The Monumental History of Egypt, as recorded in the ruins of her Temples, Palaces and Tombs

Front matter

i *Y mmm^Mn ■ I ■ I ■ ■ PORTRAIT OF PRINCE MOURHET. THE MONUMENTAk HISTORY OF EGYPT, AS RECORDED ON THE RUINS OF HER TEMPLES, PALACES, AND TOMBS. BY WILLIAM OSBURN", R.S.L., AUTHOR OP "THE ANTIQUITIES OF EGTPT," "ANCIENT EGTPT, HER TESTIMONT TO THE TRUTH," ETC. VOL. I. Jfram % first C elongation of % Oalleg to % ©isit of % |3afriarcl7 gtkatn. LONDON: TRUBNER AND CO., 12, PATERNOSTER ROW- HDCOCUV. bath: printed bt binns and goodwin. TO JUkejr $ol>n gtan f aid, tfsquiw, IN REMEMBRANCE OF MANY HAPPY HOURS SPENT TOGETHER ON THE NILE, THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR.

Preface

. In the course of the following pages, I endeavour punctually to note my obligations to the labours of all other students of the antiquities of Egypt. To the invaluable collections of the Greek authorities, by the Chevalier Bunsen, and to the accurate copies of the monuments, taken by Dr. Lepsius, I am largely indebted. I cannot make the acknowledgment too fully. The publications, and still more the friendly intercourses, of Samuel Birch of the British Museum, have likewise often and most efficaciously assisted my researches. But the arrangement of the present his tory, and the reasonings upon which it is founded, are my own. I am anxious to relieve my fellow labourers and friends from the responsibility of my opinions. W. Osburn. Guernsey, April 26, PAGE 22 CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Introductory. The Nile. Cause of the Fertility of Egypt. Geographical Position of Egypt. Debouchure of the Nile. Three great Geographical Divisions of Egypt. Egypt in its Time of Fertility. Egypt in its Time of Barrenness. Green Nile. Rising of the Nile. Red Nile. Inundation. Divisions of Egyptian Year. Egyptian Aborigines. Present Inhabitants of Egypt. Coptic Alphabet. Coptic the Language of Ancient Egypt. Antiquity of Egyptian Civilization. Abram's first Journey into Egypt. Claims of the History of Egypt. ...

Chapter II

Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Hieratic and Demotic Writing. Specimen of Hieroglyphic Writing. Inscription of Rosetta. Analysis of Inscriptions. Hieroglyphics in Two Proper Names. System of Homophons. Phonetic Hieroglyphics. Initial Symbols. Alphabet and Syllabarium. Construction of Phonetic Alphabet. Phonetic Hieroglyphics. Initials. Determinatives. Interpreted Initials. Pictures. Symbols. Process of Invention. Hieroglyphic System. Initials and Determinatives. Rosetta Stone. Importance of Translating it. Description. Greek Inscription, Line 1 — 54. Hieroglyphics, Line I. — XIV.

Chapter III

Greek Writers on Egypt. Herodotus of Halicarnassus. Greeks in Egypt. Diodorus, the Sicilian. Richard Lepsius. Manetho of Sebennytus. His Personal Character. Eratosthenes. Dynasties CONTENTS. PAGE 175 197 of Manetho. Canonical Numbers. The Bible, a History of the Jews, not of Egypt. The Monuments. Extract from Lepsius. No Rain in Upper Egypt. Stamped Bricks. Materials for Monuments. Writing Materials. Number of Monuments. All Monuments Inscribed. Small Objects Inscribed. Importance of the Monuments ...

