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science, certain practices which resulted merely from | opportunities of information, and who seems to have peculiarity of situation. Hence, on the one hand, the made a very diligent use of them, may be supposed to diversity of animals adored by the communities of be more accurate, in what refers to the internal polity Egypt. Had these been merely pure symbols, would of this nation, than Herodotus. Strabo has mentioned, the priests, who sought to impart a uniform character to in a very summary manner, the division of the Egyp their institutions, have ever introduced them? These tians into classes. He distinguishes the two higher varieties in the objects of worship are only to be ex- ranks, namely, the sacerdotal and the military classes, plained by the yielding, on the part of a sacerdotal or- and includes all the remainder of the community under der, to the antecedent habits of the people. (Vogel, the designation of the agricultural class, to whom he Rel. der Eg., p. 97, seqq.) Hence, too, on the other assigns the employments of agriculture and the arts. hand, those numerous allegories, heaped up together Diodorus subdivides this latter class. After distinwithout being connected by any common bond, and guishing from it the sacerdotal and military orders, he forming, if the expression be allowed, so many layers observes, that the remainder of the community is disof fable. Apis, for example, at first the manitou-pro-tributed into three divisions, which he terms Herdstotype of his kind, afterward the depository of the soul of Osiris, is found to have a third meaning, which holds a middle place between the other two. He is the symbol of the Nile, the fertilizing stream of Egypt; and while his colour, the spots of white on his front, and the duration of his existence, which could not exceed twenty-five years, have a reference to astronomy, the festival of his reappearance was celebrated on the day when the river begins to rise. The result, then, of what we have here advanced, is simply this: The animal-worship of the Egyptians originated in fetichism. The sacerdotal caste, in allowing it to remain unmolested, arrayed it in a more imposing garb, and, while they permitted the mass of the people to indulge in this gross and humiliating species of adoration, reserved for themselves a secret and visionary system of pantheism or emanation. (Constant, de la Religion, 3, 62, seqq. -Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, p. 330, seqq.)

12. Egyptian Castes.

Commercial class. 5. The Artificers, or labouring artisans. The employments of all these classes were hereditary, and no man was allowed by the law to engage in any occupation different from that in which he had been educated by his parents. It was accounted an honourable distinction to belong either to the sacerdotal or the military class. The other orders were considered greatly inferior in dignity, and no Egyptian could mount the throne who was not descended from the priesthood or the soldiery. (Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, p. 373, seqq.) After death, however, no grade was regarded, and every good soul was supposed to become united to that essence from which it derived its origin. (Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, &c., 1, 245.)

