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MERMNADE, the name of a dynasty of kings in Lydia, of whom Gyges was the first. The line ended with Croesus. They claimed descent from Hercules. (Vid. Lydia.).

1. Religion of Meroë.

against Troy. Meriones assisted Idomeneus in the | Eratosthenes, may be determined with the nicest acconduct of the Cretan troops, under the character of curacy by the small island just mentioned, which Bruce charioteer, and not only distinguished himself by his has not omitted to note upon his map. The ancient valour, but, at the funeral games in honour of Patro- city of Meroë then stood a little below the present clus, he obtained the prize for archery. (Il., 2, 651; Shendy, under 17° N. lat., 54° E. long. Bruce saw 4, 254; 5, 59, &c.) its ruins from a distance. What Bruce and Burckhardt, however, only saw at a distance and hastily, has now been carefully examined by later travellers, especially Caillaud, and placed before our eyes by their drawings. But, although it is probable that the MEROE, according to the ancient writers, an island true site of Meroë has here been indicated, yet it is and state of Ethiopia. Herodotus only mentions the proper to remark, that antiquaries have differed on city of Meroë. All other writers, however, describe the subject: some considering the ruins of Mount Meroë as an island, with a city of the same name. Berkel, considerably farther down the river, to point It was situated between the Astaboras and Astapus. to the spot. (Edinb. Review, vol. 41, p. 181.) Mount "The Astaboras," says Agatharchides, "which flows Berkel is situated in Dar Sheyga, near a village called through Ethiopia, unites its stream with the greater Merawe, at about 18° 31′ N. lat., and the ruins are Nile, and thereby forms the island of Meroë by flow-nearly of equal extent with those near Shendy. The ing round it. (Huds., Geogr. Min., 1, p. 37.) Stra- circumstance of the name Merawe has doubtless led bo is still more precise. "The Nile," says this geog- partly to this idea, but the argument is rendered null rapher, "receives two great rivers, which run from by the fact mentioned by Caillaud, that a place not the east out of some lakes, and encompass the great far from Shendy, covered with remains of ancient island of Meroë. One is called the Astaboras, which buildings, is called El Meraouy, and similar names flows on the eastern side; the other the Astapus. are by no means uncommon in many of the provinces Seven hundred stadia above the junction of the Nile of the Nile. The ruins at Mount Berkel, according and the Astaboras is the city of Meroë, bearing the to Caillaud, are probably those of Napata, originally same name as the island." (Strab., 786.) A glance the second city, and latterly the capital, of Ethiopia. at the map, remarks Heeren (Ideen, vol. 4, p. 397; (Long's Anc. Geogr., p. 78.) The site of the ancient vol. 1, p. 385, Oxford transl.), will immediately show city of Meroë is still indicated by the remains of a where the ancient Meroe may be found. The Asta- few temples, and of many other edifices of sandstone. boras, which flows round it on the eastern side, is the The whole extent, according to Caillaud, amounts to present Atbar or Tacazze; the Astapus, which bounds nearly 4000 feet. The plain allowed sufficient room it on the left, and runs parallel with the Nile, is the for a much larger city, and that the city itself was Bahr el Abiad, or White River. From these and larger than what is here stated cannot for a moment other statements, Heeren comes to the following con- be doubted. clusions: First: that the ancient island of Meroë is the present province of Atbar, between the river of the same name, or the Tacazze, on the right, and the From the observations of travellers who have careWhite stream and the Nile on the left. The point fully examined the ruins of Meroe, we arrive at the where the island begins is at the junction of the Ta- important deduction, that this region was once inhabcazze and the Nile; in the south it is enclosed by a ited by a people equally as far advanced in refinement branch of the above-mentioned river, the Waldubba, as the Egyptians, and whose style of architecture and and a branch of the Nile, the Bahad, whose sources religious ceremonies, as portrayed on the remains of are nearly in the same district, although they flow in that architecture, bear a close resemblance to those different directions. It lies between 13° and 18° N. of Egypt. All this becomes extremely interesting lat. In recent times a great part is included in the when we call to mind what is stated by many of the kingdom of Sennaar, while the southern part belongs ancient writers, that Meroë was the cradle of the reto Abyssinia. Secondly: Meroë was, therefore, an ligious and political institutions of Egypt: that here extensive district, surrounded by rivers; whose super- the arts and sciences arose; that here hieroglyphic ficial contents exceeded those of Sicily rather more writing was discovered; and that temples and pyrathan one half. It cannot be called an island in the mids had already sprung up in this quarter, while strictest sense of the word, because, although it is very Egypt still remained ignorant of their existence. It nearly, it is not completely enclosed by rivers; but it stands as an incontrovertible fact, remarks Heeren was taken for an island of the Nile, because, as Pliny (Ideen, vol. 4, p. 419; vol. 1, p. 406, Oxford transl.), (5, 9) expressly observes, the various rivers which that, besides the pastoral and hunting tribes, which flow round it were all considered as branches of that led a nomade life to the west of the Nile, and still stream. It becomes, moreover, as we are told by more to the east, as far as the Arabian Gulf, there Bruce, a complete island in the rainy season, in con- existed a cultivated people near this stream, in the sequence of the overflowing of the river.-Thirdly: valley through which it flows, who had fixed abodes, Upon this island stood the city of the same name. It built cities, temples, and sepulchres, and whose reis impossible, from the statements of Herodotus, to de- mains even now, after the lapse of so many centutermine precisely its site. Fortunately, other writers ries, still excite our astonishment. It may farther be give us more assistance. According to Eratosthenes stated as a certainty, that the civilization of this peo(ap. Strab., l. c.), it lay 700 stadia (about 80 English ple was, in an especial manner, connected with their remiles) above the junction of the Tacazze or Astabo-ligion; that is, with the worship of certain deities. ras and the Nile. Pliny (6, 29), following the statements of those whom Nero had sent to explore it, reckons 70 milliaria (63 English miles); and adds the important fact, that near it, in the river on the right side going up stream, is the small island Tadu, which serves the city as a port. From this it may be concluded with certainty, that the city of Meroë was not on the Tacazze, as might otherwise be conjectured from the names of those rivers being so unsettled, but on the proper Nile; and its situation, notwithstanding the little difference between Pliny and

