tury of the Christian era, two of its famous obelisks had been then carried to Rome, but several others were left. One of these is still standing, which has been considered as the finest in Egypt; its great antiquity is indicated by the peculiar form of its pyramidal top. * The Coptic name of Egypt is Cham or Chem; which word we trace as an element of the name Chemmis, once, according to Herodotus, a large city of the Thebaïs. We know from the Sacred Record, that Ham (or Cham) the youngest son of Noah, was the great progenitor of the Egyptian people. And in the Psalms, the country itself is designated by this appellation. [God] smote all the first-born in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham. Ps. lxxviii. 51. Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. wonders in the land of Ham. Ps. cv. 23, 27. God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt; wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea. Ps. cvi. 21, 22. The name ordinarily applied to Egypt in the Scriptures, however, is Mizraim. This was the name of the third son of Ham, for Canaan appears to have been the first-born, though, on account of the curse pronounced upon him, mentioned last in order. Professor Hengstenberg remarks,† that the word Mizraim "was originally, as the dual form signifies, the name of the land. The division of the land into the Upper and Lower regions, to which it refers, appears on the monuments even in the most ancient * Whence chemia, the Egyptian art; i. e. chemistry. + Egypt and Moses, 197. (Edin.) times." In Champollion's Letters, an inscription is quoted to this effect:-"I give thee the Upper and the Lower Egypt, in order that thou mayest rule over them as king." And Sir J. G. Wilkinson observes,† "Mizraim, or Mizrim, a plural word applied to Egypt, is the Hebrew mode of expressing the two regions of Egypt,' (so commonly met with in the hieroglyphics,) or, the 'two Misr,' a name still used by the Arabs, who call all Egypt, as well as Cairo, Musr, or Misr." Interesting notices are found of several of the other nations, whose origin is traced in the tenth chapter of Genesis. To follow the line of Ham, with which we have begun ;-we find Cush named first in the order, whose descendents spread themselves over the desert land of Arabia, and the country on each side of the Persian Gulf, and of the Red Sea to the south of Egypt. The name of Cush repeatedly occurs upon the monuments, as an African nation subdued by the monarchs of the 18th dynasty. Sir J. G. Wilkinson remarks ‡ that they "were long at war with the Egyptians; and part of their country, which was reduced at a very remote period by the arms of the Pharaohs, was obliged to pay an annual tribute to the conquerors." Rosellini, observing that the Cushites appear in a painting, which represents Menephtha I. slaying his captives before the idol Amon-Re,|| adds that eleven distinct Cushite tribes are there enumerated; which accords with what we might infer from the mention of the * P. 140. + Manners, i. 2. Ibid. 387. See note, p. 12, sup. sons and even grandsons of Cush in Gen. x. 7, that many distinct tribes sprang from that patriarch. The tribute brought by long trains of ambassadors from allied or conquered nations, is useful in identifying their locality. The natural productions of a country do not vary with the lapse of ages, but are the same now as they were 3000 years ago; and as wild animals and similar objects are drawn by the Egyptian artists with much truth and spirit, we can have little doubt, in general, of the species for which they were intended. In an elaborate painting, representing the ambassadors of four nations bringing tribute to Pharaoh Thothmes III., whom we suppose to have been contemporary with the Patriarch Jacob, the Cushites bear a part. They are described as bringing the productions of "the southern district of western Ethiopia." The subjoined engraving exhibits a selection from these tribute bearers, the procession being too long to be given entire. It is observable that with the Cushites, who are of a red complexion, like the Egyptians, there are associated some true negroes, who do not discover any inferiority to their fellows, and whom we, therefore, suppose to have inhabited the same territory on terms of equality. The first man of the procession carries a basket of indigo,* the next a basket of gold rings and a leopard-skin turned inside out; the thirdt carries in a basket several * On the use of indigo by the ancient Egyptians, see Thompson, "On the Mummy-cloth of Egypt," in London and Edinburgh Phil. Mag. 1834, p. 361. The first, in our engraving; the preceding two figures being omitted for want of space. sealed bags of precious stones, and a long bag or leathern bottle hanging from his arm. Others follow, bearing ingots of silver, elephants' teeth, logs and clubs of ebony, ostrich-eggs and feathers, and skins of wild beasts; the skin carried by the seventh* figure is the long-eared fox of Abyssinia. The animals led in strings are the derrias or dogheaded baboon, the panther, the giraffe, long-horned oxen, some red, others white, and beautiful hounds, liver-coloured, tan, and white. The grace with which these animals are depicted will doubtless strike the reader. The bearers, both red and black, are clothed in a short tunic, either of spotted bull's hide, or of linen to imitate it; the hair is short and close; that of the negroes is painted blue, not (as it seems) to represent a cap of that hue, but simply to distinguish it from the colour of the skin. In front of each procession, a large number of the different articles of tribute are arranged in order, behind which stand Egyptian scribes recording the amount received. The Cushite heap includes piles of ebony-logs, on which are placed sealed bags of jewels, and ostrich-feathers, rings and ingots of gold in baskets, jars, probably of incense, elephants' tusks, baskets of dye-earths, and beautiful pantherskins. A baboon, seated on a stool in the centre, keeps guard with a gravity becoming so responsible a situation. *The fourth, in the engraving. |