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The death of Egmont has supplied to Goethe an admi- | from the Nile, and near Benisouef fifteen miles distant from rable subject for one of the best of his historical tragedies, it. The banks of the Bahr Joussouf, like those of the Nile, for which Beethoven composed one of his finest overtures and some beautiful melodies to the songs interspersed through the play.

The latest life of Egmont is that by Clouet, Éloge
historique du Comte d'Egmont, Bruxelles, 1825.
EGREMONT. [CUMBERLAND.]
EGRIPOS. [EUBEA.]

are raised higher than the rest of the valley Consequently between the canal and the Nile there is a kind of depression. On the other or west side of the canal there is a strip of cultivated land as far as the inundation or artificial irrigation extends, beyond which and to the foot of the ridge there is a strip of sand, light and drifting in the neighbourhood of the cultivated ground, upon which it seems to encroach in many places, and coarser and mixed with pebbles near the base of the hills. Consequently the cultivable land along the banks of the Nile, both to the east and to the west of the river, by no means occupies the whole breadth of the valley. The Bahr Joussouf appears to be the same as the Oxyrhynchus canal of antient times, which Strabo, while sailing along it, mistook for the Nile itself, on account of its magnitude. North of Benisouef, the western range, the height of which becomes less and less as it advances northwards, again approaches the river near Sakkarah, and forms in the neighbourhood of Jizeh a kind of natural terrace, on which the great pyramids stand. The ridge then continues to skirt the western or Rosetta branch of the river as far as the neighbourhood of the Canal Bahireh, which once communicated with the lake Mareotis. The ridge here inclines to the west, and may be considered as joining the hills which skirt the valley of the Natron lakes. [BAHR BELA-MA] The general character of the western ridge which borders the valley of the Nile is a limestone formation which contains numerous fossil shells. The great pyramid is built of this kind of stone. In the neighbourhood of Esneh, in Upper Egypt, a sandstone formation commences, alternating with limestone, but the mountains contain also slate and quartz of various colours. The great slabs used in the construction of the temples of Egypt, with the exception of those of the Delta, were of sandstone, as well as many of the sculptures or statues. In the neighbourhood of Selseleh are extensive quarries of sandstone. The mountain range on the eastern side differs in some respects in its geological character from the western ridge, and it generally rises more abruptly, and often close to the edge of the river. From Mount Mokattem, near Cairo, the limestone extends southwards, though with many interruptions, as far as on the western side of the Nile. But the serpentine and granite appear to commence earlier, and to characterize the eastern more strongly than the western side. Near Assouan the granite alternates with the decomposed sandstone, exhibiting an irregular and broken appearance, which has sometimes been compared to a ruin. On the east side of the Nile, near Syene, scattered about the foot of the mountains, and occasionally close to the river, are those extensive granite quarries which furnished the antient Egyptians with materials for their colossal statues and obelisks.

EGYPT AND EGYPTIANS. Egypt, Mizr or Mizraim in Hebrew, Masr in Arabic, and Chamî or Chemî in Coptic, is generally reckoned within the limits of Africa, though several geographers have considered it as physically belonging to Asia. It is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean, on the east by the little river of El Arish on the borders of Palestine and the Syrian or Arabian desert, which extends from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Suez, and from thence southwards by the west coast of the Red Sea, and on the west by the Libyan desert. To the south its boundary from the oldest time has been fixed at the rapids or cataracts of Assouan, the antient Syene, which are formed by a number of granite rocks that lie across the bed of the river. The fall of the water, however, is only a few feet, and boats can easily pass down the rapids. But the political limits of Egypt have extended both in antient and modern times further south along the valley of the Nile into the country known by the general name of Nubia. The length of Egypt from the cataracts of Syene 24° 8' N. lat. to the most northern point of the Delta on the Mediterranean 31° 25′, measures on the map about 500 English miles. But the length of the cultivated parts of Egypt, or valley of the Nile, is considerably greater, owing to the numerous bends of the river, which give it a course of about 500 miles from Assouan to a few miles north of Kahira or Cairo, where the valley terminates: this estimate is exclusive of the length of the Delta, which is nearly 100 miles more. The broadth of Egypt is difficult to determine. As to its physical boundaries it may be considered to extend from the shores of the Red Sea to the range of hills which bounds the valley of the Nile to the west; it may even be extended over the western desert as far as the Oases which are dependencies of Egypt; or it may be restricted to the breadth of the cultivated land in the valley of the Nile and Delta, which are the only parts, excepting the Oases, where there is a settled population. We may therefore consider Egypt under each of these four great divisions: 1. The valley of the Nile; 2. The Delta; 3. The western desert and the Oases therein inclosed; 4. the Eastern country towards the Red Sea.