The remains of their foundation prove this too clearly for any doubt to be entertained on the subject. This religion, upon the whole, is not uncertain. It was the worship of Ammon and his kindred gods. The circle of these deities was very nearly of the same extent as that of Olympus among the Greeks; it might, possibly, be somewhat larger. It became extended by the appearance of the same deity in different relations, and consequently with changed attributes, especially with different head-ornaments, and also under various forms. Without digressing into a detailed

description of particular deities, we may venture a step | otherwise than that crowds of men should congregate farther, adds the same writer, without fear of contradic- on the borders of the stream where the dhourra, altion, and assert that this worship had its origin in nat-most the only corn here cultivated, would grow? And ural religion connected with agriculture. The great if they could satisfy their first cravings with the proworks of nature were revered accordingly as they pro- duce of this scanty space, was not the rise of a natural moted or retarded and hindered this. It seems nat- religion, referring to it, just what might be expected? ural that the sun and moon, so far as they determined Add to all this, however, another circumstance highly the seasons and the year, the Nile and the earth as important. Meroë was, besides, the chief mart for sources of fruitfulness, the sandy deserts as the oppo- the trade of these regions. It was the grand emposers of it, should all be personified. One thing is re- rium of the caravan trade between Ethiopia, the north markable, namely, that of all the representations of of Africa, and Egypt, as well as of Arabia Felix and Nubia yet known, there is not one which, according even India. (Heeren, Ideen, vol. 4, p. 423; vol. 1, p. to our notions, is offensive to decency. But this wor- 411, Oxford transl.) ship had, besides, as we know with certainty, a second element, oracles. Ammon was the original oracle-god of Africa: if afterward, as was the case in Egypt, other deities delivered oracles, yet they were of his race, of his kindred. Even beyond Egypt we hear of the oracles of Ammon. "The only gods worshipped in Meroë," says Herodotus (2, 29), “are Zeus and Dionysos" (which he himself explains to be Ammon and Osiris). 66 They also have an oracle of Ammon, and undertake their expeditions when and how the god commands." How these oracles were delivered we learn partly from history, partly from representations on monuments. In the sanctuary stands a ship; upon it many holy vessels; but, above all, in the midst a portable tabernacle, surrounded with curtains, which may be drawn back. In this is an image of the god, set, according to Diodorus (2, 199), in precious stones; nevertheless, according to one account, it could have no human shape. (Curtius, 4, 7. "Umbilico similis.") This statement of Curtius, however, is incorrect, not only because contradicted by the passage just quoted from Diodorus, but also because we see on one of the common monuments a complete portrait of Ammon.-The ship in the great temples seems to have been very magnificent. Sesostris presented one to the temple of Ammon at Thebes, made of cedar, the inside of cedar and the outside of gold. (Diod., 1, 57.) The same was hung about with silver goblets. When the oracle was to be consulted, it was carried around by a body of priests in procession, and from certain movements, either of the god or of the ship, both of which the priests had well under their command, the omens were gathered, according to which the high-priest then delivered the oracle. This ship is often represented, both upon the Nubian and Egyptian monuments, sometimes standing still, and sometimes carried in procession; but never anywhere except in the innermost sanctuary, which was its resting-place. Upon the Nubian monuments hitherto made known we discover this in two places; at Asseboa and Derar, and on each twice. Those of Asseboa are both standing. In one the tabernacle is veiled, but upon the other it is without a curtain. (Gau, plate xlv., B.) Ammon appears in the same sitting upon