came enamoured of a beautiful statue of ivory which he had made, and, at his earnest request and prayers, according to the mythologists, the goddess of Beauty changed this favourite statue into a woman, whom the artist married, and by whom he had a son called Paphus, who founded the city of that name in Cyprus. (Ovid, Met., 10, 9.)-Compare the other version of the legend, as given from the Cyprian fables of Philostephanus, by Clemens of Alexandrea (Protrept., p. 50), and by Arnobius (adv. Gent., lib. 6, p. 206). Consult, also, Philostratus (Vit. Apollon., 5, 5) and Meursius (Cypr., 2).

PYLADES, I. a son of Strophius, king of Phocis, by one of the sisters of Agamemnon. He was educated together with his cousin Orestes, with whom he formed a most intimate friendship, and whom he aided in avenging the murder of Agamemnon by the punishment of Clytemnestra and Ægisthus. He received in marriage the hand of Electra, the sister of Orestes, by whom he had two sons, Medon and Strophius. The friendship of Orestes and Pylades became proverbial. (Vid. Orestes.)-II. A celebrated actor in the reign of Augustus, banished by that emperor for pointing with his finger to one of the audience who had hissed him, and thus making him known to all. (Suct., Vit. Aug., 45.-Macrob., Sat., 2, 7.)

quered Antæus, and that he was suddenly awakened by | stowed upon the works of his own hands. He be an attack which had been made upon his body by an army of these Liliputians, who professed to be the avengers of Antæus, since they were his brethren, and earthborn like himself. A simultaneous onset was made upon his head, hands, and feet. Arrows were discharged at him, his hair was ignited, spades were thrust into his eyes, and coverings or doors (vvpai) were applied to his mouth and nostrils to prevent respiration. The hero awoke in the midst of the warfare, and was so much pleased with the courage displayed by his tiny foes, that he gathered them all into his lion skin and brought them to Eurystheus. (Philostr., Icon., 2, 22, p. 817, ed. Morell.)-The Pygmies of antiquity, like those of more modern times, may be safely regarded as mere creatures of the imagination. We have had them even placed, by popular belief, in our own country. A number of small graves, two or three feet in length, were found in the West, containing fragments of evidently adult bones. The idea of a pigmy race was immediately conceived; but it was unknown to the discoverers, that the Indians, after disinterring their dead, buried them in graves just large enough to hold the bones made up into a small bundle for the convenience of transportation. (M'Culloch, Researches on America, p. 516.)—With respect to the Pygmies of ancient fable, it may be remarked, that Homer places them merely in southern lands, without specifying their particular locality; nor does he say a word respecting their diminutive size. (Heyne, ad Hom., Il., 3, 3.) Aristotle, as we have already said, assigns them a residence near the sources of the Nile (Hist. An., 8, 15), in which he is followed by Elian (H. A., 2, 1; 3, 15) and others. Some agree with Ctesias in making India their native country. Pliny, in one passage, places them also in India (7, 2), but in another in Thrace (4, 2). Others, again, making the cranes to wing their way from the northern regions over the Pontus Euxinus, regard Scythia and Thrace as the Pygmy land.-Many have supposed that the fable of the Pygmies and cranes has a reference to the country of Egypt. As the cranes make their appearance there about the month of November, the time in which the waters are subsided, and devour the corn PYLOS, I. an ancient city of Elis, about eighty stasown on the lands, the whole fable of the Pygmies may dia to the east of the city of Elis, and which disputed be explained by supposing them to have been none with two other towns of the same name the honour other than the Egyptians, and the term pygmy (vy- of being the capital of Nestor's dominions; these were paios) not to refer to any diminutiveness of size, but Pylos of Triphylia, and the Messenian Pylos. This to the cubits (uyuaι, nxes) of the Nile's rise. Some somewhat interesting question in Homeric geography scholars suppose the germe of the fable to be found in will be considered under the head of the last-mentionthe remarks of Strabo, respecting the μkpooviav roved city. Pausanias informs us (6, 22) that the Elean ¿v Aibéŋ qvoμévwv. (Strabo, 820.) Barrow, in his Travels to the Cape of Good Hope (vol. 1, p. 239), endeavours to identify the Bosjesmans of the Cape and the Pygmies of the ancients, but with no great success. Heeren regards the whole Pygmy narrative as fabulous, but assigns it an Indian origin, and makes it to have spread from the East into the countries of the West. (Ideen, vol. 1, p. 368.) Malte-Brun inclines in favour of the existence of a pygmy race, from the accounts of modern travellers, who state that they have seen in the remote East small and deformed beings not unlike in appearance to the pygmies of former days, and for the most part only four feet in size. Hence he thinks it not unlikely that a diminutive race, resembling, in some degree, the ancient pygmies, may still be existing among the remote and desert regions of Thibet! (Malte Brun, Annales des Voyages, vol. 1, p. 355, seqq.-Bähr, ad Ctes., p. 295.)