1. Valley of the Nile. The Nile coming from Nubia runs through a deep and narrow valley, sunk between two ridges of rocky hills which rise in some places above 1000 feet above the level of the river. The breadth of the valley varies considerably, but it is seldom more than ten miles, and in many places, especially in Upper Egypt, it is not two, including the breadth of the river, which varies from 2000 to 4000 feet. In its course within Egypt the Nile contains numerous islands. From Assouan to Selseleh, a distance of about 40 miles, the river runs nearly in the middle of the valley, leaving little cultivable land on each side. As we advance farther north the western ridge recedes from the river, so as to leave a space of several miles between the left bank and the foot of the hills, while the east chain keeps closer to the corresponding or right bank of the Nile. North of Keneh the river forms a great bend to the west and north-west as far as Minyeh, near which it reaches it westernmost point, which is about 120 miles to the west of the longitude of Keneh; it then in clines again to the north-east as far as Benisouef and a few miles beyond it, after which it assumes a course nearly due north as far as the apex of the Delta. From Farshout, half way between Keneh and Girgeh, a canal runs parallel to and west of the course of the Nile, under the different names of Moye Souhadj, Bahr Joussouf, &c., for about 250 miles to Benisouef, where an opening in the western ridge allows a branch of it to pass into the district of Faioum, which it irrigates and fertilizes. Its surplus waters then flow into the Birket-el-Keroun, the antient Mæris lake. [BIRKET-EL-KEROUN and FAIOUM.] Another branch of the Bahr Joussouf continues to follow the course of the Nile northwards as far as the Delta. The Bahr Joussouf, from Ashmounein to Benisouef, runs at the distance of three to six miles from the river; the western ridge being here from eight to ten miles

The eastern range leaves the banks of the Nile at a higher
or more southern point than the west ridge. From Mount
Mokattem, near Cairo, it turns off abruptly to the east, and
under the name of Jebel Attaka runs to the Red Sea, near
Suez. North of it the sands of the desert of Suez spread
close to the eastern skirts of the Delta.

2. The Delta. The Nile issuing from the valley a few
miles north of Cairo, enters the wide low plain which,
from its triangular form and its resemblance to the letter
A, received from the Greeks the name of the Delta. The
river divides into two branches, that of Rosetta or old
Canopic, and that of Damiat or Phatnitic. The figure of
the Delta is now determined by these two branches, although
the cultivated plain known by that name extends consi-
derably beyond to the east and west, as far as the sandy
desert on each side. In antient times the triangle of the
Delta was much more obtuse at its apex, as its right side
was formed by the Pelusiac branch, which, detaching itsel
from the Nile higher up than the Damiat branch, flowed to
Pelusium, at the eastern extremity of Lake Menzaleh. This
branch is now in great measure choked up, though it still
serves partly for the purpose of irrigation. West of the
Pelusiac branch the Moes canal corresponds with the Ta-
nitic or Saitic branch of the antients, and the Menzaleh
canal with the Mendesian branch; they both enter Lake
Menzaleh, a vast salt marsh, forty miles long, which com-
municates with the sea by several outlets.
(Andreossi's
Memoir on Lake Menzaleh, with Map of the same in the
great French work on Egypt.) Between the Damiat and
the Rosetta branch are numerous canals, large and small,

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intersecting the country in every direction. Along the seacoast is another salt lake or marsh, called Bourlos, communicating with the sea by an outlet, which is probably the same as the Sebennytic mouth of the antient geographers. Proceeding westward we meet with the Rosetta or Bolbitine mouth, which with that of Damiat are now the only two entrances from the sea into the Nile, and they are accessible only to small vessels. The Nile at Rosetta is 1800 feet wide, and at Damiat only 800 feet. West of Rosetta, ael Behnesa, having been colonized by people from Behuesa salt marsh, called Lake Etko, has been formed, which communicates on one side with the Nile, and on the other with the sea or Aboukir Bay, by an outlet which corresponds to the old Canopic mouth. West of Lake Etko is the lake of Aboukir, which likewise communicates with the sea, and is divided from Lake Mareotis to the south-west of it by an isthmus, along which passes the canal of Alexandria, which has been restored by Mehemet Ali. [ALEXANDRIA; BIRKET EL MARIOUT.] The greatest breadth of the Delta, or cultivated plain of Lower Egypt, is about eighty miles from east to west; its length from the bifurcation of the river to the sea is about ninety. The interior of the country, which is covered with fields, orchards, and plantations, exhibits different aspects according to the various seasons. The rise of the Nile occasioned by the periodical rains of Central Africa, begins in June about the summer solstice, and it continues to increase till September, overflowing the lowlands along its course. The Delta then looks like an immense marsh, interspersed with numerous islands, with villages, towns, and plantations of trees just above the water. Should the Nile rise a few feet above its customary elevation, the inundation sweeps away the mud-built cottages of the Arabs, drowns their cattle, and involves the whole population in ruin. Again, should it fall short of the ordinary height, bad crops and dearth are the consequences. The inundations having remained stationary for a few days, begin to subside, and about the end of November most of the fields are left dry, and covered with a fresh layer of rich brown slime: this is the time when the lands are put under culture. During our winter months, which are the spring of Egypt, the Delta, as well as the valley of the Nile, looks like a delightful garden, smiling with verdure, and enamelled with the blossoms of trees and plants. Later in the year the soil becomes parched and dusty; and in May the suffocating Khamseen begins to blow frequently from the south, sweeping along the fine sand, and causing various diseases, until the rising of the beneficent river comes again to refresh the land. Showers are very rare in Egypt, except on the sea-coast: it rains three or four times in the year at Cairo, and once or twice in Upper Egypt, but perhaps not every year. The nights however are cool, and the dews heavy. Strong winds blow from the north during the summer, at the period of the inundation, and are very useful in propelling vessels up the Nile against the current.

