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These particulars have been preserved by Diodorus,* who further informs us that the Egyptians held most diseases to arise from indigestion and excess in eating, and therefore had frequent recourse to abstinence, emetics, slight doses of medicine, and other simple means of relieving the system. It is also stated by Herodotus that the inhabitants of the corn country physicked themselves for three successive days every month-submitting to a regular course of medicine, in the way of prevention. The employment of numerous drugs in Egypt has been mentioned by sacred and profane writers; and the medicinal properties of many herbs which grow between the Nile and the Red Sea is still known to the Arabs, though their application has been but imperfectly recorded and preserved. "O virgin, daughter of Egypt," says Jeremiah, "in vain shalt thou use many medicines, for thou shalt not be cured."+ And Homer describes Egypt as a country whose fertile soil produces an infinity of drugs, some salutary and some pernicious; where each physician possesses knowledge above all other men."

The members of the profession were very numerous. Herodotus says (ii. 84) that every place was full of them; and Pliny, at a later date, confirms his testimony. The last-named writer also takes notice of their skill, and intimates that they examined bodies after death to ascertain the nature of the diseases of which they had died.§ The medical skill of the Egyptians was well known in foreign countries, and must have been quite familiar to the Jews; and the physicians to whom Asa resorted were probably of that country.

Dreams, as we have recently seen, were regarded by the Egyptians with religious reverence; and they believed that the prayers of the devout were often rewarded by the indication in them of the remedies which their case required; but it seems that this and magic were only a last resource, when the skill of the physician had been baffled, and all hope of recovery by human means was lost; and a similar superstitious feeling led them to present votive offerings to the temples for the same purpose. The Jews were, however, disposed to reverse this order, and to look to the physician as the last resource.

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think cotton] cloth, of various length and breadth, and was then enclosed in an envelope of coarse, or sometimes of fine, cloth. In Mr. Davidson's mummy the weight of the bandages, including the outer sheet, was 29lbs., and their total length 292 yards; and in another, Mr. Pettigrew's, the cloth weighed 35 lbs.; and the one examined at Leeds was in no part covered with less than forty thicknesses of the cloth. The mummy thus prepared, with its envelope, presents the appearance of a large mass of cloth, somewhat resembling the general outline of the human figure. The mummy was thus prepared by the embalmers, and in this state consigned to the coffin-makers, who, in the first instance, enclosed it in a case of a strong, but flexible kind of board, something like papier mâche, made by gumming well together several layers of hempen or linen cloth. This was formed into the shape of the swathed mummy, which was inserted into it by means of a longitudinal slit, on the under side, reaching from the feet to the head, which was stitched up after the insertion of the mummy. This case is, in most instances, lined, and covered with a thin coating of plaster, with the representation of a human face on the upper part. This was then introduced into a coffin of sycamore wood, made sometimes out of one piece of wood, and either plain or ornamented within and without, with representations of sacred animals, or mytho logical subjects. Besides this there is often yet another wooden coffin, still more highly ornamented, and covered with paintings secured by a strong varnish. The upper part of both these cases is made to represent a human figure, and the sex is clearly denoted by the character of the head-dress, and by the presence or absence of the beard.

The last covering of all was a sarcophagus of stone, which, from its heavy additional expense, could only, it may be supposed, be used for kings and wealthy people. These stone coffins consist of two parts,-a case to contain the body, formed of one piece of stone, open at the top, and a lid to fit the opening. Some of them are comparatively plain, while others-of which there are examples in the British Museum, and one, of alabaster, in the Museum of Sir John Soane-are elaborately sculptured with hieroglyphics and figures of men and animals, forming not the least astonishing monuments which we possess of Egyptian industry and art.

This brief account of Egyptian coffins we

In the most remarkable of the sarcophagi in the Museum, the superfice sculptured is more than 100 feet square (French), and the number of characters exceeds 21,700.

have drawn from the more extensive statement in the instructive chapter on Mummies,' in the Egyptian Antiquities, of the Useful Knowledge Society; and is chiefly intended to give the requisite explanation of the figures in the annexed engraving, which offers specimens of all the different varieties of the Egyptian mummy cases and sarcophagi.