PYGMALION, I. a king of Tyre, son of Belus, and brother to the celebrated Dido. (Vid. Dido.)—II. A celebrated statuary of the island of Cyprus. The debauchery of the females of Amathus, to which he was a witness, created in him such an aversion for the fair sex, that he resolved never to marry. The affection which he had denied to the other sex he liberally be

PYLE (Пúλα), a general name among the Greeks for any narrow pass. The most remarkable were the following. I. Pyla Albaniæ. (Vid. Caucasus.)—II. Pyla Amanicæ, a pass through the range of Mount Amanus, between Cilicia Campestris and Syria. Darius marched through this pass to the battle field of Issus. (Quint. Curt., 3, 4.- Ptol., 5, 8.- Plin., 5, 27.)-III. Pyla Caspia. (Vid. Caspia Porta.)-IV. Pyle Caucasiæ. (Vid. Caucasus.)-V. Pyla Cilicia, a pass of Cilicia, in the range of Mount Taurus, through which flows the river Sarus. (Plin., 5, 27. —Polyb, 12, 8.)—VI. Pyle Sarmatiæ. (Vid. Caucasus, towards the close of that article.)-VII. Pylæ Syriæ, a pass leading from Cilicia into Syria, and bounded on one side by the sea. (Xen., Anab., 1, 4. Arrian, Exp. Alex., 2, 8.)

city was originally founded by Pylus, son of Cleson, king of Megara; but that, having been destroyed by Hercules, it was afterward restored by the Eleans. (Compare Xen, Hist. Gr., 7, 4, 16.) This town was deserted and in ruins when Pausanias made the tour of Elis. We collect from Strabo (339) that Pylos was at the foot of Mount Pholoë, and between the heads of the rivers Peneus and Selleïs. This site agrees sufficiently with a spot named Portes, where there are vestiges of antiquity, under Mount Maurobouni, which must be the Pholoë of the ancients. (Gell, Itin. of the Morea. p. 30, seq.-Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 91)-II. A city of Elis, in the district of Triphylia, regarded by Strabo, with great probability, as the city of Nestor. (Vid. Pylos III.) It is placed by that geographer at a distance of thirty stadia from the coast, and near a small river once called Amathus and Pamisus, but subsequently Mamaus and Arcadicus. The epithet of huatoes, applied by Homer to the Pylian territory, was referred to the first of these names. (Strabo, 344.) Notwithstanding its ancient celebrity, this city is scarcely mentioned in later times. Pausanias, even, does not appear to have been aware of its existence (6, 22). Strabo affirms that on the conquest of Triphylia by the Eleans, they annexed its

