ÆGYPTUS. 5. Population of Egypt. Diodorus Siculus (1, 31) states, on the authority of -6. Complexion and Physical Structure of the а un be on at if of the people of Colchis, he says, that they were πρέπουσι δ' ἄνδρες νήϊοι μελαγχίμοις γνίοισι λευκῶν ἐκ πεπλωμάτων ἰδεῖν. There are other passages in ancient writers, in which the Egyptians are mentioned as a swarthy people, which might with equal propriety be applied to a perfect black, or to a brown or dusky Nubian. We have, in one of the dialogues of Lucian (Navigium seu Vota.-vol. 8, 157, ed. Bip.), a ludicrous description of a young Egyptian, who is represented as belonging to the crew of a trading vessel at the Piraeus. It is said of him, that, "besides being black, he had projecting lips, and was very slender in the legs, and that his hair and the curls bushed up behind marked him · ἡ κόμη δὲ, to be of servile rank." The words of the original are, οὗτος δὲ πρὸς τῷ μελάγχρους εἶναι, καὶ πρόχειλος ἐστ τι, καὶ λεπτὸς ἄγαν τοῖν σκελοῖν, . καὶ ἐς τοὐπίσω ὁ πλόκαμος συνεσπειραμένος, οὐκ ἐλευOépióv onow avτòv elval. The expression, however, which is here applied to the hair, seems rather to agree with the description of the bushy curls worn by the Nouba, than with the woolly heads of negroes. "The hair of the men is sometimes frizzled at A few remarks relative to the physical character of Mr. Legh, in speaking of the Barabras, near Syene, this singular people, may form no uninteresting prel- says, ude to their national history, There are two sources the sides, and stiffened with grease, so as perfectly to of information respecting the physical character of the resemble the extraordinary projection on the head of ancient Egyptians, These are, first, the descriptions the Sphinx. But the make of the limbs corresponds Elian (Hist. of their persons incidentally to be met with in the an- with the negro." (Legh's Travels in Egypt, p. 98.) cient writers; and, secondly, the numerous remains In another physical peculiarity the Egyptian race is of paintings and sculptures, as well as of human bodies, described as resembling the negro. preserved among the ruins of ancient Egypt. It is not Anim. 7, 12) informs us, that the Egyptians used to easy to reconcile the evidence derived from these dif- boast that their women, immediately after they were ferent quarters. The principal data from which a delivered, could rise from their beds, and go about their judgment is to be formed are as follows: 1. Accounts domestic labour. Some of these passages are very given by the ancients. If we were to judge from the strongly expressed, as if the Egyptians were negroes; remarks in some passages of the ancient writers alone, and yet it must be confessed, that if they really were The Hebrews were a fair people, we should perhaps be led to the opinion that the Egyp- such, it is singular we do not find more frequent allutians were a woolly-haired and black people, like the sion to the fact. negroes of Guinea. There is a well-known passage fairer at least than the Arabs. Yet, in all the interof Herodotus (2, 104), which has often been cited to course they had with Egypt, we never find in the sathis purpose. The authority of this historian is of the cred history the least intimation that the Egyptians more weight, as he had travelled in Egypt, and was, were negroes; not even on the remarkable occasion therefore, well acquainted, from his own observation, of the marriage of Solomon with the daughter of Phawith the appearance of the people; and it is well raoh. Were a modern historian to record the nuptials known that he is in general very accurate and faithful of a European monarch with the daughter of a negro in relating the facts and describing the objects which king, such a circumstance would surely find its place. fell under his personal observation. In his account | And since Egypt was so closely connected, first with Grecian affairs when under the Ptolemies, and after- this, that the red Egyptians were connected by kindred, ward with the rest of Europe when it had become a and were, in fact, the descendants of a black race, probRoman province, it is very singular, on the supposition ably the Ethiopian. (Compare plate 92 of the work just that this nation was so remarkably different from the alluded to, and also plates 84 and 86.) In the same rest of mankind, that we have no allusion to it. We volume of the "Description de l'Egypte" is a plate seldom find the Egyptians spoken of as a very peculiar representing a painting at Eilithyia. Numerous figrace of men. These circumstances induce us to hes-ures of the people are seen. It is remarkable that itate in explaining the expressions of the ancients in their hair is black and curled. "Les cheveux noirs that very strong sense in which they at first strike us. et frisés, sans être court et crêpus comme ceux des -2. The second class of data, from which we may Negres." This is probably a correct account of the form a judgment on this subject, are Paintings in hair of the Egyptian race.