
Spells and Incantations, Ancient, 303
Sphinx the Great, 354
Stars, Egyptian traditions of the, 122-128
Rtep-Pyramid, The, 354. et seq,
SUll, Legends and traditions of the, 116-
]22, 133, In5, 281
Sycamores, 172

T

Tafnûît, 201, 206, 215, 216
Takazze, The, 21, 34
.. Tale of the Two Brothers," 252
Tamarisk, Egyptian and Semitic names
of. 39
Taninit, 216
Tanû, 215
Terebinth, The, 93, 100
Teti 1., 15n, 345
Thamos, 31.)
Thebaid. The. 53
Theban Ennead, The, 215
Theban period, The, 329
Thinis, or This, 9;), 102, 133,135, 163, 331,
;
:
4

I
DEX

Thot, 53, 123, 13ï-142, 152,204-21,), 228,
247-2:)5, 260, 266, 272, 283, 286, 291,
296, 302-308, 314, 320, 352
Thoth. See Thot
Time, Divisions of. See Calendar
Tiûmaûtf,
04, 261
Tiû-mîtiri, 128
Tom bs, The Egyptian, 284, 356
Tosorthros, 348
.. Tree of the Virgin," 172
Tree-worship, 171
Triads of gods, 144, et seq" 215
Tum, See Tûmû,
Tûmû (see Atûmû), 141, 16:3, 197-199,
209, 22ï, 23:
, 2U5
TUllari, 32:3
Typhon, 246, 251. 271, 286-291 t 300
Typhonians. See Typhon

u

Ûapirahûhûi, 254
UapshetaLîu (planet Jupiter), 128
Ûap-uaîtû (Anubis), 138, 163, 204, 267
"'C"ashbîti, 276, 277
"'C" ati, 128
"Gchoreus, 342
Uit (Chat), the Great Oasis, 334
Universe, Egyptian theory of the, 22,
180, 182
Únnofruî (Osiris), 184
yræus, The, 42,243, 265
Urdû-hît, 164
"Çrshû, 294
Usirtasen III., 351

,v

Wady,
Iaghâra inscription, 354
Willow (Egyptian tar it, tore), 41
World, Egyptian conception of the, 21. 22
Worship, Rites of, 173-179
Writing, The invention of, 314, et seq,

y

Yâûhû, Aß.hO the l\Ioon, 122

z

Zalû, or Zârû (Selle, Tell Abu Smfeh),
288
Zatmît, 28ï
Zobû (Edfû), 96
loslI'i, 351-3:)3

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