territory to the neighbouring town of Lepræum. | tailed in the fourth book of Thucydides. A spot na(Strab., 355.) The vestiges of Pylos are thought by med Pila, and laid down in Lapie's map as nearly in Sir W. Gell to correspond with a Palaio Castro, sit- the centre of the bay, probably answers to the ancient uated at Pischine or Piskini, about two miles from Pylos. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 132, seqq.) the coast. Near this is a village called Sarene, per- PYRAMIDES, famous monuments of Egypt, of masshaps a corruption of Arene. (Itin. of the Morea, p. ive masonry, which, from a square base, rise diminish40.-Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 117.)-III. Aing to a point or vertex when viewed from below.— city of Messenia, on the western coast, off which lay The pyramids commence immediately south of Cairo, the island of Sphacteria. It was situated at the foot but on the opposite side of the Nile, and extend in an of Mount Egaleus, now Geranio or Agio Elia. (Stra- uninterrupted range for many miles in a southerly dibo, 459.) This city was regarded by many as the rection parallel with the banks of the river. The percapital of Nestor's dominions, and, at a later period, pendicular height of the first, which is ascribed to was celebrated for the brilliant successes obtained Cheops, is 480 feet 9 inches, that is, 43 feet 9 inches there by the Athenians in the Peloponnesian war. It higher than St. Peter's at Rome, and 136 feet 9 inchis necessary, however, to distinguish between the an- es higher than St. Paul's in London. The length of cient city of Pylos, and the fortress which the Athe- the former base was 764 feet, that of the present base nian troops under Demosthenes erected on the spot is 746 feet. (Vysc, Operations at the Pyramids of termed Coryphasium by the Lacedæmonians. (Thu- Gizeh, vol. 2, p. 109.) The following are the dimencyd., 4, 3.) Strabo affirms, that when the town of Py- sions of the second pyramid the base, 684 feet; the los was destroyed, part of the inhabitants retired to central line down the front from the apex to the base, Coryphasium; but Pausanias makes no distinction be- 568; the perpendicular, 356; coating from the top to tween the old and new town, simply stating that Py- where it ends, 140. These dimensions, being considlos, founded by Pylus, son of Cleson, was situated on erably greater than those usually assigned even to the the promontory of Coryphasium. To Pylus he has first or largest pyramid, are to be accounted for by also attributed the foundation of Pylos in Elis, whith their being taken (by Belzoni) from the base as clearer that chief retired on his expulsion from Messenia ed from saud and rubbish, while the measurements of by Neleus and the Thessalian Pelasgi. He adds, that the first pyramid given by others only applied to it as a temple of Minerva Coryphasia was to be seen near measured from the level of the surrounding sand. the town, as well as the house of Nestor, whose mon- The antiquity of these erections, and the purpose for ument was likewise to be seen there. Strabo, on the which they were formed, have furnished matter for contrary, has been at considerable pains to prove that much ingenious conjecture and dispute in the absence the Pylos of Homer was not in Messenia, but in Tri- of certain information. It has been supposed that phylia. From Homer's description, he observes, it is they were intended for scientific purposes, such as evident that Nestor's dominions were traversed by the that of establishing the proper length of the cubit, of Alpheus; and, from his account of Telemachus' voy- which they contain, in breadth and height, a certain age when returning to Ithaca, it is also clear that the number of multiples. They were, at all events, conPylos of the Odyssey could neither be the Messenian structed on scientific principles, and give evidence of nor Elean city; since the son of Ulysses is made to a certain progress in astronomy; for their sides are pass Cruni, Chalcis, Phea, and the coast of Elis, which accurately adapted to the four cardinal points. Whethhe could not have done if he had set out from the last-er they were applied to sepulchral uses, and intended mentioned place; if from the former, the navigation would have been much longer than from the description we are led to suppose, since we must reckon 400 stadia from the Messenian to the Triphylian Pylos only, besides which, we may presume, the poet would in that case have named the Neda, the Acidon, and the intervening rivers and places. Again, from Nestor's account of his battle with the Epeans, he must have been separated from that people by the Alpheus, a statement which cannot be reconciled with the position of the Elean Pylos. If, on the other hand, we suppose him to allude to the Messenian city, it will appear very improbable that Nestor should make an incursion into the country of the Epei, and return from thence with a vast quantity of cattle, which he had to convey such a distance. His pursuit of the enemy as far as Buprasium and the Olenian rock, after their defeat, is equally incompatible with the supposition that he marched from Messenia. In fact, it is not easy to understand how there could have been any communication between the Epeans and the subjects of Nestor, if they had been so far removed from each other. But as all the circumstances mentioned by Homer agree satisfactorily with the situation of the Triphylian city, we are necessarily induced to regard it as the Pylos of Nestor. Such are the chief arguments adduced by Strabo.-According to Thucydides, the Messenian Pylos had two entrances, one on each side of the island of Sphacteria, but of unequal breadth; the narrowest being capable of admitting only two vessels abreast. The harbour itself must have been very capacious for two such considerable fleets as those of Athens and Sparta to engage within it. These characteristics sufficiently indicate the port or bay of Navarino as the scene of those most interesting events of the Peloponnesian war which are de