men, Agriculturists, and Artificers, or men who laboured at trades. Herodotus very nearly agrees in his enumeration with that of Diodorus. His names for the different classes are as follows: 1. Priests, or the sacerdotal class. 2. Warriors, or the military class. 3. Cowherds. 4. Swineherds. 5. Traders. 6. Interpreters. 7. Pilots. In this catalogue the third and fourth classes are plainly subdivisions of the third of Diodorus, whom that writer includes under the general title of herdsmen. The caste of interpreters, as well as that of pilots, must have comprised a very small number of men, since the Egyptians had little intercourse with foreigners, and, until the time of the Greek dynasty, their navigation was principally confined to sailing up and down the Nile. The pilots were probably a tribe of the same class with the artificers or labouring artisans of Diodorus. The traders of Herodotus must be the same class who are called agriculturists by Diodorus. Thus, by comparing the different accounts, we are enabled to arrange the several branches of the Egyptian community into the followAmong the institutions of Egypt, none was more ing classes. 1. The Sacerdotal order. 2. The Milimportant in its influence on the character of the na-itary. 3. The Herdsmen. 4. The Agricultural and tion, than the division of the people into tribes or families, who were obliged by the laws and superstitions of the country to follow, without deviation, the professions and habits of their forefathers. Such an institution could not fail of impressing the idea of abject servility on the lower classes; and, by removing in a great measure the motive of emulation, it must have created, in all, an apathy and indifference to improvement in their particular professions. Wherever the system of castes has existed, it has produced a remarkably permanent and uniform character in the nation; as in the example furnished by the natives of Hindustan. These people agree in almost every point with the description given of them by Megasthenes, who visited the court of an Indian king soon after the conquest of the East by the Macedonians. We have no very accurate and circumstantial account of the castes into which the Egyptian people were divided, and of the particular customs The inquiry respecting the sacerdotal caste of of each. It appears, indeed, that innovations on the Egypt is rendered a difficult one principally on the old civil and religious constitution of Egypt had begun following account, because the writers, from whose to be introduced as early as the time of Psammetichus, statements we obtain our information, lived in an age when the ancient aversion of the people to foreigners when the Egyptian priesthood had already suffered was first overcome. The various conflicts which the many and important alterations, and had been deprived nation underwent, between that era and the time when of a large portion of their former consideration and inHerodotus visited Egypt, could not fail to break down fluence. Each successive revolution in the state must many of the fences, which ancient priestcraft had es- have had a direct bearing upon them, or, rather, they tablished for maintaining the influence of superstition. must have been the first with whom it came in conHerodotus is the earliest writer who mentions the tact. Their political influence, therefore, must have castes or hereditary classes of the Egyptians, and his been gradually diminished, and their sphere of action account appears to be the result of his personal obser- circumscribed. Under the Persian sway, in particuvation only. Had this historian understood the native lar, their power must have been reduced to within but language of the people; had he been able to read the narrow limits, and our only wonder is, when we conbooks of Hermes, in which the old sacerdotal institu- sider the strong hostility displayed by these conquertions were contained, we might have expected from ors towards the sacerdotal or ruling caste, that it did him as correct and ample a description of the distribu- not fall entirely to the ground. Herodotus then, and tion of the castes in Egypt, as that which modern wri- still more the writers from whom Diodorus Siculus has ters have gained in India from the code of Menu, re-received his information on this subject, saw merely specting the orders and subdivisions of the community the shadow of that extensive power and influence in Hindustan. Diodorus, who had more favourable which the priests of Egypt had formerly possessed.

13. Egyptian Priesthood.

priests of Memphis were always styled (according to the nomenclature of the Greeks) priests of Vulcan; those of Thebes, priests of the Theban Jove; those of Sais, priests of the Sun, &c. These head-temples mark the first settlements of the sacerdotal colonies as they gradually descended the valley of the Nile. The number of deities to whom temples were erected, in Upper Egypt at least, seem to have been always very limited. In this quarter we hear merely of the temples of Ammon, Osiris, Isis, and Typhon. In Middle and Lower Egypt, the number appears to have been gradually enlarged.-The next subject of inquiry has reference to the revenues of the sacerdotal order. Here also we must dismiss the too common opinion, that the priests of Egypt were a class supported by the monarch or the state. They were, on the contrary, the principal landholders of the country, and, besides them, the right of holding lands was enjoyed only by the king and the military caste. Changes, of course, must have ensued amid the various political revolutions to which the state has been subject, in this important branch of the sacerdotal power, yet none of such a nature as materially to affect the right itself; and hence we find that a large, if not the largest and fairest, portion of the lands of Egypt, remained always in the hands of the priests. To each temple, as has al