a couch; before him an altar with gifts. (Gau, plate xlv., A) Upon one the king is kneeling before the ship at his devotions; in the other he is coming towards it with an offering of frankincense. In the sanctuary of the rock monument at Derar we also discover it twice. Once in procession, borne by a number of priests (Gau, plate li., C.); the tabernacle is veiled, the king meets it, bringing frankincense: the other time at rest. (Ibid., plate lii.) These processions are not only seen upon the great Egyptian temples at Philæ, Elephantis, and Thebes, but also in the great Oasis. (Description de l'Egypte, pl. xiii., xxxvii., lxix.) These oracles were certainly the main support of this religion; and if we connect with them the local features of the countries, it will at once throw a strong light upon its origin. Fertility is here, as well as in Egypt, confined to the borders of the Nile. At a very short distance from it the desert begins. How could it, then, be

2. Government and General History of Meroë. Meroë, according to the accounts of the ancient writers, was a city which had its settled constitution and laws, its ruler and government. But the form of this state was one which we too often find among the kingdoms of these southern regions; it was a hierarchy; the government was in the hands of a race or caste of priests, who chose from among themselves a king. Diodorus's account of them, which is the most extensive and accurate that we have, is here given. "The laws of the Ethiopians," says he, speaking of Meroë (3, 5), "differ in many respects from those of other nations, but in none so much as in the election of their kings, which is thus managed. The priests select the most distinguished of their own order, and upon whichever of these the god (Jupiter Ammon) fixes, as he is carried in procession, he is acknowledged king by the people; who then fall down and adore him as a god, because he is placed over the government by the choice of the gods. The person thus selected immediately enjoys all the prerogatives which are conceded to him by the laws, in respect to his mode of life; but he can neither reward nor punish any one beyond what the usages of their forefathers and the laws allow. It is a custom among them to inflict upon no subject the sentence of death, even though he should be legally condemned to that punishment; but they send to the malefactor one of the servants of justice, who bears the symbol of death. When the criminal sees this, he goes immediately to his own house, and deprives himself of life. The Greek custom of escaping punishment by flight into a neighbouring country is not there permitted. It is said that the mother of one who would have attempted this strangled him with her own girdle, in order to save her family from that greater ignominy. But the most remarkable of all their institutions is that which relates to the death of the king. The priests at Meroë, for example, who attend to the service of the gods, and hold the highest rank, send a messenger to the king with an order to die. They make known to him that the gods command this, and that mortals should not withdraw from their decrees; and perhaps added such reasons as could not be controverted by weak understandings, prejudiced by custom, and unable to oppose anything thereto." Thus far Diodorus. The government continued in this original state till the period of the second Ptolemy, and its catastrophe is not less remarkable than its foundation. By its increased intercourse with Egypt, the light of Grecian philosophy penetrated into the interior of Africa. Ergamenes, at that time king of Meroë, tired of being priestridden, fell upon the priests in their sanctuary, put them to death, and became effectually a sovereign. (Diodorus, 3, 6.)—Of the history of this state previous to the revolution just mentioned, but very scanty information has been preserved; but yet enough to show its high antiquity and its early aggrandizement. Pliny tells us (6, 35) that "Ethiopia was ruined by its wars with Egypt, which it sometimes subdued and sometimes served; it was powerful and illustrious even as far back as the Trojan war, when Memnon reigned.