as sepulchral monuments, has been doubted; but the doubts have in a great measure been dispelled by the recent discoveries made by means of laborious excavations. The drifting sand had, in the course of ages, collected around their base to a considerable height, and had raised the general surface of the country above the level which it possessed when they were constructed. The entrance to the chambers had also been, in the finishing, shut up with large stones, and built round so as to be uniform with the rest of the exterior. The largest, called the Pyramid of Cheops, had been opened, and some chambers discovered in it, but not so low as the base, till Mr. Davison, British consul at Algiers, explored it in 1763, when accompanying Mr. Wortley Montague to Egypt. He discovered a room before unknown, and descended the three successive wells to a depth of 155 feet. Captain Caviglia, master of a merchant-vessel, afterward pursued the principal oblique passage 200 feet farther down than any former explorer, and found it communicate with the bottom of the well. This circumstance creating a circulation of air, he proceeded 28 feet farther, and found a spacious room 66 feet by 27, but of unequal height, under the centre of the pyramid, supposed by Mr. Salt to have been the place for containing the theca or sarcophagus, though now none is found in it. The room is 30 feet above the level of the Nile. The upper chamber, 35 feet by 171, and 18 high, still contains a sarcophagus.Three chambers, hitherto undiscovered, were exposed and opened, in 1836-7, by Colonel Vyse. The longest, measuring 38 feet 1 inch, by 17 feet 1 inch, has been denominated by him the "Wellington Chamber;" the second (38 feet 9 inches, by 16 feet 8 inches) he named "Nelson's ;" and the third (37 feet 4 inches, by 16 feet 4 inches) has been called after

❘tion, at which moment its altitude above the horizon of Gizeh (lat. 30) would have been 27° 9'-refraction being neglected as too trifling (about 2') to affect the question. The present polar star, a Ursa Minoris, was at this epoch 23° more or less in arc from the then pole of the heavens, and, of course, at its lower culmination, it was only 7° above the horizon of Gizeh." (Vyse, Operations, &c., vol. 2, p. 107, seq.) 2. Operations of Belzoni.

Lady Arbuthnot, who was present at the time of the discovery. These chambers vary as to height, and the blocks of granite which form the ceiling of the one below serve as the pavement of the one above it. According to Colonel Vyse, these three chambers were chiefly intended as voids in that portion of the pyramid above what is termed the "king's chamber" (the only one that appears to have had any destination), and thereby to lessen the superincumbent mass. (Consult the costly and elaborate work of Colonel Vyse, Operations carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837," &c., London, 1840, 2 vols. 4to.-vol. 1, p. 205, 235, 256.)-In the course of the work just alluded to (vol. 2, p. 105), Colonel Vyse has some remarks on the question whether the pyramids were connected in any way with astronomical purposes. It seems that, in six pyramids which have been opened, the principal passage preserves the same inclination of 26° to the horizon, being directed to the polar star. "As it had been supposed," remarks the colonel, "that the in-ploring it in an age posterior to the erection. On the clined passages were intended for astronomical purposes, I mentioned the circumstance to Sir John Herschel, who, with the utmost kindness, entered into various calculations to ascertain the fact. I also informed Sir John of the allusion in the Quarterly Review' to Mr. Caviglia's remarks respecting the polar star, and likewise of its having been seen by Captains Irby and Mangles from the inclined passage in the Great Pyramid, at the period of its culminating, on the night of the 21st of March, 1817. It would appear from the remarks of Sir John, which here follow, that the direction of the passage was determined by the star which was polar at the time that the pyramid was constructed, and that the exact aspect of the building was regulated by it; but it could not have been used for celestial observation. The coincidence of the relative position of a Draconis is at all events very remarkable."