And yet, even in the statements which we obtain from | local or patron deity of the adjacent country. The this quarter, traces may easily be found of what the Egyptian hierarchy once was; so that from these, when taken together, we are enabled to form a tolerably accurate idea of the earlier power which this remarkable order had enjoyed. The sacerdotal caste was spread over the whole of Egypt; their chief places of abode, however, were the great cities, which, at one time or other, had been the capitals of the land, or else had held a high rank among the other Egyptian cities. These were Thebes, Memphis, Sais, Heliopolis, &c. Here, too, were the chief temples, which are so often mentioned in the accounts of Herodotus and other writers. Every Egyptian priest had to belong to the service of some particular deity, or, in other words, to be attached to some temple. The number of priests for any deity was never determined; nor could it indeed have been subjected to any regulations on this head, since priesthood was hereditary in families, and these must have been more or less numerous according to circumstances. Not only was the priestly caste hereditary in its nature, but also the priesthoods of individual deities. The sons, for example, of the priests of Vulcan at Memphis, could not enter as members into the sacerdotal college at Heliopolis; nor could the offspring of the priests of Heliopolis belong to the college of Memphis. Strange as this regulation may appear, it was nevertheless a natural one. Each tem-ready been remarked, were attached extensive dople had extensive portions of land attached to it, the mains, the common possession of the whole fraternity, revenues of which, belonging as they did to those and their original place of settlement. These lands whose forefathers had erected the temple, were receiv- were let out for a moderate sum, and the revenue deed by the priests as matters of hereditary right, and rived from them went to the common treasury of the made those who tilled these lands be regarded as their temple, over which a superintendent, or treasurer, was dependants or subjects. Hence, as both the temple-placed, who was also a member of the sacerdotal body. lands and revenues were inherited, the sacerdotal col- From this treasury were supplied the wants of the va leges had of consequence to be kept distinct. The rious families that composed the sacred college. They priesthood, moreover, of each temple was carefully had also a common table in their respective temples, organized. They had a high-priest over them, whose which was daily provided with all the good things, not office was likewise hereditary. It need hardly be re- excepting imported wines, that their rules allowed. marked, that there must have been gradations also So that no part of their private property was required among the various high-priests, and that those of for their immediate support. For that they possessed Thebes, Memphis, and the other chief cities of the coun-private property is not only apparent from the circumtry, must have stood at the head of the order. These stance of their marrying and having families, but it is were, in a certain sense, a species of hereditary princes, also expressly asserted by Herodotus. From all that who stood by the side of the monarchs, and enjoyed al- has been said then, it follows, that the sacerdotal fammost equal privileges. Their Egyptian title was Pi-ilies of Egypt were the richest and most distinguished romis, which Herodotus translates by kaλòç kuyafós, in the land, and that the whole order formed, in fact, i. e., "noble and good," and which points not so much a highly privileged nobility. The priests of Egypt to moral excellence as to nobility of origin. (Com- were distinguished for great cleanliness of person and pare Welker, Theognidis Reliquiæ, p. xxiv.) Their peculiarity of attire. It cannot be doubted but that statues were placed in the temples. Whenever they the nature of the climate and the character of the are mentioned in the history of the country, they ap- country exercised a great influence, not only on these pear as the first persons in the state, even in the Mo- points, but also on their general mode of life; though, saic age. When Joseph was to be elevated to power, independent of this, they would seem to have been he had to connect himself by marriage with the sacer- well aware how important agents general cleanliness dotal caste, and was united to the daughter of the and frequent ablutions become in producing and eshigh-priest at On, or Heliopolis. The organization of tablishing the blessings of health, both in individuals the inferior priesthood was different probably in differ- and communities. Hence the conspicuous example of ent cities, according to the situation and wants of the external cleanliness which they made a point of showsurrounding country. They formed not only the ru-ing the lower orders. They wore garments of linen, ling caste, and supplied from their number all the of- not, as some think, of fine cotton (Schmidt, de Safices of government, but were in possession likewise of cerdotibus Ægypt., p. 26), fresh washed, taking particuall the learning and knowledge of the land, and the ex- lar care to have them always clean. They shaved all ercise of this last had always immediate reference to parts of their body once in three days. They wore the wants of the adjacent population. We must ban-shoes made of byblus, bathed themselves twice in cold ish the idea, then, that the priests of Egypt were water by day and twice by night, and entirely rejected merely the ministers of religion, or that religious ob- the use of woollen garments. (Heeren's Ideen, 2, 2, servances constituted their principal employment. 125, seqq.) They were, on the contrary, judges also, physicians, astronomers, architects; in a word, they had charge of every department that was in any way connected with learning and science. It appears, from the whole tenour of Egyptian history, that each of the great cities of the land possessed originally one chief temple, which, in process of time, became the head temple of the surrounding district, and the deity worshipped in it the