Chapter IV

Pre-Historic Facts. Gods and Demi-Gods. Mythic Dynasties. Rank of the Gods. The God Thoth. Cries of Animals. Sparrow. Ibis. Habits of Rolling Beetle. Hieroglyphic Name. Pelican. Flamingo. Hebrew and Egyptian. Hieroglyphic Pronouns. Art in Egypt. First Settlement. Opinion of Lepsius. Heliopolis. Most Ancient Remains. Symbols. The Vulture. Origin of the Symbols. Modern Fables. Palms of Egypt. Summary. Inference from foregoing Facts. Scripture the Highest Authority

Chapter V

Threefold Division of Egyptian History. Kings from Eratosthenes. Chronological Exaggerations. Their Fallacy Proved. Menes, the First Egyptian King. The Turin Papyrus. Birth-place of Menes. Works of Menes. Mounds and Canals. Reign of Menes. Menes long before Abraham. German Chronologers. Uniformity of Tradition. Ancient Ambition to be Old. The Priests and Herodotus. Herodotus and his Dragoman. Canonical Number. Name of Noah. Lepsius's Theory Baseless. Week in Egypt. Recapitulation. Successors of Menes. Athothis, Semempses. Symbol of Authority. Sum of First Dynasty. Cechous. Animal Worship. Clemens. Apis, Mnevis, Mendes. Raophis. Reclaimed Lands. First and Second Dynasties. Third Dynasty. Ases. Pyramids of Ghizeh. Tombs. Sephuris. Son of Sephuris. Tombs of Sephuris. Curiosity-Collectors. Third Dynasty.

The two Egypts. Chronology. Art in Egypt. Primitive Art. Worship of Adam. Phut, the Son of Ham. Phtha and Apis. Course of the Nile changed. Copies of the Lists. Soris. His Pyramid. Tablet of Soris. God-Kings. The Great Pyramid. Its Dimensions. Its Approaches. Its Casing of Grey Granite. Suphis a Tyrant. The Pyramids were Tombs. Library of Suphis. Successor of Suphis. Noh-Suphis. Co-Regent with Suphis. Their Standard. Reign of Noh-Suphis. His Successor. Herodotus PAGE 222 340 CONTENTS. and his Times. Nephercheres. Names of Kings. Their Analysis. Sesochrenes. His Tomb. Nephercheres, Sesochris. History in the Lists. The Fourth Dynasty. Greek Lists of it. Its Duration. The Fifth Dynasty. Its Capital. Abydos. State of the Lists. Usercheres. Memorials of his Reign. Usercheres a great King. His Successor.

Slavery in Egypt. Tatcheres. Sephres succeeded him. Sephres of this Dynasty. Built the Second Pyramid. Art in his Times. The Second Pyramid. AVorship of Sephres. His Successor. Mencheres. Cheres. Onnos. List of the Fifth Dy nasty. Mistakes in it. Duration of the Fifth Dynasty. Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. Contemporaneous at Memphis and Aby dos

Chapter VI

King Mencheres. Third Pyramid. Its Precinct. Its Present Condition. Mencheres a Reformer. Worship of Osiris. Name of Osiris. His Death and Mutilation. The Busirides. Violation of his Tomb. His Limbs collected. Meaning of Abydos. Named by Mencheres. Osiris its God. Mencheres the God Horus. Birth of Horus. Limbs of Osiris. Bloody War to recover them. Religion of Egypt. Worship of Adam. Noah. Ham. Mizraim. Thoth. Menahath. Mendes, the Goat. Anubis. Hen. The Nine Gods. AVorship of Old Egypt. Religion always changing. Defects of Old Religion. How remedied by Mencheres. Follies of Idolatry

Chapter VII

Duration of the War. Northern and Southern Egypt. Shepherd- Kings Egyptians. Lists of Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Dynasties. Consequences of the War. Heracleopolis. Sebennytus. Manetho a Native of it. Imephthis. Policy of the Shepherd-Kings. Chamber of Karnak. Its Arrangement. Oldest Kings in it. Senucheres. Birth of Apis. Founder of Coptos. Founder of Thebes. Names in two Rings. Reign of Menthesuphis. His Successors. Achthoes. His Reign. His History. Worship of Seba. Abram in Egypt. Civil War at that Time. Correspondence of Dates. Scripture Chronology. Striking Agreement. Arithmetic and Astronomy. Son of Achthoes. Amenemes. The Goddess Neith. Religion in Egypt. Striking Coincidence. Obelise of Begig. Its Mythology. Tamar the AVife of Noah. Men- CONTENTS. X PAGE 349 416 cheres and his Successors.