1. Sir John Herschel's Observations on the Entrance

Passages in the Pyramids of Gizeh.

Belzoni, after some acute observations on the appearances connected with the second pyramid, or that of Chephrenes, succeeded in opening it. The stones which had constituted the coating (by which the sides of most of the pyramids, which now rise in steps, had been formed into plain and smooth surfaces) lay in a state of compact and ponderous rubbish, presenting a formidable obstruction; but somewhat looser in the centre of the front, showing traces of operations for exeast side of the pyramid he discovered the foundation of a large temple, connected with a portico appearing above ground, which had induced him to explore that part. Between this and the pyramid, from which it was fifty feet distant, a way was cleared through rubbish forty feet in height, and a pavement was found at the bottom, which is supposed to extend quite round the pyramid; but there was no appearance of any entrance. On the north side, notwithstanding the same general appearance presented itself after the rubbish was cleared away, one of the stones, though nicely adapted to its place, was observed to be loose; and when it was removed, a hollow passage was found, evidently forced by some former enterprising explorer, and rendered dangerous by the rubbish which fell from the roof; it was therefore abandoned. Reasoning by analogy from the entrance of the first pyramid, which is to the east of the centre on the north side, he explored in that situation, and found, at a distance of thirty feet, the true entrance. After incredible perseverance and labour, he found numerous passages, all cut out of "Four thousand years ago, the present polar star, a the solid rock, and a chamber forty-six feet three inches Ursa Minoris, could by no possibility have been seen by sixteen feet three inches, and twenty-three feet six at any time in the twenty-four hours through the gal- inches high. It contained a sarcophagus in a corner, lery in the Great Pyramid, on account of the preces- surrounded by large blocks of granite. When opened, sion of the Equinoxes, which at that time would have after great labour, this was found to contain bones, displaced every star in the heavens, from its then ap- which mouldered down when touched, and, from speciparent position on the sphere, by no less a quantity than mens afterward examined, turned out to be the bones 55° 45' of longitude, and would have changed all the of an ox. Human bones were also found in the same relations of the constellations to the diurnal sphere. place. An Arabic inscription, made with charcoal, The supposed date of the pyramid, 2123 years B.C., was on the wall, signifying that "the place had been added to our present date, 1839, form 3962 years (say opened by Mohammed Ahmed, lapicide, attended by 4000), and the effect of the precession on the longi- the master Othman, and the king Alij Mohammed," tudes of the stars in that interval having been to in- supposed to be the Ottoman emperor, Mohammed I., crease them all by the above-named quantity, it will in the beginning of the fifteenth century. It was obfollow that the pole of the heavens, at the erection of served that the rock surrounding the pyramids, on the the pyramid, must have stood very near to the star a north and west sides, was on a level with the upper Draconis, that is, 2° 51′ 15′′ from it to the westward, part of the chamber. It is evidently cut away all as we should now call it; a Draconis was therefore, around, and the stones taken from it were most probat that time, the polar star; and as it is comparatively ably applied to the erection of the pyramid. There insignificant, and only of the third magnitude, if so are many places in the neighbourhood where the rock much, it can scarcely be supposed that it could have has been evidently quarried, so that there is no foundbeen seen in the daytime even in the climate of Gizeh, ation for the opinion formerly common, and given by or even from so dark a recess as the inclined entrance Herodotus, that the stones had been brought from the of the Great Pyramid. A latitude, however, of 30°, east side of the Nile, which is only probable as apand a polar distance of the star in question of 1° 51' plied to the granite brought from Syene. The opera15", would bring it, at its lower culmination, to an al- tions of Belzoni have thrown light on the manner in titude of 27° 91', and therefore it would have been di- which the pyramids were constructed, as well as the rectly in view of an observer stationed in the descend-purposes for which they were intended. That they ing passage, the opening of which, as seen from a were meant for sepulchres can hardly admit of a doubt. point sixty-three feet within, would, by calculation, It is remarkable that no hieroglyphical inscriptions are subtend an angle of 7° 7'; and even from the bot-found in or about the pyramids as in the other tombs; tom, near the sepulchral chamber, would still appear a circumstance which is supposed to indicate the periof at least 2° in breadth. In short, speaking as in or-od of their construction to have been prior to the indinary parlance, the passage may be said to have been vention of that mode of writing, though some think directly pointed at a Draconis, at its inferior culmina- that the variation may be accounted for by a difference