It is generally presumed that the Delta has been formed or at least considerably enlarged by the alluvial soil of the Nile. This was already the belief in the time of Herodotus. The advance of the coast since then does not appear to have been very great, if we may judge from the position of the old towns mentioned by the Greek geographers: on the side of Thamiatis, the old Damietta, the sea has not retired above two miles. The time in which the Delta may be supposed to have been a gulf of the sea must be placed long previous to the historical period. At present it seems ascertained that the coast of the Delta does not advance, and the currents which sweep along the north coast of Africa must prevent any permanent accession of alluvial soil to the Egyptian shore. The gradual elevation of the soil of the Delta and valley of the Nile has also been much exaggerated. It does not appear to have risen above seven or eight feet since the time of the Ptolemies, and the bed of the river has also risen in proportion. The height of the inundation requisite for the irrigation of the land, making allowance for the difference of measures, appears to be nearly the same as in the time of Herodotus. (Wilkinson, ch. vi., pp. 313. 40.) The vertical increase of the cultivated soil must not be confounded with the accumulation of sand in some particular places, as round the great sphinx, &c., which has been in many instances the

work of the wind.

3. The Western or Libyan Desert.-The nominal limits of Egypt along the sea-coast west of Alexandria are the mountains at Akabah el Soloum, the Catabathmus Magnus of the antients, about 25° E. long., where the

nominal limits of the pachalik of Tripoli begin, but this extensive tract of country is occupied by independent tribes of nomadic Arabs. In-land to the south is the oasis of Siwah or of Ammon, described by Hornemann, which is now considered as within the political limits of Egypt, and pays tribute to it. [SIWAH.] Farther to the south-east, and nearer to the valley of the Nile, is a succession of oases, beginning with the Little Oasis, now called Wah el Bahryeh or Wah or Oxyrhynchus. The chief town or village is El Kasr, about 28° 16' N. lat. and 28° 55′ E. long. It is three caravan days' journey south-west of Faioum across the desert. This Wah is fertilized by irrigation from plentiful and neverfailing springs; it produces wheat, rice, barley, clover, liquorice, and a variety of fruit trees. It pays a tribute of 20,000 reals, about 6437. sterling, and has an armed force of several hundred men for maintaining the peace. A short day's journey to the south of it is the small Wah of El Hayz, and three days further south is that of Farafrch, with about seventy inhabitants, the rest having been kidnapped some years since by a party of roving blacks from the west. About five or six days west of the road to Farafreh, some say three days due west of the oasis of Dakhleh, is another oasis, called Wady Zerzoora, abounding in springs and palms. It was discovered about ten years since by an Arab in search of a stray camel, and from the footsteps of men and sheep he met with is believed to be inhabited. Gerbabo, another Wah, lies six days still farther to the west, and twelve days from Augila; the inhabitants are said to be black, probably Tibboos, and are far removed beyond the dominion of Egypt. Four days south of Farafreh is the Wah el Gharbee, or Wah el Dakhleh, which, although mentioned by Arab writers, was unknown to Europeans till discovered by Sir A. Edmonstone in 1819. It has however a temple of Roman date, with the names of Nero and Titus upon it. The condition and population of this oasis is superior to those of the others already mentioned: it contains eleven villages or towns, and a population of 6000 male inhabitants. It abounds with fruit, particularly olives and apricots; but dates, as in all the oases, form the principal produce of the district. The principal village, El Kasr Dakhel or Dakhleh, is in about 25° 35' N. lat. and 28° 55′ E. long., nearly three degrees west of Thebes. There is a warm spring, of the temperature of 102 Fahr., which supplies several baths attached to the mosque. The people are hospitable, and neither so ignorant nor so bigoted as those of the Little Oasis. Three days to the eastward of Dakhleb, in the direction of Esneh, is the Great Oasis, or Wah el Khargeh. It extends in length from 24° 30′ to near 26° N. lat., and has many villages and springs, as well as ruins of the antient Egyptian time, of the Roman period, and of the Christian and the Saracenic æras. Several roads lead from the Great Oasis to the Nile, to Esneh, Siout, Farshoot, and Thebes. The road to Dar-fur passes through it. This oasis, as well as that of Dakhleh, are nearly on the same level as the valley of the Nile, while the Little Oasis is about 200 feet higher than the Nile in the latitude of Benisouef. (Wilkinson's Thebes, ch. vi.) The Great Oasis has been described by Browne, who visited it on his way to Dar-fur.