14. Motives for Embalming Bodies. It has often been observed, that the practice of embalming the dead, and preserving them with so much care and in so costly a manner, seems to indicate' some peculiarity in the opinions of the Egyptian philosophers respecting the fate of the soul. On this subject we have no precise and satisfactory information. The an

in the plates accompanying the great French work
on Egypt, as well as the drawings obtained by Belzoni
from the tombs of the kings at Thebes, and those given
by Minutoli, we see these vestments in all their gay
colours, and of various degrees of fineness. Some are
so fine that the limbs appear through them. (Compare,
in particular, the vestment of the king, as given in the
Description de l'Egypt, Planches, vol. 2, pl. 31, and
Belzoni's plates.) Others, on the contrary, are of a
thicker texture. The kings and warriors commonly
wear short garments; the agricultural and working
classes, merely a kind of white apron.
The priests
have long vestments, sometimes white, at other times
with white and red stripes: sometimes adorned with
stars, at other times with flowers, and again glittering
with all the colours of the East. Whether silk vest-

cient writers have left us only a few hints, more or less | as the time of Moses, this class of manufactures had obscure, which scarcely afford anything beyond a mere attained a very great perfection (Goguet, Origin of foundation for conjectures. The President de Goguet, Laws, &c., vol. 2, p. 86, seqq.); and, at a still more relying on a statement of Servius, supposes that the distant period, the time of Joseph (Genesis, 45, 22), Egyptians embalmed their dead for the sake of main- fine vestments were among the articles most usually taining the connexion between the soul and the body, bestowed as presents. We have no necessity, howand preventing the former from transmigrating. (Ori-ever, to go back to these authorities; the monuments gin of Laws, &c., vol. 3, p. 68, Eng. transl.) Ac-speak a language that cannot be misunderstood. Both cording to the Egyptian doctrine of transmigration, as explained by Herodotus (2, 127), the soul of a man passed through the bodies of living creatures, and returned to inhabit a human form at the expiration of three thousand years. The cycle, however, does not commence until the body begins to perish, and the second human habitation of the soul is a new one. The pains and torments, therefore, of passing through this cycle of three thousand years, and through animals innumerable, might be reserved for those whose actions in life did not entitle them to be made into mummies, and whose bodies would therefore be exposed to decay. In a second trial in the world, the unfortunate penitent might avoid his former errors. Hence, say the advocates for this opinion, the body of a father or ancestor was often given as a pledge or security, and it was one that was valued more highly than any other.ments can be found among them remains still undeIt was the most sacred of all the obligations which a cided. (Heeren's Ideen, vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 368, seqq.) man could bind himself by, and the recovery of the The Egyptians, from a most remote era, were celepledge, by performing the stipulated condition, was an brated for their manufacture of linen. The quantity, indispensable duty. (Long's Anc. Geogr., p. 61.) indeed, that was manufactured and used in Egypt was Others have imagined, that the views with which the truly surprising; and, independently of that made up Egyptians embalmed their dead bodies were more into articles of dress, the great abundance used for enakin to those which rendered the Greeks and Romans veloping the mummies, both of men and animals, show so anxious to perform the usual rites of sepulture to how large a supply must have been kept ready for the their departed warriors, namely, an idea that these so- constant demand at home, as well as for that of the lemnities expedited the journey of the soul to the ap- foreign market. That the bandages employed in pointed region, where it was to receive judgment for wrapping the dead are of linen, and not, as some have its former deeds, and to have its future doom fixed ac- imagined, of cotton, has been ascertained by the most cordingly. This, they maintain, is implied by the pray-satisfactory tests. (Wilkinson, vol. 3, p. 115.) That er, said to have been uttered by the embalmers in the the skill of the Egyptians in the application of colours name of the deceased, entreating the divine powers to kept pace with that displayed in the art of weaving, is receive his soul into the regions of the gods. (Por-evident from what has already been remarked. phyr. de Abstinent., 4, 10.-Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, p. 200.) Perhaps, however, the practice of embalming in Egypt was the result more of necessity than of choice, and, like many other of the customs of the land, may have been identified by the priests with the national religion, in order to ensure its continuance. The rites of sepulture in Egypt grew out of circumstances peculiar to that country. The scarcity of fuel precluded the use of the funeral pile; the rocks which bounded the valley denied a grave; and the sands of the deserts afforded no protection from outrage by wild beasts; while the valley, regularly inundated, forbade it to be used as a charnel-house, under penalty of pestilence to the living. Hence grew the use of antiseptic substances, in which the nation became so skilled, as to render the bodies of their dead inaccessible to the ordinary process of decay.