V alley of the Faioum. Canal of the Faioum. Opened by Amenemes. Its Name in Hieroglyphics. Retained to this Day. By whom excavated. Chamber of Karnak further elucidated. Diagram of Chamber of Karnak. Onnos and Usercheres II. Kings in the Chamber. How arranged. Two Co-Regent Kings. History of their Co-Regency. Two Preten sions united. Eleventh Dynasty. Chronology. Summary. First Colonists. Order of Colonization. Menes one of them. Divi sions in the Old Times. How avoided in Egypt. Religion. Its great Influence. All the Kings Sons of Menes. Recapitulation. Periods II— A***. Extent of Egypt ...

Chapter VIII

Manners and Customs. Invention of Hieroglyphics. Their Want of Perspicuity. The Invention of one Age. The Invisible AArorld. White Ibis and Ape. Anomalous State of Mind. Future Judgment. Believed from the First. " The Book of the Dead." Its Teaching. Body and Soul. Descent into Hades. Journey of the Soul. Trial of the Soul. Deprecations in the Hall. Deprecations at the Balance. Morals in Old Egypt. Rigid Prescriptions. Their bad Tendency. Natural Affections in Beasts ; destroyed in Man. Slaves in Old Egypt. Dancers also Slaves. Horrors of Slavery. Its Universality. Its Origin in Egypt. Princes of Egypt. The Chase. No Domestic Animals. The Coffin of Mencheres. Mummies and Tombs. The Tything and the Banquet. A Tomb the AVork of a Life. Curiously Illustrated. Pictures how to be read. Subjects recorded in them.

Nature of Properties. Landed Estates. Reclaimers of Land. Breeds of Cattle. Counting the Herds. The Hyena. Computation of Time ; very imperfect. Conclusion THE MONUMENTAL HISTORY OF EGYPT.

Chapter I. Introductory

— THE NILE. — THE CAUSE OF THE FERTILITY OF EGYPT. — GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF EGYPT. — THE DEBOUCHURE OF THE NILE. — THE GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS OF EGYPT. — THE ANNUAL OVERFLOW OF THE NILE. — THE EGYPTIAN ABORIGINES. — COLONIZATION BY THE GREEKS. —

Introduction

OF CHRISTIANITY. — MOHAMMEDANISM. — PRESENT INHABITANTS. — THEIR LANGUAGE. — THE COPTIC ALPHABET. — COPTIC, THE LANGUAGE OF ANCIENT EGYPT. — ABRAM's FIRST JOURNEY INTO EGYPT.— LONG CONTINUED INTERCOURSE OF ABRAM'S DESCENDANTS WITH EGYPT. Egypt is the anomaly of the earth's present surface. The adaptations and adjustments of the air and of the solar distance, whereby the energies of vegetable life are called forth in other countries, give place here to another code of natural laws, framed expressly for the valley of the Nile. The atmospheric changes of other lands, whether they be the mild gradations of tem perate climates, or the fierce convulsions of the tropics, are alike unknown in Egypt. The intensely vivid blue of the sky of Egypt is scarcely ever overclouded. From VOL. I. B [CHAP. I. THE NILE. the moment that he surmounts the white and bleached rocks of the eastern desert, to that when he descends behind the parched sands of the Sahara, the sun pours down all his fervors on the land of Egypt, unveiled by cloud, or speck, or stain, and throughout the whole year.

Rain is all but unknown at Cairo; it is a fearful portent, occurring only after intervals of many years, in Upper Egypt. The wonderful phenomenon of the annual overdo w of the Nile excited the astonishment and religious awe of the ancient travellers who visited Egypt. The far wider acquaintance with the countries and climates to the southward of Egypt, which the cumulative knowledge of two thousand years confers upon us, though it gives us, in the tropical rains and in corresponding floods in other tropical rivers, some key to this mystery, by no means entirely dispels it ; and the traveller even in this day, who from the rocks of Pbilæ gazes upon the broad and turbid tide of the inundation, as it foams and thunders down the rapids that there encumber the bed of the river, is overwhelmed with astonishment.