-3. The third class of data Temples, and other remains. If we may judge of the for the present investigation is obtained from the complexion of the Egyptians from the numerous paint- form of the scull. In reference to the form of the ings found in the recesses of temples, and in the tombs scull among the ancient Egyptians, and their osteologiof the kings in Upper Egypt, in which the colours are cal characters in general, there is no want of informapreserved in a very fresh state, we must conclude that tion. The innumerable mummies, in which the whole the general complexion of this people was a chocolate, nation may be said to have remained entire to modern or a red copper colour. This may be seen in the times, afford sufficient means of ascertaining the true coloured figures given by Belzoni, and in numerous form of the race and all its varieties. Blumenbach, who plates in the splendid "Description de l'Egypte." has collected much information on everything relating This red colour is evidently intended to represent the to the history of mummies, in his excellent "Beyträge complexion of the people, and is not put on in the want zur Naturgeschichte," concludes with a remark that of a lighter paint or flesh colour: for when the limbs the Egyptian race, in his opinion, contains three varieor bodies are represented as seen through a thin veil, ties. These are, first, the Ethiopian form; secondly, the tint used resembles the complexion of Europeans. the "Hindus-artige," or a figure resembling the HinThe same shade might have been generally adopted dus; and, thirdly, the "Berber-ähnliche," or, more if a darker one had not been preferred, as more truly properly, Berberin-ähnliche, a form similar to that representing the natural complexion of the Egyptian of the Berbers or Berberins. It must be observed, race. (Compare Belzoni's Remarks, p. 239.) Female however, that Blumenbach has been led to adopt this figures are sometimes distinguished by a yellow or opinion, not so much from the mummies he has examtawny colour, and hence it is probable that the shade ined, as from the remains of ancient arts and from of complexion was lighter in those who were protected historical testimonies. As far as their osteological from the sun. A very curious circumstance in the characters are concerned, it does not appear that the paintings found in Egyptian temples remains to be Egyptians differed very materially from Europeans, noticed. Besides the red figures, which are evidently They certainly had not the character of the scull which meant to represent the Egyptians, there are other fig- belonged to the negroes in the western parts of Africa; ures which are of a black colour. Sometimes these and if any approximation to the negro scull existed represent captives or slaves, perhaps from the negro among them, it must have been rare and in no great countries; but there are also paintings of a very dif- degree. Sömmering has described the heads of four ferent kind, which occur chiefly in Upper Egypt, and mummies seen by him; two of them differed in nothing particularly on the confines of Egypt and Ethiopia. In from the European formation; the third had only one these the black and the red figures hold a singular re- African character, viz., that of a larger space marked lation to each other. Both have the Egyptian costume, out for the temporal muscle; the characters of the and the habits of priests, while the black figures are fourth are not particularized. Mr. Lawrence, in whose represented as conferring on the red the instruments work (Lectures on Physiology, p. 299, Am. ed.) the and symbols of the sacerdotal office. "This singular above evidence of Sömmering is cited, has collected representation," says Mr. Hamilton, "which is often a variety of statements respecting the form of the head repeated in all the Egyptian temples, but only here at in the mummies deposited in the museums and other Phile and at Elephantine with this distinction of col- collections in several countries. He observes, that our, may very naturally be supposed to commemorate in the mummies of females seen by Dénon, in those the transmission of religious fables and the social in- from the Theban catacombs engraved in the great stitutions from the tawny Ethiopians to the compara- French work, and in several sculls and casts in the tively fair Egyptians." It consists of three priests, possession of Dr. Leach, the osteological character is two of whom, with black faces and hands, are repre- entirely European; lastly, he adduces the strong evisented as pouring from two jars strings of alternate dence of Cuvier, who says, that he has examined in sceptres of Osiris and cruces ansata over the head of Paris, and in the various collections of Europe, more another whose face is red. There are other paintings than fifty heads of mummies, and that not one among which seem to be nearly of the same purport. In the them presented the characters of the negro or Hottemple of Philæ, the sculptures frequently depict two tentot. (Lawrence's Lectures, p. 301.