We

find among them all colours; white, yellow, red, blue, green, and black. What the colouring materials themselves were, how far they were obtained from Egypt, or to what extent they were brought from Babylonia and India, cannot be clearly determined. That the Tyrians had a share in these will appear more than probable, when we call to mind that they were permitted to have an establishment or factory at Memphis. Pliny (35, 42) extols the beautiful pigments of the Egyp tians, and the testimony of all modern travellers is in full accordance with his statements. The Egyptians mixed their paint with water, and it is probable that a little portion of gum was sometimes added, to render it more tenacious and adhesive. In most instances we find red, green, and blue adopted; a union which, for all subjects and in all parts of Egypt, was a particular favourite. When black was introduced, yellow was added to counteract or harmonize with it; and, in 15. Arts and Manufactures of the Egyptians. like manner, they sought for every hue its congenial The topics on which we intend here to touch, derive companion. The following analysis of Egyptian colno small degree of elucidation from the paintings dis-ours, that were brought by Wilkinson from Thebes, covered in the tombs of Egypt. Weaving appears to is given by Dr. Ure. "The colours are green, blue, have been the employment of a large majority of the red, black, yellow, and white. 1. The green pigment, nation. According to Herodotus (2, 35), it was an scraped from the painting in distemper, resists the soloccupation of the men, and, therefore, not merely a do- vent action of muriatic acid, but becomes thereby of a mestic employment, but a business carried on also in brilliant blue colour, in consequence of the abstraction large establishments or manufactories. The process of a small portion of yellow ochreous matter. The of weaving is frequently the subject of Egyptian paint-residuary blue powder has a sandy texture; and, when ngs. It is depicted in the most pleasing manner in the drawing given by Minutoli (pl. 24, 2) from the tombs of Beni Hassan. The loom is here of very simple construction, and is fastened to four props or supports driven into the ground. The finished part of the work is checkered green and yellow, the byssus being generally dyed before weaving. Even as early

viewed in the microscope, is seen to consist of small particles of blue glass. On fusing this vitreous matter with potash, digesting the compound in diluted muriatic acid, and treating the solution with water of am monia in excess, the presence of copper becomes manifest. A certain portion of precipitate fell, which, being dissolved in muriatic acid and tested, proved to