4. The Eastern Country.-The large tract between the valley of the Nile and the Red Sea has a different character from the western or Libyan desert. Its general character is that of a mountainous region, which, although generally rocky and barren, is intersected by numerous wadys or ravines, fertilized by springs and clothed with vegetation. Several Arab tribes divide among themselves the whole tract, which cannot therefore be called properly a desert. These tribes are:-the Maazy, cast of Benisouef; the Atooni and the Beni ouasel, south of the Maazy; and the Ababde, further south, towards Nubia. In antient times the roads leading from the valley of the Nile to the shores of the Red Sea passed by regular stations, and villages and towns with a resident population. Mines of various metals and quarries of porphyry and other valuable stones are scattered among the mountains, and were once regularly worked. At present, the only fixed habitations are at the port of Cosseir, and at the Coptic monasteries of St. Anthony and St. Paul. The road to the latter leads from the east bank of the Nile, opposite Benisquef, along an undulating plain or broad valley, called Wady Arabah, which extends nearly due east to the Red Sea, between two ridges of mountains, both called Jebel Kelalla; the south range is also called

2 R 2

Kolzim, and projects into the sea at Zaffarana Point, south the list of Manetho and partly from the Phonetic inscriptions of the bay of that name, about 28° 55′ N. lat. The distance on the monuments of the country. (Wilkinson's Chronofrom the Nile to the Red Sea is here about 90 miles. Theory of the Kings of Egypt, at the end of his Topography convent of St. Anthony is about 17 miles from the shore o Thebes.) The immediate successors of Menes are unof the Mersa, or bay of Zaffarana, which terminates the known till we come to Suphis and his brother or brothers, wady Arabah. The patron and founder of the order is to whom the great pyramid is attributed by some, and who St. Anthony of Thebes, who lived in the time of Con- are supposed to be the same as the Cheops and Cephren stantine. The monks have two very fine gardens, which, of Herodotus, although that historian has placed them as well as the convent, are surrounded by high walls much later, after Sesostris and Moris. Abraham visited to protect them from the Arabs. From St. Anthony to Egypt about 1920 B.C., and we have the testimony of the Deir Bolos, or St. Paul, is a distance of about 14 miles by Scripture as to the high and flourishing state of that country the road. The Kolzim ridge lies between the two. Deir at that early period. The Scripture calls the kings of Bolos is only 9 miles from the sea to the south-east of Deir Egypt indiscriminately Pharaohs, which is now ascertained Antonios, and at Wady Girfi between it and the sea are to be not the proper name of the individual monarchs, but the remains of houses and catacombs which appear to be- a prefix like that of Cæsar and Augustus given to the long to the Greek period. (Wilkinson's Notes on a part of Roman emperors. The word Phra in the Egyptian lanthe East Desert of Upper Egypt, with maps; in the 2nd vol. guage meant the sun. Little or nothing is known of seveof The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of Lon- ral successive dynasties except the names of some of the don.) The Convent of Deir Bolos appears to be wealthier kings, until we come to Osirtesen I. of the sixteenth and finer than that of Deir Anthony, but the monks are dynasty, who began to reign about 1740 B.C. Very few fewer in number: both live chiefly on vegetables and fish. monuments remain of a date prior to his reign. The obeFrom Deir Bolos Mr. Wilkinson proceeded southwards, be- lisk of Heliopolis bears the name of Osirtesen. The sixtween the Kolzim range and the sea, to Jebel Tenesep, teenth dynasty, which reigned from 1812 to 1650 B.C., about 15 miles south-east of Deir Bolos, where the moun- was from Lower Egypt, where the kings of this dynasty tains diverge into the interior to the south and south-resided. Memphis however is said to have been built west towards the Nile, and are succeeded near the sea by a long before this, by King Menes, who diverted the range of primitive mountains which run down the whole course of the Nile in that neighbourhood, which before way to Cosseir, at a distance of from about 20 to 30 miles ran close to the western ridge, and made it run into a from the coast, the intervening space being occupied in some new channel in the middle of the valley. Under the sixplaces by low lime-stone and sand-stone hills. Jebel teenth dynasty, about 1706 B.C., Joseph, and afterwards Ghrarib, about 28° 15′ N. lat., in the primitive range, is de- Jacob and his family, came to Egypt, where their descendscribed as resembling in its lofty peaks the Aiguilles of ants settled and multiplied in Lower Egypt. Egypt was Chamouny; its height is estimated at nearly 6000 feet above than the granary of the neighbouring nations, and appathe sea. About 20 miles farther south, in a range of low rently the centre of a great caravan trade carried on by the hills, are copper mines, which appear to have been once Arabs or Ishmaelites, who brought to it the spices and extensively worked. At Jebel Dokhan, lat. 27° 26' and about other valuable products of the east. (Genesis xxxvii. 