in the usages of different places and ages. Belzoni, however, says that he found some hieroglyphics on one of the blocks forming a mausoleum to the west of the first pyramid. The first pyramid seems never to have been coated, as there is not the slightest mark of any covering. The second pyramid showed that the coating had been executed from the summit downward, as it appeared that it had not, in this instance, been finished to the bottom.

3. Who were the labourers employed on the Pyramids?

pyramids were built, by this name in the hearing of Herodotus, since they referred them to their kings Cheops and Chephrenes. It would seem, moreover, that the shepherd Philitis had formerly, and at other times, customarily fed his cattle elsewhere. The following, then, may be regarded as the meaning of the passage in question: they attributed the labour of constructing the pyramids to a shepherd who came from Philistia, but who, at that time, fed his cattle in the land of Egypt; implying that they more readily told the appellation of the workman (the son of Israel, the shepherd, Gen., 47, 5) employed in the building, than of A very curious inquiry now remains as to the la- the kings by whose commands they were built. They bourers employed in erecting these stupendous struc- seem to have pursued the same course in the days of tures, and the following remarks on this subject, though Diodorus, who remarks (1, 2), "They admit that these they may not be acceded to in their full extent, will works are superior to all which are seen in Egypt, not yet, it is conceived, not prove unacceptable. They only by the immensity of their mass and by their proare from Calmet's Dictionary (vol. 3, p. 217, seq.). digious cost, but still more by the beauty of their On the supposition that they were native Egyptians, construction; and the workmen, who have rendered Voltaire has founded an argument in proof of the sla- them so perfect, are much more estimable than the very of that people; but that they were really natives kings who paid their cost; for the former have hereby is a point which admits of considerable doubt. The given a proof of their genius and skill, whereas the uniform practice of the ancient Oriental nations seems kings contributed only the riches left them by their anto have been, to employ captive foreigners in erecting cestors, or extorted from their subjects. They say laborious and painful works, and Diodorus (1, 2) ex- the first was erected by Armaus; the second by Ampressly asserts this of the Egyptian Sesostris. Is it mosis; the third by Inaron." In the common Greek improbable to suppose that one at least, if not all, of text we read 'Apaois for the second name, but the the structures in question, were the work of the Israel- best critics decide in favour of 'Auuwaic. If we make ites? Bondage is expressly attributed to them in the a slight change also in the first name, and, instead of sacred writings; and that the Israelites did not make Armæus ('Apuaios), read Aramæus ('Apauaioç), the brick only, but performed other labours, may be in- result will be a curious one. On comparing the ferred from Exodus, 9, 8, 10. Moses took "ashes of names a Mousis and in Aron with the Hebrew dethe furnace," no doubt that which was tendered him scription of Moses and Aaron, we find that the proper by his people. So Psalm 81, 6, "I removed his appellation is the same, as near as pronuntiation by shoulder from the burden, and his hands were deliv-natives of different countries could bring it: a Mousis, ered from the mortar-basket," not pots, as in our translation; and with this rendering agree the Septuagint, Vulgate, Symmachus, and others. Added to this, we have the positive testimony of Josephus that the Israelites were employed on the Pyramids. The space of time allotted for the erection of