salts, were perfectly known to them. They made
wine, vinegar, and even beer. Their method of em-
balming, whatever it was, may be reckoned among
the evidences of their chemical knowledge. The
statements on this subject by Herodotus and Diodorus
Siculus are very unsatisfactory; and there is reason
to believe, as it was the object of the embalmers to
shroud their art in mystery, that those writers were
either totally deceived, or, at least, that the mummi-
fying drug was artfully concealed from their knowledge.
Another important branch of the domestic arts was
Pottery, in which the Egyptians displayed a skill not
at all inferior to that of the Greeks; and they who sup-
pose that graceful forms in pottery, porcelain, bronze,
or even more precious materials, were indigenous
to Greece alone, will find many things to undeceive
them in the paintings of Egypt. The country pos-
sessed a species of clay extremely well adapted to
this purpose, and which is still found there. (Rey-
nier, Economies des Egypt., p. 274.) Coptos was
the chief seat of this branch of industry, as Keft
(or Kuft), in its immediate vicinity, is at the present
day. The vases thus manufactured served for hold-
ing the water of the Nile, to which they were believed
to impart an agreeable coolness, an opinion that pre-
vails even in modern times. Besides, however, being
applied to household purposes, they were used also for
the purpose of holding the mummies of the sacred
animals, such as the ibis and others. The vases
depicted on the monuments of Egypt are sometimes
adorned with the most brilliant colours. As to the
elegance of form and ornament in domestic and other
articles, the Egyptians can stand comparison with any
other nation of antiquity, the Greeks not excepted.
Their couches and seats might serve as patterns even
for our own; their silver tripods, beautiful baskets,
and distaffs, as we see them in paintings, were known
even in the days of the Odyssey (4, 128), and their
musical instruments exceed those of modern times in
the beauty and variety of their shape. Those who
wish to examine more fully into this branch of our
subject are referred to Rossellini's great work, or the
more accessible one of Wilkinson. The productions
of the goldsmiths and silversmiths of Thebes are ex-
hibited by Rossellini, and they fully demonstrate the
high pitch of refinement to which they had brought
the working of the precious metals. He exhibits gold
and silver tureens, urns, vases, banqueting cups, &c.,
of the most exquisitely beautiful workmanship, and of
the most tasteful as well as elegant forms. In sur-
veying them, the classical reader will be convinced
that Homer drew little on his imagination in describing
the gift of plate made to Helen by the wife of the
Egyptian king Thone. But Homer ascribes still
more extraordinary wonders to the goldsmiths of the
same time. They must have succeeded in uniting the
most skilful mechanical clockwork with the workman-
ship of gold; for he describes golden statues, thrones,
and footstools moving about as if instinct with life.
It would appear, indeed, that we had made, at the
present day, little or perhaps no improvement on the
forms of the vases and vessels to which we have above

be the oxyde of iron. We may hence conclude, that the green pigment is a mixture of a little ochre, with a pulverulent glass, made by vitrifying the oxydes of copper and iron with sand and soda. 2. The blue pigment is a pulverulent blue glass, of like composition, without the ochreous admixture, brightened with a little of the chalky matter used in the distemper preparation. 3. The red pigment is merely a red earthy bole. 4. The black is bone black, mixed with a little gum, and containing some traces of iron. 5. The white is nothing but a very pure chalk, containing hardly any alumina, and a mere trace of iron. 6. The yellow pigment is a yellow iron ochre." (Wilkinson, vol. 3, p. 301.) Next in importance to weaving must be ranked Metallurgy. As far as we can judge from the colour, which is always green, brass seems to have been constantly employed where in other nations iron would be. The war-chariots appear to be entirely of the former metal. Their green colour, as well as their shape, and the lightness and elegance of their wheels, are thought clearly to indicate this. The arms, moreover, of the Egyptians appear to be nearly all of brass, and not only the swords, but the bows also, and quivers are made of it. These, together with the instruments for cutting that are found depicted among the hieroglyphics, are always green. In the infancy of the arts and sciences, the difficulty of working iron might long withhold the secret of its superiority over copper or bronze; but it cannot reasonably be supposed that a nation so far advanced, and so eminently skilled in the art of working metals as the Egyptians, should have remained ignorant of its use, even if we had no evidence of its having been known to the Greeks and other people; and the constant employment of bronze arms and implements is not a sufficient argument against their knowledge of iron, since we find the Greeks and Romans made the same things of bronze, long after the period when iron was universally known. If we reject this view of the question, we must come at once to the conclusion that the Egyptians possessed an art of hardening copper and bronze which is now lost to the world. The skill of the Egyptians in compounding metals is abundantly proved by the vases, mirrors, arms, and implements of bronze discovered at Thebes; and the numerous methods they adopted for varying the composition of bronze by a judicious mixture of alloys, are shown in the many qualities of the metal. They had even the secret of giving to bronze or brass blades a certain degree of elasticity, as may be seen in the dagger of the Berlin museum. Another remarkable feature in their bronze is the resistance it offers to the effects of the atmosphere; some continuing smooth and bright, though buried for ages, and since exposed to the damp of European climates. (Wilkinson, vol. 3, p. 253.) Other lost arts in metallurgy may be evidenced by the well-known fact, that the Hebrew legislator inferentially ascribes to the Egyptian chemists the art of making gold liquid, and of retaining it in that state. This we have not the power to do. Still, however, it must be confessed, that the Egyptians cannot properly be considered as at any time acquainted with the science of chemistry; though they were early made aware of various chemi-referred, and that an Egyptian buffet or sideboard, with cal facts, and many and indubitable proofs of this have been collected in one or two not inconsiderable works devoted to the subject. Their progress in the manufacture of not only white but coloured glass may also be instanced. Seneca informs us that they made artificial gems of extraordinary beauty. (Epist., 90.) They had a method of purifying natron, and of extracting potash from cinders. They prepared lime by the calcination of calcareous stones, and had an intimate knowledge of the uses to which it may be applied, as also that it renders the carbonate of soda caustic. Litharge, together with the vitriolic and many other