He feels the hot sand-wind parching and blistering his white skin ; his eye glances at the utter sterility that everywhere, save in the close vicinity of the river, meets his eye ; his mind grasps for a moment the vast tracts of desert that surround him on all sides, and he finds relief in the exclamation with which the poor Arab that attends him gives utterance to his own sense of the same phenomenon, " Mashallah." "Wonder of God." The most ancient traveller that ever visited Egypt and left the record of what he saw there, has condensed CHAP. I.] CAUSE OF THE FERTILITY OF EGYPT. 3 his own impressions of this land of wonders in the terse definition "Egypt is the gift of the Nile."* We believe that in no other words can the peculiarities of this land be so exactly described. Egypt is the narrow strip which the world of waters of a huge tropical river, diffusing themselves and diffused by man's labour to the widest possible extent, can reclaim to productive ness from the sands of the African desert.

Scarcely have the waters of the Bahr-el-abiad, or White Nile, which comes from the very heart of Africa to the westward, become confluent with those of the Bahr-el-azrek, or Blue Nile, which rushes from the mountains of Abyssinia eastward, when the northern progress of their united torrent is opposed by the sands and rocks of the great Sahara, and along a devious course of more than two thousand miles the Nile flows on, receiving no single tributary into its bosom, until it reaches the Mediterranean. Thus does this noble river diffuse fertility, and happiness, and life over vast tracts of country, always expending its waters, never receiving a single drop of accession to them from the heaven above or from the earth beneath; so that when it reaches Cairo and the head of the Delta, the bulk and volume of its tide is scarcely one half of that which roars among the rocks of Djebel Silsili, and foams through the cataracts of Assouan.

That the fertility of Egypt is dependent altogether upon the Nile, is a truth so patent and so pal pable, that there is no understanding so grovelling, no intellect so debased, among the sons of men, that he Herod, lib. ii. cap. v. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF EGYPT. [chap. i. cannot perceive it. The sun writes it with his fierce beams upon the bleached rocks and arid sands of the surrounding desert. It is heard in the voice of the sand-wind, as, full-charged with burning dust, it rushes down the gullies of the mountains of Upper Egypt, and in the course of a very few minutes buries the feeble efforts of man to awaken to life and greenness a few spans of surface, deep beneath the hot sand drift. The very laws of nature, or, to speak more truly with the modern Egyptians, the laws of God, proclaim it.

Turn the course of the Nile, and not one blade of vegetation would ever arise in Egypt. The whole land would instantly relapse into the utter sterility of the western desert, whence that noble river with so fierce and painful a struggle reclaims it. In a word, Egypt is the Nile, and the Nile is Egypt. The natural phenomena of this land of wonders furnish fruitful themes for contemplation and thought. The remembrance of the days we have passed there is very sweet. Occupying precisely the extreme southern limit of the north temperate zone, the latitude of Egypt is that which on both sides of the Equator will be found far drier than any other portion of the earth's surface. The two perfectly distinct economies whereby the rains of the temperate and torrid zones are administered, find no place here ; and it is only the presence of very high mountains, like the Himalayas in Asia, and the Andes in South America ; or the waters of some vast river, like the Mississippi of North America, or the Nile of Egypt, that can rescue land so situated from sterility.

The CHAP. I.] THE DEBOUCHURE OF THE NILE. 5 barrenness which thus marks out all lands in these latitudes is rendered far more conspicuous in Egypt by the circumstance of its being situated in the midst of the two great desert tracts of the world. The drifting sands of the Sahara stretch away westward from the Nile for more than four thousand miles to the Atlantic. To the eastward, the barren mountains of the Sinaitic peninsula and of Arabia Petræa, and the salt sand plains of Persia, extend in a direct line for more than three thousand miles. It is to this, its perfectly peculiar topography, that Egypt is indebted for the extreme aridity which distinguishes it from all other inhabited countries in the world, and for that total absence of rain which is the proximate cause of it. The topography of Egypt is remarkably simple.