At the time of his sovereignty," he continues, "Meroe | Jewish annals, went out Zerah, the Ethiopian, with a is said to have contained 250,000 soldiers and 400,000 host of a hundred thousand men and three hundred artificers. They still reckon there forty-five kings." chariots. (2 Chron., 14, 9.) Although this number Though these accounts lose themselves in the darkness signifies nothing more than a mighty army, it yet afof tradition, yet we may, by tracing history upward, dis- fords a proof of the mightiness of the empire, which at cover some certain chronological data. In the Persian that time probably comprised Arabia Felix; but the period Meroë was certainly free and independent, and chariots of war, which were never in use in Arabia, an important state; otherwise Cambyses would hardly prove that the passage refers to Ethiopia. Zerah's exhave made so great preparations for his unfortunate ex- pedition took place in the early part of Asa's reign; pedition. (Herod., 2, 25.) The statement of Strabo, consequently, about 950 B.C.; and as such an empire according to which Cambyses reached Meroë, may per- could not be quite a new one, we are led by undoubt haps be brought to accord with that of Herodotus, if we ed historical statements up to the period of Solomon, understand him to mean northern Meroë, near Mount about 1000 B.C.; and, as this comes near to the TroBerkel. During the last dynasty of the Pharaohs at jan period, Pliny's statements, though only resting on Sais, under Psammetichus and his successors, the mythi, obtain historical weight. Farther back than kingdom of Meroë not only resisted his yoke, although this, the annals of history are silent; but the monuhis son Psammis undertook an expedition against ments now begin to speak, and confirm that high anEthiopia; but we have an important fact, which gives tiquity which general opinion and the traditions of a clew to the extent of the empire at that time towards Meroë attribute to this state. The name of Ramesses the south; the emigration of the Egyptian warrior- or Sesostris has already been found upon many of the caste. These migrated towards Meroe, whose ruler Nubian monuments, and that he was the conqueror of assigned them dwellings about the sources of the Nile, Ethiopia is known from history. (Herod., 2, 110.— in the province of Gojam, whose restless inhabitants Strabo, 791.) The period in which he flourished canwere expelled their country. (Herod., 2, 30.) The not be placed later than 1500 years before the Christian dominions of the ruler of Meroë, therefore, certainly era. But the name of Thutmosis, belonging to the reached so far at that time, though his authority on preceding dynasty, has also been found in Nubia, and the borders fluctuated in consequence of the pastoral that assuredly upon one of the most ancient monuhordes roving thereabout, and could only be fixed by ments of Armada. But in this sculpture, as well as colonies. Let us go a century farther back, between in the procession, representing the victory over Ethio800 and 700 B.C., and we shall mount to the flourish-pia in the offering of the booty, there appears a degree ing periods of this empire, contemporaneous with the of civilization which shows an acquaintance with the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah; especially with peaceful arts; they must consequently be attributed the reign of Hezekiah, and the time of Isaiah, 750- to a nation that had long been formed. We thus ap700, where we shall consequently have a light from the proach the Mosaic period, in which the Jewish tradiJewish annals, and the oracles of the prophets, in con- tions ascribe the conquest of Meroë to no less a person nexion with