It seems not unlikely that the remains of Joseph were kept in a stone sarcophagus while in Egypt, and were taken out and removed in one or more wooden coffins, when the Israelites departed from Egypt. An Arabian writer,* who could, however, know no more about it than we do, entertained the same impression, and states that the remains of Joseph were deposited in a marble coffin, and cast into the Nile, the last particular being derived from one of the wonderful stories of the Rabbins, concerning the preservation of Joseph's body. Their most common account is, that the coffin of Joseph was at first deposited in the royal Patricides, p. 24, apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. c. viii. p. 379.

sepulchre; but that, when the Hebrews demanded leave to depart, the magicians came to the then reigning king, and told him that, if he was minded to keep the Hebrews in his dominions, the best course would be to conceal the body of Joseph in some place where they could not possibly find it, as they would certainly not leave the country without it; and that, in pursuance of this advice, it was sunk in the bed of the Nile, and that a miracle was effected, to enable Moses to recover it, and carry it away.* Another account alleges that the coffin was deposited in the treasury of the kings, in consequence of a prediction by the magicians, that if the Hebrews got possession of it, and carried it away, Egypt would be involved in a multitude of calamities. The truth probably is, that the sarcophagus, containing the body of Joseph, was kept in a sepulchre in the land of Goshen, in charge of his family, and that no difficulty was experienced in its removal when the time of deliverance came.

Talm. Bab. Sotah, c. i. fol. 13. 1. Targum Jouath. in loc. + Test. xii. Patriarchæ, in Simeone.

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THE history and chronology of the period immediately following the death of Joseph is involved in great obscurity, which there is only some faint hope of seeing dispelled, through the information which is in the course of being painfully collected from the graven monuments of ancient Egypt.

The interval between the death of Joseph and the birth of Moses is set down by Dr. Hales at 65 years. The history of this period is given by the sacred writer in a very few words. He commences by enumerating, once more, the sons of Jacob, and then informs us that they and all the men of their generation died before the affliction of the Hebrews in Egypt com

In this cut the woman in the foreground is employed in baking bread at the very usual kind of oven-a hole in the ground. The other women are weaving. Both are the principal employments of womeu among pastoral tribes, and were such among the Hebrews; and we make no question that the oven in the one case, and the loom in the other, are of just the same sort as they employed. It will be remembered that the hangings for the tabernacle were woven, by the women, in the wilderness. VOL. I.

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menced. Stephen appears to intimate (Acts vii. 16) that they were all taken to be buried in the ground at Shechem, but whether immediately after death, or whether their bodies were kept, like that of Joseph, to be carried thither at a future day, we are not told. The remarkable increase of the Israelites in Egypt is then described with a remarkable amplification of terms :-"They were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them." That God had promised this, sufficiently acounts for it: and, acting as usual through natural agencies, he had placed them in a land of abundance, finely watered, and under a warm climate,-in a country where the females, both of the human species and of animals, have ever been reputed to exceed all others in fruitfulIt can also be shown that the children of Israel now married very early, while the duration of life still greatly exceeded that to which it has since fallen. All these circumstances contributed more or less to the important result, and, together, adequately account for it, without the need of that directly miraculous aid which the Jewish writers claim; but which we know was never needlessly employed when the Divine blessing upon existing causes sufficed for the required effect.

ness.

There is one matter, concerning which further information than we possess would be very gratifying this is respecting the precise situation which Joseph's family occupied after his death, and how far it was affected by the high station their father had occupied, and by their maternal derivation from a distinguished family in Egypt. Born in that country and brought up in courts and palaces, under an Egyptian mother, their pastoral relatives from Canaan must at first have been strangers and foreigners to Ephraim and Manasseh. And from this the question arises, at what time and under what circumstances, the family of Joseph threw aside their Egyptian character, and joined themselves to their pastoral brethren in Goshen. We find no answer to this: but we may be sure that Joseph taught his sons to regard the prospects which that connection opened, as more truly glorious than any which Egypt could offer to them. The intermediate position and parentage of this family was probably for a time made instrumental in confirming the advantages which the Hebrews enjoyed in Egypt; and when circumstances arose which compelled them to take a more determined position, as Hebrews or as Egyptians-if they had not spontaneously done so before—we know, from the result, that they hesitated not to unite themselves to the sojourners in Goshen. All the positive information concerning them which we can find is contained in the genealogies with which the books of Chronicles open. From this source we learn that Manasseh had no children by his wife, but the son of a Syrian concubine was his heir.* The only other circumstance with which we are thus made acquainted relates to the tribe of Ephraim, and is interesting as showing, not only that this tribe entered into the Bedouin character with great spirit, but as perhaps evincing that the Hebrews in Goshen understood and entered into the Egyptian policy, as against the Philistines, with which the occupation of that land had been assigned to them. A body of Ephraimites, headed by the sons of Zabad, the sixth in descent from Ephraim, undertook a kind of freebooting expedition into the land of the Philistines, with the immediate view of driving off the cattle belonging to the people of Gath; but they were resisted by the Philistines and repulsed with much slaughter, and Zabad lost all his sons. This was exactly such an expedition as Bedouin pastors are at this day prone to undertake; and, considering that it was undertaken in the most bitter days of the "bondage," it lays open certain inferences which we shall presently deduce from it: while it may probably have been entered upon with the view of convincing the Egyptians that no such good understanding existed between them and the Philistines, as appears to have been made one of the reasons or pretences for their oppression.