The Nile debouches into the Mediterranean by two great mouths or branches. The ancients wrote of five, seven, and occasionally, of innumerable mouths of the Nile, but the very accurate definitions of Strabo * leave us plainly to infer that the debouchure of the Nile in ancient times did not materially differ from that by which its waters reach the Mediterranean at the present day. There were two great and principal branches which threw off many smaller channels or canals. The westernmost of these two great branches was called in ancient times the Bolbatine branch. Its modern name is El-Rashi, which is that of the sea-port at its termination, the Rosetta of the Lingua Franca of the Mediterranean sailors. The present eastern mouth of the Nile is the Phathmetic branch of the Lib. xvii. p. 418. [chap. I. 6 THE THREE GREAT GEOGRAPHICAL ancient geographers.

Its modern name is Tamiati, the Damietta of navigation, which is likewise the name of the sea-port situated upon it. The distance between Rosetta and Damietta is about a hundred miles. About the same distance in a right line is interposed between the coast of the. Mediterranean and the point where these two great branches of the Nile first separate. The tract of country enclosed by them, and the districts irrigated by their waters, on their left and right banks respectively, were included by the Greek geographers in the same great division of Egypt, which they named the Delta, from its resemblance in form to that letter of their alphabet, a. Its name in modern geography is Lower Egypt. This portion of Egypt is intersected every where with canals, some of them terminating in the sea, others again uniting the two branches of the Nile.

By their agency an amount of fertility is communicated to the Delta, certainly not surpassed, we believe scarcely equalled, by that of any other portion of the earth's surface, yet hemmed in on all sides by the shift ing sands of the most sterile desert on the earth. This is one of the wonders of Egypt. The desert that bounds the Delta both eastward and westward is a rocky platform encumbered every where with sanddrifts ; but scarcely is the traveller afloat on the broad bosom of the Nile when the outhnes of distant mountains appear in both directions, and he soon discerns that one to the westward is crowned with pyramids. The part of the valley of the Nile immediately to the south of the crown or head of the Delta, is the CHAP. I.] 7 DIVISIONS OF EGYPT. northern limit of the second great division of Egypt, according to the Greek geographers and tax-gatherers.

This section of the monarchy was called by them the Heptanomis, because it consisted of seven nomes or provinces. Its name in modern geography is Middle Egypt. It extends southward as far as the heap of ruins called El Arabah by the Arabs, the remains of the ancient city of Abydos, which is about two hundred and fifty miles from the head or crown of the Delta. In this portion of the valley, the Nile runs everywhere between two ranges of steep and barren cliffs or moun tains. Its course is undeviatingly from south to north, with an exactitude which I never saw in any other river, and which I am told is without a parallel in the world. For many days together we saw the blue waters of the Nile stretching away to the horizon both northward and southward like a sea. On the western bank of the river, there is a break in the mountain chain, and a flat and most fertile valley extends westward for nearly fifty miles, in the midst of which is a large lake of brackish water called the Birket-Keroun.

The principal supply of the waters of the Nile to this portion of the land of Egypt is from the well-known canal named after a Fatimite Caliph, Bahr-yussuf. This noble canal leaves the Nile at Derut Shereef about a hundred miles to the southward. The name of this most fertile district is the Faium. In the production of fruits it surpasses even the Delta. Both this singular valley and the canal which fertilizes it, will demand our attention in the course of the inquiry before us. Upper Egypt, which is the third and last division [CHAP. I. 8 EGYPT IN ITS TIME OF FERTILITY. of the monarchy according to the Greeks, extends from the nome of Abydos to what the Greeks called " the cataracts of Syene," or what we are in the habit of naming, in a phraseology at once more modern and more correct, " the rapids of Assouan."

The mountains that hem in the valley of Upper Egypt are generally loftier than in the Heptanomis and also re cede further from the river, leaving plains of intense fertility and of some miles in breadth, on one or both banks. This is especially the case at Dendera, Gour nou, Erments, and some other localities. The advance of the traveller southward is indicated in Upper Egypt by the presence of the Doum-palm, and by the culti vation of sugar, rice, and other tropical productions. This very rapid sketch may probably suffice, with the aid of the accompanying map, to possess the reader with some accurate notion of Egypt and of its triple geographical division. The presence of the Nile and its phenomena being, as we have found, the condition upon which the habit ability of Egypt altogether depends, some precise knowledge regarding them is in like manner indispen sable at the threshold of our design.