-Öbservations persons who equally represent the characters and sym- sur le cadavre de la Venus Hottentotte, par M. Cuvier, bols of Osiris, and two persons equally answering to Mem. du Museum d'Hist. Nat., 3, 173, seqq.) It those of Isis; but in both cases one is invariably much could therefore be only in the features, as far as they older than the other, and appears to be the superior depend on the soft parts, that the Egyptians bore any divinity. Mr. Hamilton conjectures that such figures considerable resemblance to the negro. And the same represent the communication of religious rites from thing might probably be affirmed of several other naEthiopia to Egypt, and the inferiority of the Egyptian tions, who must be reckoned among the native AfriOsiris. In these delineations there is a very marked cans. Particularly it might be asserted of the Berberins and positive distinction between the black figures and or Nubians already mentioned, and of some tribes of those of fairer complexion; the former are most fre- Abyssinians. A similar remark might be made of the quently conferring the symbols of divinity and sov- Copts. In neither of these races is it at all probable ereignty on the other. Besides these paintings de- that the scull would exhibit any characteristic of the scribed by Mr. Hamilton, there are frequent repetitions negro. It is here, then, that we are to look for the of a very singular representation, of which different nearest representatives of the ancient Egyptians and examples may be seen in the beautiful plates of the Ethiopians, and particularly to the Copts, who are deDescription de l'Egypte." In these it is plain, that scended from the former, and to the copper-coloured the idea meant to be conveyed can be nothing else than races resembling the Berberins or Nubians. Dénon 7. Origin of Egyptian Civilization. The question that now presents itself is one of a singularly interesting character. Whence arose the arts and civilization of Egypt? Were they indigenous, or did they come to her as the gift of another land? Everything seems to countenance the idea that civilization came gradually down the valley of the Nile, from the borders of Ethiopia to the shores of the Medilized life were first introduced into Upper Egypt, the lower section of the country formed merely a vast morass or gulf of the sea, and that they followed in their progressive developement the course of the stream. (Compare Herodotus, 2, 4.-Id. ibid. 5.—Id. ibid. 11, seqq.-Diod. Sic. 1, 34;-and the memoirs of Girard, Andréossy, &c., in the Description de l'Egypte. Compare also the remarks in the present volume under the article Delta.) Monuments, tradition, analogies of every kind, are here in accordance with natural probabilities. There was a period when the names of Ethiopia and Egypt were confounded together, when the two nations were thought to form but a single people. (Compare the proofs of this assertion, as collected and discussed by Creuzer, Commentat. Herodot., p. 178, seqq., in opposition to Champollion the younger; and also the remarks in the present volume, under the articles Ethiopia and Meroë.) In all the re makes mention of the resemblance which the Copts | Prichard's Physical History of Mankind, 1, 316, seqq-, bear to the human figures painted or sculptured among 2d ed.) the ruins of ancient Egypt. He adds the following remarks. "As to the character of the human figure, as the Egyptians borrowed nothing from other nations, they could only copy from their own, which is rather delicate than fine. The female forms, however, resembled the figures of beautiful women of the present day; round and voluptuous; a small nose, the eyes long, half shut, and turned up at the outer angle like those of all persons whose sight is habitually fatigued by the burning heat of the sun or the dazzling white-iterranean. It would appear, that when the arts of civness of snow; the cheeks round and rather thick, the lips full, the mouth large, but cheerful and smiling; displaying, in short, the African character, of which the negro is the exaggerated picture, though perhaps the original type." The visages carved and painted on the heads of the sarcophagi may be supposed to give an idea of an Egyptian countenance. In these there is a certain roundness and flatness of the features, and the whole countenance, which strongly resembles the description of the Copts, and in some degree that of the Berberins. The colour of these visages is the red coppery hue of the last-mentioned people, and is nearly the same, though not always so dark, as that of the figures painted in the temples and catacombs. The most puzzling circumstance in this comparison refers to the hair. The Copts are said to have frizzled or somewhat crisp, though not woolly, hair. The old Egyptians, as well as the Ethiopians, are termed by the Greeks ovλórpixes. But the hair found in mum-citals and legends of the earliest antiquity the Egypmies is generally, if not always, in flowing ringlets, tians are associated with the Ethiopians, and to the latas long and as smooth as that of any European. Its ter is assigned a distinguished character for wisdom, colour, which is often