Towards the latter end of the interval between Joseph and Moses we are told that "another king arose who knew not Joseph." In such a country as Egypt, this, with the resulting consequences, must imply something more than the mere succession of one king of the same

1 Chron. vii. 14.

+1 Chron. vii. 21, 22. In the text, as it stands, the name of Ephraim has been substituted for that of Zabad in the verse. "And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him." It is impossible that Ephraim should then have been alive to mourn over the seventh generation of his descendants. Read 'Zabad,' and all becomes intelligible.

family to another, it must imply a change of dynasty; and not only such a change, but that the new dynasty was not native to that kingdom which Joseph had saved, and the condition of which was still materially affected by the measures he had taken. This has been so strongly felt, that there has been a general disposition to consider that the change consisted in the intrusion of the shepherd-race, to which" the king who knew not Joseph" belonged. But this conclusion is no longer tenable: for a close examination of the historical evidence demonstrates that the shepherd-race had been expelled from Egypt before the time of Joseph; and this is confirmed beyond dispute by the graven testimony which the old monuments of that country now offer. The new dynasty must, therefore, be sought in another quarter.

After an anxious survey of the thick clouds which hang over the chronology of this period, for some ray of light which might guide through its utter darkness, we turn away as disappointed as all our predecessors. Nothing, therefore, remains for us but to make such accommodations, and so to balance the various difficulties, as to obtain the result which, without being certain of its truth, seems the best and the most probable under all the circumstances.

It has been our earnest desire to avail ourselves of the facts, few though they be, which the long and well-directed researches of Mr. Wilkinson have enabled him to collect from the graven muniments of Egypt. But it has also been our purpose to use the dates which are assigned by Hales to the principal events recorded in the Scriptures; and how it is possible. to use both is a question of serious difficulty,-seeing that the chronology of Hales differs considerably from that in common use, which Wilkinson has adopted,-from which it necessarily happens that circumstances, which apply very well under the received chronology, lose their Scriptural connection when the dates of Hales are applied to them. To illustrate this by an example. According to Wilkinson the reign of Osirtasen I. commenced in 1740, в C, and continued for at the least 43 years. Now, according to the common Bible chronology, which Mr. Wilkinson adopts," the arrival of Jacob "* took place in the year 1706, whence he necessarily infers that this Osirtasen is the "Pharaoh " whom the history of Joseph makes known so favourably to us. But, according to Hales, this date for Jacob's arrival is wrong, and should be 1863; so that then the arrival of Jacob would appear to have preceded the commencement of Osirtasen's reign by 123 years, whence it would result that this monarch, instead of being the patron of Joseph, and he who gave to the house of Israel a possession in Egypt, would turn out to be the very king "that knew not Joseph," and he who commenced the oppression of the Hebrew race. Here is a very grave difficulty, which is not at all lessened by the fact that "the names and era of the monarchs before Osirtasen I. are uncertain. Very few monuments remain of a date prior to his reign; but the names of many kings occur in the sculptures as his predecessors."+

Now the scriptural dates of Hales are too clearly established, for their relinquishment or modification to be thought of, even for the sake of the benefit which might be derived from the Egyptian facts collected by Wilkinson. Yet these facts are so much more in agreement with the Hebrew history of the time than any information we previously possessed, that, while still adhering to our preference of Hales's dates, we should sincerely regret this consequence of that preference. The only course by which an accommodation could be effected, would be by carrying back the reign of Osirtasen to the time which Hales assigns to the elevation of Joseph; thus erasing the discrepancy of 123 years. To most of our readers this may seem too bold and unwarrantable an operation: but to those who know the uncertainty in which the profane chronology of those times is involved, and the ease with which centuries are bandied about by the chronologers to suit their occasions, nothing would seem easier than to make such an alteration for the sake of accommodating circumstances.

• Mr. W. has "arrival of Joseph" in both his Egypt and Thebes' and ' Ancient Egyptians.' But this is a palpable slip of the pen for Jacob.

Egypt and Thebes,' 509, note.

Mr. Wilkinson himself furnishes an instance of this. In his Egypt and Thebes,' being restricted by the low date ascribed by the common chronology to the Deluge, he gives to Menes the date of 2201, yet wishing he could carry it higher. In his later work, he does carry it higher, raising the date to 2320; while Hales, whose widening of the interval relieves him from any fear of interfering with the Deluge, goes back so far, in this same date, as 2412. If Mr. W. had taken the same date, and had raised those that follow in proportion, his date for the reign of Osirtasen would nearly synchronise with that which Hales gives to Joseph's elevation.

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