all its details, not excluding dishes, plates, knives, and spoons, near four thousand years ago, bore a striking resemblance to the sideboards of modern palaces and villas. Still farther, a survey of the trades and manufactures of Egypt, as afforded by the ancient paintings, exhibits, in a great degree, the same tools, implements, and processes, as are employed in workshops and manufactories at the present day. The whole process of manufacturing silk and cotton, with all its details of reeling, carding, weaving, dying, and patterning, may be more especially named. (Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 32, p. 308, segg.)

16. Trade of Egypt.

ject to fewer restraints; the exchange of Egyptian commodities was extended; and, as Herodotus ex

Nature has destined Egypt, by its products, its gen-pressly remarks, agriculture and individual wealth eral character, and its geographical position, for one of were never so much improved in Egypt as under this the principal trading countries of the globe. Neither system of free trade. The Egyptian kings now acthe despotism under which it has groaned for centu- quired a fleet, the materials for which, or the vessels ries, nor the bloody feuds and wars of which it has so themselves, they could procure from the Phoenicians or often been the scene, have operated, for any length of the Greeks. Neco, the successor of Psammetichus, time, to deprive it of these advantages; the purposes and the conqueror of Jerusalem (Herod., 2, 159.-Comof Nature may be impeded, but they cannot be wholly pare Kings, book 2, ch. 23, and Jeremiah, ch. 46), destroyed. The situation of Egypt, a fertile district, formed the project of uniting the Nile to the Red Sea abounding in the first necessaries of life, between the by a canal: this canal was not completed till the time arid deserts of Asia and Africa, has in all ages given of Darius I., the Persian king. The object of the Phait a value which, in another position, it could not have. raohs and the monarchs of Persia was to facilitate the From the time of Jacob to the present day, it has been transportation of commodities from the Red Sea to the granary of the less fertile neighbouring countries. Egypt; for the Egyptians had long been accustomed The natural facilities for internal communication were, to receive the products of India and Arabia up this at an early period, increased by the formation of canals, gulf. This artificial channel was neglected on acwhich united the various arms of the river that bound count of the difficulty of navigating the northern part or flow through the Delta. From Syene to about lat. of the Red Sea; it existed under the Ptolemies, but 31° N. there is one uninterrupted boat-navigation, a land communication was also formed between Copwhich is seldom impeded for want of water. The tos and the ports of Myos-hormos and Berenice on the conveyance of articles up the stream is favoured at cer- gulf, and this remained for a long time the great comtain seasons by the steady winds from the north. A mercial road between the western and the eastern description of the Nile-boat, called Baris, is given by world. In Upper Egypt, the city of Thebes was once Herodotus (2, 96). One of the great national festivals, the centre of commerce for Africa and Arabia: under that of Artemis at Bubastis, was celebrated during the its colossal porticoes and market-houses, the wares of annual inundation: the people, in boats, sailed from southern Africa, and the products of Arabia and India, one town to another, and their numbers were increased were collected. Its fame had spread, probably through by the inhabitants of every town that was visited. As the Phoenician traders, as far as the country of the Hoit was an idle time for the agriculturists, like the winter meric poems (Il., 9, 381). A modern traveller, Denon, of other climates, it was spent in carousing and drunk- standing amid the ruins of Thebes, could feel and enness. The quantity of wine consumed was immense, comprehend the advantages of its situation: he could and the whole of it was procured by giving in exchange compute the number of days' journey which separated Egyptian commodities. The Egyptians were never a him from the towns of Arabia, the emporium of Menation of