The European traveller arriving in Egypt about the winter solstice, would find the Nile, even in the Bolbatine branch and at the head of the Delta, a magnificent expanse of tolerably clear water, with the blue tinge which also distinguishes the waters of the Rhone as they issue from the Lake of Geneva. The river has just subsided within its banks, and the effects of the inundation exhibit themselves in a scene of fertility and beauty chap. I.] EGYPT IN ITS TIME OF BARRENNESS. 9 such as will scarcely be found in another country at any season of the year. The vivid green of the springing corn; the groves of pomegranate trees, ablaze with the rich scarlet of their blossoms; the fresh breeze laden with the perfumes of gardens of roses and orange thickets ; every tree and every shrub covered with sweet-scented flowers : these are a few of the natural beauties that welcome the stranger to the land of Ham.

There is considerable sameness in them, it is true, for he would observe little variety in the trees and plants, whether he first entered Egypt by the gardens of Alexandria or the plain of Assouan. Yet is it the same everywhere, only because it would be impossible to make any addition to the sweetness of the odours, the brilliancy of the colors, or the exquisite beauty of the many forms of vegetable life, in the midst of which he wanders. It is monotonous, but it is the monotony of Paradise. The most perfect contrast to the scene we have described, which the natural laws that govern the earth are capable of producing, is presented to the traveller who arrives in Egypt about the time of the summer solstice. The Nile has shrunk within its banks until its stream is contracted to half its ordinary dimensions, and its turbid, slimy, stagnant waters scarcely seem to dow in any direction.

Broad flats or steep banks of black, sun-baked, cracked Nile mud, form both the shores of the river. All beyond them is sand and sterility, for the Hamseen, or sand-wind of fifty days' duration, -has scarcely yet ceased to blow. The trunks and branches of trees may be seen here and there through the dusty, [CHAP. I. THE GREEN NILE. hazy, burning, atmosphere, but so entirely are then leaves coated with dust, that at a distance they are not distinguishable from the desert-sand that surrounds them. It is only by the most painful and laborious operation of watering that any tint approximating to greenness can be preserved at this season even in the pleasure-gardens of the Pacha. The first symptom of the termination of this most terrible season, is the rising of the north wind (the Etesian wind of the Greeks), blowing briskly, often fiercely, during the Avhole of the day.

The foliage of the groves that cover LoAver Egypt is soon disencumbered by it of the dust, and resumes its verdure. The fierce fervors of the sun, then at his highest ascension, are also most seasonably mitigated by the same powerful agency, which prevails for this and the three following months throughout the entire land of Egypt. A change is soon perceptible in the waters of the Nile. The rise of an inch or two is reported from the Nilometer at Cairo, and the waters themselves have lost the little of clearness and freshness which just before had still recommended them as a delicious draught. They have acquired the green, slimy, lustre less hue of brackish water between the tropics, and no filter that has yet been discovered can separate them from the nauseous unwholesome admixture which occasions this change.

The phenomenon of the Green Nile is said to be occasioned by the vast lakes of stagnant water left by the annual overflow on the broad sand-dats of Darfoor to the south of Nubia, over which the Nile CHAP. I.] 11 THE RISING OF THE NILE. meanders a most devious course immediately on en tering the Sahara. These, after having stagnated in the tropical sun for more than six months, are carried forward by the new inundation and once more thrown into the bed of the river. Happily, the continuance of this state of the water seldom exceeds three or four days. The sufferings of those who are compelled to drink it in this state, from vesicary disease, even in this short interval, are very severe. The inhabitants of the cities generally provide against it by Nile-water stored in reservoirs and tanks. The increase of the volume of the river now advances rapidly, and its waters gradually become more turbid.