brown, may depend on art, or knowledge, and piety, which testifies to their priority the substance used in embalming. But the texture is in the order of civilization. (Compare Heeren, Ideen, different from what we should expect it to be, either 2, 1, 314, 405, &c.) We see also the common tradifrom the statements of ancient writers, or from the tions of the two nations referring to Meroë the origin description of the races now existing in the same of most of the cities of Upper Egypt, and, among othcountries. Conclusion. From what has been ad-ers, of Thebes. It is to Meroë, its ancient metropolis, duced, we may consider it as tolerably well proved, that Thebes attaches itself, when, for the purpose of that the Egyptians and Ethiopians were nations of the extending their commercial interests, they send a colsame race, whose abode, from the earliest periods of ony to found, in the midst of the deserts, a new city history, were the regions bordering on the Nile. of Ammon. (Herod. 2, 42.-Diod. Sic. 2, 3.) The These nations were not negroes, such as the negroes same institutions, a similar religion, language, and of Guinea, though they bore some resemblance to mode of writing, together with manners most strongly that description of men, at least when compared resembling one another, attest the primitive connexion with the people of Europe. This resemblance, how- that subsisted between these three sacred cities, though ever, did not extend to the shape of the scull, in any so widely apart. It appears, then, that a sacred caste, great degree at least, or in the majority of instances. established from a remote period on the borders of the It perhaps only depended on a complexion and physi-Nile, in the island, or, rather, peninsula formed by the ognomy similar to those of the Copts and Nubians. These races partake, in a certain degree, of the African countenance. The hair in the Ethiopians and Egyptians must sometimes have been of a more crisp or bushy kind than that which is often found in mummies; for such is the case in respect to the Copts, and the description of the Egyptians by all ancient writers obliges us to adopt this conclusion. In complexion it seems probable that this race was a counterpart of the Foulahs, in the west of Africa, nearly in the same latitude. The blacker Foulahs resemble in complexion the darkest people of the Nile; they are of a deep brown or mahogany colour. The fairest of the Foulahs are not darker than the Copts, or even than some Europeans. Other instances of as great a variety may be found among the African nations, within the limits of one race, as in the Bishuane Kaffers, who are of a clear brown colour, while the Kaffers of Natal on the coast are of a jet black. From some remarks of Diodorus and Plutarch, it would appear that the birth of fair, and even red-haired individuals, occasionally happened in the Egyptian race. Both these writers say, that Typhon was uppós, or red-haired; the former adds that a few of the native Egyptians were of that appearance: óhíyovs Tivas. (Diod. Sic. 1, 88.-Plut. de Is. et Os., p. 363. Astapus and Astaboras, sent forth gradually its sacerdotal colonies, carrying with them agriculture and the first arts of civilized life, along the regions to the north, and that these, proceeding slowly onward, passed eventually the cataract of Syene, and entered upon the valley of Egypt. Placing commerce under the safeguard of religion, and subjugating the inhabitants of the regions to which they came, more by the benefits they conferred than by any exercise of force, these strangers became at last the controlling power of the land, and laid the foundation of that brilliant character in the annals of civilization which has acquired for Egypt so imperishable a name. (Compare Heeren, Ideen. 2, 1, 363, seqq.-Id. ibid. 2, 532, seqq.-Goerres, Mythengeschichte, 2, 331, seqq.-Creuzer, Commentat. Herodot., p. 178, seqq.-Id. Symbolik, par Guigniaut, 1, 2, 778, seqq.) But whence came the civilization of Meroë ?—This question will be considered in a different article. (Vid. Meroë.) 8. Egyptian History. The Egyptians, like the Hindus and Persians, had allegorical traditions among them respecting the introduction of agriculture and the first beginnings of civilization in their country. Such were the Songs of Isis, whose high antiquity is attested by Plato (de Leg. 2.