25.) 25 miles from the sea, are the ruins of a town, and vast Joseph died very old, under the seventeenth dynasty, which quarries of porphyry with antient roads crossing the moun- was also from Lower Egypt, and which reigned from 1651 tains in all directions, and two wells cut through a solid por- to 1575 B.C. About this last period there arose a new king phyry rock. A small temple of red granite, with an inscrip- who knew not Joseph.' (Exodus i. 8.) This was the head tion of the time of Hadrian, and dedicated to Serapis, has of the eighteenth dynasty, from Diospolis, or Thebes, which been left unfinished; all the materials are on the spot, but dynasty reigned 340 years, according to Eusebius and other not a column was ever put up, and nothing was completed. chroniclers, and which contains the names of the most illusA road led from Dokhan to Coptos, now Koft, on the Nile, trious sovereigns of antient Egypt. It appears probable that about 100 miles to the south-west, and another road to the this dynasty was the continuation of the line of the old port of Myos Hormos, once a great mart on the Red Sea, Diospolitan kings, who are mentioned as having reigned but which was already deserted in the time of Pliny. There before Osirtesen I., which line may have been dispossessed are some fine valleys in these mountains, but the sea coast by some revolution of the throne, or at least of the greater is marshy and unwholesome. At Fateereh, about 40 miles part of the country, which was occupied by a new race from south-east of Dokhan, in the old road to Cosseir, are ruins Lower Egypt during the 16th and 17th dynasties. The of a Roman station, with a temple of the time of Trajan, irruption of the Hyksos, or shepherds, is supposed by some and quarries of granite. From Fateereh to Cosseir is three to have occurred during this period. Manetho's seventeenth days' distance, according to the Arabs. South of Cosseir the dynasty consists of shepherd kings, who are said to have mountains continue to run parallel to the coast as far as Jebel reigned at Memphis. These shepherds, who are repreZabarah or the mountain of emerald, which is about eight sented as people with red hair and blue eyes, came from hours from the coast, and farther south-east to the ruins of the north-east, perhaps from the mountains of Assyria; they Berenice, which are described by Belzoni. [BERENICE]. conquered or overran the whole country, committing the The coast of the Red Sea was surveyed in 1830-3 by Com- greatest ravages, and at last settled in Lower Egypt, where mander Moresby and Lieutenant Carless, E.I.C. service. they had kings of their own race. They were finally expelled by Tuthmosis or Thothmes I. of the 18th dynasty, after remaining in the country for more than 100 years. Some have conjectured that the hard task-masters of the Israelites were these same shepherd kings, but all this is involved in great doubt. One thing seems ascertained, namely, that the shepherds destroyed most of the monuments of Egypt raised by the former dynasties; and a remarkable fact is quoted in corroboration of this, that at Karnak and other of the oldest monuments of Thebes, raised under the 18th dynasty, sculptures and painted stones of good workmauship are found used as mere materials in the body of the walls. (Champotion, Lettres au Duc de Blacas) The Exodus of the Israelites, 1491 B.C., falls, according to Wilk son, under the reign of Thothmes III., 430 years after the visit of Abraham to Egypt. The Scripture says that Pharaoh perished in the pursuit of the Israelites, and it is remarkable that Amunoph II., the son and successor of Thothmes III., is represented in a drawing at Thebes as having come to the throne very young and under the tutelage of his mother. (Wilkinson's Chronology.) Under Amunoph III., who reigned about 1430 B.C., the emigration of Danaus to Argos is conjectured to have taken place. Osirei I., according to the Phonetic hieroglyphics, appears to have reigned about 1385, and his reign would fall nearly about