Herodotus. This is the period in which than Moses himself. (Joseph., Ant. Jud., 2, 10.) The the three mighty rulers, Sabaco, Seuechus, and Tar- traditions of the Egyptian priesthood also agree in this, haco started up as conquerors, and directed their that Meroë, in Ethiopia, laid the foundation of the most weapons against Egypt, which, at least Upper Egypt, ancient states. In a state whose government differed became an easy prey, from the unfortunate troubles so widely from anything that we have been accustompreceding the dodecarchy having just taken place. Ac-ed to, it is reasonable to suppose that the same would cording to Eusebius (Chron, vol. 2, p. 181.-Com- happen with regard to the people or subjects. We pare Marsham, p. 435), Sabaco reigned twelve, Seu- cannot expect a picture here that will bear any similiechus also twelve, and Tarhaco twenty years: but by tude to the civilized nations of Europe. Meroë rather Herodotus, who only mentions Sabaco, to whom he resembled in appearance the larger states of interior gives a reign of fifty years, this name seems to des- Africa at the present day; a number of small nations, ignate the whole dynasty, which not unfrequently fol- of the most opposite habits and manners-some with, lows that of its founder. Herodotus expressly says and some without settled abodes-form there what is that he had quitted Egypt at the command of his ora- called an empire; although the general political band cle in Ethiopia (2, 137, seqq.). It may therefore be which holds them together appears loose, and is often seen, by the example of this conqueror, how great their scarcely perceptible. In Meroe this band was of a dependance must have been, in their native country, twofold nature; religion, that is, a certain worship, upon the oracle of Ammon, when even the absent principally resting upon oracles, and commerce; unmonarch, as ruler of a conquered state, yielded obcdi- questionably the strongest chains by which barbarians ence to it. Sabaco, however, is not represented by could be fettered, except forcible subjugation. The him as a barbarian or tyrant, but as a benefactor to the rites of that religion, connected with oracles, satisfied community by the construction of dams. The chro- the curious and superstitious, as did trade the cravings nology of Seuechus and Tarhaco is determined by the of their sensual appetites. Eratosthenes has handed Jewish history. Seuechus was the contemporary of us down an accurate picture of the inhabitants of MeHosea, king of Israel, whose reign ended in 722, and roë in his time (ap. Strab., 821). According to his of Salmanassar (2 Kings, 17, 4; 19, 9). Tarhaco account, the island comprised a variety of people, of was the contemporary of his successor Sennacherib, whom some followed agriculture, some a nomade, pasand deterred him, in the year 714 B.C., from the in- toral life, and others hunting; all of them choosing vasion of Egypt merely by the rumour of his advance that which was best adapted to the district in which against him. (2 Kings, 19, 9.) His name, however, they lived. (Heeren, Ideen, vol. 4, p. 433; Oxford dees not seem to have been unknown to the Greeks. transl., vol. 1, p. 420.) Eratosthenes (ap. Strabo, 680) mentions him as a conqueror who had penetrated into Europe, and as far as the Pillars of Hercules; that is, as a great conqueror. Certainly, therefore, the kingdom of Meroë must have ranked about this time as an important state. And we shall find this to be the case if we go about 200 years farther back, to the time of Asa, the great-grandson of Solomon, but who nevertheless mounted the throne of Judah within twenty years after his grandsire's death. 955 B.C. Against him, it is said in the