-Pt. 3, vol. 2, p. 239, ed. Bekker). They had, in | decisive testimony of his general fidelity by the interthe second place, epic traditions, a kind of poetic chron-pretation of the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the existicles, embracing the succession of high priests, and ing monuments; so much so, that, by the accordance the dynasties of the Pharaohs, or monarchs of the of the facts attested by these monuments with the reccountry. Such were the volumes of papyrus, which ord of the historian, we have reason to expect the enthe priests unrolled to satisfy the questions of Herod- tire restoration of the annals of the Egyptian monarchy otus (2, 100). We would err greatly, however, were antecedent to the Persian conquest, and which, indeed, we to suppose that these were actual histories. They is already accomplished in part. (Quarterly Journal were rather a species of heroic tales, intermingled with of Science, New Series, vol. 1, p. 180.) The next religious legends, and where allegory still played the authority after Manetho is Eratosthenes. He was chief part, as in the Ramayan and Mahabharat of the keeper of the Alexandrean library in the reign of PtolHindus, the Schahnameh of the Persians, and the emy Euergetes, the successor to Ptolemy Philadel traditions of the Greeks previous to the return, or in- phus. Among the few fragments of his works which vasion, of the Heraclide. These originals are unfor- have reached us, transmitted through the Greek histotunately lost for us. In their stead we have the sa- rians, is a catalogue of thirty-eight or thirty-nine kings cred books of the Hebrews, which offer a great number of Thebes, commencing with Menes (who is mentioned of recitals on this subject, but fragmentary in their na- by the other authorities also as the first monarch of tore, without developement, and often extremely vague. Egypt), and occupying by their successive reigns 1055 Hence it is difficult to conciliate these recitals with years. (Foreign Quarterly, No. 24, p. 358.) These those of the Greeks, which are in general more cir- names are stated to have been compiled from original cumstantial and extended. Some time before Herod-records existing at Thebes, which city Eratosthenes otus, Hippys of Rhegium and other travellers had visited expressly to consult them. The names of the visited Egypt. Among these Hecatæus of Miletus is first two kings of the first dynasty of Manetho are the the most conspicuous. He travelled thither about the same with those of the first two kings in the catalogue 59th Olympiad, and described particularly the upper of Eratosthenes; but the remainder of the catalogue part of Egypt, bestowing especial attention on the presents no farther accordance, either in the names or state or city of Thebes, and the history of its kings. in the duration of the reigns. Next to Herodotus, Hence the reason why Herodotus says so little on these Manetho, and Eratosthenes, the most important authorpoints. (Creuzer, fragm. Hist. Græc. antiquissim.,ity, in relation to Egypt and its institutions, is Diodop. 16, seqq.-Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr. 2, 135, seqq.) rus Siculus, who lived under Cæsar and Augustus, and About the same period, Hellanicus of Lesbos also who, independent of his own observations and his regave a description of Egypt. (Hellanici fragm., ed. searches on the spot, refers frequently, in this part of Sturz., p. 39, seqq.) Herodotus succeeded. Visiting his work, to the old Greek historians, and particularly the country about seventy years after its conquest by to Hecatæus of Miletus, after whom he describes the the Persians, he traversed its whole extent, and con- ancient kingdom of Thebes, and gives an account of signed to his great work all that he had seen, all that the monuments of this famous city, with surprising he had heard from the priests, as well with regard to fidelity. (Description de l'Egypte, 2, 59, seqq.-Comthe monuments as the history of Egypt, and added to pare Heyne, de fontibus Diod. Sic. in Comment. Soc. these his own opinions on what had passed under his Gött. 5, 104, seqq.) Strabo, the celebrated geograview or been related to him by others. (Herod.,lib. pher, visited Egypt in the suite of Ælius Gallus, about 2 et 3.) The state or city of Memphis is the princi- the commencement of our era. He does not content pal subject of his narrative. After him came Theo- himself, however, with merely recounting what fell pompus of Chios, Ephorus of Cuma (Fragm.,ed. Marx., under his own personal observation, but frequently rep. 213, seqq.), Eudoxus of Cnidus, and Philistus of fers to the earlier writers. Plutarch, in many of his Syracuse. But their works have either totally perish- biographies, and especially in his treatise on Isis and ed, or at best only a few fragments remain. At a la- Osiris; Philostratus, in his life of Apollonius; Porter period, and subsequent to the founding of Alexan-phyry, Iamblichus, Horapollo, and many other writers, drea, Hecatæus of Abdera travelled to Thebes. This took place under the first Ptolemy. (Creuzer, fragm., &c., p. 28, seqq.-Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr. 3, 211, seqq.) In the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, two centuries and a half before the Christian era, Manetho, an Egyptian priest, of Heliopolis in Lower Egypt, wrote, by order of that prince, the history of his own country in the Greek language, translating it, as he states himself, out of the sacred records. His work is, most unfortunately, lost; but the fragments which have been preserved to us by the writings of Josephus, in the first century of the Christian era, as well as by the Christian chronographists, are, if entitled to confidence, of the highest historical value. What we have remaining of the work of Manetho presents us with a chronological list of the successive rulers of Egypt, from the first foundation of the monarchy to the time of Alexander of Macedon, who succeeded the Persians. This list is divided into thirty dynasties. It originally contained the length of reign as well as the name of every king; but, in consequence of successive transcriptions, variations have crept in, and some few omissions also occur in the record, as it has reached us through the medium of different authors. The chronology of Manetho, adopted with confidence by some, and rejected with equal confidence by others (his name and his information not being even noticed by some of the modern systematic writers on Egyptian history), has received the most unquestionable and have preserved for us a large number of interesting particulars relative to the antiquities and the religion of Egypt.-We have already alluded to the quarter whence the germe of Egyptian civilization is supposed to have been derived. The first impression having been one of a sacerdotal character, we find the beginnings of Egyptian history partaking, in consequence, of the same. Hence the tradition, emanating from the priests of Egypt, according to which the supreme deities first reigned over the country; then those of the second class; after these the inferior deities; then the demigods; and, last of all, men. The first deity that reigned was Kneph: this embraces the most ancient period, of an unknown duration. To Kneph succeeded Phtha, who has for his element, fire, and whose reign it is impossible to calculate. Next came the Sun, his offspring, who reigned thirty thousand years. After him, Cronos (Saturn) and the other gods occupy, by their respective rules, a period of three thousand nine hundred and eighty-four years. Then succeeded the Cabiri, or planetary gods of the second class. After these came the demigods, to the number of eight, of whom Osiris was probably regarded as the first. After the gods and demigods appeared human kings and the first dynasty of Thebes, composed of thirty-seven kings, who succeeded one another for the space of fourteen hundred years, or, according to others, one thousand and fifty-five. (Compare Chron. Egypt., ap.Euseb. Thes. Temp. 2, p. 7, and Manetho, ap. Syncell.) Görres thinks that these thirty-seven | dynasties, a race of strangers entered from the east kings, who are given as so many mortals, may have into Egypt. (Josephus, contra Ap. 1, 14.-Compare been nothing else but the thirty-seven Decans, with Eusebius, Præp. Ev. 10, 13.) Everything yielded Menes at their head; so that, by rejecting this dynasty to these fierce invaders, who, having taken Memphis, as a continuation of the divine dynasties, those of a and fortified Avaris (or Abaris), afterward Pelusium, strictly human nature, and, with them, the historical organized a species of government, gave themselves times of Egypt, will have commenced, according to kings, and, if we believe certain traditions, founded the calculations of this ingenious and profound writer, On (the city of the Sun; Heliopolis), to the east of 2712 years before the Christian era. (Gorres, My- the apex of the Delta. (Juba, cited by Pliny, 6, 34. thengeschichte, vol. 2, p. 412.—Compare Creuzer, Compare Volney, Recherches sur l'Hist. Anc. 3, 247, Symbolik, 1, 469, seqq., and Guigniaut's note, 1, 2, seqq. - Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian Mytholo841.) Be this, however, as it may, the common ac- gy, p. 66, Append.-Creuzer, Commentat. Herodot, count makes Menes to have been the first human king p. 188, seqq.) More than two centuries passed under of Egypt, and his name begins the dynasties of Thebes, the dominion of this race. They are commonly called of This, and of Memphis. Menes completed the the shepherd race, and their dynasty that of the Hycsos, work of the gods, by perfecting the arts of life, and or Shepherd-kings. The sway of these invaders is dictating to men the laws he had received from the said by Manetho to have been tyrannical and cruel. skies. This Menes, or Menas, or Mines (a name They exercised the utmost atrocity towards the native which Eratosthenes makes equivalent to Dionios, i. e., inhabitants, putting the males to the sword, and reduJovialis), can hardly be an historical personage. He cing their wives and children to slavery. The conresembles a sort of intermediate being between the quest of Egypt by the Shepherds, as they are called, gods and the human kings of the lands, a divine type dates in the year 2082 B.C. Their dynasty continued of man, a symbol of intelligence descended from the to rule at Memphis 260 years, and their kings, six in skies, and creating human society upon earth; similar number, were Salatis, Boon, Apachnas, Apophis, Jato the Menou or Manou of India, the Minos of nias, and Asseth. It was during the rule of the shepCrete, &c. He is a conqueror, a legislator, and a herd race that Joseph was in Egypt. Thus we have benefactor of men, like Osiris-Bacchus; like him, he it at once explained how strangers, of whom the Egypperishes under the blows of Typhon, for he was killed tians were so jealous, should be admitted into power; by a hippopotamus, the emblem of this evil genius; how the king should be even glad of new settlers, oclike him, moreover, he has the ox for his symbol, Mne-cupying considerable tracts of his territory; and how vis the legislator being none other than the bull Mne- the circumstance of their being shepherds, though odivis of Heliopolis. (Compare Volney, Recherches sur ous to the conquered people, would endear them to a l'Hist. Anc. 3, 282, seqq.