Antient History.-Egypt was one of the countries earliest civilized, and brought under a fixed, social, and political system. The first king mentioned as having reigned over that country is Menes or Men, who is supposed to have lived above 2000 years B.C., about the time fixed by biblical chronologists for the foundation of the kingdom of Assyria by Nimrod, and corresponding also with the era of the Chinese emperor Yao, with whom the historical period of China begins. All inquiries concerning the history of nations previous to this epoch are mere speculations unsupported by evidence. The records of the Egyptian priests, as handed down to us by Herodotus, Manetho, Eratosthenes, and others, place the era of Menes several thousand years farther back, reckoning a great number of kings and dynasties after him, with remarks on the gigantic stature of some of the kings and of their wonderful exploits, and other characteristics of mystical and confused tradition. (See Eusebius, Chronicorum Canonum libri duo, edited by A. Mai and Zohrab, Milan, 1818) It has been conjectured that several of Manetho's dynasties were not successive, but contemporaneous, reigning over various parts of the country. From the time of Menes, however, something like a chronological series has been made out by Champollion, Wilkinson, and other Egyptian archeologists, partly from

the time of the Moris of Herodotus, who lived about 900 | 710 B.C. Sethos, a priest of Hephesus, the great temple of years before that historian's visit to Egypt. The name of Memphis, became king, and ruled at Memphis, contempoMoris however is not found in the Phonetic inscriptions. rary with Tirhakah. After Sethos' death a great confuRemeses II., or the Great, son of Osirei I., ascended the sion or anarchy took place. At last twelve chiefs or mothrone about 1350 B.C. and reigned above 40 years. This is narchs assembled at Memphis, and took the direction of supposed to be the Sesostris or Sesoosis of the Greek histo- affairs, which they retained for 15 years. After this Psamarians. Manetho places Sesostris much earlier, in the 12th tik I., or Psammitichus, the son of Ñechao or Necos, who had dynasty, but it is thought probable by some that his Sesos- been put to death by Sabacos, became, by the aid of Greek tris was a mythical personage, one of the early reported mercenaries, king of all Egypt, about 650 B.C. His son Egyptian conquerors, and that the name of Sesostris was Necos II., the Pharaoh Nechoh of the Scripture (2 Kings afterwards given as a title of honour to other illustrious xxiii.) marched against the king of Assyria to the river monarchs. At all events we now know from the monuments Euphrates: he defeated and slew Josiah, king of Judah, 610 of Thebes that Remeses II. was one of the most warlike mo- B.C. He also began the canal that joined the cast branch narchs of antient Egypt; that his wars extended far, and of the Nile with the Red Sea. His successor, Psamatik against many nations. Some of these are represented as of II., was followed by Psamatik III., supposed by some to be much lighter complexion than the Egyptians, with flowing the Apries of Manetho, and the Pharaoh of Hophra of the beards, and dresses evidently Asiatic. It is probable that Scripture, who defeated the Phoenicians, took Sidon, and his campaigns extended to Asia, perhaps against the kings invaded Cyprus, which was finally subjected by Amasis, who of Assyria. That the old kings of Egypt extended their succeeded him on the throne. The reign of Amasis lasted dominions to the east and north-east, as was done by their forty-four years, according to a date on the monuments: Greek and Mohammedan successors, is not only very likely, his successor, Psammenitus, reigned only six months, when but it is attested as a fact by the Scripture, 2 Kings xxiv. 7, Egypt was invaded by Cambyses, 525 B.C., who overran and where, at a later period, when the power of Egypt had begun ravaged the country, and lost the greater part of his army to decline, we are told that the king of that country came in the neighbouring deserts. not again any more out of his land; for the king of Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar) had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt,' which seems to prove that the dominion of Egypt had extended at one time as far as the Euphrates. It has also been remarked that the figures of the prisoners made by Tirhakah, who fought against Sennacherib, previous to Nebuchadnezzar's time (2 Kings xix. 9), are represented in the Egyptian monuments as similar to those captured by the earlier kings of the 18th dynasty.

Remeses II. was succeeded by his son Amenophis, according to Manetho (Phtahmen Thmeioftep, according to the Phonetic signs), who seems to be the same as the Pheron (Pharaoh?) of Herodotus and the Sesoosis II. of Diodorus, who, according to both the latter historians, was struck blind, but recovered his sight. With him ended the 18th dynasty. The 19th dynasty, also of Diospolitans, began about 1270 B.C., and reigned till 1170. During this period the war of Troy took place, in the reign of a Remeses, supposed to be the fifth of that name, according to Pliny. Herodotus and Diodorus give King Proteus as contemporary with the war of Troy. Of the 20th and 21st dynasties nothing is known beyond the mere names of some of the kings, according to the Phonetic signs. The Pharaoh whose daughter Solomon married, 1013 B.C., must have been one of the 21st dynasty. It is curious that, from the Exodus till Solomon's time, a period of nearly five centuries, no mention is made in the Scriptures of Egypt, which proves that the storm of war, if such there was, passed off either to the eastward of Palestine, or that the Egyptian conquerors followed the maritime road by Gaza and the Phoenician coast, leaving the high land of Judæa to their right. (Wilkinson, Materia Hieroglyphica, Part ii.) The 22d dynasty, beginning with Sesonchis, according to Manetho, and Sheshonk, according to the Phonetic signs, who began to reign about 978 B.C., and who is the Shishak of the Scripture, at whose court Jeroboam took refuge and married his daughter, and who, after Solomon's death, plundered the temple of Jerusalem in the 5th year of Rehoboam (2 Chronicles, xii.). Shishak is represented as coming to the attack with 1200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen, and an immense multitude of Lubims (probably Libyans), of Sukkiims, and Ethiopians.' Of Osorkon I., the successor of Sheshonk, we have a date at Thebes commemorating the 11th year of his reign. Zerah, the Ethiopian king or chief, who attacked Asa, king of Judah (2 Chron. xiv.), was Osorkon's contemporary.

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The 23rd dynasty, called Diospolitan, like the preceding, began about 908 B.C. with Osorkon II. Homer is believed to have flourished about his time, and he speaks of Egypt under its Greek name. The 24th dynasty, which is called Saite, from Sais, a district of Lower Egypt, begins with the Borchoris of Manetho, the Bakhor or Pehor of the Phonetic signs, about 812 B.C. Diodorus places a long period between his reign and that of Sabacos, the Ethiopian, who however follows Bocchoris next but one in the Phonetic chronology and in that of Manetho. Sabacos (Sabakoph, Phonetic) begins the 25th dynasty of Ethiopians, who, about this time, invaded Egypt, or at least Upper Egypt. Tehrak or Tirhakah, one of his successors, attacked Sennacherib,

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The 27th dynasty includes the Persian Kings from Cambyses to Darius Nothus, during which time Egypt was a province, though a very unruly one, of the Persian monarchy. It was during this period that Herodotus visited Egypt. Though he saw that country in a state of humiliation and depression, yet he was powerfully struck by its buildings, and its highly advanced social state, as well as by the peculiarities of its manners and institutions. Egypt appears to have made upon Herodotus an impression something like that produced by England upon French or other continental travellers in the last century, as being a country unlike any other. But Herodotus derived his information concerning Egyptian history chiefly from the priests of Memphis, and consequently his account is very meagre in all that relates to Thebes and Heliopolis, the two other great centres of Egyptian hierarchy.