these immense masses coincides with what is usually assigned to the slavery of the Israelites. Israel is understood to have been in Egypt 215 years, of which Joseph ruled seventy years; nor was it till long after his death that a "new king arose who knew not Joseph." If we allow about forty years for the extent of the generation which succeeded Joseph, added to his seventy, there remain about 105 years to the Exodus. According to Herodotus (2, 124, seqq.), Egypt, Some derive the name Pyramid (Pyramis, Пvpauntil the reign of Rhampsinitus, was remarkable for uíç) from vрós, “wheat," on the supposition that its abundance and excellent laws. Cheops, who suc- they were meant for granaries! (Steph. Byz., S. v. ceeded this prince, degenerated into extreme profli--Etymol. Mag., s. v.) It is surprising that this silly gacy of conduct. He barred the avenues of every derivation should have been approved of by Vossius. temple, and forbade the Egyptians from offering sac- Another class of etymologists deduce the term from rifices. He next proceeded to make them labour ser- the Greek word up, "fire," in allusion to the flamevilely for himself by building the first pyramid. Che-shaped appearance of the structure, as it tapers to a ops reigned fifty years. His brother Chephrenes suc- point. (Etymol. Mag., s. v.— Sylburg., ad loc.. ceeded, and adopted a similar course; he reigned fifty- Schol. ad Horat., Od., 3, 30, 2.-Amm. Marcell., 22, six years. Thus, for the space of 106 years, were the 15.) These and other derivations proceed upon the Egyptians exposed to every species of oppression and supposition that the word pyramid is of Greek origin, calamity; not having, during all this period, permis- than which nothing can be more erroneous. (Jablonsion even to worship in their temples. The Egyp-ski, Voc. Egypt.-Opusc., vol. 1, p. 221.) Some, tians had so strong an aversion to the memory of these two monarchs, that they would never mention their names, but always attributed their pyramids to one Philitis, a shepherd who kept his cattle in those parts. We have here very plain traces of a government by a foreign family; and of a worship contrary to that which had been previously established in Egypt, as appears in the prohibition of sacrifices. In its continuance, moreover, of 106 years, it coincides with the bondage of the Israelites. There appears to be something mysterious concealed under the name and mention of the shepherd Philitis. It is clear that the Egyptians did not call the kings, by whose orders the

or ha Mousis, is hu Mouseh in Hebrew; and in Aron, or hin Aron, is written hu Aaron, which certainly, when two vowels came together, took a consonant between them, being spoken as if written hun Aaron. This testimony, therefore, agrees with the supposition that the Israelites were employed on the pyramids; first under the appellation of the Syrian or Aramaan (the very title given to Jacob, Deut., 26, 5, "An Aramite ready to perish," &c.), and afterward under the names of the two most famous leaders of that nation, Moses and Aaron. (Calmet's Dictionary, l. c.)

4. Various etymologies of the word Pyramid

(Πυραμίς).

taking the passage of Pliny for their guide, where he explains the term obeliscus by "radius Solis," and, regarding the obelisk as a species of pyramid, deduce the latter word from the Coptic Pi-ra-mu-e, which they make to signify "a ray of the sun." (Jablonski, p. 222.) Wilkins thinks that pyramis comes from the Coptic Poura misi, equivalent to "regia generatio," the pyramids being so called, according to him, because they served as places of sepulture for lines of kings. Jablonski, however, well observes, that Poura (or Pouro) misi can signify nothing else but "descended from kings." Finally, De Sacy, the late eminent Oriental scholar of France, favours us with the