sailors, for their country furnished no mate- roë, and the cities of central Africa. In the mountrials for building large vessels. Till the time of Psam- ains east of Thebes, the precious metals were once metichus, foreigners, though allowed to trade there, found: the mines were worked by prisoners of war were subject to many strict regulations, and were or by slaves. Agatharchides, a Greek geographer regarded as suspicious persons. Egypt, being a (Geogr. Gr. Min., vol. 1, p. 212, ed. Hudson), in the grain-country, would be more likely to receive the time of the sixth Ptolemy, visited these mines, of visits of foreigners, than to make, herself, any active which he has given a most exact description. Thus commercial speculations. The later Pharaohs, after Thebes possessed, in the precious metals, one of those Psammetichus, as also the Ptolemies, could only then articles of commerce which invite strangers. Membuild fleets when the woods of Phoenicia were under phis, in Lower Egypt, was the centre of commerce their control; and it is well known what bloody wars when Herodotus visited Egypt. The gold, the ivory, were carried on for the possession of these regions be- and the slaves of Africa, the salt of the desert, wine tween the Ptolemies and Seleucida. It may be easily imported from Greece and Phoenicia twice a year, with imagined, too, that the Tyrians and Sidonians were the products of India and Yemen, were collected in never anxious to make the Egyptians a maritime peo- this market. In exchange, the merchants received the ple, even if the latter had possessed the inclination to precious metals, grain, and linen (or perhaps cotton) become such. The true reason why the Egyptians cloths, which Herodotus compares with those of Colforbade all foreigners to approach their coast, is to be chis. Amasis, who was a usurper, and a prince fond found in the peculiar character of early commerce. of foreign luxuries, did not scruple to make great inAll the nations that trafficked on the Mediterranean novations. He admitted foreigners more freely into were at that time pirates, with whom the carrying Lower Egypt, and appointed Naucratis, on the Canoaway the inhabitants from the coasts and selling them pic branch, as the residence of the Greek merchants. for slaves had become a lucrative branch of commerce. He carried his liberality so far as to permit non-resiIt was natural, then, that a people who had no ships dent Greeks to build temples to their national gods, of their own to oppose to such visitants, should forbid and use the precincts as market-places: several Ionian them, under any pretext, to approach their coasts. and Dorian cities of Asia, together with the town of Passages occur, it is true, in the ancient writers, Mytilene, built a noble temple, called the Hellenium, which render it doubtful whether there were not some and, by their joint votes, appointed the superintendents exceptions to what has just been remarked. Homer of the market and the commercial establishment. makes Menelaus to have sailed to Egypt, and Diodo- Some other Greek towns also followed their example. rus Siculus mentions a maritime city, named Thonis, (Long's Anc. Geogr., p. 64, seqq.-Heeren's Ideen, to which he assigns a great antiquity. The colonies, vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 373, seqq.) too, that are said to have sailed from Egypt to Greece, as, for example, those of Danaus and Cecrops, suppose an acquaintance with the art of navigation. The ques- The same veneration for ancient usage and the stern tion, however, admits of a serious consideration, wheth-regulations of the priesthood, which forbade any innoer the Phoenicians were not in these cases the agents of vation in the form of the human figure, particularly in commerce and transportation. The reign of Psam- subjects connected with religion, fettered the genius metichus and his successors changed the character of of the Egyptian artists, and prevented its developement. the Egyptians, or at least altered the old and settled The same formal outline, the same attitudes and pospolity of the country. Foreign merchants were sub-tures of the body, the same conventional mode of rep

17. Style of Egyptian Art.

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