-Prichard's Analysis of sovereign whose family followed the same occupation. Egyptian Mythology, p. 381.-Creuzer's Symbolik, After the death of Joseph, the Scripture tells us that a par Guigniaut, 1, 2, 780.) The successor of Menes king arose who knew not Joseph. This strong exwas Thoth, or Athothes, to whom is ascribed the in-pression could hardly be applied to any lineal succesvention of writing, and many other useful arts. We sor of a monarch who had received such signal benefits have in the fragments of Manetho a full list of two dy- from him. It would lead us rather to suppose, that a nasties seated at This, at the head of the first of which new dynasty, hostile to the preceding, had obtained we find these two names. These two dynasties in- possession of the throne. Now this is exactly the clude fifteen kings, and may therefore have continued case. For a few years later, the Hycsos, or Shepherdabout 400 years; the duration assigned to their col- kings, were expelled from Egypt by Amosis, called on lective reigns, in Eusebius's version of Manetho, is monuments Amenophtiph, the founder of the eigh554 years, but this is probably too long, as it is a sum teenth, or Diospolitan dynasty. He would naturally that far exceeds what would be the result of a similar refuse to recognise the services of Joseph, and would series of generations of the usual length. From the consider all his family as necessarily his enemies; time of Menes to that of Moeris, Herodotus leaves us and thus, too, we understand his fears lest they should entirely in the dark. He states merely (2, 100) that join the enemies of Egypt, if any war fell out with the priests enumerated between them 330 kings. them. (Exod. 1, 10.) For the Hycsos, after their Diodorus Siculus (1, 45) counts, in an interval of 1400 expulsion, continued long to harass the Egyptians by years between Menes and Busiris, eight kings, sev- attempts to recover their lost dominion. (Rosellien of whom are nameless, but the last was Busirisni, p. 291.) Oppression was, of course, the means II. This prince is succeeded by eight descendants, employed to weaken first, and then extinguish, the six of whom are in like manner nameless, and the Hebrew population. The children of Israel were seventh and eighth are both called Uchoreus. From employed in building up the cities of Egypt. It has Uchoreus to Moeris he reckons twelve generations. been observed by Champollion, that many of the ediManetho, on the other hand, reckons between Menes fices erected by the eighteenth dynasty are upon the and the time at which we may consider his history ruins of older buildings, which had been manifestly as becoming authentic, sixteen dynasties, which in- destroyed. (2de Lett., p. 7, 10, 17.) This circumcludes nearly three thousand years. But, whatever stance, with the absence of older monuments in the opinion we may form relative to these obscure and parts of Egypt occupied by the Hycsos, confirms the conflicting statements, whether we regard these early testimony of historians, that these conquerors destroyed dynasties as collateral and contemporary reigns (Creu- the monuments of native princes; and thus was an zer's Symbolik, par Guigniaut, 1, 2, 780), or as be- opportunity given to the restorers of a native soverlonging merely to the fabulous periods of Egyptian eignty to employ those whom they considered their enhistory, the following particulars may be regarded as emies' allies in repairing their injuries. To this petolerably authentic. Egypt, during this interval, had riod belong the magnificent edifices of Karnac, Luxor, undergone numerous revolutions. She had detached and Medinet-Abou. At the same time we have the herself from Ethiopia; the government, wrested from express testimony of Diodorus Siculus, that it was the the priestly caste, had passed into the hands of the boast of the Egyptian kings that no Egyptian had put his military order; Thebes, now become powerful in re- hand to the work, but that foreigners had been comsources, and asserting her independence, had com-pelled to do it (1, 56). With regard to the opinion menced under a line probably of native princes, her career of conquests and brilliant undertakings. On a sudden, in the time of a king called, by Manetho, Timaos, but who does not appear among the names in his list of entertained by many learned men, that the children of Israel were themselves the shepherd race, it may be sufficient to remark that the Hycsos, as represented on monuments, have the features, colour, and other |