3. Commerce of Meroë.

The ruling priest-caste in Meroë seem to have sent out colonies, who carried along with them the service of their gods, and became the founders of states. One of these colonies, according to the express testimony of Herodotus (2, 42), was Ammonium in the Libyan desert, which had not merely a temple and an oracle, but probably formed a state in which the priest-caste, as in Meroë, continued a ruling race, and chose a king

had a ready communication with the more southern countries (Diod., 1, 33). As ready, owing to the moderate distance, was its connexion with Arabia Felix; and so long as Yemen remained in possession of the Arabian and Indian trade, Meroë was the natural market-place for the Arabian and Indian wares in Africa. The route which led in antiquity from Meroë to the Arabian Gulf and Yemen, is not designated by any historian: the commerce between those nations being indicated only by monumental traces which the hand of time has not been able to destroy. Immeruins of Axum, and at the termination of the route, on the coast opposite to Arabia Felix, are those of Azab or Saba. Heeren, from whom the above ideas are principally borrowed, deduces the following conclusions from a review of the entire subject.-1. That in the earlier ages, a commercial intercourse existed here between the countries of southern Asia and Africa; between India and Arabia, Ethiopia, Libya, and Egypt, which was founded upon their mutual necessities, and became the parent of the civilization of these nations.-2. That the principal seat of this international commerce was Meroë; and its chief route is distinguished by a chain of ruins reaching from the shores of the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean : Axum and Azab being links in this chain between Arabia Felix and Meroë; Thebes and Aminonium between Meroë, Egypt, and Carthage.-3. That chief places for trade were at the same time settlements of that priest-caste, which, as the ruling tribe, had its chief residence at Meroë, and sent out colonies thence, who became builders of towns and temples, and, at the same time, founders of new states.-The conductors of this caravan trade in Africa, as in Asia, were the Nomadic shepherd-nations. Men accustomed to fixed residences and to dwellings in towns were not adapted for the restless caravan-life, especially on account of the attention necessary for the camels, and for the loading and unloading of wares. It was better suited to Nomadic nations. In the case of the Carthaginian caravans, we know that they were managed by the Nomadic Lotophagi and Nasamones, as the caravans were by the Midianites and Edomites in Arabia: this is historically proved, and it is probable that it was the case on the great commercial road from Ammonium to Azab, as similar Nomadic tribes are still found on the coast of the Arabian Gulf.-Meroë had mines not only of silver and gold, but also of copper and even of iron itself. (Diod., 1, 33.)

from their own body. Ammonium served as a resting-place for the caravans passing from northern Africa to Meroë. Another still earlier settlement of this kind was very probably Thebes in Upper Egypt. The circumstance of a town flourishing to such an extent in the midst of a desert, of the same worship of Ammon, of the all-powerful priest-caste, and its permanent connexion with Meroë (united with which it founded Ammonium), conjoined with the express assertion of the Ethiopians that they were the founders (Diod., 3, 3), gives to this idea a degree of probability bordering on certainty. The whole aspect of the cir-diately between Meroë and the gulf are situated the cumstances connected with this wide-spread priestcaste gains a clearer light, if we consider Ammonium, Thebes, and Meroe the chief places of the African caravan trade; in this view of the subject, the darkness of Egypto-Ethiopian antiquity is cleared up, as in the hands of this priest-caste the southern caravan trade was placed, and they founded the proud temples and palaces along the banks of the Nile, and the great trading edifices, which served their gods for sanctuaries, themselves for dwellings, and their caravans for places of rest. To this caste, the states of Meroë and Upper Egypt very probably owed their foundation; except, indeed, that Egypt was much more exposed to the crowding in of foreign relations from Asia, than Meroë, separated as this last was from other countries by deserts, seas, and mountains. The close connexion, in high antiquity, between Ethiopia and upper Egypt, is shown by the circumstance that the oldest Egyptian states derived their origin partly from Abyssinia; that Thebes and Meroë founded, in common, a colony in Libya; that Ethiopian conquerors several times advanced into Egypt, and, on the other hand, that Egyptian kings undertook expeditions to Ethiopia; that in both countries a similar worship, similar manners and customs, and similar symbolical writing were found; and that the discontented soldiercaste, when offended by Psammetichus, emigrated into Ethiopia. By the Ethiopians Egypt was likewise profusely supplied with the productions of the southern countries. Where else, indeed, could it have obtained those aromatics and spices with which so many thousands of its dead were annually embalmed? Whence those perfumes which burned upon its altars? Whence that immense quantity of cotton in which the inhabitants clothed themselves, and which Egypt itself furnished but sparingly? Whence, again, that early report in Egypt of the Ethiopian gold-countries, which Cambyses sought after, and lost half his army in the fruitless speculation? Whence the quantity of ivory and ebony which adorned the oldest works of art of the Greeks as well as of the Hebrews? Whence, especially, that early extension of the Ethiopian name, which shines in the traditionary history of so many nations, and which the Jewish poets as well as the oldest Greek bards have celebrated? Whence all this, if the deserts which bordered on Ethiopia had always kept the inhabitants isolated from those of more northern countries?-At a later period, in the time of Ptolemy I., it is astonishing how completely that able prince had established the trade between his own country, India, Ethiopia, and Arabia. The series of magnificent and similar monuments, interrupted on the frontiers of Egypt, near Elephantine, and recommencing on the southern side of the African desert, at Mount Berkel, and especially at Meroë, to be continued to Axum and Azab, certainly denote a people of similar civilization and activity. Meroë was the first fertile country after crossing the Libyan desert, and formed a natural resting-place for the northern caravans. It was likewise the natural mart for the productions of inner Africa, which were brought for the use of the northern portion, and was reckoned the outermost of the countries which produced gold, while by the navigable rivers surrounding it on all sides, it