After several revolts the Egyptians succeeded in placing Amyrtæus, or Aomahorte, a Saite, on the throne, about 414 B.C. This king alone constitutes the 28th dynasty. He was succeeded by the 29th dynasty, of Mendesians, who defended Egypt against the repeated attacks of the Persians, with the assistance of Greek auxiliaries under Agesilaus and others. At last Nectanebos, being defeated by Ochus, fled into Ethiopia, 340 B.C., and Egypt fell again under the yoke of the Persians. The Persians were succeeded by the Macedonians, who, after the death of Alexander, founded the dynasty of the Ptolemies, or Lagidæ, who ruled over Egypt for nearly 300 years, and restored that country to a considerable degree of prosperity. [ProLEMY.] At the death of Cleopatra, 30 B.C., Egypt was reduced to a Roman province by Augustus.

Having now closed this brief summary of the history of antient Egypt, imperfect and conjectural in part as it unavoidably is, we shall, in a few words, advert to the social condition of the country under its native kings. That condition is now tolerably well known by the attentive ex amination of its remaining monuments and their sculptures and paintings. The researches of the French in the expedition to Egypt, and of Belzoni, Champollion, Rosellini, and others, have put us in possession of a series of sketches evidently drawn from the life, and descriptive of the arts, industry, and habits of the antient Egyptians. To these works and the plates which accompany them we must refer the reader. There is no doubt that this singular nation had attained a high degree of refinement and luxury at a time when the whole western world was still involved in barbarism; when the history of Europe, including Greece, had not yet begun; and long before Carthage, Athens, and Rome were thought of. This high state of material civilization was attained under a systein of institutions and policy which resembles in some respects those of the Hindoos. It was a monarchy based upon an all-powerful hierarchy. The inhabitants were divided into a kind of hereditary castes, the first of which consisted of the priests, who filled the chief offices of the state. They were the depositaries and the expounders of the law and the religion of the country. They monopolized the principal branches of learning they were judges, physicians, architects. sacred books, like their temples, were not open to the vulgar.

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They had a language or at least a writing peculiar to | poulterers, fishermen, and servants. The herdsmen and themselves. The king himself, if not of their caste, was shepherds appear to have been held in peculiar contempt adopted into it, was initiated into its mysteries, and became among them. Besides servants, they had a number of bound by its regulations. The priests were exempt from slaves, both black and white. Fish was an article of comall duties, and a large portion of land was set apart for their mon food, except to the priests. Wine of native growth maintenance; and we read in Genesis, that when Pharaoh was used by the rich, and a kind of beer was the drink of in a season of famine bought, by the advice of Joseph, all the poor. An account of the different grains, plants, and the land of the Egyptians on condition of feeding them out trees, the produce of antient Egypt, and also of its native of his stores, only the land of the priests bought he not, animals, is given in Wilkinson's Topography of Thebes, ch. for the priests had a portion (of corn) assigned them of v., on the manners and customs of the antient Egyptians. Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave The above-mentioned five castes as specified by Diodorus them, wherefore they sold not their lands.' (xlvii. 22.) And i. 74, were subdivided into ranks according to the various again when Joseph, after the scarcity was over, made it a law callings and trades, and this has occasioned some variety of the land that the king should have for ever after a fifth in their enumeration. Herodotus reckons seven castes, part of the produce of the soil, restoring the rest to the Plato six, others have not reckoned the despised shepherds owners, he excepted only the land of the priests,' which be- as a caste, and others have counted the military as one caste came not Pharaoh's.' (ib. 26.) The testimony of the Scrip- with the husbandmen, as being drafted from the body of ture is here perfectly in accordance with that of Herodotus the latter. Like the Hindoo, every Egyptian was required and other historians. The priests were subject to certain to follow his father's profession and to remain in his caste. strict regulations: they abstained from certain meats, and at That such institutions were incompatible with our motimes from wine, made their regular ablutions, had but dern notions of independence and freedom is evident one wife, while polygamy was allowed to the other castes, enough; but freedom is a word differently understood in and they wore a peculiar dress according to their rank. different ages and countries, and the Egyptians, trained up The soldiers formed the second caste, for Egypt had a as they were from infancy to reverence laws which they standing army from a very remote period, divided into regi- deemed immutable, might have enjoyed as great a degree ments or battalions, each having its standard with a peculiar of happiness as most nations in the old world. But emblem raised on a pike and carried by an officer. Their the degradation of the lowest caste, and the waste of human arms were the bow, sword, battle-axe, shield, knife or dag- strength and human life in the working of their mines and ger. spear, club, and sling. Their besieging engines were the building of their pyramids and other colossal structures, the battering-ram, the testudo, and the scaling ladder. and the frequency and nature of the summary punishments They had a military music, consisting of a kind of drum, inflicted, as mentioned by Diodorus and confirmed by their cymbals, pipe, trumpet, and other instruments. The mili- monuments, seem to imply that the mass of the people, and tary caste was held in high repute and enjoyed great privi- the lower classes especially, found their superiors of the leges. Each soldier was allowed a certain measure of land, sacerdotal caste to be hard task-masters. exempt from every charge, which he either cultivated himself when not on active service, or let to husbandmen or farmers. Those who did the duty of royal guards had besides an ample allowance of rations. They were inured to the fatigues of war by gymnastic exercizes, such as wrestling, cudgelling, racing, sporting, and other games, of which the representations still exist on their monuments.