Ten or twelve days, however, elapse before the develop ment of the last and most extraordinary of all the appearances of the Nile. We will endeavour to give our own first impressions of it. It was at the end of, to my own sensations, a long and very sultry night, that I raised myself from the sofa upon which I had in vain been endeavouring to sleep, on the deck of a Nile boat, that lay becalmed off Benisoueff, a town of Middle Egypt. The sun was just showing the upper limb of his disc over the eastern mountains I was surprised to see that when his rays fell upon the water, a deep ruddy reflection was given back. The depth of the tint increased continually as a larger portion of his light fell upon the water, and before he had entirely cleared the top of the hill it presented the perfect appearance of a river of blood.

Suspecting some delusion, I rose up hastily, and looking over the side of the boat, saw there the confirmation of my first [chap. I. 12 THE RED NILE. impression. The entire -body of water was opaque and of a deep red color, bearing a closer resemblance to blood than to any other natural production to which it could be compared. I now perceived that during the night the river had visibly risen several inches. While I was gazing at this great sight, the Arabs came round me to explain that it was the Red Nile. The redness and opacity of the water, in this extraordinary condition of the river, are subject to constant variations. On some days, when the rise of the river has not exceeded an inch or two, its waters return to a state of semi-transparency, though during the entire period of the high Nile they never lose the deep red tinge which cannot be separated from them.

It is not, however, like the green admixture, at all deleterious; the Nile water is never more wholesome or more de liciously refreshing than during the overflow. There are other days when the rise of the river is much more rapid, and then the quantity of mud that is suspended in the water exceeds, in Upper Egypt, that which I have seen in any other river. On more than one occasion I could perceive that it visibly interfered with the flow of the stream. A glass -full of it in this state was allowed to remain still for a short time. The upper portion of it was perfectly opaque and the color of blood. A sediment of black mud occupied about one quarter of the glass. A considerable portion of this is deposited before the river reaches Middle and Lower Egypt. I never observed the Nile water in this condition there.

Perhaps there is not in nature a more exhdarating CHAP. I.] 13 THE INUNDATION. sight, or one more strongly exciting to confidence in God, than the rise of the Nile. Day by day and night by night, its turbid tide sweeps onward majestically over the parched sands of the waste howling wilderness. Almost hourly, as we slowly ascended it before the Etesian wind, we heard the thundering fall of some mud-bank, and saw by the rush of all animated nature to the spot, that the Nile had overleaped another ob struction, and that its bounding waters were diffusing life and joy through another desert. There are few impressions I ever received, upon the remembrance of which I dwell with more pleasure, than that of seeing the first burst of the Nile into one of the great channels of its annual overflow. All nature shouts for joy.

The men, the children, the buffaloes, gambol in its refreshing waters, the broad waves sparkle with shoals of fish, and fowl of every wing flutter over them in clouds. Nor is this jubilee of nature confined to the higher orders of creation. The moment the sand be comes moistened by the approach of the fertilizing waters, it is literally alive with insects innumerable. It is impossible to stand by the side of one of these noble streams, to see it every moment sweeping away some obstruction to its majestic course and widening as it flows, without feeling the heart expand with to, love and joy and confidence in the great Author of this annual miracle of mercy. The overflow reaches Memphis, in Middle Egypt. or Cairo, which is a little to the north of it on the opposite bank, on a day closely approximating to that of the summer solstice.

The inundation attains its VOL. I. c DIVISIONS OF THE EGYPTIAN YEAR. [CHAP. I. height, and begins decidedly to decline, on a day approximating as nearly to that of our autumnal equi nox. About our winter solstice the Nile has again subsided within its banks and resumed the clear blue sparkle of its waves. The seed-time of Egypt has taken place during this interval, and terminates with the overflow. The spring which we have already des cribed is immediately succeeded by the harvest, which is generally cleared away before the setting in of the hamseen or sand-wincl. So that the year in Egypt naturally divides itself into three seasons — four months of sowing and growth, corresponding proximately with our November, December, January, and February ; four months of harvest which, in like manner, may be vaguely marked in our calendar by the months from March to June inclusive; the four months or moons of the overflow complete the cycle of the Egyptian year.