4. Influence of Meroë on Egyptian civilization.

Everything seems to favour the supposition that Meroe gave religion and the arts of civilized life to the valley of the Nile. The following are some of the principal arguments in support of this opinion: 1. The concurrent testimony of the ancient writers.-2. The progress of civilization in Egypt from south to north; for the Delta, the part of Egypt contiguous to Arabia, appears to have been originally uninhabitable, except a small space about the extremities of the marsh; and history asserts that the inhabitants of upper Egypt descended and drained the country.-3. The improbability that an Arabian colony would have crossed Syria from Babylon to Suez, and wandered so far south as Thebes to found its first settlement.-4. The radical difference between the Coptic and Arabic languages, which existed even in the days of Abraham. (Murray, Appendix to Bruce, book 2, p. 479.) -5. The trade from the straits of Babelmandel by Azab, Axum, Meroë, and Upper Egypt. If this trade be as old as from the remarks previously made it would seem to be, we may consider Ethiopia as one of the first seats of international trade, or, in other words, of civilization; for an exchange of wares would lead to an exchange of ideas, and this recipro

As to the origin of the civilization of Meroë itself, all is complete uncertainty; though it is generally supposed to have been derived from the plains of India. The reader may consult on this subject the work of Von Bohlen, Das alte Indien, mit besonderer Rucksicht auf Egypten, vol. 1, p. 119, seqq.

MEROPE, I. one of the Pleiades. She married Sisyphus, son of Eolus, before her transformation into a star; and it was fabled that, in the constellation of the Pleiades, Merope appears less luminous than her sisterstars, through shame at having been the only one of the number that had wedded a mortal. Other mythol ogists relate the same of Electra. Schwenck sees in the union of Merope with Sisyphus a symbolical allusion to Corinthian navigation. (Schwenck, Skizzen, p. 19.-Compare Welcker, Esch, Tril., p. 555.—Id. ried Cresphontes, king of Messenia, by whom she had three children. Her husband and two of her children were murdered by Polyphontes. The murderer wished her to marry him, and she would have been obliged to comply had not Epytus or Telephontes, her third son, avenged his father's death by assassinating Polyphontes. (Apollod., 2, 6.-Pausan., 4, 3.)