The husbandmen formed another class, which was next in rank, as agriculture was highly esteemed among the Egyptians. They made use of the plough and other implements. They had various breeds of large cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and a quantity of poultry reared chiefly by artificial means, the eggs being hatched in ovens, as it is the practice of the country in this day. The peasants appear to have been divided into hundreds, each with a peculiar banner, which they followed when presenting themselves before the magistrate for the census, which was taken at stated periods, when they were obliged to give an account of their conduct; and if found delinquent, were punished with the stick.

The next class was that of the artificers and tradesmen, who lived in the towns. The progress made by the Egyptians in the mechanical arts is evident from their monuments, paintings, and sculptures; in which the various handicrafts are represented. The mines of gold, copper, iron, and lead, which are in the mountains between the Nile and the Red Sea, were worked at a very remote date under the early Pharaohs. There is a passage in the work of Agatharchides on the Red Sea which describes their manner of working the gold mines and smelting the metal, and the sufferings of the people who were compelled to do that labour. (British Museum, Egyptian Antiquities, vol. ii. ch. 9.) The Egyptians were acquainted also with the art of gilding. The art of fabricating glass was early known among them. Beads of glass, generally coloured blue, are found on many mummies, as well as other ornaments of a coarse kind of the same material. A kind of antient porcelain, sometimes covered with enamel and varnish is found in great quantities in Egypt. Their pottery was often of the most elegant forms. The taste displayed by the Egyptians in several of their articles of furniture is not surpassed by our most refined manufactures of modern times. In the great French work and in the recent one of Rosellini we have specimens of many articles of furniture, especially chairs and couches, which are singularly beautiful in their forms Linen cloth, plain or embroidered, white or dyed, was an article of Egyptian_manufacture highly in repute among foreign nations. (Ezekiel xxvii. 7.) The art of making leather was also known to them.

The progress of the Egyptians in the exact sciences has been taken for granted without sufficient evidence. Of their astronomy we know but little, but it appears to have been confounded with mythology and astrology, and made subservient to religious polity. [DENDERAH, ZODIAC OF.] Their year was of 365 days: for their method of correcting it see SOTHIAC PERIOD. Diodorus says that they foretold comets; but he also says that they foretold future events, leaving us in doubt whether they were successful in either or both cases. We cannot here enter into the vast and intricate ground of Egyptian mythology, and must refer the reader to the special works on that subject by Champollion, Wilkinson, and others. Their mythology appears to have been originally symbolical, but afterwards degenerated, at least for the vulgar, into gross idolatry. That they had some practical knowledge of geometry, which indeed must have been requisite for the construction of their buildings, &c. is generally admitted. Yet they appear not to have known until a comparatively later period that the level of the Red Sea was much higher than that of the Mediterranean or of the Nile. Their boats were rude and clumsy, and chiefly constructed for river navigation. They were for a long time averse to maritime expeditions from superstitious prejudice, probably instilled by their priests in order to keep them secluded from the rest of the world, and the Phoenicians were then the sea-carriers of Egypt. It was chiefly after the restoration effected by Psamaticus I., and their consequent intercourse with the Greeks, that their rigidity in this and other respects relaxed: they had their ships of war both on the Mediterranean and Red Sea, and under Apries Egypt had sufficient naval power and skill to cope with the fleets of Tyre. His predecessor Necos II. is said by Herodotus to have dispatched some Phoenician vessels by the Red Sea to circumnavigate Libya (Africa), and to return to Egypt by the Pillars of Hercules, which they effected. The truth, or at least the extent of this expedition has been much questioned. [AFRICA.] There is a curious story in Plato's Critias,' of Sonchis, an Egyptian priest, having told Solon of the Atlantic isles, which he said were larger than Asia and Africa united, which seems to imply something like a knowledge of the existence of the Western Continent.

The money of the Egyptians was in rings of silver and gold, similar to those still used in Sennaar, and its value was ascertained by weight, and its purity by fire. Gold was brought to Egypt from different tributary countries of Ethiopia and Asia, besides what they drew from their own mines. The revenue of Egypt, derived from the taxes alone, amounted, even during the negligent adminis The last class or caste included pastors or herdsmen,tration of Ptolemy Auletes, to 12,500 talents, between three

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