cal communication would necessarily give rise to | moral and intellectual improvement.-6. The curious fact, that the images of some of the Egyptian gods were at certain times conveyed up the Nile, from their temples to others in Ethiopia; and, after the conclusion of a festival, were brought back again into Egypt. (Eustath., ad Il., 1, 424.)—7. The very remarkable character of some of the Egyptian paintings, in which black (or, more correctly, dark-coloured) men are represented in the costume of priests, as conferring on certain red figures, similarly habited, the instruments and symbols of the sacerdotal office. "This singular representation," says Mr. Hamilton, "which is often repeated in all the Egyptian temples, but only here at Phile and at Elephantine with this distinction of colur, may very naturally be supposed to commemorate ne transmission of religious fables and the social in-ib., p. 573.)-II. A daughter of Cypselus, who marstitutions from the tawny Ethiopians to the comparatively fair Egyptians."-8. Other paintings of nearly the same purport. In the temple of Phila, the sculptures frequently depict two persons, who equally represent the characters and symbols of Osiris, and two persons equally answering to those of Isis; but in both cases one is invariably much older than the other, and appears to be the superior divinity. Mr. Hamilton MEROPS, a king of the island of Cos, who married conjectures that such figures represent the communi- Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He was changed into cation of religious rites from Ethiopia to Egypt, and an eagle, and placed among the constellations. (Ovid, the inferiority of the Egyptian Osiris. In these delin-Met., 1, 763.) eations there is a very marked and positive distinction MEROS, a mountain of India sacred to Jupiter. It between the dark figures and those of fairer complex-is said to have been in the neighbourhood of Nysa, and ion; the former are most frequently conferring the to have been named from the circumstance of Bacchus's symbols of divinity and sovereignty on the other.-9. being enclosed in the thigh (unpós) of Jupiter. This The very interesting fact recorded by Diodorus, name- attempt at etymology, however, is characteristic of the ly, that the knowledge of picture-writing in Ethiopia Grecian spirit, which found traces of their nation and was not a privilege confined solely to the caste of language in every quarter of the world. The mountpriests as in Egypt, but that every one might attain itain in question is the famous Meru of Indian mythol as freely as they might in Egypt the writing in com- ogy. (Creuzer's Symbolik, vol. 1, p. 537.) mon use. A proof at once of the earlier use of picture-writing, or hieroglyphics, in Meroë than in Egypt, and also of its being applied to the purposes of trade. -10. The more ancient form of the pyramid, approaching that of the primeval mound, occurs more to the south than the rectilinear form. Thus the pyramids of Saccara are older in form than those of Djiza, another proof of architecture's having come in from the countries to the south. (Clarke's Travels, vol. 5, p. 220, Lond. ed.)-From this body of evidence, then, we come to the conclusion, that the same race which ruled in Ethiopia and Meroë spread themselves by colonies, in the first instance, to Upper Egypt; that these latter colonies, in consequence of their great prosperity, became in their turn the parents of others; and as in all this they followed the course of the river, there gradually became founded a succession of colonies in the valley of the Nile, which, according to the usual custom of the ancient world, were probably, at first, independent of each other, and therefore formed just so many little states. Though, with the promulgation of their religion, either that of Ammon himself, MESENE, I. an island in the Tigris, where Apamea or of his kindred deities and temple-companions, after was built. It is now Digel. (Strab., in Huds., G. whom even the settlements were named, the extension M., 2, p. 146.-Plin., 6, 31.-Steph. Byz., p. 91, n. of trade was the principal motive which tempted colo- 8.)-II. Another, enclosed between the canal of Basnists from Meroë to the countries beyond the desert; ra and the Pasitigris, and which is called in the Orienyet there were many other causes, such as the fertil-tal writers Perat-Miscan, or "the Mesene of the Euity of the land, and the facility of making the rude na-phrates," to distinguish it from the Mesene of the Titive tribes subservient to themselves, which, in a pe- gris. The term Mesene is a Greek one, and refers to riod of tranquillity, must have promoted the prosperity land enclosed between two streams. (Philostorgius, and accelerated the gradual progress of this coloniza- 3, 7.—Cellarius, Geogr. Antiq., vol. 1, p. 641, ed. tion. The advantages which a large stream offers, by Schwartz.) facilitating the means of communication, are so great, that it is a common occurrence in the history of the world to see civilization spreading on their banks. The shores of the Euphrates and Tigris, of the Indus and Ganges, of the Kiangh and Hoangho, afford us as plain proofs of this as the banks of the Nile. (Heeren, Ideen, vol. 5, p. 109, seqq.; Oxford transl., vol. 2, p. 110.)

MESEMBRIA, a maritime town of Thrace, east of the mouth of the Nessus, now Mesevria or Mesera. According to Herodotus (7, 108), it was a settlement of the Samothracians.-Von Humboldt notices the terminations of magus, briga, and briva, appended to the names of towns, as undoubtedly Celtic. He refers to the same source the termination bria, which is met with in the geography of Thrace, as, for example, in the cities of Selymbria and Mesembria. He thinks that the Basque iri and uri are also connected with this; and that we can go no farther than to say that there was an old root bri or bro, expressing land, habitation, settlement, with which the Teutonic burg and the Greek Túρуoç may have been originally connected. In the Welsh and Breton languages, bro is still, he says, not only a cultivated field, but generally a country or district; and the scholiast on Juvenal (Sat., 8, 234) explains the name of Allobroges as signifying strangers, men from another land,quoniam broga Galli agrum dicunt; alla autem aliud." (Vid., however, Allobroges.—Arnold's Rome, p. xxii.)

MESOMEDES, a poet, a native of Crete. He was a freedman of the Emperor Hadrian's, and one of his favourites, and wrote a eulogium on Antinous. Hadrian's successor, the philosophic Antoninus, made it a duty to restore order and economy into the finances of the empire; and, among other things, he stopped the salaries which had been allowed to the useless

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